(ADVISORY)(GENERAL)(MSP)(00001) ****Newsbytes Takes A Holiday 12/22/95 MINNEAPOLIS, MINNESOTA, U.S.A., 1995 DEC 22 (NB) -- The global staff of Newsbytes News Network will pause to enjoy the holiday week from December 23-January 2. There will be no new issues until January 3, 1996. We wish all our readers a peaceful and pleasant holiday and a happy new year. (Newsbytes/19951222) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 1995 12/22/95 GENERAL ****Top Stories Of (NEWS)(GENERAL)(DEN)(00002) ****Top Stories Of 1995 12/22/95 COLORADO SPRINGS, COLORADO, U.S.A., 1995 DEC 22 (NB) -- Not surprisingly, the name "Microsoft" appeared in many of the top stories of 1995. But so did words and names like Internet, Novell, Walt Disney and IBM. Windows 95 Microsoft grabbed headlines this year with its August rollout of Windows 95, which users couldn't wait to get their hands on. Like race drivers at the starting line they lined up at retail stores around the world awaiting the magic hour of midnight when they could be the first user on the block to have the new operating system. For reporters covering the rollout it was like being dropped into a fantasy land of pennant-topped white tents, jugglers, candy and wine left in your hotel room and of course the now-inevitable son et lumiere show with Bill Gates at the control panel. Microsoft Network In August Microsoft kicked off its own online service, the Microsoft Network, as competitors like America Online and Prodigy quaked in their boots as they waited to see what the industry's 600-pound gorilla would do. Turned out the boogie man wasn't so fierce after all. In four months Microsoft managed to lure slightly over 500,000 subscribers, many of them undoubtedly curious as to what all the fuss was about, while the other services didn't report any significant subscriber loss. Taligent Remember Taligent? Once upon a time Taligent, a joint project of Apple, Hewlett-Packard and IBM, was intended to be the challenger to Windows. But Big Blue and Big Red saw the handwriting on the screen and decided Windows was just too big to challenge successfully. Now Taligent has become an IBM subsidiary. IBM said it will continue to develop Taligent for AIX and OS/2 and perhaps some other IBM platforms. IBM Acquires Lotus IBM acquired Lotus Development Corp. in June at a cost of $3.5 billion. In October Lotus president and chief executive officer, Jim Manzi, who had been named an IBM vice president as part of the Lotus acquisition, resigned both jobs. Manzi said he was great at running a company but didn't fit in as well in a big organization like IBM. Novell Selling Wordperfect The best candidate for the "Is my face red" award for 1995 probably belongs to Novell, Inc. In 1994 the network operating system company, which has a lock on that business, decided to challenge Microsoft and created an applications group. One of the products it acquired was Wordperfect, the top-selling word processing program and a product Microsoft Word could never quite topple. Novell acquired Wordperfect in June 1994 in a deal that had an estimated value of about $855 million. Less than 18 months later the company decided to stick to its core expertise, network software, and slapped a For Sale sign on the front door at Wordperfect. The company says it has buyers bidding in the wings and will turn over the keys to Wordperfect to the highest bidder in early 1996. However they may be lucky to get $0.25 on their investment dollar, according to some analysts. Microsoft and NBC The National Broadcasting Company teamed up with Microsoft this year to put together an all-news cable channel to challenge Turner Broadcasting's Cable News Network (CNN). CNN is a powerhouse of news delivery that plays around the clock in most large newspaper news rooms. NBC and Microsoft each kicked in about $200 million to establish the new network, to be called MSNBC. The news spigot is expected to open by mid-1996. The pipeline for delivery of the offering will be the existing America's Talking cable network already installed in 20 million homes. Microsoft dropped another $200 million and change to buy an interest in America's Talking. ABC/Disney Merger ABC/Capital Cities and Walt Disney merged in a powerhouse deal valued at $19 billion. CapCities/ABC shareholders got one share of Walt Disney stock and $65 for each share of their CapCities/ABC paper. The Internet As surfing the Internet gained popularity, merchants realized the World Wide Web is a potential electronic shipping mart. But security issues like how to provide the merchant your credit card number so he can ship that box of expensive chocolates or fancy electronic doodad and feel confident some Web snooper isn't reading the electronic carbon paper of the charge slip reared their ugly heads. Numerous companies, including Microsoft, are working on that problem. All of the major online services unlocked their Internet access gateways this year and also lowered their access charges. Digiphone introduced software that lets you make telephone calls anywhere in the world if both parties have Internet access, without any long distance charges. The voice quality isn't as good as what Ma Bell provides, but it's cheaper. Just about everybody, including Newsbytes, launched a home page on the World Wide Web. You can find Newsbytes at www.newsbytes.com (Jim Mallory/1951221) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 90 12/22/95 APPLE Diamar Intros Golf Tips - Breaking (NEWS)(APPLE)(DEN)(00003) Diamar Intros Golf Tips - Breaking 90 12/22/95 SEATTLE, WASHINGTON, U.S.A., 1995 DEC 22 (NB) -- You may not be able to get on the golf course in the winter, but Diamar has introduced computer-based advanced instruction you can use while the snow flies that could bring your score below 90 when you are able to return to the links. The program is called "Golf Tips: Breaking 90" and is the second in the Diamar Interactive Corp. Golf Tips series of instructional CD-ROMs. The program was produced in conjunction with Golf Tips Magazine and features instructors from the David Ledbetter Golf Academy. It uses interactive multimedia technology, including virtual reality to straighten out your drive and improve your putting. Dave Roberts, president of Diamar Interactive, said Breaking 90 is aimed at the advanced golfer. More than 20 hours of instruction on more than 70 topics are designed to be used at your own pace. The three instructional modules include structured lessons, customized workshops on topics chosen by the user, and workshops on common trouble areas. Like its predecessor "Golf Tips: Breaking 100," Breaking 90 includes a module called Play the Hole that lets you play a par-5 hole using Apple Computer's QuickTime Virtual Reality technology. Golf Tips: Breaking 90 is available for Macintosh and Windows platforms and has a suggested retail price of $59.95. You also get three free golf balls packed with the software. The company also publishes instructional programs designed to improve your photographic skills. That series, called Better Photography, includes "Learning To See Creatively" and "Understanding Exposure" (Jim Mallory/19951221/Press contact: Nikki Inman, Diamar Interactive, 206-340-5975; Public contact: Diamar Interactive, 800-234-2627) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 12/22/95 WINDOWS British Telecom Videophone For Windows 95/NT (NEWS)(WINDOWS)(LON)(00004) British Telecom Videophone For Windows 95/NT 12/22/95 LONDON, ENGLAND, 1995 DEC 22 (NB) -- British Telecom Visual Solutions, the advanced development division of British Telecom, has launched a PC Videophone, the company's first videoconferencing system. According to the telecom giant, the system leapfrogs ahead of the competition since it runs under both the Windows 95 and the NT operating system environments. According to BT officials, the system will ship from the end of January, 1996, and is billed to run under Windows 3.1 and IBM's OS/2, as well as the two high-end Windows variants. The new PC Videophone is billed as a flexible videoconferencing system that has been created to serve users of Windows 95 and NT in the business marketplace. According to BT, as Windows 95 and NT usage continues, the videophone market will experience a boom period. People use videoconferencing for various activities ranging from distant learning and tele-sales to company management. Industry analyst Personal Technology Research projects growth in the PC-based videoconferencing market rising from 31,750 units -- worth $54.1 million in 1995 -- to 3.8 million units -- worth $1.15 billion in the year 1999. Adrian Butcher, general manager of BT Visual Solutions, says: "Through our long-term commitment to the development of the PC Videophone, BT will be the first PC-based videoconferencing vendor to introduce native systems for Windows 95 and NT in January 1996. We are pioneering PC-based video and data conferencing support for Windows MT which will open a host of new market opportunities particularly for a range of applications in the finance sector such as customer kiosks and financial trading." Because the technology is relatively new to the marketplace, BT is offering new users a discount of UKP 700 per unit, taking the price down to UKP 1,995, provided customers order the system by the end of the year. (Sylvia Dennis/19951221/Press Contact: Kim Britten, British Telecom Visual Solutions +44-171-298-4194; Reader Contact: BT Visual Solutions Customer Services 0800-515-550) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 12/22/95 TELECOM European Commission Issues Stern Mobile Phone Directive (NEWS)(TELECOM)(LON)(00005) European Commission Issues Stern Mobile Phone Directive 12/22/95 BRUSSELS, BELGIUM, 1995 DEC 22 (NB) -- The European Commission has agreed in principle to the issue of a directive to mandate all EC territory countries to open their mobile communications marketplaces to full competition within the first quarter of 1996. The directive will come as something of a shock to mobile phone companies across Europe, as well as their respective government departments, since many countries are still preparing for telecoms market liberalization by January 1, 1998, in line with previous EC directives. The shift forward by almost two years will upset several countries whose state telcos still dominate the mobile phone arenas in those countries. According to the EC's press office, plans now call for the Commission to adopt the directive as official at the first Commission meeting of 1996, which is expected to take place during late January. The directive will become law 20 days after that meeting. Industry observers note that the EC is passing through the directive on the double, following much prevarication by state telcos regarding the original 1998 directive. Newsbytes notes that the directive is being passed through as a subset of the 1998 directive, which neatly bypasses the need for discussion by the EC Council of Ministers, many of whom would undoubtedly have "discussed" the document for several months or years, to forestall the directive going through before 1998. As well as satisfying many critics of state controlled telecoms, the directives will allow mobile phone networks to build their own networks in entirety in their respective country, so bypassing any need to deal with the state telecom company, except for interconnect issues. Although the directive is bound to raise squeals of protest from the mobile phone networks across Europe, notably those in the state sector, the telcos cannot say they were not forewarned. Newsbytes notes that the EC announced as far back as June of this year that it planned to pass legislation by the early part of 1996. In October of this year, meanwhile, the EC awarded a contract to Ovum, the UK-based research and report company, to help develop a code of conduct for pan-European mobile service providers. The aim of the Code is cover both independent service providers and service providers who form part of a mobile network operation. Despite the voluntary nature of the code, it was strongly supported at a European level by the cellular industry in an EC public consultation, following the issue of a green paper (consultative document) on mobile and personal comms last year, Newsbytes notes. More cynical observers said at the time that the reason that the industry sided with the EC's green paper was because of worries over mandatory EC legislation. Ovum has now issued a consultative document to the industry. According to Martin Garner, an Ovum manager who is coordinating the creation of the code of conduct, the document is very much a foundation and inquiry paper, which has been sent to all mobile service providers in Europe. Garner said that, by the end of next month (January), Ovum expects to have completed most of the ground work on the Code. "At that stage, we move on to a public consultation, which will probably start in March, before submitting the code to the EC for its approval," he told Newsbytes. Anyone interested in receiving a copy of the consultative document is asked to fax Martin Garner on +44-171-255-1995 or e-mail him on mng@ovum.mhs.compuserve.com. (Sylvia Dennis/19951221/Press & Reader Contact: European Commission +32-2-299-1111) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 12/22/95 TRENDS Britain's Globe Theater Plugs Into The Internet (NEWS)(TRENDS)(LON)(00006) Britain's Globe Theater Plugs Into The Internet 12/22/95 LONDON, ENGLAND, 1995 DEC 22 (NB) -- The Globe Theater has plugged into the Internet on Web page http://www.globe.jhc.net/ , and, Newsbytes can report, the theater claims that it is both making and recreating history, since the Web pages include a page that allows people anywhere in the world to make card donations to the theater. The page is claimed to be highly secure, using the NetGain system, which uses a 128-bit security key compared to the 40-bit key used by NetScape. Each donation on the page will fund a specific part of the rebuilding of the theater project. The theater cites the example of UKP 20 being used to fund a hod of bricks, while UKP 500 funds a seat, complete with an inscription of the donor's name. The launch of the Globe Theater's Web pages also marks the launch of the NetGain system, which was jointly developed by JHC Internet Services and the Bell Media Group. Plans now call for JHC and Bell media to design, set up, house and maintain Web sites, as well as provide services offered by the NetGain system. NetGain is billed as using a proprietary Secure Internet Trading Environment (SITE) and Full Internet Tracking Services (FITS), two systems that were designed for customers who need very high levels of security for Web transactions and very detailed market intelligence information about the number of site "hits." The Globe's Web site has information on the history of the theater, including detailed diagrams on its reconstruction, together with information on the late actor-director Sam Wanamaker whose vision is credited with rebuilding the theater. Plans now call for the theater to reopen to the public in June of 1996. Liz Herbert, a spokesperson for the theater, explained that Wanamaker's commitment to the theater project touched a lot of people and that there are a number of people around the world who would like to help. "By setting up the Web page, we are providing people with an opportunity to retrieve up-to-date information on the theater, as well as an effortless and a very secure way to make a donation," she said. "Many people think about donating funds to the arts, but acting on this thought doesn't always follow. But, because JHC and Bell Media's NetGain has made it possible to make safe credit card donations over the Internet, we have hopefully made it more convenient and easier for people to take action. We hope that the Globe Theater will gain more patrons from around the globe," she added. According to Herbert, the Web site, thanks to its use of the NetGain system, will allow the theater to gather valuable market intelligence. "With a special monitoring facility offered by NetGain (FITS), we can see how many times the site is accessed, who is accessing it and for how long, enabling us to target specific areas of interest for those local and overseas patrons who are planning to visit the Globe," she explained. (Sylvia Dennis/19951221/Press Information: Colette Flanagan, Firefly +44-171-381-4505; Email: cflanaga@firefly.co.uk; Reader Contact: Lucy Beevor, The Globe Theater +44-171-620-0202; Email: 100741.1611@compuserve.com) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 12/22/95 TELECOM Nokia Secures GSM Expansion In Philippines (NEWS)(TELECOM)(LON)(00007) Nokia Secures GSM Expansion In Philippines 12/22/95 HELSINKI, FINLAND, 1995 DEC 22 (NB) -- Nokia has announced it has secured a 250 million Markka contract to expand the Globe digital mobile (GSM - Global System for Mobile telecommunications) network in the Philippines. Terms call for Nokia to expand the current GSM network operating in the Manila area, which it began installing in 1994. This contract is phase three of Globe's expansion and will extend coverage of the Philippine's GSM network to most of the islands, reaching around 90 percent of the population. Phase three calls for the introduction of a dedicated fiber optic and microwave network for the Globe GSM network, making the network independent of the landline phone network in the Philippines, except for interconnect calls. Phase three will also dramatically expand the number of available channels to subscribers, Nokia officials said. Nokia is making considerable strides in the Far Eastern and Australasian regions. Earlier this year, the company signed an agreement with Electronics and Telematique (ETM) of Malaysia for the supply of a Digital Communications System (DCS) 1800 megahertz (MHz) mobile phone system. Financial terms of that contract were not announced, although Nokia officials said at the time that, unlike the French Bouygues Telecom DCS 1800 scheme announced by Nokia in January of this year, the Malaysian system will be a national network on the scale of Hutchison Orange in the UK or E-Plus in Germany. According to Nokia, the Malaysian contract could be worth as much as US$100 million over the next decade. The network itself is now up and running in the Kuala Lumpur area, with national coverage expected early next year. (Sylvia Dennis/19951221/Press & Reader Contact: Nokia Telecom +358- 0511-51, fax +358-0511-5569) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 12/22/95 EDUCATION Sybase In Philippines Training Pact (NEWS)(EDUCATION)(HKG)(00008) Sybase In Philippines Training Pact 12/22/95 MANILA, PHILIPPINES, 1995 DEC 22 (NB) -- Sybase, a worldwide leader in the client/server technology, recently entered into a partnership with the Education Service Group (ESG) of Online Advanced Systems Corporation. ESG, which will begin offering training programs to the Philippine public next year, will add Sybase and Powerbuilder to its course list which also includes Internet, generic Unix, and networking. ESG is also working on its accreditation as a training center for Informix. A few months ago, the 20-year old Online changed from being an exclusive Hewlett-Packard local distributor to a total IT systems provider. Online's now defunct Professional Service Organization, which provided training and technical support to customers, was reformed into three focused groups last year: Technical Consulting Group, Systems Integration, and the ESG. ESG's vision is to develop customers' skills, regardless of the platforms they use (Sun, Digital, or HP), to keep them abreast with the new technology, and to maximize their technical investments. At present, ESG has five full-time professional instructors who underwent extensive hands-on training specific to client/server computing, high- quality courses, and small size classes in Manila and in Singapore. Visualized as a full-blown education center about three to five years from now, ESG will present tailor-fitted programs to students' learning requirements and will include specialized areas: generic Unix, DOS/Windows applications, networking, and relational database management systems courses designed in partnership with Sybase and Informix. Aida Goce, manager of ESG, says that they do not simply suggest a training course and hope that it works for their clients. "We carefully assess our client's needs and business objective, and then we design or recommend a course that provides unique and specific solutions for them." (Kay Yeban & Metropolitan Computer Times /19951208/Press Contact: Aida L. Goce, Online Advanced Systems Corporation, tel 632-815-3810, fax 632-8160590; 2F Electra House, 115 Esteban Street, Legaspi Village, Makati, Philippines) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 12/22/95 TRENDS First Internet Cafe in the Philippines Opens (NEWS)(TRENDS)(HKG)(00009) First Internet Cafe in the Philippines Opens 12/22/95 DAVAO CITY, PHILIPPINES, 1995 DEC 22 (NB) -- A new establishment in town is redefining the cafe experience in the Philippines. Web Link Internet Cafe recently opened, offering its clientele "an odd mix between a cafe and a sleek computer service center." In the cafe, computer monitors are encased in the tables, covered by non-glare glass table tops. "Four more computers with the regular set- up (with the monitor on the table top) are installed in different areas of the cafe," says Tony Acosta, vice president of Web Link Philippines, Inc., and special coordinator for the Web Link Internet Cafe. "These computers are directly connected to the Web Link hub, and so speed of access to Internet is very fast," he adds. Web Link Philippines, Inc., is an Internet service provider in the Mindanao region, located in southern part of the Philippines. Among the other cafe features is a special section designed for children. In the play-and-learn area, children learn computer basics, with programs for math, reading, and spelling, and play games aimed at developing sequential thinking, spot decision-making, flexibility, and coordination. "Our kids will grow up in a highly computerized world, so it's good to familiarize them with computers while they're young," says Bingo Tinapay, general manager of Web Link. The Internet Cafe also offers three-hour courses on surfing the Net to walk-in clients with little computer know-how. For the more experienced customers, there's the Internet Cafe's Surfers Club which allows members discounts on Net surfing and meal charges at the cafe, free e-mail addresses, and complimentary T-shirts. Future plans for the cafe include a special section with multimedia computers and printers, and courses on advertising on the Internet and other business opportunities available. For the first hour of computer use, the cafe charges $5.80; each succeeding hour costs $4.60. A complimentary drink (coffee, tea, or juice) comes with the price. (May Jurilla/19951215/Press Contact: Bingo Tinapay, tel 6382-224- 1836, 6382-224-1368, 224-0179, 6382-224-1340, e-mail bingo@webling.com) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 12/22/95 BROADCAST China - Hughes' Satellite Will Replace ChinaSat- (NEWS)(BROADCAST)(PEK)(00010) China - Hughes' Satellite Will Replace ChinaSat-5 12/22/95 BEIJING, CHINA, 1995 DEC 22 (NB) -- ChinaSat will purchase an HS376- type satellite from Hughes of the US to replace the ChinaSat- 5 satellite which is currently the country's only operational telecommunications and broadcasting satellite. ChinaSat is a telecommunications and broadcasting satellite company under Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications (MPT), and its new satellite by Hughes, ChinaSat-7, will replace the ChinaSat-5 satellite which has been operational since 1984. The designed service term of 10 years for ChinaSat-5 has been surpassed. With 23 transponders, ChinaSat-5 transmits TV programs of China Central Television Station (CCTV) and five provincial local TV stations of Shangdong, Zhejing, Xinjiang, Sichuan, and Tibet. It also operates more than 5,000 long distance telephone lines and other services. ChinaSat recently obtained a US$130 million loan from the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China for purchase of the satellite. The US-made satellite will guarantee normal operation of the country's space telecommunication networks and ease the shortage of satellite telecommunication facilities. Satellite telecommunication networks will be developed to meet domestic demand, said Wu Jichuan, Minister of MPT. (Chih-Ho Yu & Ning Huang/19951214) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 12/22/95 IBM IBM Stronger In China Thanks To Chinese-Made PCs (NEWS)(IBM)(PEK)(00011) IBM Stronger In China Thanks To Chinese-Made PCs 12/22/95 BEIJING, CHINA, 1995 DEC 22 (NB) -- With the same quality produced in other places, IBM PCs made in China are in short supply. IBM expects to take 12 percent of China's PC market this year, two percentage points more than in 1994. Chinese people used to prefer foreign goods, including computers, but IBM PCs made in Shenzhen are welcomed in China and now in short supply. With an annual production of about 100,000 units, the joint venture of IBM and Great Wall Group turns out PCs as good as any made elsewhere, said Henry Tse, manager of IBM China operations. The computer giant has set up five joint ventures in China so far and plans more cooperative projects with its Chinese partners to construct a manufacturing and sales base in the country. IBM joint ventures will involve production of hard disks and software, as well as PCs. IBM is expected to corner 12 percent of China's PC market this year. In 10 years, IBM expects China sales will catch up with that of the United States and Japan, Tse said. (Chih-Ho Yu & Ning Huang/19951216/Reader Contact: IBM China Company, tel +86-10 437-6677) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 12/22/95 TELECOM China's Domestic Telecom Industry Turns To Rural Areas (NEWS)(TELECOM)(PEK)(00012) China's Domestic Telecom Industry Turns To Rural Areas 12/22/95 BEIJING, CHINA, 1995 DEC 22 (NB) -- While international telecom giants target China's big cities, the domestic telecom industry is looking for opportunities in vast rural areas. With a total of 1.5 million lines controlled by Zhongxing Telecom, the company dominates more than half the rural market. Zhongxing Telecom, a state enterprise established in 1992, is the first domestic telecommunications company to design, develop, and manufacture digital switching systems suitable for the rural market. Zhongxing is also China's first domestic producer of program-controlled switching systems with ISO9001 quality certification. Hou Weigui, general manager of the company, said that Zhongxing products dominate more than half the rural market. In 1993 and 1994, Zhongxing's switching systems contributed about 15 percent to the increased communications capacity in rural China, he said. A total of 1.5 million lines are currently controlled by Zhongxing switching systems across the country, which is about 3 percent of the country's total. The current asset value in Zhongxing is 16 times greater than just three years ago, reaching RMB170 million (US$20 million). Last year, with RMB290 million (US$35 million) in sales and RMB38 million (US$4.58 million) in pre-tax profits, the company ranked 33rd most efficient among the 30,000 enterprises in Shenzhen. This year, sales volume is expected to rise 20 percent over 1994 to hit RMB350 million (US$42 million). (Chih-Ho Yu & Ning Huang/19951216/Reader Contact: Zhongxing Telecom, tel +86-755 222-7374) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 12/22/95 GOVT China - Tax System Further Computerized (NEWS)(GOVT)(PEK)(00013) China - Tax System Further Computerized 12/22/95 BEIJING, CHINA, 1995 DEC 22 (NB) -- China has decide to further computerize its tax-collecting system nationwide, according to a senior official with the State Administration of Taxation. More than RMB10 billion (US$1.2 billion) will be spent on the project and 85,000 computers will be installed in about 30,000 taxation agencies across the country by 2000, said the deputy director of the planning division with the administration's information center. China's annual tax revenue is about RMB500 billion (US$60.2 billion), but experts believe that this figure is not keeping pace with the nation's economic growth. Recent statistics also indicate the taxes being held by enterprises amounted to RMB23 billion (US$2.77 billion). About 30,000 tax-collecting agencies can barely supervise the country's more than 30 million taxpayers, resulting in serious tax evasion. The government hopes the computerized taxation system will improve the situation. During the past five years, RMB1.5 billion (US$180 million) has been invested in taxation computerization and there are already more than 40,000 computers in the nation's tax departments. At present, about 3,000 tax-collecting agencies use computers and a primary network has been put into operation, linking taxation departments at the province and city levels. The State Administration of Taxation plans to raise funds to pay for the project. At least RMB3.5 billion (US$426 million) of domestic investment will be needed. Foreign investment will be drawn from the World Bank, international organization, and foreign governments under preferential terms. (Chih-Ho Yu & Ning Huang/19951216/Reader Contact: the State Administration of Taxation, tel +86-10 326-3366) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 6 12/22/95 EDITORIAL TRENDS ****Products Rumored For ' (EDITORIAL)(TRENDS)(SYD)(00014) ****Products Rumored For '96 12/22/95 SYDNEY, AUSTRALIA, 1995 DEC 22 (NB) -- None of the products listed here are in the stores yet. All I can say is, after going to seventeen vendor Christmas parties in five days, I think I didn't imagine them, but I won't swear to it. Well here they are, Newsbytes top hot predictions for '96. Sacrificial Software Coming soon from JellyFish Software is a package so sensible, you'll kick yourself for not having thought of it first. FLUFF comes on a single diskette for just $19.95, yet when installed, it expands to fill up to 90 percent of spare hard disk space. It doesn't do anything until that fateful day when you try to install the latest version of Nerd Invaders, but just get the "Insufficient Disk Space" message for your trouble. Yet, within milliseconds, FLUFF pops up a screen, volunteering to sacrifice itself, clear enough space to load your new package, plus a couple of megabytes to spare. Audible Smileys You know those little character-based faces that are meant to show things like "I'm joking, ok?" in your e-mail. Well, a consortium of companies including Microsoft, Netscape, Sunsoft and Frito-Lay is rumored to have gone one better with WCML (WiseCrack Markup Language). All new versions of Web browsers such as Netscape will have a core of around 500 WCML sound bites built-in. Anyone designing a compatible Web page can simply embed the appropriate WCML codes to have the recipient's computer play the appropriate sounds while displaying the page. Because the sounds already exist on the computer, they don't have to be sent over the Net, saving time. Sucked In Forget your internal PC modem or even the TV-On-A-Card. New from Sears in 1996 will be WinVac, a $99 vacuum cleaner on a card for PCs. It will come on ISA and VESA-LB versions, with full Windows '95 Plug-N-Play installation compatibility. Standard is a 20-foot vacuum hose that plugs into a DB25 connector on the back of the PC. The dust bag is external to the PC, hanging from a second DB25 connector. The operating software includes power level controls, dust bag gauge and an air temperature indicator. Aversion Keyboard Therapy Many people have struggled with the problem of inappropriate use of computers by students. For instance, using bad language in electronic mail or searching for pornography or stinkbomb recipes on the Internet. BytesBack is a new product for '96 that claims to cure this problem. It consists of a replacement keyboard (with metal-topped keys) and software which constantly monitors what is being typed. Every time a "forbidden" word or phrase is typed, the keyboard delivers an electric shock to the user, also refusing to process the text. Wearing gloves to avoid the shock won't work either, as the keys only work when they can detect normal skin resistance levels. Snakes and Ladders Have you ever admired a page of text with a nice, sweeping snake of white space running through the text, down the page over many lines. WordPerfect users will be pleased to know that version 9.0 of their favorite WP product has a hot-key to produce just such a pattern in your text. Simply hit the easily remembered key sequence of Ctrl-Alt-F12, CTRL-ALT-LSHFT-@, RSHFT-LSHFT-ALT-$ and a windows pops up asking how many lines of snake you want. The program then creates the snake by using a combination of formatting and auto-replacing words using the thesaurus. In difficult cases, the macro may also substitute up to 10 percent foreign words in order to get the correct spacing. IR Commander Are you suffering from remote control overload in your living room? Do you have a spare PC? Does Radio Shack have a treat planned for you! For $149.98, you will be able to buy Remote-Buddy which consists of an InfraRed input/output device that plugs into a Windows-based PC. The accompanying software allows you to emulate more than 15,000 known remote controllers, plus learn functions from any other controller. Simply place the PC next to your easy chair, then settle back for an evening of TV with the PC keyboard on your lap. Smart modes eliminate the need to channel surf, and automatically start skipping around every three minutes of so. Screw Too With this software package to be released by K-Tel in 1996 you'll never have a dull moment again. Fastener Pro IV is a fastener cataloging system which allows you to keep a detailed record of all fasteners in your workshop. Screw, nails bolts, nuts and washers can all be entered into the database, with information about gauge, length, material, drive-head type and so on. It also comes with 250 assorted weekend handyman projects. These are grouped according to difficulty but are only displayed when you own the correct fasteners. (Paul Zucker/19951222) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 12/22/95 GENERAL Japan Newsbriefs (NEWS)(GENERAL)(TYO)(00015) Japan Newsbriefs 12/22/95 TOKYO, JAPAN, 1995 DEC 22 (NB) -- In this roundup of news from Japan: NTT Data launches multimedia network Monday, Tokyu Cable applies to offer Internet, Internet operators hope to expand business, NTT DoCoMo offers products online, new Nintendo system success depends on software, Toshiba to launch e-cash project, NTT develops online payment coding system. NTT Data Launches Multimedia Network Monday NTT Data is to begin trials of a new multimedia computer network on Monday, December 25th. The network links NTT Data's offices in Tokyo, Osaka and other major cities. Around 45 other companies will also be involved including Fuji Bank, which will make balance and account inquiries available via the system. The service is initially available on a closed basis to NTT Data staff only, but will be expanded commercially if successful, says the company. Tokyu Cable Applies To Offer Internet Tokyu Cable has applied to the Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications to offer its subscribers access to the Internet. The operator counts 117,000 subscribers in Kawasaki City, just west of Tokyo, and is the largest cable operator in Japan. Tokyu wants to begin offering access to the network from April 1997 at a price of 1,800 yen per subscriber per month regardless of amount of use. Internet Operators Hope To Expand Business Over half of all Japan's Internet service providers hope to expand beyond the simple connection provision business in 1996 according to a survey carried out by the Nihon Keizai Shimbun newspaper. Of the country's 50 providers, 28 said they were hoping to expand their business areas. NTT DoCoMo Offers Products Online Japanese consumers can now use the Internet to purchase mobile telephones and pagers from NTT DoCoMo, the mobile communications arm of Nippon Telegraph and Telephone. The company has set up a home page with details of the products online at http://www.nttdocomo.co.jp/ . Initially payment slips will be sent with the goods to customers although an online payment system will be introduced eventually. New Nintendo System Success Depends On Software Hiroshi Yamauchi, the president of Nintendo, has told the Kyodo News Service the success of his company's new Ultra-64 games systems depends mainly on the software available. "Software titles (for game machines) are now in excessive supply. I can find only one or two out of 100 titles that are fun to play," he told the Japanese news agency. To counter this problem, Nintendo would limit the number of games available initially to just ten, he continued. The games player will be introduced in Japan on April 21 and in the United States shortly after. Sales of 3 million are being forecast for the first year. Toshiba To Launch E-Cash Project Toshiba Corporation and Visa International are to launch a chip card based electronic cash experiment under the Smart Commerce Japan name as part of a scheme supported by the Ministry of International Trade and Industry. The new chip card will be the first in the world to support the EMV (Europay, MasterCard, Visa) specifications for electronic commerce. The two companies will cooperate on hardware development and trials will take place with other members of the group including leading retailers Daiei and the Hankyu-Toho group that spans the retail, entertainment and transportation sectors. NTT Develops Online Payment Coding System Nippon Telegraph and Telephone has developed an electronic payment system designed for use online and across the Internet. The system effectively codes sensitive financial information for transmission across computer networks and is expected to become part of a new system that will see microchips embedded into traditional payment cards. (Martyn Williams/19951222) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 12/22/95 ONLINE ****Internet Update (NEWS)(ONLINE)(TYO)(00016) ****Internet Update 12/22/95 TOKYO, JAPAN, 1995 DEC 22 (NB) -- In this roundup of new products and resources on the global Internet: First Night New York '96, The State of the World's Children 1996, World Wide Wales, Lynx of the week list, The Washington Times National Weekly, Vietnam casualty search online, unofficial directory of NASDAQ small cap stocks on the web, horror in hypertext moves, free concert approaching, new lawyer's resource available. First Night New York '96 Whether you want to waltz in Grand Central Terminal, enjoy an evening of jazz in The New York Public Library, dance the night away to the music of the 60s through 90's in Bryant Park or meet and mingle at New York's largest singles mixer, you'll find a way to celebrate at First Night '96, new year's celebration with something for everyone. World Wide Web: http://www.inch.com/~esoteric/ The State Of The World's Children 1996 A special 25th anniversary edition of UNICEF's annual report. It highlights the terrible toll war is taking on the children of the world. Included are a foreword by Boutros Boutros-Ghali, secretary-general of the United Nations and Carol Bellamy, executive director of UNICEF. Chapters include Children in war, Anti-war agenda, Fifty years for children and are supplemented with tables, statistics and a glossary. World Wide Web: http://www.unicef.org/sowc96/index.html World Wide Wales Information from the country of Wales. Visitors will find a guide to the best music and bands of Wales, an index of the Web in Wales, links to local companies, information from a local TV program about computers, a weekly news update for expates and much, much more. World Wide Web: http://www.cymru.net/~nwi/www.htm Lynx Of The Week List This is a moderated distribution-only list listing and rating pages on the World Wide Web. Each listing has a brief description along with a rating by the list author. The list is distributed each Friday and features at least twenty Web pages each week. To subscribe send an e-mail message, specified below, to the address below. E-mail: webbot@web-star.com Message Body: SUBSCRIBE The Washington Times National Weekly An online, weekly edition of the Washington Times. Included is the front page cover story, top stories of the week, top news of each day, the latest news on the Whitewater issue and general political coverage. World Wide Web: http://www.washtimes-weekly.com/ Vietnam Casualty Search Online A useful resource for anyone interested in researching the Vietnam War. This site contains a searchable database of 58,169 soldiers that died in the Vietnam War. You can perform searches online or download the entire 3.2MB file of casualties. World Wide Web: http://sersoft.clever.net/vietnam/ Unofficial Directory of NASDAQ SmallCap Stocks on the Web This site offers comprehensive data about all stocks with small market capitalization traded on the NASDAQ market on the World Wide Web. Users can find stock quotes, search the EDGAR database, find out what a small cap stock is, find out about small cap mutual finds and link to associated small-cap pages on the web. World Wide Web: http://financial.spiders.com/ Horror in Hypertext Moves The hypertexted version of Frankenstein has moved home on the Internet. The book can be enjoyed with or without graphics and makes a fun evening's reading. World Wide Web: http://www.boutell.com/frankenstein/ Free Concert Approaching SenseNet is offering a free pop concert on the Internet this January 4th. The concert, described as the "first full scale Internet/World Wide Web concert" features seasoned professionals as Deborah Harry, Joan Jett, Psychotica, Lunachicks and many more to be announced. It will be broadcast across the network using the Xing Streamworks system and more information can be found now on the "Live @nd In Concert" Web site. World Wide Web: http://www.inconcert.com/ New Lawyer's Resource Available Legal Communications has opened a new resource for legal professionals who use the Internet. The Legal Communications Web Page provides the latest headlines from The Legal Intelligencer, the oldest law journal in the United States, and the Pennsylvania Law Weekly, the state's only statewide legal newspaper. In addition, a synopsis of the most important recent court cases in Pennsylvania is available, as well as the full text of all "Court Notices" published daily in The Legal Intelligencer. World Wide Web: http://www.legalcom.com/ (Martyn Williams/19951222) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 12/22/95 TELECOM Japan 1995 - Year Of The Mobile Telephone (NEWS)(TELECOM)(TYO)(00017) Japan 1995 - Year Of The Mobile Telephone 12/22/95 TOKYO, JAPAN, 1995 DEC 22 (NB) -- As Japanese electronics companies wind down towards the three-day new year holiday approaching, they can look back on 1995 with a certain amount of satisfaction. While the economy has remained mostly stagnant and many companies have reported no rises, or even falls in profits, most of the major manufacturers have been able to enjoy a still growing market for their goods. It could have been so different if not for the yen's rise to around 80 yen to the dollar in the months of April and May. Had it stayed at the 100-yen level profits would have been much greater, Sony alone is estimated to have suffered a 92 billion yen ($920 million) loss in revenues because of the higher price of its goods abroad. Despite hitting the new highs, on April 19 the currency registered a post war high of 79.75 yen to a dollar, the companies have gone on to report sales and profits better than most Japanese companies thanks mainly to strong sales in several sectors, one of the best performing being telecommunications. When Japan began its new fiscal year on April 1st the number of subscriptions to mobile telephone services stood at 4.17 million, a 2.14 million increase on the previous year and a continuing steady growth. As the year continued, signs began to emerge that new, lower, tariffs on offer, better and cheaper telephone handsets, and a more aggressive advertising campaign launched by each of the operators, NTT DoCoMo, Digital Phone, Tu-Ka Cellular and IDO, were resulting in a boom in sales. The increased competition was partly due to each operator vying for a larger slice of the market although mainly due to Japan's launch of PHS, the Personal Handyphone System. The PHS system offers lower call tariffs and cheaper handsets than cellular telephones but cannot support use from fast moving vehicles as automatic switching between cells is not available. In July, the month of the PHS launch, the number of new subscribers hit a monthly high of 474,700 which represented 200% more than the same period last year. Around 87,000 of the new subscribers were for PHS telephones, initially available in Tokyo and Sendai only. At the end of July the total number of subscribers stood at 5.82 million. The industry passed the 6 million mark at the end of the next month after counting 410,000 new subscribers to bring the total to 6.23 million users. The monthly growth rate of over 400,000 subscribers has continued with the total figure at year end estimated to be around 9 million subscribers, almost double the figure just 9 months ago. Official figures are yet to be released. Growth in cellular telephones has been particularly good when compared to that of PHS. Many believed the cheaper, smaller PHS system would win away many users although the opposite seems to be true. As the months have passed, PHS system growth has been less impressive than originally forecast. Dealers report people enticed by the low fees of PHS have been drawn into showrooms only to discover the system lacks the widespread coverage and abilities of cellular telephones. Many, already having made the decision to purchase a telephone, have then gone ahead and bought a cellular handset. In 1996 the record growth is set to continue as prices inevitably fall further and coverage of the private operators grows and opens NTT DoCoMo to competition in many regions of the nation where it currently enjoys a monopoly. In April next year the PHS operators are set to finalize a standard protocol for data transmission across the system, which is fully digital, making communication at ISDN speeds possible from the handsets. PHS operators demonstrated several new concepts, including portable video conferencing and multimedia information services via handsets with small screens, at the Telecom 95 show in Geneva earlier this year. (Martyn Williams/19951222) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 12/22/95 GENERAL ****1996 Products To Watch (NEWS)(GENERAL)(TYO)(00018) ****1996 Products To Watch 12/22/95 TOKYO, JAPAN, 1995 DEC 22 (NB) -- For the success story of 1996 there are several products worth watching. Some are brand new and others have been around for some time but are set to jump strongly in use. This report focusses on Japan, but the products here will be important overseas, as well. Widescreen Television If you buy a TV with screen size larger than 24 inches in Japan, the chances are it will be a wide screen model. It is becoming increasingly difficult for manufacturers to sell, and consumers to buy, conventional aspect ratio (4:3) sets in preference to widescreen models (16:9). The technology packed into each widescreen set depends on how much you spend with regular sets capable of simply display regular and widescreen programming in 16:9 mode, more expensive sets support Enhanced Definition TV (EDTV-2). The new technology is compatible with standard NTSC and results in widescreen programming being displayed on a widescreen set with the same 525-line resolution rather than the approximately 400 lines lefts after the top and bottom of a standard 525 line picture is chopped off. Even more expensive sets have decoders for High Definition TV (HDTV) built-in. Although Hi-Vision has been around for three years it was given a boost this year with its own satellite channel showing 12 hours a day of HDTV programming. In the year to September, 82,000 Hi-Vision sets were sold compared with 23,000 the year before and just 10,000 in the previous two years. With the growing sales of Hi-Vision, and the new EDTV2 system now on the market, broadcasters are set to devote more hours to widescreen programming in 1996 which will in turn boost the market for the sets. Mini Disc Another product that has been on the market for some years since November 1992, has begun showing signs of significant growth. Mini Disc, a digital audio system, has suffered slow sales as the result of confusion at launch caused by Digital Compact Cassette, DCC, launched by Matsushita and Philips. The system passed the important million player mark earlier this year and total sales of players are expected to reach around 1.5 million by the end of this year according to Sony and Sharp, the two largest hardware manufacturers. A significant breakthrough in the fortunes of the format came in early September when Matsushita, witnessing 10 Mini Disc player sales for every one DCC sale, announced it would source 1,000 players a month from Victor Co. of Japan, Ltd. (JVC). Towards the end of the year a number of other manufacturers, including Pioneer, are entering the market and next year's sales are expected to hit 3 million, twice as many as the total for the last three years. Personal Computers If you walk into many Japanese businesses you would probably be surprised by the lack of computer systems. Even when computers can be seen on desks they are unlikely to be networked and could even be word-puro computers, small systems that look like electric typewriters with large LCD screens and capable of word processing tasks but not much more. This has partly been due to the late launch of Windows 3.1's Japanese version. Computer sales began to rise when that product transformed computing, making it much easier to use the systems and support the complex Japanese character sets. Now with Windows 95 launched, and the popularity of the Internet and personal computer networks, sales are already rising strongly. In the first half of the current fiscal year, to September 30th, domestic computer shipments jumped 68% to reach 2.43 million units. The Japan Electronic Industry Development Association predicts sales of 5.2 million units for the full fiscal year and has revised predictions for fiscal 1996 from 4.75 million units to 7.5 million units. MO Disks Magneto optical disks will grow in use next year, approaching the position as a possible replacement for the floppy disk in Japan. The MO format consists of both 5.25 and 3.5-inch disks with the smaller disks capable of holding 230 megabytes, 160 times that of a high density floppy disk. Two announcements made during 1995 by Fujitsu, and its continuing development, will help the format expand into new markets in 1996. The company announced a new disk drive, the DynaMO 230, that can sit inside the same space as a floppy disk drive, making the MO format available to laptop computer makers for the first time. Apple Computer has already announced it will integrate the product in some of its new PowerBook 190 and 5300 computers. In September Fujitsu also announced a breakthrough in the disk technology. By changing the way information is stored, the company has developed disks capable of storing up to 4 gigabytes of information but without the need for a new drive. Such disks, named Super MO, will become available commercially in 1997 but the announcement now means users can invest in the technology knowing it will not become out of date soon. Prices for the disks are falling and a 230MB disk can currently be picked up for around $20. (Martyn Williams/19951222) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 12/22/95 FEATURE IBM ****Can IBM Be A Network Star? (FEATURE)(IBM)(TOR)(00019) ****Can IBM Be A Network Star? 12/22/95 ARMONK, NEW YORK, U.S.A., 1995 DEC 22 (NB) -- When the tide turned in the 1980s and mainframe computers lost their dominance to desktop machines, IBM (NYSE:IBM) missed the boat. Now, as the tide turns again toward a focus on networks, can IBM catch the next boat? IBM Chairman Louis Gerstner outlined his company's hopes in a keynote speech at the Comdex/Fall trade show in November. He said powerful networking technologies "will be to the next phase of computing what the microprocessor was to the current phase." This means a major shift, and, Gerstner said, "we at IBM know all too well that those who dominate one phase of computing are not necessarily the ones to lead the way to the next phase." IBM indeed knows this. Although its original IBM Personal Computer set an industry standard when it arrived in 1981, IBM lost control of that standard. International Data Corp., the Framingham, Massachusetts, research firm, recently projected that IBM will be number four in personal computer sales for 1995. For many companies that would be very good performance. For a company that once enjoyed unquestioned dominance of the computer industry, it's a big comedown. According to Gerstner, part of IBM's problem when the focus shifted from mainframes to PCS was that Big Blue had too much of a vested interest in the status quo. It also lacked the skills to lead the PC revolution. He thinks network-centric computing, as he calls the new wave, will be different. "The skills and technologies of the PC-centric, piece-part phase are not the important assets needed in network-centric computing," Gerstner said at Comdex. "What is important? Complex network management, systems management, heavy transaction processing, massive databases, powerful scalable servers, systems integration, etc. Now let me think -- what company knows how to do all that?" Gerstner's answer to that rhetorical question, obviously, is IBM. Is he right? There are really two parts to that question. The second part is whether IBM really does have the strengths Gerstner thinks will be important. The answer to that one is probably yes, because those are for the most part the skills IBM honed during its years on top of the mainframe heap. "It's another way they can go back to their core business," says Bruce Stephen, vice-president of worldwide personal systems research at International Data Corp. Stephen says that strategy makes more sense for IBM than continuing to fight the battle of desktop operating systems, which he says is "clearly over, and won by Microsoft." But the first part of the question -- the part one might easily miss -- is whether the IBM boss is right about what will be the keys to success in tomorrow's network-centric world. That is the weak spot that Bob Djurdjevic, president of Phoenix, Arizona- based Annex Research, sees in Gerstner's plan. Network-centric computing, Djurdjevic argues, is largely about the Internet and its hottest feature, the World Wide Web. Success in that area, he contends, is not going to be a matter of hardware, software, or even integration expertise. The real opportunities lie not in technology but in content. Picking up the popular metaphor of the information highway, Djurdjevic suggests that "everybody's been arguing about the rules of the construction and traffic lights and things like that. Nobody's been worrying about where the cars are going to come from." Djurdjevic notes that IBM's arch-rival, Microsoft Corp., and its chairman, Bill Gates, seem to be putting more emphasis on content than many firms in the computer industry. But it will not even necessarily be computer companies that dominate this area. It could as easily be movie studios, television networks, publishers, or startups nobody has even heard of yet. As for IBM, Djurdjevic believes that, far from having just the right skills to catch this next wave, it may have a corporate culture that is highly unsuited to success in the content arena. He says he told some IBM officials a couple of years ago that the company might have too many engineers and not enough musicians. They laughed, but Djurdjevic says the remark was not entirely in jest. His reasons are more apparent now than they were then. Despite that reservation, Djurdjevic and other observers believe IBM is going in the right general direction. An increased focus on networking and the Internet is arguably a basic requirement for survival in the computer industry today. As Djurdjevic points out, at the recent Comdex show, "it wasn't just Gerstner (talking about a new network focus) but also Gates and everybody else that spoke." Given that IBM has the right idea, then, how well is it following through? Three IBM moves in the past year provide a picture of how IBM's network- centric plan is unfolding. The first was the acquisition of Lotus Development Corp. in June. It seems apparent that IBM bought Lotus for its Notes work- group development software. When IBM laid out its plans for the newly acquired Lotus in July, John Thompson, IBM's senior vice-president and software group executive, said IBM hoped to "dramatically change the playing field" by drawing attention away from the operating system to multi-platform tools that interconnect whole enterprises. In this area, he claimed, Microsoft Corp. and other competitors are not as well equipped to compete. In early December, following a major strategy review and an analysis of Internet opportunities, IBM set up a new Internet division, tapping Irving Wladawsky-Berger, former head of its parallel processing business, to take charge. At the same time, Gerstner named another veteran executive, Fernand Sarrat, to the newly created post of general manager of network- centric computing marketing and services initiatives. Sarrat's assignment is to integrate IBM's strategies on network-centric computing across its worldwide marketing and services organization. Djurdjevic says the strategy review was a necessary move for IBM, which faces the challenge of deciding which of its products fit with the new direction and which don't. The company must now prune away products that don't contribute to its chosen direction and bolster those that do. Doing that, and making sure the new and strategic products get to market in time, will be a tougher job than the cost-cutting IBM has been through in the past few years, Djurdjevic contends. A third step was IBM's recent deal with Ameritech, the regional Bell operating company in the midwestern United States, that will see the two companies co-operate to offer integrated computing and communications services to customers. Steve Mucchetti, general manager of communications and media at IBM, said during a press teleconference announcing that move that the company sees it as "the underpinning of the network-centric rollout." The Ameritech alliance will help IBM provide the infrastructure needed for network-centric computing, Mucchetti says. The other critical piece of the puzzle will be applications. It seems doubtful whether anything Gerstner and his colleagues can do will ever restore IBM to the hegemony it enjoyed in the 1960s and 1970s. However, in putting the emphasis on network-centric computing, there is little doubt IBM is sailing with the prevailing winds. (Grant Buckler/19951221) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 12/22/95 TRENDS Vendors "Help Others" In Holiday Charity Efforts (NEWS)(TRENDS)(BOS)(00020) Vendors "Help Others" In Holiday Charity Efforts 12/22/95 BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS, U.S.A., 1995 DEC 22 (NB) -- In what seem to be rising numbers, computer vendors are turning their energies during the holiday season to helping others less fortunate than themselves. In a series of interviews with Newsbytes, officials of Bay Networks, New England Systems, Agile Networks, Powersoft, and Lois Paul & Partners (LP&P) discussed the special activities their companies have initiated, sometimes together with business partners, to "share their prosperity" this year. At Bay Networks, holiday charitable activities revolve around "Holiday Giving Trees," located on the company's two campuses in Billerica, Massachusetts and Santa Clara, California, said Lynne Johnson, a community relations representative at Bay Net's Billerica site. Under the program, Bay Net employees purchase and wrap holiday presents, and then place the gifts under the trees for distribution to selected charities, she told Newsbytes. The "trees" tradition started at SynOptics, and was then extended throughout Bay Networks when SynOptics merged with Wellfleet to form the larger networking company, Johnson added, in an interview conducted right after the community relations rep had returned from dropping off the assembled gifts to some of the recipient organizations. Today, she explained, East and West Coast branches of Bay Net each choose the local charities that will benefit from the "Holiday Giving Trees." This year's East Coast selections, for example, include "The Friends of Boston's Homeless;" two homeless shelters, Merrimac House and Pawtucket House; the Assabet Family and Adolescent Service; the Town of Billerica's "Clause with a Cause" program; and the Town of Lowell's Department of Social Services. A canned food drive has been conducted, as well. This year, she added, even a Bay Networks food services contractor got into the act. The contractor, Sodexho, has contributed funds to the "Good Night" program at the Pine Street Inn, a shelter for the homeless in Boston. New England Systems (NES) has been participating in charitable activities ever since the company's inception in the late 1980's. But this year, the Waltham, Massachusetts-based network systems integrator has added the Massachusetts Department of Social Services' "Toys for Tots" program to its holiday giving list, said Kelly Freitas of NES. NES employees have been toting toys to work with them for "Toys for Tots," together with sporting equipment to be given to the Boys and Girls Club of America. The NES staffers have also chipped in funds for the New England Shelter for Homeless Veterans, along with anywhere from $10 to $100 apiece for the National Foundation for Teaching Entrepreneurship (NFTE), Freitas told Newsbytes. This fall, NES joined with Microsoft, 3Com and Staples to design and deploy a computer network for NFTE free of charge, according to Freitas. The network is aimed at teaching the "at-risk" young people enrolled in NFTE about computing. The youths, aged 14 to 24, are using the network to develop computing basic computing skills, create resumes and business plans, and learn about jobs in the computer networking industry. Meanwhile, the children of the NES employees got together for a special holiday benefit party for kids. Parents were asked to pay $10 for each child who attended. Proceeds from the party went to help the New England Shelter for Homeless Veterans buy food, clothing, and holiday gifts for veterans and their families. Agile Networks started to take part in holiday charitable activities for the first time this year, noted Sandy Visser, Agile's director of human resources. The Boxborough, Massachusetts-based company was founded in 1991, but was not "populated" with employees until 1992, she elaborated. By now, however, Agile employs about 55 people. The company has instituted an employee donation program for efforts that include a Christmas dinner for clients of the Acton-Boxborough Housing Authority, food baskets to the elderly, and "Toys for Tots." In addition, some Agile employees will be visiting shut-ins during the week between Christmas and New Year's. "I hope that, as our company continues to grow, we'll have even more holiday activities to report next year," Visser told Newsbytes. Also this year, Powersoft decided to defer its traditional holiday party in favor of donating funds to employee-chosen charities, according to Powersoft's Kathy Quirk. Powersoft is also making donations to a local food bank, and, like other computer industry vendors, to "Toys for Tots." Finally, as previously reported in Newsbytes, LP&P teamed up this year with partners that included Lotus, Shiva, Computerworld, Sentry Market Research (SMR), and Hurwitz Consulting to hold the second annual "GoodStart for the Holidays" benefit party for the Massachusetts Society of Prevention of Cruelty to Children (MSPCC). "This is an opportunity to `give back' to the community," said LP&P's Lois Paul, in an earlier interview with Newsbytes. The idea of raising funds and toys for the MSPCC's "GoodStart" early intervention program for parents and kids was a "natural" for LP&P, she added. When the high tech PR first was first established, LP&P's employees had only "a couple of kids" among them, but that number has since increased to about 40, according to Paul. This year's event, attended by Newsbytes on December 14 at the Westin Hotel in Boston, featured appearances by the "Look & Feel" multivendor rock band; an appearance by local TV anchorman Jack Williams; and "fun" fundraising activities such as a "silent auction" and "balloon raffle" for contributed items that ranged from vacation trips to computers. The benefit attendees also made monetary donations, and brought toys along with them for the MSPCC kids. (Jacqueline Emigh/19951222/Reader Contacts: Bay Networks, 508- 670-8888; New England Systems, 617-672-8400; Agile Networks, 508- 436-3636; Powersoft, 508-287-1500; Lois Paul & Partners, 617-862- 4514; Press Contacts: Barbara Heffner, Bay Networks, 508-436- 8867; Lloyd Benson or Christine Gannon, Schwartz Communications for NES, 617-431-0770; Sheryl Schultz, Agile, 508-436-3636; Kathy Quirk, Powersoft, 508-287-1882; Brenda Nashawaty or Bill McLaughlin, LP&P, 617-862-4514) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 12/22/95 ONLINE UK - Microsoft Network Teams With Unipalm Pipex On Network (NEWS)(ONLINE)(LON)(00021) UK - Microsoft Network Teams With Unipalm Pipex On Network 12/22/95 CAMBRIDGE, ENGLAND, 1995 DEC 22 (NB) -- Following its taking of a stake in UUNet earlier this year, Microsoft has announced formal plans to work with Unipalm Pipex, the European partner of UUNet, to extend the number of access points for Microsoft Network (MSN), Microsoft's online network. According to Microsoft, the network enhancement will provide British MSN members with high performance Internet access, as well as increased access points for MSN generally. The move marks the first stage of expansion for MSN, which has been roundly criticized for failing to offer full Internet services, including Web facilities, to subscribers outside of North America. While confirming the plan to extend full Internet services to British MSN subscribers, officials have refused to comment on other MSN country expansion plans. Newsbytes' sources, however, suggest that similar extension plans are under way across Europe and in Japan and Australia. Announcements on these regions are expected in the New Year, Newsbytes sources suggest. The main emphasis behind the linkup with Pipex is that MSN subscribers will have local call access to the online service. No surcharges for rural access are planned, a trend that Europe Online started earlier this month, and one that may cause a headache for CompuServe, which surcharges non-city access in the UK. Plans also call for MSN to work with Pipex to make 28,800 bits per second (bps) the standard modem rate for MSN subscribers, even out in the country. According to Pipex, the 28,800 bps national net for MSN will be operational by the second quarter of 1996, at which time ISDN (Integrated Services Digital Network) access will also be available. Interestingly, MSN will not route all subscriber calls to the US service for "jobbing" purposes (a time sharing system used by CompuServe and America Online). Instead, calls to MSN's Internet services will be handled directly by the Unipalm Pipex network, improving Internet performance to UK subscribers. MSN online service calls, meanwhile, will be routed back to the US parent net as before. Judy Gibbons, director of MSN operations in the UK, claims that these new facilities will allow subscribers to cheaply and quickly access and search all the information they require as well as communicate and do other tasks. "We believe that Internet access is vital in the on-line world but users need help in finding what interests them among the ever growing number of sites," she explained. According to Gibbons, to achieve this goal, MSN has created seamless, one button access to the Internet as an integral part of the service. Gibbons went on to say that MSN is also developing a series of online directories and guidebooks to help people make sense of the Internet. The move by MSN to develop, in effect, an indexing service for Web sites is an interesting one, and mirrors plans that Prodigy outlined to Newsbytes at the Comdex/Fall show in Las Vegas last month. The danger, however, is that, in becoming an index service, seasoned users of MSN and Prodigy may decide to bypass the online service and "jump" straight to TCP/IP (Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol) access through a local Internet service provider. Prodigy's strategy is to reduce its subscription rates to avoid such a conflict, something that MSN may have to follow if the service is to maintain its momentum. The problem with this strategy, Newsbytes notes, is that it reduces payments that can be made to information providers on the main online service, as well as reduces income overall. The strategy is a dangerous one, Newsbytes notes, as the ultimate and logical conclusion is to turn the online service in question into little more than than an indexing service. (Steve Gold/19951222/Press Contact: Mandy Hassall, GBC +44-181-332- 7022; Email: mandy@gbc.co.uk; Reader Contact: MSN +44-1724-270001) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 5 12/22/95 WINDOWS ****Syncronys Recalls SoftRAM (NEWS)(WINDOWS)(SFO)(00022) ****Syncronys Recalls SoftRAM95 12/22/95 SAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1995 DEC 22 (NB) -- Syncronys SoftCorp, the developers and marketers of SoftRAM95, announced it will refund customers the price paid for the product with proper proof of purchase. Originally introduced at the same time as Windows 95, SoftRAM95 was advertised as software capable of enhancing random access memory, but later independent tests found such claims questionable. Earlier this week, Synchronous admitted the company was being investigated by the Federal Trade Commission and promised full cooperation to resolve consumer concerns. Initially, the company said SoftRAM95 would help the performance of applications running in Windows 95 and Windows 3.1. As independent evidence gathered and an avalanche of media attention focused on the product, Syncronys conceded the product did nothing for Windows 95 nor applications running under the new operating system. New stickers on SoftRAM95 packaging began to state the program worked with Windows 3.1, dropping the Windows 95 claim. Still, some experts and the trade media claimed the product would not perform even in Windows 3.1. Things turned worse for Syncronys when Microsoft said the company did not pass the necessary certification to use the "Designed Windows 95" logo and PC Magazine said part of the code used in the product was lifted from shareware. Windows 95 antagonist and computer author, Andrew Schulman, said the control panel gave the same performance readings whether or not the program is actually loaded. If you have SoftRAM95 and proof of purchase you can apply for a full refund from Syncronys at Syncronys SoftCorp, c/o Starpack, Inc., P.O. Box 12130, Greeley, Colorado, 80631 or fax information to 970-33- 7655. (Patrick McKenna/19951222) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 12/22/95 FEATURE GENERAL ****The Twelve Days Of Christmas, Loosely Interpreted (FEATURE)(GENERAL)(WAS)(00023) ****The Twelve Days Of Christmas, Loosely Interpreted 12/22/95 WASHINGTON, D.C., U.S.A., 1995 DEC 22 (NB) -- On the first day of Christmas, my true love gave to me a keyboard on a PC. On the second day of Christmas, my true love gave to me Doom and Myst, and a keyboard on a PC. On the third day of Christmas, my true love gave to me three office suites, Doom and Myst, and a keyboard on a PC. On the fourth day of Christmas, my true love gave to me a quad speed CD-ROM drive, three office suites, Doom and Myst, and a keyboard on a PC. Of the fifth day of Christmas, my true love gave to me a Pentium, a quad speed CD-ROM drive, three office suites, Doom and Myst, and a keyboard on a PC. On the sixth day of Christmas, my true love gave to me a six-line voice mail system, a Pentium, a quad speed CD-ROM drive, three office suites, Doom and Myst and a keyboard on a PC. On the seventh day of Christmas, my true love gave to me seven video graphics cards, a six-line voice mail system, a Pentium, a quad speed CD-ROM drive, three office suites, Doom and Myst and a keyboard on a PC. On the eighth day of Christmas, my true love gave to me eight more megs of RAM, seven video graphics cards, a six-line voice mail system, a Pentium, a quad speed CD-ROM drive, three office suites, Doom and Myst and a keyboard on a PC. On the ninth day of Christmas, my true love gave to me nine new URLs, eight more megs of RAM, seven video graphics cards, a six-line voice mail system, a Pentium, a quad speed CD-ROM drive, three office suites, Doom and Myst and a keyboard on a PC. On the tenth day of Christmas, my true love gave to me ten cups of Java, nine new URLs, eight more megs of RAM, seven video graphics cards, a six-line voice mail system, a Pentium, a quad speed CD-ROM drive, three office suites, Doom and Myst and a keyboard on a PC. On the eleventh day of Christmas, my true love gave to me eleven propeller beanies, ten cups of Java, nine new URLs, eight more megs of RAM, seven video graphics cards, a six-line voice mail system, a Pentium, a quad speed CD-ROM drive, three office suites, Doom and Myst and a keyboard on a PC. On the twelfth day of Christmas, my true love gave to me twelve techs a'teching, eleven propeller beanies, ten cups of Java, nine new URLs, eight more megs of RAM, seven video graphics cards, a six-line voice mail system, a Pentium, a quad speed CD-ROM drive, three office suites, Doom and Myst and a keyboard on a PC. (Kennedy Maize/19951222) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 12/22/95 TELECOM Telecom Compromise Faltering (NEWS)(TELECOM)(WAS)(00024) Telecom Compromise Faltering 12/22/95 WASHINGTON, D.C., U.S.A., 1995 DEC 22 (NB) -- One day after House and Senate telecommunications conference leaders announced a deal with the White House to clear the way for passage of the first rewrite of the nation's basic communications law in 61 years, the compromise got snagged in internal House GOP politics. It turns out that the House leader in the conference committee, Rep. Thomas Bliley (R-Va.,), chairman of the House Commerce Committee, chief House bargainer with the Senate and the White House, didn't have followers. Even Rep. Jack Fields (R-Texas), chairman of the telecommunications subcommittee, wasn't on board with the deal with the White House. Fields issued a blunt statement yesterday that there is "no deal" and then flew off to Texas to be with his pregnant wife. Another key Republican, Rep. Michael Oxley (R-Ohio), said the telecom bill is "dead as Elvis." Even the GOP leadership was undercutting Bliley. GOP Majority Leader Dick Armey (R-Texas) said, "I think they are putting together a conference report that will not have good standing with House Republicans. We have too many people who don't like too many provisions." The GOP back benchers were also angry with Vice President Al Gore, who bragged after the compromise was reached that the administration and the Democrats got "every single one" of their objections met. One of the major sticking points with Fields and other Republicans was the agreement not to relax media ownership rules, which was part of the bill that came out of Fields' subcommittee. Under threat of filibuster by Sen. Ernest Hollings (D-S.C.), ranking Democrat on the Senate Commerce Committee, Bliley backed off on provisions on ownership that would benefit media mogul Rupert Murdoch. The compromise bill is a carefully balanced legislative edifice, note lobbyists following the issue. If any part of it is pulled out, the whole bill could come tumbling down. "Conservative Republicans are going to realize that this is the most pro-competition, anti-regulation bill they have had in years," said Mike Collins, a spokesman for Bliley. Even in the Senate, there are some signs of trouble. While Sen. Larry Pressler (R-S.D.) is praising the deal as "a magnificent balance between competing interests," Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), one of the conferees, was critical of the compromise negotiated by Pressler, Hollings, Bliley and Rep. John Dingell (D-Mich.), ranking Democrat on the House Commerce Committee. "There were four people who got together, and they came out with agreement that surprised a lot of us," McCain said yesterday. "From the way it looks to me now, there will not be movement in the next couple of days." (Kennedy Maize/19951222) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 12/22/95 EDITORIAL GENERAL ****Editorial - News To Last A Week (EDITORIAL)(GENERAL)(SFO)(00025) ****Editorial - News To Last A Week 12/22/95 SAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1995 DEC 22 (NB) -- By Patrick McKenna. We begin that one week in the year when there is no Newsbytes news. For a real news junkie this can be like having to order decaf coffee or non-fat ice cream. Basically, it just does not work. I know it is a holiday and we here at Newsbytes look forward to a week away from the keyboard, but still, life is not the same. What's so important about computer news? Sure, it is important to learn about the latest business news, the latest technological advancement, the hottest new game in town and the newest thing you can do on the Internet. But what this news is really all about is to have the ability to show everyone else just how much you are in-the-know when it comes to computers. There is nothing better than to be able to throw out a major news item and have everyone else listen to your words of wisdom. Or to be in the middle of an online conference and explain to everyone that what they are talking about is old news because you have this piece of hot stuff from Newsbytes. With that in mind, allow me to offer a handful of news which has been announced or will come to a desktop somewhere near you in the next 18 months. Item 1. While 8x CD-ROM drives become the next desktop standard for playing multimedia titles, the major players in the market are in the backroom tinkering with 10x and 12x drives. Once they get the 12x on the market, we will be offered DVD (Digital Video Disk) drives which will allow us to have even more storage capacity for things like full- length movies. At the same time, CD-Recordable drives will improve and be offered at a lower price but they will not keep up with 10x and 12x drives. Item 2. This week 133 megahertz (MHz) Pentium-based desktop systems with 16 megabytes (MB), a gigabyte of storage, 2 MB of VRAM, Super-everything audio, 28.8 kilobit per second (Kbps) modem, tons of software, 6x CD-ROM drive and a 17-inch monitor just hit the mail order business for under $3,000. Hint: most of these mail order places do not charge sales tax. Sure you will have a shipping charge, but it is usually about half of a state sales tax. Item 3. It appears we are all going to spend a ton of money and eighteen months on ISDN modems and related technology, while cable modems and fiber-optics fight it out for the next leading role as we close out the century. But, let's face it, the Web is not going to be fun, fast and super neat at 28.8 Kbps. Item 4. AT&T and the little bells are going to offer Internet access to every house in the US. Behind closed doors, I keep hearing talk about unlimited access for $5 or maybe $3 a month. This could change the world for online service companies and Internet service providers (ISPs). Item 5. In the meantime, count on CompuServe, Prodigy and America Online to cut prices, increase services, integrate new technology and make your online experience more fun. With approximately 10 million subscribers combined, these services are going to fight to stay a step ahead of one another and the Internet. This is going to be fun to watch. Item 6. Network-centric computing? Hello? This is another hot topic, the $500 computer which has virtually no storage. Users are supposed to get onto a network where they can access applications and all the other goodies kept on a hard disk or accessed from a CD-ROM drive. With this network system, users will operate a little toaster-size computer with a monitor and keyboard. The computer you are looking at right now is like no other computer in the world. It is yours and it has what you want on it. For right or wrong, people get attached to their computers and they want the latest, fastest, neatest hardware/software thing on their desktop. This network computer is like mass transit. Great idea. Could save a lot of money. But people want their computers like they want their cars. Item 7. Back in the sixties, there was a controversy about whether god was dead or not. Here we are at the turn of the century and people are still going to synagogues, temples, churches and revival tents. Despite rumors, Bill Gates will continue to haul-in the dollars. Item 8. Coolest secret on the Internet? It is not really a secret but it is just beginning to take off. The Internet telephone is now full-duplex which means you can have a standard telephone-like conversation across the Internet. Earlier versions were half-duplex which meant your conversations were similar to being on a walkie-talkie; "Over!" Make sure you have enough memory and processing power before you invest in the Internet telephone. Products such as Quarterdeck's WebTalk allow Internet users from around the world to talk to one another while going through local access phone charges and avoiding long distance charges. This is way kewl and it really works! Item 9. Conversation stopper of the year. Super brains at Cornell gave the world a technology demonstration of nanotechnology; otherwise known as: "Did you see that? I didn't see nothin!" Anyhow, these guys have made little robots which can read electrical charges at the atomic level. "How little?" did you say? In ten years this technology will allow us to have volume of 10,000 hard disks contained on the head of a pin. See, I told you that was a conversation stopper. Item 10. Last news headline of the year: "Millions of computer users turned off their little desktop powerhouses, got out of their chairs and spent time with family and friends. They hugged, laughed, ate great meals, watched the sun set and wondered.. . . . . 'hmmmm, how long before I can do this on my computer.'" (Patrick McKenna/19951222) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 95 12/22/95 WINDOWS Symantec's Delrina Ships CommSuite (NEWS)(WINDOWS)(TOR)(00026) Symantec's Delrina Ships CommSuite 95 12/22/95 TORONTO, ONTARIO, CANADA, 1995 DEC 22 (NB) -- The Delrina Group of Symantec Corp. (NASDAQ:SYMC) has begun shipping CommSuite 95, its collection of communications software for Microsoft's Windows 95 operating system. CommSuite 95 includes the latest releases of Delrina's WinFax Pro facsimile software, WinComm Pro data communications software, and CyberJack browser for the World Wide Web, and TalkWorks, a voice-telephony option for WinFax Pro. According to Mark Skapinker, president of Delrina, customers will also be able to install all of Delrina's new software in a single operation. In a press conference earlier this fall, Skapinker said CommSuite will also offer a common tool bar for all of its applications that will let users check all their messages, whether fax, voice, or electronic mail, in a single operation. Any personal computer that can run Windows 95 will run the CommSuite applications, Skapinker added, though the TalkWorks software will require a voice-capable modem, of which only a handful are on the market today. One improvement in the new Windows 95 communications software will be easier modem configuration, thanks to Windows 95's support for Microsoft's Plug and Play specifications. "You simply install (a modem), Windows 95 detect it and CommSuite 95 automatically configures it for you," said Marc Camm, general manager of desktop communications at Delrina. Delrina officials said they expect the complete CommSuite 95 suite to sell for US$129 or C$179. Delrina is designating the new WinFax and WinComm releases with the version number 7.0, despite the fact that the previous versions were called 4.0. The reason is that the company is reserving version numbers 5 and 6 for possible future releases of the software on Windows 3.1, Skapinker said. (Grant Buckler/19951222/Press Contact: Shelly Sofer, Delrina Group of Symantec, 416-441-4702, Internet e-mail shellys@delrina.com; Josef Zankowicz, Delrina Group of Symantec, 416-441-4658, Internet e-mail josefz@delrina.com; Public Contact: Delrina Group of Symantec, 800-441-7234 or 541-334-6054) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 12/22/95 ONLINE SoftArc's FirstClass Gets Gateways To cc:Mail And MS Mail (NEWS)(ONLINE)(TOR)(00027) SoftArc's FirstClass Gets Gateways To cc:Mail And MS Mail 12/22/95 MARKHAM, ONTARIO, CANADA, 1995 DEC 22 (NB) -- SoftArc Inc., is tying its FirstClass communications software to the big-name electronic mail packages, Lotus Development Corp.'s cc:Mail and Microsoft Corp.'s Microsoft Mail. SoftArc announced gateways for both products. According to SoftArc, both gateways allow FirstClass to exchange messages with the other vendors' electronic mail packages. Both gateways can also handle attached files, the company said. The FirstClass Gateway for cc:Mail can also replicate the contents of cc:Mail "bulletin boards" to FirstClass workgroup conferences and vice versa, SoftArc officials said. The FirstClass Gateway for Microsoft Mail provides full directory synchronization between FirstClass and Microsoft Mail networks. Both gateways are designed to connect to one Microsoft Mail or cc:Mail post office, but the vendor said the gateways can route mail properly in a multi-post-office system as well. SoftArc said all Microsoft Mail options can be embedded in FirstClass, which means that messages can be sent from one Microsoft Mail servers via FirstClass with no loss of fidelity. The cc:Mail and Microsoft Mail gateways are the first gateways SoftArc has offered for FirstClass, company spokeswoman Betty Cupid told Newsbytes, although other vendors sell gateway products linking FirstClass to assorted other mail software. Each of the new gateways has a list price of US$495. One gateway is needed to connect two mail systems, each of which can be serving many users, Cupid said. FirstClass includes mail capabilities as well as replicable discussion databases, forms processing, enterprise database access, and online information services. The software also supports remote access, company officials said. (Grant Buckler/19951222/Press Contact: Dallas Kachan, SoftArc, 905-415-7000, Internet e-mail dallas@softarc.com; Public Contact: SoftArc, 905-415-7000, fax 905-415-7151) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 12/22/95 ONLINE CompuServe Passes Half-Million Mark In Europe (NEWS)(ONLINE)(SFO)(00028) CompuServe Passes Half-Million Mark In Europe 12/22/95 COLUMBUS, OHIO, U.S.A., 1995 DEC 22 (NB) -- CompuServe announced its European subscribers now number more than 500,000 and in the United Kingdom there are another 200,000. With localized language versions of its service, the online giant has been a leader in worldwide distribution of online access. A CompuServe spokesperson, told Newsbytes, "We are the only online service and Interent provider which has offered extensive worldwide service. Having offered this service over the years, we have learned what users from different countries specifically want. Other online services are just now beginning to look into service outside the United States and Canada, but we have been doing it for a long time. Our emphasis on European countries and the UK is paying off well and we expect to more than double these numbers during 1996." CompuServe says its success in these markets is due to integration of well-known national-specific services and publications, localized graphical interfaces for navigating the network and machine or automatic translations of electronic mail. In France, CompuServe added L'Express and France Cinema Multimedia to its local service, while German users Spiegel and Bertelsmann became available. In the UK, CompuServe offers the Press Association, Reuters, automobile Associations, Selfridges and Dixons. Similar to the way in which it built its US network, CompuServe says it continues to add points of presence (POPs) in Europe, the UK and other countries. These POPs allow users to access the service through a local access phone number. During 1996, CompuServe expects to see more competition. Through an agreement with Bertelsmann, America Online is beginning to deliver a country-specific version of its service in Europe and Europe Online, another online service company, continues to build its presence. (Patrick McKenna/19951222/Press Contact: Jeff Shafer, CompuServe, tel 614-538-4632) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 12/22/95 GENERAL Personnel Roundup (NEWS)(GENERAL)(MSP)(00029) Personnel Roundup 12/22/95 MINNEAPOLIS, MINNESOTA, U.S.A., 1995 DEC 22 (NB) -- In today's roundup of personnel changes, not covered elsewhere by Newsbytes: Tandy Corp., Softbank, Xerox Corp., BellSouth Business Systems, PageNet, J3 Learning Corporation, Scientific-Atlanta, Novell Inc., AT&T Global Information Solutions, and Oracle Corp. Tandy Corp. (NYSE: TAN), announced Leonard H. Roberts, president of RadioShack, will add the title of president of Tandy Corp. effective January 1, 1996. In his new position, Roberts will continue to perform the duties of president of RadioShack and will additionally be responsible for Tandy Retail Services. Tandy Retail Services provides distribution, repair, headquarters customer service, and manufacturing support for Tandy's retail operations. Leonard Roberts, 46, joined Tandy in July 1993 as president of RadioShack. Prior to Tandy, Roberts was with Shoney's, Arby's and Ralston Purina. Softbank Exposition and Conference Company (415-578-6963) has announced that Michael Wiener Goodman has joined the company as vice president of marketing for NetWorld+Interop, the Summit for network computing professionals. Goodman has been in technical publishing since 1979 and comes from Ziff-Davis Publishing Company where he was most recently director of marketing for PC Computing. John A. Lopiano and Brian E. Stern have been named senior vice presidents of Xerox Corporation (NYSE: XRX - 203-968-3572) as part of a corporate realignment announced today. Lopiano and Stern will head two of the three new business groups that have been formed to oversee worldwide production and marketing of Xerox products. Lopiano, 57, who joined Xerox in 1990, will be president of the new Production Systems Group, which will have responsibility for printing, publishing, engineering systems and professional services. He will also have the title of senior vice president of Xerox. Stern, 48, who has been with Xerox since 1969, will be president of the Office Document Products Group, which will have responsibility for convenience copiers, workgroup copiers, department copiers and color products and office network copiers. He will also have the title of senior vice president of the corporation. Phil Jacobs, president of BellSouth Business Systems (BBS), has been named chief operating officer of Optus Communications (404-330-0187) based in Sydney, Australia, effective January 1, 1996. As COO, he will direct all network planning and operations, customer service, sales and marketing activities for the multi-billion dollar enterprise. To replace Jacobs, BellSouth has appointed Richard A. Anderson as president of BBS. Anderson currently is vice president of the Interconnection, Public and Operator Services (IPOS) customer operations unit for BellSouth Telecommunications (BST). Scott Schaefer, executive director of BST's Advanced Intelligent Network business unit, has been named acting vice president of the IPOS unit. PageNet (Nasdaq: PAGE - 214-985-6749) announced that it has named Barry A. Fromberg to the newly created position of chairman and chief executive officer of Paging Network International Inc., the company's wholly owned subsidiary. Fromberg, currently senior vice president and chief financial officer, assumes his new role immediately. J3 Learning Corporation (612-930-4543) has announced the appointment of John Carney to the position of executive vice president of product development and chief development officer. Carney will join the company on January 1, 1996. As executive vice president of product development he will play a key role in directing the development of the company's future technology-based IT education products and broadening the range of titles offered. Prior to joining J3 Learning, Carney was the director of document imaging and Cold products for Wang Laboratories Inc. Jack L. King has joined Scientific-Atlanta (NYSE: SFA - 770-903-6306) as president of the Control Systems Division in Broadband Communications. King previously served as senior vice president, operations, of Entergy Corporation, a major US utility system, and president and COO of Entergy Enterprises Inc. Novell Inc. (Nasdaq: NOVL - 408-577-6842) has named Hans-Werner Hector to the company's board of directors, filling the seat vacated by the retirement of Kanwal S. Rekhi in August. Hector is a co-founder and member of the board of directors of SAP AG, a leading international software firm. From 1992 through June 1995 he was CEO, president, and vice chairman of SAP's US Subsidiary, SAP America, Inc. In other Novell news, Dr. Glenn Ricart, a scientist who has played a significant role in the development of the Internet, has joined the company as senior vice president, research and development. As head of research and development for Novell's networking software products, Ricart will lead the evolution of a Smart Global Network connecting the Internet and today's private business networks into a single information resource for business and consumers, says the company. AT&T Global Information Solutions (770-623-7215) announced the appointment of Joseph E. Guy, 40, as vice president, Retail Store Solutions and Architecture. Guy joins GIS from IBM, where he most recently was head of Software for IBM Store Systems. At AT&T GIS, Guy will be responsible for retail store solutions development and architecture, including software engineering, retail architecture engineering, store solutions, and architecture product management. He will report to Tony Fano, senior vice president, Retail Systems Group. Oracle Corp. (Nasdaq: ORCL - 415-506-993) has announced that Nimish Mehta has been promoted to senior vice president of vertical client/ server applications. In this newly created role, Mehta is responsible for developing and marketing products for distinct vertical industry segments. Mehta joined Oracle eight years ago, most recently as vice president of the workgroup solutions division, where he was responsible for developing the Workgroup/2000 desktop product suite. (Ian Stokell/19951222) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 12/22/95 ONLINE Germany's Ground Breaking Multimedia Legislation (NEWS)(ONLINE)(LON)(00030) Germany's Ground Breaking Multimedia Legislation 12/22/95 BONN, GERMANY, 1995 DEC 22 (NB) -- The German Government has taken the wraps off a series of proposed legislational changes that it claims will make the creation of the Infobahn, the German equivalent of the "information superhighway," a lot easier to create. Announcing the proposed round of legislation, Juergen Ruettgers, the German Minister for Education, Research and Technology, said that the primary aim was to simplify the legal framework required to allow interaction between information providers and the proposed online services and Infobahn service providers. Currently, he admitted, the state regulations, which were set to prevent any wrangles by the then-two Governments of Germany in the late 1950s/early 1960s, mean that national online services and service providers have to deal with several state administrations, rather than a single national one, as is the case elsewhere in Europe. Ruettgers explained that the new legislation, which could be in place as early as next April, will go a long way towards avoiding the large amounts of "red tape" that IT (information technology) companies must endure at present. In announcing the proposals, Ruettgers admitted that the proposals could well create a feud with the state legislatures, many of whom are already simplifying their laws to make life easier for IT companies to operate across Germany. However, he noted that the current legislative framework -- as outlined by the German constitution -- gave the role of administering legislation to the state rather than the national Government. The German Government's sudden change of heart in making life easier for IT companies in Germany is not entirely unexpected, Newsbytes notes. In April of this year, the Government announced plans to open up the IT and telecoms marketplace in Germany, in line with European Commission (EC) directives laid down two years ago. As reported by Newsbytes at the time, officials with the German government claimed that announcement was a major step for the German telecoms industry. According to Wolfing Boetsch, the Germany Post and Telecoms Minister, the post January 1, 1998, telecoms market will be opened up completely to competition, and an unlimited number of private companies will be invited to apply for telecoms licenses. As part of the changes, the German government will privatize Deutsche Telekom, with a share sell-off expected some time next year. Boetsch refused to be drawn on what proportion of Deutsche Telekom will be sold off, but the sale will mark the first stage in a major shake-up of the German telecoms market. Plans now call for the first private sector telecoms licenses will be issued on January 1, 1997, thereby allowing the private companies a chance to plan ahead for their service launch a year later. It now seems that 1996 will be a period of great change for the IT and telecoms industry generally in Germany, as the country continues to make the transition from two countries into one democratic and free market state. (Sylvia Dennis/19951222) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 12/22/95 TELECOM European Commission Approves Major Greek Telecoms Changes (NEWS)(TELECOM)(LON)(00031) European Commission Approves Major Greek Telecoms Changes 12/22/95 BRUSSELS, BELGIUM, 1995 DEC 22 (NB) -- While most legislatures have already wound down for Christmas, the European Commission paper machine churns on until the last minute, as witnessed by this week's announcement of approval for the proposed major changes in the Greek telecoms marketplace. Following a proposal from Monika Wulf-Mathies, the EC Commissioner responsible for regional policies, the EC has decided to grant assistance of ECU 250 million from the European Regional Development Fund and the European Social Fund for operational programs in post and telecoms services in Greece. The money will be used primarily in the Greek telecoms marketplace to fund the expansion and enhancement of the telecoms infrastructure to allow new and private telecoms companies to enter the market and offer alternative telecoms carrier (ATC) services across Greece. According to EC officials, the objectives of the three-year investment program, which starts on January 1, 1996, are to develop develop a national telecoms infrastructure, harmonize national legislation with EC legislation, digitalize the telecoms network, provide vocational training in advanced services and develop new telecoms services. So why does the EC need to intervene in what would normally be a free market operation? The reason appears to be that, of all the EC member states, Greece is one of the most backward in creating a free market telecoms infrastructure, as required by the EC's Treaty of Rome. As previously reported by Newsbytes, the EC has mandated that, by January 1, 1998 at the latest, all telecoms markets in Europe must be totally liberalized. The EC program outlined this week aims to carve the path towards this objective. This isn't the first time that the topic of Greek telecoms has hit the headlines. In the summer of 1994, Newsbytes reported that the then recently-elected Socialist Government in Greece had announced plans to renege on its predecessor's promise to restrict Greek mobile telephony to just two private sector players until the year 2000. The two existing mobile telecoms operators, Panafon and Stet Hellas, who were awarded contracts in early 1993, objected violently to the change in legislation. So loudly, in fact, that the EC threatened to become involved, forcing the Government to back down. The dispute could have shaken the Greek constitution to its very foundations, as such a precedent could mean that, when the politics of a Government change, the Government could be free to renege on long term agreements made by the earlier administration. (Steve Gold/19951221/Press & Reader Contact: European Commission +32- 2-299-1111) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 12/22/95 BUSINESS ****Samsung Takes Control Of AST (NEWS)(BUSINESS)(LAX)(00032) ****Samsung Takes Control Of AST 12/22/95 IRVINE, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1995 DEC 22 (NB) -- AST Research Inc. (NASDAQ:ASTA) announced it has reached final agreement with Samsung Electronics that will provide significant support to AST, including credit and vendor benefits. The terms, while reported to be more favorable to AST than those originally announced six weeks ago, still effectively gives Samsung control over the company. Samsung will be in effect given, at no cost, another 5 percent of the company as consideration for the deal, bringing Samsung's stake in AST to 45 percent. In addition, another Samsung-designated director will be appointed, giving Samsung-designated directors a majority on the AST board of directors. Included under terms of the new agreement is a bank credit guarantee of up to $200 million for two years, as well as a $100 million vendor credit line for component purchases from Samsung. The total amount of credit available is $300 million. According to AST the previous agreement under the letter of intent was only for $100 million over one year. A portion of the bank credit to be guaranteed by Samsung will be used to pay off the $50 million short-term loan recently made to AST by Samsung. Janine Whittington, a spokesperson for AST, told Newsbytes, "Samsung had just bought slightly over 40 percent of AST in the last few months, paying over $253 million for slightly over 12,000,000 shares at average price of $21 per share." Today AST shares trade around $8 per share. Almost a third less than paid by Samsung. On share price alone, Samsung has lost $156 million in less than six months. "By significantly increasing the support levels originally outlined in the letter of intent, this agreement takes our strategic partnership with Samsung to the next level," said Ian Diery, AST president. "It not only enhances our competitive position and business prospects by providing financial flexibility as we move forward on our turnaround plan, it also strengthens the bond between our companies in terms of component supply and technology sharing, which are essential elements we can leverage to provide long-term benefits and product differentiation for our customers." In consideration for this support and subject to Samsung fulfilling its obligations under the support arrangements, AST will grant Samsung a five-year option to purchase up to 4.4 million shares of AST common stock at one-cent per share, effective beginning on July 1, 1996. If the option is excercised in full, Samsung's ownership position would increase to approximately 45 percent, from its present position of approximately 40 percent. In addition, certain amendments were made to the existing stockholder agreement with Samsung, consistent with the foregoing board representation, as well as modifications to the restrictions on Samsung's share ownership and disposition. According to Whittington these modifications allow Samsung to buy additional shares. While details of the modifications have not been released, AST has said that they lift restrictions on Samsung to purchase shares. The original restrictions limited Samsung to a total of 60 percent of AST stock. (Richard Bowers/19951222/Press Contact: Emory Epperson, AST, 714- 727-7958) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 12/22/95 GENERAL Newsbytes Week In Review (NEWS)(GENERAL)(MSP)(00033) Newsbytes Week In Review 12/22/95 MINNEAPOLIS, MINNESOTA, U.S.A., 1995 DEC 22 (NB) -- This is a look at the top stories this week, listing with their category code: FCC OKs French & German Stakes In Sprint; Bay Networks Buys Xylogics For $330Mil, Adding 500 Jobs; Compuserve User Web Pages Now Open To Businesses; First PCS 1900 System Launched In US; Security Attacks On Internet Computers Increase; FBI Nabs Suspected AutoCAD Pirate; Apple Ships $289 Videoconferencing Kit; Software Distributor Sues Novell For $834 Million; Taligent To Become IBM Subsidiary; Newsbytes Free Gifts At First Virtual; Clinton Vetoes Securities Bill; IRS Worker Guilty Of Snooping Taxpayer Info; Netscape Creates Java Conference; Telecoms Bill Ready To Roll; House Overrides Securities Veto, Senate Showdown Looms; Informix To Acquire Illustra; Problems With Apple's PowerPC PowerBook; Syncronys Recalls SoftRAM95; Samsung Takes Control Of AST. FCC OKs French & German Stakes In Sprint (TELECOM) WASHINGTON, D.C., U.S.A., 1995 DEC 18 (NB) -- The Federal Communications Commission has approved a 20 percent share in Sprint Corp. for the state-owned telephone companies of France and Germany. Together, France Telecom and Deutsche Telekom are putting $4.2 billion into Sprint. Bay Networks Buys Xylogics For $330Mil, Adding 500 Jobs (BUSINESS) BILLERICA, MASSACHUSETTS, U.S.A., 1995 DEC 18 (NB) -- With its just-finalized $330 million purchase of Xylogics, Bay Networks will add 500 new jobs, while leaping in front of Cisco as number one player in the remote access component of the internetworking market, asserted Jim Hourihan, VP of marketing, in an interview with Newsbytes. Compuserve User Web Pages Now Open To Businesses (ONLINE) COLUMBUS, OHIO, U.S.A., 1995 DEC 19 (NB) -- Space for Internet World Wide Web sites on Compuserve's computers used to be only for individuals. But now, the online service is offering businesses free access to both its servers and its Web page creation and publishing tools. First PCS 1900 System Launched In US (TELECOM) WASHINGTON STATE, WA, U.S.A., 1995 DEC 19 (NB) -- It's been a long time coming, but the first PCS (personal communications system) 1900 (megahertz) digital cellular system in the US has now gone live, Newsbytes can report. Security Attacks On Internet Computers Increase (TRENDS) PITTSBURGH, PENNSYLVANIA, USA, 1995 DEC 19 (NB) -- Under an advisory bulletin headlined "Widespread Attacks on Internet Sites," the Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT) has warned of a large increase in attempts to hack into computers connected to the Internet. FBI Nabs Suspected AutoCAD Pirate (LEGAL) LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1995 DEC 19 (NB) -- In a second major case in less than two months, criminal charges were filed today against a man believed to have pirated up to $1 million worth of AutoCAD computer-aided design (CAD) software. The defendant, Los Angeles resident Howard Dennis Barnes, 53, who is charged with illegally copying and selling the Autodesk software, pleaded not guilty to two felony charges Apple Ships $289 Videoconferencing Kit (BROADCAST) CUPERTINO, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1995 DEC 19 (NB) -- Previously announced and demonstrated earlier this year, Apple Computer's (NASDAQ:AAPL) QuickTime Conferencing Kit is now available through Apple resellers. Designed to connect through the Internet or a local area network, the kit contains a color camera, software and necessary cables for "complete desktop videoconferencing." Software Distributor Sues Novell For $834 Million (LEGAL) SANDY, UTAH, U.S.A., 1995 DEC 19 (NB) -- A Utah software distributor that sees itself as a modern-day "David" has filed a lawsuit against a corporate "Goliath" in the form of Novell Inc. (NASDAQ: NOVL). The Network Trade Center (NTC) suit charges the network operating system software publisher with illegal business tactics and violation of federal anti-trust laws, Federal Racketeering and Corrupt Organization Act (RICO), and various state laws. Taligent To Become IBM Subsidiary (IBM) ARMONK, NEW YORK, U.S.A., 1995 DEC 19 (NB) -- In a newly unveiled agreement to turn over Taligent to IBM, Apple and HP will retain full rights to Taligent technology developed at IBM, said John Slitz, IBM's VP of object development, in a conference call today with Newsbytes. Also under the deal, Taligent will become an "object technology development center" that is wholly owned IBM subsidiary. Newsbytes Free Gifts At First Virtual (ONLINE) MINNEAPOLIS, MINNESOTA, U.S.A., 1995 DEC 20 (NB) -- Newsbytes News Network, a comprehensive source of daily telecom, computer, and interactive services news since 1983, and First Virtual Holdings Inc., are offering free one-month trial subscriptions to Newsbytes' E-Mail Subscription Service to new First Virtual account holders. Clinton Vetoes Securities Bill (LEGAL) WASHINGTON, D.C., U.S.A., 1995 DEC 20 (NB) -- After days of agonizing, President Clinton Tuesday night vetoed legislation designed to protect corporations from lawsuits filed by investors. The decision came only hours before midnight, when the bill would have become law without the president's signature. IRS Worker Guilty Of Snooping Taxpayer Info (LEGAL) BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS, U.S.A., 1995 DEC 20 (NB) -- A former employee of the Internal Revenue Service has been convicted by a federal jury of unlawfully using IRS computers to repeatedly obtain confidential taxpayer information. Netscape Creates Java Conference (ONLINE) MOUNTAIN VIEW, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1995 DEC 20 (NB) -- Netscape Communications (NASDAQ:NSCP) says it has never seen interest in a programming language grow so fast as it has with the phenomena of Java, Sun Microsystems' open Internet programming language. In response, Netscape and Integrated Media have announced the Netscape Internet Developers Conference, the first Java and JavaScript developers gathering. Telecoms Bill Ready To Roll (LEGAL) WASHINGTON, D.C., U.S.A., 1995 DEC 21 (NB) -- House and Senate negotiators and the White House agreed on a series of compromises last night that clears the way for a major rewrite of the nation's basis telecommunications law. With a series of Republican compromises, the bill is ready for action as soon as this week and will be signed by President Clinton. House Overrides Securities Veto, Senate Showdown Looms (LEGAL) WASHINGTON, D.C., U.S.A., 1995 DEC 21 (NB) -- The House yesterday easily overrode President Clinton's veto of legislation to scale back class-action securities lawsuits, but a veto override could be tougher in the Senate. Informix To Acquire Illustra (BUSINESS) MENLO PARK,CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1995 DEC 21 (NB) -- Informix Corporation (NASDAQ:IFMX), a developer of parallel processing database technology, has announced an agreement to acquire Illustra Information Technologies. Illustra is a supplier of object oriented relational database software and tools for managing data in the areas of the Internet, multimedia/entertainment, financial services, and earth sciences. Problems With Apple's PowerPC PowerBook (APPLE) SAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1995 DEC 21 (NB) -- Newsbytes has learned that some users are having problems with Apple Computer's (NASDAQ:AAPL) high-end PowerPC 5300 PowerBook computer. The problem is described as an "incompatibility" between the notebook's new hard disk and older networking software. Syncronys Recalls SoftRAM95 (WINDOWS) SAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1995 DEC 22 (NB) -- Syncronys SoftCorp, the developers and marketers of SoftRAM95, announced it will refund customers the price paid for the product with proper proof of purchase. Originally introduced at the same time as Windows 95, SoftRAM95 was advertised as software capable of enhancing random access memory, but later independent tests found such claims questionable. Samsung Takes Control Of AST (BUSINESS) IRVINE, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1995 DEC 22 (NB) -- AST Research Inc. (NASDAQ:ASTA) announced it has reached final agreement with Samsung Electronics that will provide significant support to AST, including credit and vendor benefits. The terms, while reported to be more favorable to AST than those originally announced six weeks ago, still effectively gives Samsung control over the company. (Ian Stokell/19951222) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 1996 12/22/95 TRENDS Executives See The Internet For (NEWS)(TRENDS)(BOS)(00034) Executives See The Internet For 1996 12/22/95 BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS, U.S.A., 1995 DEC 22 (NB) -- When it comes to the Internet, virtually everybody today has something to say. Predictions voiced to Newsbytes about trends to expect in 1996 brought dramatic proof of the often talked about tendency to industry convergence around "the Net," with computer industry executives approaching the subject from standpoints ranging from Internet development tools and 3-D virtual reality content to security and privacy issues. Officials of software development firms tend to foresee a boom in new development tools for the Internet in the first half of 1996, followed by the development of "real" applications in the latter part of the year. Right now, most sites on the Web are still "2- D, single-user" environments, but this will change dramatically by the close of 1996, said Rob Schmults, director of marketing for Worlds Inc. "You won't be looking at flat text and pictures," he predicted. Worlds Inc., he noted, already offers two "3-D, multi-user" sites, both oriented to virtual reality. Worlds Chat, a site opened in April, and Alpha World, now in beta test, each offer 3- D interfaces, along with avatars. So far, Alpha World has been used for Web-based activities that include the presentation of PC Magazine's technical achievement awards, along with use by a Harvard Business School marketing class for "building online businesses." You can access both sites from the World Inc. home page at http://www.worlds.net . VRML (Virtual Reality Markup Language) is following a similar path to Worlds Inc., and the upcoming VRML+ development language will add 3-D as well as avatar development capabilities, according to the Worlds Inc. exec. "If people don't develop new environments) themselves, they can license ours," Schmults added. Worlds Inc. will begin to license its Web development environment next year, he elaborated. Graeme Greenhill, president of Open Software Associates, concurred on the point that HTML (Hypertext Markup Language), the development language now used most frequently for the Web, is inadequate for developing "real" applications. But from Greenhill's perspective, the major problem is lack of support for "corporate transaction processing applications." Like Schmults, though, Greenhill does not expect the developmental difficulties to persist past 1996. In fact, he asserted, the first part of next year will be greeted by an "explosion" in new development tools. "You'll be seeing applications that go beyond today's simple, `Select an item and pay for it,'" Newsbytes was told. Open Software Associates is one vendor that will be creating such new development products, Greenhill illustrated. The company's products will use HTML as an underlying layer for "launching" new transaction processing applications, according to the company chief. "I think IBM is another company that appears to understand this, and is gearing its business in this direction," he added. Meanwhile, companies in the industry that are now establishing or enhancing their own Web sites seem eager to put the improved tools to work, as they formulate and implement business plans for the Web. Spectrum Associates, one company is this category, is now in the process of deciding where to take a Web site just put up over the past month. "We now have a home page with basic information on it. But behind the scenes, we're working on what we're looking for in the future. How vast do we want (the home page) to be? How robust? How much `entertainment value,' and how much of a technical orientation?" said David Berkel, VP of world marketing. Spectrum is also taking into account the concept that the Web site of a computer software company such as Spectrum can perform "double-edged" functions that would be unlikely to appear outside the industry, he added. "We're viewing the Web in terms of how it can be tied into our product in a technical sense, as a potential vehicle for delivering prototypes and our application." Spectrum's product, PointMan, is used throughout the manufacturing "supply chain," Berkel told Newsbytes. Users of PointMan are able, for example, to count how many units they have produced, and to bill and receive electronic payment from customers, all within the same day, he maintained. By the end of 1996, he predicted, Spectrum will be using Web- based forms for purposes such as taking customer orders. "We'll also be looking at `real' Web-based applications by then." Several other observers pointed to the need to use emerging Internet technologies in ways that meet users' real world needs. New technologies like Java and VRML may sound "exciting and sexy," reported Tom Lix, president and CEO of NewMarket Ventures. But they are not very useful unless they actually "add value" to "tired old sessions," he added. "The (content creator) should be able to say, `Ahah! Now, my programming is better!'" But at this point, content providers do not always take full advantage of the technologies that are already available, he continued. One example of this is sound. In response, NewMarket Ventures has added an online Speakers' Directory to its NewMarket Forum. Through the Speakers Directory, you can access audio clips, as well as photos and written descriptions, of professional speakers who are available for hire. You can access NewMarket Forum at http://www.newmarket-ventures.com . Norman Data Defense Systems' David Stang recommended the development of content that is easy to use. In the past, he noted, computer use was "very selective." But now, "people who expect to set things up, and instantly `do multimedia'" have joined "the adventurers and propellor heads who blazed the trail." As a result, "successful computer companies will need to have applications with fewer doodads," he suggested. Software companies will be able to create applications for the Web that offer many features, but the underlying technology will need to remain hidden from users. Also in the future, he predicted, the threat of viruses will worsen rather than diminish, with the continued emergence of Web sites that intentionally contain nothing but viruses. These sites are used by virus researchers and software companies seeking to protect their products against viruses, as well as by virus "hobbyists" and "disgruntled employees," said Stang. When Lori Fena, executive director of the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), was asked for her Internet predictions, three categories occurred to her: government and legislative, technology, and business. "In 1996, there will be voter backlash against legislators who are `Web bashing' and essentially pandering to people's ignorance about the technology, and about the true threats the Internet may pose," Fena told Newsbytes. 1996 will also be "the year of encryption," she added. "People will start to see encryption as the electronic equivalent of envelopes." The businesses that prosper on the Web in 1996 will be those that "respect privacy in the online world, and create an open contract with users with respect to electronic commerce, and how the data (received on users) is going to be used," according to the EFF executive director. (Jacqueline Emigh/19951222) (SUMMARY)(GENERAL)(MSP)(00035) Newsbytes Daily Summary 12/22/95 MINNEAPOLIS, MINNESOTA, U.S.A., 1995 DEC 22 (NB) -- These are capsules of all today's news stories: ======================================================================== ------------| N E W S B Y T E S D A I L Y S U M M A R Y |---------- ------------| Friday, December 22, 1995 |---------- NEWSBYTES WILL BE BACK ON JANUARY 3 -- HAPPY HOLIDAYS TO OUR READERS! ======================================================================== (c) Newsbytes News Network (Tm) Editor in Chief: Wendy Woods ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Newsbytes News Network's on the Web! Check out http://www.nbnn.com for free daily top stories from Newsbytes and its affiliate publications, and from PC Week, MacWeek, and other Ziff news magazines. A subscription gives you all the news, full-text, plus the most comprehensive database of past computer stories online. The keyword-searchable database dates from today back through 1983. Subscriptions are $24.95 for three months. Questions? Send to 'administrator@newsbytes.com' For Japanese Newsbytes and additional services, see the Newsbytes Pacifica Website at http://www.islandtel.com/newsbytes/ ------------------------------------------------------------------------ CATEGORY HEADLINES (*** indicates today's top stories) STORY # ======================================================================== APPLE Diamar Intros Golf Tips - Breaking 90...................... 03 BROADCAST China - Hughes' Satellite Will Replace ChinaSat-5.......... 10 BUSINESS ****Samsung Takes Control Of AST.......................... 32 EDUCATION Sybase In Philippines Training Pact........................ 08 GENERAL ****Newsbytes Takes A Holiday............................. 01 GENERAL ****Top Stories Of 1995................................... 02 GENERAL Japan Newsbriefs........................................... 15 GENERAL ****1996 Products To Watch................................ 18 GENERAL ****The Twelve Days Of Christmas, Loosely Interpreted..... 23 GENERAL ****Editorial - News To Last A Week....................... 25 GENERAL Personnel Roundup.......................................... 29 GENERAL Newsbytes Week In Review................................... 33 GOVT China - Tax System Further Computerized.................... 13 IBM IBM Stronger In China Thanks To Chinese-Made PCs........... 11 IBM ****Can IBM Be A Network Star............................. 19 ONLINE ****Internet Update....................................... 16 ONLINE UK - Microsoft Network Teams With Unipalm Pipex On Network. 21 ONLINE SoftArc's FirstClass Gets Gateways To cc:Mail And MS Mail.. 27 ONLINE CompuServe Passes Half-Million Mark In Europe.............. 28 ONLINE Germany's Ground Breaking Multimedia Legislation........... 30 TELECOM European Commission Issues Stern Mobile Phone Directive.... 05 TELECOM Nokia Secures GSM Expansion In Philippines................. 07 TELECOM China's Domestic Telecom Industry Turns To Rural Areas..... 12 TELECOM Japan 1995 - Year Of The Mobile Telephone.................. 17 TELECOM Telecom Compromise Faltering............................... 24 TELECOM European Commission Approves Major Greek Telecoms Changes.. 31 TRENDS Britain's Globe Theater Plugs Into The Internet............ 06 TRENDS First Internet Cafe in the Philippines Opens............... 09 TRENDS ****Products Rumored For '96.............................. 14 TRENDS Vendors "Help Others" In Holiday Charity Efforts........... 20 TRENDS Executives See The Internet For 1996........................34 WINDOWS British Telecom Videophone For Windows 95/NT............... 04 WINDOWS ****Syncronys Recalls SoftRAM95........................... 22 WINDOWS Symantec's Delrina Ships CommSuite 95...................... 26 ======================================================================== These are the headlines and first paragraphs of each story, in order: 1 -> ****Newsbytes Takes A Holiday -- The global staff of Newsbytes News Network will pause to enjoy the holiday week from December 23-January 2. There will be no new issues until January 3, 1996. 2 -> ****Top Stories Of 1995 -- Not surprisingly, the name "Microsoft" appeared in many of the top stories of 1995. But so did words and names like Internet, Novell, Walt Disney and IBM. 3 -> Diamar Intros Golf Tips - Breaking 90 -- You may not be able to get on the golf course in the winter, but Diamar has introduced computer-based advanced instruction you can use while the snow flies that could bring your score below 90 when you are able to return to the links. 4 -> British Telecom Videophone For Windows 95/NT -- British Telecom Visual Solutions, the advanced development division of British Telecom, has launched a PC Videophone, the company's first videoconferencing system. According to the telecom giant, the system leapfrogs ahead of the competition since it runs under both the Windows 95 and the NT operating system environments. 5 -> European Commission Issues Stern Mobile Phone Directive -- The European Commission has agreed in principle to the issue of a directive to mandate all EC territory countries to open their mobile communications marketplaces to full competition within the first quarter of 1996. 6 -> Britain's Globe Theater Plugs Into The Internet -- The Globe Theater has plugged into the Internet on Web page http://www.globe.jhc.net/ , and, Newsbytes can report, the theater claims that it is both making and recreating history, since the Web pages include a page that allows people anywhere in the world to make card donations to the theater. 7 -> Nokia Secures GSM Expansion In Philippines -- Nokia has announced it has secured a 250 million Markka contract to expand the Globe digital mobile (GSM - Global System for Mobile telecommunications) network in the Philippines. 8 -> Sybase In Philippines Training Pact -- Sybase, a worldwide leader in the client/server technology, recently entered into a partnership with the Education Service Group (ESG) of Online Advanced Systems Corporation. 9 -> First Internet Cafe in the Philippines Opens -- A new establishment in town is redefining the cafe experience in the Philippines. Web Link Internet Cafe recently opened, offering its clientele "an odd mix between a cafe and a sleek computer service center." 10 -> China - Hughes' Satellite Will Replace ChinaSat-5 -- ChinaSat will purchase an HS376- type satellite from Hughes of the US to replace the ChinaSat- 5 satellite which is currently the country's only operational telecommunications and broadcasting satellite. 11 -> IBM Stronger In China Thanks To Chinese-Made PCs -- With the same quality produced in other places, IBM PCs made in China are in short supply. IBM expects to take 12 percent of China's PC market this year, two percentage points more than in 1994. 12 -> China's Domestic Telecom Industry Turns To Rural Areas -- While international telecom giants target China's big cities, the domestic telecom industry is looking for opportunities in vast rural areas. With a total of 1.5 million lines controlled by Zhongxing Telecom, the company dominates more than half the rural market. 13 -> China - Tax System Further Computerized -- China has decide to further computerize its tax-collecting system nationwide, according to a senior official with the State Administration of Taxation. More than RMB10 billion (US$1.2 billion) will be spent on the project and 85,000 computers will be installed in about 30,000 taxation agencies across the country by 2000, said the deputy director of the planning division with the administration's information center. 14 -> ****Products Rumored For '96 -- None of the products listed here are in the stores yet. All I can say is, after going to seventeen vendor Christmas parties in five days, I think I didn't imagine them, but I won't swear to it. Well here they are, Newsbytes top hot predictions for '96. 15 -> Japan Newsbriefs -- In this roundup of news from Japan: NTT Data launches multimedia network Monday, Tokyu Cable applies to offer Internet, Internet operators hope to expand business, NTT DoCoMo offers products online, new Nintendo system success depends on software, Toshiba to launch e-cash project, NTT develops online payment coding system. 16 -> ****Internet Update -- In this roundup of new products and resources on the global Internet: First Night New York '96, The State of the World's Children 1996, World Wide Wales, Lynx of the week list, The Washington Times National Weekly, Vietnam casualty search online, unofficial directory of NASDAQ small cap stocks on the web, horror in hypertext moves, free concert approaching, new lawyer's resource available. 17 -> Japan 1995 - Year Of The Mobile Telephone -- As Japanese electronics companies wind down towards the three-day new year holiday approaching, they can look back on 1995 with a certain amount of satisfaction. While the economy has remained mostly stagnant and many companies have reported no rises, or even falls in profits, most of the major manufacturers have been able to enjoy a still growing market for their goods. 18 -> ****1996 Products To Watch -- For the success story of 1996 there are several products worth watching. Some are brand new and others have been around for some time but are set to jump strongly in use. This report focusses on Japan, but the products here will be important overseas, as well. 19 -> ****Can IBM Be A Network Star -- When the tide turned in the 1980s and mainframe computers lost their dominance to desktop machines, IBM (NYSE:IBM) missed the boat. Now, as the tide turns again toward a focus on networks, can IBM catch the next boat? 20 -> Vendors "Help Others" In Holiday Charity Efforts -- In what seem to be rising numbers, computer vendors are turning their energies during the holiday season to helping others less fortunate than themselves. In a series of interviews with Newsbytes, officials of Bay Networks, New England Systems, Agile Networks, Powersoft, and Lois Paul & Partners (LP&P) discussed the special activities their companies have initiated, sometimes together with business partners, to "share their prosperity" this year. 21 -> UK - Microsoft Network Teams With Unipalm Pipex On Network -- Following its taking of a stake in UUNet earlier this year, Microsoft has announced formal plans to work with Unipalm Pipex, the European partner of UUNet, to extend the number of access points for Microsoft Network (MSN), Microsoft's online network. 22 -> ****Syncronys Recalls SoftRAM95 --Syncronys SoftCorp, the developers and marketers of SoftRAM95, announced it will refund customers the price paid for the product with proper proof of purchase. Originally introduced at the same time as Windows 95, SoftRAM95 was advertised as software capable of enhancing random access memory, but later independent tests found such claims questionable. 23 -> ****The Twelve Days Of Christmas, Loosely Interpreted -- On the first day of Christmas, my true love gave to me a keyboard on a PC. 24 -> Telecom Compromise Faltering -- One day after House and Senate telecommunications conference leaders announced a deal with the White House to clear the way for passage of the first rewrite of the nation's basic communications law in 61 years, the compromise got snagged in internal House GOP politics. 25 -> ****Editorial - News To Last A Week -- By Patrick McKenna. We begin that one week in the year when there is no Newsbytes news. For a real news junkie this can be like having to order decaf coffee or non-fat ice cream. 26 -> Symantec's Delrina Ships CommSuite 95 -- The Delrina Group of Symantec Corp. (NASDAQ:SYMC) has begun shipping CommSuite 95, its collection of communications software for Microsoft's Windows 95 operating system. 27 -> SoftArc's FirstClass Gets Gateways To cc:Mail And MS Mail -- SoftArc Inc., is tying its FirstClass communications software to the big-name electronic mail packages, Lotus Development Corp.'s cc:Mail and Microsoft Corp.'s Microsoft Mail. SoftArc announced gateways for both products. 28 -> CompuServe Passes Half-Million Mark In Europe -- CompuServe announced its European subscribers now number more than 500,000 and in the United Kingdom there are another 200,000. With localized language versions of its service, the online giant has been a leader in worldwide distribution of online access. 29 -> Personnel Roundup -- In today's roundup of personnel changes, not covered elsewhere by Newsbytes: Tandy Corp., Softbank, Xerox Corp., BellSouth Business Systems, PageNet, J3 Learning Corporation, Scientific-Atlanta, Novell Inc., AT&T Global Information Solutions, and Oracle Corp. 30 -> Germany's Ground Breaking Multimedia Legislation -- The German Government has taken the wraps off a series of proposed legislational changes that it claims will make the creation of the Infobahn, the German equivalent of the "information superhighway," a lot easier to create. 31 -> European Commission Approves Major Greek Telecoms Changes -- While most legislatures have already wound down for Christmas, the European Commission paper machine churns on until the last minute, as witnessed by this week's announcement of approval for the proposed major changes in the Greek telecoms marketplace. 32 -> ****Samsung Takes Control Of AST -- AST Research Inc. (NASDAQ:ASTA) announced it has reached final agreement with Samsung Electronics that will provide significant support to AST, including credit and vendor benefits. The terms, while reported to be more favorable to AST than those originally announced six weeks ago, still effectively gives Samsung control over the company. 33 -> Newsbytes Week In Review -- This is a look at the top stories this week, listing with their category code: FCC OKs French & German Stakes In Sprint; Bay Networks Buys Xylogics For $330Mil, Adding 500 Jobs; Compuserve User Web Pages Now Open To Businesses; First PCS 1900 System Launched In US; Security Attacks On Internet Computers Increase; FBI Nabs Suspected AutoCAD Pirate; Apple Ships $289 Videoconferencing Kit; Software Distributor Sues Novell For $834 Million; Taligent To Become IBM Subsidiary; Newsbytes Free Gifts At First Virtual; Clinton Vetoes Securities Bill; IRS Worker Guilty Of Snooping Taxpayer Info; Netscape Creates Java Conference; Telecoms Bill Ready To Roll; House Overrides Securities Veto, Senate Showdown Looms; Informix To Acquire Illustra; Problems With Apple's PowerPC PowerBook; Syncronys Recalls SoftRAM95; Samsung Takes Control Of AST. 34 -> Executives See The Internet For 1996 -- When it comes to the Internet, virtually everybody today has something to say. Predictions voiced to Newsbytes about trends to expect in 1996 brought dramatic proof of the often talked about tendency to industry convergence around "the Net," with computer industry executives approaching the subject from standpoints ranging from Internet development tools and 3-D virtual reality content to security and privacy issues. (Wendy Woods/19951222) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 12/21/95 PC Iomega's 1GB "Jaz" Removable Drive Ships (NEWS)(PC)(DEN)(00001) Iomega's 1GB "Jaz" Removable Drive Ships 12/21/95 ROY, UTAH, U.S.A., 1995 DEC 21 (NB) -- Iomega Corp. (NASDAQ: IOMG) says it has begun shipping limited quantities of the internal version of its one gigabyte (GB)-capacity "Jaz" removable drive to key partners in the professional audio and video industries. The company said it expects to begin shipment of internal and external Jaz drives to retail and VAR (value-added reseller) partners as well as other OEMs (original equipment manufacturers) in the first quarter of 1996. . Iomega spokesperson Cory Maloy told Newsbytes that, when the Jaz drives reach retail shelves, the street price is expected to be under $500 for the internal version, and about $599 for the external model. The 3.5-inch Jaz disks are expected to have a street price of about $99. Jaz will ship with a starter disk that will contain Jaz Tools, a utility program for storing, moving, and managing information. Iomega said the Jaz disks will be able to store and play: an entire movie, compressed in the Motion Picture Experts Group (MPEG)-1 format; up to eight hours of CD quality audio; or up to eight minutes of broadcast quality video. You will also be able to store as much as two hours of MPEG-1 compressed DSS satellite quality video, or more than 20,000 scanned documents for document imaging. Iomega said Jaz drives will have a sustained transfer rate of up to 6.73 megabytes-per-second (MBps) and a 10MBps synchronous SCSI (small computer system interface) transfer rate. The mean-time-between-failure (MTBF) rating of the Jaz drive is 250,000 hours, and the drive has a 12 millisecond average seek time, 17.5 millisecond average access time, and a 256 kilobyte (KB) read/write cache. The case color of the two-pound external version of Jaz is what Iomega describes as "racing green" and there is a clear window so the user can see the disk label while the disk is mounted. The case is stackable with a Zip drive, Ditto (Iomega's tape backup drive), and Bernoulli (the company's 5.25-inch removable media drive) drives. In addition to the $99 1GB disks, the Jaz drive can also write to and read Iomega's 540MB disks, which are expected to sell for about $69. Both disks will be available individually or in multi-packs. (Jim Mallory/19950614/Press contact: Cory Maloy, Iomega, 801-778- 3712; Public contact: Iomega, 800-697-8833 or 801-778-1000) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 12/21/95 GENERAL Mattel Plans Barbie Software (NEWS)(GENERAL)(LAX)(00002) Mattel Plans Barbie Software 12/21/95 EL SEGUNDO, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1995 DEC 21 (NB) -- Mattel is planning a major initiative in consumer software and interactive products tied to such household names as Barbie, Match Box Cars, and Cabbage Patch dolls. A new division, Mattel Media, is being created to focus on developing and marketing products and software that build on Mattel's existing toy market. In a statement to Newsbytes, Lisa Sorge, a spokesperson for Mattel, said, "Mattel has a group working on interactive applications that will leverage Mattel brands in other areas of play. Details will be announced at the time of the Toy Fair in February." It has been reported that Mattel has entered into a software distribution pact with Davidson & Associates, while Mattel's Fisher- Price division is working with Compaq to announce new products at the Winter Consumer Electronics Show in January. Mattel has indicated that it will ship its first round of products in the fall of 1996, although a public announcement will take place in early 1996. Although specific product descriptions have been sketchy, Doug Glen, president of the newly created Mattel Media, has said titles will be developed around most of the existing Mattel brands. Many of Mattel's toys have recognizable "play patterns" associated with them, said the company. Mattel sees these play patterns as "natural extensions" into the computer world. Cabbage Patch, Polly Pockets, See 'N Say, Fisher-Price, Barbie, and Hot Wheels, all are used by children in "definable and repetitive ways," and it is these play patterns that Mattel says it will concentrate on for its initial foray into software development. In an interview with Computer Retail Week, Mattel described one of the planned software titles, Barbie Fashion Designer. The Barbie title will allow users to design an entire wardrobe for the doll on the computer, adding a hands-on component. After users complete the design, they are able to print the pattern on specially designed fabric using the PC's printer. Once printed, the user's design can be further decorated using sequins, glitter, or paint markers that Mattel will market. The end-result is apparel that can be worn by the Barbie doll. Mattel has sold close to 900 million dolls that are either Barbies, or her friends and family members, since 1959. In the first nine months of this year, Mattel has earnings of over $240 million with sales of $2.48 billion. (Richard Bowers/19951220/Press Contact: Lisa Sorge, Mattel, 310-473-4147) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 12/21/95 GENERAL Asia Newsbriefs (NEWS)(GENERAL)(TYO)(00003) Asia Newsbriefs 12/21/95 TOKYO, JAPAN, 1995 DEC 21 (NB) -- In this roundup of news from around Asia: Korea - World's first CDMA service begins; Thailand - Pager service fees down; Korea - Better picture tube introduced; China - Largest private satellite network inaugurated; Uzbekistan - NTTI wins contract. Korea - World's First CDMA Service Begins The first cellular telephone service in the world based on CDMA (code division multiple access) technology has opened in Korea. The new network is operated by Korea Mobile Telecom and will enter full service on January 1. For the first two months of 1996, subscription will only be offered in Inchon and Puchon, two cities in western Kyonggi Province. By the end of 1996, the network will be available in all major cities except the capital, Seoul. Thailand - Pager Service Fees Down The fees charged to private pager operators have been lowered by the Telephone Organization of Thailand, the country's national telecommunications operator. Phonelink, Hutchison, and World Page will each see their rates reduced by 27%, according to a report in Thailand's Business Day newspaper. Local area pager users will see a typical monthly fee of 450 baht reduced to 315 baht with national service pager fees falling from 650 baht to 455 baht the newspaper reported. Korea - Better Picture Tube Introduced Samsung Display Devices has developed, what it says is, a safer picture display tube. The new devices emit less electromagnetic radiation than current models and were developed at a cost of around $1.5 million. The 70% reduction in radiation, which is harmful to health in large amounts, has been achieved by development of a new tube surface coating which also reduces electric resistance from a trillion ohms to just 10,000 ohms. China - Largest Private Satellite Network Inaugurated China's Ministry of Communications (MOC) and Comstream Corporation of the United States have inaugurated what they say is the largest private digital satellite communications network in the People's Republic of China. The network, being used as an internal communications link between all the bureaus of the MOC, comprises a 72-site time division multiple access (TDMA) network that provides interactive voice, data and video teleconferencing services. Total value of the contract was $12.04 million. Uzbekistan - NTTI Wins Contract Japan's NTT International has won a consultancy contract with Uzbekistan. The Tokyo-based company will offer advice for a project to expand the local communications infrastructure in the country, including installation of new switching centers in regional cities and construction of new backbone links. The project is funded by an interest free loan from the Japanese government. (Martyn Williams/19951221) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 12/21/95 ONLINE ****Internet Update - Christmas Special (NEWS)(ONLINE)(TYO)(00004) ****Internet Update - Christmas Special 12/21/95 TOKYO, JAPAN, 1995 DEC 21 (NB) -- In our second roundup of Christmas related services and resources on the Internet: Christmas central; The facts from Norway; Multilingual Santa mail; Christmas in Hawaii; Festive e-mail; Christmas time; Seasonal top ten lists; Christmas twice a year. Christmas Central The christmas.com site has a lot to offer Web surfers with a Christmas feeling. In addition to Santa's personal hotlist, you can learn how to say Christmas is 33 languages, learn the lyrics to popular Christmas Carols, and find out about Christmas around the world. World Wide Web: http://www.christmas.com/ The Facts From Norway Norway's Telepost is offering a comprehensive reason to believe Santa comes from Norway. Online, visitors can find the history of Santa, hotshots of Santa in Norway and send e-mail to the man himself. World Wide Web: http://web.telepost.no/Santa/Claus.html Multilingual Santa Mail! If you want to send a message to Santa in a language other than English, the following addresses can be used for Spanish and French languages messages respectively. An English language address is also included. Email: papanoel@santaclaus.com Email: perenoel@santaclaus.com Email: santa@santaclaus.com Christmas In Hawaii Read about Norfolk Pines, the Christmas tree of choice in Hawaii, plus information about how Christmas trees get to the island and why that made the Norfolk Pine so popular at this time of year. World Wide Web: http://www.aloha-hawaii.com/c_trees.html Festive E-mail Send a Christmas e-mail attachment to your e-mail associates this holiday season with a graphic from the Pad. You can download, for free, a variety of holiday greeting card graphics or sounds. Once downloaded, the files can be e-mailed or stored on a disk and sent through the mail. World Wide Web: http://www.shore.net/~dillon/thepad.htm Christmas Time This site promises updates and additions until Christmas and already carries song lyrics, holiday games, software, craft, clip-art, and more. World Wide Web: http://remarque.berkeley.edu/~tigger/xmas/main.html Seasonal Top Ten Lists From Peggie's Place, the top ten reasons to celebrate Christmas, top ten people to invite to Christmas dinner, and the top ten places to celebrate Christmas, which run to many more than ten Internet links. World Wide Web: http://www.woodtech.com/~pbohanon/Christmas.html Christmas Twice A Year From Sonoma County, where Christmas is celebrated in December and July just because it's such a nice holiday, an interview with Santa Claus, links to Santa sites on the Internet, and a form to fill in and send e-mail to Santa. World Wide Web: http://www.socool.com/socool/archives/xmas.html (Martyn Williams/19951221) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 12/21/95 GENERAL Home & Family Computing Expo (NEWS)(GENERAL)(SFO)(00005) Home & Family Computing Expo 12/21/95 SAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1995 DEC 21 (NB) -- MPC Tradeshows Inc., a division of Houston-based Multimedia Publishing Corporation, spent this fall traveling around the US with The Home and Family Computing Supershow. Designed to reach novice and first-time computer users, the show offers hands-on demos and ready-to-sell products. "There are hundreds of computer tradeshows every year," says Marc Ostrofsky, president and founder of the Home and Family Computing Supershow. "But most of these shows are for people within the industry. I do not know anything about computers and when I went to a computer store, I met salespeople who knew little more than I did." That was the beginning for Ostrofsky. He decided people did not want to buy from someone who does not really know the product. "If people want to buy a Hewlett-Packard (HP) computer, they want to talk to someone from HP. I built this show on that idea. Basically, it is that simple. Talk with the people who built the computer, put your hands on it and operate it, and buy it right on the spot." Ostrofsky's idea is simple enough and perhaps successful enough. HP has now created a consumer tradeshow division. Compaq is backing Ostrofsky with 300 Pentium-based computers for his Internet, gaming, applications and other "experience" areas. Also participating as sponsors are Apple Computer, Microsoft, and Compuserve. Continuing, Ostrofsky said, "We also bring in small developers of games, utilities, and applications. A lot of these people have great products, but do not have the resources to be involved with something like Comdex or CES. Here, they can reach the people they designed their products and services for. "I want to bring computer companies, and the families who are going to purchase the companies' products, together in one place. Last year's sales proved that the new computer buyer was not a technical expert, but a person or family who knows very little about computers, programs, Internet and the online services," claimed Ostrofsky. This past Saturday, he ended this year's series of family shows in San Francisco. It was filled with balloons, a Santa, activities for children as young as six or seven, and hundreds of computers to access the Internet, Compuserve, Prodigy, and America Online. Somewhere in the midst of his Saturday crowd this past week, Ostrofsky said he expected to see the head of Intel, Dr. Andrew Grove. "This concept is getting attention everywhere. Andy Grove and ten of his top people are supposed to be here to see what is going on." (Patrick McKenna/19951220/Press Contact: James Korenchen, Shandwick/Dorf & Stanton, 212-420-8100/MPC951221/PHOTO) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 12/21/95 ONLINE ****British Telecom Brings Virtual Antarctica Online (NEWS)(ONLINE)(LON)(00006) ****British Telecom Brings Virtual Antarctica Online 12/21/95 USHUAIA, ARGENTINA, 1995 DEC 21 (NB) -- British Telecom Inmarsat, the satellite telephony division of BT, has invited anyone with access to the Internet to join an interactive expedition to the blue ice-scapes of the Antarctic. According to BT officials, there's no need to strap on the ice shoes or mush up the huskies, as the expedition is uploading pictures, expedition updates and scientific information to a specially created World Wide Web site at http://www.terraquest.com . The Web site aims to attract interactive interest from classrooms around the world, so giving students the chance to discover Antarctica's wildlife and explore its eco-system. The international TerraQuest expedition set off from the world's southern-most city, Ushuaia in Argentina, on December 13, and, according to BT, is now ready for interaction. Through the Internet, with interfaces created by 7E Communications of Ascot, Berkshire, in England, students will be able to take part in daily discussions, landing parties, and study groups. "Virtual passengers will be able to experience for themselves the diverse landscapes, see icebergs carving into the sea, and learn about its ecological relevance. Topics for study include global warming, ozone depletion, krill harvesting, and the Antarctic eco-system's dependence on it at the bottom of its simple food chain," said a BT spokesperson. According to BT, the service is made possible by satellite communications links to the expedition ship, RV Livonia, provided by BT Inmarsat -- the maritime communications division of BT, and Telenor -- BT Inmarsat's Norwegian partner. The interaction between the ship and UK schools by direct-dialed telephone, fax, e-mail, and data transfer, will be accomplished via SatMail and C-Sat technology, two of BT Inmarsat's services for ocean-going vessels. Having left Ushuaia, the crew are currently on their way to Antarctica through Drake Passage, a rich feeding ground for whales, seabirds, and other sea life, sailing toward Half Moon Island, Deception Island, and Charlotte Bay for an ice cruise. (Steve Gold/19951220/Press Contact: Lucy Bicknell, Band & Brown Communications, tel +44-171-704-2010, fax +44-171-704-2442; Reader Contact: BT Inmarsat, +44-171-492-4996) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 12/21/95 GOVT France Warns Polish Govt On Telecoms Licensing (NEWS)(GOVT)(LON)(00007) France Warns Polish Govt On Telecoms Licensing 12/21/95 WARSAW, POLAND, 1995 DEC 21 (NB) -- France Telecom, with the backing of the French Government, has announced it will begin international arbitration proceedings against Poland if the Polish Government continues to prevent Centertel, the joint Polish state/France Telecom- owned cellular network operator, from operating a GSM (global system for mobile communications) network in Poland. As reported in October, the Polish Government has opened tenders for two of the three planned new cellular networks in Poland. According to Communications Minister Andrzej Zielinski, the licenses will be awarded in February of 1996 and foreign companies -- including Ameritech, AT&T, Deutsche Telecom and Sprint -- can enter the tender application list. According to Zielinski, successful applicants must comply with current Polish legislation that mandates that foreign companies must form a joint venture company in Poland with Polish investors taking a majority stake in the company. In the runup to the October announcement, Zielinski has said that Centertel, because it operates the analog cellular net in Poland, will be unlikely to succeed in an application for a GSM license. Centertel is regarded by some quarters as being overpriced, congested, and sells clunky handheld mobiles for around $1,000 a time. Zielinski said that he expects at least one of the two successful applicants will have experience in running a GSM network elsewhere in the world, so automatically precluding Centertel from one bidding for one of the two licenses. "We think at least one partner in the successful applying company should have the experience of running a network of 100,000 telephones," he said. The aim, Zielinski went on to say, is to ensure that Poland has four cellular networks up and running by the end of 1998 -- one analog, two GSM, and one PCN (personal communications network). Centertel -- a joint venture between the state, Ameritech (24.5 percent) and France Telecom (51 percent) -- has around 60,000 subscribers on a congested network that covers around three quarters of Poland's population. According to France Telecom, Ameritech has already given the Polish Government notice of its intentions to begin proceedings over the government's apparent refusal to give it a chance to bid for a license to build a modern digital telephone network. The whole affair could backfire badly on the Polish Government, Newsbytes notes, as Ameritech and France Telecom are extremely influential in the international telecoms marketplace. Upsetting these telcos would make other potential international pitchers for telecoms licenses in Poland, both mobile and landline, think twice about the risks involved. (Sylvia Dennis/19951220) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 12/21/95 TELECOM UK's Vodafone To Revamp Tariffs & Connections (NEWS)(TELECOM)(LON)(00008) UK's Vodafone To Revamp Tariffs & Connections 12/21/95 NEWBURY, BERKSHIRE, ENGLAND, 1995 DEC 21 (NB) -- In a clear recognition that the days of "line rentals for no calls" are over in the UK's cellular market, Vodafone has announced plans to implement a range of mobile phone subscriber packages next April that will include a set number of minutes within the basic charge. To date, only Hutchison Orange, one of the UK's two PCN (personal communications network) operators has offered "inclusive minute standing charges," or "talk plans" as many in the industry refer to them. Orange has consistently been ignored in marketing discussions by Vodafone staff in the UK media, so the decision to launch Vodafone "talk plans" in April of next year clearly indicates that sales or potential sales of Vodafone subscriptions may be suffering. Dave Danielli, a spokesperson for Vodafone, told Newsbytes that an official press statement on the "talk plans" has not yet been made, but is expected to be released after the Christmas/New Year break. "The details have gone out to our service providers and, by all accounts, the information has been well received," he said. He added that the information was not restricted, but designed to trickle through to dealers and end-users of mobiles over the coming weeks. Ray Okonski, a journalist specializing in cellular telecoms, was skeptical about the new price plans, noting that the tariffs are only recommended, meaning that service providers do not have to abide by the recommended rates. "With Vodac, Vodafone's service provider, it's not certain that they will adopt the new talk plans. My comment to this is that, if Vodac isn't going to bother with the new tariffs, why should Vodafone even bother with the announcement of recommended rates. If Vodac doesn't adopt them, they're a waste of time," he told Newsbytes. Jon Morris, founder and managing director of JM Communications, a cellular dealer, said that he was skeptical as to the possible success of the new "talk plans," since they favor the business, rather than the consumer, side of the market. "If you are a regular user of cellular services, then the new tariffs are very agreeable. But for the occasional user, as consumer users are, then the plans commit you to 'talk time' you maybe don't really want. This shows that Vodafone is not as committed to the consumer market as Orange is," he said. The new tariffs, although recommended, range from Personal World Extra, which costs UKP30 connection plus UKP22.50 per month, and includes 50 minutes of calls. Peak rate calls cost 30 pence, while off-peak calls cost 10 pence per minute. Billing is incremented in seconds. Business World Extra costs UKP30 connection and UKP37.50 per month, including 100 minutes of calls. Call charges are then 20 pence peak, 10 pence off-peak per minute, with billing incremented in seconds. MetroWorld Extra, meanwhile, costs UKP30 sign-up and UKP30 per month, including 75 minutes of calls. Calls are charged from 10 pence per minute upwards, depending on time and distance called. Full details of the new tariffs can be found on JM Communications' World Wide Web pages at http://www.demon.co.uk/buss-srv/jmcomms/ . (Steve Gold/19951220/Press Contact: Vodafone, +44-1635-33251; Ray Okonski, +44-973-161616; Jon Morris, 0973-208861) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 12/21/95 BUSINESS UK Firm Wins Jordanian Fingerprint Contract (NEWS)(BUSINESS)(LON)(00009) UK Firm Wins Jordanian Fingerprint Contract 12/21/95 CAMBRIDGE, ENGLAND, 1995 DEC 21 (NB) -- Cambridge Neurodynamics Limited (CNL) has won a contract for the supply of the Jordanian national automatic fingerprint identification system. According to the company, the contract was won against severe competition from other security companies. CNL claims that the Integrated Automatic Fingerprint Recognition System (IAFRS) being supplied to the Jordanian Government, is the world's first operational neural network-based fingerprint recognition system. According to the company, IAFRS' key strengths include low cost, high accuracy, and rapid speed searches. The system can cope with searching massive database searches, officials said. He added that major searches can be completed in minutes rather than hours with conventional systems. The system is also billed as offering very high performance and the ability to cope with poor quality prints and effects of scars, dirt and perspiration. Moreover, since IAFRS uses standard PC systems as its basis, the company claims that the system is extremely low cost when compared to the competition. The system has several distinct components: graphical display stations to provide access to stored images and database information; capture stations to enable the automatic entry of fingerprints by clerical staff, so freeing up fingerprint expert time; and encoder units, which use advanced neural network technology to analyze and digitally store fingerprint characteristics. In use, matcher units search the database and provide fingerprint match results for subsequent analysis. To make maximum use of the available hard disk space, the system is billed as using an advanced image compression (AIC) set of algorithms to squeeze as many prints per megabyte of hard disk space as possible. (Steve Gold/19951220/Press Contact: Jeanette Schael-Fleming, tel +44-1635-299116, fax +44-1635-299115; Reader Contact: CNL, tel +44-1223-421107, fax +44-1223-421096) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 12/21/95 BROADCAST Adding Data To Australia's Satellite Phone Service (NEWS)(BROADCAST)(SYD)(00010) Adding Data To Australia's Satellite Phone Service 12/21/95 SYDNEY, AUSTRALIA, 1995 DEC 21 (NB) -- Sydney-based communications specialist Offcom Pty Ltd. has installed a major communications equipment order at the West Australian ground station in Perth. Offcom claims this is another victory for the Australian Government's Australian Content technology policy. Offcom's fully Australian designed and manufactured auxiliary interface units (AIUs) provide 60 simultaneous channels for fax and data communications from the satellite phone network to the normal switched network. A duplicate system is set up at the Sydney earth station. Users of the NEC satellite phones use an Offcom MT101 Modem to connect to data devices such as computer and global positioning system (GPS) terminals. The GPS system allows a base station to track the satellite phone user to within a few meters, anywhere the satellite can reach, on land or sea. Typical users include mineral exploration expeditions and commercial fishing boats as well as police vehicles. The satellite phone system has particular use in Australia. While the cellular phone system serves more than 95 percent of the population, this is basically a strip around the southern and eastern coastline where the bulk of the population exists. It is unlikely that any terrestrial-based mobile phone system will ever cover the entire continent. (Paul Zucker/19951221/Press Contact: Offcom, +61-2-975-1983) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 12/21/95 GOVT Australian Govt Porn Committee Calls For Action (NEWS)(GOVT)(SYD)(00011) Australian Govt Porn Committee Calls For Action 12/21/95 CANBERRA, AUSTRALIA, 1995 DEC 21 (NB) -- The Australian Senate's porn committee, better known as the Senate Select Committee on Community Standards Relevant to the Supply of Services Utilizing Electronic Technologies, has concluded that material which would be refused classification in any other medium, such as publications or television, can be found online. The committee recommends it should be an offense in Australia to use a computer service to transmit, obtain possession of, demonstrate, advertise, or request the transmission of material equivalent to the "Refused Classification" category of the Office of Film and Literature Classification. When it comes to protecting children from the dubious online content, the committee has concluded that the main control is prohibition at source, and has recommended the Government pursue internationally the classification of "material at source." The committee recognized that local network operators and service providers could not always control the content of their services and called for an industry-based body to adjudicate on standards and to impose "realistic sanctions." The recommendations are in the committee's second report on the regulation of online computer services. (Computer Daily News/19951220) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 12/21/95 EDUCATION China - Computer Classroom Named After CA's President (NEWS)(EDUCATION)(PEK)(00012) China - Computer Classroom Named After CA's President 12/21/95 BEIJING, CHINA, 1995 DEC 21 (NB) -- Donated by Computer Associates (CA), a computer classroom named Wang Jialian, the Chinese name of CA's President Charles B. Wang, was launched recently in the Beijing Jingshan High School. CA has also donated software to the State Commission of Science and Technology. The Wang Jialian Computer Classroom is equipped with more than 20 486-multimedia PCs and networking hardware and software. The classroom greatly strengthened the computer education facility of the Beijing Jingshan High School, a nationally recognized school with many students from families of high-level Chinese central government officials. However, CA's donation to the school means much more than those computers, said Ms. Wang Nianqin, vice president of the Jingshan High School. "The company's excellent software development and successful enterprise management will also benefit the next generation," she said. CA recently also donated software to the State Commission of Science and Technology. The software includes its OpenRoad development tool, OpenIngres database, and Unicenter management software. The State Commission of Science and Technology will give the software to more than 50 enterprises and institutions, including Xi'an Aircraft Industry Company, Shenyang Aircraft Group, the Hailongjiang Science and Technology Information Center, the Software Development Center of Northeast University, the Beijing Software Engineering Center of Chinese Academy of Science, and Tsinghua University. Lin Quan, secretary general of the commission, said he highly appreciated the donation of CA, adding that the software donation further promotes cooperation between CA and Chinese software developers and users. This will also give impetus to the development of domestic application software, he said. CA software has been successfully used by the Department of Transportation, China Petroleum and Natural Gas Company, and China Radio International. (Chih-Ho Yu & Ning Huang/19951220) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 12/21/95 TRENDS China - Typing Chinese Into PCs At Speech Speed (NEWS)(TRENDS)(PEK)(00013) China - Typing Chinese Into PCs At Speech Speed 12/21/95 BEIJING, CHINA, 1995 DEC 21 (NB) -- Typing Chinese speeches usually requires 200 characters per minute to keep pace. Now, Xiaojun Computer's unique keyboard and software allow a user to achieve that speed within three months, claims the company. When Ms. Shen Fei, an engineer with Xiaojun Computer Company, was demonstrating the company's products to Newsbytes, her talk and Newsbytes' questions were displayed on the computer screen at a speed that the eyes could hardly keep up with. Using a unique keyboard specially designed for Chinese input, the typist pressed several keys at the same time to get the fast speed. With an ordinary keyboard, a typist has to strike three times faster, (about 10 keys per second) to achieve the speech speed, said Shen. However, the highly intensive operation soon makes the typist tired. As a result, speech-speed typing of Chinese with a traditional keyboard was impossible for any length of time, she claimed. Many suggested solutions had proven partially successful or of little help. The result was that none of the previous attempts had considered changing the traditional keyboard, which was invented for English typing, she said. The special keyboard has 24 keys arranged in three rows with 10, 10, and four keys like the configuration of "q" to "p," "a" to," and "v" to "m," on the ordinary keyboard. Typing is based on pronunciation of Chinese characters, and each key corresponds to a consonant or vowel in Chinese. When pressing four keys at the same time, for example, the typist inputs two Chinese characters, usually a word, at the same time. Actually, the typist can press a group of keys in any order, and the key signals go to the computer only when the last pressed key is released, Shen explained. Training is needed for using the keyboard, Shen said. After a month of training, the user can type about 80 characters per minute. Three months is usually enough to achieve a speech speed of 200 characters per minute, she claimed. With a small liquid crystal display (LCD) screen, the keyboard is connected to the serial port of a computer. The retail price of the keyboard and software is RMB2,800 (US$337), and the company also provides the training, said Shen Fei. (Chih-Ho Yu & Ning Huang/19951220/Reader Contact: Xiaojun Computer Company, tel +86-10-256-0673, fax +86-10-256-0322) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 12/21/95 BUSINESS India - Siemens Nixdorf Plans Subsidiary (NEWS)(BUSINESS)(DEL)(00014) India - Siemens Nixdorf Plans Subsidiary 12/21/95 NEW DELHI, INDIA, 1995 DEC 21 (NB) -- Siemens Nixdorf Informationssysteme (SNI) AG, the information technology (IT) arm of the German multinational Siemens, is setting up an Indian subsidiary with a view to sell and manufacture its computer hardware in the country. The Indian subsidiary will be involved in the manufacture of Unix servers in the country for outsourcing to the Asian region. While Siemens Nixdorf will hold a 51 percent stake in the newly formed subsidiary, Siemens India Ltd. -- the Indian subsidiary of Siemens AG -- will hold 49 percent of the equity. SNI is expected to see an investment of DM5 million in the first year, while the amount will be doubled next year. It will be managed by the Asian region of Siemens Nixdorf, and Siemens India Managing Director Konrad Pernstich will be the chief executive officer. The company has already appointed Fujitsu-ICIM, HCL Hewlett-Packard, and DCM Data Systems as its distributors in the country. (C.T. Mahabharat/19951221) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 12/21/95 BROADCAST Indian Insat-2C Satellite Settling Down In Orbit (NEWS)(BROADCAST)(DEL)(00015) Indian Insat-2C Satellite Settling Down In Orbit 12/21/95 NEW DELHI, INDIA, 1995 DEC 21 (NB) -- Insat-2C, India's second-generation multipurpose satellite, and the first Indian device to offer Asia-wide television and two-way business communications, was launched on December 7 aboard an Ariane launcher in French Guyana. The satellite was put into a geosynchronous transfer orbit 27 minutes after lift-off, and the master control facility (MCF) of the ISRO (Indian Space Research Organization) at Hassan in Karnataka acquired the telemetry signal two minutes later. The MCF will be controlling and commanding the satellite for the next 10 years. Earlier satellite launches in the country have been the Insat-1D, Insat-2A, and Insat-2B. The next event will be the launch of the third remote sensing satellite -- IRS-1C -- from the Baikanur cosmodrome in Kazakhastan during the last week of this month. It will be followed by the launch of the third developmental polar satellite launch vehicle (PSLV) from Sriharikota in January-end or early February. The next in the Insat series, Insat-2D, is scheduled to be launched sometime next year, while the last one, Insat-2E will be launched in late 1997. Insat-2C, unlike the previous satellites, did not carry a meteorological payload because of redundancy in capacity. The 14.6 meter long satellite will be drawing 1,455 watts of power from 23 square meters of solar arrays fixed in its north and south faces. Moving at an initial speed of 10 kilometers (km) per second, the upgraded satellite in its elliptical orbit will take 10 hours and 30 minutes for a revolution. The Ministry of Information and Broadcasting, and the Department of Telecommunications will be the major beneficiaries of the Insat segment, with the total number of transponders in this segment going up from the present 54 to 78, with the addition of 24 transponders by the Insat-2C. The satellite has 12 transponders in the C-band, three in the KU-band, and three in the S-band. While the three KU-band transponders will be used for business communications in the four metropolitans, two of the 12 C-band transponders will be for extended coverage from the West Asia to South-East Asia. Presently, the S-band transponder for mobile satellite services, introduced for the first time, will enable the cargo and shipping industry to communicate while on the move. One C-band and two S-band transponders in Insat-1D, three C-band, three extend C-band, and one S-band transponder in Insat-2A, and two S-band and four C-band channels in Insat-2B cater to the I&B ministry's needs, while the Department of Telecommunications uses the rest. The satellite has cost India R200 crore to launch and R125 crore to design and build. According to the latest reports, the I&B ministry has reserved as many as four C-band transponders for possible allocation to private satellite channels. The ministry already has requests from international channels like the BBC, Home Box Office, and Discovery. It is still not known if any Indian private satellite channels have applied for transponders in the Insat series of satellites. The government has, however, not decided on the modalities for allocating the transponders to the private channels -- national or international. The ministry has also exclusively devoted the KU-band transponder for satellite-based news gathering activities of Doordarshan. (C.T. Mahabharat/19951221) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 12/21/95 TELECOM Canada Grants PCS Licenses To 4 Carriers (NEWS)(TELECOM)(TOR)(00016) Canada Grants PCS Licenses To 4 Carriers 12/21/95 OTTAWA, ONTARIO, CANADA, 1995 DEC 21 (NB) -- The Canadian government handed out early Christmas presents to four companies this week. The major cellular telephone carriers and two other applicants got licenses to offer personal communications services (PCS), also known as public cordless phone service. The federal government's Industry Canada department gave Rogers Cantel Mobile Inc. and the regional shareholders of Mobility Personacom Canada Ltd. (essentially the regional telephone companies) licenses to operate PCS services in the 10 megahertz (MHz) frequency range. It also gave Clearnet PCS Inc. and MicroCell Network Inc. licenses to run similar services in the 30MHz range. Some were surprised that the government licensed only four carriers. There had been suggestions that as many as six carriers might get PCS licenses. However, Industry Canada spokesman Patrick Carrey told Newsbytes that there could be more licenses in the future. That will not happen for at least three years, though. At that time, Industry Canada plans a review of the PCS market, and is reserving the option of adding more licensees then or later. PCS uses small wireless telephone handsets rather like those used in cordless home telephones. Their range is more limited than that of cellular phones. PCS is also expected to pave the way for the introduction of personal telephone numbers that will be able to follow individual subscribers wherever they go. Carrey said the general indications are that Canadian PCS carriers will begin offering services in 1997, though at least one carrier has hinted that it might be operating by late in 1996. One of the stumbling blocks is the fact that a number of microwave services currently use the frequencies now allotted to PCS, and these will have to be moved before PCS service can commence, Carrey noted. The PCS services to be offered in Canada will be compatible with those being offered in the United States, Industry Canada officials said. Toronto-based Call-Net Enterprises Inc., the second largest shareholder in MicroCell, welcomed the decision, saying its 20 percent stake in MicroCell will complement its existing long-distance business. Call-Net controls Sprint Canada Inc., one of the two major national alternative long-distance companies. LanSer Wireless Inc. of Montreal, one of the losers in the competition for PCS licenses, expressed disappointment but said it will continue to invest in and expand its existing wireless data services and messaging businesses. (Grant Buckler/19951221/Press Contact: Patrick Carrey, Industry Canada, 613-991-0179) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 12/21/95 BUSINESS Cognos & Teijin Sew Up Japan Joint Venture (NEWS)(BUSINESS)(TOR)(00017) Cognos & Teijin Sew Up Japan Joint Venture 12/21/95 OTTAWA, ONTARIO, CANADA, 1995 DEC 21 (NB) -- Canadian software vendor Cognos Inc. (TSE:CSN; NASDAQ:COGNF) and Tokyo-based Teijin Ltd. have announced a Japanese joint venture, signaling a strengthening of Cognos' Japanese presence and a continuing shift from softwear to software for Teijin. Formed in 1918, Teijin was Japan's first rayon manufacturer, and is a leading Japanese producer of polyester. In addition to its traditional textile business, though, Teijin is now involved in plastics, chemicals, pharmaceuticals, information systems, and other areas. The company has a "pretty good sized information systems group," a Cognos spokesperson told Newsbytes. Cognos, which already had a six-person office and established relationships with seven distributors in Japan, has worked with Teijin before on Japanese-language versions of its PowerHouse, PowerPlay, and Impromptu software. The two companies will own equal shares in the new joint venture, to be called Teijin Cognos Inc. Cognos officials described the Japanese market as critical to their business, and said that in recent months it has been shifting away from proprietary systems toward open and distributed computing, resulting in the widespread adoption of personal computers and networking products. This is leading to a demand for data access and data warehousing, an area where Cognos believes it can do well. Cognos' Impromptu is an interactive database reporting, query, and access tool. PowerPlay is a multidimensional data analysis tool, while PowerHouse and another product, Axiant, are development tools. Cognos will continue working with its existing Japanese distributors, the spokesperson said. The company does not break out its Japanese sales, but will say that it chalked up C$12.5 million in sales in the Asia/Pacific region in fiscal 1995, which ended February 28. (Grant Buckler/19951221/Press Contact: Roberta Carlton, Cognos, 617-229-6600 ext 2446) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 12/21/95 LEGAL ****Telecoms Bill Ready To Roll (NEWS)(LEGAL)(WAS)(00018) ****Telecoms Bill Ready To Roll 12/21/95 WASHINGTON, D.C., U.S.A., 1995 DEC 21 (NB) -- House and Senate negotiators and the White House agreed on a series of compromises last night that clears the way for a major rewrite of the nation's basis telecommunications law. With a series of Republican compromises, the bill is ready for action as soon as this week and will be signed by President Clinton. "This is an early Christmas for consumers," said Vice President Al Gore. "Every concern the president expressed about the initial legislation has been dealt with on a bipartisan basis." The key compromise came on media ownership rules. In closed-door talks, Republicans agreed to drop provisions relaxing rules against multiple ownership of media properties. The compromise would allow a TV company to own stations that reach up to 35 percent of national viewers, a 10 percent increase over the current limit. It would also keep the Federal Communications Commission in the business of policing restrictions on local market concentration. The compromise was a major defeat for media mogul Rupert Murdoch. His News Corp.'s Fox network owns 12 television stations and holds financial stakes in 17 others, and Murdoch was lobbying hard for the Republican relaxations on media concentration. The conferees also agreed to give the Justice Department a role in determining when local Bell telephone companies can get into the long-distance business. This was a victory for the long-distance providers, which had been consistently losing their lobbying battles against the Baby Bells. "We think their has been significant progress," said AT&T spokesman Herb Linnen. The compromise also continues the harsh ban on online "smut," using the "indecency" standard that civil libertarians complain is vague and unconstitutional. The bill would also require TV makers to include the V-chip in sets that would allow parents to screen out violent programming. The measure would also retain federal regulation of cable television rates for two years. According to lobbyists working on the issue, the political skills of the Democratic leaders of the conference -- Sen. Ernest Hollings (D-S.C.) and Rep. John Dingell (D-Mich.) -- eventually wore down the Republican members. Hollings threatened a filibuster if Republicans did not compromise on media ownership rules. That would certainly have killed the measure this year. Ironically, the budget "train wreck" that has derailed the federal government and kept Congress stranded in Washington far longer than it wished, has made the telecom compromise possible. Without the budget delay, Congress would be leaving town today or tomorrow. (Kennedy Maize/19951221) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 12/21/95 LEGAL ****House Overrides Securities Veto, Senate Showdown Looms (NEWS)(LEGAL)(WAS)(00019) ****House Overrides Securities Veto, Senate Showdown Looms 12/21/95 WASHINGTON, D.C., U.S.A., 1995 DEC 21 (NB) -- The House yesterday easily overrode President Clinton's veto of legislation to scale back class-action securities lawsuits, but a veto override could be tougher in the Senate. The House vote was 319-100, with 89 Democrats breaking ranks and joining with the GOP to override the president. High-tech industries were supporting the override, arguing that the legislation is crucial to their business. William Archey, head of the American Electronics Association, called the vote "a repudiation of Clinton's veto and a blow to the trial lawyers' attempt to keep the current flawed system intact." Clinton's veto, which came just 30 minutes before the bill would have automatically become law without his signature, was a surprise. He had been signaling that he would approve the measure. Politically, Clinton was in a no-win situation. The high-tech industries that were crucial to his 1992 election wanted the new law, while the trial lawyers, the most dependable donors to Democrats, opposed it. In making the veto, Clinton said he favors the purpose of the legislation and would agree to a bill if the Senate can come up with changes. Clinton is in a difficult position in the Senate, but has more possibility of pulling out a victory than he did in the House. The original bill passed the Senate with 65 votes, one short of the 66 required to override a presidential veto. According to several lobbyists, the White House may be able to get up to five Democratic senators who voted for the measure to jump ship and support the president on the veto. The most likely candidates are Senators Ted Kennedy of Massachusetts, Bill Bradley of New Jersey, Herbert Kohl of Wisconsin, James Exon of Nebraska, and Charles Robb of Virginia. The Senate override battle puts Sen. Chris Dodd (D-Conn.), chief sponsor of the legislation in the Senate, in a difficult position. Dodd is doing battle for the insurance industry, which is very important in his home state. But he is also the general chairman of the Democratic National Committee, hand-picked by President Clinton. His loyalties tear him in two directions. "While I respect the president's decision, frankly I'm surprised at the reasons, raised at the eleventh hour, which are relatively minor," said Dodd. "I intend to work hard in the coming days and weeks to enact this legislation." (Kennedy Maize/19951221/Press Contact: Greg Garcia, AEA, 202-682-9110) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 12/21/95 NETWORK Telematics Adds "Fault Tolerance" To WAN Switches (NEWS)(NETWORK)(BOS)(00020) Telematics Adds "Fault Tolerance" To WAN Switches 12/21/95 FORT LAUDERDALE, FLORIDA, U.S.A., 1995 DEC 21 (NB) -- Telematics' new PCP 800 introduces the same kinds of redundant and "fault tolerant" capabilities to WAN (wide area network) switching that host computers used in banking and other "mission critical" environments have long been known for, contended ClareAnn Anderson and Kevin Smith, two Telematics product managers, in a conference call with Newsbytes. Designed to provide 24-hour "up time," Telematics' latest switch falls "right in the middle of our PCP product family," sharing software as well as mix-and-match compatibility with Telematics PCP 300 and PCP 400 series of smaller network switches, introduced in April, and Telematics' larger PCP 6000, Anderson asserted. Smith pointed to the "versatility" of the new PCP 800, which can be used, for example, as either a multi-access switch on a corporate WAN or as a frame relay concentrator on a carrier or service provider network. The switch also supports protocols that include IP (Internet Protocol), X.25, asynchronous, and SDLC (Synchronous Data Link Control). Like Telematics' PCP 6000, the new PCP 800 offers "hot standby power," a capability aimed at automatic failover to a second power supply in case of power supply failure, the two execs observed. And like all of the company's WAN switches, the new product is capable of rerouting circuits. But the PCP 800 also brings two other "fault tolerant" features that are entirely new to the Telematics switching line-up, Newsbytes was told. Aimed at providing protection in case the primary processor subsystem failure, the new "1:1 processor redundancy" capability is designed to automatically failover to the back-up processor subsystem and bring the system up again. "1:N line card redundancy," on the other hand, is intended to let the operator migrate users from a failed line card to a backup card, Newsbytes was told. By keeping networks up and running "around the clock," these features can save time and money for service providers and corporations alike, Smith maintained. Telematics' products are typified by "very high MTBF (mean time between failure rates), in the "thousands of hours" range, according to the Telematics exec. But still, the "fault tolerant" capabilities act as an "insurance policy" in the event that a switching component does fail. "Corporations don't want to pay union people to go out and replace (a component) in the middle of the night," Smith elaborated. And for their part, service providers often have "reliability agreements" with organizations such as banks that call for the provider to pay a fee if the user loses network service, the product manager added. Anderson reported that the PCP 800 has been successfully beta tested in separate deployments by a network service provider, a long distance carrier, and a cellular carrier. In addition, she said, a major bank has bought the new WAN switch "without even beta testing it." Anderson acknowledged that, with some other switch vendors also starting to introduce redundancy, high availability has become somewhat of a trend recently. But, she asserted, Telematics' "fault tolerant" features provide greater efficiencies. Although some of Telematics' competitors also offer the ability to move users from a failed line card to a backup card, for example, Telematics is the only vendor to permit the swap "without ever taking the network down," she illustrated. Smith noted that the PCP 800 also "builds upon the architecture" of the PCP 300 and PCP 400 series by adding "more ports, as well as more high-speed ports." The PCP 800 provides a total of 84 ports, including 24 ports that operate at up to E1 speeds for T1/E1 trunking and access connectivity, at switching rates of up to 2000 switched frames per second, independent of frame size. Other capabilities include dynamic bandwidth allocation, targeted at "bursty" applications such as frame relay; sizable frame buffering; switched end-to-end congestion management; and ANSI- compliant interfaces. Telematics' new PCP 800 switch is available now. (Jacqueline Emigh/19951221/ECI Telecom Telematics, 305-772-3070; Lisa Downey or Tim Donovan, Rourke & Company for Telematics, 617- 267-0042) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 12/21/95 TRENDS Interactive TV Slow To Take Off In Asia-Pacific Region (NEWS)(TRENDS)(LON)(00021) Interactive TV Slow To Take Off In Asia-Pacific Region 12/21/95 LONDON, ENGLAND, 1995 DEC 21 (NB) -- Ovum, the London-based market research company, has just issued the fourth and final update to its report, "Interactive Television: the Market Opportunity." According to the company, the update contains a set of forecasts for the interactive TV market to the year 2005. For the first time, the forecasts include projections for key countries in Asia-Pacifica -- Australia, Hong Kong, Japan, South Korea, New Zealand, and Singapore are covered. In addition, the report includes forecasts of ad revenues generated in the interactive TV industry. These features, John Matthews, principal consultant with Ovum claims, make the report the most comprehensive set of forecasts that Ovum has ever produced on the subject. "Interactive TV has been slow to take off, but it offers significant opportunities in the medium and the long term," he said. According to Matthews, who was the lead author of the report, the US will be the first area to become "cash positive" as far as interactive TV is concerned, in the year 2001. In 2002, Europe is forecast to also become cash positive, that is, making a profit on the capital monies invested in the technology. Ovum predicts that the Asia-Pacific region will not become cash positive, even at 2005, the far range of the report's coverage. The reason for this, the report notes, is that the region has been later to market and slower to build than others as far as interactive TV is concerned. The report predicts that 4.6 million households will have cable access to interactive by the time 2005 rolls around, with Japan and South Korea accounting for an impressive 2.2 million and 1.0 million, respectively, of this Asia-Pacific figure. Predictably, the US is the head honcho as far as interactive TV is concerned, where around 26.4 million couch potato households will have cable access to interactive TV by the year 2005. The report also predicts that, by that year, revenues received by service providers from advertising will be $780 million in the Asia- Pacific region, $4.3 billion in Europe and $9 billion in the US. "Interactive Television: the Market Opportunity," including four updates, costs UKP1,495 in Europe, AUS$3,595 in Australasia, and US$2,775 for the rest of the world. (Steve Gold/19951221/Press Contact: Jennie Morales, Ovum, +44-171-312- 7258, Internet e-mail jhb@ovum,mhs.compuserve.com; Reader Contact: Ovum, tel +44-171-312-255-2670, fax +44-171-255-1995, Internet e-mail info@ovum.mhs.compuserve.com) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 12/21/95 ONLINE Lawson Software Offers Free Hierarchical Web Browser (NEWS)(ONLINE)(LON)(00022) Lawson Software Offers Free Hierarchical Web Browser 12/21/95 HAYES, MIDDLESEX, ENGLAND, 1995 DEC 21 (NB) -- Lawson Software has taken the wraps off WebTree, a utility to guide visitors to the hundreds of pages found on the World Wide Web. Unlike conventional Web browsers, Lawson claims that this package offers a hierarchical view of the page structure, allowing users to see where they are at any given time and allowing them to jump straight to the information they are looking for. Jeff Imm, the company's European marketing manager, explained that the package can also be used by Web site developers to help in the design and ongoing creation of their Web site. In the case of Lawson's own Wen site, located at http://www.lawson.com , Imm claims that the company developed its own 200-plus page Web site in less than a third of the time it would have taken without WebTree. "Although we're still deciding on how we should distribute WebTree in the future, an evaluation copy can be downloaded from our Wen site by anyone who wants to try it," he said, adding that the package is currently capable of running under DOS, Windows 3.x, Windows 95, and Windows NT. As readers of Newsbytes will have surmised, WebTree was originally developed as an aid for in-house staff at Lawson to create the Web site. It was only when the package was used in a real Web creation environment that the company realized its potential outside of the firm. Lawson itself is a software house specializing in the provision of enterprise wide, client/server business applications, focusing on the accounting, health care, and distribution plus material management side of business. The company was founded in 1975 and has its HQ in Minneapolis, with its European HQ near London's Heathrow Airport. The company employs around 700 staff around the world. (Steve Gold/19951221/Press Contact: Andrew Rodaway, Oast Communications, +44-1959-565626, Internet e-mail: oast@cix.compulink.co.uk; Reader Contact: Jeff Imm, Lawson Software, +44-181-754-8470, Internet e-mail jeff.imm@lawson.com) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 12/21/95 TELECOM Smart Phone Sends E-mail, Pays Bills (NEWS)(TELECOM)(DEN)(00023) Smart Phone Sends E-mail, Pays Bills 12/21/95 HERNDON, VIRGINIA, U.S.A., 1995 DEC 21 (NB) -- US Order Inc. (NASDAQ: USOR) and Colonial Data Technologies Corp. (AMEX: CDT) have announced a "smart phone" that can send e-mail over the Internet, pay bills and do electronic banking, type and send text messages directly to pagers, and shop from electronic catalogs. The two companies said the Telesmart 400, which was originally developed by US Order under the name "Falcon," can also take advantage of the emerging caller services being introduced by telephone service providers. One of those applications is electronic directory assistance, which searches national databases and visually displays telephone numbers and addresses on the phone's screen for autodialing or downloading into the phone's 150-name personal directory. The system can also integrate Caller ID and Call Waiting, allowing the user to identify who is holding on Call Waiting by the name and phone number that appears on the screen. The user can choose to take the call, place it on hold, ask the caller to wait, deliver pre-recorded answering messages such as "I'll call you back," or automatically redial the second caller later. Walter Fiederowicz, chairman of Colonial Data, said most telephone companies will be offering versions of these services in 1996. Features of the Telesmart 4000 include a backlit graphics screen, a two-way speaker, a typewriter-style keyboard, and a magnetic card reader for use in electronic banking and home shopping. A built-in modem allows the user to download new software to the Telesmart 4000 as additional services are introduced and ordered by the user. The modem also allows for remote technical assistance and servicing, said Fiederowicz. A suggested retail price has not been determined yet, but US Order said the wholesale price of the phone is expected to be under $200. US Order spokesperson Richard Stern told Newsbytes the phone will ship in mid-March 1996. (Jim Mallory/19951221/Press contact: Richard Stern for US Order, 212-777-7722l; Public contact: Colonial Data, 703-506- 1778/SMARTFON951221/PHOTO) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 12/21/95 BUSINESS ****Informix To Acquire Illustra (NEWS)(BUSINESS)(LAX)(00024) ****Informix To Acquire Illustra 12/21/95 MENLO PARK,CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1995 DEC 21 (NB) -- Informix Corporation (NASDAQ:IFMX), a developer of parallel processing database technology, has announced an agreement to acquire Illustra Information Technologies. Illustra is a supplier of object oriented relational database software and tools for managing data in the areas of the Internet, multimedia/entertainment, financial services, and earth sciences. Approximately 12.9 million shares of Informix common stock will be issued to acquire all outstanding shares of Illustra. An additional 2.1 million Informix shares will be reserved for issuance in connection with the assumption of Illustra's outstanding stock options. With Informix shares currently trading in the $26 range, the total transaction value would be $360 million. The acquisition of Illustra will be accounted for as a tax free pooling of interest. Jaye Prosser, a spokesperson for Informix, told Newsbytes, "Illustra is one of the leaders in object oriented relational database technology. While we are in development, integrating the technologies of the two companies will increase our speed to market. Informix will be able to integrate Illustra's dynamic content management system into its core parallel database technology, Dynamic Scalable Architecture (DSA)." He continued: "We believe that this technology integration will give the combined organization a significant market advantage over competing database vendors in providing a powerful database engine to support the next wave of database applications." Illustra's flagship product, the Illustra Server, allows users to store, manage, and analyze complex multimedia data such as audio, video, and images, in a single database, along with traditional characters and numbers. The Illustra Server is claimed to give Informix an edge on Internet technology. Some analysts contend that the Internet market is shifting technology from static and fixed database types to dynamic and rich content, requiring users to interact with three-dimensional (3-D) graphics, video, audio, HTML (hypertext markup language), spatial data, and other complex data. "To manage this new content, users are demanding a sophisticated database engine that combines the robust, scalable, enterprise solutions offered by relational databases with the flexible, extensible, content management capabilities pioneered by Illustra," claimed Prosser. "This acquisition gives Informix a significant lead over any other database vendor in capturing the expanding market of content management, especially in the Web space," said Phil White, chairman of Informix. "In addition to our shared visions and markets, the synergy with Illustra's technology gives us a significant time-to- market advantage. Customers who had a hard time choosing between the two companies now have the clear choice for selecting a database that will take them into the twenty-first century and beyond." "With this agreement, no other database vendor is better positioned in the Web market and the overall information management market today," claimed Dick Williams, president of Illustra. "The combination of Informix and Illustra technology will create the database of choice for cyberspace because it is the ideal coupling of unique strengths." (Richard Bowers/19951221/Press Contact: Jaye Prosser, Informix, 415-926-6316) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 12/21/95 APPLE MacUser Names WebStar "Software Product Of The Year" (NEWS)(APPLE)(SFO)(00025) MacUser Names WebStar "Software Product Of The Year" 12/21/95 MARINA DEL REY, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1995 DEC 21 (NB) -- Through its acquisition of StarNine, Quarterdeck acquired WebStar and took it to the top of the World Wide Web software world. WebStar, a Macintosh Web server software rose from a shareware program, known as MacHTTP, to be named "Software Product of the Year" by MacUser Magazine. Quarterdeck's President and Chief Executive Officer Gaston Bastiaens said he was pleased to receive the award on behalf of Quarterdeck and "wanted to share credit for the program's success with the Macintosh Internet community." In a press release, he stated, "Our many customers, working daily with our development team, have shown the world that the Macintosh can be a solid, affordable Web server platform. This award reaffirms Quarterdeck WebStar's leadership in the Web server market." MacUser editors say Apple manages its own Web sites with WebStar and includes it as the centerpiece for its Internet-server bundle. Quarterdeck entered the world of Mac software when it purchased StarNine earlier this year. Prior to the sale, WebStar was in development at the acquired company. StarNine, which originally picked-up MacHTTP and developed it as WebStar, also produced ListStar, a popular Macintosh Internet e-mail server product. Ellen Spooren, vice president of communications at Quarterdeck, told Newsbytes, "We are really pleased with this award. The acquisition of StarNine opened the Macintosh door for us and has made us the leading commercial server software." According to Quarterdeck, WebStar is the most widely used Web server software on the Internet. WebStar received the MacUser Editors' Choice Award during the magazine's 11th annual presentation via America Online. Traditionally, Quarterdeck has been a developer of utilities for the DOS/Windows platform. With Bastiaens at the helm, the company revamped, and expanded its strategy with a full line of Internet products for the same platforms. Bolstered by the success of WebStar, Quarterdeck is expected to expand its product line with Macintosh versions of its popular Internet products. The company would neither confirm or deny this notion when questioned by Newsbytes. However, a company spokesperson did say the company's Macintosh strategy will be announced during the firm's appearance at Macworld, January 9-12. (Patrick McKenna/19951221/Press Contact: Ellen Spooren, Quarterdeck, 310-309-4261) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 12/21/95 ONLINE Electronic Billing Via Internet (NEWS)(ONLINE)(DEN)(00026) Electronic Billing Via Internet 12/21/95 HERNDON, VIRGINIA, U.S.A., 1995 DEC 21 (NB) -- US Order (NASDAQ:OSOR) recently introduced a new electronic banking product that lets merchants send monthly statements to their customers via the World Wide Web. The product is called Electronic Merchant Center (EMC) biller workstation. It lets the merchant design bill templates, transmit customized marketing information, and give customers direct access to statement information if they have an Internet connection. EMC includes the Visa Epay standards for electronic exchange of bill payment information with Visa Epay banks and supports formatting and delivery of bills to consumers. EMC is the third in US Order's product family. The company previously introduced its Electronic Banking Center that lets consumers pay their bills electronically from any touch-tone phone by connecting them to Visa Interactive through their member banks. The company also offers an Electronic Exchange Center line of middleware data translation systems that connect individual banks to their customers through Visa interactive on more sophisticated access devices, including the personal computer and "smart" telephone. US Order said customers who access a billers' Web site that is supported by EMC will be able to retrieve up-to-the-minute account information. They will also be able to pay their bills electronically through the Visa bill pay system. Bills can be presented on a recurring monthly basis. The company said the EMC biller workstation will be available for shipment in the second quarter of 1996, and will be sold to merchants directly by US Order as well as through Visa Epay financial institutions. (Jim Mallory/19951221/Press contact: Richard Stern, US order, 212-777-7722; Public contact: US Order, 703-834-9480) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 12/21/95 CHIPS Atmel's EPROM For Faster Modems (NEWS)(CHIPS)(LAX)(00027) Atmel's EPROM For Faster Modems 12/21/95 SAN JOSE, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1995 DEC 21 (NB) -- Atmel Corp. (Nasdaq: ATML) has announced that it has developed, and is in volume production of, a family of ultra-fast non-volatile memory devices designed for Internet access and other high-speed modem applications. The new EPROM (erasable programmable read only memory) family encompasses one megabit (Mb), 2Mb, and 4Mb densities. Non-volatile memory devices retain data even when shut off. They can by found in almost all portable products, and in common household appliances such as toasters, microwave ovens, and dishwashers. Atmel, with sales over $400 million, has built its company on non-volatile memory devices. Jeff Katz, product marketing manager for Atmel, told Newsbytes, "This EPROM, a 45 nanosecond 1Mb device, is designed specifically for use in 28.8 kilobits-per-second (Kbps), V.34-standard modems. Prior to 45 nanosecond access times, modem manufacturers had to use wait states or degrade the modem performance because the EPROM was too slow. The current norm is EPROM's with 70 nanosecond, and high-speed modems needed faster access times." "The rapidly growing communications and transmission markets, led by devices for Internet use require devices that offer high speed, and are available in volume production," said Dirk Franklin, Atmel's EPROM product marketing manager. The speed of the new device is the result of a new advanced process keyed to 0.65-micron line widths that was developed and installed in Atmel's recently acquired Colorado Springs facility. According to the company, in 1995, Atmel will have spent some 35 to 40 percent of its revenues on construction and new production and test equipment, including about $30 million in new equipment for the Colorado Springs EPROM fabrications area. The company say it expects to add an additional $50 million in equipment in this area in 1996. EPROM production in this fab area more than doubled from 1994 to 1995, and is expected to increase by at least an additional 25 percent in the coming year. "The modem market, estimated at approximately $2 billion in 1995, is expected to grow to more than $3 billion by 1997. Rapid growth in the use of the Internet, World Wide Web, and other online services is fueling the quick conversion to 28.8Kbps modems from 14.4Kbps devices. By early 1996, 28.8Kbps devices will be the highest volume modems in the market. This one segment of the EPROM market will be $100 million," Franklin explained, "and it will continue to grow at least as fast as the personal computer industry." Atmel currently provides EPROMs for use with V.34 modem chip sets sold by Rockwell, AT&T, Cirrus Logic, and Sierra Semiconductor. Typical power consumption is only 25 microamps active and less than 10 microamps standby. The circuit is available in all standard 32-pin plastic packages. Prices for the circuit start at $5.50 each in quantities of 10,000 units. (Richard Bowers/19951221/Press Contact: Francesca Venezia, Atmel, 408-451-2855) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 12/21/95 GENERAL Claris Ships 32-Bit FileMaker Pro 3.0 For Mac, Windows (NEWS)(GENERAL)(BOS)(00028) Claris Ships 32-Bit FileMaker Pro 3.0 For Mac, Windows 12/21/95 BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS, U.S.A., 1995 DEC 21 (NB) -- If faced with a choice between overall "ease-of-use" and adding an intriguing but tricky new feature to FileMaker Pro, Claris Corp. would opt for simplicity, said John Phelan, at a recent meeting with Newsbytes in Boston. Nonetheless, the new FileMaker Pro 3.0 for Power Mac, Mac, Windows 95, and Windows 95, is packed with dozens of new features, ranging from a built-in relational database to PC-based phone dialing. What this means is that virtually every feature in FileMaker Pro is easy to use, according to Phelan, who is database business manager for Claris. The simplicity is important because FileMaker Pro is used by so many different kinds of people, for such a variety of applications, he advised, during the recent press tour in Boston. Many Mac and Windows users employ FileMaker Pro for "do-it- yourself" word processing, mailing lists, fax cover sheets, and expense reports, he illustrated. Salespeople use it for lead tracking and contact management, and teachers to produce certificates and keep student records on file. And in the home, FileMaker Pro is used to keep track of items like videocassettes, music CDs, and office supplies. FileMaker 3.0 comes with 40 new templates that simplify these and other tasks, Phelan continued. Other new features include 40 new "calculations," the ability to generate a mail merge "entirely within FileMaker Pro," context-sensitive help, and new scripting capabilities for the more "advanced user." With the addition of the new relational database, FileMaker Pro now provides functionality that moves the package into the same category as products like Microsoft Access, Lotus Approach, and Borland's Paradox, he asserted. But FileMaker Pro holds a simplicity edge over all these competitors, the Claris exec told Newsbytes. Although FileMaker Pro 3.0 continues to provide the same flat file database as previous releases of the package, users can now convert existing flat files to a relational model, or create a relational database from scratch, he pointed out. In a demo, Newsbytes saw how you can now "automatically" create a database in FileMaker Pro, with field names and pre-sized field, by importing raw data in text, DIF, DBF, WKS, and other file formats. Phelan also showed Newsbytes a new "portal" tool in FileMaker Pro 3.0 that is designed to let users create "windows" within individual database records. The window is used to place fields from other related files, he added. These related files can then be viewed or edited when dealing with "one-to-many relationships." FileMaker Pro 3.0 also lets the user keep up to 50 files open at any one time, in contrast to the former restriction of 16 files, according to Phelan. Newsbytes also viewed a set of new text rulers that let users set tabs, indents and formatting by inches, centimeters or pixels within text fields in database records, for a "consistent" appearance. In addition, the most "advanced users" can now go further to automate database tasks such as conditional branching and looping, custom message dialogs, and script duplication, through a series of new ScriptMaker capabilities. A new "global field type" can be used to hold specific "values," such as "sales tax percentage," for all records in the database, and as a temporary storage place for scripts. FileMaker Pro also provides a variety of new platform-specific features, according to Phelan. On the Windows side, for example, the "picture/sound field type" has been replaced by a new "container field type" for viewing graphics, audio, and movies as OLE (object linking and embedding) objects. If a Mac is being used as host on the network, the host can view embedded OLE objects as graphics. Other enhancements include support for drag- and-drop and "DDE (Dynamic Data Exchange)/message/send mail." In the Macintosh arena, he reported, improvements include support for PlainTalk, AppletScript Attachability, and the upcoming FileMaker Pro 3.0 Companion for Newton 2.0, a software product for Mac-to-Newton database synchronization that Claris intends to deliver next year. Meanwhile, the new 32-bit, cross-platform FileMaker Pro 3.0 is available immediately, at estimated street pricing of $199. Upgrades from competing products and from previous editions of FileMaker Pro are priced at $99. (Jacqueline Emigh/19951221/Reader Contact: Claris, 408-987-7000; Press Contacts: Kevin Malton, Claris, 408-987-7227; Steve Ruddock, Claris, 408-987-7202) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 12/21/95 APPLE ****Problems With Apple's PowerPC PowerBook (NEWS)(APPLE)(SFO)(00029) ****Problems With Apple's PowerPC PowerBook 12/21/95 SAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1995 DEC 21 (NB) -- Newsbytes has learned that some users are having problems with Apple Computer's (NASDAQ:AAPL) high-end PowerPC 5300 PowerBook computer. The problem is described as an "incompatibility" between the notebook's new hard disk and older networking software. However, Apple is aware of the situation. One company was told by Apple that it knew of the problem and was working on a "patch" to correct it. Describing the problem, an unnamed source, who wished to remain anonymous, said, "Basically, we cannot print, send mail or do any networking tasks. The screen freezes and we have had to turn the PowerBook off and restart it when we perform tasks such as sending an attached file." The source added: "After learning Apple could not solve the problem, our computer experts unloaded the networking software and built their own solution so we could use the PowerBook." Continuing, the source said, "As I understand it, the new hard disk in the PowerPC PowerBook is incompatible with the existing networking software. We paid somewhere between $5,000 and $6,000 for these PowerBooks and these kinds of problems are just not supposed to happen. I do not know if Apple knew of this before we made the purchase, but a problem like this should be worked out before the PowerBook was shipped." Newsbytes contacted Apple for a comment and was told by Linda Goncalves, an Apple spokesperson, "We have experienced some problems with the PowerPC PowerBook and we are working to correct them. We cannot comment directly at this time on the specifics." (Patrick McKenna/19951221) (SUMMARY)(GENERAL)(MSP)(00030) Newsbytes Daily Summary 12/21/95 MINNEAPOLIS, MINNESOTA, U.S.A., 1995 DEC 21 (NB) -- These are capsules of all today's news stories: ======================================================================== ------------| N E W S B Y T E S D A I L Y S U M M A R Y |---------- ------------| Thursday, December 21, 1995 |---------- ======================================================================== (c) Newsbytes News Network (Tm) Editor in Chief: Wendy Woods ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Newsbytes News Network's on the Web! Check out http://www.nbnn.com for free daily top stories from Newsbytes and its affiliate publications, and from PC Week, MacWeek, and other Ziff news magazines. A subscription gives you all the news, full-text, plus the most comprehensive database of past computer stories online. The keyword-searchable database dates from today back through 1983. Subscriptions are $24.95 for three months. Questions? Send to 'administrator@newsbytes.com' For Japanese Newsbytes and additional services, see the Newsbytes Pacifica Website at http://www.islandtel.com/newsbytes/ ------------------------------------------------------------------------ CATEGORY HEADLINES (*** indicates today's top stories) STORY # ======================================================================== APPLE MacUser Names WebStar "Software Product Of The Year........ 25 APPLE ****Problems With Apple's PowerPC PowerBook............... 29 BROADCAST Adding Data To Australia's Satellite Phone Service......... 10 BROADCAST Indian Insat-2C Satellite Settling Down In Orbit........... 15 BUSINESS UK Firm Wins Jordanian Fingerprint Contract................ 09 BUSINESS India - Siemens Nixdorf Plans Subsidiary................... 14 BUSINESS Cognos & Teijin Sew Up Japan Joint Venture................. 17 BUSINESS ****Informix To Acquire Illustra.......................... 24 CHIPS Atmel's EPROM For Faster Modems............................ 27 EDUCATION China - Computer Classroom Named After CA's President...... 12 GENERAL Mattel Plans Barbie Software............................... 02 GENERAL Asia Newsbriefs............................................ 03 GENERAL Home & Family Computing Expo............................... 05 GENERAL Claris Ships 32-Bit FileMaker Pro 3.0 For Mac, Windows..... 28 GOVT France Warns Polish Govt On Telecoms Licensing............. 07 GOVT Australian Govt Porn Committee Calls For Action............ 11 LEGAL ****Telecoms Bill Ready To Roll........................... 18 LEGAL ****House Overrides Securities Veto, Senate Showdown Looms 19 NETWORK Telematics Adds "Fault Tolerance" To WAN Switches.......... 20 ONLINE ****Internet Update - Christmas Special................... 04 ONLINE ****British Telecom Brings Virtual Antarctica Online...... 06 ONLINE Lawson Software Offers Free Hierarchical Web Browser....... 22 ONLINE Electronic Billing Via Internet............................ 26 PC Iomega's 1GB "Jaz" Removable Drive Ships................... 01 TELECOM UK's Vodafone To Revamp Tariffs & Connections.............. 08 TELECOM Canada Grants PCS Licenses To 4 Carriers................... 16 TELECOM Smart Phone Sends E-mail, Pays Bills....................... 23 TRENDS China - Typing Chinese Into PCs At Speech Speed............ 13 TRENDS Interactive TV Slow To Take Off In Asia-Pacific Region..... 21 ======================================================================== These are the headlines and first paragraphs of each story, in order: 1 -> Iomega's 1GB "Jaz" Removable Drive Ships -- Iomega Corp. (NASDAQ: IOMG) says it has begun shipping limited quantities of the internal version of its one gigabyte (GB)-capacity "Jaz" removable drive to key partners in the professional audio and video industries. The company said it expects to begin shipment of internal and external Jaz drives to retail and VAR (value-added reseller) partners as well as other OEMs (original equipment manufacturers) in the first quarter of 1996. . 2 -> Mattel Plans Barbie Software -- Mattel is planning a major initiative in consumer software and interactive products tied to such household names as Barbie, Match Box Cars, and Cabbage Patch dolls. A new division, Mattel Media, is being created to focus on developing and marketing products and software that build on Mattel's existing toy market. 3 -> Asia Newsbriefs -- In this roundup of news from around Asia: Korea - World's first CDMA service begins; Thailand - Pager service fees down; Korea - Better picture tube introduced; China - Largest private satellite network inaugurated; Uzbekistan - NTTI wins contract. 4 -> ****Internet Update - Christmas Special -- In our second roundup of Christmas related services and resources on the Internet: Christmas central; The facts from Norway; Multilingual Santa mail; Christmas in Hawaii; Festive e-mail; Christmas time; Seasonal top ten lists; Christmas twice a year. 5 -> Home & Family Computing Expo -- MPC Tradeshows Inc., a division of Houston-based Multimedia Publishing Corporation, spent this fall traveling around the US with The Home and Family Computing Supershow. Designed to reach novice and first-time computer users, the show offers hands-on demos and ready-to-sell products. 6 -> ****British Telecom Brings Virtual Antarctica Online -- British Telecom Inmarsat, the satellite telephony division of BT, has invited anyone with access to the Internet to join an interactive expedition to the blue ice-scapes of the Antarctic. 7 -> France Warns Polish Govt On Telecoms Licensing -- France Telecom, with the backing of the French Government, has announced it will begin international arbitration proceedings against Poland if the Polish Government continues to prevent Centertel, the joint Polish state/France Telecom- owned cellular network operator, from operating a GSM (global system for mobile communications) network in Poland. 8 -> UK's Vodafone To Revamp Tariffs & Connections -- In a clear recognition that the days of "line rentals for no calls" are over in the UK's cellular market, Vodafone has announced plans to implement a range of mobile phone subscriber packages next April that will include a set number of minutes within the basic charge. 9 -> UK Firm Wins Jordanian Fingerprint Contract -- Cambridge Neurodynamics Limited (CNL) has won a contract for the supply of the Jordanian national automatic fingerprint identification system. According to the company, the contract was won against severe competition from other security companies. 10 -> Adding Data To Australia's Satellite Phone Service -- Sydney-based communications specialist Offcom Pty Ltd. has installed a major communications equipment order at the West Australian ground station in Perth. Offcom claims this is another victory for the Australian Government's Australian Content technology policy. 11 -> Australian Govt Porn Committee Calls For Action -- The Australian Senate's porn committee, better known as the Senate Select Committee on Community Standards Relevant to the Supply of Services Utilizing Electronic Technologies, has concluded that material which would be refused classification in any other medium, such as publications or television, can be found online. 12 -> China - Computer Classroom Named After CA's President -- Donated by Computer Associates (CA), a computer classroom named Wang Jialian, the Chinese name of CA's President Charles B. Wang, was launched recently in the Beijing Jingshan High School. CA has also donated software to the State Commission of Science and Technology. 13 -> China - Typing Chinese Into PCs At Speech Speed -- Typing Chinese speeches usually requires 200 characters per minute to keep pace. Now, Xiaojun Computer's unique keyboard and software allow a user to achieve that speed within three months, claims the company. 14 -> India - Siemens Nixdorf Plans Subsidiary -- Siemens Nixdorf Informationssysteme (SNI) AG, the information technology (IT) arm of the German multinational Siemens, is setting up an Indian subsidiary with a view to sell and manufacture its computer hardware in the country. 15 -> Indian Insat-2C Satellite Settling Down In Orbit -- Insat-2C, India's second-generation multipurpose satellite, and the first Indian device to offer Asia-wide television and two-way business communications, was launched on December 7 aboard an Ariane launcher in French Guyana. 16 -> Canada Grants PCS Licenses To 4 Carriers -- The Canadian government handed out early Christmas presents to four companies this week. The major cellular telephone carriers and two other applicants got licenses to offer personal communications services (PCS), also known as public cordless phone service. 17 -> Cognos & Teijin Sew Up Japan Joint Venture -- Canadian software vendor Cognos Inc. (TSE:CSN; NASDAQ:COGNF) and Tokyo-based Teijin Ltd. have announced a Japanese joint venture, signaling a strengthening of Cognos' Japanese presence and a continuing shift from softwear to software for Teijin. 18 -> ****Telecoms Bill Ready To Roll -- House and Senate negotiators and the White House agreed on a series of compromises last night that clears the way for a major rewrite of the nation's basis telecommunications law. With a series of Republican compromises, the bill is ready for action as soon as this week and will be signed by President Clinton. 19 -> ****House Overrides Securities Veto, Senate Showdown Looms -- The House yesterday easily overrode President Clinton's veto of legislation to scale back class-action securities lawsuits, but a veto override could be tougher in the Senate. 20 -> Telematics Adds "Fault Tolerance" To WAN Switches -- Telematics' new PCP 800 introduces the same kinds of redundant and "fault tolerant" capabilities to WAN (wide area network) switching that host computers used in banking and other "mission critical" environments have long been known for, contended ClareAnn Anderson and Kevin Smith, two Telematics product managers, in a conference call with Newsbytes. 21 -> Interactive TV Slow To Take Off In Asia-Pacific Region -- Ovum, the London-based market research company, has just issued the fourth and final update to its report, "Interactive Television: the Market Opportunity." According to the company, the update contains a set of forecasts for the interactive TV market to the year 2005. 22 -> Lawson Software Offers Free Hierarchical Web Browser -- Lawson Software has taken the wraps off WebTree, a utility to guide visitors to the hundreds of pages found on the World Wide Web. Unlike conventional Web browsers, Lawson claims that this package offers a hierarchical view of the page structure, allowing users to see where they are at any given time and allowing them to jump straight to the information they are looking for. 23 -> Smart Phone Sends E-mail, Pays Bills -- US Order Inc. (NASDAQ: USOR) and Colonial Data Technologies Corp. (AMEX: CDT) have announced a "smart phone" that can send e-mail over the Internet, pay bills and do electronic banking, type and send text messages directly to pagers, and shop from electronic catalogs. 24 -> ****Informix To Acquire Illustra -- Informix Corporation (NASDAQ:IFMX), a developer of parallel processing database technology, has announced an agreement to acquire Illustra Information Technologies. Illustra is a supplier of object oriented relational database software and tools for managing data in the areas of the Internet, multimedia/entertainment, financial services, and earth sciences. 25 -> MacUser Names WebStar "Software Product Of The Year -- Through its acquisition of StarNine, Quarterdeck acquired WebStar and took it to the top of the World Wide Web software world. WebStar, a Macintosh Web server software rose from a shareware program, known as MacHTTP, to be named "Software Product of the Year" by MacUser Magazine. 26 -> Electronic Billing Via Internet -- US Order (NASDAQ:OSOR) recently introduced a new electronic banking product that lets merchants send monthly statements to their customers via the World Wide Web. 27 -> Atmel's EPROM For Faster Modems -- Atmel Corp. (Nasdaq: ATML) has announced that it has developed, and is in volume production of, a family of ultra-fast non-volatile memory devices designed for Internet access and other high-speed modem applications. The new EPROM (erasable programmable read only memory) family encompasses one megabit (Mb), 2Mb, and 4Mb densities. 28 -> Claris Ships 32-Bit FileMaker Pro 3.0 For Mac, Windows -- If faced with a choice between overall "ease-of-use" and adding an intriguing but tricky new feature to FileMaker Pro, Claris Corp. would opt for simplicity, said John Phelan, at a recent meeting with Newsbytes in Boston. Nonetheless, the new FileMaker Pro 3.0 for Power Mac, Mac, Windows 95, and Windows 95, is packed with dozens of new features, ranging from a built-in relational database to PC-based phone dialing. 29 -> ****Problems With Apple's PowerPC PowerBook -- Newsbytes has learned that some users are having problems with Apple Computer's (NASDAQ:AAPL) high-end PowerPC 5300 PowerBook computer. The problem is described as an "incompatibility" between the notebook's new hard disk and older networking software. (Ian Stokell/19951221) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 12/20/95 EDUCATION German Govt's Ambitious School Internet Plan (NEWS)(EDUCATION)(LON)(00001) German Govt's Ambitious School Internet Plan 12/20/95 BONN, GERMANY, 1995 DEC 20 (NB) -- Deutsche Telekom has announced it is teaming up with the German Government on an ambitious three-year project to plug German schools and other educational establishments into the Internet. The project, while it has attracted acclaim for its sheer scale, has worried some analysts who fear that Deutsche Telekom subscribers may end up footing at least part of the bill. Deutsche Telekom, meanwhile, has said that the DM35 million (US$25 million) three-year project is being jointly funded by itself and the taxpayer, and officials claims that the revenue expectations from the scheme more than offset the initial capital investment. According to Hagen Hultzsch, a senior board member of Deutsche Telekom, announcing details of the project to the press, around 35,000 schools and colleagues should be online to the Internet within the next three years, linking in via ISDN (integrated services digital network) circuits. Newsbytes notes that the deal will allow Deutsche Telekom to divest itself of older ISDN terminal adapters (TAs) that the company was promoting at the Cebit Computer Faire in March of this year. Third party companies' TAs, Newsbytes noted at the show, were cheaper and more efficient than the Deutsche Telekom equivalent. According to Hultzsch, the three-year scheme will run in parallel with a telecoms industry initiative to place more online resources on to the Internet in Germany. This will not be as difficult as it sounds, since many online resources are already connected to the German packet data network (PDN), so linking those same resources into the Internet should not be a major task, Newsbytes notes. Hultzsch told reporters that the primary aim of the project is to ensure that German students have access to the best resources into further their education, and not just in terms of IT (information technology). "German schools must not be allowed to miss out on modern technologies," he said. According to Hultzsch, only one in 50 of Germany's schools have access to a computer, a figure that does not even begin to compare with the IT investments that other European countries are making in educational resources. In parallel with the Deutsche Telekom/German Government initiative, Berlin-based Cornelsen Software and Stuttgart-based Klett Verlag, the educational sector publishing houses, have committed to setting up an educationally-oriented online system for teachers and their students. Plans call for the pilot system to be and running by the end of 1996, with a national rollout in 1997. (Sylvia Dennis/19951219/Press & Reader Contact: Deutsche Telekom, tel +49-228-1810, fax +49-228-181-8872; Cornelsen Software, tel +49- 30-897-850, fax +49-30-8978-5567; Klett Verlag, tel +49-711-66470, fax +49-711-664-7505) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 12/20/95 TELECOM Germany's Mannesmann Mobile Phone Group Looks Forward (NEWS)(TELECOM)(LON)(00002) Germany's Mannesmann Mobile Phone Group Looks Forward 12/20/95 DUSSELSORF, GERMANY, 1995 DEC 20 (NB) -- It's been an interesting year for Mannesmann-Mobilfunk, the mobile telecoms division of Mannesmann- Tally. According to Juergen von Kuczkowski, the company's chairman, sales are expected to increase this year to around the DM2.7 billion mark, thanks to 60,000 new subscribers on the company's D2 GSM (global system for mobile communications) digital phone network. Kuczkowski said that the surge in sales was due to a shift of mobile phones' emphasis from being a business tool to being a business commodity, plus the acceptance of a mobile phone as a useful accessory for consumers to buy. As reported by Newsbytes at the Cebit Computer Fair in March of this year, the D2 network has been instrumental in persuading consumer users on the cellular networks, mainly by introducing innovative low entry point tariffs to the user. As a result of these initiatives, Kuczkowski said that the D2 network has about 1.4 million subscribers in Germany, and expects to push this to more than two million by the end of 1996, despite a general slowdown in consumer spending in Germany as a whole. "The market is moving in the opposite direction as the overall economy. That is the surprising thing," Kuczkowski told journalists. He added that, despite the successes, he expects sales to tail off in the consumer sector over the coming year. Interestingly, Kuczkowski said that the primary competition to the D2 network is still the Deutsche Telekom D1 network, rather than the E-Plus PCN (personal communications network) digital phone system, which was launched in the spring of 1994. According to the latest industry estimates, D2 claims that E-Plus still only has around 200,000 subscribers on its network. Despite this, Kuczkowski said that there is still a threat to D2's supremacy in the German mobile phone market, and the company is planning to spend around DM700 million in 1996 to expand and enhance its network -- the same amount of money the company spent on its network during 1995. The bulk of the money will be spent on improving coverage and capacity in the city areas of Germany. According to Mannesmann Mobilfunk's chairman, the 1996 investment program will take the company's total investment in GSM technology to more than DM4 billion, a target figure that the company had committed to almost a year ago. The extra investment, he told analysts, was due to the threat of competition. Kuczkowski's comments have led many to speculate that D2 is planning a counter offensive in tariff terms, if PCN takes off in German to any appreciable extent. The E-Plus network charges around half to two thirds of the charges that D1 and D2 charge their subscribers, especially during off-peak times. To meet this challenge, both GSM networks will have to look at cutting their call charges, if PCN takes off significantly in Germany, Newsbytes notes. (Sylvia Dennis/19951219/Press & Reader Contact: Mannesmann Mobilfunk, tel +49-211-5330, fax +49-211-533-2200) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 12/20/95 ONLINE UK - What's New Web Site (NEWS)(ONLINE)(LON)(00003) UK - What's New Web Site 12/20/95 LONDON, ENGLAND, 1995 DEC 20 (NB) -- Indexes abound for US World Wide Web sites, but what about a "what's new" in the UK Web site scene? EMAP Computing, the IT (information technology) publishing division of East Midlands Allied Press (EMAP), a UK press conglomerate, has opened up just such a Web site -- at http://www.emap.com/whatsnew/ -- and, at first glance, the results look impressive. Roger Green, the publisher of EMAP Computing, told Newsbytes that the idea for the site came out of various conversations he and his staff had, ever since they opened up the main EMAP Computing Web site earlier this year. "We publish Internet, which was the first UK magazine to cover the Internet back in 1994, and the Web site was opened to service the needs of readers of that magazine, plus others in the computer publishing group. We realized that we had to offer something that readers of the Web site would be interested in logging on to see, and the what's new service was born out of that," he said. According to Green, the Web site what's new pages are updated continuously through the day by the staff of EMAP Computing and the number of Web sites which are appearing is increasing almost exponentially. "A few years ago, it was possible to keep a what's new section Web list in a magazine, but Internet users are now aware that it takes up to two months for the information to make it to the printed page. By offering a Web service like this, we can ensure that information reaches the Internet user as quickly as possible," he said. According to Green, the Web site is being hosted by EMAP Computing's online media center and uses a specially-commissioned database search "engine' to make it easy for users to find sites that reflect their interests. "We felt that it was vital to make the What's New site simple and convenient to use, and to be sure that it works with a variety of web browsers," he said. (Steve Gold/19951219/Press Contact: Roger Green, EMAP Computing, +44-171-208-5157, Internet e-mail rogerg@computing.emap.co.uk) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 12/20/95 LEGAL UK Sailor In Court Over Phone Scam (NEWS)(LEGAL)(LON)(00004) UK Sailor In Court Over Phone Scam 12/20/95 PORTSMOUTH, HAMPSHIRE, ENGLAND, 1995 DEC 20 (NB) -- A Royal Navy Court Martial has heard this week how a group of radio operators on board HMS Ark Royal cheated the navy out of more than UKP5,000 of phone calls. For the prosecution, Lieutenant-Commander Nick Hawkins said a total of 29 calls made by radio operator Darren Gray had either been logged incorrectly or not at all. Subsequent investigation of the incident revealed that a total of 13 ratings on board the Royal Navy's flagship had run up dozens of satellite phone calls back to the UK while the ship was patrolling the Adriatic last summer. The ratings made calls, the prosecution said, that were not logged by the operator. Gray was discovered to have made several calls, with a cost of UKP1,000 to three destinations in the North-West of England. British Telecom (BT) investigations revealed that the calls were made to his ex-girlfriend, his sister, and his cousin's office. Royal Navy prosecutors said that the whole affair came to light when BT's bill to the navy was queried when it did not tally with the ship logs. According to Hawkins, 10 of the 13 ratings have been dealt with summarily, and that another two cases -- other than Gray's -- were being processed by the Naval court system. The discrepancy between the ship logs (and billed calls) and the BT bill is known to be more than UKP5,000. In the naval court, Gray admitted 23 charges of phone fraud, a single charge of wasting police time and a single charge of going AWOL (absent without leave) for a total of 160 days. Hawkins told the court that naval ratings were either logging the times of the calls incorrectly or, in some cases, not logging the calls at all. As a result, the calls could not be recharged using the ship's radiophone logs. Because Inmarsat calls cost several pounds a minute, the UKP5,000 discrepancy was traced to just 29 private calls made from the ship between June 5 and August 12 last year. Hawkins said that Gray was charged with wasting police time after he accused a colleague of stealing a cash card and taking more than UKP500 out of his bank account. On investigation, it transpired that Gray had given the colleague a card to make the withdrawals in repayment of a loan he had taken. Matters came to a head in May of this year when Gray did not return to HMS Nelson, the ship he was posted to, despite the fact that an investigation into the frauds was ongoing. In October, he gave himself up to police in his home town of Skelmersdale, Lancashire, claiming that he wanted to face the music. Legal representatives of Gray said that, while he had been wrong in his actions, he had admitted what he had done and that he was not alone in the actions. The Navy Admirals Board has dismissed Gray from the service and sentenced him to 12 months in prison. They have also ordered him to pay UKP1,049 towards his phone calls. (Sylvia Dennis/19951219) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 12/20/95 BUSINESS Novell Restructures European Marketing Operations (NEWS)(BUSINESS)(LON)(00005) Novell Restructures European Marketing Operations 12/20/95 BRACKNELL, BERKSHIRE, ENGLAND, 1995 DEC 20 (NB) -- Novell Europe, Middle East & Africa (EMEA) has announced that a major restructuring of its marketing operations is now taking place, According to Charles Callis, vice president of the division, the aim of the changes is to refocus Novell's products and services marketing at a central and localized level. Under the changes, six new Novell EMEA marketing departments are being formed to focus on "customers, partners, solutions, and products." Each department will be responsible for developing its own programs, quarterly campaigns and related marketing activities. The departments will work closely with local country organizations to develop, what Novell calls, "effective marketing initiatives." "We're refocussing on our core networking software business," Callis explained. "The changes to Novell EMEA's marketing structure is intended to meet the evolving needs of our customers and partners in a positive manner." According to Callis, plans call for initiatives from the newly restructured central EMEA marketing group to be developed, packaged and implemented in a way that makes them most effective on a localized basis. The six new departments involve: programs marketing; market relations; marketing services; solutions marketing; events marketing; and major account program marketing. The most significant change is that the various country managers within Novell Europe are re-assigned. For example, Newsbytes notes that David Godwin, who was previously Novell UK's country director, now becomes head of Novell EMEA's solutions marketing operation. Callis said that the changes mean that the next year will have both challenges and opportunities. "As we launch new marketing initiatives it will be imperative that we communicate clear and consistent messages to Novell's customers, partners and those who influence the industry," he said. (Steve Gold/19951219/Press Contact: Vivienne Wilson, Novell, +44-1344- 724460; Reader Contact: Novell, tel +44-1344-724000, fax +44-1344-724419) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 12/20/95 GOVT E-Mail For US Soldiers In Bosnia (NEWS)(GOVT)(DEN)(00006) E-Mail For US Soldiers In Bosnia 12/20/95 MANNHEIM, GERMANY, 1995 DEC 20 (NB) -- One of the first things soldiers in the advance party of US troops arriving in Bosnia did was set up an e-mail link so the members of one advance unit can stay in touch with home. The system reduces the reliance of the soldiers on letters and telephones as ways of communicating with family and friends. "It's a more up-to-date way for us to let our families know that we are OK," Army Chief Warrant Officer Clinton Banner told British wire service Reuters. Banner spearheaded the project at Taylor Barracks near Mannheim, preparing a computer in the 72nd Signal Battalion's family support center that will be able to communicate with PCs in Croatia and Bosnia. The e-mail system is part of the Army's Milnet system, but users of popular online services like Compuserve and America Online can also communicate with the unit's soldiers if the GIs have provided them with the appropriate electronic address. Messages can be confirmed as received at either end of the electronic link within seconds. However, soldiers with a little free time on their hands while participating in the NATO peacekeeping mission won't be able to surf the Internet for the latest hot sites. "This is not an electronic surfboard," said Banner. A similar system allows soldiers stationed in Haiti to communicate with their families and loved ones. However, despite its high tech nature, the system doesn't solve a problem experienced by soldiers from revolutionary days to the present -- someone has to write. The wife of an Army Reservist whose unit is currently on a 179-day deployment to Haiti told Newsbytes "I'm the only one that writes to him." The Department of Defense said this week it will establish an e-mail address to "any soldier" in Bosnia as part of its BosniaLINK home page on the World Wide Web. BosniaLINK has a messageform under the heading "Send your holiday greetings to the troops in Bosnia" -- although you can't send e-mail to specific soldiers or units yet. The "any soldier" messages will be published in internal military publications and on military TV and radio. The Web site contains maps and other information about Bosnia. The BosniaLINK address is http://www.dtic.dla.mil/bosnia/ . (Jim Mallory/19951219) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 12/20/95 ONLINE E3 Expo Adds Web Site (NEWS)(ONLINE)(LAX)(00007) E3 Expo Adds Web Site 12/20/95 LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1995 DEC 20 (NB) -- E3 (Electronic Entertainment Expo) expo has a new World Wide Web Site that will feature hot links to exhibitors' home pages, and offer details on conference sessions, industry trends, hotel/travel data, and general E3 News. The expo will take place May 16-18, 1996 at the Los Angeles Convention Center. The E3 Web site can be found at http://www.mha.com/e3/. It currently has an exhibitor list, online brochure request form, and general details on the event. "The Internet and World Wide Web are continuing to become key information and entertainment resources for the industry and the media," stated Doug Lowenstein, president of the Interactive Digital Software Association (IDSA), which owns E3, a trade show devoted exclusively to interactive entertainment software and products. "This exciting new feature instantaneously puts show information and updates at the fingertips of all of E3's key audiences. While the E3 Web site is specifically targeted to the industry, it also has the added benefits of directly reaching consumers, who can utilize the hot links to exhibitors' web sites for information about their new products." IDSA, producer of the expo, includes members such as Compton's New Media, Discovery Channel, Disney Interactive, Electronic Arts, Mindscape, Nintendo, Philips Media, Sega, Sony Interactive, Viacom New Media, and Virgin Interactive. Dana Trujillo, a spokesperson for E3, told Newsbytes, "Over 170 exhibitors have already signed up for over 411,000 square feet of exhibition space. More than 400 exhibitors are expected, with over 40,000 attendees." "The Web site will be expanded in January. Details on conference sessions will updated as they change. It will also contain updated information on special events, celebrity appearances and other late- breaking news. The hot links to our exhibitors Web sites will kick in at that time also," said Trujillo The expo is currently reviewing Internet security arrangements to possibly allow for online credit card registrations. "We want the E3 Web site to be the ultimate information resource for exhibitors, attendees, and the media. If our research into current Internet security issues finds that it is a viable option for financial transactions, we'll expand the Web site into a virtual registration center," said Lowenstein. (Richard Bowers/19951219/Press Contact: Dana Trujillo, Neale-May & Partners, 415-328-5555) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 12/20/95 GENERAL Japan Newsbriefs (NEWS)(GENERAL)(TYO)(00008) Japan Newsbriefs 12/20/95 TOKYO, JAPAN, 1995 DEC 20 (NB) -- In this roundup of news from Japan: Fujitsu licenses Sun's Java; Overseas telephone traffic jumps; CNBC gains broadcast approval; PC-VAN to begin weather information service; NTT World Bird Count results. Fujitsu Licenses Sun's Java Fujitsu has announced it will license Sun Microsystems' Java programming language for use in its own products and services. Fujitsu plans to implement Java on its Internet-related products and system integration services. Java-based programs and tools will help the company offer enriched network services, improved data quality, and easier operations it said. "Fujitsu views that the application development environment which Java provides will be able to be widely applied," said Takeshi Maruyama, executive vice president of Fujitsu, in a company statement. "Such an excellent language is a great asset to the computer world and I would like to express our appreciation to Sun Microsystems for making Java an open specification. We are looking forward to the opportunity for our two companies to work together to jointly create a new networking computing environment." Overseas Telephone Traffic Jumps The number of minutes spent on calls to and from Japan jumped in fiscal year 1994, according to figures just released by the Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications. Calls from Japan to overseas rose by 11.4% to total 2,665 million minutes. Calls to Japan increased by a greater amount, 16.2%, to 1,141 million minutes. For Japanese callers, the United States was the most popular destination, accounting for 22.8% of all time. China was second with 11.3%, followed by South Korea with 10.2%. CNBC Gains Broadcast Approval CNBC Asia, the Hong Kong-based business news broadcaster affiliated to the NBC television network in the United States, has become the fourth foreign broadcaster to be awarded approval for broadcast on Japanese cable systems. Until now, potential viewers have had to face installing a large satellite dish to catch the signal from a Pacific region satellite. The service should soon become available on some cable systems and possibly via direct to home broadcasting from a Japanese satellite. PC-VAN To Begin Weather Information Service PC-VAN, Japan's second largest online service, has announced it will soon begin offering weather data via its service. The information will include the latest weather details from over 850 locations throughout Japan plus ski reports. It will be provided to the NEC owned online service by Weather News Inc., a Tokyo-based weather information provider and carry a usage surcharge of 10 yen ($0.10) per minute. NTT World Bird Count Results In September, Newsbytes featured the World Bird Count, a day of bird watching being organized by Nippon Telegraph & Telephone, NTT. After the event, participants were requested to e-mail, post, and fax in details of types of birds seen during the day-long event, and NTT has now released details of the day. A total of 2,764 species of bird were seen across the world by around 50,000 participants, including a number which are close to extinction. In Japan, NTT reported, the most reported bird was the Sparrow, followed by Pied Wagtails and Rufous Turtledoves. The telephone operator is donating $10 for each bird species seen, a total of $27,640, to Asian wildlife protection charities. (Martyn Williams/19951220) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 12/20/95 TRENDS Banks Poised For Electronic Banking - But Are We? (NEWS)(TRENDS)(DEN)(00009) Banks Poised For Electronic Banking - But Are We? 12/20/95 REDMOND, WASHINGTON, U.S.A., 1995 DEC 20 (NB) -- Experts estimate that more than 13 million households will jump online instead of standing in line to do their banking by the year 2000. But are we really ready? According to a study conducted recently by Jupiter Communications LCC, the number of home users of online banking will jump almost 20- fold by the year 2000, and banks are rapidly gearing up to provide the necessary services that could eventually mean they will never see their customers face-to-face -- at least if the predicted cashless society becomes a reality. Instead, your paycheck will be electronically deposited in your account, and you will pay bills by transferring the money using your desktop or laptop PC. A few clicks of the mouse will let you know if a particular check has cleared or if you have enough money for a ticket to the Bahamas. The final step in the cashless society -- once users and bankers have accepted the inevitability of electronic banking -- is the ability to put some coin in your jeans, and all that will take is a simple credit card reader-type device attached to your PC. Insert your cash card, press a few keys, and the money is refilled. Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ: MSFT) calls it "bathrobe banking." But are we ready to get that organized? According to a study commissioned by Microsoft, the company that publishes a software program called Microsoft Money for Windows 95, one of several available software packages that perform electronic banking chores, most of us still have our bills and other financial records stuffed in a drawer or shoebox and wait until the last minute to pay our bills. The transition to electronic banking will probably be easy for the 48 percent of the respondents that said they look at their checkbook register to determine their bank balance. But for the 52 percent that have to call the bank or drive to the automated teller machine (ATM) machine to find out how much money they have, the change may be more traumatic. "Personal financial management can be a loaded emotional issue," according to Pat Davidson, a Chase Manhattan Bank vice president. But he said the features of electronic banking should make it easier for us to stay out of financial trouble. The study showed that people in the 25-35 age bracket have the most difficulty with out-of-control finances. But they also were the most enthusiastic about using a computer and online service to read bank statements or pay bills. The software is ready, the banks are ready, and now all we have to do is find that shoebox. (Jim Mallory/19951220) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 5 12/20/95 NETWORK Novell Ships NetWare Web Server, LAN Workgroup (NEWS)(NETWORK)(DEN)(00010) Novell Ships NetWare Web Server, LAN Workgroup 5 12/20/95 OREM, UTAH, U.S.A., 1995 DEC 20 (NB) -- Novell Inc. (NASDAQ: NOVL) has announced it is shipping its new NetWare Web Server and version 5 of LAN Workgroup for Microsoft Windows and DOS. NetWare Web Server (NWS) is a software system that lets users take advantage of the features of NetWare 4.1 while using the Internet for internal and external publishing. NetWare Web Server was announced at the Internet World Expo in Boston in late October and is shipping earlier than expected. NWS supports symmetric multiprocessing and is scalable to meet the Internet publishing and access needs of users. The software installs "out of the box" on top of the NetWare 4.1 network operating system. According to Novell, beta customers reported successful installation, configuration and creation of a simple World Wide Web page in about 10 minutes. Web Server has a suggested retail price of $995. LAN Workgroup for Microsoft Windows and DOS, version 5, runs on NetWare 4.x servers and gives NetWare users centralized access to information on both NetWare and TCP/IP (Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol) networks, including Unix systems and the Internet. LAN Workgroup 5 includes the Netscape Navigator, a popular Internet browser and news reader that lets users point and click to retrieve text, graphics, audio, and video on the World Wide Web. It also includes a Windows mailer interface for sending and receiving both e-mail and files over TCP/IP networks, including the Internet. The mailer includes support for Simple Mail Transfer Protocol (SMTP) and the Post Office Protocol version 3 (POP3). LAN Workgroup 5's PC-X Server lets users run X Windows-based applications on remote hosts over both IP (Internet protocol) and IPX (Internet Packet Exchange) right from the desktop. The program is Winsock-compliant, letting it run all Windows applications on any Winsock-compliant TCP/IP stack. Novell said it has improved the terminal emulation in Workgroup 5 using Telnet, with drag-and-drop keyboard remapping now available in order to simplify keystroke sequences. You also get an integrated NFS (Network File System) client that provides transparent access to files on any host supporting the NFS standard. Novell said Workgroup 5 is identical in functionality, look, and feel to Workplace 5. except that Workgroup 5 is centrally installed at the NetWare server, eliminating the need for the administrator to visit all of the network clients for installation and configuration. LAN Workgroup 5 for Microsoft Windows has a suggested retail price of $1,500 for a five-user version, $2,495 for the 10-user pack, and $6,995 for the 100-user edition. Upgrade prices are available. (Jim Mallory/19951220/Press contact: Rick Nyllenbeck, Novell, 408-577-8206) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 12/20/95 GENERAL Ericsson Cable Receives Swedish Quality Award (NEWS)(GENERAL)(LON)(00011) Ericsson Cable Receives Swedish Quality Award 12/20/95 STOCKHOLM, SWEDEN, 1995 DEC 20 (NB) -- Ericsson Cable AB, the Swedish telco's cable division, has been given the Swedish Quality Award for 1995. At a ceremony in Gothenburg, Sweden, Lars Renstrom, head of the division, and Janne Sjoden, the manager of Ericsson Cables, received the award from HRH King Carl XVI Gustaf. According to Ericsson, the award is submitted by the Swedish Institute for Quality (SIQ). In announcing their decision, the judges said that the award was given because the company had considerable capability to change. "Committed leadership, cooperation based on mutual trust between the individual and the company, plus the participation of everyone in the company in the improvement process, have led to rapid development. Independent, goal-oriented groups have given all staff increased responsibility and greater influence in decision making processors," said the judges' report. At the ceremony, Janne Sjoden said that the key to success in the competitive telecoms market requires that the customer must be clearly placed in focus, and the staff must strive for satisfied customers. "Within Ericsson Cables, composed of three divisions, we established clear goals for our quality work a number of years ago. The active cooperation by everybody, proficiency, ability and enthusiasm have formed the basis for a successful result," he said. In his speech, Lars Renstrom said that the company is on target to achieve 50 percent growth in volume terms in the 1994/96 time frame, adding that more than half of the company's turnover stems from products that were not made five years ago. "The precision of delivery during the last few years has remained between 98 and 99.5 percent, while the turnover per employee has nearly doubled in the 1990s," he said. He added that, over the last five years, the company's lead times have been reduced by 30 percent. So, does the award mean that Ericsson Cables has achieved its targets and is happy with the current state of affairs? Lars Ramqvist, the company's president, said that the game-plan for the company is to continue expanding and acquiring more customers. "We have laid a stable foundation for that within Ericsson," he said. "Last year, four Ericsson companies in Europe received quality awards -- this is gratifying, but it is also necessary for more Ericsson businesses to distinguish themselves for well performed quality work." According to Ramqvist, the company goal is to understand the needs of the customer and to comply with them to a higher degree than others. "To be able to do that, it is necessary for us to change and improve rapidly. I believe that Ericsson Cables can do so, and I consider the award to the Cable division as a confirmation of that," he said. (Sylvia Dennis/19951220/Press Contact: Bengt Callmer, Ericsson Business Area Communications, tel +46-8-757-4689, fax +46-70-538-2020) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 12/20/95 BUSINESS KPTT Netherlands' Cashless Card Joint Venture (NEWS)(BUSINESS)(LON)(00012) KPTT Netherlands' Cashless Card Joint Venture 12/20/95 AMSTERDAM, THE NETHERLANDS, 1995 DEC 20 (NB) -- Koninklijke PTT Nederland, the Dutch telecoms group, has announced it is teaming up with Postbank, the post giro banking operation, to develop and market multi-function smart cards. According to KPTT, the smart cards can be used in situations in place of small amounts of cash, such as buying shopping, making phone calls, and parking. Plans call for the first generation of cards to be issued within the next year and sold through multiple outlets, and "reloadable" with cash at bank ATMs (automated teller machines), modified payphones, and over modem links from the home or office. Although KPTT is avoiding any direct reference, it seems likely that the two companies are pitching hard -- and may even have secured the contract -- for the supply of the commercial phase of ChipKnip, a smart card payment system that started being piloted in Arnhem at the beginning of this month. In the ChipKnip pilot, 3,000 citizens have been persuaded to collect their ChipKnip cards from their banks and post offices and are using the cards in place of cash for low- and medium-value transactions. Interpay, the company behind ChipKnip, says that it plans to see 20,000 to 30,000 people using the card in the first phase of its launch, which will allow them to use the cards at more than 800 payment machines in shops, restaurants, hotels, and other facilities around the city. According to Wilhelm Stolwijk, Interpay's director, plans call to extend the ChipKnip project to other cities in the Netherlands, possibly gobbling up around 15 percent of otherwise cash transactions. This, he claims, would go a long way to reducing the cost of the five billion coins which are currently in circulation in the Netherlands. If anyone can promote ChipKnip in the Netherlands, KPTT can, Newsbytes notes. In September, the company reported net profits for the six months to June 30 as rising more than 10 percent on a 7.2 percent increased turnover, making the company one of the strongest in its field. (Sylvia Dennis/19951220/Press Contact: Interpay Nederland, +31-10-207-0702) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 12/20/95 TRENDS Massachusetts Tunnel Deploys Electronic Toll Collection (NEWS)(TRENDS)(BOS)(00013) Massachusetts Tunnel Deploys Electronic Toll Collection 12/20/95 BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS, U.S.A., 1995 DEC 20 (NB) -- An "electronic toll collection" system, installed in Boston's newly opened Third Harbor Tunnel, carries the technical potential to be upgraded to "value pricing," a pricing scheme that calls for vehicles to be automatically charged at different rates depending on "time of day" of travel, said Mike Breslin, VP of marketing for MFS, in an interview with Newsbytes. Aside from the Boston's Third Harbor Tunnel, also known as the Ted Williams Tunnel in honor of the baseball hero, MFS's new electronic toll collection system is also being used throughout California's state highway system, Breslin told Newsbytes. In addition, he reported, MFS is currently conducting negotiations with the Massachusetts Turnpike Authority for use of the new system on the Massachusetts Turnpike, a highway that connects much of the state from east to west. "Value pricing" has just been added to State Road 91 in California, and could be added to the Ted Williams Tunnel in Boston through a "simple software upgrade" if the Massachusetts Turnpike Authority decides to make this change at a later time, Breslin added. Despite cold weather and snow on the ground in Boston, thousands of people attended recent opening ceremonies for the tunnel, which featured appearances by Ted Williams himself, as well as by Massachusetts Governor William Weld and the two previous governors who presided over Massachusetts during the several years it took to complete the "Big Dig" in Boston. "This is here, now. And you'll be talking about it for another 100 years," the sports hero remarked, during the opening ceremonies. In the new Ted Williams Tunnel, which will be available for the first few years to commercial vehicles only, "electronic toll booths" are being used in conjunction with traditional manual toll booths, according to Breslin. The "third tunnel" is designed to ease traffic conditions between Boston and sites north of the downtown area of the city, including Logan Airport, the "North Shore" suburbs, and New Hampshire and Maine. Vehicles opting for electronic toll collection are outfitted with battery-driven 3.25- by 3.25-inch "transponders," which attach to the back of the driver's mirror. The transponders use wireless technology to communicate with the toll booths. The Massachusetts Turnpike Authority is distributing the transponders to commercial customers. MFS served as systems integrator, or prime contractor, for the electronic toll collection component of the tunnel. Subcontractors on the electronic toll collection project include Digital Equipment Corp., Texas Instruments, Computer Recognition, and Tail Wind Instruments, Breslin noted. With estimates ranging from $8 to $10 billion, the Third Harbor Tunnel is generally regarded as "the most expensive road" ever built. Breslin told Newsbytes that MFS won the bid for the electronic toll collection project in mid- to late October, over three competitors. Pricing constituted 25 percent of the judges' criteria, the VP asserted. The bid from MFS was the lowest of the four bids entered, he added. (Jacqueline Emigh/19951219/Press Contacts: Erin Maguire, MFS Network Technologies, 402-233-7648; Andy Murphy for MFS, 203-854- 6761) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 12/20/95 TRENDS Yellow Pages On A Business Card (NEWS)(TRENDS)(DEN)(00014) Yellow Pages On A Business Card 12/20/95 PALM BEACH GARDENS, FLORIDA, U.S.A., 1995 DEC 20 (NB) -- A Florida company has introduced a pocket data bank that fits in your shirt pocket and contains thousands of preprogrammed phone numbers and other bits of information. #IMAGE 1 20 TWPCX \images\95122014.PCX Click here for photo The Business Card Inc. said the product, called The Business Card, can also hold over 1,000 names, numbers and addresses selected by the user. Additionally, there is an appointment scheduler, a calculator, calendar, alarm clock, confidential file niche, and personal note pad. According to Chris Chilvers, president of The Business Card Inc., it would take a user years of research and thousands of hours of data input to collect the information the company has done for you. "There are numbers in there of places people don't even know exist," Chilvers told Newsbytes. The 5-inch by 2.5-inch by 0.75-inch device, which is actually a Rolodex-brand personal digital assistant with a small keyboard and 128 kilobytes of memory, comes programmed with information about hotel and motels, auto rental firms, postal rates, 24-hour copying service locations, airlines, international time zones, bus and train companies, sports lines and airport numbers. You also get an area code locator, a 25-city traveler's guide, discount computer dealer and discount stock broker listings, numbers for the major credit card companies, loan payment scales, and computer help line numbers. If that's not enough there are instructions on performing emergency CPR, a federal office listing, post office rates, metric conversions, international currency conversions, emergency attorney listings, AAA discounts, travel clubs, a locator number to find the nearest ATM machine, and emergency health information. The Business Card has a suggested retail price of $149.95. Options include a belt pounch and infra-red PC link to download information from your desktop or laptop computers. A 20-minute instruction video is included. The display is 24 columns by six lines. Chilvers said the company will update the unit yearly. (Jim Mallory/19951219/Press contact: Chris Chilvers, The Business Card, 800-499-6628/BUS-CARD951220/PHOTO) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 12/20/95 BUSINESS 3Com Plans Software Design Center In India (NEWS)(BUSINESS)(DEL)(00015) 3Com Plans Software Design Center In India 12/20/95 NEW DELHI, INDIA, 1995 DEC 20 (NB) -- Networking company 3Com Corp., plans to set up a software development center (SDC) in India, which is expected to be in place within a year, according to Subhash Bal, country manager 3Com Asia Pvt. Ltd. "Our main focus will be on software development for our international product range, with the aim to build core software team capable of delivering international standards," he said. The initial investment in the SDC has been estimated to be in the range of US$1 million to $3 million in the first year, with the figure expected to multiply over the years. "We are not limited by budgets, since 3Com has an annual research and development budget of nearly $150 million," Bal told Newsbytes. The software development will take place in Bangalore or New Delhi, and a decision on this will be taken in the coming six months. The center will be working on ASIC (application specific integrated circuit) designs, intelligent switching, and routing codes. 3Com, which started its Indian operations in May, also plans to set up offices in Bombay and Bangalore. (C.T. Mahabharat/19951220) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 12/20/95 BROADCAST India - ASCOM & Essar Plan Satellite Mobile Telephony (NEWS)(BROADCAST)(DEL)(00016) India - ASCOM & Essar Plan Satellite Mobile Telephony 12/20/95 NEW DELHI, INDIA, 1995 DEC 20 (NB) -- Afro-Asian Satellite Communications (Gibraltar) Ltd. (ASCOM), a company promoted by Subhash Goyal of Zee TV, the Hindi channel on Star TV Network, has recruited Essar Telecom Ltd. as a majority joint partner in its proposed venture to provide a satellite-based mobile telephony service, called OBSIDIAN, to countries across Asia and Africa. ASCOM proposes to invest $120 million in the joint venture for a 25 percent equity stake in the company. Essar will have a 51 percent equity stake, with the remaining 24 percent going to the public and financial institutions. OBSIDIAN will be in competition with the other satellite-based mobile telephony systems like Iridium, Inmarsat-P, and Odyssey. It is designed to provide users with personal communication services via satellites. Users can access the system via special handsets which communicate directly with the satellite. Calls to and from these handsets are connected through satellite gateways -- worldwide. The system will consist of three satellites in the geosynchronous orbit and each satellite will permit coverage of a large region providing coverage in an approximate area of 1,000 square kilometers. Although ASCOM has mentioned that the proposed service will be complementary to existing telecommunications in India and would bring substantial benefits to the Department of Telecommunications (DOT), it does not envisage any payment of licensing fees to the Government and will only be paying DOT for the use of its network for calls from India on a commercial basis. On behalf of the proposed joint venture company, Essar Telecom, a company promoted by the Essar Group, is seeking approval from the Foreign Investment Promotion Board (FIPB) to collect and maintain foreign exchange earnings and deposits from local Indians as existing in a 100 percent exported oriented unit (EOU). The company has also sought Government approval for payments to Videsh Sanchar Nigam Ltd. for termination of calls within India from international customers. The entire system will be will be ready in 36 months and will be operational by end-1997, as projected by the company in its application. (C.T. Mahabharat/19951220) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 12/20/95 BUSINESS Brooktrout Invests In "TAPI LAN Server" Vendor (NEWS)(BUSINESS)(BOS)(00017) Brooktrout Invests In "TAPI LAN Server" Vendor 12/20/95 NEEDHAM, MASSACHUSETTS, U.S.A., 1995 DEC 20 (NB) -- A newly unveiled "staged investment" deal by Brooktrout Technology leaves the door open for integration between Brooktrout's fax and voice messaging products and Claflin & Clayton's NetPhone, one of the first network servers to comply with Microsoft's TAPI (Telephony Application Programming Interface), maintained Andrew O'Brien, Brooktrout's VP of marketing, in an interview with Newsbytes. Brooktrout's new equity investment deal, which also allows Brooktrout to sell Claflin & Clayton products to OEMs (original equipment manufacturers) and resellers, calls for an investment of up to $1 million, subject to Claflin & Clayton's fulfillment of various "stages" of "business terms," O'Brien told Newsbytes. The VP declined, however, to elaborate upon the specific "business terms," citing confidentiality. Although there are many TAPI and TSAPI (Telephony Services API)- compliant applications today written to support PBXs (private branch exchanges), actual use of LAN-based applications with a PBX typically requires "costly" systems integration, according to the Brooktrout exec. Claflin & Clayton's NetPhone is one of only "a handful" of LAN (local area network) servers that also comply with Microsoft's two computer telephony standards, he continued. "NetPhone takes the innovative and very direct approach of providing all the capabilities of a PBX in a LAN server," O'Brien contended. NetPhone, he asserted, is also "the best product in this rapidly emerging segment," noting that his assessment is based on the new LAN server's "tight integration" with TAPI and TSAPI, as well as on its "underlying switching technology." Based around a PC add-in board, NetPhone also includes a set of tools for TAPI and TSAPI application development, according to O'Brien. Claflin & Clayton's product currently supports up to 36 phone lines. O'Brien told Newsbytes that, while Brooktrout is not presently announcing any plans to integrate its own fax and voice messaging products with Claflin & Clayton products, the newly inked deal contains no "contingencies" that would preclude this prospect. Brooktrout foresees "a couple of different options" as to how an integration arrangement with Northboro, Massachusetts-based Claflin & Clayton might work, O'Brien added, but he declined to be more specific about these possibilities at this time. (Jacqueline Emigh/19951219/Reader Contact: Brooktrout Technology, 617-449-9009; Press Contacts: Heather Magliozzi, Brooktrout, 617- 449-4100; Sharon Rodger or Marianne Sabella, FitzGerald Communications for Brooktrout, 617-494-9500) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 12/20/95 ONLINE ****Newsbytes Free Gifts At First Virtual (NEWS)(ONLINE)(MSP)(00018) ****Newsbytes Free Gifts At First Virtual 12/20/95 MINNEAPOLIS, MINNESOTA, U.S.A., 1995 DEC 20 (NB) -- Newsbytes News Network, a comprehensive source of daily telecom, computer, and interactive services news since 1983, and First Virtual Holdings Inc., are offering free one-month trial subscriptions to Newsbytes' E-Mail Subscription Service to new First Virtual account holders. Internet users who create a new account on First Virtual's Internet secure transaction system from the company's Web site at http://www.fv.com can choose a free one month gift subscription to Newsbytes News Network's award-winning newswire. The subscription service offers the complete text of Newsbytes' newswire delivered directly to a subscribers' Internet mailbox each business day. New account holders will receive twenty-four free issues under the offer. FV account holders who wish to continue receiving Newsbytes at the end of the free gift period can make their payment securely over the Internet using the First Virtual transaction system. Pierre-R. Wolff, First Virtual's director of marketing, emphasizes the security of the First Virtual Internet payment system: "Many of the solutions proposed for processing credit cards over the Net have been breached, and so reliability can only be counted on from a system such as First Virtual's." First Virtual reports tremendous growth since it first deployed its Internet payment system in October 1994. Wolff told Newsbytes, "First Virtual's consumer base has grown to over 70,000 consumers and continues to grow at approximately 10 to 12% compounded weekly." He expects that growth to continue: "First Virtual is in the process of working with some large institutions in order to provide their consumer bases with virtualPINs (FV accounts) which could bring the number of consumers much higher in a short period of time." In addition to utilizing First Virtual's Internet payment system to conduct commerce securely over the Internet, Newsbytes uses First Virtual's Infohaus service to distribute its newswire by e-mail. First Virtual calls the Infohaus "the first-ever public-access information mall." Darren New, director of custom software development at FV and author of the Infohaus software, claims the Infohaus mailing list software used by Newsbytes is "the only for-fee mailing list manager in the world. People can subscribe, unsubscribe, pay, renew, get back issues, and change their addresses, all without having to contact the information provider." Newsbytes, a pioneering electronic publication offering both text and images, has provided daily coverage of the dynamic and complex computer and telecommunications industries since 1983. More than 150 media outlets, including print publications, online services, and database companies, are licensed to publish Newsbytes wire material. The wire service reports at least stories each day, filed by 19 staff correspondents worldwide. All reporting is first-hand, original, and objective. News is gathered from independent sources, trade shows, and interviews with top industry professionals. Headquartered in Minneapolis, MN, in the United States, Newsbytes News Network has bureaus in San Francisco, Denver, Washington DC, Boston, Los Angeles, Toronto, London, Tokyo, Hong Kong, Sydney, Beijing, Manila, and New Delhi. (Newsbytes Staff/19951220/Press Contact: Pierre-R. Wolff, tel +1-619-793-2941, Internet e-mail pierre@fv.com; Reader Contact: First Virtual Holdings, Inc., tel +1-619-793-2700, fax +1-619-793-2950, Internet e-mail info@fv.com) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 12/20/95 UNIX HP's "Intelligent, Mix-and-Match" AutoRAID (NEWS)(UNIX)(BOS)(00019) HP's "Intelligent, Mix-and-Match" AutoRAID 12/20/95 BOISE, IDAHO, U.S.A., 1995 DEC 20 (NB) -- Hewlett-Packard has already signed up multiple OEMs (original equipment manufacturers) for AutoRAID, although Acropolis Systems is the only customer to be officially announced so far for the "completely unique," self-adjustable, Unix-based storage subsystem, revealed Bob McGraw, market development manager for the HP Storage Systems Division, in a briefing for Newsbytes. Unlike traditional subsystems, which require the user to select a single RAID (redundant array of inexpensive disks) level, HP's new AutoRAID is "adaptive," using built-in "intelligence" to move data between RAID 0/1 for mirroring and data striping, and RAID 5 for the less costly capability of parity, McGraw told Newsbytes. "As a result, the user gets high availability and data security without the expense of a fully mirrored system," the market developer manager maintained. Also in contrast to other storage devices, which demand use of the same type of disk throughout an array, AutoRAID can accommodate disks of different capacities and speeds within a single device, according to McGraw. "You can take 2 gigabyte (GB) disks and 4GB disks, and 5,400 revolutions-per-minute (rpm) and 7,200 rpm disks, for example, and `mix-and-match' them any way you want," illustrated the HP exec. Alternatively, the user can start out with lower-end disks, and upgrade to faster, higher capacity disks over time, he suggested. Additional distinguishing features of HP's new AutoRAID subsystem include "active hot spare" and "autoconfiguration," Newsbytes was told. AutoRAID's ability to automatically migrate data between RAID 0/1 and RAID 5 is ideal for database applications, OLTP (online transaction processing), and other applications in which only a "small subset" of the data is being used at any given time, contended McGraw. "All the data is initially stored in (RAID) 0/1. AutoRAID then uses a set of `policies' to analyze the data, and migrates the oldest data into RAID 5," he reported. From then on, AutoRAID continues to move data back and forth between RAID 0/1 and RAID 5, "always looking for opportunities to balance data across all the spindles," McGraw said. Migration, he added, is automatically deferred to a later time during periods of high system activity. AutoRAID's new "active hot spare" feature goes a step beyond conventional "hot spare," in which an extra disk is available in case of disk failure, added the market development chief. "It's a waste of money to have (the extra disk) just sitting there. So we use (RAID 5) parity to take the space that (the extra disk) represents, and spread it across the array. Then we use this extra space to increase O/1 RAID," he informed Newsbytes. The "autoconfiguration" capability, on the other hand, allows the user to add more capacity to the system without needing to spend time formatting or configuring the added disk module, he explained. Acropolis, an OEM player in the Sun Microsystems market, plans to ship an Acropolis-branded version of AutoRAID, as well as a turnkey Acropolis AxilServer S/420 system bundled with Acropolis' AutoRAID-based ASI-1200 DynamicRAID subsystem, by the end of March, according to McGraw. Slated for availability in cabinet as well as rackmount editions, the upcoming ASI-1200 is designed to support up to 12 one-inch- high 3.5-inch disks or six 1.6-inch-high disks, two active controllers, two active load balancing power supplies, and three fans. Disks, power supplies, and fans are hot swappable. The ASI- 1200 will provide up to 5.7 terabytes (TB) of capacity when used in conjunction with the AxilServer S/420 and storage management software. "We've signed up other customers, too, and we hope to be able to announce some of them in the first quarter," McGraw noted. One potential "customer" that is now evaluating the new RAID subsystem is HP itself, for use with the company's own workstations and servers, added the HP Storage Systems Division exec. (Jacqueline Emigh/19951220/Reader Contact: Hewlett-Packard, 800- 826-4111; Press Contact: Dave Webb, The Hoffman Agency for HP, 408-286-2611) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 12/20/95 LEGAL ****Clinton Vetoes Securities Bill (NEWS)(LEGAL)(WAS)(00020) ****Clinton Vetoes Securities Bill 12/20/95 WASHINGTON, D.C., U.S.A., 1995 DEC 20 (NB) -- After days of agonizing, President Clinton Tuesday night vetoed legislation designed to protect corporations from lawsuits filed by investors. The decision came only hours before midnight, when the bill would have become law without the president's signature. A week ago, White House officials said the president was leaning toward a signature of the bill that passed both houses of Congress by a wide margin. But a lobbying campaign by consumer groups and trial lawyers turned the president around. "The president supports the goals of this legislation, but he is unwilling to close the courthouse doors on investors who have legitimate claims," said a White House statement. The surprise veto angered Silicon Valley, which has been an important source of political and financial support for Clinton. According to the American Electronics Association, nearly 53 percent of the Valley's high-tech companies have been sued for allegedly violating the anti-fraud provisions of securities law. "This is an outrage," said William Archey, head of AEA. "The securities litigation reform bill was one of the most moderate, balanced and bipartisan pieces of legislation the president saw all year. By vetoing this bill, the president has turned on the nation's most respected high-tech companies and left them to face meritless securities lawsuits, 93 percent of which settle for an average of $8.6 million apiece. That makes this a $2.4 billion industry with a third of this amount, plus expenses, going to the lawyers." Now the supporters of the legislation will try to override the veto. The House passed the bill by a vote of 324-102, more than enough votes to override. In the Senate, the bill passed by 65-30, one vote short of the 66 necessary to overturn the veto. Republican leaders in the House have indicated they will try to schedule an override vote this week. The Senate is likely to wait to see the outcome of the House vote before it moves on an override. Republicans were charging that Clinton changed his mind on the bill after being lobbied by William Lerach, a San Diego lawyer who specializes in class action securities suits. He was at the White House on Friday with several hundred other Democratic contributors. His firm has contributed $180,000 to the party this year, according to the Federal Election Commission data. Lerach told reporters yesterday that he had not spoken to the president about the issue, but "my opinion is known to everyone in Western civilization," he told the Washington Post. "The legislation is horrible." (Kennedy Maize/19951220/Press Contact: Greg Garcia, AEA, 202-682-9110) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 12/20/95 GOVT Bosnia Web Home Page For US Forces (NEWS)(GOVT)(WAS)(00021) Bosnia Web Home Page For US Forces 12/20/95 WASHINGTON, D.C., U.S.A., 1995 DEC 20 (NB) -- The Internet, created to protect military communications, can now be used by civilians to contact US forces in Bosnia. The Pentagon has created Bosnia Link, a World Wide Web home page that allows users to send holiday readings to the troops in the NATO "joint endeavor" operation to implement the peace agreement. While not able to send messages to individual soldiers, the Web site does permit general messages of good will. Users fill out an online form, including a message of up to 50 words, and then click a button to send the form. The Pentagon says that, while the messages don't go to individuals in the military, "A selection of these messages will be delivered through internal military print media to the troops and will be broadcast over Armed Forces Radio and Television to the troops deployed in Bosnia and the various supporting the joint endeavor operation." The Pentagon says it is working on individual e-mail capability. The home page also contains a lot of useful information about the Bosnian operation, including maps and charts, fact sheets, news releases, photos, biographies of key commanders and leaders, transcripts of press briefings, and speeches and congressional testimony. The Bosnia Link home page also has hot links to other relevant sites, including the Air Force, NATO, the State Department, the Navy, and the White House. The address for Bosnia Link is http:www.dtic.dla.mil/bosnia/ . The Pentagon also has a general information World Wide Web site, called Defense Link. Its address is http:www.dtic.dla.mil/defenselink/ . (Kennedy Maize/19951220/Press Contact: Kenneth Bacon, 703-695-0192) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 12/20/95 TRENDS Latin American Software Sales Sluggish (NEWS)(TRENDS)(WAS)(00022) Latin American Software Sales Sluggish 12/20/95 WASHINGTON, D.C., U.S.A., 1995 DEC 20 (NB) -- Dragged down by the weak Mexican peso, third quarter software sales in Latin America were sluggish, says the Software Publishers Association. Sales for the quarter were $37.9 million, down five percent over the third quarter of 1994. Sales in the region were positive for the first three quarters, totaling $126.9 million, a 28 percent gain over the first nine months of 1994. Mexico was clearly the weak spot in the region. Sales for the third quarter totaled $6.3 million, down 52 percent over the third quarter of last year. For the first three quarters, Mexican sales totaled $18.8 million, down 47 percent over the 1994 period. Brazil continues to be the dominant market in the region. Personal computer software sales hit $12.1 million for the third quarter, up 10 percent over last year's third quarter. For the first nine months, Brazilian sales totaled $47.5 million -- an increase of 96 percent. The rest of Latin American had a strong showing, with sales for the quarter of $19 million, a 31 percent hike. For the first nine months, Latin American sales outside of Mexico and Brazil totaled $59.3 million, up 59 percent. "The growth of software sales in Latin American markets other than Brazil and Mexico is a positive sign for future growth throughout the region," said Ken Wasch, SPA president. "As these markets struggle to meet copyright compliance laws, software sales are sure to increase in future quarters." (Kennedy Maize/19951220/Press Contact: Anne Griffith, 202-452-1600 ext 360) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 12/20/95 ONLINE Software Carries Sound & Pictures Over Internet (NEWS)(ONLINE)(TOR)(00023) Software Carries Sound & Pictures Over Internet 12/20/95 VANCOUVER, BRITISH COLUMBIA, CANADA, 1995 DEC 20 (NB) -- Free software from Telescape Communications Inc. will let Internet users, not only talk over the net, but see each other or other still pictures as they do so, the company said. Telescape is giving away the most basic version of its Ts Intercom software, which carries audio signals and still pictures as well as data almost in real time. Using this software on two PCs connected to the Internet, people anywhere in the world can carry on something similar to a long- distance telephone call while exchanging pictures and data at the same time, officials said. Geoffrey Hansen, president and founder of Telescape, told Newsbytes the Ts Intercom software his company is offering at no charge handles only simplex communication, which means only one of the two parties to an Internet "phone call" can talk at a time. The company plans to offer a commercial version of the software that supports full two-way conversation and comes with some other extras such as built-in voice-mail, he said. Hansen also acknowledged that, depending on the traffic on the Internet and the route the connection between two parties follows, there may be slight delays in a call using Ts Intercom. In tests, Telescape has seen delays of as much as three seconds on calls across North America, he said. In some cases, intercontinental calls will work better than shorter ones -- the governing factor seems to be the path a connection follows over the net, Hansen said. The Ts Intercom software is available for download at Telescape's site on the World Wide Web, which is at http://www.telescape.com . (Grant Buckler/19951220/Press Contact: Geoffrey Hansen, Telescape, 604-893-7088, Internet e-mail ghansen@telescape.com) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 12/20/95 BUSINESS Quarterdeck Restructures Again (NEWS)(BUSINESS)(LAX)(00024) Quarterdeck Restructures Again 12/20/95 MARINA DEL REY, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1995 DEC 20 (NB) -- Quarterdeck Corp. (Nasdaq: QDEK) has announced major corporate organizational changes for the second time in the last few months. Quarterdeck has formed two operating companies, Quarterdeck North America/Rest of the World (ROW) and Quarterdeck Europe, to be based in Ireland. Each company will have its own President and will be responsible for its own sales, distribution channels, operations, manufacturing, product fulfillment, customer service, and technical support. Jim Moise, senior vice president of Worldwide Sales, has been appointed president of Quarterdeck NA/ROW. A president will be appointed for Quarterdeck Europe in the coming weeks. Ellen Spooren, head of corporate communications for Quarterdeck, told Newsbytes, "Under these two umbrella operating divisions, the company will have four business units: the recently created Internet Services unit; the Utilities unit; the newly named Internet Applications business unit; and the new Telecommunications and Collaborative Computing Unit. Each of the four units will operate under both of the new operating companies." The Utilities unit remains unchanged, with Alex Eckelberry as vice president and general manager. According to the company, the Utilities unit will concentrate on PC software in small- and medium-sized businesses as well as the home market. The Internet business unit has become the Internet Applications business unit, with Emerick Woods as vice president and general manager. This unit focuses on the Internet, with product lines such as WebCompass, WebStar for PC and Macintosh, and IWare Connect for Novell NetWare. The Remote Computing unit has become part of the new Telecommunications and Collaborative Computing Unit, which combines the remote computing products like WebTalk and Expertise, as well as Internet clients, such as Quarterdeck Mosaic, InternetSuite, and Larry Magid's Essential Internet. The focus of this unit is to drive the distribution of the client products through partnerships with Internet service providers and OEM (original equipment manufacturer) channels. A senior vice president to head the unit will be named early next year. The recently created Internet Services unit is dedicated to providing products and services to the increasing number of small- and medium-sized businesses interested in conducting commerce on the Internet. This unit will be headed by Steve Tropp as senior vice president and general manager. Quarterdeck also announced the appointments of Koen Bouwers as vice president of Worldwide Marketing and Ellen Spooren as vice president of Corporate Communications. Bouwers has previously held marketing positions for Philips Electronics and Apple. (Richard Bowers/19951220/Press Contact: Ellen Spooren, Quarterdeck Corporation, 310-309-4261) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 12/20/95 TRENDS ****PC Growth Still Strong, Compaq On Top - IDC (NEWS)(TRENDS)(TOR)(00025) ****PC Growth Still Strong, Compaq On Top - IDC 12/20/95 FRAMINGHAM, MASSACHUSETTS, U.S.A., 1995 DEC 20 (NB) -- Worries early in 1995 that the American personal computer market's growth might slow down this year have turned out to be unfounded, research firm International Data Corp. said in a market forecast released this week. IDC said the PC market in the United States grew 22 percent in 1995, a slightly better growth rate than 1994's 20 percent. IDC also said Compaq Computer Corp. (NYSE:CPQ) of Houston remains the number one PC vendor in the US market, but Packard Bell Electronics Inc., of Westlake Village, California, is close behind, with Apple Computer Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) running third. Once-mighty IBM (NYSE:IBM) is in fourth place, followed in order by Gateway 2000 Inc. (NASDAQ:GATE), Dell Computer Corp. (NASDAQ:DELL), Hewlett-Packard Co. (NYSE:HWP), Acer America Corp., Toshiba Corp. (TOKYO:TOSBF), and AST Research Inc. (NASDAQ:ASTA). Bruce Stephen, vice-president of worldwide personal systems research at IDC, told Newsbytes that despite much negative press coverage, Apple is holding its share of the hardware market. However, he said Apple has done this by pricing its products more aggressively in the latter part of the year, and this has affected the company's profit margin. Stephen added that concerns about the company may hurt its ability to attract new customers in the coming months, and that some corporate personal computer buyers are moving away from Apple's Macintosh to computers running Microsoft's Windows. IBM has some strong products, especially in the portable segment, but "they've got a long way to go in the desktop arena," Stephen said. Both Hewlett-Packard and Dell are doing well in market areas that traditionally have belonged to IBM, and front-runner Compaq has been very successful in competing with Big Blue. Hewlett-Packard has moved from tenth to seventh spot in the rankings, thanks to huge growth in commercial desktops, an expansion into the retail PC areas, and an increase in PC server shipments. Another traditional minicomputer-maker seeking a berth in the top 10 is Digital Equipment Corp. (NYSE:DEC). Stephen said the Maynard, Massachusetts-based company is not quite there yet -- IDC currently ranks DEC 12th in US PC shipments -- but may make it soon, especially if a couple of the leaders falter. AST is in 10th place and slipping, Stephen noted, and its problems might help DEC gain ground. Other PC vendors showing strong growth in the US market include Acer, whose Aspire line is helping broaden its consumer desktop business, and Dell, which has moved quickly to new Pentium processors, cut prices, and recovered from past calamities in the laptop marketplace with a new and strong portable lineup. IDC's projections are based on quarterly surveys of vendors as well as recent discussions with vendors and others to determine the trends in fourth-quarter sales, Stephen said. (Grant Buckler/19951220/Press Contact: Bruce Stephen, IDC, 508-935-4269; Hillary DeMello, IDC, 508-935-4282, Internet e-mail hdemello@idcresearch.com) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 12/20/95 LEGAL ****IRS Worker Guilty Of Snooping Taxpayer Info (NEWS)(LEGAL)(DEN)(00026) ****IRS Worker Guilty Of Snooping Taxpayer Info 12/20/95 BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS, U.S.A., 1995 DEC 20 (NB) -- A former employee of the Internal Revenue Service has been convicted by a federal jury of unlawfully using IRS computers to repeatedly obtain confidential taxpayer information. Following a four-day trial, the jury decided Richard Czubinski, 32, of Dorchester, Massachusetts, used his position at the IRS to unlawfully access IRS computers to acquire the information for his unauthorized and personal use. Czubinski was convicted of nine counts of wire fraud and four counts of computer fraud. Prosecutors alleged that in 1992, when he was employed as an IRS contact representative, Czubinski used his computer password to access and inspect confidential taxpayer records of people he perceived as enemies, as well as some of his associates. According to the US Attorney's Office in Boston, Czubinski was a member of the Knights of the Ku Klux Klan and was affiliated with other white supremacist groups. He was allegedly using the information he obtained to build dossiers on people he suspected might be informers against those groups. Officials allege he also obtained information on the Suffolk County Assistant District Attorney, who criminally prosecuted his father, and about a committee that supported a man who defeated Czubinski in an unsuccessful bid for political office. Czubinski will be sentenced on February 26, 1996. He faces a maximum punishment of five years in prison and $250,000 fine on each of the 13 counts on which he was convicted. (Jim Mallory/19951220/Press contact: Joy Fallon, US Attorney's Office Boston, 617-223-9445) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 12/20/95 ONLINE ****Netscape Creates Java Conference (NEWS)(ONLINE)(SFO)(00027) ****Netscape Creates Java Conference 12/20/95 MOUNTAIN VIEW, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1995 DEC 20 (NB) -- Netscape Communications (NASDAQ:NSCP) says it has never seen interest in a programming language grow so fast as it has with the phenomena of Java, Sun Microsystems' open Internet programming language. In response, Netscape and Integrated Media have announced the Netscape Internet Developers Conference, the first Java and JavaScript developers gathering. Called Netscape Internet DevCon, for short, the show will take place March 5-7 in San Francisco at the Moscone Center. This conference is directed towards Netscape and Internet developers from the enterprise side, and, from the commercial side, design professionals, value-added resellers, system integrators, and technical consultants. Co-founder of Netscape and developer of Mosaic, Marc Andreesen, heads a list of three keynote speakers. He will be joined by Sun's chief technology officer, Eric Schmidt, and chief executive officer of @Home, Will Hearst. Netscape says sessions will cover topics such as developing internal enterprise Web sites, programming to Netscape's open application programming interfaces (APIs), programming with Java and JavaScript languages, and creating interactive Web pages. Why is Java so hot? Nova Spivack, marketing director and co-founder of EarthWeb, told Newsbytes, "Java is the programming language which will bring the Internet to a new level of experience for all users." EarthWeb co-developed the Java developers and information Web site called Gamelan which can be found at http://www.gamelan.com . Users with a Java player built into their browser can play three-dimensional (3-D) Netris, an interactive game which shows-off Java capabilities. "The Web site opens its Java information to all Internet users, but to really experience products created with Java, players need the Java player," explained Spivack. Pre-registration for Netscape Internet DevCon is $895. After January 31, 1996, the price will be $995. Members of Netscape's Development Partners Program are entitled to a $100 discount. Netscape warns the event is limited in size. Integrated Media is a division of IDG, conference/tradeshow producer, computer book publisher and computer industry consultant and research specialists. (Patrick McKenna/19951220/Press Contact: Andrea Cook, Netscape, 415-528-6711; Public Contact: 800-225-4698, 617-551-9800) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 12/20/95 BUSINESS FTP Gets GroupWare Product Via $10Mil HyperDesk Deal (NEWS)(BUSINESS)(BOS)(00028) FTP Gets GroupWare Product Via $10Mil HyperDesk Deal 12/20/95 ANDOVER, MASSACHUSETTS, U.S.A., 1995 DEC 20 (NB) -- FTP Software's newly unveiled $10 million purchase of the assets of HyperDesk, makers of GroupWorks "personal groupware," is aimed at adding software that "complements" FTP's World Wide Web server/browser and flagship "TCP/IP (Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol) management" products, said Peter Zaballos, director of strategic planning, in an interview with Newsbytes. In another prong of the deal, FTP will establish a marketing relationship in Japan with ASCII Corp., HyperDesk's principal shareholder. Zaballos told Newsbytes that the cash purchase of Westborough, Massachusetts-based HyperDesk's assets will give FTP the rights to HyperDesk's "product, code, tools, and marketing and business plans." But even more importantly, he said, the approximately 24 employees of HyperDesk, including all developers who work for the Westborough, Massachusetts-based company, will join FTP Software. FTP has now signed a letter of intent for the $10 million acquisition, according to Zaballos. When the pact goes through, HyperDesk will become a component of FTP's recently formed New Ventures Business Unit, an organization that also encompasses FTP's Internet Business Unit. Last summer, David Zirkle, who is FTP's president and CEO (chief executive officer), and other senior company officials met with industry analysts to relay the message to Wall Street that FTP does not expect the "collection of business units" within New Ventures to initially produce the same "handsome" 40 percent profit net margin as the company's core OnNet product line for TCP/IP connectivity, Newsbytes was told. "The way that Wall Street works, if you've got a lot of cash and no debts, and you're returning high profits, they want you to keep doing that. We need to make investments for the future, and investments take money. So (Zirkle) went out and said, 'We're going to continue to manage our core business to this high profit margin model, but we're going to set up a series of new ventures that will allow us to run at a lower profit margin to make the required investments necessary for us to fold in a series of higher profit margin businesses over the coming years,'" according to Zaballos. Components within FTP's New Ventures unit are "businesses where we'll invest heavily on the front end -- initially, probably, just breaking even -- and then, as those operations mature, pulling them into the company's traditional profit margin," he continued. Zirkle enumerated a number of future investment areas last summer, including the Internet and "collaborative software," Zaballos noted. "At this point, you could look at the Internet as well as our current TCP/IP products as the platform over which applications will run. And I think that's a pretty consistent trend in the industry," he remarked. "We don't see (groupware) as supplanting or replacing any of the value we deliver on the two other fronts. It's a complementary extension," added FTP's director of strategic planning. FTP chose to purchase HyperDesk's assets because the GroupWorks product, now being updated to version 2.0, is "robust, feature- slim, scalable from workgroups to the enterprise, and (able to) work right out of the box," Zaballos maintained. As previously reported by Newsbytes, GroupWorks uses OLE (object linking and embedding) extensions for workgroup sharing of database information, documents, and e-mail. Use of the OLE extensions permits faster performance and higher throughput by eliminating replication, at the same time allowing customers to avoid the expense of a server, said Herb Osher, HyperDesk's president, and Robert M. Strong, VP of research and development, in a meeting with Newsbytes at GroupWare Boston '95, where GroupWorks 1.0 was introduced in March. In a demo at the show in Boston, Newsbytes saw how GroupWorks 1.0 greets each end-user with screen called "My Work" that uses graphics to portray project tasks, meetings, and "milestones." Users are provided with three views of the "milestones" a timeline, an outline view, and a project calendar. The Winsock TCP/IP- and Novell IPX (Internet Packet Exchange)- compatible GroupWorks 1.0 can be used in large workgroups of 30 to 50 users by segmenting domains, the HyperDesk execs said at that time. FTP's Zaballos told Newsbytes this week that GroupWare 2.0, an upgrade introduced earlier this month, adds support for Windows 95 and Windows NT, along with other "significant enhancements," including the ability to link Web pages to "group collaboration projects." GroupWare 2.0 is slated to ship in January, he noted. (Jacqueline Emigh/19951220/Reader Contact: FTP Software, 508-685- 4000; Press Contact: David Seuss or Constance Mazelsky, Lois Paul & Partners for FTP, 617-862-4514) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 12/20/95 APPLE Macworld Set For January In San Francisco (NEWS)(APPLE)(SFO)(00029) Macworld Set For January In San Francisco 12/20/95 SAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1995 DEC 20 (NB) -- Macintosh enthusiasts will once again make the pilgrimage to Macworld next month as more than 72,000 are expected to gather for the 1996 event. Running from January 9 through 12, the show will focus on Macintosh and Newton developer tools and sessions. Unlike last year's off-beat keynote, this year's show will feature a keynote from the president of the newly formed Apple Americas group, Jim Buckley. Entitled, "Apple Innovation: Building on the Solutions Advantage," his address will cover "current solutions" and how the company's strategy translates "directly into customer benefits in key markets." Mitch Hall & Associates (MHA), producer of Macworld, expects this show to be the largest ever. Pre-registered attendance is up 15% over last year and 1,500 booths will offer attendees a chance to see and experiment with products from categories such as multimedia, entertainment, education, Internet, small office/home office (SOHO), networks, CD-ROM technology, design, applications, and the latest hardware. In addition to the tradeshow floor, Macworld '96 will offer 108 sessions based on categories such as: The Education Conference; The Getting Started Conference; The SOHO Conference; The Advanced User Conference, and The Design/Art/PrePress Conference. There are two separate Macworld attendance packages. One covers conferences and exhibits for $175 at the door, and a second is exhibits-only for $40, "cash only." A spokesperson for the show told Newsbytes, "Our list of new products and services to be announced at this show is still growing. Macworld San Francisco still remains the number one Mac show in the world. People plan their vacations around this show and almost every developer, reseller, and others involved with the Mac will be here." (Patrick McKenna/19951220/Press Contact: Helga Beck, Neale-May & Partners, 415-328-5555) (SUMMARY)(GENERAL)(MSP)(00030) Newsbytes Daily Summary 12/20/95 MINNEAPOLIS, MINNESOTA, U.S.A., 1995 DEC 20 (NB) -- These are capsules of all today's news stories: ======================================================================== ------------| N E W S B Y T E S D A I L Y S U M M A R Y |---------- ------------| Wednesday, December 20, 1995 |---------- ======================================================================== (c) Newsbytes News Network (Tm) Editor in Chief: Wendy Woods ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Newsbytes News Network's on the Web! Check out http://www.nbnn.com for free daily top stories from Newsbytes and its affiliate publications, and from PC Week, MacWeek, and other Ziff news magazines. A subscription gives you all the news, full-text, plus the most comprehensive database of past computer stories online. 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Send to 'administrator@newsbytes.com' For Japanese Newsbytes and additional services, see the Newsbytes Pacifica Website at http://www.islandtel.com/newsbytes/ ------------------------------------------------------------------------ CATEGORY HEADLINES (*** indicates today's top stories) STORY # ======================================================================== APPLE Macworld Set For January In San Francisco.................. 29 BROADCAST India - ASCOM & Essar Plan Satellite Mobile Telephony...... 16 BUSINESS Novell Restructures European Marketing Operations.......... 05 BUSINESS KPTT Netherlands' Cashless Card Joint Venture.............. 12 BUSINESS 3Com Plans Software Design Center In India................. 15 BUSINESS Brooktrout Invests In "TAPI LAN Server" Vendor............. 17 BUSINESS Quarterdeck Restructures Again............................. 24 BUSINESS FTP Gets GroupWare Product Via $10Mil HyperDesk Deal....... 28 EDUCATION German Govt's Ambitious School Internet Plan............... 01 GENERAL Japan Newsbriefs........................................... 08 GENERAL Ericsson Cable Receives Swedish Quality Award.............. 11 GOVT E-Mail For US Soldiers In Bosnia........................... 06 GOVT Bosnia Web Home Page For US Forces......................... 21 LEGAL UK Sailor In Court Over Phone Scam......................... 04 LEGAL ****Clinton Vetoes Securities Bill........................ 20 LEGAL ****IRS Worker Guilty Of Snooping Taxpayer Info........... 26 NETWORK Novell Ships NetWare Web Server, LAN Workgroup 5........... 10 ONLINE UK - What's New Web Site................................... 03 ONLINE E3 Expo Adds Web Site...................................... 07 ONLINE ****Newsbytes Free Gifts At First Virtual................. 18 ONLINE Software Carries Sound & Pictures Over Internet............ 23 ONLINE ****Netscape Creates Java Conference...................... 27 TELECOM Germany's Mannesmann Mobile Phone Group Looks Forward...... 02 TRENDS Banks Poised For Electronic Banking - But Are We........... 09 TRENDS Massachusetts Tunnel Deploys Electronic Toll Collection.... 13 TRENDS Yellow Pages On A Business Card............................ 14 TRENDS Latin American Software Sales Sluggish..................... 22 TRENDS ****PC Growth Still Strong, Compaq On Top - IDC........... 25 UNIX HP's "Intelligent, Mix-and-Match" AutoRAID................. 19 ======================================================================== These are the headlines and first paragraphs of each story, in order: 1 -> German Govt's Ambitious School Internet Plan -- Deutsche Telekom has announced it is teaming up with the German Government on an ambitious three-year project to plug German schools and other educational establishments into the Internet. 2 -> Germany's Mannesmann Mobile Phone Group Looks Forward -- It's been an interesting year for Mannesmann-Mobilfunk, the mobile telecoms division of Mannesmann- Tally. According to Juergen von Kuczkowski, the company's chairman, sales are expected to increase this year to around the DM2.7 billion mark, thanks to 60,000 new subscribers on the company's D2 GSM (global system for mobile communications) digital phone network. 3 -> UK - What's New Web Site -- Indexes abound for US World Wide Web sites, but what about a "what's new" in the UK Web site scene? EMAP Computing, the IT (information technology) publishing division of East Midlands Allied Press (EMAP), a UK press conglomerate, has opened up just such a Web site 4 -> UK Sailor In Court Over Phone Scam -- A Royal Navy Court Martial has heard this week how a group of radio operators on board HMS Ark Royal cheated the navy out of more than UKP5,000 of phone calls. For the prosecution, Lieutenant-Commander Nick Hawkins said a total of 29 calls made by radio operator Darren Gray had either been logged incorrectly or not at all. 5 -> Novell Restructures European Marketing Operations -- Novell Europe, Middle East & Africa (EMEA) has announced that a major restructuring of its marketing operations is now taking place, According to Charles Callis, vice president of the division, the aim of the changes is to refocus Novell's products and services marketing at a central and localized level. 6 -> E-Mail For US Soldiers In Bosnia -- One of the first things soldiers in the advance party of US troops arriving in Bosnia did was set up an e-mail link so the members of one advance unit can stay in touch with home. 7 -> E3 Expo Adds Web Site -- E3 (Electronic Entertainment Expo) expo has a new World Wide Web Site that will feature hot links to exhibitors' home pages, and offer details on conference sessions, industry trends, hotel/travel data, and general E3 News. The expo will take place May 16-18, 1996 at the Los Angeles Convention Center. 8 -> Japan Newsbriefs -- In this roundup of news from Japan: Fujitsu licenses Sun's Java; Overseas telephone traffic jumps; CNBC gains broadcast approval; PC-VAN to begin weather information service; NTT World Bird Count results. 9 -> Banks Poised For Electronic Banking - But Are We -- Experts estimate that more than 13 million households will jump online instead of standing in line to do their banking by the year 2000. But are we really ready? 10 -> Novell Ships NetWare Web Server, LAN Workgroup 5 -- Novell Inc. (NASDAQ: NOVL) has announced it is shipping its new NetWare Web Server and version 5 of LAN Workgroup for Microsoft Windows and DOS. 11 -> Ericsson Cable Receives Swedish Quality Award -- Ericsson Cable AB, the Swedish telco's cable division, has been given the Swedish Quality Award for 1995. At a ceremony in Gothenburg, Sweden, Lars Renstrom, head of the division, and Janne Sjoden, the manager of Ericsson Cables, received the award from HRH King Carl XVI Gustaf. 12 -> KPTT Netherlands' Cashless Card Joint Venture -- Koninklijke PTT Nederland, the Dutch telecoms group, has announced it is teaming up with Postbank, the post giro banking operation, to develop and market multi-function smart cards. 13 -> Massachusetts Tunnel Deploys Electronic Toll Collection -- An "electronic toll collection" system, installed in Boston's newly opened Third Harbor Tunnel, carries the technical potential to be upgraded to "value pricing," a pricing scheme that calls for vehicles to be automatically charged at different rates depending on "time of day" of travel, said Mike Breslin, VP of marketing for MFS, in an interview with Newsbytes. 14 -> Yellow Pages On A Business Card -- A Florida company has introduced a pocket data bank that fits in your shirt pocket and contains thousands of preprogrammed phone numbers and other bits of information. 15 -> 3Com Plans Software Design Center In India -- Networking company 3Com Corp., plans to set up a software development center (SDC) in India, which is expected to be in place within a year, according to Subhash Bal, country manager 3Com Asia Pvt. Ltd. 16 -> India - ASCOM & Essar Plan Satellite Mobile Telephony -- Afro-Asian Satellite Communications (Gibraltar) Ltd. (ASCOM), a company promoted by Subhash Goyal of Zee TV, the Hindi channel on Star TV Network, has recruited Essar Telecom Ltd. as a majority joint partner in its proposed venture to provide a satellite-based mobile telephony service, called OBSIDIAN, to countries across Asia and Africa. 17 -> Brooktrout Invests In "TAPI LAN Server" Vendor -- A newly unveiled "staged investment" deal by Brooktrout Technology leaves the door open for integration between Brooktrout's fax and voice messaging products and Claflin & Clayton's NetPhone, one of the first network servers to comply with Microsoft's TAPI (Telephony Application Programming Interface), maintained Andrew O'Brien, Brooktrout's VP of marketing, in an interview with Newsbytes. 18 -> ****Newsbytes Free Gifts At First Virtual -- Newsbytes News Network, a comprehensive source of daily telecom, computer, and interactive services news since 1983, and First Virtual Holdings Inc., are offering free one-month trial subscriptions to Newsbytes' E-Mail Subscription Service to new First Virtual account holders. 19 -> HP's "Intelligent, Mix-and-Match" AutoRAID -- Hewlett-Packard has already signed up multiple OEMs (original equipment manufacturers) for AutoRAID, although Acropolis Systems is the only customer to be officially announced so far for the "completely unique," self-adjustable, Unix-based storage subsystem, revealed Bob McGraw, market development manager for the HP Storage Systems Division, in a briefing for Newsbytes. 20 -> ****Clinton Vetoes Securities Bill -- After days of agonizing, President Clinton Tuesday night vetoed legislation designed to protect corporations from lawsuits filed by investors. The decision came only hours before midnight, when the bill would have become law without the president's signature. 21 -> Bosnia Web Home Page For US Forces -- The Internet, created to protect military communications, can now be used by civilians to contact US forces in Bosnia. 22 -> Latin American Software Sales Sluggish -- Dragged down by the weak Mexican peso, third quarter software sales in Latin America were sluggish, says the Software Publishers Association. Sales for the quarter were $37.9 million, down five percent over the third quarter of 1994. 23 -> Software Carries Sound & Pictures Over Internet -- Free software from Telescape Communications Inc. will let Internet users, not only talk over the net, but see each other or other still pictures as they do so, the company said. 24 -> Quarterdeck Restructures Again -- Quarterdeck Corp. (Nasdaq: QDEK) has announced major corporate organizational changes for the second time in the last few months. Quarterdeck has formed two operating companies, Quarterdeck North America/Rest of the World (ROW) and Quarterdeck Europe, to be based in Ireland. 25 -> ****PC Growth Still Strong, Compaq On Top - IDC -- Worries early in 1995 that the American personal computer market's growth might slow down this year have turned out to be unfounded, research firm International Data Corp. said in a market forecast released this week. IDC said the PC market in the United States grew 22 percent in 1995, a slightly better growth rate than 1994's 20 percent. 26 -> ****IRS Worker Guilty Of Snooping Taxpayer Info -- A former employee of the Internal Revenue Service has been convicted by a federal jury of unlawfully using IRS computers to repeatedly obtain confidential taxpayer information. 27 -> ****Netscape Creates Java Conference -- Netscape Communications (NASDAQ:NSCP) says it has never seen interest in a programming language grow so fast as it has with the phenomena of Java, Sun Microsystems' open Internet programming language. In response, Netscape and Integrated Media have announced the Netscape Internet Developers Conference, the first Java and JavaScript developers gathering. 28 -> FTP Gets GroupWare Product Via $10Mil HyperDesk Deal -- FTP Software's newly unveiled $10 million purchase of the assets of HyperDesk, makers of GroupWorks "personal groupware," is aimed at adding software that "complements" FTP's World Wide Web server/browser and flagship "TCP/IP (Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol) management" products, said Peter Zaballos, director of strategic planning, in an interview with Newsbytes. In another prong of the deal, FTP will establish a marketing relationship in Japan with ASCII Corp., HyperDesk's principal shareholder. 29 -> Macworld Set For January In San Francisco -- Macintosh enthusiasts will once again make the pilgrimage to Macworld next month as more than 72,000 are expected to gather for the 1996 event. Running from January 9 through 12, the show will focus on Macintosh and Newton developer tools and sessions. (Ian Stokell/19951220) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 12/19/95 GENERAL Czech Republic - HP's DesignJet Color Printers (NEWS)(GENERAL)(LON)(00001) Czech Republic - HP's DesignJet Color Printers 12/19/95 PRAGUE, CZECH REPUBLIC, 1995 DEC 19 (NB) -- Hewlett-Packard s.r.o. is now offering in the Czech Republic two new large format color plotters/printers -- the DesignJet 750C, a replacement for the 650C, and the DesignJet 755CM, positioned as a large format postscript printer for desktop publishing (DTP) or advertising agencies. Both plotter/printers, available in the Czech Republic since November 1, have the following features: up to 600 by 600 dots-per- inch (dpi) in monochrome and 300 by 300 dpi in color; as fast as two pages-per-minute (ppm) speed for A1-sized page in monochrome and 4ppm in color; support for all new media including opaque and translucent bond, vellum, natural tracing paper, clear and matte film, coated paper, heavyweight coated paper, three glossy papers, and glossy film; support for HP-GL, AutoCAD, and Windows; and seven megabytes (MB) RAM upgradable to 71MB. The 755CM comes with PostScript, extra memory, color management software, and the JetDirect print server. It is positioned as a printer for DTP or advertising agencies, and can print from Quark, Pagemaker, and other high-end DTP packages. JetDirect is the network interface that enables connections to the Mac platform. The 750C is available through all Hewlett-Packard distributors, including CHS, ELKO, Expert & Partner, and TH'system. HP estimates that there are currently about 15 active resellers of the DesignJets, but anticipates this number increasing with the introduction of the new models. The 755CM will be available from the distributor ELKO and the three value-added resellers (VARs): Axiom s.r.o., CAD Studio s.r.o., and DTP Studio s.r.o. The 755CM has a large memory buffer and supports several PostScript protocols. Said Martin Horansky of Axiom/Zlin, "It is intended for large format printing, which means that the main benefit is that it works with smaller files. "We are expecting customers, for example, in banking for fast advertising. It enables them to go to all their branches and do a fast advertising campaign," said Horansky. Other examples include advertising agencies that prepare displays for exhibitions and architectural designers. Dealer prices are around 200,000 Kc (US$7,692) for the 750C and 260,000 Kc (US$10,000) for the 755CM. (Steven Slatem/19951218/Press & Reader Contact: Erik Elmer, Hewlett-Packard s.r.o., tel +42-2-4717321, fax +42-2-4717611, Internet e-mail erik_elmer@hp-czechia-om1.om.hp.com) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 12/19/95 ONLINE NBC/Microsoft Offer Super Bowl In Cyberspace (NEWS)(ONLINE)(DEN)(00002) NBC/Microsoft Offer Super Bowl In Cyberspace 12/19/95 REDMOND, WASHINGTON, U.S.A., 1995 DEC 19 (NB) -- Super Bowl XXX is coming to cyberspace. No, they aren't going to play the game in virtual reality instead of on a real field, but if NBC, the National Football League, and Microsoft have their way it might be the next best thing. The software and broadcast powerhouses said they will support the game that matches the two best teams in professional football each January with a multimedia event that includes a site on the World Wide Web. There will even be interactive advertisements. Microsoft will be the title sponsor of the Web site and has helped design it. A Microsoft spokesperson told Newsbytes that Super Bowl fans who attend the Super Bowl game January 28th at Arizona State University's Sun Devil Stadium in Tempe, Arizona, will receive a free CD-ROM that contains Microsoft's Web browser, called Internet Explorer. The disk also contains images of various content providers' home pages in the package of items that comes with each seat cushion. The spokesperson said the site, which goes live at the end of December, will have periodic live chat sessions with NFL players, coaches and personalities, as well as motion video with sound of the game as it progresses. Like the real stadium, the Web site is already being prepared for the big game. You'll be able to click on information about the hosts and even send mail to their mailboxes. A section on travel will provide information about the state of Arizona, what to do and see there, lodging and attractions listings, photos of the state, a link to Arizona's home page and an electronic reservations section for lodging and attractions. A Mall section lets you let your fingers do the shopping, while a Season module provides the standings and statistics of the National Football League teams. You can also read up on the history of the Super Bowl event and vote to decide who wins a hypothetical grudge match between the Buffalo Bills and the Minnesota Vikings that's complete with some snappy banter by two well-known sports announcers. There is also a press release section where you can read announcements by various participants. This isn't the first joint venture between NBC, owned by General Electric, and Microsoft. The television broadcaster already provides content for the Microsoft Network, and last week Newsbytes reported that the two companies will launch an all-news cable service next year. (Jim Mallory/19951219/Press contact: Microsoft, 206-882-8080) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 12/19/95 ONLINE Dimension X Intros Java Authoring Kit (NEWS)(ONLINE)(MSP)(00003) Dimension X Intros Java Authoring Kit 12/19/95 SAN DIEGO, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1995 DEC 19 (NB) -- Dimension X said it is releasing two products that will help Internet World Wide Web site administrators (Webmasters) incorporate virtual reality and Sun Microsystems' Java technology into Web sites. The two products, called "Liquid Reality" and "Ice," are now available to the public for licensing. Liquid Reality is a two-part product, Brad Karns, executive vice president of Dimension X, told Newsbytes, covering an authoring kit and a viewer. "What we've done is taken the standard VRML (virtual reality modeling language) spec and we've made it extensible," he said. "So what you can do is create something using standard VRML models that will have a dynamic. You can add behaviors, sounds, hyperlinks, and other features" to a Web site, Karns said. These can be viewed with Java-capable browsers like Sun's HotJava and Netscape 2.0. With Liquid Reality, users also have access to platform independence, along with parsing, rendering, and writing tools for VRML. Ice is a low-level three-dimensional (3-D) application programming interface (API) graphics engine that can render graphics with Java, Karns said. The engine is designed for fast rendering at interactive speeds, while incorporating features like multiple light sources, texture mapping, and smooth shading. Using Ice, developers can put on the Web online applications like games and 3-D worlds. Karns said that, like Liquid Reality, Ice is the first application on the market he knows of that has these features. Licenses for Liquid Reality and Ice will be free for non-commercial users, but a fee will be charged for commercial purposes. Karns said this is because the products are not easy to use as of yet, and the licensing fees will pay for product support. Liquid Reality and Ice can be licensed together or separately, he added. However, Karns said the company hopes to add more layers to both Liquid Reality and Ice so they will become "products for the masses." For more information, Net surfers can access http://www.diminsionx.com/ for details about the company, Liquid Reality, Ice, or Java. (Bob Woods/19951218/Press Contact: Brad Karns, Dimension X, 213-957-0300; Public Contact: Dimension X, 213-957-0300) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 12/19/95 BUSINESS Prodigy Forms WildFlower Div, Acquires SonicNet Share (NEWS)(BUSINESS)(SFO)(00004) Prodigy Forms WildFlower Div, Acquires SonicNet Share 12/19/95 WHITE PLAINS, NEW YORK, U.S.A., 1995 DEC 19 (NB) -- Ed Bennett, Prodigy's president and chief executive officer, continues to reshape the online company with a new investment arm called WildFlower Partners division. First action for the new division was to acquire an interest in New York- based World Wide Web site, SonicNet. Known for its rock and alternative music content, SonicNet received an undisclosed amount of cash to further develop its specialized content, hire additional staff, and expand into new entertainment areas. Speaking to Newsbytes about the acquisition, Prodigy's Mike Darcy said, "There are two important messages in this announcement. First, we have named and introduced our new investing division as WildFlower Partners, and, secondly, our first major investment is with a company which delivers the world of rock music in an entertaining, bright and vivid fashion. SonicNet is one of the hottest Web sites on the Net." Darcy also said both companies are privately held and the specific amount of investment or the percentage of acquisition would not be made public. He additionally said, "Our participation in SonicNet gives them the resources to take one of the most creative Web sites to even newer levels of production." Currently, SonicNet offers: "Chat Central," where users chat about the latest alternative and rock music news; "Shows," where users can find concert listings, live rock festival reports, and QuickTime videos; "Rant Dog Rant," for articles with an attitude and user postings; "Reviews" of CDs and videos; and "Links" to other cool sits. SonicNet is located at http://www.sonicnet.com . WildFlower Partners will continue to look for other new partners who are on the "cutting-edge of the Web," said the company. Explaining the benefits to Prodigy members, Darcy said, "SonicNet and any other partner we bring in will be distributed to our more than two million members through the service and each partner will supply exclusive content to Prodigy members." (Patrick McKenna/1995/Press Contact: Mike Darcy, Prodigy, 914-448-8846) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 12/19/95 TRENDS UK Businesses Slipping Through The Web - Report (NEWS)(TRENDS)(LON)(00005) UK Businesses Slipping Through The Web - Report 12/19/95 LONDON, ENGLAND, 1995 DEC 19 (NB) -- Businesses in the UK are missing out on the potential of the Internet by not setting up their own World Wide Web pages, a report just issued by Lombard Business Finance claims. According to the report, just over one in 10 companies are currently logged on to the Internet, and of those which are not connected, only 17 percent of businesses plan to do so in future. Interestingly, however, the research also claims to reveal that the vast majority of companies which are now using, or are planning to connect to the Internet, expect to do more business via the Internet in the next two years. The report shows that the services industry, with businesses ranging from solicitors to accountants and recruitment agencies, is using the Internet the most, with a quarter of companies questioned able to boast an e-mail address, and almost a third planning to log-on soon. According to Jeffrey Johnson, Lombard Business Finance's managing director, it is obvious that many of the UK's businesses are missing out on the potential of the Internet. "The report clearly shows that, once a company has experience of this new medium, the possibilities are obvious to those who use it," he said. "Once computer communications have become a familiar business tool, the hype surrounding the information superhighway will give way to widespread understanding and acceptance of what is another way of communicating and doing business," he said. In the report, which was compiled by Lombard to assess who is using the Internet to its full potential, the figures show that the UK's building trade are more likely to "surf the Net," than anyone else -- 40 percent of financial decision markers in the construction industry have used the Internet and nearly all of them expect that their business use will increase over the next two years. The report shows that the companies in London and the South East are more likely to have access to the Internet, with 18 percent already connected. And, the report notes, the larger the company, the more likely it is to have plans to log on in the future -- over 40 percent of businesses with a turnover in excess of UKP10 million intend to move online soon. The report was compiled as part of Lombard Business Investment Group's quarterly survey and took place in September of this year. The report polled more than 450 financial decision makers at businesses with turnovers ranging from UKP100,000 to UKP10 million. (Steve Gold/19951218/Press Contact: Paul Breadle, Le Fevre, +44-1865- 202666; Reader Contact: Lombard North Central, tel +44-1737-774111, fax +44-1737-774367) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 2000 12/19/95 TRENDS Europe - Cellular Market To Quadruple By Year (NEWS)(TRENDS)(LON)(00006) Europe - Cellular Market To Quadruple By Year 2000 12/19/95 LONDON, ENGLAND, 1995 DEC 19 (NB) -- According to a report issued by Schema, one of Europe's leading telecoms consultancies, the Western European cellular marketplace is expected to quadruple by the year 2000 with the consumer side of the market expected to rise to account for more than 70 percent of the subscriber base during that period. The study -- called "European Cellular Market Survey" -- predicts that the number of European cellular users will grow from 13 million in 1994 to more than 61 million by the year 2000. The report also claims to show that the greatest trend affecting the growth of this market will be the consumer side of the business, with a growth rate of 20 percent in 1994 to 70 percent in the year 2000. Elaine Axby, head of mobile consulting with Schema, explained that the market for cellular communications in Europe is currently enjoying a period of strong growth driven by competitive activity, price reductions, and regulatory pressure. "Substantial subscriber numbers are forecast for the end of the century with consequently high revenue streams for operators, service providers, and manufacturers," she said. Axby went on to say that one major factor influencing the development of the cellular market in Europe will be the need to address the consumer market in order to achieve the predicted growth. "At present, mobile is predominantly a business purchase but we predict that, by 1997, consumer users of cellular services will have caught up with business users and, by the end of the century, will outnumber them by more than two to one," she explained. The report claims to provide a market analysis of cellular communications in Europe and the future profitability of operators. The research was conducted through a combination of desk and telephone research, using Schema's library of information on mobile services in Europe, and telephone research carried out among operators and service providers across Europe. The report predicts that revenue growth from monthly subscriptions and calls made will rise from just under $8 million in 1994 to almost $19 million by the year 2000, and that the revenue generated by consumer users will rise from just over three percent to 41 percent in the same period. "Although the market is experiencing substantial growth, there is a decline in the revenue per subscriber. Schema predicts that this will fall from more than $600 per subscriber in 1994, to around the $300 per subscriber level by the year 2000. This will place increased pressure on the margin of operators and service providers, and may leased to the necessity to launch innovative value added services," Axby said. Further details of Schema can be found on the company's Web service pages at http://www.firefly.co.uk/firefly . (Sylvia Dennis/19951218/Press Contact: Kieran Moore; Firefly PR, +44- 171-381-4505, Internet e-mail kmoore@firefly.co.uk; Reader Contact: Schema, +44-171-497-0708) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 12/19/95 ONLINE Health Mall Opens On Web (NEWS)(ONLINE)(MSP)(00007) Health Mall Opens On Web 12/19/95 CHERRY HILL, NEW JERSEY, U.S.A., 1995 DEC 19 (NB) -- Health food, vitamins, and other fitness-related products and services have hit the Internet's World Wide Web, in the form of The Health Mall. The new Web site is described as a "virtual one-stop shopping experience" for people interested in health and fitness. More than 40 businesses that deal in health, nutrition, fitness, and "personal development" have opened their cyber-doors at The Health Mall, officials said. The companies sell health foods, vitamins, herbs, natural pet-care products, health and beauty aids, macrobiotics, kosher and dietetic foods, organic foods, and natural beef and poultry. Some of the firms also offer sports nutrition, dental hygiene, and naturopathy information and services. "There's nothing like our site on the Internet," Robert Savar, Health Mall founder, told Newsbytes. "You might have individual sites out there, from health food companies or health food magazines. We're an actual 'mall.' Our home pages range from one page to fifteen pages," he said. Savar also said the mall contains a directory of health food stores and health food restaurants that exist in the "real world," he said. Other features of the electronic mall that can be used in real life include printable "coupons" that physical stores take, Savar said. The coupons do change, to ensure repeat visits to the site, officials said. Many of the companies at The Health Mall accept orders online, and have the ability to take secure credit card transactions, Savar said. When Newsbytes accessed The Health Mall, we found an index page that clearly identified the various sections of the electronic marketplace. Entering the mall itself was easy, mainly due to a listing of shops that are broken down alphabetically by entry, business type, and state and country location. A "What's New" page detailed changes and additions to the site. And a "classified" section lets users list items to sell and other typical listings. The Health Mall is at http://www.hlthmall.com/ . (Bob Woods/19951218/Press Contact: Robert H. Savar, The Health Mall, 609-354-8304) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 12/19/95 TRENDS Newsweek - Who's Hot On The Internet? (NEWS)(TRENDS)(SFO)(00008) Newsweek - Who's Hot On The Internet? 12/19/95 NEW YORK, NEW YORK, 1995 DEC 19 (NB) -- Hitting newsstands around the US is Newsweek's "The Year of The Internet" issue naming the 50 people who matter most on the Internet. From social consciousness, technological advancements, sarcasm and serious content contributors, Newsweek salutes a host of individual efforts. The well-known magazine avoids controversy by simply listing the important players and not ranking them. Looking for "vision," "tools," "content," and "inventiveness," Newsweek searched across the Net to find their players. Called a "Cyber Robin Hood," Belgium native Bart Decrem made the list for his efforts to bring Silicon Valley to the low-income area of East Palo Alto, California. His non-profit "Plugged In" organization brought in $20,000 in federal grants and help from Intel, Apple, and others, to open a computer lab 70 hours a week and offer Internet classes to children and adults. Television/Internet wizard Halsey Minor launched "c/net," a high- production television show about computers and the industry as a preview to his 24-hour computer television channel. He is listed for his efforts to produce the television show and two Web sites. On the lighter side, Newsweek salutes cartoonist and creator of Dilbert, Scott Adams. The first person to print his e-mail address in his newspaper comic strip, Adams brought Dilbert to life on the Internet with the Dilbert Zone (http://www.unitedmedia.com ). Both Carl Steadman and Joey Anuff are highlighted for SUCK, an "irreverent, sarcastic and jaded look" at what they consider the worst of the World Wide Web. Mentioned frequently for his "$500 networked terminal," Oracle's president and chief executive officer, Larry Ellison, is also among the top 50. Donna Hoffman, who recently challenged the Nielsen estimates of Internet users, makes the list for her debunking of the Marty Rimm study of online pornography. Perhaps not so well-known, Yahoo's Srinija Srinivasan made the list for her behind-the-scenes efforts in deciding how thousands of Web pages make the trip to Yahoo's Internet directory. Another 43 spots are filled with what Newsweek calls the "Big Thinkers." Macromedia's Bud Colligan is listed for his contribution of development tools which are now enhanced by Shockwave. No-one named Gates was on the list. (Patrick McKenna/19951218/Press Contact: Karen Wheeler, Newsweek, 212-445-4343) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 12/19/95 GENERAL Alcom's New Pricing For LanFax (NEWS)(GENERAL)(LAX)(00009) Alcom's New Pricing For LanFax 12/19/95 MOUNTAIN VIEW, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1995 DEC 19 (NB) -- Alcom Corporation, developer of fax server technology, announced a new pricing and configuration schedule for LanFax Server. Gone is the rigid buy-this-high-minimum marketing strategy, and in comes a flexible price, low-minimum policy. Alcom has traditionally delivered its LanFax Server in hard coded user counts, much like the Novell NetWare price model. Answering to customer complaints and value-added reseller demand (VAR), Alcom has put this model aside for one with more flexibility. David Temesi, director of marketing for Alcom, told Newsbytes, "Our old system of pricing was a 25-user based minimum system. A buyer had to buy a minimum of 25 licenses at a total price of $1,995. The next upgrade was 50 at $2,995, next was 100 at $4,995, and next was 250 at $7,495. We did not allow in-between sales. All sales had to be at those units. This forced users to buy licenses they didn't need. If you needed 26, you had to buy 50." The new pricing allows customers to purchase a base product at a "very low price point," then later add users or fax lines as needed, said the company. The base model of five users and one fax line sets a new "entry price" standard for high-end fax servers, according to the company. At $495, the product can now be sold to clients with smaller needs without forcing them to purchase unneeded licenses. Additional user licenses can be purchased for as little as $14.95 a user. Fax lines can be purchased for as low as $345 each. "The concept of adding user licenses or user packs has been around for a while," said Temesi. "By adopting this to the LanFax products, Alcom breaks down the entry barrier that most small- to medium-sized companies face with competing products. Our customers have been asking for this pricing flexibility. The net result for Alcom might not be added revenue, but it should mean a broader base of customers." Under the new pricing, the entry is five units at $495, versus the old entry-level of 25 units at $1,995. Temesi believes this will add a whole new set of customers who never had a use for the previous minimum of 25. (Richard Bowers/19951218/Press Contact: David Temesi, Alcom, 415-694-7000) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 12/19/95 ONLINE America Online Adds Holiday Shopping Partners (NEWS)(ONLINE)(MSP)(00010) America Online Adds Holiday Shopping Partners 12/19/95 VIENNA, VIRGINIA, U.S.A., 1995 DEC 19 (NB) -- America Online (NASDAQ:AMER) members who have last minute shopping to do, but don't want to get caught in frenzied crowds in shopping malls and stores around the US, can visit 14 more stores in AOL's Marketplace "virtual mall." The stores include Caffe Starbucks, Lillian Vernon, Eddie Bauer, and FAO Schwarz. By using AOL's Marketplace area, a shopper can purchase gifts with the click of a mouse, and not have to worry about a line at the cash register, said the company. With the announcement, more than 35 US retailers are on AOL, officials said. Judy Tashbook, America Online spokesperson, told Newsbytes that user accesses of merchants online "stores" in the Marketplace is way up, although she couldn't give any specific statistics. She also said the service has seen a jump in the number of vendors wanting to establish presences on AOL, along with the Internet in general, "to capitalize on the holiday rush," she said. Ted Leonsis, president of America Online Services Company, said the online medium is the "next logical and profitable step" for savvy marketers who have seen the success of the shop-at-home concept. "Retail catalogs were the success of the 1980s. Now, with the onslaught of consumers online and AOL's interactive capabilities, we can attract high-powered vendors and deliver even more convenience." Other vendors that have newly-established online partnerships with AOL include AtOnce Software, Lens Express, and Lillian Vernon. Tashbook also said some vendors that had been affiliated with America Online through the "2Market" CD-ROM/online-based service have also made the jump to the full AOL service. Some of those vendors include Eddie Bauer, Godiva Chocolatier, Hammacher Schlemmer, and Sharper Image. Tashbook added that AOL doesn't see online commerce fading away any time soon; in fact, "it's just picking up," she said. (Bob Woods/19951218/Press Contacts: Judy Tashbook, America Online, 703-918-1452; Pattie Tobias, The Weber Group, 617-520-7021) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 12/19/95 ONLINE Compuserve User Web Pages Now Open To Businesses (NEWS)(ONLINE)(MSP)(00011) Compuserve User Web Pages Now Open To Businesses 12/19/95 COLUMBUS, OHIO, U.S.A., 1995 DEC 19 (NB) -- Space for Internet World Wide Web sites on Compuserve's computers used to be only for individuals. But now, the online service is offering businesses free access to both its servers and its Web page creation and publishing tools. Compuserve officials said businesses can now use the service's Home Page Wizard to build a site containing up to one megabyte (MB) of information, and place it in the company's Our World area, which is at http://www.ourworld.com/ . Jeff Shafer, Compuserve spokesperson, told Newsbytes the company has been receiving "hundreds of phone calls" about Web sites for businesses. He said that, with the rush companies are making to get information onto the Web, Compuserve wanted to help businesses get a leg up on the competition. "There's been such an overwhelming clamoring to get onto the Web," Shafer said. "People are practically breaking down the doors to get on the Web. We decided to get them out there now." The free, basic service for businesses will help Compuserve when it starts a more advanced corporate service to help businesses start and maintain Web pages. Fees and other details haven't been determined yet for the new offering, but Shafer said with the online network helping companies to go out on the Web now, "that also helps us build a client base from a business model standpoint. If we can put them out there with something now, we can come back in a month or two and help them upgrade. A lot of them will take advantage of it." In addition, other home page authoring tools can be used to establish Web sites on Our World, Shafer said. Packages from Quarterdeck and InContext even have the integrated capability of easily posting pages to Our World built right in, he added. More than 17,000 personal home pages have been established and posted to Compuserve's Our World area since the service began, officials said. The Home Page Wizard software package was downloaded from Compuserve more than 35,000 times in its first ten days of availability, officials added. (Bob Woods/19951218/Press Contact: Jeff Shafer, Compuserve, 614-538-4632) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 12/19/95 TELECOM ****First PCS 1900 System Launched In US (NEWS)(TELECOM)(LON)(00012) ****First PCS 1900 System Launched In US 12/19/95 WASHINGTON STATE, WA, U.S.A., 1995 DEC 19 (NB) -- It's been a long time coming, but the first PCS (personal communications system) 1900 (megahertz) digital cellular system in the US has now gone live, Newsbytes can report. According to Ericsson, the Swedish telco that has supplied much of the digital telecoms infrastructure of the Sprint Spectrum PCS 1900 service operating in the Washington-Maryland-North Virginia market, the service went live at the end of the November and response from interested parties has been excellent. "The Sprint Spectrum service is now operational and anyone can walk in and buy a CD337 digital phone for instant connection over here," Per Magnusson, a spokesman for Ericsson US, told Newsbytes. As with the Mercury One-2-One network in the UK, Sprint Spectrum is not locking the phones to a subscription to the network, but is locking the phones to the network. Thus, although the phones are being sold at a subsidized $149 price point, with a $50 cash back voucher in the phone's box, they can only be used on the Sprint Spectrum network. According to Magnusson, the CH337 hand portable is the lowest priced PCS phone on sale, alongside the Nokia and Motorola Flare PCS units, which sell for around $50 more than the Ericsson unit. "SMS (short message system) is already available on the network and data over the network is planned," he said, adding that all the facilities seen on European PCN services can be implemented on the PCS networks in the US. SMS is a two-way alphanumeric paging service that operates across the PCS networks. Messages of up to 160 characters can be generated across the network, either sent by the exchange where voice-mail is left, or, using the phone keypad, on a mobile originated basis. According to Bo Hedfors, president of Ericsson's US operations, the Sprint Spectrum service, which is run by APC, is blazing a trail in the world of PCS in the United States. "Ericsson is proud to be part of the APC team -- and proud to be part of this historic moment in our nation's capital," he said. The CH337 is the same unit as seen on the GSM (global system for mobile communications) and PCN (personal communications network) services in Europe, and tips the scales at just seven ounces. The phone, which has a footprint of five- by two-inches, has the same software as its European cousin, the difference being that it operates on the PCS 1900 frequencies, rather than the 900/1,800 megahertz frequencies found outside of the US. (Steve Gold/19951218/Press Contact: Kathy Egan, Ericsson US, 212-685-4035; Mats Dahlin, Ericsson Radio Systems US, +46-8-404-2059) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 12/19/95 BUSINESS Deutsche Bank AG & IPC In Global Technology Deal (NEWS)(BUSINESS)(LON)(00013) Deutsche Bank AG & IPC In Global Technology Deal 12/19/95 BONN, GERMANY, 1995 DEC 19 (NB) -- IPC Information Systems (ITS) has announced it is formalizing a global agreement with Deutsche Bank AG to design and implement all its trading floors on a worldwide basis. According to Hermann Seiler, senior vice president of Global Information Technology (IT) for Deutsche Morgan Grenfell, the project will connect more than 4,000 trader positions in 15 countries into a seamless global "hoot and holler" network. "We selected IPC as global technology partners because they share our vision for global technology standards and are one of the few suppliers who can globally offer the trading room implementation service that we need, when we need it," he said. Under the agreement, IPC will provide project management teams to support the planning and construction of trading floors, and plan the procurement and installation of the required products. This includes the standardization of design, installation and integration of the trading room communications infrastructure, including cable, local area networking (LAN) equipment, video distribution, voice recorders and Tradenet MX trading turrets and hoots. "This relationship has been under way since September of this year and the first trading floor will come online in February, 1996," explained John Russell, ITS' technical director. According to Russell, project management is the key to completing projects of this magnitude on time and within budget. "IPC have dedicated an experienced project team to work with the bank for the duration of the global implementations," he said. (Sylvia Dennis/19951218/Press Contact: TDM Marketing Associates, +44- 1625-575592; Reader Contact: IPC Information Systems, +44-171-621-1540; Deutsche Bank, +49-228-2050) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 12/19/95 BUSINESS Philips To Acquire HDS Operation (NEWS)(BUSINESS)(LON)(00014) Philips To Acquire HDS Operation 12/19/95 EINDHOVEN, NETHERLANDS, 1995 DEC 19 (NB) -- Philips Electronics, the electronics components division of the Dutch IT (information technology) group, has contracted to buy the IT division of HDS Info Management, itself a division of Koninklijke Begemann Groep, a Dutch trading conglomerate. Financial details of the transaction have not been revealed. Since HDS is a division of KBG, no details of the division's trading accounts have been published. Newsbytes notes that HDS is a specialist in software outsourcing, operating software services for companies with minicomputers and upwards, to the Dutch market. Currently, HDS has three offices in the Netherlands and is known to employ around 50 staff. According to Philips, plans call for the HDS operation to be merged with Philips' existing communications and processing services operations, which has outsourcing offices and agents in 20 countries, with a claimed employee base of around 3,500. Begeman is currently in the middle of a major reorganization to realign its debt ratios, Newsbytes notes. The acquisition is unusual however, as, in July of this year, AT&T Network Systems announced its intention to buy part of the public network assets held by Philips Electronics of the Netherlands for an undisclosed price. As reported by Newsbytes at the time, the deal relates to four Philips units, dealing with cellular, managed transport networks, microwave, and data transmission. The businesses under consideration include the corresponding activities of Philips Kommunikations Industrie (PKI) of Nurmeberg, Germany; and of Telecommunications Radioelectriques et Telephoniques (TRT) of Paris, France. Both are subsidiaries of Philips. (Steve Gold/19951218/Press & Reader Contact: Philips Electronics, +31-40-75-7005) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 12/19/95 ONLINE Nashville, Tennessee Gets Wired (NEWS)(ONLINE)(MSP)(00015) Nashville, Tennessee Gets Wired 12/19/95 NASHVILLE, TENNESSEE, U.S.A., 1995 DEC 19 (NB) -- A vision of a city-wide electronic network wiring citizens, government, and private industry has manifested itself in Nashville, Tennessee, as Mayor Phil Bredesen's concept is now up and running in the town that's more famous for country music than being a "wired" community. Nashville "CityNet," described as a local network with access to the worldwide Internet, is up and running. Businesses and local governmental agencies are hooked up by the CityNet network, which lets them send e-mail, transfer files electronically, or engage in videoconferencing sessions. Users can also access an array of information, shopping, entertainment, and other services from their computers at home or at work, officials said. "Nashville CityNet is a new model for electronic networking," Bredesen said. "CityNet was designed as a local version of the Internet. The difference is it takes advantage of the power of Nashville's local infrastructure for much faster retrieval of information." Bredesen said CityNet's primary objective is to make information of local interest more widely available to the community, while intending to keep the service access easy and affordable. Dale Smith, the BellSouth account executive who worked with the various entities to bring CityNet to life, told Newsbytes he's not aware of a system that goes as far as Nashville's system. He said other cities may have so-called "electronic communication commerce," but they aren't open to both local and Internet access at the same time, like CityNet. A central router, a BellSouth Connectionless Data Service (CDS) switch, provides a single point of local connectivity to both local CityNet members and Internet service providers, Smith said. The router provides CityNet users local connectivity to a designated Internet provider, who in turn provides a direct connection for the user to the Internet backbone network. The connection to the CDS is what differentiates CityNet traffic from Internet traffic, Smith said. Electronic traffic on CityNet stays local -- it never travels out to the Internet, Smith said. BellSouth's CDS uses the most direct route to the user's desired network destination. Smith also said it is possible for a business to establish an account with CityNet only, without Internet connectivity. Officials with a stake in CityNet then hope those particular businesses would see the value of electronic commerce, and then sign on for Internet access, Smith said. (Bob Woods/19951218/Press Contact: David A. Storey, BellSouth, 205-977-5001) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 12/19/95 ONLINE Internet Update - Holiday Web Surfing Picks (NEWS)(ONLINE)(TYO)(00016) Internet Update - Holiday Web Surfing Picks 12/19/95 TOKYO, JAPAN, 1995 DEC 19 (NB) -- To aid in your holiday World Wide Web surfing, Newsbytes offers a selection of previously announced sites that are worth going back to. Today, a selection of Web sites worth visiting for nothing more than enjoyment. Push-Pull Animation Guaranteed to bring a smile to your face! KMR Media has put up a selection of four pages using the push-pull animation technique to make a man run, a house puff smoke, a mail truck drive, and the world spin. To get these, your browser must support push-pull animation which rules out most non-Netscape users. World Wide Web: http://www.kmrmedia.com/ NBC 4 Seismo Cam NBC's Los Angeles affiliate, KNBC, has a camera pointed at its newsroom earthquake detector linked to a sensor in Griffith Park, near the famous Hollywood sign. The picture is updated every five minutes and allows Internet users to watch the chart recorder register moves of the Earth. Seveal pictures of previous major quakes are also archived. World Wide Web: http://www.knbc4la.com/seismo/index.html Radio Days - A Soundbite History Recreate a bygone era with soundclips of the greatest moments of the radio, including the most famous news bulletins, a recreation of the first ever commercial radio broadcast, and much more. World Wide Web: http://www.otr.com/ Watch The World The "Cameras, Cameras, Cameras" Web site offers a hyperlinked index of all cameras hooked up to the Internet. From here you can jump to see Stockholm, Room 100 of Buckman School, KJRH in Tulsa, and even what "Dave" is watching on his TV. It's all here and great fun, if you have a good Internet connection. World Wide Web: http://www.intertain.net/~cameras Netscape Power Pack Links Under the "Netscape Power Pack My Butt" title, a Stanford University student has set up a page of links pointing to Internet sources that enable users to download all of the software in Netscape's Power Pack software package for free. The software is all freeware or shareware. World Wide Web: http://www-cs-students.stanford.edu/~friedman/power_pack.html And The Winner Is... Two different "Miss Internet" contests have been set up and are currently running on the network. The first we saw was "Miss Internet 95" and is being run by The Business Arts Group on its Webvote server. The Web site features pictures, videos, and audio of the contestants and, naturally, allows visitors to vote on their favorites. The second contest is running from Finland and is similar, but without the video and audio. World Wide Web: http://www.webvote.com/ World Wide Web: http://www.missinternet.fi/ New Scientist Magazine Online The UK's New Scientist magazine, a weekly popular journal full of the latest news from the worlds of science and technology, has just debuted on the Internet. Web users can read articles, reviews, and commentary from the current issue and follow scientific trends. World Wide Web: http://www.newscientist.com/ World War II Propaganda Posters The National Archives has inaugurated a new Exhibit Hall on the Internet's World Wide Web. In the new hall, Internet users will be able access selected items from the National Archives holdings. The first exhibit, "Powers of Persuasion," takes eleven posters from World War Two. Added to each is details of the artist and background to the poster. World Wide Web : http://www.nara.gov/ Mozilla Museum The Netscape Navigator is nicknamed Mozilla - "Mosaic Killer" - but it's also the name of a green monster that serves as the software's mascot. You can now access a "museum" on the Web that displays images of the Netscape monster, both past and present. World Wide Web : http://www.snafu.de/~tilman/mozilla/ (Martyn Williams/19951219) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 12/19/95 TRENDS ****Security Attacks On Internet Computers Increase (NEWS)(TRENDS)(TYO)(00017) ****Security Attacks On Internet Computers Increase 12/19/95 PITTSBURGH, PENNSYLVANIA, USA, 1995 DEC 19 (NB) -- Under an advisory bulletin headlined "Widespread Attacks on Internet Sites," the Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT) has warned of a large increase in attempts to hack into computers connected to the Internet. The organization said it has been working on a series of hacks and attempted hacks that have taken place in the last few weeks. The number of reported intrusions is already high, with a large amount of the hundreds of attacks successful, said CERT. The higher than usual activity prompted the release of the advisory, only the 18th of the year. It continued, saying the attacks are still taking place and many are believed to be going unnoticed. All of the attacks taking place are using known weaknesses in the computer systems which can be fixed, and system operators are being asked to check the current advisory and refer back to past issues for details of how to fix potential break-in points. In many cases, all that is required is a software patch or upgrade. The hacks that are successful result in the intruder being given root access, the freedom to move about the computer system at will, and copy, change, view or delete many files. Copies of the current advisory, code number CA-95:18, can be downloaded using file transfer protocol (ftp) from ftp://info.cert.org/pub/cert_advisories . The CERT team is based at Carnegie Mellon University's Software Engineering Institute in Pittsburgh and can be contacted by e-mail at cert@cert.org or by phone at 412-268-7090. The fax number is 412-268-6989. The telephone line is manned 24 hours a day and outside of business hours, CERT personnel are on call for emergencies. (Martyn Williams/19951219) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 12/19/95 TRENDS UK - January '96 IT Conference For CEOs (NEWS)(TRENDS)(LON)(00018) UK - January '96 IT Conference For CEOs 12/19/95 LONDON, ENGLAND, 1995 DEC 19 (NB) -- Regent Associates has announced it is hosting a one-day conference for chief executive officers (CEOs) of companies that is designed to offer an analysis of trends driving the worldwide IT (information technology) industry in 1996. Susan Leveritt, a spokesperson for the company, told Newsbytes that the conference, which takes place at the London Heathrow Radisson Edwardian Hotel on January 26, costs UKP295 to attend, and has attracted a lot of interest from the UK business community, simply because of the subject matter and the speakers that Regent has lined up for the event. "Issues like IT are critical to the success of companies as we move towards the year 2000. I saw a business program on the TV news the other night which said that a poll of business people on the main issues that they think will affect their businesses in the years to come are 'globalization' and 'IT,'" she said. Topics to be covered at the event include: "Great Telecommunications Opportunities;" "The Internet -- Its Effect on the IT Industry;" "The Changing Structure of the UK IT Industry;" "Financial Performance Trends;" "User Buyer Patterns;" "Software and Service Futures;" and "Directions of the Global IT Industry." "What we've tried to do with this event is to line up a range of key speakers that really know their topics, to make the conference really suitable for CEOs. We believe we have succeeded with this, as our speakers for the day range from top IT investment executives, to industry analysts and corporate advisors," Leveritt said. Speakers for the conference Include: Geoff Unwin, CEO, Cap Gemini Sogeti; David Moschella, IDG; David Lewin, chairman of Ovum; Peter Lines, managing director of Input; Anthony Miller, senior business analyst for Technology Investment Strategies; Russ Nathan, chairman of Romtec; and several others. According to Regent Associates, the conference is directed toward top-level corporate strategists and investors in business. Regent Associates International is billed as the leading organization specializing in advising companies in the information technology industry on international corporate development. The company advises on and implements mergers and acquisitions, company sales, asset divestiture, management buy-ins and buy-outs, and strategic investments. (Steve Gold/19951219/Press & Reader Contact: Regent Associates, +44-1784-450000, Internet e-mail info@regent.co.uk) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 12/19/95 ONLINE America Online & New York Times Extend Online Deal (NEWS)(ONLINE)(MSP)(00019) America Online & New York Times Extend Online Deal 12/19/95 NEW YORK CITY, NEW YORK, U.S.A., 1995 DEC 19 (NB) -- America Online Inc. (NASDAQ:AMER) and the New York Times have extended their relationship, so the paper can continue to offer its content to AOL's four million-plus subscribers in its "@times" area. The agreement looks beyond the paper's current offerings, as well, officials said. The new deal points toward the future creation of joint interactive programming and potential sponsorship arrangements. Judy Tashbook, America Online spokesperson, told Newsbytes that, when it comes to interactive content, "they (the Times) are transforming their traditional media efforts into New Media using new capacities like interactivity, and introducing more multimedia. So that's what they mean by joint programming -- working with AOL to develop a new platform to deliver their news." When it comes to new sponsorships, Tashbook said "the Times (newspaper) is a valuable advertising platform. Companies in the past that have advertised through the New York Times who might be interested in advertising in @times would not deliver their print ads reconstituted online. They would develop multimedia or interactive advertising." Already, new developments are underway. As Newsbytes reported last month, the @times section underwent a major overhaul, and new services were implemented. The New York Times has been affiliated with America for two years now, officials said, and has been online as the @times section since June, 1994. Recent refinements include a separate Page One section, which is updated each night at around 11:30 EST, with articles from the next day's national/metro, business, sports, and arts news sections. In addition, content from the paper's "Science Times" and "Computers & Technology" sections are now included and are fully searchable. Last month, Elliott Rebhun, editor of @times, told Newsbytes the section is moving to real newsroom staffing, so information can be updated on a regular basis. He added some original content might be forthcoming, but not from the AOL site. The Times is also developing an Internet World Wide Web page that is separate from AOL. The @times area on AOL can be reached at the keyword "@times" or "Times." (Bob Woods/19951219/Press Contact: Judy Tashbook, America Online, 703-918-1452; Public Contact: America Online, 800-827-6364) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 4 12/19/95 ONLINE Rock Concert On The Web Set For January (NEWS)(ONLINE)(TOR)(00020) Rock Concert On The Web Set For January 4 12/19/95 NEW YORK, NEW YORK, U.S.A., 1995 DEC 19 (NB) -- The World Wide Web may be the most talked-about communications medium of 1995, but it still can't get its picture on the cover of the Rolling Stone. However, the Web may get a bit more attention in the music business thanks to an online concert being planned for January 4. SenseNet Inc. of New York is organizing the concert, which will feature Deborah Harry, Joan Jett, Psychotica, Lunachicks, and other performers still to be announced. The plan is to put live audio and video online and make it available to anyone with stable access to the Web. To participate, Web surfers will need to download compact audio and video player software from the Web site (http://www.inconcert.com ) before the concert, explained spokesman Martin Belk of SenseNet. The players will take little disk space and are available for all commonly used operating systems, Belk said. The organizers are not sure yet how successfully people who reach the Web through commercial online services such as America Online and Compuserve will be able to watch and listen to the concert. Belk said the fact that subscribers to these services are going through the online service's systems to get to the Internet, adding an extra step, might cause some delays. SenseNet is testing this currently, he added, and will know more by the end of this week. The concert is meant partly as a demonstration of the ways the Web can be used for interactive multimedia communications. The interactivity of the January 4 concert will be limited, though: members of the online audience will be able to choose from five video feeds coming from different cameras at the concert site. (Grant Buckler/19951219/Press Contact: Martin Belk, SenseNet, 212-824-5000, Internet e-mail martin@sensenet.com) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 12/19/95 LEGAL ****FBI Nabs Suspected AutoCAD Pirate (NEWS)(LEGAL)(LAX)(00021) ****FBI Nabs Suspected AutoCAD Pirate 12/19/95 LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1995 DEC 19 (NB) -- In a second major case in less than two months, criminal charges were filed today against a man believed to have pirated up to $1 million worth of AutoCAD computer-aided design (CAD) software. The defendant, Los Angeles resident Howard Dennis Barnes, 53, who is charged with illegally copying and selling the Autodesk software, pleaded not guilty to two felony charges Barnes has been charged with criminal copyright infringement and trafficking in counterfeit trademarked goods. The charges resulted from his alleged sale of counterfeit copies of AutoCAD Release 13. Sandra Boulton, head of Autodesk's Anti-Theft Department, told Newsbytes, "Piracy is not unique to Autodesk, but our higher priced software makes it tempting to pirates. The loses to Autodesk as a result of these two cases alone range between $1 and $2 million. Total sales for the AutoCAD last year was about $300 million. "Eight years ago we were the first company to create an anti-theft department. Today, almost every major computer company has someone investigating piracy," said Boulton. The Barnes case follows closely one of the first successful criminal prosecutions for illegal software theft, a $1 million case involving "Captain Blood." Thomas "Nick" Alefantes, known as Captain Blood, was arrested in November at his home in Los Angeles after being pursued for years by Autodesk, Microsoft, and other software developers. Alefantes pleaded guilty and will be sentenced in January, according to the District Attorney's office. "We first contacted the FBI two years ago about both Barnes and Alefantes. The FBI, once convinced that there is a serious problem, diligently pursued the two and finally put cases together for prosecution," said Boulton. The Barnes case affects a large number of users because he reportedly advertised his products nationwide on Compuserve and in the classified ads of newspapers throughout California. The ads, which claimed the software was legal, offered AutoCAD Release 13 for as little as $650 (compared to its suggested retail price of about $3,950). According to Autodesk, people who responded to the ads say they were told that Barnes was a bankruptcy liquidator. The company has received numerous calls about Barnes activities from dealers and customers over the past year on its anti-piracy hotline, 1-800-NO-COPIES. "It has been reported that software companies lost an estimated $15.2 billion worldwide in 1994 as a result of software piracy. In North America, 1994 losses have been estimated at $3.12 billion," said Boulton. (Richard Bowers/19951219/Press Contact: Sandra Boulton, Autodesk Anti-Theft Department, 503-830-1010) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 12/19/95 APPLE Apple Ships $289 Videoconferencing Kit (NEWS)(APPLE)(SFO)(00022) Apple Ships $289 Videoconferencing Kit 12/19/95 CUPERTINO, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1995 DEC 19 (NB) -- Previously announced and demonstrated earlier this year, Apple Computer's (NASDAQ:AAPL) QuickTime Conferencing Kit is now available through Apple resellers. Designed to connect through the Internet or a local area network, the kit contains a color camera, software and necessary cables for "complete desktop videoconferencing." In January, Apple plans to ship an integrated digital services network (ISDN) kit as an upgrade to this first QuickTime Conferencing Kit. The ISDN Kit will increase cross-platform performance, allow for larger video display on a monitor, provide a faster frame rate for true full- motion video and permit conferencing outside of a local area network with multiple stations. Using the new QuickTime Conferencing Kit, Mac users are able to videoconference, take PICT "snapshots" during a session, record a session as a QuickTime movie and share images, sounds and QuickTime movies in a shared window. Users of shared window content can mark content while discussing a project or presentation. Processing video data places heavy demands on a computer's random access memory. The new kit requires 16 megabytes of memory and an AV Macintosh or AV Power Macintosh using System 7.5 or later. A PlainTalk Microphone, which ships with most of the above models, is also required. There are no hard drive requirements listed, but storage requirements could become high if a user begins saving conferencing sessions. An Apple spokesperson told Newsbytes, "We think an under-$300 price tag sets a standard which other videoconferencing systems will have to try to reach. This brings very important technology to the desktop at a very affordable price." When the ISDN upgrade ships, it will include a NuBus expansion card for ISDN connectivity and an H.320-compliant hardware codec for video compression and decompression. H.320 software, a telephone headset, documentation, and all necessary cables, are also included. Apple says the price will be about $1,750. A PCI (Peripheral Component Interconnect) version is planned for the second quarter, 1996. To provide customers and potential customers with additional information and videoconferencing help and tips, Apple will open a special QuickTime Conferencing World Wide Web site. The site should be open sometime in January and offer "one-stop shopping." Hoping to see a number of video applications developed for its conferencing tool, Apple says it will license QuickTime Conferencing core technology to third party developers for a "very low annual fee." The licensing arrangements are available today. (Patrick McKenna/19951219/Press Contact: Stacey Fields, Stirling & Cohan, 415-513-0980) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 12/19/95 LEGAL ****Software Distributor Sues Novell For $834 Million (NEWS)(LEGAL)(DEN)(00023) ****Software Distributor Sues Novell For $834 Million 12/19/95 SANDY, UTAH, U.S.A., 1995 DEC 19 (NB) -- A Utah software distributor that sees itself as a modern-day "David" has filed a lawsuit against a corporate "Goliath" in the form of Novell Inc. (NASDAQ: NOVL). The Network Trade Center (NTC) suit charges the network operating system software publisher with illegal business tactics and violation of federal anti-trust laws, Federal Racketeering and Corrupt Organization Act (RICO), and various state laws. By many company's standards, NTC is no "David." According to Timothy Willardson, NTC outside counsel, the privately held company did about $400 million in gross sales in 1994. Willardson described NTC as a network software and peripherals reseller that doesn't sell computers. Mark Bondiett, an officer of NTC, alleges that "Novell often threatens our vendors and customers in order to injure our business," He also alleges that Novell has a pattern of manipulating prices to hurt resellers that Novell does not like. NTC claims other resellers also complain about Novell's alleged tactics, and said with the help of some of those resellers it will file a class action suit in the near future. Willardson, was more specific about the charges when interviewed by Newsbytes. He alleged that Novell has publicly made "false and disparaging statements" about NTC both "orally and in writing." He also said Novell has sent letters to NTC suppliers telling them they should cease doing business with NTC. NTC's suit is in response to a mid-July lawsuit filed by Novell that alleges trademark and copyright infringement, unfair competition, interference with existing economic relations, and unjust enrichment on the part of NTC. The suit alleges that NTC acquired upgrade products through misrepresentation and, in turn, sells the products to what Novell calls "misinformed end users." It asks for an injunction to stop NTC from selling Novell software and for damages in a yet-unspecified amount, said Willardson. Novell officials had not returned phone calls from Newsbytes by press time. Willardson acknowledged that NTC, while not an authorized reseller of Novell software, does sell that company's product. He said NTC gets the software from the first tier distributors that legally buy from Novell. He also alleges that, until recently Novell, would sell product to NTC. He told Newsbytes that NTC tried to become an authorized Novell distributor, but found the process too daunting. "They won't even give you a copy of what you are agreeing to," he told Newsbytes. Willardson said winning the fight with Novell is critical. Asked what the consequences of losing might be, he responded "It could be potentially fatal." In response to a question about a possible settlement, the attorney told Newsbytes: "NTC would love to live in harmony with Novell. They (NTC) just want to make a living." If the two companies can't resolve their problems a trial is expected in late 1996 or early 1997. (Jim Mallory/19951219/Press contact: Timothy Willardson, NTC, 801-572-8200; Melanie King, Novell, 801-429-7997) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 12/19/95 TRENDS Compaq Clings To Slim 1995 Sales Lead (NEWS)(TRENDS)(DEN)(00024) Compaq Clings To Slim 1995 Sales Lead 12/19/95 HOUSTON, TEXAS, U.S.A., 1995 DEC 19 (NB) -- It appears that Compaq Computer Corp. (NYSE: CPQ) will cling to its sales lead in 1995, but not by much. According to International Data Corp., a consulting and analysis company with research centers in 40 countries, Compaq will finish 1995 with the most US PC shipments, but only slightly ahead of Packard Bell and Apple. IDC said Compaq captured 11.9 percent of the market, with Packard Bell in the second spot with 11.6 percent market share, and Apple, once the leader, close behind at 11.5 percent. Packard Bell growth slowed this year, but the company that specializes in selling its products through mass market retailers managed to move from number three to number two with an aggressive pricing strategy. Its growth was also slowed by strong competition from Acer and Hewlett Packard, according to IDC. Apple was helped by an improved pricing policy, although the reduced profits are expected to adversely affect the company's financial bottom line in the current quarter. IBM garnered the number four position in US shipments, declining in market share from 8.8 percent to 8.2. However, Big Blue still managed to grow 15 percent. Gateway 2000 grabbed the fifth position on the list, but is being pushed by Dell and Micron. Dell maintained its hold on the sixth position, while Hewlett Packard moved from number 10 to number 7 this year. Acer moved up one spot to number eight. Toshiba, at number 9, dropped one spot on the list from last year, but kept a strong grip on the portable market. The company is seeing increasingly strong competition in that market, however. AST dropped from the seventh spot on the 1994 list to number 10 this year, and was the lone vendor on IDC's list to have negative growth. The company is reportedly having financial problems, said IDC. IDC also raised its 1995 US PC hardware shipment estimates, now estimating 22.8 million units will ship by year-end, for a 22 percent growth rate. In 1994, shipments were up by 20 percent over the previous year. IDC said its higher estimate was based on a continued strong economy, the explosion of the Internet, continued rapid improvement in price-performance ratio, and improved product availability. (Jim Mallory/19951219/Press contact: IDC, 508-872-8200) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 12/19/95 GOVT White House Reverses On Presidential E-Mail (NEWS)(GOVT)(WAS)(00025) White House Reverses On Presidential E-Mail 12/19/95 WASHINGTON, D.C., U.S.A., 1995 DEC 19 (NB) -- The Clinton administration has decided not to appeal a federal court ruling that stopped former President George Bush from controlling White House computer records and backup tapes. Until last weekend, the Clinton administration had supported the deal that Bush cut with then-Archivist Don Wilson, made just hours before Bush left office, to give Bush "exclusive legal control" of the information. In February, District Court Judge Charles Richie voided the deal, ruling that it violated the Presidential Records Act. That law was passed during the aftermath of the Watergate scandal, to prevent future presidents from destroying documents. Following Richie's ruling, the White House said it did not want subsequent administrations reviewing its e-mail and computer documents, and indicated that it was considering an appeal. But US Archivist John Carlin, appointed by President Clinton earlier this year, announced over the weekend that the Justice Department would not appeal the ruling that voided the agreement between Bush and Wilson. In what many critics viewed as a quid pro quo arrangement, Wilson was named executive director of the George Bush Presidential Studies Center at Texas A&M University after agreeing to the deal with the outgoing president. Carlin, a former Democratic governor of Kansas, said during his confirmation hearings last spring that he agreed with the court's decision voiding the deal. On Saturday, he put out a statement saying, "On behalf of the National Archives, I strongly support the decision of the solicitor general (not to appeal) and I am pleased that this litigation is finally behind us." The case against the Bush deal was brought by the National Security Archive, a Washington public interest group pushing for disclosure of government records. Tom Blanton of the group said yesterday, "It took the Clinton administration three years to figure out that they ought not to be defending this action by Bush." Blanton has edited a book that contains many of the e-mail messages, called "White House E-mail." Blanton says access to the electronic messages "vastly expands the historical record" available to presidential scholars. (Kennedy Maize/199512195/Press Contact: Tom Blanton, 202-994-7000) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 12/19/95 GOVT FCC Auction - Big Bucks From Small Business (NEWS)(GOVT)(WAS)(00026) FCC Auction - Big Bucks From Small Business 12/19/95 WASHINGTON, D.C., U.S.A., 1995 DEC 19 (NB) -- The Federal Communications Commission's spectrum auction for small businesses is bringing in big bucks. The first round in the court-delayed auction yesterday brought bids totaling $457 million, a record for the first round in an FCC auction. "This option is proof that competition pounds in all sizes," said Michele Farquahar of the FCC staff. "We have generated more revenue in one round of this auction than in any other round of previous auctions." The auction is limited to small businesses. Originally, it had been targeted to small businesses and businesses owned by minorities or women, but a Supreme Court ruling in another case caused the FCC to restructure the auction. Then a court in Cincinnati last fall held up the auction again, when a potential bidder raised problems with the rules. In October, Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens said the delay was not in the public interest and gave the FCC a green light to go ahead. Only businesses with less than $500 million in assets and revenue below $125 million in each of the last two years are eligible to bid on the licenses for personal communications services, the advanced technology that many believe will replace cellular phones. According to the FCC, there were 2,102 bids for 493 licenses around the US. The agency said 255 firms made bids in the first round. The bidding will continue as long as new bids are made in each round. Past FCC PCS auctions have lasted weeks. The government shutdown is complicating the auctions. The FCC is one of the agencies that has not received congressional funding, so most commission employees are on furlough. While the auctions are allowed to go forward, because they raise revenue, the rest of the agency is out of business, including the auction hotline telephone and the public affairs operation. (Kennedy Maize/19951219/Press Contact: Kathleen Ham or Amy Zoslov, 202-418-0660) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 12/19/95 TRENDS Asian Software Sales Show Significant Gains (NEWS)(TRENDS)(WAS)(00027) Asian Software Sales Show Significant Gains 12/19/95 WASHINGTON, D.C., U.S.A., 1995 DEC 19 (NB) -- Third quarter software sales in Asia were up 38 percent over last year's third quarter, hitting $277 million, according to the Software Publishers Association. For the first three quarters, sales were $843.5 million, up 55 percent over the first three quarters of 1994. Unit sales soared ahead of dollar revenues, increasing 158 percent for the third quarter and 153 percent for the first nine months. The Asian region has proven no different than the rest of the world -- Windows is boss. According to SPA, 81 percent of all application sales in the region this year have been Windows applications. Macintosh has kept its market share of 12 percent during the first three quarters. Japan continues to be the largest software market outside the United States, with third quarter sales of $172 million, up 38 percent over the third quarter last year. Sales for the first nine months hit $548 million, a 62 percent increase over last year. Even some piracy hot spots are turning into good markets for legitimate software. For example, revenues in Thailand hit $3.6 million for the third quarter, up 384 percent. Similarly, software sales in Singapore reached $11.2 million, a 161 percent increase for the third quarter. In China, potentially the world's largest market, the impact of software piracy can still be seen clearly. Software sales for the third quarter in China were a tiny $900,000, up 119 percent. For the first three quarters, China sales totaled $3.6 million, up 242 percent over the first nine months of last year. The soft spot in the Asian market was Korea with $8 million in sales for the third quarter, down nine percent. (Kennedy Maize/1995121995/Press Contact: Anne Griffith, 202-452-1600 ext 360) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 12/19/95 IBM IBM & Ameritech In Broad Alliance (NEWS)(IBM)(TOR)(00028) IBM & Ameritech In Broad Alliance 12/19/95 NEW YORK, NEW YORK, U.S.A., 1995 DEC 19 (NB) -- IBM (NYSE:IBM) and Chicago-based regional Bell operating company Ameritech have announced an alliance to provide integrated computer and communications services to customers. The two companies also announced an exchange of outsourcing business in which IBM will manage much of Ameritech's computer operations and Ameritech will take over running various communications services for IBM. The two companies said they will jointly market integrated voice, data, and video managed desktop services. They also said the services they will provide to each other will amount to about $400 million over seven years. Steve Muchetti, general manager of communications and media at IBM, said in a teleconference with reporters and analysts this morning that the aim of the alliance is to provide a "single point of contact" for customers seeking computing and communications services. The venture will also insulate the two companies' customers from technological obsolescence, he added. Ameritech will contribute voice, video, and networking expertise, while IBM will supply the computing know-how, Muchetti said. The deal does not involve forming a formal joint-venture company. However, the two companies plan to set up a single help-desk facility for customers, to employ about 100 people initially and be located somewhere in Ameritech's five-state serving area in the midwestern United States. Officials also said about 300 Ameritech employees will move to IBM's Integrated Systems Solutions Corp. (ISSC) subsidiary over the next couple of years. Jack Reich, president of Ameritech's custom business services unit, said the combination -- which has the working name Alliance Business Services -- will focus at first on Ameritech's serving area, but plans to offer its services across the country. Sam Palmisano, president and chief executive of ISSC, said his company has been working in the area of integrated computing and communications for about four years already, and the relationship with Ameritech will complement what ISSC is already doing. The two companies have "a very complementary set of skills" and the market they are entering represents "a very large business opportunity," he said. Among the potential long-term implications of the deal is the possibility that customers could some day receive a single bill covering telephone and computing services, Reich said. Muchetti described the alliance as providing the underpinning for the strategic focus on network-centric computing that Chairman Louis Gerstner has outlined in his keynote address at November's Comdex/Fall trade show and conference and elsewhere. Network-centric computing requires "a very well coordinated infrastructure," he said, as well as applications. (Grant Buckler/19951219/Press Contact: Colleen Brathwaite, IBM, 914-642-5455) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 12/19/95 TELECOM Pac Bell Building For Massive Internet Use (NEWS)(TELECOM)(SFO)(00029) Pac Bell Building For Massive Internet Use 12/19/95 SAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1995 DEC 19 (NB) -- Last year, the National Science Foundation selected Pacific Bell to become one of four Internet network access points (NAPs) which provide high-volume service to Internet service providers (ISPs). Pac Bell now says it will increase its NAP by 40 times to meet the dynamic growth of the Internet. As part of Pac Bell's FASTRAK data and video and services group, the NAP allows ISPs to deliver Internet connectivity to thousands of individuals and businesses. This boosting of the Internet backbone takes place through a new facility and new high-transport asynchronous transfer mode (ATM) switching from StrataCom (NASD:STRM) of San Jose, California. The new facility combined with the latest ATM technology will allow Pac Bell to handle as many as 600,000 e-mail messages or comparable data per second. Warren Williams, director, Network Access Point at Pac Bell, told Newsbytes, "The real battle of the Internet and providing service is taking place on the backbone -- the areas the desktop user uses everyday, but does not see. Everyone is getting on the Internet. You see it on the evening news, on the radio and in print -- even when you talk to your local shops and friends. It seems everyone is getting onto the Internet. To handle this, we have to have the ability to handle the volume of calls created from such a demand." Williams explained, "Today's announcement is like a large freeway intersection. That intersection or the place through which all the calls are passing is our facility. Now there can be more roads coming into the facility and through ATM technology the speed of these roads is increased." According to Pac Bell, one billion e-mail messages pass through the Internet daily and the World Wide Web offers more than 42 million home pages. "This is why we need to build on the existing capacity. We are in an era where the Internet is expanding dramatically and users are asking for more audio, video and interactivity," said Williams. "This requires bandwidth both on the users side and behind the ISPs." Current ATM technology from StrataCom will operate at 155 megabits- per-second (OC-3). Already, some technology companies have spoken about future developments which will offer OC-12 (622 megabits-per-second) and OC-48 (almost 2.5 gigabytes-per-second). Pac Bell's new gateway will become active in late January or early February. Neither ISPs or individual users will see additional costs as a result of these advancements. (Patrick McKenna/19951219/Press Contact: Scott Smith, Pacific Bell, 415-542-0597) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 12/19/95 TRENDS China - Developing Apps To Increase Market Share (NEWS)(TRENDS)(PEK)(00030) China - Developing Apps To Increase Market Share 12/19/95 BEIJING, CHINA, 1995 DEC 19 (NB) -- Chinese software developers face strong competition from foreign countries, but they need to develop more application software products to gain a greater share of the domestic software market, say some analysts. Software sales in China are expected to soon reach RMB15 billion (US$1.8 billion), including services. It is predicted that around RMB6.5 billion (US$783 million) will be software alone. Currently, Chinese software is estimated to have 50 percent of the domestic software market. Although Chinese workers hold half the market, they depend mainly on supplying information services, such as systems integration and training, for about two-third of their sales. It is expected that Chinese companies will improve their software market share by developing more application software. Although foreign companies are also planning to develop application software, Chinese workers have the advantage of cultural background, claim some analysts, which they argue is necessary for application software writing. Some foreign software developers do not think that cultural differences will affect application software development. "The only difference is language," Charles Wang, chairman of chief executive officer (CEO) of Computer Association, told Newsbytes when he visited China. However, some Chinese experts believe that application software in different countries must follow the traditional ways of doing things, specific to individual countries. Between 1990 and 1995, Chinese application software writers have found success in the fields of computer-aided design (CAD), accounting, and ship-making processes. Chinese-made platforms for operating software were also successful during the period. Chinese-made software occupied half the market for the Chinese Windows platform, and 95 percent of DOS. In the next five years, development of Chinese platforms for imported software, such as Unix and Windows, will remain a crucial task for Chinese software writers, because they make up the foundation of most application software. Systems integration and information services, mainly of value-added network services, will also be important. Government policies will be made to develop basic software, including operating systems and supporting software, which are now dominated by foreign companies, according to an official of the State Science and Technology Commission. The state plans to set up new software parks in the Chinese Academy of Science in Beijing, Northeast University in Shenyang in the Liaoning Province, and Wuhan University in Hubei Province. (Chih-Ho Yu & Ning Huang/19951219) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 12/19/95 IBM ****Taligent To Become IBM Subsidiary (NEWS)(IBM)(BOS)(00031) ****Taligent To Become IBM Subsidiary 12/19/95 ARMONK, NEW YORK, U.S.A., 1995 DEC 19 (NB) -- In a newly unveiled agreement to turn over Taligent to IBM, Apple and HP will retain full rights to Taligent technology developed at IBM, said John Slitz, IBM's VP of object development, in a conference call today with Newsbytes. Also under the deal, Taligent will become an "object technology development center" that is wholly owned IBM subsidiary. Slitz told Newsbytes that IBM, Apple and HP started last summer to discuss the prospect of internalizing Taligent within one of Taligent's member companies, for the sake of "efficiency." IBM then emerged as the most likely choice, in part, he indicated, because AIX is the development platform for Taligent. IBM, he added, fits in well with IBM's "cross-platform" plans for 1996. IBM will continue to develop Taligent for AIX and OS/2, as well as for Windows NT, Apple, and, "where appropriate," for IBM's MVS and AS/400, according to the IBM VP. But, he pointed out, Taligent cannot be "ported" to an Apple platform until Apple has completed development of a 32-bit multitasking environment such as Copland. In 1996, IBM will continue to work on incorporating Taligent into "cross-platform" products that include VisualAge C++, OpenDoc, Systems Object Model (SOM), and Distributed SOM, according to Slitz. At Fall Comdex, he noted, IBM demonstrated "the marriage of the Taligent framework with C++ libraries," for the generation of OpenDoc as well as Windows OLE (object linking and embedding) parts. Now that IBM has licensed Java from Sun, the company is looking into integrating Java into software products for the Internet, as well as products that include MQ Series, VisualAge, and Lotus Notes, the VP added. (Jacqueline Emigh/19951219/Reader Contact: IBM, 914-765-1900; Press Contacts: Keith Mary Rantas-Drew, IBM, 914-766-1211; Brodeur & Partners for IBM, 617-622-2800) (SUMMARY)(GENERAL)(MSP)(00032) Newsbytes Daily Summary 12/19/95 MINNEAPOLIS, MINNESOTA, U.S.A., 1995 DEC 19 (NB) -- These are capsules of all today's news stories: ======================================================================== ------------| N E W S B Y T E S D A I L Y S U M M A R Y |---------- ------------| Tuesday, December 19, 1995 |---------- ======================================================================== (c) Newsbytes News Network (Tm) Editor in Chief: Wendy Woods ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Newsbytes News Network's on the Web! Check out http://www.nbnn.com for free daily top stories from Newsbytes and its affiliate publications, and from PC Week, MacWeek, and other Ziff news magazines. A subscription gives you all the news, full-text, plus the most comprehensive database of past computer stories online. The keyword-searchable database dates from today back through 1983. Subscriptions are $24.95 for three months. Questions? Send to 'administrator@newsbytes.com' For Japanese Newsbytes and additional services, see the Newsbytes Pacifica Website at http://www.islandtel.com/newsbytes/ ------------------------------------------------------------------------ CATEGORY HEADLINES (*** indicates today's top stories) STORY # ======================================================================== APPLE Apple Ships $289 Videoconferencing Kit..................... 22 BUSINESS Prodigy Forms WildFlower Div, Acquires SonicNet Share...... 04 BUSINESS Deutsche Bank AG & IPC In Global Technology Deal........... 13 BUSINESS Philips To Acquire HDS Operation........................... 14 GENERAL Czech Republic - HP's DesignJet Color Printers............. 01 GENERAL Alcom's New Pricing For LanFax............................. 09 GOVT White House Reverses On Presidential E-Mail................ 25 GOVT FCC Auction - Big Bucks From Small Business................ 26 IBM IBM & Ameritech In Broad Alliance.......................... 28 IBM ****Taligent To Become IBM Subsidiary..................... 31 LEGAL ****FBI Nabs Suspected AutoCAD Pirate..................... 21 LEGAL ****Software Distributor Sues Novell For $834 Million..... 23 ONLINE NBC/Microsoft Offer Super Bowl In Cyberspace............... 02 ONLINE Dimension X Intros Java Authoring Kit...................... 03 ONLINE Health Mall Opens On Web................................... 07 ONLINE America Online Adds Holiday Shopping Partners.............. 10 ONLINE Compuserve User Web Pages Now Open To Businesses........... 11 ONLINE Nashville, Tennessee Gets Wired............................ 15 ONLINE Internet Update - Holiday Web Surfing Picks................ 16 ONLINE America Online & New York Times Extend Online Deal......... 19 ONLINE Rock Concert On The Web Set For January 4.................. 20 TELECOM ****First PCS 1900 System Launched In US.................. 12 TELECOM Pac Bell Building For Massive Internet Use................. 29 TRENDS UK Businesses Slipping Through The Web - Report............ 05 TRENDS Europe - Cellular Market To Quadruple By Year 2000......... 06 TRENDS Newsweek - Who's Hot On The Internet....................... 08 TRENDS ****Security Attacks On Internet Computers Increase....... 17 TRENDS UK - January '96 IT Conference For CEOs.................... 18 TRENDS Compaq Clings To Slim 1995 Sales Lead...................... 24 TRENDS Asian Software Sales Show Significant Gains................ 27 TRENDS China - Developing Apps To Increase Market Share........... 30 ======================================================================== These are the headlines and first paragraphs of each story, in order: 1 -> Czech Republic - HP's DesignJet Color Printers -- Hewlett-Packard s.r.o. is now offering in the Czech Republic two new large format color plotters/printers 2 -> NBC/Microsoft Offer Super Bowl In Cyberspace -- Super Bowl XXX is coming to cyberspace. No, they aren't going to play the game in virtual reality instead of on a real field, but if NBC, the National Football League, and Microsoft have their way it might be the next best thing. 3 -> Dimension X Intros Java Authoring Kit -- Dimension X said it is releasing two products that will help Internet World Wide Web site administrators (Webmasters) incorporate virtual reality and Sun Microsystems' Java technology into Web sites. The two products, called "Liquid Reality" and "Ice," are now available to the public for licensing. 4 -> Prodigy Forms WildFlower Div, Acquires SonicNet Share -- Ed Bennett, Prodigy's president and chief executive officer, continues to reshape the online company with a new investment arm called WildFlower Partners division. First action for the new division was to acquire an interest in New York- based World Wide Web site, SonicNet. 5 -> UK Businesses Slipping Through The Web - Report -- Businesses in the UK are missing out on the potential of the Internet by not setting up their own World Wide Web pages, a report just issued by Lombard Business Finance claims. 6 -> Europe - Cellular Market To Quadruple By Year 2000 -- According to a report issued by Schema, one of Europe's leading telecoms consultancies, the Western European cellular marketplace is expected to quadruple by the year 2000 with the consumer side of the market expected to rise to account for more than 70 percent of the subscriber base during that period. 7 -> Health Mall Opens On Web -- Health food, vitamins, and other fitness-related products and services have hit the Internet's World Wide Web, in the form of The Health Mall. The new Web site is described as a "virtual one-stop shopping experience" for people interested in health and fitness. 8 -> Newsweek - Who's Hot On The Internet -- Hitting newsstands around the US is Newsweek's "The Year of The Internet" issue naming the 50 people who matter most on the Internet. From social consciousness, technological advancements, sarcasm and serious content contributors, Newsweek salutes a host of individual efforts. 9 -> Alcom's New Pricing For LanFax -- Alcom Corporation, developer of fax server technology, announced a new pricing and configuration schedule for LanFax Server. Gone is the rigid buy-this-high-minimum marketing strategy, and in comes a flexible price, low-minimum policy. 10 -> America Online Adds Holiday Shopping Partners -- America Online (NASDAQ:AMER) members who have last minute shopping to do, but don't want to get caught in frenzied crowds in shopping malls and stores around the US, can visit 14 more stores in AOL's Marketplace "virtual mall." The stores include Caffe Starbucks, Lillian Vernon, Eddie Bauer, and FAO Schwarz. 11 -> Compuserve User Web Pages Now Open To Businesses -- Space for Internet World Wide Web sites on Compuserve's computers used to be only for individuals. But now, the online service is offering businesses free access to both its servers and its Web page creation and publishing tools. 12 -> ****First PCS 1900 System Launched In US -- It's been a long time coming, but the first PCS (personal communications system) 1900 (megahertz) digital cellular system in the US has now gone live, Newsbytes can report. 13 -> Deutsche Bank AG & IPC In Global Technology Deal -- IPC Information Systems (ITS) has announced it is formalizing a global agreement with Deutsche Bank AG to design and implement all its trading floors on a worldwide basis. 14 -> Philips To Acquire HDS Operation -- Philips Electronics, the electronics components division of the Dutch IT (information technology) group, has contracted to buy the IT division of HDS Info Management, itself a division of Koninklijke Begemann Groep, a Dutch trading conglomerate. 15 -> Nashville, Tennessee Gets Wired -- A vision of a city-wide electronic network wiring citizens, government, and private industry has manifested itself in Nashville, Tennessee, as Mayor Phil Bredesen's concept is now up and running in the town that's more famous for country music than being a "wired" community. Nashville "CityNet," described as a local network with access to the worldwide Internet, is up and running. 16 -> Internet Update - Holiday Web Surfing Picks -- To aid in your holiday World Wide Web surfing, Newsbytes offers a selection of previously announced sites that are worth going back to. Today, a selection of Web sites worth visiting for nothing more than enjoyment. 17 -> ****Security Attacks On Internet Computers Increase -- Under an advisory bulletin headlined "Widespread Attacks on Internet Sites," the Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT) has warned of a large increase in attempts to hack into computers connected to the Internet. 18 -> UK - January '96 IT Conference For CEOs -- Regent Associates has announced it is hosting a one-day conference for chief executive officers (CEOs) of companies that is designed to offer an analysis of trends driving the worldwide IT (information technology) industry in 1996. 19 -> America Online & New York Times Extend Online Deal -- America Online Inc. (NASDAQ:AMER) and the New York Times have extended their relationship, so the paper can continue to offer its content to AOL's four million-plus subscribers in its "@times" area. The agreement looks beyond the paper's current offerings, as well, officials said. 20 -> Rock Concert On The Web Set For January 4 -- The World Wide Web may be the most talked-about communications medium of 1995, but it still can't get its picture on the cover of the Rolling Stone. However, the Web may get a bit more attention in the music business thanks to an online concert being planned for January 4. 21 -> ****FBI Nabs Suspected AutoCAD Pirate -- In a second major case in less than two months, criminal charges were filed today against a man believed to have pirated up to $1 million worth of AutoCAD computer-aided design (CAD) software. The defendant, Los Angeles resident Howard Dennis Barnes, 53, who is charged with illegally copying and selling the Autodesk software, pleaded not guilty to two felony charges 22 -> Apple Ships $289 Videoconferencing Kit -- Previously announced and demonstrated earlier this year, Apple Computer's (NASDAQ:AAPL) QuickTime Conferencing Kit is now available through Apple resellers. Designed to connect through the Internet or a local area network, the kit contains a color camera, software and necessary cables for "complete desktop videoconferencing." 23 -> ****Software Distributor Sues Novell For $834 Million -- A Utah software distributor that sees itself as a modern-day "David" has filed a lawsuit against a corporate "Goliath" in the form of Novell Inc. (NASDAQ: NOVL). The Network Trade Center (NTC) suit charges the network operating system software publisher with illegal business tactics and violation of federal anti-trust laws, Federal Racketeering and Corrupt Organization Act (RICO), and various state laws. 24 -> Compaq Clings To Slim 1995 Sales Lead -- It appears that Compaq Computer Corp. (NYSE: CPQ) will cling to its sales lead in 1995, but not by much. 25 -> White House Reverses On Presidential E-Mail -- The Clinton administration has decided not to appeal a federal court ruling that stopped former President George Bush from controlling White House computer records and backup tapes. 26 -> FCC Auction - Big Bucks From Small Business -- The Federal Communications Commission's spectrum auction for small businesses is bringing in big bucks. The first round in the court-delayed auction yesterday brought bids totaling $457 million, a record for the first round in an FCC auction. 27 -> Asian Software Sales Show Significant Gains -- Third quarter software sales in Asia were up 38 percent over last year's third quarter, hitting $277 million, according to the Software Publishers Association. For the first three quarters, sales were $843.5 million, up 55 percent over the first three quarters of 1994. 28 -> IBM & Ameritech In Broad Alliance -- IBM (NYSE:IBM) and Chicago-based regional Bell operating company Ameritech have announced an alliance to provide integrated computer and communications services to customers. The two companies also announced an exchange of outsourcing business in which IBM will manage much of Ameritech's computer operations and Ameritech will take over running various communications services for IBM. 29 -> Pac Bell Building For Massive Internet Use -- Last year, the National Science Foundation selected Pacific Bell to become one of four Internet network access points (NAPs) which provide high-volume service to Internet service providers (ISPs). Pac Bell now says it will increase its NAP by 40 times to meet the dynamic growth of the Internet. 30 -> China - Developing Apps To Increase Market Share -- Chinese software developers face strong competition from foreign countries, but they need to develop more application software products to gain a greater share of the domestic software market, say some analysts. 31 -> ****Taligent To Become IBM Subsidiary -- In a newly unveiled agreement to turn over Taligent to IBM, Apple and HP will retain full rights to Taligent technology developed at IBM, said John Slitz, IBM's VP of object development, in a conference call today with Newsbytes. Also under the deal, Taligent will become an "object technology development center" that is wholly owned IBM subsidiary. (Ian Stokell/19951219) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 12/18/95 ONLINE Univ Students To Develop Professional Web Sites (NEWS)(ONLINE)(MSP)(00001) Univ Students To Develop Professional Web Sites 12/18/95 FARMINGTON HILLS, MICHIGAN, U.S.A., 1995 DEC 18 (NB) -- College students and the Internet have gone hand-in-hand for many years. But Data Systems Network Corp. and Oakland University are taking things a step further -- the school's students are now developing professional World Wide Web sites for corporate clients. Barbara Hauswirth, marketing manager of Data Systems, told Newsbytes she believes this is the first time students from a college and a corporate entity will jointly develop and maintain Web sites for both new and current clients of Data Systems. "At many universities, students are starting to get Internet experience," Hauswirth said. "But Oakland University has a pretty aggressive MIS (management information systems) curriculum. Their big emphasis in the past five years has been not to give their students theory classes, but give them skills they can really use out in the real world." This isn't an internship program, Hauswirth said, but it mimics one in that students get similar real-life experience. Those skills and experiences will be honed as they develop the sites, too. They'll design the pages using hypertext markup language (HTML) and other technologies, develop online forms, looking at other ideas, and finding out what's cutting edge on the Web. "These guys are true techno-geeks -- I love 'em," Hauswirth said. "They spend hours and hours of lab time surfing the Web. Most of them are graduate students who want real-life applications." While the students develop the sites, Data Systems will serve as the network and communications integration consultant and supplier. The company's specialists also have experience in firewall security. More sales and technical professionals will be brought on board to service new accounts expected to be brought in from the Data Systems/Oakland University joint venture, company officials said. (Bob Woods/19951218/Press Contact: Barbara Hauswirth, Data Systems Network, 800-544-2086) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 12/18/95 BUSINESS Ericsson To Distribute Acer PCs In Scandinavia (NEWS)(BUSINESS)(LON)(00002) Ericsson To Distribute Acer PCs In Scandinavia 12/18/95 COPENHAGEN, SWEDEN, 1995 DEC 18 (NB) -- Ericsson and Acer have teamed up to distribute the complete range of Acer branded PCs throughout the Scandinavian region. According to Tony Lin, Acer Scandinavia's managing director, the agreement was initiated in September of this year when Ericsson's Electronic Distribution division started distributing Acer's systems in Sweden. The agreement broadened last month when Denmark started being covered by the arrangement, and plans now call for Norway and Finland to be covered early next month. "We are all very pleased about this new partnership with Ericsson. The company has an excellent reputation and an extensive network of well-trained representatives throughout the region. With their channels and our products, we believe this new relationship will prove to be a great success," he said. First established in 1990, Acer Scandinavia is headquartered in Copenhagen. Earlier this year, Acer established a new firm, Acer Norway, another regional operation, to handle sales and support in Norway. Ericsson Electronic Distribution, meanwhile, claims to be the leading distributor of electronic components in Sweden. Plans call for Ericsson Computer Products, its PC division, to handle the Acer products. (Sylvia Dennis/19951215/Press Contact: Antony Lin, Acer Scandinavia, +45-45-821-000; Reader Contact: Lennart Nystrom, Ericsson Electronic Distribution, +46-8-757-5355) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 12/18/95 TELECOM UK Paging Firm Develops First Duplex Voice Pager (NEWS)(TELECOM)(LON)(00003) UK Paging Firm Develops First Duplex Voice Pager 12/18/95 BASINGSTOKE, HAMPSHIRE, ENGLAND, 1995 DEC 18 (NB) -- Multitone has announced what it claims is the industry's first two-way voice pager. The Pagephone, as it is known, uses standard VHF and UHF frequencies to send and receive numeric and alphanumeric text messages, but can also make and receive voice calls across those same set of frequencies. Steve Johnson, a spokesperson for the company, told Newsbytes that the Pagephone is unique since it does not use cellular, CT-2 (cordless telephony type two), or DECT (Digital European Cordless Telephony) standards to achieve full duplex voice transmission. Instead, using PMR (private mobile radio) technology, the pagephone interleaves analog voice transmissions in with the digital messages used on private paging systems. "This makes the Pagephone ideal for low voice call volume situations," he said, adding that, since the system is licensed as a PMR system, it can be patched into a PABX (private automatic branch exchange) with level 9 "breakout" to the public telephone network. "You can attach the Pagephone central unit to extensions off a PABX, allowing Pagephone users to dial out to other PABX extensions, and also on to the public network," he explained. He added that external and PABX callers can also "call" a Pagephone user. "Pagephone is unique in that you can dial and use the unit as a standard cordless phone, without having to press talk/listen switches as you do with PMR systems. Many users will probably use the paging system to send a message such as `please call extension 206,' and the Pagephone allows the pager user to place a voice call to the sender of the message without having to use a hardwired phone," he said. Because only a limited set of frequencies in the 138 megahertz (MHz) to 174MHz VHF and 400MHz to 470MHz UHF wavebands are available on paging services, the Pagephone is only designed to offer limited voice calling facilities in a paging environment, rather than constant cordless communications. In a heavy workload situation, the Pagephone system will automatically queue full duplex voice calls until channels are available. Simplex (one-way) voice messages, however, can be transmitted on a store-and- forward basis by the handset and the network. The range of each Pagephone base station depends on the terrain, but Jones told Newsbytes that base stations, each with a six-watts power output can be located at several miles apart (typically three to four) to cover wide areas, although calls in progress cannot be "handed off" between base stations as is the case with cellular radio. For voice calls, different levels of priority can be assigned. According to Multitone, this means that security guards can get immediate access to the network for voice-calls, knocking off calls in progress if required, while lesser security levels will find their voice calls auto-queued at busy periods. Pagephone systems vary in price, but can be offered for as few as four people and as many as 2,000 users. (Steve Gold/19951215/Press Contact: Clare Courtney, Grayling, +44-171-255-1100; Reader Contact: Multitone, tel +44-1256-27271, fax +44-1256-28220) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 12/18/95 TELECOM UK - C3's "Hot Desking" Computer Telephony System (NEWS)(TELECOM)(LON)(00004) UK - C3's "Hot Desking" Computer Telephony System 12/18/95 CAMBRIDGE, ENGLAND, 1995 DEC 18 (NB) -- Telecoms company, C3 Computer Telephony, has unveiled a digital packet network switching system (DPNSS)-based Intelligent Office system, designed around a Windows NT computing platform. According to Maurice Jones, a spokesperson for C3, the system is designed to interface with an intelligent PABX (private automatic branch exchange) and other telecoms devices plus systems that work to DPNSS protocols, to offer a "hot desking" control system. Hot desking is the practice of allocating desks in an office environment from a pool, to staff who spend a degree of their time out of the office. For example, if a staff of 100 spent only a third of their time in the office, only 50 or 60 desks need to be available to cope with most workload situations. The C3 Windows NT software, coupled with suitable hardware, can then allocate virtual extension numbers to the desk phones in use, while other virtual extensions can be routed to staff who are on the road, using cellular or paging with voice-mail services. The C3 system automatically dials the number assigned to a user on the system, either the desk phone in the office, the office phone at home, mobile or voice-mail as appropriate. The system is claimed to be so sophisticated that, even when sat at a "hot desk," a user can have the option of accepting the call, or "bouncing" it on. "A number of suppliers claim to have products that offer these functions, but many are expensive and make inefficient use of resources because they are based on analog proprietary solutions," said Jones. "C3 systems, by contrast, are based on open telephony building blocks, and use DPNSS digital connections to provide an extremely cost- effective network-wide solution with vastly improved call handling speeds. DPNSS allows private network operators, for example, to operate services such as hot desking, virtual office, voice- and fax- mail, interactive voice response and automated attendant services across their networks from a single PC platform," he explained. According to Jones, the use of Windows NT improves the efficiency of Intelligent Office (IO) applications even further, providing higher densities and unparalleled power in the shape of a 32-bit operating system, with multi-platform support for Intel and Alpha chipsets. "Take a typical 60-line virtual office application, for example -- when this may be constructed from two PCs containing Dialogic cards and running voice engines, a file server, a PC running a 3270 session (for connection to a mainframe), and a management workstation, the same job, in principle, can be done in a single Windows NT box with two Dialogic cards," he said. C3's virtual office software is known as Telelink NT and is claimed to be compatible with the company existing computer telephony development tools. Pricing on Telelink depends on the system and site licenses required. (Steve Gold/19951215/Press Contact: Mike Gray, Gray Associates, tel +44-181-744-9168, fax +44-181-744-9169; Reader Contact: C3, tel +44-1223-423562, fax +44-1223-420709) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 12/18/95 ONLINE America Online's New Parental Control Feature (NEWS)(ONLINE)(MSP)(00005) America Online's New Parental Control Feature 12/18/95 VIENNA, VIRGINIA, U.S.A., 1995 DEC 18 (NB) -- In order to give parents more control of what they see both online and on the Internet, America Online (NASDAQ:AMER) (AOL) is introducing an advanced feature where parents can have their youngsters access just the service's "Kids Only" area. The online service already offers controls for parents, to keep their children away from material deemed inappropriate for the kids, Margaret Ryan, America Online spokesperson, told Newsbytes. Those controls include the ability to restrict instant messaging and chat room access. Now AOL is "making the Kids Only area (the childrens') own AOL," Ryan said, complete with a children's opening screen that's similar to the welcome screen most people see when they access the network. With the new capability, parents can set a separate screen name and password for their children. When children log into AOL, they'll see the special opening screen and be taken to the Kids Only area automatically, Ryan said. Once there, they can take advantage of content from providers like Kids WB!, Nickelodeon, Scholastic Kids' World, KidzBiz/Invention Connection, and others. Message boards and chat rooms are monitored by AOL staffers, who use the prefix "KO" in their screen names. In addition to AOL content, access is severely restricted to the Internet's World Wide Web, Ryan said. Only sites approved by AOL staff can be accessed in the Kids Only area, she said. The Kids Only area is programmed for children between the ages of six and twelve, officials said. For older children, parents can still use the parental controls already in place, Ryan said. "Child safety on the information superhighway is a universal concern and as the Legislature debates these issues in Washington, AOL is empowering parents with the choice and the tools to decide what and how their children experience the online world," said Ted Leonsis, president of America Online Services Company. (Bob Woods/19951214/Press Contact: Margaret Ryan, America Online, 703-883-1625; Public Contact: America Online, 800-827-6364) (ADVISORY)(GENERAL)(MSP)(00006) NewsPix Images For Newsbytes Publishers 12/18/95 MINNEAPOLIS, MINNESOTA, U.S.A.,1995 DEC 18 (NB) -- Photos are now posted as they arrive, which means quicker access to the story pictures. The bulletin will continue on Mondays, with updates Wednesdays and Fridays, as needed. These photos correspond to recent Newsbytes stories. They are online in the Newsbytes menu on America Online, NiftyServe, and the Newsbytes private bulletin board system in Minneapolis. Some selections are also available from the Newsbytes Pacifica Website at http://www.islandtel.com/newsbytes/ JPEG (Joint Photographic Experts Group) files are larger in size, PICT files are designed as thumbnails for onscreen viewing. The photos are titled with name/year/month/day. PICT/thumbnail pictures are black and white (gray scale). File message will indicate color if the JPEG image is color. Some of the "for use" images, may be PICT files. To distinguish these files from the thumbnail preview PICT images, the tag for the color "for use" image will have PICT, all caps. The thumbnail will remain noted as "pct." To become a licensed Newsbytes publisher, call Newsbytes at 612-430-1100 (US) or write to wendy@newsbytes.com on the Internet. Licensing applies to any medium. --------------------------- Week of DECEMBER 18 - DECEMBER 22,1995 --------------------------- - NEW THIS WEEK - ONTECH951213 - color / Software Finds Network Files: screenshot of the search mode, text lines (no GIF). --------------------------------------------------------------- - PARTIAL LISTING OF PREVIOUS ITEMS - VACATIONS951213 - color / Free Travel & Vacation Planning On The Web: screenshot of web page graphic. DELUXE951212 - color / Adobe Intros Mac Photo Editing Software: screenshot of work screen. PEACHTREE951212 - color / Peachtree Intros Electronic Bill Paying Service: shot of the software package. POWER951208 - color / AER's 12-hour Battery For HP OmniBook: The Powerslice LX with tray that slides out to support the Omnibook mouse. COMPCARD951207 - color / OKI Develops PC On A Card: the card with the OKI imprint visible. WTC951211 - color / Internet World Trade Center Opens On Web: main art banner from web site. EARTHWEB951205 - color / WebInnovation - EarthWeb Shows Gamelan & Hot Web Sites: Gamelan logo. WEBINNOV951206 a, b, c - color / Web Frenzy in San Francisco: a) Marc Andreesson giving the keynote address, b) the SGI COSMO logo, c) view of exhibition floor at the San Francisco Hilton. WINK951204 - b&w / Japan Group Supports Interactive TV: various TVs and a PC with set-top boxes and menus on screen. TEC951201 - color / Games Sales Predicted Strong For Holiday Season: catalogue cover from Edutainment company. CITIZEN951208 - b&w / Citizen To Offer World's Smallest Printer Under $200: Citizen's new PN50 b&w printer. GOTV951130 - color / US West Launches Interactive Cable TV: screenshot from GOtv, with the animated host Uncle Frank (resembles Albert Einstein). (Newsbytes/19951218) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 12/18/95 GENERAL Japan Newsbriefs (NEWS)(GENERAL)(TYO)(00007) Japan Newsbriefs 12/18/95 TOKYO, JAPAN, 1995 DEC 18 (NB) -- In this roundup of news from Japan: Matsushita, Daiei to normalize relations; Japan - US fiber cable broken; NEC says Windows 95 software faulty; Nintendo asks for software price cuts; Sony to promote high end VCRs; Intuit enters Japan market. Matsushita, Daiei To Normalize Relations After a thirty-year period Matsushita Electrical Industrial Co., which markets products under the Panasonic and National brand names, and leading supermarket operator Daiei, are to resume a "trading relationship." Matsushita stopped shipping goods to Daiei in 1964 after the supermarket began discounting its electrical items. The two have had a trading relationship since last year when Daiei took over the Chujitsuya supermarket chain which was supplied by Matsushita. Japan - US Fiber Cable Broken Japan's largest international telephone operator, KDD, said that the TPC-4 fiber optic cable that runs between the United States and Japan has been out of operation since late November. The cable was severed on November 19 when a section linking the third and fourth transponders, from Japan, broke away. KDD says repairs are currently underway and trans-Pacific telephone traffic has not been affected. NEC Says Windows 95 Software Faulty NEC has announced a defect in the Microsoft Plus software package, localized by NEC, results in an inability to access word processing software on its "Can Be" range of personal computers. The company says the error lies with itself, and not Microsoft, and will begin replacing packages free of charge from Wednesday this week. Around 6,000 users are thought to be affected. Nintendo Asks For Software Price Cuts Nintendo has asked its distributors to cut prices on current 16-bit games software, ahead of the launch of its new Ultra-64 game system. Typical games prices are expected to drop from 11,000 yen ($110) to around 8,000 yen ($80). A price cut in games for the Super Famicon system is essential as the company has already announced games for its new system will be priced no higher than 9,800 yen ($98). The new system, to be launched in April next year, will offer substantially improved graphics and sound. Sony To Promote High-End VCRs Sony is to attempt to encourage consumers to spend more money on VCRs by increasing production of high-end models. The company wants more people to buy video cassette recorders like its model that incorporates VHS and eight millimeter (mm) decks into one machine. Sony hopes the 100,000 yen ($1,000) range of machines will catch on and become more popular than cheaper 30,000 yen ($300) models. Intuit Enters Japan Market Intuit has purchased Milky Way Corporation of Tokyo, a PC-based financial software provider. The acquisition marks Intuit's entry into the Japanese market. Among Milky Way's software is Obanto, a computer accounting package that has won seven out of the last eight annual awards in the Nikkei Pasocon user surveys. The company brings to Intuit over 80,000 users in Japan and is expected to report revenues of around $29 million for the current calendar year. (Martyn Williams/19951218) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 12/18/95 ONLINE ****Internet Update - Year In Review (NEWS)(ONLINE)(TYO)(00008) ****Internet Update - Year In Review 12/18/95 TOKYO, JAPAN, 1995 DEC 18 (NB) -- Since the summer, Newsbytes has been providing details of the latest new services and resources on the Internet. Here is a quick selection of sites Newsbytes covered that we feel deserve to be mentioned again. World Wide Music This is something every music fan should check out. On the home page they describe a situation we have all been in: "A friend recommends a new album to you, tells you that you'll love it. How do you know if they are right? You hear a great song on the radio -- but how can you tell if the rest of the album is any good?" This great World Wide Web site has 30 second sound clips from over 40,000 albums online -- 200,000 clips in all. The even better service available to regular users is that the computer will start to make recommendations once it knows your taste! World Wide Web: http://www.worldwidemusic.com/ CNNfn Knight Ridder News The new CNN Financial Network has already launched its own Web pages ahead of its upcoming launch. A section of the server includes a searchable database of the latest global financial and business news from the Knight Ridder news service. World Wide Web: http://www.cnnfn.com/news/knight_ridder/index.html Looking For Shareware? If you are after Shareware to do a particular job, this site carries a virtual library of hundreds of thousands of software titles available across the Internet. You can search and browse categories of software and then jump to the archives to download the software. Shareware Central is a service of c:net, the computer network. World Wide Web: http://www.shareware.com/ All About Viruses Not the human kind, but the computer variety. This set of pages includes basic information about computer viruses, such as what they are, and how to protect your PC or Macintosh computer against infection. A large selection of links to all types of Internet resources makes this a useful resource. World Wide Web: http://isteonline.uoregon.edu/istehome/edtechnews/antivirus/Viruses.html Political Cartoon Of The Day Seasoned Canadian political cartoonist D.H. Monet is producing exclusive cartoons especially for Internet users each day. The cartoons are available from 10am EST every weekday at the Cartoon-of-the-Day page. World Wide Web : http://www.tcm.com/aim/cartoon-of-the-day/ Ora.com Magazine Online O'Reilly Associates, well-known publisher of Internet and networking books and handbooks, has placed its ora.com magazine on the Internet. The magazine features articles on subjects covered by O'Reilly books and selected passages from the books. Current articles include: Computer Crime; A Brief History of Unix; PGP - The Privacy Wars; Clickable Image Maps; and The Sendmail Story. World Wide Web : http://www.ora.com/gnn/bus/ora/features/index.html Ask Dr. Internet Dr. Internet is now online to answer questions about the computer network from users, both new and old, worldwide. The service is supported by a group of volunteers from Project Gutenburg who are answering five new questions a month plus five answers that have been sent in as FAQs (frequently asked questions). All the answers are then added to a master FAQ list. You can send in questions, and answers via e-mail. Internet e-mail : internet@jg.cso.uiuc.edu Call Up The Operator A nice new Yellow and White Pages site with access to International and domestic telephone books including 800 and 900 number directories with the ability to "reverse look-up" a name from the number. World Wide Web: http://www.555-1212.com/ Doctor HTML Doctor HTML will visit a Web page and report back on any errors or problems with the HTML (hypertext markup language) code and other areas such as the spelling, verification of the hyperlinks, and examination of the tables and forms. A must-visit for all Webmasters and HTML authors. World Wide Web: http://imagiware.com/RxHTML.cgi WAIS Search Interface Sometimes Newsbytes comes across services so useful that we add them to our own personal bookmarks file. This is one of them. It's a World Wide Web interface to a search engine covering all public WAIS databases. If you're not familiar with the WAIS tool this is a great place to start exploring the numerous information sources available. World Wide Web: http://sunsite.unc.edu/cgi-bin/fwais.pl OKRA White Pages Directory The Department of Computer Science at the University of California, Riverside has announced a "white pages" database. The "OKRA: net.citizen Directory Service" is a freely searchable database of currently over half a million e-mail addresses. Search keywords can be e-mail addresses, names, organizations, and hostnames, and it's growing all the time. World Wide Web: http://okra.ucr.edu/okra/ Internet Address Finder This is an e-mail version of the previous service. Users can search for users by name or by entering an e-mail address and finding out the name of the person. The majority of this data is gathered from Usenet postings, but each user is asked to register, thus adding more names to the service. IAF is a free and comprehensive white pages service. World Wide Web: http://www.iaf.net/ Search Engines! 1995 saw so many new search engines, each useful in its own way. Savvy Search will simultaneously search nineteen search engines that cover the World Wide Web, Gopher, Usenet, and FTP sites. World Wide Web: http://guaraldi.cs.colostate.edu:2000/ With such a grand name as the Information SuperLibrary, you expect a useful service and, when you visit the page, you won't be disappointed. The page not only links to a wide range of Internet search tools, covering everything from the Web to veronica and e-mail, but describes each of the tools as well enabling users to find the most effective index for their searches. World Wide Web: http://www.mcp.com/general/search/srcheng.html The University of California, Berkeley, has a new search engine called Inktomi that uses parallel computing to offer "the fastest and most comprehensive engine now available to search the World Wide Web." The developers say it indexes more documents that Yahoo, Lycos and Infoseek and is quicker than all but Infoseek which is just as fast. World Wide Web: http://inktomi.berkeley.edu/ (Martyn Williams/19951218) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 12/18/95 ONLINE Compuserve Unveils WinCIM Version Two (NEWS)(ONLINE)(TYO)(00009) Compuserve Unveils WinCIM Version Two 12/18/95 COLUMBUS, OHIO, USA, 1995 DEC 18 (NB) -- Compuserve has released version two of its Windows front-end program, WinCIM. The new software features several new features that will make connection to the service and Internet browsing easier for less-experienced computer users, the next large audience for online services. Newsbytes was given access to the beta copies of WinCIM and have been using them for the last several months. Changes have come in two main areas -- the Internet and a new search engine for the Filing Cabinet. The new software comes bundled with the Compuserve Internet Dialer, a Windows socket interface that allows connection to the Internet using Point-to-Point Protocol (PPP), and Spry Mosaic, an browser for the Internet's World Wide Web produced by the now Compuserve owned Spry Inc. Perhaps the most important change in the new software is that, as standard, it connects to Compuserve via the Internet Dialer program. This results in a call to any point on the CIS network or affiliates as desired, and the establishing of a connection using the PPP protocol. Connection into the Compuserve Information Service is then made possible via a connection across the Internet into CIS. The biggest advantage of this method is that the user is free at anytime to launch the World Wide Web browser and browse the Internet while also accessing Compuserve. For users who have no wish to connect to the Internet, however, the new system simply adds more possible sources of problems, but can be easily disabled by unchecking the Winsock option in the software. An improved mail interface makes sending messages to users of other systems much easier. Gone is the need to preface addresses with the correct syntax for the Compuserve mail gateway. Now addresses can be entered in the system's native form, such as foo@bar.com, and the destination, in this case "Internet," can be chosen from a small menu. The software then takes care of the rest. The ribbon bar along the top of the program has been re-designed to feature new options as default, although all buttons can be customized by the user. One of the new buttons automatically launches the World Wide Web browser, when connected via the Internet Dialer. A powerful new search engine has also been included in the Filing Cabinet, meaning searching multiple folders for that nugget of information is a thing of the past. A dialog box, much like those used to search forums online, appears when selected and allows a fully user definable search to be accomplished. The full package offers a useful upgrade, especially for those wishing to use the Internet more intensively or those that store a large amount of information in the Filing Cabinet. Compuserve users can download a copy of the new software, WinCIM 2.0.1, from the WinCIM download area, at GO WINCIM. (Martyn Williams/19951218) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 12/18/95 BUSINESS Zenith To Build Computer Monitor Tubes (NEWS)(BUSINESS)(MSP)(00010) Zenith To Build Computer Monitor Tubes 12/18/95 GLENVIEW, ILLINOIS, U.S.A., 1995 DEC 18 (NB) -- Zenith Electronics Corp. (NYSE:ZE) said it will pump $45.6 million dollars into its Melrose Park, Illinois, plant to manufacture color picture tubes for computer monitors. The new line in the plant will have the capacity to make more than one million color display tubes annually, and will begin production in the second quarter of 1997. One of Zenith's largest customers for the tubes will be South Korea's LG Electronics Inc. (LGE), which happens to be Zenith's largest stockholder. Last month, LGE purchased about 58 percent of Zenith in a $351 million dollar deal, a move which Newsbytes reported. At the time, Zenith officials said they intend to use much of LGE's invested capital to support its color picture tube capacity and technology initiatives, along with supporting its Network Systems cable products business, which includes cable modems. LGE is better known world-wide for its GoldStar brand of electronic products including computer displays, some of which Newsbytes has written about during its coverage of this year's Comdex Fall '95 show in Las Vegas. The Melrose Park expansion is the first strategic investment Zenith has made in facilities since LGE's stock buy, John Taylor, Zenith spokesperson, said. The computer monitor tubes are four to five times more profitable for Zenith, as opposed to the color television picture tubes the company makes at Melrose Park, Taylor said. That plant currently has the capacity to make 4.5 million color picture tubes annually, and employs about 3,300 workers. Moschner said adding color computer display tube production should help "maintain our very strong employment base here." Zenith President and Chief Executive Officer Al Moschner stressed the investment's strategic importance to Zenith's profit improvement programs, saying "the high-res color display tube business offers significant revenue opportunities." The company has been awash in red ink since 1988, Newsbytes notes, although LGE officials have said Zenith will turn a profit in fiscal 1997 or 1998. Although some of the color TV picture tubes Zenith makes have the Zenith name on them, there are no plans to do the same with the color monitor tubes, officials said. The company had made flat screen tubes in the late 1980s, but quit when it sold its Zenith Data Systems to France's Groupe Bull. (Bob Woods/19951218/Press Contact: John Taylor, Zenith, 708-391-8181) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 12/18/95 LEGAL BSA Steps Up Latin American Anti-Piracy Blitz (NEWS)(LEGAL)(DEN)(00011) BSA Steps Up Latin American Anti-Piracy Blitz 12/18/95 WASHINGTON, D.C., U.S.A., 1995 DEC 18 (NB) -- The Business Software Alliance (BSA) has stepped up its anti-piracy campaign in Latin America with raids of homes and businesses that yielded thousands of copies of, what the organization said were, illegal copies of software. BSA is a trade group that "combats software piracy through education and enforcement programs" in more than 60 countries in Latin America, North America, Europe, and Asia. The group counts Autodesk, Bentley, Intergraph, Lotus, Microsoft, Novell, The Santa Cruz operation, and Symantec among its members. The raids earlier this month in Brazil and Puerto Rico uncovered thousands of counterfeit copies of software published by Autodesk, Lotus, Microsoft, Novell, the Wordperfect Applications Group, and Symantec. Authorities mounted the raids in Rio de Janeiro, Sao Paulo, and Porto Alegre in early December, after BSA petitioned local law enforcement officials. The petition was based on a tip to BSA's toll-free anti-piracy hotline and after the appearance of newspaper advertisements offering the illegal software. The Brazilian Association of Software Companies said the illicit activity included illegal duplication of CD-ROMs. The group believes if enforcement actions could reduce the piracy rate of 80 percent by one-fourth the legitimate software market would double in size. Estimated dollar losses in Brazil in 1994 due to software piracy, the last year for which figures are available, reportedly exceeded $550 million. Raids in Puerto Rico last week marked the commencement of BSA's anti-piracy campaign in that country. The group conducted surprise inspections of seven hardware and software dealers that reportedly uncovered significant quantities of counterfeit and illegally reproduced software. Violation of US copyright laws, which apply in Puerto Rico, carry penalties of up to 10 years in jail and fines of up to $250,000 for individuals, and $500,000 for companies as well as statutory civil damages of up to $100,000 for "willful infringement." BSA said Latin America is one of the fastest growing markets for prepackaged software products, second only to Asia. Officials estimate the black market for software in the area will reach $4 billion by the year 2000. BSA spokesperson Diane Smiroldo told Newsbytes that Asia is still the most serious problem area for counterfeit software, with an estimated piracy rate of 98% in the People's Republic of China and an estimated dollar loss due to illegal software copying of $526 million annually. An estimated 67 percent of the software in use in Japan is counterfeited, said Smiroldo, and accounts for a loss annually of about $2 billion. BSA's loss estimates refer to the amount of money lost to legitimate sales if the users of pirated software had purchased legitimate versions. (Jim Mallory/19951218/Press & public contact: tel 202-872-5500, fax 202-872-5501) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 12/18/95 TELECOM Telecom "Scandal" Stalls Indian Parliament Proceedings (NEWS)(TELECOM)(DEL)(00012) Telecom "Scandal" Stalls Indian Parliament Proceedings 12/18/95 NEW DELHI, INDIA, 1995 DEC 18 (NB) -- Allegations of a mega scam in the bidding process of telecom licenses by the Indian opposition parties stalled proceedings in both houses of Parliament for over a week. The issue concerned alleged "favoritism" by the Union Communications minister, Sukh Ram, in awarding the basic telecom services licenses to Himachal Futuristic Communications Ltd. (HFCL). Tracing back the controversy, Delhi-based HFCL, which had a turnover of US$2.8 billion in 1994-95, first stunned the telecom industry when it quoted approximately $24.3 billion for nine telecom circles for basic telecom services in August. The company had made these bids in partnerships with Bezeq of Israel and Shinawatra of Thailand. Doubts were raised over the company's capacity to raise the financial resources needed to pay the quoted license fee. The Opposition parties have accused the Communications minister of bailing HFCL out, which was the highest bidder for nine telecom circles, by imposing a cap that no single company could be awarded licenses for more than three telecom circles. By giving HFCL the freedom to choose three states, Opposition parties have accused the minister of sparing the company a financial burden of $71.43 billion. Meanwhile, the chances of functioning of both houses of Parliament receded as the standoff over licensing of basic telecom services which has paralyzed Parliament for nearly a week continued with the Opposition parties and the Government sticking to their stands. The Government turned down the Opposition demand for a Joint Parliamentary Probe (JPC) into the controversy and also the demand that the award of cellular licenses be postponed. Instead, the Government has asked the Opposition to reconsider its demand for a JPC as a writ petition on tendering in basic services moved by some Opposition members is pending before the Supreme Court. In another move, the Government has gone ahead and awarded 18 licenses to 27 companies for operating cellular mobile phone services, disregarding the Opposition demand that the exercise be postponed until it has examined the issue. In all, 27 companies had qualified for licenses to operate cellular mobile phone services in 19 of the 21 telecom circles. The remaining nine companies have been granted a two weeks' extension for completing the licensing procedures. Prominent among the licensees are: JT Mobile-Telia for Andhra Pradesh and Punjab; Modicom-Vanguard for Punjab and Karnataka; Birla Communications-AT&T for Gujarat and Maharashtra; and US West-BPL for Tamil Nadu, Kerala, and Maharashtra, among others. Both Houses of the Parliament adjourned for six days with the treasury and opposition benches continuing to lock horns on the telecom issue, which threatens to affect the pre-Election mood of the nation. (C.T. Mahabharat/19951218) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 12/18/95 BUSINESS Netscape Enters Indian Market (NEWS)(BUSINESS)(DEL)(00013) Netscape Enters Indian Market 12/18/95 MDNMNEW DELHI, INDIA, 1995 DEC 18 (NB) -- Netscape Communications Corp., the Internet software company has entered the Indian market through an alliance with Microland Ltd., a networking and communications solutions provider and Wipro Infotech Group. As per the agreement, Microland will be the value-added reseller for Netscape for the Indian subcontinent. Speaking on the occasion, Pradeep Kar, chairman and managing director of the company, said, "Our strategy is to provide the best capabilities available to make the Internet easily accessible to everyone in India." The software product line from Netscape includes three families of products -- the Netscape Navigator client software, Netscape server software, and Netscape Internet applications. To focus on the Internet and World Wide Web related software services, Microland has also set up a new unit -- called Microweb. Apart from Netscape Communications Corp., Microland Ltd., the R73 crore company also has alliances with AT&T, Bay Networks, Cisco Systems Inc., Compaq Corp., Intel Corp., Microsoft Corp., and Novell Corp. (C.T. Mahabharat/19951218) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 12/18/95 GOVT Philippines - Govt's Online Processing Center Reaps Revenue (NEWS)(GOVT)(HKG)(00014) Philippines - Govt's Online Processing Center Reaps Revenue 12/18/95 MANILA, PHILIPPINES, 1995 DEC 18 (NB) -- After six months of operation, the Online Processing Center (OLPC) which computes taxes and duties of imported vehicles at the Bureau of Customs (BOC) in the Philippines has harvested around $77 million, according to BOC figures recently released. OLPC is a duties and taxes automated computation scheme package of control measures designed to manage fraud on shipments passing through Customs. It began operations last May. There used to be many errors, deliberate or unintentional, committed by importers in the computation of duties and taxes which Bureau personnel failed to detect. BOC Commissioner Guillermo L. Parayno Jr., said that the OLPC has streamlined the operations and is expected to come up with good results for the Bureau. Since the introduction of the online processing system, no major underpayment through computational error has been found. This system is expected to stop leakages in the government revenue. The OLPC scheme was implemented to insure proper collection of duties and taxes, to protect importers from unnecessary expenses, to prevent motor vehicle smuggling, and to protect the vehicles from damage, destruction, and wear-and-tear caused by prolonged exposure to the natural elements, said the bureau. According to Buenaventura Maniego, district collector of the Manila International Container Port, the OLPC offers importers other services, such as the accommodation of requests for vehicle registration plates from the Land Transportation Office. (Kay Yeban & Metropolitan Computer Times/19951218/Press Contact: Commissioner Guillermo L. Parayno Jr., Philippine Bureau of Customs, tel 632-527-1982, fax 632-527-1953) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 12/18/95 BUSINESS Czech Republic - Hewlett-Packard PCs Ship (NEWS)(BUSINESS)(LON)(00015) Czech Republic - Hewlett-Packard PCs Ship 12/18/95 BRNO, CZECH REPUBLIC, 1995 DEC 18 (NB) -- CHS Czechia, which on September 1 announced a pilot program agreement with Hewlett-Packard (HP) to provide its customers with enhanced configurations of the V line of HP Vectra PCs, is preparing to ship the first of such systems to resellers in the Czech Republic. First shipments are expected this month. CHS Czechia announced at INVEX that it expected to begin shipping in October, but has extended the projected shipping date. CHS Czechia will start with the Pentium-based VL generation of HP Vectra PCs and hopes to soon offer Intel 486-based VE models, which are "more acceptable" in the market than the Pentium models. "VL3 is not our best-selling Vectra -- VE has bigger numbers than VL3," said Vaclav Sindelar, product manager at CHS Czechia. The program for configuration of PCs upon customer order was introduced to cut down on the need for resellers to keep a lot of machines in stock and to reduce the time for delivery to customers, according to Zbynek Kraus, director of CHS Czechia. HP is aiming for "growth of sales of HP PCs in the Czech Republic of 60%," said Petr Bobek, PC product manager at Hewlett-Packard s.r.o. CHS Czechia is to configure the PCs according to HP's quality standards and is applying for ISO 9002 certification. This year, CHS will configure only the Pentium-based VL3 line (consisting of 75 megahertz (MHz), 90 MHz, and 133 MHz models), installing hard drives, loading software, and upgrading central processing units (CPUs), according to Briza. (Steven Slatem/19951218) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 12/18/95 BUSINESS China - Great Wall Reaches Production/Sales Goal (NEWS)(BUSINESS)(PEK)(00016) China - Great Wall Reaches Production/Sales Goal 12/18/95 BEIJING, CHINA, 1995 DEC 18 (NB) -- The Great Wall Computer Group has reached its production/sales goal of 100,000 PCs for 1995. The achievement brings hope to the Chinese domestic computer industry, say some analysts, despite the yearly sales volume being small when compared with world-class computer giants, said an official with the firm. Great Wall International Computer Group, the leading domestic computer company, announced recently that its yearly production/sales goal of 100,000 Golden Great Wall PCs had been achieved on November 27, over a month early. The figure was double-checked at the company's sales department and manufacturing base in Shenzhen. Golden Great Wall PCs are "made-in-China" products manufactured by Great Wall -- IBM's joint venture, which was established in February, 1994. It is estimated that China's total PC sales volume in 1995 will be one million, meaning Golden Great Wall PCs will have a market share of at least 10 percent. International computer companies are eyeing the Chinese computer market as a potentially lucrative one. In Shenzhen, GKI Electronics Co. -- jointly founded in last September by Great Wall Group, IBM, and a Shenzhen high-tech company - has turned out its first batch of computer motherboards. The move will ensure the Golden Great Wall computer's annual production of 200,000 in coming years, said the company. (Chih-Ho Yu & Ning Huang/19951218) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 12/18/95 TRENDS China - Telephones/PCs Listed Top By Beijing Residents (NEWS)(TRENDS)(PEK)(00017) China - Telephones/PCs Listed Top By Beijing Residents 12/18/95 BEIJING, CHINA, 1995 DEC 18 (NB) -- A telephone, computer, and a car are the first three items on the list of goods which Beijing residents want to buy, a recent market survey discovered. Those items are followed by a wide-screen color TV, a video camera, and a microwave oven, The market survey, conducted by China Diamond Information Industry Co. from July to November, covered six districts in China's capital. About 1,200 families in 60 neighborhood communities were involved, said the survey's organizer, Professor Ke Huixin from Beijing Broadcasting and Television University. This was a door-to-door survey and one person was chosen in each family as the family's representative, said the survey organizer. Then, the representative was questioned on a wide range of commodities and consumption tendencies. The survey found that 97.1 percent, 93.5 percent, and 88.8 percent of those surveyed already have TV sets, refrigerators, and washing machines, respectively. After those three items, the other top commodities owned by Beijing residents are telephones, housing, and stereos. Beijing residents list the items they want to buy first as the telephone, computer, and car, the survey said. The survey also found that women are more interested in owning a microwave oven and a computer than men, who would prefer a video camera. The survey also discovered that 56.9 percent of computer owners are those with some college, university, or higher institution education, said the survey organizer. (Chih-Ho Yu & Ning Huang/19951218) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 12/18/95 GENERAL Canadian Product Launch Update (NEWS)(GENERAL)(TOR)(00018) Canadian Product Launch Update 12/18/95 KINGSTON, ONTARIO, CANADA 1995 DEC 18 (NB) -- This regular feature, appearing on the first day Newsbytes publishes each week, provides further details for the Canadian market on announcements by international companies that Newsbytes has already covered. This week: Apple's Chinese Dictation Kit. Apple Canada Inc., of Markham, Ontario, launched the Apple Chinese Dictation Kit (Newsbytes, Nov. 28), a speech dictation system that converts Mandarin (Putonghua) speech into simplified or traditional Chinese text. Spokeswoman Sue Taylor of Apple Canada told Newsbytes that Canadian buyers will be able to order the product from US distributor AsiaSoft when it becomes available in the first quarter of 1996. Canadian buyers will have to pay in American currency, and the price is US$299. AsiaSoft has a World Wide Web site at http://www.asiasoft.com . (Grant Buckler/19951218/Press Contact: Susan Taylor, Apple Canada, 905- 477-5800, Internet e-mail s.taylor@eworld.com; Public Contact: AsiaSoft, 800-882-8856, Internet e-mail asiasoft@asiasoft.com or asiasoft@aol.com) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 12/18/95 BUSINESS Canada's Netron Opens First Subsidiary In UK (NEWS)(BUSINESS)(TOR)(00019) Canada's Netron Opens First Subsidiary In UK 12/18/95 TORONTO, ONTARIO, CANADA, 1995 DEC 18 (NB) -- Although it already has three offices in the United States, Toronto software developer Netron Inc.'s first foreign subsidiary will be in the United Kingdom. The maker of application development tools has announced the creation of the new organization in Northampton, northwest of London. Andy Staniewski, president of Netron, told Newsbytes that Netron currently derives about 10 percent of its sales from the UK market. Over all, he added, about 25 percent of the company's sales are outside of North America. The new subsidiary employs about a dozen people initially, Staniewski said. Netron's product focus on the concept of developing software that is reusable because it is made up of modules. The company's principal product is Netron CAP. Staniewski said the company's over-all revenues in the current fiscal year will be in the neighborhood of C$16 million. With headquarters in Toronto and offices in Chicago, Atlanta, and New York, Netron also has distributors in Europe, Asia, and South America. The company has been selling its products through distributors in the UK for about two and a half years, he said. In recent months, officials said, Netron has chalked up significant sales in the UK, Italy, Turkey, and Belgium. One of Netron's largest UK customers is Barclay's Merchant Services, the merchant bank, which is currently using Netron's technology and consulting services to help convert a 20-year-old mainframe computer system to a client/server model. Netron officials said creation of a British subsidiary will help bring its consultants closer to customers such as Barclays. (Grant Buckler/19951218/Press Contact: Rick Strosberg, Netron, 416-636-8334 ext 266, or +44-1604-710-073; Ed Bride, for Netron, 413-442-7718) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 12/18/95 TELECOM ****FCC OKs French & German Stakes In Sprint (NEWS)(TELECOM)(WAS)(00020) ****FCC OKs French & German Stakes In Sprint 12/18/95 WASHINGTON, D.C., U.S.A., 1995 DEC 18 (NB) -- The Federal Communications Commission has approved a 20 percent share in Sprint Corp. for the state- owned telephone companies of France and Germany. Together, France Telecom and Deutsche Telekom are putting $4.2 billion into Sprint. But the FCC said the approval is conditional, based on whether the French and German governments opened their telecommunications markets to competitors. "Trust but verify," said FCC Chairman Reed Hundt, echoing a remark Ronald Reagan once made about the Soviet Union. "France and Germany have made extraordinarily commitments to open their markets," said Hundt. "I would not have approved of this without those commitments." The three major long-distance companies -- Sprint, MCI, and AT&T -- have all formed international alliances as they hope to expand from the US and serve foreign markets. They hope to be able to offer worldwide telecommunications business to multi-national corporations. AT&T was in favor of the FCC approval of the Sprint stake, while MCI was opposed. In a statement following the FCC action, Sprint said that it doesn't believe the conditions imposed by the FCC "will have significant impact on the way we initially intend to do business." Sprint will not be able to serve new customers in France or Germany until those countries allow competing telephone companies. Both countries say they will take initial action to open up by the middle of next year and will have full competition by 1998. Sprint is required to report to the FCC by March 1998 about the implementation of competition by France and Germany. If the markets are not open by then, the regulators could revoke Sprint's license to operate in those countries. (Kennedy Maize/19951218/Press Contact: Susan Lewis Sallett, 202-418-1500) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 12/18/95 EDUCATION Internet Christmas Gift For Maryland Schools (NEWS)(EDUCATION)(WAS)(00021) Internet Christmas Gift For Maryland Schools 12/18/95 BELTSVILLE, MARYLAND, U.S.A., 1995 DEC 18 (NB) -- A Maryland Internet provider has a Christmas present for the state public schools. The Digital Express Group (Digex) is offering free, high-speed access to schools for one year. The gift is worth $5,000 to $10,000 per school system, depending upon the choice of access. The state has 24 school systems. Schools will have a choice of high-speed connections based on their current level of Internet activity and on the number of schools in the system that want access to the Internet. "State and national policy makers have expressed the desire to connect schools to the Internet," Doug Humphrey, Digex's founder and chief executive officer, said, "but funding problems are slowing that effort. Digex is stepping up to the plate with a gift of free Internet access in a time of shrinking fiscal resources." The company says it will waive its installation costs and monthly Internet service fees for one year, beginning immediately. At the end of the year, school systems will have the option of continuing service under a contract the company negotiated earlier this year with the state of Maryland, which provides reduced rate access. Digex will offer access via frame relay, a high-speed service that runs over dedicated telephone lines. School systems will have a choice of one T-1 frame relay Circuit at 512 kilobits-per-second (Kbps) or five 56Kbps circuits. School systems that are already Digex customers will be offered additional circuits for free. Humphrey, a University of Maryland graduate, started Digex in his basement in 1991. Now it is a multi-billion dollar business with nearly 100 employees and a high-speed backbone connection to the Internet. The company has points of presence in major cities including Washington, Baltimore, Richmond, Philadelphia, and New York. Among the company's clients are the Securities and Exchange Commission, the University of Maryland and other state agencies, the World Bank, CSPAN, WNET in New York, and the national Organization for Women. Digex also provides Internet access to the Caribbean island of Barbados and linked the former Soviet republic of Georgia to the Internet. (Kennedy Maize/19951218/Press Contact: Doug Humphrey, 301-847-5105) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 12/18/95 ONLINE ****Europe Online Readies For Early 1996 Launch (NEWS)(ONLINE)(LON)(00022) ****Europe Online Readies For Early 1996 Launch 12/18/95 LONDON, ENGLAND, 1995 DEC 18 (NB) -- Europe Online, the European online service that is headquartered in Luxembourg, has announced its UK, German, and French services are now online and accessible on a beta test basis via the company's World Wide Web site at http://www.europeonline.com . Chris Casburn, marketing director with the English language operation, which will be targeted at UK modem users, told Newsbytes that all three versions of the online service, together with the international service, will be launched during the first quarter of 1996. "Initially, we're using the Transpac PDN (packet data network) to allow dial-up access to the service at speeds of up to 14,400 bits-per- second (bps). Plans call for the Transpac dial-up, which is available in seven cities around the UK on a local call basis, and across Europe as well, to be extended to 28,800 bps working before the commercial launch," he said. Casburn went on to say that the company is issuing free beta test IDs and passwords, which will operate for up to 20 hours until the end of January, 1996, and encouraging users to either dial in via Transpac or, if they have an Internet account, come in across the Web. "This is the only consumer online service created for Europeans by Europeans, and differs from the America Online model for Europe, as well UK Online," he said, adding that there was some confusion in the online market as to who is doing what. "We are Europe Online, the online service based in Luxembourg," he said. He added that, by differentiating on the basis of language, right down to the menus and news services available online, the company is sure it will meet its target of taking 35 percent of the consumer online services market within five years. "We've taken ads in today's Independent daily newspaper and are encouraging users to try out our service. Where a user does not already have an Internet account, we offer them a modified version of NetScape, but we will issue our own software when we launch commercially," he explained. According to Casburn, Europe Online will give access to the latest news, entertainment, business and personal finance services, as well as electronic shopping services, interactive language courses and information on European events. According to the company, unlike existing online services, the content will be compiled specifically to appeal to a wide range of people and will actively encourage the formation of discussion groups. These could cover issues such as childcare, education, world affairs, or problems affecting local communities. Commenting on the beta stage for Europe Online, Jerry Roest, the managing director of the UK operation said that, by inviting individuals or families to pre-register with the service, the company plans to use the feedback to enhance the service. "A computer and modem is all that is needed to get online," he said. Newsbytes notes that Europe Online is still very much in its formative stages, with plans for areas operated by Mindscape and Acclaim. Several online games, including demos of Turican II, Worms, Zoop and others are playable online. Plans also call for Great Universal Stores to offer its mail-order catalog service via Europe Online. Casburn refused to be drawn on how much EOL will cost users, but he did reveal that the cost structure will be similar to that of Compuserve, with subscribers paying a set fee each month in return for a given number of free hours, and then paying for extra hours on a pay-as-you-go basis. "The general trend price wise is downwards and we expect to price in at a low level," he said, hinting strongly that the company is looking to undercut Compuserve in its pricing strategy. Casburn said that, even when the commercial service gets under way in the New Year, the server system will stay in Luxembourg for the foreseeable future. (Steve Gold/19951218/Press Contact: Victoria Osborne, Burston- Marsteller, +44-171-831-6262; Reader Contact: Europe Online, tel +44-171-447-3400, fax +44-181-447-3499) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 12/18/95 BUSINESS UK's Royal Mail Developing E-mail Operations (NEWS)(BUSINESS)(LON)(00023) UK's Royal Mail Developing E-mail Operations 12/18/95 LIVERPOOL, MERSEYSIDE, ENGLAND, 1995 DEC 18 (NB) -- The Royal Mail has contracted with PhoneLink, the online business information services provider, to develop a new electronic postal service for individuals and businesses. According to PhoneLink, the service, to be provisionally known as "Tel-Me - Royal Mail Electronic Services," will enable UK PC users within businesses and at home to send correspondence electronically to anyone in the world for the first time. Customers of PhoneLink's existing Tel-Me service are being invited to trial the service. According to Chris Knowles, PhoneLink's customer marketing strategies director, the pilot scheme will commence in the New Year and demand for, and feedback on, the service will determine the scope and scale of future plans for its commercial roll-out. The plan with the service is to enable Tel-Me users to send correspondence electronically to anyone in the world, not just to PC users with e-mail addresses. Messages typed into the PC will be sent directly to Royal Mail's Electronic Services simply by clicking on the send button within Tel-Me. The message will then be printed at Royal Mail's Electronic Mail Center located in Mount Pleasant, London, which is billed as Europe's largest distribution center and automatically inserted into the distinctive yellow Electronic Services envelope for first class delivery. "Internet users no longer need to run two separate systems, one for those with the necessary computer links and one for those without. They can now simply send their computer messages as normal, and Royal Mail and Tel-Me will sort out which can be delivered electronically and which should be printed off and posted via Electronic Services for next day delivery," explained Jim Cotton-Betteridge, Royal Mail's marketing director. According to Cotton-Betteridge, major international companies are already using Electronic Services to print and dispatch their volume mailings, including trading documents and marketing communications. Cotton-Betteridge said that the joint initiative with Tel-Me technology is a further development for allowing electronic access into the Royal Mail. "The trials with Tel-Me represent a major step forward for those using the Internet, enabling customers to get the most out of their Internet connections as well as the most out of the post," he said. The Royal Mail Electronic Service will have a 6pm weekday cut-off time for deliveries to postal addresses the next day. PhoneLink claims that the service will be especially convenient for the disabled, the teleworker (telecommuter), and individuals living in remote areas. "Tel-Me - Royal Mail Electronic Services offers many of the benefits of e-mail, plus the advantage of knowing your message will be handled with complete confidentiality and printed out and delivered direct to the recipient's front door by the Royal Mail," Knowles said. (Sylvia Dennis/19951218/Press Contact: Buffalo Communications, +44-171- 385-0777; Derek Wilson, Post Office News Room, +44-171-320-7443; Reader Contact: PhoneLink, tel +44-51-608-0205, fax +44-51-608-8783; UK Only - BT Localcall, 0345-225577) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 12/18/95 TRENDS Internet Stocks - Newsweek Says Beware! (NEWS)(TRENDS)(SFO)(00024) Internet Stocks - Newsweek Says Beware! 12/18/95 NEW YORK, NEW YORK, U.S.A., 1995 DEC 18 (NB) -- Your Internet stock may be a purchase of dreams and hype rather than real value, states Allan Sloan in Newsweek's year-end double cover package called "The Year of the Internet." Technology stocks are up 50% over this past year, but some Internet stocks are up 500%. Sloan asks the question: "If Internet stocks are such a hot trend, backed by top notch analysts, should you run out and buy all you can? "No, not unless you're prepared to spend your golden years eating pet food," states Sloan. Explaining further he says, "To be sure, plenty of securities analysts tout these stocks. Why am I so negative when people who are presumably better-informed are so positive? Because analysts are paid largely on the business they create, and profit mightily from the stock-underwriting business they help bring in. Those are pretty good incentives to believe in fairy tales. The clearest sign that these shares are overvalued comes from the companies themselves, which have recently sold additional new shares. The hope to squirrel away cash to survive the inevitable market downturn, when they won't be able to sell the stock." A clear distinction must be made between technology stocks and Internet stocks. Companies such as Intel, Microsoft, Oracle, Motorola, and others, have a history based on real products and sales. "But with Internet stocks, which have no meaningful history, you're buying dreams, hopes and hype," claims Sloan. Sloan is not alone in his assessment of Internet stocks. When Netscape Communications went public with its soaring initial public offering (IPO), Michael Murphy, a computer industry analyst and publisher of the California Technology Stock Letter, told Newsbytes, "Wall Street simply does not understand technology stocks. This is a company (referring to Netscape at the time of the IPO) which has not produced a profit." Pointing out the difference between a technology stock and an Internet stock, Sloan says, "If you bought 100 shares of Microsoft for $21 at its initial public offering in 1986, your $2,100 has become 1,800 shares currently worth almost $160,000. Pretty slick. But if you are to make a similar 75-to-1 profit in Netscape, the stock has to rise to almost $9,800 a share by the year-end of 2004. That would make Netscape the greatest success in the history of capitalism." Closing his end-of-the-year perspective, Sloan advises, "The time to buy these things isn't now, but when no-one wants them. When they're on newspaper front pages or magazine covers, look out below." (Patrick McKenna/19951218/Press Contact: Karen Wheeler, Newsweek, 212-445-4343) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 12/18/95 BUSINESS ****Bay Networks Buys Xylogics For $330Mil, Adding 500 Jobs (NEWS)(BUSINESS)(BOS)(00025) ****Bay Networks Buys Xylogics For $330Mil, Adding 500 Jobs 12/18/95 BILLERICA, MASSACHUSETTS, U.S.A., 1995 DEC 18 (NB) -- With its just-finalized $330 million purchase of Xylogics, Bay Networks will add 500 new jobs, while leaping in front of Cisco as number one player in the remote access component of the internetworking market, asserted Jim Hourihan, VP of marketing, in an interview with Newsbytes. As previously reported by Newsbytes, Bay Networks first announced its intentions to buy Xylogics, a Burlington, Massachusetts-based maker of remote access servers, in September. Hourihan told Newsbytes that the acquisition by Bay Networks, an internetworking company formed through the merger of Wellfleet and SynOptics, was accomplished by means of a stock swap in which "for every Xylogics share, we provided 1.05 Bay Net shares." Under terms of the deal, Xylogics will become an independent unit of Bay Networks. The 500-or-so new employees to be added to Bay Networks as a result of the purchase will provide manufacturing, support and service to Xylogics' line of products for accessing corporate networks, the Internet and commercial online services from branch offices and through modem dial-up, according to Hourihan. All of the new staffers will work in Massachusetts, he added. Bay Networks currently has 1,419 employees in Massachusetts, about 250 of them from Xylogics, and the remainder "mostly from Wellfleet." With a total of 4,450 employees worldwide, the company has offices in both Santa Clara, California, at the headquarters of the former SynOptics, and in Billerica, Massachusetts, the previous home of Wellfleet. Hourihan pointed out that Bay Networks specializes in producing high-end networking products such as multiprotocol routers, switches, intelligent hubs, and network management systems for large and medium-sized companies. Now, with the acquisition of Xylogics, Bay Networks will capture the market lead in the remote access market versus Cisco's line of remote access routers, he contended, citing an IDC study that names Xylogics the "worldwide leader in remote access ports shipment market share" for the first half of 1996. The IDC statistics give Xylogics a 22.6 ports share of "hardware-based remote access servers." Hourihan acknowledged that, prior to deciding on the Xylogics purchase, Bay Networks looked at "all the companies in the remote access business," including Shiva. Xylogics got the nod, he said, due to synergies in the areas of "company culture," product line-up, and distribution channels. Xylogics had previously produced remote access products for Bay Networks on an OEM (original equipment manufacturer) basis. "There is absolutely no overlap in our product lines," Hourihan maintained. Meanwhile, from Xylogics' perspective, the deal will bring wider distribution, together with access to Bay Networks' 24-by-seven phone support facility and other aspects of service and support, according to marketing VP. Xylogics' products will now be distributed through Bay Networks' 1,600-member direct sales force, as well as through Bay Networks' 1,500 resellers, Hourihan observed. Prior to the acquisition, he reported, Bay Networks had been "building its own distribution channels." Bay Networks, however, will not be using Xylogics' previously established channels, Newsbytes was told. "Xylogics has about 200 reseller partners, whereas we have about 1600. There's some overlap. But nonetheless, it's about an eight- to-one difference," the VP elaborated. Hourihan added that the formation of Bay Networks was "what really kicked off the frenzy of mergers and acquisitions" in the internetworking market, pointing to Fore Systems' just announced purchase of Alantec Corp. as another recent example of an industry trend in this direction. (Jacqueline Emigh/19951218/Reader Contact: Bay Networks: 408-988- 2400, 508-670-8888; Press Contact: Chris Carleton, Bay Networks, 508-436-3706) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 12/18/95 ONLINE ****Microsoft Tests Electronic Software Delivery (NEWS)(ONLINE)(MSP)(00026) ****Microsoft Tests Electronic Software Delivery 12/18/95 NEW YORK CITY, NEW YORK, U.S.A., 1995 DEC 18 (NB) -- Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ:MSFT) will participate in a pilot program to deliver software through CyberSource Corp.'s "software.net" Internet World Wide Web site, using technology from Digital Delivery, officials from the companies announced today. The new agreement calls for software.net to test Digital Delivery's new delivery agent for the electronic sale and delivery of software titles via the Internet. The system will be implemented at the site starting January 1, 1996, officials said. "This is a radical new way for people to buy software," Mark Friedler, director of business development at Digital Delivery, told Newsbytes. "Today, if you go to buy software or download anything from the Internet, first you have to find what you download. Then you have to start the download. Then you have to wait. And if for any reason your download gets interrupted, you have to waste a whole lot of time getting the program again." With Digital Delivery's software distribution technology, all of those headaches go away, Friedler claimed. Customers begin the process by downloading the company's delivery agent, which is 250 kilobytes (KB). The agent then prompts the user for credit card and other information. After validating the information, the agent then downloads the software in the background, so the user can then work on other tasks. When the download is done, the Web server then verifies the software was downloaded correctly, and begins the installation process. If all is well, the delivery agent then deletes itself from the user's computer, Friedler said. The technology also communicates the fact it is finished downloading the software to the retailer, so inventories can be adjusted. The system itself is secure because the delivery agent is independent of the browser, Friedler said. The agent also implements its own communications with the server using secure sockets and other security measures, ensuring security, he added. Software.net's Web site is located at http://software.net/ . Digital Delivery officials said they are negotiating with other Microsoft resellers for similar agreements. Digital Delivery's Web site is at http://delivery.reach.com . (Bob Woods/19951218/Press Contacts: Lydia Trettis, Connors Communications, 212-807-7500; Mark Friedler, Digital Delivery, 212-226-4115) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 12/18/95 WINDOWS Kolvox's Voice Software For Internet (NEWS)(WINDOWS)(TOR)(00027) Kolvox's Voice Software For Internet 12/18/95 TORONTO, ONTARIO, CANADA, 1995 DEC 18 (NB) -- Kolvox Communications Inc. (ASE:KOL) has announced software designed to let computer users navigate the Internet using voice commands. Kolvox's VoiceCompanion for the Internet will work with major World Wide Web browsers such as those from Netscape, Microsoft, and Spry, the company said. Martin Tuori, vice-president of technology at Kolvox, told Newsbytes that VoiceCompanion for the Internet is part of the same line and built on the same concepts as the company's other voice-control products, such as a package that lets WordPerfect users issue spoken commands to their word processor. It accepts spoken commands and translates them into operations in the Internet software. According to Kolvox, the software will let a user log onto the Internet, browse the World Wide Web, read and send electronic-mail, and upload or download files using only spoken commands. The new software comes with an Internet task manager called GoFetch! that Kolvox said will perform such tasks as retrieving mail or news articles, downloading stock market data and the like. Kolvox is planning a freeware version of VoiceCompanion for Internet, to be distributed on the Internet and commercial online services starting in March, as well as full-featured versions for which users will have to pay US$24.95. Tuori said there will be different versions with extra features built in to work with commercial online services such as America Online and Compuserve. The commercial versions of the software are to ship early in 1996, company officials said. Kolvox also said it will adapt a telephone access interface which it originally developed for Phoenix Technologies Ltd., so that users can phone their personal computers and retrieve Internet data over a conventional voice connection -- for instance, having the software read them their electronic-mail over the phone. This option is due to be available in the fall of 1996, the company said. Tuori said Kolvox will pursue a variety of distribution strategies, including direct sales and bundling agreements with Internet access providers, Internet software vendors, and even hardware manufacturers. With use of the Internet growing fast, he said, many PC vendors are likely to start pre-installing Internet access software on new PCS. (Grant Buckler/19951218/Press Contact: Martin Tuori or Isaac Raichyk, Kolvox, 416-221-2400) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 12/18/95 BUSINESS Former Novell Execs Launch Web Venture (NEWS)(BUSINESS)(DEN)(00028) Former Novell Execs Launch Web Venture 12/18/95 SALT LAKE CITY, UTAH, U.S.A., 1995 DEC 18 (NB) -- Two former Novell vice presidents have joined with several other industry executives to form a company the group said will pursue opportunities relating to the Internet's World Wide Web. Joe Firmage, former vice president of strategic planning for Novell's NetWare System Group, Toby Corey, former vice president of marketing for Novell's NetWare Product Division, and James Heffernan, formerly chief financial officer at Interlink Computer Sciences, have joined forces with other senior industry executives to form USWeb Corp. A USWeb Corp. spokesperson said Firmage and Corey resigned from Novell within the last 30 days. Corey will serve as executive vice president for the new company that plans to assist companies and individuals in establishing a presence on the Web. He said the group expects Web sites to become far more important than just electronic order systems, multimedia magazines, and interesting places to find new information. "We believe that Web sites are essentially real estate lots in an unbounded territory on a new continent." Corey compares the effect the Web will have on society to the changes that took place on the western US frontier during the 19th century. "Our civilization will change in fundamental ways as the Web frontier is progressively settled," said the USWeb Corp. executive. He predicts Web sites are where citizens will eventually go to vote, register their automobiles, join town hall discussions or to check out local schools before moving into a town as well as obtain products. "For businesses Web sites will contain storefronts, agents and information centers...dramatically streamlining innumerable everyday business functions and extending the market reach of virtually any business to the entire planet." Corey predicted that, for individuals, their personal Web site will become an online homestead, where all live communication is conducted, where text/audio/video messages are sent and received, where personal information is presented to others, and where the individual can store information that today might be stored on the hard disk of a PC. USWeb Corp. is currently finalizing negotiations for its first round of investment financing. It will have offices in Salt Lake City, Utah, and San Jose, California. Its Web site, at http://www.usweb.com , is scheduled for launch in the "near future." (Jim Mallory/19951218/Press contact: Martha Felt, Martha Felt Group for USWeb Corp., 801-328-1113; Public contact: USWeb Corp., 800-998-7932) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 12/18/95 BUSINESS Fore Systems Buys Backbone Switch-Maker Alantec (NEWS)(BUSINESS)(BOS)(00029) Fore Systems Buys Backbone Switch-Maker Alantec 12/18/95 PITTSBURGH, PENNSYLVANIA, U.S.A., 1995 DEC 18 (NB) -- With a newly announced decision to buy Alantec that represents Fore Systems' fourth acquisition in the past six months, Fore will further broaden its family of networking products to include switches for the backbone as well as for the departmental level, said Eric C. Cooper, chairman and CEO (chief executive officer), in a conference call with Newsbytes. Cooper told Newsbytes that, with the latest purchase, Fore will add Alantec's PowerHub multilayer LAN (local area network) products for switching, bridging, and multiprotocol routing to its own ForeRunner departmental ATM (asynchronous transfer mode) switches, as well as to the Ethernet and Fast Ethernet desktop and workgroup switches acquired through a purchase of Applied Techwork Technologies announced in June. Also in June, Fore bought two technologies -- multi-protocol routing over ATM, and a private network-to-network interface (PNNI) -- from RainbrowBridge, the CEO pointed out. The announcement of the Alantec acquisition also comes less than two weeks after Fore's announcement of a previously completed purchase of CellAccess Technology. Cooper informed Newsbytes that Fore expects the purchase of Alantec and CellAccess to be useful in helping customers to "migrate" to ATM by extending the company's reach into the rapidly growing markets of backbone switching/routing and "wide area remote access," respectively. Lots Gatos, California-based CellAccess provides remote access services that include ATM as well as frame relay, UNI, and FUNI, plus T1 DSU/CSU with "drop and insert" capabilities, according to the company chief. Under the newly announced deal with Alantec, which is scheduled for completion in March, Alantec will become an independent subsidiary of Fore, Cooper reported. The CEO added that staffing at San Jose, California-based Alantec will remain the same as it is today at all levels, including top management. (Jacqueline Emigh/19951218/Reader Contact: Fore Systems Inc., 412-272-6600; Press Contact: Kim Booth, Fore Systems, 412-272- 6600) (SUMMARY)(GENERAL)(MSP)(00030) Newsbytes Daily Summary 12/18/95 MINNEAPOLIS, MINNESOTA, U.S.A., 1995 DEC 18 (NB) -- These are capsules of all today's news stories: ======================================================================== ------------| N E W S B Y T E S D A I L Y S U M M A R Y |---------- ------------| Monday, December 18, 1995 |---------- ======================================================================== (c) Newsbytes News Network (Tm) Editor in Chief: Wendy Woods ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Newsbytes News Network's on the Web! Check out http://www.nbnn.com for free daily top stories from Newsbytes and its affiliate publications, and from PC Week, MacWeek, and other Ziff news magazines. A subscription gives you all the news, full-text, plus the most comprehensive database of past computer stories online. The keyword-searchable database dates from today back through 1983. Subscriptions are $24.95 for three months. Questions? Send to 'administrator@newsbytes.com' For Japanese Newsbytes and additional services, see the Newsbytes Pacifica Website at http://www.islandtel.com/newsbytes/ ------------------------------------------------------------------------ CATEGORY HEADLINES (*** indicates today's top stories) STORY # ======================================================================== BUSINESS Ericsson To Distribute Acer PCs In Scandinavia............. 02 BUSINESS Zenith To Build Computer Monitor Tubes..................... 10 BUSINESS Netscape Enters Indian Market.............................. 13 BUSINESS Czech Republic - Hewlett-Packard PCs Ship.................. 15 BUSINESS China - Great Wall Reaches Production/Sales Goal........... 16 BUSINESS Canada's Netron Opens First Subsidiary In UK............... 19 BUSINESS UK's Royal Mail Developing E-mail Operations............... 23 BUSINESS ****Bay Networks Buys Xylogics For $330Mil, Adding 500 Job 25 BUSINESS Former Novell Execs Launch Web Venture..................... 28 BUSINESS Fore Systems Buys Backbone Switch-Maker Alantec............ 29 EDUCATION Internet Christmas Gift For Maryland Schools............... 21 GENERAL NewsPix Images For Newsbytes Publishers.................... 06 GENERAL Japan Newsbriefs........................................... 07 GENERAL Canadian Product Launch Update............................. 18 GOVT Philippines - Govt's Online Processing Center Reaps Revenue 14 LEGAL BSA Steps Up Latin American Anti-Piracy Blitz.............. 11 ONLINE Univ Students To Develop Professional Web Sites............ 01 ONLINE America Online's New Parental Control Feature.............. 05 ONLINE ****Internet Update - Year In Review...................... 08 ONLINE Compuserve Unveils WinCIM Version Two...................... 09 ONLINE ****Europe Online Readies For Early 1996 Launch........... 22 ONLINE ****Microsoft Tests Electronic Software Delivery.......... 26 TELECOM UK Paging Firm Develops First Duplex Voice Pager........... 03 TELECOM UK - C3's "Hot Desking" Computer Telephony System.......... 04 TELECOM Telecom "Scandal" Stalls Indian Parliament Proceedings..... 12 TELECOM ****FCC OKs French & German Stakes In Sprint.............. 20 TRENDS China - Telephones/PCs Listed Top By Beijing Residents..... 17 TRENDS Internet Stocks - Newsweek Says Beware..................... 24 WINDOWS Kolvox's Voice Software For Internet....................... 27 ======================================================================== These are the headlines and first paragraphs of each story, in order: 1 -> Univ Students To Develop Professional Web Sites -- College students and the Internet have gone hand-in-hand for many years. But Data Systems Network Corp. and Oakland University are taking things a step further 2 -> Ericsson To Distribute Acer PCs In Scandinavia -- Ericsson and Acer have teamed up to distribute the complete range of Acer branded PCs throughout the Scandinavian region. According to Tony Lin, Acer Scandinavia's managing director, the agreement was initiated in September of this year when Ericsson's Electronic Distribution division started distributing Acer's systems in Sweden. 3 -> UK Paging Firm Develops First Duplex Voice Pager -- Multitone has announced what it claims is the industry's first two-way voice pager. The Pagephone, as it is known, uses standard VHF and UHF frequencies to send and receive numeric and alphanumeric text messages, but can also make and receive voice calls across those same set of frequencies. 4 -> UK - C3's "Hot Desking" Computer Telephony System -- Telecoms company, C3 Computer Telephony, has unveiled a digital packet network switching system (DPNSS)-based Intelligent Office system, designed around a Windows NT computing platform. 5 -> America Online's New Parental Control Feature -- In order to give parents more control of what they see both online and on the Internet, America Online (NASDAQ:AMER) (AOL) is introducing an advanced feature where parents can have their youngsters access just the service's "Kids Only" area. 6 -> NewsPix Images For Newsbytes Publishers -- Photos are now posted as they arrive, which means quicker access to the story pictures. The bulletin will continue on Mondays, with updates Wednesdays and Fridays, as needed. 7 -> Japan Newsbriefs -- In this roundup of news from Japan: Matsushita, Daiei to normalize relations; Japan - US fiber cable broken; NEC says Windows 95 software faulty; Nintendo asks for software price cuts; Sony to promote high end VCRs; Intuit enters Japan market. 8 -> ****Internet Update - Year In Review -- Since the summer, Newsbytes has been providing details of the latest new services and resources on the Internet. Here is a quick selection of sites Newsbytes covered that we feel deserve to be mentioned again. 9 -> Compuserve Unveils WinCIM Version Two -- Compuserve has released version two of its Windows front-end program, WinCIM. The new software features several new features that will make connection to the service and Internet browsing easier for less-experienced computer users, the next large audience for online services. 10 -> Zenith To Build Computer Monitor Tubes -- Zenith Electronics Corp. (NYSE:ZE) said it will pump $45.6 million dollars into its Melrose Park, Illinois, plant to manufacture color picture tubes for computer monitors. 11 -> BSA Steps Up Latin American Anti-Piracy Blitz -- The Business Software Alliance (BSA) has stepped up its anti-piracy campaign in Latin America with raids of homes and businesses that yielded thousands of copies of, what the organization said were, illegal copies of software. 12 -> Telecom "Scandal" Stalls Indian Parliament Proceedings -- Allegations of a mega scam in the bidding process of telecom licenses by the Indian opposition parties stalled proceedings in both houses of Parliament for over a week. The issue concerned alleged "favoritism" by the Union Communications minister, Sukh Ram, in awarding the basic telecom services licenses to Himachal Futuristic Communications Ltd. (HFCL). 13 -> Netscape Enters Indian Market -- Netscape Communications Corp., the Internet software company has entered the Indian market through an alliance with Microland Ltd., a networking and communications solutions provider and Wipro Infotech Group. As per the agreement, Microland will be the value-added reseller for Netscape for the Indian subcontinent. 14 -> Philippines - Govt's Online Processing Center Reaps Revenue -- After six months of operation, the Online Processing Center (OLPC) which computes taxes and duties of imported vehicles at the Bureau of Customs (BOC) in the Philippines has harvested around $77 million, according to BOC figures recently released. 15 -> Czech Republic - Hewlett-Packard PCs Ship -- CHS Czechia, which on September 1 announced a pilot program agreement with Hewlett-Packard (HP) to provide its customers with enhanced configurations of the V line of HP Vectra PCs, is preparing to ship the first of such systems to resellers in the Czech Republic. First shipments are expected this month. 16 -> China - Great Wall Reaches Production/Sales Goal -- The Great Wall Computer Group has reached its production/sales goal of 100,000 PCs for 1995. The achievement brings hope to the Chinese domestic computer industry, say some analysts, despite the yearly sales volume being small when compared with world-class computer giants, said an official with the firm. 17 -> China - Telephones/PCs Listed Top By Beijing Residents -- A telephone, computer, and a car are the first three items on the list of goods which Beijing residents want to buy, a recent market survey discovered. Those items are followed by a wide-screen color TV, a video camera, and a microwave oven, 18 -> Canadian Product Launch Update -- This regular feature, appearing on the first day Newsbytes publishes each week, provides further details for the Canadian market on announcements by international companies that Newsbytes has already covered. This week: Apple's Chinese Dictation Kit. 19 -> Canada's Netron Opens First Subsidiary In UK -- Although it already has three offices in the United States, Toronto software developer Netron Inc.'s first foreign subsidiary will be in the United Kingdom. The maker of application development tools has announced the creation of the new organization in Northampton, northwest of London. 20 -> ****FCC OKs French & German Stakes In Sprint -- The Federal Communications Commission has approved a 20 percent share in Sprint Corp. for the state- owned telephone companies of France and Germany. Together, France Telecom and Deutsche Telekom are putting $4.2 billion into Sprint. 21 -> Internet Christmas Gift For Maryland Schools -- A Maryland Internet provider has a Christmas present for the state public schools. The Digital Express Group (Digex) is offering free, high-speed access to schools for one year. 22 -> ****Europe Online Readies For Early 1996 Launch -- Europe Online, the European online service that is headquartered in Luxembourg, has announced its UK, German, and French services are now online and accessible on a beta test basis via the company's World Wide Web site at http://www.europeonline.com . 23 -> UK's Royal Mail Developing E-mail Operations -- The Royal Mail has contracted with PhoneLink, the online business information services provider, to develop a new electronic postal service for individuals and businesses. 24 -> Internet Stocks - Newsweek Says Beware -- Your Internet stock may be a purchase of dreams and hype rather than real value, states Allan Sloan in Newsweek's year-end double cover package called "The Year of the Internet." Technology stocks are up 50% over this past year, but some Internet stocks are up 500%. 25 -> ****Bay Networks Buys Xylogics For $330Mil, Adding 500 Jobs -- With its just-finalized $330 million purchase of Xylogics, Bay Networks will add 500 new jobs, while leaping in front of Cisco as number one player in the remote access component of the internetworking market, asserted Jim Hourihan, VP of marketing, in an interview with Newsbytes. 26 -> ****Microsoft Tests Electronic Software Delivery -- Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ:MSFT) will participate in a pilot program to deliver software through CyberSource Corp.'s "software.net" Internet World Wide Web site, using technology from Digital Delivery, officials from the companies announced today. 27 -> Kolvox's Voice Software For Internet -- Kolvox Communications Inc. (ASE:KOL) has announced software designed to let computer users navigate the Internet using voice commands. Kolvox's VoiceCompanion for the Internet will work with major World Wide Web browsers such as those from Netscape, Microsoft, and Spry, the company said. 28 -> Former Novell Execs Launch Web Venture -- Two former Novell vice presidents have joined with several other industry executives to form a company the group said will pursue opportunities relating to the Internet's World Wide Web. 29 -> Fore Systems Buys Backbone Switch-Maker Alantec -- With a newly announced decision to buy Alantec that represents Fore Systems' fourth acquisition in the past six months, Fore will further broaden its family of networking products to include switches for the backbone as well as for the departmental level, said Eric C. Cooper, chairman and CEO (chief executive officer), in a conference call with Newsbytes. (Ian Stokell/19951218) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 12/15/95 IBM ****More On Lotus Notes/Web Integration Plans, Notes 4. (NEWS)(IBM)(BOS)(00001) ****More On Lotus Notes/Web Integration Plans, Notes 4.0 12/15/95 CAMBRIDGE, MASSACHUSETTS, U.S.A., 1995 DEC 15 (NB) -- Fueled by IBM resources, and driven by a desire to outperform major competitor Microsoft, Lotus will work "aggressively" to transform the Notes server into the number one platform for "distributed publishing" in both the Web and Notes environments, starting with the shipment of Notes Release 4 later this month. Lotus co-leaders Mike Zisman and Jeff Papows made this comment at a press conference attended by Newsbytes in Cambridge, Massachusetts. In a "surprise" move, the single- and new multi-processor versions of the Notes Release 4 server will both include Lotus's InterNotes Publisher product for Notes/HTML (hypertext mark-up language) conversion, asserted Lotus CEO (chief executive officer) and Executive VP Zisman. The multiprocessor server will also bring "order of magnitude" improvements in "scalability," with 32-bit, SMP (symmetrical multiprocessor) support for 1000 simultaneous sessions, and directory support for 100,000 users, according to the Lotus CEO. Midway through 1996, Lotus will update both the single- and multiple-processor versions of the Notes Release 4 server to include HTML, HTTP (Hypertext Transport Protocol), Java, JavaScript, and the first in a series of Web-based applications, he added. The incorporation of HTML and HTTP into Notes was first announced under the code-name "Spike" in a press conference attended by Newsbytes at Internetworld Boston. "I think the Notes server will become a very popular Web server," Zisman told the press and analysts in Cambridge this week. The inclusion of Java and JavaScript in Notes is being made possible through a licensing deal between IBM/Lotus and Sun, announced during an IBM "videoconference-over-the-Internet" attended by Newsbytes in New York City last week. Zisman said in Cambridge that the first application for the new Notes/Web server will be Lotus Notes:Newsstand, a product now being sold to information providers on a separate basis for publishing information on Notes-based networks. Also next year, Lotus will produce a set of "application frameworks" in the areas of electronic publishing, commerce, service, and marketing that will be designed to let third-party and corporate developers create server-based "collaborative and groupware" applications for access by Web browsers and Notes clients. Lotus will ultimately begin to package other Lotus-developed and third-party applications with the Notes/Web server, as well, he reported. Growth of the Web is happening so fast that soon, "all servers will become Web servers," Zisman predicted. Lotus, he added, is targeting the newly Web-enabled Notes at a new "distributed publishing" market. Lotus views its pursuit of this new "sweet spot" as "a definite market share situation" versus Microsoft, he acknowledged. The CEO also distinguished the "distributed publishing" market from "design" publishing tools, a Web market foreseen by Lotus as focusing on highly "customized" publishing applications. Notes, he suggested, will not require major changes for adaptation to Web publishing, pointing out that NotesScript and JavaScript are both scripting languages, and that, like Web servers, Notes document databases use hypertext links. "We will recognize (the Web browser) as a client that doesn't have a database," he said. Zisman also criticized Netscape for its recent moves to add third-party plug-ins to the Web client, asserting that the Web server is better able than the browser to handle the weight of additional applications. Lotus COO (Chief Operating Officer) and Senior VP Papows asserted that the resources of IBM will make it possible for Lotus to pursue the new sweet spot "aggressively," and with a "long-term" view. In accordance with the Web-enabling and related architectural changes to Notes, he explained, Lotus will begin to adopt a new "client-server" pricing model in which the Notes client will be lower-priced, but the Notes server will be higher-priced than before. Lotus will add a third Notes client, priced at only $55, in Release 4. During a pair of demos at the event, the journalists and analysts saw capabilities of the new Mail Client that include a "true universal inbox" for e-mail, fax and video; a new toolbar for novice users; "mailbox replication;" new "mood stamps," permitting the user to mark mail as "personal" or "confidential," for example, as well as to "flame" the recipient; and InterNotes Web Navigator, a new Web-enabled Notes browser previewed at Fall Comdex, and also previously reported on in Newsbytes. Zisman observed that, although mailbox replication was available through "selective replication" in Notes Release 3, "it took a programmer to take advantage of it." In Release 4, the capability permits mobile end users to create rules-based "location profiles" for managing messages according to various on-the-road scenarios, such as being in a plane or a hotel. Also in Notes Release 4, all three Notes clients will use the Lotus cc:Mail user interface specification, the Lotus CommServer will "interconnect the cc:Mail and Notes-based infrastructures," and the cc:Mail Release 7 client will be "directly hosted by the Notes Server," Zisman told the group. Other enhancements will include support for Microsoft Mail clients through MAPI (Mail Application Programming Interface); multithreaded routing; a "single copy object store," which will work with pointers; "server passthrough" to servers outside the firewall; a "do not copy" feature; and new "action/timed and simple/rich agents and integrated systems monitors" for Notes administrators. Both the single- and new multiprocessor editions of the server will be available in Windows 95, OS/2, NLM (NetWare Loadable Module), two Windows NT, and three Unix editions. A cc:Mail MTA (Message Transport Assistant) will enter beta this month, and an X.400 MTA will follow suit in January. Also in the future, Lotus will add an SMTP/MIME (Simple Mail Transport Protocol/Multipurpose Internet Mail Extensions) MTA, plus support for POP3, Zisman revealed. Papows told the journalists and analysts at the press conference that Notes Release 4 will be priced at $495 for the single- processor server; $2,295 for the new multi-processor server; $55 for the new Notes Mail client; $69 for the Notes Desktop client; and $275 for the "full" Notes client. (Jacqueline Emigh/19951214/Reader Contact: Lotus, 617-577-8500; Press Contact: Lois Paul & Partners for Lotus, 617-862-4514) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 12/15/95 TELECOM UK Alternative Carrier Goes Global (NEWS)(TELECOM)(LON)(00002) UK Alternative Carrier Goes Global 12/15/95 LONDON, ENGLAND, 1995 DEC 15 (NB) -- First Telecom, one of the growing band of licensed alternative telecoms carriers (ATCs) in the UK, has announced the opening of toll-free access to its telecoms service in the UK and the US via, respectively, 0800 and 1-800 numbers. The announcement is important, Newsbytes notes, since to access the First Telecom service, users can sidestep the problem of having to dial a London phone number and pay standard phone rates for that call. Calls can now be routed via First Telecom, which charges 14 pence per minute weekdays, 10 pence per minute weekends, for calls to all US numbers, excluding 900 area code premium rate services. The surcharge for 0800 access is 4 pence per minute, and 40 pence per minute for 1-800 access. According to Mark Daeche, a spokesperson for First Telecom, the 0800 access means that callers in hotels, from pay phones and from PCN (personal communications network) mobiles, can now calls the US from 14 pence per minute -- calculated as 10 pence weekend costs plus 4 pence per minute for use of the 0800 number. Subscribers in the US, meanwhile, can call through London and back to the US for 50 pence per minute. Moreover, since First Telecom offers calls to most countries of the world at discount rates, it means that US subscribers can also dial most European countries at a significant discount on AT&T and MCI rates. Discounts of up to 70 percent are available on many international routes, the company claims. "It's a crazy situation that we find ourselves in, since it means that a subscriber in the US will usually find it's cheaper to route the call via our 1-800 service to London, and back to the US, than use a pay phone to call a few hundred miles in the US," Daeche told Newsbytes, adding that, unlike most competitors, since First Telecom uses full 64 kilobit fiber optic lines, fast modems and fax transmissions carry across the network perfectly. Daeche explained that First Telecom can offer the low 4 pence a minute rates on 0800 calls from anywhere in the UK since it is not using British Telecom (BT) for its service. Instead, the company has contracted with another ATC for 0800 service. The only slight problem is that the 0800 number is one of the new even digit numbers (i.e. 0800-xxx-yyyy) rather than the usual 0800-xxxyyy numbering scheme seen in the UK. "This will be less of a problem as far as recognition goes as all UK (toll free) numbers will move from six to seven digits over the next 18 to 24 months," he said, adding that many First Telecom callers are sufficiently "telecoms savvy" not to worry about dialling an extra digit for the 0800 number. Despite its low calling rates, First Telecom operates wholly within the UK, US and foreign telecoms legislation. Daeche said that, because of these laws, the company cannot route its own fiber optic links into the US telecoms network. "Only AT&T and Cable & Wireless have such landing rights. That means that our calls route to the US and are then handed on to Cable & Wireless for final routing to the US called number. The high call quality is unaffected," he explained. According to Daeche, the move into the US and UK toll-free access market effectively moves First Telecom from being a simple UK telecoms service reseller and into the global service arena. "We have had to make this change, since we see flexibility as the driving force in the future of telecoms services. The worst thing that anyone can do in this business is to create a five year plan and then stick rigidly to it. We're flexible and can adapt our services to meet the needs of the customer," he told Newsbytes. (Steve Gold/19951214/Press Contact: Paul Hildrew, Nelson Bostock Communications +44-171-229-4400; Reader Contact: First Telecom +44- 171-363-6600; Fax +44-171-363-6601) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 12/15/95 GENERAL Denon's Optical JukeBox Technology (NEWS)(GENERAL)(LON)(00003) Denon's Optical JukeBox Technology 12/15/95 LONDON, ENGLAND, 1995 DEC 15 (NB) -- Denon, the hi-fi specialist, has launched two new 200-disc capacity CD-ROM and compact disc machines, the DRD-1400 storing 100 of CD-ROM discs at each tray and the DRD- 1400F CD Changer for playing compact discs. According to the US- headquartered company, the two drives will soon be available on both sides of the Atlantic at approximately $1,000 for the CD-ROM version and $4,400 to $4,800 for the audio version. According to Mark Kaltman, a spokesperson for the company, the size of both machines is slightly larger than the space taken by 200 CD-ROM or CDs in their jewel boxes, making the systems the most compact and transportable of their type on the market. For additional security both boxes are equipped with a lock and key access. The duration of the electronics in the system is designed for "hard-wearing" environments. Denon claims that the machines can be used 24 hours a day, seven days a week in professional broadcast or studio environments and still provide an accurate and clean performance. The DRD-1400 CD-ROM Changer features a dual-transport design, which means the system can support any combination of two CD-ROMs, CD-DAs and multi-session CDs simultaneously. According to Denon, the transport and drive mechanism of the DRD-1400 can be operated either together or separately of each other and allow users to pick particular parts from any disc when connected to any PC via a single-ended SCSI-2 or serial interface (RS-232C0, RS-422A) and controlled by Windows NT. Users can daisy-chain up to 16 machines and build a library of 3,200 online discs with a fast and immediate access to any part of each disc. The machines are claimed to be designed for not only high- quality multimedia use, but also for an outstanding audio. The 20-bit digital filter performs smoothly and produces high end quality sound. The music has zero-cross distortion, challenging the very best CD players. The DN-1400F CD Changer, meanwhile, is specifically for playing music and with enhanced sound presentation features it offers virtually the same features as the CD-ROM model but with an extended sound quality reproduction. According to Denon, the machine reduces the "dead time" pause caused by selection of tracks existing on other players. It also allows simultaneous playback from two transports for monitoring/queuing. The DN-1400F CD Changer can be operated from either a PC under Windows or an Apple Macintosh computer. Digital and analog outputs are available through the DN-1400F's balanced XLR connectors. (Sylvia Dennis/19951214/Press & Reader Contact: Mark Kaltman, Denon US 201-575-7810) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 12/15/95 TELECOM Belgium Selects Ameritech Consortium In Belgacom Tender (NEWS)(TELECOM)(LON)(00004) Belgium Selects Ameritech Consortium In Belgacom Tender 12/15/95 BRUSSELS, BELGIUM, 1995 DEC 15 (NB) -- The Belgian Government has announced that the consortium led by Ameritech, which includes partners TeleDanmark and Singapore Telecom, has been selected to take a 50 percent stake, less one share, in Belgacom. According to Elio di Rupo, the Ameritech consortium has bid BF 73.3 billion ($2.5 billion) for the stake, which outbid a consortium led by Koninklijke PTT of the Netherlands and Swiss Telecom. Media reports in Belgium have noted this week that Belgacom's 26,000- plus workforce is rated as the least productive of Europe telcos in terms of revenue and profits. Newsbytes notes that the announcement of the successful bidder has gone down like a lead balloon with the Belgian Trade Union movement, which only yesterday held a series of marches in Brussels to express their dissatisfaction with the privatization of previously state-owned organizations. As reported previously by Newsbytes, three consortia were approved in July of this year to take a stake in Belgacom. In addition to the Ameritech and Koninkjke PTT consortia, the third bidder was Bell Atlantic/British Telecom. The fourth bidder ousted in the July reckoning was Swiss Telecom, which the Belgian Government said failed to reach the final stage because it did not have "enough industrial synergies to consolidate Belgacom's future." Ironically, Newsbytes reported in July that Ameritech's bid was looking a little shaky as, according to the Belgian Government's Privatization Commission, the bid price needed to be revised to meet the range set by the Commission. No details of the actual range requested have been released by the Government at the time, however. Back in July, the Government was talking in terms of selling off a 25 percent stake in Belgacom. At the time, di Rupo said that the Belgian Telecoms Minister had not decided what percentage of Belgacom it planned to sell off. (Sylvia Dennis/19951214/Press & Reader Contact: Belgacom, tel +32-2- 202-9736, fax +32-2-202-2417) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 12/15/95 PC German Firm Claims Breakthrough Graphics Card (NEWS)(PC)(LON)(00005) German Firm Claims Breakthrough Graphics Card 12/15/95 UNTERHACHING, GERMANY, 1995 DEC 15 (NB) -- Number Nine Visual Corporation has taken the wraps off what it claims is a revolutionary 3D graphics accelerator for the PC. Known as 9FX Reality, the card is based on the Verite 3D graphics engine from Rendition in the US, and has been built and optimized from the ground up. Chris Corfield, a spokesperson for the company, told Newsbytes that the card technology has been optimized for games and graphics on the PC in both 2D and 3D mode. "When you look at what is possible with the graphics on this card, it's difficult to see how the games console vendors, including Sega and Nintendo, can keep up. The resolution on this card is little short of amazing," he said. According to Corfield, several PC games software houses have been working with Rendition and Number Nine on developing games specifically for the 64-bit graphics environment. Companies that are supporting the card includes Software Inc., developers of Doom and Quake; Papyrus Design (Nascar Racing), Simis (Terracide) and Looking Glass Technologies (Flight Unlimited). The architecture of the Verite platform is claimed to be split over two sub architectures -- the graphics engine itself and a programmable embedded graphics RISC (reduced instruction set computing) core, which is billed as an unique and important innovation from Rendition. According to Number Nine, the RISC core can be thought of as handling the setup of the drawing, while the graphics engine goes and does the drawing itself. There are two advantages to this approach, the company claims -- first, the two subsystems can work in parallel (the RISC core is already at work setting up the next drawing as soon as it hands off the first one to the graphics engine), and second, the graphics RISC processor can be programmed according to the evolving and future needs of the entertainment market. In game play, or in business graphics, the 9FX Reality card is claimed to support texture mapping with perspective correction, which the company claims ensures a real world perspective of three dimensional objects, along with anti-aliasing and edge anti-aliasing, which gets rid of unwanted visual effects such as "staircasing" or line breakups. Pricing on the 9FX Reality has been set at DM 599 in Germany, with UK and French pricing being set, respectively, at UKP 229 and FF 1,495. Italian and Spanish pricing has been set at LL 482,250 and Pta 37,000, respectively. (Steve Gold/19951214/Press Contact: Banner PR +44-171-351-4488; Email: chris_corfield@bannerco.com; Reader Contact: Number Nine GmbH +49- 89-614-4910; Fax +49-89-6144-9199) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 12/15/95 GENERAL Australia - SoftKey/Learning Company Staff Changes (NEWS)(GENERAL)(SYD)(00006) Australia - SoftKey/Learning Company Staff Changes 12/15/95 SYDNEY, AUSTRALIA 1995 DEC 15 (NB) -- As part of The Learning Company's loss of a merger with Broderbund Software, and Broderbund's subsequent agreement with SoftKey International, some changes Down Under took place. Tony Hughes, SoftKey's managing director for the Asia-Pacific region, says the merger makes SoftKey the No. 2 consumer software company behind Microsoft. It also heralds an Australian SoftKey expansion. The Asia region is split between two managing directors: Hughes, based in Sydney, takes Asia Pacific, and Matthew Barlow gets Japan. Barlow, formerly MD of Future Vision, came to SoftKey when it acquired Future Vision last August. "The idea was I'd be based out of Tokyo until business grew to a point where we could justify a presence in Sydney," says Hughes. The moment has clearly arrived, and Hughes says SoftKey will now be "staffing up" and looking for bigger premises. Distributor Dataflow distributes both Learning Company and SoftKey titles in Australia. When Newsbytes spoke to Hughes recently, he said that worldwide, Softkey's goal is to become consolidator of the software industry. The company has demonstrated its intentions by borrowing half a billion US dollars over the past several months, and embarking on a spending spree which has certain other companies up in arms. In discussing Softkey's bid for TLC, Hughes admitted it was a hostile bid and that one of its competitors, Broderbund, had already been negotiating with TLC for several months. "The [TLC] shareholders meeting to consider the Broderbund offer was scheduled to have been held on November 10," Hughes said. Just a week prior to that meeting though, Softkey put in a competitive bid which was 17 per cent premium over Broderbund's offer. "Essentially," said Hughes, "this had the effect of postponing the shareholders meeting between TLC and Broderbund." As a further extension of Softkey's acquisition program, the company purchased Future Vision Holdings in October. A multimedia software company which generated revenues of approximately $US11 million in its most recent financial year, Future Vision was obtained in exchange for the issuance of approximately 1.1 million shares of common stock. (Keir Wells and Computer Daily News/19951211) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 12/15/95 ONLINE Desktop Data Says LinkEdge Will Integrate Information (NEWS)(ONLINE)(TOR)(00007) Desktop Data Says LinkEdge Will Integrate Information 12/15/95 WALTHAM, MASSACHUSETTS, U.S.A., 1995 DEC 15 (NB) -- Desktop Data, Inc. (NASDAQ:DTOP), operator of the NewsEdge news filtering service, said its new LinkEdge software will tie together different news sources and media to make it easier for its subscribers to obtain information from NewsEdge. The NewsEdge service filters more than 500 news and information sources according to individual users' profiles and sends the selected material to subscribers' personal computers. LinkEdge is an interface or front end for the NewsEdge service that runs on the customer's personal computer. Marni Hoyle, a spokeswoman for Desktop Data, told Newsbytes that it has two principal advantages. First, users will now be alerted to the availability of new information in formats other than text, such as video feeds from NBC Desktop Video and Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) filings available through Indepth Data Inc.'s Indepth EDGAR service. Second, users will be able to obtain these different types of information with a click of the mouse, rather than having to worry about which service provides which data. For instance, a NewsEdge subscriber might receive an alert, in the form of a text message that looks just like other text news items, that NBC Desktop Video is about to broadcast an interview with an executive of a competing firm. By clicking an on-screen button, the subscriber could receive the video feed on his or her desktop PC. Similarly, the subscriber could respond to an alert about a new SEC filing and obtain the data from the EDGAR service, Desktop Data said. Hoyle said Desktop Data will offer LinkEdge with support for either NBC Desktop Video or the EDGAR service or both, as each subscriber prefers. Pricing will vary by configuration; as an example, Hoyle said an existing NewsEdge subscriber could add LinkEdge providing any one of NBC Desktop Video's three channels to a maximum of 50 desktops for $20,000 per year, under a promotion now under way. LinkEdge 1.0 is to ship before the end of December. Desktop Data expects to expand LinkEdge with support for other information sources in future, Hoyle told Newsbytes. (Grant Buckler/19951214/Press Contact: Marni Hoyle, Desktop Data, 617-672-2421, Internet e-mail mmhoyle@newsedge.com) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 12/15/95 ONLINE America Online Beefs Up Canadian Access (NEWS)(ONLINE)(TOR)(00008) America Online Beefs Up Canadian Access 12/15/95 VIENNA, VIRGINIA, U.S.A., 1995 DEC 15 (NB) -- America Online, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMER) has announced the installation of 28,800-bit-per-second (bps) access on local lines in 18 Canadian cities and on a toll-free line accessible from anywhere in the country. A company spokeswoman said the moves are part of a push to beef up AOL's international offerings. Effective immediately, AOL has 28,800-bps access to its own network in: Calgary and Edmonton in Alberta; Vancouver, British Columbia; Winnipeg, Manitoba; Hamilton, Kitchener, London, Ottawa, Oshawa, St. Catharines, Toronto, and Windsor in Ontario; Montreal, Quebec; and Regina and Saskatoon in Saskatchewan. Halifax, Nova Scotia, and Victoria, British Columbia are to get 28,800-bps access before the end of this month, the company said. Access through any of these local lines carries a surcharge of three cents (US) per minute on top of AOL's basic monthly rate of US$9.95 per month and US$2.95 per additional hour. Those not within range of a local 28,800- bps port can call toll-free 800-318-2265 from anywhere in the country to connect at the same speed. The only catch is that the surcharge for the toll- free line is 20 cents per minute in US currency. Leslie Garvey, a spokeswoman for America Online, told Newsbytes that the new high-speed access in Canada is part of a plan to improve America Online's service in Canada and Europe. The company is starting that push in Canada, she said, since it borders on the United States. Another piece of AOL's push into the Canadian market is the naming of Stephen Bartkiw as managing director for Canada. Bartkiw was most recently director of online services at Rogers Cablesystems Ltd., one of Canada's largest cable-television operators, and before that was business development manager for Southam New Media, a division of newspaper publisher Southam Inc., in Toronto. (Grant Buckler/19951214/Press Contact: Kathy Johnson, America Online, 703-918-1948, Internet e-mail kmjonson@aol.com; Public Contact: America Online, 703-448-8700) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 12/15/95 GENERAL ***IT Asia 95 Biggest IT Event In Asia (NEWS)(GENERAL)(DEL)(00009) ***IT Asia 95 Biggest IT Event In Asia 12/15/95 NEW DELHI, INDIA, 1995 DEC 15 (NB) -- They called it the "Biggest Event In The IT Industry" in the entire Asia-Pacific region in terms of sheer size, and to that extent, the Manufacturers' Association for Information Technology (MAIT), the organizers, created just that. IT Asia '95, the annual MAIT jamboree, was sprawled across an area of 24,000 square meters in Delhi's Pragati Maidan from 6-9 December. With 30,000 registered visitors, up from just 12,000 last year, according to the chairman IT Asia, Bikram Dasgupta, up to 400,000 people had visited the show. This IT Asia had no blockbuster announcements. Gopal Srinivasan, president, MAIT, put it quite succinctly, "Last year was full of big announcements, but I think this show is about real products which are available now. What you are seeing is the outcome of big announcements. There are LAN and Internet applications, services and products everywhere you go here." The Showbuzz Multimedia and Internetworking were the major themes this year and the technologies could be witnessed in full gear in the pavilions, attracting huge crowds. All the major multimedia vendors, from Creative Labs, to Aztech and Compro, participated in a big way either directly or through their partners in India. Companies offering CD titles were abundantly scattered in all the pavilions, and quite a few had come from other countries to participate directly and display their fare. High-end production systems and graphics workstations were also well represented through the presence of players like Silicon Graphics, Avid Technologies (through Tata Elxsi India Ltd.), Matrox Studio (through Benchmarks Systems), and Intergraph (through Rolta). The Internet was also the buzz at the show. MAIT launched an 80-page Web site giving details on all the aspects of the exhibition, from the exhibitors to the seminars. Stalls offered membership to bulletin board services (BBS) at special prices. For networking equipment, from hubs and routers to ATM switches, there were 3Com Asia, Cisco and Cabletron. Another trend was products targeted for the SOHO (small office home office) segment. Both local and international companies had a lot to offer in terms of software at special prices in IT Asia. Direct foreign participation was much higher this time. The Singapore pavilion, which incidentally also represented the highest number of companies participating from outside India, had two major companies representing the latest trends -- Creative Labs with its range of multimedia products and Cabletron in internetworking. ACS Computer Pte Ltd. had on display the Compro range of multimedia products. Apple Computer, which had also participated last year, once again managed to hog the limelight, with their partners and their solutions for the range of segments they are addressing. "Sur Tal" Excellence and Harmony in computing, was the theme of the pavilion--and the ambience of the pavilion perfectly matched the theme. Silicon Graphics Systems (India) Pvt. Ltd. was present with their systems for the publishing and education market. The pavilion featured theme booths for different segments of the market. Internet access, the theme of one of the booths, offered the visitors a trip on the information superhighway. The company had its volunteers dressed like bandits, spread all over the exhibition area contributing to the company bagging the "The Most Talked-About Company" in the show award. Another first timer at the mega event was Cisco Systems Inc., displaying ATM switching engines, and intelligent multi layer LAN switches. US-based Santa Cruz Operation had taken over an entire hall in the show, bringing together all its partners to present their solutions. The firm attempted to portray the level of investment and commitment SCO continues to put into one of the world's largest Unix operating system markets -- India. (C. T. Mahabharat/19951215) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 12/15/95 GENERAL IT Asia - India Rallies Toward Fast Growth Track (NEWS)(GENERAL)(DEL)(00010) IT Asia - India Rallies Toward Fast Growth Track 12/15/95 NEW DELHI, INDIA, 1995 DEC 15 (NB) -- P. Chidambaram, Minister of Commerce, inaugurated IT Asia 95 with the remark that Indians need to be shaken out of their complacency that the largest pool of technical manpower, the widespread use of English and the fast developing infrastructure will automatically put it on a fast growth track. "We believe that India has the second largest pool of skilled manpower in the world. This is questionable. In fact, India ranks 46th in the list of 47 countries as given in the World Competitive Report," he pointed out. "There are very few countries in the developing world that have world-scale production facility as well as a world-class market (in the IT sector) like India," Chidambaram said, "However, we have not been able to exploit these advantages." He felt what was required was a major change in attitude. "Instead of WAGging (Waiting around the Government), our industry need to Bark and BITE (Building Initiative for Technology and Excellence)," he quipped. Gopal Srinivasan, president MAIT, spoke at length about the NII -- national infrastructure program -- which involves computers, telecom networks, software, information content and people to enhance the capability, productivity and effectiveness of all key processes in the country. (C. T. Mahabharat/19951215) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 12/08/95 ONLINE Philippines - Southern Provinces Hooked on the Net (NEWS)(ONLINE)(HKG)(00011) Philippines - Southern Provinces Hooked on the Net 12/08/95 MANILA, PHILIPPINES, 1995 DEC 8 (NB) -- The Internet fever has spread on to the southern islands of Visayas and Mindanao in the Philippines as more and more Intercut service providers are setting up shop in the larger provinces there. Among the southern provinces getting hooked on the Net are Bohol and Cebu in the Visayas and Davao in Mindanao. With the Philippines having the most number of ISPs in Asia, Cebu is blazing the info technology trail for the country's other southern cities with approximately four Intercut providers currently underway and more still girding for their infrastructures before the year ends. Spearheading ISPs in Cebu is the Center for Network Management and Services (CNMS) of the University of San Carlos which was launched immediately after the Philippines got wired for the Intercut on March 1995. Concurrently hooking up Cebu to the world are the Global Systems Interconnect, Inc., Nexus Online, and the MosCom. In the offing is WebLink, having already accessed Mindanao cities like Davao. CyberNet Information Service is at present gearing up for their system installation. With varying rates and scope of services, the Cebu-based ISPs maintain two types of connection being offered: the shell accounts/dial-up access and the SLIP/PPP accounts. Acosta said Davao's Intercut access is long overdue considering its upbeat business climate, improved telecommunications facilities, and availability of computer hardware. It now joins Cagayan de Oro and Iligan cities in Mindanao's cruise to the Intercut. (Delora Sales, Leo Corleone, Michael Obenieta & Conduit/19951208/Intercut e-mail dilips@netcom.com) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 12/15/95 BUSINESS China - Alcatel Seeks More Of China's GSM Market (NEWS)(BUSINESS)(PEK)(00012) China - Alcatel Seeks More Of China's GSM Market 12/15/95 BEIJING, CHINA, 1995 DEC 15 (NB) -- France's Alcatel Corp announced recently a plan to increase its presence in China's developing GSM technology market. A spokesman for the global telecommunications company, Ernest Eidenberger, announced that the corporation considers its joint venture in China, Shanghai Bell Alcatel Mobile Telecommunications Co, established at the beginning of this year, to be the first step into the potential market. Eidenberger said that the joint venture so far has the ability to make GSM equipment including the base station transceivers, mobile switching, and handsets. Alcatel has received orders from Shanghai, Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Jilin, and other areas where large-scale construction of GSM networks in going on. The company's large project in Jilin province of Northeast involves US$20 million to build a network that will go into operation next year with 160,00 subscribers, said Eidenberger. In addition, the French corporation also plans to provided GSM pay-phone systems for economically underdeveloped regions and other application areas where fixed telephone line installations are not suitable. (Chih-Ho Yu & Ning Huang/19951209) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 12/09/95 TELECOM China - Mobile Phone Owners Won't Give Up Pagers (NEWS)(TELECOM)(PEK)(00013) China - Mobile Phone Owners Won't Give Up Pagers 12/09/95 BEIJING, CHINA, 1995 DEC 9 (NB) -- Although mobile phones are proliferating fast in China, they won't replace pagers, according to a recent survey. There were 17 million pagers at the end of 1994, and 24 million at present, according to sources from the State Radio Monitoring Center. Sales will be worth RMB15 billion (US$1.8 billion) and service fees will be about RMB10 billion (US$1.2 billion) this year. Although pager carriers consist of 2 percent of the country's total population and will be less than 3 percent in 1996, the number of pagers put China just next to the United States which has 27 million pagers in use. Besides displaying the caller's phone number, many "Chinese" pagers allow the caller to leave oral massages and then display them on the beeper screen in Chinese. Pagers also provide information such as the weather forecast, stock prices, news, and TV program guides. Not only businessmen, but also students, police officers, reporters, and government officials also carry beepers. People who own mobile phones are not giving up their beepers. Several businessmen carrying both mobile phones and beepers told Newsbytes that their mobile phones are only used for making outgoing calls. A pager costs from RMB600 to 2,500 (US$72 to 300) and the annual service fees are around RMB300 to 600 (US$36 to 72). Pager services are available in about 1500 cities in China and inter-city pager networks are under development. (Chih-Ho Yu & Ning Huang/19951209) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 12/15/95 GENERAL Bill To Be A Daddy (NEWS)(GENERAL)(DEN)(00014) Bill To Be A Daddy 12/15/95 REDMOND, WASHINGTON, U.S.A., 1995 DEC 15 (NB) -- Bill is going to be a daddy. Bill Gates, the 40-year old chairman of Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ: MSFT) and his wife of nearly a year, Melinda French, 31, announced yesterday they will become parents sometime in late May of next year. The couple doesn't know yet if it will be a boy or a girl, but if its a boy they have decided he won't be named Bill or William. That will break a Gates family tradition that has lasted four generations. Bill Gates' true name, as was his father's, grandfather's and great-grandfather's, is William Henry Gates. Bill was known as "Trey" when he was younger. Melissa French is a Microsoft executive in the company's consumer division. A company spokesperson said she said she hasn't decided yet whether she will return to work after the child is born. Gates is the world's richest American with an estimated wealth of $12 billion to $14 billion. But even if the family's fortunes continue to prosper, his heir won't get much of the couple's wealth. Gates said he will give away most of his wealth to charitable causes. Gates' first book hit the retail shelves last month, in which he talks about computing devices of the future. Those include an electronic wallet that will store digital money, tell you where you are if you're lost, monitor your heart rate, and unlock doors. The 275-page hard cover book, titled "The Road Ahead," has a price sticker that reads $29.95 and comes with an interactive multimedia CD-ROM that contains the complete text of the book, hundreds of multimedia hyperlinks, video simulations of future technology, a World Wide Web browser and a special video interview with Gates that can also be played on an audio CD player. You also get an electronic tour of the lakeside home Bill and Melinda are building. Gates is donating the profits from the book to charity. The home has about 50,000 square feet that includes high quality display screens that will exhibit the user's choice of art at the touch of a button. There's also a huge underground garage, an underwater stereo system in the swimming pool and a trampoline room. Unconfirmed construction estimates range as high as $40 million, and the house is expected to be competed late next year. (Jim Mallory/19951215/press contact: Microsoft, 206-882-8080) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 12/15/95 BROADCAST More on Microsoft/NBC Deal (NEWS)(BROADCAST)(MSP)(00015) More on Microsoft/NBC Deal 12/15/95 NEW YORK CITY, NEW YORK, U.S.A., 1995 DEC 15 (NB) -- Internet World Wide Web users might have gotten a taste of what the new NBC News/ Microsoft online service will look like in the near future. Yesterday morning's news conference, held by officials of both Microsoft and NBC, was both shown and heard live on the Web. Through the use of Xing's StreamWorks technology and simultaneously linking Xing's and NBC's respective Web sites, Internet users worldwide had access to the news conference. The program was carried by NBC Desktop Video's NBC Pro service. Xing received the NBC Pro feed, converted it, and fed it out at varying speeds. Internet users with integrated services digital network (ISDN) access, 28.8Kbps (kilobits per second), and 14.4Kbps access could both see and listen to the conference, while people with 9600bps modems could receive an audio- only feed, officials said. It's that kind of multimedia feature that will be an integral part of the "MSNBC" Online service, although Xing was never mentioned as a technology provider. It should also be noted that even at the fastest speed, Xing's video quality was a bit below what consumers would normally see on television. The online service is a part of two new businesses in which the software giant and the broadcast network will participate. Yesterday, officials from both companies said they're entering into a 50/50 partnership to develop both the online service to be delivered on the Microsoft Network (MSN), and a 24-hour news and information channel on cable TV. MSNBC Cable will debut within six months over the existing "America's Talking" cable channel. NBC's current "NBC Desktop Video" computer- based business information service will be incorporated into MSNBC Online. While the cable TV network will have a ready-made audience of 20 million people, not as many people are expected to make the leap immediately into cyberspace to get their news. "It's a capacity issue," NBC President Bob Wright said at yesterday's news conference, which Newsbytes attended via teleconference. "Some people may take five years before they have a system that can really do this." Officials from both companies said they think upcoming developments will make faster access to the Internet possible for greater number of people. Yesterday's announcement also provides a major boost to Microsoft's plans to capitalize on the Internet, analysts said Thursday. They feel the move is a logical one as the company prepares for a future when consumers may have access to high speed cable modems to access the Internet or online services. (Bob Woods/19951215/Press Contacts: Paul Lief Rosengren, NBC, 212- 664-2756) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 12/15/95 BUSINESS Iomega Public Offering, 3-1 Stock Split (NEWS)(BUSINESS)(DEN)(00016) Iomega Public Offering, 3-1 Stock Split 12/15/95 ROY, UTAH, U.S.A., 1995 DEC 15 (NB) -- Iomega Corp. (NASDAQ: IOMG) said this week its board of directors will ask stockholders to approve an increase in the number of authorized shares and a three-for-one stock split. The board has scheduled a special shareholder meeting for January 26, 1996 to vote on the proposals. The board will ask shareholders to approve an increase in the number of authorized shares from the current 30 million to 150 million. The proposal will be voted on by shareholders of record as of the close of business on December 22, 1995. Shareholders of record as of January 15, 1996 will be the beneficiaries of a three-for-one stock split in the form of a stock dividend to be paid on or about January 31, 1996, if the idea gets the nod from shareholders at the special meeting. Iomega also announced it has filed a registration statement with the Securities and Exchange Commission covering a proposed public offering of 5.25 million shares of its common stock. The company said it may sell up to an additional 787,6500 shares to cover over allotments in connection with the offering. Hambrecht & Quist and Montgomery Securities will serve as managing underwriters for the offering. Iomega said it will use the proceeds from the offering for general corporate purposes and working capital needs. Iomega markets data storage devices that use removable storage media as well as a line of tape drives under the trade name Ditto. The company's stock was trading at $52.50 this morning. The stock has been steadily climbing since Thanksgiving when it closed at $35.50 the day before the holiday. (Jim Mallory/19951215/Press and public contact: Iomega, 801-778-3585) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 12/15/95 TRENDS European Software Sales Explode (NEWS)(TRENDS)(WAS)(00017) European Software Sales Explode 12/15/95 WASHINGTON, D.C., U.S.A., 1995 DEC 15 (NB) -- Software sales in Western Europe hit $471.6 million for the third quarter of 1995, a 58 percent increase over the third quarter of 1994, according to the Software Publishers Association. The figures represent a substantial turnaround on revenues, as Europe has been a soft market recently. "Revenues have been slow in the past, but unit sales had been perking along nicely," Anne Griffith, SPA research analyst, told Newsbytes. She explained that European software prices were much higher than in the US, and have been falling lately in a regional price war. Now, said Griffith, it looks like European prices and American prices for US software are about the same. "I think we have finally gotten to the bottom," she said. For the first nine months of 1995, sales of software applications were $1.4 billion, a 16 percent increase over the same period last year. For the quarter, unit sales increased 76 percent and were up 54 percent for the first three quarters. Major business applications dominated the sales figures for the quarter, says SPA. Word processor, spreadsheet and presentation graphics sales rose between 50 percent and 60 percent. Windows applications continue to dominate, as DOS applications fell to $13 million for the quarter and Macintosh applications rose only slightly to $28 million. Germany and the United Kingdom continued to lead in Europe, jointly accounting for over 50 percent of revenue. But all of the regions showed revenue gains. "The figures show that the sales expansion in the third quarter in Western Europe was widespread and not confined to just a few markets," said Ken Wasch, SPA president. SPA gets its figures from 30 primarily US-based software firms that submit confidential sales data to the accounting firm of Arthur Andersen. Among the participants are Adobe, Borland, Claris, Lotus, Microsoft, Software Publishing, Symantec, and WordPerfect. (Kennedy Maize/19951215/Press Contact: Anne Griffith, SPA, 202-452-1600, ext. 360) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 12/15/95 APPLE Pipeline For Macintosh Available Today (NEWS)(APPLE)(SFO)(00018) Pipeline For Macintosh Available Today 12/15/95 SAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1995 DEC 15 (NB) -- Internet service provider PSINet (NASDAQ:PSIX) says its Pipeline company will distribute a Macintosh version of its Internet software at The Home & Family Computing Supershow in San Francisco. Pipeline also announced additional features for its Windows software. PSINet took Pipeline, originally a New York-based service, national this past July with a Windows software package. Pipeline spokesperson Jon Boroshok spoke to Newsbytes about the new Mac version. "We have always wanted to have a Macintosh package to compliment our Windows software. There are a lot of Mac users who need a simple and easy way to access the Internet and this is it. We recently won PC Magazine's 'Editors' Choice' award as an excellent package for new users." Commenting further, he said, "Our national service now has more than 200 points-of-presence (POPs or local phone access areas) and I think we are the only national Internet provider to offer unlimited Internet usage for a flat fee," said Boroshok. "Mac users have had always had trouble getting onto the Internet. Our software makes it as simple as possible." Pipeline's Internet service is priced at $19.95 per month for unlimited use 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Its Mac software is available free and can be downloaded from http://www.usa.pipeline.com . System requirements include System 7.0 or later, 8 megabytes (MB) of RAM (or four with RAM Doubler), a 9600 bits per second or faster modem and 8 MB of hard disk space. This Mac version offers access to the World Wide Web, e-mail, Usenet Newsgroups, Internet Relay Chat, Telnet, File Transfer Protocol, and organized Gopher sites. Upgrades are already on the drawing board for Winsock capabilities and personal Web pages. Pipeline also announced new features for its Windows users. The company's Windows software version 3.4 is upgradable to Winsock capabilities which means users may choose whatever browser they wish to use and apply other Winsock applications. Additionally, the company is offering Pipeline Personal Web Pages for $4.95/month. Until February, this service is free. For another $4.95/month, customers may add another household member to an existing account. Up to five accounts may be added and each additional user name will be charged at the above price. Pipeline can be contacted through 1-800-453-7473 for its free software. (Patrick McKenna/19951215/Press Contact: Aggie Nteta, Pipeline, tel 703-904-4100) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 12/15/95 IBM IBM's Eastern European OS/2 Preload Agreements (NEWS)(IBM)(LON)(00019) IBM's Eastern European OS/2 Preload Agreements 12/15/95 PARIS, FRANCE, 1995 DEC 15 (NB) -- IBM Central Europe & Russia (CER) has announced that four PC vendors in Russia and Poland have signed OS/2 Warp preload contracts. Three Russian companies, R-Style Computers, Coman Corporation and Formoza, along with Vobis Poland, have already started preloading OS/2 Warp on machines rolling through their factories. According to Big Blue, the deals are significant, since the three Russian firms are in the top five sales-wise in the CIS region. Dan Lautenbach, IBM vice president for emerging markets and OEM (original equipment manufacturer), explained that OS/2 Warp has been something of a success in Eastern Europe, which has helped the company proceed with the preload agreements for the operating system. "These (Russian) companies account for a significant portion of the Russian operating system market. In addition, Vobis Microcomputer in Poland adds to the worldwide momentum of OS/2 Warp," he said. According to Lautenbach, R-Style Computers has committed to making the English language version of OS/2 Warp available as a preload on at least 95 percent of the company's systems, and will begin using using the Russian language version when it becomes available. Plans call for R-Style and IBM to participate in joint marketing activities in Russia, with Big Blue providing R-Style specialists with technical training. The company claims to have shipped 24,000 PCs during 1994, and expects to make more than 40,000 shipments during the current year. According to R-Style, OS/2 Warp will boost 1996 sales figures by between seven and 10 percent. Coman Corporation, meanwhile, will start loading OS/2 Warp on around 30 percent of its systems sold starting this month. According to Sergey Anisimov, the company's president, the demand for OS/2 from corporate customers and the public sector strongly influenced Coman's decision to preload the operating system. Coman also plans to launch an advertising campaign highlighting the availability of its computers preloaded with OS/2 Warp. Company officials claim that PC sales during 1995 will top the $26 million mark, while 1996 targets have been set at between $45 and $50 million. Over at Formoza, which is billed as Russia's second largest OEM (original equipment manufacturer) in the PC business, plans call for the company to preload 14,400 systems with Russian language PC DOS and 2,000 systems with OS/2 Warp over the next 12 months. Of these systems, 2,400 will be equipped with the English language version of OS/2 Warp. The company claims it shipped around 20,000 systems last year and will ship around 50,000 units this year. In Poland, Vobis Poland, an offshoot of the giant Vobis Corporation in Germany, half of all 80486 and Pentium-based machines are now shipping with the Polish version of OS/2 Warp. According to Danusz Pietraszkiewicz, the company's country manager, Vobis aims to offer state of the art systems that are tailored to the needs of the customer. "Beyond doubt, many of our customers find OS/2 to be their preferred operating system, so the number of OS/2 users is rapidly growing," he said, adding that the company shipped around 8,000 PCs last year and expects to ship double that quantity this year. Vobis, Newsbytes notes, is the largest PC retailer in Poland, with 18 retail outlets. (Sylvia Dennis/19951215/Press Contact: IBM Corporate Communications +44-171-202-3744; Fax +44-171-202-3792) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 12/15/95 ONLINE UK Internet Service Provider Forms InsuranceNet Company (NEWS)(ONLINE)(LON)(00020) UK Internet Service Provider Forms InsuranceNet Company 12/15/95 CAMBRIDGE, ENGLAND, 1995 DEC 15 (NB) -- Unipalm Pipex, the UK's largest Internet service provider (SP) has formed a new company, InsuranceNet, with the aim of servicing the Internet needs of the Insurance industry in the UK. According to Peter Loughlin, the director of the new company, the service company will act as a supplier of hardware, software and Internet services, together with consultancy, to any company in the insurance industry that wishes to plug into the Internet. "The Internet offers a number of possibilities that existing online/EDI (electronic document interchange) services do not, especially in terms of cost per transaction," he told Newsbytes, adding the company is the only firm to date that specializes in getting insurance companies and brokers hooked into the Internet. Plans call for the InsuranceNet service to have its own domain name, and to act as an information exchange environment for the insurance industry, bringing together market information, company product information, and links to peripheral resources such as loss adjusters. There will also be live discussion forms and an industry news service on the domain server. Loughlin explained that the formation of the new company is a major initiative that will generate significant benefits for brokers and insurers alike. "We've already concluded discussions with a number of major insurers, as well as a number of national brokers and the concept is attracting a lot of positive interest," he said. When pressed, however, Loughlin told Newsbytes that it is too early in the day to name these insurance majors, although details will be announced when the company goes "live" for users in the New Year. Loughlin's background is from the insurance industry, and he claims to have played a major part in the creation of the Insurance Club, an online service for the insurance industry that serves insurers and brokers. Loughlin claims that existing online systems for the insurance industry tend to be fragmented. "At the moment, the insurance industry runs on a wide variety of systems. That adds expense -- the Internet is cost effective, stable, established and, contrary to popular myth, can be made as secure as any network," he said. (Steve Gold/19951215/Press Contact: Peter Loughlin +44-1525-854994; Amanda Hassall, GBC +44-181-332-7022; E-mail mandy@gbc.co.uk) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 12/15/95 GENERAL China - Technology Newsbriefs (NEWS)(GENERAL)(PEK)(00021) China - Technology Newsbriefs 12/15/95 BEIJING, CHINA, 1995 DEC 15 (NB) -- In this news roundup from China, 60 telecommunications companies display their equipment in Beijing, IBM announces revised OS/2 in Shanghai, Motorola signs agreement to provide data communications product to MPI, and ICBC's ATMs will allow RMB withdrawal from foreign credit card accounts. Sixty Telecom Firms Display Equipment In Beijing 1995 Beijing International Radio Telecommunications Equipment Exhibition was held from November 28 to December 2 at China International Exhibition Center, Beijing. 60 companies from 12 countries and regions displayed their products there. Major exhibits included mobile telecommunications equipment, digital microwave transmission equipment, and satellite receiving equipment. IBM Revises OS/2 In Shanghai Competing with Windows 95, IBM's recently announced its newly revised OS/2 software platform and supporting AS/400 emulation software in Shanghai. Wu Baochun, manager of IBM's operations in East China, said that the revised OS/2 platform, catering to the needs of Chinese customers, is capable of linking computer terminals with both the computing environment and the Internet. Motorola Provides Data Communications Product To MPI Motorola recently signed an agreement with Ministry of Power Industry (MPI) in Beijing to provide its data communications products to the second phase construction of the national electricity data exchange network. The network is to serve the rapid growth of the domestic power industry as well as to meet demand for power generating, dispatching, and managing. ICBC's ATMs Will Allow RMB Withdrawal From Foreign Accounts Shanghai's branch of Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (ICBC) will extend its network of automatic teller machines (ATMs) and will improve the machines' capabilities, according to its President Shen Ruolei. By the first quarter of next year, when the bank links its main computer systems with the ATM network of Visa International, credit card holders can use their foreign- currency-account cards to draw RenMinBi cash from ICBC ATMs in Shanghai. (Chih-Ho Yu & Ning Huang/19951209) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 12/15/95 GENERAL Two Vacancies In Australia's IT Community (NEWS)(GENERAL)(SYD)(00022) Two Vacancies In Australia's IT Community 12/15/95 SYDNEY, AUSTRALIA 1995 DEC 15 (NB) -- For upwardly mobile young Australian-based execs, top posts opened up this week. PC maker Acer Computer Australia will be looking for someone to fill the highly polished shoes of sales and marketing director Jonar Nader, who has announced his resignation. Fast-growing software house Symantec is seeking a general manager for Australia and NZ, following another elevation for regional MD Garry Sexton. The irrepressible writer/broadcaster/scoutmaster/marketing whiz Jonar Nader has announced his resignation as Acer Computer's sales and marketing director, just 12 days after MD James Wang told the press he would be "definitely staying on." Nader says he leaves on good terms with Wang: "We're great friends and always will be," he told Newsbytes. Nader said his decision to leave was unconnected with the late-November push which saw almost 10 percent of the Australian staff moved out as the company gears for a new era of concentrating on corporate and government markets. "Having spent two and a half years at Acer I believe I have accomplished my goals," said Nader. He says he has yet to decide his next move, but has "lots of exciting things" in mind. While he ponders the choices, he will fill time by building a house (just up the road from Newsbytes headquarters in Sydney) writing two books and preparing a third edition of his best-selling Dictionary of Computing. Symantec Australia is looking for a new general manager as local managing director Garry ("Business Class") Sexton spreads his sphere of influence to take in half the world. Sexton, who was already taking care of business for Symantec in South-East Asia, as well as Australia and NZ, has been given additional jurisdiction over North Asia and India. He also gets the twin titles senior director and general manager, Asia Pacific: one of the four new independent reporting structures into which Symantec has divided its global affairs. His additional responsibilities cover Korea, Taiwan, Hong Kong, China, and India but not Japan. (David Frith and Computer Daily News/19951214) (ADVISORY)(GENERAL)(MSP)(00023) NewsPix Update For Newsbytes Publishers 12/15/95 MINNEAPOLIS, MINNESOTA, U.S.A.,1995 DEC 15 (NB) -- This update will be posted each Wednesday and Friday to reflect the daily picture additions. The updates will in turn become part of the main NewsPix Bulletin issued on Monday. These photos correspond to recent Newsbytes stories. They are online in the Newsbytes menu on America Online, NiftyServe, the Newsbytes Pacifica Website at http://www.islandtel.com/newsbytes/ and the Newsbytes private bulletin board system in Minneapolis. To become a licensed Newsbytes publisher, call Newsbytes at 612-430-1100 (US) or write to wendy@newsbytes.com on the Internet. Licensing applies to any medium. --------------------------- DECEMBER 15, 1995 --------------------------- VACATIONS951213 - color / Free Travel & Vacation Planning On The Web: screenshot of web page graphic. DELUXE951212 - color / Adobe Intros Mac Photo Editing Software: screenshot of work screen. PEACHTREE951212 - color / Peachtree Intros Electronic Bill Paying Service: shot of the software package. --------------------------- PREVIOUS THIS WEEK - POWER951208 - color / AER's 12-hour Battery For HP OmniBook: The Powerslice LX with tray that slides out to support the Omnibook mouse. COMPCARD951207 - color / OKI Develops PC On A Card:the card with the OKI imprint visible. WTC951211 - color / Internet World Trade Center Opens On Web: main art banner from web site. (Newsbytes/19951215) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 12/15/95 TRENDS Home Office Internet Use Increases Consumer Acceptance - Study (NEWS)(TRENDS)(MSP)(00024) Home Office Internet Use Increases Consumer Acceptance - Study 12/15/95 PRINCETON, NEW JERSEY, U.S.A., 1995 DEC 15 (NB) -- Homes which double as small offices are driving the growing use of the Internet and online services, according to a study by Response Analysis Corporation. The study also said online use didn't matter if people ran a business out of their home or brought work with them after leaving the office. The study focused on workers who would most likely use online services and the Internet -- those people with annual incomes of $35,000 or more. Sixty percent of these households had personal computers. Of that majority, almost 20 percent use either online services or the Internet, the survey said. But in home office households more than 75 percent have a computer, 28 percent use online services, and 15 percent use the Internet. Those percentages are greater than the general population of $35,000-plus homes, the study said. "We suspected that home office households would show more use (of the Internet and online services) than households in general," Raymond Boggs, Response Analysis vice president, told Newsbytes. "The business applications available via online services and the Internet appeal more to the home-based worker, especially the communications aspect" of Internet e-mail and other vehicles, he said. The study also showed that while "typical" consumers surf the Web casually, home office workers use the Internet in a more focused fashion. In addition, few home businesses have developed their own home pages, the survey said. But the use of the Web for promotion and business development is a "natural next step" for home workers with an entrepreneurial spirit, Response Analysis officials noted. The survey was conducted in the summer of 1995, with 757 households having an annual income of $35,000 or more participating. Results have a plus-or-minus four percent rate of error, and have a 95 percent confidence level, Boggs said. The report containing these results is available directly from Response Analysis for $2950. Other areas examined in the study include the influence of children on technology acquisition, and comparing the attitude and intentions of PC owners and non-owners. (Bob Woods/19951215/Press Contact: Raymond L. Boggs, Response Analysis Corporation, 609-921-3333) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 12/15/95 CHIPS AMD To Build $1.9 Billion Plant In Germany (NEWS)(CHIPS)(LAX)(00025) AMD To Build $1.9 Billion Plant In Germany 12/15/95 SUNNYVALE, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1995 DEC 15 (NB) -- Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) announced that its board of directors has approved a 10-year plan to invest $1.9 billion and employ more than 1,400 people in a microprocessor center in Dresden, Germany. The new plant should be producing microprocessors in quantity by 1999. The biggest part of the investment is $1.5 billion for the construction of an 875,000-square-foot semiconductor wafer fabrication facility and design center. Chuck Mulloy, director of public relations for Advanced Micro Devices, told Newsbytes, "The wafer fab facility will include approximately 90,000 square-feet of clean-room space for the manufacture of future generations of Microsoft Windows-compatible microprocessors and other high volume products. In this industry you have to continuously look at the long run. This plant is primarily being put in place for the post 2000 marketplace. Five years from now there could be microprocessor products that are not anywhere near the drawing board today." "We still believe the PC microprocessor market will grow to fill this plant, but at its core this plant is being designed as a flexible microprocessor logic fabricator," says Mulloy. Ground breaking for the new facility is scheduled for the end of 1996, with production commencing by year end 1998. At maximum capacity, it will be capable of producing up to 6,000 eight-inch wafers per week. The facility will start up on AMD's 0.25-micron process technology and then migrate to 0.18-micron process technology. "This new megafab, designated Fab 30, combined with the Dresden design center, will give AMD the resources required to serve an increasing share of our customers' needs into the next century," said W.J. Sanders III, chairman and chief executive officer of AMD. Sanders continued, "AMD is committed to leadership in the microprocessor market. The microprocessor comprises the largest segment of the micro-component market, which we expect to account for 25 percent of the $300 billion semiconductor market by the end of the decade." According to the company, current marketshare is around 16 percent. The design center, which will conduct research and development activities for future microprocessors, will begin operations approximately two years after ground breaking. "Fab 30 will be AMD's first wafer manufacturing facility in Europe," Sanders said. "The Dresden area is an ideal location to establish our European microprocessor center. There is a pool of highly trained and motivated workers, along with the infrastructure to support state-of-the-art semiconductor manufacturing and design activities," Sanders said. (Richard Bowers/19951215/Press Contact: Chuck Mulloy, Advanced Micro Devices, 408-749-5481) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 12/15/95 WINDOWS Windows 95 Gets Unimodem Voice Support (NEWS)(WINDOWS)(DEN)(00026) Windows 95 Gets Unimodem Voice Support 12/15/95 REDMOND, WASHINGTON, U.S.A., 1995 DEC 15 (NB) -- Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ: MSFT) has announced it has added voice support for the Unimodem driver to the Windows 95 operating system. The new Unimodem V driver is available to developers and end users without charge over the Internet and several online subscription services. Microsoft said the enhanced driver makes it faster and easier for developers to create Windows 95-based communications applications that use both voice modems and the communications platform provided in Windows 95. Unimodem is the term for the universal modem driver and telephony service provider for the Windows operating system. It already supports many of the most popular fax/data modems as well as some of the emerging voice modems now coming to market. Features include wave playback and record to and from the phone line and wave playback and record to and from the telephone handset. According to John Ludwig, vice president of the personal systems division at Microsoft, adding voice-modem support to Unimodem makes it possible for software vendors to develop next-generation TAPI (Telephony Applications Program Interface) voice applications. TAPI is the tool that makes it possible to truly integrate the PC and the telephone, and some industry watchers believe when that happens everything about the way we do business will change, since TAPI can deal with voice, data, fax or even video. A TAPI product implementation has three parts. You need a TAPI-aware application that talks to a TAPI dynamic-link library (DLL), and a device driver, such as Unimodem, to control the phone system. Unimodem supports speakerphones, caller ID, distinctive ringing and call forwarding, all tools that will help turn your PC into a telephone command post. A Microsoft spokesperson told Newsbytes you can download the Unimodem V software from Microsoft's home page on the World Wide Web at http://www.microsoft.com/windows . It's also available on the Microsoft Network and in the Windows 95 forums on America Online, Compuserve and Prodigy. The driver will be integrated into future versions of the Windows operating system. (Jim Mallory/19951215/Press contact: Karla Wachter, Waggener Edstrom for Microsoft, 503-245-0905; Public contact: Microsoft, 206-882-8080 or 800-426-9400) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 12/15/95 ONLINE ****Study Says Internet Is Overhyped And Not Global (NEWS)(ONLINE)(SFO)(00027) ****Study Says Internet Is Overhyped And Not Global 12/15/95 REDWOOD CITY, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1995 DEC 15 (NB) -- Zona Research, a publisher and consulting, research company, released a study this morning stating the consumer potential of the Internet is vastly over-hyped and Internet's potential is best used within an organization or business as opposed to across the Internet. Rather than being global, the Internet is actually regional. Called, "Internet vs. Intranet: Markets, Opportunities and Trends," the report states businesses will find it easier and more efficient to use the Internet for internal communication and productivity enhancement. Zona's president, Stephen Auditore, says, "Based on our surveys and analysis of Internet domain distribution, online service customers, and other available surveys, we conclude that the prospects for commercial consumer use of the Internet are vastly overstated. We see the prime commercial opportunity for Internet/Intranet technologies to be inside the enterprise. There are more than 15 million users within the enterprise who have an infrastructure in-place which would allow them to use the World Wide Web." Another sobering observation made by Zona is words like "global" and "worldwide" are highly inaccurate. "Our research indicates that aside from the educational and government communities, the vast majority of all Internet and Intranet activity is occurring in North America and other English speaking regions," stated Auditore. Getting back to the Internet commerce issue, he continued, "The notion of tens of millions of consumers jumping online, exercising their purchase prerogative, is grossly over-hyped, especially if the New York Times' reports of the upcoming CommerceNet/Nielsen study are accurate. As companies look to make investment in this area, it is important to understand the true dynamics of the market, and to make decisions based on the realities, not the aspirations of industry promotion groups and consortia." Auditore also says the critical event in the growth of the Interent is not its origin as DARPA, the use of Unix, nor the explosive Internet software phenomena with Netscape Communications, but Judge Green's decision to break up AT&T. "We see a direct correlation between government control of the telecommunications infrastructure of a region and the use and access of the Internet within that region," stated Auditore. Speaking to Newsbytes, Auditore was not at all down on the Internet and its possibilities for commerce, saying, "I think there will be a consumer-based market on the Internet. The exact model may not be what everyone thinks it will be, but the potential is really there. Security is still a big issue and the numbers are not there yet." Auditore also said, "This study is in relation to the CommerceNet/Nielsen report, as reported in the New York Times. Our numbers show there are less than six million commercial online service subscribers who even possess the connectivity underlying technology to use the World Wide Web. This is far different than the numbers gathered through their survey." The Zona Research study is more than 170 pages long and is available for $895. Designed for information technology professionals to identify key markets and opportunities on the Internet, the report provides in- depth analysis from a number of different sources. More information is available from Zona's Web site at http://www.zonaresearch.com . (Patrick McKenna/19951215/Press Contact: Joel Tomaneng, Zona Research, tel 1-415-568-5700) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 12/15/95 TELECOM Sweden's Ericsson Secures First D-AMPS Order In Chile (NEWS)(TELECOM)(LON)(00028) Sweden's Ericsson Secures First D-AMPS Order In Chile 12/15/95 STOCKHOLM, SWEDEN, 1995 DEC 15 (NB) -- Ericsson has revealed it has signed an order for an AMPS/D-AMPS (American Mobile Phone System/Digital AMPS) cellular network with Compania de Telecomunicaciones Moviles Chile (CTCC), one of the two cellular operators in Chile. The contract is significant, since it marks the first time that the US digital phone systems standards have been used in Chile. It is also another country that could, theoretically at least, offer roaming to D-AMPS phone subscribers in the US. CTCC is a subsidiary of the partially privatized Telefonica Internacional de Chile owned CC, which has operated a cellular network in Chile since 1988. The order includes a mobile switching center and a number of Ericsson's RBS 884 base stations, Plans call for the network to be operation in early 1996. "Chile has the most rapidly expanding economy in Latin America and we want to offer state of the art technology to support this growth," explained Senor Gerardo Marti Casadevall, CTCC's general director. Sven Christer Nilsson, vice president of Ericsson Radio Systems, meanwhile, said that the deal heralds the start of inter-regional roaming between the US and Asia, as well as South America. "The addition of Chile to the D-AMPS coverage area in Latin America is an important step, enabling operators to provide seamless coverage throughout the region," he said. The D-AMPS system soon to be seen in Chile is the same as that which is in commercial service in Dallas, TX, Newsbytes notes, and incorporates a digital control channel to allow operators to introduce fully digital features and services into their infrastructures. According to Ericsson, examples of such features and services include sleep mode, data and fax capabilities, enhanced automatic international roaming, support for private systems and advanced mobile station support for hierarchical cell structures. Newsbytes notes that there are almost two million subscribers using D- AMPS network worldwide and 40 million using the analog variant, AMPS, which has the option for upgrading to D-AMPS in the future. Ericsson claims that 15 million of these subscribers use its own equipment. (Sylvia Dennis/19951215/Press Contact: Per Bengtsson, Ericsson Business Area Radio Communications +46-8-757-2159; Reader Contact: Magnus Amseklev, project manager, Ericsson Cellular - American Standards +46-8-404-1832) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 12/15/95 ONLINE ****DEC Offers Free "Super Spider" Web Searching (NEWS)(ONLINE)(BOS)(00029) ****DEC Offers Free "Super Spider" Web Searching 12/15/95 MAYNARD, MASSACHUSETTS, U.S.A., 1995 DEC 15 (NB) -- As a "holiday gift to the Internet," Digital Equipment Corp. today started offering free public access on the Web to the company's new Altavista "super spider" and indexing technology, billed as up to 100 times faster than other Web search engines, said Digital's Alan Jennings and Louis Monier, in a conference call with Newsbytes. The Alpha-based Altavista is able to search and index up to 2.5 million pages per day, according to Jennings, who is Digital's manager of advanced technology business development. In internal use at Digital over the past few weeks, the super spider has already searched some 60 million pages, or about half of the Web, he contended. In contrast, Lycos has only searched about 7 million Web pages, and the World Wide Web Worm, its closest competitor, about 3 million pages, added Monier, who leads the research team at Digital that created Altavista. Altavista's search speeds are made possible by the ability of the super spider to algorithmically "breed" batches of smaller Web crawlers, together with the use of Alpha processing power and high-speed ATM (asynchronous transfer mode) networks, according to the two Digital officials. The new Altavista Web site also offers other capabilities that are hard to find elsewhere on the Web, Monier maintained. For one thing, users can search not just for text, but for hotlinks on the Web, "so they can see what other Web pages are pointing to their pages." In addition, Digital is posting copies of actual UseNet news pages on the Altavista site, for direct access by the many end users who do not have the "set-up" to access these pages directly themselves. The Altavista software, developed at Digital's Palo Alto research labs, consists of two components, Newsbytes was told. The super spider itself resides on a "small" Alpha server, whereas a large SMP (symmetric multiprocessor) Alpha 8400 Turbolaser is used to host the Web site and to perform indexing. From the smaller Alpha, the large spider dispatches members of its brood to multiple sites throughout the Web. But, said Monier, to prevent search delays, or latency, the smaller crawlers are only allowed to search about 1,000 pages at a time on any one Web site. "We then give that site a rest for a few weeks." Joked Jennings: "So it is a polite spider, too." Currently, Altavista is being run with the use of two processors on the Turbolaser SMP machine, Jennings noted. "But the machine is designed to be configured with up to eight processors, and up to 96 Turbolasers can be clustered together." Digital, he added, is offering free access to the Altavista Web search and indexing technology as a way of obtaining public evaluation and feedback. "We're also interested in establishing business partnerships around Altavista," he acknowledged. Thirdly, Digital expects that Altavista will help to "showcase Alpha's high horsepower," according to the Digital manager. Digital has not yet decided how Altavista will be employed commercially. "But it will probably have some very unique business uses in the future," Jennings reported. Monier told Newsbytes that, during the several weeks of internal use, Altavista was accessed by about 10,000 users within Digital. "Usually, they looked up references to themselves or their families first. Then they tried to find old friends and college roommates," he explained. Digital employees also used Altavista to find information about the Web, conduct market research, and look up facts about travel destinations. Analysts were strongly impressed with Altavista's search and indexing power. "At 2.5 million pages a day, Digital's specifications are really hi-test,'" said Greg Kline, director, Network Integration and Management Research, at the Business Research Group. "Altavista is like a spider on steroids," agreed Jim Green, an analyst at Summit Strategies. "I was expecting to see something (on the Altavista Web page) like, `Caution. You're using an Alpha. You might burn your fingers.' But there's none of that kind of self-promotion," the analyst told Newsbytes. You can access Digital's new Altavista Web page at http://www.altavista.digital.com . (Jacqueline Emigh/19951215/Reader Contact: Digital Equipment Corp., 508-493-5111; Press Contact: Sarah Miller, Digital, 508- 264-6673) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 12/15/95 APPLE ****More Tough Times At Apple (NEWS)(APPLE)(SFO)(00030) ****More Tough Times At Apple 12/15/95 CUPERTINO, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1995 DEC 15 (NB) -- Apple Computer (NASDAQ:AAPL) announced it expects current quarterly unit shipments and revenues to be below its internal projections. The numbers are still expected to be an increase over last year, but Apple says a continuation of this trend could lead to a loss in the first quarter ending December 31. As reported by Newsbytes yesterday, Apple's continuing difficulties are attributed to price cuts the company has made in response to competition from sellers of Intel-based desktop computers. Apple says it expects gross margins to be less than last quarter's 20.7% and in a press release, the company said its key markets in the US and Japan suffered most from the competitive situation. In the same release, Michael Spindler, president and chief executive officer for Apple, states, "Our anticipated results for the first quarter are obviously disappointing. We are currently engaged in an intensive review of all aspects of our business, including the factors contributing to our first quarter results, and will take appropriate actions to address the challenge." Does this mean yesterday's stories about a possible 800 to 2,000 layoffs are about to happen in January? Apple still has no comment, but Michael Murphy, analyst and publisher of the California Technology Stock Letter, told Newsbytes, "There absolutely will be layoffs. They have already cut out a lot of the fat and will have to tighten the belt even further." Responding to Apple's announcement this morning, Murphy said, "It is shocking when Apple is having trouble at this time of year. This should be the time when they have their highest sales. The toughest time is traditionally after the holidays when most revenues come from customers adding peripheral equipment and software to systems purchased during the holidays. Now they face the possibility of a more difficult second quarter following this current quarter." Murphy also said Apple was still facing the problem of supplying customers with its high-end Power Mac systems due to continued production difficulties with the necessary microprocessor. "Even if they had the systems, they still have not solved the Open Transport problem," added Murphy. According to Murphy the problem has existed since July and Apple has promised to correct it by January. Expanding on his response to Apple's lowered projections, Murphy explained, "This is a very serious problem. When you cannot sufficiently supply the high-end systems and cannot make a good profit from high-volume entry level systems, you are in a very difficult situation. I am surprised they are only three points down on the stock market this morning." According to Murphy, Apple does have some good news this quarter. "They were able to debut a version of Pippin for the public and I think it could be an important product for them. It will have a very different user base and even though many in the industry may have not taken note of it, Pippin could help Apple in the wider picture," he commented. Pippin is a small computer-like device which uses a standard television to display its content. When it becomes available it will allow users to access the Internet, play games and access programs common to most desktop systems. Pippin is expected to enter the market in 1996 with a $700 price tag. (Patrick McKenna/19951215/Press Contact: Betty Taylor, Apple, tel 1- 408-974-3983) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 12/15/95 GOVT ****Conferees Compromise On Bells, Netsmut (NEWS)(GOVT)(WAS)(00031) ****Conferees Compromise On Bells, Netsmut 12/15/95 WASHINGTON, D.C., U.S.A., 1995 DEC 15 (NB) -- Call it a win for the Baby Bells and a loss for online libertarians. House and Senate conferees yesterday reached tentative agreement on rules of the road for letting regional Bell operating companies into the long-distance business. They also agreed to apply an "indecency" standard to content on the Internet and other online services. The conference committee on telecommunications legislation is trying to finish its work this week and have something on President Clinton's desk next week. Yesterday's agreements leave only one major sticking point: restrictions on media ownership. The White House has said that if Congress makes it too easy for media conglomerates to gobble each other up, the President will veto the bill. Long-distance carriers suffered a defeat yesterday when their supporters gave up on trying to impose conditions on the Bells getting into the long-distance business. They had wanted to keep the Bells out of the new market until the long-distance carriers were able to compete in local phone markets. The compromise requires that a Bell Company face competition from one rival and comply with a checklist of technical requirements. The Federal Communications Commission could also block entry into long-distance if the agency finds that it would not be in the public interest. On the issue of online pornography, the conferees agreed to impose potential fines and criminal penalties for transmitting indecent material on electronic networks. According to Rep. Rick White (R-Wash.), the conferees have agreed to define indecency has "any comment, request, suggestion, proposal, image or other communications that, in context, depicts or describes, in terms patently offensive as measured by contemporary community standards, sexual or excratory activities or organs." Jerry Berman, head of the Center for Democracy and Technology, said the provision is unconstitutional and his group will challenge it in court. The so-called "national day of protest" that digital libertarians tried to organize over the Internet to protest the limits on online content appears to have had no impact on the lawmakers. While the protest tied up phone and fax lines on Capitol Hill, it did not reach the hearts and minds of the conferees. (Kennedy Maize/19951215/Press Contact: Jerry Berman, CDT, 202-637-9800) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 12/15/95 GENERAL Newsbytes Week In Review (NEWS)(GENERAL)(MSP)(00032) Newsbytes Week In Review 12/15/95 MINNEAPOLIS, MINNESOTA, U.S.A., 1995 DEC 15 (NB) -- This is a look at the top stories this week, listing with their category code: UK Businessman Found Guilty In Credit Card Scam; Microsoft To Invest In New NBC Cable Channel; Pac Bell Retreats In Broadband Race; Online Liability Outlined By New York Court; MacWeek Says Apple Plans To Layoff 800-2,000; Netcom & Security First Bank Join For Internet Banking; Novell Has 66% Of European Networking Mkt - Report; Citizen's Photo-Realistic Color Printer Under $600; 1995 Hard Drive Market Shows Growth - Report; Security Risks Rising On Web, But So Is "Awareness;" Apple In Chinese PowerPC Joint Venture; Clinton Budget Would Boost Digital TV; Int'l Surveillance - Free Online Report; More On Lotus Notes/Web Integration Plans, Notes 4.0; Conferees Compromise On Bells, Netsmut; Study Says Internet Is Overhyped And Not Global; DEC Offers Free "Super Spider" Web Searching; More Tough Times At Apple. More Tough Times At Apple (APPLE) CUPERTINO, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1995 DEC 15 (NB) -- Apple Computer (NASDAQ:AAPL) announced it expects current quarterly unit shipments and revenues to be below its internal projections. The numbers are still expected to be an increase over last year, but Apple says a continuation of this trend could lead to a loss in the first quarter ending December 31. DEC Offers Free "Super Spider" Web Searching (ONLINE) MAYNARD, MASSACHUSETTS, U.S.A., 1995 DEC 15 (NB) -- As a "holiday gift to the Internet," Digital Equipment Corp. today started offering free public access on the Web to the company's new Altavista "super spider" and indexing technology, billed as up to 100 times faster than other Web search engines, said Digital's Alan Jennings and Louis Monier, in a conference call with Newsbytes. Study Says Internet Is Overhyped And Not Global (ONLINE) REDWOOD CITY, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1995 DEC 15 (NB) -- Zona Research, a publisher and consulting, research company, released a study this morning stating the consumer potential of the Internet is vastly over-hyped and Internet's potential is best used within an organization or business as opposed to across the Internet. Rather than being global, the Internet is actually regional. Conferees Compromise On Bells, Netsmut (GOVT) WASHINGTON, D.C., U.S.A., 1995 DEC 15 (NB) -- Call it a win for the Baby Bells and a loss for online libertarians. House and Senate conferees yesterday reached tentative agreement on rules of the road for letting regional Bell operating companies into the long-distance business. They also agreed to apply an "indecency" standard to content on the Internet and other online services. More On Lotus Notes/Web Integration Plans, Notes 4.0 (ONLINE) CAMBRIDGE, MASSACHUSETTS, U.S.A., 1995 DEC 15 (NB) -- Fueled by IBM resources, and driven by a desire to outperform major competitor Microsoft, Lotus will work "aggressively" to transform the Notes server into the number one platform for "distributed publishing" in both the Web and Notes environments, starting with the shipment of Notes Release 4 later this month. UK Businessman Found Guilty In Credit Card Scam (LEGAL) LONDON, ENGLAND, 1995 DEC 14 (NB) -- A former mobile phone dealer who went to college to study computing has been found guilty of masterminding a "highly sophisticated" international fraud with "potentially limitless" possibilities. Microsoft To Invest In New NBC Cable Channel (BROADCAST) NEW YORK CITY, NEW YORK, U.S.A., 1995 DEC 14 (NB) -- Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ:MSFT) and General Electric's (NYSE:GE) NBC said they are joining together to create a 24-hour news network that will exist both on cable TV and in cyberspace. Both Microsoft and NBC will invest $200 million each in the new network that will be called "MSNBC." Pac Bell Retreats In Broadband Race (BROADCAST) SAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1995 DEC 14 (NB) -- Just three months days ago, Pacific Bell announced a $16 billion program to install a broadband digital network with half the state of California wired by the year 2000. However, while the digital infrastructure is still in the plans, the time-frame has been extended, and the video aspects of it are in limbo. Online Liability Outlined By New York Court (LEGAL) NEW YORK, NEW YORK, U.S.A., 1995 DEC 14 (NB) -- Yesterday, a New York Supreme Court judge upheld an earlier ruling in the case of Stratton Oakmont versus Prodigy. Putting online services and content providers such as bulletin board systems (BBSs) in a "tough" position, Justice Stewart Ain ruled that what people write on forums must be controlled, or a provider may face legal responsibility for any libelous content. MacWeek Says Apple Plans To Layoff 800-2,000 (APPLE) SAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1995 DEC 14 (NB) -- Apple Computer Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) says MacWeek was speculating on rumors when it printed an article saying Apple's board of directors plans to layoff up to 2,000 employees in January. Netcom & Security First Bank Join For Internet Banking (ONLINE) SAN JOSE, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1995 DEC 14 (NB) -- Netcom On-Line Communication Services (NASDAQ:NETC) and Security First Network Bank, FSB have announced an industry alliance that officials from both companies said will help new and existing Netcom customers take advantage of banking via the Internet. Novell Has 66% Of European Networking Mkt - Report (TRENDS) BRACKNELL, BERKSHIRE, 1995 DEC 13 (NB) -- According to figures just released by market research firm Dataquest, NetWare remains the dominant network operating system in Europe, accounting for around 66 percent of unit shipments in 1994. Citizen's Photo-Realistic Color Printer Under $600 (TRENDS) SANTA MONICA, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1995 DEC 13 (NB) -- Citizen America is shipping Printiva 600C, claimed to be the first desktop printer to offer photo-realistic printing for under $1,000. Using a new technology, called the micro dry process, Printiva 600C offers the quality of dye sublimation color printing for as little as $0.80 per page at 90% density, says the company. 1995 Hard Drive Market Shows Growth - Report (TRENDS) SAN JOSE, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1995 DEC 13 (NB) -- Dataquest, well-known high-tech market and research consulting company, says preliminary figures for the 1995 rigid disk drive market appear to be up 26% over 1994. Shipments for 1995 will exceed 86.6 million units as compared to 69.3 million units in 1994. Security Risks Rising On Web, But So Is "Awareness" (ONLINE) NEW YORK, NEW YORK, U.S.A., 1995 DEC 12 (NB) -- "Secure servers" will help to improve security on the Web, and so will more firewalls, but it is absolutely essential for the organization to centrally develop a set of "security guidelines," maintained Daniel E. White, in an interview with Newsbytes about a new Ernst & Young/InformationWeek survey that found both "security-related financial losses" and computer viruses to be problematic for most companies. Apple In Chinese PowerPC Joint Venture (APPLE) BEIJING, CHINA, 1995 DEC 12 (NB) -- Apple Computer Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) and South Software Park (Zhuhai) Technology Co. Ltd., have announced the formation of Apple-SSP (Zhuhai) Technology Co. Ltd, designed to develop core technologies for future PowerPC computing products in China. Clinton Budget Would Boost Digital TV (GOVT) WASHINGTON, D.C., U.S.A., 1995 DEC 12 (NB) -- The White House budget plan contains a proposal to speed up the transition from analog to digital television technology, including a subsidy for consumers to buy set-top converters. Int'l Surveillance - Free Online Report (TRENDS) LONDON, ENGLAND, 1995 DEC 11 (NB) -- Privacy International, a not- for-profit personal privacy organization, has issued a free 150-page report in which it claims that there exists a massive international surveillance trade funded by the arms industry and led by the UK. (Ian Stokell/19951215) (SUMMARY)(GENERAL)(MSP)(00033) Newsbytes Daily Summary 12/15/95 MINNEAPOLIS, MINNESOTA, U.S.A., 1995 DEC 15 (NB) -- These are capsules of all today's news stories: ======================================================================== ------------| N E W S B Y T E S D A I L Y S U M M A R Y |---------- ------------| Friday, December 15, 1995 |---------- ======================================================================== (c) Newsbytes News Network (Tm) Editor in Chief: Wendy Woods ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Newsbytes News Network's on the Web! Check out http://www.nbnn.com for free daily top stories from Newsbytes and its affiliate publications, and from PC Week, MacWeek, and other Ziff news magazines. A subscription gives you all the news, full-text, plus the most comprehensive database of past computer stories online. The keyword-searchable database dates from today back through 1983. Subscriptions are $24.95 for three months. Questions? Send to 'administrator@newsbytes.com' For Japanese Newsbytes and additional services, see the Newsbytes Pacifica Website at http://www.islandtel.com/newsbytes/ ------------------------------------------------------------------------ CATEGORY HEADLINES (*** indicates today's top stories) STORY # ======================================================================== APPLE Pipeline For Macintosh Available Today..................... 18 APPLE ****More Tough Times At Apple............................. 30 BROADCAST More on Microsoft/NBC Deal................................. 14 BUSINESS China - Alcatel Seeks More Of China's GSM Market........... 11 BUSINESS Iomega Public Offering, 3-1 Stock Split.................... 15 CHIPS AMD To Build $1.9 Billion Plant In Germany................. 25 GENERAL Denon's Optical JukeBox Technology......................... 03 GENERAL Australia - SoftKey/Learning Company Staff Changes......... 06 GENERAL ***IT Asia 95 Biggest IT Event In Asia.................... 09 GENERAL IT Asia - India Rallies Toward Fast Growth Track........... 10 GENERAL Bill To Be A Daddy......................................... 13 GENERAL China - Technology Newsbriefs.............................. 21 GENERAL Two Vacancies In Australia's IT Community.................. 22 GENERAL NewsPix Update For Newsbytes Publishers.................... 23 GENERAL Newsbytes Week In Review................................... 31 GOVT ****Conferees Compromise On Bells, Netsmut................ 17 IBM ****More On Lotus Notes/Web Integration Plans, Notes 4.0.. 01 IBM IBM's Eastern European OS/2 Preload Agreements............. 19 ONLINE Desktop Data Says LinkEdge Will Integrate Information...... 07 ONLINE America Online Beefs Up Canadian Access.................... 08 ONLINE Philippines - Southern Provinces Hooked on the Net......... 11 ONLINE UK Internet Service Provider Forms InsuranceNet Company.... 20 ONLINE ****Study Says Internet Is Overhyped And Not Global....... 27 ONLINE ****DEC Offers Free "Super Spider" Web Searching.......... 29 PC German Firm Claims Breakthrough Graphics Card.............. 05 TELECOM UK Alternative Carrier Goes Global......................... 02 TELECOM Belgium Selects Ameritech Consortium In Belgacom Tender.... 04 TELECOM China - Mobile Phone Owners Won't Give Up Pagers........... 12 TELECOM Sweden's Ericsson Secures First D-AMPS Order In Chile...... 28 TRENDS European Software Sales Explode............................ 16 TRENDS Home Office Internet Use Increases Consumer Acceptance - St 24 WINDOWS Windows 95 Gets Unimodem Voice Support..................... 26 ======================================================================== These are the headlines and first paragraphs of each story, in order: 1 -> ****More On Lotus Notes/Web Integration Plans, Notes 4.0 -- Fueled by IBM resources, and driven by a desire to outperform major competitor Microsoft, Lotus will work "aggressively" to transform the Notes server into the number one platform for "distributed publishing" in both the Web and Notes environments, starting with the shipment of Notes Release 4 later this month. 2 -> UK Alternative Carrier Goes Global -- First Telecom, one of the growing band of licensed alternative telecoms carriers (ATCs) in the UK, has announced the opening of toll-free access to its telecoms service in the UK and the US via, respectively, 0800 and 1-800 numbers. 3 -> Denon's Optical JukeBox Technology -- Denon, the hi-fi specialist, has launched two new 200-disc capacity CD-ROM and compact disc machines, the DRD-1400 storing 100 of CD-ROM discs at each tray and the DRD- 1400F CD Changer for playing compact discs. According to the US- headquartered company, the two drives will soon be available on both sides of the Atlantic at approximately $1,000 for the CD-ROM version and $4,400 to $4,800 for the audio version. 4 -> Belgium Selects Ameritech Consortium In Belgacom Tender -- The Belgian Government has announced that the consortium led by Ameritech, which includes partners TeleDanmark and Singapore Telecom, has been selected to take a 50 percent stake, less one share, in Belgacom. 5 -> German Firm Claims Breakthrough Graphics Card -- Number Nine Visual Corporation has taken the wraps off what it claims is a revolutionary 3D graphics accelerator for the PC. Known as 9FX Reality, the card is based on the Verite 3D graphics engine from Rendition in the US, and has been built and optimized from the ground up. 6 -> Australia - SoftKey/Learning Company Staff Changes -- As part of The Learning Company's loss of a merger with Broderbund Software, and Broderbund's subsequent agreement with SoftKey International, some changes Down Under took place. 7 -> Desktop Data Says LinkEdge Will Integrate Information -- Desktop Data, Inc. (NASDAQ:DTOP), operator of the NewsEdge news filtering service, said its new LinkEdge software will tie together different news sources and media to make it easier for its subscribers to obtain information from NewsEdge. 8 -> America Online Beefs Up Canadian Access -- America Online, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMER) has announced the installation of 28,800-bit-per-second (bps) access on local lines in 18 Canadian cities and on a toll-free line accessible from anywhere in the country. A company spokeswoman said the moves are part of a push to beef up AOL's international offerings. 9 -> ***IT Asia 95 Biggest IT Event In Asia -- They called it the "Biggest Event In The IT Industry" in the entire Asia-Pacific region in terms of sheer size, and to that extent, the Manufacturers' Association for Information Technology (MAIT), the organizers, created just that. 10 -> IT Asia - India Rallies Toward Fast Growth Track -- P. Chidambaram, Minister of Commerce, inaugurated IT Asia 95 with the remark that Indians need to be shaken out of their complacency that the largest pool of technical manpower, the widespread use of English and the fast developing infrastructure will automatically put it on a fast growth track. "We believe that India has the second largest pool of skilled manpower in the world. This is questionable. In fact, India ranks 46th in the list of 47 countries as given in the World Competitive Report," he pointed out. 11 -> Philippines - Southern Provinces Hooked on the Net -- The Internet fever has spread on to the southern islands of Visayas and Mindanao in the Philippines as more and more Intercut service providers are setting up shop in the larger provinces there. Among the southern provinces getting hooked on the Net are Bohol and Cebu in the Visayas and Davao in Mindanao. 11 -> China - Alcatel Seeks More Of China's GSM Market -- France's Alcatel Corp announced recently a plan to increase its presence in China's developing GSM technology market. A spokesman for the global telecommunications company, Ernest Eidenberger, announced that the corporation considers its joint venture in China, Shanghai Bell Alcatel Mobile Telecommunications Co, established at the beginning of this year, to be the first step into the potential market. 12 -> China - Mobile Phone Owners Won't Give Up Pagers -- Although mobile phones are proliferating fast in China, they won't replace pagers, according to a recent survey. 13 -> Bill To Be A Daddy -- Bill is going to be a daddy. Bill Gates, the 40-year old chairman of Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ: MSFT) and his wife of nearly a year, Melinda French, 31, announced yesterday they will become parents sometime in late May of next year. 14 -> More on Microsoft/NBC Deal -- Internet World Wide Web users might have gotten a taste of what the new NBC News/ Microsoft online service will look like in the near future. Yesterday morning's news conference, held by officials of both Microsoft and NBC, was both shown and heard live on the Web. 15 -> Iomega Public Offering, 3-1 Stock Split -- Iomega Corp. (NASDAQ: IOMG) said this week its board of directors will ask stockholders to approve an increase in the number of authorized shares and a three-for-one stock split. 16 -> European Software Sales Explode -- Software sales in Western Europe hit $471.6 million for the third quarter of 1995, a 58 percent increase over the third quarter of 1994, according to the Software Publishers Association. The figures represent a substantial turnaround on revenues, as Europe has been a soft market recently. 17 -> ****Conferees Compromise On Bells, Netsmut -- Call it a win for the Baby Bells and a loss for online libertarians. House and Senate conferees yesterday reached tentative agreement on rules of the road for letting regional Bell operating companies into the long-distance business. They also agreed to apply an "indecency" standard to content on the Internet and other online services. 18 -> Pipeline For Macintosh Available Today -- Internet service provider PSINet (NASDAQ:PSIX) says its Pipeline company will distribute a Macintosh version of its Internet software at The Home & Family Computing Supershow in San Francisco. Pipeline also announced additional features for its Windows software. 19 -> IBM's Eastern European OS/2 Preload Agreements -- IBM Central Europe & Russia (CER) has announced that four PC vendors in Russia and Poland have signed OS/2 Warp preload contracts. Three Russian companies, R-Style Computers, Coman Corporation and Formoza, along with Vobis Poland, have already started preloading OS/2 Warp on machines rolling through their factories. 20 -> UK Internet Service Provider Forms InsuranceNet Company -- Unipalm Pipex, the UK's largest Internet service provider (SP) has formed a new company, InsuranceNet, with the aim of servicing the Internet needs of the Insurance industry in the UK. 21 -> China - Technology Newsbriefs -- In this news roundup from China, 60 telecommunications companies display their equipment in Beijing, IBM announces revised OS/2 in Shanghai, Motorola signs agreement to provide data communications product to MPI, and ICBC's ATMs will allow RMB withdrawal from foreign credit card accounts. 22 -> Two Vacancies In Australia's IT Community -- For upwardly mobile young Australian-based execs, top posts opened up this week. PC maker Acer Computer Australia will be looking for someone to fill the highly polished shoes of sales and marketing director Jonar Nader, who has announced his resignation. Fast-growing software house Symantec is seeking a general manager for Australia and NZ, following another elevation for regional MD Garry Sexton. 23 -> NewsPix Update For Newsbytes Publishers -- This update will be posted each Wednesday and Friday to reflect the daily picture additions. The updates will in turn become part of the main NewsPix Bulletin issued on Monday. 24 -> Home Office Internet Use Increases Consumer Acceptance - Study -- Homes which double as small offices are driving the growing use of the Internet and online services, according to a study by Response Analysis Corporation. The study also said online use didn't matter if people ran a business out of their home or brought work with them after leaving the office. 25 -> AMD To Build $1.9 Billion Plant In Germany -- Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) announced that its board of directors has approved a 10-year plan to invest $1.9 billion and employ more than 1,400 people in a microprocessor center in Dresden, Germany. The new plant should be producing microprocessors in quantity by 1999. 26 -> Windows 95 Gets Unimodem Voice Support -- Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ: MSFT) has announced it has added voice support for the Unimodem driver to the Windows 95 operating system. The new Unimodem V driver is available to developers and end users without charge over the Internet and several online subscription services. 27 -> ****Study Says Internet Is Overhyped And Not Global --Zona Research, a publisher and consulting, research company, released a study this morning stating the consumer potential of the Internet is vastly over-hyped and Internet's potential is best used within an organization or business as opposed to across the Internet. Rather than being global, the Internet is actually regional. 28 -> Sweden's Ericsson Secures First D-AMPS Order In Chile -- Ericsson has revealed it has signed an order for an AMPS/D-AMPS (American Mobile Phone System/Digital AMPS) cellular network with Compania de Telecomunicaciones Moviles Chile (CTCC), one of the two cellular operators in Chile. 29 -> ****DEC Offers Free "Super Spider" Web Searching -- As a "holiday gift to the Internet," Digital Equipment Corp. today started offering free public access on the Web to the company's new Altavista "super spider" and indexing technology, billed as up to 100 times faster than other Web search engines, said Digital's Alan Jennings and Louis Monier, in a conference call with Newsbytes. 30 -> ****More Tough Times At Apple -- Apple Computer (NASDAQ:AAPL) announced it expects current quarterly unit shipments and revenues to be below its internal projections. The numbers are still expected to be an increase over last year, but Apple says a continuation of this trend could lead to a loss in the first quarter ending December 31. 31 -> Newsbytes Week In Review -- This is a look at the top stories this week, listing with their category code: UK Businessman Found Guilty In Credit Card Scam; Microsoft To Invest In New NBC Cable Channel; Pac Bell Retreats In Broadband Race; Online Liability Outlined By New York Court; MacWeek Says Apple Plans To Layoff 800-2,000; Netcom & Security First Bank Join For Internet Banking; Novell Has 66% Of European Networking Mkt - Report; Citizen's Photo-Realistic Color Printer Under $600; 1995 Hard Drive Market Shows Growth - Report; Security Risks Rising On Web, But So Is "Awareness;" Apple In Chinese PowerPC Joint Venture; Clinton Budget Would Boost Digital TV; Int'l Surveillance - Free Online Report; More On Lotus Notes/Web Integration Plans, Notes 4.0; Conferees Compromise On Bells, Netsmut; Study Says Internet Is Overhyped And Not Global; DEC Offers Free "Super Spider" Web Searching; More Tough Times At Apple. (Wendy Woods/19951215) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 12/12/95 GENERAL Native American Clip-Art Libraries (NEWS)(GENERAL)(MSP)(00001) Native American Clip-Art Libraries 12/12/95 RIO RANCHO, NEW MEXICO, 1995 DEC 12 (NB) -- The United States Postal Service (USPS) will incorporate some of the borders found in clip-art libraries produced by RT Computer Graphics into a series of stamps to be released next year. The company says it has brought to market two collections that feature Native American clip-art libraries for both Windows and Macintosh users. RT Computer Graphics President Art Bernstein told Newsbytes he has seen some advance mock-ups of the new stamp collection, which commemorates Indian dance. Three of the stamps use borders from his company's clip-art libraries. "This is an honor for us, especially because we're quite small," he told Newsbytes. The two libraries are called "The Santa Fe Collection" and "The Plains Collection." Both use authentic designs created by Native Americans, drawing on centuries of artistic tradition and history, officials said. Some of the art featured was passed down from generation to generation. The collections contain the "most meaningful and treasured" symbolic designs from Native American cultures, said the company. Combined, both programs give users more than 850 images and borders. Some of the designs include pottery, rugs, sand paintings, and an image of Sitting Bull. Bernstein said he saw a lot of interest in Native American and southwestern clip-art graphics from his experience on an Indian reservation. In setting up their computer labs, he received many requests for Native American clip-art. He also said the style in the clip-art is very popular not only in the southwest, but nationwide and worldwide as well. The mainly black-and-white images are stored in either PostScript or Windows MetaFile format. Both programs come with a free viewer program which can create a slide show of the images. Bernstein also said the images are compressed on the floppy disks and can be decompressed individually, so the user doesn't have to take up valuable hard drive space. Future plans call for a CD-ROM version of various clip-art libraries, Bernstein said. Also planned is a petroglyph clip-art collection, consisting of a series of cave paintings and other prehistoric art. The series will also have several "rock art" renderings, described by Bernstein as "modern situations pictured in pre-historic art." He said the rock art will be "Flintstone-esque" in nature. (Bob Woods/19951212/Press Contact: Phil Hall, Open City Communications, 212-714-3575, Internet e-mail opencity@aol.com. Public Contact: RT Computer Graphics, 800-891-1600 or 505-891-1600) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 12/12/95 ONLINE Internet Update (NEWS)(ONLINE)(TYO)(00002) Internet Update 12/12/95 TOKYO, JAPAN, 1995 DEC 12 (NB) -- In this roundup of new services and resources on the global Internet: Free Web pages directory; Unknown Russia; Australian sports industry directory; Art from the Far East; New K-12 resources; All about viruses; What's hot in Thailand; Information super library; Online from Bosnia; Other Balkan pages. Free Web Pages Directory Across the network a number of kind-hearted Webmasters make available space on their servers free of charge to groups of people from children to non-profit organizations and, in some cases, anyone that wants space. Here you can find the most complete guide to servers offering free space and how to get it. World Wide Web: http://www.serve.com/jpsp1/freeweb/freepages.html World Wide Web: http://www.citynet.co.uk/users/jpsp1/freeweb/freepages.html Unknown Russia While many people have heard of, and even been to, cities like Moscow and St. Petersburg, much of the rest of Russia remains a mystery. Through the Internet, it is now possible to visit the south of the country and find out about Rostov-on-Don City and the Rostov State University and take a virtual tour of Uran. World Wide Web: http://uran.bevd.blacksburg.va.us/ Australian Sports Industry Directory The Australian Sports Industry Directory is now online and offering a comprehensive resource of all sporting bodies, associations, venues, clubs, teams, and businesses in Australia. World Wide Web: http://www.immedia.com.au/asid/asid_ind.html Art From The Far East The art work of three well-known Japanese artists -- Masuteru Aoba, Kazumasa Nagai, and Makoto Nakamura -- is now on display at the G-Search Web server in its "From Japan" gallery, part of the G-Search InterShop. World Wide Web: http://www.g-search.or.jp/hypertext/FromJapan/welcome_e.html New K-12 Resources In addition to its Math and Science gateway that began in February, Cornell Theory Center has added the Arts & Social Science gateway and the Educators gateway. Each offers students and educators a starting point for Internet resources suitable for K-12 aged children. World Wide Web: http://www.tc.cornell.edu/Edu/MathSciGateway/ World Wide Web: http://www.tc.cornell.edu/Edu/ArtSocGateway/ World Wide Web: http://www.tc.cornell.edu/Edu/MathSciGateway/educGateway.html All About Viruses Not the human kind but the computer variety. This set of pages includes basic information about computer viruses, such as what they are, and how to protect your PC or Macintosh computer against infection. A large selection of links to all types of Internet resources makes this a useful resource. World Wide Web: http://isteonline.uoregon.edu/istehome/edtechnews/antivirus/Viruses.html What's Hot In Thailand All the news from the Thai Internet is available from this set of pages which acts as a comprehensive index to Thai information available. Sources include news, weather, travel and tourism, language, demographics, sports, info servers, and business. A guide to Thai restaurants worldwide will please anyone that enjoys Thai food! World Wide Web: http://www.ait.ac.th/Asia/infoth.html Information SuperLibrary With such a grand name you expect a useful service and, when you visit the page, you won't be disappointed. The page not only links to a wide range of Internet search tools, covering everything from the Web to Veronica and e-mail, but describes each of the tools as well, enabling users to find the most effective index for their searches. World Wide Web: http://www.mcp.com/general/search/srcheng.html Online From Bosnia Several servers are now offering information from and about Bosnia and the situation in the ex-Yugoslavia. The US Department of Defense has established an official page with operation maps, fact sheets, news releases, biographies of key commanders and leaders, and transcripts of briefings, speeches, and testimony. World Wide Web: http://www.dtic.dla.mil/bosnia/ Other Balkan Pages The Peacenet pages on the Balkans include many links to all types of Internet resources and seeks to answer questions such as how the war began and if it will ever end. The final report of the UN Commission of experts on the former Yugoslavia is also available on the Internet. The report comprises over 3,000 pages of reports and documents relating to war crimes in Bosnia. World Wide Web: http://www.peacenet.org/balkans/ World Wide Web: http://www.cij.org/cij/commission.html (Martyn Williams/19951212) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 12/12/95 APPLE Macromedia's SoundEdit 16 2.0 For Mac (NEWS)(APPLE)(SFO)(00003) Macromedia's SoundEdit 16 2.0 For Mac 12/12/95 SAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1995 DEC 12 (NB) -- Macromedia (NASDAQ:MACR) developers are getting a new version of SoundEdit 16 for integrating high-quality audio into multimedia presentations, CD-ROM titles, and World Wide Web sites. Designed to offer developers an easy-to-use tool for a wide number of formats, the new version allows for the creation of cutting-edge sound in Director, Authorware, and Extreme 3D projects. Version 2 runs on Macintosh and PowerMac computers with a native version for the latter. Features include automated batch processing of audio files, support for advanced audio compression, and support for third-party plug-ins. According to Macromedia, automated batch processing allows developers to save hours of production time. Users may convert bit depth, compression, sample resolution and file format of an unlimited number of files with a single mouse click. The version's support of IMA compression permits the 4:1 compression of 16-bit sound. SoundEdit 16 2.0 can read and write .AU files and employ 5-law encoding, which are popular on the Internet. Additionally, version 2 allows professional downsampling options like dither and brighten to create 8-bit, 11 kilohertz (KHz) and 8-bit, 22KHz files from 16-bit files. Another new feature is support for direct-to-disk audio CD capture. This allows developers to directly import standard audio CD tracks, the edit, process and apply effects just as they would to any file format. A Macromedia spokesperson told Newsbytes, "Macromedia's Open Architecture allows SoundEdit to support all of the special third-party plug-ins which are so important to particular developers working in a customized environment. These add-ons add many special effects to a wide variety of multimedia applications." Developers can also used SoundEdit 16 Version 2 with Deck II, a special digital audio tool which as become part of the Macromedia product line due to the recent acquisition of OSC. Macromedia says users should expect to see Version 2 late this month with a price tag of $399. An upgrade, priced at $129, is available to registered users of SoundEdit 16. (Patrick McKenna/19951211/Press Contact: Mary Leong, Macromedia, 415-252-2118) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 12/12/95 LEGAL Netherlands - Philips Facing $1Billion Law Suit (NEWS)(LEGAL)(LON)(00004) Netherlands - Philips Facing $1Billion Law Suit 12/12/95 HILVERSUM, NETHERLANDS, 1995 DEC 12 (NB) -- According to a report in Economishe Tijd, the Dutch financial daily paper, Philips Electronics faces a $2.95 billion law suit from Maurits de Prins, the founder and chief executive officer (CEO) of Super Club, the video rental group which is now a division of Philips. According to the paper, a lawsuit has been filed with the Dallas Division of the US District Court for Texas. Among the papers filed are allegations of deceit, fraud, conspiracy, and breach of confidence. Although no-one is talking particulars of the case, the paper reports that de Prin's legal representatives -- Gardere & Wynne, and Thompson, Coe, Cousins & Irons -- have taken sworn affidavits. The defendants in the case are Philips Electronics, its parent operation, Philips NV, and Philips Corporation in the US. Philips has declined to comment on the case, claiming that this is standard procedure in matters going through the courts. De Prins' papers, meanwhile, allege that Philips acted in an incorrect manner when gaining control of Super Club. According to Economishe Tijd, de Prins and other shareholders felt aggrieved when Philips acquired its shareholding in Super Club at a discount on what de Prins alleges is their true value. Despite the sums involved, de Prin's spokesperson, Rebecca Shaw of Space Communications in Texas, is quoted by the paper as saying that de Prins is not interested in the money involved, but is more after rehabilitations. The trial could take place some time next year, the paper reports. (Sylvia Dennis/19951211/Press & Reader Contact: Philips Electronics, +31-40-734866) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 12/12/95 ONLINE Barclays Opens Santa's Cybergrotto On Internet (NEWS)(ONLINE)(LON)(00005) Barclays Opens Santa's Cybergrotto On Internet 12/12/95 LONDON, ENGLAND, 1995 DEC 12 (NB) -- Barclays Bank's Barclaysquare Web site, located at http://www.itl.net/barclaysquare , has opened up a Cybergrotto" for Santa at its site. The idea, according to Sara Mak, a spokesperson for the bank, is that "trendy kids" can now e-mail their Christmas present lists to Santa at the Cybergrotto, rather than use conventional "snail mail." Barclays opened the second phase of its operations a few weeks ago, Newsbytes notes, since when it claims it has become the most popular Internet shopping mall in the UK. Barclays claims that, during the last few weeks, the bank has had more than 500 phone calls and 340 e-mail messages from potential retailers for Barclaysquare. As reported previously by Newsbytes, Barclaysquare is operated by Barclays Merchant Services, the plastic card processing division of the bank, and offers Web shopping facilities for Argos, Sainsbury's, and Blackwell's bookshop. Phase two of the launch has increased the companies to Interflora, British Telecom, Victoria Wine, Sun Alliance, United Distillers, and the Airline Network. According to Mak. these new retailers have been receiving orders from customers, including one to Interflora from Denmark, to send a bouquet of flowers to Australia. "We've just uploaded an animation program (for PC users) which shows Santa riding his sleigh across the screen and leaving a Merry Christmas trail behind," Mak said. He added that Web page accessories have the choice of downloading the program in low-, medium-, and high- resolution, to allow for slower speed modem users accessing the service. The resulting animation can also be stored as a Windows screen saver, or e-mailed to other Internet users as a Christmas card. Newsbytes notes that there is also an advent calendar at the site. Since its original launch in May of this year, Barclaysquare claims it has attracted more than 105,000 shoppers and received almost 3,500 e-mails from Internet users. The service has also been named as one of the UK's top ten online products and services by the December issue of Business Age magazine. (Steve Gold/19951211/Press Contact: Barclays Bank Public Relations, +44-171-699-2673) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 12/12/95 GENERAL Canada's Orchestra Multisystems' 2 New Monitors (NEWS)(GENERAL)(LON)(00006) Canada's Orchestra Multisystems' 2 New Monitors 12/12/95 LONDON, ENGLAND, 1995 DEC 12 (NB) -- Orchestra Multisystems Inc., a Canadian manufacturer of color monitors, has released two high-performance, yet "budget," monitors, into the European marketplace. According to the company, the monitors were unveiled to the North American marketplace at last month's Comdex Fall computer show in Las Vegas. The two monitors will form the flagships of Orchestra's Brass series. The new senior flagship, the 17-inch Tuba II monitor, sells for US$699, while the 15-inch French Horn costs US$429. According to company officials, the two monitors incorporate technology sufficiently powerful enough to support high quality, graphics applications. The monitors are targeted at the mainstream publishing industry as well as small home desktop publishers and users. The screens on both machines are flat with a new non-glare coating, for the "eye comfort of the user." Both monitors have been built from "the ground up" to be energy saving, and are expected to meet the US Government's Energy Star certification schemes. According to Orchestra, the larger screen on the Tuba II will be particularly useful for designs demanding a large screen facility, while the smaller French Horn II "fits nicely" on a desk with limited space. Both monitors come with a three-year warranty and are billed as Windows Plug and Play-compliant. "Orchestra is constantly seeking new ways to offer top quality monitors of exceptional value. These powerful monitors have the advanced features that today's graphic's users need. We have made them exceptionally affordable," claimed Peter Calderon, vice president of sales and marketing for Orchestra MultiSystems. According to Orchestra, the 17-inch Tuba II is compatible with both Apple Mac and PCs, and supports a high resolution of 1,600 by 1,280 dots-per-inch (dpi) at a 82 hertz (Hz) refresh rate. The monitor provides advanced adjustment for rotation, trapezoidal, pin-cushioning, degaussing, and RGB color correction/tuning. Any adjustment of images on the monitor can, the company claims, be easily done by the on-screen display (OSD) menu. Other useful features include an overscanning capability and an edge-to-edge screen image for maximum viewing area. The French Horn II, meanwhile, features a screen resolution of 1,280 by 1,024 dpi in non-interlaced mode with a 60Hz refresh rate. The on-screen display menu is also supported by this budget monitor. (Sylvia Dennis/19951211/Press & Reader Contact: John Hui, Orchestra MultiSystems, 714-891-3861) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 12/12/95 IBM IBM Targets German Consumer PC Market (NEWS)(IBM)(LON)(00007) IBM Targets German Consumer PC Market 12/12/95 STUTTGART, GERMANY, 1995 DEC 12 (NB) -- IBM Deutschland has announced plans for a major push into the German consumer PC market during 1996. According to Edmund Hug, the company's German chairman, while Big Blue has been pitching hard into the business PC market, it has had only a few machines to offer consumers. Hug, quoted by Suddeustche Zeitung (South-West Daily Paper), said that 1996 will prove to be something of a watershed for IBM as far as consumer systems go. "During the next year we plan to emphasize this (end of) the market," he told the paper. According to the German daily, the market for consumer systems in Germany has grown by 20 percent over the last year. This upsurge in sales has not gone unnoticed by IBM Deutschland, and is an area that the company wants to exploit in the new year. The change in emphasis for IBM's German operation may cost around 1,200 jobs within the company's business division, but, according to Hug, all but 300 or so of these staffers will be transferred to different positions within the new consumer side of the company. The 300 lost jobs, Hug told the paper, will be accounted for by "natural wastage" and early retirement options for the staff concerned. Hugs announcements to the German press come two months after the company announced plans to shed the 1,200 staff over the next year, Newsbytes notes. In mid-October, Newsbytes reported that Horst Richter, a member of the supervisory board of Big Blue's German operation, and a senior member of IG Metall, the German trade union, told journalists that the staff cuts are on top of the 6,000 positions already lost over the last year. Earlier this year, IBM Deutschland reported a return to profitability for its 1994 trading year -- profits of US$589 million were reported against a loss of $381 million in 1993, on an increased (2.4 percent up) turnover of $8,440 million. The bulk of the 1994 sales growth came in domestic sales, which were up 3.3 percent to $6,080 million. (Sylvia Dennis/19951211/Press & Reader Contact: IBM Deutschland, tel +49-711-7850, fax +49-711-785-3511) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 1996 12/12/95 BUSINESS Sweden's Ericsson Looks Ahead To (NEWS)(BUSINESS)(LON)(00008) Sweden's Ericsson Looks Ahead To 1996 12/12/95 STOCKHOLM, SWEDEN, 1995 DEC 12 (NB) -- Ericsson, the Swedish telecom and electronics giant, has announced that the focus of its 1996 strategy will be to build on its successes in the broadband communications network. According to Lars Ramqvist, Ericsson's president, the broadband systems the company will be looking to concentrate on will include small telephone exchanges and access connectivity products. Speaking with reporters, Ramqvist said that ATM (asynchronous transfer mode) was something of a hot topic among the competition, with the result that the company needs to bolster its product range offerings in that section of the market. Ramqvist is quoted in Kontakten, the company's in-house magazine, as acknowledging that the competition has been quick to offer ATM products in the smaller end of the market. "With the focusing now taking place and the resources at our disposal, we expect to quickly establish a leading position in this area," he explained. Ramqvist's comments come in the wake of a successful year with Ericsson's telecoms operations, but the company's networking operations are still reported to be average. In September of this year, Newsbytes reported that Ericsson had drawn up a new business plan for the next few years and that, as part of the changes planned, the firm plans to shave around 6,000 staff from its business sales payroll. The announcement came as something of a shock in the normally placid Swedish technology marketplace, since it means that Ericsson will progressively reduce its 30,000-strong workforce down to 24,000 by the end of next year. Under the changes announced in September, Ericsson's Public Telecommunications Business (PTB) division will also transfer its resources to the core operations related to the development of AXE exchanges system and development of broadband solutions. Plans also call for non-core operations, which cannot operate profitably within Ericsson itself, to probably be spun off or sold to external partners. According to Ericsson, this could affect around 2,200 members of staff in the company's PTB division in Sweden, as well as a significant number outside the country. At the time, Ericsson claimed that, in order to stay ahead of the competition, various rationalization measures within the AXE operations must be speeded up. The telco claims that concentrating on areas closest to the core operations and increased cooperation with partners should result in an increase in responses to customer demands for "total solutions" in the broadband area, where operations are generally developing at a slower pace. (Sylvia Dennis/19951211/Press Contact: Anders Igel, Ericsson Business Area Public Telecommunications, +46-8-719-1378; Lars Wilkund, Ericsson Human Resources, +46-8-719-2611) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 12/12/95 ONLINE Peachtree Intros Electronic Bill Paying Service (NEWS)(ONLINE)(DEN)(00009) Peachtree Intros Electronic Bill Paying Service 12/12/95 NORCROSS, GEORGIA, U.S.A., 1995 DEC 12 (NB) -- Peachtree Software Inc., a subsidiary of Automatic Data Processing Inc. (NYSE: ADP) has announced it will introduce an electronic bill payment system for users of many popular commercial accounting software packages, beginning in the first quarter of 1996. #IMAGE 1 20 TWPCX \images\95121209.PCX Click here for photo The company claims users of the system could save countless dollars each year in costs and time spent writing and processing accounts payable checks. "Writing checks to pay bills for operating a business is an expensive, time-consuming occupation for small business owners and finance managers," according to Ron Verni, vice president of marketing and sales for Peachtree. Verni said it made sense to develop an electronic bill payment system since most small businesses already use accounting software to manage their accounts payable. The company cited an ADP survey of more than 500 ADP/Peachtree customers completed in April that found the average company writes about 100 checks per month, not including payroll checks. The company said the survey indicates it costs an average of $2.50 to $2.81 per check to pay bills, depending on the size of the company. Peachtree said the bill paying software captures invoice-level data and creates full remittance advice, enabling users to create multiple invoices per payment and multiple payment adjustments per invoice. Peachtree spokesperson Cliff Bussard told Newsbytes the service will be available for Peachtree Accounting for Windows in the first quarter of 1996. He said the exact fee structure hasn't been worked out yet, but will include a minimum number of transactions monthly, with transactions above that number charged at a rate that will probably be about $1 or less each. The software will be integrated into the next release of Peachtree Accounting for Windows, which is set for shipment in the first quarter of 1996. Bussard said the company is negotiating with a number of popular accounting program publishers to incorporate the technology into those company's software. Current users of Peachtree Accounting for Windows will receive a free upgrade when the software is available, said Bussard. Payment is made through CheckFree Corporation in Columbus, Ohio. Payees that are Checkfree customers will receive payment electronically, while other companies will get a check from CheckFree. In the first quarter of 1996, ADP will launch SoftPay, a standalone product that gives the PC-equipped small business operator access to ADP payroll services. No fee has been announced yet for SoftPay, which accepts input from the customer, calculates payroll, sends out payroll checks, and prepares the necessary government tax filings and payments. A record of all that information is provided to the business users. In the last half of 1996 ADP will introduce online banking for small businesses, which will include balance checking, fund transfer and services like determining if a check has cleared. (Jim Mallory/19951211/Press contact: Brad MacAfee, Copithorne & Bellows for Peachtree, 770-392-8611 Public contact: Peachtree, 800-228-0068) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 12/12/95 GENERAL China - Technology Newsbriefs (NEWS)(GENERAL)(PEK)(00010) China - Technology Newsbriefs 12/12/95 BEIJING, CHINA, 1995 DEC 12 (NB) -- In this news roundup from China: 4,000 hours of Chinese TV programs sold abroad in past two years; IBM contributes hardware and software to Xiamen University; more cities to change phone numbers from 7 to 8 digits; and Zhejiang to provide business information through the Internet. 4,000 Hours Of Chinese TV Programs Sold Abroad China has earned at least US$6 million by selling TV programs to overseas buyers over the past two years. This figure is more than 10 times the amount in previous years. About 4,000 hours of programs have been sold for broadcasting abroad, through a national TV agency representing 47 Chinese TV stations. Some of the programs, particularly those featuring classical stories, have been a great hit, attracting a large overseas audience. IBM Contributes Hardware And Software To Xiamen University IBM recently signed an agreement with Xiamen University in the Fujian Province for the joint establishment of a computer center there. As stipulated in the agreement, IBM will contribute computer systems, network accessories, and software products worth a total of US$1.04 million to the university. The work on the main network will start next April, sources said. More Cities To Change Phone Numbers From 7 To 8 Digits Telephone numbers in Beijing and Guangzhou will be expanded to eight digits next year, following the shift in Shanghai recently. The change is scheduled to be effective from May 8, 1996, by adding a "6" to the current seven-digit local number. Phone numbers in Guangzhou, the provincial capital of Guangdong province, will be changed to eight digits from June 8, 1996, by adding a "8" to the current number. Zhejiang To Provide Business Information Through The Internet Zhejiang province will develop a so-called "Golden Pigeon Project" which aims to provide more business information overseas. This project will link Zhejiang's business community to the rest of the world via the Internet. Its home pages will list social, economic, and cultural information about the prosperous province. Some pillar industries, priority enterprises, and economic cooperative opportunities will also contribute to the offerings. (Chih-Ho Yu & Ning Huang/19951212) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 12/12/95 TRENDS China - Vast Market For Financial Software (NEWS)(TRENDS)(PEK)(00011) China - Vast Market For Financial Software 12/12/95 BEIJING, CHINA, 1995 DEC 12 (NB) -- The Chinese market for accounting software is potentially huge, because 40 to 60 percent of the country's medium- and large-sized enterprises plan to conduct computerized accounting by the year 2000, said an official with the Ministry of Finance. Although some industries -- such as foreign trade, power utilities, and railways -- have already implemented modern accounting tools, only about 10 percent of China's businesses now have computerized accounting. Most Chinese accountants are still using the abacus, which was reportedly invented in China about 1,300 years ago. It is estimated that at least one million accountants will receive computer training in the 1995/1996 period. Courses will be conducted by the Ministry of Finance, computer companies, and training institutions, said the official. Large foreign trade companies that have close business relationships with foreign countries lead this field, according to sources from the Ministry of Foreign Trade and Economic Cooperation. However, even these foreign trade companies with the "most advanced" computerized accounting still lag about 10 years behind their counterparts in developed countries, said the government official. Although starting later in this field, the Chinese government considers computerized accounting an important task for reform, said the government official. China is conducting three "golden projects" -- Golden Customs, Golden Card, and Golden Bridge -- aimed at computerizing China's trade, financial, and information industries. For computer companies, China's accounting computerization will prove to be a great business opportunity. Many financial software development companies have been established in recent years. Market competition is fierce, however. Even foreign companies, such as System Software Association and Microsoft, are being lured by the vast market potential and have begun developing accounting software suitable for Chinese clients. (Chih-Ho Yu & Ning Huang/19951212) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 12/12/95 BUSINESS Network Firm Sets Asia Hub In Philippines (NEWS)(BUSINESS)(HKG)(00012) Network Firm Sets Asia Hub In Philippines 12/12/95 MANILA, PHILIPPINES, 1995 DEC 12 (NB) -- WorldTel Canada President Barclay Hambrook was in the country recently to launch WorldTel Philippines Inc., a joint venture between WorldTel and the Prudentialife Group of Companies. By next year, the Philippines is set to be the WorldTel Internet hub in Asia, linking Brunei, Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, and Thailand, Hambrook told Newsbytes. The Philippines will be the center of network management, training, and services in the region. WorldTel Philippines, the first Internet business provider in the country, hopes to dominate 78% of the Internet business market. It also aims to change the way business is done locally through the net. "We want to establish a market presence here and in Asia-Pacific since nobody is doing this business but us," Hambrook said. WorldTel utilizes the vast resources of the Internet to build global networking, marketing, advertising, entertainment, electronic publishing of corporate products and services, as well as providing technical support, said the company. With the world trade market expected to grow at a 50% rate in the next two to three years, corporate businesses will need another medium to effectively promote their products and services. WorldTel regards the net as a perfect into-the-future avenue for advertisers and netsurfers to utilize, both to buy and sell. Hambrook added that the net is also an opportunity for business ventures and consultancy. WorldTel offers its customers the chance to have their products and services seen in all WorldTel sites worldwide. The annual rate for the WorldTel Web page, which varies according to text and graphics used, ranges from $385 (1 page) to $962 (3 pages) to $1,538 (5 pages). While basic mail costs $19 per month, Direct Access A for individuals costs $31 per month and $2 for every extra hour. The Direct Access B groups package amounts to $56 per month with $2 for every extra hour. For companies with multiple local area networks (LANs) using server link, it will amount to $1,538 per month with unlimited net access. Asked about the growing competition among Internet service providers in the country, Jose Alberto Alba, president of WorldTel Philippines, said that there is enough space for everybody in the local market. "What we offer is a global network for companies, and not just a way to get you onto the net." (Kay Yeban & Metropolitan Computer Times/19951212) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 12/12/95 GOVT China - Govt Sees CAD For Industries (NEWS)(GOVT)(PEK)(00013) China - Govt Sees CAD For Industries 12/12/95 BEIJING, CHINA, 1995 DEC 12 (NB) -- The Ministry of Electronics Industry (MEI) will help other industries in their computer utilization during the Ninth 5-Year Plan period (1996-2000). Not only that, but computer-aided design (CAD) will be a priority, said Yang Tianxing, director of MEI's department of computer and information technology popularization. The director was speaking at a press conference for the Third National Electronic Information Application Exhibition, which was held recently in Beijing. He said that the MEI will be boosting computer utilization for other industries in the Ninth 5-Year Plan period. The exhibition, jointly organized by the MEI, the Ministry of Finance, and the Industrial Bank of China, was designed to review the achievements in information technology applications during the Eighth Five-Year Plan (1991-1995) period, and to prepare plans for the next five years. In the Eighth Five-Year Plan period, RMB10 billion (US$1.2 billion) was invested for the implementation of electronic information technology, and the direct economic benefit amounted to RMB15 billion (US$1.78 billion), according to the government. The development of CAD systems will be a priority, said the official. He pointed out that 80 percent of design institutes are using CAD systems, and expects that during the next five years, 70 percent of large- and medium-sized enterprises and major research institutes will adopt CAD systems. The ministry will also work to promote computer-assisted management systems in large- and medium-sized enterprises and will help 14,000 large enterprises to conduct a computer-controlled process by 2000, he said. Computer control of power conservation will be introduced to all the relevant industries, especially the metallurgical industry, to achieve the annual goal set by the ministry of saving 100 billion kilowatt-hours, according to Yang. (Chih-Ho Yu & Ning Huang/19951212) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 12/12/95 ONLINE Australian Developers Seek Electronic Commerce (NEWS)(ONLINE)(SYD)(00014) Australian Developers Seek Electronic Commerce 12/12/95 SYDNEY, AUSTRALIA, 1995 DEC 12 (NB) -- Electronic commerce is shaping up as the key cyber battleground of 1996, with two teams of giants -- Netscape/MasterCard/IBM and Microsoft/Visa - vying for the secure online transaction standards lead. However, they are not the only players, and there is an outside chance that locally developed protocols will win the day with Australian banks. The word from Sally O'Neill, chief manager of the legal arm of the Commonwealth Bank's online services group, is that fully fledged electronic banking is further away than most people think. "At best, you're probably looking at the second half of next year," she said. Part of the delay, she said, is due to the absence of a united standards push from the Australian financial services industry. Companies such as Australia's Techway are lining up to sell their secure online transaction protocols, but the banks are not ready to buy. "We've got about six or seven different proposals. We've been trying to document all the scenarios," said O'Neill. An industry body which could organize banks and financial institutions into a cooperative approach to electronic commerce would be helpful, said O'Neill. "We haven't got a vehicle, and to be honest, no-one wants to disclose their hand." If the banks agree in time, O'Neill does not write off the possibility of a company outside the Visa and MasterCard camps walking off with the bulk of banks' electronic business. "If we could get an Australian standard, we'd be covering 98-99 percent of transactions," she said, adding that Australian banks have the opportunity to lead the world in the adoption and development of electronic commerce. Techway has been trialing its secure online transaction technology in several banks over recent months. David Ballantyne, Techway's managing director, said that he expects to announce a "real live customer" shortly. (Dorothy Kennedy and Computer Daily News/19951212) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 12/12/95 TRENDS ****Semiconductor Book-To-Bill Ratio Drops (NEWS)(TRENDS)(LAX)(00015) ****Semiconductor Book-To-Bill Ratio Drops 12/12/95 SAN JOSE, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1995 DEC 12 (NB) -- According to Price Waterhouse's World Semiconductor Trade Statistics (WSTS), the 1.14 seasonally adjusted book-to-bill ratio showed a drop in November. This months ratio is the lowest since February, 1995, with the all-time high of 1.23 set in July, 1995. The book-to-bill ratio indicates that for every $100 worth of products shipped (billed), manufacturers received $111 of new orders (bookings). The ratio is computed by a three-month moving average, and seasonally adjusted. A ratio over 1.00 indicates that orders are higher than products that have been shipped, and is considered bullish for the semiconductor industry. The semiconductor industry has recorded book-to-bill ratios exceeding 1.10 every month this year. The last time the ratio dipped below 1.10 was the 1.07 mark for December, 1994. Chris Jones, the editor of "The IN-Stat Electronics Report", told Newsbytes, "The WSTS book-to-bill ratio is the semiconductor industry bellwether stat. A positive trend in the book-to-bill ratio can drive a lot of investment into the industry. We think, however, that sometimes too much attention is paid to this one statistic. A book-to-bill ratio of 1.14 is extremely healthy on its own, and there is some evidence that when the ratio gets higher the market is overheated. "After saying all this though, we will be publishing in our upcoming newsletter our predictions for 1996, and we see a slow down in growth for the semiconductor industry. Not a decline, but a slowdown from the pace of 1995. We think our projection on worldwide growth at 24.9 percent is one of the lowest growth numbers predicted. A large part of our pessimism is based on the erratic economic outlook for 1996, and these book to bill numbers help confirm our outlook," said Jones. According to the World Semiconductor Trade Statistics, seasonally adjusted billings in the North America market increased Billings increased 42.7 percent from $3.09 billion in November, 1994, to the $4.41 billion in November, 1995. This represents a 2.2 percent increase from the $4.32 billion posted in October. November bookings improved 53.9 percent from the November, 1994, mark of $3.27 billion to $5.03 billion. The November bookings represents a 1.5 percent dip from last month's all-time record of $5.11 billion. WSTS projects that the $33.5 billion North American market will grow 40.2 percent to $47.1 billion by the end of this year. WSTS also predicted that the $101.8 billion global semiconductor market will increase 43.7 percent to $146.4 billion in 1995. The previous twelve months ratio has tracked: November, 1994 - 1.05; December, 1994 - 1.07; January, 1995 - 1.12; February, 1995 - 1.11; March, 1995 - 1.15; April, 1995 - 1.17; May, 1995 - 1.20; June, 1995 - 1.18; July, 1995 - 1.23; August, 1995 - 1.17; September, 1995 - 1.15; October, 1995 - 1.18; November, 1995 - 1.14 (preliminary). In-Stat is a market research firm founded in 1981, and is headquartered in Scottsdale, Arizona. In-Stat provides research on the semiconductor and communication industries, with a monthly newsletter, "The IN-Stat Electronics Report." (Richard Bowers/19950811/Press Contact: Kevin Brett, SIA, 408-246-2711) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 12/12/95 ONLINE DEC "Content Authoring System" For Web, Set-Top, PCs (NEWS)(ONLINE)(BOS)(00016) DEC "Content Authoring System" For Web, Set-Top, PCs 12/12/95 SHREWSBURY, MASSACHUSETTS, U.S.A., 1995 DEC 12 (NB) -- Digital Equipment Corp.'s new Mediaplex Application Development System is designed to help spur development of "interactive content" by letting authors publish for the Web, PCs, and set-top boxes, in either Unix, Windows NT, or Windows, on a single turnkey system that includes bundled tools from Macromedia, said Digital's Ira Smotroff, in an interview with Newsbytes. "We're providing `one-stop shopping' for `one to many' publishing," summed up Smotroff, who is Digital's product manager for application authoring. The Digital exec told Newsbytes that the new content production system, which is due to ship in the first quarter, combines an Alpha workstation capable of "dual booting" for Digital Unix and Windows NT with an Intel Pentium-based PC and authoring software that includes: Macromedia Director; Macromedia's Shockwave for Director, for publishing to the Web; the Macromedia Extreme 3D modeling, rendering and animal tool; Macromedia xRes, for high resolution image editing and compositing; and Sonic Foundry's Sound Forge digital sound editor. Digital Unix is the operating environment used for video-on- demand (VOD), pay-per-view, and digital ad insertion systems driven by Alpha-based Mediaplex servers for cable TV and multimedia broadband environments, according to Smotroff. "But you also have the option of running Windows NT, which is quickly becoming another authoring environment of choice," he said. Content created with the new turnkey system can be played back on Windows-based PCs, the Web, and set-top boxes from Apple and Online Media, as well as from a range of vendors conforming to Microware's DAVID specification, Newsbytes was told. "You can also test applications for all these environments simultaneously on the (Mediaplex Application Development) system," Smotroff asserted. Meanwhile, he added, playback of the Macromedia files on the Web will be enabled through Shockwave, together with Macromedia's IML browser, a product that will be embedded in the Netscape Web browser as a result of a recent deal between Macromedia and Netscape. A testing environment for the Web will be available for the new turnkey authoring system as a separate option, as will a Digital software development kit (SDK) for creating applications that are "fully integrated with the streaming capabilities" of Digital's Mediaplex video server. Initially in the interactive multimedia and Web markets, much of the content is being "repurposed" from platforms such as NTSC (North American Television Standards Committee) video as well as from CD-ROM and other digital environments, Smotroff observed. The Macromedia tools bundled with Digital's new turnkey system are able to use Macromedia files authored on either Macintoshes or SGI (Silicon Graphics Inc.) workstations, according to the product manager. The upcoming Mediaplex Application Development system will come with: a 17-inch monitor; keyboard; internal modem; 166 megahertz (MHz) Alpha processor; 64 megabytes (MB) of random access memory; 4.7 gigabytes (GB) of hard disk space; an 8GB DAT (digital audio tape) drive; and Ethernet network connectivity, housed within a deskside cabinet. RAID (redundant array of inexpensive disks) support will be optionally available. The authoring PC will also include: a 17-inch monitor and keyboard, together with a quad-speed CD-ROM drive; MPEG (Motion Picture Experts Group) video card; 16-bit audio card and speakers; 100MHz Pentium processor with a 256 kilobyte (KB) burst cache; 16MB of RAM; 1GB of hard disk space, and Ethernet connectivity. (Jacqueline Emigh/19951212/Reader Contact: Digital Equipment Corp., 508-493-5111; Press Contact: The Weber Group for Digital, 617-661-7900) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 12/12/95 ONLINE ****Security Risks Rising On Web, But So Is "Awareness" (NEWS)(ONLINE)(BOS)(00017) ****Security Risks Rising On Web, But So Is "Awareness" 12/12/95 NEW YORK, NEW YORK, U.S.A., 1995 DEC 12 (NB) -- "Secure servers" will help to improve security on the Web, and so will more firewalls, but it is absolutely essential for the organization to centrally develop a set of "security guidelines," maintained Daniel E. White, in an interview with Newsbytes about a new Ernst & Young/InformationWeek survey that found both "security-related financial losses" and computer viruses to be problematic for most companies. With more Web servers and end-users being added to the Internet on a weekly basis, security risks are on the rise, said White. But the outlook on the security front is not entirely gloomy, either. the Ernst & Young partner told Newsbytes. "Awareness is increasing, too," he contended. Over 50 percent of the 1,300 CIOs (chief information officers) and other "senior information specialists" responding to the Third Annual Ernst & Young/InformationWeek Information Security Survey said their companies had suffered security-related financial losses over the past year. For each of 20 corporations, these losses amounted to over $1 million. Another two-thirds of the information specialists acknowledged running across a computer virus within the past 12 months, according to White. But meanwhile, in the awareness arena, 40 percent of the respondents said they are dissatisfied with Internet security, and 87 percent asserted that they would employ the Internet more for business if security were better. White informed Newsbytes that a major security problem associated with the growth of the Web is that increasing numbers of remote sites are going unmanaged by individuals who have the requisite training and skill sets. "The folks at these remote locations might be specialists in sales or insurance. But all too often, they are not specialists in Internet security," he noted. It is largely for this reason that the organization should centrally develop clear guidelines that spell out security policies, said the Ernst & Young exec. These guidelines should then be consistently enforced across branch offices, manufacturing facilities, warehouses, and other remote sites, he advised. White further recommended that these security guidelines should be accompanied by tools for centralized network monitoring, configuration, and software distribution. And for the many organizations now planning to initiate the process of business re-engineering, centralized security controls may as well be built in right from the start, he suggested. Although the "thrust" of these and other changes in the corporate computing infrastructure will be toward client-server architectures, the future will see more mainframes, as well, predicted White. "There will be increased computing of all kinds," he observed. One hopeful sign now appearing in the direction of centralized security is that more and more security specialists are reporting directly to CIOs, Newsbytes was told. Three-year results from the Ernst & Young/InformationWeek study show the number of security chiefs in this category to have risen from 27 percent in 1993 to 47 percent in 1995. (Jacqueline Emigh/19951212/Reader Contact: Ernst & Young, 212-773-3000; Press Contact: John Lenard, Edelman Public Relations for Ernst & Young, 212-768-0550) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 12/12/95 TELECOM Telecom Italia To Handle PictureTel In Italy (NEWS)(TELECOM)(LON)(00018) Telecom Italia To Handle PictureTel In Italy 12/12/95 MILAN, ITALY, 1995 DEC 12 (NB) -- Videoconferencing company PictureTel has contracted with Telecom Italia, along with Aethra, Italy's videoconferencing specialist, to market and support sales of PictureTel's Live PCS50 videoconferencing system in Italy. As part of the agreement, Aethra will act as the distribution arm between PictureTel and Telecom Italia, and will offer installation and maintenance for the PictureTel systems. According to Carla Raffo, PictureTel's director of marketing, Telecom Italia aims to add its market knowledge and a 1,000-strong sales team in Italy. "All the elements are now in place for a rapid expansion of the videoconferencing market in Italy. ISDN (integrated services digital network) lines are now widely available, and the technology is available," Raffo explained. According to Raffo, the deal will bring the possibility of equipping every Italian desktop with videoconferencing one step closer. Live PCS50 is a plug-in videoconferencing kit for PCs. The kit includes a video camera, loudspeaking telephone or headset, PC plug-in hardware, and software. According to PictureTel, the kit can be installed on any desktop PC with an 80386 processor or better, running Microsoft Windows 3.1. The kit also includes PictureTel's LiveShare software, which allows users to share applications and data on their PCs during video calls, as well as providing whiteboard and file transfer facilities. (Sylvia Dennis/19951212/Press Contact: Veronique Froment, RSA, tel +44-1628-487222, fax +44-628-487223, Internet e-mail rstanton@cix.compulink.co.uk; Reader Contact: Dott Paolo Di Prima, Telecom Italia, tel +39-3688-3209, fax +39-3688-3163) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 12/12/95 TRENDS Sweden's Telia Intros "Green" Itemized Phone Bill (NEWS)(TRENDS)(LON)(00019) Sweden's Telia Intros "Green" Itemized Phone Bill 12/12/95 STOCKHOLM, SWEDEN, 1995 DEC 12 (NB) -- According to Telia, the Swedish telco, conventional itemized phone bills are a waste of both time and natural resources. As a result, Telia has unveiled TICS (Telia International Customer Software) for its low-cost international alternative telecoms carrier (ATC) customers that it claims offers a "real alternative" to the reams of paper that conventional ATC services offer. According to Paul Morgan, Telia's head of marketing, instead of users being deluged with a mountain of paper to back up their bills, they simply load up their billing software and slot in a disk with the appropriate data. The software allows the call data to be viewed and manipulated at will, and also exports data to third party applications. To get the point across that TICS is a lot better than printed itemized bills, Telia is offering the computerized itemized billing free of charge. Customers can still elect to have paper bills for a surcharge, and 20 percent of the surcharge goes to the Tree Council, a charity that replants and protects trees. "Paper-based bills do not deliver the call information in a useable format, so people do not even bother to look at them. Your phone bill reflects your business and contains some vitality which can help improve your performance -- if only you could analyze it effectively and quickly," Morgan explained. "PC-based itemized billing makes this possible. You can manipulate the data to produce meaningful reports or import it into spreadsheet programs like Excel and Lotus 1-2-3, and present it in your own chosen format," he said. According to Telia, since its ATC service offers call savings approaching 30 percent when compared to British Telecom rates, plus free computerized itemized billing, most business phone users would be better off using Telia's international call services. Interestingly, Telia claims that its research shows that around 10 percent of calls have a duration of less than the BT minimum charge. The Telia ATC service -- known as Tele-Focus -- uses "true" per-second billing, with part seconds rounded down to the nearest second, plus a simple tariffing system that the Swedish telco claims makes it easy for subscribers to work out what they are saving. (Sylvia Dennis/19951212/Press Contact: Frank Smith, The Edge Partnership, tel +44-1625-511966, fax +44-1625-511967, Internet e-mail fsmithj@cix.compulink.co.uk; Telia International, tel +44-171-416-0306, fax +44-171-416-0307) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 12/12/95 TELECOM Nortel Selects Smallworld GIS For Network Planning (NEWS)(TELECOM)(LON)(00020) Nortel Selects Smallworld GIS For Network Planning 12/12/95 PARIS, FRANCE, 1995 DEC 12 (NB) -- Nortel has acquired a Smallworld GIS (geographic information system) license for the design of its global system for mobile communications/personal communications network (GSM/PCN) cellular networks. The contract was signed with the Sema Group, Smallworld's distributor in France. According to Francois Vincent, Nortel GSM Wireless Networks' engineering tools manager, Smallworld's GIS is a "powerful advanced product" designed to reduce the implementation costs of data conversion and customization, and to provide "seamless integration" with other corporate systems and software. The software runs on Unix platforms and under Windows NT. Plans call for Nortel to use Smallworld GIS in various engineering stages of cellular network development, from radio design to configuration management. According to Vincent, cellular network planning tools require an environment that combines a geographic information system with a database. "Calculations for radio propagation simulations require very accurate cartographic information, while cellular networks have a great number of configuration parameters -- both of these factors imply large volumes of data," he said. "Our choice was based on the performance of Smallworld GIS's geographic features, combined with its powerful, integrated software workshop. Moreover, the flexibility provided by the product's programming language enables us to anticipate rapid changes in our industry, and to utilize a tool that is customizable to our customer's needs," he added. Nortel plans to use the Smallworld GIS software for planning of GSM and PCN networks which it is contracted to commission and hand over. The announcement of its acceptance of Smallworld GIS is a significant move for Smallworld, which is based in Cambridge, England, and claims to have one of the world's fastest growing number of installed bases. (Sylvia Dennis/19951212/Press & Reader Contact: Beatrice Bichon, Nortel GSM Wireless Network, +33-1-3452-6028; Smallworld Systems, +44-1223-460199) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 12/12/95 TRENDS Intel - Home PC Tops Christmas List (NEWS)(TRENDS)(LON)(00021) Intel - Home PC Tops Christmas List 12/12/95 SWINDON, ENGLAND, 1995 DEC 12 (NB) -- Intel's just-commissioned report from the Gallup organization claims to show that 43 percent of UK consumers would choose a multimedia PC for Christmas over other popular and identically priced gifts, including: a color TV (19 percent); hi-fi stereo system (24 percent); and a 35 millimeter camera kit (seven percent). The PC was the most popular choice, Intel claims, regardless of age, sex, geographic location, or social status. The survey is also billed as revealing that UK consumers view the home PC as having an extremely positive influence on the individual and family, benefiting education (74 percent), job or career (62 percent), and entertainment (64 percent). Interestingly, while terms such as "the information superhighway" and "Internet" are new terms in society, 39 percent of consumers believe it is important to be connected. However, only 33 percent of consumers believe that PC usage is more enriching than watching TV. Perhaps even more interestingly, the report claims that age, sex, geographic location, and social status influence the desirability of the multimedia PC, as well as attitudes towards PCs in the home and the information superhighway or Internet. According to the report, consumers aged 25 to 34 and 35 to 44, typified by people with families, showed the strongest interest in the PC as a gift (51 and 46 percent, respectively). Consumers aged 45 to 54 expressed the lowest interest (31 percent) and were less likely than other age groups to view the home PC as beneficial towards their education, job or career, and entertainment. While women and men believe equally that the home PC benefits education (74 percent), and job or career (62 percent), the report noted that women were more likely to cite education as the primary reason for wanting a home PC (41 percent vs 28 percent), while men were more likely to cite entertainment as the primary reason (15 versus seven percent). London residents were most likely to choose the multimedia home PC over other gifts (50 percent), while most interest was more moderate in the North and Scotland (39 percent), and the Northwest (37 percent). According to the report, the Midlands and Wales (45 percent) were representative of the overall UK population. Interestingly, Scottish consumers were seen as more likely than any other regional group to view connecting to the information superhighway or Internet as important. According to Steve Poole, vice president of Intel Europe, the high- performance home PC is an "electronic chameleon" that allows users to play music CDs, watch TV, run great multimedia software, or connect to the Internet. "The Intel/Gallup survey results underscore our belief that this will be the strongest-ever Christmas selling season for Pentium processor- based PCs," he said. The face-to-face survey was commissioned by Intel and conducted by Gallup between November 15 and 21, 1995. To compile the report, Gallup surveyed 1,393 adults aged 16 to 54. The statistical margin for error was plus or minus 3.5 percent, according to the company. (Steve Gold/19951212/Press Contact: Mike Sullivan, Intel, +44-1793- 403000; Reader Contact: Intel, tel +44-1793-403000, fax +44-1792-430763) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 12/12/95 TELECOM UK - Vodafone's PIN Authentication On Analog Network (NEWS)(TELECOM)(LON)(00022) UK - Vodafone's PIN Authentication On Analog Network 12/12/95 NEWBURY, BERKSHIRE, ENGLAND, 1995 DEC 12 (NB) -- Confirming plans laid down earlier this year, Vodafone has turned its PIN (personal identification number) authentication system on its analog cellular network. Unlike US PIN systems, which only work when a mobile is roaming and requires the roamer to enter the PIN after each dialing string and before the "send" key is pressed, the Vodafone system applies to all calls, provided the mobile supports the PIN system. The PIN on the Vodafone system is a 16-digit one, entered by the subscriber on request from Vodafone, usually when the phone is turned on for the first time. The PIN is then used as a pass-key to scramble the electronic serial number (ESN) of the phone as it broadcasts across the airwaves. Each time the phone is either turned on or an outgoing call to a new number is made, the "broadcast ESN" is changed. Using this approach ensures that anyone plucking the ESN and its associated mobile identification number (MIN) from the airwaves only has a small "window of opportunity" to make an unauthorized call using the data, before it is scrambled again. Announcing the implementation of the Vodafone authentication system, Chris Gent, Vodafone's managing director, said that, as mobile phone crime becomes increasingly sophisticate, so have the measures to stop it. "The introduction of authentication is one of the most significant steps we have taken in the fight against crime. Most of our current and allow of our news subscribers can be protected from cloning by authentication," he claimed. "Our other anti-fraud measures have been designed to limit the effect of fraud and identify it quickly. The strength of authentication is that it prevents the fraud happening in the first place," he said. According to Vodafone, phones manufactured after May, 1993, for connection to analog networks should support the authentication system, Around a million of Vodafone's 2.5 million subscribers have phones suitable for use with authentication, the company claims. (Steve Gold/19951212/Press & Reader Contact: Vodafone, tel +44-1635-33251, fax +44-1635-45713) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 12/12/95 ONLINE ****HP Teams With Netscape & Microsoft On Internet Printing (NEWS)(ONLINE)(LAX)(00023) ****HP Teams With Netscape & Microsoft On Internet Printing 12/12/95 PALO ALTO, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1995 DEC 12 (NB) -- Hewlett-Packard Company (HP) has announced separate agreements with Netscape Communications Corp., and Microsoft Corp., to enhance printing from the Internet. The partnerships will develop "open, non-proprietary" printing standards for the hypertext markup language (HTML), the formatting language used by content providers to develop World Wide Web sites. The new HTML printing extensions will allow users to print information in the same format in which it was originally designed. While it is easy to display formatted documents on a computer screen, it is not always possible to print items retrieved from the Internet as they were originally designed. Jim Lyons, product manager for printing devices at Hewlett-Packard, told Newsbytes, "Hewlett-Packard supports what we call a distribute- and-print model. In a distribute-and-print model, users receive information electronically and print only the portions they need. Printing from the Internet is part of a broader HP strategy to support this trend. Distribute-and-print is different from traditional print- and-distribute information model in which a user creates and prints a document, photocopies it and then manually distributes it via interoffice mail, the postal service, or overnight delivery services." Hewlett-Packard sees the Internet as the ultimate extension of the distribute-and-print model. With users, both commercial and residential, being able to print what they need from the Internet with all the high quality graphics and color they want. "It is our goal to give users the ability to print from the Internet any information or portion of a document they choose, in its original, context-rich format," said Carolyn M. Ticknor, Hewlett-Packard vice president and general manager of the LaserJet Solutions Group. "The role of paper in communications is changing as the popularity of the Internet and e-mail grows. More information will be printed on the desktop, offering users greater convenience and control over the information they receive." Currently, users who select a Web page or document for printing cannot print only a desired portion of it, but must print the entire document. Extensions to the HTML language will enable users to print only the portions of a document or Web page that they need. In addition, Lyons points out that the new products will bring speed to Internet printing, "Through performance improvements to HP printer engines and new HTML enhancements, users will be able to print text, graphics and photographs faster than they can today." Today, information on the Internet is designed for low-resolution (72-120 dots-per-inch) display devices. When rendered on high-resolution (300-600 dots-per-inch) printing devices, Internet documents often suffer line breaks, page breaks, and other formatting problems. "There will be a day when in every home full color printing can be taken right off the Internet. It will be done with speed and at low cost. That day may be a decade off, but it will come and we want Hewlett-Packard to be there," said Lyons. (Richard Bowers/19951212/Press Contact: John Curtis, Hewlett- Packard, 208-396-6350) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 12/12/95 LEGAL ****Internet Day Of Protest Is Today (NEWS)(LEGAL)(MSP)(00024) ****Internet Day Of Protest Is Today 12/12/95 WASHINGTON, D.C., U.S.A., 1995 DEC 12 (NB) -- To protest what they view as the "censoring" of the Internet, several organizations have organized an "Internet Day of Protest" for today. The move is in response to language in a proposed telecommunications bill that would change the telecom business in the US. The organizations, which are generally against censorship, are objecting to a deal struck by the House Conference Committee on Telecommunications reform to prosecute individuals transmitting "indecent" or pornographic material over networks like the Internet, on commercial online services like America Online and Prodigy, and via smaller Internet Service Providers (ISPs). Those individuals could face jail terms and fines of up to $100,000. The groups involved in the day of protest include the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), the Center for Democracy and Technology, the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), the Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC), Wired Magazine, and Voters Telecommunications Watch (VTW). Specifically, the groups are asking "netizens" (Internet citizens) to contact the offices of key Senators and House Representatives to go on the record with their protest of the bill. In today's wired world, that contact could be made by either phone, fax, or e-mail. Some of the names on the list include Senators Robert Dole (R-KS), J.J. Exon (D-NE), Ernest Hollings (D-SC), and John McCain (R-AZ); along with Representatives John Conyers (R-MI) and Patricia Schroeder (D-CO). House Speaker Newt Gingrich (R-GA) was also on the list. The groups are asking voters to tell legislators that any bill designed to protect children from objectionable material on the Internet will actually destroy it as a medium for education, commerce, and political discourse. Judging from Newsbytes' experience this morning, the "spread the word" campaign might have had some sort of impact. When we tried to call the offices of several of those key legislators, we were greeted with a chorus of busy signals. We did reach a representative from Sen. Dole's office, but she was not able to get back to us on any call volumes by the Newsbytes daily deadline. And an e-mail to House Speaker Gingrich's office went unanswered. A different kind of protest that was scheduled for yesterday has been moved to Thursday. The "Rally Against Censorship from Ground Zero of The Digital Revolution" was postponed in San Francisco due to bad weather. The rally will now be held Thursday from 12:00 Noon to 1:00 pm PST at San Francisco's South Park. Expected to be in attendance are Bay area media members, along with people from the online, Internet, New Media, and telecommunications communities, officials said. (Bob Woods/19951212/Press Contact: Electronic Privacy Information Center, 202-544-9240) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 12/12/95 BUSINESS Fulcrum To Acquire TRIP Systems (NEWS)(BUSINESS)(TOR)(00025) Fulcrum To Acquire TRIP Systems 12/12/95 OTTAWA, ONTARIO, CANADA, 1995 DEC 12 (NB) -- Fulcrum Technologies Inc. (TSE:FUL; NASDAQ:FULCF) has announced plans to acquire TRIP Systems International Inc., of Brookfield, Connecticut. Both companies produce text-retrieval software. The deal will give Fulcrum a boost in some international markets, the company's president, Eric Goodwin, told Newsbytes. TRIP has a presence in two major areas -- China and Scandinavia -- where Fulcrum has done no business at all, Goodwin said. It also has strong distribution in Japan and much of Europe, areas where Fulcrum has begun developing a presence. Goodwin said Fulcrum was attracted to TRIP by its employees and its customers. The Connecticut firm has a lot of expertise in developing text-retrieval technology, he said. As a result, Fulcrum expects at least a large number of TRIP employees will be offered jobs at Fulcrum. "We don't see any major work force reductions," Goodwin said. The companies also fit well together because they produce similar products but have different geographic strengths. "In many areas it seems their strongest markets were not our strongest markets," Goodwin said. Fulcrum said it will pay US$4.6 million for privately owned TRIP Systems. Spokeswoman Gillian Brouse of Fulcrum told Newsbytes that TRIP will be integrated with Fulcrum rather than remaining a separate subsidiary, but that some operations are likely to remain in Connecticut and at other TRIP offices. Although it is based in the United States, Brouse noted, TRIP is not particularly strong in the US market. Its business is principally in Europe and the Far East, she said. Fulcrum officials said they expect the senior management of TRIP will remain with the merged company. Fulcrum is on the World Wide Web at http://www.fulcrum.com. (Grant Buckler/19951212/Press Contact: Gillian Brouse, Fulcrum, 613-238-1761, Internet e-mail gillianb@fulcrum.com) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 12/12/95 ONLINE AIM To Launch Data Collection & Identification Online (NEWS)(ONLINE)(TOR)(00026) AIM To Launch Data Collection & Identification Online 12/12/95 PITTSBURGH, PENNSYLVANIA, U.S.A., 1995 DEC 12 (NB) -- AIM USA, a trade association for companies in the automatic data collection and identification industry, has announced the setting up of an online service called Data Collection and Identification Online. The service is part of Industry.Net, an online business marketplace accessible via the Internet's World Wide Web. Autumn Katarincic, a spokeswoman for Industry.Net, told Newsbytes that the site will include a mixture of AIM information -- such as the trade association's membership rules and current notices -- and advertising from AIM member companies. Member companies will be able to set up their own "business centers," or home pages, on the service, Katarincic explained. It will be open to anyone who has the means to reach it, she said. The service will contain information on such things as applications, standards, and technologies including magnetic stripe, bar codes, and radio frequency identification, an industry buying guide, and information about the data collection and identification trade show Scan-Tech. Industry.Net opened in 1993, and currently hosts 10 other industry associations, including such groups as the Materials Handling Institute, the American Supply and Machinery Manufacturers' Association, and the Industrial Distribution Association, and more than 4,000 companies. Officials said that more than 180,000 buyers and specifiers use the service, which is accessible at via the Web http://www.industry.net. Both Industry.Net and AIM USA are located in Pittsburgh. (Grant Buckler/19951212/Press Contact: Autumn Katarincic, Industry.Net, 412-967-1700, Internet e-mail autumn@industry.net) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 12/12/95 APPLE ****Apple In Chinese PowerPC Joint Venture (NEWS)(APPLE)(SFO)(00027) ****Apple In Chinese PowerPC Joint Venture 12/12/95 BEIJING, CHINA, 1995 DEC 12 (NB) -- Apple Computer Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) and South Software Park (Zhuhai) Technology Co. Ltd., have announced the formation of Apple-SSP (Zhuhai) Technology Co. Ltd, designed to develop core technologies for future PowerPC computing products in China. "Establishing a strong research and development base in China is a priority for Apple to accelerate our push into the local market. With SSP, we have a cost-effective software development center that can tap the vast pool of technical engineering resources in China," said Robin Abrams, vice president and managing director of Apple Asia. One of the new company's first tasks will be to localize the Macintosh operating system (OS) and develop software applications in Chinese versions. Apple says the venture will position the company to be a leading factor in China's growing personal computer market. In essence, the agreement calls for Apple to supply technical resources and support, operational equipment and management staff, and a high- speed communication line between Apple's Cupertino, California headquarters and South Software Park's Zhuhai, Guangdong province location. SSP will provide personnel management. Apple says Apple-SSP products will meet international standards and developed for domestic and export sales. The new venture has received the support of China's Ministry of Electronics Industry and the People's Government of Zhuhai. Apple-SSP is a project under a government Five-Year Plan which is designed to build a base in Southern China as a player in the global software market. According to Apple, the capabilities of its PowerMac family of computers was critical in gaining the support of the Chinese government agencies. Yang Tianxing, director general of Computer and Information Technology Advancement under the Ministry of Electronics Industry, said, "The marriage of the PowerPC chip, jointly developed by IBM, Apple and Motorola, and the Mac operating system has created a new standard for the personal computer industry." (Patrick McKenna/1995/Press Contact: Nancy Keith Kelly, Apple, 408-974-2133) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 12/12/95 GOVT ****Clinton Budget Would Boost Digital TV (NEWS)(GOVT)(WAS)(00028) ****Clinton Budget Would Boost Digital TV 12/12/95 WASHINGTON, D.C., U.S.A., 1995 DEC 12 (NB) -- The White House budget plan contains a proposal to speed up the transition from analog to digital television technology, including a subsidy for consumers to buy set-top converters. Under the White House plan, which is designed to raise an additional $13 billion, broadcast would be required to switch to digital by 2002, compared to a 15-year transition in a 1992 plan by the Federal Communications Commission. The FCC is meeting today to look at its digital TV plan, and may make changes in it. Moving broadcasters to a digital signal would render conventional TV sets useless. Consumers would have to either buy a digital television set, at an initial cost of some $10,000 or put a converter on the conventional TV for several hundred dollars. The Clinton plan would create a fund to help people buy the set-top converters. The fund would come from auctioning off the analog channels, raising the estimated $13 billion. The purpose of the shorter transition time is to bring the proceeds from the auction into the Treasury faster, helping the administration reach its goal of a balanced budget in seven years. The broadcast industry is opposed to the shorter transition and does not like the White House plan. "I don't think consumers will screen last because they may have to spend less to buy a converter," said Lynn McReynolds, spokeswoman for the National Association of Broadcasters. "They're still going to have to buy something they wouldn't have because the White House would be speeding up the transition." The FCC is considering changing its 1992 plan because of changes in technology and markets, and under pressure from Congress. Under the plan, broadcasters would be given a new channel to go along with the existing channel. The new channel would be used for the digital signal. But some broadcasters have said they want to use the new channel to broadcast several analog signals instead of the single digital signal. And Congress sees the second license as something that can be sold at auction to raise money for the Treasury. At today's FCC meeting, a group of computer hardware and software companies -- including Apple, Microsoft and Compaq -- are expected to challenge the move to digital signals. They argue that digital television will prevent computers and TVs from converging into a single appliance. The system the FCC is on the verge of approving came from an alliance of TV makers, equipment suppliers, and research labs. This coalition says the computer industry is overstating the problem. (Kennedy Maize/19951212/Press Contact: Lynn McReynolds, 202-429-5300) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 12/12/95 ONLINE More On Microsoft's Digital Signature Initiative (NEWS)(ONLINE)(DEN)(00029) More On Microsoft's Digital Signature Initiative 12/12/95 REDMOND, WASHINGTON, U.S.A., 1995 DEC 12 (NB) -- One portion of Microsoft Corp.'s (NASDAQ: MSFT) Internet strategy announced recently is a digital signature initiative which the company said will provide a "safer environment" for executable code on the Internet. If the Internet is to become a viable conduit over which business can be conducted, security is a prime concern. The initiative announced this week by Microsoft is designed to address concerns about malicious code or viruses. Microsoft said the technology will enable users to verify that a program is free of third-party tampering. One way to assure that integrity is to equip Internet browsers like Microsoft's own Internet Explorer with the ability to automatically download applications from a list of vendors approved by the user. Microsoft said if the author of the application is not on the user's pre-approved list, the browser can display the signature of the executable code so the user can make an informed decision on whether to proceed with the download. Downloaded files are often the source of viruses, code put into apparently innocuous programs to cause damage that can range from the simple display of a message to complete erasing of the files on the PC's hard drive. Microsoft said it will propose the Internet digital signature specifications to the W3 (W cubed) Consortium and the Internet Engineering Task Force as an open Internet standard available to the entire Internet community. The company said it will host a digital signature design preview as part of the Open Process Design Review to be held in January in order to solicit feedback from the Internet community. Ken Wasch, president of the Software Publisher's Association, said the digital signature technology will benefit the organization's members. "Independent software publishers large and small will have greater business opportunities publishing powerful software with this mechanism. Users will buy more signed software over the Internet because it will be more powerful and uses will have confidence in the accountability of its creator," said Wasch. The computer industry is moving toward electronic distribution of software as a replacement for the traditional retail channel, as more consumers connect to the Internet. That's another reason the digital signature concept is important. Bob Atkinson, a digital signature architect, said the technology provides the user "a virtual suit of armor," allowing them to download and run the most powerful and interesting programs without undo fear of anonymous computer vandalism. (Jim Mallory/19951212/Press contact: Kira Sorensen, Microsoft, 206-882-8080; Public contact: Microsoft, 206-882-800) (SUMMARY)(GENERAL)(MSP)(00030) Newsbytes Daily Summary 12/12/95 MINNEAPOLIS, MINNESOTA, U.S.A., 1995 DEC 12 (NB) -- These are capsules of all today's news stories: ======================================================================== ------------| N E W S B Y T E S D A I L Y S U M M A R Y |---------- ------------| Wednesday, December 12, 1995 |---------- ======================================================================== (c) Newsbytes News Network (Tm) Editor in Chief: Wendy Woods ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Newsbytes News Network's on the Web! Check out http://www.nbnn.com for free daily top stories from Newsbytes and its affiliate publications, and from PC Week, MacWeek, and other Ziff news magazines. A subscription gives you all the news, full-text, plus the most comprehensive database of past computer stories online. The keyword-searchable database dates from today back through 1983. Subscriptions are $24.95 for three months. Questions? Send to 'administrator@newsbytes.com' For Japanese Newsbytes and additional services, see the Newsbytes Pacifica Website at http://www.islandtel.com/newsbytes/ ------------------------------------------------------------------------ CATEGORY HEADLINES (*** indicates today's top stories) STORY # ======================================================================== APPLE Macromedia's SoundEdit 16 2.0 For Mac...................... 03 APPLE ****Apple In Chinese PowerPC Joint Venture................ 27 BUSINESS Sweden's Ericsson Looks Ahead To 1996...................... 08 BUSINESS Network Firm Sets Asia Hub In Philippines.................. 12 BUSINESS Fulcrum To Acquire TRIP Systems............................ 25 GENERAL Native American Clip-Art Libraries......................... 01 GENERAL Canada's Orchestra Multisystems' 2 New Monitors............ 06 GENERAL China - Technology Newsbriefs.............................. 10 GOVT China - Govt Sees CAD For Industries....................... 13 GOVT ****Clinton Budget Would Boost Digital TV................. 28 IBM IBM Targets German Consumer PC Market...................... 07 LEGAL Netherlands - Philips Facing $1Billion Law Suit............ 04 LEGAL ****Internet Day Of Protest Is Today...................... 24 ONLINE Internet Update............................................ 02 ONLINE Barclays Opens Santa's Cybergrotto On Internet............. 05 ONLINE Peachtree Intros Electronic Bill Paying Service............ 09 ONLINE Australian Developers Seek Electronic Commerce............. 14 ONLINE DEC "Content Authoring System" For Web, Set-Top, PCs....... 16 ONLINE ****Security Risks Rising On Web, But So Is "Awareness.... 17 ONLINE ****HP Teams With Netscape & Microsoft On Internet Printin 23 ONLINE AIM To Launch Data Collection & Identification Online...... 26 ONLINE More On Microsoft's Digital Signature Initiative........... 29 TELECOM Telecom Italia To Handle PictureTel In Italy............... 18 TELECOM Nortel Selects Smallworld GIS For Network Planning......... 20 TELECOM UK - Vodafone's PIN Authentication On Analog Network....... 22 TRENDS China - Vast Market For Financial Software................. 11 TRENDS ****Semiconductor Book-To-Bill Ratio Drops................ 15 TRENDS Sweden's Telia Intros "Green" Itemized Phone Bill.......... 19 TRENDS Intel - Home PC Tops Christmas List........................ 21 ======================================================================== These are the headlines and first paragraphs of each story, in order: 1 -> Native American Clip-Art Libraries -- The United States Postal Service (USPS) will incorporate some of the borders found in clip-art libraries produced by RT Computer Graphics into a series of stamps to be released next year. The company says it has brought to market two collections that feature Native American clip-art libraries for both Windows and Macintosh users. 2 -> Internet Update -- In this roundup of new services and resources on the global Internet: Free Web pages directory; Unknown Russia; Australian sports industry directory; Art from the Far East; New K-12 resources; All about viruses; What's hot in Thailand; Information super library; Online from Bosnia; Other Balkan pages. 3 -> Macromedia's SoundEdit 16 2.0 For Mac -- Macromedia (NASDAQ:MACR) developers are getting a new version of SoundEdit 16 for integrating high-quality audio into multimedia presentations, CD-ROM titles, and World Wide Web sites. Designed to offer developers an easy-to-use tool for a wide number of formats, the new version allows for the creation of cutting-edge sound in Director, Authorware, and Extreme 3D projects. 4 -> Netherlands - Philips Facing $1Billion Law Suit -- According to a report in Economishe Tijd, the Dutch financial daily paper, Philips Electronics faces a $2.95 billion law suit from Maurits de Prins, the founder and chief executive officer (CEO) of Super Club, the video rental group which is now a division of Philips. 5 -> Barclays Opens Santa's Cybergrotto On Internet -- Barclays Bank's Barclaysquare Web site, located at http://www.itl.net/barclaysquare , has opened up a Cybergrotto" for Santa at its site. The idea, according to Sara Mak, a spokesperson for the bank, is that "trendy kids" can now e-mail their Christmas present lists to Santa at the Cybergrotto, rather than use conventional "snail mail." 6 -> Canada's Orchestra Multisystems' 2 New Monitors -- Orchestra Multisystems Inc., a Canadian manufacturer of color monitors, has released two high-performance, yet "budget," monitors, into the European marketplace. According to the company, the monitors were unveiled to the North American marketplace at last month's Comdex Fall computer show in Las Vegas. 7 -> IBM Targets German Consumer PC Market -- IBM Deutschland has announced plans for a major push into the German consumer PC market during 1996. According to Edmund Hug, the company's German chairman, while Big Blue has been pitching hard into the business PC market, it has had only a few machines to offer consumers. 8 -> Sweden's Ericsson Looks Ahead To 1996 -- Ericsson, the Swedish telecom and electronics giant, has announced that the focus of its 1996 strategy will be to build on its successes in the broadband communications network. 9 -> Peachtree Intros Electronic Bill Paying Service -- Peachtree Software Inc., a subsidiary of Automatic Data Processing Inc. (NYSE: ADP) has announced it will introduce an electronic bill payment system for users of many popular commercial accounting software packages, beginning in the first quarter of 1996. 10 -> China - Technology Newsbriefs -- In this news roundup from China: 4,000 hours of Chinese TV programs sold abroad in past two years; IBM contributes hardware and software to Xiamen University; more cities to change phone numbers from 7 to 8 digits; and Zhejiang to provide business information through the Internet. 11 -> China - Vast Market For Financial Software -- The Chinese market for accounting software is potentially huge, because 40 to 60 percent of the country's medium- and large-sized enterprises plan to conduct computerized accounting by the year 2000, said an official with the Ministry of Finance. 12 -> Network Firm Sets Asia Hub In Philippines -- WorldTel Canada President Barclay Hambrook was in the country recently to launch WorldTel Philippines Inc., a joint venture between WorldTel and the Prudentialife Group of Companies. 13 -> China - Govt Sees CAD For Industries -- The Ministry of Electronics Industry (MEI) will help other industries in their computer utilization during the Ninth 5-Year Plan period (1996-2000). Not only that, but computer-aided design (CAD) will be a priority, said Yang Tianxing, director of MEI's department of computer and information technology popularization. 14 -> Australian Developers Seek Electronic Commerce -- Electronic commerce is shaping up as the key cyber battleground of 1996, with two teams of giants 15 -> ****Semiconductor Book-To-Bill Ratio Drops -- According to Price Waterhouse's World Semiconductor Trade Statistics (WSTS), the 1.14 seasonally adjusted book-to-bill ratio showed a drop in November. This months ratio is the lowest since February, 1995, with the all-time high of 1.23 set in July, 1995. 16 -> DEC "Content Authoring System" For Web, Set-Top, PCs -- Digital Equipment Corp.'s new Mediaplex Application Development System is designed to help spur development of "interactive content" by letting authors publish for the Web, PCs, and set-top boxes, in either Unix, Windows NT, or Windows, on a single turnkey system that includes bundled tools from Macromedia, said Digital's Ira Smotroff, in an interview with Newsbytes. 17 -> ****Security Risks Rising On Web, But So Is "Awareness -- "Secure servers" will help to improve security on the Web, and so will more firewalls, but it is absolutely essential for the organization to centrally develop a set of "security guidelines," maintained Daniel E. White, in an interview with Newsbytes about a new Ernst & Young/InformationWeek survey that found both "security-related financial losses" and computer viruses to be problematic for most companies. 18 -> Telecom Italia To Handle PictureTel In Italy -- Videoconferencing company PictureTel has contracted with Telecom Italia, along with Aethra, Italy's videoconferencing specialist, to market and support sales of PictureTel's Live PCS50 videoconferencing system in Italy. 19 -> Sweden's Telia Intros "Green" Itemized Phone Bill -- According to Telia, the Swedish telco, conventional itemized phone bills are a waste of both time and natural resources. As a result, Telia has unveiled TICS (Telia International Customer Software) for its low-cost international alternative telecoms carrier (ATC) customers that it claims offers a "real alternative" to the reams of paper that conventional ATC services offer. 20 -> Nortel Selects Smallworld GIS For Network Planning -- Nortel has acquired a Smallworld GIS (geographic information system) license for the design of its global system for mobile communications/personal communications network (GSM/PCN) cellular networks. The contract was signed with the Sema Group, Smallworld's distributor in France. 21 -> Intel - Home PC Tops Christmas List -- Intel's just-commissioned report from the Gallup organization claims to show that 43 percent of UK consumers would choose a multimedia PC for Christmas over other popular and identically priced gifts, including: a color TV (19 percent); hi-fi stereo system (24 percent); and a 35 millimeter camera kit (seven percent). The PC was the most popular choice, Intel claims, regardless of age, sex, geographic location, or social status. 22 -> UK - Vodafone's PIN Authentication On Analog Network -- Confirming plans laid down earlier this year, Vodafone has turned its PIN (personal identification number) authentication system on its analog cellular network. 23 -> ****HP Teams With Netscape & Microsoft On Internet Printing -- Hewlett-Packard Company (HP) has announced separate agreements with Netscape Communications Corp., and Microsoft Corp., to enhance printing from the Internet. The partnerships will develop "open, non-proprietary" printing standards for the hypertext markup language (HTML), the formatting language used by content providers to develop World Wide Web sites. 24 -> ****Internet Day Of Protest Is Today -- To protest what they view as the "censoring" of the Internet, several organizations have organized an "Internet Day of Protest" for today. The move is in response to language in a proposed telecommunications bill that would change the telecom business in the US. 25 -> Fulcrum To Acquire TRIP Systems -- Fulcrum Technologies Inc. (TSE:FUL; NASDAQ:FULCF) has announced plans to acquire TRIP Systems International Inc., of Brookfield, Connecticut. Both companies produce text-retrieval software. 26 -> AIM To Launch Data Collection & Identification Online -- AIM USA, a trade association for companies in the automatic data collection and identification industry, has announced the setting up of an online service called Data Collection and Identification Online. The service is part of Industry.Net, an online business marketplace accessible via the Internet's World Wide Web. 27 -> ****Apple In Chinese PowerPC Joint Venture -- Apple Computer Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) and South Software Park (Zhuhai) Technology Co. Ltd., have announced the formation of Apple-SSP (Zhuhai) Technology Co. Ltd, designed to develop core technologies for future PowerPC computing products in China. 28 -> ****Clinton Budget Would Boost Digital TV -- The White House budget plan contains a proposal to speed up the transition from analog to digital television technology, including a subsidy for consumers to buy set-top converters. 29 -> More On Microsoft's Digital Signature Initiative -- One portion of Microsoft Corp.'s (NASDAQ: MSFT) Internet strategy announced recently is a digital signature initiative which the company said will provide a "safer environment" for executable code on the Internet. (Ian Stokell/19951212) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 12/08/95 GENERAL Japan Newsbriefs (NEWS)(GENERAL)(TYO)(00001) Japan Newsbriefs 12/08/95 TOKYO, JAPAN, 1995 DEC 8 (NB) -- In this roundup of news from Japan, Ex NTT executive found guilty of bribery, portable telephone subscribeRs up in September, electronic newspaper consortium established, Matsushita licences VideoCD software, more cable multimedia experiments planned, Fujitsu adds content to Teleparc. Ex NTT Executive Found Guilty Of Bribery A Tokyo court Friday handed down suspended sentences to three people over bribery in the stocks-for-favors scandal that involved Recruit, a major employment agency, and took place in the late 1980s. The three are Kunio Takaishi, vice education minister at the time, Hisahiko Hasegawa, an executive of Nippon Telegraph and Telephone (NTT) at the time, and Hiroshi Kobayashi, president of a Recruit affiliated finance company. Both Takaishi and Hasegawa received two-year jail sentences, suspended for two years, and fines of 22.7 million yen each. The two each received 10,000 shares of Recruit Cosmos Co., the real estate arm of Recruit, from Kobayashi in return for political and industrial favors in September 1986. Two other former NTT executives, Hisashi Shinto, a former chairman, and Ei Shikiba, a former executive, have previously been found guilty in the Recruit case which caused scandal in 1988 when the bribery came to light. Portable Telephone Subscribes Up In September Just released figures from Japan's cellular telephone companies show 7.4 million people were using the units as of the end of September. The figure represents a 402,900 subscriber jump over August. NTT DoCoMo still leads the pack with 3,682,000 subscribers, up 206,000. Electronic Newspaper Consortium Established Newspaper readers in the Tokyo area could wake up to a new type of "paper" from next spring. A four-company consortium comprising the Sankei Shimbun, Fuji Television Network, Mitsubishi Electric Corp., and Mitsubishi Corp., have established Electronic News Service Inc. The new company will send an electronic edition of the Sankei Shimbun to special subscriber terminals via Fuji Television's channel 8 sender in Tokyo. Subscribers will pay around 40,000 yen ($400) to enroll in the service and receive a receiver/reader after which a monthly subscription of 1,200 yen ($12) will be levied in lieu of a newspaper subscription fee. If tests are successful next spring, the service will be extended to the Osaka region and eventually to all of Japan via the stations of the Fuji Television Network. Matsushita Licences VideoCD Software Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., has begun marketing a software add-on for VideoCD disks that will enable the disks to be played in CD-ROM drives. Currently, PC users require a special VideoCD decoder to view the images on the disks; the new software will mean all that is needed is a computer and CD-ROM drive. The VideoCD uses an MPEG-1 based compression system and is most widely used in Japan on karaoke disks which hold the images, words and music to songs. Matsushita has worked with Compcore Multimedia of the United States to produce the software which will be sold at 50 yen ($0.50) a copy to large volume producers of VideoCD. The Osaka-based company predicts sales of around 1 million units in the first year. More Cable Multimedia Experiments Planned Suginami Cable Television has become the latest of Japan's cable networks to announce it will begin multimedia trials in 1996. The Tokyo-based operator will offer subscribers video on demand and other information across 100 channels squeezed into an unused 100MHz portion of the TV band, according to the Nikkei Shimbun. Optical fibers required for the project have already been laid and the digital hardware needed will soon be installed at a cost of between 500 million and 1 billion yen ($5 - 10 million). Fujitsu Adds Content To Teleparc Fujitsu has added Tokyo Journal, a monthly English listings and information magazine, to its roster of contributors to Teleparc, an innovative online service available via NiftyServe or the Internet. Via the new TJWeb, users can now access a selection of Tokyo Journal's contents. Teleparc is an Internet magazine delivering information from, on and to Tokyo and Asia in both English and Japanese and was launched in July this year and is available on the World Wide Web at http://teleparc.infoweb.or.jp/ . (Martyn Williams/19951208) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 12/08/95 ONLINE ****Internet Update - Christmas Special (NEWS)(ONLINE)(TYO)(00002) ****Internet Update - Christmas Special 12/08/95 TOKYO, JAPAN, 1995 DEC 8 (NB) -- So it may not be Christmas quite yet but this year Christmas sites abound on the World Wide Web in much greater numbers than the last two years, with the number of sites in the North Pole almost outnumbering its inhabitants. With all these sites, someone like Sprint must have a backbone running there. In this first, of three, updates of new Christmas-related sites on the global Internet: Holly & Sara's Christmas page, Visit Santa - win a prize, The Knight family Christmas, Christmas in Minnesota, Time for a laugh, How many days left, Where's Santa, Genie holiday Web, Carol lyrics online, Santa's workshop, Christmas down under, Winter Web wonderland, Santa land, New version of XSnow, Free chocolate. Holly & Sara's Christmas Page About 30 images, and nothing else on the first page make this a slow download but once you're in, there is the opportunity to send Santa an e-mail, visit the North Pole, learn about Christmas around the world and jump to other pages across the world. World Wide Web: http://www.logicnet.com/melanie.mccluskey Visit Santa, Win A Prize! Parole d'Images has created a great looking Christmas page with the choice of either English or French. Not only can you visit Santa's home but also take part in a daily competition. The competition is open to all but only EU residents can win prizes. World Wide Web: http://www.paroles.fr/noel/ The Knight Family Christmas Obviously from a family that spends too much time in front of the PC, this site from the Knight family offers many links to Christmas destinations all over the Internet and, as they themselves say, is "one of the largest on the net as far as I can find." World Wide Web: http://www.io.org/~knights/xmas.htm Christmas In Minnesota If you're lucky enough to be spending Christmas in Minneapolis, not only will you be near the headquarters of Newsbytes but, you won't need to buy a newspaper to find out what is happening during the holiday season. An extensive listing of what's happening in Minneapolis is supplemented by things everyone can enjoy like Midi files of Christmas Carols, recipes, decorating tips, traditions, games, puzzles and more. World Wide Web: http://www1.minn.net/~arneson/xmas.html Time For A Laugh Randy Glasbergen, a nationally published cartoonist, and Ted Goff, a syndicated cartoonist, have created a home page with six of their best Christmas cartoons. World Wide Web: http://www.borg.com/~rjgtoons/mc.html How Many Days Left? Sure you could just look at a calendar but isn't "surfing the net" much more fun? To find out exactly how many shopping days are left until Christmas crank up the modem and surf over to this page. World Wide Web: http://www.uidaho.edu/cgi-bin/countdown.pl Where's Santa? Not a Christmas version of "Where's Waldo" but a neat program that will actually track Santa during his deliveries around the world and is said to be the same program used by Santa's helpers at the North Pole to keep tabs on deliveries Christmas Eve. The actual method of calculation isn't revealed but we're betting on some sort of satellite GPS tracking unit attached to his sleigh! Runs under Windows 3 and 95. World Wide Web: http://www.cyberhighway.net/~citius/santa.html GEnie Holiday Web Online service GEnie has created another page of holiday links, this time devoted to Christmas. Get tips on selecting good gifts, join a tutorial on holiday meal planning with Chef Dan, listen to Christmas carols, and download clip art for your holiday projects. You'll find stories ranging from the Bible to the current day, games, even holiday ideas for youth groups. Kids can send e-mail to Santa. World Wide Web: http://www.genie.com/holiday/holiday.html Carol Lyrics Online Lyrics to all the Christmas Carol favorites from O Come, All Ye Faithful and O Little Town of Bethlehem to Hark The Herald Angels Sing plus many more are online to give everyone the ability to hold a carol concert this holidays, says the author. World Wide Web: ftp://col.hp.com/html/tbc/Xmas/index.html Santa's Workshop Visit Santa's workshop, get counted by the Clausodometer, check Santa's local time, sign the guestbook, post your wish-list and read a tale from the wreath. World Wide Web: http://www.santas-workshop.com/ Christmas Down Under From Australia, where they'll all be on the beach over the holidays, the OzKidz Internaut Cyber Centre is offering its own Christmas pages. World Wide Web: http://www.gil.com.au/ozkidz/ Winter Web Wonderland Neosoft has opened another Christmas site this year. New features and attractions include the ability to send a free Christmas "GIFt" to friends, send a letter to Santa, get free Internet holiday coupons ("print and give") and even view the latest image from a camera mounted in the North Pole - "you won't believe your eyes." World Wide Web: http://www.neosoft.com/citylink/xmas Santa Land The pages that seek to bring back some of what Christmas used to be with links to entertainers such as Bing Crosby, Lucile Ball and holiday music from the radio, not MTV. Audio files of Christmas Carols and songs are available, as is a live shot of midtown New York from the Empire State Building. World Wide Web: http://santaland.northpole.qnet.com/ New Version Of XSnow As Christmas approaches a new version of XSnow, the X-windows application that will let it snow on the root, in between and on windows. This year's version includes some minor updates plus a big reduction in systems resources needed. World Wide Web: http://www.sara.nl/Rick.Jansen/ Free Chocolate! Well, virtual chocolate actually. Hiding behind each window of the Advent Calendar is a chocolate and a set of Christmas links. New windows can be opened each day from midnight GMT. The calendar can be accessed in English, French and German and accessed via either of the two URLs. World Wide Web: http://www.enst-bretagne.fr/~bdt/avent/indez.html World Wide Web: http://www-eleves.enst-bretagne.fr/~stokelev/avent/indez.html (Martyn Williams/19951208) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 12/08/95 ONLINE ****Prodigy Attracts Two NBC Execs (NEWS)(ONLINE)(SFO)(00003) ****Prodigy Attracts Two NBC Execs 12/08/95 WHITE PLAINS, NEW YORK, U.S.A., 1995 DEC 8 (NB) -- Ed Bennett, Prodigy's president and chief executive officer (CEO), continues to reshape the online service with the addition of two NBC executives. Josh Grotstein and Lisa Simpson have worked together at NBC and come to Prodigy with extensive content development expertise. "Ed has a very clear idea of where he wants to take Prodigy and his way is unconventional. I think he is developing a model which is on the brink of making Prodigy the online service which will bring cutting-edge experiences to its subscribers," said Lisa Simpson. At NBC, she served as director, business development with responsibilities for multimedia, interactive and online business affairs. Her focus at Prodigy entails the development and management of deal structure and stategic alliances for the company. Additionally, she will oversee the company's West Coast content and marketing efforts under the title, vice president of strategic business alliances. Grotstein who served as vice president and general manager for NBC Online Ventures becomes senior vice president, content, where he will oversee the creation and development of all original content. His chores also include overseeing existing content and programming, stategic alliances, acquisitions, and licensing. Perhaps the most significant part of Bennett's plans for Prodigy is the already accomplished conversion of the entire service to the programming language of the Internet, HyperText Markup Language (HTML). With a service based on HTML, full, easy and fast integration with the World Wide Web became an integral goal of the service. Now many of Prodigy's areas are being delivered through custom Web sites created by independent vendors. These vendors wall-off part of their Web server to offer an exclusive area to Prodigy members, but also allow Prodigy members to access standard Web offerings on each server available to the entire Web community. Grotstein said he was attracted to Prodigy by Bennett's vision and personality. "When we were called by Prodigy, we were most impressed with our personal talks with Ed Bennett. He has built an impressive development team. The kind of team we want to join." Describing what they bring to the table, Grotstein said, "Acumen and an understanding of the broadcasting medium to Prodigy. The online model is similar to broadcast but it is not a distribution model. It is a content model. Once sufficient bandwidth is available to deliver true live video over the Web, the Web will really come of age. I cannot say whether that will be in two years or four years. Cable modems hold a tremendous potential for that type of delivery. But the Web will be more than television. With interactivity and user control, the Web will be a new mass medium and that is why we want to be with Prodigy. This is a time for this new media like television was a new media in the 1950s. It is a changing and evolving time for the Web." Simpson echoed the similar thoughts saying, "The Web is not really for prime time just yet. It has been a very liberating source for Prodigy and I look forward to being a part of its development here." Commenting on what she brings to the company, Simpson explained, "I have worked with a lot of phenomenal people in the broadcast industry and I intend to leverage those relationships as broadcast becomes and other technical achievements are more integrated into the Web." (Patrick McKenna/19951208/Press Contact: Lydia Trettis, Connors Communication, tel 212-807-7500) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 12/08/95 ONLINE ****Kentucky Company Finds Easy Money On Internet (NEWS)(ONLINE)(TYO)(00004) ****Kentucky Company Finds Easy Money On Internet 12/08/95 TOKYO, JAPAN, 1995 DEC 8 (NB) -- A Kentucky-based company has found a way to make money out of porn on the Internet no matter what user's needs and opinions. On one hand, Watchdog Productions sells a list of porn on the Internet "to help you stay abreast of all the online resources featuring a sexual content that are now so freely available to everyone" while on the other hand, Kidsafe Productions will sell the same list as an "import source for any blocking software that allows you to block online access to specific internet addresses." When Newsbytes was forwarded an advertisement for Kidsafe Productions in Williamsburg, Kentucky, offering not only software to block offensive sites but a list of sexually explicit Internet locations, we decided to look into it and we found a group of companies making money out of porn on the network. The advertisement was forwarded from one of the newsgroups used for swapping pornographic pictures and referred anyone interested to a Web page hosted by Prodigy. The page noted, "The Internet is already beyond regulation, so obviously the best tack is to take steps to block your personal computer so it can't access these online hard-core sex sites without a special password. It's simple! You can easily take charge of your own computer (even if a novice user) and monitor, or even completely block, objectionable materials from being accessed on it, by anyone who does not have your secret access code." So it sounded just like another type of Internet blocker now on sale from companies such as Safesurf and Cybersitter, but wait. Looking at what you get we noticed it included a: "HUGE LIST of adult online sex sites (2,000 entries). Includes those notorious Internet Usenet Newsgroups, World Wide Web pages, FTP sites, gophers, Bulletin Board Services, and much more!" It almost sounded as if they were trying to sell these lists and not really the blocker package. To give them the benefit of the doubt, Newsbytes requested a review version of the software. It would clear up any misunderstanding we had and might make a good product for review. The next day we received a two e-mails from Kidsafe with details of the package in one and the other containing the details of an FTP site with user name and password required to access. This is essentially what users get for sending in $10. After several attempts at accessing the busy site we finally got on and proceeded to the designated directory where we found a several files. There was a 50K text file with the promised offensive site list, a copy of the Internet blocker software produced by CyberSitter and several utilities for viewing GIF and JPEG graphics files and unzipping compressed files. We downloaded the list and looked through it, then contacted Marc Kanter at Solidoak Software, producers of Cybersitter, and we asked him what he thought of Kidsafe using his product alongside an index of the very sites the software was meant to block. "Thank you for this enlightening piece of work. I am very offended to see this. We would not and will not give permission to distribute Cybersitter in such a manner," he replied. He added, "It is illegal to distribute, or copy Cybersitter without permission. It is not shareware or freeware. We provide a trial version on our Web site and make it clear that is what it is. It can be converted, by Solidoak Software only, into a full working program. Cybersitter can also be legitimately purchased in many of the major computer stores in the US. Our offensive filter file is encrypted and nobody has or will be given access to it." Jay Friedland at Surfwatch Software also criticized the methods being used and said, "We have always taken the position that it would be more harmful to expose our list since it would promote the opposite goal of what we are trying to achieve and children will find a way to access computers which don't have Surfwatch on them. I have heard of several of these 'services' in the past, and they are often just trying to sell a 'sex' list in a way which will protect themselves from liability." After passing on copies of the list to the two, Friedland told us, "The list shows a tremendous similarity to an existing and free guide to Internet sex resources." Upon inspection of the free list, supplied confidentially to Newsbytes, we confirmed that the vast majority of the Kidsafe list was identical in content and even formatting to the free list. What did Kidsafe have to say about this? Surely it was just a clever way to sell people lists of sexually related sites while pretending it was something else. "WRONG!!!" they replied by e-mail. "List is for reference and addresses to use in the other software that supports it. If you want the list try Watchdog," they added. We jumped back to the list to see just what people were getting for their $10 and found a lot of pages that are either very well known, such as Playboy and Penthouse magazines, or sites that are not really what most of the readers would be impressed with, such as the AIDS mailing list. There are also a lot of bulletin board services listed as well as others found in indexes such as Yahoo. Jay Friedland at Safesurf told us there were few new sites in the list. As we scanned down the list of World Wide Web sites we noticed one particular entry labelled, "Instant success with viewing and decoding newsgroup and e-mail sex picture files." The reason it stood out was that the address was very similar to that of Kidsafe's Web site. Upon comparison we found the two pages live in the same user directory on the Prodigy Web server so we went back to take a closer look. Side by side, although not hyperlinked together, we found "The Kidsafe Sex Censorship Kit," "The World Nudist Archives And Links Service," "Instant Success With Newsgroups Pictures Files," and "The Online Watchdog Sex Site Hotlist." So, on the one hand you can pay $10 if, "you are serious about not wanting your kids to access every kind of flithy smut known to man," while on the other hand, you can use a different service from the same company and pay just $5 to get the same "big list of newsgroups and picture files, including over 60 HOT XXX ADULT GROUPS." We contacted Kidsafe Productions, aka Watchdog Productions, again to comment on the later information found and the similarity of their list with the free one. They claimed they had permission from the author to use sites in his list although they also claimed they had permission from Solidoak Software to archive and offer Cybersitter. When we e-mailed them of the comments from Solidoak's Marc Kanter, "It is illegal to distribute, or copy Cybersitter without permission," they failed to respond. At deadline we have failed to receive any further response from the organization despite waiting a week for a reply. Parents interested in obtaining software to block access to offensive Internet sites can contact several companies including Solidoak Software, makers of Cybersitter, at 1-800-388-2761 or on the Web at http://www.solidoak.com/ and Surfwatch Software, makers of Safesurf, at 1-800-458-6600 or on the Web at http://www.surfwatch.com/ . Other manufacturers include Cyber Patrol from Microsystems Software at 508-879-9000 and NetNanny from NetNanny Ltd. at 1-800-340-7177. (Martyn Williams/19951204) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 00 12/08/95 GENERAL Citizen To Offer World's Smallest Printer Under $ (NEWS)(GENERAL)(SFO)(00005) Citizen To Offer World's Smallest Printer Under $200 12/08/95 SANTA MONICA, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1995 DEC 8 (NB) -- Citizen America Corp., announced an entry-level version of its lightweight PN60 portable printer. After removing some of the PN60 features such as color printing, Citizen's new PN50 still offers Thermal Fusion printing and is expected to have a street price of approximately $199. #IMAGE 1 20 TWPCX \images\95120805.PCX Click here for photo Citizen expects to deliver the new printer to major retail outlets in January. Like the PN60, PN50 is about the size of a standard flashlight and provides laser quality images at 2 pages per minute. It measures 10- inched in length, 2-inches in depth and 3-inches in height and weighs 1.1 pounds. Citizen says the suggested retail price is $249 which means its street price should be approximately $199. Unlike the popular ink jet printers which spray wet ink onto paper before drying, the company's thermal fusion process uses heat and pressure to bond dry resin-based ink onto paper. The outcome is a smear-resistant, waterproof document. Ink is transferred from a black ribbon cartridge which is typically capable of 30 pages of text or 18 graphic pages. Citizen's other models in the portable line are built for use with either a Mac or an IBM/clone computer. PN50 is for the IBM/clone market only and is powered by an AC adapter or an optional, rechargable NiCad battery. A single battery charge can handle about 30 pages of text. Duane Yamashita, Citizen's product manager, told Newsbytes, "We carefully studied the needs of business travelers and found there is a need for printing whenever they want it. If it is 2:00 in the morning or at the airport between flights, they want to be able to have a lightweight printer which meets these demands. Instead of looking for a Kinko's outlet or a hotel business center, a traveler can have print capabilities wherever they have their notebook." PN50 comes with a Centronics parallel cable and Windows 3.1 and Windows 95 drivers. Its output is 360 x 360 dots per inch. On another note, Yamashita told Newsbytes, the company will add IR (infrared) technology to its PN60 printer in the coming months. This means any notebook with IR capabilities can print to PN60 without a wired connection. A user would simply set the printer within a few feet of a notebook and in the line-of-sight of the IR window to print documents. (Patrick McKenna/19951207/Press Contact: Matt Roberts, Citizen, tel 310-453-0614 ext 288; /CITIZEN951208/PHOTO) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 12/08/95 BROADCAST Australia - Telstra Names 21 Suppliers For Broadband Project (NEWS)(BROADCAST)(SYD)(00006) Australia - Telstra Names 21 Suppliers For Broadband Project 12/08/95 SYDNEY, AUSTRALIA 1995 DEC 8 (NB) -- Telstra has invited 21 Australian IT companies to submit proposals for development of its AUS$40 million interactive broadband services pilot project. The service will use Telstra's cable-TV connections to carry interactive services to home-based TVs and personal computers, the latter carrying data at two to 27 megabits per second, according to a Telstra press statement. The project will include trialing of cable modems to link PCs to interactive services. However, the list of invited suppliers issued yesterday does not include Australian modem maker NetComm, which is developing cable modems for the world market with ADC of the US. ADC's Homeworx technology is planned to be used with Optus Vision's rival hybrid coaxial-fiber cable system in Australia. Suppliers invited to respond to Telstra's request for proposal (RFP) are: Alacatel, Anderson Consulting, Apple, Bellcore, DEC, EDS Australia, Ericsson, Hewlett-Packard, ISSC, Logica, Microsoft, NEC, News Data Com, Nortel, Oracle, Philips, Samsung, Siemens, Silicon Graphics, Sybase and Telstar. Their selection follows a public expression of interest issued by Telstra in September. Telstra claims its broadband cable currently runs past more than 700,000 Australian homes. According to Telstra Multimedia CEO Gerry Moriarty, the first interactive broadband services will probably form part of Telstra's interactive trial at Gungahlin in Canberra in late 1996. (Computer Daily News/19951208) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 12/08/95 TELECOM Czech Republic - Nextel To Be Internet Provider (NEWS)(TELECOM)(LON)(00007) Czech Republic - Nextel To Be Internet Provider 12/08/95 PRAGUE, CZECH REPUBLIC, 1995 DEC 8 (NB) -- Nextel, the data networking division of SPT Telecom, recently purchased from Eurotel, announced it is building an ATM backbone and gearing up to become a full-fledged Internet provider. The company is dedicated to providing a full suite of corporate connectivity and network management services as well as information services with X.400-based messaging. Mr. Pavel Jirousek, marketing manager at Nextel, says Nextel is now building multimedia networks, with an ATM backbone capable of supporting data, voice and video transmission. Nextel's offerings include not only X.25 based public data network services, but also frame relay services, computer to computer interconnection via private switches, PABXes, and videoconferencing, according to Jirousek. Another area of focus is on providing information services, including e-mail messaging based on the X.400 standard and the TCP/IP protocol. "We would like to extend our activities to the commercial Internet and we have several tools for it," said Jirousek, who drew attention to its backbone capable of supporting TCP/IP the new SPT telecom's partnership with TelSource, which includes UniSource as the international corporate connectivity component. "Internet is a big phenomenon of our age, and it's not possible to offer these as separate services," said Jirousek. "SPT Telecom must become a commercial provider of Internet access services. We are working very hard at this and would like to introduce these services next year on a commercial level." Nextel plans to support three types of services: dial-up access via telephone lines at up to 28.8 Kbps, full access via leased-line or VSAT at up to 2 Mbps, and private TCP/IP networks with firewall, name server, and private WWW server installations. With the recent strategic partnership with Unisource and AT&T and their joint venture UniWorld, SPT Telecom's Nextel division is gearing up to be part of a global playing effort. (Steven Slatem, IntelliTech/19951207/Contact: Pavel Jirousek, Nextel, SPT Telecom a.s., tel +42 2 67012122, fax: +42 2 273114) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 12/08/95 GOVT Australian 'Innovation' To Boost Information Technology (NEWS)(GOVT)(SYD)(00008) Australian 'Innovation' To Boost Information Technology 12/08/95 MELBOURNE, AUSTRALIA 1995 DEC 8 (NB) -- The Australian government plans to spend AUS$24 million developing Australia's high performance computing and communications (HPCC) capabilities, including domestic broadband communications and a $1.2 million broadband link with Japan. The measures were part of the much-heralded Innovation Statement which the Prime Minister Paul Keating unveiled yesterday at the National Trade and Investment Outlook Conference in Melbourne. The HPCC strategy includes setting up centers of expertise and technology diffusion centers to help industry adopt HPCC. The statement said the Government will introduce a $495 million package of measures over four years, of which it claims around $410 will be new spending. The statement had a lot to say under the heading of IT, but much of it was really about using IT for a range of social measures such as improving education, community communication, indigenous communication and public access to information, culture and heritage. Business, arts, DSS, get boosts. However, in all of that there will be lots of business opportunities. One program, Accessing Australia, will see Canberra give state and local government $11.4 million to put computers into public libraries to make online information services available to Mr and Mrs Everybody, and to train librarians. This plan will also extend the pilot community information network which was established in June 1995 to help low-income people. The network puts computers in public locations to provide access to the public. More than $10 million will go to cultural and heritage institutions under the Australia's Story program to digitize significant Australian cultural material. This will enable them to develop online public access to gallery and museum material. (Computer Daily News/19951207) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 12/08/95 BROADCAST Ericsson Scores Reward In Euro RACE Project (NEWS)(BROADCAST)(LON)(00009) Ericsson Scores Reward In Euro RACE Project 12/08/95 STOCKHOLM, SWEDEN, 1995 DEC 8 (NB) -- Ericsson has been presented with an award for the best research product in the European Commission (EC's) RACE (Research and technology development in Advanced Communications technologies in Europe) project. The award for technological achievements was presented by the EC for Ericsson's work on the Multi-Wavelength Transport Network (MWTN), new technologies that will provide the network for broadband services such as videoconferencing and video on demand. According to Olof Sahlen, a spokesman for Ericsson's fiber optics research center, the MWTN project involves ten organizations across Europe. Ericsson claims that the MWTN project has demonstrated a managed, re- arrangeable wavelength-division-multiplexed fiber optics telecoms network. The company's contributions include the development of opto- electronic components, software for management systems, network modelling and optical switching demonstrations in experimental broadband networks, such as the Stockholm Gigabit Network (SGN). Several of Ericsson's group companies have been involved in the project: Ericsson Components AB, Ericsson Telecom AB, Ericsson Utvecklings AB (formerly Ellemtel), Ericsson Infocom Consultants AB and Ericsson Telecommunicazioni of Italy. Other organizations involved in the project include BT Labs (UK), Telia (Sweden), the University of Essex (UK), University of Paderborn (Germany_, Pirelli and Italtel of Italy, Centro Studi E Laboratori Telecommunicazioni (CSELT, Italy) and France Telecom. The award, which was presented in Vienna, Austria, was judged by an independent panel on behalf of the RACE project. RACE, Newsbytes notes, is a telecoms research project within the EC that consists of 121 separate projects. (Sylvia Dennis/19951207/Press Contact: Eva Bardvall, marcoms, Ericsson +46-8-757-5293; Reader Contact: Sonny Johansson, Research Center Systems Switching, Ericsson Utvecklings AB +46-8-727-3560) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 12/08/95 GOVT Philippines' First Computerized Police Force (NEWS)(GOVT)(HKG)(00010) Philippines' First Computerized Police Force 12/08/95 CEBU CITY, PHILIPPINES, 1995 DEC 8 (NB) -- "The set-up will be a little like 911 in the United States although not as sophisticated. Not yet, anyway," said Augusto Marquez, Intelligence Section (IS) division chief of the Cebu City Police Command (CCPC). This will be the first Philippines city to link police operations by computer. The information system set-up will link subordinate police precincts and divisions to the main police headquarters in Camp Sotero Cabahug. Marquez said the initial plan is to install a complete computer hardware set (monitor, printer, and modem) in each of the subordinate units and connect these to the mainframe computer terminal in the police headquarters. He estimated that around 21 units of computer hardware set will be needed for the linkage. The $250,000 computerization program, a joint undertaking of the Cebu City Government and the CCPC, is scheduled to be bid by year-end. Mayor Alvin B. Garcia already approved of the plan. So far, only Systems Standards Inc., an IBM business partner, has submitted a comprehensive proposal. "This will make us the first city in the country whose police operations are computerized," said Marquez, a member of the working group behind the grand program. Through the acquisition of the necessary software, every policeman in Cebu City's 11 precincts can become a cartographer. A composite sketch of a crime suspect can be generated through the computer then sent to all units for their information and guidance. The computerization scheme will also make possible a more efficient document filing system, proper logistics management, automated scheduling of activities, tours of duty and assignments of policemen, assure security of classified information, fast processing of personnel information and performance evaluation as well as simultaneous dispatch of information to all units. An alarm raised in one precinct can be disseminated to all units for a more coordinated police operation. According to Marquez, the computerization plan will also lessen the number of police personnel needed for clerical work so that more officers can now be assigned to field duty. (Marlen Del Mar & Conduit/12061995/Internet e-mail dilips@netcom.com) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 12/08/95 TELECOM Telecom Satellite AsiaSat-2 Launch Successful (NEWS)(TELECOM)(PEK)(00011) Telecom Satellite AsiaSat-2 Launch Successful 12/08/95 BEIJING, CHINA, 1995 DEC 8 (NB) -- On November 28, China successfully launched another telecommunication satellite AsiaSat-2 at Xichang Satellite Launching Center. The satellite will cover more than 50 countries and regions in Asia, Eastern Europe, Australia, and states of the former Soviet Union. The satellite was launched using a Long March 2E, a multistage, heavy-trust rocket. The rocket put the satellite into orbit that will vary from 185-309 kilometers (0.606-1.013 million feet) above the earth. AsiaSat-2, a Lockheed communication satellite for Hong Kong-based Asia Satellite Telecommunications Co Ltd., is to be used for telecom services for different Asian countries and was designed to last 15 years. Maneuvered by Asia Satellite Telecommunications Co Ltd., and Lockheed-Martin, it will eventually settle into an orbit at 100.5 degree east longitude. Covering more than 50 countries and regions, AsiaSat-2 transmits radio signals and serves public communications networks. Customers already have signed on to use the services. They include Satellite Television, Deutsche Welle Broadcasting Organization, Portuguese RTPi International Television, the Chinese Ministry of Radio, Film, and Television, AP Television, and Global Television News. AsiaSat is owned by British Great Eastern Wireless, China International Trust and Investment Company, and Hong Kong Whampoo. The carrier rocket was developed in China and has a payload of 9.2 tons (20,270 pounds). This is the 38th launch in the Long March series and technological changes were made to increase reliability. (Chih-Ho Yu & Ning Huang/19951205) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 12/08/95 TELECOM AT&T Launches India Web (NEWS)(TELECOM)(DEL)(00012) AT&T Launches India Web 12/08/95 NEW DELHI, INDIA, 1995 DEC 8 (NB) -- AT&T has launched a new Web site on the Internet called AT&T India Horizons. Visitors to the site can take a virtual tour of Japan, locate Indian restaurants and shops in Chicago, New York or any other place, catch daily headlines from India and the World as well as browse through India-centric information. This Web site has been brought to the Indians by the AT&T Consumer Communications Services, and is linked to other sites popular with Indians. The company celebrated the launch of the Web site by broadcasting radio messages by the first 250 people who visited the marker page while the Web was under construction. (C. T. Mahabharat/19951208) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 12/08/95 GENERAL China - Technology Newsbriefs (NEWS)(GENERAL)(PEK)(00013) China - Technology Newsbriefs 12/08/95 BEIJING, CHINA, 1995 DEC 8 (NB) -- In this news roundup from China, the country is expected to be the second largest computer market in the world by 2000; consumer electronics exhibition held in Beijing; newspaper CompuWorld's donation to improve education; Oracle holds news conference in Shanghai to show its technology and information solutions. China Will Be The World's Second Largest Computer Market By 2000 Due to rapid economic development, China's computer market will be growing fast. Statistics show that computer sales are expected to reach RMB55 billion (US$6.5 billion) this year, up 40 percent from 1994. About 1 million PCs will be sold this year, half of which are purchased by Chinese families, with 486-class machines taking a market share of 55 percent and Pentiums 7 to 8 percent. China is expected to become the second largest computer market in the world by the year 2000. Consumer Electronics Exhibition Is Held In Beijing The Second China International Consumer Electronics Exhibition was held from November 24 to 28 at Beijing World Trade Center. The 5-day exhibition, sponsored by China International Electronics Import and Export Corp, attracted 52 manufacturers from Hong Kong, Taiwan, the United States, Russia, Japan, and South Korea as well as from the home country. The displayed products included audio-video players, computers, and multimedia and/or game machines. Next year, the annual event will be held in Shanghai in September. Newspaper CompuWorld's Donation To Improve Education CompuWorld, a newspaper in the electronics sector, recently announced a RMB400,000 (US$48,000) donation to improve education in poor areas of Sichuan province. The 15-year old newspaper jointly is invested by the International Digital Group of America and a Chinese official press department. It reported that its per employee tax payment to the state was more than RMB1 million (US$120,000) from 1990 to 1995. Oracle Shows Technology And Information Solutions In Shanghai Oracle China held its first annual conference on applications in Shanghai from November 9 to 11 and more than 1,000 Chinese officials and customers attended the opening session of the conference. The main goal of the conference was to show Chinese users and customers that the US computer company is eager to provide technology and information solutions to China. (Chih-Ho Yu & Ning Huang/19951208) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 12/08/95 ONLINE ****Compuserve Licenses Microsoft's Web Browser (NEWS)(ONLINE)(MSP)(00014) ****Compuserve Licenses Microsoft's Web Browser 12/08/95 COLUMBUS, OHIO, U.S.A., 1995 DEC 8 (NB) -- In a move designed to strengthen its "open" online Internet World Wide Web strategy, Compuserve said it has reached an agreement with Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ:MSFT) to license its "Internet Explorer" Web browser. Compuserve officials said it will include a customized version of Internet Explorer in upcoming versions of the company's retail and corporate Internet suite software packages. Those include Internet In A Box, Internet In A Box for Kids, Mosaic In A Box, and Internet Office. An Internet Explorer version will also be available for downloading and use on Compuserve's own online service, as well as its new "Wow" consumer online service. The Microsoft deal works well with Compuserve's strategy to commit to open Internet standards, William Giles, Compuserve spokesperson, told Newsbytes. Because of its belief, the company announced earlier this week it would open a "WebCentral" area on the main Compuserve service, which Newsbytes covered. Among other features, Compuserve members can download most any popular Web browser and use it while connected to Compuserve. Many of those browsers will be available for free, a Compuserve official told Newsbytes at the time. "We do not view ourselves as a browser company," Giles told Newsbytes. "The real future for the Internet and the World Wide Web is not in proprietary software, but in the service, and the access, and the community we build online." Compuserve wants to create on the latter, he said. When it comes to surfing the Web, "we don't care what the color of your glasses is, as long as you can see," Giles said. Other features of the new WebCentral area will include the ability to obtain browser technical support, answers to browser questions, chat with both other Compuserve members and Web browser experts, read the latest industry news, and hotlink to related areas on the Web. The new area will be available by Christmas on Compuserve's main service, and in the first quarter of 1996 on the Web. For more information, Web users can access Microsoft's home page at http://www.microsoft.com/ , or Compuserve's at http://www.compuserve.com/ . Microsoft's Internet Explorer can be downloaded from http://www.microsoft.com/windows/ . In January, Compuserve customers will be able to download Internet Explorer from both Compuserve's home page, as well as Spry's Web site at http://www.spry.com/ . (Bob Woods/19951208/Press Contacts: John Irwin, Compuserve Internet Division, 206-957-8236; William Giles, Compuserve, 614-538-4388) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 12/08/95 BUSINESS ****Wall Street's Internet Stock Jitters (NEWS)(BUSINESS)(MSP)(00015) ****Wall Street's Internet Stock Jitters 12/08/95 NEW YORK CITY, NEW YORK, U.S.A., 1995 DEC 8 (NB) -- For the second day in a row, the stocks of several Internet-related companies are way down on Wall Street. Analysts say the reasons for this are a skeptical review of such stocks in the Wall Street Journal, and critical comments regarding several companies by a Smith Barney analyst. In general, the stock market was a bit off yesterday. The Dow Jones Industrials closed down almost 40 points to about 5160. Much closer to cyberspace, the American Stock Exchange's Index fell 6.94 points to 239.15. The two biggest movers on the downward spiral yesterday were World Wide Web browser developers Netscape (NASDAQ:NCSP) and Spyglass (NASDAQ:SPYG). Netscape plunged $28.75 to $132, while Spyglass dropped $14.75 to $95.25. Both companies had been trading at or near record highs since they first started trading on the NASDAQ exchange earlier this year. Analysts say the main reason for the drops in those and other Internet- related issues are related to a report from brokerage Smith Barney, which initiated coverage on several Internet firms. The brokerage listed Netscape with a "sell" rating. It also gave America Online (NASDAQ:AMER) a neutral rating. Smith Barney also listed four companies as underperforming -- Netcom (NASDAQ:NETC), Spyglass, UUNet (NSADAQ:UUNT), and PSINet (NASDAQ:PSIX). In addressing the "sell" rating on Netscape, a Smith Barney analyst said the model for Internet development has yet to be defined. "We believe strongly the Internet will be an engine of technology growth over the next ten years," he told CNBC yesterday. "My concern with Netscape is the market has allotted the company a market capitalization we regard as unsustainable." He also said no one company will be able to monopolize the Internet and use proprietary technology the way they did in the past five to ten years. The other companies mentioned in yesterday's Smith Barney ratings also took hits on their stock prices. America Online was down $3.25 at $41.375, Netcom plunged $8.75 at $54.75, PSINet was off $2.625 at $25.875, and UUNet was down $7.625 at $58.34. As of 12:00 EST today, some of those stocks were still way down from what they were earlier in the week. Netscape was down $7.50 at $125, UUNet was off $3.75 at $55, and Netcom was down $2.875 at $51.875. Not doing so bad were: Spyglass, down $0.50 at $94.75; America Online, off $0.25 at $41.125; and PSINet, down $0.375 at $26.25. Ironically, Microsoft shares basically held steady yesterday, after its big announcement regarding the company's Internet strategy. Microsoft shares closed down 12 cents to $90.50 yesterday, but were up $3 at $93.50 at 12:00 EST. Other winners were Sun Microsystems, which closed up $3.375 at $93.12, and Oracle, gaining 50 cents to $44.25. Sun was up because Microsoft announced plans to license Sun's Java technology in its Internet strategy, while Oracle will partner with Microsoft in its new Internet plans. (Bob Woods/19951208) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 12/08/95 TELECOM ****Pac Bell Moves Into Wireless TV (NEWS)(TELECOM)(LAX)(00016) ****Pac Bell Moves Into Wireless TV 12/08/95 SAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1995 DEC 8 (NB) -- Pacific Bell has announced that it will acquire, for approximately $175 million, all of the stock of Wireless Holdings Inc. (WHI) and Videotron Bay Area Inc. (VBAI). The new wireless networks give Pacific Bell quick access into cable television markets in California, Florida, South Carolina, and Washington. Pacific Bell is facing major competition to its base telephone business from cable television providers who are developing telephone over cable. Several cable companies have announced plans to implement telephone services in California. Pacific Bell sees wireless television as a means of competing in a timely manner with the likes of TCI and Cox Broadcasting. Speaking to Newsbytes, Craig Watts, manager of corporate communications for Pacific Telesis Group, said, "Our move into wireless TV is by no means a temporary phenomenon. It is our means of competing with the aggressive moves of Cox Cable and TCI Cable into telephony over cable. Our acquisitions to date give us the ability to offer 100 channel television to over seven million homes is California." The new additions to Pac Bell send a wireless microwave beam cable from transmission towers to small antennas on the rooftops of houses. From the antenna the signal is delivered through coaxial cable to the TV set, where it is decoded by a converter box. "Microwave signals are more powerful than satellite, but need clear line-of-sight to the home. They are not good in hilly terrain or where large buildings block transmission. They are well-suited for the Los Angeles basin, and the San Francisco Bay area where long unobstructed views reach millions of homes," said Watts. The consideration will be payable by delivery of $120 million of Pacific Telesis common stock and the assumption of approximately $55 million of debt to Videotron and Transworld. The transaction is intended to be tax free to the Transworld shareholders, who will receive shares of Pacific Telesis common stock in exchange for their Transworld stock on its liquidation. Transworld owns 50 percent of Wireless Holdings, which owns cable assets and leases in: the San Francisco Bay area, San Diego, and Victorville, in California; Greenville in South Carolina; Seattle, Washington; as well as an operating system in Spokane, Washington. In addition, Transworld owns 20 percent of Videotron Bay Area (Videotron USA owns 80 percent), the wireless cable system in Tampa, Florida, with approximately 6,300 subscribers. Pacific Bell has also announced that, through it Pacific Telesis Video Services, it plans to develop content for the cable operations. It will also obtain video content from TELE-TV, a joint venture formed by Pacific Telesis, NYNEX, and Bell Atlantic. Pacific Bell had already announced in April plans to buy a wireless cable operation in Riverside, California. That move followed similar deals by other regional telephone companies. For example, Atlantic and NYNEX recently announced a deal to invest $100 million in CAI Wireless Systems. (Richard Bowers/19951206/Press Contact: Craig Watts, Pacific Telesis Group, 415-542-6864) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 12/08/95 ONLINE Neoglyphics Media Intros Web Technology (NEWS)(ONLINE)(MSP)(00017) Neoglyphics Media Intros Web Technology 12/08/95 CHICAGO, ILLINOIS, U.S.A., 1995 DEC 8 (NB) -- Neoglyphics Media Corp. said it has developed a "next-generation" of Internet World Wide Web programming that company officials said will "change the way" information is stored, authored, and transmitted on the Web. The new development also addresses Web tracking and encryption technologies. Neoglyphics' president and director of technology, Alex Zoghlin, told Newsbytes the company has been working on these technologies for more than a year, and that the technologies are available now. "This is not vaporware," he said. Utilizing the company's partnerships with Netscape, Oracle, and Sun Microsystems, Neoglyphics has developed these technologies using Oracle databases and Sun's Java language, Zoghlin said. With Neoglyphics' new system, Web content can be created in real-time and transmitted on-the-fly. For example, a company that puts a large product catalog on the Web doesn't have to use any pre-formatted hypertext markup language (HTML) pages, Zoghlin said. Instead, all of the information for the pages -- including text, graphics, video, and sound -- are stored in an Oracle database and created almost instantly. That database can also "learn" about a customer's preferences and configure Web pages based on those preferences, he said. Other features in an Internet-mall setting include secure transactions, automated order tracking, and real-time tracking of customer browsing and buying patterns. To help with security, Neoglyphics employs military-trained cryptographic experts who have developed what the company calls the "most advanced security technology available to non-government users." Because of the high-level security technology, Neoglyphics is one of the first Web developers to be fully bonded and insured against security breaches to the Web servers it develops, officials said. The new technology can be used in other applications, Zoghlin said. His company is working with AT&T on a human resources program that uses Java applets to do online testing, counseling, and financial information on employees. The types of customers Neoglyphics is targeting mainly Fortune 500 companies, Zoghlin told Newsbytes. "We really expect this to be taken advantage of by larger companies" that can handle technology changes, he said. (Bob Woods/19951208/Press Contacts: Alex Zoghlin, Neoglyphics Media Corporation, 708-853-9500; Michael B. Young, Tech Image Ltd., 708-705-0040) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 12/08/95 BUSINESS SoftKey Bags Learning Co. (NEWS)(BUSINESS)(TOR)(00018) SoftKey Bags Learning Co. 12/08/95 CAMBRIDGE, MASSACHUSETTS, U.S.A., 1995 DEC 8 (NB) -- SoftKey International Inc. (NASDAQ:SKEY) has won an acrimonious battle for The Learning Co. (NASDAQ:LRNG) of Fremont, California. A wholly owned subsidiary of SoftKey, called Kidsco Inc., will pay $67.50 per share in cash for some 8.28 million shares of Learning Co., which are all the outstanding shares of the educational software firm. Learning Co. will be merged into SoftKey, said Scott Murray, chief financial officer of SoftKey, though it will keep a presence in California. Murray also told Newsbytes that some of Learning Co.'s management and staff will get jobs at SoftKey. "We're evaluating everything right now," he said. "We're clearly going to be bringing a number of the talented people there on staff." In accepting the offer, Learning Co. called off a merger deal with Broderbund Software Inc. (NASDAQ:BROD), which had put in its own takeover bid before SoftKey weighed in with a higher offer. The battle to take over Learning Co. had been somewhat ugly in the past few weeks, with accusations and lawsuits flying among the three companies. As part of their agreement, Learning Co. and SoftKey said all outstanding litigation is being dropped. The acquisition follows a deal last week in which SoftKey took over Compton's NewMedia Inc. and Compton's Learning Co. from Tribune Co. (NYSE:TRB) of Chicago. As part of that transaction, Tribune agreed to invest an additional $150 million in SoftKey if the Learning Co. acquisition went ahead. With that $150 million investment, now expected to proceed, Tribune will own something approaching 10 percent of SoftKey. The Learning Co. and Compton's acquisitions followed SoftKey's earlier takeover of Minnesota Educational Computing Corp. in what is clearly a major push into the educational market by a company best known for consumer software. The stock market has seemed doubtful about this strategy in recent weeks, with SoftKey shares sliding to the $30 range after peaking at just above $50 in September. Murray maintained the price drop has been a "function of uncertainty regarding these acquisitions." Asked whether he expects the stock to rebound now that the Learning Co. takeover has succeeded, Murray would only say that "I never try to predict the stock market." (Grant Buckler/19951208/Press Contact: Scott Murray, SoftKey, 617-494-5861; Fred Spar or Michael Freitag, Kekst and Co. for Learning Co., 212-593-2655) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 12/08/95 TRENDS DVD Consortium Reaches Final Agreement (NEWS)(TRENDS)(TYO)(00019) DVD Consortium Reaches Final Agreement 12/08/95 TOKYO, JAPAN, 1995 DEC 8 (NB) -- A group of nine of the world's major electronics companies have reached agreement on a common technical format for video and computer data storage on digital video disks (DVDs). The group began working towards a common system in September and the agreement signals the start of technical development of DVD players and recorders in preparation for a consumer launch late next year. At an early evening press conference in Tokyo Friday, Taizo Nishimuro, executive vice president of Toshiba, announced details of the agreement and the official name of the format, which will be digital versatile disks, or DVD for short. On a technical level, the unified format will be based on the Super Density disk model, originally proposed by Toshiba, which calls for two 0.6 millimeter (mm) thick, 12 centimeter (cm) diameter, disks sandwiched together. The coding system used to store data will follow Sony's Multi Media Compact Disc system. For video storage, MPEG-2 (Motion Picture Experts Group type 2) video compression has been chosen as standard. For audio, Dolby AC-3 will be used. The disks will be able to carry a maximum of eight sound channels and 32 subtitle data channels alongside each movie. Each disk will hold 4.7 gigabytes (GB) which equates to enough space for 133 minutes of video, per side, in standard configuration of three audio channels, four subtitle tracks, and an average data rate of 4.69 megabits per second. Increasing the audio and subtitling information will shorten the maximum movie length. For computer data storage applications, the group agreed on use of the Micro UDF or ISO-9660 file management structure. Members of the core developing group are Toshiba, Matsushita Electrical Industrial Co., Sony Corporation, Philips Electronics, Time Warner Video, Pioneer Electronic Corp., Victor Company (JVC), Hitachi Ltd., and Mitsubishi Electric. The announcement was also made that MCA, the American entertainment company, will not be a member of the core consortium because it does not qualify. Members must have "technology that can contribute to the standard and meaningful patents." Thomson Multimedia of France will become the tenth member of the group. Until September, the companies had been divided into two groups, the Super Density (SD) disk consortium was lead by Toshiba and Matsushita while Sony and Philips lead a group under the name Multi Media Compact Disc (MMCD). Both groups were pursuing the same goal, a re-recordable media suitable for audio, video and data, based on optical disks, but each had a slightly different system. The two competing sides had sparked worries over a format war similar to the VHS-Beta competition in the early days of video cassette recording. In that battle, Sony's Beta system lost to Matsushita's VHS and, this time, the MMCD system, backed by Sony, was looking like the weaker of the two systems. Originally, both sides would say nothing of compromise although, slowly, cracks in group resolution began to appear after comments made by the Chairman of the Electronic Industry Association of Japan, Sony Chairman Norio Ohga, who said that the existence of two standards was undesirable. Shortly after, US computer giant IBM said a common system was the only way to go and these events are thought to have lead to the compromise being reached. The MMCD system offered a data capacity of 7.4 megabytes (MB) on a single- sided 12cm disk with the ability to store up to 270 minutes of digital video. In contrast, the SD format would have held 18GB of data on a double sided disc of the same size. The Toshiba led SD system was supported by Hitachi, Matsushita Electric Industrial, MCA, Pioneer Electronics, Thomson Multimedia, Time Warner, Matsushita-Kotobuki Electronics Industries, Mitsubishi Electric, Victor Co. of Japan (JVC), Nippon Columbia, Toshiba-EMI, Pioneer LDC, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, Turner Home Entertainment, Zenith Electronics, Samsung Electronics, Toray, and SKC. The MMCD system jointly developed by Sony and Dutch consumer electronics giant Philips, who jointly developed the music CD format, has received support from Nokia, Aiwa, Bang and Olufson, Grundig, Magnavox and Marantz, Mitsumi, NEC Home Electronics, Gateway 2000, TEAC and Ricoh, and Western Digital. The first DVD players were scheduled to appear in the spring of next year, but compromise talks have delayed the system launch by around four months. The first systems should go on sale in late summer or autumn of 1996 in the United States. Toshiba Corporation has previously announced it will break with tradition and launch its DVD equipment in the United States three months before Japan. Typically, Japanese electronics manufacturers launch new formats or systems in the home market first and then follow with North American and European roll outs later The company said the first DVD players, which will playback and record digital video data on a disc the size of a CD, would be priced between $600 and $700. The DVD-ROM drives, intended for use in computers, will cost around $250 to $300 and be launched several months after the home players. Makoto Yasuda, a Toshiba spokesman, told Newsbytes recently, "The current launch date is September 1996 in the US, and Japan and Europe by the end of 1996." (Martyn Williams/19951208/Press contacts : Philips Electronics, +31-40-734866; Sony Corporation, tel +81-3-5448-2200, fax +81-3-5448-3061; Toshiba Corporation, tel +81-3-3457-2105, fax +81-3-3456-4776; Matsushita Electric, tel +81-3-3578-1237, fax +81-3-3437-2776) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 12/08/95 ONLINE ****More On Microsoft's Internet Strategy (NEWS)(ONLINE)(DEN)(00020) ****More On Microsoft's Internet Strategy 12/08/95 REDMOND, WASHINGTON, U.S.A., 1995 DEC 8 -- Integration and continuity. Those are the words Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ: MSFT) Chairman Bill Gates used during his keynote speech at an all-day briefing session for reporters and analysts to describe Microsoft's newly developed Internet strategy. The integration part has already started, with Microsoft issuing a a paper blizzard of announcements about cross-relationships with other companies. Perhaps the most surprising of those was the deal with Compuserve, in which the online subscription service agreed to license Microsoft's Internet Explorer and said it will include a customized version of that Web browser software in upcoming versions of its Internet In a Box, Internet In a Box for Kids, Mosaic In A Box, and Internet Office. It will also be included in Compuserve's new consumer online service being developed under the name Wow!. Gates said Microsoft will continue to distribute Explorer at no charge. The company is working on versions of Explorer for Apple Computer's Macintosh operating system and for Windows 3.1. In what was reported by the Associated Press as, literally, an eleventh-hour decision Wednesday, Gates also announced a licensing deal with Sun Microsystems for Java, a programming language for the Internet. The company also announced development of an interactive three- dimensional (3-D) multimedia animation technology for the Internet called virtual reality modeling language (ActiveVRML). Microsoft said ActiveVRML is optimized for authoring and playback on personal computers and allows content authors to deliver 3-D multimedia effects easily on the Internet. During his speech yesterday, Gates articulated another of his visions of computing. He predicted businesses will adopt the Internet for internal business use for communication with employees, supplier and customers via, what he called, the "Intranet," and predicted that Internet applications will likely emerge faster than those for the general consumer market. Microsoft made public yesterday an agreement with Computer Associates International Inc. (NYSE:CA)to Internet-enable their co-branded product that includes CA-Unicenter, Microsoft Windows NT Server, Systems Management Server, and either SQL Server 6.0 or CA-OpenIngres. The two companies said they will collaborate to add components from CA-Unicenter/ICE (Internet Commerce Enabled) and Microsoft Internet Information Server. The product will be manufactured by Microsoft and marketed by Computer Associates. CA-Unicenter/ICE is a network and systems management product to provide security and management for Web servers, clients and the networks that connect them. Microsoft Internet Server lets users share information interactively within a company or across the Internet. Gates said Microsoft will offer free Internet "add-ons" sometime next year for its Windows 95 and Windows NT products, and demonstrated test versions of some of those add-ons, which are designed to allow users to more easily Web pages or to organize a Web page into a nest of folders. The add-ons will be distributed over the Internet at no cost and will also be pre-installed by some PC makers. The stock market apparently saw Microsoft's Internet strategy as workable. In after hours trading yesterday the company's shares were up slightly at 90-5/8. In early morning trading today the stock rose 2-7/8 to 93-3/8. That's higher than Microsoft stock has been since November 15th when it closed at 94. (Jim Mallory/19951208/Press and public contact: Microsoft, 206-882-8080 or 800-426-9400) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 12/08/95 LEGAL Pessimism Grows On Telecom Reform (NEWS)(LEGAL)(WAS)(00021) Pessimism Grows On Telecom Reform 12/08/95 WASHINGTON, D.C., U.S.A., 1995 DEC 8 (NB) -- The clock is running out of time for action this year and pessimism is growing about the ability of Congress to complete action on legislation to rewrite the nation's basic communications law. A House-Senate conference committee need scheduled yesterday to work on some of the most contentious items in the two telecommunications reform bills was canceled. According to congressional staff members, the issue that is proving most difficult is the terms of competition between the local telephone companies and long-distance providers. Complicating the matter is that the short-run funding for the federal government expires next week and Congress will be plunged once again into the budget battles. "They can get it done before Christmas," a lobbyist working on the legislation told Newsbytes, "but it is getting tougher and tougher. If they don't make major progress next week, then I doubt whether they can do it this year." The Clinton administration would just as soon see the legislation kicked into 1996 and the presidential election campaign. Vice President Al Gore wants to kill the legislation, and believes that is the best way to do it without a bruising veto fight. Prior to the canceled meeting, a compromise was beginning to emerge over the competition issue. On the table is the question of when the baby Bell companies can go after the long-distance market. Both the Senate and House bills would make it easy for the regional Bell companies to compete for long-distance service. But the long-distance carriers have been mounting a major lobbying campaign, arguing that the Bells should not be allowed to chase the new business until the long-distance carriers can compete for local service. According to congressional sources, the compromise would fuzz the issue by declaring that the Bell company must face "viable" competition in local markets before it can go after the long-distance market. The legislation would not define viable. So far, the conferees have reached agreement on a relatively few subjects. The conferees have agreed to side step cable deregulation, by phasing in the repeal of price regulation over three years. They also agreed to require new television sets to contain the V-chip, computer technology that allows parents to identify programs that have high levels of sexual or violent content. House conferees have also agreed to tough language on pornography on the Internet, bringing the House bill quite close to the Senate legislation on this subject. (Kennedy Maize/19951208) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 12/08/95 GOVT BSA Calls For Encryption Export Increase (NEWS)(GOVT)(WAS)(00022) BSA Calls For Encryption Export Increase 12/08/95 WASHINGTON, D.C., U.S.A., 1995 DEC 8 (NB) -- The Business Software Alliance has called for a "cost of cracking adjustment" in US policy on export of computer software. The adjustment would be an increase in the length of encryption keys that would be allowed to be exported, to track the increase in computing power. Robert Holleyman, BSA president, made the recommendation at a conference sponsored by the National Institute of Standards and Technology. Holleyman called for an automatic key length increase of two bits every three years, given that computing power for the same cost doubles every 18 months. The BSA chief also called for an immediate increase in key lengths -- now limited to 48 bits -- to meet the worldwide standard, known as "data encryption standard" or DES. Holleyman said that, if software companies were permitted to use DES on generally available software exports, the companies would provide information about the programs to the National Security Agency under a non-disclosure agreement. Holleyman continued to hammer at administration export policy which prohibits US publishers from selling software abroad if it contains strong encryption capabilities. "US export law will continue to inhibit the continued success of US industry, thus threatening one of America's fastest growing industries and many American jobs," he said. According to Holleyman, the administration appears to be using the export issue to deal with domestic law enforcement concerns about encryption. "If the government feels that domestic use of encryption needs to be regulated or a 'back door' needs to be provided to domestic law enforcement, then it should raise the issue with Congress and not try to impose such a policy via the export laws," he said. "Serious constitutional issues are raised by such an effort, and such policy should not be forced on US citizens under the guise of export policy." Holleyman said continued delay in providing relief on the export issue is unnecessary and risky. "It is unnecessary because it cannot advance national security interests when strong encryption is available on the Internet and through our foreign competitors," he said. "It is risky because it will force US industry to stand on the sidelines as we enter this new era of computing, resulting in lost American jobs, and delayed development of the global information infrastructure." There is a possibility that Congress could intervene in the dispute and enact a change in export policy, BSA spokeswoman Diane Smiroldo told Newsbytes. "There are rumors about legislation being dropped in the hopper," she said, while acknowledging that time is very tight for a legislative fix. (Kennedy Maize/19951208/Press Contact: Diane Smiroldo, 202-872-5500) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 12/08/95 ONLINE More On Yankee Group's Internet Predictions (NEWS)(ONLINE)(BOS)(00023) More On Yankee Group's Internet Predictions 12/08/95 NEW YORK, NEW YORK, U.S.A., 1995 DEC 8 (NB) -- The Internet is headed for a major shakeout, in which telephone companies will rise to the fore with packaged content and navigational help for consumers, connectivity and directory services for businesses, and access and electronic commerce for consumers and businesses alike, predicted analysts from the Yankee Group, at a press conference attended by Newsbytes in New York City. By the year 2000, the Internet will become a "playground for Everyman," where technology is "invisible" and availability is guaranteed, said Howard Anderson. In this new world, though, "capitalism will rule, for better or for worse," according to Anderson, who is managing director of the Yankee Group's new Interactive Commerce program. Also over the next five years, the numbers of Internet users will climb from just over 50 million today, to more than 200 million, said the company. Meanwhile, consumers will come to constitute 40 to 45 percent of all users, in contrast to about 25 percent at present, Anderson noted. But for the online industry to move beyond the "early adopters" phase, new services must be developed, and much of the progress in this direction will come from phone companies, according to the Yankee Group experts, who addressed journalists in sessions at both the @Cafe in New York City and the Cybercafe in Cambridge, Massachusetts. The creation of electronic commerce services will be critical in both the consumer and business markets, Anderson told the journalists in New York City. As previously reported in Newsbytes, Gregory Wester, research director for the Interactive Commerce program, said that, on the consumer side, the number of early adopters, or "TAFs" (technologically advanced families), who can be expected to move to online services has just about reached the saturation point. Likewise, on the business front, the numbers of servers being added to the Web is now beginning to slow for the first time, maintained Stephen Franco, program manager, Interactive Commerce. But when it comes to consumers, online services are still "highly skewed to the TAF segment," which represents only 16 percent of the general population, according to Wester. The TAFs are not "propeller heads or computerphiles," he continued. Members of this group tend to be early adopters of all types of technologies, including consumer electronics. But the TAFs also constitute a "psychographic/demographic cohort" that does not represent consumers at large. For one thing, average family income among the TAFs exceeds $50,000. For another, TAFs are much more likely than other families to be "heavy PC users," logging on to their computers three or more days per week. And in yet another point of distinction, TAFs are far less probable than other families to "drop" an online service once they have tried it out. The conclusion to be drawn, Wester said, is that, up to now, online services have appealed mainly to TAFs. "But selling to the non-TAF market means selling to less frequent (PC) users." These "less frequent users" are unlikely to enjoy "surfing the Web," the research director pointed out. Instead, online service providers will need to become "content packagers," offering content services that can be easily accessed by consumers either as a series of linked "stores," or in centralized "shopping malls." In providing these packaged Web services, he added, phone companies like AT&T and MCI will be in the better position than either cable companies or online service providers like Compuserve, America Online (AOL) and Prodigy, because the phone companies' brand names are so well ensconced among the general public. But the commercial online service providers are also starting to migrate some of their services to the Web, Wester noted, forecasting that AOL will eventually move its entire "AOL brand name" into the space on the Web currently occupied by AOL's new Global Network Navigator (GNN). Directory services such as Yahoo! and InfoSeek are also leveraging content services on the Web, according to Wester. Banks such as Citibank are able to leverage public images of "security." On the business side, the growth in commercial Web sites has slowed to 2.8 percent per week this quarter, Franco told the journalists. Meanwhile, however, the future will also hold much deeper "enterprise penetration," with the numbers of enterprise providing Web connectivity to 76 percent to 100 percent of their employees projected to rise from just over ten percent today to more than 30 percent within the next three years. But although their Internet migration plans are "aggressive," most corporations today are still in the "early trial" phase, accessing applications such as e-mail, newsgroups and the Web over dial-up lines at 14.4 megabits-per-second (Mbps) or less, and so far finding no "strategic value" from the Internet. Only 12 percent of the enterprises interviewed by the Yankee Group said they foresee "strong ROI (return on investment)" from Internet migration and merely 19 percent responded that they expect the Internet to bring "significant improvement" to their businesses, Franco added. But nevertheless, over 70 percent of these companies expect to have reached "intermediate or advanced" stages of Web migration by 1999. In the intermediate stage, companies will have "advanced Web sites," which will include "basic integration with legacy systems," together with Internet access at rates of 56 Mbps to T1. In the advanced phase, migration will include Web sites with "advanced integration, transactions and multimedia," and access will evolve to T1 to T3 dedicated lines. Franco echoed the prediction that phone companies will assume an increasingly dominant position on the Internet, pinpointing 1996 as the time when consolidation will begin. Once the MFJ restrictions are lifted, the RBOCs (regional Bell operating companies) will start to assume access from "Mom and Pop" Internet service providers, although some medium-sized players, such as UUNet and BBN, look likely to remain in the market, according to Franco. During a Q&A with reporters that followed, Franco said that corporations are also in need of Internet directory services, citing AT&T and Novell's newly launched AT&T NetWare Connect Service (ANCS) as an example of this kind of service. Anderson and Wester acknowledged that cable companies, with their wider bandwidth, will also find Web-related opportunities in the consumer market. But regardless of the "width of the pipe," attractive content will be essential, Wester said, pointing to VRML and Java as some of the technologies that will make content delivered to PCs more compelling. (Jacqueline Emigh/19951207/Reader And Press Contact: The Yankee Group, 617-367-1000) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 12/08/95 GENERAL Personnel Roundup (NEWS)(GENERAL)(MSP)(00024) Personnel Roundup 12/08/95 MINNEAPOLIS, MINNESOTA, U.S.A., 1995 DEC 8 (NB) -- In today's roundup of personnel changes, not covered elsewhere by Newsbytes: Design Edge, Harris Corp., CompUSA, Symantec Corp., Spectrum HoloByte Inc., IQ Software, Computervision Corp., Creative Technology Ltd., CompuServe Inc. Larry Barbera has been appointed industrial design manager for Design Edge (512-477-5491), a product design and development firm. He was previously senior design manager and industrial design manager of imaging and computer product lines at Apple Computer. Prior to his 8-year stint at Apple, Barbera was the design project manager of Desktop Products with Hewlett-Packard's Corporate Industrial Design Group. Harris Corp. has named Joseph Tsui managing director (telecoms) for its Greater China region. Harris, a US company with global revenues of over US$3 billion, said the move signals more expansion in its China operation, now 20 years old. Tsui was a co-founder of Hong Kong's Tricom where he was president of its telecoms unit. He also worked with US-based Stromberg Carlson, Canada's Northern Telecom and Mitel Asia. Clinton T. Newby Jr., has joined CompUSA (NYSE:CPU - 703-277-3100) as senior director, Government and Education Sales. Newby, who holds a B.A. in Economics from Syracuse University, currently resides in McLean, Va., with his wife and two sons. Symantec Corp., (Nasdaq: SYMC - 408-446-7142) announced the appointment of several current executives to new positions within the software company, reporting to Gordon E. Eubanks, Jr., president and chief executive officer (CEO). John C. Laing, currently executive vice president of worldwide sales, is assuming responsibility for all of Symantec's desktop utilities software products. Ted Schlein, vice president, enterprise solutions, continues to be responsible for Symantec's Norton series of utilities designed for networks of computers. Dana Siebert, Symantec's current vice president, services, will now direct and lead the Symantec sales effort worldwide, assuming all of Laing's former responsibilities. He will manage Symantec's sales and distribution activities, with responsibility to develop and expand business opportunities domestically and internationally. In separate news, Joseph Shepela, 50, has joined Symantec as vice president, human resources. Shepela's previous appointments included top human-resource management positions with First Pacific Networks, Quantum, Apple, and Hewlett-Packard. Interactive entertainment software publisher Spectrum HoloByte Inc. (Nasdaq: SBYT - 510-814-6336) announced the appointment of William E. Meyer, C.P.A. as corporate controller. Meyer, 33, will oversee the corporate accounting function for the company. Most recently, he was vice president of Finance for SBT Accounting Systems. Meyer is a Certified Public Accountant and holds a B.S. in Business Administration, Accounting from California State University, Sacramento. IQ Software (Nasdaq: IQSW - 770-446-8880) has announced the resignation of Matthew C. Reedy, as an officer of the company, effective December 15, 1995. Reedy will remain a director of the company, and will become a consultant to the company. Computervision Corp. (NYSE: CVN - 617-275-1800) has announced that Kathleen A. Cote was named president and chief operating officer. Cote will report directly to Russell E. Planitzer, Computervision's chairman and chief executive officer. Cote, 46, joined Computervision in 1986 as vice president of manufacturing and in November, 1987, she was made a corporate officer. In August, 1989, she was appointed vice president of worldwide services, heading up Computervision's Services Business Unit. In February, 1994, her role expanded to include marketing and corporate communications, in addition to heading up the company's operating committee. Creative Technology Ltd. (Nasdaq: CREAF - 65-870-0449) says that Mr. Ng Kai Wa has resigned as a director of the company and vice-chairman of the board with effect from December 1, 1995. CompuServe Inc. (212-872-8190) has announced the appointment of Howard Blumenthal as editor-in-chief of the company's major new online venture -- Project WOW! Blumenthal will lead the editorial direction and content development of CompuServe's consumer-targeted online service. Blumenthal is best known as the creator and senior producer of the Peabody and Emmy award-winning PBS television series "Where In The World Is Carmen Sandiego?" In addition, he was one of the creators and production consultant of MTV's hit series "Remote Control." As senior vice president of Kidsoft Inc., he was responsible for all aspects of production for the company's quarterly CD-ROM magazine and oversaw the development of the company's online presence. (Ian Stokell/19951208) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 12/08/95 TRENDS AER's 12-hour Battery For HP OmniBook (NEWS)(TRENDS)(DEN)(00025) AER's 12-hour Battery For HP OmniBook 12/08/95 SMYRNA, GEORGIA, U.S.A., 1995 DEC 8 (NB) -- AER Energy Resources Inc. (NASDAQ: AERN) has announced it is shipping a zinc-air battery for the Hewlett-Packard OmniBook notebook computers that can run the notebook PCs for up to 12 continuous hours between charges. #IMAGE 1 20 TWPCX \images\95120825.PCX Click here for photo That's a considerable improvement over nickel cadmium (NiCad), nickel metal hydride (NiMH), and lithium ion batteries, which according to AER, typically provide only two to four hours of run-time between charges. The drawback to the zinc-air battery is that it is not a direct replacement for the OmniBook's original battery. Instead, the Powerslice attaches to the underside of the computer. The battery is designed in such a manner that it slides onto the Omnibook without the need for any additional clamps or hook-and-loop tape. Together the PC and the battery have a combined weight of 7.3 pounds, but neither the weight nor the additional thickness of the combined unit are perceived as a drawback when compared to the longer runtime, according to Dave Williams, product manager for HP's Mobile Computing division which makes the OmniBook PCs. "The 12-hour battery option has the potential to be a competitive advantage when customers are comparing various mobile systems," said Williams. The Powerslice LX includes a battery gauge that estimates the percent of charge remaining in the battery. It can be recharged using the Omnibook's standard AC adapter, and it has a tray that slides out to support the integral Omnibook mouse. An ergonomic hand rest for typing comfort is built in to the power unit and unlike NiCad batteries there is no "memory effect" if the battery is recharged before its power is completely depleted. It also has a low self-discharge rate so it is ready to use right out of the box. The LX has a suggested retail price of $399. AER's zinc air battery is an "air breathing" system that relies on oxygen from the air to support the reactions that generate electricity. The company said its zinc air battery has the highest energy density by weight of any portable computer battery technology currently on the market. While the Powerslice LX is designed specifically for the Omnibook family, an AER spokesperson told Newsbytes the company will release a more generic version of the zinc air battery in the first quarter of 1996 that will run several brands of computers. So far the unit has been successfully tested with IBM, Dell, and Toshiba units. The "generic" battery will connect to the PC via a cable and is expected to have the same suggested retail price as the LX being shipped this week. AER recently completed a $10.6 million private placement of convertible debentures, with the money earmarked for research and development, to expand manufacturing capacity when needed, and to support sales activities. (Jim Mallory/19951208/Press contact: Judy Morris, Crescent Communications, 404-698-8650; Public contact: AER Energy, 800-769-3720/POWER951208/PHOTO) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 12/08/95 NETWORK US Robotics UK Division Commissions Networking Survey (NEWS)(NETWORK)(LON)(00026) US Robotics UK Division Commissions Networking Survey 12/08/95 SLOUGH, BERKSHIRE, ENGLAND, 1995 DEC 8 (NB) -- According to a report commissioned by US Robotics' new UK systems division, 80 percent of corporate network managers in the UK rate dial-up remote access and WAN (wide area network) connectivity as a priority issue which must be considered within the next 12 months. According to Craig Coward, a spokesperson for US Robotics, the survey was carried out by Computer Intelligence Europe during October and targeted international companies with a minimum of 25 data processing locations and 20,000 staff, as well as companies in the financial sector with a minimum of 100 staff. "The report was commissioned to show USR which direction the new systems division should pursue for new business. The results were quite interesting, as they showed that there is a significant trend towards outsourcing of staff functions -- something that remote network systems actively support," he told Newsbytes. According to the report, 62 percent of respondents expect that their bandwidth needs will increase as demands for remote connectivity increase in the next 18 months, rising by another 17 percent over 18 months. The survey took a cross-section of 140 UK network managers in a bid to understand the issues and demands they face, and to establish the true state of networking in the corporate sector in the UK. 61 percent of the sample said that remote access facilities are currently an important part of their networking solutions. However, the report notes that, when respondents were asked how important remote access will be in the future, this rating increases to 76 percent on one years' time, and to 87 percent in five years. Almost 50 percent of respondents said they are not ready for the increased bandwidth requirements expected over the next 18 months. They also report a 25 percent increase in network users, or bandwidth that will result in network peaks and overload. In terms of managing the additional traffic generated by the expected numbers of remote sites, and users connecting to their networks, 50 percent of respondents said that they will need to implement network management tools to cope. At present network tools were used only by half of the companies surveyed, and current usage in these companies covers only basic administration needs. Most network support, the report notes, shows that support is undertaken by internal staff. On the remote applications front, the survey indicated that current remote access applications are divided between connection to LANs at remote sites (75 percent), connecting individual teleworkers (60 percent), connecting mobile staff (69 percent), communications with clients (51 percent) and communications with suppliers (37 percent). The firms surveyed have an average of between four and six networked sites per enterprise. While the majority of organizations have relatively low numbers of remote users -- typically around 15 per site -- the survey projects almost 1,700 companies in the UK with a mean figure of 600 remote users. According to Coward, the survey highlighted the networking and supplier issues which large organizations rate as most important. These included security and data integrity (92 percent), 24-hour backup and support (73 percent), supplier's financial stability (72 percent), UK/European commitment (64 percent), suppliers' ability to provide a range of products (63 percent), and one stop shopping facilities (63 percent). Kurst Christopherson, USR's UK systems systems division marketing manager, said that, in order to provide the bandwidth necessary to service the growth in remote access, ISDN (integrated services digital network) integration with analog dial-up connectivity is seen to be of growing importance. 73 percent of the respondents said they plan to mix ISDN with modems, and 71 percent rate as important the ability to pool modems with ISDN links on a central basis to handle dialup. "This highlights the importance of having a coherent remote access strategy with a smooth migration path to ISDN and a means of accommodating both analog and digital dial-up in a single solutions, as demonstrated by USR's own ISDN strategy," Christopherson explained. 87 percent of respondents also felt that it was very important to have remote access fully integrated with their existing networking infrastructure. "This reflects the complexity of integration issues, as well as the need for reliable solutions," he said. "Network managers both want and need to be able to integrate current networks with predicted future solutions," he added. (Steve Gold/19951208/Press Contact: The Edge Partnership +44-1625- 511966; Reader Contact: US Robotics +44-1753-813890; Fax +44-1753- 831527) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 12/08/95 TRENDS Gateway 2000 Europe To Open Tech Support On Christmas Day (NEWS)(TRENDS)(LON)(00027) Gateway 2000 Europe To Open Tech Support On Christmas Day 12/08/95 DUBLIN, IRELAND, 1995 DEC 8 (NB) -- Gateway 2000 Europe has announced plans to open its technical support operation on Christmas Day, December 25, this year. According to John Shepheard, the company's UK and Ireland general manager, the decision to open on Christmas Day was taken as the company expects many new users of Gateway PCs will be unwrapping their systems on that day. "Opening technical support on the 25th was an easy decision to make. Given the number of customers who will unwrap their Gateway 2000 PCs for the first time on Christmas Day, they can be assured that should they need any questions answered, one of our support technicians will be on hand to help," he explained, adding that the tech support lines will open on Christmas Day from 8am to 5:30pm. According to the company, it expects a significant number of purchasers of the firm's PCs to come from the consumer market, rather than the business market. It bases this on the premise that it has this month started bundling multimedia software with its systems. The multimedia-bundled systems are known as the Family PCs and, along with Windows 95 as standard, the systems come with the Microsoft Generations bundle, Superscape's Virtual Reality application and an extensive games bundle. The Generations bundle includes Encarta 95, Works for Windows 95, Money for Windows 95, Publisher for Windows 95, Golf 2.0, Cinemania 95, the MS Entertainment Pack, MS-Bob, Julia Child (a chef's package) and Music Central. The games bundle, meanwhile, consists of Bioforge from Electronic Arts (EA), Descent from Interplay, FIFA Soccer and Hi Octane from EA, Super Carts from Virgin and Terminal Velocity from Formgen. (Steve Gold/19951207/Press Contact: Text 100 +44-181-242-4111; Reader Contact: Gateway 2000 Europe +353-1-797-2000; Fax +353-1-848-2000) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 1995 12/08/95 TRENDS Philippines - $80.7 Mil In PCs Sold In First Half (NEWS)(TRENDS)(HKG)(00028) Philippines - $80.7 Mil In PCs Sold In First Half 1995 12/08/95 MANILA, PHILIPPINES, 1995 DEC 8 (NB) -- Some serious shopping for personal computers has been going on in the Philippines. According to the International Data Corporation (IDC), a market research and consulting firm on the information technology industry, 59,595 PC units worth $80.7 million pesos were sold in the Philippines during the January to June period of 1995. This was one of the key findings of a survey conducted by IDC on the Philippines' systems market. Total PC revenues in the first half of 1995 surpassed that of the first half of 1994 by more than 50 percent. IDC attributes the brisk sales of PCs to the "recent upbeat performance" of the Philippine economy which "has fueled the expectation of further economic expansion and encouraged acquisition of capital equipment, including computers, by various industries." The IDC report further notes that "branded PC vendors have raised their share to total PC sales by implementing a more aggressive pricing strategy combined with intensified sales efforts and use of more channel partners." In the first half of 1995, branded PCs captured 68 percent of the market, a 5 percent increase from the first half of 1994's 63 percent. In a related and recently published study on the Philippine PC market in 1994, IDC found that 99,750 PCs worth $109.7 million were sold locally. IDC identified that of the total amount of PC units sold in the country last year, 89.5 percent or 61,462 units were desktops; 8.4 percent or 5,738 units were portables (notebooks, sub-notebooks, laptops), and 2 percent or 1,393 units were servers. The 486-based PCs made up 68 percent of the units sold, the Pentiums 1.2 percent, and the 386-based PCs, 29.1 percent. Small businesses claimed the largest percentage of the local PC market, purchasing 39.5% of the total units shipped. Medium and large business sections accounted for the second and third highest market shares in units. Medium businesses acquired 33.1% of the total units, while 16.5 % went to large businesses. The home segment ranked fourth largest share in the Philippine PC market with 4% of the total units shipped. The PC shopping spree in the Philippines is in line with IDC's projections that in the PC market, the Asia Pacific region (without Japan) "will represent the highest growth area worldwide for the 1995- 1999 forecast period." In 1994, the region accounted for 10.7 percent of worldwide volume, a percentage projected to reach 15.8 percent in 1999." The Philippines is one of the emerging markets in the Asia Pacific region's "growth engine." Other emerging markets are Vietnam, China, India, Malaysia, and Indonesia. The Asia Pacific region also includes large country markets such as Australia and Korea, and the smaller, economically vibrant markets of Singapore and Hongkong. According to IDC, "Increased competition in 486s has led to larger supply, and lower prices are a big factor in current markets. A growing consumer market, multimedia PCs, color notebooks, and a strong surge in the low-end server market have also contributed to growth and will continue to do so. Another growth factor is channel expansion. Major vendors are expected to increase their market share in the region by widening the geographical spread of their shipments in the region in order to grow economies of scale and market share." (May Jurilla/19951208/Press Contact: Dilip Shrivastava, IDC Philippines, tel 632-924-2845, fax 632-924-6840; 54 A. Roces Sr. Ave, corner Sct. Santiago St., Quezon City, Metro Manila, Philippines, Internet e-mail dilips@netcom.com) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 12/08/95 GENERAL Newsbytes Week In Review (NEWS)(GENERAL)(MSP)(00029) Newsbytes Week In Review 12/08/95 MINNEAPOLIS, MINNESOTA, U.S.A., 1995 DEC 8 (NB) -- This is a look at the top stories this week, listing with their category code: Netscape & Sun Announce JavaScript; Netscape Shockwave Plug-In Makes Video Easier; MAID's Online Database/Internet Integration; Compuserve To Allow For Other Web Browser Use; Silicon Graphics/Sun/Netscape To Merge Web Technologies; Macromedia & @Home Team On Fast Internet Multimedia; US West Amends Time Warner Suit, Alleges Secret Deal; Silicon Graphics Develops 3-D Cosmo Web Technology; Web Frenzy in San Francisco; Spindler Demos Apple's Pippin Through TV Screen; UK Jailings After ATM Card Cloners Caught Red-Handed; Speed Key To New Multimedia Web Alliance; Japan - Govt Panel Proposes NTT Breakup; Microsoft Unveils Revised Internet Strategy; House Conferees Back Tough Cyberporn Provisions; IBM Plans Java For Operating Systems, Web Servers; Dataquest Study Foresees Silicon Shortages; Growth Of The Web Starting To Slow. Netscape & Sun Announce JavaScript (ONLINE) MOUNTAIN VIEW, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1995 DEC 4 (NB) -- Sun Microsystems (NASDAQ:SUNW) and Netscape Communications (NASDAQ:NSCP) have announced a new programming language for creating and customizing computer network and Internet software applications, called JavaScript. The new language is designed to work with both Sun's Java and the hypertext markup language (HTML) to create interactive content for the Internet and other networks, officials said. Netscape Shockwave Plug-In Makes Video Easier (ONLINE) SAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1995 DEC 4 (NB) -- Macromedia (NASDAQ:MACR), a leading developer of design and authoring software for multimedia presentations, has announced the availability of a Netscape Navigator Plug-in for Shockwave content. Introduced at a recent Macromedia user conference, Shockwave was developed to bring full multimedia content to the World Wide Web. MAID's Online Database/Internet Integration (ONLINE) LONDON, ENGLAND, 1995 DEC 5 (NB) -- MAID (the Marketing Analysis Information Database) has announced it has cracked the technical challenge of interfacing its online business databases with the Internet. According to Paula Feery, a spokesperson for the company, while many other online database services have a presence on the Internet, there is no integration between the service and the World Wide Web pages. Compuserve To Allow For Other Web Browser Use (ONLINE) COLUMBUS, OHIO, U.S.A., 1995 DEC 5 (NB) -- Compuserve said it will implement an open standards strategy when it comes to its members using the Internet and the World Wide Web. The online service announced its subscribers will soon be able to use any Web browser in connection with its network. Silicon Graphics/Sun/Netscape To Merge Web Technologies (ONLINE) SAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1995 DEC 5 (NB) -- Silicon Graphics (NYSE:SGI) said it is teaming with several companies on different aspects of multimedia Internet World Wide Web content. The company said it will work with Sun Microsystems (NSADAQ:SUNW) and Netscape Communications Corp. (NASDAQ:NSCP) to merge certain three-dimensional (3-D) and multimedia Web interactivity, and team with Sun and Macromedia to define an open set of multimedia formats and application programming interfaces (APIs). Macromedia & @Home Team On Fast Internet Multimedia (ONLINE) SUNNYVALE, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1995 DEC 5 (NB) -- Macromedia, a producer of multimedia and digital arts software, and @Home, a provider of high-speed data to homes via a cable connection to a personal computer, will work together to provide full multimedia on the World Wide Web. Using Macromedia's Shockwave for Director and high-speed Internet access similar to what @Home will be offering beginning with its Spring 1996 launch in Sunnyvale, California, the two companies will use @Home's multimedia user interface and links to numerous Web sites with live multimedia content. US West Amends Time Warner Suit, Alleges Secret Deal (LEGAL) ENGLEWOOD, COLORADO, U.S.A., 1995 DEC 5 (NB) -- US West (NYSE: UMG) has asked a Delaware court to block the proposed merger of Time Warner and Turner Broadcasting System (TBS). US West said the merger would, in effect, dismantle the Time Warner Entertainment partnership, which would adversely impact US West's $2.5 billion investment in that partnership. Silicon Graphics Develops 3-D Cosmo Web Technology (ONLINE) SAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1995 DEC 5 (NB) -- Silicon Graphics (NYSE:SGI) has announced its new Cosmo product at the WebInnovation Conference in San Francisco. Cosmo is described as a set of advanced technologies using interactive multimedia and three-dimensional (3-D) graphics to the Internet's World Wide Web. Web Frenzy in San Francisco (ONLINE) SAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1995 DEC 6 (NB) -- At least one thousand hopefuls who wanted to get into WebInnovation, a conference devoted to the latest in Web programming, had to be turned away, according to Interactive Marketing Communications, of Capistrano Beach, CA, the conference producer. Spindler Demos Apple's Pippin Through TV Screen (APPLE) CUPERTINO, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1995 DEC 6 (NB) -- Critics call them dumb terminals, while supporters say they are the "next wave" of computing. This week Apple's chief executive officer (CEO), Michael Spindler, demonstrated Pippin, a multimedia computer which uses a television to display content. UK Jailings After ATM Card Cloners Caught Red-Handed (LEGAL) LONDON, ENGLAND, 1995 DEC 6 (NB) -- A father and his son were jailed this week for, respectively, four and two years, after the pair were caught "red-handed" with more than 200 forged ATM (automated teller machine) cards in their pockets while visiting Kings Lynn, a city in the East of England. Speed Key To New Multimedia Web Alliance (ONLINE) SAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A. 1995 DEC 7 (NB) -- In about a year or so, it will be easier to put up World Wide Web sites that combine elements of virtual reality and interactivity. Japan - Govt Panel Proposes NTT Breakup (TELECOM) TOKYO, JAPAN, 1995 DEC 7 (NB) -- A panel set up by the Japanese government has reported its recommendations for areas that require deregulation, including industries from automobile maintenance to home building and, most importantly, the telecommunications industry. Microsoft Unveils Revised Internet Strategy (ONLINE) REDMOND, WASHINGTON, U.S.A., 1995 DEC 7 (NB) -- Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ: MSFT) is revealing its new Internet strategy today, and is expected to put the Microsoft Network (MSN) subscription service on the Internet and give much of its content away without cost. House Conferees Back Tough Cyberporn Provisions (LEGAL) WASHINGTON, D.C., U.S.A., 1995 DEC 7 (NB) -- Civil libertarians took a beating yesterday as House lawmakers agreed to make it illegal to knowingly transmit "indecent" material to minors over computer networks. The House conferees to the telecommunications rewrite voted 17-16 for the tough indecency standard. IBM Plans Java For Operating Systems, Web Servers (IBM) NEW YORK, NEW YORK, U.S.A., 1995 DEC 7 (NB) -- IBM's newly unveiled agreement to license Java technology from Sun Microsystems will result in the use of Java on Web server technology for all IBM operating environments, along with Microsoft's Windows and Windows NT, said IBM's John Patrick, during a bicoastal IBM videoconference attended by Newsbytes in New York City. Dataquest Study Foresees Silicon Shortages (TRENDS) SAN JOSE, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1995 DEC 7 (NB) -- A recent Dataquest report confirms worries about polysilicon shortages mentioned frequently at this year's SemiCon 95 conference in San Francisco. A shortage of the raw material for manufacturing semiconductors will give silicon companies high market pricing power through the remainder of this decade, suggests the Dataquest report. Growth Of The Web Starting To Slow (TRENDS) NEW YORK, NEW YORK, U.S.A., 1995 DEC 7 (NB) -- Contrary to the projections of some industry observers, early growth of the Web is not in a seemingly endless upward spiral, but is in fact beginning to flatten out already, asserted analysts from the Yankee Group's newly formed Interactive Commerce service, at a Yankee Group press conference attended by Newsbytes in New York City. (Ian Stokell/19951208) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 12/08/95 GENERAL Labels Meant To Match CD-ROM Software To Hardware (NEWS)(GENERAL)(TOR)(00030) Labels Meant To Match CD-ROM Software To Hardware 12/08/95 ANNAPOLIS, MARYLAND, U.S.A., 1995 DEC 8 (NB) -- The Interactive Multimedia Association (IMA) has announced a labeling plan meant to help CD-ROM buyers make sure the titles they buy will work with their computers. The IMA said it hopes its CD-Match program will reduce retail returns of multimedia titles, currently running at about 30 percent. The program will put standardized labels on CD-ROM software, indicating the hardware and software needed to run each disk. The label will list requirements under eight headings: operating system, CPU type and speed, hard drive space, memory, graphics, CD-ROM speed, audio, and other needs. Since many PC owners may not be sure how their machines stack up on all those counts, the IMA also plans to provide free software that, when run on a PC, will provide a listing of its features in a format that corresponds to the CD-Match label. Ken Christie, the IMA's vice-president of marketing, told Newsbytes this software will also give PC owners a way to check that their new PCS have in fact been delivered with the advertised features. For that reason, and because of complications that would be associated with labeling hardware, the IMA does not foresee CD-Match labels appearing on hardware. Christie said the CD Match labeling system is ready to go and detailed specifications are available to software producers now. The IMA has posted details on its World Wide Web page at http://www.ima.org, including sample labels and the free computer-assessment software, which runs on a variety of platforms. The IMA plans to distribute the free software, which is based on Horizons Technology, Inc.'s LANauditor technology, through other channels as well. Because of the lead time to produce CD-ROM packages, Christie said, few CD-Match labels are likely to be visible on store shelves this holiday buying season. The IMA's goal is to get the program under way in lots of time for the 1996 holiday buying season, he said. (Grant Buckler/19951208/Press Contact: Ken Christie, Interactive Multimedia Association, 317-823-5073, Internet e-mail kchristie@ima.org) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 12/08/95 LEGAL France - Alcatel Senior Managers Under Investigation (NEWS)(LEGAL)(LON)(00031) France - Alcatel Senior Managers Under Investigation 12/08/95 PARIS, FRANCE, 1995 SEP 8 (NB) -- Alcatel CIT, the telecoms hardware and services division of Alcatel, the French telco, has revealed that four of its senior staff have been placed under notice of investigation as part of an ongoing investigation into alleged overbilling practices. According to Alcatel, Gerard Dega, Alcatel CIT's CEO, along with Claude Tournier, a senior board director, and two other senior staffers have been put on notice of investigation. Under Spanish law, such noticed is required under employment practices, although they remain on the company payroll and, for all intents, fully employed by the company. In a prepared statement for the press, Alcatel officials stressed that the notice of investigation is quite routine, and is required so that the Investigating Magistrate in the case, M. Jean-Marie D'Huy, can take their statements. The ongoing billing row, which has been simmering for several months revolves around the alleged overbilling for hardware and allied services to France Telecom, which is thought to be Alcatel CIT's major customer in France. The investigation has already resulted in a successful prosecution of Pierre Guichet, Alcatel CIT's chairman earlier this year. Guichet is now in jail, and Pierre Suard, the chairman of Alcatel itself, has fallen from grace. Newsbytes notes that Dega was formerly an international director of Alcatel CIT, but took over the senior role when Guichet was jailed. The continuing investigation comes in the wake of a worrisome couple of months for Alcatel, Newsbytes notes. In September of this year, with the billing investigation in full swing, the board of Alcatel Alsthom announced a massive reorganization that will allow the company to standardize its products and services both nationally and internationally, across all its divisions. The aim of the changes, which are currently under way, is to cut costs. The sweeping changes have been forced on the telco by the privatization of telecommunications companies in line with European Commission (EC) policy, preparing the way for the January 1, 1998, liberalization of telecoms. Even in the last six months, Newsbytes notes, retail prices on Alcatel's equipment in France has fallen by around 25 percent, and further price cuts in 1996 are expected. Alcatel lost $250 million in the first half of 1995 and total losses for the year are now expected to top the $5 billion mark. Industry experts expect the telco to shed up to 30,000 staff over the next few years, preparing the way for a return to profitability in 1998. (Sylvia Dennis/19951208) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 12/08/95 ONLINE Durand Updates MindWire "Online Services Platform" (NEWS)(ONLINE)(BOS)(00032) Durand Updates MindWire "Online Services Platform" 12/08/95 BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS, U.S.A., 1995 DEC 8 (NB) -- Outside of its ability to provide easy ports between the Web, commercial online services, and LANs (local area networks), Durand Communications' MindWire online services platform is about the only environment available today to allow the deployment of "live applications" on the Web. Andre Durand, CEO, in a meeting with Newsbytes on a Boston press tour that is being held to announce a new 32-bit edition for Windows NT, said that commercial users of MindWire already include Digital Equipment Corp., which is employing the new online environment for an AI-based (artificial intelligence)- based customer service application, and Health Services Corp. of America, a consortium of 1,700 hospitals nationwide that is using MindWire in a contract purchasing application. Meanwhile, CasinoWorld Holdings is using the product to build an "interactive VR (virtual reality) world" for "casino gaming" on the Web, according to Durand. The CEO asserted that MindWare permits any new or existing Windows application, written in any Windows-based programming language, to operate in real time over the Web -- without conversion into HTML (hypertext mark-up language)-- as well as on other online services and internal LANs. The applications can include "interactive VR" as well as programs calling for database access. When the user logs on to the MindWire server, applications are automatically launched and updated on the MindWire client side, according to the company chief. In addition, users can employ the MindWare client to query databases running on the server, "even over the Web, without the use of cludgy CGI (Common Gateway Interface) gateways." Durand explained that the new "online services platform" is based around a layer of middleware that incorporates HTML (hypertext mark-up language) as its "document environment," while adding "client-server" capabilities. During a demo, Durand showed Newsbytes a "connector" button on the MindWire client software that is intended to provide point- and-click access to the Web and other online services, transparent to transport protocols such as TCP/IP (transmission control protocol/internet protocol). Other features of the Windows 3.1-based client include e-mail, messaging, chat, a print menu, a product ordering interface, and a "menu tree" for launching and accessing applications, when the end user is either online or offline. The client is also compatible with Windows 95. The MindWire Server software, currently available in a 16-bit version for Windows NT, includes application, file, and messaging administration capabilities; an "interactive GUI (graphical user interfaces) screen builder;" and an OLE (object-linking-and- embedding)-based API (application programming interface), according to Durand. Durand Communications also offers an optional Database API, with capabilities that include ODBC (Open Database Connectivity) database functionality, server-imposed rules and security, and "rich support for multimedia objects," Newsbytes was told. Although HTML is well suited to use as a "document environment," Netscape and other makers of HTML-based servers and browsers are being unreasonable if they expect "every application on the face of the planet to be rewritten in HTML," he asserted. And when applications written in other languages are translated into HTML through document conversion tools, they tend to lose functionality, he argued. To begin with, HTML was not designed to handle client-server applications. "It's really just a terminal emulator." CGI, the protocol used for database gateways running on the Web, is, if anything, even less well suited to the client-server environment. "CGI is just a glorified file server. ODBC was really designed for what CGI is doing today," Durand contended. In essence, it is by incorporating HTML, but not requiring HTML conversion, and by foregoing CGI all together, that MindWire has become one of the first products to permit the operation of live applications on the Web, he continued. The forthcoming update to MindWire, with a 32-bit Windows NT interface, is slated to ship in two weeks, for pricing starting at $1,495. Also in the future, Durand Communications will embed the Oracle database into its Database API, Durand revealed. (Jacqueline Emigh/19951208/Reader Contact: Durand Communications Network, 805-961-8700; Press Contact: Jennifer Slavin, Durand, 805-961-8700; Kevin R. Ota, Capital Relations for Durand, 805- 494-0830) (SUMMARY)(GENERAL)(MSP)(00033) Newsbytes Daily Summary 12/08/95 MINNEAPOLIS, MINNESOTA, U.S.A., 1995 DEC 8 (NB) -- These are capsules of all today's news stories: 1 -> Japan Newsbriefs 12/08/95 In this roundup of news from Japan, Ex NTT executive found guilty of bribery, portable telephone subscribeRs up in September, electronic newspaper consortium established, Matsushita licences VideoCD software, more cable multimedia experiments planned, Fujitsu adds content to Teleparc. 2 -> ****Internet Update - Christmas Special 12/08/95 So it may not be Christmas quite yet but this year Christmas sites abound on the World Wide Web in much greater numbers than the last two years, with the number of sites in the North Pole almost outnumbering its inhabitants. With all these sites, someone like Sprint must have a backbone running there. 3 -> ****Prodigy Attracts Two NBC Execs 12/08/95 Ed Bennett, Prodigy's president and chief executive officer (CEO), continues to reshape the online service with the addition of two NBC executives. Josh Grotstein and Lisa Simpson have worked together at NBC and come to Prodigy with extensive content development expertise. 4 -> ****Kentucky Company Finds Easy Money On Internet 12/08/95 A Kentucky-based company has found a way to make money out of porn on the Internet no matter what user's needs and opinions. On one hand, Watchdog Productions sells a list of porn on the Internet "to help you stay abreast of all the online resources featuring a sexual content that are now so freely available to everyone" while on the other hand, Kidsafe Productions will sell the same list as an "import source for any blocking software that allows you to block online access to specific internet addresses." 5 -> Citizen To Offer World's Smallest Printer Under $200 12/08/95 Citizen America Corp., announced an entry-level version of its lightweight PN60 portable printer. After removing some of the PN60 features such as color printing, Citizen's new PN50 still offers Thermal Fusion printing and is expected to have a street price of approximately $199. 6 -> Australia - Telstra Names 21 Suppliers For Broadband Project 12/08/95 Telstra has invited 21 Australian IT companies to submit proposals for development of its AUS$40 million interactive broadband services pilot project. The service will use Telstra's cable-TV connections to carry interactive services to home-based TVs and personal computers, the latter carrying data at two to 27 megabits per second, according to a Telstra press statement. 7 -> Czech Republic - Nextel To Be Internet Provider 12/08/95 Nextel, the data networking division of SPT Telecom, recently purchased from Eurotel, announced it is building an ATM backbone and gearing up to become a full-fledged Internet provider. The company is dedicated to providing a full suite of corporate connectivity and network management services as well as information services with X.400-based messaging. 8 -> Australian 'Innovation' To Boost Information Technology 12/08/95 The Australian government plans to spend AUS$24 million developing Australia's high performance computing and communications (HPCC) capabilities, including domestic broadband communications and a $1.2 million broadband link with Japan. 9 -> Ericsson Scores Reward In Euro RACE Project 12/08/95 Ericsson has been presented with an award for the best research product in the European Commission (EC's) RACE (Research and technology development in Advanced Communications technologies in Europe) project. The award for technological achievements was presented by the EC for Ericsson's work on the Multi-Wavelength Transport Network (MWTN), new technologies that will provide the network for broadband services such as videoconferencing and video on demand. 10 -> Philippines' First Computerized Police Force 12/08/95 "The set-up will be a little like 911 in the United States although not as sophisticated. Not yet, anyway," said Augusto Marquez, Intelligence Section (IS) division chief of the Cebu City Police Command (CCPC). This will be the first Philippines city to link police operations by computer. 11 -> Telecom Satellite AsiaSat-2 Launch Successful 12/08/95 On November 28, China successfully launched another telecommunication satellite AsiaSat-2 at Xichang Satellite Launching Center. The satellite will cover more than 50 countries and regions in Asia, Eastern Europe, Australia, and states of the former Soviet Union. 12 -> AT&T Launches India Web 12/08/95 AT&T has launched a new Web site on the Internet called AT&T India Horizons. Visitors to the site can take a virtual tour of Japan, locate Indian restaurants and shops in Chicago, New York or any other place, catch daily headlines from India and the World as well as browse through India-centric information. 13 -> China - Technology Newsbriefs 12/08/95 In this news roundup from China, the country is expected to be the second largest computer market in the world by 2000; consumer electronics exhibition held in Beijing; newspaper CompuWorld's donation to improve education; Oracle holds news conference in Shanghai to show its technology and information solutions. 14 -> ****Compuserve Licenses Microsoft's Web Browser 12/08/95 In a move designed to strengthen its "open" online Internet World Wide Web strategy, Compuserve said it has reached an agreement with Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ:MSFT) to license its "Internet Explorer" Web browser. 15 -> ****Wall Street's Internet Stock Jitters 12/08/95 For the second day in a row, the stocks of several Internet-related companies are way down on Wall Street. Analysts say the reasons for this are a skeptical review of such stocks in the Wall Street Journal, and critical comments regarding several companies by a Smith Barney analyst. 16 -> ****Pac Bell Moves Into Wireless TV 12/08/95 Pacific Bell has announced that it will acquire, for approximately $175 million, all of the stock of Wireless Holdings Inc. (WHI) and Videotron Bay Area Inc. (VBAI). The new wireless networks give Pacific Bell quick access into cable television markets in California, Florida, South Carolina, and Washington. 17 -> Neoglyphics Media Intros Web Technology 12/08/95 Neoglyphics Media Corp. said it has developed a "next-generation" of Internet World Wide Web programming that company officials said will "change the way" information is stored, authored, and transmitted on the Web. The new development also addresses Web tracking and encryption technologies. 18 -> SoftKey Bags Learning Co. 12/08/95 SoftKey International Inc. (NASDAQ:SKEY) has won an acrimonious battle for The Learning Co. (NASDAQ:LRNG) of Fremont, California. 19 -> DVD Consortium Reaches Final Agreement 12/08/95 A group of nine of the world's major electronics companies have reached agreement on a common technical format for video and computer data storage on digital video disks (DVDs). The group began working towards a common system in September and the agreement signals the start of technical development of DVD players and recorders in preparation for a consumer launch late next year. 20 -> ****More On Microsoft's Internet Strategy 12/08/95 Integration and continuity. Those are the words Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ: MSFT) Chairman Bill Gates used during his keynote speech at an all-day briefing session for reporters and analysts to describe Microsoft's newly developed Internet strategy. 21 -> Pessimism Grows On Telecom Reform 12/08/95 The clock is running out of time for action this year and pessimism is growing about the ability of Congress to complete action on legislation to rewrite the nation's basic communications law. 22 -> BSA Calls For Encryption Export Increase 12/08/95 The Business Software Alliance has called for a "cost of cracking adjustment" in US policy on export of computer software. The adjustment would be an increase in the length of encryption keys that would be allowed to be exported, to track the increase in computing power. 23 -> More On Yankee Group's Internet Predictions 12/08/95 The Internet is headed for a major shakeout, in which telephone companies will rise to the fore with packaged content and navigational help for consumers, connectivity and directory services for businesses, and access and electronic commerce for consumers and businesses alike, predicted analysts from the Yankee Group, at a press conference attended by Newsbytes in New York City. 24 -> Personnel Roundup 12/08/95 In today's roundup of personnel changes, not covered elsewhere by Newsbytes: Design Edge, Harris Corp., CompUSA, Symantec Corp., Spectrum HoloByte Inc., IQ Software, Computervision Corp., Creative Technology Ltd., CompuServe Inc. 25 -> AER's 12-hour Battery For HP OmniBook 12/08/95 AER Energy Resources Inc. (NASDAQ: AERN) has announced it is shipping a zinc-air battery for the Hewlett-Packard OmniBook notebook computers that can run the notebook PCs for up to 12 continuous hours between charges. 26 -> US Robotics UK Division Commissions Networking Survey 12/08/95 According to a report commissioned by US Robotics' new UK systems division, 80 percent of corporate network managers in the UK rate dial-up remote access and WAN (wide area network) connectivity as a priority issue which must be considered within the next 12 months. 27 -> Gateway 2000 Europe To Open Tech Support On Christmas Day 12/08/95 Gateway 2000 Europe has announced plans to open its technical support operation on Christmas Day, December 25, this year. According to John Shepheard, the company's UK and Ireland general manager, the decision to open on Christmas Day was taken as the company expects many new users of Gateway PCs will be unwrapping their systems on that day. 28 -> Philippines - $80.7 Mil In PCs Sold In First Half 1995 12/08/95 Some serious shopping for personal computers has been going on in the Philippines. According to the International Data Corporation (IDC), a market research and consulting firm on the information technology industry, 59,595 PC units worth $80.7 million pesos were sold in the Philippines during the January to June period of 1995. 29 -> Newsbytes Week In Review 12/08/95 This is a look at the top stories this week, listing with their category code: Netscape & Sun Announce JavaScript; Netscape Shockwave Plug-In Makes Video Easier; MAID's Online Database/Internet Integration; Compuserve To Allow For Other Web Browser Use; Silicon Graphics/Sun/Netscape To Merge Web Technologies; Macromedia & @Home Team On Fast Internet Multimedia; US West Amends Time Warner Suit, Alleges Secret Deal; Silicon Graphics Develops 3-D Cosmo Web Technology; Web Frenzy in San Francisco; Spindler Demos Apple's Pippin Through TV Screen; UK Jailings After ATM Card Cloners Caught Red-Handed; Speed Key To New Multimedia Web Alliance; Japan - Govt Panel Proposes NTT Breakup; Microsoft Unveils Revised Internet Strategy; House Conferees Back Tough Cyberporn Provisions; IBM Plans Java For Operating Systems, Web Servers; Dataquest Study Foresees Silicon Shortages; Growth Of The Web Starting To Slow. 30 -> Labels Meant To Match CD-ROM Software To Hardware 12/08/95 The Interactive Multimedia Association (IMA) has announced a labeling plan meant to help CD-ROM buyers make sure the titles they buy will work with their computers. The IMA said it hopes its CD-Match program will reduce retail returns of multimedia titles, currently running at about 30 percent. 31 -> France - Alcatel Senior Managers Under Investigation 12/08/95 Alcatel CIT, the telecoms hardware and services division of Alcatel, the French telco, has revealed that four of its senior staff have been placed under notice of investigation as part of an ongoing investigation into alleged overbilling practices. 32 -> Durand Updates MindWire "Online Services Platform" 12/08/95 Outside of its ability to provide easy ports between the Web, commercial online services, and LANs (local area networks), Durand Communications' MindWire online services platform is about the only environment available today to allow the deployment of "live applications" on the Web. (Wendy Woods/19951208) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 12/07/95 BUSINESS UK - Racal Buys British Rail Telecom (NEWS)(BUSINESS)(LON)(00001) UK - Racal Buys British Rail Telecom 12/07/95 LONDON, ENGLAND, 1995 DEC 7 (NB) -- Racal Electronics has announced plans to buy the telecoms division of British Rail (BR). According to Paula Wargen, a spokesperson for Racal, the deal is an ideal one for Racal, since it gives the telco direct access to the fiber optic network that lies beside BR's rail tracks that cross the UK. "The BR network is under-used. We understand that it is only used to 20 percent of its capacity. For Racal, it offers an instant national high capacity network," she told Newsbytes. Newsbytes notes that the acquisition will more than double Racal's network services division, since it adds the 10,000 mile British Rail Telecom (BRT) network to its own. Furthermore, for historical reasons, since BR has rail links to almost every major town and city in the UK, the BRT network has a widely dispersed coverage. BRT reported pre-tax profits of UKP17.6 million on a turnover of UKP174 million in the year to March, 1995. According to Racal, although the company has around 2,800 staff, few redundancies are planned. Ironically, BRT has a ready-built set of customers for Racal, since the British Government's privatization of the railways in the UK means that contracts between BRT and the regional rail operating companies around the UK have already been struck and will run into the next century. Such contracts will pay for the basic upkeep of the network, with Racal then being able to use spare network capacity for its own needs. (Steve Gold/19951206/Press Contact: Louise Charlton, Brunswick PR, +44-171-404-5959; Reader Contact: Racal Group Services, +44-1734-669969) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 12/07/95 ONLINE Compuserve Opens UK Media Forum (NEWS)(ONLINE)(LON)(00002) Compuserve Opens UK Media Forum 12/07/95 BRISTOL, AVON, ENGLAND, 1995 DEC 7 (NB) -- Compuserve UK has opened a media forum for journalists and media people, as well as members of the public. The forum, known as Fleet Street, is accessible using the keywords GO FLEET at the Compuserve menu prompt, or from within Compuserve Information Manager (CIM), Compuserve's graphical front-end package for PC and Apple Macintosh users. According to Jodie Turner, product marketing manager with Compuserve UK, the forum is open to any subscriber of Compuserve and not just those involved in the media. There are private areas for journalists, details of which can be found in the Lobby when accessing the service. The aim of the Fleet Street forum is so that anyone involved in the British media can meet and discuss the burning issues of the day -- as well as find work opportunities. "Fleet Street was always the traditional meeting ground of the British national print press. Although it may no longer exist as an industry location, the notion of somewhere where the media can meet and talk is still very much alive," Turner explained. "By producing an online area such as this, we are providing an environment where all of Britain's press, media and PR community -- from the Shetland Times to the Guernsey Press -- can meet, talk, and discuss issues of relevance to the British media," she said. The forum is being managed by Rupert Goodwins, technical editor of Ziff-Davis' UK PC Magazine who claims he is an experienced online conference moderator, having co-edited the popular Micromouse area on the Prestel Micronet service in the 1980s. "It's very good of Compuserve to provide this place for journalists and PR people to meet, discuss and incessantly argue about all the things that make our professions such fun," he said, adding that the forum will prove a great place "for anyone in the media who's having to grapple with the Internet." (Sylvia Dennis/19951205/Press Contact: Judith Coley, Compuserve, +44-1734-525666, Internet e-mail jcoley@csi.compuserve.com; Reader Contact: Compuserve UK, 0800-000444) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 12/07/95 ONLINE ****Speed Key To New Multimedia Web Alliance (NEWS)(ONLINE)(SFO)(00003) ****Speed Key To New Multimedia Web Alliance 12/07/95 SAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A. 1995 DEC 7 (NB) -- In about a year or so, it will be easier to put up World Wide Web sites that combine elements of virtual reality and interactivity. An example: a department store might be able to put up a virtual site that looks like its sales floor, where every onscreen icon represents a clothing line. Then, via an enhanced Web browser connected to the Web via a 10 megabits-per-second (Mbps) or faster cable modem, one could "enter" the mall, and then shop for a suit by "trying it out on" a virtual reality image of themselves scanned into the computer program. Making this happen will be the marriage of four distinct technologies. These will be: virtual reality, or the life-like manipulation of simulated real-life objects on a computer screen; applet technology, which enables a computer language necessary for these commands to take place; enhanced Web browser technology, which contains enough processing power to handle these integrated applications smoothly; and, of high-speed cable modems which, due to their bandwidth and speed advantage over modem phone lines, are able to support such sophisticated technological convergences. A major new alliance revealed at the Web Innovations conference will go a long way toward making the technology real. To be marketed under the name Cosmo, the alliance will be between: Silicon Graphics, a major vendor and co-inventor of the virtual reality modeling language (VRML), used for three-dimensional (3-D) and other effects for movie studios and television production houses; Netscape Communications Corp., which makes Netscape Navigator Web browsers; and Sun Microsystems, designers of the Java computer programming language that will make this all possible. "Cosmo is all about a lot of business and commercial concepts -- 3-D graphics, multimedia and interactivity," said Tom Jermoluk, president and chief operating officer at Silicon Graphics. The combined set of applications will be sold to the public in future Netscape Navigator browser editions under the name of Cosmo Player, an interactive multimedia viewer. Cosmo MediaBase, will be the software that will enable Web site designers to compose these new set of applications. The three companies think Cosmo will be popular because it allows a home or business user to process these services in real-time, rather than wait on a lengthy download of sound and pictures. "You won't need downloads, but will view these applications within a world of real-time experimental interactivity. The bottom line will be the applets it will let you create in a virtual world," Jermoluk said. Even in real time, however, today's relatively slow phone modems may make access to Cosmo-enabled Web sites slow. That's where the partnership is counting on cable modems. "Bandwidth is getting higher, cheaper and faster. With the fact of cable systems deploying fast Internet access for millions of subscribers, bandwidth will increase over time," added Eric Schmidt, chief technology officer for Sun. "Most people in our industry believe that fiber will be the answer to everything," said Netscape technology chief and Netscape Navigator inventor Mark Andreessen. He said that there is no practical upper limit on the speed of fiber-delivered data, and that speeds of 50 to 75 terabits-per-second would theoretically be possible. One terabit is a trillion bits. For perspective, Most cable modems now on the market will have downstream limits from the site to the home PC of around 30 megabits, or 30 million bits, per second. One word of text is generally about 50 bits of data. A full-screen digitally compressed photo of a television star scanned on to a Web page might be 400,000 megabits. A competing set of services is expected to be announced by Microsoft. Close observers are predicting the multimedia Web war between the two camps will be intense. "This is the steel cage death match -- 'Microsoft versus everybody else,'" said Cliff Cannerghton, vice-president of marketing for Internet access provider and consulting firm BBN Planet. No price was announced for Cosmo Player or Cosmo MediaBase, but both will go on sale by next summer, the companies said. (Russell Shaw/19951206) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 12/07/95 GOVT Canada - No Govt Handouts Please, We're ITAC (NEWS)(GOVT)(TOR)(00004) Canada - No Govt Handouts Please, We're ITAC 12/07/95 OTTAWA, ONTARIO, CANADA, 1995 DEC 7 (NB) -- Rumor has it the Canadian government may be about to offer repayable grants to the information technology (IT) industry, among others. But the Information Technology Association of Canada (ITAC) has told the government it doesn't like the idea. Why would an industry lobby group argue that the government should not give its members money? For one thing, according to ITAC, a balanced budget and lower interest rates will do the industry more good than "nice but non-strategic" government grants. For another thing, according to Bill Munson, a senior policy analyst at ITAC, the industry group believes tax credits are a better idea than grants because they leave decision-making in the hands of the industry rather than the government. ITAC is concerned that grants under the National Technology Investment Program (NTIP) that the government is rumored to be planning might be allocated for political reasons as much as for sound business reasons, Munson told Newsbytes. So, ITAC would rather see the government revitalize an existing tax-credit program for research and development, known as the Scientific Research and Experimental Development (SR&ED) program. Munson said ITAC is concerned that the NTIP, if it goes ahead, might be seen as a replacement for the SR&ED program. ITAC realizes that there are some problems with the existing tax credit program, especially with public perception that the program is subject to abuses. To counter that concern, ITAC wants the government to improve the traceability of funds and make the results more predictable, Munson said. This may require some restrictions on access to the credits, ITAC admitted. A clearer definition of what constitutes an SR&ED project is also needed, the industry association said. Another thing the government can do for the Canadian IT industry, ITAC said, is price federal goods and services more fairly. As an example, the association cited electronic budget documents. Munson said that when the last federal budget was released, paper copies were available for about C$50, but an electronic version cost about 10 times as much. Such pricing discourages the use of electronic forms of information, which handicaps the information technology industry, he said. (Grant Buckler/19951205/Press Contact: Bill Munson, ITAC, 905-602-8345, Internet e-mail bmunson@itac.ca) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 12/07/95 ONLINE Internet Update - Software Special (NEWS)(ONLINE)(TYO)(00005) Internet Update - Software Special 12/07/95 TOKYO, JAPAN, 1995 DEC 7 (NB) -- In this roundup of new software available on the global Internet: Shareware Central; Win,What,Where?; OLE support for Netscape; Sports Shareware; Windows Quick Boot; IDate; Surfer Central; Map This!. Please note that while we have checked the Web sites, the file descriptions are based on those of the authors. Users should check system compatibility before downloading and ensure all files are virus checked once downloaded. Looking For Shareware? If you are after Shareware to do a particular job, this site carries a virtual library of hundreds of thousands of software titles available across the Internet. You can search and browse categories of software and then jump to the archives to download the software. Shareware Central is a service of c:net, the computer network. World Wide Web: http://www.shareware.com/ Win,What,Where? This is a Windows 3 utility that tracks all running applications by monitoring when a program was launched and its duration. Features include multi-user network operation, project tracking to enable monitoring of grouped activities and keyboard and mouse tracking. World Wide Web: http://www.owt.com/basic/ Browser With OLE NCompass, the first browser to support OLE (object linking and embedding), according to the writers, was released in September and now the authors have turned their attention to producing a plug-in for Netscape 2.0 versions for Windows and the Macintosh that adds OLE support. "Using NCompass' OLE control plug-in, real-time interactive multimedia on the Internet becomes a reality," they say. World Wide Web: http://www.excite.sfu.ca/NCompass/ Sports Shareware Sports shareware are promoting a range of programs covering NFL American Football, NBA Basketball, NHL Ice Hockey, the Golf League and even the Lotto. The software is available straight off the net and it makes use of statistics and data that can also be obtained from various, free, Internet sources. World Wide Web: http://www.adsnet.com/conan.brown/index.html Windows Quick Boot Windows Quick Boot is a small utility designed to automate the tasks of exiting and restarting Windows 3.x and Windows 95 versions, as well as rebooting the system. It can be configured to exit, restart or reboot the system automatically at up to 30 different times and also doubles up as a on-screen clock and an alarm clock. World Wide Web: http://137.132.20.132/~ptlabs/wqb.html IDate Never forget that birthday, anniversary, or important date again! IDate, which stands for Important Dates, is a personal organizer which is designed to remind the user of upcoming dates and appointments. With IDate in the StartUp group, IDate reminds users on loading of Windows and even has a special early warning system for those really important dates. World Wide Web: http://137.132.20.132/~ptlabs/id.html Surfer Central If you're forever writing down Internet addresses on scraps of paper and loosing them you need an address manager like Surfer Central. It will keep all your e-mail, World Wide Web, FTP, Gopher, Archie, and Telnet addresses, so you never loose them again. If you have a well- organized Netscape bookmarks file, you can also import it into Surfer Central. World Wide Web: http://www.ee.umanitoba.ca/~waletz/ Map This! A new version of Map This!, a freeware Windows program designed to create, edit, and maintain World Wide Web clickable image maps. A true WYSIWYG (what you see is what you get) program, it supports NSCA, CERN, and Client Side Image Map file formats. The software is a 32-bit program and require Windows 95, Windows NT, or Windows 3.x with win32 support. World Wide Web: http://galadriel.ecaetc.ohio-state.edu/tc/mt/ (Martyn Williams/19951207) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 12/07/95 TELECOM ****Japan - Govt Panel Proposes NTT Breakup (NEWS)(TELECOM)(TYO)(00006) ****Japan - Govt Panel Proposes NTT Breakup 12/07/95 TOKYO, JAPAN, 1995 DEC 7 (NB) -- A panel set up by the Japanese government has reported its recommendations for areas that require deregulation, including industries from automobile maintenance to home building and, most importantly, the telecommunications industry. The panel recommended that Nippon Telegraph and Telephone (NTT) be made more competitive by measures which possibly include its breakup into smaller companies and the scrapping of restrictions which keep NTT, and its competitors, from entering the international market, and keep the international telephone companies from entering the domestic market. The panel, the deregulation subcommittee of the Administrative Reform Committee, is one of the groups that the government is looking to for guidance on what it should do with the telecommunications industry. In its proposal, which was announced today and will be filed with the government later this month, the panel said NTT should be split up to improve competition in the telecommunications field, but provided no proposals of how is should be done, instead recommending the matter be decided by the Telecommunications Council of the Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications. The Telecommunications Council will itself report on the issue in early 1996, with a Ministry decision due before the beginning of the next fiscal year on April 1, 1996. NTT, the world's largest telecommunications company, maintains a monopoly on the local call market in Japan and competes with three other companies, dubbed new common carriers (NCCs), for the long distance market. It, and its domestic competitors, offer no international services. Current suggestions envisage the breakup taking the form of one long distance operator, similar to DDI and Japan Telecom, and local call services split between two to four companies across Japan. In addition to the breakup, the panel also said the distinction between international and domestic telecommunications operators should also be abolished. This would free up NTT, DDI, Japan Telecom, and Teleway Japan, all domestic operators, and KDD, IDC and ITJ, all international operators, to compete with each other in the currently separate markets. While NTT's competitors have been campaigning for deregulation of the domestic telecommunications market, the international operators have been less vocal. At the recent Telecom 95 expo in Geneva, Seisuke Nozaki, corporate director of ITJ told Newsbytes, "If NTT enter the international market we will get damaged." He continued, "We entered under the condition that both markets are separate. When the government throws out the situation, something must be done. You must understand, we entered the market under certain situations and now they want to change the situation." Satoshi Naito, public relations manager at IDC said in Geneva, "It is natural and appropriate for NTT to challenge the domestic market, if NTT joined the international market the NCCs, and maybe KDD, would disappear." Earlier this week, the Keidanren, Federation of Economic Organizations, said a panel discussing the matter was unable to reach a final decision and would continue discussions. The preliminary report did, however, mention there were probably more disadvantages than advantages to a breakup. Some members of the Telecommunications Council have announced their beliefs now the council's meetings have moved from closed to open sessions. Masayo Kato, a leading figure in the Japan Housewives' Association, said the large differences between Japanese and foreign telephone rates must be corrected. A local call in Japan costs around 20 yen ($0.20) for three minutes during the day with long distance calls costing up to 180 yen ($1.80) for three minutes. Among others heard at the meetings, Yusai Okuyama, president of DDI, urged the breakup to help promote fair competition. Isao Okawa, chairman of Sega Enterprises, said such a breakup was "reasonable." For its part, NTT today said a breakup would force telephone charges up because of the expense involved. It estimated, by taking the model of one long distance and two local companies, profits of 253 billion yen ($2.53 billion) and 55 billion yen ($550 million), respectively, would be registered at the long distance and east Japan companies, but the west Japan company would loose 146 billion yen ($1.46 billion). Each company would also be faced with charges of 450 billion yen ($4.5 billion) for establishing new billing centers, rearranging the network, and other charges. The company also claimed it would owe the government over 1.8 trillion yen ($18 billion) in taxes concerned with the transfer of land and property from NTT to the new companies. NTT shares ended the day at 864,000 yen, a rise of 16,000 on the day. The panel announcement was made after markets closed. (Martyn Williams/19951207) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 12/07/95 ONLINE Pay By Electronic Check For Online Purchases (NEWS)(ONLINE)(DEN)(00007) Pay By Electronic Check For Online Purchases 12/07/95 DENVER, COLORADO, U.S.A., 1995 DEC 7 (NB) -- A Denver, Colorado, company says it has developed a system that lets online shoppers pay for their purchases with an electronic check that lets the business collect for the purchase instantly. The system, known as Online Check System, from Audio Check Systems, offers one solution to the hurdle faced by online merchants -- that of providing a secure means of payment that can't be intercepted by hackers. To use the system, the purchaser provides information from their checkbook, like the name on the check, the check number, and the numbers at the bottom of the check. The merchant downloads that information in encrypted form to Audio Check Systems using the proprietary software the company provides. Audio Check Systems then prints a check using that information and either over-nights it to the merchant or makes a same-day deposit to the merchant's account. Internet shoppers can click on an icon to complete an online check form. Audio check Systems spokesperson Nick Madamas told Newsbytes the system offers advantages other than security. The merchant receives the funds immediately and the buyer doesn't have to wait for a check to arrive at the merchant's office in order to have the goods shipped. It also cuts down on the amount of labor needed to match paper orders with checks arriving in the mail, sending invoices and holding orders awaiting payment. According to Aaron Mandel, president of Audio Check Systems, the system can double the merchant's market potential. "There are more than 140 million checking accounts in the US, but only 75 million credit card holders," said Mandel. Mandel said the system also eliminates the 25 to 35 percent of phone orders that are never filled because the check is never sent. The cost of the software and service varies with the type of business, said Madamas. The proprietary software carries a price tag of $70 and up, and the merchant pays a fee of one percent of the check amount, except for brokerage houses. Madamas said, because of the large amount of most brokerage house sales, they pay a $2 per check fee. There is also a $6 fee if you want the check deposited directly into your bank account. (Jim Mallory/19951206/Press contact: Ned High, Ned High PR for Online Check Systems, 303-573-5464; Public contact: Audio Check Systems, 800-967-7033/ONLINE951207/PHOTO) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 12/07/95 LEGAL Romania - Bank Placed Under "Surveillance" (NEWS)(LEGAL)(LON)(00008) Romania - Bank Placed Under "Surveillance" 12/07/95 BUCHAREST, ROMANIA, 1995 DEC 7 (NB) -- The National Bank of Romania (BNR) has announced it has placed Dacia Felix, a private bank operating in the country, under surveillance. Central bank officials said that Dacia has been under active surveillance since the middle of November, although no reason has been given as to why. Newsbytes notes that the announcement, which is only the second of its type in Romania, coincides with the major computerization of Romanian banks which occurred in the wake of the collapse of some of the fringe speculative banks at the beginning of the year. The first "surveillance" case involving a Romanian bank occurred in January of this year when BNR placed Renasterea Creditului Romanesc Credit Bank under surveillance after bank audits showed that there was evidence of mismanagement. Subsequently, Marcel Ivan, RCR Bank's president was arrested and charged with fraud. Newsbytes notes that there are 30 banks licensed to operate in Romania: six state-owned, seven foreign, and 17 with private capital backing them. In August of this year, Bancorex, the Romanian foreign investment and trade bank, became the first bank in the country to issue Visa cards to its business customers. The move marked the first time a local bank in the region had started issuing Visa credit cards, even to business customers. Bancorex officials said that the bank is investing around $300,000 in its program with the express aim of seeding the business community with the idea that plastic money cards can be used at home in Romania, as well as abroad. The bank has also been signing up merchants to accept the card in and around Bucharest, the country's capital. (Sylvia Dennis/19951206) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 12/07/95 GOVT Philippines - Customs Bureau Improves Image (NEWS)(GOVT)(HKG)(00009) Philippines - Customs Bureau Improves Image 12/07/95 MANILA, PHILIPPINES, 1995 DEC 7 (NB) -- The Bureau of Customs (BOC) in the Philippines appears on its way to shedding off its unpopular image. BOC Commissioner Guillermo Parayno and his team of "think tanks" are currently implementing a series of programs and procedural reforms dubbed as SPACE, a computer-aided customs cargo clearance procedure. SPACE stands for five general principles. The first is, "selectivity" and differential of low risk shipments, which means that only high-risk shipments will undergo the regular clearance process while the rest will be given express cargo processing. It is estimated that by the year 2000, only 5% of shipments will pass through the age-old regular lane. The others are: Post Audit, where shipments given express clearance may be subjected to post audit or some form of checking, to detect abusers of the system; Advanced Processing, where the clearance process for shipments will commence in the advance of cargo arrival; Client Self- Assessment, where the BOC shall increase its reliance on the self- assessment of clients/importers to develop an atmosphere of trust; and electronic data interchange (EDI), where to the fullest extent possible, the customs procedures will be automated and computerized, with the users interacting with each other through the EDI. In a related development, the Project Abstract Secure (PAS) of the BOC was implemented recently to assure that transactions between Customs and local banks are "less susceptible to unscrupulous procedures." Ten banks are now linked to the parallel transmission payment scheme of the BOC. Asian Bank, Banco de Oro, Bank of America, Bank of Tokyo, First Bank, HongKong Shanghai Bank, Landbank, Metrobank, PhilBanking, and Pilipinas Bank are utilizing fast1, the diskette transmission procedure. Ten other banks have been on live electronic transmission or fast2 since last month: Allied Bank, China Bank, Citibank, Citytrust, Far East Bank, PCI Bank, RCBC, Security Bank, Solid Bank, and United Coconut Planters Bank. These two transaction procedures are under the PAS computerization plan. Online electronic transmission involves an electronic data machine linked up with the banks. The system involves the encryption of payment data by the various bank branches, their transmission to the customs in an electronic form, and their decryption at the bureau offices using advanced security software called Secure Data. Secure Data provides a highly sophisticated data security system and algorithms to protect data and to prevent, among others, unauthorized access to sensitive information. Data is stored in encrypted format and, reportedly, can never be decrypted without access to Secure Data smart cards and cryptographic keys. The diskette transmission procedure involves the use of bank couriers in the transmission process. Encrypted data is transmitted in a computer diskette to BOC using Secure Data software. Sixty-four bank branches are expected to utilize fast2 by January of next year. In an interview with Newsbytes, Commissioner Parayno said that PAS was conceptualized to bring an end to leaks in Custom revenues resulting from the use of bogus payments as bank documents are brought from 160 banks branched all over Metro Manila to the Bureau's collection offices at the South Harbor, the Manila International Container Port, and the Ninoy Aquino International Airport, as well as the Revenue Accounting Department of the BOC. Parayno cited that the first semester of 1992 registered hundreds of millions of illegally released shipments with the use of spurious bank payments perpetuated by smuggling syndicates in connivance with bank messengers and personnel, and even Customs officials. In a span of two years, about $46 million worth of illegally withdrawn shipments were exposed by the BOC. Determined to put an end to these activities, the BOC and the Bankers Association of the Philippines (BAP) signed a memorandum of agreement which outlined the procedures to be followed in the transmission, receipt, and distribution of documents. The Secure Data software was provided by BAP and the accompanying data entry and printing software was jointly developed by BOC and BAP. Technical experts from both organizations are now close to completing the mechanics of transmitting encrypted data via electronic-mail. This enhancement of PAS will altogether eliminate the utilization of bank couriers in the transmission process. (Kay Yeban & Metropolitan Computer Times/19951207) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 12/07/95 ONLINE CA Announces Internet Products, Partnership With Netscape (NEWS)(ONLINE)(TOR)(00010) CA Announces Internet Products, Partnership With Netscape 12/07/95 ISLANDIA, NEW YORK, U.S.A., 1995 DEC 7 (NB) -- Claiming that his company is "making the net safe for electronic commerce," Computer Associates International Inc. (NYSE:CA) Chairman and Chief Executive Charles Wang has announced software designed for administering World Wide Web use, and a partnership with Internet star Netscape Communications Corp. Wang pointed out that a growing number of organizations are using Web servers and browsers internally, in what he dubbed the "intranet." The growth in installations of Web servers limited to internal use is outpacing that of external Web servers by five to one, Wang said in a New York press conference and teleconference. He said that if the Web is to be suitable for commercial use, more tools for chores such as network management and security are needed. By focusing on providing Web server and browser software, Wang maintained, "everyone seems to be focused on polishing the faucets, and we're the first to provide the plumbing." CA is setting out to do that through CA-Unicenter/ICE, an extension to its Unicenter systems management software, and CA-OpenIngres/ICE, enabling database technology that will support Unicenter/ICE. ICE stands for Internet Commerce Enabled. Sanjay Kumar, president and chief operating officer of CA, said Unicenter/ICE will make Web servers more reliable and more hospitable to commercial applications. According to CA, Unicenter/ICE provides security, event management, help-desk functions, storage management, resource accounting, and database monitoring for Web servers and clients. Though Unicenter already supports the Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol (TCP/IP) used on the Internet, in Unicenter/ICE, "We have specific things for Web servers and specific things that have to do with mission-critical applications in a Web-server environment," Wang said. CA said OpenIngres/ICE will provide Web access to data on Unix and Windows NT systems. The company also announced an agreement with Netscape, maker of popular Web software and a recent stock-market high flier. The two companies said they will integrate and jointly market Netscape's Web server products with Unicenter/ICE and OpenIngres/ICE. "The strengths of the two companies, Netscape and Computer Associates, are very synergistic," Wang said. Todd Rulon-Miller, vice-president of Netscape, said the alliance with CA will give his company access to an "extraordinary capability...for sales and support globally." (Grant Buckler/19951206/Press Contact: Bob Gordon, Computer Associates, tel 516-342-2391, fax 516-342-5329; Chris Holten, Netscape, 415-528-2521) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 12/07/95 EDUCATION Interactive Classrooms Spring Up On Canadian Campuses (NEWS)(EDUCATION)(TOR)(00011) Interactive Classrooms Spring Up On Canadian Campuses 12/07/95 WATERLOO, ONTARIO, CANADA, 1995 DEC 7 (NB) -- High technology is turning language laboratories at Canadian universities into integrated electronic classrooms, and is likely to spread into other parts of academia in the near future. The University of Waterloo, which is known as one of North America's leading institutions for computer science and related programs, had turned a language lab into a fully interactive classroom, giving the instructor control of all 24 desktop computers and the ability to distribute audio, video, and computer software to any or all students. The University of Ottawa will officially open similar facilities next week, providing video, audio, computer software, and links to the Internet on a total of 55 desktop computers in two multimedia language labs. Robert Courchene, chair of the University of Ottawa's Multimedia Language Lab Committee, told Newsbytes that other Canadian universities, including the University of Victoria in British Columbia and the University of Calgary in Alberta, also have or are working on similar electronic classrooms. The difference between these facilities and traditional language labs is control, explained Carl Hennig, supervisor of language labs at the University of Waterloo. The instructor can send a video image to each computer screen, which is useful for displaying video to a roomful of students without having to darken the room to accommodate a projector or rely on a large-screen TV that would not be as visible to everyone. The instructor can also work on his or her own computer and have the display duplicated on every student's computer screen. Students "liked the idea of being able to see the instructor demonstrating what they're doing," Hennig told Newsbytes. The instructor's control of the classroom also extends to being able to freeze students' keyboards and mice when they should not be using their computers -- preventing students from playing with their computers rather than listening to the instructor. Courchene said support for video and telecommunications links at the University of Ottawa labs mean that students studying the Russian language, for instance, can watch real Russian newscasts brought in by satellite. The classroom also provides access to computer-based multimedia software and to the Internet, he said. "It allows us to bring a lot more into the classroom." Courchene said the University of Ottawa's two labs -- one based on Apple Macintoshes and one using IBM equipment -- are up and running but students will not begin using them until some time in January. The Waterloo classroom was set up last summer with 48 Macintoshes, and is currently being used for workshops on how to conduct scholarly research through the Internet as well as language teaching. It has also been booked for testing by the accounting and psychology departments, and a fine arts class is expected to use it next term. Hennig said Waterloo's Department of Computing Services is planning further facilities. (Grant Buckler/19951207/Press Contact: Jim Fox, University of Waterloo, 519-888-4444, fax 519-746-8652, Internet e-mail jfox@nh3adm.uwaterloo.ca; Lise Huot, University of Ottawa, 613-562-5800 ext 3150, fax 613-562-5117) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 12/07/95 GOVT Germany Installs 3-D Radar Defense System (NEWS)(GOVT)(LON)(00012) Germany Installs 3-D Radar Defense System 12/07/95 BREMEN, GERMANY, 1995 DEC 7 (NB) -- Ericsson Microwave Systems, formerly known as Ericsson Radar Electronics, has contracted with STN Atlas Electronik of Germany for the supply of the first batch of its Improved Hard (robust against electronic interference) air defense radar system. According to STN, the radar system, which is built to withstand the EMF (electromagnetic frequency) pulse of a nuclear blast, will be installed with LeFlaSys, the German Light Air Defense System. Plans call for the system to be installed in 1996, although the value of the contract has not been revealed for security reasons. The systems will be installed onboard various tracked combat vehicles and will be used by the German Rapid Deployment Forces for surveillance and target designation. In plain English that translates to wartime seek and destroy capabilities, Newsbytes notes. The contract is significant, since it is the first export order for Ericsson's Hard Radar technology. The top secret technology is already in use, Newsbytes notes, in Sweden for the RBS 90 tactical air defense system. So what is Improved Hard Radar? The technology is a three-dimensional (3-D) radar system that is completely solid state, making it robust enough for use in a combat zone. The system is a "track while scan" radar which uses pulse to pulse frequency agility -- the ability to shift frequencies for each radar "ping," which Ericsson claims makes it ideal for spotting and targeting low level attack aircraft. One interesting feature of the system is its ability to spot helicopters, a task that is almost impossible using conventional two- dimensional radar systems because of the helicopter's inherent ability to duck and dive across terrain, so dodging conventional radar beams. Ericsson claims that the system is also effective against small targets, something that previous radar systems from the Swedish electronics companies were light on. In use, the 3-D target system operates in a multi-beam mode that scans in elevation. This means that the system can beam different frequency blips in all directions in rapid succession, making it highly effective for use on board a combat vehicle. The system software that processes the data from the beam units is billed as having automatic track initiation, pop-up target and helicopter detection, as well as automatic threat evaluation and target designation. (Sylvia Dennis/19951207/Press Contact: Bertil Hellstrom, Ericsson Business Area Microwave Systems, +46-70-590-1884) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 12/07/95 BUSINESS Summa Four Opens Office In Spain (NEWS)(BUSINESS)(LON)(00013) Summa Four Opens Office In Spain 12/07/95 MADRID, SPAIN, 1995 DEC 7 (NB) -- Summa Four, a specialist in open, programmable switches, has opened its second European office, this one being in Spain. Located in Madrid, the office is billed as providing sales and support services for Summa Four to customers in Southern Europe, as well as acting as a base for expansion into Greece, Portugal, and Turkey. "We have recently built relationships with several of the key telecom players in the Southern European region and want to work more closely with them," explained Peter Sharp, the company's managing director for Europe, Middle East and Africa. "It is essential that we have the organization structure in place that strategically and tactically provides maximum market presence," he said, adding that aim of the office is to provide the highest possible level of service and support to customers, and so differentiate the company against the competition. According to the company, the new office complements the company's existing European office in Wokingham, Berkshire, England. (Sylvia Dennis/19951207/Press Contact: Spec Communications, tel +44-1494-680555, fax +44-1494-680550; Reader Contact: Summa Fore Spain, +34-1-572-0360) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 12/07/95 NETWORK UK - Vicom Unveils Low-Cost LAN Internet Technology (NEWS)(NETWORK)(LON)(00014) UK - Vicom Unveils Low-Cost LAN Internet Technology 12/07/95 BOURNEMOUTH, ENGLAND, 1995 DEC 7 (NB) -- Vicom Technology has unveiled the Vicom Internet Gateway, a software-driven LAN (local area network) router that allows a small- to medium-sized network to access a single Internet account on a LAN-wide basis. Paul Lambert, product manager with Vicom, told Newsbytes that the system is virtually unique in the marketplace, and is extremely cost- effective. As a result, the company is talking to a number of third parties about joint marketing and bundling deals. The system is claimed to support any Internet-based applications, such as Netscape and Eudora, acting as a transparent TCP/IP (Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol) router between the users' machines and the Internet. In use, the system supports Ethernet, Token Ring, and AppleTalk networks, and can access the Internet using modem dial-up or ISDN (integrated services digital network) links. "We all know that the Internet is gaining momentum all the time and companies are looking to make better use of it, but with the growth comes problems with the security, the ease-of-use, and cost. The Vicom Internet Gateway provides the solution by delivering a centralized management resource that reduces the required number of Internet accounts and enabling an Internet access control mechanism." Lambert went on to say. According to Lambert, the Internet Gateway started life as an internal system designed to interface between the company's DEC, HP, and AS/400 machines. Soon the Internet link was grafted on and the company realized it had a commercial product on its hands. As well as the normal Internet functions, the gateway is billed as supporting Internet firewall facilities, as well as other security features such as restrictions on connection time and selective barring of access and services. Call management and network monitoring functions, the company claims, can force connections to be dropped after pre-determined period of inactivity. According to Lambert, the basic configuration of the gateway allows for three simultaneous users and sells for UKP560. Each extra user costs UKP40, up to 10 users, where the price drops to UKP560 plus UKP240. A 20 extra user license costs UKP400. Further details of the gateway can be found on Vicom's Web pages which start at http:www.vicomtechcom . (Steve Gold/19951207/Press & Reader Contact: Vicom Technology, tel +44-1202-293233, fax +44-1202-310241, Internet e-mail sales@vicomtech.com) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 12/07/95 PC OKI Develops PC On A Card (NEWS)(PC)(TYO)(00015) OKI Develops PC On A Card 12/07/95 TOKYO, JAPAN, 1995 DEC 7 (NB) -- OKI America's Advanced Products Division has unveiled a computer unit the size of a credit card. The Compcard, a PC/AT-compatible with 486 processor running at 50 megahertz (MHz), weighs in at around 50 grams and signals the beginning of the smart car, smart home, and smart office, claims OKI. #IMAGE 1 20 TWPCX \images\95120715.PCX Click here for photo The card also features on-card support for common VGA monitors and STN, DSTN and thin film transistor (TFT) standard liquid crystal display (LCD) displays. Using dual inline memory modules (DIMMs), memory configurations of four megabytes (MB), 8MB, 16MB, and 32MB of memory can be supported. It comes with PhoenixPICO BIOS (basic input/output system) on a 128 kilobyte flash ROM and supports PCMCIA (Personal Computer Memory Card International Association)-ATA boot options. Its industry-standard EASI (Embedded All-in-one Systems Interface) provides access to the ISA (Industry Standard Architecture) bus, two serial ports, one parallel port, keyboard, mouse, speaker, IDE, CRT, FDD, LCD, and power management. The BIOS allows support for additional hardware such as flash memory and systems including DOS and Windows. "We have focused Compcard's development on meeting the market's need for a comprehensive PC that is small, affordable and fast," said Wes Shimanek, director of sales and marketing, OKI Advance Products. Shimanek told Newsbytes more about where he expects to see demand come from, "This is for the class of developers who needs sophisticated devices for which the PC architecture and capability suggest themselves but for which the standard PC is too large." He added, "Compcard offers the OEM (original equipment manufacturer) a very cost-effective and flexible solution that can take advantage of a wealth of PC hardware and software options available in the market. We see it going into traditional computer OEM uses, like embedded system applications. But with this much power in this small a package, we really see it going into a host of the new information appliances that will herald the arrival of the smart car, smart home and smart office." The exact configuration of the device depends on orders received by OKI, which will be making the unit available on an OEM basis to other manufacturers. The North American price for each Compcard is $376 each in batches of 1,000. OKI confirmed some orders have already been received for the Compcard, mostly in sample quantities, but would offer no further information on the customers or value of orders. (Martyn Williams/19951207/Press contacts: Martin Winston, Newstips Inc., tel 216-338-8400, fax 216-338-3480; Reader contact: Oki America Inc. Advanced Products Division, tel 508-460-8776, fax 508-480-9635, Internet World Wide Web http://www.oki.com/ ) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 12/07/95 BUSINESS AST PCs Now At Wal-Mart (NEWS)(BUSINESS)(LAX)(00016) AST PCs Now At Wal-Mart 12/07/95 IRVINE, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1995 DEC 7 (NB) -- AST Computer says that it has signed an agreement with Wal-Mart (NYSE: WMT), to begin carrying AST Advantage 4075 PCs just in time for the holidays. AST already markets to other discount retail chains, such as Sam's Club and Price Club. Camerone Welch-Thorson, a spokesperson for AST, told Newsbytes, "In addition to gaining 1,250 stores nationwide, Wal-Mart provides unique demographics for PC buyers. Wal-Mart concentrates on a rural customer base not available through other retail outlets. Smaller rural areas sometimes have no ready access to large computer outlets. Wal-Mart concentrates on these smaller rural areas, and is a natural extension for AST." Wal-Mart is the world's largest retailer with sales over $82 billion annually. There are 2,215 stores worldwide, with 1,250 in the United States. They have locations in all 50 states, Puerto Rico, Canada, Mexico, Hong Kong, Brazil, and Argentina. AST will offer at Wal-Mart a packaged Pentium PC called the Advantage 4075. The PC includes a 75 megahertz (MHz) Pentium processor, eight megabytes (MB)) of RAM, an 850MB hard drive, a 14-inch SVGA monitor, built-in stereo, quad-speed CD-ROM player, internal modem, Windows 95, and a package of over fifteen software products. The suggested retail price for Wal-Mart will be $1,499. Wal-Mart added PCs to its range of products five years ago. In addition to AST, Wal-Mart sells Packard-Bell, IBM, Compaq, and Apple products. (Richard Bowers/19951206/Press Contact: Camerone Welch-Thorson, AST, 714-727-8858) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 12/07/95 UNIX Novell Completes Unixware Sale (NEWS)(UNIX)(DEN)(00017) Novell Completes Unixware Sale 12/07/95 OREM, UTAH, U.S.A., 1995 DEC 7 (NB) -- Novell Inc. (NASDAQ: NOVL) said it has completed the sale of its Unixware business to The Santa Cruz Operations Inc. (NASDAQ: SCOC), a deal first reported by Newsbytes in September. The sale is part of Novell's strategy to return to its core expertise of network operating system software. The company is also seeking a buyer for its applications business which includes the popular Wordperfect word processing program. Sale of the Unixware business netted Novell about 6.1 million shares of SCO common stock that gives Novell about a 17 percent stake in SCO. The deal also calls for Novell to receive revenue from SCO based on the revenue generated by the Unixware business. The revenue stream has an $84 million cap and will end by the year 2002. Novell will also continue to receive revenue from existing licenses for older versions of Unix System V source code. It will also get royalties from SCO's licensing of Novell's NetWare networking software, including NetWare Directory Services, for use in Unixware-based operating system products. SCO said it plans to merge the SCO OpenServer Release 5 and SCO Unixware product lines to create a standard high-volume Unix open rating system that contains integrated NetWare networking software. The merged product is scheduled to ship in 1997. Meantime, SCO plans to ship the next release of Unixware in the first quarter of 1996. That release is expected to include NetWare networking software to assist users in integrating Unix systems with Novell networks. The company also plans the release next year of the next version of its SCO OpenServer System and a compatibility Toolkit for creating applications that run on both the SCO Unixware system and the OpenServer System. The company is also working with HP and Novell to develop a 64-bit Unix system for the next-generation Intel architecture, which is expected to ship in 1998. SCO will open a new development center in New Jersey that will employ about 120 people, including engineers and marketing, sales and administrative personnel. Hewlett Packard previously announced its intent to open a development site in the same state to facilitate joint development with SCO and Novell. (Jim Mallory/19951207/Press contact: Melanie King, Novell, 408-577-6842 or Monika Laud, SCO, 408-427-7421) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 12/07/05 CHIPS Atmel Plans French Wafer Fabrication Plant (NEWS)(CHIPS)(LON)(00018) Atmel Plans French Wafer Fabrication Plant 12/07/05 ROUSSET, FRANCE, 1995 DEC 7 (NB) -- Atmel Corporation (NASDAQ: ATML) has announced it has started construction on its Fab 7 wafer chip production facility, located approximately ten miles east of Aix-en- Provence, France. According to Bernard Pruniaux, a senior spokesman for the company, the facility should be fully up-and-running by the end of next year. Speaking with Newsbytes, Pruniaux said that the $500 million plant will eventually be capable of producing more than 5,000 eight-inch wafers per week -- a significant production which Atmel plans to ship worldwide to electronics and computer companies. "Locating the European Community has tax advantages for us, which is why we decided to locate it here," he said, adding that producing the chips within the EC, for supply to EC companies, will make the chips very competitive in the marketplace. According to Pruniaux, Fab 7 will be co-located with Atmel's existing Fab 6 facility, and will include a 60,000 square foot "clean room" for production of 0.35 micron semiconductors. Newsbytes notes that, in April of this year, Atmel purchased a majority interest in the Fab manufacturing, design and sales organization from European Silicon Solutions, ES2. The organization has since been renamed Atmel ES2. Atmel claims to have spent more than $30 million over this year to enlarge the existing ES2 Fab 6 facilities. Plans also call for the company to invest a further $50 million in the coming year in the Fab 6 facility -- when taken in conjunction with the improved Fab 7 facility, Atmel claims that the combined plants will have double the current capacity of the company worldwide. Commenting on the plans for Fab 7, George Perlegos, Atmel's chief executive officer, said that the facility is being built to meet the rapid and continuing growth in the demand for Atmel products worldwide. "Expanding in Europe further underlines our commitment to European production," he said. Perlegos emphasized the significance of this first concrete step of Atmel's expansion into Europe saying that the company is in Europe on a long-term basis. "Europe is ahead in many key markets such as smart cards and cellular telephones, and we want to develop partnerships with the leading players here. We are in Europe to develop products, to manufacture, and to grow our total business," he explained. According to Pruniaux, "the combination of the Atmel investment and experience in volume production with Atmel ES2's understanding of the European market, places us in a strong position for sustained growth," According to Atmel, to celebrate the high level of US-French cooperation that has characterized the Atmel investment in Provence, guests at the groundbreaking ceremony earlier this week included representatives from the French Minister of National and Regional Development and the Ministry of Industry, the Regional Council of Provence-Alpes-Cote d'Azur, the General Council for Bouches-du-Rhone, and the Municipality of Rousset. As a symbolic gesture, a California Sequoia (Sequoladendron giganteum) was planted at the entrance to the Fab 7 site. This fire-resistant species has a lifetime expectancy in excess of 2000 years. It symbolizes the planting of deep roots of Californian technology in French soil, and long-term sustained growth, according to the company. (Steve Gold/19951207/Press & Reader Contact: Atmel ES1, +44-11-22-42-334031; Jeff Katz, Atmel US, 408-436-4205) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 12/07/95 ONLINE ****Microsoft Unveils Revised Internet Strategy (NEWS)(ONLINE)(DEN)(00019) ****Microsoft Unveils Revised Internet Strategy 12/07/95 REDMOND, WASHINGTON, U.S.A., 1995 DEC 7 (NB) -- Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ: MSFT) is revealing its new Internet strategy today, and is expected to put the Microsoft Network (MSN) subscription service on the Internet and give much of its content away without cost. Bill Miller, MSN director of marketing, reportedly told the Seattle Times that Microsoft isn't abandoning the effort it has put into the online service. Instead, Miller attributed the change to the fact that, in Microsoft's view, the concept of private online services "doesn't make sense any more." At a day-long seminar in Seattle today, Microsoft is announcing a host of cross-agreements with various companies, including Computer Associates, Oracle, and Spyglass. Yesterday at the Internet Control Developer's Workshop, Microsoft proposed an Internet digital signature initiative which the company said would provide a "safer environment" for executable code on the Internet if adopted. The Microsoft-Spyglass deal calls for Spyglass support for Microsoft's Internet tools. Spyglass said it will enhance its popular Web browser Mosaic with support for OLE (object linking and embedding) Controls, Visual Basic Script, and the latest HTML (hypertext markup language) extensions. It will also include support for several new Microsoft server technologies reported on previously by Newsbytes, such as secure transaction technology (STT) and private communications technology (PTT) in its server software for Unix and Windows NT. Other announcements in this week's Internet blitz from Microsoft include release of the next version of its Internet Explorer browser software for the Windows NT Workstation, Windows 3.1 and Macintosh platforms. The Windows 95 version of Explorer was released earlier. The company also announced development of an interactive three- dimensional (3-D) multimedia animation technology for the Internet called virtual reality modeling language (ActiveVRML). Microsoft said ActiveVRML is optimized for authoring and playback on personal computers and allows content authors to deliver 3-D multimedia effects "easily" on the Internet. The technology is being offered as an open industry specification and has been submitted as a proposal to VRML industry working groups. Another tool in Microsoft's Internet arsenal rolled out today is Visual Basic Script, an Internet scripting language Microsoft will offer over the Internet at no cost. Microsoft undoubtedly hopes to position Visual Basic Script as a competitor to Java, Sun Microsystems Inc.'s programming language. Netscape and Sun Micro said this week they will develop and distribute the JavaScript programming language free on the Internet. Netscape and Sun hope to make the Internet itself the computing environment of choice with users using low-cost (sub-$500) terminals that temporarily borrow their computing power from the Internet only as needed, then discard those resources. Microsoft is betting on users sticking with Windows 95 and using its Internet tools. At stake is Microsoft's lucrative business in word processing, spreadsheet, and database software. The Wall Street Journal reported today that NBC (National Broadcasting Company) has accepted a bid from Microsoft to develop an online news, sports and entertainment service to be known as NBC Supernet. When contacted by Newsbytes a Microsoft public relations person would not confirm that report. She also declined to deny it,saying only: "Microsoft has no comment." (Jim Mallory/19951207/Press contact: Microsoft, 206-882-8080) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 12/07/97 IBM IBM Demos Video-Over-Web In Bicoastal Videoconference (NEWS)(IBM)(BOS)(00020) IBM Demos Video-Over-Web In Bicoastal Videoconference 12/07/97 NEW YORK, NEW YORK, U.S.A. 1995 DEC 7 (NB) -- IBM is developing a new, "highly scalable" architecture for videoconferencing over the Web, to be based on its SP (Scalable PowerParallel) supercomputer, new "Tiger Shark" middleware, and emerging new standards, that will be run over the IBM Global Network and other ATM (asynchronous transfer mode) networks, officials revealed, during an "InterNews" videoconference conducted over the Web and attended by Newsbytes in New York City. Irving Wladawsky-Berger, general manager of IBM's new Internet Division, told reporters at the Supercomputing '95 conference in San Diego, as well as journalists connected via Internet videolink at IBM's office in Manhattan, that IBM plans to expand upon the SP2-based prototype technology used in the San Diego-to-New York videoconference with greater "scalability" and finetuned performance in the future. Journalists on two coasts could see both sites in four quadrants of a projected video screen, made possible by means of live video transport over a newly established high-speed network that IBM has dubbed the "I-WAY" (Information Wide Area Year). AT&T's InterSpan service was used for the ATM conference between New York City and San Diego. The "interactive videoconference" was also linked to about 20 other sites. In answer to a question raised by one of the reporters in New York City about a release date for "SP3," Wladawsky-Berger said that, outside of videoconferencing products already offered by IBM, IBM plans to offer videoconferencing-over-the-Web on upcoming SP platforms that will extend beyond an "SP2, SP3, SP4" sort of model, with availability in a variety of configurations. When asked how the technology used in the press conference-via-the-Internet differs from existing Web-based videoconferencing technologies, Wladawsky-Berger replied that the answer can be found in "scalability." During a Q&A session in New York City at the close of the press event, John Patrick, also of IBM, said that IBM intends to offer supercomputing-based videoconferencing over the IBM Global Network, as well as over ATM-based networks of other online service providers. IBM, he maintained, will adhere to "open standards" with the new technology -- including RTP and other emerging standards for videoconferencing over the Web -- so as to allow use across multivendor videoconferencing environments. The SP-based videoconferencing will also support Lotus and IBM's new InterNotes technology, according to Patrick. Also during the videoconferencing event, Patrick, Wladawsky-Berger, and Argonne Laboratories' Rick Stevens, also speaking from San Diego, outlined the elements of the prototype technology, which includes computer hardware and storage systems from IBM, along with software being jointly developed by IBM and Argonne. Patrick told the journalists in Manhattan that the architecture is based on eight IBM SSA disks, each capable of handling 500 gigabytes, or "half a terabyte" of video, connected to an SP2- based media server with 20 nodes. SP2 machines are able to support up to 512 processors each, he pointed out. The SP2 nodes used in the coast-to-coast demo have been outfitted with Tiger Shark, a new "parallel file server" technology being co-developed by IBM and Argonne that is designed to minimize the latency, or transmission delays, that would otherwise result in "jerky" movement on the videoconferencing screen, the officials contended. Other software on the media server side include IBM's DB2 Parallel Edition relational database management (RDBMS), along with daemons that include "stream radar, a stream writer, and a catalog server." Technology used on the AIX-based clients was based on a new Web browser specifically designed for videoconferencing applications, Stevens said. The browser, which is available on the Internet as downloadable shareware, has been subsequently enhanced by IBM and Argonne, he added. Wladawsky-Berger told the journalists that, although the prototype technology used in the bicoastal videoconference is "not there yet" yet, it is "almost there." The video seen on the bicoastal screens was running at "close to" 30 frames-per-second, or full-motion video rates, he illustrated. Wladawsky-Berger was also asked why, as a "technology expert," he has taken on the role of chief of IBM's new "Internet software division." The IBM exec mildly chided the reporter who asked the question for seemingly implying that software required less technological "expertise" than hardware. In fact, he asserted, the hardware needed for "scalable" videoconferencing-over-the-Web already exists, and it is on the software side that most of the improvements need to be made. (Jacqueline Emigh/19951207/Reader Contact: IBM, 914-765-1900; Press Contact: Pam Preston or Marlena Villafane, Technology Solutions for IBM, 212-696-2000) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 12/07/95 TELECOM Stentor Brings Concert Telecom Products To Canada (NEWS)(TELECOM)(TOR)(00021) Stentor Brings Concert Telecom Products To Canada 12/07/95 TORONTO, ONTARIO, CANADA, 1995 DEC 7 (NB) -- Stentor, the Canadian alliance of telephone companies, is bringing the Concert portfolio of telecommunications products and services to Canada through an arrangement with British Telecom and MCI Communications Corp., the partners in Concert. Concert services, which include virtual private networks, managed data services, frame relay services, and global application services, will start to become available in Canada early in 1996, probably around March or April, said John McLennan, president and chief executive of Bell Canada, in a press conference in Toronto today. Bell Canada is the largest company in the Stentor alliance. Carol Stephenson, president and chief executive of Stentor Resource Centre Inc., said Stentor has an exclusive agreement to offer Concert services in Canada. Officials said Concert is aimed at multinational companies, including any small company with operations in two or more countries. Its purpose is to provide consistent services and a single point of contact to customers. Peter Erskine, president and chief executive of Concert Communications Co., said at the press conference that his organization can provide "a single bill around the world, if that's what the customer wants, and yet truly local support." Launched 18 months ago as a joint venture between American long-distance provider MCI and British Telecom, Concert now has operations in more than 50 countries around the world, Erskine said. He added that the service is consistent throughout those countries. "We haven't just tried to knit together some of the phone companies around the world...we've delivered and built a global core network," he said. Among the services that global network makes possible, he said, is the ability for Concert customers to call from an office in one country to an office in another country with a short number like an intra-office extension. At the Telecom 95 conference in Geneva earlier this fall, Concert announced new features including a virtual private voice network and audio conferencing. Concert's existing customers include Microsoft Corp. and Ford Motor Co., and a number of Canadian organizations, Erskine said. (Grant Buckler/19951207/Press Contact: Tanya Pobuda, Hill & Knowlton for Stentor, 416-483-5228 ext 254, Internet e-mail tpobuda@hillknowlton.ca) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 12/07/95 TELECOM AT&T Intros New Int'l Calling Plan (NEWS)(TELECOM)(MSP)(00022) AT&T Intros New Int'l Calling Plan 12/07/95 NEW YORK CITY, NEW YORK, U.S.A., 1995 DEC 7 (NB) -- Building on its "True Reach" long distance calling brand, AT&T (NYSE:T) has introduced a new international calling program. Under the plan, AT&T customers calling from any phone around the world can save money, officials claimed. AT&T said with the plan, called "AT&T True Reach International Savings," customers don't need to sign multiple calling programs to save on both international and domestic calls. AT&T customers can save 25 percent on all of their AT&T calls, both international and domestic, when they spend $25 a month on those types of calls. Customers will also save on more types of calls, officials said. Some of the types of calls that are covered by the True Reach International Savings program include AT&T calling card calls, cellular long distance calls, local toll calls, directory assistance, conference calls, and operator-handled calls placed from the United States to both international locations or places within the US. "Our customers continue to tell us they want value simple calling plans that offer the greatest flexibility and opportunity for savings," said Shaun Gilmore, vice president global markets and services. True Reach International Savings is the plan to save customers money on a broad array of calls, he added. Newsbytes notes AT&T's international calling plan is similar in principle to the company's domestic True Reach Savings program, which Newsbytes covered when it was introduced earlier this fall. At that time, an AT&T spokesperson told Newsbytes the company's older calling plan, True USA Savings, is being curtailed to subscribers who currently use the service, and no new enrollments are being accepted. AT&T customers will pay a $3 monthly fee to participate in the True Reach International Savings program, officials said. Advertising for True Reach International Savings will roll out today, officials said, on television, radio, and in print publications. (Bob Woods/19951207/Press Contacts: Carol Henry, 201-564-2839, or Dick Gundlach, 718-533-9020, both of AT&T; Public Contact: AT&T True Reach International Savings, 800-272-WORLD) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 12/07/95 LEGAL ****House Conferees Back Tough Cyberporn Provisions (NEWS)(LEGAL)(WAS)(00023) ****House Conferees Back Tough Cyberporn Provisions 12/07/95 WASHINGTON, D.C., U.S.A., 1995 DEC 7 (NB) -- Civil libertarians took a beating yesterday as House lawmakers agreed to make it illegal to knowingly transmit "indecent" material to minors over computer networks. The House conferees to the telecommunications rewrite voted 17-16 for the tough indecency standard. The vote means that such prohibitions are certain to be included in the final telecommunications reform bill. The vote was a defeat for a compromise measure being pushed by Rep. Rick White (R-Wash.), which would have used a standard, "harmful to minors," that is considerably narrower and has been tested in court. The conferees did adopt White language that protects commercial online services from legal liability for unknowing distribution of indecent material. Opponents of the House language argued that the indecency standard is too vague and is unconstitutional. They say that it is possible that newspapers would be able to print a word such as "breast" in their printed edition, but not in online versions distributed over the Internet. Jerry Berman, head of the Center for Democracy and Technology, said the provision "creates the most Draconian measure of censorship on any medium -- print, broadcast, or cable." The American Civil Liberties Union also denounced the measure and said it will sue to overturn it, once the bill is enacted into law. The Information Technology Association of America also slammed the House language. "We're concerned that an indecency standard is vague and subject to interpretation, unlike a 'harmful to minors' standard which is explicit and has been included in the pornography statutes of many states," said Harris Miller, ITAA president. Robert Smith, executive director of the Information Services Association, trade group for the online services, said he was pleased with the protections for online providers, but said his group is "very concerned about the serious constitutional problems that will result from the last-minute change in Rep. White's proposed 'harmful to minors' standard to the 'indecency' standard narrowly approved by the conferees. For example, the vague 'indecency' language could prohibit James Joyce's Ulysses or other classic works of literature from being transmitted online." The Supreme Court has said that indecent speech, unlike obscenity, is protected by the First Amendment. The House conferees purposely refused to define the term "indecent." The vote was a victory for the Christian Coalition, and for House Judiciary Committee Henry Hyde (R-Ill.). "We were holding out for tougher language and it appears we're going to get it," said Mike Russell of the coalition. Hyde not only lined up conservatives behind his tough language, but also won support from some liberal Democrats on the conference committee, including retiring Rep. Patricia Schroeder (D-Colo.). "This is not the time for weak solutions," said Hyde during the committee meeting yesterday. The House vote is also a win for Sen. James Exon (D-Neb.), author of similar language in the Senate version of the telecommunications overhaul. "Now we have a framework for a final agreement that accomplishes what we set out to do," he said. White, whose district includes Microsoft, said he was "disappointed" about the vote and warned that US law cannot block pornography on the Internet, because the net is global and users will be able to retrieve material from outside the country as easily as from next door. (Kennedy Maize/19951207/Press Contacts: Sara Fitzgerald, ISA, 301-495-4955; Bob Cohen, ITAA, 703-284-5333) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 12/07/95 LEGAL Securities Reform Bill Headed To White House (NEWS)(LEGAL)(WAS)(00024) Securities Reform Bill Headed To White House 12/07/95 WASHINGTON, D.C., U.S.A., 1995 DEC 7 (NB) -- The House yesterday easily passed legislation designed to curb frivolous securities lawsuits, sending the measure to the White House. The vote was 320-102, with strong bipartisan backing. The House vote came a day after the Senate approved the identical measure by a vote of 65-30. The White House has not said whether President Clinton will sign the bill, but there is great pressure on him to OK the new law. The bill had strong backing from high-tech firms in the computer and telecommunications Industries, which supported Clinton in 1992. He needs them again in his 1996 reelection campaign. Clinton also badly needs California's electoral votes, and high-tech firms are clustered there. Clinton won California in 1992 and the conventional political wisdom holds that he cannot be reelected without California. Anna Eshoo (D-Calif.), who represents Silicon Valley in Congress, said a Clinton veto "would place a real chill on California figuring into the election around this issue. I think it is a rank-and-file issue for people in California." Given the volatility of high-tech stocks, said Eshoo, "There are only two types of companies in the valley -- those who have been sued and those who are waiting to be." But some traditional liberal Democrats have been pushing the president to kill the new law as harmful to small investors. "This is a raid on the small investor," said Rep. John Dingell (D-Mich.), former chairman of the powerful House Commerce Committee. He said the bill will warm the hearts of financial villains such as Ivan Boesky, Michael Milken, and Charles Keating. The "scandalous" legislation, Dingell said, would be "beloved by the great scoundrels of the past." The legislation is the culmination of a four-year campaign pushed by a coalition including high-tech manufacturers, stockbrokers, insurance companies, and major accounting firms. The most controversial aspect of the legislation is the "safe harbor" provision that protects forward-looking financial statements, such as earnings projections, from legal challenge. A plaintiff would have to show that a false statement was made knowingly. Arthur Levitt, chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission, has endorsed the current "safe harbor" language as acceptable. Two provisions have drawn fire from Levitt and the White House. They object to a three-year statute of limitations on fraud suits, preferring five years. Also, they oppose limits on suing individuals who "aided and abetted" fraud. (Kennedy Maize/19951207) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 12/07/95 BUSINESS Microsoft, Spyglass Extend Mosaic Licensing Agreement (NEWS)(BUSINESS)(MSP)(00025) Microsoft, Spyglass Extend Mosaic Licensing Agreement 12/07/95 NAPERVILLE, ILLINOIS, U.S.A., 1995 DEC 7 (NB) -- When Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ:MSFT) goes digging into the "gold rush" of the Internet, as Bill Gates calls it, the company will take a key Internet World Wide Web player with it. Microsoft said it was extending its Web browser technology license with Spyglass (NASDAQ:SPYG), and the two companies signed a new agreement to ensure compatibility among Web servers based on Unix and Microsoft Windows NT operating systems. "It's a multi-million dollar agreement -- it covers multiple platforms, and it's multiple years, so it's good," Marcus C. Miller, Spyglass executive vice president, marketing and business development, told Newsbytes. "Spyglass has always supported open standards, and providing open standard products. Through this agreement, Spyglass becomes Microsoft's multi-platform, World Wide Web technology developer. It's a vote of confidence for us." Besides the Mosaic licensing extension and the multi-platform Web server agreement, the agreement also calls for joint cooperation and multi-platform development for Visual Basic Scripting, OLE (object linking and embedding) controls, Secure Socket Layers (SSL) and Secure Transaction Technology (STT) security protocols, and Microsoft's Blackbird viewing technologies integrated with hypertext markup language (HTML). Down the road, all of this means Web users will be able to see 3-D (three-dimensional) graphics, animation, and multimedia directly over the Web. Last month, Spyglass licensed the much-heralded Java technology from Sun Microsystems, which also delivers multimedia over the Web. Java is also seen as competition for the competing Microsoft initiative announced today. But Miller said Spyglass doesn't see any problems including both technologies in the company's products. "We don't have to pick. There's applications that will use Java, there's applications that will use Visual Basic Scripting, and there's applications that will use both of them. We're working to keep advancing the market" in general, he said. Even though this kind of announcement is generally regarded as good news for a company like Spyglass, the company's stock is taking a beating on Wall Street. At 12:00 EST, shares were down $12.75 at $97.25. Many Internet-related stocks were being pummeled on the trading floor, though, after Smith Barney downgraded some of those issues, CNBC reported. Some of those companies taking big hits include Netscape, UUNET, Netcom, and PSINet. Microsoft's stock, was also down $1.25 at $89.375 at 12 Noon EST. (Bob Woods/19951207/Press Contacts: Randy Pitzer, Spyglass, 708-505-1010; Madeline Cox, Waggener Edstrom, 503-245-0905) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 12/07/95 BROADCAST Phones & TV Share Cable System (NEWS)(BROADCAST)(DEN)(00026) Phones & TV Share Cable System 12/07/95 BOCA RATON, FLORIDA, U.S.A., 1995 DEC 7 (NB) -- A Florida company is providing the technology being used in a Belgian town to route telephone calls via the existing cable TV network. The technology, called CoAxiom, is a product developed jointly by the Siemens Public Communications Networks Group and Scientific-Atlanta Inc. that makes it possible for cable operators to deliver a variety of telecommunications services. CoAxiom is being used in the Belgian town of Geel by cable company IVEKA. So far, just six subscribers have connected their telephones to the network and can make phone calls using the same line that supplies them with a TV picture. IVEKA is one of 32 cable TV network operators currently providing service to more than 3.5 million Belgians. The Belgian electric company, Electrabel, holds an interest in IVEKA. . In Geel, cable, and now phone, service is provided over a 10 mile coaxial cable that uses 32 repeaters to boost the signal strength in both directions, with phone calls being routed to the cable TV center. The center is equipped with a digital PABX (private automatic branch exchange) system. The company said by Spring 1996 20 IVEKA customers should have their telephones connected to the cable system. Each telephone connection occupies 50 kilohertz of band width in the cable TV network, allowing phone calls to be transmitted in ISDN (integrated services digital network) quality of 64 kilobits-per-second (Kbps). The company said the 6-7 megahertz (MHz) frequency usually used for television signals would allow 144 telephone calls to be conducted simultaneously. It's a long way in more than just miles from providing service to a few dozen users in a small Belgian town to making the same technology economically attractive in major US metro areas. However, Siemens Stromberg Carlson spokesperson, Jayne Scott, told Newsbytes that the Belgian installation is a pilot project that could eventually lead to TV cable operators all over the world competing for your telephone service business. "The market is becoming increasingly competitive for the consumer because we will be able to get our phone service either from the local phone company or from the cable company. They already do that in Great Britain and a lot of times it's cheaper for the consumer," said Scott. She said a similar situation is developing in the US because of changes in legislation. "Cable TV companies and utility companies will be able to offer phone service (in the US)." Scott told Newsbytes. CoAxiom was rolled out at Telecom 95 in Geneva in October, 1995. Siemens Stromberg-Carlson said the technology will allow cable operators to tap new sources of revenue by expanding their service spectrum to include interactive multimedia applications. Telephone service is an excellent opportunity since it allows profitable operation in a relatively short time, said the company. To provide subscribers with additional services network operators utilize a channel of their TV cable network to transmit narrowband telephone services for up to 500 connections. By connecting to the appropriate CoAxiom headend interface unit (HUI) on the operator side, and a customer interface unit (CIU) on the subscriber side, users can continue using their telephone sets with the CIU. Another component of the CoAxiom product family is the CoAxiom Management System, which allows the network operator to manage subscriber connections. The link from the CoAxiom telephone system to the public telephone network is achieved by means of the HIU, which is equipped with a standard interface to digital switching systems, such as Siemens' EWSD system. (Jim Mallory/Press contact: Jayne Scott, Siemens Stromberg-Carlson, 407-942-5707) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 12/07/95 IBM ****IBM Plans Java For Operating Systems, Web Servers (NEWS)(IBM)(BOS)(00027) ****IBM Plans Java For Operating Systems, Web Servers 12/07/95 NEW YORK, NEW YORK, U.S.A., 1995 DEC 7 (NB) -- IBM's newly unveiled agreement to license Java technology from Sun Microsystems will result in the use of Java on Web server technology for all IBM operating environments, along with Microsoft's Windows and Windows NT, said IBM's John Patrick, during a bicoastal IBM videoconference attended by Newsbytes in New York City. The deal with Sun was announced on both ends of an "InterNews" interactive videoconference, linking IBM officials and journalists in Manhattan and San Diego, California, in which IBM also demonstrated a new supercomputer-based architecture for videoconferencing over the Web, and outlined plans to enhance the new architecture for future deployment of "highly scalable" videoconferencing over the IBM Global Network and other ATM (asynchronous transfer mode) networks. Patrick told reporters at the New York City end of the videoconference that IBM plans to incorporate Java into its own Web-based services, such as the new InfoMarket and Lotus's InterNotes, as well as into products for sale to end users. These IBM products will include Web servers for IBM's AIX, OS/2, AS/400 and MVS environments, in addition to Web servers from IBM for Windows 3.1 and Windows NT, noted Patrick. IBM, he revealed, also intends to produce Java programs, or applets. The object-oriented Java applets, which will be capable of multimedia support, will be designed for transmission over the Web to multivendor platforms for client-based operation. Speaking with Newsbytes at the close of the press conference, Patrick added that IBM, an active participant in creating the VRML (Virtual Reality Mark-Up Language) standard, will also support a wide range of other Web-based standards beyond HTML (hypertext mark-up language)in the future, and will soon start to detail these new standards to the public and the press. IBM expects to begin offering Web downloads of Java for AIX, OS/2 and Windows 3.1 in the first quarter of next year, according to Patrick. The newly announced pact with Sun also covers JavaScript, a new scripting language introduced earlier this month by Sun and Netscape. (Jacqueline Emigh/19951207/Reader Contact: IBM, 914-765-1900; Press Contact: Pam Preston or Marlena Villafane, Technology Solutions for IBM, 212-696-2000) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 12/07/97 TRENDS ****Dataquest Study Foresees Silicon Shortages (NEWS)(TRENDS)(SFO)(00028) ****Dataquest Study Foresees Silicon Shortages 12/07/97 SAN JOSE, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1995 DEC 7 (NB) -- A recent Dataquest report confirms worries about polysilicon shortages mentioned frequently at this year's SemiCon 95 conference in San Francisco. A shortage of the raw material for manufacturing semiconductors will give silicon companies high market pricing power through the remainder of this decade, suggests the Dataquest report. The 1996 shortage is expected to last nine to 10 months and come to an end in 1997 when polysilicon capacity is increased. After a short relief from these shortages, constraints will begin to accelerate again in 1999. The report additionally says polysilicon shortages will contribute to a 200 millimeter (mm) wafer shortage which is projected to begin in this coming year and continue throughout the decade. In its forecast, Dataquest estimates the industry will demand 2,206,000 200mm wafers per month in 1996, while semiconductor manufacturers will provide 1,956,000 200mm wafers. According to the report, this demand over supply will gradually increase until the year 2000 when demand will outstrip supply by 1,319,000 200mm wafers per month. Nadar Pakdaman, a Dataquest analyst, told Newsbytes, "These numbers are only estimates used to reflect a trend. If semiconductor companies become more efficient in their testing of wafers, they could reduce the difference between supply and demand to where it would be almost balanced." He explained semiconductor companies use a tremendous amount of wafers through testing and checking procedures. The projected shortages could be far less than 25%, simply by more efficient testing. Entitled, "Is There a Silicon Shortage Looming?" the report says the mismatch of demand and supply also exists with 100mm and 125mm wafers which are in a current shortage. For the long-term, Dataquest says it expects the most serious shortage to be at the 150mm wafer size. Pakdaman, said the other highlight of the study are market trends created by a shift from 100mm and 125mm wafers to 150mm and 200mm wafers. Because the shift will reduce the supply of the smaller wafers, those companies which remain in 100mm and 125mm production will see new market opportunities. These smaller wafers are used to build semiconductors which are used in thousands of applications such as toasters, tools, cars, and microwave ovens. Most of the semiconductors used in computers are now coming from 200mm wafers. These include microprocessors, dynamic RAM, logic chips, and others. In spite of the possible shortages of polysilicon, Pakdaman said the report says consumers will not see a product shortage as a result. (Patrick McKenna/19951207/Press Contact: Tom McCall, Dataquest, 408-468-8312) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 12/07/95 TRENDS ****Growth Of The Web Starting To Slow (NEWS)(TRENDS)(BOS)(00029) ****Growth Of The Web Starting To Slow 12/07/95 NEW YORK, NEW YORK, U.S.A., 1995 DEC 7 (NB) -- Contrary to the projections of some industry observers, early growth of the Web is not in a seemingly endless upward spiral, but is in fact beginning to flatten out already, asserted analysts from the Yankee Group's newly formed Interactive Commerce service, at a Yankee Group press conference attended by Newsbytes in New York City. For the first time, the number of servers being added to the Web on a monthly basis is now beginning to slow, said Steven Franco, program manager, addressing members of the press at the @Cafe in Manhattan. In another current trend, research by the Yankee Group indicates that the number of "early adopters," or "TAFs" (technologically advanced families), moving to the Web in the consumer market has just about reached the saturation point, noted Gregory Wester, research director of the new program. On the other hand, though, the recent entrance of phone companies like AT&T and MCI into the Web arena should help to boost Web use in the future, since the telcos are equipped with trusted "brand names" that will help to boost confidence among the general public, suggested Wester. Once MFJ restrictions are lifted, RBOCs (regional Bell operating companies) will join in as well, to provide Internet access on a regional basis, he predicted. At that point, the industry will see quick consolidation, with new competition against commercial online service providers like Compuserve, America Online (AOL), and Prodigy, as well as against "Mom and Pop ISPs" (Internet service providers). But there will still be plenty of room for systems integrators, as well as for small software vendors and content providers, in the future Web market, according to Howard Anderson, managing director of the new Electronic Commerce program. Emerging technologies like Java and VRML (virtual reality markup language) will also come to play increasingly important roles, Wester told the journalists and analysts in New York City. (Jacqueline Emigh/19951207/Reader and Press Contact: The Yankee Group, 617-367-1000) (SUMMARY)(GENERAL)(SFO)(00030) Newsbytes Daily Summary 06/14/95 MINNEAPOLIS, MINNESOTA, U.S.A., 1995 DEC 7 (NB) -- These are capsules of all today's news stories: 1 -> UK - Racal Buys British Rail Telecom 12/07/95 Racal Electronics has announced plans to buy the telecoms division of British Rail (BR). 2 -> Compuserve Opens UK Media Forum 12/07/95 Compuserve UK has opened a media forum for journalists and media people, as well as members of the public. The forum, known as Fleet Street, is accessible using the keywords GO FLEET at the Compuserve menu prompt, or from within Compuserve Information Manager (CIM), Compuserve's graphical front-end package for PC and Apple Macintosh users. 3 -> ****Speed Key To New Multimedia Web Alliance 12/07/95 In about a year or so, it will be easier to put up World Wide Web sites that combine elements of virtual reality and interactivity. 4 -> Canada - No Govt Handouts Please, We're ITAC 12/07/95 Rumor has it the Canadian government may be about to offer repayable grants to the information technology (IT) industry, among others. But the Information Technology Association of Canada (ITAC) has told the government it doesn't like the idea. 5 -> Internet Update - Software Special 12/07/95 In this roundup of new software available on the global Internet: Shareware Central; Win,What,Where?; OLE support for Netscape; Sports Shareware; Windows Quick Boot; IDate; Surfer Central; Map This!. 6 -> ****Japan - Govt Panel Proposes NTT Breakup 12/07/95 A panel set up by the Japanese government has reported its recommendations for areas that require deregulation, including industries from automobile maintenance to home building and, most importantly, the telecommunications industry. 7 -> Pay By Electronic Check For Online Purchases 12/07/95 A Denver, Colorado, company says it has developed a system that lets online shoppers pay for their purchases with an electronic check that lets the business collect for the purchase instantly. 8 -> Romania - Bank Placed Under "Surveillance" 12/07/95 The National Bank of Romania (BNR) has announced it has placed Dacia Felix, a private bank operating in the country, under surveillance. Central bank officials said that Dacia has been under active surveillance since the middle of November, although no reason has been given as to why. 9 -> Philippines - Customs Bureau Improves Image 12/07/95 The Bureau of Customs (BOC) in the Philippines appears on its way to shedding off its unpopular image. BOC Commissioner Guillermo Parayno and his team of "think tanks" are currently implementing a series of programs and procedural reforms dubbed as SPACE, a computer-aided customs cargo clearance procedure. 10 -> CA Announces Internet Products, Partnership With Netscape 12/07/95 Claiming that his company is "making the net safe for electronic commerce," Computer Associates International Inc. (NYSE:CA) Chairman and Chief Executive Charles Wang has announced software designed for administering World Wide Web use, and a partnership with Internet star Netscape Communications Corp. 11 -> Interactive Classrooms Spring Up On Canadian Campuses 12/07/95 High technology is turning language laboratories at Canadian universities into integrated electronic classrooms, and is likely to spread into other parts of academia in the near future. 12 -> Germany Installs 3-D Radar Defense System 12/07/95 Ericsson Microwave Systems, formerly known as Ericsson Radar Electronics, has contracted with STN Atlas Electronik of Germany for the supply of the first batch of its Improved Hard (robust against electronic interference) air defense radar system. 13 -> Summa Four Opens Office In Spain 12/07/95 Summa Four, a specialist in open, programmable switches, has opened its second European office, this one being in Spain. Located in Madrid, the office is billed as providing sales and support services for Summa Four to customers in Southern Europe, as well as acting as a base for expansion into Greece, Portugal, and Turkey. 14 -> UK - Vicom Unveils Low-Cost LAN Internet Technology 12/07/95 Vicom Technology has unveiled the Vicom Internet Gateway, a software-driven LAN (local area network) router that allows a small- to medium-sized network to access a single Internet account on a LAN-wide basis. 15 -> OKI Develops PC On A Card 12/07/95 OKI America's Advanced Products Division has unveiled a computer unit the size of a credit card. The Compcard, a PC/AT-compatible with 486 processor running at 50 megahertz (MHz), weighs in at around 50 grams and signals the beginning of the smart car, smart home, and smart office, claims OKI. 16 -> AST PCs Now At Wal-Mart 12/07/95 AST Computer says that it has signed an agreement with Wal-Mart (NYSE: WMT), to begin carrying AST Advantage 4075 PCs just in time for the holidays. AST already markets to other discount retail chains, such as Sam's Club and Price Club. 17 -> Novell Completes Unixware Sale 12/07/95 Novell Inc. (NASDAQ: NOVL) said it has completed the sale of its Unixware business to The Santa Cruz Operations Inc. (NASDAQ: SCOC), a deal first reported by Newsbytes in September. 18 -> Atmel Plans French Wafer Fabrication Plant 12/07/05 Atmel Corporation (NASDAQ: ATML) has announced it has started construction on its Fab 7 wafer chip production facility, located approximately ten miles east of Aix-en- Provence, France. According to Bernard Pruniaux, a senior spokesman for the company, the facility should be fully up-and-running by the end of next year. 19 -> ****Microsoft Unveils Revised Internet Strategy 12/07/95 Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ: MSFT) is revealing its new Internet strategy today, and is expected to put the Microsoft Network (MSN) subscription service on the Internet and give much of its content away without cost. 20 -> IBM Demos Video-Over-Web In Bicoastal Videoconference 12/07/97 IBM is developing a new, "highly scalable" architecture for videoconferencing over the Web, to be based on its SP (Scalable PowerParallel) supercomputer, new "Tiger Shark" middleware, and emerging new standards, that will be run over the IBM Global Network and other ATM (asynchronous transfer mode) networks, officials revealed, during an "InterNews" videoconference conducted over the Web and attended by Newsbytes in New York City. 21 -> Stentor Brings Concert Telecom Products To Canada 12/07/95 Stentor, the Canadian alliance of telephone companies, is bringing the Concert portfolio of telecommunications products and services to Canada through an arrangement with British Telecom and MCI Communications Corp., the partners in Concert. 22 -> AT&T Intros New Int'l Calling Plan 12/07/95 Building on its "True Reach" long distance calling brand, AT&T (NYSE:T) has introduced a new international calling program. Under the plan, AT&T customers calling from any phone around the world can save money, officials claimed. 23 -> ****House Conferees Back Tough Cyberporn Provisions 12/07/95 Civil libertarians took a beating yesterday as House lawmakers agreed to make it illegal to knowingly transmit "indecent" material to minors over computer networks. The House conferees to the telecommunications rewrite voted 17-16 for the tough indecency standard. 24 -> Securities Reform Bill Headed To White House 12/07/95 The House yesterday easily passed legislation designed to curb frivolous securities lawsuits, sending the measure to the White House. The vote was 320-102, with strong bipartisan backing. 25 -> Microsoft, Spyglass Extend Mosaic Licensing Agreement 12/07/95 When Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ:MSFT) goes digging into the "gold rush" of the Internet, as Bill Gates calls it, the company will take a key Internet World Wide Web player with it. Microsoft said it was extending its Web browser technology license with Spyglass (NASDAQ:SPYG), and the two companies signed a new agreement to ensure compatibility among Web servers based on Unix and Microsoft Windows NT operating systems. 26 -> Phones & TV Share Cable System 12/07/95 A Florida company is providing the technology being used in a Belgian town to route telephone calls via the existing cable TV network. 27 -> ****IBM Plans Java For Operating Systems, Web Servers 12/07/95 IBM's newly unveiled agreement to license Java technology from Sun Microsystems will result in the use of Java on Web server technology for all IBM operating environments, along with Microsoft's Windows and Windows NT, said IBM's John Patrick, during a bicoastal IBM videoconference attended by Newsbytes in New York City. 28 -> ****Dataquest Study Foresees Silicon Shortages 12/07/97 A recent Dataquest report confirms worries about polysilicon shortages mentioned frequently at this year's SemiCon 95 conference in San Francisco. A shortage of the raw material for manufacturing semiconductors will give silicon companies high market pricing power through the remainder of this decade, suggests the Dataquest report. 29 -> ****Growth Of The Web Starting To Slow 12/07/95 Contrary to the projections of some industry observers, early growth of the Web is not in a seemingly endless upward spiral, but is in fact beginning to flatten out already, asserted analysts from the Yankee Group's newly formed Interactive Commerce service, at a Yankee Group press conference attended by Newsbytes in New York City. (Ian Stokell/19951207) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 12/06/95 TELECOM Italy's STET Buys Into Russian Telecoms Firm (NEWS)(TELECOM)(LON)(00001) Italy's STET Buys Into Russian Telecoms Firm 12/06/95 MILAN, ITALY, 1995 DEC 6 (NB) -- Societa Finanziaria Telefonica per Azioni (STET), the Italian telecoms holding company, has successfully bid 2.932 trillion rubles for a 25 percent plus one share stake in Svyazinvest, the Russian state telecoms company. As part of the deal, the Italian telco will invest a further 3.5 trillion into Svyazinvest over the next two years. According to the Russian Privatization Center in Moscow, the fine print regarding the deal is currently being worked out and the deal is expected to be signed in the New Year. The successful bid by STET comes as a major feather in its cap, as the Italian telco has attempted several international ventures of this type in the past, but has failed at the bidding stages. Announcing the deal to journalists earlier this month, First Deputy Prime Minister Anatoly Chubais said that STET stock purchase will act as a model for future full or partial privatizations of Russian companies. "It is the biggest transaction of foreign capital there has ever been in Russia, and to be sure it is the biggest privatization in this country," he told the press conference. According to Chubais, STET beat a consortium consisting of France Telecom, Deutsche Telekom, and a Russian division of US West in pitching for the tender. As previously reported by Newsbytes, the Russian Government is anticipating selling of up to 49 percent of Svyazinvest in the future, so a further part sale of 24 percent to a third party company or consortium is expected in the New Year. Svyazinvest owns controlling stakes in 85 regional telecoms companies, including Moscow's international and inter-urban phone company MMT. Newsbytes notes that Svyazinvest's charter capital exceeds R7,700 billion and has control of around 20 million of the 25.5 million phone lines currently installed in Russia. Chubais, meanwhile, said that the deal meant the government would now probably raise this year's budgeted privatization receipts. He had described Svyazinvest as "the key" to hitting the target. "We have already raised more than 3.5 trillion roubles for the budget because of privatization. The main task is to have 8.7 trillion by the end of December and I really believe we will achieve that," he said, adding that "the goal of privatization to get budgetary revenues will be fulfilled." As reported previously by Newsbytes, analysts have accused the Russian Government of rushing the privatization through too quickly. Government officials have dismissed such suggestions, claiming that the plan is in line with major potential investors the Government has discussed the plan with. (Sylvia Dennis/19951205) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 12/06/95 ONLINE UK - CompuServe's Internet In A Box, Sprynet Service (NEWS)(ONLINE)(LON)(00002) UK - CompuServe's Internet In A Box, Sprynet Service 12/06/95 BRISTOL, AVON, ENGLAND, 1995 DEC 6 (NB) -- Compuserve has launched its Internet In A Box package in the UK. At the same time, the online giant has rocked the UK Internet market by announcing a mirror image of Sprynet "budget Internet" service launched in the US earlier this year, with a UKP3.95 per month price tag. Sprynet will initially be available as part of CompuServe's Internet In A Box package which will sell for UKP49.95. According to Compuserve, plans are in hand to offer a licensed copy of the Spry Mosaic browser with a Sprynet account with a free sign-up deal early next year. As in the US edition, Internet In A Box is an Internet applications suite that includes Spry Mosaic and Spry Mail, as well as Sprynet as the default access service. The big news, of course, is the UKP3.95 per month Sprynet Bronze deal that gives up to three hours of Internet access free of charge. Extra hours are charged at UKP1.50 each. The deal means that Global Internet's UKP7.50 deal, announced last month, is no longer the cheapest Internet service available. Martin Turner, Compuserve UK's director of marketing, was upbeat about the price schedule for Sprynet, which includes Silver membership at UKP6.95 for seven hours, and Gold membership at UKP14.95 for 20 hours a month. The UKP3.95 rate, he claimed, is the best available in the UK Internet marketplace. "For the price of fish and chips, every family can now join the Internet community. We're making it easy for every person to communicate with his or her friends, relatives and colleagues online, around the world," he told journalists. "Having an Internet address and Web page are becoming expectations, just like the fax and phone number before them. We're growing the worldwide Internet by filling these needs at an affordable price," he explained. As in the US, the Sprynet service rates do not apply to what Compuserve calls supplemental networks, but are aimed at users prepared to dial the main Compuserve ports, either in the UK or abroad. Because of the large number of ports on the Compuserve network around the world, the Sprynet service is being billed as a globetrotter's Internet service. "Our breadth of network coverage is second to none. Using the same worldwide presence developed for our Information Service, Compuserve is now making the Internet accessible for everyone. We have reached the market first at a price point which our competitors will find hard to match because we are maximizing the capacity of our infrastructure and technologies," Turner said. Judith Coley, a spokeswoman for Compuserve, told Newsbytes that the Sprynet bronze deal is an "excellent one" for anyone interested in trying out the Internet. "It makes us the best offering in the UK as far as Internet monthly charges are concerned," she said. (Steve Gold/19951205/Press Contact: Judith Coley, Compuserve, +44-1734-525666, Internet e-mail jcoley@csi.compuserve.com; Reader Contact: Compuserve UK, 0800-000444) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 12/06/95 TRENDS Visual Software Unveils 3-D Applications (NEWS)(TRENDS)(LON)(00003) Visual Software Unveils 3-D Applications 12/06/95 LONDON, ENGLAND, 1995 DEC 6 (NB) -- Visual Software, the manufacturer of three-dimensional (3-D) multimedia software, has announced a new addition to the 3-D software family -- the Instant 3D. According to the company, the new application is designed to perform in the Windows 95 and OLE (object linking and embedding) 2.0 environment. According to the company, the "user friendly software" is "very easy" to learn. Users have a choice of hundreds of textures such as stones, flowers, and wood. Users can select a graphic of particular interest, such as dinosaurs, frames, balloons, or planes, and illuminate them with a selection of textures. Combining all these effects and adding new ideas they are able to create a completely new image. Instant 3D's advanced text editor turns the TrueType fonts into a 3-D display, says the company, which can be lit with light effects and enhanced by adding additional texture such as wood, marble, and chrome. Steve Bennett, managing director of Software Warehouse, the UK company that is handling the US package, which was unveiled at the Comdex Fall computer show recently, explained that creators of files under Instant 3D can underline the effect their software can have on the ordinary document. "We have created a quick and easy way to add excitement to any document or presentation produced with Windows 95 applications. Instant 3D is a product for everybody, making all written communications jump off the page," he said. "Instant 3D will offer a world of 3-D graphics capabilities to any PC users document. Visual Software's titles such as Simply 3D and Visual Reality are excellent titles sold quickly and I anticipate that Instant 3D will become immediately popular with our customers. Software Warehouse recognizes that 3-D is going to be the next high volume growth segment of the multimedia industry," he added. (Sylvia Dennis/19951205/Press Contact: Gay Platts, David Bramley, Platform, +44-181-464-9149; Reader Contact: Software Warehouse, +44-181-810-7700; Visual Software, tel 818-883-7900, fax 818-593-3750) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 12/06/95 BROADCAST Hughes To Build Telenor Scandinavian Satellite (NEWS)(BROADCAST)(LON)(00004) Hughes To Build Telenor Scandinavian Satellite 12/06/95 OSLO, NORWAY, 1995 DEC 6 (NB) -- Hughes Space and Communications International, of Los Angeles, has contracted with Telenor Satellite Services of Oslo to build a high-power TV satellite to serve the Scandinavian region. According to Fran Slimmer, a spokesperson for Hughes, the satellite will be known as the Thor IIA and will be a high-power version of the company's HS 376 off-the-shelf unit. Plans call for Hughes to deliver the satellite into orbit in the latter part of 1996, ready for testing and eventual handover to Telenor in Oslo, Norway, in the spring of 1997. As with other satellites supplied by the company, Hughes will both build and launch the satellite into orbit. The satellite will be launched on the back of a McDonnell Douglas Delta II rocket. Slimmer told Newsbytes that the Thor IIA satellite will complement the existing Thor II DMAC satellite, which was built originally for British Sky Broadcasting (BSB) in the late 1980s, but sold in 1992 to Telenor when BSB was acquired by Sky Television and transmissions switched to the Astra satellite. "Our satellites are designed with a ten-year life-span, and the existing Thor satellite is still providing service to Scandinavia," Slimmer said, adding that the unit is one of three models that Thor produces for the DTH (direct-to-home) market. Thor IIA will have 15 transponders, each of which will generate 40 watts of power in the Ku transmission band. It has not been decided whether any or all of the transponders will use compressed digital channel transmissions, although Newsbytes notes this is likely, since compressed digital can squeeze eight or more channels on to a single transponder. The satellite will use gallium arsenide solar cells to generate around 1,200 watts of payload power. Financial details of the deal with Telenor have not been revealed. "Because we are a private company, we do not have to disclose these figures to the media," Rimmer told Newsbytes. (Steve Gold/19951205/Press Contact: Hughes Space and Communications International, 310-364-6363) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 12/06/95 GOVT Hungarian Govt Okays Telecoms Changes (NEWS)(GOVT)(LON)(00005) Hungarian Govt Okays Telecoms Changes 12/06/95 BUDAPEST, HUNGARY, 1995 DEC 6 (NB) -- Business is booming in the Hungarian telecoms market -- so much so that Hungarian Telephone & Cable Corporation has signed a $33 million loan agreement with Chemical Bank to fund a new telecoms network in the country. At the same time, the Hungarian Government has agreed, "in principle," to sell off a significant proportion of its remaining share in Matav, the former state controlled telecoms company. The Hungarian Telephone deal will allow the private telco, which has a majority stake in five telephone concession areas around Hungary, to start building work on new telephone exchanges to drive a new national telecoms network for the country. As reported previously by Newsbytes, Magyarcom, a joint venture of Deutsche Telekom and Ameritech, bought a 30.29 percent stake in Matav for $875 million, as well as a 25-year-long contract for trunk and international calls, in 1993. Although no-one is discussing who may be a likely bidder for the remainder of the shares in Matav, Central European media reports suggest that Magyarcom is very interested in taking the remainder of the available shares in Matav, but this is likely to be tied to a float of the shares on the European stock exchanges some time next year. Matav is going through a boom period, Newsbytes notes. At the company's annual general meeting on June 7 this year, the company's general manager, Emil Tomka, said that this year will see Matav plough back almost all of its after-tax profits into the network infrastructure, pushing the number of lines up by at least a third of a million. Tomka said at the time that the company wants to invest for the future, and hopes to make a profit in later years, rather than the immediate future. "Our investment plan contains 68 billion forints and from that we wish to build 360,000 lines this year," he said. (Sylvia Dennis/19951205) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 12/06/95 TELECOM Indian Institute & Bell-Northern In Telecom Research (NEWS)(TELECOM)(DEL)(00006) Indian Institute & Bell-Northern In Telecom Research 12/06/95 NEW DELHI, INDIA, 1995 DEC 6 (NB) -- Bell-Northern Research (BNR), the research and development subsidiary of Northern Telecom (Nortel), and the Indian Institute of Science (IISc), Bangalore, have agreed to collaborate on advanced research in telecommunications. As per the "memorandum of understanding" signed by the two institutes, BNR may create a funding source that will be used to sponsor projects proposed by either organization. Early projects under consideration are on ATM (asynchronous transfer mode), as well as cellular and PCS (personal communications services) communications. Eventually, the technologies will be incorporated into Nortel products throughout the world. At present, BNR has established a three-year multi-million rupee grant that will be used to provide financial assistance to IISc professors, researchers and scholars for further work in the areas of telecom research. (C. T. Mahabharat/19951206) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 12/06/95 TELECOM India - AT&T & ECIL Target Banking (NEWS)(TELECOM)(DEL)(00007) India - AT&T & ECIL Target Banking 12/06/95 NEW DELHI, INDIA, 1995 DEC 6 (NB) -- The public sector giant, Electronics Corporation of India Ltd. (ECIL), has signed a memorandum of understanding with AT&T Global Information Solutions of the US for the implementation of total solutions to various banks. The MOU also envisages the supply of equipment and technical know-how by the foreign company. Depending on customer requirements, ECIL will provide inter- branch connectivity for banks through very small aperture terminals (VSATs), leased phone lines, or VHF communication systems. While the Indian company will be responsible for securing business, AT&T will provide training for the personnel. ECIL already has a tie-up with AT&T for the maintenance of ATMs (automated teller machines) in the Indian banks. (C. T. Mahabharat/19951206) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 12/06/95 TELECOM Indian Software Firms Target Australian Market (NEWS)(TELECOM)(DEL)(00008) Indian Software Firms Target Australian Market 12/06/95 NEW DELHI, INDIA, 1995 DEC 6 (NB) -- The low costs and high quality associated with Indian software companies is now helping them tap the Australian software market, worth a reported $28 million, according to the National Association Software and Service Companies (NASSCOM), the Indian software organization. NASSCOM recently launched a major export initiative in Australia, along with the Department of Electronics (DOE), and the Australian Information Industry Association (AIIA). Until now, of the total software exports from India, which has been estimated at around $485 million during the 1994-1995 period, exports to Australia were around $14 million, according to Dewang Mehta, executive director of NASSCOM. (C. T. Mahabharat/19951206) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 12/06/95 ONLINE Australia - Banking Faces Non-Conventional Challenges (NEWS)(ONLINE)(SYD)(00009) Australia - Banking Faces Non-Conventional Challenges 12/06/95 SYDNEY, AUSTRALIA, 1995 DEC 6 (NB) -- As guest speaker at an AIIA breakfast in Sydney recently, banker Peter Andrews envisaged a new ballgame for the banking industry in the next millennium as it comes to terms with technologies and organizations -- such as smart cards and Visa -- which may threaten its traditional role. Back in 1966, Controversy Corner, a popular Australian football program featured a regular spot called "the passing competition," where young players speared footballs through an elephant poster plastered across a dummied-up hole in the studio wall. As the football sailed through, the torn-asunder Commonwealth Bank elephant (the bank's symbol in those days) would let out a trumpeting cry. A young Peter Andrews, now general manager of information services for the bank, was already three years into his banking career when this was happening. But back to the present, "We can only go forward on the basis that nothing is sacred," said Andrews in an address which touched on the entry of non-banking organizations into the financial sector and the possible disintegration of "monolithic" banking structures. "Our hunger for growth, being close to insatiable," he confessed, would only be satisfied by the intelligent use of technology. The Internet was earmarked as an area of future expansion, along with mobile computing. The Commonwealth and other Australian banks will undertake an aggressive round of telemarketing campaigns, starting, says Andrews. In a refreshing display of candor, Andrews also questioned the direction of demand for new technology. "Are we in the midst of a push or a pull?" he asked, adding, "We are yet to get to the point where the pull is really sustainable." (Dorothy Kennedy and Computer Daily News/19951206) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 12/06/95 LEGAL China - Copyright Violations Drop (NEWS)(LEGAL)(PEK)(00010) China - Copyright Violations Drop 12/06/95 BEIJING, CHINA, 1995 DEC 6 (NB) -- The number of copyright violations in China has been "significantly reduced," according to an official with the National Copyright Administration (NCA). However, the number of translated foreign works has also dropped, due mainly to a lack of funds for buying the copyrights, he said. There are very few copyright violations this year, because almost all publishers have rejected pirated translations, said Chen Shaokuan, vice-director of the Copyright Department of NCA. He also said that China has strictly followed the Universal Copyright Convention since it signed the agreement on October 15. Due to the efforts of law enforcement agencies and increasing awareness among publishers and individuals, copyright violations have dropped sharply, a government newspaper claims. However, exact figures are not available. NCA admitted that the number of translated foreign works has also dropped since 1992, mainly because of a lack of funds for buying the copyrights. However, besides the problem concerning money to pay for the copyrights, the authors of works to be translated are sometimes very difficult to find, claim some publishing firms. In order to introduce their works in China, some authors from the United States, Russia, Japan, Germany, and Egypt have renounced their translation copyrights on selected works. Four prominent Egyptian writers announced in Beijing in August that they would give up translation copyrights to their books in China, according to Gamal Sayed, head of the Press and Information Office of the Egyptian Embassy in Beijing. Egyptian writer Fuad Kendyl announced that he and three of his countrymen were willing to give up their copyrights, in the hope that their action will help spread Egyptian literature in China. More than 300 Arabic literary, sociological, and religious works have been translated into Chinese in the past few years, according to Sayed. (Chih-Ho Yu & Ning Huang/19951206) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 12/06/95 BROADCAST China - Digital Pay-Programs Via Satellite (NEWS)(BROADCAST)(PEK)(00011) China - Digital Pay-Programs Via Satellite 12/06/95 BEIJING, CHINA, 1995 DEC 6 (NB) -- As of November 30, China Central Television (CCTV) has been test-broadcasting four channels of pay- programs via satellite, using compressed digital encrypted signals, according to the president of the company. CCTV used to broadcast free-programs and the move is the first time the central government TV station has used the advanced digital technology for encrypted pay-program broadcasting. This was described as an essential development by Yang Weiguang, vice minister of Ministry of Radio, Film, and Television, and the president of CCTV. Yang said that more channels covering new programs are needed to meet the growing demands of different audiences. The four new channels will broadcast movies, sports, culture, arts, agriculture, science and technology, and military programs. People will need to subscribe in order to receive these programs. Residents of economically developed areas will pay RMB2 to RMB3 (US$0.24 to $0.36) a month, while people living in poor and remote areas will be charged only RMB1 (US$0.12), said the CCTV president. Programs for children, or concerning agriculture, the military, and science and technology, will be free. About 200 cable TV stations in 24 provinces have signed agreements with CCTV to transmit the new programs. Officials with the Beijing Cable TV station recently said that an additional RMB4 (US$0.48) per month will be charged to Beijing cable TV subscribers if they want to receive the four new channels. Officials also said that CCTV has spent RMB200 to RMB300 million (US$24 to $36 million) for equipment and the satellite channel lease, and that the cost for making programs is estimated at RMB500 million (US$60 million) a year. China currently has a TV audience of more than 900 million people, or 75 percent of the population. It is believed that almost all the TV audience in the country watches CCTV's program, especially its news coverage. Due to CCTV's popularity, the most expensive time periods for commercials are the several minutes just before and after CCTV's evening news. The yearly rate for the "golden time" on CCTV is about RMB60 million (US$7.14 million) per five seconds. (Chih-Ho Yu & Ning Huang/19951206) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 12/06/95 GENERAL Japan Newsbriefs (NEWS)(GENERAL)(TYO)(00012) Japan Newsbriefs 12/06/95 TOKYO, JAPAN, 1995 DEC 6 (NB) -- In this roundup of news from Japan: Game makers to study convulsions link; DVD agreement this week; Ericsson wins phone order; Toshiba plans new chip plant; TV/VCR exports down in October; Tokyo Metropolitan Government goes online; Fujitsu Ten to launch car navigation in US; Canon enters digital video market. Game Makers To Study Convulsions Link Two of Japan's top video game makers, Nintendo and Sega, have agreed to jointly study the cause of convulsions experienced by some users of video games. The research, to be carried out with the Japan Epilepsy Association, will attempt to discover the reason for the reactions and study cases in Japan, the UK, the US, France, and four other countries. The study will also look at reported cases where users have lost consciousness while game-playing. DVD Agreement This Week An agreement between the two sides discussing a single and unified technical format for digital video disk (DVD) is likely this week said the Kyodo news agency, which quoted sources close to the two parties. The two groups are led by Sony and Toshiba and are still discussing other issues related to the combination of the two, once separate formats, including the splitting of royalties. Ericsson Wins Phone Order Sweden's Ericsson has won another contract with the Digital Tu-Ka telephone network for the supply of a PDC network for Digital Tu-Ka Hokuriku. The new network is expected to be launched in 1997 and is a jointly owned system allowing customers of both the Digital Phone Group and Tu-Ka Cellular networks to use their telephones on Hokuriku island. Ericsson has received previous contracts in other areas of Japan and is one of the leading network builders in Japan. Toshiba Plans New Chip Plant Toshiba is to build a new semiconductor plant in northern Japan to produce memory chips for use in computers, telephones, and other devices. The company is investing 130 billion yen ($1.27 billion) over the next three years in the plant, which will begin production in March, 1998. Production will begin in April, 1996, and is scheduled for completion a year later in the spring of 1997. Monthly output is targeted at 30,000 wafers a month. TV/VCR Exports Down In October Exports of televisions and video cassette recorders from Japan in October continued falling, according to statistics released by the Electronic Industries Association of Japan (EIAJ), which also reported domestic shipments rose during the month. During October, exports of TV sets fell 21% on the year, to 221,000 units, while exports of video recorders dropped 42.2% on the year, to 806,000 units. Within Japan, shipments of televisions rose 8.3% compared with a year ago, to 761,000 sets. Video recorder shipments jumped a stronger 27.4% on the year, to total 513,000 units in October. Imports of televisions climbed 42% to 754,000 sets with video recorder imports rising over double, at 102%, to 267,000 units. Tokyo Metropolitan Government Goes Online The Tokyo metropolitan government will soon begin providing information on the Internet. The service will include data and information, such as minutes of council meetings, remarks and speeches made by Governor Yukio Aoshima, and will be available in both Japanese and English, according to the council, which expects strong demand for the service. Fujitsu Ten To Launch Car Navigation In US Kobe-based Fujitsu Ten, a manufacturer of car entertainment and information systems, is to begin selling car navigation systems in the United States. The systems make use of digital maps stored on compact disks and position fixing using the global positioning system (GPS) network of satellites. American versions of the system will have much more reliance on voice instructions as many states have laws against video displays on the dashboard, according to the Kobe-based maker. The systems are expected to sell for less than $1,000. Canon Enters Digital Video Market Canon has announced it will begin selling a digital camcorder in Japan from December 22nd. The company joins Sony and Matsushita in the market and will itself be sourcing the camera from Matsushita on an OEM (original equipment manufacturer) basis. Canon's model will retail for around 220,000 yen ($2,156), the same price as Matsushita's model. It will test the waters with 2,000 units a month from the Osaka-based manufacturer, and may begin building its own if sales go well. (Martyn Williams/19951206) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 12/06/95 ONLINE ****Internet Update - European Special (NEWS)(ONLINE)(TYO)(00013) ****Internet Update - European Special 12/06/95 TOKYO, JAPAN, 1995 DEC 6 (NB) -- In this roundup of new services and resources on the European part of the global Internet: France - French Riviera index; Switzerland - Swiss music resource; Greece - The latest news; Russia - Yellow pages; Switzerland - Hugo online; Ukraine - Newspapers online; Austria - Web index; Austria - Tourism information; Ireland - Businesses on the Web; Switzerland - Business index. France - French Riviera Index The French Riviera takes a trip into cyberspace with "The Virtual Riviera," an index to the real thing. Information covers subjects such as resorts, yachts, festivals, golf, education, business, hotels, brochures, and maps. A search engine provides quick access to desired information. World Wide Web: http://www.riviera.fr/ Switzerland - Swiss Music Resource Music.ch is a large online database to music on the Internet from Switzerland. The guide includes links to Swiss music on the Web, mailing lists, news groups, and even on Internet relay chat (IRC). The service is organizing chats with Swiss groups on IRC with the Primitive Lyrics on the 12th. World Wide Web: http://www.music.ch/ Greece - The Latest News The two sister newspapers of Ta Nea and The Athens News have launched electronic editions with coverage of the latest domestic and city news, business, arts, entertainment and sports news plus there is even the weather forecast, a letters column and classified ads. Ta Nea is the largest selling daily newspaper in Greece and the Internet service is updated daily except Sundays. World Wide Web: http://www.dolnet.gr/ Russia - Yellow Pages A well-organized guide to Russian resources on the network from news and entertainment through music, movies, and sport to software. A geographic index also points towards all resources from chosen areas and cities. World Wide Web: http://pages.nyu.edu/~vqr5838/rus_pages/ Switzerland - Hugo Online The Hugo Association in Zurich has established the official site of Swiss culture on the Internet. You can jump to the hippest and best music and culture ventures in Switzerland to check the events calendar and check out touring schedules of the best Swiss bands. An excellent example of up-to-date and comprehensive Web publishing. World Wide Web: http://www.hugo.ch/hugo/ Ukraine - Newspapers Online A group of newspapers in Kiev have begun publishing Internet editions. They include Komanda (Team), Rozovij Slon (Pink Elephant), Daily-Express, Kievskie Vedomosti (Kiev News), Sil'ske Gittya, Dajdgest Ukraina (Ukraine Digest), and Zritel. The service is currently free, but will become subscription-based from the New Year so try them out now! You will need a browser capable of displaying the Russian language. World Wide Web: http://kolo.esc.kharkov.ua/Kiev/newspapers.html Austria - Web Index Everything on the Web associated with Austria is here, from news and culture to media and free-time activities. The index also extends to include details of Austrian representatives overseas, tourism tips and recommended travel routes, data on the country from the CIA World Fact Book, and links to newsgroups, plus lots more. There doesn't seem to be a thing they have missed. World Wide Web: http://www.netwing.at/webindex/ Austria - Tourism Information If you are traveling to Austria, check out the previous site and this one first. The guide is split into four main areas covering Vienna, Lower Austria, Burgenland, and Upper Austria, and includes details of hotels, rates, and attractions. The service is available in English and German. World Wide Web: http://www.tourist-net.co.at/ Ireland - Businesses On The Web From simple beginnings, this site has now grown to over 400 listings of links to Irish businesses that maintain an Internet presence. You can browse by category, alphabetically, or just check the new links. World Wide Web: http://www.iol.ie/~aidanh/business/ Switzerland - Business Index The Swiss + Directory offers a quick and easy way to find companies based in Switzerland. The service, available in English, German, French, and Italian, lists businesses by category, in the same form as a Yellow Pages telephone book, and is organized in accordance with the Classification of Economic Activities within the European Community model (NACE). World Wide Web: http://www.swissdir.ch/swissdir/ (Martyn Williams/19951206) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 12/06/95 ONLINE Saab Cars USA On The Web (NEWS)(ONLINE)(MSP)(00014) Saab Cars USA On The Web 12/06/95 NORCROSS, GEORGIA, U.S.A., 1995 DEC 6 (NB) -- Saab Cars USA's new Internet World Wide Web site is now open for electronic traffic. The site is designed for both people who are kicking cyber-tires and deciding on a new car, and for longtime Saab admirers -- some of whom keep their older Saabs for hundreds of thousands of miles. Saab officials point out the trip within the site is a fast one, with most screens being visible within ten seconds of accessing them, and with a graphic "sign-post" imagemap that leads browsers in the direction they choose. When Newsbytes surfed to the site we found many animated graphics that can only be seen with a more advanced Web browsing program, like a later version of Netscape Navigator. The graphics were similar to the "painting" look found in Saab's TV and print "Find Your Own Road" ad campaigns. We saw many of Saab's new 1996 models, from the new five-door 900 Turbo to the 9000 Aero. We were also able to enter a drawing for a free six-month lease on a 900 convertible. "This (Web site) is an extension of the 'Find Your Own Road' campaign," Dan Prescott, Saab Cars USA spokesperson, told Newsbytes. "We found that a lot of our buyers have the technology to be on the Internet. We also found a correlation between the demographics of the typical Saab buyer and those who are into the Internet. So it was just a natural match." One of the features of the site is the "Build Your Own Saab" page, where prospective buyers can "build" the 1996 Saab of their choice. By using exterior colors and wheels, 218 customized Saabs can be built. When Newsbytes noted that other car manufacturers use these types of programs to see which combinations of colors are most preferred by consumers, Prescott said Saab's "building" page is "more of an exercise for car shoppers" so they can see the possibilities of car combinations available to them. Even the site may look like it's basically finished, Prescott said it is definitely a "work in progress." Another important feature of the site comes in the form of a person, Prescott said. A full-time electronic communications specialist has been added to Saab USA's public relations staff to answer questions, and to coordinate future live forums with Saab senior management and engineers, he said. Future plans call for uploading the text of the quarterly magazine, Saab Soundings, to the site. Saab Soundings is sent to many people who own new and used Saabs. The magazine contains articles on new developments for Saabs, who owns Saabs, and other material. Web drivers can ramp onto Saab's own road at http://www.saabusa.com/ . Saab USA's parent, Saab Automobile AB, is planning on opening its own site soon, officials added. (Bob Woods/19951206/Press Contacts: Elke Martin or Dan Prescott, Saab Cars USA, 770-229-6362) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 12/06/95 ONLINE America Online & Time To Offer Health & Fitness (NEWS)(ONLINE)(MSP)(00015) America Online & Time To Offer Health & Fitness 12/06/95 VIENNA, VIRGINIA, U.S.A., 1995 DEC 6 (NB) -- Continuing a strategy of partnering with media companies to develop online content, America Online (NASDAQ:AMER) (AOL) is entering into a joint venture with Time Inc. to develop a new interactive health and fitness online service. AOL and Time will each hold a 50 percent interest in the new service, which will reside on both AOL and Time's Pathfinder Internet World Wide Web site. The, as-yet unnamed venture, is scheduled to go online in early 1996, officials said. It will feature coverage of health, fitness, food, and nutrition. Content will feature original programming, online forums and virtual workshops, and access to health care experts and support groups. Some of the information will come from Time Inc. magazines like Health, Cooking Light, Sunset, Martha Stewart Living, and other titles. Judy Tashbook, America Online spokesperson, told Newsbytes the new health service will be programmed similar to a demographically targeted television or cable channel, yet will have the aspects that are specific to an online service. Tashbook also said the new service will not replace the current Health Area on AOL, but instead will become a part of the area. "When you go to Keyword Health, all of it will be available," she said. "But what (today's announcement) represents is a significant development, because this will create content that will ultimately exist outside of the AOL environment." Eventually, some of the content found on the site will expand to other market segments, including health care organizations and their memberships, officials said. The health service may also migrate to other media platforms, including Web, online/CD-ROM, and cable modem- based interactive television. Tashbook said the strategy of leveraging the content from media companies for online distribution is one that AOL has done in the past, and will continue to do in the future, as a "marriage of developing new media." Already, AOL has signed similar joint ventures with Capital Cities/ABC to develop a "channel" focused on fashion, and with New Line Media to form a "Generation-X" area called "The Hub," both of which Newsbytes has profiled. (Bob Woods/19951205/Press Contacts: Judy Tashbook, America Online, 703-918-1452; Peter Costiglio, Time Inc., 212-522-3927) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 95 12/06/95 WINDOWS Lotus Ships Freelance Graphics For Windows (NEWS)(WINDOWS)(BOS)(00016) Lotus Ships Freelance Graphics For Windows 95 12/06/95 CAMBRIDGE, MASSACHUSETTS, U.S.A., 1995 DEC 6 (NB) -- Lotus's newly released Windows 95 edition of Freelance Graphics lets users create presentations that "sound as great as they look," with content-building features that include TeamReview group commentary and 30 "Content SmartMasters" chocked with advice from business luminaries, plus presentation enhancements like Publish to the Internet and TeamShow, asserted Nina McIntyre of Lotus, in a briefing for Newsbytes. "We're giving users very rich content, in addition to technology," according to McIntyre, who is general manager of the Graphics Product Group for Lotus Freelance Graphics. In contrast, she charged, "Microsoft focuses mostly on core technology." The Lotus general manager told Newsbytes that Lotus's new Content SmartMasters supply a set of multi-page, multimedia templates especially designed for presentations ranging from business, marketing and compensation plans to "brainstorming sessions and product/service press launches." Each SmartMaster is liberally sprinkled from tips from a leading light in the appropriate business area, she added. For instance, Philip Kotler, one of the Content SmartMaster advisors, is "well known to anybody who has an MBA (Master of Business Administration) degree," McIntyre reported. And marketing whizzes Trout & Partners Ltd produced the suggestions incorporated into the marketing plan. The Content SmartMasters are also linked to the kinds of clip art and charts that might be used in a presentation of the kind in question, according to the Lotus exec. In addition, users can now underscore their points with six new Multimedia SmartMasters and 75 multimedia clips. The clips provide animated scenes such as "a racer crossing a finish line, and a scale weighing the balance." Alternatively, organizations can opt to "hardwire their own clip art" to a Content SmartMaster. Or, customers can create Content SmartMasters of their own. To use the new Content SmartMasters, you first select a "content topic," and then a "background look," Newsbytes was told. "Then you're given the pages that would typically appear in the presentation, and potentially, charts and text." Along the way, buttons pop up that add clip art from a built-in clip art browser, along with "content advice, with very detailed explanations from an expert." In the business plan SmartMaster, for example, a few of the sections offered include a title page, agenda, executive summary and mission statement, plus "product/service positioning, market overview, target market description, and business strategy." At the end of the presentation is a "financial spreadsheet for revenue and operating income," McIntyre noted. At one point in this SmartMaster, Kotler comes in to make recommendations to the user on "what to consider in terms of segmentation variables, which are different in the consumer and business markets." Freelance Graphics' TeamReview feature can also help to boost content quality, by permitting team members to contribute their ideas while preparation of the presentation is still in progress, according to the general manager. And when used with a company's customers, TeamReview can have the added benefit of helping to secure a sale, McIntyre maintained. By giving feedback about a presentation, customers tend to "buy into" a product or service before they are actually called upon to "buy," she reasoned. On the presentation side, the Windows 95 edition permits a presentation to be run on a remote PC, "either over a LAN (local area network) or by modem," as well as to published to either Lotus Notes or the Internet, said the exec. The new TeamShow feature for remote presentation allows speaker notes to be attached to presentations for live performances, she continued. The remote lecturer can optionally use two screens, with one screen showing the speaker notes, and the other screen -- for audience viewing -- "hiding" these notes. If a need for multiple performances is anticipated, users can "embed a voice" in the presentation. Lotus's new Publish to the Internet feature also permits inclusion of speaker notes, according to McIntyre. Users of the Web publishing capability can either keep the presentation in native Freelance Graphics format or translate the presentation into HTML (hypertext markup language). In HTML format, the presentation can be viewed over the Web via any HTML-compatible browser. The creator of the presentation can include a table of contents for the Web that will help with navigation by letting the viewer "go directly" to a page simply by clicking on the right page number in the table of contents. But Lotus has also included a new Mobile Screen Show Player, capable of being posted for downloading off a Web site, that permits the presentation to be seen in native Freelance Graphics format, McIntyre pointed out. Additional enhancements in Freelance Graphics 96 Edition for Windows 95 include new Guide Me "context sensitive help" for tips on the use of Freelance Graphics; task automation through LotusScript; an integrated animation player; the ability to set multimedia effects, such as sequencing, at the object and page level and support for OLE (object linking and embedding) 2.0 and Notes F/X 2.0, Newsbytes was told. (Jacqueline Emigh/19951107/Reader Contact: Lotus, 800-343-5414; Press Contacts: Michelle Goguen, Lotus, 404-828-5395; Susan Kwon, Lois Paul & Partners for Lotus, 617-860-5614) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 12/06/95 GOVT ****Vote Due On "Internet Smut" Issue (NEWS)(GOVT)(WAS)(00017) ****Vote Due On "Internet Smut" Issue 12/06/95 WASHINGTON, D.C., U.S.A., 1995 DEC 6 (NB) -- A joint House-Senate conference committee was set to vote today on competing plans to regulate pornography on the Internet and online services. No vote had been taken at press time. Up for consideration are three approaches: a Senate plan by Sen. James Exon (D-Neb.) to criminalize a wide variety of content on the Internet -- anything described as "indecent" or "filthy:" a somewhat narrower plan by Rep. Henry Hyde (R-Ill.), chairman of the House Judiciary Committee; and a compromise plan worked out by Rep. Rick White (R-Wash.) that would apply "constitutionally-tested standards" to banning "Internet smut." Lobbyists told Newsbytes yesterday that it appeared that White's approach had momentum and was accumulating the votes it needed to win approval. Social conservative groups, including the Christian Coalition, were backing the Hyde amendment, but were not expected to prevail in a final vote on the issue. According to Exon, who has said he can back the White plan, the Hyde amendment will come before the committee first. Then White will offer his amendment as a substitute, and the winner will then contend with the Senate-passed Exon amendment. At a press conference Monday, White told reporters, "My compromise is the result of much listening and learning. Listening to the concerns about making sure that we get the strongest law and learning about the importance of this new tool -- the Internet. This compromise is about protecting our children and protecting our future." White, whose Seattle district encompasses Microsoft and the scores of satellite software companies that orbit around it, has four children, two of whom are Internet savvy. "My wife and I spend considerable time discussing what our children watch on television and what they can access on the Internet," he said. "I will have that discussion with my wife, but I don't want to have it with a federal bureaucrat at the Federal Communications Commission." White's compromise has attracted the support of a wide cross- section of interests, including all the major online service providers, Internet access companies such as Netcom, software trade groups such as the Business Software Alliance, the Institute for Electrical and Electronic Engineers, digital liberties groups such as the Electronic Frontier Foundation, and conventional media groups such as the Newspaper Association of America. The voting on the online porn issue comes as Congress tries to wrap-up the massive telecommunications reform legislation before the end of the first session of the 104th Congress, sometime around Christmas. As the Republican Congress tries to complete work on the bills, the Democratic White House is trying to stall the issue into the 1996 session, when Presidential politics will dominate Washington. To that end, most observers expect a veto of the bill, regardless of what it contains. (Kennedy Maize/19951206/Press Contact: Connie Correll, Rep. White's office, 202-225-1201, Internet e-mail ccorrell@hr.house.gov) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 12/06/95 WINDOWS 4Home Productions Previews Simply Accounting 4. (NEWS)(WINDOWS)(BOS)(00018) 4Home Productions Previews Simply Accounting 4.0 12/06/95 BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS, U.S.A., 1995 DEC 6 (NB) -- Simply Accounting for Windows 4.0, an update slated for announcement in January, will add new ease-of-use features for the entry-level end of the SOHO (small office/home office) market, along with "power" enhancements for an emerging group of entrepreneurial users who come from the corporate world, revealed 4Home Productions' Dave Dalton, during a sneak preview for Newsbytes on a Boston press tour. Dalton, who is 4Home's director of marketing, told Newsbytes that 4Home Productions was established as a spin-off of Computer Associates (CA) when CA decided to establish a line of software specifically geared to SOHO. Some of 4Home Productions' software packages are aimed in particular at the consumer side of SOHO, he acknowledged, citing Simply Home, Simply Kids, Simply Taxes, and Simply Vacation as examples. But other products, like Simply Accounting and Simply Money, straddle the entire SOHO spectrum with capabilities targeted at small businesses, too. Simply Accounting is available for DOS and Macintosh, in addition to Windows, according to Dalton. However, some of the DOS users, especially at the entry-level, are reluctant to move to Windows, due to discrepancies between the need to do rapid-fire data entry in accounting, and Windows' strong reliance on the mouse. To help migrate these users to a more graphical environment, Simply Accounting for Windows provides the ability to "dynamically arrange and resize" data columns, Newsbytes was told. "Many accounting tasks, such as payroll and paying the rent, are `recurring.' You have to do them over and over again, month after month," the marketing director continued. So, in an ease-of-use enhancement in Simply Accounting 4.0, 4Home will add the ability to "store recurring entries," and to call them up the next time they are needed. Users will be able to employ the recurring entries in template-like fashion, keeping the landlord's address and the amount of rent payment the same as for last month's rent, for example, but changing the date. 4Home Productions will provide the ability to create recurring entries with the General, Purchases, Sales, Payroll, Transfers, and Adjustments Journals. Also to simplify use of the software, Simply Accounting for Windows will start to allow invoice numbers, check numbers, and other source and item codes to include as many as 13 characters. The drag-and-drop user interface will also add a status bar at the bottom of the screen, for "detailed information" about menu items, buttons, and fields. What about the high end of the SOHO market? Right now, said Dalton, the continuing trend toward corporate downsizing is creating a new breed of business entrepreneurs. Because these users work at home or in other small offices, they will not be candidates for CA's "systems-oriented" AccPac and Masterpiece accounting software products. But, he maintained, the "new entrepreneurs" have "almost come to expect" capabilities such as the ability to create and print colorful graphical charts. In a demo, Dalton showed Newsbytes how the new 4.0 edition will let users produce pie and bar charts for "current revenue versus last year." Graphs can also be created for payables by aging period; receivables by aging period; expenses and net profit as percentage of revenue; sales versus receivables; sales versus budget; and expenses versus budget, Newsbytes was told. "Historical information" is another high-end accounting software that will make its way into Simply Accounting for Windows 4.0, according to the 4Homes exec. None of Simply Accounting's competitors provide this functionality, including QuickBook, Mind Your Own Business, or One Write Plus, he contended. Dalton depicted how users of Simply Accounting will now be able to create reports on income statements, balance sheets, and trial balances that compare data for two periods within the same years, and that also show the amount and percentage of difference between the two figures. The marketing director also showed how you will now be able to analyze items and customer and vendor activity based on the number, amount, and cost of goods sold last year, in comparison to the current year to date. In a related capability, he reported, Simply Accounting for Windows users will be able to look up details of posted invoices from the Purchases, Sales, Payments, or Receipts Journals at any time. 4Home Productions is not planning any major changes to Simply Accounting for Macintosh, though, according to Dalton. Users of the Macintosh edition are "very pleased with their current feature set," the marketing exec told Newsbytes. Simply Accounting for Windows 4.0 will run on both Windows 3.1 and Windows 95. The company's SRP (suggested retail price) is $129.95, but Dalton projects street pricing in the neighborhood of $70. (Jacqueline Emigh/19951206/Reader Contact: 4Home Productions, 516-342-7000; Press Contacts: Sue Rizzi, 4Home Productions, 516-342-2919; Meredith Mansfield, Connors Communications for 4Home, 212-807-7500) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 95 12/06/95 WINDOWS Microsoft Ships Business Pack For Office (NEWS)(WINDOWS)(DEN)(00019) Microsoft Ships Business Pack For Office 95 12/06/95 REDMOND, WASHINGTON, U.S.A., 1995 DEC 6 (NB) -- Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ: MSFT) said it is shipping a Small Business Pack for Microsoft Office 95 -- a set of tools for the software suite that includes books, a business analyzer, software, and templates to aid in accomplishing various tasks related to running a small business. According to an AT&T study cited by Microsoft, the most common reason for small business failure is insufficient funding due to poor business planning. Microsoft said the Small Business Pack helps address that problem by simplifying and automating the planning process. Better planning, according to the software company, can help gain new funding and revenue sources. The Business Pack includes "The Business Guide," which is based on the book "Building a Profitable Business" by Greg Straugh and Charles Chickadel. It includes more than 400 tips that can aid small business operators. You also get "The Business Plan," an interactive workbook that uses the spreadsheet program Excel and word processor Microsoft Word to help the entrepreneur build a business plan. Excel and Word are part of Microsoft Office. "The Business Analyzer" compares the user's business with industry norms in order to point out areas of strength and weakness. It also provides reports on operating capital, total estimated cash value, trading cash cycles and business break-even points. Small Business Pack also includes ready-to-use accounts payable and receivable forms, income and balance sheets, and expense reports. A Leasing Wizard helps the user compare the cost of leasing, borrowing, or paying cash for needed equipment. You also get a business transaction database, a human resources database, and an equipment inventory, as well as a template to assist in preparing invoices. Sales tools include a sales database, a product catalog database and a product fact sheet template. The databases use Microsoft Access, another of the applications in Microsoft Office 95. Marketing tools in the pack include templates to aid in preparation of newsletters, press releases, brochures, postcards and product presentations. Other applications included in Office 95 are Powerpoint, a presentation graphics program, and Schedule+. Microsoft said it tightly integrated the Small Business Pack with the Professional version of Office 95. That lets the various applications work together. For example, if you create or update financial data in the planner's customized spreadsheet the data is automatically imported into the business plan. The help files for Office 95 and the Small Business Pack are also integrated so you call up help for either product from a single source, and the pack extends the Office Pro 95 Shortcut Toolbar by adding a new toolbar that provides one click access to all the resources of the Small Business Pack. Microsoft said the Small Business Pack is expected to sell for under $99. To use it you need a PC equipped with a 386DX or higher microprocessor, Windows 95, Office Professional for Windows 95, at least 12 megabytes (MB) or more of memory and at least the same amount of available hard disk space, a mouse, and a VGA or better display. (Jim Mallory/19951206/Press contact: Laura Peterson, Waggener Edstrom for Microsoft, 206-637-9097; Public contact: Microsoft, 206-882-8080 or 800-426-9400) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 12/06/95 NETWORK 10Base-T Hubs, Noderunner Adapters From Artisoft (NEWS)(NETWORK)(DEN)(00020) 10Base-T Hubs, Noderunner Adapters From Artisoft 12/06/95 TUCSON, ARIZONA, U.S.A., 1995 DEC 6 (NB) -- Artisoft Inc. (NASDAQ:ASFT) has started shipping new external hubs for 10Base-T networks and two new Noderunner Pro Ethernet adapters. The IEEE 802.3-compliant T-Runner Hub-8 and Hub-16 external hub/concentrators are compatible with most major Ethernet environments, including Artisoft's own LANtastic network operating system, Microsoft Windows 95, and Novell's Netware, said the company. The Hub-8 can connect up to eight client or server PCs, portable PCs, and print servers via RJ-45 ports. The Hub-16 functions in the same manner, except that it can connect up to 16 devices. Either can cascade to other hubs for increased network capacity. The Hub-8 can be daisy-chained to other hubs via its 10Base2 thin coax port or its eighth RJ-45 port. The Hub-16 can be connected through its thin coax port, its 16th RJ-45 port or its AUI port. The hubs support auto partition and reconnection in order to isolate faulty nodes. Each port has built-in polarity detection and correction logic to automatically adjust for crossed and uncrossed cables. Light emitting diodes (LEDs) indicate network setup and node activity, and a built-in bracket is provided. The suggested retail prices for the Hub-8 and Hub-16 are $229 and $459, respectively, but Artisoft is offering resellers the devices in special packs at a discounted price which could be passed along to the consumer. Artisoft is also shipping two new Noderunner Ethernet adapters. The Pro UTP Ethernet adapter supports 10Base-T (unshielded twisted pair) cabling, while the Pro Combo Ethernet adapter supports both 10Base-T and 10Base2 (thin coax) cabling. Artisoft said features of the Plug and Play compatible adapters include a lower power requirement than other Ethernet adapters, a 32 kilobyte buffer memory which increases performance by reducing overhead on networks with high traffic and/or multitasking operating systems, and Desktop Management Interface (DMI) support for managing network PCs with DMI-compliant applications. Suggested retail prices for the UTP and Combo versions start at $99 and $109, respectively, but through December 31, Artisoft is offering resellers discounts. The adapters are available in one-, five-, and 10-user packages, and they are compatible with Artisoft's LANtastic network operating system, Novell's Netware and Microsoft's Windows 95. (Jim Mallory/19951206/Press contact: Bill Peterson, Artisoft, 520-670-7304; Public contact: Artisoft, tel 800-233-5564, fax 520-670-7101) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 12/06/95 ONLINE Tango Links Web Servers To Databases (NEWS)(ONLINE)(TOR)(00021) Tango Links Web Servers To Databases 12/06/95 MISSISSAUGA, ONTARIO, CANADA, 1995 DEC 6 (NB) -- You might not think of World Wide Web pages at first as containing the kind of information for which database software would be useful, but according to EveryWare Development Corp., many of them do. EveryWare said its Tango visual development tool makes it easier to present data from databases on the Web by linking Web pages to database management systems. The initial release of Tango only connects Web server software that runs on the Apple Macintosh to EveryWare's own Butler SQL (structured query language) database software. In January, though, the company plans to release a version of Tango that complies with the Open Database Connectivity (ODBC) specification. According to Henry Lach, director of marketing at EveryWare, with that version, "You'll be able to use any ODBC database server on any platform." That, he said, will include "all of the big-name and even some of the small-name database servers." EveryWare said Tango makes it easy to create Web pages that make use of databases without having to write SQL code. According to Lach, databases can be useful in a wide range of Web applications. "When you start talking to people," he told Newsbytes, "you don't have to talk very long before they've come up with three ideas all on their own and all of them require a database." Among the possible applications of Tango are electronic shopping malls, product and pricing catalogs, chat and conferencing systems, event registration systems, and enhanced security systems, EveryWare officials said. Lach said Tango has been available in "open beta" to users of the company's Butler SQL database software for about three months, and a number of organizations have already started using it. He said EveryWare has relied mainly on direct sales in North America to date, but is beginning to put more emphasis on mail-order catalog sales. The company also has distributors in roughly 10 countries outside North America, he added. The current version of Tango is only sold with the Butler SQL database software, and the bundle costs US$495 for a two-user license. The ODBC version of Tango will be sold on its own, EveryWare said. (Grant Buckler/19951206/Press Contact: Henry Lach, EveryWare, tel 905- 819-1173 ext 233, fax 905-819-1172, Internet e-mail hlach@everyware.com) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 12/06/95 TELECOM "Back To The Future" With Telephone Voice Dialing Trial (NEWS)(TELECOM)(TOR)(00022) "Back To The Future" With Telephone Voice Dialing Trial 12/06/95 HAMILTON, ONTARIO, CANADA, 1995 DEC 6 (NB) -- Bell Canada has begun the first Canadian market trial of a voice-activated phone dialing service that will let Hamilton residents call as many as 50 numbers by speaking a name. The Northern Telecom Ltd. (TSE:NTL; NYSE:NT) technology used in the trial has been tested elsewhere in Canada, and has been used in market trials in the United States, but this is the first market trial in Canada, Henry Theloosen, general manager of multimedia network applications at Northern Telecom in Dallas, told Newsbytes. To use the system, a phone subscriber will program it as you would an autodialer, but by associating a spoken name rather than a pushbutton with a particular number. Once a name and number are programmed into the system, the subscriber will be able to dial the number by picking up the receiver and speaking the name. In the market trial, each customer will be limited to programming 50 names into the system. Theloosen said that in its full implementation the system is expected to handle 75 names per subscriber. The limit is not imposed by the technology itself, he said, but by the amount of memory needed to store the names and numbers. Northern and Bell have decided that most subscribers will find 50 to 75 names sufficient. The trial uses Northern's Network Applications Vehicle (NAV) multimedia processing platform. This system will be installed at telephone-company central offices, with one NAV system possibly shared among more than one central office via T1 phone lines. It will do the speech recognition, confirm to the caller who is being called (as in "Calling John") and then relay the dialing information to the central office switch. Theloosen said the same technology can be used for other purposes as well. As Newsbytes reported earlier, Saskatchewan Telecommunications is using it in a service that will let callers reach participating businesses by speaking their names. Theloosen said it can also be used to provide access to special telephone services such as call forwarding and last-number redial. The ultimate objective, Theloosen said, is to "go back to the future" by allowing telephone subscribers to ask for what they want verbally rather than pushing buttons, just as telephone users once made their requests of a human operator. The Hamilton voice-dialing trial is scheduled to run for six months. (Grant Buckler/19951206/Press Contact: Peter Janecek, Northern Telecom, 905-566-3279, Internet e-mail peter.janecek@nt.com; Pierre Boisseau, Bell-Northern Resesarch, 514-765-7994, Internet e-mail boisseau@bnr.ca) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 12/06/95 TELECOM Motorola Develops 28.8 Wireless Data/Fax Modem (NEWS)(TELECOM)(MSP)(00023) Motorola Develops 28.8 Wireless Data/Fax Modem 12/06/95 SCHAUMBURG, ILLINOIS, U.S.A., 1995 DEC 6 (NB) -- Continuing a strategy of developing PC Cards (Personal Computer Memory Card International Association) with multiple functions, Motorola's PCMCIA Products Division rolled out the "Montana" PC card. Montana contains data and fax capabilities at 28.8 kilobits-per-second (Kbps), as well as cellular connectivity and wireless messaging for one-way and two-way paging systems. With Motorola's Messaging Partner paging software package, Montana's wireless capability allows users to easily download and review lengthy pager messages. They can also send alphanumeric pagers through the wireline modem to paging subscribers nationwide, broadcast messages to multiple paging subscribers, send wireless messages through a Motorola Tango pager to other two-way paging subscribers, and print, cut and paste, and archive pager messages that have been downloaded from a Tango or a Motorola Advisor pager. Wireless two-way messages can also be sent using a Tango two-way pager. The Montana is also equipped with Enhanced Throughput Cellular (ETC) error-correction protocols that make it compatible with data-ready phones from manufacturers like AT&T, NEC, Oki, and, of course, Motorola. In addition, Montana has 28.8Kbps data performance at V.34 standard modulation, error-correction, and data compression. Fax operation is at 14.4Kbps, and can be used to communicate with Group 3, Class 1 and 2 fax machines. Montana is both Windows 95- and Macintosh-compatible, and includes an intelligent installation engine which automates both configuration and installation. The PC card also incorporates flash ROM for future upgrades. The card is priced at $329, with full shipping to take place in February, 1996. Tom Morrow, Motorola spokesperson, told Newsbytes the PC card is targeted at the mobile professional, "typically a corporate user who is a manager in a Fortune 2000 company," he said. "That person would be more than likely to use the wireless messaging function of the card," and especially the capability to store long pages, he added. Morrow said he did see some use for the card in the small office/home office (SOHO) market. Morrow said the future of PC cards at Motorola is to place more functions on the same card, such as different wireless protocols or ISDN (integrated services digital network) capabilities. "Are those products imminent? No, but that is where multi-function cards are going, in providing multiple solutions that really accommodate the mobile traveler." (Bob Woods/19951206/Press Contact: Jessica Chipkin, Motorola PCMCIA, 708-538-3415) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 12/06/95 GENERAL Rock 'n' Roll Facts On CD (NEWS)(GENERAL)(LAX)(00024) Rock 'n' Roll Facts On CD 12/06/95 BEVERLY HILLS, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1995 DEC 6 (NB) -- All you would ever want to know about rock 'n' roll is on a new CD-ROM by Penguin Publishing. Complete up-to-date information on single recordings, albums, and album tracks from the last 40 years of popular music -- a total of 500 million facts are included in the CD titled ROCKnROM, said the company. Steve Levesque, a spokesperson for Penguin, told Newsbytes that ROCKnROM includes information on 800,000 recordings, 90,000 artists, 30,000 music publishers, 100,000 songwriters, 9,000 arrangers, 10,000 record producers, 6,000 labels and companies, 200,000 allied products, 5,000 studios and rock venues, 7,000 biographies, and 15,000 rock 'n' roll dates. "There is no audio," he said, adding, "this is a written history of rock 'n' roll information. It does include some photograph's and sheet music, but not the actual audio." ROCKnROM contains material from the archives of Billboard magazine, Chart Information Network, the Mechanical Copyright Protection Society, and work from music critics, writers, and historians. ROCKnROM includes 62,000 popularity charts from Billboard Magazine, giving a history of best-selling music over the last few decades. "The information contained in ROCKnROM could take days or weeks to track down," says Michael Wadleigh, creator of ROCKnROM. "With ROCKnROM the user can find out all the information needed concerning a particular recording, song, or artist immediately. For musicians and executives, and everyone in between, this title will help with creative ideas, business analysis, and industry research." Wadleigh, partnered in the project with Penguin Books' electronic division, terms ROCKnROM: "The ultimate database of popular music, an essential computerized library." Price for ROCKnROM is a suggested $1,500 and is available for Windows 3.1. Included in that price will be quarterly updates and a free 15-day trial. Minimum requirements for ROCKnROM are a 486 or Pentium IBM- compatible computer, double speed CD-ROM drive, and VGA 256 color monitor. Macintosh and online versions are scheduled for 1996. Rhythm 'n' Blues and Country Music CD-ROM editions, following the same format as ROCKnROM, are in the planning stages. "Music and recording industry professionals and the entertainment media are the initial markets for ROCKnROM," said Levesque. "These include musicians, songwriters, record labels, producers and arrangers, music publishers, copyright and collection agencies, recording studios, managers, and agents." Other areas to be targeted in the broad ranging marketing and promotion campaigns being developed by Penguin Electronics for ROCKnROM include radio stations, major entertainment wholesalers and retail chains, print and TV media, libraries, and universities. According to the company, ROCKnROM uses computerized links to connect each of the 500 Million facts to "related and appropriate" pieces of information. The ROCKnROM user can click onto a particular song and run down its complete history, including writer, current owner, other recordings, or chart history. Similarly, if the user clicks on an artist, a full informational menu is provided. "Every mention of, say, Eric Clapton, is linked to every other reference," explains Wadleigh. "It is the first true relational database. Everything and everyone is connected," says Wadleigh. (Richard Bowers/19951206/Press Contact: Ian Dove, 213-651-9300) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 12/06/95 GENERAL Quarterdeck Adds Security To WebStar (NEWS)(GENERAL)(LAX)(00025) Quarterdeck Adds Security To WebStar 12/06/95 BERKELEY, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1995 DEC 6 (NB) -- StarNine Technologies, a Quarterdeck Corp. (NASDAQ:QDEK) company, has announced the WebStar/SSL Security Toolkit, which can be added to any World Wide Web site on the Internet or an internal corporate network. The toolkit offers secure Web transactions and document transfers for the Macintosh. A recent study conducted by the Georgia Institute of Technology reported that the WebStar product line commands 66% of the market for commercially available Web servers. Among the commercially supported Web servers counted by the study, the WebStar product line accounts for 66% of the servers used, with WinHTTP being the second most widely used at 18%. Netscape Communications Netsite server holds 10% of the commercial market, with other commercial servers accounting for less than 6%. The study gives the WebStar product line 21% of the overall Web server market, which includes free non-commercial servers. The toolkit includes Quarterdeck WebStar/SSL, an encryption-enabled version of StarNine's Web server for Macintosh, and utilities for creating a digital ID for the server. Quarterdeck WebStar is available separately for serving Web pages which require simpler password and domain-level security. "Quarterdeck WebStar/SSL Security Toolkit is an extremely attractive solution for any group with a Macintosh that wants to enhance security on their Web site," said Rusty Rahm, president of StarNine. "Whether it's on the Internet or internal network, the Quarterdeck WebStar/SSL Security Toolkit's simple point-and-click interface makes it easy to serve Quarterdeck WebStar." The Quarterdeck WebStar/SSL Security Toolkit is based on cross-platform standards from Netscape Communications Corporation and RSA Data Security Inc., which give users encryption support for creating a secure channel that prevents eavesdropping on Web connections, server authentication for verifying the identity of the originating Web site, and data integrity to guarantee the transmitted data arrives unaltered Naomi Pearce, a spokesperson for Quarterdeck, told Newsbytes, "The Quarterdeck WebStar/SSL server is compatible with all SSL-capable Web browsers, making it straightforward to create secure applications for internal, cross-platform networks and the Internet. Moreover, the server interoperates seamlessly with Unix or PC-based Web servers. "The server's authenticated digital ID and public/private key allow people accessing the secure site to be certain that they're sending and receiving information from the correct server. In addition, all communications between the server and the browser are encrypted, ensuring that the messages are truly private. Data integrity capabilities guarantee the data arrives unaltered," continued Pearce. According to the company, the Toolkit also includes all the utilities needed to generate the server's public/private key, as well as request and process server digital ID's from VeriSign. Both international and United States versions are available. A higher- level of encryption security is included in the United States version. The Quarterdeck WebStar/SSL Security Toolkit has a suggested retail price of $1,295 with a special introductory price of $895, through December 15. (Richard Bowers/19951206/Press Contact: Naomi Pearce, Quarterdeck, 510-528-0824) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 12/06/95 ONLINE ****Web Frenzy in San Francisco (NEWS)(ONLINE)(SFO)(00026) ****Web Frenzy in San Francisco 12/06/95 SAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1995 DEC 6 (NB) -- At least one thousand hopefuls who wanted to get into WebInnovation, a conference devoted to the latest in Web programming, had to be turned away, according to Interactive Marketing Communications, of Capistrano Beach, CA, the conference producer. #IMAGE 1 20 TWPCX \images\9512062a.PCX Click here for photo #IMAGE 1 20 TWPCX \images\9512062b.PCX Click here for photo #IMAGE 1 20 TWPCX \images\9512062c.PCX Click here for photo Some 1,600 attendees did manage to attend the three-day Web extravaganza (Dec 4 - 6) at the San Francisco Hilton Towers. Some 20 percent of those came from overseas. A thousand companies sent people to hear representatives from Netscape, Silicon Graphics and Sun Microsystems beat the drum for Internet multimedia and progress. People from Sandia Labs, Autodesk, Hewlett-Packard and the University of Missouri were among those attending. The diversity of the attendees spoke to the spread of Internet use across many fields. Other sponsors and exhibitors included Progressive Networks (RealTime Audio), Adobe, Macromedia and Informix. Other Web-enabling companies included EarthWeb, BBN Planet and I- Pro. Interactive Marketing also had maintained a Web site for registration and for showcasing the participating companies. The main thrust of the keynote address by Marc Andreesson, Netscape founder, was that the desktop paradigm for the PC is as good as dead. His four main points included the belief that the new paradigm is network-centric, cross-platform, dynamically updated, and involved with a radical shift in distribution methods. He also made the point that Internet use and the use of browser applications on LANs (local area networks), is growing and is a part of the overall paradigm shift. Conspicuously lacking coat and tie, Andreeson made small digs at Bill Gates and Microsoft. This did not stop Andreesson from projecting Gates' New York Times quote on Internet inevitability on a huge screen behind him. Ironically, most of the demos and presentations including the keynote were being run from Windows 95. Pictures, sound, support and a dose of VRML (virtual reality modeling language) boosterism provided the gist for the conferees' activities. Monday's big announcements came from Netscape, Silicon Graphics, and Sun Microsystems as they announced mutual endorsement of Java, JavaScript and VRML technologies. Macromedia also joined in regarding the development of API's (application programming interfaces). Andreesson's remarks were echoed by Tom Jermoluk, president and COO of Silicon Graphics. The overall goal is open standards and shared development, he said. Jermoluk and Eric Schmidt of Sun Microsystems emphasized that market dominance, such as Microsoft has, was not a goal. Open standards, developer support and camaraderie was emphasized and reemphasized. Cosmo Code and Cosmo Player, utilizing the Cosmo Motion engine, were promoted as the tools that content creators have been demanding. The "videostreaming" at the Cosmo/Java press conference and at the Macromedia Shockwave demo impressed most of the crowd. Taking advantage of T1 lines, most demos were real-time Internet interaction. Animated graphics, video and audio were all being downloaded from company servers. This, no doubt, was a bid for the credibility of all these technologies. The main non-Java authoring tool at WebInnovation, Macromedia's Shockwave for Director displayed satisfactory animation capabilities even with files under 10K. According to Macromedia, the Director user base of almost a quarter million can move quickly into net multimedia with this plug-in. Adobe's recently released PageMill and SiteMill were other examples of application shells to make life easier for non-programmer "creative' types." With PageMill one can do Web page layout and let the program write the HTML. PageMill offered strong drop and drag capabilities for text and graphic placement. The presenter, Robert Siedal, did PageMill operations solving user's questions, finishing up almost before they had stopped speaking. SiteMill will automatically update and point out link errors, taking some of the pain out of site management. Newsbytes talked Martin Dunsmuir, general manager, server products, of Progressive Network maker of RealAudio. "Now, in Web multimedia the RealAudio is truly embedded without bringing up a separate player," he explained. Besides fidelity improvements, a splitter now allows multiple audio streams. Another feature mentioned by Dunsmuir is the compiler in the RealAudio 2.0 beta that allows for time line event triggers. "URLs can be brought up allowing for a slide show to be controlled by the audio track." Support applications were in force on the exhibition floor. BBN Planet effectively partners with internet providers to do operations work and site maintenance. Another approach is taken by EarthWeb. Nova Spivak, executive vice president, told Newsbytes, "We will set a client up, train their in-house team, and then continue to update them on changing technologies that can enhance their site." EarthWeb has also developed Gamalean, a Java applet directory on the Internet in conjunction with Silicon Graphics. For all the talk of commerce on the net, certain issues are still very unsettled. Working to develop a standard Web business vocabulary and auditing methods is Internet Profiles Corporation or I-Pro. Kevin Doerr, sales director, told Newsbytes, "The industry needs credible means to evaluate usage in order to have coherent ad rates structures." Doerr believes the faster this happens, the sooner the ad dollars will come in, improving both content and accessibility. VRML has an image problem. Silicon Graphics Chief Scientist Andew Paley told Newsbytes, "It's really unfortunate that virtual reality is part of the name, because it's more than an immersive reality." Paley says that the key to understanding VRML is to see it as object manipulation. Using Java as a control tool, all the things one can walk around or turn around in one's hands, can be dealt with virtually and interactively via the internet. To get the understanding of this, beyond the simplistic VR concept, was the underpinning of the VRML sessions. In the panel discussion following the keynote address, Mark Pesce, the co-creator of VRML, said, "We need to co-opt the skeptic, they can help us if we listen. We can turn the skeptic into a client." One such skeptic might be Nels Johnson of the San Francisco Canyon Company. He has seen key elements of the Microsoft Blackbird application suite at work. The unspoken nemesis of the WebInnovation thrust was undoubtedly Bill Gates and Microsoft. Johnson told Newsbytes that the performance of the OLE (object linking and embedding)-enabled Microsoft package was impressive and hard to duplicate in terms of overall application cooperation. "Objects in Windows 95 work together to make a very unbounded desktop," he said. He noted that drag and drop behavior is more sophisticated in the Microsoft Network environment. (Nick Gorski/19951206/Interactive Marketing Communications, tel 714-489-8649, fax 714-489-8752, Internet e-mail confinfo@aol.com; Internet World Wide Web http://www.vbc.com /WEBINNOV951206/PHOTO) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 12/06/95 APPLE ****Spindler Demos Apple's Pippin Through TV Screen (NEWS)(APPLE)(SFO)(00027) ****Spindler Demos Apple's Pippin Through TV Screen 12/06/95 CUPERTINO, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1995 DEC 6 (NB) -- Critics call them dumb terminals, while supporters say they are the "next wave" of computing. This week Apple's chief executive officer (CEO), Michael Spindler, demonstrated Pippin, a multimedia computer which uses a television to display content. Pippin certainly is not a dumb terminal. This multimedia device is a game machine, an audio player, Internet access device and an educational tool with mini-applications, such as a word processor. It has a four-speed CD ROM drive, a PowerPC 603 processor, high resolution graphics and text optimized for television display, stereo sound, serial ports and PCI (Peripheral Component Interconnect) peripherals and networking capabilities. Pippin also plays audio CDs, multimedia CD titles, and Photo CDs. Spindler has spoken about Pippin at almost every keynote speech he has made in the past year. With all of its features and power, Pippin does not quite fit the Oracle concept of a simple network-based terminal which Larry Ellison, Oracle's CEO, says is the future of desktop computing. That basic concept is a computer which accesses applications and most of its supporting programs through a network instead of a hard disk in a computer. With increased technology and higher bandwidth, Ellison says a desktop user does not have to deal with individual program cost, installation, and standard operation through hard disk and random access memory. Supporters of these smaller, compact systems say these devices can sell somewhere in the $500 range. With such a price tag, supporters are hoping the devices will attract a new market of users who have been unwilling to pay $2,000 or more for a fast desktop computer. Pippin will makes its first retail appearance in Japan during the spring of 1996. Bandai, a leading entertainment company in Japan, is the first to license Apple's Pippin technology and will market and distribute a Mitsubishi-made Pippin through its worldwide consumer channels. Apple says it expects Pippin distribution in the US during the second half of 1996. Speaking with Newsbytes, an Apple spokesperson said Bandai plans to deliver Pippin to the US market for under $600. Mike Murphy, publisher of the California Technology Stock Letter, told Newsbytes, "This is certainly new technology and Apple may be able to develop a new market of users with Pippin. I do not think traditional computer users will be attracted to this technology as a replacement for the desktop, but remember, there are only 13 million households with computers. That leaves a lot of room for new users." Murphy said Pippin is about the size of a large toaster and displays readable text on a television. "I was pleased with the display of text. There have been problems with making text readable on televisions and Apple has done a good job solving the problem," commented Murphy. The Pippin platform requires CD titles and applets written to a Pippin specification. This means Apple needs to attract a development community which will support Pippin with additional software products. Pippin CDs can also be played on Macintosh computers. In his demonstration, Spindler showed Internet access through Netscape's browser, Navigator, and played educational, music, and game CD titles. Interestingly, this same week, an experts at WebInnovation is quoted as saying, "If there is one lesson we have learned, it is that personal computers and the televisions are two separate appliances. People want their television as a passive form of entertainment and they want their computer as an interactive device." Apple is betting Pippin will find a middle ground and a new market for consumers. Murphy noted, "Remember, people may say they want passive entertainment on their televisions, but Nintendo, Sony, and Sega have built a very strong market with interactive devices which use televised displays." (Patrick McKenna/19951206/Press Contact: Lynne Keast, Apple, 408-974-5431) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 12/06/95 ONLINE C/net's New Banner Ad Tool (NEWS)(ONLINE)(MSP)(00028) C/net's New Banner Ad Tool 12/06/95 SAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1995 DEC 6 (NB) -- A computer network of a different kind is bringing to the Internet's World Wide Web a new technology that allows advertisers to target customers demographically and deliver specialized advertising to them. C/net's new technology is called DREAM, or Delivery of Real-Time Electronic Advertising. The DREAM software was developed by C/net's technology group. Halsey Minor, chief executive officer of C/net, told Newsbytes the DREAM software will use a combination of information obtained via registration at the site and the information given by a user's browser when they surf to the site for demographic information. By using either method, or a combination of both data models, the DREAM software will be able to tell a user's age, gender, zip code, system platform, connection speed, browser type, domain, whether they're connecting from their home or office, and other demographic data. "All we want are demographic profiles of people," Minor said. "It helps us to deliver editorial content that's appropriate and advertising that's appropriate." Currently, most of the C/net site is available to anyone with Web browsing capabilities. But that situation will change in the coming months, Minor said. "Certain areas of our site require you to be a member" and fill out the online registration form that will be used by DREAM, he said. Soon, more of the C/net site will require Web surfers to become members. This has some advantages and gives incentives for people to register, Minor said, "because we now know who you are, we can provide a whole bunch of services that are unique to you. We can tell you the content you haven't seen yet. We can suggest areas of interest to you." DREAM will be available to C/net's advertisers beginning December 15. The DREAM technology will be used on C/net's two Web sites -- C/net Online at http://www.cnet.com/ , and Shareware.Com at http://www.shareware.com/ . Insight, Internet Shopping Network, and MicroXperts will be the first direct marketing advertisers to use the new technology, C/net officials said. Minor told Newsbytes the DREAM technology will only be used at sites built by C/net. "We spent six months developing the technology," he said. "We're going to use it for a competitive advantage. We're not in the software development business." Besides DREAM, C/net has also offered ARM (Advertising Response and Monitoring) software. ARM allows advertisers to evaluate audience response to their messages, officials said. With ARM, C/net advertisers can also determine the type of audience that's most responsive to a product or a message. Advertising usage and response rates can also be compared against system-wide averages. In addition, C/net officials said its dynamic ad delivery system, called CAD (Confirmed Ads Delivered), allows advertising banners to be rotated throughout the service. (Bob Woods/19951206/Press Contact: Patrick Toland, C/net, 415-395-7800) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 12/06/95 LEGAL EC's Investigation Of Teledesic Project (NEWS)(LEGAL)(LON)(00029) EC's Investigation Of Teledesic Project 12/06/95 BRUSSELS, BELGIUM, 1995 DEC 6 (NB) -- The European Commission (EC) has announced it is investigating "all possible consequences" of the award of satellite frequencies to Teledesic Corporation, the US-based company which plans to transmit Internet services via satellite. As reported previously by Newsbytes, Teledesic is a joint venture project whose shareholders include Bill Gates, president of Microsoft, Craig McCaw, the founder of McCaw Cellular, and AT&T's wireless services division. Teledesic has applied for, and obtained, a FCC license to operate its satellite based service in the US, but the fact that the EC is investigating the frequencies being used, highlights the potential red tape that cross-border projects of this type must successfully hurdle before they being operation. Even if the EC gives its assent to the service frequencies, other countries could also announce similar moves, something that could slow the project down, Newsbytes notes. According to Martin Bangemann, the EC's Industry Commission and Anti- Competition Minister, the issues at stake are more than simple use of the frequencies. Since the service is planned to be a global one, the issues of competition will come into the equation. Legally speaking, the EC has no rights to protest the use of frequencies without a license, since the Commission does not have membership of the International Telecommunications Union (ITU), the international telecoms body that oversees most aspects of telecommunications in the world. Strictly speaking, only the member countries of the EC can formally protest. However, the anti-competitive aspect is something that the EC can get between its teeth. Teledesic may have committed an administrative gaffe, as Bangemann has said that the first time his office became aware of the frequencies to be used was at a meeting of the EC telecoms committee last week. Coupled with the fact that Bill Gates, in the form of his company, Microsoft, is still under investigation by the EC and the US Department of Justice, has a one third stake in the project, industry observers are less than surprised by the EC's actions. (Sylvia Dennis/19951206/Press & Reader Contact: European Commission, +32-2-299-1111) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 12/06/95 LEGAL ****UK Jailings After ATM Card Cloners Caught Red-Handed (NEWS)(LEGAL)(LON)(00030) ****UK Jailings After ATM Card Cloners Caught Red-Handed 12/06/95 LONDON, ENGLAND, 1995 DEC 6 (NB) -- A father and his son were jailed this week for, respectively, four and two years, after the pair were caught "red-handed" with more than 200 forged ATM (automated teller machine) cards in their pockets while visiting Kings Lynn, a city in the East of England. According to police investigating the case, John Gravette, a London- based car dealer, aged 50, and with a "distinguished" criminal career to date that includes theft and the smuggling of a ton of cannabis, recruited his 27 year old son, Warren, into the scam and between them, they drew UKP61,000 from bank ATMs to the police's certain knowledge. However, officials admitted that the Gravettes were only small cogs in a much larger operation that involved more than 2,500 withdrawals and resulted in losses of more than UKP601,000. The Gravettes, however, are alleged to have withdrawn UKP30,000 from ATMs in a single 48-hour period. Police said that they were aware that Gravette and his son were not the masterminds behind the scheme, which involved secretly filming cardholders as they withdrew funds from ATMs. By collating data from the ATM receipts that were discarded by cardholders and matching them to the PINs (personal identification numbers), the unknown team were able to produce cloned cards with known PINs. In court, prosecutors said that Gravette and his son lived a "cash rich" lifestyle on the UKP61,000 that could be directly attributed to their part in the scam. The pair pleaded guilty to a single charge of conspiracy to steal. Nicholas Price QC, the barrister defending Gravette senior, said that his client only agreed to become involved to fund his "compulsive gambling." To his shame, he said, Gravette senior had also involved his son in the scheme. David Wolfkind, the solicitor acting for Warren Gravette, told the court that the 27 year-old was a former footballer, whose playing career, which included a year's contract with Tottenham Hotspur, the London-based soccer club, nose dived after Gravette senior was jailed in the 1980s. Commenting on the case, Alistair Kelman, a leading Barrister specializing in information technology (IT) affairs, said that Gravette senior's arrest sounds as though it was accidental, which perhaps explained why only the two were arrested and charged in the case. "It sounds as though the police spotted an ex-con and, while sussing him out, discovered the 200 ATM cards in his possession, then realized what they had stumbled on to," he told Newsbytes. "ATM fraud is a growing problem," Kelman went on to say, adding that his view was that the rash of incidents in recent years suggested that at least some of the ATM algorithms used to generate/check PINs on plastic cards have been compromised. "At a recent meeting of my class at the London School of Economics, Professor Ross Anderson (of Cambridge University) said that the situation with card PINs has become so bad that even the Chinese security services now offer reverse engineering of smart and magnetic stripe cards on a commercial basis," he said. "That puts a different complexion on how safe these ATM and credit card PINs really are, doesn't it?" he added. (Steve Gold/19951206) (SUMMARY)(GENERAL)(MSP)(00031) Newsbytes Daily Summary 12/06/95 MINNEAPOLIS, MINNESOTA, U.S.A., 1995 DEC 6 (NB) -- These are capsules of all today's news stories: ======================================================================== ------------| N E W S B Y T E S D A I L Y S U M M A R Y |---------- ------------| December 6, 1995 |---------- ======================================================================== (c) Newsbytes News Network (Tm) Editor in Chief: Wendy Woods ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Newsbytes News Network's on the Web! Check out http://www.nbnn.com for free daily top stories from Newsbytes and its affiliate publications, and from PC Week, MacWeek, and other Ziff news magazines. A subscription gives you all the news, full-text, plus the most comprehensive database of past computer stories online. The keyword-searchable database dates from today back through 1983. Subscriptions are $24.95 for three months. Questions? Send to 'administrator@newsbytes.com' For Japanese Newsbytes and additional services, see the Newsbytes Pacifica Website at http://www.islandtel.com/newsbytes/ ------------------------------------------------------------------------ CATEGORY HEADLINES (*** indicates today's top stories) STORY # ======================================================================== APPLE ****Spindler Demos Apple's Pippin Through TV Screen....... 27 BROADCAST Hughes To Build Telenor Scandinavian Satellite............. 04 BROADCAST China - Digital Pay-Programs Via Satellite................. 11 GENERAL Japan Newsbriefs........................................... 12 GENERAL Rock 'n' Roll Facts On CD.................................. 24 GENERAL Quarterdeck Adds Security To WebStar....................... 25 GOVT Hungarian Govt Okays Telecoms Changes...................... 05 GOVT ****Vote Due On "Internet Smut" Issue..................... 17 LEGAL China - Copyright Violations Drop.......................... 10 LEGAL EC's Investigation Of Teledesic Project.................... 29 LEGAL ****UK Jailings After ATM Card Cloners Caught Red-Handed.. 30 NETWORK 10Base-T Hubs, Noderunner Adapters From Artisoft........... 20 ONLINE UK - CompuServe's Internet In A Box, Sprynet Service....... 02 ONLINE Australia - Banking Faces Non-Conventional Challenges...... 09 ONLINE ****Internet Update - European Special.................... 13 ONLINE Saab Cars USA On The Web................................... 14 ONLINE America Online & Time To Offer Health & Fitness............ 15 ONLINE Tango Links Web Servers To Databases....................... 21 ONLINE ****Web Frenzy in San Francisco........................... 26 ONLINE C/net's New Banner Ad Tool................................. 28 TELECOM Italy's STET Buys Into Russian Telecoms Firm............... 01 TELECOM Indian Institute & Bell-Northern In Telecom Research....... 06 TELECOM India - AT&T & ECIL Target Banking......................... 07 TELECOM Indian Software Firms Target Australian Market............. 08 TELECOM "Back To The Future" With Telephone Voice Dialing Trial.... 22 TELECOM Motorola Develops 28.8 Wireless Data/Fax Modem............. 23 TRENDS Visual Software Unveils 3-D Applications................... 03 WINDOW Microsoft Ships Business Pack For Office 95................ 19 WINDOWS Lotus Ships Freelance Graphics For Windows 95.............. 16 WINDOWS 4Home Productions Previews Simply Accounting 4.0........... 18 ======================================================================== These are the headlines and first paragraphs of each story, in order: 1 -> Italy's STET Buys Into Russian Telecoms Firm -- Societa Finanziaria Telefonica per Azioni (STET), the Italian telecoms holding company, has successfully bid 2.932 trillion rubles for a 25 percent plus one share stake in Svyazinvest, the Russian state telecoms company. As part of the deal, the Italian telco will invest a further 3.5 trillion into Svyazinvest over the next two years. 2 -> UK - CompuServe's Internet In A Box, Sprynet Service -- Compuserve has launched its Internet In A Box package in the UK. At the same time, the online giant has rocked the UK Internet market by announcing a mirror image of Sprynet "budget Internet" service launched in the US earlier this year, with a UKP3.95 per month price tag. 3 -> Visual Software Unveils 3-D Applications -- Visual Software, the manufacturer of three-dimensional (3-D) multimedia software, has announced a new addition to the 3-D software family 4 -> Hughes To Build Telenor Scandinavian Satellite -- Hughes Space and Communications International, of Los Angeles, has contracted with Telenor Satellite Services of Oslo to build a high-power TV satellite to serve the Scandinavian region. According to Fran Slimmer, a spokesperson for Hughes, the satellite will be known as the Thor IIA and will be a high-power version of the company's HS 376 off-the-shelf unit. 5 -> Hungarian Govt Okays Telecoms Changes -- Business is booming in the Hungarian telecoms market 6 -> Indian Institute & Bell-Northern In Telecom Research -- Bell-Northern Research (BNR), the research and development subsidiary of Northern Telecom (Nortel), and the Indian Institute of Science (IISc), Bangalore, have agreed to collaborate on advanced research in telecommunications. 7 -> India - AT&T & ECIL Target Banking -- The public sector giant, Electronics Corporation of India Ltd. (ECIL), has signed a memorandum of understanding with AT&T Global Information Solutions of the US for the implementation of total solutions to various banks. 8 -> Indian Software Firms Target Australian Market -- The low costs and high quality associated with Indian software companies is now helping them tap the Australian software market, worth a reported $28 million, according to the National Association Software and Service Companies (NASSCOM), the Indian software organization. 9 -> Australia - Banking Faces Non-Conventional Challenges -- As guest speaker at an AIIA breakfast in Sydney recently, banker Peter Andrews envisaged a new ballgame for the banking industry in the next millennium as it comes to terms with technologies and organizations 10 -> China - Copyright Violations Drop -- The number of copyright violations in China has been "significantly reduced," according to an official with the National Copyright Administration (NCA). However, the number of translated foreign works has also dropped, due mainly to a lack of funds for buying the copyrights, he said. 11 -> China - Digital Pay-Programs Via Satellite -- As of November 30, China Central Television (CCTV) has been test-broadcasting four channels of pay- programs via satellite, using compressed digital encrypted signals, according to the president of the company. 12 -> Japan Newsbriefs -- In this roundup of news from Japan: Game makers to study convulsions link; DVD agreement this week; Ericsson wins phone order; Toshiba plans new chip plant; TV/VCR exports down in October; Tokyo Metropolitan Government goes online; Fujitsu Ten to launch car navigation in US; Canon enters digital video market. 13 -> ****Internet Update - European Special -- In this roundup of new services and resources on the European part of the global Internet: France - French Riviera index; Switzerland - Swiss music resource; Greece - The latest news; Russia - Yellow pages; Switzerland - Hugo online; Ukraine - Newspapers online; Austria - Web index; Austria - Tourism information; Ireland - Businesses on the Web; Switzerland - Business index. 14 -> Saab Cars USA On The Web -- Saab Cars USA's new Internet World Wide Web site is now open for electronic traffic. The site is designed for both people who are kicking cyber-tires and deciding on a new car, and for longtime Saab admirers 15 -> America Online & Time To Offer Health & Fitness -- Continuing a strategy of partnering with media companies to develop online content, America Online (NASDAQ:AMER) (AOL) is entering into a joint venture with Time Inc. to develop a new interactive health and fitness online service. AOL and Time will each hold a 50 percent interest in the new service, which will reside on both AOL and Time's Pathfinder Internet World Wide Web site. 16 -> Lotus Ships Freelance Graphics For Windows 95 -- Lotus's newly released Windows 95 edition of Freelance Graphics lets users create presentations that "sound as great as they look," with content-building features that include TeamReview group commentary and 30 "Content SmartMasters" chocked with advice from business luminaries, plus presentation enhancements like Publish to the Internet and TeamShow, asserted Nina McIntyre of Lotus, in a briefing for Newsbytes. 17 -> ****Vote Due On "Internet Smut" Issue -- A joint House-Senate conference committee was set to vote today on competing plans to regulate pornography on the Internet and online services. No vote had been taken at press time. 18 -> 4Home Productions Previews Simply Accounting 4.0 -- Simply Accounting for Windows 4.0, an update slated for announcement in January, will add new ease-of-use features for the entry-level end of the SOHO (small office/home office) market, along with "power" enhancements for an emerging group of entrepreneurial users who come from the corporate world, revealed 4Home Productions' Dave Dalton, during a sneak preview for Newsbytes on a Boston press tour. 19 -> Microsoft Ships Business Pack For Office 95 -- Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ: MSFT) said it is shipping a Small Business Pack for Microsoft Office 95 20 -> 10Base-T Hubs, Noderunner Adapters From Artisoft -- Artisoft Inc. (NASDAQ:ASFT) has started shipping new external hubs for 10Base-T networks and two new Noderunner Pro Ethernet adapters. 21 -> Tango Links Web Servers To Databases -- You might not think of World Wide Web pages at first as containing the kind of information for which database software would be useful, but according to EveryWare Development Corp., many of them do. EveryWare said its Tango visual development tool makes it easier to present data from databases on the Web by linking Web pages to database management systems. 22 -> "Back To The Future" With Telephone Voice Dialing Trial -- Bell Canada has begun the first Canadian market trial of a voice-activated phone dialing service that will let Hamilton residents call as many as 50 numbers by speaking a name. 23 -> Motorola Develops 28.8 Wireless Data/Fax Modem -- Continuing a strategy of developing PC Cards (Personal Computer Memory Card International Association) with multiple functions, Motorola's PCMCIA Products Division rolled out the "Montana" PC card. Montana contains data and fax capabilities at 28.8 kilobits-per-second (Kbps), as well as cellular connectivity and wireless messaging for one-way and two-way paging systems. 24 -> Rock 'n' Roll Facts On CD -- All you would ever want to know about rock 'n' roll is on a new CD-ROM by Penguin Publishing. Complete up-to-date information on single recordings, albums, and album tracks from the last 40 years of popular music 25 -> Quarterdeck Adds Security To WebStar -- StarNine Technologies, a Quarterdeck Corp. (NASDAQ:QDEK) company, has announced the WebStar/SSL Security Toolkit, which can be added to any World Wide Web site on the Internet or an internal corporate network. The toolkit offers secure Web transactions and document transfers for the Macintosh. 26 -> ****Web Frenzy in San Francisco -- At least one thousand hopefuls who wanted to get into WebInnovation, a conference devoted to the latest in Web programming, had to be turned away, according to Interactive Marketing Communications, of Capistrano Beach, CA, the conference producer. 27 -> ****Spindler Demos Apple's Pippin Through TV Screen -- Critics call them dumb terminals, while supporters say they are the "next wave" of computing. This week Apple's chief executive officer (CEO), Michael Spindler, demonstrated Pippin, a multimedia computer which uses a television to display content. 28 -> C/net's New Banner Ad Tool -- A computer network of a different kind is bringing to the Internet's World Wide Web a new technology that allows advertisers to target customers demographically and deliver specialized advertising to them. C/net's new technology is called DREAM, or Delivery of Real-Time Electronic Advertising. 29 -> EC's Investigation Of Teledesic Project -- The European Commission (EC) has announced it is investigating "all possible consequences" of the award of satellite frequencies to Teledesic Corporation, the US-based company which plans to transmit Internet services via satellite. 30 -> ****UK Jailings After ATM Card Cloners Caught Red-Handed -- A father and his son were jailed this week for, respectively, four and two years, after the pair were caught "red-handed" with more than 200 forged ATM (automated teller machine) cards in their pockets while visiting Kings Lynn, a city in the East of England. (Ian Stokell/19951206) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 12/05/95 TELECOM Latinos Have New Way To Call Collect (NEWS)(TELECOM)(MSP)(00001) Latinos Have New Way To Call Collect 12/05/95 KANSAS CITY, MISSOURI, U.S.A., 1995 DEC 5 (NB) -- In launching its first 800 collect calling number, Sprint (NYSE:FON) has decided to market the service directly to the Latino market. The program and the number, called 1-800-A-TU-CASA, can be used by people who speak either Spanish or English via bilingual prompts, Sprint officials told Newsbytes. Saying that 27 million people in the US are in the Latino market, and the size of the market has grown five times faster than the general population, Juanada Teas, Sprint spokesperson, told Newsbytes the Latino market has specific needs her company is trying to meet. "It is a segment of the population we think is important, she said." Sprint officials quoted a 1995 Hispanic Infosource study which said one in seven Latinos had placed collect calls within the 30 days preceding the study. As far as 1-800-A-TU-CASA goes, Teas said the plan is "cheaper than other 800 collect calling plans that are out there" in any language. Customers can call the 800 number from anywhere in the US, and can save up to 28 percent off of standard operator assisted collect calls, Sprint officials said, based on an average AT&T 10 standard collect call. "Tu casa" means "your house" in Spanish, Teas told Newsbytes. Sprint has developed other services for the Latino market, officials said. One of the company's customer service lines is manned by Spanish speaking operators, billing can be handled in Spanish, and a special Spanish Foncard calling card is available. Sprint also offers an international calling plan, called Acercate Siempre, which provides customers one per-minute rate varying by country for worldwide calling. Rates for Acercate Siempre change only within two 12-hour time periods. The domestic rate structure for calling is the same as other customer plans -- 10 cents a minute for evening calls from 7pm to 7am. (Bob Woods/19951204/Press Contacts: Juanada Teas, Sprint, 202-828- 7426; Internet e-mail juanada.teas@sprintA1.sprint.com; Public Contact: Sprint, 800-A-TU-CASA) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 12/05/95 ONLINE NetManage's Free Windows NT Web Browser Over Internet (NEWS)(ONLINE)(LON)(00002) NetManage's Free Windows NT Web Browser Over Internet 12/05/95 GUILDFORD, SURREY, ENGLAND, 1995 DEC 5 (NB) -- NetManage says it is offering a free Windows NT World Wide Web browser across the Internet. The package, known as WebSurfer, is billed as being 16-bit or 32-bit capable and, according to Karen Thomas, a spokesperson for the company, is a full HTML (hypertext markup language) 3.0 application designed for corporate networks. In use, the package supports in-line video, true speech (the phase one implementation of digital simultaneous voice & data), real audio, custom menus bars, hierarchical hotlists, and off-line caching. "NetManage is determined to carve out a significant slice of the Internet market, which is why we're offering this Windows NT browser free of charge on the Internet," Thomas told Newsbytes, adding that the browser will be available free of charge indefinitely. WebSurfer NT is available to anyone accessing the NetManage home page at http://www.netmanage.com . Even if readers of Newsbytes do not run Windows NT, the home pages are worth checking out, as they contain a wealth of information about NetManage, its products and the Internet generally. Willie Tejada, vice president of product marketing with NetManage, said that the Internet user community has adopted Web browsers as a de facto interface to the Internet. This is fine, he claims, but most browsers were designed for the novice and cost under $50, providing the user with only basic navigation tools. "WebSurfer bridges the gap between novice and power browser users by providing advanced Web tools for sharing and communicating information in voice, graphics and video across the corporate network, otherwise known as the Intranet," he said. According to Tejada, WebSurfer is free to any company that needs a powerful Web browser as part of their Intranet systems. "For more advanced publishing and videoconferencing capabilities, customers can purchase the company's Chameleon desktop package," he said. In use, WebSurfer supports HTML 3.0 and allows users to view even the most advanced Web pages, including foreground and background colors, plus multimedia applications. Since the package has a menu bar, it allows users instant access to word processing, graphics and spreadsheet applications. The browser will work at speeds of up to 128,000 bits-per-second (bps), which NetManage claims makes it deal for use over ISDN (integrated services digital network) links. For Windows NT users without Web access, Newsbytes notes that WebSurfer can be accessed by ftp-ing to NetManage's ftp service at ftp.netmanage.com/pub/demos/websurfer/web16.exe for the 16-bit version of the software, or ftp.netmanage.com/pub/demos/websurfer/web32.exe for the 32-bit version. (Steve Gold/19951204/Press & Reader Contact: NetManage, tel +44-1483-302333, fax +44-1483-302999) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 12/05/95 TRENDS Wales Emerging As Multimedia Center (NEWS)(TRENDS)(LON)(00003) Wales Emerging As Multimedia Center 12/05/95 CARDIFF, WALES, 1995 DEC 5 (NB) -- Last week saw the first of what could well become an annual event, the M2 = Multimedia show and conference. Hosted at the BBC Wales Studio in Cardiff, the event aimed to show delegates and exhibition goers what multimedia could do in a practical sense. According to Shan Ekin Wood, a spokesperson for the Welsh Development Agency (WDA), the two sides of the event -- the conference and the exhibition -- married together well. "It's a little to early to say exactly whether there will be a similar event next year, but we would expect there to be an event late next year," she told Newsbytes. Leon Flexman, another spokesperson for the WDA, was more forthcoming. He told Newsbytes that, although this first event was very much explorative, he expects to see the event turning into an annual series, subject to agreement from the main sponsors, the WDA, BBC Cymru Wales, and British Telecom (BT). "Cardiff and Wales generally is turning into something of a hotspot as regards multimedia and information technology (IT). Twenty-three percent of the UK's teleworkers (telecommuters) are based in Wales, and there is a terrific communications infrastructure," he said. The one-day event, which took place in Cardiff last Wednesday, was opened by the Right Honorable William Hague, MP (Member of Parliament) Secretary of State for Wales. Appropriately enough, Hague's address was given virtually, live by video link from Westminister in London. "I see in place all the necessary pre-conditions for Wales to become a very leading player in the new information world," he said, adding that it is important that "we" build on these foundations. "If we do, then I believe the information revolution has a lot to offer Wales. It can bring more high tech industries. It can enable a further flowering of the creative skills we already possess, and importantly, it can offer a possibility of more equal economic growth between rural and urban areas," he said. Also opening the conference were: Robin Lewis, deputy chairman of the WDA; Bob Phillis, deputy director general of the BBC; and, via a video link, Ian Taylor, Minister for Science & Technology. Commenting on the conference, Robin Lewis, deputy chairman of the WDA, said that the event "focuses on the important and rapidly expanding area of multimedia and aims to demonstrate the business benefits of the latest technological advances, whilst raising the profile of Wales as a leading location for multimedia activities." (Steve Gold/19951204/Press Contact: Hill & Knowlton, +44-171-413-3015; Reader Contact: Welsh Development Agency, +44-1222-828693) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 12/05/95 TELECOM UK Cellphone Dealer Imposes Subscriber Bill Limit (NEWS)(TELECOM)(LON)(00004) UK Cellphone Dealer Imposes Subscriber Bill Limit 12/05/95 RICHMOND, SURREY, ENGLAND, 1995 DEC 5 (NB) -- Cellphones Direct, an off-the-page mail-order phone selling company, has imposed a limit of UKP50 on customer's monthly phone bills in order to reduce the level of bad debts and fraud. According to the London-based firm, if subscribers want to exceed the UKP50 monthly limit on calls, they must lodge a deposit with the company which is released at the end of the contract. According to the phone dealer, the limit is mainly aimed at the potential fraud problem associated with GSM (global system for mobile communications) phones which allow roaming into Europe and beyond, since the high cost of diverting calls, as well as the international calls generated from such roaming, result in high bills. The UKP50 monthly call limit is being imposed on new and existing subscribers from February onwards. In a letter mailed out to subscribers, the company wrote: "The purpose of the limit is not only to protect you against the consequences of theft, unauthorized usage and so on, but also to protect us from giving unlimited credit. Your phone will be set up with a call charge limit of UKP50 a month...should your current requirements be likely to exceed this sum, we will be pleased to extend your monthly limit by whatever amount you wish to deposit with us." Industry watchers claim that the letter illustrates the extent to which the cellular phone industry is being affected by bad debt and fraud. It also illustrates the idea that the industry has failed to convey to subscribers the true costs associated with owning or using a mobile phone, experts note. Dave Danielli, a spokesman for Vodafone, the cellular network operator for which Cellphones Direct acts as an agent, told Newsbytes that the dealer is being very upfront about the arrangement. "Peoples Phone (a UK service provider) has always advertised that it offers subscribers a monthly credit limit to prevent fraud or excessive bills arriving on the doormat. Although the Cellphones Direct announcement is packaged a bit differently, it amounts to the same thing," he said. Danielli went on to say that he was aware of customers with accounts through Cellphones Direct who are not affected by the UKP50 limit, nor do they need to lodge a deposit to exceed this limit. "For customers with a proven track record, credit limits are not a problem," he said. Despite Vodafone's claims, Cellphones Direct has attracted some considerable publicity in the UK media over the apparent blanket imposition of the monthly credit limit. Danielli dismissed the media reports so far, claiming that the story, from the point of Peoples Phone have imposed limits since day one several years ago, is effectively an old one. "The situation is like it is with all cellular service providers and their representatives. In order to ensure free and unrestricted use of the mobile while roaming, subscribers must discuss the matter with their service provider," he told Newsbytes. (Steve Gold/19951204/Press & Reader Contact: Cellphones Direct, +44-181-288-7000; Vodafone +44-1635-33251) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 12/05/95 TELECOM Sweden's Ericsson Developing Dual-Band Mobile Phone (NEWS)(TELECOM)(LON)(00005) Sweden's Ericsson Developing Dual-Band Mobile Phone 12/05/95 STOCKHOLM, SWEDEN, ENGLAND, 1995 DEC 5 (NB) -- Ericsson has confirmed European media reports that it is developing a new generation of digital mobile phones that will work on both GSM (global system for mobile communications) and PCN (personal communications network) services, operating, respectively, at 900 megahertz (MHz) and 1,800 MHz. According to Jan Ahrenbring, a spokesperson for the company, the move makes Ericsson the first major supplier to commit to developing such a phone. Work has already started on a new cellular phone chipset that will allow the dual-band phone to be supplied in the same casing as the company's popular PH/EH337 GSM and PCN handsets. Plans call for the DH337 handset to ship in mid-1997 and be capable of intelligent roaming between GSM and PCN services, even in the same country. The idea behind the phone, officials claim, is that it will give mobile operators greater flexibility in network and service planning. Ericsson claims that the dual-band phone, providing roaming agreements are in place between networks, will allow new entrants to the PCN market to offer their network services to subscribers, safe in the knowledge that, where their PCN service is unavailable, subscribers will still be able to make and receive calls by roaming to the GSM networks. As well as offering something of a leg up for PCN services, which have yet to implement inter-country roaming on a commercial base anywhere in the world, Ericsson claims that a dual-mode phone also offers a lifeline for GSM networks, many of whom may soon experience congestion in cities where too many subscribers are chasing too few frequencies. PCN services are currently operational, or are being established, in France, Germany, Hong Kong, Malaysia, Singapore, Switzerland, the UK. Many more countries, Ericsson claims, are in the process of bringing PCN licenses out, and Ericsson claims it is discussing the dual band phone with several of its customer networks. (Sylvia Dennis/19951204/Press Contact: Per Bengtsson, Ericsson Business Area Communications, +46-8-757-2159) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 12/05/95 GOVT Denmark Working To Liberalize Telecoms Market (NEWS)(GOVT)(LON)(00006) Denmark Working To Liberalize Telecoms Market 12/05/95 COPENHAGEN, DENMARK, 1995 DEC 5 (NB) -- Tele Danmark, the state telecoms agency of Denmark, has announced that the Government has laid down the ground plans for liberalizing Denmark's telecoms industry. The announcement comes at a time when telecoms watchers were starting to worry that Denmark may not achieve the mandatory free market deadline of January 1, 1998, that the European Commission has imposed on member governments. In a statement to the press, Tele Danmark claims that the agreement between the Government and itself, as well as other "interested parties" will allow the country to have free market operation in the telecoms sector by July of 1996, a clear 18 months ahead of the EC mandate. According to the Danish Government, the agreement allows for all Danish citizens to have equal access to basic telephone services at stated maximum pricing levels, no matter where in Denmark they are located. This basic rule is something that the EC has laid down in its telecoms mandates to member governments, Newsbytes notes. The main stumbling block that prevented the Danish Government from announcing the planned liberalization of its telecoms markets before now, and in line with EC guidelines, was the fact that the concession fee payable by Tele Danmark has only just been waived, as outlined in the Danish Government's budget plans for next year. (Sylvia Dennis/19951204/Press & Reader Contact: Tele Danmark Marketing, +45-3834-5000) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 12/05/95 ONLINE ****MAID's Online Database/Internet Integration (NEWS)(ONLINE)(LON)(00007) ****MAID's Online Database/Internet Integration 12/05/95 LONDON, ENGLAND, 1995 DEC 5 (NB) -- MAID (the Marketing Analysis Information Database) has announced it has cracked the technical challenge of interfacing its online business databases with the Internet. According to Paula Feery, a spokesperson for the company, while many other online database services have a presence on the Internet, there is no integration between the service and the World Wide Web pages. "Those services that do have a presence on the Web rarely have more than a home page. What MAID has done is to integrate its business database services with the Web pages, and plans to offer these services across the Internet," she told Newsbytes. While the technical issues of integrating what Feery claims are two disparate online environments have been licked, MAID is still working on what tariffs to impose on subscribers. Current levels of tariffs range from UKP5,995 a year for a company with an unlimited number of users, down to UKP99 per month for a company with four users. "Tariffs are still being worked out, but the company is previewing the service -- to prove that it's technically possible -- at the Online Information 95 show in London, which opens today," Feery explained. he added that MAID claims it is the first online database provider to develop such a high level of integration. Plans call for MAID to use Netscape SSL facilities to allow secure payment transactions across the Internet. The company has signed an agreement with Netscape Communications to use Netscape Navigator as its recommended browser of choice for its subscribers. MAID is calling its Internet database service "Profound for the Internet," fitting the service into its "Profound for Business" portfolio of database services. Plans also call for the service to be offered on a gateway basis on Microsoft Network (MSN), again, once tariffs can be agreed upon. As reported previously by Newsbytes, shares in MAID rocketed in August from their normally placid 160 pence to a high of 228 pence, before falling back to a steady 220 pence. The share surge came after the business information service announced an IP (information provider) deal with Microsoft for MSN. During the year to December, 1994, MAID turned in a pre-tax profit of UKP1.3 million on a turnover of UKP8.9 million. The company was floated in the London Stock Exchange in 1994 and now has 168 employees with an estimated value of UKP280 million. Feery told Newsbytes that the days of per-minute charges that MAID used to impose on its subscribers in the early 1990s have given way to a flat-rate monthly charge, as detailed. "The addition of access via the Internet is quite a major one for MAID, which is why we've announced it in time for the Online Information 95 show," she explained. Further details on the MAID Profound for Internet service can be found on MAID's new Internet pages at http//www.profound.com . (Steve Gold/19951204/Press Contact: Nick Hewer, Michael Joyce PR, +44-171-836-6801; Reader Contact: MAID, tel +44-171-930-6900, fax +44-171-930-6006) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 12/05/95 GOVT French Govt Prepares Way For France Telecom Sell-Off (NEWS)(GOVT)(LON)(00008) French Govt Prepares Way For France Telecom Sell-Off 12/05/95 PARIS, FRANCE, 1995 DEC 5 (NB) -- The French Government has confirmed plans to sell off a significant stake -- possibly as much as 49 percent -- of France Telecom, in order to meet the European Commission's (EC) mandatory plans to liberalize all telecoms services by January 1, 1998. Confirming outline plans made in Washington last Thursday by Francois Fillon, the French Telecoms Minister, the Government has said that the sell-off, which will take place later in 1996, will pave the way for the approval of the Atlas joint venture between France Telecom and Deutsche Telekom by the EC. Fillon was in the US last week to explain to the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) that France is prepared to meet the US on its request for free market competition in France before it gives clearance for the buy-in to Sprint. As reported previously by Newsbytes, EC officials have already expressed concern that the deal between the two European telecoms operations, which calls for them to take a joint 20 percent stake in Sprint in the US, may go against monopolistic legislation, and may be detrimental to EC telecoms consumers. The $4.2 billion deal will see the creation of a joint venture company, to be known as Phoenix, and also calls for both European companies to offer voice and data services to major corporations, especially in the international market. As part of the Atlas deal, both the French and German telecoms companies have also agreed to work with the EC on proposals to liberalize their own country's cable TV industries, despite the fact that no formal date for the liberalization has been set by the EC. Industry experts suggested that this agreement to look at cable TV market liberalization may be part of a private and informal agreement between Karel van Miert, the EC's anti-competition Minister and the two telcos, in order to get the Atlas deal past the European regulators. In a prepared statement issued in June of this year, Van Miert warned both telecoms companies that the proposed deal was not acceptable under EC anti-trust law, as it then currently stood. Van Miert's announcement came soon after France Telecom and Deutsche Telekom announced preliminary plans to work together when offering voice and data services to major corporations in the international telecoms arena. As with other deals of this type, the Atlas project must gain EC and FCC approval if it is to be allowed to proceed. According to French newspaper reports, Fillon has told the FCC that between 20 and 49 percent of France Telecom will be sold off to investors by the end of 1996. The announcement comes at a highly turbulent period, both for the French Government and France Telecom. An escalating series of strikes, which have now been running for a week, have paralyzed physical communications within France, as trains and buses have stopped, causing chaos and gridlocks on French roads. Now France Telecom workers have voted to join the growing public sector strike. Newsbytes also notes that French trade unions representing France Telecom's 150,000-plus workers have already threatened a major strike if the Government goes ahead with privatization places for the telecoms company. A confrontation over and above the current strike between the Government and France Telecom's workers now looks inevitable. (Sylvia Dennis/19951204/France Telecom, tel +33-1-4444-6732, fax +33-1-4656-1474) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 12/05/95 TELECOM Consultant Sees Electric Utilities-Telecom Convergence (NEWS)(TELECOM)(WAS)(00009) Consultant Sees Electric Utilities-Telecom Convergence 12/05/95 WASHINGTON, D.C., U.S.A., 1995 DEC 5 (NB) -- An "elision of the electric business and the information and communications businesses" is on the way, former Illinois utility regulator Philip O'Connor told a joint federal-state meeting on electric restructuring yesterday. This convergence among industries once seen as very different "is a very big development," said O'Connor, now a consultant with the Palmer Bellevue firm, and will "determine the winners and losers" as competition comes to markets in both industries. The hybrid that will result from this strange marriage, said O'Connor, is the "electricom industry." What do electric utilities bring to the telecommunications industry? Plenty, says O'Connor. Among other things, electric utilities have an infrastructure in place that already reaches more people than the telephone. It consists of towers, poles, conduit, buildings, wires, and fiber optic networks built for internal use but with gobs of additional capacity. He notes that five utilities -- Baltimore Gas & Electric, Houston Industries, Los Angeles Department of Water and Power, SCANA Corp. and Tampa Electric -- are already leasing excess fiber capacity. Utilities also have rights-of-way in high density urban markets that are useful to telcos, and particularly useful to personal communications systems companies. The energy utilities also have a competitive rural facilities network that positions them well for the future, O'Connor told the joint Department of Energy-National Association of Regulatory Utility Commissioners Monday. And while utilities don't have the knowledge and skill base in the technologies that the telecommunications companies possess, they have other skills that are missing among the telcos -- maintenance experience, outage repair, regulatory permit acquisition, and power engineering. They also have, in some case, brand loyalty they can exploit with customers, an asset many of the telecommunications providers also share. The opportunities that telecommunications offers utilities are significant, said O'Connor. They include enhanced customers services such as real-time pricing, automated billing and collection, and taping into customer appliances for information and control. Another opportunity is for new revenue sources for an industry that has seen slow growth at best over the last decade. These new revenue generators could include Internet access, telephony, cable or wireless TV, offering meter reading for other utilities such as gas, water or sewer, home and business security services, distance learning, and telemedicine. It's important to act soon, O'Connor said, and the perils of not taking action are great. Those who wait will become commodity suppliers only, not providers of value-added services. The information services provider will own the value-added equipment, including set top boxes, advanced meters and the like. And the information provider could well decide to become a competitor in providing electricity. "AT&T has significant brand equity" and could be out to eat the conventional power utility's lunch, he said. (Kennedy Maize/19951205) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 12/05/95 ONLINE Hong Kong Made Sprint Internet Hub (NEWS)(ONLINE)(HKG)(00010) Hong Kong Made Sprint Internet Hub 12/05/95 CENTRAL, HONG KONG, 1995 DEC 5 (NB) -- US Sprint has announced the expansion of high speed Internet service by making Hong Kong, Tokyo, and Sydney regional hubs. In theory, this should offer Asian users a faster and cheaper connection to the global Internet. The hubs join seven others -- in London, Paris, Stockholm, Moscow, St. Petersburg, Johannesburg, and Amman -- supporting 28 countries outside the US where Sprint currently offers high-speed access to the global Internet. As a result, Sprint now boasts it is the world's largest provider of global Internet connectivity. In the past, the dependence on US circuits has created data "logjams" and increased cost. "Concentration of global Internet traffic in and through the United States has led to a situation in which Internet traffic has become increasingly congested -- it has become a little like having all the world's air traffic routed exclusively via New York's JFK airport in the United States," said William Blessing, vice president of Strategic Development and Planning for Sprint. "We have now transformed the pattern of global Internet traffic outside the United States through our commitment to invest and build the equivalent for the Internet of 10 international airport hubs." What it means for customers whose Internet service provider (ISP) uses the Sprint service, in theory, is that international access will be through the regional Internet center closest to their "cyber" destination. Sprint's international Internet centers are interconnected through national and regional gateways known as "peering" points, such as the Hong Kong Internet Exchange (HKIX) in Asia, and the London Internet Exchange (LINX) in Europe. In the past, Internet traffic originating outside of the United States, but destined for non-US Internet hosts, often had to travel across the US Internet before being handed off to international host destinations. (Joel McCormick & I.T. Daily/19951205) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 12/05/95 TRENDS Asia Faces Skills Shortage (NEWS)(TRENDS)(HKG)(00011) Asia Faces Skills Shortage 12/05/95 CENTRAL, HONG KONG, 1995 DEC 5 (NB) -- Asia's information technology (IT) industry faces a skills shortage. That was the bleak message US-based Compuware couldn't conceal as it announced it was launching its own Asian operations with offices opening in Hong Kong and Singapore. Ranked by US-based Computer Business Review as the world's ninth largest independent software company, Compuware (1994 revenues US$531 million) had been distributing its application development tools through Singapore-based Executive Computing. According to Steve Scheidt, vice president of international operations, the company was so impressed with its sales performance in the region -- which still might have been three times better, if it weren't for staffing problems -- that it took its distributorship back by buying Executive Computing. "It was in our customers' best long-term interest that we make a direct investment in Asia," he said. While the local client roster glistens with blue bloods -- Citibank, Standard Chartered Bank, Bank of China, and Hongkong Telecom among them -- Scheidt admitted he was worried about the future, saying: "We see our growth being limited by staffing, not demand." Compuware targets client-server installations linked to mainframes. Finding critical MVS experience is the problem, he said. "We've been in Japan for four or five years and we hope we've learned from that -- but there was a problem with staffing. "You can sell what you want, but without the staff to support it, you'll only get in trouble," said Scheidt. He said the big job ahead was getting training going and building up a bigger pool of expertise in the MVS and client-server area. "There's no doubt it's a bigger challenge in the short-term here in Asia. I'm not saying it isn't a problem in the US, but it's bigger here," Scheidt said. The skills problem is exacerbated by the differences in market needs. Hong Kong is apparently more interested in latest technologies, S while Singapore, on the other hand, wants traditional software development tools. Hong Kong has an added dimension. While it accelerates on a client-server track, China, which it is theoretically converging with, is hidebound on mainframes. Concerning China, Scheidt said, "We'll be more careful there -- we want to build good solid relationships and guarantee our payments. We'll approach it differently to other vendors," he said. "Because of this, and the skills thing, it's difficult to estimate growth in China." At present, the Asian region accounts for 10% of the company's revenues. Scheidt says it ought to be closer to 30%. Plans are afoot for training staff, initially by bringing expatriates in to do much of the preliminary work. (Joel McCormick & I.T. Daily/19951205) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 12/05/95 EDUCATION China - Exhibition Links College Software To Applications (NEWS)(EDUCATION)(PEK)(00012) China - Exhibition Links College Software To Applications 12/05/95 BEIJING, CHINA, 1995 DEC 5 (NB) -- The First Exhibition of Academically Developed Software was held recently in Beijing to display software developed by Chinese universities and colleges. It was sponsored by the State Education Commission to the promote development and application of software by academic institutions. Software from about 40 Chinese universities and colleges was displayed, and more than 100 agreements were reached for inter-college cooperation in software development. The three-day exhibition allowed participating colleges and universities to exchange information and experiences regarding software development. More exhibitions and seminars will be held regularly in the future, said Wei Yu, vice director of the State Education Commission. The exhibition is also seen as a showcase for academically developed software to find practical applications. Colleges and universities should join hands to develop more software that can be sold in both domestic and overseas markets, Wei noted. Over 400 products were displayed, including software systems for education and management, computer-aided design, computer-aided management systems, process control technology, databases, and multimedia. One successful example of such an application going commercial is the fingerprint identification computer program developed by Beijing University. In the first three quarters of this year, the software was used in public security departments in Shanghai and other places to track down 20 criminal suspects (Chih-Ho Yu & Ning Huang/19951205) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 12/05/95 GENERAL Asia Newsbriefs (NEWS)(GENERAL)(TYO)(00013) Asia Newsbriefs 12/05/95 TOKYO, JAPAN, 1995 DEC 5 (NB) -- In this roundup of news from around Asia: South Korea - Satellite communications firm established; China - Seiko-Epson to open plant; Singapore - Networld+Interop 97 planned; Thailand - Satellite project approved; Malaysia - Stock exchange info coming to Internet. South Korea - Satellite Communications Firm Established Three companies -- Korea Telecom, Samsung Electronics, and Shinsegi Telecom -- will jointly form a satellite communications company that will handle regional use of a forthcoming mobile telephone system being established by Inmarsat, the International Maritime Satellite Organization. The new company, Korea Satellite Mobile Telecom, will be established in February, 1996, and capitalized at 18.96 billion won ($24.7 million). The Inmarsat system, named Project 21, will launch 12 low earth orbiting (LEO) satellites to provide global mobile telephone coverage. China - Seiko-Epson To Open Plant Japan's Seiko-Epson has announced it will open a plant in Suzhou, Shanghai province, China to produce liquid crystal displays (LCDs) for use in laptop computers and other devices. The company said it hopes production to begin sometime next year at its new 130,000 square-meter facility. Singapore - Networld+Interop 97 Planned Japan-based Softbank has said it will hold a Singapore version of its Networld+Interop exhibition from April 7 to 11 next year. The exhibition will be held at Singapore International Convention & Exhibition Center and will be the first regional exhibition in the series in an ASEAN country. The latest in enterprise-wide network technology will be deployed through the InteropNet, the world's largest event-oriented multiprotocol, multivendor network. The system will supply all attendees with a full-scale networking and interoperability platform. Thailand - Satellite Project Approved The Thai cabinet last week approved the expansion of the country's links to the international satellite network to keep up with growing demands for communications links. The project, valued at around 2.34 billion bhat will result in the construction of a new earth station in Ubonrachathani, north-eastern Thailand, and expansion of the current earth station in Nonthaburi province. The links will be extensively used during the Asian Games which are scheduled to be held in Thailand in 1998. Malaysia - Stock Exchange Info Coming To Internet The Kuala Lumpur Stock Exchange (KLSE) has signed an agreement with Singapore's Sembawang Media to provide KLSE market information on the Internet. Sembawang's subsidiary Information Frontiers will offer an information service comprising online stock quotes and news. (Martyn Williams/19951205) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 12/05/95 ONLINE Internet Update (NEWS)(ONLINE)(TYO)(00014) Internet Update 12/05/95 TOKYO, JAPAN, 1995 DEC 5 (NB) -- In this roundup of new services and resources on the global Internet: The Big Book of Alcoholics Anonymous; LA CybrPORT; The illustration and cartoon gallery in Japan; African information database; Royal Australian Air Force; New multi-search engine; Temperature explained; Campbell Soup Company; United News & Media; Go2 - The Guardian Online. Pick Of The Day - The Big Book of Alcoholics Anonymous An excellent, searchable, database and online series of books published by Alcoholics Anonymous. The Big Book of AA is here, complete, plus a selection of personal stories and links of other related online resources. World Wide Web: http://www.global.org/bigbook/ LA CybrPORT These Web pages are advertised as "a fast minimal online guide to Los Angeles & the World Wide Web." Newsbytes found the opening pages just weird but once you get down to the real information it succeeds in providing comprehensive links to all things Los Angeles on the Web. Users with no graphics ability will find this one difficult to use. World Wide Web: http://cybrport.com/ The Illustration & Cartoon Gallery In Japan Three Japanese artists -- Mitsuru Ebina, Machiko Takaya and Hiroyuki Ito -- are just concluding an exhibition in Shinjuku, Tokyo, but their Internet exhibition continues. The artists' illustrations, cartoons, and pictures for picture books are online. World Wide Web: http://homebase.axes.co.jp/ETI/ African Information Database The MBendi pages are an encyclopedia of information on Africa and the African oil industry for use by the international business person, traveler, and investor. In addition to the industry data, the Web site features sections covering the countries, people, organizations, and companies that make up Africa. World Wide Web: http://mbendi.co.za/mbendi/index.htm Royal Australian Air Force The Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) home page is now available. Pages are dedicated to its recruiting and study program and the RAAF museum at Point Cook. Air Force news is also online as the RAAF builds up to its 75th anniversary next year plus a calendar of celebratory events planned. World Wide Web: http://www.adfa.oz.au/DOD/RAAF/ New Multi-Search Engine A new multi-search engine has debuted. Savvy Search will simultaneously search 19 search engines that cover the World Wide Web, Gopher, Usenet, and FTP sites. World Wide Web: http://guaraldi.cs.colostate.edu:2000/ Temperature Explained A great introduction to physical concepts of temperature, thermometers, scales, heat, thermodynamics, kinetic theory, and thermal radiation. Be patient because the whole thing is on one Web page over 30 kilobytes in size. World Wide Web: http://www.unidata.ucar.edu/staff/blynds/tmp.html Campbell Soup Company Just in time for the winter, a new Web site from the people at Campbell Soups that includes a searchable database of recipes and tips of how to plan meals. The site makes very good use of graphics and all the pages look good. World Wide Web: http://www.campbellsoups.com/ United News & Media Sites The United News & Media group has a Web page offering links to all its publications online, including Unix Review, Microsoft Systems Journal, Embedded Systems Programming, Computer Security Weekly, and many more computer and non-computer related titles. World Wide Web: http://www.unm.com/ Go2 - The Guardian Online Every Thursday, The Guardian newspaper in London publishes its Online section with the latest in computer, Internet, and science news. The section is now on the Internet with editorial and features, plus all the jobs advertisements from the section. World Wide Web: http://go2.guardian.co.uk/ (Martyn Williams/19951205) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 12/05/95 ONLINE Internet Operators Work To Inter-Connect Asia (NEWS)(ONLINE)(TYO)(00015) Internet Operators Work To Inter-Connect Asia 12/05/95 TOKYO, JAPAN, 1995 DEC 5 (NB) -- In Asia the Internet is hot. New service providers and online services are coming online every week, with recent entrants including Cable & Wireless in Japan, China Internet, a Beijing backed service for Hong Kong, and Singapore's new Asian Connection online service. As the popularity and use increases, the major network operators are now racing to link up Asian countries to handle the demand. Currently, most Internet traffic travels out of each country to the United States where it is routed on to its destination, whether that be in North America, Europe, back to Asia, or anywhere else in the world. The current situation is summed up well by William Blessing, vice president of Strategic Development and Planning for Sprint International, a unit of the Sprint telecommunications company. "Concentration of global Internet traffic in and through the United States has led to a situation in which Internet traffic has become increasingly congested -- it has become a little like having all the world's air traffic routed exclusively via New York's JFK airport in the United States," he explained. Expensive trans-Pacific lines are now getting busy, but the new networks will keep Asian traffic within Asia, thus cutting down traffic significantly. For each inter-Asian message, two will be cut off the Pacific lines -- one going out and one coming back. First to announce plans was Asia Internet Holding, a consortium of four leading companies that will build an Internet backbone network between the three respective countries. The members are Japan's Sumitomo Corporation, Internet Initiative Japan (IIJ), Pacific Internet of Singapore, and Hong Kong Supernet. The group has christened its new network the A-Bone and will consist of a distributed hub with Tokyo as the main network hub. From Tokyo, high speed T3 (45 megabits-per-second) links to the US, and Singapore and Hong Kong will carry traffic throughout the region and onto the rest of the Internet. America's AT&T communications company has also decided to expand its Internet involvement in Asia. It currently operates subsidiary AT&T Jens Corp., providers of the SPIN Internet connection network in Japan The new AT&T network already links Hong Kong and Japan and will soon expand to Australia. It also includes links to the AT&T Worldnet Internet services that are operating in North America and Europe. Another company that is upgrading an existing network is Sprint, a big competitor of AT&T, and operator of the massive global computer network, Sprintnet. The company has just announced a global backbone network with ten major hubs, including Hong Kong, Tokyo, and Sydney in Asia. All of Sprint's inter-Asian traffic will now travel to Hong Kong where it will pass through the Hong Kong Internet Exchange, an Internet peering site. "Sprint's Internet customers in Hong Kong wishing to access Web sites in London and Japan will now be able to avoid the United States Internet, as their traffic is routed via Global SprintLink to Sprint's London and Tokyo Internet centers," said Braham Singh, managing director, ASEAN and Hong Kong Operations at Sprint International. Britain's Cable & Wireless, a company with large interests in Asia, is expanding its operations even further. Two weeks ago the company launched an Internet connection service for companies in Japan and last week announced the establishment of a global Internet backbone. Many Internet users will be familiar with PSI, a US-based Internet access and backbone provider. PSI currently counts one Asian subsidiary, PSI Japan, but it too is expanding its reach, first of all into South Korea with the new Hansol-PSINet Inc. CERFnet, another US backbone provider is also planning expansion into the region as Pushpendra Mohta, director of CERF, told Newsbytes, "CERFnet's plans for next year include both Europe and Asia. The plans are in the development stage yet, so firm dates are not available. Asia is certainly the site of some of the world's hottest emerging markets and is mostly untapped for Internet access services." Its not just international links that are expanding either. China has just announced it will build the country's first Internet backbone, China Net, across the country. The network will touch down in 30 provinces, providing widespread access to the Internet and a high-speed path across the nation and worldwide via three planned international links. China Net is being built by CTC Communications Development Co. Ltd., an affiliated company of the Ministry of Post and Telecommunications, and AsiaInfo Computer Network Inc., a US-backed networking firm. All of the work is reminding some network observers of the situation in Europe just a few years ago when most traffic traveled via the US east coast and back. Now, several major links traverse the European continent, but that was much easier to build as most of Europe's population, and wealth, is concentrated in the central and north European area. In Asia, fast growing economies need connection across great distances, such as those from Japan to Singapore or Hong Kong to Australia. The build and start-up costs will therefore be higher, but many agree that once the systems are built, they could see much more use in the future than links in other regions of the world. (Martyn Williams/19951205) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 12/05/95 ONLINE ****Compuserve To Allow For Other Web Browser Use (NEWS)(ONLINE)(MSP)(00016) ****Compuserve To Allow For Other Web Browser Use 12/05/95 COLUMBUS, OHIO, U.S.A., 1995 DEC 5 (NB) -- Compuserve said it will implement an open standards strategy when it comes to its members using the Internet and the World Wide Web. The online service announced its subscribers will soon be able to use any Web browser in connection with its network. Compuserve said it will be the first online service in the industry that will allow its members to use any Web browser. "Why should it matter what glasses you look through" when it comes to viewing the Web, Jeff Shafer, Compuserve spokesperson, told Newsbytes. "We're not going to limit what you can do on the service by limiting you to a specific browser." As a part of the new Web abilities, Compuserve is launching an online area called "WebCentral." The new area will have most of the leading browsers available for downloading, with many being available for free. "It's going to be the best place to go to online to use the Web," Shafer said. "Over the next year, the Web is going to change in a way that took TV 40 years to change," Shafer told Newsbytes. "It doesn't make any business sense to say the only way you can look at the Web is the way we tell you to. If you want to use Netscape, use Netscape. We don't care. The browser isn't what is important to us, financially. If you're using Compuserve to look at the Web, that's what we want." This move also represents Compuserve's commitment to open standards, Shafer said. What this means is people can look at "their Web, their way," he said. Shafer also said, in most cases, the latest version of Web browsers from specific companies will be available, even if it is in a test, or "beta" form. In the future, users will also be able to test the latest Web technologies, including Sun's Java multimedia applets. Other features of the WebCentral area will include the ability to obtain technical support and get answers to browser questions, chat with members and experts about the Web, enter contests and win prizes, read the latest industry news, and hotlink to related areas on the Web. WebCentral will be available by Christmas on Compuserve's main service, and in the first quarter of 1996 on the Web. (Bob Woods/19951205/Press Contact: Jeff Shafer, Compuserve, 614-538-4632) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 12/05/95 ONLINE WebInnovation Picks "1000 Most Influential Web Developers" (NEWS)(ONLINE)(SFO)(00017) WebInnovation Picks "1000 Most Influential Web Developers" 12/05/95 SAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1995 DEC 5 (NB) -- Web developers and users are banging on the doors to get into Interactive Marketing Communications' (IMC) WebInnovation. Limited to "1,000 of the most talented Web developers in the world," this show brings them together with the computer companies leading who are building the road to the Web. Rick Parkhill, president of IMC from Capistrano Beach, California, told Newsbytes about his first WebInnovation conference. "There are hundreds of Web conferences and tradeshows going on all the time, and they all serve a purpose. But I feel we are on the eve of consumers truly embracing this phenomena (the World Wide Web). People realize now that the Web is going to be a mass media and we need to make it happen. I wanted to bring the most talented and influential people who are developing the very best of the Web into one conference so they could network, get new tools, and learn about new technology," said Parkhill. "We had no idea so many people would want to come. Unfortunately, because of our commitments to the location, we could not allow more than 1,000 attendees. We have had hundreds of other people wanting to join us. Part of the 1,000 is also by design. This is not a show for companies to come and learn about marketing on the Web or about how to design a Web page," he said. "We spent two months researching Web sites to find an elite group of developers who are, in our estimation, delivering the most dynamic Web content. What do we want them to get from this show? I want them to leave here with a new sense of inspiration and a sense of networking with similar talents," continued Parkhill. Through earlier work with Silicon Graphics, Parkhill was able to find sponsorship for WebInnovations. Companies such as Sun Microsystems, Netscape Communications, Macromedia, Informix, Adobe, Advertising Age, and others were reportedly "anxious" to join in Parkhill's conference. "Two years ago everyone was betting on interactive television as the super information highway," he continued. "While all the attention, money, and publications were focusing on interactive TV, this thing called the Internet and the Web began to grow dynamically. Now, we have learned the TV and the PC are two different appliances. The sales of PCs have skyrocketed and it seems people, on the whole, want to have their TVs and they want to have their computers." he added: "On that computer side, the World Wide Web is the place where this mass media will develop. It is still very confusing for a lot of new users and it is still unchartable in many ways, but we should expect these elements when an entirely new media is coming to life." He continued, "Last year, everyone was saying, 'Let's get a URL (uniform resource locator, or Web address).' The idea was to get on and have a site. Most of the information was text-based and most of it was about marketing products in a very static way. Now, we are seeing the introduction of sound, audio, and animation. As soon as the bandwidth is larger, we will have video delivered on a wide scale. I am not a technologist, but I think we are about two years away from delivering live content, much like television, over the Internet. But, unlike television, the Web will allow you to interact with the content and people and to control and change the display." WebInnovation opened with a keynote address from the creator of Mosaic and co-founder of Netscape Communications, Marc Andreesen. Today's event will be highlighted by speaker Tom Jermoluk, president and chief executive officer of Silicon Graphics. The conference offers more than 50 sessions based on two tracks: a Professional Web Content Creation, and a Commercial Web Applications. What are some of the hot topics at WebInnovation. First and foremost, it appears to be personal "networking." The WebMasters who have labored away in anonymity appear to be pleased to meet and share stories with one another. Second, is a long list of conferences, technologies, and speeches. A sampling of WebInnovation sessions and technology fair topics include Sun Microsystems' Java, Macromedia's Shockwave, Netscape's version 2.0 for Navigator, Progressive Networks' Real Audio, VRML (virtual reality modeling language) implementation for integrating two- and three-dimensions, integrating existing databases into the Web, browser plug-ins, data management, and server technology. (Patrick McKenna/19951205/Press Contact: Tina Vennegaard, Bender, Goldman & Helper, 310-473-4147) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 12/05/95 ONLINE VR World - Using VR To "Build A Car Over The Internet" (NEWS)(ONLINE)(BOS)(00018) VR World - Using VR To "Build A Car Over The Internet" 12/05/95 BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS, U.S.A., 1995 DEC 5 (NB) -- When Doug Schiff couldn't reach a tool he needed to help "build a car," he simply made himself a bit taller. "The great thing about virtual reality (VR) is that you can be as tall as you want to be," joked Schiff, who is Division Inc.'s VP of marketing, during a trans-Atlantic presentation, billed as the first demo of "immersive VR" to be done over the Internet, attended by Newsbytes at MecklerMedia's Virtual Reality World in Boston. Schiff and a VR partner known as Pierre, who was situated at the Computer Graphics Expo in London, began the Internet demo playfully. As live audiences on both sides of the Atlantic looked on, the two colleagues exchanged toy birds and other three- dimensional (3-D) objects. But the second stage of the demo was a lot more serious, simulating the kinds of VR applications that are actually going on today at companies like Ford Motor Company and McDonnell Douglas with the use of Division Inc.'s dVISE and dVS software. Schiff told conference attendees and members of the press in Boston that Division Inc. will soon be releasing its dVISE "virtual world authoring package" and dVS distributed run-time software in shrink-wrapped form for Windows 95-based PCs as well as for Unix workstations from Hewlett-Packard and Silicon Graphics. Meanwhile, after "exploring VR since 1991," Ford has purchased three software licenses for Division's dVISE 3.0 and dVS 3.0 for use in "human/vehicle interaction" projects, vehicle packaging studies, and design verification applications at a "major new facility for developing tools and applications in VR and advanced visual engineering," according to the marketing VP. Other companies utilizing Division's VR systems for "virtual prototyping" include McDonnell Douglas, Bechtel, BRN Europe, BNFL, GDE Systems, and Rutherford Appleton Laboratory, reported Schiff. A museum in New Mexico is also a user, he pointed out. The trans-Atlantic demo at VR World in Boston and the Computer Graphics Expo in London involved the use of a head-mounted display and a 3-D "flying mouse," along with two HP workstations, each attached over a single ISDN (integrated systems digital network) link connected to the Internet. Schiff and his overseas colleague Pierre used the ISDN-to-Internet hook-up to manipulate and exchange virtual "tools," as well as to discuss their progress in collaboratively building the virtual car. The Division exec told the audience in Boston that Division has conducted previous trade show demos of its "immersive VR" system in peer-to-peer mode over an Ethernet LAN (local area network), complete with "3-D sound." Unlike some other VR environments, he asserted, Division's dVISE and dVS software are both "fully immersive," meaning that users can interact with objects in real time, and "fully interactive," meaning that models within the environment "respond immediately to human movement and input." The dVISE VR authoring environment "requires no programming," and is capable of reading in CAD (computer-aided design) data files, contended Schiff. Division Inc., he added, has "not yet found a ceiling" for the number of users that can be simultaneously supported by the dVS distributed run-time software, designed to enable use over the Internet and other networks. The system has been benchmarked at 15 simultaneous users on a 10 megabits-per-second (Mbps) Ethernet LAN, but there could well be capacity for more users, according to Schiff. Division Inc. is planning to add support for both VRML (virtual reality markup language) and Sun Microsystems' Java. At Ford, engineers "immersed in the virtual environment" will try out proposed card dashboard configurations to verify driver visibility and instrument accessibility, according to the Division VP. In addition, proposed designs for car trunks till be tested with "virtual luggage" to determine how much luggage will fit inside. Ford also intends to deploy networked VR applications, he noted. Although VR "has come a long way over the past few years," the approach "is still in the early adopters phase," Schiff acknowledged. But once a strong VR "advocate" is found within an organization, the "response is tremendous," he told the group in Boston. (Jacqueline Emigh/19951205/Reader and Press Contact: Division Inc., 919-968-7797; Reader Contact: MecklerMedia, 203-226-6967; Press Contact: Barry Schwartz, Schwartz Communications for MecklerMedia, 212-980-3790) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 12/05/95 ONLINE ****Silicon Graphics/Sun/Netscape To Merge Web Technologies (NEWS)(ONLINE)(MSP)(00019) ****Silicon Graphics/Sun/Netscape To Merge Web Technologies 12/05/95 SAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1995 DEC 5 (NB) -- Silicon Graphics (NYSE:SGI) said it is teaming with several companies on different aspects of multimedia Internet World Wide Web content. The company said it will work with Sun Microsystems (NSADAQ:SUNW) and Netscape Communications Corp. (NASDAQ:NSCP) to merge certain three-dimensional (3-D) and multimedia Web interactivity, and team with Sun and Macromedia to define an open set of multimedia formats and application programming interfaces (APIs). With the Silicon Graphics/Sun/Netscape teaming, the three companies will work to bring together Silicon Graphics' virtual reality modeling language (VRML), Sun's Java programming language, and Sun and Netscape's JavaScript. Essentially, each company is endorsing the other's technology, officials said. The intent of the efforts is to accelerate the development of both cross-platform applications and interactive multimedia content to be used on the Internet or other enterprise networks, officials said. "By uniting our efforts to jointly define a common 3-D, multimedia interface, we accelerate the delivery of this exciting new medium," said Tom Jermoluk, president and chief operating officer of Silicon Graphics. The Silicon Graphics/Sun/Macromedia joint effort will bring open 3-D extensions to enable developers to create additional enhancements while maintaining universal access to Web content. One of the primary technologies that the 3-D extensions will work with is Sun's Java language. The planned open interface will support both Netscape's Navigator and Sun's JavaScript. Silicon Graphics will also license Java from Sun. All three companies say they believe the new formats and APIs will "enhance Java's capabilities for providing animation and interactivity, especially in the area of 3-D rendering and multimedia over the Internet or corporate networks." Those technologies include the real-time streaming of audio, video, and 3-D graphics (similar to the RealAudio system, Newsbytes notes), and videoconferencing. Both specifications should be published during the first half of 1996, officials said. (Bob Woods/19951205/Press Contacts: Virginia Henderson, Silicon Graphics, 415-390-1306; George Paolini, Sun Microsystems, 415-786-8199; Rosanne Siino, Netscape, 415-528-2619) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 12/05/95 BUSINESS Northern Telecom & Cabletron Form Alliance (NEWS)(BUSINESS)(TOR)(00020) Northern Telecom & Cabletron Form Alliance 12/05/95 TORONTO, ONTARIO, CANADA, 1995 DEC 5 (NB) -- Northern Telecom Ltd. (TSE:NTL;NYSE:NT) and Cabletron Systems Inc. (NYSE:CS) have announced an alliance. The two companies said they will develop and market integrated communications and network products and services jointly. Initially, Nortel and Cabletron will join forces to integrate their existing products and sell each other's equipment, Northern Telecom spokesman Peter Janecek told Newsbytes. In the future, they may also develop new products together, but Janecek said there are no plans definite enough to talk about at the moment. The alliance will focus on Cabletron's Spectrum for Open Systems network management software for its MMAC SmartSwitch intelligent hub product lines and Nortel's Magellan Passport and Meridian 1 product portfolios, officials said. Janecek said Northern chose Cabletron for the alliance because "they're the leading supplier of products in that area." Besides working together to integrate and sell products, Northern Telecom and Cabletron also plan to use each other's equipment in their own operations. Northern said it will incorporate Cabletron's MMAC intelligent switching hubs and Spectrum software in its own corporate networks, while Cabletron said it will use Nortel's Meridian and Magellan Passport products in its networks, and use the Nortel VISIT desktop videoconferencing technology at its headquarters in Rochester, New Hampshire. The companies said the internal networks will serve as proving grounds to show how merged Northern and Cabletron technology can help the two firms' customers solve business problems. (Grant Buckler/19951205/Press Contact: Mitch Gross, Cabletron, 603-337-2060, Internet e-mail mgross@ctron.com; Peter Janecek, Northern Telecom, 905-566-3279, Internet e-mail peter.janecek@nt.com) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 12/05/95 ONLINE ****Macromedia & @Home Team On Fast Internet Multimedia (NEWS)(ONLINE)(LAX)(00021) ****Macromedia & @Home Team On Fast Internet Multimedia 12/05/95 SUNNYVALE, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1995 DEC 5 (NB) -- Macromedia, a producer of multimedia and digital arts software, and @Home, a provider of high-speed data to homes via a cable connection to a personal computer, will work together to provide full multimedia on the World Wide Web. Using Macromedia's Shockwave for Director and high-speed Internet access similar to what @Home will be offering beginning with its Spring 1996 launch in Sunnyvale, California, the two companies will use @Home's multimedia user interface and links to numerous Web sites with live multimedia content. The @Home services offer high-speed Internet access delivered via hybrid fiber coaxial (HFC) technology to personal computers. HFC technology delivers both cable television signals and data over a combined fiber-optic and coaxial infrastructure. Home is expected to debut in Sunnyvale in early 1996. Headquartered in Palo Alto, California, @Home is a joint venture between Tele-Communications Inc. and Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers (KPCB). KPCB venture capital partners have raised over $1 billion in capital and invested in companies whose total market value exceeds $43 billion. Tele-Communications Inc. (TCI) is one of the leading cable television companies in the US. Kelly Schwager, a spokesperson for @Home, told Newsbytes, "@Home services will be offered via a high-speed modem attached to the user's computer. The services are delivered at speeds of 10 million bits per second, an overwhelming improvement over current dial-up modems. For example, this connection enables a full range of multimedia experiences, including rich graphics, CD-quality audio, and real-time video." Also speaking to Newsbytes, Norm Meyrowitz, vice president of multimedia software for Macromedia, said, "Macromedia is all about high-speed multimedia presentations which, up to now, have been exclusive to CD-ROM. The Internet pipeline to the consumer through @Home will be one-hundred times faster than connections through the telephone wires. With this high-speed broadband connection, Macromedia will work with Internet providers to provide full multimedia presentations." @Home's network will bring a fiber optic line to a nodule in a neighborhood. Each nodule will serve about 200 homes with direct coaxial cable links. According to Meyrowitz, the fiber optic cable delivers the equivalent to 27 T1 lines to the nodule. The 200 homes would effectively share this huge capacity. "Because not everyone will be using the network at the same time, this amounts to a T1 line into every home," said Meyrowitz. "It's all coming together so fast," said William Randolph Hearst III, president of @Home. "The ability to see interactive multimedia games, education and business applications running at high speed on the Internet opens up a wealth of possibilities for the creative community and World Wide Web users. Shockwave is going to change the look of the Web, much as @Home will change the way people access it." Macromedia and @Home also announced plans to work together on Shockwave for Director development and on new Java-based tools to support the authoring of rich multimedia content and applications for the World Wide Web. @Home will use Shockwave to allow Web publishers, such as Discovery Channel Online and the Internet Shopping Network, to create multimedia-rich applications for @Home subscribers. "What we can do with multimedia on the Internet is amazing," said Randy Adams, president of the Internet Shopping Network. "We are excited about Macromedia and @Home providing the platform today and about how they can continue to evolve this capability given the unique strengths of both companies." "Working with @Home enables us to create a testbed today of what most consumers will experience as commonplace in the next two to three years," said Bud Colligan, president of Macromedia. "The high-speed Internet connections to the home provided by @Home will deliver a significant difference in the consumer's experience with Web access." The focus on Macromedia's work with @Home will be for tools optimized for continuous publishing, high fidelity layout, typographic control and rich multimedia effects, all using the latest in graphics, video, animation, sound, three-dimensional graphics, and interactivity. "What this all comes down to is that we are going to provide, on the @Home network, all the current multimedia capacity found on CD-ROM's. The Internet can look and feel like the best CD-ROM," said Meyrowitz. (Richard Bowers/19951205/Press Contact: Allyson Husted, @Home, 408-764-0760) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 12/05/95 LEGAL ****US West Amends Time Warner Suit, Alleges Secret Deal (NEWS)(LEGAL)(DEN)(00022) ****US West Amends Time Warner Suit, Alleges Secret Deal 12/05/95 ENGLEWOOD, COLORADO, U.S.A., 1995 DEC 5 (NB) -- US West (NYSE: UMG) has asked a Delaware court to block the proposed merger of Time Warner and Turner Broadcasting System (TBS). US West said the merger would, in effect, dismantle the Time Warner Entertainment partnership, which would adversely impact US West's $2.5 billion investment in that partnership. The amended lawsuit also alleges that Time Warner withheld from US West information about a secret 1991 agreement among Time Warner, ITOCHU, and Toshiba. The agreement allegedly specifies how any acquisition of TBS would be handled. US West alleges that Time Warner, ITOCHU, and Toshiba, the original partners in Time Warner Entertainment, had agreed that, if Time Warner acquired a controlling interest in Turner, a new partnership would be created in which all the partners, including future one, would participate. If that's correct and if the agreement were to be ruled binding, US West would have been entitled to a say in the decision to acquire TBS. US West said the reorganization was announced without its approval. US West said under Time Warner's announced reorganization plan, Robert Daly and Terry Semel, currently co-chief executives at Warner Brothers, would manage a new entertainment division. US West claims that would maximize the value to Time Warner Inc. shareholders, not the partners in Time Warner Entertainment. US West said Daly and Semel would "divide their loyalties" between Time Warner Entertainment and Time Warner Inc., to the disadvantage of US West shareholders. US West charged in its lawsuit that the agreement was withheld when it was negotiating to become a partner in Time Warner Entertainment. The company said it came to light during the exchange of documents during the discovery process for the original lawsuit, which was filed in late September. US West said the secret agreement is consistent with the understanding it had at the time it entered the partnership that all partners would have to approve of and could participate in assets and ventures of the type included in Time Warner Entertainment and that Time Warner Inc. would not own or operate competing assets outside of the Time Warner Entertainment partnership. If the merger goes through, the combined company will offer products as diverse as: Time, People and Sports Illustrated magazines; Cable News Network (CNN) and CNN Airport; the Atlanta Braves and the Atlanta Hawks, professional baseball and basketball teams, respectively; Six Flags Theme Parks; World Championship Wrestling; Warner Brothers; TNT; and HBO; as well as the music of the Warner Music Group. Also included in the package are the cartoon libraries of Warner Brothers, Looney Tunes, and Hanna-Barbera, and the pre-1948 movie library owned by TBS as well as the current Warner Bros. film library. The deal calls for Time Warner Inc. to issue up to 178 million common shares to acquire TBS. TBS shareholders will receive 3/4 of a share of Time Warner for each TBS Class A or B common share. Each TBS Class C preferred holder will get .80 of a Time Warner common share for each of the 6 shares of Class B common that their Class C preferred shares are convertible to. The combined companies reported 1994 revenues of $18.7 billion. The merger would be tax free to TBS shareholders, and TBS would become a wholly-owned subsidiary of Time Warner Inc. Turner would become vice chairman of Time Warner and head of the Time Warner Video Division, and would be able to name two Time Warner Inc. directors. Turner is expected to be one of those directors. US West spokesperson Lois Leach told Newsbytes depositions are now being taken and the court has set a mid-March 1996 hearing. Leach said the US West lawsuit isn't the only hurdle faced by the Time Warner partnership. There are reportedly a dozen or more lawsuits pending, the Federal Trade Commission is looking into the merger and the deal requires government regulatory agency approval. (Jim Mallory/19951205/Press contact: Lois Leach, US West, 303-754-6355) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 12/05/95 LEGAL Camelot Sues Internet Server Operator (NEWS)(LEGAL)(DEN)(00023) Camelot Sues Internet Server Operator 12/05/95 DALLAS, TEXAS, U.S.A., 1995 DEC 5 (NB) -- Camelot Corp.(NASDAQ:CAML) said its subsidiary -- Third Planet Publishing Inc. -- has filed a lawsuit against Jeff Pulver, alleging copyright infringement and misappropriation of trade secrets. The company alleges Pulver, who runs an IRC server on the Internet, posted part of the company's proprietary software code on his World Wide Web page recently. Third Planet Publishing is the publisher of Digiphone, a software program that allows users to carry on full-duplex phone conversations over the Internet. Third Planet's suit seeks a preliminary injunction preventing Pulver from posting on the Internet or anywhere else Third Planet's confidential copyrighted information. Additionally, Third Planet is asking that Pulver disclose the names of persons who accessed his Internet Web page and downloaded the software. "We want to make sure that the driver doesn't get disseminated any further without our knowledge," said Wettreich. Danny Wettreich, chairman and chief executive officer of Camelot, told Newsbytes that no specific damages have been requested, but he estimates damages to the company of in excess of $50,000 on each of the charges. It's unknown how Pulver obtained the code. The software, according Third Planet, involves the code that enables full duplexing, or the ability for both parties to talk at the same time, on PCs equipped with Soundblaster 16 sound cards. Third Planet said Pulver acknowledged on his home page that the code was part of the Digiphone software, but it was nevertheless posted with an invitation to Internet users to download the code to their computers. The company said Pulver has removed the code from the Web page but refuses to provide a list of users who have downloaded the code. Wettreich said the company wants to know who downloaded the code because it is the only full-duplexing sound driver for the SoundBlaster 16 and can be utilized for other purposes, or even in a competing program. In the same lawsuit Third Planet sued Performance Systems Inc., dba PSINet, the Internet access provider for Pulver. Third Planet said PSINet offers a competing product by Vocaltec. Third Planet said PSINet refuses to disconnect Pulver. (Jim Mallory/19951205/Press contact: Danny Wettreich, Camelot, 214-733-3005; Public contact: Camelot, tel 214-733-3005, fax 214-733-4308) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 12/05/95 ONLINE ****Silicon Graphics Develops 3-D Cosmo Web Technology (NEWS)(ONLINE)(MSP)(00024) ****Silicon Graphics Develops 3-D Cosmo Web Technology 12/05/95 SAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1995 DEC 5 (NB) -- Silicon Graphics (NYSE:SGI) has announced its new Cosmo product at the WebInnovation Conference in San Francisco. Cosmo is described as a set of advanced technologies using interactive multimedia and three-dimensional (3-D) graphics to the Internet's World Wide Web. The Cosmo system is a full suite of tools designed for the development, the client, and the server side of the Web. All of the components of Cosmo will support the open standards of the Web, including hypertext markup language (HTML), Silicon Graphics' VRML (virtual reality modeling language) 2.0, and the Java programming language from Sun Microsystems. The suite is composed of four software programs. The first is Cosmo Create, described as an authoring software product that will let users write and develop interactive Web pages, multimedia titles, and 3-D worlds. Cosmo Create uses VRML, Java, and HTML, and it supports a variety of third-party plug-in content creation applications. Another program in the suite is Cosmo Code, dubbed by Silicon Graphics as "the most advanced professional development environment for the Java language." Cosmo Code consists of a run-time interpreter and compiler for Java, a Graphical Source Debugger, a Visual Source Browser, the Cosmo Motion library, and Cosmo's MediaBase libraries. Officials said that, when combined with Cosmo Code, Media Base enables new applications like multimedia collaboration on the Web, and intelligent media browsing. On the client side, the Cosmo Player is an interactive media viewer that can be used either as a primary browser, or as a plug-in to existing Web browsers like Netscape and Mosaic. Officials said all four Cosmo products should ship within the first half of 1996. Silicon Graphics has also entered an agreement with Sun and Netscape, in which each company recognizes the other's 3-D and interactive multimedia developments, and will eventually bring to market an open platform for Web development and viewing. Specifics of that agreement are covered in a separate Newsbytes story today. Silicon Graphics also announced an expanded Developer Program that will offer "broader" services not only to its traditional commercial software developers, but to Internet, corporate, and research developers as well. The program now offers three options which include a "host of benefits and tools," officials said. One of those tools is the Cosmo Code development environment. The Developer Program uses the Web by offering its members online access to Silicon Graphics' proprietary development tools including sample source code, development libraries, and tutorials. (Bob Woods/19951205/Press Contact: Eileen M. Caetano, Silicon Graphics, 415-933-2036, Internet e-mail ecaetano@corp.sgi.com) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 12/05/95 BUSINESS Quarterdeck Offers Internet Consulting (NEWS)(BUSINESS)(LAX)(00025) Quarterdeck Offers Internet Consulting 12/05/95 MARINA DEL REY, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1995 DEC 5 (NB) -- Quarterdeck Corp. (NASDAQ: QDEK) says it will form a new business unit dedicated to providing products and services to small- and medium-sized businesses interested in conducting commerce on the Internet. The Internet Service Business Unit will concentrate on the Internet marketplace specifically in commerce and transaction consultations. Quarterdeck has been considered exclusively a product development company. This new unit will be its first major foray into service and consulting. Audry Pobre, a spokesperson for Quarterdeck, explained to Newsbytes, "Quarterdeck has never concentrated on consultation and service as a profit center. This new unit is set up to do just this. Using tools like WebCompass, Quarterdeck can offer tailored products for complete Internet transaction services. Businesses who want to set up shop on the Internet, can come to us for one-stop service, from concept to final product. This is a departure for Quarterdeck, and in effect is a new profit center for us." "Our Internet Business Unit has been very successful in 1995, bringing high quality, award winning products to market," said Gaston Bastiaens, Quarterdeck president. "In 1996, we intend to broaden our position in the Internet marketplace by providing services to companies that want to take advantage of the commerce opportunities available on the Internet." In addition to transaction services for small business, Quarterdeck's Internet Services Business Unit (different from the existing Internet Business Unit) will also provide different layers of services for vertical markets, such as the medical and legal industries. Quarterdeck also intends to begin providing content-based services. Quarterdeck's recently announced alliance with Infonautics Corp., to bring Homework Helper to the Internet, is an example of content services that will be offered. HomeWork Helper is an online general reference library that makes searching through hundreds of text and image databases "easy and inexpensive," claims the company. (Richard Bowers/19951205/Press Contact: Ellen Spooren, Quarterdeck, 310-309-4261) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 12/05/95 ONLINE WebInnovation - Speedware's 4GL Toolset For Internet (NEWS)(ONLINE)(SFO)(00026) WebInnovation - Speedware's 4GL Toolset For Internet 12/05/95 SAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1995 DEC 5 (NB) -- While most of the attention on the Web focuses on hot sites and the latest tools to create an "exciting user experience," companies such as Speedware Corp. (TSE:SPW) are the builders of tools to create applications which Web users never see. Speedware has announced Release 2 of Speedware Autobahn, claimed by the company to be the world's first fourth generation language (4GL) application development toolset for the Internet. "As a Web user, you may find a page in which you are interested," said Ian Farquharson, Speedware's chairman and chief executive officer. "Let's say something like Ford Motor Company as a hypothetical example. Once in the Web site, you decide to order a set of seat covers for a certain model of car. Our toolset allows a company or an Internet solutions provider to build the application or applications needed to tie that seat cover selection into the company's enterprise system. Without ever knowing how it is done, the user can find out how many seatcovers are in stock, what colors are available, and where they are inventoried. At the same time, the company's database can be updated with the recorded sale." Speedware Autobahn allows programmers to develop and deploy secure commercial applications across the Web. Autobahn is designed for applications supporting areas such as reservations, order processing, customer processing, and other types of businesses where timeliness is essential. Farquharson said Autobahn is the only Web application development tool based on 4GL which means is can interface with almost any popular database. Release 2 offers more thorough integration with SoftQuad International's HotMetal Light Web authoring tool, a new library of graphical templates, and a new set of management tools, said the company. A demonstration of Autobahn is available at Speedware's home page at http://www.speedware.com . Scheduled for shipment in January, Autobahn supports common operating platforms such as HP3000, HP9000, RS/6000, Sun Solaris, and Windows NT. (Patrick McKenna/19951205/Press Contact: Joanne McGarry, Speedware, 416-408-2880) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 12/05/95 ONLINE WebInnovation - EarthWeb Shows Gamelan & Hot Web Sites (NEWS)(ONLINE)(SFO)(00027) WebInnovation - EarthWeb Shows Gamelan & Hot Web Sites 12/05/95 SAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1995 DEC 5 (NB) -- During October, New York-based EarthWeb, an Internet development company, announced it would develop a World Wide Web directory/resource center for Sun Microsystems' Java programming language for the Internet. Called Gamelan, the site is on display at WebInnovation with EarthWeb's newly created Metropolitan Museum of Art and Fashion Internet sites. #IMAGE 1 20 TWPCX \images\95120527.PCX Click here for photo "Our Gamelan (pronounced gam-alon) site is getting more than 3.5 million hits per month. This Web site is for serious Web developers to learn about Java and a place for the curious to see the types of programs which can be developed using Java," said Nova Spivack, director of marketing and co-founder of EarthWeb. "The Java programming language radically advances the multimedia potential of the Web. It enables faster animation, games and powerful interfaces within the Web. In a very short time, no leading Web site will be able to remain competitive without this technology," said Spivack. Any Web user may access the Gamelan site at http://www.gamelan.com/ using any browser. However, the sample Java programs on the site require a Java-enabled browser such as Sun's HotJava or Netscape 2.0. This is well worth the time and effort. Newsbytes watched Spivack navigate his way through two Java games which Web users can freely access. Called 3D Netris and Gravity, these two games bring animation and action to the Web which has not been seen before now. EarthWeb is also debuting two sites which the company has produced. "We spent two years working very closely with the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York to produce one of the most compelling Web sites on the Internet," claimed Spivack. The museum's art work can be viewed, enlarged to almost full screen viewing, and printed. Users can visit the museum's gift shop and purchase a wide variety of unusual gifts. "For millions of people from around the world who will never be in New York, this is a great and personal way to visit the museum," said Spivack. The museum's Web site is located at http://www.metmuseum.org/ . Asked if Java was used in the development of the museum's site, Spivack said the company plans to introduce Java programming to the site in the near future. "When we bring Java into the museum's Web site, you will be extremely surprised. You will be able to view a sculpture and rotate it 360 degrees to get the full perspective of the piece." EarthWeb is also showing its Fashion Internet site where Web users can access and view some of the latest fashions created by top designers. Fashion Internet is located at http://www.finy.com . More information about EarthWeb is available on the company's Web site at http://www.earthweb.com . (Patrick McKenna/19951205/Press Contact: Allison Fishman, EarthWeb, tel 212-725-6550/EARTHWEB951205/PHOTO) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 12/05/95 TRENDS VR World - VR Authoring Tools For End Users, Developers (NEWS)(TRENDS)(BOS)(00028) VR World - VR Authoring Tools For End Users, Developers 12/05/95 BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS, U.S.A., 1995 DEC 5 (NB) -- Virtual reality (VR) products demonstrated and displayed at MecklerMedia's VR World show in Boston ran the "virtual gamut," from games to specialized VR hardware like headgear, cameras, and "microphone networks." But the predominant product category was VR authoring tools, for audiences ranging from end-users to professional developers, and for standalone and networked applications alike. During an informal interview with Newsbytes in the General Reality booth, Arthur L. Zwern, company president, gave his impressions of the emerging VR development market. Different VR tools, said Zwern, are targeted at each of three main groups: gamesplayers, consumers, and other "hobbyists;" the "medium-strength" industrial market; and the "heavy-duty" industrial market. Zwern cited Dive Laboratories' Amber, a new three-dimensional (3-D) VR library written in C++, as an example of a VR toolset for "medium-strength" industrial markets. San Jose, California-based General Reality has just begun to bundle Amber with its CyberEye VR headsets, he pointed out. The Windows-based Amber is integrated with the Microsoft Foundation Classes and Visual C++, and provides compatibility with VRML (virtual reality markup language) for the Web as well as with NFF and TGA files, according to Zwern. Support is also supplied for the MIDI (musical instrument digital interface) and WAV multimedia file formats, and for networked environments through the use of TCP/IP (Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol). At the Sense8 booth nearby, a company staffer reported that his company now produces VR authoring tools for two of the three major VR markets. Sense8's Silicon Graphics-based WorldToolKit for C programmers has now been joined by World Up. Although World Up also contains "a lot of C code," the code is on the back end, with a "user-friendly" object-oriented environment at the front end, Newsbytes was told. World Up comes with an "integrated modeler and real-time scripting system," plus a free World Up player. Support is provided for VRML, OpenGL, and ODBC (Open Database Connectivity). The new World Up runs on Windows NT and SGI Indy. Across the way, ParaGraph was showing a new VR toolset meant to straddle a range of markets. The vendor's Windows-based Virtual Home Space Builder is billed as "easy enough for novices and kids, but powerful enough to satisfy experts." The 3-D VR authoring environment outputs in VRML, for "direct publishing to the Web," and the company supplies information to prospective customers from its own Web site at http://www.paragraph.com . In another slice of virtual reality, a couple of booths away, Cambridge, Massachusetts-based Mak Technologies displayed a networked VR application now in use by soldiers within the US Defense Department. Shown running on a network that included Silicon Graphics and Sun workstations, together with a Windows- based PC, the application allows you to select and "operate" a military tank. In the military training environment, you can choose a tank from either your own or a networked participant's workstation, selecting in any of three ways: a pick list, an icon menu, or by clicking on the actual "tank" object itself. Len Granowetter, software engineer at Mak, told Newsbytes that Mak's DIS-based VR-Link networking toolkit comes with VR libraries for Unix, Windows NT, Windows, and DOS. But plans are currently in the works to extend the DIS standard with support for Macintosh, as well as for VR games platforms like Nintendo and Sega, he revealed. On the VR hardware side, product introductions at VR World included Virtual I/O's Virtual I-Glasses and TranScenic Corp.'s Movie Map Camera. Also at the show in Boston, StrayLight announced that 3DXTC, a turnkey VR system for consumers, now includes a "microphone network link," aimed at letting users speak with one another during game play. 3DXTC also comes bundled with three VR games. The two-day VR event in Boston also included a full complement of conference sessions. MecklerMedia plans to repeat the show from June 11 to 14 at the San Jose Convention Center in San Jose, California. MecklerMedia also produces VR World Europe in Stuttgart, Germany, in addition to Internetworld expos worldwide. (Jacqueline Emigh/19951205/Reader Contact: MecklerMedia, 203-226- 6967; Press Contact: Barry Schwartz, Schwartz Communications for MecklerMedia, 212-980-3790) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 12/05/95 WINDOWS Microsoft To Intro New "Money" Release (NEWS)(WINDOWS)(DEN)(00029) Microsoft To Intro New "Money" Release 12/05/95 REDMOND, WASHINGTON, U.S.A., 1995 DEC 5 (NB) -- Bill Gates, Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ: MSFT) chairman, told the nation's bankers that the company will enhance its Microsoft Money software to enhance its online capabilities. Gates said the enhancements will concentrate in three areas. The software will provide additional processing options to banks, an intelligent update function enabling banks to offer users the capacity to incorporate data seamlessly from their home banking applications into Money, and provide hot links to banks' World Wide Web site. Currently about 20 US banks offer home banking services via Microsoft Money. Gates' talk, entitled "Enabling Technology for Expanding Customer Relationships," was presented at Retail Delivery 95, a conference sponsored by the Bank Administration Institute. In the speech Gates emphasized Microsoft's role to the banking industry as that of a core technology supplier. Gates said Microsoft will release a high performance Windows NT server networking operating system-based application called Internet Information Server next year. Gates said the server, scheduled for release next year, will be integrated with the Microsoft BackOffice family of server software and a multimedia authoring tool being developed under the code-name "Blackbird." Gates said Microsoft will provide secure payment technologies embedded in its Internet tools. Gates' vision of online banking includes banks serving customers across multiple delivery channels including "virtual branches," and via e-mail using personal computers. "it's becoming increasingly important to provide home-banking services to the 35 percent of Americans who use home PCs, as well as the increasingly large number of home PC users abroad," said the software company leader. Microsoft Treasurer Gregory Maffei, speaking to the Montgomery Securities Conference in San Francisco this week, said Microsoft will devote "well over $1 billion" on research and development in fiscal 1996. Maffei said the company has spent about $2.8 billion on R&D in the past 20 years. Most of that money will be devoted to products and services for the Internet. Intuit Corp., publisher of the popular Quicken software and perhaps the personal finance software Microsoft Money has to outsell to be successful, said this week it will provide online banking over the Internet. The company said it is developing an Internet connection that will allow customers to perform routine transactions like paying bills, checking account balances and transferring funds. The company said the service will be available by the second half of 1996. (Jim Mallory/19951205/Press contact: Donna O'Neill, Waggener Edstrom for Microsoft, 206-637-9097; Public contact: Microsoft, 206-882-8080 or 800-426-9400) (SUMMARY)(GENERAL)(MSP)(00030) Newsbytes Daily Summary 12/05/95 MINNEAPOLIS, MINNESOTA, U.S.A., 1995 DEC 5 (NB) -- These are capsules of all today's news stories: ======================================================================== ------------| N E W S B Y T E S D A I L Y S U M M A R Y |---------- ------------| December 5, 1995 |---------- ======================================================================== (c) Newsbytes News Network (Tm) Editor in Chief: Wendy Woods ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Newsbytes News Network's on the Web! Check out http://www.nbnn.com for free daily top stories from Newsbytes and its affiliate publications, and from PC Week, MacWeek, and other Ziff news magazines. A subscription gives you all the news, full-text, plus the most comprehensive database of past computer stories online. The keyword-searchable database dates from today back through 1983. Subscriptions are $24.95 for three months. Questions? Send to 'administrator@newsbytes.com' For Japanese Newsbytes and additional services, see the Newsbytes Pacifica Website at http://www.islandtel.com/newsbytes/ ------------------------------------------------------------------------ CATEGORY HEADLINES (*** indicates today's top stories) STORY # ======================================================================== BUSINESS Northern Telecom & Cabletron Form Alliance................. 20 BUSINESS Quarterdeck Offers Internet Consulting..................... 25 EDUCATION China - Exhibition Links College Software To Applications.. 12 GENERAL Asia Newsbriefs............................................ 13 GOVT Denmark Working To Liberalize Telecoms Market.............. 06 GOVT French Govt Prepares Way For France Telecom Sell-Off....... 08 LEGAL ****US West Amends Time Warner Suit, Alleges Secret Deal.. 22 LEGAL Camelot Sues Internet Server Operator...................... 23 ONLINE NetManage's Free Windows NT Web Browser Over Internet...... 02 ONLINE ****MAID's Online Database/Internet Integration........... 07 ONLINE Hong Kong Made Sprint Internet Hub......................... 10 ONLINE Internet Update............................................ 14 ONLINE Internet Operators Work To Inter-Connect Asia.............. 15 ONLINE ****Compuserve To Allow For Other Web Browser Use......... 16 ONLINE WebInnovation Picks "1000 Most Influential Web Developers.. 17 ONLINE VR World - Using VR To "Build A Car Over The Internet...... 18 ONLINE ****Silicon Graphics/Sun/Netscape To Merge Web Technologie 19 ONLINE ****Macromedia & @Home Team On Fast Internet Multimedia... 21 ONLINE ****Silicon Graphics Develops 3-D Cosmo Web Technology.... 24 ONLINE WebInnovation - Speedware's 4GL Toolset For Internet....... 26 ONLINE WebInnovation - EarthWeb Shows Gamelan & Hot Web Sites..... 27 TELECOM Latinos Have New Way To Call Collect....................... 01 TELECOM UK Cellphone Dealer Imposes Subscriber Bill Limit.......... 04 TELECOM Sweden's Ericsson Developing Dual-Band Mobile Phone........ 05 TELECOM Consultant Sees Electric Utilities-Telecom Convergence..... 09 TRENDS Wales Emerging As Multimedia Center........................ 03 TRENDS Asia Faces Skills Shortage................................. 11 TRENDS VR World - VR Authoring Tools For End Users, Developers.... 28 WINDOWS Microsoft To Intro New "Money" Release..................... 29 ======================================================================== These are the headlines and first paragraphs of each story, in order: 1 -> Latinos Have New Way To Call Collect -- In launching its first 800 collect calling number, Sprint (NYSE:FON) has decided to market the service directly to the Latino market. The program and the number, called 1-800-A-TU-CASA, can be used by people who speak either Spanish or English via bilingual prompts, Sprint officials told Newsbytes. 2 -> NetManage's Free Windows NT Web Browser Over Internet -- NetManage says it is offering a free Windows NT World Wide Web browser across the Internet. The package, known as WebSurfer, is billed as being 16-bit or 32-bit capable and, according to Karen Thomas, a spokesperson for the company, is a full HTML (hypertext markup language) 3.0 application designed for corporate networks. 3 -> Wales Emerging As Multimedia Center -- Last week saw the first of what could well become an annual event, the M2 = Multimedia show and conference. Hosted at the BBC Wales Studio in Cardiff, the event aimed to show delegates and exhibition goers what multimedia could do in a practical sense. 4 -> UK Cellphone Dealer Imposes Subscriber Bill Limit -- Cellphones Direct, an off-the-page mail-order phone selling company, has imposed a limit of UKP50 on customer's monthly phone bills in order to reduce the level of bad debts and fraud. 5 -> Sweden's Ericsson Developing Dual-Band Mobile Phone -- Ericsson has confirmed European media reports that it is developing a new generation of digital mobile phones that will work on both GSM (global system for mobile communications) and PCN (personal communications network) services, operating, respectively, at 900 megahertz (MHz) and 1,800 MHz. 6 -> Denmark Working To Liberalize Telecoms Market -- Tele Danmark, the state telecoms agency of Denmark, has announced that the Government has laid down the ground plans for liberalizing Denmark's telecoms industry. The announcement comes at a time when telecoms watchers were starting to worry that Denmark may not achieve the mandatory free market deadline of January 1, 1998, that the European Commission has imposed on member governments. 7 -> ****MAID's Online Database/Internet Integration -- MAID (the Marketing Analysis Information Database) has announced it has cracked the technical challenge of interfacing its online business databases with the Internet. According to Paula Feery, a spokesperson for the company, while many other online database services have a presence on the Internet, there is no integration between the service and the World Wide Web pages. 8 -> French Govt Prepares Way For France Telecom Sell-Off -- The French Government has confirmed plans to sell off a significant stake 9 -> Consultant Sees Electric Utilities-Telecom Convergence -- An "elision of the electric business and the information and communications businesses" is on the way, former Illinois utility regulator Philip O'Connor told a joint federal-state meeting on electric restructuring yesterday. 10 -> Hong Kong Made Sprint Internet Hub -- US Sprint has announced the expansion of high speed Internet service by making Hong Kong, Tokyo, and Sydney regional hubs. 11 -> Asia Faces Skills Shortage -- Asia's information technology (IT) industry faces a skills shortage. That was the bleak message US-based Compuware couldn't conceal as it announced it was launching its own Asian operations with offices opening in Hong Kong and Singapore. 12 -> China - Exhibition Links College Software To Applications -- The First Exhibition of Academically Developed Software was held recently in Beijing to display software developed by Chinese universities and colleges. It was sponsored by the State Education Commission to the promote development and application of software by academic institutions. 13 -> Asia Newsbriefs -- In this roundup of news from around Asia: South Korea - Satellite communications firm established; China - Seiko-Epson to open plant; Singapore - Networld+Interop 97 planned; Thailand - Satellite project approved; Malaysia - Stock exchange info coming to Internet. 14 -> Internet Update -- In this roundup of new services and resources on the global Internet: The Big Book of Alcoholics Anonymous; LA CybrPORT; The illustration and cartoon gallery in Japan; African information database; Royal Australian Air Force; New multi-search engine; Temperature explained; Campbell Soup Company; United News & Media; Go2 - The Guardian Online. 15 -> Internet Operators Work To Inter-Connect Asia -- In Asia the Internet is hot. New service providers and online services are coming online every week, with recent entrants including Cable & Wireless in Japan, China Internet, a Beijing backed service for Hong Kong, and Singapore's new Asian Connection online service. 16 -> ****Compuserve To Allow For Other Web Browser Use -- Compuserve said it will implement an open standards strategy when it comes to its members using the Internet and the World Wide Web. The online service announced its subscribers will soon be able to use any Web browser in connection with its network. 17 -> WebInnovation Picks "1000 Most Influential Web Developers -- Web developers and users are banging on the doors to get into Interactive Marketing Communications' (IMC) WebInnovation. Limited to "1,000 of the most talented Web developers in the world," this show brings them together with the computer companies leading who are building the road to the Web. 18 -> VR World - Using VR To "Build A Car Over The Internet -- When Doug Schiff couldn't reach a tool he needed to help "build a car," he simply made himself a bit taller. "The great thing about virtual reality (VR) is that you can be as tall as you want to be," joked Schiff, who is Division Inc.'s VP of marketing, during a trans-Atlantic presentation, billed as the first demo of "immersive VR" to be done over the Internet, attended by Newsbytes at MecklerMedia's Virtual Reality World in Boston. 19 -> ****Silicon Graphics/Sun/Netscape To Merge Web Technologies -- Silicon Graphics (NYSE:SGI) said it is teaming with several companies on different aspects of multimedia Internet World Wide Web content. The company said it will work with Sun Microsystems (NSADAQ:SUNW) and Netscape Communications Corp. (NASDAQ:NSCP) to merge certain three-dimensional (3-D) and multimedia Web interactivity, and team with Sun and Macromedia to define an open set of multimedia formats and application programming interfaces (APIs). 20 -> Northern Telecom & Cabletron Form Alliance -- Northern Telecom Ltd. (TSE:NTL;NYSE:NT) and Cabletron Systems Inc. (NYSE:CS) have announced an alliance. The two companies said they will develop and market integrated communications and network products and services jointly. 21 -> ****Macromedia & @Home Team On Fast Internet Multimedia -- Macromedia, a producer of multimedia and digital arts software, and @Home, a provider of high-speed data to homes via a cable connection to a personal computer, will work together to provide full multimedia on the World Wide Web. Using Macromedia's Shockwave for Director and high-speed Internet access similar to what @Home will be offering beginning with its Spring 1996 launch in Sunnyvale, California, the two companies will use @Home's multimedia user interface and links to numerous Web sites with live multimedia content. 22 -> ****US West Amends Time Warner Suit, Alleges Secret Deal -- US West (NYSE: UMG) has asked a Delaware court to block the proposed merger of Time Warner and Turner Broadcasting System (TBS). US West said the merger would, in effect, dismantle the Time Warner Entertainment partnership, which would adversely impact US West's $2.5 billion investment in that partnership. 23 -> Camelot Sues Internet Server Operator -- Camelot Corp.(NASDAQ:CAML) said its subsidiary 24 -> ****Silicon Graphics Develops 3-D Cosmo Web Technology -- Silicon Graphics (NYSE:SGI) has announced its new Cosmo product at the WebInnovation Conference in San Francisco. Cosmo is described as a set of advanced technologies using interactive multimedia and three-dimensional (3-D) graphics to the Internet's World Wide Web. 25 -> Quarterdeck Offers Internet Consulting -- Quarterdeck Corp. (NASDAQ: QDEK) says it will form a new business unit dedicated to providing products and services to small- and medium-sized businesses interested in conducting commerce on the Internet. The Internet Service Business Unit will concentrate on the Internet marketplace specifically in commerce and transaction consultations. 26 -> WebInnovation - Speedware's 4GL Toolset For Internet -- While most of the attention on the Web focuses on hot sites and the latest tools to create an "exciting user experience," companies such as Speedware Corp. (TSE:SPW) are the builders of tools to create applications which Web users never see. Speedware has announced Release 2 of Speedware Autobahn, claimed by the company to be the world's first fourth generation language (4GL) application development toolset for the Internet. 27 -> WebInnovation - EarthWeb Shows Gamelan & Hot Web Sites -- During October, New York-based EarthWeb, an Internet development company, announced it would develop a World Wide Web directory/resource center for Sun Microsystems' Java programming language for the Internet. Called Gamelan, the site is on display at WebInnovation with EarthWeb's newly created Metropolitan Museum of Art and Fashion Internet sites. 28 -> VR World - VR Authoring Tools For End Users, Developers -- Virtual reality (VR) products demonstrated and displayed at MecklerMedia's VR World show in Boston ran the "virtual gamut," from games to specialized VR hardware like headgear, cameras, and "microphone networks." But the predominant product category was VR authoring tools, for audiences ranging from end-users to professional developers, and for standalone and networked applications alike. 29 -> Microsoft To Intro New "Money" Release -- Bill Gates, Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ: MSFT) chairman, told the nation's bankers that the company will enhance its Microsoft Money software to enhance its online capabilities. (Ian Stokell/19951205) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 12/04/95 TELECOM UK - Mercury To Offer Business Internet Services (NEWS)(TELECOM)(LON)(00001) UK - Mercury To Offer Business Internet Services 12/04/95 LONDON, ENGLAND, 1995 DEC 4 (NB) -- Mercury Communications, the UK operations division of Cable & Wireless, has announced the creation of a managed Internet service for business users. According to Steve Powers, a spokesman for the company, the telco is investing UKP35 million in the new project division. "While the market for Internet service providers (SPs) is getting crowded in the UK, we are a telco that supplies the Internet SPs themselves with circuit capacity. By supplying direct to business users, we can offer discounted services," he told Newsbytes. Is there not a danger that Mercury might upset some of its resellers -- i.e. the Internet SPs -- by cutting them out of the loop?, Newsbytes asked Powers. "No, not really," he replied. "Although the market is crowded, there is room for us all in the marketplace. Remember that many of the Internet SPs are pitching for the consumer market, while we are marketing our services for the business community. That's a significant difference." The first phase of Mercury's Internet project will start early in the new year, when trials of Internet services will be made available to business customers, with a commercial launch of the Cable & Wireless Internet Exchange (CWIX) expected next summer. Dial-up Internet services for business users are expected later in 1996, and there will be further development of tailored desktop applications for business users. Chris Jenkin, head of Mercury's online services division, said that, as the Internet continues to grow in popularity and in scope, so its users' requirements and expectations are steadily increasing. "We see opportunities at several levels, from the corporate customer, for whom security, and reliability, are vital, to the individual user at home or on the move for whom the Internet keeps them connected to the people and information they need," he said. Jenkin went on to say that Mercury is looking to work with partners to address new market opportunities. "We're already working with several of the leading Internet and online SPs," he said, adding that these include Pipex, Easynet, and CompuServe, with the aim of providing them with advanced networking systems to reach their own customers. "Our aim," he said, "is to build on these relationships." Plans call for the CWIX network to operate internationally, and market its Internet services around the world. Cable & Wireless divisions other than Mercury currently working on CWIX offerings include Honk Kong Telecom, C&W Japan, Cable & Wireless US, C&W Europe and Omnes, the joint venture between C&W and Schlumberger for the oil and gas industries. (Steve Gold/19951201/Press Contact: Emma Tarring, Mercury Press Office, tel +44-171-528-2547, fax +44-171-528-2577) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 12/04/95 TELECOM Belgacom Announces Major European Network Expansion (NEWS)(TELECOM)(LON)(00002) Belgacom Announces Major European Network Expansion 12/04/95 BRUSSELS, BELGIUM, 1995 DEC 4 (NB) -- Belgacom has announced a series of major upgrades to its international voice and data network. According to officials with the company, the network expansion will allow much faster and greater numbers of interconnects between most European countries into the home Belgian network, as well as enhancing service to other countries. The node installation and expansion program, which is scheduled to be completed early in the new year, will allow Belgacom's international network to handle both voice and data transmissions, as well as voice and data across virtual private network (VPN) and leased line links. Central to the expansion of the Belgacom network is the company's BiLAN service, an umbrella service that offers various managed private data networking "solutions" within Belgium using the Belgacom packet data network (PDN), integrated with Belgacom's international network. Plans call for the enhanced international network to be administered by Belgacom's Network Management Center in Brussels, which the company claims will ensure that customers get a high reliability of service. Unusually for what used to be a state telco, Belgacom claims that, once its enhanced international network is in place, its Global Service prices will be highly competitive. This perhaps explains why the company has committed to opening commercial offices across Europe in the coming 12 months. Plans call for new offices to open in France, Germany, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, and Switzerland in the next year. In parallel with the changes in Belgacom's national and European international networks, Belgacom USA has been renamed Belgacom NA (for North America). The name change paves the way for the company offering its telecoms services to other North American countries, including Canada. Susan Mirbach, Belgacom NA's president, said, "I'm confident that multinational companies in Canada and Mexico will recognize the benefits of Belgacom's services, as have hundreds of US firms." The changes taking place within Belgacom are enormous, Newsbytes notes. As well as preparing the way for foreign investment in the former state telco, the Belgian Government decreed at the beginning of this year that Belgacom must make a serious transition from being a near monopoly telecoms service provider in Belgium, to being an international telecoms player. In April of this year, the first stages of those changes started playing out, when Belgacom announced a series of major discounts for its larger customers. At the same time, the company has upgraded its virtual private network (VPN) services for data customers. Under the April 1995 volume purchase agreements (VPAs) from Belgacom, companies with annual combined gross billings of around $625,000 using national and international telephone lines, leased lines, VPNs, toll- free circuits, telex and Inmarsat links, qualify for significant discounts. Discounts under VPAs now range from 21.5 to 36 percent depending on volume and destination. What was also interesting at the time was that Belgacom streamlined its world zones to just three: Western Europe, the US and Canada, and the rest of the world. As well as competing in terms of pricing, Belgacom's network now has a fully redundant status. This means that if, for any reason, a link should go down on the VPN servicing the customer, a backup route will kick in, no matter where on the virtual net the failure is. Coupled with support for variable length dialing codes (useful for international switching connections), Belgacom claims its VPN services are now the best in the business. (Sylvia Dennis/19951201/Press Contact: Amy Rasner, Belgacom NA, 203-221-5280; Reader Contact: Belgacom Europe, +32-2-202- 3111; Belgacom NA, tel 203-221-5250, fax 203-222-8401) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 12/04/95 TRENDS Digital Mobile Phones Taking Off In France (NEWS)(TRENDS)(LON)(00003) Digital Mobile Phones Taking Off In France 12/04/95 PARIS, FRANCE, 1995 DEC 4 (NB) -- Despite the relatively high cost of using a mobile phone in France, the French Ministry of Information Technology and Posts has revealed that the number of mobile phone users in France rose by a healthy 4.7 percent in October, pushing the number of subscriptions to more than 1,160,000. This represents a 29 percent year-on-year increase in mobile phones, mainly thanks to the efforts of the digital mobile networks -- France Telecom and SFR -- which operate GSM (global system for mobile communications) networks covering almost 85 percent of France. Delving deeper into the Ministry's figures show that analog connections are actually reducing, as the total number of digital mobiles rose to 857,500, an increase of seven percent in monthly terms to October, and a whopping 49 percent in year-on-year terms. Interestingly, despite a massive marketing budget, France Telecom (the former state network) only increased its monthly subscription levels by 4.5 percent in October, while Generale des Eaux' SFR (Societe Francaise de Radiotelephone) division rose by 14 percent on the back of some innovative pricing. In fact, innovative pricing has been a feature of the French mobile phone networks ever since the summer of 1994, when the threat of a third cellular operator was bandied around by the French Government of the day. That threat, Newsbytes notes, caused SFR to cut its rates in the summer of 1994, to be closely followed by France Telecom, as well as slashing monthly line rentals from $45 to $35. At the time, France Telecom estimated that around 400,000 digital phone subscribers -- less than half the October 1995 figure -- would be online by the end of this year. (Sylvia Dennis/19951201/Press & Reader Contact: France Telecom Direction de l'International, tel +33-1-4444-6732, fax +33-1-4656-1474) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 12/04/95 BROADCAST 110 Channels On Single Laser For Cable TV (NEWS)(BROADCAST)(LAX)(00004) 110 Channels On Single Laser For Cable TV 12/04/95 ALHAMBRA, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1995 DEC 4 (NB) -- Ortel Corp. (NASDAQ:ORTL), a manufacturer of high-performance lasers for cable television networks, has announced, what the company claims is, the industry's first high-performance 110-channel laser. The Model 3630C laser enables the transmission of 30 additional television channels with no increase in distortion, providing cable operators with the capacity for more revenue-generating programming, such as near video-on-demand (NVOD) and pay-per-view (PPV). Lasers over fiber optics can transmit an unlimited amount of analog channels, but distortion goes up as the amount of channels increases. Theresa Hanlon, a spokesperson for Ortel, told Newsbytes, " Ortel's 110-channel laser gives the most channels over one laser with acceptable levels of noise. Today, the average laser outputs no more than 80 channels on one laser within acceptable distortion levels." The effect of the 110-channel laser is to provide what amount to more compression. The more channels over one laser means a higher number of total channels that can be sent over the network. It also leaves more bandwidth for digital, two-way transmissions, telephony, and videoconferencing. "Cable operators are investing heavily in building 750 megahertz (MHz) networks for digital services, and we understand their eagerness to begin generating revenue from their 'ramped-up' networks even if the digital solution isn't here yet," said Larry Stark, vice president and business manager, broadband communications, Ortel. "Ortel's 110-channel laser allows cable operators to use their increased bandwidth for more analog video services that will bring in additional revenue in the interim." Ortel's Model 3630C 110-channel laser has a distributed feedback (DFB) laser chip with a thermo-electric cooler and an optical isolator. It offers a frequency range of 50-750 MHz. The new Model 3630C 110-channel laser is immediately available to cable television equipment manufacturers with the following specifications: 110 channels carrier-to-noise ratio (CNR) 51dB (decibel), Composite Second Order (CSO) 63dB, and Composite Triple Beat (CTB) 65dB. (Richard Bowers/19951201/Press Contact: Theresa Hanlon, Ortel, 213-782-6600 ) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 12/04/95 TRENDS Windows 95 Will Lure CD-ROM Publishers - Study (NEWS)(TRENDS)(TOR)(00005) Windows 95 Will Lure CD-ROM Publishers - Study 12/04/95 WOODSTOCK, VERMONT, U.S.A., 1995 DEC 4 (NB) -- Windows 95, with its 32-bit technology and a design that pays more attention to the needs of games and multimedia software, will lure many CD-ROM publishers away from DOS. However, says a recent study by research firm InfoTech Inc., this will not happen overnight. "There was quite a lot of overhead associated with Windows 3.1," said Ted Pine, chairman of InfoTech. That, he told Newsbytes, led many publishers of entertainment and games CD-ROMs to stick with the DOS platform and their own proprietary technology. However, Microsoft has addressed many of those developers' concerns in the new release. "When they sat down and did Windows 95," Pine said, "one of the areas that they definitely targeted was the gaming community." InfoTech's survey of major institutional, consumer, and in-house CD-ROM producers found that consumer CD-ROM publishers are embracing the new platform most eagerly. Those moving fastest are the smaller and newer publishers that do not already have large investments in high-performance software for DOS, the research firm said. By the end of this year, though, CD-ROMs meant for Windows 95 will remain a small minority. Only 1.2 percent of all CD-ROM titles in print will be "Windows 95-native" at the end of 1995, InfoTech forecast. About 55 percent of these will be entirely new CD-ROMs containing information that has not previously been offered in another format. Pine said it will take about two years for Windows 95 games CD-ROMs to take off, simply because that is the typical development cycle for games. Titles aimed at novice users will migrate fastest to Windows 95, InfoTech said. Pine added that CD-ROMs containing large databases will probably be among the last to make the switch, since they have relatively little to gain from the new platform. (Grant Buckler/19951201/Press Contact: Ted Pine, InfoTech, tel 802-763-2097, fax 802-763-2098) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 12/04/95 TELECOM Kentucky Gas & Electric Firm Joins AT&T Utility Program (NEWS)(TELECOM)(WAS)(00006) Kentucky Gas & Electric Firm Joins AT&T Utility Program 12/04/95 LOUISVILLE, KENTUCKY, U.S.A., 1995 DEC 4 (NB) -- Louisville Gas & Electric has joined the team developing the AT&T Integrated Broadband Utility Solution -- a two-way customer communications system for the utility business. LG&E will evaluate the economic benefit of distribution automation applications using the AT&T system. The Kentucky utility will also assist in developing deployment strategies and marketing programs targeted to end-users. "We've built a powerful platform with the AT&T Integrated Broadband Utility Solution," said Frank Magnotti, general manager of the AT&T program. "Now we want to explore features that can broaden its value." LG&E is the second utility to join the AT&T project. New Jersey-based Public Service Electric & Gas is AT&T's development partner for the project. Other members of the team included American Meter, Andersen Consulting, General Electric, Honeywell, and Intellon. "We believe the Integrated Broadband Utility Solution will quickly become the standard for two-way communications and distribution automation," said David Carey, LG&E senior vice president of operations. "We're eager to play a role in determining how that standard evolves." LG&E is looking to develop a state-of-the-art interactive customer communications system. Last month, LG&E announced it is working with TKR Cable of Greater Louisville, a subsidiary of TCI, to build the fiber optic network necessary for a two-way system. The utility recently signed similar agreements with two alternative access providers for additional bandwidth. "Through our involvement with the AT&T team," said Carey, "LG&E customers will gain access to new services and benefits. Our company will realize greater efficiency and increase value in return for its investment." LG&E, the regulated utility subsidiary of LG&E Energy Corp. (NYSE:LGE), provides service to some 345,000 electric customers and 270,000 natural gas customers in Louisville and 16 surrounding Kentucky counties. (Kennedy Maize/19951130/Press Contacts: Linda Edgerton, AT&T, 910-279-3024; Kathy Campbell, LG&E, 502-627-2505) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 12/04/95 GOVT Australian Govt Pays IBM $75Mil For Computer Services (NEWS)(GOVT)(SYD)(00007) Australian Govt Pays IBM $75Mil For Computer Services 12/04/95 CANBERRA, AUSTRALIA 1995 DEC 4 (NB) -- A list tabled in the Australian Senate shows just where the AUS$74,759,551.30 that the Federal Government paid out on the computer bounty in the financial year to June 30, 1995, went. Most of the big winners were multinationals. The biggest winner was Big Blue. IBM collected a total of $8,955,275.85. Of this, the New South Wales operation collected $4,049,221.17 and the Victorian operation $4,906,054.67. The next best was $3,056,908 to Philips Mobile Communication Systems. The only other single payment more than $2 million was to Digital Equipment Corporation (Australia) which received $2,993,957. Fifteen companies were in the $1 million plus bracket, including: Alcatel, Aristocrat Leisure Industries, Hewlett Packard, Datacraft, Ericsson, Bosch, various parts of AWA, Cochlear, Exicom, Ferranti, JNA, Telstra, Wormald, even Osborne. Some groups may have aggregated more through separate payments made to group companies. The smallest handout was $18 for Computer Sciences of Australia. At least CSA did better than Sagem Australasia. Its payout was listed as minus $1,600. The list of bountees go on and on - 29 pages of them. On November 23, the Government decided to extend the bounty. Industries Minister Senator Peter Cook said he will introduce legislation to keep the money flowing until December 31, 2000. The opposition will support the Government's extension of the computer bounty, but says it is worried that the Government's approach to information technology (IT) policies is ad hoc and piece-meal. The Opposition's shadow minister for science and technology, Senator Robert Hill, and shadow industry minister, John Moore, said the Coalition was committed to support the industry, but would comprehensively overhaul the existing strategy. It might be better to "harmonize" the different assistance measures. Most software development and related services got little or no assistance. They also said the Coalition was concerned that the decision to exclude research and development costs from bounty payments did not disadvantage companies which were not eligible under alternative support programs. (Computer Daily News/19951201) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 12/04/95 GENERAL Gateway Australia Lowers PC Prices (NEWS)(GENERAL)(SYD)(00008) Gateway Australia Lowers PC Prices 12/04/95 SYDNEY, AUSTRALIA 1995 DEC 4 (NB) -- Revitalized Gateway-Osborne (G-O) has fired its first shot in the small office/home office (SOHO) PC Christmas season war in Australia. The key to G-O's offer is price. Highly-speced 486 and Pentium (75 megahertz) models, with lashings of software, multimedia and modem-equipped, are priced at AUS$2,749 and $3,449, respectively. To sweeten the offer, G-O is also offering a "fantastic Epson" color printer for an extra $450. G-O also has a Pentium 133MHz model with bundled software, a 15-inch monitor and one gigabyte hard disk drive for $3,999. The announcement does not mention a CD-ROM. Marking another return to the old days of Osborne, the company has also announced that its main showroom has reopened. The competition hasn't been sitting on its hands. Acer, for example, has started advertising a "sale," which extends to December 31. It's hard to compare, but a similar desktop, only with a 100MHz Pentium, and less software, is advertised for AUS$3,195. A salesman at one of the outlets quoted $300 extra for a quad-speed CD-ROM. PC dealers will be watching how the "war" develops. Recently they have faced pressure on prices because -- trade sources say -- major PC vendors have been trying to shave margins, narrowing the spread for deals. Gateway-Osborne and Acer may have stymied this trend. (Computer Daily News/19951201) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 12/04/95 GENERAL A Plan For Fighting Homogenized Media (NEWS)(GENERAL)(MSP)(00009) A Plan For Fighting Homogenized Media 12/04/95 SEATTLE, WASHINGTON, U.S.A., 1995 DEC 4 (NB) -- Lawrence K. Grossman, former president of the Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) and of NBC News, explains why the government needs to create an independent public telecommunications trust fund in "Maintaining Diversity in the Electronic Republic" (Technology Review, Nov./Dec. 1995, pp. 22-26). Grossman, who is president of the forthcoming PBS Horizons Cable Network, argues that much of what the world sees and hears is increasingly under the control of a few global media conglomerates such as Disney, Time Warner, Viacom, and News Corp. To combat this, and to inform the growing number of citizens who now have the ability to lobby their elected officials through interactive telecommunications technologies such as e-mail, Grossman proposes that commercial broadcasters and other telecommunications providers be required to contribute money to a trust fund that could be used to "pay for a wide variety of vehicles to disseminate essential civic information through the public sphere." He suggests using the fund to strengthen the existing network of public television and radio stations, develop more effective local public- access cable channels, and enable organizations such as the Library of Congress to produce CD-ROMs and other software that could provide the public with background reports, fact sheets, and other material on major civic issues. The article is adapted from Grossman's new book, "The Electronic Republic." This story is republished with permission from the December 1995 Cybernautics Digest, a 20-page monthly summary of reports about converging information technologies. (Contact: Terry Hansen, Cybernautics Digest, c/o KFH Publications Inc., 3530 Bagley Ave. N., Seattle, WA 98103; 206-547-4950; Fax: 206-547-5355; E-mail: cyber@cuix.pscu.com. U.S. rate: $24; $2 sample issue) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 12/04/95 TELECOM Hong Kong - New T&T Intros Int'l Services (NEWS)(TELECOM)(HKG)(00010) Hong Kong - New T&T Intros Int'l Services 12/04/95 CENTRAL, HONG KONG, 1995 DEC 4 (NB) -- While Hongkong Telecom battled management issues within, the new fixed-line competitor -- New T&T -- has rolled out new service aimed at grabbing 15 percent of the territory's outbound international direct dial (IDD) business. New T&T introduced its 009 service. Any user can now dial 009, instead of the usual 001 to make an international call. And, according to the company, you'll get better rates than Telecom can manage. The company is particularly keen on getting users to call their top six IDD destinations -- which reportedly account for over 75% of all the international call traffic out of Hong Kong. New T&T claims you can chop down your Hongkong Telecom bill by more than half in some cases using its service. But savings on standard calls to most common destinations -- Canada, Japan, Taiwan, the US, the UK, and China -- are priced just slightly below those established by Telecom. But, as one analyst pointed out, it would only take Telecom cutting its rates to popular destinations to force charges through the roof on New T&T's less popular routes to subsidize continued discounts. According to Franky Lai, New T&T should still snag a hefty chunk of Hong Kong's outbound IDD calls next year. Last year that business was put at HK$13 billion. New T&T also launched its "personal number" system. According to the company, "It's the only contact number you will ever need." Essentially, when someone calls this new number, a hunting system calls up to five others the owner has specified -- such as home, office, mobile, or pager. The caller waits while it hunts across the lines for you to answer, although you can prioritize which it accesses first. In some respects, it's another version of call forwarding, but users retain their personal number. Service features include "Do Not Disturb" and "call screening." One allows users who don't like the look of incoming calls to funnel them over to voice-mail. Users can give their special callers passwords to get around the voice-mail bypass. (Joel McCormick & I.T. Daily/19951204) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 12/04/95 GENERAL Japan Newsbriefs (NEWS)(GENERAL)(TYO)(00011) Japan Newsbriefs 12/04/95 TOKYO, JAPAN, 1995 DEC 4 (NB) -- In this roundup of news from Japan: Battery production to restart at Sony plant; Toshiba proposes DVD licensing authority; Windows 95 registers strong sales; Osaka Internet cafes opened; MPEG 2 officially adopted; KDD buy Coherent equipment; Award software opens Tokyo office. Battery Production To Restart At Sony Plant Sony has resumed operations at its Koriyama, Fukushima Prefecture, plant which was closed by a fire last month. Before the fire, which damaged the ion charging area, monthly output was around 3 million units, which accounts for 70% of Japan's lithium ion battery output. Sony is making no details available of the forecast output for December. The batteries are widely used in devices such as laptop personal computers. Toshiba Proposes DVD Licensing Authority Toshiba Corporation has proposed the establishment of a company to regulate and collect royalty payments associated with the digital video disk format. Technologies related to the DVD system are owned by a consortium of companies that were recently pursuing two separate paths. The major sticking point over launch of the new DVD system is said to be the discussions over just how royalties for the system are divided between the technology owners. Windows 95 Registers Strong Sales Microsoft Japan says Windows 95 sold 200,000 copies of the new Japanese version in the first four days after its November 24th launch. In the Tokyo area, calls to the Microsoft support center averaged some 3,000 per day said the company. Research company IDC Japan Ltd. says it predicts over 8 million copies will be sold by the end of 1996. Osaka Internet Cafes Opened The growing popularity of the Internet in Japan has resulted in two major electronics manufacturers opening new Internet Cafes. Both Matsushita and Fujitsu have opened centers in Osaka's Business Park, where visitors can enjoy exploring the World Wide Web while drinking coffee and eating snacks. The Matsushita Ring Ring charges 1,000 yen per hour plus drinks and is located on the first floor of the Twin 21 National Tower. Fujitsu's Info Web Cafe is opposite the Matsushita building in its own building and charges 1,000 yen per hour including drinks. MPEG 2 Officially Adopted The Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications has officially adopted MPEG-2 (Motion Picture Experts Group type 2) as the Japanese standard for digital image compression. The system is already a standard in most parts of the world and has been endorsed by the International Standard Organization. It is used in applications such as broadcasting, videoconferencing, and video recording. KDD Buy Coherent Equipment Japan's leading international telephone operator, KDD, has signed a deal for a customized version of its EC-6000 Series 2 Digital Echo Canceller. The agreement between the companies involves an ongoing relationship, with a series of further shipments scheduled for the coming twelve month period. Coherent reports that additional KDD EC-6000 cancellers are scheduled for delivery by the end of December. The cancellers are being deployed at two major KDD gateway switching sites in Japan to handle international call traffic. Award Software Opens Tokyo Office Award Software International Inc., a manufacturer of high-performance PC system management and PCMCIA (Personal Computer Memory Card International Association) software, will open a Japanese business office, its first in that country, this Wednesday. Award's Tokyo office will handle sales to its Japanese OEM (original equipment manufacturer) customers and work towards technology alliances with local companies. The company has named Masanori Yamaguchi as the office general manager. (Martyn Williams/19951204) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 12/04/95 BROADCAST Japan Group Supports Interactive TV (NEWS)(BROADCAST)(TYO)(00012) Japan Group Supports Interactive TV 12/04/95 TOKYO, JAPAN, 1995 DEC 4 (NB) -- A consortium of twelve Japanese companies has announced adoption of a format developed by California- based Wink Communications for the development of interactive television. The group includes national telecommunications operator NTT, major television manufacturers, and national broadcaster NHK. #IMAGE 1 20 TWPCX \images\95120412.PCX Click here for photo The full list of companies is: Toshiba Corporation, Sony Corporation, Matsushita Electric Industrial Co. Ltd., Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corporation (NTT), Wink Communications, NHK Enterprises 21 Inc., Samsung Electronics Japan Co. Ltd., Sanyo Electric Co. Ltd., Sharp Corporation, Dentsu Inc., NEC Corporation, NEC Home Electronics Ltd., Victor Company of Japan Ltd., Pioneer Electronic Corporation, Hitachi Ltd. and Mitsubishi Electric Corporation . The announcement means the manufacturers in the consortium will build in adapters that can receive and make use of the special information stream transmitted alongside each participating television channel in the Interactive Communicating Applications Protocol (ICAP) standard. The Wink developed ICAP standard sends the information in the same way as teletext, and closed captioning in the United States, in the vertical blanking interval (VBI) of each TV frame. "It's quite different from teletext though," says Barak Kassar of Wink Communications, who added, "It's graphical and not text-based, but you can display text on the system. The graphics are a better resolution than conventional teletext." The adapters being built into each set is called a "Wink Engine" and contains the hardware needed to display the higher resolution graphics available and interact with the viewer. Two levels of interaction are available with the system. On the basic level, users can interact with a one-way data stream coming across the air to the set and play games against the computer inside the Wink Engine. At a more advanced stage, Kassar sees cheap 2,400 bits-per-second (bps) modems being built into television sets allowing a back channel to the television station via either telephone or cable TV lines. This would allow votes and opinions to be expressed on a wide range of issues and ideas. Such a system could also be used to send orders as part of a tele-shopping system. NTT have developed a telephone-based information return path for use in the Japanese system. "In Japan we expect to be very successful" said Kassar. Brian Dougherty, president of Wink Communications, explained the announcement meant an important hurdle had been overcome in the country for widespread use of the system, "Around the world, the Wink Engine and the ICAP standard are breaking the chicken-and-egg problem that has prevented widescale deployment of Interactive TV." Wink's open Interactive Communicating Applications Protocol (ICAP) has been adopted by leading set-top, television, and cable modem manufacturers as a worldwide standard for distributing applications. In the United States, the system is already integrated into many cable set-top-boxes produced by General Instrument and Scientific Atlanta. The announcement coincides with the tenth anniversary of teletext in Japan although the system has achieved much less success when compared to its use in Europe where almost all television sets include teletext receivers and TV stations broadcast a teletext service. Most manufacturers in Japan have restricted teletext decoders to only the top models in the range. At its ten year anniversary, teletext counts just 1.3 million homes in Japan, but the future looks brighter. Predictions call for 4.5 million homes using the system within two years thanks mainly to increased promotion by the television manufacturers. Sharp, Toshiba, and Sony began selling sets with text decoders last year, and Matsushita's National and Panasonic brands, plus Hitachi, are considering entering the market. (Martyn Williams/19951204/Press contact: Barak Kassar, Wink Communications, 510-337-6308, Internet e-mail barak.kassar@wink.com; Reader contact: Wink Communications, 510-337-2950, Internet e-mail info@wink.com) (ADVISORY)(GENERAL)(MSP)(00013) NewsPix Images For Newsbytes Publishers 12/04/95 MINNEAPOLIS, MINNESOTA, U.S.A.,1995 DEC 4 (NB) -- Photos are now posted as they arrive. This means quicker access to the story pictures. The bulletin will continue on Mondays, with updates Wednesdays and Fridays as needed. These photos correspond to recent Newsbytes stories. They are online in the Newsbytes menu on America Online, NiftyServe, and the Newsbytes private bulletin board system in Minneapolis. Some selections are also available from the Newsbytes Pacifica Website at http://www.islandtel.com/newsbytes/ JPEG (Joint Photographic Experts Group) files are larger in size, PICT files are designed as thumbnails for onscreen viewing. The photos are titled with name/year/month/day. PICT/thumbnail pictures are black and white (gray scale). File message will indicate color if the JPEG image is color. Some of the "for use" images, may be PICT files. To distinguish these files from the thumbnail preview PICT images, the tag for the color "for use" image will have PICT, all caps. The thumbnail will remain noted as "pct." To become a licensed Newsbytes publisher, call Newsbytes at 612-430-1100 (US) or write to wendy@newsbytes.com on the Internet. Licensing applies to any medium. --------------------------- Week of DECEMBER 4 - DECEMBER 8,1995 --------------------------- - NEW THIS WEEK - GOTV951130 - color / US West Launches Interactive Cable TV: screenshot from GOtv, with the animated host Uncle Frank (resembles Albert Einstein). --------------------------------------------------------------- - PARTIAL LISTING OF PREVIOUS ITEMS - COURT951129 - color / Utah Public Kiosks - Touch A Screen, Go To Court!: screenshot from Infonorths Web site, NOT Utah specific. 6X86_951120 - color / Compaq Denies Plans for Under-$1500 PC In 1996: the Cyrix processors. JUNGLE951120 - color / Humongous Ships "Lets Explore the Jungle" : screenshot. A6_951122 - b&w / Fuji Intros More Printers: A6-size digital printer. SIRIUS951128 - color / Sirius Promises CD 10-Pack For Mac: artful look at product package. NUMERA951122 - color / Computer-Aided Design Software Under $600: screenshot. (no jpg file, large gif only) EZOFFICE951122 - color / Willowbrook's Multifunction Office Equip Is Different: hardware and software packaging. PHOTOPAD951120 - color / Polaroid Intros Photo Scanner For Home PCs: shot of the scanner and packaging. SPSS951121 - color / SPSS To Ship Windows 95 Statistical Software: screenshot. (no Pict or Gif files) CDROM951117 - color / Comdex - Higher-Density CDs Late Next Year: shot of a multi-media PC with the mini-tower cd tray open. CD-ROM in tray is accented via lighting. FUJI951116 - b&w / Comdex - Fuji's Digital Camera, Color Printer: the Fujix DS-220 digital camera. TREKKER951116 - color / Comdex - And Now For Something Completely Different: Rockwell's Trekker; a hands free PC. User at work. VIRTUAL951116 - b&w / Comdex - Virtual Reality Has Commercial Possibilities: user wearing the i-glasses. UPKE951117 - color / Comdex - Upke Claims "Ultimate" Home PC: shot of the Upke 2617 (in white). VISIONINTERACTIVE951115 - color / Comdex - 1996 Is The Year For MPEG?: product shot of the Orion MPEG Movie Pack bundle from the Vision Interactive MPEG kit. AIDSDAY951114 - color / Don't Surf The Net - Safe The Net: Ribbon art by Annie Lennox (the Eurythmics) from the ribbon gallery from the UK Health Education Authority World AIDS Day Web Site. RACAL951107 - color / Racal's Low-Cost Audio Surveillance System: chart/diagram of system linkage.(No gif of this one.) CRYSTALS951106 - color / Out Of This World Research For Next-Generation Chips: PHOTO INFO NOW IN - NASA astronauts Marc Garneau, left, and Andrew Thomas observe gallium antimonide crystals grown at the University of Florida College of Engineering. ZINCAIR951109 - color / All-day Zinc Air Batteries Intro'd: shot of the battery next to PC. MINIDISC951108 - color / MiniDisk As Floppy Successor?: hand holds Sharp MiniDisc, with nice blue skys background. (Newsbytes/19951204) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 12/04/95 TELECOM ****Caller ID Goes Nationwide (NEWS)(TELECOM)(DEN)(00014) ****Caller ID Goes Nationwide 12/04/95 DENVER, COLORADO, U.S.A., 1995 DEC 4 (NB) -- You probably won't see "Out of Area" on your Caller ID display screen anymore, even if the incoming call originates from the other side of the country. That's because, effective immediately, Caller ID is now available nationwide to anyone with phone service that currently has or subsequently subscribes to Caller ID. The additional service is the result of an Federal Communications Commission order, and there is no charge for the enhancement. According to Gwen Law, Caller ID product manager at US West Communications, Caller ID has received the most enthusiastic consumer response of any new product the telecommunications company has ever introduced. "The FCC's decision to extend the service to long-distance calls is especially noteworthy because customers have told us repeatedly that the one thing we could do to improve Caller ID would be to have it cover more calls,"said Law. Caller ID is an optional service that lets the phone user know who's calling before they answer the phone or who called while they were out. The Caller ID unit displays the telephone number, date and time of each call. The information is stored even if the call is not answered so you can tell who called while you were out. You can also get a Caller ID display that shows the name of the caller for an additional charge. That's possible because the display comes from the database of the phone company servicing the caller. It's still not possible to get a similar display if the call you are getting originates from a cellular phone, and a US West corporate spokesperson couldn't say if cellular phone Caller ID is in the foreseeable future. If you don't want your call identified to the calling party, most telephone service providers make a blocking service available at no charge. You can block the transmission of the information for any individual call by pressing *67 before dialing the number. If you have a rotary phone, you need to dial 1167. The Caller ID information will not be sent for that one call. There is no charge for the service. You can also have Line Blocking, a permanent block that keeps the identification data from being sent on every call. If you have Line Blocking and want to let the person you are calling know who is on the line before they answer, you can press *82 (or dial 1182 from a rotary dial phone) to transmit the Caller ID for that one call. Banks said that service is free in the US West Communications service area. In other areas of the country check with your local service provider for information about Line Blocking and Per Call Blocking cost. (Jim Mallory/19951204/Press contact: Dave Banks, US West Communications, 303-896-2721) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 12/04/95 BUSINESS Artisoft Pays $1.3Mil For Modem Sharing Software (NEWS)(BUSINESS)(DEN)(00015) Artisoft Pays $1.3Mil For Modem Sharing Software 12/04/95 TUCSON, ARIZONA, U.S.A., 1995 DEC 4 (NB) -- Artisoft Inc. (NASDAQ:ASFT), the publisher of the LANtastic network operating software, said it has paid $1.3 million in cash for substantially all of the assets of Synergy Solutions Inc. Chandler, Arizona-based Synergy Solutions Inc. was formed in October, 1992, and merged with Softwarehouse Corp. of California, the developer of a software package called Modem Assist Plus, in January of this year. By acquiring Synergy Solutions Artisoft gets that technology. Modem Assist Plus is software that allows phone lines and modems to be shared across a local area network (LAN). It can be set up as a dedicated or non-dedicated communication server by using existing PCs, modems, and phone lines. It is claimed by the company to be a "productivity increaser," because it allows network users to use communications and fax software right from their desktop, but without the need for a separate modem for each PC. An Artisoft spokesperson said Artisoft has been licensing Synergy's modem sharing software for use in its own product, called PowerSuite. That's a suite of communications products that includes Lotus cc:mail, Lotus Personal Organizer, Cheyenne Software's modem and fax sharing technology, and an Internet browser called Netcom. He said a acquisition of Synergy gives Artisoft complete control over the code. "We can develop it further, we can use it in more products and we can enhance it," the spokesperson stated. William Keiper, chairman and chief executive officer of Artisoft, calls the ability of people in a workgroup to access one or a limited number of modems or phone lines important to their productivity. "The technology and products we have acquired from Synergy provides an immediate foundation for delivering this capacity through the Artisoft channels of distribution." The current version of Modem Assist Plus is release 4, which includes a Windows DDL client, the ability to redirect any Windows fax or data communication software, Windows and DOS modem menus, Netware and NetBios/NetBEUI support, a communication management console, in-bound password protection, activity logging, conference calling, and automatic time-out. Synergy introduced a line of multi-port serial cards in 1994 based on the 16C554 UART chip. Artisoft spokesperson Robert Knox told Newsbytes Artisoft will continue to market that product line. The four-inch by four-inch boards are available in four and eight channel models that support connections at speeds up to 115,2000 bits-per-second. Knox said Synergy's operations will be relocated from Chandler to Tucson as soon as possible. (Jim Mallory/19951204/Press contact: Curtis Scheel, Artisoft, 520-670-7160; Public contact: Artisoft, tel 520-670-7100, fax 520-670-7101) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 12/04/95 LEGAL ****Compromise Coming On Online Smut (NEWS)(LEGAL)(WAS)(00016) ****Compromise Coming On Online Smut 12/04/95 WASHINGTON, D.C., U.S.A., 1995 DEC 4 (NB) -- Rep. Rick White (R-Wash.) today will unveil a compromise on online smut that online service providers and digital libertarians are reluctantly backing, in order to prevent more extreme legislation when the House-Senate conference committee on telecommunications reform deals with the issue, which could be as early as tomorrow. The White compromise would continue provisions in the Senate telecommunications bill imposing fines and prison time for purveyors of digital pornography. But the deal would weaken the Senate language about making "indecent" material available to children, substituting the phrase "harmful to children." The Senate bill contained tough language, proposed by Sen. James Exon (D-Neb.), to deal with net smut, but the House measure specifically rejected that approach, instead offering support for online smut filters that parents can control. House Speaker Newt Gingrich (R-Ga.) was openly scornful of the Exon approach, saying it was unconstitutional and not in accord with the speaker's libertarian tendencies. But in recent weeks, because of an assault mounted by social conservatives and the Christian right, the politics of the issue changed dramatically to favor the Exon legislation, or something like it. "I don't think there was ever any question, at least in the case of obscenity, there would be restrictions," said White, a freshman who represents a Seattle district heavy with software and computer firms clustered around Microsoft. The purpose of the language change is to bring the bill into line with existing law on pornography. "While (the compromise) does embody much of the original Exon proposal," says Jerry Berman, director of the Center for Democracy and Technology, "it does so in a way that tried to embody a constitutionally recognized standard." "I don't think we need any legislation at all," said Berman, a veteran civil libertarian who formerly worked with the American Civil Liberties Union and the Electronic Frontier Foundation. "But the Senate passed a bill that went one way and the House passed a bill that went another way, and we have to deal with that." "It is preferable to the Exon bill," said Marc Rotenberg, head of the Electronic Privacy and Information Center, "but ultimately this issue will be resolved in the courts, which is where it should be resolved." The White compromise would also give greater protection to online services that make a good-faith effort to keep sex-related material away from children. The services would not be liable for the illegal conduct of others if they make such efforts. Exon supports the White compromise, calling it a "major breakthrough." But White has yet to reach an agreement with House Judiciary Committee Chairman Henry Hyde (R-Ill.), who plans an amendment backed by the Christian Coalition that is similar to the Exon language, but more in line with court rulings on obscenity. According to Exon, the first order of business will be the Hyde amendment, with White then offering his amendment as a substitute. The winner will then negotiate with Exon on the final language. (Kennedy Maize/19951204/Press Contact: Connie Correll of Rep. White's office, tel 202-225-1201, Internet e-mail ccorrell@hr.house.gov) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 12/04/95 APPLE Internet Expo - Lotus Previews Updated cc:Mail For Mac (NEWS)(APPLE)(BOS)(00017) Internet Expo - Lotus Previews Updated cc:Mail For Mac 12/04/95 BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS, U.S.A., 1995 DEC 4 (NB) -- Lotus cc:Mail for Macintosh, Release 3, a long anticipated update to cc:Mail's Mac client, adds new rules and "droplets" for automating messaging tasks, new assistants for preparing Internet and other "complex" addresses, and 150 new viewers for reading and printing cross-platform files, revealed Lotus' Karen J. Horwitz and Amy E. Shaw, during a sneak preview for Newsbytes at Internet Expo/E-Mail World in Boston. Also during the meeting, Horwitz, a product manager at Lotus, and Shaw, who is senior product manager, noted that in its latest survey of the e-mail installed base, the newsletter Electronic Mail and Messaging Systems found that the number of Lotus Notes and cc:Mail mailboxes rose to more than 10 million in the third quarter, and that Lotus and IBM messaging products can now be found on more than 25 percent of all private e-mail boxes globally. "This means that we're now number one over Microsoft," Horwitz maintained. While Lotus is in the midst of introducing a new cc:Mail client for the Mac, with plans to ship product within the next 30 days, Microsoft has sold off the Macintosh client for Microsoft Mail to StarNine, Shaw pointed out. During a demo of the new Mac client for cc:Mail in the Lotus suite at a Boston hotel, the two Lotus execs said that although Lotus tries to take advantage of the particular capabilities of each cc:Mail operating environment, advancements debuted in one environment are adapted to other cc:Mail environments wherever possible. As previously reported in Newsbytes, the cross-platform file viewers for cc:Mail were first rolled into cc:Mail Desktop for Windows and cc:Mail Mobile for Windows Release 2.2. Shaw and Horwitz told Newsbytes at Internet Expo that the file viewers are designed to permit cross-platform viewing and printing of attached files originating in Mac, Windows, DOS or OS/2 formats in 150 different spreadsheet, word processing, and presentation graphics programs. Rich text, tables, and other original formatting features unchanged, according to the duo of product managers. Also in cc:Mail for the Mac, Release 3, Lotus is making it easier for users to define rules for performing repetitive tasks such as deleting, forwarding, or placing mail in folders based on criteria like author, "send time," and the inclusion of specified keywords, Newsbytes was told. Users construct rules through context-sensitive pick lists that let them select multiple "conditions and actions." For complicated procedures, users can now "nest rules within each other," with one rule governing another rule. The user might set a rule that will operate during a specified period of time only, such as a rule to send back mail, but only during the user's scheduled vacation days, for example, illustrated Horwitz. In another new twist, the user can now designate one rule to be automatically accessible on the desktop through a new "target" icon. "And for other rules, we now have a set of `cc:Mail droplets,'" Horwitz said. The drag-and-drop "droplets," or applets, can be used for frequently used addresses or mailing lists, replacing the chore of repeatedly typing in the address or list each time around. Users can also send pre-written outbound mail from the desktop in virtually the same way. Also in Release 3, you can enable a rule with a "sound" alert. Newsbytes heard how the new auditory capability can be applied to inbound "messages from the boss." Additionally, Mac users can now pre-test their rules, to simulate how their messages will actually be impacted if envisioned changes are implemented. Through this process of "verification," the user might find out that he does not really want to automatically delete all messages that are sent by a particular individual, or that contain a certain keyword, for example, the Lotus execs suggested. The new release also contains two safeguards for message preparation. Users can opt to "periodically save" their emerging message compositions, much as you would in a word processing program, Alternatively, messages can be stored as "drafts" at any point during the composition process. Newsbytes also saw how the new addressing assistants in Release 3 help users to correctly enter Internet and other complex addresses by providing a template that shows the right format. Users can then store the addresses in a private mailing list for point-and-click access later. The Lotus officials told Newsbytes that the new "droplets" in cc:Mail for Macintosh, which are enabled through AppleScript, have a strong parallel in the current version of cc:Mail for OS/2. Lotus has not migrated this feature to cc:Mail for Windows, since the Windows environment lacks a similar scripting capability, "But we will soon be introducing a cc:Mail client for Windows 95," Shaw divulged. Lotus cc:Mail for Macintosh Release 3 is slated to be available for both PowerPC- and 68K-based Macs within the next 30 days. Estimated retail pricing is $95 for the media pack, plus $495 for a 10-user workgroup license. Lotus maintenance customers can obtain upgrades from earlier editions free of charge. For other customers, the estimated retail price for upgrades is $55 for the media pack, plus $130 for a 10-user workgroup upgrade license. (Jacqueline Emigh/19951204/Reader Contact: Lotus, 800-343- 5414; Press Contacts: Mark McHarry, Lotus, 415-335-6786; Coleen Byrne, Lois Paul & Partners for Lotus, 415-286-3990) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 12/04/95 ONLINE Internet Expo - AT&T Services For Different Markets (NEWS)(ONLINE)(BOS)(00018) Internet Expo - AT&T Services For Different Markets 12/04/95 BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS, U.S.A., 1995 DEC 4 (NB) -- With the introduction of AT&T Personal Online Services, AT&T Easy Commerce Services, and two AT&T WorldNet services, plus the commercial rollout of AT&T Network Connect Service (ANCS), all within the past six months, AT&T is following a "disaggregated" model similar to that of America Online (AOL), Compuserve, Prodigy, and other online leaders, said Robert F. Jones and George F. Cunningham, two AT&T VPs, in a briefing for Newsbytes at Internet Expo in Boston. Jones, who is VP of Global Portfolio Management for AT&T, and Cunningham, AT&T's VP of Business Planning and Development for AT&T EasyLink Services, credited John Petrillo, president of AT&T Business Services, for creating and implementing AT&T's "disaggregated model." Each of AT&T's new online services is being individually managed, so as to meet the needs of different markets, according to Cunningham. "We intend to become very strong in each market," he asserted. Jones used AOL's new Global Network Navigator (GNN), and recent forays of other commercial online service providers onto the Internet, as additional examples of how the online service industry is becoming increasingly disaggregated. Jones also pointed out that WorldNet, a service jointly unveiled by AT&T and BBN in June, actually consists of two separate service offerings on the AT&T side. AT&T WorldNet Service Dial-Up Access is a dial-up service, currently in beta, meant to "make it easy to use the Internet," according to the two VPs. Announced during a teleconference attended by Newsbytes in August, the upcoming service will offer Harley Hahn Internet Exploration Station, with content taken from the database used by Hahn's The Internet Yellow Pages, together with "edited Web navigation" through Verity Inc.'s Topics search-and-retrieval engine, agent technology, and the McKinley "rated directory" and Web site review service. AT&T WorldNet Managed Internet Service, on the other hand, is designed to provide "managed Internet access" for businesses. Services include: access at speeds ranging from 56 kilobits-per-second (Kbps) to T3; network management; implementation services such as support site planning, registration, provisioning, testing, and training; and "customer care" services like 24-by-seven telephone support, fault isolation, and security. Cunningham told Newsbytes at Internet Expo that AT&T chose BBN as its partner on the WorldNet Managed Internet Service due to BBN's long-time "professional involvement with the Internet." Currently, all of the Internet points-of-present (POPs) being used on the Internet service for businesses are BBN's, but AT&T POPs will later join the mix, according to the VP. AT&T's two WorldNet services, together with ANCS, make up AT&T's Gateway Services, a division headed by AT&T's Tom Evslin, Jones noted. AT&T announced the commercial availability of the ANCS "secure" internetworking outsourcing services during a teleconference attended by Newsbytes last week. Jones added that AT&T Personal Online Service constitutes AT&T's new "content aggregation business." Headed by Caroline Vanderlip, Personal Online Services was announced at a press conference attended by Newsbytes at MecklerMedia's Internet World/Boston in October. As previously reported in Newsbytes, the new group's initial content offering is an online health and fitness service to be produced by IVI, a company that owns digital publishing rights from the Mayo Clinic, Time-Life, and the Mass. Medical Society. Cunningham told Newsbytes at Internet Expo that AT&T is interested in content "aggregation" only, preferring to leave content creation to specialists in that field. "We want to stick to what we do best. We are a telephone company. We don't plan to try to become Walt Disney," the AT&T executive maintained. Other components of AT&T Personal Online Services include the ImagiNation Network, an interactive games service acquired by AT&T; and AT&T PersonaLink Services. Announced at a press conference attended by Newsbytes in New York City in September, 1994, PersonaLink is a personal communications service initially combining telecommunications infrastructure and services from AT&T with Sony's Magic Cap personal communications device, General Magic's Magic Cap software, and Skytel paging. Jones noted that AT&T Easy Commerce Services, headed by AT&T VP Kathleen Earley, is made up of: AT&T EasyLink Services for electronic messaging; AT&T Network Notes; AT&T's Imaging Network Services; and AT&T Easy World Wide Web Service. Easy Commerce and the Easy World Wide Web Service were both unveiled at Fall Comdex 1995 in Las Vegas. During a press conference attended by Newsbytes in Las Vegas, Earley said that Easy World Wide Web is aimed at making it simpler for smaller and mid-sized businesses to obtain and maintain a presence on the Web. AT&T's Imaging Network Services is designed to use AT&T's network for the transmission, storage, retrieval and processing of multimedia images. The first application for the service, now being tested, is AT&T Network Demand Printing Service, for network-based print-on-demand. Also at Internet Expo in Boston last week, AT&T introduced AccessPlus 3.0 for Windows, a new edition of its software for EasyLink subscribers, and AT&T Easy Archiving, a new service on EasyLink that uses technology from Aegis Star Corp. to provide network-based storage and retrieval, with access to documents "regardless of size in approximately 15 seconds." Enhancements to AccessPlus include unlimited file folders; the ability to search, filter, sort and find messages based on user-defined criteria; new directory functions aimed at easing message addressing, including Internet addresses; a new "autopopulation" feature that automatically updates the directory when reply messages are created; and "word- processor-like" features such as integrated spell-checking, text justification, and choice of font and point size, according to the two VPs. (Jacqueline Emigh/19951204/Reader Contact: AT&T, 800-309-3349; Press Contact: Diane Nakamura, AT&T, 201-331-4061) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 12/04/95 TELECOM Internet Expo - RadioMail's Remote Mgt (NEWS)(TELECOM)(BOS)(00019) Internet Expo - RadioMail's Remote Mgt 12/04/95 BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS, U.S.A., 1995 DEC 4 (NB) -- RadioMail's newly rolled out RadioMail Remote Management is meant to bring money-saving Internet, fax and paging "message management" on either a wired or wireless basis, maintained Steven Rand, VP of marketing and sales, in an interview with Newsbytes at Internet Expo. "A key advantage of RadioMail is that it integrates `seamlessly' with other wireless environments," Rand told Newsbytes. But users do not need to employ RadioMail's two-way wireless messaging services on RAM, Ardis, and CDPD (cellular digital packet data) wireless networks to utilize RadioMail Remote Management or its new personal "RadioMailBox," according to the VP. The new RadioMailBox, which comes with a "mobile Internet address," is designed to supply connectivity through either a pager or a landline, cellular, or RF (radio frequency) modem hooked up to a notebook PC. The user will be able to send or receive an e-mail, fax, or pager message over phone lines or wirelessly, merely by launching the RadioMailBox application, saving on costly wireless airtime by avoiding "complicated log-on procedures," Newsbytes was told. Additional capabilities of the new RadioMailBox include message/fax forwarding and broadcasting, fax delivery notification, and the ability to view incoming messages by header only, before deciding whether to download a message immediately or to store the message for future use, according to Rand. Pricing for the new RadioMail Remote Control Service will start at $9.95 per month, plus connect-time charges of 20 cents per minute. The RadioMail two-way wireless messaging systems on RAM, Ardis and CDPD networks will integrate the new RadioMail Remote Control Service in the first quarter of next year. The RadioMail service on RAM will continue to be priced at $39 for up to 100 wireless messages, with dial-up connect-time charges of 20 cents per minute, said Rand. RadioMail's new "message management" service will be provided through an upgrade to a new release of RadioMail Connection for Windows. Beyond Windows, RadioMail supports DOS, Macintosh, and HP95LX and HP100LX palmtops. Developers can "RadioMail-enable" their applications by purchasing a C language API (application programming interface) toolkit from RadioMail. RadioMail also provides users with NewsFactory, an online service featuring news headlines and summaries and Dow Jones stock information. Also at Internet Expo, RadioMail announced new services for cellular and paging service providers. The new RadioMail Remote Control Service will be available at discount pricing to cellular and paging providers wishing to resell the service, according to Rand. RadioMail also unveiled the RadioMail Message Center services, a turnkey system for cellular and paging carriers that want add two-way wireless messaging and communications management services such as account activation; support and maintenance; and connectivity to other wireless carriers, at "minimal investment" on their part, he reported. The new suite of services will be provided through "communications control centers" run by RadioMail. (Jacqueline Emigh/19951204/Reader Contact: RadioMail, 415-286- 7600; Press Contact: Mark Smotroff or Robin Rootenberg, Access Public Relations for RadioMail, 415-904-7070) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 12/04/95 ONLINE Softcop Claims Better Way To Try Before You Buy (NEWS)(ONLINE)(TOR)(00020) Softcop Claims Better Way To Try Before You Buy 12/04/95 BURLINGTON, ONTARIO, CANADA, 1995 DEC 4 (NB) -- The Internet offers an easy way for software publishers to let potential customers try out their wares before they buy, provided they can make sure the customers can do no more than try the software until they pay for it. SoftCop International Inc. claims to have a better way of doing this. Try-before-you-buy software samplers are not a new idea. Several companies have produced CD-ROM disks containing limited versions of software for users to test, then unlock using a key obtained by making a telephone call and supplying a credit card number. The idea has not taken off, though. Tony Moran, vice-president of marketing and sales at SoftCop,told Newsbytes that this is largely because previous ways of limiting use of the software have been "very easy to end-run," and have not offered vendors enough control of the registration process. Moran said SoftCop's Purchase Preview software can ensure that every copy of the software is paid for, and if desired can even authorize the software for use on just one personal computer, requiring the customer to re-register if he or she wants to move the package to a different machine. Moran noted that many vendors opt not to take advantage of this, preferring to keep things simple for customers who may want to transfer software from an old PC to a newer one or from a desktop to a notebook. If they wish, he added, publishers can specify that a single user can receive authorization for a certain number of different PCs before paying an additional fee. Besides being used with software distributed over the Internet or other online services, Purchase Preview can be used with preview software supplied on a CD-ROM or on a diskette inserted in a publication. Moran said SoftCop recommends that publishers limit use of their software by turning off selected functions such as printing. However, they also have the option of allowing the software to be loaded a certain number of times before it stops working, he said. If a customer decides to buy a piece of the software, he or she has to make a telephone call to arrange payment and obtain a code to unlock the software's full function. It will soon be possible to do this with a modem connection, SoftCop said. SoftCop was founded in 1993 to develop software protection tools. (Grant Buckler/19951204/Press Contact: Tony Moran, SoftCop, 905-681-3269) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 12/04/95 WINDOWS Internet Expo - Pronto Mobile & "Secure" E-Mail (NEWS)(WINDOWS)(BOS)(00021) Internet Expo - Pronto Mobile & "Secure" E-Mail 12/04/95 BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS, U.S.A., 1995 DEC 4 (NB) -- CommTouch Software's new Pronto Mobile, an e-mail client for portable PC users, provides the same mail synchronization and rules-based filters as the company's flagship Pronto Mail 2.0, together with time-saving new "scenarios" for environments like airplanes and hotel rooms, said Robert Novak, VP of sales and marketing, at a meeting with Newsbytes at E-Mail World/Internet Expo in Boston. During a demo in the CommTouch booth, the VP showed Newsbytes how the "scenario" templates let the user quickly implement special sets of rules for screening e-mail when retrieving mail over airline phones, out of airline clubs, and from hotel rooms. "If you're downloading mail to your PC laptop from a hotel room, a map to the company Christmas party may not be a high priority item, since you're dealing with limited disk space. If you're connecting your modem over an airplane phone, you may want to screen out all but very short recent messages, because rates for those phones are so expensive," Novak told Newsbytes. Like Pronto Mail 2.0 and the recently unveiled Pronto Secure, the new Pronto Mobile also permits users to create custom filters establishing which messages will be received and in what order, reported the CommTouch exec. CommTouch first introduced the shrink-wrapped Pronto Mail 2.0 in conjunction with a deal to integrate Pronto Mail into Sun Microsystems' SolarNet, according to Novak. By now, he added, more than three million copies of Pronto have been distributed on an OEM (original equipment manufacturer) basis, to vendors that include AttachMate, TGV, and WRQ, in addition to Sun. More OEM deals are currently in the works. Unlike most competing products, he contended, the Pronto software also provides mail synchronization, a capability that allows "sometimes connected" users to update their messages when going online. Other software products equipped with synchronization, such as Lotus Notes, cannot generally be classified in the same product category, since they tend to extend beyond e-mail with much broader functionality, Novak maintained. Pronto 2.0, he pointed out, is list priced at only $69 in single quantities, with discounts offered for volume purchases. But Pronto software is not for every e-mail user, Novak acknowledged. "Pronto is designed to automate messaging for `serious business users' of e-mail -- those who receive 20 or more messages per day." During the demo at Internet Expo, Newsbytes saw how the new Pronto Mobile permits the user to view message headers in the inbox with fields for the name/address of sender, date, subject, file size, and message priority. Users can set download filters based on "to and from fields," message date, subject, file size, and priority. They can choose to receive: headers only; "marked messages," selected from a list of headers; or "new mail," consisting of headers and messages that pass the filters, according to Novak. You can have "junk e-mail" automatically relayed to the "wastebasket" for deletion, and you can set other rules for automatically sending, filing, forwarding, and replying to e-mail. "You might want to postpone transmission of your lower priority messages, for example," he illustrated. The new Pronto Secure, he asserted, is the only "secure" e-mail package on the market to offer "uniform key ring management," a capability that provides "the same GUI (graphical user interface) independent of encryption method." With so many encryption methods in use today, it is important for the vendor to support as many of them as possible so that users can "unlock" all their messages, according to the CommTouch VP. Pronto Secure's "pluggable" security architecture will initially support the following encryption standards: POTP (Power One-Time Pad); PGP (Pretty Good Privacy); PEM (Privacy Enhanced Mail); MOSS (Mime Object Security Services); and S/MIME (Secure/Multipurpose Internet Mail Extensions). Aside from encryption and decryption, additional security capabilities include: signature authentication; automatic registration of receipt; Certificate Authority (CA) and PGP certification; automatic exchange of locks and certificates; and "automatic intruder detection with detailed explanations." Pronto 2.0, a package that is currently shipping, runs on Windows 3.1 and Windows 95. The product supports TCP/IP (Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol); SLIP (Serial Line Interface Protocol), PPP (Point-to-Point Protocol) "and related protocols;" MIME and Sun attachments: UUencode/Decode; Simple MAPI (Mail Application Programming Interface); and export and import to FRC822, POP, SMTP (Simple Mail Transport Protocol), and Winsock. Support for POP2, POP3, and Extended MAPI will become available with the shipment of Pronto Mobile and Pronto Secure in the first quarter of next year, according to Novak. The two new Pronto packages will also incorporate "multilingual spelling-checkers." French and German versions of the Pronto software are now in beta. Italian, Japanese, Korean and Chinese editions will enter beta in the first quarter. Pronto Secure will run on Windows 95. The "secure" e-mail package will be priced at $299 in single quantities, with discounts available for volume purchases. Pronto Mobile will operate on Windows 3.1, Windows 95, Windows NT, and Windows for Workgroups 3.11. Starting in December, a "30-day full- feature evaluation copy" of Pronto Mobile can be downloaded from the CommTouch Web page at http://www.commtouch.com . An evaluation copy can also be obtained by sending an e-mail message to pronto@commtouch.com. (Jacqueline Emigh/19951205/Reader Contact: CommTouch, 415-578-6580; Press Contact: Michele Becker or Valdis Hellevik, CommTouch, 415-703-0400) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 12/04/95 TELECOM Internet Expo - Bell Atlantic/Nynex CDPD Deployment (NEWS)(TELECOM)(BOS)(00022) Internet Expo - Bell Atlantic/Nynex CDPD Deployment 12/04/95 BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS, U.S.A., 1995 DEC 4 (NB) -- Through a new deployment of AirBridge Packet cellular digital packet data service (CDPD), Bell Atlantic Nynex Mobile (BANM) and Hughes Network Systems (HNS) have brought the first "secure" cellular services to Boston and the surrounding Route 128 "high tech belt," asserted executives of the two CDPD partner companies, during a meeting with Newsbytes at Internet Expo/E-Mail World in Boston. BANM's Raymond P. Dolan, executive VP for marketing, and Michael D. Franklin, director of wireless data marketing, told Newsbytes that, with the implementation in eastern Massachusetts, BANM has now met its stated goal of deploying CDPD services "from the Carolinas to Boston" by the end of 1995. BANM was formed in July of this year through a joining of the cellular arms of Bell Atlantic and Nynex. CDPD will be especially useful to the countless computer hardware and software vendors in eastern Massachusetts, as well as other varies of manufacturing firms, the officials predicted. But due to encryption capabilities that are unavailable through other wireless technologies such as RAM and Ardis, CDPD is also proving to be particularly popular for applications in law enforcement, government, and even in "electronic commerce." Franklin, Dolan, and Jake MacLeod, assistant VP for digital cellular networks at HNS, told Newsbytes that the police department of Groton, Connecticut is now using BANM's CDPD service to file reports and perform database look-ups directly from their PC laptops. The police in Groton are receiving requested information on criminal suspects in far less time than was previously the case with a traditional two-way voice radio system, Franklin contended. The police departments of Bridgewater, New Jersey and Alexandria, Virginia are now using Airbridge in similar types of applications, he added. In the realm of electronic commerce, retail stores are now using AirBridge Packet together with FirstNet Corp.'s AireTrans Air Connect System to conduct "secure wireless credit card verification" much more quickly than through conventional landline methods, Newsbytes was told. And in an upcoming application, over 750 mobile workers at New Jersey's PSE&G (Public Service Electric & Gas) will be using AirBridge Packet, in conjunction with pen-based PCs, to send and receive data concerning customer orders for utility service and repairs. In addition, noted Dolan, the Bell Atlantic/Nynex cellular team has now opened up its "Greenhouse" laboratory to partners, hardware manufacturers, software writers, and potential customers for creating and testing further applications for "live" circuit- and packet-switched wireless technologies. Since Bell Atlantic rolled out the nation's first large CDPD networks in April, 1994, CDPD pricing to users has dropped only "somewhat," the BANM executive VP acknowledged. But as BANM and other carriers to continue to deploy CDPD in more areas of the US, prices are bound to drop considerably, he asserted. CDPD services were initially introduced into the Washington, DC/Baltimore and Pittsburgh areas, according to Dolan. Between now and then, the AirBridge Packet CDPD services have also made their way into Philadelphia, New Jersey, North Carolina, and Phoenix, Arizona. Also during the meeting at Internet Expo, HNS's MacLeod reported that HNS supplied the network infrastructure for the CDPD service in Pittsburgh, Connecticut, North Carolina, and Arizona. In addition, BANM is partnering with US AirTouch and US West in a CDPD consortium with almost five million customers and 100 million points-of-presence (POPs). Meanwhile, Ameritech has implemented CDPD in cities that include Chicago, Detroit, and St. Louis. Other phone companies that are deploying the new cellular technology include GTE and Southwestco Wireless, Dolan said. BANM's new AirBridge Packet Service, which uses CDPD for high-speed transmission of packets of data, is designed to complement three other wireless data services from BANM: AirBridge Fax Service; AirBridge Circuit-Switched Solutions, which uses the existing cellular network for applications such as remote e-mail, package tracking, and telemetry between two cellular modems; and AirBridge Gateway Service and AirBridge Wireless Modem Access Service, a cellular switch-based modem pool for circuit-switched data transmission. Pricing for AirBridge Packet Service is based on volume of data transmission. Pricing starts at $15 per month. (Jacqueline Emigh/19941204/Reader Contact: Bell Atlantic Nynex Mobile, 908-306-7527; Press Contacts: Kristen Holmes or Pauline O'Keeffe, The Weber Group for BANM, 617-520-7058, 520- 7085; Maggie Aloia Rohr, BANM, 908-306-7757; Julie Blake, Hughes, 301-428-7113; Alice Ducq, Hughes, 301-428-7111) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 12/04/95 ONLINE Internet Expo - Silicon Graphics/EBT Web Software Deal (NEWS)(ONLINE)(BOS)(00023) Internet Expo - Silicon Graphics/EBT Web Software Deal 12/04/95 BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS, U.S.A., 1995 DEC 4 (NB) -- "Silicon Graphics Inc. (SGI) isn't just bundling our software. They're actually using it on their World Wide Web site," said Paul Lamoureux of Electronic Book Technologies (EBT), in an interview with Newsbytes at Internet Expo about new moves by SGI to package EBT's DynaWeb with its workstations, and to use DynaWeb 2.0 to translate its product manuals into HTML (hypertext markup language) for Web browser access on the SGI home page. The newly unveiled bundling deal between EBT and SGI represents for first such arrangement for DynaWeb, although SGI and other vendors have been bundling DynaText, EBT's SGML (standard generalized markup language) authoring package, for several years now, Lamoureux reported. SGI has given the name "Iris Insight" to its version of EBT's DynaText. Phoenix Technologies, on the other hand, refers to its OEM (original equipment manufacturer) edition as "Verdox," he noted. But even more significant, in Lamoureux's eyes, is SGI's decision to employ DynaWeb 2.0 for translating SGML-authored documentation to the SGI Web site for navigation and search by end users. "I can't think of a better recommendation," he told Newsbytes. Lamoureux pointed out that EBT's DynaWeb is designed to assist publishers of product manuals and other large documents by allowing them to start publishing to the Web, while at the same time continuing to work in SGML, for "insulation" against changes in the rapidly evolving HTML standard. When equipped with HTML-compliant browsers, he continued, visitors to DynaWeb-enabled Web sites can make full use of the DynaText search engine, which supports full-text and Boolean as well as wildcard, proximity, context, and complex searches. The number of search hits is shown beside an interactive table of contents (TOC). To speed searches of lengthy or multiple documents, users are shown only those TOC entries that are accompanied by search hits. Starting last week, SGI began to use DynaWeb 2.0 to publish its own product manuals to the Web, noted the EBT official. In version 2.0, the SGML-to-HTML translation software has been enhanced with "FreeFrames," he added. In a demo, Lamoureux showed Newsbytes how the new "FreeFrames" capability allows users of "frame-enabled" browsers such as Netscape 2.0 to view the Web page as multiple, scrollable frames. The new FreeFrames capability is based on templates that are used by authors to manipulate how information will be displayed on the Web, according to Lamoureux. Authors can change the interface by modifying elements in the template such as icons, text, and search feedback. Templates are included for the TOC as well as for a query form. To see what the "FreeFrames" feature in DynaWeb 2.0 looks like, you can access either the SGI Web site (http://www.sgi.com ) or the EBT home page (http://www/ebt.com:8080 ) with a frame-enabled Web browser. (Jacqueline Emigh/19951205/Reader Contact: Electronic Book Technologies, 401-421-9550; Press Contact: Craig Librett or Alys Reynders, Miller Communications/Shandwick Technologies for EBT, 617-536-0470) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 12/04/95 ONLINE ****Internet Update (NEWS)(ONLINE)(TYO)(00024) ****Internet Update 12/04/95 TOKYO, JAPAN, 1995 DEC 4 (NB) -- In this roundup of new services and resources on the global Internet: MSN beta Web page; Jordan Star online; Australia pick of the day; Texas.net museum of art; Guide to Hamamatsu; Quick access to the weather; Pleiades network for women; Campaign 96 mailing lists; CNNfn Knight Ridder news; Science news; NBC 4 seismo cam; Friday's Child International. MSN Beta Web Page Microsoft has unveiled the beta version of its new home page with new additions and features. This page was recommended to us as "the best home page concept I've seen yet." Users are also able to customize the page to offer just what they want. World Wide Web: http://www.beta.home.msn.com/ Jordan Star Online The Star newspaper from Jordan has placed its weekly magazine online. Editions include the latest financial and business news, culture, features, news from Jordan, a technology section and opinions on the news. World Wide Web: http://arabia.com/star/ Australia Pick Of The Day The Australian Internet Directory has added a "pick of the day" link that takes the user to a different, diverse range of Web sites each day. Also available via the page is a subject based index of the Australian Internet and e-mail directory plus more. When we visited, "The Australian Beer Page" was selected as pick of the day. World Wide Web: http://www.sofcom.com.au/WWW.AU/POTD.html Texas.net Museum Of Art Over 900 images including reviews of recent art exhibits, themed collections from the archive online and direct access to the scans which include artists from Bacon to Vermeer. Other attractions include the fine art coloring book and reviews of art related CD-ROMs. World Wide Web: http://www.texas.net/~mharden/index.html Guide To Hamamatsu A new online guide to the city of Hamamatsu in Shizuoka, Japan, has debuted with details of the best the city has to offer in tourism, business, culture and information on the city's location, access, hotels, and events. World Wide Web: http://www.cti.co.jp/HAMAMATSU/ Quick Access To The Weather This new Web page was written to provide a means of quick access to information on the weather in North America. The latest forecasts, satellite and radar images, weather data, warnings and more are available just a few quick clicks away. The service is promised to extend globally in the future. World Wide Web: http://www.comet.net/weather/ Pleiades Network For Women The Pleiades Networks has established a Web site for women with a variety of features including an illustrated guide to the Internet, directories of women's organizations, resources, and businesses, a calendar of events and details of Internet discussion lists. World Wide Web: http://www.pleiades-net.com/ Campaign 96 Mailing Lists Three new mailing lists have been set up to follow the Democrat, Republican and Independent candidates in next year's US presidential elections. The lists are intended to serve as platforms for the discussion of the candidates and not the issues. To subscribe send a message to the e-mail address with the applicable text. Email: listserv@vm.marist.edu Message Body: sub independents96 firstname lastname Message Body: sub republicans96 firstname lastname Message Body: sub democrats96 firstname lastname CNNfn Knight Ridder News The new CNN Financial Network has already launched its own Web pages ahead of a December launch. A section of the server includes a searchable database of the latest global financial and business news from the Knight Ridder news service. World Wide Web: http://www.cnnfn.com/news/knight_ridder/index.html Science News Scienceweb has a page of the latest news from the world of Science on its Web site. Current headlines include news from the Space Shuttle, the launch of Radarsat, a new way to calculate pi, International day for the preservation of Ozone, and more. Daily updates are promised soon. World Wide Web: http://scienceweb.dao.nrc.ca/nlist.html NBC 4 Seismo Cam NBC's Los Angeles affiliate, KNBC, has a camera pointed at its newsroom earthquake detector linked to a sensor in Griffith Park, near the famous Hollywood sign. The picture is updated every five minutes and allows Internet users to watch the chart recorder register moves of the earth. Several pictures of previous major quakes are also archived. World Wide Web: http://www.knbc4la.com/seismo/index.html Friday's Child International Sponsored by the United Nations and UNICEF, Friday's Child International has a Web site that provides access to its "Full scream ahead" and "World's biggest party" scavenger hunts for global youth. Thousands of dollars are available in prizes so all kids should point their browsers towards this site! World Wide Web: http://www.fridayschildintl.com/ (Martyn Williams/19951204) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 12/04/95 BUSINESS Hayes Microcomputer Says Financing Package Finalized (NEWS)(BUSINESS)(DEN)(00025) Hayes Microcomputer Says Financing Package Finalized 12/04/95 ATLANTA, GEORGIA, U.S.A., 1995 DEC 4 (NB) -- Hayes Microcomputer Products Inc. said it has wrapped up the financing package it needed to complete its emergence from bankruptcy, and has the necessary funds to pay its creditors in full, plus interest, as promised. The company also released its unaudited fiscal year 1995 results that show an operating profit of $6.5 million before a one-time restructuring charge of $5.8 million against net sales of $265.9 million. There was also a $10.2 million charge related to the Chapter 11 bankruptcy proceedings and expenses such as attorneys and accountants. In FY 94 Hayes reported an operating loss of $30.3 million on $246.3 million in revenue. The company said it cut its operating expenses by more than $26 million over the previous year by instituting a number of operational changes. The necessary $85 million came from several sources. Hayes said it has signed final agreements with Northern Telecom Inc. (Nortel) and ACMA Limited for a $35 million equity investment. That will give the two companies a 49 percent stake in Hayes Microcomputer. Dennis Hayes, president and chief executive officer of Hayes and its founder, and the Hayes Profit Sharing, Saving and Stock Plan retain control of the company with ownership of 51 percent of the stock. The Northern Telecom and ACMA participation includes an agreement that Northern Telecom's technologies and products or Hayes and Nortel-co-developed technologies and products can be sold through Hayes distribution channels under the Hayes brand name. The company also executed a commitment letter with The CIT Group/Credit Finance for a secure line of credit of up to $65 million, with at least $38 million of that available immediately upon closing. The company also sold a parcel of land located in Gwinnett County, Georgia, of about 230 acres, which resulted in a net gain to Hayes of $12.8 million. The name of the buyer of the majority of the property was not disclosed. The deal included the purchase of 8.2 acres by the Georgia Department of Transportation for $700,000. Dennis Hayes, chairman and chief executive officer (CEO) of the company, said the financing lets the company go into its confirmation hearing, scheduled for December 18th, "with all our ducks in a row and with full faith in the system and Judge Hugh Robinson." The company filed for protection under Chapter 11 of the US Bankruptcy code in November 1994. The reorganization plan was filed on May 15, 1995. Hayes will remain as chairman and chief executive officer and the company will continue its search for a new president and chief operating officer. Northern Telecom, ACMA and Dennis Hayes each will appoint two directors to the six member board. Dennis Hayes said he expects to launch an initial public offering of the company's stock within two years. (Jim Mallory/19951204/Press contact: Andrew Dod, Hayes Microcomputer, 770-840-9200) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 12/04/95 TRENDS Software Sales Up In 3rd Qtr, Mac Sales Down (NEWS)(TRENDS)(TOR)(00026) Software Sales Up In 3rd Qtr, Mac Sales Down 12/04/95 WASHINGTON, D.C., U.S.A, 1995 DEC 4 (NB) -- Over-all sales of personal computer applications software in the United States and Canada in the third quarter were up 48 percent over the third quarter of last year, the Software Publishers Association reported this morning. However, sales of software for Apple Computer Inc.'s (NASDAQ:AAPL) Macintosh slipped for the second consecutive quarter. The SPA said total sales of desktop application software reached $2.2 billion, up from $1.5 billion in the same quarter of 1994. This brought the first nine months' sales to $5.5 billion in 1995, up 25 percent from 1994's $4.4 billion. Anne Griffith, a research analyst at the SPA, told Newsbytes that the release of Microsoft's (NASDAQ:MSFT) Windows 95 operating system in August was probably the major factor in third-quarter growth. Having waited for the release of Windows 95 before purchasing or upgrading applications, computer users are now making up for lost time. Griffith said the effect of Windows 95 may last for a year or so, since corporate computer buyers prefer to take their time about moving to new platforms and many will put off buying new applications for Windows 95 until well into 1996. The arrival of Windows 95 may also have contributed to the decline in Macintosh software sales, Griffith said. In the third quarter of 1995, sales of Macintosh applications were down 26 percent from the third quarter 1994 figure, at $242.5 million. Griffith said this was the second quarter of decline for Mac software sales, which dropped seven percent in the second quarter. Macintosh software sales rose 10 percent year-over-year in the first quarter of this year, she said, and 23 percent in the fourth quarter of 1994. Although Windows 95 probably played a role in the decline of Mac software sales, Griffith said a shift in hardware platforms may be involved too. "The growth in actual boxes has been in Windows-capable machines," she said, "and people are going to Windows from that." New games software is more likely to be released for Windows today than for the Macintosh, she added. Strength in the home computer market has also contributed to strong software sales, the SPA noted. Although the growth in consumer software has slowed from its peak in late 1994, it was up 23 percent year-over- year in the third quarter of this year, and sales for the first nine months are up nearly 40 percent and have passed the $1 billion mark. The third quarter is traditionally quite strong in consumer software, though not as good as the fourth quarter, which gets the bulk of holiday-season buying. (Grant Buckler/19951204/Press Contact: Anne Griffith, SPA, 202-452-1600 ext 360, Internet e-mail agriffith@spa.org; Loni Singer, SPA, 202-452- 1600 ext 353, Internet e-mail lsinger@spa.org) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 12/04/95 GENERAL Wireless Announcement System Tested In New York Subway (NEWS)(GENERAL)(TOR)(00027) Wireless Announcement System Tested In New York Subway 12/04/95 NEW YORK, NEW YORK, U.S.A., 1995 DEC 4 (NB) -- Digital, wireless audio, and text technology got a tryout in one of the New York City subway's busier stations this morning. Madah-Com Inc., of Central Valley, New York, demonstrated its Waves wireless public address system to officials of MTA New York City Transit at the 59th Street and Columbus Circle station. Because the Waves system is digital, company spokesman Robin Brecker told Newsbytes, it is not subject to interference, which can be a serious problem with subway public address systems. Because it is wireless, it is easier to put equipment right on the subway cars. Brecker said another advantage of the Waves system is that it makes possible to direct specific messages to specific parts of the subway system, so that for instance an announcement that only affects passengers traveling through one station need only be heard at that station. The system can simultaneously transmit spoken announcements and display the same information in text form. However, it does not use speech synthesis to do this today. Brecker said the most common use would involve pre-recorded messages, which could be stored in both text and audio form and played in both forms at the same time. However, operators can also type in text messages and broadcast them simultaneously with voice messages, he said. The demonstration today was only that, Brecker said, and the New York subway authorities have yet to decide whether to proceed with a full- scale trial of the technology. If the subway officials are impressed, he added, Waves could be integrated with the existing public-address system as stations are upgraded or could eventually replace it altogether. Madah-Com currently has one test installation of the Waves system, at a McDonnell-Douglas facility in St. Louis, according to Brecker. That is slated to become a permanent installation soon, he said. He added that the company is talking with other potential customers but is not free to name them. (Grant Buckler/19951204/Press Contact: Robin Brecker, Doff Meyer Corporate Communications for Madah-Com, 914-928-8012) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 12/04/95 IBM Wladawsky-Berger To Head IBM Internet Unit (NEWS)(IBM)(TOR)(00028) Wladawsky-Berger To Head IBM Internet Unit 12/04/95 SOMERS, NEW YORK, U.S.A., 1995 DEC 4 (NB) -- As expected, IBM (NYSE:IBM) has set up a new Internet division within its software group. The company named Irving Wladawsky-Berger, former head of its RS/6000 division, to head the operation. Wladawsky-Berger will report to John M. Thompson, senior vice-president and group executive for the software group. Reporting to Irving in turn will be: Pat Sueltz, who will take charge of product development and packaging in the new unit; Susan Fairty, who will be responsible for sales and marketing; and Karl Salnoske, who will be the Internet division's vice-president of networked applications. IBM spokeswoman Judy Radlinsky told Newsbytes that Wladawsky-Berger has enjoyed a successful tenure as head of the company's parallel processing and supercomputing business. He will be replaced there by Mark Bregman, currently technical assistant to IBM Chairman Louis Gerstner. In a memo to IBM employees, Gerstner described the creation of the new Internet division as part of an emphasis on network-centric computing. He said this and some other decisions have resulted from a review of the company's strategies by a task force headed by Dennie Welsh, general manager of global services, and a special analysis of Internet opportunities by John Landry of Lotus Development Corp., which IBM acquired earlier this year. Besides creating the new Internet unit, IBM has appointed Fernand Sarrat general manager of network-centric computing marketing and services initiatives. Reporting to Ned Lautenbach, senior vice-president and group executive of worldwide sales and services, Sarrat will have the job of integrating IBM's strategies on network-centric computing across its worldwide marketing and services organization. In his memo, Gerstner told employees IBM will not set up a network-centric computing unit per se, because this emphasis will be enterprise-wide and every division will take part in its own way. In his first-day keynote address at the Comdex/Fall trade show in November, Gerstner described network-centric computing as a new phase in which the network, rather than the microprocessor or the mainframe computer, will be the basis of information architecture. Through widespread, high-bandwidth networks, he predicted, users will be able to get at "more memory, more storage, more processing power than you would ever be able to justify in a personal computer or maybe even put in a personal computer." Gerstner said this new phase will not arrive overnight, and will never entirely supplant the personal computers of today. But he maintained that his company, which was the industry's unquestioned giant in the mainframe- centric period of computing but lost its dominance when the microprocessor took the lead, hopes it can step back into the forefront in the new era. Network-centric computing will call for a knowledge of complex network management, systems management, systems integration, and large server systems, Gerstner said. "Now let me think, what company knows how to do all that?" Radlinsky said earlier that the new Internet division will have about 100 employees initially. Gerstner's memo to employees said the unit will control and allocate network-centric funding to software development labs and be responsible for branding, product integration, and marketing. (Grant Buckler/19951204/Press Contact: Judy Radlinsky, IBM, tel 914-766- 1697, fax 914-766-9137, Internet e-mail jradlinsky@vnet.ibm.com) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 12/04/95 ONLINE Bill Gates Sees Multilingual Internet (NEWS)(ONLINE)(DEN)(00029) Bill Gates Sees Multilingual Internet 12/04/95 REDMOND, WASHINGTON, U.S.A., 1995 DEC 4 (NB) -- Bill Gates, chairman of Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ: MSFT) said that the president of France was wrong when he said English would drive the French language off the information superhighway. President Jacques Chirac warned French-speaking nations Saturday that their language must be seen and heard on the Internet or future generations of French speakers would be economically and culturally marginalized. He made his comments while attending the sixth Francophone summit in the West African state of Benin. "That's certainly not right, although the Internet did catch on first in the United States, so almost 80 percent of users are in the United States right now," Gates told French television viewers. He said other languages would make their way onto the Internet. "As it spreads around the world every country will be using its own language, so there's no double there will be a lot of French," said Gates through an interpreter during a TF1 television interview. He was in Europe as part of a worldwide tour to promote his new book "The Road Ahead." While in London this weekend Gates operated a model of Charles Babbage's mid-1800s computing machine and told visitors at the London Science Museum that computers will be so small in 50 years that the machine itself won't even be noticed. "Today, you don't think about electricity, and what a wonderful thing that is. It's just there," said Gates. The software company chief also talked about Microsoft software that combines voice, text, moving pictures, still images, and graphics and lets computer users compose their own fictional movies using cartoon characters and settings. When a museum visitor asked about virtual reality, Gates said, "The ability to pretend you're somewhere is something I'm very excited about." However, he cautioned that more work needs to be done to improve the helmet technology which he called "a little slow" and said causes "some people to get seasick." On the topic of computer use for a wide range of applications, Gates said, "We need to get better movie capability. We need to get better music capability," He pointed out that PC makers have been adding features, while holding prices steady, rather than offering cheaper machines. Gates predicted that, by the year 2000, there will be PCs that are better than those available today, but at a lower price, perhaps in the $800 to $900 price range. Everyone in the industry doesn't agree. Oracle Corp. and Sun Microsystems predict $500 stripped-down machines that will get the software they need to perform a particular task from a network, do the job, then discard the application software. (Jim Mallory/19951204/Press and public contact: Microsoft, 206-882-8080 or 800-426-9400) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 12/04/95 ONLINE Compuserve Asks For Free Candidate Accts Ruling (NEWS)(ONLINE)(MSP)(00030) Compuserve Asks For Free Candidate Accts Ruling 12/04/95 COLUMBUS, OHIO, U.S.A., 1995 DEC 4 (NB) -- In response to news stories questioning a plan by Compuserve to allow federal candidates to have free access to its online service and the Internet, Compuserve officials said they are asking the Federal Election Commission (FEC) to advise Compuserve on its plan. Compuserve already has announced its "Election Connection '96" online area which will provide election information and discussion from a variety of sources, including links to candidate sites on the Internet's World Wide Web, discussions and debates in message areas, polls of Compuserve members, and press coverage. Under the plan submitted to the FEC, Compuserve would offer free access to its online service, the Internet, and the World Wide Web, with the ability to build Web pages. William Giles, Compuserve spokesperson, told Newsbytes some stories appearing in the news had wondered about whether Compuserve's offering would violate FEC rules regarding "in-kind corporate contributions to candidates." Compuserve's position is that its offer to candidates "furthers the process of public discourse by opening up cyberspace to all candidates." "According to these (news) reports, it could be interpreted that by giving them free access to the service, it could be seen as an in-kind contribution," he said. "We see it as helping members to be more informed. (The offer) is also open to all candidates. It's kind of like TV doing a debate, in that members get access to the candidates," he said. Giles told Newsbytes it's not illegal for Compuserve to make the offer to candidates, but it might not be legal for those seeking office to take up the online service on its proposition, and "that's why we're asking for the ruling," he said. "The whole idea behind the Election Connection area is to try to make our members better educated when they cast their vote," Giles added. The free offer is also being made to state political candidates, Compuserve officials said, but those candidates will not be affected by the FEC's ruling. Giles said he didn't know when the FEC would make a final ruling, but he did say he hoped it would come soon. (Bob Woods/19951204/Press Contacts: William Giles, 614-538-4388, or Daphne Kent, 614-538-3582 both of Compuserve) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 12/04/95 ONLINE ****Netscape & Sun Announce JavaScript (NEWS)(ONLINE)(MSP)(00031) ****Netscape & Sun Announce JavaScript 12/04/95 MOUNTAIN VIEW, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1995 DEC 4 (NB) -- Sun Microsystems (NASDAQ:SUNW) and Netscape Communications (NASDAQ:NSCP) have announced a new programming language for creating and customizing computer network and Internet software applications, called JavaScript. The new language is designed to work with both Sun's Java and the hypertext markup language (HTML) to create interactive content for the Internet and other networks, officials said. The initial version of JavaScript is available as part of Netscape's Navigator 2.0 beta Internet World Wide Web program, officials said. The browser can be downloaded from Netscape's World Wide Web site, which is at http://home.netscape.com/ . JavaScript is being developed as an open-standard, freely licensed product, Sun officials said, encouraging its adoption as a standard in a wide variety of products. "JavaScript and Java represent an open-standards based approach to create compelling, interactive content and applications for the Internet and enterprise networks," said Marc Andreessen, vice president of technology at Netscape. "This broad industry support for JavaScript will fuel the rapid development of a whole new class of live online applications." Sun and Netscape also said 28 companies have agreed to adopt JavaScript as their standard, and provide it in future products. Some of those companies include America Online, Apple, AT&T, Digital Equipment Corp. (DEC), Macromedia, Silicon Graphics, Novell, and Toshiba. In addition, the draft specification for JavaScript, and the final draft specification for Java, will be submitted to the appropriate standards bodies for industry review and comment later this month. Sun officials said JavaScript is designed for use by HTML page authors and enterprise application developers to control the behavior of objects running on either the server or the user's computer, so the range of applications that dynamically present information to, and interact with, users over the Internet are virtually unlimited. With programs called "applets," the Java language allows the multimedia features normally found on a CD-ROM to be transmitted over networks like the Internet. Shares of both Sun and Netscape jumped on Wall Street today, following the announcement. At 12 Noon EST, Netscape was up $5.25 at $142.50, while Sun was up $4.875 at $89.25. Internet-related stocks have been on a tear in general in recent weeks. Additional information about both companies is available via the Web. Sun's Java site is at http://java.sun.com/ , while Netscape's page is located at http://home.netscape.com/ . Sun also announced a contest to promote Java applets, which are small, platform-independent Java applications. The "Java Cup," as the contest is called, will judge applets in several categories. Those divisions include productivity tools, Internet/Web agents, education, developer tools, and entertainment and games. Criteria that will determine which applet wins each category will include graphic quality, system friendliness, coding style, security, reliability, interactivity, and innovation. Prizes will be awarded from a $1 million pool of Sun equipment and software, officials said. Three winners per category will be chosen, and within each category two individuals and one group will win prizes. There will also be an overall grand prize winner, who will be awarded a credit of up to $200,000 towards Sun Ultra and Sparc systems and peripherals. (Bob Woods/19951204/Press Contacts: Rosanne Siino, Netscape, 415-528- 2619, Internet e-mail rosanne@netscape.com; George Paolini, Sun Microsystems, 415-786-8199, Internet e-mail george.paolini@sun.com) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 12/04/95 ONLINE ****Netscape Shockwave Plug-In Makes Video Easier (NEWS)(ONLINE)(SFO)(00032) ****Netscape Shockwave Plug-In Makes Video Easier 12/04/95 SAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1995 DEC 4 (NB) -- Macromedia (NASDAQ:MACR), a leading developer of design and authoring software for multimedia presentations, has announced the availability of a Netscape Navigator Plug-in for Shockwave content. Introduced at a recent Macromedia user conference, Shockwave was developed to bring full multimedia content to the World Wide Web. Bud Colligan, president and chief executive officer, spoke to the press saying, "With Shockwave, the Web will never be the same. This product will shock the Internet to a new level of animation, sound, and graphics." Formally called Shockwave for Director, the program has two main components. One is an "Afterburner" which compresses content developed with Macromedia's Director software. Afterburner compresses Director- created content, called Director Movies, by about 60% and optimizes it for downloading. This addresses the often stated problem of the time it takes to download rich, multimedia presentations on the Web. Future versions of Shockwave will focus on high-speed streaming multimedia data. The second part compliments Afterburner with a player needed by users to play Shockwave content. Today's announcement offers the first Shockwave player as a free plug-in to Netscape's Navigator 2.0 browser. Once Shockwave's plug-in is downloaded to the browser, users will be able to immediately view sample Shockwave movies from the Macromedia Web site at http://www.macromedia.com . This site contains the free, downloadable plug-in. Macromedia suggests Web users who want to be on the cutting-edge of the World Wide Web experience integrate Shockwave's player into their browsers. The list of companies planning to introduce Shockwave movies on Web sites include CNN Online, MTV Online, 20th Century Fox, CondeNet Online, Turner Online, Apple Computer, Disney's Toy Store, Intel, USA Today Info, Advertising Age, Sony Music Entertainment, and Melrose Place. In a press release, developer of Mosaic and now founder and vice president of technology for Netscape Communications, Mark Andreesen, stated, "By working with Macromedia's Shockwave for Director, we are greatly expanding the capabilities for communicating over the Internet by providing users with richer media and more compelling means of expression. We chose to partner with Macromedia because of its leadership position as well as Director's market acceptance as a standard tool for creating multimedia. " (Patrick McKenna/19951204/Press Contact: Jane Chuey, Macromedia, 415-252-2268) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 12/04/95 BUSINESS ****Justice Dept Continues Microsoft Probe (NEWS)(BUSINESS)(DEN)(00033) ****Justice Dept Continues Microsoft Probe 12/04/95 REDMOND, WASHINGTON, U.S.A., 1995 DEC 4 (NB) -- The US Department of Justice is reportedly trying to determine if Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ: MSFT) intentionally caused Windows 95 to disable rival companies' Internet access programs, but a Microsoft spokesperson called the allegations "absolute nonsense." The Wall Street Journal reported today that the Justice Department has issued subpoenas to Netscape Communications Corp., the Compuserve online service and Netcom Online Communications Services Inc. Compuserve, like most online subscription-based services, also offers an Internet gateway. Netscape publishes a popular World Wide Web browser program, and some industry observers estimate that about 80 percent of the Web crawlers use Netscape software. Windows 95, launched in August of this year, includes software that connects to Microsoft Network (MSN), the software company's own online service and a competitor to Compuserve and other similar services. MSN has a gateway to the Internet. "One of Microsoft's central goals for Windows 95 was to insure that the applications that were written for earlier versions of Windows would run properly on the new operating system," said Microsoft spokesperson Greg Shaw. "That goal was achieved. Windows 95 runs virtually every application developed for earlier versions of Windows including the Internet access software Web browsers developed by competitors," said Shaw. He did acknowledge that there were a few Web browsers, which may have included Netscape's product for Windows 3.1, that required, what he called, "some minor reconfiguration" in order to run properly under Windows 95. The problem, according to Shaw, is that the DLL (dynamic link library) file in Windows 95 wouldn't recognize the old version of a competitors DLL file, and that could affect the dial-up feature of the competitor's browser. He said that issue has been resolved, and also noted that all Web browsers written specifically for Windows 95 work well with Microsoft's new operating system. The Justice Department declined comment on the Wall Street Journal report, saying only that, "Our investigation is ongoing," (Jim Mallory/19951204/Press contact: Microsoft, 206-882-8080) (SUMMARY)(GENERAL)(MSP)(00034) Newsbytes Daily Summary 12/04/95 MINNEAPOLIS, MINNESOTA, U.S.A., 1995 DEC 4 (NB) -- These are capsules of all today's news stories: ======================================================================== ------------| N E W S B Y T E S D A I L Y S U M M A R Y |---------- ------------| Monday, December 4, 1995 |---------- ======================================================================== (c) Newsbytes News Network (Tm) Editor in Chief: Wendy Woods ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Newsbytes News Network's on the Web! Check out http://www.nbnn.com for free daily top stories from Newsbytes and its affiliate publications, and from PC Week, MacWeek, and other Ziff news magazines. A subscription gives you all the news, full-text, plus the most comprehensive database of past computer stories online. The keyword-searchable database dates from today back through 1983. Subscriptions are $24.95 for three months. Questions? Send to 'administrator@newsbytes.com' For Japanese Newsbytes and additional services, see the Newsbytes Pacifica Website at http://www.islandtel.com/newsbytes/ ------------------------------------------------------------------------ CATEGORY HEADLINES (*** indicates today's top stories) STORY # ======================================================================== APPLE Internet Expo - Lotus Previews Updated cc:Mail For Mac..... 17 BROADCAST 110 Channels On Single Laser For Cable TV.................. 04 BROADCAST Japan Group Supports Interactive TV........................ 12 BUSINESS Artisoft Pays $1.3Mil For Modem Sharing Software........... 15 BUSINESS Hayes Microcomputer Says Financing Package Finalized....... 25 BUSINESS ****Justice Dept Continues Microsoft Probe................ 33 GENERAL Gateway Australia Lowers PC Prices......................... 08 GENERAL A Plan For Fighting Homogenized Media...................... 09 GENERAL Japan Newsbriefs........................................... 11 GENERAL NewsPix Images For Newsbytes Publishers.................... 13 GENERAL Wireless Announcement System Tested In New York Subway..... 27 GOVT Australian Govt Pays IBM $75Mil For Computer Services...... 07 IBM Wladawsky-Berger To Head IBM Internet Unit................. 28 LEGAL ****Compromise Coming On Online Smut...................... 16 ONLINE Internet Expo - AT&T Services For Different Markets........ 18 ONLINE Softcop Claims Better Way To Try Before You Buy............ 20 ONLINE Internet Expo - Silicon Graphics/EBT Web Software Deal..... 23 ONLINE ****Internet Update....................................... 24 ONLINE Bill Gates Sees Multilingual Internet...................... 29 ONLINE Compuserve Asks For Free Candidate Accts Ruling............ 30 ONLINE ****Netscape & Sun Announce JavaScript.................... 31 ONLINE ****Netscape Shockwave Plug-In Makes Video Easier......... 32 TELECOM UK - Mercury To Offer Business Internet Services........... 01 TELECOM Belgacom Announces Major European Network Expansion........ 02 TELECOM Kentucky Gas & Electric Firm Joins AT&T Utility Program.... 06 TELECOM Hong Kong - New T&T Intros Int'l Services.................. 10 TELECOM ****Caller ID Goes Nationwide............................. 14 TELECOM Internet Expo - RadioMail's Remote Mgt..................... 19 TELECOM Internet Expo - Bell Atlantic/Nynex CDPD Deployment........ 22 TRENDS Digital Mobile Phones Taking Off In France................. 03 TRENDS Windows 95 Will Lure CD-ROM Publishers - Study............. 05 TRENDS Software Sales Up In 3rd Qtr, Mac Sales Down............... 26 WINDOWS Internet Expo - Pronto Mobile & "Secure" E-Mail............ 21 ======================================================================== These are the headlines and first paragraphs of each story, in order: 1 -> UK - Mercury To Offer Business Internet Services -- Mercury Communications, the UK operations division of Cable & Wireless, has announced the creation of a managed Internet service for business users. According to Steve Powers, a spokesman for the company, the telco is investing UKP35 million in the new project division. 2 -> Belgacom Announces Major European Network Expansion -- Belgacom has announced a series of major upgrades to its international voice and data network. According to officials with the company, the network expansion will allow much faster and greater numbers of interconnects between most European countries into the home Belgian network, as well as enhancing service to other countries. 3 -> Digital Mobile Phones Taking Off In France -- Despite the relatively high cost of using a mobile phone in France, the French Ministry of Information Technology and Posts has revealed that the number of mobile phone users in France rose by a healthy 4.7 percent in October, pushing the number of subscriptions to more than 1,160,000. 4 -> 110 Channels On Single Laser For Cable TV -- Ortel Corp. (NASDAQ:ORTL), a manufacturer of high-performance lasers for cable television networks, has announced, what the company claims is, the industry's first high-performance 110-channel laser. The Model 3630C laser enables the transmission of 30 additional television channels with no increase in distortion, providing cable operators with the capacity for more revenue-generating programming, such as near video-on-demand (NVOD) and pay-per-view (PPV). 5 -> Windows 95 Will Lure CD-ROM Publishers - Study -- Windows 95, with its 32-bit technology and a design that pays more attention to the needs of games and multimedia software, will lure many CD-ROM publishers away from DOS. However, says a recent study by research firm InfoTech Inc., this will not happen overnight. 6 -> Kentucky Gas & Electric Firm Joins AT&T Utility Program -- Louisville Gas & Electric has joined the team developing the AT&T Integrated Broadband Utility Solution 7 -> Australian Govt Pays IBM $75Mil For Computer Services -- A list tabled in the Australian Senate shows just where the AUS$74,759,551.30 that the Federal Government paid out on the computer bounty in the financial year to June 30, 1995, went. 8 -> Gateway Australia Lowers PC Prices -- Revitalized Gateway-Osborne (G-O) has fired its first shot in the small office/home office (SOHO) PC Christmas season war in Australia. The key to G-O's offer is price. 9 -> A Plan For Fighting Homogenized Media -- Lawrence K. Grossman, former president of the Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) and of NBC News, explains why the government needs to create an independent public telecommunications trust fund in "Maintaining Diversity in the Electronic Republic" (Technology Review, Nov./Dec. 1995, pp. 22-26). 10 -> Hong Kong - New T&T Intros Int'l Services -- While Hongkong Telecom battled management issues within, the new fixed-line competitor 11 -> Japan Newsbriefs -- In this roundup of news from Japan: Battery production to restart at Sony plant; Toshiba proposes DVD licensing authority; Windows 95 registers strong sales; Osaka Internet cafes opened; MPEG 2 officially adopted; KDD buy Coherent equipment; Award software opens Tokyo office. 12 -> Japan Group Supports Interactive TV -- A consortium of twelve Japanese companies has announced adoption of a format developed by California- based Wink Communications for the development of interactive television. The group includes national telecommunications operator NTT, major television manufacturers, and national broadcaster NHK. 13 -> NewsPix Images For Newsbytes Publishers -- Photos are now posted as they arrive. This means quicker access to the story pictures. The bulletin will continue on Mondays, with updates Wednesdays and Fridays as needed. 14 -> ****Caller ID Goes Nationwide -- You probably won't see "Out of Area" on your Caller ID display screen anymore, even if the incoming call originates from the other side of the country. That's because, effective immediately, Caller ID is now available nationwide to anyone with phone service that currently has or subsequently subscribes to Caller ID. 15 -> Artisoft Pays $1.3Mil For Modem Sharing Software -- Artisoft Inc. (NASDAQ:ASFT), the publisher of the LANtastic network operating software, said it has paid $1.3 million in cash for substantially all of the assets of Synergy Solutions Inc. 16 -> ****Compromise Coming On Online Smut -- Rep. Rick White (R-Wash.) today will unveil a compromise on online smut that online service providers and digital libertarians are reluctantly backing, in order to prevent more extreme legislation when the House-Senate conference committee on telecommunications reform deals with the issue, which could be as early as tomorrow. 17 -> Internet Expo - Lotus Previews Updated cc:Mail For Mac -- Lotus cc:Mail for Macintosh, Release 3, a long anticipated update to cc:Mail's Mac client, adds new rules and "droplets" for automating messaging tasks, new assistants for preparing Internet and other "complex" addresses, and 150 new viewers for reading and printing cross-platform files, revealed Lotus' Karen J. Horwitz and Amy E. Shaw, during a sneak preview for Newsbytes at Internet Expo/E-Mail World in Boston. 18 -> Internet Expo - AT&T Services For Different Markets -- With the introduction of AT&T Personal Online Services, AT&T Easy Commerce Services, and two AT&T WorldNet services, plus the commercial rollout of AT&T Network Connect Service (ANCS), all within the past six months, AT&T is following a "disaggregated" model similar to that of America Online (AOL), Compuserve, Prodigy, and other online leaders, said Robert F. Jones and George F. Cunningham, two AT&T VPs, in a briefing for Newsbytes at Internet Expo in Boston. 19 -> Internet Expo - RadioMail's Remote Mgt -- RadioMail's newly rolled out RadioMail Remote Management is meant to bring money-saving Internet, fax and paging "message management" on either a wired or wireless basis, maintained Steven Rand, VP of marketing and sales, in an interview with Newsbytes at Internet Expo. 20 -> Softcop Claims Better Way To Try Before You Buy -- The Internet offers an easy way for software publishers to let potential customers try out their wares before they buy, provided they can make sure the customers can do no more than try the software until they pay for it. SoftCop International Inc. claims to have a better way of doing this. 21 -> Internet Expo - Pronto Mobile & "Secure" E-Mail -- CommTouch Software's new Pronto Mobile, an e-mail client for portable PC users, provides the same mail synchronization and rules-based filters as the company's flagship Pronto Mail 2.0, together with time-saving new "scenarios" for environments like airplanes and hotel rooms, said Robert Novak, VP of sales and marketing, at a meeting with Newsbytes at E-Mail World/Internet Expo in Boston. 22 -> Internet Expo - Bell Atlantic/Nynex CDPD Deployment -- Through a new deployment of AirBridge Packet cellular digital packet data service (CDPD), Bell Atlantic Nynex Mobile (BANM) and Hughes Network Systems (HNS) have brought the first "secure" cellular services to Boston and the surrounding Route 128 "high tech belt," asserted executives of the two CDPD partner companies, during a meeting with Newsbytes at Internet Expo/E-Mail World in Boston. 23 -> Internet Expo - Silicon Graphics/EBT Web Software Deal -- "Silicon Graphics Inc. (SGI) isn't just bundling our software. They're actually using it on their World Wide Web site," said Paul Lamoureux of Electronic Book Technologies (EBT), in an interview with Newsbytes at Internet Expo about new moves by SGI to package EBT's DynaWeb with its workstations, and to use DynaWeb 2.0 to translate its product manuals into HTML (hypertext markup language) for Web browser access on the SGI home page. 24 -> ****Internet Update -- In this roundup of new services and resources on the global Internet: MSN beta Web page; Jordan Star online; Australia pick of the day; Texas.net museum of art; Guide to Hamamatsu; Quick access to the weather; Pleiades network for women; Campaign 96 mailing lists; CNNfn Knight Ridder news; Science news; NBC 4 seismo cam; Friday's Child International. 25 -> Hayes Microcomputer Says Financing Package Finalized -- Hayes Microcomputer Products Inc. said it has wrapped up the financing package it needed to complete its emergence from bankruptcy, and has the necessary funds to pay its creditors in full, plus interest, as promised. 26 -> Software Sales Up In 3rd Qtr, Mac Sales Down -- Over-all sales of personal computer applications software in the United States and Canada in the third quarter were up 48 percent over the third quarter of last year, the Software Publishers Association reported this morning. However, sales of software for Apple Computer Inc.'s (NASDAQ:AAPL) Macintosh slipped for the second consecutive quarter. 27 -> Wireless Announcement System Tested In New York Subway -- Digital, wireless audio, and text technology got a tryout in one of the New York City subway's busier stations this morning. Madah-Com Inc., of Central Valley, New York, demonstrated its Waves wireless public address system to officials of MTA New York City Transit at the 59th Street and Columbus Circle station. 28 -> Wladawsky-Berger To Head IBM Internet Unit -- As expected, IBM (NYSE:IBM) has set up a new Internet division within its software group. The company named Irving Wladawsky-Berger, former head of its RS/6000 division, to head the operation. 29 -> Bill Gates Sees Multilingual Internet -- Bill Gates, chairman of Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ: MSFT) said that the president of France was wrong when he said English would drive the French language off the information superhighway. 30 -> Compuserve Asks For Free Candidate Accts Ruling -- In response to news stories questioning a plan by Compuserve to allow federal candidates to have free access to its online service and the Internet, Compuserve officials said they are asking the Federal Election Commission (FEC) to advise Compuserve on its plan. 31 -> ****Netscape & Sun Announce JavaScript -- Sun Microsystems (NASDAQ:SUNW) and Netscape Communications (NASDAQ:NSCP) have announced a new programming language for creating and customizing computer network and Internet software applications, called JavaScript. The new language is designed to work with both Sun's Java and the hypertext markup language (HTML) to create interactive content for the Internet and other networks, officials said. 32 -> ****Netscape Shockwave Plug-In Makes Video Easier -- Macromedia (NASDAQ:MACR), a leading developer of design and authoring software for multimedia presentations, has announced the availability of a Netscape Navigator Plug-in for Shockwave content. Introduced at a recent Macromedia user conference, Shockwave was developed to bring full multimedia content to the World Wide Web. 33 -> ****Justice Dept Continues Microsoft Probe -- The US Department of Justice is reportedly trying to determine if Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ: MSFT) intentionally caused Windows 95 to disable rival companies' Internet access programs, but a Microsoft spokesperson called the allegations "absolute nonsense." (Ian Stokell/19951204) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 12/01/95 LEGAL ****US Warns China On Piracy (NEWS)(LEGAL)(WAS)(00001) ****US Warns China On Piracy 12/01/95 WASHINGTON, D.C., U.S.A., 1995 DEC 1 (NB) -- A top US trade official says Washington will take "decisive action" unless China dramatically improves its performance on protecting against piracy of computer software, movies and recordings. Charlene Barshefsky, deputy US trade representative, told the Senate Foreign Relations Committee that China is falling "far short" of its February 26 agreement with the US to crack down on piracy. "We expect that China will be well on the way to sharply improved implementation of the agreement by the February 26 anniversary date of its signing," Barshefsky said. "If China does not satisfactorily implement the agreement, the administration will take decisive action." The Business Software Alliance says piracy rates in China for software are 98 percent. The trade office estimates US companies will lose $866 million in sales in China this year to pirates, down slightly from the $1 billion in losses before China agreed to reforms. "While China has taken steps to clean up retail markets," said Barshefsky, "it has done little effectively so far to attack the heart of the problem -- continuing, massive reduction, distribution and export of pirated products." She said that Chinese authorities have taken little action against some 29 factories pumping out pirated CD-ROMs. Of seven factories closed last spring, Barshefsky said, "all but one have been reopened." She said authorities believe that one of the reopened factories is operating under the law, "we have much less confidence that the other five are clean." Asked why China has targeted retailers and left manufacturers alone, Barshefsky said the Peoples Liberation Army and politically connected officials may own the factories, insulating them from attack. According to Barshefsky, a team of US officials will visit Beijing next month to review compliance with the intellectual property agreement. The US will also review the agreement again in February. Barshefsky said she discussed the agreement with the Chinese government in a trip to Beijing earlier this month. She said she told them that how they enforce the copyright agreement will reflect on China's bid to join the World Trade Organization. (Kennedy Maize/19951130) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 12/01/95 TRENDS Where Did My Game Go? (NEWS)(TRENDS)(SFO)(00002) Where Did My Game Go? 12/01/95 IRVINE, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1995 DEC 1 (NB) -- DVD Software released a Windows version of its game elimination utility, UnGame. If you sign on to your network and find your favorite game missing, chances are good that is was one of 3,100 games UnGame can delete. DVD has built a business around improving computer productivity by monitoring and eliminating games employees spend time playing. Company President Dana Hollander says the annual cost of games at work in terms of lost productivity in the United States alone is estimated to be $50 billion. Beyond the time spent playing games, Hollander says one must also consider decreased network performance which some games cause and the amount of disk space required by some of the newer games. "Some of these new games are multiplayer network games which easily affect network performance," says Hollander. The company started with a DOS version of UnGame, but with the broad acceptance of Windows, customers were quick to ask for a product to help solve the same problem on the Windows platforms where most of the games are played. UnGame installs on a network server where it allows a network manager to determine whether games files are being accessed and whether the game should be deleted or left on the hard disk. UnGame has a long reach. It can eliminate games on any Personal Computer on a network where the program is installed on the server. Who is playing the role of big brother? Hollander says a lot of her customers come from the government sector. "We have universities, public utilities and a lot of government offices. We also have customers from the private sector such as Monsanto, Walt Disney Films and Amoco," commented Hollander. Her government customers include the US Postal Service, Southern California Edison, The Port of Seattle and the San Francisco Municipal Railway system. This does not mean all is well at DVD Software. "We also get our share of hate mail," said Hollander. UnGame can detect games under Windows 3.1, 3.11, 95 and NT, OS/2 and DOS. This $59.95 program supports major network systems including Novell, Windows NT, Banyan, Lan Server and others. (Patrick McKenna/19951130) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 12/01/95 WINDOWS Microsoft Shipping New Programming Tools, TechNet Sampler (NEWS)(WINDOWS)(DEN)(00003) Microsoft Shipping New Programming Tools, TechNet Sampler 12/01/95 REDMOND, WASHINGTON, U.S.A., 1995 DEC 1 (NB) -- Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ: MSFT) has announced availability of some new tools for programmers, including an upgrade to Visual C++, an OpenGL 3D API (application programming interface) and a CD that contains a sample issue of the company's TechNet information resource for supporting business products. Microsoft said it is now shipping version 4.0 of Visual C++ for Windows 95 and Windows NT. The new version reportedly provides a new approach to code reuse, always a subject of interest to busy applications developers. Re-use of code modules to perform standard functions can save developers weeks or even months of work on each new application. In Visual C++ 4.0 you get a component gallery that stores OLE (object linking and embedding) controls and Visual C++ components, custom AppWizards that provide an application template based on existing projects or third-party components, and MFC extension that Microsoft said makes it easier to use third-party technologies in applications. If you buy the Subscription version of Visual C++ 4.0, with its estimated selling price of $499, you get three additional releases as they become available during the subscription year at no extra cost. That includes major releases, said Microsoft. Current subscribers of Visual C++ will automatically receive version 4.0 as part of their subscription. Users of all earlier versions of Visual C++ can upgrade to version 4.0 for about $199 or to the subscription version for under $300. If you use a competitive product and want to switch to Visual C++ it will cost you about $249 or $349 for the regular and subscription versions respectively. Microsoft has also announced availability of the OpenGL 3-D graphics application programming interface (API) for Windows 95. OpenGL 3-D is a high-end three-dimensional graphics API that provides a set of interfaces for specifying, rendering and viewing complex three-dimensional graphics. The new API supports software-based rendering for graphics cards supported by Windows 95 and hardware acceleration with drivers for high-end OpenGL hardware. OpenGL for Windows 95 is available through the Microsoft Developer Network Level 2. The release package includes run-time graphics libraries, header files and sample code, including 3-D screen-saver demo programs. The run-time graphics libraries can be distributed with the developer's application without having to pay licensing or royalty fees. Also shipping is a single-issue CD sampler of TechNet, Microsoft's information resource for business product evaluation,implementation and support. The sampler previews most of the content available through an annual subscription to TechNet, but at about one-tenth of the usual subscription price. The CD contains product facts, white papers and technical notes on all Microsoft products, as well as the resource kits for the Windows 95 operating system and Microsoft Office for Windows 95. You also get information about the products in the Microsoft BackOffice family of server software like Windows NT and Microsoft Exchange Server. The sampler is available from Microsoft for $29.95. Buyers receive a $30 rebate coupon toward an annual subscription to Technet if it's purchased through an authorized Microsoft reseller. A single user license for TechNet has an estimated selling price of $299 while the single server unlimited user license is $699. TechNet is designed specifically for technical professionals who evaluate and select new products, administer databases or networks, integrate products and platforms, or support and train users. Microsoft cites a study by Burke Marketing Research that claims a TechNet subscription saves an average of $12,000 in support costs annually. (Jim Mallory/19951201/Press contact: Waggener Edstrom for Microsoft, 503-245-0905; Public contact: Microsoft general information: 206-882-8080 or 800-726-9400; 800-344-2121 to order the TechNet sampler CD)nna/19951129/Press Contact: Dana Hollander, DVD Software, tel 714-757-0615) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 12/01/95 ONLINE Internet Update (NEWS)(ONLINE)(TYO)(00004) Internet Update 12/01/95 TOKYO, JAPAN, 1995 DEC 1 (NB) -- This is a roundup of new resources and services on the global Internet: Site Of The Day: World Wide Music, The Online Column, Push-Pull Animation, Chicago Tribune Digital Coffee, Cyberspace Society Mailing List, The Civil War Letters Of Galutia York, Need Computer Parts?, Bug Net. Site Of The Day: World Wide Music This is something every music fan should check out. On the home page they describe a situation we have all been in: "A friend recommends a new album to you, tells you that you'll love it. How do you know if they are right? You hear a great song on the radio, but how can you tell if the rest of the album is any good?" This great Web site has 30 second sound clips from over 40,000 albums online, 200,000 clips in all. The even better service available to regular users is that the computer will start to make recommendations once it knows your taste! World Wide Web: http://www.worldwidemusic.com/ The Online Column Steve Kelley writes a weekly online column for York County Star newspaper and puts each edition on the Web so more can share the writing. Visitors to the Web site will find the current column plus an archive to past issues as well as a calendar of current events on the Internet and a section given over the readers. The guide can also be subscribed to via email by sending a message to the author requesting copies each week. Email: skelley@cybertours.com World Wide Web: http://www.cybertours.com/yccs/online.htm Push-Pull Animation This kept us amused for five minutes which, as the editor will tell you, isn't a bad thing! KMR Media have put up a selection of four pages using the push-pull animation technique to make a man run, a house puff smoke, a mail truck drive and the world spin. To get these your browser must support push-pull animation which rules out most non-Netscape users. World Wide Web: http://www.kmrmedia.com/ Chicago Tribune Digital Coffee Just what the Doctor ordered! The Chicago Tribune's Digital Coffee pages are on the Internet offering users a weekly guide to news and events in cyberspace and the ever popular "hot links" to new Web sites. There is also computing news, software reviews and user message areas. World Wide Web: http://www.chicago.tribune.com/coffee/ Cyberspace Society Mailing List This is the discussion list of the Cyberspace Society and open to all society members. The society was "established to sustain the democratic mission and the universal right of the people to govern their own affairs, which are now being overrun by multinational corporations and leadership groups with whom the global people no longer closely identify." Users can find out more about the society by subscribing to the list. Email: listserv@readns1.readadp.com Message Body: subscribe CYBER-SOC firstname lastname The Civil War Letters Of Galutia York York, the 19-year old son of a farm family from Hubbardsville in Madison County, NY, was a soldier in the US Civil War and, until now, 48 of his letters have been stored at Colgate University, never having been cataloged or transcribed. For the first time, these are available on the World Wide Web and being supplemented with illustrations of local interest and the sights Galutia saw and wrote home about. This is a great example of how the Internet can be used to its fullest. World Wide Web: http://exlibris.colgate.edu/gyork/gyork1st.html Need Computer Parts? The Infoguide is now the place to go for add-ons and parts for your computer after it opened the Computer Parts Network. The pages offer free for-sale ads to anyone trying to sell computer parts and people looking to buy can search a database of ads to find what they need. World Wide Web: http://infoGuide.com/classifieds\computer\Network.htm Bug Net Not a database of insect types but a comprehensive list of computer bugs, glitches, incompatibilities and any fixes available. Windows95 users will be interested in a new section of found bugs for the new operating system. You can also report a bug and check the latest bug alerts. World Wide Web: http://www.pacificrim.net/~bugnet/ (Martyn Williams/19951201) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 12/01/95 ONLINE Australia - NetComm Sells Internet Stake (NEWS)(ONLINE)(SYD)(00005) Australia - NetComm Sells Internet Stake 12/01/95 SYDNEY, AUSTRALIA 1995 DEC 1 (NB) -- In a move which may be a pointer to stronger alliances to come, Australian publicly listed modem maker NetComm has sold a 50 percent stake in its Internet service provider subsidiary Connect.com to long-distance phone operator AAP Telecommunications (AAPT). News of the deal comes six months after NetComm acquired Connect.com, and just days after approval of a previously announced $2 million investment in NetComm by US high-tech communications group ADC Telecommunications. NetComm and ADC plan to jointly develop and market cable modems for the world market. NetComm's shares, which earlier this year were selling as low as 49c, rose 10 percent to a year's high of $1.10 on Wednesday, as reports of the latest deal spread. They edged up another cent yesterday to close at $1.11. A press statement, issued to reporters wassailing at NetComm's annual Christmas lunch for the press yesterday, said the AAPT deal was part of a strategic agreement which would see AAPT provide Connect.com with long-term access to bandwidth. AAPT, owned by news wire service AAP (51pc), Singapore Telecom (24.5pc) and Todd Corp of NZ (24.5pc), claims to be Australia's third biggest long-distance carrier after Telstra and Optus. According to NetComm MD Chris Howells, currently in the US to detail the ADC-NetComm cable modem plans at the Western Cable Show at Anaheim, the deal is a key strategic initiative which will enhance NetComm's ability to put together bundled modem-and-service deals. NetComm-ADC face formidable competition in the coming cable modem market for delivering high-speed data services to personal computers through cable television networks. At yesterday's Anaheim show, AT&T, Hewlett-Packard and Intel announced an alliance to develop cable modem standards. (Computer Daily News/19951201) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 12/01/95 TRENDS On the Internet, No One Knows You're a Machine (NEWS)(TRENDS)(MSP)(00006) On the Internet, No One Knows You're a Machine 12/01/95 SEATTLE, WASHINGTON, U.S.A., 1995 DEC 1 (NB) -- Multiple-user domains (MUDs) are computer programs which allow a number of networked people to play roles and communicate with each other. Those who play MUDs on the Internet often pretend to be someone else, even someone of another gender. Computer scientists have taken this concept to its logical conclusion by writing programs called "bots" that mimic the behavior of a human MUD role-player. MIT sociology professor Sherry Turkle ponders the implications of this development in "Ghosts in the Machine" (The Sciences, Nov./Dec. 1995, pp. 36-39). "One of the most accomplished bots resides on a computer in Pittsburgh," Turkle writes. "Her creator, the computer scientist Michael L. Mauldin of Carnegie Mellon University, calls her Julia. Players talk to Julia (via typing) and she talks to them; they gesture to Julia (again via typing) and she gestures back. Julia looks for particular strings of characters in messages typed to her, then matches the input with a set of outputs she presents in random, nonrepeating sequences. Julia's conversational skills rely for the most part on the clever enumeration and grouping of those matching patterns and on her use of humor." Some users flirt with Julia, a phenomenon which might be taken either as evidence of machine intelligence or as proof of human stupidity. Either way, the boundaries of reality are becoming ever more blurred. This story is republished with permission from the December 1995 Cybernautics Digest, a 20-page monthly summary of reports about converging information technologies. (Contact: Terry Hansen, Cybernautics Digest, c/o KFH Publications Inc., 3530 Bagley Ave. N., Seattle, WA 98103; 206-547-4950; Fax: 206-547-5355; E-mail: cyber@cuix.pscu.com. U.S. rate: $24; $2 sample issue) (ADVISORY)(GENERAL)(MSP)(00007) NewsPix Update For Newsbytes Publishers 12/01/95 MINNEAPOLIS, MINNESOTA, U.S.A.,1995 DEC 1 (NB) -- This update will be posted each Wednesday and Friday to reflect the daily picture additions. The updates will in turn become part of the main NewsPix Bulletin issued on Monday. These photos correspond to recent Newsbytes stories. They are online in the Newsbytes menu on America Online, NiftyServe, the Newsbytes Pacifica Website at http://www.islandtel.com/newsbytes/ and the Newsbytes private bulletin board system in Minneapolis. To become a licensed Newsbytes publisher, call Newsbytes at 612-430-1100 (US) or write to wendy@newsbytes.com on the Internet. Licensing applies to any medium. --------------------------- DECEMBER 1, 1995 --------------------------- COURT951129 - color / Utah Public Kiosks - Touch A Screen, Go To Court!: screenshot from Infonorths Web site, NOT Utah specific. 6X86_951120 - color / Compaq Denies Plans for Under-$1500 PC In 1996: the Cyrix processors. JUNGLE951120 - color / Humongous Ships "Lets Explore the Jungle" : screenshot. A6_951122 - b&w / Fuji Intros More Printers: A6-size digital printer. SIRIUS951128 - color / Sirius Promises CD 10-Pack For Mac: artful look at product package. (Newsbytes/19951201) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 12/01/94 APPLE Apple Cuts Performa and Power Mac Prices (NEWS)(APPLE)(SFO)(00008) Apple Cuts Performa and Power Mac Prices 12/01/94 CUPERTINO, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1995 DEC 1 (NB) -- In preparation for the holiday buying season, Apple Computer (NASDAQ:AAPL) announced price cuts as high a 25%. Averaging $325, the cuts apply to certain Performas and Power Mac models. Following its statement to concentrate on key markets where Apple computers are well represented, Apple's president of Apple Americas, Jim Buckley said, "Our aim is to drive leading-edge technology into more homes, schools, and businesses with aggressively priced products. Apple's largest price reduction goes to the Macintosh Performa 640CD, DOS compatible with 12 megabytes (MB) of RAM, 500 MB hard disk and 15-inch monitor. Previously starting at $1999, the new expected street price is $1499. Two Power Mac systems are cut by $300. The Power Mac 6100/66, a DOS compatible system with 16MB of RAM, 500MB hard disk and a 2xCD is now $1999. Apple's Power Mac 7100/80 with 8 MB of RAM, a 2xCD and 700MB of storage is priced at $1499. The company cut $200 off the price of the Performa 5215 with 8 MB of RAM, 1 gigabyte (GB) of storage, a 4xCD and a 15-inch monitor and the Power Mac 7200/90 with 8 MB of RAM, 500 MB of storage and a 4xCD. Apple's Power Mac 7200/75 with 8 MB of RAM, 500 MB hard drive and a 4xCD is reduced by $150 to $1549. Price cuts are expected to go into effect December 2, 1995 and Apple reminds customers actual street prices may vary among its different retailers. (Patrick McKenna/19951201/Press Contact: Linda Gonslaves, Apple, tel 408--974-5233) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 12/01/95 GENERAL Personnel Roundup (NEWS)(GENERAL)(MSP)(00009) Personnel Roundup 12/01/95 MINNEAPOLIS, MINNESOTA, U.S.A., 1995 DEC 1 (NB) -- In today's roundup of personnel changes in the computing and telecommunications industries: Harris Corp., Digital Equipment Corp., PureSpeech Inc., CompUSA, Symantec Corp., Spectrum HoloByte Inc., Pyramid Technology, The Titan Corp., PageNet, Computervision Corp., Creative Technology Ltd. Harris Corp. named Joseph Tsui managing director (telecoms) for its Greater China region. Harris, a US company with global revenues of over US$3 billion, said the move signals more expansion in its China operation, now 20 years old. Tsui was a co-founder of Hong Kong's Tricom where he was president of its telecoms unit. He also worked with US-based Stromberg Carlson, Canada's Northern Telecom and Mitel Asia. Digital Equipment Corp appointed Yang Shaw-gang as managing director of its Greater China territory -- China, Hong Kong and Taiwan. Based in Hong Kong, Yang is responsible for all Digital products and services and reports to Bobby Choonavala, president, Digital Asia-Pacific. He was with Microsoft as regional general manager, Greater China, and before that, with Hewlett-Packard. Elsewhere in Digital, Ashok Shah, manager of systems integration (SI), was appointed VP and director of SI for Asia. In other Digital Equipment (508-486-2024) news, Robert Iannucci was named Cambridge Research Lab director. At this facility in Cambridge, Massachusetts, Digital conducts research on human-computer interaction technologies and strategic technologies critical to the development of new information systems. He reports to Dr. Samuel H. Fuller, vice president of Corporate Research. Iannucci joined Digital from Exa Corporation, where he was a founder and vice president of Product Marketing. Prior to that, Iannucci was at IBM for fourteen years, where he was a Research Staff Member/Manager, in the T.J. Watson Research Center, and led hardware development of the MIT Multiprocessor Emulation Facility at the MIT Laboratory for Computer Science. Robin Rohlicek, formerly vice president of research and development for BBN Hark, will join the senior management team at PureSpeech Inc. (617-441-0000) as vice president of engineering. Rohlicek will lead research and development efforts for the speech recognition company. Prior to BBN Hark, Rohlicek led government funded research and development projects at BBN in the areas of word spotting and information extraction. Rohlicek obtained a Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and is currently a member of the Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers (IEEE) Speech Processing Technical Committee. Clinton T. "Clint" Newby, Jr., a veteran of more than 25 years in government computer sales with some of the biggest names in the business, has joined CompUSA (NYSE: CPU) as senior director, Government and Education Sales. Newby takes over a growing business that is projected to do $150 million this year in sales of personal computer hardware, software, peripherals, accessories, training, and related services to federal agencies, state and local governments, and educational institutions. Symantec Corp. (Nasdaq: SYMC - 408-446-7142) announced the appointment of several current executives to new positions within the software company, reporting to Gordon E. Eubanks, Jr., president and chief executive officer (CEO). John C. Laing, currently executive vice president of worldwide sales, is assuming responsibility for all of Symantec's desktop utilities software products. Ted Schlein, vice president, enterprise solutions, continues to be responsible for Symantec's Norton series of utilities designed for networks of computers. Dana Siebert, Symantec's current vice president, services, will now direct and lead the Symantec sales effort worldwide, assuming all of Mr. Laing's former responsibilities. He will manage Symantec's sales and distribution activities, with responsibility to develop and expand business opportunities domestically and internationally. In separate news, Joseph Shepela, 50, has joined Symantec as vice president, human resources. Shepela's previous appointments include top human-resource management positions with First Pacific Networks, Quantum, Apple, and Hewlett-Packard. Interactive entertainment software publisher Spectrum HoloByte Inc. (Nasdaq: SBYT - 510-814-6336) announced the appointment of William E. Meyer, C.P.A. as corporate controller. Meyer, 33, will oversee the corporate accounting function for the company. Meyer was most recently vice president of Finance for SBT Accounting Systems. Meyer is a Certified Public Accountant and holds a B.S. in Business Administration, Accounting from California State University, Sacramento. Pyramid Technology (408-428-9000) announced the addition of several new executives to its management team, including two newcomers to Pyramid, Dennis Wolf and Mike Munro, who will be taking the roles of vice president, chief financial officer and vice president, assistant to the president, respectively. In his role as chief financial officer, Wolf will head corporate finance and play a key role in expanding Pyramid's global sales organization while reporting directly to John Chen, Pyramid's president and chief executive officer. As vice president and assistant to the president, Munro will assist Chen with a variety of business issues including coordination of sales activities between Pyramid and Siemens affiliates. In addition, the firm announced the promotion of four current Pyramid employees to positions of vice president: Steve Capelli, formerly assistant to the president, has been promoted to vice president of intercontinental sales where he will be responsible for direct sales in the United Kingdom and indirect sales channels in Europe; Everett Dyer, formerly regional sales manager, has been promoted to regional vice president of America's sales in charge of both commercial sales in the South Central and Mid-Atlantic regions and federal sales; Tom Leitzke, formerly senior director of manufacturing operations, has been promoted to vice president of manufacturing responsible for all manufacturing initiatives; Nita White-Ivy, formerly senior director of human resources, has been promoted to vice president of human resources and will be responsible for worldwide human resources operations. The board of directors of The Titan Corp. (NYSE: TTN - 619-552-9400) says it has accepted the resignation of Dr. John E. Koehler as executive vice president, chief operating officer and a director of the company. Koehler will be starting his own consulting company. Koehler joined the company in April. Prior to Titan, Koehler was president of Hughes Asia Pacific, the marketing and entrepreneurial arm of Hughes Electronics in that region. PageNet (Nasdaq: PAGE - 214-985-6749) has named Glenn W. Marschel president and chief executive officer effective Dec. 1. Marschel will also be elected to the board of directors. Marschel, 49, most recently was vice chairman and chief operating officer for First Financial Management Corporation's financial and health care businesses. Computervision Corp. (NYSE: CVN) announced that Kathleen A. Cote, has been named president and chief operating officer. Cote will report directly to Russell E. Planitzer, Computervision's chairman and chief executive officer. Cote, 46, joined Computervision in 1986 as vice president of manufacturing and in November, 1987, she was made a corporate officer. In August, 1989, she was appointed vice president of worldwide services, heading up Computervision's Services Business Unit. In February, 1994, her role expanded to include marketing and corporate communications, in addition to heading up the company's operating committee. Creative Technology Ltd. (Nasdaq: CREAF - 65-870-0449) announced the resignation of Mr. Ng Kai Wa as a director of the company and vice-chairman of the board of directors with effect from December 1. (Newsbytes/19951201) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 12/01/95 LEGAL Conferees Clear Securities Legislation (NEWS)(LEGAL)(WAS)(00010) Conferees Clear Securities Legislation 12/01/95 WASHINGTON, D.C., U.S.A., 1995 DEC 1 (NB) -- A House-Senate conference committee has finished work on legislation to limit the ability of investors to bring securities fraud lawsuits. The conference report is expected to be approved by both chambers and the final legislation should be on President Clinton's desk next week. He is expected to sign it. The legislation has been a major goal of high-tech lobbyists in Washington. Bill Archey, president and chief executive officer of the American Electronics Association, praised Congress for its actions. The bill, he said, "has told a handful of trial lawyers that they can no longer engage in legal extortion and make millions of dollars by falsely alleging fraudulent activity that just did not take place." The new law, Archey told Newsbytes, will be "a step toward removing an unjustifiable and unnecessary albatross around the next of high-tech companies." An AEA survey, that should that more than half of the top 150 high-tech companies in Silicon Valley have been hit with class action securities suits, was an important element in persuading Congress to pass the legislation over the opposition of the powerful trial lawyers. Sen. Chris Dodd (D-Conn.), a key author of the Senate bill, said the measure "creates a balanced bipartisan bill that restores fairness and integrity to our securities litigation system by protecting both innocent companies and the rights of legitimately defrauded investors." The most controversial element of the legislation is a safe-harbor provision that would shield officers of a company from liability when making earnings forecasts and other financial projections. Under current law, a bad prediction of earnings, for example, can trigger a suit by investors claiming fraud. The House passed its version of the legislation by a 325-99 vote and the senate bill passed 69-29. Working out differences between the two bodies proved relatively easy. The AEA has been working for more than three years to change the law and protect high-tech companies. "Our campaign will culminate in a presidential signature in the next few weeks," said Archey. (Kennedy Maize/19951201/Press Contact: Beneva Schulte, AEA, 202-682-4443) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 12/01/95 LEGAL Business Software Alliance Picks Up Adobe (NEWS)(LEGAL)(WAS)(00011) Business Software Alliance Picks Up Adobe 12/01/95 WASHINGTON, D.C., U.S.A., 1995 DEC 1 (NB) -- Adobe Systems Inc. has joined the Business Software Alliance's campaign to eradicate computer software piracy. Adobe has been a regional BSA member, participating in activities in Europe for several years, but now becomes a worldwide member, according to BSA spokeswoman Kim Willard. Based in Mountain View, Calif., Adobe markets a variety of document creation software, including the PostScript programming and page description language and the Adobe Acrobat page description and reading software. "Software piracy is a major problem for Adobe and our industry," says Steve MacDonald, Adobe's senior vice president and chief operating officer. "We believe the best way to solve the problem is to work with the BSA and other software companies to encourage governments to establish and enforce effective copyright laws, and to educate end users about the rules for using software." BSA promotes its anti-piracy agenda in the US and 60 other countries in North America, Europe, Asia and Latin America. Other worldwide BSA members are Autodesk, Bentley Systems, Intergraph, Lotus Development, Microsoft, Novell and its soon-to-be spun off Wordperfect group, the Santa Cruz Operation and Symantec. Since it began in 1988 as a spin-off from the Software Publishers Association, BSA has filed more than 600 lawsuits worldwide against suspected software pirates. (Kennedy Maize/19951201/Press Contact: Kim Willard, 202-872-5500) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 12/01/95 ONLINE Internet Expo - VisualWave For "Live" Web Apps (NEWS)(ONLINE)(BOS)(00012) Internet Expo - VisualWave For "Live" Web Apps 12/01/95 BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS, U.S.A., 1995 DEC 1 (NB) -- ParcPlace- Digitalk's new object-oriented (OO) VisualWave will let Web developers move beyond the "brochureware" and forms-based "application wannabes" of most home pages today into "live Web applications that `listen' and `respond' to users," contended Nick Copping, VP of worldwide strategic customer relations, during a press conference attended by Newsbytes at E-Mail World/Internet Expo in Boston. "Objects and the Web are inextricably linked," said Bill Lyons, president and CEO (chief executive officer), also during the press event. "That's why we need a powerful accompaniment to the Web -- which, at the end of the day, is based on change." IDC (International Data Corporation) research shows that 93 percent of corporations today are moving to object-oriented development, an even higher percentage than those that are migrating to the Web, reported Lyons. "And Forrester Research believes that the Web is the `killer app' for object technology," the ParcPlace-Digitalk CEO asserted. But most Web applications today are still being built through scripting methods such as CGI (Common Gateway Interface) that make it difficult to include the application logic and database access needed for "intelligence and interactivity," and even more time consuming to change an application after it's been written, according to the two execs. Slated to ship in December, ParcPlace-Digitalk's object-oriented VisualWave introduces a new concept called "intelligent session management" for "two-way dialogues" between the user and the Web application, the journalists were told. The capability is aimed at letting developers "navigate" users through the application and exploit the application's logic to provide feedback that is customized to the individual user's input. Users are not required to "visit pages in a preset sequence." Also new, Lyons maintained, is the ability to "hotload" components, adding and removing parts of an application, without recoding or recompiling, "even when the user is online." In describing component hotloading, Lyons used two analogies: Legos, and "patches in a patchwork quilt." Hotloading, he said, is akin to replacing one "patch in the quilt" with a new patch. Also during the press event, developers from Pennsylvania State University, The Vanguard Group, Dun & Bradstreet Information Services (DBIS), and Integral Development Corp., talked about their plans for VisualWave. Penn State, for instance, is building a "student advising" application known as CAAIS (Comprehensive Academic Advising Information System), said the university's Polly Spangler. CAAIS is targeted at allowing students to make and enter decisions about academic majors and minors and courseloads in ways related to their "academic progress," according to Spangler. DBIS has already used ParcPlace-Digitalk's Smalltalk-based VisualWorks to build an online application that uses "secure transaction services" in delivering business information on US companies, according to Tom Thornbury. The firm is now starting to incorporate the use of the new VisualWave into its Web site. ParcPlace-Digitalk's Lyons told the press that VisualWave adds new components to VisualWorks that include "a GUI (graphical user interface) builder and access to RDBMS (relational database management systems.)" Web developers create and test applications in VisualWave's Personal Web Server, according to the execs. A Reusable Application Framework is used as an application "scaffold," while an Image Editor is employed for building Web interfaces that can include "dynamically generated graphics." VisualWave also incorporates conversion engines for the HTML (HyperText Mark-Up Language), CGI, and GIF protocols that will permit the applications to run on the Web. Other tools that come with the product include a Canvas Editor, Layout Editor, Symbolic Debugger, Change List Manager, Resource Finder, and Workspaces. Access to the DB2, Oracle7, and Sybase RDBMS is provided through an optional add-on called Database Connect. Through another option, VisualWave Server, developers can equip their applications with "authentication and security," and deploy the applications to HTTP Web servers. Applications created with VisualWave are designed to be accessible with any HTML-compliant browser, according to the execs. During a Q&A session at the close of the press conference, Copping told the reporters and analysts that the steepest section of the Smalltalk "learning curve" concerns knowledge of object classes. Since the Smalltalk language is "easier" than C++, any accomplished C++ programmer can learn to use Smalltalk within a few days, he asserted. But learning times for programmers without experience in object-oriented development will be longer. An analyst in the audience volunteered that developers she has spoken with have found ParcPlace-Digitalk's VisualWorks to be "more interactive" than other environments, and that the "feedback" received from the ADE (application development environment) has been useful to them. Also during the press conference, Copping said that, in the future, the company plans to incorporate other OO languages into VisualWave, including Sun Microsystems' Java, Microsoft's OLE (object-linking-and-embedding), and the OMG (Object Management Group)'s CORBA (Common Object Request Broker Architecture). During a meeting with Newsbytes at the close of the press conference, Copping revealed that the OSF (Open Software Foundation)'s DCE (Distributed Computing Environment) is another OO language that will be added to VisualWave. The VP also noted that, although VisualWave will support OBXes (Object Extensions) through OLE, ParcPlace-Digitalk has no plans to support the VBXes (Visual Basic Extensions) that are specific to Microsoft's Visual Basics ADE. (Jacqueline Emigh/19951201/Reader Contact: ParcPlace-Digitalk, 408-481-9090; Press Contacts: Ellie Victor, ParcPlace-Digitalk, 408-773-7479; Amanda McPherson, Cunningham Communications for ParcPlace-Digitalk, 408-764-0763) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 12/01/95 HEALTH New Web Site Offers Daily Health Info (NEWS)(HEALTH)(MSP)(00013) New Web Site Offers Daily Health Info 12/01/95 NEW YORK CITY, NEW YORK, U.S.A., 1995 DEC 1 (NB) -- Daily updated information on health and medical topics are now being provided on the Internet's World Wide Web from The New York Times Syndicated. The new site, called "Your Health Daily," is written so it can be easily understood by the general reader as well as health pros, officials said. "We don't see many health-related Web sites that are constantly updating health news and reader-friendly health news," Patrick Vance, director of projects for The New York Times Syndicate, told Newsbytes. "We're trying to be a little more reader-friendly and a little more timely than what we perceive the usual health site to be." The Web site includes news, features, analysis, and columns from a variety of news sources in the US, Asia, and Europe. Many of the content comes from Medical Tribune, which is published in 14 countries and in five languages. Information at the site ranges from articles about the latest research into heart disease, and new reports on asthma, cancer, and depression. Also included is coverage of AIDS conferences, and feature articles about weight loss, nutrition, and men's and women's health. The articles can be searched by topic or keyword. Users can also electronically "talk" about the stories in the Web pages in a discussion forum. Vance said he's already received enthusiastic reactions from the medical community, but he wants to hear more from his target audience, the consumer market. In the news release announcing the site, officials said Your Health Daily is "initially being offered free to all Internet users." Vance told Newsbytes no plans are in the works to make the site a subscription-based one, but the company "wanted to leave its options open" in case it has to start charging for access down the road. The site will also include advertising. Your Health Daily is located at URL (uniform resource locator) http://nytsyn.com/medic/ . The site is produced by New York City- based interactive media concern Interactive Connection. A future Web site Vance wants to start is a religion-based one that would provide non-denominational news and values "without getting into the Bill Bennett stuff," he told Newsbytes. The site would contain hyperlinks to other pages containing specifics about religions or ideologies, he added. (Bob Woods/19951130/Press Contacts: Patrick Vance, 212-499-3331, or John Brewer, 212-499-3333, both of The New York Times Syndicate; William Adler, 212-499-3313, of The New York Times Information Services Group, Jack Angel, 212-274-7180, or Dan B. Zurich, 212-274- 7127, of Medical Tribune; Alan S. Ellman, Interactive Connection, 212-741-6333) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 12/01/95 WINDOWS SoftRAM95 Test Results Clarified (NEWS)(WINDOWS)(SFO)(00014) SoftRAM95 Test Results Clarified 12/01/95 LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1995 DEC 1 (NB) -- Well- known independent testing group, XXCAL Testing Laboratories issued a clarification about its testing data of Syncronys' SoftRAM95. After an avalanche of publicity claiming the company's product does not double RAM as advertised, XXCAL released clarification of its published test conclusions. "We did say within the context of our test results conclusions that 'Under the Windows 3.1 and 3.11 environments, SoftRAM95 effectively doubles system RAM.' We want to make sure people understand the conclusion was reached under specific test configurations as proffered by Syncronys for use in testing," said XXCAL spokesperson, Troy Sukert. XXCAL has been an independent and highly recognized testing company for the computer industry since 1982. From hardware to software and high-end networks to desktops, the company has performed extensive tests and reported results for companies such as Gateway, Hewlett-Packard, Apple Computer, Intel, Microsoft and many others. Concerning its role in the SoftRAM95 case, XXCAL says it tested the product under a specific benchmark, but that no technical analysis of any kind was commissioned or performed. Secondly, the company states testing was only performed with version 2.00I under Microsoft Windows 3.1 and 3.11. No testing was performed by XXCAL under Microsoft Windows 95 and XXCAL did not test version 2.00. XXCAL verified the major components of version 2.00 and 2.00I are of different dates and sizes. Further, XXCAL says in its statement, "Syncronys specified the desired 8 megabyte (MB) physical RAM and 4MB temporary swap file configurations under which observed results let to a conclusion of substantial utility. Specifically, when the SoftRAM95 product was enabled (on a platform with a specific RAM and swap file configuration), XXCAL engineers were able to load and utilize more applications than when SoftRAM95 was not loaded." The company also stated the results were based upon automated and repeatable Microsoft Test scripts, which function within XXCAL's final report. Standing behind its reputation, XXCAL reaffirms its results saying, "Within the configuration tested and indicated therein. All measured test results are thus demonstrable by XXCAL. It is not XXCAL's policy to analyze or endorse the technology of software or hardware products on the course of performing relatively simple benchmark tests. In the case of SoftRAM95, XXCAL's conclusion of utility is valid only within the context of the observed test results upon specific test configurations." Sukert added, "We are not saying Syncronys misrepresented our conclusions. Some people could take the conclusions out of sequence and we want to make sure the computer industry understands our conclusions were based on very specific data." (Patrick McKenna/19951130/Press Contact: Troy Sukert, XXCAL, tel 310-477-2902) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 12/01/95 ONLINE ****Silicon Graphics In China Internet Deal (NEWS)(ONLINE)(HKG)(00015) ****Silicon Graphics In China Internet Deal 12/01/95 CENTRAL, HONG KONG, 1995 DEC 1 (NB) -- An indication of how the new information age might evolve in China came with the recent announcement by China Internet Corporation (CIC) of a US$1.5 million deal with Silicon Graphics for kit to set up its new Internet service. James Chu, the chief executive officer of the Xinhua unit, said the service won't actually provide access to the Internet for its mainland users, although it will for Hong Kong subscribers. CIC's unique definition of the global information service limits activities, so far as mainland China is concerned, to trading commercial product information among manufacturers. "We'll also selectively put information related to trade and commerce onto the `net," he said. The policy, in fact, is in keeping with Xinhua's vetting of stories from international wire services, like Reuters, before releasing them to the Chinese media. The CIC gateway really offers what one insider called an Internet "turnstile." Foreign firms will be able to access commercial information on companies and their products, send e-mail requesting samples or meetings, and later will be able set up their own Web sites in Beijing, but firms in China will not have access to any information held outside CIC's server. CIC justifies this by saying, "We can't enforce foreign countries' laws but we can deny access." For Silicon Graphics, ironically US President Bill Clinton's and VP Al Gore's favorite example of a firm speeding down the information superhighway, the contract could be worth much more down the line. The initial $1.5 million contract is to supply two Challenge DM servers and two Indy workstations, with software, to be split between Beijing and Hong Kong. By next year CIC intends to have sites in 31 major Chinese cities. One insider told Newsbytes these contracts could worth as much as US$22 million at official list price. When Chu was asked if would CIC continue buying from SGI he said "At this moment I'd say so but it's very difficult to predict the future. I'd not preclude working with other companies." He added everything was going well with the relationship. Should SGI manage to keep CIC sweet with attractive contract deals, the sums involved could be even higher. Xinhua's own communication's network which CIC uses goes to 300 cities and Chu says he's looking at putting server sites in each of them in the future. (Joel McCormick & I.T. Daily/19951130) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 12/01/95 CHIPS We Botched Asia Market, Intel Cries (NEWS)(CHIPS)(HKG)(00016) We Botched Asia Market, Intel Cries 12/01/95 CENTRAL, HONG KONG, 1995 DEC 1 (NB) -- In a stunning admission, Intel reported that it completely fouled up Asia sales of its "OverDrive" chips for retrofitting 486 machines, having drawn up a plan that had PC dealers forsaking PC sales to sell only chips instead. Forget the big picture, and just make money for us, Intel effectively told Asia's manufacturers and distributors. To only Intel's surprise, many told the King of CPUs to, in effect, go where the sun don't shine -- and sales never got off the ground. The news came in its latest OverDrive announcement, this one for later model 486 chip conversion to Pentium. In announcing its Pentium OverDrive processors, Intel conceded sales in Asia had been abysmal. The OverDrive concept launched two years ago. Intel published standards which gave computer manufacturers a design allowing users to replace their CPUs with higher performance chips without having to buy new PCs. The plan was devised around replacing older 486 chips with faster and faster clock speeds. The latest launch announcement now gives later generation 486 users access to Pentium technology. "I must admit with the 486 SX/DX series of OverDrive products we haven't really promoted it," said Asia marketing manager for OverDrives, Robert Lo. Admitting manufacturers were disinclined to implement a plan that would lose them sales, Lo said the company all but forgot about trying to sell dealers on the bizarre sales reduction scheme. "We hadn't really trained dealers or store owners in the concept and there was no concerted effort in Asia into doing that." To date, OverDrive sales in Asia are negligible, Lo admitted. In the US, he said "OverDrivers" make up 8 to 10% of the 486 user population -- people who didn't junk their machines and buy whole new Pentium PCs. But the figures tell him Asia ought to be big time for overdriven Intel. Globally, Pentium sales have topped 65 million, and now account for most of Intel revenues. Not so in Asia, where crusty old 486 technology predominates -- largely thanks to budget-conscious China and India. While not all 486 computers can use OverDrive upgrades, most machines post-dating 486 SX-22 and DX-33 series chips can. "We reckon there are 500,000 Intel 486 computers in Hong Kong and we're seeking 3% of that market over the next year," Lo said. Now everyone's so hyped on Pentium, people who can't afford new PCs won't wait till they can, he reasons. "What's really likely to accelerate the adoption of this product is the pull that the Pentium name now has, the advent of Windows 95 and the increasing use of CD-ROMs," he said, adding that Intel has been holding seminars and training sales people in the art of retrofitting. While Pentium technology has a 64-bit internal technology, with internal cache memory, it can improve performance of older PCs with slower buses -- the cart tracks over which bits and bytes are transmitted. While the Pentium OverDrive 83Mhz chip will not give an old 486 computer that performance, Intel said, it will give a compatible 486 SX-33Mhz PC performance equivalent to a Pentium 66MHz system. Intel is now selling a box with guidelines on how to refit your computer, a socket tool to take out and replace the new chip and the Pentium chip itself -- for US$280. If the PC blows up in your face in OverDrive, Intel's warranty only applies if the fault can be traced to its chip. (Joel McCormick & I.T. Daily/19951130) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 12/01/95 TRENDS China - University Students' Anti-Smut Drive (NEWS)(TRENDS)(PEK)(00017) China - University Students' Anti-Smut Drive 12/01/95 BEIJING, CHINA, 1995 DEC 1 (NB) -- Student organizations of Tsinghua and Beijing Universities and the China Software Federation recently called on the public to help stop the production, duplication, sales, and use of pornographic electronic publications. As computers are widely used on college campuses and in many Chinese families, electronic pornographic materials are also spreading among young people, especially among college students. The main forms of the pornographic materials are computer games, and image files, and they are quickly spreading through computer networks. Student organizations of Tsinghua and Beijing Universities are calling for "clean computer screens." Their letter points out that compact discs loaded with pirated software, especially pornographic materials, are frequently reported and this is not only harmful for software production and the protection of intellectual property rights, but also detrimental to the morals of society. As computers become more common, investigation and prosecution of illegal producers and marketers of obscene software must be stressed, and everyone must help in the effort, the students say. The university students expressed their concern about the harmful influence of the pornographic materials within schools, families, scientific organizations, and society as a whole. They called on student fellows to reject illegal and pornographic software and to support the government's anti-pornographic movement. The student letter is also an echo of the country's ongoing campaign launched recently to tighten control over audio/video marketing, particularly the sales and use of obscene software and videos. (Chih-Ho Yu & Ning Huang/19951130) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 12/01/95 LEGAL ****Church of Scientology Responds To Judges Ruling (NEWS)(LEGAL)(LAX)(00018) ****Church of Scientology Responds To Judges Ruling 12/01/95 LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1995 DEC 1 (NB) -- The Church of Scientology has issued a statement about the recent ruling by a judge in California that threw out large portions of its copyright suit against Netcom. The judge did not throw out the entire case, and the rest will be settled at trial in the first half of 1996. The lawsuit was brought last year by the Church of Scientology alleging copyright infringement against Netcom and an ex-member who had posted copyrighted material on the Internet. On the central issue of direct copyright infringement, the Court held that Netcom is not liable for direct infringement when an individual uses its system to post copyrighted material onto the Internet without its knowledge. The Court noted that holding an access provider liable for direct infringement under those circumstances "would ... result in liability for every single Usenet server in the worldwide link of computers transmitting a message to every other computer." With respect to contributory copyright infringement, the Court was nowhere as definitive. The court did not issue either a summary judgment in Netcom's favor, nor a preliminary injunction in favor of the plaintiffs. The courts conclusion said, "Plaintiffs have not shown a likelihood of success on the merits of their copyright claims nor irreparable harm absent an injunction against defendants Netcom and Klemesurd. Accordingly, plaintiffs are not entitled to a preliminary injunction." Further in the Courts order it said, "The court denies Netcom's motion for summary judgment and Klemesrud's motion for judgment on the pleadings, as a triable issue of fact exists on the claim of contributory infringement." The Church of Scientology in their statement emphasized the importance of the remaining charges "Earlier this week, US District Judge Ronald Whyte got the attention of Internet access providers by ruling that Netcom On-line Communication Services, Inc., may be liable for 'contributory copyright infringement.' The case was brought by the Religious Technology Center (RTC), holder of copyrights for the Scientology religion, in an effort to protect its sacred scriptures and make it safe for the Internet to be used for creative endeavors." Wendy Beccaccini, a spokesperson for The Church of Scientology, told Newsbytes, "According to court papers Netcom admitted that 'it did not even look at the postings once given notice and that had it looked at the copyright notice and statements regarding authorship, it would have triggered an investigation into whether there was infringement.' Yet we cite evidence in our pleadings that Netcom has acted to suspend subscribers' accounts on over 1,000 other instances." The statement issued by the The Church of Scientology went on to quote a Wall Street Journal interview where Sheri Steel, staff counsel for the Electronic Frontier Foundation, said that "the only time they'll even consider holding the system operators liable is if they know about the copyright infringement. That's perfectly reasonable." When asked if this statement by Steel represents the Church of Scientology, Beccaccini said, "We do not expect every provider of information over the Internet to have to screen everything." (Richard Bowers/19951201/Press Contact: Leisa Goodman, Church of Scientology, 213-960-3500) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 12/01/95 EDUCATION MIT Ranked Tops For Technology Careers - Survey (NEWS)(EDUCATION)(TOR)(00019) MIT Ranked Tops For Technology Careers - Survey 12/01/95 FRAMINGHAM, MASSACHUSETTS, U.S.A., 1995 DEC 1 (NB) -- The Sloan School of Management at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) has come out on top in the first Computerworld ranking of "techno- MBA" programs at American universities. Second place went to Carnegie- Mellon University, and third to the University of Texas at Austin. Computerworld, a weekly information management newspaper, conducted the survey for the first time this year. Bob Fink, director of research for the paper, told Newsbytes Computerworld expects to do it again, but is not sure if it will be a regular annual project. Fink said Computerworld asked more than 3,000 corporate recruiters to rank roughly 300 schools with accredited Master of Business Administration (MBA) programs with computer technology specializations. The deans of the schools in question were also asked to rank the programs. Each respondent was asked for a single ranking taking into account factors such as the program's ability to produce information systems leaders, managers, and entrepreneurs, and their reputations for information systems scholarship, curriculum, faculty, and students. Computerworld averaged the recruiters' responses separately from those of the deans, then gave each group equal weight in determining the final rankings, Fink said. Computerworld also looked at the average salaries that graduates of the techno-MBA programs receive when they take their first jobs after graduation. The over-all average for graduates of the top 25 programs is $53,375, which Computerworld said is equal to or higher than the starting salaries that graduates in many other MBA specialties receive. Average starting pay for graduates of the top-rated Sloan School is $89,000, Computerworld said. The next-highest earners are graduates of the University of Pennsylvania's, whose program was ranked seventh, followed by those from University of Texas at Austin and Carnegie-Mellon. The top 10 programs, according to Computerworld's rankings, are: MIT, Carnegie-Mellon, University of Texas at Austin, University of Minnesota, University of Arizona, University of Michigan, University of Pennsylvania, Purdue, University of Pittsburgh, and New York University. Computerworld said it will publish an in-depth look at techno-MBA programs in its December 4 issue. (Grant Buckler/19951201/Press Contact: Meg O'Sullivan, Creamer Dickson Basford for Computerworld, 617-467-1558; Don Goncalves, Creamer Dickson Basford for Computerworld, 617-467-1519) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 12/01/95 TRENDS British Midland Airways To Offer Internet Booking (NEWS)(TRENDS)(LON)(00020) British Midland Airways To Offer Internet Booking 12/01/95 LONDON, ENGLAND, 1995 DEC 1 (NB) -- British Midland Airways has announced plans to open the airline industry's first Internet seat booking services, Cyberseat, on December 11. From that date, customers Webbing in to http://www.iflybritishmidland.com will be able to book their tickets across the Internet, opting for delivery via a travel agent, or to their homes and offices. Alternatively, spokesman Dave Shipley told Newsbytes, they can collect the tickets at the airport. Shipley told Newsbytes that, while customers have been able to book tickets online through various services, this is the first time that an airline has allowed its tickets to be booked across the Internet. "We've been talking to the airline publishing industry and discovered that, while several airlines have announced their intention to offer a seat booking service, they're almost all scheduled to start next year. Launching on December 11 means we will be ahead of them," he said. So how does the travel agency trade feel about the Cyberseat project? Shipley replied that, although the travel agencies were less than enthusiastic about the service when they first heard about it, they have gradually come to appreciate what the service can do for them. "Agents can hook into the system and offer their customers an improved service," he said, adding that while the home UK industry for British Midland has a high density of travel agents for people to visit, in the US and Canada, business users are becoming accustomed to the idea of booking tickets by phone. "Using Cyberseat, they can book and pay for their tickets across the Internet, and opt for delivery or collection of the tickets," he said, adding that the Netscape SSL secure transaction system will ensure that credit cards and other personal information sent across the Internet cannot be compromised because of the encryption system used. According to British Midland, using CyberSeat, airline customers can reserve a seat on any of the carrier's scheduled services, worldwide. Users will be asked to specify their route, the dates they wish to travel and the number of seats required. The system will then display a choice of schedules and the price of each. To confirm the booking, the customer simply provides personal details, including a credit card number. The computer will then confirm the reservation and provide the user with a booking reference. As well as the Netscape SSL encrypted data system, British Midland is using three more levels of security, including ID and password data, to prevent any security mishaps. Newsbytes surfed into the BMA Web site and can report that, although bookings are not currently available, the service information is well laid out, and that the service can easily be used by Internet novices. (Steve Gold/19951201/Press Contact: David Shipley, British Midland Airways 803-944-6416) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 12/01/95 BUSINESS SoftKey To Acquire Compton's From Tribune Co. (NEWS)(BUSINESS)(TOR)(00021) SoftKey To Acquire Compton's From Tribune Co. 12/01/95 CAMBRIDGE, MASSACHUSETTS, U.S.A., 1995 DEC 1 (NB) -- Continuing its aggressive push into the educational computing market, SoftKey International Inc. (NASDAQ:SKEY) has announced a stock-swap deal that will give it control of Compton's NewMedia Inc. and Compton's Learning Co. The agreement with Chicago-based Tribune Co. (NYSE:TRB), which is a "done deal" according to SoftKey Chief Financial Officer Scott Murray, will also give Tribune Co. a stake of something less than 10 percent in SoftKey. There are two parts to the deal, Murray told Newsbytes. SoftKey will exchange about $106.5 million worth of its stock, amounting to roughly 3.5 million shares, for Compton's NewMedia and Compton's Learning. As part of this transaction, SoftKey will also assume up to $17 million in debt. The second part of the deal is conditional on SoftKey emerging victorious in the takeover battle for California-based Learning Co. (NASDAQ:LRNG). If SoftKey is able to beat out rival bidder Broderbund Software Inc. and buy a majority interest in Learning Co., Tribune has agreed to invest another $150 million in SoftKey. This would bring Tribune about another 2.8 million SoftKey shares. Murray said the total of nearly 6.5 million shares that Tribune would receive if both parts of the deal are completed would give it about 10 percent of the company given the number of shares currently outstanding. However, he added that SoftKey is likely to issue some new shares in connection with its acquisitions -- which also include a takeover of Minnesota Educational Computing Corp. (NASDAQ:MECC) announced in late October -- and this will dilute the shares somewhat and reduce Tribune's stake in the end. Murray said SoftKey plans to integrate the Compton's operations into SoftKey rather than maintaining them as separate subsidiaries, and he gave no definitive information about the future of Compton's employees' jobs. SoftKey's policy is to keep the "best of breed," he said. The deal is the third this fall in the consumer software firm's effort to become a major force in educational software. The company is best known for consumer titles sold through SoftKey-specific racks in a number of retail outlets and through other channels. (Grant Buckler/19951201/Press Contact: Scott Murray, SoftKey, 617-494-5861) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 12/01/95 BUSINESS Spyglass Shares Way Up After Stock Split (NEWS)(BUSINESS)(MSP)(00022) Spyglass Shares Way Up After Stock Split 12/01/95 NAPERVILLE, ILLINOIS, U.S.A., 1995 DEC 1 (NB) -- Just days after it announced a two-for-one stock split, the price Spyglass Inc. (NASDAQ:SPYG) shares on Wall Street have jumped at least $20. Reacting to the rise in share prices, Marcus C. Miller, Spyglass executive vice president for marketing and business development, told Newsbytes the excitement in his company centers around what he called the "story" of Spyglass. "Our partner-based business model is a successful one. With our 45 partners incorporating our technology into 120 products, we think we're a real player in this market." On Tuesday, November 28, Spyglass announced its board of directors approved the split of its common stock to be effected in the form of a 100 percent stock dividend payable on December 20 to stockholders of record on December 6. "The stock split will provide greater liquidity in the market for our common stock, which will allow more people to be a part of this dynamic industry," Spyglass president and chief executive officer, Douglas Colbeth, said at the time. Spyglass' ascent up the stock ladder started in early November, which Newsbytes previously reported. After the company released record financial results for its fiscal year 1995, Spyglass stock jumped more than $7 in the first few hours of trading on November 1. On that day, Spyglass said its net revenue was up 185 percent for the fiscal year at $10.35 million, and net income was up 64 percent at $2.18 million. The company licenses its Internet World Wide Web client and server technologies to third-party companies, who then add value to Spyglass' products and resell them to other companies. Spyglass' partner list includes AT&T, Digital Equipment Corp. (DEC), IBM, Microsoft, and Oracle. Spyglass and other firms doing Internet-related business have benefitted on Wall Street, thanks in part to a report from Goldman Sachs and Co. about Netscape (NASDAQ:NSCP) Communications Corp. That report said Netscape, which makes the Netscape Navigator Web browser and a Web server product, could see its share price double over the next two years. After the report was published earlier this week, Netscape, Netcom, and UUNET shares all went up significantly, mimicking Spyglass' trend. (Bob Woods/19951201/Press Contact: Randy Pitzer, Spyglass, 708-505- 1010, Internet e-mail rpitzer@spyglass.com) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 12/01/95 APPLE New Year's Eve Present From Apple (NEWS)(APPLE)(SFO)(00023) New Year's Eve Present From Apple 12/01/95 SAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1995 DEC 1 (NB) -- Using its newest QuickTime tool, Apple QuickTime Live!, Apple Computer (NASDAQ:AAPL) will provide a live, free Internet broadcast of Bill Graham Presents' gala San Francisco New Year's Eve event. Legendary rock group Santana and others will keep the waterfront evening going while Apple broadcasts the event on a special Web site. Apple QuickTime Live! is a new Web site which features multimedia broadcasts of live entertainment with images, videos, sound and virtual experiences. To accomplish the feat, Apple combines a number of its leading technologies including its QuickTake digital camera, QuickTime VR to bring images together in a full presentation and Apple Workgroup Servers to connect the event to the Internet. Along with the San Francisco event, Apple says QuickTime Live! will also present live New Year's Eve celebrating from New York's Times Square. Satjiv S. Chahil, vice president of Apple's Entertainment Industry and New Media group, says, "Using Apple technologies, we are able to deliver a new consumer entertainment experience online and launch the era of Web-casting. We are also able to build important relationships with our music industry partners, such as Bill Graham Presents, by giving them a new way to bring entertainment to more people all over the world." This morning from San Francisco, Apple and Bill Graham Presents are making the formal announcement of QuickTime Live! with a brief debut of the combined technologies. The QuickTime Live! site is accessed by either Mac or Windows-based computers. An Apple spokesperson told Newsbytes, "We are really excited about this event as a historic moment on the Web. Anyone from around the world who can get on the World Wide Web will be able to participate in their own way with New Year's celebrations in San Francisco and New York. This kind of presentation shows the value and excitement of the Internet." Newsbytes will have a full report on Monday after the news event, which takes place Friday afternoon. That report will also have Web site addresses. (Patrick McKenna/19951201/Press Contact: Mary Devincenzi, Big Sky Communications, tel 408-974-4562) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 12/01/95 BUSINESS Macromedia Acquires Music Software Maker OSC (NEWS)(BUSINESS)(LAX)(00024) Macromedia Acquires Music Software Maker OSC 12/01/95 SAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1995 DEC 1 (NB) -- Macromedia (NASDAQ: MACR), producer of multimedia and digital arts software, and OSC, Inc., a developer of digital audio production software, announced that they have reached an agreement whereby Macromedia will acquire OSC. Based in San Francisco, OSC is the developer of Deck II, software for high-quality multi-track music and sound production. Miles Walsh, vice president of world wide marketing for Macromedia, told Newsbytes, "Macromedia currently offers SoundEdit 16, a tool primarily used for editing sound in multimedia productions. This acquisition adds Deck II's strengths in recording, editing and mixing. Deck II is used by professional musicians and recording studios to create a sound. Before this acquisition Macromedia has concentrated on the editing not the creation of professional-quality sound tracks. Together, Deck II and SoundEdit 16 provide a complete product for audio production and post-production on the desktop." In the transaction, Macromedia will exchange approximately 62,000 shares of common stock for all outstanding shares of OSC. The value at the time of signing will be approximately $2.8 million. It is intended that OSC will be merged into Macromedia as of December 2, 1995. "OSC's development team, recognized leaders among musicians and digital audio professionals, will extend Macromedia's capabilities in sound, as well as video and interactive authoring," said Macromedia's president, John Colligan. "The OSC acquisition is a natural extension of Macromedia's strategy to give creative professionals everything they need for digital media production and delivery." OSC will relocate to the San Francisco offices of Macromedia. Josh Rosen, president of OSC, will be manager of sound products at Macromedia and Mats Myrberg, vice president of engineering at OSC will become principal engineer. "OSC and Macromedia complement each other perfectly," said Josh Rosen, president of OSC. "For the last five years, OSC has been showing that top-quality audio work can be created on standard personal computers. By linking our technologies with Macromedia's industry leading products, we are delivering powerful audio software to the broadest possible base of users." (Richard Bowers/19951201/Press Contact: Jane Chuey, Macromedia, 415-252-2268) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 12/01/95 TRENDS ****Elonex Seeks Partners On Breakthrough Display Tech (NEWS)(TRENDS)(LON)(00025) ****Elonex Seeks Partners On Breakthrough Display Tech 12/01/95 SUNNYVALE, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1995 DEC 1 (NB) -- Sunnyvale, California-based Elonex Technologies, the research and development arm of UK direct PC sales manufacturer Elonex, has revealed it is talking to potential production and marketing partners about joint-development of a revolutionary display for which it has recently been awarded patents. According to Elonex Technologies president Dan Kikinis, the company's new design for high-efficiency, low-voltage (under 20 volts) electro- luminescent displays will be up to five times more efficient than current technologies but only ten percent of the cost. "Given the right manufacturing facilities, a display cost as low as UKP 20 per square foot could be possible for thick film displays. Dot densities would be around 100 color dots per inch, but with very large screens feasible," Kikinis explained. According to Kikinis, a thin film variation of the technology could produce up to 2,000 color dots per inch for extremely high resolutions. "With our focus on PC systems, we're not set up to develop this technology alone, but we re talking to a number of large display manufacturers right now with a view to forming a manufacturing and marketing partnership. While there has been a lot of interest in the Far East, the need to develop display technologies is now seen as strategically important in the US, so the chances are high that we'll strike a deal here," he said. According to Kikinis, Elonex Technologies is now busy filing additional patents relating to display technologies. The company claims that one of the most notable of these is a holographic display that can be used with a standard white light source, enabling 3D images to be viewed without the need for special glasses or other viewing equipment. The same technology can be used in another configuration to project images of several million pixels inexpensively onto screens or walls. (Sylvia Dennis/19951201/Press Contact: David Bridson, Bridson & Bridson PR +44-1869-338832; Fax +44-1869-338843; Internet Email: bandb@cix.compulink.co.uk; Reader Contact: Elonex +44-181-452-4444; Fax +44-181-452-6422) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 12/01/95 BUSINESS Games Sales Predicted Strong For Holiday Season (NEWS)(BUSINESS)(DEN)(00026) Games Sales Predicted Strong For Holiday Season 12/01/95 BOULDER, COLORADO, U.S.A., 1995 DEC 1 (NB) -- According to industry observers the 1995 holiday season should be a good one for companies that manufacture educational and entertainment software as well as electronic games. Companies like The Edutainment Company (TEC) in Boulder, Colorado hope so. #IMAGE 1 20 TWPCX \images\95120126.PCX Click here for photo As it approaches its second anniversary TEC has grown from four employees to 20 and has just cranked out its new 48-page Holiday 1995 buyer's catalog that lists over 350 "Edutainment" titles for Windows, DOS and Macintosh platforms. The word refers to software that while providing entertainment also educates. Each catalog listing includes symbols to indicate what platform the software runs on, whether it comes on floppy disk and/or CD-ROM, if the program has ever received an award from a non-profit association and/or media reviewers, and if it's available in a version especially for schools. TEC's quarterly catalog is divided into various section that include special promotions, various age brackets, products for the entire family, products specifically for the Internet, hobbies and leisure and fun and games. The back page of the catalog lists best buys. The book also contains an index that lists the software alphabetically by title, the publisher and the catalog page where it's found. The TEC catalog includes a section called "Awards & Ratings" where the company lists FamilyPC magazine's award picks, Newsweek editors' choice awards and HomePC magazine's top selections. Jenni Cooper, TEC marketing manager, told Newsbytes the company will release an interactive CD-ROM with the title "Home Computing's Know-it-all CD-ROM" in January 1996. The on-disc software catalog will be released semi-annually and will contain an expanded version of TEC's paper catalog, a demo section, some editorial content from a computing magazine, and interactive games. Cooper said the company's home page on the World Wide Web is operational but is still under construction. It can be reached at the URL http://www.edutainco.com . In mid to late December a demo section will open on the Web page where users will be able to download software demos to try the software before they order it. Martin Grosjean, president and founder of TEC, said the company wants to be considered more than just another mail order catalog house. "It's our job to give consumers a place where they get more information than a price point and ad copy," said Grosjean. He said a study recently conducted by TEC indicates that consumers are more likely to purchase a product that has received an award or been reviewed favorably. The company executive said that's why the award listings are included in the catalog. On the video game front Nintendo said recently it is expecting a banner year. The company predicts strong sales for 16-bit games. It cites a study by research firm Gerard Klauer Mattison & Co that says parents are shifting their spending from toys to more long-lasting interactive products such as video games, with most dollars aimed at new games for machines already in the home. A recent Wall Street Journal article reported that 16-bit games and systems will account for about 70 percent of this year's expected $3.85 billion in US video game retail sales. Nintendo hopes that survey is right. A competitor has released a 32-bit system for games on CD-ROM in time for the holidays while Nintendo leap-frogged from its 16-bit game system to a 64-bit system called Ultra 64 that won't ship in the US until April 1996. Nintendo also elected to stick with a cartridge-based system instead of adopting the CD-ROM. Nintendo will have at least one new offering on store shelves in time for the 1995 holiday season. The company said it will release Donkey Kong Country 2: Diddy's Kong Quest on December 4. You can reach Nintendo on the Web at http://www.nintendo.com . (Jim Mallory/19951201/Press contact: Jenni Cooper, The Edutainment Company, 303-444-3700 or Alison Holt, Golin/Harris for Nintendo, 818-286-2067; Public contact: The Edutainment Company, tel 303-444-3700, fax 303-444-5203 or Nintendo, tel 206-882-2040, fax 206-882-3585/TEC951201/PHOTO) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 12/01/95 ONLINE ****Internet Expo - NetCarta "Roadmaps" To The Web (NEWS)(ONLINE)(BOS)(00027) ****Internet Expo - NetCarta "Roadmaps" To The Web 12/01/95 BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS, U.S.A., 1995 DEC 1 (NB) -- "Finding what you're looking for" on a Web site is a headache encountered by WebMasters, site analyzers, and end users alike, but all these groups will find relief through NetCarta's upcoming WebMapper and CyberPilot, two software products designed for creating and viewing "roadmaps" of the Web, predicted Thomas Tansy, VP of marketing and sales, in a meeting with Newsbytes at Internet Expo in Boston. Tansy told Newsbytes that the Web server-based WebMapper lets WebMasters and developers build maps of sites that are based on various object types (text, graphics, audio, video, and other files), as well as about 50 different object "attributes," and the relationships, or links, between them. WebMasters can use WebMapper to reorganize information on the Web in ways that are easier for end users to navigate, according to the NetCarta VP. Alternatively, WebMapper can be employed to search the Web (for all information on "cartography," for example), or to analyze the Web sites of competing firms, a task that is becoming an increasing part of some marketing professionals' jobs. The forthcoming CyberPilot, he continued, can then be used by PC users to "read" the roadmaps produced in WebMapper. The maps will let the user navigate the Web "by reference," a much faster process than the current method of page-by-page movement through hyperlinks. The Scotts Valley-based start-up also plans to offer an optional "TrueLinks" Server that will use Web cataloging technology from Lycos to provide WebMaster users with reports on all sites on the Web that have hypertext links pointing to their own sites. "Initially, we'll issue these reports once a month, and after that, we'll do so periodically, based on user demand," Tansy observed. Just as you can create a virtually limitless variety of "regular" maps -- such as population maps, topological maps, and relief maps, for example -- you can enjoy the same flexibility in building a Web map, according to the NetCarta VP. In a demo, Newsbytes saw how WebMapper can be used to create maps built on structure ("conceptualization);" presentation ("visualization"), and content ("annotation"). The object attributes relied upon in organizing the map can include criteria like "titles," as well as the less conventional "file size" or "color." In version 1.0 of the two products, the maps follow a tree diagram model. But in version 2.0, NetCarta plans to progress to a "2-D" (two-dimensional) schematic. "And after that, we'll move to a 3-D (three-dimensional) VRML (virtual reality mark-up language) view." Also in the future, he added, NetCarta will expand the number of platforms available on both the Web server and end user sides. And the future for the Web mapping software looks bright, according to Tansy. NetCarta, he noted, was established in 1994 as Nice Technologies. After researching the document management arena for hot application areas, the principals of Nice came up with the idea of using available document management technologies to help users cope with Web-based documents. In July of this year, the company was acquired by CMG Ventures, and renamed NetCarta Corp. Other recent acquisitions by CMG include Lycos, Point Communications, Black Sun, CyberVillage, and Ikonic, Tansy pointed out. Already, he reported, there are more than 200,000 Web servers in existence, although about 150,000 of these are being used internally by companies. Many of today's internal Web servers originated in engineering departments for concurrent engineering projects, and were later expanded by IS (information systems) departments, Newsbytes was told. WebMapper and CyberPilot are targeted at these "corporate Web" environments, as well as at "Web broadcasting and cybermall" applications on the Internet, and at use with online catalogs, directories and online indices. WebMapper 1.0 and CyperPilot 1.0 are slated to enter beta in December, and to ship in February. WebMapper will initially be offered for Windows NT, Windows 95, and as a "bridge" Unix server module. CyberPilot will be available for Windows NT, Windows 95, and Windows 3.1. In version 2.0 of the two products, scheduled for release in June, NetCarta will add "native" Unix user interfaces for both WebMapper and CyberPilot, along with a Macintosh edition of CyberPilot. The forthcoming updates will also feature the "2-D" schematic view. WebMapper 1.0 will be list priced at $499. Users will be able to download CyberPilot 1.0 for evaluation purposes from NetCarta's Web site at http://www.netcarta.com . The new TrueLinks service is also expected to be available in February. (Jacqueline Emigh/19951201/Reader Contact: NetCarta Corp., 408-461-8920; Press Contact: Kathy Keenan or Dan Carvin, Oak Ridge Public Relations for NetCarta, 408-253-5042) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 12/01/95 GENERAL CD-ROM Drive Sales Up, Pirates Nabbed, Says China (NEWS)(GENERAL)(PEK)(00028) CD-ROM Drive Sales Up, Pirates Nabbed, Says China 12/01/95 BEIJING, CHINA, 1995 DEC 1 (NB) -- More and more PC users in China are interested in CD-ROM drives, a survey conducted by China InfoWorld Market Research says. Although the existence of pirated titles does stimulate the market for CD-ROM drives, only 20 percent of the people in the survey said they will buy pirated titles. CD-ROM drive sales are on the upswing in China. Estimates are that about 100,000 CD-ROM drives were sold in 1994 and the figure is expected to be more than 250,000 in 1995. China InfoWorld Market Research reports that among 1128 PC users surveyed, 69 percent said they plan to purchase a CD-ROM drive and 20 percent said they had not made a decision to buy a CD-ROM drive yet. Only 11 percent said they were not interested in buying a CD-ROM drive. About 37 percent among the 11 percent (not buying) said that the price was the main obstacle to their purchase of a CD-ROM drive. Among the group planning to purchase CD-ROM drives, 39 percent said they will buy for their own (individual) PCs, 46 percent will buy for their organizations, 14 percent buy for selling, and 1 percent will use the CD-ROM for other (not specified) purposes. Although pirated CD-ROM titles take money directly from CD-ROM title developers, their existence stimulates the CD-ROM drive market, the survey concluded. 54 percent of the respondents said that the existence of pirated CD-ROM titles is a good reason for them to purchase a CD-ROM drive. 46 percent denied pirated CD-ROMs play a role in their purchase decisions. Meanwhile, China claims to have cracked down on a Nanjing-based China-US joint venture accused of producing unauthorized compact discs. The State Press and Publication Administration has ordered the company, name Dali, to stop producing pirated compact discs, and as punishment, the firm's application to produce video and audio products had been rejected. The company produced 857,800 compact discs in the past two years, and most were sold on the domestic market, according to the report. The company is a cooperative project launched in 1993 by two Chinese firms and one from the United States. According to their contract, the US company was responsible for providing copyright authorizations, selling the products abroad, and dealing with intellectual property rights issues, authorities said. Meanwhile, in contrast to recent concerns voiced by the US, China has made substantial achievements of eliminating violations of IPR (Intellectual Property Rights), said Duan Ruichun, director of the State IPR Office. According to incomplete statistics from China's 24 provinces and municipalities, the country conducted more than 3,000 inspections on IPR protection in the first half of this year and government departments confiscated 750,000 tapes, 1.9 million CDs, more than 37,000 units of computer software, and 458,000 copies of books involving illegal production or copyright infringement. The IPR office under the State Council has recently also decided to select 50-100 enterprises or nonprofit institutions in the next two or three years to experiment with a more efficient systems for protecting IPR. The move aims to mobilize more units to establish and improve management and protection systems of IPR. (Chih-Ho Yu & Ning Huang/19951124) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 12/01/95 BROADCAST India - Wipro BT Launches VSAT Network Services (NEWS)(BROADCAST)(DEL)(00029) India - Wipro BT Launches VSAT Network Services 12/01/95 NEW DELHI, INDIA, 1995 DEC 1 (NB) -- Wipro BT Ltd., owned equally by British Telecommunications Plc. (BT) and Wipro Ltd., formally launched its value added network services (VANS) and very small aperture terminal (VSAT) services in India. Within four months of setting up the Rs 40 crore joint venture by the third largest global telecom company and India's leading diversified and integrated player in information technology services, the new company has made rapid strides and has already roped in prestigious corporates such as Cadbury India, Exide Industries, the Oberoi chain of hotels and VCK Industries as customers for VANS as well as VSAT services. Anand Talwai, chief executive, Wipro BT, claimed that Wipro BT was the only company in India to offer total end-to-end communications services to suit the customer's specific requirements by offering a choice of both terrestrial and satellite-based systems. Headquartered in Bangalore with its satellite earth station in Whitefield, the services are backed by a 24-hour help desk and the network management center is located in Bangalore. As part of its VANS offering in the first phase, the company will provide e-mail, file transfer and protocol conversion services. Arun Seth, managing director, South Asia region, BT, said that the VSAT service is a 64 Kbps point-to-multipoint managed data network service that provides two-way data, closed-user-group voice, fax and virtual private hub services. The virtual private hub service offers all the advantages of a private network with the cost effectiveness of a shared hub service. Both the partners have invested Rs 9 crore each and raised the remaining Rs 22 crore through debt instruments. Wipro BT is expecting to post about Rs 10 crore in the first year of operations ending March 31, 1996. (US$ = Rs 34) (C. T. Mahabharat/19951130) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 12/01/95 ONLINE Australia's Odyssey Hits With New Products (NEWS)(ONLINE)(SYD)(00030) Australia's Odyssey Hits With New Products 12/01/95 SYDNEY, AUSTRALIA 1995 DEC 1 (NB) -- Ring, ring. It's Netscape on the line. "Hey, guys we really love your software and we'd like to put it on our home page. You can expect around 17 million hits a day." That little scenario is the fantasy of every software developer, but it appears to be coming true for Australian text retrieval specialist Odyssey Development. Last month Odyssey hit the major league at Comdex in Las Vegas, where its new Isys Hindsite for Netscape took out a Byte Magazine "Best of Comdex" award. It was named as one of three finalists in the Best Internet Product" category. Now Odyssey has been contacted by Netscape with a view to put the product on one of its Web pages, R&D director Ian Davies has announced. Hindsite is a small program that remembers everywhere a Net surfer has been, and indexes every word on every page. Months later, the user can find a page by searching for words or phrases. If Netscape does take it up, Odyssey will not reap immediate rewards. For the moment it is giving Hindsite away. Those who can't wait for Netscape can download it free of charge at http://www/rmii.com/isys_dev . Odyssey hopes it will draw attention to its commercial Isys text retrieval program, and to a new Isys Image document management system also launched. Comdex success is not a new experience for the Odyssey team. Last year Isys was one of three finalists in the Best Application Software category. The Sydney-based company has a $3 million turnover, 20 staff and offices in New York, San Francisco and Denver as well as Australia. Some 40,000 global licensees include the US Internal Revenue Service, Sterling Software, the Hong Kong Government, and the current Royal Commission into police corruption in Sydney. Second new product Isys Image is a document scanning and management package built around its Isys text retrieval software. The package is designed to be used by legal offices, government agencies and others who need to process large numbers of paper documents but have little technical expertise. As demonstrated to the press yesterday in the salubrious surroundings of The Oaks, a noted Sydney pub, all a user has to do is place a bundle of documents into the scanner feeder. They're automatically scanned, OCR-ed, named, organized into sub-directories and indexed. Isys "plain English" queries can then be used to search full text and bring up images. Isys Image street price is around US$995 per scanner workstation. It currently works only with Windows 3.1, but a native Win95 version is due in January or February, R&D director Ian Davies said. (Computer Daily News/19951130/Press and user contact: Odyssey Development +61-2-439 5800) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 12/01/95 ONLINE China - US Sprint To Increase ChinaNet's Capacity (NEWS)(ONLINE)(PEK)(00031) China - US Sprint To Increase ChinaNet's Capacity 12/01/95 BEIJING, CHINA, 1995 DEC 1 (NB) -- Beijing Telegraph Bureau recently signed a contract with US Sprint to supply equipment to increase the access capacity of ChinaNet three-fold in Beijing. Although Chinese professionals at some research and high educational institutes linked to the Internet several years ago, the general pubic had no means to access the worldwide network until ChinaNet started its network services last July. At present, there are more than 1,000 institutional and individual subscribers to ChinaNet in Beijing, said Zhang Guangtong, deputy director of Beijing Telegraph Bureau. The number of customers is expected to grow rapidly in the coming years as more and more people realize the convenience and advantages of the information superhighway services, he said. The new equipment from Sprint will allow the bureau to increase ChinaNet ports from the present 96 to nearly 400, giving the city the largest service capacity in China, Zhang said. ChinaNet services at all provincial capitals and the cities directly under the central government such as Beijing, Shanghai, and Tianjin are expected to be linked next year, speeding the information flow all over the country. In the signing ceremony on November 15, John Savageau, director of Sprint's Asia Pacific Operations, said that Sprint will intensify efforts to expand its market share in China. And Zhang affirmed that his bureau will continue to expand ChinaNet's service capacity to meet rising demands in the coming years. (Chih-Ho Yu & Ning Huang/19951124/http://www.bta.net.cn ) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 12/01/95 GENERAL Newsbytes Week In Review (NEWS)(GENERAL)(MSP)(00032) Newsbytes Week In Review 12/01/95 MINNEAPOLIS, MINNESOTA, U.S.A., 1995 DEC 1 (NB) -- This is a look at the top stories this week, listing with their category code: Credit Card Users Beware Of Shadow Authorizations; Nintendo Ultra 64 Game System Intro'd; Symantec Completes Delrina Acquisition; Novell Cuts 400 Jobs, No buyer For Business Apps; Creative Technology Drops Reveal Acquisition; Cray Computer To Liquidate Assets; Taiwan Firm To Build $1.2Bil Chip Plant In US; Ameritech Invests in Educational Software Firm; IBM To Form Internet Software Business Unit; Yahoo Sells 12% Of Company; Intel's Dominance Will Grow - Study; FCC Panel Backs Digital HDTV; Rogers Cable TV Offers Commercial Internet Access; US West Launches Interactive Cable TV; Banks Face Major Competition On Internet; Silicon Valley CEOs Highlight Marketing Needs; AlphaWorld - 3-D On The Internet; US Warns China On Piracy; Silicon Graphics In China Internet Deal; Church of Scientology Responds To Judges Ruling; Elonex Seeks Partners On Breakthrough Display Tech; Internet Expo - NetCarta "Roadmaps" To The Web. Credit Card Users Beware Of Shadow Authorizations (LEGAL) SHEFFIELD, SOUTH YORKSHIRE, ENGLAND, 1995 NOV 27 (NB) -- On returning from Comdex Fall, Newsbytes bureau was saddened to learn that our Mastercard account had been "maxed" out and that further charges were not possible. In fact, when the bill arrived, we became worried about possible fraudulent charges, as we calculated there was still "headroom" on the account -- we soon learned about foreign shadow authorizations that can remain on your card account for up to 28 days. Nintendo Ultra 64 Game System Intro'd (TRENDS) MAKUHARI, JAPAN, 1995 NOV 27 (NB) -- Nintendo Co. Ltd. has introduced its Nintendo Ultra 64 home video game to the world at the company's annual video game exhibition, called Shoshinkai, that was held over the past weekend. Symantec Completes Delrina Acquisition (BUSINESS) CUPERTINO, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1995 NOV 27 (NB) -- Less than five months after announcing its intention to acquire forms and communications software specialist, Delrina (TOR:DC) of Toronto, Canada, Symantec (NASDAQ:SYMC) says the deal is complete and Delrina is now a Symantec subsidiary. Early estimates valued the deal at $415 million. Novell Cuts 400 Jobs, No buyer For Business Apps (BUSINESS) OREM, UTAH, U.S.A., 1995 NOV 27 (NB) -- Almost hidden during the usual hoopla that surrounds the Comdex trade show last week was the announcement by Novell Inc. (NASDAQ:NOVL) that it had sent pink slips to about 420 people in its Business Applications Division. Creative Technology Drops Reveal Acquisition (BUSINESS) SINGAPORE, 1995 NOV 27 (NB) -- Audio giant, Creative Technology (NASDAQ:CREAF) says it is terminating its efforts to acquire Reveal Computer Products. Official statements from both companies failed to reveal what went wrong. Cray Computer To Liquidate Assets (BUSINESS) COLORADO SPRINGS, COLORADO, U.S.A., 1995 NOV 28 (NB) -- Cray Computer Corp. apparently will not rise from its own ashes to be reborn like the mythical Phoenix bird. Instead the supercomputer company will liquidate its assets in an effort to repay creditors, according to a plan filed in the US bankruptcy Court. Taiwan Firm To Build $1.2Bil Chip Plant In US (CHIPS) SAN JOSE, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1995 NOV 28 (NB) -- Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company Ltd.(TSMC) has announced plans to build its first United States foundry in a joint venture with Altera and several other long-standing customers. The new $1.2 billion US operation will break ground in mid-1996 at a location "yet to be determined," and is expected to be in production by the first half of 1998. Ameritech Invests in Educational Software Firm (BUSINESS) CHICAGO, ILLINOIS, U.S.A., 1995 NOV 28 (NB) -- A financial marriage between two unlikely parties is being held in the board rooms of Ameritech (NYSE:AIT) and KidSoft, LLC. The Chicago-based regional Bell operating company (RBOC) has announced it is making a $10 million equity investment in KidSoft, which distributes educational software for kids through retail and online channels. IBM To Form Internet Software Business Unit (IBM) NEW YORK, NEW YORK, U.S.A., 1995 NOV 28 (NB) -- IBM (NYSE:IBM) has plans to set up a new business unit that will develop software products for the Internet. Although details are sketchy, the new operation is expected to begin operation by the end of this year. Yahoo Sells 12% Of Company (BUSINESS) MOUNTAIN VIEW, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1995 NOV 28 (NB) -- Yahoo, the popular World Wide Web guide, has sold a 12% equity stake to some of the big players in the communications and online industry. The sale represents both an infusion of capital, and the development of strategic alliances for Yahoo. Intel's Dominance Will Grow - Study (TRENDS) SCOTTSDALE, ARIZONA, U.S.A., 1995 NOV 29 (NB) -- Market research firm In-Stat has issued a gloomy forecast for competitors to microprocessor giant Intel. In-Stat predicts for the foreseeable future Intel's dominance will be unchallenged and competition within the industry will be even more limited that it has been. FCC Panel Backs Digital HDTV (GOVT) WASHINGTON, D.C., U.S.A., 1995 NOV 29 (NB) -- A Federal Communications Commission advisory committee has endorsed digital high definition television (HDTV) as the technology of choice for the future. Rogers Cable TV Offers Commercial Internet Access (ONLINE) NEWMARKET, ONTARIO, CANADA, 1995 NOV 30 (NB) -- Rogers Cablesystems Ltd., one of Canada's major cable television operators, has begun offering access to the Internet and other online services over its cable network. Newmarket, a suburban community north of Toronto and the site of an earlier technical trial, will be the first to get the service on a commercial basis. US West Launches Interactive Cable TV (BROADCAST) ORLANDO, FLORIDA, U.S.A., 1995 NOV 30 (NB) -- US West has launched its interactive television system in about 4,000 Orlando, Florida homes this week, delivering the service via Time Warner Cable's cable television network. Banks Face Major Competition On Internet (TRENDS) PALO ALTO, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1995 NOV 30 (NB) -- After just issuing a report predicting that all banks will be on Internet by the year 2000, Killen & Associates has thrown cold water on the banking industry by predicting there will be lots of non-bank competition already there. Killen said, in a soon-to-be-released report, that within five years non-banks and high tech companies will capture more than 25% of the $800 billion in global electronic commerce (EC) and electronic payments (EP) revenue created by Internet merchants. Silicon Valley CEOs Highlight Marketing Needs (TRENDS) PALO ALTO, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1995 NOV 30 (NB) -- High-tech companies have been performing well on Wall Street, but a survey of Silicon Valley chief executive officers (CEOs) reveals an average to poor rating for marketing effectiveness. To improve their marketing effectiveness, these industry leaders look to strategic alliances and acquisitions, new interactive technologies and Internet/World Wide Web opportunities. AlphaWorld - 3-D On The Internet (TRENDS) SAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1995 NOV 30 (NB) -- Known for its three-dimensional (3-D), virtual reality chat environment on the Internet, Worlds Inc., has made a formal announcement and beta launch of AlphaWorld. Any Internet user can download AlphaWorld software, enter the virtual environment, chat with other users, and build houses, storefronts, and gardens. US Warns China On Piracy (LEGAL) WASHINGTON, D.C., U.S.A., 1995 DEC 1 (NB) -- A top US trade official says Washington will take "decisive action" unless China dramatically improves its performance on protecting against piracy of computer software, movies and recordings. Charlene Barshefsky, deputy US trade representative, told the Senate Foreign Relations Committee that China is falling "far short" of its February 26 agreement with the US to crack down on piracy. Silicon Graphics In China Internet Deal (ONLINE) CENTRAL, HONG KONG, 1995 DEC 1 (NB) -- An indication of how the new information age might evolve in China came with the recent announcement by China Internet Corporation (CIC) of a US$1.5 million deal with Silicon Graphics for kit to set up its new Internet service. James Chu, the chief executive officer of the Xinhua unit, said the service won't actually provide access to the Internet for its mainland users, although it will for Hong Kong subscribers. Church of Scientology Responds To Judges Ruling (LEGAL) LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1995 DEC 1 (NB) -- The Church of Scientology has issued a statement about the recent ruling by a judge in California that threw out large portions of its copyright suit against Netcom. The judge did not throw out the entire case, and the rest will be settled at trial in the first half of 1996. Elonex Seeks Partners On Breakthrough Display Tech (TRENDS) SUNNYVALE, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1995 DEC 1 (NB) -- Sunnyvale, California-based Elonex Technologies, the research and development arm of UK direct PC sales manufacturer Elonex, has revealed it is talking to potential production and marketing partners about joint-development of a revolutionary display for which it has recently been awarded patents. Internet Expo - NetCarta "Roadmaps" To The Web (ONLINE) BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS, U.S.A., 1995 DEC 1 (NB) -- "Finding what you're looking for" on a Web site is a headache encountered by WebMasters, site analyzers, and end users alike, but all these groups will find relief through NetCarta's upcoming WebMapper and CyberPilot, two software products designed for creating and viewing "roadmaps" of the Web, predicted Thomas Tansy, VP of marketing and sales, in a meeting with Newsbytes at Internet Expo in Boston. (Ian Stokell/19951201) (SUMMARY)(GENERAL)(MSP)(00033) Newsbytes Daily Summary 12/01/95 MINNEAPOLIS, MINNESOTA, U.S.A., 1995 DEC 1 (NB) -- These are capsules of all today's news stories: ======================================================================== ------------| N E W S B Y T E S D A I L Y S U M M A R Y |---------- ------------| Friday, December 1, 1995 |---------- ======================================================================== (c) Newsbytes News Network (Tm) Editor in Chief: Wendy Woods ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Newsbytes News Network's on the Web! Check out http://www.nbnn.com for free daily top stories from Newsbytes and its affiliate publications, and from PC Week, MacWeek, and other Ziff news magazines. A subscription gives you all the news, full-text, plus the most comprehensive database of past computer stories online. The keyword-searchable database dates from today back through 1983. Subscriptions are $24.95 for three months. Questions? Send to 'administrator@newsbytes.com' For Japanese Newsbytes and additional services, see the Newsbytes Pacifica Website at http://www.islandtel.com/newsbytes/ ------------------------------------------------------------------------ CATEGORY HEADLINES (*** indicates today's top stories) STORY # ======================================================================== APPLE Apple Cuts Performa and Power Mac Prices................... 08 APPLE New Year's Eve Present From Apple.......................... 23 BROADCAST India - Wipro BT Launches VSAT Network Services............ 29 BUSINESS SoftKey To Acquire Compton's From Tribune Co............... 21 BUSINESS Spyglass Shares Way Up After Stock Split................... 22 BUSINESS Macromedia Acquires Music Software Maker OSC............... 24 BUSINESS Games Sales Predicted Strong For Holiday Season............ 26 CHIPS We Botched Asia Market, Intel Cries........................ 16 EDUCATION MIT Ranked Tops For Technology Careers - Survey............ 19 GENERAL NewsPix Update For Newsbytes Publishers.................... 07 GENERAL Personnel Roundup.......................................... 09 GENERAL CD-ROM Drive Sales Up, Pirates Nabbed, Says China.......... 28 GENERAL Newsbytes Week In Review................................... 32 HEALTH New Web Site Offers Daily Health Info...................... 13 LEGAL ****US Warns China On Piracy.............................. 01 LEGAL Conferees Clear Securities Legislation..................... 10 LEGAL Business Software Alliance Picks Up Adobe.................. 11 LEGAL ****Church of Scientology Responds To Judges Ruling....... 18 ONLINE Internet Update............................................ 04 ONLINE Australia - NetComm Sells Internet Stake................... 05 ONLINE Internet Expo - VisualWave For "Live" Web Apps............. 12 ONLINE ****Silicon Graphics In China Internet Deal............... 15 ONLINE ****Internet Expo - NetCarta "Roadmaps" To The Web........ 27 ONLINE Australia's Odyssey Hits With New Products................. 30 ONLINE China - US Sprint To Increase ChinaNet's Capacity.......... 31 TRENDS Where Did My Game Go....................................... 02 TRENDS On the Internet, No One Knows You're a Machine............. 06 TRENDS China - University Students' Anti-Smut Drive............... 17 TRENDS British Midland Airways To Offer Internet Booking.......... 20 TRENDS ****Elonex Seeks Partners On Breakthrough Display Tech.... 25 WINDOWS Microsoft Shipping New Programming Tools, TechNet Sampler.. 03 WINDOWS SoftRAM95 Test Results Clarified........................... 14 ======================================================================== These are the headlines and first paragraphs of each story, in order: 1 -> ****US Warns China On Piracy -- A top US trade official says Washington will take "decisive action" unless China dramatically improves its performance on protecting against piracy of computer software, movies and recordings. Charlene Barshefsky, deputy US trade representative, told the Senate Foreign Relations Committee that China is falling "far short" of its February 26 agreement with the US to crack down on piracy. 2 -> Where Did My Game Go -- DVD Software released a Windows version of its game elimination utility, UnGame. If you sign on to your network and find your favorite game missing, chances are good that is was one of 3,100 games UnGame can delete. DVD has built a business around improving computer productivity by monitoring and eliminating games employees spend time playing. 3 -> Microsoft Shipping New Programming Tools, TechNet Sampler -- Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ: MSFT) has announced availability of some new tools for programmers, including an upgrade to Visual C++, an OpenGL 3D API (application programming interface) and a CD that contains a sample issue of the company's TechNet information resource for supporting business products. 4 -> Internet Update -- This is a roundup of new resources and services on the global Internet: Site Of The Day: World Wide Music, The Online Column, Push-Pull Animation, Chicago Tribune Digital Coffee, Cyberspace Society Mailing List, The Civil War Letters Of Galutia York, Need Computer Parts?, Bug Net. 5 -> Australia - NetComm Sells Internet Stake -- In a move which may be a pointer to stronger alliances to come, Australian publicly listed modem maker NetComm has sold a 50 percent stake in its Internet service provider subsidiary Connect.com to long-distance phone operator AAP Telecommunications (AAPT). 6 -> On the Internet, No One Knows You're a Machine -- Multiple-user domains (MUDs) are computer programs which allow a number of networked people to play roles and communicate with each other. Those who play MUDs on the Internet often pretend to be someone else, even someone of another gender. Computer scientists have taken this concept to its logical conclusion by writing programs called "bots" that mimic the behavior of a human MUD role-player. 7 -> NewsPix Update For Newsbytes Publishers -- This update will be posted each Wednesday and Friday to reflect the daily picture additions. The updates will in turn become part of the main NewsPix Bulletin issued on Monday. 8 -> Apple Cuts Performa and Power Mac Prices -- In preparation for the holiday buying season, Apple Computer (NASDAQ:AAPL) announced price cuts as high a 25%. Averaging $325, the cuts apply to certain Performas and Power Mac models. 9 -> Personnel Roundup -- In today's roundup of personnel changes in the computing and telecommunications industries: Harris Corp., Digital Equipment Corp., PureSpeech Inc., CompUSA, Symantec Corp., Spectrum HoloByte Inc., Pyramid Technology, The Titan Corp., PageNet, Computervision Corp., Creative Technology Ltd. 10 -> Conferees Clear Securities Legislation -- A House-Senate conference committee has finished work on legislation to limit the ability of investors to bring securities fraud lawsuits. The conference report is expected to be approved by both chambers and the final legislation should be on President Clinton's desk next week. 11 -> Business Software Alliance Picks Up Adobe -- Adobe Systems Inc. has joined the Business Software Alliance's campaign to eradicate computer software piracy. Adobe has been a regional BSA member, participating in activities in Europe for several years, but now becomes a worldwide member, according to BSA spokeswoman Kim Willard. 12 -> Internet Expo - VisualWave For "Live" Web Apps -- ParcPlace- Digitalk's new object-oriented (OO) VisualWave will let Web developers move beyond the "brochureware" and forms-based "application wannabes" of most home pages today into "live Web applications that `listen' and `respond' to users," contended Nick Copping, VP of worldwide strategic customer relations, during a press conference attended by Newsbytes at E-Mail World/Internet Expo in Boston. 13 -> New Web Site Offers Daily Health Info -- Daily updated information on health and medical topics are now being provided on the Internet's World Wide Web from The New York Times Syndicated. The new site, called "Your Health Daily," is written so it can be easily understood by the general reader as well as health pros, officials said. 14 -> SoftRAM95 Test Results Clarified -- Well- known independent testing group, XXCAL Testing Laboratories issued a clarification about its testing data of Syncronys' SoftRAM95. After an avalanche of publicity claiming the company's product does not double RAM as advertised, XXCAL released clarification of its published test conclusions. 15 -> ****Silicon Graphics In China Internet Deal -- An indication of how the new information age might evolve in China came with the recent announcement by China Internet Corporation (CIC) of a US$1.5 million deal with Silicon Graphics for kit to set up its new Internet service. James Chu, the chief executive officer of the Xinhua unit, said the service won't actually provide access to the Internet for its mainland users, although it will for Hong Kong subscribers. 16 -> We Botched Asia Market, Intel Cries -- In a stunning admission, Intel reported that it completely fouled up Asia sales of its "OverDrive" chips for retrofitting 486 machines, having drawn up a plan that had PC dealers forsaking PC sales to sell only chips instead. 17 -> China - University Students' Anti-Smut Drive -- Student organizations of Tsinghua and Beijing Universities and the China Software Federation recently called on the public to help stop the production, duplication, sales, and use of pornographic electronic publications. 18 -> ****Church of Scientology Responds To Judges Ruling -- The Church of Scientology has issued a statement about the recent ruling by a judge in California that threw out large portions of its copyright suit against Netcom. The judge did not throw out the entire case, and the rest will be settled at trial in the first half of 1996. 19 -> MIT Ranked Tops For Technology Careers - Survey -- The Sloan School of Management at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) has come out on top in the first Computerworld ranking of "techno- MBA" programs at American universities. Second place went to Carnegie- Mellon University, and third to the University of Texas at Austin. 20 -> British Midland Airways To Offer Internet Booking -- British Midland Airways has announced plans to open the airline industry's first Internet seat booking services, Cyberseat, on December 11. From that date, customers Webbing in to http://www.iflybritishmidland.com will be able to book their tickets across the Internet, opting for delivery via a travel agent, or to their homes and offices. 21 -> SoftKey To Acquire Compton's From Tribune Co --Continuing its aggressive push into the educational computing market, SoftKey International Inc. (NASDAQ:SKEY) has announced a stock-swap deal that will give it control of Compton's NewMedia Inc. and Compton's Learning Co. 22 -> Spyglass Shares Way Up After Stock Split -- Just days after it announced a two-for-one stock split, the price Spyglass Inc. (NASDAQ:SPYG) shares on Wall Street have jumped at least $20. 23 -> New Year's Eve Present From Apple -- Using its newest QuickTime tool, Apple QuickTime Live!, Apple Computer (NASDAQ:AAPL) will provide a live, free Internet broadcast of Bill Graham Presents' gala San Francisco New Year's Eve event. Legendary rock group Santana and others will keep the waterfront evening going while Apple broadcasts the event on a special Web site. 24 -> Macromedia Acquires Music Software Maker OSC -- Macromedia (NASDAQ: MACR), producer of multimedia and digital arts software, and OSC, Inc., a developer of digital audio production software, announced that they have reached an agreement whereby Macromedia will acquire OSC. Based in San Francisco, OSC is the developer of Deck II, software for high-quality multi-track music and sound production. 25 -> ****Elonex Seeks Partners On Breakthrough Display Tech -- Sunnyvale, California-based Elonex Technologies, the research and development arm of UK direct PC sales manufacturer Elonex, has revealed it is talking to potential production and marketing partners about joint-development of a revolutionary display for which it has recently been awarded patents. 26 -> Games Sales Predicted Strong For Holiday Season -- According to industry observers the 1995 holiday season should be a good one for companies that manufacture educational and entertainment software as well as electronic games. Companies like The Edutainment Company (TEC) in Boulder, Colorado hope so. 27 -> ****Internet Expo - NetCarta "Roadmaps" To The Web -- "Finding what you're looking for" on a Web site is a headache encountered by WebMasters, site analyzers, and end users alike, but all these groups will find relief through NetCarta's upcoming WebMapper and CyberPilot, two software products designed for creating and viewing "roadmaps" of the Web, predicted Thomas Tansy, VP of marketing and sales, in a meeting with Newsbytes at Internet Expo in Boston. 28 -> CD-ROM Drive Sales Up, Pirates Nabbed, Says China -- More and more PC users in China are interested in CD-ROM drives, a survey conducted by China InfoWorld Market Research says. Although the existence of pirated titles does stimulate the market for CD-ROM drives, only 20 percent of the people in the survey said they will buy pirated titles. 29 -> India - Wipro BT Launches VSAT Network Services -- Wipro BT Ltd., owned equally by British Telecommunications Plc. (BT) and Wipro Ltd., formally launched its value added network services (VANS) and very small aperture terminal (VSAT) services in India. 30 -> Australia's Odyssey Hits With New Products -- Ring, ring. It's Netscape on the line. "Hey, guys we really love your software and we'd like to put it on our home page. You can expect around 17 million hits a day." That little scenario is the fantasy of every software developer, but it appears to be coming true for Australian text retrieval specialist Odyssey Development. 31 -> China - US Sprint To Increase ChinaNet's Capacity -- Beijing Telegraph Bureau recently signed a contract with US Sprint to supply equipment to increase the access capacity of ChinaNet three-fold in Beijing. Although Chinese professionals at some research and high educational institutes linked to the Internet several years ago, the general pubic had no means to access the worldwide network until ChinaNet started its network services last July. 32 -> Newsbytes Week In Review -- This is a look at the top stories this week, listing with their category code: Credit Card Users Beware Of Shadow Authorizations; Nintendo Ultra 64 Game System Intro'd; Symantec Completes Delrina Acquisition; Novell Cuts 400 Jobs, No buyer For Business Apps; Creative Technology Drops Reveal Acquisition; Cray Computer To Liquidate Assets; Taiwan Firm To Build $1.2Bil Chip Plant In US; Ameritech Invests in Educational Software Firm; IBM To Form Internet Software Business Unit; Yahoo Sells 12% Of Company; Intel's Dominance Will Grow - Study; FCC Panel Backs Digital HDTV; Rogers Cable TV Offers Commercial Internet Access; US West Launches Interactive Cable TV; Banks Face Major Competition On Internet; Silicon Valley CEOs Highlight Marketing Needs; AlphaWorld - 3-D On The Internet; US Warns China On Piracy; Silicon Graphics In China Internet Deal; Church of Scientology Responds To Judges Ruling; Elonex Seeks Partners On Breakthrough Display Tech; Internet Expo - NetCarta "Roadmaps" To The Web. (Wendy Woods/19951201) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 11/30/95 ONLINE AOL, Cable & Wireless Enter Japanese Online Market (NEWS)(ONLINE)(TYO)(00001) AOL, Cable & Wireless Enter Japanese Online Market 11/30/95 TOKYO, JAPAN, 1995 NOV 30 (NB) -- Britain's Cable & Wireless has announced a new Internet connection service for business and personal users in Japan, while America Online, fresh from launching its new European service, has said it will begin a Japanese online service next year. The new Cable & Wireless (C&W) service, named Majic, is aimed at companies and corporations seeking a permanent connection to the Internet and those wanting an occasional link via dial up access. C&W say the dial up services will also appeal to serious individual Internet users. In addition to the access services, Majic is also offering extra services such as World Wide Web site management and consultancy regarding aspects of the Internet. Security, a worry of many companies, is also addressed with "the highest level of security services." "At present, we are aiming at the high end, primarily corporate users," said Peter Butterworth, senior general manager for new products at Cable & Wireless Japan Communications Services. He added, "We will be addressing the consumer market early next year and will review our tariffs at that time." Majic is positioning itself as a major player in the Japanese Internet access market as illustrated when Butterworth said, "The longest established big three -- AT&T Spin, IIJ, and Tokyo Internet," after being asked by Newsbytes which companies he considered to be Majic's biggest competitors. He claimed that the company has several advantages over its competition: "A commitment to a content-rich service, good bandwidth management giving easy access with no delays (that's a C&W strength) and, coming, worldwide access." A Majic press release describes the Internet bandwidth as "virtually unlimited" and will be provided by way of two major links from Japan. The first will connect straight into the main Internet backbone in the United States and a second line will run to Hong Kong, where Cable & Wireless has a major stake in the territory's communications infrastructure. To help promote an Internet community around its service, Majic is offering two services: Art Net and TELL Net. The Art Net site is already running and offers a digital forum where Japanese and non- Japanese artists can show their work. TELL Net is an online service from the Tokyo English Language Lifeline (TELL), a service set up to help English speakers in the capital with particular problems faced with interfacing with Japanese life and language. First news of a Japanese venture from America Online came in June when Lennert Leader, the company's chief financial officer, told a reporter for the Reuter news service that AOL was hoping to have one or more Japanese partners by the end of this year. Last week, Jack Davies, president of AOL International, visited the Multimedia'95 exhibition at Tokyo's Makuhari Messe and said the company was in talks with possible partners currently and should be finalized by the end of the year. Speaking to Newsbytes, Pam McGraw, a spokeswoman for America Online, confirmed that, saying, "We are looking at partners to deliver the services, although we have not chosen a partner yet." She added the service is expected to begin next year. Currently, access to AOL is offered in Japan via the AOL Global Net, explained McGraw, making it one of the few countries in the world that has local access. Despite this, the service is currently not advertised in Japan. Readers with access to the World Wide Web can find Majic and the Art Net service at http://www.majic.co.jp/ . (Martyn Williams/19951130/Press contacts: Peter Butterworth, Cable & Wireless Japan Communications Services, tel +81-3-5470-2105, fax +81-3-5470-2118, Internet e-mail peter.butterworth@majic.co.jp; Pam McGraw, America Online, 703-556-3746) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 11/30/95 BROADCAST Asiasat 2 Satellite Launched Successfully (NEWS)(BROADCAST)(TYO)(00002) Asiasat 2 Satellite Launched Successfully 11/30/95 XICHANG, CHINA, 1995 NOV 30 (NB) -- A Chinese Long March rocket has successfully taken the Asiasat 2 satellite into orbit from where it will provide many new broadcast services to satellite and cable TV viewers across the region. The Long March 2E rocket began its journey from China's Xichang launch facility in Sichuan province early on Wednesday morning. The satellite joins its sister craft, Asiasat 1, in providing television broadcasting capacity to programmers across the region. Among those to benefit most is Rupert Murdoch's Star Television, a Hong Kong based broadcaster that currently sends two packages of channels to viewers in Eastern Asia, in English and Chinese, and to the Indian sub-continent, in English and Hindi. Until now, the company has sent around six channels in each package to viewers, marking itself as the region's leader, but has wanted to send more but been held back by a lack of transponder capacity. A solution is to use digital television systems in which several channels are sent in a digital form to special receivers. This system, already in use in the US and Europe, allows between 4 and 8 channels to be broadcast in place of one analog channel. The emerging world standard is MPEG-2 (Motion Picture Experts Group type 2). The new satellite provides the extra capacity needed by Star and a host of other broadcasters in the region. In addition to Star TV, other programmers include the Associated Press's APTV, Worldwide Television News, Hong Kong Telecom, Germany's public service Deutsche Welle TV, Portugal's Marconi Global Communications, the Pacific Century Group, and Malaysia's Time Telecommunications. Around a third of the capacity on the satellite will be used for more traditional telecommunications purposes, such as telephony and data transmission. The successful launch of the satellite was a great relief to the rocket's operators, the Great Wall Industry Corporation, which had delayed the launch originally scheduled for April. The delay was caused after a Long March rocket exploded on take off in January last year, halting all launches until the cause was determined. The rocket's owners and Hughes, builders of the Apstar satellite that was on board, determined the cause of the explosion was windshear, a freak weather situation that results in very strong downward winds. The failed launch was a cause of great embarrassment to the Chinese who were gaining marketshare in a typically competitive market by offering the lowest satellite launch fees. Sources suggest to Newsbytes the company charges between $50 million and $100 million for a launch compared to the $100 to $200 million charged by competing US and European launchers. Reports from China suggest the Asiasat 2 launch was not broadcast live on television for fear the launch may end in failure. Not only would this insure against domestic embarrassment, but also against the pictures from Chinese TV being flashed around the world as they are picked up via satellite from outside the country. (Martyn Williams/19951130) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 11/30/95 ONLINE Internet Update (NEWS)(ONLINE)(TYO)(00003) Internet Update 11/30/95 TOKYO, JAPAN, 1995 NOV 30 (NB) -- In this roundup of new resources and services on the global Internet: Northcoast Digital News; WAIS search interface; Countdown to Jupiter; Dictionary of scientific quotations; Trade information resources; AI at ISU; Las Vegas Computer Journal; Java-Mac mailing list; Philadelphia Inquirer online; Where virtual becomes real. Northcoast Digital News From a California-based Internet company, Northcoast Internet, a roundup of local news associated with the network and online communications is offered via the World Wide Web and e-mail. The latest edition we saw covered articles on California state on the net, ISDN (integrated services digital network) lines, company news and the ever popular "kewl" sites. E-mail: ndn-request@northcoast.com Message Body: subscribe World Wide Web: http://www.northcoast.com/ndn/ndn.html WAIS Search Interface Sometimes Newsbytes comes across a service so useful that this bureau adds it to our own personal bookmarks file. This is one of them. It's a World Wide Web interface to a search engine covering all public WAIS databases. If you're not familiar with the WAIS tool this is a great place to start exploring the numerous information sources available. World Wide Web: http://sunsite.unc.edu/cgi-bin/fwais.pl Countdown To Jupiter The Galileo spacecraft is currently enroute to Jupiter, with arrival scheduled for December 7, 1995. From the mission's Web page you can see daily updated images being transmitted back from space and will also feature further images gathered over the next two years as the craft orbits Jupiter. When the craft begins its encounter with the planet, updates will be increased to once every five minutes. World Wide Web: http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/galileo/countdown/ Dictionary Of Scientific Quotations Network users are invited to submit their favorite scientific quotations to the editor of this online dictionary. You can also browse contributions that currently include those of Francis Bacon, Winston Churchill, Isaac Newton, Louis Pasteur, and Mark Twain. World Wide Web: http://pinc.com/home/hp/dsqhome.html Trade Information Resources You won't find a list of "kewl" sites here. Rexco, an Irish information brokerage firm, has produced a comprehensive collection of international trade resources following its own mission, "to provide value-added information services for individuals and commercial organizations who wish to take advantage of trading opportunities globally via the Internet." A monthly updated best five list is also offered. World Wide Web: http://www.rexco.com/rexco/index.html Artificial Intelligence At Iowa State Univ Iowa State University's artificial intelligence group has created a home page. Visitors can find information about the group, its members, publications and the research it carries out. If you are interested in artificial intelligence there are also several links to other resources. World Wide Web: http://www.cs.iastate.edu/~honavar/aigroup.html Las Vegas Computer Journal The electronic version of Las Vegas's free-of-charge computing newsletter is now available by e-mail, in addition to the World Wide Web. Users can request an HTML (hypertext markup language) or ASCII format file. The former can be loaded into a browser and the hyperlinks can be used while online. The magazines covers all aspects of computing in Las Vegas and reports on the recent Comdex show are available from the Web site. E-mail: compjour@accessnv.com Message Body: Specify which format you would like to receive World Wide Web: http://www.accessnv.com/compjour Java-Mac Mailing List This mailing list has recently been formed to facilitate discussion of tools, techniques, solutions, tech notes, and any other items of relevant interest to Macintosh Java developers. The mailing list is open to anyone interested in finding out more about the development of applets for Sun's Java system on Macintosh computers. E-mail: majordomo@natural.com Message Body: subscribe JAVA-MAC your@email.address Philadelphia Inquirer Online Joining the growing ranks of newspapers with online services, Philadelphia Online, a service of The Philadelphia Inquirer and the Philadelphia Daily News began this week. Users are offered a complete, electronic version of both local newspapers, as well as additional background information on topics in the news. World Wide Web: http://www.phillynews.com/ Where Virtual Becomes Real Virtual travel turns real for one lucky visitor to the Virtual Antarctica site later this year, as the result of competition being run. Users can register to win a free trip on an Antarctic cruise, including round-trip airfare, while they learn all about the world's least-known region. "Virtual Antarctica" is the first in a series of Terraquest's online adventures to exotic destinations around the world. World Wide Web: http://www.terraquest.com/ (Martyn Williams/19951130) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 11/30/95 TRENDS Swiss Electronic Stock Exchange Gears Up (NEWS)(TRENDS)(LON)(00004) Swiss Electronic Stock Exchange Gears Up 11/30/95 ZURICH, SWITZERLAND, 1995 NOV 30 (NB) -- The Swiss Bourse, the operators of the Swiss Stock Exchange, have announced that Switzerland's electronic stock exchange system, which has been beset by delays, will almost certainly start operations some time during the coming month, following a successful "dry run" earlier this month. According to officials, the trials, which involved 53 banks and financial institutions, went without a hitch. According to an official statement from the Bourse, on the basis of the trial, the progressive implementation of electronic trading can now go ahead in Switzerland. Plans now call for the Bourse to begin foreign trading only on December 8, a task which officials say represents a relatively light workload, approximately five percent of the normal transaction loading for the exchange. Trading of shares and bonds, which will increase the load to 100 percent, is then expected to follow on in the first quarter of 1996. Assuming all goes to plan, then the Swiss Bourse will be the first electronic stock exchange system in the world to offer clearing and settlement functions integrally to its share exchange functions, Newsbytes notes. Like many exchanges, the Swiss Bourse is still operating on an open floor basis, with brokers shouting deals to each other, and paper documents collated on a regular basis, for inter-broker settlement each day and/or accounting period. The much delayed electronic system, which has cost the Bourse almost SF100 million, centers around the use of computers from branch and broker offices, rather than a central office to which brokers and other parties must travel. When the system was originally announced back in 1989, the projected cost price was around half that of the SF100 million, and was expected to begin operations in 1991. That start date was abandoned in 1990, Newsbytes notes, following technical difficulties, since when the system implementation date has been put back several times. (Steve Gold/19951129) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 11/30/95 TRENDS Fujitsu's Low-Cost 3-D Graphics Accelerator Card (NEWS)(TRENDS)(LON)(00005) Fujitsu's Low-Cost 3-D Graphics Accelerator Card 11/30/95 LONDON, ENGLAND, 1995 NOV 30 (NB) -- Fujitsu has unveiled a budget version of its three-dimensional (3-D) accelerator card, known as the Sapphire 3D Designer. According to officials with the company, the card, which will ship internationally next month, will sell for under the $1,000 mark, yet still be capable of delivering "workstation-level precision" and "professional performance" with a "significantly lower" price tag. Jim Evert, vice president for FMI Graphics Products business with Fujitsu, claims that the card is being targeted at high-end PC users, who need higher speeds and extra features for creating their 3-D graphics. The card is also being aimed at CAD (computer-aided design) and DTP (desktop publishing) professionals as a tool for creating more realistic images. According to Evert, many specialists in medical imaging, visual simulation, graphic arts, virtual reality, and animations are moving towards PC-based 3-D accelerator boards, which are not only lower in cost, but also very sophisticated. Fujitsu claims that the components used in the Sapphire 3D Designer card have an established record and are highly effective in other high-end products. "The Sapphire family of 3-D cards enables users to perform complex graphics tasks on their desktop that previously were limited to workstations for substantially lower costs," he explained. The new card features 3D-Labs' high-performance 300SX GLINT chip, which is billed as providing true, hardware-based, 64-bit 3-D imaging for the PC desktop. The card comes with two megabytes (MB) of VRAM and 4MB of DRAM, and supports resolutions up to 1,600 by 1,200 pixels. According to Fujitsu, the card is compatible with Windows NT, Windows 95, OpenGL, AutoCAD, 3D Studio, MicroStation, Animator Pro and many other operating system/applications. On the hardware front, the card is claimed to be compatible with Intel PC, Digital AlphaStation and Alpha XL workstations, as well as MIPS and PowerPC system. Worldwide pricing on the card has been set at $995, including a five- year, limited warranty. According to Evert, the 3-D accelerator board market will reach the $1.4 billion mark before the end of the decade. Voting figures from Joe Peddie Associates, Fujitsu claims that sales in terms of units sold will rise by up to a million cards annually by the year 2000. "As this emerging market grows, we are well positioned to be a leader by developing partnerships with 3-D industry influences, such as software programmers, chip makers and API (application programming interface) designers, and are working to fulfill our goal of developing a complete family of accelerator cards -- from the Sapphire family for the high end, to consumer-oriented products that we plan to develop in 1996" Evert said. (Sylvia Dennis/11951129/Press Contact: Dave Anderson, A&R Partners US, 415-363-0982) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 11/30/95 TELECOM Ericsson Working On Micro, Pico PCS Cellular Technology (NEWS)(TELECOM)(LON)(00006) Ericsson Working On Micro, Pico PCS Cellular Technology 11/30/95 STOCKHOLM, SWEDEN, 1995 NOV 30 (NB) -- Now that PCS (personal communications system) digital mobile telephony is beginning to take off in the US in the 1,900 megahertz (MHz) waveband, cellular hardware manufacturers are starting to look at ways to maximize the available bandwidth to squeeze a higher density of subscribers for city areas, to avoid a congested network. Now Ericsson, the Swedish telco, is working on a new range of base stations with lower and/or polarized power emissions, which it calls Micro and Pico base stations, in order to ensure that PCS can be used by a significant number of users in a city or metro environment. Ericsson's Micro and Pico base stations are expected to become commercially available early next year and, according to Caroline Freudenthal, Ericsson Business Area Radio Comms' press officer, are the smallest on the market. Known as the Micro RBS, the weatherproof Micro base stations have a footprint of 50 by 40 centimeters (cm) and a case height of 15cm, and can be located below the roofline. Thanks to the use of a hierarchical cellular structure (i.e. base stations joined in a pyramid-style chain), each Micro cell is designed to have a 100- to 300-meter radius when used in city areas. Although the Micro RBS is aimed at PCS 1900 systems in the US or PCN 1800 networks in Europe, the base stations are also available in a GSM (global system for mobile communications) 900 (MHz) version for use in so-called metro GSM configurations. Metro GSM is being supported by some GSM networks, such as Vodafone, since it is widely recognized that frequency allocations on GSM are much more limited than PCS or PCN ever will be. By using a Micro GSM base station, the GSM networks can maximize their coverage, even in city/metro areas. The Pico RBS, meanwhile, is even smaller than the Micro RBS, with a footprint of 25cm by 30cm and a case height of 10cm. Typical applications for the Pico RBS cellular base stations include hotels, subway stations, restaurants, convention centers, office buildings, sports centers, and shopping malls. According to Ericsson, the use of a hierarchical cellular structure with Micro and Pico base stations, as against a standard digital base station, is that capacity for a given area can be massively increased. Furthermore, because the Micro and Pico base stations are much more limited in power and effective radius than a standard base station, a given set of frequencies can be reused several times over in a given area. In a typical city implementation, Ericsson says it envisages a few normal base stations covering the whole of the city, with Micro and Pico cells, with, respectively 100/300 meters and 10/30 meters, covering the center of the city area, as well as shopping malls and transport interchange areas. Further details of the Micro and Pico RBS base stations can be found on Ericsson's new Web pages, which are at http://www.ericsson.se . (Steve Gold/19951129/Press Contact: Per Bengtsson, Ericsson, tel +46-70-590-0599, fax +46-8-752-0809) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 11/30/95 TELECOM First GSM Net For North Africa Begins Construction (NEWS)(TELECOM)(LON)(00007) First GSM Net For North Africa Begins Construction 11/30/95 TRIPOLI, LIBYA, 1995 NOV 30 (NB) -- The march of GSM (global system for mobile communications) digital telephony continues, with Libya becoming the first North African country to sign up for the installation of a GSM network. As previously reported by Newsbytes, GSM 900 (megahertz) is fast becoming a world standard thanks to its ability to offer roaming between networks which link their HLRs (Home Location Registers) together by a data circuit. GSM 900 should not, Newsbytes notes, be confused with GSM 1800/1900 technology, often referred to as PCN (personal communications network) or PCS (personal communications system) digital phone technology, since GSM 900 systems are not compatible with PCN/PCS systems operating at the higher frequencies. According to Ericsson, the Swedish telco with whom the Orbit Telephone Company has signed a contract for installation of a GSM network, the Libyan deal is worth $42.5 million and calls for the installation of a cellular net covering from RadJadir near the border with Tunisia, ranging down to the coast to Tripoli and on to Sirte. The order itself is for phase one of the Libyan GSM network and includes a single EMX (electronic mobile exchange), base stations, and several Ericsson Mini-Links and 140 megabits-per-second (Mbps) radio links. Newsbytes notes that there are no cellular networks in Libya and, according to Per Bengtsson of Ericsson, GSM takeup as a result is expected to be quite high. The order is the first GSM network for North Africa and, curiously enough, the contract was negotiated by LM Ericsson Ireland, the division of Ericsson that covers Libya. Plans call for Orbit GSM network to launch in the second quarter of 1996 and Ericsson will have continuing responsibility for technical support for the new network. Although GSM 1900 is still in its infancy in the US, elsewhere in the world it has become a de facto digital standard. Earlier this week, Apple's President Mike Spindler, speaking at a European information technology conference, acknowledged the importance of GSM in the digital phone market, saying that he expects the technology to take off very soon in the US marketplace. According to Spindler, GSM is a model of technological development since consumer applications of the technology are being developed rapidly, without fuss and, perhaps more importantly, economically. In addition, he said, GSM has been adopted swiftly by Europe's telecoms authorities. (Sylvia Dennis/19951129/Press Contact: Mick Brown, General Manager, LM Ericsson Ireland, +353-1-283-7222; Reader Contact: Ericsson Africa & Latin America, +46-8-757-1077) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 11/30/95 ONLINE ****Free Newsbytes E-Mail Trial Subscriptions (NEWS)(ONLINE)(MSP)(00008) ****Free Newsbytes E-Mail Trial Subscriptions 11/30/95 MINNEAPOLIS, MINNESOTA, U.S.A., 1995 NOV 30 (NB) -- Newsbytes News Network, a comprehensive source of daily telecom, computer, and interactive services news since 1983, along with Island Telecommunications Corp. is offering free one-month trial subscriptions to its Newsbytes E-Mail Subscription Service through the month of December. The service offers the complete text of Newsbytes News Network's award-winning newswire delivered directly to a subscribers' Internet mailbox each business day. The first month's fee is waived under this trial offer, and there is no renewal obligation. An application form is available at Island Telecom's Newsbytes Pacifica Website at http://www.islandtel.com/newsbytes/freetrial.html or apply by sending an e-mail message to newsbytes-trial@islandtel.com, with your First Virtual account ID in the body of the message. A First Virtual account is required; accounts on First Virtual's secure Internet transaction system can be obtained at the URL http://www.fv.com/newacct/ , or by sending e-mail to apply@card.com. Newsbytes, a pioneering electronic publication offering both text and images, has provided daily coverage of the dynamic and complex computer and telecommunications industries since 1983. More than 150 media outlets, including print publications, online services, and database companies, are licensed to publish Newsbytes wire material. The wire service reports at least stories each day, filed by 19 staff correspondents worldwide. All reporting is first-hand, original, and objective. News is gathered from independent sources, trade shows, and interviews with top industry professionals. Headquartered in Minneapolis, MN, in the United States, Newsbytes News Network has bureaus in San Francisco, Denver, Washington DC, Boston, Los Angeles, Toronto, London, Tokyo, Hongkong, Sydney, Beijing, Manila, and New Delhi. The Newsbytes Pacifica Website is one of two World Wide Web servers Newsbytes maintains. The other is located at http://www.nbnn.com (Newsbytes Staff/19951130) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 11/30/95 ONLINE WorldsAway Ready To Animate Compuserve Chat (NEWS)(ONLINE)(SFO)(00009) WorldsAway Ready To Animate Compuserve Chat 11/30/95 COLUMBUS, OHIO, U.S.A., 1995 NOV 30 (NB) -- Compuserve and Fujitsu Cultural Technologies are ready to release an animated chat world, called WorldsAway. Compuserve subscribers will be able to choose an animated persona which can dance, reach out, and show emotion through facial expressions while they converse through displayed text. Starting December 12, Compuserve says it will celebrate the launch of WorldsAway with Christmas virtual world, which includes Santa, elves, reindeer, a Christmas tree, and tracks in the snow. As a larger Christmas present to its members, Compuserve says the service will be billed at standard connect rates and the cost of the WorldsAway CD will be off-set by a usage credit. A Fujitsu spokesperson told Newsbytes, "We have worked very hard with Compuserve to bring WorldsAway to its members. It works on standard phone lines connected by users' regular modems. To be able to deliver this level of technology without high-speed data lines has been one of our major goals." A competitive product, Worlds Chat, has been available as a beta on the World Wide Web for more than six months. Developed by Worlds Inc., Worlds Chat is a demonstration of three-dimensional (3-D) virtual environments displayed online and has attracted thousands of users from around the world. "WorldsAway is a rich, animated graphic environment which is available for almost all desktop systems. We found 3-D environments required high-powered Pentium systems to properly handle the constantly changing, complex video display. Our goal has always been to deliver a virtual world which all of our users can access," continued the company spokesperson. With the introduction of WorldsAway, Compuserve becomes the first major online provider to offer a virtual chat environment. America Online and Prodigy have not commented on any possible plans they may have to develop a competitive product. WorldsAway can be accessed in 450 North American cities, 33 European cities, and from 140 countries through gateway networks. (Patrick McKenna/19951130/Press Contact: Jane Torbica, Compuserve, 614-538-3347; Diane Bancroft, Fujitsu, 408-456-7923) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 11/30/95 PC Fuji Offers Zip Disks, Flash Memory (NEWS)(PC)(DEN)(00010) Fuji Offers Zip Disks, Flash Memory 11/30/95 ELMSFORD, NEW YORK, U.S.A., 1995 NOV 30 (NB) -- The computer products division of Fuji Photo Film USA Inc. has introduced a high-capacity storage disk for the popular Zip drive and a line of flash memory cards for personal computers. #IMAGE 1 20 TWPCX \images\95113010.PCX Click here for photo Fuji Computer Products is offering the 100 megabyte (MB) Fujifilm ATOMM Zip Disk 100 in a 3.7-inch format with a data transfer rate of 1.4 MB-per-second. Fuji spokesperson Allison Colucci told Newsbytes ATOMM is an acronym for advanced super thin-layer and high output metal media. The disk consists of an extremely thin (0.1 to 0.5 micron) layer of metal particles coated over a non-magnetic layer of titanium compound. Fuji said the particles in the lower layer are about one-sixth the size of metal magnetic particles. The company also said it will sell a Fuji-branded Iomega Zip drive that has a seek time of 29 milliseconds and gives the user a choice of SCSI (small computer system interface) or PC interface. Zip drives were introduced by Iomega in March of this year. Fuji supplies the magnetic media used in Zip disks. The Fujifilm ATOMM Zip disk 100 has a suggested retail price of $19.95 per disk. Colucci said the disks will be available in the first quarter of 1996. The suggested retail price for the Fuji-branded Zip drive is $199.95. The new flash cards, called PC Cards Flash Memory, come in a 2MB version called the Fuji RD3001 for use in laptop computers and electronic imaging products and the RD4001 Direct Bus Flash Card with capacities from 1MB to 16MB for customized devices such as delivery information acquisition devices. That's technospeak for the handheld device your parcel delivery company uses to track the progress of a package from shipment to delivery. Fuji recently introduced the RD3001 ATA memory flash card in 5MB, 15MB, and 20MB versions, for use in applications such as digital cameras. PC Cards, formerly known as PCMCIA (Personal Computer Memory Card International Association) cards, resemble a thick credit card and are inserted in a slot on the computing device. A PC Card can add a data/fax modem to your computer, increase its memory, connect you to a network, or provide a host of other services. Pricing and availability of the flash cards was not available at press time. While the average consumer may think of film when hearing the name Fuji, the company's computer products division markets floppy disks, four millimeter (mm) and 8mm backup data tapes, one-quarter-inch data cartridges, rewriteable magneto-optical disks, CD-Recordable optical disks and a range of computer accessories. (Jim Mallory/19951130/Press contact: Allison Colucci, Fujifilm, 914-789-8148/FUJI951130/PHOTO) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 11/30/95 BUSINESS Business As Usual At Packard Bell? (NEWS)(BUSINESS)(SFO)(00011) Business As Usual At Packard Bell? 11/30/95 SAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1995 NOV 30 (NB) -- A recent Securities and Exchange Commission filing by Intel showed the chip giant had converted part of a $470 million receivable into a customer loan. Intel did not reveal the customer, but speculation by the media has centered around Packard Bell. Could a half billion dollar receivable indicate a trend of slow growth for the PC market? Most analysts say the market is stronger than ever and consumers are quick to demand the latest and fastest Intel processor. Some sources suggest Packard Bell is caught with a large inventory of, what is now a slow Pentium processor, the 75 megahertz (MHz). Ninety MHz, 100MHz, and 120MHz Pentium processors quickly followed the 75. A 133MHz model barely made it to the market before Intel announced a new generation of its Pentium line with Pentium Pro processors operating as high as 200MHz. Hewlett-Packard and Compaq figured hungry consumers would go for the 100MHz chip and stocked accordingly. In spite of the cost difference, experts say consumers showed an appetite for the 100MHz model and left the 75MHz processor on the retail shelf. If the experts are right, Packard Bell is trying to move its personal computer systems powered by the 75MHz processor with heavy discounts. Packard Bell says any rumors about it having financial difficulties are incorrect and both its third and fourth quarter results have been very healthy. In a report from Reuters, Lim Huat Seng, Packard Bell's vice president and managing director for Asia-Pacific, said the company's sales in Europe and the Middle East would be close to $1.0 billion this, year which almost doubles the $500 million figure of last year. Packard Bell declined to comment on Intel's partial conversion of the almost half a billion receivable into a customer loan and the drop in Intel stock when the loan information hit Wall Street. Third quarter marketshare for Packard Bell was up over the previous quarter by 2.6% at 12.4%, and the company says it expects continued growth in the fourth quarter. Behind closed doors, the players know who owes who, but no-one is ready to comment on a half billion dollar receivable, which is causing concern on Wall Street . (Patrick McKenna/19951130) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 11/30/95 ONLINE Private Jet Travel Arrangements On The Web (NEWS)(ONLINE)(SFO)(00012) Private Jet Travel Arrangements On The Web 11/30/95 SAN RAMON, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1995 NOV 30 (NB) -- If all of the online and Internet air travel information and reservations systems seem too complicated and time-consuming, Jet Express says its World Wide Web page is the place to go. Fill-in a simple e-mail form with destination, desired departure, cuisine preference and bank references, and Jet Express sends back the cost of your custom trip in a private jet. Randy Lynch, president of Jet Express, says his World Wide Web site is the perfect alternative to fluctuating schedules, long lines, delayed flights, crowded airports, stale food, and lost baggage. "People can charter flights for business or personal use and plan everything from the time of departure to their favorite food. By going through our Web site, an Internet user can plan a trip anytime of day and receive a very quick response from us." The Jet Express Web page contains the e-mail quote form and a frequently asked questions (FAQ) page. All trips are based on round- trip travel and can be scheduled from one to 14 people. The company supplies corporate jets and turboprops which customarily use smaller local airports. Lynch says the cost is offset by flexibility, control, first class amenities and onboard privacy in luxurious surroundings. From a business point of view, chartered flights also provide extensive security provisions which are not possible through commercial flights. Jet Express says many of its business customers consider the ability to set their own schedule and eliminate wasted time spent in long lines, waiting for connecting flights and navigating baggage claim areas, more than makes-up for the added cost. On the World Wide Web, Jet Express can be located at http://www.jetexpress.com . (Patrick McKenna/19951130/Press Contact: Cliff Kurtzman, The Tenagra Corporation, 713-480-6300) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 11/30/95 TRENDS Quarterdeck Software To Open Africa To Internet (NEWS)(TRENDS)(SFO)(00013) Quarterdeck Software To Open Africa To Internet 11/30/95 MARINA DEL REY, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1995 NOV 30 (NB) -- Quarterdeck has announced an agreement with Internetworking Africa to license its Internet Suite. The automatic register, configure, and connect package will allow customers throughout the southern part of Africa to access the Internet. When Gaston Bastiaens, Quarterdeck's president and chief executive officer, signed-on last year, he said the company would expand its traditional memory management business with new Internet tools and increased attention to International markets. His success with Quarterdeck Internet products was highlighted this year by a jump in the company's stock from $3 per share to more than $28 per share. "There is a tremendous potential for dial-up access in Africa, especially South Africa, and we are now very well-positioned to participate in this growth. Internetworking Africa is a strategically important partner for us and we are pleased to be working with them," said Bastiaens in a released statement. Quarterdeck's Internet Suite contains: Quarterdeck Mosaic; Quarterdeck Message Center; QTERM, for Telnet; QFTP, for file transfer protocol (FTP) file transfers; and Quarterdeck Location Manager; along with integrated SLIP/PPP support. The company's Connect and Play feature has been customized to allow first-time customers to contact Internetworking Africa and reportedly get online in minutes. The software has also been adapted to the African environment with a special list of African URLs (uniform resource locators) which make it easier for users to find African companies and individuals on the World Wide Web. Internetworking Africa is the largest Internet service provider (ISP) on the continent with a presence in seven South African cities and additional locations in Zimbabwe, Swaziland, and Zambia. Currently growing at a rate of 20% per month, Internetworking Africa is constantly expanding its African service. A spokesperson for the company told Newsbytes, "This announcement with Internetworking Africa is an important step in our international business plan. At this time, we are not able to release more information, but the goal here at Quarterdeck is to establish a global presence for this company." (Patrick McKenna/19951130/Press Contact: Ellen Spooren, Quarterdeck, 310-309-4261) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 11/30/95 ONLINE Compuserve's Moneyline For Hong Kong Business (NEWS)(ONLINE)(HKG)(00014) Compuserve's Moneyline For Hong Kong Business 11/30/95 CENTRAL, HONG KONG, 1995 NOV 30 (NB) -- Compuserve is offering an online financial service, called the Money personal finance center. Aimed at Hong Kong entrepreneurs who hold investments in the US market, the service is provided by Money, a US financial publication. The service gives users access to magazine articles, electronic-mail contact with the magazine's editors, updates on funds and stock prices, and even allows trading through brokerage accounts. It also has details of banking loan rates and other more personal financial services. Money magazine is the third largest financial title in the US with a circulation of 1.9 million. (Joel McCormick & I.T. Daily/19951130) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 11/30/95 WINDOWS Internet Expo - HP Takes On Microsoft With Win NT Mail Port (NEWS)(WINDOWS)(BOS)(00015) Internet Expo - HP Takes On Microsoft With Win NT Mail Port 11/30/95 BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS, U.S.A., 1995 NOV 30 (NB) -- Hewlett- Packard's OpenMail, a long-time competitor to IBM's Profs, will now take on Microsoft Exchange in earnest, with a port of HP's messaging server to Windows NT that will support the Microsoft Exchange client plus Lotus Notes and cc:Mail clients and a new update to Corporate Software & Technologies' (CS&T)'s OpenTime group scheduler, officials said at a press conference attended by Newsbytes at E-Mail World/Internet Expo in Boston. Although previously available for Unix environments only, HP's OpenMail has always competed with Microsoft Exchange to a certain degree, asserted Korek Mitra, general manager of HP's Enterprise Messaging Operation. But with the port next year to Windows NT, HP will now "take the Microsoft concept and implement it on an enterprise scale," Mitra told reporters and analysts at the press luncheon. Also at the press event, Mitra announced plans by HP to integrate OpenMail with HP OpenView Solution Framework for centralized messaging and network systems management. Nigel Upton, worldwide marketing manager for the Enterprise Messaging Operation, said that OpenMail for Windows NT is slated for a beta launch in February, with general availability in June. The new NT edition of the HP messaging server will support "popular messaging clients" that will include Microsoft Mail and Lotus Notes and cc:Mail, according to Upton. OpenMail on Windows NT will comply with MAPI (Microsoft Application Programming Interface) 1.0. Support will also be provided for CS&T's OpenTime. Meanwhile, CS&T's OpenTime group scheduler for Windows, Windows 95, Motif, Macintosh, and ASCII terminals, first introduced last spring, has been updated with a new user interface, said CS&T's Eric Melka, during a demo at the press conference. CS&T plans a "Web client" for the future, according to Melka. HP's new OpenMail on Windows NT will represent a "complete rewrite" of the back-end messaging server for the 32-bit Microsoft environment, Upton noted during the press event. "Our belief is that Windows NT isn't (an) enterprise-wide (platform) yet, but that it will be in the future," said Mitra, elaborating on HP's intentions during a Q&A session that followed. Today, he added, NT is best suited to departmental applications. Although benchmark results will not be available until beta testing begins, the NT edition of OpenMail might not offer the same "performance or scalability" as existing versions of the messaging server for HP-UX, Sun Solaris, IBM AIX, and SCO (Santa Cruz Operation) Unix, Mitra acknowledged. But, unlike Microsoft Exchange, which only supports Microsoft Windows environments, OpenMail will be "a server for various groupware platforms," according to the HP general manager. In addition to "accommodating (these) clients" and "harnessing processing power," OpenMail on Windows NT will also provide better support for "process reengineering," Mitra contended. "We will compete (with Microsoft Exchange) head on," he told the group. The integration of OpenMail into the HP OpenView Solution Framework calls for the use of "intelligent agents" to detect problems on remote servers, according to Melka. Pre-defined actions will be triggered for problem resolution. The administrator will be able to transfer a user to a new OpenMail server by dragging and dropping an icon. Underlying directory and mailbox information will then be changed automatically. In the demo of CS&T's OpenTime, Melka showed the journalists capabilities that included "worldwide time zone support" and real-time scheduling over multiple servers. Other calendaring and scheduling capabilities include: the ability to search for "best times," as well as for people for "free time;" a "person finder;" a personal agenda; an appointment status tracker; a meeting organizer; personal and group notes; to-do and task lists; designation of proxy and calendar access rights; and notification of all-day events, company holidays, and recurring group meetings, according to Melka. OpenTime supports HP-UX, Sun Solaris, IBM AIX, and UnixWare servers. CS&T, formerly known as Dexotek, also produces CorporateTime for users of Enterprise Solutions Limited (ESL)'s X.400-based EXM/Mail. (Jacqueline Emigh/19951130/Reader Contact: HP Direct, 800-637-7740; Press Contact: Jeannette Tollstrup, HP, 408-447-5333; Reader and Press Contact: CS&T, 514-694-7070) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 11/30/95 TRENDS IBM Software Retrieves Voice Messages On The Web (NEWS)(TRENDS)(TOR)(00016) IBM Software Retrieves Voice Messages On The Web 11/30/95 TRIANGLE PARK, NORTH CAROLINA, U.S.A., 1995 NOV 30 (NB) -- IBM (NYSE:IBM) has added to its DirectTalk/6000 software the ability to retrieve voice messages over the Internet and play them on any personal computer equipped with a sound card. DirectTalk/6000 is a voice-mail software package that runs on IBM's RISC System/6000 systems. A new release, due for delivery in early February, includes DirectTalkMail, which will make it possible to check messages via the Internet's World Wide Web, the company said. The software will store the messages as audio files that can be downloaded to a remote PC. Rob Woods, manager of architectures and strategy in the Call Center Solutions Group at IBM Canada Ltd. in Markham, Ontario, told Newsbytes no special hardware or software is needed on the remote PC other than a standard sound card and, of course, a modem and Internet access software. IBM officials said the new feature will let travelers check their e-mail and voice-mail with a single connection to the Internet from wherever they are. It will also make it possible to have DirectTalkMail take a voice message while you are on the phone, then check to see who called while still on the first call. Also, the company said, users will be able to check their messages without tying up their phone lines. DirectTalkMail will also let users send messages to people using any other voice messaging system that supports the Audio Messaging Interface Standard (AMIS). The latest release of DirectTalk/6000 also has speech recognition technology that lets users identify themselves by speaking their names. The software runs on RS/6000 systems under the AIX operating system, and costs US$750 per port, Woods said. (Grant Buckler/19951130/Press Contact: Anne Hay, IBM Canada, 905-316-2251, Internet e-mail ahay@vnet.ibm.com) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 11/30/95 ONLINE ****Rogers Cable TV Offers Commercial Internet Access (NEWS)(ONLINE)(TOR)(00017) ****Rogers Cable TV Offers Commercial Internet Access 11/30/95 NEWMARKET, ONTARIO, CANADA, 1995 NOV 30 (NB) -- Rogers Cablesystems Ltd., one of Canada's major cable television operators, has begun offering access to the Internet and other online services over its cable network. Newmarket, a suburban community north of Toronto and the site of an earlier technical trial, will be the first to get the service on a commercial basis. In its trial stage the service was called CableLink - Home, but Rogers has renamed it Rogers Wave. It uses a 500,000 bits-per-second cable modem, offering a major speed advantage over telephone-line modems. In answer to the question TV addicts may be asking, Rudy Engel, executive vice-president of sales, marketing, and programming at Rogers Cablesystems, told Newsbytes it will be possible to watch television while using Rogers Wave on the same cable connection. The cable modem uses frequencies not used for TV signals, he explained. Rogers will provide its own package of Internet access software, including a World Wide Web browser and other utilities. However, Engel told Newsbytes that any software designed for use with the Internet will work over Rogers Wave, as long as one software component designed to manage the cable modem is present. Rogers chose Newmarket for the service's launch because its cable system there is fully duplexed, allowing two-way communication between subscribers and the cable company. Rogers is in the process of upgrading its other cable installations, Engel said, and hopes to offer Rogers Wave throughout Metropolitan Toronto by this time next year. Other cities served by the company, including Vancouver, Ottawa, and various smaller centers in southwestern Ontario, will follow. Rogers will charge C$39.95 per month for unlimited Internet access plus some special services. At an additional cost, the company will also provide cable-modem access to commercial online services such as Compuserve and America Online. Engel said agreements with the major commercial online services are close to completion. Customers would purchase subscriptions from the online services in the usual way, but connect via Rogers Wave rather than over a phone line, he said. (Grant Buckler/19951130/Press Contact: Rudy Engel, Rogers Cablesystems, 416-864-2369) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 11/30/95 ONLINE Internet Expo - How To Make Money From The Internet (NEWS)(ONLINE)(BOS)(00018) Internet Expo - How To Make Money From The Internet 11/30/95 BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS, U.S.A., 1995 NOV 30 (NB) -- Although the World Wide Web seems to be at the top of almost every organization's priorities these days, making money off the Internet is a process that will take another three to eight years to complete, predicted John McCarthy, an analyst at Forrester Research, during a meeting for press, analysts, and customers presented by Aurum, Microsoft, and Cambridge Technology Partners, and attended by Newsbytes at E-Mail World/Internet Expo in Boston. From now through the year 2003, users will undergo a three-stage process of "commit, connect, and capitalize," according to the Forrester analyst. And over the same eight-year period, vendors will experience a reshuffling act with room at the top for some "old guard" leaders as well as some hot new players. At the "commit" phase, from now through 1997, less than five percent of corporate advertising budgets will be devoted to the Web, McCarthy said. But by the end of this stage, about half of a company's internal users should have access to the Web, and about 25 percent of a company's software development efforts will be aimed at the Internet. During the process of change, corporate IT (information technology) departments will weed out those staffers who are unable or unwilling to transition to the Web. At the "connect" stage, from 1995 to 2000, organizations will start to leave the days of "deb Web" applications behind, the Forrester analyst continued. Rather, applications for the Internet will begin to receive a new "interactivity." By the year 2000, 75 percent of internal users should by Web- savvy, 50 percent of a company's partners should be connected over the Internet, and 60 percent of the organization's information should be accessible through cyberspace, McCarthy recommended. But the "capitalize" phase, from 1995 through the year 2003, is when corporations will really begin to profit from the Web, according to the analyst. For this to happen, though, application "interactivity" must evolve into "proactivity," characterized by establishing and reinforcing a "continuing information `loop' between you and your customers." Instead of merely listing their product offerings on the home page, for example, the successful company will use the Web to keep track of customers' buying patterns, and to alert customers with information that suits their individual tastes and needs. By the year 2003, 30 to 40 percent of a company's IT budget should be devoted to the Web, and 90 percent of corporate information should be available there. "The CIO (chief information officer) will either `get with it' or get fired," McCarthy noted. Online service providers, outsourcers, content creators, and software makers can all benefit from this turn of events, almost regardless of company size, McCarthy reported. Early Web pioneers on the online service side, for instance, include giants like AT&T and MCI, in addition to smaller players like UUnet who are taking a stab at "going big time." In the outsourcing arena, initial activities include Web hosting, in the manner of AT&T/BBN, along with development of "source software." CBT, he pointed out, is now focusing on outsourcing object component software for Web development, with an eye toward content creation later on. Other opportunities in the software industry include object- oriented (OO) development tools for the Web, middleware, shrink-wrapped applications, and Web browsers. Vendors such as Aurum are already venturing into the Web-related area of sales force automation, he observed. Netscape's astounding success with browsers might yet be equaled by other start-ups, McCarthy suggested, drawing an analogy with the way vendors like 3Com, Cisco, Wellfleet, and SynOptics were all able to recognize and benefit from earlier openings that cropped up in the industry with the earlier move to distributed computing. "And my question is, how long will it be before Microsoft's Visual Basic is used (for Web development)?" McCarthy asked the audience, in closing. (Jacqueline Emigh/19951130/Reader And Press Contact: Blanc & Otus, 415-512-0500) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 11/30/95 BROADCAST ****US West Launches Interactive Cable TV (NEWS)(BROADCAST)(DEN)(00019) ****US West Launches Interactive Cable TV 11/30/95 ORLANDO, FLORIDA, U.S.A., 1995 NOV 30 (NB) -- US West has launched its interactive television system in about 4,000 Orlando, Florida homes this week, delivering the service via Time Warner Cable's cable television network. #IMAGE 1 20 TWPCX \images\95113019.PCX Click here for photo The service, called GOtv, is being produced and marketed jointly by US West Interactive Services and the Orlando Sentinel newspaper. It is free and offers viewers on-screen menus of services that include previewing a first-run movie, taking an electronic tour of a local restaurant or selecting an area entertainment event or attraction. Full-motion video and sound are used in the tours while the movie clips are provided by the film studios. GOtv is advertiser-supported so users can surf through ads from various national companies such as Lexus, Visa, or Chili's restaurant. Viewers choose the ad they want to watch by clicking on the company's icon. In addition to providing service to the consumer, GOtv lets advertisers know what viewers watch the most. In Orlando, Time Warner subscribers voluntarily provide demographic information to the company. Subscriber viewing choices made using their set-top box can be collected to generate reports on what type of consumer chooses what services. According to John O'Farrell, president of US West's Interactive Services Group, the system has privacy safeguards to preclude GOtv from tracking the viewing choices of individual households. However, viewers can elect to be recognized by advertisers. For example, a printer could be connected to the set-top box to print discount coupons. Other interactive services allow the user to make choices like telling an auto dealer they want to take a test drive. GOtv also offers local movie theater schedules and users can even buy movie tickets in advance through MovieFone, a provider of show time information. GOtv announced a strategic alliance with MovieFone last year. The service lets the viewer call a local phone number to purchase tickets. GOtv also has an agreement with several major movie studios that lets them provide the first-run movie previews usually seen only in movie theaters. The host of GOtv is Uncle Frank, an animated character that offers help in planning viewer's activities. US west describes Uncle Frank as "a self-styled gastronome, movie critic, raconteur and general bon vivant." US West said Uncle Frank was created by transferring the movements of a live actor to a computer, then using those recorded movements to create the animated character with more life-like qualities. Online service is nothing new to the Orlando Sentinel. The newspaper already has its weekly calendar section online on America Online and John Haile, Sentinel vice president, said providing the listings via GOtv is the natural next step. "The newspaper of the future will be a multimedia operation and the GOtv test will help us learn what consumers will be looking for," said the newspaper executive. In an interview with Newsbytes, US West spokesperson Carolyne Kennedy declined to state specifically what other broadband and narrowband services the company will introduce or exactly when the next product will be available. "Stay tuned," said Kennedy. Asked where GOtv will be introduced next, Kennedy said it would probably be in Omaha, Nebraska, where US West already operates a broadband network. Broadband service is a requirement for the interactive service. Atlanta, Georgia is also apparently high on the list, once the digitized network becomes available in that city. (Jim Mallory/19951130/Press contact: Carolyne Kennedy, US West, 303-784-2572/GOTV951130/PHOTO) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 11/30/95 TRENDS ****Banks Face Major Competition On Internet (NEWS)(TRENDS)(LAX)(00020) ****Banks Face Major Competition On Internet 11/30/95 PALO ALTO, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1995 NOV 30 (NB) -- After just issuing a report predicting that all banks will be on Internet by the year 2000, Killen & Associates has thrown cold water on the banking industry by predicting there will be lots of non-bank competition already there. Killen said, in a soon-to-be-released report, that within five years non-banks and high tech companies will capture more than 25% of the $800 billion in global electronic commerce (EC) and electronic payments (EP) revenue created by Internet merchants. Speaking to Newsbytes, Jules Street, vice president of Killen & Associates, said, "The banks are not going to start off with all the bells and whistles that Quicken might offer, but before the banks are done, they will be offering a full menu over the Internet. The battle over the transaction, payment, banking, and investment dollar should be fierce. "Banks are looking at the Internet as a means to capture the entire financial transaction market from consumers," said Street, "displacing companies like Intuit and even Merrill Lynch. Non-banks, likewise, see the Internet as a method of getting into banking, stepping in between the bank and their customers." "The recent announcement by Intuit and America Online underscores the aggressiveness of these high-tech non-banks," said Michael Killen, president of Killen & Associates. "Companies such as AT&T, MCI, Checkfree, EDS, Equifax, First Data Corp., CyberCash, and Microsoft are the leaders in this market explosion. These companies are absolutely essential to the banks' success, and the banks recognize the risks of allowing them to get between themselves and their customers." The Killen & Associates study, called "Non-Banks and High Tech Companies' Electronic Payment Strategies," forecasts a better than 16% average annual revenue growth rate in EC/EP services for the next five years. Killen continued, "Non-banks and high tech companies see the emergence of the Internet merchant as a significant business opportunity." The study highlights some of the leading EC/EP companies which will be poised to grab the huge market, including: Intuit, Netscape, First Virtual Holding, VeriFone, CyberCash, CUC, Deluxe Checks, GE Capital, Mondex, Open Market, Transaction Network Services Inc. (TNSI), and Charles Schwab. (Richard Bowers/19951130/Press Contact: Jules Street, Killen & Associates, 415-617-6140) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 11/30/95 TRENDS ****Silicon Valley CEOs Highlight Marketing Needs (NEWS)(TRENDS)(SFO)(00021) ****Silicon Valley CEOs Highlight Marketing Needs 11/30/95 PALO ALTO, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1995 NOV 30 (NB) -- High-tech companies have been performing well on Wall Street, but a survey of Silicon Valley chief executive officers (CEOs) reveals an average to poor rating for marketing effectiveness. To improve their marketing effectiveness, these industry leaders look to strategic alliances and acquisitions, new interactive technologies and Internet/World Wide Web opportunities. Entitled, "Rating the State of High Technology Marketing in Silicon Valley," the survey was performed by Neale-May & Partners in cooperation with The Business Journal and the American Marketing Association. Results were tabulated by Nichols Research. The survey's main finding indicates 96% of the CEOs view marketing as critical to a company's success, while 75% view their own company as average to poor in its marketing effectiveness. In admitting a lack of effective marketing, the CEOs say they have no one to blame but themselves. Personal backgrounds and the history of the computer industry may play a role in this phenomena. Eighty percent of the respondents say they came to their present position through a technical background, and only 14% said they had marketing backgrounds. This is not surprising for an industry which started with many small companies which would simply call on another company for an extra 500 hard drives or floppy drives. The leaders of these companies were commonly the same ones who directed the technical growth and achievements. "This study reflects the growth of this industry and the changes which accompany such rapid growth," said Susan Walker of Neale-May & Partners. Northern California now lists more than 2,100 technology firms across 17 industry sectors. Combined, the companies account for a workforce of more than a half million workers generating approximately $1.2 trillion. Neale-May president, Donovan Neale-May, said, "High technology companies face a unique set of marketing dynamics. They have increasingly complex messages and products and have to address larger and more fragmented markets served by multiple channels of distribution. This is challenging some of the conventional industry thinking and putting more pressure on CEOs to innovate in the way their companies interact with the market as competition heats-up and product parity pervades." The survey found 60% of the companies do not have a formal marketing plan in place. According to the survey, this is about to change, as 84% of the top-level respondents described their primary contribution as developing marketing strategy and corporate positioning. Walker said the survey covers business-to-business and standard business-to-consumer relationships. Customer loyalty and satisfaction is the number one marketing goal outlined by 81% of the respondents. Surprisingly, they did not feel advertising was the best way to reach that goal. Marketing priorities were considered important as follows: customer support/service, 49%; direct marketing, 33%; channel communications, 31%; sales support programs, 23%; public relations, 21.5%, trade shows, 16%; and product design and styling, 16%. The percentages reflected the number of respondents considering the topic important. Advertising was rated an important priority by only 14%. Topping the list of new technologies being explored to extend marketing efforts, the Internet/Web registered a 74% interest. More information is available through Neale-May at the Internet e-mail address of 74503.2520@compuserve.com. (Patrick McKenna/19951129/Press Contact: Susan Walker, Neale-May & Partners, 415-328-5555) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 11/30/95 TELECOM New Man In At Hong Kong Telecom (NEWS)(TELECOM)(HKG)(00022) New Man In At Hong Kong Telecom 11/30/95 CENTRAL, HONG KONG, 1995 NOV 30 (NB) -- After London directors gave the bullet to battle-scared Cablers recently, Hongkong Telecom chief executive Linus Cheung announced that Brian Smith, chairman of the British Airports Authority, would become chairman of both London-based Cable & Wireless plc and its Far East unit, Hongkong Telecom. Smith's appointment to head up both Cable and Wireless and HK Telecom came after a public row between Lord Young, the chairman, and James Ross, the deputy chairman, ended in tears for both. The surprise move by Cable and Wireless's board to dump both was compounded by the appointment of Smith. Smith, currently chairman of the British Airports Authority, had been a non-executive director of Cable and Wireless up until June this year. The official word was that he retired, the unofficial word was that other board members felt he was getting too long in the tooth. And there-in lies the irony. Industry analysts say that, one thing Young and Ross rowed about was that Young, at 63, wouldn't leave and make space for Ross. He wanted to stick it out for another two years. Retirement policy wasn't the only thing that had the pair feuding, of course. Ross wanted to pursue his "federation of companies" concept, which Young disagreed with. In the event, it seems the board decided both were expendable and Smith, aged 66, was given the job. The position may involve, among other things, fighting off buy-out bidders. Cellular king Craig McCaw, who sold his business to AT&T for the pleasure of sitting on AT&T's board for a few months, denied he had any interest in C&W. "We have never had any conversations with the company," he said in a prepared statement. However, a source at Cable and Wireless GHQ in London told Newsbytes that age was not an issue. No more shake-ups were on the cards, he said, adding that everyone at GHQ was getting down to business as usual. There was no word on how Cheung voted in the Mercury House's night of the long pencils in London. But he should take courage in the thought that Smith was appointed as a non-executive chairman at Telecom, suggesting he should be able to go about his business with a minimum of fretting and fussing from London. (Joel McCormick & I.T. Daily/19951130) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 11/30/95 BUSINESS Hong Kong - CSSL Loses DST Distributorship (NEWS)(BUSINESS)(HKG)(00023) Hong Kong - CSSL Loses DST Distributorship 11/30/95 CENTRAL, HONG KONG, 1995 NOV 30 (NB) -- Hong Kong's CSSL has lost the distributorship for DST International's well-known software targeted at the asset management industry. Announcing the opening of its Hong Kong office, which will act as the region's hub, DST Asia Managing Director John Booth said the company had told CSSL it was taking back the distribution of its products. "CSSL was still distributing the products until the middle of this year, but back in January, we told them we'd take direct control of our products," Booth said. He added that he expected some sort of relationship with CSSL would continue, in servicing existing clients, if nothing else. Group Managing Director Mike Winn said: "CSSL also have a great deal of expertise in systems integration and I've little doubt we'll be working together using those skills." Considering the growth of the asset management business in Asia over the past decade, DST's arrival in Hong Kong could be considered tardy, a contention Winn disputes. "You must remember that only three years back, we had only one office in London. Then in 1993, we acquired Clarke and Tilley, which made us big in Europe in the industry. This year we bought HiPortfolio -- so really we believe it's timely." CSSL's loss seems to be DST's gain. The company expects to be serving 200 clients by 1998 and build its staff complement to 100. The company is looking to have 30 staffers in Hong Kong by the beginning of next year. It has already established offices in Thailand and Singapore. It is also looking at Malaysia and Indonesia. "By 1998 we expect to be dominant in the asset management software arena and our biggest competition remains in-house developed systems," Booth said. As the financial industry grows throughout Asia, DTE expects to generate new first-time business and ride on the coat-tails of existing clients as they expand into other regional markets. "The potential is huge -- in the early 1990s, only 3% of US money was invested outside the country. It's now expected to grow to 18%," Winn said. Add to that legislative moves in countries like Indonesia, which will require software of the kind DST sells, and the market growth is there, he said. (Joel McCormick & I.T. Daily/19951130) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 11/30/95 TELECOM India - Top Telecom Bids Accepted (NEWS)(TELECOM)(DEL)(00024) India - Top Telecom Bids Accepted 11/30/95 NEW DELHI, INDIA, 1995 NOV 30 (NB) -- The Government has accepted the highest bids for 10 telecom circles for basic services, while inviting fresh financial bids for 10 other telecom circles. The circles for which the bids have been accepted for award of licenses are Andhra Pradesh, Delhi, Gujarat, Haryana, Kerala, Maharashtra, Orissa, Punjab, Uttar Pradesh (West), and West Bengal. In all the ten other circles -- namely Assam, Andaman and Nicobar Islands, Bihar, Himachal Pradesh, North East, Rajasthan, Tamil Nadu and Uttar Pradesh (East) -- the bids have been "unreasonable" as the levy quoted was found to be "far below reasonable level" and hence the Department of Telecommunications (DOT) will invite fresh bids. With the announcement, the Government has only accepted the nine bids of the HFCL-Bezeq combine, along with that in Maharashtra, and rejected all others. It has also put a cap of three for award of licenses, but gave the option to the company affected by the new rule. This will enable the HFCL-Bezeq combine to choose any three of its nine bids. A visibly relieved Mahendra Nahata, vice chairman of the HFCL Group, who has clearly emerged the major winner in the exercise with all his nine bids making the new grade, said, "I am happy at the outcome and totally accept the DOT's decision. We'll shortly decide on the licenses and at this point we are looking at Delhi, Gujarat, Uttar Pradesh (West), and Haryana." Meanwhile, the introduction of fresh criteria for evaluating the bids is bound to invite criticism from the bidders and the industry in general. The losers include Reliance-Nynex, Shyam-Guangdond PTT, Usha-Moscow Tel, and US West-BPL. In Maharashtra, the contest is between Hughes-Ispat, which made the highest bid, and Tata-Bell Canada, which came up top in evaluation. (C. T. Mahabharat/19951130) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 11/30/95 BUSINESS Cisco To Open Indian Subsidiary (NEWS)(BUSINESS)(DEL)(00025) Cisco To Open Indian Subsidiary 11/30/95 NEW DELHI, INDIA, 1995 NOV 30 (NB) -- Cisco Systems Inc., a leading supplier of internetworking products worldwide, will soon set up a fully-owned subsidiary in India. The $2.04 billion company had opened a liaison office early this year. The initial investment in the company will be around $1 million, and the company plans to invest at least the same amount in each subsequent year. According to JT Yeo, managing director of Cisco for South-east Asia, India ranks fourth in the fastest growing markets in Asia, after China, South Korea, and Hong Kong, and the company is therefore looking at a 50 percent growth in the country. In order to achieve the target, Cisco will be investing heavily in people and offices, and plans to increase its staff by two-and-a-half times and will soon be opening offices in Bangalore and Bombay. Next on the list is a series of seminars aimed at briefing clients as well as resellers on the Internet and networking technologies and solutions. Says Anil Batra, country manager India and South Asia-Cisco Systems, the idea will be to gauge a client's needs and then advise him on which routers and switches will fill them. Cisco also plans to launch a new product line for the SOHO (small office/home office) segment, Ciscopro. This will include a set of routing and switching products that are specifically aimed at meeting the needs of small offices and businesses, such as Internet access, telecommuting, distributed databases, and high speed document transfer. It will also be appointing Cisco Certified Internetworking Experts (CCIEs), a certification given to organizations distributing the company's range of products. (C. T. Mahabharat/19951130) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 11/30/95 BUSINESS Silicon Graphics Opens Technology Center In China (NEWS)(BUSINESS)(HKG)(00026) Silicon Graphics Opens Technology Center In China 11/30/95 CENTRAL, HONG KONG, 1995 NOV 30 (NB) -- Silicon Graphics Inc. has opened its first wholly-owned unit center in China, a technology transfer center aimed at developing supercomputing and visualization applications for the aerospace and petroleum sectors, among others. The opening apparently keeps a promise Silicon Graphics Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Ed McCracken made last year, when he said the company would help China develop supercomputing expertise. The venture will be called Beijing Silicon Graphics Computer Technology & Engineering Ltd. The firm opens with three local engineers, working under Goh Eng Lim, director of the East Asia Technology Center. It has two supercomputers, along with a clutch of workstations. The supercomputers are a Silicon Graphics Power Challenge and an Onyx graphics supercomputer. Everything is connected on a high-speed local area network (LAN) with links to Silicon Graphics' Mountain View, California headquarters, as well as to other centers. (Joel McCormick & I.T. Daily/19951130) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 11/30/95 LEGAL China - Forged Printer Ribbons Confiscated (NEWS)(LEGAL)(PEK)(00027) China - Forged Printer Ribbons Confiscated 11/30/95 BEIJING, CHINA, 1995 NOV 30 (NB) -- A large number of forged Fullmark printer ribbons were found and confiscated in a raid on a store called "Ribbon World" in the Zhongguancun area of Beijing, the Beijing Evening News has reported. Various kinds of ribbons for printers are the main products of the Singapore-based Fullmark. Through its representatives and distributors on the mainland of China, the sales volume of Fullmark ribbons in the country's market used to be more than 200,000 units per month, said company officials. However, in recent months, Fullmark found its sales volume in China was declining significantly, with the monthly sales volume dropping to 50,000, about a quarter of previous sales. Beijing Kehai Group, Fullmark's representative agency in Beijing, also found that there were some "cheap" Fullmark ribbons on the market. For example, a kind of "Fullmark" ribbon with the regular price of RMB8 (US$0.95) at Kehai, is sold for only RMB3 (US$0.36) in other stores. Without knowledge about the forged products, some customers even complained about the higher price at Fullmark's real distributors. The raid on "Ribbon World" discovered a source of forged Fullmark ribbons. A large number of ribbons, marked "Fullmark," but actually produced somewhere in the Zhejiang province, were found in the store's storage room, government officials said. Although the store owners, a couple, refused to provide the source of the ribbons, the offending products were "obviously forgeries," claimed officials of Fullmark. The quality of the forged Fullmark ribbons is very bad, said a Fullmark official. A real Fullmark ribbon can be used for printing more than two million characters. However, using the forged ribbon, after only 100,000 characters, the printout is almost unreadable, said the company official. Also, using a printer ribbon of low quality may damage the user's printer, the company said. (Chih-Ho Yu & Ning Huang/19951130) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 11/30/95 GOVT China - Computer Smuggling Lowers Govt Revenue (NEWS)(GOVT)(PEK)(00028) China - Computer Smuggling Lowers Govt Revenue 11/30/95 BEIJING, CHINA, 1995 NOV 30 (NB) -- It is estimated that the state lost more than RMB5 billion (US$595 million) in 1994 due to computer smuggling, and that loss could reach RMB7 billion (US$833 million) in 1995. According to statistics from Chinese government departments, about 718,000 PCs were sold last year in the mainland market of China. However, a simple calculation shows that more than 60 percent of those PCs were smuggled ones. In 1994, 104,000 PCs were imported through formal channels, including imported PC components which could be used to assemble 36,750 PCs. Almost the same number of PCs, about 100,000, were domestically produced in 1994. As a result, non-smuggled PCs accounted for only 28.4 percent of the total sold in the country's computer market. In 1995, government reports also show that there is still a big difference between the total PCs sold in the market and the number of PCs coming into the country legally. Experts estimate that about 50 percent of PCs in the market are "water merchandise," a Chinese name for smuggled goods. Computer smuggling is destroying the domestic computer industry, experts say. During the first half of 1994, the market share of domestic PCs was 15.8 percent. That figure dropped to 14 percent by the end of 1994. Experts estimated that the market share of domestic PCs will be less than 10 percent in 1995. In 1994, China's production value of the computer/information industry was about RMB39.5 billion (US$4.7 billion). The production value is expected to be RMB50 billion (US$5.95 billion) in 1995. (Chih-Ho Yu & Ning Huang/19951130) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 11/30/95 APPLE Time Online Licenses Apple's QuickTime Virtual Reality (NEWS)(APPLE)(SFO)(00029) Time Online Licenses Apple's QuickTime Virtual Reality 11/30/95 CUPERTINO, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1995 NOV 30 (NB) -- Apple Computer Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) has announced it is licensing QuickTime VR Run-Time Technology for use on the World Wide Web. The virtual reality (VR) software allows Web surfers to sit in the press box and watch the 1995 World Series through Time Online's Web site. Apple claims its QuickTime VR Run-Time Technology is a "breakthrough" product because it delivers a "true virtual reality experience" without a high development cost and without complicated hardware required by other VR systems. Because QuickTime VR files are small, a VR environment can be delivered quickly over conventional telephone lines. Apple says an entire panoramic scene can be stored in less than 200 kilobytes. QuickTime VR was introduced in January, 1995. "In the earlier version, the run-time player was either downloaded separately or included on a CD or site through an icon. Now, the player is embedded in the product so the developer does not have to worry whether or not users of the product or site will have the necessary player or spend time opening the player through an icon," said an Apple spokesperson. Describing Time Online's World Series event, Janice Castro, senior editor for Time Online, said, "With this new interactive technology, millions of fans can now sit in the press box to watch and participate as the Atlanta Braves and Cleveland Indians battle it out for the title. Consumers can make the call on whether a runner beats the throw to first base and you will hear either a 'Safe' or 'You're out of here!' call." The World Series event is set-up as a game. When a viewer finds all of the hidden "hot spots," the screen shows the winning moments of the final game. The game can be found on the Web at http://pathfinder.com/time/special/baseball . Another example of Apple's success with QuickTime VR is a display of Mongolian art currently on exhibition at the Asian Art Museum of San Francisco. The exhibit contains 115 pieces of art never before seen in the US. The site, designed by Apple, can be found at http://sfasian.apple.com. QuickTime VR requires a Macintosh computer for authoring content. Finished content can be played on Macs or Windows-based systems. (Patrick McKenna/19951130/Press Contact: Mary Devincenzi, Big Sky Communications, 408-974-4562; Public Contact: Apple, 512-919-2645, Internet e-mail sw.license@applelink.apple.com) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 11/30/95 ONLINE Motorola Inks Hi-Speed Cable Deals (NEWS)(ONLINE)(MSP)(00030) Motorola Inks Hi-Speed Cable Deals 11/30/95 ARLINGTON HEIGHTS, ILLINOIS, U.S.A., 1995 NOV 30 (NB) -- Motorola's (NYSE:MOT) Multimedia Group has signed "cooperative marketing agreements" with online service providers, including America Online (NASDAQ:AMER) (AOL), Compuserve, and Prodigy, to faster deploy and implement Motorola's CableComm high-speed data products with the providers. A Motorola official said the agreement reinforces the company's commitment to bring about high-speed online access in 1996. The CableComm line delivers voice, video, and high-speed data over coaxial cable, similar to the one wired into most cable TV households. The Motorola line specifically includes the CyberSurfr modem, which provides the various types of data transmissions at speeds up to 10 megabits-per-second (Mbps), while a typical modem used with POTS (plain old telephone service) lines generally runs at 14.4 Kbps or 28.8 Kbps. Motorola officials said the CyberSurfr modem "eliminates the bandwidth bottleneck to the home, and enables the next-generation of online multimedia services." "This high-speed access will enable revolutionary online multimedia services that aren't available today because of the bandwidth bottleneck to the home," said James M. Phillips, corporate vice president and general manger of Motorola's Worldwide Multimedia Distribution and Marketing Division. The agreements specifically provide a framework for joint marketing and educational campaigns in forums like print advertising, online links, trade show exhibits, and direct-mail programs, officials said. Also provided by the pacts are future technical evaluations to "ensure product compatibility." Also announced was the formation of Motorola's Broadband Applications Forum, which the company said will bring together leaders in content development, content packaging, and broadband equipment manufacturing, to design next-generation data and video applications over high-speed cable networks. Led by Motorola, the group will include leaders from the online, interactive game, electronic commerce, videoconferencing, and entertainment industries. (Bob Woods/19951130/Press Contacts: Douglas M. Robertson, Motorola Multimedia Group, 708-632-6634; Scott Phillips, Phillips and Associates, 312-943-8858) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 11/30/95 ONLINE Harbinger Develops Internet EDI Exchange (NEWS)(ONLINE)(MSP)(00031) Harbinger Develops Internet EDI Exchange 11/30/95 ATLANTA, GEORGIA, U.S.A., 1995 NOV 30 (NB) -- Harbinger Corporation (NASDAQ:HRBC) said its new Internet product, called TrustedLink, will provide businesses of all sizes with the "most open and reliable software product available" for sending electronic data interchange (EDI) documents via the Internet, with encryption and transaction tracking capability. Officials said the company will develop TrustedLink as a "seamless addition" to its award-winning translation software. In addition, TrustedLink will be implemented as a gateway to Harbinger's own value-added network (VAN) for trading partners not using the Internet. Harbinger developed the new product in response to customer requests for using the Internet as a transport medium for electronic commerce documents in addition to conventional EDI networks. TrustedLink will be available in both the translation software and the VAN products in the second quarter of 1996. "Harbinger's TrustedLink will give organizations a greater level of security and confidence for doing business over the Internet by guaranteeing the delivery of business documents, while also ensuring accurate encryption and tracking of transactions," said Tycho Howle, chairman and chief executive officer of Harbinger. Howle also released the company's "vision for the future of electronic commerce and the Internet." In a statement, he said the growth of electronic networking is transforming commerce in "ways that are more profound than any technology change since the advent of the telephone." He said the company sees opportunities to accelerate the adoption of electronic commerce by capitalizing on the Internet, and expanding on what he called "Harbinger's industry-leading strengths in mass deployment, trading partner management, end-user solutions, and accountability." He also stated the six components of Harbinger's Internet commerce strategy, which include: adding cross-platform electronic commerce compatibility; developing new Internet products and services; and providing "one-stop" electronic commerce shopping for the company's customers. The components are a part of a corporate "vision" that resulted from nearly two years of research and investigation in conjunction with customers and strategic partners, officials said. For additional information, Harbinger maintains an Internet World Wide Web site at http://www.harbinger.com/ . (Bob Woods/19951130/Press Contact: Mike Cannon, Harbinger Corp., 404-841-4334, Internet e-mail mike.cannon@harbinger.net) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 11/30/95 TRENDS ****AlphaWorld - 3-D On The Internet (NEWS)(TRENDS)(SFO)(00032) ****AlphaWorld - 3-D On The Internet 11/30/95 SAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1995 NOV 30 (NB) -- Known for its three-dimensional (3-D), virtual reality chat environment on the Internet, Worlds Inc., has made a formal announcement and beta launch of AlphaWorld. Any Internet user can download AlphaWorld software, enter the virtual environment, chat with other users, and build houses, storefronts, and gardens. While AlphaWorld is in its beta stage, the 3-D, virtual reality environment is open to all users. Once the free software is downloaded a user may enter AlphaWorld through any browser which supports ".dll" extension applications. The software contains embedded tools which allow a user to build virtual structures such as a house, storefront, or garden. Other AlphaWorld citizens, traveling through this virtual world can stop and chat, enter a structure and interact with room contents such as links to the World Wide Web. Early AlphaWorld participants have already created structures for an art museum, a newspaper stand, and other types of entertainment. Once inside the newspaper stand, a Alpha Citizen can get a copy of the New Worlds Times which is now in its fourth edition. Each citizen has a common, modeled virtual body which articulates as it moves and shows a users' nickname. Like Worlds Chat, citizens can just wonder around, visit and have text-based chats with other citizens. "AlphaWorld is a real place which is here now," said Rob Schmults, Worlds' designated spokesperson. "Right now, anyone can participate in exploring and colonizing this world. But AlphaWorld goes way beyond a 3-D virtual reality environment. By having access to virtual real estate, a company can set-up an entire store. For example, a record/CD store can open its doors in AlphaWorld -- our citizens can come in browse, look at products, listen to new songs, interact with a citizen/salesperson in real-time, and make a purchase. This can work for any type of retail store or service." Schmults also said the sophistication of a structure depends on a user's ability to work with the supplied tools. If a user does not have the necessary technical skills, he or she can download a finished model. Users can create additional objects with programs such as 3D Studio. To access AlphaWorld, users must register at http://www.worlds.net , and receive an immigration number. They then choose a user name and download the software. There are no charges during the beta phase. AlphaWorld requires a 486 or faster processor. The experience of AlphaWorld gets better with more memory and faster processors. Schmults says the experience is slow for a 25 megahertz (MHz) 486- based machine, but from a 486/66 and faster systems, users are able to "move easily" through AlphaWorld. A Macintosh version is planned for early 1996. Worlds' president and chief executive officer, Dave Gobel said, "AlphaWorld is unlike anything else you have ever seen. It offers dynamic control over a 3-D virtual environment. That means that you're not just looking at text and pictures, like most Web sites. You have unlimited options for creative authoring, and you can chat with real people in a real community at the same time. People have dreamt about this sort of thing for ages. Now it is reality." (Patrick McKenna/19951130/Press Contact: Lydia Trettis, Connors Communications, 212-807-7500/WORLDS951130/PHOTO) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 11/30/95 ONLINE Microsoft Network Adds Multimedia Chat Service (NEWS)(ONLINE)(DEN)(00033) Microsoft Network Adds Multimedia Chat Service 11/30/95 REDMOND, WASHINGTON, U.S.A., 1995 NOV 30 (NB) -- Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ: MSFT) said it has added a new multimedia chat service to its Microsoft Network (MSN) online service. Called V-chat, the service lets the more than 525,000 currently enrolled MSN subscribers use graphical representations called "avatars" to communicate within either two-dimensional (2-D) or three-dimensional (3-D) environments. Microsoft said MSN users can use existing avatars or create their own to communicate with other subscribers, explore the chat areas, or connect to the Internet or other parts of MSN. "V-Chat communications allows our members to express themselves in a fun and engaging way within a variety of social spaces that add mood, context and personality to online conversations," according to Bill Miller, marketing director at MSN. The company said users can create their own personalized avatar by scanning a photograph or using a paint/draw program to create an image. MSN members can publish their custom avatars for use by others or keep them privately held. What's unique about avatars is that members can express themselves by controlling their avatar's gestures. The image can smile, shrug, appear sad, act silly, or express anger. Each avatar comes with four random "silly behaviors." A Microsoft spokesperson told Newsbytes that users see a V-Chat toolbar that contains faces expressing different emotions (smiling, frowning, puzzled) that can be clicked on to show other online users the desired emotion. The V-Chat screen has the toolbar at the top, text appears in a dialog box below the tool bar, and the scene, with its moving avatar "people," occupies the central part of the screen. Text you type appears in a dialog box at the bottom of the screen, and a list of people currently present is at the right side of the screen. Your avatar is at the bottom of the participant list box. Think of an avatar as a very sophisticated emoticon, the crude little text images used to express emotion. For example, the emoticon for smiling is ":-)" (look at it side ways). Avatars, which resemble little people, take the expression of emotion beyond emoticons. Microsoft said avatars have several ways of communicating using text. You can "say" a message, which results in a quoted string of text. You can "think" a message, which puts the message in a "thought bubble" like the balloons used in cartoons, or you can "emote" your message, which allows you to describe what your avatar is doing or feeling. V-Chat supports shortcuts to locations on MSN or on the Internet. Microsoft said that lets the user jump to contextually relevant information from a V-chat online space and also provides a vehicle for content providers and online advertisers to link V-Chat users to their offerings on MSN or on the Word Wide Web. Microsoft will offer several V-Chat spaces online initially. You can visit the Cinemania Connection, an interactive movie guide area that includes a three-dimensional art-deco theater and lobby. Users see movie posters in the lobby, which are themselves shortcuts to connect the user to the movie studio's Internet site. In the Music Central Connection, you will be able to check out the Lava Love Lounge, based on a 1970's theme, by the end of the year. The hard-core alternative music club, the jazz-oriented speakeasy cafe, and the street scene, will all open in early 1996. In the Microsoft Kids area, there will be special events for kids that let them explore different environments and learn how to create their own custom avatars. The Comedy Connection forum is designed for people with an interest in comedy. Microsoft said the personalities and rooms that have been developed are based on text-based chat sessions out of the past. PlanetOut is a meeting place where the gay and lesbian community can discuss politics, entertainment, education, and the world in general. To create the C-Chat Cafe PlanetOut developers worked with Allison Bechdel, author of the nationally syndicated comic strip Dykes to Watch Out For. Microsoft offers a software developers kit for use by V-Chat space content developers. You can order it by sending e-mail to contentprovider@msn.com. Templates are provided to "get the developer off to a quick start." You can also create a new space by using graphics tools like Microsoft's SoftImage 3D, Autodesk 3D Studio, or any 3-D modeling tool that can output VRML. The software development kit includes an avatar template set. The beta version of V-Chat communications is scheduled to begin in early December, with the final release expected in mid-January, 1996. The spokesperson told Newsbytes that Microsoft has also launched an enhanced version of its World Wide Web site. The new site, located at http://www.msn.com , makes it easier to navigate the Web and also allows the user to create a customized Web startup page. There are links to other popular Web sites and services, including search tools like Lycos and Infoseek, and searchable directories, like Yahoo. There is an online tutorial for first-time Internet users. Your customized start page might include quotes for your favorite stocks, news from various sources, sports scores, movie show times, television listing, and even links to comic strips. You can access Microsoft's home page using any Internet browser that supports tables. MSN.com users can also view inline video and hear background music if they are using Microsoft Internet Explorer 2.0. Explorer is available online for downloading at no cost. (Jim Mallory/19951130/Press contact: June Mclaren Peters, Waggener Edstrom for Microsoft, 206-637-9097; Public contact: Microsoft, 206-882-800 or 800-426-9400/AVATAR951130/PHOTO) (SUMMARY)(GENERAL)(MSP)(00034) Newsbytes Daily Summary 11/30/95 MINNEAPOLIS, MINNESOTA, U.S.A., 1995 NOV 30 (NB) -- These are capsules of all today's news stories: ======================================================================== ------------| N E W S B Y T E S D A I L Y S U M M A R Y |---------- ------------| Thursday, November 30, 1995 |---------- ======================================================================== (c) Newsbytes News Network (Tm) Editor in Chief: Wendy Woods ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Newsbytes News Network's on the Web! Check out http://www.nbnn.com for free daily top stories from Newsbytes and its affiliate publications, and from PC Week, MacWeek, and other Ziff news magazines. 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Send to 'administrator@newsbytes.com' For Japanese Newsbytes and additional services, see the Newsbytes Pacifica Website at http://www.islandtel.com/newsbytes/ ------------------------------------------------------------------------ CATEGORY HEADLINES (*** indicates today's top stories) STORY # ======================================================================== APPLE Time Online Licenses Apple's QuickTime Virtual Reality..... 29 BROADCAST Asiasat 2 Satellite Launched Successfully.................. 02 BROADCAST ****US West Launches Interactive Cable TV................. 19 BUSINESS Business As Usual At Packard Bell.......................... 11 BUSINESS Hong Kong - CSSL Loses DST Distributorship................. 23 BUSINESS Cisco To Open Indian Subsidiary............................ 25 BUSINESS Silicon Graphics Opens Technology Center In China.......... 26 GOVT China - Computer Smuggling Lowers Govt Revenue............. 28 LEGAL China - Forged Printer Ribbons Confiscated................. 27 ONLINE AOL, Cable & Wireless Enter Japanese Online Market......... 01 ONLINE Internet Update............................................ 03 ONLINE ****Free Newsbytes E-Mail Trial Subscriptions............. 08 ONLINE WorldsAway Ready To Animate Compuserve Chat................ 09 ONLINE Private Jet Travel Arrangements On The Web................. 12 ONLINE Compuserve's Moneyline For Hong Kong Business.............. 14 ONLINE ****Rogers Cable TV Offers Commercial Internet Access..... 17 ONLINE Internet Expo - How To Make Money From The Internet........ 18 ONLINE Motorola Inks Hi-Speed Cable Deals......................... 30 ONLINE Harbinger Develops Internet EDI Exchange................... 31 ONLINE Microsoft Network Adds Multimedia Chat Service............. 33 PC Fuji Offers Zip Disks, Flash Memory........................ 10 TELECOM Ericsson Working On Micro, Pico PCS Cellular Technology.... 06 TELECOM First GSM Net For North Africa Begins Construction......... 07 TELECOM New Man In At Hong Kong Telecom............................ 22 TELECOM India - Top Telecom Bids Accepted.......................... 24 TRENDS Swiss Electronic Stock Exchange Gears Up................... 04 TRENDS Fujitsu's Low-Cost 3-D Graphics Accelerator Card........... 05 TRENDS Quarterdeck Software To Open Africa To Internet............ 13 TRENDS IBM Software Retrieves Voice Messages On The Web........... 16 TRENDS ****Banks Face Major Competition On Internet.............. 20 TRENDS ****Silicon Valley CEOs Highlight Marketing Needs......... 21 TRENDS ****AlphaWorld - 3-D On The Internet...................... 32 WINDOWS Internet Expo - HP Takes On Microsoft With Win NT Mail Port 15 ======================================================================== These are the headlines and first paragraphs of each story, in order: 1 -> AOL, Cable & Wireless Enter Japanese Online Market -- Britain's Cable & Wireless has announced a new Internet connection service for business and personal users in Japan, while America Online, fresh from launching its new European service, has said it will begin a Japanese online service next year. 2 -> Asiasat 2 Satellite Launched Successfully -- A Chinese Long March rocket has successfully taken the Asiasat 2 satellite into orbit from where it will provide many new broadcast services to satellite and cable TV viewers across the region. The Long March 2E rocket began its journey from China's Xichang launch facility in Sichuan province early on Wednesday morning. 3 -> Internet Update -- In this roundup of new resources and services on the global Internet: Northcoast Digital News; WAIS search interface; Countdown to Jupiter; Dictionary of scientific quotations; Trade information resources; AI at ISU; Las Vegas Computer Journal; Java-Mac mailing list; Philadelphia Inquirer online; Where virtual becomes real. 4 -> Swiss Electronic Stock Exchange Gears Up -- The Swiss Bourse, the operators of the Swiss Stock Exchange, have announced that Switzerland's electronic stock exchange system, which has been beset by delays, will almost certainly start operations some time during the coming month, following a successful "dry run" earlier this month. 5 -> Fujitsu's Low-Cost 3-D Graphics Accelerator Card -- Fujitsu has unveiled a budget version of its three-dimensional (3-D) accelerator card, known as the Sapphire 3D Designer. According to officials with the company, the card, which will ship internationally next month, will sell for under the $1,000 mark, yet still be capable of delivering "workstation-level precision" and "professional performance" with a "significantly lower" price tag. 6 -> Ericsson Working On Micro, Pico PCS Cellular Technology -- Now that PCS (personal communications system) digital mobile telephony is beginning to take off in the US in the 1,900 megahertz (MHz) waveband, cellular hardware manufacturers are starting to look at ways to maximize the available bandwidth to squeeze a higher density of subscribers for city areas, to avoid a congested network. 7 -> First GSM Net For North Africa Begins Construction -- The march of GSM (global system for mobile communications) digital telephony continues, with Libya becoming the first North African country to sign up for the installation of a GSM network. 8 -> ****Free Newsbytes E-Mail Trial Subscriptions -- Newsbytes News Network, a comprehensive source of daily telecom, computer, and interactive services news since 1983, along with Island Telecommunications Corp. is offering free one-month trial subscriptions to its Newsbytes E-Mail Subscription Service through the month of December. 9 -> WorldsAway Ready To Animate Compuserve Chat -- Compuserve and Fujitsu Cultural Technologies are ready to release an animated chat world, called WorldsAway. Compuserve subscribers will be able to choose an animated persona which can dance, reach out, and show emotion through facial expressions while they converse through displayed text. 10 -> Fuji Offers Zip Disks, Flash Memory -- The computer products division of Fuji Photo Film USA Inc. has introduced a high-capacity storage disk for the popular Zip drive and a line of flash memory cards for personal computers. 11 -> Business As Usual At Packard Bell -- A recent Securities and Exchange Commission filing by Intel showed the chip giant had converted part of a $470 million receivable into a customer loan. Intel did not reveal the customer, but speculation by the media has centered around Packard Bell. 12 -> Private Jet Travel Arrangements On The Web -- If all of the online and Internet air travel information and reservations systems seem too complicated and time-consuming, Jet Express says its World Wide Web page is the place to go. Fill-in a simple e-mail form with destination, desired departure, cuisine preference and bank references, and Jet Express sends back the cost of your custom trip in a private jet. 13 -> Quarterdeck Software To Open Africa To Internet -- Quarterdeck has announced an agreement with Internetworking Africa to license its Internet Suite. The automatic register, configure, and connect package will allow customers throughout the southern part of Africa to access the Internet. 14 -> Compuserve's Moneyline For Hong Kong Business -- Compuserve is offering an online financial service, called the Money personal finance center. Aimed at Hong Kong entrepreneurs who hold investments in the US market, the service is provided by Money, a US financial publication. 15 -> Internet Expo - HP Takes On Microsoft With Win NT Mail Port -- Hewlett- Packard's OpenMail, a long-time competitor to IBM's Profs, will now take on Microsoft Exchange in earnest, with a port of HP's messaging server to Windows NT that will support the Microsoft Exchange client plus Lotus Notes and cc:Mail clients and a new update to Corporate Software & Technologies' (CS&T)'s OpenTime group scheduler, officials said at a press conference attended by Newsbytes at E-Mail World/Internet Expo in Boston. 16 -> IBM Software Retrieves Voice Messages On The Web -- IBM (NYSE:IBM) has added to its DirectTalk/6000 software the ability to retrieve voice messages over the Internet and play them on any personal computer equipped with a sound card. 17 -> ****Rogers Cable TV Offers Commercial Internet Access -- Rogers Cablesystems Ltd., one of Canada's major cable television operators, has begun offering access to the Internet and other online services over its cable network. Newmarket, a suburban community north of Toronto and the site of an earlier technical trial, will be the first to get the service on a commercial basis. 18 -> Internet Expo - How To Make Money From The Internet -- Although the World Wide Web seems to be at the top of almost every organization's priorities these days, making money off the Internet is a process that will take another three to eight years to complete, predicted John McCarthy, an analyst at Forrester Research, during a meeting for press, analysts, and customers presented by Aurum, Microsoft, and Cambridge Technology Partners, and attended by Newsbytes at E-Mail World/Internet Expo in Boston. 19 -> ****US West Launches Interactive Cable TV -- US West has launched its interactive television system in about 4,000 Orlando, Florida homes this week, delivering the service via Time Warner Cable's cable television network. 20 -> ****Banks Face Major Competition On Internet -- After just issuing a report predicting that all banks will be on Internet by the year 2000, Killen & Associates has thrown cold water on the banking industry by predicting there will be lots of non-bank competition already there. Killen said, in a soon-to-be-released report, that within five years non-banks and high tech companies will capture more than 25% of the $800 billion in global electronic commerce (EC) and electronic payments (EP) revenue created by Internet merchants. 21 -> ****Silicon Valley CEOs Highlight Marketing Needs -- High-tech companies have been performing well on Wall Street, but a survey of Silicon Valley chief executive officers (CEOs) reveals an average to poor rating for marketing effectiveness. To improve their marketing effectiveness, these industry leaders look to strategic alliances and acquisitions, new interactive technologies and Internet/World Wide Web opportunities. 22 -> New Man In At Hong Kong Telecom -- After London directors gave the bullet to battle-scared Cablers recently, Hongkong Telecom chief executive Linus Cheung announced that Brian Smith, chairman of the British Airports Authority, would become chairman of both London-based Cable & Wireless plc and its Far East unit, Hongkong Telecom. 23 -> Hong Kong - CSSL Loses DST Distributorship -- Hong Kong's CSSL has lost the distributorship for DST International's well-known software targeted at the asset management industry. Announcing the opening of its Hong Kong office, which will act as the region's hub, DST Asia Managing Director John Booth said the company had told CSSL it was taking back the distribution of its products. 24 -> India - Top Telecom Bids Accepted -- The Government has accepted the highest bids for 10 telecom circles for basic services, while inviting fresh financial bids for 10 other telecom circles. 25 -> Cisco To Open Indian Subsidiary -- Cisco Systems Inc., a leading supplier of internetworking products worldwide, will soon set up a fully-owned subsidiary in India. The $2.04 billion company had opened a liaison office early this year. 26 -> Silicon Graphics Opens Technology Center In China -- Silicon Graphics Inc. has opened its first wholly-owned unit center in China, a technology transfer center aimed at developing supercomputing and visualization applications for the aerospace and petroleum sectors, among others. 27 -> China - Forged Printer Ribbons Confiscated -- A large number of forged Fullmark printer ribbons were found and confiscated in a raid on a store called "Ribbon World" in the Zhongguancun area of Beijing, the Beijing Evening News has reported. 28 -> China - Computer Smuggling Lowers Govt Revenue -- It is estimated that the state lost more than RMB5 billion (US$595 million) in 1994 due to computer smuggling, and that loss could reach RMB7 billion (US$833 million) in 1995. 29 -> Time Online Licenses Apple's QuickTime Virtual Reality -- Apple Computer Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) has announced it is licensing QuickTime VR Run-Time Technology for use on the World Wide Web. The virtual reality (VR) software allows Web surfers to sit in the press box and watch the 1995 World Series through Time Online's Web site. 30 -> Motorola Inks Hi-Speed Cable Deals -- Motorola's (NYSE:MOT) Multimedia Group has signed "cooperative marketing agreements" with online service providers, including America Online (NASDAQ:AMER) (AOL), Compuserve, and Prodigy, to faster deploy and implement Motorola's CableComm high-speed data products with the providers. A Motorola official said the agreement reinforces the company's commitment to bring about high-speed online access in 1996. 31 -> Harbinger Develops Internet EDI Exchange -- Harbinger Corporation (NASDAQ:HRBC) said its new Internet product, called TrustedLink, will provide businesses of all sizes with the "most open and reliable software product available" for sending electronic data interchange (EDI) documents via the Internet, with encryption and transaction tracking capability. Officials said the company will develop TrustedLink as a "seamless addition" to its award-winning translation software. 32 -> ****AlphaWorld - 3-D On The Internet -- Known for its three-dimensional (3-D), virtual reality chat environment on the Internet, Worlds Inc., has made a formal announcement and beta launch of AlphaWorld. Any Internet user can download AlphaWorld software, enter the virtual environment, chat with other users, and build houses, storefronts, and gardens. 33 -> Microsoft Network Adds Multimedia Chat Service -- Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ: MSFT) said it has added a new multimedia chat service to its Microsoft Network (MSN) online service. (Ian Stokell/19951130) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 11/29/95 NETWORK Seagate Europe's Centralized Storage System Software (NEWS)(NETWORK)(LON)(00001) Seagate Europe's Centralized Storage System Software 11/29/95 BOULOGNE-BILLANCOURT CEDEX, FRANCE, 1995 NOV 29 (NB) -- Seagate Software, the European network/software division of the storage systems company, has unveiled the Palindrome Visual Storage Administrator (VISTA), a centralized management application for administering multiple Palindrome Backup Director and Storage Manager Systems across an enterprise network from a single console running PC Windows. According to Paul Schlackman, a spokesman for the company, VISTA allows network administrators to manage the issues of complex storage management, network management costs and policy implementation in client-server environments. "Since Palindrome was acquired last year, the old Palindrome products are now being marketed across Europe, and the talents of David Harris-Evans (Palindrome's managing director) are being put to good use within Seagate Software," Schlackman told Newsbytes. When used in conjunction with Palindrome's recently-announced Backup Director 4.0 and Storage Manager 4.0 packages, VISTA is billed as enhancing administrator productivity and reducing costs by enabling what the company calls its highly reliable, real-time, centralized protection and management of distributed data on a 24 by 7 basis. In use, VISTA is claimed to manage any number of Palindrome Backup Director or Storage Manager installations, supporting real-time monitoring, centralized control of any installation, on-demand global reports, and integration with existing network management systems. The result, the company claims, is an easily managed, reliable and cost- effective storage management system. How cost effective? European pricing for VISTA has been set at UKP1,395 for the starter kit, which includes a single console package and support for up to five Palindrome Backup Director or Storage Manager installations. Agent packs with support for 5, 20, 100 and 500 installations are available, with pricing starting at UKP995. Additional VISTA consoles costs UKP595 each. So what differentiates VISTA from the competition? According to Seagate Software Europe, because the package distributes processing to individual Backup Director and Storage Manager installations, the highest performance backup and recovery can be achieved while minimizing network traffic. According to the company, this flexible architecture is scalable to meet growth requirements of users. VISTA does not mandate the use of continuous polling across the network. Instead, the package uses what is billed as a unique "alert on demand" system to minimize the network bandwidth required, which is a cost saving feature, especially on dial-up links. (Steve Gold/19951128/Press Contact: Emmanuel Vitrac, +33-1-4186-1000; Internet e-mail emmanuel_c_vitrac@notes.seagate.com; Reader Contact: Seagate Software Europe, tel +33-1-4186-1000, fax +33-1-4186-1040) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 11/29/95 GENERAL UK - Fax-On-Demand System For Lotus Notes Users (NEWS)(GENERAL)(LON)(00002) UK - Fax-On-Demand System For Lotus Notes Users 11/29/95 TWICKENHAM, MIDDLESEX, ENGLAND, 1995 NOV 29 (NB) -- Connaught FactsLine has unveiled FactsLine for Notes, an integration package for companies using Lotus Notes, allowing them to offer fax-on-demand services for external callers. Mickel Bak, a company spokesman, told Newsbytes that the system allows Notes users to use their existing Notes documents as fax-on-demand documents without having to print or manually fax them. "Fax-on-demand systems have been around for some time, but most are relatively simple affairs, or they cost a lot of money and center around dedicated hardware. What FactsLine for Notes does is to interface with the Notes database, allowing fax callers to download, using fax, the index of what documents are available, and then to request the documents via fax," Bak explained. From the administrator's perspective, Bak went on to say, each document can be given a priority, allowing the administrator or owner of the document to restrict or allow the document to be accessible via fax by external people. "Many corporations are coming round to the idea that customers need to have instant access to information, but presenting that information to the customer instantly is another matter. If an organization uses Notes internally, the FactsLine for Notes will allow easy integration of a fax-on-demand system with their Notes database," he said. According to Bak, Connaught FactsLine is the UK distributor for the FactsLine range of fax-on-demand systems, which are sold in the US through the developer, Ibex Technologies. In use, FactsLine allows callers to dial into a Notes database front- end and, using a touch-tone keypad, follow voice menus and select documents, then input a fax number for documents to be sent to. The software also supports checked input of credit card numbers for charging purposes, as well as account systems for companies. Call accounting and complete reporting facilities are available from within the software. How much does all this cost? Bak told Newsbytes that the actual price of a FactsLine installation varies, depending on the hardware and software requirements of users. "Generally speaking, you're looking at between UKP10,000 and UKP12,000," he told Newsbytes. (Steve Gold/19951128/Press Contact: Mike Gray, Gray Associations, +44-181-744-9168; Reader Contact: Connaught FactsLine, tel +44-181-893-3884, fax +44-181-898-0536) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 11/29/95 ONLINE Europe - Unipalm Pipex Cuts High Bandwidth Internet Costs (NEWS)(ONLINE)(LON)(00003) Europe - Unipalm Pipex Cuts High Bandwidth Internet Costs 11/29/95 CAMBRIDGE, ENGLAND, 1995 NOV 29 (NB) -- Even though Bill Clinton has taken a leaf out of Newt Gingridge's book, and cut US Government funding for the Internet, Unipalm Pipex, which now claims to be the biggest Internet service provider in the UK, claims that it has still achieved economies of scale for its Internet high bandwidth services and is actually cutting subscriber charges accordingly. David Barrett, head of corporate comms with Pipex, told Newsbytes that the price cuts have been made as a result of economies of scale, plus the fact that many customers are upgrading their low-speed connections into the Internet. "The time of 'toe dipping' by companies is starting to draw to a close. Companies are starting to realize that, if they're not hooked into the Internet, and at high speeds, they're going to be ex-directory. That's how we've managed to cut pricing," he explained. According to Barrett, the new pricing, which kicks in this month for Pipex's customers, both recognizes and encourages the trend away from "entry level" to higher bandwidth Internet services among corporate customers. "We're seeing an increased demand for high bandwidth as corporations begin to use the Internet as a serious business tool. They are no longer content to use the Internet on an ad-hoc basis to send a few e-mail messages data. Instead, customers are using it as one of their key forms of communication, which can mean literally thousands of messages, files and attachments being sent via the Internet every single day from just one organization," he said. Example pricing on Pipex's new Internet leased line connections are: UKP10,500, down from UKP11,500, for a year's sub to the 64,000 bits- per-second (bps) links; ranging to UKP33,000, down from UKP40,000 for a 256,000 bps link, per year. "The only exception is the two megabits-per-second (Mbps) link, which has risen slightly," Barrett went on to say, noting that the cost of maintaining a high bandwidth circuit at 2 Mbps is still quite costly. The 2Mbps annual cost rises from UKP35,000 to UKP42,000. Full details of the new Internet pricing can be found on Pipex's World WIde Web pages at http://worldserver.pipex.com . (Steve Gold/19951128/Press Contact: Amanda Hassall, GBC, +44-181-332- 7022, Internet e-mail mandy@gbc.co.uk; Reader Contact: Unipalm Pipex, +44-1223- 250100, Internet e-mail davidb@pipex.net) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 11/29/95 TRENDS German Stock Exchanges To Computerize Operations? (NEWS)(TRENDS)(LON)(00004) German Stock Exchanges To Computerize Operations? 11/29/95 BERLIN, GERMANY, 1995 NOV 29 (NB) -- According to a leaked report in Handelsblatt, the daily financial newspaper, the four German stock exchanges, known as the German bourses, are planning to integrate their operations next spring, as part of a general overhaul of operations. Newsbytes notes that while there are four bourses -- in Berlin, Dusseldorf, Frankfurt and Munich -- some stocks are only traded on one or two exchanges, plus some brokers only deal on some of the exchanges. This tends to make buying and selling shares in German companies an expensive business, especially if you buy through a German broker. However, foreign investments in German companies tend to be relatively simple and cheap, since the costs of using brokers with offices on all four bourses are avoided. According to Handelsblatt, the spring 1996 overhaul of the bourses will involve the full computerization of the exchanges by the holding company, Deutsche Boerse, making the exchanges operate as one by 1997. It is not yet clear whether the changes will involve the partial or full closure of one or more of the exchanges, Newsbytes notes. Deutsche Boerse has refused to comment on the paper's findings, which note that the draft outline, which was marked as confidential, yet leaked to and by the paper, sees the company taking over specific management tasks, such as accounting, controlling and public relations for the four bourses by April of next year. The master plan also plans the establishment of a super-exchange, probably in Frankfurt, which will act as a central point for the multiple exchanges, as well as control point for new listings on the German exchanges. Newsbytes notes that the changes being planned are part of a planned shift from paper to electronic trading, a task that has already begun in earnest in the UK. Like the Taurus system in the UK, the Zeus system in Germany will be all electronic, and is planned to enter operations by the end of the decade, at which point all European exchanges should be interconnected and shares traded Europe-wise in the European Commission's planned international currency, the EuroMark. While a questionmark has been thrown over the future of the three other German bourses than Frankfurt, Handselblatt reports that the regional exchanges in Bremen, Hamburg, Hanover, and Stuttgart are equally up in the air, although the document suggests that the smaller bourses will be invited to joint the new German exchange operation. (Sylvia Dennis/19951128) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 11/29/95 TELECOM Ericsson Sells Personal Digiphone Net To Japan (NEWS)(TELECOM)(LON)(00005) Ericsson Sells Personal Digiphone Net To Japan 11/29/95 STOCKHOLM, SWEDEN, 1995 NOV 29 (NB) -- Sweden's Ericsson has announced it has signed a contract with Digital Tu-Ka Hokkaido, the new telecoms operator company in Japan, for the provision of a personal digiphone cellular (PDC) phone network in Hokkaido, the northern region of Japan. The deal is a major step for Ericsson, since it is the first time the personal digiphone system has been sold into Japan. The deal is worth four billion yen, and calls for the network to be up an running by the end of July, 1997. Digital Tu-Ka Hokkaido is a joint venture operation between Nissan Motors and Japan Telecom. The telco is part of the Digital Tu-Ka Group. The PDC network to be deployed in Hokkaido is one of the most advanced in the world, dynamically allocating bandwidth according to the needs of the mobile. The PDC system operates at either 800 megahertz (MHz) or 1,500 MHz. Ericsson's PDC system is known as CMS 30 and the Digital order from Japan calls for the company to supply mobile switching centers and radio base stations, as well as operations support systems. According to Per Bengtsson, a spokesman for Ericsson, Japan is the second largest and fastest growing market for the company. So far, Ericsson has sold four PDC systems into Japan, to Tokyo Digital Phone, Central Japan Digital Phone, Kansai Digital Phone, and Digital Tu-Ka Kyusha. This fifth network sale will push the total number of PDC subscribers in Japan operating on Ericsson-supplied networks to 600,000. According to the Swedish telco, this is the fastest growth the company has experienced, especially considering that PDC has only been available commercially for just 14 months. (Sylvia Dennis/19951128/Press & Reader Contact: Hans Jarne, Ericsson Radio Systems, +46-8-757-2923) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 11/29/95 TRENDS British Telecom Predicts Massive Growth In Visual Comms (NEWS)(TRENDS)(LON)(00006) British Telecom Predicts Massive Growth In Visual Comms 11/29/95 LONDON, ENGLAND, 1995 NOV 29 (NB) -- British Telecom (BT) has predicted that, within the next three years, visual communications will become as commonplace as mobile phone or fax usage. This prediction, made by Adrian Butcher, BT's general manager of visual solutions, is being backed by a major impetus within BT as a whole to service the anticipated demand. "Visual communications is one of BT's six major national business themes and is a critical part of the company's future. It forms a significant part of our corporate marketing activity as evidenced in our recent ad campaigns," he explained. Butcher claims that BT is already changing the way in which businesses work. "For example, visual solutions are changing the way in which personal finances are serviced and how the health system operates," he explained. According to Butcher, however, these application are only the tip of the iceberg. "In the near future, visual communication will become as prevalent in everyday life as the fax of mobile phone are today," he said. He added that BT is committed to being at the forefront of the visual revolution, "much as it has been at the forefront of audio and data communication." To launch itself into the visual age, BT has announced VS3, a new boardroom videoconferencing system. Developed in conjunction with PictureTel, the system has a graphical user interface (GUI)-driven PC front-end. According to Butcher, BT has announced a strategic partnership with PictureTel. As part of the deal, BT will market Venue and Concorde, two of PictureTel's videoconferencing systems through its business sales outlets, in conjunction with BT's ISDN (integrated services digital network) and leased line services. (Steve Gold/19951128/Press Contact: Scope Communications, tel +44-171-379-3234, fax +44-171-240-7729, Internet e-mail 100443.1244@compuserve.com; Reader Contact: BT Visual Solutions, tel +44-171-298-4186, fax +44-171-298-4325) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 11/29/95 TRENDS Hong Kong - Missing Tradelink Found (NEWS)(TRENDS)(HKG)(00007) Hong Kong - Missing Tradelink Found 11/29/95 CENTRAL, HONG KONG, 1995 NOV 29 (NB) -- After years of research, organizing and then junking tenders, and mostly trumpeting the urgent need for electronic data interchange (EDI), Tradelink, eight years after it was created to speed Hong Kong to EDI glory, could actually be firing off its first test electronic forms for traders to fill out in five months' time. Newsbytes has learned that by "about March," Tradelink will go online with a "restrained textile export license" form textile exporters must complete in compliance with World Trade Organization rules. The system will first test online with a "control group" of 50 companies. "These have been chosen to be representative of the industry so we can check the systems capability fully" said Simon Clennell, a spokesman for Tradelink, a consortium of leading conglomerates and government, which holds 48%. The control group will be tested for six months before license service is offered commercially. Tradelink was established in 1988, the same year a government report prepared by Coopers and Lybrand said the EDI industry could be worth HK$10 billion in a trade center of Hong Kong's size by the turn of the century. But between difficulties in implementing local language services and slow technology take up by local industry, the more realistic figure would likely be HK$1.5 billion by then, Coopers added. But with just over four years between commercial availability of only one portion of the service and the year 2000, Tradelink's contribution to even that promises to be modest. Tradelink had originally argued that, if government were speedy in awarding it a franchise, it could have some sort of system ready by 1991. Half a decade later, Hong Kong still waits, abacus in hand. In 1992, Tradelink was awarded the Community Electronic Trading Services (CETS) agreement. This gave it the exclusive franchise to provide the EDI link with government, primarily the Trade Department. But since 1992 a hush has fallen over Tradelink. The silence was only broken after IBM and Tradelink parted company. That was some six months after IBM had won the contract to supply both hardware and software components of the system. At the time, the excuse was that IBM was only interested in putting together a proprietary system using a mainframe base. Newsbytes has since learned that, as part of the agreement between the two, IBM was to bring on board part of its customer base to use Tradelink's systems. The figure of some 40,000 users was bandied around, something IBM later balked at. The next contract was awarded to Hewlett-Packard. Even this decision raised eyebrows. Unisys had been second in the running for the original bid. No tender was put out after IBM's departure. When the export license service becomes commercially available, Tradelink will reportedly have applications for handling Trade Declarations and Certificates of Origin ready. "We're looking to get the three essential sets running as soon as possible" Clennell said. (Joel McCormick & I.T. Daily/19951129) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 11/29/95 LEGAL Hong Kong - BSA Targets More Software Pirates (NEWS)(LEGAL)(HKG)(00008) Hong Kong - BSA Targets More Software Pirates 11/29/95 CENTRAL, HONG KONG, 1995 NOV 29 (NB) -- Stepping up its campaign to eradicate software theft in Hong Kong, the Business Software Alliance (BSA) has announced that it has targeted 17 of the 18 shops at Wanchai district's notorious 298 Hennessy Road arcade. BSA officials have long suspected shops of selling illegal software and succeeded in having court injunctions served on them. According to the BSA, 298 is Hong Kong Island's largest distribution center for illegal software. Like its recent action on the Golden Arcade at Shampshuipo in Kowloon, the BSA returned to court to have the injunctions made permanent, giving defendants the opportunity to appeal against them. Like the Golden Arcade incident too, no-one from 298 turned up in court to fight the order. The watchdog group also stepped up its campaign to embarrass government agencies into taking broader action against shops. It has commissioned an independent Hazard Assessment on the potential fire hazard posed by illegal traders in the Golden Shopping Arcade in Shamshuipo. It concluded that the basement of the Center "is dangerous to the public" as well as employees. The study also cites poor maintenance and failure to improve facilities to accommodate the increased volume of shoppers, among other things. The BSA has since asked Fire Services to investigate the arcade. "The fact that some of the operators of shops selling illegal software also blithely ignore the law in public safety is typical of the complete lack of respect for the law on the part of many of these people," said Valerie Colbourn, vice president of the BSA. (Joel McCormick & I.T. Daily/19951129) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 11/29/95 TRENDS China - Shanghai Bell At Top Of Hi-Tech Firms List (NEWS)(TRENDS)(PEK)(00009) China - Shanghai Bell At Top Of Hi-Tech Firms List 11/29/95 BEIJING, CHINA, 1995 NOV 29 (NB) -- Shanghai Bell Telephone Equipment Manufacturing is listed as number one on the 1995 Top 100 High Technology Firms, followed by Beijing Stone Group, according to the China Development and Assessment Center of High Technology Enterprises. The list is based on a survey conducted by the center with support from a number of government departments, including the State Statistics Bureau, the State Science and Technology Commission, the State Science and Technology Commission for Defense, the Chinese Academy of Sciences, the State Education Commission, and the Chinese Association of Science and Technology. A high-tech firm must grow at least RMB200 million (US$23.8 million) in business turnover to be eligible for selection by the center as one of the 100 top firms, said Luo Ruming, director-general of the center. Firms on the list each saw their per capita income reach RMB200,000 (US$23,800) last year. The figure is also a pre-requirement for consideration on the list. Another indicator to assess the firms are tax levies, Luo said. Most of the hi-tech firms selected by the center are engaged in electronics production and development, Luo said. Other fields include pharmaceuticals, chemicals, machinery, aerospace, and beverages. The 100 enterprises saw their gross business turnover reach RMB63.6 billion (US$7.57 billion) last year, accounting for 34 percent of the country's total in terms of the hi-tech business sector. Thirteen of the firms on the list saw their business turnover surpass RMB1 billion (US$119 million) last year. China now has 13,000 enterprises engaged in the development and production of high-tech products. Five provinces and municipalities are home to almost three fourth of the 100 top firms with 20 in Shanghai, 17 in Guangdong, 14 in Shangdong, 12 in Jiangsu, and 10 in Beijing. (Chih-Ho Yu & Ning Huang/19951127) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 11/29/95 PC ****China - Motorola Plans Power PC-Based PCs (NEWS)(PC)(PEK)(00010) ****China - Motorola Plans Power PC-Based PCs 11/29/95 BEIJING, CHINA, 1995 NOV 29 (NB) -- Motorola recently announced a joint venture with Nanjing Panda Electronics to produce multimedia computers based on Power PC technology in China. The new joint venture, called Nanjing Power Computer Ltd., will need a a gross investment of more than RMB100 million (US$12 million), with Motorola holding 60 percent of the investment, and Nanjing Panda the remaining 40 percent. It is expected that Nanjing Power Computer will be in operation by the first quarter of 1996. The venture will produce about 20,000 multimedia computers next year, said Lu Rongchang with Nanjing Panda. Initially, Motorola will supply the venture with its Power PC motherboards based on the Power PC 603, 603e, and 604 microprocessors for integration into the new RISC (reduced instruction set computer) PC multimedia computer systems. However, Nanjing Power Computer will develop complete multimedia computer systems based on its own technology after several years of operation. The first batch of Power PC computers to be manufactured by the venture during its initial years of operation will run Microsoft's Windows NT 3.51 operating system. According to the agreement, the products to be manufactured by the joint venture will be sold through Panda Electronics, Motorola Computer Group, and other channels. The firms also plan to jointly produce pagers. (Chih-Ho Yu & Ning Huang/19951127) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 11/29/95 LEGAL Can Vice President Gore Stall Telecom Bill? (NEWS)(LEGAL)(WAS)(00011) Can Vice President Gore Stall Telecom Bill? 11/29/95 WASHINGTON, D.C., U.S.A., 1995 NOV 29 (NB) -- Can Vice President Al Gore stall House-Senate negotiations over telecommunications legislation until next year and turn the subject into an election issue? Gore has made it clear that he does not like either bill before the conference committee. As Congress returns from its Thanksgiving break, the White House is working to slow the conference committee deliberations, according to administration and industry sources. "Gore is the administration's guru on these issues and he is calling the shots for the White House," a utility lobbyist working on telecommunications issues told Newsbytes. "If Gore can push the conference into the 1996 election year, it becomes much more difficult to pass any legislation." Gore objects to several aspects of the legislation, including the relaxation of regulation on cable television, the eased limits on media ownership, and the absence of antitrust scrutiny by the Justice Department. When he was a senator from Tennessee, Gore was a leader in cable reregulation, after an earlier deregulation resulted in soaring prices, . The White House has threatened to veto the legislation unless changes that Gore advocates are made. The veto threat is the mechanism the administration is using to slow the conference. There is also a personal dimension to the policy dispute over telecommunications reform. Gore is clashing with House Speaker Newt Gingrich over the legislation, with Gingrich accusing Gore of being mired in metaphors of the past, including the Gore coinage of the phrase "information superhighway." Gingrich says the phrase conjures up an image of concrete and steel, not the modern paradigm of the information age. "This has become personal and nasty," says a lobbyist for a high-tech trade group. "It's Gore verses Gingrich in 12 rounds." Ironically, Gore and Gingrich were allies on technology issues when they served together in the House. The Tennessee Democrat and the Georgia Republican were soul mates on the need for policies to encourage the growth of technology and worked together to create a House caucus on technology issues in the late 1970s. (Kennedy Maize/19951128) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 11/29/95 ONLINE Internet Expo - Verity Deals For Web, First!, Lotus (NEWS)(ONLINE)(BOS)(00012) Internet Expo - Verity Deals For Web, First!, Lotus 11/29/95 BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS, U.S.A., 1995 NOV 29 (NB) -- Through newly inked deals with Individual Inc., Lotus, Frontier and Tandem, Verity has extended the penetration of Topic within "Internet/agents, groupware, and online/news," three of the six target markets for the company's search-and-retrieval engine, said Sue Barsamian, VP of marketing, in a meeting with Newsbytes at E-Mail World/Internet Expo in Boston. With about 35 other customers already in place by now, ranging from Adobe and Attachmate to Ziff-Davis and Xyvision, Verity is also aiming Topic at electronic publishing, document management, and customer support, Barasamian revealed, during a briefing conducted in the Verity suite. Individual Inc. plans to integrate Topic with its "First! for the Web" news service, starting early next month for Windows NT, and early next year for Solaris, SunOS (operating system) and HP-UX, according to the Verity VP. Frontier and Tandem will each embed Topic into their Web servers: Frontier's SuperWeb Server for Windows NT and Tandem's Himalaya CyberWeb servers, respectively. The "broad technology agreement" with Frontier also calls for the use of Verity's agent technology, and encompasses plans to integrate Verity technology into Frontier's client products, such as SuperHighway Access CyberSearch, a CD-ROM product that combines an Internet resource database with a Web browser to let users "search" the Web before actually going online. Barsamian maintained that Tandem is leveraging its advantages in "fault tolerance and 24 by seven availability," along with company ties to the banking and finance industries, in CyberWeb, a recently introduced line-up of specialized "secure servers" for Web-based applications like ATM (automated teller machines) transactions, electronic funds transfer, credit card authorization, and online stock exchanges. Lotus, which has already embedded an earlier version of Topic into the Notes Release 3 server, will now integrate the faster search capabilities and other enhancements into Notes Release 4, another product slated for availability next month, she added. The boost in speed will be especially evident in searches of Notes fields and CD-ROM information, according to the VP. To simplify the search-and-retrieval process, Notes users will now be able to enter portions of free text directly into the Notes query bar. Other advancements will include the ability to search for information over encrypted fields, document attachments, and unindexed Notes databases. Barsamian told Newsbytes that the Topic search-and-retrieval engine combines "ubiquitous delivery of information" with the option of "personalized points of view" through Verity's agent technology. Topic supports technologies ranging from HTML (hypertext markup language), SGML (standard generalized markup language) and CD-ROM to RDBMS (relational database management systems) and Adobe's PDF (portable document format), she continued. Ultimately, Verity would like to see Topic become the "de facto industry standard" for search-and-retrieval, she revealed. At present, she reported, Verity's competitors vary by market segment, running the gamut from PLS in the "online/news" market to Fulcrum for document management. Aside from Individual Inc., Verity's customers in the "online/news" market include Ziff-Davis, Knight Ridder New Media, AT&T World Net, MCI Delphi Internet, Network News, Dow Jones, Mainstream, and Network News, Newsbytes was told. Customers in the "Internet/agents" category include Netscape, General Magic, Quarterdeck, Netmanage, and Process Software, along with Frontier and Tandem. In the groupware market, Verity's products are integrated into products from Attachmate, Collabra, Novell, and Softarc, in addition to Lotus. Other Verity customers include Adobe, Frame, Common Ground and Tumbleweed, in the publishing category; Answer, Ready, and Emerald Intelligence, for customer support; and Xyvision, PC Docs, Saros, Documentum, and Odesta, in the document management arena. (Jacqueline Emigh/19951129/Reader Contact: Verity, 415-960-7600; Press Contact: Marguerite Padovani, Verity, 415-960-7724) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 11/29/95 ONLINE ****Internet Expo - Sprint Intros InfoXchange Service (NEWS)(ONLINE)(BOS)(00013) ****Internet Expo - Sprint Intros InfoXchange Service 11/29/95 BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS, U.S.A., 1995 NOV 29 (NB) -- Sprint has announced InfoXchange, telling journalists that the service for interconnecting multivendor corporate electronic mail systems is the first in a series of new services from Sprint that will also include a "public commercial service for small and medium-sized businesses," to be unveiled in 1996. InfoXchange, which is being offered by Sprint in partnership with Control Data, will "fulfill the promise of electronic-mail," asserted Robba Benjamin, president of Sprint's Multimedia services in a press conference attended by Newsbytes at E-Mail World/Internet Expo in Boston. InfoXchange will use the Sprint public network, together with X.500-based directory services and SMTP (Simple Mail Transfer Protocol) gateways, said Upendra K. Gupta, manager, Multimedia & Strategic Services, for Control Data. The new service will allow users to receive messages in one e- mail system, such as Lotus cc:Mail or IBM PROFS, for example, that have been sent out over Microsoft Mail, SprintMail, Lotus Notes, or any other messaging system that also complies with the X.500 and SMTP standards, maintained James E. Ousley, president and CEO (chief executive officer) of Control Data. InfoXchange will be set apart from the Internet, as well as from competing commercial services, by providing "guaranteed" message delivery, the officials contended. The guarantee will apply to users of multivendor e-mail systems within a subscribing corporation, as well as within all other organizations subscribing to the Sprint service, but it will not apply to messages sent out over the Internet or through commercial e-mail systems to non-subscribers. Additional points of differentiation with commercial competitors will include message encryption, a centralized directory of all registered users, and service "management" and customization, Benjamin said. Benjamin also told journalists at the press conference that Sprint decided to introduce InfoXchange after conducting a series of focus groups with users. Sprint and Control Data are initially providing SprintXchange services to a "core group" of 500 Control Data customers. Control Data is providing systems integration for the new service. Users of Sprint's new InfoXchange will receive the multivendor mail messages under their customary user interfaces, reported Ousley. Additional features will include X.500-based "electronic white and yellow pages." (Jacqueline Emigh/19951129/Reader Contact: Sprint, 202-828-7410; Press Contact: Robin Carlson, Sprint, 913-624-6303) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 11/29/95 GENERAL Japan Newsbriefs (NEWS)(GENERAL)(TYO)(00014) Japan Newsbriefs 11/29/95 TOKYO, JAPAN, 1995 NOV 29 (NB) -- In this roundup of news from Japan: Fujitsu boost FMV production; Sega to link with NEC network; Multimedia study group established; More Internet services planned; First hands free car phone to ship. Fujitsu Boost FMV Production Fujitsu is increasing production of its best-selling FMV range of personal computers to two million units a year. The increase, which will take effect in the coming fiscal year from April, is in response to sharply higher PC use in Japan and improving sales. The Tokyo-based company predicts sales next year will top 2 million compared to estimated sales this year of 1.5 million units. Sega To Link With NEC Network Just a few weeks after announcing it would begin production of a system to allow users of its Saturn games system to connect to Fujitsu's NiftyServe online service, Sega has announced owners of its line of home karaoke system will soon be able to connect to NEC's PC-VAN online service. Using the system, information from the network will be displayed on the user's screen. Sega say they hope to increase sales of the terminals with the added information access system. Multimedia Study Group Established A group of sixteen Japanese companies have formed a group to study the progress of multimedia communications and predict the future of such systems and how they can be put to use by the member companies. The group brings together companies such as Nippon Telegraph and Telephone, Toshiba and Sony. More Internet Services Planned Several new services have been announced recently for the Internet. A new video retail store will soon open online and offer information about the latest video releases and the ability to buy the tapes online. The new service will initially allow users to order videos seen on the web by telephone or fax although the Internet ordering service will debut next year. In the financial world, the Tokyo Grain Exchange is to launch a page on the Internet with prices and contract details. The site is scheduled to debut next year. First Handless Car Phone To Ship Japan's first hands-free car phone will be shipped shortly by the Tu-Ka Cellular group. The mobile network is providing the units to Nissan for installation in new models of its Cedric model. The entire package, which includes the telephone, will add less than 100,000 yen ($1,000) onto the price of the car. (Martyn Williams/19951129) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 11/29/95 BUSINESS ****Softbank Continues Investment, Buys Into Internet (NEWS)(BUSINESS)(TYO)(00015) ****Softbank Continues Investment, Buys Into Internet 11/29/95 TOKYO, JAPAN, 1995 NOV 29 (NB) -- Further enhancing his reputation as "Japan's Bill Gates," Mayoshi Son, president of Softbank Corporation, has been on another shopping trip and, this time, returned with a stake in the Internet's Yahoo database, plans to offer Internet access in China, and a company that will target investment in the US. The company said in Tokyo that it paid $2 million for its 5% stake in the Yahoo service that was announced this week. Yahoo, a database and index of the World Wide Web, is one of the most popular Internet locations. The investment was made through Softbank Holdings Inc., a US subsidiary, and Ziff Davis Publishing, which Softbank recently paid $1.8 billion for. Late last week the company announced two other new ventures, including a Tokyo-based investment company that will study and analyze ventures and businesses using information gathered from its US units and Ziff Davis Publishing. Financial news service reports suggest the company will have around $5.7 billion available for investment. Shortly before buying Ziff Davis, the company paid $30 million for a 30% stake in Unitech Telecom, a California-based telecommunications company with particular expertise in the Chinese market. At the time, Softbank said it will use the company for further development in China and announced last week it will set up an Internet access provider in China in association with Unitech and Jitong Communications Company, a local Chinese telecommunications company. The three will offer Internet connections in 24 cities becoming the country's first nationwide Internet access provider. As the company expands, the Tokyo Stock Market has become worried that it may be over extending itself. Stocks in the company dropped below the 20,000 yen mark for the first time this fiscal year hitting a low of 19,800 yen. The company has just issued 2.8 million new shares to help finance its acquisition of Ziff Davis Publishing and a 1.4-for-one stock split has resulted in a supply glut. Kiyoshi Kimura, an analyst at Societe General, was quoted recently as rating Softbank as a "strong sell." Softbank is Japan's largest publisher of computer magazines and books and distributor of computer systems, software, and peripherals. This year it has also announced an entry into the Internet service provider business in Japan with NTT Data through its jointly owned Mediabank subsidiary. It is also involved in a joint venture, Gamebank Corp., with Microsoft Corporation to produce and distribute games software for the Windows 95 operating system. (Martyn Williams/19951129) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 11/29/95 ONLINE Internet Update - Asia Special (NEWS)(ONLINE)(TYO)(00016) Internet Update - Asia Special 11/29/95 TOKYO, JAPAN, 1995 NOV 29 (NB) -- In this roundup of new resources and services on the Asian parts of the global Internet: Zip FM AIDS questionnaire; Delhi Institute of Technology; Real-time stock prices; Malaysia online; National University Hospital of Singapore; Hug Kuo Elephants home page; Business contacts page; Hong Kong tourist organization; Hiroshima travel guide; Kansai airport home page; Online guide to Bangladesh; Hong Kong Internet directory. Zip FM AIDS Questionnaire Just ahead of Worlds AIDS Day, from Zip FM 77.8 in Nagoya, Japan, a questionnaire on AIDS. The radio station says it would like responses from around the world and all respondents can enter a draw to win a Zip FM pin. World Wide Web: http://cjn.meitetsu.co.jp/zip-fm/aids.html Delhi Institute of Technology The home page of The Delhi Institute of Technology, an engineering college in Delhi, India, offers information on the center which specializes in electronics, computers, and related disciplines. World Wide Web: http://www.eng.ua.edu/college/people/bdilbagh/dit.html Real-time Stock Prices Anyone with an eye on the Asian markets will know the Business Times of Singapore, one of Asia's leading business newspapers. In addition to an online edition of the newspaper, the journal is also making real time stock prices from the Singapore Stock Exchange available. World Wide Web: http://snoopy.asia1.com.sg/cgi-bin/realstk/start.pl Malaysia Online This set of pages offers complete information about Malaysia and its travel, games, shopping, entertainment, and more. The service is provided by Malaysia Online, the first commercial Internet service provider in Malaysia. World Wide Web: http://www.mol.net.my/ National University Hospital of Singapore Just to prove this country is really wired, even the hospitals have Internet home pages! Here you are invited to take a cybertour of the hospital. An information database currently includes articles entitled "Vitamins and Minerals," and "Is there life after Gynaecological Cancer?" World Wide Web: http://www.imedia.com.sg/nuh/home.htm Hug Kuo Elephants Home Page When you hear the word "Elephant" you don't always think of basketball, unless you are a Taiwanese sports fan. If you are, you'd know the Hug Kuo Elephants are one of the continent's top basketball teams and members of the Chinese Basketball Alliance. World Wide Web: http://www.tradewatch.com.tw/elephants/index.html Business Contacts Page Anyone wanting to do business with Singapore, but not sure of which company to contact, can now post a message within Asia One's Web site. A special page is set aside for foreign companies looking for business in Singapore. The site also contains a searchable database of Singapore companies. World Wide Web: http://www.asia1.com.sg/bizdir/ Hong Kong Tourist Organization If you are planning to visit Hong Kong, you should check these pages first. The local tourist organization pages include "a comprehensive guide and planning tool for vacation and business travel, featuring information on tours, hotels, transportation, food and restaurants, shopping, nightlife, culture, festivals, and events." World Wide Web: http://www.hkta.org/ Hiroshima Travel Guide Once you've finished your virtual tour of Singapore's hospitals and Hong Kong, as mentioned earlier, a hop across the ocean will land you in the city of Hiroshima in western Japan. There, a Hiroshima University student has written a travel guide for the city. World Wide Web: http://www.ipc.hiroshima-u.ac.jp/~arima/hiroshima.html Kansai Airport Home Page A little over a year ago, the Kansai International Airport opened in Osaka Bay, Japan. The airport is built on an artificial island five kilometers offshore and won several international design awards. The Internet pages offer information about the airport. World Wide Web: http://www.kiis.or.jp/kixinfo/kix.html Online Guide to Bangladesh This site is not physically located in Bangladesh but New York! However, it offers information on resorts, archaeological sites, short-term tours, visas, and currency. World Wide Web: http://www.servtech.com/public/rajib/tour/ Hong Kong Internet Directory This bilingual site brings together and indexes all Web sites, personal home pages and e-mail address it knows in Hong Kong and offers a directory to them, in both English and Chinese. World Wide Web: http://www.internet-directory.com/ (Martyn Williams/19951129) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 11/29/95 BUSINESS Cabletron Plans To Buy SMC's Switching Division (NEWS)(BUSINESS)(TOR)(00017) Cabletron Plans To Buy SMC's Switching Division 11/29/95 ROCHESTER, NEW HAMPSHIRE, U.S.A., 1995 NOV 29 (NB) -- Cabletron Systems (NYSE:CS) has announced plans to buy Standard Microsystems Corp.'s (NASDAQ:SMSC) switching business. Cabletron said it has signed a letter of intent to pay $77.5 million and assume certain specified liabilities in exchange for the assets and technology of Hauppauge, New York-based SMC's Enterprise Networks Business Unit. In a conference call with reporters and industry analysts, Robert Levine, president and chief executive of Cabletron, said his company is buying the SMC operation largely to get a fast start in the high-speed Ethernet switching market. The deal includes 10/100 megabits-per-second (Mbps) Fast Ethernet switches. Levine added that Cabletron is still developing its own Ethernet switching technology. Levine said his company will pay cash for the business, in "a totally non-dilutive transaction for Cabletron." He said he was happy about the purchase price. "We think we are very prudent about this investment. We think we paid a very fair price -- in comparison to what some others have paid we think we paid a darn good price," Levine said. Cabletron and SMC hope to complete the sale within 60 days. It is subject to various conditions, including completion and delivery of a definitive purchase agreement and approval under the Hart-Scott-Rodino Antitrust Act. Cabletron plans to keep the bulk of the SMC unit at its present location in Andover, Massachusetts, Levine said. He added that his firm is primarily buying the technology, and those employees of the operation who can contribute to that technology will keep their jobs with Cabletron. Without ruling out the possibility of layoffs, he said that will include quite a few of the present staff, who number less than 100. In a slight shift away from its historic reliance on direct sales, Cabletron plans to maintain relationships with "committed" resellers of the Standard Microsystems products, Levine said, but he indicated the company plans to continue relying mainly on direct sales. "The reason we bought this company was to put the product into the Cabletron marketing machine," he said. Levine also said Cabletron will integrate the Standard Microsystems products into its own product line. "It will look and feel like a Cabletron product," he said. (Grant Buckler/19951129/Press Contact: Ed Cortes, Cabletron, 603-337-4225, Internet e-mail cortes@ctron.com; Michael Deshaies, Cabletron, 603-337-1402, Internet e-mail deshaies@ctron.com; Public Contact: Cabletron, 603-332-9400) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 11/29/95 TRENDS Entertainment Software Most Popular In Home - Study (NEWS)(TRENDS)(TOR)(00018) Entertainment Software Most Popular In Home - Study 11/29/95 PORT WASHINGTON, NEW YORK, U.S.A., 1995 NOV 29 (NB) -- Households with more people, but not necessarily more money, are more likely to buy software, and entertainment software is the most popular category in American homes, according to a recent study by SofTrends, a unit of market research firm The NPD Group. SofTrends surveyed 1,000 households with personal computers, chosen from among those on NPD's master list of 300,000 households who responded positively to a questionnaire asking if they owned personal computers. SofTrends' first Consumer Purchase Study asked about software purchased in the second quarter of 1995. Among those who responded, adventure and role playing games were the most popular software category, followed by arcade and action games, file and disk management software, personal finance software, and sports games. SofTrends Manager Cecile Yulo told Newsbytes the company did not compile data on how much software was purchased for home-office as opposed to purely home use. Consumers named price as the most important factor influencing their software purchases, followed in order of importance by the blurbs on the backs of the boxes, advertising, company reputation, and magazine reviews. Seventy-one percent said they plan their software purchases. Fifty-eight percent said they go shopping with a particular type of software in mind, while 40 percent said they set out looking for a specific title. SofTrends found that larger households tend to buy more software. On the other hand, households with annual incomes between $50,000 and $74,000 tend to buy more software than those with incomes of $75,000 and up -- a finding SofTrends suggested might be due to the fact that software buyers tend to be younger and thus have lower incomes than older consumers. While 57 percent of software buyers are male, SofTrends said, households where the female head of the household is employed are more than three times as likely to buy software as those where she is not. Heads of households with post-college education are about twice as likely to buy software as those with only some college education, the study also reported. Over all, SofTrends said, 20 percent of all households with PCS bought software in the second quarter of 1995, and the average consumer bought 2.2 units in that period. Yulo said the firm collected price data, but was not confident enough about the validity of the data to release it. SofTrends hopes to include price data in future editions of the survey, which the company plans to conduct twice a year, she said. (Grant Buckler/19951129/Press Contact: Leslie Singer, NPD Group, 516-625-2302; Ed Roth, SofTrends, 516-625-2294) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 11/29/95 TELECOM Alliance Aims To Represent Ordinary Canadians On Info Highway (NEWS)(TELECOM)(TOR)(00019) Alliance Aims To Represent Ordinary Canadians On Info Highway 11/29/95 OTTAWA, ONTARIO, CANADA, 1995 NOV 29 (NB) -- The cost of local telephone service will be among the first items on the agenda of a new alliance of consumer organizations, labor unions, and lobby groups. Organizers said the Alliance for a Connected Canada will present the views of ordinary Canadians on that and a number of other communications policy issues. "Over the last few years there have been several groups created" to address issues to do with the so-called information highway, regulatory changes affecting telephone service, and other communications issues, said Stan Skrzeszewski, director of the Coalition for Public Information in London, Ontario. "They more or less all know one another." He told Newsbytes that the Alliance for a Connected Canada is meant to let these groups work together in a slightly more formal way, though the alliance is a loose structure that will not have its own staff or offices. The alliance's first effort will focus on regulatory hearings dealing with local telephone rates, Marita Moll, co-founder of the Public Information Highway Advisory Council in Ottawa, told Newsbytes. The Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) has announced that it will hold hearings starting in April on the possible restructuring of local telephone rates. Moll said the alliance wants to make sure there is a clear definition of what are essential communications services, so that affordable access to those services can be protected. The trend in telecommunications regulation in Canada -- as elsewhere -- in recent years has been toward relying on market forces rather than regulation. The Alliance for a Connected Canada is clearly skeptical of this direction, though representatives do not rule out reliance on competition entirely. On the issue of local phone bills, for instance, Skrzeszewski said "we can give a gut reaction of saying no prices shouldn't be going up, but I think it's a more complicated issue than that." On the other hand "there's no question we have to retain some sort of cross-subsidy" of local service from long-distance revenue. The reason, Skrzeszewski argued, is that "large parts of Canada are uneconomic" for local service otherwise. Another issue that interests Skrzeszewski is the idea of discounted telecommunications charges for educational and health-care institutions, a move he said is necessary if there is to be universal access to the Internet. The coalition also has some doubts about the largely pro-market report of the Canadian government's Information Highway Advisory Council. "Over all, the approach we think is wrong," Skrzeszewski said, though he acknowledged "some strengths" in the report. Moll said her Public Information Highway Advisory Council was set up in reaction to the formation of the largely business-dominated government committee, which reported earlier this year. The members of the Alliance for a Connected Canada include the Public Interest Advocacy Centre, the Telecommunications Workers Union, the Coalition for Public Information, the Public Information Highway Advisory Council, the Telecommunities Canada alliance of Free-Net and community net groups, La Federation Nationale des Associations de Consommateurs du Quebec (National Federation of Consumer Associations of Quebec), the Information Policy Research Group and the McLuhan Program in Culture and Technology at the University of Toronto, the Information Highway Working Group, and the Council of Canadians. (Grant Buckler/19951129/Press Contact: Andrew Reddick, Public Interest Advocacy Centre, 613-562-4002, fax 613-562-0007, Internet e-mail 74051.3157@compuserve.com; Sid Shniad, Telecommunications Workers Union, 604-437-4822, fax 604-435-7760, Internet e-mail shniad@sfu.ca; Stan Skrzeszewski, Coalition for Public Information, 519-473-7651, fax 416-941-9581, Internet e-mail sskrzesz@panther.uwo.ca; Marita Moll, Public Information Highway Advisory Council, 613-232-1505, fax 613-232-1886; Internet e-mail aa319@freenet.carleton.ca; Garth Graham, Telecommunities Canada, 613-253-3497, fax 613-253-1215; Internet e-mail aa127@freenet.carleton.ca; Marie Valle, La Federation Nationale des Associations de Consommateurs du Quebec, 514-521-6820, fax 514-521-0736; Andrew Clement, Information Policy Research Group, 416-978-3111, fax 416-971-1399, Internet e-mail clement@fis.utoronto.ca; Dave Robinson, Council of Canadians, 613-233-2773, fax 613-233-6776, Internet e-mail coc@web.apc.org; Mark Surman, Information Highway Working Group, 416-596-0212 ext. 15, fax 416-596-1374, Internet e-mail msurman@web.apc.org; Liss Jeffrey, McLuhan Program in Culture and Technology, 416-978-7026, fax 416-978-5324, Internet e-mail ljeffrey@gpu.utcc.utoronto.ca) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 11/29/95 TRENDS ****Intel's Dominance Will Grow - Study (NEWS)(TRENDS)(LAX)(00020) ****Intel's Dominance Will Grow - Study 11/29/95 SCOTTSDALE, ARIZONA, U.S.A., 1995 NOV 29 (NB) -- Market research firm In-Stat has issued a gloomy forecast for competitors to microprocessor giant Intel. In-Stat predicts for the foreseeable future Intel's dominance will be unchallenged and competition within the industry will be even more limited that it has been. Mike Griffith, senior analyst with In-Stat, told Newsbytes, "After having the opportunity to meet with several of Intel's competitors at Comdex, I came away with the impression that Intel's position in the market is stronger than ever. This is not to say that its main competitors, including the PowerPC consortium of Apple, Motorola and IBM as well as AMD, Texas Instruments and Cyrix, won't continue to build successful businesses. They all probably will, but not one of these companies are either ready to seriously challenge Intel head-on in the Desktop PC segment." The Instat report dismisses the PowerPC as a serious challenge. To really challenge Intel, the PowerPC must penetrate and take share away from Intel on the desktop. This means clearly penetrating the IBM-compatible PC segment, and Instat does not see this happening in the foreseeable future. Cyrix and Texas Instruments (TI), according to the report, are content with a moderate growth without directly challenging Intel's aggressive leading-edge technology. "Cyrix doesn't have the resources to compete with Intel and it knows it, while TI is going after other niche markets without confronting Intel directly," said Griffith. "This leaves AMD as the only possible competitor to Intel. Given the almost fatal problems there, I am very skeptical if they can do it at all. If the company can recover the competitive form it had in the 486 market, then Intel will again have a major competitor. If not, then PowerPC will be closest challenge to Intel's dominance and that could well remain a distant one at best," said Griffith. As previously reported in Newsbytes, AMD had canceled its next- generation K-6 program. In order to stay in the game, AMD bought NexGen, a company with $21 million in revenue, for $860 million. AMD did this because NexGen does have next-generation processor technology. (Richard Bowers/19951129/Press Contact: John Cerelli, In-Stat, 602-483-4440) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 11/29/95 EDUCATION Gates To Donate Book Proceeds To Education (NEWS)(EDUCATION)(WAS)(00021) Gates To Donate Book Proceeds To Education 11/29/95 WASHINGTON, D.C., U.S.A., 1995 NOV 29 (NB) -- Microsoft chief Bill Gates said he will donate the proceeds from his new book, "The Road Ahead," to fund school technology programs in 22 communities around the United States. The communities, identified through the National Foundation for the Improvement of Education, will participate in a two-year program to give all students access to computers and connections to the Internet. Speaking at Georgetown University, Gates said, "The most important use for information technology is to improve education. We have a tremendous opportunity to enhance the ways we think and learn by taking advantage of technology." Gates said Microsoft is developing a set of software tools to help home-school communications and make it easier for schools to operate modern computer networks. The Microsoft Parent-Teacher Connection Server, an extension to Windows NT, will be available for free to schools this spring. Microsoft is also working with hardware and telecommunications companies to wire schools and provide schools with telecommunications connections, support and training. Gates spoke at a form that also featured Deputy Education Secretary Madeleine Kunin. She said, "Bringing the full fruits of new technologies to our schools depends on expanding access to the information highway, developing better tools and educational software, and building new alliances with the private sector." In a whirlwind day in the nation's capital, Gates also met with editors and reporters at the Washington Post, where he denounced immigration reform legislation sponsored by Sen. Alan Simpson (R-Wyo.) that would restrict the ability of US businesses to hire foreign workers. Gates called the Simpson bill "an absolute disaster." He said, "If you want to prevent companies like ours from doing work in the United States, this is a masterpiece." High-tech companies have launched an assault on the Simpson bill, which was scheduled for a Senate Judiciary committee vote yesterday. But later in the day, Simpson said he would make changes in the legislation to accommodate the needs of business. "All the things that Bill Gates was concerned about are no longer there," Simpson told the newspaper. "After two weeks of watching the reaction of the business community, I knew pretty well where we were headed." (Kennedy Maize/19951129) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 11/29/95 GOVT ****FCC Panel Backs Digital HDTV (NEWS)(GOVT)(WAS)(00022) ****FCC Panel Backs Digital HDTV 11/29/95 WASHINGTON, D.C., U.S.A., 1995 NOV 29 (NB) -- A Federal Communications Commission advisory committee has endorsed digital high definition television (HDTV) as the technology of choice for the future. After more than a year of testing, the committee recommended that the FCC select the system developed by a group of companies known as the Grand Alliance as the technical standard for advanced television service. The alliance includes General Instrument, Zenith Electronics, AT&T, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and a consortium of Philips Electronics, NBC, and the David Sarnoff Research Center. The digital technology can transmit pictures with twice the resolution of conventional television, or can carry three or four signals with standard resolution. Japan was pursuing analog high definition TV in a technology race with the US in the late 1980s, but dropped the technology when it appeared that digital signals would be a clear winner. The FCC has proposed to give existing broadcast licensees a free license to carry the high definition signals, but many broadcasters had hoped to use the spectrum for multiple conventional broadcast. The free license has come under attack both in Congress and in the FCC. Congressional budget balancers have wanted to put the broadcast licenses up for auction, believing they could raise billions of dollars that way. FCC Chairman Reed Hundt has also been skeptical about the giveaway. In a speech last week, Hundt raised questions about whether it made sense for the government to push a technology that will cost consumers billions of dollars and that they may not want. "Viewers paid about $75 billion" for their existing televisions, Hundt said. "Should we assume they welcome the extinction of analog broadcast?" According to industry officials, new digital televisions will cost $1,000 to $2,000 more than conventional sets. The FCC is expected to adopt the advisory committee recommendations early in 1996, but the issue of allocation of new channels is still up in the air. (Kennedy Maize/19951129/Press Contact: Susan Lewis Sallet, FCC, 202-418-1500) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 11/29/95 TRENDS Mecklermedia's Internet Strategic Advisory Services (NEWS)(TRENDS)(SFO)(00023) Mecklermedia's Internet Strategic Advisory Services 11/29/95 WESTPORT, CONNECTICUT, U.S.A., 1995 NOV 29 (NB) -- Mecklermedia Corp. (NSADAQ:MECK), publisher of three popular Internet/World Wide Web publications and producer of Internet World tradeshows, announced an agreement with Hershel Sarbin Associates to create a Web consulting service. The collaboration leverages Mecklermedia's Internet savvy and Sarbin's database and integrated marketing strengths. The Internet Strategic Advisory Services will target Fortune 1000 companies looking to integrate Internet/Web technology. Jeffrey Dearth, president and chief operations officer of magazine/iWorld at Mecklermedia, told Newsbytes, "We are offering a high-level service which focuses on strategic thinking about how their business processes can be brought into the World Wide Web." He continued, "When you have people like (Microsoft's) Bill Gates and Larry Ellison (Oracle's chief executive officer) talking about a revolutionary way of doing business which will effect the entire world of commerce, it is no longer a question of whether a large company should or should-not integrate this technology into its strategy. The time is now -- and we, being a 100% pure Internet company, have in-house expertise and access to other leading experts which puts us in an excellent position to provide this consulting service." Dearth also said the partnership with Hershel Sarbin Associates brings great marketing strength to this new Web consulting service, along with the authority and credibility of Sarbin himself who is a senior advisor to Cowles Business Media and a former president of Ziff-Davis Publishing Company. In a released statement, Sarbin is quoted as saying, "The Internet marketing imperative in not just a part of future planning, it is here and now. Any major company that has a database development and customer retention strategy must know that this is the time to have a real grasp of what the Internet means for marketing and how they plan to act upon it. We think we have a unique, user-friendly consulting service to assist senior executives in identifying, articulating, and achieving strategic goals related to the Internet." Mecklermedia has named Bill Washburn, senior vice president of Internet Business Development, as the executive in charge of Internet Strategic Advisory Services. Mecklermedia's Web site, iWorld, can be reached at http://www.iworld.com . (Patrick McKenna/19951129/Press Contact: Tanya Mazarowski, Mecklermedia, 203-341-2842) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 11/29/95 EDUCATION The Electronic School House Gets A Boost (NEWS)(EDUCATION)(DEN)(00024) The Electronic School House Gets A Boost 11/29/95 REDMOND, WASHINGTON, U.S.A., 1995 NOV 29 (NB) -- "The most important use for information technology is to improve education." That was the message Bill Gates, chairman and chief executive officer (CEO) of Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ: MSFT) brought to more than 700 national educators and students at Georgetown University this week as Gates described how technology can improve education. In a presentation titled "The Connected Learning Community" Gates announced a set of new initiatives designed to help educators make the best use of information technology. US Deputy Secretary of Education Madeleine Kunin joined Gates at the university to emphasize the importance of technology. "Bringing the full fruits of new technologies to our schools depends on expanding access to the information highway, developing better tools and educational software, and building new alliances with the private sector," said Kunin. Kunin added that the use of technology presents a unique opportunity to improve both teaching and learning. She also stressed the importance of developing professional skills in using the high-tech tools. "The Connected Learning Community" of Gates' vision is a world in which all students have access to the world's information through personal computers. He also sees a world in which students, educators, parents, and the extended community are connected to one another. Gates said students will collaborate in an environment that provides access to information, supports problem solving, and accommodates individualized learning. Teachers will become facilitators and coaches with easy access to students' records and portfolios in order to provide immediate feedback. Gates said Microsoft is "committed" to using its expertise in software development to deliver technologies that will help build The Connected Learning Community and will also work with partners who will provide other needed components. Specifically, Microsoft will focus on facilitating three-way connections that bring together the schools, homes and the world, and will also help teachers find value and educational content on the Internet. Gates said Microsoft is already working on a set of software to facilitate home-school communications and to make it easy for schools to use networks. The tool, called the Microsoft Parent-Teacher Connection Server, is an extension of the Microsoft Windows NT Server. Microsoft said it will be available to schools in the US at no cost in the Spring of 1996. Once the server is installed, schools can provide teachers and parents with e-mail and bulletin board service, publish their own home pages, and provide access to the Internet. According to the Children's Partnership, a non-profit group based in Santa Monica, California, about 30 percent of elementary schools and 49 percent of secondary schools already have Internet access, while about 1,000 schools already have home pages on the Web. The group said that number is growing by about 100 a month. Microsoft said it is also working with the Global Schoolnet Foundation to expand The Global Schoolhouse, an education resource area on the Internet. The company said it and GSH will work with experts in various curriculum areas to develop resources, including a curriculum repository for lesson plans and other classroom tools, a teacher resource center for information on teaching standards, and information about in-service training and conferences. There will also be a library of classroom projects. Microsoft has produced a 30-minute video that shows how technology is enhancing learning at all grade levels among diverse student populations in five schools across the country. School administrators can obtain a copy of the video by contacting Microsoft. A spokesperson told Newsbytes the video is expected to be available after the first of the year. The complete text of Gates' speech and program fact sheets on available on the Microsoft World Wide Web home page at http://www.microsoft.com/k-12/vision . Recently Newsbytes reported that Gates will donate the proceeds from the sale of his new book "The Road Ahead" to fund school technology programs in 22 communities. In a separate program announced recently, Microsoft said it had partnered with the American Library Association to launch "Libraries Online!" -- a one-year, $3 million initiative to research and develop innovative approaches for extending information technologies to what the two organizations described as "underserved populations." The program will provide cash grants, staff training, computer hardware, Microsoft software and technical support to nine libraries. The central focus of the program is to reach out to families, small business owners, students and others who may not otherwise have access to information technologies. (Jim Mallory/19951129/Press contact: Wendy Lienhart, Marcy Monyek and Associates, 312-263-2135; Public contact: Microsoft, 206-882-8080 or 800-426-9400) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 11/29/95 ONLINE AT&T & Novell Launch ANCS, Link To Compuserve (NEWS)(ONLINE)(BOS)(00025) AT&T & Novell Launch ANCS, Link To Compuserve 11/29/95 BRIDGEWATER, NEW JERSEY, U.S.A., 1995 NOV 29 (NB) -- In a teleconference, AT&T and Novell announced the commercial availability of AT&T NetWare Connect Service (ANCS), plus plans to provide customers with access to content from CompuServe and the AT&T Business Network through the "secure" internetworking outsourcing service. When ANCS is used together with AT&T WorldNet, users will receive both business internetworking and "managed Internet connectivity," according to the officials. "We read about `corporations without walls.' But what customers really want are walls that are semi-permeable," said Tom Evslin, VP of AT&T Gateway Services, speaking during the teleconference, which was attended by Newsbytes. "It's getting increasingly complex to interconnect LANs (local area networks)," Evslin noted. Through "economies of scale," ANCS will give customers "packet-switched service without the costs," he asserted. In addition to letting businesses link together their own LANs, and those of their partners and customers, into "secure" and managed wide area networks (WANs), ANCS will help to extend LAN resources to remote and mobile dial-in users, according to the AT&T exec. By preventing the need to invest in, maintain, and upgrade an internetworking infrastructure, ANCS will prove useful to organizations that are downsizing and upsizing alike, Evslin predicted. "Not all businesses are growing," he pointed out. ANCS supports both IPX (Internet Packet Exchange) and IP (Internet Protocol), he added. ANCS and AT&T WorldNet Internet Managed Service can be provided to customers over the same physical connection. Steve Markman, executive MP and general manager of Novell's Information Access and Management Group, reported that the new ANCS combines AT&T's "intelligent network" with a set of technologies from Novell that includes: NetWare 4.0's NetWare Directory Service (NDS) for single log-in and user authentication; NetWare Connect Server, for remote access; ManageWise, for cross-platform network management; and multiprotocol routers. ANCS will be distributed through AT&T's direct sales force as well as through Novell gold and platinum VARs (value-added resellers), according to the execs. Markman characterized ANCS as providing the Novell VARs with a "significant new opportunity for the future." In another announcement issued during the teleconference, AT&T and Novell unveiled plans to create a connection to Compuserve that will allow Compuserve subscribers to access content from Compuserve directly over their corporate LANs. Compuserve is "the first online customer" for ANCS, Evslin said. Robert P. Mainor, Compuserve's VP of corporate marketing and business development, told the journalists and analysts that the upcoming connection between ANCS and Compuserve will give Compuserve a new audience of business users, while providing businesses with access to the "3,000 products and services" on Compuserve. Also during the press event, early users of ANCS from Hallmark Cards, the McGladrey & Pullen public accounting firm, and InsurQuote attested to benefits ranging from remote access and wire area connectivity to network security and financial savings. Mike Goodwin, telecommunications and network manager for Hallmark, said that the use of ANCS will provide the 1,000 members of Hallmark's sales force with remote access to the company's corporate LAN in Missouri from retail stores throughout the US, for services that will include simulations of retail marketing scenarios. "The security is consistent with Novell 4.0," Goodwin remarked. Ken Thygeson, managing director of McGladrey & Pullen's Technology Infrastructure Group, explained that ANCS will let the firm's CPAs (certified public accountants) dial into a central database for tax information from customer sites, and then prepare tax returns on-the-spot. In the past, he contended, obtaining the needed information often required the CPA to make several trips back and forth to company headquarters. For the future, the accounting firm would like to "connect all of our affiliates and clients." InsurQuote intends to use ANCS to automate traditionally paper- based communications between insurance agents, insurance companies, and customers, according to Frank Weinrauch, VP of sales and marketing. "InsurQuote had the software before, but not the connectivity," Weinrauch reported. AT&T and Novell also announced that content from the AT&T Business Network will become available to ANCS customers in the first half of next year, and that a newly signed deal with Folio Corp. will "make it possible for content providers to easily format and distribute content" via ANCS. Pricing for ANCS will be based on dial-up and dedicated access charges, Evslin said. Dial-up pricing has been set at $4.25 per hour with a local number option and $6 per hour via a single nationwide access number. The prices include services such as Novell NDS, basic Internet access, and access to Compuserve and AT&T Business Network. Users of Compuserve and AT&T Business Network will also accrue separate charges that will be billed directly by the content providers. (Jacqueline Emigh/19951128/Reader Contact: AT&T NetWare Connect Services, 800-243-5288; Press Contacts: Chris Pfaff, AT&T, 908-658-5804; Cheryl Hall, Novell, 408-577-7299; Jeff Shafer, Compuserve, 614-538-4632) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 11/29/95 LEGAL ****Parts of Netcom Copyright Suit Thrown Out (NEWS)(LEGAL)(LAX)(00026) ****Parts of Netcom Copyright Suit Thrown Out 11/29/95 SAN JOSE, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1995 NOV 29 (NB) -- Netcom On-Line Communication Services Inc. (Nasdaq: NETC) and online information providers dodged a copyright bullet when a judge ruled that an Internet provider is not liable for direct infringement when a third party publishes copyrighted material over the system. The judge did not throw out the entire case, and the rest will be settled at trial in the first half of 1996. The lawsuit was brought last year by the Church of Scientology alleging copyright infringement against Netcom and an ex-member who had posted copyrighted material on the Internet. Jeannie Slone, a spokesperson for Netcom, told Newsbytes, "Judge Whyte's November 21, 1995, ruling was a major victory for Netcom, and the company is confident that its position will be upheld with respect to the remaining disputed issue that the court ordered to trial. Netcom is not a publisher, we do not pre-screen (or) control information we transmit online." On the central issue of direct copyright infringement, the Court held that Netcom is not liable for direct infringement when an individual uses its system to post copyrighted material onto the Internet without its knowledge. The Court noted that holding an access provider liable for direct infringement under those circumstances "would...result in liability for every single Usenet server in the worldwide link of computers transmitting a message to every other computer." With respect to contributory copyright infringement, the Court was nowhere as definitive. "The court would not issue either a summary judgment in Netcom's favor, or an injunction in favor of the plaintiffs," pointed out Slone. Netcom issued the following statement, "Netcom provides direct access to the Internet. It is not a content-based service but rather a communications conduit to the information available on the Internet. Other than messages to our subscribers about Netcom services, Netcom does not post content, does not control the content or the destination of information posted, and does not control where, when or whether that information may be downloaded. "Moreover, Netcom does not have the ability to monitor in advance the content of messages transmitted by the company's subscribers over the Internet, or to determine whether such content violates or complies with copyright protections. The company is a passive transmitter of millions of messages which are created worldwide and conveyed throughout the Internet everyday." (Richard Bowers/19951129/Press Contact: Jeannie Slone, Netcom, 408-556-3211) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 11/29/95 ONLINE America Online Debuts In Germany (NEWS)(ONLINE)(SFO)(00027) America Online Debuts In Germany 11/29/95 VIENNA, VIRGINIA, U.S.A., 1995 NOV 29 (NB) -- America Online (NASDAQ:AMER), through its European partnership with Bertelsmann AG has announced its first European appearance with AOL in Germany. Starting out with 25 German cities, AOL in Germany will offer German content, US AOL content, and the World Wide Web. Admitting it faces strong competition for European subscribers, AOL says it will add access through another 26 German cities in the next 30 days. Additionally, Bertelsmann and AOL are planning to launch a UK and French AOL service in the next few months. CompuServe, a long-time service provider to the European market, has more than 300,000 subscribers connecting to the service through its European network. AOL also faces competition from Europe Online in Luxembourg, Planet Internet in the Netherlands, and C. Ing. Olivetti's Italia Online. Bill Gates' Microsoft Network is also being developed for the European market. Much like the US AOL service, AOL in Germany is based on a monthly charge and an hourly rate. The monthly fee is 9.90 deutsche marks (US$7) and includes the first two hours of use each month. Each minute of use beyond the first two hours is charged by the minute at an hourly rate of $4.25. Subscribers to the German service will have access to German content and content of AOL's standard US service. US subscribers will also be able to access AOL in Germany content. Data delivery across Germany is accomplished through Deutsche Telekom. An AOL spokesperson told Newsbytes, "Content on AOL in Germany will be similar to the content and areas currently available on our US service. While the competition for subscribers is very strong, we feel the success we have had in becoming the largest online service provider in the US will carry-overto the European market. Our interface and our content make AOL the most attractive service." (Patrick McKenna/19951129/Press Contact: Margaret Ryan, America Online, 703-448-8700) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 11/29/95 WINDOWS Microsoft Ships Net Explorer 2. (NEWS)(WINDOWS)(DEN)(00028) Microsoft Ships Net Explorer 2.0 11/29/95 REDMOND, WASHINGTON, U.S.A., 1995 NOV 29 (NB) -- Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ: MSFT) has released the final version of its Internet browser software, Internet Explorer 2.0, for Windows 95. Microsoft said about one-third of the licensed Windows 95 users who use an Internet browser obtained Explorer within 90 days after version 1.0 became available. Microsoft has a logo licensing program that lets Web publishers display an authorized Microsoft logo on their home page to indicate that the site works well with Explorer 2.0. The software features include moving text marquees, inline AVIs so you can run embedded videos, table colors, watermarks, and background sounds. Other features include support for hypertext markup language (HTML) 3.0 tables, access to Internet newsgroups, a toolbar for instant access to various Web search programs, and the ability to run animations. The program also includes support for current Internet security standards, including secure sockets layer and RSA encryption, private communication technology, and upgrade to the SSL protocol. There is also an electronic payment technology called secure transaction technology (STT) that was developed jointly by Microsoft and Visa International to allow online merchants to conduct sales electronically and assure the security of information like credit card numbers. Microsoft said it is working with developers to provide an automated process that will enable visitors to automatically download the most current version of Explorer directly from the developer's Web site. Explorer will also be one of the tools in the Internet Toolbox, an online Internet software development kit (SDK) that is scheduled to be available to developers in December. You can download Internet Explorer 2.0 from the Microsoft site on the Internet at http://www.microsoft.com/windows . (Jim Mallory/19951129/Press contact: Kathy Gill, Waggener Edstrom for Microsoft, 503-245-0905; Public contact: Microsoft, 206-882-8080 or 800-426-9400/EXPLORER951129/PHOTO) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 11/29/95 ONLINE Utah Public Kiosks - Touch A Screen, Go To Court! (NEWS)(ONLINE)(DEN)(00029) Utah Public Kiosks - Touch A Screen, Go To Court! 11/29/95 SALT LAKE CITY, UTAH, U.S.A., 1995 NOV 29 (NB) -- Utah residents can now go to court to resolve issues like divorce and landlord-tenant problems, as well as get information about a host of programs, just by touching a computer screen installed in a public kiosk. #IMAGE 1 20 TWPCX \images\95112929.PCX Click here for photo The system is called Utah Quickcourt and it is a product of a contract between the Utah Administrative Office of the Courts and Marina del Rey, California-based North Communications designed to allow citizens to learn more about how the courts work and to file and an automated interview. Users can even prepare and print forms right at the kiosk for a fee of $10 per form. The kiosks use full-motion video, stereo sound and text to help the user understand the usually complex legal system and to streamline the process of filing various legal actions. North Communications spokesperson Miki Burke said the user can elect to have the instructions displayed in Spanish or English. Burke told Newsbytes the first five kiosks will be installed at the Salt Lake Public Library, Weber County Library, Fourth District Court offices, Washington County Public Library, and the Hunter Library. When the user starts the program Chief Justice Michael Zimmerman gives an on-screen introduction to the program and tells the user how to proceed. Zimmerman said all the information needed to file court actions is available on computers. "The challenge is to find a way to deliver that information direct to the people who need it, and to bring their responses efficiently back into the courts in the form we need it," he said. Zimmerman said some court actions are unnecessarily mystifying, expensive and intimidating for people, and Quickcourt was designed to allow people to enter their own actions in certain types of cases. Michael North, president of North Systems, said everyone benefits from the system. Use of the kiosks helps reduce the number of cases clogging an overcrowded legal system and the public benefits because routine actions move more quickly. The courts get professionally prepared documents with all the information entered correctly so they save on clerk time. North said many court actions still require the services of an attorney, but Quickcourt helps clear routine actions and should reduce court congestion. When a person accesses the kiosk to initiate an action, the software makes sure all the questions get answered, does any necessary calculations, and prints the required legal documents on a built-in laser printer. The user also receives a printed list of which documents they should keep, which should be served on other parties and what to bring to court. The program provides definitions of legal terms and answers to commonly asked questions. Any part of the program can be repeated, checked and changed until the user is satisfied the action is correct and complete. The Utah program is similar to one in place in Arizona and California recently passed enabling legislation to install Quickcourt touchscreens statewide. (Jim Mallory/19951129/Press contact: Miki Burke, North Communications, 310-577-7700/COURT951129/PHOTO) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 11/29/95 TELECOM Europe's First Int'l Virtual Private Network (NEWS)(TELECOM)(LON)(00030) Europe's First Int'l Virtual Private Network 11/29/95 AMSTERDAM, THE NETHERLANDS, 1995 NOV 29 (NB) -- Unisource, the joint venture company between the Dutch state telecoms company, PTT Telecom, Telia and Televerket of Sweden, and Swiss Telecom, together with its international partner, AT&T, has taken "delivery" of its international virtual private network (VPN) from Ericsson, just under a year from when the contract was signed. According to Unisource, the VPN covers 14 European countries, but plans are in hand to expand the network progressively to other countries around the world in the near future. Countries covered by phase one of the VPN include the Netherlands, the UK, Germany, and France. Ron Dikhoff, the project manager with Ericsson who had overall responsibility for creating and nursing the VPN before handover to Unisource, claims that the project is a masterpiece by anyone's standards. The project, he said, involved the creation of wideband VPNs spanning Europe and beyond, as well the installation of hardware and associated telecoms systems, in most European countries. "We were awarded this contract because of the feature levels we proposed and the realistic time path we offered in the summer of 1994," he explained, adding that the extremely short time that that the VPN was commissioned in was thanks to the use of IN (intelligent network) technology. The VPN project now calls for Unisource to liaise with AT&T, its US partner, in the second phase of the VPN, Uniworld. Uniworld is a joint venture between Unisource and AT&T, and will extend the VPN into the global arena. According to Viesturs Vucins, a spokesman for the fledgling Uniworld organization, the creation of the European VPN is a vital step in the creation of the Uniworld global VPN. "To Unisource, it's vital to serve our customers according to the commitments we've made. In this case, we were dependent on Ericsson in order to fulfill the apparent need for IVPN," he explained At the Cebit Computer Faire in Germany in March of this year, AT&T, along with Unisource, its global partner, revealed to the public their ambitious plans to extend the reach of the AT&T voice and data communications network to a global presence. That original announcement called for AT&T and Unisource to pitch hard into single country and regional telecoms market on a Europe-wide basis. According to AT&T staffers at Cebit, the aim was to establish a solid presence on a country basis throughout Europe -- and beyond -- ready for when the European telecoms market is totally liberalized on January 1, 1998. Speaking to journalists, Pier Carlo Falotti, AT&T's European managing director, said that both AT&T and Unisource want to take full advantage of the deregulation of the European telco markets. Europe would then become, he said, a foothold for other non-US markets around the globe. "We don't have an extensive network in Europe and are preparing in the next five years to become the second largest network in every European country we choose to enter," he said. Despite a publicly modest approach at the press conference, staff on the AT&T stand at Cebit were highly ebullient about the company's track record and future in the European telecoms market. Staff on the stand told Newsbytes that the company is already one of the largest companies in Europe, and has more than 27,000 staff dotted throughout the region. The staffing levels will increase steadily as a result of the company's expansion plans for Europe and revenue from the region -- which currently accounts for around 10 percent of AT&T's $75 billion annual revenue worldwide -- will increase as well. (Sylvia Dennis/19951129/Press Contact: Ron Dikhoff, Ericsson Telecommunicatie BV - Nederlande, +31-161-229801; AT&T Deutschland, +49-511-89-52509) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 11/29/95 TELECOM UK - Telehouse Demos Telecoms Integration Technology (NEWS)(TELECOM)(LON)(00031) UK - Telehouse Demos Telecoms Integration Technology 11/29/95 BRIGHTON, SUSSEX, ENGLAND, 1995 NOV 29 (NB) -- Telehouse Europe, the company behind the UKP30 million "intelligent" computer and telecommunications data center in London's Docklands, is busy demonstrating its integrated telecoms services at the Telecom Managers Association (TMA) exhibition in Brighton this week. Telehouse launched its telecoms facilities management service in London in 1990, for the installation of telecoms equipment and minicomputers. According to officials with the company, it offers specific services for clients using the center from the basic supervision of leased lines and associated comms equipment, first line management such as routine checking of modems and circuits, as well as "fault management," to the provision of private leased international circuits. Kevin Still, senior manager with Telehouse's sales and customer support operations, explained that the company offers a one-stop telecoms facility management (FM) service. "Establishing a UK communications hub center is often a costly and lengthy process, requiring negotiations with telecoms suppliers and hardware vendors. In contrast, Telehouse is a neutral point of interconnect in the increasingly competitive world of telecommunications, arranging fiber routings and hardware as required," he said. According to Still, Telehouse's telecoms FM center is designed to house networking equipment such as remote front-end processors, packet switches, private branch exchanges, multiplexers, and modems, as well as network bridges and routers. Links to and from the center are based around diversely routed high capacity fiber optic networks from British Telecom, Mercury, COLT, and other service providers, at various bit rates up to two megabits-per- second, as well as via dial-up and leased lines. Telehouse is now the main points-of-presence (POP) for many Internet providers in the UK. The company also claims it is the first neutral point of interconnect, codenamed LINX (London Internet Exchange), for the Internet in the UK. According to the company, 15 Internet access providers are now based at Telehouse, including Netkonect, Eunet and Cable Online. (Steve Gold/19951129/Press Contact: Alex Laity, Spreckley Pittham, tel +44-171-388-9988, fax +44-181-388-8599, Internet e-mail 100437.1422@newsbytes.com; Reader Contact: Barney Bannington, Telehouse Europe, tel +44-171-512-0550, fax +44-171-512-0033) (SUMMARY)(GENERAL)(MSP)(00032) Newsbytes Daily Summary 11/29/95 MINNEAPOLIS, MINNESOTA, U.S.A., 1995 NOV 29 (NB) -- These are capsules of all today's news stories: ======================================================================== ------------| N E W S B Y T E S D A I L Y S U M M A R Y |---------- ------------| Wednesday, November 29, 1995 |---------- ======================================================================== (c) Newsbytes News Network (Tm) Editor in Chief: Wendy Woods ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Newsbytes News Network's on the Web! Check out http://www.nbnn.com for free daily top stories from Newsbytes and its affiliate publications, and from PC Week, MacWeek, and other Ziff news magazines. A subscription gives you all the news, full-text, plus the most comprehensive database of past computer stories online. The keyword-searchable database dates from today back through 1983. Subscriptions are $24.95 for three months. Questions? Send to 'administrator@newsbytes.com' For Japanese Newsbytes and additional services, see the Newsbytes Pacifica Website at http://www.islandtel.com/newsbytes/ ------------------------------------------------------------------------ CATEGORY HEADLINES (*** indicates today's top stories) STORY # ======================================================================== BUSINESS Softbank Continues Investment, Buys Into Internet.......... 15 BUSINESS Cabletron Plans To Buy SMC's Switching Division............ 17 EDUCATION Gates To Donate Book Proceeds To Education................. 21 EDUCATION The Electronic School House Gets A Boost................... 24 GENERAL UK - Fax-On-Demand System For Lotus Notes Users............ 02 GENERAL Japan Newsbriefs........................................... 14 GOVT ****FCC Panel Backs Digital HDTV.......................... 22 LEGAL Hong Kong - BSA Targets More Software Pirates.............. 08 LEGAL Can Vice President Gore Stall Telecom Bill................. 11 LEGAL Parts of Netcom Copyright Suit Thrown Out.................. 26 NETWORK Seagate Europe's Centralized Storage System Software....... 01 ONLINE Europe - Unipalm Pipex Cuts High Bandwidth Internet Costs.. 03 ONLINE Internet Expo - Verity Deals For Web, First!, Lotus........ 12 ONLINE Internet Expo - Sprint Intros InfoXchange Service.......... 13 ONLINE Internet Update - Asia Special............................. 16 ONLINE AT&T & Novell Launch ANCS, Link To Compuserve.............. 25 ONLINE America Online Debuts In Germany........................... 27 ONLINE Utah Public Kiosks - Touch A Screen, Go To Court........... 29 PC China - Motorola Plans Power PC-Based PCs.................. 10 TELECOM Ericsson Sells Personal Digiphone Net To Japan............. 05 TELECOM Alliance Aims To Represent Ordinary Canadians On Info Highw 19 TELECOM Europe's First Int'l Virtual Private Network............... 30 TELECOM UK - Telehouse Demos Telecoms Integration Technology....... 31 TRENDS German Stock Exchanges To Computerize Operations........... 04 TRENDS British Telecom Predicts Massive Growth In Visual Comms.... 06 TRENDS Hong Kong - Missing Tradelink Found........................ 07 TRENDS China - Shanghai Bell At Top Of Hi-Tech Firms List......... 09 TRENDS Entertainment Software Most Popular In Home - Study........ 18 TRENDS ****Intel's Dominance Will Grow - Study................... 20 TRENDS Mecklermedia's Internet Strategic Advisory Services........ 23 WINDOWS Microsoft Ships Net Explorer 2.0........................... 28 ======================================================================== These are the headlines and first paragraphs of each story, in order: 1 -> Seagate Europe's Centralized Storage System Software -- Seagate Software, the European network/software division of the storage systems company, has unveiled the Palindrome Visual Storage Administrator (VISTA), a centralized management application for administering multiple Palindrome Backup Director and Storage Manager Systems across an enterprise network from a single console running PC Windows. 2 -> UK - Fax-On-Demand System For Lotus Notes Users -- Connaught FactsLine has unveiled FactsLine for Notes, an integration package for companies using Lotus Notes, allowing them to offer fax-on-demand services for external callers. 3 -> Europe - Unipalm Pipex Cuts High Bandwidth Internet Costs -- Even though Bill Clinton has taken a leaf out of Newt Gingridge's book, and cut US Government funding for the Internet, Unipalm Pipex, which now claims to be the biggest Internet service provider in the UK, claims that it has still achieved economies of scale for its Internet high bandwidth services and is actually cutting subscriber charges accordingly. 4 -> German Stock Exchanges To Computerize Operations -- According to a leaked report in Handelsblatt, the daily financial newspaper, the four German stock exchanges, known as the German bourses, are planning to integrate their operations next spring, as part of a general overhaul of operations. 5 -> Ericsson Sells Personal Digiphone Net To Japan -- Sweden's Ericsson has announced it has signed a contract with Digital Tu-Ka Hokkaido, the new telecoms operator company in Japan, for the provision of a personal digiphone cellular (PDC) phone network in Hokkaido, the northern region of Japan. 6 -> British Telecom Predicts Massive Growth In Visual Comms -- British Telecom (BT) has predicted that, within the next three years, visual communications will become as commonplace as mobile phone or fax usage. This prediction, made by Adrian Butcher, BT's general manager of visual solutions, is being backed by a major impetus within BT as a whole to service the anticipated demand. 7 -> Hong Kong - Missing Tradelink Found -- After years of research, organizing and then junking tenders, and mostly trumpeting the urgent need for electronic data interchange (EDI), Tradelink, eight years after it was created to speed Hong Kong to EDI glory, could actually be firing off its first test electronic forms for traders to fill out in five months' time. 8 -> Hong Kong - BSA Targets More Software Pirates -- Stepping up its campaign to eradicate software theft in Hong Kong, the Business Software Alliance (BSA) has announced that it has targeted 17 of the 18 shops at Wanchai district's notorious 298 Hennessy Road arcade. 9 -> China - Shanghai Bell At Top Of Hi-Tech Firms List -- Shanghai Bell Telephone Equipment Manufacturing is listed as number one on the 1995 Top 100 High Technology Firms, followed by Beijing Stone Group, according to the China Development and Assessment Center of High Technology Enterprises. 10 -> China - Motorola Plans Power PC-Based PCs -- Motorola recently announced a joint venture with Nanjing Panda Electronics to produce multimedia computers based on Power PC technology in China. 11 -> Can Vice President Gore Stall Telecom Bill -- Can Vice President Al Gore stall House-Senate negotiations over telecommunications legislation until next year and turn the subject into an election issue? 12 -> Internet Expo - Verity Deals For Web, First!, Lotus -- Through newly inked deals with Individual Inc., Lotus, Frontier and Tandem, Verity has extended the penetration of Topic within "Internet/agents, groupware, and online/news," three of the six target markets for the company's search-and-retrieval engine, said Sue Barsamian, VP of marketing, in a meeting with Newsbytes at E-Mail World/Internet Expo in Boston. 13 -> Internet Expo - Sprint Intros InfoXchange Service -- In a press conference attended by Newsbytes at E-Mail World/Internet Expo in Boston, Sprint announced InfoXchange, telling journalists that the service for interconnecting multivendor corporate electronic mail systems is the first in a series of new services from Sprint that will also include a "public commercial service for small and medium-sized businesses," to be unveiled in 1996. 14 -> Japan Newsbriefs -- In this roundup of news from Japan: Fujitsu boost FMV production; Sega to link with NEC network; Multimedia study group established; More Internet services planned; First hands free car phone to ship. 15 -> Softbank Continues Investment, Buys Into Internet -- Further enhancing his reputation as "Japan's Bill Gates," Mayoshi Son, president of Softbank Corporation, has been on another shopping trip and, this time, returned with a stake in the Internet's Yahoo database, plans to offer Internet access in China, and a company that will target investment in the US. 16 -> Internet Update - Asia Special -- In this roundup of new resources and services on the Asian parts of the global Internet: Zip FM AIDS questionnaire; Delhi Institute of Technology; Real-time stock prices; Malaysia online; National University Hospital of Singapore; Hug Kuo Elephants home page; Business contacts page; Hong Kong tourist organization; Hiroshima travel guide; Kansai airport home page; Online guide to Bangladesh; Hong Kong Internet directory. 17 -> Cabletron Plans To Buy SMC's Switching Division -- Cabletron Systems (NYSE:CS) has announced plans to buy Standard Microsystems Corp.'s (NASDAQ:SMSC) switching business. Cabletron said it has signed a letter of intent to pay $77.5 million and assume certain specified liabilities in exchange for the assets and technology of Hauppauge, New York-based SMC's Enterprise Networks Business Unit. 18 -> Entertainment Software Most Popular In Home - Study -- Households with more people but not necessarily more money, are more likely to buy software, and entertainment software is the most popular category in American homes, according to a recent study by SofTrends, a unit of market research firm The NPD Group. 19 -> Alliance Aims To Represent Ordinary Canadians On Info Highway -- The cost of local telephone service will be among the first items on the agenda of a new alliance of consumer organizations, labor unions, and lobby groups. Organizers said the Alliance for a Connected Canada will present the views of ordinary Canadians on that and a number of other communications policy issues. 20 -> ****Intel's Dominance Will Grow - Study -- Market research firm In-Stat has issued a gloomy forecast for competitors to microprocessor giant Intel. In-Stat predicts for the foreseeable future Intel's dominance will be unchallenged and competition within the industry will be even more limited that it has been. 21 -> Gates To Donate Book Proceeds To Education -- Microsoft chief Bill Gates said he will donate the proceeds from his new book, "The Road Ahead," to fund school technology programs in 22 communities around the United States. 22 -> ****FCC Panel Backs Digital HDTV -- A Federal Communications Commission advisory committee has endorsed digital high definition television (HDTV) as the technology of choice for the future. 23 -> Mecklermedia's Internet Strategic Advisory Services -- Mecklermedia Corp. (NSADAQ:MECK), publisher of three popular Internet/World Wide Web publications and producer of Internet World tradeshows, announced an agreement with Hershel Sarbin Associates to create a Web consulting service. The collaboration leverages Mecklermedia's Internet savvy and Sarbin's database and integrated marketing strengths. 24 -> The Electronic School House Gets A Boost -- "The most important use for information technology is to improve education." That was the message Bill Gates, chairman and chief executive officer (CEO) of Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ: MSFT) brought to more than 700 national educators and students at Georgetown University this week as Gates described how technology can improve education. 25 -> AT&T & Novell Launch ANCS, Link To Compuserve -- In a teleconference, AT&T and Novell announced the commercial availability of AT&T NetWare Connect Service (ANCS), plus plans to provide customers with access to content from CompuServe and the AT&T Business Network through the "secure" internetworking outsourcing service. When ANCS is used together with AT&T WorldNet, users will receive both business internetworking and "managed Internet connectivity," according to the officials. 26 -> Parts of Netcom Copyright Suit Thrown Out -- Netcom On-Line Communication Services Inc. (Nasdaq: NETC) and online information providers dodged a copyright bullet when a judge ruled that an Internet provider is not liable for direct infringement when a third party publishes copyrighted material over the system. The judge did not throw out the entire case, and the rest will be settled at trial in the first half of 1996. 27 -> America Online Debuts In Germany -- America Online (NASDAQ:AMER), through its European partnership with Bertelsmann AG has announced its first European appearance with AOL in Germany. Starting out with 25 German cities, AOL in Germany will offer German content, US AOL content, and the World Wide Web. 28 -> Microsoft Ships Net Explorer 2.0 -- Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ: MSFT) has released the final version of its Internet browser software, Internet Explorer 2.0, for Windows 95. 29 -> Utah Public Kiosks - Touch A Screen, Go To Court -- Utah residents can now go to court to resolve issues like divorce and landlord-tenant problems, as well as get information about a host of programs, just by touching a computer screen installed in a public kiosk. 30 -> Europe's First Int'l Virtual Private Network -- Unisource, the joint venture company between the Dutch state telecoms company, PTT Telecom, Telia and Televerket of Sweden, and Swiss Telecom, together with its international partner, AT&T, has taken "delivery" of its international virtual private network (VPN) from Ericsson, just under a year from when the contract was signed. 31 -> UK - Telehouse Demos Telecoms Integration Technology -- Telehouse Europe, the company behind the UKP30 million "intelligent" computer and telecommunications data center in London's Docklands, is busy demonstrating its integrated telecoms services at the Telecom Managers Association (TMA) exhibition in Brighton this week. (Ian Stokell/19951129) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 11/27/95 PC UK Low-Cost Phone Directory CD-ROM (NEWS)(PC)(LON)(00001) UK Low-Cost Phone Directory CD-ROM 11/27/95 HEMPSTEAD, HERTFORDSHIRE, ENGLAND, 1995 NOV 27 (NB) -- TDS Marketing has unveiled a UKP39.99 CD-ROM disk that contains the 2.4 million fax and phone numbers of businesses in the UK which are registered with British Telecom (BT), along with most cable and cellular network subscribers. According to Edward Sanderson, a spokesman for the company, the disk is a licensed subset of the BT Phonedisk that sells for UKP200. "Because TelePower Pro has only business numbers, it's an ideal facility for anyone who wants directory access to business phone numbers in the UK," he told Newsbytes, adding that a networked version of the disk, with suitable driver software, will be launched in January. Pricing of the lower user versions of the disk have yet to be confirmed, but an unlimited user license will sell for around the UKP1,100 per annum price point. According to TDS, around 1.5 million directory assistance calls are made in the UK each day, and around 80 percent of these calls are for business numbers. Because the Windows software allows full string searches of the disk to be carried out, the disk can be interrogated like any other database, which TDS claims means that users do not need the postal town of the business in order to complete the search -- something that normal directory assistance calls require. TDS claims that the search engine on the TelePower Pro disk is so sophisticated, it can handle fuzzy logic search techniques, allowing it to support "near miss" name hits where the user is unsure about the name of the business being searched for. According to TDS, the most frequent requirement that small businesses have for directory assistance means that an organization need only made a few hundred calls to the directory assistance operator each year for TelePower Pro to pay for itself. The supplied Windows software on the package is claimed to be Windows 95-compatible and requires a Windows-capable PC with a CD-ROM drive to run. The software has UK and international code lookups, along with fuzzy and phonetic matching. The package pricing includes UK sales tax (value-added tax) which is currently 17.5 percent. (Steve Gold/19951122/Press Contact: Lindsell PR, tel +44-171-258-3999, fax +44-171-402-5938; Reader Contact: TDS Marketing, tel +44-1494-474647, fax +44-1865-841507) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 11/27/95 IBM IBM Europe's OS/2 Warp Vouchers For Aptiva PC Users (NEWS)(IBM)(LON)(00002) IBM Europe's OS/2 Warp Vouchers For Aptiva PC Users 11/27/95 PARIS, FRANCE, 1995 NOV 27 (NB) -- IBM Europe has announced it is offering vouchers to any buyer of an Aptiva PC system, with the aim of allowing buyers to obtain a copy of OS/2 Warp free of charge. Customers buying an Aptiva have now started seeing a CD-ROM demo version of the operating system (OS) with their machines, and can send in a voucher for a CD-ROM or floppy-based version of the OS. So why not simply bundle the operating system with the machines? Big Blue claims that, as well as not knowing whether users want a CD-ROM or disk-based version of the package, there are 11 language versions available in Europe. Also, not all Aptiva customers will want the package, even if it is free. IBM claims that a mail-in voucher system is the best option for everyone. As part of the deal, customers sending in their voucher will also receive two free bonus CDs containing games software and a popular shareware application designed to exploit OS/2's multitasking memory management and 32-bit computing features. The CDs include the Classic Games CD and the Gadgets for OS/2 Warp disk, a collection of shareware and freeware applications. Announcing the deal, Nigel Freeman, the IBM PC Company's Preload manager, said that, by offering Aptiva customers the choice of upgrading their machines with IBM software, "We are not only offering them a full and valuable service, but also fulfilling a promise of making OS/2 Warp available across the Aptiva range." (Sylvia Dennis/19951122/Press Contact: Tim Keeley, IBM Europe, +33-1-4188-6000, Internet e-mail tkeeley@fr.ibm.com) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 11/27/95 PC Dell UK Opens Automated Tech Support Lines (NEWS)(PC)(LON)(00003) Dell UK Opens Automated Tech Support Lines 11/27/95 BRACKNELL, BERKSHIRE, ENGLAND, 1995 NOV 27 (NB) -- Dell Computer UK has announced the availability of AutoTech, an automated technical support line, for its UK customers. AutoTech is billed as a voice-response system that allows callers to step through a series of audiotext menus, until their specific questions can be answered. According to Adrian Barry, product support manager with Dell Direct, the system offers a rapid response to customer queries. "The advantage of AutoTech is that it offers a very speedy response for customers with simple problems. Customers often queue for less than 10 seconds before beginning an AutoTech session and finish up less than give minutes later," he explained. The UK AutoTech system operates on 12 dedicated lines which are available from 8am to 8pm, five days a week, giving Dell the facility to handle up to 500 calls a day. Plans call for the service to be made available 24 hours a day, seven days a week, by the end of the year. The idea behind AutoTech is that callers with routine queries can go through a series of audiotext menus and answers and receive a rapid response to their questions. In the case of more complex queries, users are referred automatically to a human operative. A pilot scheme operated by Dell was launched in October of this year, since when it has been attracting up to 70 calls per day, with calls generally lasting no longer than five minutes. The AutoTech system also supports a faxback service with more than 150 Windows 95 documents available on demand, as well as documents describing many of, what Dell describes as, the most popular technical queries which have been resolved previously by the service. "None of Dell's competitors in the UK has a system to rival AutoTech. On average, 1,000 of Dell's North American, customers call AutoTech every day and we're sure it will prove to be just as popular in the UK," Barry said. AutoTech is available on 01344-723723 in the UK. Plans call for Dell's other online systems to continue to be made available. The Dell World Wide Web site is at http://www.dell.com , while the file transfer protocol (FTP) site is at ftp/dell.com. Dell's CompuServe forum is also available (GO DELL), while the Dellfax and Dell bulletin board system services are on 01344-723178 and 01344-723858. (Steve Gold/19951122/Press Contact: Dell Computer, tel +44-1344-723573, fax +44-1344-862926) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 11/27/95 ONLINE New York Times Redesigned For America Online (NEWS)(ONLINE)(MSP)(00004) New York Times Redesigned For America Online 11/27/95 NEW YORK CITY, NEW YORK, U.S.A., 1995 NOV 27 (NB) -- Responding to reader requests, and a need to "stand out," New York Times officials said they have redesigned their "@times" online news and information service on America Online (NASDAQ:AMER). The new version is the site's first redesign since appearing in cyberspace 18 months ago. The area, called "one of the most popular on AOL," has both a new look and new features, officials said. The organization of the site has been reconfigured, and search functions have been expanded so the area can be "easily used." The main reason for the redesign is because of suggestions and requests from @times readers, Elliott Rebhun, editor of @times, told Newsbytes. "We went live with our service in June of 1994, and it was a good first step," he said. "But AOL has a very vocal audience, and they tell you quite explicitly what they do and don't like." He said it was gratifying to hear likes and dislikes from AOL readers, and the staff took their suggestions seriously. "We heard what people wanted, and we tried to give it to them." Another reason for the change is the graphics, design advances, and technological leaps AOL has made in recent months, Rebhun said. "We felt we can give a lot better presentation of the Times now than we could with what was available before," he said. "We very much wanted to give this (@times) the look, the feel, and the sophistication of the Times newspaper." For example, Rebhun said @times uses photo icons for readers to click on, instead of what he called "cartoon icons." He said he thinks @times is the only area on AOL that uses photos for icons. Specifically, the news area now has a separate Page One section that's updated each evening at about 11:30pm EST, with articles for the next day's Times. National/Metro and International news stories are now separate from the day's top stories. In addition, content from "Science Times" and "Computers & Technology" is now included in the AOL site, and both sections are fully searchable. Also, restaurants in New York City that have been reviewed by the Times are now searchable by rating, cuisine, and neighborhood. Also improved and searchable is the paper's classified ad section, which includes real estate, help wanted, and automotive listings. Rebhun said @times is moving to real newsroom staffing, so the news can be updated on a regular basis. He added some original content might be forthcoming soon, not only from the AOL site, but from an Internet World Wide Web page that's currently under construction. The @times area on AOL can be reached at Keyword @times or Times. (Bob Woods/19951121/Press Contacts: Michael Kaminer or Shelly Bates of Michael Kaminer Pubic Relations, 212-627-8098, Internet e-mail mkpr@aol.com; Judy Tashbook, America Online, 703-918-1452, Internet e-mail tashbook@aol.com; Public Contact: America Online, 800-827-6364) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 11/27/95 WINDOWS New Corel CD Home Titles (NEWS)(WINDOWS)(TOR)(00005) New Corel CD Home Titles 11/27/95 OTTAWA, ONTARIO, CANADA, 1995 NOV 27 (NB) -- Corel Corp. has announced it will ship four major additions to its CD Home software line this month. The offerings include: Internet Mania, for home Net surfers; the Complete Herman Collection; World's Greatest Classic Books; and Corel Chess. Internet Mania is described as a "complete home surfer's kit." Among the notable features in this package, according to the company are: a Home Page Author, for creating your own World Wide Web pages; an FTP (file transfer protocol) utility for downloading files from the Internet; an Internet Directory; a "personal stock ticker;" and scanning features that can automatically notify the user of updates to their favorite Web pages. Jim Unger's long-running cartoon series is now available as a complete collection on CD-ROM. The Herman cartoon series contains more than 5,000 cartoons in an encyclopedia-like data structure which, the company says, includes "extensive" search and retrieval capabilities, bookmarks, a screensaver, and a wallpaper utility. World's Greatest Classic Books contains not only "3,500 literary masterpieces from the greatest writers of all time," it also includes the basic reference books and tools you'll need to access these vast resources. Corel suggests this package as "ideal for book reports, research projects, reference or just personal enjoyment." Among the support utilities included are: a full-text search and retrieval engine; many illustrations and full-motion video clips; detailed author profiles; and a copy of the American Heritage Dictionary. There's even a comprehensive print control feature for generating custom-formatted hard copies of your favorite stories and pictures. Finally, industry observers have long noted that Corel's ever-expanding Home line was missing what many computer enthusiasts consider an essential: A computer Chess game. Now, that "oversight" has been corrected. Corel Chess is, in fact, a "full three-dimensional (3-D)" Chess game for Windows 3.1 and Windows 95. Corel says you can rotate the "table" on which the Chess board is set up in three dimensions and all the chess pieces (there are several sets to choose from) are rendered in 3D as well. The CD includes a library of more than 4,000 classic chess matches for you to replay. Or, you can play against another person or the computer on any of five difficulty levels. Corel Chess, like the foregoing new additions to the CD Home line, is available immediately at a suggested retail price of (US)$24.95. (Glenn Lisle/19951127/ Media Contact: Tim Magwood, Internet e-mail timm@corel.ca) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 11/27/95 LEGAL ****Credit Card Users Beware Of Shadow Authorizations (NEWS)(LEGAL)(LON)(00006) ****Credit Card Users Beware Of Shadow Authorizations 11/27/95 SHEFFIELD, SOUTH YORKSHIRE, ENGLAND, 1995 NOV 27 (NB) -- On returning from Comdex Fall, Newsbytes bureau was saddened to learn that our Mastercard account had been "maxed" out and that further charges were not possible. In fact, when the bill arrived, we became worried about possible fraudulent charges, as we calculated there was still "headroom" on the account -- we soon learned about foreign shadow authorizations that can remain on your card account for up to 28 days. In a restaurant, or when you check in to a hotel or rent a car, an authorization is requested by a member of the company's staff. In the case of a restaurant, once a gratuity is added, the full charge is run through the EFTPOS (electronic funds transfer at point of sale) machine. In the case of a car rental or hotel booking, a similar authorization request is made, and only later is the full charge processed. Because of the nature of these transactions, card transaction processors work in tandem with the card issuers to marry the transactions together, usually by merchant ID matching, to prevent the authorization request from tying up the cardholder's account, while the actual transaction (for a different amount) has actually been charged to the account already. Cynics might note that this then frees the cardholder to continue spending their credit limit, so generating more commission for MasterCard and Visa. However, authorization matching to transactions is only available provided the transactions are generated on the cardholder's home network. Where, for example, a US cardholder visits a UK restaurant and an authorization request is processed for, say, UKP80, when the actual transaction is entered into the EFTPOS terminal with, say, a 10 percent gratuity, the UKP88 is processed into dollars, leaving the UKP80 authorization request -- also in dollars -- hanging in the system, unmatched. According to Access, a major MasterCard and Visa card issuer, this is because the authorization transactions are converted into the cardholder's home currency using MasterCard and VisaNet exchange rates, which change hourly, but no details of the originating foreign merchant is maintained on the card issuer's computer system. In the case of foreign transactions, the only match information available is the cost of the transaction, and its country and card transaction processor. In the case of restaurants, unless the cardholder pays the gratuity in cash, there can be no authorization/transaction match on international transaction. In the case of car rentals and hotel checkins, because the exchange rates change hourly, even for a one-day booking, the authorization and actual transaction amounts will almost certainly never match. International MasterCard and VisaNet authorization transactions are automatically deducted from the cardholder's available credit limit for up to 28 days, to allow for manual processing. The only way to clear these foreign shadow authorizations is to phone your card issuer and discuss the matter -- as this bureau did -- on your return from a foreign trip. The problem is a known one and one that the card issuers "work to avoid," usually requiring a phone call from the card holder. It's worth noting that Diners Club and American Express, which do not issue charge account customers with details of their hidden credit limits, also work on the same system. The result is that you could be left creditless in a foreign country if you make several large car or hotel transactions. (Steve Gold/19951127) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 11/27/95 LEGAL China - Tougher Punishments Against Phone Number Theft (NEWS)(LEGAL)(PEK)(00007) China - Tougher Punishments Against Phone Number Theft 11/27/95 BEIJING, CHINA, 1995 NOV 27 (NB) -- Chinese authorities are vowing to crack down on mobile phone number theft. In addition, duplicating or scalping other people's mobile telephone numbers is a "criminal activity," according to a recent government circular. Mobile phone number theft is running rampant in many Chinese areas, such as Guangdong and Beijing. A growing number of cellular phone users complain that they are receiving unexpectedly, and often astronomically, high phone bills. Phone number theft has also left many unresolved disputes between subscribers and the phone companies. A number of newspapers have reported cases concerning phone number theft, and many individual businessmen, companies, and even some high-level government leaders, such as the vice-mayor of Shenzhen City of Guangdong province, have been victims of such crime. There are also cases where phone numbers were taken to Hong Kong and re-programmed into new mobile phones that were then sold back in the mainland. Currently, there are around three million mobile telephone subscribers in China. According to a sample investigation in Guangdong, about 80,000 mobile phones, or 15 percent of the province's total mobile phones in service, have been violated by phone number theft. In Beijing, the rate is estimated at 14 percent. The recent government circular suggests that those people found guilty of the offense must be "punished severely," while those who help police uncover the illegal activities will be rewarded. The circular also called on telecommunications departments to take preventative measures to enhance the security of phone numbers and strengthen the supervision of mobile phone maintenance and sales. The government circular was issued jointly by the Central Comprehensive Management Office for Social Security and Order, the Supreme People's Court, the Supreme People's Procuratorate, the Ministry of Public Security, the Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications, and the State Administration for Industry and Commerce. The crackdown against this kind of theft is not new. It is reported that over the past several years, police in 22 provinces, autonomous regions, and municipalities have uncovered 876 cases of mobile phone number stealing, arrested 1,128 people, and closed down 96 stores where numbers were stolen and sold. (Chih-Ho Yu & Ning Huang/19951127) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 11/27/95 BUSINESS ****Creative Technology Drops Reveal Acquisition (NEWS)(BUSINESS)(SFO)(00008) ****Creative Technology Drops Reveal Acquisition 11/27/95 SINGAPORE, 1995 NOV 27 (NB) -- Audio giant, Creative Technology (NASDAQ:CREAF) says it is terminating its efforts to acquire Reveal Computer Products. Official statements from both companies failed to reveal what went wrong. Newsbytes learned Reveal, a privately held company, received a letter from Creative just before Thanksgiving stating it would exercise its right to terminate the agreement "at its own discretion." Caught by surprise, Reveal released a statement saying it had entered the deal on good faith and was disappointed to receive the letter. Insisting he knew of no reason for the termination, Reveal's president and chief executive officer, John Barzilay, said, "It appears to us that Creative Labs has internal issues which did not allow them to consummate the merger." In a statement from Creative, the company said, "The reasons for this election (termination of the agreement) include the negative reaction of the financial markets and certain major shareholders to the merger -- which, in turn, were based on the substantial additional debt required for the merger entity, the perceived results of operations, and the perceived demands on management resources it would create. These concerns and others arose subsequent to the execution of the merger agreement and convinced management the potential short term disruptions caused by the proposed merger would be greater than anticipated and would not be adequately off-set by anticipated long-term strategic gains." A spokesperson wishing to remain anonymous, told Newsbytes, "Reveal was taken completely by surprise and has no reasons to explain the actions of Creative. Reveal's position at this time is to let the computer industry know that there are no conditions within Reveal which would generate the termination and the company can only assume the cause rests within internal matters at Creative." Creative says its press release covers the termination and no further comments are necessary. Reveal markets a broad range of personal computer peripherals such as sound cards, multimedia upgrade kits, graphic accelerators, high-end video editing boards, telephony products, and mass storage devices to the retail market. (Patrick McKenna/19951127/Press Contact: Pat Verderico, Creative Labs, 408-428-6600) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 11/27/95 TRENDS China - Domestic High Quality PCs Used For Outer Space (NEWS)(TRENDS)(PEK)(00009) China - Domestic High Quality PCs Used For Outer Space 11/27/95 BEIJING, CHINA, 1995 NOV 27 (NB) -- China has reached the forefront of outer-space computer and integrated circuit technology over the past 30 years, a government newspaper claims. Chinese-made space computers are very reliable, the newspaper said. In 70 major launch tests involving the domestic space computers, no errors have found. These computers and integrated circuits are developed at a research institute of the Chinese Academy of Science. The institute, in Xi'an of Shaanxi province with a code name of "771," built China's first integrated circuit in October, 1965. In 1966, scientists worked out China's first integrated circuit computer at the research institute, the newspaper said. Over the following years, the technology became more sophisticated and 16-digit microcomputers with large-scale integrated circuits were developed for missile and carrier rocket developments. According to officials at the 771 institute of the China Space Industry Corporation, there are more than 30 computers and integrated circuits, which are used in the "Long March" carrier rocket, the newspaper said. China has built a production line for space integrated circuits, microcomputers, and various auxiliary facilities, including computer- aided design (CAD) design, precision photography, and reliability tests, said the newspaper. (Chih-Ho Yu & Ning Huang/19951127) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 11/27/95 ONLINE Washington GOP Delegation Has Balanced Budget Web Home Page (NEWS)(ONLINE)(WAS)(00010) Washington GOP Delegation Has Balanced Budget Web Home Page 11/27/95 WASHINGTON, D.C., U.S.A., 1995 NOV 27 (NB) -- The Washington state Republican congressional delegation has created a World Wide Web page dedicated to pushing a balanced federal budget. The address is http:// www.house.gov/white/budget/budget.html . "The status quo has spent millions of dollars to defeat our reform efforts," says Rep. Rick White, who represents a high-tech Seattle district. "Our budget Web page is just one more way for us to give the American people the real facts on why it is imperative that we balance the budget in seven years." According to Connie Correll, White's press secretary, the idea for the home page came from Sen. Slade Gorton's office. She told Newsbytes that the page was created by the systems manager in White's office. The home page, Correll said, "has been lots of fun. It has good links to other areas." According to the counter on the home page, it has had 435 hits since it went into operation November 14. Indeed, in addition to a large number of text files, including the text of HR 2491, the Balanced Budget Act of 1995, the site has numerous links to other interesting sites. Among them are the "unofficial, itemized 1995 budget at http://colossus.net/civix/civix.html , and the University of California at Berkeley's "balance the budget" game at http://garnet.berkeley.edu:3333/budget/budget.html . But be warned: the Washington Web page is slow. "Yes," admits Correll, "it's kind of slow." The site's lethargy is because of the need to display color portraits of each of the eight Republicans in the delegation. Politicians will be politicians, and each insisted on a photograph on the Web page. What will happen to the Web page when the heat of the moment is over? "I don't know," said Correll. "I guess we will play it by ear." Freshman White, 42, was a Seattle lawyer before winning his first race for elective office, defeating incumbent Democrat Maria Cantwell in the 1994 election. Congressional Quarterly has described him as "appealing and aggressive, a clean-cut family man with a gleaming resume who nevertheless was prepared to exploit public dissatisfaction with politicians and the nation's direction." (Kennedy Maize/19951127/Press Contact: Connie Correll, 202-225-1201, Internet e-mail ccorrell@hr.house.gov) (ADVISORY)(GENERAL)(MSP)(00011) NewsPix Images For Newsbytes Publishers 11/27/95 MINNEAPOLIS, MINNESOTA, U.S.A.,1995 NOV 27 (NB) -- Photos are now posted as they arrive. This means quicker access to the story pictures. The bulletin will continue on Mondays, with updates Wednesdays and Fridays as needed. These photos correspond to recent Newsbytes stories. They are online in the Newsbytes menu on America Online, NiftyServe, and the Newsbytes private bulletin board system in Minneapolis. Some selections are also available from the Newsbytes Pacifica Website at http://www.islandtel.com/newsbytes/ JPEG (Joint Photographic Experts Group) files are larger in size, PICT files are designed as thumbnails for onscreen viewing. The photos are titled with name/year/month/day. PICT/thumbnail pictures are black and white (gray scale). File message will indicate color if the JPEG image is color. Some of the "for use" images, may be PICT files. To distinguish these files from the thumbnail preview PICT images, the tag for the color "for use" image will have PICT, all caps. The thumbnail will remain noted as "pct." To become a licensed Newsbytes publisher, call Newsbytes at 612-430-1100 (US) or write to wendy@newsbytes.com on the Internet. Licensing applies to any medium. --------------------------- Week of NOVEMBER 27 - DECEMBER 1,1995 --------------------------- - NEW THIS WEEK - NUMERA951122 - color / Computer-Aided Design Software Under $600: screenshot. (no JPEG file, large GIF only) EZOFFICE951122 - color / Willowbrook's Multifunction Office Equip Is Different: hardware and software packaging. --------------------------------------------------------------- - PARTIAL LISTING OF PREVIOUS ITEMS - PHOTOPAD951120 - color / Polaroid Intros Photo Scanner For Home PCs: shot of the scanner and packaging. SPSS951121 - color / SPSS To Ship Windows 95 Statistical Software: screenshot. (no PICT or GIF files) CDROM951117 - color / Comdex - Higher-Density CDs Late Next Year: shot of a multi-media PC with the mini-tower CD tray open. CD-ROM in tray is accented via lighting. FUJI951116 - b&w / Comdex - Fuji's Digital Camera, Color Printer: the Fujix DS-220 digital camera. TREKKER951116 - color / Comdex - And Now For Something Completely Different: Rockwell's Trekker; a hands free PC. User at work. VIRTUAL951116 - b&w / Comdex - Virtual Reality Has Commercial Possibilities: user wearing the i-glasses. UPKE951117 - color / Comdex - Upke Claims "Ultimate" Home PC: shot of the Upke 2617 (in white). VISIONINTERACTIVE951115 - color / Comdex - 1996 Is The Year For MPEG?: product shot of the Orion MPEG Movie Pack bundle from the Vision Interactive MPEG kit. AIDSDAY951114 - color / Don't Surf The Net - Safe The Net: Ribbon art by Annie Lennox (the Euryhtmics, etc) from the ribbon gallery from the UK Health Education Authority World AIDS Day Web Site. RACAL951107 - color / Racal's Low-Cost Audio Surveillance System: chart/diagram of system linkage.(No GIF of this one.) CRYSTALS951106 - color / Out Of This World Research For Next-Generation Chips: PHOTO INFO NOW IN - NASA astronauts Marc Garneau, left, and Andrew Thomas observe gallium antimonide crystals grown at the University of Florida College of Engineering. ZINCAIR951109 - color / All-day Zinc Air Batteries Intro'd: shot of the battery next to PC. MINIDISC951108 - color / MiniDisk As Floppy Successor?: hand holds Sharp MiniDisk, with nice blue skies background. VIEWER951102 - color / Accent Software Intros Free Multi-Language Web Browser: screenshot. SBANK951108 - color / Softbank To Announce Ziff Purchase Tomorrow: screenshot of PCWeek/Softbank homepage. DRUGSTOR951108 - color / Pharmacist On A Disk: screenshot of the over-the-counter pain killer screen. POWERDSK951106 - color / Microhelp Intros Windows 95 Desktop Utility: the PowerDesk Toolbar. (There is no GIF version) JPOSTA951106 - color / Internet Users Gather In Shock At Assassination: screenshot of Jerusalem Post homepage with news of the Rabin assassination. WALES19951101 - color / Wales Tourist Board Plugs Into The Web: homepage screenshot. WINTNG951103 - color / Microsoft Press Offers Windows 95 Interactive Training: bookcover. HOMEREC951102 - b&w / US West Puts Receptionist In Your Home: shot of the phone unit. (Newsbytes/19951127) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 11/27/95 TELECOM UK - Warning Over "Christmas Present Phones" (NEWS)(TELECOM)(LON)(00012) UK - Warning Over "Christmas Present Phones" 11/27/95 BOREHAMWOOD, HERTFORDSHIRE, ENGLAND, 1995 NOV 27 (NB) -- Mercury One-2-One, one of the UK's two PCN (personal communications network) digital phone networks, has warned that many mobile phones sold this Christmas may prove to be a financial burden to either the giver or, perhaps worse still, the recipient. Paul Donovan, sales and marketing director with the company, explained that, while mobiles can make an ideal Christmas present, "as the saying goes, it's the thought that counts. A little thought at the point of purchase can make all the difference between a cherished and much-used gift, and an expensive long-term financial commitment," he explained. Donovan is referring, Newsbytes notes, to the price-warping subsidy effect of the airtime contract on the price of the mobile. Many analog phones, as well as GSM (global system for mobile communications) digital mobiles, are being almost given away, with the sign-up commission paid by the network serving to subsidize the real cost of the phone. This effect does not just apply to the UK, but also to the US. In the run-up to the Comdex Fall computer show in Las Vegas earlier this month, Newsbytes noted that Radio Shack and Cellular One were giving phones away for a penny, provided the subscriber sign up for a year or more of service. Just a few months ago, Mercury One-2-One "unbundled" its handsets from its SIMs (subscriber identity modules). Since the SIMs are linked to the subscriber account details, this effectively decoupled the hardware from the subscription, allowing users of older One-2-One phones to purchase a new mobile and simply slot their SIM into the new phone to make full use of it. Despite this approach, One-2-One phones are still locked to the network, rather than a subscription account. So, even though a subsidy on the handset exists, the phone will still be used on the One-2-One network, although the user has maximum flexibility. According to Donovan, while handsets can be bought for a matter of a few pennies, it is factors such as the choice of network, tariff, and minimum contract terms that will have the maximum impact on the total true cost of owning a mobile. To highlight this fact, One-2-One is offering 30 free minutes of calls a month for a year to anyone signing up to the PCN service until January 5, 1996. The telco claims that, while this is worth UKP18 to new subscribers of One-2-One, the equivalent calls would cost UKP23 on Orange's Talk 15 tariff, UKP54 on Vodafone's PersonalWorld, and UKP61 on Cellnet's Occasional Caller rates. In parallel with the freebie calls, One-2-One is also offering a "check back" promotion on several of its phones, including the Motorola M301 and M400 series, where new subscribers get a UKP50 check. The Amstrad M600, meanwhile, will generate a check for UKP40 for a new subscriber. "Our Christmas promotion reduces the cost becoming a One-2-One customer and also vividly demonstrates the extent to which the cost of calls varies between different mobile tariffs. The extra free 30 minutes of off-peak calls is yet another reason why, on average, One-2-One customers make savings every month compared with equivalent tariffs on all other mobile phone networks," Donovan claimed. In parallel with the One-2-One promotions, Newsbytes notes that, effective January 1, Hutchison Orange is revamping its dealer commission contracts. Currently, Orange PCN phones are being sold at a blanket discount by many dealers, regardless of which tariff the customer signs up for. The new dealer packages will allow Orange dealers to continue to offer healthy discounts on retail prices, provided the subscriber signs up for a high usage tariff. For lower usage users, however, it seems likely that such discounts will not be available. With One-2-One's Christmas promotion, Newsbytes notes that the advantages of Orange over Mercury One-2-One are rapidly being eroded. Coupled with One-2-One's progressive "softly softly" rollout of service in areas such as the North East and the Western Home Counties -- areas which One-2-One is not officially available yet -- One-2-One is fast becoming a real threat to Orange's claimed dominance of the PCN market in the UK. Details of One-2-One can now be found on the company's new World Wide Web pages, which are located at http://www.one2one.co.uk . (Steve Gold/19951127/Press Contact: Larkspur Communications, +44-171- 439-1300; Reader Contact: One-2-One, 0500-500121) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 11/27/95 GENERAL Novell UK's DeveloperNet For Software Developers (NEWS)(GENERAL)(LON)(00013) Novell UK's DeveloperNet For Software Developers 11/27/95 BRACKNELL, BERKSHIRE, ENGLAND, 1995 NOV 27 (NB) -- Novell UK has announced the creation of DeveloperNet, a developer relations program that it claims will serve as the primary communications channel for delivering the company's corporate technology to software and associated hardware developers. According to Kay Richardson, Novell UK's program marketing manager, the program centers around that ISVs (independent service vendors), commercial and other developers are now being treated as valued customers, effectively placing them and their needs first. "We have worked to put ourselves in the role of developers in order to better understand their customer requirements. This will help us to give developers the best opportunity to take advantage of Novell's leading network technologies, platforms and products, in order to build successful solutions," she explained. Andy Baldin, developer relations manager with Novell's Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA) division, echoed Richardson's comments, noting that a key strategy in establishing an open dialog with developers is to give those developers a chance to offer their own input into the developer relations program. "Our subscription service has the built-in flexibility to respond to changing developer needs, driven by the goal to continually improve our processes, products and efficiencies," he claimed. According to Baldin, the new developer relations program, which is being rolled out across the entire EMEA region, as well as the US division, will serve as a "new voice" for developers inside the Novell organization. DeveloperNet costs $345 per year to subscribe, with an advance subscription deal available at $995 per year. Both the base and advanced subscriptions include the DeveloperNet Kit, a software development kit (SDK) CD-ROM with quarterly updates and Novell Developer Notes. In addition, base subscribers receive one standard incident under the developer support subscription services and a choice of one Novell product from a specified list. Subscribers with an advanced subscription receive three standard developer support incidents and their choice of three Novell products. Novell has created a new developer set of World Wide Web pages to support the new program, located at http://developer.novell.com . Other new services include: Pro-Active, a private online forum to exchange daily information on Novell software development; Infoshare, Novell's faxback service; and a private bulletin board system for developers. (Sylvia Dennis/19951127/Press Contact: Vivienne Wilson, Novell Press Operations, +44-1344-724460, Internet e-mail vivienne_wilson@novell.co.uk; Reader Contact: Novell UK, tel +44-1344-724000, fax +44-1344-724001) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 11/27/95 TELECOM British Telecom Criticized On Fair Trading (NEWS)(TELECOM)(LON)(00014) British Telecom Criticized On Fair Trading 11/27/95 LONDON, ENGLAND, 1995 NOV 27 (NB) -- British Telecom (BT) has been roundly criticized by Don Cruikshank, the head of Oftel, the Government-appointed telecoms watchdog in the UK. Cruikshank is reported to be annoyed at BT's apparent failure to implement fair trading throughout its business, suggesting that BT felt there was no harm in carrying out anti-competitive practices "unless and until the regulator intervenes." Cruikshank made his comments known at a meeting held last week to discuss Oftel's plans to introduce a new telecoms license condition allowing it more discretion as to how it supervises the telecoms industry. Although neither BT nor Oftel is making any comment on Cruikshank's comments to BT, the Financial Times in London claims that Cruikshank thinks that BT may be stepping out of line on its approach to consumers. "I have found repeatedly the only way I can seek to control anti- competitive practices in relation to individual complaints has been to seek to change the rules rather than apply them," Cruikshank is quoted as saying, the Financial Times reports. The London paper reports that Cruikshank's comments and proposals have not gone down well at BT. The paper quotes BT's chairman, Sir Iain Vallance, as telling another meeting at the British Policy Studies Institute that Oftel's proposals "presage a highly dangerous new form of regulation, with broad and undefined discretionary, or absolute, powers vested in a single individual." Vallance is quoted as accusing Cruikshank of trying to cut BT's market share "by any and all means that come to hand." The apparently deteriorating relationship between Cruikshank and Vallance comes at a time when Oftel has been criticized itself for being a toothless tiger when it comes to dealing with BT. Over the last few months, Newsbytes notes, Cruikshank has been raising how own profile, as well as that of Oftel, by talking at length to the media. It appears that this new strategy may not be going down too well with BT's board and, in particular, Sir Iain Vallance. (Sylvia Dennis/19951127/Press & Reader Contact: Oftel, tel +44-171-634-8700, fax +44-171-634-8943) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 11/27/95 BROADCAST Fuji's Film Image Capture Device, Digital Cameras (NEWS)(BROADCAST)(DEN)(00015) Fuji's Film Image Capture Device, Digital Cameras 11/27/95 ELMSFORD, NEW YORK, U.S.A., 1995 NOV 27 (NB) -- Fuji Photo Film USA Inc. has introduced an image capture device that can input images from slides, negatives, or prints into a personal computer, and two digital card cameras designed for professional photographers. #IMAGE 1 20 TWPCX \images\95112715.PCX Click here for photo Fuji said the image capture device can also capture images of small products and three-dimensional (3-D) objects to see how they will look on-screen before putting them on film. The Fujix Photo-video Imager FV-7 operates like a combination low resolution scanner and camera. It uses a 410,000 pixel image sensor that Fuji said provides video resolution at about 450 dots- per-inch (dpi) from a 35 millimeter (mm) film original. Output is available in S-video and composite video to make the FV-7 compatible with video capture boards, televisions, video recorders, video printers, and presentation projectors. The FV-7 measures four-inches by 2.5-inches by 8.5-inches. Two legs unfold so it can stand upright, and the unit weighs just under two pounds. It uses a Fujinon 2x zoom lens and has both automatic and manual color balance controls. The system has a suggested retail price of $895. Fuji's new filmless digital card cameras, the DS-505 and DS-515, use CCD (charge coupled device) and digital imaging processing technology. The company claims the new cameras are the first digital single-lens-reflex systems to capture the entire viewfinder image on CCD. Fuji said the light concentration relayed to the CCD has an effective film speed rating of ISO 800. A selector lets the user switch to the equivalent of ISO 1600 when shooting in low-light conditions. The standard model DS-505 can take continuous pictures at one frame- per-second (fps). The continuous exposure model DS-515 has an internal memory that can store up to seven continuous shots at 3fps. Both cameras include auto focus, auto exposure, and automatic white balance. Images are stored on a high-speed PC card that meets the PCMCIA (Personal Computer Memory Card International Association) standard. A single 15 megabyte (MB) card can store up to 84 compressed images. The stored images can be transferred as digital images to a IBM-compatible or Macintosh computer equipped with a PC card reader. The DS-505 has a suggested retail price of $12,780, while the DS-515, with its internal memory, sells for $16,020. Suggested prices do not include lenses. (Jim Mallory/19951127/Press contact: Thomas Shay, Edelman Public Relations for Fuji Photo Film, 914-789-8145; Public contact: Fuji, 800-378-3854/IMAGER951127 or FUJICAM951127/PHOTO) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 11/27/95 TELECOM Call-Net & Unitel Spar Over AT&T Stake (NEWS)(TELECOM)(TOR)(00016) Call-Net & Unitel Spar Over AT&T Stake 11/27/95 TORONTO, ONTARIO, CANADA, 1995 NOV 27 (NB) -- Call-Net Enterprises Inc. (TSE,ME:CN; NASDAQ:CNEBF), whose subsidiary Sprint Canada Inc. competes in the Canadian long-distance market, is challenging AT&T's (NYSE:T) purchase of a larger stake in rival long-distance carrier Unitel Communications Inc. Call-Net has gone to the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) with a complaint that a deal announced in late September contravenes legal restrictions on foreign ownership of a Canadian telecommunications carrier. The deal would give AT&T 20 percent direct ownership of Unitel plus one third of a holding company that in turn owns the other 80 percent of Unitel stock. Juri Koor, chairman, president, and chief executive of Call-Net, told Newsbytes there are two issues involved. First is a dispute about whether two allowable forms of foreign ownership are mutually exclusive. The second issue -- and the more important, Koor said -- concerns the more subjective question of "control in fact." Canadian law says a foreign shareholder cannot hold more than 20 percent of a telecommunications carrier directly. However, the remaining 80 percent may be owned by a "qualified corporation" and the definition of a qualified corporation says foreign interests may have as much 33-1/3 percent control. Speaking at a seminar on the Canadian telecommunications market in Toronto in September, lawyer Jack Quinn, a partner in Blake, Cassels & Graydon of Toronto, described this as a loophole that allows a foreign interest to control as much as 46.6 percent of a Canadian carrier. It is this loophole that AT&T exploited in increasing its Unitel stake. However, Koor said his company understands the 20 percent direct ownership and 33-1/3 percent ownership of a holding company to be mutually exclusive. He added that Call-Net itself has been limited by this interpretation of the rule. Sprint Communications Co. of Kansas City, an American long-distance carrier, owns 25 percent of Call-Net. Regardless how the rules on ownership of actual shares are interpreted, though, Koor said the more telling issue is that of "control in fact." The law says that a foreign interest may not have effective control of a Canadian carrier, and Koor maintained that AT&T now has that. The other shareholders in Unitel are banks and venture capitalists. The CRTC has the authority to decide whether a foreign shareholder has de facto control of a carrier. Carleen Carroll, a spokeswoman for Unitel, told Newsbytes that Call-Net's protest is premature because details of the deal increasing AT&T's stake are still to be worked out and presented to the CRTC and the federal government for approval. She said Call-Net is "worried about a revitalized Unitel." AT&T increased its stake in Unitel after two other major shareholders walked away from their interests in the money-losing carrier. (Grant Buckler/19951127/Press Contact: Juri Koor, Call-Net, 416-496-4922; Patrick Pichette, 416-496-4925; Carleen Carroll, Unitel, 416-345-2114) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 11/27/95 ONLINE ATM Technology Boosts Canada's Internet Backbone (NEWS)(ONLINE)(TOR)(00017) ATM Technology Boosts Canada's Internet Backbone 11/27/95 TORONTO, ONTARIO, CANADA, 1995 NOV 27 (NB) -- The use of asynchronous transfer mode (ATM) technology to run Canada's commercial Internet backbone and the National Test Network (NTN) as virtual networks on the same set of optical fibers will increase Internet capacity across the country, officials said. The Canadian Network for the Advancement of Research, Industry and Education (CANARIE), which operates the NTN, announced an agreement with CA*net, which runs the commercial Internet backbone in Canada, to combine the two networks on a single set of fiber. Bill St. Arnaud, director of network projects for CANARIE in Ottawa, told Newsbytes that CA*net and the NTN will run as separate virtual networks over the same optical fiber infrastructure. This will be possible thanks to ATM technology, which will also allow other virtual networks to run over the same fiber in the future, St. Arnaud said. As a result, the National Test Network will be beefed up from T3 speeds of 45 megabits-per-second (Mbps) to OC3 speeds of 155 Mbps and will later be upgraded to even higher speeds, spokeswoman Lynn O'Keefe of CANARIE told Newsbytes. Meanwhile, CA*net has gone from 1.5 Mbps to 10 Mbps on connections within Canada, said Ken Fockler, president of CA*net Networking Inc. in Toronto. CA*net's connections across the border to the United States at Toronto, Montreal, and Vancouver have been upgraded from multiple 1.5 megabit connections to 45 megabit T3 links, Fockler told Newsbytes. St. Arnaud said the arrangement makes Canada the first country in the world to put its national commercial and research networks on a single ATM-based fiber network. The NTN links 12 provincial and municipal research networks, while CA*net ties together 13 Internet service providers. Officials said the design and implementation of the combined network was completed in less than four months. (Grant Buckler/19951127/Press Contact: Lynn O'Keefe, CANARIE, 613-660-3507; Ken Fockler, CA*net, 905-405-6212; Bill Milliken, Industry Canada, 613-995-9001) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 11/27/95 BUSINESS Canada's IStar Internet Goes Public, Buys 3 Companies (NEWS)(BUSINESS)(TOR)(00018) Canada's IStar Internet Goes Public, Buys 3 Companies 11/27/95 OTTAWA, ONTARIO, CANADA, 1995 NOV 27 (NB) -- Istar Internet Inc., which claims to be the largest Internet access provider in Canada, has announced an initial public offering. The company also said it has acquired three more companies over the past three months and will continue with an "aggressive" growth strategy. "We are growing very quickly and require capital to do that," explained Mike Martineau, vice-president of engineering at IStar and a founder of NSTN Inc., one of the companies that merged earlier this year to form the present IStar. Besides the acquisitions already announced, Martineau told Newsbytes, IStar has several more "in active discussions." The company hopes to close those deals over the next month to six weeks. For the time being, IStar is concentrating on buying other access providers to build a "comprehensive national access service," but Martineau said the firm also plans to move further into the content side of the Internet business. Recently, the company took over access providers InfoRamp in Toronto, ARNet in Alberta, and Mind Link! Communications Corp. in Vancouver. IStar currently claims to have about 35 percent of the Canadian access provider market. The final prospectus for the initial public offering has been filed and IStar hopes its stock will begin trading on the Toronto Stock Exchange in December, company officials said. Martineau said customers of IStar and the companies it is acquiring will not have to change their Internet addresses as a result of the takeovers. Customers whose addresses use domain names such as "nstn" and "inforamp" will keep the old addresses, he said, although new customers will be assigned to a new domain. He added that IStar is working on upgrading its infrastructure. One current project is replacing the 14,400 bits-per-second (bps) modems used in former NSTN points-of-presence with 28,800 bps modems, he said. This is expected to be completed over the next six to eight weeks. The company is also adding bandwidth to its network, aiming for a "no busy signal" policy, said Martineau. IStar Internet Inc. was created in July through the merger of NSTN with I*Internet Inc. of Ottawa. Martineau said the merged company is maintaining operations at NSTN's former headquarters in Dartmouth, Nova Scotia, and in fact has been increasing staff there since the merger. IStar Internet has a World Wide Web site at http://www.istar.ca . (Grant Buckler/19951124/Press Contact: Betty Alexander, Hill & Knowlton for IStar Internet, 416-480-7336; Public Contact: IStar Internet, 613-780-2200, fax 613-780-6666) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 11/27/95 GENERAL Canadian Product Launch Update (NEWS)(GENERAL)(TOR)(00019) Canadian Product Launch Update 11/27/95 KINGSTON, ONTARIO, CANADA 1995 NOV 27 (NB) -- This regular feature, appearing on the first day Newsbytes publishes each week, provides further details for the Canadian market on announcements by international companies that Newsbytes has already covered. This week: Computer Associates adds AgentWorks and other technologies to its Unicenter system management software. Computer Associates Canada Ltd. followed the lead of its US parent in announcing that the AgentWorks technology acquired in the recent takeover of Legent Corp., as well as new Single Sign-On and System Alert Management features, will be added to CA-Unicenter at no additional cost (Newsbytes, Nov. 8). In fact, CA Canada said it is reducing the entry-level price of Unicenter, systems management software for a variety of Unix and other platforms, by 43 percent in an effort to build market share. Entry-level prices go from C$700 per power unit to C$400 per power unit, the company said. (Grant Buckler/19951127/Press Contact: John Schoutsen, Computer Associates Canada, tel 905-676-6700, fax 905-676-6734) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 11/27/95 GENERAL Japan Newsbriefs (NEWS)(GENERAL)(TYO)(00020) Japan Newsbriefs 11/27/95 TOKYO, JAPAN, 1995 NOV 27 (NB) -- In this roundup of news from Japan: US demands more deregulation; HDTV receivers pass 100,000; Netscape, Sun, IIJ most popular in corporate Japan; Kodak, Canon join in digital camera production; New cable venture planned; Asian Internet venture gets name. US Demands More Deregulation The United States government formally requested to the Japanese government deregulation and access to several areas of the Japanese marketplace late last week. Among the demands, which covered industries from distribution to construction, were several in the telecommunications field. The US is demanding a lifting of restrictions on foreign investment on basic telecommunications services, the publishing of regulations on requirements for getting a cable TV license with details of the part local authorities play, and the disclosure by Nippon Telegraph and Telephone of its network interface protocols so foreign telecommunications equipment can more easily interface with Japanese systems. HDTV Receivers Pass 100,000 Over 100,000 televisions and video recorders with the capability to handle and display high definition television in the Hi-Vision format have now been sold in Japan. When the system was launched in 1992, just 10,000 sets were sold, with 1993 registering just 11,000. Sales began to rise slowly in 1994 when 23,000 sets were sold. Several new and lower priced sets from manufacturers, and the beginning of regular Hi-Vision broadcasts, now 12 hours a day via satellite, has resulted in strong consumer demand this year. The cheapest sets can now be bought for around 300,000 yen ($3,000). In addition, a further 180,000 Hi-Vision to NTSC (North American Television Standards Committee) converters have been sold enabling people to receive and view the special broadcasts, albeit in 525 line mode rather than the full 1,125 lines. Netscape, Sun, IIJ Most Popular In Corporate Japan A survey by the Nihon Keizai Shimbun newspaper and associated Nikkei Research Inc. has revealed the products corporate Japan favors in building and establishing Internet services. Of the 368 companies that responded, 91.5% are using Netscape software with NCSA Mosaic coming in second. On the hardware side, Sun Microsystems ranks top with 58.2% of companies using Sun boxes. Second was Digital, followed by Fujitsu, IBM, Silicon Graphics, and NEC. Sony ranked tenth. When asked where they got Internet access from, IIJ (Internet Initiative Japan) was the most popular provider, with Fujitsu's Info Web, and AT&T Jens Corp.'s Spin services ranking second, and third. Kodak, Canon Join In Digital Camera Production Kodak Japan and Canon are to produce a new digital still camera. The EOS-DCS-1 camera will be based on Canon's EOS-1N and go on retail sale in late December. It will feature a CCD (charge coupled device) camera pickup with a resolution of six million pixels said the two companies. The 32-bit color camera will record images on removable memory modules and retail for 3.6 million yen ($35,294) in Japan. Digital cameras are becoming more popular at all ends of the market with the cheapest, from Konica, now available for around 30,000 yen ($300). New Cable Venture Planned Another experiment in the expanding world of cable television has been announced. Marubeni Corporation, a major trading company, will team with IBM Japan and Tokyo Cable Network to offer software to PC owners across the network. Tokyo Cable says around half of its 60 channels are currently unoccupied allowing enough bandwidth to offer services at speeds between 4 and 10 megabits per second. Asian Internet Venture Gets Name The joint venture company between Sumitomo Corporation, IIJ (Internet Initiative Japan), Singapore Pacific Internet and Hong Kong Super Net now has a name. A-bone was incorporated in Japan last week and will now begin working towards its goal of a pan Asian Internet backbone. A-bone is capitalized at 600 million yen ($5.9 million). (Martyn Williams/19951127) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 11/27/95 ONLINE Internet Update (NEWS)(ONLINE)(TYO)(00021) Internet Update 11/27/95 TOKYO, JAPAN, 1995 NOV 27 (NB) -- In this roundup of new resources and services on the global Internet: Free concert this week; The interview online; The best of Japan; UK budget day approaches ...; Ken Saro Wiwa condolence book; New on Usenet; Court TV law center; Iowa local index; Guide to good dining. Free Concert This Week Mitsubishi Electric is sponsoring the feed of a live performance by the world-famous Japanese musician, Ryuichi Sakamoto, and sensational visual artist Daizaburo Harada, on the Internet later this week. The concert will be relayed live from Tokyo's Budokan Hall, at 1830 on Thursday November 30 (Tokyo time), or 0430 EST and 1:30 PST. More information can be found on the World Wide Web. World Wide Web: http://www.sdw.com/DandL/ The Interview Online The text of the BBC's interview with Princess Diana last week is now available online from the Press Association, the UK's leading domestic news agency. The PA has also loaded pictures and articles covering the reaction of the TV interview onto its Web site. World Wide Web: http://www.pa.press.net/ The Best Of Japan Island Telecommunications has begun offering an easy way to the best that the Japanese Internet has to offer. Its J-links site includes site reviews, information about cool and interesting Web servers and a meta-index of other Japanese Web indicies. World Wide Web: http://www.islandtel.com/j-links.html UK Budget Day Approaches ... On Tuesday, the UK's Chancellor of the Exchequer delivers his budget for the coming year. The full text of the speech will be available immediately after it ends via the British government's Web server. The folks at Synchro-Net, the UK Business Resource Site, will also make available the full text of a commentary on the budget. World Wide Web: http://www.open.gov.uk/ World Wide Web: http://www.demon.co.uk/eismp/ Ken Saro Wiwa Condolence Book An online book of condolences has been opened for the executed Nigerian environmental activist Ken Saro-Wiwa. The book is being run by nigeria.com, an organization that focuses Nigerian affairs from a Nigerian perspective. World Wide Web: http://www.nigeria.com/hy-nigeria/get/boards/ken.html New On Usenet Several groups have passed the Usenet voting process recently. Among new groups that should begin appearing on news servers soon are rec.crafts.dollhouses, comp.graphics.apps.freehand, soc.history.medieval, and rec.travel.africa. The soc.religion.vaishnava has also passed as a moderated group, while talk.politics.sex-work failed the vote. Usenet: news:comp.graphics.apps.freehand Usenet: news:rec.crafts.dollhouses Usenet: news:rec.travel.africa Usenet: news:soc.history.medieval Usenet: news:soc.religion.vaishnava Court TV Law Center The latest of a long list of TV network Web sites belongs to Court TV, a US cable network dedicated to coverage of cases from the nation's court system. The Web server includes updates and documents from current cases, resources for legal problems, and inside news from Court TV. World Wide Web: http://www.courttv.com/ Iowa Local Index The State of Iowa now has its own Web page. Run by the Iowa Department of General Services form the state capital Des Moines, it provides links to public and private resources statewide, including educational resources from K-12 to colleges, universities and libraries. A section is also included on the coming elections next year. World Wide Web: http://www.state.ia.us/index.html Guide To Good Dining When you're feeling hungry and the Pizza Hut Web server just won't do...The Digital Dining Directory and Guide offers reviews and menus from over 300,000 restaurants across the United States. Also, just online, is The Diner's Grapevine. Billed as "the premier online guide to restaurants." You can search the database by location, cuisine, price range, atmosphere, features, and entertainment, then see a sample menu, and a location map. World Wide Web: http://www.menu-net.com/ddd/ World Wide Web: http://www.dinersgrapevine.com/ (Martyn Williams/19951127) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 11/27/95 TELECOM Telephone Over Cable Made Easier (NEWS)(TELECOM)(LAX)(00022) Telephone Over Cable Made Easier 11/27/95 SAN JOSE, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1995 NOV 27 (NB) -- First Pacific Networks Inc. (NASDAQ: FPNX) has announced an enhancement to its hybrid fiber/coax (HFC) products which the company claims will improve the quality of telephony over cable. The company's new Digital Transmission Unit (DTU) is claimed to reduce the noise or interference that builds up on a HFC network. Hybrid fiber/coax is a network of fiber optic lines running from either a telephone company or a cable television provider, to a nodule serving around 200 homes. The nodule has fiber running to it, and coaxial cable from it to the homes. When up and running, such a network would provide the equivalent of a T1 line into every home. HFC will provide enough broadband capability to offer, on the same line, full telephony and cable television services. The telephone company will be able to offer cable television, and the cable companies will be able to offer full telephone services. Virtually every telephone company and cable operation is planning and implementing HFC networks. Some observers say that, nearly every day, a new HFC trial is being announced. First, Pacific Networks concentrates on providing cable operators with the technology to offer telephone services over a HFC network. Gregg Ioffe, an engineer with First Pacific Networks, told Newsbytes, "The big problem facing an integrated telephony cable television network is the noise created on the reverse path from the home to the head-end. Forward path (from head-end to home) is somewhat controlled by their being only one transmission source. The reverse path, however, accumulates noise from hundreds of transmissions (from the home to the head-end). It is this reverse path accumulated noise that is the big technological hurdle for an integrated HFC network." The company says the DTU will reduce noise on the reverse path. The DTU will reportedly support multiple transmission paths between the service provider's trunk facilities and standard remote intelligent access multiplexers. Only active circuits are transmitted, thus conserving the use of precious channel capacity. If a single voice circuit is in use on a connection, only that circuit will be transmitted over the cable plant instead of the entire frame, said the company. "The DTU provides a transparent interface between a digital central office switch and remote access multiplexers over a hybrid fiber/coax network, helping service providers match the deployment of telephony-on-cable equipment against their competition," said Ioffe. "The flexibility and expandability of the First Pacific Network product family allows service providers to select a deployment strategy that balances equipment costs with subscriber revenues," said Peter Thomas, president of First Pacific Networks. "Utilizing the DTU, a service provider can increase the number of telephone-on- cable subscribers in high density environments, while reducing equipment and capital investment requirements." (Richard Bowers/19951127/Press Contact: James J. Dougherty, First Pacific Networks, 408-943-7600) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 11/27/95 SUPERCOMPUTER Maui Supercomputer Tests Sybase Database (NEWS)(SUPERCOMPUTER)(LAX)(00023) Maui Supercomputer Tests Sybase Database 11/27/95 EMERYVILLE, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1995 NOV 27 (NB) -- Sybase Inc. (NASDAQ: SYBS), has announced results of a test conducted at the Maui High Performance Computing Center (MHPCC). Sybase MPP (previously called Sybase Navigation Server) was tested on an IBM RS/6000 scalable POWERparallel system using 128 high performance reduced instruction set computer (RISC) processors. Sybase MPP is the firm's scalable, open parallel database for large decision support applications. The MHPCC was developed and is managed by a consortium led by the University of New Mexico under a cooperative agreement administered by Phillips Laboratory, United States Air Force. It houses the world's second largest installation of the IBM RS/6000 SP systems, with a total of 480 processors, offering a capacity of 125 billion calculations per second (125 gigaflops). The demonstration consisted of a credit-card database containing a 100 million-row table distributed across all of the processors. A graphical interface displayed 12 different queries running against the 100 million-row database. A variety of database queries were performed, including a variety of complex queries and traditional credit card queries for gathering information on account balances, summaries by customer, and summaries by region. The results compiled by the Maui test center showed that the Sybase MPP demonstrated near-linear scalability from one to 16, 64, and 128 nodes, and scalability of over 99 percent across the range of 128 processors, said the company. "The MHPCC is a test bed for scalable parallel technologies," said Margaret Lewis, associate director of marketing for MHPCC. "This demonstration allowed us to showcase the outstanding scalability of Sybase MPP on 128 processors of our IBM RS/6000 SP system. Not only did Sybase MPP scale well, it balanced the workload efficiently over the processors. Customers who need to solve large-scale data mining and data warehousing problems will be very interested in Sybase MPP." Michael Bremmer, vice president of production for Sybase Enterprise, told Newsbytes, "Sybase MPP is the first and only production open systems data base management system which provides near-linear scalability and parallelism on all database operations. Unlike other parallel products on the market, Sybase MPP has been designed for a no-contention parallel environment and near-perfect scalability to support terabytes of data on hundreds of processors. This demonstration on the IBM RS/6000 SP demonstrates the stability and portability of Sybase MPP." Sybase MPP is a member of the Sybase System 11 family of database products. Bremmer claims, "It is the only portable parallel database product with a "shared-nothing" architecture for solving the largest database problems in decision support, data mining, and data warehousing. It is uniquely architected to distribute large databases across dozens to hundreds of independent processors, allowing all database operations to be performed in parallel. Sybase MPP includes parallel database queries, stored procedures, inserts, deletes, and complex table joins. These capabilities enable Sybase MPP to scale with near-linear performance on a variety of computing platforms." Sybase MPP is in production today on the AT&T 3000 series of systems. A beta version for the IBM RS/6000 SP is available today, and beta versions for Hewlett-Packard's HP 9000 family of business servers, and clusters of Sun Microsystems' SPARCcluster 1000/2000 PDB (parallel database), are currently scheduled to be available this quarter. Pricing for Sybase MPP, which is based on the processor configuration supported, starts at $110,000. (Richard Bowers/19951127/Press Contact: Vallee Hubbard, Sybase, 415-512-0500) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 11/27/95 TRENDS ****Nintendo Ultra 64 Game System Intro'd (NEWS)(TRENDS)(DEN)(00024) ****Nintendo Ultra 64 Game System Intro'd 11/27/95 MAKUHARI, JAPAN, 1995 NOV 27 (NB) -- Nintendo Co. Ltd. has introduced its Nintendo Ultra 64 home video game to the world at the company's annual video game exhibition, called Shoshinkai, that was held over the past weekend. Nintendo is leapfrogging competitors Sega, Sony, and 3DO with the 64-bit Ultra, which a spokesperson told Newsbytes will be sold as the Nintendo 64 in Japan. Those companies have already introduced machines with 32-bit processors, referring to the speed the data is processed. Nintendo elected to skip the 32-bit step and, instead, be the first to bring a 64-bit game to market. Faster chips allow games to offer more realistic video and respond more quickly. Nintendo did stick with plug-in cartridge games rather than switching to compact disks like its competitors. When the company made that decision in 1994, it said CD-ROMs, despite their higher storage capacity, take more time to access data. The new machine has a feature called a "memory pack," a microcassette-size memory storage unit that can be plugged into the back of the controller. That allows players to save their current position in the game, turn it off, and later pick up where they left off. Dallas, Texas-based Paradigm Simulation is one of the first developers to announced a game for the Ultra 64. The company unveiled its flight simulation game Pilotwings 64 at Shoshinkai. Pilotwings 64 is a sequel to Pilotwings, which sold over two million copies for the Super NES (Nintendo Entertainment System) machine. Paradigm said it developed the game with Vega Ultravision, a software tool for the development of three-dimensional (3-D) games. Pilotwings 64 includes first and third person views, several different aircraft and multiple roles to choose from, realistic landscapes, special effects and animation and several playing levels to accommodate players' various skill levels. A Paradigm spokesperson told Newsbytes Pilotwings 64 will ship in April, 1996. Pricing hasn't been announced yet, she said. Ultra 64 uses a Silicon Graphics Reality coprocessor and a MIPS RISC (reduced instruction set computing) chip to smooth jagged edges (jaggies) from objects, and maintain the "natural texture" of objects independent of how close the player is to the object. A feature called real-time depth buffering removes hidden surfaces during the real-time rendering process of a scene, which allows developers to "create 3-D environments more efficiently," claims the company. Automatic load management enables the objects in each scene to "move smoothly and realistically" by automatically tuning the graphics processing, according to Silicon Graphics. Nintendo said Ultra 64 is scheduled to ship in the US in April, 1996, with a price tag of about $250. The game will be displayed at the Consumer Electronics Show that opens January 5, 1996 in Las Vegas, Nevada. (Jim Mallory/19951127/Press contact: Melinda Conkling, Springbok Technologies for Paradigm, 214-480-9458 or Alison Holt Brummelkamp, Golin/Harris for Nintendo, 213-623-4200) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 11/27/95 TRENDS PC Data's October Best-Seller List (NEWS)(TRENDS)(WAS)(00025) PC Data's October Best-Seller List 11/27/95 RESTON, VIRGINIA, U.S.A., 1995 NOV 27 (NB) -- Few changes show up in the October list of hot-selling software from PC Data. The top spot in the software hit parade remains remarkably stable in the dozen categories the Virginia market research company tracks. In the PC games category for DOS and Windows, Microsoft Flight Simulator moved up from second to first place, and Broderbund's Myst moved up from fourth to second. In the home education category for DOS and Windows, Disney's Winnie the Pooh jumped from fifth to first, and Mavis Beacon Teaches Typing from Mindscape soared to second from off the charts in September. And in the business software category for the Macintosh operating system, Ram Doubler from Connectix edged upward from second to first place, and Symantec's Norton Utilities leapt from sixth to second. In the other nine categories the first place leader in September duplicated the feat in October. In Macintosh games, GT Interactive's Doom II held down first, while Mavis Beacon Teaches Typing continued in first for Macintosh home education. In the CD-ROM category, the Microsoft Windows 95 upgrade continued a dominance that dates back to August. In the DOS business software category, Microsoft's DOS 6.2 upgrade continued to hold down first place, while the Windows 95 upgrade continued to dominate the Windows business software category. In the DOS/Windows personal productivity category, Intuit's Quicken continued a long ride in first place, as well as holding down the top slot on the Macintosh personal productivity list. For reference software, Microsoft's Encarta continued in first, and in the Windows 95 category the Microsoft upgrade continued on top. Demonstrating its software muscle, Microsoft held down first place in six of PC Data's 12 categories. (Kennedy Maize/19951127/Press Contact: Nicole Field, 703-435-1025) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 11/27/95 GOVT Electronic Engineers Back High-Tech Immigration Limits (NEWS)(GOVT)(WAS)(00026) Electronic Engineers Back High-Tech Immigration Limits 11/27/95 WASHINGTON, D.C., U.S.A., 1995 NOV 27 (NB) -- The US arm of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers this week will announce its support for a law that would limit immigration of high-tech professionals into the US. The IEEE-USA will pledge its support to S 1394, the Immigration Reform Act of 1995, at a Washington press conference on Wednesday, when the bill is scheduled for markup by the Senate immigration subcommittee. The legislation, introduced by Sen. Alan Simpson (R-Wyo.), is opposed by the high-tech industries, which claim that they face a shortage of domestic workers in fields such as programming and system engineering. The supporters of the Simpson bill argue that employers are using immigration to undercut high-paying US jobs in the computer and electronics industries. Joel Snyder, chairman of the IEEE-USA board, will deliver a joint statement along with representatives of other high-tech professional groups, backing the Simpson bill. The high-tech workers argue that the Simpson bill will safeguard wages and working conditions for US labor and help protect foreign workers from exploitation. Snyder says the Simpson bill is "a reasonable, balanced approach to immigration reform that accommodates US industry's legitimate needs for certain specialized foreign potential." The IEEE-USA represents some 230,000 US electrical, electronics, and computer engineers, and is best known for its participation in professional and technical issues, including publishing the magazine IEEE Spectrum. (Kennedy Maize/19951127/Press Contact: Christopher Currie, 202-785-0017) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 11/27/95 BUSINESS ****Symantec Completes Delrina Acquisition (NEWS)(BUSINESS)(SFO)(00027) ****Symantec Completes Delrina Acquisition 11/27/95 CUPERTINO, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1995 NOV 27 (NB) -- Less than five months after announcing its intention to acquire forms and communications software specialist, Delrina (TOR:DC) of Toronto, Canada, Symantec (NASDAQ:SYMC) says the deal is complete and Delrina is now a Symantec subsidiary. Early estimates valued the deal at $415 million. Best known for its WinFax software, Delrina recently added Cyberjack, an Internet/Windows 95 communications software to its line of products and services which also includes electronic forms, various consumer software products, and a Canadian bulletin board service, CRS Online. Following the trend to incorporate Internet, Windows 95 and network technology into many software applications, the deal brings added Internet access tools into the Symantec stable and also makes it one of the largest communications and electronic forms suppliers in the world. Delrina spokesperson, Joseph Zankowicz, told Newsbytes, "Cyberjack has created a lot of excitement among veteran Internet users. It is the first 32-bit Internet access software incorporating object-oriented technology. Cyberjack is the next-generation Internet access and application software. To call it a browser would not do it justice. It makes all the Internet applications such as FTP, Gopher and others, as easy to use as the World Wide Web." Cyberjack is expected to ship in the next two weeks. Zankowicz continued, "Now that the deal is complete, we are the world's largest personal computer communications software company." As mentioned in previous Newsbytes' coverage, the deal is based on converting Delrina's common shares to an exchangeable share of Delrina stock at a rate of 0.61 for each common share. Holders of Delrina exchangeable shares can trade for Symantec shares anytime within the next seven years. Common shares of Delrina will no longer be traded on the Toronto Stock Exchange, but activity of the exchangeable shares will be listed. Delrina co-founders, Mark Skapinker and Bert Amato will remain with the new subsidiary. Delrina's chairman and chief executive officer, Dennis Bennie, is now an executive vice president and Symantec board member. He will manage Delrina's communication group, which is expanded to include Symantec's PCanywhere product group. A 32-bit Windows 95 and Windows NT version of PCanywhere was introduced at Comdex recently. The remote control software allows mobile users to access desktop systems and won Byte magazine's Best of Comdex award in the communications software category. Expect to see Delrina products brought into Symantec, much like the Peter Norton acquisition brought Norton products into Symantec. The disposition of Canada's largest bulletin board, CRS Online, remains a mystery. When asked what would happen to the service as a result of the acquisition, Delrina politely offered a "no comment at this time" response. Symantec products and services reach from the desktop of the average consumer user to the enterprise. Mike Sweeny, spokesperson for Symantec, told Newsbytes, "This deal greatly expands both our communications and our forms strengths. Combined, the companies are introducing a number of important new products, and during 1996, we expect to announce and deliver more 32-bit communications applications which will leverage the programming features of Windows 95 and NT." (Patrick McKenna/19951127/Press Contact: Josef Zankowicz, Delrina, 416-441-4658; Michael Sweeny, Symantec, 408-446-7142) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 11/27/95 BUSINESS ****Novell Cuts 400 Jobs, No buyer For Business Apps (NEWS)(BUSINESS)(DEN)(00028) ****Novell Cuts 400 Jobs, No buyer For Business Apps 11/27/95 OREM, UTAH, U.S.A., 1995 NOV 27 (NB) -- Almost hidden during the usual hoopla that surrounds the Comdex trade show last week was the announcement by Novell Inc. (NASDAQ:NOVL) that it had sent pink slips to about 420 people in its Business Applications Division. The cuts are related to Novell's decision to rid itself of its business applications and concentrate on its core business, networking software for personal computers. The employees affected work in the business applications division and in related support functions worldwide in jobs like technical support, engineering, and marketing. About 350 workers getting their layoff notices work in Orem, Utah, the site of Novell's corporate headquarters. The rest work at various sites throughout the United States and around the world. A company spokesperson told Newsbytes the cuts represent about 20 percent of the Business Application Division's total strength. All the employees affected in the current round of cuts have been notified. Novell still isn't revealing the names of the potential suitors for the Business Applications Division's products, which include the Quattro Pro spreadsheet, Presentations, Wordperfect, InfoCentral and Envoy, and the PerfectOffice software suite that includes several of those products. There are reportedly at least three companies that have expressed interest in all or some of those applications, and Novell said it expects to complete the sale by the end of its first fiscal quarter, which ends January 27, 1995. A company spokesperson told Newsbytes it's just a matter of seeing who will offer the most money. Novell paid about $145 million for Quattro Pro in March, 1994, and $855 million for WordPerfect in June, 1994. The Wordperfect deal was believed to be the biggest software merger in history, and presented Novell the opportunity to mount a serious challenge to Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ: MSFT). Novell said it will conduct an outplacement job fair in the Provo, Utah area this week that will see more than 20 Utah employers on hand to conduct interviews. Departing workers will get the standard Novell severance package, which includes at least six weeks pay and is based on the number of years with the company. Novell is also making outplacement services available in an attempt to help find the workers new jobs. (Jim Mallory/19951127/Press contact: Melanie King, Novell, 408-577-8975) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 95 11/27/95 WINDOWS Lotus Intros SmartSuite 96 For Windows (NEWS)(WINDOWS)(BOS)(00029) Lotus Intros SmartSuite 96 For Windows 95 11/27/95 CAMBRIDGE, MASSACHUSETTS, U.S.A., 1995 NOV 27 (NB) -- Lotus used input from a study by International Techvantage Group in creating the newly released SmartSuite 96 Edition for Windows 95, said Lotus's Kathleen Hayner, in a briefing for Newsbytes. The product adds LotusScript, a new SmartCenter, and OLE (object linking and embedding) 2.0 for all Lotus desktop applications, plus new World Wide Web and team computing capabilities across Word Pro, Freelance, and Approach. "SmartSuite 96 is for Notes as well as non-Notes users," Hayner told Newsbytes. Starting with SmartSuite 96, LotusScript, the same scripting language used in the upcoming Lotus Notes Release 4, will be available as a shared component across all of Lotus's Windows 95 products. But newly updated, 32-bit versions of Lotus's Word Pro, Freelance Graphics, and Approach also bring new Web access/authoring and collaborative computing tools, plus other new features, such as simplified database querying capabilities in Approach, that are geared to both personal and group productivity, according to the Lotus group marketing manager. Within the US through March of next year, Lotus will bundle America Online (AOL)'s new Global Network Navigator (GNN) for Web browsing and access with both SmartSuite 96 for Windows 95 and SmartSuite 4.0 for Windows 3.1, Hayner reported. Also, in the new SmartSuite 96, "You can publish documents directly to the Web from directly inside either Word Pro or Freelance," she noted. Outside of Word Pro-to-HTML (hypertext markup language) document conversion and live Web browsing, the new Word Pro 96 Edition for Windows 95 is designed to allow automatic WebCrawler searching on highlighted text, along with the ability to open and save files from FTP (File Transfer Protocol) servers. Other new capabilities in Word Pro include Divider Tabs and Ask the Expert. Aside from "Publish to the Internet," which provides the ability to publish presentations to the Web in HTML (hypertext markup language) format, Freelance Graphics 96 Edition for Windows 95 adds new Content SmartMasters and Smart Diagramming, Newsbytes was told. For viewing presentations in Freelance format, Lotus is providing free downloads of its Freelance Graphics Mobile Screen Show player directly from its home page at http://www.lotus.com . SmartSuite 96 also encompasses a searchable, indexed Approach database of top Web sites. New features in Approach 96 Edition for Windows 95 that are tailored to end users include Find Assistant, for creating complex database searches, and SQL (structured query language) assistant, a guide to selecting the SQL tables, rows and columns to be accessed. Like 1-2-3, Organizer, ScreenCam, and the other applications in SmartSuite 96, Approach can now be programmed through LotusScript, Lotus's "object-oriented Basic programming language," according to Hayner. Also for programmability, SmartSuite 96 includes "enhanced support" for OLE 2.0, including OCXes. The product's new SmartCenter 96, which is organized around a "file cabinet" interface, is intended to provide a central place for launching, accessing, and storing information from all products in the suite, according to Hayner. Also in SmartSuite 96, Lotus has expanded on team computing features in the previously released SmartSuite 4.0 for Windows 3.1 such as TeamMail, TeamReview, TeamConsolidate, and TeamShow, she asserted. A new TeamSecurity feature, for example, is designed to provide customized access privileges to entire groups as well as individual users. Lotus began its movement toward team computing even before SmartSuite 4.0, with features like the version manager in Lotus 1-2-3, Hayner pointed out, adding that a new 32-bit edition of Lotus 1-2-3 for Windows 95 is now in beta. The Lotus exec also revealed that Lotus used the results a study by International Techvantage, conducted among 302 randomly selected US line-of-business (LOB) managers, in developing the collaborative computing functionality. An overwhelming 91 percent of the managers said that they "require input or feedback from others when creating documents," according to the report. The study also determined that managers spend 47 percent of their document preparation time "gathering input from others (and) reviewing and consolidating information." As previously reported in Newsbytes, the new Windows 95 edition of SmartSuite is targeted not only at current SmartSuite customers, but also at converts from PerfectOffice, an office suite that Novell intends to put up for sale. Under a new initiative called "PerfectTime for Lotus SmartSuite," Lotus is providing WordPerfect and PerfectOffice users with discount pricing of $199 and a 90-day money-back guarantee on either SmartSuite 96 for Windows 95 or SmartSuite 4.0 for Windows 3.1 through December 31. The promotion also includes elements aimed at a "smooth transition from WordPerfect to Word Pro," including free downloads of "self- paced" WordPerfect-to-Word Pro courseware, and a "dedicated support line," according to Hayner. "Many WordPerfect users are already users of Lotus 1-2-3, anyway," the group marketing manager pointed out. Under another new promotion, called "Team Up with Lotus and Win," Lotus is offering prizes that include T-shirts, sports bags, leather jackets and "a big-screen TV" to end users as well as resellers. Scratch tickets for the prizes are being packaged with SmartSuite in addition to Lotus applications through the start of next year. Analysts applauded the team computing and personal productivity features in SmartSuite 96, as well as the integration with Notes and the Web. "Anyone who's ever had to work with a document that has been reviewed and edited by five different people knows that TeamConsolidate is a very useful feature," observed Chris Le Tocq, president of SoftTracks. Amy Wohl, president of Wohl Associates, said that Lotus made a good move in "sticking to its schedule," shipping SmartSuite 96 at a time when some Lotus desktop applications have already been optimized for Windows 95, while others, such as 1-2-3, are still being optimized. By neither rushing to ship product immediately upon the release of Windows 95, nor "delaying the whole suite," Lotus is pursuing "the middle ground," the analyst told Newsbytes. (Jacqueline Emigh/19951127/Reader Contact: Lotus, 800-343-5414; Press Contact: Laura Beck or Doug Broad, Lois Paul & Partners for Lotus, 617-862-4514) (SUMMARY)(GENERAL)(MSP)(00030) Newsbytes Daily Summary 11/27/95 MINNEAPOLIS, MINNESOTA, U.S.A., 1995 NOV 27 (NB) -- These are capsules of all today's news stories: ======================================================================== ------------| N E W S B Y T E S D A I L Y S U M M A R Y |---------- ------------| Monday, November 27, 1995 |---------- ======================================================================== (c) Newsbytes News Network (Tm) Editor in Chief: Wendy Woods ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Newsbytes News Network's on the Web! Check out http://www.nbnn.com for free daily top stories from Newsbytes and its affiliate publications, and from PC Week, MacWeek, and other Ziff news magazines. A subscription gives you all the news, full-text, plus the most comprehensive database of past computer stories online. The keyword-searchable database dates from today back through 1983. Subscriptions are $24.95 for three months. Questions? Send to 'administrator@newsbytes.com' For Japanese Newsbytes and additional services, see the Newsbytes Pacifica Website at http://www.islandtel.com/newsbytes/ ------------------------------------------------------------------------ CATEGORY HEADLINES (*** indicates today's top stories) STORY # ======================================================================== BROADCAST Fuji's Film Image Capture Device, Digital Cameras.......... 15 BUSINESS ****Creative Technology Drops Reveal Acquisition.......... 08 BUSINESS Canada's IStar Internet Goes Public, Buys 3 Companies...... 18 BUSINESS ****Symantec Completes Delrina Acquisition................ 27 BUSINESS ****Novell Cuts 400 Jobs, No buyer For Business Apps...... 28 GENERAL NewsPix Images For Newsbytes Publishers.................... 11 GENERAL Novell UK's DeveloperNet For Software Developers........... 13 GENERAL Canadian Product Launch Update............................. 19 GENERAL Japan Newsbriefs........................................... 20 GOVT Electronic Engineers Back High-Tech Immigration Limits..... 26 IBM IBM Europe's OS/2 Warp Vouchers For Aptiva PC Users........ 02 LEGAL ****Credit Card Users Beware Of Shadow Authorizations..... 06 LEGAL China - Tougher Punishments Against Phone Number Theft..... 07 ONLINE New York Times Redesigned For America Online............... 04 ONLINE Washington GOP Delegation Has Balanced Budget Web Home Page 10 ONLINE ATM Technology Boosts Canada's Internet Backbone........... 17 ONLINE Internet Update............................................ 21 PC UK Low-Cost Phone Directory CD-ROM......................... 01 PC Dell UK Opens Automated Tech Support Lines................. 03 SUPERCOMP Maui Supercomputer Tests Sybase Database................... 23 TELECOM UK - Warning Over "Christmas Present Phones................ 12 TELECOM British Telecom Criticized On Fair Trading................. 14 TELECOM Call-Net & Unitel Spar Over AT&T Stake..................... 16 TELECOM Telephone Over Cable Made Easier........................... 22 TRENDS China - Domestic High Quality PCs Used For Outer Space..... 09 TRENDS ****Nintendo Ultra 64 Game System Intro'd................. 24 TRENDS PC Data's October Best-Seller List......................... 25 WINDOWS New Corel CD Home Titles................................... 05 WINDOWS Lotus Intros SmartSuite 96 For Windows 95.................. 29 ======================================================================== These are the headlines and first paragraphs of each story, in order: 1 -> UK Low-Cost Phone Directory CD-ROM -- TDS Marketing has unveiled a UKP39.99 CD-ROM disk that contains the 2.4 million fax and phone numbers of businesses in the UK which are registered with British Telecom (BT), along with most cable and cellular network subscribers. According to Edward Sanderson, a spokesman for the company, the disk is a licensed subset of the BT Phonedisk that sells for UKP200. 2 -> IBM Europe's OS/2 Warp Vouchers For Aptiva PC Users -- IBM Europe has announced it is offering vouchers to any buyer of an Aptiva PC system, with the aim of allowing buyers to obtain a copy of OS/2 Warp free of charge. Customers buying an Aptiva have now started seeing a CD-ROM demo version of the operating system (OS) with their machines, and can send in a voucher for a CD-ROM or floppy-based version of the OS. 3 -> Dell UK Opens Automated Tech Support Lines -- Dell Computer UK has announced the availability of AutoTech, an automated technical support line, for its UK customers. 4 -> New York Times Redesigned For America Online -- Responding to reader requests, and a need to "stand out," New York Times officials said they have redesigned their "@times" online news and information service on America Online (NASDAQ:AMER). The new version is the site's first redesign since appearing in cyberspace 18 months ago. 5 -> New Corel CD Home Titles -- Corel Corp. has announced it will ship four major additions to its CD Home software line this month. The offerings include: Internet Mania, for home Net surfers; the Complete Herman Collection; World's Greatest Classic Books; and Corel Chess. 6 -> ****Credit Card Users Beware Of Shadow Authorizations -- On returning from Comdex Fall, Newsbytes bureau was saddened to learn that our Mastercard account had been "maxed" out and that further charges were not possible. In fact, when the bill arrived, we became worried about possible fraudulent charges, as we calculated there was still "headroom" on the account 7 -> China - Tougher Punishments Against Phone Number Theft -- Chinese authorities are vowing to crack down on mobile phone number theft. In addition, duplicating or scalping other people's mobile telephone numbers is a "criminal activity," according to a recent government circular. 8 -> ****Creative Technology Drops Reveal Acquisition -- Audio giant, Creative Technology (NASDAQ:CREAF) says it is terminating its efforts to acquire Reveal Computer Products. Official statements from both companies failed to reveal what went wrong. 9 -> China - Domestic High Quality PCs Used For Outer Space -- China has reached the forefront of outer-space computer and integrated circuit technology over the past 30 years, a government newspaper claims. 10 -> Washington GOP Delegation Has Balanced Budget Web Home Page -- The Washington state Republican congressional delegation has created a World Wide Web page dedicated to pushing a balanced federal budget. The address is http:// www.house.gov/white/budget/budget.html . 11 -> NewsPix Images For Newsbytes Publishers -- Photos are now posted as they arrive. This means quicker access to the story pictures. The bulletin will continue on Mondays, with updates Wednesdays and Fridays as needed. 12 -> UK - Warning Over "Christmas Present Phones -- Mercury One-2-One, one of the UK's two PCN (personal communications network) digital phone networks, has warned that many mobile phones sold this Christmas may prove to be a financial burden to either the giver or, perhaps worse still, the recipient. 13 -> Novell UK's DeveloperNet For Software Developers -- Novell UK has announced the creation of DeveloperNet, a developer relations program that it claims will serve as the primary communications channel for delivering the company's corporate technology to software and associated hardware developers. 14 -> British Telecom Criticized On Fair Trading -- British Telecom (BT) has been roundly criticized by Don Cruikshank, the head of Oftel, the Government-appointed telecoms watchdog in the UK. Cruikshank is reported to be annoyed at BT's apparent failure to implement fair trading throughout its business, suggesting that BT felt there was no harm in carrying out anti-competitive practices "unless and until the regulator intervenes." 15 -> Fuji's Film Image Capture Device, Digital Cameras -- Fuji Photo Film USA Inc. has introduced an image capture device that can input images from slides, negatives, or prints into a personal computer, and two digital card cameras designed for professional photographers. 16 -> Call-Net & Unitel Spar Over AT&T Stake -- Call-Net Enterprises Inc. (TSE,ME:CN; NASDAQ:CNEBF), whose subsidiary Sprint Canada Inc. competes in the Canadian long-distance market, is challenging AT&T's (NYSE:T) purchase of a larger stake in rival long-distance carrier Unitel Communications Inc. 17 -> ATM Technology Boosts Canada's Internet Backbone -- The use of asynchronous transfer mode (ATM) technology to run Canada's commercial Internet backbone and the National Test Network (NTN) as virtual networks on the same set of optical fibers will increase Internet capacity across the country, officials said. 18 -> Canada's IStar Internet Goes Public, Buys 3 Companies -- Istar Internet Inc., which claims to be the largest Internet access provider in Canada, has announced an initial public offering. The company also said it has acquired three more companies over the past three months and will continue with an "aggressive" growth strategy. 19 -> Canadian Product Launch Update -- This regular feature, appearing on the first day Newsbytes publishes each week, provides further details for the Canadian market on announcements by international companies that Newsbytes has already covered. This week: Computer Associates adds AgentWorks and other technologies to its Unicenter system management software. 20 -> Japan Newsbriefs -- In this roundup of news from Japan: US demands more deregulation; HDTV receivers pass 100,000; Netscape, Sun, IIJ most popular in corporate Japan; Kodak, Canon join in digital camera production; New cable venture planned; Asian Internet venture gets name. 21 -> Internet Update -- In this roundup of new resources and services on the global Internet: Free concert this week; The interview online; The best of Japan; UK budget day approaches ...; Ken Saro Wiwa condolence book; New on Usenet; Court TV law center; Iowa local index; Guide to good dining. 22 -> Telephone Over Cable Made Easier -- First Pacific Networks Inc. (NASDAQ: FPNX) has announced an enhancement to its hybrid fiber/coax (HFC) products which the company claims will improve the quality of telephony over cable. The company's new Digital Transmission Unit (DTU) is claimed to reduce the noise or interference that builds up on a HFC network. 23 -> Maui Supercomputer Tests Sybase Database -- Sybase Inc. (NASDAQ: SYBS), has announced results of a test conducted at the Maui High Performance Computing Center (MHPCC). Sybase MPP (previously called Sybase Navigation Server) was tested on an IBM RS/6000 scalable POWERparallel system using 128 high performance reduced instruction set computer (RISC) processors. 24 -> ****Nintendo Ultra 64 Game System Intro'd -- Nintendo Co. Ltd. has introduced its Nintendo Ultra 64 home video game to the world at the company's annual video game exhibition, called Shoshinkai, that was held over the past weekend. 25 -> PC Data's October Best-Seller List -- Few changes show up in the October list of hot-selling software from PC Data. The top spot in the software hit parade remains remarkably stable in the dozen categories the Virginia market research company tracks. 26 -> Electronic Engineers Back High-Tech Immigration Limits -- The US arm of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers this week will announce its support for a law that would limit immigration of high-tech professionals into the US. 27 -> ****Symantec Completes Delrina Acquisition -- Less than five months after announcing its intention to acquire forms and communications software specialist, Delrina (TOR:DC) of Toronto, Canada, Symantec (NASDAQ:SYMC) says the deal is complete and Delrina is now a Symantec subsidiary. Early estimates valued the deal at $415 million. 28 -> ****Novell Cuts 400 Jobs, No buyer For Business Apps -- Almost hidden during the usual hoopla that surrounds the Comdex trade show last week was the announcement by Novell Inc. (NASDAQ:NOVL) that it had sent pink slips to about 420 people in its Business Applications Division. 29 -> Lotus Intros SmartSuite 96 For Windows 95 -- Lotus used input from a study by International Techvantage Group in creating the newly released SmartSuite 96 Edition for Windows 95, said Lotus's Kathleen Hayner, in a briefing for Newsbytes. The product adds LotusScript, a new SmartCenter, and OLE (object linking and embedding) 2.0 for all Lotus desktop applications, plus new World Wide Web and team computing capabilities across Word Pro, Freelance, and Approach. (Ian Stokell/19951127) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 11/22/95 ONLINE Industry.Net Launches 26 New Internet Services (NEWS)(ONLINE)(MSP)(00001) Industry.Net Launches 26 New Internet Services 11/22/95 PITTSBURGH, PENNSYLVANIA, U.S.A., 1995 NOV 22 (NB) -- Already having developed what it calls "the world's largest online marketplace for business and industry," Industry.Net said it has launched 26 new online services inside its Internet World Wide Web site. Industry.Net's Online Marketplace already hosts more than 4,000 companies and is used by more than 180,000 buyers and specifiers, officials said. The announcement adds on to a "marketplace floor" concept which divided industries by category, Autumn Katarincic, Industry.Net spokesperson, told Newsbytes. Some of the new services include: "Consulting Online;" "Control Products Online;" "Engineering Software Online;" "Networks Online;" and "Power Transmission Online." "These floors had been getting so large, we decided to spin them off to their own online services," Katarincic said. "Each one is dedicated to a different industry." Don Jones, founder and chief executive officer of Industry.Net, said the Online Marketplace is only the beginning of industry's expansion on the Web. "These new, segment-specific services should help make the whole interaction even more productive for everyone," he said. "They're just one more logical step in our ongoing evolution toward full-blown electronic commerce." Katarincic told Newsbytes the online services only provide information for now, but future plans call for Internet users to have the ability to perform transactions online. Industry.Net is also helping people gain access to the Web, Katarincic said. The company has an agreement with Netcom to provide Web access for its clients. "People had seen our site through other people's connections, but they didn't know how to get Web access themselves," she said. "They kept asking 'Can you please get us on the Web,' and we said we're not access providers. But we decided we had to do something, so that's where our deal with Netcom came from." Industry.Net is located on the Web at http://www.industry.net . Newsbytes first covered Industry.Net when it opened its Online Marketplace last March. Before the Web site opened, Industry.Net members had direct dial-up access to the service, an Industry.Net official told Newsbytes at the time. (Bob Woods/19951121/Press Contacts: Autumn J. Katarincic, Industry.Net, 412-967-1700, Internet e-mail autumn@industry.net; Jane Mazur, Niehaus Ryan Haller Public Relations, 415-827-7079, Internet e-mail jane@nrh.com) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 11/22/95 TRENDS Canadian Software Productivity High, Quality Low - Study (NEWS)(TRENDS)(TOR)(00002) Canadian Software Productivity High, Quality Low - Study 11/22/95 OTTAWA, ONTARIO, CANADA, 1995 NOV 22 (NB) -- A recent study of software development in Canada says that, compared to their counterparts in other countries, Canadians turn out software faster and with more mistakes. To be competitive internationally in the software field, the study conducted for the Canadian government said, Canada needs to boost the quality of its software. The study was conducted for the federal department Industry Canada by well-known industry analysts Dr. Howard Rubin and Ed Yourdon. They collected data through questionnaires and follow-up interviews and telephone audits, from 227 companies in India, the Far East, Europe, South Africa, South America, and the United States. Rubin and Yourdon found that Canadian software developers were more productive than the worldwide average. The study, of which Newsbytes has obtained a copy, rated average Canadian development productivity at 111 function points per professional versus a worldwide average of 92.5 function points per professional. The figure for the United States was 88 function points per professional. However, the study also reported that Canada had the highest defect rate, at 5.12 defects per thousand lines of code. The worldwide average defect rate is 3.79 per thousand lines of code, while the United States made the best showing in this respect with only 2.3 defects per thousand lines of code. These numbers seem to support the unsurprising conclusion that the faster you write software, the more mistakes you make. However, they might also reflect the fact that -- according to the Rubin-Yourdon study -- Canadian companies tend to provide less training for their staff than the international average, while American companies tend to provide the most training. The study also noted that a small percentage of Canadian companies have taken part in a process assessment such as that needed for ISO 9000 certification. Only 29 percent of Canadian participants in the study had taken part in such an assessment, Yourdon and Rubin said, while 35 percent of all participants worldwide had done so. Another finding of the study is that Canadian companies are moving more slowly toward client/server computing than their counterparts in other countries. "In all areas except Canada," the researchers reported, "the client/server focus is about to overtake the mainframe orientation." Rubin and Yourdon recommended to Industry Canada that the Canadian government use national certification programs and awards to drive up quality, and provide Canadian industry with tools for assessing their competitiveness and sharing information about best practices in the software field. They also suggested encouraging universities to focus on software engineering, and encouraging start-up companies to attract outside investment. Canada has a chance to be a global force in information technology, the study reports, but must act now to correct its weaknesses before it is too late. (Grant Buckler/19951121) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 11/22/95 WINDOWS Microsoft 3-D Movie Maker Ready To Debut (NEWS)(WINDOWS)(DEN)(00003) Microsoft 3-D Movie Maker Ready To Debut 11/22/95 REDMOND, WASHINGTON, U.S.A., 1995 NOV 22 (NB) -- Just in time for the kickoff of the year's biggest selling season, Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ: MSFT) is premiering 3D Movie Maker, a CD-ROM-based software program that lets you make your own real-time three-dimensional (3-D) animated movies. The program comes with dozens of 3-D locations. Up to 30 camera angles can be used for each scene, and a cast of 40 animated characters is constantly on call to "act" in your productions. Microsoft said the program, which is targeted at younger users, underwent usability testing that showed kids use dreams or more reality-based dramas from the playground as the basis for their movies. Much of the action is accomplished with the click of a mouse or by dragging objects. Microsoft said the kids can add and animate new characters and attach sound effects or musical tracks while the action they have already created runs simultaneously. Instead of having to create animation in the traditional cell-by-cell method, kids can create live-action sequences then combine them into a movie that can be as long as 17 hours on a floppy disk, although recorded dialog will take up more disk space and keep the maximum length of the movie shorter. Microsoft said 3D Movie Maker differs from competitive products that are either two-dimensional (2-D) or are multimedia slide-show creation programs. In addition to the 3-D ability, movie making wannabees can add their own recorded dialogue or narration. This is the third title in Microsoft's creativity series. Previous Newsbytes stories have reported on the release of Creative Writer and Fine Artist. The opening sequences of 3-D Movie Maker welcome the young user to the imaginary world of Imaginopolis where every building is a potential movie set. Kids can go behind the screen of the movie theater to a creative studio where they can bring their ideas to life. An area of the program called "The Idea Room" is where the would-be directors can find inspiration for various ideas. "Project Room" is the home of Melanie, an assistant who helps the children create their movie projects. "Studio" is where the animation tools are available, and "Theater" is a private screening room where you view your movie masterpiece. A layered user interface guides the user through the four primary decisions all movie makers face as they choose: the location; the actors, movements and props; the sounds and dialogue; and the written words that are the credits or captions. To provide more help, 3-D Movie Maker includes roll-over tool tips that provide both audio and text online help. More help is available in the form of McZee. A Talent Book features character outlines and prompts story ideas, and there is also a manual for parents. 3-D Movie Maker has an estimated selling price of $44.95. To run the program you need a multimedia PC running at least a 486SX 50 megahertz chip or better, Windows 95, at least eight megabytes (MB) of system memory, 12MB of available hard disk space, a double-speed or faster CD-ROM, a 16-bit sound card with headphones or speakers, and a mouse or comparable pointing device. (Jim Mallory/19951121/press contact: Deborah Caldwell, Waggener Edstrom for Microsoft, 206-637-9097; Public contact: Microsoft, 206-882-8080 or 800-426-9400) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 11/22/95 ONLINE Price Club To Sell Online (NEWS)(ONLINE)(LAX)(00004) Price Club To Sell Online 11/22/95 SAN DIEGO, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1995 NOV 22 (NB) -- Price Quest, a subsidiary of Price Enterprises Inc. (NASDAQ: PREN) and Price/Costco Inc. (NASDAQ: PCCW), has announced that it will begin offering over 9,000 brand name items online through America Online Market Place in time for the 1995 holiday season. The shopping service will be called "Price Online" and will be available to America Online subscribers on November 27. With Price Online, members will be able to browse through 30 departments, which encompass 280 categories of products, including jewelry, cameras, sporting goods, electronics, and homewares. Speaking to Newsbytes, Steven A. Velazquez, president of Price Quest, said, "We will offer over 9,000 products at the same discount levels found in our warehouse centers. We think we can have the same impact on the online marketplace that we had on the mass merchandise retail market. We already have the database of products that we developed for our in-store kiosks, and moving those products online is not very difficult." Purchases can be made by using major credit cards (Visa, Mastercard, or Discover). Orders are placed directly through America Online, and the goods are delivered anywhere in the continental United States. Deliveries are generally completed within ten working days. "Expansion of the Price Quest interactive electronic business by launching Price Online is a logical progression for our company," said Robert E. Price, chief executive officer for Price Quest. "We feel that, with the proper use of technology and merchandising skills, Price Online can drive costs out of the distribution system." "As a result of this agreement with America Online, we will leverage over three years of kiosk technology experience and our extensive supplier network by making products even more conveniently available in customers' homes and businesses. We are very excited about establishing our initial entry into online shopping through America Online and envision that other strategic alliances are likely as Price Online pursues its business objectives," said Price. Ted Leonsis, president of AOL Services Company, added, "We are pleased to join with Price Quest to bring our members extensive shopping services in time for the holiday season. Through shopping online, AOL members will find a hassle-free alternative to crowded malls without forfeiting quality and selection." Created by Sol and Robert Price, founders of the Price Club membership warehouse club business in 1976, Price Quest claims it "represents a continuation of the Price tradition of offering brand name merchandise at prices significantly below those available from other retail outlets." Price Quest had already developed an interactive electronic shopping service which has been available at 36 kiosk centers located in PriceCostco warehouses. Price Quest is owned 51% by Price Enterprises Inc. and 49% by Price/Costco Inc. Price Enterprises became a separate publicly held company in December, 1994, following its spin-off from PriceCostco. (Richard Bowers/19951121/Press Contact: Steven A. Velazquez, Price Quest, 619-581-4808) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 11/22/95 GOVT Chinese Premier Wants Motorola To Be "More Open" (NEWS)(GOVT)(PEK)(00005) Chinese Premier Wants Motorola To Be "More Open" 11/22/95 BEIJING, CHINA, 1995 NOV 22 (NB) -- Premier Li Peng wants Motorola to be "more open" about its technology when selling its products in China. Co-manufacturing will help Motorola capture a bigger share of the Chinese market, Li reportedly told Motorola President Christopher Galvin recently. In a recent meeting with Galvin, Chinese Premier Li said that business cooperation with China in electronics and telecommunications enjoys a bright future. Galvin said that China is a reliable partner. He told Li that 10 years ago, after a three-week study tour in China, Motorola decided to enter the market, and the company's business in the country has grown ever since. Motorola launched its first representative office in Beijing in 1987. In 1992, Motorola China Ltd. was established in Tianjin, producing pagers, cellular phones, and semiconductors. Li said that Motorola's decision to enter the Chinese market at such an early stage was very foresighted. Motorola has put about US$ billion into China, and by the year 2000, its investment is expected to total $1.2 billion. The company has nearly 6,000 Chinese employees. Motorola recently announced a joint venture with Nanjing Panda Electronics to produce multimedia computers. With Motorola's solely- owned semiconductor factory in Tianjin, the company will increase its total investment in China to over $1 billion. Motorola also has plans to jointly set up a manufacturing plant with the Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications Industry for a digital cellular infrastructure and subscriber equipment and to jointly produce pagers with Shanghai Radio Communication Equipment Manufacturing. (Chih-Ho Yu & Ning Huang/19951122) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 11/22/95 NETWORK China - Novell Dominates Network Software Market (NEWS)(NETWORK)(PEK)(00006) China - Novell Dominates Network Software Market 11/22/95 BEIJING, CHINA, 1995 NOV 22 (NB) -- Novell currently has 80 percent of the network software market in China, and its sales volume in the country this year is expected to triple last year's figure. Novell started to sell its products to China in the 1980s. According to Chairman Robert Frankenberg, Novell's sales volume in China will keep the same high growth rate in the coming years. The fast development of computer networking in China means great opportunities for foreign companies. China plays an important role in the company's strategic plan as the country is making considerable efforts to develop networking technologies and network applications, he said. Novell opened its first office in Beijing earlier this year and expects to open another in Shanghai in the near future. The company is planning to expand its sales network across the country by appointing more authorized retailers. The number of retailers will be increased to 120 this year from two resellers last year, the company said. The company pays considerable attention to education in order to train more Chinese networking professionals. In the networking center of Tsinghua University, people come from all over China to be trained to use Novell's software. The company also recently launched a technical networking conference, called Brainshare. The three-day conference in Beijing brought together many of the leading authorities and technical experts in the computer network world. The large technical network conference is also a mark of Novell's determination to intensify its presence in the Chinese market. During the conference, Novell's senior officials, engineers, and architects introduced the company's latest technology. More than a thousand Chinese government officials, company bosses, and technical experts attended the conference. (Chih-Ho Yu & Ning Huang/19951122) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 11/22/95 EDUCATION China - School Pager Services Criticized (NEWS)(EDUCATION)(PEK)(00007) China - School Pager Services Criticized 11/22/95 BEIJING, CHINA, 1995 NOV 22 (NB) -- Some Chinese cities have special pager services for middle school students. Although some parents like the service, saying it provides for convenient communications between the student and parents, many teachers criticize the service for disturbing the "calm studying atmosphere" in school. Pager services are the only "open" business in China's telecommunications sector, allowing private enterprises to get a share in the huge market. In 1994, there were about 10.27 million pager users in the country, and that number is expected to be more than 13 million this year. While attracting more adult subscribers, a number of pager firms also noticed the potential market for student users. Some cities opened so-called "student special pager services" to attract students to use their services. The student discount price of a pager is about RMB500 (US$60) and the service fee is about RMB15 (US$1.8) per month. Some families of middle school students like the service, saying that the service brings more convenience to the parents since the connection allows the parents to know where the student is and what they are doing. Also, the parents can also inform the student of their schedule, for example, that they may be home late. However, many families and most school teachers criticize the promotion of school pager services. Pager services disturb the calm of school campus, and students carrying pagers often check messages during class, they claim. A survey showed that most middle school students are curious about pagers. Although pager services may be okay for college students, most middle school students are too young to carry a pager, middle school teachers suggest. They also request the government to issue regulations to stop the commercial promotion of pager services in middle schools. (Chih-Ho Yu & Ning Huang/19951122) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 11/22/95 TRENDS Australia - Retail Computer Sellers Experience Slowdown (NEWS)(TRENDS)(SYD)(00008) Australia - Retail Computer Sellers Experience Slowdown 11/22/95 MELBOURNE, AUSTRALIA, 1995 NOV 22 (NB) -- Despite a drop off in retail computer sales up until the past two weeks, Myer-Grace Bros (a large Australian retail/department store group) national computer and home office buyer, Frank Kavanagh, says the stores are gearing up for "Christmas sales that will be a better year than ever". "Up until two weeks ago, there was a bit of a slow down, but we are gearing up for a big Christmas," Kavanagh said. "This year will be better than any other year and we are ready to go." Kavanagh tips the top five sellers in software to be the recently released Hexcen, plus Rebel Assault II, The Rolling Stones CD-ROM, Windows '95, and Encarta '96. Battling it out at the top of the list in hardware will be the Compaq 7150 which will retail at AUS$3,299 and IBM's Aptiva Pentium 75, retailing at $3,999. The biggest seller in the printer market for Myer-GB would be the Canon BJ200ex at $349. Harvey Norman Superstore chairman, Gerry Harvey, also predicts a bumper Christmas, but says retail sales have been decidedly "ordinary" over the last six weeks. "Every retailer I've spoken to says there has been a drop off but there is no real reason for it," he told Newsbytes. "I think this is just a hiccup. We are looking forward to a good Christmas and I expect January to be excellent." Australian retailers are reporting a marked slowdown in sales of Windows 95. Gerry Harvey says that, when the product was launched in August, sales in the first four days were up to 30,000 units. "Three to four weeks ago we were selling only about 1,000 a week." Harvey attributes the slow-down to the over-the-top marketing hype at the time of the release. "It was the best promotion I've ever seen," he said. "We are still selling it, but sales have dropped mightily." Kavanagh said he expected a drop-off following, what he perceived to be, a lot of negative publicity. However, he said he expected sales to pick up over Christmas. Apple Computer shipped more PCs in Australia during the third quarter than any other vendor. According to IDC's Bruce McCabe, the supply problems which have vexed the company in recent times seem to have been overcome. "The supply of Power PCs seems to have been executed very well and there seems to be considerable pent-up demand," said McCabe. He could not supply exact shipment figures. McCabe also says IDC estimates confirm the overall slowing of computer retail sales reported by Harvey Norman and Myer Grace Bros. "The third quarter was fairly flat and below early expectations," he said, adding that October has been particularly slow. "Traditionally, it's a slower part of the year, but it's more pronounced than usual," he said. According to McCabe, the reasons for the trend are not clear, but he confidently predicts strong pre-Christmas sales for the industry. (Computer Daily News/19951122) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 11/22/95 TELECOM India - Motorola To Focus On Private Paging (NEWS)(TELECOM)(DEL)(00009) India - Motorola To Focus On Private Paging 11/22/95 NEW DELHI, INDIA, 1995 NOV 22 (NB) -- Motorola Inc., which recently unveiled plans to invest over R500 crore (about $150 million) in India in major areas -- such as new manufacturing units, new technologies, and technical support -- has now decided to focus its attention on private paging in India. For this, it has formed a new division, the Derivative Technologies Division (DTD), a business unit of the Paging Products Group of Motorola. Announcing the move, Ron Seng, director of operations, DTD, Asia Pacific, Motorola Electronics Pte. Ltd., said, "Public paging has already made its presence felt in the Indian market and private paging, though has been around for quite some time now, offers immense potential, and a focused approach is called for tapping this sector. And the setting up of a DTD is in this direction." Already, Motorola has installed private paging systems in King Edward Memorial Hospital, the Oberoi Group, the Sheraton Group, Delhi Police, ONGC, IOC, IPCL, and several others. Percy Batlivala, executive director, India Paging, Motorola, said that, going by the prospects of private paging in India, his company would get 20 percent of its turnover from this business segment in five years. The comparable figure for other countries, he added, was 10 percent. Meanwhile, the new division has come out with a wide range of pagers and paging systems for the Indian market, which include the desktop voice paging Sitemate system and People Finder desktop system which provides tone-only, numeric, alphanumeric, and voice capability. The pager portfolio includes 1-line Memo Express, 2-line Scriptor, and the 4-line Advisor. The Memo Express, Advisor, and Bravo Plus are locally manufactured in the Motorola Bangalore factory, while the other models are mainly supplied from the factories in Singapore and the United States. (C. T. Mahabharat/19951121) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 11/22/95 GENERAL India - Dun & Bradstreet Expands Software Devt Center (NEWS)(GENERAL)(DEL)(00010) India - Dun & Bradstreet Expands Software Devt Center 11/22/95 NEW DELHI, INDIA, 1995 NOV 22 (NB) -- Dun & Bradstreet Satyam Software (DBSS), the joint venture company of the US-based Dun & Bradstreet Corp., and Satyam Computer Services Ltd., Hyderabad, has drawn up a major expansion plan involving the setting up of a new software development center (SDC) at Elnet Software City at Madras. According to the DBSS Chief Technical Officer Lakshmi Narayan, the new software center will have 64 kilobits-per-second satellite links with US for communication with other centers. The existing software center in Madras will also be connected to the new SDC through a high bandwidth radio link. DBSS Chairman Kumar Mahadeva, who is also chairman of Dun & Bradstreet India, said the company is planning to set up a divisional office in Calcutta by next year. Further, it will also open an office in the US early next year, and one each in Hong Kong and Singapore to increase the company's market presence in the Asia Pacific region. DBSS has posted a turnover of R25 crore in software exports and plans to increase it to R50 crore by the end of next year. The company will also develop tools, such as gateways, to access property information from D&B's huge database, which provides information on the medical, pharmaceutical, manufacturing, media, and financial sectors. DBSS has already been making huge investments in hardware and new technologies like very large database management (VLDM) and data visualization. It has also become the designated center for object- oriented technology for D&B divisions worldwide. (C. T. Mahabharat/19951121) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 11/22/95 TRENDS India - Cyber Cafes In 5-Star Hotels (NEWS)(TRENDS)(DEL)(00011) India - Cyber Cafes In 5-Star Hotels 11/22/95 NEW DELHI, INDIA, 1995 NOV 22 (NB) -- There will be more to sipping coffee in the coming months in almost all the major five-star deluxe hotels in the country with the introduction of Cybercafes. The first one to be opened formally was at Hotel Leela Kempinski in Bombay. In the next two months, three Taj hotels -- in Bangalore, Madras, and Calcutta -- will have their own coffee shops hooked to the Internet, as will the Maurya Sheraton of the Welcome Group in New Delhi. The cybercafe in Leela, Bombay, will have six or more computers permanently connected to the Internet via Apple's eWorld, a service provided by British Telecommunications plc. Surfing the Net for an hour in the cybercafe could cost anything between R500 to R700. Cyberscape India, the company which is introducing the Cybercafe in Leela plans to franchise the concept in future. The Hotel Maurya Sheraton, in New Delhi, on the other hand, plans to deliver sound, image, and animation from the Internet through the Indy Webforce workstations of Silicon Graphics. The infrastructure, which costs about R1.3 crore, has been installed at the communications center of the hotel. The user can make a reservation at the Surf Bowl and navigate the Web using browsers like Netscape and virtual reality browsers. The network, which includes the World Wide Web will also provide electronic-mail service to those staying at the hotel, with each of the 440 rooms having a separate electronic post box. The entire system is being put together by the Welcome Group task force along with T-Net (India) Ltd., which will finally integrate the system. T-Net on its part, has roped in Onetics (Asia), Silicon Graphics, the Department of Electronics (DOE), and Escape Velocity Software, to make the hotel a regular Web site in the Internet. (C. T. Mahabharat/19951121) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 11/22/95 LEGAL ****Notorious Software Pirate Arrested (NEWS)(LEGAL)(DEN)(00012) ****Notorious Software Pirate Arrested 11/22/95 LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1995 NOV 22 (NB) -- Los Angeles County District Attorney's investigators recently arrested a man they said is known as "Captain Blood" in the software industry, and seized an estimated $1 million worth of allegedly illegally copied software from his residence in the upscale Wilshire district of Los Angeles. Authorities said they arrested Thomas Nick Alefantes, 45, who Deputy District Attorney Lawrence Morrison said is known as Captain Blood. Alefantes allegedly sells software through advertisements in trade publications. He was booked on suspicion of counterfeiting a registered trademark and was being held on $1 million bail, according to the LA County DA's office. Morrison, who accompanied investigators as they served a search warrant at the residence, said the seized software was copies of hundreds of software manufacturers' products. In addition to the software, investigators said they also seized three computers, high-speed duplicating equipment, two handguns, handcuffs, and $15,000 in cash. The Business Software Alliance, a trade group devoted to fighting software piracy, said a shredder, printers, and a CD-ROM-write machine were also seized. BSA said the seizure is the largest to date of cases involving illegal mail-order operations. Alefantes is believed to have been illegally copying and selling software for about five years. BSA said Alefantes has no visible source of income, but a Mercedes Benz was parked in his driveway. A BSA spokesperson told Newsbytes the software industry loses $12 billion a year to software pirates. BSA said copies of specialized software, such as computer-aided design and networking programs that cost several thousand dollars, were being sold by Alefantes for as little as $79, Other software, such as word processing, spreadsheet, and electronic-mail programs, were allegedly being sold for as little as $5. BSA said its member companies -- which include Autodesk, Microsoft, Bentley, Intergraph, Lotus Development, Novell and the Wordperfect Applications Group, The Santa Cruz Operation and Symantec -- have been working with the LA County DA's Major Crime Squad for several years to track down Captain Blood. Representatives of BSA, Autodesk, and Microsoft accompanied law enforcement officers on the raid. (Jim Mallory/19951122/Press contact: Sandi Gibbons, LA County District Attorney's Office, 213-974-3525 or Diane Smiroldo, BSA, 202-872-5500) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 11/22/95 GENERAL Japan Newsbriefs (NEWS)(GENERAL)(TYO)(00013) Japan Newsbriefs 11/22/95 TOKYO, JAPAN, 1995 NOV 22 (NB) -- In this roundup of news from Japan: NTT to encourage ISDN use; Satellite laser communications success; Japan's Ricoh wins best of Comdex; Seiko Epson increases LCD production; Nintendo attracts new producers. NTT To Encourage ISDN Use Nippon Telegraph and Telephone will begin selling a low-cost ISDN (integrated services digital network) adapter from December 8th. The new unit will sell for 50,000 yen ($500) and be suitable for use on the INSnet 64 service, an ISDN line. NTT is aiming the unit at households with a computer and telephone, by emphasizing the ability to use both the telephone and computer at once. Currently, users must pay a total of around 100,000 yen ($1,000) for the service adapters. Satellite Laser Communications Success The Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications has succeeded in receiving a laser beam transmitted by NASA from California and reflected back to earth via a mirror on the Kiku-6 satellite. The 1.2-meter telescope picked up the signal from the NASA research station in California. Japan's Ricoh Wins Best Of Comdex Tokyo's Ricoh walked away with the "Best Of Comdex" award for its RDC-1 digital camera. The camera is the world's first camera capable of recording and playing back still images, full-motion video, and audio, and was selected by editors of Byte magazine as the best input device from among an estimated 7,000 products making their debut at Comdex. The camera can either record 492 still images, four video sequences of five seconds length each, or 100 minutes of audio. Seiko Epson Increases LCD Production Seiko Epson will increase production of TFT (thin film transistor) liquid crystal displays (LCD) displays used in projectors. The company said it will build a new factory in Nagano prefecture to turn out 50,000 examples of the 1.3-inch screens a month. The new plant will cost around 10 billion yen ($100 million). When production begins in July, the company will raise its total output by 20,000 units a month from the current 30,000. Nintendo Attracts New Producers Just ahead of the launch of the Nintendo Ultra 64 game system later this month, Nintendo has announced major games producers Electronic Arts will make games for the system beginning with a soccer game. At the announcement, Nintendo said, "The Ultra 64 version of FIFA Soccer is expected to be one of the most realistic video game soccer simulations ever, featuring hundreds of international teams, amazingly fast gameplay, never-before-seen characters, gorgeous life-like graphics, and game control functions only possible on the Nintendo Ultra 64." (Martyn Williams/19951122) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 11/22/95 TELECOM Japan - Profits Surge At Telecom Firms (NEWS)(TELECOM)(TYO)(00014) Japan - Profits Surge At Telecom Firms 11/22/95 TOKYO, JAPAN, 1995 NOV 22 (NB) -- The big three telecom operators in Japan's domestic market all reported big increases in profits and revenues for the first six months of the current fiscal year which ended September 30. The companies were Nippon Telegraph and Telephone, the world's largest telecommunications company, and its two competitors in the long distance market, DDI and Japan Telecom. NTT (TSE:9432) announced an increase in pretax profits of 257% to 126.77 billion yen ($1.26 billion). In the first six months of the year, revenues rose to a massive 3.03 trillion yen ($30 billion) representing a 6% rise on the same period last year. Despite the good start to the year, a series of market opening measures and concessions to the two competitors have resulted in the company marking down its annual profits forecast from 320 billion yen ($3.17 billion) to 299 billion yen ($2.96 billion). Revenues are expected to climb slightly, 6.16 trillion yen ($61 billion), up from 6.14 trillion yen ($61 billion). At DDI (TSE:9433) company executives reported a rise of 105% in pretax profits to 30.46 billion yen ($302 million) on revenues of 223.65 billion yen ($2.21 billion), a jump of 24% against last year. Japan Telecom (TSE:9434) followed the trend by announcing a 51% rise in pretax profits to 24.65 billion yen ($244 million). Revenues at the company jumped 9% to reach 164.00 billion yen ($1.62 billion). For the full fiscal year, Japan Telecom revised its predictions with projected sales up 10.5% from last year to 336.80 billion yen ($3.33 billion) with accompanying pretax profits expected to be 43 billion yen ($426 million), a 136% rise from 18.22 billion yen ($180 million) last year. The two long distance operators said the profits rises were their largest ever in percentage terms. A major contributor to the rise is a cut in the charges each company pays for access to the NTT network. A reduction of around 15% was recently agreed but backdated to April 1st, the beginning of the financial year. Ironically, the rise in profits at NTT may actually hurt the company at a time when the government is reviewing whether to break it up into smaller pieces to promote more competition in the Japanese marketplace. NTT's enemies say the company is too big to compete with and today's profits figures will add fuel to the fire, despite the downgrading in profits, which was widely predicted. That downgrading is due to the measures the company has taken to open the market, including allowing more access to NTT's local network, and a reduction in the charges it levies on DDI and Japan Telecom. Skeptics say the reason profits were marked down is the same as why NTT agreed to the market opening measures -- to stave off a government enforced break-up -- although many experts agree the company will be making less money in the coming years. As part of the first half figures, the operator also announced 850,000 new subscriptions had been signed for its service in the first six months of the year, taking the total number of subscriber lines in Japan to 60.43 million, a tenth of the world's total. (Martyn Williams/19951122) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 11/22/95 WINDOWS ****Japanese Windows 95 Debuts (NEWS)(WINDOWS)(TYO)(00015) ****Japanese Windows 95 Debuts 11/22/95 AKIHABARA, TOKYO, JAPAN, 1995 NOV 22 (NB) -- Any American or European tourists would get a tremendous sense of deja-vous on the streets of Akihabara, Tokyo's electronics and computer mecca, tonight. Akihabara is where all of the major electronics companies test-market products before nationwide and, eventually, international launches. This is also the place to come to for the very best prices in Japan and the place to come if you want to pick up a copy of Windows 95, the Japanese edition, when it goes on sale at midnight tonight. If you remember the hype and hoopla that surrounded the Windows 95 launch in the United States and Europe, and you won't easily forget, then transport that memory to Tokyo, replace a few of the posters with Japanese language versions and the sales staff with busy "welcome" shouting Japanese staff, and you have the same thing. We're not just talking packs of new computer software though. Sixteen computer manufacturers have announced new models, complete with Windows 95 pre-installed, that will be launched today, topped by NEC Corporation. The market leader will begin selling an entire range of new machines -- 36 in all -- at 150 stores across Japan from midnight. The range includes an improved version of the popular "CanBe" multimedia PC. NEC said earlier that 300 key personnel from the company, from engineers right up to senior managers, will visit Akihabara in the early hours to see how the computers are selling and what users think of the new operating system. Determined not to be outdone, Fujitsu is to launch a new range of FMV Desk Power machines. For many computer junkies awake in the early hours tonight, the nearest copy of Windows 95 is a lot closer than the local computer store. Microsoft Japan and leading supermarket operator Daiei Inc. reached an agreement in late October which has resulted in the new operating system being sold in "Lawson" convenience stores nationwide. With such high levels of interest, and hoped-for demand, it is hardly surprising that price wars have already broken out. Microsoft Japan has set a retail price of 13,800 yen ($138), although electronics retailer Kojima has priced the CD-ROM upgrade version at 11,800 yen. At Daiei, the group said it would match Kojima's prices at its supermarkets, although not at the Lawson convenience store chain. Sales are predicted to reach over a million by Christmas, with sales of five million forecast for next year, led mainly by sales to home users. Douglas Fowler, sales manager at Linc Computer Inc., a company that bills itself as "The Complete Solution For Multinationals in Asia," told Newsbytes he expects Windows 95 to be a big hit with end-users, but thinks multi-nationals and foreign companies in Japan will be "slow to adopt it, if they adopt it at all." He said that most multi-nationals and foreign companies will be, and are, switching to Windows NT since "that's what it's all going to be in two years anyway." Microsoft itself has lined up a big program of special events and sales promotions under the "Windows 95 Start Festa" banner. The event is based around "Start Stations" across Japan and the range of activities occupied a seven-page fax that Newsbytes received from Microsoft earlier this evening. Start Stations are located in the northern city of Sapporo, on the concourse at Sendai railway station, at two locations in Tokyo (including Sony Square), at Annex Plaza in Nagoya, another two locations in Osaka, and one in Fukuoka City in Japan's west. Tokyo visitors also have the opportunity to visit "Start City" to watch a selection of activities and talks with famous people from the Japanese computer world on "Start Stage." If you need advice on whether Windows 95 is for you, a group of Microsoft experts will advise that it is, if you visit Expo 95 and the cutely Japanese named "On The Job Corner," "In The Home Corner," "Do It Yourself Corner," and "Get On Line Corner." And just as you thought the country could take no more, this weekend Microsoft Japan has hired a channel on a CS satellite so the Tokyo Start Station can be linked with all the other Start Cities across the country. Only on Sunday evening do the special events begin to wind down, just as the marketing and advertising machines of Microsoft and the major computer companies are winding up in time for a Windows 95 Christmas and New Year season. Windows 95 has also featured heavily in the media thanks to a successful campaign launched by Microsoft Japan. Wednesday's Nihon Keizai Shimbun, the country's top business daily newspaper, carried one two-page, eleven single-page, and several smaller advertisements. Full details of the Windows 95 Start Festa are available on the Microsoft Japan fax board, 03-5454-8100, access number 023500. (Martyn Williams/19951122) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 11/22/95 ONLINE Internet Update - Thanksgiving Special (NEWS)(ONLINE)(TYO)(00016) Internet Update - Thanksgiving Special 11/22/95 TOKYO, JAPAN, 1995 NOV 22 (NB) -- In this holiday edition of Internet Update, a focus on Thanksgiving related Internet sites including: Thanksgiving horn of plenty; An American Thanksgiving on the Internet; Thanksgiving cooking links; A Fresno Thanksgiving; and The Plymouth Thanksgiving pages. Thanksgiving Horn Of Plenty This is Newsbytes' favorite site because it holds and links together so much diverse information. From the usual recipes to games to play with the kids during those long holiday drives and the best of TV this holiday weekend, plus kitchen safety. You'll find a lot here! World Wide Web: http://family.starwave.com/holiday/tgiving/index.htm An American Thanksgiving On The Internet What do you mean, what's Thanksgiving? The Internet is a world wide network and for the rest of the world, Thursday and Friday are regular working days. If you are not enjoying a holiday, these pages will help unlock the mystery of what exactly Thanksgiving is, and how it all started. It also features a great guide for parents, and even a guide to what to give your pet - our second favorite page! World Wide Web: http://www.night.net/kthanks.html Thanksgiving Cooking Links This is the page that forced an early lunch in the Newsbytes office. So many things to do with Turkey and many other holiday favorites, including a selection of vegetarian Thanksgiving recipes, we just couldn't hold out until lunchtime after this! World Wide Web: http://perry.gulfnet.com/turkey/ A Fresno Thanksgiving The Hello Fresno Web service has created a series of Thanksgiving links including stories and jokes about the festival, recipes, the history of the holiday, and local information about things going on over the period. World Wide Web: http://www.valleynet.com/~deb/tg/index.html The Plymouth Thanksgiving Pages From Plymouth in New England, the site of the first permanent European settlement, you'll find the true story of Thanksgiving, Plymouth's first annual Thanksgiving stroll through the ages, holiday recipes and links to other sites. Visit this site and you'll find out that the pilgrims never actually had a regular thanksgiving feast plus other interesting information. World Wide Web: http://media3.com/plymouth/ More To Share? It's worth remembering that for many in America, Thanksgiving will be just another day as life on the streets becomes more difficult as winter approaches. More To Share is a charity that helps feed the homeless and organize dinners during Thanksgiving. To get involved, or to find out about local meals, visit the Web site. World Wide Web: http://www.magibox.net/~hsw/moretoshare.html More Links ... Even more Thanksgiving links, in case you're still looking for something to do on Thursday morning. World Wide Web: http://www.zia.com/thanks The First Thanksgivng Declaration is on the Web. World Wide Web: http://www.polarnet.fnsb.ak.us/End_of_Road/library.dir.thanksgiving.htm Movie Mom has taken the guess work out of a trip to the video store with a guide to the best videos for children. World Wide Web: http://pages.prodigy.com/VA/rcpj55a/moviemom.html They said it couldn't be done but the best in University of Michigan computer technology brings the Internet a picture of a Turkey -- in ASCII! World Wide Web: http://www.umich.edu/~guibert/ascii/turkey (Martyn Williams/19951122) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 11/22/95 PC Willowbrook's Multifunction Office Equip Is Different (NEWS)(PC)(TOR)(00017) Willowbrook's Multifunction Office Equip Is Different 11/22/95 CONCORD, ONTARIO, CANADA, 1995 NOV 22 (NB) -- Multifunction office devices, such as combination printer-fax-copier machines, are more and more in demand as home offices proliferate. Willowbrook Technologies Inc., a startup, maintains its approach is a little different from that of other vendors in this field. #IMAGE 1 20 TWPCX \images\95112217.PCX Click here for photo Michael Garbe, chief executive officer at Willowbrook, told Newsbytes that most multifunction products do not include voice-mail, a capability virtually all offices need. So Willowbrook has included that function both in its existing E-Z Office package and in its newly announced E-Z Office Professional. What Willowbrook has left out is the printer. "It was our feeling that most small offices already had a printer" Garbe said, "and likely a better printer than a low-end ink-jet." So E-Z Office and E-Z Office Professional work with an existing printer. E-Z Office, launched in June, is a software package that comes with a fax, data, and voice modem and a device that connects an existing fax machine to this modem so that it can be used as a grey-scale scanner. The software receives faxes and data calls and answers the phone, taking messages in any number of voice mailboxes. E-Z Office Professional is essentially the same package, but ships with a full-page scanner, Garbe said. It is available with a 14,400 bits-per-second (bps) or 28,800 bps modem. Adam Griff, president of Willowbrook, added that the 28,800 bps modem can act as a full-duplex speakerphone using a microphone shipped with the package. E-Z Office Professional also includes optical character recognition (OCR). Both E-Z Office and E-Z Office Professional are built to work with a single telephone line, Garbe said. Automatic detection lets them handle voice and fax calls on a single line. Garbe said Willowbrook is currently evaluating software that might be added to the product to let it work with two or more modems, thus accommodating offices with separate phone lines for voice, fax, and possibly data. To date, Willowbrook has been selling the E-Z Office package only in Canada, Griff said. The company is hoping to build on its relationships with distributors in Canada to move into the United States market and possibly elsewhere. The company expects E-Z Office Professional to sell for about C$550 or US$400 in the 14,400 bps version and about C$700 or US$530 in the 28,800 bps version. (Grant Buckler/19951122/Press Contact: Michael Garbe, Willowbrook Technologies, tel 905-660-8796 or 800-736-8212, fax 905-660-8768; Stephen McKeogh, The Cohen Group for Willowbrook, 905-886-8086 or 800-465-2059; Public Contact: Willowbrook Technologies, tel 905-660- 8796 or 800-736-8212, fax 905-660-8768/EZOFFICE951122/PHOTO) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 4 11/22/95 GENERAL Newsbytes Will Not Be Published Nov 23- (NEWS)(GENERAL)(MSP)(00018) Newsbytes Will Not Be Published Nov 23-24 11/22/95 MINNEAPOLIS, MINNESOTA, U.S.A., 1995 NOV 22 (NB) -- Newsbytes will not be published on November 23-24, 1995, due to the Thanksgiving holiday in the US. All offices will be closed. The regular publishing schedule resumes Monday, November 27. (Newsbytes Staff/19951122) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 11/22/95 NETWORK Gradient Plans "Web Application Server" With DCE (NEWS)(NETWORK)(BOS)(00019) Gradient Plans "Web Application Server" With DCE 11/22/95 MARLBORO, MASSACHUSETTS, U.S.A., 1995 NOV 22 (NB) -- Gradient Technology is now creating a new "Web application server," to be accessible by standard Web browsers, that will combine the capabilities of a Web server with the security and directory services and database access of DCE (Distributed Computing Environment) for "customer-centered computing," said Gradient VP David Fowler, during a briefing for Newsbytes. Growing numbers of corporations, universities, and other "enterprise environments" are finding that Web servers can simplify both application access and network administration when used on either an internal or external basis, Fowler told Newsbytes. The Web allows for "one to many" as well as "any to any" communications, the VP contended. "Application deployment is very quick," he continued. Because applications are run on the HTML (hypertext markup language) server and accessed through browsers, administrators are spared the difficulty and expense of tailoring applications to each individual platform within a multivendor environment, and of then distributing and maintaining those applications, sometimes on a global basis. "And TCP/IP (Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol) is easy to use," the Gradient exec added. But despite these benefits, the Web is not without its problems, according to Fowler. "Security is limited, and reliability is variable. (Web servers) crash on a regular basis." In addition, although database gateways are now becoming available for the Internet, this is being done one database at a time, he asserted. In response, he said, Gradient is developing a new "Web client/server computing" architecture that calls for the use of a Web browser as "client," along with a "Web applications server" that offers the functionality of both a Web server and an application server with "direct access to any combination of (DCE-compliant) database and legacy servers." Gradient plans to supply the technology through a set of "Web DCE extensions" to it PC-DCE for Windows platforms and SysV-DCE for Unix, with volume distribution targeted at early next year. Partners in the plan include IBM, AT&T GIS, Hewlett-Packard, Spyglass, Open Horizon, Frontier Technologies, Open Market, and DynaSoft. Beta testers include EDS and Penn State University. Right now, Gradient is employing Spyglass and Netscape browsers, but any HTML-complaint browser can be used with the middleware, according to Fowler. Under the new approach, DCE will serve as the "missing link" for security and database access, as well as for directory and time synchronization, Newsbytes was told. DCE's directory services provide "logical" rather than "physical" addressing, allowing the administrator to designate several server addresses, for network rerouting in case of server failure, or a roving end-user to designate multiple options for document delivery, such as two different workstations, a printer, and a fax machine, for example. By offering easy access to applications now restricted to users on specific platforms or network segments, the "Web application server" will harken an era of "customer-centered computing," he contended. For instance, corporate users with the appropriate permissions will be able to access their own HR (human resources) files to obtain information on their benefits or remaining vacation days for the year, he illustrated. University students will be able to register for classes from their dorm rooms, with any disagreements over "who signed up first" resolved via the time synchronization capabilities of DCE. Analysts predicted that Gradient's Web application server will prove very useful, especially for organizations that have already invested in DCE. "This is an attractive combination for large companies that have implemented DCE," said Robert Scheier, senior analyst at Hurwitz Consulting Group Inc., Newton, Massachusetts. "On the other hand, DCE is still seen by many as expensive and hard to implement. But anything Gradient can do to shorten the adoption cycle for DCE will be a good move on their part," Scheier told Newsbytes. The OSF (Open Software Foundation) is also working on transferring DCE technology to the Web, the analyst pointed out. "But I'm not aware of any other companies that are doing so," Scheier added. The new middleware from Gradient will carry advantages in the areas of security, software distribution, and end user access, as well as providing greater interoperability between the Web and legacy and relational databases, agreed Glenn Gabriel Ben-Yosef, president of Clear Thinking Research, Boston, Massachusetts. "Gateways can slow things down a bit," Ben-Yosef told Newsbytes. (Jacqueline Emigh/19951123/Reader Contact: Gradient Technologies, 508-624-9600; Press Contacts: Dan Chmielewski or Martha Schaefer, Gradient, 508-624-9600) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 11/22/95 PC Fuji Intros More Printers (NEWS)(PC)(DEN)(00020) Fuji Intros More Printers 11/22/95 ELMSFORD, NEW YORK, U.S.A., 1995 NOV 22 (NB) -- Fuji Photo Film USA Inc., usually thought of as a film company, has introduced two new digital color printers that use a heat transfer process instead of chemicals to produce their output. #IMAGE 1 20 TWPCX \images\95112220.PCX Click here for photo Fuji said the new Fujix NC-500, which the company rolled out at the recent Comdex/Fall 95 computer trade show in Las Vegas, uses the multi-layer coated Fujifilm Thermo-Autochrome Paper to generate images. Color is synthesized in response to heat applied to the paper and does not use ink cartridges or other disposable supplies. Fuji said the printing process takes about two minutes for each copy and produces a print with a resolution of 300 dots-per-inch (dpi). The company said the color reproduction is almost as accurate as silver halide solutions, the traditional chemical process used to develop film. According to the company the gradation of 256 RGB (red-green-blue) steps per color is good enough to make the NC-500 suitable for medical imaging, scientific research, image analysis, scenic simulations and design work requiring subtle differentiation of tonal scales. The NC-500 consists of a paper supply and transport system, a thermal head and a fixing lamp. The special paper consists of a base material coated with cyan, magenta and yellow color-synthesizing layers covered with a protective, heat-resistant coating. To produce a color image, the layers react to heat from the thermal head. Each layer is exposed in turn, with the yellow and magenta layers being fixed by the UV lamp. The cyan layer reacts to high levels of heat to generate that portion of the image. The NC-500 can handle conventional letter-size (A4) as well as half-size (A5) sheets. You can produce prints as large as 8- by 11- inches. The NC-500 is scheduled to ship in the Spring of 1996. Fuji spokesperson Korey Halsch told Newsbytes the NC-500 is expected to sell for about $7,500. Fuji will also ship its new A6-size digital image printer in the Spring of next year. The A6 system also uses heat to produce its 150 dpi color images without needing ink cartridges. Fuji said the unique features of the process allow the printer to outperform traditional color printing methods such as dye sublimation thermal transfer system. The A6 system takes about two minutes to produce its 3.3-inch by 5- inch output. It comes with a parallel interface and software for the computer. Halsch said the estimated selling price will be about $700. (Jim Mallory/19951122/Press contact: Thomas Shay for Fuji, 914-789-8145; Public contact: Fuji, 800-378-3854/NC500_951122 or A6_951122/PHOTO) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 11/22/95 GENERAL Paper Christmas Ornaments On CD-ROM (NEWS)(GENERAL)(LAX)(00021) Paper Christmas Ornaments On CD-ROM 11/22/95 LA PALMA, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1995 NOV 22 (NB) -- "Christmas Ornament Workshop" from Strategic Alliance Partners Inc. puts on a CD-ROM step by step instructions on folding paper into 12 different Christmas ornaments. It is distributed by Strategic for its developer, Kitty Hawk Software Inc., maker of "The Greatest Paper Airplanes" software that shows users how to build 50 paper airplanes by folding paper. Brenda Jaecke, a director of consumer relations at Strategic Alliance Partners, told Newsbytes, "The Greatest Paper Airplaneswas one of the biggest CD-ROM sellers ever, and its shareware version has been reported as the number one shareware product in the world. As a special bonus, Christmas Ornament Workshop includes a shareware edition of The Greatest Paper Airplanes, which enables users to build five airplanes." Christmas Ornament Workshop features the three-dimensional (3-D) animations adapted from the same computer-aided design software that is used in The Greatest Paper Airplanes. "The software gathers users round the hearth of an on-screen living room, complete with a crackling fire and a Christmas tree. Ornaments decorate the mantle and tree. Users need only click with a mouse to see step-by-step instructions. Christmas Ornament Workshop uses shading and shadows to help guide users visually as they make folds. The folding action and speed are controlled with VCR-style buttons that permit replays of complex steps. Users may also zoom and rotate the image of the folding paper for a better look," said Jaecke. Christmas Ornament Workshop features designs for all skill levels and ages. "Simple" designs include a church, cross, pinwheel, and Santa Claus. "Moderate" designs include a toy boat, gift box, package, star, and poinsettia. "Challenging" designs include a candle, toy car, and reindeer. A soundtrack entertains with six holiday hits played by the Philadelphia Brass. When making an ornament to be given as a surprise gift, users can turn off the soundtrack to avoid alerting other family members. Christmas Ornament Workshop supports color and dual-sided printing. For example, options enable users to print the top- or bottom-side of a design, complete with lines to guide folds. Priced at $19.95, suggested retail, Christmas Ornament Workshop is available immediately from MicroWarehouse, PC Connection, and Tiger Software. Users may also order the software direct from Strategic at 800-946-4277. The software requires Windows 3.1, Windows for Workgroups 3.11 or Windows 95, a CD-ROM drive, and a 256-color display. Macintosh users require System 7 and a CD-ROM drive. Sound and color printing require a sound board and color printer, respectively. (Richard Bowers/19951122/Press Contact: Chip Hilts, Strategic Alliance Partners Inc., 800-946-4277) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 11/22/95 ONLINE WebChat With 105 channels & 20 Million Hits (NEWS)(ONLINE)(LAX)(00022) WebChat With 105 channels & 20 Million Hits 11/22/95 MENLO PARK, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1995 NOV 22 (NB) -- WebChat Broadcasting System (WBS), with over 105 channels for live conversation on topics from dating to entertainment, claims over 21 million hits per month. The company claims it is the largest chatting hub on the World Wide Web. WBS's real niche might be its "unique" advertising methods, which it claims feature over 10 million separate advertising views per month. Banner advertising across each page changes with every new page a user sees. WBS reports that each viewer will use sixteen separate pages per session, with sixteen different advertisements. Wendie Lash, a spokesperson for WBS, told Newsbytes, "We are very different from other Web sites. Our adds cycle as each page changes. Other sites, such as on Netscape or Yahoo, do rotate, but at best once every few hours. WBS cycles every time a page is used, and this gives advertisers a lot more exposure." The current add rate sheet from WBS offers advertisers a one month banner for $6,000. The company claims that such an add will receive over 500,000 advertising views. WBS Director Michael J. Fremont, said, "With over 10 million advertising views a month, sponsors of WBS are tapping into one of the most traveled sites on the Web today." Anyone using an ordinary Web browser can access the WBS channels WebChat allows users to incorporate images, video, and audio clips -- as well as "hotlinks" to other World-Wide-Web sites -- into a live conversation over the Internet. "Most Web pages are only information sites: files, hotlists, databases," said Fremont. "These are 'hit and run' sites, because once visitors have 'hit' the information they came for, they usually 'run.' At WBS, however, our visitors come to meet, socialize, and become part of an ongoing community." Recent Society clients include Hewlett-Packard, Mercury Center Online, NASA, Graff Pay-Per-View, Saatchi and Saatchi Advertising, and Eastman Kodak. (Richard Bowers/19951100/Press Contact: Wendie Lash, WBS, 415-327-4386) (ADVISORY)(GENERAL)(MSP)(00023) NewsPix Update For Newsbytes Publishers 11/22/95 MINNEAPOLIS, MINNESOTA, U.S.A.,1995 NOV 22 (NB) -- This update will be posted each Wednesday and Friday to reflect the daily picture additions. The updates will in turn become part of the main NewsPix Bulletin issued on Monday. These photos correspond to recent Newsbytes stories. They are online in the Newsbytes menu on America Online, NiftyServe, the Newsbytes Pacifica Website at http://www.islandtel.com/newsbytes/ and the Newsbytes private bulletin board system in Minneapolis. To become a licensed Newsbytes publisher, call Newsbytes at 612-430-1100 (US) or write to wendy@newsbytes.com on the Internet. Licensing applies to any medium. --------------------------- NOVEMBER 22, 1995 --------------------------- PHOTOPAD951120 - color / Polaroid Intros Photo Scanner For Home PCs: shot of the scanner and packaging. SPSS951121 - color / SPSS To Ship Windows 95 Statistical Software: screenshot. (no PICT or GIF files) (Newsbytes/19951122) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 11/22/95 TRENDS Dataquest Lowers Windows 95 Sales Numbers (NEWS)(TRENDS)(LAX)(00024) Dataquest Lowers Windows 95 Sales Numbers 11/22/95 SAN JOSE, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1995 NOV 22 (NB) -- Dataquest has reduced its 1995 sales numbers for Microsoft Corp.'s (NASDAQ: MSFT) Windows 95, by 3.6 million shipments. Dataquest had originally predicted sales of 30 million shipments in 1995, and now has lowered the total to 26.4 million. Of the 30 million shipped, according to Reuters, Dataquest estimates only 16.4 million copies will actually be sold to consumers by the end of 1995. The original prediction was 20 million copies sold to consumers. This represents a decline of 23% in the forecast of actual sold units to consumers in 1995. The remaining 10 million from the shipped amount will remain unsold, but in the distribution network. These new numbers seem not to reflect slower Windows 95 sales, rather problems with Dataquest's own methodology, say some sources. Dataquest said that the primary reason for the revision was a change in total Christmas sales forecasts. Dataquest was unavailable for comment as to why they changed their Christmas numbers by Newsbytes deadline. As previously reported in Newsbytes, a Roper Starch Worldwide Inc. survey of 1,005 home computer users reveals that current computer owners want new computers more than any other single gift for Christmas. Among items wished for Christmas, 35 percent want a new computer. This survey indicates that, while overall numbers for Christmas might be down, computers (most with Windows 95 installed) will get an increasing market share. In addition, Reuters reports that Dataquest said the original forecast was made before the exact shipping date of Windows 95 was known, implying that the actual date was slightly later than expected. Why Dataquest made the estimates before knowing the shipping date is also unexplained. The shipping date of Windows 95 was not exactly a secret, note industry observers. Newsbytes made repeated attempts to contact Dataquest, without success. A just released survey by Odyssey research suggests that, in spite of Windows 95's high marks for awareness, only six percent of computer households have adopted the new operating system. The survey was based on a random sample of 1,201 United States households with personal computers. According to Odyssey President Nick Donatiello, Microsoft has done an excellent job of making people aware of the new Windows 95 operating system. "Their well-orchestrated launch got them awareness in 92 percent of PC households," he said. "But 53 percent say they are not at all likely to upgrade in the next six months." (Richard Bowers/19951122/Press Contact: Marivi Lerdo, Odyssey, 415-968-4033; Dataquest, 408-468-8000) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 11/22/95 ONLINE Desktop Data Adds Languages, Content (NEWS)(ONLINE)(TOR)(00025) Desktop Data Adds Languages, Content 11/22/95 WALTHAM, MASSACHUSETTS, U.S.A., 1995 NOV 22 (NB) -- Users of NewsEdge, the news filtering service from Desktop Data Inc., soon will be able to search news published in French, Italian, German, Spanish, and Portuguese. Desktop Data said it will add content and searching capabilities in those languages with the release of NewsEdge 3.0 around the end of this year. NewsEdge makes it possible to search material from a variety of publications and to build profiles that let the user receive just items that contain selected words or phrases. To date, these capabilities worked only in English, since they did not have the extended character set support necessary to deal with such things as accents in other languages. Along with multilingual search capabilities, Desktop Data said it is adding content in various languages. The Montreal daily newspaper La Presse and other French-language publications from Canada will become available, as will the Reuters news wire's Spanish Language Service and Latin American Business Report. Hilary MacPhail, manager of information licensing and marketing at Desktop Data, told Newsbytes that other foreign-language news sources will be added over the coming year. Desktop Data also plans to add support for more languages, MacPhail added, but is not announcing what those will be at present. The company expects the new capabilities will appeal to existing customers in the United States, most of which are large companies with international operations and a need for international news, MacPhail said. They will also help the company's effort to penetrate the European market, where it opened an office last year, and be an asset in Canada, where Desktop Data has been marketing NewsEdge for some time. MacPhail added that there are also NewsEdge customers, though not a major marketing effort at present, in Latin America. Four new English-language information services have also been added to NewsEdge: Asia Intelligence Wire, a collection of news and analysis from Asian publications; the Canadian Press news wire; the Financial Times Business Reports, a collection of more than 40 weekly and monthly newsletters from the London-based Financial Times; and the Deutsche Press Agentur news wire. (Grant Buckler/19951122/Press Contact: Marni Hoyle, Desktop Data, 617-672-2421, Internet e-mail mmhoyle@newsedge.com) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 00 11/22/95 WINDOWS Computer-Aided Design Software Under $ (NEWS)(WINDOWS)(DEN)(00026) Computer-Aided Design Software Under $600 11/22/95 SEATTLE, WASHINGTON, U.S.A., 1995 NOV 22 (NB) -- Numera Software has introduced Visual CADD version 2.0, its 32-bit computer-aided design (CAD) package for Windows 95 and Windows NT. A company spokesperson told Newsbytes the package, which has a suggested retail price of $595, will perform 90 percent of the functions found in much more expensive CAD programs. The company said it designed Visual CADD to be an open architecture system so it could be customized by users and could use third-party applications. According to Numera, any popular Windows programming language or the built-in scripting language can be used to customize the software. Numera said version 2 loads drawings, redraws and performs standard CAD operations an average 300 percent faster than the earlier 16-bit version. It also has a feature, called Task Aware Environment, that keeps track of where you are in the design process and predicts your next step. Several output options are available, including laser printers via Windows printer drivers, and most popular plotters. The Direct Plot command allows pen mapping and direct support for Hewlett Packard HP-GL/2 and Houston Instrument DM/PL systems. A Direct Send command automatically send the file via e-mail. Boolean operations are supported to allow the user to add, subtract or intersect multiple entities in order to create new objects in a single step. A feature called Multiple Viewports lets you work simultaneously with several view of the same drawing file, and Dynamic Reference Freames provides support for AutoCAD xrefs and paperspace. You can reference multiple drawing on your output sheet. A fact sheet provided by Numera indicates what Visual CADD 2.0 can't do. Included in that list are poly entities, assignment of line defaults to a layer, and movement of objects between layers. The data sheet also enumerated features of the software that aren't available in AutoCAD Release 12 and AutoCAD LT 2.0. Those include: drawing true ellipses; text blocks; the grouping and ungrouping of entities; Boolean add, subtract and union; creating parallel snaps; on-the-fly dimension changes; display scrolling; support for OLE (object linking and embedding) 2.0 and TrueType fonts; scroll bars; and support for dynamic data exchange (DDE). Visual CADD 2.0 has a suggested retail price of $595. Numera spokesperson, Ed Petersen, told Newsbytes that users of the earlier version can purchase an upgrade for $249. The company said it will continue to market and support Visual CADD 1.2 for users who continue to use Windows 3.1. (Jim Mallory/19951122/Press contact: Ed Petersen, Numera Software, 206-622-2233; Public contact: Numera Software, tel 206-622-2233 or fax 206-622-5382/NUMERA951122/PHOTO) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 11/22/95 NETWORK ****Novell UK Unveils NetWare Web Server Package (NEWS)(NETWORK)(LON)(00027) ****Novell UK Unveils NetWare Web Server Package 11/22/95 BRACKNELL, BERKSHIRE, ENGLAND, 1995 NOV 22 (NB) -- Novell UK has unveiled NetWare Web Server, a UKP660 package that the company claims is a "realistic" way for NetWare users to publish information on the World Wide Web, for both internal and external users. Simon Palmer, brand marketing manager with Novell's Information Access and Management Group, told Newsbytes that the package will sell through the company's dealers and value-added resellers (VAR) alike, since the nature of the package allows it to be sold as a shrink-wrapped product, as well as a vehicle for value-added profits in the VAR marketplace. Palmer claims that NetWare Web Server supports symmetric multiprocessing and scales to meet the Internet publishing and access needs of businesses and workgroups of all sizes. The idea is that businesses can easily plug NetWare Web Server into their existing NetWare products and allow them to use a simple Internet publishing server system on their network. Despite the fact that Web Server is a Unix-based application, Novell claims that no custom development or knowledge of the Unix operating system is required. Beta test customers who have been running the package are claimed to have successfully installed and configured a Web server, creating a Web page, and viewing it, all within a 10-minute time-frame. "Accessing information on Web servers is quickly becoming a standard method for gathering information within the business community. Companies that set up Web servers are able to communicate more easily and effectively with customers, employees, resellers, partners, manufacturers, investors and other individuals, and to offer company information more efficiently than through traditional communication methods," he explained. According to Palmer, the NetWare Web Server technology gives NetWare users a powerful method by which public information can be published, both within their company and to the Internet community at large. NetWare Web Server is designed to interface directly with NetWare 4.1 on an "out of the box" basis. The idea behind the package is that users can plug the software into their existing NetWare network system and allow them to publish information across the NetWare network for internal users, as well as via an Internet gateway, for external users. In use, the package takes advantage of NetWare Directory Services by providing security through authentication of the user to directory services, and access control to the data through Novell's secure file system. In addition, Web Server will also run with the NetWare SFT (System Fault Tolerant) III fault tolerant system from Novell, which adds a high degree of fault tolerance to the Web server. According to Novell, Web Server takes advantage of NetWare's symmetric multiprocessing (SMP) facilities, allowing users who expect a large number of "hits" on their Web server to choose an appropriate hardware system to meet their performance needs. As their Internet traffic increases, so users can expand their system to meet their needs. Extra features of Web Server include the WordPerfect Internet Publisher with integral Netscape Navigator, as well as Basic and Perl interpreters. Other features include support for secure access controls, the Remote Common Gateway Interface (R-CGI), and a Windows- based graphical user interface for administration. Using these facilities, Novell claims that its customers can publish high impact and dynamic Web pages in a "secure, easy to administer fashion." NetWare Web Server will be available globally through the company's outlets from December 21. UK pricing has been set at UKP660, although US pricing has not been confirmed. US pricing is expected to be around the $995, however. Further details of Web Server can be found on Novell's home page, which is located at http://www.novell.com . (Steve Gold/19951122/Press Contact: Viv Wilson, Novell UK, +44-1344- 724460, Internet e-mail vivienne-wilson@novell.uk; Reader Contact: Novell UK, tel +44-1344-724000, fax +44-1344-724001) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 11/22/95 GOVT ****Digital Equipment Europe Offices Raided (NEWS)(GOVT)(LON)(00028) ****Digital Equipment Europe Offices Raided 11/22/95 BRUSSELS, BELGIUM, 1995 NOV 22 (NB) -- European Commission (EC) investigators have raided the offices of Digital Equipment in the UK, Germany, and the Netherlands. EC officials and the company itself have refused to comment on the raids, except to confirm that they have taken place. The Wall Street Journal and CNN report that raids were in response to complaints that Digital Equipment were allegedly involved in anti- competitive practices in the software maintenance marketplace. Alistair Kelman, a lawyer specializing in software and information technology (IT) legal matters, said he not surprised at the raids, since Digital Equipment was warned about its actions in the network software marketplace in the mid-1980s. "Questions were asked in (the British) Parliament about the actions of Digital Equipment and other companies, including Systime, who charged large sums of money for their networking operating systems. Systime eventually went out of business, such was the level of antipathy over its aggressive marketing," he told Newsbytes. According to Kelman, if the EC raids against Digital Equipment are for the same thing in the software maintenance business, then "this proves that the company has not changed its practices, despite the affair in the 1980s." In the US, Digital Equipment, which is based in Cambridge, Massachusetts, has issued a statement saying that it will cooperate in the investigation by EC officials, but claimed that it believes its business practices are in line with relevant competition rules. (Sylvia Dennis/19951122/Press Contact: European Commission, +32-2-299-1111) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 11/22/95 TRENDS ****Windows 95 Users Outperform Mac & OS/2 - Study (NEWS)(TRENDS)(SFO)(00029) ****Windows 95 Users Outperform Mac & OS/2 - Study 11/22/95 REDMOND, WASHINGTON, U.S.A., 1995 NOV 22 (NB) -- International Data Corp. (IDC) has released results of a productivity test which compares tasks performed on the Windows 95, Macintosh, and OS/2 operating systems. Overall test results claim to show Windows 95 users performing 19% faster than Mac users, and 50% faster than OS/2 users. Additionally, the results show 76% of Windows 95 users completed eight or more of the tests successfully, while only 58% of Mac users achieved the same success level, followed by 31% of OS/2 users. Working with Andre Associates of Oakland, California, IDC says it developed 10 families of tasks which included: managing and printing local and networked files; managing documents and applications; checking system resources; creating an alias or shortcut; customizing the desktop; and attaching an external CD-ROM drive. The tests were administered to a focus group of 54 Windows 95 Preview Program participants, 55 Mac users, and 52 OS/2 users. Unlike many studies which compare performance on applications, IDC says this study focused on tasks which identified operating system performance. IDC says "minimal interaction" with applications was controlled through identical applications in each environment. IDC also found the Windows 95 group was able to finish the assembled tasks much faster than the other two groups. Eighty-five percent of Windows 95 users performed the test in less than one hour, while 47% of Mac users completed the test in the first hour. Responding to the results, Jeff Price, a product manager at Microsoft, told Newsbytes, "A lot of people will be surprised with the results of this test. Apple's OS (operating system) has long been positioned as the leader in ease-of-use and best performance, but now there is hard evidence that the mantle has changed to Microsoft. These results show Windows 95 is now the productivity benchmark for operating systems." IDC is an independent consulting and testing organization which has been commissioned to survey and test products and services of many large computer hardware and software companies, including Apple Computer. Newsbytes learned this test began with a large pool of users with general computing skills. To evenly weight the sampling groups, IDC used three matched users, one for each OS. This means, for example, if a user in one OS test group had two years experience using a word processor and a spreadsheet on a local area network, matched users for the other two operating systems were used to balance the study. "This study shows the tens of thousands of focus groups we tested to develop Windows 95 has paid-off as planned," continued Price. "Our major goal was to make Windows 95 easy to use and these results are the hard evidence which shows we accomplished our goal," he said. (Patrick McKenna/19951122/Press Contact: Kathy Gill, Waggener Edstrom, 503-245-0905) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 11/22/95 GENERAL ****Companies Join Hands On Holiday Benefit For Kids (NEWS)(GENERAL)(BOS)(00030) ****Companies Join Hands On Holiday Benefit For Kids 11/22/95 CAMBRIDGE, MASSACHUSETTS, U.S.A., 1995 NOV 22 (NB) -- Last year's holiday benefit party for children was such a hit that Lois Paul & Partners (LP&P), Lotus, and other computer industry partners are going to hold the event again, this time with a few enhancements added for extra fun, said LP&P's Lois Paul and Marcia Hertz of the Massachusetts Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children (MSPCC), in an interview with Newsbytes. "This is our opportunity to `give back' to the community," Paul told Newsbytes. This year's MSPCC benefit, to be given December 11 at the Westin Hotel at Copley Place in Boston, will feature local TV anchor Jack Williams as host, the addition of a new "balloon raffle," and partnership with companies that include Lotus, Shiva, Computerworld, Sentry Market Research (SMR), and Hurwitz Consulting, plus J.R. Schuman Associates and the Westin Hotel, the two event co-sponsors. Just as last year, guests at "GoodStart for the Holidays" will bring toys for kids. Also this year, Look & Feel, a rock band comprised of high tech execs, will make a return engagement. And for the 1995 event, "greater visibility" will be given to the "silent auction" that helped to raise $20,000 for needy children last year, according to Paul. Hertz reported that the 1994 event also brought in about 400 toys, which were then distributed by the MSPCC as holiday presents to clients enrolled in the organization's GoodStart. GoodStart, she noted, is an early intervention program that works with parents to help them raise "safe and healthy" children. "The looks on the kids' faces when they received their gifts last December was phenomenal," recalled Hertz, who is director of marketing and public relations for the social service agency. "And we are incredibly grateful to LP&P. The staff has amazing energy." The idea of raising funds and toys for needy kids was "a natural" for LP&P, added Paul. When the high tech PR firm was first founded, staff members collectively had "only a couple of kids," she observed. Today, that number has climbed to about 40, and many of those children came "trick or treating" to LP&P on Halloween. LP&P and its partners in the event expect to attract at least 500 guests this year, and to produce more contributions in terms of toys and dollars, according to the LP&P chief. This year's silent auction has "a number of `big ticket' items." In the newly added "balloon raffle," guests will "buy" balloons, with contents that will remain a mystery until the balloons are popped at the event, Newsbytes was told. Members of the Look & Feel band that will entertain the guests at "GoodStart for the Holidays" include: Bryan Simmons, manager of corporate public relations at Lotus; David Blohm, chief executive officer (CEO) of Virtual Entertainment; Frank Ingari, president and CEO of Shiva; Allen Razdow, chairman of MathSoft; and Drew Hannah, president and CEO of Softbridge. (Jacqueline Emigh/19951122/Reader Contact: Lois Paul & Partners, 617-862-4514; Press Contacts: Brenda Nashawaty or Bill McLaughlin, LP&P, 617-862-4514; Marcia Hertz, MSPCC, 617-227-2280) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 11/22/95 ONLINE ****New Trojan Horse On America Online (NEWS)(ONLINE)(WAS)(00031) ****New Trojan Horse On America Online 11/22/95 VIENNA, VIRGINIA, U.S.A., 1995 NOV 22 (NB) -- A new Trojan horse has shown up on America Online, and may also be lurking on other online services. The culprit is a file called, variously, "AOLGOLD," and "install.exe." it is sent as a file attached to e-mail, and must be downloaded and executed before it causes harm. Once the program is downloaded and the computer is rebooted, the program creates a virus.bat batch file that deletes all the files on the hard drive. AOL spokeswoman Pam McGraw told Newsbytes that a look at the system found "that it is not in any of the public areas." But she said that it could be spread by e-mail. McGraw said AOL "doesn't have a good feel for how widespread" the program is, and that the online service was warned about the Trojan horse by a member. "We have had a few customer inquiries," she said. In a posting in its virus area (keyword: virus), AOL notes, "Due to private nature of electronic-mail, we cannot scan files in e-mail for viruses as we do with files in public areas of the service." AOL says it is "advisable never to download attached files from an unknown sender." The online service also advises its members, "In addition, if you ever received a file in e-mail you believe could cause problems, please forward it immediately to TOSEMAIL1, and explain your concerns to our terms of service staff." (Kennedy Maize/19951122/Press Contact: Pam McGraw, 703-556-3746) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 11/22/95 ONLINE Bertlesmann-America Online Alliance Gets German Partners (NEWS)(ONLINE)(WAS)(00032) Bertlesmann-America Online Alliance Gets German Partners 11/22/95 VIENNA, VIRGINIA, U.S.A., 1995 NOV 22 (NB) -- Bertelsmann AG and America Online (NASDAQ: AMER) have formed an international alliance with Deutsche Telekom. Also, Axel Springer, a leading publishing company in Germany, said it will take a minority stake in the German operations of the online services of both Deutsche Telekom and the Bertelsmann/AOL joint venture. The alliances strengthen the Bertelsmann-AOL operations in Europe as they compete with the rival Europe Online Alliance. AOL says the agreement won't alter the planned launch of the AOL Online Service in Germany later this year, and in France and the United Kingdom in 1996. As part of the Deutsche Telekom/Bertelsmann/AOL alliance, the parties will swap equity positions in their respective European online ventures. Deutsche Telekom will take a minority stake in the Bertelsmann/America Online European joint venture, formed in March, 1995. America Online and Bertelsmann will obtain a minority stake in Deutsche Telekom's German-based T-Online (formerly BTX). Also, Deutsche Telekom is expected to make a minority investment in America Online Inc. The Bertelsmann/AOL joint venture will focus principally on the home/consumer market in Europe through the AOL Online Service, set for launch in Germany next month, and in France and the United Kingdom after that. The alliance partners also will participate in T-Online, formerly BTX, principally focused on the professional and business markets. Axel Springer, based in Hamburg, will take a minority stake in both T Online and the German operations of the Bertelsmann/AOL joint venture. Axel Springer withdrew from the Europe Online Alliance last October. AOL did not divulge financial details. The deal must be reviewed by the Cartels Office in Berlin, EU Competition Commission in Brussels, and the supervisory boards of each company. (Kennedy Maize/19951122/Press Contact: Pam McGraw, America Online, 703-556-3746) (SUMMARY)(GENERAL)(MSP)(00033) Newsbytes Daily Summary 11/22/95 MINNEAPOLIS, MINNESOTA, U.S.A., 1995 NOV 22 (NB) -- These are capsules of all today's news stories: ======================================================================== ------------| N E W S B Y T E S D A I L Y S U M M A R Y |---------- ------------| Wednesday, November 22, 1995 |---------- ======================================================================== (c) Newsbytes News Network (Tm) Editor in Chief: Wendy Woods ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Newsbytes News Network's on the Web! Check out http://www.nbnn.com for free daily top stories from Newsbytes and its affiliate publications, and from PC Week, MacWeek, and other Ziff news magazines. A subscription gives you all the news, full-text, plus the most comprehensive database of past computer stories online. The keyword-searchable database dates from today back through 1983. Subscriptions are $24.95 for three months. Questions? Send to 'administrator@newsbytes.com' For Japanese Newsbytes and additional services, see the Newsbytes Pacifica Website at http://www.islandtel.com/newsbytes/ ------------------------------------------------------------------------ CATEGORY HEADLINES (*** indicates today's top stories) STORY # ======================================================================== EDUCATION China - School Pager Services Criticized................... 07 GENERAL India - Dun & Bradstreet Expands Software Devt Center...... 10 GENERAL Japan Newsbriefs........................................... 13 GENERAL Newsbytes Will Not Be Published Nov 23-24.................. 18 GENERAL Paper Christmas Ornaments On CD-ROM........................ 21 GENERAL NewsPix Update For Newsbytes Publishers.................... 23 GENERAL ****Companies Join Hands On Holiday Benefit For Kids...... 30 GOVT Chinese Premier Wants Motorola To Be "More Open............ 05 GOVT ****Digital Equipment Europe Offices Raided............... 28 LEGAL ****Notorious Software Pirate Arrested.................... 12 NETWORK China - Novell Dominates Network Software Market........... 06 NETWORK Gradient Plans "Web Application Server" With DCE........... 19 NETWORK ****Novell UK Unveils NetWare Web Server Package.......... 27 ONLINE Industry.Net Launches 26 New Internet Services............. 01 ONLINE Price Club To Sell Online.................................. 04 ONLINE Internet Update - Thanksgiving Special..................... 16 ONLINE WebChat With 105 channels & 20 Million Hits................ 22 ONLINE Desktop Data Adds Languages, Content....................... 25 ONLINE ****New Trojan Horse On America Online.................... 31 ONLINE Bertlesmann-America Online Alliance Gets German Partners... 32 PC Willowbrook's Multifunction Office Equip Is Different...... 17 PC Fuji Intros More Printers.................................. 20 TELECOM India - Motorola To Focus On Private Paging................ 09 TELECOM Japan - Profits Surge At Telecom Firms..................... 14 TRENDS Canadian Software Productivity High, Quality Low - Study... 02 TRENDS Australia - Retail Computer Sellers Experience Slowdown.... 08 TRENDS India - Cyber Cafes In 5-Star Hotels....................... 11 TRENDS Dataquest Lowers Windows 95 Sales Numbers.................. 24 TRENDS ****Windows 95 Users Outperform Mac & OS/2 - Study........ 29 WINDOWS Microsoft 3-D Movie Maker Ready To Debut................... 03 WINDOWS ****Japanese Windows 95 Debuts............................ 15 WINDOWS Computer-Aided Design Software Under $600.................. 26 ======================================================================== These are the headlines and first paragraphs of each story, in order: 1 -> Industry.Net Launches 26 New Internet Services -- Already having developed what it calls "the world's largest online marketplace for business and industry," Industry.Net said it has launched 26 new online services inside its Internet World Wide Web site. 2 -> Canadian Software Productivity High, Quality Low - Study -- A recent study of software development in Canada says that, compared to their counterparts in other countries, Canadians turn out software faster and with more mistakes. To be competitive internationally in the software field, the study conducted for the Canadian government said, Canada needs to boost the quality of its software. 3 -> Microsoft 3-D Movie Maker Ready To Debut -- Just in time for the kickoff of the year's biggest selling season, Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ: MSFT) is premiering 3D Movie Maker, a CD-ROM-based software program that lets you make your own real-time three-dimensional (3-D) animated movies. 4 -> Price Club To Sell Online -- Price Quest, a subsidiary of Price Enterprises Inc. (NASDAQ: PREN) and Price/Costco Inc. (NASDAQ: PCCW), has announced that it will begin offering over 9,000 brand name items online through America Online Market Place in time for the 1995 holiday season. The shopping service will be called "Price Online" and will be available to America Online subscribers on November 27. 5 -> Chinese Premier Wants Motorola To Be "More Open -- Premier Li Peng wants Motorola to be "more open" about its technology when selling its products in China. Co-manufacturing will help Motorola capture a bigger share of the Chinese market, Li reportedly told Motorola President Christopher Galvin recently. 6 -> China - Novell Dominates Network Software Market -- Novell currently has 80 percent of the network software market in China, and its sales volume in the country this year is expected to triple last year's figure. 7 -> China - School Pager Services Criticized -- Some Chinese cities have special pager services for middle school students. Although some parents like the service, saying it provides for convenient communications between the student and parents, many teachers criticize the service for disturbing the "calm studying atmosphere" in school. 8 -> Australia - Retail Computer Sellers Experience Slowdown -- Despite a drop off in retail computer sales up until the past two weeks, Myer-Grace Bros (a large Australian retail/department store group) national computer and home office buyer, Frank Kavanagh, says the stores are gearing up for "Christmas sales that will be a better year than ever". 9 -> India - Motorola To Focus On Private Paging -- Motorola Inc., which recently unveiled plans to invest over R500 crore (about $150 million) in India in major areas 10 -> India - Dun & Bradstreet Expands Software Devt Center -- Dun & Bradstreet Satyam Software (DBSS), the joint venture company of the US-based Dun & Bradstreet Corp., and Satyam Computer Services Ltd., Hyderabad, has drawn up a major expansion plan involving the setting up of a new software development center (SDC) at Elnet Software City at Madras. 11 -> India - Cyber Cafes In 5-Star Hotels -- There will be more to sipping coffee in the coming months in almost all the major five-star deluxe hotels in the country with the introduction of Cybercafes. The first one to be opened formally was at Hotel Leela Kempinski in Bombay. 12 -> ****Notorious Software Pirate Arrested -- Los Angeles County District Attorney's investigators recently arrested a man they said is known as "Captain Blood" in the software industry, and seized an estimated $1 million worth of allegedly illegally copied software from his residence in the upscale Wilshire district of Los Angeles. 13 -> Japan Newsbriefs -- In this roundup of news from Japan: NTT to encourage ISDN use; Satellite laser communications success; Japan's Ricoh wins best of Comdex; Seiko Epson increases LCD production; Nintendo attracts new producers. 14 -> Japan - Profits Surge At Telecom Firms -- The big three telecom operators in Japan's domestic market all reported big increases in profits and revenues for the first six months of the current fiscal year which ended September 30. The companies were Nippon Telegraph and Telephone, the world's largest telecommunications company, and its two competitors in the long distance market, DDI and Japan Telecom. 15 -> ****Japanese Windows 95 Debuts -- Any American or European tourists would get a tremendous sense of deja-vous on the streets of Akihabara, Tokyo's electronics and computer mecca, tonight. Akihabara is where all of the major electronics companies test-market products before nationwide and, eventually, international launches. 16 -> Internet Update - Thanksgiving Special -- In this holiday edition of Internet Update, a focus on Thanksgiving related Internet sites including: Thanksgiving horn of plenty; An American Thanksgiving on the Internet; Thanksgiving cooking links; A Fresno Thanksgiving; and The Plymouth Thanksgiving pages. 17 -> Willowbrook's Multifunction Office Equip Is Different -- Multifunction office devices, such as combination printer-fax-copier machines, are more and more in demand as home offices proliferate. Willowbrook Technologies Inc., a startup, maintains its approach is a little different from that of other vendors in this field. 18 -> Newsbytes Will Not Be Published Nov 23-24 -- Newsbytes will not be published on November 23-24, 1995, due to the Thanksgiving holiday in the US. All offices will be closed. 19 -> Gradient Plans "Web Application Server" With DCE -- Gradient Technology is now creating a new "Web application server," to be accessible by standard Web browsers, that will combine the capabilities of a Web server with the security and directory services and database access of DCE (Distributed Computing Environment) for "customer-centered computing," said Gradient VP David Fowler, during a briefing for Newsbytes. 20 -> Fuji Intros More Printers -- Fuji Photo Film USA Inc., usually thought of as a film company, has introduced two new digital color printers that use a heat transfer process instead of chemicals to produce their output. 21 -> Paper Christmas Ornaments On CD-ROM -- "Christmas Ornament Workshop" from Strategic Alliance Partners Inc. puts on a CD-ROM step by step instructions on folding paper into 12 different Christmas ornaments. It is distributed by Strategic for its developer, Kitty Hawk Software Inc., maker of "The Greatest Paper Airplanes" software that shows users how to build 50 paper airplanes by folding paper. 22 -> WebChat With 105 channels & 20 Million Hits -- WebChat Broadcasting System (WBS), with over 105 channels for live conversation on topics from dating to entertainment, claims over 21 million hits per month. The company claims it is the largest chatting hub on the World Wide Web. 23 -> NewsPix Update For Newsbytes Publishers -- This update will be posted each Wednesday and Friday to reflect the daily picture additions. The updates will in turn become part of the main NewsPix Bulletin issued on Monday. 24 -> Dataquest Lowers Windows 95 Sales Numbers -- Dataquest has reduced its 1995 sales numbers for Microsoft Corp.'s (NASDAQ: MSFT) Windows 95, by 3.6 million shipments. Dataquest had originally predicted sales of 30 million shipments in 1995, and now has lowered the total to 26.4 million. 25 -> Desktop Data Adds Languages, Content -- Users of NewsEdge, the news filtering service from Desktop Data Inc., soon will be able to search news published in French, Italian, German, Spanish, and Portuguese. Desktop Data said it will add content and searching capabilities in those languages with the release of NewsEdge 3.0 around the end of this year. 26 -> Computer-Aided Design Software Under $600 -- Numera Software has introduced Visual CADD version 2.0, its 32-bit computer-aided design (CAD) package for Windows 95 and Windows NT. A company spokesperson told Newsbytes the package, which has a suggested retail price of $595, will perform 90 percent of the functions found in much more expensive CAD programs. 27 -> ****Novell UK Unveils NetWare Web Server Package -- Novell UK has unveiled NetWare Web Server, a UKP660 package that the company claims is a "realistic" way for NetWare users to publish information on the World Wide Web, for both internal and external users. 28 -> ****Digital Equipment Europe Offices Raided -- European Commission (EC) investigators have raided the offices of Digital Equipment in the UK, Germany, and the Netherlands. EC officials and the company itself have refused to comment on the raids, except to confirm that they have taken place. 29 -> ****Windows 95 Users Outperform Mac & OS/2 - Study -- International Data Corp. (IDC) has released results of a productivity test which compares tasks performed on the Windows 95, Macintosh, and OS/2 operating systems. Overall test results claim to show Windows 95 users performing 19% faster than Mac users, and 50% faster than OS/2 users. 30 -> ****Companies Join Hands On Holiday Benefit For Kids -- Last year's holiday benefit party for children was such a hit that Lois Paul & Partners (LP&P), Lotus, and other computer industry partners are going to hold the event again, this time with a few enhancements added for extra fun, said LP&P's Lois Paul and Marcia Hertz of the Massachusetts Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children (MSPCC), in an interview with Newsbytes. 31 -> ****New Trojan Horse On America Online -- A new Trojan horse has shown up on America Online, and may also be lurking on other online services. 32 -> Bertlesmann-America Online Alliance Gets German Partners -- Bertelsmann AG and America Online (NASDAQ: AMER) have formed an international alliance with Deutsche Telekom. Also, Axel Springer, a leading publishing company in Germany, said it will take a minority stake in the German operations of the online services of both Deutsche Telekom and the Bertelsmann/AOL joint venture. (Ian Stokell/19951122) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 11/20/95 WINDOWS Bill Gates Officially Heads For Hong Kong (NEWS)(WINDOWS)(HKG)(00001) Bill Gates Officially Heads For Hong Kong 11/20/95 CENTRAL, HONG KONG, 1995 NOV 20 (NB) -- Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates will be making his "first official visit" to Hong Kong in mid-December, company sources in Hong Kong said. Whether or not he's been unofficially in the territory before, his handlers didn't say. But his 24-hour-plus stopover promises to be packed with vision. There will be visions passed out at the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, more visions passed out at the Hong Kong Convention Center, to 3,000 invited guests, and still more visions passed out in between. His visit, in fact, marks the launch of his book of visions, "The Road Ahead." Proceeds from the Convention Center gathering will go to establish multimedia projects in selected Hong Kong universities. Chinese cadres will be watching from the wings. The Microsoft chairman's first official step on the mainland involved rolling out a standard Chinese version of Windows, instead of the correct but undeveloped, simplified version -- a stunningly ill-conceived vision where China was concerned. Another doubtful move was locating Microsoft's first Greater China headquarters in Taipei, which made handing out calling cards in Beijing such a nerve-racking experience the project was scrapped. News of the Gates visit came on the heels of Microsoft's announced plan to introduce an aggressive licensing scheme in China. Under the so-called Delivery Service Partner Program, Microsoft has certified 10 distributors on the mainland and in Hong Kong to sell Chinese versions of MS-DOS 6.22, Windows 3.2 -- and the upcoming Chinese Windows 95. According to Microsoft China's general manager, Duh Jai-bin, the proliferation of illegal software has made servicing difficult. He also says OEMs still face enormous difficulties securing genuine software when they do seek it out -- a problem the new program aims to cure. As it happens, the announcement comes the same week that China was again hauled into the dock -- this time, at Comdex/Fall in Las Vegas -- accused by the Business Software Alliance of being the global leader in software theft. As if that weren't enough, US deputy trade representative, Charlene Barshefsky, again warned China it had to accelerate anti-piracy activity or face trade sanctions. Microsoft said it expects its new program to reach over half of China's OEMs -- or at least, 5,000 companies. "It is essential that effective distribution channels exist to make Microsoft's products and services accessible to everyone," Duh says. To participate, OEMs need only buy five sets of operating system software from Microsoft, or one of its named distributors under the program, to bundle with their hardware. The named DSP partners are, in Beijing, China Great Wall Computer Group, Legend, SIS-Everbright; in Shanghai, Changjiang Computer Union Corporate; in Jinan, Lanchao Electronic Information Industrial Group; in Shenzhen, Quantum Designs; and in Hong Kong, ACA Pacific, SIS International, Tech Pacific and Vtech Computers. (Joel McCormick & I.T. Daily/19951116) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 11/20/95 ONLINE ****China All At Sea Over Internet (NEWS)(ONLINE)(HKG)(00002) ****China All At Sea Over Internet 11/20/95 CENTRAL, HONG KONG, 1995 NOV 20 (NB) -- The Chinese government has no firm ideas for the Internet. That was the startling message from Qu Zhinqiang, division chief of information technology at China's State Information Centre, speaking at last week's Internet conference, Executives in Cyberspace, here. But he said Internet regulations are in the pipeline. When questioned on the state's view of censorship and the Internet, Qu claimed the government has no idea how to control it. Little wonder -- figures on Internet usage over the past year show phenomenal growth, suggesting authorities will move quickly in putting the issue at the top of the information policy agenda. Qu said that in March there were 400 hosts offering Internet access. By July, their number had jumped to 6,000. Now the number is 12,000. User growth figures are phenomenal. In March, there were only 3,000, Qu said. Three months later, there were 40,000. "Up until now there have been no controls over accessing the World Wide Web," he said. "The government has no [firm] ideas on the Internet -- but they're worried about its effects." As it stands now, the main organ of control is an interdepartmental committee made up of the Economic and Information ministries. It's this committee that will marshaling proposals on a range of issues concerning electronic information. Qu said he wasn't concerned about censorship. Only people with technical expertise really grasp its full power for information dissemination. "These experts support the promotion of Internet -- they see its potential and they want it all over China." He said many people outside government hoped authorities would loosen up a little in their attitude. "I can get a lot of information from the United States, like military facts -- but in China there remains very little government information. Of course, it's not traditional for government to provide information -- we haven't had a market economy [till recently]." Others attending the conference worried not for China, but about how Hong Kong should do more to prevent compromising Internet in the future. David Shannon, a partner with law firm Baker McKenzie, pointed out that, under Section 33 of the telecommunications Ordinance, government had a permanent tap on the telephone system. "The Hong Kong government has wide powers but it's used them responsibly," he said. Neither Shannon nor Alex Arena, the head of the Office of the Telecommunications Authority , would be drawn on the potential for state censorship under the present rules when Hong Kong returns to China in 1997. (Joel McCormick & I.T. Daily/19951117) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 11/20/95 ONLINE China Contract Speeds Web's Advance (NEWS)(ONLINE)(HKG)(00003) China Contract Speeds Web's Advance 11/20/95 CENTRAL, HONG KONG, 1995 NOV 20 (NB) -- China's massive Internet-building project took another step last week, when ChinaNet architecture and switching contracts were awarded to US-based Cisco. At the same time Legend Holdings won six of the 48 contracts for the State Economic Information Network (SEIN) of China's State Information Centre -- this Internet project worth some US$21 million. ChinaNet is expected to come online as soon as June 1996. Work only began last May. Funded by China's Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications (MPT) and designed by affiliate CTC Communications Development Co, together with US-based Asianinfo Computer Network, ChinaNet will have three high-speed E1 (2 Mb per second) international links making it the fastest and most advanced Internet network in China. While the central government has yet to enunciate policy on how the Internet will be policed, an interdepartmental committee of the Economic and Information ministries is expected to rush through a policy draft by next week -- a reflection of Beijing's growing concern over fast proliferating access to information. Everything has moved with startling speed: the first permanent Internet connection established was only in April 1994 -- implemented by the National Computing and Networking Facility of China (NCFC). By July, two more connections were made by the educational establishment. Linking with the Global Village was a logical extension of internal networking. In 1988, X.25 lines were installed, linking China's leading teaching and research centers. CNET, as it was known, for China Academic Network, has since been joined by two other academic networks, Cernet and Casnet. Authorities aim to have every one of the country's 1,075 universities hooked up by the turn of the century. Cisco-supported Cernet already links over 100. ChinaNet is the largest and most advanced of the three major commercial projects offering Internet access. The Golden Bridge project run by the Jitong (largely controlled by the Electronics Ministry) is expanding; SEIN is at the point of awarding contracts for systems integration. SEIN, like the others, offers Internet but also security for financial transaction data. In all, 55 cities should Internet-linked by year-end. (Joel McCormick & I.T. Daily/19951120) (ADVISORY)(GENERAL)(MSP)(00004) NewsPix Images For Newsbytes Publishers 11/20/95 MINNEAPOLIS, MINNESOTA, U.S.A.,1995 NOV 20 (NB) -- Photos are now posted as they arrive. This means quicker access to the story pictures. The bulletin will continue on Mondays, with updates Wednesdays and Fridays as needed. These photos correspond to recent Newsbytes stories. They are online in the Newsbytes menu on America Online, NiftyServe, and the Newsbytes private bulletin board system in Minneapolis. Some selections are also available from the Newsbytes Pacifica Website at http://www.islandtel.com/newsbytes/ JPEG (Joint Photographic Experts Group) files are larger in size, PICT files are designed as thumbnails for onscreen viewing. The photos are titled with name/year/month/day. PICT/thumbnail pictures are black and white (gray scale). File message will indicate color if the JPEG image is color. Some of the "for use" images, may be PICT files. To distinguish these files from the thumbnail preview PICT images, the tag for the color "for use" image will have PICT, all caps. The thumbnail will remain noted as "pct." To become a licensed Newsbytes publisher, call Newsbytes at 612-430-1100 (US) or write to wendy@newsbytes.com on the Internet. Licensing applies to any medium. --------------------------- Week of NOVEMBER 20 - NOVEMBER 24,1995 --------------------------- - NEW THIS WEEK - CDROM951117 - color / Comdex - Higher-Density CDs Late Next Year: shot of a multi-media PC with the mini-tower cd tray open. CD-ROM in tray is accented via lighting. FUJI951116 - b&w / Comdex - Fuji's Digital Camera, Color Printer: the Fujix DS-220 digital camera. TREKKER951116 - color / Comdex - And Now For Something Completely Different: Rockwell's Trekker; a hands free PC. User at work. VIRTUAL951116 - b&w / Comdex - Virtual Reality Has Commercial Possibilities: user wearing the i-glasses. UPKE951117 - color / Comdex - Upke Claims "Ultimate" Home PC: shot of the Upke 2617 (in white). --------------------------------------------------------------- - PARTIAL LISTING OF PREVIOUS ITEMS - VISIONINTERACTIVE951115 - color / Comdex - 1996 Is The Year For MPEG?: product shot of the Orion MPEG Movie Pack bundle from the Vision Interactive MPEG kit. AIDSDAY951114 - color / Don't Surf The Net - Safe The Net: Ribbon art by Annie Lennox (the Euryhtmics, etc) from the ribbon gallery from the UK Health Education Authority World AIDS Day Web Site. RACAL951107 - color / Racal's Low-Cost Audio Surveillance System: chart/diagram of system linkage.(No gif of this one.) CRYSTALS951106 - color / Out Of This World Research For Next-Generation Chips: PHOTO INFO NOW IN - NASA astronauts Marc Garneau, left, and Andrew Thomas observe gallium antimonide crystals grown at the University of Florida College of Engineering. ZINCAIR951109 - color / All-day Zinc Air Batteries Intro'd: shot of the battery next to PC. MINIDISC951108 - color / MiniDisk As Floppy Successor?: hand holds Sharp MiniDisc, with nice blue skys background. VIEWER951102 - color / Accent Software Intros Free Multi-Language Web Browser: screenshot. SBANK951108 - color / Softbank To Announce Ziff Purchase Tomorrow: screenshot of PCWeek/Softbank homepage. DRUGSTOR951108 - color / Pharmacist On A Disk: screenshot of the over-the-counter pain killer screen. POWERDSK951106 - color / Microhelp Intros Windows 95 Desktop Utility: the PowerDesk Toolbar. (There is no gif version) JPOSTA951106 - color / Internet Users Gather In Shock At Assassination: screenshot of Jerusalem Post homepage with news of the Rabin assassination. WALES19951101 - color / Wales Tourist Board Plugs Into The Web: homepage screenshot. WINTNG951103 - color / Microsoft Press Offers Windows 95 Interactive Training: bookcover. HOMEREC951102 - b&w / US West Puts Receptionist In Your Home: shot of the phone unit. AIRGO951027 - color / PC Card Combines Modem, Cellular Radio: card with antenna. POWER951027 - color / Fastest Mac Ever To Be Unveiled Monday: shots of the new Power Computing configuration. STEREOGRAPHIC951031 - color / 3-D Glasses By StereoGraphics: graphic of the acaellerator chip and SimulEyes 3D glasses. PREMIERE951101 - color / Adobe Ships Premiere 4.2 Video Editor For Mac: screenshot of special processing window. DRAW4-951026 - color / Micrografx Shipping Windows Draw 4.0: screenshot of award art. KEYTRONIC951023 - color / Key Tronic Shipping More Windows Keyboards: shot of the KB101, with mottled lighting. CS-UTIL951024 - color / Coloradans Talk To Utility Firm Via The Internet: nice Web page graphics. WIN4-951025 - color / TI Intros MicroLaser Printer For SOHO Market: the printer on a reddish surface and black background. (Newsbytes/19951120) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 11/20/95 IBM Comdex - IBM Plans Notes-Based "Programmable Server" (NEWS)(IBM)(BOS)(00005) Comdex - IBM Plans Notes-Based "Programmable Server" 11/20/95 LAS VEGAS, NEVADA, U.S.A., 1995 NOV 20 (NB) -- IBM plans to achieve its vision of "network-centric computing" through a Lotus Notes-based "programmable server" that can be tailored in terms of messaging, information, policies, and transactions to meet the varying needs of "task-oriented, collaborative, and mobile" users, revealed Tim Negris, VP of marketing and sales for IBM Software Solutions, in a briefing for Newsbytes at Fall Comdex '95. During a meeting with Newsbytes in the IBM press suite at the Las Vegas Convention Center, Negris pointed to IBM Chairman Louis Gerstner's observation in the opening Comdex keynote that, due to the difficulties of implementing "decentralized" client-server computing, the industry is now heading toward a "network-centric" model in which applications, data, storage, and some processing will be migrated to the network. Negris told Newsbytes that IBM's upcoming, Notes-based "programmable server" will support the new computing model by providing server-based message, information, policy, and transaction services that are customizable to various groups of "service subscribers," characterized by different sets of activities and requirements. On the messaging side, for example, IBM's future "programmable server" will support synchronous messaging for applications like videoconferencing and "real-time Notes," as well as asynchronous messaging for transaction processing, illustrated the IBM VP. The server, he added, will be programmable to "simple transaction services," like electronic commerce over the Web, as well as "long-running transactions" such as insurance claims processing, which require "rollback" capabilities. Customizable services to be provided in the "policies" area will include "business policies, business logic, resource policies, and directory services," according to Negris. Users will access the forthcoming "network-centric" services through OpenDoc-based crossplatform graphical user interfaces (GUIs) that will constitute "the browsers of tomorrow," the VP predicted. As previously reported in Newsbytes, during another briefing at Comdex, Steven Mills, general manager for IBM Software Solutions, told Newsbytes that IBM intends to integrate Lotus Notes with its own MQSeries middleware for asynchronous messaging, CICS transaction processor, IMS "flat file" database, and Office Vision office automation software. In addition, IBM and Lotus have recently announced plans to use Notes as a front end to IBM back office imaging software as well as to new DB2 and CICS Internet gateways. Negris informed Newsbytes that plans also call for integrating Notes with IBM's FlowMark workflow management software in "the February-ish time frame." Both MQSeries and FlowMark, a package designed to search for information and route work among users, were formerly components of IBM Workgroup, a strategy announced at Fall Comdex '94. Negris added that, of the three general groups of "service subscribers" for IBM's upcoming "programmable server" -- task- oriented, collaborative, and mobile -- the "task-oriented" users represent much of IBM's traditional customer base, while many of the "collaborative" users will tend to come from the Lotus Notes installed base. (Jacqueline Emigh/19951120/Reader Contact: IBM, 914-765-1900; Press Contact: Parna Sarkar-Basu, Brodeur & Partners for IBM, 617-622-2833) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 11/20/95 GENERAL Japan Newsbriefs (NEWS)(GENERAL)(TYO)(00006) Japan Newsbriefs 11/20/95 TOKYO, JAPAN, 1995 NOV 20 (NB) -- In this roundup of news from Japan, Fujitsu to invest $1 billion in new plant, Apple to connect schools to Internet, DVD agreement due next month, NTT hits ISDN milestone, FM teletext for cars developed. Fujitsu To Invest $1 billion In New Plant Fujitsu Electric will invest around 100 billion yen ($1 billion) in a new plant to produce computer chips according to Saturday's Nihon Keizai Shimbun newspaper. The factory will be built in Aizuwakamatsu, Fukushima Prefecture, which is also the site of two existing Fujitsu plants, both of which will be sold. Construction of the new facility will begin in 1997 with completion expected by March 1999 when it will begin operations. Fujitsu said the current plants are too outdated for the new lines which will turn out chips etched using state-of-the-art 0.35 micron technology. Apple To Connect Schools To Internet Apple Japan is extending its Media Kids project, that has connected a 14 Japanese schools to the Internet, to more than 200 schools. The initial project allowed the schools to communicate and then jointly produce newspapers and presentations across the network using multimedia technology. The project culminated in the Media Kids Camp held outside Tokyo during the summer, as Newsbytes featured at the time. The enlargement of the scheme will enable 200 schools to connect to the Internet and work with each other on national projects and presentations. DVD Agreement Due Next Month The two sides of the DVD standards battle will reach agreement on a single system next month according to officials of Toshiba and Sony quoted by the Kyodo news agency. The report said current sticking points included payment of licence fees between the two companies. The two sides had been championing their own systems until recently when a unified system was announced as a way of avoiding a possibly costly standards war. NTT Hits ISDN Milestone Nippon Telegraph and Telephone has announced it has installed 500,000 ISDN lines in Japan. The fastest growing sector of the market is for personal customers where subscriptions rose to three times the 1994 levels. NTT's INSnet service is available to 98% of Japan. FM Teletext For Cars Developed Osaka-based Matsushita Electric has developed a receiver system for cars that receives the "Mieru Radio" broadcasts transmitted by Tokyo FM and its affiliates on the JFN network. The service sends news, weather, traffic reports and details of current music and programming to special receivers with large LCD display panels. The new Matsushita system integrates with existing car radios and display panels to provide up to 15 lines of text on the screen normally used by the car navigation system. The product will retail of just under 40,000 yen ($400) and the company expects to sell around 500 a month. (Martyn Williams/19951120) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 11/20/95 ONLINE ****Internet Update - RealAudio Special (NEWS)(ONLINE)(TYO)(00007) ****Internet Update - RealAudio Special 11/20/95 TOKYO, JAPAN, 1995 NOV 20 (NB) -- In this special edition we focus on the RealAudio software and programming available on the global Internet. RealAudio enables users to hear audio on demand across the network on connections from speeds of 14,400bps. To automatically launch programs from your Web client, it must be configured beforehand to run the RealAudio software when it encounters a file. Software - Clients And Servers The RealAudio player is available for the Windows and Macintosh platforms and an accompanying server is also now available to allow Web site owners to provide audio on demand to visitors. World Wide Web: http://www.realaudio.com/products/player.html World Wide Web: http://www.realaudio.com/products/server.html ABC Radio Network The ABC Radio Network offers Internet users access to hourly updated news, sports and weather bulletins and audio of other ABC Radio and Television network programming such as World News Tonight, This Week With David Brinkley. A clickable map of the United States also allows users to get local news from American cities. World Wide Web: http://www.abcradionet.com/ National Public Radio The best of NPR's public radio programming, including All Things Considered, Morning Edition, Talk of the Nation and Science Friday, are available on the network. The entire programs are online or you can browse a menu and select just the features that interest you. World Wide Web: http://www.realaudio.com/contentp/npr.html CBC Radio Network Canada's CBC Radio Network is making around ten of its radio programs across the Internet in RealAudio format including As It Happens, the evening current affairs program from the English language network. Some programming from the CBC Stereo network is also online. World Wide Web: http://www.radio.cbc.ca/realaudio.html Computer And Technology News As you would expect, there are several services offering computer and technology news. The c:net radio network is an audio network of the c:net online service and provides the latest computer news. From Canada's CFAX radio, the weekly "Online" radio program is available every Monday. Ken Rutkowski's weekly Tech Talk is also posted online in RealAudio format as it programming from the Tech Talk Radio Network Cyber Geek Gateway, a non-profit service "run by geeks like yourself for the sheer enjoyment of helping others enjoy and learn about technical hobbies." World Wide Web: http://www.cnet.com/index.html World Wide Web: http://www.islandnet.com/~online/ol1.html World Wide Web: http://www.ttalk.com/ World Wide Web: http://ttn.nai.net/ Sports And Business News For the latest in sports news many Internet users have headed to the ESPN Web site and they are now also a source of RealAudio sports news. For the latest in business news from headlines to interviews and features, The Dow Jones Investor Network is also online. World Wide Web: http://espnet.sportszone.com/ World Wide Web: http://djin.com/mmhome.html European Radio Online Norwegian commercial network, P4 Hele Norge, has an Internet home page where it is experimenting with services for its listeners including audio services. The Postcard from Mokum offers the latest news on dance music and culture from the Benelux countries and Mokum, which is the local name for Amsterdam. The continent's first non stop news radio, France Info, has a web server offering access to the station's flash info news broadcasts. Ireland's RTE is also experimenting with Internet services and has some programs available online. World Wide Web: http://www.p4.no/ World Wide Web: http://www.riv.nl/yuliana/postcard/ World Wide Web: http://www.publicis.fr/rf/ World Wide Web: http://www.bess.tcd.ie/ireland/rte.htm Sounds Of The Pacific Tokyo's J-Wave radio is offering some RealAudio files from its Web server as is one of Japan's biggest computer magazine publishers, Impress. Across the ocean, Radio Television Hong Kong, RTHK, has RealAudio programming and files available to net surfers from its Web site and Australia's first commercial radio, Fox FM in Melbourne, also offers a similar service. World Wide Web: http://www.infojapan.com/JWAVE/ World Wide Web: http://www.impress.co.jp/resource/raudio/ World Wide Web: http://www.cuhk.hk/rthk/ World Wide Web: http://www.fox.com.au/ World Radio Network WRN brings together the world's public international broadcasters such as Radio Netherlands, the BBC World Service, Swiss Radio International and Radio Australia, into a 24 hour channel of non-stop English language public service programming. WRN's satellite service is now on the Internet in RealAudio. World Wide Web: http://town.hall.org/Archives/radio/Mirrors/WRN/audio.html The Mother Of All Lists As you'd expect, RealAudio maintain a very comprehensive listing of all sites that carry programs in the format. This is the place to go for all other sites: http://www.realaudio.com/othersites/categories/complete.html (Martyn Williams/19951120) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 11/20/95 BROADCAST Comdex - Avid Previews "Real Impact" Update (NEWS)(BROADCAST)(BOS)(00008) Comdex - Avid Previews "Real Impact" Update 11/20/95 LAS VEGAS, NEVADA, U.S.A., 1995 NOV 20 (NB) -- A forthcoming update to Avid's Real Impact new software for Windows NT-based desktop video creation and editing will add support for Windows 95, Miro's "low-cost" DC-20 video board, and MPEG (Motion Picture Experts Group)-1 export, revealed Dana White, senior product manager, in a product demo and company update for Newsbytes at Comdex. White told Newsbytes that the product line-up of the Tewksbury, Massachusetts-based digital video vendor is now organized into four divisions: Desktop, Broadcast, Post-Production, and Audio, a product category that came about through Avid's acquisition of Digidesign late last year. Like other products in Avid's Desktop Division, she said, the new Real Impact is aimed at two markets: SOHO (Small Office/Home Office), and an audience of "multimedia creators" made up of professionals ranging from teachers and corporate communicators to authors of multimedia CD-ROM titles. Real Impact, a product that started shipping about a month ago, and other offerings within Avid's Desktop Division are designed to "complement" one another, according to the senior product manager. Additional members of the family include Avid's Apple QuickTime-based VideoShop video creation and editing package; Transjammer 2-D (two-dimensional) and 3-D (three-dimensional) special effects software for Macintosh, Power Macintosh, and Windows; and Elastic Reality warping and morphing packages for Windows, Mac, Power Mac, and Silicon Graphics workstations. During a demo of the initial, Windows NT-only edition of Real Impact, White showed Newsbytes how the software lets you search a video database, obtain clips through random access, organize the clips in a media library, and digitally "cut-and-paste" video shots on to a video timeline on the screen, much like you might move paragraphs into different arrangements within word processing software when creating or editing a text document. Prior to the development of desktop video techniques like these, she pointed out, the process of creating video content required professionals and amateurs alike to painstakingly view and log entire rolls of analog tape, and, after that, to manually cut and splice together video sequences for the "final cut." Much valuable video footage ended up "on the cutting room floor" under the older analog method, since video producers often decided to compromise on the content side in favor of technical convenience, according to the Avid exec. In contrast, digital video will bring the efficiencies of "video repurposing," in which the same stored video can be adapted to use in a variety of projects, White predicted, citing a sales video and a video ad as a couple of examples. Also during the demo in the Avid press room at the Sands Convention Center, Newsbytes saw how Real Impact lets you preview and add special effects -- as well as generate anti-aliased titles with TrueType fonts, drop shadows, transparency, and color blends -- all with a few clicks of the proverbial button. Real Impact comes with transition effects such as wipes, dissolves, zooms, pushes and squeezes, as well as layered effects, including picture-in-a-picture, chroma key, and luma key, according to White. In addition, the package supports Avid Transjammer Volume 2 or later. You can also import OMF (Open Media Framework) and Windows AVI video files; FLC animation files; WAV audio files; and BMP (Windows bitmap); JPEG (Joint Photographic Experts Group); TIFF (tagged image file format) and TGA graphics files. Real Impact also allows you to edit up to four tracks of 44.1 kilohertz (KHz), 16-bit CD quality audio, Newsbytes was told. Specific audio editing features include waveform, digital audio scrub, and real-time pan and volume adjustments. Another capability in Real Impact, "Dial-A-Quality," is aimed at letting the user adjust "image quality" to match a variety of different system, storage, and delivery requirements. Digital video is achieving a high profile these days, with the rise of the camcorder and video delivery via the Web, White acknowledged. "But people are realizing that these technologies alone don't create (video) content," she asserted. Real Impact accepts input not just from camcorders and computer video, but also from VCRs (videocassette recorders), professional tape decks, and Sony serial and VLAN deck control protocols, according to White. Support is provided for both NTSC (National Television Standards Committee) 30-frame-per-second and PAL 25-frame-per-second video, as well as for SMPTE (Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers) timecode. In the next edition of Real Impact, she continued, Avid will support Windows 95 and Miro's new DC-20 video board, for an extended range of content creation and editing platforms. Similarly, Avid plans to provide MPEG-1 export, so as to add another option to AVI for networked video distribution. Xing Technology, Sigma Designs, and Optibase have all agreed to interface to Avid's new AMI (Avid MPEG Interface) API (application programming interface) for MPEG encoding, according to White. Real Impact will not initially support MPEG-2, since the new update to the MPEG video compression standard is only now starting to take hold at the very high end of the broadcast video market. "But our new API is certainly flexible enough to be easily adapted to future changes to MPEG," the Avid senior product manager told Newsbytes. (Jacqueline Emigh/19951117/Reader Contact: Avid, 508-640-6789; Press Contacts: Julie Miller, Avid, 508-640-5454; Kerry Bard, Schwartz Communications for Avid, 617-431-0770) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 11/20/95 PC Comdex - Toshiba Lengthens Portable PC Lead (NEWS)(PC)(BOS)(00009) Comdex - Toshiba Lengthens Portable PC Lead 11/20/95 LAS VEGAS, NEVADA, U.S.A., 1995 NOV 20 (NB) -- Statistics from top market research analysts show that Toshiba is lengthening its lead in the portable PC market, asserted Tom Scott, VP and general manager of the Computer Systems Division, in a press conference at Comdex that also featured testimonies from two large Toshiba customers, Unisys and Ryder Systems, as to how and why thousands of users at those organizations are turning to mobile computing. In opening remarks at the press conference, an event attended by Newsbytes at a Las Vegas hotel, Scott estimated Toshiba's market share at about 20 percent, as opposed to roughly 10 percent apiece for the two runners-up, Compaq and IBM. Figures from International Data Corp. (IDC), Dataquest, and the Audits & Surveys Channel Tracking Program of PCs, distributed by Toshiba at the press conference, all grant Toshiba a strong lead in the portable PC market, but differ with regard to whether IBM or Compaq holds the second-place slot. IDC gives Toshiba 21.4 percent of the total US portable market for second quarter 1995, with 185,000 units shipped, for an increase of 42,000 units, or 29 percent, over second quarter 1994. Toshiba is followed in the IDC rankings by IBM at 12.1 percent; Compaq at 10.9 percent; Apple at 7.9 percent; and NEC at 4 percent. Dataquest, on the other hand, breaks out portable PC market share for second quarter 1995 like this: Toshiba, 19.5 percent; Compaq, 11.8 percent; IBM, 11.2 percent; Apple, 6.9 percent; and NEC, 4 percent. According to the latest statistics from Audits & Survey, Toshiba has now regained the top spot from IBM in the dealer distribution channel, to become the number one vendor in the portable PC category on all four measures tracked by the program: dealer sales, computer superstore sales, "all retail" sales, and combined sales. The channel tracking research group's year-to-date figures for January to September, 1995 give Toshiba 26.2 percent of the dealer channel, in contrast to 26.1 percent for IBM; 21 percent for Compaq; 9.7 percent for Apple; and 7.2 percent for NEC. At the Comdex press conference, Scott credited Toshiba's "advanced technologies and relationship with the channel" for the sales success, along with a vertical integration strategy that calls for Toshiba to manufacture its own components. Toshiba's latest technological advancements include implementations of double density CD, peripheral component interconnect (PCI) bus, and ZD Port video technology, the Toshiba VP added. John Cooch, director, end user computing services at Unisys, and Dan Bailey, manager of personal computer support systems (PCSS) for the Ryder Systems trucking firm, each noted a desire by users at their companies to keep pace with the latest portable PC technologies. Unisys has already deployed Toshiba PC notebooks among all 6,000 members of its US sales force, and is currently expanding the program to cover 30,000 employees in its US sales and service divisions and European sales arm, reported Cooch. Unisys started out by deploying the mobile PCs in conjunction with Toshiba Desk Stations, or docking stations, at company headquarters, he recalled. "That way, salespeople could still go out on the road, and return to headquarters to do their `paperwork.'" Later on, to make electronic communications more geographically convenient for sales staff, Unisys added docking stations at its regional sales offices. The US sales force is using a program called Unisys Sales Support Workbench which is aimed at allowing access to legacy and standalone as well as new client-server applications under a graphical user interface (GUI) through dial-up to the company's wide area network (WAN). "Everything looks and feels just as it would on the desktop," Cooch told the press conference attendees. Although the Toshiba notebooks now in use are only two years old, salespeople are requesting updated models, he contended. Bailey informed the journalists that Ryder Systems is rolling out a new program called RyderLinc, slated for completion in the first quarter of 1996, that will connect 50,000 Toshiba PC users working out of 90 district Ryder locations and 200 local Ryder units over local area networks (LANs) and the corporate WAN. "Toshiba is giving us a uniform environment," maintained the Ryder exec. Most of the 50,000 employees affected by the launch are being given Toshiba notebooks, with the exception of some "users of large systems," who are receiving Toshiba desktop systems instead. End users will be able to access AS/400-based systems and new client-server applications, plus a new electronic mail system. Toshiba has already replaced the eight- to 12-pound notebooks employed by early Toshiba users at Ryder with lighter-weight models, Bailey remarked. The notebooks also feature PCMCIA slots. As time goes by, users will be upgraded to more disk space and memory. "We're already putting pressure on Toshiba for 2 gigabyte (GB) hard drives," added the PCSS manager, only half in jest. Speaking with Newsbytes at the close of the press conference, Gary Elsasser, director of product planning for Toshiba's Computer Systems Division, and John Carson, customer marketing manager, said that Toshiba's new ZD Port technology is aimed at improving video capture for applications such as videoconferencing by channeling video directly on to the 32-bit PCI bus, thereby preventing central processor unit (CPU) bottlenecks. Toshiba will use PCI with ZD Port in its recently announced 120 megahertz (MHz) Pentium-based Tecra notebooks, the Toshiba officials told Newsbytes. The Tecras will also come with 1.13GB hard drives. Both Tecra and Toshiba's upcoming 90 MHz Pentium-based Toshiba Satellite Pro notebook PCs will feature 11.3-inch color liquid crystal displays (LCDs), with a choice of active or passive matrix display, plus a new SelectBay slot designed to accommodate either a quad-speed CD-ROM or floppy drive. (Jacqueline Emigh/19951120/Reader Contact: Toshiba, 714-583-3000; Press Contacts: Michaela Brehm, Brehm & Partners for Toshiba, 714-252-5377; Howard Emerson, Toshiba, 714-253-8737; Randy Guisto or Eric Lewis, IDC, 415-962-6467; Carl Ravich, Audits & Surveys, 212-627-9700; Kim Brown, Joel Myers or Mike Myer, Dataquest, 408-468-8323) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 11/20/95 ONLINE Australia - Microsoft Network Progress (NEWS)(ONLINE)(SYD)(00010) Australia - Microsoft Network Progress 11/20/95 SYDNEY, AUSTRALIA 1995 NOV 20 (NB) -- On Australia's (Microsoft Network in Australia) timetable for full 28.8kbps Internet access via Microsoft Network has been put back from December to January 1996 for Melbourne and Sydney. The rest of the country should have access as planned in April. Tim Pethick, On Australia's marketing manager, says beta Internet access will be available in December. On Australia's MD Gerry Davis says 183 local content providers are now live on the network with 30-40 waiting in the wings. The current strategy is to keep around 200 providers on deck. "We're not going to mass recruiting," he adds. Subscription figures are not so easy to wrestle from the MSN boss. "Better than forecast," is the official Davis word. He says 100 subscribers a day are signing on to the service, but adds, "The real figure is how many stay on as long-term subscribers." In a dramatic turnaround from the heady days when Bill Gates looked to MSN as a proprietary alternative to the Internet, the network is now being marketed as a net gateway and mustering area for local content. "We're looking to make ourselves the premium channel," says Davis. Davis says he is not aware of any Telstra plan to employ IBM as the retail arm for its Internet services - a possibility reported in Monday's Australian Financial Review - but adds, "Either partner has always had the right to go out and form other joint ventures." (Dorothy Kennedy and Computer Daily News/19951117) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 11/20/95 WINDOWS Humongous Ships "Lets Explore the Jungle" (NEWS)(WINDOWS)(DEN)(00011) Humongous Ships "Lets Explore the Jungle" 11/20/95 SEATTLE, WASHINGTON, U.S.A., 1995 NOV 20 (NB) -- Humongous Entertainment announced this week the availability of "Lets Explore the Jungle" a CD-ROM based interactive program for children. "Jungle" lets the kids explore the plants, animals and environments of the world's three major jungles in Asia, Africa and the Amazon respectively. #IMAGE 1 20 TWPCX \images\95112011.PCX Click here for photo They can learn facts like where chocolate comes from, why the giant anteater walks on its knuckles and how the flying snake flies. The company describes "Jungle" as "a virtual safari through the world's rain forests, where children will discover some of the Earth's most fascinating and exotic plants, animals, sights and sounds." The child's guide on the safari is Buzzy the Knowledge bug, who is always available to fly in and dispense information . An alphabetical index is hyperlinked to background information and illustrations. When the user clicks on the "What is it" icon and places the pointer over an item of interest, the word appears by the cursor and Buzzy speaks the word aloud. A click on the item takes you to an illustrated page about the topic. If you click on the blue speaker icon Buzzy will read the text for you as it is highlighted. Click on any word within the definition and Buzzy will say it. Some of the text is colored blue, indicating it is hyperlinked to reference information. "Jungle" includes five games: Anteater Feeder, Jungle Jumble, Trivia, Find It and a Jungle coloring book. Each game has three levels of play from easy to hard. In the anteater game the user is the anteater, and has to suck up its prey as it raids the picnic. Jungle Jumble has you trying to unscramble jumbled words. When you are successful you are shown a picture of the item. In Trivia Buzzy asks multiple-choice questions about things you can find or that happen in the jungle. Find It challenges the user to remember and find things from all around each of the Jungles, and the coloring book offers 15 different jungle scenes for the user to color. The finished picture can be printed in color or in black and white. To run "Let's Explore the Jungle" Mac users need at least a 25 megahertz (MHz) 68040-powered PC or a Power PC, eight megabytes (MB) of memory, a double speed CD-ROM and System 7.0 or higher. Windows users need Windows or Windows 95, a PC equipped with at least a 33MHz 386 chip, 4MB of memory, a Super VGA color monitor, a sound card and a double speed or faster CD-ROM drive. "Jungle" is the latest in Humongous Entertainment's Junior Field Trips series, and has an estimated street price of $29.95. It's available for both Macintosh and Windows platforms. (Jim Mallory/19951120/Press contact: John Uppendahl, Humongous Entertainment, 206-486-9258; Public contact: Humongous Entertainment, tel 206-486-9258 or fax 206-486-9494/JUNGLE951120/PHOTO) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 11/20/95 BUSINESS Compaq Slashes HK Prices (NEWS)(BUSINESS)(HKG)(00012) Compaq Slashes HK Prices 11/20/95 CENTRAL, HONG KONG, 1995 NOV 20 (NB) --Compaq Computer Hong Kong has slashed 20% on server drive options in a bid to drive up year-end numbers. Only weeks ago, International Data Corp put Compaq as the leading server supplier for the year's first quarter. According to IDC, the vendor had gobbled up a 37% share of the market. One of Compaq's more bizarre marketing ploys is to offer warranties against drive failures that the company knows -- before handing the product over -- are predestined to occur. Its "Pre-Failure Warranty" covers users for three years and warns buyers of the probability of failure when the "Compaq Insight Manager" is used. In announcing the price cuts, the company also said it will have desktops with Pentium Pro chips on the market by the first quarter of next year. Working with Intel, Compaq has 30 third party software developers already testing and enhancing products to run on the new servers and desktop machines. (Joel McCormick & I.T. Daily/19951110) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 11/20/95 IBM Big Blue Joins Telstra In $100M Sydney Olympics Splurge (NEWS)(IBM)(SYD)(00013) Big Blue Joins Telstra In $100M Sydney Olympics Splurge 11/20/95 SYDNEY, AUSTRALIA 1995 NOV 20 (NB) -- IBM Australia has announced an investment of about AUS$50 million in the Sydney 2000 Olympic Games and the Australian Olympic Team. Along with Telstra, Big Blue has signed up as the first corporate partner of the Games, and has gained exclusive rights to supply the event's IT systems. Telstra has gained exclusive rights to telecommunications carriage. The combined commitment of the two companies amounts to over $100 million. Frank Blount, CEO of Telstra Corporation, would not divulge the exact split between the two companies' investments. "We're not going to divulge that information. It's substantial on both parties' sides, and is over $100 million," he said yesterday. "I couldn't have said it better myself," chimed a beaming Doug Elix, managing director of IBM Australia. It is understood the bill is being equally shared between the two companies. Gathered for the signing of the sponsorship agreements at Sydney's National Maritime Museum were executives from the Sydney Organizing Committee for the Olympic Games (SOCOG), Telstra and IBM, along with the Lord Mayor and Michael Knight, Minister for the Olympics. IBM is planning to set up what Elix calls a "vast, multi-tiered client/server network" with 5,000 PCs, multiple midrange computers, multimedia kiosks and central processors. "Once the exclusive domain of media and officials, by 2000, hundreds of millions of Internet users will have easy, instant access to a vast smorgasbord of information on practically any topic they care to explore," he enthused. According to Elix, IBM's sponsorship is in the form of equipment and expertise, not cash. However, SOCOG isn't complaining. "It's cash to us," said chief executive, Mal Hemmerling. (Dorothy Kennedy and Computer Daily News/19951116) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 11/20/95 BUSINESS Dun & Bradstreet Enters Philippine Market (NEWS)(BUSINESS)(HKG)(00014) Dun & Bradstreet Enters Philippine Market 11/20/95 MANILA, PHILIPPINES, 1995 NOV 20 (NB) -- Dun & Bradstreet Software, an affiliate of Dun and Bradstreet Corporation where former US President Abraham Lincoln once worked as a business and credit analyst, has formally announced its entry to the Philippine market. Top appointments include Duncan Watson, worldwide product marketing director of Dun and Bradstreet Software (D&B Software), Vincent Ho, managing director of D&B Software Asean/South Asia and Danilo Camit, country manager of D&B Software Philippines office. The amount of investment made remains undisclosed but Ho hinted they've spent over half a million dollars even before the Philippine operations formally started, and a multi-million dollar contract has also been closed with the Philippine Long Distance Telephone Company (PLDT) for the latter's acquisition of D&B's flagship client/server product, Smartstream. D&B is the fourth enterprise-wide services provider to play in the Philippine software market, the other three being Oracle Systems Philippines, Inc. (es, being represented by distributors Systems Standards Inc., for BPCS, Right Computer Systems for PRISM and MAPICS, and Ayala Systems Technology, Inc., (ASTI) for JD Edwards. Asia Pacific, according to Watson, represents 12 percent of D&B Corporation's recorded worldwide revenue of US$4.9 billion in the fourth quarter of fiscal year 95 ending November 30, 1995 (compared to 6 percent of last year). Watson said they're closing 2 to 3 Philippine accounts shortly, the two prospects being government agencies. Once completed, the deals would have made for a hundred percent business growth in the region. As for B&D Software, it currently has 25 customers in the Asean region bringing in a total revenue of US$476 million. Ho, who was responsible for the PLDT deal, said their old mainframe- based financial systems have been installed in big companies like the Bank of the Philippine Islands, Far East Bank, Shell Filipinas and the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI). These companies invested heavily on their host-based systems, and D&B Philippines is expecting 50 percent of its revenue to come from new customers who are most likely to adapt D&B's client/server technology, the Smartstream. Smartstream, a client-server system which integrates transaction processing, decision support, and a robust platform into a single environment, is built around an engine called "workflow technology." First released in 1992, Smartstream used to be merely a decision support system without any applications. In 1993, the second release came with the first set of applications which is on Finances. The third release made last year contains human resources applications and the most recent release (November 15, 1995) now integrates manufacturing. "While traditional solutions are highly modular, the Smartstream is integrated as much as it is also modular," explained Ho. The problem with traditional, modular systems is that they tend to divide the work according to functions thus a vertical flow of integrated data, added Ho. With workflow technology which is the engine behind Smartstream, the system focuses on the transactions and processes, integrating the horizontal transportation of data while maintaining independence of departmental operations. This process apparently gets the people together to see the objectives of the enterprise and not just the their respective departments, although the boundaries are still there. On the other hand Watson made it clear that D&B will not do the re- engineering but will provide the technology to enable an enterprise to re-engineer. With price stretching from US$100,000 to several million dollars depending on the number of end-users (minimum of 5) for Smartstream, the Atlanta, Georgia-based D&B Software brings to the Philippines 25 years of being entrenched in the biggest financial and manufacturing companies worldwide. (Jenny Malapitan and Metropolitan Computer Times/19951114/Internet e-mail dilips@netcom.com) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 11/20/95 GENERAL China - Newsbriefs (NEWS)(GENERAL)(PEK)(00015) China - Newsbriefs 11/20/95 BEIJING, CHINA, 1995 NOV 20 (NB) -- In this news roundup from China, computer graphics major offered by Shanghai college; Microsoft is bringing its multimedia technology to Shanghai; the longest microwave transmission at high elevation works smoothly; and exports of Hong Kong computers to the Chinese mainland increase rapidly, IPC in China Venture. Computer Graphics Major Offered By Shanghai College A group of Chinese students recently started a four-year course of study in computer graphics at the Shanghai Arts and Crafts School. With the idea of developing traditional design systems, China has made much effort in using advanced computer design systems in recent years, the head of the school said. This is the first time this major has been offered in any Chinese institutions of higher education. Information Group Is Importing Microsoft Multimedia Technology Under a contract signed recently in Shanghai, a Shanghai-based information group will have technical guidance from Microsoft to develop software and provide multimedia services to its clients. The group plans to invest RMB10 million (US$1.1 million) to import technology and equipment, and set up a library. By exporting its multimedia technology to Shanghai, Microsoft started the largest cooperative program yet in China. Longest Microwave Transmission At High Elevation Works Smoothly China's 474 kilometer (283 miles) microwave transmission at high elevation has operated smoothly since it went into service in December 1992. This is the country's longest digital microwave transmission system connecting Gansu and Qinghai provinces. The microwave system is also at the country's highest elevation, 2,800 meters (8,400 feet) on average. The highest point is 4,081 meters (12,234 feet) above sea level. This microwave route is a telecommunications trunk line of the Qinghai Petroleum Management Bureau, and has 15 relay stations. More HOng Kong Computers Exported To Chinese Mainland Exports of Hong Kong's computers and parts to the Chinese mainland, the biggest computer market for Hong Kong, increased 49 percent in the first seven months of 1995 over the same period last year, according to statistics from Hong Kong Trade Development Council, a semi-official trade organization. Hong Kong's exports of computers and parts increased rapidly and the total export value has reached 32.5 billion HK dollars (about US$ 4.2 billion) in the first seven months of 1995, a 47 percent increase over the same period last year. IPC In China Venture Singapore's IPC Corporation has signed a joint venture in Shanghai to develop electronic commerce systems and value added networks in China. The move puts 51% of the new firm, Shanghai Shared Data Network Co, in IPC hands. The other partner is Shanghai Commercial Advanced Technology Development Company, a part of Shanghai's Finance and Trade Office. It has a US$6 million capital base. IPC says it expects Shanghai Post and Telecommunications Bureau to become a partner later. Operations are supposed to begin by the second quarter of next year. IPC officials said the venture aims to develop systems for China's banking and commercial industries, all priorities under the country's Golden Card series of projects. Golden Card is a nationwide development plan to create a electronic credit card and debit system for 300 million city users within 10 years. (Chih-Ho Yu & Ning Huang & Joel McCormick & I.T. Daily/19951105) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 11/20/95 GENERAL Comdex - DEC Showcases Storage Products (NEWS)(GENERAL)(BOS)(00016) Comdex - DEC Showcases Storage Products 11/20/95 LAS VEGAS, NEVADA, U.S.A., 1995 NOV 20 (NB) -- In one part of Digital Equipment Corp.'s ultra large presence at Comdex, StorageWorks execs Penny Scharfman and Bruce Baird briefed Newsbytes on Digital's latest storage products for multivendor environments, showing off the recently sold "one millionth StorageWorks building block," painted gold for Comdex. Also at the expo in Las Vegas, Digital's Systems Business Unit (SBU), components, PC, semiconductor, and Internet divisions all highlighted their wares. Digital's storage business first took a turn toward multivendor environments about five years ago, noted Baird, at a meeting with Newsbytes conducted in Digital's extensive press suite at the Las Vegas Convention Center. But even before that, Digital had been producing storage products for many years. "The important thing is that we have the experience," according to Baird, who is StorageWorks' PC networks marketing manager. StorageWorks' RAID (redundant array of inexpensive disks) and DLT (digital linear tape), and CD-ROM subsystems are now offered across Digital, Microsoft Windows NT, Sun, Novell, Hewlett-Packard, and IBM AIX environments, added Scharfman, who is marketing manager for StorageWorks. Later on, in a tour of the StorageWorks booth at Comdex, Scharfman and Baird showed Newsbytes the business unit's newly introduced RAID Array 230 for Intel PCI (peripheral component interconnect)-based systems, as well as new "stackable" storage enclosures, an enhanced RAID Array 410, and new DLT (digital linear tape) drives, CD-ROM subsystems, and solid state disks. At center stage in the booth was the resplendent gold trophy for StorageWorks' "one millionth building block." Scharfman told Newsbytes that StorageWorks decided to "go with gold" because "everything else in Las Vegas is painted in gold." Also in honor of Comdex, StorageWorks put paintbrushes to work on the division's RAID Arrays, adorning the products with multi-colored paisley exteriors. Baird kidded that the Comdex attendees found StorageWorks' temporary "new look" so compelling that customers were asking for the devices to be delivered in the same color scheme. On a serious note, Baird told Newsbytes during the briefing that the RAID Array 230 for Intel PCI-based systems is designed to offer similar functionality to Digital's existing RAID Array 230 for EISA-SCSI (extended industry standard architecture-small computer systems interface) systems. The RAID Array 230 operates on Intel systems running either Windows NT 3.5 or NetWare 3.12 or 4.1. Scharfman said that, starting in January, enhanced version 2.7 firmware will give a 67 percent performance boost to the RAID Array 410, a storage subsystem that now supports HP-UX, SunOS (operating system), Sun Solaris, and IBM AIX. Also in January, the 410 will add Windows NT to its list of supported platforms, she elaborated. In the StorageWorks booth, Newsbytes saw the 410 and 230, together with new quad-speed CD-ROM drives, "second-generation" DLT tape drives, and 5.25- and 3.5-inch solid state disks. The new DLT SCSI-2 tape drives debuting at Comdex provide up to 40GB capacity per cartridge, plus a data transfer rate of up to 2.5 megabytes-per-second (MBs), Newsbytes was told. The drives are aimed at unattended back-up, archival storage, and HSM (hierarchical storage management) on midrange systems as well as on network servers and high-end workstations. Digital's new solid state disks run at 2,200 I/Os (input/output) per second, and supply access times of under 100usec, up to 30 times higher than those of magnetic disks, according to the two execs. But of all the products on display in the StorageWorks booth, the new enclosures were the most visually distinctive. Baird and Scharfman showed Newsbytes how you can stack the new enclosures on a desktop beside a monitor, on a bookcase, or even on the floor. The two new enclosures also bring flexibility of a different kind, Newsbytes was told. The smaller enclosure is able to accommodate two 3.5-inch devices. But the larger enclosure can hold either four 3.5-inch devices and one 5.25-inch fixed CD-ROM. or one 3.5-inch device, one 5.25-inch device, and a fixed CD-ROM. But StorageWorks' new enclosures, gold "building block" trophy, and temporarily multi-colored RAID subsystems were not the only things adding visual impact to the StorageWorks booth. Baird, Scharfman and the other StorageWorks staffers were dressed in identical white tennis sweaters. Next door to the StorageWorks booth, Digital was showing its newly announced, Pentium-based Multia client for "bridging the gap" between Windows NT and legacy applications. Also nearby, the Printing Business Unit exhibited its new Colorwriter 2000 LSR color laser printer. Meanwhile, the PC Business Unit spotlighted its new Pentium Pro- based Celebris XL line. Digital Semiconductor demonstrated systems powered by the new Alpha 21164-333 megahertz (MHz) processor with FX!32 software. And across the way at the Hilton, the Internet Business Group displayed Digital's Internet Tunnel and Workgroup Web Forum, along with a Web page called "A Very Vermont Store." The Digital employees from all these business units wore the same white tennis sweaters as Scharfman and Baird. But non-Digital neighbors were not to outdone. Cirrus Logic, for example, chose evening get-up as its dress code this year. The women staffers for Cirrus wore evening gowns, while the men were attired in tuxes. Scharfman joked that the evening clothes helped to differentiate Cirrus in the "sea of Digital white" that consumed such a large part of the exhibition floor space at Fall Comdex '95. (Jacqueline Emigh/19951117/Reader Contact: Digital Equipment Corp., 508-493-5111; Press Contact: Kathleen Wilson, The Weber Group for Digital Equipment Corp., 617-520-7060) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 11/20/95 BUSINESS JetForm Acquires Eclipse (NEWS)(BUSINESS)(TOR)(00017) JetForm Acquires Eclipse 11/20/95 FALLS CHURCH, VIRGINIA, U.S.A., 1995 NOV 20 (NB) -- JetForm Corp. (NASDAQ:FORMF) has announced plans to buy Norcross, Georgia- based Eclipse Corp. for a little more than $3 million. Both companies sell electronic forms software, and Eclipse will become a division of JetForm. Mark Demers, a spokesman for JetForm told Newsbytes that the deal is signed and the remaining pre-closing formalities are unlikely to raise any obstacles. JetForm expects to close the acquisition by the end of January, he said. JetForm's acquisition offer is to exchange 251,619 of its own common shares for all outstanding Eclipse shares. At current stock prices, Demers said, the JetForm shares are worth a little more than $3 million. Eclipse will remain in Norcross, and co-founders Steve Luke and Nathan Clodfelter will continue to run the operation after it is integrated into JetForm as a division. Demers said JetForm does not expect any employees to lose their jobs as a result of the takeover. JetForm is buying Eclipse because of its technology, its people, and its market position, he said. Eclipse's forms software is designed for IBM's midrange AS/400 computer systems, while JetForm currently offers client/server software that works with Microsoft's various versions of Windows, IBM's OS/2, Apple's Macintosh operating system, DOS, and systems from Digital Equipment Corp., Hewlett-Packard Co., Sun Microsystems Inc., and Data General Corp. JetForm officials said the Eclipse acquisition will fill out their company's product line. According to officials of Eclipse, the AS/400 market has significant potential for electronic forms, with more than 300,000 installations around the world. JetForm plans to continue selling and supporting all of Eclipse's products, Demers told Newsbytes. (Grant Buckler/19951120/Press Contact: Mark Demers, JetForm, 703-448-9544, fax 703-448-9543, Internet e-mail mdemers@jetmail.com; Heather Oliver, Alexander Communications, 404-897-2300, fax 404-897-2311, Internet e-mail 72662.1177@compuserve.com; Public Contact: Eclipse, 800-550-0815 or 770-242-0815) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 11/20/95 TRENDS Comdex - Large Color Plasma Displays Previewed (NEWS)(TRENDS)(TOR)(00018) Comdex - Large Color Plasma Displays Previewed 11/20/95 LAS VEGAS, NEVADA, U.S.A., 1995 NOV 20 (NB) -- They will not be commercial products until some time in late 1996, but color plasma displays were shown at several booths at Comdex/Fall. The displays, which can be made larger than any cathode ray tube developed to date, are being touted as a way of providing large, space-saving color displays for both television and computer use. Tom Paterniti, senior manager of display products marketing at Mitsubishi Electric America in Cypress, California, said he expects plasma screens to replace CRTs eventually, though not in the next couple of years. Stewart Hough, plasma displays marketing manager for Fujitsu Microelectronics, Inc., of San Jose, California, told Newsbytes that CRTs do not come in sizes larger than 40 inches today. At its Comdex booth, Fujitsu was showing a prototype 42-inch, wide-screen plasma display. Hough said Fujitsu is taking orders now for engineering samples of the 42-inch display. The production line will starting turning out about 1,000 a month next October, he said, and Fujitsu hopes to increase the output to 10,000 per month by 1998. Mitsubishi, meanwhile, expects to be marketing its 20-inch plasma display panel in North America late in 1996, while Sony Corp. has a 25-inch unit, called the Plasmatron, that will be on the Japanese market late in 1996 and in the United States early in 1997. Spokesman Manny Vara of Sony told Newsbytes that the Plasmatron is aimed primarily at television. Sony expects to sell plasma screens into the computer market as well, he added, but that is "probably still a couple of years away." Paterniti said there has been a resurgence of interest in plasma display technology in the past three years. He attributed this partly to improvements in plasma technology, and partly to a growing desire to replace CRTs with a space-saving alternative. Demand for larger screens is exacerbating the problem of monitors taking up too much space on the desktop, Paterniti told Newsbytes, since a larger screen means a deeper as well as a wider enclosure. In contrast to CRTs, plasma panels are shallow -- those on display at Comdex were three or four inches deep -- and can be designed to hang on a wall. One stumbling block for plasma today is cost, however. Paterniti noted that today, a CRT costs about $100 per inch of screen size, while a plasma screen is about $400 per inch. As the price comes down, he said, plasma will become attractive for a wider range of uses. Plasma displays were used in a few early, high-priced laptop computers, such as those from Grid Systems Inc. They give a sharper display than liquid-crystal displays, and unlike LCDs have a wide viewing angle, making them more suitable for use in televisions or for large displays meant to be viewed by several people at a time. (Grant Buckler/19951120/Press Contact: Kristin Callaghan, Mitsubishi, 714-236-6135, fax 714-229-3854; Manny Vara, Sony, 408-955-5142, fax 408-943-0740, Internet e-mail varam@ccmail.nhq,sony.com; Stewart Hough, Fujitsu, 408-922-8996, fax 408-922-9862) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 11/20/95 CORRECTION UNIX Correction - HP's Survey About Windows NT And Unix (CORRECTION)(UNIX)(SFO)(00019) Correction - HP's Survey About Windows NT And Unix 11/20/95 PALO ALTO, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1995 NOV 20 (NB) -- Due to a Newsbytes copy editing error, a headline reading 'Windows NT To Replace Unix - Survey' on Nov. 9 was incorrect. The survey of 200 senior technology managers suggested that Unix system-based environments and Microsoft Windows NT operating environments will co-exist, and that IT managers had concerns about integrating Windows NT into their existing environments. (Patrick McKenna/19951120/Press Contact: Susan Baldwin, The Hoffman Agency, tel 408-286-2611) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 11/20/95 PC Polaroid Intros Photo Scanner For Home PCs (NEWS)(PC)(DEN)(00020) Polaroid Intros Photo Scanner For Home PCs 11/20/95 CAMBRIDGE, MASSACHUSETTS, U.S.A., 1995 NOV 20 (NB) -- Polaroid Corp. (NYSE: PRD) has introduced a digital photo scanner for home and office use that takes 60 seconds or less to scan a black and white or color image up to four inches by six inches. #IMAGE 1 20 TWPCX \images\95112020.PCX Click here for photo The company said Photopad lets you scan 35mm prints or Polaroid instant pictures. Once the image has been scanned into your PC it can be incorporated into most word processing programs and presentation programs including Microsoft Word, Wordperfect, Microsoft Works and Microsoft Powerpoint, usually by dragging and dropping. Photopad works with any TWAIN-compliant application, and images can be e-mailed or published on the Internet. The images are saved in the JPEG (Joint Picture Experts Group) format. To scan a photo all you do is place the picture on the scanner bed, launch the included software and click on the Capture button. Captured images can be cropped, the colors brightened, and over- and under-exposure corrected by clicking on the appropriate icon. Polaroid said images can be scanned at up to 400 dots per inch. Polaroid said the Photopad is plug-and-play compatible. That means when it is connected to the parallel port of a PC that is plug-and-play capable the computer will automatically recognize the Photopad and configure itself without any action on the part of the user. Polaroid spokesperson Scott Wicker told Newsbytes Photopad has a pass-thru connection that allows the user to connect Photopad to the PC then connect a printer to a special port on the Photopad. That eliminates the need to swap plugs if you want to use different peripherals. Photopad weighs less than one pound and measures six inches by five inches by 3.5 inches. It has a suggested retail price of $299. (Jim Mallory/19951120/Press contact: Arlene Henry, Polaroid, 617-386-6546; Public contact: Polaroid, 800-343-5000/PHOTOPAD951120/PHOTO) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 11/20/95 GOVT Nuclear Agency Taps Internet For Rulemaking (NEWS)(GOVT)(WAS)(00021) Nuclear Agency Taps Internet For Rulemaking 11/20/95 WASHINGTON, D.C., U.S.A., 1995 NOV 20 (NB) --The US Nuclear Regulatory Commission has become the first federal agency to use the interactive capabilities of the Internet in a rulemaking. The NRC is using a program on the World Wide Web, called RuleNet, to collect information and opinion prior to launching a formal rulemaking on fire protection at nuclear power plants. The interactive rulemaking began today with registration of interested parties. Registration will continue until January 2, at which point the pilot project will get underway. In the first phase of the project, participants will discuss critical issues through Internet e-mail. A five-day period for caucusing, clarification and further issue identification will follow. In the second phase, lasting 10 days, the NRC will offer solutions to the issues posed in the first phase and participants can react to those suggestions. To help participants in the project, the NRC is currently scanning basic fire protection documents, including Appendix R, which is the current fire protection rule, adopted some 20 years ago as a result of pressure from the Union of Concerned Scientists, following the fire at the Tennessee Valley Authority's Browns Ferry plant. Appendix R will be searchable in full text form. In a "vision statement" posted on the RuleNet site (http://nssc.llnl.gov/RuleNet ), the NRC says, "The capacity of computer technology to improve the current rulemaking process can be readily illustrated. In a traditional rulemaking, if a particular matter raises questions in the minds of participants, they have no recourse other than to point out the issue in their written comments. If the rulemaking is on a proposed rule, the commentor may not learn the answer until the final rule is issued." "The computer," the NRC says, "allows the agency staff to analyze the comments and questions received, ascertain which questions arise most often, and then post electronically a list of 'frequently asked questions' and their answers. In this way, doubtful points can be clarified before, not after, comments are filed." Fire protection, one of the most controversial issues in nuclear safety, has been on the NRC's mind for some time. The agency has been trying to move to performance-based rules and earlier determine that fire protection was appropriate for that new focus. Last February, the Nuclear Energy Institute, the trade group for the nuclear power industry, petitioned the commission to shift to performance-based fire protection requirements. The NRC says the RuleNet program will "not supersede the NEI petition, which will continue to be considered on its own merits." One important player will not be participating in RuleNet. Bob Pollard, nuclear safety engineer at UCS and a leading figure in the original fire protection rules, says he has no interest in RuleNet. "I see this has just a more effective way to ignore public input," Pollard told Newsbytes, calling the pilot project "high-tech games." "I suggest that the commission simply review the original rulemaking that led to the current fire protection rule," says Pollard. He says he will file written comments during the formal rulemaking. The NRC has contracted with Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory for the RuleNet pilot project. If the project is successful, the NRC says it will use interactive technology in other rulemaking proceedings. (Kennedy Maize/19951120) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 11/20/95 ONLINE UUNET To Pick Up 40% Interest In German Firm (NEWS)(ONLINE)(WAS)(00022) UUNET To Pick Up 40% Interest In German Firm 11/20/95 FAIRFAX, VIRGINIA, U.S.A., 1995 NOV 20 (NB) -- UUNET Technologies has signed a deal to acquire 40 percent of EUnet Germany, a leading Internet access provider in Germany. The price, and the form of payment, will depend upon negotiations over how much control UUNET will have in the management of the German firm. UUNET said the price will be in the range of $1.6 million to $5.4 million and the sale should closed by the end of the year. EUnet Germany is currently owned by three shareholders: a group controlled by the company's management, the German Unix users group, and Communications Network International. EUnet Germany has 30 points of presence throughout Germany and had about $6.1 million in revenues during the first 10 months of 1995. UUNET recently said it is acquiring Unipalm Group Plc, the largest Internet service provider in Europe, in a stock swap worth about $154 million. The acquisition is expected to close by November 30. "Establishing our operations in Germany through this investment in EUnet Germany provides an opportunity to further accelerate our international expansion following our recent acquisition of Unipalm Group Plc in the United Kingdom," said John Sidgmore, UUNET president and chief executive officer. Founded in 1987, UUNET was the first commercial Internet service provider. The company provides Internet access to the Microsoft Network. UUNET as 118 points of presence in the US and plans to expand to 230, including 20 outside the US, by the end of the year. UUNET had a successful initial public stock offering earlier this year, and the company is flush with cash and looking for acquisitions. (Kennedy Maize/19951120/Press Contact: Paula Jagemann, 703-206-5960) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 1996 11/20/95 PC ****Compaq Denies Plans for Under-$1500 PC In (NEWS)(PC)(DEN)(00023) ****Compaq Denies Plans for Under-$1500 PC In 1996 11/20/95 HOUSTON, TEXAS, U.S.A., 1995 NOV 20 (NB) -- Compaq Computer Corp. (NYSE: CPQ) denied a report this week by the Wall Street Journal that the computer company will introduce a lower-priced, fewer-featured PC with a price tag of about $1,500 in 1996. Presently the company's least expensive personal computer sells for about $1,699, a Compaq spokesperson told Newsbytes. #IMAGE 1 20 TWPCX \images\95112023.PCX Click here for photo The WSJ said its report was based on interviews at last week's Comdex Fall/95 computer trade show in Las Vegas. Compaq has not had a booth at Comdex for at least four years, although its computers were in use in a number of booths to demonstrate other company's products. Exhibit space in the Las Vegas Convention Center cost exhibitors $42.95 per square foot this year, and will increase by $2 per square foot next year. Some exhibitors occupied in excess of 20,000 square feet of exhibit space this year. Asked to comment on the WSJ story, Compaq spokesperson Yvonne Donaldson told Newsbytes comments made during an interview of a Compaq executive were apparently taken out of context when the executive was speaking of trends in the industry for 1996. "Consumers are looking for faster processors, larger hard drives and extra memory," said Donaldson. In the WSJ interview the Compaq executive predicted lower prices generally in the industry, said Donaldson, but did not announce price cuts for Compaq products. "We're selling everything we make. Why would we be taking cuts now? It's the Christmas season," said Donaldson. Numerous Compaq PCs were prominently displayed at last week's Comdex trade show in the Cyrix Corporation booth, equipped with Cyrix's recently announced 6X86 microprocessor. Cyrix is one of several companies that have emerged as challengers to Intel Corporation's dominance of the PC processor market. Compaq has relied on Intel and AMD processors in the past. Compaq spokesperson John Sweney told Newsbytes the company has been evaluating various microprocessors, including Cyrix. "We've been pretty pleased so far with (Cyrix's) performance," he said. Sources close to Compaq told Newsbytes the use of Cyrix chips in Compaq PCs at Comdex shouldn't be taken as an indication that Compaq would switch to a new chip supplier in the immediate future. (Jim Mallory/19951120/Press contact: Compaq Computer, 713-374-0484/6X86_951120/PHOTO) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 11/20/95 ONLINE ****Microsoft Network Passes 500,000-Subscriber Mark (NEWS)(ONLINE)(MSP)(00024) ****Microsoft Network Passes 500,000-Subscriber Mark 11/20/95 REDMOND, WASHINGTON, U.S.A., 1995 NOV 20 (NB) -- In its first three months of service, Microsoft Network (MSN) officials said they have signed up more than 525,000 members. The service, part of Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT), also announced it will make several enhancements to the network in the next 60 days. When the service launched at the same time Windows 95 launched in late August, officials told Newsbytes they might put new sign-ups on hold after membership passed the 500,000 mark, as a part of MSN's "assured customer satisfaction plan." Today, George Meng, MSN group product manager, told Newsbytes because aspects like network availability, data network computers, and other factors are going so well, member enrollment will not be suspended. "We have done multiple qualitative and quantitative surveys with our customers," Meng said. "Based on that feedback, we feel very good about our service today." Meng said the service has not had any service interruptions since its launch. He also said the network has been able to handle the growing membership numbers without any significant problem. One of the areas where MSN excels, Meng told Newsbytes, is in its Internet access and integration with the World Wide Web. Web integration is also important for MSN subscribers, as the surveys showed, Meng added. Some of the specific areas on MSN that people are responding to include the MSN News section, and the NBC area, along with some of the new multimedia areas, like Bookshelf, Encarta, and Car Source. Meng said the new multimedia areas are like having CD-ROM like quality over MSN with just a telephone line. Some of the enhancements coming soon to the service include selective graphics, caching of multimedia content, improvements in downloading of files, and a new compact viewer for reading documents. The improvements will help to speed network performance on the user's end, officials said. Increased high-speed access to MSN will also help members, Meng said. Earlier this month, Newsbytes reported that MSN is planning to bring ISDN (integrated services digital network) digital service to the network, along with more high-speed access numbers for traditional analog modems. (Bob Woods/19951120/Press Contacts: June McLaren Peters or Anne Marshall, Waggener Edstrom, 206-637-9097) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 11/20/95 BUSINESS Storagetek Restructuring Cuts 1,500 Jobs (NEWS)(BUSINESS)(DEN)(00025) Storagetek Restructuring Cuts 1,500 Jobs 11/20/95 LOUISVILLE, COLORADO, U.S.A., 1995 NOV 20 (NB) -- A reorganization plan Storage Technology Corp. (NYSE: STK) said is designed to save $100 million includes the reduction of about 1,500 jobs and the closing of a half-million square foot manufacturing and development facility in Longmont, Colorado. Storagetek spokesperson David Reid told Newsbytes about 800 employees will get their pink slips the week of December 4, with separation notices for the remainder going out later, The company said it will take a writedown of about $150 million, mostly in the current quarter, to cover the expenses associated with the restructuring. In addition to the job cuts and the plant closing Storagetek will eliminate some of its non-core functions and businesses. Reid declined to discuss specifically what functions and products might be dropped. Storagetek will also close some leased facilities, in addition to phasing out the Longmont plant over the next 18 months. The activities currently performed at Longmont will be consolidated in other Storagetek facilities, predominantly in Louisville. Reid said Quantum Corp., which currently occupies space at Storagetek in a joint venture to produce hard drives with magnetoresistive heads, will construct its own manufacturing facility in Louisville, making that space available to Storagetek. Quantum employs about 500 people at the Louisville site. The company said the job reductions will be implemented throughout 1996 with the majority falling into the first half of the year. About 1,000 of the positions being cut are located in Colorado. The company said the reorganization is designed to "significantly reshape the operating model of the company and enhance profitability beginning in 1996." Through the first nine months of 1995 the company's shareholders have lost $0.25 per share. Reid called the results so far "disappointing." The fiscal year ends December 31. Storagetek designs, manufactures and markets storage and retrieval subsystems for computer systems. The company reported revenue of $1.87 billion and earnings per share of $0.66 in its fiscal year ending December 30, 1994. Shareholders lost $2.05 per share in 1993. (Jim Mallory/19951120/Press contact: David Reid, Storagetek, 303-673-4815) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 11/20/95 ONLINE Microsoft, InContext Do Web Authoring Deal (NEWS)(ONLINE)(MSP)(00026) Microsoft, InContext Do Web Authoring Deal 11/20/95 REDMOND, WASHINGTON, U.S.A., 1995 NOV 20 (NB) -- InContext Corporation of Toronto, Ontario, Canada said its Spider 1.1 Internet World Wide Web publishing tool will be one of the first to be seamlessly integrated with Microsoft's (NASDAQ:MSFT) Internet Explorer for Windows 95 Web browser. Also, InContext officials told Newsbytes the company will license Internet Explorer for bundling in the Spider retail package. Ian Hembery, InContext vice president of marketing and sales, told Newsbytes the Microsoft agreement is important because "it attaches some credibility towards our company. That always helps when you're a small software company trying to get bigger." In addition, it allows InContext customers to buy a "very good editor" in the Spider product, and lets people start authoring and creating Web pages, Hembery said. The Spider package lets users develop Web pages with hypertext markup language (HTML), officials said. Pages developed from Spider can be read with Internet Explorer, and browsers that use both the Mosaic and the Netscape technologies. Spider pages can use HTML 2.0 standard coding, proposed HTML 3.0 language enhancements, and separate Netscape and Microsoft extensions. Also, the Spider package also has home page templates, clip art, and enhanced downloading of non-standard HTML documents. The program can also convert any Windows word processing document into an HTML page, so it can be uploaded to the Web for the world to see, officials said. The ability to validate HTML pages is also included, along with WYSIWYG (what you see is what you get) viewing of a page that closely resembles the actual Web page. InContext's current Spider product will run under both Windows 3.1 and Windows 95. But officials said the software will be available as a Windows 95 specific product in the first quarter of 1996. Both the Internet Explorer and the Spider Web browsers utilize Enhanced Mosaic technology from Spyglass Inc. (Bob Woods/19951120/Press Contact: John Robinson, Patrick O'Neill & Associates, 416-361-3331, Internet e-mail pres@inforamp.net) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 11/20/95 TRENDS ****The World's Most Wired Community (NEWS)(TRENDS)(WAS)(00027) ****The World's Most Wired Community 11/20/95 SEATTLE, WASHINGTON, U.S.A., 1995 NOV 20 (NB) -- Glasgow, Ky., population 13,000 and arguably the world's most wired community, has added a new electronic service that is available to the city's residents. Citizens of Glasgow can now get unlimited Internet access at two megabits per second for a flat fee of $22 per month, through the city's municipally-owned electric utility. How fast is that? "Fastern' Hell," says Bill Ray, head of the city utility department and an evangelist for municipal broadband communications services. The Internet offering joins a menu of telecommunications services the local electric utility offers, including cable television, local telephone service, a city-wide computer network, and advanced energy management capabilities. Ray described Glasgow's system at an American Public Power Association workshop in Seattle last week. "Internet service is going to be an attractive new service," Ray said. "Nobody could anticipate how popular the Internet is." He added that every new customer on the city's electric system now automatically gets an Internet e-mail address. The Internet offering, Ray said, came after the city realized that its local network, Home LAN, needed to be able to reach beyond the confines of the city. "We called MCI, because we needed somebody to show us how to tie to the Internet," he said. MCI installed a T-1 line from Glasgow to the nearest Internet backbone connection. In 1988, in order to provide advanced utility demand-side management and avoid crippling demand charges from the Tennessee Valley Authority, Glasgow spent $3 million to install a 120-mile, looped fiber system with coaxial cable from the fiber node to the individual building. But the additional bandwidth allowed the city utility to offer cable, competing with the existing cable supplier, E.W. Scripps. At the time, Ray noted, Scripps was offering only two-dozen channels at a monthly cost of about $14. The cable provider fought the utility, telling the local governing body that "all manner of evil will befall us" if the city got into the cable business, Ray said. He noted that the cable company was wildly unpopular in the city and the opposition from Scripps only made it easier for the utility to win political support. The city launched its cable system with more than 40 channels, at a price just below what Scripps was then charging. Marketing plans indicated the cable system would quickly take over market share from Scripps. But then, the marketplace struck, recalled Ray. "You think you know about competition, and you don't," said Ray. Scripps doubled the number of channels it was offering and cut the price to under $6 per month, a price the city could not match and still cover costs. The impact on the brand new municipal cable system was devastating. "We got my mother and some, but not all," of the employees of the city electric utility to sign up, Ray said ruefully. So Glasgow had to learn how to compete, and they did it without lowering their price. The key was customer service. "We'd do anything to get you to hook up," he said, including, literally, setting the clock on a customer's VCR and teaching them how to program the device. "We attacked that lack of knowledge and started picking up customers," said Ray. "We never had a month that we didn't take market share away from our competitor, and we have never been cheaper than our competitor." Today, the city cable system has 58 percent of the market. About 1991, the city started realizing that it could also offer telephone service over its broadband fiber network. Working with First Pacific Networks, the utility began offering POTS, the telephony acronym meaning "plain old telephone service." Pretty soon, Ray said, the city was adding PANS, or "pretty amazing new stuff." The telephone system led to the local area network business, Ray said, adding that the city LAN "will be the most important service" the city offers. He said that when the utility was wiring up the schools to communicate with each other, the utility noticed "file servers everywhere and none were attached to each other. Not knowing anything, we thought it would be possible to have one server and link the schools together." With help from Novell, that's just what Glasgow did. "Then people with PCs in the home wanted on the network so their kids could talk to the schools," said Ray. And that led to the city network. The Internet connection grew from that. Did all this take battalions of geeks and an abundance of the "vision thing?" Not at all, according to Ray. "When we started this, did we see the information superhighway? No, we barely saw ahead of our noses. I never heard of broadband until 1987. We were not embued with special vision and we didn't invent one thing. It all came out of catalogs and off UPS truck. This stuff is not as complication as many make out." (Kennedy Maize/19951117) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 11/20/95 PC Four Microsoft Word Macro Viruses Loose, Says Dr Solomon (NEWS)(PC)(LON)(00028) Four Microsoft Word Macro Viruses Loose, Says Dr Solomon 11/20/95 LAS VEGAS, NEVADA, U.S.A., 1995 NOV 20 (NB) -- According to Alan Solomon, charismatic head of S&S International, the anti-virus company, barely three months after the first cross-platform macro virus appeared, there are now four macro viruses floating around the marketplace. The viruses are capable, the company claims, of infecting all users of MS-Word 6.x and above, no matter what operating system is in use. "That's a serious problem and one that the anti-virus industry is failing to tackle," explained a spokesman for the company, who added that the company's updated anti-virus toolkit, unveiled at Comdex Fall this week, could cope with such viruses. Perhaps more sinister is the report that a virus author, un-named, attempted to write an MS-Excel virus. The attempt, the company claims, failed. There are also two new Trojan horses, including one that reformats a hard disk, in the PC market. Toolkit, the company claims, protects against these new virus programs -- something that the competition, such as McAfee's product does not. The new version of the Toolkit, the company claims, adds automatic detection and repair of the damage cause by macro viruses as a standard feature. "It's clear that macro viruses are highly infectious," explained Solomon, who added that the company is now detecting around 150 to 200 new viruses each and every month. The MS-Word viruses, he claims, are the latest in a long line of problematic virus programs. "The development of viruses that make use of the WordBasic language macro language to infect DOC files exploits the fact that computer users exchange documents, often via e-mail, far more often than they exchange programs," he explained, adding that these viruses pose a problem for the computer industry. Current users of the S&S Toolkit can now update their software using the CompuServe forum (GO DRSOLOMON) or by Webbing into the company's Web pages at http://www.drsolomon.com , or by calling the company's US BBS on 617-229-8804. Further details of the Toolkit, including its various platform pricing, can also be found by these means. (Sylvia Dennis/19951117/Press Contact: Pat Bitton, S&S International 310-670-5606; Fax 310-670-2064; Reader Contact: S&S International 800- 701-9648; Fax 617-273-7474) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 2000 11/20/95 BUSINESS China - Siemens Envisions $10 Billion From China By (NEWS)(BUSINESS)(PEK)(00029) China - Siemens Envisions $10 Billion From China By 2000 11/20/95 BEIJING, CHINA, 1995 NOV 20 (NB) -- Siemens' annual business volume in China is expected to be US$10 billion by the end of this century, the company recently announced at a press conference in Beijing. In recent years, Siemens' sales volume in China has increased rapidly. In 1994, the company's sales in China were 10-fold over 1993's sales, said Gunter Wilhelm, member of the corporate executive committee of Siemens AG, in a press conference recently held in Beijing. He also announced the company's goal is to reach an annual business volume of US$10 billion in China by the year 2000. In order to achieve the goal, Siemens will establish more joint ventures in China over the next four years. Siemens will bring its total investment in China to US$1 billion by the year 2000. To date, Siemens has invested US$250 million in 30 joint ventures in China. Siemens also plans to raise its number of employees in China from the current 6,000 to 30,000 by the turn of this century, said Wilhelm. The German company will focus its fresh investment mainly in the fields of telecommunications, energy resources, and transportation, which are key infrastructure sectors and whose development is encouraged by the Chinese government. Siemens recently signed several big contracts with Chinese companies and government agencies, including the large project with Tianjin Municipal Economic Information Center to improve China's economic information network and the telecommunications project to construct the Beijing-Harbin optical cable line. Siemens' other projects also include Rizhao Thermal Power Plant in Shandong Province and Hanfeng Power Plant in Hebei province. The value of these recent contracts for Siemens hit US$354.6 million, announced Von Pierer, president and chief executive officer of Siemens AG, who is a member of German Prime Minister Kohl's delegation to China. (Chih-Ho Yu & Ning Huang/19951117) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 11/20/95 IBM Comdex - IBM OpenDoc Extends To HTML, Microsoft Env'ts (NEWS)(IBM)(BOS)(00030) Comdex - IBM OpenDoc Extends To HTML, Microsoft Env'ts 11/20/95 LAS VEGAS, NEVADA, U.S.A., 1995 NOV 20 (NB) -- By assuming responsibility from Novell for the Windows NT and Windows 95 editions of OpenDoc, IBM is now working with Microsoft developers as well as IBM OS/2 and AIX developers, who are building parts in languages that include C. the HTML (hypertext markup language) of the Web, and the object-oriented C++ and Visual Smalltalk, said IBM's Scott Hebner and Valerie D. Olague, during an OpenDoc update for Newsbytes at Comdex. Through the newly announced Club OpenDoc home page on the Web, IBM plans to create a single "community" for component makers from these diverse environments, providing the developers with information on OpenDoc products and services, as well as a way to communicate with IBM, other part builders, and even with potential beta users, reported Hebner, who is program manager, Object Implementation, for IBM. As previously reported in Newsbytes, members of the new Club OpenDoc will be able to distribute their components as "shareware" over the Web, for free evaluation by Internet users. Then, when the components are completed, developers will be able to put their parts up for commercial sale via another new Web-based service, known as the Reusable Software Component Market. Although membership in Club OpenDoc is free, component makers taking part in the Reusable Software Component Market will be charged a $99 fee for each part placed on the Web, according to Hebner. The "finished parts" distributed over the Web-based Component Market will be sold at varying prices. The "new electronic store" for objects is owned and run by CyberSource Corp., the operator of software.net, but it is being sponsored by IBM. Component buyers can pay for their purchases online by credit card, or, alternatively, send payment directly to the part maker. Hebner also told Newsbytes that the next release of IBM's OS/2 Warp, which is slated for delivery in mid-1996, will be the first release of an operating system (OS) to incorporate a built-in OpenDoc runtime. The inclusion of the runtime directly in the OS will serve as a "major convenience" to ISVs and systems integrators, he asserted. The delivery of the updated OS/2 Warp will be preceded by the availability of an OpenDoc developers kit for OS/2 Warp in December. The program manager added that the decision for IBM to take over responsibility for the Windows NT/Windows 95 edition of OpenDoc was reached in conjunction with CI Labs after Novell notified the labs of its plans to discontinue work on the project. Apple, he reported, is continuing on with a version of OpenDoc for the Macintosh environment. Meanwhile, a pre-released version of OpenDoc for AIX is targeted for availability on the Developer Connection CD (DEVCON) later this month. IBM has already built an application that includes parts written in NT, AIX, and OS/2, pointed out Olague, a staffer in Object-Oriented Strategy and Implementation. Putting together the OpenDoc Travel Expense Authorization application took "only a few days," asserted Hebner. The travel expense application currently runs on OS/2. Component parts in the new application include a suite of image scanning and manipulation components from Cirrus Technology; a spreadsheet from Athena Design; a signature capture component from Peripheral Vision; a "speech-aware" calendar and speech dictation component from Voice Pilot Technologies; and a "data enablement" component from SSG for application access to DB2 Parallel Edition. Voice Pilot Technologies also wrote a "speech extension" to the OpenDoc API (application programming interface) that is designed to let other components in the application accept voice input as well as keyboard and mouse input, Olague said. In addition, IBM contributed at "specialized application for integrating the other components and (for) adding travel expense-related logic to create overall application flow." The constituent parts in the travel expense authorization application will become available to ISVs, systems integrators, corporate developers, and other prospective parts buyers over IBM's new Reusable Component Market next month, along with other OpenDoc new components, according to Olague. SOM (systems object model) parts are already for sale on the new Web page. Unlike the OCXes of the Microsoft Windows environment, which allow for object embedding only, OpenDoc permits the creation of "dynamic and distributable" objects, Hebner contended. Developers, he added, can create OpenDoc parts in HTML by mapping HTML tags -- similar in concept to the tags in SGML (standard generalized markup language -- to OpenDoc. The new Club OpenDoc is located at http://www.software.ibm.com/clubopendoc on the Web. If you're interested in browsing or buying "finished" parts, you can do so through the Reusable Software Component Market at http://components.software.net on the Web. (Jacqueline Emigh/19951120/Reader Contact: IBM, 914-765-1900; Press Contacts: Keith Mary Rantas-Drew, IBM, 914-766-1211; Jennifer Surro, Brodeur & Partners for IBM, 617-622-2856) (SUMMARY)(GENERAL)(MSP)(00031) Newsbytes Daily Summary 11/20/95 MINNEAPOLIS, MINNESOTA, U.S.A., 1995 NOV 20 (NB) -- These are capsules of all today's news stories: ======================================================================== ------------| N E W S B Y T E S D A I L Y S U M M A R Y |---------- ------------| Monday, November 20, 1995 |---------- ======================================================================== (c) Newsbytes News Network (Tm) Editor in Chief: Wendy Woods ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Newsbytes News Network's on the Web! Check out http://www.nbnn.com for free daily top stories from Newsbytes and its affiliate publications, and from PC Week, MacWeek, and other Ziff news magazines. A subscription gives you all the news, full-text, plus the most comprehensive database of past computer stories online. The keyword-searchable database dates from today back through 1983. Subscriptions are $24.95 for three months. Questions? Send to 'administrator@newsbytes.com' For Japanese Newsbytes and additional services, see the Newsbytes Pacifica Website at http://www.islandtel.com/newsbytes/ ------------------------------------------------------------------------ CATEGORY HEADLINES (*** indicates today's top stories) STORY # ======================================================================== BROADCAST Comdex - Avid Previews "Real Impact" Update................ 08 BUSINESS Compaq Slashes HK Prices................................... 12 BUSINESS Dun & Bradstreet Enters Philippine Market.................. 14 BUSINESS JetForm Acquires Eclipse................................... 17 BUSINESS Storagetek Restructuring Cuts 1,500 Jobs................... 25 BUSINESS China - Siemens Envisions $10 Billion From China By 2000... 29 GENERAL NewsPix Images For Newsbytes Publishers.................... 04 GENERAL Japan Newsbriefs........................................... 06 GENERAL China - Newsbriefs......................................... 15 GENERAL Comdex - DEC Showcases Storage Products.................... 16 GOVT Nuclear Agency Taps Internet For Rulemaking................ 21 IBM Comdex - IBM Plans Notes-Based "Programmable Server........ 05 IBM Big Blue Joins Telstra In $100M Sydney Olympics Splurge.... 13 IBM Comdex - IBM OpenDoc Extends To HTML, Microsoft Env'ts..... 30 ONLINE ****China All At Sea Over Internet........................ 02 ONLINE China Contract Speeds Web's Advance........................ 03 ONLINE ****Internet Update - RealAudio Special................... 07 ONLINE Australia - Microsoft Network Progress..................... 10 ONLINE UUNET To Pick Up 40% Interest In German Firm............... 22 ONLINE ****Microsoft Network Passes 500,000-Subscriber Mark...... 24 ONLINE Microsoft, InContext Do Web Authoring Deal................. 26 PC Comdex - Toshiba Lengthens Portable PC Lead................ 09 PC Polaroid Intros Photo Scanner For Home PCs................. 20 PC ****Compaq Denies Plans for Under-$1500 PC In 1996........ 23 PC Four Microsoft Word Macro Viruses Loose, Says Dr Solomon... 28 TRENDS Comdex - Large Color Plasma Displays Previewed............. 18 TRENDS ****The World's Most Wired Community...................... 27 UNIX Correction - HP's Survey About Windows NT And Unix......... 19 WINDOWS Bill Gates Officially Heads For Hong Kong.................. 01 WINDOWS Humongous Ships "Lets Explore the Jungle................... 11 ======================================================================== These are the headlines and first paragraphs of each story, in order: 1 -> Bill Gates Officially Heads For Hong Kong -- Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates will be making his "first official visit" to Hong Kong in mid-December, company sources in Hong Kong said. Whether or not he's been unofficially in the territory before, his handlers didn't say. 2 -> ****China All At Sea Over Internet -- The Chinese government has no firm ideas for the Internet. That was the startling message from Qu Zhinqiang, division chief of information technology at China's State Information Centre, speaking at last week's Internet conference, Executives in Cyberspace, here. 3 -> China Contract Speeds Web's Advance -- China's massive Internet-building project took another step last week, when ChinaNet architecture and switching contracts were awarded to US-based Cisco. At the same time Legend Holdings won six of the 48 contracts for the State Economic Information Network (SEIN) of China's State Information Centre 4 -> NewsPix Images For Newsbytes Publishers -- Photos are now posted as they arrive. This means quicker access to the story pictures. The bulletin will continue on Mondays, with updates Wednesdays and Fridays as needed. 5 -> Comdex - IBM Plans Notes-Based "Programmable Server -- IBM plans to achieve its vision of "network-centric computing" through a Lotus Notes-based "programmable server" that can be tailored in terms of messaging, information, policies, and transactions to meet the varying needs of "task-oriented, collaborative, and mobile" users, revealed Tim Negris, VP of marketing and sales for IBM Software Solutions, in a briefing for Newsbytes at Fall Comdex '95. 6 -> Japan Newsbriefs -- In this roundup of news from Japan, Fujitsu to invest $1 billion in new plant, Apple to connect schools to Internet, DVD agreement due next month, NTT hits ISDN milestone, FM teletext for cars developed. 7 -> ****Internet Update - RealAudio Special -- In this special edition we focus on the RealAudio software and programming available on the global Internet. RealAudio enables users to hear audio on demand across the network on connections from speeds of 14,400bps. To automatically launch programs from your Web client, it must be configured beforehand to run the RealAudio software when it encounters a file. 8 -> Comdex - Avid Previews "Real Impact" Update -- A forthcoming update to Avid's Real Impact new software for Windows NT-based desktop video creation and editing will add support for Windows 95, Miro's "low-cost" DC-20 video board, and MPEG (Motion Picture Experts Group)-1 export, revealed Dana White, senior product manager, in a product demo and company update for Newsbytes at Comdex. 9 -> Comdex - Toshiba Lengthens Portable PC Lead -- Statistics from top market research analysts show that Toshiba is lengthening its lead in the portable PC market, asserted Tom Scott, VP and general manager of the Computer Systems Division, in a press conference at Comdex that also featured testimonies from two large Toshiba customers, Unisys and Ryder Systems, as to how and why thousands of users at those organizations are turning to mobile computing. 10 -> Australia - Microsoft Network Progress -- On Australia's (Microsoft Network in Australia) timetable for full 28.8kbps Internet access via Microsoft Network has been put back from December to January 1996 for Melbourne and Sydney. The rest of the country should have access as planned in April. 11 -> Humongous Ships "Lets Explore the Jungle -- Humongous Entertainment announced this week the availability of "Lets Explore the Jungle" a CD-ROM based interactive program for children. "Jungle" lets the kids explore the plants, animals and environments of the world's three major jungles in Asia, Africa and the Amazon respectively. 12 -> Compaq Slashes HK Prices --Compaq Computer Hong Kong has slashed 20% on server drive options in a bid to drive up year-end numbers. Only weeks ago, International Data Corp put Compaq as the leading server supplier for the year's first quarter. 13 -> Big Blue Joins Telstra In $100M Sydney Olympics Splurge -- IBM Australia has announced an investment of about AUS$50 million in the Sydney 2000 Olympic Games and the Australian Olympic Team. Along with Telstra, Big Blue has signed up as the first corporate partner of the Games, and has gained exclusive rights to supply the event's IT systems. 14 -> Dun & Bradstreet Enters Philippine Market -- Dun & Bradstreet Software, an affiliate of Dun and Bradstreet Corporation where former US President Abraham Lincoln once worked as a business and credit analyst, has formally announced its entry to the Philippine market. 15 -> China - Newsbriefs -- In this news roundup from China, computer graphics major offered by Shanghai college; Microsoft is bringing its multimedia technology to Shanghai; the longest microwave transmission at high elevation works smoothly; and exports of Hong Kong computers to the Chinese mainland increase rapidly, IPC in China Venture. 16 -> Comdex - DEC Showcases Storage Products -- In one part of Digital Equipment Corp.'s ultra large presence at Comdex, StorageWorks execs Penny Scharfman and Bruce Baird briefed Newsbytes on Digital's latest storage products for multivendor environments, showing off the recently sold "one millionth StorageWorks building block," painted gold for Comdex. Also at the expo in Las Vegas, Digital's Systems Business Unit (SBU), components, PC, semiconductor, and Internet divisions all highlighted their wares. 17 -> JetForm Acquires Eclipse -- JetForm Corp. (NASDAQ:FORMF) has announced plans to buy Norcross, Georgia- based Eclipse Corp. for a little more than $3 million. Both companies sell electronic forms software, and Eclipse will become a division of JetForm. 18 -> Comdex - Large Color Plasma Displays Previewed -- They will not be commercial products until some time in late 1996, but color plasma displays were shown at several booths at Comdex/Fall. The displays, which can be made larger than any cathode ray tube developed to date, are being touted as a way of providing large, space-saving color displays for both television and computer use. 19 -> Correction - HP's Survey About Windows NT And Unix -- Due to a Newsbytes copy editing error, a headline reading 'Windows NT To Replace Unix - Survey' on Nov. 9 was incorrect. The survey of 200 senior technology managers suggested that Unix system-based environments and Microsoft Windows NT operating environments will co-exist, and that IT managers had concerns about integrating Windows NT into their existing environments. 20 -> Polaroid Intros Photo Scanner For Home PCs -- Polaroid Corp. (NYSE: PRD) has introduced a digital photo scanner for home and office use that takes 60 seconds or less to scan a black and white or color image up to four inches by six inches. 21 -> Nuclear Agency Taps Internet For Rulemaking --The US Nuclear Regulatory Commission has become the first federal agency to use the interactive capabilities of the Internet in a rulemaking. The NRC is using a program on the World Wide Web, called RuleNet, to collect information and opinion prior to launching a formal rulemaking on fire protection at nuclear power plants. 22 -> UUNET To Pick Up 40% Interest In German Firm -- UUNET Technologies has signed a deal to acquire 40 percent of EUnet Germany, a leading Internet access provider in Germany. The price, and the form of payment, will depend upon negotiations over how much control UUNET will have in the management of the German firm. 23 -> ****Compaq Denies Plans for Under-$1500 PC In 1996 -- Compaq Computer Corp. (NYSE: CPQ) denied a report this week by the Wall Street Journal that the computer company will introduce a lower-priced, fewer-featured PC with a price tag of about $1,500 in 1996. Presently the company's least expensive personal computer sells for about $1,699, a Compaq spokesperson told Newsbytes. 24 -> ****Microsoft Network Passes 500,000-Subscriber Mark -- In its first three months of service, Microsoft Network (MSN) officials said they have signed up more than 525,000 members. The service, part of Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT), also announced it will make several enhancements to the network in the next 60 days. 25 -> Storagetek Restructuring Cuts 1,500 Jobs -- A reorganization plan Storage Technology Corp. (NYSE: STK) said is designed to save $100 million includes the reduction of about 1,500 jobs and the closing of a half-million square foot manufacturing and development facility in Longmont, Colorado. 26 -> Microsoft, InContext Do Web Authoring Deal -- InContext Corporation of Toronto, Ontario, Canada said its Spider 1.1 Internet World Wide Web publishing tool will be one of the first to be seamlessly integrated with Microsoft's (NASDAQ:MSFT) Internet Explorer for Windows 95 Web browser. Also, InContext officials told Newsbytes the company will license Internet Explorer for bundling in the Spider retail package. 27 -> ****The World's Most Wired Community -- Glasgow, Ky., population 13,000 and arguably the world's most wired community, has added a new electronic service that is available to the city's residents. Citizens of Glasgow can now get unlimited Internet access at two megabits per second for a flat fee of $22 per month, through the city's municipally-owned electric utility. 28 -> Four Microsoft Word Macro Viruses Loose, Says Dr Solomon -- According to Alan Solomon, charismatic head of S&S International, the anti-virus company, barely three months after the first cross-platform macro virus appeared, there are now four macro viruses floating around the marketplace. The viruses are capable, the company claims, of infecting all users of MS-Word 6.x and above, no matter what operating system is in use. 29 -> China - Siemens Envisions $10 Billion From China By 2000 -- Siemens' annual business volume in China is expected to be US$10 billion by the end of this century, the company recently announced at a press conference in Beijing. 30 -> Comdex - IBM OpenDoc Extends To HTML, Microsoft Env'ts -- By assuming responsibility from Novell for the Windows NT and Windows 95 editions of OpenDoc, IBM is now working with Microsoft developers as well as IBM OS/2 and AIX developers, who are building parts in languages that include C. the HTML (hypertext markup language) of the Web, and the object-oriented C++ and Visual Smalltalk, said IBM's Scott Hebner and Valerie D. Olague, during an OpenDoc update for Newsbytes at Comdex. (Wendy Woods/19951120) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 11/17/95 GENERAL Japan Newsbriefs (NEWS)(GENERAL)(TYO)(00001) Japan Newsbriefs 11/17/95 TOKYO, JAPAN, 1995 NOV 17 (NB) -- In this roundup of news from Japan, Casio triples camera production, Microsoft gears up for Windows95 launch, communications industry growing - government, Pioneer plans MO audio system, Sanyo announces new HDTV. Casio Triples Camera Production Casio Computer will triple production of its new digital camera to 90,000 units a month on strong sales, the company said today. The QV-10 is selling well and will account for sales of around 10 billion yen by the end of the fiscal year forecast Casio. Priced at 65,000 yen ($650), the product is almost half the price of many competing products. Plans are now on the drawing board for a cheaper model with less features and a higher end version with more features than the QV-10. Microsoft Gears Up For Windows95 Launch Microsoft Japan is preparing the hype and hoopla for the launch of the Japanese language version of Windows95 next week. The product will hit the shelves on November 23rd and Tokyo will be witness to several midnight store openings as was seen in Europe and the US earlier this year when the English language version of the operating system launched. Communications Industry Growing - Government The Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications has said Japan's communications sector is growing according to preliminary results of the organization's annual survey. The MPT said aggregate annual sales predictions for the industry total 12.3 trillion yen ($123 billion), a rise of 6.3% on the previous year. The figures also show the sector is moving ahead faster than the general electronics and telecommunications industry which has a growth forecast of 1.8%. The survey takes in cable operators, NHK and commercial broadcasters, type I carriers, and general and special type II carriers. Pioneer Plans MO Audio System Just as the MiniDisc system is now being promoted as a computer product, in addition to audio, the magneto optical (MO) disk system is about to be offered for audio usage. Pioneer will begin selling an MO-based audio system for the professional market in December. Users will be able to select from 16, 20 and 24-bit audio at sampling rates of 44.056, 44.1, 47.952, and 48 kilohertz. Sanyo Announces New HDTV Sanyo Electric says it will begin selling a new, low-priced, high definition television set. The HVC-32H5(H), which features a 32-inch widescreen tube, will retail for 500,000 yen ($5,000). High definition television is becoming increasingly popular in Japan as manufacturers begin producing more low-priced sets. Previously such televisions could not be bought for less than 1 million yen ($10,000) although the cheapest available today is around 400,000 yen ($4,000). NHK and the nation's commercial broadcasts jointly produce a satellite program broadcast in the Hi-Vision format for the televisions. (Martyn Williams/19951117) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 11/17/95 ONLINE Internet Update (NEWS)(ONLINE)(TYO)(00002) Internet Update 11/17/95 TOKYO, JAPAN, 1995 NOV 17 (NB) -- In this roundup of new resources and services on the global Internet, "And the winner is," "Top secret!" Spying home page, UK military pattern and information processing, XFree86 Web-based FAQ, Freeware Internet encyclopedia, Amateur astronomy page, Eating disorders mailing list, Australian news. And The Winner Is ... Two different "Miss Internet" contests have been set up and are currently running on the network. The first we saw was "Miss Internet 95" and is being run by The Business Arts Group on its Webvote server. The Web site features pictures, videos and audio of the contestants and, naturally, allows visitors to vote on their favorites. The second contest is running from Finland and is similar but without the video and audio. World Wide Web: http://www.webvote.com/ World Wide Web: http://www.missinternet.fi/ Top Secret! Spying Home Page This is probably the only example of a spy super agent with his own Internet home page. We are, of course, talking about James Bond, AKA 007. The new James Bond movie is now featured on United International Pictures' home page. World Wide Web: http://www.uip.com/ UK Military Pattern And Information Processing The Pattern and Information Processing Group of the Defense Research Agency (DRA) in the United Kingdom has established a home page. The page introduces the work of the unit in fields from analog systems for information processing and data analysis and exploration to neural network techniques and statistical pattern processing. It's also one of the few examples of UK Internet services using the .gb rather than .uk domain. World Wide Web: http://www.dra.hmg.gb/cis5pip/Welcome.html XFree86 Web Based FAQ The frequently asked questions list (FAQ) of the XFree86 Project is now on the World Wide Web. All of the latest information is featured including full details of how to configure the software, availability and status of drivers, bugs and more. If you are having problems setting up an X Window System server, from the XFree86 Project, on your 80x86-based Unix system, or if you are wondering about support for your new video card, this is the place to look. World Wide Web: http://www.XFree86.org/FAQ/ Freeware Internet Encyclopedia Network users can now sample a copy of the NBN Soft, an encyclopedia that features hyperlinks to Internet resources. The freeware version is made up of around a third of the commercial edition and includes educational, Internet-related, medical and winter entertainment sources on the Internet. The file is available from SimTel, the Coast to Coast Software Repository, and its mirror sites worldwide, and requires a World Wide Web browser to view. Anonymous FTP: ftp://ftp.coast.net/SimTel/win3/internet/nbnlite.zip SimTel Mirrors Directory: /SimTel/win3/internet/nbnlite.zip Amateur Astronomy Page An index to pages of interest to amateur astronomers, particularly in the United Kingdom. Links include the British Astronomical Association, Society for Popular Astronomy, Astronomy Now and Popular Astronomy magazines and details of British astronomy bulletin boards and other indexes across the Internet. World Wide Web: http://www.ukindex.co.uk/ukastro/index.html Eating Disorders Mailing List The newly established Eating-Disorders mailing list is an international electronic forum for the exchange of ideas, opinions, and information on clinical and research aspects of anorexia and bulimia nervosa, obesity, and other atypical eating behavior. The list is aimed at mental-health professionals and professionals-to-be in both academic and applied settings, although participation by individuals in other disciplines is also encouraged to add diversity and variety. Email: listserv@sjuvm.stjohns.edu Message Body: subscribe eat-dis Firstname Lastname Australian News The Australian News Report is a Web-based news report designed to keep Internet users up to date with news from Australia. World Wide Web: http://australia-online.com/anr.html (Martyn Williams/19951117) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 11/17/95 GENERAL Australia - Dock Dispute Threatens IT Sales (NEWS)(GENERAL)(SYD)(00003) Australia - Dock Dispute Threatens IT Sales 11/17/95 CANBERRA, AUSTRALIA 1995 NOV 17 (NB) -- The Australian IT industry has its fingers crossed for a speedy resolution to the Australian dockside industrial dispute which may threaten imports vital to Christmas retail trade. After a sluggish third quarter, the industry is relying on a bumper festive season. Michael Buth, purchasing manager for Epson Australia, says the company could be feeling the pinch in the next five days if docks remain idle. "I have containers that come in every few days," he explained, "We'll really be in a spot of bother if it goes on." Apple Computer's product manager, Bill Harrington, says the company has adequate stock for Christmas, but there is still some product "on the water." He says Apple will feel the pinch only if there is a complete shut-off of supply for a couple of months. Harrington predicts a drop-off in the usual post-Christmas sales of excess stock. "As an industry, we'll probably sell what we bring in over Christmas," he says. He also points out that Christmas stock has already been ordered by most vendors and any that has not arrived is already in transit. If it gets stuck, and air-freighted stock is required to top up supplies, vendors could be lumbered with double orders. Companies such as Hewlett-Packard and Dell already air freight much of their stock. "If the strike goes on longer than a month, we might feel the pressure," says Dell's Rob Small. A new line of Dell machines, due for release next year, are coming to Australia by sea, he adds. Canon, gearing up for strong printer sales over Christmas, says its dealers take delivery of festive stock in mid-November and are covered. "Canon on the whole, is very happy with its stocks," says James Fewtrell, corporate communications manager. Jonar Nader, Acer Computer Australia's marketing manager, says his company is in the clear. "Our stock will keep us going till February," he says. (Dorothy Kennedy and Computer Daily News/19951117) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 11/17/95 EDITORIAL GENERAL Comdex - Impressions From A First-Time Point Of View (EDITORIAL)(GENERAL)(MSP)(00004) Comdex - Impressions From A First-Time Point Of View 11/17/95 LAS VEGAS, NEVADA, U.S.A., 1995 NOV 17 (NB) -- Walking through doors of a Comdex show for the first time may remind one of a huge auto show that's on steroids. Many, many, many companies, more than 2,200, put on their best faces for a viewing "public" comprised of competitive exhibitors, wide-eyed browsers, and skeptical journalists. Each exhibitor is not only trying to attract the most people into their booths, it seems they're trying to out-shout each other in a collective duel across aisles filled with people on their way to other booths. The ways in which they try to attract people are truly unique, too. The companies involved probably felt they had to yell, because an estimated 7,000 new products were introduced this week. In an attempt to rise above the sea of new products, some companies used the "pretty hostess" approach. Other companies used spokespeople while others were hired presenters. Newsbytes also noted actors playing parts in mini-plays. One company in particular used a "bickering married couple" to attempt to sell a line of modems. IBM decided to bring in some "real people," in the form of former Olympic greats and current Olympians readying to compete in Atlanta next year. Just because you leave the proverbial "four walls" of Comdex doesn't mean the ad blitz ends. On the streets, taxis and busses transport rolling ads for Epson, Iomega, and other companies. In fact, some buses were completely "clothed" with a kind of covering that hawked Epson's colorful printers. What's more, the Yellow, Checker, and Star cab companies' receipts even have advertising -- from Epson. If an award were given for having the most ads in Las Vegas, Epson and Iomega would tie for first place (behind Comdex itself, of course). If the constant "in your face" form of corporate advertising didn't reach the first-time Comdexer, the sheer size of the show might have made an impact. Besides taking up all of the Las Vegas Convention Center (LVCC), including exhibit halls and meeting rooms, the show also practically maxed out the Sands Expo and Convention Center (SECC). The SECC seems to be as big as the LVCC, with the same number (if not more) appearing to be at the Sands. If two halls weren't enough, and they didn't appear to be for Comdex, companies also set up shop in the Las Vegas Hilton, which adjoins the LVCC. For a show that thrives on technology, the city around it hasn't had a chance to prepare what's necessary for the influx of people. Cellular phone users experienced service that was, at times, spotty at best, due to so many others using the modern technology to communicate. Some dialing into online services like Compuserve couldn't get in to read their e-mail and news services. Even basic essentials like ground transportation suffered because of a lack of taxis and heavy traffic. The only saving grace -- the good humor of many of the workers charged with getting sometimes-cranky Comdexers to where they needed to be ten minutes ago. (Bob Woods/19951116) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 11/17/95 BROADCAST Comdex - I/O Magic's Portable Teleconferencing (NEWS)(BROADCAST)(MSP)(00005) Comdex - I/O Magic's Portable Teleconferencing 11/17/95 LAS VEGAS, NEVADA, U.S.A., 1995 NOV 17 (NB) -- Irvine, California's I/O Magic Corp. is introducing a PCMCIA (Personal Computer Memory Card Industry Association) teleconferencing system the company calls a "first" for the computer industry, called MobileVision. The new system uses a POTS (plain old telephone service) line to hook together two notebooks using, for now, the MobileVision system. The system incorporates a mini-camera, which draws its power from a supplied PCMCIA Type II video capture card, and a voice-over data 28.8Kbps (kilobits per second) Type II PCMCIA modem that uses simultaneous voice and data transmission and reception. A future release of MobileVision will integrate the two cards into one, Tony Andrews, director of engineering for I/O Magic, told Newsbytes. Besides video, users can share documents and data, talk, and transmit data with MobileVision. The system can hook up multiple users in a videoconference, Andrews added. Newsbytes saw a demonstration of the system at the Comdex Fall '95 show in Las Vegas. Video transmission averaged five to fifteen frames per second. While full-motion video runs at 30 frames per second, the quality from MobileVision was not objectionable. Retail price on the system, including camera, is around $1099. Future plans for the system include ISDN (integrated services digital network) compliance, and compliance with the new POTS standard for teleconferencing, Andrews said, so that MobileVision can be used with any other teleconferencing system. "The typical use for mobile users will be to take this to a hotel room, and make a call," Andrews said. He doesn't see the need to have a digital videoconferencing system yet for a portable system like this, because most hotels don't have the capability to complete digital calls. Other products in the I/O Magic line include a separate packaging of the PCMCIA Type II MPEG (Motion Pictures Engineers Group) card that comes with the MobileVision teleconferencing system, a quad-speed CD-ROM drive that has a PCMCIA Type I interface card, and an Ethernet LAN (local area network) Type I card. (Bob Woods/19951116/Press Contact: Mike Cone, I/O Magic, 714-727- 7466, Internet e-mail iomagic@earthlink.net. Public Contact: I/O Magic Corp., 714-27-7466) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 11/17/95 ONLINE Comdex - Developing Realistic Web Site Strategies (NEWS)(ONLINE)(MSP)(00006) Comdex - Developing Realistic Web Site Strategies 11/17/95 LAS VEGAS, NEVADA, U.S.A., 1995 NOV 17 (NB) -- At the Comdex Fall '95 computer and information technology show, the selling and marketing of goods and services online highlighted one of the conferences at the annual gathering. The discussion centered on what Internet World Wide Web site developers should put on their pages, and how should they put their information on the Internet. Two speakers presented their ideas to an estimated audience of more than 350 people, many of them Web site administrators. Glee Harrah Cady, manager of information services for San Jose, California- based Netcom, spoke about content issues on the Web. The job of explaining the more technical side of matters Web-related fell to Paul Hoffman, president of Proper Publishing of Santa Cruz, California. Besides holding high offices in their respective companies, both are published authors on Internet-related matters. Cady's message boiled down to a quote by Mannie Jackson, owner of the Harlem Globetrotters, that Cady dug out of this week's "Sports Illustrated" issue. "You have to have good people and a good product, you have to know your market and your customers, and you have to communicate," Jackson was quoted as saying. Cady said even though Jackson was talking about basketball, the same can be said of Web site strategies. When it comes to Internet content, "marketing is a billboard, while sales is retail," Cady said. It's easier to market goods and services on the Web, because you don't need salespeople to market the product, she said. "It's hard to be a salesperson," she said. It's relatively easy to be a marketer. Thought should also be given to a target audience, Cady said. Aspects like age, geographic location of the Net surfer, and what language they speak are all important aspects to take into account, she said. Technical considerations, such as modem speed and graphic capability, should also be thought about, Cady added. "Don't just webspin your material," Cady told her audience. She said to build in as much multimedia features into a site, and not to think of the Web as linear. "People who don't get this, don't produce successful Web sites," Cady added. She gave some tips on how to build a successful Web site. The first is to keep the design simple and clean. The second is to use graphics to illustrate, not to inform. Web site developers can't control all of what the viewer sees because experienced Web users can change aspects of pages, like backgrounds and text styles. She also strongly suggested that Web sites be tested many times by both the company sponsoring the page and by an outsider. Hoffman then handled the "techie" side of Web site strategies. He urged the audience to make realistic guesses about their hardware and software needs, and to generally start small and build on existing connections. Generally, a small site can get by on a single Pentium server running with 16MB of RAM, costing around $2000, he said. Hoffman also pointed out that one machine should be used only for Web service. Servers that run e-mail are "RAM hogs," he said, and should be kept on second machines. When it comes time to upgrade, it is better to upgrade RAM than CPU speed, he said. When more than just a PC is needed, he suggested Web servers from companies like Sun, Silicon Graphics and Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC). If a Web site administrator wants the ability to upgrade a higher-end machine, they should consider a symmetric multiprocessing (SMP) system, where additional processors can be added. He also suggested replicating a PC-based servers using methods like file transfer protocol (FTP). When it comes to server software, Hoffman said Web administrators will probably choose a type of server only once, and switching is difficult due to configuration files, so any decision should be well-researched. Connecting to the Internet is another concern, he said. Hoffman suggested to plan for increased speed ahead of time, with at least an ISDN (integrated services digital network) connection of 128Kbps (kilobits per second). Costs can vary even within the same city, so providers and their price lists should also be examined, he added. (Bob Woods/19951116) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 11/17/95 PC ****Comdex - Upke Claims "Ultimate" Home PC (NEWS)(PC)(TOR)(00007) ****Comdex - Upke Claims "Ultimate" Home PC 11/17/95 LAS VEGAS, NEVADA, U.S.A., 1995 NOV 17 (NB) -- A startup company showed up at Comdex/Fall this year with what it bills as the ultimate home personal computer. Upke Systems' PC, which comes in four models, combines high-end technical specifications such as a 133-megahertz (MHz) Pentium processor with an external design reminiscent of upmarket consumer electronics products. #IMAGE 1 20 TWPCX \images\95111707.PCX Click here for photo According to Patrick Chasques, executive vice-president of Upke, the company designed its new PCS from the ground up for the home market. Speaking to Newsbytes at Upke's Comdex booth, he contrasted that approach with the one he said most PC vendors have taken to the home market -- they "gave their business machines a makeover and pushed them into the home market." The Upke System has the monitor, processor board, and storage devices in one integrated unit. One compact model, the Upke System 2626, has stereo speakers built into this unit as well. The other three models -- the 2610, 2615, and 2617 -- have detachable speakers. All models have the keyboard concealed in a drawer below the screen, but Chasques said it is detachable and can be lifted out of the drawer. Along with the 133-MHz Pentium, the Upke System has a one-gigabyte hard disk drive, 16 megabytes of memory, a 16-million-color display card, a quad-speed CD-ROM player, a 28,800-bit-per-second (bps) data and 14,400-bps fax modem, a telephone answering machine, a television tuner, MIDI support, a digital signal processor (DSP) wavetable sound board, a remote control for multimedia and communications functions, Media Manager software, and Microsoft Windows 95 pre-installed. The cabinets, designed by French designer Yves Christin, are available in black or white. Chasques observed that home computer buyers are not interested in technology. They ask four questions, he said: will the computer look nice in the house, what are the features, is it easy to use, and what is the price. The price, in fact, has not been set yet, but Chasques said it will not be more than five to seven percent above what you would pay for another PC with the same technical specifications. Upke expects to have the system on store shelves by the beginning of February. The company will grant exclusive distribution rights to resellers in certain areas, to avoid cut-throat price wars, he said. Chasques said Upke has been working on the system's design for three years. The company gathered input from panels of consumers in the United States and Europe, he said, "and also my wife's opinion." Upke Systems has dual headquarters in Paris and Boston. (Grant Buckler/19951116/Press Contact: Dimitri Granovsky, Upke Systems, 617-928-3035/UPKE951117/PHOTO) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 11/17/95 TRENDS Comdex - 1394 Interface Standard Shows Progress (NEWS)(TRENDS)(TOR)(00008) Comdex - 1394 Interface Standard Shows Progress 11/17/95 LAS VEGAS, NEVADA, U.S.A., 1995 NOV 17 (NB) -- Proponents of the IEEE 1394 interface standard are showing off new products compatible with the standard at the Comdex/Fall computer show here. The 1394 Trade Association also held a press conference to announce that Yamaha Corp. has added its support to the specification, which allows for linkages among computer and consumer electronics devices. Work on 1394 -- known at Apple Computer Inc. as FireWire -- began more than five years ago, but products based on it are just beginning to hit the market. The 1394 Trade Association is showcasing some of those products in a display area off the main Comdex show floor and others can be found at various vendors' booths. One reason 1394 is interesting is speed. Initially it will run at up to 200 megabits per second, but a second generation will double that speed to 400 megabits per second. What makes the interface interesting for multimedia, though, is the fact that it is isochronous. The word means equal in time. An isochronous interface delivers chunks of data of a fixed size at fixed intervals. This is in contrast to asynchronous interfaces, whose throughput varies. The difference is important because of multimedia, which involves video and audio signals that make delays very noticeable. An isochronous interface avoids jerky motion or awkward pauses in a video clip while the computer waits for more data to arrive. Those involved with the 1394 effort today expect it will catch on first in multimedia applications and in devices such as digital video cameras, and video capture cards. For instance, the two 1394-compatible products on display at Sony Corp.'s booth were video cameras -- one designed for videoconferencing, the other a consumer Handycam. Gary Hoffman, president of the 1394 Trade Association, said during the group's press conference that he expects 1394 to become "the digital interface of choice for consumer electronics." However, Sony spokesman Manny Vara told Newsbytes that 1394 activity in the computer arena may well take off in 1996. He said part of the promise of 1394 lies in tying together computer and consumer electronics products. "There's a lot of talk about convergence," Vara said, "but this could actually allow you to do it easily." In addition to just-signed Yamaha, Hoffman said, the 1394 association has recently added Ricoh and Sun Microsystems to its membership roster. The standard itself also got IEEE approval in September, he noted. The association is now starting work on 1394.1, a further evolution of the standard. That evolution will eventually lead to a version of 1394 that can move data at one gigabit per second, Hoffman said. A working group has already begun work on that project. Vara said one-gigabit 1394 can be expected next year. Among the more than 40 members of the 1394 trade association are Sony, Apple, Adaptec, Texas Instruments, IBM, and Microsoft. (Grant Buckler/19951116/Press Contact: Cathy Cook, 1394 Trade Association, 415-328-5666; Dick Davies, Independent Public Relations Associates for 1394 Trade Association, 415-777-4161; Manny Vara, Sony, 408-955-5142, fax 408-943-0740) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 11/17/95 BUSINESS Lexmark Goes Public (NEWS)(BUSINESS)(TOR)(00009) Lexmark Goes Public 11/17/95 GREENWICH, CONNECTICUT, U.S.A., 1995 NOV 17 (NB) -- Lexmark International Group, Inc. (NYSE:LXK) is now a public company. The move marks the final step to independence for the company that was spun off from IBM in 1991. John Shotwell, a spokesman for Lexmark, told Newsbytes the offering had been part of the company's plan ever since the former printer manufacturing operations of IBM became a separate company four years ago. It went ahead at this particular time largely because market conditions were right, he said. Shotwell noted that Lexmark has already said it is considering possible acquisitions. The company is also in the process of building a new manufacturing plant in Scotland and expanding an existing one in Lexington, Kentucky. Lexmark is likely to be hiring 1,000 to 1,500 more employees in the near future, Shotwell added. Shotwell said strong sales of Lexmark's printers are driving a growing demand for the consumables associated with the printers. He claimed that even if Lexmark were to stop making printers today, it would need to manufacture 12 million ink cartridges next year to meet demand from current customers. Lexmark offered 17,123,575 shares of its Class A common stock at a starting price of $20 per share. The stock began trading on the New York Stock Exchange Wednesday. All shares were offered by current shareholders of Lexmark, including Clayton Dubilier & Rice, Inc., the New York investment firm that acquired Lexmark from IBM in 1991. The proceeds of the offering will go to the shareholders, not to Lexmark, company officials said. (Grant Buckler/19951116/Press Contact: Brian Miller, Lexmark, 606-232-5029, Internet e-mail bgmiller@lexmark.com) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 11/17/95 TRENDS ****Comdex - Artists, Writers Discusse New Media Creativity (NEWS)(TRENDS)(TOR)(00010) ****Comdex - Artists, Writers Discusse New Media Creativity 11/17/95 LAS VEGAS, NEVADA, U.S.A., 1995 NOV 17 (NB) -- New communications media such as the Internet and virtual reality offer some interesting opportunities for writers and other creative types, but few people know what to do with them yet. One thing members of a Comdex/Fall panel on the subject seemed to agree on was that there still is a role for artists and writers. "What is really important is emotion and the soul of the artist," said comedian Charles Fleischer, who is also a contributor to PC Computing magazine. Sean White, president of the Association for Software Design and a human-computer interaction expert at Interval Research Corp. in Palo Alto, California, suggested that interactive media can make possible a return to the oral tradition of storytelling, in which the audience could ask questions that led to the embellishment of the story. With interactive media, he said, the audience will be able to "explore, when you want to explore." Steven de Souza, screenwriter of the Die Hard movies, Street Fighter, and 48 Hours, suggested that "interactive" entertainment programming could rely on feedback from the audience to determine what would happen in the next episode. There were different viewpoints on what form interaction should take, though. Fleischer observed that "I don't want somebody telling Picasso where to put the bull, or Hemingway how to end the book." Fleischer did not see new technology as a bad thing. In fact, he argued that it could be very helpful in areas such as education, where interactive media could be used to get children interested in science -- an area where Fleischer is doing some work. He also observed that resistance to new technology has a long history, speculating that when primitive people first started using brushes to paint on cave walls, somebody probably argued that the new technique was not really art. Author and multimedia developer Michael Utvich, who moderated the panel, asked the participants how they expect interactive media to affect audiences. De Souza said it will empower them. He commented that children who are used to computers will click on every object on a screen, because they expect to be able to make things happen. White added, however, that technology should be used to let people interact with each other. "You can create the best AI in the real world, and it's still not going to be as cool as another human being on the other end," he said. Andy Marx, Los Angeles bureau chief for Interactive Week magazine and a former writer for the entertainment-industry newspaper Daily Variety, said developing new material to suit the new media will work better than adapting the old. On the Internet, for instance, he said original publications are doing better than online adaptations of existing ones. De Souza noted that a variety of models are possible for publishing through the new media. He drew a parallel with the magazine industry, where there are some magazines such as Atlantic Monthly that rely mainly on their readers for revenue through subscriptions and newsstand sales, while others such as Playboy depend primarily on advertising revenues. (Grant Buckler/19951116) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 11/17/95 TRENDS ****Comdex - Higher-Density CDs Late Next Year (NEWS)(TRENDS)(TOR)(00011) ****Comdex - Higher-Density CDs Late Next Year 11/17/95 LAS VEGAS, NEVADA, U.S.A., 1995 NOV 17 (NB) -- The recent agreement between two formerly competing camps of vendors to settle on one unified standard for high-capacity compact disks will be good for consumers, but will actually delay the introduction of products a little. Consumer electronics and data storage products based on the new standard can be expected in the latter half of 1996, vendors showing prototypes at Comdex/Fall said. #IMAGE 1 20 TWPCX \images\95111711.PCX Click here for photo Bruce Arnold, senior marketing manager for video, DVD, DSS, telecommunications and mobile electronics at Toshiba of Canada Ltd. in Markham, Ontario, told Newsbytes that consumers will benefit from a single, unified standard. Manny Vara, a spokesman for Sony Electronics Inc. of San Jose, California, agreed, even though he noted that "we would have been able to put out products faster if there were two formats." Vara said it will probably take until mid-December to resolve the remaining details of the unified standard and give it a name. The new single standard will be an amalgam of the Super Density Disc standard that Toshiba, Sony, and several others backed, and the efforts of the MMCD Group, which included Philips Electronics N.V. Philips is showing the first working prototypes of equipment based on the MMCD standard at its Comdex booth this week. Steve Feldstein, director of marketing and communications for Philips Electronics, told Newsbytes his company expects to deliver products based on the unified standard in the fourth quarter of next year. Vara said Sony -- which is also showing products based on the Super Density Disc standard at its Comdex booth -- will take another year to deliver commercial products. Per Larsen, director of worldwide brand management for mobile computing at the IBM Personal Computer Co., told Newsbytes during Comdex that his group is looking at high-density CD-ROM technology, but has no definite product plans yet. The SD Alliance had its own booth at Comdex to draw attention to and demonstrate its version of the technology. The unified standard will use disks that look the same as today's CDS and CD-ROMs. Single-sided disks will hold 4.7 gigabytes (GB) using single -layer technology, or 8.5 gigabytes using dual-layer technology. A double- sided disk -- made by bonding two disks back to back -- will be able to hold as much as 17 GB using the dual-layer technology. The dual-layer system lets the laser actually read through the top substrate on which data is recorded to get at data on a second substrate underneath. The super density technology will be used for CD-ROM disks as well as write-once optical disks. It will also be used to store video, and that could be good news for computer buyers who want to move to the new technology. Use of the disks for entertainment will help drive up production volumes and thus lead to economies of scale, Arnold said. "Hollywood tends to be able to generate tons and tons and tons of advertising and promotion," he said. The high density CD playback equipment will cost more initially than even eight-times-density (8X) CD-ROMs, Arnold said, but prices will come down fairly quickly. The disks themselves will probably cost just slightly more than today's disks, he said. (Grant Buckler/19951116/Press Contact: Karen Allen, The Benjamin Group for Toshiba and the SD Alliance, 714-753-0755, fax 714-753-0844, Internet e-mail kallen@oc.tbgi.com; Steve Feldstein, Philips Electronics, 310-444-6650; Manny Vara, Sony, 408-955-5142, fax 408-943-0740/CDROM951117/PHOTO) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 11/17/95 GENERAL The Ins and Outs of Mice And Pens (NEWS)(GENERAL)(DEN)(00012) The Ins and Outs of Mice And Pens 11/17/95 LAS VEGAS, NEVADA, U.S.A., 1995 NOV 17 (NB) -- Comdex Fall/95, the annual gathering of the computer faithful being held in Las Vegas this week, is packed with wonderful gadgets that provide sound, motion and voice. But Newsbytes decided to have a look at the the lowly devices that are so necessary but so often overlooked that let us input the data for that output. Of course there are keyboards, and everyone has one in some shape or other connected to their PC. But what about alternative devices, like mice and light pens and different types of keyboards and wireless devices and even multimedia controllers? All of those and more were on display and being demonstrated at Comdex. Sejin America Inc. offers various keyboards, both wired and wireless, as well as what the company calls a "portable" keyboard. The name may be misleading, as the unit isn't intended for installation in a portable computer. Instead, it's a smaller unit that resembles a notebook keyboard that incorporates a J-mouse pointing device and connects to your PC. If you're not familiar with the J-mouse, it turns the J key on your keyboard into a dual function device that not only types the letter "J" but also pivots on its center to move the cursor. The keyboard has a suggested retail price (SRP) of $59.95. Asked why this keyboard is better than the standard unit that comes with a PC, the sales representative demonstrating it said, "I like the feel a lot better." Sejin also has a wireless keyboard with an SRP of $79.95 that has a full 101 keys including an embedded numeric keypad. You just attach the infrared receiver unit to the PC's monitor or case and plug it in. The keyboard has rubber feet to avoid skidding, adjustable-tilt legs, an inverted-T cursor pad and separate insert and delete keys. The company's standard keyboards include the three special Windows 95 function keys. Santa Clara, California-based Sejin's most interesting product may be its PowerRemote, a futuristic-looking device Roger Urrabazo, a Sejin account manager, told Newsbytes is designed primarily for the control of multimedia presentations. It can be programmed to control a host of multimedia hardware and software, including sound cards, video capture cards, TV tuners, CD-ROM drives, VCRs and presentation software. PowerRemote is a $149 wireless device with a button in the upper right corner that controls your pointer. While there aren't any alpha keys shown on the PowerRemote, Urrabazo said the accompanying software can program the numeric keypad to work as text keys. The unit runs on two AAA batteries which the spokesperson said are good for up to 900 hours of operation. Sejin also makes a $99 keyboard that is like most 101-key models except that the cursor control pad and numeric key pad are on the left side. Urrabazo said it's for left-handed people. IBM was displaying an adjustable keyboard, a unit that splits into two pieces that remain linked at top center. The user can spread the two halves apart as far as desired in order to be comfortable while typing. You can also change the slope and tilt on the $165 SRP board. A large knurled knob tightens to hold the keyboard in position. Since the space bar is separated into two halves, IBM has programmed it so the right half performs the traditional spacing function while the left half, which is imprinted with a special symbol, acts as a backspace key. NMB Technologies, a Chatsworth, California company, offers what it calls the Concertmaster Multimedia Keyboard, a standard keyboard that includes the three special Windows95 function keys as well as two speakers with 2-watt amplification, a speaker volume control and a speaker instant-mute switch and a switch to choose between standard stereo and 3D stereo. At the right side of the $129 keyboard are jacks for a sub-woofer, microphone and headphone of external speakers. NMB also markets its "Right Touch" RT-8200W keyboard with a thumb-activated split space bar. Like IBM's model the left half of the RT space bar is a backspace key. NMB took the technology one step further, allowing the user to switch from backspace to space function on the left-half of the key with a Control-Alt-spacebar key combination. A NMB spokesperson said studies indicate using the thumb to activate the alternative backspace key increases productivity by seven to eight percent. If you really want to speed up your work, check out a light pen. Newsbytes tried light pens from Stanton, California-based FTG Data Systems, which markets several versions of the device. Some work when you press the end of the pen against the glass, while others don't have to make contact with the face of the monitor. An FTG spokesperson said light pens are very popular in medical applications where workers have limited deskspace and a large amount of the input is done by picking from lists of options. Pricing ranges from $129 to $249. If all you want to do is stop getting tangled up in your mouse cord, consider a wireless mouse from Mitsumi Electronics Corp. in Irvine, Texas. Their Windows 95-compatible wireless mouse has a suggested retail price of $44 and runs on a lithium battery. It communicates with the PC via radio frequency (RF) technology and can typically be used up to one meter from your PC. Kitsumi also makes floppy disk drives, keyboards and CD-ROM drives. (Jim Mallory/19951117/Press and Public contact: Sejin America, 408-980-7557, NMB Technologies, tel 818-341-3355 or fax 818-341-8207, FTG Data Systems, tel 714-995-3900 or 800-962-3900 or fax 714-995-3989, Mitsumi Electronics, tel 214-550-7300) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 11/17/95 BROADCAST Comdex - TView Adds Features (NEWS)(BROADCAST)(DEN)(00013) Comdex - TView Adds Features 11/17/95 LAS VEGAS, NEVADA, U.S.A., 1995 NOV 17 (NB) -- TView Inc., formerly Consumer Technology Northwest until it changed its name in late September, was at Comdex/Fall 95 to show off the new features of its flagship product, Presenter TView. Presenter is an external pocket-sized device that converts a PC or a Macintosh computer video signal to an NTSC or PAL signal, enabling users to display their computer presentations on television sets or record them directly to video cassette using a VCR. TView Inc. joins a rapidly growing list of companies that are making their products plug-and-play compatible. Plug-and-play is the technology that allows a personal computer to recognize that a peripheral device such as a PC Card, a modem or a printer has been connected or disconnected and adjusts the system accordingly. The biggest benefit to the user is that the entire operation is transparent and eliminates the need to manually reconfigure a system. Presenter TView is compatible with just about any PC or Macintosh monitor including RGB, Multisync and VGA systems. The company said it produces stable, clear images in both composite and S-Video signal modes. It lets one take their presentation on the road to any location that has a television set, eliminating the need for a LCD panel. TView includes a feature the company calls Electronic Marker, software that enables the user to highlight items and write or draw on computer-generated presentations just like on overhead transparencies. One use the mouse as a pen. Software features are controlled by the computer's function keys and are programmable to fit the user's style. One can select from a palette of colors and various pen widths. Other features include a video stabilizer the company said virtually eliminates screen flicker, the ability to clean up residual smearing that occurs when video lines are averaged, and the ability to digitize images one frame at a time. A Freeze Button lets one freeze an image, such as a company logo, on the screen. Presenter TView weighs two pounds, five ounces and comes with cables. It has a suggested retail price of $449. The company maintains a home page on the World Wide Web at http://www.tview.com . (Jim Mallory/19951117/Press contact: Ann Revell-Pechard, Reed, Revell-Pechar for TView, 206-462-4777; Public contact: TView, tel 503-643-1662 or fax 503-671-9066) (ADVISORY)(GENERAL)(MSP)(00014) NewsPix Update For Newsbytes Publishers 11/17/95 MINNEAPOLIS, MINNESOTA, U.S.A.,1995 NOV 17 (NB) -- This update will be posted each Wednesday and Friday to reflect the daily picture additions. The updates will in turn become part of the main NewsPix Bulletin issued on Monday. These photos correspond to recent Newsbytes stories. They are online in the Newsbytes menu on America Online, NiftyServe, the Newsbytes Pacifica Website at http://www.islandtel.com/newsbytes/ and the Newsbytes private bulletin board system in Minneapolis. To become a licensed Newsbytes publisher, call Newsbytes at 612-430-1100 (US) or write to wendy@newsbytes.com on the Internet. Licensing applies to any medium. --------------------------- NOVEMBER 17, 1995 --------------------------- VISIONINTERACTIVE951115 - color / Comdex - 1996 Is The Year For MPEG: product shot of the Orion MPEG Movie Pack bundle from the Vision Interactive MPEG kit. AIDSDAY951114 - color / Don't Surf The Net - Safe The Net: Ribbon art by Annie Lennox (the Eurythmics) from the ribbon gallery from the UK Health Education Authority World AIDS Day Web Site. RACAL951107 - color / Racal's Low-Cost Audio Surveillance System: chart/diagram of system linkage. (No gif of this one.) CRYSTALS951106 - color / Out Of This World Research For Next-Generation Chips: PHOTO INFO NOW IN - NASA astronauts Marc Garneau, left, and Andrew Thomas observe gallium antimonide crystals grown at the University of Florida College of Engineering. (Newsbytes/19951117) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 11/17/95 ONLINE Comdex - Discovery Channel Discloses Web Additions (NEWS)(ONLINE)(BOS)(00015) Comdex - Discovery Channel Discloses Web Additions 11/17/95 LAS VEGAS NEVADA, U.S.A., 1995 NOV 17 (NB) -- In coming months, The Discovery Channel's new Web site for "scientific exploration" will add a live talkshow hosted by NCR's Derek McGinty, an agent-based "Knapsack" Internet search capability, and the ability to "commission a painting" over the Web, along with branches into history and literature, said Rebecca Farwell, editorial director, in an meeting with Newsbytes at Comdex. Farwell told Newsbytes that the new home page for kids and adults opened in July, as an offshoot of the TV program by the same name. Over the past four months, the Web site's interdisciplinary staff has been making "discoveries" of its own, as to how to best utilize the interactive "new medium" of the Web, she added, referencing the site's Auditorium "chat" program and Galapagos "collaborative story" as a couple of examples. Professional writers were employed to "set up the characters and situations" for Galapagos, an interactive "undersea adventure" in which users are helping to determine the plot. The Discovery Channel opened Galapagos on November 1, and will "close the book" on the collaborative multimedia tale on November 30. "Now is a good time to join in, because a lot has happened by now," Farwell advised. For two weeks in December, the site will conduct another short-term Web program, this time allowing users to "commission paintings" over the Web from a "live robot" named Aaron. January 1 will mark the debut of McGinty's new talk show on The Discovery Channel. The new talk show, she reported, will be more "structured" than "The Auditorium," an online chat featuring freewheeling discussions on subjects such as "What is artificial intelligence?" Guests on the upcoming McGinty show will include science experts including Carl Sagan. Also in January, the "exploratory" Web site will kick off Knapsack, a "personal research tool" that will carry out Internet searches based on up to 20 user-selected keywords. Information located during the searches will be brought back by agents to the user's own personal "knapsack" on the Web page. The knapsack will be continuously updated with new keyword-related information discovered by the agents until the user changes or deletes a keyword, Newsbytes was told. The year 1996 will also bring a movement toward more interdisciplinary content on The Discovery Channel, with the addition of offerings related to history and literature, Farwell concluded. You can explore the new Web page at http://www.discovery.com . (Jacqueline Emigh/19951115/Reader Contact: Discovery Communications, 301-986-0444; Press Contact: Elizabeth Estes, Alexander Communications for The Discovery Channel, 404-897- 2300) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 11/17/95 TRENDS Comdex - Bookstore Opts For Instant Internet Sales (NEWS)(TRENDS)(SFO)(00016) Comdex - Bookstore Opts For Instant Internet Sales 11/17/95 LAS VEGAS, NEVADA, U.S.A., 1995 NOV 17 (NB) -- Insights Software, a developer and marketer of motivational books, is selling a complete line of titles from its Web site. Andrew Maltin, co-founder of Insights Software, told Newsbytes, "Our Web sight is up and running and orders are coming in. In sixty to ninety days we will be able to process credit cards online and download one of our books to you in five to ten minutes." At this time, customers still need to call Insights on the phone to place an order before they can download any of the books. Once credit card approval is completed, the download is completed in minutes. The Web sight allows users to see the various motivational titles. InSights' offerings include Chicken Soup for the Soul, The Leader in You, The Power of Positive Thinking, Awaken the Giant Within and other well-know titles. "What is so great about Internet sales is that there is no packaging, physical distribution, waiting for the book or having to travel to make a purchase. Once you place the order, you will have the book at home on your computer in minutes. It is economically and ecologically a wise choice," said Maltin. Starting this week, Insights software book titles will also be available at computer and bookstore retail outlets such as Borders, Frys, CompUSA, Computer City and others. Called the SuccessWare line of titles, the software book series includes the necessary engine to "play" the downloadable books. Once a customer purchases the boxed version of a title, other books may be downloaded. Maltin says his software books require Windows 3.1 or higher, but do not require a CD-ROM drive. The suggested retail price at retail is $17.95. Additional titles may be downloaded for $14.95. For more information about Insights and its motivational software books, go to http://www.successware.com. (Patrick McKenna/19951116/Press Contact: Jody Broughton, The Terpin Group, tel 310-821-6100) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 11/17/95 GENERAL ****Comdex - The Cool and the Quirky (NEWS)(GENERAL)(MSP)(00017) ****Comdex - The Cool and the Quirky 11/17/95 LAS VEGAS, NEVADA, U.S.A., 1995 NOV 17 (NB) -- There's so many products at the Comdex Fall '95 computer and information technology show in Las Vegas, most every one can carry descriptive tags like "cool" or "quirky." But here's a partial listing of some products that might not receive much ink, real or electronic, in other forms of media. 8X CD-ROM Drive In the cool category is an 8X CD-ROM drive from LG Electronics' Goldstar division. The new drive, which should be out sometime next year according to Goldstar officials, will compliment a 6X CD-ROM drive that already provides a data transfer rate of 900 kilobytes per second. That's 50 percent faster than quad-speed drives, and almost twice as fast as double-speed drives. Z-Note GT Notebook Another thoroughly cool item is a particular model within Zenith Data System's Z-Note GT notebook line, which Newsbytes reported this week. It can play full motion video from televisions using the American or European video standard. It plays full 16-bit stereo sound. Its PCMCIA (Personal Computer Memory Card Industry Association) card bays are separate, not on top of each other. It has a quad-speed CD-ROM built in. And probably most importantly, the Z-Note has an active-color display that has the same viewing area as a 14-inch monitor. At a price of $5700, this unit is not for the average user, a Zenith Data Systems official told Newsbytes. Sony Future Display Not all of the cool things at Comdex took the form of hardware or software. Sony's demonstration of future CD-ROM technology involved 3D (three dimensional) glasses, an enclosed theater, two screens that combined into one, and lasers. After the demonstration, Newsbytes heard many people comment on the coolness of the demo. LED Printer The quirky category begins with an LED (light-emitting diode) printer that prints ten pages per minute at either 300x600 or 600x600 resolutions. What's unique about it is the toner the printer uses. The microfine toner is embedded with ceramic particles that continuously polish and clean the printer's drum. Because of this, the toner container has a capacity to print about 10,000 pages. The printer, made by Somerset, New Jersey's Kyocera, can be connected to PCs, or with options, to PC and Macintosh networks. Energizer Chair In the never-ending battle to keep comfy while in front of a computer, Grahl Office Ergonomics of Coldwater, Michigan is letting the chair you sit in relax you. The company's Energizer chair comes with built-in vibrating motors and seat and back rest to help you get through your next computer crash. Grahl's other seating products, as well as footrests, other chairs, and energy-absorbing foam, are designed to reduce injury and worker's compensation costs. Executive Desktop One product that could place in both the cool and quirky category is Source Innovations, Inc.'s Modula-Executive. The Long Beach, California company makes a desktop pad that contains a full keyboard, speakers, microphone, and an active-matrix touch-sensitive color screen. It's also waterproof. Source Innovations' manager of operations and logistics told Newsbytes the unit isn't for everyone, especially because of the membrane keyboard. She said the target market for the Modula- Executive is the higher end of the money-making spectrum, including chief executive officers, top-ranking managers, engineers, and doctors. The unit's list price of $3100 will probably keep the ordinary user away from this unit. She also said so-called "hunt and peck" typists have the most success on the membrane keyboard, and she doesn't recommend it for people who perform data entry or do a lot of typing in general. (Bob Woods/19951115) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 11/17/95 GENERAL Comdex - Massaging Away The Hype (NEWS)(GENERAL)(MSP)(00018) Comdex - Massaging Away The Hype 11/17/95 LAS VEGAS, NEVADA, U.S.A., 1995 NOV 17 (NB) -- Many people get tense and stressed out at the world's largest computer and technology information show in Las Vegas. Not to worry, though -- a legitimate massage is only steps away. Newsbytes noticed two different companies offering massages to weary Comdex-goers at the Sands Expo and Convention Center, and at the Las Vegas Convention Center (LVCC). We decided to check out the "Relaxation Station" at the LVCC. Jonathan Mensing, president of On Site Bodyworks told Newsbytes his male and female employees will perform between 200 and 250 massages each day of the week-long show. So, in his words, "business is good" for the San Francisco-based company. Mensing formed On Site Bodyworks more than four years ago, and he told Newsbytes his services tend to "go over" better at shows like Comdex, where the clientele is a bit younger and more receptive to a service like his. Prices for massages depend on the amount of time a conventioneer wants to spend in the hands of Mensing's trained masseurs -- from $12 for 10 minutes to $18 for 15 minutes, not including tip. A quick massage costs $5 for six minutes. Two types of massages are offered. One concentrates on the upper body, including the neck, back, shoulders, arms, and hands. The other focuses on one's lower legs and feet, which do get very sore after a day of walking around the huge exhibit halls. In the spirit of researching a story, Newsbytes purchased a 15-minute upper-body massage. One sits in a specially designed chair that gives support for the legs, the chest and stomach, the arms, and the face -- putting the body in a position that's similar to a jockey in a horse race. Newsbytes attempted to obtain interviews from a few Relaxation Station customers after their massages, but they were either too relaxed to talk, or they just smiled. Incidentally, On Site Bodyworks makes its services available at other trade shows, including other computer shows, gift shows, and others dealing with industries "across the board," Mensing said. Companies with booths at trade shows can sponsor massages with On Site Bodyworks. (Bob Woods/19951115/Press and Public Contact: Jonathan Mensing, On Site Bodyworks, 415-648-2021, Internet e-mail onsite4@aol.com) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 11/17/95 GENERAL Comdex - The End At Hand (NEWS)(GENERAL)(SFO)(00019) Comdex - The End At Hand 11/17/95 LAS VEGAS, NEVADA, U.S.A., 1995 NOV 17 (NB) -- The crowds have thinned, the media have finished most of their work and almost all the chief executive officers and senior management are back home. This Comdex had no blockbuster announcements. There was no expectation of a Windows 95, a Microsoft Network, a powerful PowerPC computer, an OS/2 or even Microsoft Bob. Members of the media kept asking each other where the hot stories were, but few had answers. John Zeisler of Netcom put it this way, "Last year was full of big announcements, but I think this show is about real products which are available now. What you are seeing is the outcome of big announcements. There are Windows 95 applications and Internet applications, services and products everywhere you go here." One of the most important parts of Comdex is always hard to judge. Behind all the extravagant booths, parties and thousands of attendees, are meetings, many of them secret. Deals are proposed, made and sealed in tiny cubicles in the back of the convention center or in the penthouse suites of giant hotels such as the MGM Grand Hotel and Casino. Official attendance is not in yet. At the beginning of the week, Softbank predicted more than 205,000 people would attend. But whispers began on Wednesday. People seemed to think the crowd was less than last year's crowd. On Wednesday, the aisles began to open enough to walk around without being pushed and jostled. Aside from the numbers, the general consensus was that Softbank performed well for a rookie. Most events took place where and when they were scheduled. The big guys, Bill Gates (Microsoft), Lou Gerstner (IBM) and Frankenberg (Novell) all delivered their keynotes, and more than 7,000 products were announced, debuted and demonstrated. Speaking to a tired exhibitor at the Las Vegas Convention Center, Newsbytes was told, "I just want to go home. We worked 12 hour days and attended parties every night. It's time to go home." (Patrick McKenna/19951117/) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 11/17/95 TRENDS ****Comdex - Small Office Brings Big Opportunities (NEWS)(TRENDS)(BOS)(00020) ****Comdex - Small Office Brings Big Opportunities 11/17/95 LAS VEGAS, NEVADA, U.S.A., 1995 NOV 17 (NB) -- SOHO (small office/home office) is bringing increasingly big opportunities to large and small vendors alike, said marketing executives of Xerox, Compuserve, Intuit, Microsoft, and US West, during a jointly presented press conference at Fall Comdex in Las Vegas. A new study by Xerox Desktop Document Systems finds that SOHO professionals see a strong relationship between investments in "state-of-the-art" computer technology and "productivity," customer service and support, cash flow management, and development and marketing of new products and services, according to Laura Cory, VP of marketing, one of five speakers at the event, attended by Newsbytes at the Sands Convention Center. The report also shows that 43 percent of the "SOHO professionals" currently subscribe to online services, and 23 percent of this group are "early adopters" of advanced office technology such as CD-ROM players, scanners, and OCR (optical character recognition). Another four percent of SOHO professionals have adopted multifunctional devices that combine print, copy, scan and fax, a proportion twice as high as among the general business population. Cory told the group of assembled journalists from throughout the world that Xerox has responded to the research findings by developing its own recently unveiled multifunctional device, as well as through new services from Xerox like "Service While You Sleep." Research also indicates that the SOHO market is highly segmented, containing something along the lines of five different subgroups, pointed out the Xerox VP. Robert Perez Mainor, VP of product marketing and business development for Compuserve, told the group of assembled journalists from throughout the world that small businesses are a "key public" within Compuserve, representing about 28 percent of all subscribers. Compuserve has long addressed the needs of its large SOHO constituency by offering publications such as Time and Forbes electronically, Mainor said. But the online service provider is now expanding its activities in this market with new products like new "Internet in a Box" kits and "home page wizards" for the Web, as well as with stepped up plans for deploying ISDN (integrated services digital network) and 28.8 megabit-per-second (Mbps) access. Microsoft is also carrying out extensive research in the SOHO market, maintained Alex Loeb, general manager of Microsoft's Consumer Division. For Microsoft, research among this group leans heavily toward "contextual inquiry," or "going to where the user is," according to the exec. "That is so important in this market," Loeb declared. By observing SOHO users in their actual working environments, Microsoft has been able to "solve real problems," she continued. Findings from the contextual research studies have influenced products ranging from Windows to Microsoft Publisher, Microsoft Works, and telephony offerings, the general manager revealed. Sales revenues from SOHO can be equally significant to smaller vendors such as Intuit, according to Eric Dunn, VP and general manager of Intuit's Personal Finance Group. As far back as 1989, 47 percent of all users of Intuit's Quicken software for financial accounting hailed from the small business world. As this sales pattern continued over the next few years, Intuit introduced QuickBook, a package specifically geared to SOHO, in 1992. Intuit is employing different marketing and distribution strategies for the two software products, Dunn added. TV is a major advertising outlet for Quicken. Upgrades, product add-ons, and free trials are emphasized. QuickBook, on the other hand, is advertised on radio. OEMs (original equipment manufacturers) and VARs (value-added resellers) are top distribution channels for QuickBook. Even today, though, about 33 percent of all Quicken customers are small business users, pointing to the possibility that other marketing opportunities remain untapped, noted the Intuit VP. LuRae Lumpkin said that the work-at-home market is so important to US West that the RBOC (regional Bell operating company) has established the US West Home Office Solutions Center, for bringing together all the telephony-oriented services and products needed by this group into one central place. Because relationships with their own customers are so crucial to the success of work-at-homers, the center emphasizes "relationship marketing," added Lumpkin. As market manager for US West Communications. Lumpkin has spent the past 18 months overseeing the establishment of customer acquisition, retention, and loyalty programs for this segment of SOHO users. Speaking with Newsbytes at the close of the press conference, Compuserve's Mainor said that Compuserve is now looking into the idea of developing a special home page wizard targeted directly at small businesses. The prospective product would be aimed at making it easier for small businesses to design Web pages that advertise goods and services, and that accept online orders from small business customers, he elaborated. Another possibility being explored by Compuserve is a central phone number that users could call to receive communications like electronic mail and faxes by telephone touchtone through whatever technological method is most convenient, including text-to-speech conversion and fax forwarding, the Compuserve VP told Newsbytes. (Jacqueline Emigh/19951117/Reader And Press Contacts: Peter Warren, Xerox Desktop Document Systems, 415-813-7213; Craig Sutphin, Blanc & Otus, 415-512-0500) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 11/17/95 HEALTH Bell Atlantic Sells Teleradiology Network (NEWS)(HEALTH)(WAS)(00021) Bell Atlantic Sells Teleradiology Network 11/17/95 WASHINGTON, D.C., U.S.A., 1995 NOV 17 (NB) -- In one of the first commercial telemedicine deals, Bell Atlantic has packaged and sold a system for a virtual radiology practice in Norfolk, Va. The teleradiology system, using Integrated Services Digital Network (ISDN) technology, links seven hospitals, 35 doctors' homes and a high-resolution central reading station at Medical Center Radiologists, one of the country's largest radiology practices. The system is the first to use off-the-shelf technology, including PCs and Windows-based software, so that radiologists can view X-rays, MRIs, CAT scans and ultrasound images on remote computers at any time. According to Bell Atlantic, the system will produce lower health care costs, by reducing the use of X-ray film as an archiving medium, using digital images instead. The virtual radiology practice will also offer greater access to specialists, regardless of where the patient is located. It makes specialized services, such as neuroradiology, available in rural areas. It also offers faster diagnosis. In cases where on-the-spot diagnosis is needed, such as car accidents, specialists can render opinions from their homes, at any time of day or night. The project has no government money and is part of Norfolk-based MCR's long-term business strategy. "We are one of the first practices to establish a complete network," said Dr. William Olsen, a member of the MCR network and chief of radiology for Southampton Memorial Hospital, "and we believe it will give our practice a competitive edge by increasing our economies of scale and extending our services across geographic boundaries." The network uses Intel's Proshare video conferencing technology in a Windows environment using software created by Radiology Telenetwork International. Use of LAN equipment from Gandalph allows remote access to patient records, scheduling, e-mail, and the Internet, from any location on the network. "In the past, a major barrier to widespread telemedicine implementation was the lack of an adequate low-cost network," said Joseph Cascio, Bell Atlantic vice president. "this solution to a critical industry need can be installed anywhere at a fraction of the cost of alternative networks." (Kennedy Maize/19951117/Press Contact: Paul Miller, 804-772-1460, World Wide Web, http://www.ba.com ) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 11/17/95 LEGAL SPA Fights Crime With Computer Donation (NEWS)(LEGAL)(WAS)(00022) SPA Fights Crime With Computer Donation 11/17/95 WASHINGTON, D.C., U.S.A., 1995 NOV 17 (NB) -- Establishing a new way of dealing with computer piracy, the Software Publishers Association has taken a seized computer in Mexico City and donated it to a non-profit childrens' burn center in Mexico. SPA seized the personal computer from CompuMarket Computers after finding that the computer dealer was installing illegal software on the machines it was selling. SPA donated the computer to the Institute for the Integral Attention to Burned Children. Sandra Sellers, SPA's legal chief, said the action "represents the first of its kind settlement in which property seized is donated to a non-for-profit agency for its benefit. We have taken equipment that was part of an infringing act and turned it into a vehicle of assistance to those most in need." In the settlement, the computer dealer agreed to donate the system, pay an undisclosed damage penalty and agreed not to infringe copyrights in the future. The deal also calls for the posting of anti-piracy messages in the store as a deterrence. In a related action, in testimony to Congress, SPA called for vigorous policing of software piracy on the Internet as part of the campaign to reduce copyright infringement. Congress is considering two bills to implement the recommendations of a Clinton administration task force on copyright and the information infrastructure. "Congress should do three things to deter online software piracy," said SPA counsel Mark Traphagen. "First, recognize that willful copyright infringement on a commercial scale is a crime, even if there is no private financial gain or commercial advantage. Second, provide law enforcement with the necessary supervision and resources to investigate and prosecute pirate BBS and Internet site operators. Third, provide practical civil remedies and effective criminal penalties for the manufacture or sale of devices or services that interfere with technological protection." The bills under consideration would ban "black boxes" used to circumvent hardware copyright protection schemes. But SPA's views are not without controversy. A fight is brewing over the copyright issue between the copyright owners and the network providers. The December issue of Wired magazine, for example, has a short discussion of the Clinton policy plan, complaining that it "comes down so strongly on the side of publishers." The plan "would hold content providers such as Prodigy responsible for any copyright infringement found online," says the article. The Wired article quotes Pamela Samuelson of Cornell that the recommendations are "a flagrant giveaway, a legal means by which the copyright industries can turn the threat of digital technology into a new opportunity." The magazine says a longer article will run it the next issue. (Kennedy Maize/19951117/Press Contacts: Sandra Sellers, 202-452-1600, ext. 322; Mark Traphagen, 202-452-1600, ext. 311) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 11/17/95 ONLINE Comdex - Boca Doubles Chances With ISDN And DSVD Modems (NEWS)(ONLINE)(BOS)(00023) Comdex - Boca Doubles Chances With ISDN And DSVD Modems 11/17/95 LAS VEGAS, NEVADA, U.S.A., 1995 NOV 17 (NB) -- One way or the other, computer game players as well as businesses are going to be running voice simultaneously with data, and, as a result, Boca Research plans to offer products in both the ISDN (integrated services digital network) and new DSVD (digital simultaneous video) markets, said Larry Light, VP of engineering, during a press event at Fall Comdex. At the event as well as on the Comdex show floor, Boca showed its V.34 Boca Office Communicator with DSVD, a new technology for transmitting voice and data at the same time over standard phone lines. But in an interview with Newsbytes during the press event, Light pointed out that Boca also intends to ship a newly introduced ISDN modem called the WebGlider-460 by the end of this year. So far, phone company installation of ISDN is far from ubiquitous, so Boca is hedging its bets by offering both technologies. And the Boca Raton, Florida-based vendor is hardly alone in the new DVSD marketplace, according to Light, who was previously an exec with the IBM PC Company until that organization moved its headquarters out-of-state. It was not until Spring Comdex this year that DSVD came to much public attention, Light continued. But by now, there are something like six modem vendors within the new marketplace, he contended. US Robotics, one of Boca's DSVD competitors, is using a codec from AT&T. But Boca Research, Creative Labs, and all other vendors that have entered the new market are attempting to "standardize" on the Rockwell's Digitalk codec, he reported. Computer game enthusiasts are starting to use DVSD to add talk to action, said the Boca exec. Conversely, travel agents, for example, could use the new technology for shared viewing of travel brochures with their customers while discussing travel plans over the phone, he illustrated. DSVD or ISDN will not be required for all applications, he acknowledged. But, with Web use widening all the time, the day is only about 12 to 18 months away when a data transmission speed in the 28.8 megabit-per-second (Mbps) range will become the new industry standard, he asserted. Accordingly, he noted, also at Fall Comdex, Boca has unveiled a new internal V.34 fax modem positioned to provide 28.8 Mbps data communications at a suggested retail price (SRP) of $199, including free trial offers from America Online (AOL), AOL's new Global Network Navigator (GNN), Compuserve, Genie, and Internet Passport. Meanwhile, the new Boca Office Communicator is an add-on card to Boca's 28.8SVD internal "multimedia modem," a product equipped with voicemail, speakerphone, Plug and Play, and SRS Labs' 3-D (three dimensional) Surround Sound. The Boca Office Communicator and Boca's new "vanilla" V.34 modem each provide 14.4 Mbps V.32bis fax modem capabilities. Boca's new Webglider-460 ISDN external modem will come bundled with Intel's ProShare Premier Edition Personal Conferencing Software, as well as PSINet's Instant InterRamp software, with free trials on browsers such as NetManage's Internet Chameleon, Frontier's SuperHighway Access, and InterCon Systems' NetShark. Features of the new ISDN modem include one 25-pin connector for data; two RJ-11 modular connectors for analog POTS (plain old telephone service); one RJ-45 connector to the ISDN network; PPP (point-to-point) protocol support for direct Internet access; caller ID (identification), call screening/filtering, and call logging for call security; and flash memory download for software upgrades. Light told Newsbytes that Boca will ship WebGlider-460 by the end of 1995. Plans also call for upgradability to MLPPP (multi-link PPP) in the first quarter of next year. (Jacqueline Emigh/19951116/Reader Contact: Boca Research, 407-997-6227; Press Contacts: Jami McCarty, Boca, 407-997-8621; Kevin Allen or Marianne Radwan, Hi-Tech Communications for Boca, 407-361-8150) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 11/15/95 GENERAL Personnel Roundup (NEWS)(GENERAL)(MSP)(00024) Personnel Roundup 11/15/95 MINNEAPOLIS, MINNESOTA, U.S.A., 1995 NOV 17 (NB) -- These companies are featured in today's roundup of personnel changes, not covered elsewhere by Newsbytes: BDM International Inc., Psion PLC, Digital Equipment Corp., Flash Comm Inc., Virtual Entertainment Inc., Oracle Corp., Zenith Electronics Corp., Novell Inc., Sun Microsystems Inc., Compuserve Inc. BDM International Inc. (Nasdaq: BDMI - 703-848-5115) has named Donald J. Hirsch vice president, Corporate Information Systems. Hirsch will be responsible for the company's enterprise network, applications development, data and telecommunications operations, and computer help desk. Hirsch has worked at BDM for 12 years, most recently as program manager to replace BDM's legacy financial systems with an integrated, enterprise-wide program and financial management system. Psion PLC (508-371-0310) has announced the appointment of Frank Muehleman to the position of president of its U.S. subsidiary, Psion Inc. Muehleman will replace David Elder, a member of the Psion PLC board of directors, who will return to the UK. Muehleman joined Psion during April, 1995 as vice president of Corporate Sales. Ilene H. Lang, 52, has been named vice president of Digital Equipment Corporation's (NYSE: DEC - 508-264-6740) newly formed Connectivity Software Business Unit. Lang, formerly senior vice president of Lotus Development Corporation's Desktop Business Group, joins Digital on November 27. She will report to Digital Chairman Robert B. Palmer. Under Lang's leadership, the Connectivity Software Business Unit will develop, market and sell software that enables customers to connect with and exploit the information assets critical to running their business and satisfying their customers. Former PageNet chief executive officer (CEO) Terry L. Scott has been named president and CEO of Flash Comm Inc. (407-722-4548), a privately held wireless data communications service provider. Scott was the second executive to join PageNet, prior to the start of that company's commercial operations in 1982. Virtual Entertainment Inc. appointed David Blohm president and chief operating officer. Blohm has assumed responsibility for daily operations and growth of the company and will also serve on the board of directors. Blohm was previously president and CEO and co-founder of MathSoft. Robert Shaw, a 25-year veteran of the information technology industry, has been named to head Oracle Corp.'s (Nasdaq: ORCL - 415-506-9935) newly combined worldwide applications and services organization. As senior vice president, Shaw oversees two of the company's fastest growing and most synergistic operations: client/server applications and professional services. As the executive in charge of the combined worldwide applications and services organization, Shaw manages more than 5,000 Oracle employees whose responsibilities include consulting, product planning, marketing, applications alliances and vertical markets. In other Digital Equipment news, the company announced that Rod Keller has been appointed vice president of consumer products for its Personal Computer Business Unit in the Americas. In the newly created post, Keller will lead Digital's existing retail PC sales and marketing efforts in the US and drive planned expansion into Canada, Mexico, Central and South America, and the Caribbean. Before his promotion, Keller was US director of consumer products for Digital's Personal Computer Business Unit. Keller joined Digital in October 1994. Willard C. "Bill" McNitt has been made acting chief financial officer (CFO) of Zenith Electronics Corporation (708-391-8181). McNitt has been Zenith's vice president-treasurer since 1989. Richard C. Lueck, who joined Zenith earlier this year from IBM Corp. as vice president-controller, was named acting chief accounting officer. Kell B. Benson, senior vice president-finance and CFO, has left the company. A search for a new senior finance executive is underway, the company said. Novell Inc. (Nasdaq: NOVL - 408-577-6842) announced the resignation of Bruce Bastian from the company's board of directors. Bastian joined the Novell board of directors as a result of the 1994 acquisition of WordPerfect Corp., which he founded with Alan Ashton in 1979. Bastian is leaving the Novell board of directors to pursue other interests. His resignation follows Novell's recent decision to sell its Business Applications Division, including several former WordPerfect products. Sun Microsystems' SPARC Technology Business, a division of Sun Microsystems Inc. (Nasdaq: SUNW - 408-774-8703), announced the appointment of Bob Lamvik as director of worldwide strategic accounts. Lamvik joins Sun with 20 years of sales and sales management. He served as SCO's vice-president-field sales and was responsible for US and Canadian corporate accounts, resellers, telesales, and field marketing. He also has had prior positions with the Okidata Corporation and Tandy Corporation. CompuServe Inc. (614-538-4553) announced that Barry F. Berkov, executive vice president of CompuServe's Information Services Division, is leaving the company to pursue other career interests. An interim management structure is in place, said the company, and further changes will be announced as they develop. Berkov joined CompuServe in 1977. He was appointed executive vice president in December, 1990, having previously served as senior vice president, product marketing and business support. (Ian Stokell/19951117) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 11/17/95 PC Comdex - Epson Deliver Cyrix Speed To The Desktop (NEWS)(PC)(SFO)(00025) Comdex - Epson Deliver Cyrix Speed To The Desktop 11/17/95 LAS VEGAS, NEVADA, U.S.A., 1995 NOV 17 (NB) -- Epson of Torrance, California, introduced its ActionTower 9200 multimedia desktop computer system at Comdex. Using a Cyrix 6x86 processor, the new system outperforms most 133 megahertz (MHz), 586 systems at a price below many current 120 MHz 586 systems, Epson contends. "They say this machine is built for users who just want to power into multimedia, communications and Internet applications. It is built to handle Windows 95 apps with ease and speed," said Kellie DiNaro, Epson spokesperson. Priced at $2,899, the ActionTower 9200 includes 16 megabytes (MB) of RAM, 256 kilobytes (KB) of cache, 1MB of video RAM, a 1.6 gigabyte of hard disk storage, PCI local bus slots, 28.8 kilobit per second modem, MPEG, 3D sound, speakers, 4x-speed CD drive and an Energy Star compliant monitor. "This machine is pure power and designed for users who want the use the latest software in the way in which it was designed. If people want to play CD titles with full-screen, full motion video it is right here. And it is less than $3,000," explained DiNaro. The 9200 comes loaded with Windows 95 and a total of 30 applications are included. Contractual agreements with Comdex does not allow exhibitors to sell products at the trade show, but "if we could sell these here at the show we would be moving hundreds of them a day," claimed DiNaro. For more information on the ActionTower 9200, interested parties may call Epson at 800-289-3776 ext. 3000 or contact the company's Web site at: http://www.epson.com . Patrick McKenna/19951117/Press Contact: Cynthia Lempert, Walt & Sommerhauser Communications, tel 408--496-0900; /EPSON951117/PHOTO) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 11/17/95 BUSINESS Tokyo - High Tech Stock Market Rises On The Week (NEWS)(BUSINESS)(TYO)(00026) Tokyo - High Tech Stock Market Rises On The Week 11/17/95 TOKYO, JAPAN, 1995 NOV 17 (NB) -- The Tokyo Stock Market ended the week on a positive theme after the Nikkei 225 stock index closed above the 18,000 mark for the first time in a week at 18,151.16, up 211.64 on the day. The jump Friday followed a 256.78 point jump on Thursday and represents an increase of 307.6 points on the week. Over the past month Japan's companies have been reporting results for the first half of the current financial year, which ended September 30th, and today saw more reports than any other day. Most of the electronics companies had, however, already reported by Casio and NTT Data were among those announcing figures. Casio Computer (TSE:6952) announced pretax profits for the period of 3.13 billion yen ($31.3 million), a drop of 32% on the same period last year. Sales dropped 4.6% to 159.02 billion yen ($1.59 billion). For the full fiscal year, Casio said pretax profits are expected to reach 8.00 billion yen, a half billion yen increase from the previous forecast and a rise of 8.1%, or 600 million yen, on last year's results. The Tokyo-based company attributed its forecast to slow sales in overseas markets in the first six months of the year, a situation which it expects to continue. In Japan it said new products, such as its digital camera, should help sales rise. The company announced earlier this week that it would triple production of the new device to 90,000 units a month. Casio shares closed the week at 851 yen, a drop of 23 yen on the week. NTT Data Communications Systems Corporation (TSE:9613) reported results for the first half of fiscal 1995 Friday. The company, which debuted on the stock market this year, said it had registered an unconsolidated pretax profit of $15.24 billion yen ($152 million), a jump of 61.6% on the same period last year. Sales in the company, majority owned by Nippon Telegraph and Telephone, were 219.51 billion yen ($2.20 billion) in the period with data communications services accounting for 136.91 billion yen ($1.37 billion) of the total. The company's data communications systems section was responsible for 57 billion yen ($570 million) of the total. Confirming predictions made earlier this year, Matsushita Electric Industrial Co. (TSE:6752) announced a loss of $1.64 billion foreign currency loss it incurred on the sale of 80% of the MCA entertainment group to Seagram of Canada. Overall, the company reported a $1.33 billion consolidated net loss for the first half of the fiscal year. Matsushita ended the week at 1,450 yen. Among other high tech stocks, Sony Corporation (TSE:6758) ended the week at 5,040, a rise of 180 yen on the day and 140 yen on the week after general buying in the sector and an announcement with Visa in the United States of a new Internet based shopping and payment service and plans to produce PCs with Intel. NEC Corporation (TSE:6701) closed Friday at 1,290 yen and Fujitsu (TSE:6702) ended the week at 1,170 yen. Kyocera (TSE:6971) suffered a heavy loss on the week of 540 yen to close at 7,740 yen. (Martyn Williams/19951117) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 11/17/95 IBM Comdex - IBM Plans Cross-Marketing Tactics For CD-ROM (NEWS)(IBM)(BOS)(00027) Comdex - IBM Plans Cross-Marketing Tactics For CD-ROM 11/17/95 LAS VEGAS, NEVADA, U.S.A., 1995 NOV 17 (NB) -- IBM Multimedia Studio intends to expand on the industry's current core of two million "highly enthusiastic" multimedia CD-ROM users with cross-marketing strategies built around The Jungle Book, Pinocchio, Quest for Fame, and two new football titles, one of which is for the Web, said IBM's Cal Morrell and Dan Rogers, during a briefing for Newsbytes at Fall Comdex. The already available CD-ROM version of The Jungle Book will be met with an upcoming TV special for kids, explained Morrell, who is consumer software brand manager for Multimedia Studio, a division of IBM that produces CD-ROM titles for users of all ages in the educational, entertainment, and encyclopedia arenas. Meanwhile, as Multimedia Studio readies another children's CD- ROM title, based on the classic tale of Pinocchio, Sony Entertainment is in the process of preparing a movie edition, scheduled to hit the theaters next year. The IBM multimedia arm is also getting set to release three new CD-ROM games: a "rock-and-roll adventure" called Quest for Fame that stars the band Aerosmith; NFL Pro League Football, for play over the Web; and All-American College Football, for use with modems over standard phone lines, and featuring a "chat" function. In a demo for Newsbytes, Rogers presented the CD-ROM versions of The Jungle Book and Quest for Fame. Newsbytes saw how The Jungle Book takes kids into a mythical jungle land, where they are challenged to learn the language of the native creatures, and to locate and return the crown of King Louie, the "orangutan ruler of Monkey City." Along the way, the kids interact with characters like Mowgli, an orphan child raised by the wolves; Colonel Ilgworm and his monkey pal La Tee; and Kaa, a snake entrusted with protecting the "treasure of Monkey City." Rogers told Newsbytes that children learn the language of the monkeys by mimicking animal voices on the CD-ROM. On speech- enabled PCs, kids can actually vocalize the sounds. But since most PCs are not speech-enabled, IBM has also included a menu of monkey noises for children to select from and play back. Quest for Fame, on the other hand, is targeted at teenagers, according to Rogers, who recently joined the Multimedia Studio as entertainment segment manager. The teens project themselves into the roles of players in a rock band that starts its "Quest for Fame" in one of the player's bedrooms, and then rises to riches and stardom through a series of venues that includes "The Polyester Lounge" and an urban blues club. The players' progress, though, is predicated by their ability to play guitar, a skill measured through the use of IBM's new "VPick" interface. Rogers, who is himself a guitar player, illustrated how "strums" of the purple electronic guitar pick against a solid surface like a table top, or your own arm, are translated into "beats" that are then displayed on a graph on the screen. As the players strum along to "Dude Looks Like a Lady" and five other Aerosmith tunes, they get verbal and visual feedback -- either positive or negative -- from a cast of characters that includes Aerosmith, a veteran blues musician, and Las Vegas lounge lizards. Morrell told Newsbytes that the main barrier to CD-ROM use among consumers is pricing, rather than ease of use. Most people who buy multimedia PCs are making their second or third computer purchase, he added. But to then buy CD-ROM titles, they must be given a good reason. IBM Multimedia Studio expects that its new cross-marketing strategy will attract additional customers to CD-ROM software, according to the consumer software brand manager. But, although still experimenting to some extent, the studio is being careful to select appropriate cross-marketing approaches. "Quest for Fame will be sold in music stores, as well as computer and software stores. But it will not be sold in bookstores," he illustrated. The cross-marketing strategy, he revealed, is part of a new effort by the IBM multimedia arm to achieve highly targeted marketing, based on findings from consumer focus groups and other market research. Research shows, for example, that most teenage users like to play games with a "buddy." This finding helped lead to the creation of the purple Vpick, which encourages interaction between players. Small children, in contrast, are usually content to play games by themselves, interacting with the characters only. And adults who belong to the upper income segments that are demographically matched with CD-ROM ownership typically have out-of-state friends and colleagues who are users of the Web or other online services. So, the adults can play NFL Pro League Football or All-American College Football with remote "buddies." In the future, IBM Multimedia Studio plans to add more bands to Quest for Fame, according to the IBM execs. Also in the works are additional CD-ROM sports and games titles for grown-ups, possibly to include baseball, chess, and Monopoly, Newsbytes was told. (Jacqueline Emigh/19951117/Reader Contact: IBM Multimedia Studio, 770-844-4881; Press Contact: Erin Mengert, Alexander Communications for IBM Multimedia Studio, 404-897-2300) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 11/17/95 GENERAL Comdex - Canon Prints T-Shirts (NEWS)(GENERAL)(SFO)(00028) Comdex - Canon Prints T-Shirts 11/17/95 LAS VEGAS, NEVADA, U.S.A, 1995 NOV 17 (NB) -- Canon's booth featured the transferral of custom multi-colored designs onto t-shirts using Canon Bubble Jet printers and custom transfer paper. "This is not some kind of gimmick or trade show attention getter," said a Canon spokesperson. "This technology, combining special software, one of our Bubble Jet printers and custom transfer paper, allows users to expand their standard computer use to exciting crafts. The end product is both fade and run resistant, as good or better than any commercial product such as a t-shirt you find in a retail store. With this package, the things you can do with one of our printers now go far beyond memos, letters, charts and graphs." Canon Creative software allows users to make greeting cards, among other things. Canon Creative includes Hallmark Connections Everyday Greetings, Crayola Art, Stationary Store, Sticker & Label Store and Pattern Maker, all Windows software on one CD-ROM. The CD is bundled with Canon's BJC-210, BJC-4100 and BJC-610. Prices range from $249 to $569. Canon says the printers and creative software/crafts products are a new strategy labeled "SOHOME." "This combines the small office, home office with the home market. We intend to maximize a customer's investment with creative printing options which reach beyond standard desktop output," said the company's representative. Speaking with attendees surrounding the Canon booth, Newsbytes was told, "These t-shirts look better than anything you see in the stores." The cost of producing one shirt is less than $2 plus the cost of the t-shirt. The iron-on media can be reordered in separate packages. (Patrick McKenna/19951117/Press Contact: Alejandro Hernandez, Golin/Harris Communications, tel 213-438-4200) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 11/17/95 WINDOWS COMDEX - SPC's "Super Easy Presentation Package" (NEWS)(WINDOWS)(BOS)(00029) COMDEX - SPC's "Super Easy Presentation Package" 11/17/95 LAS VEGAS, NEVADA, U.S.A., 1995 NOV 17 (NB) -- During an Editors' Lunch at Comdex that also featured a live jazz trio and foot and back massages, Software Publishing Corp. (SPC) gently debuted a new "super easy presentation package" for Windows called Type, Click, Present. While the new presentation software is aimed at offering simplicity to end users, the Editors' Lunch was meant to give journalists a temporary reprieve from the noisy, hectic promotional environment of the show floor, SPC officials said at the event, attended by Newsbytes at the Nero Room at Caesar's Palace. Instead of making a formal spoken announcement, SPC executives set up an unobtrusive demo in a corner of the room behind two masseuses. Under the distinctive "soft sell" approach, the officials spoke casually with journalists about Type, Click, Present in the demo areas, and over a pasta, roast beef, and turkey buffet. SPC developed Type, Click, Present with the aid of professional graphics designers, said one exec, a tablemate of Newsbytes' over lunch. Pointing to the basic instructions for use, which are printed directly on the back of the box, the exec asserted that end users can produce "professional-looking" presentations "in a matter of three clicks." The first "click" takes place on a layouts template, which gives the user a choice between "agenda, title, heading, quote, paragraph," and about 20 more of the most commonly used layouts. From that panel,the user is led to a designs template -- with selections such as "pamphlet, caption, boardroom, and newscast" -- and from there to a choice of clickable "intelligent color schemes." Newsbytes was told that the professional designers devised the package so that the three clickable areas are "tightly coordinated" with one another. The first edition of the software is for Windows 3.1, but it is also compatible with Windows 95, the exec reported. SPC is now at work on a native edition for Windows 95, he revealed. For further information, Newsbytes was referred to an SPC press bag, containing a complementary copy of the presentation software, together with a press kit on floppy disk, plus socks and a pair of shorts, both emblazoned with an orange-and-yellow "ASAP" logo. Janice Prescott Fishman, product manager, told Newsbytes that SPC adopted the unique approach to product promotion as a way of letting the press rest their feet, as well as their ears. (Jacqueline Emigh/19951115/Reader And Press Contact: Software Publishing Corp., 408-996-8000) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 11/17/95 LEGAL Hong Kong - BSA Rewards First Bounty Hunters (NEWS)(LEGAL)(HKG)(00030) Hong Kong - BSA Rewards First Bounty Hunters 11/17/95 CENTRAL, HONG KONG, 1995 NOV 17 (NB) -- The Business Software Alliance said its informer scheme, successful in other parts of the world, has snared its first dragnet catch in Hong Kong. In the prize catch was, among others, Japanese department store giant Yaohan. The informers, five in all, got $15,000 each in bounty money, the first pay-outs the BSA has made in Hong Kong. All had been drawn into the group's hotline reward campaign, and the awards, as it happened, marked the scheme's first anniversary. The five rewards all went to former employees of Ronald Lu & Partners, the Yaohan Department Store chain and First Top. Given Hong Kong's high employee turnover, the hotline ought to be sizzling. Ex employees, of course, will do things to ex employers that they wouldn't do to their current employers. "The increasing number of calls directed to the BSA hotline during the reward campaign has clearly demonstrated that a larger number of software users in Hong Kong are no longer prepared to accept the risks associated with the high levels of software piracy that occur within many organizations here," BSA vice president Valerie Colbourn said. An independent study funded by the Hong Kong Industry Department had just called on the government to take the lead in cracking down on software theft in the territory. It warned that local software companies will miss significant opportunities unless the piracy problem is solved. As reported by Newsbytes last month, The Consultancy Study on Hong Kong's Software Industry by Dataquest and ATC calls on the government to encourage software development in the territory. Much of that report, which urged authorities to back Hong Kong becoming a software development center, focused on piracy. It said local developers will face insurmountable obstacles if piracy and counterfeiting in Hong Kong aren't stopped. The report's call for a concerted government crackdown on the problem echoed similar warnings by the BSA, which urged the Governor to set up an interdepartmental task force of Customs. Police, Tax and Fire authorities to conduct massive, paralyzing strikes on the Golden Shopping Arcade and other malls. While she has yet to hear from Government House, Colbourn could take courage from concerns raised in the the Industry Department-commissioned study. Instigated at the behest of the Technology Development Council's Information Technology Committee, the report's authors asserted: "With their limited resources, there is relatively little that Hong Kong industrialists can do to combat [piracy]. This is one issue that is truly more appropriate for government action." The BSA couldn't agree more. "This report is significant, not only because it states that the most important factor affecting the software market is intellectual property protection but it also recommends that the Government take the lead in attacking software piracy," Colbourn said. (Joel McCormick & I.T. Daily/19951110) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 11/17/95 WINDOWS China - Chinese Windows 95 Available Early Next Year (NEWS)(WINDOWS)(PEK)(00031) China - Chinese Windows 95 Available Early Next Year 11/17/95 BEIJING, CHINA, 1995 NOV 17 (NB) -- The Chinese version of Microsoft's Windows 95 will be on market early next year and the company is holding discussions with several Chinese partners in Shanghai on manufacturing the Chinese version of Windows 95, said Steven Ballmer, executive vice-president of Microsoft. Chinese partners will be chosen and authorized next month and the production of Chinese Windows 95 will start in January and the software will in the shops right after the Chinese Spring Festival (in February), said Ballmer recently in Beijing. The amount of output will be decided according to the actual market demand, Ballmer said. Last month, Microsoft agreed to work with Ministry of Electronics Industry (MEI) and the State Bureau of Technology Supervision to standardize the Chinese version of the program. The two Chinese government bodies agreed to endorse the Chinese version of Windows 95 as a preferred product and to recommend it to computer users. Sales of the English version in China have been limited at several thousand and many users are waiting for the Chinese version to upgrade their computers, according to Chinese market analysts. Windows 95 will have to compete with IBM's OS/2 which has been selling the Chinese version for the Warp V3.0 system since spring of this year. IBM's advantage is that it is a major computer supplier in China. However, the disadvantage is that OS/2 came late at a time when Windows had already been adopted by PC companies as their primary operating system. A large number of IBM PCs are equipped with Windows, which have yet to be upgraded with the Chinese version. A total of 7 million copies of Windows 95 have been sold since its launch last August. Besides English, Windows 95 is available in 7 languages including German, Spanish, Swedish, Italian, Norwegian, and Portuguese and the Japanese version will be on market in several weeks. The Chinese version will be sold by six distributors and 300 retailers across China at a retail price of no more than RMB900 (US$110) per copy, said the company. (Chih-Ho Yu & Ning Huang/19951116) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 11/17/95 GENERAL Newsbytes Week In Review (NEWS)(GENERAL)(MSP)(00032) Newsbytes Week In Review 11/17/95 MINNEAPOLIS, MINNESOTA, U.S.A., 1995 Nov 17 (NB) -- This is a look at the top stories this week, listing with their category code: Senator Pushes FBI On Mammoth Surveillance Request; Softbank Debuts Its First Las Vegas Comdex; Comdex - Phone System Problems Once Again; Comdex - PowerPC CHRP Specification Makes Debut; Comdex - Gerstner Admits Industry Has To Change; Comdex - $500 PCs Not Likely, Says Dell Chief; 3M Restructures - 5,000 Jobs To Go; Comdex - Gates Vision Of Office Computing; Apple/Carl Sagan Code-Name Suit Ends; Comdex - Pentium Notebooks With CD-ROM Drives; UK Jails Virus Writer For 18 Months; Artists, Writers Discusse New Media Creativit; Higher-Density CDs Late Next Year. Senator Pushes FBI On Mammoth Surveillance Request (LEGAL) WASHINGTON, D.C., U.S.A., 1995 NOV 13 (NB) -- Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) has asked the FBI to justify its recent request for unprecedented wiretap authority under the new Communications Assistance for Law Enforcement Act, or CALEA, also known as the "digital telephony" law. Softbank Debuts Its First Las Vegas Comdex (GENERAL) LAS VEGAS, NEVADA, U.S.A., 1995 NOV 13 (NB) -- Expecting a record number of more than 205,000 attendees, Softbank is ready to show it will continue 17 years of Comdex tradition in Las Vegas. At Comdex, the computer industry presents itself to the world as 2,200 exhibitors spread out across the convention center, the Hilton, the Sands, and hotel suites throughout Las Vegas. Comdex - Phone System Problems Once Again (TELECOM) LAS VEGAS, NEVADA, U.S.A., 1995 NOV 13 (NB) -- It's another Comdex Fall -- and another telephone jam-up. Lines to Compuserve, America Online and other online services are constantly busy, but the real hassle is trying to get a long distance or international circuit line out of Las Vegas. Comdex - PowerPC CHRP Specification Makes Debut (TRENDS) LAS VEGAS, NEVADA, U.S.A., 1995 NOV 14 (NB) -- In the midst of doubts about the PowerPC platform's ability to shake the Intel x86 architecture's dominance, partners IBM (NYSE:IBM), Apple Computer Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL), and Motorola Inc. (NYSE:MOT), have unveiled the much-anticipated PowerPC Microprocessor Common Hardware Reference Platform (CHRP) specification at Comdex/Fall. Comdex - Gerstner Admits Industry Has To Change (TRENDS) LAS VEGAS, NEVADA, U.S.A., 1995 NOV 14 (NB) -- Most computer users know it, but it's unusual to hear an industry executive admit it. The computer industry does a terrible job of listening to and serving its customers, and it has to change. Comdex - $500 PCs Not Likely, Says Dell Chief (TRENDS) LAS VEGAS, NEVADA, U.S.A., 1995 NOV 14 (NB) -- The $500 PCs that are currently being talked about as the possible computing tool of the future aren't likely to become a reality, according Michael Dell, Dell Computer Corp. (NASDAQ: DELL) chairman and chief executive officer. 3M Restructures - 5,000 Jobs To Go (BUSINESS) ST. PAUL, MINNESOTA, U.S.A., 1995 NOV 14 (NB) -- 3M (NYSE: MMM) has announced that it intends to spin off its data storage and imaging systems businesses as an independent, publicly owned company. 3M also said it will discontinue its audio and video tape business during the next 12 months. Comdex - Gates Vision Of Office Computing (TRENDS) LAS VEGAS, NEVADA, U.S.A., 1995 NOV 15 (NB) -- Bill Gates, chairman of Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ: MSFT) celebrated the year of his 40th birthday and the 10th anniversary of his company yesterday by sharing his vision of office computing in the next century with an overflow crowd at the 7,200 seat Aladdin Theater for the Performing Arts in Las Vegas, Nevada. Apple/Carl Sagan Code-Name Suit Ends (LEGAL) CUPERTINO, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1995 NOV 15 (NB) -- Carl Sagan, the controversial astronomer, has announced the settlement of the litigation brought by him against Apple in the federal district court in Los Angeles. Sagan had objected to Apple's use of the internal code-name "Carl Sagan" during the development of Apple's Power Macintosh 7100 computer without his permission, and had also objected to references to the code-name and to his dispute with Apple in the computer and national press. Comdex - Pentium Notebooks With CD-ROM Drives (TRENDS) LAS VEGAS, NEVADA, U.SA., 1995 NOV 16 (NB) -- Comdex attendees jammed Epson's booth to stare at a notebook showing Tom Cruise in the movie, "The Firm." Overnight, it seems there is a new standard in notebook computing and it is powerful and feature-rich. UK Jails Virus Writer For 18 Months (LEGAL) LONDON, ENGLAND, 1995 NOV 16 (NB) -- In the first case of its kind in the United Kingdom, a computer user that wrote and spread viruses has been jailed for 18 months. The author wrote, not just viruses, but also a virus masking program that meant many virus checkers could not detect and clean the infected files. Comdex - Artists, Writers Discusse New Media Creativity (TRENDS) LAS VEGAS, NEVADA, U.S.A., 1995 NOV 17 (NB) -- New communications media such as the Internet and virtual reality offer some interesting opportunities for writers and other creative types, but few people know what to do with them yet. One thing members of a Comdex/Fall panel on the subject seemed to agree on was that there still is a role for artists and writers. Comdex - Higher-Density CDs Late Next Year (TRENDS) LAS VEGAS, NEVADA, U.S.A., 1995 NOV 17 (NB) -- The recent agreement between two formerly competing camps of vendors to settle on one unified standard for high-capacity compact disks will be good for consumers, but will actually delay the introduction of products a little. Consumer electronics and data storage products based on the new standard can be expected in the latter half of 1996, vendors showing prototypes at Comdex/Fall said. (Ian Stokell/19951117) (SUMMARY)(GENERAL)(MSP)(00033) Newsbytes Daily Summary 11/17/95 MINNEAPOLIS, MINNESOTA, U.S.A., 1995 NOV 17 (NB) -- These are capsules of all today's news stories: ======================================================================== ------------| N E W S B Y T E S D A I L Y S U M M A R Y |---------- ------------| Friday, November 17, 1995 |---------- ======================================================================== (c) Newsbytes News Network (Tm) Editor in Chief: Wendy Woods ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Newsbytes News Network's on the Web! Check out http://www.nbnn.com for free daily top stories from Newsbytes and its affiliate publications, and from PC Week, MacWeek, and other Ziff news magazines. A subscription gives you all the news, full-text, plus the most comprehensive database of past computer stories online. The keyword-searchable database dates from today back through 1983. Subscriptions are $24.95 for three months. Questions? Send to 'administrator@newsbytes.com' For Japanese Newsbytes and additional services, see the Newsbytes Pacifica Website at http://www.islandtel.com/newsbytes/ ------------------------------------------------------------------------ CATEGORY HEADLINES (*** indicates today's top stories) STORY # ======================================================================== BROADCAST Comdex - I/O Magic's Portable Teleconferencing............. 05 BROADCAST Comdex - TView Adds Features............................... 13 BUSINESS Lexmark Goes Public........................................ 09 BUSINESS Tokyo - High Tech Stock Market Rises On The Week........... 26 GENERAL Japan Newsbriefs........................................... 01 GENERAL Australia - Dock Dispute Threatens IT Sales................ 03 GENERAL Comdex - Impressions From A First-Time Point Of View....... 04 GENERAL The Ins and Outs of Mice And Pens.......................... 12 GENERAL NewsPix Update For Newsbytes Publishers.................... 14 GENERAL ****Comdex - The Cool and the Quirky...................... 17 GENERAL Comdex - Massaging Away The Hype........................... 18 GENERAL Comdex - The End At Hand................................... 19 GENERAL Personnel Roundup.......................................... 24 GENERAL Comdex - Canon Prints T-Shirts............................. 28 GENERAL Newsbytes Week In Review................................... 32 HEALTH Bell Atlantic Sells Teleradiology Network.................. 21 IBM Comdex - IBM Plans Cross-Marketing Tactics For CD-ROM...... 27 LEGAL SPA Fights Crime With Computer Donation.................... 22 LEGAL Hong Kong - BSA Rewards First Bounty Hunters............... 30 ONLINE Internet Update............................................ 02 ONLINE Comdex - Developing Realistic Web Site Strategies.......... 06 ONLINE Comdex - Discovery Channel Discloses Web Additions......... 15 ONLINE Comdex - Boca Doubles Chances With ISDN And DSVD Modems.... 23 PC ****Comdex - Upke Claims "Ultimate" Home PC............... 07 PC Comdex - Epson Deliver Cyrix Speed To The Desktop.......... 25 TRENDS Comdex - 1394 Interface Standard Shows Progress............ 08 TRENDS ****Comdex - Artists, Writers Discusse New Media Creativit 10 TRENDS ****Comdex - Higher-Density CDs Late Next Year............ 11 TRENDS Comdex - Bookstore Opts For Instant Internet Sales......... 16 TRENDS ****Comdex - Small Office Brings Big Opportunities........ 20 WINDOWS COMDEX - SPC's "Super Easy Presentation Package............ 29 WINDOWS China - Chinese Windows 95 Available Early Next Year....... 31 ======================================================================== These are the headlines and first paragraphs of each story, in order: 1 -> Japan Newsbriefs -- In this roundup of news from Japan, Casio triples camera production, Microsoft gears up for Windows95 launch, communications industry growing - government, Pioneer plans MO audio system, Sanyo announces new HDTV. 2 -> Internet Update -- In this roundup of new resources and services on the global Internet, "And the winner is," "Top secret!" Spying home page, UK military pattern and information processing, XFree86 Web-based FAQ, Freeware Internet encyclopedia, Amateur astronomy page, Eating disorders mailing list, Australian news. 3 -> Australia - Dock Dispute Threatens IT Sales -- The Australian IT industry has its fingers crossed for a speedy resolution to the Australian dockside industrial dispute which may threaten imports vital to Christmas retail trade. After a sluggish third quarter, the industry is relying on a bumper festive season. Michael Buth, purchasing manager for Epson Australia, says the company could be feeling the pinch in the next five days if docks remain idle. 4 -> Comdex - Impressions From A First-Time Point Of View -- Walking through doors of a Comdex show for the first time may remind one of a huge auto show that's on steroids. Many, many, many companies, more than 2,200, put on their best faces for a viewing "public" comprised of competitive exhibitors, wide-eyed browsers, and skeptical journalists. 5 -> Comdex - I/O Magic's Portable Teleconferencing -- Irvine, California's I/O Magic Corp. is introducing a PCMCIA (Personal Computer Memory Card Industry Association) teleconferencing system the company calls a "first" for the computer industry, called MobileVision. The new system uses a POTS (plain old telephone service) line to hook together two notebooks using, for now, the MobileVision system. 6 -> Comdex - Developing Realistic Web Site Strategies -- At the Comdex Fall '95 computer and information technology show, the selling and marketing of goods and services online highlighted one of the conferences at the annual gathering. The discussion centered on what Internet World Wide Web site developers should put on their pages, and how should they put their information on the Internet. 7 -> ****Comdex - Upke Claims "Ultimate" Home PC -- A startup company showed up at Comdex/Fall this year with what it bills as the ultimate home personal computer. Upke Systems' PC, which comes in four models, combines high-end technical specifications such as a 133-megahertz (MHz) Pentium processor with an external design reminiscent of upmarket consumer electronics products. 8 -> Comdex - 1394 Interface Standard Shows Progress -- Proponents of the IEEE 1394 interface standard are showing off new products compatible with the standard at the Comdex/Fall computer show here. The 1394 Trade Association also held a press conference to announce that Yamaha Corp. has added its support to the specification, which allows for linkages among computer and consumer electronics devices. 9 -> Lexmark Goes Public -- Lexmark International Group, Inc. (NYSE:LXK) is now a public company. The move marks the final step to independence for the company that was spun off from IBM in 1991. 10 -> ****Comdex - Artists, Writers Discusse New Media Creativity -- New communications media such as the Internet and virtual reality offer some interesting opportunities for writers and other creative types, but few people know what to do with them yet. One thing members of a Comdex/Fall panel on the subject seemed to agree on was that there still is a role for artists and writers. 11 -> ****Comdex - Higher-Density CDs Late Next Year -- The recent agreement between two formerly competing camps of vendors to settle on one unified standard for high-capacity compact disks will be good for consumers, but will actually delay the introduction of products a little. Consumer electronics and data storage products based on the new standard can be expected in the latter half of 1996, vendors showing prototypes at Comdex/Fall said. 12 -> The Ins and Outs of Mice And Pens -- Comdex Fall/95, the annual gathering of the computer faithful being held in Las Vegas this week, is packed with wonderful gadgets that provide sound, motion and voice. But Newsbytes decided to have a look at the the lowly devices that are so necessary but so often overlooked that let us input the data for that output. 13 -> Comdex - TView Adds Features -- TView Inc., formerly Consumer Technology Northwest until it changed its name in late September, was at Comdex/Fall 95 to show off the new features of its flagship product, Presenter TView. Presenter is an external pocket-sized device that converts a PC or a Macintosh computer video signal to an NTSC or PAL signal, enabling users to display their computer presentations on television sets or record them directly to video cassette using a VCR. 14 -> NewsPix Update For Newsbytes Publishers -- This update will be posted each Wednesday and Friday to reflect the daily picture additions. The updates will in turn become part of the main NewsPix Bulletin issued on Monday. 15 -> Comdex - Discovery Channel Discloses Web Additions -- In coming months, The Discovery Channel's new Web site for "scientific exploration" will add a live talkshow hosted by NCR's Derek McGinty, an agent-based "Knapsack" Internet search capability, and the ability to "commission a painting" over the Web, along with branches into history and literature, said Rebecca Farwell, editorial director, in an meeting with Newsbytes at Comdex. 16 -> Comdex - Bookstore Opts For Instant Internet Sales -- Insights Software, a developer and marketer of motivational books, is selling a complete line of titles from its Web site. 17 -> ****Comdex - The Cool and the Quirky -- There's so many products at the Comdex Fall '95 computer and information technology show in Las Vegas, most every one can carry descriptive tags like "cool" or "quirky." But here's a partial listing of some products that might not receive much ink, real or electronic, in other forms of media. 18 -> Comdex - Massaging Away The Hype -- Many people get tense and stressed out at the world's largest computer and technology information show in Las Vegas. Not to worry, though 19 -> Comdex - The End At Hand -- The crowds have thinned, the media have finished most of their work and almost all the chief executive officers and senior management are back home. 20 -> ****Comdex - Small Office Brings Big Opportunities -- SOHO (small office/home office) is bringing increasingly big opportunities to large and small vendors alike, said marketing executives of Xerox, Compuserve, Intuit, Microsoft, and US West, during a jointly presented press conference at Fall Comdex in Las Vegas. 21 -> Bell Atlantic Sells Teleradiology Network -- In one of the first commercial telemedicine deals, Bell Atlantic has packaged and sold a system for a virtual radiology practice in Norfolk, Va. The teleradiology system, using Integrated Services Digital Network (ISDN) technology, links seven hospitals, 35 doctors' homes and a high-resolution central reading station at Medical Center Radiologists, one of the country's largest radiology practices. 22 -> SPA Fights Crime With Computer Donation -- Establishing a new way of dealing with computer piracy, the Software Publishers Association has taken a seized computer in Mexico City and donated it to a non-profit childrens' burn center in Mexico. SPA seized the personal computer from CompuMarket Computers after finding that the computer dealer was installing illegal software on the machines it was selling. 23 -> Comdex - Boca Doubles Chances With ISDN And DSVD Modems -- One way or the other, computer game players as well as businesses are going to be running voice simultaneously with data, and, as a result, Boca Research plans to offer products in both the ISDN (integrated services digital network) and new DSVD (digital simultaneous video) markets, said Larry Light, VP of engineering, during a press event at Fall Comdex. 24 -> Personnel Roundup -- These companies are featured in today's roundup of personnel changes, not covered elsewhere by Newsbytes: BDM International Inc., Psion PLC, Digital Equipment Corp., Flash Comm Inc., Virtual Entertainment Inc., Oracle Corp., Zenith Electronics Corp., Novell Inc., Sun Microsystems Inc., Compuserve Inc. 25 -> Comdex - Epson Deliver Cyrix Speed To The Desktop -- Epson of Torrance, California, introduced its ActionTower 9200 multimedia desktop computer system at Comdex. Using a Cyrix 6x86 processor, the new system outperforms most 133 megahertz (MHz), 586 systems at a price below many current 120 MHz 586 systems, Epson contends. 26 -> Tokyo - High Tech Stock Market Rises On The Week -- The Tokyo Stock Market ended the week on a positive theme after the Nikkei 225 stock index closed above the 18,000 mark for the first time in a week at 18,151.16, up 211.64 on the day. The jump Friday followed a 256.78 point jump on Thursday and represents an increase of 307.6 points on the week. 27 -> Comdex - IBM Plans Cross-Marketing Tactics For CD-ROM -- IBM Multimedia Studio intends to expand on the industry's current core of two million "highly enthusiastic" multimedia CD-ROM users with cross-marketing strategies built around The Jungle Book, Pinocchio, Quest for Fame, and two new football titles, one of which is for the Web, said IBM's Cal Morrell and Dan Rogers, during a briefing for Newsbytes at Fall Comdex. 28 -> Comdex - Canon Prints T-Shirts -- Canon's booth featured the transferral of custom multi-colored designs onto t-shirts using Canon Bubble Jet printers and custom transfer paper. 29 -> COMDEX - SPC's "Super Easy Presentation Package -- During an Editors' Lunch at Comdex that also featured a live jazz trio and foot and back massages, Software Publishing Corp. (SPC) gently debuted a new "super easy presentation package" for Windows called Type, Click, Present. 30 -> Hong Kong - BSA Rewards First Bounty Hunters -- The Business Software Alliance said its informer scheme, successful in other parts of the world, has snared its first dragnet catch in Hong Kong. In the prize catch was, among others, Japanese department store giant Yaohan. 31 -> China - Chinese Windows 95 Available Early Next Year -- The Chinese version of Microsoft's Windows 95 will be on market early next year and the company is holding discussions with several Chinese partners in Shanghai on manufacturing the Chinese version of Windows 95, said Steven Ballmer, executive vice-president of Microsoft. 32 -> Newsbytes Week In Review -- This is a look at the top stories this week, listing with their category code: Senator Pushes FBI On Mammoth Surveillance Request; Softbank Debuts Its First Las Vegas Comdex; Comdex - Phone System Problems Once Again; Comdex - PowerPC CHRP Specification Makes Debut; Comdex - Gerstner Admits Industry Has To Change; Comdex - $500 PCs Not Likely, Says Dell Chief; 3M Restructures - 5,000 Jobs To Go; Comdex - Gates Vision Of Office Computing; Apple/Carl Sagan Code-Name Suit Ends; Comdex - Pentium Notebooks With CD-ROM Drives; UK Jails Virus Writer For 18 Months; Artists, Writers Discusse New Media Creativit; Higher-Density CDs Late Next Year. (Wendy Woods/19951117) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 11/10/95 LEGAL Online Smut Fight Flares Up (NEWS)(LEGAL)(WAS)(00001) Online Smut Fight Flares Up 11/10/95 WASHINGTON, D.C., U.S.A., 1995 NOV 10 (NB) -- After smoldering for several weeks, the issue of smut in cyberspace has once again burst into flames. Social conservatives including the Christian Coalition have written to House-Senate conferees on the telecommunications legislation, urging support for the approach in the Senate bill that would make "indecent" online content illegal. The push from Christian Coalition chief Ralph Reed, prominent right-winger Phyllis Schlafly and others puts them at odds with traditional conservative allies in the House, including Speaker Newt Gingrich and other free-market libertarians. When the Senate approved the amendment offered by Sen. James Exon (D-Neb.) to criminalize online smut by an overwhelming margin, Gingrich denounced it as "a violation of free speech" and "a violation of the rights of adults to communicate with each other." The House then passed a proposal sponsored by Reps. Christopher Cox (R-Calif.) and Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) that endorses self-regulation and the development of screening software that parents can control. That amendment passed by a vote of 420-4. Staff of the conference committee this week got a demonstration of screening software, conducted by the Interactive Services Association, a trade group for the online industry. But the social conservatives are adamant about criminal sanctions. Reed, Schlafly, and former Attorney General Edwin Meese recently sent the conferees a letter backing the Exon approach. "We need the toughest and best law we can to crack down on what will be a terrible problem as more and more people have home computers and connect to the Internet," said Reed. Earlier this week, the Progress and Freedom Foundation, a group closely tied to Gingrich, and other traditional conservative groups such as the Heritage Foundation and the American Enterprise Institute wrote Congress backing the Cox-Wyden approach. In an editorial titled "Return of the Cyber-Censors," the Washington Post said, "The argument against criminalizing the 'transmission' of 'indecent' images via the Internet remains stark and simple, and it goes not to the awfulness of child pornography or even to be ability of parents to control what their children do on the computer (a wide variety of off-the-shelf technological filters now exist that let parents do this themselves) but to the impossibility of regulation by the electronic middleman industries that are developing." The Post added, "if the Internet were like a telephone system, there would at least be the possibility of identifying a specific 'sender' and 'recipient.' On the Internet it's 'receivers' who do the selecting of what to look at and where. Giving those recipients the tools they need remains the way to go." (Kennedy Maize/19951109) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 11/10/95 GOVT GTSI Beefs Up Air Force Desktop IV Offerings (NEWS)(GOVT)(WAS)(00002) GTSI Beefs Up Air Force Desktop IV Offerings 11/10/95 CHANTILLY, VIRGINIA, U.S.A., 1995 NOV 10 (NB) -- Government Technology Services Inc. (Nasdaq: GTSI) is adding muscle to its basic computer system offering under the Air Force Desktop IV contract. The upgrade is designed to make the GTSI system more competitive with the system offered by competitor Zenith Data Systems. The upgraded system is an IBM P350 Pentium 100 megahertz (MHz) system with a factory-installed 4x CD-ROM, a one gigabyte (GB) hard drive, 16 megabytes (MB) of RAM, 256 kilobytes of cache, PCI (Peripheral Component Interconnect) slots, and a 14-inch high- resolution monitor. Also, GTSI is adding Pentium 75MHz and 120MHz options, 4x and 6x CD-ROMs, and Delrina Form Flow software. "With the addition of a 1GB hard drive and CD-ROM at a price competitive to ZDS's base Pentium configuration," said Alan Lawrence, GTSI vice president, The Air Force awarded the Desktop contract to GTSI and ZDS in 1993, for a three-year period with a potential value than estimated at about $700 million. In less than two years, contract sales hit nearly 300,000 units, and the Air Force shut down ordering. The Air Force reopened the contract in August with an allocation of 100,000 systems. The Air Force is evaluating proposals for a follow-on, called Desktop V, with an award next year. The GTSI and ZDS basic Pentium offerings are quite similar: 100MHz processor, 1GB hard drive, 14-inch color monitor, and 16MB of RAM. The major difference is the CD-ROM in the GTSI unit. The ZDS system offers a standard 5.25-inch floppy along with a 3.5-inch drive. The ZDS machine has a price tag of $2,592, while the GTSI system is $2,615. (Kennedy Maize/19951109/Press Contact: Carter Cromley, GTSI, 703-502-2035) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 11/10/95 ONLINE America Online Rolls Out Software Developers Program (NEWS)(ONLINE)(WAS)(00003) America Online Rolls Out Software Developers Program 11/10/95 VIENNA, VIRGINIA, U.S.A., 1995 NOV 10 (NB) -- America Online has rolled out a program to open the AOL platform to third party developers, so that they can integrate their software with the AOL online environment. "AOL is providing an open environment to give software developers the opportunity to launch innovative applications online and make them an integral part of the AOL user experience," said Ted Leonsis, president of AOL's Online Services Co. AOL Developers Studio is aimed at commercial software, multimedia and games developers, as well as independent software developers. Charter members of the studio include: Boxer Jam; Bureau of Electronic Publishing; Creative Wonders (an ABC/Electronic Arts joint venture); Fog City (developer of the Claris Emailer) Graphix Zone; McMillan Digital; MetaTools; Philips Media; Princeton Review; Simon and Schuster; Starfish Software; Starpress Inc.; Virgin Sound and Vision; and Ziff-Davis. AOL says more than 60 companies are planning to develop AOL-integrated products. The Developers Studio software developer kit provides a range of integration options for Windows and Macintosh platforms. Included in the kit is: one-button access, which allows limitless links to launch sites on AOL or the Internet and add value to an existing software product; custom access, which allows developers to control the user interface while enabling members to download files, use e-mail, and leverage news and stock quotes; and inter-application communications, which allows developers to write add-on applications for the AOL service. Participants will be able to market their products to AOL's four million members through a special Developers Studio online area. The first AOL-integrated products featured include Starfish's SideKick 95 Deluxe, the Claris Emailer, and several multimedia CD-ROM titles. In related news, AOL has also launched the AOL Software Greenhouse, a developer program to give emerging application developers help in creating and marketing the next generation of online applications. Those interested in the Developers Studio and the Software Greenhouse can send e-mail to SDKPartner@aol.com, call 703-918-2681, or access through AOL with the keyword "Developers Studio." (Kennedy Maize/19951109/Press Contact: Pam McGraw, 703-556-3746) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 11/10/95 PC DEC Media Module Gets Faster, Cheaper (NEWS)(PC)(TOR)(00004) DEC Media Module Gets Faster, Cheaper 11/10/95 MAYNARD, MASSACHUSETTS, U.S.A., 1995 NOV 10 (NB) -- Digital Equipment Corp. (NYSE:DEC) has announced a new version of its Mobile Media Module that is faster and cheaper than the original. The HiNote Ultra 4X Mobile Media Module, like its predecessor, is an add-on for DEC's HiNote Ultra notebook computers. The new model uses a quad-speed, rather than a dual-speed, CD-ROM. Other features are the same, a spokeswoman for the company said, but the price is $699, versus $899 for the dual-speed module. That represents a 22 percent cut in price from the previous version, DEC said. The Mobile Media Module is a two-pound, inch-high attachment for the HiNote Ultra that incorporates a CD-ROM drive. DEC said a HiNote Ultra computer with the unit attached weighs six pounds and is two inches high. The unit can be detached from the notebook when not needed. DEC believes the major market for the Media Module will be among field sales people who want to do multimedia presentations on their notebooks while visiting clients, and among "high-level business executives," the spokeswoman told Newsbytes. The unit is available right away, the spokeswoman added. DEC will sell it through resellers and distributors in North and South America, Europe, and the Asia-Pacific region. Quad-speed CD-ROM drives are becoming increasingly popular in the desktop PC market, supplanting the slower dual-speed drives. The faster drives have been a bit slower to move into the notebook market. Already, a smattering of six-times-speed CD-ROM drives have been announced, though their use is not widespread. Digital Equipment is on the World Wide Web at http://www/pc.digital.com . (Grant Buckler/19951109/Press Contact: Lisa Rohlf, Digital Equipment, 508-264-7977; Public Contact: Digital Equipment, 800-722-9332) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 11/10/95 ONLINE Escrow Services Online (NEWS)(ONLINE)(LAX)(00005) Escrow Services Online 11/10/95 CARLSBAD, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1995 NOV 10 (NB) -- Data Track Systems Inc. (DTS) has unveiled a transaction-based Internet system designed to "facilitate online processing" for title insurance, escrow, and other settlement services. DTS sees the Internet as the future for business transactions of all types, with real estate transactions only the beginning. According to DTS, online efficiency means that consumers may speed up the real estate closing process from six weeks to two or three days and may reduce associated costs by hundreds of dollars per transaction. Users choosing to go online as partners or customers will reduce overhead costs and cut the time and dollars spent on courier, postal, telephone, and overnight delivery services. Gilbert Barnes, a vice president of DTS, told Newsbytes, "The Internet and commercial online services democratize the process of conducting business in the high-tech 1990s. Until now, only large organizations had the remarkably huge financial resources to develop computer systems through which to conduct business electronically. The Internet now make it possible to conduct business online, requiring only an increasingly inexpensive personal computer and modem." DTS claims to be the first company to create a transaction-based application specifically for the real estate industry on the Internet. It has also created a program for America Online and is currently developing applications for Compuserve and is "under consideration" for Microsoft Network. "Through this system, DTS and our online trading partners will facilitate the real estate community's journal in line with the electronic age," said Mann. "Ultimately, we'll see the future of the industry take shape." Data Track's management team includes executives of the real estate industry. A company founder, Mann was previously executive vice president of Stewart Title Co. Gilbert Barnes, president and chief executive officer (CEO), was previously an executive with Chicago Title Insurance. Data Track has headquarters in Carlsbad, California, and can be reached on the World Wide Web at http://www.datatrac.com . (Richard Bowers/19951109/Press Contact: Gilbert Barnes, Data Track, 619-930-4583) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 11/10/95 ONLINE Film Processor Returns Snapshots Via Internet (NEWS)(ONLINE)(DEN)(00006) Film Processor Returns Snapshots Via Internet 11/10/95 SEATTLE, WASHINGTON, U.S.A., 1995 NOV 10 (NB) -- Seattle Filmworks (NASDAQ: FOTO) has started returning customers' developed photographs via the Internet. The new delivery service is called PhotoMail and is an expansion of Seattle Filmworks' existing digital delivery service. Eighteen months ago the company started digitizing and delivering developed photos on floppy disk. That service is called Pictures On Disk and is available as a $3.95 option to any 24-exposure film developing order. If you elect to have your snapshots returned via PhotoMail, Seattle Filmworks will send you an e-mail message telling you the finished photos are ready for pickup. The message includes instructions for logging into the Seattle Filmworks site on the World Wide Web at http://www.filmworks.com , and the necessary security code you need to begin the download. The negatives, a set of conventional prints, and a new roll of film are returned via surface mail. Slides can also be delivered as electronic images via the Internet, and will also be returned via mail. Seattle Filmworks said that, in tests, users with a PC equipped with a 28,800 baud modem were able to download an entire roll of film in seven to eight minutes. You can also download the company's Photoworks software or the Photomail upgrade from the Web site at no charge. Photoworks software lets you view the Pictures On disk images, while the Photomail upgrade makes it easier to download images from the Internet. Seattle Filmworks has also released a version of Photoworks software that runs on Macintosh and Power Macintosh PCs. The software lets you export images to word processors and other print-capable software, organize your photographs into albums, prepare customized slide shows, zoom in and out on images, rotate them, and prepare customized titles and captions for images. The 32-bit Macintosh software is available at no charge to customers who order their first Pictures On Disk. To use the Mac version of Photoworks, you need a Macintosh computer running a 68020 or better processor, System 7.1 or greater, 32-bit Color Quickdraw, and four megabytes of system memory available to the applications. Seattle Filmworks said a dual-media bundle of Photoworks for the Mac and Photoworks Plus for Windows will soon be available in retail stores with a suggested retail price of $19.95. (Jim Mallory/19951109/Press contact: Gary Christophersen, Seattle Filmworks, 206-281-1550; Public contact: Seattle Filmworks, 800-345-6967) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 11/10/95 TELECOM Software Manages Online Communications (NEWS)(TELECOM)(DEN)(00007) Software Manages Online Communications 11/10/95 NORCROSS, GEORGIA, U.S.A., 1995 NOV 10 (NB) -- Enhanced Systems Inc. has announced a messaging software module that lets you access and manage your e-mail, voice-mail, faxes, and any pages that come in over the World Wide Web. The program is called @once, and it's part of the company's recently announced Hello!NT product which is scheduled to ship in the first quarter of 1996, according to Mike Ford, Enhanced Systems vice president of sales. The program provides notification of an access to multiple message types from any Internet access point worldwide. It also enables unified messaging on a local area network through TCP/IP (Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol). It is POP3, SMTP (Simple Mail Transfer Protocol) and Microsoft MAPI compatible. Here's how @once works. You use a Web browser such as Netscape or Mosaic to log onto your company's Web server and view messages or listen to voice-mail. Messages are summarized with information that includes date and time sent, and length. Faxes will also indicate the location name and phone number that's furnished by the originating fax machine. Voice-mail messages will also carry their point of origin information where ANI (automatic number identification) is available. To listen to a particular message or view a fax or e-mail, the user clicks on the icon for that message. If a sound card is installed, voice-mail can be herd and repeated completely or in parts, using the media player. E-mail and faxes are displayed on your monitor, and alpha/numeric information sent via a paging system can also be displayed, much like the alphanumeric pagers now available that can display brief messages. Enhanced systems said release of @once makes it the first company to introduce unified messaging over the Web. The program is the latest addition to Enhanced Systems' Telephony Software Suite. Other products in the suite include: Hello!NT, a multi-application messaging platform; Hello!ADL, an application development scripting language for IVR (interactive voice response), a method of converting the tones generated by a touch-tone phone to computer-recognizable signals for applications such as electronic banking; and Callsort Pro for Windows, a network-ready call accounting system. Ford told Newsbytes the price of Hello!NT hasn't been set yet. @once is not a standalone application, and is designed to work with Hello!NT. Enhanced Systems is a wholly owned subsidiary of Vodavi Technology Inc. (NASDAQ: VTEK). (Jim Mallory/19951109/Press contact: Michael Mittel, Enhanced Systems, 770-662-1503; Public contact: tel 770-662-1503, fax 770-242-1630) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 11/10/95 TRENDS Superconductor Cellular Base Station Testing (NEWS)(TRENDS)(LAX)(00008) Superconductor Cellular Base Station Testing 11/10/95 SANTA CLARA, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1995 NOV 10 (NB) -- Conductus Inc. (NASDAQ:CDTS), a developer of high-temperature superconductor (HTS) and cryoelectronics technology, has announced a low-noise filter subsystem for cellular base stations. The system, which combines a superconducting bandpass filter and a cryogenic low-noise amplifier, is designed to provide enhanced range and signal quality in rural cellular sites. Radio frequency receiver filters reduce interference and are a key component in cellular systems. The greater the ability to filter noise, the greater capacity of each cellular system. There are two types of superconductors. The first was made of very simple metals and operated at near absolute zero. The second is high-temperature superconductor (HTS). HTS operates at a higher temperature, but still in a very cold state. HTS needs to be kept at -175 degrees Centigrade. HTS technology offers two major advantages over conventional filters: it provides more filtering capacity, and it does it with smaller-sized units. A typical HTS system consists of a HTS filter and a cryogenic system to cool. Randy Simon, vice president of technology programming for Conductus, told Newsbytes, "The new Conductus front-end subsystem addresses what is predominantly a rural cellular phenomenon. While transmission from the cell site to the telephone is generally not a problem, the 'reverse' path from the telephone to the base station can be a serious problem. "Cell sites are designed for maximum range in sparsely populated areas and for high-power mobile cellular telephones which transmit at about three-watt power levels. Portable cellular phones, on the other hand, transmit only 0.6 watts, which can be difficult for cell sites to receive. With portables accounting for more than 90 percent of current cellular phone sales, the problem can be a significant one for rural service providers," said Simon. The Conductus subsystem includes a low-insertion-loss, high- performance bandpass filter plus a cryoelectronic low-noise amplifier (LNA). The combination provides the desired enhancement on the receive path of the base station, said the company. Tests of the new Conductus system were held at Peninsula Wireless Communications' (PWC) laboratories in Sunnyvale. PWC is a base station manufacturer. Said Ed Johnson, vice president of technology at PWC: "We were very impressed by the progress Conductus has made on the path to commercializing the use of HTS and cryoelectronics for specialty receiver applications. "The performance tests we ran showed significant improvement in a number of respects compared to conventional resonant cavity filters and ambient-temperature low-noise amplifiers. After installing the Conductus system, the noise figure for our MRC-800 base station was reduced from 4.0 decibel (dB) to 0.4dB," said Johnson. "Even if one includes losses coming from the cable connecting our equipment to the tower-top antenna, the savings provided by the Conductus system could extend the effective range of a typical rural cellsite by over 70 percent," continued Johnson "The retrofit market for rural sites looks especially interesting to us in the near term," noted Charles Shalvoy, Conductus' president and chief executive officer. "Given the level of improvement in reception, we feel we can address a substantial portion of the market without placing the subsystem at the tower top -- a practice followed in the past by some operators to minimize the effect of cable losses from the antenna to the equipment room." (Richard Bowers/19951109/Press Contact: Duncan MacMillan, Conductus, 408-523-9401) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 11/10/95 BUSINESS EDS Asia Looks To Australia (NEWS)(BUSINESS)(HKG)(00009) EDS Asia Looks To Australia 11/10/95 CENTRAL, HONG KONG, 1995 NOV 10 (NB) -- News has emerged that Electronic Data Systems is looking to Adelaide, Australia, as a support hub for its growing business in Asia. Last week the company signed a deal worth US$656 million, covering a nine year period, to create and manage the data processing infrastructure for the government of South Australia. The deal has yet to be announced. Because the project is so large, EDS will be developing extensive facilities to support the government contract. It is understood these will be brought into play both to win more business in Australia and to create another support hub for Asia. EDS's business has grown in the Asian region over the past five years to the point where it now employs over 250 people in Hong Kong. It is believed the new development in Adelaide will act as cost-efficient support center and training base, as it develops. Although reports have been circulating to the effect that EDS is set to move its regional headquarters from Hong Kong to Singapore, Newsbytes was told this is not so by one company source, speaking off the record. (Joel McCormick & I.T. Daily/19951110) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 11/10/95 ONLINE "Disgruntled" E-Zine Focuses On People Who Work (NEWS)(ONLINE)(MSP)(00010) "Disgruntled" E-Zine Focuses On People Who Work 11/10/95 BERKELEY, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1995 NOV 10 (NB) -- Business journalism takes a turn towards both the humorous and dark side, with the launch of the electronic magazine (e-zine) "Disgruntled: The Magazine For People Who Work For A Living." The Internet World Wide Web publication mixes news, features, satire, and commentary about the work world, from the perspective of the employee. The e-zine is put together by Daniel S. Levine of Counterpoint Press Inc. He comes from the "mainstream, conventional" world of business writing, working for the Oakland Tribune, Adweek Magazine, and freelancing for the New York Times, among other publications. He said the mainstream press has very little interest in covering business issues from the perspective of the employee. "It's a way to give voice to something I thought was getting little attention," he told Newsbytes. When Newsbytes looked at the site, we found a Netscape-enhanced background with a graphic of a smiley-face that's best described as "disgruntled." Articles in the e-zine include a piece from Alan Downs, who wrote "Corporate Execution: The Ugly Truth About Layoffs;" an article on how disgruntled workers can report their employers for using illegally copied software; and roundups of work-related news from the US and abroad. One of the funniest options of the site can be taken advantage of if a user's supervisor is walking up on them. The user can click on a "cigar-chomping boss" and bring up a fake "annual report" directly from the Disgruntled site. The feature is built in to the e-zine because Levine said he is expecting a number of users to read it from their desks. Levine said he originally wanted to make Disgruntled into a more traditional magazine, but economics prevented that. Plus, he said getting "feedback from the trenches" would be easier via the Internet. Levine said that, while the "traditional" Web advertiser may not want to buy space from Disgruntled, companies that have job search databases or other employment-related information may want to sponsor the site. Already, the National Employee Rights Institute, a non-profit organization that helps both the employed and unemployed with workplace-related issues, has signed on as a sponsor of Disgruntled. The site also offers classified advertisements, and sells Disgruntled merchandise. "The initial response to Disgruntled has been very strong, but it's not for everyone," Levine said. "My father said he didn't want one of our T-shirts because he found it too negative. My mother, on the other hand, wanted one because she works for my father." A warning to parents -- the magazine isn't designed with kids in mind. "We're not afraid of offending people for a laugh," Levine said. There is a disclaimer at the index page of the site cautioning those who enter about the language in the e-zine. "Disgruntled: The Magazine For People Who Work For A Living" can be found on the Web at http://www.disgruntled.com/ . (Bob Woods/19951109/Press Contact: Daniel S. Levine, Counterpoint Press, 510-528-6755, Internet e-mail dslevine@disgruntled.com) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 11/10/95 EDITORIAL EDUCATION Editorial - The Spider's Web (EDITORIAL)(EDUCATION)(MSP)(00011) Editorial - The Spider's Web 11/10/95 MINNEAPOLIS, MINNESOTA, U.S.A., 1995 NOV 10 (NB) -- By Gary Kallback. My son recently turned in a homework assignment to a substitute teacher in which he had researched bridge construction for an upcoming project in his 8th grade technology class. I had allowed him to use the CompuServe Wizard browser installed on my home computer. He got an A on the project and was very excited. The teacher said the printed color photos were neat and asked where he found them. My son, replied, "Off the Web." The teacher responded, "What Web?" My son said, "The spider's." The substitute teacher didn't know what my son was talking about. My wife, who is an acquisitions editor for a major publishing house, suffers the same frustration with the educational community. While the publishing house would like teachers to access the new technologies, too many classrooms across the country do not have the capability. This confirms what many people already know. The way we communicate in the world -- literally -- is changing overnight. It is without doubt that the computer and the related spin-off technologies can be a wonderful God-send to our society in general and to those who need assistance in learning, specifically. But this is not the late 1950s where television was the new entertainer on the block and all you needed was $600, an electric outlet, a TV antenna and the ability to turn a few knobs in the right direction. This is the kind of revolution that can change nations forever. If not thought out by an industry that already seems drunk on itself, it could become the social disaster of our decade. We as a society of free and intelligent people ought to be questioning why a technology that is suppose to be so simple, winds up with so many caveats when you get it in your home. As consumers, we need to be more suspicious and ask who is accountable. This is a life-changing event and it is no longer amusing. I bring these concerns to light for several reasons: 1. a vacuum is being created between those who need to know and those who can't find out. 2. The computer industry in general seems to run with a "get out of my face" attitude. This is not a good sign as this industry is quickly growing to critical mass and should want to increase its service support further. A personal friend, who is a senior manager at a large electronics firm in the Midwest, made the comment that if one does not jump on the technology ladder soon enough, the rungs on the ladder will be too high to grab on to later. With this in mind, it is safe to assume that unless the computer systems of the NEAR future are greatly simplified, many people will walk away and not surf back to the technology. I think of the woman a friend recently told me about who brought her entire system back to the computer super store and said, "I can't make this thing work," and walked out. I can relate to what she did. We must understand that people on the Web are a special breed -- similar to audio buffs in the 70s, dragging that extra 3db of hissless power out of their Crown Amps. But this time not being familiar with the technology can affect a career, not just a hobby, and can hurt the advances of future generations into an ever changing and demanding job market. True computer geeks, like computer magazine editors, are really different kinds of people. They actually seem to ENJOY the problems and wear the pain -- of the bugs they struggle to find in new software systems -- like purple crosses awarded in battle. I, on the other hand, do not feel it is my job to make companies like Microsoft more profitable, acting as if I am a free consultant providing valuable feedback on flawed designs. I feel that some of these computer editors are like little puppy dogs, wagging their tails and waiting to be patted on the head for finding problems for the software manufacturer. They sometimes act as if they are one notch above the rest of society and forget that we are all in the same boat together -- needing a common rudder to get around in this undiscovered country. Some computer programmers I have met are the same way. For example, as a client I have asked them to design online custom applications for me. But instead their final design seems to emulate the machines they have become, forgetting three important principles of the human being. Does it do what the customer wants, is it easy to use and does it make the task easier? For a business, you also have to ask if it saves money and increases sales? While these knowledgeable people could help, they instead often add to the confusion of operating programs causing computers to actually take away from you valuable time -- in hours and even days. Computers can also put more work on your desk because everyone "just has to have it today," creating false urgencies. And in the home, computers can steal valuable time from family relationships where needed quality-time is already being diminished by longer work hours. On the opposite end, non-participating people can be intimidated and angry over not knowing what this new stuff is going to do their lives. They can feel left out, alienated and without input. Even I -- who understands this business a little bit more than the average man on the street -- am angry. For a $3,400 deal on a new computer system from CompUSA, I still had to replace the modem board when the computer was only a few weeks old. IBM technical support said to my amazement, "We don't fix it, you do! We send you the part and an optional video tells you how to install it. Its easy." I didn't doubt the voice on the phone. It just wasn't part of the sales pitch and I felt it was left out on purpose to sell the computer. In trying to contact dealer CompUSA with this information on the phone, they said the unit was under warranty from the manufacturer. Any problems with the software, they continued such as the modem not working, was not their responsibility. I mention CompUSA because it is where I purchased my M40 Aptiva. I suspect, however, this could have happened at any large super computer store. My impression of the overall computer/software industry now is that fews seem to care after the pitch is made, the credit card receipt is signed and your computer has headed for the trunk of your car. In this business, sometimes you refer to these conditions as a whore's market because the profits are so tight at the super store and with the manufacturer, that there is little money left for a comprehensive customer support network to back the products sold. It reminds me of when I produced industrial videos and -- if I didn't like what I saw -- the producer would say, "Trust me." I would always get a pit in my stomach when I heard these words. Today the words, "Its easy!" have the same ring to me. When I advised IBM that their wait times were crazy (up to two hours), in trying to resolve this problem on the new computer they said, "We know." One customer support representative in trying to be helpful said it was best to call back between 4 a.m. and 9 a.m. in the morning if I wanted a SHORT wait. Through all this I remembered the recent Mac ad on TV -- where the father is trying unsuccessfully to get his new IBM-type computer's CD-ROM to work and in front of his son -- was really right on target for real life. Unfortunately, it was more than three years too late in the making. I keep remembering the woman who said, "I can't make this thing work!" If the computer industry can't provide better help, more of these boxes will just go back to the dealer and we, as a nation, will continue to isolate a whole population of Americans. It cannot be a good sign for any of us. Editor's Note: Gary Kallback is an executive with Panasonic. He contributed this guest editorial to Newsbytes. (Gary Kallback/19951110) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 11/10/95 BROADCAST DEC Wraps Up Adlink Digital Ad Insertion Deployment (NEWS)(BROADCAST)(BOS)(00012) DEC Wraps Up Adlink Digital Ad Insertion Deployment 11/10/95 MAYNARD, MASSACHUSETTS, U.S.A., 1995 NOV 10 (NB) -- "We now have the technology, at a price that can be justified," maintained Digital Equipment Corp.'s Peter Martin, in an interview with Newsbytes about the just completed deployment of Digital's Alpha- based video server technology at Adlink. The deployment is one of the largest digital video ad insertion applications to date, and the first to use MPEG (Motion Picture Experts Group)-2 compression. The Adlink consortium, formed to interconnect the cable TV systems of Los Angeles, Palm Springs, and Bakersfield, California, for advertising purposes, is implementing Digital's Mediaservers for the digital insertion of TV commercials at 57 head ends, said Martin, who is marketing manager, video advertising, for Digital's Video and Interactive Information Service (VIIS). "Each head end has 20 different channels, for a total of 1,140 channels," the Digital exec told Newsbytes. Partners in Adlink include Cox Cable, Continental, Prime Sports Channel, and Comcast. The digitally inserted, 30-second ads are reaching a combined base of 2.3 million cable TV subscribers. In an interview with Newsbytes in January, when the deal with Adlink was struck, Martin said that digital ad insertion allows faster production turnaround time and produces longer lasting output than the analog tape decks used in the past, while also bringing the possibility of quick customization, giving advertisers the chance to tailor their TV commercials to specific geographic markets. Under the older analog ad insertion method, the "master tape" had to be manually copied multiple times, meaning that distribution of a TV commercial could take several days. In addition, analog equipment is subject to breakage, and analog tape to degradation, Martin noted at that time. "We began replacing Adlink's analog systems at the beginning of this summer. And by now, we've replaced all 57," the Digital marketing manager reported, during a recent update for Newsbytes. The new Adlink system uses the same Alpha-based hardware and essentially the same software as the technology being deployed in Digital's 20-or-so video-on-demand trials and commercial deployments worldwide, with the exception of new application software developed by Digital for ad insertion, according to the marketing manager. But the ad insertion technology can be implemented over the existing analog cable TV infrastructure, preventing the need for an extensive, immediate network overhaul, Newsbytes was told. Typically, the digital video signals are converted to NTSC analog video at the head ends, once the digital ad insertion is done, for "near video-on-demand." For that reason, ad insertion is much less costly than large- scale "true video-on-demand" applications, Martin contended. "And as a result, there is a strong opportunity among operators today to convert from the analog tape base." In the Adlink installation, MPEG-2 conversion is performed at a central area, called "headquarters," that is also used for traffic and billing. T-1 lines link the headquarters to the head ends. Since Digital first embarked on the Adlink implementation, other vendors have started to employ MPEG-2, as well, Martin said. "We've had senior engineers on the MPEG-2 standards committee for the past couple of years now, and we believe that MPEG-2 is going to embrace the entire industry." MPEG-2, he asserted, provides "high resolution that improves the quality of video." Viewing the video at high resolution requires end-to-end digital transmission. But Martin predicted that, on an incremental basis, cable TV operators will now begin to use more of the fiber optic cabling needed for fully digital video communications. Over the near term, some cable TV operators will use fiber to fill in areas currently not being reached by cable, said the Digital exec. And over the longer term, he suggested, high resolution delivery will take on more value and meaning as the operators begin to use digital insertion technology for five-minute TV "infomercials," and possibly even for 30-minute local news shows. (Jacqueline Emigh/19951109/Reader Contact: Digital Equipment Corp., 508-493-5111; Press Contacts: The Weber Group for Digital, 617-661-7900) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 11/10/95 BUSINESS Intel/Microsoft/Samsung Launch Moscow Marketing Program (NEWS)(BUSINESS)(LON)(00013) Intel/Microsoft/Samsung Launch Moscow Marketing Program 11/10/95 MOSCOW, RUSSIA, 1995 NOV 10 (NB) -- Intel, Microsoft, and Samsung offices in Moscow have announced the beginning of a joint marketing program aimed at the promotion of Pentium computers with the Windows 95 operating system. The program will fulfill the requirements of a peculiar category of Russian engineers comprising small scale "screwdriver" computer assemblers and "do-it-yourself" aficionados. It appears that building your own system is quite popular in Russia. "There are about 10,000 companies in Russia producing more than one computer per year," said Mr. Nikolai Lyubovny, marketing manager of Microsoft's Moscow subsidiary. Upon purchase of a Pentium motherboard from an Intel distributor, a customer will have a small discount (approximately $10) off the purchase of monitors and hard disks from Samsung retail outlets, plus the option to buy Windows 95 from Microsoft business partners at a lower than usual price. (Vladimir Vetrov/19951109/Press & Reader Contact: Nikolai Lyubovny, Microsoft, tel +7-095-2443474, fax +7-095-2449563) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 11/10/95 APPLE Power Clones A Hit At Australian Macworld (NEWS)(APPLE)(SYD)(00014) Power Clones A Hit At Australian Macworld 11/10/95 SYDNEY, AUSTRALIA 1995 NOV 10 (NB) -- IDG's Australian Macworld Expo appeared to be off to a good start yesterday, with impressive crowds and a good range of new products getting their first Australian airing. Apple Computer had its new Newton MessagePad 120 with enhanced operating system making a world debut. But a brace of Power Computing's 120 megahertz (MHz) Macintosh clones -- in full working trim -- were the stars of the show on reseller World Infotainment's stand. The importer had earlier feared it would have only a non-working model in a glass case. However, stocks are now said to have arrived and World Info was taking orders on the floor. Prices start at $4,250 after tax in 8/540 (eight megabytes of RAM and a 540MB hard drive) trim. Some models come with Zip removable-cartridge drives. Adobe launched its After Effects program for video producers and PageMill for the Internet. Claris showed FileMaker for Newton and the upcoming relational version of FileMaker. Polaroid, whispered to be in a bidding war with World Infotainment for Power Computing distribution, was running hot with the Iomega Zip Drive (on sale everywhere for AUS$350-390) and the latest version 4.0 of Fractal Design's Painter program. While Microsoft had no stand in its own right, pity was taken by Apple reseller IC Technologies, which granted the software giant a small corner of its booth. Kingston Technology, and its new distributor SIMMS, shared a stand telling everyone that the cheapest way a Mac user could get more productivity was to add a bit more RAM. One demo machine was loaded with half a gigabyte of RAM, but by the end of day two, SIMMS had been persuaded to sell the attractive little strips of chips to a couple of Mac users with very heavy applications. One or two brave vendors even had the temerity to sell PC software at the show. Around 10 stands were simply there to sell product, and seemed to be doing quite well at it. Although only a fraction of the size of typical Sydney PC shows, both exhibitors and showgoers Newsbytes spoke to were happy with the show. (Computer Daily News and Paul Zucker/19951110) (ADVISORY)(GENERAL)(MSP)(00015) NewsPix Update For Newsbytes Publishers 11/10/95 MINNEAPOLIS, MINNESOTA, U.S.A.,1995 NOV 10 (NB) -- This update will be posted each Wednesday and Friday to reflect the daily picture additions. The updates will in turn become part of the main NewsPix Bulletin issued on Monday. These photos correspond to recent Newsbytes stories. They are online in the Newsbytes menu on America Online, NiftyServe, the Newsbytes Pacifica Website at http://www.islandtel.com/newsbytes/ and the Newsbytes private bulletin board system in Minneapolis. To become a licensed Newsbytes publisher, call Newsbytes at 612-430-1100 (US) or write to wendy@newsbytes.com on the Internet. Licensing applies to any medium. --------------------------- NOVEMBER 10, 1995 --------------------------- MINIDISC951108 - color / MiniDisk As Floppy Successor?: hand holds Sharp MiniDisc, with nice blue skys background. VIEWER951102 - color / Accent Software Intros Free Multi-Language Web Browser: screenshot. SBANK951108 - color / Softbank To Announce Ziff Purchase Tomorrow: screenshot of PCWeek/Softbank homepage. DRUGSTOR951108 - color / Pharmacist On A Disk: screenshot of the over-the-counter pain killer screen. POWERDSK951106 - color / Microhelp Intros Windows 95 Desktop Utility: the PowerDesk Toolbar. (There is no gif version) JPOSTA951106 - color / Internet Users Gather In Shock At Assassination: screenshot of Jerusalem Post homepage with news of the Rabin assassination. WALES19951101 - color / Wales Tourist Board Plugs Into The Web: homepage screenshot. (Newsbytes/19951110) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 11/10/95 GENERAL Japan Newsbriefs (NEWS)(GENERAL)(TYO)(00016) Japan Newsbriefs 11/10/95 TOKYO, JAPAN, 1995 NOV 10 (NB) -- In this roundup of news from Japan: Sony switches battery production after fire; APEC summit begins next week; NEC, Samsung extend agreement; Compaq reduce prices; Tokyo FM launch Web page. Sony Switches Battery Production After Fire Sony Corporation has switched production of batteries from its Koriyama factory to its Tochigi plant. A fire last Saturday damaged upper levels of the plant which accounts for 80% of Japan's lithium ion battery production. A Sony spokesman said the production area was not damaged although the charging area was badly hit and the plant would be closed until the damage is repaired. The Tochigi factory will begin producing 2 million batteries a month from the end of November. This is a million less than the fire damaged Koriyama plant. A spokesman for Dell Computer in the United States said it relied heavily on Sony for batteries and was unsure how the fire would hit its production of computers. APEC Summit Begins Next Week The Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) forum holds a large summit meeting in Osaka next week. Deregulation within the region will be high on the agenda, as will access to Japanese markets in a meeting between US trade representative Mickey Kantor and Japanese trade minister Ryutaro Hashimoto. The US will continue to lobby for the personal handyphone system company affiliated to NTT to come under the terms of a trade agreement that began in the 1980s. NEC, Samsung Extend Agreement NEC Corporation and Korea's Samsung have extended a cooperation agreement to allow the Korean company to manufacture NEC's 16-bit microcomputer products, the 78KIII Series and the 78KIV Series. The two companies began their relationship in February, 1994, when NEC and Samsung began exchanging knowledge and technical assistance on 16 megabit DRAM technology. Compaq Reduces Prices Compaq Computer KK, the Japanese unit of America's Compaq Computer will reduce prices of its Contura 400 notebook computers by up to 18%. The company is to begin a new sales campaign focusing on the use of computers for accessing multimedia services and the Internet. As part of the campaign, the company will bundle Internet access software and kits with each unit sold. Tokyo FM Launch Web Page Tokyo FM has launched a home page on the Internet. The pages give visitors access to information about the station, which broadcasts to Tokyo on 80.0 FM, and its programming. Pages also introduce the "Mieru Radio" or visual radio, which displays text broadcast by the station, and the JFN Radio Network which covers Japan. Internet users can find the pages on the World Wide Web at http://www.tfm.co.jp/ . (Martyn Williams/19951110) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 11/10/95 ONLINE Internet Update (NEWS)(ONLINE)(TYO)(00017) Internet Update 11/10/95 TOKYO, JAPAN, 1995 NOV 10 (NB) -- In this roundup of new resources and services on the global Internet: The Internet starting point; Daily radio broadcasts for the Internet; Elle Magazine; Attorney yellow pages; University of Michigan International Center; Performance tour search; The Alzheimer's page; The UK Meteorological Office; Hispanic online magazine. The Internet Starting Point New Web users will find this the perfect place to go to begin learning about the world of information and services available. A searchable database of this Web catalog is available plus indexes of all sorts of sites and a featured site of the day will guide new users to places they might otherwise never find. World Wide Web: http://www.stpt.com/ Daily Radio Broadcasts For The Internet The c/net computer network has announced it will launch an original audio "WebCast" to be produced exclusively for the World Wide Web covering news and information about computers, the Internet, and online services. The programs will be available from Monday in the RealAudio format. World Wide Web: http://www.cnet.com/ Elle Magazine Could this become the most fashionable link on the net? Hachette Filipacchi's US offices have brought Elle to the Internet, making it the first fashion magazine on the network, according to Elle. The latest fashion, trends, and faces from the world's runways and capitals are all featured in this online magazine. World Wide Web: http://www.ellemag.com/ Attorney Yellow Pages When you need to find a lawyer of attorney this is the place to go. The Web site offers a search facility allowing location of lawyers by geographical area or field of specialty plus a guide to finding lawyers and legal tips on a number of subjects. In the best Internet tradition, a page of links takes visitors to other related resources. World Wide Web: http://www.newquest.com/attorney/ University of Michigan International Center This is a useful place to go for information on studying abroad, both for US students wishing to travel overseas and foreign students wanting to study in the US. Questions about visas, working, study, and how to get places on the University of Michigan's programs are all here plus links to other related resources. World Wide Web: http://www.umich.edu/~icenter Performance Tour Search If you need to find out who is coming to your town, where your favorite band are playing or the schedule for your favorite venue, then this server is for you. It allows for a user search of a database containing details of concerts across the United States, direct from Performance Magazine's tour database. World Wide Web: http://www.quest.net/performance/toursearch The Alzheimer's Page The Alzheimer's Disease Research Center in St. Louis has established a home page with information about the disease, archives of the Internet Alzheimer's mailing list, details of how to subscribe to the list, plus links to other related resources. World Wide Web: http://www.biostat.wustl.edu/alzheimer The UK Meteorological Office The latest weather across the United Kingdom is now available direct from the official national weather service. The new home page also points towards research being carried out by the center and weather services available to users plus information on how the weather is predicted. World Wide Web: http://www.meto.govt.uk/ Hispanic Online Magazine The Internet edition of Hispanic Magazine is now available. Supplementing the 250,000 subscriber printed version, the Internet service allows access to a back catalog of issues, details of the current edition and a listing of the 100 top US companies offering the most opportunities to Hispanics. World Wide Web: http://www.hisp.com/ (Martyn Williams/19951110) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 11/10/95 BUSINESS Tokyo Market - Stocks End The Week Mixed (NEWS)(BUSINESS)(TYO)(00018) Tokyo Market - Stocks End The Week Mixed 11/10/95 TOKYO, JAPAN, 1995 NOV 10 (NB) -- Stocks in Tokyo ended the week mixed. The Nikkei 225 Index of leading shares closed Friday at 17843.56, a fall of 185.24 yen on the week. The first section TOPIX index closed at 1,424.35, an 11.17 yen fall over the last five days. On Friday, the yen strengthened against the dollar causing falls in high tech stocks. The companies rely on overseas sales more than many others. Big news of the week in the electronics sector was the better-than- expected earnings and predictions by Sony Corporation on Thursday. In the telecommunications field, continued uncertainty about the future of NTT influenced the market along with half year results from its competitors and KDD. Sony Corporation (TSE:6758) said its pretax profit in the first six months of the year was 47.94 billion yen ($479 million) compared with a massive loss of 279.96 billion yen ($2.80 billion) in the same period last year. Sales in the period jumped 11.4% to 2.05 trillion yen ($20.50 billion) from 1.84 trillion yen a year ago ($18.40 billion). For the entire fiscal year, which ends March 31 1996, the company said it expects to register pretax profits of 35.00 billion yen ($350 million), a 4.00 billion yen ($40 million) increase on the previous forecast but still a drop from last year's 51.40 billion yen ($514 million) profit representing a drop of 31.9%. Sony ended the week at 4,900 yen, up 160 yen on Friday after its post market announcement on Thursday. On the week the stock climbed 30 yen. Among companies reporting half year results last week, Japan Telecom (TSE:9434) announced a profit of 23.40 billion yen ($234 million), a 240% jump on the same period last year. For the entire year, the long distance telephone operator is forecasting a 136% increase in profits to 43 billion yen ($430 million). The figure is a 79% increase on the previous forecast. Sales are expected to reach 336.80 billion yen ($3.4 billion), up from 328.40 billion yen ($3.28 billion) the previous year. Japan Telecom, a unit of Japan Railways, is benefiting from cuts in access rates it pays NTT. Fellow long distance company DDI (TSE:9433) also revised earlier profits forecasts upward. The company now says it expects a profit of 53 billion yen ($530 million) for the fiscal year on revenues of 448 billion yen ($4.48 billion). The sales forecast, though, remains unchanged. The country's biggest international telephone operator, KDD (TSE:9431), said pretax profits were up 18.1% to 17.74 billion yen ($177 million). The company predicted a pretax profit of 27.0 billion yen ($270 million) for the full year on sales of 248.0 billion yen ($2.48 billion). Revenue from telegram and telex services fell, while that from data communication and voice services grew. Standard & Poors rated an NTT (TSE:9432) US$300 million Eurobond a triple A rating, the highest available. The company commented, "The rating reflects NTT's dominant position and important role in the Japanese telecommunications market, and strong cashflow and financial profile among major international peers," and added, "NTT's financial profile remains very strong." The company repeated a recent negative outlook for the company, however, due to a possible break up and increased competition. Nihon Unisys announced on Monday that profits for the first half of the fiscal year were 2.37 billion yen, a 28.9% rise. Sales in the period rose 3.2% to 112.75 billion yen ($1.13 billion). For the full year, the company expects profits to hit 5.1 billion yen ($51 million) against 4.71 billion yen ($47 million) a year earlier, on sales of 290 billion yen ($2.90 billion), up just under 10 billion yen ($100 million). Uncertainty is surrounding a statement by Nintendo Co. Ltd. (TSE:7974). The company's stocks rose at the beginning of the week after a wire report that the company had agreed to set up a system with Netscape Communications of the US that would allow users of its games machines to access online services and re-write gaming software, such as changing situations and characters. Netscape has denied any knowledge of such a deal and Nintendo is saying the report was wrong but that shares continue the upward journey. The situation is made all the more confusing because the original report apparently quoted a company spokesman. (Martyn Williams/19951110) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 11/10/95 IBM ****IBM Cuts Costs, 1,200 Out Of Work (NEWS)(IBM)(TOR)(00019) ****IBM Cuts Costs, 1,200 Out Of Work 11/10/95 NEW YORK, NEW YORK, U.S.A., 1995 NOV 10 (NB) -- IBM (NYSE:IBM) told about 1,200 employees across the United States Thursday that their jobs are gone. Several locations and several areas of IBM operations were affected. It is the latest in a series of cost-cutting moves over the past few years -- moves that have included layoffs by a company once known for never laying off staff. IBM has also reduced staff through early-retirement incentives, severance packages, and attrition. The latest cuts are part of a round of belt-tightening announced last month, when IBM said it would take a charge of about $800 million in its fiscal fourth quarter for further "restructuring." IBM currently employs in the vicinity of 220,000 people, down from more than 300,000 at the beginning of 1993. Tom Beermann, a spokesman for IBM, told Newsbytes that all the latest cuts are in the United States. He confirmed that about 200 jobs are being cut in Raleigh and Durham, North Carolina, about 100 in Rochester, Minnesota, between 100 and 200 in Austin, Texas, between 100 and 200 in San Jose, California, about 60 in Poughkeepsie, New York, and about two dozen in Somers, New York. Also, Beermann said, about 40 jobs will move from Dayton, New Jersey, most of them to Boulder, Colorado, as IBM moves distribution operations out of Dayton. Beermann said the cuts affect various areas of IBM's business, including both hardware and software. However, he said neither the company's personal computer business nor recently acquired Lotus Development Corp. were hit by the cuts. IBM expects its total payroll to be about the same at the end of this year as at the beginning, with attrition and layoffs offsetting hiring in some areas and the acquisition of Lotus, which brought about 5,000 people into IBM. (Grant Buckler/19951110/Press Contact: Tom Beermann, IBM, 914-765-4392) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 11/10/95 ONLINE MobileMedia Paging Via America Online (NEWS)(ONLINE)(MSP)(00020) MobileMedia Paging Via America Online 11/10/95 RIDGEFIELD PARK, NEW JERSEY, U.S.A., 1995 NOV 10 (NB) -- MobileMedia (NASDAQ:MLBM) and America Online (NASDAQ:AMER) (AOL) are teaming to provide paging service from the online service's network to people who carry MobileMedia alphanumeric pagers. AOL subscribers can now send text messages directly to MobileMedia pagers that can display both text and numbers. The new service operates similar to e-mail, and is available at no extra charge. "There is an increasing need for instant communication," said Ted Leonsis, president of America Online Services Company. "MobileMedia offers a simple way for AOL members to keep in touch with their business associates, families friends via online paging." Judy Tashbook, AOL spokesperson, told Newsbytes this new feature isn't just a "gee whiz" technology. "Paging is sometimes a pain because it's all telephone numbers, and sometimes you just want to leave a message," she said. "The ability to type in an message, as easily as you send e-mail, but instead of sending e-mail, you're sending it to a pager, is just an amazing advance." Future plans for the MobileMedia/AOL paging service include personalized news, stock quotes, and e-mail alerts that are sent to MobileMedia alphanumeric pagers. Tashbook said the new service is a good connection of wireless paging and online technology, in that the union will break paging out of the one-way communication realm. The MobileMedia area also lets AOL subscribers access information on various MobileMedia products and services, and current activities within the company. The forum also offers an electronic store where online customers can buy a number of paging products and services directly from MobileMedia. MobileMedia's AOL forum can be reached by typing Send Page at the Keyword prompt. (Bob Woods/19951110/Press Contacts: Ann Marie Drozd, MobileMedia, 201-462-4965; Judy Tashbook, America Online, 703-918-1452. Public Contact: America Online, 800-827-6364: Keyword: Send Page) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 11/10/95 BUSINESS Develcon Stake In HyperCore Anticipates Gradual ATM Growth (NEWS)(BUSINESS)(TOR)(00021) Develcon Stake In HyperCore Anticipates Gradual ATM Growth 11/10/95 SASKATOON, SASKATCHEWAN, CANADA, 1995 NOV 10 (NB) -- George Best is skeptical of some of the rosier predictions about asynchronous transfer mode (ATM) technology, but his company wants to be ready for the rise of ATM nonetheless. So Develcon Electronics Ltd. has bought a 40 percent stake in HyperCore, a small ATM developer nearby. Best, who is Develcon's vice-president of marketing, told Newsbytes there is "lots of noise" about ATM and not too much solid activity so far. "Until the telephone companies put it as a plug in the wall," he said, "the majority of people will not use it." However, Best expects ATM to grow into a major force toward the end of the decade, and Develcon's deal with HyperCore is meant to prepare for that. HyperCore, a three-year-old company with five employees, was set up to develop ATM switching technology for local and wide area networking markets. Best said Develcon "felt that the technology they are developing had some leadership." The fact that HyperCore and Develcon both have their headquarters in Saskatoon also helped, he said. For an initial investment of C$200,000, Develcon got a 40 percent stake in HyperCore, with an option on the remaining 60 percent. Develcon also got an exclusive worldwide marketing and technology licensing agreement for the smaller firm's ATM technology -- an implementation of ATM switching on a single chip, with speed scalable from 2.5 gigabits per second to 160 gigabits per second. Develcon's initial investment is payable in a combination of cash and common shares. Both companies' boards of directors must still approve the deal, which is expected to close by the end of November, officials said. Regulatory approvals are also pending. Develcon is on the World Wide Web at http://www.develcon.com . (Grant Buckler/19951110/Press Contact: George Best, Develcon, tel 306-933- 3300, fax 306-931-1377, Internet e-mail george.best@develcon.com) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 11/10/95 BUSINESS Intuit Acquires Galt Technologies (NEWS)(BUSINESS)(LAX)(00022) Intuit Acquires Galt Technologies 11/10/95 MENLO PARK, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1995 NOV 10 (NB) -- Intuit Inc. has announced it has reached an agreement to acquire Galt Technologies, a provider of mutual fund information on the Internet. The move continues Intuit's goal to provide "comprehensive investment information" to Intuit customers via links to Intuit's Internet World Wide Web site, the Quicken Financial Network (QFN). Intuit's acquisition of Galt will be structured as a pooling transaction for accounting purposes, and is anticipated to be closed by September, 1996. Over the next year, Intuit will offer Galt products, but Galt will remain independent until closing, in fall of 1996. Sheryl Ross, a spokesperson for Intuit told Newsbytes, "Upon the closing of the transaction, Intuit will issue to Galt's shareholders, shares of its common stock in an amount to be determined by a formula based on Galt's performance over the next year. Galt's revenues for the current fiscal year are projected to be less than $3 million, and the expected transaction value should be around $9 million." The acquisition is part of a continuing effort of Intuit to offer complete financial services through one source. Speaking to Newsbytes, David Crimm, director of Automated Financial Services for Intuit, said, "Intuit aims to provide a complete set of products in all aspects of an individuals investment cycle. Our mission and goal is to offer products in all three stages of personal finance: planning, transactions, and record keeping. Mutual funds are a key ingredient to a complete program, and Galt is the premiere Internet mutual fund information provider." Intuit provides an integrated version of the Netscape Navigator and free access to QFN to users of the newest version of Quicken for Windows. Within weeks, it plans to include access to Galt's Mutual Fund Market Manager program, which contains detailed information and prospectuses from 65 mutual fund companies. QFN can be found on the Internet at http://www.intuit.com/quicken . Galt's Internet site, NETworth, can be found at http://networth.galt.com . The site provides investors with: current mutual fund information, including prospectuses, performance figures, and other information from more than 65 mutual fund companies; 15-minute delayed stock and mutual fund quotes via a dedicated S&P data connection; and access to the Morningstar database on more than 6,500 mutual funds. Said Robert Frasca, Galt's president and chief executive officer, "This merger is great for the mutual fund companies who make information on their funds available through Galt's services, because it gives them access to Intuit's huge customer base." Intuit pioneered computerized personal finance management with the introduction of Quicken in 1984. Intuit's online financial services launched bill pay in 1990, IntelliCharge credit card services in 1993, and Quicken Quotes, an online stock quote service, in 1994. In recent months, Intuit has announced partnerships with 22 of the nation's leading financial institutions to allow customers to do banking and bill payment online. Intuit also announced that new versions of Quicken will include Investor Insight, an online service that will provide personally-tailored information on stocks and mutual funds. (Richard Bowers/19951110/Press Contact: Sheryl Ross, Intuit, 415-329-3569) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 11/10/95 TELECOM Comcast Cellular Fights Fraud With PIN Numbers (NEWS)(TELECOM)(MSP)(00023) Comcast Cellular Fights Fraud With PIN Numbers 11/10/95 WAYNE, PENNSYLVANIA, U.S.A., 1995 NOV 10 (NB) -- Comcast Corp.'s (NASDAQ:CMCSA, CMCSK) cellular subsidiary said it is tackling the issue of cellular fraud head-on, by instituting a personal identification number (PIN) system for phone calls, along with hiring two experts on crime. Comcast said it is now estimated that cellular fraud costs carriers more than $1 billion dollars annually, and 60,000 cases are reported each month. With that in mind, the company has hired cellular fraud expert Dennis H. Walters, and former white collar crime prosecutor Patricia C. Meyers. "Cellular fraud is a problem that every carrier faces, and as an industry we're beginning to fight back with tougher and more severe penalties that will eventually put these criminals where they belong -- behind bars," said Donald A. Harris, president of Comcast Cellular. Walters has been active in law enforcement since 1963, and was a founding member of the Cellular Telephone Industry Association's Cellular Fraud Task Force. He's also trained more than 2,000 employees of cellular phone companies and cellular agents about fraud prevention. Meyers prosecuted white collar crime as head of the New York County District Attorney's Frauds Bureau. She also developed a telecommunications fraud and computer crime unit. She's also worked with numerous cellular carriers in the New York City area in the investigation and prosecution of cellular cloning operations. Meyers also put people behind bars who were running cloning scams. "By bringing on board experts like Dennis and Patricia, and instituting these preventive methods, we feel confident that we'll take a bite out of this continually troubling situation, in a meaningful and proactive way," Harris said. A key preventive method is the PIN number, which is effective immediately, Harris said. Subscribers can call Comcast Cellular's Fraud Hot-Line to choose a confidential, four-digit number. The number then works like any other PIN number, like at ATMs (automatic teller machines). Callers insert the PIN number immediately after they dial the number they're calling, but before they press "Send." Harris said with using the PIN number, cloners won't be able to use any numbers they "grab" out of the air in the Comcast Cellular service area. Other cellular phone carriers have been taking action against fraud and cloning operations. Last January, Newsbytes reported on Bell Atlantic and NYNEX's efforts to stem the cellular crime wave by blocking automated roaming and instituting a PIN number system in New York City and surrounding areas. Also, Cellular One has instituted a PIN number plan in the areas it serves, including New York City, San Francisco, Sacramento, Las Vegas, and Jacksonville, Florida. (Bob Woods/19951110/Press Contact: David Guerin, Guerin & Kapnek Communications, 215-784-9060) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 11/10/95 LEGAL ****Packard Bell Fires Another Shot In Compaq War (NEWS)(LEGAL)(DEN)(00024) ****Packard Bell Fires Another Shot In Compaq War 11/10/95 SACRAMENTO, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1995 NOV 10 (NB) -- Packard Bell Electronics Inc. (NASDAQ: PBEL) has filed another shot in its war with Compaq Computer Corp. (NYSE: CPQ), charging that Compaq falsely labels some of its notebook computer shipping cartons to indicate the product was made in America when it was really produced overseas. The allegations amend an October suit filed by Packard Bell and seeks damages for false advertising and violation of the Lanham Act that prohibits misrepresentation of the origin of goods. Packard Bell said its new charges are based on an eight-page sworn affidavit provided by a former Compaq employee. Compaq senior public relations manager Yvonne Donaldson confirmed that the individual used to work for Compaq expediting import and export shipments through US Customs. Packard Bell claims that Compaq repackages PCs made in Singapore in boxes that indicate the computers as American products. The affidavit claims that, when Compaq notebook computers are returned to Compaq and then re-sold, they are re-packaged in different cartons that are marked "CPU Product of USA." The former employee, who was not identified by Packard Bell, claims he repeatedly told Compaq officials he objected to what he called "deceptive practices" and that false labeling violated US Customs law. He claims his objections were ignored and goes on to say that his superior told him "not to put anything damaging to Compaq in writing." The October suit filed by Packard Bell claims Compaq falsely described Packard Bell's return policies and misled customers in comparing the products and policies of the two companies. Packard Bell said it is also asking the court to issue an injunction requiring Compaq to correctly label its products to show the actual country of origin. "These are litigation tactics. They are trying to divert attention away from the real issue, which is that Packard Bell doesn't mark their PCs to indicate they are refurbished and they use used parts," Compaq spokesperson Yvonne Donaldson told Newsbytes. "Our products are clearly marked 'Made in Singapore,'" said Donaldson. The majority of Compaq portables are built in Singapore. Donaldson said returned products are processed through the company's Houston, Texas facility. "If there is a glitch in our automatic bar code labeling operation it will be corrected, We don't know yet if there is a glitch," the spokesperson told Newsbytes. This week's suit is just another round in a long-running battle between the two companies that started when Compaq charged that Packard Bell sells computers as new, when in fact, they contain used parts. Compaq acknowledges that it also re-sells PCs that are returned. The company said that includes unsold dealer inventory, allegedly defective products, and what it called "convenience returns" from consumers. Compaq said a computer is considered new if it is returned in an unopened, original box. The company said if the box has been opened the unit is tested to determine if it has been used. If the PC has been used, said Compaq, it may be sold as "refurbished." If there is no evidence of use, it might be sold as new, possibly with upgraded features, said the company. In December, 1994, Newsbytes reported Compaq had filed a patent infringement suit against Packard Bell that alleged willful infringement of three Compaq patents on desktop and laptop computer power functions and video displays. Compaq captured the 1994 worldwide PC crown for total units shipped, with Packard Bell finishing number 4. Compaq appears to be on its way to repeating its win in 1995. In May of this year, Compaq sued Packard Bell for $585 million for damages it said it suffered due to patent infringement by Packard Bell. The case involves six Compaq patents for power conservation, video display and processor speed, two high speed switching technologies, and a programmable interrupt controller for desktops and portables. The case is set for trial in June 1996. (Jim Mallory/19951110/Press contact: Compaq, Yvonne Donaldson, Compaq, 713-514-4463 or Liz O'Donnell, The Bohle Co. for Packard Bell, 310-785-0515) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 11/10/95 TRENDS ****Home Online Market On Verge Of Explosion _ Study (NEWS)(TRENDS)(MSP)(00025) ****Home Online Market On Verge Of Explosion _ Study 11/10/95 COLUMBUS, OHIO, U.S.A., 1995 NOV 10 (NB) -- Many more people use online services from work as compared to home, a new study conducted by Odyssey for Compuserve showed. That gap should narrow in the next few years as more people start dialing into online networks from home. The Odyssey/Compuserve study, called "Project WOW!" took a look at the next wave of at-home online consumers. Project WOW! is a code name for an all-new online service Compuserve is putting together to be targeted at the user who is new to the online world. According to the study, 11 percent of Americans use online services primarily from the home, while 27 percent go online from work, school, or home. Most see strong consumer benefits, including "really useful" at 59 percent, "making life easier" at 47 percent, and for adult and child educational uses at 58 percent and 56 percent, respectively. The study also showed the vast majority of Americans, at 76 percent, view online services as the "wave of the future." Among consumers not yet online, nearly 50 percent of computer owners and 67 percent of non- computer owners see themselves as being online by the end of 1997. A majority of those people said they'll be in cyberspace by the end of 1996. "There's a lot of validation that these services are starting to reach out to the consumer," Matt Wolfrom, Compuserve spokesperson, told Newsbytes. "The consumers are seeing online services as a mainstream industry as opposed to a niche industry." Wolfrom said that the total online population representing 27 percent of the total American populous was surprising to him because other studies have shown that number to be much lower. However, 25 percent of Americans have never even heard of online services. Legislators may want to take note of the number of people who think going online will make it easy to access pornography. Forty-six percent said they worry pornography will be introduced into the home environment because of online access. In addition, a "relatively small" 24 percent expressed concern about online being unsafe for kids, the study said, and 70 percent see online services as needing parental monitoring. The study concluded that, to reach the millions who will go online in the next few years, service providers must "embrace sophisticated, targeted marketing approaches and recognize that certain offerings and attributes of today's providers will be significantly less important and less relevant to tomorrow's users." (Bob Woods/19951110/Press Contacts: Matt Wolfrom, 212-872-8190, or Aimee Munsell, 212-872-8051, both of Porter/Novelli for Compuserve) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 11/10/95 BROADCAST MPEG-2 For DirecTV (NEWS)(BROADCAST)(LAX)(00026) MPEG-2 For DirecTV 11/10/95 SAN JOSE, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1995 NOV 10 (NB) -- Compression Labs Inc. (CLI)(NASDAQ: CLIX) announced that it has completed the conversion to MPEG-2 (Motion Picture Experts Group type 2) digital encoding systems in the direct broadcast satellite (DBS) services of DirectTV. The deployment is claimed to be the largest installation of MPEG-2 encoding equipment in the world. CLI is the sole supplier of video, audio, and data digital encoding systems used in the DBS services of DirectTV. DirectTV, which just announced its one-millionth customer, claims to be the largest DBS system in the world. Gary Trimm, president of CLI's Broadcast Products Group, explained to Newsbytes the impact of the deployment, saying: "MPEG-2 is the current standard for digital transmission of video and data. We have been operating for the last two years with MPEG-1 standards. All of the decoders in the DirecTV system can handle both MPEG standards, but the encoders can only take MPEG-1. This announcement refers to bringing the encoders up to MPEG-2. "The main differences for the consumer between the two standards is the improved picture quality with MPEG-2, and the potential to offer more channels over a DBS system." said Trimm. The converted Magnitude MPEG-2 encoding systems have been operating at the DirecTV Castle Rock Broadcast Center in Colorado and the United States Satellite Broadcasting (USSB) Oak Dale Broadcast Center in Minnesota for more than two months. "Conversion of the USSB National Broadcast Center from MPEG-1 to MPEG-2 encoding, combined with the addition of statistical multiplexing, gives us the ability to offer more channels to DSB owners nationwide," said Robert W. Hubbard, executive vice president, USSB. CLI's MPEG-2 implementation incorporates all the latest specifications and standards improvements as well as certain value-added enhancements, including statistical multiplexing. According to Trimm, this feature adjusts the data rate to achieve optimum utilization of bandwidth and optimum video quality. Bill Butterworth, executive vice president of DirecTV, said, "The new CLI MPEG-2 encoders provide excellent video and audio quality and very reliable operation, which enables DirecTV to offer an even better viewing experience for our one million customers." (Richard Bowers/19951110/Press Contact: Joyce Strand, Compression Labs, 408-922-4610) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 11/10/95 BROADCAST ****Gates' Comdex Keynote To Be Televised (NEWS)(BROADCAST)(DEN)(00027) ****Gates' Comdex Keynote To Be Televised 11/10/95 LAS VEGAS, NEVADA, U.S.A., 1995 NOV 10 (NB) -- PC-TV Inc. announced this week it will air a same-day broadcast of Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates' Comdex keynote address when Gates presents his vision for the future of desktop computing. The broadcast will be a Business Computing special on the Jones Computer Network (JCN) and the ME/U network nationwide. JCN has an agreement with Microsoft TV that gives JCN sole same-day broadcast rights for the Gates speech. Microsoft TV crews will be taping at Comdex with Stewart Cheifet, who will host the PC-TV broadcast. PC-TV produces Computer Chronicles, now in its 13th season. Cheifet hosts the series. Comdex 95, this year's edition of the computer industry's annual fall trade show, opens its doors Monday, November 13th at the Las Vegas Convention Center, the Sands Expo and Convention Center, and the Sands Hotel and Casino. In addition to Gates' talk on Tuesday, IBM's Louis Gerstner and Novell's Robert Frankenberg will also present keynote addresses. Gerstner will speak on Monday, November 13, and Frankenberg's talk is set for Wednesday, November 15. All keynote addresses are scheduled to start at 9am at the Aladdin Theatre for the Performing Arts. While the show isn't open to the general public except by invitation, anyone with an Internet connection can keep up with Comdex happening. Just log onto the World Wide Web site at http://www.comdex.com.8000 . Microsoft TV produces training programs for Microsoft Windows 95 and Office 95, the DevCast series, the Microsoft Office Solutions series, and the Microsoft Distributed Computing series. Microsoft TV content is distributed via satellite, cable television, videoconferencing, and videotape. It is also a co-producer of Business Computing with PC-TV. The Spring Comdex show in Atlanta and the fall show in Las Vegas are often the platforms for the launch of new products, but few major announcements are expected at the Las Vegas show this year. Newsbytes will have a team of reporters and editors in Las Vegas to to provide daily coverage direct from the various exhibition venues. To view the Gates' speech check your local cable listings or call your cable company. (Jim Mallory/19951110/Press contact: Terri Childs, PC-TV, 520-529-0890) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 00 11/10/95 TRENDS ****Diamond Delivers 8X CD-ROM Drive Under $ (NEWS)(TRENDS)(SFO)(00028) ****Diamond Delivers 8X CD-ROM Drive Under $400 11/10/95 SAN JOSE, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1995 NOV 10 (NB) -- In the blink of an eye, six-speed CD-ROM drives are yesterday's news. Diamond Multimedia (NASDAQ:DIMD) says its 8X Multimedia Upgrade Kit 800 is available now, with an estimated street price of $399. This past summer, Newsbytes ran a story quoting an industry insider who said 6x CD-ROM drives were tweaked 4x drives and would be as strong in the market as 3x drives. This past September, 8x drives started to appear in limited retail channels with prices over $500. One of those was the Diamond's Ultra Kit 8000 with a wavetable sound card for $599. Diamond's newest 8X kit includes an eight-speed CD-ROM drive, an interface card, Compton's Interactive Encyclopedia 1996 Edition, and cables that work with any sound card. The enhanced IDE (Integrated Drive Electronics) drive provides a 1,200 kilobyte (KB) per second transfer rate, an access time of 230 milliseconds (ms), and a buffer size of 256KB. The new drive is PhotoCD- and Multisession XA-compatible. Installation software and a user guide are also included. Speaking to Newsbytes, Paul Nahi, Diamond's director of product marketing, said, "We never did anything with the 6x drives because we felt the 8x was more important. Just like the 2x was a significant increase over single speeds, and the 4x was an equally important step, we realize the 8x would be the next major technological advancement in CD-ROM drives -- 6-x drives will last as long as the 3x did." Diamond characteristically holds product announcements until they have placed units in the retail channel. According to Diamond, demand for its 8x drives has been great. Nahi said exact numbers shipped are confidential, but "tens of thousands of units are involved," he said. Newsbytes learned from another source that the CD-ROM drive industry is looking further ahead with a 10-speed, and even a 12-speed, drive planned in the next 18 months. Nahi said he expects the 4x market to remain strong for another 18 months, while inventories begin to decrease and the price of 8x drives become more affordable. Users can expect to see 8x drives bundled in personal computer systems in the second half of 1996. (Patrick McKenna/19951110/Press Contact: Sarah Faiola, Faiola Davis Public Relations, 213-933-4959; Joan Huang, Diamond, 408-325-7236) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 11/10/95 IBM Business "Getting Serious" About Web, Says IBM Exec (NEWS)(IBM)(BOS)(00029) Business "Getting Serious" About Web, Says IBM Exec 11/10/95 BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS, U.S.A., 1995 NOV 10 (NB) -- The presence of so many "people in business suits" at last week's Internetworld Boston '95 signifies the serious role the World Wide Web is starting to take on within corporations and other enterprises, said Drew Clark, IBM's manager of Internet/Web Software Solutions, during a briefing for Newsbytes on IBM's Internet gateway strategy. Clark also pointed to the fact that, during the IBM/Lotus press conference at the Internet show in Boston, John R. Patrick, IBM's VP of Internet applications, kept reiterating, "It's our business to put your business on the Web." The current beta program for IBM's DB2 and CICS Internet gateways is underscoring the concept of the Web as a "business product," he added. Specifically, he elaborated, the Web is beginning to become "the ultimate middleware." "IS (information systems) have been frustrated when the boss has said that it's time to move to a client-server environment. The potential of client-server has never been disputed. It's just that the middleware has been so complicated," Clark told Newsbytes. At first, "client-server" applications were limited to the model of one machine as "server," with multiple smaller machines as "clients," he continued. More recently, business managers have been envisioning more innovative applications involving groupware and three-tiered architectures, for instance. But IS departments have often faced "major headaches" in turning the newer concepts into reality. Although vendors have been moving to "open systems," the term "still means different things to different people," resulting in interoperability issues, particularly with regard to database access, according to the IBM exec. But through "the brilliance of the Web," vendors have agreed to support a small set of standards that includes TCP/IP (Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol), GIF, HTML (hypertext markup language), and HTTP. "And with those in place, we can really go to town," he contended. IBM's upcoming Internet gateways to DB2 and CICS, announced in June, make use of the Web for "complex data integration for getting database and transaction and message queuing from the network," according to Clark. "The gateways connect the user back to the data, which is the whole point." An upcoming server package from Lotus and IBM, also unveiled at Internetworld, and slated for release next year, will add Lotus Notes and InterNotes capabilities and IBM's secure Internet server software to the Internet database gateways. The package, which is code-named "Spike," will also provide "enhanced DB2 coupling to Notes for information sharing," Clark maintained. "The Web doesn't share as much as it gathers. Information sharing is really where Notes shines," he reported. In announcing the Internet gateways in June, he noted, IBM also launched a beta program that calls for customers to download the gateways directly from IBM's home page on the Web (http://www.ibm.com ) for evaluation. "We've been getting more beta users every day. And in the past month, things have picked up tremendously, as more people realize that there is this incredible untapped ability to get the data out there to the people who need it," Clark asserted. One beta user, an engineering company, is using IBM's DB2 Internet gateway to order supplies from an engineering parts supplier over the Web, "literally by dragging and dropping." Schools are making database information about their academic programs and other services available to the general public over the Web. Other emerging applications include using the Web to obtain information from travel agencies and confirm travel reservations, and employing the databases of airline companies to "qualify and debit your own frequent flyer accounts" while online. The Web is also providing methods of "leveraging all those servers out there" in ways that give greater control to users, according to Clark. Users can already write "simple forms applications in HTML," including personal home pages, and post them to Web servers, the IBM exec observed. In the not too distant future, he predicted, users will be able to access a wide variety of "custom applets," written by developers, that will be "running across the Web." (Jacqueline Emigh/19951109/Reader Contacts: IBM, 914-765-1900; Parna Sarkar-Basu, Brodeur & Partners for IBM, 617-622-2800) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 11/10/95 GENERAL Newsbytes Week In Review (NEWS)(GENERAL)(MSP)(00030) Newsbytes Week In Review 11/10/95 MINNEAPOLIS, MINNESOTA, U.S.A., 1995 NOV 10 (NB) -- This is a look at the top stories this week, listing with their category code: Internet Users Gather In Shock At Assassination; Internet Update - Israeli News Sources Special; SoftKey Play For Learning Company Turning Ugly; Apple Computers With Pentium Processors; Compuserve's Web Kit For Kids, Spryte Plans; Compaq To Acquire Networth Networking Firm; More Chip Factories Essential, Says TI Exec; Sun Speeds To 200 MHz With New Processor; Spyglass Licenses Java Technology For Mosaic; Compuserve Settles Downloading Music Case; FTC Inquiry Of Maxis; AOL Passes 4 Million Members, Posts Qtr Loss; MCI To Sell Music CD's By Phone, Internet; Israeli Univ Expels Student Over Internet Message; Ziff Davis Publishing Sold To Softbank For $2.1Bil; Windows NT To Replace Unix - Survey; Windows 95 Is A Hacker's Dream Over The Internet; Thinking Machines Leaving Bankruptcy; GE Seeks Buyer For Genie Online Service?; IBM Cuts Costs, 1,200 Out Of Work; Diamond Delivers 8X CD-ROM Drive Under $400. Internet Users Gather In Shock At Assassination (ONLINE) TOKYO, JAPAN, 1995 NOV 6 (NB) -- At 2316 local Israeli time on Saturday a Reuter flash informed the world, "RABIN DEAD - SENIOR AIDE." The death of Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin, felled by an assassin's bullet on Saturday night, started a period of mourning that extended from the Middle Eastern country to the rest of the world and into cyberspace. Internet Update - Israeli News Sources Special (ONLINE) TOKYO, JAPAN, 1995 NOV 6 (NB) -- In this special update, a listing of Internet resources and services offering the latest news from Israel following the assassination of Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin late on Saturday night. SoftKey Play For Learning Company Turning Ugly (BUSINESS) CAMBRIDGE, MASSACHUSETTS, U.S.A., 1995 NOV 6 (NB) -- SoftKey International Inc. (NASDAQ:SKEY) has begun an attempt to oust directors of The Learning Co. (NASDAQ:LRNG), the Fremont, California, educational software firm it is seeking to acquire in a hostile takeover. Apple Computers With Pentium Processors (APPLE) CUPERTINO, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1995 NOV 6 (NB) -- At COMDEX, Apple Computer (NASDAQ:AAPL) plans to demonstrate the cross-platform value of its Macintosh computers with PCI (Peripheral Connect Interface) boards powered by Pentium and Cyrix 586 processors. The prototype cards, called PC Compatibility Cards, allow Macs to run traditional Macintosh and Windows and DOS-based computer applications. Compuserve's Web Kit For Kids, Spryte Plans (ONLINE) BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS, U.S.A., 1995 NOV 6 -- Compuserve's upcoming Internet service for consumers, code-named Spryte, will provide services for Web novices that will compete against those of America Online (AOL)'s flagship brand, maintained Rob Mayner, VP of product development, during a meeting with Newsbytes at Internetworld Boston that centered on Compuserve's new Internet in a Box for Kids. Compaq To Acquire Networth Networking Firm (BUSINESS) HOUSTON, TEXAS, U.S.A., 1995 NOV 7 (NB) -- Compaq Computer Corp. (NYSE: CPQ) has taken another step towards dominating the networking systems market by announcing that the company will acquire Networth Inc. (NASDAQ: NWTH) for about $372 million. Networth develops and manufactures Ethernet and Fast Ethernet hubs, switching hubs, and network management products. More Chip Factories Essential, Says TI Exec (TRENDS) DALLAS, TEXAS, U.S.A., 1995 NOV 7 (NB) -- Demand is so strong for semiconductors that the industry will have to start construction on one chip factor per week for the next five years in order to fill orders, according to the chief economist of Texas Instruments Inc. (NYSE: TXN). Sun Speeds To 200 MHz With New Processor (CHIPS) SUNNYVALE, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A, 1995 NOV 7 (NB) -- SPARC Technology Business, a division of Sun Microsystems (NYSE:SUNW), has announced sampling of its 200 megahertz (MHz), 64-bit UltraSPARC-1 micorporcessor, and three new motherboards based on the 143MHz and 167MHz versions. The new 200 MHz processor incorporates on-chip support for MPEG-2 (Motion Picture Experts Group 2) decode. Spyglass Licenses Java Technology For Mosaic (ONLINE) NAPERVILLE, ILLINOIS, U.S.A., 1995 NOV 8 (NB) -- The company that licenses its technology to other firms is now on the flip side of the coin, as Spyglass Inc. (NASDAQ:SPYG) announced it is licensing Java technology from Sun Microsystems Inc. (NASDAQ:SUNW). Spyglass will integrate Java with future versions of its Mosaic Internet World Wide Web browser, one of which will be out early next year, Spyglass officials told Newsbytes. Compuserve Settles Downloading Music Case (LEGAL) NEW YORK, NEW YORK, U.S.A., 1995 NOV 8 (NB) -- The National Music Publishers' Association (NMPA) has announced an agreement with Compuserve in a landmark class-action suit over music copyright infringement. Submitted for approval to the court and class members, the agreement establishes licensing parameters for uploading and downloading copyrighted music. FTC Inquiry Of Maxis (LEGAL) WALNUT CREEK, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1995 NOV 8 (NB) -- Maxis Inc. (NASDAQ: MXIS), developer of SimCity and SimCity 2000, says that it has received an informal inquiry from the Federal Trade Commission (FTC). The inquiry centers on Maxis' previously-announced decision not to sell products to competitors NewMedia Express and Electronic Arts Distribution. AOL Passes 4 Million Members, Posts Qtr Loss (ONLINE) VIENNA, VIRGINIA, U.S.A., 1995 NOV 8 (NB) -- America Online says it has passed the four million member mark and cites an Odyssey "market study" which says AOL is now as large as Compuserve and Prodigy combined. At the same time, AOL released its first quarter results with a 250% increase in revenues and a net loss of $10,262,000. MCI To Sell Music CD's By Phone, Internet (TRENDS) NEW YORK CITY, NEW YORK, U.S.A., 1995 NOV 9 (NB) -- MCI Corp. (NASDAQ:MCIC) is expanding its electronic influence into the world of music retailing. The telecommunications giant said it has opened a service, called "1-800-MUSICNOW," which will feature audio clips, live operator help, and over-the-phone ordering of CD's and cassettes. Israeli Univ Expels Student Over Internet Message (ONLINE) TEL AVIV, ISRAEL, 1995 NOV 9 (NB) -- An Israeli University has expelled a student after he sent a message publicly supporting the recent assassination of Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin. The student studied at Bar Ilan University, the same university that confessed killer Yigal Amir, and Rabin's injured bodyguard studied. Ziff Davis Publishing Sold To Softbank For $2.1Bil (BUSINESS) TOKYO, JAPAN, 1995 NOV 9 (NB) -- Japan's Softbank Corporation (TSE:9984), and its President Mayoshi Son, has walked away with Ziff Davis Publishing for $2.1 billion. In a press conference today, Son outlined plans for the company, which include a massive expansion in titles and forecasts of much greater circulation in the next ten years. Windows NT To Replace Unix - Survey (WINDOWS) PALO ALTO, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1995 NOV 9 (NB) -- Hewlett-Packard (NYSE:HWP) conducted a survey of 200 senior technology managers at Fortune 1000 companies and their top concern was in-house expertise to integrate and support 32-bit operating systems. Windows 95 Is A Hacker's Dream Over The Internet (WINDOWS) CENTRAL, HONG KONG, 1995 NOV 9 (NB) -- Windows 95, combined with the Internet, could be a dream made in hacker heaven. From seasoned propeller heads Newsbytes has contacted, it looks like Windows 95 could be more of a security nightmare than was first thought. Thinking Machines Leaving Bankruptcy (BUSINESS) BEDFORD, MASSACHUSETTS, U.S.A., 1995 NOV 9 (NB) -- Thinking Machines will leave bankruptcy over the next 60 to 90 days through a newly filed $10 million recapitalization plan, and is now in the process of porting its parallel processing systems software and Darwin decision support (DSS) applications to Sun Microsystems' new UltraSparc-based systems, said Thinking Machines CEO (Chief Executive Officer) Robert Doretti, in an interview with Newsbytes. GE Seeks Buyer For Genie Online Service? (ONLINE) ROCKVILLE, MARYLAND, U.S.A., 1995 NOV 9 (NB) -- Rumors are circulating that General Electric (GE) is looking for a buyer for its long-running Genie online service. According to Doug Wolford, a spokesman for GE, the rumors appear to be have been started by a journalist writing in the Washington Post late last week, surmising that the logical step for GE is to sell its online service. IBM Cuts Costs, 1,200 Out Of Work (IBM) NEW YORK, NEW YORK, U.S.A., 1995 NOV 10 (NB) -- IBM (NYSE:IBM) told about 1,200 employees across the United States Thursday that their jobs are gone. Several locations and several areas of IBM operations were affected. Diamond Delivers 8X CD-ROM Drive Under $400 (TRENDS) SAN JOSE, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1995 NOV 10 (NB) -- In the blink of an eye, six-speed CD-ROM drives are yesterday's news. Diamond Multimedia (NASDAQ:DIMD) says its 8X Multimedia Upgrade Kit 800 is available now, with an estimated street price of $399. (Ian Stokell/19951110) (SUMMARY)(GENERAL)(MSP)(00031) Newsbytes Daily Summary 11/10/95 MINNEAPOLIS, MINNESOTA, U.S.A., 1995 NOV 10 (NB) -- These are capsules of all today's news stories: ======================================================================== ------------| N E W S B Y T E S D A I L Y S U M M A R Y |---------- ------------| Friday, November 10, 1995 |---------- ======================================================================== (c) Newsbytes News Network (Tm) Editor in Chief: Wendy Woods ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Newsbytes News Network's on the Web! Check out http://www.nbnn.com for free daily top stories from Newsbytes and its affiliate publications, and from PC Week, MacWeek, and other Ziff news magazines. A subscription gives you all the news, full-text, plus the most comprehensive database of past computer stories online. The keyword-searchable database dates from today back through 1983. Subscriptions are $24.95 for three months. Questions? Send to 'administrator@newsbytes.com' For Japanese Newsbytes and additional services, see the Newsbytes Pacifica Website at http://www.islandtel.com/newsbytes/ ------------------------------------------------------------------------ CATEGORY HEADLINES (*** indicates today's top stories) STORY # ======================================================================== APPLE Power Clones A Hit At Australian Macworld.................. 14 BROADCAST DEC Wraps Up Adlink Digital Ad Insertion Deployment........ 12 BROADCAST MPEG-2 For DirecTV......................................... 26 BROADCAST ****Gates' Comdex Keynote To Be Televised................. 27 BUSINESS EDS Asia Looks To Australia................................ 09 BUSINESS Intel/Microsoft/Samsung Launch Moscow Marketing Program.... 13 BUSINESS Tokyo Market - Stocks End The Week Mixed................... 18 BUSINESS Develcon Stake In HyperCore Anticipates Gradual ATM Growth. 21 BUSINESS Intuit Acquires Galt Technologies.......................... 22 EDUCATION Editorial - The Spider's Web............................... 11 GENERAL NewsPix Update For Newsbytes Publishers.................... 15 GENERAL Japan Newsbriefs........................................... 16 GENERAL Newsbytes Week In Review................................... 30 GOVT GTSI Beefs Up Air Force Desktop IV Offerings............... 02 IBM ****IBM Cuts Costs, 1,200 Out Of Work..................... 19 IBM Business "Getting Serious" About Web, Says IBM Exec........ 29 LEGAL Online Smut Fight Flares Up................................ 01 LEGAL ****Packard Bell Fires Another Shot In Compaq War......... 24 ONLINE America Online Rolls Out Software Developers Program....... 03 ONLINE Escrow Services Online..................................... 05 ONLINE Film Processor Returns Snapshots Via Internet.............. 06 ONLINE "Disgruntled" E-Zine Focuses On People Who Work............ 10 ONLINE Internet Update............................................ 17 ONLINE MobileMedia Paging Via America Online...................... 20 PC DEC Media Module Gets Faster, Cheaper...................... 04 TELECOM Software Manages Online Communications..................... 07 TELECOM Comcast Cellular Fights Fraud With PIN Numbers............. 23 TRENDS Superconductor Cellular Base Station Testing............... 08 TRENDS ****Home Online Market On Verge Of Explosion _ Study...... 25 TRENDS ****Diamond Delivers 8X CD-ROM Drive Under $400........... 28 ======================================================================== These are the headlines and first paragraphs of each story, in order: 1 -> Online Smut Fight Flares Up -- After smoldering for several weeks, the issue of smut in cyberspace has once again burst into flames. Social conservatives including the Christian Coalition have written to House-Senate conferees on the telecommunications legislation, urging support for the approach in the Senate bill that would make "indecent" online content illegal. 2 -> GTSI Beefs Up Air Force Desktop IV Offerings -- Government Technology Services Inc. (Nasdaq: GTSI) is adding muscle to its basic computer system offering under the Air Force Desktop IV contract. The upgrade is designed to make the GTSI system more competitive with the system offered by competitor Zenith Data Systems. 3 -> America Online Rolls Out Software Developers Program -- America Online has rolled out a program to open the AOL platform to third party developers, so that they can integrate their software with the AOL online environment. 4 -> DEC Media Module Gets Faster, Cheaper -- Digital Equipment Corp. (NYSE:DEC) has announced a new version of its Mobile Media Module that is faster and cheaper than the original. 5 -> Escrow Services Online -- Data Track Systems Inc. (DTS) has unveiled a transaction-based Internet system designed to "facilitate online processing" for title insurance, escrow, and other settlement services. DTS sees the Internet as the future for business transactions of all types, with real estate transactions only the beginning. 6 -> Film Processor Returns Snapshots Via Internet -- Seattle Filmworks (NASDAQ: FOTO) has started returning customers' developed photographs via the Internet. The new delivery service is called PhotoMail and is an expansion of Seattle Filmworks' existing digital delivery service. 7 -> Software Manages Online Communications -- Enhanced Systems Inc. has announced a messaging software module that lets you access and manage your e-mail, voice-mail, faxes, and any pages that come in over the World Wide Web. 8 -> Superconductor Cellular Base Station Testing -- Conductus Inc. (NASDAQ:CDTS), a developer of high-temperature superconductor (HTS) and cryoelectronics technology, has announced a low-noise filter subsystem for cellular base stations. The system, which combines a superconducting bandpass filter and a cryogenic low-noise amplifier, is designed to provide enhanced range and signal quality in rural cellular sites. 9 -> EDS Asia Looks To Australia -- News has emerged that Electronic Data Systems is looking to Adelaide, Australia, as a support hub for its growing business in Asia. 10 -> "Disgruntled" E-Zine Focuses On People Who Work -- Business journalism takes a turn towards both the humorous and dark side, with the launch of the electronic magazine (e-zine) "Disgruntled: The Magazine For People Who Work For A Living." The Internet World Wide Web publication mixes news, features, satire, and commentary about the work world, from the perspective of the employee. 11 -> Editorial - The Spider's Web -- By Gary Kallback. My son recently turned in a homework assignment to a substitute teacher in which he had researched bridge construction for an upcoming project in his 8th grade technology class. I had allowed him to use the CompuServe Wizard browser installed on my home computer. 12 -> DEC Wraps Up Adlink Digital Ad Insertion Deployment -- "We now have the technology, at a price that can be justified," maintained Digital Equipment Corp.'s Peter Martin, in an interview with Newsbytes about the just completed deployment of Digital's Alpha- based video server technology at Adlink. The deployment is one of the largest digital video ad insertion applications to date, and the first to use MPEG (Motion Picture Experts Group)-2 compression. 13 -> Intel/Microsoft/Samsung Launch Moscow Marketing Program -- Intel, Microsoft, and Samsung offices in Moscow have announced the beginning of a joint marketing program aimed at the promotion of Pentium computers with the Windows 95 operating system. The program will fulfill the requirements of a peculiar category of Russian engineers comprising small scale "screwdriver" computer assemblers and "do-it-yourself" aficionados. 14 -> Power Clones A Hit At Australian Macworld -- IDG's Australian Macworld Expo appeared to be off to a good start yesterday, with impressive crowds and a good range of new products getting their first Australian airing. 15 -> NewsPix Update For Newsbytes Publishers -- This update will be posted each Wednesday and Friday to reflect the daily picture additions. The updates will in turn become part of the main NewsPix Bulletin issued on Monday. 16 -> Japan Newsbriefs -- In this roundup of news from Japan: Sony switches battery production after fire; APEC summit begins next week; NEC, Samsung extend agreement; Compaq reduce prices; Tokyo FM launch Web page. 17 -> Internet Update -- In this roundup of new resources and services on the global Internet: The Internet starting point; Daily radio broadcasts for the Internet; Elle Magazine; Attorney yellow pages; University of Michigan International Center; Performance tour search; The Alzheimer's page; The UK Meteorological Office; Hispanic online magazine. 18 -> Tokyo Market - Stocks End The Week Mixed -- Stocks in Tokyo ended the week mixed. The Nikkei 225 Index of leading shares closed Friday at 17843.56, a fall of 185.24 yen on the week. 19 -> ****IBM Cuts Costs, 1,200 Out Of Work -- IBM (NYSE:IBM) told about 1,200 employees across the United States Thursday that their jobs are gone. Several locations and several areas of IBM operations were affected. 20 -> MobileMedia Paging Via America Online -- MobileMedia (NASDAQ:MLBM) and America Online (NASDAQ:AMER) (AOL) are teaming to provide paging service from the online service's network to people who carry MobileMedia alphanumeric pagers. AOL subscribers can now send text messages directly to MobileMedia pagers that can display both text and numbers. 21 -> Develcon Stake In HyperCore Anticipates Gradual ATM Growth -- George Best is skeptical of some of the rosier predictions about asynchronous transfer mode (ATM) technology, but his company wants to be ready for the rise of ATM nonetheless. So Develcon Electronics Ltd. has bought a 40 percent stake in HyperCore, a small ATM developer nearby. 22 -> Intuit Acquires Galt Technologies -- Intuit Inc. has announced it has reached an agreement to acquire Galt Technologies, a provider of mutual fund information on the Internet. The move continues Intuit's goal to provide "comprehensive investment information" to Intuit customers via links to Intuit's Internet World Wide Web site, the Quicken Financial Network (QFN). 23 -> Comcast Cellular Fights Fraud With PIN Numbers -- Comcast Corp.'s (NASDAQ:CMCSA, CMCSK) cellular subsidiary said it is tackling the issue of cellular fraud head-on, by instituting a personal identification number (PIN) system for phone calls, along with hiring two experts on crime. 24 -> ****Packard Bell Fires Another Shot In Compaq War -- Packard Bell Electronics Inc. (NASDAQ: PBEL) has filed another shot in its war with Compaq Computer Corp. (NYSE: CPQ), charging that Compaq falsely labels some of its notebook computer shipping cartons to indicate the product was made in America when it was really produced overseas. 25 -> ****Home Online Market On Verge Of Explosion _ Study -- Many more people use online services from work as compared to home, a new study conducted by Odyssey for Compuserve showed. That gap should narrow in the next few years as more people start dialing into online networks from home. 26 -> MPEG-2 For DirecTV -- Compression Labs Inc. (CLI)(NASDAQ: CLIX) announced that it has completed the conversion to MPEG-2 (Motion Picture Experts Group type 2) digital encoding systems in the direct broadcast satellite (DBS) services of DirectTV. The deployment is claimed to be the largest installation of MPEG-2 encoding equipment in the world. 27 -> ****Gates' Comdex Keynote To Be Televised -- PC-TV Inc. announced this week it will air a same-day broadcast of Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates' Comdex keynote address when Gates presents his vision for the future of desktop computing. The broadcast will be a Business Computing special on the Jones Computer Network (JCN) and the ME/U network nationwide. 28 -> ****Diamond Delivers 8X CD-ROM Drive Under $400 -- In the blink of an eye, six-speed CD-ROM drives are yesterday's news. Diamond Multimedia (NASDAQ:DIMD) says its 8X Multimedia Upgrade Kit 800 is available now, with an estimated street price of $399. 29 -> Business "Getting Serious" About Web, Says IBM Exec -- The presence of so many "people in business suits" at last week's Internetworld Boston '95 signifies the serious role the World Wide Web is starting to take on within corporations and other enterprises, said Drew Clark, IBM's manager of Internet/Web Software Solutions, during a briefing for Newsbytes on IBM's Internet gateway strategy. 30 -> Newsbytes Week In Review -- This is a look at the top stories this week, listing with their category code: Internet Users Gather In Shock At Assassination; Internet Update - Israeli News Sources Special; SoftKey Play For Learning Company Turning Ugly; Apple Computers With Pentium Processors; Compuserve's Web Kit For Kids, Spryte Plans; Compaq To Acquire Networth Networking Firm; More Chip Factories Essential, Says TI Exec; Sun Speeds To 200 MHz With New Processor; Spyglass Licenses Java Technology For Mosaic; Compuserve Settles Downloading Music Case; FTC Inquiry Of Maxis; AOL Passes 4 Million Members, Posts Qtr Loss; MCI To Sell Music CD's By Phone, Internet; Israeli Univ Expels Student Over Internet Message; Ziff Davis Publishing Sold To Softbank For $2.1Bil; Windows NT To Replace Unix - Survey; Windows 95 Is A Hacker's Dream Over The Internet; Thinking Machines Leaving Bankruptcy; GE Seeks Buyer For Genie Online Service?; IBM Cuts Costs, 1,200 Out Of Work; Diamond Delivers 8X CD-ROM Drive Under $400. (Ian Stokell/19951110) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 11/09/95 WINDOWS UK - Access Intros Word Processing Translation Prgm (NEWS)(WINDOWS)(LON)(00001) UK - Access Intros Word Processing Translation Prgm 11/09/95 JERUSALEM, ISRAEL, 1995 NOV 9 (NB) -- Access Software International has unveiled Accent Duo with Translation, a Windows-based package that integrates Accent's word processor, Accent, to allow integrated language translation. According to Zoe Richardson, a spokeswoman for the company, the UKP99 package operates in English/Spanish, English/Italian, English/German, and English/French, and allows for both multi-lingual word processing and translations to and from English. Accent Duo with Translation is built around Globalink's Language Assistant translation software and allows Accent users to translate entire documents, portions of documents, or working interactively with the translation facility for better control and customization. After translation, users can work with Access to edit the document in either, or both, languages. "The combination of our multilingual word processor with this innovative translation software will provide users with the capability to work in more than one language," said Bob Rosenschein, Accent's president, who added that the need for more than just English is wide- reaching in the educational, governmental, and international business arenas. According to the company, Accent Duo with Translation is compatible with existing document formats, including Word, WordPerfect, and Word Pro, and works under any language version of Windows 3.1 or Windows 95, needing a 386-based PC or better with at least six megabytes of hard disk space. Further details of Due with Translation can be found on Accent's World Wide Web page at http://www.accentsoft.com . (Steve Gold/19951106/Press Contact: The Rowland Company, +44-171- 436-4060, Internet e-mail colin@rowland.mhs.compuserve.com; Reader Contact: Accent Software International, UK +44-1923-208435, US 800-636-5256, Internet e-mail info@accent.co.il) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 11/09/95 ONLINE Netbuddy Automates Internet Site Checking (NEWS)(ONLINE)(DEN)(00002) Netbuddy Automates Internet Site Checking 11/09/95 SEATTLE, WASHINGTON, U.S.A., 1995 NOV 9 (NB) -- With the Internet growing by leaps and bounds, it can be time-consuming, and sometimes even frustrating, to visit all your favorite sites regularly. But Internet Solutions Inc. is offering a free software tool it says is designed to simplify access to those locations, as well as automatically scan them for changes in order to keep the user up-to-date about specified topics. The product is called NetBuddy, and it lets you set up a list of regularly checked sites on the World Wide Web. Internet Solutions said NetBuddy is designed for Netscape's Navigator, one of the most popular Web browsers, but will work with any Netscape-compatible browser. The user creates a directory, which can include sub-directories for different Web sites on which they want to keep up-to-date. Once a frequency schedule is established, which can be every few minutes or just a couple of times a day, the software polls the Web page for changes, in accordance with that schedule, and highlights the changed page titles. You can then view any of those page with a click of your mouse. Users of Navigator 1.2 can import their bookmark files into Netbuddy to avoid retyping long lists of often lengthy URLs (uniform resource locators), the unique addresses used by Web pages. A pre-release version of NetBuddy has been on the Internet Solutions home page since September of this year. You can download NetBuddy at no cost from the company's Web site at http://www.netree.com. Internet Solutions also offers an online service called Realty.Net, which went online in March. Realty.Net specializes in real- estate, construction, and related service listings on the Internet. Realty.Net is still in its infancy, but a company spokesperson told Newsbytes that users will eventually be able to check for available real-estate for sale, or find a builder or supplier in most metropolitan areas of the country. Currently the service is available in some cities only. The Realty.Net Web address is http://www.realty.net . (Jim Mallory/19951108/Press contact: Ann Revell-Pechar, Internet Solutions, 206-462-4777; Public contact: Internet Solutions, 206-547-3881, Internet e-mail to staff@internetsol.com ) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 11/09/95 ONLINE New Health Care E-Mail Newsletter (NEWS)(ONLINE)(MSP)(00003) New Health Care E-Mail Newsletter 11/09/95 RESTON, VIRGINIA, U.S.A., 1995 NOV 9 (NB) -- St. Anthony Publishing Inc. aims to simplify the accessing of health information on the Internet. The company is introducing what it calls the "first" electronic-mail newsletter in the US that will guide health care pros and consumers to the electronic information. The e-mail newsletter is called "St. Anthony's Health Care Internet Alert." It will be published on a weekly basis with daily updates, officials said. The Alert's team of reporters, researchers, and editors surf the Net each day to dig up areas -- including World Wide Web pages, file transfer protocol (FTP) sites, and gopher sites -- that contain health information. St. Anthony Publishing officials said 10 percent of all the information and data on the Internet are health-care related. "This is our first electronic product," Elizabeth Sheafer, St. Anthony Publishing spokesperson, told Newsbytes. "My publisher had tried to do some research on the Internet for healthcare, and found it to be a nightmare. He couldn't find what he wanted. He thought it was an unorganized mess. So this idea just came to him," she said. "We decided to go forward with this and make it easier for people to find good information on health on the Internet," Sheafer said. Already more than 200 people have signed up for free one-month trial subscriptions to the e-mail newsletter, Sheafer said. The company says that, some of the people that will find the newsletter helpful include consumers, doctors and caregivers, along with health care researchers, librarians, administrators, consultants, and planners. Newsbytes obtained copies of two of the newsletters. In the publications, we found information on sites that included a "Virtual Hospital," a healthcare recruitment site, pages containing information on obesity, and various details on healthcare-related mailing listservs. St. Anthony Publishing also maintains a healthcare listserv. After the one-month free trial, a year's subscription is available for $149, Sheafer said. But sometime early next year, that price will be going up to $199 per year, she added. The Alert is also available as a bi-weekly fax service. Future Internet plans for St. Anthony Publishing include a Web site for the company, which will be implemented early next year, Sheafer said. (Bob Woods/19951108/Press Contact: Elizabeth Sheafer, St. Anthony Publishing, 800-632-0123 ext 5963. Public Contact: Lisa Campbell, St. Anthony's Health Care Internet Alert, 800-632-0123 ext 5861) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 11/09/95 APPLE T'Was Putt-Putt's Night Before Christmas (NEWS)(APPLE)(DEN)(00004) T'Was Putt-Putt's Night Before Christmas 11/09/95 SEATTLE, WASHINGTON, U.S.A., 1995 NOV 9 (NB) -- Christmas may seem a long way off, but the folks at Humongous Entertainment know better, and they've released Putt-Putt's Night Before Christmas, a children's book that comes with a read-along audio tape. The book and tape are free with the purchase of any of the company's "edutainment" products on CD-ROM. Putt-Putt's Night Before Christmas is a full-color illustrated book that rhymes its way through the predicament Putt-Putt, a little purple car, and his dog Pep, face when Santa's sleigh breaks down on the roof of their garage on Christmas eve. The book's 28 hand-colored pages explaining how Santa will make Christmas were done by the same artists who animated the company's titles "Freddi Fish and the Case of the Missing Kelp Seeds" and "Putt-Putt Saves the Zoo," CD-ROM products previously reported on by Newsbytes. Other titles in the Putt-Putt series for children ages three to eight include: "Let's Explore the Jungle;" "Let's Explore the Airport;" and "Let's Explore the Farm." Those titles are published in partnership with Random House, and sell for about $29.95 each. "Jungle" will ship later this month. Underlying the entertainment face of the Humongous products is an educational factor that teaches children as they have fun. In the "Explore" series the kids learn about rain forests, how baggage is handled and what keeps airplanes in the air, as well as where eggs and milk come from. Humongous also publishes a junior adventure series that includes "Putt-Putt Joins the Parade," "Putt-Putt Goes to the Moon," "Fatty Bear's Birthday Surprise," and "Putt-Putt & Fatty Bear's Activity Pack." All are available for the Macintosh platform and for Windows 3.1 or Windows 95 at an estimated price of $39.95 on CD-ROM. (Jim Mallory/19951108/Press contact: John Uppendahl, Humongous Entertainment, 206-486-9258; Public contact: Humongous Entertainment, tel 206-486-9258, fax 206-486-9494PUTTPUTT951108/PHOTO) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 11/09/95 GENERAL AST Signs Ex-Apple Exec As CEO (NEWS)(GENERAL)(HKG)(00005) AST Signs Ex-Apple Exec As CEO 11/09/95 CENTRAL, HONG KONG, 1995 NOV 9 (NB) -- AST has announced that 46 year-old Australian Ian Diery will to take over as president and chief executive officer (CEO). The former executive vice president and general manager of Apple's personal computer division, takes over from Jim Schraith, who resigned earlier in the year. Diery is no stranger to the Asian computer scene. After he left Wang and joined Apple, just over six years ago, he became senior vice president of Apple-Asia/Pacific. There's little doubt that AST sees Diery as the man to save the company. "We have thoroughly analyzed the issues facing AST," the company's Safi Qureshey said. "Our turnaround plan, which will be led by Ian Diery, has been developed with a clear understanding of these issues and with substantial support from our strategic partner, Samsung Electronics." Newsbytes understands this means heads could roll. Said one local industry veteran, speaking off the record: "If you need someone to do trouble shooting, he'll do whatever it takes to achieve profitability." (Joel McCormick & I.T. Daily/19951109) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 11/09/95 TRENDS Hong Kong Forex Futures Market Opens (NEWS)(TRENDS)(HKG)(00006) Hong Kong Forex Futures Market Opens 11/09/95 CENTRAL, HONG KONG, 1995 NOV 9 (NB) -- US$40 million was chalked up by Hong Kong's first rolling currency futures market during the first half day of trading, according to Digital Equipment Corp, which installed the trading technology. Rolling forex trading is an open-ended currency futures contract that is "rolled over" automatically from one trading day to the next until it is "closed out" by purchasing the "real" deal in the market place. These contracts have no expiration date. In technical terms, the computer system has to be operational for 24 hours a day, trading in real-time, and from remote locations. The market is traded between brokers' offices. As a result, some 60 AlphaStation 3000/300 machines have been installed in member's offices. They connect to the exchange over a Hongkong Telecom T1 LANline. At the exchange, 15 Vax servers handle transaction routing, deals monitoring, and general supervision. (Joel McCormick & I.T. Daily/19951109) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 11/09/95 ONLINE US Presidential Race Coverage On The Web (NEWS)(ONLINE)(MSP)(00007) US Presidential Race Coverage On The Web 11/09/95 WASHINGTON, D.C., U.S.A., 1995 NOV 9 (NB) -- Details on developments and news from the upcoming US Presidential election are coming to the Internet's World Wide Web early next year. The Washington Post's Digital Ink, Newsweek Magazine, and ABC News will team up to launch ElectionLine on the Web starting in January, 1996. The new Web site will combine the "talents and strengths" of all three partners by using the "multimedia experience of text, video, graphics, full-motion video, still pictures, real-time audio, and archival material," said the companies. All of the content can be accessed with "powerful" search engines, officials said. The site can handle standard Web browsers, officials said. ElectionLine will also be able to be accessed through links to Digital Ink on AT&T's Interchange, ABC News on America Online, and Newsweek on Prodigy. Although the bulk of the material at the site will be free to view, some information will require a fee, to be set later, officials said. Donald K. Brazeal, editor and publisher of The Washington Post's Digital Ink, told Newsbytes the Web is an ideal medium to cover something the race for the White House. "It's not only that things are happening all of the time, but a lot of what's interesting in the political world are rich, deep databases. Those databases can't be delivered in the traditional means of either broadcast television or print. So there's a lot of opportunities to do some very special things," he said. It's those databases, which contain details about who contributed to whose political campaign for example, that will help voters make informed choices at the ballot box, Brazeal said. The ElectionLine operation center will be based at Digital Ink's headquarters in suburban Washington DC, Brazeal said. Most of the text will come from The Washington Post and Newsweek, while the video and audio will be mainly from ABC News, he added. The site will be able to handle the largest volume ever of simultaneous users, thanks to a server that uses Digital Equipment Corporation's (DEC) 64-bit Alpha architecture, officials said. The technology for the ElectionLine site was already tested in 1994, when the state of California used the DEC system in reporting its election results live on the Web. (Bob Woods/19951103/Press Contacts: Mel Webster, Copithorne & Bellows Public Relations, 617-252-0606; Veronica Pollard, Capital Cities/ABC, 212-456-6171; Diana Pearson, Newsweek, 212-445-4342; Anne B. Little, Digital Equipment Corp., 301-918-5591) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 11/09/95 BUSINESS AT&T To Maintain Investment Plan In China (NEWS)(BUSINESS)(PEK)(00008) AT&T To Maintain Investment Plan In China 11/09/95 BEIJING, CHINA, 1995 NOV 9 (NB) -- An AT&T (China) spokesman recently denied the possibility of any change in its investment plan in China, despite the telecoms firm splitting into three independent companies. AT&T signed a deal with the State Planning Commission last year for a number of cooperation projects, and according to the agreement, will increase its investment in China by US$150 million in the next three years. AT&T officials recently made the re-commitment to the investment plan in China at AT&T's Global Free Toll Telephone Service Day in Shanghai. The three-way division of the company will be completed at the start of 1997, said H. T. Kung, a member of the management board. However, the three independent companies will still maintain very close coordination in China, and the sum of their investment in the next three years will be no less than US$150 million, Kung said. The US company is confident about its investment in China. The rapid development in China upgraded the country to one of the largest telecommunications markets, with the highest growth rate, in the world, said David Xiong, president of the East China region of AT&T (China). AT&T now has nine joint ventures in China, and two months ago, the company started an investment project involving US$100 million with five Chinese partners for manufacturing the latest 5ESS switching system. Moreover, AT&T transferred advanced integrated circuit technology to China for the first time this year. It is estimated that the exchange capacity of the telecommunications network in China will be 26.5 million lines by the end of this year. That capacity will reach 100 million lines by the year 2000, and jump to 400 million lines in the first decade of the 21st century. In Guangdong province, AT&T has also signed a long-term cooperation agreement, involving US$500 million worth of orders, to supply AT&T's digital switching systems and high-speed optical transmission systems to the province. (Chih-Ho Yu & Ning Huang/19951109) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 11/09/95 BROADCAST China - Digital Broadcasting Planned (NEWS)(BROADCAST)(PEK)(00009) China - Digital Broadcasting Planned 11/09/95 BEIJING, CHINA, 1995 NOV 9 (NB) -- DAB (digital audio broadcast) and digital TV are expected to begin soon in China, said an official with the State Science and Technology Commission (SSTC). However, HDTV (high definition TV) may be too expensive for most users, he said. Digital broadcasting will provide users with high-quality audio and video entertainment. The first DAB receivers may be commercially available in 1997 and China Central Television is set to distribute four channels of digitally coded programs via satellite by the end of this year, said the government official. Experimental broadcasting of DAB is scheduled to take place next year in some parts of Guangdong province. The broadcasting center will be in Foshan, and Zhongshan, Guangzhou, and Shenzhen will be able to receive the programs. DAB will be available in the developed areas of East and South China by the year 2000, he said. The retail price of a DAB receiver in Europe is expected to be around US$100 after 1997, when the units go into mass production, the official said. The price in China will reportedly be around RMB550 (US$65). However, HDTV technology is not as far along in development as DAB around the world, said the government official. The international coordination of standards remains a problem, and TV stations will lack the HDTV programming in its first years, he said. Other obstacles to HDTV development are the receiver's size and cost -- they are too big and too expensive for most consumers, he said. Currently, digital signals are widely used in Chinese TV stations, but they have to be transformed into analog ones to fit the conventional receivers when the programs are broadcast. Chinese TV stations decide to operate digital television broadcasting as a transitional technology. Conventional televisions need a set-top box, an electronic device placed on the top of conventional TV sets to decode the digital signals. The estimated cost of these set-tops will be around RMB1,000 each, said the government official. (Chih-Ho Yu & Ning Huang/19951109) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 11/09/95 UNIX EMC's Shared Mainframe/Unix RAID, Deals With HP & AT&T (NEWS)(UNIX)(BOS)(00010) EMC's Shared Mainframe/Unix RAID, Deals With HP & AT&T 11/09/95 HOPKINTON, MASSACHUSETTS, U.S.A., 1995 NOV 9 (NB) -- EMC expects to generate hundreds of millions of dollars in 1996 through newly inked deals with HP and AT&T GIS, with many more millions to come from EMC's new unveiled Symmetrix Enterprise Storage Platform (ESP), a system billed as the first to allow shared mainframe and Unix storage, maintained EMC VP David Donatelli, in an interview with Newsbytes. EMC's new Symmetrix ESP system is designed to provide simultaneous RAID (redundant array of inexpensive disks) storage for all IBM and IBM-compatible workstations, as well as for Unix, AS/400, Novell, and OS/2 servers, through the use of Fast Wide Differential SCSI (small computer systems interface) interfaces, said Donatelli, who is VP for Open Storage Group Marketing at EMC. The new ESP, a member of EMC's flagship line of Symmetrix 5000 mainframe storage systems, is aimed at supporting mixed environments that contain legacy mainframe applications in combination with newer client-server environments, according to the EMC exec. In contrast, the deals with HP and AT&T GIS pertain to EMC's Symmetrix 3000 Series, a product line-up for the "open systems" Unix market that was introduced in June, in conjunction with EMC's movement into the Unix market though the formation of the Open Storage Group. Under the two newly forged agreements, HP and AT&T GIS will each market and sell versions of EMC's Symmetrix 3000 Integrated Cached Disk Array (ICDA) storage systems, Donatelli reported. HP and AT&T GIS are pegged by International Data Corporation (IDC) as holding a 25 percent combined share of the worldwide market for "medium-scale Unix servers," he pointed out. In the mainframe storage market, IBM is EMC's major competitor, he continued. But in the newly added Unix arena, EMC has been competing directly against Unix server vendors that produce RAID systems for their own servers. Aside from the newly announced ESP, though, EMC's Symmetrix 3000 ICDA systems are the only storage systems on the market today to support multiple flavors of Unix, according to Donatelli. In addition, the Symmetrix 3000 systems provide a "two to four times" performance increase over rival RAID systems for Unix, and are "much more highly scalable," he asserted. "We're providing more than 1 terabyte (TB) of storage in the Symmetrix 3000. Prior to this, 80 gigabytes (GB) is about the most you could get," the EMC VP contended. The VP told Newsbytes that although the company's new ESP storage systems are shipping immediately, most of the revenues from ESP will not appear until 1996. For the Open Storage Group, the agreements with HP and AT&T GIS to net about $250 million in revenues in 1996, he added. "But even so, the Open Storage Group is right on target to meet our projected revenue goal of $200 million for 1995," Newsbytes was told. (Jacqueline Emigh/19951108/Reader Contact: EMC, 508-435-1000; Press Contact: Rick Lacroix or Mark Frederickson, EMC, 508-435-1000) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 11/09/95 BROADCAST Elek-Tek's National "Infomercial" (NEWS)(BROADCAST)(MSP)(00011) Elek-Tek's National "Infomercial" 11/09/95 SKOKIE, ILLINOIS, U.S.A., 1995 NOV 9 (NB) -- Computer retailer and direct-mail marketer Elek-Tek Inc. (NASDAQ:ELEK) will hit the "air" on cable television with a series of "infomercials." The company will broadcast the show "Computer Wonderland" starting Saturday, November 18, at 12:00 noon EST on the Cable News and Business Channel (CNBC), along with several different local TV markets at different times. The infomercial is designed to further increase Elek-Tek's national customer base, officials said. It's designed to "inform and educate" consumers by using "real-life scenarios" showing three to five computer products and how they are used at home. Cameron Estes, president of Elek-Tek, told Newsbytes the new infomercial will be very different from a TV show Elek-Tek aired on several Chicago-area cable systems in 1994. "Back in 1994, what we did was really meant to help educate people on some of the terms that were used in the computer industry. This new show will be much more product-specific. It will sell products, and it will show how these products can make a real difference in people's lives," Estes said. Besides CNBC, the new infomercial will run at different times on broadcast TV stations in 27 local markets nationwide, including Los Angeles, Houston, Boston, Atlanta, San Francisco, and Tampa. The shows will air weekly, Estes added. The retailer is also airing commercials on cable TV's Travel Channel and The Weather Channel, an Elek-Tek official told Newsbytes. Besides the company's television offering, Elek-Tek recently introduced an Internet World Wide Web site at http://www.elektek.com for advertising and promoting the company. Also, Elek-Tek has introduced its "Room To Grow" program in several of its retail locations. The Room To Grow contains the "most appropriate and comprehensive equipment and software to fill the needs" of children from ages 3 to 14. Trained technical support representatives help kids browsing in the department with a "hands-on" approach to testing software, hardware, and accessories. A series of free Family Fun Days are scheduled for the stores that have Room To Grow areas, allowing children and parents to try software before they buy. Also, kids can join Elek-Tek's "Beta Kids" panel, which reviews software and communicates their views about programs to other children. Room To Grow areas are at the company's stores in: suburban Chicago (Willowbrook and Rolling Meadows, Illinois); Lenexa, Kansas (Kansas City area); Fishers, Indiana (Indianapolis area); and Denver, Colorado. (Bob Woods/19951108/Press Contact: Laura Cianci, Elek-Tek, 708-677-7660 ext 5717) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 11/09/95 TRENDS ****MCI To Sell Music CD's By Phone, Internet (NEWS)(TRENDS)(MSP)(00012) ****MCI To Sell Music CD's By Phone, Internet 11/09/95 NEW YORK CITY, NEW YORK, U.S.A., 1995 NOV 9 (NB) -- MCI Corp. (NASDAQ:MCIC) is expanding its electronic influence into the world of music retailing. The telecommunications giant said it has opened a service, called "1-800-MUSICNOW," which will feature audio clips, live operator help, and over-the-phone ordering of CD's and cassettes. MCI is using its voice response units (VRUs) within its intelligent network to process the incoming calls. The same system is already used for MCI's 1-800-COLLECT service, and can be used for other retail-type operations, Diane Duggan, vice president of Mass Market Information Technology, told Newsbytes. She indicated the same type of phone system could be used to sell such products as videos and books. "The phone becomes the storefront," Duggan said. "What we have made available to customers is that all phones in every household is a storefront. We didn't have to invest in the bricks and mortar to start this. We were able to get into the business fairly quickly. The only thing we did was insert the database to support the inventory on the retail side." Duggan also said the music market has the same demographics that MCI's customer base has, so it seemed to be a "natural fit" for MCI to get into the music retail business. When customers call the 800 number they select from various music formats, including rock, alternative, country, pop, soundtracks, jazz, New Age, reggae, and holiday favorites. If the customer is calling from one of 30 key radio markets, they'll hear a recorded welcome from a disk jockey from a radio station in the caller's market. The DJ will tell them of special buys, local events, and the latest releases on-air in their market. Customers will then be able to hear samples from various CD's. Towards the end of the call, they'll be able to establish an account using a credit card and then purchase the CD's and/or cassettes. After the account is set-up, consumers won't have to speak to an operator again unless they need help, officials said. If the title is in stock, it is immediately shipped, arriving at the customer's doorstep within days, and even overnight, MCI officials said. Live experts are also available to help customers, said Paul Adams, MCI spokesperson. Speaking to Newsbytes from the 1-800-MUSICNOW call in suburban Phoenix, he said customer representatives who are experts in various music genres can help customers identify artists, song titles, and albums. The reps even have access to a database of album and CD covers, if a customer can only remember what a particular cover looks like. In addition, a TV monitor is always tuned to MTV, in case someone calls in wanting a song on a CD that they just saw on the cable music network. When this Newsbytes bureau called 1-800-MUSICNOW, we were greeted with music selections from our local market, which is Chicago. Within the music menu, several genre's were listed, many of which corresponded to local radio stations. We listened to cuts from what's hot in music both nationally, and in the Chicago area. When it came to shopping we were able to "put" CD's into a "shopping cart," to either be purchased or taken out later. Pricing is said to be "competitive" with what music buffs would pay for titles at local record stores. MCI officials said "convenience" helps make 1-800-MUSICNOW more attractive to customers than a record store, because the service runs 24 hours a day, seven days a week. 1-800-MUSICNOW will also offer an Internet World Wide Web site that is very similar to the telephone service, except for having access to a live operator, Duggan said. Audio clips can be played on the user's computer via the RealAudio system of streaming data, and placing an order is secured via the Netscape commerce server. Also, account numbers established using the phone service can be used at the Internet site, and vice versa, Duggan added. Web surfers also have access to the same database the service's music experts have, so they can graphically display album and CD covers with their Web browser, Duggan said. The site is located at http://www.1800musicnow.mci.com , and is slated to open November 20. When Newsbytes surfed to the site, we were greeted with a humorous message instructing us to come back the 20th, along with a form to enter our electronic-mail address to be reminded of the site's grand opening. The CD's and cassettes themselves will come from Uni Distribution, MCA Music Entertainment group's distribution arm. Expect to be blitzed with advertising regarding the new service. MCI officials said ads for 1-800-MUSICNOW will be "heavy on attitude while highlighting product benefits and creating brand awareness." The new site will be advertised via print, radio, and television advertising. The campaign has already started. In addition, local radio stations connected with the new service will have personalized on-air promotions. (Bob Woods/19951109/Press Contacts: Mark Pettit, MCI News Bureau, 800-644-NEWS; Robyn Freedman, Ketchum Public Relations, 404-877-1800. Public Contact: Music Now, 1-800-MUSICNOW) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 11/09/95 ONLINE ****Israeli Univ Expels Student Over Internet Message (NEWS)(ONLINE)(TYO)(00013) ****Israeli Univ Expels Student Over Internet Message 11/09/95 TEL AVIV, ISRAEL, 1995 NOV 9 (NB) -- An Israeli University has expelled a student after he sent a message publicly supporting the recent assassination of Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin. The student studied at Bar Ilan University, the same university that confessed killer Yigal Amir, and Rabin's injured bodyguard studied. The university also awarded Yitzhak Rabin an honorary doctorate two years ago. The first-year mass communications student, Yitzhak Newman, sent a message on Monday that read "Chag sameach everyone!!! The witch is dead, the wicked witch is dead!!!!" Chag sameach is "happy holidays" in Hebrew, said university spokeswoman Elana Oberlander, who confirmed to Newsbytes that, "he has been expelled." Oberlander continued, "It was brought to the attention of one of our professors. His electronic-mail account was immediately blocked and we sent him into a disciplinary committee with the strong recommendation that he be expelled." Did the university have any problems weighing free speech against the emotions expressed in the message? "Not at all. The decision was taken immediately," said Oberlander. She explained, "We have freedom of speech, but we try not to allow extreme political groups on campus. We allow expression of opinion, but when we feel if it is to an extreme or it looks like the university condones the acts of Yigal Amir, we draw the line." She concluded, "The university in no way condones the acts of Yigal Amir." The university has also opened formal proceedings to expel forever, law student Yigal Amir, it announced earlier this week. Bar Ilan professor Moshe Kaveh noted in a statement, "While, at this point, expulsion is only a formality, it is importantly symbolic." Oberlander also told Newsbytes that confessed killer Amir had not used the Internet at Bar Ilan as far as the university can tell. Internet users can find Bar Ilan University on the World Wide Web at http://www.biu.ac.il/ , or via Gopher at gopher://vm.biu.ac.il:70/ . (Martyn Williams/19951109/Press contact: David Weinberg, Bar Ilan University, tel +972-3-531-8121, fax +972-3-535-4918) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 11/09/95 ONLINE Internet Update (NEWS)(ONLINE)(TYO)(00014) Internet Update 11/09/95 TOKYO, JAPAN, 1995 NOV 9 (NB) -- In this update of new resources and services on the global Internet: Telekom Malaysia; Andy Kane's art online; Global climate home page; The big vote; National index to Bulgaria; Watch the world; Native American art; Datamocracy demographic and geographic data; Guide to Linux applications; San Francisco museum online; The New York subway home page; Robert Morris Hunt's art photography. Telekom Malaysia Malaysia's state telecommunications company now has a World Wide Web server with corporate information, products and services, news and events, financial information and even details of working for the company. World Wide Web: http://www.telekom.com.my/ Andy Kane's Art Online Andy Kane is a world famous artist whose work hangs in galleries around the globe and has been featured in several books. Working out of a Chicago studio, he is now attempting to make his art available to a wider audience via the Internet. World Wide Web: http://www.interaccess.com/users/baudesgn/andy.html Global Climate Home Page The pages are an online edition of the World Climate Report. You can find out the latest news relating to global warming, or cooling, and global climate changes, read the latest rumors doing the rounds in Washington, track global temperature changes, and read related feature articles. World Wide Web: http://www.nhes.com/ The Big Vote Your chance to have your say on the really big issues of the day in subject areas such as politics, men and women, entertainment, and sports. Is Bill Gates the devil? Web users can be the judge here, (so far 75% of them think his is). World Wide Web: http://www.cvp.com/bigvote/ National Index To Bulgaria This is a comprehensive index linking to all the east European country has to offer on the Internet, and available in five languages. You can find links for news, universities, Internet providers, and government resources. World Wide Web: http://www.bulgaria.com/ Watch The World The "Cameras, Cameras, Cameras" Web site offers a hyperlinked index of all cameras hooked up to the Internet. From here you can jump to see Stockholm, Room 100 of Buckman School, KJRH in Tulsa, and even what "Dave" is watching on his TV. It's all here and great fun if you have a good Internet connection. World Wide Web: http://www.intertain.net/~cameras Native American Art AmNatArt is a Web site showcasing the art of native Americans. Indian art is traditionally deeply spiritual and symbolic. The images have been specially chosen for the site and are available to others to use for non-commercial use. A top-ten images list allows new visitors to check out the most popular images quickly. World Wide Web: http://www.artnatam.com/ Datamocracy Demographic And Geographic Data The company specializes in providing demographic and environmental information. Some of the information can be ordered right from the Web site and the company adds that as a public service, non-profit organizations can get information and support at "minimal cost." The data is suitable for marketing, planning, and analysis. World Wide Web: http://www.datamocracy.com/data Guide To Linux Applications Users of the Linux operating system will find a useful listing of applications and utilities for the platform that have Web home pages. The programs listed all have a binary or source code available via the network. This is a big list and should satisfy all Linux users in search of applications! World Wide Web: http://www.xnet.com/~blatura/linapps.shtml San Francisco Museum Online The San Francisco Museum's Web server has details of the museum and its opening hours. Internet users that cannot get to the city can visit online exhibits covering the earthquakes of 1906 and 1989, the Oakland fires and police and fire departments. World Wide Web: http://www.slip.net/~dfowler/1906/museum.html The New York Subway Home Page Now is your chance to ride the subway in complete safety, and for no cost! Here you'll find photo tours of stations and train rides, a history of subway tokens and maps of the system, plus the current schedule for the New York Transit Museum. You can also link to other city railway resources on the network. World Wide Web: http://www.k2nesoft.com/subway/ Robert Morris Hunt's Art Photography The images on this site were all taken in the early 1980s in and around Washington DC, and Paris, France, but, as the photographer explains, were believed lost until they were recently uncovered. Five images are currently online with more promised. World Wide Web: http://www.syspac.com/~spaz (Martyn Williams/19951109) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 11/09/95 ONLINE Japan - Sony & NTT Plan New Computer Network (NEWS)(ONLINE)(TYO)(00015) Japan - Sony & NTT Plan New Computer Network 11/09/95 TOKYO, JAPAN, 1995 NOV 9 (NB) -- Four of Japan's major electronics and NTT are planning a new computer communications network for the country, according to a Nihon Keizai Shimbun report, confirmed to Newsbytes by industry sources. The companies are Sony Corporation (TSE:6758), Nippon Telegraph and Telephone (TSE:9432), Victor Company of Japan (JVC) (TSE:6792), Sega Enterprises (TSE:7964), and Yamaha Corporation (TSE:7951). No official announcement has been made, but Newsbytes has learned the five are approaching the final stage of negotiations and conclusion is expected in the "near future." The newspaper, Japan's leading business daily, said the five would run a central server that computer users could connect to using games machines. The network will combine the security aspects of conventional computer networks and the openness of the Internet. The company will also manage information on the system and make it available to other vendors for commercial projects. Of the five companies, Sony and Sega are both involved in the hardware side of the games market with Sony's PlayStation and Sega's Saturn and older machines. Sega recently announced a deal with Fujitsu in which Saturn owners will be able to subscribe to the NiftyServe online service to send and receive e-mail plus communicate with others through software based on the WorldsAway platform. Sega is to launch a communications adapter for the system early next year. The Sega Saturn was launched in Japan last November, a month before the local launch of Sony's PlayStation. The Sega machine hit the international market in May this year with the Sony unit following in September. (Martyn Williams/19951109) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 11/09/95 BUSINESS Sony Reports Strong First Half Earnings (NEWS)(BUSINESS)(TYO)(00016) Sony Reports Strong First Half Earnings 11/09/95 TOKYO, JAPAN, 1995 NOV 9 (NB) -- Keeping a promise it made six months ago to move back into the black, Sony Corporation (TSE:6758) has announced financial results for the first half of the current fiscal year showing a healthy pre-tax profit and improved forecasts for the full year. Sony said its pre-tax profit in the first six months of the year was 47.94 billion yen compared with a massive loss of 279.96 billion yen in the same period last year. Sales in the period jumped 11.4% to 2.05 trillion yen from 1.84 trillion yen a year ago. The loss was associated with the purchase of Columbia Pictures Entertainment Inc., now called Sony Pictures Entertainment, which Sony purchased in 1989. The Tokyo-based company had to write off 265 billion yen in the corresponding period last year acknowledging it had suffered huge losses in Hollywood. Sony still has around 130 billion yen to write off, according to analysts, although the company plans to do this gradually, spreading the losses over the next 30 years, according to one report. In the report period to September, it wrote off just one billion yen. Parent company profits for the period reached 12.61 billion yen, a fall of 46.1% on sales of 986.73 billion yen against 935.13 billion yen. In common with other Japanese companies, Sony has suffered losses due to the extremely strong yen that steadied around 85 yen to the dollar for most of the period. The company said it lost 2.5 billion yen because of the yen and the higher price of its products abroad. The currency has now weakened to settle at around 102 yen to the dollar. For the entire fiscal year, which ends March 31, 1996, the company says it expects to register pre-tax profits of 35.00 billion yen, a 4.00 billion yen increase on the previous forecast, but still a drop from last year's 51.40 billion yen profit representing a drop of 31.9%. On the Tokyo Stock Exchange, Sony shares closed up 80 yen to 4740 on the news. (Martyn Williams/19951109) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 11/09/95 CORRECTION APPLE Correction - Apple Computers With Pentium Processors (CORRECTION)(APPLE)(SFO)(00017) Correction - Apple Computers With Pentium Processors 11/09/95 CUPERTINO, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1995 NOV 9 (NB) -- A recent Newsbytes story incorrectly stated that Mac users with PCI (Peripheral Component Interconnect) capabilities use a PCI board with 486DX2/66 power to process applications on Power Macs, Mac LCs, and the Mac Performa line. The text should have read: currently, Mac users are able process DOS and Windows applications using a NuBus board with 486DX2/66 power on selected models of Power Macs, Mac LCs, and the Mac Performa Line. At this time, Macs with PCI technology include Power Macs 7200, 7500, 8500, and 9500. Secondly, the story stated: When Apple introduced its Power Macintosh computer nineteen months ago, it claimed the new computer would run Windows applications through a software program. Software running software caused the Windows applications to run at a speed comparable to a 286 microprocessor which was considered too slow. A number of Newsbytes readers complained saying the software, Insignia Solutions' SoftWindows 1.0 for Power Macintosh, ran Window applications at a speed comparable to a 386, while other readers said its performance was comparable to a 486. Who is right? Insignia Solutions says all three responses are correct. There were complaints about Windows applications running comparable to a 286. The company says part of that complaint was due to the fact that SoftWindows 1.0 for Power Macintosh emulates a 286 instruction set. Emulating a 286 instruction set does not mean 286 performance, but Insignia Solutions says the statement caused a lot of confusion. Further clarifying performance issues, a company spokesperson told Newsbytes, "How a Windows application performs in SoftWindows depends on a number of factors. Depending on the amount of RAM and cache, the processor powering the computer and the size of the application, performance with version 1.0 could vary to comparable performance on a fast 286 up to an entry-level 486 processor. This past August, Insignia Solutions released SoftWindows 2.0 which emulates a 486 instruction set and runs at 486 speed. The program retails for $299. Regarding the PCI PC Compatibility card with a Pentium or 586 processor which Apple will be demonstrating at Comdex, the company emphasizes the event is strictly a technical demonstration and does not mean the company necessarily plans to produce the card for retail distribution. Apple says the demonstration with prototypes is offered only to show the technology is possible. (Patrick McKenna/19951109/) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 11/09/95 BUSINESS ****Ziff Davis Publishing Sold To Softbank For $2.1Bil (NEWS)(BUSINESS)(TYO)(00018) ****Ziff Davis Publishing Sold To Softbank For $2.1Bil 11/09/95 TOKYO, JAPAN, 1995 NOV 9 (NB) -- Japan's Softbank Corporation (TSE:9984), and its President Mayoshi Son, has walked away with Ziff Davis Publishing for $2.1 billion. In a press conference today, Son outlined plans for the company, which include a massive expansion in titles and forecasts of much greater circulation in the next ten years. The company is being bought from Forstmann Little, a Wall Street leverage buyout firm that bought the publishing division of Ziff Davis for $1.4 billion when the parent company was broken up a year ago. At the time, Softbank, Japan's largest publisher and distributor of computer-related magazines and software, attempted to buy the company, but was beaten by the current owner. It did manage to walk away with Ziff's exhibition arm for $202 million that included the Networld+Interop, Windows Solutions, and other computer trade shows. Under the terms of the deal, signed yesterday, Mayoshi Son's own MAC Inc. will pay $300 million for a slice of the company, with Softbank Corporation paying the remaining $1.8 billion part of the tab. MAC Inc. also owns the majority of Softbank Corporation. The company will result in an extra 6.7 billion yen added to its profits in the next fiscal year. Payment is due by February 29, 1996, by which time Softbank will have the estimated $662 million it raised from a sale of 2.8 million extra shares, just completed. The new deal now brings together Japan's biggest publisher of computer titles with America's largest computer publisher under a single roof. Ziff Davis Publishing includes PC Week, Mac User, PC Magazine, Computer Shopper, and the new PC Week and Mac User Online services. At a Tokyo press conference this afternoon, Mayoshi Son said he wants Ziff Davis to increase total circulation from nine million copies a month to 50 million copies by 2005. He said he also expects the group to publish a thousand different titles in ten years time, compared to the 130 that it currently publishes. Asked by reporters about possible changes in management, Son responded that he was very happy with the current management and no staff changes were planned. Softbank's other interests are increasingly more numerous, and include: Softbank Expos, organizer of the Comdex shows, among others; Gamebank, a joint venture with Microsoft to produce Windows 95 games software; a 60% share of MediaBank, a joint venture with NTT Data which will offer Internet access soon; a 25% share of Novell Japan; and 12% of Cisco Systems Japan; in addition to several other publishing and computer industry ventures. (Martyn Williams/19951109/SBANK951109/PHOTO) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 11/09/95 BUSINESS Harris Taking Over NovAtel's Wireless Unit (NEWS)(BUSINESS)(TOR)(00019) Harris Taking Over NovAtel's Wireless Unit 11/09/95 CALGARY, ALBERTA, CANADA, 1995 NOV 9 (NB) -- NovAtel Communications Ltd. has sold its wireless access products unit to Harris Corp. of Melbourne, Florida. The financial terms of the agreement are not being disclosed. NovAtel's wireless access operation makes cellular telephone systems for rural telecommunications markets, a market that Harris said has potential because of developing areas that want to set up communications systems quickly without installing cable. Spokesman Jim Burke of Harris said his company plans to maintain all the NovAtel unit's existing product lines and develop new products. The acquisition includes a 120,000 square-foot research, development, and manufacturing plant in Calgary, and Burke said Harris plans to maintain the operation in the same location. "The management, the staffing remains in place. Several Harris people, of course, will also be joining them," he said. This deal is Harris's fourth in four months in the communications market. The company bought Ohio-based Triplett Corp.'s cellular and telecommunications businesses in October, and Micro Computer Systems Inc. of North Carolina in September. In August, Harris launched a Chinese joint venture with Guangzhou Wire Communications Equipment Factory to provide telecommunications systems and services throughout China. Burke noted that Harris already has two operations in Canada: Calgary- based Harris Controls with about 200 employees, and a unit with about 600 employees in Montreal. Worldwide, Harris has sales of more than $3.4 billion, principally in electronic systems, semiconductors, communications, and office equipment. Harris has a home page on the World Wide Web at http://www.harris.com . (Grant Buckler/19951109/Press Contact: Jim Burke, Harris, 407-727-9126, Internet e-mail jburke@harris.com; Michael Macson, NovAtel, 403-295-4925) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 11/09/95 TRENDS ****Windows NT To Replace Unix - Survey (NEWS)(TRENDS)(SFO)(00020) ****Windows NT To Replace Unix - Survey 11/09/95 PALO ALTO, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1995 NOV 9 (NB) -- Hewlett-Packard (NYSE:HWP) conducted a survey of 200 senior technology managers at Fortune 1000 companies and their top concern was in-house expertise to integrate and support 32-bit operating systems. HP used the Boston Research Group to contact 200 information technology (IT) managers with worldwide responsibility for their companies' networks. Fifty-nine percent said integrating Windows NT into Unix, Netware, and other existing environments was a prime concern. Jonathan Goulden, HP's director of multivendor program, told Newsbytes, "In the corporate world, the thinking is that Windows NT is really the next wave of computing, and how to integrate it into existing systems is a major concern." He continued: "You have to realize this integration is like the move from proprietary systems, on the enterprise, to Unix. It is a very expensive move and it will not happen overnight, but the corporate world is preparing itself for the change. A lot of people think it will be one system over another, but we believe integration of 32-bit systems means a multiple system environment for some time, and we are prepared to equally service and support multiple platforms and systems." Forty-six percent of respondents said they plan to outsource Windows NT implementation to an outside provider, and 31 percent plan to outsource network design. Even HP was surprised to learn of the need to link Windows NT to existing environments, and that it is happening faster than expected. Forty percent of respondents said they expect to be running applications on 32-bit PC environments at the enterprise level within the next 18 months. Another 24% said they run applications in those environments today. With 92% saying their number one concern is technical and end-user training, HP says the service provider who can best meet the needs of multiple-environment service and support will become a leading force in corporate computing. The company also says the study reinforces its strategy to support Windows NT and is adding another 200 certified engineers to deliver remote support for NT environments and the hiring of an incremental 100 on-site engineers to provide support for Microsoft Back Office. The company has also formed and staffed a new research and development lab which focuses on Unix and Windows NT interoperability. Goulden also said he thought Windows 95 would eventually become the "client software of choice" as Windows NT implementation expands. (Patrick McKenna/19951109/Press Contact: Susan Baldwin, The Hoffman Agency, 408-286-2611) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 11/09/95 ONLINE Spyglass & InfiNet In Media Venture (NEWS)(ONLINE)(MSP)(00021) Spyglass & InfiNet In Media Venture 11/09/95 NAPERVILLE, ILLINOIS, U.S.A., 1995 NOV 9 (NB) -- A Spyglass Inc. (NASDAQ:SPYG) official has confirmed to Newsbytes that it has entered into a licensing agreement with InfiNet Company, a Knight-Ridder and Landmark Communications joint venture, to help newspapers establish an Internet World Wide Web presence. Specifically, Spyglass will license its Enhanced Mosaic Web client software to InfiNet. The story was first published in the Wall Street Journal this morning, with the paper saying an announcement was "expected" sometime today. Specific terms of the agreement were not announced. "What I think this represents is a marketplace that's really going to grow," Marcus C. Miller, Spyglass' executive vice president of marketing and business development, told Newsbytes. "People are migrating quickly to the Web. (Today's announcement) allows a lot of different newspapers to establish an online World Wide Web presence. By having the (Spyglass) browser technology as a component of their system, it makes InfiNet's job a lot easier." The Spyglass Mosaic client technology will be available as an option on InfiNet's online "solution" for its media customers by June, 1996, officials said. InfiNet, established in 1994 by Knight-Ridder and Landmark, assists publishers establish services on the Web without "substantial capital investment," officials said. The publishers receive revenue from InfiNet, which shares access fees with them. Spyglass has been riding high on recent announcements. Last week, the company released its financial results which exceed analysts' predictions. For the fiscal year 1995, Spyglass' net revenue was up 185 percent at $10.35 million, and net income was up 64 percent at $2.18 million. Yesterday, Spyglass announced it would incorporate Sun Microsystems' Java technology into future versions of Mosaic, one of which should be out early next year. The Java language lets Web page developers incorporate features like three-dimensional (3-D) graphics, multi-user games, up-to-the-second sports information, and live stock portfolio management. Spyglass' stock on Wall Street certainly has been "lively" as of late, with the company's recent announcements. At 11:30 EST today, Spyglass shares were trading at $75.25, up $3. The company's stock has been on the move upward since its earnings were released last week. (Bob Woods/19951009/Press Contact: Randy Pitzer, Spyglass, 708-505-1010, Internet e-mail rpitzer@spyglass.com) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 11/09/95 TRENDS All-day Zinc Air Batteries Intro'd (NEWS)(TRENDS)(DEN)(00022) All-day Zinc Air Batteries Intro'd 11/09/95 SMYRNA, GEORGIA, U.S.A., 1995 NOV 9 (NB) -- AER Energy Resources Inc. (NASDAQ: AERN) has announced improvements to its rechargeable zinc-air battery technology that will make it possible to build batteries that can run full-featured portable computers for a "full working day." Better yet, the batteries will only be about half the size and weight of earlier batteries. #IMAGE 1 20 TWPCX \images\95110922.PCX Click here for photo AER said prototype batteries using four energy cells of the new design contain 140 watt hours, or 35 amp-hours, of energy, weigh 1.8 pounds, and can operate a full function notebook computer for up to 12 hours between charges. AER compares that to what it calls "today's typical computer battery," with 30 to 40 watt hours of energy, weighing one to 1.5 pounds, and running only two to three hours between charges. AER engineers said improvements made in the past year include adding a second air electrode to double the surface area for the battery's chemical reaction and increasing the amount of zinc used. They said those changes resulted in an increase of 50 percent in energy density weight to 220 watt hours per kilogram and cutting the recharge time in half. An AER spokesperson told Newsbytes that makes the recharge time for the improved battery 8-10 hours. Zinc-air batteries use oxygen from the air we breath to fuel a chemical reaction that generates electricity. The air is drawn in using a built-in fan. The four-volt (operating voltage 4.8 to 3.6 volts) zinc-air battery is seven inches long by 5.3-inches wide and 1.4-inches high. Reaction is controlled by allowing airflow during discharge, and blocking airflow to the cells during charge and when the battery is not in use. The air manager is built into the portable computer. An AER spokesperson explained to Newsbytes that an air cathode absorbs oxygen to generate electrical current on discharge and expels oxygen during battery recharge. The electricity is produced when oxygen which has bonded inside the battery cell in the form of nickel oxyhydroxide is released to produce a chemical reaction. AER currently markets two accessory zinc-air batteries. The AER Energy PowerPro runs several models of Toshiba notebooks for up to 15 hours on a single charge, and the Powerslice LX runs the Hewlett-Packard Omnibook 600 series for up to 12 hours between charges. The company said evaluation samples of the improved cell will be available to select OEMs (original equipment manufacturers) in early 1996. (Jim Mallory/19951109/Press contact: Stephani Harrison, Crescent Communications for AER Energy Resources, 404-698-8650; Public contact: AER Energy Resources, tel 404-433-2127 or 800-769-3720, fax 404-433-2286/ZINCAIR951109/PHOTO) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 11/09/95 LEGAL Microsoft's Anti-piracy Campaign Targets Resellers (NEWS)(LEGAL)(DEN)(00023) Microsoft's Anti-piracy Campaign Targets Resellers 11/09/95 REDMOND, WASHINGTON, U.S.A., 1995 NOV 9 (NB) -- Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ: MSFT) has launched a national anti-piracy campaign to address the problem of hard disk loading of pirated software by resellers. The company said it's launching the campaign to support legitimate resellers of Microsoft products and to help decrease unfair competition by "pirate" dealers. It is common practice for computer OEMs (original equipment manufacturers) and resellers to add value to a PC by loading the operating system software and various applications at the time of sale. The campaign isn't Microsoft's first foray into the world of law enforcement. It is an active member of the Business Software Alliance, a trade group that fights applications software piracy and has been active in shutting down bulletin board systems (BBSs) that illegally distribute copyrighted software. Microsoft said this campaign, which will be undertaken in various parts of the US and Canada, is aimed specifically at hard disk loading of systems software such as MS-DOS and Microsoft Windows. The thrust of the program will be educational, said the software company. It will use education and one-on-one meetings with vendors rather than raids and lawsuits, although those tactics are an alternative if the soft-sell approach doesn't work. While this is the first public announcement of the campaign, Microsoft has been conducting a six-month long investigation of 54 computer resellers suspected of software piracy in the California area known as "Silicon Valley." Based on tips from various sources, including the company's own toll-free anti-piracy hotline, Microsoft notified each of the suspect resellers by letter of the "illegal nature of their activity" and requested they provide their customers with licensed copies of the Microsoft software they pre-load on their computer systems. Microsoft said more than half of the resellers stopped their "infringing activity" when they received the "cease-and-desist" letter, while 23 continued to load illegal copies of Microsoft MS-DOS and Windows onto hard disks. Microsoft has conducted what it called "settlement negotiations" with each of those resellers, confronting them with evidence of their illegal activity. All but four have agreed to a settlement with Microsoft. The settlements include payment of damages and ceasing the practice of hard disk loading with illegally obtained software, according to Microsoft. Litigation against Art Multimedia Systems Inc. of Milpitas, California, the one reseller who refused to settle, is still pending. The remaining three resellers are still in negotiations with Microsoft. If you have questions about the legitimacy of any Microsoft product, you can contact the company by telephone on their toll-free hotline at 800-785-3448 or send an e-mail to piracymicrosoft.com . (Jim Mallory/19951109/Press contact: Erin Carney, Microsoft, 206-882-8080; Public contact: Microsoft, 206-882-8080 or 800-426-9400 for general info or 800-785-3448 to report suspected illegal software) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 11/09/95 WINDOWS ****Windows 95 Is A Hacker's Dream Over The Internet (NEWS)(WINDOWS)(HKG)(00024) ****Windows 95 Is A Hacker's Dream Over The Internet 11/09/95 CENTRAL, HONG KONG, 1995 NOV 9 (NB) -- Windows 95, combined with the Internet, could be a dream made in hacker heaven. From seasoned propeller heads Newsbytes has contacted, it looks like Windows 95 could be more of a security nightmare than was first thought. This is especially true where fixed link companies are concerned. An investigation of the new operating system, when hooked onto the Internet, leaves computers wide open. Executing a series of simple, uncomplicated commands opens up company and private users' computers to hacking the moment they access the Internet, claim some analysts. Worse, they may never know it has been done. Using a simple Unix command, a hacker can locate the IP (Internet protocol) address of the subscriber logged into an Internet service provider. Then he needs only one more thing; a logged-on Internet user using Microsoft's new operating system. For businesses with leased line Internet links, it can happen at any time, day or night. Once the IP address has been noted, the hacker simply creates a file through DOS on his own system, specifying the address and naming it. Using two other commands -- which purge the remote names on the IP, or Internet provider's port -- the system then refreshes and remaps itself in preparation to be accessed by the hacker's computer. Because Windows 95 is designed with a networking capability, it leaves all computers in the office open to illegal access. Once the hacker has called up his Map Network Drive, the hard disk on his own machine cannot be differentiated from that of the genuine user. All that need be done then is to put in a common drive name, most obviously "C:\." For networked machines, the default "C$" is common. This gives access to all files on the subscriber's drive. While Windows 95 allows the user to protect the drive by giving it a password, computer experts Newsbytes talked to said that device won't necessarily lock out intruders. Because the operating system has no "audit" trail -- in other words, it does not log who or how someone is accessing the drive -- a hacker can spend weeks trying to discover the password. Password search programs, like Cracker, are readily available and can break through most simple password sequences. (Joel McCormick & I.T. Daily/19951109) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 11/09/95 BUSINESS ****Thinking Machines Leaving Bankruptcy (NEWS)(BUSINESS)(BOS)(00025) ****Thinking Machines Leaving Bankruptcy 11/09/95 BEDFORD, MASSACHUSETTS, U.S.A., 1995 NOV 9 (NB) -- Thinking Machines will leave bankruptcy over the next 60 to 90 days through a newly filed $10 million recapitalization plan, and is now in the process of porting its parallel processing systems software and Darwin decision support (DSS) applications to Sun Microsystems' new UltraSparc-based systems, said Thinking Machines CEO (Chief Executive Officer) Robert Doretti, in an interview with Newsbytes. "We've now been profitable for the past four quarters. So we're making money and selling product, which is really the most exciting part," the Thinking Machines chief maintained, speaking with Newsbytes over the phone from the San Francisco airport, where he was between flights. Thinking Machines filed for Chapter 11 protection in August, 1994. Doretti took the helm at the company in January, 1995. Thinking Machines' new recapitalization plan was filed consensually with creditors and "old equity," Doretti added. "That means they like the business plan, the product plan, the direction, and the structure," he asserted. The plan calls for creditors and equity partners to gain a 14.5 percent share of Thinking Machines, as well as for the formation of a new "patent entity," a separate company, run by the creditors and equity partners, to allow Thinking Machines' creditors "recoup their debt," Newsbytes was told. In exchange, the creditors will relinquish one-third of the debt. "So Thinking Machines will be debt free. The debt will be with the patent entity," Doretti reported. Patents held by Thinking Machines include the patent for RAID (redundant array of inexpensive disks), according to a company spokesperson. Also under the financial plan, Doretti said, Thinking Machines will team with the New York City investment firm of Ladenbury, Thalmann to raise $10 million in recapitalization funds from private investors as the filing moves through the court process. Thinking Machines' product strategy calls for "a combination of software, systems integration, and systems," the CEO noted. Thinking Machines will continue to sell its Connections multiparallel processing (MPP) machine, and to support the supercomputer with upgrades and add-ons. In fact, the company has recently sold two or three Connections supercomputers, he pointed out. "But we'll also be more generic, so we will not have to be bound by Connections only. We plan to take our highly touted parallel processing software suite and move it to other platforms," he revealed. The as yet unannounced parallel processing systems software for SMP (symmetrical multiprocessing) systems will be known as GlobalWorks. Thinking Machines will also migrate its Darwin data mining application to Sun and other platforms, he said. The first port in the product strategy, a version of Darwin for Sun's new UltraSparc-based servers, will be released in the first quarter of 1996, according to Doretti. Thinking Machines will also release a client-server edition of Darwin and an SMP (symmetrical multiprocessor) edition of GlobalWorks for Sun platforms, to be followed by ports of the Thinking Machines software to SMP systems from other hardware vendors. Ultimately, the software will run on SMP clusters, as well. "We will also hopefully jointly market (products) with the hardware platforms that run our software," according to Doretti. "You can take SMP systems today, and by clustering them, make them just as powerful as a MPP. So we'll be able to appeal to a broader base of users. But we're being very conservative about this. We're going slow. We're doing Sun first, and making it happen. Then we'll move on to other companies," he elaborated. Doretti noted that when he first joined Thinking Machines, Darwin was in beta testing at several sites in the US. "But it wasn't being marketed." To beef up development, he subsequently hired seven additional engineers, he recalled. The CEO added that Thinking Machines, based in a leased space in Cambridge, Massachusetts since its founding, moved on Columbus Day weekend to a 90,000-square-foot leased site in suburban Bedford, Massachusetts. "Cambridge real estate goes for $20 to $21 per square foot, and we got close to 90,000 square feet (in Bedford) for only $10 per square foot. So financially it was the best thing for us to do," Doretti acknowledged. "The move went very well. I was extremely pleased by the support of our employees. The employees have done one outstanding job in helping me keep the company going forward and establishing its strategy. They're a bunch of hard-working, skillful people," the CEO continued. "There was a little bit of nervousness among the employees in moving from Cambridge, like anybody would have. But everybody came, and they're working full force. We have a `new family' out in Bedford," Doretti told Newsbytes. Debra Goldfarb, director, Workstations and High-Performance Systems for International Data Corporation (IDC), told Newsbytes that the "timing is right" for the upcoming introduction of Thinking Machines' GlobalWorks parallel processing software for SMP. "We have very high expectations for this. The product positions very well. The market is definitely poised to exploit higher levels of parallelism," added the IDC analyst. (Jacqueline Emigh/110995/Reader Contact: Thinking Machines Corp., 617-276-0400; Press Contacts: Martha Keeley, Thinking Machines, 617-276-0400; Erika Schutz, Mullen Public Relations for Thinking Machines, 508-468-1155) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 11/09/95 BROADCAST High Definition TV Test Over ATM Network Successful (NEWS)(BROADCAST)(DEN)(00026) High Definition TV Test Over ATM Network Successful 11/09/95 ATLANTA, GEORGIA, U.S.A., 1995 NOV 9 (NB) -- It only went 510 miles, but BellSouth and the HDTV Grand Alliance said new technological ground was broken with the transmission of a high-definition television (HDTV) signal over an ATM (asynchronous transfer mode) network. The test was reportedly the first time digital HDTV signals have been sent over a commercial ATM network. The test was conducted during field tests of the Grand Alliance system in Charlotte, North Carolina. According to Dr. David Kettler, executive director of science and technology for Bellsouth and co-chairman of the ACATS Systems Analysis Working Party, the combined flexibility of digital HDTV and the ATM public switched networks has the potential to dramatically change audio-visual communications. "Digital HDTV makes it possible to merge high quality television with the personal computer, enabling a wide range of interactive multimedia applications for consumer, business and government markets," said Dr. Kettler. ACATS, the Advisory Committee on Advanced Television Services, was formed by the Federal Communications Commission to oversee the HDTV development and selection process. ACATS is generally expected to recommend to the FCC that it adopt the Grand Alliance system as the technical standard for the next generation of US television broadcasting, eventually replacing the current NTSC (North American Television Standards Committee) standard. The purpose of the recent series of ATM tests, which involved BellSouth and Grand Alliance member The David Sarnoff Research Center, was to demonstrate that the Grand Alliance's advanced television (ATV) packet transport system can be interfaced with an ATM network. The Grand Alliance system uses the MPEG-2 (Motion Picture Experts Group type 2) standard for video coding and transport stream protocols. To carry a Grand Alliance bitstream over an ATM network the 188-byte transport packets are split into smaller ATM-size payloads and formed into ATM cells. The cells, with appropriate ATM headers and syntax are then transmitted through an ATM network. At the receiving end they are converted back into MPEG-2 transport packets, reconstituting the original ATV bitstream. BellSouth provided the fiber optic link to the BellSouth ATM network at the Charlotte field test site. The Grand Alliance is comprised of the David Sarnoff Research Center, AT&T, General Instruments, MIT, Philips Consumer Electronics, Thomson Consumer Electronics and Zenith Electronics Corp. (Jim Mallory/19951109/Press contact: Karen Roughton, BellSouth, 404-330-0188 or John Taylor, Zenith, 708-391-8181) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 11/09/95 BUSINESS Zenith/LG Electronics Stock Buyout Final (NEWS)(BUSINESS)(MSP)(00027) Zenith/LG Electronics Stock Buyout Final 11/09/95 GLENVIEW, ILLINOIS, U.S.A., 1995 NOV 9 (NB) -- On the heels of LG Electronics' (LGE) purchase of almost 58 percent of outstanding shares in Zenith Electronics (NYSE:ZE) at $351 million, Zenith said Kell Benson, senior vice president-finance and chief financial officer, has left the company. Also, Zenith's board has named William McNitt acting chief financial officer and Richard Lueck acting chief accounting officer. McNitt has been Zenith's vice president-treasurer since 1989, while Lueck has served as vice president-controller. Lueck signed onto Zenith earlier this year from IBM. The executive shuffle comes one day after LGE bought both new 16.5 million new shares of stock issued by Zenith and 18.6 million shares from current Zenith stockholders. The shares were purchased at $10 a piece, $1.75 more than what the stock traded for today at 11:30 AM EST on Wall Street. With the stock buy, LGE has elected six directors to Zenith's ten person board. In addition, J.J. Lee, LGE chairman and chief executive officer, is now also Zenith's chairman of the board, succeeding Jerry K. Pearlman. Lee expressed confidence in Zenith President Al Moschner's "ability to lead Zenith into the future," and said Zenith will continue to operate separately, with the company's shares still trading on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE). Today, Reuters quoted LGE officials as saying Zenith will turn a profit in fiscal 1997 or 1998 after years of losses, including more than $14 million in 1995. The company last reported a profit back in 1988. Zenith intends to use much of LGE's invested capital to support its color picture tube capacity and technology initiatives, and to support its growing Network Systems cable products business. Newsbytes first reported on the stock deal last July between LGE, formerly known as GoldStar, and Zenith, dubbed the last US-owned television maker. At the time, Zenith officials said the acquisition would "build upon" the more than 20-year relation between the two companies, which began when LGE built radios for Zenith in the mid-1970s. (Bob Woods/19951109/Press Contacts: John Taylor, Zenith Electronics, 708-391-7713; Matt Afflixio, Access Public Relations, 415-904-7070) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 11/09/95 ONLINE RCA Home Theatre Unit With Internet, Online Access (NEWS)(ONLINE)(MSP)(00028) RCA Home Theatre Unit With Internet, Online Access 11/09/95 NEW YORK CITY, NEW YORK, U.S.A., 1995 NOV 9 (NB) -- If a new RCA Home Theater consumer product makes it out of the concept stage into full production, accessing the various online services and the Internet may be as easy as turning on a television set. RCA officials demonstrated a prototype of its concept called "Genius Theatre" in New York City. Genius Theatre is an advanced RCA 35-inch color TV with a built-in CD-ROM changer and a wireless keyboard, officials said. Room for two audio/video components and pullout drawers for compact disk (CD) storage are also included. Access to Genius Theatre's functions are provide by an on-screen display combined with a point-and-click remote control, officials said. The user moves a cursor on the screen with the remote to activate various operating or program features and clicks. The screen then immediately displays a menu of options concerning the feature in question. With the system, RCA officials said online services like America Online, Prodigy, and Compuserve could be accessed, along with a gateway to the Internet. For television viewing, the Genius Theatre concept unit also has an anti-glare screen, a picture tube that has "outstanding color purity," Dolby ProLogic Surround Sound capability, video noise reduction, a wideband video amplifier, and a front enclosure speaker system. "We view the information highway as being primarily entertainment- based," James Harper, Thomson Consumer Electronics spokesperson, told Newsbytes. "That's the kind of product we've been making all these years. In addition to traditional types of entertainment, in the future we believe there will be certain services you can access and programs you can access through your big-screen TV. We feel most of those services are going to be entertainment based." The big question that needs to be answered before a product like this comes to market is if consumers will want it, Harper said. "There's going to have to be a considerable increase in demand for this kind of product before we're going to be building it in the volumes we typically build televisions," he said. "There are other ways to give the consumer the power of interactive services" without going the television route, he added. (Bob Woods/19951109/Press Contacts: Frank McCann or James Harper, Thomson Consumer Electronics, 317-587-4450) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 11/09/95 ONLINE ****GE Seeks Buyer For Genie Online Service? (NEWS)(ONLINE)(LON)(00029) ****GE Seeks Buyer For Genie Online Service? 11/09/95 ROCKVILLE, MARYLAND, U.S.A., 1995 NOV 9 (NB) -- Rumors are circulating that General Electric (GE) is looking for a buyer for its long-running Genie online service. According to Doug Wolford, a spokesman for GE, the rumors appear to be have been started by a journalist writing in the Washington Post late last week, surmising that the logical step for GE is to sell its online service. Walford, responding to Newsbytes' questions regarding media reports that the service is up for grabs, said that the reporter saw Genie as pursuing a games market, and that "this probably has started the latest rash of media reports that the service is up for sale. "It all sounds likes speculation to me. Whether there are any business developments or not is not for GE to comment. If and when anything happens, we will announce it as it happens," he told Newsbytes. The media reports, meanwhile, say that GE is working with Allen & Co, an investment bank that deals with financial deals of this type for the company. Rumors surrounding the possible sale of the Genie online service have surfaced several times in the past, Newsbytes notes. Since the last reports earlier this year, GE has invested heavily in upgrading its Marknet Internet PDN (packet data network) from its current 2,400/9,600 bits-per-second (bps) access ports to higher speeds, as well as developing a new Windows GUI (graphical user interface) for the Genie online service. However, while America Online, CompuServe, and Prodigy -- the three main players in the US online market -- have done well in subscriber sign-up terms, Genie has an estimated 100,000 subscribers, a figure that GE has been touting for some time as its subscriber base. GE's Marknet PDN, like CompuServe's Network Service, is in place for the company's business customers. Like CompuServe's online service, GE's cost of running the Marknet PDN is largely defrayed by its business customers, allowing the company favorable rates for allowing consumer online subscribers access across the US. Genie has been available to subscribers in the US and Canada for some time, and the company launched its service in Germany a few years ago. Plans originally called for the service to launch in the UK within that same time frame, but the launch was put on hold for what GE officials said at the time were "competitive pressures." (Steve Gold/19951109/Press Contact: Doug Walford, General Electric 301-340-4559) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 11/09/95 BUSINESS Quarterdeck Turns The Corner With Record Revenues (NEWS)(BUSINESS)(SFO)(00030) Quarterdeck Turns The Corner With Record Revenues 11/09/95 MARINA DEL REY, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1995 NOV 9 (NB) -- Going from a memory product company undergoing difficult times, to record fourth quarter revenues is causing smiles at Quarterdeck (NASDAQ:QDEK). Along with quadrupling revenues over the same quarter last year, the company says it will unveil its full-duplex Internet telephone, Web Talk, and other new products at Comdex. A little over a year ago, the well-known memory manager giant hit tough times. The board of directors brought Gaston Bastiaens, previously with Apple Computer, in to the company as president and chief executive officer, and a new strategy was developed to expand the company from a single product line, single platform company to a multiple platform, multiple product company. One of the first developments was the addition of a line of Internet products for both the server and client environment. Memory products remain a major part of the company's strategy, but more than 50% of sales are now coming from non-memory products. Quarterdeck reports $20.3 million in revenues for its fourth quarter, ending September 30, 1995. In the same period last year, revenues totaled $5.4 million. Income for this quarter was $3.2 million before taxes and one-time charges. As a result of an aggressive acquisition strategy which brought Prospero Systems and StarNine Technologies into the company, Quarterdeck took a one-time charge of $3.8 million. The charge caused an overall quarter net loss of $562,000. For its fiscal 1995 year, Quarterdeck brought in $70.7 million, another company record, and listed its net income after one-time charges at $4.1 million. This compares with a net loss in 1994 of $21.2 million which included one-time restructuring charges of $13.5 million. Bastiaens said in a press statement, "These record revenues reflect the results of a successful turnaround at Quarterdeck. Our results have been achieved by introducing a new line of products for the Internet and Windows 95, expanding in international markets, focusing on marketing and building the management team." Not willing to rest, Quarterdeck is moving into a new fiscal year with WebTalk, QEMM 8, and WebCompass. These new products will be featured at Comdex along with a special appearance by actor John de Lancie who plays "Q" in the television series StarTrek. Early Internet telephone products were half-duplex which constrained users to talking as if they were using a walkie-talkie where only one person can speak at once. Full-duplex products are like regular, simultaneous telephone conversations. Using Internet Relay Chat, two Internet users with this software can talk to one another at standard telephone quality. The WebTalk package includes two licenses each for WebTalk and Quarterdeck Mosaic, the company's Web browser, plus a microphone from Labtec and one month's free Internet access if the user subscribes to Netcom On-Line Communications services. Quarterdeck expects an anticipated street price of less than $50 for WebTalk. QEMM 8, the company's latest memory management product, is designed to enhance Windows 3.1 and Windows 95 performance. QEMM 8 includes MagnaRAM which is capable of increasing RAM performance by 60 to 70%. Quarterdeck is quick to separate MagnaRAM from SoftRam, a RAM doubling product, which has received extensive negative press in the past week. The new QEMM still enhances the first megabyte of RAM for Windows 3.1 and Windows 95. WebCompass is a new Internet product which allows users to have their own Internet search tool. The product allows users to create custom searches using various Internet search tools and engines at defined intervals. How big is Quarterdeck's turnaround. Earlier this year, its stock was as low as $3 per share. Yesterday, Quarterdeck stock sold for $28. A company spokesperson told Newsbytes, "The spirits are very high here. This is a great announcement about very hard labor paying off." (Patrick McKenna/1995/Press Contact: Rolph Rudestam, The Rudestam Group, 909-585-2012) (SUMMARY)(GENERAL)(MSP)(00031) Newsbytes Daily Summary 11/09/95 MINNEAPOLIS, MINNESOTA, U.S.A., 1995 NOV 9 (NB) -- These are capsules of all today's news stories: ======================================================================== ------------| N E W S B Y T E S D A I L Y S U M M A R Y |---------- ------------| Thursday, November 9, 1995 |---------- ======================================================================== (c) Newsbytes News Network (Tm) Editor in Chief: Wendy Woods ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Newsbytes News Network's on the Web! Check out http://www.nbnn.com for free daily top stories from Newsbytes and its affiliate publications, and from PC Week, MacWeek, and other Ziff news magazines. A subscription gives you all the news, full-text, plus the most comprehensive database of past computer stories online. 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Send to 'administrator@newsbytes.com' For Japanese Newsbytes and additional services, see the Newsbytes Pacifica Website at http://www.islandtel.com/newsbytes/ ------------------------------------------------------------------------ CATEGORY HEADLINES (*** indicates today's top stories) STORY # ======================================================================== APPLE T'Was Putt-Putt's Night Before Christmas................... 04 APPLE Correction - Apple Computers With Pentium Processors....... 17 BROADCAST China - Digital Broadcasting Planned....................... 09 BROADCAST Elek-Tek's National "Infomercial........................... 11 BROADCAST High Definition TV Test Over ATM Network Successful........ 26 BUSINESS AT&T To Maintain Investment Plan In China.................. 08 BUSINESS Sony Reports Strong First Half Earnings.................... 16 BUSINESS ****Ziff Davis Publishing Sold To Softbank For $2.1Bil.... 18 BUSINESS Harris Taking Over NovAtel's Wireless Unit................. 19 BUSINESS ****Thinking Machines Leaving Bankruptcy.................. 25 BUSINESS Zenith/LG Electronics Stock Buyout Final................... 27 BUSINESS Quarterdeck Turns The Corner With Record Revenues.......... 30 GENERAL AST Signs Ex-Apple Exec As CEO............................. 05 LEGAL Microsoft's Anti-piracy Campaign Targets Resellers......... 23 ONLINE Netbuddy Automates Internet Site Checking.................. 02 ONLINE New Health Care E-Mail Newsletter.......................... 03 ONLINE US Presidential Race Coverage On The Web................... 07 ONLINE ****Israeli Univ Expels Student Over Internet Message..... 13 ONLINE Internet Update............................................ 14 ONLINE Japan - Sony & NTT Plan New Computer Network............... 15 ONLINE Spyglass & InfiNet In Media Venture........................ 21 ONLINE RCA Home Theatre Unit With Internet, Online Access......... 28 ONLINE ****GE Seeks Buyer For Genie Online Service............... 29 TRENDS Hong Kong Forex Futures Market Opens....................... 06 TRENDS ****MCI To Sell Music CD's By Phone, Internet............. 12 TRENDS ****Windows NT To Replace Unix - Survey................... 20 TRENDS All-day Zinc Air Batteries Intro'd......................... 22 UNIX EMC's Shared Mainframe/Unix RAID, Deals With HP & AT&T..... 10 WINDOWS UK - Access Intros Word Processing Translation Prgm........ 01 WINDOWS ****Windows 95 Is A Hacker's Dream Over The Internet...... 24 ======================================================================== These are the headlines and first paragraphs of each story, in order: 1 -> UK - Access Intros Word Processing Translation Prgm -- Access Software International has unveiled Accent Duo with Translation, a Windows-based package that integrates Accent's word processor, Accent, to allow integrated language translation. 2 -> Netbuddy Automates Internet Site Checking -- With the Internet growing by leaps and bounds, it can be time-consuming, and sometimes even frustrating, to visit all your favorite sites regularly. But Internet Solutions Inc. is offering a free software tool it says is designed to simplify access to those locations, as well as automatically scan them for changes in order to keep the user up-to-date about specified topics. 3 -> New Health Care E-Mail Newsletter -- St. Anthony Publishing Inc. aims to simplify the accessing of health information on the Internet. The company is introducing what it calls the "first" electronic-mail newsletter in the US that will guide health care pros and consumers to the electronic information. 4 -> T'Was Putt-Putt's Night Before Christmas -- Christmas may seem a long way off, but the folks at Humongous Entertainment know better, and they've released Putt-Putt's Night Before Christmas, a children's book that comes with a read-along audio tape. The book and tape are free with the purchase of any of the company's "edutainment" products on CD-ROM. 5 -> AST Signs Ex-Apple Exec As CEO -- AST has announced that 46 year-old Australian Ian Diery will to take over as president and chief executive officer (CEO). The former executive vice president and general manager of Apple's personal computer division, takes over from Jim Schraith, who resigned earlier in the year. 6 -> Hong Kong Forex Futures Market Opens -- US$40 million was chalked up by Hong Kong's first rolling currency futures market during the first half day of trading, according to Digital Equipment Corp, which installed the trading technology. 7 -> US Presidential Race Coverage On The Web -- Details on developments and news from the upcoming US Presidential election are coming to the Internet's World Wide Web early next year. The Washington Post's Digital Ink, Newsweek Magazine, and ABC News will team up to launch ElectionLine on the Web starting in January, 1996. 8 -> AT&T To Maintain Investment Plan In China -- An AT&T (China) spokesman recently denied the possibility of any change in its investment plan in China, despite the telecoms firm splitting into three independent companies. 9 -> China - Digital Broadcasting Planned -- DAB (digital audio broadcast) and digital TV are expected to begin soon in China, said an official with the State Science and Technology Commission (SSTC). However, HDTV (high definition TV) may be too expensive for most users, he said. 10 -> EMC's Shared Mainframe/Unix RAID, Deals With HP & AT&T -- EMC expects to generate hundreds of millions of dollars in 1996 through newly inked deals with HP and AT&T GIS, with many more millions to come from EMC's new unveiled Symmetrix Enterprise Storage Platform (ESP), a system billed as the first to allow shared mainframe and Unix storage, maintained EMC VP David Donatelli, in an interview with Newsbytes. 11 -> Elek-Tek's National "Infomercial -- Computer retailer and direct-mail marketer Elek-Tek Inc. (NASDAQ:ELEK) will hit the "air" on cable television with a series of "infomercials." The company will broadcast the show "Computer Wonderland" starting Saturday, November 18, at 12:00 noon EST on the Cable News and Business Channel (CNBC), along with several different local TV markets at different times. 12 -> ****MCI To Sell Music CD's By Phone, Internet -- MCI Corp. (NASDAQ:MCIC) is expanding its electronic influence into the world of music retailing. The telecommunications giant said it has opened a service, called "1-800-MUSICNOW," which will feature audio clips, live operator help, and over-the-phone ordering of CD's and cassettes. 13 -> ****Israeli Univ Expels Student Over Internet Message -- An Israeli University has expelled a student after he sent a message publicly supporting the recent assassination of Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin. The student studied at Bar Ilan University, the same university that confessed killer Yigal Amir, and Rabin's injured bodyguard studied. 14 -> Internet Update -- In this update of new resources and services on the global Internet: Telekom Malaysia; Andy Kane's art online; Global climate home page; The big vote; National index to Bulgaria; Watch the world; Native American art; Datamocracy demographic and geographic data; Guide to Linux applications; San Francisco museum online; The New York subway home page; Robert Morris Hunt's art photography. 15 -> Japan - Sony & NTT Plan New Computer Network -- Four of Japan's major electronics and NTT are planning a new computer communications network for the country, according to a Nihon Keizai Shimbun report, confirmed to Newsbytes by industry sources. 16 -> Sony Reports Strong First Half Earnings -- Keeping a promise it made six months ago to move back into the black, Sony Corporation (TSE:6758) has announced financial results for the first half of the current fiscal year showing a healthy pre-tax profit and improved forecasts for the full year. 17 -> Correction - Apple Computers With Pentium Processors -- A recent Newsbytes story incorrectly stated that Mac users with PCI (Peripheral Component Interconnect) capabilities use a PCI board with 486DX2/66 power to process applications on Power Macs, Mac LCs, and the Mac Performa line. 18 -> ****Ziff Davis Publishing Sold To Softbank For $2.1Bil -- Japan's Softbank Corporation (TSE:9984), and its President Mayoshi Son, has walked away with Ziff Davis Publishing for $2.1 billion. In a press conference today, Son outlined plans for the company, which include a massive expansion in titles and forecasts of much greater circulation in the next ten years. 19 -> Harris Taking Over NovAtel's Wireless Unit -- NovAtel Communications Ltd. has sold its wireless access products unit to Harris Corp. of Melbourne, Florida. The financial terms of the agreement are not being disclosed. 20 -> ****Windows NT To Replace Unix - Survey -- Hewlett-Packard (NYSE:HWP) conducted a survey of 200 senior technology managers at Fortune 1000 companies and their top concern was in-house expertise to integrate and support 32-bit operating systems. 21 -> Spyglass & InfiNet In Media Venture -- A Spyglass Inc. (NASDAQ:SPYG) official has confirmed to Newsbytes that it has entered into a licensing agreement with InfiNet Company, a Knight-Ridder and Landmark Communications joint venture, to help newspapers establish an Internet World Wide Web presence. Specifically, Spyglass will license its Enhanced Mosaic Web client software to InfiNet. 22 -> All-day Zinc Air Batteries Intro'd -- AER Energy Resources Inc. (NASDAQ: AERN) has announced improvements to its rechargeable zinc-air battery technology that will make it possible to build batteries that can run full-featured portable computers for a "full working day." Better yet, the batteries will only be about half the size and weight of earlier batteries. 23 -> Microsoft's Anti-piracy Campaign Targets Resellers -- Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ: MSFT) has launched a national anti-piracy campaign to address the problem of hard disk loading of pirated software by resellers. 24 -> ****Windows 95 Is A Hacker's Dream Over The Internet -- Windows 95, combined with the Internet, could be a dream made in hacker heaven. From seasoned propeller heads Newsbytes has contacted, it looks like Windows 95 could be more of a security nightmare than was first thought. 25 -> ****Thinking Machines Leaving Bankruptcy -- Thinking Machines will leave bankruptcy over the next 60 to 90 days through a newly filed $10 million recapitalization plan, and is now in the process of porting its parallel processing systems software and Darwin decision support (DSS) applications to Sun Microsystems' new UltraSparc-based systems, said Thinking Machines CEO (Chief Executive Officer) Robert Doretti, in an interview with Newsbytes. 26 -> High Definition TV Test Over ATM Network Successful -- It only went 510 miles, but BellSouth and the HDTV Grand Alliance said new technological ground was broken with the transmission of a high-definition television (HDTV) signal over an ATM (asynchronous transfer mode) network. 27 -> Zenith/LG Electronics Stock Buyout Final -- On the heels of LG Electronics' (LGE) purchase of almost 58 percent of outstanding shares in Zenith Electronics (NYSE:ZE) at $351 million, Zenith said Kell Benson, senior vice president-finance and chief financial officer, has left the company. Also, Zenith's board has named William McNitt acting chief financial officer and Richard Lueck acting chief accounting officer. 28 -> RCA Home Theatre Unit With Internet, Online Access -- If a new RCA Home Theater consumer product makes it out of the concept stage into full production, accessing the various online services and the Internet may be as easy as turning on a television set. RCA officials demonstrated a prototype of its concept called "Genius Theatre" in New York City. 29 -> ****GE Seeks Buyer For Genie Online Service -- Rumors are circulating that General Electric (GE) is looking for a buyer for its long-running Genie online service. According to Doug Wolford, a spokesman for GE, the rumors appear to be have been started by a journalist writing in the Washington Post late last week, surmising that the logical step for GE is to sell its online service. 30 -> Quarterdeck Turns The Corner With Record Revenues -- Going from a memory product company undergoing difficult times, to record fourth quarter revenues is causing smiles at Quarterdeck (NASDAQ:QDEK). Along with quadrupling revenues over the same quarter last year, the company says it will unveil its full-duplex Internet telephone, Web Talk, and other new products at Comdex. (Ian Stokell/19951109) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 11/08/95 ONLINE Europe Online Project In Doubt (NEWS)(ONLINE)(LON)(00001) Europe Online Project In Doubt 11/08/95 HAMBURG, GERMANY, 1995 NOV 8 (NB) -- Industry observers are questioning the future of the Europe Online project as the third publisher in a row, this time Axel Springer AG, the German publisher of the Bild Zeitung newspaper, has now announced it is pulling out. Europe Online S.A. was founded by a consortium of 25 companies. Axel was due to take a 10 percent share in the investment for the fledgling online project. The news comes in the wake of Pearson, a UK publishing group, and Matra-Hatchette, a French technology company, announcing their own plans to pull out. Now industry watchers are saying that the 18 month-old online project may not achieve its target of launching in the first quarter next year. With the company pullouts, there is speculation that the project -- which required its members to contribute $200 million to launch funding -- may not take off on schedule due to a shortage of money. As reported last month by Newsbytes, Pearson and Matra-Hatchette have already outlined plans to sell their stake in Europe Online, to Veba, the German information technology (IT) company. Burda Verlag, one of the other founders of the venture, will retain its shares in the company. According to Europe Online, the Pearson and Matra-Hatchette sell-off has nothing to do with a European Commission (EC) investigation into Europe Online, announced in the summer. The preliminary investigation, which has since been dropped by the EC, aimed to investigate whether the multi-country alliance would be too powerful in Europe's new online industry. Europe Online claims that the Axel deal, along with the Pearson/Matra- Hatchette pull-out, is entirely amicable, and stems from a difference in direction between Matra-Hatchette and the other partners. Pearson, meanwhile, has stated its intention of being an information provider, rather than a shareholder, in the new online service. Veba has stated that it plans to acquire the unspecified volume of shares from Pearson and Matra-Hatchette, for an unspecified amount of money, later this year. (Sylvia Dennis/19951107/Press & Reader Contact: Veba, tel +49-211-45790, fax +49-211-4579-599) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 11/08/95 IBM IBM's Multiple Size Internet Connection Services (NEWS)(IBM)(LON)(00002) IBM's Multiple Size Internet Connection Services 11/08/95 LONDON, ENGLAND, 1995 NOV 8 (NB) -- IBM has announced it is abandoning the "one size fits all" approach that it claims the Internet service provider industry is applying to companies wanting to plug into the Internet. According to Big Blue, each customer's needs are different, and for this reason the company has beefed up its Internet Connection software family to allow "large systems customers to exploit the vast opportunities of the Internet." According to IBM, its new Internet Connection Server for MVS allows all MVS customers, including System/390 users, to exploit their existing enterprise investment and build a World Wide Web server delivering their current data through an industry-standard Web browser. IBM claims that, because the server resides on a S/390, it has all the inherent MVS strengths -- security, capacity, integrity, robustness, and scalability. Big Blue officials claim that customers with a S/390 Parallel Enterprise Server can also build a presence on the growing Internet without a significant investment in new skills and hardware. "Business of all sizes are looking to develop products and services on the Internet, and we hear many of them say they want to leverage their existing resources," said Lois Dimpfel, vice president, networking software products, IBM Networking Software Division. "The IBM Internet Connection Server for MVS lets them use a powerful system they're already very familiar with, while our Internet Connection CICS and DB2 gateways will let them link existing data and applications to the Net. The potential of this is tremendous." So how does the MVS link into the Internet work? According to IBM, businesses can use the Internet Connection Server for MVS to create a Web server on either the external Internet or an internal network. The idea is that the server can act as a repository for text, still- images, video, or audio data. Users, either internal or external, can peruse the data with a browser such as the IBM Internet Connection for OS/2 Warp or the IBM Internet Connection for Windows. According to IBM, corporations may use the new MVS server software internally to post internal memos about job openings, corporate policies, product specifications, or training information. For external purposes, a MVS Internet server could be used to promote a corporate image, provide customer support or offer an online product catalog. Big Blue claims that the scalability of the S/390 server is particularly advantageous to a customer because all levels of development can be accommodated -- from the first home page to a high-volume, international, multi-feature Internet service. The IBM Internet Connection Server for MVS monthly access charges range from UKP49 to UKP220, depending on processor class. The software will be available worldwide from December. Further details of the IBM Internet service can be found at IBM's networking Web site, which is located at http://www.raleigh.ibm.com . (Steve Gold/19951107/Press Contact: Anna Russell, IBM UK, +44-171-202-3799, Internet e-mail anna_russell@uk.ibm.com) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 11/08/95 ONLINE European Commission Funds Secure Open Internet Technology (NEWS)(ONLINE)(LON)(00003) European Commission Funds Secure Open Internet Technology 11/08/95 BRUSSELS, BELGIUM, 1995 NOV 8 (NB) -- Backed by the European Commission, a consortium of 20 partners from European industry and academia has embarked on a research project to develop the "basic groundwork" to establish a secure electronic commerce service. According to IBM, which is one of the backers for the project, the goal of SEMPER (Secure Electronic Marketplace for Europe) is to provide the "first open and comprehensive solutions" for secure commerce over the Internet and other public information networks. Plans call for IBM's Zurich Research Laboratory will provide the technical leadership, and IBM France to act as coordinator for the project. According to Anna Russell, a spokeswoman for IBM, although the Internet has its roots in academia and is still dominated by free-of- charge information, dramatic changes are expected in the near future. For instance, IBM claims, the Web will be used for a wide variety of electronic commerce such as online trade or delivery of advanced multimedia information services. According to Russell, the need for secure transactions in this new business environment, has triggered a number of similar initiatives, but these have been almost exclusively in the US and largely proprietary, or otherwise closed "solutions," involving only electronic payment issues. In contrast, SEMPER is billed as working to provide a "comprehensive solution for secure electronic commerce," considering legal, commercial, social, and technical requirements as well as "different options" for an electronic marketplace. IBM officials claim that, consistent with its broader goals, the SEMPER project will be managed by an interdisciplinary team of experts from the academic, industrial, and general business environment in Europe. The team includes representatives from the social sciences, finance, retail, and publishing, as well as from information and telecommunication technology. Plans call for the first of the three one-year phases to address a coherent security model and a generic, open security architecture for the electronic marketplace. The architecture will reportedly be independent of specific hardware, software, or network architectures. The most fundamental electronic commerce services, such as secure offering, ordering, payment and information delivery, will also be integrated in the first phase. Subsequent phases will concentrate on more advanced services, including: fair exchange of documents; credentials; advanced document processing; notary services; and multimedia-specific security services, such as protection of intellectual property rights. Big Blue claims that multi-party security and protection of user's privacy will receive prime attention. SEMPER will use and integrate existing architectures, tools, and services where appropriate. Early trials will be provided for the Web, and subsequent tests performed on ATM (asynchronous transfer mode) broadband networks to demonstrate the broad applicability of SEMPER's architecture and services. The SEMPER project is part of the Advanced Communication Technologies and Services (ACTS) research program established by the European Commission Directorate General XIII for 1994-1998. ACTS is the follow- on program for Research on Advanced Communications in Europe (RACE) 1987-1994. The project will establish a Special Interest Group for Secure Electronic Commerce (SIGSEC) which will make results available to all interested parties, including standardization bodies, and will coordinate related projects, in particular those funded by the EC. (Steve Gold/19951107/Press Contact: Anna Russell, IBM UK, +44-171- 202-3799, Internet e-mail anna_russell@uk.ibm.com; Reader Contact: European Commission, +32-2-299-1111) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 11/08/95 ONLINE UK Homes Rush To Plug Into Internet (NEWS)(ONLINE)(LON)(00004) UK Homes Rush To Plug Into Internet 11/08/95 LONDON, ENGLAND, 1995 NOV 8 (NB) -- According to market research by GfK Marketing Services, British homes are "enthusiastically joining" the so-called "information superhighway." Vironique Froment, a spokeswoman for the company, said research shows that each week in the UK, an estimated 1,300 households subscribe to the Internet. "GfK is a mainstream market research company, so this type of IT (information technology) research is a relatively new area for the company, although it will form part of the company's quarterly home audit service," she told Newsbytes. According to GfK, more than 200,000 respondents are expecting to subscribe to the Internet in the next year. The take up rate is therefore expected to more than treble in the next 12 months to reach nearly 4,000 new subscribers every week. "Every home with a computer is a potential subscriber," explained Martin New, GfK's IT specialist. "Our research tells us that there are currently an estimated 3.4 million homes in the UK with a computer, but no Internet access. So, despite fast growth, the market for Internet services in British homes is still vastly untapped." According to New, in spite of all the hype about the "information superhighway," many PC owners "still aren't quite sure about what services and options are available from the Internet, and this is reflected in what most people use it for." According to New, when looking at the type of activities carried out using the Internet, the vast majority of respondents (66 percent) said that they used it mainly for electronic-mail, and to access business information (56 percent). Purchasing goods and services came low down the list with only six percent of respondents. The survey concluded that out of the 244,000 households acquiring a computer in the quarter to June, 17 percent admitted to not knowing what the Internet was. According to GfK, its quarterly "Computers in the Home" ownership monitor is derived from two sources. The first source of information is GfK's quarterly "Home Audit," in which a rolling sample of 25,000 households in Great Britain reports on purchases and rentals of consumer durables. GfK also conducts an annual ownership study of 10,000 homes throughout Great Britain, to give the installed base of computers and printers. (Sylvia Dennis/19951107/Press Contact: Roger Staton Associates, +44-1628-487222, Internet e-mail rstaton@cix.compulink.co.uk; Reader Contact: Martin New, GfK Marketing Services, +44-1932-354911) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 11/08/95 TELECOM E-Sat Digifone To Offer Ireland's 2nd GSM Network (NEWS)(TELECOM)(LON)(00005) E-Sat Digifone To Offer Ireland's 2nd GSM Network 11/08/95 DUBLIN, IRELAND, 1995 NOV 8 (NB) -- The Department of Communications in Ireland has announced that E-Sat Digifone has been granted the second GSM (global system for mobile communications) license in the Irish Republic. Ireland's second GSM net should be up and running by next spring, officials said. As reported previously by Newsbytes, there were six contenders for the license, including the Persona consortium which consisted of Motorola, Sigma Wireless, and Unisource. Newsbytes notes that Persona was originally seen as the favorite for the second GSM license. In June of this year, the Irish Government announced it had temporarily shelved the tender closing date for the country's second GSM digital phone network. At the time, Mike Lowery, the Irish Minister for Transport, Energy and Communications, said that the original closing date of June 23, had been deferred. In the event, applications formally closed on August 23, and E-Sat Digifone has been awarded the license. Irish Government officials have refused to say how much the successful consortium will pay for the license. Newsbytes notes that Lowery's office let it slip back in June that a new closing date for tenders will be announced, once certain procedures were worked out with the EC. Lowery, meanwhile, when subsequently quizzed by journalists, said that the main problem related to the license fees chargeable to the successful tendering company. This perhaps explains the Government's reticence to raise the topic of the license fee again in public. (Sylvia Dennis/19951108/E-Sat Digifone, +353-1-661-6010) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 11/08/95 IBM IBM Teams Up With Indiana Utility On Customer Service (NEWS)(IBM)(WAS)(00006) IBM Teams Up With Indiana Utility On Customer Service 11/08/95 WHITE PLAINS, NEW YORK, U.S.A., 1995 NOV 8 (NB) -- IBM and Northern Indiana Public Service Co. (NIPSCO) have announced a utility customer service product, called Integrity/Customer Services System, that will go into production next week. The two companies expect to use the system within NIPSCO's combination gas and electric utility business, and also market it elsewhere, John Dunn, NIPSCO group vice president and chief technology officer, told Newsbytes. "There is a lot of opportunity for aggressive companies who can use information resources to build products and services for their customers," Dunn said. "Providing one-stop shopping for our customers will enable us to get a jump on our competitors and raise the bar for service levels in the industry." Offering top-quality customer service, Dunn said, "is a way for us to differentiate ourselves from other providers of service." Combining specially-written software with off-the-shelf network computing hardware, the I/CSS provides customer service representatives with real-time information, so that customer requests can be tracked through the complete transaction. For example, a request for new service to a family's new home could be followed from the engineer entering and updating milestone information for the permit requirements, through service installation and to the actually installation and service of appliances. NIPSCO is using the system to market non-traditional services, such as furnace warranty and repair, and home security systems. The I/CSS at NIPSCO uses an OS/2 front-end running on personal computers, communicating with an IBM mainframe as a server running the central database on DB2, IBM's relational database. At the same, said IBM's Craig Westerhold, who is running Big Blue's line of business that works with utilities, the company is developing a Windows NT front-end in a project at Arizona Public Service Co. in Phoenix. "This application will compete with any other in the market," he said. "It is perfectly well-suited for where utilities are going -- to rate customization. It will allow utilities to throw out the rate book and create customer-driven rates on the fly." According to Dunn, NIPSCO has put $65 million into the project. The company's investment in writing the computer code for the application was $50 million, he said, with another $15 million into the development of the network architecture connecting such elements as local area networks and wide area networks. (Kennedy Maize/19951107/Press Contacts: Jeff Brewer, NIPSCO, 219-647-6204, Sue Hoffman, IBM, 914-642-5407) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 11/08/95 ONLINE CNN's Kinsley Leaving Crossfire For Microsoft (NEWS)(ONLINE)(WAS)(00007) CNN's Kinsley Leaving Crossfire For Microsoft 11/08/95 WASHINGTON, D.C., U.S.A., 1995 NOV 8 (NB) -- Michael Kinsley, co-host of CNN's "Crossfire" show and former editor of The New Republic, is leaving the network to edit a cyberspace magazine for Microsoft. Kinsley, who made a successful switch from print to broadcast journalism, will become one of the first to make the journey to cyberspace. The new magazine he will edit will be distributed on the World Wide Web and on the Microsoft Network. Kinsley, the epitome of the inside-the-beltway culture, will be leaving the nation's capital and moving to Washington state after his six and a half year stint at CNN's premier shout show. Neither Kinsley, 44, nor Microsoft would discuss the terms of his employment. "I really wanted to edit a magazine," Kinsley said. "I was racking my brain about how I could get a magazine." He said an online magazine "sounds like fun." Kinsley told the New York Times, "The idea is to create some serious journalism on the Web for people who are not Web fanatics." Kinsley said that "most of what's on the Web is crap." The yet-unnamed magazine will have a staff of "probably a dozen people or fewer," he said. Kinsley said that last summer he saw a comment in a Newsweek article that Microsoft was looking for "a big-time editor." He had made up his mind that he would not renew his contract for Crossfire. So he called Steve Ballmer, executive vice president at Microsoft and a friend from college days at Harvard. Ballmer said the Newsweek account was not correct, but invited Kinsley to visit the Microsoft headquarters. Kinsley said he met several Microsoft executives and was impressed. "You meet the Microsoft people, and they're all very smart," said Kinsley, who has advanced degrees from Harvard Law and Oxford. "And it's a world that's totally removed from Washington and that appealed to me. It's a chance to try a whole new world." (Kennedy Maize/19951107) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 11/08/95 BUSINESS AST Posts Further Losses, Samsung Takes Control (NEWS)(BUSINESS)(HKG)(00008) AST Posts Further Losses, Samsung Takes Control 11/08/95 CENTRAL, HONG KONG, 1995 NOV 8 (NB) -- AST's first quarter results for fiscal 1996 show a company sinking deeper into a black hole, with its US$96.4 million losses nearly one and a half times those piled up in the same quarter the previous year. The situation, blamed on plummeting US sales, is now so dire that Samsung has taken control of AST's board. Safi Qureshey, nominally chairman, relinquished his chief executive officer (CEO) post to Apple Computer's Ian Diery. Hill and Knowlton, AST's public relations firm, buried news of the loss in the middle of the second page of its news release. The agency devoted page one to AST's 55% growth in Asia but, without including specific regional numbers. "Disappointing first quarter results were caused by lower than anticipated sales in the North American marketplace and seasonal softness in Europe, which were further impacted by downward industry pricing actions and delays in some new product shipments," Qureshey said. The company claims 55% growth in Asia revenues, including sales in Japan -- often separated from Asia region calculations. AST itemized segment revenue increases this way: 116% in China, 128% in Singapore, and 248% in Thailand. But it declined to furnish actual unit sales and dollar figures. Newsbytes understands the total number of shipments during the first quarter of 1995 was a low figure anyway and percentage increases may not have much impact on the corporate bottom line. A closer look at the ledger shows that, while there may have been a decline in North American sales by 42%, net losses do not reflect this. The value of net sales fell by 18.5% between first quarter fiscal 1996 and 1995, for example, and the cost of sales fell by 10.48%. Other costs such as research and development are comparable across the two quarters, but excluding extraordinary items, AST's loss climbed by over 140%. The latest results also shed some light on McFarland's and Qureshey's visit to Samsung's Seoul headquarters two weeks ago. The deals cut there effectively put Samsung in control of AST's board -- the price AST had to pay for a credit line of US$100 million. However, some analysts contend that, at the quickening rate AST is piling up the losses, that figure could evaporate in no time at all. The official AST statement says other undisclosed agreements with the electronics giant are subject to legal approval. Samsung now holds 49.9% of AST, and that may increase to as much as 60%. During the quarter, AST shipped 245,000 units worldwide -- 213,000 desktop and server machines and 32,000 notebooks. (Joel McCormick & I.T. Daily/19951106) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 11/08/95 HEALTH Pharmacist On A Disk (NEWS)(HEALTH)(DEN)(00009) Pharmacist On A Disk 11/08/95 MELBOURNE, FLORIDA, U.S.A., 1995 NOV 8 (NB) -- You might call it pharmacist in a box, but Pixel Perfect Inc., the publisher, calls it The Corner Drugstore CD-ROM. The program is a drug and pharmacy reference interactive computer program that comes on four CD-ROM disks and uses hyperlinks to connect related topics and video segments across the 2.5 gigabytes (GB) of data. #IMAGE 1 20 TWPCX \images\95110809.PCX Click here for photo The Corner Drug Store includes over five hours of video that address common ailments, home remedies, and drug uses. The program interacts with various sources for its information, including: InteRact, a drug and food interaction analyzer; physician-published drug profiles; the Handbook of Over-the-Counter Drugs and Pharmacy Products, a multimedia medical glossary; and videos from the syndicated educational TV series Max Lever's The Corner Drugstore. A medical glossary provides pop-up definitions for thousands of medical terms. Pixel Perfect said Dr. Stephen Schueler assembled a team of physicians, pharmacists, and drug experts to answer questions regarding drugs and other health products to prepare the comprehensive reference and educational tool. Dr. Schueler is chairman of Emergency Medicine at Holmes Regional Medical Center in Melbourne, Florida, and creator of the CD-ROM medical references Home Medical Advisor Pro and Self Health, The Complete Interactive Personal Health Manager. A knowledge of drugs can be extremely important and might even save your life, said the company in citing studies that indicate more than 25 percent of the population will experience a drug side- effect or drug interaction at some time in their life. The studies also indicate that about a quarter-million older adults are hospitalized each year as a result of harmful reactions to medicines. Pixel Perfect said the four-disk set is the largest drug reference library every assembled on CD-ROM. It contains indication, side- effects, interactions, precautions, pronunciations, and dosing information on more than 8,000 generic and trade name medications. To use The Corner Drugstore you need a Windows 3.1 or Windows 95-equipped personal computer, a double-speed or faster CD-ROM drive, at least four megabytes of system memory and a Super VGA or better display. The program has a suggested retail price of $29.95, plus a $4 shipping and handling feel. (Jim Mallory/19951107/Press contact: Stephani Perlmutter, The Media Connection for Pixel Perfect, 312-751-8436; Public contact: Pixel Perfect, 800-788-2099/DRUGSTOR951108/PHOTO) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 11/08/95 GENERAL Australian IT Industry Gears Up For CeBIT (NEWS)(GENERAL)(SYD)(00010) Australian IT Industry Gears Up For CeBIT 11/08/95 SYDNEY, AUSTRALIA 1995 NOV 8 (NB) -- The CeBIT jumbo jet is getting ready to take off for Hannover 1996 and about 100 Australian information technology (IT) companies are checking in with tickets and baggage. Austrade and the Australian Information Industry Association (AIIA) are halfway through a series of briefings in Melbourne, Sydney, and Brisbane. In Sydney, the predominant theme was that time is ticking away. Participants face several early and very important deadlines. One of the most important is getting together material for the bulky CeBIT catalog, the bible of the show, which takes place from March 14-20. The simple message from Michael Abrahams, Australian trade commissioner in Frankfurt, is that, if you're not in the catalog, you virtually don't exist. Austrade has commissioned Canberra consultants Factotum to put together the catalog entries for participants in the Australian national stands, under the slogan InTelligent Australia. The listings have to be in by November 24, the same day as the deadline for media material and contact briefs for Austrade, with a host of other deadlines falling on December 1 and throughout the month. Austrade technical director for exhibitions, Paul Cahir, will send out plans for stands this week. Austrade has engaged a Dutch designer for the project, which has come up with a themed concept of angled stands, each identified with the InTelligent Australia logo, and the company's sign. The Australians will be in three halls, dedicated to software, hardware, and telecommunications. Two of the combined stands have been given extra aisles, to provide better exposure for participants. In the main stand, conference facilities, a media room, and offices will be on a second level. On the logistics, Schenker & Co will carry all the exhibit material (the sea freight deadline is December 12 and the air date is February 20) and Cathay Pacific is the official carrier. Special fare deals will be announced this week. Austrade is looking at a mini-expo in Hong Kong on the way back to Australia for a limited number of CeBIT participants. (John Stackhouse and Computer Daily News/19951107) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 11/08/95 EDUCATION China - Computer Tutor Software Is Popular (NEWS)(EDUCATION)(PEK)(00011) China - Computer Tutor Software Is Popular 11/08/95 BEIJING, CHINA, 1995 NOV 8 (NB) -- More than 20,000 copies of CSC's Computer Tutor software for junior middle-school students have been sold since its release in January, and most student users said the software was useful, said the company. The software series, developed by Beijing Clever School Computer Corp. (CSC), includes sound and charts, and enables school students to make full use of their time at home to learn or better comprehend the content of their textbooks, the company said. The series covers main study subjects in three years for junior middle students and contains textbooks, exercises, and drills for classes such as the Chinese language, mathematics, physics, and chemistry. The software is claimed to be user-friendly, with text being read aloud in standard Mandarin. If the student makes a mistake, "Try again" can be heard. A correct answer will result in a loud "Well done!" In geometry, the student is offered a hands-on experience, as the computer mouse can be used to draw the shape directly on the screen. A market follow-up survey of 70 junior middle-school students indicates that the software is being used mainly as an additional teaching aid. CSC, founded four years ago by a group of graduates from Tsinghua University, has expanded to include 500 employees. Except for 50 computer technicians, all are veteran teachers and educators from middle schools, colleges and universities, with 37 professors and experts on education as the core members. The list price of the software series is RMB1,300 (US$155) in the Beijing Zhongguancun area. The company's computer tutor series for senior high school students will be put on the market soon, the company said. (Chih-Ho Yu & Ning Huang/19951108) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 11/08/95 TRENDS Info Technology May Be More Revolutionary Than We Think (NEWS)(TRENDS)(MSP)(00012) Info Technology May Be More Revolutionary Than We Think 11/08/95 SEATTLE, WASHINGTON, U.S.A., 1995 NOV 8 (NB) -- In the future, politicians say, we will need to retrain ourselves constantly to keep up with the blistering pace of technological change. Otherwise, we'll be on the street, joining the growing ranks of the "underclass." If this doesn't sound like much fun, then you'll resonate well with Jeremy Rifkin's Mother Jones critique of the third-wave political rhetoric currently emanating from both the White House and Congress ("Vanishing Jobs," Sept./Oct. 1995, pp. 58-64). While youthful billionaires hog the media spotlight, and Democrats and Republicans preach the gospel of high-tech salvation to a shrinking middle class, 15 percent of the American population now lives below the official poverty line. Rifkin pins much of the blame on automation. "We are in the early stages of a shift from 'mass labor' to highly skilled 'elite labor,' accompanied by increasing automation in the production of goods and the delivery of services," he writes. Machines are replacing workers left and right, at all levels of society. "In the United States alone, as many as 90 million jobs in a labor force of 124 million are potentially vulnerable to displacement by automation." Mainstream economists assure us that these lost jobs will be replaced, but by what? Politicians don't seem to know, Rifkin says. The answer may just be a shorter work week for all Americans, and he says some business leaders already are waking up to this fact. This story is republished with permission from the November 1995 Cybernautics Digest, a monthly summary of reports about converging information technologies. (Contact: Terry Hansen, Cybernautics Digest, c/o KFH Publications Inc., 3530 Bagley Ave. N., Seattle, WA 98103; 206-547-4950; Fax: 206-547-5355; E-mail: cyber@cuix.pscu.com. U.S. rate: $24; $2 sample issue) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 11/08/95 GENERAL Japan Newsbriefs (NEWS)(GENERAL)(TYO)(00013) Japan Newsbriefs 11/08/95 TOKYO, JAPAN, 1995 NOV 8 (NB) -- In this roundup of news from Japan: Bonus hike offered to avert strike; NTT orders Cray supercomputer; Hitachi enters US PC market; Fujitsu to sell FMV computers in China; Canon announces color laser printers; Digital satellite program will include network relays. Bonus Hike Offered To Avert Strike Labor unions demanding increased bonuses of 5.3 months' worth of pay are expected to call off a 12-hour strike after revised offers from the nation's top electrical companies. The Tokyo-based companies, enjoying climbing sales in the expanding computer and electronics sector, are proposing to offer employees bonuses equivalent to 5.25 months' pay, up from 5.06 months' wages last year. To an employee on an average salary, the bonus will be worth between 1.4 million yen ($13,461) and 1.6 million yen ($15,384). Employees of the major Osaka- based companies will be offered bonuses equivalent to 5.25 months' salary against 5.15 months' pay last year. The unions have planned an initial 12-hour strike to begin at lunchtime on Thursday. NTT Orders Cray Supercomputer Nippon Telegraph and Telephone (TSE:) has ordered a Cray T90 super computer. The machine contains 32 processors and is capable of performing 60 billion calculations per second and has eight gigabytes of main memory. The computer will be installed at NTT's Musashino City research and development center where it will be used for advanced multimedia research, image processing, and materials development. Hitachi Enters US PC Market American computer manufacturers are to get more competition from Japan with the entry of Hitachi into the US domestic PC market. The Tokyo- based company will establish Hitachi PC Corporation next spring in San Jose, California, and begin sales and construction of high-end notebook computers with desktop computers and servers to follow later in the year. The US subsidiary will employ around 100 people initially and receive investment of $20 million. The computer parts will be sourced from Hitachi's Japanese and Asian procurement network. Fujitsu To Sell FMV Computers In China Fujitsu Ltd. (TSE:6702) will begin selling its popular FMV range of personal computers in six regions of southern China. The computers are being sold by Fujitsu Hong Kong, which has bought 2,000 PCs from its Japanese parent. The 1.6 billion yen ($15 million) sale in China has been funded by Japanese overseas development aid. Canon Announces Color Laser Printers Canon Inc. (TSE:7751) has announced several new color laser printers that will be available from early next year. The company said its new LBP-2030 will be available in Japan from March at a price of 698,000 yen ($6711) and the LBP-2030PS, a postscript version of the same machine, will be available from April at 1.58 million yen ($15,192). Production is targeted at 2,500 units a month, 500 of which will be the more expensive postscript model. The machines represent Canon's first color laser printers and are capable of printing with a resolution of 600 dots-per-inch. Digital Satellite Program Will Include Network Relays The digital satellite broadcasting service to be launched next spring by DMC Corporation via the JCSat-3 satellite will include relays of all the major commercial networks. Nippon Television (NTV) was already known to be interested in using the satellite and it now looks certain to be joined by Tokyo Broadcasting System (TBS), Fuji Television, TV Asahi, and TV Tokyo Channel 12, which will also produce a satellite financial news channel. A 40-channel service will launch next April with full service due six months later. (Martyn Williams/19951108) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 11/08/95 ONLINE Japan - Softbank & NTT Data To Offer Internet Connections (NEWS)(ONLINE)(TYO)(00014) Japan - Softbank & NTT Data To Offer Internet Connections 11/08/95 TOKYO, JAPAN, 1995 NOV 8 (NB) -- Softbank Corporation (TSE:9984) and NTT Data Systems Corporation (TSE:9613) are to begin offering Internet connections to personal and business users at rates "substantially lower" than competitors through Mediabank, a jointly owned company of the two. The new service will launch on December 1st this year when, in addition to Internet connections, Mediabank will also offer a World Wide Web building and Internet content service to corporations. Online shopping also forms part of the company's plans, with an Internet shopping mall on the drawing board scheduled to begin after the December Internet service provision launch date. At a press conference announcing the new service, Mayoshi Son, president of Softbank Corporation, said Mediabank would charge "substantially lower" rates than those of its competitors, but declined to reveal any at this time. Mediabank was established in March, 1994, and is owned by Softbank, which holds a 60% stake, and NTT Data, which holds a 40% share. Since its inception, the company has been engaged in planning and development of multimedia services. Softbank is Japan's largest producer and distributor of computer software and computer related magazines, while NTT Data is the partially privatized information systems and computer networking systems division of domestic telecoms giant Nippon Telegraph and Telephone. To fund the establishment of the Internet service provider business, Mediabank plans to issue new shares, a path that Softbank has recently taken to facilitate several purchases of other companies, including the publishing arm of Ziff Davis. Mediabank hopes for sales of one billion yen ($9.6 million) in the first year of operations. (Martyn Williams/19951108/Press contact: Softbank Corporation, tel +81-3-5462-8020, fax 81-3-5641-3400) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 11/08/95 BUSINESS ****Softbank To Announce Ziff Purchase Tomorrow (NEWS)(BUSINESS)(TYO)(00015) ****Softbank To Announce Ziff Purchase Tomorrow 11/08/95 TOKYO, JAPAN, 1995 NOV 8 (NB) -- Softbank Corporation (TSE:9984) has announced it will hold a press conference in Tokyo Thursday afternoon on the subject of "corporate acquisitions." The company refused to elaborate on details of the announcement but industry sources have confirmed to Newsbytes the company will announce the successful acquisition of Ziff Davis Publishing. #IMAGE 1 20 TWPCX \images\95110815.PCX Click here for photo The press conference is scheduled for 1530 local time, 0130 EST. Both Softbank and Ziff Davis would make no comment when contacted by Newsbytes today. Softbank President Mayoshi Son announced on October 19th that his company was in talks with Forstmann Little, current owners of the company, over a final deal price. The value of the deal is expected to be announced tomorrow although the same sources suggest the purchase price to be around $2 billion. Last month Greg Jarboe, director of public relations for Ziff Davis, told Newsbytes, "There is no definitive agreement yet, but we anticipate one before the week of Comdex." Comdex, a major industry trade show, takes place next week in Las Vegas. Softbank tried to buy Ziff Davis Publishing last October, but was beaten by Forstmann Little which, at the time, said it considered the purchase to be a long-term investment and one it would not sell soon. The recent offer from Softbank was understood to be of great enough size to make the board reconsider the issue. Softbank is Japan's biggest publisher and distributor of computer software and magazines, and the purchase of the publications arm of Ziff Davis would add some important titles and services to the company which already produces Japanese versions of PC-Week and Mac-User under license in Japan. Softbank has also just begun offering a Japanese language version of the PC Week Online news service. Despite being unsuccessful in the race to grab Ziff Davis Publishing, it did manage to walk away with Ziff's exhibition arm for $202 million that included the Networld+Interop, Windows Solutions, and other computer trade shows. The company followed with the purchase of the exhibitions arm of the Interface Group, renamed as Softbank Comdex, early this year which got the company the Comdex and Windows World exhibitions. In addition to being the country's largest computer magazine and book publisher, Softbank is also Japan's distributor of computer systems, software, and peripherals. Yesterday is announced it would enter the Internet service provider business in Japan with NTT Data through its jointly owned Mediabank subsidiary. It is also involved in a joint venture, Gamebank Corp., with Microsoft Corporation, to produce and distribute games software for the Windows 95 operating system. Late in October, it also announced the purchase of 30% of Unitech Telecom, a California-based telecommunication company with strong interests in China. Softbank viewed the purchase as a way to get into the Chinese market. (Martyn Williams/19951108/SBANK951108/PHOTO) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 11/08/95 IBM ThinkPad 365 Is New Low End Of IBM Notebook Line (NEWS)(IBM)(TOR)(00016) ThinkPad 365 Is New Low End Of IBM Notebook Line 11/08/95 SOMERS, NEW YORK, U.S.A., 1995 NOV 8 (NB) -- IBM (NYSE:IBM) is replacing its ThinkPad 360 notebooks with a new entry-level model, the ThinkPad 365. With the launch of the 365, all ThinkPads now support infrared printing and file swapping. The new notebooks use IBM's version of the 486DX4 microprocessor, running at 75 megahertz (MHz). They come with integrated CD-ROM drives, eight megabytes (MB) of memory as standard equipment, and hard disk drives up to a maximum capacity of 720MB. The color screens are 10.4-inches and the notebooks have accelerated video performance, IBM said. Company spokesman Michael Corrado told Newsbytes that the 365 notebooks will replace the existing 360 models, although IBM will still be selling the 360 for a couple of months as it uses up its existing stock. The 365 models have infrared connections that conform to the Infrared Data Association (IrDA) standard, allowing short-range wireless connections to printers and other computers that comply with the standard. Corrado said that, with the arrival of the 365 in place of the 360, all models in IBM's ThinkPad line now support infrared connections. The 365 weighs from 5.8 to 6.3 pounds. A port replicator is available, and it includes a palm rest and an integrated charger for a second notebook battery, IBM said. The new ThinkPad models are available right away, and despite shortages of some previous ThinkPad models, Corrado said "We're pretty confident we have enough to meet demand with this system." Prices start at $1,999 and range upward to about $3,100. IBM also cut prices on its ThinkPad 755 notebooks by as much as $650, saying that 16 of the 26 755 configurations now cost less than $5,000. Prices for the 755 models start at around $3,000. IBM is on the Internet World Wide Web at http://www.ibm.com . (Grant Buckler/19951108/Press Contact: Michael Corrado, IBM, 914-766-3419; Public Contact: IBM Fax Information Service, 800-IBM-4FAX) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 11/08/95 GOVT California City Buys New SCADA System (NEWS)(GOVT)(WAS)(00017) California City Buys New SCADA System 11/08/95 WASHINGTON, D.C., U.S.A., 1995 NOV 8 (NB) -- The city of Santa Clara, California, has picked ABB System Control's Spider system to replace its 12-year-old supervisory control and data acquisition (SCADA) computer software and hardware that allows the city utility to monitor, control, and coordinate its operations over a large geographical area. The Spider system has a modular design that allows it to be easily upgraded in the future as the city utility's needs change. The new system will be operational in the fall of 1996, running out of the city's operations center. ABB's system is Unix-based and includes both SCADA and distribution management in real-time and an Oracle-based historical information system. Local and remote workstations communicate over a fiber optic network with a distributed server to access both real-time and historical data. The SCADA software includes an advanced OSF/Motif graphical user interface. The hardware is sized to communicate with up to 48 channels. ABB Systems Control is a division of ABB Power T&D Co. of Raleigh, N.C., which offers products, systems, and services for electric power transmission and distribution. Santa Clara's municipal utility has generation, transmission, and distribution facilities and serves about 38,000 residential customers and 7,000 commercial, industrial and other municipal customers. The city system covers a 19 square mile area. (Kennedy Maize/19951108/Press Contact: Nelia Peck, 408-987-6015) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 11/08/95 TELECOM Citizens Acquires ALLTELL Phone & Cable TV Lines (NEWS)(TELECOM)(WAS)(00018) Citizens Acquires ALLTELL Phone & Cable TV Lines 11/08/95 STAMFORD, CONNECTICUT, U.S.A., 1995 NOV 8 (NB) -- Citizens Utilities (NYSE: CZNA) has acquired more than 18,000 telephone access lines in Arizona, Utah, and New Mexico, and about 7,000 cable television lines in Arizona, New Mexico, and California, from ALLTELL Corp. The transfer is part of a deal announced in November, 1994, for Citizens to buy 117,000 telephone and cable lines in eight states from ALLTELL for $292 million. Citizens is incorporating the telephone properties into its existing Citizens Telecom operations. "This acquisition fits Citizens' strategy of acquiring and operating telecommunications, natural gas distribution, electric distribution, and water and wastewater treatment businesses in small- and medium-size communities that are experiencing above-average population and job growth," said Leonard Tow, Citizens' chairman and chief executive officer. "Our commitment to providing these communities with the most advanced technology, products and services is the key to superior growth in the telecommunications business," said Tow. "As more people migrate from urban America in search of a better quality of life for their families, they are moving to areas like those we serve." The purchase of ALLTELL's West Virginia and Oregon properties closed in June, Tennessee closed September 30, and the California telephone properties are expected to close by year end. Nevada is expected to close in 1996. When completed, the transaction will involve all of ALLTELL's local exchange properties in Arizona, Nevada, New Mexico, Oregon, Tennessee, Utah, and West Virginia, and cable franchises in areas of Arizona, California, and New Mexico. Citizens Utilities, based in Stamford, Conn., provides energy, water and telecommunications services to 1.5 million customers in 19 states. The company also owns and operates Electric Lightwave, a telecommunications provider serving five major cities in the West, and has a significant investment in Centennial Cellular Corp., a cellular telephone company. (Kennedy Maize/19951108/Press Contact: Brigid Smith, 203-329-5042) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 11/08/95 GENERAL Storagetek's Poppa To Retire (NEWS)(GENERAL)(DEN)(00019) Storagetek's Poppa To Retire 11/08/95 LOUISVILLE, COLORADO, U.S.A., 1995 NOV 8 (NB) -- His name may not be as familiar to computer users as Bill Gates, but Storage Technology's (NYSE: STK) Ryal Poppa, who said this week he will retire in January, 1997, may have had as much of an impact on computing as Microsoft's chairman. Poppa, who celebrated his 62nd birthday this week, said he and his wife Ruth Ann had long seen that date as their retirement goal. "However, there is exciting and very important work ahead for Storagetek as we complete the transition to a new corporate operating model," said the chief executive in setting the date he will retire from active management of the company he lifted out of Chapter 11 bankruptcy 10 years ago. Poppa joined Storagetek as chairman and chief executive officer in January, 1985, three months after the company filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy. Three years later he was also named president. The decade following his taking the reins of the company have seen good times and bad for the company as it struggled to recover from the $500 million loss that finally forced it to seek protection under the nation's bankruptcy laws and lay off hundreds of employees. Poppa said he believed from the outset the company's basic business of providing disk and tape drives for computers was sound and that the company had simply overextended itself and run out of cash. Poppa personally made hundreds of sales calls each year while Storagetek struggled to return to profitability, a goal it attained in the fourth quarter of 1985. Storagetek emerged from bankruptcy in July, 1987, with creditors, who had been owed more than $750 million, paid in full. During that period, Poppa crossed swords with the Internal Revenue Service on more than one occasion regarding the company's accounting practices, and wasn't reluctant to express his views of the tax collectors. On the occasion of receiving an award in late 1986, he told the audience, "We have overcome every major hurdle except for our fabled and beloved Internal Revenue Service." Later that same year he commented on negotiations with the IRS by saying, "You all remember Darth Vader, that black, evil genius who wanted to use the power of the dark to upset the powers of the good, the Force. That's how I currently view the IRS." After returning to profitability and emerging from bankruptcy, Storagetek's, and Poppa's, next major challenge was to bring a project called Iceberg to market. The company's first disk array storage system reportedly got its name from the temperature in the building where a small band of engineers tried to develop a fault-tolerant disk array subsystem for the direct access storage device (DASD) market. Iceberg was supposed to come to market in the second half of 1992, but suffered a series of delays, each driving the company's stock lower. Iceberg eventually shipped 18 months late, having consumed $200 million in development costs. Poppa led Storagetek into a merger with Network Systems Corp. early this year. That merger gave Storagetek a software application called Central Archive Management that provides backup and recovery functionality for a variety of network client systems including PCs, Unix-based systems, and mid-sized computers. Poppa said he is sticking around until 1997 in order to complete development of a new model for doing business. Details of that plan are due to be reviewed by the company's board of directors later this month. The company's stated goal is to reduce annual operating expenses by more than $100 million. Poppa said the board of directors will conduct a search for a new chief executive. That replacement could come from Storagetek's executive offices in the person of Dave Weiss, Storagetek's 51-year old chief operating officer. "Dave Weiss is a leading candidate for the position, but the board is interested in exploring all options before making this most important decision," said Poppa. Poppa came to Storagetek following a two year stint as chairman, president, and chief executive officer at BMC Industries. He also held management positions at Pertec Computer Corp., Mohawk Data Sciences Corp., Greyhound Computer Corp., Commercial Computers Inc., and IBM. In 1991 Poppa was named Colorado "Business Leader of the Year" by the Colorado Association of Commerce and Industry, Coopers & Lybrand and Colorado Business Magazine. In 1988, he was selected as the Boulder, Colorado "Turnaround Manager of the Year" by Esprit Entrepreneur, sponsored by the Boulder Development Council. In 1986, Poppa was honored as Executive of the Year by the University of Colorado Executive MBA program and was named one of the "50 Corporate Elite" by Business Week magazine in 1985. He may have announced his retirement date, but Storagetek's chief executive hasn't slowed down. A Storagetek spokesperson told Newsbytes Poppa is in Washington DC this week. While the spokesperson couldn't confirm the purpose of the trip, he said Poppa often travels to the nation's capitol to lobby for the company. He's also active in the Computer and Communications Industry Association and the American Electronics Association. (Jim Mallory/19951108/Press contact: Judith Hargrave, Storagetek, 303-673-5559) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 11/08/95 TRENDS MiniDisk As Floppy Successor? (NEWS)(TRENDS)(TYO)(00020) MiniDisk As Floppy Successor? 11/08/95 TOKYO, JAPAN, 1995 NOV 8 (NB) -- Sharp Electronics Corporation, a American unit of Japan's Sharp Corporation, and National Semiconductor, are to begin pushing the MiniDisk format as a replacement for today's floppy disk in the portable data storage sector. #IMAGE 1 20 TWPCX \images\95110820.PCX Click here for photo As with existing optical data storage formats, such as compact disk, the system has several variants that range from audio, and video in the case of CD, to computer data storage. The MiniDisk is slowly gaining acceptance as an audio format, the millionth MiniDisk player is about to be sold, but take up in the computer industry has been very slow. The sales push by the two companies is scheduled to begin at Comdex, the annual computer industry expo which takes place in Las Vegas from November 13th to 17th, with the hope that visiting computer company executives will be won over to the system and look on it as a replacement for floppy disks. MiniDisk statistics are impressive when compared to today's floppy -- 140 megabytes (MB) of storage compared to 1.44MB, a small 2.5-inch package versus the 3.5-inch floppy, read only all optical disks -- but these statistics are less impressive when compared to systems competing with MiniDisk to replace the floppy. Principle among competitors is the Fujitsu-developed magneto-optical (MO) disk. The MO disk already boasts a 230MB version and Fujitsu recently announced a new four gigabyte (GB) disk that will be ready in two years time and be compatible with all existing MO drives, ensuring users they will not be buying a redundant format. The MO disk comes in a 3.5-inch package and is already enjoying widespread support consumers with four million drives sold in 1994 and 7.5 million drives forecast to be sold this year, according to the Magnetic-Media Industry Association of Japan. Among computer makers, Apple has teamed with Fujitsu to deliver Apple PowerBook computers with the drives inside, and disks are being manufactured by Kao and Olympus with Nikon beginning next year. In Tokyo's Akihabara electronics district, street prices for 230MB MO disks are as low as 2,000 yen ($19) or around the price of 20 branded floppy disks. David White, a spokesman for Sharp Electronics Corp., told Newsbytes the company believed the two systems could, and would, exist alongside each other, "All the signs are that MO is being used for backup, an MO array may back up servers for example. The MiniDisk Data is much more of a desktop and portable device." Sharp will be targeting the MD Data drives at the home and consumer market and expects the price to fall in the future as MiniDisk becomes more popular as an audio disk standard. "Should MiniDisk audio take off outside of Japan, you'll see extraordinary efficiencies. It's the same drive and same disks so as the prices fall for audio, they will fall for data," explained White. MiniDisk Data disks are currently priced around $20 for a disk capable of holding 140MB of data and the newly announced MD drive is $200. Sharp's Ingrid Story, product marketing manager for MiniDisc, told Newsbytes, "We see this product as much more targeted at the mobile computing market than MO technology." She added, "Our drives are smaller than MO drives and consume much less power. When OEMs are looking for a replacement for floppy technology, they are seeing MiniDisc offers a clear advantage." Sharp's MiniDisc players are much cheaper than MO drives, said Story. One of the reasons is that they are the same basic drive as that used in Sharp's MiniDisc audio player which is enjoying increased sales in Japan where the millionth MiniDisc player has recently been sold. The company hopes the growing popularity of the system in Japan will help bring down prices in the US where computer makers are searching for a $100 replacement for the floppy drive. To interface the new drives with existing computers, National Semiconductor has developed a Multi Drive Interface Controller (MDIC). The device supports MiniDisk, floppy, and CD-ROM drives, thus enabling manufacturers to fit either a floppy or MiniDisk drive by simply plugging in the appropriate drive. Sharp will begin shipping samples of its first MD Data drive, a 140MB version intended for notebook computers, after the first quarter of 1996, and will demonstrate the new product at the Comdex show. The new drives will fit in a standard 17 millimeter (mm) high floppy drive slot and be available in a stand-alone configuration as well. (Martyn Williams/19951108/Press contact: David White, Young & Roehr Inc. for Sharp, 503-222-0626, Internet e-mail davidwh@young-roehr.com; Cheryl Patstone, National Semiconductor, 408-721-2879) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 11/08/95 BUSINESS MCI Gets Green Light For Systemhouse Takeover (NEWS)(BUSINESS)(TOR)(00021) MCI Gets Green Light For Systemhouse Takeover 11/08/95 OTTAWA, ONTARIO, CANADA, 1995 NOV 8 (NB) -- Now that the Canadian government has given its approval, MCI Communications Corp.'s (NASDAQ:MCIC) acquisition of SHL Systemhouse Inc. (TSE,ME:SHK) is set to go ahead provided at least 75 percent of Systemhouse shares are tendered in response to MCI's offer by the company's November 13 deadline. MCI said it got approval under the Investment Canada Act, which provides for government review of major acquisitions by foreign companies, to buy Systemhouse. The applicable waiting periods under antitrust laws in both the United States and Canada had already expired, officials said. MCI has said it wants at least 75 percent of Systemhouse shares to be tendered if it is to proceed with the offer. MCI spokeswoman Laura Kelso told Newsbytes the company is not saying how many shares have been tendered so far. MCI has offered US$13 per share, which amount to a total price of about US$1 billion, for Systemhouse. MCI will have to hold a shareholders' meeting to approve the deal unless it gets 90 percent of the shares or more, she added, so "ideally we'd like 90 percent." In announcing the offer in September, MCI's president and chief operating officer, Gerald Taylor, said his company wants SHL to help it provide systems integration and other such services to its customers. MCI set up its Integrated Client Services Division (ICSD) last year to go after this type of business, expecting that most of its business would be with small- and medium-sized customers. Instead, Taylor said during a press teleconference, large companies' unexpected interest in ICSD's services has outrun the division's ability to provide them. Offering integration services to its customers is important for MCI, not just because of the revenue potential, but because "we become inextricably linked to their entire business process," Taylor said. That makes MCI less vulnerable to other long-distance carriers trying to lure away its customers, he explained. The benefit of the deal for SHL Systemhouse appears to be size. "MCI will give us the size and scope to tackle the US and world markets," said John Oltman, chairman and chief executive, in the September teleconference. Oltman said the deal will not lead to job losses or closure of facilities in Canada. In fact, he claimed the deal would increase demand for Systemhouse services and present "a wonderful opportunity for Canada to take advantage in a much bigger way of the global market." Meanwhile, Systemhouse announced that warrants allowing clients to purchase shares offered under a prospectus issued August 18 are immediately exercisable, so that warrant-holders can tender their shares to the MCI offer. (Grant Buckler/19951108/Press Contact: Ray Allieri, MCI, 202-887-2068; Rick Gray, SHL Systemhouse, 312-697-5668) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 11/08/95 ONLINE Internet Update - Audio Special (NEWS)(ONLINE)(TYO)(00022) Internet Update - Audio Special 11/08/95 TOKYO, JAPAN, 1995 NOV 8 -- In this special edition, Newsbytes gives details of new audio and music-related resources and services available on the global Internet: The information network radio show; New York Philharmonic Orchestra; CD Brazil; Kevin's CDs online; Number one hits database; The official Grateful Dead Web site; Radio Days - a soundbite history; Ragtime press music archive; Stuffed Moose audio. The Information Network Radio Show This is the home page of a KKLA radio talk show dedicated to the Internet and computing. The home page offers access to the program's newsletter and links mentioned in the broadcast so you can make use of the program even if you can't hear it. World Wide Web: http://www.infonetwork.com/infonet/ New York Philharmonic Orchestra The world famous orchestra now has an Internet home page. Visitors will find the current year concert schedule, artist biographies, Avery Hall information and contact and ticket details. A section is also devoted to the history of the orchestra. World Wide Web: http://www.nyphilharmon.org/ CD Brazil If you're a fan of Brazilian music and find it hard to get compact disks of your favorite artists or singers, this Web site is for you. The CD Brazil home page allows Internet users worldwide to order catalogs and CDs direct from the store in Rio de Janiero. World Wide Web: http://cdbrazil.com/cdbrazil/ Kevin's CDs Online This fun idea has resulted in an Internet user placing some songs from his CD collection online. Visitors to the page can listen in real time to the songs providing they have a 14.4 Internet connection or faster and Vocaltec's IWave software, which is also downloaded from the page. Make sure you have graphics loading switched on. World Wide Web: http://www.cloud9.net/~khuang/audio.html Number One Hits Database This is a great resource, it's just a shame we couldn't get it to work properly, but it's certainly worth a try. It is an online database of number one pop/rock hit singles and albums and country singles since the fifties. In the case of pop singles, the database goes back as far as 1917. Other databases are also planned. World Wide Web: http://www.fn.net/~spreng/webhits/index.html The Official Grateful Dead Web Site The official site for all "dead-heads." It includes up-to-the-minute information on the band, tours, music archives, and new releases. You can also view an online merchandise catalog and get read biographies of the band members. World Wide Web: http://grateful.dead.net/ Radio Days - A Soundbite History Believe it or not, radio was once the dominant medium, long before the days of television and the Internet. Now, using the latest technology, you can experience the greatest moments of the radio including listening to the most famous news bulletins, a recreation of the first ever commercial radio broadcast and much more. This is a great site! World Wide Web: http://www.otr.com/ Ragtime Press Music Archive The home page says it is a "digital reincarnation of the ragtime era." Ragtime Press offers a ragtime music catalog in online, listenable MIDI (musical instrument digital interface) format. The company has placed full details of itself and its products and will even tell you all about ragtime, in case you don't know! World Wide Web: http://www.utee.com/ragtime/ Stuffed Moose Audio The company is a publisher of audio books produced on cassette tapes. The current release is titled, "Spirited Yarns, Classic Humorous Ghost Stories" and is a collection of ghost stories by such authors as Mark Twain and Charles Dickens. The initial homepage has no text so you'll need a graphical browser. World Wide Web: http://deepcove.com/stuffedmoose/ (Martyn Williams/19951108) (ADVISORY)(GENERAL)(MSP)(00023) NewsPix Update For Newsbytes Publishers 11/08/95 MINNEAPOLIS, MINNESOTA, U.S.A.,1995 NOV 8 (NB) -- This update will be posted each Wednesday and Friday to reflect the daily picture additions. The updates will in turn become part of the main NewsPix Bulletin issued on Monday. These photos correspond to recent Newsbytes stories. They are online in the Newsbytes menu on America Online, NiftyServe, the Newsbytes Pacifica Website at http://www.islandtel.com/newsbytes/ and the Newsbytes private bulletin board system in Minneapolis. To become a licensed Newsbytes publisher, call Newsbytes at 612-430-1100 (US) or write to wendy@newsbytes.com on the Internet. Licensing applies to any medium. --------------------------- NOVEMBER 8, 1995 --------------------------- JPOSTA951106 - color / Internet Users Gather In Shock At Assassination: screenshot of Jerusalem Post homepage with news of the Rabin assassination. WALES19951101 - color / Wales Tourist Board Plugs Into The Web: homepage screenshot. (Newsbytes/19951108) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 11/08/95 ONLINE Comdex TV/Web Site To Air Keynotes, But Not "Live" (NEWS)(ONLINE)(BOS)(00024) Comdex TV/Web Site To Air Keynotes, But Not "Live" 11/08/95 ARMONK, NEW YORK, U.S.A., 1995 NOV 8 (NB) -- Contrary to information put out by a Santa Clara, California-based public relations (PR) agency, the Comdex TV World Wide Web site will not air "live" keynotes by IBM's Louis Gerstner, Microsoft's Bill Gates, and HP's Bob Frankenberg, but the speeches will be viewable through "delayed broadcast" next week, and other aspects of the video programming will be "live," Newsbytes has learned. Suzanne Lonergan, a spokesperson for Softbank Comdex, told Newsbytes that the PR firm for one of four other companies participating in the Comdex TV consortium distributed a draft copy of a press release about next week's cable and Web TV coverage without the approval of Softbank. The press release erroneously said that speeches by the three keynoters will be broadcast "live" by Comdex TV, according to Lonergan. Actually, added Lonergan, the three speeches will not be broadcast until later in the week, a fact since corroborated to Newsbytes by IBM Public Affairs Director Shep Doniger. Mary Curtis, chief executive officer (CEO) for Pacifico Public Relations & Advertising, has acknowledged the PR firm's factual mistake to Newsbytes. Curtis has also written a "to whom it may concern" letter apologizing for circulating the press release before a final version had been approved by Softbank. The Pacifico news release, which was printed on Array Microsystems stationery and appeared to be in final form, was distributed to Newsbytes and other members of the press. The bit of misinformation then cropped up in a story written and published by Newsbytes on November 6. Jeff Cross, an IBM spokesperson, told Newsbytes that, after seeing the Newsbytes story online, he got in touch with Doniger to find out about possible changes in the Comdex TV plans. Doniger then contacted Lonergan, who determined that Pacifico had distributed the draft press release harboring the error without Softbank's authorization. Lonergan told Newsbytes that, since then, Softbank has issued a final version of the press release, with the inaccuracy removed. Softbank's corrected press release went out over PR wire services the afternoon of November 7. Wrote Pacifico's Curtis, in portions of her letter of apology: "This letter is intended to apologize for the distribution of a press release that was not directly authorized by Softbank Comdex regarding Internet broadcasts of Comdex/Fall." Continued Curtis: "Please accept my further assurances that it is, indeed, Pacifico's standard policy to receive formal authorization on all press releases prior to distribution. We regret that in this particular case, we did not communicate directly with Softbank Comdex, resulting in the release of inaccurate information." Newsbytes obtained a copy of Curtis's letter from Softbank. Cross pointed out to Newsbytes that the keynotes at Fall Comdex next week will be given in this order: IBM's Gerstner on Monday, November 13; Microsoft's Gates on Tuesday, November 14; and HP's Frankenberg on Wednesday, November 15. By listing the names in a different order, he maintained, Pacifico's draft press release might have left a mistaken impression about the days of the week on which each of the respective speeches will take place. All three keynotes will begin at 9 am PST (Pacific Standard Time). Cross also informed Newsbytes that, beyond being able to view delayed video broadcasts of the three keynotes from the Comdex TV Web site (http://www.comdextv. com ), users will be able to access text and audio transcripts of Gerstner's speech from IBM's Web site (http://www.ibm.com ) starting just after completion of the keynote on November 13. As previously reported in Newsbytes, users can already download Xing Technology's client software from the Comdex TV Web site for use in watching next week's TV coverage over the Web. Also via the Web, you can now access a list of companies exhibiting at Fall Comdex, plus a full conference program, at http:/www.comdex.com, according to Lonergan. Aside from Softbank, Array, and Xing Technology, other partners in the Comdex TV consortium include Visitel and Best Internet Communications. (Jacqueline Emigh/199511107/Reader Contacts: Softbank Comdex, 617-449-6600; IBM, 914-765-1900; Press Contacts: Jeff Cross, IBM, 914-765-6141; Suzanne Lonergan, Softbank Comdex, 702-733-3111) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 11/08/95 GENERAL CA Adds Legent's AgentWorks To Unicenter, Cuts Prices (NEWS)(GENERAL)(TOR)(00025) CA Adds Legent's AgentWorks To Unicenter, Cuts Prices 11/08/95 ISLANDIA, NEW YORK, U.S.A., 1995 NOV 8 (NB) -- Computer Associates International Inc. (NYSE:CA) is adding agent technology it picked up in its recent acquisition of Legent Corp., plus other enhancements, to its CA-Unicenter systems management software. At the same time, CA is making an aggressive play for market share by reducing prices on entry-level versions of Unicenter. In a teleconference with reporters today, Sanjay Kumar, president and chief operating officer of CA, said Legent's AgentWorks product "has been incorporated into the base Unicenter product." AgentWorks is a suite of tools used to manage operating systems, databases, and applications. CA will also be offering Legent's AgentFactory tool kit, which Kumar described as "a full stand-alone agent development environment." Kumar said the ability to enhance Unicenter is one benefit of the Legent acquisition. "Legent did not have a product like Unicenter," he said, "but had a tremendous amount of solutions around the core." CA said it has also incorporated new single sign-on and system alert agent technology into Unicenter. Meanwhile, the company cut the entry-level price of the software by 43 percent, from $700 to $400 per power unit, which Kumar said is part of an attempt to boost sales of the software on entry-level systems. The company is "literally slashing prices to gain market share, which we believe we can afford to do," he said. Unicenter is already doing very well on larger systems, he added. The company also revealed that it will now offer product upgrades as part of a support package for which customers pay an annual fee. In the past, Kumar said, the annual support fee covered bug fixes and telephone support, but not upgrades. Another option, called CA-Unicenter Onsite Premium Support, will put a CA support specialist at the client's site full time -- for, of course, a substantial fee. Also on the subject of the Legent acquisition, Kumar said CA has incorporated Legent's former products into its pricing structure, keeping the majority of prices the same while lowering some by about five percent and raising others by one to eight percent. At the same time, CA said it cut prices on some of its own existing mainframe products, including CA-1, CA-7, CA-11, CA-Scheduler, and CA-Librarian. Kumar said CA will continue selling virtually all the products that Legent offered before the acquisition, dropping only two, as announced earlier. One of those dropped is Rerun/Restart, which was formerly a product of Goal Systems. CA had taken Goal to court earlier, alleging copyright infringement. Legent later acquired Goal. The other Legent product being dropped is MVS Tape Management. (Grant Buckler/19951108/Press Contact: Bob Gordon, Computer Associates, tel 516-342-2391, fax 516-342-5329) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 11/08/95 IBM Lotus & IBM Unveil Imaging Integration Plans (NEWS)(IBM)(BOS)(00026) Lotus & IBM Unveil Imaging Integration Plans 11/08/95 CAMBRIDGE, MASSACHUSETTS, U.S.A., 1995 NOV 8 (NB) -- The new Lotus Notes to IBM ImagePlus Connection, a Windows NT-based gateway between Notes and IBM's VisualInfo (VI) back office imaging system, is one of the first technologies to emerge from the work of the 50-or-so transition teams formed since IBM's acquisition of Lotus in June, revealed Sue Ryan, senior manager, Notes Companion Product Marketing at Lotus, in a briefing for Newsbytes. Ryan told Newsbytes that, over the past three months, transition team members from Lotus and IBM have launched into the multifaceted task of "pulling together our products and services as one unified company." Imaging provides one of the easiest areas for Lotus/IBM product integration, due to the "complementary" roles of Lotus Notes: Document Imaging (LN:DI) and IBM's VI system for production image scanning and archiving, contended the Lotus exec. The two vendors' jointly created imaging gateway, which builds a software bridge between Lotus's LN:DI front-end and the IBM's VI production server, represents the first phase in a two-stage imaging product integration plan, she continued. LN:DI offers "easy to use" image viewing from Windows desktops within the Notes "groupware" environment. IBM's ImagePlus, on the other hand, is "production- and process-oriented, structured, and very high-speed," with extensive image archiving capabilities, Ryan asserted. "Now we've created a third scenario, in which you have access to (imaging) information in groupware," added the senior marketing manager. The new interchange gateway will let companies use "multifunctional," Windows-based PCs with Notes in place of the turnkey dedicated VI workstations currently used by imaging production workers, supervisors and managers in banking, human resources, and other document imaging-intensive environments, according to Ryan. The Lotus/IBM gateway, which will initially run on a dedicated Windows NT imaging server, provides application programming interfaces (APIs) to both Notes and VI. The imaging server can be used with a Notes server running on any Notes platform. Users of Windows-based Notes client PCs will then be able to view and manipulate the imaged documents through LN:DI. Other functions of the new bi-directional gateway will include protocol conversion between Notes and VI imaging formats, Notes workbasket synchronization, and query and administration, said Ryan. Users will be able to "push" information from VI into Notes, for "ad hoc processing and structured workflow," as well as to "push" from Notes into the VisaulInfo document archive, giving "greater scalability to Notes-based imaging applications," Newsbytes was told. In addition, end users will be able to query the VI document imaging archive through Notes, she remarked. Queries will be composed in Notes, and then submitted to VI. Eliminating the need for dedicated imaging workstations is especially important for supervisors and managers, who unlike production workers spent only a relatively small percentage of their term dealing with image documents like loan requests and job applications, she elaborated. Managers, she maintained, will now be able to access documents stored in Notes and in the VI archives from anywhere in the world, by dialing into the Notes server from a notebook PC, instead of needing to be physically present at the same site as a dedicated VI imaging workstation. Desktop and mobile users will also be able to employ Notes to synchronize their PCs with data stored in Notes, including data from the VI archives that has been converted into Notes format and pushed or pulled into Notes. In Phase II of their imaging integration strategy, Lotus and IBM plan to eliminate the need for a gateway for desktop users, for "real time connectivity" between Notes and VI, Ryan reported. At the same time, the gateway will be maintained for mobile users and other applications calling for Notes synchronization. Lotus and IBM also expect to provide client workstations with a "richer" feature set. "And we will, of course, add new platforms, including AS/400 and MVS/ESA for the imaging server," the Lotus exec told Newsbytes. (Jacqueline Emigh/19951108/Reader Contact: Lotus Development Corporation, 617-577-8500; IBM, 914-765-1900; Press Contacts: Kathleen Haley or Victor Cruz, Lois Paul & Partners for Lotus; Jennifer Surro, Brodeur & Partners for IBM, 617-622-2869) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 11/08/95 ONLINE ****Spyglass Licenses Java Technology For Mosaic (NEWS)(ONLINE)(MSP)(00027) ****Spyglass Licenses Java Technology For Mosaic 11/08/95 NAPERVILLE, ILLINOIS, U.S.A., 1995 NOV 8 (NB) -- The company that licenses its technology to other firms is now on the flip side of the coin, as Spyglass Inc. (NASDAQ:SPYG) announced it is licensing Java technology from Sun Microsystems Inc. (NASDAQ:SUNW). Spyglass will integrate Java with future versions of its Mosaic Internet World Wide Web browser, one of which will be out early next year, Spyglass officials told Newsbytes. "I don't know if it is technically a re-license, but this is the first contract Sun has had like this, where someone will then re-license the product out to other people," Dan Johnson, product manager at Spyglass, told Newsbytes. "So it goes out to our partners as well, which is the first time they've (Sun) had a channel to put Java through." Spyglass licenses Web technology on both the client and server side to more than 45 companies. Those customers then embed the technology into their own products, add value to it, then remarket the "new" merchandise. The Java language lets developers create dynamic Web browsers or extend current Web browsers to include such applications as interactive three-dimensional (3-D) product demonstrations, live stock portfolio management, multi-user games, and up-to-the-second sports information. Johnson said Java is "one of the hot technologies for Web content development. Part of our customer base demands this from us, just as their customers demand it from them. So this is providing them with the technology they need to be current." Johnson emphasized his company doesn't put just any "hot" technology into its products, nor will it be the only hot technology Spyglass will include in Mosaic. Today's announcement seems to be helping the stock of both companies. On Wall Street at 12:00 EST Spyglass was trading up $1.25 at $71.25, while Sun Microsystems was up $3.625 at $83.50. As Newsbytes has previously reported, Java technology is also in the latest version (2.0) of Spyglass' competitor, Netscape, although the code doesn't come directly from Sun Microsystems. (Bob Woods/19951108/Press Contact: Randy Pitzer, Spyglass, 708-505-1010; George Paolini, Sun Microsystems, 415-786-8199) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 11/08/95 TELECOM MCI's "Complete Wireless Package" For Local Operators (NEWS)(TELECOM)(MSP)(00028) MCI's "Complete Wireless Package" For Local Operators 11/08/95 WASHINGTON, D.C., U.S.A., 1995 NOV 8 (NB) -- In an effort to capture more market share from the wireless market, and to sell to businesses that will be entering the emerging personal communications services (PCS) market, MCI Corp. (NASDAQ:MCIC) is introducing "NetworkMCI WIN (wireless integrated Network). The new offering is a package of network design and operations services that "enables any local wireless operator to build and run their businesses," officials said. The NetworkMCI WIN package includes services like home location register/authentication control for "follow-me" and national roaming services, voice messaging, one number and calling card support, call routing, and fraud management, officials said. MCI will also offer full operational support, including billing, invoicing, operations planning, operator service, and wireless network management. "MCI will also provide full call-center capabilities, including in-bound and out-bound telemarketing, lead generation and management, and customer service capabilities," said Herman W. Bluestein, MCI vice president of Wireless Strategy and Development. "By outsourcing these call center capabilities to MCI, wireless companies can acquire new customers, retain existing customers, and reduce churn." If businesses want to enter the PCS market, MCI said it's too late to submit paperwork to Uncle Sam, because the deadline for the latest round of auctions was Monday, November 6. Bluestein said it's not enough to just own a license. Companies must be able to compete, with the types of services offered by MCI, he said. MCI also said it has signed letters of intent with three wireless equipment manufacturers to obtain wireless equipment manufacturers. The three companies are Ericsson, AT&T Network Systems Group, and Northern Telecom (Nortel). In addition, wireless implementation services like radio network design, site selection and acquisition, and construction, will be provided by Mobile Systems International. Full WIN services, including network, common carrier, and outsourced services, will be provided by US AirWaves. MCI said it has signed a letter of intent with the Bellevue, Washington-based company. Other initiatives helping MCI in its new offering include the company's acquisition of Nationwide Cellular Service, a cellular reseller, along with agreements signed by other cellular resellers. With the agreements, MCI claims to have more than 75 percent of the American public covered with cellular service. (Bob Woods/19951108/Press Contact: Kevin Inda, MCI Financial Public Relations, 202-887-2196) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 86 11/08/95 CHIPS NexGen Adds Floating Point To Nx (NEWS)(CHIPS)(LAX)(00029) NexGen Adds Floating Point To Nx586 11/08/95 MILPITAS, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1995 NOV 8 (NB) -- NexGen has announced floating point members to its Nx586 processor family. NexGen, recently acquired by Advanced Micro Devices (AMD), claims to be the only supplier of x86-compatible processors to offer users a choice of floating point. NexGen was just acquired by AMD for $860 million. The deal, which is expected to close in the first quarter of 1996, gives NexGen shareholders 0.8 of a share of AMD stock for every NexGen Share. NexGen projected to generate about $21 million in annual revenues, and ship about 100,000 Pentium-class processors over the past year. This compares to Intel, which has shipped over 30 million. Mike Griffith, senior analyst for InStat Research, told Newsbytes, "This acquisition brings together two struggling Intel competitors. AMD's K-5 development problems are now widely known. AMD had announced intentions to cancel their next-generation processor program and replace it with NexGen's 6th generation CPU (central processing unit). "This announcement of the floating point members of its Nx586 processor family fills, what has been perceived as, a weakness in the NexGen line of processors," added Griffith. According to the company, the floating point unit of the Nx586 processor family, called the Nx586-Pf100, offers common add, subtract, and multiply operations all being executed in two clock cycles, versus three clock cycles, on the Pentium processor. Benchmarks used by NexGen show comparable performance with equivalent Pentium processors from Intel, claims the company. For example, NexGen reported that the Nx586-Pf100 processor, on the San Diego AutoCAD benchmark, takes 161 seconds to complete, versus 168 seconds for a Pentium 100 megahertz. The floating point unit is integrated into the Nx586 processor, allowing "full parallel operation" of floating point operations, said the company. The floating point versions of the Nx586 processor are packaged as multi-chip modules (MCM) utilizing IBM's advanced "flip-chip" packaging technology. "The floating point versions of the Nx586 processor family will now allow those users who need floating point capabilities to obtain the same value advantage that other Nx586 users have enjoyed," stated Atiq Raza, president and chief executive officer of NexGen. The Nx586-Pf100 processor is sampling now with production availability expected in December. The Nx586-Pf120 is scheduled to be available in the first quarter of l996. The Nx586-Pf100 is priced at $285 each, in quantities of 1,000. (Richard Bowers/19951108/Press Contact: David Kulbarsh, NexGen, 408-325-8283) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 11/08/95 LEGAL ****Compuserve Settles Downloading Music Case (NEWS)(LEGAL)(SFO)(00030) ****Compuserve Settles Downloading Music Case 11/08/95 NEW YORK, NEW YORK, U.S.A., 1995 NOV 8 (NB) -- The National Music Publishers' Association (NMPA) has announced an agreement with Compuserve in a landmark class-action suit over music copyright infringement. Submitted for approval to the court and class members, the agreement establishes licensing parameters for uploading and downloading copyrighted music. In the past two years, delivery of audio files online through online services and the Internet has become common. With advances in compression technology, entire songs can be transmitted from one computer to another, such as the case of online users downloading complete songs, or fragments of songs, to desktop computers. To "protect the interests of music publishers," NMPA and its licensing subsidiary, The Harry Fox Agency, supported a class-action suit brought by Frank Music and other music publishers against Compuserve. Rather than "pursue litigation," Compuserve reached a settlement agreement, which NMPA hopes will serve as a model for the online industry. In a press release, Compuserve said that, since its filing in November, 1993, this case has been one of the most closely watched copyright actions in the nation. In settling the dispute, Compuserve has "made no admission of liability" and the parties have "reserved all of their rights and defenses under the copyright laws." As part of the agreement, Compuserve will make a payment to The Harry Fox Agency and the payment will be distributed to music publishers. In the future, Compuserve's forum managers will be required to form an agreement with the agency prior to downloading songs. NMPA says it has been in contact with other online services and hopes the agreement can be extended to all services and Internet uses of copyrighted music. This means America Online, Prodigy, and others, can expect a letter from NMPA, whose president stated in a press release, "NMPA will continue to take all steps necessary -- whether in support of legislation, litigation, or negotiation -- to ensure the protection of music copyrights utilized in connection with new technologies." Charles Sanders, counsel for NMPA, told Newsbytes, "The profitability impact of this agreement on Compuserve is minuscule. It fairly protects the interests of the creators of the songs and creates a legal use of the material by Compuserve." Debra Young, spokesperson for Compuserve, told Newsbytes, "We also think the financial impact is minuscule, and we are pleased to have the agreement." Sanders also said the agreement is important in establishing the protection of intellectual properties online. As bandwidth increases and technologies such as CD-R (CD recording) drives reach the desktop, the delivery of stereo quality music online could become a common means of retail distribution. NMPA's early aggressive stance is similar to BMI and ASCAP which licenses companies to play music in retail stores and other places of business. Interestingly, Sanders said the agreement NMPA supports covers the use of the song, not the use of the recording. This could bring online services and the Internet another headache as BMI or ASCAP investigate the use of music online. (Patrick McKenna/19951108/Press Contact: Margaret O'Keefe, NMPA, 202-822-9491) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 11/08/95 LEGAL ****FTC Inquiry Of Maxis (NEWS)(LEGAL)(LAX)(00031) ****FTC Inquiry Of Maxis 11/08/95 WALNUT CREEK, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1995 NOV 8 (NB) -- Maxis Inc. (NASDAQ: MXIS), developer of SimCity and SimCity 2000, says that it has received an informal inquiry from the Federal Trade Commission (FTC). The inquiry centers on Maxis' previously-announced decision not to sell products to competitors NewMedia Express and Electronic Arts Distribution. Maxis announced it had received a FTC inquiry letter, dated October 24, that apparently was also sent to several other software publishers. The letter indicates that the FTC is reviewing potential "unfair competition." The investigation appears to focus on the decisions of various software publishers not to do business with NewMedia Express and Electronic Arts Distribution, which in April were appointed by Toys "R"Us to act as the retailer's exclusive suppliers of entertainment and "edutainment" software. Maxis and others have publicly objected to the exclusive arrangements on grounds of "conflict of interest" since Davidson & Associates, the majority owner of NewMedia, and Electronic Arts, are competing software publishers. Fred Gerson, chief financial officer for Maxis, explained to Newsbytes the core of Maxis' position, "Both NewMedia Express and Electronic Arts compete directly with us as software publishers. They were given exclusive distribution for Toys "R" Us. Several independent software companies like ourselves have been distributing for years either directly or through distributors that were not owned by our competitors. We do not want our direct competitors controlling our distribution." Maxis advised NewMedia and Electronic Arts Distribution that it would not participate in the Toys "R" Us programs in April and May, respectively, and reaffirmed that position through a press release issued last month. Maxis President Sam Poole said the company would cooperate fully with FTC staff. "Maxis has made no secret of its opposition to these exclusive distribution schemes involving competitors, which have justifiably been a hot topic in the industry," Poole said. "We're confident the investigation will show that Maxis' decisions not to deal with these distributors were made unilaterally and for valid business reasons," he added. "We continue to believe that Maxis, its customers, and its shareholders, are much better served by our maintaining direct relationships with our key retail partners. It makes no sense to delegate critical support functions to competitors." Speaking to Newsbytes, Linda Badger, an attorney for the FTC, said, "There is no public investigation of Maxis or any other software company. We neither deny or acknowledge that there might be a non-public investigation." An informal inquiry of the type Maxis received does not constitute an official action by the five-member Federal Trade Commission. It is typically a staff-level inquiry that may, or may not, lead to a formal investigation. Russell Nishida, president of New Media Express, told Newsbytes, "New Media Express did not instigate the investigation. The FTC has assured us that New Media Express is not a target of the investigation, and we are cooperating fully." (Richard Bowers/19951108/Press Contact: Fred Gerson, Maxis, 510-927-3739) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 11/08/95 ONLINE ****AOL Passes 4 Million Members, Posts Qtr Loss (NEWS)(ONLINE)(SFO)(00032) ****AOL Passes 4 Million Members, Posts Qtr Loss 11/08/95 VIENNA, VIRGINIA, U.S.A., 1995 NOV 8 (NB) -- America Online says it has passed the four million member mark and cites an Odyssey "market study" which says AOL is now as large as Compuserve and Prodigy combined. At the same time, AOL released its first quarter results with a 250% increase in revenues and a net loss of $10,262,000. Prodigy and Compuserve are likely to disagree with the AOL statement, as Prodigy reports its numbers in excess of 2 million and Compuserve says its latest count of paying accounts is 3.7 million. In its press release, AOL says Odyssey "is the nation's only independent market research firm dedicated exclusively to studying the complex and changing relationship between consumers, technology, and at-home information and entertainment." Asked about the difference in membership totals, a Compuserve spokesperson told Newsbytes, "We were wondering how they got that number ourselves. It simply does not add up." Compuserve's spokesperson did say the Compuserve is familiar with Odyssey. "This company does a lot of home user studies and it may be that the results refer to home users and not all online users," said the spokesperson. Regarding its first quarter results, AOL said its revenues grew from $56,936,000 in the same quarter last year to $197,865,000 in this first quarter. Revenues from online services were up to $185.1 million with another $12 million coming from additional sources. Accounting for a first quarter loss of more than $10 million, AOL says its September purchase of Ubique Inc. involved taking a $16.9 million charge for research and development in process at Ubique and amortization of previously-acquired assets. Steve Case, AOL's chief executive officer, said, "Our momentum continues. It was just over a year ago that we hit the one million subscriber mark and today we're announcing that we've passed the four million member mark. We've successfully assimilated a number of strategic acquisitions into America Online, expanded our presence on the Internet and our position in multimedia and other important technologies." (Patrick McKenna/19951108/Press Contact: Margaret Ryan, AOL, 703-448-8700) (SUMMARY)(GENERAL)(MSP)(00033) Newsbytes Daily Summary 11/08/95 MINNEAPOLIS, MINNESOTA, U.S.A., 1995 NOV 8 (NB) -- These are capsules of all today's news stories: ======================================================================== ------------| N E W S B Y T E S D A I L Y S U M M A R Y |---------- ------------| Wednesday, November 8, 1995 |---------- ======================================================================== (c) Newsbytes News Network (Tm) Editor in Chief: Wendy Woods ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Newsbytes News Network's on the Web! Check out http://www.nbnn.com for free daily top stories from Newsbytes and its affiliate publications, and from PC Week, MacWeek, and other Ziff news magazines. A subscription gives you all the news, full-text, plus the most comprehensive database of past computer stories online. The keyword-searchable database dates from today back through 1983. Subscriptions are $24.95 for three months. Questions? Send to 'administrator@newsbytes.com' For Japanese Newsbytes and additional services, see the Newsbytes Pacifica Website at http://www.islandtel.com/newsbytes/ ------------------------------------------------------------------------ CATEGORY HEADLINES (*** indicates today's top stories) STORY # ======================================================================== BUSINESS AST Posts Further Losses, Samsung Takes Control............ 08 BUSINESS ****Softbank To Announce Ziff Purchase Tomorrow........... 15 BUSINESS MCI Gets Green Light For Systemhouse Takeover.............. 21 CHIPS NexGen Adds Floating Point To Nx586........................ 29 EDUCATION China - Computer Tutor Software Is Popular................. 11 GENERAL Australian IT Industry Gears Up For CeBIT.................. 10 GENERAL Japan Newsbriefs........................................... 13 GENERAL Storagetek's Poppa To Retire............................... 19 GENERAL NewsPix Update For Newsbytes Publishers.................... 23 GENERAL CA Adds Legent's AgentWorks To Unicenter, Cuts Prices...... 25 GOVT California City Buys New SCADA System...................... 17 HEALTH Pharmacist On A Disk....................................... 09 IBM IBM's Multiple Size Internet Connection Services........... 02 IBM IBM Teams Up With Indiana Utility On Customer Service...... 06 IBM ThinkPad 365 Is New Low End Of IBM Notebook Line........... 16 IBM Lotus & IBM Unveil Imaging Integration Plans............... 26 LEGAL ****Compuserve Settles Downloading Music Case............. 30 LEGAL ****FTC Inquiry Of Maxis.................................. 31 ONLINE Europe Online Project In Doubt............................. 01 ONLINE European Commission Funds Secure Open Internet Technology.. 03 ONLINE UK Homes Rush To Plug Into Internet........................ 04 ONLINE CNN's Kinsley Leaving Crossfire For Microsoft.............. 07 ONLINE Japan - Softbank & NTT Data To Offer Internet Connections.. 14 ONLINE Internet Update - Audio Special............................ 22 ONLINE Comdex TV/Web Site To Air Keynotes, But Not "Live.......... 24 ONLINE ****Spyglass Licenses Java Technology For Mosaic.......... 27 ONLINE ****AOL Passes 4 Million Members, Posts Qtr Loss.......... 32 TELECOM E-Sat Digifone To Offer Ireland's 2nd GSM Network.......... 05 TELECOM Citizens Acquires ALLTELL Phone & Cable TV Lines........... 18 TELECOM MCI's "Complete Wireless Package" For Local Operators...... 28 TRENDS Info Technology May Be More Revolutionary Than We Think.... 12 TRENDS MiniDisk As Floppy Successor............................... 20 ======================================================================== These are the headlines and first paragraphs of each story, in order: 1 -> Europe Online Project In Doubt -- Industry observers are questioning the future of the Europe Online project as the third publisher in a row, this time Axel Springer AG, the German publisher of the Bild Zeitung newspaper, has now announced it is pulling out. Europe Online S.A. was founded by a consortium of 25 companies. 2 -> IBM's Multiple Size Internet Connection Services -- IBM has announced it is abandoning the "one size fits all" approach that it claims the Internet service provider industry is applying to companies wanting to plug into the Internet. According to Big Blue, each customer's needs are different, and for this reason the company has beefed up its Internet Connection software family to allow "large systems customers to exploit the vast opportunities of the Internet." 3 -> European Commission Funds Secure Open Internet Technology -- Backed by the European Commission, a consortium of 20 partners from European industry and academia has embarked on a research project to develop the "basic groundwork" to establish a secure electronic commerce service. 4 -> UK Homes Rush To Plug Into Internet -- According to market research by GfK Marketing Services, British homes are "enthusiastically joining" the so-called "information superhighway." Vironique Froment, a spokeswoman for the company, said research shows that each week in the UK, an estimated 1,300 households subscribe to the Internet. 5 -> E-Sat Digifone To Offer Ireland's 2nd GSM Network -- The Department of Communications in Ireland has announced that E-Sat Digifone has been granted the second GSM (global system for mobile communications) license in the Irish Republic. Ireland's second GSM net should be up and running by next spring, officials said. 6 -> IBM Teams Up With Indiana Utility On Customer Service -- IBM and Northern Indiana Public Service Co. (NIPSCO) have announced a utility customer service product, called Integrity/Customer Services System, that will go into production next week. 7 -> CNN's Kinsley Leaving Crossfire For Microsoft -- Michael Kinsley, co-host of CNN's "Crossfire" show and former editor of The New Republic, is leaving the network to edit a cyberspace magazine for Microsoft. 8 -> AST Posts Further Losses, Samsung Takes Control -- AST's first quarter results for fiscal 1996 show a company sinking deeper into a black hole, with its US$96.4 million losses nearly one and a half times those piled up in the same quarter the previous year. 9 -> Pharmacist On A Disk -- You might call it pharmacist in a box, but Pixel Perfect Inc., the publisher, calls it The Corner Drugstore CD-ROM. The program is a drug and pharmacy reference interactive computer program that comes on four CD-ROM disks and uses hyperlinks to connect related topics and video segments across the 2.5 gigabytes (GB) of data. 10 -> Australian IT Industry Gears Up For CeBIT -- The CeBIT jumbo jet is getting ready to take off for Hannover 1996 and about 100 Australian information technology (IT) companies are checking in with tickets and baggage. 11 -> China - Computer Tutor Software Is Popular -- More than 20,000 copies of CSC's Computer Tutor software for junior middle-school students have been sold since its release in January, and most student users said the software was useful, said the company. 12 -> Info Technology May Be More Revolutionary Than We Think -- In the future, politicians say, we will need to retrain ourselves constantly to keep up with the blistering pace of technological change. Otherwise, we'll be on the street, joining the growing ranks of the "underclass." 13 -> Japan Newsbriefs -- In this roundup of news from Japan: Bonus hike offered to avert strike; NTT orders Cray supercomputer; Hitachi enters US PC market; Fujitsu to sell FMV computers in China; Canon announces color laser printers; Digital satellite program will include network relays. 14 -> Japan - Softbank & NTT Data To Offer Internet Connections -- Softbank Corporation (TSE:9984) and NTT Data Systems Corporation (TSE:9613) are to begin offering Internet connections to personal and business users at rates "substantially lower" than competitors through Mediabank, a jointly owned company of the two. 15 -> ****Softbank To Announce Ziff Purchase Tomorrow -- Softbank Corporation (TSE:9984) has announced it will hold a press conference in Tokyo Thursday afternoon on the subject of "corporate acquisitions." The company refused to elaborate on details of the announcement but industry sources have confirmed to Newsbytes the company will announce the successful acquisition of Ziff Davis Publishing. 16 -> ThinkPad 365 Is New Low End Of IBM Notebook Line -- IBM (NYSE:IBM) is replacing its ThinkPad 360 notebooks with a new entry-level model, the ThinkPad 365. With the launch of the 365, all ThinkPads now support infrared printing and file swapping. 17 -> California City Buys New SCADA System -- The city of Santa Clara, California, has picked ABB System Control's Spider system to replace its 12-year-old supervisory control and data acquisition (SCADA) computer software and hardware that allows the city utility to monitor, control, and coordinate its operations over a large geographical area. 18 -> Citizens Acquires ALLTELL Phone & Cable TV Lines -- Citizens Utilities (NYSE: CZNA) has acquired more than 18,000 telephone access lines in Arizona, Utah, and New Mexico, and about 7,000 cable television lines in Arizona, New Mexico, and California, from ALLTELL Corp. 19 -> Storagetek's Poppa To Retire -- His name may not be as familiar to computer users as Bill Gates, but Storage Technology's (NYSE: STK) Ryal Poppa, who said this week he will retire in January, 1997, may have had as much of an impact on computing as Microsoft's chairman. 20 -> MiniDisk As Floppy Successor -- Sharp Electronics Corporation, a American unit of Japan's Sharp Corporation, and National Semiconductor, are to begin pushing the MiniDisk format as a replacement for today's floppy disk in the portable data storage sector. 21 -> MCI Gets Green Light For Systemhouse Takeover -- Now that the Canadian government has given its approval, MCI Communications Corp.'s (NASDAQ:MCIC) acquisition of SHL Systemhouse Inc. (TSE,ME:SHK) is set to go ahead provided at least 75 percent of Systemhouse shares are tendered in response to MCI's offer by the company's November 13 deadline. 22 -> Internet Update - Audio Special -- In this special edition, Newsbytes gives details of new audio and music-related resources and services available on the global Internet: The information network radio show; New York Philharmonic Orchestra; CD Brazil; Kevin's CDs online; Number one hits database; The official Grateful Dead Web site; Radio Days - a soundbite history; Ragtime press music archive; Stuffed Moose audio. 23 -> NewsPix Update For Newsbytes Publishers -- This update will be posted each Wednesday and Friday to reflect the daily picture additions. The updates will in turn become part of the main NewsPix Bulletin issued on Monday. 24 -> Comdex TV/Web Site To Air Keynotes, But Not "Live -- Contrary to information put out by a Santa Clara, California-based public relations (PR) agency, the Comdex TV World Wide Web site will not air "live" keynotes by IBM's Louis Gerstner, Microsoft's Bill Gates, and HP's Bob Frankenberg, but the speeches will be viewable through "delayed broadcast" next week, and other aspects of the video programming will be "live," Newsbytes has learned. 25 -> CA Adds Legent's AgentWorks To Unicenter, Cuts Prices -- Computer Associates International Inc. (NYSE:CA) is adding agent technology it picked up in its recent acquisition of Legent Corp., plus other enhancements, to its CA-Unicenter systems management software. At the same time, CA is making an aggressive play for market share by reducing prices on entry-level versions of Unicenter. 26 -> Lotus & IBM Unveil Imaging Integration Plans -- The new Lotus Notes to IBM ImagePlus Connection, a Windows NT-based gateway between Notes and IBM's VisualInfo (VI) back office imaging system, is one of the first technologies to emerge from the work of the 50-or-so transition teams formed since IBM's acquisition of Lotus in June, revealed Sue Ryan, senior manager, Notes Companion Product Marketing at Lotus, in a briefing for Newsbytes. 27 -> ****Spyglass Licenses Java Technology For Mosaic -- The company that licenses its technology to other firms is now on the flip side of the coin, as Spyglass Inc. (NASDAQ:SPYG) announced it is licensing Java technology from Sun Microsystems Inc. (NASDAQ:SUNW). Spyglass will integrate Java with future versions of its Mosaic Internet World Wide Web browser, one of which will be out early next year, Spyglass officials told Newsbytes. 28 -> MCI's "Complete Wireless Package" For Local Operators -- In an effort to capture more market share from the wireless market, and to sell to businesses that will be entering the emerging personal communications services (PCS) market, MCI Corp. (NASDAQ:MCIC) is introducing "NetworkMCI WIN (wireless integrated Network). The new offering is a package of network design and operations services that "enables any local wireless operator to build and run their businesses," officials said. 29 -> NexGen Adds Floating Point To Nx586 -- NexGen has announced floating point members to its Nx586 processor family. NexGen, recently acquired by Advanced Micro Devices (AMD), claims to be the only supplier of x86-compatible processors to offer users a choice of floating point. 30 -> ****Compuserve Settles Downloading Music Case -- The National Music Publishers' Association (NMPA) has announced an agreement with Compuserve in a landmark class-action suit over music copyright infringement. Submitted for approval to the court and class members, the agreement establishes licensing parameters for uploading and downloading copyrighted music. 31 -> ****FTC Inquiry Of Maxis -- Maxis Inc. (NASDAQ: MXIS), developer of SimCity and SimCity 2000, says that it has received an informal inquiry from the Federal Trade Commission (FTC). The inquiry centers on Maxis' previously-announced decision not to sell products to competitors NewMedia Express and Electronic Arts Distribution. 32 -> ****AOL Passes 4 Million Members, Posts Qtr Loss -- America Online says it has passed the four million member mark and cites an Odyssey "market study" which says AOL is now as large as Compuserve and Prodigy combined. At the same time, AOL released its first quarter results with a 250% increase in revenues and a net loss of $10,262,000. (Ian Stokell/19951108) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 11/07/95 LEGAL ****Novell Raiders Hit Another Pirate BBS (NEWS)(LEGAL)(DEN)(00001) ****Novell Raiders Hit Another Pirate BBS 11/07/95 PROVO, UTAH, U.S.A., 1995 NOV 7 (NB) -- Novell Inc. (NASDAQ:NOVL) raiders joined US Marshals late last month in raiding another bulletin board system (BBS) distributing, what the company said, was illegal software. The raid was made on the Pits Bulletin Board System of Brooklyn, New York. Novell spokesperson Ron Barker told Newsbytes that unlike other BBSs that have been raided a short time after they begin operations, the Pits board has been up and running for at least five years, perhaps longer. US Marshals confiscated one file server with eight workstations attached and the modems that were connected to eight incoming phone lines. The raid took place on October 24 and just days after Novell filed a civil action in the US District court for the Eastern District of New York the 34-year old BBS operator, Pierre Barkett, agreed to settle the lawsuit by forfeiting his equipment and agreeing to pay a $200,000 judgment. No information was immediately available on whether Barkett would be able to pay the judgment in cash or if terms were worked out. The raid was the culmination of an investigation launched by Novell's anti-piracy group in May. Barkett had reportedly been offering pirated copies of copyrighted software for downloading for several years. Barkett told Novell he had stayed away from Novell software on his board because of the company's reputation for pursuing and shutting down boards that illegally distribute pirated software. Ironically, the board did have Novell's PerfectOffice loaded and available for downloading, but Barkett said he didn't know PerfectOffice was a Novell product. Pirate bulletin boards make commercial software products, including popular programs from Novell, Microsoft, and other major software publishers, available for downloading at no cost. The illegal distribution of copyrighted software cost software publishers an estimated $15 billion last year according to the Business Software Alliance, a trade group. Users who download pirated software are not eligible for technical support and also face the risk of having their computer damaged or valuable data lost if the downloaded files contain a virus. Users who suspect the use of illegally obtained software can call the anti-piracy hotline of Novell or the Business Software Alliance. The BSA anti-piracy teams also work closely with law enforcement agencies to shut down boards. BBS operators face potential penalties of hundreds of thousands of dollars and up to five years in jail if convicted. (Jim Mallory/19951106/Press contact: Ron Barker, Novell, 801-429-7811; Public contact: Novel anti-piracy line, 800-747-2837) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 11/07/95 TRENDS UK - Racal's Low-Cost Audio Surveillance System (NEWS)(TRENDS)(LON)(00002) UK - Racal's Low-Cost Audio Surveillance System 11/07/95 SOUTHAMPTON, HAMPSHIRE, ENGLAND, 1995 NOV 7 (NB) -- Racal Recorders has unveiled an audio modification kit for stereo video recorders that it claims allows up to 16 audio channels to be recorded, along with a standard video signal, on a standard video. #IMAGE 1 20 TWPCX \images\95110702.PCX Click here for photo According to Clive Percival, marketing director with the company, the kit will sell through the company's dealers and resellers, with the aim of installing the system on a stereo four head VCR and producing a standalone audio recording system costing under UKP3,000. This price point, Newsbytes notes, is significantly less than many existing systems in use by police agencies and intelligence agencies around the world. "We have had inquires from a lot of sources, including the police," Percival told Newsbytes, adding that the police were interested in whether the system's recording could be used for voice analysis purposes. "The system accepts up to 16 voice channels with a standard telephone bandwidth of 3.5 kilohertz. I'm not sure whether voice analysis could be carried out on this type of recording, but the key benefit of this system is its ability to multiplex those 16 channels on to the audio bandwidth of the VCR," he said. The A-mux system, as the kit is called, installs as a black box addition to the VCR. The multiplexed output from the black box is introduced directly into the VCR's electronics at the FM (frequency modulation) hi-fi/stereo recording head stage. "This effectively bypasses the usual sound carrier system on VCRs. We need a four-head stereo VCR for this purpose, to get at the full FM carrier bandwidth that is encoded along with the video signal on the VCR tape," he explained. "The A-mux system can be used in a wide variety of situations, such a single or multi-camera video surveillance system that feeds one or more camera pictures on to the VCR in the usual manner. Where A-mux comes in, is where multiple microphones need to be sited around the office, room, or even building. All the channels can be accessed singularly, or on a multiple basis," he told Newsbytes. As well as being a four-head stereo system, the VCR must also have a "continuous record" option. "This allows for unattended operation, with the tape rewinding after the tape is completed," he explained. Using an E300 (300 minute) tape, running at half speed on a VCR, up to 10 hours worth of recordings can be made on the system. According to David Poole, Racal Recorders' managing director, the development of the A-mux is a first for the security marketplace. "In an ever more sophisticated marketplace, we have provided a reliable and cost-effective solution to the gaps in information left by video without sound," he said. (Steve Gold/19951103/Press Contact: Clare Tipler, Racal Corporate Relations, +44-1734-669969; Reader Contact: Racal Recorders, tel +44-1703-848919, fax +44-1703-843265) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 11/07/95 BUSINESS French Software House Esker Opens Spanish Operations (NEWS)(BUSINESS)(LON)(00003) French Software House Esker Opens Spanish Operations 11/07/95 MADRID, SPAIN, 1995 NOV 7 (NB) -- Esker, the French software house, has opened a new subsidiary in Madrid, Spain. According to Lee Hawksley, the company's managing director, the opening of the Spanish operation comes just three months after the company opened offices in Milan, Italy, and coincides with the launch of three language translations -- in to Spanish, Catalan, and Japanese -- of Tun Plus, the company's communications software package. Esker is best known in the comms software world for developing packages such as Tun Plus, Tun Emul, Tun TCP, Tun Mail and Tun SQL, which provide comms links between Windows and heterogeneous servers such as Unix and IBM systems. According to Hawksley, the new Spanish office will strengthen the company's presence in Spain, coming after recent expansions into the US (California) and Canadian (Ontario) markets, as well as the company's German, Italian, and UK office operations. "Our goal is to establish Esker subsidiaries in every major marketplace to support our distribution partners. Spain is a significant European market for us, and a country from which we expect considerable growth over the next few years," he explained. According to Hawksley, now that the company's packages are available in both Spanish and Catalan, the opening of the Spanish office comes at an "ideal time" for the company. "Previously Spain was managed from our Lyon headquarters in France, but we simply couldn't afford to give it the focus it deserved from a distance. The new office will be well-placed to offer strong local sales and technical support for our partners," he said. Esker Spain will be managed by Cesar Penscoba Royuela, former product manager with Uniplex Iberica. According to Hawksley, the major objective of the company with the Spanish operation will be to develop sales of its software in Spain, as well as further software translations into the Spanish language. (Sylvia Dennis/19951103/Press & Reader Contact: Esker Iberia, tel +34-1-552-9265, fax +34-1433-5541) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 11/07/95 NETWORK UK - AccessManger Security Prgm For NetWare (NEWS)(NETWORK)(LON)(00004) UK - AccessManger Security Prgm For NetWare 11/07/95 LONDON, ENGLAND, 1995 NOV 7 (NB) -- ICL has developed a version of its AccessManager single sign-on security system for the Novell NetWare environment. Pricing of the package, which also supports the IBM AIX (the company's flavor of Unix) and UnixWare operating systems with this release, depends on site licensing requirements. Announcing the NetWare edition of the software, Judy Coxwell, marketing manager for AccessManager with ICL, said that the porting to NetWare, AIX, and UnixWare makes the software the leading security product for applications across an enterprise network. "Enterprise networks pose a particular security challenge for network managers, How do they manage security for heterogeneous environments and legacy systems? We believe that AccessManager gives our customers the widest range of popular servers platforms," she said. According to Coxwell, AccessManager provides an "integrated approach" to security across the enterprise, which is both "easy to use and administer." In use, the software is billed as controlling network security through single sign-on and control of user access to distributed network applications on multiple platforms, including IBM and DEC mainframes, HP, Pyramid, Sun, Novell, AIX, OS/2, Windows NT, and other systems. When network users log on to the AccessManager server, they use a single login ID and password. When the user selects the role that they are performing on that system, AccessManager authenticates the user, authorizes the use of the selected role, and presents a desktop showing only those applications which the user in that role is allowed to access. This role-based access, ICL claims, hides unauthorized applications from even authorized users of other applications, and so prevents any thought of unauthorized access. Novell's Roland Richter, the company's vice president of channel sales for Europe, the Middle East and Africa (EMEA), said that this version of AccessManager will be very useful for NetWare users worldwide. "Security is an important element of any network, and AccessManager provides a valuable extension to this element across multiple platforms. Many of the estimated 40 million NetWare users worldwide, who require secure access to applications and legacy systems over different platforms, will now have the opportunity to benefit from AccessManager's enhanced security," he said. AccessManager supports heterogeneous security environments, including security facilities such as RACF, ACF2, TopSecret, DCE, and Kerberos. The software is also billed as being compatible -- and will integrate with -- other security technologies, including SDTO's SecurID card, PCSL's Stoplock V, and RACF's PassTicket. (Sylvia Dennis/19951103/Press Contact: David Owen, PR Consultants, +44-161-236-7879; Reader Contact: ICL, tel +44-181-788-7272, fax +44-181-565-6645) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 11/07/95 BUSINESS Nat'l Australia Bank Installs IBM Computer (NEWS)(BUSINESS)(LON)(00005) Nat'l Australia Bank Installs IBM Computer 11/07/95 DUBLIN, IRELAND, 1995 NOV 7 (NB) -- The National Australia Bank has chosen an Information Framework system from IBM's Banking, Finance and Securities Solutions Unit, to support a major information technology (IT) project that will be developed for use throughout the group's worldwide operations. According to IBM, its Banking Architecture and Solutions Center in Dublin has been selected from business, technology, and consultancy centers throughout the world to conduct the project in conjunction with National Australia Bank. The announcement was made earlier this week by the Irish Minister of State for the Environment, Liz McManus, T.D. Speaking at the reception to announce details of the initiative, the Minister said: "It is gratifying and exciting to see a bank of National Australia Bank's stature investing so significantly in Irish skills and technology". According to Big Blue, this strategic initiative from National Australia Bank will have a major impact on the way the group's banks do their business. An international team from the bank is currently working with IBM's Dublin Center to develop the highly sophisticated business planning, analysis and process management system. The IBM Banking Solutions Center in Dublin was established five years ago and has now grown to a staff of 70 with annual revenues of more than US$9 million. According to Frank Brennan, the general manager of the National Irish Bank, which is the Irish subsidiary to the NAB, the decision to locate this project in Dublin reflected National Australia Bank's commitment to Ireland. "This program will not only benefit our banks, but will also provide a significant boost to the growing reputation of Dublin as a center for innovation in business solutions for the financial services industry," he said. "Through the ownership of NIB and Northern Bank, National Australia Bank plans to combine local and international skills to benefit local businesses and bank customers. This project is an example of this," he added. According to IBM, the NAB project will allow IBM to further develop a wide range of banking solutions and market them through their worldwide operations. This will increase the development potential of the IBM Dublin center. Colman O'Sullivan, manager of IBM's Banking Solutions Center claims that the work currently underway with National Australia Bank confirms the value of IBM's investment in the Information Framework over the past five years. "It will help us to refine, develop and extend our unique offering and in the process will transfer skills to within the NAB Group," he said. (Sylvia Dennis/19951103/Press Contact: Rory Caren, IBM Ireland, +353-1-660-3744, Internet Email roryc@vnet.ibm.com) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 11/07/95 TRENDS UK Report - Uncertainty In Services & Software Sector (NEWS)(TRENDS)(LON)(00006) UK Report - Uncertainty In Services & Software Sector 11/07/95 LONDON, ENGLAND, 1995 NOV 7 (NB) -- According to the latest quarterly survey from the Computing Services & Software Association (CSSA) in the UK, business confidence is encouragingly high amongst the chief executives officers (CEOs) of the UK's software and services companies. But, while the CEOs are confident, the CSSA reports that there is uncertainty in the individual sectors of computing services. According to the report from CSSA, staff recruitment, as measured by actual net increases in staff numbers during the quarter, reached its highest level for the 1990s after an unexpected dip in the previous quarter. The CSSA notes that recruitment rates are high from the number of job advertisements and other indicators, but, in addition, the number of people employed in computing services companies is increasing rapidly because of large numbers of staff transferred in outsourcing contracts. According to the CSSA, outsourcing continues to be one of the best performing sectors and undoubtedly accounts for considerable growth in staff numbers. The blot on the horizon is that a significant drop in the recruitment and contract staff companies' performance has been noted. This, the CSSA claims, indicates a significant drop in the rate of expansion of business in the third quarter occurred, something which Rob Wirszycz, a spokesman for the CSSA describes as unexpected after the excellent results for the second quarter of the year. According to the CSSA, a reduction in growth rate might be partially attributable to the effect of the hot summer weather on the activities of freelance programmers, but this cannot account for the reduction in the growth rate forecast for the fourth quarter of the year. What's interesting about the survey is that the not-for-profit computing services group claims that the mixed messages are probably representative of the general state of the UK's economy. The CSSA is the representative voice of the UK-based computing services and software industry. The organization comprises of more than 450 corporate members with combined revenues of more than UKP7 billion in 1994. (Sylvia Dennis/19951102/Press & Reader Contact: CSSA, tel +44-171-405-2171, fax +44-171-404-4119) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 11/07/95 WINDOWS Accent To Intro Dual-Language Word Processor (NEWS)(WINDOWS)(DEN)(00007) Accent To Intro Dual-Language Word Processor 11/07/95 LAS VEGAS, NEVADA, U.S.A., 1995 NOV 7 (NB) -- Accent Software International Ltd. (NASDAQ: ACNTF) will unveil a line of Windows-based dual-language word processing programs with built-in translation capability when this year's Comdex trade show opens its doors next week. The product is called Accent Duo With Translation and it is available in a series of two-language versions that include Spanish, Italian, German, and French. The software is capable of both multilingual word processing and translations to and from English. The translation capability is handled by Globalink's Language Assistant software, which is incorporated into the Accent Duo programs. The software allows the user to translate the entire document, portions of documents, or work interactively for greater control and customization. Once the translation has been accomplished, the program's word processing features can be used to edit the document in either, or both, languages. The user can work in the language and keyboard of choice. Accent Duo With Translation is compatible with the document formats of popular word processing programs like Microsoft Word, Wordperfect, and Word Pro and works under any language version of Windows 3.1 or Windows 95. The company said any PC that can run Windows 3.1 or Windows 95 can run Accent Duo. The $149.95 (suggested retail price) software requires a minimum of six megabytes (MB) of hard drive space. In addition to Accent Duo, other Accent word processing products include: Accent Express 2.0,, a standard multilingual word processor without translation capability for $69; and Accent Special Edition 2.0 that has a thesaurus and spelling checker for English, French, German, Spanish, Italian, and Portuguese, for $199. The company also publishes Accent Professional with spelling checkers, thesaurus, multiple fonts, and interface languages, for $399 SRP. (Jim Mallory/19951106/Press contact: Alan Weinkrantz, Alan Weinkrantz And Company for Accent, 210-820-3070; Public contact: Accent Software, tel 800-535-5256, fax 800-535-5257) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 11/07/95 GENERAL Software Improves Your Golf Game (NEWS)(GENERAL)(DEN)(00008) Software Improves Your Golf Game 11/07/95 SEATTLE, WASHINGTON, U.S.A., 1995 NOV 7 (NB) -- Colder temperatures, blustery winds and even snow in some parts of the country are here, so its time to improve your golf game! That's possible even at this time of year thanks to multimedia computers and CD-ROM-based software like Diamar Interactive's Breaking 100, the first of the company's two-part Golf Tips series of instructional CD-ROMs. Diamar stresses that Golf Tips is a series to help users improve their scores across every phase of the game through lessons that take advantage of the latest in interactive multimedia technology including virtual reality, and is not a computer golf game. The software was produced in conjunction with the magazine Golf Tips and features pros from the David Leadbetter Golf Academy. Topics covered in Breaking 100 include: the proper grip; stance; posture and balance; confidence on the tee; curing the slice, hook topped or shanked shot; judging distance; pitching versus chipping; putting basics; hitting from fairway bunkers; and rules and etiquette of the game. The potential market for an instructional golf program is apparently huge. Dave Roberts, Diamar chief executive officer, said 24 million people in the US spend over $16 billion dollars annually on the game on everything from magazines and apparel to expensive equipment, lessons, and greens fees. Diamar said Breaking 100 is aimed at the beginner and intermediate golfer, offering over 20 hours of instruction on more than 75 topics covering every aspect of a game that at times so frustrates players they throw or break their clubs. Breaking 100 users can set their own pace as they progress through the structured lessons, workshops on individual topics and customized workshops on areas that the user has particular trouble with. Leadbetter pros share their own golf tips and demonstrate techniques in over 1,500 photographs and more than 60 video clips. While Breaking 100 isn't a game, it does give the user an opportunity to play the game with its Play the Hole module, a virtual reality simulation of a Par-5 hole which is personalized according to the user's own handicap. Diamar said the software is one of the first commercial products to use Apple's new QuickTime VR (virtual reality) technology for Macintosh and Windows platforms. Breaking 100 is organized into an introduction, three learning modules and the virtual reality section. Getting Started is an overview of the topics to be covered and explains the different ways to navigate the CD-ROM. The company said the 5-Day Golf Lesson is the best way to approach the program if your preferred learning method is to explore the material from beginning to end. Build Your Own Workshop lets users customize their personal experience by zeroing in on a particular topic and then branching to related topics. Analyzing Your Trouble Areas lets players organize their own series of lessons based on the specific aspect of the game in which they need help. Play the Hole teaches golf strategy and club selection appropriate for the user's skill level. The virtual reality simulation technology gives the player a full 360 degree perspective of the hole. Breaking 100 is available for both Macintosh and Windows systems, and has a suggested retail price of $59.95. The Mac version requires at least a 25 megahertz (MHz) 68030-based Macintosh (the software is accelerated for the Power Mac), System 7.1 or later, a double-speed or faster CD-ROM drive, eight megabytes (MB) of system memory and 2MB available on your hard drive, and a 256-color monitor. Windows users need at least a 33MHz 386SX or better, Windows 3.1 or Windows 95, a double-speed or faster CD-ROM drive, a sound card, 8MB of system memory, 4MB of available hard drive space, and a 256-color monitor. The software includes QuickTime 2.0 and QuickTime VR. (Jim Mallory/19951106/Press contact: Kathy Romig, Diamar Interactive, 206-340-5975; Public contact: Diamar, 800-234-2627) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 2000 11/07/95 TRENDS ****All Banks On The Internet By Year (NEWS)(TRENDS)(LAX)(00009) ****All Banks On The Internet By Year 2000 11/07/95 PALO ALTO, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1995 NOV 7 (NB) -- In the next few weeks, Killen & Associates will release a study, called "Internet Banking Strategies: Markets, Applications and Technologies," that forecasts United States banks will significantly step up their Internet investments in 1996. The study predicts accelerated growth in Internet hook-ups until virtually all banks are online by the year 2000. "You are going to see banks shift their focus," said Michael Killen, president of Killen & Associates, "to more open Internet approaches, from proprietary personal computer financial software such as Intuit's Quicken and Microsoft's Money." Speaking to Newsbytes, Jules Street, vice president of Killen & Associates, said, "The banks are not going to start off with all the bells and whistles that Quicken might offer, but before the banks are done they will be offering a full menu over the Internet. Virtually all the banks in the United States will be offering full banking and financial services by the year 2000." The research company just completed interviews with executives from more than two dozen banks in the United States, Germany, France, the United Kingdom, and Hong Kong, to determine their online banking plans for 1996 and beyond. "All of the banks we interviewed already have Internet home pages," Killen continued. "Virtually all those bankers believe the time has come to get serious about the Internet in order to cut service costs and reach emerging PC banking customers. The opinion is that a direct Internet banking capability is a top priority. They realize the importance of preparing for remote delivery offerings. Gaining first-hand experience in meeting the new needs of Internet customers and emerging Internet merchants is a significant issue. They want to control their own destiny before high tech companies take their business," said Killen. The study estimates the capital expenditures needed to implement Internet online banking services and provides "rules of thumb" that bankers use to estimate the cost-savings of Internet systems over present branch, telephone, and financial software PC delivery systems. The study also examines various technological approaches to online banking and documents buying motivations of US banks. Other recent studies by Killen and Associates include: "Microsoft's Global Electronic Financial Services Strategy;" "Payments on the Internet;" "Electronic Commerce: MCI's Strategy;" "Internet and Commerce: Markets, Applications and Technologies;" and "Personal Communications Services/Personal Communications Networks: Markets, Applications and Technologies." (Richard Bowers/19951106/Press Contact: Jules Street, Killen & Associates, 415-617-6130) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 11/07/95 GOVT More Reciprocity Needed In Japan Alliance (NEWS)(GOVT)(WAS)(00010) More Reciprocity Needed In Japan Alliance 11/07/95 WASHINGTON, D.C., U.S.A., 1995 NOV 7 (NB) -- A committee of the National Research Council has called for an end to the "one-way" flow of technology that characterizes the security alliance between the United States and Japan. The committee says Japan must make greater technological contributions in order for the technology collaboration between the countries to serve US interests in the future. Although there have been initiatives in the past 15 years to increase the flow of Japanese technologies to the US, results have been minimal, according to the report. "Focused and persistent efforts by both countries are needed to build the foundation for a new scientific and technological partnership that delivers clear mutual benefits and strengthens the US-Japan security alliance," said Gerald Dineen, chairman of the committee and former foreign secretary of the National Academy of Engineering. "The United States must carefully manage its scientific and technological collaboration with Japan to ensure that national security interests are both protected and advanced," said Dineen. Tight defense budgets in both countries and the increasing use of commercial, off-the-shelf technologies could lead to greater incentives for cooperation, says the committee. The committee says the US government should try to alter technology transfer obstacles in Japanese export policy, encourage collaborative research and development (R&D) between US and Japanese companies, and pursue a coordinated strategy for work on major weapons systems. The committee also called for expanded official and private-sector exchanges on political, economic, and technological issues. "Maximizing US Interests in Scientific and Technical Relations With Japan" is available from the Office of Japan Affairs in Washington. The telephone number is (202)-334-2815. The committee project was funded by the Department of Defense as part of a comprehensive study of the relationship between the US and Japan in the areas of science and technology. The National Research Council is the operating arm of the National Academy of Sciences and the National Academy of Engineering. (Kennedy Maize/19951106/Press Contact: Alexander De Angelis, 202-334-2000) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 11/07/95 TELECOM UK - Pace Changes Name, Prepares Move Into Telecoms (NEWS)(TELECOM)(LON)(00011) UK - Pace Changes Name, Prepares Move Into Telecoms 11/07/95 SHIPLEY, WEST YORKSHIRE, ENGLAND, 1995 NOV 7 (NB) -- Pace Micro Communications, the modem company which underwent a management buyout (MBO) earlier this year from Pace, the parent satellite company, is changing its name to Pace Consumer Electronics. At the same time, the company is preparing a range of new products that, as the name change implies, are not modems. According to Steve Lister, managing director of Pace Consumer Electronics (PCE), the company is the longest running UK modem producer and, as such, has successfully manufactured its modems for more than a decade. "Since we staged the MBO, we have been working hard behind the scenes on developing new products in the communications market, so the name change was a natural evolution for us. We will still continue to produce modems, but any company that only produces a set of products for one market remains vulnerable in a competitive environment," he told Newsbytes. Lister went on to say that Pace is preparing an ISDN (integrated services digital network) unit for shipment early in the new year, as well as branching out into the field of cellular communications. The company is about to begin shipping its own brand version of the Panasonic G400 pocket GSM (global system for mobile communications) cellular phone, under the company's Microlink brand name. The G400 will sell for around the UKP150 mark, attached to an annual air-time agreement from either Cellnet or Vodafone. By the end of the year, the company hopes to have started shipping its projected major seller, the Microlink GSM data card. The card, which will fit to the G400 phone, allows data to be piped a GSM network at speeds of up to 9,600 bits-per-second (bps). The major pull of the card is the pricing - UKP299. This contrasts sharply with the brand leader, the Nokia GSM data card, which sells for UKP449. Lister claims that he can produce the own-produced Microlink GSM data card for significantly less than Nokia, and expects the street price for be even less than the retail price of UKP299 for the Pace data card. "We've been working on the data card and GSM generally for some time now. Since we produce the majority of our own hardware, we can (and have) designed the card in-house, produce it in-house and can supply the card to our existing reseller channel," he told Newsbytes. Lister said that he expects data over GSM to be a major seller for the company in the future. "Since GSM allows roaming between countries, a GSM data card effectively allows international wireless data transmission, something that many portable computer users are looking for. The Microlin data card fills that need," he explained. (Steve Gold/19951106/Press & Reader Contact: Pace Consumer Electronics, tel +44-1274-532000, fax +44-1274-327029; Internet e-mail pace@cix.compulink.co.uk) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 11/07/95 BUSINESS UK's Biggest PC Vendor Gets Even Bigger (NEWS)(BUSINESS)(LON)(00012) UK's Biggest PC Vendor Gets Even Bigger 11/07/95 BURNLEY, LANCASHIRE, ENGLAND, 1995 NOV 7 (NB) -- Granville Technology Group, the parent company to seven direct-sell PC brand name operations, including Time Computer Systems and MJN Technology, has spent UKP300,000 on a new technical support facility for customers, as well as starting up an extra production line to boost potential production of PCs to 300,000 units per year. The move means that the company is now firmly in the number one direct PC sales slot in the UK. The customer help desk system improvement sees Granville tripling its support staff to more than 30, with staff having access to a new Expert Advisor database to allow them to quickly identify and report answers to customers' technical queries. According to John Butters, a spokesman for the company, answers to new problems can be entered into the database as they crop up, and when new hardware, software, or operating systems are sold by the group's seven operating companies, it will allow any technical queries to be answered "as quickly and efficiently as possible." All phone calls to the support desk are automatically logged into the system, something which Granville claims gives managers instant access to a wide range of information such as lists of the most commonly asked questions and trends in customer difficulties. "The introduction of this new system will enable our companies to give customers a high level of after-sales technical support," explained Joe Alexander, Granville's quality assurance manager. According to Alexander, PCs are increasingly being brought by computer newcomers for use by the whole family and, because of this, it is important that the company adapts to this new type of buyer by ensuring that staff are available to answer their questions. "The move should also help us to cut the number of PCs returned for warranty work, where the real problem lies in the configuration of the machine, rather than a hardware failure," he said. Granville is also adding another PC production line to its factory, making it the largest in Europe. The company claims that, by producing its own PCs, it allows it to offer customers high specification machines at the industry's keenest prices. "For eight years we've been selling computers built by companies such as IBM and Compaq. But, by moving production in-house for many of the machines we sell, we will be able to respond swiftly to market demands and ensure customers are given the latest technology at aggressive prices," said Colin Silcock, Granville's national sales manager. (Steve Gold/19951106/Press Contact: Insight Marketing, tel +44-1625- 500800, fax +44-1625-500900; Reader Contact: Granville Technology, tel +44-1282-77044, fax +44-1282-770607) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 11/07/95 ONLINE "Saturday Night Live" Meets Cyberspace (NEWS)(ONLINE)(BOS)(00013) "Saturday Night Live" Meets Cyberspace 11/07/95 BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS, U.S.A., 1995 NOV 7 (NB) -- Whether you want to re-visit earlier shows from NBC's Saturday Night Live (SNL) for old times' sake, or whether you missed the first programs because you were too young to stay up that late, you can now view more than 800 sketches from the past 20 years at the new "Best of SNL Home Video" World Wide Web site, said Michael F. Arrigo, in an interview with Newsbytes at Internetworld. But in fact, SNLvideo and Immedia Net, the co-creators of the new home page, expect "Best of SNL" to bring the biggest number of hits from baby-boomers, who were young adults when SNL characters like Toonces the Cat first appeared on the TV scene, and who have transitioned to the Web, according to Arrigo, the president of Immedia Net. "SNL and the Web are both demographic matches to the baby-boom generation, making them a `perfect fit,'" maintained Arrigo, who was previously VP at Digitalk. Visitors to the new "Best of SNL" (BSN) Web site will get more than merely the 800 video clips of the past two decades, Arrigo added. The free home page features a "Mr. Bill Room," together with an "extensive SNL database" that can be queried through lists of characters, actors and years. Also from the Web site, visitors can order any of about 50 titles from the BSN video cassette collection for playback on their TV sets. In the future, the two partners in the new Web site plan to link the BSN home page to the Microsoft Network (MSN), Newsbytes was told. Also coming up are database enhancements, discussion groups, information on current SNL shows, and free giveaways of BSN videocassettes to contestants in Web drawings, revealed the Immedia Net president. You can access the BSN Web site at http://www.snlvideo.com. (Jacqueline Emigh/19951103/Reader And Press Contacts: Immedia Net, 714-650-2946; SNLvideo, 310-217-4003) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 11/07/95 TRENDS US Tops In Competitiveness - Again (NEWS)(TRENDS)(WAS)(00014) US Tops In Competitiveness - Again 11/07/95 WASHINGTON, D.C., U.S.A., 1995 NOV 7 (NB) -- Propelled by leadership in new technologies such as computers and telecommunications, the United States tops the world in competitiveness, according to the "1995 World Competitiveness Report," published by the World Economic Forum in Geneva, Switzerland. The latest ranking marks the second year in a row with the United States on top. Japan, which once led the rankings for eight consecutive years, fell to fourth place from last year's third place finish. Singapore ranked second in the latest rating, with Hong Kong in third place. "The revival of the competitiveness of the United States is the result of three factors: strong resilience in the economy thanks to deregulation and privatization programs; leadership in new technologies -- such as computers, telecommunications, bioengineering -- and services; and finally, stripped control on the operating costs of enterprises, in particular labor costs," said Stephane Garelli, director of the project. First published in 1980, the report looks at performance against a variety of criteria, including a country's domestic economic health, its participation in international trade and investment, and its economic infrastructure. This year's report examines 49 countries including, for the first time, China and Russia. Reflecting the difficult conversion to a capitalist economy, Russia ranks 49th. While the US is strong across the board, the project did find some weaknesses. The project found the US is weak in the "government" category, which rates the extent to which government policies are conducive to competitiveness. The US is also weak in the "people" category, which values the quality of the workforce. "There are some serious weaknesses in American education," said Garelli, "especially at the secondary school level, that hamper competitiveness." According to Garelli, the fall of Japan is due to social change in the country. "Japan is going through the same social crisis, the same questioning of values today that Western Europe and the US did in 1968," he said. (Kennedy Maize/19951106/Press Contact: Brenda Siler, US Council on Competitiveness, 202-682-4292) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 11/07/95 BUSINESS Elonex & Micron Team On High-Speed Memory (NEWS)(BUSINESS)(LON)(00015) Elonex & Micron Team On High-Speed Memory 11/07/95 LONDON, ENGLAND, 1995 NOV 7 (NB) -- Elonex Technologies' research and development (R&D) operation, Elonex Technologies, has announced it is working with Micron Technology, the memory manufacturer, to develop system board designs that support the emerging Burst Extended Data Out (Burst EDO) RAM standard. According to Dan Kikinis, Elonex Technologies' president, plans call for Elonex systems using Burst EDO to be released in the first quarter of 1996. He claims that the technology will be demanded by a significant number of power users. "We believe that Burst EDO technology offers significant advantages over synchronous memory, because it delivers similar PC performance gains, but at much lower cost. That enables us to design considerably faster systems without charging premium prices," he said. According to Kikinis, systems incorporating support for Burst EDO will feature DRAM bus speeds ranging from 40 megahertz (MHz) to 66MHz -- "way above the 33MHz bus speeds currently achieved by fast page mode or EDO DRAM technology," he explained. He added that, since Burst EDO is supported as a bond option on high volume DRAMs, the transition to the new technology can follow a migration path similar to the conversion from FPM to EDO. Micron Europe's Paul Watkins, the company's technical marketing manager, said that 16 megabit DRAMs, offering zero wait-state performance at 66MHz bus speeds, are already in production. "Elonex's development engineers are working with samples right now, and are likely to have new systems ready to ship at around the time we start to manufacture Burst EDO SIMMs (single inline memory modules) in volume. We're pleased to be involved in Elonex's new product development, their early adoption of Burst EDO technology provides evidence of their technical strengths," he said. (Sylvia Dennis/19951106/Press Contact: David Bridson, Bridson & Bridson, tel +44-1869-338832, fax +44-1869-338843, Internet e-mail bandb@cix.compulink.co.uk; Reader Contact: Elonex, tel +44-181-452- 4444, fax +44-181-452-6422; Micron Europe, tel +44-1344-750750, fax +44-1344-750710) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 11/07/95 IBM IBM Gets First UK Govt Security Certificate (NEWS)(IBM)(LON)(00016) IBM Gets First UK Govt Security Certificate 11/07/95 LONDON, ENGLAND, 1995 NOV 7 (NB) -- IBM has been awarded an E4 security certificate for its Processor Resource/Systems Manager (PR/SM) product on the ES/9000 range of System/390 processors. IBM claims it is the first company in Europe to receive the award at the E4 security level. The System/390 series of machines span the minicomputer/mainframe marketplace, and are used by organizations with very high data processing requirements, Newsbytes notes. The nature of the technology means that banks and financial services organizations tend to use the equipment, meaning that the E4 security level -- the highest before full military levels of security are needed -- is a major plus for Big Blue. According to Big Blue, the certificate provides a very high degree of assurance that PR/SM technology can be used in environments where separation of workloads is a requirement, but where the use of a single hardware platform is desirable for reasons of economy, flexibility, security, or management. PR/SM provides for secure isolation by preventing the flow of information amongst logical processor partitions. This isolation may be used where the separation is based on "need to know," or where data at differing security classifications must be kept apart. Commenting on the award, Andrew Saunders, director of the British Government's Cheltenham-based Communications-Electronics Security Group said: "Information is valuable, and, with connection to service providers and trading partners by private networks, the public telephone system and, of course, Internet, the threats to information are very great." He continued: "Business is encouraged to follow the lead of government in recognizing the problems of information technology security, so that the UK's international reputation as a place where it is safe to do business can be maintained." According to IBM, the PR/SM system was evaluated against ITSEC -- the European Union's Information Technology Security Evaluation Criteria -- by Secure Information Systems Limited, of Fleet, Hampshire, under license from the British Government's ITSEC Certification Body (which is run jointly by CESG and the Department of Trade and Industry). Further details of IBM's security products can be found on the IBM Web home page at http://www.ibm.com . (Steve Gold/19951106/Press Contact: Lorna Campbell, IBM, +44-1844- 338145/IBMSEC19951107/PHOTO) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 11/07/95 LEGAL UK Govt Moving To Close Cellular Fraud Loopholes (NEWS)(LEGAL)(LON)(00017) UK Govt Moving To Close Cellular Fraud Loopholes 11/07/95 LONDON, ENGLAND, 1995 NOV 7 (NB) -- After hearing that as many as 15,000 mobile phones are being stolen each month, the British Government has announced it is taking steps to close the legal loopholes that allow many cloners and fraudsters to walk free from court. A joint Government working party is set to announce a series of proposals designed to close the legal loopholes used by the fraudsters. "Ultimately it is the subscriber who must also pick up the industry's bills, because it is clearly reflected in the charges, which have been increasing dramatically," explained Brian Donohue, Labour Member of Parliament for Cunningham South, who has been pressing the Government for action. According to Donohue, the fraud situation in the UK may get worse rather than better in the next 12 months. Because the cellular market is reaching saturation in the UK, he predicts that revenue from new business will fall, meaning that Cellnet and Vodafone, the two analog cellular service networks, will be less able to absorb the cost of fraud themselves. According to Newsbytes' sources, the Government working party proposes the creation of new statutory offenses making it illegal to possess cloned phones or equipment for cloning, as well as recommending that there should be specialist police units to handle cases of mobile phone fraud. (Steve Gold/19951106) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 11/07/95 GENERAL Japan Newsbriefs (NEWS)(GENERAL)(TYO)(00018) Japan Newsbriefs 11/07/95 TOKYO, JAPAN, 1995 NOV 7 (NB) -- In this roundup of news from Japan: Battery plant fire hits Japanese production; NTT break-up may be opposed; Astel announces first month subscriber figures; Toshiba develops DVD-ROM; Hitachi launches CM bank; Panamsat awarded license; Maruzen heading for the Internet; Make your own computer. Battery Plant Fire Hits Japanese Production Fire ravaged the upper floors of a Sony battery production plant in Koriyama, Fukushima, on Saturday causing a halt in production. The facility accounts for 70% of Japan's lithium battery production, around three million cells a month, and an extended delay may hit electronics companies that rely on the plant. NTT Break-up May Be Opposed Two signs came late last week that may signal the widely anticipated breakup of NTT may not be recommended to the government. On Wednesday Kazuaki Tanaka, director general for the government's advisory council for deregulation, said the panel's members are divided on whether NTT should be broken up. He added it was therefore difficult to give the government concrete proposals in a deregulation paper due this month. Also, the Communications Industry Association of Japan said such a split would harm the competitiveness of Japan and was not supported. The government has been under pressure from competitors to breakup NTT but the operator has fought the calls and attempted to pacify the rival companies by agreeing to a series of concessions in an attempt to inject more competitiveness into the market. Astel Announces First Month Subscriber Figures Astel Tokyo has released subscriber figures for its first month offering Personal Handyphone System (PHS) services in the Tokyo area. The new operator said it attracted 48,000 customers in its first month as a PHS service provider in the capital. From the beginning of PHS until the October 1st, NTT Personal Communications and DDI Pocket had been competing for the market. Tokyo now has three competing companies and the two original service operators are currently expanding their service areas nationwide. Toshiba Develops DVD-ROM Toshiba Corporation has developed a prototype digital video disk (DVD) ROM drive. The new drive will accept data carrying disks based on the new DVD standard currently being finalized by a consortium of the world's top electronics companies. The system is tipped to replace the CD-ROM as audio, data and video all move over to the DVD system. Toshiba estimate the world market for DVD-ROM drives will be 80 million by the year 2000. The company's Taizo Nishimura, senior executive vice president, also revealed the DVD standard is expected to be finalized "within a week or two." Hitachi Launches CM Bank Hitachi has launched a new, computer based, CM management and insertion system. The new system stores television commercials digitally, on a hard disk, and organizes and plays them at the programmed times. Priced at between 50 and 100 million yen, the system is the first of a range of digital based systems Hitachi aims to launch in the professional broadcasting market. TV Tokyo recently ordered a similar system manufactured by NEC Corporation called the CM Bank System that stores CMs on Magneto Optical (MO) disks. Panamsat Awarded License Panamsat, which announced earlier in the month that it would be awarded an license to offer international satellite services in Japan, has been given the license by the Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications. The timing allows the company to operate a satellite uplink service from the APEC summit taking place in Osaka later this month. The American company is the world's largest private satellite operator and has recently launched a new Asian satellite completing a worldwide network. Satellite service prices in Japan are expected to fall with the added competition from Panamsat. Maruzen Heading For The Internet Major book retailer Maruzen says it will begin selling books via the Internet from December 1. The company will offer over a million Japanese books and 400,000 imported books via its online book store. Customers will be able to purchase books using credit cards. Make Your Own Computer Melco will begin selling self assembly computers in Japan in December, according to the Nihon Keizai Shimbun. The company said a formal announcement will be made later in November. Such kits have not been widely available in Japan previously and will add further competition to the PC market. (Martyn Williams/19951107) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 11/07/95 TELECOM Japan's NTT To Cut Jobs, Charges (NEWS)(TELECOM)(TYO)(00019) Japan's NTT To Cut Jobs, Charges 11/07/95 TOKYO, JAPAN, 1995 NOV 7 (NB) -- Nippon Telegraph and Telephone (TSE:9432) will cut its workforce by almost one quarter over the next four years and reduce long distance call charges by up to almost one half in a drastic attempt to ward off a government force split up of the company, according to Japan's leading business daily. The Nihon Keizai Shimbun, quoting sources, said the company will reduce its total workforce from the current 197,000 to 150,000 by the year 2000. The majority of the cuts would be achieved by turning several NTT divisions into separate companies. These are tipped to include the machine and equipment maintenance section, which has around 30,000 employees, and the software division, with around 9,000 employees. The remaining 8,000 positions would be cut by offering early retirement for some of the staff and by curtailing the hiring of new staff. The newspaper also said NTT would gradually reduce its long distance call charges. The current maximum fee, 180 yen ($1.73) for three minutes on calls over 180 kilometers (km), will be reduced to 100 yen ($0.96) for three minutes by the year 2000. An initial cut will be made in the next five months when the maximum fee will be cut to 150 yen ($1.44). The charge reduction was partly prompted by comparisons that showed NTT's long distance rates were expensive compared with similar calls in other countries and as a way of injecting more competition into the long distance telephone sector. NTT currently competes with three long distance call companies -- DDI, Japan Telecom, and Teleway Japan -- each of which charges slightly less than the domestic telecoms giant. The government, which still holds 65.1% of NTT, has been looking into whether NTT is too big and should be split up, a move that the company is desperately opposing. The Telecommunications Council is a body set up by the Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications to investigate the issue and will announce its results soon. NTT President Masashi Kojima told the newspaper, "A government advisory panel has continued to discuss the (NTT breakup) issue in a closed-door meeting. An open discussion would take a quite different course," attacking the decision to exclude the company from the meetings. Earlier this week, a member of the panel, Satoshi Daigo, said NTT's high personnel pointed to bad management at the company, adding they had higher costs than comparable utilities such as gas and electrical power companies. By cutting the workforce and reducing charges, NTT hopes to register an annual profit of around 250 billion yen ($2.40 billion) annually. Current predictions put profits in fiscal 1995 at around 320 billion yen ($3.08 billion). An NTT spokesman was unavailable for comment on the newspaper report. On the Tokyo Stock Exchange, NTT shares slid 8,000 yen to close Tuesday at 821,000 yen. Company stock has lost over 7% since closing the first week of October at 886,000 yen after market worries over the possible split and concessions made to competitors to help foster a competitive market. (Martyn Williams/19951107/Press contact: NTT Press Office, tel +81-3-3509-3101, fax +81-3-3509-4290) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 11/07/95 ONLINE Internet Update (NEWS)(ONLINE)(TYO)(00020) Internet Update 11/07/95 TOKYO, JAPAN, 1995 NOV 7 (NB) -- In this update of new resources and services on the global Internet: The gateway to infinity; World telecom glossary; CJK - the "how to" guide; European railway timetables; The ant - conversion to HTML; Free Linux CDs and support; Korea Internet guide; Checklinks - link verification tool; Turin youth film festival. The Gateway To Infinity This is one of the most impressive and potentially useful World Wide Web sites Newsbytes has come across. It is a page of links that point to other indices, search engines or information servers. It includes many, many pointers and is definitely one for your bookmarks list. World Wide Web: http://www.dana.edu:80/~dwarman/ World Telecom Glossary If you need to know the definitions of any telecommunications related term, from the common to the obscure, the LDDS Worldcom Network Services Telecom Glossary should be able to help you. Currently boasting 700 definitions, the guide is the result of efforts by Internet users and also asks users to contribute any definitions missing. World Wide Web: http://www.wiltel.com/glossary/glossary.html CJK - The "How To" Guide CJK is a recently developed program that allows Netscape 1.2 users to access and read World Wide Web pages encoded with Chinese, Japanese, or Korean characters. Usually such pages appear as garbage on English systems, but the software renders the characters readable. A complete "how-to" is now on the Web offering complete, step-by-step set up details. World Wide Web: http://www.pcwiz.com/howto/uwdb/uwdb.html European Railway Timetables Anyone planning a trip across Europe will find this Web site an invaluable source of data about the railways of the continent and their timetables. Links are included to Dutch, Belgian, German, Finnish, Norwegian, Swedish, Czech, the Eurostar service, and the Mercurio European Railway Home Page. World Wide Web: http://www.win.tue.nl/win/cs/fm/Twan.Laan/ns/ The Ant - Conversion To HTML This piece of software converts documents from all versions of Microsoft Word 6.0 into hypertext markup language (HTML), the text based language used to write World Wide Web pages. The program supports all HTML tag and a demo version can be downloaded from the home page together with information about the full product. World Wide Web: http://mcia.com:80/ant/antdesc.htm Free Linux CDs And Support Continuing the tradition of Linux, a freeware Unix-based operating system that has been developed and fine-tuned by Internet users worldwide, a number of Internet users are now offering to give away CD-ROMs of the Linux operating system and are offering free technical support for anyone wishing to begin using the software. World Wide Web: http://emile.math.ucsb.edu:8000/giveaway.html Korea Internet Guide The definitive guide to the Internet in Korea with listings of servers ranging from business and government to entertainment, news and travel. There are also links included to Korean cooking recipes and language resources. World Wide Web: http://korea.directory.co.kr/ Checklinks - Link Verification Tool Written by the webmaster at the University of Miami, Checklinks will produce a list of all invalid local links accessible from the root of a Web server. The software is designed to verify all local pages but not those on other machines. The software requires Perl 5.0 and can be downloaded from the Web page and, better still, is released as freeware under the GNU public license. World Wide Web: http://lot49.med.miami.edu/~mdorman/checklinks.html Turin Film Festival From November 10th to the 16th, the 13th Turin International Festival of Young Cinema takes place. The festival shows films made by young filmmakers only and the online guide offers details about the festival. A mailing list is also being offered to keep people up-to-date via electronic-mail. World Wide Web: http://www.webcom.com/~ficg/ (Martyn Williams/19951107) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 11/07/95 PDA Sharp Adds Workgroup Mail To Zaurus PDA (NEWS)(PDA)(TOR)(00021) Sharp Adds Workgroup Mail To Zaurus PDA 11/07/95 MAHWAH, NEW JERSEY, U.S.A., 1995 NOV 7 (NB) -- Sharp Electronics Corp. will introduce a basic electronic-mail package for its Zaurus personal digital assistant (PDA) at the Comdex/Fall computer show in Las Vegas next week. Designed for small workgroups of no more than 20 users, Zaurus Mail will let PDA users exchange messages through a server. The server software will run on a personal computer with at least a 486 processor, equipped with Microsoft Windows. The PDAs will be able to communicate with the server using wired modems -- Zaurus Mail does not include support for wireless communications networks, company spokeswoman Sharon Fenster told Newsbytes -- or through a direct cable or infrared connection when in the same room with the server. Though it cannot send a text message over wireless links other than local infrared, Zaurus Mail will notify a user of an urgent message by sending a page to a standard pager or to a Motorola Newscard paging card installed in the user's Zaurus, Sharp said. Messages are stored in individual electronic mailboxes with password protection, Sharp said. Users can read their messages and review the contents of their "in" and "out" folders when connected to the server. Zaurus Mail does not support interconnection to other electronic-mail software such as Microsoft Mail and Lotus Development Corp.'s cc:Mail, Fenster said. Messages from non-Zaurus users have to be entered into the system manually. Zaurus Mail has a suggested retail price of $99 and is available right away, Sharp said. (Grant Buckler/19951107/Press Contact: Sharon Fenster or James Sciales, Shandwick USA for Sharp Electronics, tel 212-420-8100 or 800-223-2121, fax 212-505-1397, Internet e-mail 76424.3371@compuserve.com) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 11/07/95 ONLINE Nortel, Milkyway To Share Internet Security Technology (NEWS)(ONLINE)(TOR)(00022) Nortel, Milkyway To Share Internet Security Technology 11/07/95 OTTAWA, ONTARIO, CANADA, 1995 NOV 7 (NB) -- Two Canadian companies -- one a small startup and the other a multinational -- have announced plans to integrate their Internet security software offerings. Year-old Milkyway Networks Corp. has announced an agreement with Northern Telecom Ltd., of Mississauga, Ontario, to integrate Northern's Entrust data security software with Milkyway's Black Hole Internet firewall. Details of the arrangement have yet to be worked out, according to Hung Vu, president of Milkyway. Essentially, Vu told Newsbytes, Milkyway plans to incorporate Northern's Entrust encryption engine into its software and expects Northern will build some of Milkyway's technology into its products. In short, the relationship will be essentially a reciprocal original equipment manufacturer (OEM) deal. It is not yet clear whether joint marketing will be a part of the relationship. Vu said he expects the details of the deal to be wrapped up within the next couple of weeks. Black Hole is firewall software designed to control access to corporate computers connected to the Internet, allowing only authorized data traffic between the net and the private system. Entrust is designed to protect data traveling over the Internet itself. The companies said their products would support Internet applications such as banking, funds transfer, and online purchases. Such uses of the Internet have been the subject of plenty of discussion, but business generally remains nervous about the security issues involved. A report by Forrester Research Inc. of Cambridge, Massachusetts, forecast in July that these problems will be worked out and the Internet will be considered safe for general commerce by some time in 1996. Privately held Milkyway was incorporated in 1994. Northern Telecom, which has annual revenues of US$8.9 billion and about 57,000 employees, has a Secure Networks unit that focuses on online security products. (Grant Buckler/19951107/Press Contact: Frank Rosano, Milkyway Networks, 613-596-5549; Brian Murphy, Northern Telecom, 214-684-8589, Internet e-mail brian.murphy@nt.com) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 11/07/95 TRENDS CD-ROM Prices Vary Widely (NEWS)(TRENDS)(LAX)(00023) CD-ROM Prices Vary Widely 11/07/95 SAN DIEGO, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1995 NOV 7 (NB) -- According to a new report from DFC Intelligence, price differences for retail CD-ROM titles can be significant. The report surveys prices from major retail outlets for most of the popular CD-ROM titles and consoles. Speaking to Newsbytes, David Cole president of DFC, said "The common belief that mass merchants have the best prices on software is false. Stores like K-Mart, Sears, and Wal-Mart consistently had high prices and limited selections. The real retail story is the rise of consumer electronics and entertainment superstores like Best Buy, Incredible Universe, Computer City, Good Guys, and Circuit City. These stores have the lowest prices and a wide selection." DFC Intelligence announced the release of its update to "The US Market for Video Games and Interactive Electronic Entertainment," a guide to the video game and computer entertainment software industries. The 400-page report contains complete predictions, and forecasts for the next generation systems, as well as PC CD-ROM. It also surveyed over 100 games and the retail prices charged. The price study was conducted in the San Diego and Orange County, California area. A shopping list of titles was created, and during the week of September 23, 1995, the price check was made. Three examples of popular titles and some of the price differences reported were: Descent's lowest price was at Comp City for $32, the highest was at Software Etc. for $45, K-Mart at $40, and Wal-Mart for $35; Buried in Time's lowest price was at Comp USA, and Incredible Universe for $45, the high was at Virgin Records for $62, Sears for $60, Target and Wal-Mart for $55; Myst's lowest price was at Comp USA, and Incredible Universe for $38, the highest was at K-Mart and Software Etc. for $60, Sears for $55, Target for $50, and Wal-Mart for $45. The report also discusses overcrowding at retail. DFC Intelligence found that the next generation systems have really had an effect on shelf space. To make room for new systems like the Sony PlayStation, Sega Saturn, and Virtual Boy, space has been cut back for, not only 16-bit titles, but also PC CD-ROM games. Claims Cole, "Often times there would be only one copy of a popular PC CD-ROM game on the shelf and it would be stacked spine out. This makes browsing difficult. It almost demands that the consumer know what they want to buy when going into the store." (Richard Bowers/19951107/Press Contact: David Cole, DFC Intelligence, 619-484-5145) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 11/07/95 BUSINESS ****Compaq To Acquire Networth Networking Firm (NEWS)(BUSINESS)(DEN)(00024) ****Compaq To Acquire Networth Networking Firm 11/07/95 HOUSTON, TEXAS, U.S.A., 1995 NOV 7 (NB) -- Compaq Computer Corp. (NYSE: CPQ) has taken another step towards dominating the networking systems market by announcing that the company will acquire Networth Inc. (NASDAQ: NWTH) for about $372 million. Networth develops and manufactures Ethernet and Fast Ethernet hubs, switching hubs, and network management products. Compaq said it will commence a tender offer in a few days for $42 per share in cash. The company said the board of directors and management team of Networth support the acquisition and are recommending shareholder acceptance. Networth has its headquarters, development of the Ethernet products, marketing and sales functions in Irving, Texas, and a research and development facility in San Jose, California, The 10-year old company, which employees about 300 people, will become a wholly owned subsidiary of Compaq. Networth holds an estimated five percent of the stackable 10BaseT repeater market, according to an April, 1995, estimate by International Data Corp. The Dell'Oro Group estimates Networth's Fast Ethernet product line is number two in overall shipments and currently holds about 20 percent market share. The network device industry is expected to reach $8 billion this year, according to some estimates. Less than a month ago, Newsbytes reported on the Compaq acquisition of Thomas-Conrad, a privately held maker of network interface cards (NICs) and hubs. The acquisition of Thomas-Conrad gave Compaq an established product line, manufacturing capacity and a sales, service and distribution network. Like Thomas-Conrad, Networth will become part of Compaq's new Internetworking Products Group. Pushard said John McHale, founder and chief executive officer of Networth, will become a Compaq corporate vice president and will be responsible for IPG's hub and switch products while Pushard will focus on NIC, router and remote access products. A June deal with Cisco systems calls for integration of Cisco's internetworking operating system software on an x86-based Compaq platform. The router based on that agreement is expected to be announced in the first half of 1996. Doug Pushard, Compaq vice president of IPG, told Newsbytes the mix of networking products now available will allow the company to create integrated network packages with all the products coming from a single provider. Compaq said earlier this week it is openly licensing its ASIC (application specific integrated circuit) host controller design that lets motherboard and chipset companies more quickly and easily develop components that support USB. The final Open Host Controller Interface specification is expected to be released on November 22. The draft specification is available now and can be downloaded from Compaq's home page on the World Wide Web at http://www.compaq.com , or you can request a copy via electronic-mail by sending your request to ihv@microsoft.com. The specification was jointly developed by Compaq, Microsoft, and National Semiconductor, to define the register level interface that enables the USB controller to talk to the PC and its operating system. USB is an emerging standard that lets a large number of varied peripherals connect to a single port at the back of a personal computer in a tree-type system. For example, the mouse, joystick, and telephone could be connected to the keyboard, which is connected to the monitor, which is connected to the PC. (Jim Mallory/19951107/Press contact: Compaq, 713-514-0484; Public contact: Compaq, 800-345-1518) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 11/07/95 PC Gateway 2000 To Offer 200MHz Pentium Pro PC (NEWS)(PC)(DEN)(00025) Gateway 2000 To Offer 200MHz Pentium Pro PC 11/07/95 NORTH SIOUX CITY, SOUTH DAKOTA, U.S.A., 1995 NOV 7 (NB) -- Gateway 2000 (NASDAQ: GATE) has announced it will enter the workstation market with a PC that uses Intel's 200 megahertz (MHz) Pentium Pro microprocessor. The company has also announced an extended warranty option for its Solo, Liberty, and Colorbook notebook computers. Gateway said the workstation will come with 64 megabytes (MB) of memory that is expandable to 128MB, a two gigabyte (GB)-capacity hard drive, a 6X CD-ROM drive, and a Matrox video card with 2MB of video memory. The Matrox card supports three-dimensional graphics, computer-aided design (CAD) applications, and 30 frames-per-second video and animation. The new system will come with Microsoft's Windows NT Workstation software and is expected to start shipping by the end of the year at under $6,500. Volume shipments are expected in the first quarter of 1996. The new warranty coverage for the Gateway 2000 portables is a parts and labor option. The portables are also covered by Gateway's lifetime free telephone support around the clock, seven days a week. The basic Gateway warranty covers the first year. The additional two years can be added for another $100. The company said it will notify current owners of the affected systems by mail and they will have until December 31, 1995, to purchase the option. Spokesperson Steve Sturgeon told Newsbytes that Gateway 2000 desktop systems are covered by a standard warranty that covers labor for one year and parts for three years. Extended warranties on desktop systems are also available. Readers interested in reading Gateway's three year warranty can have a copy faxed by contacting the company's faxback service at 800-846-4526. Request document 2111. (Jim Mallory/19951107/Press contact: Steve Sturgeon, Gateway 2000, 605-232-2582; Public contact: Gateway 2000, tel 800-846-2000 or 605-232-2000, fax 605-232-2597) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 11/07/95 APPLE Apple Ships OpenDoc Developers Kit (NEWS)(APPLE)(SFO)(00026) Apple Ships OpenDoc Developers Kit 11/07/95 CUPERTINO, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1995 NOV 7 (NB) -- Apple Computer Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) says its new OpenDoc for Mac OS software development kit (SDK) will allow developers to ship OpenDoc components to Mac users as early as January, 1996. More then 300 developers have made a commitment to Apple to deliver components which will change computer use from large applications to a user-customized component environment. A spokesperson for Apple told Newsbytes, "Mac users operating with System 7.1 and higher will be able to incorporate Open Doc components into their desktop experience. As the Mac OS (operating system) evolves into new releases such as Copland, Open Doc technology will become an integral element." Currently, computer users work with a number of large, feature-rich applications. OpenDoc technology means to change that environment to a completely customized desktop based on only the components a user actually needs to build a document, presentation, or project. As an example, a user designing a brochure may want a specific spelling checker, a special charting feature, and a drawing tool. Rather than opening three applications, the user will simply have the necessary components available on a menubar as the project is created. For both corporate and consumer markets, OpenDoc will deliver the means for easier computing and drastically cut the time it takes to bring new software tools to market, claims the company. Today's announcement from Apple centers on a SDK for the Macintosh operating system, but the overall plan is to bring OpenDoc technology into a cross-platform environment of multiple operating systems for both the stand-alone desktop and network environments. IBM is expected to make an OpenDoc announcement about development tools for its OS/2 system and Novell has stated its commitment to building the technology into NetWare. The new SDK for the Mac includes OpenDoc system software for the newer Power Macintosh systems as well as the older 680x0 systems. It also includes sample code, full documentation, and a set of development tools. Starting November 10, developers will be able to download the entire SDK free from Apple's World Wide Web site at http://www.opendoc.apple.com . A CD-ROM edition is also available by electronic-mail from opendoc@apple.com. Additional tools are available from Apple, Metrowerks, and Symantec, including a pre-release version of Apple's OpenDoc Development Framework for Mac OS. Apple also said versions of the SDK will be available in 16 different languages by early 1996. Developers supporting OpenDoc for Mac SDK include higher educational institutions, large and small corporations, and small development companies. (Patrick McKenna/19951107/Press Contact: Tamara Ireland, Niehaus Ryan Haller, 708-974-5784) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 11/07/95 TRENDS ****More Chip Factories Essential, Says TI Exec (NEWS)(TRENDS)(DEN)(00027) ****More Chip Factories Essential, Says TI Exec 11/07/95 DALLAS, TEXAS, U.S.A., 1995 NOV 7 (NB) -- Demand is so strong for semiconductors that the industry will have to start construction on one chip factor per week for the next five years in order to fill orders, according to the chief economist of Texas Instruments Inc. (NYSE: TXN). "Essentially, to meet demand over the next five years, you'll have to see announcements of a wafer fabrication facility being built almost every week," Vladi Catto told the British news service Reuters at a technology conference last week. Asked if the industry can keep up with demand, Catto said "Probably not. You have an industry which is already the fastest growing industry in the world, which is getting ready to grow even faster," said the economist. Catto said the growth experienced by the semiconductor industry, including DRAM memory chips, is expected to continue. Memory chips account for an estimated 40 percent of total chip sales. Catto said the chip industry will grow by an estimated 20 percent per year over the next 10 to 20 years. Over the past 35 years, the growth rate has been about 15 percent annually, he said. Factors driving growing demand include the rising use of semiconductors in electronic equipment, the emergence of new products using chips, like cellular phones, and the growing popularity of PCs including emerging markets like China and Russia. Texas Instruments introduced a new chip of its own this week that is destined for computers headed for those new markets. The 100 megahertz (MHz) 486DX4 Windows 95-compatible microprocessor for personal computers carries a price tag of less than $70. A TI spokesperson told Newsbytes that OEM (original equipment manufacturer) price makes it competitive with 100MHz Pentium chips. Rick Berman, marketing manager of TI's personal computer systems products division, said the chip exceeds Microsoft's recommended system performance for Windows 95 by more than 250 percent. While some analysts believe the 486 chip has been made obsolete in established markets by the Pentium chips, the TI spokesperson said the 486 with its low cost is typically popular in emerging PC markets like China, Brazil, Mexico, Indonesia, Malaysia, and India, as well as for use in PCs for the rapidly growing home market. According to George Barber, TI semiconductor group vice president and manager of worldwide computer products, the sale of TI 486 chips has set new sales records each quarter in 1995. While the Pentium chip family may eventually replace the 486, market analyst International Data Corporation reports that sales of 486-based PCs in emerging markets will continue to dominate through 1996, with compound annual growth for PC sales in those countries going as high as 37 percent in China and 48 percent in India. Samples of the TI486DX4 are available now, with volume production planned for January, 1996. (Jim Mallory/19961107/Press contact: David Nieland, Temerlin McClain PR for Texas Instruments, 214-830-2663; Public contact: Texas Instruments, 800-477-8924 ext 4500) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 11/07/95 ONLINE Prodigy's Women Execs Respond To Women's Online Marketing (NEWS)(ONLINE)(SFO)(00028) Prodigy's Women Execs Respond To Women's Online Marketing 11/07/95 WHITE PLAINS, NEW YORK, U.S.A., 1995 NOV 7 (NB) -- Prodigy's Louise Cooper, executive assistant to the president, will address "proven marketing strategies" for winning the hearts and minds of women online. Reacting to what are claimed to be "antiquated misconceptions about women's online activities," Cooper plans to discuss what women "truly want online" and how to "market to them accordingly." "How to Market to Women Online," a conference sponsored by the Kelsey Group, starts tomorrow in Washington DC with retailers, publishers, advertisers, World Wide Web site operators, online service provides, marketers, and others. Prodigy's women execs and staffers are adamant in their efforts to move the online experience away from traditional marketing concepts. Prodigy spokesperson, Carol Wallace, told Newsbytes, "We get so many calls from the media and marketers who ask what women are doing online and there are so many people who want to lock women into stereotypical interests such as shopping and cooking. It is a terrible misconception and if people try to limit their efforts to reaching women through the same approaches they make on television and print, they are in for a surprise. "We (Prodigy staffers) are always being asked, 'What are the areas where women are online?' and we answer, 'They are everywhere!' The online experience is truly democratic. Here at Prodigy, 40% of our members are female and they are attracted to the interface, easy access, and all kinds of information, not just 'female' content," said Wallace. Prodigy also cites a recent Apple Computer online study which found 82% of the women they polled went online at least once a day. To the surprise of many, 64% of all respondents said they never purchased a product or service online. Wallace continued, "Our female members tell us, 'Don't sell to us like marketers sell to us through other media.' The Internet and the online services experience is a place where traditional women's roles do not rule. It is an area where all people can be who they are and find the services, products, and information what they want. Marketers have to understand this and we need to jointly develop the electronic community based on a truly democratic and open model." (Patrick McKenna/19951107/Press Contact: Carol Wallace, Prodigy, 914-448-2496) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 11/07/95 TRENDS IT-Driven "Cybercorps" To Beat Corporate "Goliaths" (NEWS)(TRENDS)(BOS)(00029) IT-Driven "Cybercorps" To Beat Corporate "Goliaths" 11/07/95 FRAMINGHAM, MASSACHUSETTS, U.S.A., 1995 NOV 7 (NB) -- In future business battles between "Davids" and "Goliaths," it is the lithe, lean "Davids," in the form of IT (information technology)-driven "cybercorps," that will ultimately win out, predicted James Martin, author of a book called "The Great Transition," during a speech delivered at Computer World magazine. Technological implications of the emerging "cybercorp," or "cynernetic corporation," include Internet connectivity, electronic commerce, custom application development, object-oriented (OO) tools, data warehousing, and a mix of "localization and globalization," Martin said in the lecture, which was attended by Newsbytes. The new "Davids," or "cybercorps," will be specifically engineered to focus on one or two "value streams," according to Martin, a Pulitzer Prize nominee for his earlier best-seller, "The Wired Society." In many instances, the cybercorps will be start-ups, he noted. "But you can also build `David companies within Goliaths.'" Cybercorps are beginning to appear already, Martin maintained. An IBM employee for 19 years, Martin has also conducted management studies for companies that include AT&T, Texas Instruments, Honeywell, Xerox, and GTE. Examples of start-up "David companies" include Netscape, which grew to $2.5 billion in revenues before going public 16 months after its founding, and McCaw Cellular, a company that soared to the $12.6 billion mark in its first six years, according to the author/consultant. Nokia, a Finnish firm that transitioned into the digital cellular industry from a heritage in forestry product manufacturing, represents a "David company built within a Goliath." In "The Great Transition," Martin describes the "value stream" as "an end-to-end collection of activities that creates an end result" for an internal or external "customer." Martin told the audience at Computer World that, in defining the central value streams of the cybercorp, the corporation should also pinpoint prospective users for the value streams, and develop ways to "delight" those users. "Digital cellular" is Nokia's main value stream, while Walmart's is "getting products on the (retail) shelves at the lowest possible prices," he illustrated. But the cybercorp is also "complex," with other value streams outside those at its core. A "typical medium-sized company" will have about a dozen different value streams. Martin added that in "re-inventing its business processes," a company should use the cybercorp model, in conjunction with three existing business engineering models: total quality management (TQM), business processing re-engineering (BPR), and procedure redesign. TQM started in Japan under the name "Kaizen," or "gentle change," and began to be "understood in the US" during the mid-1980s, Martin told the group. "You can get some great companies with Kaizen," he elaborated, citing Sony and Nissan as a couple of examples. Under Kaizen, "every employee feels it is his duty to contribute." But although TQM, BPR, and procedure redesign all have strong advocates, "none of these three models, alone, will be enough." Aside from the right mix of business reengineering models, other ingredients of the successful cybercorps include human resources, IT (information technology) development, and above all, the strategic "vision" of a guiding guru who understands all the elements of the cybercorp plan, according to Martin. In some cases, the guru will be the CEO (chief executive officer), and in others, a senior level IT staffer. But in any event, the cybercorp strategy must have backing from the CEO, together with input from IT, in order to work. The Internet will provide the easiest way of obtaining the interorganizational "open systems connectivity" needed by the emerging cybercorp, he continued. Ever increasing use of the Internet will be accompanied by the adoption of electronic or "digital" cash. The cybercorp will also require "unique" software not available in shrinkwrapped form, according to Martin. Some cybercorps will outsource custom software development, but others will build their own applications with the use of OO tools. The most effective OO tools, he said, will follow the path being blazed by the Antares Alliance Group's Huron ObjectStar and other new rapid application development (RAD) environments that are aimed at letting companies use business rules for quick modification to underlying software code. Outside of the "David vs. Goliath" metaphor, Martin characterized the cybercorp as "a jungle creature stalking its prey." By using the right software tools and applications, the organization will be able to "sharpen its senses" to the point of "detecting problems in real-time, and correcting the cause of a problem, not just the problem itself," he said. As a result, data warehousing and "drill down" data mining, two other technologies that are now nascent, will become essential over the next few years, he contended. Also in the near future, localization and globalization will both rise to the fore, but traditional notions such as countries and continents will begin to fall away, according to Martin. Martin also predicted that most members of the first wave of cybercorps will be found in the manufacturing field, with banks, brokerages, and other service industries largely playing catch-up. Speaking with Newsbytes at the close of the lecture, Martin said that Dynasty Technologies' OO development tools belong in the same general product category as Antares' Huron ObjectStar. Bruce Rayner, editor of special projects at Computer World, told Newsbytes that Computer World recently published a special supplement on "The Enterprise Engineer" written by Martin as part of the magazine's monthly Leadership Series. Computer World is also considering the prospect of presenting more talks of this kind, Rayner added. (Jacqueline Emigh/19951106/Reader Contact: Computer World, 508-270-3800; Press Contacts: Bruce Rayner or Joyce Chutchian-Ferranti, Computer World, 508-270-3800; Suzanne M. O'Leary, Parallax Technology Group for James Martin & Co., 302-645-4835) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 11/07/95 LEGAL Group Opposes Telecom Bill (NEWS)(LEGAL)(LAX)(00030) Group Opposes Telecom Bill 11/07/95 PALO ALTO, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1995 NOV 7 (NB) -- The deregulation plan currently pending before Congress will do more to hinder development of the "information superhighway" than to promote it, according to an analysis released by Computer Professionals for Social Responsibility (CPSR). The group is an alliance of computer scientists, users and educators who "support the Democratic criticism of deregulation." "We did not do any formal analysis of the bill," Andy Oram, the author of the report told Newsbytes. "We are not trained to do economic modeling or analysis. Our information came from congressional staffers, and from testimony in front of committees. My training is in acquiring writers for O'Rielly and Associates, not economics. "The legislation will allow a few giant corporations to control virtually all of the information we receive," said Oram. "We will wind up with less variety, less choice, and less freedom to express our views. The struggle over electronic media is a struggle for our very thoughts and actions," he added. CPSR recommendations include ensuring that all individuals have equitable access to the new technology, and that "affordable rates" for cable and telecommunications services be maintained. When asked by Newsbytes what is meant by "affordable rates," Oram responded, "I haven't tried to work out what is meant by the word 'affordable.' We don't want rates too high, and we want 'universal access.' By universal access we mean that the overwhelming majority have the equipment and the ability to access the transmission of data. If they can't, the government should step in and guarantee that ability." "Instead of the democratic vision of free expression that we've been promised, we're getting 'Nightmare Alley.' If the legislation is not substantially improved, we will urge President Clinton to veto it," he said. Copies of Oram's analysis can be obtained on the World Wide Web from http://jasper.ora.com/andyo/cyber-rights/telecom.html . (Richard Bowers/19951107/Press Contact: Andy Oram, 617-499-7479) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 11/07/95 CHIPS ****Sun Speeds To 200 MHz With New Processor (NEWS)(CHIPS)(SFO)(00031) ****Sun Speeds To 200 MHz With New Processor 11/07/95 SUNNYVALE, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A, 1995 NOV 7 (NB) -- SPARC Technology Business, a division of Sun Microsystems (NYSE:SUNW), has announced sampling of its 200 megahertz (MHz), 64-bit UltraSPARC-1 micorporcessor, and three new motherboards based on the 143MHz and 167MHz versions. The new 200 MHz processor incorporates on-chip support for MPEG-2 (Motion Picture Experts Group 2) decode. Sun says its family of UltraSPARC microprocessors include a 143, 167, 182, and now the 200MHz versions. Besides the MPEG-2 decoding, the 200MHz version delivers 1.6 gigabytes (GB) bandwidth, an estimated 322 SPECint92, and a 462 SPECfp92 (2 megabyte cache). A spokesperson for Sun told Newsbytes, "The really important news is that microprocessors cannot be judged simply by SPECint numbers. People have to look at how much bandwidth a microprocessor can handle. You can have all the frequency you want, but if the processor does not handle large bandwidth you just get a bottleneck which slows performance." As the demands to handle large amounts of network data packed with video and audio files continues to build, Sun says the computer industry has to have processors which provide the necessary bandwidth. Users working with high-end graphics and video on workstations and servers delivering and managing data over local area and wide area networks are both prime areas where the 200MHz UltraSPARC will play an important role. UltraSPARC-1 features New-Media VIS Instruction Set which allows for the high performance. The 200MHz version delivers up to 2 GOps/sec (giga-operations per second). Sun's spokesperson also said the ability to incorporate MPEG-2 decoding means a MPEG-2 files can be decoded with software. Future versions of UltraSPARC are expected to also offer MPEG-2 encoding. Texas Instruments manufacturers UltraSPARC-1 at its Dallas facility using an advanced EPIC3, 0.5 micron CMOS process. UltraSPARC is a 5.2 million transistor microprocessor. According to Sun, the three new SPARCengine Ultra motherboards offer customers two to 10 times the networking and I/O (input/output) performance of any other motherboard shipping today. The boards feature crossbar-switch architecture, expanded memory throughput, faster networking and I/O support along with the New-Media VIS Instruction Set. (Patrick McKenna/1995117/Press Contact: Sheree Fitzpatrick, Sun, 408-774-8703) (SUMMARY)(GENERAL)(MSP)(00032) Newsbytes Daily Summary 11/07/95 MINNEAPOLIS, MINNESOTA, U.S.A., 1995 NOV 7 (NB) -- These are capsules of all today's news stories: ======================================================================== ------------| N E W S B Y T E S D A I L Y S U M M A R Y |---------- ------------| Tuesday, November 7, 1995 |---------- ======================================================================== (c) Newsbytes News Network (Tm) Editor in Chief: Wendy Woods ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Newsbytes News Network's on the Web! Check out http://www.nbnn.com for free daily top stories from Newsbytes and its affiliate publications, and from PC Week, MacWeek, and other Ziff news magazines. A subscription gives you all the news, full-text, plus the most comprehensive database of past computer stories online. The keyword-searchable database dates from today back through 1983. Subscriptions are $24.95 for three months. Questions? Send to 'administrator@newsbytes.com' For Japanese Newsbytes and additional services, see the Newsbytes Pacifica Website at http://www.islandtel.com/newsbytes/ ------------------------------------------------------------------------ CATEGORY HEADLINES (*** indicates today's top stories) STORY # ======================================================================== APPLE Apple Ships OpenDoc Developers Kit......................... 26 BUSINESS French Software House Esker Opens Spanish Operations....... 03 BUSINESS Nat'l Australia Bank Installs IBM Computer................. 05 BUSINESS UK's Biggest PC Vendor Gets Even Bigger.................... 12 BUSINESS Elonex & Micron Team On High-Speed Memory.................. 15 BUSINESS ****Compaq To Acquire Networth Networking Firm............ 24 CHIPS ****Sun Speeds To 200 MHz With New Processor.............. 31 GENERAL Software Improves Your Golf Game........................... 08 GENERAL Japan Newsbriefs........................................... 18 GOVT More Reciprocity Needed In Japan Alliance.................. 10 IBM IBM Gets First UK Govt Security Certificate................ 16 LEGAL ****Novell Raiders Hit Another Pirate BBS................. 01 LEGAL UK Govt Moving To Close Cellular Fraud Loopholes........... 17 LEGAL Group Opposes Telecom Bill................................. 30 NETWORK UK - AccessManger Security Prgm For NetWare................ 04 ONLINE "Saturday Night Live" Meets Cyberspace..................... 13 ONLINE Internet Update............................................ 20 ONLINE Nortel, Milkyway To Share Internet Security Technology..... 22 ONLINE Prodigy's Women Execs Respond To Women's Online Marketing.. 28 PC Gateway 2000 To Offer 200MHz Pentium Pro PC................ 25 PDA Sharp Adds Workgroup Mail To Zaurus PDA.................... 21 TELECOM UK - Pace Changes Name, Prepares Move Into Telecoms........ 11 TELECOM Japan's NTT To Cut Jobs, Charges........................... 19 TRENDS UK - Racal's Low-Cost Audio Surveillance System............ 02 TRENDS UK Report - Uncertainty In Services & Software Sector...... 06 TRENDS ****All Banks On The Internet By Year 2000................ 09 TRENDS US Tops In Competitiveness - Again......................... 14 TRENDS CD-ROM Prices Vary Widely.................................. 23 TRENDS ****More Chip Factories Essential, Says TI Exec........... 27 TRENDS IT-Driven "Cybercorps" To Beat Corporate "Goliaths......... 29 WINDOWS Accent To Intro Dual-Language Word Processor............... 07 ======================================================================== These are the headlines and first paragraphs of each story, in order: 1 -> ****Novell Raiders Hit Another Pirate BBS -- Novell Inc. (NASDAQ:NOVL) raiders joined US Marshals late last month in raiding another bulletin board system (BBS) distributing, what the company said, was illegal software. 2 -> UK - Racal's Low-Cost Audio Surveillance System -- Racal Recorders has unveiled an audio modification kit for stereo video recorders that it claims allows up to 16 audio channels to be recorded, along with a standard video signal, on a standard video. 3 -> French Software House Esker Opens Spanish Operations -- Esker, the French software house, has opened a new subsidiary in Madrid, Spain. According to Lee Hawksley, the company's managing director, the opening of the Spanish operation comes just three months after the company opened offices in Milan, Italy, and coincides with the launch of three language translations 4 -> UK - AccessManger Security Prgm For NetWare -- ICL has developed a version of its AccessManager single sign-on security system for the Novell NetWare environment. 5 -> Nat'l Australia Bank Installs IBM Computer -- The National Australia Bank has chosen an Information Framework system from IBM's Banking, Finance and Securities Solutions Unit, to support a major information technology (IT) project that will be developed for use throughout the group's worldwide operations. 6 -> UK Report - Uncertainty In Services & Software Sector -- According to the latest quarterly survey from the Computing Services & Software Association (CSSA) in the UK, business confidence is encouragingly high amongst the chief executives officers (CEOs) of the UK's software and services companies. But, while the CEOs are confident, the CSSA reports that there is uncertainty in the individual sectors of computing services. 7 -> Accent To Intro Dual-Language Word Processor -- Accent Software International Ltd. (NASDAQ: ACNTF) will unveil a line of Windows-based dual-language word processing programs with built-in translation capability when this year's Comdex trade show opens its doors next week. 8 -> Software Improves Your Golf Game -- Colder temperatures, blustery winds and even snow in some parts of the country are here, so its time to improve your golf game! That's possible even at this time of year thanks to multimedia computers and CD-ROM-based software like Diamar Interactive's Breaking 100, the first of the company's two-part Golf Tips series of instructional CD-ROMs. 9 -> ****All Banks On The Internet By Year 2000 -- In the next few weeks, Killen & Associates will release a study, called "Internet Banking Strategies: Markets, Applications and Technologies," that forecasts United States banks will significantly step up their Internet investments in 1996. The study predicts accelerated growth in Internet hook-ups until virtually all banks are online by the year 2000. 10 -> More Reciprocity Needed In Japan Alliance -- A committee of the National Research Council has called for an end to the "one-way" flow of technology that characterizes the security alliance between the United States and Japan. 11 -> UK - Pace Changes Name, Prepares Move Into Telecoms -- Pace Micro Communications, the modem company which underwent a management buyout (MBO) earlier this year from Pace, the parent satellite company, is changing its name to Pace Consumer Electronics. At the same time, the company is preparing a range of new products that, as the name change implies, are not modems. 12 -> UK's Biggest PC Vendor Gets Even Bigger -- Granville Technology Group, the parent company to seven direct-sell PC brand name operations, including Time Computer Systems and MJN Technology, has spent UKP300,000 on a new technical support facility for customers, as well as starting up an extra production line to boost potential production of PCs to 300,000 units per year. The move means that the company is now firmly in the number one direct PC sales slot in the UK. 13 -> "Saturday Night Live" Meets Cyberspace -- Whether you want to re-visit earlier shows from NBC's Saturday Night Live (SNL) for old times' sake, or whether you missed the first programs because you were too young to stay up that late, you can now view more than 800 sketches from the past 20 years at the new "Best of SNL Home Video" World Wide Web site, said Michael F. Arrigo, in an interview with Newsbytes at Internetworld. 14 -> US Tops In Competitiveness - Again -- Propelled by leadership in new technologies such as computers and telecommunications, the United States tops the world in competitiveness, according to the "1995 World Competitiveness Report," published by the World Economic Forum in Geneva, Switzerland. 15 -> Elonex & Micron Team On High-Speed Memory -- Elonex Technologies' research and development (R&D) operation, Elonex Technologies, has announced it is working with Micron Technology, the memory manufacturer, to develop system board designs that support the emerging Burst Extended Data Out (Burst EDO) RAM standard. 16 -> IBM Gets First UK Govt Security Certificate -- IBM has been awarded an E4 security certificate for its Processor Resource/Systems Manager (PR/SM) product on the ES/9000 range of System/390 processors. IBM claims it is the first company in Europe to receive the award at the E4 security level. 17 -> UK Govt Moving To Close Cellular Fraud Loopholes -- After hearing that as many as 15,000 mobile phones are being stolen each month, the British Government has announced it is taking steps to close the legal loopholes that allow many cloners and fraudsters to walk free from court. A joint Government working party is set to announce a series of proposals designed to close the legal loopholes used by the fraudsters. 18 -> Japan Newsbriefs -- In this roundup of news from Japan: Battery plant fire hits Japanese production; NTT break-up may be opposed; Astel announces first month subscriber figures; Toshiba develops DVD-ROM; Hitachi launches CM bank; Panamsat awarded license; Maruzen heading for the Internet; Make your own computer. 19 -> Japan's NTT To Cut Jobs, Charges -- Nippon Telegraph and Telephone (TSE:9432) will cut its workforce by almost one quarter over the next four years and reduce long distance call charges by up to almost one half in a drastic attempt to ward off a government force split up of the company, according to Japan's leading business daily. 20 -> Internet Update -- In this update of new resources and services on the global Internet: The gateway to infinity; World telecom glossary; CJK - the "how to" guide; European railway timetables; The ant - conversion to HTML; Free Linux CDs and support; Korea Internet guide; Checklinks - link verification tool; Turin youth film festival. 21 -> Sharp Adds Workgroup Mail To Zaurus PDA -- Sharp Electronics Corp. will introduce a basic electronic-mail package for its Zaurus personal digital assistant (PDA) at the Comdex/Fall computer show in Las Vegas next week. 22 -> Nortel, Milkyway To Share Internet Security Technology -- Two Canadian companies 23 -> CD-ROM Prices Vary Widely -- According to a new report from DFC Intelligence, price differences for retail CD-ROM titles can be significant. The report surveys prices from major retail outlets for most of the popular CD-ROM titles and consoles. 24 -> ****Compaq To Acquire Networth Networking Firm -- Compaq Computer Corp. (NYSE: CPQ) has taken another step towards dominating the networking systems market by announcing that the company will acquire Networth Inc. (NASDAQ: NWTH) for about $372 million. Networth develops and manufactures Ethernet and Fast Ethernet hubs, switching hubs, and network management products. 25 -> Gateway 2000 To Offer 200MHz Pentium Pro PC -- Gateway 2000 (NASDAQ: GATE) has announced it will enter the workstation market with a PC that uses Intel's 200 megahertz (MHz) Pentium Pro microprocessor. The company has also announced an extended warranty option for its Solo, Liberty, and Colorbook notebook computers. 26 -> Apple Ships OpenDoc Developers Kit -- Apple Computer Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) says its new OpenDoc for Mac OS software development kit (SDK) will allow developers to ship OpenDoc components to Mac users as early as January, 1996. More then 300 developers have made a commitment to Apple to deliver components which will change computer use from large applications to a user-customized component environment. 27 -> ****More Chip Factories Essential, Says TI Exec -- Demand is so strong for semiconductors that the industry will have to start construction on one chip factor per week for the next five years in order to fill orders, according to the chief economist of Texas Instruments Inc. (NYSE: TXN). 28 -> Prodigy's Women Execs Respond To Women's Online Marketing -- Prodigy's Louise Cooper, executive assistant to the president, will address "proven marketing strategies" for winning the hearts and minds of women online. Reacting to what are claimed to be "antiquated misconceptions about women's online activities," Cooper plans to discuss what women "truly want online" and how to "market to them accordingly." 29 -> IT-Driven "Cybercorps" To Beat Corporate "Goliaths -- In future business battles between "Davids" and "Goliaths," it is the lithe, lean "Davids," in the form of IT (information technology)-driven "cybercorps," that will ultimately win out, predicted James Martin, author of a book called "The Great Transition," during a speech delivered at Computer World magazine. 30 -> Group Opposes Telecom Bill -- The deregulation plan currently pending before Congress will do more to hinder development of the "information superhighway" than to promote it, according to an analysis released by Computer Professionals for Social Responsibility (CPSR). The group is an alliance of computer scientists, users and educators who "support the Democratic criticism of deregulation." 31 -> ****Sun Speeds To 200 MHz With New Processor -- SPARC Technology Business, a division of Sun Microsystems (NYSE:SUNW), has announced sampling of its 200 megahertz (MHz), 64-bit UltraSPARC-1 micorporcessor, and three new motherboards based on the 143MHz and 167MHz versions. The new 200 MHz processor incorporates on-chip support for MPEG-2 (Motion Picture Experts Group 2) decode. (Ian Stokell/19951107) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 11/03/95 NETWORK Iworld - Digital Equipment Corp.'s Workgroup Web Forum (NEWS)(NETWORK)(BOS)(00001) Iworld - Digital Equipment Corp.'s Workgroup Web Forum 11/03/95 BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS, U.S.A., 1995 NOV 3 (NB) -- Digital Equipment Corp.'s new Workgroup Web Forum, a Web server add-on set to ship next week, provides real-time group polling, threaded conferencing, and other elements of "team computing" across multiprotocol internal corporate networks, as well as the Internet, said Bob Lehmenkuler, marketing manager for network business applications, in a meeting with Newsbytes at Internetworld Boston '95. Digital has a long history of involvement with the Internet that dates back to the earliest days of the Arpanet, Lehmenkuler noted. Digital first announced Workgroup Web Forum along with Workgroup Web at Fall Interop '95 in Atlanta. Although the two software products for collaborative computing contain some of the same features, the products differ in terms of platforms, applications, and target markets, he maintained, during a demo for Newsbytes aboard the Lady Christina, a ship docked outside Boston's World Trade Center throughout Internetworld '95. Workgroup Web, a Web browser add-on product that is already shipping, is designed for "peer-to-peer client-server" team computing by workgroups of three to 25 PC users on a local area network (LAN), Lehmenkuler told Newsbytes. Workgroup Web does not require a Web server. The PC software, in effect, "turns a shared directory into an Internet server," permitting point-and-click creation of hyperlinks to any document stored on shared directories, regardless of file format, according to the Digital networking exec. The $99 software package comes with a free Mosaic browser from Spyglass, but it is also designed for use with any other HTML (hypertext markup language)-compliant browser, including Microsoft's new Internet Explorer, browsers from Netscape, Spry, Spyglass, Quarterdeck and Microsoft. Workgroup Web works with "almost all Windows-capable, shared directory applications," including LAN Manager, Novell NetWare, Banyan Vines, Digital Pathworks, Windows 95, Windows NT, Windows 3.1, and Windows for Workgroups. Web sites on the Internet can also be hyperlinked to Workgroup Web folders and conferences. Through a feature known as "post and reply conferencing," Workgroup Web users can exchange information about any piece of hyperlinked information. Workgroup Web also automatically posts the name of the user who is contributing information, and the time and date the information was contributed. Via a "What's New" button, the user can type in a date, and Workgroup Web will find all the material entered this that date in a series of nested folders. Users can organize the nested folders according to project, "people," business activities, and other criteria, according to Lehmenkuler. Users can also attach abstracts to documents providing information such as why the document is being posted, and what needs to be done with the document. Keyword searching is included, as well. Workgroup Web requires the installation of a WinSock TCP/IP (transmission control protocol/Internet protocol) stack on the PC if the user desires Internet connectivity. The PC software is configurable to non-Spyglass browsers by clicking on an icon in the Workgroup Web program group. The new Workgroup Web Forum, which is priced at $1,995, is an HTTP (hypertext transport protocol) server-based, "full client-server" software product that provides much of the same functionality as Workgroup Web, but adds support for large numbers of users, along with more features, Lehmenkuler reported. The added features include conference threading, "realtime polling," user access levels, password security, and the ability to take advantage of security capabilities such as firewalls, gateways, and encryption tunneling. Lehmenkuler told Newsbytes that Workgroup Web Forum runs on Intel-based Windows NT Web servers, and on Alpha-based Web servers running either Digital Unix or Windows NT. "The number of users supported by Workgroup Web Forum is limited only by the number of users the Web server supports," he asserted. Workgroup Web Forum requires a Web browser on each client workstation. The product can be used either with or without Workgroup Web. During the demo, the Digital official showed Newsbytes capabilities of Workgroup Web Forum that included group conferencing, polling, access levels, and password security. To illustrate the group conferencing, Lehmenkuler asked Newsbytes for a comment on Internetworld '95, and then proceeded to post the comment to Workgroup Web Forum. Lehmenkuler next displayed a thread containing the comments of all Internetworld attendees who had viewed the demo aboard the Lady Christina, including Newsbytes. "Great show. Nice boat," commented one of the other conference participants. Through the realtime polling, he explained, the user can pose "open-ended or multiple-choice" questions of other users. Answers to the multiple-choice questions can then be tallied and individually viewed. Lehmenkuler asked Newsbytes this question: "Going to Internetworld was worth fighting the traffic. Do you strongly agree, agree, disagree, strongly disagree, or (are you) neutral?" Newsbytes responded, "strongly agree." Lehmenkuler then showed Newsbytes a tally of the responses from all conference-goers who had seen the Workgroup Web Forum demo. By answering "strongly agree," he observed, Newsbytes had brought the poll results into a three-way tie between "strongly agree, agree, and neutral." Lehmenkuler then broke out the poll results by individual respondents. Newsbytes saw that other poll participants had included a major bank, computer industry analysts, and several trade magazines. Lehmenkuler summed up Digital's Workgroup Web and Workgroup Web Forum by pointing out that the two new products use the Internet's small handful of protocols to allow "easy" crossplatform computing, over LANs as well as wide area networks (WANs). "That is the beauty of the Internet," the Digital networking exec told Newsbytes. (Jacqueline Emigh/19951103/Reader Contact: Digital Equipment Corp., 508-493-5111; Press Contact: Chuck Malkiel, Digital, 508-264-6030) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 11/03/95 GENERAL Japan Newsbriefs (NEWS)(GENERAL)(TYO)(00002) Japan Newsbriefs 11/03/95 TOKYO, JAPAN, 1995 NOV 3 (NB) -- In this roundup of news from Japan, PC shipments jump in first half, Fujitsu plans interactive TV trial, Japan chip market to remain strong, Windows95 price war begins, Government seeks online jobs listing, Qualcomm signs distribution deal. PC Shipments Jump In First Half The Japan Electronic Industry Development Association has released figures detailing personal computer shipments in the first six months of the current fiscal year. In the period, the group reported, a total of 2.95 million PCs were sold, a 52% jump on the equivalent period a year earlier. The total value of shipment, including peripherals, jumped 26% to 933.8 billion yen ($8.98 billion). The figure is expected to break through the trillion yen mark in the next half which sees the launch of Windows95. The association now sees total shipments for the year as reaching 5.2 million units. For fiscal year 1996, the association has upgraded its projection of 4.75 million units to 7.5 million units. Fujitsu Plans Interactive TV Trial Fujitsu Ltd. (TSE:6702) is to begin trials on a new interactive cable TV network in Nakano, Tokyo. The company is to invest around 750 million yen ($7.21 million) for a 28.4% share in the company. Nakano Cable TV will hold 16.4% with the remainder being split between a consortium of broadcasting and cable companies. The trial will involve 300 households, each of which will be given the ability to access interactive applications such as home shopping and video on demand plus access to the Internet and Fujitsu's NiftyServe online service via a digital audio/video interactive decoder unit. Japan Chip Market To Remain Strong Japan will remain the second largest regional market for semiconductors at $47.7 billion in 1996 according to the latest World Semiconductor Trade Statistics report from the Semiconductor Industry Association. The figure represents a 17.8% growth rate and 21.8% of the worldwide $218.6 billion market. Windows95 Price War Begins Despite the launch of the Japanese version of Windows95 being three weeks away, software vendors are already announcing special deals and reduced prices on the software. The Kyodo news agency reported Thursday that electronics retailer Kojima would price the CD-ROM upgrade version of the operating system at 11,800 yen, 2,000 yen cheaper than Microsoft's official retail price. The floppy disk version would cost 21,800 yen, a saving of 8,000 yen on the full retail price. At supermarket giant Daiei, the group said it would match Kojima's prices although not at its Lawson convenience store chain, according to Kyodo. Government Seeks Online Jobs Listing In an effort to curb Japan's growing unemployment, the Labor Ministry said details about jobs available should be made available on a computer network to better enable people to find jobs. A trial of such a system is hoped to begin in the next financial year once necessary funding has been secured. The ministry is also considering putting such a database on the Internet so that specialized jobs for foreigners, or Japanese who have lived or studied abroad, can be easily advertised. Qualcomm Signs Distribution Deal Qualcomm has signed an exclusive deal for distribution of its Internet e-mail client Eudora Pro. Under the terms of deal with Osaka-based Kuni Research International, the Japanese company will localize Eudora Pro into Japanese and serve as the master "re-publisher" for Eudora to distributors such as Softbank Corp., and others. The company said the Japanese language versions of Eudora Pro for Windows and Apple Computer Macintosh are now available throughout Japan. (Martyn Williams/19951103) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 11/03/95 NETWORK ****NTT, IBM Japan Develops New Communication Protocol (NEWS)(NETWORK)(TYO)(00003) ****NTT, IBM Japan Develops New Communication Protocol 11/03/95 TOKYO, JAPAN, 1995 NOV 3 (NB) -- Nippon Telegraph and Telephone (TSE:9432) and IBM Japan have developed a new network protocol that promises error-free data communication and the ability to transmit information to large numbers of customers in a fraction of the time currently required. The new system is called Reliable Multicast Transport Protocol (RMTP). Development of the protocol took place at IBM Japan's Tokyo Research Laboratory and NTT's Information and Communication Systems Laboratory (ISL). Osamu Takahashi of NTT's High-Speed Computer Networking Laboratory at the ISL explained to Newsbytes more about the system. "RMTP is a connection-oriented transport layer protocol, it supports one-way error-free data communication and operates on the well-known TCP/IP protocols, such as the UDP and IP-M (IP multicast)," said Takahashi. "It means the multicast functions, copy and relay of the packets, are realized by IP-M and generally, these functions are implemented in the router." "First, the RMTP server establishes the connection between RMTP clients by multicast," said Takahashi, detailing the first stage of three that takes place when a message is sent. "Secondly, the server sends the information (packets) to clients by multicast. If the clients receive all packets correctly, then each client sends an acknowledge message to the Server, by unicast. If the clients don't receive all packets correctly, then the clients send negative acknowledge messages, by unicast, which include the packet sequence numbers of the packets that need to be retransmitted. The server retransmits the packets to the clients, by multicast or unicast." "For the last step," added Takahashi, "the server releases the connection." This all reduces network traffic and load because packets are transmitted once by the server to all clients, rather than many time individually to each client as is currently done using the standard Simple Mail Transfer Protocol (SMTP). Once a message is sent the server then needs to just collect packet numbers of any packets that have encountered trouble and re-transit them, again by multicast or unicast if just one client has requested the packet. Takahashi sees the system as a replacement for existing protocols, "I believe RMTP is the replacement of TCP. So, any TCP/IP applications, SMTP (Mail), FTP (file transfer), etc., may use the RMTP with slight modification (multicast extension)," he said. To begin using the protocol, which was specified in May 1995, new software is needed to handle the servers and clients. "The RMTP prototype software were implemented in SUN WS (Solaris 2.3) by NTT, and RS 6000 (AIX) by IBM Japan, and interoperable tests were concluded by October 1995," explained NTT's Takahashi. Example applications for the system include electronic newspapers in which news articles need to be distributed to many people very quickly. Even without the software being installed on each user's machine, a basic system could be implemented that allowed the fast distribution of news to several secondary mailers across the network which would then handle sending to individual users in parallel with each other. To demonstrate the speed improvements, NTT said a 32-page newspaper would usually take around three hours to send out to 5,000 subscribers but would take just three minutes using RMTP. (Martyn Williams/19951103/Press contact: NTT, +81-3-3509-3101, fax +81-3-3509-4290; IBM Japan, +81-3-5572-2643) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 11/03/95 ONLINE ****Internet Update (NEWS)(ONLINE)(TYO)(00004) ****Internet Update 11/03/95 TOKYO, JAPAN, 1995 NOV 3 (NB) -- In this roundup of new services and resources on the global Internet, pictures from Hubble, Roh Tae-Woo's secret reserve, Java developers kit, news from the Windy City, history of the Internet, Flagstaff mission to the Navajos, In-touch with new software, Netscape de-icer, Infosurf links. Pictures From Hubble The latest pictures from the Hubble Space Telescope, which have been flashed around the world on television, are on the Internet. These spectacular pictures show what is believed to be the birth of a star in M16 and can be obtained from the Space Telescope Science Institute, home of Hubble. World Wide Web: http://www.stsci.edu/EPA/PR/95/44.html Roh Tae-Woo's Secret Reserve A Korean online service has opened an opinion polling forum covering science and social issues. The first subject to be tackled is the "50 billion-Won secret reserve of Tae-Woo Roh, ex-president of Korea." The forum welcomes views of all Internet users, particularly foreigners. You can also see the current state of the poll, which shows little satisfaction with the ex-president. World Wide Web: http://sntonline.co.kr/~Service/Census2/ World Wide Web: http://168.126.18.1/~Service/Census2/ Java Developers Kit There are a growing number of editors and packages for writers of the HTML language but now there are also some Java language packages becoming available. The first we've seen is Roaster, a Java applet development kit for the Apple Computer Macintosh that assists writers of applets written in Java, Sun's cross platform object-orientated programming language. World Wide Web: http://www.natural.com/pages/products/roaster/roasterpr.html News From The Windy City Chicago's Sun Times newspaper provides headlines, traffic news, the latest weather information, sports news, entertainment and listings, education and a computer news column. The home page is quite heavy on graphics. World Wide Web: http://www.suntimes.com/ History Of The Internet If you don't know much about the history of the Internet, but want to find out how it started and how it has grown, the Internet Society is now offering a look at the network. Included are a chronological discussion and graphs showing growth of the Internet from its beginnings right up to this year. World Wide Web: http://info.isoc.org/guest/zakon/Internet/History/HIT.html American Cancer Society Immediate online access to information about cancer, community resources and other support is now provided by the American Cancer Society, California Division home page on the World Wide Web. The pages have a California bias, obviously, but also offer links to many national and international cancer information resources. The, now famous, "Philip Morris" documents are also available. World Wide Web: http://www.ca.cancer.org/ Flagstaff Mission To The Navajos This is an independent organization which supports native pastors and churches on the Navajo reservation of Northwest Arizona. From the Web site Web users can access a map of the reservation, consult a staff directory and get contact and ministry information. World Wide Web: http://www.primenet.com/~Navajo In-Touch With New Software If you're running Windows95 this site could be a useful place to visit weekly. The service updates users with details of new software packages for the operating system via an e-mail list or Web page. The first message will be sent on November 13th and subscription is available via the Web site. Users with no Web access should e-mail a request to receive the messages. E-mail: sword@islandnet.com World Wide Web: http://www.islandnet.com/~sword/win95.html Netscape De-Icer Netscape Defrost for the Macintosh is a system extension that keeps Netscape from freezing while accessing Web pages, a situation reported by many users, say the developers of the software. The software is available from the Web site and the author asks all satisfied users to donate some money to charity in lieu of payment for the package. World Wide Web: http://cygnus.rsabbs.com/~ssykes/nsdefrost.html Infosurf Links The Infosurf page from the University of California, Santa Barbara, is open to the network and, as well as providing access to the library catalog at the University, holds a useful set of links to online, full-text, information resources and e-journals on the network covering 72 different subjects. World Wide Web: http://www.library.ucsb.edu/ (Martyn Williams/19951103) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 11/03/95 BROADCAST Europe - MPEG-2 Transmissions By Satellite (NEWS)(BROADCAST)(LON)(00005) Europe - MPEG-2 Transmissions By Satellite 11/03/95 LONDON, ENGLAND, 1995 NOV 3 (NB) -- As the Astra 1E satellite, the fifth co-located DTH (Direct To Home) pan-European satellite locks into its geo-stationary orbit this week, following its launch late last month, National Transcommunications Limited (NTL) has announced it is teaming with Orion Atlantic to offer the industry's first MPEG-2 service platform to the broadcasting industry. MPEG-2 stands for the second iteration of the Motion Picture Encoding Group's system for encoding/compressing of digital video and audio signals. Using MPEG-2, several conventional broadcast channels can be compressed into the same bandwidth as a standard TV/satellite channel. Using MPEG-2 technology, Astra 1E will use its 16 transponders to broadcast several hundred digitally compressed channels for broadcast across Europe, when the satellite begins official service early next year. The MPEG-2 service from NTL/Orion has already entered service, however, since MPEG-2 services are already being broadcast by the Orion 1 satellite, which is located at 37.5 degrees west. According to John Okas, director broadcast and telecoms with NTL, the partnership with Orion will provide customers with a single point of contact for a complete service. NTL and Orion are promoting their Orion 1 MPEG-2 transmission system hard to the broadcast industry. According to NTL, the Orion 1 satellite's high power spot beams and wide coverage broad beams provide extensive coverage of Western and Eastern Europe. The uplink position and satellite power, meanwhile, are ideal, the companies claim, for distribution of TV signals to cable TV head ends. In addition, since Orion 1 also overlaps to North America with its beams, it can be used for low-cost transatlantic TV transmissions. (Steve Gold/19951103/Press Contact: Elena Tuason, Nelson Bostock; Reader Contact: NTL +44-1962-822582) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 11/03/95 TELECOM England - Radio-Telephony System Ready For 1Q 96 Launch (NEWS)(TELECOM)(LON)(00006) England - Radio-Telephony System Ready For 1Q 96 Launch 11/03/95 CAMBRIDGE, ENGLAND, 1995 NOV 3 (NB) -- Ionica, the UK's third licensed public telephone operator, has ordered $10 million worth of fixed radio access technology from Nortel (Northern Telecom). The kit will be used in Cambridge when Ionica launches its "radio tail" telephone service early next year. The Ionica system will operate at between 5 and 6 megahertz (MHz), initially in the Cambridge area, rolling out to East Anglia during 1996/97. Instead of using copper wire to link the telephone exchange with the subscriber, a radio tail link is used, hence the curious "fixed radio access technology" moniker. According to Nortel, Ionica will use its Proximity 1 Fixed Radio Access system, which was co-developed with Ionica, as the foundation of the new radio tail telephone services. Nigel Playford, Ionica's chief executive, claims that the system will allow Ionica to offer highly innovative call tariffs and services. "Deployment of this equipment will position Ionica to meet strong initial demand from residential and small business users. This is the first in a series of orders we will place with Nortel in the near future," he said. Over at Nortel's wireless networks division, Bob Dow, the company's managing director, said that the order for the Proximity 1 systems is a significant one, and underlines the success of the joint development with Ionica. "It brings to market the first purpose-designed fixed radio access system," he explained. (Steve Gold/19951103/Press Contact: Tony Goss, Nortel +44-1483-662274) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 11/03/95 APPLE Camelot Acquires Mac-based Internet Voice Software Firm (NEWS)(APPLE)(DEN)(00007) Camelot Acquires Mac-based Internet Voice Software Firm 11/03/95 DALLAS, TEXAS, U.S.A., 1995 NOV 3 (NB) -- Camelot Corp. (NASDAQ CAML), the company that publishes software that lets you carry on phone conversations over the Internet using your multimedia-equipped personal computer, has purchased the only Macintosh-based competitive software product. The Mac-based e-phone software, formerly known as NetPhone, has been available on the Internet from its developers, Electric Magic Company. Electric Magic sold e-phone to New Paradigm Software Corp. early last month, and Camelot purchased it from New Paradigm on October 31, 1995. Camelot said it paid $750,000 for e-phone, with $350,000 of that paid in restricted common shares of Camelot and the balance in cash. The Camelot stock was valued at $5.1875 per share for the deal. New Paradigm will also receive $1.00 per unit and ten percent of the original equipment manufacturer (OEM) revenue from the sale of the software for five years. Third Planet Publishing, a Camelot Corp., subsidiary, markets Digiphone software that allows users with multimedia-equipped PCs running Windows 3.1 to carry on full-duplex phone conversations over the Internet. Camelot said Third Planet will incorporate the e-phone technology into Macintosh-compatible versions of Digiphone and Digiphone Deluxe that should ship in the first quarter of 1996. Camelot said users of the Mac and Windows versions of Digiphone will be able to communicate with each other over the Internet. Third Planet will continue to make e-phone available on the Internet until Digiphone for Mac is launched. At that time e-phone will be discontinued, said Camelot. Users of e-phone will be able to upgrade to Digiphone for the Mac. Danny Wettreich, Camelot chairman and chief executive officer, told Newsbytes e-phone users can't communicate with Digiphone users and never will be able to. However e-phone users will be able to upgrade to the Mac version of Digiphone when it ships in early 1996, said Wettreich. He said the exact upgrade price hasn't been set yet but he expects it to be about $25. Digiphone for Windows is selling on the street for about $55 and Wettreich expects the Mac version will sell for about the same price. Asked if he has any plans to acquire any other companies that publish similar software, Wettreich said he doesn't. "We don't feel there is any need to buy anything else. The only other product on the market is VocalTech and we consider their technology far inferior to ours." (Jim Mallory/19951102/Press contact: Danny Wettreich, Camelot, 214-733-3005; Public contact: Camelot, 214-733-3005) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 11/03/95 BUSINESS Australia - Platinum Sheds Staff, Sybase (NEWS)(BUSINESS)(SYD)(00008) Australia - Platinum Sheds Staff, Sybase 11/03/95 SYDNEY, AUSTRALIA 1995 NOV 3 (NB) -- Platinum Software has laid off most of its SQL Enterprise direct sales force in Australia and New Zealand as a result of the company's decision to stop direct sales of the Unix-based financial software in favor of its SQL NT product. Unconfirmed reports say the company has sacked its entire SQL Enterprise direct sales force worldwide. The news comes less than a month after cheerless preliminary financial results for Platinum's first fiscal quarter. The company reported depressed licensing revenues for SQL Enterprise and said it expected to post a loss of something between $US3.8 to $4.3 million for the quarter. Guy McKanna, from Capital PR in Sydney, says his client is "downscaling SQL Enterprise," which runs on Unix operating systems and the Sybase database. The magnitude of the staff shedding is not clear. "There are a few that have been given the flick," McKanna said, but could not give exact figures. He thought there might be two or three in New Zealand, "one or two in Melbourne" and another person moving across to SQL NT sales. Sybase MD in Australia, Gary Jackson, says his company's partnership with Platinum Software is over. "You don't like to have any partner drop away," he said, "but they had a few challenges here, and I don't think they've ever fully recovered." The challenges included a 1994 senior management sweep at Platinum which came in the wake of a scandal about inflated revenue statements. The Australian management made a bid for a controlling interest in the Australian operation and were blocked by the US brass. They subsequently vanished from the company. According to Jackson, the loss of Platinum will not have a flow-on effect to Sybase. "There's probably only half a dozen users in Australia at the moment. It's not a big issue for us," he said. Sybase will continue to support SQL Enterprise customers. "We'll work with a new partner," says Jackson. McKanna says Platinum will also continue supporting SQL Enterprise customers, which is good news for Pratt Industries, a packaging company which announced an untimely switch to SQL Enterprise financials earlier this. Reports that Platinum has laid off its entire SQL Enterprise direct sales force worldwide could not be confirmed last night, as senior Platinum executives failed to return this reporter's calls. (Computer Daily News/19951103) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 11/03/95 BUSINESS Acer Seeks Aussie Partner, Plans To Go Public (NEWS)(BUSINESS)(SYD)(00009) Acer Seeks Aussie Partner, Plans To Go Public 11/03/95 SYDNEY, AUSTRALIA, 1995 NOV 3 (NB) -- Taiwanese electronics giant Acer would welcome approaches from Australian companies interested in becoming a partner in a new-look Acer Australia, the group's chairman and CEO, Stan Shih, told the Australian press this week. He envisages the joint-venture company eventually listing on Australian stock market, with both management and the general public having significant stakes. Shih, in town to launch Acer's stylish new "Aspire" range of home computers, emphasized that the idea was very much in the formative stage. "It's not a critical issue. We're just beginning to look at the local market," he said. There have been no approaches yet from potential partners. But he added: "I've told James to look into it," a reference to James Wang, managing director of local subsidiary Acer Australia. Shih suggested the model for an Australian joint venture would be the recently floated Acer Computer International (ACI), based in Singapore, which distributes to many Asian countries and to Australia. Acer has spun off 37 percent of ACI, which represents an investment of around $US60 million. The issue was 20 times over-subscribed. Shih recently told Fortune magazine it is just the first of what he hopes will be 20 similar public companies to be launched in the US, Europe, and Latin America over the next five years. Acer America would probably be first off the mark. Acer would also float off parts of its two Taiwan vehicles, Acer Peripherals and Acer Sertak. This grand plan forms part of Stan Shih's "fast food" theory of PC production and marketing. He sees subsidiaries around the world churning out Acer PCs, set-top boxes, and other items to a standard formula and with consistent quality. Consumers would get PCs made from "fresh ingredients, not stale models." Served up with the finest of chips, of course. "Beauty in form; perfection in function." That's the slogan Acer is adopting to promote its trendy new Aspire range of home PCs, all colored green. They could have added "late in delivery." The Aspire PCs won't hit the Australian market until late January, totally missing the important Christmas buying season. Acer Australia executives said the design, by Frog Design of the US, also responsible for many Apple models, was initiated by Acer America, and the US subsidiary had cornered most supplies since the launch there in September. Several models, including desktops and a minitower, were previewed at the Sydney launch. The PCs have curved lines, built-in phone answering systems, stereo speakers, optional full-motion video, and voice activation software. Initial supplies will all be in "emerald green," a muted tint some press folk yesterday thought closer to pea soup. A second choice of charcoal grey will be available later. Processors are all Pentiums, ranging from 75- to 133-MHz. No prices were available. (David Frith and Computer Daily News/19951103) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 11/03/95 GENERAL Bill, Paul, and Vern Update (NEWS)(GENERAL)(SYD)(00010) Bill, Paul, and Vern Update 11/03/95 MELBOURNE, AUSTRALIA 1995 NOV 3 (NB) -- Billionaire Bill may call it "The Information Highway," but his former partner, Paul Allen, coined the phrase "The Wired World" more than 20 years ago, and that was the title of a speech to the Asymetrix Asia Pacific multimedia bash in Melbourne this week. Asymetrix Chairman Vern Raburn enunciated the vision his absent boss had been espousing for two decades. And if Paul sounds like Bill, coming out of the mouth of Vern, then that's because they all think alike. "A lot of Paul's ideas are mine," Vern said, adding "Bill's vision is to some extent Paul's vision." In fact they were all together in Seattle last Saturday at Bill's 40th birthday bash, a quiet do for 70 close friends at the still-to-be-completed Chateau Bill. Paul was coming to Australia with Vern after the party, but asked Vern to relay his apologies. Sport is the hottest issue on the Net, said Vern, with more than 5 million hits on the sport-filled ESPN Net per day "and 10 million on a busy day." The entertainment arm is Ticketmaster, currently an event database, but expected to offer interactive on-line ticket purchasing "within 90 days." That, said Raburn, was subject to the development of secure credit card arrangements. "I don't think the security issue is a terribly difficult one - it is pick and shovel engineering." (Computer Daily News/19951103) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 11/03/95 BUSINESS GTSI Ousts CEO, Refocuses Business (NEWS)(BUSINESS)(WAS)(00011) GTSI Ousts CEO, Refocuses Business 11/03/95 CHANTILLY, VIRGINIA, U.S.A., 1995 NOV 3 (NB) -- With sales off and its stock in free fall, the board of directors of Government Technology Services Inc. (Nasdaq: GTSI) has ousted R. M. "Rick" Rickenbach as president, chief executive officer, and a member of the board. At the same time, GTSI said it has released The Robinson-Humphrey Co., an investment banker the company had hired in May to look for possible buyers of the troubled government computer reseller. Last fall, GTSI fended off a hostile takeover by Milwaukee-based Diana Corp. and its chairman, aggressive investor Richard Fisher. Diana had offered $16 per share for GTSI, well above the $12.50 per share the company was then trading at. "The board has been through a lengthy process," GTSI spokesman Carter Cromley told Newsbytes, "and has decided to focus on our own business. We are not pursuing any other options." The GTSI board said board member Gerald Ebker will take over as CEO as the company looks for a new president and CEO. "Our goal will be to build on an enhance the company's leadership position in the federal market, said Ebker. Ebker is a retired IBM executive. When he retired in December 1993 he was chairman and CEO of IBM's Federal Systems subsidiary, which was sold to Loral Corp. at the time of his retirement. He had worked in the federal systems division since 1987. Late last month, GTSI announced disappointing third quarter sales of $175.7 million, compared to $225 million for the third quarter of 1994. Profits were $1.7 million (26 cents per share), compared to profits of $5.6 million (80 cents per share) for the 1994 quarter. For the first three quarters of 1995, GTSI recorded a net loss of $3 million (45 cents per share) compared to a profit of $6.7 million (98 cents per share) for the first nine months of 1994. GTSI also announced that it was not in compliance with some financial debt covenants. The company's stock has been getting hammered in the marketplace in the past year. After reaching a high of nearly $14 per share a year ago, the stock has plummeted to around $5 per share. (Kennedy Maize/19951101/Press Contact: Carter Cromley, 703-502-2035) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 11/03/95 ONLINE MIT Student Wins CyberSurfari Event (NEWS)(ONLINE)(WAS)(00012) MIT Student Wins CyberSurfari Event 11/03/95 WASHINGTON, D.C., U.S.A., 1995 NOV 3 (NB) -- Jeremy Warner, 18, of Sharon, Mass., is the first winner in the Software Publishers Association CyberSurfari World Wide Web contest. The MIT student spent 12 straight hours at his dorm room computer to win the individual speed contest by finding treasure codes on 90 of 100 "outposts" on the Web. Warner won $5,000 for himself and the same amount for the school of its choice to spend on computer hardware and software. "CyberSurfari was really neat and well done," said Warner. "I had no idea there was so much interesting stuff on the Web." Daniel Hallmark, 27, of Birmingham, Ala., won the $2,500 second place, and Roland Spencer, 32, of San Diego, Calif., won the $1,000 third prize. "SPA organized CyberSurfari to show how easy and fun it is to use the Internet and to demonstrate the diverse resources already available on the World Wide Web," said Ken Wasch, SPA president. "The contest also demonstrates the interest of our sponsors in Web development, as well as their ongoing support of education technology in schools." Sponsors of the event include Adobe Systems, Apple Computer, Beverly Hills Internet, c/net, CyberShop, Folio Corp., Harlequin Inc., Microsoft Corp., Open Text Corp., and Prodigy Services. The online contest continues for two weeks. Individuals and school teams that find 50 of the 100 treasure codes before 6 p.m. Nov. 7 will be entered into a random drawing for a total of $25,000 in cash and prizes. This second component of the contest encourages leisurely access to the Web and browsing sponsor home pages. For information on CyberSurfari '95, click on the contest logo on SPA's home page at http:// www.spa.org . SPA is a Washington-based trade association that represents some 1,200 publishers of computer software. It also has an office in Paris. (Kennedy Maize/19951101/Press Contact: Loni Singer, 202-452-1600, ext. 353) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 11/03/95 EDITORIAL GENERAL Editorial - Oracle's Odd, But Interesting, View Of PCs (EDITORIAL)(GENERAL)(HKG)(00013) Editorial - Oracle's Odd, But Interesting, View Of PCs 11/03/95 BANGKOK, THAILAND, 1995 NOV 3 (NB) -- By Tony Waltham. Oracle's CEO Larry Ellison surprised quite a few people when he predicted last month that PCs would be superseded by dumb terminals connected to a global network, arguing that PCs were overpowered and over-featured for this emerging environment -- and consequently too expensive. Oracle seems to be following through with products that support this viewpoint, and word has it that Oracle Corp., will introduce a low-cost diskless computer for use with on-line services in the first quarter of next year. There was no word on what processor it will use, and the planned $500 Network Computer will run far fewer applications than a personal computer, Ellison says, but it will support applications such as word processing, electronic mail and Internet browsing. "The NC will be smaller, like a notebook computer, with maybe a 12-inch screen and a keyboard," he was quoted as saying. "There's no hard disk, no software, no floppy disk, because when you turn it on the operating system will come across the network. It's like a television -- you plug it in (to the telephone and power plugs) and when you want to use it you switch it on." He said it would be sold through stores, not necessarily with the Oracle brand. "We haven't set up all the details yet, but it will be available in the first quarter." Oracle's plans for its own online service to knock the socks off Microsoft Corp's Microsoft Network have also progressed. Now called Web TV, it will be available through an Oracle set-top box that also costs $500, or so a Reuters report says. An interesting concept, given the current talk of Netscape becoming the "new operating system" -- which is to use this term operating system lightly, since Netscape is just one of several graphical Internet browsers. However, it just happens to be the most popular and as it allows or accepts what might be called "proprietary" extensions that developers of Internet Web sites can -- and often do -- write to, so that other Internet graphical browsers seem somewhat lackluster by comparison. But will we be using diskless devices to surf the Internet, merely because they will save us a thousand dollars or so? I think not. Much of my time spent on the World Wide Web is retrieving information, and then saving it to my PC for reference or for use in some way or another. I would concede that while online, most of my computer system is idle. My "browser" of choice is the text-based Lynx, Unix software that resides on the Internet service provider's server. And I use the Telix communications program with VT102 emulation, essentially using my PC as a dumb terminal while the modem does most of the work. But would I surrender the other applications for a dedicated online device? Sorry, but whether it is a satellite image of the current storm patterns over Thailand and the region, or a news photograph that I have downloaded, I need the full resources of my PC to view and possibly edit these images later. Nor do I spend most of my time in front of the PC online, by any means. There are a variety of applications that I jockey between, some are Windows-based, while others run happily in DOS. And don't look down on a good DOS application, by the way. The Wildcat BBS that runs at the Bangkok Post newspaper's Post Database section (+662-240-3671-2) is happily multitasking on DOS with the help of Quarterdeck's DesqView, and I am typing this column now in XyWrite III Plus, my word processor of choice for the past seven years. So, despite Oracle's prediction of relatively dumb terminals hooked up to a super network, I believe we will have enhanced PCs and communications, which coincides with the views of Intel's CEO Andy Grove and Microsoft's Bill Gates. After all, we can all get around on a bicycle, but we choose to ride in a car if we can afford one. This does not mean no one buys bicycles, and if a terminal unit such as the one Oracle plans to introduce was priced appropriately, it might well be an alternative for a different segment of user. However, it would seem that the personal computer will reign supreme for the foreseeable future, at least, and also that it will evolve and mutate rapidly as more power and memory, both RAM and mass storage, becomes available, while interconnectivity across the Internet and possibly other networks further empower its users. The only possible outside threat that I can see to this model of the future is from the Nintendos and Segas of this world, these game machines that PC users tend to dismiss as toys. It is largely children who are tinkering with them today, but were these devices to become networked and interlinked, there could always be a possibility that a guerrilla warfare-like campaign could be launched to make these the computing devices of the next century, making our PCs the "mainframes" or legacy systems of tomorrow. Just a thought. (Tony Waltham and Post Database-Bangkok Post/19951103) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 11/03/95 BROADCAST China - Cable TV Equipment Market Promising (NEWS)(BROADCAST)(PEK)(00014) China - Cable TV Equipment Market Promising 11/03/95 BEIJING, CHINA, 1995 NOV 3 (NB) -- The number of cable subscribers in China is increasing quickly, and the huge demand means many manufacturing opportunities for cable TV-related equipment makers, according to the Ministry of Electronics Industry (MEI). By the end of 1994 there were 30 million cable TV subscribers and more than 1,000 cable stations in China, and it is estimated that by 2000 there will be 60 million subscribers and 100 million by 2005, according to an official with MEI. The number means that 25 to 30 percent of the households in the country will be cable TV subscribers in 2005, which at that point will represent the largest concentration of cable subscribers in the world. This huge demand is creating a large cable TV equipment market, government officials said. However, China's manufacturing industry at present is way behind where it should be, MEI suggested. The cable equipment manufacturing industry also faces a shortage of capital. According to MEI's estimate the total investment in cable manufacturing industry should be at least RMB30 to 40 billion (US$3.6 to 4.8 billion) from now to 2005. Overseas capital is one fund-raising avenue, said one MEI official. He also said that extensive international cooperation should begin. Manufacturing opportunities exist for cable head-end equipment, transmission and control equipment, trunk fiber-optic cables, related devices and instruments, HDTV (High Definition TV) receivers, and multimedia terminal equipment. Products should be applicable in the international market and enterprises must hold a long-term plan. Technological cooperation should involve product design and development techniques, digital techniques, two-way transmission techniques, quality assurance and management software. Technical advances in digital technology, HDTV, multimedia integrated services, and new types of cable terminal equipment will be followed closely. All the manufacturing specifications brought by cable, including receiving antennas, head-end equipment for cable systems below 550 MHz, key instruments, and components and parts have developed quickly in China, said the government official. (Chih-Ho Yu & Ning Huang/19951030) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 11/03/95 CHIPS Intel Sees No Let-up In Processing Power Trend (NEWS)(CHIPS)(HKG)(00015) Intel Sees No Let-up In Processing Power Trend 11/03/95 BANGKOK, THAILAND, 1995 NOV 3 (NB) -- Intel Corporation, the world's leading manufacturer of microprocessors for personal computers which in a decade has succeeded in effectively doubling the processing power every 18 months, does not see any let-up in this trend for at least another 10 years. These advances in silicon technology have taken PCs from the 8086-based original IBM PC that ran at 4.77 MHz (million cycles per second) to today's Pentium processors that race at 133 MHz and offer a host of advanced features that boost overall performance. Intel recently christened its "P6" processor, the successor to the Pentium (formerly the P5) as the "Pentium Pro," and Intel International Vice President Rob Eckelmann said in an interview with Newsbytes that work on the P7, which is being jointly developed with Hewlett-Packard, was proceeding well, while the P8 chip was forming. Noting on how rapidly the market shifts from one processor to another, Mr Eckelmann said that there are now more Pentiums being sold than any other PC processor, adding that "the 486 chip won't make sense for the desktop in early 1996." There is an acceleration, not only in the pace of change, but also in the fact that each generation of processor sells in higher volume. "There is a tendency to underestimate change," he said, noting how now the Pentium chips were going into the market in volume when compared with the relatively slow transition to the 486 chip from the 386. As for the P6, or Pentium Pro, Intel expects that this chip will initially be for workstations and servers since it was designed to process 32-bit applications. Today, most PC applications are 16-bit applications but with the launch of Windows 95 that provides a 32-bit environment for the desktop, this will be changing, and Mr. Eckelmann believes that by the end of 1996 and into 1997, 32-bit applications will be the majority of PC software. One downside of frequent software upgrades is that each new release runs more slowly, so despite Intel's and other chip makers' advances, the performance index looks deceptively fixed. Another area that the new Windows 95 operating system and the latest applications have an impact on is demand for increased memory (RAM) which has not kept up with Moore's Law in terms of pricing, although this should begin to change for the better soon now that manufacturers are ramping up production. Mr Eckelmann told Newsbytes that there had been a lull in production capacity development, especially in Japan, but now Korea is making headway and there is more competition in this area. While Intel makes the CPUs that power PCs, the company does not make DRAM memory chips, he noted. The Intel international vice president also predicted that, despite apparent US dominance of the industry, Japan would be a force to contend with in the computer industry. He suggested, "Watch Japan," since, while it now seems to be lagging behind the US in the computer industry, "this will change." Indeed, he emphasized how change itself is accelerating, and how this provides more opportunities, both for old and new companies alike. He recalled how Intel CEO Andy Grove had always maintained a "healthy" level of paranoia that so far has ensured Intel's leadership in a highly-competitive market. Like Hewlett-Packard, he said, Intel also cannibalizes its own products. Intel is investing in other areas, notably video conferencing with its ProShare product, which needs ISDN lines, and the company's overall vision is to make the personal computer a universal communications device, since as it becomes more powerful, so it can be a more multi-purpose tool. "It is clear to Intel that connectivity, both across wide area networks as well as on LANs is a key area," he said, noting that the communications links or "pipes" are not growing at the rate of the PC. Ten megabit-a-second (mbps) Ethernet has been around for many years, but the shift to 100 Mbps networking is inevitable. Intel now makes the lowest 100 Base-T networking cards, he said, predicting that 100 Base-T would be the standard as opposed to HP's competing 100-VG standard as it can be deployed or interwoven with existing 10-megabit LANs, being seamless and backwards compatible, "Something that Intel has a lot of experience with," he said. What of the future of ATM? Mr Eckelmann said that while ATM offers faster networking speeds of 155mbps, this is not such an advance over 100 mbps Ethernet, where the 100 Base-T standards are more established and the economics are very good. He predicted that in a three to five-year period most of the volume in networking products will be for 100 Base-T, while we might see ATM on backbones. (Tony Waltham and Post Database-Bangkok Post/19951024) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 11/03/95 BUSINESS Hyundai, Acer Strike Across Two Fronts (NEWS)(BUSINESS)(HKG)(00016) Hyundai, Acer Strike Across Two Fronts 11/03/95 SEOUL, KOREA, 1995 NOV 3 (NB) -- Two recent announcements put the world on notice that Asia's tigers are getting more aggressive still. In Seoul, Hyundai Group's Hyundai Electronics Industries unit said it was going after Maxtor Corp., lock stock and barrel, aiming to displace dominant Seagate Technology in the hard disk drive business "in the next decade," as one official was quoted as saying. The giant already has a 37% stake in the company with its US$150 million purchase made last year. Hyundai officials conceded that the company's initial offer of US$171 million for the balance, US$5.15 a share, was rejected by Maxtor and both sides are said to be renegotiating. Assuming the Maxtor acquisition goes better than Samsung's take-up of AST, it could put Hyundai Electronics Industries in fighting trim by next year when the unit plans its own initial public offering. Meanwhile, in Taipei, Acer Inc., already one of the world's largest PC makers, is building its own industrial park near its present headquarters at Lungtan, in Taoyuan district near Taipei. Officials didn't say whether this precluded a move of its semiconductor joint-venture with Texas Instruments out of Hsinchu Science Park, but a report in Taipei's Commercial Times newspaper indicated the company planned to design the park so that it would accommodate chip lines, peripheral and other PC-related manufacturing. The company will reportedly invest US$500 million in the venture. Officials didn't disclose whether or not companies outside the Acer Group would participate in the project in the manner of Japan's kiretsu-type suppliers. But the move would indicate that Chairman Stan Shih will stick to his stated strategy of not making a major investment on the mainland in the medium term. (I.T. Daily/19951103) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 11/03/95 LEGAL Hong Kong Pens Intellectual Property Law (NEWS)(LEGAL)(HKG)(00017) Hong Kong Pens Intellectual Property Law 11/03/95 CENTRAL, HONG KONG, 1995 NOV 3 (NB) -- The Hong Kong government will begin drafting intellectual property laws to conform with the Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property (TRIPS), according to a statement. Provisions will cover trademark registration of all signs distinguishing goods and services of one undertaking from others, provided they can be represented in a graphical form. If all goes to plan, film, video and computer program owners will be able to apply for restraining orders to prevent their products from being rented out commercially without permission, or to have suspicious imports embargoed. Performers, too, will be able to prevent their live performances from being recorded and distributed commercially or broadcast without their permission. (I.T. Daily/19951103) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 11/03/95 LEGAL Aztech Wins Creative Suit (NEWS)(LEGAL)(HKG)(00018) Aztech Wins Creative Suit 11/03/95 SINGAPORE, SEA, 1995 NOV 3 (NB) -- Sound card manufacturer Aztech has won its case against rival Creative Technology. The Singapore High Court last week ruled in favor of Aztech in a suit dating back to 1993. The suit alleged that Aztech had copied Creative's firmware in developing its family of Sound Galaxy cards. "We are glad the truth has finally come to light," said Aztech's Michael Mun after the decision was announced. "Creative's allegations of copyright infringement were first made shortly after our Sound Galaxy sound cards were marketed world-wide. We realized that the cost of defending such allegations would be quite substantial and might have been beyond our means at that time, however we were determined to stand by the truth and not be cowed or tempted into settling the claim as Media Vision had done," said Mun. "This was despite the fact that Aztech at that time was preparing for its initial public offering," he added. The terms of the court order have yet to be decided. (I.T. Daily/19951103) (ADVISORY)(GENERAL)(MSP)(00019) NewsPix Update For Newsbytes Publishers 11/03/95 MINNEAPOLIS, MINNESOTA, U.S.A.,1995 NOV 3 (NB) -- This update will be posted each Wednesday and Friday to reflect the daily picture additions. The updates will in turn become part of the main NewsPix Bulletin issued on Monday. These photos correspond to recent Newsbytes stories. They are online in the Newsbytes menu on America Online, NiftyServe, the Newsbytes Pacifica Website at http://www.islandtel.com/newsbytes/ and the Newsbytes private bulletin board system in Minneapolis. To become a licensed Newsbytes publisher, call Newsbytes at 612-430-1100 (US) or write to wendy@newsbytes.com on the Internet. Licensing applies to any medium. --------------------------- NOVEMBER 3, 1995 --------------------------- WINTNG951103 - color / Microsoft Press Offers Windows 95 Interactive Training: bookcover. HOMEREC951102 - b&w / US West Puts Receptionist In Your Home: shot of the phone unit. AIRGO951027 - color / PC Card Combines Modem, Cellular Radio: card with antenna. POWER951027 - color / Fastest Mac Ever To Be Unveiled Monday: shots of the new Power Computing configuration. STEREOGRAPHIC951031 - color / 3-D Glasses By StereoGraphics: graphic of the accelerator chip and SimulEyes 3D glasses. PREMIERE951101 - color / Adobe Ships Premiere 4.2 Video Editor For Mac: screenshot of special processing window. DRAW4-951026 - color / Micrografx Shipping Windows Draw 4.0: screenshot of award art. (Newsbytes/19951103) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 11/03/95 TELECOM First 1900MHz Wireless Call Makes History (NEWS)(TELECOM)(DEN)(00020) First 1900MHz Wireless Call Makes History 11/03/95 DALLAS, TEXAS, U.S.A., 1995 NOV 3 (NB) -- Communications history was made late last month when what was described as the very first call over a wireless personal communications services (PCS) network was made. It was also believed to be the first call on a commercially installed system that uses Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA) digital technology in the 1,900 megahertz radio spectrum. The ceremonial first call was placed by PCS PrimeCo, a partnership of Airtouch (NYSE: ATI), Bell Atlantic (NYSE: BEL), NYNEX (NYSE: NYN) and US West (NYSE: USW). PCS PrimeCo demonstrated the system by making simultaneous wireless calls from Dallas and Houston PCS systems to San Francisco and Arlington, Virginia wireline phones. Calls were also made from Dallas and Houston to New York and Colorado. PCS PrimeCo hopes to bring wireless PCS services to consumers in 11 major US markets in the second half of 1996. PCS PrimeCo said it will offer service in the Chicago, Dallas, Honolulu, Houston, Jacksonville, Miami, Milwaukee, New Orleans, Richmond, San Antonio and Tampa markets next year. Right now the average reader may see little difference between cellular and PCS service. They operate in different radio frequency spectrums, but the cost of the equipment and the cost of a call are nearly equal. But PCS devices use digital communication, which PCS PrimeCo spokesperson Paula Angel-Jones told Newsbytes offers the advantages of less power drain, better security and clearer voice and data communication. It also holds the promise of an expanded menu of wireless services. Both systems will be available for the foreseeable future, and Angel-Jones said PCS PrimeCo will eventually offer dual-band phones that can use either service. For the consumer that means a better chance of being able to make calls no matter where they are. Angel-Jones said eventually the cost of using PCS communications will be lower than that of cellular since more PCS devices can communicate on a single radio frequency compared to cell phones. That makes it possible for the service provider to lower the per-user cost. PCS PrimeCo plans to eventually offer advanced wireless services like vehicular fax, data and short messaging. Angel-Jones said surveys indicate there are about 80 standard messages that consumers use repeatedly, ranging from "I'll be late for the meeting" to "Please pick up the kids." Those can be programmed into a wireless communications device for transmission at the push of a button or two. The CDMA technology uses what PCS PrimeCo calls a "soft hand off" between radio towers as the caller passes from one cell site to another. the handoff is transparent to the user because the call is being processed simultaneously by antennas in multiple cell sites. (Jim Mallory/19951103/Press contact: Stacey Mironov, PCS PrimeCo, 817-258-1531) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 11/03/95 ONLINE ****Worlds And People Link For New Online Service (NEWS)(ONLINE)(TYO)(00021) ****Worlds And People Link For New Online Service 11/03/95 TOKYO, JAPAN, 1995 NOV 3 (NB) -- Japanese computer users will soon have access to a new, 3D, online service after Worlds Inc., People World and Mitsubishi signed an agreement to create PeopleSpace, the first 3D Internet environment created by an online service in Japan. PeopleSpace will soon be available to the half million users of the People World online system, opening up a virtual city built online in 3-D. The service will create a metropolitan environment, complete with civic institutions, community centers, chat spaces and more says Worlds Inc., the California-based company supplying the software to run the environment. Users communicate with others on PeopleSpace through avatars, 3-D body icons that allow them to move freely in any direction using a mouse or arrow keys. Different personas can by chosen to change the way an avatar appears and, once one is selected, the users are free to communicate with each other in chat areas and move through a high resolution graphical space in real-time giving them an intuitive sense of reality. A beta test of PeopleSpace is scheduled to begin in the second quarter of 1996 with the full service available shortly after said Worlds Inc. To access the new service, Windows-based software will be supplied on CD-ROMs. In the future, the system could connect to data sent over broadcast or satellite TV. Rob Schmults, director of marketing at Worlds Inc., told Newsbytes the system was easy to adapt to use in Japan, "Luckily, the 3D interface is mimicking the real world, the interface is not very hard to customize at all. The production and look and feel were changed slightly." The system had to be changed to include prompts in Japanese kanji characters said Schmults, who added, "We worked closely with our partners in Japan." The People service in Japan is operated by a group of companies including IBM, a company which Worlds Inc., has already been working with in development of Virtual Reality Modeling Language+ (VRML+), an extension to the emerging VRML language. The two companies are due to begin distributing a free VRML+ browser for most popular platforms and VRML+ servers for major Unix and Windows-based platforms. Despite the relationship between the two, Schmults said there were no plans currently to bring the system to Prodigy. "There are no specific talks regarding Prodigy. We are live on the Internet with World's Chat and Alpha World. Those are accessible through online services so even through we are not on the services, we can be accessed through them. That's not to say we won't have more formal arrangements." At the service announcement in Tokyo, Shoko Sasaki, director of multimedia at Mitsubishi Corporation, said, "It is the great pleasure of Mitsubishi Corporation to announce an agreement with Worlds Inc. We do believe that with this agreement, we shall be able to launch a virtual world in 3D multi-user environment in Japan by utilizing Worlds Inc.'s tremendous technology. There is no doubt that this new communication will make the online world more natural to us all, giving a big impact to a real world." (Martyn Williams/19951103/Press contact: Gene Feroglia, Worlds Inc., 408-959-1129, Internet e-mail genef@worlds.net ; Reader contact: Worlds Inc., World Wide Web http://www.worlds.net/ ) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 11/03/95 GENERAL Personnel Roundup (NEWS)(GENERAL)(MSP)(00022) Personnel Roundup 11/03/95 MINNEAPOLIS, MINNESOTA, U.S.A., 1995 NOV 3 (NB) -- In this week's roundup, personnel changes occurred at these high tech companies: AT&T, Bay Networks Inc., Softbank Exposition and Conference Company, Dell Computer Corp., Digital Equipment Corp., Gateway 2000 Inc., Simple Technology Inc., StorMedia Inc., Novell, Texas Instruments Inc., MCI Communications Corp., America Online Inc. AT&T (NYSE:T - 908-221-6900) announced executive appointments in key operating units of its Communications Services Group. Pier Carlo Falotti, 53, was named executive vice president and head of AT&T's international operations. Falotti, who currently leads AT&T's operations in Europe, the Middle East and Africa, will assume responsibility for all the company's communications services operations outside the United States. Gail J. McGovern, 43, was named executive vice president of the Business Markets Division. McGovern is currently vice president and general manager for Business Services. She will lead AT&T units serving businesses with extensive needs for communications and information services. Joseph P. Nacchio, 46, was named executive vice president of the Consumer and Small Business Division. John C. Petrillo, 46, was named executive vice president of Strategy and New Offer Development. Petrillo, who currently heads AT&T's Business Communications Services unit, will be responsible for overall business strategy and will continue to lead development of the company's online service and electronic-messaging businesses. Ron J. Ponder, 53, was named chief information officer (CIO) and executive vice president of the Service Operations Division. Ponder, who is currently senior vice president and CIO, will assume added responsibility for product management and customer service, in addition to network operations and systems and development. Bay Networks Inc. (Nasdaq: BNET - 508-436-3706) announced R.S. Cheheyl, executive vice president of business operations, is retiring from the company. Jeff Allen, Bay Networks' vice president and controller, will assume the role of senior vice president, operations, and will report directly to Andy Ludwick. Reporting to Allen will be Vah Erdekian, vice president of Bay East manufacturing, and Bill Whisnant, vice president of Bay West manufacturing. Jim Stafford (415-578-6963) joined Softbank Exposition and Conference Company as vice president of Online Development. Stafford was with Ziff-Davis Publishing Company, where he was publisher of Computer Life and senior vice president of the Consumer Media Group. He spent 10 years with Ziff-Davis in a variety of executive roles, including PC Magazine publisher, Computer Shopper and PC Sources group vice president, and MacUser and MacWeek vice president. Lary L. Evans has been named vice president of Dell Computer Corp.'s (Nasdaq: DELL - 512-728-4073) Server Group, effective November 7. In his new position, Dr. Evans will assume responsibility for business and program management, engineering development and product marketing for Dell's server business. He reports to Eric Harslem, senior vice president of Dell's Product Group. Formerly vice president and general manager of the Sequent Products Group at Sequent Computer Systems Inc., Dr. Evans was responsible for research and development, and manufacturing and product marketing of all Sequent server platforms. Digital Equipment Corp. (NYSE: DEC - 508-486-5198) announced the appointment of Avi Fogel as vice president of global marketing for its Network Product Business. The appointment is effective immediately. In this new position, Fogel leads product marketing, product management, and field marketing for Digital's Network Product Business which develops, manufactures, markets, and sells products worldwide that are integral to building enterprise networks. He reports to Dr. Laurence G. Walker, vice president and general manager of the business unit. Direct PC marketer, Gateway 2000 Inc. (Nasdaq: GATE - 605-232-2723), announced a number of executive appointments. Three current vice presidents were promoted to senior vice-president positions, and the company created a new vice president position. James P. Collas has been named senior vice president of global products, Robert M. Spears has been named the senior vice president of the Americas group and William M. Elliott has been named senior vice president, general counsel and secretary. Joining Gateway 2000 as the new vice president of market development is Joseph Burke, a top executive of Blockbuster Entertainment Corporation. Mark Smith has been named director of engineering for Simple Technology Inc. (714-476-1180), a manufacturer of memory and PC Card products. Previously, Smith was engineering product manager for the company. As the new director of engineering, Smith will head up Simple Technology's engineering and new product development strategies and implementations. Smith will oversee all aspects of design, development, and engineering operations and procedures for the company's entire memory and PC Card product lines. StorMedia Inc. (Nasdaq-NNM: STMD - 408-988-1409) announced that Dr. Muo Lee has been appointed vice-president - New Product Development. He was formerly director of Tribology Engineering at Komag Inc. Prior to Komag, Dr. Lee, in a 20 year period at IBM, held various engineering and management positions. Novell (Nasdaq: NOVL - 408-577-6842) announced that E.J. Tim Harris has resigned for medical reasons as the company's senior vice president, human resources and corporate officer. Harris had worldwide responsibility for Novell's human resources and eleemosynary programs since 1989. Paul Cook, Novell vice president of international human resources, will assume Harris' responsibilities until a decision is made on his replacement. Harris was vice president for human resources at Excelan prior to its merger with Novell in 1989. He previously held management positions at National Semiconductor Corporation and AT&T. Jack Kilby of Texas Instruments Inc., a pioneers of the semiconductor industry, has received the Robert N. Noyce Award at the 19th Annual Forecast and Award Dinner of the Semiconductor Industry Association (408-436-6600). Kilby, 72, is the fifth winner of the semiconductor industry's highest honor. The award was presented to Kilby as a "visionary, innovator, technologist, engineer, educator and counselor, whose inventions created an industry and changed the world." He is a member of the National Inventor's Hall of Fame and he has received the National Medal of Science, the David Sarnoff Award, the Holley Medal and the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers Medal of Honor. Rupert Murdoch, chairman and chief executive officer of The News Corporation Limited (News Corp.) has been elected to the board of directors of MCI Communications Corp. (Nasdaq-NNM: MCIC - 800-644-6397). The MCI-News Corp. joint venture was established to create and distribute electronic information, education and entertainment services to businesses and consumers worldwide. America Online Inc. (Nasdaq-NNM: AMER - 703-556-3746) said that Steve Case, President and chief executive officer of the company, has been elected to chairman of the board. Additionally, Robert Frankenberg president, CEO, and chairman of Novell Inc., and Robert Pittman, managing partner and CEO of Century 21 Real Estate Corp., have been elected to the company's board of directors. Steve Case succeeds Jim Kimsey as chairman of the board. (Ian Stokell/19951103) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 11/03/95 PC Dell, Compaq Intro New Desktop Systems (NEWS)(PC)(DEN)(00023) Dell, Compaq Intro New Desktop Systems 11/03/95 AUSTIN/HOUSTON, TEXAS, U.S.A., 1995 NOV 3 (NB) -- Dell Computer Corp. (NASDAQ: DELL) and Compaq Computer Corp. NYSE: CPQ) have introduced new desktop systems offering features that include multiple processors, rewritable optical CD-ROM drives and Intel's latest Pentium Pro microprocessor. Compaq, the industry sales leader last year and making a strong bid for the crown again this year, introduced new Deskpro and Prolinea models. The Deskpro XL 6150, which Compaq calls its "most powerful desktop ever," and the new Prolinea 6150e both use Intel's new Pentium Pro 150 megahertz (MHz) microprocessor. Dell rolled out its PowerEdge XL, calling it "the company's most powerful server product." The new system can use as many as four Pentium microprocessors. The PowerEdge line now includes the EL entry level models, the PowerEdge SP and XE midrange servers and the new XL. Compaq's Deskpro XL 6150 Model 2100/PD standard features include 32 megabytes (MB) of memory, a 32-bit local PCI (Peripheral Component Interface) bus, SCSI (small Computer System Interface) controller, a 2.1-gigabyte (GB) capacity hard drive and a new type CD-ROM drive. The PD designation in the XL nomenclature refers to the dual-function PD-CD drive, which can be used as a typical CD-ROM drive to play music and games or to read data. With a 650MB rewritable optical cartridge loaded in the drive it becomes a data backup system. The other Compaq system being announced is the Prolinea 6150e, which uses a 150MHz Pentium Pro chip and is equipped with 16MB of memory, a choice of a 1GB or 1.6GB hard drive, a quad speed CD-ROM drive, PCI bus and comes with Windows NT on CD-ROM. The minitower chassis has six expansion slots and six drive bays. Flash ROM (read-only memory) makes it easy to upgrade as newer versions of ROM become available. The 6150e uses Diamond Multimedia Systems' Diamond Stealth64 video board to provide 64-bit graphics. It will have a street price of about $4,000 with the 1Gb hard drive. Add about $170 if you prefer the 1.6GB hard drive. Compaq spokesperson Mike Berman told Newsbytes the rewritable cartridges will have a street price of about $85 for a two-cartridge pack and $185 for a five-pack. The drive has a 200 millisecond access time and a maximum data transfer rate of 850 kilobytes per second. Compaq said the 2100/PD has an estimated street price of about $6,500. You can also get a Model 1050/CD for just under $5,000 that has 16MB of memory, a 1GB hard drive and a standard quad-speed CD-ROM drive. The new XL systems come with Windows NT on CD-ROM. The Compaq systems will ship in the first quarter of 1996. Berman said that's to give the company time to work out a compatibility problem that cropped up in testing a Pentium Pro-powered unit on a network that mixes PCs using the newer PCI (Peripheral Component Interconnect) bus with the older ISA (Industry Standard Architecture) bus. The problem reportedly causes some PCs to drop off the network. Dell is attempting to make its PowerEdge XL stand out from a host of available servers by sending a networking engineer to the customer site to do setup and testing. The standard configuration for the XL is a single 133MHz Pentium chip, 32MB of memory, a 512-kilobyte (KB) cache, 512KB of video memory, a 4GB hard drive, a 6X CD-ROM drive, a network interface card and network management software. That configuration carries a $13,151 price tag and will ship in the company's fourth quarter, which runs from late October 1995 to late January 1996. The new XL will be the first system to ship under the leadership of Dr. Larry Evans, the new vice president of Dell's server group. Evans comes to Dell from his job as vice president and general manager of the products group at Sequent computer Systems. (Jim Mallory/19951103.Press contact: Compaq, 713-374-0484 or Tricia Garner, Dell, 512-728-4073; Public contact: Compaq, 800-345-1518 or Dell, 800-289-3355) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 11/03/95 PC ****IBM, DEC Among First On Pentium Pro Bandwagon (NEWS)(PC)(TOR)(00024) ****IBM, DEC Among First On Pentium Pro Bandwagon 11/03/95 MAYNARD, MASSACHUSETTS, U.S.A., 1995 NOV 3 (NB) -- IBM (NYSE:IBM) and Digital Equipment Corp. (NYSE:DEC) were both quick to announce personal computers based on Intel Corp.'s (NASDAQ:INTC) new Pentium Pro microprocessor. The Pentium Pro, known until recently by its code name P6, will be at the core of DEC's Celebris XL 6150 "personal workstation" and a new model in IBM's PC 300 family. Both systems will use the initial 150-megahertz (MHz) version of the chip, and both companies said they plan models using faster versions of the chip -- ranging up to 200 MHz in the near future -- as they become available. Joanne Delangie, commercial desktop marketing manager at DEC, told Newsbytes that her company expects Pentium Pro systems will be used at first for processor-intensive applications such as computer-aided design and engineering, and this is the market DEC is aiming at with the Celebris XL 6150. She noted that the original Celebris XL announced in September and also aimed at users of such demanding applications, can be upgraded to the new chip by swapping a daughtercard. Delangie said she also expects to see the Pentium Pro used in servers, and Digital will be entering that market early in 1996. Scheduled to be available in volume in December, the DEC Celebris XL 6150 comes with a minimum of 16 megabytes (MB) of memory, with one- and two-gigabyte (GB) hard disk drives and quad-speed CD-ROM drives available. Prices range from $4,599 for the entry-level configuration up to $9,849. IBM described its new Pentium Pro-based PC 300 as well-suited to 32-bit multimedia, video, and high-end graphics thanks to 6X CD-ROM drives and 64-bit MGA Millenium graphics cards from Matrox Electronic Systems, Ltd. The machine is a mini-tower with six expansion slots and six drive bays. In an unusual move, IBM is not offering this machine with Microsoft Windows preloaded. It is available with IBM's own OS/2 Warp Connect, or with no operating system preloaded. The system is priced at $4,773 without a monitor or $5,262 with a 15-inch color monitor. (Grant Buckler/19951103/Press Contact: Richard Guida, Brodeur & Partners for IBM, 914-697-9711; Sandy McLaughlin, Digital, 508-264-7981; Chris Nahil, Digital, 508-264-7915) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 11/03/95 BUSINESS ****Editorial - The Fleecing Of Ray Noorda (EDITORIAL)(BUSINESS)(WAS)(00025) ****Editorial - The Fleecing Of Ray Noorda 11/03/95 WASHINGTON, D.C., U.S.A., 1995 NOV 3 (NB) -- By Kennedy Maize. Call it a bad case of Microsoft envy. Some 16 months ago, then Novell chief Ray Noorda plunked down more than $850 million in stock to acquire WordPerfect Corp. and its well-known word processing program. Novell then shelled out another $145 million for Borland's Quattro spreadsheet. Noorda was going to take on Bill Gates, mano-y-mano. Microsoft had a suite of applications to go along with its operating system, and Novell would have the same. This week, with Noorda out of the picture, Novell announced it would unload its applications suite for whatever it could get. Most analysts say Novell will be lucky to snag $300 million for WordPerfect and Quattro. As so many others have done, Noorda underestimated the pencil-necked geek from Bellevue. As Novell was trying to learn how to market its software applications, Microsoft was moving ahead on Windows 95 and its suite of 32-bit applications. WordPerfect originally got into trouble by sticking to DOS when the rest of the world was doing Windows. Novell made the same mistake, not having a version of its flagship word processor ready for Windows 95 fast enough. Bill Gates makes things look so simple. But they aren't, as Novell discovered to its great embarrassment and financial pain. Noorda's ego trip was devastating to Novell's balance sheet. Fortunately, WordPerfect and Quattro are both solid products with a loyal following. They should find a buyer at the right price. IBM is rumored to be considering an offer, which would probably doom its newly acquired Ami Pro word processor. But others may also find the two applications attractive market opportunities. There is some talk that a now-retired Noorda may go after the applications himself. That would be a deliciously ironic outcome. But thanks to the US antitrust laws, Microsoft will not be in the bidding. That's good for consumers, who benefit from rival products in the marketplace. Whoever buys the Novell mistakes will have to cope with Microsoft's strength and savvy to survive. They should heed the mistake of Ray Noorda and not underestimate Bill Gates. (Kennedy Maize/19951103) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 11/03/95 TRENDS BSA Says Piracy Hurts European Economy (NEWS)(TRENDS)(WAS)(00026) BSA Says Piracy Hurts European Economy 11/03/95 WASHINGTON, D.C., U.S.A., 1995 NOV 3 (NB) -- Software piracy inflicts serious damage to the Western European economy, according to a study done for the Business Software Alliance. Packaged business software generated $7.3 billion for the European economies in 1994 and created 171,000 jobs, the study by Price Waterhouse found. Tax payments totaled $4.4 billion. Price Waterhouse predicts 16 percent annual growth from 1994 to 1997 for the software industry in the region and 15 percent growth from 1998 through the turn of the century. But the picture could be even rosier without the 50 percent piracy rate that erodes Western European markets. "Even a slight reduction in the number of illegal copies would result in generous increases" in the economy, said the BSA analysis. If the piracy rate were cut to 35 percent -- the same level as in the US in 1994 -- an additional 56,100 jobs would have been created and an additional $1.4 billion in tax revenues generated. If this reduction were achieved by 2000, the business software industry in Western Europe would account for 356,000 jobs and $9.2 billion in tax revenues. BSA notes that these figures understate the job creation effect of lowering piracy rates. Of the 171,700 jobs in the industry in Western Europe, 19,600 are directly in the package software publishing business. Another 152,000 jobs are created indirectly, in areas such as supply, distribution, training and technical support. BSA is a Washington trade group representing major personal computer software publishers, with a mission of combating software piracy worldwide. (Kennedy Maize/19951103/Press Contact: Diane Smiroldo, 202-872-5500) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 11/03/95 CHIPS End Semiconductor Agreement, Says Japanese Industry Official (NEWS)(CHIPS)(WAS)(00027) End Semiconductor Agreement, Says Japanese Industry Official 11/03/95 WASHINGTON, D.C., U.S.A., 1995 NOV 3 (NB) -- Extension of the nine-year-old semiconductor agreement between the US and Japan is "unwarranted," said Norio Ohga, chairman of the Electronic Industries Association of Japan at a Washington news conference today. Setting the stage for another trade battle with Washington next year, Ohga said the agreement, aimed at opening up the Japanese market to US semiconductor companies, should be allowed to expire on July 31, 1996. US Trade Representative Mickey Kantor has already publicly said the US wants the agreement, first negotiated in the Reagan administration in 1986, renewed. The target of the agreement was a 20 percent market share for non-Japanese companies. "For several years," said Ohga, "the foreign share of the Japanese market has exceeded the US semiconductor industry's 'expectation' of 20 percent. Design-ins and strategic alliances between Japanese and foreign companies have multiplied exponentially." In the nine years since the agreement, said Ohga, "the world semiconductor industry has changed dramatically." The aims of the agreement "have been fully achieved." Ohga cited three fundamental changes in the market in Japan since 1986. First, he said, the "US semiconductor industry has regained its competitive strength in recent years." Second, said Ohga, "foreign semiconductors have been established as indispensable products in the Japanese market." Third, he argued, the "semiconductor industry has experienced major structural changes as a result of the globalization of the business." Nationality no longer makes sense as a way to look at the semiconductor market, said Ohga. Given the borderless nature of many fundamental business operations in this industry, he said, "the era in which it made sense to distinguish the 'nationality' of a semiconductor is long since past." "The scale of the world semiconductor business has grown enormously over the past decade," said Ohga," and has witnessed massive growth in cooperative relationships across borders in the form of joint research and development, production and sales. Joint business alliances between US and Japanese semiconductor companies, in particular, have expanded." (Kennedy Maize/19951103/Press Contact: Jerry Johnson, EIAJ, 202-434-8522) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 11/03/95 ONLINE Sprint, Kodak To Distribute Images Via Phone Lines (NEWS)(ONLINE)(DEN)(00028) Sprint, Kodak To Distribute Images Via Phone Lines 11/03/95 NEW YORK, NEW YORK, U.S.A., 1995 NOV 3 (NB) -- If you're the person responsible for acquiring images for an ad agency, pre-production house or other creative firm, Sprint and Eastman Kodak Company (NYSE: EK) have a new service you will be interested in. The long distance carrier has announced an arrangement with the venerable film and camera company that allows Sprint to market, manage and deliver the almost 200,000 images from the Kodak Picture Exchange over its communications network. The service is targeted primarily at creative firms who use images from stock photography houses. A stock agency is one that keeps images from a number of photographers on hand for renting to users. The agency and the photographer split the money earned each time the image is used. The Kodak Picture Exchange is comprised of photos from a number of stock agencies. Kodak said it will continue to manage relationships with the stock photography houses. It also announced agreements with two more stock agencies, Lucid Images and Stock Illustrations, to add images from their collections to the Kodak Picture Exchange. Kodak said two other stock providers, Index Stock Photography and Archive Photos, will add tens of thousands of additional images from their files to the Picture Exchange. Picture Exchange users are able to quickly locate images using a keyword search such as "sunrise" or "Pikes Peak" to get a list of available images that fit the request. Once the image is selected it can be downloaded over Sprint's telephone lines and incorporated into designs and layouts. The user orders the high-resolution version of the selected image directly from the stock agency. Sprint spokesperson Robin Carlson explained for Newsbytes the user can download either a thumbnail image or a mockup. The thumbnail image is a small, lower resolution picture while a mockup is a better quality image suitable for inserting in your layout and show to the client. Carlson said users of the service, which is accessed via a toll-free number, pay either $30 per month for 30 minutes of online time or $50 per month for one hour of online time. Users pay $1.25 per minute once they have used up the first 30 or 60 minutes, depending on which plan they are on. There is also a $10 fee if one downloads a mockup. Sprint does not have to be one's long distance provider in order to use this service. (Jim Mallory/19951103/Press contact: Robin Carlson, Sprint, 913-624-6303 or David Beigie, Kodak, 716-726-0751) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 11/03/95 APPLE ****Newton Clone Due In Apple Deal With Digital Ocean (NEWS)(APPLE)(SFO)(00029) ****Newton Clone Due In Apple Deal With Digital Ocean 11/03/95 CUPERTINO, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1995 NOV 3 (NB) -- Apple Computer (NASDAQ:AAPL) announced a million dollar licensing agreement of its Newton technology with Digital Ocean. Digital Ocean, known for its wireless support of the Newton through the Grouper line of products, plans to deliver a Newton clone with enhanced capabilities for specific corporate clients. Digital Ocean has already worked with companies such as Monsanto and the Harris Corporation to deliver enhanced features to Apple's handheld personal digital assistant (PDA), the Newton. Under the new agreement Digital Ocean will market its own custom PDAs to business customers who need innovative, integrated features in a rugged, backlit Newton product. Backlighting provides a brighter screen for use in low-light working conditions. The company's new PDAs will offer communications features such as Global Positioning System (GPS), differential GPS (dGPS), wireless local area network (LAN), Cellular Digital Packet Data (CDPD), and voice over wireless LAN and bar code reading. GPS technology allows users of mobile computing devices to use satellite data to identify a user's geographic position. Its application with mapping software is commonly used by many businesses whose employees are involved in delivery, geographic research and other field work. GPS offers positioning accuracy within 100 meters (m). Using dGPS accuracy can be narrowed to approximately 5m. Chad Hawk, a product manager at Digital Ocean, told Newsbytes, "With the licensing agreement we will be able to expand the custom solutions we deliver to markets with field services such as healthcare, education, real estate, utilities and sales force automation. Business acceptance of pen-input PDAs is growing as the technology becomes more sophisticated and more affordable." Digital Ocean also manufacturers its own PDA, called the Tarpon, for wireless, rugged field use. Specific plans for incorporating Newton technology licensed through this current agreement were not available. For the immediate future, Digital will provide PDA products to vertical customers with specific needs. The agreement does not rule out the possibility of Digital producing a consumer PDA. Other companies which have licensed Newton technology include leading manufacturers worldwide such as Motorola Corporation; Harris Corporation; Kyushu Matsushita Electric Co., Limited; Sharp Corporation; Siemens; and Alcatel. (Patrick McKenna/19951103/Press Contact: Chad Hill, Hill Communications, 510-945-7910) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 11/03/95 ONLINE ****Iworld - ZDNet Offers Virtual Reality On The Web (NEWS)(ONLINE)(BOS)(00030) ****Iworld - ZDNet Offers Virtual Reality On The Web 11/03/95 BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS, U.S.A., 1995 NOV 3 (NB) -- Widespread use of virtual reality (VR) for applications like groupware, travelogs, and product ads is only about a year away, and with this end in sight, the new ZD3D interactive VR area on Ziff-Davis's ZDNet Web site is now "steering people where they need to go," said ZD-I and Intervista Software officials, in a press conference at Internetworld Boston. The key to making VR an everyday reality -- the addition of 3-D (three-dimensional) capabilities to VRML (virtual reality mark-up language) -- will be reached within the next year, contended Tony Paridisi, founder and chief technology officer of Intervista, speaking at the press conference, held at a hotel in Boston and attended by Newsbytes. Paridisi is also credited with co-creating the VRML specification, along with Mark Pesce. About 50 ISVs (independent software vendors) are now at work on VR projects, including large companies like IBM, Digital Equipment Corp., Silicon Graphics, Sony, and Autodesk, Paridisi contended. In addition, most of the major commercial online service providers are either readying VR online offerings, or are looking hard at doing so, he told the reporters and analysts. VR will be particularly well suited to applications that simulate the experience of actually "being at" a remote site, such as interactive travelogs of distant cities, or "house-hunting" via VR, the VR expert said. VR will also help to facilitate computer access among people who do not speak English, he predicted. David Shnaider, VP and general manager of ZD-I, agreed with Paridisi about VR's access capabilities. The need to understand English has "long been a barrier of entry," he pointed out. Shnaider also added groupware, 3D entertainment with sound, and product advertising to the list of potential VR applications. Interestingly, VR seems to work best for packaged goods, as opposed to computer products, which call for a substantial amount of informational content, he asserted. Elements of VR are already starting to appear in some food ads, he illustrated. ZD-I's new ZD3D is meant to give people a realistic look at "where VR is today," and to point them in the right directions for more information, Shnaider told the press. Thomas Aley, product manager for ZD3D, gave a live demonstration of "Terminal Reality," a VR environment within ZD3D that is organized around an "airport" metaphor. As previously reported in Newsbytes, the virtual airport contains a "newsstand," with VR-related articles and columns from Ziff publications, as well as ads on the walls and on "transportation vehicles." Users will be able to click on the ads for free offers or more information. The "vehicles" also bring users to a series of "departure gates" to other VR sites, which initially include Intervista's new City Temple and Garden; virtual SOMA; for a fly-through of San Francisco's "Multimedia Gulch" neighborhood; Microsoft's new "Halloween party" site; and a new site from Intel. In the demo at the press conference, Newsbytes saw how the Ziff publications are laid out neatly in a rack at the front of the newsstand, so that users can easily click on the "cover" of the online magazine to view the contents inside. The newsstand is clearly marked on top with a red, white and black ZD3D sign. The "departure gates" are listed on another sign, located on a wall. Users exit to the gates through doors. Vehicles at the "airport" terminal include cars, a motorcycle, an airplane, a rocket, a ferry-like ship, and a "ZD blimp." Aley told the reporters that a telephone booth, located inside the terminal, will be used in the future for placing phone calls over the Web. Other current sections of the site include "hot news," and areas featuring commentaries from Parisi and Peace. Users can also download the WorldView browser from Intervista Software free of charge. Also in the future, ZD-I officials plan to add 3D sound, object animation, and 3D chat, for communicating with Avatars representing other "airport visitors." You can access ZD3D at http://www.zdnet.com on the Web. (Jacqueline Emigh/19951103/Reader Contact: Ziff-Davis Interactive, 617-225-3200; Press Contact: Martha Papalia for ZD- I, 617-225-3340) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 11/03/95 ONLINE ****Spyglass Helps to Create Multilingual Web Browser (NEWS)(ONLINE)(MSP)(00031) ****Spyglass Helps to Create Multilingual Web Browser 11/03/95 NAPERVILLE, ILLINOIS, U.S.A., 1995 NOV 3 (NB) -- Internet surfers who either want to see other World Wide Web pages in a different language, or who don't speak English but still want to experience Web sites around the world, now have a way to get the most out of the Internet. Alis Technologies is using Spyglass (NASDAQ:SPYG) Mosaic technology to bring to market the Alis multilingual browser. The new browser provides interfaces in English, German, French, Italian, Spanish, and Russian, officials said. This is the first multilingual browser that supports the HTML (hypertext markup language) 2.0 standard, the hypertext transfer protocol (HTTP), and many of the proposed HTML 3.0 extensions, Pierre Rinfret, vice president of marketing at Alis, told Newsbytes. In using the browser, the menus, messages, and online help appear in the language selected by the user, Rinfret said. When the language changes, so do the menus and the like, he said. In addition, the hyperlinks in the interface lead to different sites, depending on the language of the interface. The browser features Unicode-enabled language support, which allows it to accurately display Web pages in over 75 different languages, with the language list growing every day. Rinfret said his company's new browser will put the "World Wide" in the World Wide Web. Currently the Web is more like the "North American" Web with most pages in English, and most browsers not able to read Web sites written in different languages. The markets that would be interested in the multilingual browser include the Internet service providers (ISPs) who need to market their services to a multitude of clients speaking several different languages, and international companies that use "internal Webs" to share information among employees in different countries who speak different languages. Evaluation copies of the browser are available at the Alis Web site, at http://www.alis.com . The full commercial version of the browser will be available later this month, Rinfret said. (Bob Woods/19951031/Press Contact: Randy Pitzer, Spyglass, 708-505- 1010; Alis Technologies, 514-738-9171) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 11/03/95 TELECOM MCI, News Corp. Intro Sports Pager (NEWS)(TELECOM)(MSP)(00032) MCI, News Corp. Intro Sports Pager 11/03/95 WASHINGTON, D.C., U.S.A., 1995 NOV 3 (NB) -- If you need to see what the score is in a particular college football game but you're not near a TV, or you want to watch the Chicago Bulls/New York Knicks match-up but you have to go to dinner with the in-laws, MCI (NASDAQ:MCIC) and Fox Sports will bring the sports to you. The two companies are teaming up to provide sports information via an alphanumeric pager. The MCI/Fox sports pager will deliver up-to-the-minute sports scores on all major games as they happen, officials said. Other types of information provided will include major trades, highlights, and news from seven different categories. Sports covered include professional football, basketball, baseball, and hockey; college baseball and football; golf; tennis; auto racing; and horse racing. The unit itself also doubles as an alphanumeric pager. "We pride ourselves on up-to-the-minute sports news and in-depth coverage we provide our viewers," said Tracy Dolgin, executive vice president of marketing, Fox Sports. "With the MCI/Fox Sports pager, sports fans now have the comfort of knowing they'll never miss a big play." In the near future, customers will be able to customize what information they receive by receiving updates for particular sports or for regional games. An MCI customer service representative told Newsbytes the service will cost $34.95 a month for local paging, and $66 a month for national paging, with unlimited pages through the end of the year. The pager, a Motorola Advisor alphanumeric pager, is leased to the customer. The Advisor can be purchased for $180, and the monthly fee would go down, the rep told Newsbytes. There is also a one-time activation fee of $15. MCI is selling the pagers via the wireless network of Mobile Telecommunications Technologies, Corp., and Paging Network Inc. MCI officials said since it started offering paging service earlier this year, more than 325,000 customers have signed up, and 90,000 more are signing on each month. (Bob Woods/19951103/Press Contacts: Michael Trigg, MCI, 703-415-6124; Vince Wladika, Fox Sports, 212-556-2472. Public Contact: MCI, 800-872- 5190) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 11/02/95 WINDOWS Microsoft Press Offers Windows 95 Interactive Training (NEWS)(WINDOWS)(DEN)(00033) Microsoft Press Offers Windows 95 Interactive Training 11/02/95 REDMOND, WASHINGTON, U.S.A., 1995 NOV 2 (NB) -- Microsoft Press has announced it will publish an interactive CD-ROM-based training product for Microsoft Windows 95. #IMAGE 1 20 TWPCX \images\95110333.PCX Click here for photo The three hour course titled "Microsoft Windows 95 Starts Here" offers two learning tracks in order to meet the needs of users with different skill levels. You can select the New User or the Upgrader track. The first, as its name implies, is for new users of Windows 95 while the Upgrader path is for users who are experienced with earlier versions of Windows. Microsoft said each track interacts differently with the student, with the Upgrader track assuming knowledge of basic Windows 3.1 functions like File Manager and Program Manager. The user can move freely between the two tracks in order to tailor the training for each user. The training system uses visual, auditory and tactile learning. For each topic, the user views movies and demonstrations of the Windows 95 functions, covered in the topic. He or she then puts the lesson to work using step-by-step examples. The system offers hints as needed, said Microsoft. The user can also elect to watch as the system completes an exercise for them. During the interactive portion of the training the software won't let you make a mistake. It also keeps track of multiple users using the Windows 95 login, making it possible for multiple users to be at different stages of training. The course takes advantage of the "tips" feature in Windows that pops up a small explanation of what each button does as you move your pointer over the button. The video runs in a large 300 by 400 window, making it easier to view the movies and you can click on next and back buttons to move forward or backward in the current training element. After each training session the user can use Microsoft Windows 95 Starts Here's Topics Browser and keyword search to confirm their understanding of how tasks are performed. A table of contents keeps track of the lessons completed as the user works through the five units in the course, and is the pathway to switch between tracks. To use the CD-ROM-based training system Microsoft recommends you have a multimedia PC powered by at least a 33 megahertz 486SX chip, 16 megabytes of memory, a 2X or better CD-ROM drive, a mouse, 16-bit sound card and speakers and, a 16-bit color monitor capable of displaying 256 colors. Microsoft said it worked with New York City-based Course Technology Inc., a division of Course Technology Communications Group. The product is available in retail outlets or direct from Microsoft and carries a suggested retail price of $39.95. Microsoft Press is the independent publishing division of Microsoft Corp., publishing numerous books, multimedia training programs and reference tools for Microsoft applications and software tools. (Jim Mallory/19951102/Press contact: Patti Pierson, Waggener Edstrom for Microsoft, 503-245-0800; Public contact: Microsoft, 800-677-7377 to order/WINTNG951103/PHOTO) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 11/03/95 IBM IBM Ships DB2 For Windows NT, Bundles Lotus Approach (NEWS)(IBM)(BOS)(00034) IBM Ships DB2 For Windows NT, Bundles Lotus Approach 11/03/95 SOMERS, NEW YORK, U.S.A., 1995 NOV 3 (NB) -- IBM's new DB2 Version 2 for Windows NT represents an "architecting" of IBM's RDBMS (relational database management system) to Windows NT, rather than just a "straight port of code," maintained Tim Negris, VP of sales and marketing for IBM's Software Solutions Division, in a teleconference held to announce shipment of the product. For the next three months, DB2 for Windows NT will be bundled with Lotus Approach, according to Negris. At the start of the teleconference, at event attended by Newsbytes, Negris described DB2 as the industry's "most robust and innovative database," citing features that include rollover locking, "advanced SQL (structured query language)," user-defined triggers, and "state-of-the-art query optimization that frees naive end users from having to refine their queries." Although words like this could sound like "mom and apple pie," the praise is well deserved, he maintained. "Every single Fortune 500 company, and many in the `Fortune XXX,' use DB2 on a variety of platforms," according to the VP. In addition, he contended, early users of DB2 for Windows NT are so confident about the product that they have been using beta code for actual application development, in some cases instead of the final code for Microsoft SQL Server for Windows NT. IBM wrote the code for the Windows NT product to take advantage of Windows NT capabilities such as kernel threading, domain security, and transaction monitoring, Negris added. By taking advantage of the NT threading, DB2 for Windows NT will provide "scalability across multiple symmetric processors," according to the IBM exec. Microsoft SQL Server is also "clearly optimized for Windows NT," Negris acknowledged. But unlike DB2. SQL Server implements "unique" transaction semantics and stored procedures, he asserted. "You have to ask yourself what it will do in a complex multivendor environment." Developers who try to port applications from other environments to SQL Server are finding that they have to "rewrite each piece of code separately," Negris contended. The license bundle for Lotus Approach will provide developers with a an Approach bonus pack for every DB2 for NT license, according to Negris. Lotus Approach doubles as a stand-alone database and a database front end. Negris pointed to the product's graphical ease of use and charting capabilities. The Approach deal, the VP revealed, represents the first in a series of "adjuncts" that IBM plans to offer around the integration of DB2 with Lotus Notes and SmartSuite. DB2 for NT is priced at $369 for a single user. A license for five users is priced at $1,499, with each additional user license selling for $75. DB2 Version 2 is also offered for HP-UX, Sun Solaris, and Siemens-Nixdorf, along with IBM's OS/2 and AIX. (Jacqueline Emigh/19951103/Reader Contact: IBM, 914-765-1900; Press Contacts: Susan Scott-Ker, IBM, 914-766-1463; Parna Sarkar-Basu, Brodeur & Partners for IBM, 617-622-2833) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 11/03/95 GENERAL Newsbytes Week In Review (NEWS)(GENERAL)(MSP)(00035) Newsbytes Week In Review 11/03/95 MINNEAPOLIS, MINNESOTA, U.S.A., 1995 Nov 3 (NB) -- This is a look at the top stories this week, listing with their category code: UK Man Fined For Possession Of Internet Porn; WordPerfect, QuattroPro, PerfectOffice For Sale; Iworld - AOL's GNN Web Service, "Best Of The Net;" Iworld - AT&T's Personal Online Service, Oracle Deal; Drastic Price Cuts On Netscape Server Products; SPA's Education & Computers Study; AT&T Commits $150 Mil To Put Schools On Internet; Hayes Bankruptcy Plan Would Keep Firm Independent; Intel's Grove Hints At Pentium Pro Delivery; Novell Intros NetWare Web Server; Free CD-ROMs Offered To Newsbytes Web Site Members; Software Police Raid California BBS; Novell Files Piracy Suit Against Reseller; SoftKey Pushes Into Education Market; Iworld - IBM & Lotus' Web Products/Plans/Partners; Intel Unveils Pentium Pro; Apple's Global Market Share Grows; World Chip Market Up 44% By End Of 1995; NTT, IBM Japan Develops New Communication Protocol; Worlds And People Link For New Online Service; IBM, DEC Among First On Pentium Pro Bandwagon; Newton Clone Due In Apple Deal With Digital Ocean; Iworld - ZDNet Offers Virtual Reality On The Web; Spyglass Helps to Create Multilingual Web Browser. UK Man Fined For Possession Of Internet Porn (LEGAL) MANCHESTER, ENGLAND, 1995 OCT 30 (NB) -- A British man has become the first person in the UK to be charged with possession of computer pornography obtained across the Internet. The case, which resulted in a fine of UKP9,000 against Christopher Sharp late last week, was brought under the Criminal Justice Act. WordPerfect, QuattroPro, PerfectOffice For Sale (BUSINESS) OREM, UTAH, U.S.A, 1995 OCT 30 (NB) -- Novell (NASDAQ:NOVL) says it is in discussions to sell its Business Applications Division which accounts for 16% of the company's recent revenues. Assuring users of WordPerfect, Quattro Pro and PerfectOffice, Novell promises the products will be sold with an agreement including extensive support of customer needs. Iworld - AOL's GNN Web Service, "Best Of The Net" (ONLINE) BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS, U.S.A., 1995 OCT 31 (NB) -- America Online (AOL) plans to roll out "advanced features" like personal World Wide Web page publishing to Internet sophisticates with a new "Best of the Net" service called Global Network Navigator (GNN). At the same time, it plans to make Web access progressively "more simple" with its existing AOL brand, officials said, during the national press launch of GNN at Internetworld Boston '95. Iworld - AT&T's Personal Online Service, Oracle Deal (ONLINE) BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS, U.S.A., 1995 OCT 31 (NB) -- In a press conference at Internetworld Boston '95, AT&T announced a new Personal Online Service for consumers, featuring a health and fitness service content service for the Internet as its first offering, along with Oracle WebSystem, a service that will combine World Wide Web connections from AT&T's WorldNet with Oracle-based Web servers. Drastic Price Cuts On Netscape Server Products (ONLINE) MOUNTAIN VIEW, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1995 OCT 31 (NB) -- In a move designed to expand its presence in the growing Internet market, Netscape Communications (NASDAQ:NSCP) has announced price cuts on its Communications and Commerce Server products for Unix and Windows NT. The company also introduced the Netscape Server Bundle for Unix platforms. SPA's Education & Computers Study (TRENDS) WASHINGTON, D.C., U.S.A., 1995 OCT 31 (NB) -- Almost one-quarter of all US kindergarten through 12th grade classes have integrated technology into the curriculum, the Software Publishers Association (SPA) reports. In a new study, called the "Education Market Report," the SPA said technology now touches about 10 million schoolchildren. AT&T Commits $150 Mil To Put Schools On Internet (EDUCATION) NEW YORK, NEW YORK, U.S.A., 1995 OCT 31 (NB) -- AT&T (NYSE:T) said it will shell out $150 million to help put every school in the United States on the Internet by the end of the decade. The AT&T Learning Network program will include free dial-up connections to the Internet, World Wide Web browser software, and free connect time, plus grants to schools for Internet-related projects. Hayes Bankruptcy Plan Would Keep Firm Independent (BUSINESS) ATLANTA, GEORGIA, U.S.A., 1995 OCT 31 (NB) -- Dennis Hayes went to court yesterday and unveiled a reorganization plan that would bring his privately owned company out of bankruptcy protection, pay off creditors fully with interest, and keep the company out of the clutches of proposed buyers. Intel's Grove Hints At Pentium Pro Delivery (CHIPS) SAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1995 OCT 31 (NB) -- Intel Corp.'s (NASDAQ-NNM:INTC) chief executive officer (CEO), Dr. Andy Grove, opened Macromedia's user conference with a demonstration of the company's latest processor, Pentium Pro. A major announcement regarding availability and pricing is expected tomorrow at Internet World in Boston. Novell Intros NetWare Web Server (ONLINE) OREM, UTAH, U.S.A., 1995 OCT 31 (NB) -- Novell Inc. (NASDAQ: NOVL) has announced NetWare Web Server, a software system for NetWare 4.1-based servers that gives NetWare users an "easy way" to let their customers and other interested parties access them through the Internet. Free CD-ROMs Offered To Newsbytes Web Site Members (ONLINE) MINNEAPOLIS, MINNESOTA, U.S.A., 1995 NOV 1 (NB) -- For fast, no-nonsense reporting of the latest breaking computer, telecom, and interactive services news on the World Wide Web, look no further than http://www.nbnn.com . And now, a Newsbytes paid subscription also means a free Newsbytes CD-ROM featuring the past 12 years of Newsbytes reporting in a keyword-searchable format. Software Police Raid California BBS (LEGAL) PASADENA, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1995 NOV 1 (NB) -- Friday the 13th of October certainly was unlucky for the operator of a Pasadena, California-based bulletin board system (BBS). That was the day US Marshals, accompanied by representatives from the Business Software Alliance (BSA) and private investigators representing various software companies, raided his home where they said they found hundreds of illegal software programs available for downloading from the board. Novell Files Piracy Suit Against Reseller (LEGAL) OREM, UTAH, U.S.A., 1995 NOV 1 (NB) -- Novell Inc. (NASDAQ: NOVL) has filed a civil action suit in the US District Court for the District of Massachusetts, charging software reseller Trident International Inc. with software piracy. SoftKey Pushes Into Education Market (BUSINESS) CAMBRIDGE, MASSACHUSETTS, U.S.A., 1995 NOV 1 (NB) -- SoftKey International Inc. (NASDAQ:SKEY;TSE:SSK) has launched a major push into the educational software market by agreeing to acquire Minnesota Educational Computing Corp. (NASDAQ:MECC) and launching a hostile takeover offer for The Learning Co. (NASDAQ:LRNG). Iworld - IBM & Lotus' Web Products/Plans/Partners (IBM) BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS, U.S.A., 1995 NOV 1 (NB) -- IBM is currently developing a new encryption technology called "Cryptolopes" for Internet security, and is also collaborating with Lotus on a new Notes/World Wide Web server integration technology, code-named "Spike" and slated for release in 1996, IBM and Lotus officials revealed, during a press conference and series of meetings with Newsbytes at Internetworld Boston '95. Intel Unveils Pentium Pro (CHIPS) SAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1995 NOV 1 (NB) -- It is not available for general desktop use, but the sixth generation of Intel's (NASDAQ NNM:INTC) line of microprocessors -- the Pentium Pro -- was unveiled this morning. Early installations of the high-speed chip will be limited to network servers and high-end workstations. Apple's Global Market Share Grows (TRENDS) CUPERTINO, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1995 NOV 2 (NB) -- According to Dataquest's preliminary results for the third calendar quarter of 1995, Apple Computer Inc.'s (NASDAQ: AAPL) worldwide market share rose to 9.0 percent from 7.4 percent over the second calendar quarter of 1995. Compaq, with a worldwide market share of 10.5 percent, still holds the lead. World Chip Market Up 44% By End Of 1995 (TRENDS) SAN JOSE, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1995 NOV 2 (NB) -- The latest study from the Semiconductor Industry Association (SIA) indicates worldwide semiconductor growth will close with $146.4 billion in sales, up 44%, by the end of the year. 1995 headlines four years of sales increases greater than 25%, and 1996 is projected to register another 26.4%, taking revenues to more than $185 billion. NTT, IBM Japan Develops New Communication Protocol (NETWORK) TOKYO, JAPAN, 1995 NOV 3 (NB) -- Nippon Telegraph and Telephone (TSE:9432) and IBM Japan have developed a new network protocol that promises error-free data communication and the ability to transmit information to large numbers of customers in a fraction of the time currently required. The new system is called Reliable Multicast Transport Protocol (RMTP). Worlds And People Link For New Online Service (ONLINE) TOKYO, JAPAN, 1995 NOV 3 (NB) -- Japanese computer users will soon have access to a new, 3D, online service after Worlds Inc., People World and Mitsubishi signed an agreement to create PeopleSpace, the first 3D Internet environment created by an online service in Japan. IBM, DEC Among First On Pentium Pro Bandwagon (PC) MAYNARD, MASSACHUSETTS, U.S.A., 1995 NOV 3 (NB) -- IBM (NYSE:IBM) and Digital Equipment Corp. (NYSE:DEC) were both quick to announce personal computers based on Intel Corp.'s (NASDAQ:INTC) new Pentium Pro microprocessor. Newton Clone Due In Apple Deal With Digital Ocean (APPLE) CUPERTINO, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1995 NOV 3 (NB) -- Apple Computer (NASDAQ:AAPL) announced a million dollar licensing agreement of its Newton technology with Digital Ocean. Digital Ocean, known for its wireless support of the Newton through the Grouper line of products, plans to deliver a Newton clone with enhanced capabilities for specific corporate clients. Iworld - ZDNet Offers Virtual Reality On The Web (ONLINE) BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS, U.S.A., 1995 NOV 3 (NB) -- Widespread use of virtual reality (VR) for applications like groupware, travelogs, and product ads is only about a year away, and with this end in sight, the new ZD3D interactive VR area on Ziff-Davis's ZDNet Web site is now "steering people where they need to go," said ZD-I and Intervista Software officials, in a press conference at Internetworld Boston. Spyglass Helps to Create Multilingual Web Browser (ONLINE) NAPERVILLE, ILLINOIS, U.S.A., 1995 NOV 3 (NB) -- Internet surfers who either want to see other World Wide Web pages in a different language, or who don't speak English but still want to experience Web sites around the world, now have a way to get the most out of the Internet. Alis Technologies is using Spyglass (NASDAQ:SPYG) Mosaic technology to bring to market the Alis multilingual browser. (Ian Stokell/19951103) (SUMMARY)(GENERAL)(MSP)(00036) Newsbytes Daily Summary 11/03/95 MINNEAPOLIS, MINNESOTA, U.S.A., 1995 NOV 3 (NB) -- These are capsules of all today's news stories: ======================================================================== ------------| N E W S B Y T E S D A I L Y S U M M A R Y |---------- ------------| Friday, November 3, 1995 |---------- ======================================================================== (c) Newsbytes News Network (Tm) Editor in Chief: Wendy Woods ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Newsbytes News Network's on the Web! Check out http://www.nbnn.com for free daily top stories from Newsbytes and its affiliate publications, and from PC Week, MacWeek, and other Ziff news magazines. 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Send to 'administrator@newsbytes.com' For Japanese Newsbytes and additional services, see the Newsbytes Pacifica Website at http://www.islandtel.com/newsbytes/ ------------------------------------------------------------------------ CATEGORY HEADLINES (*** indicates today's top stories) STORY # ======================================================================== APPLE Camelot Acquires Mac-based Internet Voice Software Firm.... 07 APPLE ****Newton Clone Due In Apple Deal With Digital Ocean..... 29 BROADCAST Europe - MPEG-2 Transmissions By Satellite................. 05 BROADCAST China - Cable TV Equipment Market Promising................ 14 BUSINESS Australia - Platinum Sheds Staff, Sybase................... 08 BUSINESS Acer Seeks Aussie Partner, Plans To Go Public.............. 09 BUSINESS GTSI Ousts CEO, Refocuses Business......................... 11 BUSINESS Hyundai, Acer Strike Across Two Fronts..................... 16 BUSINESS ****Editorial - The Fleecing Of Ray Noorda................ 25 CHIPS Intel Sees No Let-up In Processing Power Trend............. 15 CHIPS End Semiconductor Agreement, Says Japanese Industry Officia 27 GENERAL Japan Newsbriefs........................................... 02 GENERAL Bill, Paul, and Vern Update................................ 10 GENERAL Editorial - Oracle's Odd, But Interesting, View Of PCs..... 13 GENERAL NewsPix Update For Newsbytes Publishers.................... 19 GENERAL Personnel Roundup.......................................... 22 GENERAL Newsbytes Week In Review................................... 35 IBM IBM Ships DB2 For Windows NT, Bundles Lotus Approach....... 34 LEGAL Hong Kong Pens Intellectual Property Law................... 17 LEGAL Aztech Wins Creative Suit.................................. 18 NETWORK Iworld - Digital Equipment Corp.'s Workgroup Web Forum..... 01 NETWORK ****NTT, IBM Japan Develops New Communication Protocol.... 03 ONLINE ****Internet Update....................................... 04 ONLINE MIT Student Wins CyberSurfari Event........................ 12 ONLINE ****Worlds And People Link For New Online Service......... 21 ONLINE Sprint, Kodak To Distribute Images Via Phone Lines......... 28 ONLINE ****Iworld - ZDNet Offers Virtual Reality On The Web...... 30 ONLINE ****Spyglass Helps to Create Multilingual Web Browser..... 31 PC Dell, Compaq Intro New Desktop Systems..................... 23 PC ****IBM, DEC Among First On Pentium Pro Bandwagon......... 24 TELECOM England - Radio-Telephony System Ready For 1Q 96 Launch.... 06 TELECOM First 1900MHz Wireless Call Makes History.................. 20 TELECOM MCI, News Corp. Intro Sports Pager......................... 32 TRENDS BSA Says Piracy Hurts European Economy..................... 26 WINDOWS Microsoft Press Offers Windows 95 Interactive Training..... 33 ======================================================================== These are the headlines and first paragraphs of each story, in order: 1 -> Iworld - Digital Equipment Corp.'s Workgroup Web Forum -- Digital Equipment Corp.'s new Workgroup Web Forum, a Web server add-on set to ship next week, provides real-time group polling, threaded conferencing, and other elements of "team computing" across multiprotocol internal corporate networks, as well as the Internet, said Bob Lehmenkuler, marketing manager for network business applications, in a meeting with Newsbytes at Internetworld Boston '95. 2 -> Japan Newsbriefs -- In this roundup of news from Japan, PC shipments jump in first half, Fujitsu plans interactive TV trial, Japan chip market to remain strong, Windows95 price war begins, Government seeks online jobs listing, Qualcomm signs distribution deal. 3 -> ****NTT, IBM Japan Develops New Communication Protocol -- Nippon Telegraph and Telephone (TSE:9432) and IBM Japan have developed a new network protocol that promises error-free data communication and the ability to transmit information to large numbers of customers in a fraction of the time currently required. The new system is called Reliable Multicast Transport Protocol (RMTP). 4 -> ****Internet Update -- In this roundup of new services and resources on the global Internet, pictures from Hubble, Roh Tae-Woo's secret reserve, Java developers kit, news from the Windy City, history of the Internet, Flagstaff mission to the Navajos, In-touch with new software, Netscape de-icer, Infosurf links. 5 -> Europe - MPEG-2 Transmissions By Satellite -- As the Astra 1E satellite, the fifth co-located DTH (Direct To Home) pan-European satellite locks into its geo-stationary orbit this week, following its launch late last month, National Transcommunications Limited (NTL) has announced it is teaming with Orion Atlantic to offer the industry's first MPEG-2 service platform to the broadcasting industry. 6 -> England - Radio-Telephony System Ready For 1Q 96 Launch -- Ionica, the UK's third licensed public telephone operator, has ordered $10 million worth of fixed radio access technology from Nortel (Northern Telecom). The kit will be used in Cambridge when Ionica launches its "radio tail" telephone service early next year. 7 -> Camelot Acquires Mac-based Internet Voice Software Firm -- Camelot Corp. (NASDAQ CAML), the company that publishes software that lets you carry on phone conversations over the Internet using your multimedia-equipped personal computer, has purchased the only Macintosh-based competitive software product. 8 -> Australia - Platinum Sheds Staff, Sybase -- Platinum Software has laid off most of its SQL Enterprise direct sales force in Australia and New Zealand as a result of the company's decision to stop direct sales of the Unix-based financial software in favor of its SQL NT product. Unconfirmed reports say the company has sacked its entire SQL Enterprise direct sales force worldwide. 9 -> Acer Seeks Aussie Partner, Plans To Go Public -- Taiwanese electronics giant Acer would welcome approaches from Australian companies interested in becoming a partner in a new-look Acer Australia, the group's chairman and CEO, Stan Shih, told the Australian press this week. 10 -> Bill, Paul, and Vern Update -- Billionaire Bill may call it "The Information Highway," but his former partner, Paul Allen, coined the phrase "The Wired World" more than 20 years ago, and that was the title of a speech to the Asymetrix Asia Pacific multimedia bash in Melbourne this week. 11 -> GTSI Ousts CEO, Refocuses Business -- With sales off and its stock in free fall, the board of directors of Government Technology Services Inc. (Nasdaq: GTSI) has ousted R. M. "Rick" Rickenbach as president, chief executive officer, and a member of the board. 12 -> MIT Student Wins CyberSurfari Event -- Jeremy Warner, 18, of Sharon, Mass., is the first winner in the Software Publishers Association CyberSurfari World Wide Web contest. The MIT student spent 12 straight hours at his dorm room computer to win the individual speed contest by finding treasure codes on 90 of 100 "outposts" on the Web. 13 -> Editorial - Oracle's Odd, But Interesting, View Of PCs -- By Tony Waltham. Oracle's CEO Larry Ellison surprised quite a few people when he predicted last month that PCs would be superseded by dumb terminals connected to a global network, arguing that PCs were overpowered and over-featured for this emerging environment 14 -> China - Cable TV Equipment Market Promising -- The number of cable subscribers in China is increasing quickly, and the huge demand means many manufacturing opportunities for cable TV-related equipment makers, according to the Ministry of Electronics Industry (MEI). 15 -> Intel Sees No Let-up In Processing Power Trend -- Intel Corporation, the world's leading manufacturer of microprocessors for personal computers which in a decade has succeeded in effectively doubling the processing power every 18 months, does not see any let-up in this trend for at least another 10 years. 16 -> Hyundai, Acer Strike Across Two Fronts -- Two recent announcements put the world on notice that Asia's tigers are getting more aggressive still. In Seoul, Hyundai Group's Hyundai Electronics Industries unit said it was going after Maxtor Corp., lock stock and barrel, aiming to displace dominant Seagate Technology in the hard disk drive business "in the next decade," as one official was quoted as saying. 17 -> Hong Kong Pens Intellectual Property Law -- The Hong Kong government will begin drafting intellectual property laws to conform with the Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property (TRIPS), according to a statement. Provisions will cover trademark registration of all signs distinguishing goods and services of one undertaking from others, provided they can be represented in a graphical form. 18 -> Aztech Wins Creative Suit -- Sound card manufacturer Aztech has won its case against rival Creative Technology. The Singapore High Court last week ruled in favor of Aztech in a suit dating back to 1993. The suit alleged that Aztech had copied Creative's firmware in developing its family of Sound Galaxy cards. 19 -> NewsPix Update For Newsbytes Publishers -- This update will be posted each Wednesday and Friday to reflect the daily picture additions. The updates will in turn become part of the main NewsPix Bulletin issued on Monday. 20 -> First 1900MHz Wireless Call Makes History -- Communications history was made late last month when what was described as the very first call over a wireless personal communications services (PCS) network was made. It was also believed to be the first call on a commercially installed system that uses Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA) digital technology in the 1,900 megahertz radio spectrum. 21 -> ****Worlds And People Link For New Online Service -- Japanese computer users will soon have access to a new, 3D, online service after Worlds Inc., People World and Mitsubishi signed an agreement to create PeopleSpace, the first 3D Internet environment created by an online service in Japan. 22 -> Personnel Roundup -- In this week's roundup, personnel changes occurred at these high tech companies: AT&T, Bay Networks Inc., Softbank Exposition and Conference Company, Dell Computer Corp., Digital Equipment Corp., Gateway 2000 Inc., Simple Technology Inc., StorMedia Inc., Novell, Texas Instruments Inc., MCI Communications Corp., America Online Inc. 23 -> Dell, Compaq Intro New Desktop Systems -- Dell Computer Corp. (NASDAQ: DELL) and Compaq Computer Corp. NYSE: CPQ) have introduced new desktop systems offering features that include multiple processors, rewritable optical CD-ROM drives and Intel's latest Pentium Pro microprocessor. 24 -> ****IBM, DEC Among First On Pentium Pro Bandwagon -- IBM (NYSE:IBM) and Digital Equipment Corp. (NYSE:DEC) were both quick to announce personal computers based on Intel Corp.'s (NASDAQ:INTC) new Pentium Pro microprocessor. 25 -> ****Editorial - The Fleecing Of Ray Noorda -- By Kennedy Maize. Call it a bad case of Microsoft envy. Some 16 months ago, then Novell chief Ray Noorda plunked down more than $850 million in stock to acquire WordPerfect Corp. and its well-known word processing program. Novell then shelled out another $145 million for Borland's Quattro spreadsheet. 26 -> BSA Says Piracy Hurts European Economy -- Software piracy inflicts serious damage to the Western European economy, according to a study done for the Business Software Alliance. Packaged business software generated $7.3 billion for the European economies in 1994 and created 171,000 jobs, the study by Price Waterhouse found. 27 -> End Semiconductor Agreement, Says Japanese Industry Official -- Extension of the nine-year-old semiconductor agreement between the US and Japan is "unwarranted," said Norio Ohga, chairman of the Electronic Industries Association of Japan at a Washington news conference today. Setting the stage for another trade battle with Washington next year, Ohga said the agreement, aimed at opening up the Japanese market to US semiconductor companies, should be allowed to expire on July 31, 1996. 28 -> Sprint, Kodak To Distribute Images Via Phone Lines -- If you're the person responsible for acquiring images for an ad agency, pre-production house or other creative firm, Sprint and Eastman Kodak Company (NYSE: EK) have a new service you will be interested in. The long distance carrier has announced an arrangement with the venerable film and camera company that allows Sprint to market, manage and deliver the almost 200,000 images from the Kodak Picture Exchange over its communications network. 29 -> ****Newton Clone Due In Apple Deal With Digital Ocean -- Apple Computer (NASDAQ:AAPL) announced a million dollar licensing agreement of its Newton technology with Digital Ocean. Digital Ocean, known for its wireless support of the Newton through the Grouper line of products, plans to deliver a Newton clone with enhanced capabilities for specific corporate clients. 30 -> ****Iworld - ZDNet Offers Virtual Reality On The Web -- Widespread use of virtual reality (VR) for applications like groupware, travelogs, and product ads is only about a year away, and with this end in sight, the new ZD3D interactive VR area on Ziff-Davis's ZDNet Web site is now "steering people where they need to go," said ZD-I and Intervista Software officials, in a press conference at Internetworld Boston. 31 -> ****Spyglass Helps to Create Multilingual Web Browser -- Internet surfers who either want to see other World Wide Web pages in a different language, or who don't speak English but still want to experience Web sites around the world, now have a way to get the most out of the Internet. Alis Technologies is using Spyglass (NASDAQ:SPYG) Mosaic technology to bring to market the Alis multilingual browser. 32 -> MCI, News Corp. Intro Sports Pager -- If you need to see what the score is in a particular college football game but you're not near a TV, or you want to watch the Chicago Bulls/New York Knicks match-up but you have to go to dinner with the in-laws, MCI (NASDAQ:MCIC) and Fox Sports will bring the sports to you. The two companies are teaming up to provide sports information via an alphanumeric pager. 33 -> Microsoft Press Offers Windows 95 Interactive Training -- Microsoft Press has announced it will publish an interactive CD-ROM-based training product for Microsoft Windows 95. 34 -> IBM Ships DB2 For Windows NT, Bundles Lotus Approach -- IBM's new DB2 Version 2 for Windows NT represents an "architecting" of IBM's RDBMS (relational database management system) to Windows NT, rather than just a "straight port of code," maintained Tim Negris, VP of sales and marketing for IBM's Software Solutions Division, in a teleconference held to announce shipment of the product. For the next three months, DB2 for Windows NT will be bundled with Lotus Approach, according to Negris. 35 -> Newsbytes Week In Review -- This is a look at the top stories this week, listing with their category code: UK Man Fined For Possession Of Internet Porn; WordPerfect, QuattroPro, PerfectOffice For Sale; Iworld - AOL's GNN Web Service, "Best Of The Net;" Iworld - AT&T's Personal Online Service, Oracle Deal; Drastic Price Cuts On Netscape Server Products; SPA's Education & Computers Study; AT&T Commits $150 Mil To Put Schools On Internet; Hayes Bankruptcy Plan Would Keep Firm Independent; Intel's Grove Hints At Pentium Pro Delivery; Novell Intros NetWare Web Server; Free CD-ROMs Offered To Newsbytes Web Site Members; Software Police Raid California BBS; Novell Files Piracy Suit Against Reseller; SoftKey Pushes Into Education Market; Iworld - IBM & Lotus' Web Products/Plans/Partners; Intel Unveils Pentium Pro; Apple's Global Market Share Grows; World Chip Market Up 44% By End Of 1995; NTT, IBM Japan Develops New Communication Protocol; Worlds And People Link For New Online Service; IBM, DEC Among First On Pentium Pro Bandwagon; Newton Clone Due In Apple Deal With Digital Ocean; Iworld - ZDNet Offers Virtual Reality On The Web; Spyglass Helps to Create Multilingual Web Browser. (Wendy Woods/19951103) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 10/26/95 HEALTH Educational Channel For Doctors Makes House Calls (NEWS)(HEALTH)(TOR)(00001) Educational Channel For Doctors Makes House Calls 10/26/95 TORONTO, ONTARIO, CANADA, 1995 OCT 26 (NB) -- PrimeNet Communications Inc., a creator of satellite television programs, has announced plans to beam professional educational programming to Canadian doctors via Canadian Satellite Communications Inc.'s (Cancom) satellite TV system. PrimeNet's HealthSat Network subsidiary hopes to sign up about 35,000 subscribers across Canada over the next three years, as well as expanding its service into the United States with its HealthSat USA Inc. subsidiary. The company, which already provides continuing education to doctors in some 80 Canadian hospitals, plans to start broadcasting 20 hours a day, seven days a week in the new year, and making the service available at doctors' homes. Including the hardware needed to receive the service, HealthSat will charge C$900 per year to its subscribers. Raymond J. Homer, president and chief executive of PrimeNet, said at a Toronto press conference that the service will also carry advertising, which will bring in further revenue. Homer said the service will allow interactivity, using telephone lines to provide a link back from viewers to HealthSat. The service will carry new programs every day, but like other educational channels will repeat programs several times on different days, and will fill part of its schedule with "library material," Homer said. Homer said HealthSat is meant to be the first in a "network of specialized, interactive learning channels." He said PrimeNet plans to established subsidiaries to work with other professions and develop similar services. Alain Gourd, chairman of Cancom, said during the press conference that his company's Expressvu satellite television service will carry HealthSat across Canada under a 10-year agreement between the two companies. Dr. Phil Easton, an official of the Ontario Medical Association, said he expected satellite television to become the preferred way of delivering physician education at home. Because of its limited audience -- access will be controlled by encrypting HealthSat's content -- the service does not have to be licensed as a broadcaster by the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC). (Grant Buckler/19951025/Press Contact: Raymond Homer, PrimeNet Communications, 416-341-2077) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 10/26/95 ONLINE America Online & Cap Cities/ABC To Form Fashion Channel (NEWS)(ONLINE)(MSP)(00002) America Online & Cap Cities/ABC To Form Fashion Channel 10/26/95 VIENNA, VIRGINIA, U.S.A., 1995 OCT 26 (NB) -- The world of new fashion styles, new clothing trends, and leggy supermodels vamping down runways is opening a new post in cyberspace. Capital Cities/ABC (NYSE:CCB) and America Online (NASDAQ:AMER) will introduce a "fashion channel" on the America Online service in early 1996. #IMAGE 1 20 TWPCX \images\95102602.PCX Click here for photo Fairchild Publications, which publishes consumer fashion magazine "W," along with "Women's Wear Daily," often called the "bible" of the fashion industry, will provide much of the content for the yet-unnamed area. The new channel will also tap Capital Cities/ABC's information resources and relationships via Fairchild. Although the area is still in the design stages, officials said regular features of the channel will include designer fashion coverage, beauty news, and a variety of regular fashion and lifestyle features. In addition, AOL subscribers will be able to buy online some of what they see in the area. The new channel will eventually feature links to fashion sites on the Internet's World Wide Web. The new fashion area will be programmed similarly to a demographically- targeted television or cable TV network, while also including features unique to online networks. AOL already has other "channels" in its corner of cyberspace, including areas on health, news, reference, entertainment, and children's activities. "We've developed channels that contain aggregated content," Judy Tashbook, America Online spokesperson, told Newsbytes. "So every game on the service, whether its from Atlantic Monthly or its 'Federation,' is at the game channel." Tashbook said the fashion channel's content and look should be similar to the other AOL channels, "where it'll be aggregated content, but unique to the area. Some of the content will also be AOL produced," she added. The partnership also may look at distributing the fashion channel's content to other new media platforms, including CD-ROM and the Web, Tashbook added. Cap Cities/ABC and AOL will each hold a 50 percent interest in the new channel, officials said. (Bob Woods/19951024/Press Contacts: Judy Tashbook, America Online, 703-918-1452; Veronica Pollard, Capital Cities/ABC, 212-456-6171; Public Contact: America Online, 800-827-6364) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 10/26/95 ONLINE Virtus Ships 3-D Web Building Software (NEWS)(ONLINE)(MSP)(00003) Virtus Ships 3-D Web Building Software 10/26/95 CARY, NORTH CAROLINA, U.S.A., 1995 OCT 26 (NB) -- The Virtus Corporation is shipping three-dimensional (3-D) Internet World Wide Web site-building software. The company said anyone with a common desktop computer can now build interactive 3-D Web sites with its new WalkThrough Pro 2.5. #IMAGE 1 20 TWPCX \images\95102603.PCX Click here for photo The new software allows users to develop 3-D environments, and supports split-screen stereo viewing for both head-mounted displays and VR (virtual reality) glasses. WalkThrough Pro uses the virtual reality modeling language (VRML) standard to author the sites. Standard features of the software offer perspective-correct texture mapping, smooth shading, and the option of collision detection. WalkThrough Pro also ships with Virtus Player, a freeware publishing utility that lets anyone freely navigate a Virtus model. Export options include 2-D and 3-D DXF, PICT, BMP, TIFF, AVI, and QuickTime. Add-on galleries can also be used to cut down on modeling done by providing commonly used, preconstructed 3-D objects, company officials said. Ashley W. Sharp, Virtus spokesperson, told Newsbytes the new software was developed because more and more people will be turning to VRML as a way to communicate via the Web. "We have a lot of 3-D modelers and hobbyists right now (using VRML)," she said. "A lot of Webmasters are looking to 3-D to make their sites more compelling for users." Sharp also said she sees VRML taking off on the client side of Web browsing. "As more builders and more browsers become available, and as awareness of VRML builds, more and more people will use it," she said. "It's sort of the same as the explosion of the two-dimensional (2-D) Web pages." WalkThrough Pro sells for $495, and requires the minimum of any color Macintosh or 386 PC compatible with eight megabytes (MB) of RAM, and either System 6.0.5 for the Mac or Windows 3.1. Virtus is also developing a software package for the casual Web surfer who wants to see VRML. The new client package, called Voyager, is being developed for the Macintosh and Windows operating systems. Sharp said the package should be available sometime early next year. (Bob Woods/19951025/Press Contacts: Ashley W. Sharp, Virtus Corporation, 919-467-9700, Internet e-mail ashley.sharp@virtus.com; Julia L. Mason, Cunningham Communication Inc., 408-764-0747, Internet e-mail julia@ccipr.com) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 10/26/95 PC Dell & Gateway Intro Pentium 120MHz Notebooks (NEWS)(PC)(DEN)(00004) Dell & Gateway Intro Pentium 120MHz Notebooks 10/26/95 AUSTIN, TEXAS, U.S.A., 1995 OCT 26 (NB) -- Dell Computer Corp. (NASDAQ: DELL) and Gateway 2000 (NASDAQ: GATE) have introduced new notebook computers that use Intel's 120 megahertz (MHz) Pentium microprocessor. The Dell system is an addition to the company's Latitude line. Dell said the Latitude XPi P120 is priced at $3,699 direct from the company when configured with eight megabytes (MB) of memory, a 420MB hard drive, a lithium-ion battery, and a 10.4-inch dual-scan screen. The same system equipped with a Super VGA display is priced at $4,399. Dell said the Super VGA display lets users see 50 percent more information than is visible on a standard notebook VGA screen. Dell offers a three-year warranty on its Latitude XPi notebook systems, which can be ordered with a hard drive of up to 1.2 gigabytes (GB) capacity and memory of up to 40MB. Dell will install Windows 95 and other software at the customer's request. Gateway is introducing a 120MHz version of its Solo notebook PC, which is also available in 75MHz and 90MHz models. Gateway said the best buy configuration of the Solo 120 includes a 10.4-inch Super VGA display, 16MB of memory that can be expanded to as much as 40MB, a 1.2GB capacity hard drive, 1MB of video memory, two Type II or one Type III PC Card slots, an EZ Pad cursor control pad in place of a mouse, and an expansion bay that can interchangeably accommodate either a floppy drive or a CD-ROM drive. A 28.8 kilobytes-per-second (Kbps) PC Card data/fax modem is also standard. The Solo 120 comes with an AC adapter and two lithium-ion batteries, Windows 95, the professional edition of the Microsoft Office 95 applications suite and a carrying case. The suggested retail price is $5,999. (Jim Mallory/19951025/Press contact: Andy Lark, Dell, 512-728-4100 or Steve Sturgeon, Gateway 2000, 605-232-2582; Public contact: Dell, 800-289-3355 or Gateway 2000, 605-232-2000 or 800-523-2000) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 10/26/95 TELECOM Motorola Extends Thailand Cellular Network Facilities (NEWS)(TELECOM)(LON)(00005) Motorola Extends Thailand Cellular Network Facilities 10/26/95 BANGKOK, THAILAND, 1995 OCT 26 (NB) -- Motorola has secured a major expansion and development contract with the Total Access Communications Company (TAC) of Thailand. Terms of the $160 million contract call for the expansion of the current analog network, pushing maximum subscriber levels to 400,000-plus by the end of the year. According to Motorola, the expansion contract was made necessary by the massive uptake and popularity of mobile phones in Thailand, where the landline telecoms infrastructure is already overstretched. The expansion of the old net will include some technical enhancements, moving from the existing AMPS (Advanced Mobile Phone Service) to Narrowband AMPS (NAMPS) technology for the base stations, so increasing the number of channels and calls that can be carried within a given bandwidth. Using this approach will allow TAC to extend its current Bangkok-specific service out to the suburbs and beyond, officials said. Pertti Johansson, the corporate vice president and general manager of Motorola's ICID (Motorola's International Cellular Infrastructure Division), explained that expanding the Thai network was a significant contract for the company, both in terms of revenue, as well as strategy. "TAC has been adding subscribers at a rapid pace and this expanded use of NAMPS technology will serve as a tremendous boost in increasing the overall network capacity," he said. Newsbytes notes that NAMPS technology is much more efficient in its use of available frequencies than AMPS, since it provides three times as many cellular audio channels. By careful positioning of the new base stations, Motorola claims that it can extend this channel usage enhancement still further. (Sylvia Dennis/19951026/Press Contact: Mary Anne McAndrew, Motorola CIG, US contact 708-632-2775) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 10/26/95 NETWORK Microsoft Networking Over WAN Topologies (NEWS)(NETWORK)(LON)(00006) Microsoft Networking Over WAN Topologies 10/26/95 LONDON, ENGLAND, 1995 OCT 26 (NB) -- Microsoft's Multi Protocol Routing (MPR) technology is reportedly fine for servicing the needs of LAN (local area network) users, but falls down when it comes to linking into WANs (wide area networks). Eicon Technology, a remote networking company, claims it has the problem solved with its WAN Services for Windows NT V3R3 routing application, which supports MPR over WAN topologies for the first time. According to David Carew-Jones, Eicon Technology's European marketing director, the software is unique in the marketplace, since it implements Microsoft's MPR LAN-to-LAN networking capability across WAN links. As a result, remote users can connect across leased or dial-up lines using the Point-to-Point Protocol, frame relay, X.25 or ISDN (integrated services digital network) links. According to Eicon, the WAN Services for Windows NT software, which runs on Eicon's range of high-speed intelligent communication cards, is especially well suited for use with the recently introduced EiconCard S51 Multiservice Access Card, which provides serial and dial-up connections and supports frame relay, ISDN, X.25 and other WAN services. In addition, the software is billed as being capable of interoperating with stand-alone routers from such vendors as Bay Networks, Cisco Systems and 3Com, for seamless integration into an existing backbone network. Initially, only the IP protocol version of the Windows NT software is available from Eicon's offices around the world, including in the US. Plans call for a version for IPX (Internet Packet Exchange) version to be released in the coming months. "The combination of WAN Services for NT with the EiconCard S51 is the only way Windows NT users can work as if locally connected to a host, server or on-line services -- it opens up a whole host of opportunities for NT-based users," explained Carew-Jones, who added that, because it is fully integrated into the Windows NT Server, the package doesn't add to LAN congestion as external stand-alone routers and card solutions do. At Microsoft, Mike Nash, the company's group product manager, said that Microsoft is pleased to see that MPR can now be extended across WAN topologies. "This meets the needs of our customers who have a special requirement for multiprotocol routing services to run outside of the local network," he said. Eicon's package also extends MPR across to two new platforms: MIPS and PowerPC. This is in addition to MPR's standard computing platforms, which include Intel x86, Intel Pentium and DEC Alpha systems. Eicon claims that the package features a set of improved utilities that "intuitively" guide the user through installation and configuration of both the software and the associated Eicon network card. A hardware auto-detect feature then automatically determines the configuration best suited for the particular card being installed. Worldwide pricing for WAN Services for Windows NT software has been set at $835. Intel x86, Pentium and DEC Alpha versions are available immediately, while the MIPS and PowerPC versions will ship next month (November). The software operates under Windows NT 3.51 and is being shipping on a standalone basis, as well as with Eicon's WAN server networking cards, which range in price from $1,645 to $2,025. Further information on Eicon products can be obtained through the company's World Wide Web address at http://www.eicon.com . (Steve Gold/19951026/Press Contact: Profile PR, +44-181-995-1595; Reader Contact: Eicon, +44-181-967-8000) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 10/26/95 TELECOM Sweden's Ericsson In Major Philippines Telecoms Deal (NEWS)(TELECOM)(LON)(00007) Sweden's Ericsson In Major Philippines Telecoms Deal 10/26/95 STOCKHOLM, SWEDEN, 1995 OCT 26 (NB) -- Ericsson has signed a major contract with the Philippine network operator, Digital Telecommunications Philippines (Digitel), for the extension of its national telecoms network. The contract is worth $59 million for the Swedish telecoms giant. Terms of the contract call for Ericsson to supply, install, and implement a new national and international telecoms infrastructure for the Philippines. On the equipment side of the deal, Ericsson will provide its AXE public switching system, network management systems, transmission and cable units. According to Ericsson, the installation of AXE switching equipment on the Filipino telecoms network will speed up the rate, as well as greatly enhance the network capacity for voice and data calls. The aim of the project is to support expansion of the Digitel network well into the next century. This is not the first major contract of its type with Digitel, Newsbytes notes. Ericsson secure a major contract back in December of last year for the installation of a new telecoms network on Luzon island. In that contract, Ericsson was responsible for the equipment provision and installation of the network. (Sylvia Dennis/19951026/Press Contact: Lena Hyttsten, Ericsson Business Area Business Networks, + 46-70-560-1016) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 10/26/95 TELECOM Securicor Installs Major Comms Network In Ireland (NEWS)(TELECOM)(LON)(00008) Securicor Installs Major Comms Network In Ireland 10/26/95 DUBLIN, IRELAND, 1995 OCT 26 (NB) -- Securicor has announced the successful installation of a UKP450,000 private mobile radio (PMR) system that blankets Ireland. According to Bernard Smith, Securicor Ireland's general manager, the PMR network forms the linchpin of a UKP1 million advanced voice and data comms network that will span Ireland, making it the most sophisticated network operational in that country. "When the time came to upgrade our 20-year-old AM (amplitude modulation) open channel mobile radio network, we decided to replace it with a system that would also carry data in real time," he explained, adding that the system is essential to track cash bags which are collected and delivered nationally by the security company. The new two channel FM (frequency modulation) network was designed and installed by Securicor's sister company, Securicor Communications, and features a relatively new switching technology known as fast frequency shift keying (FFSK) to allow maximum data throughput on the available bandwidth. Six base stations cover 80 percent of Ireland, which Securicor claims is a major feat in itself, given the nature of the terrain involved. Key Radio mobiles have been installed in 60 cash-in-transit vehicles and a further 40 mobiles in the company's "Omega" parcels fleet. The system is controlled by three dispatchers, using a computerized data system. When a driver needs to communicate with control, he instigates a "request to transmit" message, which is sent, including the mobile's call-sign, automatically from the vehicle. This message is then automatically queued and fed into the computer system, and the dispatcher then sees a list of mobiles requesting voice contact or a data update. The operator then takes the appropriate action, with the system auto-queuing data and voice calls as appropriate. For emergencies, a voice override function is available. Normally, however, calls are set up by the dispatch operator, who can also instigate group calls, for example to advise mobiles in specific areas (the system monitors the location of the mobile automatically) of route blockages and accidents etc. Since the system is all digital, details of each vehicle's planned and suggested routes are downloaded into the mobiles as they move around. As each job comes up on the vehicle's computer screens, so maps and other routing info is also available. Using this approach means that the driver has the maximum available information at their disposal, Securicor claims. "Our database regarding cash-in-transit vehicles now effectively operates in real-time, making our customer service even better than before. Greater flexibility is a bonus, as we can now change routes or issue revised crew instructions instantly and with total security to protect our staff and customer's money," Smith claimed. According to Smith, plans now call for the installation of a GPS (global positioning system) in each mobile, to that the precise location of a mobile can be tracked and logged to pin-point accuracy. (Steve Gold/19951025/Press Contact: Publicity Matters, tel +44-171-240- 6850, fax +44-171-379-5046; Reader Contact: Securicor Radiocoms, tel +44-1761-413174, fax +44-1761-410680) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 10/26/95 ONLINE Compuserve Europe Launches ISDN Access Service (NEWS)(ONLINE)(LON)(00009) Compuserve Europe Launches ISDN Access Service 10/26/95 MUNICH, GERMANY, 1995 OCT 26 (NB) -- Confirming plans laid down earlier this year, Compuserve claims that it is first to market with ISDN (integrated services digital network) access to its online network in Europe. The company claims that its ISDN links can work at speeds of up to 57,600 bits-per-second (bps). According to Luana Raveane, a spokeswoman for Compuserve Deutschland, the ISDN links work at 57,600 bps instead of the more usual 64,000 bps because Compuserve has implemented the V.120 data transmission standard on its ISDN links, to speed up deployment and ensure pan- European access for subscribers. "Using V.120 allows our customers to gain access more quickly to ISDN than would otherwise be possible," she told Newsbytes, adding that the support for V.120 still means that any ISDN customer, where using ISDN-2 or Euro ISDN standard transmissions, can access Compuserve, but with a speed limitation of 57,600 bps. The London, England, and Munich, Germany, ISDN ports are now undergoing active testing and will be live for subscribers by December 1 this year. Phase two of the three-stage ISDN rollout calls for the installation of ISDN ports in Amsterdam, the Netherlands, and Dresden, Dusseldorf, Frankfurt, and Hamburg in Germany, as well as Paris, France, and Zurich, Switzerland, over the next few months and certainly ahead of the May 1 self-imposed deadline set by Compuserve. "Europe is a vital part of Compuserve's overall strategy to deploy widespread ISDN support," said Peter Van Camp, executive vice president, Compuserve Network Services. "ISDN is crucial to cost-conscious European companies whose applications demand high bandwidth. ISDN access will deliver instant benefits to users relying on our dial-based services, including Enterprise Connect for Lotus Notes and Compuserve RLA for remote LAN access. And Internet power users will enjoy much faster access to information and graphics storehouses, such as the World Wide Web," he explained. (Steve Gold/19951025/Press Contact: Esme Page, Herald Communications, +49-89-260-6400, Internet e-mail 100410.3023@compuserve.com; Compuserve Network Services, US contact 614-798-3351) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 10/26/95 IBM Czech Republic - ELKO & IBM In PC Assembly Deal (NEWS)(IBM)(LON)(00010) Czech Republic - ELKO & IBM In PC Assembly Deal 10/26/95 PRAGUE, CZECH REPUBLIC, 1995 OCT 26 (NB) -- IBM Czech Republic s.r.o. and ELKO Holding a.s. have announced that ELKO will assemble 486- and Pentium-based PCs in Prague in a quantity of 500 units per month starting in October, with output expected to reach 1,500 units per month within six months. The relationship was established to meet the demands of the price-sensitive and increasingly quality- and service-aware Czech market. At a press conference held in Prague, IBM executives emphasized their dedication to providing fast configuration and delivery services and their confidence in ELKO's ability to meet IBM's strict quality standards. IBM and ELKO stated that shipment of fully configured PCs will follow within 24 hours of placing an order in the Prague area, and within three days outside of Prague. The IBM PC 300 line, based on the DX2/66, 486 DX4/100, and Pentium 75/90 chips, and the IBM PC 100 line, based on the 486 DX2/66 and DX4/100 chips, will be produced at the ELKO assembly facility. Some of the larger Czech customers of IBM PCs include the Czech Ministry of Finance with 6,000 PCs, and several others with total purchased units in excess of 1,000. Eighty percent of all computers sold in the Czech Republic are of the desktop variety, said Peter Brabec, director of the PC division at IBM. The IBM PC 300 line features an upgradable processor, RAM, and hard disk. Aside from IVK in Russia, ELKO is the first to assemble IBM PCs in Europe, Brabec revealed. ELKO, one of the largest Czech distributors also active in Bulgaria and the Slovak Republic, has to-date assembled and sold over 25,000 PCs and is now focusing more on selling brand name systems, according to Maxim Simeonov, president of the company. The distributor also plans to enter the Romanian and Ukrainian markets. Through the relationship with IBM, with which it has been in negotiations since the beginning of 1994, ELKO seeks to accomplish delivery of custom configured systems within 24 hours, instant one-stop service and pricing competitive with worldwide and local brand name systems on the local market. ELKO's PC assemblers are to receive training at IBM's facility in Greenock, Scotland, and IBM's Czech staff will oversee the local operations, according to Simeonov. In a conversation with Newsbytes, Pawel Maksys, PC sales operations manager at IBM with responsibility for all of CEE, provided some interesting insights into IBM's PC strategy. "We try to get the boxes as close as possible to the customer," said Maksys, in response to a question regarding IBM's differing distribution channel relationships throughout the CEE. "ELKO is really the first one that we have been able to close off the negotiations for this type of agreement. We are looking for something in Hungary, and we are looking for something in Poland." He continued: "However, the Polish market is much more difficult in terms of finding a partner. There is a very strong distributor network, so you have to be very careful, in fact, not destroying what you have built up. There is danger in this type of agreement, especially if someone is doing the box and distributing it. It must be clear cut." Maksys emphasized the need to meet increasing customer demands, something that was not fully accomplished by having to ship PCs from Greenock, Scotland. "It is not a production or volume business -- to grow up with the volumes in all these countries -- it makes no sense," said Maksys. "The idea is very simple: to get, as much as possible, a localized box as close as possible to customer needs, in fact." "To have the systems in stock, plenty of parts in stock, and to be able to, on request, make very quick changes, is an important factor," according to Maksys. What is the motivation for partnering with a local distributor such as ELKO for production of PCs as opposed to a 100% IBM facility? Maksys stressed that it is more a matter of logistics, and companies such as ELKO are skilled in this sense. The countries of Central Europe have "a very specific customer behavior," said Maksys. "You negotiate very long, then you sign the contract and the customer would like to have the goods installed in the next two weeks." Such agreements necessitate having "a stock of parts we can very simply adopt immediately, locally to this agreement which was signed with the customer," explained Maksys. "This is the prime idea of coming to the country with assembly. Of course at the end of the day you should say you should build up the plants in this territory -- it's not true and probably will be not true." (Steven Slatem/IntelliTech/19951018/Media & Reader Contact: Pawel Maksys, IBM Central Europe & Russia Inc., tel +43-1- 211452883, fax +43-1-211456488) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 10/26/95 TELECOM Czech Republic - Call Centers Integrate Telephony/Computing (NEWS)(TELECOM)(LON)(00011) Czech Republic - Call Centers Integrate Telephony/Computing 10/26/95 BRNO, CZECH REPUBLIC, 1995 OCT 26 (NB) -- AT&T BCS (Business Communications Systems) sees call centers offering value-added services becoming a focal point of the products of the major information technology (IT) vendors active in Central & Eastern Europe, with the major hurdles being those with the local telcos. At INVEX, following participation in the Telecom Expo in Geneva, Jan Zacek, marketing manager at AT&T BCS (Prague), shared his views on computer/telephony integration in the Czech Republic in an interview. "I've got two feelings, mixed feelings: one is very positive that in fact the whole industry is moving towards real added value," said Zacek. "That means nobody is going to sell (only) hardware. But what's probably the hit of the season are call centers -- combination or integration of telephony and computer services. Everybody was showing this and that was the positive side of the impression. "The other side is that, all the companies -- AT&T, IBM, whoever -- they in fact were showing the same thing, it was very similar, there were little noticeable differences," continued Zacek. "Telecom is becoming combined more and more with computer technology," said Zacek who said that AT&T is now setting up call centers to be implemented soon in home banking systems, for example, in the Czech Republic. "Video-on-demand and sales-on-demand -- this all will come here quite soon," he said. "Of course, the basic thing is the network, because for these services you must have ISDN (integrated services digital network) lines. SPT Telecom will offer these lines, in 1996, at the earliest." Much depends on SPT Telecom in its new strategic partnership with TelSource, which consists of PTT Telecom Netherlands, Swiss Telecom, and AT&T. In this teaming of forces, AT&T, which did not invest money in TelSource/SPT, "is going to provide know-how and technology," Zacek explained. (Steven Slatem/IntelliTech/19951018/Press & Reader Contact: Jan Zacek, AT&T BCS, tel +42-2-67094244, fax +42-2-67094200) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 10/26/95 BUSINESS Czech Republic - TH'System On A Fast Track (NEWS)(BUSINESS)(LON)(00012) Czech Republic - TH'System On A Fast Track 10/26/95 PRAGUE, CZECH REPUBLIC, 1995 OCT 26 (NB) -- TH'system, ranked among the top three distributors in CEE, held a press conference recently to announce its 5th anniversary, doubling of income and profits, preparations to open a Hungarian branch office, and opening of a new 2,000 square-meter warehouse in Ostrava. Present at the conference, which was held at the Forum Hotel in Prague and was followed by dinner and a bowling contest, were Franz Lorber of Hewlett Packard, Ivan Pilny and Jan Muhlfeit of Microsoft, and Richard Kozak of Compaq Computer. The creation of TH'system is a classic example of enthusiastic post-revolution business, claim some observers, where fresh graduates pooled together very modest capital which started to quickly bring returns. In spite of the fact that the company started without any help, from any domestic or foreign companies, the development of TH'system has been very dynamic. Income figures have grown from CZK15 million ($577,000) in 1991, to CZK130 million ($5 million) in 1992, CZK400 million ($15.4 million) in 1993, and finally, CZK650 million ($25 million) in 1994. Income for 1994 shot up to CZK1.65 billion ($63 million) with the inclusion of income figures from MSP of Warsaw, Poland, which TH'system acquired a year ago. MSP was one of the fastest growing Polish information technology (IT) product distributors. TH'system forecasts income of approximately CZK 3 billion ($115 million) in 1995 and, along with that, will double the previous year's profits. The company plans to open its new office in Hungary this month. TH'system emphasizes that it continues to work without bank loans and without any capital from foreign or domestic companies, and serves as an unusual example of success in Central & Eastern Europe. The key to success is to always be a step ahead of the competition, not only with aggressive pricing strategies and availability of products in the warehouse, but also with an assortment of service offerings, according to the company. Such services include delivery of goods within 24 hours free-of-charge, credit and financial arrangements, and electronic communications with partners. TH'system also offers strong marketing support, various promotions, publications for dealers, training system, roadshows, and authorization programs with the leading international firms whose products TH'system distributes. (Steven Slatem/IntelliTech/19951018/Press & Reader Contact: Richard Havlik, TH'system a.s., tel +42-2-3103613, fax +42-2-3103600) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 10/26/95 LEGAL Hong Kong Drafts Intellectual Property Law (NEWS)(LEGAL)(PEK)(00013) Hong Kong Drafts Intellectual Property Law 10/26/95 BEIJING, CHINA, 1995 OCT 26 (NB) -- The Hong Kong government will formulate a draft law to ensure that Hong Kong's intellectual property laws meet the Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property (TRIPS), the Xinhua News Agency reported. According to Hong Kong government information services, the news agency said, the draft law includes: All signs which are capable of distinguishing the goods and services of one undertaking from those of another will be capable of registration as trade marks, provided that they are capable of being represented in a "graphical from." Owners of copyrights for films, videos, and computer programs will be able to prevent those products from being rented out commercially without their permission. Performers will be able to prevent their live performances from being recorded and distributed commercially or broadcast without their permission. Copyright and trademark owners will be able to apply for court orders to detain suspected imports of infringing goods. (Chih-Ho Yu & Ning Huang/19951026) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 10/26/95 CHIPS China - Fully Domestic IC Card Developed (NEWS)(CHIPS)(PEK)(00014) China - Fully Domestic IC Card Developed 10/26/95 BEIJING, CHINA, 1995 OCT 26 (NB) -- China's first integrated circuit (IC) card has been jointly developed by China Huaxu Golden Card Co. Ltd. and Tsinghua University. The IC card recently passed technical evaluation by an experts group organized by the Ministry of Electronics Industry (MEI) and the State Education Commission. Experts said that successful development of the domestic IC card broke the current situation that the country has to rely on imported chips for IC cards, and lays a solid foundation for the "Golden Card Project." Senior government officials highly praised the success. It provides crucial auxiliary products for the Golden Card Project, Vice Premier Zou Jiahua said in a congratulatory letter. The IC card is the first fully domestic-produced card, from chip designing to card manufacturing. Experts said that the technology of the domestic IC card has reached the same advanced level as overseas products. However, the successful development is only the first step for China's IC card industry, experts said. The next step is large scale manufacturing of such products. Huaxu is expected to sign a contract to produce 2.5 million to three million IC cards in Daqing, in the Heilongjiang province. According to government sources, the total investment in the Golden Card project is estimated at RMB100 billion (US$12 billion). Domestic technology and products needed by the project will save foreign exchange currency for the country and has become an urgent task, said officials with MEI. The Golden Card project aims to issue 200 million credit/bank cards covering 300 million people by 2003. It is estimated that the annual demand for IC cards will reach 40 million in 1999. (Chih-Ho Yu & Ning Huang/19951026) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 10/26/95 BUSINESS Matsushita Licenses 3DO Video Technology (NEWS)(BUSINESS)(TYO)(00015) Matsushita Licenses 3DO Video Technology 10/26/95 TOKYO, JAPAN, 1995 OCT 26 (NB) -- Matsushita Electrical Industrial Co., Ltd. (TSE:6752) has signed a memorandum of understanding with 3DO Company (NASDAQ:THDO) that will allow the Japanese company to exclusively use 3DO's 64-bit M2 graphics technology in its own products. The deal is worth over $100 million to 3DO. The agreement will be signed soon, enabling Matsushita to use the M2 graphics system developed by 3DO in next-generation consumer and commercial products including 64-bit video games, Digital Video Disk (DVD) players, and interactive television set-top boxes. Matsushita will also gain sub-licensing rights to the system from 3DO that will allow the Osaka-based company to sub-license the M2 technology to hardware companies and software developers. Matsushita says it is currently in discussions with several potential partner companies and is likely to expand the M2 alliance over the course of the next two years. Trip Hawkins, chairman and chief executive officer (CEO) of 3DO Company commented on the deal, saying: "Today's announcement combines the vast resources of a consumer electronics leader with the industry's most powerful 64-bit technology. Matsushita has been a world leader in audio and video and is again poised for success with their central role in the emerging DVD standard. By combining these capabilities with 3DO's interactive graphics and computing technology, Matsushita is well positioned for success in many new digital businesses." The Japanese company will hold exclusive rights to use the technology in consumer CD, DVD, interactive TV set-top box, portable, car navigation, and kiosk hardware products. In other areas, that include coin-operated arcade game, personal computer applications, general computing, and software development tools, Matsushita has a non-exclusive license, but will work with 3DO on sub-licensing the technology to other companies. 3DO have also undertaken to deliver all M2 custom ASIC (application specific integrated circuit) semiconductors, reference designs for M2 CD and M2 DVD systems, MPEG (Motion Picture Experts Group)-1 and MPEG-2 decoders, hardware development systems, operating system software and software development tools to Matsushita. Under the terms of the already approved deal, Matsushita will pay an initial licensing fee of $100 million in two installments with each paid by June next year. 3DO will then receive additional royalty payments of about $3 per compact-disk game sold for the new system. Analysts estimate such royalty payments could amount to $150 million per year for the California-based company that looked near to trouble just a month ago when a major electronics manufacturer announced a production suspension of 3DO systems. Toshiba Corporation (TSE:6502) said it had stopped production of 3DO car navigation systems saying it believed there was no chance of significant future growth in the system. At the same time, Sanyo Electric (TSE:6764) announced a cutting back of production of 3DO game machines from 250,000 a year to just 20,000. In the United States, the two companies are already partners with Matsushita Electric Corp. of America, manufacturing a video game player, the 3DO Real, under its Panasonic brand name. A recent $100 price cut made the system more competitive against new generation 64-bit games consoles that offer better graphics and sound than their 32-bit counterparts. Other companies manufacturing the games players include Korea's Goldstar. (Martyn Williams/19951026/Press contact: Shernaz Daver, 3DO Company, 415-261-2792; Matsushita Electric Corp, tel +81-3-3578-1237, fax +81-3-3437-2776) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 10/26/95 BUSINESS Japan - Strong Half Year Results Reported By Majors (NEWS)(BUSINESS)(TYO)(00016) Japan - Strong Half Year Results Reported By Majors 10/26/95 TOKYO, JAPAN, 1995 OCT 26 (NB) -- With the half fiscal year company reporting season now underway, some of Japan's major electronics and electrical companies announced financial results for the six months to September. Despite the sluggish Japanese economy all the companies reported higher demands for electronics products and increased annual forecasts. Hitachi Ltd. (TSE:6501) announced its pre-tax earnings for the first six months of the fiscal year jumped 28% from 43.04 billion yen to 54.91 billion yen. The company also raised its full year pre-tax profits estimate to 120 billion yen, an increase of 20% on the previous estimate and 35% on the previous year's actual figures. Strong sales of information systems and electronic devices helped sales in the period jump 7% to 1,998 billion yen. The Tokyo-based company predicts full year sales will hit double the half year figure at 4,000 billion yen. Full year dividends will be 11 yen per share as previously forecast. In addition to the financial announcements, Hitachi said it will expand investment in semiconductors to 180 billion yen. The money will be used to increase capacity at existing plants and to build new factories ahead of schedule. NEC Corporation (TSE:6701) revised full fiscal year forecasts after announcing its first half results. The company said it expects sales in the year to reach 4,300 billion yen, a big jump of 531 billion yen from last year's actual sales of 3,769 billion yen. In the first six months of the financial year, NEC sales jumped 128.2 billion yen, or 9.2%, on the period to 1,517.8 billion yen, an increase of 9.2%, mainly due to strong sales of computer and communications products in Japan and higher worldwide demand for semiconductors. Pre-tax profits doubled to 30.5 billion yen and the company estimated full year pre-tax profits would be 90 billion yen. The company said the strong yen almost offset small signs of recovery in the Japanese economy but the electronics industry experienced healthy demand. "Mobile communications equipment showed steady growth and sales of computers were good with the domestic personal computer market particularly strong. Heavy demand for electronic devices, such as four-megabit and 16-megabit DRAM memories, continued both in Japan and overseas," the company said in a statement. Mitsubishi Electric Corporation (TSE:6503) announced pre-tax profit for the first six months rose 38.5% to 37.43 billion yen. Net profits climbed 31.7% to 18.85 billion yen with sales reaching 1,250 billion yen, a 7.6% increase on the period. Sales in the information and telecommunications systems and electronics divisions experienced growth with continuing demand for semiconductors helping sales. In other sectors the company is active, heavy electrical equipment business increased slightly, but office use electrical sales were down. The hot summer and high sales of air- conditioners pushed up household electrical sales. An 82 billion yen pre-tax profit is forecast for the full year, an increase of 28.5% on the year, with net profits almost doubling to 40 billion yen on sales of 2,650 billion yen. Sharp Corporation (TSE:6753) reported pre-tax profits of 35.04 billion yen for the half, up 12% on the previous year. Sales in the period rose 3% to 633.81 billion yen on a drop in export sales, but improved domestic demand. A rise in the value of the yen wiped over 20 billion yen off sales in the period said the company, which sees 45% of total sales from overseas markets. The greatest percentage increase in sales was seen by the Tokyo company's audio and communication equipment division which registered sales of 66.25 billion yen, a 12% rise. The hot summer also helped Sharp with household electrical equipment sales increasing 8.1% to 108.32 billion yen. The information equipment sector saw a 4% rise to sales of 130.79 billion yen with the electronic equipment division, which includes televisions and video machines, virtually unchanged at 122.99 billion yen. Toshiba Corporation (TSE:6502) said it achieved a 31% increase in pre-tax profits for the first six months on the current financial year at 32.33 billion yen. Sales in the period jumped 10% from 1,521 billion yen to 1,677 billion yen. In common with the other companies reporting today, Toshiba said strong sales of semiconductors, and demand for CD-ROMs, hard disk drives, and air-conditioners in the summer helped the figures. (Martyn Williams/19951026) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 10/26/95 ONLINE ****Internet Update (NEWS)(ONLINE)(TYO)(00017) ****Internet Update 10/26/95 TOKYO, JAPAN, 1995 OCT 26 (NB) -- In this roundup of new resources and services on the global Internet: In the news: Shuttle mission STS-73, In the news: Tokyo Motor Show, US Mint coins a new Web site, Salute horror for Halloween, For You, Jerusalem, Technology corporation index, The view from the tower, and the world, New on Usenet. In The News: Shuttle Mission STS-73 Don't tell NASA. The unofficial home page of the Shuttle mission STS-73 Cat crew is up and running. You can find the pictures of the cats, hear them meow and also see regularly updated screen grabs from NASA-TV. World Wide Web: http://www.reston.com/sts73/catpage.html Meanwhile, from Mission Control, the official NASA Space Shuttle information service carries full and current details from the mission and its microgravity experiments on board. World Wide Web: http://shuttle.nasa.gov/ In The News: Tokyo Motor Show The giant Tokyo Motor Show begins this weekend. For Internet users not lucky enough to be going there, the organizers have established a home page on the network offering some information from the show. World Wide Web: http://teleparc.infoweb.or.jp/tms/ US Mint Coins A New Web Site The US Mint has opened a site on the World Wide Web which will be of main interest to coin collectors and enthusiasts. An online catalog allows visitors to view various commemorative coins made available by the mint, the center that makes coins and notes for the United States. Don't drop by with the intention of getting free samples of the products, Newsbytes has already tried and you can't! World Wide Web: http://www.usmint.gov/ Salute Horror For Halloween The Writer's Edge is running a special "Salute to Horror Writers" especially for Halloween. From October 27th to 31st, Internet users will be able to view a series of features on different aspects of the horror industry including interviews with horror writers. Visitors are also being invited to nominate all time loved and hated horror movies. World Wide Web: http://www.nashville.net/~edge For You, Jerusalem From next Monday until the following Sunday, November 5th, the "For You, Jerusalem" event will take place in the gulf state of Abu Dhabi. With the intention of contributing to the rebuilding and furbishing of the city of Jerusalem, Internet users outside the gulf can follow the event online. World Wide Web: http://www.arabworld.com/jerusalem/ Technology Corporation Index If you're looking for the Web site of a company in the technology industry and you've tried the obvious "company_name.com" address, a good place to go next is Ecola's Tech Directory. The service offers a directory of many technology-related companies with links to online services offered. World Wide Web: http://www.ecola.com/techcorp/ The View From The Tower, And The World Have you ever wondered what it is like to be a TV transmitter? Television Suisse Romande (TSR), the French-speaking TV channel in Switzerland, has placed a camera on top of the TSR tower in Geneva that offers all Internet viewers the chance to experience the view from the tower. World Wide Web: http://www.tsr.srg-ssr.ch/photo/photo.htm If you enjoy the Swiss camera you'll love this index to live video cameras connected to the Internet from all over the world. http://www.intertain.net/~cameras/ New On Usenet Additions to the world of Usenet news continue as a new batch of groups pass the voting procedure including rec.music.makers.choral, soc.culture.pacific-island and comp.sys.mac.programmer.games. Failing the Usenet vote at the same time were rec.collecting.prec-moments, comp.sys.ibm.pc.16bit and rec.collecting.paper-money. The new groups should begin appearing on news-servers soon. Usenet: news://rec.music.makers.choral Usenet: news://soc.culture.pacific-island Usenet: news://comp.sys.mac.programmer.games (Martyn Williams/19951026) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 10/26/95 BUSINESS Computer Associates Launches Africa Joint Venture (NEWS)(BUSINESS)(TOR)(00018) Computer Associates Launches Africa Joint Venture 10/26/95 VICTORIA FALLS, ZIMBABWE, 1995 OCT 26 (NB) -- Computer Associates International Inc. (NYSE:CA) of Islandia, New York, has formed a joint venture with South African technology firm Dimension Data Holdings Ltd. The new Computer Associates Africa will be based in Johannesburg and will sell the software company's products throughout Africa, a company spokeswoman told Newsbytes. Charles Wang, chairman and chief executive of Computer Associates, announced the company's plans in a keynote address at the Networkers 95 conference. Computer Associates previously sold its software into Africa through Compusons (Pty.) Ltd., a subsidiary of Dimension Data. The new Computer Associates Africa will take over marketing of all Computer Associates products, including mainframe, midrange, client/server, and personal- computer packages, and including products recently acquired with the takeover of Legent Corp. The CA spokeswoman declined to say what portion of its revenues Computer Associates currently earns in Africa. The company did say, in a prepared statement, that total technology spending in South Africa this year is expected to be US$3.5 billion, placing that country as the 20th largest market for information technology in the world. Computer Associates had revenues of $2.6 billion in its 1995 fiscal year. The company has about 9,000 employees. In addition to its Johannesburg headquarters, Computer Associates Africa will have offices in Cape Town and Durban. The spokeswoman said the company will do business in other African countries. For example, it is currently talking with a prospective customer in Mozambique, she said. Computer Associates is on the World Wide Web at http://www.cai.com . (Grant Buckler/19951026/Press Contact: Tricia Plowman, Computer Associates, 516-342-2676; Derek Underhill, Dimension Data, +27-11-789-2715) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 10/26/95 BUSINESS IBM Canada Bid "Fair," But DMR Will Not Recommend It (NEWS)(BUSINESS)(TOR)(00019) IBM Canada Bid "Fair," But DMR Will Not Recommend It 10/26/95 MONTREAL, QUEBEC, CANADA, 1995 OCT 26 (NB) -- The board of directors of DMR Group Inc. (TSE:DR) has declined to recommend to its shareholders a takeover bid by IBM Canada Ltd. of Markham, Ontario. However, DMR called the bid "fair." Earlier, DMR's board recommended against competing bids by Amdahl Corp. (AMEX:AMH) of Sunnyvale, California, and BDM International Inc. (NASDAQ:BDMI) of McLean, Virginia. The board had reserved judgment on IBM's higher bid. The board of the Montreal-based consulting firm said IBM's C$11 bid for DMR's Class B common shares is fair -- it is higher than the prices offered by the other bidders. However, DMR also noted that certain conditions of IBM's bid create uncertainty and are beyond the control of minority shareholders. In particular, IBM has said 90 percent of DMR's Class B shares must be tendered in response to its bid. Amdahl late last week took up 36 percent of DMR's shares that had been tendered to it, principally by the company's major shareholders, who had irrevocably agreed to Amdahl's offer before the BDM and IBM Canada bids were announced. While the Amdahl move seems to have created a major obstacle to IBM's 90 percent goal, IBM Canada spokesman Mike Quinn told Newsbytes the 90 percent condition still stands, though he added that "we do reserve the right to waive any of these conditions." Quinn would not be specific about how IBM Canada hopes to obtain 90 percent of the shares given the stake Amdahl now holds, but he said that "there are probably several scenarios that we could come up with." A court decision allowing Class A shareholders to convert their shares in order to take advantage of the takeover offers is now under appeal. If upheld, the ruling could lead to Amdahl's current voting control of DMR -- now 80 percent of the votes -- being diluted. (Grant Buckler/19951026/Press Contact: Michel Gelinas, DMR, 514-877-3301; John Radewagen, The Benjamin Group for Amdahl, 408-559-6090; Mike Quinn, IBM Canada, 905-316-2255; Todd Stottlemyer, BDM, 703-848-5115, Internet e-mail tstottle@bdm.com) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 10/26/95 WINDOWS Wang Shipping Open/workflow, Open/image For Windows NT (NEWS)(WINDOWS)(TOR)(00020) Wang Shipping Open/workflow, Open/image For Windows NT 10/26/95 NEW YORK, NEW YORK, U.S.A., 1995 OCT 26 (NB) -- Wang Laboratories Inc. (NASDAQ:WANG) said it has begun shipping its Open/workflow and Open/image software for Microsoft's Windows NT operating system. The packages take advantage of Microsoft's BackOffice suite of client/server system components, Wang said. Wang said the modular software products can route information among thousands of workers in large, spread-out organizations, or they can be used as small, departmental systems. They include a scaleable workflow engine, graphical work-flow design tools, a centralized catalog for finding documents, distributed scanning and archiving, remote workstations software, and support for integration with other applications, company officials said. Open/workflow and Open/image also support a variety of hardware, software, networking, and database products, said the company. Earlier this year, Wang and Microsoft announced an alliance to work together on work-flow automation software for client/server environments. Soon after, Wang purchased Sigma Imaging Systems Inc., a maker of imaging and workflow automation software based in New York. Bruce Silver, principal at Bruce Silver Associates in Weston, Mass., described Windows NT as a crucial platform for makers of image processing software. Silver, who specializes in the imaging and work-flow business, said Wang's alliance with Microsoft has helped the company establish itself on NT, while at the same time the deal settled a lawsuit over technology used in Microsoft's object linking and embedding (OLE), bringing Wang much-needed cash. While Wang has put heavy emphasis on the imaging and workflow market since emerging from Chapter 11 protection two years ago, that business accounted for only about $20 million of Wang's roughly $1 billion in revenues last year, Silver said. However, he said Wang can do well in the imaging and workflow market if its management can take capitalize on the advantages gained from the Microsoft alliance and the Sigma purchase. Pricing for a typical 100-user work-flow configuration of the new software is $1,200 per user, Wang said. (Grant Buckler/19951026/Press Contact: Ed Pignone, Wang, 508-967-4912) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 10/26/95 ONLINE ****Sybase To Announce New Products Live On Internet (NEWS)(ONLINE)(SFO)(00021) ****Sybase To Announce New Products Live On Internet 10/26/95 EMERYVILLE, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1995 OCT 26 (NB) -- Database giant, Sybase (NASDAQ:SYBS) is teaming with Progressive Networks, the RealAudio voice of the Internet, to deliver a live audio broadcast to announce Sybase System 11. The hour-long, live Internet program will compliment a worldwide satellite telecast on Monday, October 30. Knowing it will be listened to and watched by thousands around the world, Sybase promises to deliver a "lively" hour of programming with top Sybase executives and key industry dignitaries. To catch the live broadcast, users should point their Web browser towards http://www.realaudio.com/live/sybase.html just before 10:00am Eastern Standard Time. Berl Hartman, vice president of strategic marketing at Sybase, told Newsbytes, "System 11 is a family of products which brings the latest database technology to the computer industry and to a wide range of businesses. It centers around our SQL (structured query language) Server which will deliver outstanding performance and quality." Details of System 11 cannot be disclosed until the announcement on Monday. To listen to the audio broadcast, users must have Progressive Networks' RealAudio Player and a browser which accesses the World Wide Web. The Player may be downloaded without cost from http://www.realaudio.com . The site also contains sample audio broadcasts and new users to the RealAudio system are advised to experiment with the Player prior to Sybase's live broadcast. Progressive introduced RealAudio to the Internet community this past spring. Since then, more than 75 Web sites have used the RealAudio server software to add speeches, announcements and music to their Web presentations. The company's technology successfully uses compression and decompression of audio data to allow users an experience of almost simultaneous, on-demand audio transmission. Earlier audio displays on the Internet often took 20 minutes to download a five minute speech or announcement. When Bill Gates announced Windows 95, Progressive tested a newer version of Real Audio, called Live RealAudio, to a select audience. The Sybase announcement this Monday will be the first time the new version is used for a major product announcement and Progressive says audience participation is limited and available on a first-come, first-served basis. Progressive has used Live RealAudio to deliver about a dozen events on the Internet, including a professional baseball game. The same Player works with both versions of RealAudio. Live RealAudio technology is also being used to deliver an election event from Quebec, Canada on Monday night. Additional information is available on the Progressive Networks Web site. As a hint to getting into the live broadcast, Maria Cantwell, Progressive's vice president of marketing, told Newsbytes, "Users can get into the area about 15 or 20 minutes ahead of time. They will not hear any voice transmission while they wait, but they will be into the system." She said the event should handle several hundred listeners. Those who are not able to get into the live broadcast can listen at a later time when the event is stored and available on Progressive's or Sybase's Web site (Sybase Web site at http://www.sybase.com ). (Patrick McKenna/19951026/Press Contact: Katie Cotton, Progressive Networks, 818-509-3700) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 10/26/95 ONLINE ****Internetworld In Boston Next Week, Global Sites Planned (NEWS)(ONLINE)(BOS)(00022) ****Internetworld In Boston Next Week, Global Sites Planned 10/26/95 BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS, U.S.A., 1995 OCT 26 (NB) -- MecklerMedia's Internetworld Boston '95, set for Boston's World Trade Center next week, will be followed by a second show in Boston, plus new editions of the Web extravaganza in Canada, Japan, Mexico, Australia, Brazil, Malaysia, and northern California in 1996 and 1997, revealed MecklerMedia's Tanya Mazarowski, during a show preview for Newsbytes. Next week's show in Boston will feature special events like Monday evening's Windows/Mac/OS/2 "Internet Bowl" quiz show, open to all attendees who obtain bowl tickets at the show, and AdWeek Magazine's Internetworld Advertising Forum, happening all day Monday and Tuesday for marketing and advertising pros, said Mazarowski, who is MecklerMedia's PR director as well as a columnist for Internetworld Magazine. Physical facilities at the Boston show will include the Internet Cafe for coffee, conversation, and Web surfing, together with a nearby tent and three docked cruise ships to accommodate conference and exhibition overflow from the World Trade Center next door. Internetworld Boston's three keynotes and several dozen conference/tutorial sessions will be organized thematically by day of the week. Monday is designated as Industry Day, Tuesday as Commerce Day, and Wednesday as World-Wide Web Day. The three keynoters are Dr. Eric Schmidt, chief technology officer and corporate executive officer, Sun Microsystems; Martin Schoffstall, senior VP and chief technical officer, PSINet; and Paul Gudonis, chief executive officer, BBN Planet. A few of the topics to be talked about in the Internetworld conference/tutorial sessions include copyrighting; "multicultural" aspects of online publishing; Internet business financing; "The Seven Habits of Successful Web Sites;" the "real relationship" between SGML (standard generalized mark-up language) and HTML (hypertext mark-up language); and emerging Internet technologies and application areas like VRML (Virtual Reality Markup Language), WebSpace, HotJava, and "local business Webs." Mazarowski divulged that on October 27, the Friday before the show, MecklerMedia will unveil a new "Iworld" Web site that will use a "major new technology" debuting at Internetworld. Also at Internetworld next week, MecklerMedia will launch Web Developer, a new quarterly publication for "the folks who build the surfboards," Newsbytes was told. Other exhibitors at Internetworld Boston will range from major online service providers like Compuserve, America Online, Prodigy, and ZD Net, to large computer and software companies such as IBM, Lotus and Digital Equipment Corp., to a multitude of smaller and medium-sized players specializing in particular aspects of online technology. New products and services to be announced at the show will cover areas encompassing online access and content, 3-D (three-dimensional) worlds, Internet security, Web publishing tools, electronic commerce, the interplay of the Internet and CD-ROM, agent technologies, and even audio-on-demand. Mazarowski pointed out that next week's event represents the first appearance of Internetworld in Boston. MecklerMedia has actually been producing trade shows and publications since the early 1970s, she told Newsbytes. Back then, though, the company was known as Meckler Publishing, and it focused on CD-ROM, microfilm, and other technologies used in library science and higher education. The Westport, Connecticut-based firm first stepped into the Internet arena in 1991, with the start of a newsletter also known as Internetworld. The early newsletter has since evolved into a glossy magazine that qualifies as "the number one Internet newsstand publication," with a circulation of over 260,000, according to the MecklerMedia official. The very first Internetworld trade show took place three years ago in San Jose, a site that has now become an annual tradition for MecklerMedia. "Our first show on the East Coast, held in New York City, was very small. After that, we did a small East Coast show in Washington, D.C. last year," Mazarowski recalled. "Then, at our spring show in San Jose, we expected about 17,000 people, and got 27,000. We realized, `Boom! This is finally it.'" MecklerMedia hopes that Boston will become an annual tradition for Internetworld, too, Mazarowski continued. Projected attendance is 30,000 for Internetworld Boston '95. "Now there are a lot more people who are using the Internet at home, at school, or in the workplace," she observed. The company is now planning a second show in Boston, scheduled for fall of 1996 at the John B. Hynes Convention Center, a larger venue. Right now, the only foreseeable obstacle to a 1997 show in Boston is the possibility that expected attendance will exceed the capacity of the Hynes, in the event that an even bigger convention hall has not been built in Boston by then, according to Mazarowski. MecklerMedia does not want to "split" the show between multiple halls, she contended. Last April, she noted, MecklerMedia rolled out WebWeek, a "closed circulation, ad driven weekly" about the Web. Six months later, the first international edition of the Internetworld show went up in Sydney, Australia. The initial edition of Internetworld Canada will hit Toronto in January, 1996, Newsbytes was told. Also in the 1996 to 1997 time frame, Internetworld will expand to embrace a second show in Sydney, along with first-time presentations in Mexico; Tokyo, Japan; Sao Paolo, Brazil; and Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. (Jacqueline Emigh/19951026/Reader Contact: MecklerMedia, 800- MECKLER; Press Contact: Steven Schwartz, Schwartz Public Relations for MecklerMedia, 212-677-8700) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 10/26/95 PC SAG Intros Quad-Pentium PCs/Servers With 150MHz Chips (NEWS)(PC)(BOS)(00023) SAG Intros Quad-Pentium PCs/Servers With 150MHz Chips 10/26/95 NORTH ANDOVER, MASSACHUSETTS, U.S.A., 1995 OCT 26 (NB) -- SAG Electronics' new STC-1000 PC workstations and fileservers are the first in the industry to provide quad-Pentium processing using Pentium 150 megahertz (MHz) chips, and SAG has doubled conventional throughput with a specially designed memory bus architecture, maintained Steve Santos, vice president, during a conference call with Newsbytes. "To our knowledge, there is only one other company introducing quad-Pentium at real volume, and that is ALR. We are also the first to deliver Pentium 150, and we figure we have roughly double (conventional) throughput," Santos told Newsbytes. The STC-1000 is aimed at eliminating system bottlenecks through the use of a "true 128-bit memory bus" that is interleavable to 256 bits, according to the VP. The new high-end PC workstations and file servers provide a data rate of 480 megabytes-per-second (MBps) at 60MHz, for about twice the throughput that might otherwise be expected, he elaborated. SAG also plans to offer high-end workstations and file servers that combine 180MHz Pentium chips with the STC-1000's 64-bit multiprocessor architecture and "zero wait state cache" when the faster chips become available from Intel, Santos revealed. Targeted at use in graphics, scientific, university, and Fortune 100 corporate applications, the new SMP (symmetric multiprocessor) systems are available with or without RAID (redundant array of inexpensive disks) subsystems, Santos noted. North Andover, Massachusetts-based SAG, he explained, got its start in 1987 as supplier of customized RAID disk drives, enclosures, and subsystems. Although priced at "off-the-shelf" levels, SAG's PC workstations and file servers are also configurable to meet the requirements of Windows NT, Windows 95, OS/2, Unixware, Sun Solaris, SCO Unix (Santa Cruz Operation), and SMP Netware environments, he asserted. "Over the past few years, as a result of customer demand, we have found ourselves customizing PCs and file servers, extrapolating from what we've learned in the storage world," reported Santos. SAG also markets customizable dual-Pentium machines, and systems based on Digital Equipment Corp.'s Alpha processors. One of SAG's Alpha-based severs was named "Best Overall Internet Server" in the August, 1995 issue of Byte, Santos pointed out. SAG's Pentium 120 system received "Top Honors" from NSTL this month, the VP told Newsbytes. (Jacqueline Emigh/19951026/Reader Contact: SAG Electronics, 800- 989-3475; Joyce Radnor, Spice Communications for SAG, 617-787-0521) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 10/26/95 WINDOWS Micrografx Shipping Windows Draw 4. (NEWS)(WINDOWS)(DEN)(00024) Micrografx Shipping Windows Draw 4.0 10/26/95 RICHARDSON, TEXAS, U.S.A., 1995 OCT 26 (NB) -- Micrografx Inc. (NASDAQ: MGXI) has announced it is shipping release 4.0 of Windows Draw, the program that launched Windows-based drawing programs when it appeared at the fall Comdex trade show in Las Vegas four years ago. #IMAGE 1 20 TWPCX \images\95102624.PCX Click here for photo The new version of Draw, which is a native Windows 95 application, has more of a home user flavor than its predecessor and it's also priced for the home user. Micrografx spokesperson David Wilson explained to Newsbytes that's because, while the first release of Draw was targeted at both home and business users, the company now markets its ABC Graphics Suite for the commercial market. ABC Graphics Suite, with a suggested retail price of $299.95 for new users and an upgrade cost of $149.95, includes Micrografx Designer, Micrografx Picture Publisher, ABC FlowCharter, ABC Media Manager and Instant 3D and comes with about 30,000 clip-art images. When Draw was introduced in October of 1991 it had a suggested retail price of $149. Release 4.0 is available for $49.95. Windows Draw 4.0 comes with more than 150 "professionally designed" templates to get the user started quickly on projects like banners and invitations. Clicking on a particular template automatically brings up a layout, design tips, and the necessary tools, symbols and pictures needed to personalize the project. Draw 4.0 templates include diagrams like maps, space plans, landscaping, family trees, flowcharts and organizational charts. You also get templates for calendars, business cards, letterhead, envelopes, stationery, forms and fliers. Micrografx has provided templates for banners, certificates, greeting cards, invitation and announcements, and you can create game tournament elimination brackets or cartoons. Micrografx said there are more than 30 drawing tools, over 250 available fonts and 15,000 pictures and images available in the program. Wilson said the clip-art consists of both bitmap images and vector art. Draw 4.0 has a Microsoft Office application suite interface that gives it the same "look and feel" as programs like Microsoft Word. The company said that compatibility will make users of Microsoft software immediately comfortable with Windows Draw. Draw isn't the only program Micrografx offers for the home market. Newsbytes recently reported on Hallmark Connection Card Studio, a greeting card creation program, and Crayola Art Studio 2, a program for children that Micrografx describes as "a multimedia art playroom where children can draw, color, paint, play activities and explore their creativity." Micrografx will have a presence at next month's Comdex trade show in Las Vegas, but don't look for any new products to be rolled out. The company has released upgrades to all it's software over the past two months. (Jim Mallory/19951026/Press contact: David Wilson, Micrografx, 214-994-6534; Public contact; Micrografx, 214-234-1769 or 800-676-3110/DRAW4-951026/PHOTO) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 10/26/95 TELECOM MCI Intros TTY Calling Card (NEWS)(TELECOM)(MSP)(00025) MCI Intros TTY Calling Card 10/26/95 WASHINGTON, D.C., U.S.A., 1995 OCT 26 (NB) -- MCI Corp. (NASDAQ:MCIC) will introduce a calling card for people who are deaf or hard-of- hearing. The card, called the MCI TTY (text telephone) Card, is the first of its kind, MCI officials said. Currently, there are about one million TTY units in service in homes, businesses, hotels, airports, and other locations, Jerry Nelson, MCI senior marketing manager of telecommunications relay services, told Newsbytes. "MCI believes the deaf and hard-of-hearing need to have the same kind of services that hearing people get," he said. "Because the traditional calling card does not work for the deaf and hard-of- hearing, we are creating a product that will bring the deaf and hard-of-hearing market up to par with everyone else." The TTY card is identical to other MCI long distance calling cards, except that the card is used specifically for the TTY unit, which uses a keyboard, a screen, and a telephone hookup to work. With the card, text on the screen "prompts" replace traditional audio prompted commands on how to place calls. The new card will be a part of the MCI calling card family, looking the same as the standard MCI card. The TTY Card will include many of the same features as the standard card, including speed dialing, operator services, and direct connections to MCI TeleRelay. Also, an automatic 15 percent discount is assessed every time a caller uses a MCI TTY Card to offset the typing time required for making the TTY call. TTY Card customers are also eligible for additional long-distance services from their home or office. MCI's TTY customer service representatives and TeleText operators can also be reached by using the TTY card. In addition, users don't need to use MCI long-distance services for their home or business. They can apply for a separate MCI TTY Card to take advantage of the program, officials said. The MCI TTY Card will be available in December 1995, officials said. (Bob Woods/19951026/Press Contact: Miriam Grossman, MCI, 703-902-6094, or 800-644-NEWS) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 10/26/95 ONLINE America Online Opens Web Site, "Gives Back To Net" (NEWS)(ONLINE)(MSP)(00026) America Online Opens Web Site, "Gives Back To Net" 10/26/95 VIENNA, VIRGINIA, U.S.A., 1995 OCT 26 (NB) -- As a part of the company's new Internet World Wide Web site, America Online Inc. (NASDAQ:AMER) has announced a "Give back to the Net" program, which supports the creation, maintenance, and access of Internet resources. "If we can benefit from the Net, and help members from our services, other services, and ISPs (Internet Service Providers), then more power to everybody," Miriam Grossman, America Online spokesperson, told Newsbytes. "We've benefited so much for Internet access, that we'd like to give back to Internet resources that are burdened with traffic. So we're pinpointing those resources that really need help." The Give Back program is America Online's way of supporting the Internet community by giving hardware, connectivity, mirroring, and funding to people and companies that are just entering the online world or are scaling up to meet increased demand. Already, the program has established a FTP (file transfer protocol) site called "mirrors.aol.com" that duplicates the content of several popular Internet software repositories, including the Info-Mac and University of Michigan Macintosh software archives, the Usenet FAQ (frequently asked questions) at MIT (Massachusetts Institute of Technology), and the WinSite Archive at Indiana University. "There is a lot of traffic at these sites," Grossman said, "and they need help with 'mirrors.' We'd like to be the company that helps them, because a lot of our members are benefiting" from these sites, she said. Grossman said AOL isn't specifying who will get equipment, or what companies will receive donations and for how much. But the company did say it donated to Total New York, which is sending an Internet tour through the US, and to West Ceneca Central Schools in New York state to get them hooked up to the Internet. Details on AOL's "Give Back to the Net" program can be found at the company's new Web site, located at http://www.aol.com . The new site includes a "What's Hot" area that links to other "outstanding" Web pages each day, and an "Explore" page that hyperlinks Net surfers to Internet services like Yahoo and WebCrawler. (Bob Woods/19951026/Press Contact: Miriam Grossman, America Online, 703-918-2062; Public Contact: America Online, 800-827-6364) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 10/26/95 GENERAL Thrustmaster Intros New Pinball Game Controller (NEWS)(GENERAL)(DEN)(00027) Thrustmaster Intros New Pinball Game Controller 10/26/95 PORTLAND, OREGON, U.S.A., 1995 OCT 26 (NB) -- First it was an automobile cockpit complete with steering wheel, brake pedal, and accelerator. Now Thrustmaster Inc. (NASDAQ: TMSR) has introduced a pinball game controller with flipper controls and a tilt sensor if you "hip-check" the game too hard. Readers who spent hours of their youth at a pinball machine in a gas station or a video arcade will recognize the new Wizzard Pinball Controller with its two flipper controls that attach to each side of the player's keyboard. And just like the mechanical machines, the Wizzard can "tilt" the game thanks to a custom designed optical potentiometer that senses nudging and tells the software you delivered an electronic hip-check that was just a little too vigorous. Alan Smith, marketing director at Thrustmaster, said Wizzard improves on current technology which in most games uses the left and right Control or Shift keys for flipper buttons and the Alt keys to bump the table. Bumping, for readers who aren't pinball aficionados, is a time-honored technique for encouraging the steel game balls to go where the player wants them to go rather than letting just the game's bumpers and the downhill slope of gravity to dictate the path. Users who purchase the Wizzard, with its suggested retail price of $39.95, will also get the classic pinball game Royal Flush, by Amtex Software Corporation. Royal Flush is available on CD and features the original table design with authentic sounds, scrolling and stationary playfields, table tilt and slope adjustments and high resolution video capability. Earlier this month Thrustmaster announced shipment of its new $179.95 Formula T2 driving control for use with motor racing simulation software. The T2 is analogous to a joystick for other games. It's steering console includes a steering wheel, gear shifter, two dash buttons, and a separate gas and brake pedal unit that sits on the floor. The dash buttons perform different functions depending on what specific game software you are using with the T2. The system attaches to the PC's game port via an included cable. Thrustmaster said Wizzard Pinball Controller will ship in November. (Jim Mallory/19951026/Press contact: Laura Rawlins, Thrustmaster, 503-639-3200) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 10/26/95 ONLINE GeoCities Reach 20 Million Hits Monthly (NEWS)(ONLINE)(LAX)(00028) GeoCities Reach 20 Million Hits Monthly 10/26/95 BEVERLY HILLS, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1995 OCT 26 (NB) -- Beverly Hills Internet (BHI), builder of interactive communities on the World Wide Web called GeoCities, just recorded its l0,000th resident. BHI also reported that hits accessing the site had risen to over 700,000 a day, up from 350,000 a day last month, and 50,000 a day when it launched in June. GeoCities, Web communities named after real-world landmark locations, offer a homesteading program enabling anyone with access to the Web to create their own free home page. BHI currently offers 14 advertiser-supported GeoCities such as SiliconValley, WallStreet, Hollywood, CapitolHill, and SunsetStrip. David Bohnett, president and founder of BHI, told Newsbytes, "GeoCities are home pages on the Web set up like real cities. Inside are residential neighborhoods where we have created residential addresses for our users. We give each individual who wants their own address and home page. These are free and make up the residents. Within the communities are commercial neighborhoods as well where companies market goods and services." Individuals can sign up for a Web page by browsing the Directory of GeoCities at www.geopages.com , and pick a place where they want to live. They find a vacant address, complete the application, and within minutes receive electronic-mail confirming with a password. Beverly Hills Internet plans on continuing to build online GeoCities. Each continue to be made up of residents who have their own home pages, and create their own content. While individuals get a free home page, business pay. Starting at $750 per month, a business can have a home page, billboard, and storefront. BHI guarantees over 25,000 page impressions per month for the minimum $750 service. Page impressions are actual captures, not just hits, according to Bohnert. BHI, is a privately held company based in Beverly Hills. It also creates custom designed commercial Web sites. (Richard Bowers/19951000/Press Contact: Jacobson Altman, 2l2-697-2620) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 10/26/95 BUSINESS McAfee Acquires 3 European Distribution Agents (NEWS)(BUSINESS)(LON)(00029) McAfee Acquires 3 European Distribution Agents 10/26/95 BRACKNELL, BERKSHIRE, ENGLAND, 1995 OCT 26 (NB) -- McAfee has announced the acquisition of three of its distributors in Europe -- IPE of London, Assurdata of Paris, and Kirschbaum Software of Munich in Germany -- for undisclosed sums. According to Fiona Dineen, a spokeswoman for the company, the acquisitions will allow McAfee to expand its sales, marketing and customer support operations in Europe. "This is a very interesting time for McAfee, coming after the acquisition of Brightworks and Saber Software recently. The company is moving into the business side of anti-virus software sales, after establishing itself on the consumer side with its shareware software accessible across the Internet," she told Newsbytes, adding that the company now has a 70 percent-plus market share in the anti-virus software marketplace. According to McAfee, the acquisition of the three distributors, which all previously handled the company's anti-virus software in their respective countries, will give the company sales offices in France and Germany, as well as allowing the UK distribution offices in London to act as a sales office for the company in England. Bill Larson, McAfee's president, claims that the moves strengthen the company's presence in Europe, and prepare the way for a "truly global presence." Larson added that the company has hired Peter Watkins, previously the director of SunSoft Europe, to act as vice president for the expanded international operations. "We are committed to strengthening the company's global leadership in client/server management software. Peter will play a crucial role in this effort as we expend McAfee's penetration into new and existing international markets," he explained. According to Dineen, meanwhile, the acquisitions mean that McAfee is well-placed to start promoting its anti-viral software into the corporate marketplace. "The company started back in 1989 by offering its software for download across the Internet and via online services. With these moves, McAfee is ready to start promoting itself via the dealer channel with commercial software and into the corporate market," she told Newsbytes. (Steve Gold/19951026/Press Contact: MCC International, +44-1420-542598; Reader Contact: McAfee, tel +44-1344-304730, fax +44-1344-306902) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 10/26/95 ONLINE ****Access Compuserve Without A Computer Or Modem (NEWS)(ONLINE)(SFO)(00030) ****Access Compuserve Without A Computer Or Modem 10/26/95 COLUMBUS, OHIO, U.S.A., 1995 OCT 26 (NB) -- CompuServe says its new CallingAll Card will allow members to access electronic-mail, stock quotes, the latest news and more, without a computer, a monitor, or a modem. Through collaboration with Premier Communications, CompuServe will issue a calling card which allows subscribers to access personal and select information from the online service. Using a toll-free number on a touch-tone telephone, a CallingAll Card user is able to connect to CompuServe from anywhere in the United States and in more than 40 other countries. With a private identification code, a subscriber accesses select information which is based on a user's pre-determined criteria. To receive information, the first version of CallingAll Card will allow a user to direct the desired information to a fax machine. CompuServe spokesperson, Jeff Shafer, told Newsbytes, "CallingAll Card will be available to all CompuServe members and costs $0.25 per minute. Once connected, a user will hear a menu based on preselected content. The message will say a user has six mail messages and ask if the users wants the mail faxed to a specific fax machine." He continued, "CallingAll Card is a new and evolving concept. We think it will be an invaluable tool for traveling business professionals. As it evolves, CallingAll Card will offer additional voice enhancements and eventually will be completely supported by text-to-voice technology." This means uses will have their mail read or whatever text information they request read to them. Besides electronic-mail, stock quotes and breaking news, the new service also includes fax- mail, voice-mail, conference calling, travel services, weather reports, and sports information. CompuServe says the service will be available early in 1996. (Patrick McKenna/1995/Press Contact: Jeff Shafer, CompuServe, 614-538-4632) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 10/26/95 TELECOM Ericsson Branches Out Into Telecom Book Publishing (NEWS)(TELECOM)(LON)(00031) Ericsson Branches Out Into Telecom Book Publishing 10/26/95 STOCKHOLM, SWEDEN, 1995 OCT 26 (NB) -- Ericsson, the telecoms company, has announced it is moving into book publishing, with three books released that aim to cover the history of telecoms, together with the future developments which are just around the corner. The first book -- The Mobile Phone Book -- was written by John Meurling and Richard Jeans, published by CommunicationsWeek International (ISBN 0 9524031 0 2) and costs approximately $20 at current exchange rates. According to Ericsson, the book presents the history of mobile telephony from its beginning in the 1950s to the present day. This interesting cellular "biography" claims to include many interviews with developers, researchers and specialists implementing innovations into the every-day life. This collaborate book reportedly includes experiences, ideas, and opinions from Ericsson's employees, and representatives from the telecommunications, financial, and other industries, as well as users. The second book, by Peter Rugaard, is called The Dynamic Jigsaw Puzzle, and claims to take readers to the world of cellular telephony. It presents many aspects of this commerce from different angles. The book analyzes the technical, economical, and business sides of mobile communications and will be particularly beneficial for those who want to get involved in the telecom business, especially wanting to set up a mobile network, claims the company. Important issues, which are directly related to the subject, such as licensing, tarrifing, network topologies, traffic forecasting, and choice of equipment, are widely described in the book, which includes many colored photographs and is published by Peer Rugaard (ISBN 0 9525111 0 X) and costs around $90 at current exchange rates. "A Switch in Time," is the third book that was written by authors of The Mobile Phone Book, and looks closely at developments and new achievements in the Ericsson's AXE technology. According to Ericsson, the book brings readers up-to-date on the first edition, published back in 1985, and includes the original story and the history of the last decade with regard AXE technology, growing competition, and many new technological discoveries and plans for the coming future of AXE switching systems. The book is published by CommunicationsWeek International (ISBN 0 9524031 1 0) and sells for around $40 at current exchange rates. Per Bengtsson, senior press officer for Ericsson, told Newsbytes that interested readers can order these books through their local bookstore, wherever in the world they are, by quoting the publisher and the ISBN (International Services Book Number) reference. (Sylvia Dennis/19951026/Press Contact: Per Bengtsson, Ericsson, +46-70-590-0599) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 10/26/95 BUSINESS Netherlands' KPN Multimedia Readies UK Office (NEWS)(BUSINESS)(LON)(00032) Netherlands' KPN Multimedia Readies UK Office 10/26/95 LONDON, ENGLAND, 1995 OCT 26 (NB) -- KPN Multimedia, part of the Royal Dutch Telecommunications and Postal Group, has announced plans to launch an editorial publishing group, called Planet Internet UK, in the next few months. In addition, the company is mulling over two further multimedia businesses for the UK market. Matt Fearnley, a spokesman for the company, told Newsbytes that KPN has around 15,000 subscribers in the Netherlands, split between people who are using KPN as their Internet service provider, and people who subscribe to KPN's services. "Planet Internet UK will evolve into a similar sort of publishing venture, but it's still very early days for the company," he said, adding that the company plans to launch its Internet publishing venture early in the new year. The company is also evaluating an interactive audio visual TV sampling service known as MM7, and Teleselect, a conditional access system for pay-per-view and pay-TV, and will consider the launch of these businesses during 1996. Announcing the formation of the UK company, Pieter van Hoogstraten, KPN Multimedia's chief executive officer (CEO), said that two people have been appointed to head up the UK operation: Managing Director Steve Nicholson and Marketing Director John O'Sullivan. "The UK market is one of the most exciting liberalized markets in the world. Among the new cable investments, we see KPN Multimedia driving our investment in the UK to establish a successful long-term presence," he said. Steve Nicholson claims that the level of consumer and industry interest in the Internet, and multimedia facilities, is unprecedented. "We have a clear affinity with the consumer market and we aim to develop stimulating interactive services founded on quality customer care principles and dynamic consumer marketing," he said. (Steve Gold/19951026) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 10/26/95 TRENDS Eicon Research Predicts Rapid UK ISDN Take-Up (NEWS)(TRENDS)(LON)(00033) Eicon Research Predicts Rapid UK ISDN Take-Up 10/26/95 LONDON, ENGLAND, 1995 OCT 26 (NB) -- Eicon Technology, a connectivity company that specializes in LAN (local area network) to WAN (wide area network) connectivity, claims that its research shows that, despite the high cost of connecting and renting ISDN (integrated services digital network) systems in the UK, the market for ISDN is about to take off rapidly. The reason, the company claims, is that companies have realized that ISDN can be used for switched WAN interconnects on an on-demand basis. According to Tim Smith, a spokesman for Eicon, a survey of major IT (information technology) companies with mainframes or large Unix hosts was undertaken during August on behalf of the company, and showed that 78 percent of senior network management and DP (data processing) managers questioned predicted increased usage of ISDN within their companies. Interestingly, 44 percent of companies said that they planned to purchase ISDN-linked SNA (Systems Network Architecture) gateways within the next 12 months. "This is despite the high costs of ISDN circuits in the UK, and shows that ISDN is being viewed seriously by companies," Smith told Newsbytes, adding that ISDN looks like becoming a serious option for WAN connectivity. Commenting on the figures, Dave Carew-Jones, Eicon Technology's European marketing director, said that the figures on SNA gateway purchasing plans are particularly interesting. "Whereas the number of SNA networks may not be growing, organizations are still investing heavily in those networks they already have. We believe that advances in gateways are now making it easier to give more PC users and LAN users access to mainframe data and applications," he explained. According to Carew-Jones, the second interesting conclusion is the speed with which companies are now planning to adopt ISDN for WAN communications. "These figures seem to confirm that every company of any significance will have invested in ISDN within 18 months," he said. The research, which was conducted on a random sample of 100 companies from Computer Intelligence' database, targeted those firms with more than 500 staff who have a large mainframe or Unix system, and also shows that demand for remote access products will be very strong for both the solo user and remote LAN to LAN access. According to Eicon, the demand for remote access products has been expected to rise on the back of increasing numbers of telecommuters, accessing the corporate network from either home or small, local offices, The survey shows that 59 percent of those questioned intend to purchase remote LAN access products during the next year, and 66 percent expect to purchase LAN to LAN routers in the same period -- figures which Eicon claims helps to explain the 78 percent expecting to see ISDN used more significantly. "We expected to see a strong correlation between these two figures, because ISDN is the prefect medium for remote access. This is also good news for us because, with our acquisition of G.Diehl ISDN earlier this year, we already market a strong range of ISDN remote access products," he said. (Steve Gold/19951026/Press Contact: Profile PR, +44-181-995-1595, Internet e-mail tim_smith@profile.ccmail.compuserve.com; Reader Contact: Eicon Technology, +44-181-967-8000) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 10/26/95 ONLINE ****AT&T Business Network Ready To Go (NEWS)(ONLINE)(SFO)(00034) ****AT&T Business Network Ready To Go 10/26/95 CAMBRIDGE, MASSACHUSETTS, U.S.A., 1995 OCT 26 (NB) -- AT&T says its AT&T Business Network, an added extension of AT&T Interchange Online, for business professionals, will be available on Monday, October 30. The new service provides extensive business content based on the latest news and information from providers such as CNN, The Kiplinger Washington Editors, and others. AT&T Business Network is the first product announced by the newly formed AT&T unit, AT&T New Media Services. Unlike standard online services, AT&T Interchange Network is a "platform" on which information publishers and providers offer their own custom designed and managed online services. AT&T Business Network is now one of the services available through the Interchange Network, and joins the Washington Post, Star-Tribune, and Ziff-Davis Publications as an online service through the Interchange Network. Other information providers contributing to AT&T Business Network include: The Bureau of National Affairs, Dow Jones Business Information Services, Business Travel News, Dun & Bradstreet Information Services, Entrepreneurial Edge, Gorilla Marketing International, TRW Business Information Services, and Weissmann Travel Reports. An AT&T spokesperson told Newsbytes, "We have incorporated extensive business information which cannot be found together from any other source. This is the most advanced site for business professionals to gather critical, up-to-the minute information." The new network has a monthly fee of $39.95, which includes the first 10 hours of use. Additional time is charged at $2.95 per hour. Information about AT&T Business Network is available over the telephone at 800-660-2299, or on the World Wide Web at http://www.ichange.com . AT&T Business Network requires an IBM or compatible with a 386 or higher processor running Windows 3.1, 3.11, or Windows 95. Eight megabytes (MB) of RAM are recommended, and 10MB of hard disk space are required. Users must also access the network with a modem speed of at least 9,600 bits-per-second. (Patrick McKenna/19951026) (SUMMARY)(GENERAL)(MSP)(00035) Newsbytes Daily Summary 10/26/95 MINNEAPOLIS, MINNESOTA, U.S.A., 1995 OCT 26 (NB) -- These are capsules of all today's news stories: ======================================================================== ------------| N E W S B Y T E S D A I L Y S U M M A R Y |---------- ------------| Thursday, October 26, 1995 |---------- ======================================================================== (c) Newsbytes News Network (Tm) Editor in Chief: Wendy Woods ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Newsbytes News Network's on the Web! Check out http://www.nbnn.com for free daily top stories from Newsbytes. and its affiliate publications, and from PC Week, MacWeek, and other Ziff news magazines. A subscription gives you all the news, full-text, plus the most comprehensive database of past computer stories online. The keyword-searchable database dates from today back through 1983. Subscriptions are $24.95 for three months. Questions? Send to 'administrator@newsbytes.com' For Japanese Newsbytes and additional services, see the Newsbytes Pacifica Website at http://www.islandtel.com/newsbytes/ ------------------------------------------------------------------------ CATEGORY HEADLINES (*** indicates today's top stories) STORY # ======================================================================== BUSINESS Czech Republic - TH'System On A Fast Track................. 12 BUSINESS Matsushita Licenses 3DO Video Technology................... 15 BUSINESS Japan - Strong Half Year Results Reported By Majors........ 16 BUSINESS Computer Associates Launches Africa Joint Venture.......... 18 BUSINESS IBM Canada Bid "Fair," But DMR Will Not Recommend It....... 19 BUSINESS McAfee Acquires 3 European Distribution Agents............. 29 BUSINESS Netherlands' KPN Multimedia Readies UK Office.............. 32 CHIPS China - Fully Domestic IC Card Developed................... 14 GENERAL Thrustmaster Intros New Pinball Game Controller............ 27 HEALTH Educational Channel For Doctors Makes House Calls.......... 01 IBM Czech Republic - ELKO & IBM In PC Assembly Deal............ 10 LEGAL Hong Kong Drafts Intellectual Property Law................. 13 NETWORK Microsoft Networking Over WAN Topologies................... 06 ONLINE America Online & Cap Cities/ABC To Form Fashion Channel.... 02 ONLINE Virtus Ships 3-D Web Building Software..................... 03 ONLINE Compuserve Europe Launches ISDN Access Service............. 09 ONLINE ****Internet Update....................................... 17 ONLINE ****Sybase To Announce New Products Live On Internet...... 21 ONLINE ****Internetworld In Boston Next Week, Global Sites Planne 22 ONLINE America Online Opens Web Site, "Gives Back To Net.......... 26 ONLINE GeoCities Reach 20 Million Hits Monthly.................... 28 ONLINE ****Access Compuserve Without A Computer Or Modem......... 30 ONLINE ****AT&T Business Network Ready To Go..................... 34 PC Dell & Gateway Intro Pentium 120MHz Notebooks.............. 04 PC SAG Intros Quad-Pentium PCs/Servers With 150MHz Chips...... 23 TELECOM Motorola Extends Thailand Cellular Network Facilities...... 05 TELECOM Sweden's Ericsson In Major Philippines Telecoms Deal....... 07 TELECOM Securicor Installs Major Comms Network In Ireland.......... 08 TELECOM Czech Republic - Call Centers Integrate Telephony/Computing 11 TELECOM MCI Intros TTY Calling Card................................ 25 TELECOM Ericsson Branches Out Into Telecom Book Publishing......... 31 TRENDS Eicon Research Predicts Rapid UK ISDN Take-Up.............. 33 WINDOWS Wang Shipping Open/workflow, Open/image For Windows NT..... 20 WINDOWS Micrografx Shipping Windows Draw 4.0....................... 24 ======================================================================== These are the headlines and first paragraphs of each story, in order: 1 -> Educational Channel For Doctors Makes House Calls -- PrimeNet Communications Inc., a creator of satellite television programs, has announced plans to beam professional educational programming to Canadian doctors via Canadian Satellite Communications Inc.'s (Cancom) satellite TV system. 2 -> America Online & Cap Cities/ABC To Form Fashion Channel -- The world of new fashion styles, new clothing trends, and leggy supermodels vamping down runways is opening a new post in cyberspace. Capital Cities/ABC (NYSE:CCB) and America Online (NASDAQ:AMER) will introduce a "fashion channel" on the America Online service in early 1996. 3 -> Virtus Ships 3-D Web Building Software -- The Virtus Corporation is shipping three-dimensional (3-D) Internet World Wide Web site-building software. The company said anyone with a common desktop computer can now build interactive 3-D Web sites with its new WalkThrough Pro 2.5. 4 -> Dell & Gateway Intro Pentium 120MHz Notebooks -- Dell Computer Corp. (NASDAQ: DELL) and Gateway 2000 (NASDAQ: GATE) have introduced new notebook computers that use Intel's 120 megahertz (MHz) Pentium microprocessor. 5 -> Motorola Extends Thailand Cellular Network Facilities -- Motorola has secured a major expansion and development contract with the Total Access Communications Company (TAC) of Thailand. Terms of the $160 million contract call for the expansion of the current analog network, pushing maximum subscriber levels to 400,000-plus by the end of the year. 6 -> Microsoft Networking Over WAN Topologies -- Microsoft's Multi Protocol Routing (MPR) technology is reportedly fine for servicing the needs of LAN (local area network) users, but falls down when it comes to linking into WANs (wide area networks). Eicon Technology, a remote networking company, claims it has the problem solved with its WAN Services for Windows NT V3R3 routing application, which supports MPR over WAN topologies for the first time. 7 -> Sweden's Ericsson In Major Philippines Telecoms Deal -- Ericsson has signed a major contract with the Philippine network operator, Digital Telecommunications Philippines (Digitel), for the extension of its national telecoms network. The contract is worth $59 million for the Swedish telecoms giant. 8 -> Securicor Installs Major Comms Network In Ireland -- Securicor has announced the successful installation of a UKP450,000 private mobile radio (PMR) system that blankets Ireland. According to Bernard Smith, Securicor Ireland's general manager, the PMR network forms the linchpin of a UKP1 million advanced voice and data comms network that will span Ireland, making it the most sophisticated network operational in that country. 9 -> Compuserve Europe Launches ISDN Access Service -- Confirming plans laid down earlier this year, Compuserve claims that it is first to market with ISDN (integrated services digital network) access to its online network in Europe. The company claims that its ISDN links can work at speeds of up to 57,600 bits-per-second (bps). 10 -> Czech Republic - ELKO & IBM In PC Assembly Deal -- IBM Czech Republic s.r.o. and ELKO Holding a.s. have announced that ELKO will assemble 486- and Pentium-based PCs in Prague in a quantity of 500 units per month starting in October, with output expected to reach 1,500 units per month within six months. The relationship was established to meet the demands of the price-sensitive and increasingly quality- and service-aware Czech market. 11 -> Czech Republic - Call Centers Integrate Telephony/Computing -- AT&T BCS (Business Communications Systems) sees call centers offering value-added services becoming a focal point of the products of the major information technology (IT) vendors active in Central & Eastern Europe, with the major hurdles being those with the local telcos. 12 -> Czech Republic - TH'System On A Fast Track -- TH'system, ranked among the top three distributors in CEE, held a press conference recently to announce its 5th anniversary, doubling of income and profits, preparations to open a Hungarian branch office, and opening of a new 2,000 square-meter warehouse in Ostrava. 13 -> Hong Kong Drafts Intellectual Property Law -- The Hong Kong government will formulate a draft law to ensure that Hong Kong's intellectual property laws meet the Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property (TRIPS), the Xinhua News Agency reported. 14 -> China - Fully Domestic IC Card Developed -- China's first integrated circuit (IC) card has been jointly developed by China Huaxu Golden Card Co. Ltd. and Tsinghua University. The IC card recently passed technical evaluation by an experts group organized by the Ministry of Electronics Industry (MEI) and the State Education Commission. 15 -> Matsushita Licenses 3DO Video Technology -- Matsushita Electrical Industrial Co., Ltd. (TSE:6752) has signed a memorandum of understanding with 3DO Company (NASDAQ:THDO) that will allow the Japanese company to exclusively use 3DO's 64-bit M2 graphics technology in its own products. The deal is worth over $100 million to 3DO. 16 -> Japan - Strong Half Year Results Reported By Majors -- With the half fiscal year company reporting season now underway, some of Japan's major electronics and electrical companies announced financial results for the six months to September. Despite the sluggish Japanese economy all the companies reported higher demands for electronics products and increased annual forecasts. 17 -> ****Internet Update -- In this roundup of new resources and services on the global Internet: In the news: Shuttle mission STS-73, In the news: Tokyo Motor Show, US Mint coins a new Web site, Salute horror for Halloween, For You, Jerusalem, Technology corporation index, The view from the tower, and the world, New on Usenet. 18 -> Computer Associates Launches Africa Joint Venture -- Computer Associates International Inc. (NYSE:CA) of Islandia, New York, has formed a joint venture with South African technology firm Dimension Data Holdings Ltd. The new Computer Associates Africa will be based in Johannesburg and will sell the software company's products throughout Africa, a company spokeswoman told Newsbytes. 19 -> IBM Canada Bid "Fair," But DMR Will Not Recommend It -- The board of directors of DMR Group Inc. (TSE:DR) has declined to recommend to its shareholders a takeover bid by IBM Canada Ltd. of Markham, Ontario. However, DMR called the bid "fair." 20 -> Wang Shipping Open/workflow, Open/image For Windows NT -- Wang Laboratories Inc. (NASDAQ:WANG) said it has begun shipping its Open/workflow and Open/image software for Microsoft's Windows NT operating system. The packages take advantage of Microsoft's BackOffice suite of client/server system components, Wang said. 21 -> ****Sybase To Announce New Products Live On Internet -- Database giant, Sybase (NASDAQ:SYBS) is teaming with Progressive Networks, the RealAudio voice of the Internet, to deliver a live audio broadcast to announce Sybase System 11. The hour-long, live Internet program will compliment a worldwide satellite telecast on Monday, October 30. 22 -> ****Internetworld In Boston Next Week, Global Sites Planned -- MecklerMedia's Internetworld Boston '95, set for Boston's World Trade Center next week, will be followed by a second show in Boston, plus new editions of the Web extravaganza in Canada, Japan, Mexico, Australia, Brazil, Malaysia, and northern California in 1996 and 1997, revealed MecklerMedia's Tanya Mazarowski, during a show preview for Newsbytes. 23 -> SAG Intros Quad-Pentium PCs/Servers With 150MHz Chips -- SAG Electronics' new STC-1000 PC workstations and fileservers are the first in the industry to provide quad-Pentium processing using Pentium 150 megahertz (MHz) chips, and SAG has doubled conventional throughput with a specially designed memory bus architecture, maintained Steve Santos, vice president, during a conference call with Newsbytes. 24 -> Micrografx Shipping Windows Draw 4.0 -- Micrografx Inc. (NASDAQ: MGXI) has announced it is shipping release 4.0 of Windows Draw, the program that launched Windows-based drawing programs when it appeared at the fall Comdex trade show in Las Vegas four years ago. 25 -> MCI Intros TTY Calling Card -- MCI Corp. (NASDAQ:MCIC) will introduce a calling card for people who are deaf or hard-of- hearing. The card, called the MCI TTY (text telephone) Card, is the first of its kind, MCI officials said. 26 -> America Online Opens Web Site, "Gives Back To Net -- As a part of the company's new Internet World Wide Web site, America Online Inc. (NASDAQ:AMER) has announced a "Give back to the Net" program, which supports the creation, maintenance, and access of Internet resources. 27 -> Thrustmaster Intros New Pinball Game Controller -- First it was an automobile cockpit complete with steering wheel, brake pedal, and accelerator. Now Thrustmaster Inc. (NASDAQ: TMSR) has introduced a pinball game controller with flipper controls and a tilt sensor if you "hip-check" the game too hard. 28 -> GeoCities Reach 20 Million Hits Monthly -- Beverly Hills Internet (BHI), builder of interactive communities on the World Wide Web called GeoCities, just recorded its l0,000th resident. BHI also reported that hits accessing the site had risen to over 700,000 a day, up from 350,000 a day last month, and 50,000 a day when it launched in June. 29 -> McAfee Acquires 3 European Distribution Agents -- McAfee has announced the acquisition of three of its distributors in Europe 30 -> ****Access Compuserve Without A Computer Or Modem -- CompuServe says its new CallingAll Card will allow members to access electronic-mail, stock quotes, the latest news and more, without a computer, a monitor, or a modem. Through collaboration with Premier Communications, CompuServe will issue a calling card which allows subscribers to access personal and select information from the online service. 31 -> Ericsson Branches Out Into Telecom Book Publishing -- Ericsson, the telecoms company, has announced it is moving into book publishing, with three books released that aim to cover the history of telecoms, together with the future developments which are just around the corner. 32 -> Netherlands' KPN Multimedia Readies UK Office -- KPN Multimedia, part of the Royal Dutch Telecommunications and Postal Group, has announced plans to launch an editorial publishing group, called Planet Internet UK, in the next few months. In addition, the company is mulling over two further multimedia businesses for the UK market. 33 -> Eicon Research Predicts Rapid UK ISDN Take-Up -- Eicon Technology, a connectivity company that specializes in LAN (local area network) to WAN (wide area network) connectivity, claims that its research shows that, despite the high cost of connecting and renting ISDN (integrated services digital network) systems in the UK, the market for ISDN is about to take off rapidly. The reason, the company claims, is that companies have realized that ISDN can be used for switched WAN interconnects on an on-demand basis. 34 -> ****AT&T Business Network Ready To Go -- AT&T says its AT&T Business Network, an added extension of AT&T Interchange Online, for business professionals, will be available on Monday, October 30. The new service provides extensive business content based on the latest news and information from providers such as CNN, The Kiplinger Washington Editors, and others. (Ian Stokell/19951026) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 10/25/95 GENERAL Nintendo Cuts Virtual Boy Price, Intros New Games (NEWS)(GENERAL)(DEN)(00001) Nintendo Cuts Virtual Boy Price, Intros New Games 10/25/95 REDMOND, WASHINGTON, U.S.A., 1995 OCT 25 (NB) -- Nintendo of America has announced a $20 reduction in the price of its Virtual Boy video game system. The price cut makes the suggested retail price of Virtual Boy $159.95. Virtual Boy is a RISC (reduced instruction set computing)-based 32-bit game system that uses two high-resolution mirror-scanning light emitting diode (LED) displays to produce a three-dimensional effect. The company says the design of the system immerses the player into the game and eliminates most external stimuli, much like the larger-scale virtual reality games do. Virtual Boy runs on six AA batteries, with an AC adapter scheduled for later availability as an optional item. Nintendo also offers rental of the Virtual Boy game, and the company reports that more than 40,000 people each day rent a unit at their local Blockbuster Video store. In conjunction with the price cut, Nintendo has also announced five more games for Virtual Boy, and one for the Nintendo Ultra 64 video game system that's scheduled for release next year. By the end of October, Mario's Clash is expected to be on retail shelves, with Mario Land and Golf available in November, and Vertical Force and Panic Bomber debuting in early December. Star Wars: Shadows of the Empire for the Ultra 64 is scheduled to ship by mid-1996. Mario's Clash is an eight-megabit action/adventure game for a single player. Nintendo said the game is intended for kids to adults age six and up. Clash is based on the early Mario Brothers arcade games and features all-directional scrolling. There are 99 levels of gameplay as the player navigates Mario's Clash through an system of pipes and platforms in the House of Clash, which is working with Mario's enemies. Dangers include falling icicles, projectile iron balls, and fire clouds. You get a new life when you reach 50,000 and 100,000 points. Clash has a suggested retail price of $39.95. Star Wars: Shadows of the Empire for the Ultra 64 video game system is set in the time between The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi. The player confronts infamous characters like Jabba the Hutt, Darth Vader, and even the Emperor himself. Nintendo teamed with film maker George Lucas's company, LucasArts, to produce the Star Wars game. The game is part of a multimedia rollout that also includes a novel from Bantam Books and a comic series from Dark Horse Comics. Also planned is a trading card series. Nintendo said the Ultra 64 will be available for home use in the Spring of 1996 with a suggested retail price of under $250. Nintendo maintains a presence on the World Wide Web at http://www.nintendo.com , as well as America Online (keyword: Nintendo). (Jim Mallory/19951024/Press contact: Alison Holt Brummelkamp, Golin Harris for Nintendo, 213-623-4200; Public contact: Web site at http://www.nintendo.com ) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 10/25/95 UNIX Silicon Graphics' "On-The-Fly" Web Page Package (NEWS)(UNIX)(LON)(00002) Silicon Graphics' "On-The-Fly" Web Page Package 10/25/95 READING, BERKSHIRE, ENGLAND, 1995 OCT 25 (NB) -- Silicon Graphics has announced MindShare Outbox, an Iris-based (Silicon Graphics' Unix variant) software package that uses Web technology to allow people to share information within organizations. Andrew Spybey, a spokesman for Silicon Graphics' UK operation, told Newsbytes that the package is being bundled free of charge with the company's workstations and allows users to automatically generate a Web-style personal "home page" that can be hyperlinked to any data type access on PC, Apple Mac, or Unix platforms. In use, the data is converted "on-the-fly" by the software and "shown" to the user, usually on a network link, as a Web page. This is an important differentiating factor between Web creation applications and MindShare Outbox, since the package does not physically create a Web page on disk, but merely represents the available data to the caller as if it were a Web page, Newsbytes notes. The idea behind the package is that colleagues on the network can look up the resultant information using any standard Web browser. The data can be updated in real time, so presenting an always-current database for the user, accessible around the clock and around the world. "Companies everywhere have realized the vast potential of the Web to enhance communication between themselves and the outside world," explained Andrew Cresci, Silicon Graphics' UK marketing manager. "With MindShare Outbox, these same companies can now utilize the Web to serve as a dynamic communications medium within their organizations. The package is the first drag-and-drop desktop Web publishing tool to unleash the power of internal networks by enabling quick and easy `out of box' workgroup collaboration," he said. According to Silicon Graphics' Spybey, the package is ideal for using data sharing behind an Internet firewall, and draws on the technology behind Silicon Graphics' WebMagic HTML (hypertext markup language) editor software. (Steve Gold/19951024/Press Contact: Hunt Thompson, +44-171-872-5636, Internet e-mail huntthompson@cix.compulink.co.uk; Reader Contact: Silicon Graphics, tel +44-1734-257500, fax +44-1734-257569) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 10/25/95 TRENDS ****Computer Crimes Greater Than Expected, Increasing (NEWS)(TRENDS)(SFO)(00003) ****Computer Crimes Greater Than Expected, Increasing 10/25/95 EAST LANSING, MICHIGAN, U.S.A., 1995 OCT 25 (NB) -- Professor David Carter, faculty member of Michigan State University (MSU), says 98.6% of businesses in his nationwide survey have been victims of computer crime. More than 43.3% of the 200 survey respondents say they were victimized in excess of 25 times. Carter's study indicates that electronic theft, the introduction of viruses, and personal harassment are the most common crimes. Electronic theft involves credit card theft, telecommunications theft, unauthorized access to computer data, cellular phone fraud, and theft of business secrets and personnel data. The MSU study involved banks, savings and loans, large corporations, and various retail businesses nationwide. Speaking to Newsbytes, Dr. Carter, said, "A lot of computer theft and fraud occurs around intellectual property as opposed to direct theft of money. I think that is because there are greater security efforts attached to financial transactions. We need to extend and increase security at all levels of computer use." The survey also reports the average business fraud involving computers averages $500,000 per incident, while non-computer related thefts average $23,000. Carter also said it is often difficult to place a dollar value on intellectual property such as client lists and product information, but he did site a British banking study which estimated computer fraud worldwide at $22.4 million each day for a total of $8 billion per year. According to the MSU study, most common thefts were committed by employees and contract workers, but the study also noted a substantial rise in computer hackers, and Carter said other studies indicate a growing threat from organized crime groups in Eastern Europe. As the computer boom continues in home and business sales, Carter says problems of computer theft, fraud, and viruses are expected to increase and need to be addressed immediately. His proposed first step is to increase computer training, stressing responsibilities and security issues for all employees. Secondly, he says the industry trend to address security of stored and transmitted data must be heightened even further with thorough screening of personnel, better supervision, systems monitoring, compartmentalizing critical information, increased use of cryptography, and regular changes of passwords used to access protected data. Among the most common abuses reported in the survey were credit card fraud and telecommunications fraud, with 96.6% of those surveyed reporting those abuses. Other areas included: employee use of company computer equipment for personal reasons at 96%; unauthorized access to computer files for "snooping" at 95.1%; cellular phone fraud at 94.5%; and unlicensed copying of licensed software at 91.2%. The study shows internal business data such as trade secrets, money, new product plans, product descriptions, employee records, client information, and pricing strategies, have increased dramatically over the past five years. Describing computer harassment, Carter said sexual harassment was quite common, but companies often receive harassment in a different way. For example, a person who is disgruntled with a company might send a message within a company network telling someone to call everyone on a particular client list, or a hacker can change a phone number listed on a World Wide Web site to create problems for the company. "This type of harassment can be almost harmless or cost a company thousands of dollars," explained Carter. (Patrick McKenna/19951024/Press Contact: Ron Collins, MSU, 517-355-2281) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 10/25/95 BROADCAST Skyphone's Encrypted Fax/Data/Voice Call Services (NEWS)(BROADCAST)(LON)(00004) Skyphone's Encrypted Fax/Data/Voice Call Services 10/25/95 LONDON, ENGLAND, 1995 OCT 25 (NB) -- Skyphone, the satellite phone consortium owned and operated by British Telecom, Singapore Telecom, and Telnor International (formerly Norwegian Telcom), has announced an enhancement to its analog voice, data, and fax service from aircraft -- encrypted call facilities. Skyphone offers air-to-ground, as well as ground-to-air calls and has been operating for the past year on a growing number of airlines. Since the system is analog, ordinary voice calls pass as if the call were being processed across an analog cellphone link. Fax calls carry using standard Group 3 fax transmissions, but stepped down to 2,400 bits-per-second (bps) because of the limited audio bandwidth available. Data calls, meanwhile, are processed using 2,400 bps modem carrier technology. This is why Skyphone can introduce encryption so easily to the mix. Voice and fax calls are digitized and fed to the 2,400 bps modem via a Cylink encryption system. The resultant modem carrier then carries across the available satellite channels and is received by a 2,400 bps modem on the ground, where it is decrypted using a second Cylink system. All this happens transparently as far as the caller is concerned. According to Julian Wright, a spokesman for Skyphone, the encrypted call service, which is an option on all calls, will be introduced on Skyphone Ground Earth Stations (GESs) serving the Atlantic Ocean region (AOR), which runs from the Pacific to the Persian Gulf. "Secure service in the Indian Ocean Region (IOR) and Pacific Ocean region (POR) will follow later this month," Wright told Newsbytes. According to Wright, the encryption service is ideally suited to airlines who want to guarantee the privacy of sensitive airborne operational data transmissions -- as well as business customer calls. Commenting on the introduction of encryption to Skyphone's services, Aeronautical Systems Manager David Kennedy said that the more established that aircraft-based satellite communications becomes, so the needs of the market become more sophisticated. "We're responding to that need in a way that keeps our call charges unchanged, call set-up simple, and call security high. The only extra element required is to have approved, secure hardware on board both the plane and on the ground," he explained. (Steve Gold/19951024/Press Contact: Spec Communications, tel +44-1494-680555, fax +44-1494-680550, Internet e-mail bill@spec.demon.co.uk; Reader Contact: Skyphone, tel +44-171-492-4978, fax +44-171-492-4633) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 10/25/95 WINDOWS German Firm Offers Low-Cost Pro Music Composing Software (NEWS)(WINDOWS)(LON)(00005) German Firm Offers Low-Cost Pro Music Composing Software 10/25/95 CLAVERDON, WARWICKSHIRE, ENGLAND, 1995 OCT 25 (NB) -- Capella Music Notation, a German music software house, has announced the availability of Capella 2.1, a UKP119 music editing and annotation package for the PC-Windows environment. The company has signed distribution agreements with companies in the Czech Republic, the Netherlands, and Software Partners in the UK. According to Richard Blundell, a spokesman for Software Partners, the company is also looking to distribute the package in the US. Blundell told Newsbytes that Capella 2.1 for Windows is pitched at the layperson and professional musician alike. "The German price is around the UKP140 mark, but the package is cheaper in the UK market as the company wanted to offer the software for anyone with an interest in music," he explained. According to Blundell, Capella 2.1 for Windows is an "uncomplicated music printing system" that combines "outstanding graphics and layout with a simplicity of use and a rapid operating speed," all at an "affordable" price. "The package needs an 80486-based PC with four megabytes (MB) of memory and around 2MB of hard disk space, but it's key advantage over the competition, most of which is much more highly priced, is that its very fast and has a graphical user interface," he told Newsbytes. "My own system is a 40 megahertz (MHz) 80486-based machine and this is fast enough for most applications under Capella, but for really large files, some of our users have reported that a Pentium-based system may be the best option," he said, adding that CD-ROM-based and Windows 95-based versions of the software are under "active development." The Capella range of software was developed by Professor Hartmut Ring, a computer graphics and software technology export at the University of Siegen in Germany. Ring is also the author of several best-selling books on programming in Germany. Musical advice on the project was given by a range of professional musicians in Germany who, according to Blundell, not only took the input from their choir directors, music teachers, and arrangers, but suggestions from users of earlier versions of the software. In use, the package presents a keyboard along the bottom half of the screen, and a set of musical annotations along the top half. The commands can be entered using the PC keyboard or using a mouse. According to Blundell, regular users tend use the PC keyboard for controlling the software, while occasional users are better suited to mouse input and control. In total there are four different methods of entering music, including the mouse and keyboard systems already outlined, as well as using a musical keyboard template that fits over a PC keyboard, and a MIDI (musical instrument digital interface) link option for MIDI-compatible instruments. For multi-part music playback, the package needs a Windows compatible sound card, although a single part can be played through a PC's loudspeaker. Music can also be exported as a MIDI file. According to Blundell, the package can print sheet music in a high quality format using a dot-matrix or laser printer, and the dimensions of the score can be varied from "pocket size" to "very large" for primary school users. Any TrueType font can be used to add text to the score, and Capella already comes with 35 score designs. (Steve Gold/19951024/Press & Reader Contact: WHC Musik Software, tel +49-5608-3923, fax +49-5608-4651; Software Partners, tel +44-1926-842998, fax +44-1926-842384) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 10/25/95 BUSINESS Pearson & Matra Sell Europe Online Shares To Veba (NEWS)(BUSINESS)(LON)(00006) Pearson & Matra Sell Europe Online Shares To Veba 10/25/95 LUXEMBOURG, 1995 OCT 25 (NB) -- Pearson and Matra-Hachette have announced plans to sell their stakes in Europe Online, an online publishing venture created with a third company, Burda Verlag of Germany, to Veba, the German information technology (IT) company. Burda Verlag is retaining its shares in the venture, Newsbytes understands. According to Europe Online, the sell-off has nothing to do with a European Commission (EC) investigation into Europe Online announced a few months ago. The preliminary investigation, which has since been dropped by the EC, aimed to investigate whether the multi-country alliance would be too powerful in Europe's new online industry. Europe Online claims that the deal is entirely amicable, and stems from a difference in direction between Matra-Hachette and the other partners. Pearson, meanwhile, has stated its intention of being an information provider, rather than a shareholder, in the new online service. Veba will acquire the unspecified volume of shares, for an unspecified amount of money, later this year. Burda, meanwhile, will remain the major shareholder in the joint venture company, which has yet to announced its plans for operations. As reported last month, Vebacom, Veba's subsidiary company, had already contracted to take up to a 10 percent stage in Europe Online and was discussing the possibility of acquiring a larger investment from the existing shareholders. Newsbytes predicted at the time that the two main shareholders in Europe Online -- Pearson in the UK and Matra Hachette in France -- would reduce their shares to allow Vebacom to come on board. (Sylvia Dennis/19951024/Press & Reader Contact: Vebacom, tel +49-211-45790, fax +49-211-4579-599) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 10/25/95 TELECOM Russian Telecom Giant To Be Privatized (NEWS)(TELECOM)(LON)(00007) Russian Telecom Giant To Be Privatized 10/25/95 MOSCOW, RUSSIA, 1995 OCT 25 (NB) -- The Russian Government has announced plans to privatize Svyazinvest, the state-owned telecoms holding company. According to Macksim Boyko, head of the Russian Privatization Bureau, 25 percent of the company will be sold off to a major investor. During 1996, a further 24 percent of the company will be offered to the public, both in Russia and abroad. Boyko told journalists that the winning bidder for the first tranche of shares will pay at least a million roubles for each of the 1.9 million shares, and invest around $400 per share in the company. The first stage of the deal alone will generate around $770 million for the Russian Government, analysts note, with a probable price tag for the 49 percent stake selloff of around the $2 billion mark. Analysts have accused the Russian Government of rushing the privatization through too quickly. Boyko has dismissed such suggestions, claiming that the plan is in line with major potential investors the Government has discussed the plan with. He claims that at least 20 percent of the first stage investment of $400 per share must be made within 30 days of the deal being secure, with the remaining 80 percent staged over the next two years. Industry watchers have suggested that the first stage of the deal may already be cut and dried, as Boyko has suggested that the bidders will probably be limited to Western telecoms companies. He claims that the Privatization Bureau has already written to 12 such companies and asked for their preliminary response. So far, Boyko claims that six companies have expressed an interest and have set up working parties to discuss the tender. Surprisingly, Boyko said last week that he expects the bulk of tenders to be in by the end of this month, after which the winner will be selected purely on price, after a series of private discussions with the companies concerned. The deal is the biggest privatization of its kind in Russia, outside of the oil sector. Newsbytes notes that Svyazinvest has a 51 percent stake in around 85 telecom companies scattered around Russia, making it a major "catch" for any Western telco, which would almost certainly be able to secure the lion's share of international telecoms switching in Russia. "We believe the Svyazinvest transaction offers a unique opportunity for Western telecommunications companies to come into Russia in a big, big way," Boyko told reporters when announcing the deal. "The ambition is to set up a significantly higher value for Svyazinvest than what has been achieved so far in many privatization transactions," he explained. According to Boyko, the Privatization Bureau is preparing the deal to be handled by a consortium of international merchant banks, including NM Rothschild, Barings, KPMG, and others. These banks, he said, will sell the shares in the company and develop an investment program. Newsbytes notes that Svyazinvest's charter capital exceeds R7,700 billion and has control of around 20 million of the 25.5 million phone lines currently installed in Russia. (Sylvia Dennis/19951024) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 10/25/95 PC TI Intros MicroLaser Printer For SOHO Market (NEWS)(PC)(DEN)(00008) TI Intros MicroLaser Printer For SOHO Market 10/25/95 DALLAS, TEXAS, U.S.A., 1995 OCT 25 (NB) -- Texas Instruments Inc. (NYSE: TXN) has introduced a new member of its MicroLaser printer family that is intended specifically for the small office/home office (SOHO) market where a Windows-based PC is in use. The company said the printer is positioned to compete with Hewlett Packard's LaserJet 5P. #IMAGE 1 20 TWPCX \images\95102508.PCX Click here for photo The MicroLaser Win/4 is a 600 by 600 dots-per-inch (dpi) resolution unit that can print up to four pages-per-minute (ppm). It weighs 11 pounds, has a 12-inch by 11-inch footprint and is 8-inches high. TI spokesperson Jerry Rycaj told Newsbytes the Win/4 is a more "toaster" oriented unit than most printers, with document feed and output bins positioned vertically, making it the "smallest laser printer available today by a factor of at least 25 percent." The Win/4 can also output horizontally on the desktop. A 100-sheet paper bin feeds the straight-through paper path. That lets the user print, not just on regular paper, but also on stiffer stock like envelopes, transparencies, label sheets, and cards. The printer ships with a TI toner cartridge that has an estimated life of 2,000 pages at four percent coverage. Rycaj said that's about to half to three-quarters of a printed page. You also get a drum cartridge that TI said has a life of about 20,000 pages. The toner cartridge has a list price of $69, while the drum cartridge price tag is $99. The printer has an estimated street price of under $450, said TI. To use the MicroLaser Win/4 laser printer you need at least a 25 megahertz (MHz) 486-based PC running Windows 3.1, Windows for Workgroups 3.11, or Windows 95. TI said the printer has an estimated street price of about $449. TI first introduced its MicroLaser product line in early 1992 with the 9ppm MicroLaser Turbo and the 16ppm XL Turbo. Late last year the 12ppm PowerPro joined the product line to compete with Hewlett Packard's LaserJet 4M Plus. The MicroLaser 600, a 5ppm system, was introduced in November, 1994. TI maintains a home page on the World Wide Web at http://www.ti.com ) (Jim Mallory/19951024/Press contact: Jerry Rycaj, Texas Instruments, 817-774-6110; Public contact: Texas Instruments, 800-848-3927/WIN4-951025/PHOTO) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 10/25/95 TRENDS Novell Reveals More Netware Telephony Plans (NEWS)(TRENDS)(DEN)(00009) Novell Reveals More Netware Telephony Plans 10/25/95 OREM, UTAH, U.S.A., 1995 OCT 25 (NB) -- Novell Inc. (NASDAQ: NOVL) has outlined more of its long-term plans for its Netware Telephony Services (NTS) and Telephony Services API (applications programming interface), or TSAPI. The plans include new products, technologies, and programs. NTS connects telephone and computer networks, allowing users to control their telephone equipment using a personal computer. Novell plans to integrate voice services into the NTS platform through an open API and shared voice hardware architecture to provide services like speech recognition and text-to-speech, and voice applications such as an interactive voice response and voice-mail. Novell said it will publish the voice platform API specification in the first quarter of 1996 so developers can start planning and developing applications that utilize features such as tone generation and detection, and audio record and playback. During the second half of 1996 the company will deliver those services as part of the NTS platform. Novell has released a specification for the common features of NTS switch drivers. Applications using that specification as an implementation guide will be compatible with any telephone switches with drivers written to conform to the specification. Novell said that specification will be the basis for a new testing program that will kick off before the end of the first quarter of 1996. Novell has opened a testing lab at its San Jose, California, facility where switch manufacturers can install equipment for use by developers who want to integrate and test extended features of a variety of switches. The company has also released a dynamic data exchange (DDE) specification designed to standardize common telephony middleware features. Novell said the spec can be used by DDE-compatible applications as a high level alternative to access NTS call control capabilities. Later in 1996, Novell plans to extend NTS call control services to deliver advanced features like call/data correlator, which allows synchronized transfer of a call as well as the data needed for the call. It's also working on a new middleware CTI platform being developed under the code name CPS. CPS will be a tool to simplify integration of existing and future CTI applications. Included in CPS will be point-and-click telephone control extensions to Groupwise, cc:Mail, Microsoft Mail, PerfectOffice, and Microsoft Office. Early next year, Novell will detail its plans for remote access to NTS to deliver access to corporate telephone switch services like long distance access, conferencing, transfer, and screen pop. It's also working on integration of public data and telephone networks in the Netware Connect Services networking infrastructure. Novell said it will make some partnership and product announcements at the Second Annual TSAPI conference being held in San Francisco this week. Novell is one of the conference sponsors. (Jim Mallory/19951024/Press contact: Amanda Berman, Alexander Communications for Novell, 415-923-9863) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 10/25/95 APPLE Claris Ships Apple's Internet Kit, Oracle Objects (NEWS)(APPLE)(SFO)(00010) Claris Ships Apple's Internet Kit, Oracle Objects 10/25/95 SANTA CLARA, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1995 OCT 25 (NB) -- Following recent announcements from Apple Computer Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL), Claris, a developer and vendor of Macintosh and Windows software, says it is shipping the Apple Internet Connection Kit and Oracle Power Objects for Windows or Mac. Along with its retail channel strength, Claris will also move the products through its ClarisPlus volume licensing program. The Apple Internet Connection Kit addresses the difficulty Mac users encounter setting-up their computers for Internet use, claims the company. Apple said its customers were having to piece-together a number of separate programs to create a desktop with full Internet features. The kit is a bundle of programs which allow users to send and receive electronic-mail, connect to and browse the Internet, download data, view images, and hear audio transmissions. The entire kit has a suggested retail price of $59. Along with Claris' Emailer Lite, the kit contains Netscape Communications' Netscape Navigator, Progressive Networks' Real Audio Player, and other third-party applications. Apple's Apple Guide software provides online assistance to help novice and advanced users. The second product, Oracle Power Objects is a visual programming tool which is expected to bring more client/server applications to the Macintosh environment. With either a Windows or a Mac version of Power Objects, developers are able to create programs for both platforms simultaneously with no modification of code. In view of recent difficulties at Apple, some analysts have suggested software developers of Macintosh programs are moving their titles to the Windows environment where there is a larger audience of potential customers. Oracle Power Objects allows developers to protect their investment by writing a program just one time for both platforms. The announcement from Claris, a subsidiary of Apple, reflects a growing trend within Apple to use Claris to market its products. A Claris spokesperson told Newsbytes, "We have done a really good job bringing Apple's products to market. By directing the marketing and selling of its products to us, Apple is able to focus on other elements of its business strategy such as hardware and custom markets." (Patrick McKenna/19951024/Press Contact: Steve Ruddock, Claris, 408-987-7202) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 10/25/95 ONLINE Compuserve Shows Travelers "A Better Way To Go" (NEWS)(ONLINE)(MSP)(00011) Compuserve Shows Travelers "A Better Way To Go" 10/25/95 COLUMBUS, OHIO, U.S.A., 1995 OCT 25 (NB) -- Before venturing out onto the highways of the land, members of Compuserve can now get directions on how to get from here to there via the online network's "superhighway." A new service, dubbed "Way To Go Compuserve" provides turn-by-turn directions between points of interest, along with a complete directory of addresses and special attractions in any given region. Way To Go is a product of SEI Information Technology. Using the new service, Compuserve members can access a listing of hotels, restaurants, shopping centers, gas stations, automatic teller machines (ATMs), and dozens of other points-of-interest. It also provides graphical maps that include a range of streets from interstate highways to residential side streets, and the ability to explore business types within a geographic area. "We want to provide unique services to our members" like getting specific travel information via Compuserve, Jeff Shafer, Compuserve spokesperson, told Newsbytes. "We're giving them something they can use in ordinary life. This is a broad based service that has a lot of mass appeal." Commenting on a Newsbytes question about this service being uncommon on online services, Shafer said "the more services we can provide that people don't expect, the more valuable our service becomes." Shafer also said the Way To Go service is different from traditional services provided from companies like the American Automobile Association (AAA) because "online technology allows instantaneous data updates, instant access, and access from anywhere, given the right hardware." Way To Go, which Compuserve officials say is the "first" time an online service has offered this kind of service, will be available November 8, Shafer said, with no additional charges to Compuserve members beyond normal subscription and hourly fees. Initially, Way To Go will cover Atlanta, Chicago (and its tri-state region), Detroit, Indianapolis, Las Vegas, New York City (and its tri-state region), Seattle, and all of Florida and California. (Bob Woods/19951024/Press Contacts: Jeff Shafer or Michelle Moran, 614-538-4632 or 614-538-3497 respectively, of Compuserve; Peg Herbst, SEI Information Technology, 312-440-8383) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 10/25/95 BUSINESS Daewoo Electronics Enters Chinese Market (NEWS)(BUSINESS)(PEK)(00012) Daewoo Electronics Enters Chinese Market 10/25/95 BEIJING, CHINA, 1995 OCT 25 (NB) -- Daewoo Electronics, one of the six major industrial branches of the South Korean Daewoo Group, plans to input $100 million into China for four joint ventures, including a color TV plant, according to a senior company official. The location of the color TV plant is not yet decided. The company official spoke at the opening of a sales outlet for Daewoo television and stereo systems in Beijing recently. Daewoo Electronics opened offices in Beijing and Shanghai in May of this year, and the outlet marks the entry of Daewoo electronics into Chinese market, the company official said. Daewoo Electronics generated a worldwide sales value of US$3.2 billion last year. Daewoo wants to be a leader in the large Chinese market, the company official said, despite fierce competition in home electronics from Chinese and Japanese manufacturers. Daewoo Electronics' has five projects in China with a total investment of US$51 million, the official said. These include: a stereo system plant in Shenzhen with a designed annual production value of US$13 million; a Tianjin company producing US$30 million-worth of automobile stereo systems; and a factory making computer monitors in Weihai city of Shangdong province with an annual output of US$30 million. The products of these ventures will be exported, the company official said. (Chih-Ho Yu & Ning Huang/19951024) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 10/25/95 TELECOM China - Public Phones Increase Dramatically (NEWS)(TELECOM)(PEK)(00013) China - Public Phones Increase Dramatically 10/25/95 BEIJING, CHINA, 1995 OCT 25 (NB) -- In response to a rapidly growing public demand for telecommunications services, more than 270,000 public telephones were installed in the first eight months of this year, according to statistics from Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications (MPT). Just four years ago, China had a total of 53,800 public phones nationwide, which is only eight percent of the current figure, 655,800. MPT's statistics show that, among the present 655,000 public phones, about 30,000 are magnetic card phones. The phone cards, usable nationwide, are issued by the ministry's Directorate General of Telecommunications. However, it is still not easy to find places, usually post offices, where you can purchase the magnetic cards. Magnetic card phones are claimed to serve the public better than some public phones staffed with operators. Proponents argue that, at the very least, magnetic card phones will not charge too much for calls or raise prices/fees at will, like some staffed public phones do. The ministry has made it a priority to install public phones in such public places as railway stations, airports, and shopping areas. Despite the recent explosion in the number of public phones in China, the country's current phone coverage remains relatively low. Even in the cities, not every family has a telephone. In Sichuan, the country's most populous province with more than 100 million people, 6,380 new public phones have been installed in the first eight months of this year. During the same period, Liaoning installed 5,400 public phones, and Guangdong 2,800, the ministry's statistics show. (Chih-Ho Yu & Ning Huang/19951021) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 10/25/95 BUSINESS China - Great Wall & IBM Cooperation Benefits Both (NEWS)(BUSINESS)(PEK)(00014) China - Great Wall & IBM Cooperation Benefits Both 10/25/95 BEIJING, CHINA, 1995 OCT 25 (NB) -- China's leading computer firm, Great Wall Group, and the world computer giant, IBM, have signed an agreement to further tap the Chinese computer market. China Great Wall Computer Group is the biggest domestic producer and seller of computers, and its cooperation with IBM is seen as being successful. The company has set up two joint ventures with IBM in the Shenzhen Special Economic Zone. The first joint venture was established about 18 month ago to produce IBM/Great Wall (IBM-made-in-China) computers. In the PC joint venture, engineers compare and evaluate design procedures from assembly lines every day to improve their China-made products, officials with Great Wall Computer Group said. The second venture, manufacturing electronic cards for computers and disk-drives, opened only recently. IBM has a dozen cooperative projects in China, including hardware, software, and network development, pieces of the so-called Golden Card project, and applications. In 1995, IBM China's sales volume is expected to reach US$400 million, officials with IBM China estimated. This year, IBM will also produce US$100 million in materials from China to support its worldwide subsidiaries, the company said. Purchasing from China started two or three years ago and growth is expanding quickly. In 1993, the firm purchased $300 million in products from China and the following year, $70 million, according to IBM China. (Chih-Ho Yu & Ning Huang/19951021) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 10/25/95 BUSINESS Intel Plans Thailand Office (NEWS)(BUSINESS)(HKG)(00015) Intel Plans Thailand Office 10/25/95 BANGKOK, THAILAND, 1995 OCT 25 (NB) -- Intel Corporation plans to open a subsidiary office in Thailand early next year, the Vice President of Intel International and Director for Emerging Markets Rob Eckelmann has confirmed. Intel's primary business is as the world's leading supplier of microprocessors used in personal computers, but the company also makes videoconferencing products and high-speed network cards, along with other semiconductor products. Intel also has a range of PC enhancement products, and produces the Triton chipset that complements the CPU (central processing unit) as well as complete high-end motherboards for PCs. With test and assembly facilities in Penang, Malaysia, and in Manila, Philippines, it is expected that its Thai subsidiary will serve primarily as a sales and marketing outlet. It will open in the first quarter of next year, Eckelmann said. Intel already has sales and marketing offices in Singapore, Hong Kong, Australia, Taiwan, Korea, India, and China. (Tony Waltham and Post Database-Bangkok Post/19951024) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 10/25/95 TELECOM Thailand Telecom Group To Expand (NEWS)(TELECOM)(HKG)(00016) Thailand Telecom Group To Expand 10/25/95 BANGKOK, THAILAND, 1995 OCT 25 (NB) -- Leading telecommunications player, the Samart Group, is forming two new subsidiaries, Samart Electronic Commerce Company and POSnet, to address the rapidly growing markets of EDI (electronic data interchange) and electronic-mail, as well as electronic funds transfer, point-of-sales and smart cards, according to Samart Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Charnchai Charuvastr. The company also plans to become an Internet service provider in the coming three months, where it hopes to be able to leverage some of its existing 300-400 VSAT (very small aperture terminal) accounts, as well as offering public access in a venture that will be formed with the Communications Authority of Thailand. Another area the company is addressing is mobile computing, with plans to manufacture a personal digital assistant (PDA) with wireless capabilities using Australian technology, he said. Much of these new opportunities stem from the company's aggressive approach to re-engineering, instituted by CEO Charnchai, who said that the Group's business strategies were towards electronic commerce and "electronic living." Samart intends to offer value-added services in these sectors, and to bring computer and telecommunications technology to help customers in re-engineering their own businesses, offering services as re-engineering consulting. The POSnet venture intends to provide a point-of-sales network that banks and retailers can share, that will be operated by Samart, he said. (Tony Waltham and Post Database-Bangkok Post/19951024) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 10/25/95 GOVT Thailand Govt To Boost IT Spending (NEWS)(GOVT)(HKG)(00017) Thailand Govt To Boost IT Spending 10/25/95 BANGKOK, THAILAND, 1995 OCT 25 (NB) -- The Thailand Cabinet has agreed in principle to allocate a 2,185.5 million baht (US$87.5 million) budget to increase computer literacy among students and improve computer curricula over the coming five years. The plan was proposed by the University Affairs Ministry with the objective to add an additional 4,662 computer students during the period of 1996-2002. These are to be separated as 2,769 in computer science, 1,613 in computer engineering, and 280 in business computer curriculum. The ministry also proposed to import computer experts from other countries to provide knowledge and experience for local residents. The approval demonstrates that the Government sees a shortage of information technology (IT) manpower as a critical problem. Recent research done by the National Information Technology Policy's sub-committee on IT human resource development pointed out that the shortage of IT manpower in Thailand has reached a critical point. The most serious problem is that of under-qualified teachers. "Importing IT experts from other countries to teach students here would help solve the short-term problem. We have to improve the IT syllabus and equipment at colleges and universities," said the report. Demand has increased and has been exceeding supply. It is forecast that, by next year, the demand for IT personnel will exceed supply by about 10,000 people, and if the trend continues the number will increase to over 15,000 by the year 2001. The study by the sub-committee shows that a critical shortage of almost all types of technical and managerial manpower must be "urgently eliminated." The greatest shortfall of all at the moment is in the field of software and telecommunications engineers and technicians. (Tony Waltham and Post Database-Bangkok Post/19951024) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 10/25/95 NETWORK LANart Unveils Net Port Switching Technology (NEWS)(NETWORK)(LON)(00018) LANart Unveils Net Port Switching Technology 10/25/95 CAMBRIDGE, ENGLAND, 1995 OCT 25 (NB) -- LANart International has announced Segway, a network port switch. The company claims that the product is unique in the market in being able to dynamically allocated network bandwidth to local area network (LAN) users before the data channels are linked to the network proper. According to Russell Parker, a spokesman for the company, the system consists of two parts: a master and a slave unit. The master interfaces between the network and allocates eight 10 megabyte (MB) pipes to the slave unit, which divides the channels between as many as 120 users on slave unit. The idea is that heavy LAN users are allocated their own dedicated 10MB bandwidth channel. Occasional users, meanwhile, are grouped together on a single 10MB channel so their needs can be catered for. Four users, for example, will have an average bandwidth of 2.5MB each, while 90 users would have 0.14MB available on average. Bandwidth is dynamically allocated to users and can be as high as 10MB if only one user is "logged on" to the port in question. "The system is being sold at UKP2,200 for the master unit and UKP1,800 for the slave system. The Segway system is unique in the market and is being sold through our various offices around the world," Parker told Newsbytes, adding that the technology was developed in the company's Boston, MA, offices in the US. The Segway unit allows the network to be divided up among users on a much fairer basis than before. While many LAN managers are moving up to 100 megabits-per-second (Mbps) for their users, this isn't feasible for all users on a network, merely for the backbone," Parker explained, adding that the Segway is the unit for such users. "Such users have traditionally had three choices when dividing up the network capacity: use stackable hubs, use an Ethernet switch, or use a port switch system like Segway," he said. "Stackable hubs are an expensive option, while Ethernet hubs are falling in price," he added. "Using the port switch approach offers a sensible price and flexibility, features which are not available in the other two options." According to Parker, Segway was designed using the company's range of specially designed ASICs (application specific integrated circuits), which he claims enables LANart to offer products at very comparable prices. LANart, which is the, now separate, ex-Chipcom research & development division, claims that the Segway product is between one third and one half of the price of any comparable product, none of which offer the facilities that the port switch does. Each 24 port master unit can stack up to 24 port slave units on, giving a total of 120 ports if required. (Steve Gold/19951024/Press Contact: Nigel Robson, Vortex PR, tel +44-1442-876234, fax +44-1442-863971; Reader Contact: LANart Europe, tel +44-1223-232535, fax +44-1223-232747, Internet e-mail sales@lanart.europe.com) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 10/25/95 GENERAL Japan Newsbriefs (NEWS)(GENERAL)(TYO)(00019) Japan Newsbriefs 10/25/95 TOKYO, JAPAN, 1995 OCT 25 (NB) -- In this roundup of news from Japan: Softbank targets Unitech, IDO to expand service area, Convenience store distribution for Windows 95, Xerox software pact with Toshiba, Seiko Epson ties with Telediffusion de France, Sharp first with digital satellite, Sony, Toshiba announce new US chiefs Softbank Targets Unitech Softbank, the company behind a $2 billion bid for Ziff Davis Publishing, has said it will invest $30 million in Unitech Telecom, a California-based telecommunications company that has a strong presence in China. Softbank previously announced it would be going after several companies and Unitech Telecom is the second of those. The Japanese company sees the deal as an easier route into the Chinese market. Softbank is Japan's biggest publisher of computer software and related magazines. IDO To Expand Service Area Nippon Idou Tsushin Corp., operators of the IDO cellular telephone network, is to expand coverage of its cellular network from Tokyo, Kawasaki and Yokohama to major cities and municipalities in Tokyo and surrounding prefectures. Amongst cities that will get coverage, from November 10th, are Nagoya, Tachikawa, Urawa, and Chiba. Ten days later, service will be added in a further 20 municipalities in Kanagawa prefecture to make a total of 189 towns and cities served. Convenience Store Distribution For Windows 95 Microsoft Japan and leading supermarket operator Daiei Inc. have reached a deal under which the software company's new Windows 95-J operating system will be sold at convenience stores nationwide. Kobe- based Daiei's 89.9% owned subsidiary, Daiei Convenience Systems Inc., operates the nationwide "Lawson" chain of 24-hour stores. The deal marks the first time computer software has moved out of specialist marketing channels and into the mainstream. Meanwhile, Microsoft said recently-discovered security faults in the new software will not delay its Japanese launch, which is expected in late November. The company will announce a final release date this Thursday. Xerox Software Pact With Toshiba Xerox Corporation has signed an agreement with Toshiba Advanced Systems Co., Ltd. (TAS) aimed at expanding the American company's share of the Japanese market. TAS will work to localize and market Xerox software in Japan. Under the terms of the deal, Xerox XSoft's Japanese unit has granted distribution rights to TAS for InContext, a software package aimed at making publishing in SGML (standard generalized markup language) format easier. TAS will also produce a localized language version of InContext for the Microsoft Windows operating system. Initially the companies will target specific industries -- automotive, manufacturing, utilities, and semiconductor -- where demand for the publishing software is thought to be high because of widespread use of the format for document publishing. Seiko Epson Ties With Telediffusion de France Japan's Seiko Epson has announced it will establish with Telediffusion de France (TDF), a unit of France Telecom, a joint venture to make pagers for the European market. The deal ties Seiko Epson's Dutch unit, Seiko Communications BV, with TDF to produce pagers and information devices that take a signal from FM radio using a system called Acttive. Financial details of the pact are currently unknown but will be announced soon. Sharp First With Digital Satellite Sharp Electronics has developed a combined receiver/decoder for satellite broadcasts that incorporates both analog and digital tuners. The new unit will receive conventional analog satellite broadcasts and the new digital television service being launched next March by DMC in Japan. Alongside the tuner is a stand-alone converter designed to be added to existing satellite tuners. Sharp expect total sales of around 45,000 units a month from next year. Sony, Toshiba Announce New US Chiefs Sony Corporation has named Bruce Stein president and chief executive of its Sony Interactive Entertainment Inc., the company's video games unit. The Tokyo-based company also named Martin Homlish as president of Sony Computer Entertainment America. The video gaming position was vacated by Olaf Olafsson who moved to another part of the company recently, apparently after disagreements with the senior management over how to best handle the American market. Meanwhile, Toshiba America MRI Inc., has named Leon Kaufman, vice president of engineering. Kaufman will oversee all engineering functions for both the hardware and software development of new products as well as enhancements for existing products. (Martyn Williams/19951025) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 10/25/95 BUSINESS Fujitsu Sees Higher Profits & Sales For Year (NEWS)(BUSINESS)(TYO)(00020) Fujitsu Sees Higher Profits & Sales For Year 10/25/95 TOKYO, JAPAN, 1995 OCT 25 (NB) -- Fujitsu Ltd. (TSE:6702), the world's second largest computer manufacturer, has announced increased sales and profits for the first six months of the current financial year and upgraded year-end forecasts. The company reported "strong domestic and overseas demand for semiconductors and other electronic devices as well as rapid growth in multimedia-related business areas," helped it to record a consolidated net income growth of 441%. Consolidated net sales for the period to the end of September were 1,644 billion yen ($16.44 billion). The company's pre-tax profit was 61.70 billion yen ($617 million), an increase on the 28.90 billion yen ($289 million) recorded in the same period last year. Strong sales in all sectors helped the company with particularly healthy growth in the telecommunications field, driven by the explosion in use of cellular telephones and the launch of the new PHS system in July. Orders from NTT and DDI, both major cellular and PHS operators, contributed significantly to the 17% growth that the telecommunications sector registered with sales of 273 billion yen ($2.73 billion). The closely related electronics division saw a 12% sales increase to 256 billion yen ($2.56 billion). In other sectors, computer equipment chalked up sales of 1.05 trillion yen ($10.5 billion), a 9% increase, and combined sales in all other sectors grew just 1% to 65 billion yen ($650 million). By region, Fujitsu said domestic sales jumped 11% to 1.16 trillion yen ($11.6 billion), a greater increase than international sales, which managed a 9% rise to 482 billion yen ($4.8 billion). In forecasting results for the end of the financial year, the Tokyo- based company said it expects group sales will rise 15% to hit 3.75 trillion yen ($37.5 billion). Net income is predicted to double to 90 billion yen ($900 million) with pre-tax profits hoped to be 170.00 billion yen ($1.7 billion) against last year's profits of 101.69 billion yen ($1.0 billion). An interim dividend of 5 yen per share was also announced with an expected full year total dividend of 10 yen. Shares in Fujitsu fell 10 yen on the results, not because of disappointment on the Tokyo Stock Exchange, but because the results were just as expected and a general market fall pulled the stock price down. (Martyn Williams/19951025/Press contact : Yuri Momomoto, Fujitsu Ltd., tel +81-3-3215-5216, fax +81-3-3213-4160, Internet e-mail momo@hq.fujitsu.co.jp) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 10/25/95 CHIPS NEC Increases Chip Production Investment (NEWS)(CHIPS)(TYO)(00021) NEC Increases Chip Production Investment 10/25/95 TOKYO, JAPAN, 1995 OCT 25 (NB) -- NEC Corporation (TSE:6701), Japan's largest semiconductor maker, says it will increase the amount of money it is investing in production of computer chips to a record 210 billion yen ($2.1 billion) from 125 billion yen ($1.25 billion) last year, an increase of 68%. The company will use the money to expand production at sites across Japan and the world to meet a big increase in demand for its products. The company also increased its sales forecast for the year to 1,170 billion yen ($11.7 billion), from an originally forecast figure of 1,050 billion yen ($10.5 billion yen). NEC had previously announced an increase in spending of 180 billion yen ($1.8 billion) for the year and has added an additional 26 billion yen ($260 million) to expand production capacity in Japan and four billion yen ($40 million) for facilities in Singapore and Malaysia. The 210 billion yen figure far eclipses the previous record investment of 140 billion yen ($1.4 billion) made in 1984. In Japan, the company is planning to upgrade its Tsuruoka, Yamagata, factory to enable production of next-generation memory chips using water fabrication. Around 10,000 eight-inch wafers will be produced every month when manufacturing begins in April, 1997. The Kumamoto factory on Kyushu island will receive money to enable an increase in output to 30,000 wafers a months and NEC's Hiroshima plant will also receive investment. In Singapore, the 5 billion yen ($50 million) total investment will enable an equipment upgrade and capacity increase at its 16 megabit DRAM memory plant. Output of the chips will be almost doubled from 2 million per month to 3.5 million. In Malaysia, total investment will now reach 7 billion yen ($70 million). A plant in the country that currently produces linear integrated circuits and components such as transistors will gain the ability to also produce 16 megabit DRAMs before the end of the year. The remainder of the Asian investment will be targeted at a new plant in either Singapore or Malaysia although no concrete plans have been made so far, the company said. The investment has been prompted by strong current sales and predictions that a general global shortage of DRAM chips is forecast to continue for several years to come. First half sales of semiconductors are estimated to have reached 550 billion yen ($5.5 billion), a 30 billion yen ($300 million) increase on the previous estimate. Increased demand from overseas should drive foreign sales up to 48% of the company's total sales from 45%. Domestic sales are estimated at 35% with inter-company sales making up the remaining 17%. (Martyn Williams/19951025/Press contact : Mark Pierce, NEC Corporation, tel +81-3-3798-6511, fax +81-3-3457-7249, Internet e-mail maku_10-22150@aladdin.nec.co.jp) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 10/25/95 ONLINE ****Internet Update (NEWS)(ONLINE)(TYO)(00022) ****Internet Update 10/25/95 TOKYO, JAPAN, 1995 OCT 25 (NB) -- In this roundup of new resources and services on the global Internet: Keeping in touch with Capitol Hill, News mailing list home page, It can't be Christmas already, New Web 100 listing, The Danish Ministry of Environment and Energy, Japan's entertainment world, Weather goes interactive, Golf tips from a pro, Water, water everywhere Keeping In Touch With Capitol Hill Infosearch has updated its "Mr. Smith E-Mails Washington(sm)" pages. Here, users can now access mailing forms, rather than just links, to type out messages and send them via email to online politicians in Washington. World Wide Web: http://www.xmission.com/~insearch/washington.html News Mailing List Home Page Steve Outing's Online-News mailing list keeps subscribers up to date with new resources on the Internet related to news and information. The mailing list now has a home page where non-subscribers can browse recent postings, search an archive and post messages directly to the list. World Wide Web: http://www.social.com/social/hypermail/news/index.html It Can't Be Christmas Already ! If you needed proof that the Internet is getting more and more like real life, this is it. Over two months away from Christmas but the signs are already appearing on the Internet with the opening of Santa's workshop. Clever readers can start holiday surfing now to avoid the clogged links to the site near the holiday! World Wide Web: http://www.prairienet.org/~santa/homepage.html New Web 100 Listing The Web 100 is like an Internet version of the Fortune 500 list. It charts and lists the top one hundred companies on the Internet's World Wide Web. A new edition is available for October that includes 14 new companies and a special listing of the top 25 non-US companies on the web. A special focus this month is "Japan Inc. in Cyberspace". World Wide Web: http://fox.nstn.ca/~at_info/ The Danish Ministry of Environment and Energy Direct from Copenhagen, the capital city of Denmark, the nation's environment and energy ministry is making publications available via the network. The ministry Web server is also acting as a host for several environmental organizations. World Wide Web: http://www.mem.dk/ Japan's Entertainment World All you could ever want to know about Japanese musicians, actors, actresses and news from MTV Japan. World Wide Web: http://www.rim.or.jp/rg/proceed/PC.html Weather Goes Interactive The Interactive Weather Information Network is a service of the US National Weather Service and offers a Web interface to the current weather forecasts from the NWS. In addition, users can find weather warnings, climate data and general forecasts. World Wide Web: http://iwin.nws.noaa.gov/iwin/main.html Golf Tips From A Pro Offering golfers "almost everything they want to know", professional player Bob Mann has his own Web server with free year-long subscriptions available. World Wide Web: http://www.golfbobmann.com/ Water, Water Everywhere ... A special section of Internet Update today finds three new water- related resources and home pages now available on the Internet The Water Store The site is intended to act as a centralized source of information to everyone in the water conservation, purification, recycling and quality industries. The pages also offer information on the hardware used for these jobs. World Wide Web: http://www.waterstore.com/ American Water Works Association The AWWA is an international non-profit scientific and educational society that works towards improving drinking water quality and supply, and protecting public health. The association is a professional body and offers information via its new home page. World Wide Web: http://www.awwa.org/ Baywatch It may not be relevant as the previous two but you'll see just as much water on TV when you watch Baywatch! The official site with weekly updates on the television show plus video previews, insider information, photos, trivia, and contests. World Wide Web: http://baywatch.compuserve.com/ (Martyn Williams/19951025) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 10/25/95 BUSINESS IBM Canada Stands Its Ground On DMR Offer (NEWS)(BUSINESS)(TOR)(00023) IBM Canada Stands Its Ground On DMR Offer 10/25/95 MARKHAM, ONTARIO, CANADA, 1995 OCT 25 (NB) -- Although rival bidder Amdahl Corp. (AMEX:AMH) has taken up 36 percent of the common shares of Montreal- based consulting firm DMR Group Inc. (TSE:DR), IBM Canada Ltd. is standing by, not only its bid for the company, but its stated intention of getting 90 percent of DMR's shares. "The 90 percent condition still stands," IBM Canada spokesman Mike Quinn told Newsbytes, though he added that "we do reserve the right to waive any of these conditions." Quinn would not be specific about how IBM Canada hopes to obtain 90 percent of DMR's shares given the stake already held by its rival, though he said that "there are probably several scenarios that we could come up with." The obvious one, Newsbytes notes, appears to be that Amdahl is unable to maintain control of DMR with the shares it has or obtain more, and decides to sell its stake. Currently, because of the voting structure of DMR's Class A and Class B shares, Amdahl's 36 percent of the company's shares gives it 80 percent voting control. However, a Quebec court has ruled that Class A shareholders can convert their shares to Class B to take advantage of the Amdahl or IBM offers or a third one by BDM International Inc. of McLean, Virginia. If enough shareholders do this, the shares Amdahl now has would no longer give it control. Amdahl is currently appealing the court ruling. IBM's offer is the highest, at C$11 per share, versus Amdahl's C$8.25 and BDM's C$9. Amdahl and BDM have both said they see no need to raise their offers for the moment. Though all three offers are due to expire around the beginning of November, the court appeal is not expected to be heard until December or January. This fact may lead to one or more of the offers being extended. (Grant Buckler/19951025/Press Contact: Mike Quinn, IBM Canada, 905-316-2255; Michel Gelinas, DMR, 514-877-3301; John Radewagen, The Benjamin Group for Amdahl, 408-559-6090; Todd Stottlemyer, BDM, 703-848-5115, Internet e-mail tstottle@bdm.com) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 10/25/95 ONLINE ****eWorld Exec - Online Services "Terminally Ill" (NEWS)(ONLINE)(MSP)(00024) ****eWorld Exec - Online Services "Terminally Ill" 10/25/95 SCOTTSDALE, ARIZONA, U.S.A., 1995 OCT 25 (NB) -- In what was the most contentious statement at the Sixth Conference on Interactive Marketing being held this week, Apple eWorld Worldwide Services Group Manager Richard Gingras sounded a figurative death knell for the closed-platform online industry. "We feel the proprietary online service model is a terminally ill patient, because of the evolution of the Internet." He added that this development will encourage the eventual migration of eWorld from a proprietary site to the Web. "The Internet has caused us to shift our strategy. It (the growth of the Internet) is a change in the paradigm of computing." Not surprisingly, Gingras' three fellow panelists on the Commercial Online Services panel disagreed. The common consensus was that the online services have a future as an aggregator of unique content -- with seamless navigation back and forth between their own platforms and the Web. "That certainly is a very valid statement," admitted Keith Arnold, general manager of interactive markets and merchandising for Compuserve. "All the technology will shift onto one platform, but it will take some time." Rather than be resigned to the ultimate fate eWorld's Gingras seems to view as inevitable, some other online services are preparing for the Web world by positioning their own services as both an aggregator of unique content and a place from which to go back and forth from the Web with a minimum of effort. "We've all realized that the Webcentric focus is very important. We have a new consumer online service which will launch March 1 called Wow. It looks like the other proprietary- protocol commercial online services, but with all the content we can weave seamlessly into the Internet. From the beginning, we have realized from the ground up we can make more money if we are easily accessible and integratable into the Web," Arnold added. "We have launched over 100 interest groups. From those groups, it links to pertinent Web sites and Internet news groups. The value that Prodigy brings is an aggregation of information, as well as the ability to go to that one place rather than go to your browser and launch a search," said Paul Gangi, Electronic Commerce manager for Prodigy. "Merchandising on the Web is becoming a reality, but it is 'day one.' It will be three to five years before the predictions of a $20 billion a year online economy come true. There is a cycle here and we are at the very beginning of that cycle," he added. Marty Levin, director of Interactive Networks for The Microsoft Network, went even further, saying that the ideal online service- Web relationship would have so much overlap as to leave the two virtually indistinguishable from each other. "For us, it's not a matter of choosing between the proprietary thing and the Web thing. Our model is that The Microsoft Network is the Web," he said. "My personal guess is there will be four or five platforms of choice to enter the online world. There won't be lines drawn between proprietary and HTML (hypertext markup language)-based platforms. Some of the platforms that will win will do so because of ease of access, others will win because of exclusive or aggregated content, and still others will win because of band name. MSN is trying to win on all those counts. The winner is the place people feel most comfortable starting out in -- and then going out to the Web and back in a very seamless experience," Levin added. (Russell Shaw/19951025) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 10/25/95 TRENDS ****CD-ROM Better Marketing Vehicle Than Web? (NEWS)(TRENDS)(MSP)(00025) ****CD-ROM Better Marketing Vehicle Than Web? 10/25/95 SCOTTSDALE, ARIZONA, U.S.A., 1995 OCT 25 (NB) -- Among marketers, there's a widespread perception that, because it's far easier, cheaper and quicker to put up and update a World Wide Web site than it is to produce a CD-ROM, that the Web is the ideal marketing vehicle for corporations that want to get product information out to the public. But you would get an argument from Jay Samit, president of Jasmine Multimedia Publishing, the Van Nuys, California-based CD-ROM and laser disk company that has produced more than 300 titles for such clients as Ford Motor Company, Eastman Kodak, Microsoft, MCA- Universal, and Steven Spielberg. "CD-ROMs are used in about 20 percent of US households today, compared to only about eight percent that have Web access. The only benefit that the Web brings today is residual public relations," Samit said during a multimedia marketing session at the Sixth Conference on Interactive Marketing. Samit explained that by "residual public relations," he meant the intangible boost in public profile and image that putting a Web site up can bring a marketer. But, he quickly added, such exposure doesn't often translate into tangible benefits. "There are 67,000 Web sites out there now. If you build one, they (prospective customers) are not going to come," said Samit, borrowing a now-common phrase from the 1991 US movie "Field of Dreams." One example Samit cited was the attempt last year by the rock group Aerosmith to put samples of a forthcoming album online as a pre-release promotion for the product. He said that, although articles about the product were read by as many as 100 million people, only 78 music downloads were made of the Web. Samit was not totally dismissive of the Web, however. He said that for many marketers, the best strategy for new product promotion is presence on a CD-ROM that is equipped with clickable links that will get the accessor to the corporate Web site -- where the benefits of immediacy can then be exploited. "In a perfect world, every listing of a company URL (uniform resource locator, or Web address) were replaced with an '800' number to order the CD. Then, when customers received the CD, they could be directed to clickable links," Samit said. Samit added that, because of current bandwidth limitations on Internet-based transmissions, the CD-ROM viewing experience would be more enthralling to prospective buyers of products whose companies try both media. "Someone using your CD-ROM will give you 20 minutes of their time, but most Web sites take only five or six minutes to go through. Sometimes, on Web sites, there's so little content you wonder why you're there. That's not class," added Samit. (Russell Shaw/19951025) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 10/25/95 WINDOWS ****Microsoft Fixes Windows 95 Security Problems (NEWS)(WINDOWS)(MSP)(00026) ****Microsoft Fixes Windows 95 Security Problems 10/25/95 REDMOND, WASHINGTON, U.S.A., 1995 OCT 25 (NB) -- Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ:MSFT) said it has located and fixed two problems with file and printer sharing in its Windows 95 operating system (OS) that could have caused security concerns with Windows 95 users. Microsoft revealed the problem to the public through both its Internet World Wide Web page, and via electronic-mail over its Microsoft Network (MSN) online service. Microsoft officials are quick to point out that the problems are in an area that is not used by home users, and is not a default option. Only customers who use the "File and Printer Sharing" option to share files with other users on a network are affected. Rob Bennett, product manager for Microsoft's personal systems division, told Newsbytes the problem would have affected only a "small portion" of Windows 95 users. Bennett also said to the company's knowledge, no users have been affected by the problem. One of the software problems is in connection with Windows 95-equipped computers on Novell NetWare networks that have printer and file sharing enabled. If a machine is configured to share printers and files with other networks users, and they enable remote administration or install Microsoft Remote Registry services, another user could gain read-only access to a machine after the administrator has logged off the machine. The situation would exist until the user restarts his or her computer. The other problem centers on machines that enable printer and file sharing on Microsoft Networks (not MSN) and a certain Unix shareware network client from Samba, called "SMBCLIENT." Customers who have their machines sharing printers and files with other network users, or who share a local area network (LAN), dial-up, or Internet connection, with SMBCLIENT software, and whose network administrator does not disable peer services using system policies, are susceptible to having their data hacked via either the network or through the Internet. Microsoft officials said they worked on the fixes for the past week. "The important thing is we did act on it," Bennett said. "We're just glad we got the stuff out there so that we could stave off any potential data loss or breaches of security." The software fix for both problems can be downloaded from Microsoft's areas on MSN, America Online, Compuserve, and Prodigy, company officials said, as well as from its World Wide Web page at http://www.microsoft.com , and its file transfer protocol (FTP) site at ftp://ftp.microsoft.com . Information regarding the installation of the new drivers are also available from the Web site. In addition, the updated drivers can also be mailed to any user free of charge if they call Microsoft's FastTips Line at 800-936-4200 starting next Monday. (Bob Woods/19951025/Press Contact: Waggener Edstrom, 503-245-0905; Public Contact: Microsoft FastTips Line, 800-936-4200) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 10/25/95 BROADCAST ****MCI Plans Home VideoPhone Over Normal Lines (NEWS)(BROADCAST)(MSP)(00027) ****MCI Plans Home VideoPhone Over Normal Lines 10/25/95 WASHINGTON, D.C., U.S.A, 1995 OCT 25 (NB) -- MCI Inc. (NASDAQ:MCIC), along with several other companies, is bringing videoconferencing to the home over standard telephone wiring. Called "MCI VideoPhone," the new system will be on the market by June, 1996, company officials said. The new system only requires a telephone, a television, and a set-top box from MCI. Using data compression, the MCI VideoPhone can transmit audio and video signals across the country over POTS (plain old telephone service) lines, for the same cost as a long-distance phone call. The set-top unit will sell for around $1,300, and MCI said it intends to offer "attractive leasing options" to its customers. "This product overcomes the main barrier to video telephony in residential houses," Michael Trigg, MCI Consumer Markets spokesperson, told Newsbytes. "The vast majority of houses are wired by copper wire, and the capacity is very limited. This product overcomes that." Besides providing what the company called "improved picture and sound quality over previous videophone products," consumers can select the screen size, operate the unit by remote control, hold videoconferences with multiple callers, and record conversations onto a VHS tape. Another big advantage to the MCI VideoPhone, Trigg said, is that it supports the developing International Telecommunications Union (ITU) proposed analog videotelephony standards, so it will be compatible with other home videoconferencing products. Trigg also said the VideoPhone can be useful in the small business market, because products can be demonstrated to customers without having to travel. MCI is coordinating product development and marketing with a number of companies, including Kyushu Matsushita Electric Company Ltd., Comtech Labs Inc., and Integrated Information Technology Inc. The video compression technology comes from Comtech, and a multimedia processor and the video processor in the unit are from Integrated Information Technology Inc. The unit itself will be manufactured by Kyushu Matsushita. (Bob Woods/19951025/Press Contact: Michael Trigg, MCI Consumer Products, 703-415-6124) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 10/25/95 BUSINESS Pen Is Not Mightier, PenMagic Renamed Pivotal (NEWS)(BUSINESS)(TOR)(00028) Pen Is Not Mightier, PenMagic Renamed Pivotal 10/25/95 NORTH VANCOUVER, BRITISH COLUMBIA, CANADA, 1995 OCT 25 (NB) -- Pen computing has been a disappointment for four-year-old PenMagic software, and the company is changing its name and looking for greener pastures elsewhere. PenMagic announced that it has taken the new name Pivotal Software Inc., and will change its focus to enterprise-wide, client/server applications. Pivotal is not yet ready to talk in detail about its plans, but Sharka Chobot, director of marketing, told Newsbytes the new software to be announced around the beginning of 1996 will resemble Lotus Development Corp.'s Notes software in some ways, and "in some vertical industries it will compete with Lotus Notes." Chobot described the upcoming software as an adaptable application that Pivotal will be able to customize to fit certain industries. According to company officials, it is now in use in some customer test sites, and works with client/server databases and Microsoft's Windows 95 and Windows NT. The new software lets businesses integrate mobile and desktop computers as well as servers and data and voice communications into an enterprise-wide information system, Pivotal claimed. It appears to have grown at least in part out of Pivotal's experience in the pen-based computing market. Chobot said the company found that customers who were interested in pen-based computers and personal digital assistants (PDAs) were less drawn to the pen interface than to the ability to get at information from remote locations. Pivotal will continue to support its existing pen-based applications, but will not invest further in research and development in the pen arena, Chobot said. The company is negotiating to sell the applications to another vendor. As PenMagic, the firm brought out a financial tool called Numero, a letter-writing package called Letter Express, and financial information packages for Apple Computer Inc.'s Newton and other pen-based systems. (Grant Buckler/19951025/Press Contact: Sharka Chobot, Pivotal Software, tel 604-988-9982 ext 111, fax 604-988-0035) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 10/25/95 IBM IBM Ships RAMAC 2 "2nd Generation" Mainframe Storage (NEWS)(IBM)(BOS)(00029) IBM Ships RAMAC 2 "2nd Generation" Mainframe Storage 10/25/95 BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS, U.S.A., 1995 OCT 25 (NB) -- At a press conference in Boston yesterday afternoon, IBM announced shipment of the "second generation" of its RAID (redundant array of inexpensive disks) 5 mainframe storage systems, officially presenting the first IBM RAMAC 2 production-level unit to Nynex, a major user of information storage. "I'm really looking forward to the fourth quarter," remarked IBM's James Vanderslice, speaking at the press conference, which was attended by Newsbytes. Sales of IBM's RAMAC 2 Array DASD (director-access storage device) and RAMAC 2 Array Subsystem products will exceed industry estimates, predicted the IBM veteran, who was recently appointed general manager of IBM's Storage Systems Division. "We have a reliable, cost competitive product. And we have the customer demand. We're really going to `blow it out' (next) quarter," Vanderslice told the journalists and analysts assembled in Boston, and others who looked in on the press event from around the US through an IIN (Interactive Information Networks) videoconference link. Early users of RAMAC 2 from Nynex and Barnett Banks also addressed the press, attesting to improvements in availability and cost effectiveness supplied by the "second generation" storage systems. The new RAMAC 2 stores twice as much information -- up to as much as 180 gigabytes (GB) in a single rack -- in the same form factor as RAMAC 1, according to Vanderslice. Other new capabilities in RAMAC 2 include improved parity calculation, for better performance, and dynamic disk reconstruction, or "hot plugging," a technique designed to provide high availability by "automatically regenerating data from a failed disk drive on to a replacement drive installed in the array." RAMAC 2 also gives users the alternative of "dynamic sparing," a feature included in RAMAC 1 to protect against logic and drive failures by automatically migrating information in the storage drawer to a "spare drawer" in the same rack. Also during his remarks at the press event, Vanderslice pointed to a recent survey by Ibex that gives RAMAC better ratings than two competing systems in terms of customer reports of "failures affecting availability," as well as "data loss, failures not affecting availability, and HDA (hard disk array) replacement," a factor characterized as impacting "privacy "in that HDAs removed from customer sites remain partially or totally readable. The Ibex report also gives IBM a majority share of both the DASD and RAID-only DASD markets. Now, a newly reorganized IBM Storage Systems Division is adhering to a "vertical" structure, as opposed to the matrix model of the past, noted Vanderslice, who previously headed IBM's Printing Systems Division. IBM had originally planned to ship RAMAC 2 a couple of months ago, but then decided to postpone delivery in order to continue testing the products and fine-tune their performance, asserted Paul E. O'Neil, IBM's general manager, Large Systems Storage, speaking with Newsbytes during the press conference. Under the IBM Storage Division's new "vertical" structure, most employees are concentrating more closely on specific product/technology areas of optical/tape storage, with fewer people operating "across the division," O'Neil added. Michael Puldy, manager of resource management for Barnett Technologies, the IT (information technology) arm of Barnett Banks, told the press conference audience that Barnett began to use the RAMAC 1 system two years ago, after recognizing a need for higher availability. In testing RAMAC 2, the Jacksonville, Florida-based banking chain has found that the new system provides a "small footprint" at a lower cost per megabyte. "And no new software is needed," according to the Barnett official. Puldy added that "the finance guys (at the bank) are really excited about the lower cost." Gerard Higgins, assistant VP, Information Services, for Nynex, said that Nynex has two major goals for RAMAC: cost reduction and "increased service." Gesturing toward a new RAMAC 2 system situated at center stage of the conference room, Higgins noted that Nynex's RAMAC 2 will join 4.5 terabytes (TB) of RAMAC DASD already installed in supporting the "service group that handles (phone company) customers calling in to Nynex." Nynex has been able to pass some of the cost savings from RAMAC along to phone company customers, Higgins maintained. But increased availability has been an "even more important" consequence, according to the Nynex exec. Before installing RAMAC 1, Nynex had to spend "double-digit hours recovering data" whenever a disk failure occurred. Also at the press event, Vanderslice reported that IBM's Storage Systems Division will continue to produce systems across all existing OEM (original equipment manufacturer) product categories, but that a new emphasis will be placed on mobile and server storage systems, the two "most lucrative" markets. IBM will probably produce a third generation of RAMAC before shipping its forthcoming Seastar storage system for mainframes in 1997, Vanderslice revealed. IBM's third "crank of RAMAC" looks likely to be delivered in 1996, he elaborated. "RAMAC 1 is upgradeable to RAMAC 2, and also to Seastar," the IBM VP told the journalists and analysts in Boston. Analysts at the press conference told Newsbytes that the delay in RAMAC 2 shipment was worth the wait. Specifically, IBM was able to boost the speed of RAMAC's RAID storage disks, asserted Michael A. Kahn, chairman and chief executive officer (CEO) of the Clipper Group, Inc., during a discussion with Newsbytes at the event. RAMAC 2's performance is "exceeding customer expectations," agreed John L. Young, director, Enterprise Systems Planning, for the Clipper Group. Joseph S. De Natale, director, Data Center Planning, for the management consulting/market research firm, pointed out that IBM has shipped 6,000 units of RAMAC so far. "That's a lot of terabytes," De Natale told Newsbytes. (Jacqueline Emigh/19951024/Reader Contact: IBM, 914-765-1900; Interactive Information Networks, 407-234-1111 Press Contacts: Lisa McLean-Ambrosic, IBM Storage Systems Division, 408-256-1925; Patrick Ward, Cunningham Communications for IBM, 617-494-8202; Gerry Van Zandt, Cunningham for IBM, 408-764-0731; Nancy Pierce, IIN, 703-448-8700) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 10/25/95 BUSINESS ****Netscape Exceeds Wall Street Expectations (NEWS)(BUSINESS)(SFO)(00030) ****Netscape Exceeds Wall Street Expectations 10/25/95 MOUNTAIN VIEW, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1995 OCT 25 (NB) -- When Netscape Communications (NASDAQ:NSCP) went public with its dramatic opening day on the stock exchange, a number of analysts questioned how a company which had not made money could arouse so much attention. In its first quarter since the initial public offering, Netscape says revenues are up 75% and income increased from a loss of $1.6 million to a gain of $1.4 million. Revenues for the third quarter were $20.8 million, up from $11.9 million in the previous quarter. Income more than doubled over the same period. Netscape's director of public relations, Rosanne Siino, told Newsbytes, "We are really pleased with our third quarter results. There were a lot of single events which contributed to our success. First, we released a lot of new products and they were very well received. Additionally, the percentage of sales from our server products increased by more than 10% (from 26 1/4% to 37%) and the percentage of client or browser software decreased from 65% to 57% (the remainder of revenue is derived from service income)." Netscape's client software is available free on the Internet under specific limitations, bundled with many Internet software packages, and bundled with some personal computer systems. Netscape also sells Navigator for a suggested retail price of $39 through a number of different channels. The company has always said it intends to make money from the server side with sophisticated software for full commercial use on the Internet. Netscape server software is used extensively by Fortune 500 companies. The increase in the percentage of server products is a clear sign of Netscape's success. During this quarter, Netscape also announced relationships with AT&T, Home Corporation, and Hewlett-Packard. Last week, Netscape announced its plans to acquire Collabra Software, a move which allows Netscape to expand its products into collaboration and messaging software. The deal is expected to close in the fourth quarter. International development also highlighted the third quarter. Netscape opened offices France, Germany, and the UK. International sales represented 19% of third quarter revenues. Navigator is now available in Japanese, German, and French. During its wild opening ride on the stockmarket, Netscape's stocks sold anywhere from $72 to $58. This morning, Netscape stock was selling at $81. Wall Street analysts projected the company's third quarter revenues to be approximately $16 million. The posted $20.8 million in revenues far exceeded expectations. Netscape says it plans to continue to deliver the latest Internet software to the standard desktop and to all levels of business from small concerns to large corporations. More than $12 million has been invested into research and development, says the company. (Patrick McKenna/19951025/Press Contact: Rosanne Siino, Netscape, 415-528-2619) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 10/25/95 ONLINE Lycos Buys Point, Adds Web Ratings To Spider Search (NEWS)(ONLINE)(BOS)(00031) Lycos Buys Point, Adds Web Ratings To Spider Search 10/25/95 WILMINGTON, MASSACHUSETTS, U.S.A., 1995 OCT 25 (NB) -- Through a newly announced $3 million acquisition of Point Communications Corp., Lycos has integrated Point's review and rating guide to the World Wide Web, plus capsules of business news and weather, into its own Spider-based search and indexing service for the Web, said Lycos President and CEO (Chief Executive Officer) Robert J. Davis, in an interview with Newsbytes. The Point system extends beyond other guides to the Web, such as McKinley, by critiquing Web sites, in addition to describing their contents, the CEO told Newsbytes. A team of about 30 reviewers from Point Communications employs a 50-point scale to rate Web sites for content, as well as for presentation and the "experience" of using the site, noted Davis, who equated the Web write-ups to book or movie reviews. Web sites landing in the top 5 percent are awarded Badges of Excellence to display at their Web sites, according to the company chief. "The Web sites wear these badges with a lot of pride," Davis asserted. Web sites currently displaying the Point badges include Mobil Oil (http://www.mobil.com ), along with Lucas Arts (http://www.lucasarts.com/menu.html ) and the Frito-Lay food conglomerate (http://www.fritolay.com/index.html ). Davis added that the Lycos Web site (http://www.lycos.com ) has also integrated Point Communications' new Point Now service, for continuously updated capsule summaries of business news, stocks, and weather, with hotlinks to CNN (Cable Network News) and other news sources. Lycos and Point Communications will both retain separate Web sites, according to the company president. The Point site will also incorporate capabilities from Lycos, so that users will be able to navigate the Web from either site. After carrying out a search of the Web, the user will be able to view the search results from the Lycos catalog, together with any "applicable ratings" of Web sites from Point Communications. As previously reported in Newsbytes, Lycos recently added a new user interface, along with about 200 advertisers, to its free service for the Web. New features include "backlinking" from Lycos to the Web site of origin, a new "hot Web sites list," and support for Hot Java animation. Lycos was launched in June as a commercial avenue for the Spider search technology first developed at Carnegie Mellon University (CMU), Davis said, in a prior interview with Newsbytes. As of early October, Lycos was adding some 700,000 to 750,000 each month, and had already indexed 8 million sites, or 91 percent of the Web, Newsbytes was told. Further into the future, Lycos plans to add directories, updated navigational and retrieval tools, and more "specialized catalogs" to its search and indexing service for the Web, according to Davis. (Jacqueline Emigh/19951025/Reader Contact: Lycos, 508-229-0717; Press Contact: Pam Hamilton or Gwenn Gauthier, Collaborative Communications for Lycos, 617-621-1595) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 10/25/95 BUSINESS Hayes Quiet On US Robotics Acquisition Offer (NEWS)(BUSINESS)(DEN)(00032) Hayes Quiet On US Robotics Acquisition Offer 10/25/95 ATLANTA, GEORGIA, U.S.A., 1995 OCT 25 (NB) -- Hayes Microcomputer isn't saying much yet about a multi-million offer from US Robotics to purchase the modem maker that set the standard for commands to control the devices that let computers talk to each other via telephone lines. Privately owned Hayes has been under Chapter 11 federal bankruptcy protection since mid-November of last year. That means the US Bankruptcy Court would have to approve any acquisition offer. Ironically, Hayes got into trouble because business was too good. It had lots of orders and bought components to build the modems. However, subcontractors hired to build the devices couldn't ramp up their production fast enough to meet demand. Backlogged orders meant cash-flow went down and the company couldn't pay its creditors. The US Robotics offer includes payoff of all of Hayes' creditor claims including interest and the issuance of up to $97.5 million in US Robotics common stock to Hayes equity holders. Hayes would become a wholly owned subsidiary of US Robotics. The modem company reportedly owes creditors between $60 million and $85 million. In late June, Hayes reached a tentative agreement to be acquired by Boca Research, but that fell through a few weeks later. A Hayes spokesperson told Newsbytes the company intends to pay off creditors, a plan that would let Hayes retain control of the company he founded in 1978. Last year US Robotics acquired rival Megahertz Holding Corp. in a stock transaction valued at slightly over $200 million. The US Robotics offer is the third plan for the creditor's committee to consider. In addition to Hayes' own plan to pay off the creditors at 100% on the dollar and emerge from bankruptcy, Diamond Multimedia made an offer worth about $67 million in early October. The US Robotics offer, in effect, outbids Diamond. A Hayes spokesperson told Newsbytes that, while 1995 fiscal results were not yet available, everything he had heard indicated the year would be a profitable one. Hayes reported sales of over $250 million in fiscal 1994. US Robotics makes modems and networking products such as hubs that connect the nodes of a computer network. (Jim Mallory/19951025/Press contact: Andrew Dodd, Hayes Microcomputer, 770-840-9200 or Karen Novak, US Robotics, 708-982-5244) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 10/25/95 ONLINE Online Execs - "Churn" Still A Problem (NEWS)(ONLINE)(MSP)(00033) Online Execs - "Churn" Still A Problem 10/25/95 SCOTTSDALE, ARIZONA, U.S.A., 1995 OCT 25 (NB) -- Exact subscriber counts are not as important to an online service as the ability to keep them around and reduce cancellations, several online service executives stressed during a panel discussion at the Sixth Conference on Interactive Marketing Tuesday. "Being a subset of Windows 95, we are not in the vivacious subscriber acquisition mode," said Microsoft Network Interactive Network Creative Director Marty Levin. "Our interest is in the mass consumer market. At a certain point when we determine there are 'x' number of Windows 95 users who haven't tried MSN, our biggest efforts in terms of new subscriptions will come. "We are ahead of monthly routing in terms of getting to the goal of one million subscribers. Yet when it comes to attracting advertisers, it's not a numbers question, though," Levin added. "If I'm (working for) Chrysler and I buy a (television) ad during the SuperBowl, (the championship game of US professional football) I wind up spending some of my budget on consumers that aren't necessarily interested in buying. But if I can create an online ad product where the online company has already proven that person is prequalified, than I am making a return on my investment." Over the past two years, the slowest subscriber growth among major US-based online services has been Prodigy. "We sure have watched our market share decline while we've watched AOL really grow," admitted Paul Gangi, electronic commerce manager for Prodigy Services. "That speaks to two issues," Gangi elaborated. "The size of our industry is growing real rapidly, and Prodigy is facing the other issue of trying to climb back and get market share. (Running a) 'Webcentric' service is the way it is going to work for us. Prodigy is becoming HTML (hypertext markup language)-based, with portions of the service available to the Internet community and back doors from the Internet community to those portions of the service. In Gangi's view, the place where accesses come from will not be as important in the future as it is today. "The number of subscribers is largely irrelevant. What is apparent from the extraordinary growth curves is that most Americans will have Internet access by the end of the decade. This is not and shouldn't be looked at as traditional mass media. We are talking about how to take this interactive media and create affinity groups for them," he said. In the short- to medium-term, however, all the online services are worried about "churn." The word refers to the phenomenon of new users staying with a service for a brief time period, then signing up with a competitor that makes a free or more attractive offer. "The number one problem facing all the online services is churn. You can look at what the net growth in memberships have been, and then do 'back of the envelope' calculations to arrive at the churn rate," Gangi said. The Prodigy executive noted that in his view, it is important to look at the characteristics of people who stay with the service. "If you can create that utility, such as the folks we've gotten to do banking and automatic bill paying, that becomes a utility for them and they don't leave," he said. "The strongest retention is where we have been able to engage specific user communities in the development of what the service gives them," added Apple eWorld Worldwide Services Group Manager Richard Gingras. "We are trying to do a more targeted approach, identifying effective means to acquire new members. That is a challenge for us all. If you look at the subscriber numbers, everybody is adding 100,000 to 200,000 subs a month, but keeping the members is a challenge. Many are jumping around trying to find a home base," said Keith Arnold, general manager of interactive markets and merchandising for Compuserve. Barely two months old, The Microsoft Network has little direct experience with churn. Still, Levin sees the phenomenon as inevitable. "Retention is not a subject for us yet because we are so new, but nobody on this panel will have a better than 50 percent retention rate," he said. (Russell Shaw/19951025) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 10/25/95 APPLE ****Apple Courts Associated Press (NEWS)(APPLE)(SFO)(00034) ****Apple Courts Associated Press 10/25/95 WASHINGTON, D.C., U.S.A., 1995 OCT 25 (NB) -- Three Apple Computer Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) executives are on their way back to California after meeting with Associated Press (AP) execs. Apple wants AP to create a Macintosh client software for the AP television newsroom computer system. Lee Perryman, AP's deputy director at the broadcast division in Washington DC, confirmed he met with Apple concerning a Macintosh client software for the broadcast system. "We have had numerous talks with Apple and it is our intention to offer our system on numerous platforms." Currently, the AP Newscenter runs on Microsoft Windows for Workgroups, Windows 95, and Windows NT 3.5.x. Perryman also said he has spoken with Digital Equipment Corporation about the possibility of running the system in the Alpha environment. It appears that no definite agreement has been formed between Apple and AP, but talks are expected to continue. Reports that Apple was prepared to spend a large sum of money to get AP to close on a deal could not be confirmed. AP's newsroom software is operating in more than 80 television stations and networks on approximately 2,000 workstations. The system covers the entire television/broadcast news production process. Perryman said, "Everything (computer systems) is too old in the broadcast industry. To say you are in the television industry is obsolete. Companies are in the information distribution business and it exceeds standard television distribution. It involves cable, the Internet, and networks, along with the standard air delivery. The industry needs to learn about this process and it needs to have sophisticated tools to operate effectively in this new world." Apple is not just looking at having a piece of the 80 existing stations. Perryman also said the industry is on the brink of adding thousands of terminals to systems around the world. AP wants its computer system on as many of those terminals as possible. Currently, the only newsroom system which runs on the Mac platform is NewsWire 2000 from a German company. Other developers of newsroom systems have said it is too expensive to develop for the Mac platform and there is not sufficient demand. Perryman contradicts the latter, saying, "Graphics departments want the Mac platform. The Mac is still the choice of graphics designers even when the same programs are available in Windows versions. We think there is a market for an Apple client." The core newsroom system from AP covers all phases of newsroom production from story assignments to the final edited video and audio display. The system may also include a multimedia archive system which can handle terabytes of data. (Patrick McKenna/19951025/) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 10/25/95 ONLINE Lotus Newsstand Adds Networks/Publications, Eyes Web (NEWS)(ONLINE)(BOS)(00035) Lotus Newsstand Adds Networks/Publications, Eyes Web 10/25/95 CAMBRIDGE, MASSACHUSETTS, U.S.A., 1995 OCT 25 (NB) -- Lotus is eyeing the electronic delivery of publications over even more Notes networks, plus the possibility of helping to republish the Notes-based publications to the Web, revealed Jim Dougherty, director of Lotus's Advanced Technologies Group, in an interview with Newsbytes about the addition of AT&T Network Notes, IBM Global Network Service for Lotus Notes, and WorldCom as delivery platforms for Lotus Notes:Newsstand. "Our idea is to have hundreds of publications, as well as at least a few more networks, using Lotus Notes:Newsstand," the Lotus exec maintained. With the recent infusion of 45 more signed agreements, a total of about 145 business and industry publications are already employing Lotus' Newsstand tool for bringing publications to desktop users of Notes-based networks, he asserted. Newly added Newsstand publishers include BRP Publications, Fidelity Capital, APT Data Group PLC, and the Bureau of National Affairs. Lotus' strategy for Newsstand calls for giving users "specialized" trade journals and other electronic publications that are difficult to find elsewhere online, Dougherty said, during a previous interview with Newsbytes this summer, upon the initial release of Newsstand. Dougherty informed Newsbytes this week that, by and large, the 145 current Notes-based publications fall into the same eight or nine vertical market categories, such as accounting, that Lotus identified last summer. The addition of new Notes-based publications and the establishment of a wider audience through deals with AT&T Network Notes, IBM Global Network, and WorldCom are acting as mutual catalysts for the growth of Newsstand, Dougherty contended. In addition, the recent acquisition of Lotus by IBM "enhances the view that Notes is a solid and permanent fixture," he continued. "IBM recognizes that Notes is a superb distribution mechanism," Newsbytes was told. The use of Notes as a publication delivery platform provides capabilities such as distribution among workgroup users through Notes replication and the ability to conduct full-text searches and sort information into various views (by date, by subject, by author) from the desktop, according to Dougherty. Lotus, he said, has begun to participate in "co-marketing" activities, in which Lotus helps to identify potential customers for publishers, and accompanies the publishers on initial sales calls to bring the two parties together. Notes customers are now starting to ask publishers to prepare "custom" versions of publications that are tailored to specific needs, he added. "One good example is a publisher that puts out four daily reports. A Notes customer wants to have (the reports) organized differently," he illustrated. About 7,000 companies are currently using Lotus Notes, according to Dougherty. The use of Newsstand by larger networks such as AT&T Network Notes, IBM Global Network Service for Notes, and WorldCom will help to facilitate distribution of Notes-based publications among multiple companies, he predicted. "There is also the possibility that we will begin to use Lotus InterNotes for republishing (Notes-based) publications to the Web. But we're not promising this," Dougherty told Newsbytes. Lotus InterNotes converts Notes-based documents into the HTML (hypertext markup language) format used on the Web. (Jacqueline Emigh/19951025/Reader Contact: Lotus, 617-577-8500; Press Contact: Suzanne Diaz, Lois Paul & Partners for Lotus, 617-862-4514) (SUMMARY)(GENERAL)(MSP)(00036) Newsbytes Daily Summary 10/25/95 MINNEAPOLIS, MINNESOTA, U.S.A., 1995 OCT 25 (NB) -- These are capsules of all today's news stories: ======================================================================== ------------| N E W S B Y T E S D A I L Y S U M M A R Y |---------- ------------| Wednesday, October 25, 1995 |---------- ======================================================================== (c) Newsbytes News Network (Tm) Editor in Chief: Wendy Woods ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Newsbytes News Network's on the Web! Check out http://www.nbnn.com for free daily top stories from Newsbytes. and its affiliate publications, and from PC Week, MacWeek, and other Ziff news magazines. A subscription gives you all the news, full-text, plus the most comprehensive database of past computer stories online. The keyword-searchable database dates from today back through 1983. Subscriptions are $24.95 for three months. Questions? Send to 'administrator@newsbytes.com' For Japanese Newsbytes and additional services, see the Newsbytes Pacifica Website at http://www.islandtel.com/newsbytes/ ------------------------------------------------------------------------ CATEGORY HEADLINES (*** indicates today's top stories) STORY # ======================================================================== APPLE Claris Ships Apple's Internet Kit, Oracle Objects.......... 10 APPLE ****Apple Courts Associated Press......................... 34 BROADCAST Skyphone's Encrypted Fax/Data/Voice Call Services.......... 04 BROADCAST ****MCI Plans Home VideoPhone Over Normal Lines........... 27 BUSINESS Pearson & Matra Sell Europe Online Shares To Veba.......... 06 BUSINESS Daewoo Electronics Enters Chinese Market................... 12 BUSINESS China - Great Wall & IBM Cooperation Benefits Both......... 14 BUSINESS Intel Plans Thailand Office................................ 15 BUSINESS Fujitsu Sees Higher Profits & Sales For Year............... 20 BUSINESS IBM Canada Stands Its Ground On DMR Offer.................. 23 BUSINESS Pen Is Not Mightier, PenMagic Renamed Pivotal.............. 28 BUSINESS ****Netscape Exceeds Wall Street Expectations............. 30 BUSINESS Hayes Quiet On US Robotics Acquisition Offer............... 32 CHIPS NEC Increases Chip Production Investment................... 21 GENERAL Nintendo Cuts Virtual Boy Price, Intros New Games.......... 01 GENERAL Japan Newsbriefs........................................... 19 GOVT Thailand Govt To Boost IT Spending......................... 17 IBM IBM Ships RAMAC 2 "2nd Generation" Mainframe Storage....... 29 NETWORK LANart Unveils Net Port Switching Technology............... 18 ONLINE Compuserve Shows Travelers "A Better Way To Go............. 11 ONLINE ****Internet Update....................................... 22 ONLINE ****eWorld Exec - Online Services "Terminally Ill......... 24 ONLINE Lycos Buys Point, Adds Web Ratings To Spider Search........ 31 ONLINE Online Execs - "Churn" Still A Problem..................... 33 ONLINE Lotus Newsstand Adds Networks/Publications, Eyes Web....... 35 PC TI Intros MicroLaser Printer For SOHO Market............... 08 TELECOM Russian Telecom Giant To Be Privatized..................... 07 TELECOM China - Public Phones Increase Dramatically................ 13 TELECOM Thailand Telecom Group To Expand........................... 16 TRENDS ****Computer Crimes Greater Than Expected, Increasing..... 03 TRENDS Novell Reveals More Netware Telephony Plans................ 09 TRENDS ****CD-ROM Better Marketing Vehicle Than Web.............. 25 UNIX Silicon Graphics' "On-The-Fly" Web Page Package............ 02 WINDOWS German Firm Offers Low-Cost Pro Music Composing Software... 05 WINDOWS ****Microsoft Fixes Windows 95 Security Problems.......... 26 ======================================================================== These are the headlines and first paragraphs of each story, in order: 1 -> Nintendo Cuts Virtual Boy Price, Intros New Games -- Nintendo of America has announced a $20 reduction in the price of its Virtual Boy video game system. The price cut makes the suggested retail price of Virtual Boy $159.95. 2 -> Silicon Graphics' "On-The-Fly" Web Page Package -- Silicon Graphics has announced MindShare Outbox, an Iris-based (Silicon Graphics' Unix variant) software package that uses Web technology to allow people to share information within organizations. 3 -> ****Computer Crimes Greater Than Expected, Increasing -- Professor David Carter, faculty member of Michigan State University (MSU), says 98.6% of businesses in his nationwide survey have been victims of computer crime. More than 43.3% of the 200 survey respondents say they were victimized in excess of 25 times. 4 -> Skyphone's Encrypted Fax/Data/Voice Call Services -- Skyphone, the satellite phone consortium owned and operated by British Telecom, Singapore Telecom, and Telnor International (formerly Norwegian Telcom), has announced an enhancement to its analog voice, data, and fax service from aircraft 5 -> German Firm Offers Low-Cost Pro Music Composing Software -- Capella Music Notation, a German music software house, has announced the availability of Capella 2.1, a UKP119 music editing and annotation package for the PC-Windows environment. The company has signed distribution agreements with companies in the Czech Republic, the Netherlands, and Software Partners in the UK. 6 -> Pearson & Matra Sell Europe Online Shares To Veba -- Pearson and Matra-Hachette have announced plans to sell their stakes in Europe Online, an online publishing venture created with a third company, Burda Verlag of Germany, to Veba, the German information technology (IT) company. Burda Verlag is retaining its shares in the venture, Newsbytes understands. 7 -> Russian Telecom Giant To Be Privatized -- The Russian Government has announced plans to privatize Svyazinvest, the state-owned telecoms holding company. According to Macksim Boyko, head of the Russian Privatization Bureau, 25 percent of the company will be sold off to a major investor. 8 -> TI Intros MicroLaser Printer For SOHO Market -- Texas Instruments Inc. (NYSE: TXN) has introduced a new member of its MicroLaser printer family that is intended specifically for the small office/home office (SOHO) market where a Windows-based PC is in use. The company said the printer is positioned to compete with Hewlett Packard's LaserJet 5P. 9 -> Novell Reveals More Netware Telephony Plans -- Novell Inc. (NASDAQ: NOVL) has outlined more of its long-term plans for its Netware Telephony Services (NTS) and Telephony Services API (applications programming interface), or TSAPI. The plans include new products, technologies, and programs. 10 -> Claris Ships Apple's Internet Kit, Oracle Objects -- Following recent announcements from Apple Computer Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL), Claris, a developer and vendor of Macintosh and Windows software, says it is shipping the Apple Internet Connection Kit and Oracle Power Objects for Windows or Mac. Along with its retail channel strength, Claris will also move the products through its ClarisPlus volume licensing program. 11 -> Compuserve Shows Travelers "A Better Way To Go -- Before venturing out onto the highways of the land, members of Compuserve can now get directions on how to get from here to there via the online network's "superhighway." A new service, dubbed "Way To Go Compuserve" provides turn-by-turn directions between points of interest, along with a complete directory of addresses and special attractions in any given region. 12 -> Daewoo Electronics Enters Chinese Market -- Daewoo Electronics, one of the six major industrial branches of the South Korean Daewoo Group, plans to input $100 million into China for four joint ventures, including a color TV plant, according to a senior company official. 13 -> China - Public Phones Increase Dramatically -- In response to a rapidly growing public demand for telecommunications services, more than 270,000 public telephones were installed in the first eight months of this year, according to statistics from Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications (MPT). 14 -> China - Great Wall & IBM Cooperation Benefits Both -- China's leading computer firm, Great Wall Group, and the world computer giant, IBM, have signed an agreement to further tap the Chinese computer market. 15 -> Intel Plans Thailand Office -- Intel Corporation plans to open a subsidiary office in Thailand early next year, the Vice President of Intel International and Director for Emerging Markets Rob Eckelmann has confirmed. 16 -> Thailand Telecom Group To Expand -- Leading telecommunications player, the Samart Group, is forming two new subsidiaries, Samart Electronic Commerce Company and POSnet, to address the rapidly growing markets of EDI (electronic data interchange) and electronic-mail, as well as electronic funds transfer, point-of-sales and smart cards, according to Samart Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Charnchai Charuvastr. 17 -> Thailand Govt To Boost IT Spending -- The Thailand Cabinet has agreed in principle to allocate a 2,185.5 million baht (US$87.5 million) budget to increase computer literacy among students and improve computer curricula over the coming five years. 18 -> LANart Unveils Net Port Switching Technology -- LANart International has announced Segway, a network port switch. The company claims that the product is unique in the market in being able to dynamically allocated network bandwidth to local area network (LAN) users before the data channels are linked to the network proper. 19 -> Japan Newsbriefs -- In this roundup of news from Japan: Softbank targets Unitech, IDO to expand service area, Convenience store distribution for Windows 95, Xerox software pact with Toshiba, Seiko Epson ties with Telediffusion de France, Sharp first with digital satellite, Sony, Toshiba announce new US chiefs 20 -> Fujitsu Sees Higher Profits & Sales For Year -- Fujitsu Ltd. (TSE:6702), the world's second largest computer manufacturer, has announced increased sales and profits for the first six months of the current financial year and upgraded year-end forecasts. The company reported "strong domestic and overseas demand for semiconductors and other electronic devices as well as rapid growth in multimedia-related business areas," helped it to record a consolidated net income growth of 441%. 21 -> NEC Increases Chip Production Investment -- NEC Corporation (TSE:6701), Japan's largest semiconductor maker, says it will increase the amount of money it is investing in production of computer chips to a record 210 billion yen ($2.1 billion) from 125 billion yen ($1.25 billion) last year, an increase of 68%. 22 -> ****Internet Update -- In this roundup of new resources and services on the global Internet: Keeping in touch with Capitol Hill, News mailing list home page, It can't be Christmas already, New Web 100 listing, The Danish Ministry of Environment and Energy, Japan's entertainment world, Weather goes interactive, Golf tips from a pro, Water, water everywhere 23 -> IBM Canada Stands Its Ground On DMR Offer -- Although rival bidder Amdahl Corp. (AMEX:AMH) has taken up 36 percent of the common shares of Montreal- based consulting firm DMR Group Inc. (TSE:DR), IBM Canada Ltd. is standing by, not only its bid for the company, but its stated intention of getting 90 percent of DMR's shares. 24 -> ****eWorld Exec - Online Services "Terminally Ill -- In what was the most contentious statement at the Sixth Conference on Interactive Marketing being held this week, Apple eWorld Worldwide Services Group Manager Richard Gingras sounded a figurative death knell for the closed-platform online industry. 25 -> ****CD-ROM Better Marketing Vehicle Than Web -- Among marketers, there's a widespread perception that, because it's far easier, cheaper and quicker to put up and update a World Wide Web site than it is to produce a CD-ROM, that the Web is the ideal marketing vehicle for corporations that want to get product information out to the public. 26 -> ****Microsoft Fixes Windows 95 Security Problems -- Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ:MSFT) said it has located and fixed two problems with file and printer sharing in its Windows 95 operating system (OS) that could have caused security concerns with Windows 95 users. 27 -> ****MCI Plans Home VideoPhone Over Normal Lines -- MCI Inc. (NASDAQ:MCIC), along with several other companies, is bringing videoconferencing to the home over standard telephone wiring. Called "MCI VideoPhone," the new system will be on the market by June, 1996, company officials said. 28 -> Pen Is Not Mightier, PenMagic Renamed Pivotal --Pen computing has been a disappointment for four-year-old PenMagic software, and the company is changing its name and looking for greener pastures elsewhere. 29 -> IBM Ships RAMAC 2 "2nd Generation" Mainframe Storage -- At a press conference in Boston yesterday afternoon, IBM announced shipment of the "second generation" of its RAID (redundant array of inexpensive disks) 5 mainframe storage systems, officially presenting the first IBM RAMAC 2 production-level unit to Nynex, a major user of information storage. 30 -> ****Netscape Exceeds Wall Street Expectations -- When Netscape Communications (NASDAQ:NSCP) went public with its dramatic opening day on the stock exchange, a number of analysts questioned how a company which had not made money could arouse so much attention. In its first quarter since the initial public offering, Netscape says revenues are up 75% and income increased from a loss of $1.6 million to a gain of $1.4 million. 31 -> Lycos Buys Point, Adds Web Ratings To Spider Search -- Through a newly announced $3 million acquisition of Point Communications Corp., Lycos has integrated Point's review and rating guide to the World Wide Web, plus capsules of business news and weather, into its own Spider-based search and indexing service for the Web, said Lycos President and CEO (Chief Executive Officer) Robert J. Davis, in an interview with Newsbytes. 32 -> Hayes Quiet On US Robotics Acquisition Offer -- Hayes Microcomputer isn't saying much yet about a multi-million offer from US Robotics to purchase the modem maker that set the standard for commands to control the devices that let computers talk to each other via telephone lines. 33 -> Online Execs - "Churn" Still A Problem -- Exact subscriber counts are not as important to an online service as the ability to keep them around and reduce cancellations, several online service executives stressed during a panel discussion at the Sixth Conference on Interactive Marketing Tuesday. 34 -> ****Apple Courts Associated Press -- Three Apple Computer Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) executives are on their way back to California after meeting with Associated Press (AP) execs. Apple wants AP to create a Macintosh client software for the AP television newsroom computer system. 35 -> Lotus Newsstand Adds Networks/Publications, Eyes Web -- Lotus is eyeing the electronic delivery of publications over even more Notes networks, plus the possibility of helping to republish the Notes-based publications to the Web, revealed Jim Dougherty, director of Lotus's Advanced Technologies Group, in an interview with Newsbytes about the addition of AT&T Network Notes, IBM Global Network Service for Lotus Notes, and WorldCom as delivery platforms for Lotus Notes:Newsstand. (Ian Stokell/19951025) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 10/24/95 ONLINE Electric Industry To Use Internet For Transmission Info (NEWS)(ONLINE)(WAS)(00001) Electric Industry To Use Internet For Transmission Info 10/24/95 WASHINGTON, D.C., U.S.A., 1995 OCT 24 (NB) -- The electric power industry will use the Internet to provide a real-time information network proposed by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission as part of its plan to turn privately-owned long-distance, high-voltage electric transmission lines into common carriers. To facilitate competition, the FERC plan would require utilities that own transmission lines to provide competitors with information on when and where the lines are open to schedule wholesale power transfers. FERC asked the Electric Power Research Institute, the industry's research group, to study how to implement the information access requirement. Separately, FERC asked the North American Electric Reliability Council to study what information should be made available once the information networks were established. "We were fearful that EPRI would try to reinvent the wheel," one electric utility industry executive, who requested anonymity, told Newsbytes. "We think they have made the right choice, picking a technology that is quite robust and mature for the kind of information network we need." "FERC wanted something that was doable by June of 96," EPRI's Jerry Cauley told Newsbytes, "so we had to ask, 'Is the Internet appropriate for this. Or are more sophisticated approaches required? What's practical by next June? What's affordable? What's important to transmission customers?' "We're proposed that, as a minimum requirement, every transmission owner must provide transmission services information on a server," said Cauley. "The minimum requirement is that the information be accessible through the Internet." "We didn't want the information to be available to just anyone," said Cauley, "so we'd have a number of security measures. We'd require registration and a customer agreement." If the Internet proves insecure, the industry might have to switch to another network or dedicated lines, he said. While some 160 electric systems would be affected by FERC's requirement, Cauley noted that various regional groups that coordinate electricity transactions, such as the New York Power Pool, the Western Systems Coordinating Council, and others, will likely coordinate transmission information as well. "I expect to see 25 to 30 nodes initially cropping up in the spring," Cauley said. (Kennedy Maize/19951023/Press Contact: Jerry Cauley, 415-855-2000) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 10/24/95 ONLINE PSI Offers Virtual Neighborhoods Local Content Program (NEWS)(ONLINE)(WAS)(00002) PSI Offers Virtual Neighborhoods Local Content Program 10/24/95 HERNDON, VIRGINIA, U.S.A., 1995 OCT 24 (NB) -- PSINet's Pipeline Internet service is planning on expanding the local content service it pioneered in New York City to other metropolitan areas through what it calls its "virtual neighborhoods" program. Pipeline, a New York-based Internet service provider PSI acquired earlier this year, has offered localized content for the New York metropolitan area since 1993. The initial rollout of the local service will come in Boston, Atlanta, Dallas, Washington DC, Los Angeles, Chicago, and San Francisco in 1996. "Until now," said Kurt Baumann, PSI vice president of consumer services, "there's been no broad national effort to offer true local content or to cultivate the sense of community people appreciate. Instant access to worldwide information has become a way of life for millions of people, but everyone still wants local scores, local event listing, and a sense that they have a home on the Internet -- that is what we will provide." But Pipeline is not alone is seeing local content as an attractive market. Many daily newspapers are now offering online access, through the Internet, commercial services, or both. Major papers such as the Washington Post have launched their own ambitious online services. And America Online has begun offering local content, including a well thought-out offering on the Washington area, AOL's home turf. Pipeline says it will offer subscribers in the designated areas original local information and news, and will provide newsgroup discussion facilitated by Pipeline moderators, with special appearances by local newsmakers and celebrities. "We built an online community from the ground up in New York," says Edward Nadeau, generation manager of Pipeline/NY. "Our service reflects the culture and character of the tri-state metropolitan area. We are going to replicate this atmosphere for online customers in other cities." The local content service will be available at no extra charge above the current PSI flat monthly fee of $19.95. (Kennedy Maize/19951023/Press Contact: Aggie Nteta, 703-904-4100 ext 1356) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 10/24/95 TELECOM British Telecom Offers Frame Relay In Philippines (NEWS)(TELECOM)(HKG)(00003) British Telecom Offers Frame Relay In Philippines 10/24/95 MANILA, PHILIPPINES, 1995 OCT 24 (NB) -- Officials from British Telecommunications Inc. (BT) and Philippine Global Communications (PhilCom) recently hosted the launch of a frame relay service from Concert, the joint global communications venture between BT and MCI, formed in 1993. Utilizing digital circuits for data transfer between PCs and host computers in a global setup, the Concert Frame Relay Service (CFRS) connects local area networks (LANs) around the world very quickly at a speed of two megabits-per-second (Mbps), according to Graham Moore, managing director for North East Asia of British Telecom. The first frame relay service to launch in the country, CFRS is a new technology linking corporate users to the cloud of information via a high bandwidth and low-delay application. CFRS simplifies coordination between highly dispersed LANs utilizing upgradable 64 kilobits-per-second (Kbps) leased lines. In an interview with Newsbytes, Moore said moving from packet services to frame relay and eventually asynchronous transfer mode (ATM) cell relay is a natural progression, and BT is on its way to developing its full-blown ATM service. The move to ATM cell relay, however, will be determined by the volume of data large companies, particularly the multinationals, need to transfer. It will be a natural alternative when the need outgrows frame relay technology, according to Moore. "Concert can be the 'ten' solution for our country's communication needs," asserts Alfredo Parungao, president and chief executive officer (CEO) of PhilCom, addressing his audience at the ballroom of The Peninsula Manila Hotel. Parungao reminded the audience that BT and PhilCom set the standards in Philippine telecommunications when they launched the Global Data Communications Service in 1992. "We want to offer our customers world class telecom products," Parungao said. PhilCom is the Philippines' second international gateway facility (IGF) operator having obtained its license from the National Telecommunications Commission in 1988. It was also the first telecom firm to open the radio telephone service between the Philippines and the USA. Moore said his entourage was in the country to lend support to the local launch and to let the people realize that they have a choice. Also at the launch was Commissioner Simeon Kintanar of the National Telecommunications Commission, who said CFRS would be a significant component for the country's goal to move forward and achieve a newly industrialized country status in the year 2000. The Philippines, with a current teledensity of 2, will eventually achieve a teledensity of 10 (per 100 Filipino) by the year 2000, and this requires an investment requirement of P125 billion pesos for local exchange lines, international gateway services and mobile telephones, Kintanar adds. (Jenny Malapitan and Metropolitan Computer Times/19951024/Internet e-mail dilips@netcom.com) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 10/24/95 IBM IBM Soups Up European Global Net With VSAT (NEWS)(IBM)(LON)(00004) IBM Soups Up European Global Net With VSAT 10/24/95 PARIS, FRANCE, 1995 OCT 24 (NB) -- IBM has announced plans to greatly enhance its IBM Global Network service in Europe, using VSAT (very small aperture terminal) technology. Using VSAT technology will allow IBM to "massively increase" its European network capacity within a very short space of time, officials said, in order to take advantage of the impending free European market for telecoms services. As previously reported by Newsbytes, on January 1, 1998, all European Commission (EC) member countries must open up their telecoms services to free market competition and service provision by companies from within the EC. According to IBM, the idea is to enhance its Global Network in Europe to accept videoconferencing links in addition to voice and data. Big Blue claims that, over the next year, its network in Europe will be the largest and most function-rich outside of the US. And IBM doesn't appear to be wasting any time in signing up new customers to its enhanced Global Network. The company has signed up French automobile manufacturers, Peugot and Citroen, who will use the IBM Global Network to communicate with their 4.200 dealers scattered across Europe. According to the car manufacturers, the network will allow dealers to order cars and spare parts for their customers and, eventually allow them to receive private broadcasts and product announcement video transmissions, "This will simplify connection procedures and increase the number of exchanges between manufacturer and dealer, while actually reducing communication costs," explained Jean-Serge Bertoncini, director of information technology for Peugot and Citroen. "We'll have a much closer relationship with our dealers," he added. Bertoncini said the car-buying public will benefit from an improved exchange of information on product availability, streamline order processing, and more efficient delivery scheduling and maintenance management. He added that the main reason why the car manufacturing group went with IBM was the Global Network's "open" nature, so allowing different protocols to be used over the same links. According to IBM, major customers on the IBM Global Network will be migrated from their existing landline and microwave relay links into the main backbone network progressively from the beginning of 1996 onwards. The first switches will occur in the first quarter of the new year in France, where customers using the Axone private data network (PDN) will be moved across to VSAT, where their data net usage makes the use of VSAT more economic than landline or microwave hop. Announcing the masterplan for Europe, John Whiteside, IBM Global Network's general manager refused to be drawn on the cost, but claimed that it would be cheaper and easier for both IBM and its customers in the longer term. (Steve Gold/19951023/Press Contact: Brain Doyle, IBM Global Network, +33-1-4188-5494) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 10/24/95 TRENDS UK - New Technology & IT Consultants Examined - Report (NEWS)(TRENDS)(LON)(00005) UK - New Technology & IT Consultants Examined - Report 10/24/95 LONDON, ENGLAND, 1995 OCT 24 (NB -- The Computing Services & Software Association (CSSA) Business Advisory Group of information technology (IT) directors from a broad cross-section of British industry has met up twice in recent months to provide feedback to the industry on two topics: the impact of new technologies, and the use and value of consultants. The results of the discussions have been published in a condensed report format by the CSSA and are available free of charge by faxing a request to +44-171-404-4119 or electronically mailing to cssa@cssa.co.uk. According to Rob Wirszycz, a spokesman for the CSSA, in the first session, the panel were cautious in their acceptance of, and movement towards, adopting new technologies into their business. While the panel accepted the "inevitability" and "probable benefits" of some of the changes, they were wary of "being a pioneer" and choosing a "technological cul-de-sac." In the second session, the panel produced a set of recommendations for the use of consultants, as well as a set of challenges that consultants and users need to face. One interesting fact that emerged from the session was that it was often less of a problem paying high fee rates for consultants, as often, the highest value was received from the best and most experienced consultants. In addition, the panel said that they believed that consultants are useful in providing an external viewpoint which can cut through in-company politics and so help advance the cause of the IT director. (Steve Gold/19951020/Press & Reader Contact: CSSA, tel +44-171- 405-2171, fax +44-171-404-4119) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 10/24/95 TELECOM Ericsson Receives African Digital Phone Order (NEWS)(TELECOM)(LON)(00006) Ericsson Receives African Digital Phone Order 10/24/95 STOCKHOLM, SWEDEN, 1995 OCT 24 (NB) -- The Digital American Mobile Phone System (D-AMPS) has been a great success in the US, but has only gained limited acceptance. Most recently, D-AMPS got its first orders from Russia and Vietnam, and now, the technology -- the rival to GSM (global system for mobile communications) -- has received its first order from the African continent. Terms of the agreement call for Ericsson to supply Nexus International, a wholly owned subsidiary of France Telecom, with a D-AMPS/AMPS cellular network covering two of the major cities in the Congo: Brazzaville, the capital, which has a million citizens, and Pointe Noire, the coastal city which has a population of 500,000. Announcing the deal, M. Koua, the High Commissioner for Posts and Telecommunications in the Congo, said that the installation of the network represents a major step in the development of the Congo, and is the direct result of initiatives by His Excellency, Professor Pascal Lissouba, the Congo's President. Sven-Christer Nilsson, vice president of Ericsson Radio Systems and general manager of the business unit, said that deal is strategically significant "as it will be Ericsson's first D-AMPS network in Africa, and, hopefully, the beginning of an expanding D-AMPS network linking several countries." According to Nilsson, there are almost 1.5 million subscribers around the world who are using D-AMPS and more than 40 million using AMPS, its analog forerunner. Ericsson claims that its systems support around 15 million of these subscribers, giving the Swedish telco a market share of around 40 percent. The deal involves the supply of several base stations, along with an electronic mobile exchange (EMX) for the twin city network. The network is scheduled for commercial launch at the end of this year. (Sylvia Dennis/19951020/Press Contact: Per Bengtsson, Ericsson Business Area Radio Communications, +46-8-757-2159) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 10/24/95 NETWORK Novell's 2Mbps Electric Mains LAN Technology (NEWS)(NETWORK)(LON)(00007) Novell's 2Mbps Electric Mains LAN Technology 10/24/95 BRACKNELL, BERKSHIRE, ENGLAND, 1995 OCT 24 (NB) -- Novell has unveiled a mains-borne LAN (local area network) technology, known as Nested NetWare Powerline. The technology allows NetWare connections to be achieved across conventional electricity lines. Mains-borne LANs were last seen in quantity back in the late 1980s, when the slow speed of the technology -- then around 20-30,000 bits-per- second (bps) -- was not a problem, Newsbytes notes. Novell claims to have souped up the technology and squeezed an impressive two megabits-per-second (Mbps) out of the link with Powerline. Because of the way in which mains circuits route into the home and office, only small clusters of office buildings and homes can normally carry the NetWare Powerline signal. This is because of isolation circuits that seek to prevent power surges or difficulties causing problems with large numbers of customers to the local power grid. Nevertheless, the NetWare Powerline system can be used on a localized basis for simple networking and, since the system does not require the use of extra wiring, it is billed as "extremely cost-effective." Novell is not marketing NetWare Powerline as a "true" NetWare LAN topology. Instead, it expects to see the technology used to link PCs with technically simple devices such as photocopiers, fax machines and domestic appliances, as well as traditional desktop PCs. Such devices can be sub-connected to a conventional NetWare network, although at slower speeds. Novell has teamed up with UtiliCorp United, the US electricity and gas company, to develop and jointly market applications of the Nested NetWare Powerline technology. The first aim of the technology is that it will allow a central PC to control devices in and around the home or office, regulating their power consumption by switching them on and off as required. Lalit Nathwani, senior brand marketing manager with Novell UK, explained that the technology has massive potential in being able to link up previously unconnected devices, without resorting to overkill by strapping on a NetWare card. "Novell has a goal of connecting a billion devices to the global network by the year 2000. Many of these will be non-traditional computing information technology devices in locations without traditional LAN connections," he said, adding that Powerline removes this restriction "at a stroke." The aim is to encourage OEMs (original equipment manufacturers) to license Nested NetWare Powerline technology for inclusion in household devices like air conditioners, and office devices like fans, photocopiers and the like, so that NetWare servers can uses the mains- borne links to control the devices. More than 45 OEMs are claimed to have produced 140 product designs using the technology and Powerline- compliant electrical devices are expected to appear early next year. To further Powerline, Novell has formed the Smart Energy Network Alliance (SENA), a group with the aim of accelerating the delivery of economical energy management systems based on networking technologies such as Powerline. The alliance will, Novell claims, allow the company to leverage its existing technology to provide support for energy companies to offer consumers data comms links within their existing electrical grid systems. (Steve Gold/19951020/Press Contact: Andy Smith, A Plus, +44-1753- 790700, Internet e-mail asmith@aplus.co.uk; Reader Contact: Novell UK, tel +44-1344-724000, fax +44-1344-724001) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 10/24/95 ONLINE AGIS Provides Additional Internet Bandwidth (NEWS)(ONLINE)(MSP)(00008) AGIS Provides Additional Internet Bandwidth 10/24/95 DEARBORN, MICHIGAN, U.S.A., 1995 OCT 24 (NB) -- Apex Global Information Services (AGIS) said it is introducing "Upscale 2000," a scalable Internet bandwidth product which enables businesses to purchase a set amount of bandwidth, with the option of upgrading to a higher speed at a later date. "What the Upscale 2000 product line is meeting what we see as the coming quality of service goal from the Internet," Phillip J. Lawlor, president and chief executive officer of AGIS, told Newsbytes. With Upscale 2000, Internet service providers (ISPs) can elect to start at a 56 kilobits-per-second (Kbps) bandwidth, with the ability to gradually move up in speed to as high as 45 megabits-per-second (Mbps). This helps ISPs provide quality service in a marketplace that is more competitive now than a year ago, Lawlor said. "What we'll see happening in the next 12 to 24 months are the content and transaction providers moving in a flight to quality," he said. "These folks don't want to end up behind somebody's slow link," and these companies will want a large presence behind them with more bandwidth, he said. Lawlor told Newsbytes Upscale 2000 is a part of the company's "Project Millennium," a series of products and services unique to AGIS that will usher both Internet providers and users "into the 21st Century." AGIS also announced recently that it would be providing transit and peering in the United States for Demon Internet Systems of the United Kingdom. AGIS and Demon concluded the first phase of negotiations last month, which will see AGIS providing 3Mbps of international access from the UK to the US. This will allow Demon to have redundant capacity on its existing routes, and will permit "additional vitality" for all of their existing UK to US traffic, AGIS officials said. AGIS and Demon are negotiating further to expand their partnership, AGIS officials added. In addition, AGIS recently bought Net99 of Phoenix. With the buy, AGIS claims to be one of the largest commercial backbone providers of Internet connectivity in the world. (Bob Woods/19951020/Press Contacts: Barry Schwartz or Steven Wright-Mark, Schwartz Public Relations, 212-677-8700) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 10/24/95 CHIPS Intel Plans $1Bil Flash Memory Plant In Israel (NEWS)(CHIPS)(SFO)(00009) Intel Plans $1Bil Flash Memory Plant In Israel 10/24/95 FOLSOM, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1995 OCT 24 (NB) -- Intel (NASDAQ:INTC) has announced plans to build a $1 billion fabrication plant in Kiryat Gat, Israel. The site, named Fab 18, will be the first constructed by Intel exclusively for flash memory manufacturing. Intel is now in its fourth generation of flash memory technology since its beginning in 1988. Because it is rewritable and non-volatile, flash memory uses continue to expand. Dataquest, a well-known market research firm, estimates the worldwide flash memory market at $1.3 billion through 1995. In 1994, Intel's flash memory shipments accounted for 51% of the market. Flash memory is commonly used in personal computers, PC Cards, cellular phones, and network cards. Today, it greatest use is in PCs where it is used for to store BIOS (basic input/output system) code. On an annual basis 63 to 65 million PCs use flash memory, and 36 to 37 million cellular phones incorporate the technology. An Intel spokesperson told Newsbytes, "We plan to break ground on November 8 and produce volume shipments by early 1998." When completed, Fab 18 will have one million square feet of floor space with an 80,000 square foot, Class 1 cleanroom. The new facility is being built to produce product using an advanced 0.25-micron lithography process on eight-inch (200mm) wafers. It is Intel's first fabrication plant designed exclusively for the manufacture of flash memory products. According to Intel, Fab 18 will increase its flash memory capacity by 350 percent. Currently, Intel's flash memory products are manufactured at Fab 7 and Fab 9 in Mexico, and in collaboration with Sharp in Japan. These units will continue to produce flash memory products after Fab 18 is completed. Explaining the value of flash memory products, Intel's spokesperson said, "Part of the success of flash memory products is due to being rewritable. This means, for example, a cellular phone manufacturer is able to update features without having to replace the memory. Since it is rewritable, the manufacturer can simply change the programming code as features become available. This keeps the price of cellular phones down and is why companies can almost give them away." Another advantage of flash memory -- being non-volatile -- means data remains in memory when it is not powered. Intel says future markets for flash memory lie in consumer product markets such as digital audio storage and digital photography. (Patrick McKenna/1995/Press Contact: Anne Hall, Intel, 916-356-6515) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 10/24/95 ONLINE "Muse" Photos On Web For "Instant Secure Transactions" (NEWS)(ONLINE)(BOS)(00010) "Muse" Photos On Web For "Instant Secure Transactions" 10/24/95 BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS, U.S.A., 1995 OCT 24 (NB) -- Beyond being the first World Wide Web site to permit digital photo transactions that encompass search, licensing, downloading, and "secure payment" elements, the newly opened "Muse" is one of the first Web-based services of any kind to enable secure payment transactions in "real time," claimed Richard P. Groman, president of West Stock, during a meeting with Newsbytes on a Boston press tour. Although professional designers constitute one key target market for West Stock's new Web-based stock photography service, these are hardly the only folks to be downloading images off the Web. In fact, about 80 percent of all files now being downloaded off the Web consist of images, according to the West Stock chief. As a result, he added, West Stock is offering downloads of its professionally produced stock photos at seven different pricing levels, based on category of intended use, along with image size and resolution. The Muse licensing scheme ranges from $8 for a one megabyte (MB) photo for on-screen "personal" use (on a "personal Web page," for example), to $70 for a 4.5MB photo for printed "external" use (in a magazine ad, for instance). Also accounted for in the comprehensive pricing scenario for the Web are photos geared to internal or external use by audiences such as home-based businesses and desktop, multimedia and "Webtop" publishers. The same stock photos in hard copy form cost around $350 to license, he pointed out. All 5,000-or-so photos from the stable of 75 West Stock photographers have been legally cleared for licensing, as well as "model released," according to Groman. In addition, the Muse is among only a few Web-based services that currently provide "instant credit approval," for secure transactions right from the time of initial sign-on, he contended. After logging on to West Stock's secure server, searching for photos, and choosing the photos to be licensed from West Stock, you are asked by the Muse for your Visa, MasterCard, or American Express card number and expiration date. In contrast to most other Web-based transaction services, which accumulate users' credit card and transaction information for later batch processing, the Muse processes each individual transaction immediately, through a direct link between West Stock's Netscape Commerce Server and the US Bank of Washington and Oregon via VisaNet, according to Groman. Netscape encrypts the credit card number. After your credit card is approved by the bank, the credit card number is quickly expunged from the online records, for extra security, he said. Groman told Newsbytes that Seattle, Washington-based West Stock, one of the largest stock agencies on the West Coast, was also one of the first players to enter the digital stock photography market. About four years ago, West Stock supplied the photos used in PhotoDisc's first series of CD-ROM "photo clip-art," he elaborated. The photos that West Stock is now offering over the Muse differ from the online news photos furnished by services such as Reuters. The photos from West Stock are more likely to appear in a hard copy or electronic ad, brochure, or newsletter than in a newspaper, he continued. "So the content is complementary." In a demo for Newsbytes carried out with an Apple Powerbook and a cellular modem, Groman accessed the Muse and downloaded a photo. After landing on the Muse's home page, the company president entered an "alphabet" page. There, he clicked on the word "cactus" to bring up a list of all photos featuring that vegetable from the Muse's Oracle 7 database. The Muse also lets you refine a search, he added, showing Newsbytes sub-categories for "cactus" photos that included "silhouette," for instance. To view a photo, you click on "view selection." The selected photo first appears as a thumbnail. You can then enlarge the on-screen image to 3-by-5-inch, 150-line JPEG (Joint Photographic Experts Group) size by clicking on the photo. The online JPEG-sized photo bears a watermark. If you decide you are interested in licensing an image, you can either conduct the "secure transaction" right away, or employ the Muse's "shopping cart" to store the image away temporarily while you browse the West Stock Web site for more photos. After your credit card has been approved, and the transaction is billed to your card, you can download the image. The Muse, said Groman, also uses the TAR protocol to "bundle the image" into downloadable form, and to supply additional security. Access to the Muse requires a Netscape browser version 1.1 or later, plus a 14.4 megabits-per-second (Mbps) or faster modem. You can later open and decompress the image with the use of JPEG-compliant software, such as the Netscape browser or Photoshop viewer, for example. At 14.4 Mbps, you can download a 1MB image in two minutes 30 seconds, and a 4.5MB image in six minutes, Groman said. The 4.5MB image takes three minutes 30 seconds at 28.8Mbps, and about half that time over ISDN (integrated services digital network), according to the company chief. "If you have a T-3 line, you can really `cook,'" he remarked. Groman told Newsbytes that the underlying technology for the Muse was developed by Semaphore, a Seattle-based software house that also hosts the West Stock Web site. "In the future, there's no reason why we shouldn't add multimedia images, since the Oracle 7 database is able to handle them," the West Stock president revealed. You can access the Muse on the Web at http://www.weststock.com , and Semaphore at http://www.semaphore.com . (Jacqueline Emigh/19951023/Reader Contact: West Stock, 800-821- 9600; Press Contact: Susan Majerus, Parker LePla for West Stock, 206-633-1951) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 10/24/95 ONLINE Coloradans Talk To Utility Firm Via The Internet (NEWS)(ONLINE)(DEN)(00011) Coloradans Talk To Utility Firm Via The Internet 10/24/95 COLORADO SPRINGS, COLORADO, U.S.A., 1995 OCT 24 (NB) -- In Colorado Springs, Colorado city utilities officials are as close as a few clicks of the computer mouse since the department launched its home page of the World Wide Web earlier this month. #IMAGE 1 20 TWPCX \images\95102411.PCX Click here for photo Residents can dial up the Web page at http://www.csu.ci.colospgs.co.us to get information on several long-range projects and even provide their own input on those plans. Web surfers can also participate in a joint educational effort between the water department and local school districts that teaches students where water comes from, how it is cleaned up before use, and where it goes after it is used. City spokesperson Steven Berry told Newsbytes that creating the home page was pretty inexpensive. While exact figures weren't available, Berry said the city hired a consultant for some of the design work, then completed the job using city staffers. Berry said the Web home page isn't just for local residents. "Individual citizens or companies, are maybe thinking about coming to Colorado Springs. If they are on the Internet...they would want to check out rates and possibly get information about the structure (of the utility provider) and the budget," said Berry. A program called Power Options Project invites interested citizens to help determine the resources it will use to provide electric power in the future, while the Water Resource Plan lets residents speak out with suggestions to make sure Colorado Springs doesn't run short of water in the next 10 to 15 years. That's a real concern for the Western states that are faced with an influx of people and businesses. The city's Keepers of the Water program is a joint effort between the Water Resources Department and local school districts. The pilot program on the Web page provides units of study that teach middle school students about the life cycle of water from its source through collection and use, to clean-up and re-introduction into the environment. You can also read a narrative about the $491 million 1996 utilities budget, up more than $13 million over the current year, complete with colored graphs. Throughout the various sections you can click on a postcard-type icon to send a message to utilities management. The city said some additional sub-pages are under construction and will be added in coming month. Those pages will include information about utility rates and bill payment options as well as conservation and safety tips. (Jim Mallory/19951023/Press contact: Steve Berry, City of Colorado Springs, 719-578-6433/CS-UTIL951024/PHOTO) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 10/24/95 WINDOWS Now Intros Windows 95 Scheduler/Contact Manager (NEWS)(WINDOWS)(DEN)(00012) Now Intros Windows 95 Scheduler/Contact Manager 10/24/95 PORTLAND, OREGON U.S.A., 1995 OCT 24 (NB) -- Now Software Inc. has introduced Now Up-to-Date for Windows 95, a time and contact manager program. The company said the software includes its exclusive QuickAccess Manager which allows you to access information stored in Up-to-Date even when you are working in another application. That's possible because of the always-present QuickAccess Manager toolbar that jumps the user to appointments and contact information with the click of the mouse. QuickAccess Manager includes: QuickDay, a day-at-a-glance calendar and task list; QuickContact, one click access to names and numbers you have entered into the program; and QuickPad, a note pad for jotting down information. The company said QuickPad automatically completes contact information, enters times and files the information to the correct calendar date and contact history. The program supports features like telephony, messaging and OLE (object linking and embedding) as well as Windows 95 features like tabbed dialog boxes and right mouse button shortcuts. Sharing of calendars and contact lists across calendars is accomplished through the use of an open database architecture in the design of the program. Now said contact information can be organized into categories like customers, vendors or friends and schedule information can also be categories in topics such as project schedules, company meetings or vacation schedules. Users selectively access and share categories. The single-user version of the program will ship November 20 with the workgroup edition following a month later. The single user version will have an estimated street price of $99, No pricing has been announced yet for the workgroup edition, which will be available in 5-pack, 10-pack, and 50-pack configurations. You can also upgrade from the single-user version to the workgroup edition at no charge. Now Software said if you buy Up-to-Date for Windows 95 before February 28, 1996, you will be able to obtain Quicken, a personal finance manager software program, or TurboTax, a tax preparation package, at no additional cost through the company's rebate offer. Now Software's World Wide Web address on the Internet is http://infonowsoft.com . (Jim Mallory/Peter Adams, Now Software, 503-274-6336; Public contact: Now Software, tel 800-722-5963, fax 503-274-0670) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 10/24/95 TRENDS Internet E-mail Relayed To PCN Mobile Phones (NEWS)(TRENDS)(LON)(00013) Internet E-mail Relayed To PCN Mobile Phones 10/24/95 WORCESTER, ENGLAND, 1995 OCT 24 (NB) -- Thorcom Systems, a radio and data communications company, is working on a Unix application that, when plugged into a PCN (personal communications network) digital mobile phone, will allow inbound electronic-mail across the Internet to be relayed to PCN mobile phones using the SMS (Short Message System) text messaging service. SMS, currently only available on the Hutchison Orange PCN service, as well as the Cellnet and Vodafone GSM nets in the UK, is a self- contained text messaging system that supports messages of up to 160 characters long. Since the network can collate data on the delivery of each message, SMS effectively functions as a two-way radiopaging service using the phones as the terminals. On the Hutchison Orange network, SMS messages can be received on most mobiles, while only the Nokia 2140 mobile can generate MO (mobile originated) SMS messages from either the phone's keypad, or by using a PCMCIA (Personal Computer Memory Card International Association) data card. Mike Tubby, technical director with Thorcom Systems, told Newsbytes that he has developed the Unix application that, when linked to a suitable Internet server -- in the tests, Thorcom's electronic-mail server -- and to a Nokia 2140 mobile plus PCMCIA data card, messages can be relayed from the Internet, and across the Orange PCN service for transmission to other mobiles. The service is still in active tests by Tubby, but he is interested in talking to potential partners to develop a commercial service. The system could also be used on the PCS (personal communication system) networks in the US, as well as on GSM networks, Newsbytes notes. Tubby told Newsbytes that he is already talking to Hutchison Orange about the project. "We've developed the technology, but now it's a case of developing an actual service, with subscriptions, for a service for the market," he said. "The only bit left to do is write the ETSI-GSM-07.05 protocol stack for the DTP-2 card under Unix and get the return codes back to sendmail," he explained. According to Tubby, just as e-mail can be relayed to SMS, so SMS text messages could be relayed to the Internet in the same way, once a method of charging for the system usage can be worked out. Newsbytes stresses to readers that the technology is still in the development stages and messages sent to Thorcom's server, apparently addressed to an Orange PCN mobile, will be bounced back. Newsbytes notes that Orange has itself carried out some tests on routing SMS text messages to the Internet, but there are no plans to implement a commercial service. Thorcom maintains a set of pages on the World Wide Web. The pages can be found at http://www.thorcom.com/thorcom . (Steve Gold/19951023/Press & Reader Contact: Mike Tubby, Thorcom Systems, tel +44-1905-756700, fax +44-1905-755777, Internet e-mail mike@thorcom.com) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 10/24/95 TRENDS Report Claims Info Revolution Leaving Some Behind (NEWS)(TRENDS)(LON)(00014) Report Claims Info Revolution Leaving Some Behind 10/24/95 GENEVA, SWITZERLAND, 1995 OCT 24 (NB) -- The International Telecommunications Union (ITU) claims that a report it will publish next month shows that poorer countries will find it a struggle, if not impossible, to keep up with the "information revolution" over the next 10 years. The report, which claims to collate IT (information technology) data from at least 85 percent of the poorer countries in the world, shows that the problem lies in a lack of telecom resources in the respective countries, so preventing the basic dissemination of information, let alone plug people in those countries to the so-called "global information superhighway." Details of the report were announced by ITU at a three-day event held in Geneva last week, which aimed to outline some of the telecoms problems that the world will have to face over the next few years. At the conference, Sam Pitroda, a senior advisor to the Indian Government and chairman of WorldTel, said that, even though he expected the industrialized world to assist the poorer countries in getting online to the info superhighway, this does not preclude those countries from helping themselves. The ITU claims that the workshop was a great success and enabled the telecoms body to conclude that there is a need for regular meetings between representatives of the global telecoms community, and that regional, rather than global, issues need to be considered. (Sylvia Dennis/19951023/Press & Reader Contact: ITU Secretariat, +41-22-730-5111) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 10/24/95 TRENDS "Laser Tag" Game Arrives In Thailand (NEWS)(TRENDS)(DEN)(00015) "Laser Tag" Game Arrives In Thailand 10/24/95 DALLAS, TEXAS, U.S.A., 1995 OCT 24 (NB) -- Thanks to an enterprising franchisee, the brilliant colors of thousand-year old temples will soon compete with the color of laser beams, because the "laser tag" game is going in Thailand. Heads Up Technologies Inc. has announced that LaserTrek has teamed with a Ripley's Believe It or Not! franchisee to locate a LaserTrek real-time laser game in the new Royal Garden Plaza Pattaya shopping complex. East and West have already met in the plaza with the opening of western stores like McDonalds, Sizzler, and Levi's. LaserTrek is a fully animated real-time game of laser tag that might be described as an electronic version of paintball wars gone high tech. Players receive computer-generated video briefings and see theme park-style special effects that include mega targets and 30-foot lighting bolts. The game includes more than 350 adjustable parameters that, according to Rob Harshaw, president of Heads Up Technologies, "guarantee that players will discover something new about the game each time they return to play." Heads Up Technologies said as many as 26 players can simultaneously participate in LaserTrek in the 5,000 square-foot arena. Players use a 4.25-pound hand-held laser gun and wear a computerized vest. The gun displays the player's cumulative score and can also inform the player how many shots have been fired and how many shots are still available. The display indicates when the player is hit, where the hit occurred, and who shot you. The 7.8-pound vest has a quadraphonic speaker assembly located in its shoulder pads. Audio updates, vocal encouragement like "good shot" and "you're hit" as well as constant coaching come through the speakers. Vibration units in the front and rear of the vest provide "tactile sensation" when the player is hit. Lights, music, and smoke add to the game's effects. The first LaserTrek system in Thailand is scheduled to open in November in Pattaya. (Jim Mallory/19951023/Press contact: Melinda Conkling, Springbok Technologies for Heads Up Technologies, 214-480-9458; Public contact: Heads Up Technologies, tel 214-407-1131 or fax 214-407-1758) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 10/24/95 BROADCAST Video News Roundup (NEWS)(BROADCAST)(MSP)(00016) Video News Roundup 10/24/95 MINNEAPOLIS, MINNESOTA, U.S.A., 1995 OCT 24 (NB) -- This is a look at the top stories this week in the world of video news reporting: the future of 3M's Information, Imaging and Electronic Sector, Tektronix to compete with Avid and Sony, Fox Network increases SNG (satellite news gathering) Truck Fleet, and Fujitsu's all purpose Ice3, Fuji's digital capture tool and an anti-radiation baseball hat. 3M's II&E Sector In Risky Business The October 9th Minneapolis Star Tribune Business Section featured a story on how 3M is handling the tumultuous media storage market. Due to a price increase in cobalt metal last year (reported at 67%) the tape and magnetic media side of 3M suffered. The main fact at hand, which distresses both management and stockholders, is that of 3M's three divisions (the others being Industrial and Consumer, along with Life Science), the II&E Sector (Information, Imaging and Electronic), was third in operating earnings at 13%, while eating up the most capital spending dollars at $1.235 billion. Its return in sales compared to the capital spending was 5.8%, as compared to Industrial and Consumer (16.2%) and Life Science (21.4%). Competitive pressure is so intense, that even the output of the Hutchinson Minnesota plant, which produces more than the four previous plants together, may not be enough. In the story, Krzysztof Burhardt, the sector's vice president, says, "We want to be the top supplier of removable media." The sector has spent a lot of money on diverse projects "because we don't know what will be the acceptance of these technologies....there's no one single power right now." Apparently, 3M management is looking to the long view as opposed to the "quick fix" strategies being proposed by some. Tektronix to Compete with Avid and Sony The headline of October's issue of TV Technology says "Tek Joins the All-Digital Studio Fray." Tektronix plans to offer complete turnkey networked digital broadcast facilities by next year. The announcement was made at the September World Media Expo. Tektronix has chosen Fiber Channel for its client-server facility distribution system. Bland McCartha, VP of marketing for Tektronix Video and Networking Division, said, "We'll replace how people work today, which is primarily by moving tapes around a facility. We will soon move data around in the background on these high-speed networks. The user doesn't need to know where this data is stored or even what format it's on." According to McCartha the one gigabit-per-second (Gbps) data rate should be up to 2Gbps next year. He also said, "This can run over optical fiber or coax cable. In an existing plant you don't even have to run new wire." Fox SNG Truck Fleet Grows Broadcasting and Cable's October 9th issue features a story on Fox Network's commitment to affiliates to supply them with needed national feeds. Two new satellite trucks were delivered and immediately went into service with the visit of Pope John Paul II and the Simpson verdict. The story notes that Fox's news, unlike the sports division, is buying the trucks, not leasing them. The trucks are "dual path." Two signals can go up simultaneously on identical or different transponders or signal polarities. New Products All the new products mentioned come from the September and October issues of Wired Magazine. The Fujitsu ICE3 (Interactive Computer Edutainment) is a boxy multimedia player combining a CD-ROM player, music and video CD player, and a humble 3.5-inch disk drive. It uses your TV for a playback monitor. Wireless game controllers have a storage pocket on the side and slots abound on top of the unit for your favorite disks. The Fujix FV7 Image Capture Device can scan a slide and be a digital camera. Integrated lights and legs let you scan and capture small objects on the tabletop. Had it with having your brain fried? The CyberCap is said to protect your head from line-of-sight radiation. This new reflective material will stand guard over your pineal gland and hypothalmus. (Newsbytes Staff/19951018) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 10/24/95 BUSINESS Samsung Targets India As Emerging Market (NEWS)(BUSINESS)(DEL)(00017) Samsung Targets India As Emerging Market 10/24/95 NEW DELHI, INDIA, 1995 OCT 24 (NB) -- Samsung Electronics Corp. (SEC) has targeted investments in several areas in India, especially in the information technology (IT) segment, which includes telecommunications, computers and peripherals, and software development. According to S.W. Choi, director of SEC's marketing and regional strategy team for global operations, India, along with Brazil, China, Mexico, and Eastern Europe represents a big growth opportunity in the next 10 years. SEC is currently looking at three to four manufacturing facilities in India. While its software development center and computer operations business will be in Bangalore, another facility, probably for the manufacture of telecom equipment, will be in the Eastern part of the country. The software development center will have an investment close to R10 crore and will develop software to support the conglomerate's semiconductor chips, and its venture into application specific integrated circuits (ASICs). In the field of telecommunications equipment, SEC will venture into India only with suitable partners. It is already talking to several companies for joint ventures and hopes to establish a presence by early 1997. (C.T. Mahabharat/19951024) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 10/24/95 GENERAL Czech Republic -- Spider Contact Manager Intro'd (NEWS)(GENERAL)(LON)(00018) Czech Republic -- Spider Contact Manager Intro'd 10/24/95 BRNO, CZECH REPUBLIC, 1995 OCT 24 (NB) -- Globe Data s.r.o., a Prague-based software developer and systems integrator, showed its Spider contact manager at the largest Central European information technology (IT)-related exposition, INVEX, which was held in the Czech Republic recently. Spider is a contact manager and more -- combining event, diary, to-do, and document management. The product, developed with Powersoft's PowerBuilder, is rich in time-saving drag-and-drop features, claims the company, and is developed for client-server environments. It runs on most relational database management systems (RDBMS), such as Oracle, MS SQL Server, Informix, or Watcom SQL. Spider, operating with either the Czech or English languages, allows entry and processing of information from company or individual entry "views" into the system. It claims to be "tightly integrated" with OLE (object linking and embedding) applications, including word processors, spreadsheets, and fax software. Many privacy and security functions are built into Spider, enabling contacts or events to be stored as private, public, or shared within a selected group. A reseller, for example, can use the system with groups defined such as Vendors, Distributors, Press, Prospects, and Customers, and have access rights assigned for sales people only to Prospects and Customers. Mobile users have at their disposition a local Watcom SQL (structured query language) database for contact information on demand. A single-user license to Spider, priced at CZK8,200 ($315), is being offered at a discount for INVEX visitors at the price of CZK4,985 ($192) until the end of October. Globe Data's multinational team has been active in the Czech Republic since 1993, with recent projects ranging from a sales and distribution system for a large international manufacturer, to developing TrendSearch, a tool used by several institutions for monitoring and analyzing securities on the Prague Stock Exchange. Globe Data is a SAP R/3 Implementation Partner, Oracle Business Alliance Partner, Powersoft Commercial Application Partner, and a Microsoft SQL Server 6.0 Beta Tester. (Steven Slatem/IntelliTech/19951024/Press & Reader Contact: Mary Huang, Globe Data s.r.o., tel +42-2-6273728, fax +42-2-6273758, Internet e-mail info@globedata.cz) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 10/24/95 ONLINE Unabomber Manifesto Draws Limited Comment Online (NEWS)(ONLINE)(TOR)(00019) Unabomber Manifesto Draws Limited Comment Online 10/24/95 COLUMBUS, OHIO, U.S.A., 1995 OCT 24 (NB) -- A commercial online service, populated largely by those who know and like technology, may seem like a strange place to find an anti-technology tract. Yet there it is: the so-called Unabomber Manifesto is available on the Compuserve online service. The manifesto -- a lengthy document said to be the work of the same person who has sent letter bombs, some fatal, to a number of people with links to computing over the past few years -- is available in Compuserve's Issues and Journalism forums. Those forums are also providing a place for discussion of the manifesto. While the Unabomber's violent tactics have succeeded in drawing attention to him, her, or them -- the manuscript uses the pronoun "we" despite the fact that law enforcement officials have generally spoken of the bomber as an individual -- if discussion on Compuserve is any indication, little of the attention is being focused on the ideas the bomber is trying to promote. Newsbytes found that many messages dealt with the question of whether Compuserve was right to make public a document produced by a person who has claimed responsibility for criminal acts. This question is especially thorny because the Unabomber earlier demanded that the manifesto be published in major newspapers, and promised the bombings would stop if this happened. Some major-market newspapers have published excerpts. In Compuserve's forums, there are messages saying Compuserve should not have published the manifesto because of its supposed author's criminal acts, and others saying the Unabomber is entitled to a hearing. There is relatively little discussion of the manifesto's content. The manifesto itself is essentially anti-technology, arguing that industrial society has taken away the individual's ability to control his or her own life and thus left a dangerous psychological void in many people's lives. The Unabomber advocates the destruction of the modern industrial society and a return to nature, relying only on technology that can be made and controlled by individuals and small groups. The manifesto argues that this can only come about through a revolution -- violent or non-violent -- taking place while the industrial system is already weak. Though some would consider a rejection of big technology a leftist idea, the Unabomber aims as much vitriol at the left as at technology itself, accusing leftists of subordinating the individual to the collective and of being more interested in forcing their ideas on society than on helping people. All in all, the manifesto's position seems to be a kind of back-to-nature anarchism, argued with a surprising detachment and coherence that contrasts with the violent means the author has used to draw attention to his or her ideas. Some messages on Compuserve expressed agreement with much of what it says. Still, the Compuserve discussion does not suggest the Unabomber is drawing widespread support for an anti-technology revolution. (Grant Buckler/19951023) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 10/24/95 ONLINE CATA Puts Canadian High-Tech Info On The Web (NEWS)(ONLINE)(TOR)(00020) CATA Puts Canadian High-Tech Info On The Web 10/24/95 OTTAWA, ONTARIO, CANADA, 1995 OCT 24 (NB) -- The Canadian Advanced Technology Association (CATA) has launched TechnoGate, an online science and technology database, on the Internet's World Wide Web. John Reid, president of CATA, told Newsbytes that TechnoGate grew out of CATA's attempts at "re-engineering the whole approach to trade associations." CATA, which represents primarily Canadian-owned information technology companies, operates without committees and is trying to become a "truly virtual association," according to Reid. He said TechnoGate is designed to make information about high-tech companies, and other information of use to those in the high-tech industry, available to executives wherever they are. Using the Internet means that executives who spend a lot of time on the road will be able to get at TechnoGate from wherever they happen to be, Reid said. TechnoGate includes a directory of high-tech companies both in Canada and, thanks to CATA's alliance with the American Electronics Association (AEA) in the United States as well. Reid added that CATA is talking with other potential partners around the world to expand the database further. TechnoGate is also a communication service, and will include a computer- based online education course. Another feature will be a "strategic alliance search" capability meant to help companies seek out potential business partners. Complementing this will be a facility for conducting secure discussions on a private network. The system's searching capability uses software from CATA member company Fulcrum Technologies, an Ottawa-based maker of text retrieval software whose technology has also been chosen for use on The Microsoft Network and the Compuserve online service. The service is meant to be international, Reid said. CATA will provide an access package in 50 countries, and will charge a flat rate of C$3 per hour for local access. TechnoGate is at http://www.technogate.com . (Grant Buckler/19951023/Press Contact: John Reid, tel 613-236-6550, fax 613-236-8189) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 10/24/95 CHIPS Japan & US Clash Over Semiconductor Agreement (NEWS)(CHIPS)(TYO)(00021) Japan & US Clash Over Semiconductor Agreement 10/24/95 TOKYO, JAPAN, 1995 OCT 24 (NB) -- Japan reiterated its position over the extension of a US Japan bilateral semiconductor agreement this weekend when it said it has no intention of extending the pact once it expires on July 31st next year. The United States fears that, without an extension, its chip makers would loose a large market share in Japan. Ryutaro Hashimoto, minister of trade and deputy prime minister of Japan, was in Harrogate, England, at the weekend to attend a meeting of the world's four largest trading powers: the United States, Japan, Canada, and the European Union. At the meeting he met with US trade representative Mickey Kantor but, Hashimoto told reporters, failed to reach an agreement, "We believe the object of the semiconductor arrangement has already been fulfilled. There is no need for the government to government arrangement, the market is already open." Kantor commented, "The United States supports the renewal and extension of the semiconductor agreement and I am sure in the future we will have discussions in that regard." Under the agreement, signed in 1991, both sides agreed foreign semiconductors should hold a 20% share of the Japanese market by the end of 1992. Beyond that date, the share should rise steadily, the agreement continued. The agreement has been working with foreign chip makers claiming a 22.9% market share in the second quarter of the current fiscal year, the latest period for which data is available. In the preceding quarter, the foreign market share stood at 22.8%, but both figures are down on the 23.7% share registered in the final quarter of the last fiscal year -- the first three months of 1995. Despite the recent falls, the number represent a 2% growth on the periods a year earlier and a long way from the third quarter of 1993 when the share dropped below the agreed 20% level prompting calls for emergency measures from Washington. The US now see the market faltering again and fears a fall if the agreement does not continue. At stake is $140 billion-worth of trade annually with Japan, consumer of a third of the world's semiconductors. The 1991 agreement was a reaffirmation of an earlier accord, the US-Japan Semiconductor Trade Agreement, signed in 1986. At that time, foreign share of the Japanese market was just 8.4%. The Electronics Industry Association of Japan, an industry body, supports the Japanese government in the ending of the accord. Norio Ohga, head of the association and chairman of Sony Corporation, said previously the foreign chip makers would maintain a strong market share without the agreement. (Martyn Williams/19951024) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 10/24/95 ONLINE Internet Update (NEWS)(ONLINE)(TYO)(00022) Internet Update 10/24/95 TOKYO, JAPAN, 1995 OCT 24 (NB) -- In this roundup of new resources and services on the global Internet: New librarian's guide out, Newspaper pictures on the net, Orbcomm satellites page, New on usenet, Government documents in the news, New Scientist magazine online, Military missile organization home page, Making server logs useful, Cure found for bad technology days, Win95 links. In The News: Asian Eclipse A total solar eclipse, the last this century, was visible to millions of people across a large band of Asia Tuesday morning. The Japanese satellite Yohkoh passed through the band and took images of the eclipse. Those images are now available in QuickTime movie format from a NASA server. The organization will also soon display stills taken. World Wide Web: http://umbra.nascom.nasa.gov/eclipse/images/eclipse_images.html#19951024 New Librarians Guide Out The library at Herriot Watt University in the UK periodically produces a list of Internet resources that it thinks are of particular interest to librarians. A new edition of the list if out, number 13, although the list should prove of interest to anyone that uses the Internet for more than just fun. World Wide Web: http://www.hw.ac.uk/libWWW/irn/irn13/irn13.html Extra! Extra! Newspaper Pictures On The Net The picture desk of one of the UK's most popular newspapers, The Daily Mirror, has established a Web page. An online photo library of pictures from the newspaper's own photographers and contact information online. World Wide Web: http://www.cityscape.co.uk/users/ds48/mirror/index.html Orbcomm Satellites Page In a few years, Orbcomm hopes to be operating a global wireless communications network from low-earth orbiting satellites. The company has already launched two, and a new home page on the Internet allows users to locate the current position of the satellites, see remote sensor data (temperature) sent via the system and keep track of Vern's truck somewhere on the roads of Virginia. Vern's partner must be very reassured - she can find out where he is anytime. World Wide Web: http://www.orbcomm.net/ New On Usenet Two newsgroups have just passed the voting process and are now part of Usenet. The new groups are soc.culture.liberia and soc.culture.hawaii. Less lucky were rec.music.asian.east and rec.music.asian.south-east which failed the vote. The passing groups should begin appearing on most news-servers soon. Usenet: news://soc.culture.liberia Usenet: news://soc.culture.hawaii Government Documents In The News The University of Michigan is providing pointers to government run Web sites with material that relates to current news stories. The pages are part of a larger Web site offering comprehensive access and links to global government information sources. World Wide Web: http://www.lib.umich.edu/libhome/Documents.center/docnews.html New Scientist Magazine Online The UK's New Scientist magazine, a weekly popular journal full of the latest news from the worlds of science and technology, has just debuted on the Internet. Web users can read articles, reviews and commentary from the current issue and follow scientific trends. World Wide Web: http://www.newscientist.com/ Military Missile Organization Home Page Impress your non-Internet-literate friends by "hacking" into the new Ballistic Missile Defense Organization home page. There you'll find a wide variety of information concerning organization programs, ballistic missile defense, and advanced technologies. World Wide Web: http://www.acq.osd.mil/bmdo/bmdolink/html/bmdolink.html Making Server Logs Useful If you run a Web server then you'll know all about the long, seemingly endless logs the software produces of accesses. Making sense of the information can provide useful and interesting information about who is accessing your site and where they are coming from, but taking the step from raw log data to useful, understandable lists is difficult. MK-Stats is a new program that, the developer says, will make the job easy and improve on other similar packages -- that's why it's being used now on the CNN Web server. World Wide Web: http://web.sau.edu/~mkruse/mkstats/index.html Cure Found For Bad Technology Days If your disks won't boot, your fax won't send or your files won't attach to your e-mail you'll be in the perfect mood to read the Technotripe Gazette, a unique new e-zine dedicated to reporting, critiquing and satirizing the negative effects and influences of technological "progress." Founder and writer Steve Magruder says it is "the cure for your bad technology days." World Wide Web: http://www.iglou.com/candy/ttg/ttg.html Win 95 Links A special supplement to today's Internet Update details Windows 95 links that have recently been established. HelpWin95 From Santa Cruz in California, Mind Media has established the Help Win 95 server. The site is designed to be a one-stop center for help with the new operating system and contains software that automates Windows 95 support, plus links, articles, and software downloads. World Wide Web: http://www.helpwin95.com/ Bugs List If you check out the Internet Win95 bugs list before you attempt an upgrade you may be saved the trouble of having to consult the help line. World Wide Web: http://www-leland.stanford.edu/~llurch/win95netbugs/faq.html World Wide Web: http://rescomp.stanford.edu/~llurch/win95netbugs/faq.html WinClassic for Win95 Remember the emulators that made your PC just like a Z80 or other such computer from a bygone era? Now for Windows 95 owners pining for the good old days, WinClassic gives users a Windows 3.1 like desktop. World Wide Web: http://www.winclassic.com/winclassic/ (Martyn Williams/19951024) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 10/24/95 BUSINESS Intersolv Buys Belgian Software Firm (NEWS)(BUSINESS)(WAS)(00023) Intersolv Buys Belgian Software Firm 10/24/95 ROCKVILLE, MARYLAND, U.S.A., 1995 OCT 24 (NB) -- Intersolv (Nasdaq:ISLI) has acquired Belgian software firm TechGnosis International for a combination of stock and cash valued at a total of $80 million. The Belgian firm is a leading provider of data access technology in the Asian Pacific market, while Intersolv is a leading US open client/server software company. "With Intersolv's worldwide presence, its particular strength in North America, and TechGnosis' leadership in the Asia Pacific market, we are well positioned to create a dominant global, client/server market presence," said Marc Van Rompaek, TechGnosis president and chief executive officer. In addition to its Asian presence, TechGnosis has developed SequeLink software, server-based data delivery technology. The software, says Gary Greenfield, "will further strengthen Intersolv's virtual data warehouse by providing truly open and flexible server connectivity to multivendor client/server databases, unlocking access to critical data." TechGnosis has 4,000 customers worldwide using SequeLink, and has installed 30,000 data servers with over 250,000 users. Intersolv says it has more than 400,000 product licenses at over 20,000 customer sites around the world. Under the terms of the merger agreement, Intersolv acquired TechGnosis for about 3.4 million shares of Intersolv stock and $7.5 million in cash. Founded in 1987, privately-held TechGnosis had 1994 revenues of $13.8 million, a 45 percent increase over 1993. The company broke even in 1994, according to Intersolv. Rockville, Md-based Intersolv had $115 million in fiscal 1995 revenues, with 83 cents in earnings per share. The company lost $2.42 per share in 1994. Intersolv says it will take a one-time charged to earnings of about $12 million to $15 million in the quarter ending October 31 in connection with the TechGnosis acquisition. (Kennedy Maize/19951024/Press Contact: Larry Death, 301-838-5228) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 10/24/95 TRENDS Microsoft Hot On Software Hit Parade (NEWS)(TRENDS)(WAS)(00024) Microsoft Hot On Software Hit Parade 10/24/95 RESTON, VIRGINIA, U.S.A., 1995 OCT 24 (NB) -- Microsoft's Windows 95 upgrade continues to light up the charts in PC Data's September software best-seller list. The Windows 95 upgrade leads the list in three of PC Data's categories, with Microsoft's 95 Plus package in second place on the same three lists: CD-ROM, Business Software for Windows, and the Windows 95 category itself. The two Microsoft products held the same 1-2 positions in the three categories in the August best-seller list. Another Windows 95 product, SoftRAM from Synchrons moved up to third place in the Business Software (Windows) category, from sixth in August. SoftRAM was also third on the Windows 95 list. In the volatile PC Games category, Sierra On-Line's Phantasmagoria moved up to first place, from fourth on the list in August, while August's leader, Mechwarrior II from Activision, fell to fifth place in September. Showing its across-the-board strength, Microsoft's Flight Simulator continued to hold down second place in the PC Games category. Ultimate Doom Thy Flesh from GT Interactive was in third place, up from sixth last month. On the Macintosh side of the Games street, GT Interactive's Doom II moved up from second place in August to top the chart in September, with Broderbund's Myst moving up to second from fourth in August. LucasArts' Dark Forces held on to third place, identical with the August showing. In the Mac Business Software category, Corel's Gallery grabbed the top spot, after not appearing on the August best-seller list. Corel's showing pushed the August leader, Connectix' RAM Doubler, down to second place in September. Also making its first appearance on the charts was Connectix' Speed Doubler in third. In the Home Education (Windows), Davidson's Math Blaster:P In Search of Spot moved up one notch to first place in September, with Reader Rabbit from Learning Company climbing from sixth in August to second place. Holding down third was MECC's Oregon Trail II, making its first appearance on the charts. On the Mac side of Home Education, Mavis Beacon Teaches Typing from Mindscape grabbed first place, after not appearing on the August chart. The August leader, Disney's Lion King Storybook, dropped down to second, and another new face, Kidstime from Great Wave, showed up in third. In the Personal Productivity for Windows category, Intuit's Quicken continued its long hold on first place, but Broderbund's Print Shop Deluxe CD Ensemble pushed the August second place finisher, Intuit's Quicken Deluxe, down to third. Quicken was also king on the Mac Personal Productivity list for September, moving up from second place in August. The August leader, Nova Development's 3000 Mega Clip Art Pack, dropped to second place, followed by Nova Development's 1500 Font Mega Pack. Microsoft also dominated the Reference Software category, with Encarta continuing to hold first place, with Bookshelf solidly in second again. Compton's Interactive Encyclopedia was the third place finisher for September, up one slot over August. PC Data bases its list on units sold by 21 retail chains representing more than 50 percent of the US market. (Kennedy Maize/19951024/Press Contact: Nicole Field, 703-435-1025) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 10/24/95 BUSINESS Matsushita First Half Profits Up (NEWS)(BUSINESS)(TYO)(00025) Matsushita First Half Profits Up 10/24/95 OSAKA, JAPAN, 1995 OCT 24 (NB) -- Matsushita Electric Industrial Co. (TSE:6752) has announced financial results for the first half of the current fiscal year and revised predictions for the entire year which ends on March 31. The figures shows a 41.2 billion yen ($412 million), a 10% increase on the same period last year. Although the increase in profits looks good on the surface, that was due to cost cutting and does not disguise the underlying drops in business and sales that the company reported today said analysts. The Tokyo Stock Exchange reacted negatively to the results with Matsushita stock shedding 10 yen on the day. The falls in almost all divisions are blamed on drops in export sales caused mainly by the strong yen which added 20% to its value early during the period. It has now returned to the 100 yen to the dollar mark, roughly equal to the beginning of the financial year. Revenue for the period was down 2% at 2,162.187 billion yen ($21.62 billion) with net profits reaching 25.517 billion yen ($255 million), a 16% increase. Based on the reported results, the Osaka-based company predicts full year revenues will hit 4,440 billion yen ($44.4 billion), the same figure as last year. On similar revenues, the company predicts higher profits for fiscal 1995. Against last year's 87.0 billion yen ($870 million) profit, the company is expecting 110.0 billion yen ($1.1 billion) in profits this year. Net profit is predicted to be 66.0 billion yen ($660 million) against 52.7 billion yen ($527 million) last year. The interim dividend is 6.25 yen per share with a predicted 12.50 yen dividend for the full year, identical figures to last year. By sector, household electricals maintained sales levels at 318.4 billion yen ($3.18 billion) against 318.3 billion yen ($3.18 billion) but others sectors revenues fell. Revenues from video products were 293.4 billion yen ($2.93 billion), down from 352.7 billion yen ($3.52 billion) while in the audio sector revenues slipped to 126.9 billion yen ($1.27 billion) from 137.5 billion yen ($1.38 billion). The only two sectors registering significant growth were the electronics and battery and heating divisions. Electronics division revenues jumped to 394.2 billion yen ($3.94 billion) from 356.5 billion yen ($3.57 billion) and the battery and heating products division registered an increase with 159.0 billion yen ($1.59 billion) in revenues from 147.9 billion yen ($1.48 billion). Information and industrial products revenues fell to 644.7 billion yen ($6.45 billion) from 645.7 billion yen ($6.46 billion). Across other divisions, total revenues slipped to 225.6 billion yen ($2.26 billion) from 245.3 billion yen ($2.45 billion). Separately, the company said today that its new 64-bit video gaming machine is on target to be released next year. Development of the machine will end in December this year and a new subsidiary will take over sales and marketing of the machine later this year. The company already markets a game machine, the REAL, but has sold just 650,000 units of the 32 bit games machine. Competition from stronger software and new 64 bit machines from competitors are the cause of the unimpressive sales. (Martyn Williams/19951024) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 10/24/95 TELECOM NEC & Bellcore To Develop New Wireless Comms Technology (NEWS)(TELECOM)(MSP)(00026) NEC & Bellcore To Develop New Wireless Comms Technology 10/24/95 MELVILLE, NEW YORK, U.S.A., 1995 OCT 24 (NB) -- NEC Corporation and Bellcore will team up to develop a new wireless communications system for business and personal use in the US market. The two will work together to establish customized software to accompany the equipment NEC will produce for the new system. The new system, called PACS (personal access communications system), will take advantage of the new personal communications services (PCS) radio spectrum in the 1.8 gigahertz (GHz) bands. The PACS wireless telephone system is designed to "allow much greater mobility and sound quality than today's cordless phones at a fraction of the cost of traditional cellular service," company officials said. In fact, NEC officials claim the new system will give the customer "wireline clarity." Lourdes Cogswell, NEC spokesperson, told Newsbytes that PACS is similar to a cordless phone that has a range equal to a typical city neighborhood. "The handset will be more portable (as opposed to a typical cordless phone)," she said, "and it will give you the broader reach a cordless can't. It also gives you ease of movement the cellular provides." Other types of areas that can be served include downtown areas, shopping malls, airports, and pedestrian systems, company officials said. The range of the phones can be even farther, depending on the number of radio ports (Rps) in a particular area, Cogswell said. "If the network infrastructure is laid out beyond a certain block area, you'll be able to use your service and handset beyond that range." Cogswell said a PACS will be tested this Thursday by US West in Boulder, Colorado. The manufacturers participating in the test are Hughes Network Systems, Motorola, NEC, and Panasonic, in cooperation with US West and ITS. (Bob Woods/19951024/Press Contacts: Ken Branson, Bellcore, 201-829- 2165, Internet e-mail ludd@cc.bellcore.com; Lourdes Cogswell, NEC America Inc., 516-753-7045, Internet e-mail cogswell@ccgate.ml.nec.com, Vince Hulbert, Hill & Knowlton, 212-885-0378) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 10/24/95 ONLINE ****SafeSurf & Guardian Angels Patrol Internet (NEWS)(ONLINE)(LAX)(00027) ****SafeSurf & Guardian Angels Patrol Internet 10/24/95 VAN NUYS, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1995 OCT 24 (NB) -- SafeSurf, claimed to be a "parents' online organization," has donated a site on the World Wide Web to CyberAngels, the Guardian Angels Internet chapter. The site will be used to provide information to both members and new volunteers concerning CyberAngel activities. SafeSurf is known for its Internet rating system that involves voluntarily placing announcements on World Wide Web pages that indicate the content of the pages and whether it is safe for children to view. The Guardian Angels, who have for years set up volunteer patrols in crime-ridden areas, has set up CyberAngels to "patrol the Internet." The patrols reportedly look for pedophiles and examples of child pornography. Wendy Simpson, one of the founders of SafeSurf, told Newsbytes, "We gave the Guardian Angels a home page on the Web. The CyberAngel program searches the Net for pedophiles and child pornography. They rely on volunteers, and with the home page, the number of volunteers has risen dramatically." In addition to patrolling the Internet to prevent pedophiles from enticing children, CyberAngels will also keep SafeSurf informed of new "kid's" sites they discover to become part of SafeSurf's "cyber-playground." "We felt the Internet would be better served by combining our efforts," stated Simpson. "In the end, it's the children who benefit." SafeSurf's cyber-playground combines the SafeSurf Rating Standard with filtering software to provide parents and schools with a safe area for their children to surf. As more "kid friendly" sites mark themselves, the larger the playground grows. "Our rating standard provides a technical solution, while the CyberAngels provides a human solution," explained SafeSurf Chairman Ray Soular. "The definitive answer requires members of the Internet community to actively participate in marking their sites." "Together we believe that CyberAngels and SafeSurf will form an irresistible alliance for good on the Net," said Colin "Gabriel" Hatcher, CyberAngels' "netwatch" coordinator. "Together we can make a difference," he added. More information on the SafeSurf Rating Standard and the CyberAngels' site, is on the SafeSurf home page at http://www.safesurf.com/. (Richard Bowers/19951000/Press Contact: Wendy Simpson, SafeSurf, 818-902-9390) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 10/24/95 PC DG Intros Intel-Based Servers Running NT & DG-UX (NEWS)(PC)(BOS)(00028) DG Intros Intel-Based Servers Running NT & DG-UX 10/24/95 WESTBORO, MASSACHUSETTS, U.S.A., 1995 OCT 24 (NB) -- All five of Data General's first Intel-based Aviion servers are able to run Windows NT Server and DG-UX Unix applications, and the two entry- level workgroup models can run Native NetWare, UnixWare, and SCO (Santa Cruz Operation) Open Server applications, as well, officials said, during a worldwide videoconference in which the servers were introduced, and a phone interview with Newsbytes. The five new Pentium-based servers will be upgradeable to Intel's upcoming Pentium Pro processors in the first half of 1996, and four of the five machines will also be upgradeable to Intel's SHV (Standard High Volume) motherboards some time next year, maintained J. Thomas West, DG's senior VP of advanced development, speaking during the videoconference, which was attended by Newsbytes. The new AV 5800, AV 4700 and 4800 Tower enterprise servers and AV 2000 and AV 3000 workgroup servers will run a total of 7,000 Windows NT Server applications, along with another 15,000 DG-UX applications, including Unix applications from Computer Associates, Oracle, Informix, Sybase, PeopleSoft, Pick Systems, Progress, VMark, and Tivoli, according to the execs. The AV 2000 and AV 3000 will also run NetWare, UnixWare, and SCO. Aviion's new, multiplatform functionality is aimed, in particular, at VARs (value-added resellers), one of the key target markets for the new servers, noted Dave Ellenberger, VP of corporate marketing, during a conference call with Newsbytes. DG's VARs are especially active in vertical market areas that include telecommunications, health care, retail, and manufacturing, Ellenberger told Newsbytes. DG expects the Windows NT applications to be most popular for use on the lower-end servers, the VP reported. The forthcoming Pentium Pro/SHV upgradability is meant to provide customers with a "clear upward migration path" in terms of hardware architecture, according to the DG exec. "We are in a very strong competitive position around Aviion, Clariion, and DG-UX," Ellenberger maintained. "DG-UX is generally regarded as the best enterprise operating system. But customers were asking us, `Where is (DG's) chip architecture, and where is the future?' Now we are saying, `This is the standard chip and board of the future.'" DG's five new servers, he added, deliver on a "statement of direction to move to an Intel-based architecture" put forth by DG in June. "We view this as a proof of concept." DG's Aviion servers previously used 88K processors from Motorola. But Motorola is now "committing most of its resources in other areas," Newsbytes was told. "And we felt the whole way computers are being designed is changing." Data General's new DG/UX 4.1 operating system will run on both the new Intel-based servers and the previously released Motorola-based servers, Ellenberger said. Ease of porting DG-UX applications between the two architectures depends on "how much code is tied down to bits and bytes." But most applications can be migrated through a quick recompile, he asserted. DG is providing evaluation units and other tools to help out with the migration process, Ellenberger continued. In addition, customers can utilize DG's "field porting centers" in Atlanta; London; Toronto; Paris; Sydney, Austria; and Irvine, California. Intel's SHV motherboard will provide four Intel Pentium Pro processors, cache, memory, and I/O (input/output) to systems based on the NUMA (Non-Uniform Memory Access) architecture, DG and Intel execs said during the videoconference, which was broadcast to customers worldwide, as well as to IIN subscribers. NUMA provides equivalent processing power to MPP (massively parallel processing) systems. In contrast to the MPP environment, though, software applications do not need to be modified to run on MPP, according to the officials. The new AV 5800 rackmount server supports up to eight 133 megahertz (MHz) Pentium processors, The AV 4700 and 4800 Tower systems support up to four 133 MHz processors. The three enterprise servers all use PCI (Peripheral Component Interconnect) controllers, a new "hot pluggable" PCI expansion chassis, and Corollary Inc.'s C-Bus II technology. The AV 2000 and AV 3000 workgroup servers are initially based on 100MHz Pentium processors. The AV 2000 is being sold in single and dual-processor configurations. The AV 3000 is a tower system that can support up to four processors. All five servers but the AV 2000 will be upgradable to SHV. (Jacqueline Emigh/19951024/Reader Contact: Data General, 508-366- 8911; Press Contacts: Jim Dunlap, DG, 508-898-6547; George Goldman, Edelman Worldwide for DG, 212-704-4440; Debbie Young, Edelman Worldwide for DG, 415-968-4033; Reader and Press Contact: IIN, 407-231-6847) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 10/24/95 TRENDS Intel Leads Intercast Alliance For Digitized TV (NEWS)(TRENDS)(LAX)(00029) Intel Leads Intercast Alliance For Digitized TV 10/24/95 SANTA CLARA, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1995 OCT 24 (NB) -- The Intercast Industry Group has been announced to promote Intercast, a new technology linking television to the Internet. Intel, developer of the underlying technology, spearheads the Group that also includes major technology providers, systems manufacturers, broadcasters, and cable companies, Internet access providers, and software developers. Those included in the alliance include: Turner Broadcasting, Viacom, WGBH Educational Foundation, QVC, Comcast, America Online, Asymetrix, En Technology, Netscape, Gateway 2000, Packard Bell, and Intel. Mike Richmond, a manager in the Intel Technology Lab, told Newsbytes, "By the middle of 1996, we will be offering internal PC cards that will allow digital video capture on your PC. With the new Intercast technology we first digitize, then, using the Vertical Blanking Interval (VBI), we will pull a data stream at the same time. Using the VBI, PC users equipped with Intercast technology will receive World Wide Web pages and other data combined with normal TV broadcasting." Intercast content will be created with HTML (hypertext markup language) and will include hyperlinks to related information of the Internet. Using a modem and any direct Internet connection, Intercast will allow Web pages to be sent with the television broadcast. "The Intercast medium brings together the best parts of the television and computer industries: the creativity of the TV industry, the depth and breadth of the Internet, and the interactive power of the personal computer," said Steve McGeady, vice president of Intel's Internet Technology Lab. Intel said an example of the technology could be a music video that airs with Web pages featuring concert dates and hyperlinks to independent fan club information on the Internet. Other examples cited would be where fans could look up statistics on baseball players or check scores while watching a game, or where news stories could be linked to additional information on geography or history. The planned products will be ready by mid-1996, and will include PC card and associated software. It is expected to add less than $250 to the cost of a PC. Prototypes are being tested now, according to the companies. (Richard Bowers/19951024/Press Contact: Christina Blackwell, Intel, 503-264-7849) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 10/24/95 TRENDS "Windows 95 In Business" Survey (NEWS)(TRENDS)(MSP)(00030) "Windows 95 In Business" Survey 10/24/95 NORWOOD, MASSACHUSETTS, U.S.A., 1995 OCT 24 (NB) -- Stream International has released the results of a new survey that claims 82 percent of its corporate customers that participated in the Windows 95 Preview beta testing program will migrate to that platform. A Stream official also said she expects a similar number of companies that did not participate in the beta program to move to the new operating system (OS). Enterprise-wide migration to Windows 95 by the companies that beta tested the OS will be a gradual process, Stream officials said, with 55 percent of their desktops migrated by the end of 1996, and 78 percent by year-end, 1997. "With Windows 95 and other operating systems, customers are going to be making a decision as to what operating system they're going to move to in the next year to better support their initiatives within their organizations," Deb Keemen, Stream's director of end-user marketing, told Newsbytes. Stream said the majority of those companies participating in the survey said that Windows 95 represents "a logical extension of their corporation's information technology strategy." Those companies also said they were more satisfied with Windows 95 than with Windows 3.1. Specifically, Keemen said the companies like Windows 95's multitasking 32-bit operating system, the fact that Windows 95 is more "robust" to better support mission-critical applications, the ease-of-use over Windows 3.1, and better support. Keemen also said many of these companies would install Windows 95 in a similar fashion to a "workgroup-to-workgroup migration." She said "they spread it out so they don't have the impact of support calls all at once. If they do their entire organization at once, their support calls will increase all at once." She said word-of-mouth also helps sell Windows 95 as one workgroup tells others about the new OS. Other statistics from the survey showed that companies have a higher degree of satisfaction with Windows 95 than with Windows 3.1. They also feel Windows 95 is a "logical extension of (their) current technology strategy," and the OS increases productivity and effectiveness. On the negative side, more than half of the companies surveyed viewed product quality, access to end-user training, the cost of training technical staff, and licensing terms, as barriers to acceptance of Windows 95. Stream International maintains an Internet World Wide Web presence at http://www.stream.com for additional information, along with corporate background and offerings-related material. (Bob Woods/19951024/Press Contacts: Merrill Freund or Nancy Kashanek, Schwartz Communications, 617-431-0770; Donna Tolley, Stream International, 617-440-1072) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 10/24/95 ONLINE ****Innovations Make Net Usage Hard To Track (NEWS)(ONLINE)(MSP)(00031) ****Innovations Make Net Usage Hard To Track 10/24/95 SCOTTSDALE, ARIZONA, U.S.A., 1995 OCT 24 (NB) -- Webmasters who set up World Wide Web sites, and the companies who advertise on them, look to usage-measuring companies to track how many people are coming to their site. But the ever-increasing sophistication of Web browser programs is creating new challenges for accurate tracking. That's according to Ariel Poler, President of I/Pro, a leading Net-usage measuring firm based in San Francisco. Speaking at the Sixth Annual Conference on Interactive Marketing underway in Arizona through Wednesday, Poler said that these challenges are made even more complex by the increasing realization on the part of Web advertisers and Webmasters that hits, or accesses alone, are not an accurate way to measure the success of a site. "The challenge is not just to record hits, because user hits provide little or no demographic information about the end-user. Add to that the evolving technologies such as caching, Hot Java applications, and the increased use of firewalls, and we have to change our measuring technologies every three weeks," Poler said. Poler added that a new feature on Netscape 2.0, which allows split-screen simultaneous access to several Web pages at once, will only complicate matters further. Poler is hopeful that log analyzers, a core of I/Pro's measuring technology, will be up to the task of keeping up with the constant increase in the technological sophistication of site builders, as well as the browser technology used to measure site usage. Log analyzing software technology can measure hits by domain and by individual URL (uniform resource locator), as well as the time a user spends on each session. This technology can relate this data to demographic information. In this way, someone who has placed an ad on a Web page could theoretically tell the average age and income levels of people visiting their site. Yet to work at peak potential, however, log analyzers must run on sites where some sort of registration process is required. Yet, in an age where people are rushed and are hypersensitive about privacy, there is likely to be resistance toward mandated pre-registrations. To combat this, Poler suggested that an Internet protocol be developed that would support the portability of one standard pre-registration forms across multiple Web sites. "We're proposing this because filling out one form after another for each new site is a hassle. We believe that people will give that demographic information, provided it isn't a hassle and they can be assured their privacy won't be invaded," he said. (Russell Shaw/19951024) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 10/24/95 ONLINE ****E-mail, Not Web, Is Killer App (NEWS)(ONLINE)(MSP)(00032) ****E-mail, Not Web, Is Killer App 10/24/95 SCOTTSDALE, ARIZONA, U.S.A., 1995 OCT 24 (NB) -- According to a leading provider of online game shows, it's a better idea to run game-like contests for advertisers on the Internet through electronic-mail than through the World Wide Web. "We believe the 'killer application' is e-mail, not the Web," said Seth Godin, president of Yoyodyne Entertainment, Dobbs Ferry, N.Y. "Think about it. When you log on, you don't say, 'I'm going to check my Web page.' The first thing you do is check your e-mail." He continued: "E-mail is one solid technology that is here right now, enabling us to run game shows as a promotional tool for advertisers," Godin said during "The State of Interactivity" panel discussion at the Sixth Conference on Interactive Marketing In Scottsdale, Arizona, on Monday. Counting multi-user domains (MUDs) there are currently nearly 600 Web game sites now running. Yet because of the static, point-and-click technology of the present-day Web, most of these, according to Godin, don't provide the breadth of user experience an imaginative e-mail based campaign can. One such campaign Yoyodye is currently running is for the deodorant Arrid Extra Dry. Twice a week, contest questions are sent via e-mail to registrants. As of Monday, 50,000 people have registered at the Arrid site. This number, according to Godin, is growing at about 20 percent weekly for the last few weeks. The contest, which started early last month, will end just before Thanksgiving. Yoyodyne, Godin said, is running prize-related e-mail based contests for several other partners, including MCI and Fox Television, a US-based television network owned by Rupert Murdoch's News Corp. Another advantage to e-mail, as opposed to Web, contests is that in e-mail, you don't need too many graphic interface files, which are standard issue on Web sites and can try the patience of users who visit Web sites via modems running at less than 14,400 bits-per-second (bps). Godin also thinks that requests for all-important demographic information can be made in a much more user-friendly manner via e-mail than through the Web, where many sites ask for this data through impersonal, cold registration blocks that can scare away new or privacy-conscious users. "With e-mail, you can ask 'tell us a little bit about yourself and if you do, you're eligible for a prize," said Godin, who believes that, since e-mail can be configured to answer back in the accessor's own name, it can add a degree of introductory friendliness not feasible through the Web. Armed with these beliefs, Yoyodyne is shopping the concept of e-mail games to other potential advertisers. "We're talking to a number of other packaged goods and technology companies about sponsoring different games, and hope to have some announcements soon," he added. (Russell Shaw/19951024) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 10/24/95 TRENDS ****Ad Exec Lukewarm On Multimedia Penetration Levels (NEWS)(TRENDS)(MSP)(00033) ****Ad Exec Lukewarm On Multimedia Penetration Levels 10/24/95 SCOTTSDALE, ARIZONA, U.S.A., 1995 OCT 24 (NB) -- Joseph Serino, new media manager for Jordan, McGrath, Case & Taylor, a New York- based ad agency, predicts household penetration of CD-ROM users will only climb from seven to 25 percent in the next five years, while households using one or more online services will increase from today's eight percent to 18 percent in five years. "That's lower than most other estimates, but just because something is there, that doesn't mean people are going to use it," he said. "Content is the key, and you've got to put something on there (on a CD-ROM or on the Internet) that people want. "The critical question for me and my advertisers is how many people can be reached on any sort of regular basis so we are not just taking our money and tossing it away -- while you can get 35 or 40 million people to watch a television commercial," he said during a panel discussion at the Sixth Conference on Interdctive Marketing, being held in Scottsdale, Arizona through Wednesday. Serino's other predictions of US household penetration rates for various types of media forecast that between now and the year 2000, video game penetration will grow from 50 to 60 percent of households, personal computers will increase from 31 to 45 percent of American homes, and frequent users of pay television, such as one-time viewers of pay-per-view movies, will increase from six to 12 percent. The ad executive admits that a good part of his skepticism about new media comes from his perception that its availability is far more in place than is the urge to use it. "Bundling is currently the way that most CD-ROMs get into the market, so people are getting new CD-ROMs primarily through them being given away. They are not going out to the store and purchasing them themselves. If people get CD-ROMs with their computer, they tend to have less value from our perspective. How many times people use their CD-ROMs is the real question for us," he said. Serino had a somewhat more accommodating view of the effectiveness of online software programs bundled in to new computers or in issues of popular consumer computer magazines. "Bundling of new software to get on the Internet is critical," he said. "If they weren't giving away online disks in magazines, the eight percent household penetration we have would be down a million. If it weren't for bundling, I don't think the industry would be where it is currently." Still, Serino thinks that the commercial online services could do a better job of bridging the gap between their widespread availability and their modest level of use. "The Internet is the game," he said. "Commercial online services really have to look at what they offer people and decide what they are going to have to do to improve that -- because it's just that people will do what they want to do and get the information they want. Just because something is there, it doesn't mean they are going to use it. "Content is the key," he concluded. (Russell Shaw/19951024) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 10/24/95 TRENDS ****IDG's McGovern Defines Online Publishing Success (NEWS)(TRENDS)(MSP)(00034) ****IDG's McGovern Defines Online Publishing Success 10/24/95 NEW YORK CITY, NEW YORK, U.S.A., 1995 OCT 24 (NB) -- Proclaiming "The New Media is here, and the time to profit is now," Patrick McGovern, the man who founded International Data Group (IDG), gave his vision of online publishing success to an audience of magazine publishers at the Folio: Show conference in New York City. Newsbytes obtained an advance copy of McGovern's keynote speech, which took place at the New York Hilton and Towers today. McGovern said his company's research arm predicted usage of the Internet will grow more than 300 percent over the next four years. But up until now, the only people making money on New Media were those sponsoring conferences on, or consulting in, the field. Also, two New Media business models have prevailed up to this point. One is the idea that new media would replace traditional media, which doesn't work because the focus should be on reader's interests and not the underlying technology, McGovern said. The second model is the licensing of content to online services. McGovern said that, because the online services are offering more and more content to attract subscribers, there comes "a diminution of the brands that make up the information base -- your brands." McGovern told the audience that they should not think of themselves as traditional publishers when it comes to New Media, and that their competition is not from traditional media. McGovern then outlined what he dubbed the "reader-centric" model of electronic publishing. "The real opportunity of publishing in the digital age is to offer the reader the chance to get more information than they want, with less time and effort," he said. "In short, it is based on community, navigation, and transactions." McGovern also said that content is not king. In fact, he said, it is "abundant." But context, "the editorial filter, the point of view," is more important, "and, with the right business model, publishers will increase the revenue resources they have available to provide such value to their readers, going beyond the traditional revenue sources of display advertising, circulation, and other sources, to a rich set of additional revenue opportunities." He added that traditional sources of revenue would continue in the new "digital world." When viewed as part of a publishing business, online publishing is an exceptional strategic opportunity, McGovern said. "As the print and online publications become the hub of a strong community, they become more and more indispensable to the reader," in terms of both borrowing from, and strengthening, the print property. "This higher level of reader affinity translates directly into better results for advertisers and for publishers." (Bob Woods/19951024/Press Contacts: Chris McAndrews, IDG, 415-676-3026, Internet e-mail chris_mcandrews@idg.com; Meghan Dvorak, Alexander Communications, 415-923-1660, Internet e-mail 74777.417@cis.compuserve.com) (SUMMARY)(GENERAL)(MSP)(00035) Newsbytes Daily Summary 10/24/95 MINNEAPOLIS, MINNESOTA, U.S.A., 1995 OCT 24 (NB) -- These are capsules of all today's news stories: ======================================================================== ------------| N E W S B Y T E S D A I L Y S U M M A R Y |---------- ------------| Tuesday, October 24, 1995 |---------- ======================================================================== (c) Newsbytes News Network (Tm) Editor in Chief: Wendy Woods ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Newsbytes News Network's on the Web! Check out http://www.nbnn.com for free daily top stories from Newsbytes. and its affiliate publications, and from PC Week, MacWeek, and other Ziff news magazines. A subscription gives you all the news, full-text, plus the most comprehensive database of past computer stories online. The keyword-searchable database dates from today back through 1983. Subscriptions are $24.95 for three months. Questions? Send to 'administrator@newsbytes.com' For Japanese Newsbytes and additional services, see the Newsbytes Pacifica Website at http://www.islandtel.com/newsbytes/ ------------------------------------------------------------------------ CATEGORY HEADLINES (*** indicates today's top stories) STORY # ======================================================================== BROADCAST Video News Roundup......................................... 16 BUSINESS Samsung Targets India As Emerging Market................... 17 BUSINESS Intersolv Buys Belgian Software Firm....................... 23 BUSINESS Matsushita First Half Profits Up........................... 25 CHIPS Intel Plans $1Bil Flash Memory Plant In Israel............. 09 CHIPS Japan & US Clash Over Semiconductor Agreement.............. 21 GENERAL Czech Republic -- Spider Contact Manager Intro'd........... 18 IBM IBM Soups Up European Global Net With VSAT................. 04 NETWORK Novell's 2Mbps Electric Mains LAN Technology............... 07 ONLINE Electric Industry To Use Internet For Transmission Info.... 01 ONLINE PSI Offers Virtual Neighborhoods Local Content Program..... 02 ONLINE AGIS Provides Additional Internet Bandwidth................ 08 ONLINE "Muse" Photos On Web For "Instant Secure Transactions...... 10 ONLINE Coloradans Talk To Utility Firm Via The Internet........... 11 ONLINE Unabomber Manifesto Draws Limited Comment Online........... 19 ONLINE CATA Puts Canadian High-Tech Info On The Web............... 20 ONLINE Internet Update............................................ 22 ONLINE ****SafeSurf & Guardian Angels Patrol Internet............ 27 ONLINE ****Innovations Make Net Usage Hard To Track.............. 31 ONLINE ****E-mail, Not Web, Is Killer App........................ 32 PC DG Intros Intel-Based Servers Running NT & DG-UX........... 28 TELECOM British Telecom Offers Frame Relay In Philippines.......... 03 TELECOM Ericsson Receives African Digital Phone Order.............. 06 TELECOM NEC & Bellcore To Develop New Wireless Comms Technology.... 26 TRENDS UK - New Technology & IT Consultants Examined - Report..... 05 TRENDS Internet E-mail Relayed To PCN Mobile Phones............... 13 TRENDS Report Claims Info Revolution Leaving Some Behind.......... 14 TRENDS "Laser Tag" Game Arrives In Thailand....................... 15 TRENDS Microsoft Hot On Software Hit Parade....................... 24 TRENDS Intel Leads Intercast Alliance For Digitized TV............ 29 TRENDS "Windows 95 In Business" Survey............................ 30 TRENDS ****Ad Exec Lukewarm On Multimedia Penetration Levels..... 33 TRENDS ****IDG's McGovern Defines Online Publishing Success...... 34 WINDOWS Now Intros Windows 95 Scheduler/Contact Manager............ 12 ======================================================================== These are the headlines and first paragraphs of each story, in order: 1 -> Electric Industry To Use Internet For Transmission Info -- The electric power industry will use the Internet to provide a real-time information network proposed by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission as part of its plan to turn privately-owned long-distance, high-voltage electric transmission lines into common carriers. 2 -> PSI Offers Virtual Neighborhoods Local Content Program -- PSINet's Pipeline Internet service is planning on expanding the local content service it pioneered in New York City to other metropolitan areas through what it calls its "virtual neighborhoods" program. Pipeline, a New York-based Internet service provider PSI acquired earlier this year, has offered localized content for the New York metropolitan area since 1993. 3 -> British Telecom Offers Frame Relay In Philippines -- Officials from British Telecommunications Inc. (BT) and Philippine Global Communications (PhilCom) recently hosted the launch of a frame relay service from Concert, the joint global communications venture between BT and MCI, formed in 1993. 4 -> IBM Soups Up European Global Net With VSAT -- IBM has announced plans to greatly enhance its IBM Global Network service in Europe, using VSAT (very small aperture terminal) technology. Using VSAT technology will allow IBM to "massively increase" its European network capacity within a very short space of time, officials said, in order to take advantage of the impending free European market for telecoms services. 5 -> UK - New Technology & IT Consultants Examined - Report -- The Computing Services & Software Association (CSSA) Business Advisory Group of information technology (IT) directors from a broad cross-section of British industry has met up twice in recent months to provide feedback to the industry on two topics: the impact of new technologies, and the use and value of consultants. 6 -> Ericsson Receives African Digital Phone Order -- The Digital American Mobile Phone System (D-AMPS) has been a great success in the US, but has only gained limited acceptance. Most recently, D-AMPS got its first orders from Russia and Vietnam, and now, the technology 7 -> Novell's 2Mbps Electric Mains LAN Technology -- Novell has unveiled a mains-borne LAN (local area network) technology, known as Nested NetWare Powerline. The technology allows NetWare connections to be achieved across conventional electricity lines. 8 -> AGIS Provides Additional Internet Bandwidth -- Apex Global Information Services (AGIS) said it is introducing "Upscale 2000," a scalable Internet bandwidth product which enables businesses to purchase a set amount of bandwidth, with the option of upgrading to a higher speed at a later date. 9 -> Intel Plans $1Bil Flash Memory Plant In Israel -- Intel (NASDAQ:INTC) has announced plans to build a $1 billion fabrication plant in Kiryat Gat, Israel. The site, named Fab 18, will be the first constructed by Intel exclusively for flash memory manufacturing. 10 -> "Muse" Photos On Web For "Instant Secure Transactions -- Beyond being the first World Wide Web site to permit digital photo transactions that encompass search, licensing, downloading, and "secure payment" elements, the newly opened "Muse" is one of the first Web-based services of any kind to enable secure payment transactions in "real time," claimed Richard P. Groman, president of West Stock, during a meeting with Newsbytes on a Boston press tour. 11 -> Coloradans Talk To Utility Firm Via The Internet -- In Colorado Springs, Colorado city utilities officials are as close as a few clicks of the computer mouse since the department launched its home page of the World Wide Web earlier this month. 12 -> Now Intros Windows 95 Scheduler/Contact Manager -- Now Software Inc. has introduced Now Up-to-Date for Windows 95, a time and contact manager program. 13 -> Internet E-mail Relayed To PCN Mobile Phones -- Thorcom Systems, a radio and data communications company, is working on a Unix application that, when plugged into a PCN (personal communications network) digital mobile phone, will allow inbound electronic-mail across the Internet to be relayed to PCN mobile phones using the SMS (Short Message System) text messaging service. 14 -> Report Claims Info Revolution Leaving Some Behind -- The International Telecommunications Union (ITU) claims that a report it will publish next month shows that poorer countries will find it a struggle, if not impossible, to keep up with the "information revolution" over the next 10 years. 15 -> "Laser Tag" Game Arrives In Thailand -- Thanks to an enterprising franchisee, the brilliant colors of thousand-year old temples will soon compete with the color of laser beams, because the "laser tag" game is going in Thailand. 16 -> Video News Roundup -- This is a look at the top stories this week in the world of video news reporting: the future of 3M's Information, Imaging and Electronic Sector, Tektronix to compete with Avid and Sony, Fox Network increases SNG (satellite news gathering) Truck Fleet, and Fujitsu's all purpose Ice3, Fuji's digital capture tool and an anti-radiation baseball hat. 17 -> Samsung Targets India As Emerging Market -- Samsung Electronics Corp. (SEC) has targeted investments in several areas in India, especially in the information technology (IT) segment, which includes telecommunications, computers and peripherals, and software development. 18 -> Czech Republic -- Spider Contact Manager Intro'd -- Spider Contact Manager Intro'd 10/24/95 BRNO, CZECH REPUBLIC, 1995 OCT 24 (NB) 19 -> Unabomber Manifesto Draws Limited Comment Online -- A commercial online service, populated largely by those who know and like technology, may seem like a strange place to find an anti-technology tract. Yet there it is: the so-called Unabomber Manifesto is available on the Compuserve online service. 20 -> CATA Puts Canadian High-Tech Info On The Web -- The Canadian Advanced Technology Association (CATA) has launched TechnoGate, an online science and technology database, on the Internet's World Wide Web. 21 -> Japan & US Clash Over Semiconductor Agreement -- Japan reiterated its position over the extension of a US Japan bilateral semiconductor agreement this weekend when it said it has no intention of extending the pact once it expires on July 31st next year. The United States fears that, without an extension, its chip makers would loose a large market share in Japan. 22 -> Internet Update -- In this roundup of new resources and services on the global Internet: New librarian's guide out, Newspaper pictures on the net, Orbcomm satellites page, New on usenet, Government documents in the news, New Scientist magazine online, Military missile organization home page, Making server logs useful, Cure found for bad technology days, Win95 links. 23 -> Intersolv Buys Belgian Software Firm -- Intersolv (Nasdaq:ISLI) has acquired Belgian software firm TechGnosis International for a combination of stock and cash valued at a total of $80 million. The Belgian firm is a leading provider of data access technology in the Asian Pacific market, while Intersolv is a leading US open client/server software company. 24 -> Microsoft Hot On Software Hit Parade -- Microsoft's Windows 95 upgrade continues to light up the charts in PC Data's September software best-seller list. The Windows 95 upgrade leads the list in three of PC Data's categories, with Microsoft's 95 Plus package in second place on the same three lists: CD-ROM, Business Software for Windows, and the Windows 95 category itself. 25 -> Matsushita First Half Profits Up -- Matsushita Electric Industrial Co. (TSE:6752) has announced financial results for the first half of the current fiscal year and revised predictions for the entire year which ends on March 31. The figures shows a 41.2 billion yen ($412 million), a 10% increase on the same period last year. 26 -> NEC & Bellcore To Develop New Wireless Comms Technology -- NEC Corporation and Bellcore will team up to develop a new wireless communications system for business and personal use in the US market. The two will work together to establish customized software to accompany the equipment NEC will produce for the new system. 27 -> ****SafeSurf & Guardian Angels Patrol Internet -- SafeSurf, claimed to be a "parents' online organization," has donated a site on the World Wide Web to CyberAngels, the Guardian Angels Internet chapter. The site will be used to provide information to both members and new volunteers concerning CyberAngel activities. 28 -> DG Intros Intel-Based Servers Running NT & DG-UX -- All five of Data General's first Intel-based Aviion servers are able to run Windows NT Server and DG-UX Unix applications, and the two entry- level workgroup models can run Native NetWare, UnixWare, and SCO (Santa Cruz Operation) Open Server applications, as well, officials said, during a worldwide videoconference in which the servers were introduced, and a phone interview with Newsbytes. 29 -> Intel Leads Intercast Alliance For Digitized TV -- The Intercast Industry Group has been announced to promote Intercast, a new technology linking television to the Internet. Intel, developer of the underlying technology, spearheads the Group that also includes major technology providers, systems manufacturers, broadcasters, and cable companies, Internet access providers, and software developers. 30 -> "Windows 95 In Business" Survey -- Stream International has released the results of a new survey that claims 82 percent of its corporate customers that participated in the Windows 95 Preview beta testing program will migrate to that platform. A Stream official also said she expects a similar number of companies that did not participate in the beta program to move to the new operating system (OS). 31 -> ****Innovations Make Net Usage Hard To Track -- Webmasters who set up World Wide Web sites, and the companies who advertise on them, look to usage-measuring companies to track how many people are coming to their site. But the ever-increasing sophistication of Web browser programs is creating new challenges for accurate tracking. 32 -> ****E-mail, Not Web, Is Killer App -- According to a leading provider of online game shows, it's a better idea to run game-like contests for advertisers on the Internet through electronic-mail than through the World Wide Web. 33 -> ****Ad Exec Lukewarm On Multimedia Penetration Levels -- Joseph Serino, new media manager for Jordan, McGrath, Case & Taylor, a New York- based ad agency, predicts household penetration of CD-ROM users will only climb from seven to 25 percent in the next five years, while households using one or more online services will increase from today's eight percent to 18 percent in five years. 34 -> ****IDG's McGovern Defines Online Publishing Success -- Proclaiming "The New Media is here, and the time to profit is now," Patrick McGovern, the man who founded International Data Group (IDG), gave his vision of online publishing success to an audience of magazine publishers at the Folio: Show conference in New York City. (Ian Stokell/19951024) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 10/23/95 TELECOM MFS Enters Hong Kong Telecom Fray (NEWS)(TELECOM)(HKG)(00001) MFS Enters Hong Kong Telecom Fray 10/23/95 CENTRAL, HONG KONG, 1995 OCT 23 (NB) -- Half billion dollar telephone company MFS has announced it will join the telecom services market in Hong Kong. A ship, loaded to the gunnels with switching and fiber equipment, is already reportedly on its way to Hong Kong. Officials insisted local operations targeting the finance sector will be up and running by year-end. Hong Kong, they said, is the first center in the company's sweeping 90-city expansion plan. Colin Williams, managing director for International Operations, said MFS focused primarily on Europe, which becomes a free market in 1998 by EC mandate. "Hong Kong was particularly attractive to us because it does not have the same level of access to advanced global services as financial centers in Europe and the US." MFS's Mark Weeks told Newsbytes from London: "We've been talking to all the new fixed line license holders especially, New T&T and Hongkong Telecom." But he said nothing had been signed in the territory -- although the company had firmed up a deal on a new transatlantic link through Japan's IDC. MFS began in North America in 1987 and is unusual in that it owns its own fiber networks. In centers where it doesn't install fiber, it buys it. It never leases bandwidth from local carriers, Weeks said. MFS (UK) is behind the move to Hong Kong. In London its clients include Morgen Grenfell, Chase, Daiwa, and Bloomberg. The company currently has its own fiber networks in 40 North American cities, as well as in key European centers like London, Frankfurt, and Stockholm. It is now piping through Paris and Zurich. "As you can see we are hitting the main financial centers -- with guarantees that they are using our own network," Weeks said. But he said MFS would likely buy bandwidth rather that tunnel through already provider-crowded Hong Kong. The company offers point-to-point voice services for dealers, ATM (asynchronous transfer mode) standard data transfer and other services. Williams put the business telecom market in the territory at US$200 million, a figure he expects to see double in five years. "The expansion of Hong Kong was largely driven by the needs of our customers in other financial centers. As a cornerstone of the Asia-Pacific region, Hong Kong is one of the 25 international financial centers targeted as part of our accelerated expansion plan." (Nigel Armstrong & I.T. Daily/19951020) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 10/23/95 BUSINESS Unisys Sells System To China Bank (NEWS)(BUSINESS)(HKG)(00002) Unisys Sells System To China Bank 10/23/95 CENTRAL, HONG KONG, 1995 OCT 23 (NB) -- China's fifth largest bank has bought a banking system from Unisys to run its New York operations. China's Bank of Communications paid an unknown amount to buy a system known as FBA Urbis to run its treasury and finance operations. Newsbytes understands a full system runs up to US$2 million. Ironically, while Unisys has a strong presence in China and contracts with the Agricultural Bank, Construction Bank, and Bank of China, the US deal is Unisys' first with this institution. But according to the company, a consideration for choosing the Unisys package was the potential for its implementation in other branches. The Bank of Communications claims to have US$35 billion in assets, supported by 90 branches around China. It provides wholesale banking services to the industrial and commercial sectors in China. The FBA Urbis system is Unix based and operates using Oracle relational database technology and a Windows interface. It supports international banking requirements and provides risk monitoring and reporting capabilities. (Nigel Armstrong & I.T. Daily/19951020) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 10/23/95 BROADCAST Video News Roundup (NEWS)(BROADCAST)(MSP)(00003) Video News Roundup 10/23/95 MINNEAPOLIS, MINNESOTA, U.S.A., 1995 OCT 23 (NB) -- This is a look at the top stories this week in the world of video news reporting: stock image searching on the Net, "Can you find good desktop audio monitors," and, in new products, the Panasonic Multimedia Bundle and Fast Electronics' Portable Quad. Searching For Stock Footage And Photos On The Net October's Videography features an article on footage.net. It organizes access to most of the world's stock footage libraries. It is not a stock library itself, but a clearing house for those services. The address is http://www.footage.net . It has fully implemented search capabilities. Companies like On Demand Stock Footage even offer QuickTime samples of video and film footage. Founder John Tariot notes that the QuickTime movies utilized are cross-platform. Tariot says that you get access to "darn near everybody" in the stock footage business. ABC News VideoSource and the CNN ImageSource libraries are expected to be added by year's end. The "Sound" In Sound And Vision Now that multimedia authoring is taking off along with various desktop media, don't forget about audio. A perennial favorite of video magazines is features on that dilemma. Electronic Musician's November issue covers the problem of reference audio monitoring for the desktop media producer. Michael Molenda's article -- "Little Monsters" -- finally gives the current crop of desktop two-way and three-way systems (satellite and subwoofer) a thorough going over not often seen in video and film publications. The two main conclusions: these speakers should not be used for primary reference but for secondary reference, and for gaming playback the three-way systems offer the best low-end frequency punch and crunch. New Products Panasonic Communications & Systems Company (PCSC) announced a new multimedia bundle targeted at portable computer owners. The KXL-D721 bundle includes Panasonic's KXL-D720 PCMCIA portable CD-ROM drive, a sound/SCSI (small computer systems interface) card, a battery-powered speaker system, and the ESS Audio Sound SuiteTM software. The ESS Audio Sound Suite software offers play and record capabilities with a mixer, audio clip library, talking calendar and clock, audio reminder for appointments and a stop watch/timer. October's Videography Product Introductions column noted the Portable Quad by Fast Electronic. The PC is a broadcast quality non-linear edit studio about the size of airline carry-on baggage. It can control up to 29 other drives. The Quad uses Fast's Video Machine software. (Newsbytes Staff/19951023) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 10/23/95 ONLINE ****Targeted Daily News For "Rent" To Websites (NEWS)(ONLINE)(MSP)(00004) ****Targeted Daily News For "Rent" To Websites 10/23/95 MINNEAPOLIS, MINNESOTA, U.S.A., 1995 OCT 23 (NB) -- Adding fast- breaking news content aimed at a Website's target audience is one way to increase "hits" on a site. That news content is now offered to Websites by Newsbytes News Network's "Top Stories" program which gives Websites a license to publish up to five daily technology stories from 21 categories. "Daily, changing news content enhances a Website's value to readers, prevents a site from getting 'stale,' and polishes a company's image in the eyes of its customers," said Newsbytes Editor-in-Chief Wendy Woods. "Newsbytes' Top Stories enables our Web partners to publish five stories daily from 21 high-tech categories, as well as the Newsbytes Daily Summary, which offers the first paragraph from every story we cover." Among the categories the reports cover are: Apple, IBM, Unix, Government, Telecom, Trends, Business, PC, DOS, Windows, Network, Legal, Health, Education, General, Online, Broadcast, and Chips. Websites are charged a nominal fee for the service and must provide "hotlinks" back to the Newsbytes US Website at http://www.nbnn.com . A complete reference resource for insiders or those following the computer, telecom, and interactive services industries, the Newsbytes US Website provides free access to the top stories each day and news summaries covering the daily and weekly news. Readers can quickly scan headlines to see the latest developments covered by Newsbytes and major Ziff news sources. Subscribers can keyword search the Newsbytes database dating back to 1983, the most extensive technology news reporting archive on the Internet. The Newsbytes US Website compliments the Newsbytes Pacifica Website, located at http://www.islandtel.com/newsbytes/ , where readers can access a variety of other features, such as Japanese language Newsbytes, and subscriptions to the entire news wire by direct electronic-mail. The Newsbytes US Website was developed in conjunction with Associated Information Services (AIS), a Minneapolis-based Web publishing firm. Newsbytes' team of 19 reporters are based in bureaus in the following cities: Los Angeles, San Francisco, Denver, Atlanta, New York, Washington, Boston, Minneapolis, Chicago, Toronto, London, Tokyo, Hong Kong, Beijing, Sydney, Manila, and New Delhi. Newsbytes has five times won the prestigious reporting awards for Best Online Publication from the Computer Press Association, the world's largest professional association of computer journalists. Newsbytes has been published continuously since 1983. The Newsbytes URL is http://www.nbnn.com . For more information, contact Wendy Woods, editor in chief, Newsbytes News Network, Carriage House, 406 W. Olive St, Stillwater, MN 55082, tel 612-430-1100, fax: 612-430-0441. Internet address is administrator@newsbytes.com For more information on Associated Information Services, contact Stephen Laliberte, president, Associated Information Services, 17280 Uplander Street, Andover, MN 55304, PH: 612-753-3994, fax 612-753-3995 Internet: liberty@tccn.com (Newsbytes Staff/19951023) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 10/23/95 TELECOM HP In Mobile Comms Deal With Nokia (NEWS)(TELECOM)(LON)(00005) HP In Mobile Comms Deal With Nokia 10/23/95 BRACKNELL, BERKSHIRE, ENGLAND, 1995 OCT 23 (NB) -- Claiming to be seeking to capitalize on their "mutual expertise" in handheld computers and telecommunications devices, Hewlett-Packard (HP) and Nokia Mobile Phones have announced that they plan to co-develop handheld devices that will offer "convenient voice, data, and facsimile communications." According to Shaun Hobbs, the company's manager of emerging handheld devices, the companies' goal is to develop next-generation handheld devices that combine leading technologies in both the computer and mobile telephone markets. These devices, he said, will enable users to make use of the comprehensive communications services that are becoming standard across the world. Initial co-developed products are expected to be introduced some time next year. "People are becoming more mobile and thus require devices that support the way they work. These devices must be convenient, standard and highly portable. Using our standard palmtop platform, the devices we will develop with Nokia will enable users to take full advantage of the emerging services provided by operators worldwide and allow customers to fully utilize the global communications network," he said. Commenting on the deal, Reijo Paajanen, Nokia Mobile Phones' vice president, said that customers require a "convenient communications solution" that enables them to communicate regardless of their location. "Together we will deliver information products that comfortably and conveniently provide customers with all the tools they require for remote voice, data and fax communications," he said. (Sylvia Dennis/19951019/Press Contact: PA Consulting, +44-171-730-9000; Reader Contact: Hewlett-Packard, +44-1344-369222) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 10/23/95 BUSINESS Gateway Targets Australia Top Spot In Osborne Comeback Bid (NEWS)(BUSINESS)(SYD)(00006) Gateway Targets Australia Top Spot In Osborne Comeback Bid 10/23/95 SYDNEY, AUSTRALIA 1995 OCT 23 (NB) -- Is it a plane or a bird? No, it's Gateway 2000's Super-Ted, flying to the rescue of the ailing Osborne Computer company in Australia. Decked out in distinctive black-and-white cowspot tights, gold cape and pony-tail flying, Gateway 2000 founder, chairman and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Ted Waitt features personally -- alongside a caped Australian WonderWoman -- in ads in most Australian PC magazines and newspapers this month, as the company makes its local launch in typically spectacular fashion. The new company, to be known as Osborne Gateway 2000, will spend $1 million on advertising in the first month alone, as Sioux City-based Gateway seeks to establish itself as a major player in the Australian PC market. Specialist UK agency Finex was called in to handle the comic-strip style campaign, featuring the adventures of The Dynamic PC Duo -- a reference to the dual personality of the new company. Gateway 2000 acquired 80 percent of Osborne, after the top Australian maker was placed in voluntary receivership. The other 20 percent was picked up by US motherboard maker Micronics, as principal creditor. The opportunity to grab a sizable share of the booming Australian PC market for a relative song was too good to resist -- even though it came almost a year before Gateway's planned entry to the market, Waitt told a Sydney press conference. Osborne was the number one desktop vendor in Australia in 1994, but sales have slumped since the financial crash. Now Waitt and Osborne Gateway 2000 Managing Director John Morrissey are out to grab the top spot again from Compaq and Apple. Waitt said he also sees Acer as an up-and-coming competitor. First they will have to gain re-admittance to the Australian Government's endorsed supplier scheme: Osborne was dropped from government purchasing lists earlier this year due to its financial instability. Getting back in the government good books is not a simple affair of re-establishing a healthy bank account, Morrissey has found in two meetings with officials. Canberra is leaning on Osborne Gateway to join its Partnership for Development scheme. "We're happy to join, but we won't rush. We want to set up a plan with long-term viability," Morrissey said. Waitt hinted that part of the plan could well be a large-scale Australian-based telephone support center for the Asia-Pacific region. Meanwhile the new company will pursue state government, corporate, and small-medium business orders, as well as consumer business, selling direct to customers either via the phone, Gateway style, or via established retail centers, Osborne fashion. Some models will continue to be made in Osborne's Sydney plant, but others are being imported to supplement the aging Osborne line. (David Frith and Computer Daily News/19951020) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 10/23/95 TELECOM UK - Digital Mail Offers Universal Mailbox System (NEWS)(TELECOM)(LON)(00007) UK - Digital Mail Offers Universal Mailbox System 10/23/95 LONDON, ENGLAND, 1995 OCT 23 (NB) -- Digital Mail, a London-based electronic-mail company, has announced the availability of Digital Mailbox, a voice, fax, and e-mail mailbox system operating on a single number. According to Robert Darwin, Digital Mail's managing director, the service involves subscribers having a London phone number which terminates on Digital Mail's server system for voice and fax messages. Voice messages are stored by the server for later retrieval by the user. Faxes are translated into a binary image file that is itself encoded using the company's Distributed Object Language (DOL) and relayed across the Internet to the mailbox of the user's choice. Using a simple Windows application, the fax is then reassembled and can be printed out on the user's PC. E-mail is addressed to the same London phone number, using the suffix @digitalmail.com. For example, your Digital Mailbox voice and fax number may be +44-171-827-0000, while your e-mail address is 44-171- 827-0000@digitalmail.com. A World Wide Web page would also be available to customers on http://www/digitalmail.com/44-171-827-0000 . "The service is quite revolutionary and can be used in a variety of ways," Darwin told Newsbytes, adding that faxes can either be held by the system on a "store and retrieval" basis, or relayed across the Internet. Likewise, e-mail can be stored on the system for dial-in customers, or reflected on to another Internet mailbox. "We have one subscriber who commutes between Edinburgh in Scotland and California, and he uses the system for all his voice and fax messages. He finds it invaluable," Darwin said, adding that the service costs UKP5 per month, which includes the first 20 minutes of use. Extra minutes cost 10 pence per minute. For e-mail purposes, a minute allows about two pages of text to be received or transmitted. "The cost is quite minimal and the majority of our customers use the service without worrying about the cost. For example, they may be a small business that does not want anyone to know they do not have a fax machine. Others use us as an office facility for when they are on the move, using BT's Network services to divert their voice and fax calls as appropriate," he explained. (Steve Gold/19951023/Press & Reader Contact: Digital Mail, tel +44-171-231-2929, fax +44-171-827-6520, Internet e-mail 44-171-827-6520@digitalmail.com) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 10/23/95 PDA UK - Hewlett-Packard Intros OmniGo 100 Pocket Organizer (NEWS)(PDA)(LON)(00008) UK - Hewlett-Packard Intros OmniGo 100 Pocket Organizer 10/23/95 BRACKNELL, BERKSHIRE, ENGLAND, 1995 OCT 23 (NB) -- Hewlett-Packard (HP) has unveiled the OmniGo pocket organizer, a rival to the Psion Series 3. Like the Series 3 unit, the machine uses a proprietary DOS operating system, with patches to allow Windows clipboard files to be transferred between a PC and the handheld. The machine has a PCMCIA (Personal Computer Memory Card International Association) type II slot into which suitable software can be inserted. The machine comes with Pocket Quicken in PCMCIA format. A key feature of the handheld organizer is an innovative 360-degree rotatable hinge that allows the user to fold back the front cover to reveal a keyboard or screen. Internally, the machine has one megabyte (MB) of RAM and 3MB of ROM, and has a serial port for PC and printer connectivity. Powerwise, the OmniGo needs two standard AA batteries, and has a lithium backup battery as well. The machine, including batteries, tips the scales at 11.6 ounces, and sells for UKP290 including sales tax. Plans call for the machine to offered across Western Europe later this year, and it is anticipated that the machine will be offered in due course to the US marketplace. Software available for the unit includes Clip & Go, which links the OmniGo 100 organizer clipboard to a Windows-PC clipboard through a serial-port connection, and HP OmniGo 100 organizer Strategy Games, which features six strategy games to take on the road. The machine can use keyboard or pen-based input -- hence its foldround screen unit -- and has internal HP financial-analysis tools and spreadsheet capabilities, as well as a notepad and jotter. There are also the usual appointment, address and telephone books seen on organizers of this type, as well as a database facility. (Steve Gold/19951019/Press Contact: PA Consulting, +44-171-730-9000; Reader Contact: Hewlett-Packard, +44-1344-369222) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 10/23/95 TRENDS ICL Claims World's Fastest Sparc Workstation (NEWS)(TRENDS)(LON)(00009) ICL Claims World's Fastest Sparc Workstation 10/23/95 BRACKNELL, BERKSHIRE, ENGLAND, 1995 OCT 23 (NB) -- ICL Volume Products has unveiled the Halstation 300 Series, which it claims is the world's faster Sparc workstation. The company plans to ship the machine in Western Europe, Africa, and the Middle East later this year. According to John Robinson, manager of the HALstation series, ICL's experience in the field and facilities market have prepared the company to hit the market "strongly" with the new HALstation family. Robinson said that he believes the company will achieve its goals over a relatively short period of time, keeping in mind the size of the whole operation "With over six years' experience in the Sparc market with the world's leading Sparc server products, we have the ideal infrastructure, logistics and service capability to market and support the HALstation series. We intend to become one of the leading players in the technical workstation field within five years," he explained. According to Robinson, the HALstation systems provide "highly advanced solutions" designed for customers operating in specific market sectors. In collaboration with Master Resellers, all ICL Volume Products will be aiming at value-added resellers (VARs) through a HALstation Accreditation process. The resellers with Sparc/Solaris knowledge and record in CAD/CAM (computer-aided design/manufacturing), electronic design automation (EDA), mechanical computer-engineering (MCAE), scientific research and development (SR&D), and financial modeling and trading (FM&T) will become the potential targets. The Halstation 300 has been eagerly awaited by the RISC (reduced instruction set computing) user community, Newsbytes notes. Originally scheduled for a 1993 launch, the 64-bit workstations may be overshadowed by the Sun 64-bit UltraSparc system that is expected later this year. The Halstation Model 330 uses a 100 megahertz (MHz) version Fujitsu's seven chip Sparc64 central processing unit that is rated at 181 SPECint92 and 230 SPECfp92. The 118MHz Model 350, meanwhile, has a speed rating of 212 SPECint92 and 271 SPECfp92. The Model 330 is priced from $23,000 upwards and comes with 64 megabytes (MB) of memory, two gigabytes of hard disk space, four S-bus slots, and a 17-inch color screen. The Model costs from $33,000. (Sylvia Dennis/19951019/Press Contact: Leading Edge Communications, +44-171-454-9360; Reader Contact: ICL Volume Products, +44-1344-472828) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 10/23/95 TELECOM India - TCIL Plans Telephone Service Consortium (NEWS)(TELECOM)(DEL)(00010) India - TCIL Plans Telephone Service Consortium 10/23/95 NEW DELHI, INDIA, 1995 OCT 23 (NB) -- Telecommunications Consultants India Ltd. (TCIL) plans to boost business by forming a consortium with multinationals interested in capitalizing on the deregulation of basic telephone services in the country, according to A.S. Bansal, chairman of TCIL. TCIL anticipates that the proposed long-term consortium will push business growth of the R362 crore company to R1,000 crore within the next five years. The project will be implemented by TCIL's telecom infrastructure division, organized specially to reinforce the company's domestic operations following the Indian government's decision to lift its monopoly over the basic telecom sector, Bansal said. TCIL currently has a R500 crore joint venture turnkey project in Saudi Arabia in which the Indian company's share is R200 core. Its future engagements abroad include planning and implementation of the telephone infrastructure in underdeveloped countries, in association with the World Tel Organization. (C.T. Mahabharat/19951023) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 10/23/95 BUSINESS India - Analog Devices Plans Software Operation (NEWS)(BUSINESS)(HKG)(00011) India - Analog Devices Plans Software Operation 10/23/95 NEW DELHI, INDIA, 1995 OCT 23 (NB) -- Analog Devices Inc., the US-based semiconductor giant, will be setting up a software and systems technology division at Bangalore to develop next-generation microchips -- to be used in electronic products worldwide. The move was disclosed by Ray Stata, chairman and chief executive officer (CEO) of the firm. "Analog Devices has been in India for over 20 years and the opening of a design center in the country is a confirmation of our commitment to India and also a recognition of the tremendous potential and talent we see here," said Stata. The subsidiary, which will be a fully owned subsidiary of Analog Devices and one of the four product development centers outside the US, will commence operations from November 1. The initial focus of the design center will be on digital signal processing (DSP). Outlining the firm's plans for the future, Stata said that ADI will clock a "little less than $1 billion by the end of 1995." He further added that "plans are on the anvil to increase capacity all around the company to service customers better, besides taking full advantage of the opportunities". (C.T. Mahabharat/19951023) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 10/23/95 ONLINE Marketing Lists Via The Internet (NEWS)(ONLINE)(MSP)(00012) Marketing Lists Via The Internet 10/23/95 COLORADO SPRINGS, COLORADO, U.S.A., 1995 OCT 23 (NB) -- WolfBayne Communications is offering a free copy of its October 1995 issue of "Marketing Lists on the Internet" for business marketers who have electronic-mail accounts to connect with others who have similar interests. Marketing lists are discussion groups conducted via e-mail, said Kim M. Bayne, president of WolfBayne Communications. The lists cover a variety of topics, including public relations, market segmentation, marketing in general, and Internet marketing in particular. "All of the lists are related to marketing, but to different aspects" of marketing, Bayne told Newsbytes. Discussions in the groups are wide ranging, she said, from "how-to" articles to high-level marketing strategies and tactics, with most lists covering several different subjects simultaneously. Participation is not required. Bayne said an advantage of these lists is they act like traditional luncheon meetings of professional organizations, but without the travel and time commitments. One of the changes on the way for marketing lists comes under the category of revenue, Bayne said. Until now, most of the list providers have been donating their time to moderate the lists, Bayne said. But those attitudes are changing. "List owners are starting to look at this as a revenue producing venture," she said. "People who are offering lists for sponsorships aren't letting advertisers get out of control. They're putting some restraint on it. The users like it, because they don't have to pony up the money to participate." Other changes Bayne sees include list "spin-offs" focusing on trade shows, sales leads, agency management, sports marketings, and advertising planning and placement. Bayne's "Marketing Lists on the Internet" will receive a mention in the upcoming book "World Wide Web Marketing - Integrating the Internet Into Your Marketing Strategy" by Jim Sterne. WolfBayne Communication's own high-tech marketing communications list "HTMARCOM" has received several mentions in both books and periodicals, Bayne said. Single copies are available through the US mail, in exchange for a self-addressed stamped #10 business sized envelope, to "WolfBayne Communications," P.O. Box 50287, Colorado Springs, Colorado 80949-0287. Also, WolfBayne Communications can be reached via Internet e-mail at kimmik@wolfBayne.com, or via its Internet World Wide Web presence at http://www.bayne.com/wolfBayne/ . (Bob Woods/19951020/Press Contact: Kim M. Bayne, WolfBayne Communications, 719-593-8032, Internet e-mail kimmik@wolfBayne.com) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 10/23/95 NETWORK LCI Intros New Laser Networking Product (NEWS)(NETWORK)(MSP)(00013) LCI Intros New Laser Networking Product 10/23/95 LANCASTER, PENNSYLVANIA, U.S.A., 1995 OCT 23 (NB) -- Laser Communications Inc. (LCI) said it has developed a new line of wireless network connectivity products that work via a laser beam instead of traditional wiring. The "S" Class works at Ethernet speeds of 10 megabits-per-second (Mbps) and Token Ring links of 4Mbps and 16Mbps, Dick Guttendorf, president of LCI, told Newsbytes. The system works with line-of- sight laser transmissions up to 700 feet (210 meters), he said. Newsbytes has covered other product developments at LCI, including the OmniBeam 2000 Data/Voice Link, which combines digital voice trunk and local area network (LAN) connectivity, and other networking products that use a single beam of laser light. The main difference between those products and the new "S" Class is distance, Guttendorf said. The OmniBeam and other products can connect sites up to a kilometer (4,000 feet) away, while the "S" Class works up to 700 feet. Beyond the distance difference, Guttendorf said the "S" Class is virtually the same as LCI's other systems when it comes to performance. "This is just a modification of the range of the product," he said. The "S" Class is available at a price of around $7,500, because of the shorter distance. This pricing should appeal to customers who need to connect LANs across a street, but don't want to dig up the street in the process, he said. The system aligns with a simple bar graph and tone lock procedure, LCI officials said, and requires solid supporting locations for mounting. Laser Communications Inc., which maintains an Internet World Wide Web presence at http://www.lasercomm.com/lasercom/ , is a unit of Safeguard Scientifics (NYSE:SFE). (Bob Woods/19951020/Press Contacts: Phil Hall or Robert A. Toledo, Open City Communications, 212-714-3575; Public Contact: Laser Communications, 800-LASER-40, Internet e-mail lasercom@epix.net) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 10/23/95 TRENDS Colorado Utility To Get Remote Meter Reading (NEWS)(TRENDS)(WAS)(00014) Colorado Utility To Get Remote Meter Reading 10/23/95 WASHINGTON, D.C., U.S.A., 1995 OCT 23 (NB) -- Public Service of Colorado has signed a $62 million contract with Itron (NASDAQ:ITRI) of Spokane, Wash., that will result in automated electric and gas meter reading in the entire Denver area. When the systems are completely installed in two years, the utility will have the largest automatic meter reading system in the world. PSColo began installing its high-tech wireless meter reading system in the fall of 1994, contracting with Itron for 333,000 encoder, receiver, transmitter modules. The utility says this phase of the project is ahead of schedule and is expected to be completed by the end of 1995. The new order is for another one million meter modules, bringing the total for the utility to 1.3 million. Denver-based PSColo serves about 1.9 million gas and electric customers in Colorado and the Cheyenne, Wyo., area. The utility reads the meter with Itron's van-based mobile reading system. The modules are also compatible with Itron's fixed network, which PSColo is testing. The utility says it hopes to build on the Itron system for other applications, including energy management. "The results of our initial (automated meter reading) installation surpassed all expectations," says Wayne Brunetti, PSColo president and chief operating officer. "We're looking forward to being able to leverage our mobile and fixed network system for other applications that will offer our customers a wider array of services in the future." Itron is a leading supplier of energy information and telecommunciations products to the utility industry. The company's revenues for the year ended June 30 were $141 million. (Kennedy Maize/19951020/Press Contact: Cathy Hart, 303-294-8688) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 2 10/23/95 GENERAL Micrografx Intros Crayola Art Studio (NEWS)(GENERAL)(DEN)(00015) Micrografx Intros Crayola Art Studio 2 10/23/95 RICHARDSON, TEXAS, U.S.A., 1995 OCT 23 (NB) -- Micrografx Inc. NASDAQ: MGXI) is now shipping Crayola Art Studio 2, a software suite on CD-ROM for Macintosh and Windows platforms that Micrografx spokesperson Angela Hooper told Newsbytes combines the earlier releases of Crayola Art Studio and Crayola Amazing Art Adventure. Those programs were released on disk in May, 1994, and on CD-ROM in August, both for Windows only. The new release, like its predecessors, has two age-appropriate play areas. One is for children ages 3-6, and the other for kids 6-12. It also has a new multimedia art playroom where the young uses can draw, color, paint, and play various activities. They can even turn their artful creations into moving picture shows or add sounds. Micrografx said it used the expertise of Binney & Smith, the company that makes Crayola brand products, in the design of the Crayola Art Studio programs. Child development experts were also consulted during the development of the product in which kids learn to recognize letters, spell, do some math and perform observation, evaluation and comparison skills. The children get creative tools that include crayons, markets, watercolor paints, more than 300 stickers that can be placed on their art, crazy lines, shapes, exploding erase, and more than 150 animations. There are more than two dozen activities available in the program which include coloring and activity books like Fashion Designer and Monster Maze Craze, crafts, games and a picture show maker. The CD-ROM also includes a video tour through the Binney & Smith plant that explains how Crayola products are made by the 90-year old Easton, Pennsylvania company. A crayon named Tip, which Micrografx calls "the Crayola Amazing Art Adventure mascot," conducts the tour. Other videos on the disk feature Professor Markeroni and Sir Lawrence Periwinkle. Crayola Art Studio 2 has an estimated street price of $39.95. A recent Newsbytes story reported on the release by Micrografx of Hallmark Connections Card Studio, a greeting card creation program. The company will soon ship version 4 of its popular Windows Draw program. The new release of Draw will include templates for common household tasks like creating newsletters, drawing a family tree, making space plans and drawing maps. (Jim Mallory/19951020/Press contact: David Wilson, Micrografx, 214-994-6534; Public contact: Micrografx, 800-676-3110) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 95 10/23/95 TELECOM Ericsson Plans Wireless Systems For Windows (NEWS)(TELECOM)(LON)(00016) Ericsson Plans Wireless Systems For Windows 95 10/23/95 STOCKHOLM, SWEDEN, 1995 OCT 23 (NB) -- Plug and Play is becoming de rigor for Windows 95-compliant hardware, now that users are becoming used to the idea they can slot in a peripheral and have the operating system automatically recognize its presence. Now Ericsson has revealed it is taking the integration one stage further, developing a series of plug-in wireless systems for use under Windows 95. The concept means that, when a user plugs in a wireless data device, the device will be auto-recognized by Windows 95, and gateway software, whether pseudo local area network (LAN) or simple fax/messaging applications, will spring into action. Taking Plug and Play to its limits will mean that the device can be present at all times on the PC, but only "recognized" by Windows 95 when the wireless device is within range of its network. This feature is an important step forward in mobile comms, Newsbytes notes, since it would mean that wireless applications software need not hog valuable resources on the laptop -- and only be booted up when Windows 95 "sees" the device as being present and ready for transmission. According to Bengt Carlstrom, Ericsson's general manager for mobile data terminals, the hardware technology being developed by the company, is both Windows 3.1- and Windows 95-compliant, and makes extensive use of ODBC (Open Database Connectivity) and MAPI (Microsoft Application Programming Interface) technology to ensure connectivity across Mobitex and GSM (global system for mobile communications) digital mobile networks. Using these technologies has allowed Ericsson to develop software technology it calls "middleware" that interfaces between Windows 95 mainstream applications and the wireless technology devices. The technology, which was demonstrated in an early form at Telecom 95 in Geneva earlier this month, is now being developed for a commercial launch in April of next year. "Database access, electronic-mail, fax, and file transfer are just as essential on the road as they are in the office. Because the application mix needed by different users results in varying data communications requirements, it is important to support both packet-switched Mobitex and circuit-switched GSM networks," explained Carlstrom. "With Ericsson's software and support for Plug and Play in Windows 95, the transport method can vary. Users can hot swap a Mobidem PC card modem, a GSM modem card or a PC card for the office LAN as need vary," he said. Ericsson is working closely with Microsoft on the Plug and Play wireless technology. According to Rolf Skogland, Microsoft Europe's vice president, the wireless office platform effectively combines Ericsson's wireless technology with the advanced facilities of the Windows 95 operating system. According to Skogland, a beta version of the wireless system has already been tested and is currently being used internally by Ericsson. Commercial shipments worldwide of the technology, which has not yet been named, will occur in the second quarter of next year. (Steve Gold/19951020/Press Contact: Bengt Carlstrom, Ericsson Mobile, tel +46-8-757-3500, fax +46-8-751-6079; Per Bengtsson, Ericsson, +46-8-757-2159) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 10/23/95 TELECOM UK - Dataflex's Windows 95 Speakerphone Modem (NEWS)(TELECOM)(LON)(00017) UK - Dataflex's Windows 95 Speakerphone Modem 10/23/95 LONDON, ENGLAND, 1995 OCT 23 (NB) -- Dataflex Design has announced the PC Comms Office, a UKP129 modem that offers hands-free speakerphone and voice-mail facilities in addition to the normal 14,400 bits-per- second (bps) data and fax facilities. The system is a price breaker, as well as offering comms facilities never before seen in a UK modem bundle. The PC Comms Office is billed as Windows 95 Plug and Play-compliant, and includes a raft of applications software free of charge. The system is the second in a series of "Office" modem bundles from Dataflex, which released a desktop version of the system, without speakerphone facilities, for UKP199 last year. The PC Comms Office is a bundle of a PC fax/data modem card, a microphone that mounts on top of the monitor, a copy of Prometheus' Cyberworks for Windows, a trial subscription to the Tel-Me online business information service, a free copy of the Netscape Web Browser, and 30 days free access to Pipex's Internet services. Phil Benge, Dataflex's marketing director, claims that the system builds on the success of the original comms office. "We opted to base our design on Sierra's Plug and Play Business Audio chip and invested a great deal of time with them getting it ready for market. We can't see anyone else being ready with an equivalent product this side of Christmas," he explained. According to Benge, the decision to go with Sierra Business Audio chipset was taken after the company looked at the Cirrus Logic and Rockwell TAD chipset technologies. "The Cirrus Logic chipset cannot be approved for Europe as it's a masked chip, while the Rockwell Business Audio technology is not as good as Sierra's. Rockwell's system is not Plug and Play-compliant, nor does it store the audio files as WAV files. This means you have to wait extra time for the file to be translated and played back," he told Newsbytes. "In addition, the Rockwell TAD system does not produce as clear an audio signal as Sierra's. It's only a four-bit sound system, whereas Sierra's chipset is 12-bit and works at 11 kilohertz," he explained. In use, the PC Comms Office can automatically answer an incoming call with a pre-recorded message, identify the calling device, and then store incoming faxes, data and voice messages to disk. In addition, the system provides calls with access to private voice-mail boxes, message and fax retrieval facilities, faxback services, and fax redirection. Users can make or receive calls from the desktop and switch handsfree speakerphone operation by clicking the mouse. The software can also cope with alternative telecom carriers (ATCs) such as Energis, ACC, Worldcom or Mercury. (Steve Gold/19951020/Press Contact: Bridson & Bridson, tel +44-1869- 338832, fax +44-1869-338843, Internet e-mail bandb@cix.compulink.co.uk; Reader Contact: Dataflex Design, tel +44-181-543-6417, fax +44-181- 543-7029) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 10/23/95 TRENDS Rumarson's New PCs For Old Program (NEWS)(TRENDS)(TOR)(00018) Rumarson's New PCs For Old Program 10/23/95 KENILWORTH, , NEW JERSEY, U.S.A., 1995 OCT 23 (NB) -- Adding consulting services to its existing equipment trade-in program, Rumarson Technologies Inc., is out to capitalize on PC users' struggles to keep up with the pace of technology change, through a program called PC Reality Asset Management. The backbone of the PC Reality program is taking old computers as trade-ins on new machines. Paul Baum, president of the company, told Newsbytes his firm has been doing this for about four years, and has now added some consulting services -- such as advising its clients on which PCs to buy now so as to ensure ease of upgrading later -- to create what Rumarson claimed is the first full-service program that covers auditing, tracking, investment recovery, trade-in, reallocation, and disposal. According to Rumarson Technologies, the program can reduce a company's PC acquisition costs, simplify asset tracking, and also result in tax savings thanks to a Federal Tax Code provision that says businesses are not taxed when they continue an investment in "like" property through an exchange. Rumarson takes the older PCs a client no longer wants, and refurbishes them to be sold as "nused" computers, Baum said. The refurbishing may include replacement of older processors with more powerful ones and the exchange of other components, he explained, though he said that many of the PCs his company receives in trade-in are based on 486 processors and still in demand in some organizations. Rumarson also sometimes refurbishes a company's PCs for resale to the client's own employees. (Grant Buckler/19951020/Press Contact: Therese McCabe, EBS Public Relations for Rumarson Technologies, tel 708-714-8600 ext 229, fax 708-714-9001, Internet e-mail tmccabe@ebspr.com) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 10/23/95 LEGAL ****Corel Faces Lawsuit Over Software Bugs (NEWS)(LEGAL)(TOR)(00019) ****Corel Faces Lawsuit Over Software Bugs 10/23/95 OTTAWA, ONTARIO, CANADA, 1995 OCT 23 (NB) -- Corel Corp. (TSE:COS; NASDAQ:COSFF) is facing a lawsuit over problems that a Pennsylvania man claims to have had with the company's CorelDraw graphics software. A Philadelphia law firm is seeking to turn the case into a class-action lawsuit, while Corel maintains the action amounts to "ambulance-chasing." The suit, first filed in June and just amended to include Corel's recently released CorelDraw 6 package, names as its plaintiff Jeffrey Fishbein of Selinsgrove, Pennsylvania, and says that Fishbein will represent all users having problems with the software. It alleges that CorelDraw 4 and CorelDraw 5 were not properly tested before release, were released in defective condition, were unmerchantable and unable to pass as suitable in the trade, and failed to load or execute properly. Though the charges are sweeping, the fact that a user had problems with a software package will come as no surprise to anyone in the industry. Virtually all of today's complex software packages contain bugs which cause problems for users, and some Corel customers have complained publicly in the past. However, company spokeswoman Fiona Rochester told Newsbytes, some three million people use CorelDraw and it has won more than 200 awards. "Why are they continuing to buy Corel software if they're so disappointed with it?" Rochester asked. Rochester said the suit is "not all about servicing Corel customers. It's all about putting money in the pockets of lawyers." She claimed that some Corel customers have told the software firm about being approached by Levy, Angstreich, the Philadelphia law firm representing Fishbein, to join in the case. She also said the law firm is "mounting a pretty aggressive campaign online" to recruit further plaintiffs. Rochester said Corel "has been diligent" in its efforts to improve quality control. Earlier this year the company began paying some beta testers for their help in trying out pre-release versions of its software. Rochester said Corel also dropped a third-party customer support contractor used by many software firms after finding that customers were not satisfied with the support they were receiving. (Grant Buckler/19951020/Press Contact: Levy, Angstreich, 215-735-1616; Fiona Rochester, Corel, 613-728-8200) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 10/23/95 PC Key Tronic Shipping More Windows Keyboards (NEWS)(PC)(DEN)(00020) Key Tronic Shipping More Windows Keyboards 10/23/95 SPOKANE, WASHINGTON, U.S.A., 1995 OCT 23 (NB) -- Key Tronic Corp. (NASDAQ: KTCC) has introduced a full line of Microsoft Windows-compatible keyboards the company said will make it easier to use both current and future versions of Windows 95. #IMAGE 1 20 TWPCX \images\95102320.PCX Click here for photo What makes Key Tronic keyboards specific to Windows 95 are the three special function keys. One is marked with the Windows flag logo, and one with a list superimposed with a cursor arrow. The two keys access the Windows 95 Task Manager which allows the user to switch to any application or file. The third key is an application key used to create context sensitive shortcuts and other application-specific tasks. The Key Tronic Windows keyboard family includes the company's new ConnectKey keyboard that has a smaller than average footprint but still includes 104 keys, measuring 17.9-inches long, 6.75-inches deep, and weighing 1.9 pounds. The ConnectKey unit has a large L-shaped return key, twelve function keys and separate cursor control and numeric keypad keys. The company is also shipping its EuroTech keyboard, the KB101, KB101 Plus, and KT2000 keyboards. The EuroTech unit has a more rounded design than the other keyboards. It requires an adapter if used with PCs that have PS/2 type keyboard ports. The KB101 has a rectangular ENTER key, 101 keys and LED (light emitting diode) indicators for the NumLock, CapsLock, and ScrollLock functions. It also has the special Windows keys. The KB101 Plus is similar to the KB101, but can swap the function of the CTL and CAPS Lock keys, an enlarged Backspace key, and a large L-shaped ENTER key. You can even have the keyboard personalized with your name on a nameplate in the upper right corner. Key Tronic provides a two-year warranty and free technical support for the ConnectKey keyboard, which is set to ship in November with a suggested retail price of $39. (Jim Mallory/19951018/Press contact: Anja Krammer, Key Tronic, 509-927-5309; Public contact: Key Tronic, 800-262-6006 or 509-928-8000/KEYTRONIC951023/PHOTO) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 10/23/95 BUSINESS France - Bull Looking For Extra Business Partner (NEWS)(BUSINESS)(LON)(00021) France - Bull Looking For Extra Business Partner 10/23/95 PARIS, FRANCE, 1995 OCT 23 (NB) -- Compagnie des Machines Bull has announced it is looking for another European partner to take a 17 percent stake in the company as part of the second stage of its privatization. As reported previously by Newsbytes, France Telecom, Motorola, and NEC have all agreed to take 17 percent shares in the company's equity. Dai Nippon Printing, IBM, and IPC have also taken smaller shares in the company. The news comes as Bull has announced its half-year results, which show that losses have been trimmed to FF125 million from FF1.55 billion for the first six months of 1994. The first-half 1994 figures, Newsbytes notes, included a restructuring change of FF710 million. In a prepared statement, Bull said that the first-half 1995 figures were in line with the company's plans to break even from the beginning of 1996. "Historically, the operating result of the second-half has always been much more profitable than the first-half because of seasonal factors," said the statement, adding that "productivity efforts have to be continued without let-up in order to reach rapidly the financial equilibrium which is necessary for the future of the company." Announcing the results, Jean-Marie Descarpentries, the company's chairman, said that he aimed to reach a sales figure of FF100 billion by the year 2000, a figure that would produce a profit of around FF4 billion, so requiring annual growth of around 30 percent a year. Descarpentries told journalists that he expects to generate this level of growth -- 15 percent internally, and 15 percent externally. (Sylvia Dennis/19951019/Press Contact: Text 100, +44-181-242-4148; Reader Contact: Bull Information Systems, tel +44-181-568-9191, fax +44-181-479-2599) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 10/23/95 GENERAL Japan Newsbriefs (NEWS)(GENERAL)(TYO)(00022) Japan Newsbriefs 10/23/95 TOKYO, JAPAN, 1995 OCT 23 (NB) -- In this roundup of news from Japan: Credit card data network fails, PC shipments to soar in 1995, PHS Internet Access Forum established, Japanese to produce GSM for Europe, Matsushita plans new semiconductor plants, Fujitsu and AMD establish new memory plant. Credit Card Data Network Fails NTT's nationwide credit card verification network was taken out of service seven times on Friday afternoon after problems at the central computer center. The main servers running the system, which connects 210,000 stores and banks, experienced software problems which forced the interruptions. A further two hour maintenance shut down was carried out early on Saturday morning. Stores were forced to call the credit card issuers for verification after in-store terminals failed. Bank card cashing services were, however, unavailable. PC Shipments To Soar In 1995 International Data Corp. (IDC) predicts domestic personal computer shipments in Japan will reach 5.55 million units in calendar year 1995. The forecast, if true, would mean an increase of 63.6% on 1994. Sales of computers for home use are rising particularly strongly and IDC says they will jump 80 percent on the year to 1.72 million units. As IDC released details of its forecasts, Dataquest Japan K.K., the Japanese unit of America's Dataquest Inc., predicted domestic sales would rise 58.4% to 5.3 million units. The company went on the anticipate sales of 7.26 million units in 1996. The average price of a PC in Japan is currently 238,000 yen ($2,380), according to Dataquest. PHS Internet Access Forum Established A consortium of 50 companies and the Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications has set up the PHS Internet Access Forum, a group that will study use of the personal handyphone system for Internet access, according to the Nihon Keizai Shimbun. The newspaper said KDD, Intel Japan, Matsushita, NEC, Sharp, and TEPCO (Tokyo Electric Power Company), were among the 50. Japanese To Produce GSM For Europe Three Japanese companies have recently announced their intention to produce GSM (global system for mobile communications) mobile telephone handsets for the European markets. The French subsidiary of Mitsubishi is to begin production in November after the Japanese parent invested 50 million francs in a new production line with expectations of sales of 500,000 units in the first year and double in the next. NEC Corp. will make the telephones in the UK and join Matsushita as producers of the telephones. Kenwood will begin production of GSM telephones, in Yamagata, Japan. Matsushita Plans New Semiconductor Plants Osaka-based Matsushita Electric will add capacity to a memory plant in the US to meet rising demand for the semiconductors. The US plant in Puyallup, Washington State, will receive 60 billion yen ($600 million) of additional investment. From late 1997, the site will begin production of 12,000 eight-inch silicon wafers per month. In Indonesia, a brand new microprocessor plant will be built in early 1997 for an investment of six billion yen ($60 million). Fujitsu And AMD Establish New Memory Plant Fujitsu and Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) are to build a second flash memory plant in Japan. The plant, to be located in Fukushima, will produce memory chips using 0.35 micron technology, an improvement on the current 0.5 micron technology and one that allows more components, and thus more memory, to be squeezed onto a chip. A Japanese newspaper, the Nippon Kogyo Shimbun, put total investment at 115 billion yen. (Martyn Williams/19951023) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 10/23/95 BUSINESS ****Siemens Takes 75% Stake In UK's Mercury Communications (NEWS)(BUSINESS)(LON)(00023) ****Siemens Takes 75% Stake In UK's Mercury Communications 10/23/95 LONDON, ENGLAND, 1995 OCT 23 (NB) -- Germany's Siemens has taken a 75 percent stake in Mercury Communications, the subsidiary operation of Cable & Wireless in the UK. The deal will cost Siemens UKP80 million and, according to Juergen Gehrels, Siemens' chief executive officer (CEO), will lead to other involvements in telecoms services. "We can't say whether this will lead to other things, but history has shown it will," Gehrels told journalists as the news was announced to the press and City analysts. According to Cable & Wireless, the deal will change nothing in the day- to-day operations of Mercury Communications, as far as customers are concerned. Siemens, meanwhile, said that it is considering linking the Mercury's voice and data comms operations with its telecommunications services back home in Germany. Although Siemens is not talking any specifics about the deal, it seems certain that the German information technology (IT) giant will actively promote Cable & Wireless' Fax Plus service. The Fax Plus service, which was announced in February of this year, routes calls from German businesses to the US via Mercury Communications in the UK, and can offer fax and voice calls up to 40 percent cheaper than if routed by Deutsche Telecom, and even up to 25 percent on calls routed to other European countries. Some internal calls made during peak times in German are even cheaper when routed via London, Newsbytes notes. According to Hans-Rudi Koch, Cable & Wireless' general manager for Germany, announcing the service earlier this year, the Fax Plus service is being marketed at fax machine users, under the Fax Plus name. Callers are also free to route ordinary voice calls over the London calling route. Despite the increasingly liberalized European telecoms market, which has changed dramatically under the guidance of the European Commission (EC) this past few years, the German market remains one of the most closed. Despite an EC dictate that markets must be opened up by January 1, 1998, the German government has decreed that "equal access" to long distance companies, regardless of the local loop service provider (the company the basic line is rented from), as is seen in the US and UK, will not apply in Germany until 1998. (Sylvia Dennis/19951023/Press & Reader Contact: Cable & Wireless Germany, +49-228-221-430; Siemens, tel +49-9131-724-426, fax +49-9131-724-422) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 10/23/95 APPLE Apple Announces Newton 2.0 Operating System (NEWS)(APPLE)(SFO)(00024) Apple Announces Newton 2.0 Operating System 10/23/95 CUPERTINO, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1995 OCT 23 (NB) -- After plans to announce a new operating system (OS) for its hand-held Newton personal digital assistant (PDA) were unexpectedly published, Apple Computer Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) held a quick press conference to announce Newton 2.0. Highlights include improved organizational and communications capabilities, and integration with Windows and Mac-based desktop computers. Apple says 2.0 is the result of two years of "extensive research and testing." Beginning December, Newton 2.0 will be available worldwide for Apple's Message Pad 120. Besides the customer features, Apple says the new architecture provides developers with more flexible and extensive support. This additional support should open the hand- held platform to new applications by third party developers using either Mac or Windows-based computers. Apple remains committed to the Newton in spite of a warm market response when the PDA first appeared. Early complaints centered on its hand-writing technology and a hefty retail price. "PDA technology is increasing and its acceptance in the marketplace is growing. We have already improved the early hand-writing technology and with this new operating system we are creating a platform which will easily allow developers to create new and exciting applications. These new applications will build an even greater audience for the Newton," said an Apple spokesperson. Customers using Newton MessagePad 120 will be able to upgrade their systems in December. Specific plans will be announced at Comdex/Las Vegas, but Apple says the upgrade will cost $109. The upgrade requires a random access memory (ROM) change performed by Apple, and the price of the upgrade includes round-trip overnight shipping. The entire process is expected to take two or three days. Currently, the MessagePad 120 has an Apple price of $699. The unit can be found at various retail outlets for approximately $550 with applications. Apple confirmed the news was unexpected made public in a story published by Macworld. (Patrick McKenna/19951023/Press Contact: Jeni Johnstone, Apple, 408-974-2589) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 10/23/95 ONLINE ****CERT Releases "Syslog" Attack Alert (NEWS)(ONLINE)(TYO)(00025) ****CERT Releases "Syslog" Attack Alert 10/23/95 PITTSBURG, PENNSYLVANIA, U.S.A., 1995 OCT 23 (NB) -- The Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT) has issued an alert concerning attacks to the "syslog" sub-routine, a program that writes messages to the system log. The alert notes the number of such attacks are growing and the weakness is being used by remote users to hack into systems. In a typical attack, the hacker users the program to force the system log, a key component in monitoring a computer's operations, to overflow. Once done, the hacker can then take control of what all programs were writing to the log. The CERT Advisory warns of the attacks and includes details of how to modify "sendmail," a Unix electronic-mail program, to make the system immune to such attacks. Apparently hackers are exploiting a vulnerability in sendmail to perform this attack, although the Carnegie Mellon University-based CERT warns other software that uses the syslog sub-routine will still be vulnerable. Such programs include telnetd, ftpd, httpd, and others, says CERT. Once the attacker is in control of the sendmail program, they can take control of the entire system. What makes the attack more serious is the ability of users on other computers to connect, typically over the Internet, and perform the attack. Some hacks are confined to users logged onto the system locally, while others can be carried out remotely. The latter is more dangerous as the system is open to any hackers connected to the Internet, not just those in the building. Such an attack was warned about in the October 1 edition of "Internet Guardian," a publication by Secure Computing, the world's largest computer security company, for its Security Alert Service clients. The company's Dan Thomsen, who wrote the article, noted that, although CERT typically does not release numbers and details of specific attacks, the new advisory indicates that there have been enough successful attacks to cause concern. He added, "It has long been known that the sendmail program has a number of vulnerabilities, so it is not surprising that someone has found yet another way to break into systems using sendmail." Just three versions of the Unix operating system are safe from the attack. They are Sony's NEWS-OS 6.X, SunOS 5.5 (Solaris 2.5), and Linux with libc version 4.7.2, released in May, 1995. CERT recommends all system administrators immediately install patches, which are available, or will be soon, from all vendors. The computer security organization also recommends the installation of sendmail 8.7.1 and the installation of the sendmail restricted shell program (smrsh). Secure Computing's Thomsen warns that users of popular operating systems are most at immediate risk because to carry out the attack, hackers must first understand how the sendmail program operates on a particular computer system. If the hacker has access to an identical system, he can run the experiments he needs to take over someone else's computer. The more popular a system is, Thomsen explained, the more likely the hacker is to have access to an identical system. Full details of the CERT Advisory, number 95-13, are available via ftp from ftp://info.cert.org/pub/cert_advisories/CA-95:13 . Additional updates will be placed in a file named ftp://info.cert.org/pub/cert_advisories/CA-95:13.README . If you believe that your system has been compromised, contact the CERT Coordination Center or your representative in the Forum of Incident Response and Security Teams (FIRST). The organization accepts e-mail to address cert@cert.org, and operates a 24-hour telephone hotline at 412-268-7090, or by fax at 412-268-6989. (Martyn Williams/19951023/Press contact: CERT, Internet e-mail cert@cert.org; Jo Murray, Jo Murray Public Relations for Secure Computing, 510-238-8430) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 10/23/95 BUSINESS Japan - Financial Roundup (NEWS)(BUSINESS)(TYO)(00026) Japan - Financial Roundup 10/23/95 TOKYO, JAPAN, 1995 OCT 23 (NB) -- The end of October signaled the half way point in the fiscal year for most of Japan's companies. Over the next few weeks, hundreds of companies will issue financial statements, results and forecasts for the current financial year that ends in March. Better-than-expected results already reported are causing investors to buy electronics stocks on the expectation of higher than anticipated results for the majority of companies reporting this week. In quiet Monday trading of 297 million shares, the Nikkei 225 Index closed down 1.09 points at 18,156.24. Shares in electronics shares are already rising ahead of expectations of good results due to be announced this week. Last week heavy volume in the sector made OKI Electric the most heavily traded stock on the market. A total of 28.39 million shares changed hands with the issue ending the week at 968 yen, a rise of 48 yen, or 5.22% on the week. Mitsubishi Heavy Industries came in second with Toshiba Corporation ranking third. Toshiba stocks rose 43 yen, or 6.06%, to 753 yen on volume of 20.39 million shares. Fujitsu stocks rose 20 yen, to 1,240 yen. Volume of 19.29 million shares made it the fourth most traded issue. This morning the Nihon Keizai Shimbun reported ASCII Corporation (TOKYO:9473) had received an order from Dome mail-order for 700,000 Japanese language manuals for Windows 95. Despite a denial by the company, saying it had only received a 5,000 manual order from Dome, shares in the company jumped 250 yen on the day to end at 5,600 yen on volume of 199,000 shares. Memorex Telex Japan released revised figures for the current fiscal year Monday. For the first six months of the year, the company is forecasting sales of 8.90 billion yen, a drop from the previous forecast of 11.10 billion yen and from last year's actual figure of 10.49 billion yen. Despite the drop in sales, net profit is forecast to be 87 million yen, a large jump from last year's 12 million yen. For the entire year, the communication and information systems company predicts parent company sales of 21.70 billion yen and net profits of 200 million yen. NTT Data Communications Systems Corp., a unit of Nippon Telegraph and Telephone, has revised its financial forecasts for the current fiscal year ending March 31 next year. The company predicts pretax profits of 25 billion yen ($250 million), a large increase on the previous figure of 16 billion ($160 million). Net profit is expected to reach 14 billion yen ($140 million) on sales of 537 billion yen ($5.37 billion). On those figures, net profits are expected to almost double in the current financial year on a sales increase of just over 14%. Fujitsu Ltd. (TOKYO:6702) has revised its profits forecast upward, based on results from the first six months of the fiscal year. The company says net income is projected to increase by 30 billion yen ($300 million) to a record-high 90 billion yen ($900 million). Sales forecasts for the Fujitsu Group worldwide was also revised upward to 3,750 billion yen ($37.5 billion), representing a 140 billion yen ($1.4 billion) increase from the company's earlier projections made in May of this year and an increase of almost 500 billion yen ($5 billion) on last year's results. NTT's biggest competitor, DDI Corporation (TOKYO:9433), says net profits will hit 20.00 billion yen in the current fiscal year, an increase on the previous prediction of 16.50 billion yen and its last year profits of 16.06 billion yen. A big increase in the number of people using cellular telephones and the new PHS telephones are expected to boost sales to 448.00 billion yen from 377.87 billion yen last year. The new sales forecast represents an increase of 68 billion yen from the previous forecast. Major national electronics retail chain Best Denki (TOKYO:8175) has revised upwards its sales predictions for its financial year which ends February 29th. The company says sales will reach 235.00 billion yen against last year's actual sales of 216.92 billion yen. Net profits are forecast at 4.60 billion yen from 4.34 billion yen last year. Shares in Sanyo Denki (TOKYO:6516) slid in Tokyo after the company said parent company profits would be 430 million yen, a drop of 320 million yen from the original forecast of 750 million yen. Full year current profits were revised to a new forecast of 1.60 billion yen from 1.75 billion yen. Shares in the company were "buy only" this morning after sellers vastly outnumbered buyers on the second section of the Tokyo bourse. Share had risen strongly, from 943 yen on October 9th to Thursday's closing at 1,300 yen on hopes for the company's microprocessors and cooling fans in the expanding computer market. Koa Corporation, an electronic goods manufacturer, reported pretax profits for the first six months of the year of 2.55 billion yen, an increase of over 50% on the same period last year. Strong demand was attributed as the cause for the increase. This week, Matsushita, Fujtisu, NEC, Hitachi, Mitsubishi, and Toshiba are all scheduled to announce results. (Martyn Williams/19951023) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 10/23/95 BUSINESS Indonesia's PT Telekom Begins Public Offering (NEWS)(BUSINESS)(TYO)(00027) Indonesia's PT Telekom Begins Public Offering 10/23/95 JAKARTA, INDONESIA, 1995 OCT 23 (NB) -- One of the largest international floatations of the year begins this week as PT Telekomunikasi Indonesia (PT Telekom) heads for the Jakarta, London, and New York markets. The company's initial public offering (IPO) begins October 23rd in London and New York, and will continue until November 10th. In Indonesia, it will commence on October 27th and run until November 2nd. The IPO will place shares worth between $1.4 billion and $1.7 billion on the international markets and up to $1.0 billion on the domestic bourse. Altogether, the shares make up 27.5% of the company with 15% of Telekom ending up in foreign hands when shares begin trading on November 14th. A stumbling block to the successful IPO was the delay in signing of five cooperative operation scheme (KSO) agreements awarded in June. The deals were signed with five consortia in which international companies such as Telstra Corporation of Australia, France Telecom, Nippon Telegraph and Telephone of Japan, Malaysia Telecom, Singapore Telecom, and US West International all hold interests. Total value of the contracts, which are for the installation of two million additional telephone lines in Indonesia and their operation over the next 15 years, are estimated to be worth around $3 billion and will begin in January, 1996. The consortia include: Pramindo Ikat, which will build 460,000 lines in Sumatra; Tiga-A, which will construct 500,000 lines in West Java; and Mitra Gions, which will add lines in greater Jakarta area and East Java. Demand for the shares is expected to be higher following the vital deals which will expand the telephone network throughout Indonesia and bring in more money for the operator. PT Telekom predicts it will make 828 billion rupiah (363.6 million dollars) in the current financial year, up from 794.55 billion rupiah in 1994. On the New York market, the stocks hold an indicative price of between $19.50 and $24.50 with the final price to be fixed on November 14th. The price values PT Telekom at around $9 billion according to analysts. Late last week, however, the company president appeared to contradict the previously announced information. On Thursday the Antara news agency and other local press quoted Setyanto Santosa, president of PT Telekom, as saying a total of 35% of the company would be listed, 10% domestically and 25% overseas, in contrast to the 27.5% figure submitted to the SEC (Securities and Exchange Commission) in the US. A company spokesman later told Agence France Presse the lower figure was correct. He continued that the president was responding to questions before being fully briefed on the subject and that it was just a simple mistake. The international listing of PT Telekom follows those of PT Indosat, a satellite operator and PT Tambang Timah, a mining company that listed in Jakarta and London on Thursday October 19th. The latter listing was unimpressive and suffered because of the impending PT Telekom debut and a lack of money in the local market, said analysts. On the London market, Timah shares registered a 1 cent rise on the day from $1.28 to $1.29. (Martyn Williams/19951023) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 10/23/95 ONLINE Russia Online Announces Service Details (NEWS)(ONLINE)(TYO)(00028) Russia Online Announces Service Details 10/23/95 MOSCOW, RUSSIA, 1995 OCT 23 (NB) -- Russia will get its own online service later this year when Russia Online begins operations. The new service has been set up by Sovam Teleport, the most famous name in computer and Internet communications in Russia and will operate from offices in Moscow. Russia Online offer services on par with Internet providers in many other countries such as electronic-mail, newsgroups, ftp file archives, World Wide Web access, and more. The company also boasts the first commercial Web server in Eastern Europe and, through agreement with Netscape Communications and RSA, the company is using the Netsite Commerce Server to offer companies the ability to security accept orders from Internet users. The service will target two user groups: Internet users around the world, and users throughout Russia. The company's basic services will be provided to users already hooked up to the Internet and include unlimited access to several services including an electronic edition of the Izvestia newspaper, weather reports, a Russian TV guide, regional news, and the company's own Internet catalog. Advanced Services are value-added services that are paid for separately, and charges are based on time used. The data available will include major databases, financial news, and media digests. Subscribers to Russia Online inside the country will receive an e-mail package, Web browser, and a TCP/IP (Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol) stack and dialer program to connect to the Internet via Sovam's nationwide network. The company is supporting the Macintosh, Windows 3.1, and Windows 95 platforms. More specific details of the package, including prices, will be announced this fall, said the company. Sovam Teleport has been operating since the early 1980s and was founded by: Russia's Institute for Automated Systems, creator of FSU, the first packet switched network in the country; UK telecoms giant Cable and Wireless PLC; and America's GTS, a company that was formerly the San Francisco/Moscow Teleport. The company also has a computer network and dial-up access points in major Russian cities and is the first Russian member of CIX, the Commercial Internet Exchange. Through the SOVAM network, users can access Compuserve, Dow Jones News Service, MCI Mail, and several other international networks. For more details on Russia Online, users already connected to the Internet can access http://www.online.ru/ . Sovam Teleport's home page is at http://www.sovam.com/ . (Martyn Williams/19951023) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 10/23/95 BROADCAST Panamsat Wins Japanese Satellite License (NEWS)(BROADCAST)(TYO)(00029) Panamsat Wins Japanese Satellite License 10/23/95 TOKYO, JAPAN, 1995 OCT 23 (NB) -- Panamsat has been awarded an international class one carrier license by the Japanese Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications, allowing the US company to directly sell its services to customers in Japan. It is only the second such license issued to a foreign company and signals the further opening of Japan's telecommunications market. The Greenwich, Connecticut-based satellite operator says it will receive the license in early November, just in time to begin operations with broadcasts from the APEC (Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum) summit being held in Osaka in late November. Until now, it has been forced to sell its services via associate telecommunications companies in the country, although the license means it can now deal direct. Analysts are predicting Panamsat will offer lower prices than Japanese operators, bringing more competition. The awarding of the license comes as part of a government effort to open up sectors of the telecommunications market to more competition. In September, Singapore's Pacific Century Corporation Access gained a license to provide data links from Japan to the rest of Asia. Panamsat already has several customers in Japan. Most notably it distributes programming worldwide for NHK, Japan's state TV network. The company attributes the opening of the sector, and its new license, to pressure from its customers as Frederick A. Landman, Panamsat's president and chief executive officer, explained, "We're witnessing a profound liberalization of the Japanese telecommunications market. This revolution is fueled in part by Panamsat's Japanese broadcast customers, who have expressed strong desire for direct access to our international video services without an intermediary. "This major breakthrough will fuel Panamsat's ever-increasing business in Asia, and will enable us to better serve our present and future customers worldwide," he continued. David P. Berman, Panamsat's vice president of program distribution, agreed and added, "Our efforts over the two-year process have been rewarded, thanks to the work of our Japanese customers and the Japanese government. It's appropriate that one of our first applications will be coverage in November of the APEC conference in Osaka, where Asia-Pacific leaders will discuss plans for increasing trade and commerce." The company operates the largest international satellite network in the world, with three craft already in orbit and four more planned. From Japan, two of the organization's satellites will be available. The new PAS-4 satellite above the Indian Ocean will link Japan with other areas of Asia, Australia, and areas as far east as Europe. Above the Pacific Ocean, PAS-2 will provide links to Asia and the Americas. The other satellite in orbit, PAS-1, sits above the Atlantic Ocean and will be supplemented by PAS-3, PAS-5 and PAS-6, all of which will be launched by early 1997. A seventh satellite, PAS-7, will be placed in orbit above the Indian Ocean in 1997. (Martyn Williams/19951023/Press contact: Kevin Burgoyne, Panamsat, 203-622-6664) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 10/23/95 ONLINE ****Nynex Puts US Business Phone Listings On Web (NEWS)(ONLINE)(BOS)(00030) ****Nynex Puts US Business Phone Listings On Web 10/23/95 MIDDLETON, MASSACHUSETTS, U.S.A., 1995 OCT 23 (NB) -- The World Wide Web-based Nynex Interactive Yellow Pages, listing 2.1 million businesses in New England/New York since its initial launch in May, has now "gone national," bringing user access to listings on 16.5 million businesses throughout the US. It has also added a stronger search engine -- the McKinley Internet Directory -- and new World Wide Web-based advertisements, said Kathy Ives, director of interactive services, in a conference call with Newsbytes. Meanwhile, Nynex is also "transitioning" the Nynex Yellow Pages on Prodigy to the Web, noted Ives. The service on Prodigy, which represented the first GUI (graphical user interface)-based online edition of the Nynex directory, had also been limited to New England and New York State listings. Now though, users accessing the Web through Prodigy as well as from other commercial online services, such as America Online (AOL) and Microsoft Network (MNS), will be able to click to the nationwide phone directory service through new hotlinks, according to Ives. Ives told Newsbytes that the two previous online Yellow Pages services were both based on Nynex business listings for Massachusetts, Rhode Island, New Hampshire, Maine, Vermont, and New York State, together with listings for Connecticut from SNET (Southern New England Telephone). But with the new and expanded service on the Web, she continued, Nynex has supplemented its regional online listings on the Web with nationwide listings supplied through Database America. In addition, a more powerful search engine is allowing users to search two states simultaneously, as well as to conduct "Boolean-type" searches. "You might want to search for all car dealerships that are in Massachusetts, but not in Boston or Worcester," she illustrated. A new section of the online Yellow Pages known as "Your World" gives users direct links to Web sites in categories ranging from generic subjects like travel, films, children, and music to sections on holidays and other special events, such as Halloween and the upcoming 1996 Olympics. Nynex has also added the McKinley Internet Directory, for a summary and rating of linked Web sites, according to the Nynex exec. But the new nationwide service also retains some of the elements of the original regional service on the Web, including: the "Hot Sites" list of "new and exciting" Web sites; navigation of the Nynex site through "familiar A-Z shopping headings;" the ability of businesses to hotlink to the Nynex site; and a special text-based viewing option, according to the Nynex interactivity director. As previously reported in Newsbytes, Nynex's text-based option is designed to permit access to permit with sight impairments, as well as to users of "low-end" computers such as 286s that are unable to accommodate GUIs. Individuals with visual disabilities can use the text option with a screen reader, a system for converting ASCII text to audio, maintained Deborah Kaplan, VP of the World Institute on Disability, during an earlier interview with Newsbytes. Ives told Newsbytes this week that, although the nationwide Yellow pages are up and running already, the advertising component of the new Web-based service is still in beta. Nynex intends to test Web-based advertising among New York State-based businesses first, before rolling out services to advertisers in other states, she elaborated. The regional edition of the Interactive Yellow Pages on Prodigy has been accompanied by ads from the start. Nynex does not plan to add GUIs to two older, text-only editions of the Yellow Pages, operating on Delphi and Minitel, according to Ives. As with Nynex's previous, regional listings on the Web, the nationwide directory services are available to Web users throughout the world free of charge, together with all related services on the Web page, she asserted. You can access the Nynex Interactive Yellow Pages on the Web at http://www.niyp.com . (Jacqueline Emigh/19951020/Reader Contact: Nynex Interactive Yellow Pages, 800-356-9639; Press Contacts: Phil Santoro, Nynex, 508-762-1326; Heidi Creighton, Creamer Dixon Basford for Nynex, 617-467-1573) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 10/23/95 BUSINESS MCI Revenue Up, But Records Net Loss (NEWS)(BUSINESS)(MSP)(00031) MCI Revenue Up, But Records Net Loss 10/23/95 WASHINGTON, D.C., U.S.A., 1995 OCT 23 (NB) -- MCI Communications Corp. (NASDAQ:MCIC) said it is posting a $240 million dollar loss for the third quarter of 1995, due to previously-announced charges totaling $831 million, relating to consolidating business operations. Without the charge, MCI officials said the company would have posted a net income of $275 million. The overall loss is equal to 35 cents a share, which compares to a profit of $220 million, or 38 cents a share, for the same quarter last year. If it weren't for the charge, net income would have been equal to 40 cents a share. The $831 million in pre-tax charges included "decommissioning unproductive and non-strategic assets," separation costs for about 3,000 employees, and legal contingencies. The results were announced during a news teleconference this morning, which Newsbytes attended. Despite the overall loss, "MCI demonstrated exceptional revenue and volume growth in the third quarter," said Gerald H. Taylor, MCI president and chief operating officer. "MCI will continue to leverage its core strengths -- marketing and merchandising, intelligent network, high volume transactional billing, and customer service -- to capitalize on new market opportunities." The company said its revenue saw increases from all segments of its market, including 800 service, MCI Vnet, and MCI Vision. International business traffic was especially strong. Consumer demand was also strong for personal 800 services, calling card offerings, and its 1-800-COLLECT collect calling service. Package services like Friends and Family Connections and networkMCI solutions also continued to grow, the company said, especially when grouped with wireless paging services. In addition, MCI has more than 300,000 cellular customers in 10 major markets, after MCI completed acquisition of Nationwide Cellular Service and the introduction of networkMCI cellular. In the business market, MCI showed data revenues increasing by more than 30 percent, and virtual data services growing by more than 200 percent. On Wall Street, MCI's stock was down $0.125 at $24.875 at 11 AM EDT. (Bob Woods/19951023/Press Contacts: Ray Allieri, Vice President of MCI Investor Relations, 202-887-2068; Kevin Inda, Senior Manager of MCI Financial Public Relations, 202-887-2196) (ADVISORY)(GENERAL)(MSP)(00032) NewsPix Images For Newsbytes Publishers 10/23/95 MINNEAPOLIS, MINNESOTA, U.S.A.,1995 OCT 23 (NB) -- These photos correspond to recent Newsbytes stories. They are online in the Newsbytes menu on America Online, NiftyServe, and the Newsbytes private bulletin board system in Minneapolis. JPEG (Joint Photographic Experts Group) files are larger in size, PICT files are designed as thumbnails for onscreen viewing. The photos are titled with name/year/month/day. PICT/thumbnail pictures are black and white (gray scale). File message will indicate color if the JPEG image is color. Some of the "for use" images, may be PICT files. To distinguish these files from the thumbnail preview PICT images, the tag for the color "for use" image will have PICT, all caps. The thumbnail will remain noted as "pct." To become a licensed Newsbytes publisher, call Newsbytes at 612-430-1100 (US) or write to administrator@newsbytes.com on the Internet. Licensing applies to any medium. --------------------------- Week of OCTOBER 23 - OCTOBER 27,1995 --------------------------- - NEW THIS WEEK - RACOM951011 - color / Partnership Targets Billion Dollar Smart Card Market: shot of the smartcard and security box. OPTI-G951017 - color / Dell Intros New Optiplex Line, Server: picture of the Optiplex GX5100; corporate network ready pc. This is not one of the multimedia pcs mentioned in the article, but one of the others in the new line. ZNOTE951017 - color / Zenith Data System's New Pentium Desktops, Notebooks: the Z-Note GT. PLANET951016 - color / New Web Site Encourages Family Interneting: screenshot of homepage. --------------------------------------------------------------- - PARTIAL LISTING OF PREVIOUS ITEMS - CAERE951010 - b&w / Caere To Acquire ViewStar: photo of Dean Hovey, vice president of business development for Caere quoted in story. GPT-CHINA951010 - color / UK's GPT To Supply First Smart Card Phones To China: Asian businessman at phone. TELECOM*spx1,2,3 - b&w / three photos taken at Telcom: for general use. 1) opening entry, 2) main floor - horizontal format, 3) main floor - vertical format SUPERDECK951013 - b&w / Video News Roundup:New Products-Panasonic Model AF-DS550 SVHS VCR, dubbed the 'superdeck.' PCCARD951013 - color / Compaq To Support Third-Party PC Cards: shot of two of the cards, one with connection cable running off frame. T2-951004 - color / Thrustmaster Intros New Game Steering Console: shot of the unit on limbo white, steering wheel and pedals. ABC-3D951005 - color / ABC Graphics Goes 3-D: screen shot of text illustrating the "Instant 3D." KODIAK951002 - color / Storagetek Intros New Product, Settles Old Lawsuit: the Kodiak 9890 Scalable Storage Facility. LAT-LX951004 - color / Dell Ships New Latitude Portables: unit with nice color Dell logo on screen. THINKPAD951003 - color / IBM Aims New ThinkPads At Desktop Market: shot of the 760CD unit, with flowers on screen and cd tray open. FUJITSU950914 - color / Fujitsu Develops New Display Panel: the large lcd panel with model. VCON950922 - color / VCON Intros Desktop Videoconferencing For LANs: woman at desk with desktop videoconferencing. DITOEASY950925 - color / Iomega's $150 800MB Tape Backup Drive: the unit on a tabletop with pen for scale. SKYTEL950926 - color / Microsoft/Skytel Offer 2-way Paging Via Microsoft Network: the unit on limbo tabletop. ZENOGRAPHICS950928 - color / Zenographics' SuperPrint 4.0 Speeds Win 95 Printing: shot of the software package. MACROMEDIA950928 - color / Macromedia Upgrades FreeHand For Macs: shot of the box. TRIMBLE950925 - color / Trimble Wins Japanese Anti-Earthquake Network Order: nice shot of surveyor and Golden Gate Bridge in SF. AMDAHL950915 - b&w / Amdahl To Acquire Canada's DMR Group: head shot of Amdahl's president and chief executive officer (CEO), Joseph Zemke. MS_BOB950919 - color / What Ever Happened To Microsoft Bob?: the Bob logo, smiley face with glasses. MS_PROJ950919 - color / Microsoft Project For Windows 95 To Ship Next Week: shot of package graphics. GAZETTEER950920 - color / Global Post Code & Demographic Info On The Web: screenshot of home page. D3SEA950922 - color / Video Update: photo of Panasonic D3 camcorder used by Scuba Diver for underwater photography. Actual shot of camera in action, diver is Capt. Steve Hogan, president of Sea Eagle Productions, Maui, Hawaii. APTIVA950912 - color / IBM Updates Aptiva PC Line: the PC with logo onscreen. GATEHOUSE950913 - color / Tour Bill Gates' Showplace Home Via The Internet: shot of house under construction. MEDIAKIDS950908 - color / Apple Japan Holds MediaKids Summer Camp: screen shot of kids homepage, with lots of kanji. ENIAC950912 - b&w / ENIAC 50th Anniversary Set For 1996: great archive photo of the original ENIAC room. PRESARIO950915 - color / Compaq Intros New Home PCs, Fall Ad Campaign: the Presario 9500, tower not seen, just keyboard & monitor on tabletop. CYRIX_M1950906 - color / M1 Fastest Chip For Windows 95, Says Cyrix: the M1 chip with Cyrix logo on it. VINEYARDS950906 - color / Virtual Vineyards' CyberCash Credit Card Security: shot of Peter Granoff and Robert Olson, principal founders with a table of wine before them. Photo credit: Anne Hamersky. & Hotel Walkabouts On The Web: the food page with salsa ad, looks good! (Newsbytes/19951023) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 10/23/95 GENERAL Canadian Product Launch Update (NEWS)(GENERAL)(TOR)(00033) Canadian Product Launch Update 10/23/95 KINGSTON, ONTARIO, CANADA 1995 OCT 23 (NB) -- This regular feature, appearing on the first day Newsbytes publishes each week, provides further details for the Canadian market on announcements by international companies that Newsbytes has already covered. This week: Compaq's new ProLiant servers and support plans and Hewlett-Packard's OmniGo 100 hand-held organizer. Compaq Canada Inc., of Richmond Hill, Ontario, has announced three new ProLiant servers using 133 megahertz (MHz) Intel Pentium processors (Newsbytes, Oct. 17). Compaq is also offering upgrade boards for existing ProSignia servers, and said it will be providing upgrades to Intel's new P6 processors for its ProLiant systems. In Canada, a typical configuration of the new ProLiant 4500 5/133 server with 64 megabytes (MB) of memory will have a suggested list price of C$22,029. A typical 64-MB configuration of the ProLiant 4500/NT Array Model will list at C$26,149. A typically configured ProLiant 1500 5/133, with 32MB of memory, will list at C$13.069. Compaq Canada also joined its Houston-based parent in announcing a new worldwide service and support strategy (Newsbytes, Oct. 17), incorporating an alliance with third-party service provider Digital Multivendor Customer Services and new Compaq-branded service and support options. Compaq Canada said it will be improving its service to Canadian resellers. Hewlett-Packard (Canada) Ltd., based in Mississauga, Ontario, unveiled the OmniGo 100 (Newsbytes, Oct. 17), a hand-held organizer with both pen and keyboard input. The OmniGo also has a rotatable screen that allows horizontal or vertical display, and comes with built-in software for tracking appointments and expenses, taking notes, recording addresses and phone numbers, and calculating. It uses the GEOS operating system from Geoworks. The OmniGo 100 is to be available in Canada in November, through a variety of retail outlets including computer stores and consumer electronics superstores, at a suggested list price of C$616, Hewlett-Packard Canada said. (Grant Buckler/19951023/Press Contact: John Challinor II, Compaq Canada, 416-229-8936; Linda Blakely, Hewlett-Packard Canada, 905-206-3742; Public Contact: Hewlett-Packard Canada, 800-367-3867) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 10/23/95 BUSINESS BDM Int'l Hangs On In DMR Group Takeover Battle (NEWS)(BUSINESS)(TOR)(00034) BDM Int'l Hangs On In DMR Group Takeover Battle 10/23/95 MCLEAN, VIRGINIA, U.S.A., 1995 OCT 23 (NB) -- BDM International, Inc. (NASDAQ:BDMI) has extended its offer for Class B shares of DMR Group Inc. (TSE:DR) by 10 days, refusing to back down after rival Amdahl Corp. (AMEX:AMH) last week took up the 36 percent of DMR shares tendered to it by the Montreal consulting firm's major shareholders. BDM officials made the best of Amdahl's move, saying the fact that the Sunnyvale, California, computer manufacturer now controls 36 percent of DMR's shares makes it impossible for the third suitor, IBM Canada Ltd. of Markham, Ontario, to meet its publicly stated goal of obtaining 90 percent of DMR's shares. BDM, on the other hand, has said it will be happy with 50.1 percent of DMR's shares. In a press conference Friday, Michael Poehner, vice-president and general manager of Amdahl's Business Solutions Group, said his company's 36 percent control would stop any other buyer from merging DMR into its own operations or taking the company private, since either of those options would require a two-thirds majority vote of shareholders. Tom Faulders, chief financial officer of BDM, told Newsbytes this is not a problem for his company because BDM does not plan to merge DMR into its own operations anyway. However, he acknowledged that a scenario where BDM owns slightly more than 50 percent of DMR's stock and Amdahl 36 percent would be "inherently unstable" and the two companies would have to work out some arrangement in the longer term. He observed that this would be easier for BDM and Amdahl than for IBM and Amdahl, which are traditional rivals in the mainframe computer market. At present, Amdahl controls 80 percent of the voting rights of DMR shares. However, a ruling by a Quebec court has said DMR's Class A shareholders can convert their shares to Class B, which could dilute Amdahl's voting control. This ruling opened the way for BDM's bid and for IBM Canada's, which followed. Faulders said the appeal court has indicated it will be December or January before the appeal can be heard. This leaves all the bidders in an awkward position, he said. One option may be for Amdahl, BDM, and IBM to extend their offers until the appeal is heard, Faulders said. All three suitors have said they plan to run DMR as a separate subsidiary. Both Amdahl and BDM said they planned to fold some of their own existing operations -- in Amdahl's case, the Business Solutions Group that Poehner now heads -- into DMR after a takeover. BDM is offering C$9 per share, higher than Amdahl's C$8.25 offer but lower than IBM Canada's C$11. Poehner said Friday that Amdahl sees no need to raise its offer, and that the company is banking on its appeal of the court ruling to block the conversion of Class A shares and clinch its control of DMR. Faulders also said his company sees no need to raise its offer at present. Last week, DMR's board of directors recommended to its shareholders that they not tender their shares to either Amdahl's or BDM's offer, and reserved its judgment on the IBM bid. Like Amdahl, BDM played down the importance of this move. Faulders said DMR's board was simply "doing its fiduciary duty" and did not want to recommend his company's offer or Amdahl's because IBM's higher offer is on the table. (Grant Buckler/19951023/Press Contact: Michel Gelinas, DMR, 514-877-3301; John Radewagen, The Benjamin Group for Amdahl, 408-559-6090; Mike Quinn, IBM Canada, 905-316-2255; Todd Stottlemyer, BDM, 703-848-5115, Internet e-mail tstottle@bdm.com) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 10/23/95 BUSINESS ****AMD & NexGen Merger To Compete Against Intel (NEWS)(BUSINESS)(SFO)(00035) ****AMD & NexGen Merger To Compete Against Intel 10/23/95 SUNNYVALE, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1995 OCT 23 (NB) -- Long-time nemesis to Intel, Advanced Micro Devices (NYSE:AMD) has laid the groundwork to continue its pursuit of the giant chipmaker through a merger with NexGen (NSADAQ:NXGN). AMD fought a hard battle over 386 and 486 microprocessors, but has fallen behind as Intel's Pentium series became the dominant processor for the DOS and Windows operating systems. The merger is an all-stock agreement which offers NexGen shareholders 0.8 of an AMD share for each share of NexGen stock. With approximately 41 million outstanding shares of NexGen stock, the deal is valued at $840 million. Directors of both boards have given their approval and with shareholder approval and positive regulatory review, the merger is expected to close in the first calendar quarter of 1996. Under the agreement, NexGen becomes a wholly-owned subsidiary of AMD. S. Atiq Raza, president and chief executive officer (CEO) at NexGen will continue as head of NexGen through the "transition phase." He will take a seat on the AMD board of directors as an AMD corporate vice president and he becomes the chief technical officer at AMD, reporting directly to W.J. Sanders III, AMD's chairman and CEO. No major location changes are expected as a result of the merger. NexGen's Milpitas, California location will continue as headquarters for the new subsidiary after the approval process. AMD says personnel layoffs are not projected. AMD spokesperson, Chuck Mulloy, told Newsbytes, "This is a strategic merger. This means it has long-term implications to the computer industry. We do not expect to see any major technology announcements until the second half of 1996, and by 1997, the marketplace will see major product availability as a result of this merger." Asked whether the NexGen name will continue to be used by the new subsidiary, he said, "It is too early to tell at this time. That is something we will know more about at a later date as the transition takes place." The relatively young NexGen became known for its 586 microprocessor technology which was marketed as an alternative to Intel's Pentium processor. In the X86 processor market, AMD and NexGen competed against each other. Now, the merger agreement of the two companies calls for fifth, sixth, and future processor technology to be incorporated into AMD's AMD-K86 Superscalar series of processors. Both companies "remain committed" to the 586 processor and will continue to promote and sell the line with new products in early 1996, but it appears the long-term view centers on 686 processor technology which is designed to compete with Intel's Pentium Pro. Announced earlier this year, the Pentium Pro processor is the next-generation of the popular Pentium line. AMD's 686 research, currently performed in Austin, Texas, will be integrated into NexGen's California offices. The 686 product will be called the AMD-K6. "In its announcement of the 686 processor, NexGen said it will outperform the Pentium Pro. With our combined strengths, we will have the technology and the manufacturing capabilities to seriously compete with Intel as future processors come to the marketplace," said Mulloy. He also said both companies' X86 processors are built with micro-architecture based on reduced instruction set computing (RISC) technology which rapidly decodes X86 instructions. This means consumers have the power of RISC processing while using standard DOS and Windows applications. The sixth generation design will feature more advanced decode/execution, larger caches, and seven execution units, including one dedicated to high-performance multimedia software applications. Mulloy also said the AMD-K6 processor will focus on desktop environments. "We understand the early versions of the Intel's Pentium Pro will focus on the server environment. That is not to say they are not going to bring the Pro to the desktop, but it is our intention to focus on the desktop from the very beginning." Specific marketing plans for the AMD-K6 line have not been formed, but with AMD's manufacturing and marketing strength, NexGen steps into a much larger marketplace with its technology. Sometime in 1996, consumers might see head-to-head advertising as AMD and Intel get closer to shipping the K6 and Pro products, respectively. (Patrick McKenna/19951023/Press Contact: Chuck Mulloy, AMD, 408-749-5481) (SUMMARY)(GENERAL)(MSP)(00036) Newsbytes Daily Summary 10/23/95 MINNEAPOLIS, MINNESOTA, U.S.A., 1995 OCT 23 (NB) -- These are capsules of all today's news stories: ======================================================================== ------------| N E W S B Y T E S D A I L Y S U M M A R Y |---------- ------------| Monday, October 23, 1995 |---------- ======================================================================== (c) Newsbytes News Network (Tm) Editor in Chief: Wendy Woods ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Newsbytes News Network is on the Web! Check out http://www.nbnn.com for free daily top stories from Newsbytes and its affiliate publications, and from PC Week, MacWeek, and other Ziff news magazines. A subscription gives you all the news, full-text, plus the most comprehensive database of past computer stories online. The keyword-searchable database dates from today back through 1983. Subscriptions are $24.95 for three months. Questions? Send to 'wendy@newsbytes.com' For Japanese Newsbytes and additional services, see the Newsbytes Pacifica Website at http://www.islandtel.com/newsbytes/ ------------------------------------------------------------------------ CATEGORY HEADLINES (*** indicates today's top stories) STORY # ======================================================================== APPLE Apple Announces Newton 2.0 Operating System................ 24 BROADCAST Video News Roundup......................................... 03 BROADCAST Panamsat Wins Japanese Satellite License................... 29 BUSINESS Unisys Sells System To China Bank.......................... 02 BUSINESS Gateway Targets Australia Top Spot In Osborne Comeback Bid. 06 BUSINESS India - Analog Devices Plans Software Operation............ 11 BUSINESS France - Bull Looking For Extra Business Partner........... 21 BUSINESS ****Siemens Takes 75% Stake In UK's Mercury Communications 23 BUSINESS Japan - Financial Roundup.................................. 26 BUSINESS Indonesia's PT Telekom Begins Public Offering.............. 27 BUSINESS MCI Revenue Up, But Records Net Loss....................... 31 BUSINESS BDM Int'l Hangs On In DMR Group Takeover Battle............ 34 BUSINESS ****AMD & NexGen Merger To Compete Against Intel.......... 35 GENERAL Micrografx Intros Crayola Art Studio 2..................... 15 GENERAL Japan Newsbriefs........................................... 22 GENERAL NewsPix Images For Newsbytes Publishers.................... 32 GENERAL Canadian Product Launch Update............................. 33 LEGAL ****Corel Faces Lawsuit Over Software Bugs................ 19 NETWORK LCI Intros New Laser Networking Product.................... 13 ONLINE ****Targeted Daily News For "Rent" To Websites............ 04 ONLINE Marketing Lists Via The Internet........................... 12 ONLINE ****CERT Releases "Syslog" Attack Alert................... 25 ONLINE Russia Online Announces Service Details.................... 28 ONLINE ****Nynex Puts US Business Phone Listings On Web.......... 30 PC Key Tronic Shipping More Windows Keyboards................. 20 PDA UK - Hewlett-Packard Intros OmniGo 100 Pocket Organizer.... 08 TELECOM MFS Enters Hong Kong Telecom Fray.......................... 01 TELECOM HP In Mobile Comms Deal With Nokia......................... 05 TELECOM UK - Digital Mail Offers Universal Mailbox System.......... 07 TELECOM India - TCIL Plans Telephone Service Consortium............ 10 TELECOM Ericsson Plans Wireless Systems For Windows 95............. 16 TELECOM UK - Dataflex's Windows 95 Speakerphone Modem.............. 17 TRENDS ICL Claims World's Fastest Sparc Workstation............... 09 TRENDS Colorado Utility To Get Remote Meter Reading............... 14 TRENDS Rumarson's New PCs For Old Program......................... 18 ======================================================================== These are the headlines and first paragraphs of each story, in order: 1 -> MFS Enters Hong Kong Telecom Fray -- Half billion dollar telephone company MFS has announced it will join the telecom services market in Hong Kong. A ship, loaded to the gunnels with switching and fiber equipment, is already reportedly on its way to Hong Kong. 2 -> Unisys Sells System To China Bank -- China's fifth largest bank has bought a banking system from Unisys to run its New York operations. 3 -> Video News Roundup -- This is a look at the top stories this week in the world of video news reporting: stock image searching on the Net, "Can you find good desktop audio monitors," and, in new products, the Panasonic Multimedia Bundle and Fast Electronics' Portable Quad. 4 -> ****Targeted Daily News For "Rent" To Websites -- Adding fast- breaking news content aimed at a Website's target audience is one way to increase "hits" on a site. That news content is now offered to Websites by Newsbytes News Network's "Top Stories" program which gives Websites a license to publish up to five daily technology stories from 21 categories. 5 -> HP In Mobile Comms Deal With Nokia -- Claiming to be seeking to capitalize on their "mutual expertise" in handheld computers and telecommunications devices, Hewlett-Packard (HP) and Nokia Mobile Phones have announced that they plan to co-develop handheld devices that will offer "convenient voice, data, and facsimile communications." 6 -> Gateway Targets Australia Top Spot In Osborne Comeback Bid -- Is it a plane or a bird? No, it's Gateway 2000's Super-Ted, flying to the rescue of the ailing Osborne Computer company in Australia. 7 -> UK - Digital Mail Offers Universal Mailbox System -- Digital Mail, a London-based electronic-mail company, has announced the availability of Digital Mailbox, a voice, fax, and e-mail mailbox system operating on a single number. 8 -> UK - Hewlett-Packard Intros OmniGo 100 Pocket Organizer -- Hewlett-Packard (HP) has unveiled the OmniGo pocket organizer, a rival to the Psion Series 3. Like the Series 3 unit, the machine uses a proprietary DOS operating system, with patches to allow Windows clipboard files to be transferred between a PC and the handheld. 9 -> ICL Claims World's Fastest Sparc Workstation -- ICL Volume Products has unveiled the Halstation 300 Series, which it claims is the world's faster Sparc workstation. The company plans to ship the machine in Western Europe, Africa, and the Middle East later this year. 10 -> India - TCIL Plans Telephone Service Consortium -- Telecommunications Consultants India Ltd. (TCIL) plans to boost business by forming a consortium with multinationals interested in capitalizing on the deregulation of basic telephone services in the country, according to A.S. Bansal, chairman of TCIL. 11 -> India - Analog Devices Plans Software Operation -- Analog Devices Inc., the US-based semiconductor giant, will be setting up a software and systems technology division at Bangalore to develop next-generation microchips 12 -> Marketing Lists Via The Internet -- WolfBayne Communications is offering a free copy of its October 1995 issue of "Marketing Lists on the Internet" for business marketers who have electronic-mail accounts to connect with others who have similar interests. 13 -> LCI Intros New Laser Networking Product -- Laser Communications Inc. (LCI) said it has developed a new line of wireless network connectivity products that work via a laser beam instead of traditional wiring. 14 -> Colorado Utility To Get Remote Meter Reading -- Public Service of Colorado has signed a $62 million contract with Itron (NASDAQ:ITRI) of Spokane, Wash., that will result in automated electric and gas meter reading in the entire Denver area. When the systems are completely installed in two years, the utility will have the largest automatic meter reading system in the world. 15 -> Micrografx Intros Crayola Art Studio 2 -- Micrografx Inc. NASDAQ: MGXI) is now shipping Crayola Art Studio 2, a software suite on CD-ROM for Macintosh and Windows platforms that Micrografx spokesperson Angela Hooper told Newsbytes combines the earlier releases of Crayola Art Studio and Crayola Amazing Art Adventure. Those programs were released on disk in May, 1994, and on CD-ROM in August, both for Windows only. 16 -> Ericsson Plans Wireless Systems For Windows 95 -- Plug and Play is becoming de rigor for Windows 95-compliant hardware, now that users are becoming used to the idea they can slot in a peripheral and have the operating system automatically recognize its presence. Now Ericsson has revealed it is taking the integration one stage further, developing a series of plug-in wireless systems for use under Windows 95. 17 -> UK - Dataflex's Windows 95 Speakerphone Modem -- Dataflex Design has announced the PC Comms Office, a UKP129 modem that offers hands-free speakerphone and voice-mail facilities in addition to the normal 14,400 bits-per- second (bps) data and fax facilities. The system is a price breaker, as well as offering comms facilities never before seen in a UK modem bundle. 18 -> Rumarson's New PCs For Old Program -- Adding consulting services to its existing equipment trade-in program, Rumarson Technologies Inc., is out to capitalize on PC users' struggles to keep up with the pace of technology change, through a program called PC Reality Asset Management. 19 -> ****Corel Faces Lawsuit Over Software Bugs -- Corel Corp. (TSE:COS; NASDAQ:COSFF) is facing a lawsuit over problems that a Pennsylvania man claims to have had with the company's CorelDraw graphics software. A Philadelphia law firm is seeking to turn the case into a class-action lawsuit, while Corel maintains the action amounts to "ambulance-chasing." 20 -> Key Tronic Shipping More Windows Keyboards -- Key Tronic Corp. (NASDAQ: KTCC) has introduced a full line of Microsoft Windows-compatible keyboards the company said will make it easier to use both current and future versions of Windows 95. 21 -> France - Bull Looking For Extra Business Partner -- Compagnie des Machines Bull has announced it is looking for another European partner to take a 17 percent stake in the company as part of the second stage of its privatization. 22 -> Japan Newsbriefs -- In this roundup of news from Japan: Credit card data network fails, PC shipments to soar in 1995, PHS Internet Access Forum established, Japanese to produce GSM for Europe, Matsushita plans new semiconductor plants, Fujitsu and AMD establish new memory plant. 23 -> ****Siemens Takes 75% Stake In UK's Mercury Communications -- Germany's Siemens has taken a 75 percent stake in Mercury Communications, the subsidiary operation of Cable & Wireless in the UK. The deal will cost Siemens UKP80 million and, according to Juergen Gehrels, Siemens' chief executive officer (CEO), will lead to other involvements in telecoms services. 24 -> Apple Announces Newton 2.0 Operating System -- After plans to announce a new operating system (OS) for its hand-held Newton personal digital assistant (PDA) were unexpectedly published, Apple Computer Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) held a quick press conference to announce Newton 2.0. Highlights include improved organizational and communications capabilities, and integration with Windows and Mac-based desktop computers. 25 -> ****CERT Releases "Syslog" Attack Alert -- The Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT) has issued an alert concerning attacks to the "syslog" sub-routine, a program that writes messages to the system log. The alert notes the number of such attacks are growing and the weakness is being used by remote users to hack into systems. 26 -> Japan - Financial Roundup -- The end of October signaled the half way point in the fiscal year for most of Japan's companies. Over the next few weeks, hundreds of companies will issue financial statements, results and forecasts for the current financial year that ends in March. 27 -> Indonesia's PT Telekom Begins Public Offering -- One of the largest international floatations of the year begins this week as PT Telekomunikasi Indonesia (PT Telekom) heads for the Jakarta, London, and New York markets. 28 -> Russia Online Announces Service Details -- Russia will get its own online service later this year when Russia Online begins operations. The new service has been set up by Sovam Teleport, the most famous name in computer and Internet communications in Russia and will operate from offices in Moscow. 29 -> Panamsat Wins Japanese Satellite License -- Panamsat has been awarded an international class one carrier license by the Japanese Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications, allowing the US company to directly sell its services to customers in Japan. It is only the second such license issued to a foreign company and signals the further opening of Japan's telecommunications market. 30 -> ****Nynex Puts US Business Phone Listings On Web -- The World Wide Web-based Nynex Interactive Yellow Pages, listing 2.1 million businesses in New England/New York since its initial launch in May, has now "gone national," bringing user access to listings on 16.5 million businesses throughout the US. It has also added a stronger search engine 31 -> MCI Revenue Up, But Records Net Loss -- MCI Communications Corp. (NASDAQ:MCIC) said it is posting a $240 million dollar loss for the third quarter of 1995, due to previously-announced charges totaling $831 million, relating to consolidating business operations. Without the charge, MCI officials said the company would have posted a net income of $275 million. 32 -> NewsPix Images For Newsbytes Publishers -- These photos correspond to recent Newsbytes stories. They are online in the Newsbytes menu on America Online, NiftyServe, and the Newsbytes private bulletin board system in Minneapolis. 33 -> Canadian Product Launch Update -- This regular feature, appearing on the first day Newsbytes publishes each week, provides further details for the Canadian market on announcements by international companies that Newsbytes has already covered. This week: Compaq's new ProLiant servers and support plans and Hewlett-Packard's OmniGo 100 hand-held organizer. 34 -> BDM Int'l Hangs On In DMR Group Takeover Battle -- BDM International, Inc. (NASDAQ:BDMI) has extended its offer for Class B shares of DMR Group Inc. (TSE:DR) by 10 days, refusing to back down after rival Amdahl Corp. (AMEX:AMH) last week took up the 36 percent of DMR shares tendered to it by the Montreal consulting firm's major shareholders. 35 -> ****AMD & NexGen Merger To Compete Against Intel -- Long-time nemesis to Intel, Advanced Micro Devices (NYSE:AMD) has laid the groundwork to continue its pursuit of the giant chipmaker through a merger with NexGen (NSADAQ:NXGN). AMD fought a hard battle over 386 and 486 microprocessors, but has fallen behind as Intel's Pentium series became the dominant processor for the DOS and Windows operating systems. (Ian Stokell/19951023) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 10/20/95 APPLE Spindler Makes Video Visit To Australia (NEWS)(APPLE)(SYD)(00001) Spindler Makes Video Visit To Australia 10/20/95 SYDNEY, AUSTRALIA 1995 OCT 20 (NB) -- Apple Computer President and Chief Executive Michael Spindler believes he has the key to making the Macintosh once more the world's best-selling personal computer, and ensuring Apple's long-term survival. In a video conference with Australian journalists yesterday, he forecast a potential global market share for the Apple brand "in the mid-teens," almost double the Mac's current penetration rate. Spindler sees the company storming back from its current supply problems with new models, especially laptops, and aggressive new marketing plans. And he predicted the Mac platform will achieve even higher market share, "north of the teens," as he put it, if other manufacturers adopt the radical new CHRP "common platform" computing concept jointly devised by Apple and IBM. Spindler declined to put a timetable on achieving his lofty goals. The first CHRP, common hardware reference platform, machines are due in 1996. Using PowerPC RISC processors, they will be capable of running almost any application on the market including those designed for Macintosh, Windows NT, OS/2 and Unix operating systems. So far no company apart from Apple and IBM has announced its intention to market CHRP PCs. The Apple chief executive appeared in a live video link from his Cupertino HQ, after cancelling a planned personal visit due to a boardroom crisis earlier this month, which saw chief financial officer Joe Graziano resign. He said Apple's fourth quarter, ended September 29, had been its toughest ever and blamed the company's woes partly on too-fast a transition to the PowerPC RISC architecture, combined with "industry-wide component constraints," price wars in the PC market, especially in Japan, and a shortage of laptops, an area where Apple has traditionally been strong. "No apologies -- we must do better," he told those gathered in both Sydney and Melbourne. On laptops, he said: "New products in this sector in 1996, including PowerPC models, will see us regain our share of this market." "Here's where the good news begins," he said, pointing to expected high growth rates in four key markets where Apple traditionally does well: the home market, education, publishing and mobiles. Spindler stressed that, despite its supply problems and eroded profits, Mac sales were at record levels. Apple remains one of the world's top three computer companies. "It's reasonable to believe we can regain the number 2 spot soon," he said. He declined invitations to comment on speculation about takeovers or the boardroom coup. Clearing Back Orders Apple Computer Australia has been carrying "significant" back orders of up to $10 million over the past year as the parent company's well-publicized supply problems impacted the local scene, Australian Apple Computer Managing Director Steve Vamos told yesterday's meeting of the IT press. But the problems are now at an end, he said, and Apple has good supplies of all models for the coming Christmas season. "We ordered big six months ago... if you want a Mac, feel free to place an order," he said. Apple's financial year ends in September. Vamos said that despite the backlogs, Apple Australia had a record year, with sales of AUS$345 million, up 10 percent from last year's $313 million. Some $80 million of business came from large-enterprise orders. Vamos forecast bigger sales ahead, spurred by aggressive pricing and Apple's current TV spending. Apple also planned to capitalize on growing confusion as Microsoft starts a "hype cycle" on Windows NT. "We'll be doing a lot of talking about the cost of upgrading for Windows versus the Mac," smiled Vamos. Fear, uncertainty and doubt: nothing like it!" (David Frith and Computer Daily News/19951020) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 10/20/95 TRENDS Australian IT Exports On Track To $10 Billion (NEWS)(TRENDS)(SYD)(00002) Australian IT Exports On Track To $10 Billion 10/20/95 SYDNEY, AUSTRALIA 1995 OCT 20 (NB) -- Most sectors of Australia's IT industry are in booming good health, judging by results of a survey presented to Wednesday's annual general meeting and conference of the Australian Information Industry Association. The figures come from AIIA's annual statistical survey of its 300-plus member companies, claimed to represent the bulk of the Australian IT and telecommunications industry. They show revenues increased by 17 percent to almost AUS$25 million in 1994-95, while exports by members soared 29 percent to $1.6 billion. According to AIIA Chairman Neville Roach, this growth rate is well above that required to meet the association's target of generating $10 billion in exports and offshore revenues by the year 2000. Imports in the year climbed 17 percent, in line with revenues, to $2.3 billion. The ratio of exports to imports has been steadily increasing, and now stands at 56 percent. However the export results were patchy between sectors. Services exports jumped 120 percent from $204 million in 1993-94 to $$449 million. But hardware exports, at $617 million, recorded only a two percent rise, and software dropped a disappointing three per cent, from $147 million to $143 million. Some 98 member companies, almost one in three, reported exports in 1995, five more than last year. AIIA says the results show Australia's IT industry is increasingly export oriented and gives the partner-country exhibition at CeBIT 95 much of the credit. The association says confidence in the industry is high, pointing to a 60 percent jump in capital investment, up from $2.7 billion to $4.3 billion. Another 17 percent rise is tipped in the current year, taking the total investment to just over $5 billion. However the association warned that the government must ensure Australia remains competitive, by reducing the costs of doing business in Australia, as rival economies in Asia strive to attract technology funds. Neville Roach also called on government to lift the quality of IT statistical reporting, which he said was lagging behind the efforts of other countries such as Taiwan. (David Frith and Computer Daily News/19951020) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 10/20/95 TELECOM Poland Confirms New Cellular Net Plans (NEWS)(TELECOM)(LON)(00003) Poland Confirms New Cellular Net Plans 10/20/95 WARSAW, POLAND, 1995 OCT 20 (NB) -- The Polish Government has opened tenders for two of the three planned new cellular networks in Poland. According to Communications Minister Andrzej Zielinski, the licences will be awarded in February of 1996 and foreign companies, including Ameritech (already a partner in the state Centertel project), AT&T, Deutsche Telecom and Sprint, can enter the tender application list. Companies intending to bid for the licenses should contact the Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications and purchase a "starter kit" for 10,000 ECUs (European Currency Units -- about $12,000), and must file applications by January 3, 1995, Zielinski told journalists. According to Zielinski, successful applicants must comply with current Polish legislation that mandates that foreign companies must form a joint venture company in Poland with Polish investors taking a majority stake in the company. Despite this limitation, the potential rewards are massive, Newsbytes notes. The state joint venture operation, Centertel, which provides analog service, is widely regarded as overpriced, congested and sells clunky handheld mobiles for around $1,000 each. Nevertheless, the service is a great success in sales terms as there is no competition. The two new networks will offer GSM (Global System for Mobile communications) services, working at 900 megahertz. A third private company is expected to be tendered next year for a PCN (Personal Communications Network) service operating at 1,800 megahertz. Zielinski said that he expects at least one of the two successful applicants will have experience in running a GSM network elsewhere in the world. "We think at least one partner in the successful applying company should have the experience of running a network of 100,000 telephones," he said. The aim, Zielinski went on to say, is to ensure that Poland has four cellular networks up and running by the end of 1998: one analog, two GSM and one PCN. "We hope Poland will have about one million cellular phones be the year 2000," he explained. Centertel, a joint venture between the state, Ameritech (24.5 percent) and France Telecom (51 percent), has around 60,000 subscribers on a congested network that covers around three quarters of Poland's population. (Sylvia Dennis/19951019) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 10/20/95 BROADCAST Microsoft Launches European Satellite TV Program (NEWS)(BROADCAST)(LON)(00004) Microsoft Launches European Satellite TV Program 10/20/95 WOKINGHAM, BERKSHIRE, ENGLAND, 1995 OCT 20 (NB) -- Microsoft has launched its own regular TV show on NBC Superchannel, the European satellite TV channel broadcast on the Astra and Eutelsat satellites. The weekly program is also available on videotape, as well as over phone lines using Picturetel standard equipment. According to Debbie Walsh, Microsoft's marketing manager for education and certification, the hour-long programs, which are broadcast at 9am Central European Time (CET) every Saturday on NBC Superchannel, aim to offer a wealth of business, educational and technical information to IT (information technology) managers and end users. "In this rapidly changing industry, a major growth in the need for up to date information and advice has provoked a huge demand for long distance learning. Microsoft shows on TV mean that the IT manager now has the opportunity to learn about Microsoft products through and alternative and often more accessible medium," she explained. In parallel with the programs, Microsoft is producing a series of program guides and listings resources. These can be obtained by e-mail from MSTV@microsoft.com, via CompuServe and Microsoft Network (MSN) using, respectively, the GO MSTV and Microsoft TV menu options, as well as via the Internet at http://www/microsoft.com/mstv/ . The Autumn program schedule, which runs through until Christmas, covers the latest developments and issues that surrounds Windows 95, Office 95, Microsoft Back Office and MSN. Newsbytes caught the show last Saturday on satellite and can report that, far from being a soft sell for Microsoft, the programs appear to be a genuine attempt to service the TV computing viewer market. The last two shows, on the Internet and working with Windows 95, obviously mentioned the Microsoft product, particularly MSN, but also offered some degree of unbiased news reporting. Furthermore, the programs are not designed for a US TV schedule, that is, they are structured for ad breaks every few minutes. Instead, the programs have natural segments which last for 10 to 15 minutes, with ad breaks occurring naturally at this interval. Topics scheduled for the upcoming weeks including Working with Windows 95 - Issues; Windows 95, a product overview; Microsoft Access and PowerPoint; Excel and MS-Word; and developing custom solutions. Videotapes are available in PAL, Secam and NTSC formats, subset into VHS, Super VHS, Betacam (including SP) and D2, with pricing including shipping rates varying by country. Microsoft describes the videotape costs as modest. Audiotapes are also available. Details can be obtained from Microsoft's MSTV order line on 805-295-0504. The Picturetel versions of the programs are available from Link VTC on 303-473-0200. The programs can be transmitted across a standard phone line to Picturetel or any H.320 compliant videoconferencing system. (Sylvia Dennis/19951019/Press Contact: Samantha Young, Text 100 UK +44-181-242-4161; Internet E-mail: samy@text100.co.uk) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 10/20/95 BUSINESS Dutch Investment Company Acquires QMS Europe, Australia (NEWS)(BUSINESS)(LON)(00005) Dutch Investment Company Acquires QMS Europe, Australia 10/20/95 UTRECHT, THE NETHERLANDS, 1995 OCT 20 (NB) -- QMS has announced the sale of its shares in QMS Europe and QMS Australia to Jalak Investments, a Dutch investment house. The deal will generate more than $10 million for QMS, but the company claims that no appreciable change will take place in day-to-day administration of the two former divisions of QMS. According to Peter van Schaick, the head of Jalak Investments, QMS Europe will act as an exclusive master distributor for QMS' products and both former divisions will continue to service dealers and customers in Europe, the Middle East, Africa, India, Australia and New Zealand. Iain Friar, QMS UK's marketing manager, told Newsbytes that van Schaick was previously the managing director of finance and operations with QMS Europe, which is the parent of QMS UK. "QMS Inc., the US company, announced recently that it was looking for a buyer for the two non-US division of the company in order to raise cash to pay off bank credit arrangements. Those arrangements are due to be paid off this coming January, so this deal is rather like a management buyout, and Jalak has been created specifically to acquire the two companies," he said. Friar added that the European operation of QMS is the most profitable operation in QMS' global portfolio, so selling the division was a logical decision to raise capital to settle the bank credit arrangements. "Obviously things have been a little uncertain for ourselves this past few weeks, between QMS Inc.'s announcement and the announcement about Jalak investments this week," he explained, adding that the day-to-day operations as far as dealers and customers are concerned has not altered, nor will it alter in future. "There are no plans to change the names of the companies. QMS will remain in the European and Australian companies' names," he told Newsbytes. Andy King, general manager of QMS UK, confirmed Friar's comments, noting that the European operation, and the UK in particular, "has always been one of the most profitable divisions of QMS, particularly in recent years." "Financial independence now means we can look forward to investing in all aspects of our business. We've established a loyal sales channel who will continue to play a key role in the development of the market for QMS products," he said. (Steve Gold/19951019/Press Contact: Sue Stride, Charwood House PR +44- 181-878-8871; Reader Contact: QMS UK +44-1784-442255) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 10/20/95 TELECOM Ericsson In On Russia's Telecoms Planning (NEWS)(TELECOM)(LON)(00006) Ericsson In On Russia's Telecoms Planning 10/20/95 STOCKHOLM, SWEDEN, 1995 OCT 20 (NB) -- Ericsson has signed up as a new member of the Telecommunications Forum, an international non- commercial organization, which aims to assist in the development of the Russian Federation's telecommunications infrastructure. According to the Swedish telco, the membership confirms the company's involvement in the development of the Russian telecommunications infrastructure. Lars Ramquist, Ericsson's CEO, said that the company has been sponsored by Vladimir Bulgak, the Russian Minister for Posts and Telecommunications. The Telecommunications Forum, Newsbytes notes, consists of Russian and several foreign telcos, as well as a number of East European telecoms equipment suppliers. Membership of the forum is not normally open to Western companies but, as the effects of the Cold War dissipate, so the forum is coming more into the international arena. According to Ramquist, members of the forum are encouraged to share their experiences in investment operations and activities at the international level, along with the experience of local markets and its demands, as well as the knowledge and training related to the Russian telecom networks. Ramquist said that membership of the forum came as the result of the Swedish telecoms giant contracting to supply many different parts of the telecoms infrastructure of the Russian Federation. As reported by Newsbytes, Ericsson has been a major contractor with the Federation, notably for the supply of mobile phone systems in the Moscow, Irkutsk, Krasnoyarsk, Vladivostok and St. Petersburg regions. Thanks to its membership of the Forum, Ericsson hopes to pitch for new contracts in Arkhangelsk, Barnaul, Izhevsk and Stavropol. The company says its also plans to further its collaboration with telecom operator VimpelCom in Moscow and Vladimir. The value of all of these new contracts is expected to top the US$40 million mark. The first result of joining the Forum is a new agreement between Ericsson and AO Electrosviaz Tver, the Russian telecoms operator for the area between Moscow and St. Petersburg. The initial contract, which is worth around US$7 million, calls for Ericsson to deliver AXE switch equipment to form the basis of a new telecoms network in the region. Plans call for Ericsson to assist the Russian telecoms operator in the development of telecommunications in the city of Tver, which has population of 1.9 million. At present the density of fixed telephones is only 12 percent. With the growing demand for telephones, the goal is set to achieve 30 percent telephone market penetration before the year 2010. (Sylvia Dennis/19951018/Press & Reader Contact: Johan Wiklund, Ericsson Business Area Public Telecommunications +46-70-576-7007) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 10/20/95 CHIPS GEC Plessey Readies UK Chip Plant (NEWS)(CHIPS)(LON)(00007) GEC Plessey Readies UK Chip Plant 10/20/95 PLYMOUTH, CORNWALL, 1995 OCT 20 (NB) -- GEC Plessey Semiconductors has announced plans to expand its CMOS (complimentary metal oxide semiconductor) facility in Plymouth to manufacture 0.5 micron chips. The expansion will cost the company $16 million but pushes the firm into the forefront of chip fabrication, as it is the first facility of its type in the UK, Newsbytes notes. Applied Materials Incorporated (AMI), a Californian-based company, has been commissioned to install the production line, which should start production of the CMOS chips during the second quarter of next year. Charles Lewis, a spokesman for AMI, told Newsbytes that the GEC Plessey order, as chip production facilities go, is a fairly small one, but significant for GEC Plessey, since it expands the company's CMOS production facilities to include 0.5 micron chips. Lewis went on to say that the US has maintained its lead in the supply of chip fabrication plants worldwide. "If you look at the companies in our field, you get around 50 percent of the companies in Silicon Valley and the other half from Japan," he said, adding that there are also a few companies in Europe that supply this type of technology. Announcing the expansion of the company's facilities, John Hambidge, GEC Plessey Semiconductors' worldwide director of operations, said that the systems, which were sourced from AMI, covered a variety of technologies and include AMI's Precision Implant 9500 xR and 5000 WCVD technologies. Other systems included in the order are the Centura HDP Dielectric Etch, Poly Centura, Metal Etch MxP Centura, Endura IIP PVD and Precision 5000 DCVD. The production facility for the 0.5 micro CMOS chips could propel GEC Plessey Semiconductors into the big time as far as chip fabrication facilities go. The company, despite being part of the General Electric group, has been viewed as a poor relation to US Silicon Valley companies by many industry observers. The move to 0.5 micron CMOS production is expected to silence these critics. Commenting on the deal with GEC Plessey Semiconductors, Rodney Griffiths, the president of AMI's European operation, said that the company has had an ongoing arrangement for some time with GPS, which has helped AMI understand its market requirements. (Steve Gold/19951018/Press Contact: GEC Plessey +44-1752-693000; Charles Lewis, Applied Materials Incorporated 408-748-5819) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 10/20/95 TELECOM Europe Running Out Of Phone Numbers (NEWS)(TELECOM)(LON)(00008) Europe Running Out Of Phone Numbers 10/20/95 LONDON, ENGLAND, 1995 OCT 20 (NB) -- As in the US, the numbering schemes employed by countries in Europe are running out. But, unlike the US, where the 3+3+4 numbering scheme reigns supreme, the disparate numbering systems in Europe are causing telecom administrators headaches. On the 10th of October, much of the Netherlands' numbering schemes were changed, although those starting with 020 (Amsterdam), 010 (Rotterdam) and 070 (The Hague), as well as cities of Almelo and Almelo, were unchanged. As a result the Dutch PTT has been busy distributing renumbering guides and computer programs to tell the populace that six millions number have been changed. To make life easier, a six-month period of parallel running has been implemented, after which time callers will get a recording in most cases, advising them to dial again using a new code. The renumbering will allow 112 to be used as the emergency number -- 112 is being implemented on a Pan-European basis. In the UK, meanwhile, Oftel, the Government-appointed telecoms watchdog and the organization that has assumed responsibility for telecoms numbering scheme, has admitted that the numbering changes it implemented in April of this year in the UK were incomplete, and that, from next April, citizens of Reading will see their dialling code change from 0734 to 0118 and have the normal six-digit numbering system change to seven digits with a 9 inserted before all numbers. Oftel has also admitted that other cities -- notably Belfast, Cardiff, Portsmouth and Southampton -- are under active consideration for a change in their numbering schemes because numbers are running out. Even more incredibly, London, which split into two zones, 0171 and 0181 a few years ago, is also running out of numbers... again. The problem, according to Don Cruikshank, Oftel's director general, is that the current UK numbering system only allows 40 percent of the available numbers to be used. The switch of inserting a 1 after the leading zero in April of this year did not create any new numbers, but it did allow an additional eight billion new numbers to be used in the future. Cruikshank claims that the changes in UK numbering are nothing new. "Code changes have been happening since the 1950s. You used to get a circular stuffed through your door advising of the changes," he said. "What has changed is that we are being up front about the changes and consulting people," he added. Announcing the changes, Cruikshank admitted that Oftel's earlier proposals, which including the splitting of area codes in metropolitan areas, and a new type of "regional numbering" which was to use the 02 range of codes, had not met with general support. It now seems likely that the 02 range of codes -- created by the insertion of 1 after the leading 0 in a trunk code in April of this year -- have been shelved. Included in this week's announcements by Oftel is a program of further strategic research on the general levels of demand for numbers in the UK, as well as the establishment of a new and more effective numbering advisory body to replace the current "Telecommunications Numbering and Addressing Body." Newsbytes notes that Oftel will expect the new organization to provide feedback that is more vigorous and representative of both the industry and its customers. There will also be a new code of practice on number conservation which, together with number portability which is due to start in 1996, will help maintain the supply of numbers in those areas where significant shortages have already been identified. There will be a further period of public consultation next summer, and Oftel will report on the results, and if necessary modify the existing Numbering Scheme and Conventions by October 1996. (Steve Gold/19951019/Press Contact: Oftel +44-171-634-8700; fax: +44- 171-634-8943) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 10/20/95 CHIPS Intel's Major Plant Expansion For Ireland (NEWS)(CHIPS)(LON)(00009) Intel's Major Plant Expansion For Ireland 10/20/95 DUBLIN, IRELAND, 1995 OCT 20 (NB) -- Intel has announced provisional plans to expand its Leixlip, Dublin-based chip production facility to become one of Europe's largest chip fabrication plants. A formal announcement on the plan, which will be Ireland's biggest foreign IT (information technology) investment ever, is expected early next week. According to Richard Bruton, the Irish Minister for Employment, the project could bring as many as 2,000 more jobs to the region, and cost Intel several hundred million dollars. Speaking on Irish radio, Bruton said that the Government has been working closely with Intel on the plan, adding that the project is "one of the most exciting prospects we have ever secured." Bruton added that the expansion of the plant could also create around 1,000 new jobs in the construction industry. The deal could cost Intel as much as $1.2 billion, however. The sheer size of the project has meant that the expansion will be phased over a five-year period, adding another 2,000 staff to the existing 4,000- strong workforce. The Intel project is a major feather in the Irish Government's cap, and comes after a year of success in attracting industry to Ireland. The stampede of companies looking to invest in IT in Ireland stems from the Government's decision two years ago to set up a Government agency, the Irish Development Agency (IDA) to attract such ventures. When the agency was announced in the spring of 1993, rather than set up a business enterprise operation, as had been done in the past, the Irish Government set up two development boards to handle domestic and overseas investment, as well as competition for the state-run utility corporations. The idea was to attract more foreign companies to Ireland, as well as force the state-run companies to run on more commercial lines. At the time, according to Ruairi Quinn, the Irish Employment Minister, the aim of the project was to create an environment in which businesses can "perform effectively and efficiently." Quinn, then faced with an unemployment rate of 17 percent of the Irish workforce, said that the reforms will reverse the trend of the past few years, allowing the Irish Government to "reap rich dividends over time in the form of increased levels of sustainable jobs and improved living standards for the people of Ireland." With a current unemployment rate of 14 percent, the Government is not claiming victory in its plans to attract foreign investment, just a partial success. (Steve Gold/Press Contact: Text 100, +44-181-242-4100; Reader Contact: Intel +44-1793-696000; fax +44-1793-430763) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 10/20/95 GOVT China Moves To Restrict Radio-Emission Devices (NEWS)(GOVT)(PEK)(00010) China Moves To Restrict Radio-Emission Devices 10/20/95 BEIJING, CHINA, 1995 OCT 20 (NB) -- The State Radio Regulatory Commission (SRRC) has urged provincial branches to implement regulations to curb the chaotic import of radio emission devices. The regulations, announced in July, require that imported radio-emission devices get approval based on their type from SRRC, beginning next year. The regulated devices are those used for radio communication, navigation, radar, remote control, telemetering, and radio broadcasts. This is a necessary step to exercise better control over the radio spectrum, SRRC said. SRRC said that failure to follow frequency control regulations might lead to inefficient utilization of China's radio spectrum and interference between radio systems. According to the import regulations, foreign producers intending to export their products to China must apply to SRRC for approval certificates. In their applications, producers must declare the apparatus name and function, ways of modulation and other technical parameters, such as the frequency range, necessary bandwidth and transmission power. The certificate also requires the date at which the equipment passed through customs. SRRC will implement random tests or demand a test report on the imported devices. The certification will help standardize transmission equipment, SRRC said, and will also help the foreign trade department crack down on the smuggling of radio transmission devices. SRRC in considering holding a conference next month for foreign producers or their China agents to inform them of the import regulation details. (Chih-Ho Yu & Ning Huang/19951014/Reader Contact: The State Radio Regulatory Commission, tel +86-10 601-2814) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 10/20/95 ONLINE Philippines' Manila Times Online (NEWS)(ONLINE)(TYO)(00011) Philippines' Manila Times Online 10/20/95 MANILA, PHILIPPINES, 1995 OCT 20 (NB) -- Online commercially since September 25, the Manila Times will also go on the World Wide Web early in 1996. Manila Times Research Director Roel Landingin said that no definite date next year has yet been set for the national newspaper to go on the Web. But he said that such a move has already been decided by management to expose the newspaper to a wider range of readers worldwide. The move has been prompted by the Manila Times management's desire to explore the possibility of selling customized information through the Internet based on daily's editorial content. Landingin, appointed also by the daily's management to supervise all the newspaper's IT-related information gathering and dissemination activities, said that its electronic online edition will continue to be among the files subscribers to the Internet access and online services provider, Portal Inc., will be able to download. After its soft launch last May, Portal went on full launch last September 25. Its launch has also enabled the Manila Times to have a full online version of its daily print editions. Portal will also serve as the host of the Manila Times Web page. Landingin admitted that the manner in which the Manila Times will be offered on the Web has still to be decided. Among the options being mulled over are summaries of stories carried in each daily edition with each story available only on demand or full text of selected stories from selected sections of each daily edition available also only on demand. Landingin also revealed that the online edition has so far only 300 readers. "But this is much better than when we first went on soft launch last May and had only 30 readers," he added. According to him, the target is to increase online readership this year to 1000. He stressed that while another Philippine newspaper, the Times Journal, carries a daily online edition of its business section, it is only the Manila Times that has a full online edition in the country. He further revealed that Manila Times has also been receiving letters to the editor through e-mail. When asked if public relations practitioners had also begun to send the newspaper press releases through e-mail, he replied that this still had to happen. "But it would not be a bad idea, because it would lessen the clutter on editors' desks," he added. From 1945 up until the declaration of martial law by then-President Ferdinand Marcos in September 1972, Manila Times was the largest circulated English language daily in all of Southeast and East Asia. Then the flagship of the Roces chain of publications, it was regarded as one of the most influential newspapers in the Asia-Pacific region. The Manila Times resumed publication on February 5, 1986 shortly before Marcos' overthrow and the restoration of Philippine democracy with the ascension of Corazon Aquino into the presidency. In mid-1989, the Chinese-Filipino taipan John Gokongwei purchased the newspaper from the Roces family. The e-mail address of Manila Times is: manilatimes@portalinc.com . (Ike Suarez and Metropolitan Computer Times/19951016/Internet e-mail dilips@netcom.com) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 10/20/95 GOVT Australia Spending Big On Outsourcing (NEWS)(GOVT)(SYD)(00012) Australia Spending Big On Outsourcing 10/20/95 CANBERRA, AUSTRALIA, 1995 OCT 20 (NB) -- Get ready for an outsourcing boom in NSW state Government. The results of an IT&T survey conducted by the Department of Public Works and Services earlier this year show that around AUS$55 million was spent by 42 agencies during the 1993-94 financial year, and 64 percent of the 100-odd agencies which responded to the survey have tested the outsourcing waters. The survey is a profile of the whole-of-government IT environment as of February 28 this year. Of the $55 million reportedly spent on outsourcing, $18 million went to data center operations, $9 million each on training and technical support, $5 million each on applications development and network management, and $9 million on other functions. Fifty five percent of respondents are contemplating market testing of outsourcing IT&T during 1994-95. Key areas will be applications development, training and hardware maintenance. Overall IT&T expenditure by NSW Government agencies came out at a whopping $620 million, with $260 million, or 42 percent, spent on IT&T internal costs such as operations and development. Nearly $200 million was spent on IT&T acquisitions, $93 million on maintenance and licensing, and $68 million on external services. (Computer Daily News/19951013) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 10/20/95 EDUCATION Kids' Computer Habits Studied (NEWS)(EDUCATION)(SYD)(00013) Kids' Computer Habits Studied 10/20/95 SYDNEY, AUSTRALIA, 1995 OCT 20 (NB) -- Children do not talk about brands when discussing computers, they talk about playing. In the five to 12-year-old age group, there is little evidence of computer addiction and the kids learn computer skills by trial and error, fiddling and watching others, according to a study conducted by Toni Downes from the University of Western Sydney's faculty of education. In a preliminary report jointly sponsored by the university and Compaq, "Children's use of Electronic Technologies in the Home," Downes studied 190 children who use computers regularly. She found that 20 percent of their homes have two or more computers, and there are virtually no modems. Children's perceptions of who owns the family computers spreads fairly evenly between the family, the father, and the child itself. Mum is nowhere to be seen in the ownership stakes. However, Dowes says, "Mum plays games." She mostly plays the ones that come bundled with the computer, says Downes. No expensive memory-chugging games for her. Top of the pops for mum? Solitaire. (Computer Daily News/19951013) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 10/20/95 GENERAL World IT Conference Set For Bangkok In November (NEWS)(GENERAL)(HKG)(00014) World IT Conference Set For Bangkok In November 10/20/95 BANGKOK, THAILAND, 1995 OCT 20 (NB) -- The World Bank, the Global Information Infrastructure Commission (GIIC) and the leading Thai information technology agency will stage an international conference at the United Nations building in Bangkok November. Co-ordinating the event, titled "National Information Infrastructure for Social and Economic Development in Asia: Government Management, Health Care and Education," will be the National Electronics and Computer Technology Centre (NECTEC). The conference will be held between November 28 to 30 and it is designed to promote the application of information services and communications networks for economic and social development. Conference themes will be the national information infrastructure experience in Asia; opportunities for improving government management through IT; trends and patterns for IT support in health care and education; the role of human resources in developing information infrastructures; contributions of information infrastructures to social and economic development. (Tony Waltham and Post Database-Bangkok Post/19951020/Public, Press contact: Dr Pichet Durongaveroj of NECTEC at 662 248-8078-84, Fax 662 247-1335 E-mail: nitc-sec@nwg.nectec.or.th) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 10/20/95 TELECOM US West In India (NEWS)(TELECOM)(DEL)(00015) US West In India 10/20/95 NEW DELHI, INDIA, 1995 OCT 20 (NB) -- Unfazed by the opposition to its entry into India, the American telecom giant US West promises the usage of the latest in digital switching technology here. In a workshop organized in New Delhi last month, US West (India) Ltd. and BPL Systems and Projects Ltd. announced that they will use Hybrid-Fibre Coax technology for their telecom projects in Tamil Nadu. Experts from both the companies demonstrated how voice, video and data get integrated using Hybrid-Fibre Coax. Boli Medappa, managing director, US West (India), said: "US West has always been in the forefront of developing and implementing new technology. The advanced broad-band wireline Hybrid-Fibre Coax technology will not only ensure an ultra-modern enhanced services and multimedia network in Tamil Nadu but also improve the quality of life of the rural and urban population." The new technology is a configuration of fiber optic and coaxial cable of local broad-band communications. Hybrid-Fibre Coax networks rely upon radio frequency modulation of the information onto a carrier that connects the information supplier with the information user. The US West-BPL combine will provide cellular services in five states and basic services in Tamil Nadu. It is awaiting announcement on allotment of licences. The US multinational plans to invest about $2 billion in India over the next few years. (C. T. Mahabharat/19951020) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 10/20/95 TELECOM India - Alcatel Eyes Ailing ITI (NEWS)(TELECOM)(DEL)(00016) India - Alcatel Eyes Ailing ITI 10/20/95 NEW DELHI, INDIA, 1995 OCT 20 (NB) -- Alcatel, the French telecom equipment company, has an eye on the Indian Telephone Industries (ITI) Ltd., the Bangalore-based public sector undertaking (PSU) manufacturing telecom equipment. However, according to Josef Cornu, vice-chairman of Alcatel, the company, which is presently undergoing restructuring of its operations worldwide, would not seriously move in this direction unless the ailing ITI Ltd. is divided into smaller units. "30,000 employees is a big number to handle. If the number in a unit is about 5,000, we can think of doing something with ITI," Cornu pointed out. He admitted that his company has a proposal to acquire some portion of ITI. At present, Alcatel has a technology transfer agreement with ITI for the manufacture of its E-10 family of telephone exchange equipment. It also has a collaboration with the Modi group, the Alcatel Modi Network Systems Ltd., for the manufacture of switches. Alcatel, which had been wiped out from the supply of equipment in the four metro cellular phone services, is also planning a major offensive in the mobile telephone market in India. (C. T. Mahabharat/19951020) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 10/20/95 GENERAL Personnel Roundup (NEWS)(GENERAL)(MSP)(00017) Personnel Roundup 10/20/95 MINNESOTA, MINNEAPOLIS, U.S.A., 1995 OCT 20 (NB) -- This week saw comings and goings at the following firms: VeriFone Inc., TCSI Corp., Dell Computer Corp., Blyth Software Inc., Quark Inc., Unisys Corp., Psion Inc., and Oracle Corp. VeriFone Inc. (NYSE: VFI - 415-696-8823) announced the election of Thomas E. Peterson to its board of directors. Peterson currently serves as vice chairman of Bank of America, responsible for the bank's retail business activities worldwide. He is also a director of Visa International, Visa U.S.A., and MECA Software, Inc. Before joining Bank of America in 1987, Peterson spent more than 30 years with Wells Fargo Bank. Hatch Graham has been named senior vice president of the Personal Communications Group for TCSI Corporation (Nasdaq: TCSI - 510-649-3800). As general manager, he will be responsible for the direction of the group as it enters emerging digital wireless markets. Prior to joining TCSI, Graham was corporate vice president and general manager of the Telecom Products Group of Stanford Telecom.. Dell Computer Corporation (Nasdaq: DELL - 512-728-4100) has named former Apple executive Tom Fitzgerald, director, education, state and local government sales. Fitzgerald will assume responsibility for both the inside and field sales organizations. He will report to Brian Wood, vice president of education, state and local sales. Prior to joining Dell, Fitzgerald was the national markets sales manager in the education division for Apple Computer. Before his twelve year association with Apple, Fitzgerald served with Digital Equipment Corporation and Western Union Corporation in a variety of sales and sales management positions. Blyth Software Inc. (Nasdaq: BLYH - 415-286-7174) has announced the promotion of Marietta Klein to vice president of sales and marketing. Klein will have responsibility for sales and marketing in North America, Latin America, and Asia Pacific, for Blyth's Omnis family of client/server application development tools. She will also lead Blyth's channel management and development activities, which are focused on providing customizable packages of products, services, and support to value added resellers. Cheryl Gordon has been named director of corporate communications at Quark Inc. (303-894-3204). Gordon has 15 years of corporate communications experience in both the consumer electronics and high-tech industry. Before joining Quark, she served as vice president of communications for Pioneer Electronics Inc. in Long Beach, Calif. She also spent six years at advertising and public relations agencies that served high-tech companies such as AST Computers and CalComp in Orange County, Calif. Unisys Corporation (NYSE: UIS - 703-556-5370) announced the appointment of I. Gary Bard as vice president and general manager, Solutions Integration, for its Federal Systems Division. Bard will be responsible for managing the division's Solutions Integration business, which develops system integration solutions for federal and state clients. Bard, 58, goes to Unisys from Bard Technology, a professional consulting and venture capital practice specializing in high-technology companies. Prior to launching his own business, Bard spent eight years as president of Computer Sciences Corporation's (CSC) Integrated Systems Division. Psion Inc. (508-371-0310), the US subsidiary of Psion PLC, has announced the appointment of Ben Cesare to the position of vice president, Retail Sales Division. Cesare will spearhead the company's drive for US market leadership in the personal digital assistant/palmtop computer category. He joins Psion from Apple Computer where he was a 10 year veteran of Apple's channel management team and most recently the national sales manager of the Computer Superstore Division. Prior to Apple, Cesare was a buyer for Macy/Bamberger in their personal computer division. Oracle Corp. (Nasdaq-NNM: ORCL - 415-506-2700) has announced the promotion of Marc R. Benioff to senior vice president of Oracle's Web/Workgroup Systems Division. As senior vice president overseeing Oracle's Internet and workgroup strategy, Benioff is responsible for Oracle's worldwide Internet and workgroup development, marketing and distribution activities. He reports to Dirk Kabcenell, executive vice president of Oracle's Product Division. Benioff is specifically chartered to extend Oracle's leadership position in both the workgroup and Internet markets. (Ian Stokell/19951020) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 10/20/95 WINDOWS Czech Version Of Worldgroup BBS Package (NEWS)(WINDOWS)(LON)(00018) Czech Version Of Worldgroup BBS Package 10/20/95 BRNO, CZECH REPUBLIC, 1995 OCT 20 (NB) -- Infima s.r.o., the Prague-based BBS supplier and operator, is wrapping up its translation of the Czech version of Galacticom's new Worldgroup package, which should be on the shelves within a couple of months. Marek Janous, a member of the Infima team, said the server software is fully translated but some work remains on the client package. "We might be selling them by the end of the year of early next year," he said. The four-year-old company is primarily known as a supplier of Major BBS, the Galacticom precursor to Worldgroup. Translating Worldgroup, which has become one of the most popular BBS systems in the US, is a logical next step. The intended market is the Czech Republic and Slovakia, using only a minimum of partner VARs, due to Infima's demand that all resellers offer high-quality service support. The Czech Worldgroup package is expected to sell for about $700," he said. "It may be significantly higher than in the US, but we had to get back the effort we put into the translation." Worldgroup isn't the only egg in the Infima basket, however. The company, originally a division of Tesla Eltos' Institute for Microelectronics Applications, split amicably from its parent nearly four years ago, taking the BBS the team had designed with it. According to Marek, the Infima online BBS now has approximately 5,000 subscribers using 15 telephone lines. Though the company has doubled its staff over the last 12 months, it remains a relatively compact operation, employing just 10 people full-time. Other projects are in the works, though. The Infima BBS, for example, is scheduled to enhance its Internet access, which is supplied by CESNET, within a few weeks. Its current Internet services are limited to telnet, FTP and e-mail. "The first SLIP lines ought to be available in November. But that's not a promise, just a hope," Marek said. (James Hrynyshyn, IntelliTech/19951018/Press & Reader Contact: Marek Janous, Infima s.r.o., tel +42 2 3115858, fax +42 2 3115820, Internet e-mail: mjs@infima.cz) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 10/20/95 BUSINESS HP Authorizes Support Providers In Czech Republic (NEWS)(BUSINESS)(LON)(00019) HP Authorizes Support Providers In Czech Republic 10/20/95 BRNO, CZECH REPUBLIC, 1995 OCT 20 (NB) -- Hewlett-Packard s.r.o. has signed on its first three Authorized Support Providers in the Czech Republic. Simona Rackova, support marketing and communications specialist at HP, says the new support providers are as follows: CSc Computer Services, Dialog MTS, and Expert & Partner Engineering. "Since 1989 when Hewlett-Packard was founded we were servicing customers ourselves, exclusively," said Ms. Rackova. "Now it is changing because service is getting more and more important to everybody -- and a greater market differentiator." The new Authorized Support Provider program started in the USA earlier this year and is now being realized in Central and Eastern Europe. Hewlett-Packard is reacting to meet an increasing demand for high-quality, customer-focused support in its PC and peripherals business. The program has not been implemented for RISC-based workstations and other products. (Steven Slatem, IntelliTech/19951018/Media & Reader Contact: Simona Rackova, Support Marcom Specialist, Hewlett-Packard s.r.o., Prague) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 10/20/95 GENERAL Japan Newsbriefs (NEWS)(GENERAL)(TYO)(00020) Japan Newsbriefs 10/20/95 TOKYO, JAPAN, 1995 OCT 20 (NB) -- In this roundup of news from Japan, NTT, affiliate, plan price cuts, IPA offers software company home pages, NTT to replace telephone circuits, Mecklermedia takes Internet World east, Sharp announces new Viewcam, Sega ties US distribution deal with Softbank, Sega unveils Web browser add-on, interactive TV venture planned. NTT, Affiliate, Plan Price Cuts Today NTT DoCoMo, the nation's largest cellular telephone and pager operator, announced price cuts. From November 1st the company will charge 7,400 yen per month for connection to the analog network, a 1,000-yen cut. Subscribers to the more modern 1.5 GHz digital network will soon pay 5,800 yen a month, down from 6,900 yen. Monthly fees for the 800 MHz digital network will be 6,800 yen, a fall from 7,800 yen. According to the Mainichi Shimbun, a national daily newspaper, NTT will soon cut installation charges for domestic ISDN lines. A report said the connection charge would soon be 50,000 yen, a 70% drop from the current 190,000 yen charge. The Mainichi also said it would soon extend its late night and early morning fixed rate call scheme to ISDN. IPA Offers Software Company Home Pages The Information Technology Promotion Agency (IPA) will begin providing home pages on the Internet for software companies. The pages will offer profiles, investment plans and samples of the technology and software produced by each company. The current IPA Web server, http://www.ipa.go.jp/ , will offer details of over a thousand companies over the next 18 months. NTT To Replace Telephone Circuits Nippon Telegraph and Telephone will replace circuits in telephone exchanges to avoid the swamping of operation centers during times of emergency, NHK News has reported. The TV station explained that when customers lose telephone service, such as when an earthquake cuts or destroys lines, an automatic alert message is sent from local equipment back to the exchange to warn engineers of the situation. A fault in the exchanges has meant that such calls have been patched through to emergency centers. When the calls arrive they cause telephones to ring as if a real call is being placed but when answered, the operator hears nothing but silence. NTT engineers have been working on the problem since an earthquake hit north Japan two years ago and the fault was first witnessed. The TV station said over 10,000 such calls were sent to an emergency center in the first few hours after the Great Hanshin Earthquake in January, blocking lines for people calling for help. Mecklermedia Takes Internet World East Mecklermedia has said it will bring the Internet World expos to Tokyo, Seoul and Manila next year. For each event the company is partnering with a local show organizer, Expo Library Inc. in the case of the Tokyo show which will take place from May 15th to 17th. Sharp Announces New Viewcam Osaka-based Sharp Corporation has announced a new model in its View Cam range of camcorders. The LCD Digital ViewCam VL-DH5000 features a 5-inch color LCD monitor on the side of the camera to facilitate easy viewing of shot material. Sharp say the new display is the largest available so far on camcorders and follows similar cameras produced by Sony. The company hopes to sell 3,000 units a month at a price of 350,000 yen ($3,500). Sega Ties US Distribution Deal With Softbank Sega and Softbank, two of the biggest names in computer software, have signed a distribution agreement covering the United States market. The two companies will set up a joint venture company, GameExpress LLC, in California on November 1st to promote and distribute computer games with the creation of 100 jobs. Sega Unveils Web Browser Add On Computer game and player manufacturer Sega and Nissan Motor Company have unveiled an add-on device for Sega game computers that allows users to access the World Wide Web. Sega said many people are familiar with the word "Internet" but few people have used it. The add-on unit will be available from early next year and is expected to retail for less than 30,000 yen ($300). Interactive TV Venture Planned A consortium of around 40 companies including the Nippon Television Network and Tokyo FM will begin trials of a new partially interactive television service in 1996. Users of the service, which will be available on a membership basis, will be sent details of special events, concerts, music and other information based on a personal profile submitted on joining. The service will send information to consumers across the FM and TV signals from each station and their network affiliates. A special unit will be offered to order tickets and products advertised. (Martyn Williams/19951020) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 10/20/95 TRENDS Mini Disc Sales Take Off As Million Mark Approaches (NEWS)(TRENDS)(TYO)(00021) Mini Disc Sales Take Off As Million Mark Approaches 10/20/95 TOKYO, JAPAN, 1995 OCT 20 (NB) -- It has taken almost four years but sales of players for the Mini Disc audio format are about to break the one million mark helped by a recent sales campaign and a range of new players coming to the market from manufacturers that have adopted the system. From its beginnings in November 1992, the system, developed by Sony Corporation, was hampered by a standards battle with the Digital Compact Cassette (DCC) invented by Philips and Matsushita. It also faced general consumer content with conventional analog compact cassettes for recording purposes and the widespread use of CDs in the home and car. Now, as the newly standardized Digital Video Disk (DVD) is tipped to replace video tape and compact discs, the Mini Disc is being touted with new vigor as the natural successor to the compact cassette. Mini Discs are 64mm diameter discs encased in a plastic shell that are roughly a quarter the size of compact discs. Two versions of disc are available, one is a fully optical read only disc intended for pre-recorded music and the other is a magneto-optical disc for read-write applications. Sales of players, produced largely by Sony and Sharp in recent years, are expected to pass the one million mark this year and could reach as high as 1.5 million according to the two mainstays of the hardware market. Continued high sales by those two companies has been making competitors sit up and pay attention to a part of the market that many had been written off. Sony are also increasing the range of products featuring Mini Disc in its lines. The company said that half the units in its 1996 range would have Mini Disc players on hopes that the format will replace compact cassettes. Sharp is increasing monthly production of the players from 5,000 units a month to 100,000 units a month. A significant break through in the fortunes of the format came in early September when Matsushita, witnessing 10 Mini Disc player sales for every one DCC sale, announced it would source 1,000 players a month from Victor Co. of Japan, Ltd. (JVC). The mechanisms, being incorporated in a new portable player-recorder to be marketed under the Panasonic brand name by Matsushita, are also the basis for a similar product released by JVC in August. JVC is producing 5,000 units a month, including the ones destined for Matsushita, which are retailing for 69,800 yen ($698). Pioneer Electronic Corporation is also entering the market with a Mini Disc recorder-player sourced on an OEM basis from Sharp and selling at the same price, 59,000 yen. Analysts say Pioneer have entered the market because it is growing so rapidly and can no longer be ignored by a home audio product maker. Pioneer is said to be considering manufacturing its own units in the future. The increase in range of the hardware and greater availability of software will boost sales of the format. Sharp's Toshishige Hamano, manager of the audio products division, said in a recent newspaper interview that he expects annual sales of 3 million units next year. One part of the originally anticipated market that is not expanding is the computer data field. The discs were originally intended to be suited to computer applications due to the ability to store several hundred kilobytes of information on a read/write disc. Recent advances in technology, particularly the new DVD format and the rapidly growing MO (magneto optical) drive system have ensured Mini Disc a future as an audio only format contend many. (Martyn Williams/19951020) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 10/20/95 LEGAL ****Feds Bust Huge Cell Phone "Cloning" Ring (NEWS)(LEGAL)(DEN)(00022) ****Feds Bust Huge Cell Phone "Cloning" Ring 10/20/95 NEW YORK, NEW YORK, U.S.A., 1995 OCT 20 (NB) -- New York officials have cracked what they call "the biggest illegal cellular telephone cloning operation in the country" with the arrest of three individuals this week. If convicted the suspects could receive up to 15 years in state prison. "Cloning" is the process of retrieving the electronic serial numbers (ESNs) of legitimate phones off the airwaves and programming the purloined numbers into stolen phones. Thieves capture the numbers using special scanners placed near busy highways and airports. ESNs can also be obtained from stolen phones. Denver-based Secret Service agent Bill Bresnahan told Newsbytes the Secret Service is tasked with investigating cellular phone fraud, Bresnahan says investigative techniques include monitoring cell activity for an unusually high number of long distance calls, and the use of direction finding equipment to track down the illicit phones while they are in operation. US West spokesperson Wendy Carver-Herbert and Bresnahan say there are some steps that cell phone users can employ to help foil phone theft or catch thieves. They encourage cell phone users to step up the physical security they provide their phones. "If you are going to leave your car with a parking attendant or parked on the street for several days, remove the handset and the antenna to avoid drawing attention," says Carver-Herbert. She also recommends activating the electronic lock when you are away from the phone. They also recommend monitoring your cell phone bill closely. If you see calls you are sure you didn't place, contact your service provider immediately, and if your phone is stolen the company can block calls from that number. US West Cellular has programmed its computers to watch for anomalies in each customer's calling pattern as another way to foil this high tech crime, and the company employs security personnel to contact customers when calls fall outside the normal pattern. The New York raid seized cloning software, 46 cell phones and various equipment including computers officials said contained legitimate cell phone access numbers which when programmed into cloned phones allows the purchaser to illegally use cellular service without paying. They often make expensive long distance calls to other parts of the world. Officials said as many as 27,000 phones have been cloned over the last seven months and at least 3,000 usable legitimate access numbers were stored in the computers seized in the raid. Authorities estimate losses from the latest scam may have cost phone companies as much as $27 million. Cell phone service providers lose an estimated $1.5 million a day nationwide because of phone cloning. Authorities said it costs a thief about $50 to get a stolen cell phone activated with a cloned number. The phone can then be sold on the street for about $100. The Manhattan District Attorney, Robert Morgenthau, was particularly interested in this case. He said his own phone has been cloned twice by thieves recently. The first time the bill exceeded $3,000 and the second time more than $5,000 in calls were charged to his number. The legitimate holder of the cell phone number that is cloned isn't aware the phone has been cloned until the bill arrives. In an attempt to stop losses cell service provider Bell Atlantic NYNEX Mobile (NYSE: NYN) recently introduced the use of personal identification numbers, which the company said has cut phone fraud by an estimated 80 percent. The user punches in the unique PIN and presses the send button on the phone after dialing the desired number. Authorities say the cellular phone industry spends $5 million annually to stop sophisticated cellular phone fraud. (Jim Mallory/19951020/Press contact: Kim Ancin, 914-365-7573, or Jim Gerace, 914-365-7712, both of NYNEX) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 10/20/95 BUSINESS CTP Buys Axiom, Opens Object Showcase, Adds Partners (NEWS)(BUSINESS)(BOS)(00023) CTP Buys Axiom, Opens Object Showcase, Adds Partners 10/20/95 CAMBRIDGE, MASSACHUSETTS, U.S.A., 1995 OCT 20 (NB) -- At a press conference at company headquarters in Cambridge, Massachusetts, Cambridge Technology Partners (CTP) unveiled pacts with eight packaged software vendors, plus the opening of a new "CMS (Customer Management Systems) Center of Excellence" envisioned by officials as a combination "think tank," repository, and showcase for object frameworks supporting business process re-engineering (BPR). With these announcements and other developments, CTP is "creating a new company" that adds packaged software and new BPR approaches to CTP's existing strengths in BPR, CMS, rapid application development (RAD), and systems integration, maintained Jim Sims, president and chief executive officer (CEO), speaking at the press conference, which was attended by Newsbytes. Earlier this week, CTP posted financial results showing revenues of $31.2 million for the third quarter, for a 68 percent gain over the same quarter last year, and revenues of $83.5 million for the first nine months of this year, up 73 percent from the same period in 1994. Also this week, he noted, CTP announced the acquisition of Axiom Management Consulting Inc., a San Francisco-based specialist in "business renewal." In August, CTP bought Systems Consulting Group (SCG) of Miami, Florida, a maker of shrink-wrapped software for financial reporting and consolidation, remote workforce automation, human resources/payroll, manufacturing, and retail distribution. Sims told the reporters and analysts that, since CTP's founding four years ago, the firm has evidenced a "consistent" financial growth rate of about 70 percent per year. This kind of growth is "highly unusual" in the client-server software market, asserted the company chief. About half of CTP's revenues are derived from CMS, according to a spokesperson. The newly announced CMS Center for Excellence and industry partnerships are part of a new strategic initiative by CTP targeted at reducing the industry average CMS development cycle by as much as 75 percent, from two to three years to between six and nine months. In related activities, CTP has just won major CMS customer contracts with Charles Schwab and ReliaStar Financial, said the CEO of CTP. Malcolm Frank, VP of marketing for CTP, told the press conference attendees that CMS brings "a tremendous competitive advantage to our customers." Organizations across a variety of industries are coming to recognize the importance of customer satisfaction to a company's "bottom line." As a result, corporations are starting to engineer their business practices around customer management, and to model these practices in object-oriented software, according to Frank. Although many people associate CMS with help desks, CMS applications actually include a wide range of application areas where the customer becomes the focal point, including sales force automation and service management, maintained the VP. Hugh Bishop, director of emerging technologies for the Aberdeen Group, informed the journalists and analysts that, by and large, client-server software is not delivering on the promise of "reducing costs" for businesses. But, said the analyst, the Aberdeen Group has found that "customer interaction software" (CIS) is allowing customers to achieve cost effectiveness by "differentiating their products in a commodity market." Aberdeen's "CIS" category is virtually synonymous with CTP's "CMS," he explained. The Aberdeen Group pegs the CIS market at $1.1 billion in 1994, and projects market growth to $2.74 billion by 1998, according to Bishop. The Aberdeen Group's research also indicates that organizations seek software that allows for customization and rapid implementation, supports remote access, and offers an "open architecture" for integration with outside applications such as Peoplesoft's financial software, reported Bishop. Maureen Ellenberger, director of CTP's Re-Use and Customer Management Systems Domain, said that CTP's new CMS Center for Excellence will house a series of frameworks featuring reusable business objects. The first two frameworks from CTP are SpeedWorks, for RAD, and CMS Domain ObjectWorks, an application framework for CMS, the director told the press. CTP's SpeedWorks framework will include application development, middleware, database connectivity, and "knowledge" components. "The idea is to keep building objects," Ellenberger commented. The CTP exec also pointed to unique application frameworks from other vendors, including Hewlett-Packard's Customer Care, Rand Technologies' Call Center, and Microsoft's Foundation Classes. During a Q&A session, the journalists were told that CTP will keep developing object-oriented software for business applications other than CMS, such as logistics, for example. "We want to be known as leaders in CMS, but not simply as a CMS shop," remarked Chris Greendale, senior VP of marketing. CTP plans to shorten the BPR application development life cycle by combining its own methodology with newly acquired Axiom's five-step "business renewal" methodology for achieving business change, said Axiom President and CEO Mike Korchinsky, speaking with Newsbytes during the event. CTP Chief Financial Officer (CFO) Arthur Toscanini told Newsbytes that the recently purchased SCG has "strong contacts" in the southern region of the US, as well as in Latin America. About 75 percent of SCG's employees speak Spanish, according to Toscanini. With the passage of NAFTA (North American Free Trade Agreement), Mexico is a particularly promising market for software right now, he added. At the conclusion of the press conference, CTP held a Vendor Fair featuring its eight newly named packaged software partners: Scopus Technology (specializing in sales automation and call center applications); Graham Technologies (call center, business process, and workflow); FileNet (document imaging and workflow); Clarify (help desk, service, and product quality); Siebel Systems (sales force automation); Aurum (customer asset management and sales force automation); The Vantive Corp. (customer support, logistics and field service, sales and marketing, internal help desk, and quality management); and Metrix (service management for medical, computer, telecommunications, and office equipment applications). (Jacqueline Emigh/19951019/Reader Contact: Cambridge Technology Partners, 617-374-9800; Press Contacts: Colleen Irish, CTP, 617- 374-8705; Doug Black or Michael Bayer, Miller/Shandwick Technologies for CTP, 617-536-0470) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 10/20/95 LEGAL ****"Not Guilty" Declares Alleged Chip Spy (NEWS)(LEGAL)(DEN)(00024) ****"Not Guilty" Declares Alleged Chip Spy 10/20/95 SAN JOSE, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1995 OCT 20 (NB) -- A former Intel Corp. (NASDAQ: INTL) employee who said federal agents set him up told a US District Court judge this week he is not guilty of giving valuable industrial secrets to an Intel competitor. Guillermo Gaede, also known as William Gaede, is accused of giving videotapes containing confidential information about Intel's 486 and Pentium microprocessors to advanced Advanced Micro Devices Inc. (AMD). AMD immediately told Intel about the tapes. Gaede, 43, was indicted by a federal grand jury earlier this week on counts of mail fraud and interstate transportation of stolen property. Federal prosecutors had previously filed a criminal complaint charging Gaede with the same offenses, but the law also requires an indictment in felony cases according to Lee Altschuler, a spokesperson for the US Attorney's office. A trial date will be set at a November 20 hearing. Gaede, also known as William Gaede, was arrested September 23, 1995 by Federal Bureau of Investigation agents at his home in Mesa, Arizona where he has reportedly been living since he returned from Buenos Aires this summer. He was later transported to California where he was charged. Federal agents allege that in mid-January 1995 the Argentine national sent a package via Federal Express to AMD in Sunnyvale, California that contained three videocassettes and a letter. Authorities said the tapes contained Intel proprietary information relating to the fabrication process of the company's computer chips. The letter contained information about that processing, according to the FBI. Authorities allege that the information defrauded Intel Corp. The complaint says Gaede conducted his criminal activity while employed first by AMD and later Intel. The FBI said Gaede was a software engineer for Intel in Chandler, Arizona, a Phoenix suburb, from September 1993 to June 1994. He reportedly worked for AMD for ten years prior to joining Intel. An FBI spokesperson told Newsbytes if convicted on the mail fraud charge Gaede faces a maximum penalty of up to $1,000 or up to five years in jail, or both. The interstate transportation of stolen property charge carries a maximum $10,000 fine or up to 10 years in jail or both. The value of the stolen information was placed at "tens of millions of dollars," according to an FBI document. In a jailhouse interview last month Gaede spun a complicated tail of international intrigue, telling reporters he acted as a go-between for Cuban and US intelligence agencies. He said the US government wanted Cuban military secrets in exchange for information about US technology. In an earlier interview Gaede said he had passed on information stolen from AMD to Cuba, China, North Korea and Iran. He also claimed to have given data to the Soviet Union and East Germany during the final years of the Cold War. (Jim Mallory/19950926/Press contact: George Grotz, Federal Bureau of Investigation, 415-553-3716) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 10/20/95 TELECOM ****Budget Battle Slows Telecom (NEWS)(TELECOM)(WAS)(00025) ****Budget Battle Slows Telecom 10/20/95 WASHINGTON, D.C., U.S.A., 1995 OCT 20 (NB) -- The tug-of-war between Congress and the White House over the federal budget has put telecommunications reform legislation in a holding pattern. As a result, a House-Senate conference committee to work out differences in the two bills could start work as the clock begins to run out on the first session of the 104th Congress. "The conference committee has to get going real soon, or they could fail to get something out this year," a Senate staffer told Newsbytes. "And if it slides over into next year, it could get caught up in election-year politics." If President Clinton vetoes the budget reconciliation package, as appears likely, attempting to restructure the budget to withstand White House scrutiny will take even more time from the Congress as the clock ticks down toward a December adjournment. Sen. Larry Pressler (R-S.D.), chairman of the Senate Commerce Committee, and Rep. Thomas Bliley (R-Va.), head of the similar committee in the House, had hoped to get the conference going early in September. But the budget battle, plus an internal House dispute between Bliley's Commerce Committee and the House Judiciary Committee, pushed the conference off the fast track. The Republican leadership finally appointed conferees earlier this week. But no schedule for conference committee meetings has been set. Pressler will lead the Senate conferees. Other Senate Republicans on the conference committee include Ted Stevens of Alaska, John McCain of Arizona, Conrad Burns of Montana, Slade Gorton of Washington and Trent Lott of Mississippi. Senate Democratic conferees include Ernest "Fritz" Hollings of South Carolina, Daniel Inouye of Hawaii, Wendell Ford of Kentucky, James Exon of Nebraska, and Jay Rockefeller of West Virginia. The list of House conferees reflects the split between the Commerce and Judiciary committees. Bliley will lead the House conferees, joined by Commerce Committee Republicans Jack Fields of Texas, Mike Oxley of Ohio, Dan Schaefer of Colorado, Joe Barton of Texas, Dennis Hastert of Illinois, Bill Paxton of New York, Scott Klug of Wisconsin, Dan Frisa of New York, Rick White of Washington, and Cliff Stearns of Florida. On the Democratic side, Commerce Committee conferees include John Dingell of Michigan, Ed Markey of Massachusetts, Rick Boucher of Virginia, Frank Pallone of New Jersey, Sherrod Brown of Ohio, Bart Gordon of Tennessee, Bobby Rush of Illinois, Anna Eshoo of California, and Blanche of Lincoln of Arkansas. But the Judiciary Committee, after heavy lobbying of the leadership, also has a slate of conferees, beginning with Chairman Henry Hyde (R-Ill.). Other Judiciary Republicans include Carlos Moorhead of California, Bob Goodlatte of Virginia, Steve Buyer of Indiana, Michael Flanagan of Illinois, Elton Gallegly of California, Bob Barr of Georgia and Martin Hoke of Ohio. Democratic conferees from the Judiciary Committee include John Conyers of Michigan, Pat Schroeder of Colorado, John Bryant of Texas, Howard Berman of California, Robert Scott of Virginia, and Sheila Jackson Lee of Texas. The presence of the members of the Judiciary Committee indicates that the fight between the two House committees over the role of the Justice Department will be refought in conference. The Judiciary Committee wants to give Justice a role in determining when telecommunications markets are competitive, while the Commerce Committee wants to put the authority at the Federal Communications Commission. Another difficult issue in the conference is likely to be how to deal with obscene material contained in online services and the Internet. The Senate bill would make smut on the Net a crime, while the House measure contains no such provisions. (Kennedy Maize/19951020) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 10/20/95 ONLINE ****IEEE Backs Online Smut Filters (NEWS)(ONLINE)(WAS)(00026) ****IEEE Backs Online Smut Filters 10/20/95 WASHINGTON, D.C., U.S.A., 1995 OCT 20 (NB) -- Joining the fray over online smut, the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers is backing filtering technology, not criminal law, as the best way to protect children in cyberspace. "Internet filters work as a child-safety cap on the personal computer," says Joel Snyder, chair of IEEE-US Activities (IEEE-USA). "This technology can give users and their families control over choices on the Internet, without government having to resort to unnecessary and ineffective controls on the free flow of information." IEEE-USA says that the approach advocated by the Senate in its version of telecommunications reform -- criminalizing obscene content -- is an exercise in futility. The group that represents electronics engineers says that "government censorship attempts will not work on the transnational Internet," and warns that government controls could "choke a vibrant medium founded on free information exchange." The group notes that filtering technology is developing rapidly. The Internet Engineering Task Force meeting in Stockholm this summer, chaired by Internet pioneer Vinton Cerf, created a working group to develop technical standards for reader filters. US industry has promised to develop a consensual content-labeling system by early next year. IEEE says most content filter approaches fall into one of three categories. Host access control features software packages that run on the user's computer and exclude access to sources known to contain objectionable material. Information filtering using source labels allows specific materials to be rated by their source and then filtered. Information filtering using third-party ratings offers the ability to sort material within even a single document. In the near future, says IEEE, adults may be able to combine a variety of the three technical approaches to customize an environment for their kids. But IEEE's Snyder notes that "technology alone is not a substitute for conscientious parenting, adult supervision and common sense." (Kennedy Maize/19951020/Press Contact: Christopher Currie, 202-785-0017, ext. 342) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 10/20/95 BUSINESS Amdahl Takes Up Shares Though DMR Board Cool To Offer (NEWS)(BUSINESS)(TOR)(00027) Amdahl Takes Up Shares Though DMR Board Cool To Offer 10/20/95 MONTREAL, QUEBEC, CANADA, 1995 OCT 20 (NB) -- As the three-way takeover battle for consulting firm DMR Group Inc. (TSE:DR) continues, Amdahl Corp. (AMEX:AMH) has taken up shares already tendered to it by DMR's major shareholders. But DMR's board of directors has chosen not to recommend to its shareholders either Amdahl's offer nor a rival one by BDM International, Inc., (NASDAQ:BDMI) of McLean, Virginia. Meanwhile, DMR's board reserved its judgment on a third offer, which came from IBM Canada Ltd. in Markham, Ontario. The IBM (NYSE:IBM) subsidiary has offered C$11 per share, versus Amdahl's C$8.25 and BDM's C$8.77. In a teleconference with reporters Friday morning, Michael Poehner, vice-president and general manager of Amdahl's Business Solutions Group, said his company does not currently plan to raise its offer. "We're not renouncing that option," he said, "but at this point in time we don't see any need to do it." The reason for that, according to Poehner, is that Amdahl now controls 80 percent of the voting rights attached to outstanding DMR shares. The shares the Sunnyvale, California computer maker has taken up account for 99 percent of the Class B shares and about 15 percent of the Class A shares. The snag for Amdahl is a Quebec court decision that said Class A shareholders can exercise an option to convert their shares to Class B shares. That decision, made in response to BDM's legal challenge of DMR's interpretation of its own bylaws, makes it possible that the Class B shareholders' control of DMR could be diluted to the point where Amdahl would be left with 27 to 28 percent of the voting rights, DMR spokesman Michel Gelinas told Newsbytes. Amdahl is appealing the decision, and Poehner maintained the company will win its appeal. As long as a conversion of Class A shares does not reduce Amdahl's share of the voting rights, the company is in control and its offer for DMR appears likely to succeed. Poehner pointed out that Amdahl is in a position to block any rival from taking DMR private or merging it into its own operations, since either course would require two thirds of the equity in DMR and Amdahl now has 36 percent of the equity. All three suitors have said they plan to run DMR as a separate subsidiary. Both Amdahl and BDM said they planned to fold some of their own existing operations -- in Amdahl's case, the Business Solutions Group that Poehner now heads -- into DMR after a takeover. Poehner described the DMR board's decision not to recommend his company's offer or BDM's and to reserve judgment on IBM Canada's offer as a neutral announcement. Despite the board's failure to recommend the Amdahl offer, Gelinas said the agreement of the company's major shareholders to tender their shares to Amdahl was "irrevocable." (Grant Buckler/19951020/Press Contact: Michel Gelinas, DMR, 514-877-3301; John Radewagen, The Benjamin Group for Amdahl, 408-559-6090; Mike Quinn, IBM Canada, 905-316-2255; Todd Stottlemyer, BDM, 703-848-5115, Internet e-mail tstottle@bdm.com) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 10/20/95 ONLINE 12 Million-Entry Business Directory Free On The Web (NEWS)(ONLINE)(LAX)(00028) 12 Million-Entry Business Directory Free On The Web 10/20/95 EL CERRITO, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1995 OCT 20 (NB) -- World Yellow Pages Network has placed a list of 12 million businesses on the World Wide Web, with business name, address, phone number and ZIP Code. In addition World Yellow Pages Network offers to create, at no charge, an unique Web home page for any business that requests one. Businesses can enter a 300-word description of their services at no cost and update the information as necessary. A listing in the World Yellow Pages Network is also free, can be updated anytime, and can be accessed from anywhere in the world via the Internet. Visitors to the World Yellow Pages Network site can search the over 12 million entries in the business directory. According to the company, over the next few weeks additional search criteria will be added, such as a classification of business type. Speaking to Newsbytes, Edwin Rutsch founder of the World Yellow Pages Network, said, "We are prepared to give any business who asks their own home page, with their own unique Web address. I believe every business in the world should be on the Internet. This service will go a long way toward fulfilling that vision. The Yellow Pages will never be the same again." World Yellow Pages Network also has provided links to all other on- line yellow pages around the world. According to Rutsch he intends to build a global Yellow Pages that can be accessed from one source. The World Yellow Pages Network is both an on-line Yellow Pages and Web development company. They offer Web development services including secure transaction capabilities, text, graphics, maps, forms, e-mail, video and audio. While the initial home page and the 300 words are free, the Network hopes to make its money on add-on Web development services. Some of the additional features a business might use, and the rates charged for those services are currently on display at http://wyp.net . (Richard Bowers/19951020/Press Contact: Joan Kuenz, World Yellow Pages Network, 510-528-9895) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 10/20/95 ONLINE Pipex Offers Software Amnesty To Unlicensed NetScape Users (NEWS)(ONLINE)(LON)(00029) Pipex Offers Software Amnesty To Unlicensed NetScape Users 10/20/95 CAMBRIDGE, ENGLAND, 1995 OCT 20 (NB) -- Pipex, the UK Internet service provider and distributor of NetScape Navigator, has announced it is offering an amnesty to any unlicensed user of Navigator in the UK. The amnesty, which is being organized in conjunction with Internet magazine, allows anyone buying the November issue of the magazine to register their copy of NetScape navigator for UKP 15.00, a saving of UKP 34.95 on standard pricing. Neil Ellul, Internet magazine's editor, said that only other charge for the deal is the UKP 2.50 cover price of the magazine. "This is a unique opportunity for UK NetScape users to make honest men and women of themselves at a greatly reduced price," he said. NetScape Navigator, like many applications on the Web, is freely downloadable across the Internet. The package can be used freely by the user for up to 30 days, after which time its license conditions require it to be deleted or officially registered. According to Pipex, since the software was released last year, an estimated one million unlicensed users of the package exist. To encourage users to register through the Internet magazine deal, Pipex is offering a special deal until the end of the year. The deal includes "guilt free Web surfing," a discounted upgrade to Navigator 2.0, a complete Navigator 1.2 handbook on disk, and a free copy of "The Internet Guide to NetScape, a booklet published in associated with Internet magazine. Further details of the the offer can be found on Pipex's Web site at http://www.unipalm.pipex.com/netscape/ . or by calling UK toll-free to 0500-474739. (Sylvia Dennis/19951020/Press Contact: Mandy Hassall, GBC +44-181-332- 7022; Internet Email: katc@gbc.co.uk; Reader Contact: Neil Ellul, Internet magazine +44-171-208-5152; Internet Email: neile@computing.emap.co.uk) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 10/20/95 BUSINESS Sema Group To Acquire France's CISI (NEWS)(BUSINESS)(LON)(00030) Sema Group To Acquire France's CISI 10/20/95 PARIS, FRANCE, 1995 OCT 20 (NB) -- The Sema Group, the computer services provider company, has announced plans to acquire CISA, the French systems integration and outsourcing company owned by CEA Industrie. The deal is significant, as it is unusual for a UK company to make an acquisition of this type in Europe. More often, it is the European companies that snap up company divisions within the UK, Newsbytes notes. The plans are still at an early stage, Newsbytes understands, and no price or confirmation of the deal being approved by CISA nor CEA has been made. Nevertheless, an announcement has been made by Sema, together with a warning to stockholders that the deal may impact the company's earnings in the medium term. In a prepared statement for the London Stock Exchange, Sema said that the deal will exclude CISI's Spanish operations, and will almost certainly include a degree of reorganization that will leave the group with net assets of around FF 170 million. According to Sema, the acquisition, which must first be approved by the French Ministry for Trade & Industry's privatization committee, will be financed from the group's borrowing facilities on a current and deferred term basis. Sema's half yearly figures to June 30, 1995, show the company's profits as rising 11 percent to UKP 11.6 million on a turnover of UKP 321.9 million -- up eight percent on the same period last year. Detailed examination of the figures shows that pre- tax profits rose by 21 percent to UKP 15.2 million. CISI, meanwhile, seems to have recovered from the doldrums it experienced in the summer of 1992, when the company announced job cuts of 142 owing to a serious decline in profits that could have threatened the company's future. The company saw net profits plummet to $2.3m for 1992, down from $12.6m the year before. (Sylvia Dennis/19951020/Press Contact: Sema Group +44-171-830-4444; Fax +44-171-278-0574) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 10/20/95 GENERAL Tiny Data Storage Device Gets Advocacy Group (NEWS)(GENERAL)(SFO)(00031) Tiny Data Storage Device Gets Advocacy Group 10/20/95 REDWOOD CITY, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1995 OCT 20 (NB) -- The CompactFlash Association (CFA) has been formed by twelve computing, imaging, communications and consumer electronics companies. CompactFlash technology, developed by SanDisk, is said to be the world's smallest removable data storage system so far aimed at the digital photography market. A CompactFlash storage standard is based on a solid-state cartridge about the size of a matchbook and is manufactured in 2, 4, 10 and 15 megabyte (MB) capacities. The cards are characterized as rugged and require low power. Toru Takahashi, director and senior general manager for Canon's research and development headquarters, said, "We believe CF cartridges will become the film for the next generation of digital cameras." SanDisk introduced CF technology about a year ago. A company spokesperson told Newsbytes, "One of its (CF cartridges) main advantages is its size. It is considerably smaller than a PC Card and represents the next level of compact storage. It's primary use has been with digital cameras, but it is also being used with cellular phones, beepers and computers." SanDisk also developed an adapter which allows CF cartridges to interface with a standard PC Card slot common to notebook computers. SanDisk says compact storage technology is indicative of an electronics industry trend to produce more performance on smaller, lighter and less expensive form factors. Founding members are Apple Computer, Canon, Eastman Kodak, Hewlett-Packard, LG Semicon (formerly Goldstar) Matsushita (Panasonic), Motorola, NEC, Polaroid, SanDisk, Seagate and Seiko Epson. Each company will designate a representative to serve as CFA board members. SanDisk says it expects more companies to support and join the new association. According to SanDisk, CFA is designed to encourage other storage and semiconductor manufacturers to develop CF cartridges to meet the projected demand. SanDisk agrees to transfer the CompactFlash trademark and specifications to the association so the property is available under a royalty-free license to third party manufacturers will to participate in the propagation of this new technology. (Patrick McKenna/19951020) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 10/20/95 IBM ****IBM Names Data Warehousing Partners, Lowers Pricing (NEWS)(IBM)(BOS)(00032) ****IBM Names Data Warehousing Partners, Lowers Pricing 10/20/95 SOMERS, NEW YORK, U.S.A., 1995 OCT 20 (NB) -- In a press teleconference, IBM unveiled data warehousing activities that include a price reduction and repackaging of its upcoming Visual Warehouse product, plus partnerships with five third-party software vendors, Arbor, Pilot, Information Advantage, Business Objects, and Vality, and seven education and consulting services. "(This data warehousing) alliance will make it much easier for our mutual customers to leverage the expertise of the `best of breed' in data warehousing to attract every bit of insight from the business information they've amassed, and to put that insight to work in faster, smarter business decisions that will make them more money," said Tim Negris, VP for sales and marketing in the IBM Software Solutions Division, speaking during the teleconference, which was attended by Newsbytes. Visual Warehouse, a product first announced earlier this year, will become commercially available on November 17, according to Negris. Pricing for Visual Warehouse as a stand-alone product has been reduced from $24,000 to $19,950. In addition, IBM has lowered the price for the Visual Warehouse Solution to $22,950, and has modified the ingredients of the package to include "everything required to install a Visual Warehouse system in an OS/2 LAN (local area network) environment." Components of the Visual Warehouse Solution will include DB2 for OS/2, DataGuide, DDCS for OS/2/ Visualizer Query, Visualizer Charts, OS/2 Warp Connect, and Communications Manager/2. Visual Warehouse host adapters, needed for accessing IBM, VSAM, and flat file "legacy databases," are now separately priced at $9,450 apiece. IBM arrived at the new packaging and pricing policies to gain a stronger presence in the VAR (value-added reseller) and SI (systems integrator) channels with an "out-of-the-box" product, according to Negris. IBM has traditionally focused on larger VARs, Negris acknowledged. "But a VAR is in a good position, even if small, to help a (larger business) build" a data warehouse, he told the journalists. "As part of (the VAR recruitment effort), there is a very large array of specific support programs and tools," the VP added. IBM is also providing "tighter integration," both within its various data warehousing components, and between the IBM products and third-party tools, Negris contended. DataGuide, IBM's data cataloging and search engine tool, now incorporates metadata ("data about the data") and the ability to invoke applications from DataGuide, according to the VP. Meanwhile, Visual Warehouse will serve as a "backplane" that allows easy "plug-ins" from third-party tools, he asserted. DataGuide, for example, now includes a "generic data model of MDDS structures" for integration with outside MDDS tools. In addition, IBM's DataJoiner now provides access to non-IBM databases. Negris characterized IBM as the "brain trust" for data warehousing. "But data warehousing is a big challenge, and there are a lot of other people out there who have developed expertise in extremely important domains. A lot of what we're talking about today is putting smart people together with other smart people," he added. Of the five third-party tool companies now named as IBM partners, Arbor Software Corp., Pilot Software, and Information Advantage are part of the MDDS arena. Business Objects provides decision support tools for accessing relational database management systems (RDBMS) for the desktop. Vality produces a data reengineering or "data cleansing" products known as Integrity. "The people at Essbase and Arbor (are people) who know the intimate details of how time series data on Wall Street is very different from time series data in a manufacturing plant, or in a retail distribution supply plan. Other smart people would be (the people) at Vality, who have been making quite a splash in the industry recently saying that -- as our mothers all told us as children, (and) data is the same way -- `hygiene is important,'" noted Negris. Through the new pacts, users will be able to employ Arbor's Essbase, Pilot's LightShip Server, the DecisionSuite product from Information Advantage, and Business Objects' tools to access and analyze DB2 data, according to the IBM exec. Also on the DB2 front, IBM has updated its support of DB2 2.1 for OS/2 and AIX, and that DB2 for OS/400 has been pinpointed as a "target database" for the future. The seven education and consulting services now appointed as IBM data warehousing partners will receive early information on IBM's "product direction and development," training at advanced technical workshops, and access to pre-release software and documentation. The services include IBM Consulting and Services; SHL Systemhouse Inc.; Price Waterhouse LLP; Database Associates International; Syllogic; IMI Systems Inc.; and The Indica Group. Syllogic is based in Nouten, Netherlands. Data Base Associates has offices in the UK as well as the US. The other third-party education and consulting services are US-based. IBM will also consider other third-party toolmakers and education/consulting services as data warehousing partners in the future, according to Negris. (Jacqueline Emigh/19951020/Reader Contact: IBM, 914-765-1900; Press Contacts: Rick Bause, IBM, 914-766-1750; Susan Scott-Ker, IBM, 914-766-1463; Parna Sarkar or Margaret Bonilla, Brodeur & Partners for IBM, 617-622-2833) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 10/20/95 GENERAL Newsbytes Week In Review (NEWS)(GENERAL)(MSP)(00033) Newsbytes Week In Review 10/20/95 MINNEAPOLIS, MINNESOTA, U.S.A., 1995 OCT 20 (NB) -- This is a look at the top stories this week, listing with their category code: Newsbytes Launches 2nd Web Site - Full Keyword Searching, Silicon Graphics Workstations Get Productivity Bundle, Sprint Records Record 3Q Results, Networks Everywhere Says Compaq Boss Following Record 3Q, Six Newspapers Announce Internet Job Listings, HP On The Go With OmniGo - New Organizer, Motorola Sets PowerPC 603e Chip Prices, Microsoft 1Qtr Profits Hit Record, Jump 58%, BBC Discovers Faxes Are Not Secure, Lotus Buyout Puts IBM In Red In Qtr, Softbank Purchase Of Ziff Davis Publishing Imminent, Profits Down 48% At Apple, 77% of US Firms In Cyberspace By 1997 - Study, Feds Bust Huge Cell Phone "Cloning" Ring, Not Guilty" Declares Alleged Chip Spy, Budget Battle Slows Telecom, IEEE Backs Online Smut Filters, IBM Names Data Warehousing Partners, Lowers Pricing. Newsbytes Launches 2nd Web Site - Full Keyword Searching (ONLINE) MINNEAPOLIS, MINNESOTA, U.S.A., 1995 OCT 16 (NB) -- Finding the raw data for that term paper, research project, or coming computer purchase from today's, or the past 12 years of technology news coverage has never been easier on the Internet with the new, online version of Newsbytes News Network's archives and subscription service. At http://www.nbnn.com , readers can also access free daily top stories from Newsbytes and its affiliate publications, and from PC Week, MacWeek, and other Ziff news magazines, making the site a comprehensive source of computer and telecom technology reporting. Silicon Graphics Workstations Get Productivity Bundle (UNIX) MOUNTAIN VIEW, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1995 OCT 16 (NB) -- Silicon Graphics (NASDAQ:SGI) says its Indy and Indigo2 workstations are shipping with a Unix productivity bundle which includes videoconferencing, World Wide Web browsing and editing, the ability to run Windows and DOS applications, and an Acrobat Reader utility. The company maintains the new bundle "increases personal productivity and group collaboration." Sprint Records Record 3Q Results (TELECOM) KANSAS CITY, MISSOURI, U.S.A., 1995 OCT 17 (NB) -- Sprint Inc. (NYSE:FON) reported record results for the third quarter of this year. Net income increased almost 17 percent for the year overall to $269 million, and operating income rose almost 16 percent to $544 million from a year ago. Networks Everywhere, Says Compaq Boss Following Record 3Q (BUSINESS) HOUSTON, TEXAS, U.S.A., 1995 OCT 17 (NB) -- There will be networked PC servers "in nearly every office, manufacturing facility, store, school and home" by the end of the decade, according to Eckhard Pfeiffer, president and chief executive officer of Compaq Computer Corp. (NYSE: CPQ). Pfeiffer made his prediction during his keynote speech at Innovate Forum 95, a three-day Compaq-sponsored event, following a record third quarter in which Compaq increased sales by 27 percent to $3.6 billion for the period. Six Newspapers Announce Internet Job Listings (ONLINE) CHICAGO, ILLINOIS, U.S.A., 1995 OCT 17 (NB) -- A national interactive employment service based on the Internet's World Wide Web is being started by six of the US's largest newspapers. Called "CareerPath.com," the new site is billed as having the most comprehensive listing of jobs on the Internet. HP On The Go With OmniGo - New Organizer (PEN) PALO ALTO, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1995 OCT 17 (NB) -- Hewlett- Packard (NYSE:HWP) has introduced OmniGo 100 as an affordable handheld organizer with pen and keyboard input for under $350. The software operating system was developed by Geoworks (NASDAQ:GWRX), the well-known developer of hand-held computer operating systems. Motorola Sets PowerPC 603e Chip Prices (CHIPS) AUSTIN, TEXAS, U.S.A., 1995 OCT 18 (NB) -- Motorola Inc. (NYSE:MOT) has announced pricing and general availability of its 100 megahertz (MHz) and 120MHz RISC (reduced instruction set computing) PowerPC 603e microprocessors. The chips are designed for use in notebook and entry-level desktop systems. Microsoft 1Qtr Profits Hit Record, Jump 58% (BUSINESS) REDMOND, WASHINGTON, U.S.A., 1995 OCT 18 (NB) -- Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ: MSFT) has announced that its quarterly profits jumped more than 58 percent for the first quarter of the company's fiscal year, with the results fueled by sale of more than seven million copies of the Windows 95 operating system and graphical user interface. The period ended September 30, 1995, with the results exceeding many financial analysts' expectations. BBC Discovers Faxes Are Not Secure (LEGAL) BLACKPOOL, LANCASHIRE, ENGLAND, 1995 OCT 19 (NB) -- The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) found out late last week that faxes are not a secure transmission system. After faxing a copy of a top secret internal management document to a BBC senior staying at the Pembroke Hotel in Blackpool, where the Conservative Party Conference took place all last week, BBC executives were aghast to discover that the fax was sent to the room of Nigel Nelson, a journalist with The People newspaper, who was also staying at the hotel. Lotus Buyout Puts IBM In Red In Qtr (IBM) ARMONK, NEW YORK, U.S.A., 1995 OCT 19 (NB) -- A one-time charge related to its takeover of Lotus Development Corp. left IBM (NYSE:IBM) with a loss in the third quarter, but before the $1.8 billion charge the company's earnings were up significantly over the same quarter a year earlier. Revenues rose nine percent versus the third quarter of 1994. Softbank Purchase Of Ziff Davis Publishing Imminent (TYO) TOKYO, JAPAN, 1995 OCT 19 (NB) -- Softbank Corporation confirmed in Tokyo this evening that it is in talks over the purchase of Ziff Davis Publishing. Softbank president, Mayoshi Son, told assembled journalists that the company is in negotiations over a final price for the deal and has already reached agreement on several terms. Profits Down 48% At Apple (APPLE) CUPERTINO, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1995 OCT 19 (NB) -- Apple Computer Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) has released its fourth quarter results with a record $3 billion in revenues and a 25% increase in unit shipments over the same quarter last year. In spite of record setting numbers, the company's income suffered a 48% decrease compared to the same quarter last year. 77% of US Firms In Cyberspace By 1997 - Study (TRENDS) NEW YORK CITY, NEW YORK, U.S.A., 1995 OCT 19 (NB) -- A new survey from Straightline International claims that more than three quarters of US companies are either already on the Internet or will be on the Net within two years. Seventy-seven percent of the companies surveyed said they would be in cyberspace by 1997. Feds Bust Huge Cell Phone "Cloning" Ring (LEGAL) NEW YORK, NEW YORK, U.S.A., 1995 OCT 20 (NB) -- New York officials have cracked what they call "the biggest illegal cellular telephone cloning operation in the country" with the arrest of three individuals this week. If convicted the suspects could receive up to 15 years in state priso Not Guilty" Declares Alleged Chip Spy (LEGAL) SAN JOSE, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1995 OCT 20 (NB) -- A former Intel Corp. (NASDAQ: INTL) employee who said federal agents set him up told a US District Court judge this week he is not guilty of giving valuable industrial secrets to an Intel competitor. Budget Battle Slows Telecom (TELECOM) WASHINGTON, D.C., U.S.A., 1995 OCT 20 (NB) -- The tug-of-war between Congress and the White House over the federal budget has put telecommunications reform legislation in a holding pattern. As a result, a House-Senate conference committee to work out differences in the two bills could start work as the clock begins to run out on the first session of the 104th Congress. IEEE Backs Online Smut Filters (ONLINE) WASHINGTON, D.C., U.S.A., 1995 OCT 20 (NB) -- Joining the fray over online smut, the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers is backing filtering technology, not criminal law, as the best way to protect children in cyberspace. IBM Names Data Warehousing Partners, Lowers Pricing (IBM) SOMERS, NEW YORK, U.S.A., 1995 OCT 20 (NB) -- In a press teleconference, IBM unveiled data warehousing activities that include a price reduction and repackaging of its upcoming Visual Warehouse product, plus partnerships with five third-party software vendors, Arbor, Pilot, Information Advantage, Business Objects, and Vality, and seven education and consulting services. (Ian Stokell/19951020) (SUMMARY)(GENERAL)(MSP)(00034) Newsbytes Daily Summary 10/20/95 MINNEAPOLIS, MINNESOTA, U.S.A., 1995 OCT 20 (NB) -- These are capsules of all today's news stories: ======================================================================== ------------| N E W S B Y T E S D A I L Y S U M M A R Y |---------- ------------| Friday, October 20, 1995 |---------- ======================================================================== (c) Newsbytes News Network (Tm) Editor in Chief: Wendy Woods ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Newsbytes News Network's on the Web! Check out http://www.nbnn.com for free daily top stories from Newsbytes. and its affiliate publications, and from PC Week, MacWeek, and other Ziff news magazines. A subscription gives you all the news, full-text, plus the most comprehensive database of past computer stories online. The keyword-searchable database dates from today back through 1983. Subscriptions are $24.95 for three months. Questions? Send to 'administrator@newsbytes.com' For Japanese Newsbytes and additional services, see the Newsbytes Pacifica Website at http://www.islandtel.com/newsbytes/ ------------------------------------------------------------------------ CATEGORY HEADLINES (*** indicates today's top stories) STORY # ======================================================================== APPLE Spindler Makes Video Visit To Australia.................... 01 BROADCAST Microsoft Launches European Satellite TV Program........... 04 BUSINESS Dutch Investment Company Acquires QMS Europe, Australia.... 05 BUSINESS HP Authorizes Support Providers In Czech Republic.......... 19 BUSINESS CTP Buys Axiom, Opens Object Showcase, Adds Partners....... 23 BUSINESS Amdahl Takes Up Shares Though DMR Board Cool To Offer...... 27 BUSINESS Sema Group To Acquire France's CISI........................ 30 CHIPS GEC Plessey Readies UK Chip Plant.......................... 07 CHIPS Intel's Major Plant Expansion For Ireland.................. 09 EDUCATION Kids' Computer Habits Studied.............................. 13 GENERAL World IT Conference Set For Bangkok In November............ 14 GENERAL Personnel Roundup.......................................... 17 GENERAL Japan Newsbriefs........................................... 20 GENERAL Tiny Data Storage Device Gets Advocacy Group............... 31 GENERAL Newsbytes Week In Review................................... 33 GOVT China Moves To Restrict Radio-Emission Devices............. 10 GOVT Australia Spending Big On Outsourcing...................... 12 IBM ****IBM Names Data Warehousing Partners, Lowers Pricing... 32 LEGAL ****Feds Bust Huge Cell Phone "Cloning" Ring.............. 22 LEGAL ****"Not Guilty" Declares Alleged Chip Spy................ 24 ONLINE Philippines' Manila Times Online........................... 11 ONLINE ****IEEE Backs Online Smut Filters........................ 26 ONLINE 12 Million-Entry Business Directory Free On The Web........ 28 ONLINE Pipex Offers Software Amnesty To Unlicensed NetScape Users. 29 TELECOM Poland Confirms New Cellular Net Plans..................... 03 TELECOM Ericsson In On Russia's Telecoms Planning.................. 06 TELECOM Europe Running Out Of Phone Numbers........................ 08 TELECOM US West In India........................................... 15 TELECOM India - Alcatel Eyes Ailing ITI............................ 16 TELECOM ****Budget Battle Slows Telecom........................... 25 TRENDS Australian IT Exports On Track To $10 Billion.............. 02 TRENDS Mini Disc Sales Take Off As Million Mark Approaches........ 21 WINDOWS Czech Version Of Worldgroup BBS Package.................... 18 ======================================================================== These are the headlines and first paragraphs of each story, in order: 1 -> Spindler Makes Video Visit To Australia -- Apple Computer President and Chief Executive Michael Spindler believes he has the key to making the Macintosh once more the world's best-selling personal computer, and ensuring Apple's long-term survival. In a video conference with Australian journalists yesterday, he forecast a potential global market share for the Apple brand "in the mid-teens," almost double the Mac's current penetration rate. 2 -> Australian IT Exports On Track To $10 Billion -- Most sectors of Australia's IT industry are in booming good health, judging by results of a survey presented to Wednesday's annual general meeting and conference of the Australian Information Industry Association. 3 -> Poland Confirms New Cellular Net Plans -- The Polish Government has opened tenders for two of the three planned new cellular networks in Poland. According to Communications Minister Andrzej Zielinski, the licences will be awarded in February of 1996 and foreign companies, including Ameritech (already a partner in the state Centertel project), AT&T, Deutsche Telecom and Sprint, can enter the tender application list. 4 -> Microsoft Launches European Satellite TV Program -- Microsoft has launched its own regular TV show on NBC Superchannel, the European satellite TV channel broadcast on the Astra and Eutelsat satellites. The weekly program is also available on videotape, as well as over phone lines using Picturetel standard equipment. 5 -> Dutch Investment Company Acquires QMS Europe, Australia -- QMS has announced the sale of its shares in QMS Europe and QMS Australia to Jalak Investments, a Dutch investment house. The deal will generate more than $10 million for QMS, but the company claims that no appreciable change will take place in day-to-day administration of the two former divisions of QMS. 6 -> Ericsson In On Russia's Telecoms Planning -- Ericsson has signed up as a new member of the Telecommunications Forum, an international non- commercial organization, which aims to assist in the development of the Russian Federation's telecommunications infrastructure. 7 -> GEC Plessey Readies UK Chip Plant -- GEC Plessey Semiconductors has announced plans to expand its CMOS (complimentary metal oxide semiconductor) facility in Plymouth to manufacture 0.5 micron chips. The expansion will cost the company $16 million but pushes the firm into the forefront of chip fabrication, as it is the first facility of its type in the UK, Newsbytes notes. 8 -> Europe Running Out Of Phone Numbers -- As in the US, the numbering schemes employed by countries in Europe are running out. But, unlike the US, where the 3+3+4 numbering scheme reigns supreme, the disparate numbering systems in Europe are causing telecom administrators headaches. 9 -> Intel's Major Plant Expansion For Ireland -- Intel has announced provisional plans to expand its Leixlip, Dublin-based chip production facility to become one of Europe's largest chip fabrication plants. A formal announcement on the plan, which will be Ireland's biggest foreign IT (information technology) investment ever, is expected early next week. 10 -> China Moves To Restrict Radio-Emission Devices -- The State Radio Regulatory Commission (SRRC) has urged provincial branches to implement regulations to curb the chaotic import of radio emission devices. The regulations, announced in July, require that imported radio-emission devices get approval based on their type from SRRC, beginning next year. 11 -> Philippines' Manila Times Online -- Online commercially since September 25, the Manila Times will also go on the World Wide Web early in 1996. 12 -> Australia Spending Big On Outsourcing -- Get ready for an outsourcing boom in NSW state Government. The results of an IT&T survey conducted by the Department of Public Works and Services earlier this year show that around AUS$55 million was spent by 42 agencies during the 1993-94 financial year, and 64 percent of the 100-odd agencies which responded to the survey have tested the outsourcing waters. 13 -> Kids' Computer Habits Studied -- Children do not talk about brands when discussing computers, they talk about playing. In the five to 12-year-old age group, there is little evidence of computer addiction and the kids learn computer skills by trial and error, fiddling and watching others, according to a study conducted by Toni Downes from the University of Western Sydney's faculty of education. 14 -> World IT Conference Set For Bangkok In November -- The World Bank, the Global Information Infrastructure Commission (GIIC) and the leading Thai information technology agency will stage an international conference at the United Nations building in Bangkok November. 15 -> US West In India -- Unfazed by the opposition to its entry into India, the American telecom giant US West promises the usage of the latest in digital switching technology here. In a workshop organized in New Delhi last month, US West (India) Ltd. and BPL Systems and Projects Ltd. announced that they will use Hybrid-Fibre Coax technology for their telecom projects in Tamil Nadu. Experts from both the companies demonstrated how voice, video and data get integrated using Hybrid-Fibre Coax. 16 -> India - Alcatel Eyes Ailing ITI -- Alcatel, the French telecom equipment company, has an eye on the Indian Telephone Industries (ITI) Ltd., the Bangalore-based public sector undertaking (PSU) manufacturing telecom equipment. However, according to Josef Cornu, vice-chairman of Alcatel, the company, which is presently undergoing restructuring of its operations worldwide, would not seriously move in this direction unless the ailing ITI Ltd. is divided into smaller units. 17 -> Personnel Roundup -- This week saw comings and goings at the following firms: VeriFone Inc., TCSI Corp., Dell Computer Corp., Blyth Software Inc., Quark Inc., Unisys Corp., Psion Inc., and Oracle Corp. 18 -> Czech Version Of Worldgroup BBS Package -- Infima s.r.o., the Prague-based BBS supplier and operator, is wrapping up its translation of the Czech version of Galacticom's new Worldgroup package, which should be on the shelves within a couple of months. 19 -> HP Authorizes Support Providers In Czech Republic -- Hewlett-Packard s.r.o. has signed on its first three Authorized Support Providers in the Czech Republic. 20 -> Japan Newsbriefs -- In this roundup of news from Japan, NTT, affiliate, plan price cuts, IPA offers software company home pages, NTT to replace telephone circuits, Mecklermedia takes Internet World east, Sharp announces new Viewcam, Sega ties US distribution deal with Softbank, Sega unveils Web browser add-on, interactive TV venture planned. 21 -> Mini Disc Sales Take Off As Million Mark Approaches -- It has taken almost four years but sales of players for the Mini Disc audio format are about to break the one million mark helped by a recent sales campaign and a range of new players coming to the market from manufacturers that have adopted the system. 22 -> ****Feds Bust Huge Cell Phone "Cloning" Ring -- New York officials have cracked what they call "the biggest illegal cellular telephone cloning operation in the country" with the arrest of three individuals this week. If convicted the suspects could receive up to 15 years in state prison. 23 -> CTP Buys Axiom, Opens Object Showcase, Adds Partners -- At a press conference at company headquarters in Cambridge, Massachusetts, Cambridge Technology Partners (CTP) unveiled pacts with eight packaged software vendors, plus the opening of a new "CMS (Customer Management Systems) Center of Excellence" envisioned by officials as a combination "think tank," repository, and showcase for object frameworks supporting business process re-engineering (BPR). 24 -> ****"Not Guilty" Declares Alleged Chip Spy -- A former Intel Corp. (NASDAQ: INTL) employee who said federal agents set him up told a US District Court judge this week he is not guilty of giving valuable industrial secrets to an Intel competitor. 25 -> ****Budget Battle Slows Telecom -- The tug-of-war between Congress and the White House over the federal budget has put telecommunications reform legislation in a holding pattern. As a result, a House-Senate conference committee to work out differences in the two bills could start work as the clock begins to run out on the first session of the 104th Congress. 26 -> ****IEEE Backs Online Smut Filters -- Joining the fray over online smut, the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers is backing filtering technology, not criminal law, as the best way to protect children in cyberspace. 27 -> Amdahl Takes Up Shares Though DMR Board Cool To Offer -- As the three-way takeover battle for consulting firm DMR Group Inc. (TSE:DR) continues, Amdahl Corp. (AMEX:AMH) has taken up shares already tendered to it by DMR's major shareholders. But DMR's board of directors has chosen not to recommend to its shareholders either Amdahl's offer nor a rival one by BDM International, Inc., (NASDAQ:BDMI) of McLean, Virginia. 28 -> 12 Million-Entry Business Directory Free On The Web -- World Yellow Pages Network has placed a list of 12 million businesses on the World Wide Web, with business name, address, phone number and ZIP Code. In addition World Yellow Pages Network offers to create, at no charge, an unique Web home page for any business that requests one. 29 -> Pipex Offers Software Amnesty To Unlicensed NetScape Users -- Pipex, the UK Internet service provider and distributor of NetScape Navigator, has announced it is offering an amnesty to any unlicensed user of Navigator in the UK. The amnesty, which is being organized in conjunction with Internet magazine, allows anyone buying the November issue of the magazine to register their copy of NetScape navigator for UKP 15.00, a saving of UKP 34.95 on standard pricing. 30 -> Sema Group To Acquire France's CISI -- The Sema Group, the computer services provider company, has announced plans to acquire CISA, the French systems integration and outsourcing company owned by CEA Industrie. The deal is significant, as it is unusual for a UK company to make an acquisition of this type in Europe. 31 -> Tiny Data Storage Device Gets Advocacy Group -- The CompactFlash Association (CFA) has been formed by twelve computing, imaging, communications and consumer electronics companies. CompactFlash technology, developed by SanDisk, is said to be the world's smallest removable data storage system so far aimed at the digital photography market. 32 -> ****IBM Names Data Warehousing Partners, Lowers Pricing -- In a press teleconference, IBM unveiled data warehousing activities that include a price reduction and repackaging of its upcoming Visual Warehouse product, plus partnerships with five third-party software vendors, Arbor, Pilot, Information Advantage, Business Objects, and Vality, and seven education and consulting services. 33 -> Newsbytes Week In Review -- This is a look at the top stories this week, listing with their category code: Newsbytes Launches 2nd Web Site - Full Keyword Searching, Silicon Graphics Workstations Get Productivity Bundle, Sprint Records Record 3Q Results, Networks Everywhere Says Compaq Boss Following Record 3Q, Six Newspapers Announce Internet Job Listings, HP On The Go With OmniGo - New Organizer, Motorola Sets PowerPC 603e Chip Prices, Microsoft 1Qtr Profits Hit Record, Jump 58%, BBC Discovers Faxes Are Not Secure, Lotus Buyout Puts IBM In Red In Qtr, Softbank Purchase Of Ziff Davis Publishing Imminent, Profits Down 48% At Apple, 77% of US Firms In Cyberspace By 1997 - Study, Feds Bust Huge Cell Phone "Cloning" Ring, Not Guilty" Declares Alleged Chip Spy, Budget Battle Slows Telecom, IEEE Backs Online Smut Filters, IBM Names Data Warehousing Partners, Lowers Pricing. (Wendy Woods/19951020) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 10/19/95 GENERAL China - Newsbriefs (NEWS)(GENERAL)(PEK)(00001) China - Newsbriefs 10/19/95 BEIJING, CHINA, 1995 OCT 19 (NB) -- In this news roundup from China: pager services in many cities will be linked, optical cable links 50 railway stations in Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region, Ericsson sells mobile phone systems to Hunnan and Liaoning, and one million computers will be sold this year in China. Pager Services To Be Linked In Cities Pager services provided by Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications in 31 cities are scheduled to be hooked up at the beginning of next year, the ministry announced recently. The Telecommunications Administration of the ministry has signed a contract with a US company for the link-up. Optic Cable Links 50 Railway Stations In Guangxi The Liuzhou-Lengshuitan long-distance fiber-optic cable communication project was put into service recently in Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region. As a result, the 50 stations along the 400 kilometer railway line, which are managed by Liuzhou Railway Bureau, have been connected by modern communication tools. With an investment of more than RMB82 million (US$9.8 million) it is a major project taken by the Ministry of Railway during the Eighth Five-Year Plan period (1991-1995). Ericsson Sells Mobile Phone Systems To Hunnan & Liaoning Swedish telecommunications giant Ericsson has signed two major contracts totaling $77.5 million with two provinces. The first contract, worth US$43 million, is for the expansion of a TACS (Total Access Communications System) analog mobile cellular system in Hunnan province. The other is a US$34.5 million deal for similar purpose in Liaoning Province. Deliveries for the contracts are expected to begin in late 1995. One Million Computers To Be Sold This Year In China The Asia-Pacific personal computer market is expected to grow 24.3 percent year-on-year in 1995, with sales reaching 6.66 million units, the Xinhua News Agency reported. China, Thailand, and Malaysia are leading the boom, with China breaking the one-million unit level for the first time. The PC market in China is poised to expand by more than 60 percent, while the growth rate in Thailand will top 40 percent and Malaysia Singapore 30 percent, according to industry research firm, Dataquest. (Chih-Ho Yu & Ning Huang/19951019) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 10/19/95 TRENDS China - AST Posts Strong PC Sales (NEWS)(TRENDS)(PEK)(00002) China - AST Posts Strong PC Sales 10/19/95 BEIJING, CHINA, 1995 OCT 19 (NB) -- Although loosing in its native land, AST's sales in China increased in the first half of this year, and the company has introduced new personal computer models, complete with Windows 95, to further tap the huge Chinese market. While Compaq and IBM are introducing their new multimedia computers to China, AST is presenting a new series of notebook and desktop products priced in the US$1,500 to US$2,500 range. Some analysts contend that this reflects a strategic shift by the company due to its poor results in the US. The company lost about $40 million this quarter in the US. However, problems in the US will not affect the company's operation in China because the China operation operates alone, is profitable, and is running well, said AST officials. In China, AST showed a 40 percent increase in sales in the first half of the year, as compared to the same period last year. July and August saw a growth rate of 144 percent in sales, said Robert Mcfarland, vice- president of the company's Asia-Pacific and Mid-East operations. AST's Chinese partner, Legend Group, is expected to sell over 10,000 AST computers by the end of this year, according to their agreement. AST and Microsoft signed an agreement for pre-installation of the Windows 95 operating system on AST's new products, which will have Intel's Pentium processor or P6 as the central processors. Since it first entered China in 1986, AST has experienced several ups and downs. In 1993, AST's computers, which were designed specifically for the Chinese home education market, did not sell well. In the United States, AST's main competitors are Compaq and Hewlett- Packard. Compaq and IBM are the strong competitors for AST in China. (Chih-Ho Yu & Ning Huang/19951019) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 10/19/95 GOVT China - Large-Scale Electronics Firms Planned (NEWS)(GOVT)(PEK)(00003) China - Large-Scale Electronics Firms Planned 10/19/95 BEIJING, CHINA, 1995 OCT 19 (NB) -- China's electronics industry will focus on large-scale production during the Ninth Five-Year Plan period (1996-2000), Vice Minister of Electronics Industry Liu Jianfeng said. Large group companies will play a more important role in the industry's development. The electronics industry must be developed in large scale production to meet international competition, which will become more fierce if China becomes a member of the World Trade Organization, the vice Minister said. The ministry will foster three to five large enterprises with an annual sales value of over RMB20 billion by the year 2000. During the Five-Year Plan period, the capital for development will be raised by various means, such as issuing stocks, and using loans and funds from both home and abroad, the senior government official said. The ministry has set up a foreign investment office under the Department of Overall Planning, he declared, saying it will keep cooperating with foreign companies. Overseas investors are encouraged to develop new and high technology and to renovate existing enterprises with their Chinese partners, he added. During the ninth five year plan period, the ministry will be developing integrated circuits, new types of components and devices, computers, software, and communications equipment, the vice minister said. The ministry hopes to achieve an average annual growth rate of more than 20 percent by 2000. The industry's annual output value is expected to reach RMB500 billion to RMB600 billion (US$59 billion to US$71 billion) in 2000, from RMB185.9 billion (US$22 billion) in 1994. (Chih-Ho Yu & Ning Huang/19951019) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 10/19/95 SUPERCOMPUTER Top Ten Supercomputers (NEWS)(SUPERCOMPUTER)(LAX)(00004) Top Ten Supercomputers 10/19/95 MOUNTAIN VIEW, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1995 OCT 19 (NB) -- The Top 500 Report, issued each year by researchers at the University of Tennessee and the University of Mannheim, tallies the top 500 supercomputer installations around the world. The list is led by Fujitsu's wind tunnel supercomputer installed in 1993. The Top 500 report is released annually by professors Jack Dongarra, University of Tennessee and Oak Ridge National Laboratory, and Hans W. Meuer and Erich Strohmaier of the University of Mannheim, Germany. The present list ranks supercomputers by their performance on the "LINPACK Benchmark" -- the benchmark used is to solve a dense system of linear equations. For the TOP 500 a version of the benchmark was used that allows the user to scale the size of the problem and to optimize the software in order to achieve the "best performance for a given machine." This performance reportedly does not reflect the overall performance of a given system, but it does, however, reflect the performance of a dedicated system for solving a dense system of linear equations. The ranking is based on the speed which the system operates at while performing the LINPACK Benchmark. It is measured in mega floating point operations per second(MFLOPS) The following are the top ten sites listed with manufacturer, installation site, general field of use, number of processors, and the ranked speed in MFLOPS. First: Fujitsu, Numerical Wind Tunnel, Japan, Aerospace, 140 processors, 170400 MFLOPS. Second: Intel, Sandia National Labs, United States, Research, 3,680 processors, 143400 MFLOPS. Third: Intel, Oak Ridge National Lab, United States, Research, 3,072 processors, 127100 MFLOPS. Fourth: Cray, Government, United States, Classified, 1024 processors, 100500 MFLOPS. Fifth: Fujitsu, National Lab for High Energy Physics, Japan, Research, 80 processors, 98900 MFLOPS. Sixth: TMC, Los Alamos National Lab, United States, Energy, 1056 processors, 59700 MFLOPS. Seventh: Fujitsu, Japan Atomic Research, Japan, Research, 42 processors, 54500 MFLOPS. Eighth: TMC, Minnesota Supercomputer Center, United States, Academic, 896, 52300 MFLOPS. Ninth: Cray, Los Alamos National Lab, United States, Energy, 512 processors, 50800 MFLOPS. Tenth: Cray, Pittsburgh Supercomputing Center, Academic, 512 processors, 50800 MFLOPS. Five-hundredth: Silicon Graphics, Westinghouse, Industrial, 8 processors, 1955 MFLOPS (this is actually a 52 system tie with 52 Silicon Graphics systems all with the same result). (Richard Bowers/19950916/Press Contact: Ginny Babbitt, Silicon Graphics, 415-390-2527) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 10/19/95 TRENDS Compaq Tops PC Sales In Thailand (NEWS)(TRENDS)(HKG)(00005) Compaq Tops PC Sales In Thailand 10/19/95 BANGKOK, THAILAND, 1995 OCT 19 (NB) -- Compaq was ranked number one in PC sales in Thailand for the first half of this year, according to a survey by Dataquest. In the survey, Compaq topped the list with 12.57% market share, followed by IBM 10.46%, Acer 9.13%, Laser 8.39%, and DEC 6.28%. Dataquest did not disclose total unit sales. Not all vendors agreed with the survey results. With IBM being displaced to the number two position in the Dataquest survey, IBM Thailand Managing Director Wanarak Eckachai said he did not believe Dataquest's survey was accurate. He said he felt confident that IBM Thailand had done the best in the first half of this year and deserve the number one spot. "There must be some missing information," he added. IBM Thailand PC Manager Suphajee Suthumpun said IBM sold more then 11,000 PCs in the first half of this year. "Our sales growth continues. In the third quarter alone, we had sold some 10,000 PCs," she said, adding that she expected to sell another 10,000 PCs in the last quarter of this year. Digital Equipment (Thailand) Corp is also unhappy with the results, as the company expected to finish the year in a better position since some 20,000 units were expected to be sold. Dataquest said Compaq's success came from the fact that it was able to distribute ProLinea models to many businesses and had many distributors. IBM's strength was in the banking sector and it had won a contract to supply 5,000 PCs to the Thai Farmers Bank this year, the survey said. Acer came third in sales because its major distributor, the Sahaviriya OA Group, has a strong distribution channel and the ability to win government projects. A surprising number four, Laser, did the best in provincial markets with its low-cost 486 DX2 PCs, Dataquest noted. In the first half of this year, major customers were medium businesses, accounting for 26% of sales, small businesses (22%), then organizations (21%), followed by home users (14%), government offices 5%, and educational institutes with 8%. Dataquest further predicted that PC growth would be around 18%-22% on average from 1997-1999, with total PC sales as high as 550,000 units in 1999. Four brandnames -- AST, HP, Packard Bell, and Samsung -- will be worth keeping an eye on in the Thai marketplace as they are expected to grow sales by more than 100%, Dataquest said. The company noted that AST had a local subsidiary, HP was opting for a competitive price policy, Packard Bell had no problem with service, and Samsung's prices were very low at about 20% cheaper than Compaq. (Tony Waltham and Post Database-Bangkok Post/19951019) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 10/19/95 ONLINE Thailand - KSC Plans Internet Service Expansion (NEWS)(ONLINE)(HKG)(00006) Thailand - KSC Plans Internet Service Expansion 10/19/95 BANGKOK, THAILAND 1995 OCT 19 (NB) -- KSC Commercial Internet (KSC ComNet) plans to invest an additional 200 million baht (US$8 million) to expand its Internet service to 76 provinces and to upgrade its international telephone line to six 2Mb lines, according to KSC ComNet Executive Board Chairman Dr. Srisakdi Charmonman. He said there was Internet demand outside Bangkok and that the project would serve as the first step in learning more about the demands of rural areas. After the company has increased its registered capital to 100 million baht with a new shareholder, Jasmine International, it will use fiber optics and satellite telecommunications, as well as setting up corners for registration and Internet demonstrations in 10 branches of Jasmine's Smart Shops. It will also invest another 200 million baht to expand its service nationwide. He said Internet users upcountry would be able to access the Internet through the X.25 line of the Communications Authority of Thailand (CAT). He expects the rate will be one to two baht (between 4 and 8 US cents) a minute. (Tony Waltham and Post Database-Bangkok Post/19951019) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 10/19/95 TRENDS China - Computer Associates Targets Businesses (NEWS)(TRENDS)(PEK)(00007) China - Computer Associates Targets Businesses 10/19/95 BEIJING, CHINA, 1995 OCT 19 (NB) -- As a latecomer to China, compared with other business software companies, Computer Associates International (CA) is pushing hard to increase its share of the market. The company is confident about its success in the huge market, Charles Wang, chairman and chief executive officer (CEO) of CA, told Newsbytes in an exclusive interview in Beijing. Compared with other business software companies, such as System Software Associates (SSA) and SAP, CA entered China rather late. However, CA will provide Chinese users with "unique integrated solutions" to run their businesses, said Wang. Wang visited China recently in his first trip back since he left Shanghai in 1944 to emigrate to the United States with his family at the age of 8. Wang held a series of high-level meetings with clients and government officials. He also presented a keynote speech in '95 China ComputerWorld Expo, the largest annual computer exhibition/conference in the country. CA is expanding its business in China. After setting up its Shanghai office last April, the company will open a Beijing office in November, Wang said. He is quite sure that the company will do well in China because the country needs business software in its modernization. CA's major products are software for system management, database and application development manufacturing, distribution, and finance, Wang said. CA's software has been used by several major Chinese government departments and banks, such as the General Administration of Customs, Ministry of Energy, Bank of China, and Agricultural Bank of China. Like An Wang of Wang Laboratories, Charles Wang inspires Chinese technical professionals and business entrepreneurs with his Chinese- American technology success story. On October 10, a new book in Chinese on Wang was published, entitled "Software Dragon: Charles Wang and his CA Empire." (Chih-Ho Yu & Ning Huang/19951019/Reader Contact: Bob Gordon, CA, 516-342-2391) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 10/19/95 GENERAL Australian News Briefs (NEWS)(GENERAL)(SYD)(00008) Australian News Briefs 10/19/95 SYDNEY, AUSTRALIA, 1995 OCT 19 (NB) -- In this roundup of news from Australia: Sun Microsystems Establishes SunSITE, IDC Australia Releases Research Bulletin, Oracle Australia Gets New Head, Telstra Signs With ABB Asea Brown Boveri, Applied Micro Systems Revenues Up, Music By Fax Service Launched, AT&T Offers Internet Backbone In Asia. Sun Microsystems Establishes SunSITE Sun Microsystems has established a SunSITE (software information and technology exchange) at the Australian National University, to develop better tools for Internet access and to promote the Internet among community and cultural groups. It is the nineteenth SunSITE around the world, the third in the southern hemisphere. The ANU site is based on a SPARCserver with 512 megabytes (MB) of memory and 20 gigabytes (GB) of disk storage. It should be operational next year. IDC Australia Releases Research Bulletin IDC Australia has released a research bulletin, which gives a half year update on the Australian PC market. The bulletin reviews and forecasts the 1995-1999 period, and identifies the Pentium processor, the home market, and price movements as the most powerful market drivers this year. "The first half of 1995 saw total shipments amounting to 601,254 units," said a company analyst. Based on that trend, a 21 percent increase in the PC market across 1995 is forecast. Oracle Australia Gets New Head Former Oracle marketing director in Australia, Len Augustine, is to head up the company's new Australasian media division. Oracle says the new area will concentrate on the development of local content in Australia and New Zealand, and engage government and business in the use of Oracle products in major online service projects. The product suite includes Oracle Media Server, Media Exchange, Media Objects, and Internet Server and Browser. Telstra Signs With ABB Asea Brown Boveri Telstra has a new international customer in ABB Asea Brown Boveri, a giant electrical engineering group. A press release from Telstra claims that Anders Gorannson, ABB's Asia Pacific information services center manager, has been chosen as preferred supplier for ABB's virtual private network for voice and data. Telstra says ABB is the umbrella for around 1,000 companies worldwide, and employs around 208,000 people. Under the agreement, Telstra says it will supply a meshed international virtual private network (IVPN) infrastructure for China, Japan, Taiwan, and other Asia Pacific countries. Applied Micro Systems Revenues Up Computer and communications company Applied Micro Systems (AMS) is looking forward to revenues of around AUS$180 million this financial year. The company says that this is a 40 percent increase on last year. AMS had revenues of $129 million in the last financial year, a $31 million hike on the previous year. The company specializes in corporate and government markets and is looking to new markets in SE Asia. According to an AMS press release, the Australian-owned company now has 200 employees. "Our aim is to maintain a competitive edge in product pricing and professional services and to ensure that continuing strong growth is properly managed," says Managing Director Allan Brackin. Music By Fax Service Launched Telstra Multimedia is offering more than 1,000 songs and arrangements by facsimile. The Music by Fax service was launched in conjunction with the Music Sales Group. The service provides a range of computer-generated scores suitable for piano, guitar, wind instruments, strings, or voice. Customers with a fax machine dial up on a 190 number, enter in the five-digit number code in the catalog and press the button. The Infofax service costs $2 a minute, which means that a two-page score costs about $6. Next year Telstra aims to double the number of pieces available to about 2,000. AT&T Offers Internet Backbone In Asia AT&T has announced an Internet backbone in Asia. Available in Hong Kong now, it will reach Australia later in the year, the company says. The backbone network will be a dedicated connection for Internet customers in Australia, Hong Kong, and Japan, and will provide dial-up access to the Net on leased lines at 64kbps or faster. (Paul Zucker/19951017) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 10/19/95 BUSINESS Hong Kong - Banyan In Training Alliance (NEWS)(BUSINESS)(HKG)(00009) Hong Kong - Banyan In Training Alliance 10/19/95 CENTRAL, HONG KONG, 1995 OCT 19 (NB) -- In a move that gives the enterprise network maker deep reach into southern China's economy, Banyan Systems signed the Hong Kong Productivity Council (HKPC) to lead its training programs. Until now, Hong Kong courses were conducted by visiting Banyan personnel. The HKPC, which runs extensive training courses for industrial and business managers from across Hong Kong and South China, will run two courses. The Certified Banyan Specialist (CBS) and Certified Banyan Engineer (CBE) programs both target individuals who design and support enterprise networks based around Banyan's Vines network operating system. Qualifying examinations will be independently administered by the Drake Training Company. "HKPC is an important technology transfer organization in Hong Kong and has a very strong track record in technical software support training. We are extremely pleased to have the Council's professional support for the Banyan Technical Certification Programs in Hong Kong," said James Yao, managing director of Banyan Systems' Greater China region. "Over the years, Banyan Education Services has developed a robust curriculum of courses and training products that enable individuals to become proficient in the use, administration and maintenance of our various products. These will now be available through HKPC as part of its extensive information technology (IT) training calendar." According to Nelson Tse, senior consultant with HKPC's Computer Services Division, the courses will initially be offered on a six-weekly basis. The frequency will be increased as market demand dictates. "Networking is one of our key target areas," Tse said. "Adding the Banyan Technical Certification Program to our training activities is very complementary to the training we do in other areas of IT. Added Tse, "We are keen to develop our relationship with Banyan and offer more courses and non-technical seminars to promote such things as management awareness of enterprise networking." (Nigel Armstrong & I.T. Daily/19951019) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 10/19/95 TELECOM India - British Telecom Offers Global Data Services (NEWS)(TELECOM)(DEL)(00010) India - British Telecom Offers Global Data Services 10/19/95 NEW DELHI, INDIA, 1995 OCT 19 (NB) -- British Telecommunications plc. (BT), and Videsh Sanchar Nigam Ltd. (VSNL), have launched the Concert Packet Services (CPS) in New Delhi. Concert is a value-added, end-to-end managed data network service offering instant connectivity to more than 1,300 cities in over 100 countries and over 200 public data networks worldwide. Speaking to Newsbytes at the launch of CPS, Ian Alston, regional manager, Middle East and Indian subcontinent for BT, said: "With the launch of CPS in New Delhi, Indian corporations will be able to get the benefits of end-to-end data connectivity worldwide." The benefits of using Concert include complete management of the network from a single network control center. The entire network follows the same data transfer protocols which enables smooth seamless transfer of data worldwide. Concert is already available in Bombay and Madras. "After getting a very good response in the two cities, we have decided to expand our services in India. Shortly, the service will be extended to Bangalore," said Ian Gordon Cumming, marketing manager, Africa, India and the Middle East. Concert is a joint venture company of BT and the American long distance carrier, MCI. The private telecom major is also in the process of setting up an exclusive regional head office in New Delhi to oversee its expanding businesses in South Asia. According to Alston, this decision stems from the "faith BT reposes in the demand for telecommunications in India, and the desire to better serve its global clients operating in the country." BT's South Asia operations will be headed by Arun Seth, who has been appointed managing director, South Asia (SAARC region). (Nigel Armstrong & I.T. Daily/19951019) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 10/19/95 BROADCAST India - Tektronix Plans Digital Studio (NEWS)(BROADCAST)(DEL)(00011) India - Tektronix Plans Digital Studio 10/19/95 NEW DELHI, INDIA, 1995 OCT 19 (NB) -- Tektronix (India) Ltd., the Indian subsidiary of Tektronix Inc., has announced plans to set up a television studio in Bombay to expand into the growing market for studio equipment in the country. Tektronix has similar facilities in Hollywood, New York, and London. According to Tim Thorsteinson, president, Pacific Operations, the digital studio in Bombay, which would demonstrate Tektronix' studio equipment, will offer systems integration capabilities and train users. The company's video systems will provide the video and television industries with products covering a range of applications from production and storage, to systemization and transmission. Tektronix has already strengthened its presence in this segment through its acquisition of Lightworks Editing Systems, a leader in film and video editing. Tektronix, which has been strong in post production studio equipment will be "partnering with people to set up complete TV and film studio," said Brijesh Wahi, managing director, Tektronix India. He said investment on the studio will be around R5 crore. The US major is also looking at setting up a technology center in the country which will essentially look at customizing Tektronix products for the Indian market, undertake design activity in both hardware and software, take up product development, and offer training to customers. "The investment will depend on the kind of demonstration equipment the company needs and the applications and designs that can be done here," said Thorsteinson. (C.T. Mahabharat/19951019) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 10/19/95 GENERAL India - Citicorp Intros Asset Mgt Software (NEWS)(GENERAL)(DEL)(00012) India - Citicorp Intros Asset Mgt Software 10/19/95 NEW DELHI, INDIA, 1995 OCT 19 (NB) -- Citicorp Information Technology Industries Ltd. (CITIL), an affiliate of Citicorp, and Microsoft India, have introduced FundsPower -- a software product designed to provide investor services. Developed by CITIL and targeted to meet the growing needs of the mutual funds business, the product is designed to enable asset management companies to attract, retain, and grow their investor base by providing single-window service through a countrywide network of investor centers. The product supports both open-ended and close-ended fund transactions and has fully integrated registrar functions. CITIL is a Microsoft Solution Provider partner in India. Bombay-based CITIL specializes in providing information technology (IT) systems to the financial services industry worldwide. The company's suite of financial products includes: MicroBanker, an integrated banking system; Finware, a retail banking solution; and MoneyMaker, a dealing automation system. CITIL has alliances with Microsoft Corp., Sun Micro Systems, AT&T Corp., Sybase Inc., and Oracle Corp. (C.T. Mahabharat/19951019) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 10/19/95 ONLINE UK - "Internet Explained" CD-ROM Intro'd (NEWS)(ONLINE)(LON)(00013) UK - "Internet Explained" CD-ROM Intro'd 10/19/95 LONDON, ENGLAND, 1995 OCT 19 (NB) -- You can certainly buy enough books explaining the Internet, computer bookstores' shelves are bursting with such books, but how about a ready reference CD-ROM? Instant Access claims to have released the industry's first "demystifying CD-ROM" about the Internet, priced at UKP24.99 from its UK office. According to Gillian Robertson, a spokeswoman for the company's London office, the CD-ROM is ideal for every home and business computer users that wants to learn about the Internet quickly and easily, and without becoming frustrated by a maze of jargon and unfamiliar software. "The disk was developed primarily in the US, although, initially it is being sold in the UK. A date on the US launch, along with a price, has yet to be decided," she told Newsbytes. Although the disk can be used totally offline, the user is encouraged to move online using the supplied software and subscription discounts plus freebies, using a series of live links in the package's World Wide Web tour guide. The software on the disk includes a registered copy (worth $35) of Netscape Navigator, as well all the necessary software to connect to the Internet, including automated setup routines, a month's free trial (of up to three hours access) to the IBM Global Network's Internet service. The IBM service normally costs UKP10 a month for up to three hours, or UKP20 a month for up to 30 hours. Greg Rice, managing director with Instant Access, claims that searching for specific software on the Internet is normally difficult and time-consuming, but the CD categorizes all the software editorially by name, type, use or level of experience, so reducing the search to a "swift and uncomplicated process." "As the Internet hype intensifies, and the range of Internet services constantly increases, the problem still remains that new and potential users have no idea how these online services may be useful or, indeed, even how to get involved," he explained. He added that the Internet CD solves this problem by explaining and demonstrating what the Internet is really about. Instant Access admits that the IBM Global Network is not the cheapest Internet service around, but claims it is superior to many. In use, the software sets up an automatic step-by-step registration process, allowing users to get online within five minutes. Because IBM's Global network is an international service, the starter kit is valid in most countries worldwide, where Internet access is available for the price of a local call. Full details of Instant Access' Internet CD can be found on the company's Web pages at http://www.instantaccess.com . (Steve Gold/19951018/Press & Reader Contact: Instant Access UK, tel +44-181-205-2596, fax +44-181-200-9882; Instant Access US, 415-453-7192, Internet e-mail mail@instantaccess.com) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 10/19/95 TELECOM Dutch Firm Intros Advanced Comms Server (NEWS)(TELECOM)(LON)(00014) Dutch Firm Intros Advanced Comms Server 10/19/95 AMSTERDAM, NETHERLANDS, 1995 OCT 19 (NB) -- Centigram Communications Corporation (CCC), a company which claims to be a leading global provider of communications systems, has unveiled its Series 6 comms server. According to the company, the server is a next-generation hardware and software platform for integrated voice, fax, and data messaging that uses Pentium processors, digital signal processor (DSP) technology, and TCP/IP (Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol) links to offer a wide range of comms technologies to users. The idea behind the Series 6 server is that it functions as a "black box" that sits on a company's network, offering voice- and fax-mail services, plus access to the Internet from the LAN (local area network), and interfacing to the company's PABX (private automatic branch exchange), as well as to the telephone company's switch. Bundled with the Series 6 server is a Windows package called OneView Remote that allows mobile users to dial into the company net, via the server, accessing the LAN remotely, as well as using voice, fax, and data -- or a compound of all three -- facilities. Using OneView as the recipient of inbound calls from the server allows callers to the company to use one single number (on the server) to place voice, fax, and data calls to the mobile user, using store and forward techniques. Announcing the development of Series 6, George Sollman, CCC's president, said that the server is a giant step forward in meeting customers' current and future communications needs. "By supporting industry standards and incorporating advanced technology in Series 6, we have not only provided our current and future customers with applications that will greatly increase their communications productivity, but have achieve a new level of price performance that is unique in this industry," he explained. The Series 6 can be supplied in a variety of configurations, pricing from UKP8,000 upwards, and capable of servicing up to 240 ports, 28,800 hours of message storage, and more than 300,000 mailboxes on a single system. Using TCP/IP, the Series 6 can do a lot more than simply access the Internet. Using TCP/IP allows access to other CCC Series servers across the Internet, as well as more than 1,500 system nodes around the world, moving data at speeds of up to 10 megabits-per-second. (Sylvia Dennis/19951018/Press Contact: Shandwick Technologies, +44-171-583-0515; Reader Contact: Centrigram Communications Corp., +31-20-420-3204) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 10/19/95 GENERAL UK - British Telecom Slashes CD-ROM Directory Prices (NEWS)(GENERAL)(LON)(00015) UK - British Telecom Slashes CD-ROM Directory Prices 10/19/95 LONDON, ENGLAND, 1995 OCT 19 (NB) -- British Telecom (BT) seems to have come to its senses as regards pricing on its CD-ROM directory of UK phone numbers. After launching the disk with quarterly updates a few years ago with a four figure price tag, the telecoms giant has pushed the price down to UKP199 for a year's subscription to the disk, with a quarterly update subscription included. The monthly update disk, meanwhile, falls from UKP1,600 to UKP600 for a year's subscription, while the Network Phone Disk package, for very high-volume users with multi-server applications, falls from UKP4,000 to UKP3,000. The price reductions come in the wake of a flood of unauthorized disks originating from the Far East, typically selling for UKP30 to UKP50 at UK street markets, which are the result from scans made of BT's paper phone directories in "boilerhouses" in the Far East. The disks, though infringing on BT's copyright, have been snapped up by businesses who are not prepared to pay BT's official prices. The disks, one of which Newsbytes has seen, use a slightly different software interface than the legitimate BT version, and also suffer from errors due to the OCR (optical character recognition) software not capturing the correct alphabetic character. Numeric characters, i.e. the numbers, tend to be correct in the database, however. A key feature of the pirate CDs is their ability to reverse lookup numbers and their related data. Thus, for example, a user can key in a number and get back the listed entry for that number. BT's software, due to a policy decision and claimed limitations of the UK's Data Protection Act, does not allow such reverse lookups. According to a BT spokesman, the price cuts will allow Phone Disk customers to benefit from the cost savings, as well as lowering the cost-effectiveness point at which companies should switch from pay-as- you-go directory assistance via BT, and using the CD-ROM at the switchboard or across the company network. (Steve Gold/1995118/Press Contact: British Telecom Corporate Communications +44-171-356-5369; Public Contact: BT, toll-free 0800-526281) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 10/19/95 LEGAL European Patent & Technology Law Shelved (NEWS)(LEGAL)(LON)(00016) European Patent & Technology Law Shelved 10/19/95 BRUSSELS, BELGIUM, 1995 OCT 19 (NB) -- Wide-ranging proposed legislation over patents and technology licensing proposed by the European Commission (EC) has been shelved owing to discord. The proposed legislation, while allowing companies within the EC to transfer technology and patents providing the companies involved do not hold a dominant position in their respective markets, seems to have hit the buffers because the EC has proposed that any company holding more than a 40 percent share of the market must undergo an EC investigation before selling or transferring its technology to another company or individual. According to the EC, the proposed legislation is not being dumped, but a decision on when to reintroduce it to the legal committees has not yet been taken. Officials said that the proposals may have to be altered before they can be considered for legislation. Industry experts have been predicting that the proposed legislation may fall at the first hurdle, since it allows major companies to sit on patents which they would previously have licensed or sold to smaller third-party companies. Under the new rules, critics said that the submissions to the EC for such small revenue-generating patents and technology transfers would make the transactions uneconomic. Interestingly, Martin Bangemann, the EC's industry commissioner, as well as the commissioners for Research and the Single Market, Edith Cresson and Mario Monti, have previously stated their opposition to the proposed legislation. Bangemann has been gaining quite a following in EC circles in recent months, owing to his pro-Europe stance on competition. Sources suggest that his disdain for the proposal may well have been the final straw for any chance the bill may have reached the committee stage. (Sylvia Dennis/19951018/Press & Reader Contact: European Commission, +32-2-299-1111) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 10/19/95 LEGAL ****BBC Discovers Faxes Are Not Secure (NEWS)(LEGAL)(LON)(00017) ****BBC Discovers Faxes Are Not Secure 10/19/95 BLACKPOOL, LANCASHIRE, ENGLAND, 1995 OCT 19 (NB) -- The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) found out late last week that faxes are not a secure transmission system. After faxing a copy of a top secret internal management document to a BBC senior staying at the Pembroke Hotel in Blackpool, where the Conservative Party Conference took place all last week, BBC executives were aghast to discover that the fax was sent to the room of Nigel Nelson, a journalist with The People newspaper, who was also staying at the hotel. The mis-route for the fax was caused by the fact that Nelson had advised hotel staff that he was expecting an urgent fax, while the BBC did not notify the recipient that a fax was on its way. Reception staff at the hotel assumed that the incoming fax was meant for Nelson and passed it along to him. Like all good journalists, Nelson realized he had a potential scoop and passed along the story to the paper, which duly published details of the fax, along with a brief mention of how the fax came into its hands. The BBC, meanwhile, has complained loudly that the fax should have been dispatched to Colin Browne head of the BBC's corporate affairs office, who was hosting a reception for conference delegates at the hotel. The fax was send from Leigh Jackson, head of the BBC's Communication Planning office, and outlined management's worries over job losses and the potential effects of a likely strike if the British Government goes ahead, as many think it will, with privatizing the BBC's TV and radio transmitter network in the UK. The fax also allegedly said that the BBC would press the government to pass along at least some of the expected UKP100 million that the sale of the 1,400-strong transmitter network would generate, to the BBC as income for the state TV service. Neither the hotel nor the BBC is making any comment about the incident, but the paper claims that it ran the story with the interest of the public in mind and that how the fax fell into its reporter's hands was not its concern. In an editorial in The People newspaper, which was published on Sunday, Nelson said that "firing off secret faxes to busy hotels without someone ready to receive them is asking for trouble." Nelson went on to say that the story was printed, as it was in the public interest to know what the country's TV company was planning to do with its assets. In the UK, any TV owner or user has to pay the BBC a license fee of around $150 a year to receive any form of terrestrial TV transmissions. Nelson claims that privatizing the transmitter network, while not impinging on the BBC's operations itself, may not be in the public interest in the long run. "Privatization could lead to foreign companies muscling in on the most famous broadcasting network in the world," he said in his editorial. In a prepared statement, the BBC said that the document was not policy and was written by a junior member of staff, and therefore was not as sensitive as the newspaper had made out. "We were victims of technology," the BBC said. (Steve Gold/19951018) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 10/19/95 ONLINE CMP's TechWeb To Use Information-Agent Technology (NEWS)(ONLINE)(MSP)(00018) CMP's TechWeb To Use Information-Agent Technology 10/19/95 MANHASSET, NEW YORK, U.S.A., 1995 OCT 19 (NB) -- CMP's TechWeb said a new service called "TechWeb Direct" will use information- agent technology to deliver tech news directly to a user's desktop or network, without having to log onto the Internet. Using TechWeb Direct involves installing client software, which employs digital delivery's information-agent technology. The program will record the user's news preferences and areas of interest. From that list, all relevant articles from CMP's editorial database will be delivered to the user's computer via a dial-up connection. Computer users won't have to tell the software to dial into TechWeb Direct, Jeff Pundyk, CMP Interactive Media Group spokesperson, told Newsbytes. "Invisibly to you, it will dial out periodically throughout the day, and query our Web page, and bring back results only if they are appropriate to the profile you've filled out," he said. Users will be alerted by the software as news arrives, and the information will be delivered in several formats, including Adobe Acrobat, hypertext markup language (HTML), Microsoft Word, Quark Xpress, or other formats. "It's more than just an electronic-mail delivery system," Pundyk said. "It retains the page geometry, design, look and feel, and the art. You can do some pretty nice things with it. It's just not e-mail text." The software can be downloaded from TechWeb at URL (uniform resource locator) http://techweb.cmp.com when it is available in mid-November. TechWeb members will be able to use Direct for free during the beta testing period. All comments from testers will be evaluated during the first quarter of 1996, when pricing will be determined, Mitchell York, managing director of the CMP Interactive Media Group, told Newsbytes. York also said advertising might be sent to customers through TechWeb Direct, to possibly help defray costs. In addition, he said "news bulletins" that might not necessarily be normally sent to an individual customer because of their registered preferences could be broadcast to all TechWeb direct users. When it comes to the TechWeb site in general, usage of CMP's Web presence has grown 20 percent, company officials said. The site also allows visitors to access back issues of CMP's publications, like Computer Retail Week, Windows Magazine, NetGuide, and HomePC, through TechSearch. (Bob Woods/19951018/Press Contact: Catherine Jarrat Koatz, CMP, 516-562-7827, Internet e-mail ckoatz@cmp.com) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 10/19/95 ONLINE Shopping For Cars On The Web (NEWS)(ONLINE)(MSP)(00019) Shopping For Cars On The Web 10/19/95 DAYTON, OHIO, U.S.A., 1995 OCT 19 (NB) -- Cyberspace is becoming a new avenue for people who are shopping for cars, via a database on the Internet's World Wide Web. Dealernet offers information on more than 350 current and 1996 model year cars, trucks, vans, and other vehicles. At the site, car shoppers will find specifications, manufacturer's suggested retail prices, and details about options, safety features, and warranties about the vehicles mentioned. Some of the multimedia features of the site include photos, graphics, and even video footage. Various car dealerships from around the US are also featured. From the "virtual showroom," buyers can arrange for test drives, or inquire about models and specific prices using the service's electronic-mail feature. "What we see Dealernet doing is being able to reach out to customers and save them a lot of time," Marty Rood, director of Dealernet operations, told Newsbytes. "What you have to do now is get into your car on a Saturday morning and start visiting car lots, and normally you're greeted with ten salespeople as you go into the showroom. So initially, it's an unpleasant experience." Now, information can be sought on the Internet, so when the customer reaches the dealership, they can make a more informed decision, he said. However, Rood said the Web site won't replace the auto dealership. When Newsbytes surfed to the site, we found many different areas, including specialty cars, used cars, credit check services, a section on boats and recreational vehicles, and a new car searchable database. In using the search engine to look for a new Saab between $20,000 and $30,000 the database listed three models, and included pictures, details, and pricing. The Dealernet database uses information from Reynolds and Reynolds, which recently bought Dealernet. Rood said future plans for the site include a searchable database for used car listings, and the ability to search for new car mechanical specifications. Dealernet is located at http://www.dealernet.com . The service can also be e-mailed at info@dealernet.com. (Bob Woods/19951018/Press Contacts: Paul Guthrie, Reynolds and Reynolds, 513-449-4216; Public Contact: Dealernet, Internet e-mail info@dealernet.com) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 10/19/95 TRENDS Oracle Helps Police (NEWS)(TRENDS)(SFO)(00020) Oracle Helps Police 10/19/95 MIAMI, FLORIDA, U.S.A., 1995 OCT 19 (NB) -- Database giant, Oracle (NASDAQ:ORCL) has announced the immediate availability of Oracle Special Investigative Unit Support System (SIUSS) Release 1.0 for Microsoft Windows. Designed to store, organize, and manage information related to criminal activity, SIUSS incorporates the latest database advancements to reduce investigation time and solve cases. Announced at the annual International Association of Chiefs of Police Conference, SIUSS actually develops leads by combining the known facts contained in the database. "Police departments and other law enforcement departments have used computers mainly for information storage and retrieval," said an Oracle spokesperson. "SIUSS changes the entire concept though its ability to offer insights into a case. SIUSS uses automated link analysis to assemble the data gathered through standard investigative procedures." Continuing, he said, "Most people do not realize a case can easily contain hundreds of pieces of data which often become difficult to store in an organized fashion. The chances of losing a piece of data are high and this is one of the many problems SIUSS addresses." Based on Oracle 7, SIUSS offers users a scalable security system which allows a department to determine who can access various levels of data in a particular case. Case information can be shared or kept secret to almost any degree of detail. Oracle says this type of scalable security makes SIUSS an excellent tool for joint investigations where a number of different local, state, and federal agencies are involved. Offering an example of SIUSS's analytical capabilities, Oracle said the program could analyze telephone records of a suspect to determine probabilities that a certain number or numbers may indicate other parties involved with a specific crime. In response to questions about data security, Oracle said SIUSS is built with data protection technology which makes concerns about data security through connectivity and portability a "non-issue." SIUSS runs on Windows-based personal computers connected to almost any type of file server. The entry-level price is $6,900 and includes the Oracle 7 database. (Patrick McKenna/19951018/Press Contact: Chip Coyle, Oracle, 301-907-2228) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 10/19/95 CHIPS Fujitsu Joins Ramtron FRAM Project (NEWS)(CHIPS)(TYO)(00021) Fujitsu Joins Ramtron FRAM Project 10/19/95 TOKYO, JAPAN, 1995 OCT 19 (NB) -- Almost two months to the day since announcing an agreement with Toshiba, Ramtron (NASDAQ:RMTR) has gained another Japanese partner in its plans to develop FRAM (ferro-electric random access memory) technology. The Colorado Springs-based company has signed a memorandum of understanding with Tokyo's Fujitsu Ltd. stating that both companies intend to jointly develop semiconductor products. A final agreement is anticipated in late November, after which, joint development efforts will begin. They will include a feasibility study for high-density FRAM products, and include test chip design and evaluation. The two companies will work towards the development of a 1 megabit (Mb) FRAM chip and, after that, a 16Mb device. Under the deal, which also covers sales and marketing in Japan, Fujitsu will be entitled to sell the products under its own name and supply them on an OEM (original equipment manufacturer) basis to other manufacturers. FRAM chips have the ability to retain data stored in memory when the power is removed giving them the high speed of dynamic random access memory (DRAM) and static random access memory (SRAM) with the non-volatility of read-only memory (ROM) according to Ramtron. Ramtron already has agreements with Hitachi, Rohm, and Toshiba over development and use of the same technology. In the future, the chips are expected to find applications in all sorts of electronics devices, especially small hand held units such as personal organizers, which currently require memory backup batteries to retain configuration when switched off. A spokesman for Toshiba, which signed an agreement with Ramtron in August, told Newsbytes the company expects the price of chips to equal those of SRAM chips when mass production begins in two to three years time. "As a top ten semiconductor company, Fujitsu possesses expertise in a number of areas that will greatly aid the emergence of FRAM memory as a mainstream memory solution," said L. David Sikes, Ramtron's chairman and chief executive officer (CEO). "Fujitsu's high-volume manufacturing expertise and semiconductor marketing experience should prove to be of tremendous benefit," he added. Fujitsu's Shirai, general manager for memory products, commented, "I expect that ferro-electric memory technology will enable us to open more markets and increase the activity in our memory business. The cooperation between our companies will expand the availability of high-density FRAM products." On Tuesday, Ramtron stock ended the day up 87.5 cents on the news at $11.00 (Martyn Williams/19951019/Press contact: Mike Beirne, Fujitsu Ltd., tel +81-3-3215-5326, fax +81-3-3216-9365, Internet e-mail mike@hq.fujitsu.co.jp; Lee Brown, Ramtron, tel 719-481-7000, fax 719-481-9294, Internet e-mail lbrown@ramtron.com ; Reader contact: Ramtron, 800-545-FRAM, Internet World Wide Web http://www.csn.net/ramtron ) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 10/19/95 ONLINE Internet Update (NEWS)(ONLINE)(TYO)(00022) Internet Update 10/19/95 TOKYO, JAPAN, 1995 OCT 19 (NB) -- In this roundup of new services and resources on the global Internet: In the news: The Swiss elections, MCI brings banned music online, US yellow pages directory, Internet tips mailing list, PC-Card association, Hurricane damage information, Weather and climate data online, Netherlands Energy Research Foundation, Small satellite information. In The News: The Swiss Elections This Sunday, the nation of Switzerland goes to the polls. Internet users worldwide can follow the federal elections online and view candidate lists, party information, election laws, see interactive opinions and follow links to the personal homepages of the candidates. World Wide Web: http://www.hebdo.ch/ef/elections.html MCI Brings Banned Music Online MCI and News Corporation are helping to remove political barriers by bringing the sounds of Cuba's best jazz artists to the Internet. The new site, "Jamming in Havana," features a number of Cuban jazz musicians, many of whom have been banned from performing in the US. Audio clips by Jesus "Chucho" Valdes, Los Van Van, Gonzalo Rubalcaba, and Issac Delgado, among others, are featured, in addition to links to Cuban related sites and articles about the current political situation in the country by Newsweek Senior Writer Tom Masland. World Wide Web: http://www.delphi.com/ World Wide Web: http://www.internetmci.com/ US Yellow Pages Directory A couple of weeks ago Newsbytes listed the new US Business Yellow Pages directory, a searchable database of all US businesses. The World Yellow Pages Network is a similar service offering access to 14 million American business listings. A unique feature is the ability of each listed business to create a homepage alongside its listing. World Wide Web: http://wyp.net/ In addition to the new US yellow pages site, there are several other similar directories available across the Internet and a new page now brings them all together with links from a single source. World Wide Web: http://www.buttle.com/tel/ Internet Tips Mailing List From October 30th, a new mailing list begins, aimed at providers of services on the network. Internet Tips aims to provide "helpful tips on how and where you can announce your resource on the Internet." The list, a one-way mailing list, will be suitable for providers of all types of resources from business information and mailing lists to online magazines, newsletters, and Web sites. Email: hub@xc.org Message Body: subscribe 4him-internet-tips PC-Card Association The most comprehensive PC Card-related site on the Web was announced this week by PCMCIA (Personal Computer Memory Card International Association). The site is designed to be a "one-stop-shop" for information about PC Cards and the association. The organizers promise an online version of the PC-Card directory, listing related publications and services, will soon be available. World Wide Web: http://www.pc-card.com/ Hurricane Damage Information The tourist board in The French West Indies Tourist Board has posted press releases concerning the recent Hurricane and the damage it caused. Visitors can find details of beach and vegetation damage and lists by name hotels of restaurants in St. Bart and St. Martin which have damage, which are open, and which will be open by the date given. World Wide Web: http://www.crl.com/~philip/fwipr.html Weather And Climate Data Online The European Center for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts now has a Web server. Visitors can access forecast charts for the next six days. World Wide Web: http://www.ecmwf.int/ In the United States, The Southeast Regional Climate Center is one of six regional weather centers and is located within the South Carolina Department of Natural Resources in Columbia, South Carolina. One of the goals of the center is to promote and emphasize weather and climate science education to teachers and students. As part of the goal, the center provides a Web page for teachers with links to climate associated information. World Wide Web: http://sercc.dnr.state.sc.us/education.html Netherlands Energy Research Foundation The Netherlands Energy Research Foundation has a new Web server on the Internet. The organization, which is engaged in research of energy, environment, nuclear energy, renewable energy, fossil fuels and energy policy, develops technologies for a safe, clean and efficient energy supply. The site offers information about the foundation's activities and a comprehensive database of energy-related Internet information sources. World Wide Web: http://www.ecn.nl/ Small Satellite Information Surrey University, one of the world leaders in small satellite technology, is now offering information about the subject on the Internet. The International Journal of Small Satellite Engineering is an electronic refereed journal, dealing with all aspects of the small satellite field and will be published on the Web regularly. In addition to the magazine, links to other related sites are also available. World Wide Web: http://www.ee.surrey.ac.uk/EE/CSER/UOSAT/SSHP/sshp.html (Martyn Williams/19951019) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 10/19/95 UNIX Unix Vendors Intro AS/U For Windows/NT Interoperability (NEWS)(UNIX)(BOS)(00023) Unix Vendors Intro AS/U For Windows/NT Interoperability 10/19/95 BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS, U.S.A., 1995 OCT 19 NB) -- Advanced Server for Unix lets organizations combine the GUI (graphical user interface) of the Windows environment and security features of Windows NT with the scalability and "robustness" of Unix, said Data General, Bull, Olivetti, and Pyramid officials, during new product introductions and meetings with Newsbytes at AT&T Connections in Boston. Also at the show yesterday, these Unix vendors joined with companies that included Digital Equipment Corp. and SCO (Santa Cruz Operations) in a demo of mutual interoperability with Windows NT. Initially announced in August, 1994, Advanced Server represents a joint agreement by AT&T and Microsoft to develop products for Unix that are compatible and interoperable with Microsoft's networking technology, said Leonard J. LuPriore, speaking with Newsbytes at the World Trade Center in Boston, where AT&T and its sub-licensees joined together for their first collaborative presentation concerning Advanced Server for Unix (AS/U). A total of four ports of AT&T and Microsoft's collaboratively developed architecture were announced at AT&T Connections yesterday, including: Data General's DG/Advanced Server 3.5 for Unix, for DG's Aviion servers; Bull's Advanced Server 3.5 for Unix, operating on AIX 4.1 on Bull as well as IBM RS-6000 and PowerPC servers; Olivetti's Advanced Server for Unix, running on Olivetti Unix workstations and servers under Unix SVR4; and Pyramid's Advanced Server for Unix, designed for Pyramid and Siemen-Nixdorf's RM200, RM400, and RM600 workstations and servers. Also at AT&T Connections, Digital demonstrated an upcoming Advanced Server for Unix capability. In a meeting with Newsbytes at the show, Rob Emsley, Digital's marketing manager for Network Integration Software, said that Digital plans to integrate the capability into the next edition of Polycenter for Digital Unix, a product that will be announced in the spring of 1996. "We'll then roll the same code base into OpenVMS," Emsley told Newsbytes. Shortly after shipping the next release of Polycenter for Digital Unix next spring, Digital will incorporate AS/U into Polycenter for OpenVMS running on Alpha as well as VAX, the Digital exec revealed. The Unix vendors that are supporting Advanced Workstation for Unix sell products into "enterprise environments" that are typified by large numbers of Unix servers and Windows clients, as well as by the increasing appearance of Windows NT servers, according to Emsley. These environments are starting to be populated by Windows 95 clients, too, noted Marie-France Ligeret, marketing director for Bull's Distributed Computing Solutions, during the same meeting at the show. "But we don't expect large-scale deployments of Windows 95 until next year," she added. As a general rule, Bull's enterprise customers are seeking environments that provide the ease-of-use of the Windows desktop client, together with the "reliability, scalability, and high availability" of Unix servers, Ligeret told Newsbytes. "But some customers prefer Windows NT servers over Unix," she acknowledged, pointing in particular to trusted domain. During one of several sessions at the show in Boston, the AT&T sub-licensees demonstrated mutual interoperability with NT's trusted domain. In another session, Michael A. Goulde, senior consultant for the Patricia Seybold Group, advised the journalists, analysts, and large Unix customers attending the event that Unix vendors can support Advanced Workstation's underlying architecture, while still differentiating products on the basis of tools provided on top of this architecture, and the chips, buses, and other hardware components below. "Users want Unix and NT integration," Goulde maintained, citing reasons that included "a common set of services, common management, and common application deployment." AS/U is "the best way" of obtaining this integration, Goulde added. The alternative approach of integrating Unix support within Windows NT would be much less workable, since the "scalability, system and network management of NT are too immature to challenge Unix at the high end," he elaborated. Companies like Bristol and MainSoft have ported the Win 32 API (application programming interface) to Windows NT, while Data Focus's Nutcracker provides Unix APIs on NT, Goulde allowed. But still, these tools are "proprietary," and "coverage of Posix on NT remains incomplete," he asserted. Data General started shipping its DG/Advanced Server about six months ago, noted David S. Wagner, product manager, System and Network Management, in another meeting with Newsbytes at the show. AS/U originally came about through an OEM (original equipment manufacturer) agreement between AT&T GIS and Microsoft, and AT&T has maintained its commitment to the architecture despite the recent sale of GIS, the DG exec pointed out. DG/Advanced Server provides file and print services to all Microsoft desktop clients, according to Wagner. With the introduction of DG/Advanced Server, DG has also extended the "lights-out" system administration of Aviion servers and Clariion storage systems to include NT servers as well as DG/UX Clusters based on Windows NT. Some 50 to 60 organizations are already using DG/Advanced Server, Wagner told Newsbytes. The customers come from industries that include finance, telecommunications, and government. Olivetti, a company that sold $25 billion in systems last year, "needs AS/U even more than other vendors," contended Brian Tomlin of Olivetti's Systems & Services Division, during another interview with Newsbytes at the event in Boston. Olivetti's customers want to achieve interoperability and clustering within an installed base of Unix servers and Windows clients, according to Tomlin. Many of these customers are European banks, the Olivetti exec told Newsbytes. Olivetti plans to ship its product on CD-ROM later this month. The new AS/U products from Bull and Pyramid are available immediately. (Jacqueline Emigh/19951119/Reader and Press Contacts: Martha Cowles, AT&T, 908-576-4884; DEC, 508-493-5111; Reader Contacts: Data General, 508-366-8911; Bull, 508-294-6000; Pyramid, 408-428- 9000; Press Contacts: Jim Dunlap, Data General, 508-898-6546; Margaret Taylor, Data General, 508-898-6393; Peter Stavropolos, Bull, 508-294-5654; Richard Stone, Olivetti North America, 509-927-5718; Stacy Welsh or Ka Wai Leung, Pyramid, 408-428-9000; Christopher Castillo or Abby Parower, Neale-Maye & Partners for Pyramid, 415-328-5555) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 10/19/95 TRENDS PC Apps Will Drive High-Density CD - Report (NEWS)(TRENDS)(TOR)(00024) PC Apps Will Drive High-Density CD - Report 10/19/95 WOODSTOCK, VERMONT, U.S.A., 1995 OCT 19 (NB) -- Personal computer multimedia applications will be the strongest force driving the acceptance of new high-density compact disk technology, according to research firm InfoTech. The firm predicted that in 1997, the first full year the new 4.7 gigabyte (GB) technology is available, more than two million of the high-density CD drives will be sold. InfoTech expects the drives will have three main uses: as high-density CD-ROM drives for personal computers; as digital videodisk (DVD) systems for home video; and as high-density CD-ROMs for interactive television set-top video game systems. Of the more than two million high-density drives it expects to be sold in 1997, InfoTech predicts that about 1.2 million will be sold for personal computers. Julie Schwerin, president of InfoTech, told Newsbytes that the 4.7GB disks will be popular for multimedia content such as games and for reference titles containing such information as stock data and patent information. Both these types of titles often need more than one of today's CD-ROM disks, she said. InfoTech expects that, when the price of the new high-density drives falls to within about $50 of the price of existing CD-ROM drives, personal computer makers will start building them into their systems as standard equipment. Schwerin said that will probably happen within 12 to 18 months after the drives are introduced. Exactly when the first drives will hit the market is still uncertain, as is the introductory price, though Schwerin said previous generations of CD-ROM drives have started out in the $800-to-$1,000 range and fallen from there. Schwerin said InfoTech's projections are based on a study of about a dozen previous introductions of new consumer technologies, from videocassette recorders to home satellite systems, and on interviews with industry experts. However, she also warned that there is no exact precedent for the introduction of the new CD technology. In the home, InfoTech expects digital videodisks will replace analog laser videodisk systems, but will not take the place of videocassette recorders because consumers cannot record to the disks. Schwerin said consumers are likely to buy the DVD systems because of their better reproduction but keep their videotape machines so that they can record their own material. This is much like the way people buy prerecorded music on audio compact disks but also own audio cassette recorders so they can make their own tapes or play those made for them by friends. The difference, Schwerin said, is that there is no widely used older technology for DVD to replace the way audio CDs have replaced vinyl records. (Grant Buckler/19951019/Press Contact: Ted Pine, InfoTech, 802-763-2097) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 10/19/95 CHIPS World's Smallest Embedded AT Attachment Storage (NEWS)(CHIPS)(LAX)(00025) World's Smallest Embedded AT Attachment Storage 10/19/95 SANTA CLARA, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1995 OCT 19 (NB) -- SanDisk Corp. has introduced the Flash Chipset, claimed to be the world's smallest embedded solid-state ATA (AT attachment) data storage system. The chipset contains memory and a flash controller chip. Targeted at the OEM (original equipment manufacturer) market, the chipset provides product developers with a low power, higher capacity, small footprint storage device that can be used in new, lightweight, mobile electronics products. These products include palmtop and handheld computers, personal digital assistants (PDAs), cellular phones, digital PBXs (private branch exchanges), audio recorders, printers, digital cameras, medical monitors, and multi-function PC cards. Jeff Ellerbruch, SanDisk product marketing manager, told Newsbytes, "Flash storage is non-volatile and very rugged. If power goes out you retain memory with flash storage. With DRAM (dynamic random access memory) you lose memory when you lose power, even with SRAM (static RAM) you lose memory when power and battery go out. With flash the memory stays. "This is also the industry's first 32 megabit (Mb)-based flash product being shipped in volume. Because 32Mb flash has denser memory than previous flash generations, we are able to lower the cost of data storage to customers," said Ellerbruch. The chipset is available in 2 megabyte (MB), 4MB, and 10MB capacities. OEM volume pricing is $60 for 2MB, $85 for 4MB, and $195 for the 10MB chipset. Leon Malmed, SanDisk's senior vice president of marketing and sales, said, "With its extremely low power requirements, the Flash Chipset will extend the battery life of these new, small mobile products. The chipset will enable these products to be smaller, lighter, and less expensive, while maintaining the highest data reliability through the intelligent controller. This chipset is designed to operate on only 3.3-volts which means that it is perfect for products that will use AA or other low-power batteries. The chipset also can be operated with a five-volt power supply. This controller was developed jointly with Motorola Corp., employing a 68000 core processor and the associated logic, buffer memory, and microcode ROM (read-only memory). It is packaged in a small footprint 100-pin plastic QFP. The flash chips are packaged in an LCC or a three-chip module. All parts are under 1.2 millimeters (mm) in height. With full ATA and IDE (Integrated Drive Electronics) disk drive compatibility in a chipset format, the chipset can be designed into any platform and operating systems that have built-in BIOS (basic input/output system) and driver support for IDE-ATA storage devices, including Windows 95, DOS, GEOS, OS/2, and Apple System 7. (Richard Bowers/19951019/Press Contact: Bob Goligoski, SanDisk, 408-562-3463) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 10/19/95 IBM ****Lotus Buyout Puts IBM In Red In Qtr (NEWS)(IBM)(TOR)(00026) ****Lotus Buyout Puts IBM In Red In Qtr 10/19/95 ARMONK, NEW YORK, U.S.A., 1995 OCT 19 (NB) -- A one-time charge related to its takeover of Lotus Development Corp. left IBM (NYSE:IBM) with a loss in the third quarter, but before the $1.8 billion charge the company's earnings were up significantly over the same quarter a year earlier. Revenues rose nine percent versus the third quarter of 1994. Before the special charge, IBM reported earnings of $1.3 billion, or $2.30 per common share, on revenues of $16.8 billion in the quarter ended Sept. 30. These figures compare with earnings of $710 million, or $1.18 per common share, on revenues of $15.4 billion in the corresponding 1994 quarter. IBM said it took the $1.8 billion charge for the Lotus acquisition because it concluded that certain Lotus technology did not meet accounting definitions of completed technology and thus should be written off under accounting rules. The company also said it is pleased with Lotus' performance since the acquisition in June, pointing in particular to sales of Lotus' Notes workgroup development software and its cc:Mail electronic-mail software. Bob Djurdjevic, a veteran IBM-watcher and editor of Annex Computer Report in Phoenix, Arizona, is also cautiously positive about the Lotus buyout. "Strategically speaking it was a good idea," Djurdjevic told Newsbytes, although he added that integrating Lotus into IBM will be a test of IBM's management style. IBM will need to use a "velvet glove" rather than an "iron fist," Djurdjevic said, and at this point "you can hardly even begin to decide whether it's working out." IBM expressed disappointment in its hardware sales in the third quarter, putting most of the blame on supply problems with its System/390 servers and high-end storage products. However, Djurdjevic said hardware sales were about as he had expected and said that if IBM Chairman Louis Gerstner was disappointed it was because he had "inflated expectations." IBM also said its revenues from services and from its original equipment manufacturer (OEM) business continued to grow strongly, as did software sales. Meanwhile, expenses were two percent lower than in the corresponding quarter last year, the company said. The area showing the strongest revenue growth was services, up 36 percent year-over-year at $3.1 billion. Over-all software revenues grew 14 percent, rentals and financing 11 percent, maintenance two percent, and hardware revenues remained roughly the same. Djurdjevic commented that IBM's service sector is "the best part of their business" and does not get the attention it deserves on Wall Street. IBM said its sales of personal computers increased in the quarter, but revenues from its mainframe and AS/400 lines fell. (Grant Buckler/19951019/Press Contact: Rob Wilson, IBM, 914-765-6565) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 10/19/95 BUSINESS ****Softbank Purchase Of Ziff Davis Publishing Imminent (NEWS)(BUSINESS)(TYO)(00027) ****Softbank Purchase Of Ziff Davis Publishing Imminent 10/19/95 TOKYO, JAPAN, 1995 OCT 19 (NB) -- Softbank Corporation confirmed in Tokyo this evening that it is in talks over the purchase of Ziff Davis Publishing. Softbank president, Mayoshi Son, told assembled journalists that the company is in negotiations over a final price for the deal and has already reached agreement on several terms. Final announcement of the deal is expected soon. An article on Ziff's PC-Week Online service Wednesday night quoted sources as saying, "The talks are progressing quite well, keep your eye on the wire tomorrow." However, Greg Jarboe, director of public relations for Ziff Davis, told Newsbytes this morning, "There is no definitive agreement yet, but we anticipate one before the week of Comdex." Comdex, a computer industry trade show run by Softbank Expos, takes place in the week of November 14 in Las Vegas. Jarboe anticipates no big changes in the company under the new ownership, saying, "They have a good track record. When they acquired Comdex they kept the management team in place. In fact, we have heard from many of our former colleagues at Comdex that they have been a good owner." On Friday, Softbank announced a public share offer of 2.8 million additional shares which, the company said, would raise part of the costs involved in a company take-over, although at the time no announcement was made of which companies. The Nihon Keizai Shimbun, Japan's top business newspaper, in its Sunday edition revealed the talks were with Ziff Davis. Jarboe revealed to Newsbytes the talks between Softbank and Forstmann Little only began at the weekend. Financial analysts estimate the extra share issue will raise 63.31 billion yen ($633 million) for the company. At today's press conference, Son declined to reveal any details about the value of the bid. The Wall Street Journal estimated the figure at $2 billion in a report this week and Sunday's Nihon Keizai Shimbun article quoted a price of around $1.5 billion. Forstmann Little, the company that beat Softbank to buy Ziff Davis Publishing, paid $1.4 billion last October. Softbank is Japan's biggest publisher and distributor or computer software and magazines, and the purchase of the publications arm of Ziff Davis would add some important titles and services to the company which already produces Japanese versions of PC-Week and Mac-User under license in Japan. In addition to the licensing from Ziff Davis to Softbank, Jarboe also noted a similar agreement in the opposite direction, "We know Softbank very well, we publish Networld+Interop Daily News (a daily newspaper for the show of the same name) with Softbank." The two have also jointly staged the Computer Mania series of consumer shows across the United States. He added, "Our chairman, Eric Hippeau, and Softbank's chairman, Mayoshi Son, know each other well. It's a coming together of old friends." Softbank tried to buy the unit last year, but was unsuccessful. It did manage to walk away with Ziff's exhibition arm for $202 million that included the Networld+Interop, Windows Solutions, and other computer trade shows. The company followed with the purchase of the exhibitions arm of the Interface Group, renamed as Softbank Comdex, early this year, which got the company the Comdex and Windows World exhibitions. In addition to being the country's largest computer magazine and book publisher, Softbank is also Japan's distributor of computer systems, software, and peripherals. Softbank has also just entered into a joint venture, Gamebank Corp., with Microsoft Corporation to produce and distribute games software for the Windows 95 operating system. (Martyn Williams/19951019) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 10/19/95 TELECOM Ericsson Intros Dual-Mode Cellular Portable Phone (NEWS)(TELECOM)(LON)(00028) Ericsson Intros Dual-Mode Cellular Portable Phone 10/19/95 STOCKHOLM, SWEDEN, 1995 OCT 19 (NB) -- Ericsson, the Swedish telephone company, has unveiled a dual-mode digital mobile, suitable for use on both GSM (global system for mobile communications) and DECT (digital European cordless technology) networks. While GSM is the international "roamable" digital network, allowing mobiles to be used in dozens of countries around the world, DECT is a cordless technology that is found in many cordless PABX (private automatic branch exchanges) across Europe. The idea is that, in the office, the phone acts as a cordless extension from the office network, while out and about, it operates as a conventional GSM phone. Thanks to its DECT compliance, the mobile can be registered on several DECT-compliant networks, provided the PABX administrator allows this. This is useful, Ericsson claims, for companies with multiple offices where staff move between them. A user's home "extension" can be diverted to other PABXs, with a fallback of diversion to the public GSM network. Ericsson claims that the phone, the first of its type, will be extremely useful to business people in several European countries where DECT is taking off. It will also act as a catalyst, the telco claims, for companies considering upgrading their PABX to cordless interworking. According to Ericsson, DECT is a better alternative than CT-2 (cordless type two) local digital mobile technology, since its packet transmission mode is superior in terms of resilience to interference. Ericsson also claims that the dual-mode approach is better than some companies' solutions, where a local private GSM base station is used, since DECT is far better at handling calls indoors than GSM, which is prone to distortion. Ericsson isn't saying how much the new portable, which has been dubbed the DH337, will cost, but sources suggest the unit will not cost much more than the current EH337 GSM handportable, which sells for around $500 without an airtime contract attached. Plans call for the new mobile to be tested by Telia, the Swedish telecoms company, which markets Ericsson DECT-compliant exchanges in Sweden. If the trials of the phone are successful in early 1996, the phones will be sold to the public by early 1997. (Sylvia Dennis/19951018/Press Contact: Per Bengtsson, information Director, Ericsson Business Area Radio Communications, +46-70-590-0599) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 10/19/95 GOVT Pakistan - Govt's Software Investment Initiative (NEWS)(GOVT)(LON)(00029) Pakistan - Govt's Software Investment Initiative 10/19/95 KARACHI, PAKISTAN, 1995 OCT 19 (NB) -- With the assistance of the Business Software Alliance (BSA) in Europe, the Pakistan Government has announced an incentives program to attract foreign investment in the country's software industry. According to the Ministry of the Interior, the plan is the brainchild of Benazir Bhutto, the Prime Minister of Pakistan and aims to service the software needs of both Pakistan and other Asian countries. The ultimate aim of the program, officials said, is to encourage partnerships between Pakistani companies and foreigners, to develop applications that can be sold worldwide, so generating foreign revenue for the country, as well as profits for all parties concerned. Announcing the program, Khalid Ahmad-Kharal said that the scheme allows tax breaks, financial support, and waiving of legislation that currently prohibits companies being wholly owned by foreigners. Ahmad-Kharal, Pakistan's popular Information and Broadcasting Minister, said that the country aims to follow the lead set by India in becoming a major international source of business software. India, Newsbytes notes, has carved out a high-tech niche for itself, thanks to the efforts of a number of entrepreneurs who have established large software operations which employ staff far more cheaply than in the US or Europe. Announcing the scheme to journalists at a news conference this week, Ahmad-Kharal said that the program will "tap foreign investment from major software producers and stimulate activity in this field of high technology." According to Ahmad-Kharal, the Government is looking seriously at establishing joint venture industrial parks around Pakistan, to offer low-cost and tax-free accommodations to new information technology (IT) companies. This approach has been tried to great effect by the Chinese Government, Newsbytes notes. The Pakistani Government is taking the program very seriously, Newsbytes notes. As part of the ongoing scheme, the Government has set up a private Software Export Board to establish a clearly defined set of guidelines and policies for Government agencies in all aspects of dealing with the tax-exempt IT companies. In return for this high level of cooperation, the Government expects any IT company on the program to register with the Board. Pakistan has some way to go before it persuades foreign investors to submit themselves to the inevitable Government red tape that the Board will apply to program companies, Newsbytes notes. As in India, one of the blowbacks to British colonial rule has been that any business will find it easier to conduct its affairs by paying baksheesh to officials, rather than going through official and time-consuming channels. Whether Prime Minister Bhutto can dispel such business practices remains to be seen. (Sylvia Dennis/19951018) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 10/19/95 TELECOM Cable & Wireless In $44.4Mil Brazilian Cable Deal (NEWS)(TELECOM)(LON)(00030) Cable & Wireless In $44.4Mil Brazilian Cable Deal 10/19/95 RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL, 1995 OCT 19 (NB) -- Cable & Wireless has secured a major contract for the installation of the Brazilian Domestic cable system, a 2,430 kilometer (mm) undersea fiber optic network that will form part of Brazil's backbone telecoms infrastructure. Kris Taylor, a spokeswoman for Cable & Wireless Marine (CWM), the international operations division of Cable & Wireless that negotiated the contract with Schahin Cury Engenharia e Comercio, told Newsbytes that the deal is worth US$29.6 million and is one of the most ambitious undersea cabling projects undertaken by the company. The cable will be owned and operated by Embratel, the national and international carrier in Brazil and will include two festoon systems and two terrestrial cables to run from Rio in the South to Fortaleza in the North, where it will provide connections to existing submarine cable systems connecting to Europe and Central/North America. The cable link will be supplied by Simplex in the north and Pirelli in the south. Announcing the contract deal, David Hughes, managing director of CWM installation services, said that the company's parent, Cable & Wireless, has had a long history of involvement with the Brazilian telecom network, having installed a coastal looping telegraph system in the 1870s, which was maintained until it was decommissioned in the 1970s. "Two ships of the CWM fleet, Mercury and Cable Venture, were used in the late 1970s and early 1980s to install Brazil's two international co-axial systems to Europe," he said. He added that the cable will be the world's longest unrepeatered undersea cable network. Installation of the cabling is due to start early next year and is expected to be completed by the late summer of 1996. (Steve Gold/19951018/Press Contact: Krus Taylor, Cable & Wireless Marine, +44-1245-702126) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 10/19/95 GOVT High-Tech Execs Back Securities Bill (NEWS)(GOVT)(WAS)(00031) High-Tech Execs Back Securities Bill 10/19/95 WASHINGTON, D.C., U.S.A., 1995 OCT 19 (NB) -- The nation's high-tech companies are trying to persuade President Clinton to back legislation that would make it more difficult for investors to bring securities fraud lawsuits. The American Electronics Association has put together a letter to the White House, signed by more than 200 high-tech companies, urging support for a Senate version of the securities legislation. Legislation has passed both the House and Senate and is awaiting consideration by a joining House-Senate conference committee. Clinton in the past has said he supports legislation that would make it more difficult to bring allegedly frivolous securities suits, a high legislative priority for AEA and its members, concentrated in Silicon Valley. The high-tech companies complain that under current law, any time a company's stock price changes -- a common occurrence among volatile technology companies -- the company is ripe for a lawsuit from a disgruntled investor. The companies say they waste enormous assets fighting such suits, often brought by lawyers who are specialists in investor suits and who work for a percentage of the recovery. In the letter to Clinton, the executives say that plaintiffs lawyers "seize upon the inherent volatility in our industry to create a false picture of 'fraud' where none exists." The electronics executives said they are troubled because White House lobbyists have expressed reservations over the Senate bill, which includes a "safe harbor" provision protecting executives from lawsuit when they make financial projections which turn out wrong. Critics, including the trial bar, charged that the safe harbor is a "license to lie." But the AEA executives say that the "proliferation of class action lawsuits has prompted companies to conclude that the legal risks of providing projected earnings, revenue and market information to Wall Street analysts or the investing public are too high." The AEA letter said the safe harbor provision is "most critical," because it encourages honest forward projections of earnings without fear of being sued. The industry expects the Senate version will prevail in the conference committee. The House passed its version of the bill by a vote of 325-99 and the Senate passed its bill by a vote of 70-29. Whether a conference committee will actually produce a compromise bill is not clear at this moment, as Congress is currently tied into knots over the budget reconciliation bill. The budget measure is occupying the exclusive attention of the congressional leadership, a situation that is unlikely to change if the president vetoes the budget bill, which he has said he will do. (Kennedy Maize/19951019/Press Contact: Greg Garcia, 202-682-9110) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 10/19/95 LEGAL Info Group Offers Contracts Compendium (NEWS)(LEGAL)(WAS)(00032) Info Group Offers Contracts Compendium 10/19/95 WASHINGTON, D.C., U.S.A., 1995 OCT 19 (NB) -- With legal contracts a key issue in the information business, the Information Industry Association has published the third volume in its series, "Contracts in the Information Industry III." The volume contains a compilation of actual contracts in use today by information service companies. The contracts include a wide range of areas, from licensing agreements, distribution, marketing to end user contracts. Among the companies that contributed to the document are IBM, Prodigy, Dun & Bradstreet, Dow Jones, Newsweek, the Bureau of National Affairs, and the New York Stock Exchange. Peter Marx, chairman of the Marx Group, compiled and edited the book. The Marx Group is a legal and consulting company and Marx is honorary counsel to the IIA board. The lobbying group for the information business says the book will be valuable to industry executives and legal counsel as they seek to play solid legal foundations for their business relationships in the rapidly changing industry. It provides an opportunity to see how major industry companies have structured their agreements. The IIA represents some 550 companies, including Fortune 500 firms, entrepreneurial start up companies, online services, telecommunications companies and Internet providers. (Kennedy Maize/19951019/Press Contact: Emily Pilk, IIA, 202-639-8262) NEWS)(APPLE)(SFO)(00033) ****Profits Down 48% At Apple 10/19/95 CUPERTINO, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1995 OCT 19 (NB) -- Apple Computer Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) has released its fourth quarter results with a record $3 billion in revenues and a 25% increase in unit shipments over the same quarter last year. In spite of record setting numbers, the company's income suffered a 48% decrease compared to the same quarter last year. Three weeks ago, Apple prepared the financial community, with a statement saying demand for its products was very high, but due to product availability problems it would not meet analysts' projections for the fourth quarter. Fourth quarter results confirmed Apple's earlier statement, but shocked many analysts with a 6.5% decrease in gross margins. Revenues for the fourth quarter were $3 billion, which is 20% more than the same period a year ago, and unit shipments for this quarter exceeded 1.25 million units. However, net income was $60.1 million, or $0.48 per share, compared with $114.7 million, or $0.95 per share, in the fourth quarter of 1994. Apple says the expected dramatic decrease in income was the result of a number of factors. The company experienced lower gross margins as a percentage of net sales when gross margins for this quarter were reported at 20.7% of net sales, compared to 27.2% in the same period last year. Additionally, Apple said its "aggressive pricing" on Power Mac products, component availability problems, delays in Power Mac product ramps, and increased competition in the Japanese market contributed to its income decrease. Adding to its problems, Apple also said it expects margins to remain low into 1996. A combination of lower margins, lower income, and projected lower margins into 1996 sent Apple's stock down 2 1/4 points this morning at 11:00am. The stock opened at 37.5 per share. Michael Murphy, editor and publisher of the California Technology Stock Letter, told Newsbytes, "The collapse in gross margins is shocking and the projections of low margins into 1996 is equally shocking. Until Motorola solves the chip production problems it is having with the high-end PowerPC chips, Apple will continue to have these problems." Asked how Apple posted record revenues while dropping income by 48%, Murphy replied, "They (Apple) spent a lot of money advertising older products such as the Performa to convince consumers to purchase them. At the same time, they had to cut margins to move these computers. This cannot go on forever. They may get through the holiday season, but early next year they have to have the high-end machines shipping in volume." Most of the older models were purchased by home users who are influenced by their children's experience with Macs in an educational setting. Referring to the campaign to move existing inventories of older Macintosh computers, Murphy said, "This is like getting people to buy a Nash-Rambler." Murphy also said Apple's operating system problem with Open Transport is becoming more widely acknowledged. "Even if they had the computers to sell, they still have this problem with Open Transport which they say will not be fixed until January," said Murphy. The problem causes high-end Power Macs to fail to operate when a user goes online and later needs to print a document. The only way to complete the printing process is to perform a hard boot of the computer. Murphy said the problem is so bad that the reset button does not solve the problem and users end-up having to unplug and then restart their computers. Apple holds a 25% market share in Japan, a country where personal computers have traditionally held high profit margins. But the picture is beginning to change with the growing success of Microsoft Windows-based computers and an accompanying competitive pricing structure. Again, Apple is faced with tighter profit margins to place its products in a more competitive market. On a positive note, Apple did say the demand for its products remains high. In June, the company said the demand for its products totaled $1 billion. The current fourth quarter report says Power Mac products accounted for 70% of units shipped and Apple says it has made improvements on meeting the demand. No figure was given to estimate the existing dollar value for product demand at this time, but Michael Spindler, Apple's chief executive officer said, "Demand for Apple products has been stronger than we've ever experienced in the company's history." Murphy continued, "If Apple can get the chips from Motorola and solve the Open Transport problem, they can turn this difficult time around. The company cannot allow this to go beyond the quarter ending March, 1996." During this fourth quarter, Apple also accepted the resignation of Joseph Graziano, its chief financial officer. He resigned his duties as director immediately, but remains with the company through the end of the year. Apple has not mentioned a possible successor, but the company's standing with Wall Street will be affected by the decision. Commenting further, Murphy said, "They (Apple) need to find someone who has the respect of Wall Street. It is not easy to replace a superstar like Graziano when a company is having the difficulties Apple is experiencing." Meanwhile, analysts speculate how long Macintosh developers who have invested extensive capitol developing native applications for high-end Power Macs can support the Macintosh platform while product availability problems continue. "Lack of software sales could drive developers to the Windows platform in greater numbers than expected," concluded Murphy. (Patrick McKenna/19951019/Press Contact: Pam Miracle, Apple, 408-974-0688) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 10/19/95 TRENDS ****77% of US Firms In Cyberspace By 1997 - Study (NEWS)(TRENDS)(MSP)(00034) ****77% of US Firms In Cyberspace By 1997 - Study 10/19/95 NEW YORK CITY, NEW YORK, U.S.A., 1995 OCT 19 (NB) -- A new survey from Straightline International claims that more than three quarters of US companies are either already on the Internet or will be on the Net within two years. Seventy-seven percent of the companies surveyed said they would be in cyberspace by 1997. In the survey "Corporate Communications and the Internet," 38 percent of the companies polled said they already had Internet World Wide Web sites, while 39 percent said they'll have Web presences within two years. Jane Gundell, executive vice president of Straightline, called the 77 percent number an "astonishing statistic," and said the greatest aspect that's driving the rush to the Web is a perceived need to be on the Web. "Any responsible company has to be looking into this, because the greatest fear is that you're going to be left in the dust by your absence," she said. "Because it's still an unproven media in some areas, I think that some people think if they don't get in on the ground floor, they will miss the experience and the exposure." The 23 percent of the companies saying they wouldn't be on the Web in two years because they either were taking a "wait and see" attitude (81 percent), had security concerns (16 percent), or had "other reasons" (3 percent), Straightline officials said. The "wait-and-see" approach is understandable, Gundell said, because "it's unclear the degree to which people felt (getting on the Web) would achieve any tangible results. A lot of them said its just too early to tell." The survey was conducted to get a feel about how companies were either planning on or already using the Internet for marketing, communications, and information exchange. One survey result Gundell found a bit surprising is the fact that many of the sites are being initiated by investor relations (IR) or management information systems (MIS) departments, instead of marketing departments. Of the companies planning sites, 42 percent were being started by IR, and 44 percent from MIS. "Obviously a lot of companies are not just viewing this as an opportunity to promote their product or service, but to promote their stock and communicate with current and prospective shareholders," she said. Other information these companies are either planning or already providing on Web sites include customer support or educational information (37 percent) and employment listings (33 percent). In addition, more than half of the sites already up have Internet electronic-mail addresses, but few (16 percent) use their sites to capture data such as names and addresses of users accessing information, another factor Gundell found surprising. (Bob Woods/19951019/Press Contact: Andrew Lavin, A. Lavin Communications, 212-354-2266, Internet e-mail alavincom@aol.com) (SUMMARY)(GENERAL)(MSP)(00035) Newsbytes Daily Summary 10/19/95 MINNEAPOLIS, MINNESOTA, U.S.A., 1995 OCT 19 (NB) -- These are capsules of all today's news stories: ======================================================================== ------------| N E W S B Y T E S D A I L Y S U M M A R Y |---------- ------------| Thursday, October 19, 1995 |---------- ======================================================================== (c) Newsbytes News Network (Tm) Editor in Chief: Wendy Woods ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Newsbytes News Network's on the Web! Check out http://www.nbnn.com for free daily top stories from Newsbytes. and its affiliate publications, and from PC Week, MacWeek, and other Ziff news magazines. A subscription gives you all the news, full-text, plus the most comprehensive database of past computer stories online. The keyword-searchable database dates from today back through 1983. Subscriptions are $24.95 for three months. Questions? Send to 'administrator@newsbytes.com' For Japanese Newsbytes and additional services, see the Newsbytes Pacifica Website at http://www.islandtel.com/newsbytes/ ------------------------------------------------------------------------ CATEGORY HEADLINES (*** indicates today's top stories) STORY # ======================================================================== BROADCAST India - Tektronix Plans Digital Studio..................... 11 BUSINESS Hong Kong - Banyan In Training Alliance.................... 09 BUSINESS ****Softbank Purchase Of Ziff Davis Publishing Imminent... 27 CHIPS Fujitsu Joins Ramtron FRAM Project......................... 21 CHIPS World's Smallest Embedded AT Attachment Storage............ 25 GENERAL China - Newsbriefs......................................... 01 GENERAL Australian News Briefs..................................... 08 GENERAL India - Citicorp Intros Asset Mgt Software................. 12 GENERAL UK - British Telecom Slashes CD-ROM Directory Prices....... 15 GOVT China - Large-Scale Electronics Firms Planned.............. 03 GOVT Pakistan - Govt's Software Investment Initiative........... 29 GOVT High-Tech Execs Back Securities Bill....................... 31 IBM ****Lotus Buyout Puts IBM In Red In Qtr.................... 26 LEGAL European Patent & Technology Law Shelved................... 16 LEGAL ****BBC Discovers Faxes Are Not Secure.................... 17 LEGAL Info Group Offers Contracts Compendium..................... 32 ONLINE Thailand - KSC Plans Internet Service Expansion............ 06 ONLINE UK - "Internet Explained" CD-ROM Intro'd................... 13 ONLINE CMP's TechWeb To Use Information-Agent Technology.......... 18 ONLINE Shopping For Cars On The Web............................... 19 ONLINE Internet Update............................................ 22 SUPERCOMP Top Ten Supercomputers..................................... 04 TELECOM India - British Telecom Offers Global Data Services........ 10 TELECOM Dutch Firm Intros Advanced Comms Server.................... 14 TELECOM Ericsson Intros Dual-Mode Cellular Portable Phone.......... 28 TELECOM Cable & Wireless In $44.4Mil Brazilian Cable Deal.......... 30 TRENDS China - AST Posts Strong PC Sales.......................... 02 TRENDS Compaq Tops PC Sales In Thailand........................... 05 TRENDS China - Computer Associates Targets Businesses............. 07 TRENDS Oracle Helps Police........................................ 20 TRENDS PC Apps Will Drive High-Density CD - Report................ 24 TRENDS ****77% of US Firms In Cyberspace By 1997 - Study......... 34 UNIX Unix Vendors Intro AS/U For Windows/NT Interoperability.... 23 ======================================================================== These are the headlines and first paragraphs of each story, in order: 1 -> China - Newsbriefs -- In this news roundup from China: pager services in many cities will be linked, optical cable links 50 railway stations in Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region, Ericsson sells mobile phone systems to Hunnan and Liaoning, and one million computers will be sold this year in China. 2 -> China - AST Posts Strong PC Sales -- Although loosing in its native land, AST's sales in China increased in the first half of this year, and the company has introduced new personal computer models, complete with Windows 95, to further tap the huge Chinese market. 3 -> China - Large-Scale Electronics Firms Planned -- China's electronics industry will focus on large-scale production during the Ninth Five-Year Plan period (1996-2000), Vice Minister of Electronics Industry Liu Jianfeng said. Large group companies will play a more important role in the industry's development. 4 -> Top Ten Supercomputers -- The Top 500 Report, issued each year by researchers at the University of Tennessee and the University of Mannheim, tallies the top 500 supercomputer installations around the world. The list is led by Fujitsu's wind tunnel supercomputer installed in 1993. 5 -> Compaq Tops PC Sales In Thailand -- Compaq was ranked number one in PC sales in Thailand for the first half of this year, according to a survey by Dataquest. 6 -> Thailand - KSC Plans Internet Service Expansion -- KSC Commercial Internet (KSC ComNet) plans to invest an additional 200 million baht (US$8 million) to expand its Internet service to 76 provinces and to upgrade its international telephone line to six 2Mb lines, according to KSC ComNet Executive Board Chairman Dr. Srisakdi Charmonman. 7 -> China - Computer Associates Targets Businesses -- As a latecomer to China, compared with other business software companies, Computer Associates International (CA) is pushing hard to increase its share of the market. The company is confident about its success in the huge market, Charles Wang, chairman and chief executive officer (CEO) of CA, told Newsbytes in an exclusive interview in Beijing. 8 -> Australian News Briefs -- In this roundup of news from Australia: Sun Microsystems Establishes SunSITE, IDC Australia Releases Research Bulletin, Oracle Australia Gets New Head, Telstra Signs With ABB Asea Brown Boveri, Applied Micro Systems Revenues Up, Music By Fax Service Launched, AT&T Offers Internet Backbone In Asia. 9 -> Hong Kong - Banyan In Training Alliance -- In a move that gives the enterprise network maker deep reach into southern China's economy, Banyan Systems signed the Hong Kong Productivity Council (HKPC) to lead its training programs. Until now, Hong Kong courses were conducted by visiting Banyan personnel. 10 -> India - British Telecom Offers Global Data Services -- British Telecommunications plc. (BT), and Videsh Sanchar Nigam Ltd. (VSNL), have launched the Concert Packet Services (CPS) in New Delhi. Concert is a value-added, end-to-end managed data network service offering instant connectivity to more than 1,300 cities in over 100 countries and over 200 public data networks worldwide. 11 -> India - Tektronix Plans Digital Studio -- Tektronix (India) Ltd., the Indian subsidiary of Tektronix Inc., has announced plans to set up a television studio in Bombay to expand into the growing market for studio equipment in the country. Tektronix has similar facilities in Hollywood, New York, and London. 12 -> India - Citicorp Intros Asset Mgt Software -- Citicorp Information Technology Industries Ltd. (CITIL), an affiliate of Citicorp, and Microsoft India, have introduced FundsPower 13 -> UK - "Internet Explained" CD-ROM Intro'd -- You can certainly buy enough books explaining the Internet, computer bookstores' shelves are bursting with such books, but how about a ready reference CD-ROM? Instant Access claims to have released the industry's first "demystifying CD-ROM" about the Internet, priced at UKP24.99 from its UK office. 14 -> Dutch Firm Intros Advanced Comms Server -- Centigram Communications Corporation (CCC), a company which claims to be a leading global provider of communications systems, has unveiled its Series 6 comms server. 15 -> UK - British Telecom Slashes CD-ROM Directory Prices -- British Telecom (BT) seems to have come to its senses as regards pricing on its CD-ROM directory of UK phone numbers. After launching the disk with quarterly updates a few years ago with a four figure price tag, the telecoms giant has pushed the price down to UKP199 for a year's subscription to the disk, with a quarterly update subscription included. 16 -> European Patent & Technology Law Shelved -- Wide-ranging proposed legislation over patents and technology licensing proposed by the European Commission (EC) has been shelved owing to discord. 17 -> ****BBC Discovers Faxes Are Not Secure -- The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) found out late last week that faxes are not a secure transmission system. After faxing a copy of a top secret internal management document to a BBC senior staying at the Pembroke Hotel in Blackpool, where the Conservative Party Conference took place all last week, BBC executives were aghast to discover that the fax was sent to the room of Nigel Nelson, a journalist with The People newspaper, who was also staying at the hotel. 18 -> CMP's TechWeb To Use Information-Agent Technology -- CMP's TechWeb said a new service called "TechWeb Direct" will use information- agent technology to deliver tech news directly to a user's desktop or network, without having to log onto the Internet. 19 -> Shopping For Cars On The Web -- Cyberspace is becoming a new avenue for people who are shopping for cars, via a database on the Internet's World Wide Web. Dealernet offers information on more than 350 current and 1996 model year cars, trucks, vans, and other vehicles. 20 -> Oracle Helps Police -- Database giant, Oracle (NASDAQ:ORCL) has announced the immediate availability of Oracle Special Investigative Unit Support System (SIUSS) Release 1.0 for Microsoft Windows. Designed to store, organize, and manage information related to criminal activity, SIUSS incorporates the latest database advancements to reduce investigation time and solve cases. 21 -> Fujitsu Joins Ramtron FRAM Project -- Almost two months to the day since announcing an agreement with Toshiba, Ramtron (NASDAQ:RMTR) has gained another Japanese partner in its plans to develop FRAM (ferro-electric random access memory) technology. The Colorado Springs-based company has signed a memorandum of understanding with Tokyo's Fujitsu Ltd. stating that both companies intend to jointly develop semiconductor products. 22 -> Internet Update -- In this roundup of new services and resources on the global Internet: In the news: The Swiss elections, MCI brings banned music online, US yellow pages directory, Internet tips mailing list, PC-Card association, Hurricane damage information, Weather and climate data online, Netherlands Energy Research Foundation, Small satellite information. 23 -> Unix Vendors Intro AS/U For Windows/NT Interoperability -- Advanced Server for Unix lets organizations combine the GUI (graphical user interface) of the Windows environment and security features of Windows NT with the scalability and "robustness" of Unix, said Data General, Bull, Olivetti, and Pyramid officials, during new product introductions and meetings with Newsbytes at AT&T Connections in Boston. Also at the show yesterday, these Unix vendors joined with companies that included Digital Equipment Corp. and SCO (Santa Cruz Operations) in a demo of mutual interoperability with Windows NT. 24 -> PC Apps Will Drive High-Density CD - Report -- Personal computer multimedia applications will be the strongest force driving the acceptance of new high-density compact disk technology, according to research firm InfoTech. The firm predicted that in 1997, the first full year the new 4.7 gigabyte (GB) technology is available, more than two million of the high-density CD drives will be sold. 25 -> World's Smallest Embedded AT Attachment Storage -- SanDisk Corp. has introduced the Flash Chipset, claimed to be the world's smallest embedded solid-state ATA (AT attachment) data storage system. The chipset contains memory and a flash controller chip. 26 -> ****Lotus Buyout Puts IBM In Red In Qtr -- A one-time charge related to its takeover of Lotus Development Corp. left IBM (NYSE:IBM) with a loss in the third quarter, but before the $1.8 billion charge the company's earnings were up significantly over the same quarter a year earlier. Revenues rose nine percent versus the third quarter of 1994. 27 -> ****Softbank Purchase Of Ziff Davis Publishing Imminent -- Softbank Corporation confirmed in Tokyo this evening that it is in talks over the purchase of Ziff Davis Publishing. Softbank president, Mayoshi Son, told assembled journalists that the company is in negotiations over a final price for the deal and has already reached agreement on several terms. 28 -> Ericsson Intros Dual-Mode Cellular Portable Phone -- Ericsson, the Swedish telephone company, has unveiled a dual-mode digital mobile, suitable for use on both GSM (global system for mobile communications) and DECT (digital European cordless technology) networks. 29 -> Pakistan - Govt's Software Investment Initiative -- With the assistance of the Business Software Alliance (BSA) in Europe, the Pakistan Government has announced an incentives program to attract foreign investment in the country's software industry. According to the Ministry of the Interior, the plan is the brainchild of Benazir Bhutto, the Prime Minister of Pakistan and aims to service the software needs of both Pakistan and other Asian countries. 30 -> Cable & Wireless In $44.4Mil Brazilian Cable Deal -- Cable & Wireless has secured a major contract for the installation of the Brazilian Domestic cable system, a 2,430 kilometer (mm) undersea fiber optic network that will form part of Brazil's backbone telecoms infrastructure. 31 -> High-Tech Execs Back Securities Bill -- The nation's high-tech companies are trying to persuade President Clinton to back legislation that would make it more difficult for investors to bring securities fraud lawsuits. 32 -> Info Group Offers Contracts Compendium -- With legal contracts a key issue in the information business, the Information Industry Association has published the third volume in its series, "Contracts in the Information Industry III." 34 -> ****77% of US Firms In Cyberspace By 1997 - Study -- A new survey from Straightline International claims that more than three quarters of US companies are either already on the Internet or will be on the Net within two years. Seventy-seven percent of the companies surveyed said they would be in cyberspace by 1997. (Ian Stokell/19951019) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 10/18/95 TELECOM Japanese PC-Linked Pager Debuts In UK (NEWS)(TELECOM)(LON)(00001) Japanese PC-Linked Pager Debuts In UK 10/18/95 NEWBURY, BERKSHIRE, ENGLAND, 1995 OCT 18 (NB) -- Vodapage, the radiopaging division of Vodafone, has launched a message pager with a difference. The Wordcall Plus is a pager that can be linked to a PC and have data transferred across a PC serial link. Corinne Norris, a spokeswoman for Vodapage, told Newsbytes that the pager is a lot more than a simple beeper, since its features allow the device to function as an electronic organizer, organizing user's time. The pager is a NEC-made unit that has a four line, 80 character LCD (liquid crystal display) screen and can store up to 99 messages in the main directory. There are also three other directories, each with a 40 message store. As with most message pagers of this type, Wordcall Plus is sold with a subscription service that offers an operator bureau to answer calls on the designated pager number. It is also possible to send messages to the pager across TAP-compliant dial-up or PDN (packet data network) links. The pager has a choice of no less than 14 alerts, including "silent" and "vibrate," as well as a programmable auto-mute facility, which allows a silent mode to be pre-set for when messages need to be received, but for when an alert is not required. When plugged into a PC running the supplied Windows software, the pager allows nine notes of up to 40 characters to be entered and stored. In addition, the contents of all the messages in their various directories can be downloaded across the PC link. Announcing the WordCall Plus pager and services, Ken McGeorge, Vodapage's managing director, said that the system is the new flagship of the company's paging range. "The WordCall Plus offers full message capability, as well as the ability for users to remain up to date with details of appointments, sales figures, the latest news or requests for action and enables the user to decide how and when to respond," he said. Now the slightly bad news. The pager sells for UKP225, while the PC link cabling and software sells for a hefty UKP149, although this does include two cables. Vodapage does offer the option for customers to rent pagers for UKP9.45 per month as an alternative to buying the unit, although the UKP149 PC Link package will still have to be bought. The service rental, meanwhile starts at UKP13.50 for one of 10 regions in the UK, rising to UKP26.50 per month for national coverage. (Steve Gold/19951016/Press & Reader Contact: Vodafone, +44-1635-33251) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 10/18/95 WINDOWS Windows Application Reveals All On UK Dialing Codes (NEWS)(WINDOWS)(LON)(00002) Windows Application Reveals All On UK Dialing Codes 10/18/95 LONDON, ENGLAND, 1995 OCT 18 (NB) -- Texis UK has announced the development of a Windows version of its popular DOS dialing code package. According to Nick Mutton, the managing director of the company, the package, which will be called Texis for Windows, acts as a database of everything users want to know about UK dialing codes. The idea behind Texis, the software, is that users can do string entries and searches based on dialing codes and get back lists of exchanges and place names to geographically identify where the dialing code is located. By keying in the place name, a dialing code for that area is also returned. The details in the database include sub-codes on exchanges, together with what the exchange type is, and what facilities subscribers on that exchange can use, for example, network services and call waiting. Texis for Windows will be formally launched at the TMA (Telecom Manager's Association) show in Brighton on November 27-29 this year. Mutton told Newsbytes, "One of the most useful features of the package is the ability to intelligently search on dialing code data. For example, if you know a number, but have forgotten its dialing code and where it is in the UK, Texis will search the exchange data and return all dialing codes where the number in question is actively in use." According to Mutton, plans are in hand to release data for Texis for Windows to allow the package to offer similar exchange searches on other European countries. Texis for Windows runs under Windows 3.x, and requires an 80486-based PC with four megabytes (MB) of memory. The package sells for UKP79.95, and existing DOS users can upgrade to the new package for UKP39.95 from version 3.x, and UKP49.95 from version 2.x. A subscription to a year's worth of data updates is included in this price. (Steve Gold/19951017/Press & Reader Contact: Texis UK, tel +44-181- 429-3111, fax +44-181-429-3222; Internet e-mail texis@texis.co.uk) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 10/18/95 TELECOM Europe - MFS To Offer Telecoms Service In Hong Kong (NEWS)(TELECOM)(LON)(00003) Europe - MFS To Offer Telecoms Service In Hong Kong 10/18/95 LONDON, ENGLAND, 1995 OCT 18 (NB) -- MFS has announced the launch of an international telecoms service, targeted at the financial center of Hong Kong. According to Colin Williams, managing director of the company's International operations, the new service forms part of the expansion plan carried out by MFS in the Asia Pacific region. According to Williams, although MFS's operations are primarily focused on Europe in preparation for the January, 1998, free telecoms market mandated by the European Commission (EC), the company is concentrating a high degree of its resources into offering services into Hong Kong. Williams claims that Hong Kong has a lot to offer in terms of telecoms service take-up, when compared with the potential customer base in the US and Europe. "Our primary focus for international expansion remains on Europe, with an eye toward the opening of the European Union to full competition in January, 1998. However, Hong Kong was particularly attractive to us because, even though it is an important financial center, it does not have the same level of access to advanced global services as financial centers in Europe and the US," he explained. According to Williams, the value of business telecommunications market in Hong Kong is around the US$200 million a year mark, but this figure is expected to double within the next five years. "The expansion of Hong Kong was largely driven by the needs of our customers in other financial centers. As a cornerstone of the Asia- Pacific region, Hong Kong is one of the 25 international financial centers targeted as part of our accelerated expansion plan," he explained. MFS's services into Hong Kong will offer cut-price phone calls to most destinations around the world from the end of the year. In the near future, the company plans a further expansion of its telecoms services to take in 90 cities around the world, including 25 financial centers. (Sylvia Dennis/19951017/Press & Reader Contact: Pat Chapman-Pincher, MFS, +44-171-570-5836) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 10/18/95 PC 24 Hour Data Hook-up For ISDN (NEWS)(PC)(LAX)(00004) 24 Hour Data Hook-up For ISDN 10/18/95 SAN DIEGO, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1995 OCT 18 (NB) -- Patriot Scientific Corporation (OTC: PTSC) has introduced the CyberShark I, a PC-compatible ISDN (integrated services digital network) plug-in terminal adapter card. By allowing full use of an ISDN line to achieve up to 128 kilobits- per-second (Kbps), the CyberShark I terminal adapter provides over four times the data rate of the fastest analog modems. The CyberShark I terminal adapter can allow around-the-clock connectivity to the Internet for electronic-mail, news, file transfer and Internet phone or videoconferencing. An ISDN line consists of bearer channels (B channels) and a separate data channel (D channel). A basic ISDN line installed in a business or home by the local telephone service provider normally includes two 64 Kbps B channels (for voice or data) and one 16 Kbps D channel. Clay Douglas, senior staff engineer for Patriot, told Newsbytes, "Telephone companies charge by the minute over the B channels, but charge by amount of data transferred on the D channel. The CyberShark I terminal adapter is unique in that it utilizes the D channel, and it can switch back and forth depending on the amount of data being transferred. Because the D channel charges for data only it can be left open all the time." With the D channel open 24 hours a day, information can be stored on the computer as it comes in. Douglas pointed out that Pac Bell charges about $4 per minute on the B channels, and around $2 per megabyte on the D channel. CyberShark I will go to the B channel if the data download is more cost-effective by the minute rate. "Twenty-four hour hook-ups are commonplace in the corporate world, this allows the small office or home user the same advantage," said Douglas. ISDN is a set of digital transmission protocols that virtually all of the world's communications carriers have adopted as a standard. ISDN brings the digital network to the individual user by turning the same twisted-pair copper telephone line into a high-speed high-capacity ISDN lines can have the capacity for three transmissions (two voice, fax or PC conversations and one data conversation) at the same time. Further, up to eight separate devices (telephones, computers, fax machines, etc.) can be connected to the same ISDN line and each assigned separate telephone numbers. The CyberShark I will be available in the fourth quarter of 1995, and should sell for under $400 per unit. (Richard Bowers/19951016/Press Contact: Elwood G. Norris, Patriot Scientific 619-679-4428) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 10/18/95 TELECOM Novell To Sponsor Telephony Services Conference (NEWS)(TELECOM)(DEN)(00005) Novell To Sponsor Telephony Services Conference 10/18/95 OREM, UTAH, U.S.A., 1995 OCT 18 (NB) -- Novell Inc. (NASDAQ: NOVL) says it will join with other companies to sponsor the second annual conference on the development and marketing of telephony applications based on its TSAPI (Telephone Services Applications Program Interface). Netware Telephony Services integrate telephone networks and data networks. Joining Novell in sponsoring the two-day event at the Grand Hyatt Hotel in San Francisco are AT&T, Nortel, Siemens ROLM Communications, and Versit. The conference opens October 24. The telecom and system manufacturers will meet with developers, resellers, system integrators, and end users. Novell said the theme of this year's conference is "Partners Enabling The Vision." According to Paul Armstrong, director of marketing for Novell's telephony products, the products and technologies to deploy network telephony are all available. "Customers need the vendor community, resellers and system integrators to come together to deliver complete solutions. That's what this conference is all about" said Armstrong. Novell said a dozen or more companies will deliver tutorials offering insight into present and future network telephony strategies and directions. Development and marketing tracks will cover subjects like the future of telephony switching, software and hardware development, and telephone-integrated voice platform development. Keynote speakers include Novell Chief Scientist Drew Major, and Dataquest Senior Analyst Gary Andresen. The cost for the two-day event is $195 per person. Novell has made arrangement for conference rates at the Grand Hyatt Hotel. (Jim Mallory/19951017/Press contact: Amanda Berman, Alexander Communications for Novell, 415-923-1660; Public contact: Novell for conference registration, 800-733-9673 or 801-429-5281) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 10/18/95 TRENDS Technology Partly To Blame For Jobless Recovery - Report (NEWS)(TRENDS)(TOR)(00006) Technology Partly To Blame For Jobless Recovery - Report 10/18/95 OTTAWA, ONTARIO, CANADA, 1995 OCT 18 (NB) -- In Canada, the recession of 1990-91 was not as long or as deep as that of the early 1980s, but ordinary people suffered much more because employment did not recover as well. That was partly because of increased use of technology, according to a recent report from the Conference Board of Canada. Four years after the 1981-82 recession, there were 720,000 more jobs in Canada than there had been at the pre-recession peak in June, 1981, says the report, entitled "Why The Jobless Recovery: Youth Abandon Labour Market." Now, four years after the 1990-91 recession officially ended in the spring of 1991, there are only 276,000 more jobs than at the pre-recession peak. Also, the average period of unemployment is longer now. On average, workers were staying unemployed for 25.6 weeks as of April, 1995, versus 12.3 weeks in January, 1980. The report gives several reasons for this. One is free trade. Due to the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) and provisions of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT), Canadian companies are facing tougher competition from abroad than before and they are being forced to re-think the way they do business. "Increasing efficiency and effectiveness is a business imperative," the report says, "and it has often translated into consolidations and factory shutdowns, increasing machinery and equipment expenditures, and a reduction in unit labor costs." Technology is contributing to the jobless recovery because many employers are relying more on capital equipment and less on labor. One reason for that, the report notes, is that changes in regulation and taxation have boosted the cost of hiring people -- for instance, in Ontario, which is Canada's largest manufacturing province, employers now pay 100 percent of the premiums for government-run health insurance. The cost of unemployment insurance and the Canada Pension Plan have also gone up. Real machinery and equipment expenditure growth has averaged six percent over the past five years and is expected to reach seven percent by the end of the decade, the Conference Board said. As a result, the capital-to-labor ratio -- the value of machinery and equipment per employed person -- has almost doubled. Increasing use of technology has also put new demands on employees, who are increasingly likely to be expected to be computer-literate and able to operate complex machines. The Conference Board report says that inadequate training is leaving many workers without the skills to get jobs, even as some technically demanding jobs go begging. The report also notes that part-time employment is increasing, at the expense of full-time employment, and that young people and those in their 50s and 60s are dropping out of the labor force. So are women, whose participation rate has fallen since 1991, reversing a 40-year upward trend. Despite the pain caused by changes such as trade liberalization, the Conference Board maintains the changes were necessary, and have produced some benefits such as lower consumer prices. (Grant Buckler/19951017/Press Contact: Paul Thomson, Conference Board of Canada, 613-526-3280, fax 613-526-4857, Internet e-mail thomson@conferenceboard.ca) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 10/18/95 TRENDS Smart Battery Needed For Longer Life (NEWS)(TRENDS)(LAX)(00007) Smart Battery Needed For Longer Life 10/18/95 SAN JOSE, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1995 OCT 18 (NB) -- Exar Corporation (NASDAQ: EXAR), a supplier of mixed-signal integrated circuits, has announced the XR-8100 "smart battery" High IQ chipset. The High IQ chipset displays how full a rechargeable battery is, and it also controls charging and discharging of the battery pack to prevent damage and extend the life of the battery. Exar's High IQ chipset can be used with nickel-cadmium, metal- hydride, or lithium-ion batteries and offers a number of interface options including the Intel/Duracell Smart Battery Data (SBD) specification. Rick Riefer, operations group manager for Exar, told Newsbytes, "The market is moving to the lithium ion battery. It gives longer life, but it is a delicate battery that needs carefully monitored charging. The lithium ion battery can be damaged if it is over- or under-charged. Intelligent battery monitoring is essential." In the next five years, Exar predicts Americans will buy 116 cordless phones, 48 million pagers, 88 million cellular phones, 38 million portable computers, and seven million high-end electronic organizers. These products will need more than $700 million of battery management integrated circuits (ICs). The new lithium-ion batteries might double the battery operating time of current equipment and increase the number of battery life charging cycles. However, this improvement comes with the requirement for very careful control of the charging process and carefully balancing each individual lithium-ion cell. Exar says its High IQ XR-8100 chipset provides this sophisticated charging control while providing "fuel gauging" capabilities as well. "Unlike other battery management chipsets on the market, Exar's smart battery High IQ chipset provides a complete battery management system," claimed Jean Claude Zambelli, Exar's business unit director. "It offers fuel gauging and such advanced features as charger control, charge, and self discharge compensation as well as a number of choices in communication protocols." The High IQ smart battery chipset consists of the XR-8101 digital controller band the XR-8115 analog front-end. According to Exar, the XR-8105 Lithium-Ion protection system is designed to work in conjunction with the XR-8100 chipset to meet the critical cell balancing as well as under and over voltage protection requirements of Lithium-Ion batteries. The XR-8105 can also be used by itself for "non-smart" Lithium-Ion systems. Prices in 10,000 unit quantities are $7.95 per XR-8100 chipset and $1.65 per XR-8105 lithium-ion protection integrated circuit. To add this system in volume will cost a manufacturer around $10 per unit. (Richard Bowers/19951016/Press Contact: Jean Claude Zambelli, EXAR Corporation, 408-434-6400) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 10/18/95 BUSINESS India's Pentafour Expands Thai Presence (NEWS)(BUSINESS)(HKG)(00008) India's Pentafour Expands Thai Presence 10/18/95 BANGKOK, THAILAND, 1995 OCT 18 (NB) -- Indian-based Pentafour Software & Exports has announced a joint-venture to set up Pentafour AG (Thailand) to provide software services, products, and training. In an interview with Newsbytes, Pentafour Software & Exports Senior President V. Mohan said that his company had a worldwide network of offices and business associates that included representatives in the US, Mauritius, Singapore, Hong Kong, Australia and UK, and thus could bring expertise to Thailand. The local partner, Thakral, has worked with Pentafour for three years through local subsidiary, A.G. Software Consultants, to provide information technology (IT) services and products to Indo-Thai business houses and institutions in Thailand. A.G. Soft is also an authorized distributor of Oracle Systems. Pentafour Software is India's third largest software exporter. After going international in 1992, the company has been carrying out projects on IBM ES/9000, AS/400, RS/6000, and HP/9000 platforms and claims to have been a pioneer in the field of client/server-based application development, multimedia, and imaging. A.G. Soft Director Y.S. Rao noted that the company had some 20 customers in Thailand, such as Thai-Oil, Chase Manhattan Bank, Bharat Overseas Bank, Usha Siam Steel, Medicap Limited, President Park Hyundai Development, and some proposed projects such as a life-insurance package for Thai-Prasit Insurance and the integrated management information sYstem of Thai-US Leather. Mr Rao noted that the company will concentrate on the banking, insurance, and manufacturing industries. (Tony Waltham and Post Database-Bangkok Post/19951018) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 10/18/95 GOVT Australia Laws Going Online (NEWS)(GOVT)(SYD)(00009) Australia Laws Going Online 10/18/95 CANBERRA, AUSTRALIA, 1995 OCT 18 (NB) -- The Australian Federal Attorney-General's Department has signed a $1 million contract with a Canberra computer distributor for equipment to put Australian laws and regulations on the Internet. Approved Systems will supply Macintosh computers, support hardware, and Tower software and hardware to set up the electronic Federal Register of Legislative Instruments. This will hold Commonwealth regulations and secondary legislation which back up the laws approved by the Federal Parliament. Parliament now has before it a bill which makes lodgment of these instruments with the Attorney-General's Department compulsory -- if they are not lodged, they won't be enforceable. In the past such regulations were gazetted, but were often not recorded elsewhere, making public access difficult. AG plans to store images of legislative instruments electronically. It will make these rules and regulations available to the public through the Internet and other online services. (Paul Zucker/19951017) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 10/18/95 ONLINE UK Firm Offers Low-Cost Internet Access (NEWS)(ONLINE)(LON)(00010) UK Firm Offers Low-Cost Internet Access 10/18/95 LONDON, ENGLAND, 1995 OCT 18 (NB) -- Global Internet, a new company based in Putney, London, has begun offering a full range of Internet services, including World Wide Web and SLIP dial-up access, but at a low price, just UKP7.50 per month. The company is also offering an Internet suite of software known as Total Internet, for UKP34.99. Laurence Blackall, Global Internet's founder and managing director, told Newsbytes that he expects a number of new Internet customers to sign up for service solely on price, but admits that profits are not great at this price level. "It's a way of differentiating ourselves in this market and gaining attention," he said, adding that the main aim was to carve out a name for the company in what is already a crowded marketplace. Interestingly, Blackall told Newsbytes that the all-you-can-eat Internet pricing currently applicable in the UK may not last much longer, as British Telecom (BT) is reported to be working on a portfolio of price changes that may include free off-peak local calls to selected numbers. "It's well known in the industry that BT is looking at this. The big question is what BT will offer in this respect," he said, adding that his own inquiries had led him to believe that "blanket" free off-peak local calls was something that BT is unlikely to offer. "BT could not afford to offer all off-peak local calls free of charge," he explained, adding that some of selected calls to nominated numbers being free of charge is the most likely scenario for BT to offer to its customers. So where does this leave Internet service providers such as Global Internet? Blackall replied that, if BT does offer free off-peak local calls to nominated numbers, then service providers like Global would have to look at the way they charge, possibly switching to timed hourly billing like Compuserve currently charges its subscribers. Despite the uncertainty surrounding the way in which off-peak local calls will be billed in the UK, Blackall told Newsbytes that he is extremely bullish on the Internet's prospects in the UK online market. "The Internet is fast becoming one of the most important forms of communication in today's society. The market is being driven by innovative and creative multimedia content and falling hardware prices. Moreover, thousands of leading brands, and most of the best- known high street retailers, have recognized the Internet as the powerful medium that it is for reaching the 18 to 35 age group," he said. According to Blackall, with 65 percent of all households forecast to own a PC within the next 10 years, the PC user without an Internet connection will become a rare breed. "Until now, accessing the Internet has been both expensive and unnecessarily complicated, and most service providers have clearly targeted the technical user. We have launched Global Internet to open the door for a much wider audience who we are convinced will become mainstream Internet users," he explained. Blackall claims that Global Internet is a national UK service provider, and has completed a deal with Energis to use the alternative telecoms carrier to route Internet-bound calls on a local basis from around the UK to its modem pool in London. "Although we're based in London, we see ourselves as a national company, as demonstrated by our agreement to use the Energis network," he said, adding that regional Internet service providers cannot compete in the national Internet market effectively. "I think regional Internet service providers that only offer their dial-up service in a specific area are going to find it difficult against the nationals," he said, adding that the nature of the Internet requires companies offering services to offer national local call access. Further details of Global Internet's services can be found on the company's Web site, which is at http://www.globalnet.co.uk . (Steve Gold/19951016/Press Contact: Rebecca Atherley, Words, tel +44-171-938-4746, fax +44-171-938-3471, Internet e-mail rebecca@words-etc.co.uk; Reader Contact: Global Internet, tel +44-181-957-1155, fax +44-181-785-7700, Internet e-mail lb@globalnet.co.uk/BANKER19951018/PHOTO) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 10/18/95 GOVT Aussie Laws Going Online (NEWS)(GOVT)(SYD)(00011) Aussie Laws Going Online 10/18/95 CANBERRA, AUSTRALIA, 1995 OCT 18 (NB) -- The Australian Federal Attorney-General's Department has signed a $1M contract with a Canberra computer distributor for gear to put Australian laws and regulations on the Internet. Approved Systems will supply Macintosh computers, support hardware and Tower software and hardware to set up the electronic Federal Register of Legislative Instruments. This will hold Commonwealth regulations and secondary legislation which back up the laws approved by the Federal Parliament. Parliament now has before it a bill which makes lodgment of these instruments with the Attorney-General's Department compulsory -- if they're not lodged, they won't be enforceable. In the past such regulations were gazetted but were often not recorded elsewhere, making public access difficult. AG plans to store images of legislative instruments electronically. It will make these rules and regulations available to us all through the Internet and other online services. (Paul Zucker/19951017) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 10/18/95 ONLINE UK - FTP Software's "Explore Anywhere" Internet Software (NEWS)(ONLINE)(LON)(00012) UK - FTP Software's "Explore Anywhere" Internet Software 10/18/95 BRACKNELL, BERKSHIRE, ENGLAND, 1995 OCT 18 (NB) -- FTP Software has taken the wraps off Explore Anywhere 2.0 for Windows. According to Mike Hibbert, a spokesman for the company, the UKP199 package is designed to offer all the usual features of an Internet suite -- World Wide Web browser, telnet, Usenet, Gopher Plus, and FTP -- but with the option of using remote link Internet access. Hibbert claims the package is unique in the marketplace. This is because the software has been designed to work both locally to the TCP/IP (Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol) link, either via dial-up, across leased lines or ISDN (integrated service digital network) circuit, or by remote access from another site. Put simply, this means that, even if your TCP/IP link into the Internet is located on your desktop or the company LAN (local area network), you can still access this over remote synchronous or asynchronous links, such as modem or ISDN links. "The advantage is that, whether you're at home or the office, or anywhere else, providing you can dial into the office network, you can carry out all the usual Internet functions you are used to," he told Newsbytes. Integral to the Explore Anywhere packages is a new technology known as Keyview, which allows Internet users to view and print filly formatted word processor, graphics, image and spreadsheet files received across an Internet link. Standalone pricing on Explore Anywhere has been set at UKP199, but five-user packages are available for UKP900. The package is being sold FTP's UK and German offices in Europe, as well as through the company's US distribution channels. "This package is very much aimed at NetWare users who want to move out of the office, but still have access to the Internet and other desktop functions, across a modem or similar connection," Wesley told Newsbytes, adding that the software is designed to operate locally or remotely without the need to adjust any PC settings. Further information on Explore Anywhere is available from FTP's Web pages, which are on http://www.ftp.com . (Steve Gold/19951012/Press Contact: Ruth Kelion, A Plus, +44-1793-790700, Internet e-mail rkelion@aplus.co.uk; Reader Contact: FTP Software Worldwide, +44-1344-382131) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 10/18/95 GENERAL HP Intros 8.7GB Drive, Plus 6 Other Storage Products (NEWS)(GENERAL)(BOS)(00013) HP Intros 8.7GB Drive, Plus 6 Other Storage Products 10/18/95 BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS, U.S.A., 1995 OCT 18 (NB) -- Hewlett- Packard's new C3653A, a product ultimately destined for both the mainframe and PC server markets, is the industry's first shipping hard disk drive in the 9 gigabyte (GB) capacity range, maintained Roger Archibald, at a press conference in Boston where HP introduced seven new storage products. Also at the HP press briefing, which was attended by Newsbytes, Stuart W. Murray, product manager, said that the C3653A marks the debut of a new recording head design known as DSMR (dual-stripe magneto-resistive), co-developed with EMC Corp. for more accurate recording of data. The new hard drive is also the second disk drive from HP to feature PRML (Partial-Read/Maximum-Likelihood), another technology targeted at higher accuracy, according to Murray. Holding a sample of the new C3653A in the palm of his hand to underscore his point, Archibald told the assembled reporters and analysts that the new disk drive provides 450 times the storage capacity of the room-sized "data center" disk drives that HP initially produced back in the early 1970s. The new 7,200 rpm (revolutions-per-minute) 3.5-inch disk drive is roughly half the size of a standard-sized tape recorder cassette. HP is aiming the C3653A at the mainframe OEM (original equipment market) first, but the product will later be migrated to the "enhanced PC servers and multi-user computers," according to Archibald, who is marketing manager for HP's Information Storage Group. Also in the disk drive arena, HP rolled out Enhanced IDE interface drives for PC servers, workstations, and high-end desktop PCs. Other products announced at the briefing in Boston included the SureStore Archive Server; the SureStore Optical 165st optical jukebox; the HP Colorado T400s and 100e QIC back-up tape drives; and the Model C1537A DAT (digital audio tape) network back-up storage drive. Archibald pointed out to the journalists that, last year at about this time, HP introduced four new storage products. The disk drive, tape and optical offerings of HP's Storage Systems Division contributed $1.5 million to company revenues in fiscal 1994, he added. Sales of HP's storage products are growing at about three times the industry average, according to the marketing manager. In a meeting with Newsbytes following the presentation, Archibald contended that HP tailors each of its storage products to two markets: end users, who want to concentrate on application "content," rather than storage mechanics; and "information service providers," who need storage products that are easy to administer, reliable, and worthy of employers' investments. Also during the meeting, Murray said that the DSMR technology debuting in the C3653A produces two signals in the read channel, allowing automatic selection of the stronger of the two. "Two heads are better than one," Murray quipped. HP's new HP SureStore Hard Disk 1080A (1GB) and HP SureStore Hard Disk 1600A (1.6GB) drives feature an enhanced PIO Mode 4 IDE interface that is designed to provide a 16.6 megabyte-per-second (Mbps) data transfer rate. MBTF (meantime-between-failure) is 300,000 hours, according to the HP officials. Murray told Newsbytes that the Enhanced IDE drives will be supported by HP SureStore "brand benefits" that include Express Exchange, for drive replacement within 24 hours, and worldwide technical support via phone, fax, BBS (bulletin board system), and the Web. The Enhanced IDE drives are expected to be available through HP VARs (value-added resellers) on November 1, in 1 GB and 1.6GB capacities. Pricing will be available through HP VARs. HP shipped its first 8.7GB C3653A drive in July, and plans to enter volume production for OEMs in the first quarter of 1996. Volume pricing to initial OEM customers is expected to be in the $1,500 to $1,700 range. The 8.7GB drive will be available at first with a 20 MB/sec SCSI (small computer systems interface)-2 interface. HP expects to add an FC-AL (fiber channel-arbitrated loop) edition next year, according to Archibald. (Jacqueline Emigh/19951017/Reader Contact: Hewlett-Packard, 800- 826-4111; Press Contacts: Doug Cole, HP, 208-396-2515; Laurel Redden, The Hoffman Agency for HP, 408-286-2611) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 10/18/95 NETWORK HP "Archive Server" Combines Jukebox With Built-In Chip (NEWS)(NETWORK)(BOS)(00014) HP "Archive Server" Combines Jukebox With Built-In Chip 10/18/95 BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS, U.S.A., 1995 OCT 18 (NB) -- HP's new SureStore Archive Server combines an optical jukebox with a built-in processor and related hardware and software to let departmental administrators add optical storage to Netware and Unix networks without the need for a separate file server, said Pamela L. Ingmire, during an HP press conference in Boston. Also at the press briefing, which was attended by Newsbytes, HP rolled out six other storage products, including, in the optical category, the SureStore Optical 165st, a smaller yet expandable edition of the 300 gigabyte (GB) SureStore Optical 300st that HP introduced in August for networked imaging and data warehousing applications. Meanwhile, HP's new SureStore Archive Server is "the first storage product of this kind that we know of," Ingmire reported, during a demo for Newsbytes at the briefing. Like the new breed of database servers, print and fax servers, and application servers, the new archive server reflects a growing trend toward the distribution of specialized servers throughout the network, she acknowledged. Available in 20 gigabyte (GB), 40GB, 80GB and 100GB 5.25-inch magneto-optical (MO) configurations, the "archive server" is designed to ease storage management and reduce maintenance costs by offering an optical jukebox with an integrated hard disk, "direct LAN (local area network) attachment hardware," and jukebox-management software, said Ingmire, who is market development manager for the HP Storage Systems Division in Greeley, Colorado. The administrator can add up to 100GB of storage space to a PC network without concern over buying the "right" software packages and licenses, or acquiring enough RAM (random access memory) or hard-disk cache, for example, according to the HP exec. The archive server is designed to support up to 50 users on the 20st model and up to 100 users on the 40st, 80st, and 100st models without requiring the purchase of Netware licenses. Additionally, the administrator can partition, or assign, various portions of the archive server to different users and tasks on an "on-the-fly" basis, without downing other servers, Newsbytes was told. The archive server can also be backed up to a local HP DAT (digital audio tape) drive or HP DAT autoloader without interfering with the flow of network traffic, according to Ingmire. Through another special feature, called "automatic space management," the archive server "transparently adds capacity from a pool of available disks as disks fill up." HP's new SureStore Optical 165st optical jukebox provides 165GB to 300GB of storage space, in contrast to the 300GB of the previously introduced HP SureStore Optical 300st, a product "about the size of a refrigerator," Ingmire told Newsbytes. The 165st is designed to let companies start out with a smaller jukebox carrying a lower pricetag, and then to upgrade on an as needed basis, added the HP official. HP's latest jukebox, which is priced at $40,000, uses four optical drives plus 128 optical disks to manage 165GB of data. HP will also offer upgrade kits, consisting of two drives and 100 cartridge slots, which can be installed at customer sites by an HP-certified engineer. The new SureStore Archive Server is priced from $8,950 to $22,500, depending on capacity. HP's new optical storage products are slated for shipment on November 1. HP's umbrella storage announcement in Boston also included two new QIC-compatible back-up tape drives; a 24 gigabyte (GB) DAT (digital audio tape) network back-up storage drive; an 8.7 GB hard disk drive for mainframes and servers; and Enhanced IDE hard disk drives for servers and PCs. (Jacqueline Emigh/19951017/Reader Contact: Hewlett-Packard, 800- 826-4111; Press Contacts: Karla Nelson, HP, 970-350-4683; Laurel Redden, The Hoffman Agency for HP, 408-286-2611) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 10/18/95 PC HP's External "Plug-In" & Internal PC Back-Up Drives (NEWS)(PC)(BOS)(00015) HP's External "Plug-In" & Internal PC Back-Up Drives 10/18/95 BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS, U.S.A., 1995 OCT 18 (NB) -- Retail stores and VARs (value-added resellers) are the two intended channels for the HP Colorado T1000e, an external back-up drive installable by "computer literate but non-technical users," plus the HP Colorado T4000s, an internal back-up drive that uses SCSI (small computer systems interface)-2 for faster recording, reported Kerry Monroe, at an HP press conference in Boston. The pair of new QIC products for data back-up on standalone PCs and peer-to-peer networks will ship to HP VARs in December, and to retail stores during the first quarter of 1996, Monroe added, during a meeting with Newsbytes at the press briefing, where HP unveiled a total of seven new storage products. The new HP Colorado T1000e is outfitted with a plug-in parallel port interface that lets the user connect the drive without opening the PC, much like installing a printer, according to Monroe, a product manager at HP's Colorado Memory Systems. The external drive supports both standard parallel and EPP (Enhanced Parallel Port), for back-up speeds of up to 9.5 megabytes-per-minute (MB/min). In contrast, the new HP Colorado 4000s employs a SCSI-2 interface and Fast-ATA to obtain up to 62MB/min back-up, Monroe told Newsbytes. When it comes to hands-on installation, most end users will feel more comfortable with the "plug-and-play" interface of the T4000s, the HP exec acknowledged. But these days, some users are starting to be more self-confident about exposing the interior of the PC, through personal experience working with sound cards and other PC boards, he asserted. And for less hardware-savvy users, retail stores and VARs alike are able to install the internal drive. Also during the meeting, Joe Gersch, product marketing manager for HP's Colorado Memory Systems, showed Newsbytes HP's new CD- Recordable, a CD reader/recorder system, introduced in September, which is designed to let "typical PC and Mac users" write and copy data, including audio and video files, to CDs. Monroe told Newsbytes that, unlike makers of competing internal back-up drives, HP "skipped" directly from TR-1 mini-cartridges to TR-4 for the new T4000s drive, thereby expanding capacity to 4 gigabytes (GB) compressed and 8GB uncompressed. Users can also achieve 2.1GB capacity compressed, or 4.2GB uncompressed, with QIC-3095 Wide tapes. The T1000e external drive, on the other hand, reads and writes to TR-1, in addition to QIC-80 and QIC Wide 340 megabyte (MB) and 420MB mini-cartridges. The external drive also reads QIC-40 formatted mini-cartridges. The T1000e provides capacity of up to 400MB native and 800MB with data compression. UPS (Universal Power Supply) is another feature of the external drive. In a demo, Monroe showed Newsbytes how the backup management software that ships with the T4000s allows the user to perform "one-button back-up," scheduled backup, and automated daily backup. HP was the first in the industry to offer one-button back-up, Monroe maintained. With the T4000s, the user can request either "back-up of all files" or "back-up of only changed or new files," just by clicking on a single button, Newsbytes was told. Through scheduled back-up, the user can pre-schedule a single back-up session. In contrast, automated daily backup lets the user stipulate back-up to be performed at a designated time every day. One-button and scheduled back-up are fairly commonplace across the industry by now, but automated daily back-up is still relatively new, according to the product manager. Monroe also revealed that, in the future, HP plans to enhance the T4000s with IFS (Installable File System), a capability that will permit MPEG (Motion Picture Experts Group) playback by "making the tape appear as a disk" to the PC. "We might be showing this at (Fall) Comdex," he noted. In another demo at the briefing, Gersch showed Newsbytes how the Alchemy software that comes with CD-Recordable permits the user to index and search for files that have been written on or copied to the CD. CD-Recordable is also bundled with several other software programs, including Magic Lantern, for viewing Photo CD photos, and Easy-CD, for preparing custom audio disks, Gersch added. In addition, CD-Recordable is well suited to preparing "personalized" presentations, according to Gersch. Materials that might be included in a presentation include spreadsheet data, as well as multimedia files downloaded off the Web, for example, the product marketing manager told Newsbytes. HP's new Colorado T4000s internal back-up drive is slated for availability in the first quarter, at expected street pricing of under $400. The T4000s will support the Windows 95, Windows 3.1, and DOS operating systems, with peer-to-peer network support for NetWare 2.x and 3.x (from DOS and Windows 3.1), NetWare Lite, LANtastic, Windows 95, and Windows for Workgroups. The HP Colorado T1000e external drive is targeted for availability on November 1 with support for DOS and Windows. T1000e drives shipped after November 15 will also include Windows 95 support. Free upgrades to Windows 95 will be available through BBS (bulletin board system) and FTP (File Transfer Protocol) downloads. Also at the press briefing in Boston, HP introduced a 24 gigabyte (GB) DAT (digital audio tape) drive for network backup; the SureStore Archive Server; the SureStore Optical 165st optical jukebox; a new 8.7 gigabyte (GB) hard disk drive for mainframes and servers; and new Enhanced IDE hard disk drives for servers and PCs. (Reader Contact: Hewlett-Packard, 800-826-4111; Press Contacts: Dave Fowler, Hewlett-Packard, 970-635-6472; Kathy Tanabe, Hi- TechInk Public Relations Agency for HP, 303-694-6411) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 10/18/95 NETWORK HP Network Back-Up DAT Drive Brings DSS-3 Support (NEWS)(NETWORK)(BOS)(00016) HP Network Back-Up DAT Drive Brings DSS-3 Support 10/18/95 BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS, U.S.A., 1995 OCT 18 (NB) -- With the new 24 gigabyte (GB) Model C1537A, Hewlett-Packard will be the first vendor to sell a DAT (digital audio tape) network backup storage drive that supports the DSS (Digital Data Storage)-3 specification for 100 percent faster data transfer, asserted Robert Hill, at a press conference in Boston that revolved around the announcement of seven new storage products from HP. HP has been a "major driver" behind DSS and other storage industry standards for years, Hill told Newsbytes during the press briefing. DSS-3, the latest incarnation of that standard, brings new technologies for enhanced data transfer that include PRML (Partial-Read/Maximum-Likelihood), for greater accuracy in reading bits, as well as "timing tracking," according to the HP exec. HP holds the majority of the DAT market, Hill added, pointing to a pie chart based on market research from IDC that gives HP a 55 percent share of this market, in comparison to 30.2 percent for Conner, 9.9 percent for Sony, 5.1 percent for Rexon, and 2.7 percent for Exabyte. The recent acquisition of second-place Conner by Seagate could have two possible kinds of outcomes for HP, predicted Hill, who is marketing manager for computer peripherals at the HP facility in Bristol, UK. On the one hand, as a disk drive specialist, Seagate might not "emphasize" Conner's tape technology, according to Hill. On the other hand, the merger with Seagate could "strengthen" the Conner line-up. "But either way, it's good for us. We like strong competition," Hill contended. DDS provides "reliable, high-performance back-up" at lower pricing than either DLT (digital linear tape) or 8 millimeter (mm) technologies, he maintained. HP's new Model C1537A DAT drive will provide a native capacity of 12GB with a 1 MB/sec data transfer rate. The new DAT drive will also include built-in hardware compression that will allow storage of 24GB on a single 125 meter (m) tape at the rate of 2 MB/sec, according to Hill. HP will bring out the new DDS-3 DAT drive for the OEM (original equipment manufacturers) market first, before introducing the drive to HP VARs (value-added resellers), he noted. HP's DAT drives are packaged with backup management software from Cheyenne, added Hill, during a demo for Newsbytes. The new Model 1537A comes with Read-After-Write data verification, plus a new, "intelligent error-recovery" capability. MBTF (meantime between failures) is 200,000 hours. The new DDS-3 drive provides "full read and write compatibility with all DDS-2 and DDS drives." HP's latest DAT drive is currently available to "key OEM accounts" for evaluation. Also in the tape drive arena, HP introduced the HP Colorado T400s and 100e QIC back-up tape drives. The two QIC drives can be used for peer-to-peer network backup, as well as for back-up of standalone PCs, said Kerry Monroe, a product manager for HP's Colorado Memory Systems, during another meeting with Newsbytes at the HP press conference. Other HP storage products announced at the press conference in Boston included the SureStore Archive Server; the SureStore Optical 165st optical jukebox; a new 8.7 gigabyte (GB) hard disk drive for mainframes and servers; and Enhanced IDE hard disk drives for servers and PCs. (Reader Contact: Hewlett-Packard, 800-826-4111; Press Contacts: Rebecca Dyer, HP/UK, 44-117-0229072; Laurel Redden, The Hoffman Agency for HP, 408-286-2611) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 10/18/95 GENERAL Japan Newsbriefs (NEWS)(GENERAL)(TYO)(00017) Japan Newsbriefs 10/18/95 TOKYO, JAPAN, 1995 OCT 18 (NB) -- In this roundup of news from Tokyo: Japan digitizes trial seating, KDD announces rate cut, Pioneer signs Kodak screen deal, Pippin player delayed, JVC announces multimedia TV, Word processor sales slump. Japan Digitizes Trial Seating It was a strange sight, hundreds of people lining up outside a Tokyo courthouse hoping to get a seat in the trials of followers of Aum Shinrykyo, the Japanese sect charged with releasing poison gas on the Tokyo subway earlier this year. How was the allocation of seats being determined? By nothing more hi-tech than a mass drawing of straws. Japan, the country that has given the world so much computer technology, is often behind the times itself, although officials at the courthouse have now upgraded the seating system. A computer is now controlling seat allocation, cutting 20 minutes off the previous half hour-long procedure. It may be more efficient but, as someone lining up commented to Reuter, "It's kind of sad because we don't get a thrill from drawing lots." KDD Announces Rate Cut Japan's largest international telephone company, KDD, has applied to the Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications for a cut in subscriber rates effective from January next year. The company says daytime rates will fall 6.7% and some other rates will fall even more. KDD claims after the rate cut, it will be cheaper to call the US from Japan than a call placed in the opposite direction. The company's two competitors, ITJ and IDC, are both expected to file a request for reduced rates with the MPT shortly. Pioneer Signs Kodak Screen Deal Pioneer has signed a licensing agreement with Eastman Kodak to commercialize its Organic Electroluminscent Display technology. The new displays are much thinner than previously developed screens and consume much less energy. Kodak holds 18 US patents and foreign equivalents in the technology and has a number of other patents pending. Under the deal, which is non-exclusive, Pioneer will be free to make use of the technology in all areas except those associated with photographic products, for which Kodak retains all rights. In its first year, Pioneer expects to make around 10,000 to 20,000 units with the number rising to as many as half a million a year in the future. Pippin Player Delayed The Pippin multimedia CD-ROM player will not be introduced in Japan until next March, according to a newspaper report. The product, which Bandai is making under contract from Apple Computer, will also be delayed in the US market, where it will debut next June. The newspaper said a "large-scale market survey" was needed before the product would be launched in either country. JVC Announce Multimedia TV Victor Company of Japan (JVC) has released details of a new television set, the AV-32EM, which it will begin selling in December. The set uses a high definition picture tube and is capable of displaying television programs and computer images simultaneously. The set also includes a BS/CS satellite tuner and is capable of displaying MUSE system high definition broadcasts with an add-on unit. It also accepts direct links from all major home computer systems including Apple Macintosh, NEC PC-98, Fujitsu FM Series, and IBM compatible PCs. The set is priced at 380,000 yen ($3,800) and JVC hopes to sell around 1,000 units a month, initially. Word Processor Sales Slump Sales of word processors, electric typewriter-like devices with notebook size LCD (liquid crystal displays) screens and integrated printers, have slumped to a ten-year low, according to an industry association estimate published by the Nihon Keizai Shimbun on Sunday. The growing increase in popularity of personal computers mean less than two million word processors are expected to be sold this fiscal year. (Martyn Williams/19951018) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 10/18/95 ONLINE Second Pan-Asian Internet Backbone Planned (NEWS)(ONLINE)(TYO)(00018) Second Pan-Asian Internet Backbone Planned 10/18/95 TOKYO, JAPAN, 1995 OCT 18 (NB) -- Three of Asia's top Internet providers, and a fourth company, are jointly establishing a new pan-Asian Internet backbone that will link Japan, Singapore, Hong Kong, and the United States together with high-speed lines. Internet Initiative Japan (IIJ), Hong Kong Supernet, and Pacific Internet of Singapore have teamed up with Sumitomo Corporation of Japan to build the link which will be operated by Asia Internet Holding, a $6 million company to be established in Tokyo next month and held jointly between the four partners. AIH will build an Internet backbone network centered around a main hub in Tokyo. The network will consist of T3 (45 megabits-per-second) links between the Tokyo hub and the United States, Singapore, and Hong Kong. The other Asian countries will have smaller hubs from where local Internet providers and companies can connect onto the backbone and benefit from a high-speed path between the countries and the United States. Previously, all Asian countries were linked to the United States, meaning that inter-Asian traffic traveled across the Pacific and back with the effect of congesting the expensive trans-Pacific links and offering a slower performance than otherwise possible. The new backbone network will keep a lot of inter-Asian traffic within the continent resulting in faster access and better response, plus less congested international links. The companies explained, in a statement, the philosophy behind the new venture, saying: "Many multinational corporations operating in Asia are looking upon the Internet as the platform on which to build their own private networks linking offices, factories and staff all over Asia and the world. Asia Internet Holding will work with Internet service providers in Asian countries to provide reliable and secured communication via the Internet for these MNCs." AIH will draw on all four partners for its board of directors. Philip Yeo, chairman of Sembawang Corporation of Singapore, which owns a controlling interest in Pacific Internet, and chairman of the Economic Development Board of Singapore for the last eight years, has been elected the chairman. One of the two vice chairman is Eugene Wong, vice-president for Research & Development at the Hong Kong University of Science & Technology. Wong has also served as associate director of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy in the US. The other vice president is Yasuo Kimura, vice-president of Sumitomo Corporation. He has supervised the Media Business Division in Sumitomo since 1988 and became a company executive vice president this year. Koichi Suzuki, president of Internet Initiative Japan, will assume the position of president and chief executive officer (CEO) of Asia Internet Holding. Suzuki established IIJ, Japan's largest Internet service provider and also acts as president of IIJ's regional Internet access companies in Japan. The announcement comes less than a week after America's AT&T Corporation announced it would begin work on a similar project, initially connecting Hong Kong, Japan, Australia, and the United States. The AT&T project was announced as Asia's first Internet backbone link. (Martyn Williams/19951018/Press contact: Maureen Tseng, Sembawang Media, tel +65-230-0108, fax +65-536-1442, Internet e-mail maureen@technet.sg) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 10/18/95 ONLINE ****Internet Update (NEWS)(ONLINE)(TYO)(00019) ****Internet Update 10/18/95 TOKYO, JAPAN, 1995 OCT 18 (NB) -- In this update of new services and resources on the global Internet: Your link to the Japan Electronics Show, Hong Kong exclusive robot index, CD-ROM magazine online, Telecom information clearinghouse, News from the Russian far east, Toyota test drives the Web, US Government Energy Information Administration, Election America online for 1996, East Asian environmental information, Agriculture information database. Your Link To The Japan Electronics Show The annual Japan Electronics Show in Osaka has seen the launch of the Sony Walkman, the video cassette recorder, and the compact disk in previous years. This year's expo opened Tuesday and continues through to Saturday in the western Japanese city. For those that can't make it, you can travel in spirit by visiting the show's World Wide Web site. World Wide Web: http://www.infoweb.or.jp/jes95 Hong Kong Exclusive Robot Index There are several robot generated Web indexes available which attempt to cover the entire World Wide Web, but fall short because of the amount of information. A new index at the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology has searched and indexed all known sites in the hk domain, a much smaller job which means a better index. World Wide Web: http://www.cs.ust.hk/cgi-bin/IndexServer CD-ROM Magazine Online Covering the entire world of CD-ROM game, utility, and information disks, CD-ROM Magazine is now on the Internet. Visitors can read news & reviews of the hottest selling software on the market, plus see the top 20 list of the best-selling software for the month as well as information on where to get it at the lowest possible prices. You can read the magazine via the Web or subscribe via electronic-mail. World Wide Web: http://www.li.net/~nsi/cdrom Email: cdrmag@nsimedia.com Message Body: subscribe Telecom Information Clearinghouse This site aims to be "your best telecom resource on the 'net." As part of the attempt, visitors can find daily news, a telecoms database, companies listing, and a glossary. The site is provided by Telecom Publishing Group, a specialist telecoms industry newsletter publisher. World Wide Web: http://www.telecommunications.com/info.htm News From The Russian Far East A five-year-old business newsletter covering developments and news in the Russian Far East, the area of the country near China, Korea, and Japan, is now online. Back issues of the magazine, plus a chance to get a sample copy of the hardcopy magazine, are offered as well as links to other related Web sites. World Wide Web: http://www.russianfareast.com/wistar/homepage.html Toyota Test Drives The Web The US sales arm of Japan's Toyota Motor Company has established a Web server offering complete company and product information with lifestyle information in seven categories. Full product information is available on one half of the server, while the other service offered is HUB - an interactive collection of lifestyle information of interest to Toyota owners and prospects under subjects such as LivingHome, Modern Man, Women's Web Weekly, alt.Terrain, SportsZine, LivingArts, and Car Culture. World Wide Web: http://www.toyota.com/ US Government Energy Information Administration The Energy Information Administration, a part of the US Department of Energy in Washington, offers domestic and international energy data, analysis, and forecasting from its Web server. Also available are the administration's press releases and the Highway service offers hypertext files and downloadable executable Windows energy analysis tools. World Wide Web: http://www.eia.doe.gov/index.html Election America Online For 1996 The local, state, regional and national elections are less than a year away and already Web servers have begun to offer coverage of the races leading up to each vote. Bringing them all together and offering a comprehensive index to the election orientated services is Election America. Links are already provided to Presidential election related sites and a growing number of states are already offering information. World Wide Web: http://electionamerica.com/ East Asian Environmental Information The East-West Center Program on Environment and the Asia Foundation have collaborated to produce "envgov," a Hawaii-based server providing Internet users with information on environmental governance and policy issues affecting Asia and the Pacific region. Links to associated Web sources of information are also included. World Wide Web: http://envgov.ewc.hawaii.edu Agriculture Information Database The National Agricultural Library of the US Department of Agriculture is providing a directory of agriculture-related databases, datasets, and information systems available via the Internet. The AgDB offers links to sources though an alphabetical or subject sorted list and a search engine allows more flexible access to the database index. World Wide Web: http://www.agnic.nal.usda.gov/agdb/ (Martyn Williams/19951018) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 10/18/95 TRENDS Canadian Scientists Claim World's Largest Pi Number (NEWS)(TRENDS)(TYO)(00020) Canadian Scientists Claim World's Largest Pi Number 10/18/95 BURNABY, BRITISH COLUMBIA, CANADA, 1995 OCT 18 (NB) -- Just 2 months after computer scientists at the University of Tokyo claimed a new world record by calculating pi -- the ratio of a circle's circumference to its diameter -- a team of mathematicians from Simon Fraser University in Canada have broken the record by working with the Japanese record holders. Just a few months ago, the world's most accurate calculation ran to 2.2 billion decimal places, the Japanese trumped that by working the figure out, generally written as 3.14, to 3.22 billion decimal places. The SFU team used a HITAC S-3900/480 vector supercomputer and 56 hours to calculate PI to 4,294,967,286 decimal places. The previous record used a pair of HITAC S-3800/480 computer and ran for almost 37 hours. To give some perspective on the number, the Canadian scientists say a print-out of the number, expressed at six digits per centimeter, would stretch more than 7,000 kilometers. To break the previous record, brothers Jonathan and Peter Borwein, of SFU's center for experimental and constructive mathematics, wrote a new algorithm - a computer formula used to calculate the figure. Not content with breaking just one record, Peter Borwein, working with SFU colleague Dr. Simon Plouffe, and Dr. David Bailey of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration's Ames Research Center (NASA-Ames) in California, has calculated the 40 billionth binary digit of pi , which is 1. The second record skips all the digits in between and works out just the 40 billionth. Peter Borwein, one of the scientists, explained, "It has long been believed that if you want to compute the 40 billionth digit of pi, you have to compute all the preceding digits first. What we're doing is picking off the 40 billionth digit by itself. We don't know or see what's in-between." Continued Borwein, "The beauty of all this is in the new software and mathematics we've developed. They allow calculations that previously required supercomputers to be performed on quite modest workstations. I predict some smart kid working on a home computer will now use these methods to compute the 100 billionth digit of pi in the very near future." Details of the methods and formula used are available on the World Wide Web at http://www.cecm.sfu.ca/~pborwein . (Martyn Williams/19951017/Press contact: Dr. Peter Borwein, SFU, 604-291-4376; Ken Mennell, Director Media and Public Relations, SFU, 604-291-3210, Internet e-mail kenneth_mennell@sfu.ca) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 10/18/95 ONLINE ****AT&T Business Network & CNN Interactive In Online Alliance (NEWS)(ONLINE)(TOR)(00021) ****AT&T Business Network & CNN Interactive In Online Alliance 10/18/95 CAMBRIDGE, MASSACHUSETTS, U.S.A., 1995 OCT 18 (NB) -- The recently launched AT&T (NYSE:T) Business Network has formed an alliance with Cable News Network's CNN Interactive. The two companies said they will offer a range of multimedia and online services. The alliance calls for information provided by CNN Interactive to be included in the AT&T Business Network's basic subscription package, meaning there will be no extra cost to Business Network subscribers, AT&T spokeswoman Jennifer Christensen told Newsbytes. That information will include business news and information and online discussions hosted by business and subject experts, company officials said. AT&T Business Network, a service based on AT&T's Interchange Online Network, will also contain direct links to CNN Interactive's site on the World Wide Web. This site, which is also free, carries news, sound clips, and photographs. It is located at http://www.cnn.com . The first results of the alliance will be visible within weeks, AT&T said. The AT&T Business Network is scheduled to start operating in November. As Newsbytes reported in September, the network is to provide assorted business news and information from various sources, including Dow Jones & Co., Dun & Bradstreet Information Services, the Bureau of National Affairs, the Kiplinger Washington Editors Inc., and others. With 24 information providers named at launch, Michael Kolowich, newly appointed president of AT&T New Media Services, promised "a steady stream of additional announcements...between now and the end of the year." Christensen told Newsbytes the company plans other alliances like the one with CNN, and more such announcements can be expected in November and December. CNN, meanwhile, said the deal with AT&T complements its impending launch of CNN Financial Network on television in December in an effort to appeal to business people. More information about the AT&T Business Network is available from AT&T Interchange's World Wide Web site at http://www.ichange.com . (Grant Buckler/19951018/Press Contact: Jennifer Christensen, AT&T New Media Services, 617-252-5477; Andy Mitchell, CNN Interactive, 404-827-5021; Public Contact: AT&T, 800-660-2299) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 10/18/95 EDUCATION Co-op Students To Promote Computer Literacy In Schools (NEWS)(EDUCATION)(TOR)(00022) Co-op Students To Promote Computer Literacy In Schools 10/18/95 WATERLOO, ONTARIO, CANADA, 1995 OCT 18 (NB) -- Students from the University of Waterloo's computer science department will spend their work terms in Ontario classrooms helping build computer-literacy programs under a program just announced by the university and Ontario's school boards, with financial backing from Xerox Canada Inc. The students will come from a university program that prepares students to teach mathematics and computer science in secondary schools. The first four students have already taken up their duties with three Ontario school boards. In each four-month term for the next five years, four students will go out to Ontario schools as part of the Xerox Co-op Teaching Internships Program. Martin van Nierop, a spokesman for the University of Waterloo, told Newsbytes that each student will begin by working with a staff advisor at the school to conduct an audit of the way the school is using and teaching information technology. Then the student will help develop new computer- literacy projects. Students will use their own initiative rather than following a predefined program, van Nierop said. The idea of the program arose from brainstorming by University of Waterloo faculty and development staff, van Nierop explained. Xerox Canada had been looking for an opportunity to work with the university in some way, so "we proposed this to them and they liked it," he said. Xerox will put C$250,000 into the program over the next five years. Once the five-year term of the initial program is up, van Nierop said the university hopes to be able to continue it with additional funding from Xerox or another partner. For the present at least, the scope of the program is limited to the province of Ontario. (Grant Buckler/19951018/Press Contact: Martin van Nierop, University of Waterloo, 519-888-4881; Susan Cornell, Xerox Canada, 416-733-6216; Louise Armstrong, Peel Board of Education, 905-890-1010 ext 2817) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 10/18/95 ONLINE ****AMEX Launches Internet Index-Based Options (NEWS)(ONLINE)(TYO)(00023) ****AMEX Launches Internet Index-Based Options 10/18/95 NEW YORK, NEW YORK, U.S.A., 1995 OCT 18 (NB) -- Two months after launching a new stock index based on the performance of Internet related companies, the American Stock Exchange (AMEX) has begun offering options trading based on the index. The new index, known as the "Interactive Week Internet Index" consists of 37 companies in the sector and is the first such index launched exclusively covering the Internet business. It was launched by the exchange on August 15th with a base value of 200. Yesterday the index stood at 215 points, up just under 10% in two months. The companies include service providers, commercial online services companies, Internet software companies, multimedia publishers, and networking companies. The index also includes providers of technology expected to shape the future of the Internet, such as videoconferencing and interactive television. Stock indexes measure the overall performance of the companies that make up the index and are intended to give a broad view of how the entire sector is doing. The new index, which will also be known as the "@net Index" is available from today under the ticker symbol IIX. Paul Noglows, business editor for Interactive Week, said, "The @Net Index is intended to track the industry as it evolves from a collection of start-up companies and independent initiatives into an increasingly cohesive and important sector of the of the overall economy." Gary Gastineau, senior vice president of New Product Development at the AMEX commented, "The Internet Index serves as a benchmark for the Internet business sector and a way to invest in that sector. The idea to list options on an Internet index stems from an overwhelming interest in technology among the traders and specialists on our trading floor." Interest in companies involved in the Internet business has been growing over the past two years as the network has grown from something few people knew about to a entity that it is almost impossible to go a day without seeing mention of it in the news media. Interest peaked two months ago when Netscape Communications debuted on the market and became the third best performing debut stock in history by jumping from its issue price of $28 a share to over $75 a share before settling at $58 1/4 at the end of the day, up $30 1/4 on the day. Options are contracts for the sale or purchase of a stock at a specified price and date in the future if one party wants to go ahead with it. The specialist unit for the new options will be Susquehanna Investment Group, said the exchange. Specifically, the index is made up of 3Com Corporation, Acclaim Entertainment, Inc., Activision, Inc., Adobe Systems, Inc., America Online Inc., Avid Technology, Inc., Bolt Beranek & Newman Inc., Broadband Technologies, Inc., Broderbund Software, Inc., C-Cube Microsystems Inc., Cabletron Systems, Inc., Cisco Systems Inc., Compression Labs, Inc., CUC International Inc., Davison & Associates, Inc., Electronic Arts, FTP Software, Inc., H&R Block, Inc., Metricom, Inc., MicroTouch Systems, Inc., Netcom On-Line Communication Services Corp., NetManage, Inc., Netscape Communications, Inc., Newbrdge Networks Corp., Novell, Inc., NTN Communications, Inc., Optical Data Systems, Inc., Performance Systems International, Inc., PictureTel Corp., Qualcomm Inc., Sierra On-Line, Inc., Silicon Graphics, Inc., Spectrum HoloByte, Inc., Spyglass, Inc., Stratacom, Inc., Sun Microsystems, Inc. and UUNET Technologies Inc. Readers with access to financial online services can track the index under ticker symbol IIX. World Wide Web users can follow the value by visiting the American Stock Exchange at http://www.amex.com/ , or Interactive Week at http://www.interactive-week.com/~intweek . (Martyn Williams/19951018/Press contacts: Dan Noonan, American Stock Exchange, 212-306-1647, Internet e-mail dnoonan@amex.com; Greg Jarboe, Interactive Week, 617-225-3500, Internet e-mail gjarboe@zd.com) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 10/18/95 APPLE Apple's System 7.5 Users Get Free E-Mail Utility (NEWS)(APPLE)(SFO)(00024) Apple's System 7.5 Users Get Free E-Mail Utility 10/18/95 CUPERTINO, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1995 OCT 18 (NB) -- With a licensing agreement sealed, Apple Computer Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) has announced the free distribution of StarNine Technologies' PowerTalk gateways. All Macintosh users of System 7.5 are invited to download the electronic- mail utility from Apple's World Wide Web site. PowerTalk includes gateways for Mail Link Internet for PowerTalk, Mail Link MS for PowerTalk, and Mail Link QM for PowerTalk. The package also allows users to access Internet mail, StarNine Mail or C.E. Software's QuickMail. Under the terms of the licensing agreement, Apple will provide product support and add enhancements as they are developed. Apple plans to build PowerTalk into future versions of the Macintosh operating system. Working out of Berkeley, California, StarNine Technologies began providing its Macintosh products two years ago. Currently, System 7.5 includes PowerTalk personal gateways for direct dial-up, fax, pager, and Compuserve. The new PowerTalk additions extends communication and collaboration features already present in System 7.5. An Apple spokesperson told Newsbytes, "This announcement shows our commitment to continue enhancing the Macintosh platform. These connectivity features increase our support of the Internet and group communications." PowerTalk provides users with a universal mailbox to most electronic- mail systems and allows users to send mail from any PowerTalk-enabled application. It also offers the capability to digitally "sign" documents and share files over an AppleTalk network. PowerTalk may be coupled with Apple's electronic-mail and directory server, PowerShare, enabling it to be used as a workgroup collaboration system. Once the new modules are downloaded, users can access an Internet or Unix mailbox using SMTP (Simple Mail Transport Protocol) and POP3 protocols through Mail Link Internet for PowerTalk. Mail Link MS for PowerTalk enables users to access StarNine Mail or Microsoft Mail for AppleTalk mailbox and directory. Mail Link QM for PowerTalk provides access to QuickMail. Apple says the free download is immediately available for users of System 7.5 at the following Web site: http://www.info.apple.com/dev/evangelism/powertalk/powertalk.html. (Patrick McKenna/19951018/Press Contact: Benita Kenn, Apple, 408-974-5784) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 10/18/95 BUSINESS Compaq Acquires Network Interface Card Firm (NEWS)(BUSINESS)(DEN)(00025) Compaq Acquires Network Interface Card Firm 10/18/95 HOUSTON, TEXAS, U.S.A., 1995 OCT 18 (NB) -- Compaq Computer Corp. (NYSE: CPQ) has announced that it will acquire Thomas-Conrad Corp., a privately held maker of network interface cards (NICs) and hubs. Thomas-Conrad will become a part of Compaq's new Internetworking Products Group (IPG) Compaq said Thomas-Conrad will become a wholly-owned entity under the management of the new group. The company said the deal, which is still subject to anti-trust clearance under the Hart-Scott-Rodino Antitrust Improvements Act, is expected to be completed by the end of the month. Compaq said creation of the IPG, which will be part of the company's Systems Division, is part of its overall strategy to create a full-service Compaq-branded network products family to include clients, servers, network interface cards, routers, hubs and network management. Compaq claims 41 percent of the x86-based server market worldwide. Acquisition of Thomas-Conrad gives Compaq an established product line, manufacturing capacity and a sales, service, and distribution network. The company said it will merge its existing NetFlex family of network interface cards with the Thomas-Conrad Sectra NIC product line. Compaq sees the merging of the products as an opportunity for additional NIC market penetration and an additional source of revenue from the sale of NICs for use in third-party computing platforms, including desktops and servers. Thomas-Conrad has about 200 employees and can turn out as many as 100,000 printed circuit boards per month. Compaq has named Doug Pushard as vice president of the Internetworking Products Group. Pushard joined Compaq in 1989 and was most recently director of product planning for the Systems Division, where he was responsible for formulating the division's long terms strategic direction. Prior to that he was manager of Unix systems marketing at Compaq. In June of this year, Compaq announced a strategic partnership with Cisco Systems. The deal calls for integration of Cisco's internetworking operating system software on an x86-based Compaq platform. Compaq said the router based on that agreement will be announced in the first half of 1996. Compaq said it expects to ship 1.6 million NICs this year including options and embedded NICs in servers, commercial desktops, and portable docking stations. International Data Corp. has estimated the total market for NIC shipments in 1995 at 28 million units. (Jim Mallory/19951018/Press contact: Mike Berman, Compaq, 713-514-0484) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 10/18/95 CHIPS ****Motorola Sets PowerPC 603e Chip Prices (NEWS)(CHIPS)(DEN)(00026) ****Motorola Sets PowerPC 603e Chip Prices 10/18/95 AUSTIN, TEXAS, U.S.A., 1995 OCT 18 (NB) -- Motorola Inc. (NYSE:MOT) has announced pricing and general availability of its 100 megahertz (MHz) and 120MHz RISC (reduced instruction set computing) PowerPC 603e microprocessors. The chips are designed for use in notebook and entry-level desktop systems. The 603e is the 32-bit extension of the PowerPC 603 product line. Motorola said it has increased performance of the chip by doubling the caches and raising the clock frequency more than 80 percent over the original 603 microprocessor. Motorola claims the 603e will provide better performance than Intel's Pentium processor. The 603e uses a 16 kilobyte (KB) on-chip instruction set and 2.6 million transistors. It was designed using 0.5 micron CMOS (complimentary metal oxide semiconductor) processor technology. Power dissipation is 1.2 watts. The chip was developed jointly by Apple, IBM, and Motorola to compete with Intel's Pentium chip. Apple Computer Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL) said its new line of Power Macintosh 5300 PCs announced in late August will use the 100MHz 603e chip. The line is the Apple's first PowerPC-based portable family of Power Macs. In June of this year, Canon, IBM, and Motorola's own Computer Group introduced their PowerPC 603e-based systems, and FirePower Systems and Power Computing Corp. have also committed to incorporating the chip into their systems. Both the 100MHz and 120MHz chips are immediately available, said Motorola. PC makers will pay $207 each for the 100MHz version and $260 each for the 120MHz model when buying in lots of 1,000. That's considerably less expensive than the OEM (original equipment manufacturer) cost of Pentium chips, claims the company. A Motorola public relations representative told Newsbytes the Pentium 120MHz chip was recently reduced to $357, while the cost of the 100MHz Pentium was cut to $300. Cyrix Corp. one of two challengers to Intel's dominance in the x86 chip market, doesn't produce a microprocessor that is in direct competition with the 100MHz and 120MHz Pentium chips. However, Cyrix spokesperson, Michelle Moody, told Newsbytes the company's next-generation chip, expected to ship in the fourth quarter, will be price-competitive at $450 in lots of 1,000 with Intel's recently announced 133MHz Pentium microprocessor. Motorola maintains a home page on the Internet at http://www.mot.com/PowerPC/ , where it posts information about its products. (Jim Mallory/19951018/Press contact: Elisa Klosterman, Cunningham Communication for Motorola, 617-494-8202 or Michelle Moody, Cyrix Corp., 214-968-8302; Public contact: Motorola, 800-845-6676) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 10/18/95 BUSINESS AT&T Puts Paradyne Subsidiary Up For Sale (NEWS)(BUSINESS)(MSP)(00027) AT&T Puts Paradyne Subsidiary Up For Sale 10/18/95 NEW YORK CITY, NEW YORK, U.S.A., 1995 OCT 18 (NB) -- In a move that's similar to the announced split of AT&T (NYSE:T) last month, the telecommunications giant said it will sell off its AT&T Paradyne subsidiary to another company. Officials said AT&T Paradyne sells about $300 million worth of goods and services in more than 90 countries, and employs about 1,300 people. The subsidiary produces and develops products, and licenses technologies providing network access for multimedia communications. One of those technologies include the recently announced Globespan transceivers, which provide high-speed access to global networks for video-on-demand and Internet access, among other applications. AT&T officials said selling Paradyne will benefit both parent company and subsidiary. "By separating Paradyne from AT&T's other equipment businesses, Paradyne avoids possible conflicts in selling to AT&T's competitors," Dan Coulter, AT&T Multimedia Ventures and Technologies spokesperson, told Newsbytes. "We don't have to own Paradyne to take advantage of its products. In this case, selling Paradyne will help ensure its future success and our access to its products and services." This type of strategy is the same as what motivated last month's divestiture of AT&T, Coulter said. "When AT&T Paradyne moves off, they can begin selling to people who wouldn't necessarily buy their products (from an AT&T subsidiary) right now, because they're competitors of AT&T, like Northern Telecom, Alcatel, Siemens, and NEC," he said. "The company is even more valuable outside of AT&T than it is inside of AT&T." Last month, Newsbytes covered AT&T's split from one huge company into three smaller companies: a telephone services business, a communications equipment manufacturer, and a computer company. Coulter also said AT&T anticipates developing a preferred supplier relationship with Paradyne. Morgan Stanley & Co. is handling the offer and subsequent inquiries. (Bob Woods/19951018/Press Contacts: Dan Coulter, AT&T Multimedia Ventures and Technologies, 908-221-7406, Internet e-mail dlcoulter@attmail.com; Eileen Connolly, AT&T, 908-361-4615, Internet e-mail econnolly@attmail.com) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 10/18/95 BUSINESS ****Microsoft 1Qtr Profits Hit Record, Jump 58% (NEWS)(BUSINESS)(DEN)(00028) ****Microsoft 1Qtr Profits Hit Record, Jump 58% 10/18/95 REDMOND, WASHINGTON, U.S.A., 1995 OCT 18 (NB) -- Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ: MSFT) has announced that its quarterly profits jumped more than 58 percent for the first quarter of the company's fiscal year, with the results fueled by sale of more than seven million copies of the Windows 95 operating system and graphical user interface. The period ended September 30, 1995, with the results exceeding many financial analysts' expectations. The results also fueled a demand for Microsoft shares. Microsoft stock rose steadily in after hours trading Tuesday, reaching 95 from the day's regular trading hours closing at 91-1/8. Stock prices had sagged somewhat following the August 24 rollout of Windows 95 based on fears that the software might not live up to its promotional hype. Earnings per share for the first quarter were $0.78, compared to $0.51 for the same period last year. Microsoft was in good company with its favorable results, joining Intel, Sun Microsystems, Compaq Computer, and IBM in reporting good quarters. Microsoft said it earned $499 million on revenue of $2.02 billion, up 62 percent over the $1.24 billion in revenue from the first quarter last year. About $260 million of the company's earnings were from Windows 95. Another $130 million in revenues from Windows 95 were booked in the quarter, but will be recognized over the life of the product. Currently that's estimated at about 18 months, according to Mike Brown, Microsoft chief financial officer. Microsoft said it had revenues of $780 million from desktop applications during the quarter and it deferred another $120 million in desktop revenues to recognize the effect of its Microsoft Office applications upgrade. Brown said most of the deferred Office revenue would be recognized in the current quarter. Brad Silverberg, senior vice of Microsoft's personal systems division, told the British news service Reuters that about three million end-users have purchased Windows 95 since the late August product rollout, with another four million copies being pre-installed on PCs sold by original equipment manufacturers like Dell, Compaq, Gateway 2000, and other companies. "I don't think anybody thought we would sell this much product this quickly," said Silverberg. Microsoft said Windows 95 is already shipping in 17 of the 30 planned languages, and the Japanese version was sent to manufacturing last week. The company said the Chinese and Korean language versions will go to manufacturing this week. All three Asian languages are expected to be available by November. However, as reported earlier this week by Newsbytes, Microsoft missed the October 12 scheduled launch date of the Thai language version of Windows 95 and was giving away copies of the beta version instead. A Microsoft Thailand executive said the delay was due to bugs in the software. The company also said this week it is "very happy" with the sign-up rate for its new online service Microsoft Network, even though subscriptions still haven't reached the self-imposed temporary limit of 500,000 members. Microsoft isn't saying how long the temporary halt will last while it evaluates the service, nor when it projects the sign-up limit might be reached. (Jim Mallory/19951018/Press and public contact: Microsoft, 206-882-8080 or 800-426-9400) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 10/18/95 ONLINE ****USAir & British Airways Land On The Desktop (NEWS)(ONLINE)(SFO)(00029) ****USAir & British Airways Land On The Desktop 10/18/95 NEW YORK, NEW YORK, U.S.A., 1995 OCT 18 (NB) -- Members of USAir's and British Airway's frequent flyer programs will receive Windows software which will allow them to access a wide range of travel information and make reservations. The new service, called Priority TravelWorks and Executive TravelWorks, respectively for each company, includes hotel and car rental information. Once online, users of the software access the Apollo computer reservations system which offers real-time information on flights and fares from more than 740 airlines. Additionally, users also receive access to 24,000 hotels and 37 rental car companies worldwide. A spokesperson for USAir told Newsbytes, "The announcement of our Priority TravelWorks program is just the first step in a program to build a system which involves faster and easier flying arrangements for our customers. Automated ticketing machines can be tied into this reservations system, enabling a customer to pick-up their ticket at the airport already knowing the fare and their seat selection and without waiting in a long line. Eventually, there will be a ticketless form of travel and this is one step in that direction." The software allows users to access more detailed USAir and British Airways information and features such as arrival times and gate information (USAir only), seat selection, upgrade possibilities, and frequent flyer information. Using a credit card, users can purchase tickets and have them mailed or ready for pick-up at an airport, travel agency, or ticket office. Along with providing additional service, both airlines say the new program is designed to reduce the costs of providing flight information through 800 numbers and ticketing transactions over telephones and at airports and local offices. Both the software and the service will be free to USAir's and British Airways' "selected" customers. The program requires users to have a modem, but does not require an online service. Currently. the program is not available to European travelers. By the end of November, USAir says it plans to distribute more than 10,000 copies of the software. (Patrick McKenna/19951018/Press Contact: David Castelveter, USAir, 703-418-5116) (SUMMARY)(GENERAL)(MSP)(00030) Newsbytes Daily Summary 10/18/95 MINNEAPOLIS, MINNESOTA, U.S.A., 1995 OCT 18 (NB) -- These are capsules of all today's news stories: ======================================================================== ------------| N E W S B Y T E S D A I L Y S U M M A R Y |---------- ------------| Wednesday, October 18, 1995 |---------- ======================================================================== (c) Newsbytes News Network (Tm) Editor in Chief: Wendy Woods ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Newsbytes News Network's on the Web! Check out http://www.nbnn.com for free daily top stories from Newsbytes. and its affiliate publications, and from PC Week, MacWeek, and other Ziff news magazines. A subscription gives you all the news, full-text, plus the most comprehensive database of past computer stories online. The keyword-searchable database dates from today back through 1983. Subscriptions are $24.95 for three months. Questions? Send to 'administrator@newsbytes.com' For Japanese Newsbytes and additional services, see the Newsbytes Pacifica Website at http://www.islandtel.com/newsbytes/ ------------------------------------------------------------------------ CATEGORY HEADLINES (*** indicates today's top stories) STORY # ======================================================================== APPLE Apple's System 7.5 Users Get Free E-Mail Utility........... 24 BUSINESS India's Pentafour Expands Thai Presence.................... 08 BUSINESS Compaq Acquires Network Interface Card Firm................ 25 BUSINESS AT&T Puts Paradyne Subsidiary Up For Sale.................. 27 BUSINESS ****Microsoft 1Qtr Profits Hit Record, Jump 58%........... 28 CHIPS ****Motorola Sets PowerPC 603e Chip Prices................ 26 EDUCATION Co-op Students To Promote Computer Literacy In Schools..... 22 GENERAL HP Intros 8.7GB Drive, Plus 6 Other Storage Products....... 13 GENERAL Japan Newsbriefs........................................... 17 GOVT Australia Laws Going Online................................ 09 GOVT Aussie Laws Going Online................................... 11 NETWORK HP "Archive Server" Combines Jukebox With Built-In Chip.... 14 NETWORK HP Network Back-Up DAT Drive Brings DSS-3 Support.......... 16 ONLINE UK Firm Offers Low-Cost Internet Access.................... 10 ONLINE UK - FTP Software's "Explore Anywhere" Internet Software... 12 ONLINE Second Pan-Asian Internet Backbone Planned................. 18 ONLINE ****Internet Update....................................... 19 ONLINE ****AT&T Business Network & CNN Interactive In Online Alli 21 ONLINE ****AMEX Launches Internet Index-Based Options............ 23 ONLINE ****USAir & British Airways Land On The Desktop........... 29 PC 24 Hour Data Hook-up For ISDN.............................. 04 PC HP's External "Plug-In" & Internal PC Back-Up Drives....... 15 TELECOM Japanese PC-Linked Pager Debuts In UK...................... 01 TELECOM Europe - MFS To Offer Telecoms Service In Hong Kong........ 03 TELECOM Novell To Sponsor Telephony Services Conference............ 05 TRENDS Technology Partly To Blame For Jobless Recovery - Report... 06 TRENDS Smart Battery Needed For Longer Life....................... 07 TRENDS Canadian Scientists Claim World's Largest Pi Number........ 20 WINDOWS Windows Application Reveals All On UK Dialing Codes........ 02 ======================================================================== These are the headlines and first paragraphs of each story, in order: 1 -> Japanese PC-Linked Pager Debuts In UK -- Vodapage, the radiopaging division of Vodafone, has launched a message pager with a difference. The Wordcall Plus is a pager that can be linked to a PC and have data transferred across a PC serial link. 2 -> Windows Application Reveals All On UK Dialing Codes -- Texis UK has announced the development of a Windows version of its popular DOS dialing code package. According to Nick Mutton, the managing director of the company, the package, which will be called Texis for Windows, acts as a database of everything users want to know about UK dialing codes. 3 -> Europe - MFS To Offer Telecoms Service In Hong Kong -- MFS has announced the launch of an international telecoms service, targeted at the financial center of Hong Kong. According to Colin Williams, managing director of the company's International operations, the new service forms part of the expansion plan carried out by MFS in the Asia Pacific region. 4 -> 24 Hour Data Hook-up For ISDN -- Patriot Scientific Corporation (OTC: PTSC) has introduced the CyberShark I, a PC-compatible ISDN (integrated services digital network) plug-in terminal adapter card. By allowing full use of an ISDN line to achieve up to 128 kilobits- per-second (Kbps), the CyberShark I terminal adapter provides over four times the data rate of the fastest analog modems. 5 -> Novell To Sponsor Telephony Services Conference -- Novell Inc. (NASDAQ: NOVL) says it will join with other companies to sponsor the second annual conference on the development and marketing of telephony applications based on its TSAPI (Telephone Services Applications Program Interface). Netware Telephony Services integrate telephone networks and data networks. 6 -> Technology Partly To Blame For Jobless Recovery - Report -- In Canada, the recession of 1990-91 was not as long or as deep as that of the early 1980s, but ordinary people suffered much more because employment did not recover as well. That was partly because of increased use of technology, according to a recent report from the Conference Board of Canada. 7 -> Smart Battery Needed For Longer Life -- Exar Corporation (NASDAQ: EXAR), a supplier of mixed-signal integrated circuits, has announced the XR-8100 "smart battery" High IQ chipset. The High IQ chipset displays how full a rechargeable battery is, and it also controls charging and discharging of the battery pack to prevent damage and extend the life of the battery. 8 -> India's Pentafour Expands Thai Presence -- Indian-based Pentafour Software & Exports has announced a joint-venture to set up Pentafour AG (Thailand) to provide software services, products, and training. 9 -> Australia Laws Going Online -- The Australian Federal Attorney-General's Department has signed a $1 million contract with a Canberra computer distributor for equipment to put Australian laws and regulations on the Internet. 10 -> UK Firm Offers Low-Cost Internet Access -- Global Internet, a new company based in Putney, London, has begun offering a full range of Internet services, including World Wide Web and SLIP dial-up access, but at a low price, just UKP7.50 per month. The company is also offering an Internet suite of software known as Total Internet, for UKP34.99. 11 -> Aussie Laws Going Online -- The Australian Federal Attorney-General's Department has signed a $1M contract with a Canberra computer distributor for gear to put Australian laws and regulations on the Internet. 12 -> UK - FTP Software's "Explore Anywhere" Internet Software -- FTP Software has taken the wraps off Explore Anywhere 2.0 for Windows. According to Mike Hibbert, a spokesman for the company, the UKP199 package is designed to offer all the usual features of an Internet suite 13 -> HP Intros 8.7GB Drive, Plus 6 Other Storage Products -- Hewlett- Packard's new C3653A, a product ultimately destined for both the mainframe and PC server markets, is the industry's first shipping hard disk drive in the 9 gigabyte (GB) capacity range, maintained Roger Archibald, at a press conference in Boston where HP introduced seven new storage products. 14 -> HP "Archive Server" Combines Jukebox With Built-In Chip -- HP's new SureStore Archive Server combines an optical jukebox with a built-in processor and related hardware and software to let departmental administrators add optical storage to Netware and Unix networks without the need for a separate file server, said Pamela L. Ingmire, during an HP press conference in Boston. 15 -> HP's External "Plug-In" & Internal PC Back-Up Drives -- Retail stores and VARs (value-added resellers) are the two intended channels for the HP Colorado T1000e, an external back-up drive installable by "computer literate but non-technical users," plus the HP Colorado T4000s, an internal back-up drive that uses SCSI (small computer systems interface)-2 for faster recording, reported Kerry Monroe, at an HP press conference in Boston. 16 -> HP Network Back-Up DAT Drive Brings DSS-3 Support -- With the new 24 gigabyte (GB) Model C1537A, Hewlett-Packard will be the first vendor to sell a DAT (digital audio tape) network backup storage drive that supports the DSS (Digital Data Storage)-3 specification for 100 percent faster data transfer, asserted Robert Hill, at a press conference in Boston that revolved around the announcement of seven new storage products from HP. 17 -> Japan Newsbriefs -- In this roundup of news from Tokyo: Japan digitizes trial seating, KDD announces rate cut, Pioneer signs Kodak screen deal, Pippin player delayed, JVC announces multimedia TV, Word processor sales slump. 18 -> Second Pan-Asian Internet Backbone Planned -- Three of Asia's top Internet providers, and a fourth company, are jointly establishing a new pan-Asian Internet backbone that will link Japan, Singapore, Hong Kong, and the United States together with high-speed lines. 19 -> ****Internet Update -- In this update of new services and resources on the global Internet: Your link to the Japan Electronics Show, Hong Kong exclusive robot index, CD-ROM magazine online, Telecom information clearinghouse, News from the Russian far east, Toyota test drives the Web, US Government Energy Information Administration, Election America online for 1996, East Asian environmental information, Agriculture information database. 20 -> Canadian Scientists Claim World's Largest Pi Number -- Just 2 months after computer scientists at the University of Tokyo claimed a new world record by calculating pi 21 -> ****AT&T Business Network & CNN Interactive In Online Alliance -- The recently launched AT&T (NYSE:T) Business Network has formed an alliance with Cable News Network's CNN Interactive. The two companies said they will offer a range of multimedia and online services. 22 -> Co-op Students To Promote Computer Literacy In Schools -- Students from the University of Waterloo's computer science department will spend their work terms in Ontario classrooms helping build computer-literacy programs under a program just announced by the university and Ontario's school boards, with financial backing from Xerox Canada Inc. 23 -> ****AMEX Launches Internet Index-Based Options -- Two months after launching a new stock index based on the performance of Internet related companies, the American Stock Exchange (AMEX) has begun offering options trading based on the index. 24 -> Apple's System 7.5 Users Get Free E-Mail Utility -- With a licensing agreement sealed, Apple Computer Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) has announced the free distribution of StarNine Technologies' PowerTalk gateways. All Macintosh users of System 7.5 are invited to download the electronic- mail utility from Apple's World Wide Web site. 25 -> Compaq Acquires Network Interface Card Firm -- Compaq Computer Corp. (NYSE: CPQ) has announced that it will acquire Thomas-Conrad Corp., a privately held maker of network interface cards (NICs) and hubs. Thomas-Conrad will become a part of Compaq's new Internetworking Products Group (IPG) 26 -> ****Motorola Sets PowerPC 603e Chip Prices -- Motorola Inc. (NYSE:MOT) has announced pricing and general availability of its 100 megahertz (MHz) and 120MHz RISC (reduced instruction set computing) PowerPC 603e microprocessors. The chips are designed for use in notebook and entry-level desktop systems. 27 -> AT&T Puts Paradyne Subsidiary Up For Sale -- In a move that's similar to the announced split of AT&T (NYSE:T) last month, the telecommunications giant said it will sell off its AT&T Paradyne subsidiary to another company. 28 -> ****Microsoft 1Qtr Profits Hit Record, Jump 58% -- Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ: MSFT) has announced that its quarterly profits jumped more than 58 percent for the first quarter of the company's fiscal year, with the results fueled by sale of more than seven million copies of the Windows 95 operating system and graphical user interface. The period ended September 30, 1995, with the results exceeding many financial analysts' expectations. 29 -> ****USAir & British Airways Land On The Desktop -- Members of USAir's and British Airway's frequent flyer programs will receive Windows software which will allow them to access a wide range of travel information and make reservations. The new service, called Priority TravelWorks and Executive TravelWorks, respectively for each company, includes hotel and car rental information. (Ian Stokell/19951018) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 10/17/95 PC Zenith Data System's New Pentium Desktops, Notebooks (NEWS)(PC)(MSP)(00001) Zenith Data System's New Pentium Desktops, Notebooks 10/17/95 BUFFALO GROVE, ILLINOIS, U.S.A., 1995 OCT 17 (NB) -- Furthering its penetration into the Pentium market, Zenith Data Systems (ZDS) is introducing new high and mid-range notebook computers, along with high-end desktop models. One of the new notebook models, the Z-Note GT, will have what the company bills as the largest thin film transistor (TFT) active-matrix screen currently available in notebooks. #IMAGE 1 20 TWPCX \images\95101701.PCX Click here for photo The Z-Note GT is aimed at the market that "requires no compromise, desktop performance in a portable package," Mike Wilson, ZDS senior director of portable products marketing, told Newsbytes. "A lot of these companies are looking to take a much more 'powerful' message on the road, and products like the Z-Note GT allow them to do that," with full-motion Motion Pictures Experts Group (MPEG) video, audio, and other features, he said. The TFT active-matrix screen measures 11.3 inches diagonally, Wilson said, and will allow for an SVGA resolution at 800x600, which allows users to see over 50 percent more information than a comparable VGA screen. The notebook will run for two hours on one nickel metal hydride (NiMH), Wilson said, after Newsbytes noted that TFT screens tend to drain battery power more quickly than other types of notebook displays. He also said additional batteries and higher-quality batteries can be added to make the unit run even longer. The Z-Station GT is also available with an 11.3-inch dual-scan display that runs at the higher-resolution SVGA. The units are available with either a Pentium 75MHz or 90MHz processor, 810MB or 1.3GB disk drives, and 8MB of RAM, a modular CD-ROM drive, and either Windows 95 or Windows for Workgroups, among other features. Other software titles that come pre-installed include Netscape Navigator Personal Edition, Norton Navigator, and Norton Anti-Virus. Pricing starts at $3999 for the entry model in the Z-Note GT line, which includes a Pentium 75MHz processor, an 11.3 inch dual-scan screen, 8MB of RAM, a dual-speed CD-ROM drive, and an 810MB hard drive. The units will be available in late October through authorized resellers. Also, ZDS is introducing the Z-Note MX, described as a mid-range Pentium-based performer. It comes with a Pentium 75MHz processor, hard drive options up to 810 MHZ, and 10.4 inch active-matrix and dual- scan screens. The entry unit for this model costs $2899. ZDS officials said with the GT and the MX, the company is aiming to capture a "large portion" of the Pentium portable PC market. In addition to notebooks, ZDS said it is introducing the Z-Station GT high-performance desktop models, which will include Pentium 133MHz processors, among other Intel processors. Features of the high-end line include Z-Live, a videoconferencing solution, 64-bit high- performance graphics, and an optional rewritable optical disk/quad speed CD-ROM drive. Prices start at $2579 for an 100MHZ Z-Station GT in a desktop cabinet with an 850MB disk drive, 256K asynchronous level 2 cache, and Windows for Workgroups. ZDS maintains an Internet World Wide Web site for additional information on its products, at http://www.zds.com . ZDS is a Bull company. (Bob Woods/19951016/Press Contacts: Glynis Gibson, Zenith Data Systems, 312-868-9400 or 708-808-4276. Public Contact: Zenith Data Systems, 800-533-0331/ZNOTE951017/PHOTO) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 10/17/95 PC Compaq Launches New Server Line (NEWS)(PC)(DEN)(00002) Compaq Launches New Server Line 10/17/95 HOUSTON, TEXAS, U.S.A., 1995 OCT 17 (NB) -- Compaq Computer Corp. (NYSE: CPQ) has announced three new midrange servers and some processor upgrade boards for ProLiant and ProSignia models. Compaq has introduced the ProLiant 4500 5/133, ProLiant 4500 5/133 NT/Array and ProLiant 1500 5/133 systems. The 4500 5/133 is based on the new Intel 133 megahertz (MHz) Pentium processor and can have up to four processors installed. Standard configuration is with 64 megabytes (MB) of advanced ECC memory which can be expanded to one gigabyte (GB). It has a starting price of about $13,000 and is shipping immediately. The system includes a NetFlex-3/E Ethernet network interface controller (NIC) and eight expansion slots, three removable media bays and four (in the tower version) or five (in the rack-mounted version) 3.5-inch half-height hot-pluggable drive bays with up to 21.5GB of internal storage, for a total storage capacity of 301GB. Hot-pluggable peripherals can be changed while the system is running. The ProLiant 4500 5/133 NT/Array Model is the first Compaq server to ship with SmartStart integration of Microsoft BackOffice, which comes with the system. It also comes with Cheyenne ARCserve for Windows NT and a Compaq SMART SCSI Array Controller. BackOffice includes Microsoft SQL Server version 6.0, Microsoft SNA Server version 2.11, Microsoft Systems Management Server 1.1 and Microsoft Mail Server 3.5. It's also available now and starts at about $15,600. The ProLiant 1500 5/133 server comes with a Flex/SMP Dual Processor Board, 32MB of ECC memory expandable to 256MB, a 512- kilobyte (KB) cache memory and the NetFlex-3/P NIC. ProLiant 1500 5/133 is shipping now with a starting price of $7,200. Compaq also announced some new processor options. The Flex/SMP 5/133 Dual Processor Board is supported on the 1500 and includes one 133MHz Pentium chip and an open socket for a second processor. You also get a 512KB write-back cache and 32MB of ECC memory that can be expanded to 256KB. Compaq also offers a 133MHz Pentium System Processor Board upgrade for its ProLiant 4500 5/100 and a upgrade board with a 120MHz Pentium chip for the ProSignia 300 and ProSignia 500. All Compaq servers include SmartStart version 2.4, which supports Microsoft Windows NT 3.51 in French, German and Spanish; Novell Unixware-2 in Japanese; IBM OS/2 Warp Connect version 3; Cheyenne ARCserve Database Agents for Novell Netware for online backup; Cheyenne ARCserve for Windows NT version 2.0; SCO Open Server Release 5 and support for Microsoft BackOffice products. Compaq also announced a new enterprise service and support program that includes a selection of a global service and support provider, enhancements to its reseller channel service programs, significant investment in the company's worldwide service infrastructure and new Compaq-branded service and support offerings. Digital Multivendor Customer Services has been selected as the new Compaq worldwide service and support provider. Compaq said the company has 21 customer support centers for telephone support worldwide and service personnel operating in more than 450 locations in over 100 countries. The new support program includes designated accounts engineers, enhanced response and restore contracts, and 7X24 (seven days a week around the clock) support. Users will also be able to select from various onsite response plans. Compaq is also offering value-added services like system health checks quarterly, semi-annually or annually; capacity planning and performance tuning; upgrade/migration planning; remote systems management and alert monitoring and other services. (Jim Mallory/19951016/Press contact: Compaq Public Relations, 713-514-0484; Public contact: Compaq, 800-345-1518) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 10/17/95 GENERAL Australian News Briefs (NEWS)(GENERAL)(SYD)(00003) Australian News Briefs 10/17/95 SYDNEY, AUSTRALIA 1995 OCT 17 (NB) -- In this roundup of news from Australia, a Cray for Melbourne, Madge Australia gets new manager, legislators use laptops, man charged with stealing credit card records, one million Australians online, India roadshow hits Australia. A Cray For Melbourne Melbourne's Cray supercomputer got officially blessed this week when Small Business Minister Senator Chris Schacht stopped by to sprinkle a few platitudes. The Cray is 80 percent owned by the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology, where it is housed, and Melbourne University. Computer center director, Graeme Knox, said the Cray J916, which has been up and running since July, is a vector machine with 12 processors, 4GB of RAM and about 220GB of disk storage. It trots along at a rate of about 2.4 gigaflops. The Cray gives engineering and science students hands-on training in senior courses, is used for industrial functions ranging from air tunnel analysis to designing kitchen sinks, and also for research. Knox said about 10 percent of the computer's time is available for outside use, principally by other universities. Madge Australia Gets New Manager Madge Australia has a new business development manager on board, deftly plucked from the grasp of arch rival Bay Networks. Madge Australia's Carmelo San Gil, newly appointed as marketing manager, announced the recruitment of none other than Bay's regional marketing manager Colin Kempter to the Madge fold. Other local news from Madge is an imminent Fixed Term Arrangement (FTA) with the Federal Government. "We expect to submit that by the end of the month," San Gil said. Madge also plans to move its customer support center from Hong Kong to Sydney. Visiting UK VP Martin Taylor was on hand to talk about international developments at Madge, the biggest of which is the recent purchase of Tel Aviv Ethernet outfit LanNet. Together, Taylor hopes the companies can offer large corporate customers a smooth transition to switching environments. "We are coming to the switching world without the baggage of the whole switching thing," he said. Legislators Use Laptops Another tradition has fallen by the wayside in the face of technology, with members of the NSW Legislative Assembly (parliament) gaining permission to use laptops in the chamber. Speaker John Murray has ruled that laptops are okay, and will not interfere with business in the chamber. Many pollies will now be putting away their notepads and pens for the last time. Man Charged With Stealing Credit Card Records The net has closed around a hacker who allegedly broke into credit card records at Internet service provider AusNet earlier this year. The attack cost AusNet an alleged $2 million in lost contracts and hundreds of credit cards had to be rapidly replaced after their details were published. The Australian Federal Police have arrested and charged a 23-year-old man over the offences. One Million Australians Online Telstra Chairman David Hoare told delegates at the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) Telecom 95 strategies summit in Geneva that one million Australians will be connected to the Internet by the end of the year (almost six percent of the population) and 46 percent of Australian households own a PC. "Seven hundred thousand Australians are now linked to the Internet and the figure will rise to around a million by the end of this year, the highest per capita participation rate in the world," Hoare told the telco crowd. India Roadshow Hits Australia In Sydney and Melbourne next week 17 top executives from Indian software companies join with Australian IT industry reps to spread the word about the possibilities of the Indian market. The Software India '95 seminars will also see Australian and Indian government representatives take part under the auspices of Big Six accountant KPMG at their offices. Organizers point out that India has the second biggest pool of English-speaking scientific manpower in the world and a software industry growing at an annual rate of about 46 percent. Working in the industry are 3.5 million technical staff. The AUS$50 price tag for each session also buys lunch. (Paul Zucker/19951017) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 10/17/95 TRENDS Australian PC Shipments Strong (NEWS)(TRENDS)(SYD)(00004) Australian PC Shipments Strong 10/17/95 SYDNEY, AUSTRALIA, 1995 OCT 17 (NB) -- IDC predicts that precisely 1,328,249 PCs will be sold in Australia in 1995, resulting in a AUS$3,615 million spent by Australian buyers, and $3,042 million in vendor revenues. A compound annual growth rate of 14.3 percent will see this number climb to 2,136,912 units in 1999, says the computer research firm IDC in its latest research bulletin, The Australian PC Market Review and Forecast, 1995-1999. IDC's projected growth rate for this year is 21.3 percent, down on 1994's 25.3 percent, announced earlier this year by IDC. Total shipments for 1994 were 1,095,000. Compaq shipped more PCs than any other vendor in the first half of 1995, with 58,491 units going to market. This compares to 105,900 for the whole of 1995, giving Compaq's a stable market share of 9.7 percent. Apple Computer is in second place with 9.1 percent of the market or 55,707 units shipped in the first six months of the year. IBM clips Osborne for third place, with 5.9 percent of market or 35,613 units. Ipex is next with 5.6 percent, or 33,910 units. Digital and Acer are making strong bids for a placing, shipping a reported 28,312 and 23,333 units respectively this year. Copies of the bulletin are available from IDC. Phone +61-2-9922 5300 for further details. (Paul Zucker/19951017) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 10/17/95 BUSINESS Australia - Osborne Becomes Gateway (NEWS)(BUSINESS)(SYD)(00005) Australia - Osborne Becomes Gateway 10/17/95 SYDNEY, AUSTRALIA, 1995 OCT 17 (NB) -- Osborne's troubles earlier this year, and the fact that the new Osborne Gateway 2000 is still off the Federal Government's endorsed supplier list, may lead to a reshuffled top five when figures for the whole year are available. Osborne Gateway 2000 plans to keep a local manufacturing base and will continue to badge the existing Osborne range of PCs with the original Osborne logo. However, any new range will carry the Gateway badge, and an undisclosed proportion of Osborne Gateway's machines will be manufactured offshore. "Basically, there will be local manufacture, but not of all machines," a spokesperson from Hill and Knowlton, Osborne Gateway 2000's PR agency, tells Newsbytes. Machines in the existing Osborne Gateway 2000 range are being assembled in the same way as they were by Osborne, says Terry Halward from Osborne Gateway. He declined to give details about any future manufacturing plans. More enlightenment may be forthcoming from visiting Gateway 2000 CEO Ted Waitt, who is visiting from Sioux City. (AUS$1 is around US$0.76) (Computer Daily News/19951017) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 00 10/17/95 TELECOM HK Telecom Blood-letting Could Chop 3, (NEWS)(TELECOM)(HKG)(00006) HK Telecom Blood-letting Could Chop 3,000 10/17/95 CENTRAL, HONG KONG, 1995 OCT 17 (NB) -- Peter Howell-Davies' snap departure should have come as a warning. Blood-letting in Hongkong Telecom's top ranks is on the cards again, and word is that a further 3,000 employees could be dumped in the next two years. Howell-Davies was recalled from the number two slot at Hongkong Telecom to London to take over parent company Cable & Wireless's troubled Mercury unit when its chief executive quit after a series of major reverses. Linus Cheung, Hongkong Telecom's chief executive, replaced Howell-Davies with Norman Yuen and Alistair Grieves as two de-facto deputy chiefs. Grieves was transferred from C&W's Japanese unit, with sources saying that he will serve as hatchet-man in the next round of cutbacks. Although Telecom is currently chopping 2,500 employees, mostly through natural wastage, it is understood that more redundancies are on the cards. The axing of 2,500 people was in part due to the computerization of its billing system under what was known as the Dragon project. The next level of "retrenchment" is expected to come from a rationalization of the network staff as Telecom moves over to an all-digital system. As many as 3,000 more redundancies are expected. Yuen was formerly managing director of corporate development and an integral part of Linus Cheung's management committee. Several senior Telecom people have already faced the chop. Sources say that Peter Hamilton has been forced out of heading up the multimedia arm and has returned to a slot within Cable and Wireless. David Andrew, formerly with corporate marketing, has also been shown the door. And an unhappy Hubert Ng, currently director of the mobile division, has reportedly been told he has to go to Singapore to head up Mobile One. Sources say that further changes and sackings are likely over the next six months. (Nigel Armstrong & I.T. Daily/19951017) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 10/17/95 ONLINE World's First Interactive Banking Net Launched (NEWS)(ONLINE)(LON)(00007) World's First Interactive Banking Net Launched 10/17/95 LONDON, ENGLAND, 1995 OCT 17 (NB) -- The Bankers Network (TBN) has launched an online virtual private network (VPN) using the Internet for banks and other financial institutions worldwide. The aim of the service, which costs $100 per terminal per month linked into the VPN, regardless of where in the world the terminal is situated, is to offer sensibly priced financial services information to the global banking community. Simon Macey, a spokesman for TBN, told Newsbytes that the company aims to fill the gap between the full portfolio of Reuters financial news feeds and the budget services that use either dial-up modem or TV teletext links. TBN's network splits into two parts. The first is a dedicated and separate (from the Internet) VPN that works to TCP/IP (Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol) transmission standards, working over leased line from the bank's premises in a financial center around the world, and linking into TBN's global VPN. The other side, Macey explained, is based around dial-up or leased line access to the Internet and is solely for information broadcast, rather than transactions. Both "networks" make use of various degrees of encryption for part or the full data call. The company is working with software based around NetScape's SSL, Protek's Raptor and a number of other encryption mechanisms. Since TBN's dedicated network operates to TCP/IP standards, hardware and software to access the service costs very little. Since the service is a closed forum, even on the Internet side of the service, the aim is that member banks can "talk" confidentially with their own chosen counterparts worldwide. They can also link their branch network into a global newsgroup on the Internet. The VPN also supports one-to-one realtime communications between member banks. And, if a bank wishes, it also has the option of advertising, using Web pages, to the whole Internet audience. Macey told Newsbytes that TBN aims to offer a variety of services to customer banks, ranging from basic VPN facilities, through commercial information services, consultancy and support for Internet, and publication hosting of Web pages. The basic portfolio of services that TBN offers includes access to various database services such as forex.net (currency dealing ), treasury.net (trading of deposits and CDs), bank.net (a banking directory), and eco.net (a database of economic, financial, political and social information on most countries of the world. So why not simply use the Internet for its international VPN, using encryption to keep hackers at bay? Macey replied that there are several issues at stake, not least being the security, slowness and lack of organization issues. "Using a secure VPN for the bulk of the data transmissions solves most of these problems, and allows us to offer a secure service to customer banks. But by using TCP/IP as the network protocol, this keeps the costs down," he told Newsbytes. According to Macey, considerable interest in TBN has been expressed from Eastern European banks, many of whom pay substantial amounts for access to the Reuters feed. "One customer in Moscow is paying several thousands of pounds a month for Reuters' feeds. Using TBN will help that bank cut the cost of its information feed, as well as allow high-speed two-way data transmissions," he explained, adding that, rather than rely on conventional PDN (Packet Data Network) or X.25 links, the company is working with VSAT (Very Small Aperture Terminals) satellite facilities. (Steve Gold/19951016/Press Contact: Bridgett Vane PR +44-1703-769985; Fax +44-1703-767405; Reader Contact: The Bankers Network +44-171-470- 8833; Fax +44-171-470-8433; Internet Email: admin@bankersnet.com; US Office 703-684-4427; Fax 705-548-9446) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 10/17/95 TRENDS Technology Fails To Deliver Greater Leisure Says Report (NEWS)(TRENDS)(LON)(00008) Technology Fails To Deliver Greater Leisure Says Report 10/17/95 SLOUGH, BERKSHIRE, ENGLAND, 1995 OCT 17 (NB) -- According to a report issued by Motorola, people in Britain are working harder today than they were five years ago, despite the promise that IT (information technology) would herald a new age of leisure. In the report, entitled "Prepared for the Future? The British and Technology -- a Motorola Report," which was conducted by MORI on behalf of Motorola, more than half (55 percent) of people working in the UK claim to be working longer hours than they were five years ago. People who are IT-literate, meanwhile, are more likely to be working longer hours than those who are not, with 62 percent of IT-literate respondents claiming to work longer these days, compared with 45 percent of those who way they are not knowledgeable about IT. Despite the move to longer hours for most people, only five percent feel that the impact of IT in the home has been for the worse, and only four percent see a deterioration in their working lives due to IT. "People who are IT-literate have better job prospects than those who are not. The real danger is not that IT is somehow going to destroy leisure, but that people who don't have proper access to IT training and equipment will find themselves increasingly marginalized on the job market and fail to reap the benefits that technology offers in our everyday lives," explained Paul Strzelecki, vice president and regional director for Motorola's UK and Ireland semiconductor markets. One interesting finding of the report is that British people seem to be eager for online services. According to the report, 71 percent are happy with using online directory assistance services, while 52 percent feel the same way about using computerized home banking services, and 63 percent are happy about using an online service to make train reservations. Only seven percent of people are worried about computer errors, and one percent about breakdowns. According to the report, certain activities have more of an acceptance hurdle to jump -- only 33 percent of respondents are happy about using a computer to shop, while 38 percent would feel happy about seeking medical advice using a computer. Those respondents under the age of 25 are more receptive to online services, the report said, adding that this was the same age who are worried about missing out on human contact. Strzelecki said that the British public is being held back from using online services due to lack of experience and availability. (Sylvia Dennis/19951012/Press Contact: Burston-Marsteller +44-171-831- 6262; Fax +44-171-831-5510; Reader Contact: Motorola +44-1753-575555; Fax +44-1753-516243) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 10/17/95 GENERAL Taiwanese UKP 199 Mini-Fax, Scanner, Copier Device (NEWS)(GENERAL)(LON)(00009) Taiwanese UKP 199 Mini-Fax, Scanner, Copier Device 10/17/95 LONDON, ENGLAND, 1995 OCT 17 (NB) -- Plustek Electronics, a Taiwanese electronics manufacturer, has launched the Pagereader, a UKP 199 multi-function scanner/copier/fax system into Europe. The unit interfaces with a host PC and comes as a "black box" roughly the same size as a desktop stapler. Two versions of the Pagereader are available: the Model 800, which sells for UKP 199 and comes with a half length ISA (Industry Standard Architecture) PC card, and the Model 801, at UKP 209, which interfaces with the host PC using the parallel port. Essentially, the Pagereader is a multi-function 256-grey scale sheetfed scanner, with photocopying and fax modem facilities built in. The photocopier prints out on the PC's printer, while the fax modem facility is enabled by plugging in a fax modem to the host PC -- the Pagereader acts as an optical scanner in this configuration. The Pagereader is supplied with both Recognita Plus OCR (optical character recognition) software, allowing users to convert scanned documents to editable text files, and an imaging application, iPhoto Plus, for the management, manipulation and conversion of graphical files. Documents and images are scanned using Pagereader at resolutions of up to 800 dots per inch (DPI). Announcing the unit in Europe, Abdul Karim Tebtoub, Plustek's International sales manager, said that the scanner is increasingly seen as one of the essential peripheral devices for a PC, along with a printer and modem. "That is all to the good but it does mean that people's desks are getting rather crowded," he said. "Our approach is that the equipment should not only provide the best quality at the lowest possible price but that it should have multiple uses and provide users with several facilities out of the same box, while maintaining as discreet a presence as possible," he explained. "That, in a nutshell, is why we've built an imaging, OCR, fax and photocopy scanner that is barely larger than a desktop stapler," he added. Interested customers can obtain further information and locate their nearest supplier by calling Solution Point, Plustek's distributor, on +44-1345-400300. (Steve Gold/19951012/Press Contact: Lexicon Communications +44-171- 490-2973; Fax +44-171-490-7257; Internet Email: lexicon@cix.compulink.co.uk) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 95 10/17/95 WINDOWS Microsoft Misses Release Date For Thai Windows (NEWS)(WINDOWS)(HKG)(00010) Microsoft Misses Release Date For Thai Windows 95 10/17/95 BANGKOK, THAILAND, 1995 OCT 17 (NB) -- Microsoft failed to complete its localization of the Thai-language version of Windows 95 in time for the official launch October 12 and was giving away 3,000 copies of its beta version instead to mark an exhibition arranged in conjunction with the event. Microsoft (Thailand) Country Manager Arporn (Paul) Sribhibhadh said that bugs were delaying the commercial release of the localized product, despite a three-day extravaganza that began here on October 12. While the Windows 95 Thai Edition was formally introduced and demonstrated at the event, copies would not be available for customers until around the end of October, Mr Arporn said. "We want to make sure that the program will have as few bugs as possible before we release it," he said, adding that one bug was causing application compatibility problems. Some 16-bit Thai applications such as accounting and personal management software were not yet running properly on Windows 95, he noted. "We want all applications that run on Windows 3.1 and Windows for Workgroups Thai editions to be compatible with Windows 95," he said, adding that more applications remained to be tested. The price of the Thai Edition will be the same as the English version, which is 5,700 baht for a full package (US$228) and 2,700 baht ($108) for an upgrade kit, but a special discount was being offered to those who ordered their copies at the Windows 95 Expo. Microsoft was offering 3,000 sets of beta versions of the Windows 95 Thai Edition to visitors during the exhibition. Microsoft also expects to launch Microsoft Office 95 Thai Edition at approximately the same time as the Windows 95 Thai Edition. A team of 10 developers, both from International Research Corporation (IRC) and from Microsoft, jointly handled the coding of the local version, while another 10 engineers reviewed the code. Yet a further eight were engaged in product testing, according to Mr Arporn. The work has been done both in Thailand and in the United States, he explained, and stressed that the main message that Microsoft wanted to convey at the product launch was that 32-bit computing was here for the general desktop computer user. Mr Arporn noted that Microsoft had tried to isolate the language-dependent pieces of the operating system to avoid touching the source code wherever possible, and that a modular approach had been taken, even with drivers, thereby making the testing much more localized. There have been 20,000 customers requesting the Thai Edition so far, added a spokesman for IRC. (Tony Waltham and Post Database-Bangkok Post/19951017) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 10/17/95 LEGAL BSA Raids Bangkok Software Outlets (NEWS)(LEGAL)(HKG)(00011) BSA Raids Bangkok Software Outlets 10/17/95 BANGKOK, THAILAND, 1995 OCT 17 (NB) -- Acting on information provided by the Business Software Alliance (BSA), the Economic Crime Investigation Division conducted raids on four shops in the largest cluster of computer hardware and software outlets at Pantip Plaza recently. The raids led to the arrest of one shop owner and the confiscation of 445 pirated CD-ROMs, according to a BSA spokesman. An additional six CD-ROMs and 13 computer diskettes were found hidden in a bathroom at the scene but the proprietor of a nearby shop denied ownership of the illegally copied software. The seized software had a retail value of almost US$1 million, the report said. The raids took place September 26 following a tip-off and trap purchases made by BSA undercover investigators. Search warrants ware issued based on this evidence, and executed by officers of the Copyright Subdivision of the Economic Crime Investigation Division. The alleged owner of a shop called New Applications was arrested after police officers claimed they found 445 pirated CD-ROMs on the premises. BSA member software titles seized were said to include Microsoft Windows 95, Autodesk AutoCAD 1 AutoCAD 2, and Novell Netware 4.1. Multimedia titles seized include Microsoft Cinemania'95 and Encarta'95. Agents also reportedly confiscated numerous compilation CD- ROMs, which contain as many as 60 different software titles. Suspicious software packaging was found at another shop, but the alleged owner of the outlet declined to cooperate with the investigating officers and denied ownership of 6 unpackaged CD-ROMs and 13 computer diskettes found hidden in a nearby bathroom. "In view of the results of our investigations and recent BSA warnings and publicity about the legal penalties for software piracy, we had no choice but to take action against these software dealers," said Vice President of the BSA Ron Eckstrom. (Tony Waltham and Post Database-Bangkok Post/19951017) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 10/17/95 TELECOM Thai-Canadian Satellite Venture For Laos (NEWS)(TELECOM)(HKG)(00012) Thai-Canadian Satellite Venture For Laos 10/17/95 BANGKOK, THAILAND, 1995 OCT 17 (NB) -- Telesat Canada has signed a contract in Geneva with Asia Broadcasting and Communications Network Company Limited (ABCN) for a range of consulting and management services on its planned satellite venture to be launched in cooperation with the Government of Lao PDR. ABCN is a subsidiary of Thailand's The M. Group Public Company Limited. The contract covers the provision of consulting services, the preparation and evaluation of a request for proposal (RFP), and contractual negotiations with a selected bidder for the L-STAR Satellite Program on behalf of ABCN. "The project, which will be closely monitored by ABCN and its consultant Telesat Canada, is planned to be in operation by December 1997," said Mr Suradet Mukyangkoon, senior vice president of M. Group and president of ABCN. The L-STAR satellite system will be owned and operated by ABCN under a 30-year concession for the provision by satellite of communications and broadcasting services in the Asia region. (Tony Waltham and Post Database-Bangkok Post/19951013) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 10/17/95 TELECOM ICN International To Open Thai Subsidiary (NEWS)(TELECOM)(HKG)(00013) ICN International To Open Thai Subsidiary 10/17/95 BANGKOK, THAILAND, 1995 OCT 17 (NB) -- A new company to address modern telecommunications systems and high-speed networks formally made its debut last week when Executive Chairman of ICN International Rex L. Benning introduced ICN Data (Thailand) in conjunction with a seminar on groupware, Internet systems and new networking concepts. ICN Data (Thailand) Technical Director James Zellerbach said that the Internet was the most prevalent of modern communications systems and the company addresses how executives can use such advanced capabilities within an organization to maximum benefit. The presentation covered the areas of groupware, new Internet systems and new networking concepts such as frame relay, ATM, voice/data/video integration and multiplexing. ICN International Executive Chairman Benning, who has been involved in research and development of X.25 systems, ATM (Asynchronous Transfer Mode) and Frame Relay, addressed these new networking concepts. The presentation covered effective corporate strategy and the tools for implementing this, as well as user-friendly system solutions, Mr Zellerbach said. (Tony Waltham and Post Database-Bangkok Post/19951013) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 10/17/95 ONLINE Add - Web Address For Cable TV's Travel Channel (NEWS)(ONLINE)(MSP)(00014) Add - Web Address For Cable TV's Travel Channel 10/17/95 ATLANTA, GEORGIA, U.S.A., 1995 OCT 17 (NB) -- In an article entitled "Cable TV's Travel Channel On The Web," from October 12, Newsbytes left out the URL (uniform resource locator) of the new Internet World Wide Web site. The Travel Channel is located at http://www.travelchannel.com/ . Newsbytes regrets the omission. (Bob Woods/19951011/Press Contact: Denise Jenkins, Alexander Communications, 404-897-2300) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 10/17/95 UNIX China - Unix-like System Software Developed (NEWS)(UNIX)(PEK)(00015) China - Unix-like System Software Developed 10/17/95 BEIJING, CHINA, 1995 OCT 17 (NB) -- China's first computer system software, COSA (China Open System Alliance), recently got approval from the Ministry of Electronics Industry (MEI). COSA was developed by China Software and Service Corp (CS&S), the country's largest domestic supplier, and 18 key universities and research organizations. Supported by the government, COSA is the result of three years' work of more than 300 scientists and engineers. COSA consists of a set of software including the Unix-like operating system COSIX V1.1, database management COBASE V1.0, network system CONET V1.0, and language compiler COLANG V1.0. The system provides the computer with reliable control and good information organization, experts said. A software engineer with CS&S told Newsbytes that COSA adopted some technologies from Unix SVR4.0 by USL, and is completely compatible with Unix SVR4.0. It supports Chinese GB2312 fonts and ISO/IEC fonts. COSIX also includes a DOS simulator allowing DOS software to be operated under COSIX. COSA will soon be available on market at a price of about RMB3,000 (about US$360), the CS&C engineer told Newsbytes. The more advanced version, COSIX V2.0 is still under development. (Chih-Ho Yu & Ning Huang/19951006/Reader Contact: China Software and Service Corp, tel +86-10 217-7722) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 10/17/95 TELECOM ****Sprint Records Record 3Q Results (NEWS)(TELECOM)(MSP)(00016) ****Sprint Records Record 3Q Results 10/17/95 KANSAS CITY, MISSOURI, U.S.A., 1995 OCT 17 (NB) -- Sprint Inc. (NYSE:FON) reported record results for the third quarter of this year. Net income increased almost 17 percent for the year overall to $269 million, and operating income rose almost 16 percent to $544 million from a year ago. The third quarter 1995 results were released during a news teleconference, which Newsbytes attended. Sprint officials also said the company's operating cash flow grew 12.5 percent to $942 million, while revenues grew 6.4 percent to $3.44 billion compared to the third quarter of 1994. William Esrey, Sprint's chairman and chief executive officer, called the quarter "outstanding," and said the company has "achieved an acceleration in operating profit across all of our business units, with each reporting double-digit growth in operating income and solid revenue gains." In the long distance unit, operating income increased a little over 12 percent to a record $185 million, up $20 million from the third quarter a year ago, and up $14 million from the second quarter of 1995. Revenues in the long distance unit increased 5 percent to $1.83 billion, and minutes of use increased 6.6 percent compared with last year's third quarter. Sprint's local markets also saw big gains. Operating income rose almost 16 percent to $292 million as compared to the same quarter in 1994, while revenues increased six percent to a record $1.18 billion. The number of customer access lines grew almost 5 percent over the past 12 months to nearly 6.65 million, officials said. The biggest percentage gains were seen in the company's cellular and wireless units, where operating income was up 34 percent to $43 million, and revenues increased 33 percent to $246 million, from the year ago quarter. Sprint's cellular customer base grew 53 percent over the past 12 months, and overall customer penetration is about 7 percent, which the company said is one of the highest rates in the country. During the teleconference, Esrey revealed European Union Competition Commissioner Karel Van Miert reached an agreement with Sprint, Deutsche Telekom, and France Telecom for the previously announced international telecommunications venture. He also said the spin-off of the company's cellular unit, which Newsbytes has previously covered, to Sprint shareholders should happen during the first half of 1996. (Bob Woods/19951017/Press Contact: Bill White, Sprint, 913-624-2226, Internet e-mail bill.k.white@sprinta1.sprint.com) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 10/17/95 BROADCAST Japan Set To Become Next Satellite Battleground (NEWS)(BROADCAST)(TYO)(00017) Japan Set To Become Next Satellite Battleground 10/17/95 TOKYO, JAPAN, 1995 OCT 17 (NB) -- Hughes Electronics Corp. Chairman Michael Armstrong said in Tokyo yesterday that his company hopes to begin offering a localized version of the US DirecTV service in Japan in 1997. The planned service will compete against a similar digital TV package due to launch next year and, coupled with a recent relaxation of broadcasting laws, will make Japan the next battleground in an international quest to win the world's television viewers. The Hughes venture will bring the American company's subsidiary Hughes Communications Inc. together with Culture Convenience Club, a major video rental chain, which will each hold 42.5% of the company. Mitsubishi owned Space Communications Corporation, operators of the Superbird C satellite from where the venture will beam its signal, will also hold a 10% share and Dai Nippon Printing Co. Ltd., (TOKYO:7912) will hold the remaining 5% stake. The new company plans to offer Japan's 40 million television households a similar service to that available in the United States -- a multi- channel digital television service picked up with small dishes and simple, cheap, all-in-one receiver-decoder units. It will face competition from DMC, a multi-company consortium that plans to begin broadcasting a 50-channel package of digital television from the recently launched JCSat-3 in spring next year. If all goes according to plan, DMC will enjoy a year's head start on the new Hughes venture which, if DMC lines up a strong programming package, may prove insurmountable. DMC is jointly held by several major trading companies, Itochu Corp., Nissho Iwai Corp., Mitsui & Co. and Sumitomo Corp., which each has a 23% stake. Japan Satellite Systems, operators of JCSat-3, holds the remaining 8%. The two new operators face a lucrative potential market. Most of Japan can receive two state channels from NHK and four commercial networks but cable and satellite penetration is low. The only satellite that enjoys widespread reception is the country's BS bird, mainly because most televisions come with built-in receivers that simply require the addition of a dish. The satellite beams down two extra channels provided by NHK -- a pay movie channel, and a channel broadcasting twelve hours a day of high definition programming -- to people with television sets equipped with MUSE system decoders. The new digital packages will largely replace existing analog broadcasts available direct to home on JCSat-2 and Superbird B, so-called CS television. Due to Japan's broadcasting laws, many of the available channels are scrambled and restricted to cable pickup only. This results in each satellite offering just five or six channels, and each satellite requires a different decoder in addition to expensive reception equipment. All this means CS satellite TV reception is rare. Not only will the new systems change this, by offering tens of channels all via a single unit, but recently revised broadcasting laws also now allow foreign broadcasters to transmit directly into Japan where they previously had been prohibited from doing so. Apart from CNN and the BBC, which each set up local joint ventures to get around the regulations, the multitude of foreign satellite channels targeting Asia had bypassed the Japanese market. With the new regulations in place, several broadcasters have already announced a future launch to Japan. Amongst them, Ted Turner's TNT & Cartoon Network, Rupert Murdoch's Hong Kong-based Star TV Network, General Electric's NBC and CNBC Asia, and Country Music Television. Japan's NTV network, already an operator of a cable news channel, has also said it is studying the possibility of joining such a digital satellite system as a way of getting its signal into areas previously unserved or badly served by terrestrial transmitters. (Martyn Williams/19951017) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 10/17/95 TELECOM Liazon Gets Canada's 1st Nationwide Narrowband PCS License (NEWS)(TELECOM)(TOR)(00018) Liazon Gets Canada's 1st Nationwide Narrowband PCS License 10/17/95 MARKHAM, ONTARIO, CANADA, 1995 OCT 17 (NB) -- Liazon Communications Solutions Inc., a subsidiary of long-distance reseller Upper Canada Communications Group Inc., is the first company to receive a license for narrowband personal communications services (PCS) in Canada and the first to offer North American coverage through an alliance with a PCS carrier in the United States. Narrowband PCS allows wireless paging and text messages over a wireless connection. It should not be confused with wideband PCS, which is the technology used in short-range cordless telephones. Robert Koven, president of Upper Canada Communications Group and Liazon, said in a teleconference with reporters this morning that his company plans to offer two-way paging and various other communications services, such as Internet information, news, and weather over wireless connections. "Paging has been a wonderful technology, but its main inhibition has been that it has been one-way," Koven said. "Now you can respond and verify the messages on the pager." Koven said his company's customers may use pagers, personal digital assistants, or personal computers to connect to the Liazon network, which is due to go into service in Canada's three largest cities -- Toronto, Montreal, and Vancouver -- in the third quarter of 1996, and in 29 other cities over the following three years. He said regulators in both Canada and the United States have given the green light for an alliance between Liazon and American Paging Inc., (AMEX:APP) of Minneapolis, to offer narrowband PCS services throughout North America on the same set of frequencies. This will allow the two companies to offer their customers coverage in both countries. The two companies also plan to cooperate on developing new applications for their narrowband PCS networks, though Koven said Liazon also believes it can develop unique applications for the Canadian market. Liazon has not yet chosen an equipment supplier but is talking with Canadian-based Glenayre Technologies and with Motorola Inc., Koven said. Upper Canada Communications Group is a Canadian-owned company, he noted. (Grant Buckler/19951017/Press Contact: Greg Bandler, Upper Canada Communications Group, 905-771-7870; Kevin Ellis, Atkins & Ellis for Upper Canada Communications Group, 416-368-6880, fax 416-368-5263) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 10/17/95 TELECOM India - Airtel Debuts Cellular Service (NEWS)(TELECOM)(DEL)(00019) India - Airtel Debuts Cellular Service 10/17/95 NEW DELHI, INDIA, 1995 OCT 17 (NB) -- Delhi's first and India's second cellular mobile phone service became operational when Bharti Cellular Ltd.'s AirTel launched its service. The first cellular service was launched in Calcutta by Modi Telstra Ltd. a couple of months ago. Speaking at the occasion, chairman of Telecom Commission, R.K. Takkar, said cellular services will soon be launched in Madras, and later in Bombay. The first formal call on AirTel's network was made by minister of state for non-conventional energy, P.J. Kurien, to the minister of state for communication, Sukh Ram, who had just returned from the US. The full-fledged service allows users to make and receive calls from their cellular handsets to any other cellular phone, or any other land phone within the city or anywhere else in the world via the normal STD and ISD routes. According to Sunil B. Mittal, chairman and managing director of Bharti Cellular Ltd., AirTel will not charge its subscribers any air time until October 23. "This is to give subscribers some time to familiarize with the system. Meanwhile, we will also activate additional cell sites to enhance our coverage and service quality." In addition, AirTel has announced a 40 percent reduction in air time charges after October 23 for all incoming calls. AirTel has also signed roaming agreement with the cellular services licensees in Calcutta, Bombay and Madras, and also France, Mauritius, UK, and La Reunion Island. AirTel is a consortium of companies comprising Bharti Telecom, Compagnie Generale Des Eaux of France, Emtel Ltd. of Mauritius, and Mobile Systems International of UK. The company also has a technological alliance with Ericsson of Sweden. Essar Cellphone, the second licencee for Cellular service in Delhi, is also readying its operations for the launch soon. (C. T. Mahabharat/19951017) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 10/17/95 TELECOM Motorola India Pagers for Europe (NEWS)(TELECOM)(DEL)(00020) Motorola India Pagers for Europe 10/17/95 NEW DELHI, INDIA, 1995 OCT 17 (NB) -- Motorola's paging manufacturing facility at Bangalore in India is likely to export pagers into Europe for the first time, under the "Made in India" label, revealed Dr. Percey P. Batlivala, executive director, India Paging, Motorola. He further added that the company wants to promote the Made in India label abroad to prove that Indian goods are in no way inferior in quality. "We also plan to raise the indigenized content in our pagers soon, to bring down their cost and also to encourage the Indian component industry," he said. The $17 million facility at Bangalore has the capacity to manufacture about one million pagers per annum, but the Indian public is not aware of this value-added service, felt Batlivala. To create more awareness, Motorola plans to launch a sales-cum-education campaign. "Motorola sees India as the next explosive market for our paging products after China," Batlivala said. Quoting a recent study, he added that India was projected to have over 23 million paging subscribers by 1999, making it one of the top five Asia-Pacific markets, with a more-than 100 percent annual growth. (C. T. Mahabharat/19951017) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 10/17/95 BROADCAST India - Odyssey Satellite Venture Scouts For Partner (NEWS)(BROADCAST)(DEL)(00021) India - Odyssey Satellite Venture Scouts For Partner 10/17/95 NEW DELHI, INDIA, 1995 OCT 17 (NB) -- Odyssey Telecommunications International Inc., a joint venture between TRW and Teleglobe, unveiled Odyssey, a satellite-based wireless cellular telecommunications system in India. The companies said they are scouting for a "strategic Indian partner." "We are looking for a potential Indian partner who can provide and distribute our services in India. However, we understand the requirements and magnitude of the Indian market and are in the process of developing an appropriate business strategy for India," said John Feneley, director, international development and regulatory affairs of Odyssey. "We are in touch with a few major Indian companies and will finalize the Indian partner soon," he said, adding that the purpose of a current visit was to hold a road show to demonstrate Odyssey's capabilities of cheaper and reliable communication services in even far-flung areas. The new system will offer electronic messaging services, electronic mail, call-waiting, besides other services, linking the technology of satellites to a small, pocket-size telephone. India is among the markets that will be benefited by this system. Other countries include: China, Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia and countries in Africa, Latin America and in the Middle East. R. Bruce Gerding, managing director, Odyssey Telecommunications, said the company planned to launch the first satellite-based communications system in 1998, with the help of just 12 satellites, "compared to 66 satellites planned by Motorola's Iridium project." Odyssey's global system of mobile phones would be in place by 1999, he said, adding that the total cost of the project had been estimated at $2.5 billion. Explaining the working of Odyssey, he said the satellite-based mobile communication system would combine the reach of satellites with the personal access of individual pocket phones and the utility of fixed wireless stations. Odyssey consists of a constellation of 12 medium-earth orbit satellites providing simultaneous, multi-regional service to users around the world. The configuration ensures that at least two satellites will be "in sight" at all the times, providing flexibility and reliability of satellite coverage and services. (C. T. Mahabharat/19951017) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 10/17/95 BUSINESS HK's Jardine Gobbles Up SystemPro (NEWS)(BUSINESS)(HKG)(00022) HK's Jardine Gobbles Up SystemPro 10/17/95 CENTRAL, HONG KONG, 1995 OCT 17 (NB) -- In a series of secretive moves, Hong Kong's Jardine Office Systems (JOS) acquired SystemPro last week, although staff weren't given the bombshell until late last night. Toward evening, System Pro GM Michael Wang waved aside inquiries from Newsbytes' affiliate publication I.T. Daily with a "no comment." He suggested the man to reach was SystemPro Chairman Roger King. Senior executives of both companies were locked in meetings yesterday. I.T. Daily understands JOS purchased only the Hong Kong arm of SystemPro. That's not small beer -- the buyout puts JOS firmly in first place in Hong Kong's crowded PC reselling market. It also gives it SystemPro's Unix and networking businesses. The deal is expected to come as a blow to SystemPro staff. In Hong Kong's fast maturing market, and with uncertainty over 1997 slowing IT investments to a crawl, staffers have been doggedly trying to build up PC sales over the past three years. Chairman King, who also heads up Orient Overseas Container Lines (OOCL), is understood to be unhappy with the business. While profitable under him, and founder-MD Paul Mak, its performance has been less than stellar recently and King was said to be keen to either lose or list the company. King is expected to hold on to parent firm Oriental Data Systems to concentrate on expanding its China activities. It's unclear where this leaves Paul Mak. (Nigel Armstrong & I.T. Daily/19951018) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 10/17/95 TELECOM Nortel Gets $200M China Contract (NEWS)(TELECOM)(HKG)(00023) Nortel Gets $200M China Contract 10/17/95 CENTRAL, HONG KONG, 1995 OCT 17 (NB) -- Canada's Northern Telecom, or Nortel, as they're calling it, has established a new subsidiary in China. And just as the firm announced its new Chinese-registered company, a status rarely granted, officials announced they'd won a new US$200 million contract. Guangdong-Nortel Telecommunications Switching Equipment Ltd., signed an agreement to supply 2.5 million lines of switching gear over the next two years, thanks to financing by the Bank of China and Canada's Export Development Corp. The company now has over five and half million lines installed or on order in China. Earlier this month, Nortel had won a US$14.5 million contract to supply a fiber radio system to China National Postal & Telecommunications Appliances Corp. (Nigel Armstrong & I.T. Daily/19951018) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 10/17/95 IBM IBM Rolls Power Personal Systems Into RS/6000 Unit (NEWS)(IBM)(TOR)(00024) IBM Rolls Power Personal Systems Into RS/6000 Unit 10/17/95 SOMERS, NEW YORK, U.S.A., 1995 OCT 17 (NB) -- IBM (NYSE:IBM) has quietly closed up its Power Personal Systems operation, consolidating it with the RISC System/6000 division. This means all IBM hardware built on PowerPC chips -- including PowerPC-based systems in the company's personal computer line -- will now come from the RS/6000 unit. IBM spokeswoman Madeline Mansfield told Newsbytes the Power Personal Systems unit had accomplished the mission for which it was created by bringing PowerPC-based systems to market. "We decided to leverage those investments across other parts of our business," she said. IBM seemed eager to downplay the change. The company did not announce the move publicly, though it told employees last week. Mansfield said IBM regarded the closure of the Power Personal Systems operation as a matter of "internal plumbing." No IBM jobs will be lost and nobody will have to relocate as a result of the reorganization, Mansfield said, since PowerPC systems manufacturing is already in Austin, Texas, where RS/6000 systems are also built, and the marketing operations of both groups are in Somers, New York. "It's really just a matter of some people now have new managers," she said. PowerPC-based personal computers will continue to be sold through the IBM Personal Computer Co.'s distribution channels, Mansfield said, but now they will also be sold through the RS/6000 division's channels. One IBM official who asked not to be named told Newsbytes the move was logical and expected if not overdue. "As an IBMer I always wondered why it existed to begin with," he said. "It seemed like a bit of a redundancy." He likened the move to IBM's earlier decision to make its Power Parallel Systems operation part of the RS/6000 division. (Grant Buckler/19951017/Press Contact: Madeline Mansfield, IBM, 919-543-0530; Alison Johnson, IBM, 914-766-3457) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 10/17/95 ONLINE ****Internet Update (NEWS)(ONLINE)(TYO)(00025) ****Internet Update 10/17/95 TOKYO, JAPAN, 1995 OCT 17 (NB) -- In this roundup of new services and resources on the global Internet: coming solar eclipse data available, Nobel prize database, live from the stratosphere, Quark debuts site, Polaroid develops pages, used computer trading, computer communications e-book, Dutch newspaper database, Gaelic on the net, European parallel computer center, new on Usenet. Coming Solar Eclipse Data Available Next week, on October 24, a total solar eclipse will take place viewable across southern Asia from Afghanistan to Vietnam, and over Borneo and the Celebes. The eclipse will be observed from earth orbit by the Japanese spacecraft Yohkoh. NASA's Solar Data Analysis Center is now offering maps, observation tips and climate figures. World Wide Web: http://umbra.nascom.nasa.gov/eclipse/951024/rp.html Nobel Prize Database The Nobel Foundation, responsible for the awarding of the famous Nobel prizes, have set up a Web server to offer up-to-the-minute information on award winners and the foundation. Since the site went live on October 5th, the site has received over 115,000 hits and is registering more everyday. In addition to the main site, the information is mirrored at seven SunSITEs worldwide. World Wide Web: http://www.nobel.se/ Live From The Stratosphere Throughout October Internet users can connect with NASA's Kuiper Airborne Observatory (KAO) at 41,000 feet above the earth's surface. The observatory is studying planets, stars and galaxies with its infrared telescope. During missions, the station is beaming back live video to NASA which is making the feed available on the Internet in addition to a two way audio link to the station. World Wide Web: http://quest.arc.nasa.gov/livefrom/stratosphere.html Quark Debuts Site Quark, Inc., has established a home page on the World Wide Web. In addition to news about forthcoming software packages, the pages feature worldwide contact details for Quark offices and technical support plus a user file area with updates and patches. A technical library and company news section are also available and the entire site is keyword searchable. World Wide Web: http://www.quark.com/ Polaroid Develops Pages Polaroid Corporation has opened a server on the Internet featuring mainly corporate data and sales information. A history of the company is supplemented by the latest news releases and a product catalog. Of interest to photography enthusiasts is the Creative Uses magazine with how-to articles on new creative ways to use instant photography. World Wide Web: http://www.polaroid.com/ Used Computer Trading The new Used Computer Mall contains listings and links to hundreds of dealers that buy, sell, trade, service and supply parts for used computer equipment. The dealers are listed by brand and type of equipment they sell, and alphabetically. Full contact details for each dealer are also listed enabling visitors quick contact. World Wide Web: http://www.usedcomputer.com/ Computer Communications E-book Everything you ever wanted to know about computer communications but were afraid to ask! The Modem Workshop is a shareware electronic book available for DOS and Windows platforms that explains the ins and outs of computer communications hardware and software. World Wide Web: http://turnpike.net/emporium/C/celestial/mod.html Dutch Newspaper Database For the next three months the Nederlandse Pers Databank (Dutch Press Database) is available via the Internet. The NPD covers around 20 national, regional and business newspapers in the Netherlands. The test allows a full text search of the entire database in the Dutch language. World Wide Web: The address is: http://www.twinfo.nl:8002/npd Gaelic On The Net The old language of Gaelic is alive and well on the Internet! BBC Scotland's Gaelic language programming unit, which still produces broadcasts in the old language of Scotland, has opened a Web site with information about the programs and links to audio and video files in English and Gaelic. World Wide Web: http://www.smo.uhi.ac.uk/bbcalba/ European Parallel Computer Center The European Center for Parallel Computation at Vienna has just announced its new Web site. The center, funded by the European Union, as a part of the EU's ESPRIT research and development programs in the area of Information Technology, was established this year and offers information about the hardware and software at the center, activities under way and details of services offered and how to get an account. World Wide Web: http://www.vcpc.univie.ac.at/ New On Usenet The following Usenet newsgroups have recently passed the voting procedure and should begin appearing on news-servers soon: soc.atheism.moderated, talk.atheism, news.admin.censorship, soc.support.depression, rec.music.artists.debbie-gibson, rec.music.iranian, soc.culture.jewish.parenting, sci.med.midwifery (Martyn Williams/19951017) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 10/17/95 BUSINESS ****Networks Everywhere, Says Compaq Boss Following Record 3Q (NEWS)(BUSINESS)(DEN)(00026) ****Networks Everywhere, Says Compaq Boss Following Record 3Q 10/17/95 HOUSTON, TEXAS, U.S.A., 1995 OCT 17 (NB) -- There will be networked PC servers "in nearly every office, manufacturing facility, store, school and home" by the end of the decade, according to Eckhard Pfeiffer, president and chief executive officer of Compaq Computer Corp. (NYSE: CPQ). Pfeiffer made his prediction during his keynote speech at Innovate Forum 95, a three-day Compaq-sponsored event, following a record third quarter in which Compaq increased sales by 27 percent to $3.6 billion for the period. The period ended September 30, 1995. Pfeiffer told Innovate Forum 95 attendees the boundaries between private and public networks and between personal and corporate computing, as well as between the computer and the network, will dissolve as we head towards the 21st Century. "Wherever you may be, with whatever kind of device you have, the network will adapt to your level of interest and to the capabilities of your device," said the Compaq boss. Pfeiffer also predicted the evolution of a new distributed enterprise computing model in which "corporations would run their businesses using an array of hundreds, even thousands, of specialized application servers: mail messaging servers, gateway servers, decision support servers, video and Internet servers." Pfeiffer said a key to his envisioned new wave of computing is a paradigm shift from expensive, proprietary computers to powerful and secure servers based on an industry standard, a move he said will provide corporations with affordable computers able to handle the applications critical to their businesses. Earlier this week Newsbytes reported on new Compaq servers and support programs aimed at strengthening Compaq's position in the enterprise computing market. The company claims about 40 percent of the PC server and superserver market, citing International Data Corp. figures. Compaq shareholder earnings per share for the third quarter rose 19 percent to $0.89 per share compared to $0.75 for the same period last year. Pfeiffer said strong product demand led to the record sales. The company introduced several new products during the third quarter, including the LTE 5000, a Pentium-based notebook. It also hired Michael Heil, a former top executive with Sony and Los Angeles Cellular Telephone Company, as its general manager of the Consumer Products Division and recruited Michael Winkler, formerly with Toshiba, as general manager of Compaq's Portables Division. Winkler reports for duty November 6. (Jim Mallory/19951017/Press contact: Mike Berman, Compaq, 713-514-0484; Public contact: Compaq, 800-345-1518) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 10/17/95 TELECOM Norway - NERA Acquires Continental Microwave Technology (NEWS)(TELECOM)(LON)(00027) Norway - NERA Acquires Continental Microwave Technology 10/17/95 BERGEN, NORWAY, 1995 OCT 17 (NB) -- Nera, the Norwegian telecoms company, has announced plans to buy Spectra-Physics AB's UK subsidiary, Continental Microwave Technology Limited (CMTL) for UKP 7.4 million. According to Nera, the acquisition will allow the company to gain an instant foothold in the British telecoms market, as well as boosting Nera's overall market share in the UK, and allowing Nera to offer CTML's products on a pan-European basis. Announcing the acquisition plan, Asbjorn Birkeland, president of Nera AS, said that the deal will increase the company's research and development (R&D) resources. "The acquisition will reinforce Nera's position in a rapidly expanding market and enable the company to increase its market share over the next two to three years. The acquisition will also establish a center of expertise comprising our own products and our own manufacturing within the EU (European Union)," he said. Nera's success to date in Europe has been based on microwave equipment for long distance transmissions, operating at low frequencies, and over the last few years, the company claims it has become an important provider of high capacity equipment, which provides signalling equipment capable of supporting up to 2,000 telephone communications at the same time. Birkeland claims that the acquisition offers Nera considerable opportunities on the R&D front. Birkeland claims that the company is one of the market leaders in the world telecoms market and the link-up with CTML's R&D operation will assist the company in the development of the next generation of high capacity radio link equipment. The technology currently being researched by CTML is expected to become actual products within the next two to three years. CTML, Newsbytes notes, is based in Luton, a town some 30 miles north of London. The company was established in 1989 and current has around 90 staff. (Sylvia Dennis/19951017/Press Contact: Susan Rizello, The Rowland Company +44-171-436-4060; Fax +44-171-255-2131; Internet Email: susanr@rowland.mhs.compuserve.com; Reader Contact: Nera +47-55-225100; Fax +47-225299) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 10/17/95 PC Dell Intros New Optiplex Line, Server (NEWS)(PC)(DEN)(00028) Dell Intros New Optiplex Line, Server 10/17/95 AUSTIN, TEXAS, U.S.A., 1995 OCT 17 (NB) -- Dell Computer Corp. (NASDAQ: DELL) has launched 24 new PC models, including the entire Dell Optiplex GX family. The company also announced faster versions of its recently introduced OPtiplex G line and a new server. #IMAGE 1 20 TWPCX \images\95101728.PCX Click here for photo Dell said the Optiplex systems are designed for corporate and government accounts including users who need high performance graphics. Dell spokesperson Bill Robbins said the Optiplex G's are the first corporate network-ready multimedia PCs built from the ground up for networking and multimedia applications. The use of MPEG (Motion Picture Experts Group) video and a board level video controller that improves and increases throughput both enhance performance of the new Optiplex GX, Robbins told Newsbytes. Dell said the Optiplex GX systems are available equipped with 90 megahertz (MHz), 100MHz, 120MHz and 133MHz Pentium chips, with prices starting at $2,095. The basic configuration includes a slimline chassis, eight megabytes (MB) of RAM (random access memory) memory, 2MB of video memory, a 256-kilobyte pipeline burst cache, a 540MB hard drive, a high-resolution color monitor, a mouse and Microsoft Windows for Workgroups 3.11 or Windows 95 installed. You also get a 3COM Etherlink III connection which uses 3Com's Parallel Tasking technology that enables your PC to send and receive data simultaneously on the network. The systems also include Creative Labs SoundBlaster Vibra 16 audio, and an optional Imagine video board provides 4MB of video memory and 128-bit video. The Optiplex G line, which debuted in August of this year, now includes 90-, 100-, 120- and 133MHz-based systems using Pentium chips. The price range for the "G" line starts at $2,300 and the units are configured with 8MB of memory, a mouse, a 540MB hard drive, high-resolution color monitor, and Windows for Workgroups or Windows 95. The 3Com Etherlink III is an option across the "G" line. (Jim Mallory/19951017/Press contact:Dean Kline, Dell Computer, 512-728-4100; Public contact: Dell Computer, 512-23804400/OPTI-G951017/PHOTO) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 10/17/95 TELECOM AT&T, Sprint Lead Telecom Customer Satisfaction - Study (NEWS)(TELECOM)(MSP)(00029) AT&T, Sprint Lead Telecom Customer Satisfaction - Study 10/17/95 AGOURA HILLS, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1995 OCT 17 (NB) -- Conventional, mainstream residential long-distance users prefer AT&T, while so-called "power users" like Sprint, according to J.D. Power and Associates. The company has released a new study focusing on customer satisfaction among consumers and their residential long distance telecommunications providers. The study also found that heavy users are more prone to jump companies if the offerings are greener on the other side of the phone line. In fact, 25 percent of heavy users have switched carriers in the past twelve months, almost double the rate of mainstream users. Zaiba Nanji of J.D. Power and Associates says that Sprint did well among heavy users because of the company's sensitivity to cost factors. Mainstream users represent 82 percent of US households, the survey showed. But heavy users account for more than 50 percent of residential long distance dollars, making them a "highly desirable" segment for long distance carriers. AT&T did well with the mainstream customers because "a lot of these households grew up with AT&T," Nanji said. J.D. Power researchers define heavy users as those who spend an average of $50 or more each month on long distance calls, while mainstream users spend less than $50. The survey is based on a nationally representative sample of more than 3,000 AT&T, MCI, and Sprint customers who evaluated their carriers on more than 30 areas of customer satisfaction. The study showed that cost of service is the most important aspect of customer satisfaction to long distance dialers, followed by quality assurance, customer communication, and having operators on duty. J.D. Power and Associates said Sprint ranks high among heavy users because of cost of service, which includes competitive pricing and "honesty/no gimmicks" in its business dealings. With mainstream long distance users, AT&T did well primarily in the areas of quality assurance, with it's strong reputation, and customer communications, and the company's efficient operators, J.D. Power officials said. Nanji said this study is a syndicated one, meaning J.D. Power and Associates sponsored the survey on its own. Mainly known for its automotive surveys, the company also conducts studies for individual companies, as well as other syndicated research projects for business segments like airlines. (Bob Woods/19951017/Press Contact: Patricia A. Patano, J.D. Power & Assoc., 8187-889-6330) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 10/17/95 WINDOWS Open Market Intros "Secure" Web Storefront (NEWS)(WINDOWS)(BOS)(00030) Open Market Intros "Secure" Web Storefront 10/17/95 CAMBRIDGE, MASSACHUSETTS, U.S.A., 1995 OCT 17 (NB) -- Probably within the next six months, and certainly over the next year, Open Market will introduce a fifth component to Merchant Solution, its new turnkey package for creating "self-hosted" storefronts and managing "secure" electronic transactions over the Web, revealed Cliff Utstein, director of commerce products, in an interview with Newsbytes. Utstein told Newsbytes that, unlike competing Web offerings, Open Market's newly announced "first product for electronic commerce" allows users to build their own Web storefronts, without the need to write "complicated" CGI (Common Gateway Interface) scripts to run on top of HTTP on secure Web servers. Open Market's modular Merchant Solution package initially consists of two existing products from Open Market -- Secure Web Server and the Web Reporter reporting tool -- together with the newly added Store Builder and Transaction Link components. Web Reporter provides customers with reports on "customer browsing patterns," according to Utstein. Store Builder is an "easy to use" HTML (hypertext markup language)-based application for building online stores from PCs running Windows. Transaction Link connects the Unix-based Secure Web Server and its "front office" contents to Open Market's Integrated Commerce Service, for "back office customer support and transaction management services," Newsbytes was told. The Integrated Commerce Service, which currently resides at Open Market, carries out functions that include electronic order-taking, credit card authorization, and "automatic computation of sales taxes for all 50 states," Utstein reported. The new Merchant Solution system also employs new URLs known as the "digital offer" and the "digital receipt," he added. "The digital offer is a URL containing the parameters of everything you're buying. After you've paid for the merchandise, you get a digital receipt." The digital receipt is also used for automated online delivery of software purchases from the merchant's server, and to track shipments of hard good purchases, he maintained. Also under the new Open Market model, users can "collect" goods from multiple Web sites in "customer shopping carts," permitting them to consolidate all their Web-based purchases into a single electronic transaction, Utstein said. Open Market, he noted, will add support for new methods of electronic payment "as they emerge and become standards." Open Market has already announced a deal that calls for support of the Cybercash system. Other methods of payment that might be supported include SEPP (Secure Electronic Payment Protocol) and STT (Secure Transaction Technology), he illustrated. In addition, within the next year, the company plans to move its back office Integrated Commerce Services component to the Secure Web Server, for on premises WebMaster control over electronic transactions, divulged the Open Market exec. Open Market will preview Merchant Solution at Internetworld show in Boston at the end of this month. The new turnkey electronic commerce system for the Web will become generally available in early November for Digital Unix, Solaris, SunOS (operating system), HP/UX, AIX, and BSDI, according to Utstein. (Jacqueline Emigh/19951017/Reader Contact: Open Market, 617-621- 9500; Press Contacts: Wendy Ziner, Open Market, 617-374-6508; Dawn Geary, Schwartz Communications for Open Market, 617-431-0770) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 10/17/95 LEGAL British Law Lord Discovers That Portable PCs Are Too Portable (NEWS)(LEGAL)(LON)(00031) British Law Lord Discovers That Portable PCs Are Too Portable 10/17/95 LONDON, ENGLAND, 1995 OCT 17 (NB) -- Lord Steyn of Warfield, formerly known as Mr Justice Steyn, has had his laptop PC stolen from his offices in the House of Lords in London. Police are treating the theft as routine, but several portables have gone missing recently and the possibility that the data on the machine, rather than the hardware itself, was targeted, has not been ruled out. According to Superintendent Bob Wood, deputy head of security for the Palace of Westminster, the theft occurred last Wednesday, but has now been made public in the hope that the portable can be recovered. The machine, ironically, was a replacement for an early portable owned by Lord Steyn that was stolen earlier this year. Superintendent Wood told journalists that small items such as notebook computers have a habit of being stolen in the Palace, and despite their value, fall into the category of petty pilfering. Wood said that, although security is tight at Westminster, the problem is that the Palace can never be totally secure, owing to the large numbers of MPs (Member of Parliament) walking around. "We are constantly walking a tightrope... the public wants to come in and see Members," he explained. Wood also said that the notebook PC may not have been stolen. "Very frequently we find that allegations of theft are not theft at all," he explained. The disappearance of Lord Steyn's notebook PC is being taken seriously as it may have parallels with the case of David Farquhar, a senior RAF (Royal Air Force) officer who, in 1991, had his portable computer stolen from his car. The computer, which was later returned after a Government appeal, contained secrets from the Gulf War which was taking place at the time. The case, which did more to encourage portable PC users to use encryption systems on their machines, involved the theft of a notebook PC from Farquhar's car around a month before the Allied attack on Bagdhad. (Steve Gold/19951017) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 10/17/95 BUSINESS Olivetti Announces Backed Cash Call In Recovery Plan (NEWS)(BUSINESS)(LON)(00032) Olivetti Announces Backed Cash Call In Recovery Plan 10/17/95 MILAN, ITALY, 1995 OCT 17 (NB) -- Olivetti has announced that a consortium of eight banks, including Mediobanca, have backed its recent cash call, with an offer of $1.4 billion in loans to support the troubled computer and electronics giant. The availability of the loan facility will allow Olivetti's shareholders to breathe a sigh of relief, as the company had announced its intention to relaunch itself with an ambitious and potentially expensive media campaign. Some reports had suggested that the company was considering spinning off its various divisions, including the computer operation, as an alternative method of raising cash. The eight banks involved in the backup deal -- Banca Comerciale Italiana, Credito Italiano, Banca di Roma, San Paolo, IMI, Banca Nazionale di Lavoro, Mediobanca and Banco di Napoli -- could end up having to loan the full amount to Olivetti, as the Italian electronics giant may need this level of cash infusion to get itself back on its feet. Under the restructuring plan, Olivetti plans to lay off around 4,000 staff over the next year, as a way to stem its losses. Recently, the troubled Italian company reported losses of around $115 million for the first six months of this year. Interestingly, Olivetti has ruled out the possibility that shareholders may be called upon for a cash call. Only a month ago, company Chairman Carlo de Benedetti had suggested that a cash call -- the second in two years -- was looking inevitable. The eight banks were originally expected to offer a $925 million loan deal, but the $1.4 billion arrangement may now be enough to curtail plans for a second shareholder cash call. As reported by Newsbytes last month, Olivetti plans to shave around 4,000 staff from its global payroll. Roughly half of the staff cuts will affect the company's operations in Italy, while the other 50 percent will outside of Italy in its international operations. The financial deals come just as Olivetti has launched its range of Echos 75 and 90 megahertz (MHz) Pentium-based notebooks. The range consists of three models, the P75, the P90 and the P90S, with a choice of different processors and video displays, including the first 11.8- inch SVGA display screen. The Echos range are based on PCI (Peripheral Component Interconnect) technology and start from UKP 2,199 in the UK. This price gets users a P75 with 520 megabyte (MB) removable hard disk and a 10.4-inch color screen. Pricing on the new machines rises to UKP 3,879 for a 90MHz Pentium machine with 1.2-gigabyte (GB) hard disk. (Sylvia Dennis/19951017/Press Contact: Luciano Luffarelli, Olivetti, +39-125-522566) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 10/17/95 ONLINE ****Six Newspapers Announce Internet Job Listings (NEWS)(ONLINE)(MSP)(00033) ****Six Newspapers Announce Internet Job Listings 10/17/95 CHICAGO, ILLINOIS, U.S.A., 1995 OCT 17 (NB) -- A national interactive employment service based on the Internet's World Wide Web is being started by six of the US's largest newspapers. Called "CareerPath.com," the new site is billed as having the most comprehensive listing of jobs on the Internet. The six newspapers, where the job database will be drawn from, are The Boston Globe, The Chicago Tribune, The Los Angeles Times, The New York Times, The San Jose Mercury News, and The Washington Post. CareerPath.com is located on the Web at http://www.careerpath.com/ . "We believe (the Web site) will make job hunting easier and more efficient," said Timothy J. Landen, vice president and director of marketing and development for the Chicago Tribune. He made his remarks during a news teleconference, which Newsbytes attended. Landen said CareerPath.com makes it easier for people to look for work around the country, without having to leaf through newspapers from across the nation. "For example, an employee in Chicago who wants to re-locate to San Jose or Los Angeles can have immediate, real-time access to all the job listings in the San Jose Mercury News and the Los Angeles Times." The same is true of companies looking for qualified workers around the country, Landen added. Future plans call for advertisers to place job listings directly and exclusively on CareerPath.com, without buying a print ad. Each newspaper will set its own pricing for both inclusion of print ads on the Web site, along with "Internet-only" ads. For job seekers, features like a resume data base, employer/job seeker matching services, company profiles, and "alerts" when a job opportunity comes on the market that matches a profile, are planned. The new Web site will also coordinate with the New Century Network (NCN), an Internet content development and distribution company founded by nine major media companies, including the parent corporations of the newspapers in the CareerPath.com venture. NCN and CareerPath.com will develop a marketing and distribution approach that will make the site attractive for other newspapers to participate in the Web site. Job seekers are expected to come from both direct Internet accounts and through online services like Compuserve and Prodigy, Landen said, using any kind of browser. When Newsbytes surfed to the site, the content stated CareerPath.com is "Lynx-friendly," meaning it would work with text-based browsers. It also said the site works best with Netscape, and Newsbytes did notice several features of the site that are specific to Netscape and the latest versions of other browsers, including Microsoft Explorer and Spyglass Mosaic. Landen said he doesn't expect the Web site to make any money for the newspapers involved. But he does anticipate significant revenues in the long-term. (Bob Woods/19951017/Press Contacts: Jeff Bierig, Chicago Tribune, 312- 222-3920; Laura Morgan, Los Angeles Times, 213-237-4715; Nancy Nielsen, The New York Times and The Boston Globe, 212-556-7078; San Jose Mercury News, 408-920-5990; Guyon Knight, The Washington Post, 202-334-6642) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 10/17/95 BUSINESS Remote Access Seminar Goes On The Road (NEWS)(BUSINESS)(DEN)(00034) Remote Access Seminar Goes On The Road 10/17/95 ST LOUIS, MISSOURI, U.S.A., 1995 OCT 17 (NB) -- Wave Technologies International Inc., kicks off its second round of Local Area Network/Remote Access Methods seminars in San Jose, California on November 14, 1995 with a program titled "Remote Access: Delivering Distance On Demand." The one-day show moves on to Los Angeles; Reston, Virginia; New York; Chicago; Dallas and Atlanta between then and December 18th. John Walter, vice president of Wave's custom solutions group, said the seminar series is part of a continuing program called Connections that was launched last year in 13 cities. Wave spokesperson Marjorie Pingel told Newsbytes another series with a different topic will probably be presented in the spring. Steve Seyer, Wave's senior telecom trainer and a major developer of the company's training programs, will be the presenter and also co-developed the presentation. Seyer will conduct live demonstrations of multiple remote access products from Lotus cc:Mail Division, US Robotics, Digi International, Citrix and Digital Pathways during the seminar. Most of the vendors are expected to have representatives on hand to answer questions about their equipment. Walter said the seminars try to avoid being a sales presentation and lean towards the informative. While the demonstrations aren't hands-on for every participant most will have the opportunity to try out some of the equipment, Walter told Newsbytes. The company said key topics of this fall's program will include "Remote Access Security," "Improving Online Efficiency," and "Cost-effective Remote Access Methods through Integrated Services Digital Networks." Pingel said the seminar costs $295 and recommends early registration. The company said the seminar is recommended for technical managers who design and deploy connectivity solutions, network administrators and business managers interested in telecommuting. (Jim Mallory/19951017/Press contact: Marjorie Pingel, Wave Technologies, 314-692-1910; Public contact: Wave Technologies, 800-994-5767 for general information or 800-828-2050 for seminar info or registration) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 10/17/95 PEN ****HP On The Go With OmniGo - New Organizer (NEWS)(PEN)(SFO)(00035) ****HP On The Go With OmniGo - New Organizer 10/17/95 PALO ALTO, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1995 OCT 17 (NB) -- Hewlett- Packard (NYSE:HWP) has introduced OmniGo 100 as an affordable handheld organizer with pen and keyboard input for under $350. The software operating system was developed by Geoworks (NASDAQ:GWRX), the well-known developer of hand-held computer operating systems. OmniGo 100 is designed for mobile business professionals who want a feature-rich hand-held device but do not need sophisticated applications such as Lotus 1-2-3 or CC:Mail which are found in the HP 200LX. HP says the real impact of OmniGo 100 is its expected street price of $349. "We found the business community is open to hand-held devices, but our studies show many users are not willing to pay $500 to $700 for small portable device. The features of OmniGo are the same as some other more expensive devices, but then it provides additional features such as its horizontal and vertical display modes which allow easy pen input for longer messages," said Larry Sennett, spokesperson for HP. Continuing, Sennett said, "high-end hand-held computing devices like our 200LX have been very successful with customers who need full applications like Lotus 1-2-3 and have the device supplied by their company. The OmniGo 100 is designed for those on-the-go business users who have to pay for the computer out of their own budgets." OmniGo 100 offers business and financial productivity features including Graffiti handwriting recognition, drawing capability, HP spreadsheet and financial tools for computing cash flow, loan payments, currency conversions, percentages and margins, a notepad, calendar, address and appointment book and other features. A 360-degree rotatable hinge allows the case to fold-over completely and permits the user to take notes as if the device were a standard writing pad. One megabyte (MB) of RAM is standard with the device and a Type II PC Card (PCMCIA) slot allows users to add extended storage and other services. A serial port allows the device to connect to printers and desktop PCs. A number of additional applications for OmniGo 100 are available from third-party developers. Intuit's Pocket Quicken is available free to purchasers of the new device. Notable Technologies offers Septor, a financial information service and WyndMAIL from Wynd Communications offers a two-way wireless messaging service which integrates e-mail, pager and phone messages along with wireless faxing. HP and Geoworks are offering HP OmniGo 100 Clip & Go and HP OmniGo 100 Strategy Games as additional applications for the new device. Clip & Go allows users to transfer data between Windows-based PCs and OmniGo 100 (price: $69.95). Strategy Games is a collection of six brain-teasers selling for $49.95. With 3MB of RAM, OmniGo 100 weighs 11.6 ounces. It is powered by two AA batteries and one lithium backup battery. HP says OmniGo 100 should appear in many computer hardware outlets by the first of November. Later this year, HP says SkyTel's two-way, wireless messaging service will be available to users of OmniGo 100. (Patrick McKenna/19951017/Press Contact: Larry Sennett, HP, tel 408- 553--2916/HP951017/PHOTO) (SUMMARY)(GENERAL)(MSP)(00036) Newsbytes Daily Summary 10/17/95 MINNEAPOLIS, MINNESOTA, U.S.A., 1995 OCT 17 (NB) -- These are capsules of all today's news stories: ======================================================================== ------------| N E W S B Y T E S D A I L Y S U M M A R Y |---------- ------------| Tuesday, October 17, 1995 |---------- ======================================================================== (c) Newsbytes News Network (Tm) Editor in Chief: Wendy Woods ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Newsbytes News Network's 1995 Update CD-ROM for Mac, DOS, and Windows is now available for $29.95 (includes s&h). Contains 1983-1995 news stories, more than 64,000 keyword searchable stories and 475 digitized images. For more information or to order, fax to 612-430-0441 or e-mail to 'administrator@newsbytes.com' -- MC, Visa, Amex accepted. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ CATEGORY HEADLINES (*** indicates today's top stories) STORY # ======================================================================== BROADCAST Japan Set To Become Next Satellite Battleground............ 17 BROADCAST India - Odyssey Satellite Venture Scouts For Partner....... 21 BUSINESS Australia - Osborne Becomes Gateway........................ 05 BUSINESS HK's Jardine Gobbles Up SystemPro.......................... 22 BUSINESS ****Networks Everywhere, Says Compaq Boss Following Record 26 BUSINESS Olivetti Announces Backed Cash Call In Recovery Plan....... 32 BUSINESS Remote Access Seminar Goes On The Road..................... 34 GENERAL Australian News Briefs..................................... 03 GENERAL Taiwanese UKP 199 Mini-Fax, Scanner, Copier Device......... 09 IBM IBM Rolls Power Personal Systems Into RS/6000 Unit......... 24 LEGAL BSA Raids Bangkok Software Outlets......................... 11 LEGAL British Law Lord Discovers That Portable PCs Are Too Portab 31 ONLINE World's First Interactive Banking Net Launched............. 07 ONLINE Add - Web Address For Cable TV's Travel Channel............ 14 ONLINE ****Internet Update....................................... 25 ONLINE ****Six Newspapers Announce Internet Job Listings......... 33 PC Zenith Data System's New Pentium Desktops, Notebooks....... 01 PC Compaq Launches New Server Line............................ 02 PC Dell Intros New Optiplex Line, Server...................... 28 PEN ****HP On The Go With OmniGo - New Organizer.............. 35 TELECOM HK Telecom Blood-letting Could Chop 3,000.................. 06 TELECOM Thai-Canadian Satellite Venture For Laos................... 12 TELECOM ICN International To Open Thai Subsidiary.................. 13 TELECOM ****Sprint Records Record 3Q Results...................... 16 TELECOM Liazon Gets Canada's 1st Nationwide Narrowband PCS License. 18 TELECOM India - Airtel Debuts Cellular Service..................... 19 TELECOM Motorola India Pagers for Europe........................... 20 TELECOM Nortel Gets $200M China Contract........................... 23 TELECOM Norway - NERA Acquires Continental Microwave Technology.... 27 TELECOM AT&T, Sprint Lead Telecom Customer Satisfaction - Study.... 29 TRENDS Australian PC Shipments Strong............................. 04 TRENDS Technology Fails To Deliver Greater Leisure Says Report.... 08 UNIX China - Unix-like System Software Developed................ 15 WINDOWS Microsoft Misses Release Date For Thai Windows 95.......... 10 WINDOWS Open Market Intros "Secure" Web Storefront................. 30 ======================================================================== These are the headlines and first paragraphs of each story, in order: 1 -> Zenith Data System's New Pentium Desktops, Notebooks -- Furthering its penetration into the Pentium market, Zenith Data Systems (ZDS) is introducing new high and mid-range notebook computers, along with high-end desktop models. One of the new notebook models, the Z-Note GT, will have what the company bills as the largest thin film transistor (TFT) active-matrix screen currently available in notebooks. 2 -> Compaq Launches New Server Line -- Compaq Computer Corp. (NYSE: CPQ) has announced three new midrange servers and some processor upgrade boards for ProLiant and ProSignia models. 3 -> Australian News Briefs -- In this roundup of news from Australia, a Cray for Melbourne, Madge Australia gets new manager, legislators use laptops, man charged with stealing credit card records, one million Australians online, India roadshow hits Australia. 4 -> Australian PC Shipments Strong -- IDC predicts that precisely 1,328,249 PCs will be sold in Australia in 1995, resulting in a AUS$3,615 million spent by Australian buyers, and $3,042 million in vendor revenues. 5 -> Australia - Osborne Becomes Gateway -- Osborne's troubles earlier this year, and the fact that the new Osborne Gateway 2000 is still off the Federal Government's endorsed supplier list, may lead to a reshuffled top five when figures for the whole year are available. 6 -> HK Telecom Blood-letting Could Chop 3,000 -- Peter Howell-Davies' snap departure should have come as a warning. Blood-letting in Hongkong Telecom's top ranks is on the cards again, and word is that a further 3,000 employees could be dumped in the next two years. 7 -> World's First Interactive Banking Net Launched -- The Bankers Network (TBN) has launched an online virtual private network (VPN) using the Internet for banks and other financial institutions worldwide. The aim of the service, which costs $100 per terminal per month linked into the VPN, regardless of where in the world the terminal is situated, is to offer sensibly priced financial services information to the global banking community. 8 -> Technology Fails To Deliver Greater Leisure Says Report -- According to a report issued by Motorola, people in Britain are working harder today than they were five years ago, despite the promise that IT (information technology) would herald a new age of leisure. 9 -> Taiwanese UKP 199 Mini-Fax, Scanner, Copier Device -- Plustek Electronics, a Taiwanese electronics manufacturer, has launched the Pagereader, a UKP 199 multi-function scanner/copier/fax system into Europe. The unit interfaces with a host PC and comes as a "black box" roughly the same size as a desktop stapler. 10 -> Microsoft Misses Release Date For Thai Windows 95 -- Microsoft failed to complete its localization of the Thai-language version of Windows 95 in time for the official launch October 12 and was giving away 3,000 copies of its beta version instead to mark an exhibition arranged in conjunction with the event. 11 -> BSA Raids Bangkok Software Outlets -- Acting on information provided by the Business Software Alliance (BSA), the Economic Crime Investigation Division conducted raids on four shops in the largest cluster of computer hardware and software outlets at Pantip Plaza recently. 12 -> Thai-Canadian Satellite Venture For Laos -- Telesat Canada has signed a contract in Geneva with Asia Broadcasting and Communications Network Company Limited (ABCN) for a range of consulting and management services on its planned satellite venture to be launched in cooperation with the Government of Lao PDR. 13 -> ICN International To Open Thai Subsidiary -- A new company to address modern telecommunications systems and high-speed networks formally made its debut last week when Executive Chairman of ICN International Rex L. Benning introduced ICN Data (Thailand) in conjunction with a seminar on groupware, Internet systems and new networking concepts. 14 -> Add - Web Address For Cable TV's Travel Channel -- In an article entitled "Cable TV's Travel Channel On The Web," from October 12, Newsbytes left out the URL (uniform resource locator) of the new Internet World Wide Web site. The Travel Channel is located at http://www.travelchannel.com/ . 15 -> China - Unix-like System Software Developed -- China's first computer system software, COSA (China Open System Alliance), recently got approval from the Ministry of Electronics Industry (MEI). COSA was developed by China Software and Service Corp (CS&S), the country's largest domestic supplier, and 18 key universities and research organizations. 16 -> Sprint Records Record 3Q Results -- Sprint Inc. (NYSE:FON) reported record results for the third quarter of this year. Net income increased almost 17 percent for the year overall to $269 million, and operating income rose almost 16 percent to $544 million from a year ago. 17 -> Japan Set To Become Next Satellite Battleground -- Hughes Electronics Corp. Chairman Michael Armstrong said in Tokyo yesterday that his company hopes to begin offering a localized version of the US DirecTV service in Japan in 1997. The planned service will compete against a similar digital TV package due to launch next year and, coupled with a recent relaxation of broadcasting laws, will make Japan the next battleground in an international quest to win the world's television viewers. 18 -> Liazon Gets Canada's 1st Nationwide Narrowband PCS License -- Liazon Communications Solutions Inc., a subsidiary of long-distance reseller Upper Canada Communications Group Inc., is the first company to receive a license for narrowband personal communications services (PCS) in Canada and the first to offer North American coverage through an alliance with a PCS carrier in the United States. 19 -> India - Airtel Debuts Cellular Service -- Delhi's first and India's second cellular mobile phone service became operational when Bharti Cellular Ltd.'s AirTel launched its service. The first cellular service was launched in Calcutta by Modi Telstra Ltd. a couple of months ago. 20 -> Motorola India Pagers for Europe -- Motorola's paging manufacturing facility at Bangalore in India is likely to export pagers into Europe for the first time, under the "Made in India" label, revealed Dr. Percey P. Batlivala, executive director, India Paging, Motorola. He further added that the company wants to promote the Made in India label abroad to prove that Indian goods are in no way inferior in quality. 21 -> India - Odyssey Satellite Venture Scouts For Partner -- Odyssey Telecommunications International Inc., a joint venture between TRW and Teleglobe, unveiled Odyssey, a satellite-based wireless cellular telecommunications system in India. The companies said they are scouting for a "strategic Indian partner." 22 -> HK's Jardine Gobbles Up SystemPro -- In a series of secretive moves, Hong Kong's Jardine Office Systems (JOS) acquired SystemPro last week, although staff weren't given the bombshell until late last night. 23 -> Nortel Gets $200M China Contract -- Canada's Northern Telecom, or Nortel, as they're calling it, has established a new subsidiary in China. And just as the firm announced its new Chinese-registered company, a status rarely granted, officials announced they'd won a new US$200 million contract. 24 -> IBM Rolls Power Personal Systems Into RS/6000 Unit -- IBM (NYSE:IBM) has quietly closed up its Power Personal Systems operation, consolidating it with the RISC System/6000 division. This means all IBM hardware built on PowerPC chips 25 -> ****Internet Update -- In this roundup of new services and resources on the global Internet: coming solar eclipse data available, Nobel prize database, live from the stratosphere, Quark debuts site, Polaroid develops pages, used computer trading, computer communications e-book, Dutch newspaper database, Gaelic on the net, European parallel computer center, new on Usenet. 26 -> ****Networks Everywhere, Says Compaq Boss Following Record 3Q -- There will be networked PC servers "in nearly every office, manufacturing facility, store, school and home" by the end of the decade, according to Eckhard Pfeiffer, president and chief executive officer of Compaq Computer Corp. (NYSE: CPQ). Pfeiffer made his prediction during his keynote speech at Innovate Forum 95, a three-day Compaq-sponsored event, following a record third quarter in which Compaq increased sales by 27 percent to $3.6 billion for the period. 27 -> Norway - NERA Acquires Continental Microwave Technology -- Nera, the Norwegian telecoms company, has announced plans to buy Spectra-Physics AB's UK subsidiary, Continental Microwave Technology Limited (CMTL) for UKP 7.4 million. 28 -> Dell Intros New Optiplex Line, Server -- Dell Computer Corp. (NASDAQ: DELL) has launched 24 new PC models, including the entire Dell Optiplex GX family. The company also announced faster versions of its recently introduced OPtiplex G line and a new server. 29 -> AT&T, Sprint Lead Telecom Customer Satisfaction - Study -- Conventional, mainstream residential long-distance users prefer AT&T, while so-called "power users" like Sprint, according to J.D. Power and Associates. The company has released a new study focusing on customer satisfaction among consumers and their residential long distance telecommunications providers. 30 -> Open Market Intros "Secure" Web Storefront -- Probably within the next six months, and certainly over the next year, Open Market will introduce a fifth component to Merchant Solution, its new turnkey package for creating "self-hosted" storefronts and managing "secure" electronic transactions over the Web, revealed Cliff Utstein, director of commerce products, in an interview with Newsbytes. 31 -> British Law Lord Discovers That Portable PCs Are Too Portable -- Lord Steyn of Warfield, formerly known as Mr Justice Steyn, has had his laptop PC stolen from his offices in the House of Lords in London. Police are treating the theft as routine, but several portables have gone missing recently and the possibility that the data on the machine, rather than the hardware itself, was targeted, has not been ruled out. 32 -> Olivetti Announces Backed Cash Call In Recovery Plan -- Olivetti has announced that a consortium of eight banks, including Mediobanca, have backed its recent cash call, with an offer of $1.4 billion in loans to support the troubled computer and electronics giant. The availability of the loan facility will allow Olivetti's shareholders to breathe a sigh of relief, as the company had announced its intention to relaunch itself with an ambitious and potentially expensive media campaign. 33 -> ****Six Newspapers Announce Internet Job Listings -- A national interactive employment service based on the Internet's World Wide Web is being started by six of the US's largest newspapers. Called "CareerPath.com," the new site is billed as having the most comprehensive listing of jobs on the Internet. 34 -> Remote Access Seminar Goes On The Road -- Wave Technologies International Inc., kicks off its second round of Local Area Network/Remote Access Methods seminars in San Jose, California on November 14, 1995 with a program titled "Remote Access: Delivering Distance On Demand." The one-day show moves on to Los Angeles; Reston, Virginia; New York; Chicago; Dallas and Atlanta between then and December 18th. 35 -> HP On The Go With OmniGo - New Organizer -- Hewlett- Packard (NYSE:HWP) has introduced OmniGo 100 as an affordable handheld organizer with pen and keyboard input for under $350. The software operating system was developed by Geoworks (NASDAQ:GWRX), the well-known developer of hand-held computer operating systems. (Wendy Woods/19951017) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 10/16/95 LEGAL Hong Kong - Injunctions Extended By High Court (NEWS)(LEGAL)(HKG)(00001) Hong Kong - Injunctions Extended By High Court 10/16/95 CENTRAL, HONG KONG, 1995 OCT 16 (NB) -- In Hong Kong, the Business Software Alliance (BSA) has won extensions on all original 22 ex parte injunctions served against software vendors operating in the notorious Golden Arcade Shopping Centre in Hong Kong's Shamshuipo district. None of the temporary stop orders was contested, quickening the decision that makes them permanent. The ruling, made by Justice Rogers recently, dramatically ups the ante in the BSA's continuing war on the vendors alleged to be selling pirated goods. Over and above risking being charged with selling stolen intellectual property, the 22 vendors now risk contempt of court charges -- which carry still higher fines and possible imprisonment -- if they try going back into business. In related news, when the BSA officials visited the Golden Arcade recently to oversee the serving of another round of ex parte injunctions, they reportedly found shops -- just raided by Customs officers hours earlier -- back in business. (Nigel Armstrong & I.T. Daily/19951016) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 10/16/95 TRENDS Mixed Results For Apple Cost Study (NEWS)(TRENDS)(LAX)(00002) Mixed Results For Apple Cost Study 10/16/95 CUPERTINO, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1995 OCT 16 (NB) -- A survey of technical support costs for corporate computing just completed by the Gartner Group Consulting has found no additional costs for companies supporting dual platform computing (Apple Macintosh and Windows-based PCs) versus the cost of supporting Windows alone. The research was conducted in the first half of 1995, prior to the public release of Windows 95. The report entitled "Technical Support Costs in Dual-Platform Computing Environments: Managing Diversity," analyzes data collected from a broad range of United States companies. It analyzed companies with varying mixes of Macintosh (up to and including the Mac operating system (OS) version 7.5.1) and Windows-based desktops (up to and including Microsoft Windows version 3.11). The research does not include data on Windows 95. The report's main conclusion is that, contrary to some opinions, companies with a mix of Macintosh and Windows have no increased costs. When asked by Newsbytes if the addition of Windows 95 would change this conclusion, Mike Gartenberg, research director for Gartner, said, "Preliminary research indicates that the addition of Windows 95 seems not to affect the main conclusion regarding a corporate mix of Macs and Windows" "This report contains a large amount of significant data for information systems (IS) managers looking to reduce the cost of their computing resources," said Dr. H. Walter Johnson, Gartner Group vice president of Consulting Services, and author of the study. "And the major conclusion is that, while conventional wisdom might suggest that standardization on a single platform would lower technical support expenses, there is no premium associated with supporting both Macintosh and Windows." Gartner did have some bad news for Apple. Their research concludes that, for the first time since they have compiled the total cost of ownership for the competing systems, Apple was not the leader. Gartnenberg points out, "Our current research indicates that Windows NT, Windows 95, and Macintosh have almost identical cost of ownership for corporate buyers. Windows 3.1 is still far behind, but this is the first time Macintosh has not been the leader by itself." (Richard Bowers/19951013/Press Contact: Keith Toleman, Apple Computer Inc., 408-974-4104) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 10/16/95 ONLINE America Online Adds Health Area (NEWS)(ONLINE)(MSP)(00003) America Online Adds Health Area 10/16/95 VIENNA, VIRGINIA, U.S.A., 1995 OCT 16 (NB) -- America Online Inc. (NASDAQ:AMER) has created a new Health Area to provide information and resources on healthcare, fitness, "well-being," and diseases to the service's members. The new health area is home to more than 30 community forums, spanning a variety of topics and special interest groups from AIDS to women's health. Easy-to-access sites on the Internet's World Wide Web, message boards, chat rooms, software libraries, and information from national voluntary health organizations are also in the area. Health Responsability System's Better Health & Medical Forum is also a part of the new health area. Margaret Ryan, AOL spokesperson, told Newsbytes that the Forum has been on AOL since 1993, and is also a "Greenhouse" partner. The forum offers a home medical guide, along with information about men's, women's, and children's health. Details about various addictions and alternative medicine are also available in the Forum. The Greenhouse partner program is designed to help so-called "infopreneurs" in creating unique online content and interactive services for both AOL and the Internet. The National Library of Medicine's "Medline" is also a part of the new health area, accessible through the Better Health & Medical Forum. Medline is the world's leading bibliographic database of medical information, AOL officials said. "It's the first time this database has been available online to consumers," Ryan said. "We're expanding the health area, in addition to the Better Health & Medical Forum," Ryan said. Other features are on the way, she added. Health content can also be accessed from magazines, including Elle, Scientific American, Bicycling Online, Consumer Reports, Woman's Day, and later this month, Health Magazine. Also, later this month, AOL members will have access to Merriam-Webster's Medical Dictionary and a drug reference handbook. AOL subscribers can reach the new area by entering the keyword: Health. (Bob Woods/19951013/Press Contact: Margaret Ryan, America Online, 703-883-1625; Public Contact: America Online, 800-827-6364) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 10/16/95 ONLINE Internet Access Via Teletext Offered (NEWS)(ONLINE)(TYO)(00004) Internet Access Via Teletext Offered 10/16/95 STOCKHOLM, SWEDEN, 1995 OCT 16 (NB) -- Sweden's Infral AB has developed a system that allows television companies to offer viewers the ability to send and receive electronic-mail and "surf" the World Wide Web via the channel's teletext service. Teletext is an information service broadcast by the majority of television channels in Europe. It sends data in several unused lines in the VBI (vertical blanking interval) space of a TV picture frame. A teletext decoder, now standard inside most sets, allows viewers access to the service which typically features news, sports, weather, TV guides, and advertisements. All pages are transmitted in sequence and users typically wait a few seconds to see requested pages. The system was launched at the IBC (International Broadcasting Conference) in Amsterdam recently and allows users to interact with the normally one-way service by tapping in number combinations into telephone keypads linked to the system across the telephone network. At the launch, Michael Ghneim, managing director of Infral AB, said, "Broadcasters the world over have been anticipating the day when the fun and interactivity of Internet browsing could be brought to traditional television. That day has arrived, and, as a bonus, broadcasters, and broadcasters alone, can now offer consumers the excitement of the World Wide Web and e-mail without the costs of a personal computer modem, and without any monthly fees to an Internet service provider." Although the signal from the Internet is carried across a TV channel to the viewer, at no additional cost to the user, the link into the service is across a telephone line which would typically be a premium rate line as a way of paying for the service. The total cost of the service looks likely to deter most users though. For e-mail, users will type in messages by entering two-digit codes for each letter, for example, A is 1,0 and B is 1,1. This will make typing out even moderately short e-mail messages a long job, which will translate to a high cost on premium rate telephone lines. The complete system can handle up to a million e-mail boxes. Infral AB is commercializing the system with Interactive Television AB (ITV). ITV's Magnus Granqvist, a product manager for the system, told Newsbytes that all TV networks need is an Internet connection and a computer running the Unix operating system. "The only thing viewers need is a touch-tone telephone and teletext TV and access to the TV station that offers the service." Responding to comments about the possible cost of the system to the user, Granqvist said, "It's for people that are interested in the Internet for light use." ITV is part of the Modern Times Group, previously known as Kinnevik -- one of Scandinavia's largest media companies. Modern Times operates the TV3, TV1000, ZTV, and TV6 television channels, and P6 Radio, in addition to owning Metro, Pa TV, Z Magazine, City Nytt, and Moderna Tider magazines. With such a media organization behind it, it is no surprise where the system will first appear. Renqvist added, "We launched it on TV3 Sweden. We have two services on TV3, one to send and receive e-mail, and one to send faxes." Both operate on premium rate telephone lines. Renqvist said interest was high, "We had a lot of interest (at IBC). This is an interactive service that can be offered today. We are doing as much as technology allows today. Most interest has come from Europe, but we have also had inquiries from Saudi Arabia and South Korea." (Martyn Williams/19951013/Press contact: Magnus Granqvist, Interactive Television, tel +46-8-462-2499, fax +46-8-462-9922, Internet e-mail intv@intv.se; Per Leine, Infral AB, +46-8-722-7304) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 10/16/95 ONLINE Austrian Bank Customers Discover Phone Banking (NEWS)(ONLINE)(LON)(00005) Austrian Bank Customers Discover Phone Banking 10/16/95 VIENNA, AUSTRIA, 1995 OCT 16 (NB) -- After two years of promoting their telephone banking services, Austrian banks are reporting that their services are being taken seriously by customers, and that sign-ups are now "on target." Three main banks in Austria -- Bank Austria, Creditanstalt Bankverein, and Oesterreichische Postsparkasse (PSK) -- all report that their telephone banking services are now acknowledged as a usual adjunct and even a replacement to existing personal banking services. Plans now call for the banks to expand their range of telephone services beyond the current balance, transaction queries and changes, to standing order instructions. According to Creditanstalt Bank, customers' initial fears about the security of the services offered have proven to be ill-founded, and customers are now accepting that telephone banking is an extension of existing face-to-face banking. Interestingly, while all three banks offer phone banking services to their customers, Creditanstalt is the only one of the trio to use computerized voice recognition systems as an interface to the customer, and to identify them. As in the US, Bank Austria and PSK use human operators to fulfill this function. Bank Austria claims to be heading the fledgling Austrian phone banking market with around 50,000 customers on the service. Meanwhile, Creditanstalt claims around half that figure, while PSK has just half that figure again, at 12,500 customers. The take-up of phone banking is in stark contrast to the UK, where services have taken off extraordinarily, Newsbytes notes. First Direct, the pioneer in the UK, having been on the market for six years, now reports it has around quarter of million customers and expects that to rise to a half a million by the end of the decade. (Sylvia Dennis/19951013/Press & Reader Contact: Bank Austria, +43-1-711910; Creditanstalt Bankverein, +43-1-531310) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 10/16/95 GOVT British Police Use Voice-Mail For Mobile Comms (NEWS)(GOVT)(LON)(00006) British Police Use Voice-Mail For Mobile Comms 10/16/95 FLEET, HAMPSHIRE, ENGLAND, 1995 OCT 16 (NB) -- The Staffordshire police force has contracted with Octel for the supply of 5,000 voice mail-boxes for use by police officers, the media, and the general public. According to Octel, the deal is worth around UKP60,000 and has allowed the Midlands police force to improve its rural policing, increase the information flow to the media, provide a confidential and anonymous service for witnesses to report crime incidents, and generally increase police time "on the beat." The aim of using a voice-mail system is to replace the force's disparate collection of answerphones. The force claims to take around 35,000 calls a week from the public, many of which can be handled by the Octel system, which will free up the 2,215 police officers to do their job. According to Superintendent Phil Lovell, unit leader with Staffordshire's Information Technology unit, voice messaging will help to increase the force's ability to convey information to officers on the beat. "In many rural areas, for example, it is becoming increasingly difficult to justify officers traveling to their main police stations for briefings. However, with voice messaging, police officers do not need to visit the station, they simply call into the mailbox to receive briefings -- which allows them more time on the beat," he explained. Lovell went on to explain that voice messaging also allows the public to leave or obtain information from the force on special dedicated voice-mail phone lines. "Now witnesses, the press, or anyone with a query concerning employment opportunities, for example, can call a specially designated information line or mailbox -- and that also means that officers and civilian staff can concentrate on core business," he said. Commenting on the deal, Mike Persky, Octel's marketing director, said that rising crime and growing concern about law and order has put the police forces in the UK under the microscope. "Minimal budget increases mean that forces have to be more and more innovative and creative -- stretching those funds to combat crime in the most practical way. Clearly technology can play a key role in getting more policemen back on the street -- Staffordshire's use of voice messaging is a perfect demonstration of this," he said. Staffordshire police force is staffed by 2,215 officers and 900 civilian support staff. The division polices more than a million people across nine districts spanning both rural and urban areas, including 72 kilometers of freeway and part of the Peak District National Park. (Sylvia Dennis/19951013/Press Contact: Jon Carter, Firefly Communication, +44-171-381-4505, Internet e-mail jcarter@firefly.co.uk; Reader Contact: Octel Communications, tel +44-1252-303000, fax +44-1252-303033) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 10/16/95 TRENDS UK Internet Surfers Want To Buy British - Survey (NEWS)(TRENDS)(LON)(00007) UK Internet Surfers Want To Buy British - Survey 10/16/95 SHEPTON MALLET, SOMERSET, ENGLAND, 1995 OCT 16 (NB) -- "I'm backing Britain" and "Buy British" used to be buzzwords of the late 1970s. Now UK Online, ironically the Italian Olivetti-backed UK consumer online service, is resurrecting the ideas, claiming that independent research shows that the majority of UK families would rather subscribe to a British online service. The survey, which was carried out by UK Online, claims to show that 64 percent of British families would prefer to receive their online services from a British-based company, rather than the variety of US online service providers. According to Jennifer Perry, a spokeswoman for UK Online, unlike other online services, all UK Online subscribers are from the UK. All products, shopping, information, and editorial is aimed specifically at a UK audience, so creating a "community of online services." The survey also claims to show that around 70 percent of parents worry about their kids having access to adult material on the Internet. The overwhelming majority -- 93 percent -- claimed they would prefer to have some parental control over what their kids find in cyberspace. Around half were also worried that "going online" may interfere in their homework from school. Over half of British families feel that boys and girls are equally likely to benefit from online computer services. However, 21 percent of respondents still felt that boys were more likely to benefit than the three percent who thought that girls would benefit the most. Interestingly, Perry told Newsbytes that UK Online's research had found that price was not as major an issue to modem users. Referring to Compuserve's recent introduction of a budget Internet account in the US, which offers an account plus three hours of usage a month, in return for $4.95 monthly, she said that reliability and ease of access were the main concerns. "The availability of local calls also has a lot to do with people's choice of online service provider," she said, adding this feature is one that UK Online has implemented across most of the UK. One interesting statistic that came out of UK Online's research is that more than 75 percent of the UK population have access to the UK Online services -- and the Internet services -- for the price of a local call. Seventy-nine percent of respondents in the study were unaware that electronic-mail messages could be sent anywhere in the world, via the Internet, for the price of a local call. UK Online's family membership currently costs UKP14.99 per month for up to four e-mail addresses, as well as unlimited access to the service. A personal account costs UKP9.99 monthly and offers up to 10 hours of access per month. Existing users of the Internet can gain Weband telnet accounts on UK Online for UKP4.99 per month. Further details of UK Online can be found on the company's Web pages, which are located at http://www.ukonline.co.uk . (Steve Gold/19951013/Press Contact: Caraline Brown, Midnight Communications, tel +44-1273-709977, fax +44-1273-709966, Internet e-mail caraline.midnight@ukonline.co.uk; Reader Contact: UK Online, tel +44-1749-333313, fax +44-1749-344977) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 10/16/95 NETWORK Bosch's Wavelength Division Multiplexing Technology (NEWS)(NETWORK)(LON)(00008) Bosch's Wavelength Division Multiplexing Technology 10/16/95 UXBRIDGE, MIDDLESEX, ENGLAND, 1995 OCT 16 (NB) -- Everyone talks about fiber optic as the universal panacea to network congestion problems, but even fiber optic has its limits. Now Bosch claims that it has the answer to even this problem with its Wavelength Division Multiplex (WDM) technology, which it claims can squeeze four 2.5 gigabits-per- second (Gbps) channels onto one single mode fiber. The technology, which was demonstrated at Telecom 95 in Geneva earlier this month, is still in its early stages, although it should be available to fiber optic and network vendors in its current technology release. According to Bosch, the restriction to four wavelengths on to one is no principal limitation, because in future, the company claims, it will be feasible to increase this number to 32 or even more. Nick Spencer, a spokesman for Bosch, told Newsbytes that, despite the newness of the fiber optical data compression system, the system is available immediately to Bosch customers who install the company's optical fiber systems. "Prices depend on the systems that customers elect to install," he explained. Existing fiber optic transmission systems are single-channel systems, Newsbytes notes. They tend to use single wavelength light (1,300 or 1,550 nanometers) as the main carrier, with a maximum transmission speed of 2.5 Gbps, with regenerators spaced at between 40 and 80 kilometers (km). If optical amplifiers are used, this spacing rises to 160km. The WDM technology, meanwhile, consists of wavelength transponders, an optical transmitter, and an optical receiver. The wavelength transponders convert the wavelength of an input signal into the wavelength of the third optical window required for transmission. The wavelengths of the four simultaneously transmitted signals are only a few nanometers apart. An optical coupler in the transmitter assembles the four light signals whose wavelengths have been suitable converted and injects them into the optical fiber. In the receiver, an optical amplifier amplifies the in-bound light signals before they are separated by optical filters into independent single light waves, which are sent down four separate transmission paths. To keep the whole show on the road, network management functions are taken over by a special optical supervisory channel. This has a bit rate of 2.048 megabits-per-second and up to 32 subchannels, each of 64,000 bits-per-second. These channels can be used for many different supervisory functions, discrete to each optical channel, if required. (Steve Gold/19951013/Press Contact: Arc Communications, +44-1344-873445; Reader Contact: Robert Bosch, +44-1895-834466) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 10/16/95 ONLINE The Shade Family - An Internet Clan (NEWS)(ONLINE)(MSP)(00009) The Shade Family - An Internet Clan 10/16/95 APPLE VALLEY, MINNESOTA, U.S.A., 1995 OCT 16 (NB) -- The Shade family claims to be one that "Webs together." The fact that each member of the clan has his or her own Internet World Wide Web pages (except for their cats) seems to support their claim to electronic fame. Each family members' site focuses on an interest or a business they're interested in. Heather, almost six years old, looks at the holidays, specifically focusing on the scary day of Halloween. Jason is into things with scales and that slither, so his site focuses on snakes and reptiles. Mom Susan has a thriving Avon business going, so guess what her page focuses on. And Dad Gary runs a bulletin board system (BBS) and his "Shades Landing" Web design firm, which is what his site is all about. Heather, who Gary thinks is the youngest administrator on the Internet with a full site, told Newsbytes her site is the first one she's designed (with Dad doing all of the hypertext markup language, or HTML, coding). She said she learned about the Web from watching her family members work it, especially her brother. One feature of her site, the "Halloween Wall," lists what kids will be wearing for Halloween this year, from the electronic-mail she has received. Son Jason is 13 years old, and has combined his two favorite hobbies, snakes and the Web, into one information-filled site. He said he got involved in the Web after an unsuccessful search for information about snakes in the traditional forms of reference material. "So my dad told me to go on the Internet, and there was information on there. So I thought it would be neat to have information on my own." Besides information on snakes and things reptilian, Jason's page features hotlinks to related sources. He's even signed up a paying sponsor, which is helping fill his college fund. Jason is also stashing away the cash to pay for a notebook computer. Both of the kids have received accolades through both the traditional and the cyberspace-based media. Gary said Heather's page was judged "Best of the Web" and "Featured Site of the Week" earlier this month, and was listed in USA Today's cyberspace listing earlier this week. Jason's site was featured on WCCO TV, Minneapolis, and in the Minnesota Sun Publications. In addition, Jason has just inked an agreement with Knowledge Media. The company will include content from Jason's page on its new Virtual Web CD-ROM, Gary said. The Shade clan's kids like to get e-mail, Gary said. In fact, they average about four to five e-mails a day, with as many as 30 coming in on some days. Susan's Avon page does well, too, both in accesses and e-mail volume. But Susan said Avon is making her take the ordering capabilities off the Web, "because it is against their policy to sell over the Internet." She'll continue to recruit and take catalog requests via cyberspace, though. Dad Gary said his family has taken well to Web design, sometimes spending an hour a day either surfing the Web for research or for Web design. He sees the Internet as a focal point for families in the future, similar to the roles television and radio have played in the past. "It's a big paradigm shift in not just one area, technology, but in the way we market our services, and how we look at the world in general. I think it's going to affect things a lot." "Watching Heather get all excited when she gets e-mail, or when Jason talks to teachers about snakes, it's a lot of fun," he said. Heather's Happy Holidaze page is located at http://www.shadeslanding.com/hms/ , but Heather says you have to be a kid to enter the site. Jason's Snakes and Reptiles is at http://www.shadeslanding.com/jas/ . The Avon by Susan page, minus the order form, is at http://www.shadeslanding.com/avon.htm . And the main page by Pop Gary, featuring his "Shade's Landing" Web development firm, can be accessed at http://www.shadeslanding.com/ . All family members can be e-mailed directly from each of their sites. Judging by their Web pages, along with their attitudes towards both the Web and each other, it can safely be said that "The family that Webs together, stays together." (Bob Woods/19951013/Press Contact: Gary Shade, Shade's Landing, 612-891-1537, Internet e-mail gary.shade@shadeslanding.com) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 10/16/95 NETWORK SilCom Claims ATM Speeds With Wireless Link (NEWS)(NETWORK)(TOR)(00010) SilCom Claims ATM Speeds With Wireless Link 10/16/95 TORONTO, ONTARIO, CANADA, 1995 OCT 16 (NB) -- SilCom Technology Inc. has launched an inter-building wireless network link into the North American market that the company said can move data at speeds as high as 155 megabits-per-second (Mbps) -- the speed of asynchronous transfer mode (ATM) technology. SilCom's new Freespace Turbo, which uses infrared transmission, is a follow-on to the company's 10Mbps Freespace product, launched in May. Mike Parker, president of SilCom's sister company Freebird Communications Ltd., which designed Freespace Turbo, said probably about 80 percent of the market for such wireless links continues to be Ethernet-oriented, but "as time goes on" there will be more demand for higher-speed connections. The advantages of a wireless link over an optical fiber or leased T1 line include the fact that it can be installed faster, especially if the connection must cross public land such as a city street, and the fact that the equipment can easily be moved to another site later. If a company digs a trench to install fiber and then moves a year later, he pointed out, "you've lost the investment." As for T1 lines, Parker said the cost mounts up more than many people realize, since there are ongoing costs and a T1-to-Ethernet bridge will usually be needed. SilCom will be selling FreeSpace Turbo for US$18,995 or C$26,195. Though many people think of wireless links as slower than conventional wired connections, Parker said the infrared technology used in Freespace is capable of higher speeds than the spread-spectrum radio technology often found in wireless local area networks (LANs). Infrared does require a direct line-of-sight and works over a relatively short range, making it best suited for links between nearby buildings. Parker also said bad weather can interfere with transmission to a degree, but claimed that the average statistical availability of Freespace Turbo is about 99.9 percent. Freespace Turbo is due to be available late in November. Parker also told Newsbytes that SilCom will also launch this fall Freespace Lite, which will be designed for a range of no more than 300 feet and support only Ethernet, Freespace Tradewinds, which will be aimed at regions with relatively good weather, and Freespace Skyvoice, with integrated support for Ethernet and as many as four T1 lines. Both SilCom and Freebird Communications are subsidiaries of Microvitec plc of Bradford, England. (Grant Buckler/19951012/Press Contact: Brad Casemore, SilCom, tel 905-238-8822, fax 905-238-1887) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 10/16/95 BROADCAST Putting GPS On The Consumer Map (NEWS)(BROADCAST)(MSP)(00011) Putting GPS On The Consumer Map 10/16/95 SEATTLE, WASHINGTON, U.S.A., 1995 OCT 16 (NB) -- If Sirf Technology Inc.'s optimistic predictions come to fruition, today's $1,000 consumer global positioning systems will become $500 products sometime next year, reports Junko Yoshida in Electronic Engineering Times ("GPS in consumer orbit," Aug. 21, 1995, pp. 25, 28). Sirf, a 15-person Santa Clara, California, company, aims to bring GPS navigation devices to the mass market by redesigning the entire system architecture for consumer GPS and developing a low-cost GPS chip-set that can be embedded in car navigation systems, portable computers, personal communicators, and wristwatches, the author says. Yoshida points out, however, that Sirf's plans are based on a key assumption: that the US Department of Defense will continue to provide accurate GPS data for free. "Now, the Air Force's 24-satellite network provides GPS data accurate to less than five meters -- but only for the military," Yoshida writes. "For commercial use, that information is scrambled, downgrading its accuracy to 100 meters. And that could reduce the value of GPS systems." Yoshida also notes that "GPS data will become useful to consumers only when it is linked with digital mapping, which suffers from a lack of standardization." For background information on GPS and the overhaul of commercial aircraft navigation systems, turn to, "A second revolution for air navigation and landing," in the August, 1995, Aerospace America (pp. 18-20, 27). "We are entering an era in which the thousands of ground-based navigation aids installed since WW II will be replaced by a much smaller number of ground sites plus a constellation of 24 global positioning system (GPS) navigation satellites and several communications satellites," writes author Theodore R. Simpson. "Not surprisingly, the most challenging aspect of this new service for aircraft will be its use during precision approaches and landings under poor visibility conditions." And for a look at how GPS data can be displayed on car stereo displays, consult Computer Design's "Dick Tracy watches bring mobile messaging home" (Alex Mendelsohn, Aug. 1995, pp. 34-38). The piece covers Seiko Communications of America's ACTTIVE (Advanced Communications and Timekeeping Technology) system which allows GPS, paging, and news information to be piggybacked onto existing commercial FM stereo broadcasts. The data can be received by special car stereos and by Seiko's $80 MessageWatch (the watch can't receive the GPS data, but it can receive weather, financial, sports, voice-mail, and electronic-mail alerts). The short article describes trials underway in Los Angeles, Seattle, and Portland, and notes that IBM, Delco Electronics, the University of Washington, and Etak are participating in the project. Also coming to a stereo display near you is RBDS (radio broadcasting data system), a technology that enables FM radio stations to transmit messages -- such as station call letters, song titles, or advertisements -- via an FM subcarrier to a digital display on specially equipped home and car stereos. According to a short item in Broadcasting & Cable, the Electronic Industries Association plans to make the service available to 86% percent of the country's FM station listeners by March, 1996 ("RBDS shoots for top 25 markets by spring," by Donna Petrozzello, July 17, 1995, p. 51). While Denon Electronics has been selling the RBDS-compatible receivers since 1991, the article notes, models are also available from Delco Electronics Corp. in GM cars and JVC Electronics in Europe. This story is republished with permission from the October 1995 Cybernautics Digest, a 20-page monthly summary of reports about converging information technologies. (Contact: Terry Hansen, Cybernautics Digest, c/o KFH Publications Inc., 3530 Bagley Ave. N., Seattle, WA 98103; 206-547-4950; Fax: 206-547-5355; E-mail: cyber@cuix.pscu.com. U.S. rate: $24; $2 sample issue) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 10/16/95 GENERAL Will New Media Be Good For Us? (NEWS)(GENERAL)(MSP)(00012) Will New Media Be Good For Us? 10/16/95 SEATTLE, WASHINGTON, U.S.A., 1995 OCT 16 (NB) -- Promoters often suggest that we'll become better informed as a result of the coming age of interactive multimedia. Not everyone is so sure, however. Jim Willis, Hardin Professor of Journalism at the University of Memphis, inquires into the possible social implications of new-media journalism in "The Age of Multimedia and Turbonews" (The Futurist, Sept./Oct. 1995, pp. 18-22). Willis says the emerging information media may result in less accurate news and make us dumber, instead of smarter. Furthermore, since emerging media are not free, knowledge gaps may develop among social groups with differing levels of income. Citing television analyst Neil Postman, Willis suggests we may need a new educational system to make certain citizens retain critical thinking skills in the face of increasingly slick and manipulative presentations. He says exposure to information overload may result in splintering of the self. Finally, by catering to narrow niches, future media may create a society of special-interest consumers who have little to say to each other. The article is based on his book of the same title. This story is republished with permission from the October 1995 Cybernautics Digest, a 20-page monthly summary of reports about converging information technologies. (Contact: Terry Hansen, Cybernautics Digest, c/o KFH Publications Inc., 3530 Bagley Ave. N., Seattle, WA 98103; 206-547-4950; Fax: 206-547-5355; E-mail: cyber@cuix.pscu.com. U.S. rate: $24; $2 sample issue) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 10/16/95 TRENDS Oregon Hits The High-Tech Recruiting Trail (NEWS)(TRENDS)(DEN)(00013) Oregon Hits The High-Tech Recruiting Trail 10/16/95 MEDFORD, OREGON, U.S.A., 1995 OCT 16 (NB) -- The Oregon Trail was once a route to new opportunities in the west. Now economic development officials in two Southern Oregon counties hope it will soon be the trail to the new locations for small- and medium-sized software development companies tired of lousy weather, few cultural activities, and limited recreational opportunities in their current locations, and have launched an ad campaign to attract them. To attract the software companies, Rogue Valley officials have launched an ad campaign set to run in Dr. Dobbs Journal, a software developer's journal, from December, 1995, through February, 1996, with the theme: "We're wired and ready for business." To fulfill that promise, the area has invested in an infrastructure that includes six Internet pipes, ISDN (integrated services digital network) phone lines, software business information and marketing resources, the Oregon Multimedia Institute, and a host of business development resources. "All that's left for us to do is begin recruiting. This campaign is the logical next step." The Oregon Multimedia Institute is a state lottery-funded economic development project chartered to provide multimedia education and to provide tools for multimedia developers. State lottery funds also paid for an information resource within the Jackson county library system to archive journals, books and information relating to intellectual properties for software developers. The recruiting campaign is being managed by Southern Oregon Regional Economic Development Inc. with the support of the local chapter of the Software Association of Oregon (SAO). It is anchored by tightly-targeted display ads and a home page on the World Wide Web at http://www.opendoor.com/oregon/ which organizers said is designed to attract "net surfers" and provide an online presence for the region's economic development efforts. Like other areas of the country known for their spectacular scenery, the region's developers will also feature famous recreational and cultural attractions on the Web page. According to Rich Berman, a Medford software attorney, "Southern Oregon is not only entrepreneurial heaven, its an outdoor paradise as well." The Rogue Valley boasts a ski resort, six lakes, three rivers, and miles of forest. It also has a Shakespearean festival, Jacksonville's Britt Festival concert season, the local symphony, a state college and three public radio services. A spokesperson for the campaign told Newsbytes the cost of living in the Rogue Valley is considerably less than in California's Silicon Valley. He said a three bedroom, two bath home that might sell for $200,000 in Silicon Valley would sell for about $95,000 in Southern Oregon. The area has an airport and is on the Interstate Highway 5 corridor. Sandra Hogan, executive director of SAO, said software companies offer several advantages to local communities that aren't available to hardware and chip companies. "Software is an easy-to-host, clean industry that provides the highest living wages in Oregon. Additionally, software firms do not need the kind of tax incentives or community giveaways that are frequently involved in relocating hardware manufacturers." The recruiting drive is funded by an $11,000 cash grant and $30,000 in in-kind donations from local businesses. (Jim Mallory/19951013/Press contact: Charles McHenry, McHenry & Associates, 503-772-2382; Public contact: Southern Oregon Regional Economic Development, 800-805-8740, Internet World Wide Web http://www.opendoor.com/oregon/ ) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 10/16/95 ONLINE New Web Site Encourages Family Interneting (NEWS)(ONLINE)(DEN)(00014) New Web Site Encourages Family Interneting 10/16/95 BELLEVUE, WASHINGTON, U.S.A., 1995 OCT 16 (NB) -- Starwave Corp. has launched a new online service on the Internet, called "Family Planet," that the company said includes "expert parenting advice," news, and new ideas and fun activities "for the whole family." #IMAGE 1 20 TWPCX \images\95101614.PCX Click here for photo According to David Grady, publisher of Family Planet, until now the World Wide Web has offered very little content geared to families, and Family Planet fills that void. "Our goal is to make sure we cover the essentials of parenting and go that extra mile to provide fresh new ideas for busy parents," according to Christine Olson, Family Planet editor. Olson said Family Planet also offers expert advice on health, development and other family issues. Family Planet content includes: the Oppenheim Toy Portfolio, a review of toys, books, video, audio tape and software; the Parents' Resource Almanac, a listing of more than 7,000 family resources; the Penny Whistle books; and the Parents' Choice consumer guide to children's toys and media. Starwave said new content is being added daily. The new online service includes the monthly event guides from 17 regional parenting newspapers from across the US so you can find out what events are happening in your area. It also offers daily family-oriented news, movie, and television review and evaluations of, and pointers to, other Web sites that contain "family-oriented" information and activities. Current offerings include Halloween costumes and party ideas, and articles by parenting "experts" Penelope Leach, T. Berry Brazelton, and Marguerite Kelly. Family Planet welcomes questions and answers some of them online. Currently there is a Q&A about the "Daddy track" that addresses the question "Can a man stay home with the young child while the mother works outside the home?" and another on the pros and cons of working versus staying at home with the children. Family Planet online is located at http://family.starwave.com . Starwave's other online offerings include: the ESPNET SportsZone, a sports information service created in collaboration with ESPN; Outside Online, developed with Outside magazine for outdoor enthusiasts; and Mr. Showbiz, which Starwave describes as "an entertainment news and features (electronic) magazine that integrates elements of a daily newspaper, a humor magazine, and a television variety show." The company also produces Ticketmaster Online, a Ticketmaster online service. A Starwave spokesperson told Newsbytes that Internet users should be able to purchase tickets online within the next year or so. (Jim Mallory/19951013/Press contact: Jason Hunke, Waggener Edstrom for Starwave, 206-637-9097; Public contact: Starwave, 206-957-2000/PLANET951016/PHOTO) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 10/16/95 TELECOM UK's MFS Communications Receives ISO Quality Award (NEWS)(TELECOM)(LON)(00015) UK's MFS Communications Receives ISO Quality Award 10/16/95 LONDON, ENGLAND, 1995 OCT 16 (NB) -- MFS Communications, the cable telephony company, has become one of the first telecoms companies to be awarded the British Standard quality assurance standard. According to MFS, this ISO 9002 quality standard certificate will allow customers of the company to "have a high level of confidence" in the services from the firm. According to Micheal Storey, the company's managing director, the accreditation received from the British Standards Institute (BSI), was based on the MFS's "Metro" communications services and took into consideration sales, installation, maintenance of operational facilities, and customer services. After "careful examination," the Commission agreed to issue MFS with the BSI certificate. The awarding of the certificate is made all the more unusual, Newsbytes notes, because the company has only been operating in the UK telecoms market for the last 15 months. According to Storey, the company has highly set quality standards. "We've striven to be a quality organization from the outset. The BSI Certification testifies to the technical effort put into the process of compliance and to the fact that quality is always foremost on the minds of our employees -- an overriding awareness that has always set MFS head and shoulders above its competition," he explained. Storey went on to say that, with the tough competition on the European communications market, the company has established its position by operation of international services in London, Frankfurt, and Paris. MFS has just announced the opening of a new non-facilities based telecoms service in Zurich. Altogether, MFS' subsidiaries now offer various communications services in 47 large cities in America and Europe. Since March of this, the company's fiber optic network in London has been fully operational, and works on the Frankfurt network begun at the same time. In summer of this year, MFS started work to build a fiber optic network in Stockholm, Sweden, and received a license for a new Paris, France-based network in June of this year. (Sylvia Dennis/19951012/Press & Reader Contact: Pat Chapman-Pincher, MFS Communications, +44-171-570-5836) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 10/16/95 TRENDS UK - Low-Cost Security For PCs (NEWS)(TRENDS)(LON)(00016) UK - Low-Cost Security For PCs 10/16/95 LONDON, ENGLAND, 1995 OCT 16 (NB) -- Barracuda Security Devices has unveiled, what the company claims is, the industry's first light- and motion-sensitive security system for computers and peripherals. Known as the Barracuda Security Device (BSD), the UKP70 system protects the PC or its component with a deafening 117 decibel alarm, which also sprays the innards of a computer with an indelible red dye. The dye does not affect the workings of the computer or its peripherals, but clearly IDs the device as a stolen unit to the Police or other interested parties. According to Colin McLean, a founder of Barracuda, this is the first computer alarm with a "bite every bit as bad as its bark." "Faced with a worldwide shortage of computer chips, and the ease with which the chip technology can be interchanged amongst different machines, theft of chips, CPUs (central processing units) and SIMMs (single inline memory modules) is now outstripping theft of computers themselves," he explained. According to McLean, the chip resale value can be anything up to UKP1,000 and, with identifications numbers easily obliterated, once the PCs are stolen, they are almost impossible to trace. McLean claims that the BSD represents a "significant deterrent" to criminal acts. "The alarm will pin-point a stolen computer, wherever it is taken, and the color marking of the components will radically reduce resale value, clearly indicating to a potential buyer that they are handling stolen goods," he said. The BSD system interfaces with a PC using the Windows File Manager. A password enables and disables the unit. If a PC alarm is set off accidentally, providing the system stops moving within 10 seconds, the alarm only fires up. After 10 seconds, the alarm continues to run and the dye spray is triggered. (Sylvia Dennis/19951011/Press Contact: Jo Foster, +44-117-951-3328; Reader Contact: Colin McLean, West Coast Management, +44-1234-713040) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 10/16/95 TRENDS Workflow Technology Is Not A Cure-All - Report (NEWS)(TRENDS)(LON)(00017) Workflow Technology Is Not A Cure-All - Report 10/16/95 LONDON, ENGLAND, 1995 OCT 16 (NB) -- Ovum has issued a new report entitled "Ovum Evaluates: Workflow." Perhaps surprisingly, given the level of enthusiasm the information technology (IT) industry places in workflow, the report concludes that workflow is not the universal panacea that some people think it is. Heather Stark, the lead author of the report, claims that many products differ greatly in their capabilities, and currently available products have some significant limitations. "Workflow is not a cure- all and it is definitely not appropriate for every type of business process," she claimed. According to Stark, the report offers advice to users on whether or not to use workflow, as well as on product selection, and suggests developments to suppliers in order to achieve wider market acceptance of workflow tools. Ian Wesley, one of the co-authors of the report, told Newsbytes that, while workflow was originally sold as a shrink-wrapped software concept, most vendors and users now acknowledge the high degree of customization needed to tailor a system to the needs of a business. "These days, there aren't that many shrink-wrapped packages around, except perhaps at the entry-level point," he explained, adding that there is a lot of misunderstanding surrounding workflow technology in the marketplace. According to Ovum, as is usually the case with any hot buzzword, workflow means different things to different people. The report aims to dispel the confusion by identifying the five key capabilities of workflow systems: matching people and tasks; information resources for tasks; process design; process management; and the scope of a project. These five core competencies of workflow systems are used to evaluate 12 products in detail, using more than 100 functional criteria. In the report, Ovum uses core dimension rating tables that can also be used to evaluate other tools not included in the report, which includes a directory of other suppliers to assist in the selection of a suitable product. The aim of the report, which costs UKP995 in Europe, AUS$2,395 in Australia, and US$1,850 elsewhere in the world, is to put the workflow market in context. According to Ovum's market scenario for the evolution of workflow, the entrance of business applications such as SAP in the workflow market will have a profound effect on the development of the market. By the year 2000, the report claims that users will be spending more than US$7,000 million on workflow-enabled business applications, as opposed to US$1,000 million on general purpose workflow. (Steve Gold/19951012/Press Contact: Jennie Morales, Ovum, +44-171- 312-7258, Internet e-mail jhb@ovum.mhs.compuserve.com; Reader Contact: Ovum, tel +44-171-255-2670, fax +44-171-255-1995, Internet e-mail info@ovum.mhs.compuserve.com) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 10/16/95 ONLINE ****Newsbytes Launches 2nd Web Site - Full Keyword Searching (NEWS)(ONLINE)(MSP)(00018) ****Newsbytes Launches 2nd Web Site - Full Keyword Searching 10/16/95 MINNEAPOLIS, MINNESOTA, U.S.A., 1995 OCT 16 (NB) -- Finding the raw data for that term paper, research project, or coming computer purchase from today's, or the past 12 years of technology news coverage has never been easier on the Internet with the new, online version of Newsbytes News Network's archives and subscription service. At http://www.nbnn.com , readers can also access free daily top stories from Newsbytes and its affiliate publications, and from PC Week, MacWeek, and other Ziff news magazines, making the site a comprehensive source of computer and telecom technology reporting. A complete reference resource for insiders or those following the computer, telecom and interactive services industries, the Newsbytes US World Wide Web site provides free access to the top stories each day and news summaries covering the daily and weekly news. Readers can quickly scan headlines to see the latest developments covered by Newsbytes and major Ziff news sources. The Newsbytes US Web site compliments the Newsbytes Pacifica Web site, located at http://www.islandtel.com/newsbytes/ , where readers can access a variety of other features, such as Japanese language Newsbytes, and subscriptions to the entire news wire by direct electronic-mail. The Newsbytes US Web site was developed in conjunction with Associated Information Services (AIS), a Minneapolis-based Web publishing firm. At the Newsbytes US Web site, the Top Stories, Daily Summary, and Week In Review are freely available online to anyone. Stories containing references to other Web sites are hotlinked for easy access. This is particularly useful with the weekly "internet in review" story that covers new Web announcements. AIS President Stephen Laliberte says, "This is a great value to the Internet. To see a concise summary of the day's technology news is very helpful." The daily summary is organized by industry segment making it easy for readers to target their area of interest. The "members only" area provides powerful full-text and headline- scanning databases of all the Newsbytes stories published since Newsbytes began in 1983 -- 66,000 stories. "This is a researcher's dream," says Laliberte. "It combines the power of a CD-ROM with the convenience of the World Wide Web." The database is updated every day, adding between 30 and 50 new stories. The new stories are dynamically indexed into the Web database. Newsbytes Newspix, digitized pictures of the people, places and items in the reports, are attached to stories and included when a story is viewed. Newsbytes' team of 19 reporters are based in bureaus in the following cities: Los Angeles, San Francisco, Denver, Atlanta, New York, Washington, Boston, Minneapolis, Chicago, Toronto, London, Tokyo, Hongkong, Beijing, Sydney, Manila, and New Delhi. Newsbytes has five times won the prestigious reporting awards for Best Online Publication from the Computer Press Association, the world's largest professional association of computer journalists. Newsbytes has been published continuously since 1983. The subscription price is $24.95 for three months for individuals. Special group pricing is also available. The Newsbytes URL is http://www.nbnn.com . For more information, contact Wendy Woods, editor in chief, Newsbytes News Network, Carriage House, 406 W. Olive St, Stillwater, MN 55082, ph: 612-430-1100, fax: 612-430-0441, Internet administrator@newsbytes.com For more information on Associated Information Services, contact Stephen Laliberte, president, Associated Information Services, 17280 Uplander Street, Andover, MN 55304, PH: 612-753-3994, fax 612-753-3995, Internet: liberty@tccn.com (Newsbytes Staff/19951016) (ADVISORY)(GENERAL)(MSP)(00019) NewsPix Images For Newsbytes Publishers 10/16/95 MINNEAPOLIS, MINNESOTA, U.S.A.,1995 OCT 16 (NB) -- These photos correspond to recent Newsbytes stories. They are online in the Newsbytes menu on America Online, NiftyServe, and the Newsbytes private bulletin board system in Minneapolis. JPEG (Joint Photographic Experts Group) files are larger in size, PICT files are designed as thumbnails for onscreen viewing. The photos are titled with name/year/month/day. PICT/thumbnail pictures are black and white (gray scale). File message will indicate color if the JPEG image is color. Some of the "for use" images, may be PICT files. To distinguish these files from the thumbnail preview PICT images, the tag for the color "for use" image will have PICT, all caps. The thumbnail will remain noted as "pct." To become a licensed Newsbytes publisher, call Newsbytes at 612-430-1100 (US) or write to administrator@newsbytes.com on the Internet. Licensing applies to any medium. --------------------------- Week of OCTOBER 16 - OCTOBER 20,1995 --------------------------- - NEW THIS WEEK - CAERE951010 - b&w / Caere To Acquire ViewStar: photo of Dean Hovey, vice president of business development for Caere quoted in story. GPT-CHINA951010 - color / UK's GPT To Supply First Smart Card Phones To China: Asian businessman at phone. TELECOM*spx1,2,3 - b&w / three photos taken at Telcom: for general use. 1) opening entry, 2) main floor - horizontal format, 3) main floor - vertical format SUPERDECK951013 - b&w / Video News Roundup:New Products-Panasonic Model AF-DS550 SVHS VCR, dubbed the 'superdeck.' PCCARD951013 - color / Compaq To Support Third-Party PC Cards: shot of two of the cards, one with connection cable running off frame. --------------------------------------------------------------- - PARTIAL LISTING OF PREVIOUS ITEMS - T2-951004 - color / Thrustmaster Intros New Game Steering Console: shot of the unit on limbo white, steering wheel and pedals. ABC-3D951005 - color / ABC Graphics Goes 3-D: screen shot of text illustrating the "Instant 3D." KODIAK951002 - color / Storagetek Intros New Product, Settles Old Lawsuit: the Kodiak 9890 Scalable Storage Facility. LAT-LX951004 - color / Dell Ships New Latitude Portables: unit with nice color Dell logo on screen. THINKPAD951003 - color / IBM Aims New ThinkPads At Desktop Market: shot of the 760CD unit, with flowers on screen and cd tray open. FUJITSU950914 - color / Fujitsu Develops New Display Panel: the large lcd panel with model. VCON950922 - color / VCON Intros Desktop Videoconferencing For LANs: woman at desk with desktop videoconferencing. DITOEASY950925 - color / Iomega's $150 800MB Tape Backup Drive: the unit on a tabletop with pen for scale. SKYTEL950926 - color / Microsoft/Skytel Offer 2-way Paging Via Microsoft Network: the unit on limbo tabletop. ZENOGRAPHICS950928 - color / Zenographics' SuperPrint 4.0 Speeds Win 95 Printing: shot of the software package. MACROMEDIA950928 - color / Macromedia Upgrades FreeHand For Macs: shot of the box. TRIMBLE950925 - color / Trimble Wins Japanese Anti-Earthquake Network Order: nice shot of surveyor and Golden Gate Bridge in SF. AMDAHL950915 - b&w / Amdahl To Acquire Canada's DMR Group: head shot of Amdahl's president and chief executive officer (CEO), Joseph Zemke. MS_BOB950919 - color / What Ever Happened To Microsoft Bob?: the Bob logo, smiley face with glasses. MS_PROJ950919 - color / Microsoft Project For Windows 95 To Ship Next Week: shot of package graphics. GAZETTEER950920 - color / Global Post Code & Demographic Info On The Web: screenshot of home page. D3SEA950922 - color / Video Update: photo of Panasonic D3 camcorder used by Scuba Diver for underwater photography. Actual shot of camera in action, diver is Capt. Steve Hogan, president of Sea Eagle Productions, Maui, Hawaii. APTIVA950912 - color / IBM Updates Aptiva PC Line: the PC with logo onscreen. GATEHOUSE950913 - color / Tour Bill Gates' Showplace Home Via The Internet: shot of house under construction. MEDIAKIDS950908 - color / Apple Japan Holds MediaKids Summer Camp: screen shot of kids homepage, with lots of kanji. ENIAC950912 - b&w / ENIAC 50th Anniversary Set For 1996: great archive photo of the original ENIAC room. PRESARIO950915 - color / Compaq Intros New Home PCs, Fall Ad Campaign: the Presario 9500, tower not seen, just keyboard & monitor on tabletop. CYRIX_M1950906 - color / M1 Fastest Chip For Windows 95, Says Cyrix: the M1 chip with Cyrix logo on it. VINEYARDS950906 - color / Virtual Vineyards' CyberCash Credit Card Security: shot of Peter Granoff and Robert Olson, principal founders with a table of wine before them. Photo credit: Anne Hamersky. TLKALONG950901 - b&w / US West Offers Do-It-Yourself Cell Phone Activation: cell phone and packaging on a limbo background. ABCGRAPH950901 - color / Micrografx Graphics Suite For Windows 95: see NewsPix ABCGRAPH950717. GROLIERGOLF950906 - color / Grolier's Greg Norman Golf Simulation: screenshot of golf scenario. COGNOS950829 - color / Cognos On World Wide Web: site graphics. INTERART950828 - color / 3-D Real Estate & Hotel Walkabouts On The Web: the food page with salsa ad, looks good! (Newsbytes/19951016) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 10/16/95 BROADCAST ****And Now The News -- On Your PC Screen (NEWS)(BROADCAST)(TOR)(00020) ****And Now The News -- On Your PC Screen 10/16/95 KANATA, ONTARIO, CANADA, 1995 OCT 16 (NB) -- As television channels proliferate, watching the news is getting to be a full-time job. A Canadian startup and a California software giant have joined forces to automate that job, at least in part, by applying computer filtering to incoming TV news feeds. Televitesse Systems Inc., a year-old subsidiary of Newbridge Networks Corp. of Ottawa, is working with Oracle Corp. of Redwood Shores, California, on a news-alerting and news-on-demand system that the companies hope will appeal to the financial industry in particular. The Oracle Media Server -- software announced last year as part of Oracle's attempt to grab a piece of the interactive TV market -- will be paired with software from Televitesse that will capture television content based on user profiles as well as providing a front-end interface that will let the users manage those profiles. Televitesse demonstrated its TV-monitoring software, called accesTV, at the recent Telecom 95 conference in Geneva. Because the Oracle-Televitesse system actually digitizes the incoming signal on-the-fly, rather than just displaying the analog signal in a window on the PC screen, "television becomes just another data feed," said Robert Mimeault, president of Televitesse. Mimeault told Newsbytes that when it spots a TV news item that fits a customer's profile, his company's software can back up to the beginning of the item to clip and save it. Both Televitesse and Oracle will be selling the system, Mimeault said. They hope to have a pilot system working in the first quarter of 1996. There will be a version designed for corporate customers, with a $20,000 software server that can digitize and process one TV channel, plus client software at $600 per client. Customers who want to monitor multiple channels will need a server for each one, Mimeault said. There will also be a $6,000 version for small offices, with the client and server components in a single package and able to monitor one channel. Mimeault said the early market for the technology will be in business, but he also envisions consumer applications down the road. Televitesse is talking to professional sports leagues about using the technology to support interactive sports pools, he said, though this is unlikely to be commercial before late 1997 or 1998. (Grant Buckler/19951016/Press Contact: Robert Mimeault, Televitesse, 613-599-3648; Internet e-mail info@televitesse.com; Oracle, 415-506-7000) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 10/16/95 GENERAL Japan Newsbriefs (NEWS)(GENERAL)(TYO)(00021) Japan Newsbriefs 10/16/95 TOKYO, JAPAN, 1995 OCT 16 (NB) -- In this roundup of news from Japan: NEC video on a card, Hitachi to expand Japan DRAM capacity, Tokyo FM heads for the web, Electronics show kicks off Tuesday, Toshiba develops DVD laser. NEC Video On A Card NEC Corporation has unveiled a new handheld video player that stores three to four minutes of video on a memory card. The "Silicon View" player features a full color screen and audio capability. Each card contains 40 megabytes (MB) of memory although the price of memory at present is preventing the commercialization of the device which will hit the market as soon as prices drop. NEC also said the device can display still images and text with the possibility of storing a complete newspaper on each card in the future allowing people purchase a card, or re-load an existing one, every morning. Hitachi To Expand Japan DRAM Capacity Hitachi Electric will increase investment in semiconductor production capacity. The Tokyo-based company will invest 85 billion yen in a new production line at its plant in Ibaraki prefecture. The new line will begin production of 16 megabit (Mb) DRAM memory chips in 1997 with production scheduled to switch to 64Mb DRAMs in late 1998. The new capacity will add to a plant being built jointly with General Instrument in Dallas, Texas. Tokyo FM Heads For The Web Tokyo FM will open a site on the World Wide Web next month with schedules and program details. Several other Japanese radio stations, including fellow Tokyo broadcaster J-WAVE, also run Internet services. The station, which broadcasts across Tokyo on 80.0 FM, is already involved in multimedia activities, as key station of the JFN network it sends a text service nationwide across the FM channels of its affiliates with news and information displayed on special radios equipped with LCD (liquid crystal display) screens. Electronics Show Kicks Off Tuesday The 34th annual Japan Electronics Show 1995 begins Tuesday in Osaka, western Japan. Over 200 of Japan's major electronics companies are taking part in the five-day exhibition which, exhibitors hope, will attract 400,000 people. Under the theme "Discover Today's Multimedia", top attractions will be the recently standardized DVD (digital video disk), 32-bit gaming systems and Internet-based multimedia applications. Toshiba Develops DVD Laser Toshiba has invented a new laser that will be used in the optic pickup of DVD players. The self-pulsating, 650-nm red laser joins a similar product by Matsushita although Toshiba's is the only available at present making it the first ever laser to directly oscillate the red light. The self pulsating nature of the laser does away with the need for semiconductor-based pulse generators which add weight and cost. The Tokyo-based company has also developed jointly with Sankyo Seiki, a new pickup mechanism that is also capable of reading today's audio CDs and CD-ROMs as well as DVDs. (Martyn Williams/19951016) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 10/16/95 CHIPS Japanese Eye Better Chips (NEWS)(CHIPS)(TYO)(00022) Japanese Eye Better Chips 10/16/95 TOKYO, JAPAN, 1995 OCT 16 (NB) -- Ten of Japan's leading semiconductor manufacturers are considering pooling resources in the development of new generation semiconductor manufacturing techniques, according to an official of the Semiconductor Industry Research Institute Japan. Taro Okabe, acting executive director, said the institute has proposed the establishment of a five billion yen joint research center early next year. Its chief job would be development of machinery to enable ultra fine chip etching down to 0.1 micron levels (one micron is a thousandth of a millimeter). Today, most semiconductors are made with equipment capable of cutting to 0.5 microns and the next generation of semiconductors will be cut to 0.3 microns. Such a technique would enable more components to be placed on a smaller piece of silicon and lead to much more powerful chips than are currently possible. The ten companies -- Fujitsu Ltd. (TOKYO:6702), Hitachi Ltd. (TOKYO:6501), Matsushita Electronics Corp., a division of Matsushita Electric Industrial Co. (TOKYO:6752), Mitsubishi Electric Corp. (TOKYO:6503), NEC Corp. (TOKYO:6701), Oki Electric Industry Co. (TOKYO:6703), Toshiba Corp. (TOKYO:6502), Sanyo Electric Co. (TOKYO:6764), Sharp Corp. (TOKYO:6753) and Sony Corp. (TOKYO:6578) -- are "nearing the point of concluding an agreement" Okabe told the Asahi Shimbun. The main drive for establishing the five billion yen ($50 million) center, which has the provisional name of the Semiconductor Technology Research Center, would be a massive saving in parallel investment by each company and the ability to pool top resources to hopefully gain a faster development time. Japanese chip makers are facing competition from around the world on a scale never seen before. In addition to traditional enemies such as the United States, several east Asian countries, particularly Taiwan and South Korea, are fast catching up with the technology used by the Japanese, and producing competing semiconductors. New technology would be required in the construction of devices such as one gigabit DRAM (dynamic random access memory) chips. Development of a one gigabit DRAM is a goal the industry should set itself said the Ministry of International Trade and Industry (MITI) on Friday. MITI announced a project to encourage development of the device plus several others with the earmarking of 10 billion yen ($100 million) from the recent second supplementary budget to fund the venture which would also bring together many electronics manufacturers. (Martyn Williams/19951016) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 10/16/95 BUSINESS ****Japan's Softbank In Ziff Davis Purchase Talks? (NEWS)(BUSINESS)(TYO)(00023) ****Japan's Softbank In Ziff Davis Purchase Talks? 10/16/95 TOKYO, JAPAN, 1995 OCT 16 (NB) -- Japan's largest publisher of computer magazines and books, Softbank Corporation (TOKYO:9984), is in talks with Ziff Davis Communications Co. over the purchase of its publishing arm, according to a report in the Sunday edition of the Nihon Keizai Shimbun, Japan's leading business newspaper. The newspaper said the purchase price would be around 150 billion yen ($1.5 billion). On Friday Softbank announced a public share offer of 2.8 million additional shares which, the company said, would raise part of the costs involved in a company take-over although no announcement was made of which company. A Softbank spokesman today confirmed the company was in talks with, not one, but several companies about take-overs, although declined to name any or offer any clues as to their identity. The financial announcement of Friday, rather than the weekend newspaper reports, sent Softbank shares tumbling on the Tokyo stock market this morning. Within an hour of opening, Softbank shares were trading "buy only" after sell orders far outpassed buy requests. The Reuter news agency reported 80,000 shares were on offer with only takers for 30,000 early this morning. Adding to the company's stock market troubles was a downgrading of the company by an analyst at Smith Barney Securities. The company revised Softbank from a 3H rating, a high risk stock with average performance predicted, to a 4H rating, a high risk stock likely to under-perform in the future. Softbank stocks closed out the day down 700 yen at 25,600 yen. Provisionally, the application period for the new shares will run from November 2nd to 6th with payment due on the 17th. Softbank added that this date may be brought forward depending on market conditions and demands. Financial analysts estimate the extra share issue will raise 63.31 billion yen ($633 million) for the company. More takeovers will add greater diversity to the company which has been expanding overseas through a series of recent joint ventures and acquisitions. It recently raised its earnings forecast for the first six months of the current fiscal year predicting a parent current profit of 3.90 billion yen ($39 million) against its earlier forecast of 2.40 billion yen ($24 million) for the half year. Softbank purchased the exhibitions arm of Ziff Davis in November last year for $200 million. The company, now known as Softbank Expos, is operator of the Networld+Interop, Windows Solutions and other computer trade shows. The company followed with the purchase of the exhibitions arm of the Interface Group, renamed as Softbank Comdex, early this year which got the company the Comdex and Windows World exhibitions. In addition to being the country's largest computer magazine and book publisher, Softbank is also Japan's distributor of computer systems, software, and peripherals. Softbank has also just entered into a joint venture, Gamebank Corp., with Microsoft Corporation to produce and distribute games software for the Windows 95 operating system. (Martyn Williams/19951016/Press contact: Softbank Corporation, tel +81-3-5462-8020, fax 81-3-5641-3400) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 10/16/95 HEALTH Corel's CD-ROM Series Just What The Doctor Ordered (NEWS)(HEALTH)(TOR)(00024) Corel's CD-ROM Series Just What The Doctor Ordered 10/16/95 OTTAWA, ONTARIO, CANADA, 1995 OCT 16 (NB) -- Corel Corp. (TSE:COS; NASDAQ:COSFF) has launched its new medical series of CD-ROMs with the initial title, a disk on epilepsy. The disk, simply titled "Epilepsy," will work with Windows 3.1, Windows 95, and the Apple Macintosh, Corel said. It will be the first in a series of CD-ROMs dealing with specific diseases and general health topics. The Epilepsy disk is aimed mainly at doctors and at people studying diseases, Corel spokesman Tim Magwood told Newsbytes. Dr. A. Guberman, a doctor and a professor of neurology at the University of Ottawa, wrote the Epilepsy title. Other professionals will be writing the other titles in the medical series, according to Corel. However, Magwood added, some titles will have broader consumer appeal. "We will be coming out with other titles that will be more appropriate for the consumer market." For instance, Corel is planning a title called "Well Beings," which will be a general guide to promoting the physical health, safety, and emotional well-being of children in day-care, and another called "Little Well Beings," which will focus on child-care in the home. There will also be a disk dealing with headaches, and one on Alzheimer's Disease, Magwood said. Magwood said Corel hopes to sell some of the disks through retail outlets, such as drugstores. Officials said Corel plans to produce more than 50 titles in its medical series over the coming year. Other topics Corel plans to cover include AIDS, breast feeding, amputations, and paramedic training. Corel, best known for its CorelDraw graphics software, has moved rapidly into CD-ROM titles over the past few months. Magwood said there are no definite plans for other series of titles aimed at particular professional groups, but "it's something we're considering." The Epilepsy title is to ship in November at a suggested retail price of US$24.95. (Grant Buckler/19951016/Press Contact: Tim Magwood, Corel, 613-728-0826, ext. 1164, Internet e-mail timm@corel.ca) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 10/16/95 GENERAL Canadian Product Launch Update (NEWS)(GENERAL)(TOR)(00025) Canadian Product Launch Update 10/16/95 KINGSTON, ONTARIO, CANADA, 1995 OCT 16 (NB) -- This regular feature, appearing on the first day Newsbytes publishes each week, provides further details for the Canadian market on announcements by international companies that Newsbytes has already covered. This week: an assortment of server and Internet announcements from IBM. IBM Canada Ltd., of Markham, Ontario, joined its US parent in announcing hardware and software products aimed at the server market across four product lines. IBM Canada added to its PC Server line with the launch of two PC Server 310 models, six PC Server 320 models, and 10 PC Server 520 models (Newsbytes, October 6 & 11). The 310 models will be available later this year with prices starting at C$5,699. The 320 models will be available before the end of October, with prices starting at C$7,499 for 75 megahertz (MHz) Pentium models and C$10,799 for 90MHz Pentium models. The PC Server 520 models are to be available in December, with prices starting at C$13,599. New releases of NetFinity and ServerGuide are to be available in Canada in November, the company said. IBM Canada also added to its RS/6000 server line with the Model E20 and various enhancements (Newsbytes, October 6 & 10). The E20 will sell in Canada for a list price of C$14,300, and is to be available this week, IBM Canada said. In the AS/400 arena, IBM Canada unveiled new client/server applications for data warehousing (Newsbytes, October 6). DB2 Symmetric Multiprocessing for OS/400 is to be available in December for systems running Version 3 Release 1 of OS/400, and in the first half of next year for systems based on PowerPC technology, IBM Canada said. IBM said it also plans soon to announce DB2 Multisystem for OS/400, a new parallel database product to be available in the first half of 1996. IBM also announced Canadian pricing for its AS/400 Advanced Server models 53S and 530, which were unveiled in June. Canadian prices are C$74,400 for a 53S with 2154 processor, C$103,000 for a 53S with 2155 processor, C$160,200 for a 53S with 2156 processor, C$393,400 for a 530 with 2150 processor, C$479,200 for a 530 with 2151 processor, C$715,300 for a 530 with 2152 processor, and C$965,600 for a 530 with 2153 processor. IBM did not neglect its mainframe computers either, announcing OS/390, a replacement for its MVS/ESA mainframe operating system that will bundle in some 30 related software products (Newsbytes, October 6). OS/390 is to be available in the first quarter of 1996, IBM Canada said. IBM Canada has also announced additions to its Internet Connection software line (Newsbytes, September 27). New secure server software for OS/2 Warp is C$4,250 for the first license and C$3,825 for additional licenses. The AIX secure server software is C$7,080 for the first license and C$6,375 for additional licenses. The Internet Connection Secured Network Gateway is C$14,170 for the first license and C$12,750 for additional licenses. (Grant Buckler/19951016/Press Contact: Susan Davison, Goodman Communications for IBM, 416-924-9100; Anne Hay, IBM, 905-316-2251; Maureen Rourke, IBM Canada, 905-316-4425; Carolyn Luke, Goodman Communications for IBM, 416-924-9100; Stephen Hewitt, Goodman Communications, 416-924-9100) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 10/16/95 TRENDS Web, Multimedia, Outsourcing Soar In Software Industry (NEWS)(TRENDS)(BOS)(00026) Web, Multimedia, Outsourcing Soar In Software Industry 10/16/95 NEWTON, MASSACHUSETTS, U.S.A., 1995 OCT 16 (NB) -- Multimedia development is soaring, and US software companies are surfing the Web like never before, but vendors' "major concerns" remain the same as last year, said Joseph S. Tibbetts, Jr. of Price Waterhouse, summing up the results of the 1995 Software Business Practices survey at a recent meeting of the Mass. Software Council (MSC). This year's study also contains an expanded section on R&D (research and development), which shows 60 percent of the vendors considering the use of outsourcing or other "alternatives to internal development." "The software industry is still full of experimentation. It's still a teenager," Tibbetts told the audience at the MSC 1995 Fall Membership Meeting, an event attended by Newsbytes. Animation led the way for "highest projected growth" among the 848 software companies responding to the survey, followed by groupware, interactive video, speech processing, tax/personal finance package, and "language," according to Tibbetts, a partner at Price Waterhouse. About 70 percent of the companies told Price-Waterhouse that they used the Internet in 1994, with virtually all of these vendors reporting the use of electronic-mail as an Internet application. More than 30 percent of the vendors said they used the Internet for support, and another 20 percent for each of the following applications: recruiting, lead generation, and product demonstration/marketing. Not surprisingly, only about one-tenth of the vendors predicted that they "will not use" the Internet in 1996, according to Price-Waterhouse's sixth annual survey of the US software industry. The results also pointed to definite distinctions between large and small software companies, vendors engaged in different horizontal and vertical markets, and even between firms in various regions. For example, larger companies are ahead of others in the use of object technology, and so are vendors in the consumer/home and schools/education markets. As to regional differences, while only two percent of companies based in the Southeast reported using "work-at-home" employees, fully 13 percent of West Coast-based companies said that they now employ telecommuters. "But although the industry is changing, the (companies') concerns are still the same," Tibbetts told the audience. The vendors' top three concerns were identical in 1994 and 1995, ranking in precisely the same order, he elaborated. In each of the two years, the number one concern was "customer satisfaction," followed by "cost-effective marketing" and "profitability." However, "recruiting quality employees," which came in number five last year, rose to the fourth spot this year, replacing "short-term cash flow," a factor that fell to number five. Also as in previous years, the vendors expressed "bullish" financial projections for the US economy in general and the software industry in particular. About 70 percent said they expect the software industry to be "healthier" this year than last year, and nearly 100 thought that the industry will either be the same as in 1994, or even healthier. Accordingly, 77 percent of the respondents anticipated that they will add new jobs this year, up slightly from the 1994 number of 72 percent. On this question, the Southeast was a standout, with 84 percent expecting to expand their staffing. Brand new in the 1995 survey was an-depth examination of R&D practices, said the Price Waterhouse partner. Answers to one question in this section demonstrated that, of the largest companies that consider alternatives to internal development, 100 percent look at "buying the technology," while two-thirds consider "outsourcing the development". Business-to-business companies were more likely than consumer/home software companies to consider acquiring the technology (73 percent) and "partnering with customers" (59 percent). Consumer/home companies, in comparison, plainly prefer to outsource, with 85 percent of respondents saying that they look at this option. Meanwhile, 79 percent of school/educational software companies told Price-Waterhouse that they consider "partnering with other development organizations." Results of the special R&D section also indicated that, despite efforts to "empower employees below the executive level," new product decisions are still typically approved by a committee that includes the CEO (chief executive officer). This trend is particularly prevalent among the smaller companies. By an overwhelming margin, the number one factor used by the vendors in "selecting and prioritizing projects" was "commitment to a customer/market." Landing second was "technical feasibility." Ranked close together in the third, fourth, five and sixth spots were "budgeting/cost considerations, company development plan, profit target, and revenue target." Tibbetts noted that most vendors (almost 40 percent) estimated that it usually takes them between one week and one month "to decide to commit or not commit to a project." The second most frequently given answer to this question was "between one day and one week," while the third most popular was "between one and two months." Bigger companies, vendors addressing "mature markets," and those developing for mainframes tend to take longer to decide. More than half of the companies responding to this year's survey were, in fact, small, with revenues of under $1 million. A total of 13 percent of the respondents are based in California, followed by Massachusetts (11 percent), New York, Washington State, Pennsylvania, Colorado, Utah, Illinois, and Oregon. About two-thirds of the companies questioned produce packaged software, and about one-third, custom software products, with slightly over ten percent listing "bundled hardware and software products." The "most frequently cited application categories" were, in descending order, accounting/financial; database; communications; customer support; development tools; utilities; sales support; and scientific/engineering, Tibbetts reported. (Jacqueline Emigh/19951013/Reader Contact: Massachusetts Software Council, 617-437-0600; Press Contact: Miller Communications for the MSC, 617-536-0470) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 10/16/95 GENERAL Compaq Asia Chief Out (NEWS)(GENERAL)(HKG)(00027) Compaq Asia Chief Out 10/16/95 CENTRAL, HONG KONG, 1995 OCT 16 (NB) -- Compaq has announced that Lim Soon Hock, managing director of its Asia operations, and a central figure in its manufacturing success, has resigned. It is not known what sparked his sudden departure -- he officially leaves Compaq at the end of November -- but he is due to take up a senior board appointment with a US-backed telecoms company. In the official statement Lim said, "After spending over 20 years in the information technology (IT) industry, I felt it was time for a change." He had been with Compaq for seven years. There is no word on his replacement. In other Compaq news, International Data Corp. reported that Compaq holds nearly three times the PC server and superserver market share of its nearest competitor. IDC figures for the second quarter of 1995 suggest Compaq held 41% of the market with its nearest rival, IBM, holding only 14%. In third place, IDC named Hewlett-Packard with 13%, with Digital Equipment rolling in fourth at 6%. IDC said Compaq Asia has held top spot in the market since 1993. (Nigel Armstrong & I.T. Daily/19951016) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 10/16/95 BUSINESS Artisoft Scouts Hong Kong (NEWS)(BUSINESS)(HKG)(00028) Artisoft Scouts Hong Kong 10/16/95 CENTRAL, HONG KONG, 1995 OCT 16 (NB) -- Australian software house Artisoft is looking to beef up its Asian operations. Asia-Pacific Director David Thrum told I.T. Daily the company felt now was the time to maximize its presence in Hong Kong and Singapore. "We now have to seriously look at markets in Hong Kong and Singapore and we're looking to invest money and time to do that," he said. He said he had come to town to talk to prospective partners. "I can't say who, but we hope to make an announcement by the end of December," Thrum said. "I will say it's a considerably well-known name in the industry," He also said he was doing a feasibility study to decide whether Artisoft would open an office In Hong Kong or in Singapore. Artisoft's main product is LANtastic, a network operating system for small businesses with fewer than 100 employees. "We see this market sector expanding at over 30% during the next financial year," Thrum said. Asked why it had taken the company so long to get to Hong Kong, Thrum said that, until recently, Asia had been slow taking to network technology. "We realize that with our new long-term strategy, we need a better presence, we need a partner who can help with training and develop a stronger marketing strategy," he said. "If our current predictions for the entire region hold true, we expect to sell over US$300,000 worth of software per quarter," he added. With some 90% of firms in Hong Kong and Singapore having under 100 employees, he felt the market could be even more profitable than that. He said the company is set to release a 32-bit version of its networking application to run under Windows 95 by January next year. (Nigel Armstrong & I.T. Daily/19951016) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 10/16/95 BUSINESS Japan - Fujitsu & Lexmark In Printer Deal (NEWS)(BUSINESS)(HKG)(00029) Japan - Fujitsu & Lexmark In Printer Deal 10/16/95 CENTRAL, HONG KONG, 1995 OCT 16 (NB) -- US printer manufacturer, Lexmark, has broken into the Japanese market, thanks to door-opener Fujitsu. The two firms signed a memorandum of understanding last week, agreeing that Lexmark's range of inkjet printers will be sold by Fujitsu and branded "Fujitsu/Lexmark." The units will be manufactured in the US, a precedent in the Japanese-dominated printer world. Even successful Hewlett-Packard and Apple laserjet printers rely on Canon technology. Although the Fujitsu agreement covers only the Japanese market at present, Newsbytes understands another agreement for the Asia Pacific market is on the cards. No figures have been released by either company. It is known that Fujitsu has been aggressively trying to build up its presence in the PC market, and a strong alliance with a printer-maker enhances that effort. Earlier this year, it created a new company with its UK subsidiary, ICL, to sell PCs throughout Asia. Fujitsu, ICL Trading Asia or FITA, was formed to help Fujitsu break into a market in which it has virtually no presence, despite being the world's second largest computer firm. The deal means Fujitsu will selectively bundle Lexmark's inkjet printers with its DeskPower PCs and they will be co-branded. The agreement also outlines plans to co-develop other printer products. This is seen as formally building on earlier joint efforts -- as when the two firms developed double-byte character capability for the printers. This double-byte capability is necessary to be able to print Japanese characters and support Japanese language software applications. The agreement comes on the heels of Lexmark's announced intention to list on NASDAQ. (Nigel Armstrong & I.T. Daily/19951016) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 10/16/95 ONLINE ****Compaq VP Predicts $500 "Internet Surfer" PC (NEWS)(ONLINE)(BOS)(00030) ****Compaq VP Predicts $500 "Internet Surfer" PC 10/16/95 BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS, U.S.A., 1995 OCT 16 (NB) -- At some point in the near future, Compaq and other PC makers will start to produce a new kind of computer, called something like the "Internet Surfer," priced at about $500, but limited in functionality to Web browsing and "maybe to games," predicted Bob Stearns, a Compaq VP, during a speech delivered to corporate sponsors of the Computer Museum. Use of the Internet has doubled each year since 1988, and applications are expanding to encompass electronic commerce, telemedicine, and "the ability of everyone to become a publisher," Stearns pointed out in his talk, which was attended by Newsbytes. Compaq, "the leading PC manufacturer," and Intel, "the leading chip maker," are jointly committed to making the PC more pervasive than the TV set, added Compaq's VP of technology and corporate development. But meanwhile, a wide gulf continues to exist between society's "haves" and "have nots," Stearns asserted. The four-figure pricetags of today's PCs are shutting many potential users out of the market. Other individuals are simply not interested in applications like word processors and spreadsheets. And although the Web continues to ease Internet access, "the skills needed to go online are still not universal." But the Web is quite popular with teenagers today, who enjoy its "intense interactiveness," particularly the ability to chat with other people around the world they "might never know" otherwise. And with devices like the "Internet Surfer" now down the road, many more people will be able to enjoy the advantages of the "Info Highway," the Compaq VP said. The "Internet Surfer" will use a smaller processsor than a standard PC, making $500 a realistic price point, according to Stearns. Compaq will offer a dedicated machine like this, he affirmed during a Q&A session. In the electronic commerce arena, the Web is leading to "relationship marketing," along with "atomization," a phenomenon in which small companies share the share marketing advantages as large corporations, according to Stearns. Conceivably, he suggested, the Web will co-opt the roles of professional "intermediaries" such as stock brokers and real estate agents, whose job it is to interface to consumers. "Price and feature comparison are becoming nearly effortless (over the Web). In the future, companies will become much better at (marketing via the Web)," Stearns remarked. "I also foresee customer relations as becoming much better." In the field of telemedicine, Massachusetts General Hospital now employs the Web to let students in Europe watch medical procedures in Boston, as well as to ask questions of the hospital's doctors, he reported. Eventually, society will enter an era of "surgical robotics," in which operations are routinely carried out "remotely" over the Web. The US Army is already experimenting with surgical robotics, Stearns noted. But today, issues like privacy, security, the protection of intellectual property from "informal reproduction," and the role of government in the "information highway" remain critical, as does the availability of adequate bandwidth. Government should not be permitted to dictate how the "info highway" will be used, according to Stearns. But government and the private sector, in partnership, can produce technologies that are advantageous to society, if not always anticipated. "Nobody could have predicted that the Internet would (emerge from) ARPA," the corporate sponsors were told. These days, the US military is also working on some new display technologies that could also prove useful when adopted by vendors for use on the commercial side, he illustrated. "If you're accustomed to using a LAN (local area network) at work, you're probably disappointed by (the bandwidth) standard phone lines give you, even ISDN (integrated services digital network)," Stearns acknowledged. But the birth of new broadcast technologies like satellite TV is putting new kinds of pressure on phone companies to bring higher bandwidth to homes, the Compaq exec told the audience. Also on the horizon are two new LCD (liquid crystal display) technologies, currently under development in Japan, for less costly production of flat display panels, along with major progress in the area of LCD projection, according to Stearns. "Eventually, the PC will become a truly essential tool for both homes and businesses," the Compaq VP concluded. Just before his speech, Stearns had donated the first PC ever produced by Compaq to the archives of the Computer Museum. (Jacqueline Emigh/19951013/Reader Contact: Computer Museum, 617- 426-2800; Press Contact: Gail Jennes, Computer Museum, 617-426- 2800) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 10/16/95 TRENDS Microsoft To Test Online Software Distribution (NEWS)(TRENDS)(DEN)(00031) Microsoft To Test Online Software Distribution 10/16/95 REDMOND, WASHINGTON, U.S.A., 1995 OCT 16 (NB) -- Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ: MSFT) has announced a pilot program to test electronic software distribution that could eventually make floppy disks as extinct as the dodo bird, used only by a few diehards for backup or to pass along pirated copies of software. It could also put software distributors out of business unless they can find a way to adapt to the new system. The software giant said the program with resellers calls for electronic downloading of PC software to customers via the Internet. If successful technically, and accepted by the public, it could eliminate mail-order purchasing and even put distributors, the middleperson in the distribution channel, out of business. Microsoft said the pilot program is intended to let the company and resellers evaluate the viability of potential business models designed to facilitate online sales of software on the Internet. A Microsoft public relations spokesperson told Newsbytes the program, which is effective immediately, will involve a very small number of resellers, probably less than 10, and will run through the end of 1995. No participating resellers were identified. "There's been a lot of interest in the computer industry with regard to the electronic distribution of software, and the Internet in particular. We expect this trial to give us and our resellers a better idea of how software will be sold over the Internet," said Velle Kolde, group manager of emerging channels at Microsoft. Cooperation and data sharing between Microsoft and the resellers involved in the pilot will be important in understanding the impact of online software selling. "We view online selling as a new environment for resellers to explore. We are fully committed to the reseller channel in that exploration of how software will be sold over the Internet," Kolde added. A variety of resellers are expected to participate in the pilot program, including those specializing in selling via the Internet, as well as traditional resellers initiating their own electronic sales programs. Each participating reseller will provide its own solution for security, transaction processing, product returns, and other activities associated with selling software electronically. The Microsoft representative said products that will be made available to resellers as part of the pilot program include the Microsoft Office for Windows 95 office suite applications, several of Microsoft's consumer software titles such as Microsoft Flight Simulator, Creative Writer, and software-developer tools such as the Visual C++ development system. Microsoft said the software will be sold to resellers at a price comparable to the fully packaged retail product. That has the potential to raise profit margins for Microsoft, since the price the reseller (retailer) pays the distributor (wholesaler) is higher than what distributors pay Microsoft. The electronically delivered software will come with electronic documentation, but if consumers are fond of printed instruction manuals they will have to be purchased separately. That could be another source of revenue for Microsoft, since it operates the Microsoft Press publishing division. The pilot is not intended to provide definitive answers to every issue regarding selling software online, according to Kolde. "This is an emerging area. We wanted to initiate this process now with resellers so that, together, we can learn about which business models and approaches work best. This pilot focuses on establishing a foundation between Microsoft and the reseller channel to accommodate online selling and downloading." (Jim Mallory/19951016/Press contact: Phil Missimore, Waggener Edstrom for Microsoft, 408-986-1140; Press contact: Microsoft, 206-882-8080 or 800-426-9400) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 10/16/95 UNIX ****Silicon Graphics Workstations Get Productivity Bundle (NEWS)(UNIX)(SFO)(00032) ****Silicon Graphics Workstations Get Productivity Bundle 10/16/95 MOUNTAIN VIEW, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1995 OCT 16 (NB) -- Silicon Graphics (NASDAQ:SGI) says its Indy and Indigo2 workstations are shipping with a Unix productivity bundle which includes videoconferencing, World Wide Web browsing and editing, the ability to run Windows and DOS applications, and an Acrobat Reader utility. The company maintains the new bundle "increases personal productivity and group collaboration." SGI spokesperson, Eileen Caetano, told Newsbytes, "Unlike desktop computers using Windows or Macintosh operating systems, Unix-based computer systems usually do not come with an extensive software bundle. SGI has decided to extend the value of its systems with this introduction to bundling without adding to the cost." Acknowledging the growing trend to incorporate videoconferencing technology in the desktop environment, SGI offers customers its own InPerson desktop videoconferencing software. The system supports real-time, multi-particpant use, and can be used with any existing TCP/IP (Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol) network. InPerson works on personal computers running Microsoft Windows through NetManage and will be available through Internezzo Technologies for all major Unix platforms. To support Web development and communications, the new SGI bundle provides customers with its WebMagic Author, WebSpace Navigator, and MindShare OutBox. Netscape Communication's Navigator, an Internet browser software, is also included. The authoring tool gives users a hypertext markup language (HTML) editor for converting documents to the standard Internet format. WebSpace Navigator is SGI's three- dimensional browser and OutBox is a drag-and-drop publishing tool which facilitates document publishing. The new bundle also contains SoftWindows for Unix from Insignia Solutions. It allows SGI customers to run Microsoft Windows and DOS applications. Secondary cache Indy desktop systems carry a fully licensed copy of SoftWindows, while primary cache Indy and Indigo2 workstations are provided with temporary licenses. Rounding out the bundle is Adobe's Acrobat Reader. With the Acrobat file format "becoming so popular," SGI said it decided its customers "would welcome the ability to easily read documents" originating from Adobe's Acrobat program . (Patrick McKenna/19951016/Press Contact: Eileen Caetano, SGI, 415-390-2036) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 10/16/95 ONLINE Java Programs Get Internet Directory (NEWS)(ONLINE)(SFO)(00033) Java Programs Get Internet Directory 10/16/95 NEW YORK, NEW YORK, U.S.A., 1995 OCT 16 (NB) -- EarthWeb LLC, a developer of World Wide Web sites, has teamed with Sun Microsystems (NASDAQ:SUNW) to announce Gamelan, an Internet registry and directory of programs written in the Java language. Sun's innovative programming language is now being used by thousands of developers for a wide variety of Internet and standard desktop applications. Gamelan (pronounced gam-a-lon), the name of the new Java Web resource, is actually the name for traditional orchestration music of Java. Nova Spivack, EarthWeb's co-founder and director of marketing, explained to Newsbytes, "The idea behind Gamelon is to grow a development community for Java developers and other interested parties. In just a few months, more than 20,000 skilled Java developers have surfaced. I will say they are still learning because Java is so rich. Gamelon is the place where people will come first to learn about the very latest Java trends and developments." He continued, "Java is the paradigm for 21st century network- enabled computing. It is machine independent. Once it is written it will run on all platforms with Java-compliant client software. It cuts down on development costs, development time, and programming complexity. It is the first language which is fundamentally written for the Internet. We are witnessing an explosion of programming activity with Java. Applications include Web publishing, entertainment, education, and electronic commerce." While early Java programs center on Internet applications, Sun built the language to also allow developers to write non-Internet, standard desktop programs. Its immediate popularity centers around the ability to incorporate complex multimedia features into Internet applications and it features extensive, built-in security. Spivack says users may not even know they are viewing a Java program when they go to an Internet site and see a homepage with three-dimensional graphics, sound, audio, and rich links. Once the necessary Java software is incorporated into a user's browser, the user sees no signs of the language itself. Noting the almost overnight, dramatic growth of Java programs, Netscape Communications announced it will incorporate support for Java applications in an upcoming version of its browser, Netscape Navigator. Analysts maintain that users should expect to see other Web browsers with similar upgrades. "Within six months, no leading Web site will be able to remain competitive without this (Java) technology," said Spivack. "If you want to have a Web site with the best graphics and the best interface, you will have to use Java." Gamelon is open to all Internet users and Java developers may register their applications freely. The site, at http://www.gamelon.com , contains about 244 registered applications, and there are links to more developments. Spivack estimates the number of existing Java programs to be just under 1,000. In less than one week, the site received more than 115,000 hits. (Patrick McKenna/19951016/Press Contact: Nova Spivack, EarthWeb, 212-725-6550) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 10/16/95 GENERAL IBM Names Zisman & Papows To Replace Manzi At Lotus (NEWS)(GENERAL)(BOS)(00034) IBM Names Zisman & Papows To Replace Manzi At Lotus 10/16/95 CAMBRIDGE, MASSACHUSETTS, U.S.A., 1995 OCT 16 (NB) -- In a teleconference late Friday, IBM and Lotus officials announced and elaborated on the appointment of Michael D. Zisman and Jeffrey Papows to share the "office of the president" at Lotus left open by Jim Manzi's resignation last Wednesday, plus the formation of a reorganized Lotus sales force, to be headed by Deborah Besemer and expanded with the transfer of sales staff from IBM. Also during the teleconference, which was attended by Newsbytes, the officials said that Robert K. Weiler has resigned from the position of head of international sales at Lotus, and that John Landry, chief technical officer, is now working on an "integrated Internet strategy" for IBM, at the request of IBM Chairman Louis V. Gerstner. John Thompson, IBM's software chief, led off the teleconference by saying that, although he was "saddened" by Manzi's resignation as Lotus president and CEO (chief executive officer), the move was "a personal decision by Jim, and I respect it." Thompson then announced that IBM has named Zisman to the position of chief executive at Lotus, and Papows to the post of chief operating officer. With the announcement, Zisman and Papows both become executive VPs of IBM, as well. Zisman and Papows will both report to Thompson. Thompson told the journalists that IBM has been impressed with the previous performance of Zisman and Papows in jointly heading up Lotus's Communications Business Group, where both previously held the title of senior VP. As the newly named senior VP of worldwide sales for Lotus, Besemer will report to Zisman and Papows, according to Thompson. Besemer was formerly responsible for North American sales at Lotus. Thompson said that, although some IBM sales staff will be transferred to Lotus, Lotus and IBM will remain "separate," and that Lotus will not be "less autonomous." "I have tremendous respect for the creativity of the Lotus organization, of their knowledge of the desktop and client-server area, and their leadership in the whole collaborative and teamwork area with the Notes product," Thompson reported. "And so, I am not interested in doing anything that does not capitalize on (their) talents. And I would like to keep the Lotus team to together, and to support the culture," he added. "(And) having said that, I therefore do not want to assimilate (Lotus) in. I think, though, that it makes sense having it all report to me. It allows me to make sure that the middleware and the other parts of our software strategy dovetail with Notes, and support it." The IBM and Lotus sales forces will also remain separate, Thompson noted. "The reason I want to do that is because we have a highly skilled Lotus sales force, and I want to keep that focus intact. I don't want to dilute it by adding a whole bunch of adding a whole bunch of other products and missions into it." The focus of the Lotus sales force will be broadened slightly, though, to that of "groupware," and the IBM sales staffers who are being transferred to Lotus previously sold IBM groupware products, according to Thompson. In accordance with a plan by IBM to integrate the Lotus Notes "front end" with enterprise-strength products from IBM on the back end, some of the transferred employees will specialize in areas like message queuing and transaction processing, he asserted. The officials were also questioned about the roles of Landry and Ozzie at Lotus and IBM, and about the recent departures of five VPs from Lotus. Ozzie continues to be "committed to Notes," Papows said. Ozzie is currently working on the competition of Notes 4.0, the journalists and analysts were told. "We have spoken to him," added Papows, who characterized Ozzie and being "very excited" about the staffing changes at Lotus. Thompson elaborated on Landry's activities. The IBM Internet strategy Landry is working on incorporates elements from Lotus, including Lotus Notes, as well as from IBM, including the IBM Global Network and software from other areas of the company that are "moving toward a more network-centric world," he reported. "John (Landry) continues to work in that area. There's more work to do, and I'll expect that he'll continue to work closely with me, and some of my other colleagues in other parts of IBM on this strategy. So that's what his next role is, and I don't want to get into more specifics than that because I can't without getting into the details of the strategy or the work assignments." Said Zisman: "To put this all in perspective, of the five people who have left, two of them were the chief financial officer and the general counsel, which one would fully expect. Those individuals had great expertise in publicly held companies, and if you're the CFO (chief financial officer) of a publicly held company, that's where you want to be. And the same applies to Tom Lemberg and his dealings with the FCC (Federal Communications Commission. So it would have been a shock if those two individuals were still here." Zisman added: "In terms of `stemming the tide,' I would say the answer to that is, `Yes.'" But we've got a lot of work to do. And right now I think all of us are looking to the future, putting the past behind us and moving forward. And I can assure you that, speaking personally, we're enormously excited about the resources that IBM brings to bear, and I think we're going to do very, very well." (Jacqueline Emigh/19950113/Reader Contact: Lotus Development Corporation, 617-577-8500; Lois Paul & Partners for Lotus, 617-862-4514) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 10/16/95 NETWORK Vendors Jump On Novell's SMP Bandwagon (NEWS)(NETWORK)(DEN)(00035) Vendors Jump On Novell's SMP Bandwagon 10/16/95 OREM, UTAH, U.S.A., 1995 OCT 16 (NB) -- Novell Inc. (NASDAQ: NOVL) has announced support of nearly 20 vendors for the network software company's Netware 4 symmetric multiprocessing (SMP) technology scheduled for availability in the fourth quarter. Netware 4.1 SMP is a Netware Loadable Module (NLM) add-on to Novell's Netware 4.1 operating system software and allows the network software to take advantage of multiple processors installed in a single Netware server. Multi-threading speeds processing by spreading CPU (central processing unit)-intensive tasks like local area network traffic management, security encryption, the SPX (Sequenced Packet Exchange) protocol transport and the application programming environment used by developers to write server-based applications across the multiple processors. Novell said a preemptive SMP kernel in Netware 4.1 SMP manages the task scheduling among processors, and an enhanced MONITOR utility lets network administrators track the utilization of each processor. A series of new SET commands let administrators customize Netware 4.1 SMP for their environment. The list of companies jumping on the Netware 4.1 SMP bandwagon includes Compaq, Dell, Digital, Hewlett Packard, IBM, Sony, Toshiba, Zenith, Unisys, Acer, AT&T, Fujitsu, Hitachi, and NEC. Novell said Netware 4.1 SMP benefits users in two key ways: it was designed to increase network throughput and server bandwidth for Netware 4.1 installations using existing Netware 4 NLMs, and to increase network performance and scalability via a new generation of multithread SMP-enabled NLMs that will use the Netware SMP API (applications program interface). The first wave of those SMP-enabled NLMs will include Oracle's Oracle7 Enterprise Server in November of this year and SQL Server 11 from Sybase in the first quarter of 1996. Novell said SMP support from Btrieve will be available by mid-1996. Novell Groupwise can already take advantage of Netware 4.1 SMP. The Groupwise Post Office, which handles tasks like mail delivery and database updates has already been SMP-enabled so current customers can "easily activate SMP capabilities" via a software switch. Novell said SMP versions of two additional Groupwise elements -- the message transfer agent and the SMTP Gateway NLM -- are currently in beta test and are expected to ship within 90 days. Novell said Netware 4.1 SMP will be available in the fourth quarter, with pricing set by distributors. (Jim Mallory/19951016/Press contact: Kelly Hindley, Novell, 801-429-5870; Public contact: Novell, 800-638-9273, Internet World Wide Web http://www.netware.com ) (SUMMARY)(GENERAL)(MSP)(00036) Newsbytes Daily Summary 10/16/95 MINNEAPOLIS, MINNESOTA, U.S.A., 1995 OCT 16 (NB) -- These are capsules of all today's news stories: ======================================================================== ------------| N E W S B Y T E S D A I L Y S U M M A R Y |---------- ------------| Monday, October 16, 1995 |---------- ======================================================================== (c) Newsbytes News Network (Tm) Editor in Chief: Wendy Woods ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Newsbytes News Network's 1995 Update CD-ROM for Mac, DOS, and Windows is now available for $29.95 (includes s&h). Contains 1983-1995 news stories, more than 64,000 keyword searchable stories and 475 digitized images. For more information or to order, fax to 612-430-0441 or e-mail to 'administrator@newsbytes.com' -- MC, Visa, Amex accepted. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ CATEGORY HEADLINES (*** indicates today's top stories) STORY # ======================================================================== BROADCAST Putting GPS On The Consumer Map............................ 11 BROADCAST ****And Now The News -- On Your PC Screen................. 20 BUSINESS ****Japan's Softbank In Ziff Davis Purchase Talks......... 23 BUSINESS Artisoft Scouts Hong Kong.................................. 28 BUSINESS Japan - Fujitsu & Lexmark In Printer Deal.................. 29 CHIPS Japanese Eye Better Chips.................................. 22 GENERAL Will New Media Be Good For Us.............................. 12 GENERAL NewsPix Images For Newsbytes Publishers.................... 19 GENERAL Japan Newsbriefs........................................... 21 GENERAL Canadian Product Launch Update............................. 25 GENERAL Compaq Asia Chief Out...................................... 27 GENERAL IBM Names Zisman & Papows To Replace Manzi At Lotus........ 34 GOVT British Police Use Voice-Mail For Mobile Comms............. 06 HEALTH Corel's CD-ROM Series Just What The Doctor Ordered......... 24 LEGAL Hong Kong - Injunctions Extended By High Court............. 01 NETWORK Bosch's Wavelength Division Multiplexing Technology........ 08 NETWORK SilCom Claims ATM Speeds With Wireless Link................ 10 NETWORK Vendors Jump On Novell's SMP Bandwagon..................... 35 ONLINE America Online Adds Health Area............................ 03 ONLINE Internet Access Via Teletext Offered....................... 04 ONLINE Austrian Bank Customers Discover Phone Banking............. 05 ONLINE The Shade Family - An Internet Clan........................ 09 ONLINE New Web Site Encourages Family Interneting................. 14 ONLINE ****Newsbytes Launches 2nd Web Site - Full Keyword Searchi 18 ONLINE ****Compaq VP Predicts $500 "Internet Surfer" PC.......... 30 ONLINE Java Programs Get Internet Directory....................... 33 TELECOM UK's MFS Communications Receives ISO Quality Award......... 15 TRENDS Mixed Results For Apple Cost Study......................... 02 TRENDS UK Internet Surfers Want To Buy British - Survey........... 07 TRENDS Oregon Hits The High-Tech Recruiting Trail................. 13 TRENDS UK - Low-Cost Security For PCs............................. 16 TRENDS Workflow Technology Is Not A Cure-All - Report............. 17 TRENDS Web, Multimedia, Outsourcing Soar In Software Industry..... 26 TRENDS Microsoft To Test Online Software Distribution............. 31 UNIX ****Silicon Graphics Workstations Get Productivity Bundle. 32 ======================================================================== These are the headlines and first paragraphs of each story, in order: 1 -> Hong Kong - Injunctions Extended By High Court -- In Hong Kong, the Business Software Alliance (BSA) has won extensions on all original 22 ex parte injunctions served against software vendors operating in the notorious Golden Arcade Shopping Centre in Hong Kong's Shamshuipo district. 2 -> Mixed Results For Apple Cost Study -- A survey of technical support costs for corporate computing just completed by the Gartner Group Consulting has found no additional costs for companies supporting dual platform computing (Apple Macintosh and Windows-based PCs) versus the cost of supporting Windows alone. The research was conducted in the first half of 1995, prior to the public release of Windows 95. 3 -> America Online Adds Health Area -- America Online Inc. (NASDAQ:AMER) has created a new Health Area to provide information and resources on healthcare, fitness, "well-being," and diseases to the service's members. 4 -> Internet Access Via Teletext Offered -- Sweden's Infral AB has developed a system that allows television companies to offer viewers the ability to send and receive electronic-mail and "surf" the World Wide Web via the channel's teletext service. 5 -> Austrian Bank Customers Discover Phone Banking -- After two years of promoting their telephone banking services, Austrian banks are reporting that their services are being taken seriously by customers, and that sign-ups are now "on target." 6 -> British Police Use Voice-Mail For Mobile Comms -- The Staffordshire police force has contracted with Octel for the supply of 5,000 voice mail-boxes for use by police officers, the media, and the general public. 7 -> UK Internet Surfers Want To Buy British - Survey -- "I'm backing Britain" and "Buy British" used to be buzzwords of the late 1970s. Now UK Online, ironically the Italian Olivetti-backed UK consumer online service, is resurrecting the ideas, claiming that independent research shows that the majority of UK families would rather subscribe to a British online service. 8 -> Bosch's Wavelength Division Multiplexing Technology -- Everyone talks about fiber optic as the universal panacea to network congestion problems, but even fiber optic has its limits. Now Bosch claims that it has the answer to even this problem with its Wavelength Division Multiplex (WDM) technology, which it claims can squeeze four 2.5 gigabits-per- second (Gbps) channels onto one single mode fiber. 9 -> The Shade Family - An Internet Clan -- The Shade family claims to be one that "Webs together." The fact that each member of the clan has his or her own Internet World Wide Web pages (except for their cats) seems to support their claim to electronic fame. 10 -> SilCom Claims ATM Speeds With Wireless Link -- SilCom Technology Inc. has launched an inter-building wireless network link into the North American market that the company said can move data at speeds as high as 155 megabits-per-second (Mbps) 11 -> Putting GPS On The Consumer Map -- If Sirf Technology Inc.'s optimistic predictions come to fruition, today's $1,000 consumer global positioning systems will become $500 products sometime next year, reports Junko Yoshida in Electronic Engineering Times ("GPS in consumer orbit," Aug. 21, 1995, pp. 25, 28). 12 -> Will New Media Be Good For Us -- Promoters often suggest that we'll become better informed as a result of the coming age of interactive multimedia. Not everyone is so sure, however. 13 -> Oregon Hits The High-Tech Recruiting Trail -- The Oregon Trail was once a route to new opportunities in the west. Now economic development officials in two Southern Oregon counties hope it will soon be the trail to the new locations for small- and medium-sized software development companies tired of lousy weather, few cultural activities, and limited recreational opportunities in their current locations, and have launched an ad campaign to attract them. 14 -> New Web Site Encourages Family Interneting -- Starwave Corp. has launched a new online service on the Internet, called "Family Planet," that the company said includes "expert parenting advice," news, and new ideas and fun activities "for the whole family." 15 -> UK's MFS Communications Receives ISO Quality Award -- MFS Communications, the cable telephony company, has become one of the first telecoms companies to be awarded the British Standard quality assurance standard. According to MFS, this ISO 9002 quality standard certificate will allow customers of the company to "have a high level of confidence" in the services from the firm. 16 -> UK - Low-Cost Security For PCs -- Barracuda Security Devices has unveiled, what the company claims is, the industry's first light- and motion-sensitive security system for computers and peripherals. Known as the Barracuda Security Device (BSD), the UKP70 system protects the PC or its component with a deafening 117 decibel alarm, which also sprays the innards of a computer with an indelible red dye. 17 -> Workflow Technology Is Not A Cure-All - Report -- Ovum has issued a new report entitled "Ovum Evaluates: Workflow." Perhaps surprisingly, given the level of enthusiasm the information technology (IT) industry places in workflow, the report concludes that workflow is not the universal panacea that some people think it is. 18 -> ****Newsbytes Launches 2nd Web Site - Full Keyword Searching -- Finding the raw data for that term paper, research project, or coming computer purchase from today's, or the past 12 years of technology news coverage has never been easier on the Internet with the new, online version of Newsbytes News Network's archives and subscription service. At http://www.nbnn.com , readers can also access free daily top stories from Newsbytes and its affiliate publications, and from PC Week, MacWeek, and other Ziff news magazines, making the site a comprehensive source of computer and telecom technology reporting. 19 -> NewsPix Images For Newsbytes Publishers -- These photos correspond to recent Newsbytes stories. They are online in the Newsbytes menu on America Online, NiftyServe, and the Newsbytes private bulletin board system in Minneapolis. 20 -> ****And Now The News -- On Your PC Screen -- As television channels proliferate, watching the news is getting to be a full-time job. A Canadian startup and a California software giant have joined forces to automate that job, at least in part, by applying computer filtering to incoming TV news feeds. Televitesse Systems Inc., a year-old subsidiary of Newbridge Networks Corp. of Ottawa, is working with Oracle Corp. of Redwood Shores, California, on a news-alerting and news-on-demand system that the companies hope will appeal to the financial industry in particular. 21 -> Japan Newsbriefs -- In this roundup of news from Japan: NEC video on a card, Hitachi to expand Japan DRAM capacity, Tokyo FM heads for the web, Electronics show kicks off Tuesday, Toshiba develops DVD laser. 22 -> Japanese Eye Better Chips -- Ten of Japan's leading semiconductor manufacturers are considering pooling resources in the development of new generation semiconductor manufacturing techniques, according to an official of the Semiconductor Industry Research Institute Japan. 23 -> ****Japan's Softbank In Ziff Davis Purchase Talks -- Japan's largest publisher of computer magazines and books, Softbank Corporation (TOKYO:9984), is in talks with Ziff Davis Communications Co. over the purchase of its publishing arm, according to a report in the Sunday edition of the Nihon Keizai Shimbun, Japan's leading business newspaper. The newspaper said the purchase price would be around 150 billion yen ($1.5 billion). 24 -> Corel's CD-ROM Series Just What The Doctor Ordered -- Corel Corp. (TSE:COS; NASDAQ:COSFF) has launched its new medical series of CD-ROMs with the initial title, a disk on epilepsy. 25 -> Canadian Product Launch Update -- This regular feature, appearing on the first day Newsbytes publishes each week, provides further details for the Canadian market on announcements by international companies that Newsbytes has already covered. This week: an assortment of server and Internet announcements from IBM. 26 -> Web, Multimedia, Outsourcing Soar In Software Industry -- Multimedia development is soaring, and US software companies are surfing the Web like never before, but vendors' "major concerns" remain the same as last year, said Joseph S. Tibbetts, Jr. of Price Waterhouse, summing up the results of the 1995 Software Business Practices survey at a recent meeting of the Mass. Software Council (MSC). This year's study also contains an expanded section on R&D (research and development), which shows 60 percent of the vendors considering the use of outsourcing or other "alternatives to internal development." 27 -> Compaq Asia Chief Out -- Compaq has announced that Lim Soon Hock, managing director of its Asia operations, and a central figure in its manufacturing success, has resigned. 28 -> Artisoft Scouts Hong Kong -- Australian software house Artisoft is looking to beef up its Asian operations. Asia-Pacific Director David Thrum told I.T. Daily the company felt now was the time to maximize its presence in Hong Kong and Singapore. 29 -> Japan - Fujitsu & Lexmark In Printer Deal -- US printer manufacturer, Lexmark, has broken into the Japanese market, thanks to door-opener Fujitsu. 30 -> ****Compaq VP Predicts $500 "Internet Surfer" PC -- At some point in the near future, Compaq and other PC makers will start to produce a new kind of computer, called something like the "Internet Surfer," priced at about $500, but limited in functionality to Web browsing and "maybe to games," predicted Bob Stearns, a Compaq VP, during a speech delivered to corporate sponsors of the Computer Museum. 31 -> Microsoft To Test Online Software Distribution -- Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ: MSFT) has announced a pilot program to test electronic software distribution that could eventually make floppy disks as extinct as the dodo bird, used only by a few diehards for backup or to pass along pirated copies of software. It could also put software distributors out of business unless they can find a way to adapt to the new system. 32 -> ****Silicon Graphics Workstations Get Productivity Bundle -- Silicon Graphics (NASDAQ:SGI) says its Indy and Indigo2 workstations are shipping with a Unix productivity bundle which includes videoconferencing, World Wide Web browsing and editing, the ability to run Windows and DOS applications, and an Acrobat Reader utility. The company maintains the new bundle "increases personal productivity and group collaboration." 33 -> Java Programs Get Internet Directory -- EarthWeb LLC, a developer of World Wide Web sites, has teamed with Sun Microsystems (NASDAQ:SUNW) to announce Gamelan, an Internet registry and directory of programs written in the Java language. Sun's innovative programming language is now being used by thousands of developers for a wide variety of Internet and standard desktop applications. 34 -> IBM Names Zisman & Papows To Replace Manzi At Lotus -- In a teleconference late Friday, IBM and Lotus officials announced and elaborated on the appointment of Michael D. Zisman and Jeffrey Papows to share the "office of the president" at Lotus left open by Jim Manzi's resignation last Wednesday, plus the formation of a reorganized Lotus sales force, to be headed by Deborah Besemer and expanded with the transfer of sales staff from IBM. 35 -> Vendors Jump On Novell's SMP Bandwagon -- Novell Inc. (NASDAQ: NOVL) has announced support of nearly 20 vendors for the network software company's Netware 4 symmetric multiprocessing (SMP) technology scheduled for availability in the fourth quarter. (Ian Stokell/19951016) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 10/13/95 WINDOWS ****Lotus 1-2-3 Aims To "Take Back Lead" From Microsoft (NEWS)(WINDOWS)(BOS)(00001) ****Lotus 1-2-3 Aims To "Take Back Lead" From Microsoft 10/13/95 CAMBRIDGE, MASSACHUSETTS, U.S.A, 1995 OCT 13 (NB) -- Through a "complete rebuild" of Lotus 1-2-3 for the Windows 95 environment, supported by a new $30 rebate plan for current 1-2-3 for Windows 3.1 users, Lotus is squaring off to "take back the lead" from Microsoft in the spreadsheet market, said Jeffrey Anderholm, director of product marketing for spreadsheets at Lotus, in an interview with Newsbytes. Lotus's newly announced rebate program provides a $30 rebate to users of 1-2-3 and other qualifying spreadsheets who buy upgrades to 1-2-3 Release 5 for Windows 3.1 through November 15, according to Anderholm. Recipients of the rebates on 1-2-3 can also take advantage of a previously announced plan from Lotus that gives qualified customers free licenses for Windows 95 applications. Lotus's new 1-2-3 rebate program is designed for millions of spreadsheet users, largely in the corporate market, who are eyeing migration to Windows 95, but are not yet ready to make the move, Anderholm told Newsbytes. "Corporate adoption of Windows 95 has been slow so far. But it's a question of `when' Windows users will switch to Windows 95, not `if,'" he reported. The latest release of Lotus 1-2-3 for Windows 3.1 supports "team computing" through features that include Version Manager, TeamMail, NotesFlow, and Notes/FX. "TeamMail allows you to distribute a document to everyone in your (workgroup) for their comments and `return comments,'" remarked Kathleen Hayner, SmartSuite marketing manager, in an earlier briefing for Newsbytes. TeamMail, one the other hand, lets the user keep more than one set of information in a cel, or range of cels, at the same time, according to Hayner. But, said Anderholm, the Windows 95 version of 1-2-3, now on the verge of entering beta, will bring a "complete rebuild," with added capabilities that include TeamConsolidate, LotusScript, and tighter integration with Notes and other members of Lotus SmartSuite. LotusScript is Lotus's language for cross-application scripting. The new TeamConsolidate feature is aimed at reconciling documents, or portions of documents, from multiple users. Also as previously reported in Newsbytes, in the Windows 95 edition of 1-2-3, Lotus plans to use TeamConsolidate in conjunction with Notes 4.0 for production of "consolidated models" from the "spreadsheet contributions" of multiple users. In contrast, the first edition of Excel for Windows 95 is "pretty much a port of the Excel for Windows 3.1 product," according to Anderholm. "When Microsoft was getting ready to launch Excel for Windows 95, most of their developers were actually working on Excel for Windows 96," he maintained. A competitive analysis report issued by Lotus contends that, unlike TeamConsolidate, Excel's "consolidate" feature is "not a workgroup feature." "In addition to 1-2-3's TeamConsolidate being a complete workgroup feature offering a solution for the entire consolidation process, it is also flexible in both layout and ranges in the spreadsheet, where Excel's consolidate feature is rigid (and) ranges have to be identical," according to the analysis. The Lotus report also charges that Excel lacks a number of other features, present in 1-2-3, for "team computing, productivity, and integration." In the "team computing" arena, for example, Microsoft is faulted for not adopting Notes/FX 1.1 support until two years after the API (application programming interface) was made available by Lotus to all vendors. The report also criticizes Excel for not supporting NotesFlow, and for failing to contain version management capabilities such as "secure tracking of changes, versions containing formulas, group sets of versioned data, and multiple currency formats." Also during this week's briefing for Newsbytes, Anderholm observed that, at this point, most sales of Microsoft Office 95 and Windows 95 have gone to home users, as opposed to the corporate market. "And the channel hasn't made much money yet, either, even though (Windows 95) has been priced at a `loss leader' price point," Anderholm asserted. Lotus has not yet issued an anticipated release date for 1-2-3 for Windows 95. "That will depend on results of our beta testing," Newsbytes was told. But Lotus, he added, is looking to "take back the lead from Microsoft" by beating its long-time rival to market with a spreadsheet that "truly takes advantage of" the 32-bit environment. "1-2-3 and Excel have been `playing hopscotch' for years, anyway," the product marketing director pointed out. Under Lotus's newly unveiled rebate program, users of Lotus 1-2-3 and other qualifying spreadsheets can redeem a coupon for $30 off the price of an upgrade to Lotus 1-2-3 Release 5 for Windows 3.1. The coupon is enclosed in the box. Estimated street pricing of the Lotus 1-2-3 Upgrade is $99, according to Anderholm. Customers also qualify for a free license upgrade to the upcoming 1-2-3 for Windows 95 under an existing Lotus Buyer's Assurance Plan. Also as previously reported in Newsbytes, under Lotus's "assurance plan," users who buy Windows 3.1 editions of Lotus applications or SmartSuite through December 31 can upgrade to either Windows 95 or OS/2 versions of these products in exchange for a "media charge" only. The "media charge" amounts to $19.95 for "standard" (floppy) disk versions of individual desktop applications; $29.95 for a standard disk version of SmartSuite; and $9.95 for a CD-ROM version of any of the desktop products. (Jacqueline Emigh/19951012/Reader Contact: Lotus Development Corporation, 617-577-8500; Tom Morley, Lois Paul & Partners for Lotus, 617-862-4514) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 10/13/95 ONLINE Lucky Lotto On The Internet (NEWS)(ONLINE)(TYO)(00002) Lucky Lotto On The Internet 10/13/95 VADUZ, LIECHTENSTEIN, 1995 OCT 13 (NB) -- The tiny European country of Liechtenstein, nestled between the Swiss and Austrian borders, has launched the first lotto to be conducted exclusively on the Internet. The operators hope to entice people with the attraction of the highest prize pool payout in the world. The InterLotto has been organized by International Lottery in Liechtenstein Foundation, a charitable organization chartered by the government of the country. After prize money has been paid out, a remaining portion of the profit will be paid to charities decided each week by players who vote for charities to receive the money. The lotto guarantees a payout of 65% of total income from ticket sales and a minimum jackpot of SFr 1,200,000 ($1,000,000) for a ticket price of SFr 5 ($4.80). There is a minimum purchase of two tickets. Entering the game is like entering any other lotto, players select six numbers and prizes are awarded to anyone matching four, five or six of the week's chosen numbers. To ensure fair play, the organizers have employed Coopers & Lybrand, an independent auditor, to supervise the entire operation. The draws are also held in places around Liechtenstein and people are welcome to attend. For the first week's prize draw, six winning balls were chosen from a bag of forty by Caroline Burdet, Liechtenstein's first female bobsleigh competitor. InterLotto is making use of Liechtenstein's tax free status and the low cost of operating such a system to offer a 65% prize pool, a figure that compares favorably to other lottos in the world. The next highest prize pool is the Australian lotto which offers 55%, the French lotto offers 52% and the lottos of Austria, Belgium, Germany, Norway, Portugal, Switzerland, Georgia, and Texas all offer 50%. The world's largest lottery, the UK National Lottery offers just 45%. Readers wishing to try their luck can find the InterLotto home page at http://www.interlotto.li/ . The server offers a secure registration and entry service for users with Netscape Navigator browsers. (Martyn Williams/19951013) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 10/13/95 ONLINE Internet Update (NEWS)(ONLINE)(TYO)(00003) Internet Update 10/13/95 TOKYO, JAPAN, 1995 OCT 13 (NB) -- In this roundup of new services and resources on the global Internet: The Selena trial on the Web, APEC official Website, missing kids on the Web, European telework week, new sites in Asia, Digital Ink: new offerings from newspapers, Salvador Dali virtual museum of art, Australian Webindex. In The News: The Selena Trial The Web version of the Corpus Christi Caller-Times will offer updates throughout each day of the Yolanda Saldivar trial in Houston. Saldivar is charged with murder in the March 31 shooting death of Tejano star Selena Quintanilla-Perez, better known simply as Selena. World Wide Web: http://www.wtr.com/cchome/selena.htm APEC Official Web Site In November a major meeting of the APEC nations takes place in Osaka, Japan. The country's Ministry of Foreign Affairs has opened a special Webserver, the official server, for the event. The service provides information and statements as they are released about APEC '95 Osaka. World Wide Web: http://apec.tokio.co.jp/ Missing Kids On The Web The National Center For Missing And Exploited Children has opened a new server on the Web with an extensive database of missing kids online. Visitors can view the pictures of each child and read data on each child. The page also provides comprehensive contact information, support groups, other recognized missing children organizations, and direct phone numbers to local and national law enforcement centers. World Wide Web: http://www.missingkids.org/ European Telework Week In two weeks, from November 9th to 16th, European Telework Week takes place. The event is organized by the European Commission with the goal of promoting teleworking and its benefits to the companies and peoples of the European Union. These pages provide information on events, in London, Vienna, and Rome, and offer proposals for online activities. World Wide Web: http://www.mtanet.co.uk/eur/two/etw_int.htm New Sites In Asia A new page has appeared with links to Chinese language Websites. The page maintainer says, "If you want information about China, Hong Kong, and Taiwan, this is the right place for you." World Wide Web: http://www.geopages.com/SiliconValley/1250/ On July 1, 1997, Hong Kong will be returned to the Chinese government. A new Webpage in the colony offers a counter that indicates how many days, hours and minutes are left. Alongside the countdown clock are links to local entertainment, information and news sources. World Wide Web: http://www.ie.cuhk.hk/~whlee4/hongkong.html Offering "Asia's Premier Worldwide Web site, focusing on the best that the region can offer," is a new Website with links to sites across the region including news, financial information, arts and culture, business partners, educational resources to executive recruitment and trading opportunities. World Wide Web: http://www.asiaville.com/ Digital Ink: New Offerings From Newspapers The Guardian, a British daily, has placed the complete contents of Connect magazine, given away with Friday's edition, on the Internet. The magazine joins other computer related Guardian material online. World Wide Web: http://www.guardian.co.uk/guardian/connect/ Thailand's first international business daily, Business Day, is now available on the Internet. Content online includes the latest news and news analysis covering issues of local as well as regional interest. World Wide Web: http://goldsite.com/~bday/ New York's Jewish Post newspaper is now online. The paper's goal is to keep American Jews in touch with Israel and the Jewish world through its print and online editions. World Wide Web: http://jewishpost.nais.com/jewishpost/ From South Africa, the Johannesburg Star and London-based SA Times have collaborated to produce the weekly Star & SA Times International On-line. The newspaper contains South African news, sports and features. World Wide Web: http://www.satimes.press.net/ Salvador Dali Virtual Museum Of Art The Salvador Dali Virtual Museum of Art features what the Web maintainer claims is "the largest collection of art images by Salvador Dali anywhere on the Web." The entire site is dedicated to the painter and his art. World Wide Web: http://www.nol.net/~nil/dali.html Australian Web Index You know things are getting out of hand when indexes of indexes begin appearing. The new Ausindex page provides a listing and links to all Australian Webindex and catalog pages. World Wide Web: http://www.moreinfo.com.au/ausindex/ (Martyn Williams/19951013) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 10/13/95 BUSINESS Germany - AT&T Closes Augsberg Facility (NEWS)(BUSINESS)(LON)(00004) Germany - AT&T Closes Augsberg Facility 10/13/95 AUGSBERG, GERMANY, 1995 OCT 13 (NB) -- AT&T's Global Information Solutions (DIS) division has announced plans to close its Augsberg PC production facility. The closure will involve 450 layoffs and forms part of AT&T's global strategy of moving out of PC productions, officials said. Erich Moser, the company's German financial director, told journalists that the closure is not due to the costs involved. He said that PC production is still viable in Germany and were broadly in line with US production costs. The reason for the closure was the group's decision to move out of PC production. The closure is a bitter blow to Germany's PC production. Only Siemens Nixdorf and Aquarius Robotron now manufacture their PCs in Germany. In recent statements, Aquarius has said that salaries only account for around five percent of PC production costs, but the German PC manufacturer acknowledged that the lower wage costs in the Far East was probably behind the general move away from Western PC production and over to the Far East. Ironically, AT&T's pullout of German PC production comes at a time when the German PC Industry is perceived to be doing extraordinarily well. Escom and Vobis are both pushing their PCs heavily into France and the UK. Last month, Newsbytes reported that Vobis, the giant German PC vendor, was teaming up with PowerStore, a UK electrical retailer, to boost its share of the UK PC marketplace. According to Theo Lieven, Vobis' managing director in Germany, using a joint venture approach, rather than take the distributor/dealer path, is a way of boosting the company's profits and cutting prices. Siemens Nixdorf, meanwhile, now claims to be Europe's number one PC vendor and recently introduced a qualified partner program in the UK and several other European countries. Les Francis, general manager of channel development with Siemens Nixdorf, claims that the German PC vendor is trying to move away from the box shifting end of the market, moving into the value-added side of the business. (Sylvia Dennis/19951013/Press & Reader Contact: AT&T GIS +49-821-4050; Fax +49-821-405462) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 10/13/95 LEGAL "British FBI" Coming (NEWS)(LEGAL)(LON)(00005) "British FBI" Coming 10/13/95 LONDON, ENGLAND, 1995 OCT 13 (NB) -- The British Government, currently at its annual Conservative Party conference in Blackpool, is reported to be preparing plans for a British version of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI). Although the UK has a wide ranging police force covering the whole of the country, its intelligence agencies, MI5, MI6 and the elite D111 division of Scotland Yard, tend to operate as secret intelligence divisions, accountable to the government and, in the case of the D111 squad, to the Police Commissioner, there is no "in-between" agency such as the FBI. Media reports suggest that Michael Howard, the British Home Secretary, is putting the finishing touches to a plan to form a British version of the FBI. British police, meanwhile, have gone on the offensive, claiming that any FBI clone in the UK must be accountable to the public, and not, as in the US, accountable to the US government. Speaking at the annual conference of the Association of Chief Police Officers, President John Hoddinott said that any British FBI must be publicly accountable if the organization is to work properly, since it needs to gain the trust of the public. "Legality, openness and accountability run across all that we do and I can't imagine it wouldn't run across anyone else who is involved in law enforcement," he told his fellow officers. According to preliminary information released to the press by the British government press office, the British FBI agency will almost certainly form part of a coordinated response to the growing threat of internal organized crime, in particular from the drug barons. Such a division would dovetail its intelligence gathering systems with the existing MI5 system, but media reports suggest that the system would be developed mostly by the existing models used by the National Criminal Intelligence Service (NCIS). In his speech, Hoddinott said that, before a UK FBI could be created and brought into operation, several elements of existing British legislation would need to be updated or replaced. The police have long been critical of the so-called "lawyers paradise" of the Offences Against the Person Act, which dates from 1861, Newsbytes notes. "We support the idea of bringing the law within the statute more into the modern age. The law, which should be easily understandable, is not, and that is not a good thing," Hoddinott said. (Sylvia Dennis/19951013) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 10/13/95 TELECOM UK Firm Slashes UK/US Call Costs To 16c/minute (NEWS)(TELECOM)(LON)(00006) UK Firm Slashes UK/US Call Costs To 16c/minute 10/13/95 LONDON, ENGLAND, 1995 OCT 13 (NB) -- First Telecom, a new UK telecoms carrier, has opened a new global calling service for UK telecoms subscribers. The service claims to be the cheapest on the market, offering calls to the US for 10 pence (16 cents) a minute at offpeak times. To use the "Globally Speaking" service, as it is called, customers call the company and quote their debit or credit card details. An account is opened on a pre-payment basis, and a nine-digit PIN code allocated. When the caller dials a London number, they are asked to enter the PIN and are then offered a dialtone from the US end of the link. No subscriptions are payable to the company, something that Mark Daeche, the company's international operations director, claims means the service can be used by anyone with a debit or credit card and are willing to pre-pay their calls in increments of UKP 10.00. "Rapid advances in technology, combined with overseas competing fiercely for business, have resulting in the costs of international calls dropping significantly," he said, adding, telecom charges have remained "outrageously high as traditional carriers have not passed on the resultant cost savings to their customers. "Not only are we offering our customers substantially reduced calling rates, but unlike many other telephone companies, we use a network based on fiber optics which enables connections of superior clarity and reliability," he explained. Many of the carriers operating in the dial-through market, which First Telecom offers, use complex multiplexing techniques to squeeze as many calls as possible out of multiple 2 or 4 megabits/second links to the US. As a result, data/fax calls tend to be limited to 9,600 or 14,400 bits per second (bps). First Telecom claims that its use of fiber optic links to the US allows all modem calls through, yet the charges are as lower than the competition. According to Elena Tusason, a spokeswoman for the company, First Telecom is taking ads in the national press in the UK to encourage personal customers to flex their plastic and sign up for service. In the next few months, plans call for the company to target small to medium-sized businesses with a new calling service, using unique billing software developed in conjunction with AT&T. "Low priced phone calls is something that most people are interested in and it is a growth area," she said, adding that First Telecom can offer cut-priced calls on all direct dial destinations in the world. (Steve Gold/19951013/Press Contact: Nelson Bostock Communications +44- 171-229-4400; Reader Contact: First Telecom +44-171-363-6600; Fax +44- 171-363-6601) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 10/13/95 UNIX Insignia Boosts PC Emulation To 80486 Under Unix (NEWS)(UNIX)(LON)(00007) Insignia Boosts PC Emulation To 80486 Under Unix 10/13/95 HIGH WYCOMBE, BUCKS, ENGLAND, 1995 OCT 13 (NB) -- Insignia Solutions has dramatically upgraded its PC emulator for the Unix environment. SoftWindows 2.0 for Unix now has the ability, the company claims, to run all DOS and Windows applications, including Windows enhanced modem packages, as if they were running on a 80486 processor-based system. This is a double first for Unix users, who previously have not had access to all DOS/Windows applications, nor the Windows enhanced mode. In addition, the previous iteration of SoftWindows for Unix ran to the same speeds as an 80386-based system. According to David Angwin, European marketing manager for Insignia, the package combines full 80486 PC compatibility and comprehensive PC network to offer a complete PC environment to Unix workstation users. "This means they can effectively have access to any corporate application at their fingertips, all on a single machine," he explained. Insignia is promoting the UK 449 package as a useful application for business Unix users who want access to personal productivity software such as Lotus SmartSuite, Microsoft Office and Novell PerfectOffice -- apps which are not available for Unix. The software also allows companies to standardize enterprise-wide on DOS and Windows applications such as Lotus Notes and cc:Mail. Angwin told Newsbytes that SoftWindows 2.0 for Unix can run as fast as a 100 megahertz (MHz) 486-based system on a high-end DEC Alpha. "On a typical workstations from the likes of HP, we expect the system to perform to the same levels as a 25 or 33MHz 486-based PC," he said. Angwin did not rule out a Pentium emulator version of SoftWindows, either for the Mac or the Unix environment. "At the moment there are no Pentium-specific applications around. When (and if) these ship, we will release a Pentium emulator, but, until then, the majority of users will be happy with the current version of SoftWindows," he said, adding that, under the right configurations, a 486-based PC can actually run faster than a Pentium. SoftWindows 2.0 for Unix supports all major Unix platforms, including DEC, HP, IBM, SGI and Sun environments. As well as 486 and full DPS/Windows compatibility, the package includes advanced utilities that allows tracking of DOS and Windows applications for software licensing purposes. According to Insignia, administrators on a company network can disable user-configuration options and implement SoftWindows as a system for running specific PC applications. As supplied, SoftWindows for Unix comes on a CD-ROM. Now the slightly bad news -- the package will not ship in Europe nor from the company's Mountain View or Andover, MA-based offices in the US until the first quarter of 1996. Angwin told Newsbytes this is a worst case shipment scenario. "I expect to see this software available before the end of the year, but it is possible that release may run into the new year, which is why we say first quarter," he said. (Steve Gold/19951013/Press Contact: Amanda Hassall, GBC +44-181-332- 7022; Internet Email: mandy@gbc.co.uk; Reader Contact: David Angwin, Insignia Solutions +44-1494-459426; Internet Email: david.angwin@isd.insignia.com) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 10/12/95 BROADCAST ACTV, Sarnoff Center To Develop Digital TV Products (NEWS)(BROADCAST)(MSP)(00008) ACTV, Sarnoff Center To Develop Digital TV Products 10/12/95 PRINCETON, NEW JERSEY, U.S.A., 1995 OCT 12 (NB) -- The David Sarnoff Research Center and ACTV Inc. will jointly collaborate in the developing of individualized television products, both companies have announced. The agreement will combine Sarnoff's system and hardware designed with ACTV's individualized programming technology, officials said. In the near term, the collaboration will examine what will the market bear in terms of individualized television programming, and what would be the most cost-efficient way to bring that content to the home, William Shumann, Sarnoff spokesperson, told Newsbytes. "This is our way of bringing our digital television technologies down to the ordinary viewer," he said. ACTV already has rolled out individualized TV networks in Montreal, Canada, London, England, and a new network that's being tested in Southern California. Its technology is capable of altering on-screen audio and video through both single and multiple-channel applications. Using a remote control, a person can "talk" with on-screen instructors in an educational situation, or program content can be altered to suit the individual's needs and interests. ACTV has also been involved with distance learning, having been in hundreds of classrooms around the country for the past two years. The company also recently announced an agreement with the state of Georgia that will see ACTV supplying the state's distance learning products. Sarnoff brings to the agreement compression technologies, video server technology, 3D television applications, and distance learning technologies. Looking down the road, Shumann told Newsbytes, the agreement could change the way people look at television in general. "You could, for example, watch a baseball game, click a remote , and get statistics on players. You could call up different camera shots. You could even gamble on TV. The point is it will be a real-time, interactive exchange." He said this could happen when ACTV's individual television technologies are mated with digital video technologies. (Bob Woods/19951012/Press Contact: Alice Archer, David Sarnoff Research Center, 609-734-2184) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 10/13/95 ONLINE ZD Net Offers Free Personalized News On Internet (NEWS)(ONLINE)(TOR)(00009) ZD Net Offers Free Personalized News On Internet 10/13/95 CAMBRIDGE, MASSACHUSETTS, U.S.A., 1995 OCT 13 (NB) -- World Wide Web devotees can now read personalized computer industry news reports online at Ziff-Davis Interactive's ZD Net site. Now available on ZD Net/World Wide Web Edition, at http://www.zdnet.com, ZD Net Personal View provides a daily news feed made up of content from PC Week, MacWeek, Inter@ctive Week, and other Ziff-Davis publications, as well as Newsbytes and the press release wires PR Newswire and Business Wire. Ziff-Davis Interactive said it plans to add other news sources in the near future. Users of the service cannot browse through the complete content of these services, company spokeswoman Janice Brown told Newsbytes. Instead, they set up personal profiles, specifying a maximum of five search terms or keywords. Stories that match those terms are placed in the user's personal view, accessible using a password. Users can also see a maximum of seven of the top stories that match their profiles from each of the past five business days, using the Week in Review selection. Brown said ZD Net chose to offer a personalized set of stories selected by keyword rather than providing unlimited access to the content because this was what potential users asked for in focus groups. "They wanted to see stuff that met their needs in kind of a single screen," she said. The full text of PC Week, MacWeek, and other Ziff publications is available in other versions of ZD Net, such as the ZD Net Compuserve Edition. Ziff-Davis hinted at the possibility that in future, the personal profiles might be used to target advertising as well as editorial content and press releases based on users' stated interests. The company said it would be evaluating user response to the new service with the idea of developing advertising options that would let advertisers "target key market segments and develop ads that appeal to users' specific interests." There is no charge for access to ZD Net Personal View, Ziff-Davis said. (Grant Buckler/19951012/Press Contact: Martha Papalia, Ziff-Davis Interactive, 617-225-3340; Janice Brown, Janice Brown & Associates for Ziff-Davis Interactive, 603-764-5800) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 10/13/95 GENERAL Asia Market Fastest-growing For Lexmark (NEWS)(GENERAL)(SYD)(00010) Asia Market Fastest-growing For Lexmark 10/13/95 SYDNEY, AUSTRALIA 1995 OCT 13 (NB) -- Lexmark unveiled five new laser printers and an infrared device for mobile computing yesterday, and visiting US CEO and Chairman Marvin Mann was on deck at Sydney's Manfredi restaurant to witness the Australian birth. "We've come a long way because we've had good people who've done good work," Mann told the pack of journalists. High value products and responsive support to customers were the keys to Lexmark's success, he said. "That's kinda our strategy," the laconic boss added in his down-home American drawl. Mann revealed that Lexmark last week filed to become a public company and is awaiting approval from the US securities exchange for its application. "I can't talk about that (dollars and cents) otherwise I'll wind up in the US prison system, and that's not one of my strategies," Mann joked. He did reveal, however, that half of Lexmark's revenue is now generated outside the US, and the Asian market is growing the fastest. He also said that Lexmark will invest $US200 million dollars in ink jet printers this year and next year, an indication that Lexmark is more than serious about the burgeoning color ink jet market. The new printers comprise four mono lasers, ranging in price from AUS$2,900 to AUS$5,700. According to Lexmark, they all deliver 1200 x 1200 dpi at a rate of 16 ppm. The MarkNet IR infrared adaptor attaches to either desktop or printer, and costs AUS$470. Belle of the printing ball, however, is the Optra C, Lexmark's first color laser, featuring 600 x 600 dpi resolution and print speeds of 12 ppm in black and white and three ppm in color. Anticipated list price is AUS$9,995. (AUS$1 is around US$0.76) (Dorothy Kennedy and Computer Daily News/19951013) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 10/13/95 PC Australia - Compaq Opens Christmas Hamper (NEWS)(PC)(SYD)(00011) Australia - Compaq Opens Christmas Hamper 10/13/95 SYDNEY, AUSTRALIA 1995 OCT 13 (NB) -- Compaq Australia is banking on a Christmas consumer rush, and is already sniffing the lucrative December air for the aroma of dollars wafting from the wallets of harried shoppers in search of a new home computer. "Has IT changed your life yet?" is the captivating slogan accompanying Compaq's Christmas campaign, and with this week's release of three new series of consumer multimedia PCs, the box-making giant is hoping that nobody's life remains untouched. IDC's Bruce McCabe was on hand to talk about the home PC market at the press launch for Compaq's new Presarios. He says there will be five million PCs in the Australian market by the end of 1995, penetrating one-third of homes. The consumer market will account for a 39 percent slice of the installed base of PCs by year's end, followed by business, 35 percent; education, 14 percent; and government, 12 percent. McCabe says the PC penetration rate will be up to 50 percent by the end of the decade, at which point the rate of take-up will slow due to an aging population and socio-economic barriers. He agreed that the cheap network boxes predicted by Oracle's Larry Ellison may speed up access for less affluent users, but says even $500 is a significant outlay for a poor family. "One thing's for sure, we'd like to see the 50 percent become 100 percent," quipped Compaq business manager, Geoff Anson. The price tags attached to the new Compaq Presarios may put the skids under Anson's wish. The Presario 7100 series, billed as the value line, will cost AUS$3,299 for the 540 MB 7150 model and $3,699 for the 840MB machine. The Presario 5500 and 9500 series, with extra software including MPEG-based titles, start at AUS$3,999 and move up to AUS$4,999 for the top of the line Presario 9544, a 100MHz Pentium-based machine. Standard memory across the range is 8MB. (AUS$1 is around US$0.76) (Paul Zucker/19951013) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 10/13/95 ONLINE Service Shortens Long Internet Addresses (NEWS)(ONLINE)(MSP)(00012) Service Shortens Long Internet Addresses 10/13/95 ANN ARBOR, MICHIGAN, U.S.A., 1995 OCT 13 (NB) -- Long, unwieldy Internet World Wide Web uniform resource locators (URLs) may become a thing of the past, if Branch Internet Services Inc., has its way. The company is offering a new service that will use a short "vanity" address to point to a Web site that uses long URLs. The company's new "Internet Image Service" stores the shorter URL, which either Branch or the customer can apply for through the normal means, on Branch's server, Jon Zeeff, president and founder of Branch, told Newsbytes. "When the request comes to our system, we then re-route it to your Web server, wherever that may be," he said. Only the "index" page, or the beginning page of a site, needs to be on Branch's server. The rest of the pages, including hyperlinks within the index page, can have the longer names, Zeeff said. "All pages and sub-directories at your site continue to work like they did before," he said. Branch offers the same kind of service for Internet e-mail addresses. Zeeff cites Compuserve as having one of the most unwieldy of e-mail addresses, and his system takes care of having to tell people as many as nine numbers for an address. But, "if you could say 'joe@acme.com,' that would be much easier," he said. In this case, the e-mail would actually come to Branch, and then be bounced to whatever e-mail account the customer specifies. The "bounce" happens in less than 30 seconds, and no one at Branch actually sees the e-mail, he added. Zeeff said the main reason people, especially businesses, would use the service is because of prestige. "A lot of these companies are publishing these URLs ... with addresses like http://joes-isp.com/~whatever/page.html. I just don't think it gives the right image for people who know the Internet. It gives an image of 'Oh, you don't have your own server." The service costs as little as $40 per month. All servers are connected with T3 connections and have firewall protection, backup servers, encryption, and 24-hours-a-day, 7-days-a-week monitoring, the company said. (Bob Woods/19951011/Press Contact: Jon Zeeff, Branch Internet Services, 800-349-1747, Internet e-mail job@branch.com. Public Contact: Branch Internet Services, 800-349-1747) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 10/13/95 ONLINE US West's Internet-Based Network For Businesses (NEWS)(ONLINE)(DEN)(00013) US West's Internet-Based Network For Businesses 10/13/95 DENVER, COLORADO, U.S.A., 1995 OCT 13 (NB) -- US West has announced !NTERACT, an Internet-based desktop computer networking service that lets desktop users share information, messages and networked programs with colleagues, business partners or customers regardless of where they are or the type of desktop computers they use. The telecommunications company said the new service is already being tested in Omaha and Minneapolis. By the end of the year it's scheduled to be deployed in major cities across the company's 14-state service area, including Denver, Salt Lake city, Phoenix, Portland and Seattle. The system will use Microsoft Corp.'s (NASDAQ: MSFT) NT BackOffice server suite as the enabling operating system. !NTERACT will also use technologies from Lotus Development Corporation, Netscape Communications Corp., and Cisco Systems Inc. US West said access to the Internet will be with the popular Netscape Navigator. Lotus Notes will let the network offer Notes Public Networks services, and Cisco Systems will provide the underlying enterprise internetworking platform and protocol support along with security and management features to protect mission-critical traffic. !NTERACT consists of four components, including !NTERACT basic, market and commerce, collaborative computing and transaction computing services. The basic service, which will be the first part of !NTERACT introduced, gives you Internet connectivity, including functions like electronic mail; World Wide Web access; FTP (File Transfer Protocol), a way of downloading files from the Internet; and Usenet newsgroups, information areas that each deal with a particular area of interest. Market and commerce services options include electronic commerce features, World Wide Web browsing and premium subscriber services like firewall security (blocking unauthorized access from the Internet to your computer system) and secure private networks over the Internet. US West spokesperson Rebecca Herbst told Newsbytes security will be provided through the use of passwords, authentication and encryption. Collaborative computing services provide businesses with the opportunity to outsource collaborative computing applications they would otherwise have to create, manage and maintain by themselves. US West said those applications will be based on Lotus Notes. More information will be available about the applications as the computing services part of !NTERACT is launched. !NTERACT's transaction computing services are designed to provide an infrastructure for secure electronic business transactions between subscribers for processing of electronic forms, workflow and financial transactions. Herbst said !NTERACT will be able to handle financial transactions like credit card purchases and even bank to bank or user to bank financial transactions securely. Banks in Minneapolis is currently participating in the test phase of !NTERACT. (Jim Mallory/19951012/Press contact: Rebecca Herbst, US West, 303-793-6702; Public contact: US West, 800-562-4154, ext 1020 or Internet e-mail to tbc@mstbgs2.mnet.uswest.com ) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 10/13/95 TELECOM China Coming Onstream With GSM Mobile Phones (NEWS)(TELECOM)(LON)(00014) China Coming Onstream With GSM Mobile Phones 10/13/95 HELSINKI, FINLAND, 1995 OCT 13 (NB) -- Nokia has announced that its mobile telecoms division has been contracted to supply a GSM (Global System for Mobile communications) digital mobile phone net to the Government of the Chinese Hannan Province. Terms of the contract, financial details of which have not been revealed, call for Nokia to supply various EMXs (electronic mobile exchanges) and associated network infrastructure, including base stations, in preparation for a formal launch of the network in March of next year. In phase one of the network, as many as 60,000 subscribers will be supported. Nokia is catching up rapidly on its main rival Ericsson in the digital mobile phone stakes. The company has already started supplying three GSM nets in China and is in discussions regarding several others. As well as competing with Ericsson, Nokia has to compete with several other telecoms companies in China, Newsbytes notes. In August of this year, Newsbytes reported that Italtel had contracted for the installation of a 150,000-subscriber GSM in the Hebei province of central China. Canada's Northern Telecom, meanwhile, has this year signed a contract with Guangdong Province for a GSM net, as well as with the governments of Hebei, Shanxi, and Heilongjiang Provinces. Nokia has also signed a contract with the Beijing Province for a GSM network in the capital. (Sylvia Dennis/19951011/Press Contact: Nokia +358-400-418605) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 10/13/95 ONLINE ****AT&T Interchange Online Links To World Wide Web (NEWS)(ONLINE)(SFO)(00015) ****AT&T Interchange Online Links To World Wide Web 10/13/95 SAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1995 OCT 13 (NB) -- AT&T Interchange Online Network, a specialized service of independent publishers, incorporated Netscape Communication's (NASDAQ:NTSC) Netscape Navigator 1.2 into its online software. Subscribers to Interchange may now access the service through an Internet connection. AT&T subscribers may download the Navigator into their existing software while signed onto the service. Credit will be given for the time spent on the download. For Interchange subscribers already using Navigator, no additional software is necessary. The addition of Netscape's software allows AT&T subscribers to access and its publishing partners to develop World Wide Web (Web) links. AT&T says this enhanced capability is part of a promise made when the service debuted in August. The company said one of its first improvements to the service would be an easy and fast access to the Internet. In practice, Interchange subscribers may now access the Web through links provided by the various publishers or through simply typing a Universal Resource Locator (URL, Web address) into a "Go To" command line. Users may also "copy and paste" an address into a dialog box which will take the user to the site. An AT&T spokesperson told Newsbytes, "access to the World Wide Web and through the Internet dramatically raises the value we bring to our members. This is one of many steps we have planned to expand Interchange as a feature-rich, specialized service." In addition, members may also access Interchange through an Internet dial-up connection as opposed to a proprietary or direct phone-in connection to Interchange. Members using AT&T WorldNet Managed Internet Service can now also access Interchange Online through an Internet connection. WorldNet is an AT&T service connecting users to the Internet without the use of an external or internal modem on the desktop. The company says a connection through WorldNet is usually faster the most common modem speeds. To access Interchange through the Internet members must have a working Internet connection which supports Winsock.dll-compatible access programs such as Distinct, LAN Workplace for DOS or Windows 95 (other TCP/IP stacks are not supported at this time). (Patrick McKenna/19951011/Press Contact: Jennifer Christensen, AT&T New Media Services, tel 617-252-5477) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 10/13/95 TELECOM Russia - Ericsson Installs Cellular Network In Irkutsk (NEWS)(TELECOM)(LON)(00016) Russia - Ericsson Installs Cellular Network In Irkutsk 10/13/95 STOCKHOLM, SWEDEN, 1995 OCT 13 (NB) -- Ericsson has announced the successful installation of a D-AMPS (Digital American Phone System) network, with AMPS capabilities, in the Irkutsk region of Russia. The network will have an impressive capacity of almost a million subscribers, Newsbytes notes. According to Ericsson, the new net is the first cellular network in the area and will serve the mobile needs of the tourist and business oriented region. The licensee -- North Crown Corporation -- is planning further service expansion once the network is fully operational and approved for opening. The first subscribers to the net are expected to access the service before the end of the year. Ericsson claims that D-AMPS/AMPS systems are very popular worldwide, with around 40 million users already. In Russia, D-AMPS/AMPS networks now service around 1.5 million subscribers. The Irkutsk network will join the other seven D-AMPS networks in Russia and roaming, both within Russia and beyond to the US, is expected to be announced shortly. "There are a number of the D-AMPS AND AMPS systems installed in Russia for a very simple reason: the 800 MHz band is the most widely used band in Russia for mobile communication. It's not more difficult to install than the 900 MHz band used for GSM communication," explained Per Bengtsson, information director with Ericsson's Business Area Radiocommunications division. Bengtsson told Newsbytes that 800 MHz is being used as the 900 MHz frequencies are already used by GSM services. "We also use 450MHz for mobile comms," he explained, adding that the 800 MHz waveband is relatively under-used in Russia, hence its selection for use by the D-AMPS networks. According to Bengtsson, with the constantly growing demand for mobile communications in Russia, the new system offers a quick and reliable solution -- quick to install and easy to operate. (Sylvia Dennis/19951011/Press Contact: Per Bengtsson, Business Area Radio Communications, Ericsson +46-8-757-2159) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 10/13/95 TRENDS Financial Institutions At Risk From Info Strangulation? (NEWS)(TRENDS)(LON)(00017) Financial Institutions At Risk From Info Strangulation? 10/13/95 LONDON, ENGLAND, 1995 OCT 13 (NB) -- Price Waterhouse, Informix and Sun Microsystems have formed an alliance to meet what they claim are the increasing information demands of the financial sector. The idea behind the alliance is to educate and encourage users to install a data warehouse in their organization. According to Price Waterhouse, a data warehouse is an integrated, consistent set of data representing the knowledge base of the whole corporation that is accessible by authorized end users and managers to support business analysis, modelling and decision-making. Using a data warehouse, the consultancy firm claims, enables financial organizations to consolidate data from disparate sources and interpret it to help drive the business forward. According to Andrew Davies, lead partner with Price Waterhouse's systems solutions and integration division, access to information has become a business imperative and is no longer an option. Financial institutions, the consultancy claims, are suffering from data strangulation' so that, while they have vast amounts of data, there is insufficient valid information at the fingertips of those directing the business. Price Waterhouse claims that all segments of the finance sector are affected and information is now a critical requirement for an increasing range of business processes including marketing, customer service, compliance and managing risk. The consultancy says that the ability to command relevant information will determine the success or failure of these institutions in the future. The ability to enable on- going business change is based on placing information in the hands of those directing the business. "The key to successful implementation is reconciling the business needs to the technical implementation and placing control in the hands of those directing the business," Davies explained. According to Price Waterhouse, while core data warehousing techniques are valid, early initiatives are in danger of failing, incurring large write-offs, and, perhaps more importantly, lost opportunity costs that might never be regained. The message from the alliance is that the problem of information strangulation can be addressed through an information management strategy aimed at business decision makers. The alliance, officials explained, is built on the mutual recognition of the increasing importance of information to institutions, the factors determining successful implementation, and an established track record of success. So how can companies and organizations approach the task of plugging their corporate systems into a data warehouse system? The first stage is to call in Price Waterhouse to undertake a study of an organization's operations, a task known as study the current Data Warehousing Methodology and a Proof of Concept Test, Newsbytes was told. Using this approach allows the company, in a matter of days, to prototype a client's own data warehouse to validate the investment and determine the business advantages that may be generated as a result. Implementing the data warehouse is where Informix and Sun come in, respectively, to offer the software and hardware system to run a data warehouse. (Sylvia Dennis/19951011/Press Contact: Steve Waddington, A Plus +44- 1753-790700; Reader Contact: Price Waterhouse +44-171-939-3886) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 10/13/95 TELECOM ****FCC Grants AT&T Non-Dominant Status (NEWS)(TELECOM)(TOR)(00018) ****FCC Grants AT&T Non-Dominant Status 10/13/95 WASHINGTON, D.C., U.S.A., 1995 OCT 13 (NB) -- The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has relieved AT&T (NYSE:T) of the special dominant carrier status the company has had since long-distance telephone competition began in the United States. The ruling means AT&T is now subject to the same rules as its newer rivals, notably MCI Corp. (NASDAQ:MCIC) and Sprint Corp. (NYSE:FON). In particular, AT&T will now be allowed to change its rates a day after notifying the FCC, like the other long-distance carriers. Until now, AT&T had to wait 45 days for FCC approval before a rate change. This will mean AT&T no longer has to broadcast its intentions to its competitors, company spokesman Jim McGann told Newsbytes. AT&T issued a statement welcoming the change, saying that the FCC ruling "ends an outdated form of regulation rooted in a predivestiture Bell System. It does not end the FCC's oversight of AT&T. It merely puts AT&T on the same regulatory footing as its competitors, who for years have used AT&T's dominant carrier' status to try to stifle the company's ability to offer innovative new services and pricing plans." Rival MCI had a different reaction, however. In its own statement, MCI called the change of status premature. MCI said AT&T controls more than 80 percent of the 0+ pay-phone long-distance market. MCI said AT&T maintains this dominance by paying "huge commissions" to the owners of premises where pay phones are located. MCI wants regulators to change the present arrangement by which premises owners choose the long-distance carriers serving pay phones to one in which the person paying for the call chooses the carrier. In its ruling, the FCC took two measures to protect telephone subscribers against the possibility of higher phone rates resulting from AT&T's new freedom. For three years, AT&T must guarantee a 15-percent discount to low-income residential customers. The FCC also ordered AT&T to give those customers who make less than $10 worth of long-distance calls per month a special rate of $3 monthly for 20 minutes of calling. The FCC ruling is to take effect 30 days after the regulatory agency issues the text of its decision, which McGann said it will probably do next week. (Grant Buckler/19951013/Press Contact: Herb Linnen, AT&T, 202-457-3933; Jim McGann, AT&T, 202-457-3942; Michael Lewis, MCI, 202-887-3330 or 800-644-NEWS) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 10/13/95 GENERAL Personnel Roundup (NEWS)(GENERAL)(MSP)(00019) Personnel Roundup 10/13/95 MINNEAPOLIS, MINNESOTA, 1995 OCT 13 (NB) -- This is a regular feature, summarizing personnel changes not covered elsewhere by Newsbytes: America Online Inc., Mitsubishi Consumer Electronics America Inc., Virtual Open Network Environment Corp., Zenith Electronics Corp., Novell Inc., LSI Logic Corp., Data Broadcasting Corp., Xerox Corp., Silicon Graphics Inc. America Online Inc. (Nasdaq-NNM: AMER - 703-556-3746) announced that Robert Frankenberg and Robert Pittman have been nominated to the company's board of directors, subject to stockholder approval which is expected to occur October 31. Frankenberg is president, chief executive officer (CEO) and chairman of Novell Inc. Prior to joining Novell, Frankenberg was with Hewlett-Packard Company (HP) since 1969 and held various management positions, including vice president and general manager of the Personal Information Products Group. Robert W. Pittman previously served as MTV Network's president and CEO, then became president and CEO of Time Warner Enterprises, and then chairman and CEO of Six Flags Entertainment in 1991. Peter Skerlos has been named vice president and general manager of Mitsubishi Consumer Electronics America Inc.'s (800-828-6372) Consumer Electronics Engineering Center (CEEC) in Costa Mesa, Calif. In his new role, Skerlos will direct the systems integration of the hardware design process. He will facilitate the engineering teams' design efforts and will counsel and support both offices in Japan and the CEEC. Prior to joining MCEA, Skerlos held numerous executive positions with Zenith Electronics Corporation, where he had worked for 26 years. His most recent position was vice president of advanced development. Marcus Ranum, considered by many to be the father of Internet firewalls and a leading authorities on network security, is joining Virtual Open Network Environment Corp. (301-838-8900) as chief scientist. Ranum has been active in the Unix networking and security community for the last 14 years as a software engineer, system and network manager and consultant. For the last six years, Ranum has been designing, developing and deploying network security applications. Zenith Electronics Corporation's (NYSE: ZE - 708-391-7713) board of directors has elected William G. Luehrs president of the Zenith Network Systems division, where he will be responsible for all aspects of Zenith's business related to set-top boxes, cable modems, and related equipment. With overall P&L responsibility for the division, he oversees its engineering and research, sales and marketing, and purchasing and manufacturing activities. Sheri Anderson has been named senior vice president and chief information officer for Novell Inc. (Nasdaq: NOVL - 415-923-1660). In the position, Anderson takes responsibility for Novell internal information systems and networks worldwide. She will focus on the development, implementation and maintenance of local and wide area networks, groupware and productivity applications, and integrated data, voice and video systems designed to expand productivity, communication, and collaboration among Novell personnel, customers, and business partners. She reports to James R. Tolonen, Novell executive vice president and chief financial officer. Joseph M. Zelayeta has been named the general manager of LSI Logic Corporation's (NYSE: LSI - 408-433-7139) Gresham manufacturing campus. Zelayeta, 49, is the LSI Logic senior vice president of Research and Development and general manager of US Wafer Fab Operations. He has held several management positions at LSI Logic during the past 14 years. Edward M. Anderson is now president of the Information Services Division of Data Broadcasting Corp. (Nasdaq: DBCC - 212-208-7702), an appointment which consolidates its DBC-West and BMI operations. The division is a leading US provider of wireless real-time financial market quotes and news to professional and individual investors. Anderson succeeds B. Douglas Smith, who has been named executive vice president, Strategic Planning, for the parent company (DBC). Both Anderson and Smith will report to Alan Hirschfield and Allan Tessler, co-chief executive officers of DBC. William F. Buehler has been elected an executive vice president of Xerox Corporation (NYSE: XRX - 203-968-3572), effective immediately. Buehler, who joined Xerox in 1991, had served previously as senior vice president and chief staff officer. In his new position, he will continue to serve in the seven-member Corporate Office, which is responsible for the leadership, management and strategic direction of Xerox. Buehler, 56, oversees the company's United States Customer Operations and Xerox Canada Inc., as well worldwide strategies and policies in the areas of human resources, information management, external affairs, total quality management, the office of the general counsel and relations with Fuji Xerox Co., Ltd., the company's Japanese affiliate. He is also a member of the Fuji Xerox board of directors. Chu W. Chang has joined Silicon Graphics Inc. (NYSE: SGI - 415-390-3233) as vice president of the Customer Support Division. Chang, 40, will be responsible for all aspects of customer support including revenue attainment, customer satisfaction and consistency in support practices. Formerly with Hewlett-Packard, Chang received a bachelor's degree in computer science from Chiao Tung University in Taiwan and a master's degree in business administration from the University of Wisconsin. (Ian Stokell/19951013) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 10/13/95 BUSINESS Round 2 In Time Warner-US West Battle (NEWS)(BUSINESS)(DEN)(00020) Round 2 In Time Warner-US West Battle 10/13/95 ENGLEWOOD, COLORADO, U.S.A., 1995 OCT 13 (NB) -- US West Inc. (NYSE: USW) and Time Warner Inc. (NYSE: TWX) have come out swinging in round two of the battle started by US West when it moved to block the Time Warner-Turner Broadcasting merger. Time Warner Inc. and US West are partners in Time Warner Entertainment Co. (TWE). In late September, US West filed suit to stop the planned $7.5 billion merger on the grounds that it would violate the terms of that partnership agreement. US West insists it's opposing the merger because the deal is potentially bad for its shareholders. Earlier this week Time Warner countered with a lawsuit of its own, asking the court to stop US West from pursuing its suit. Time Warner also asked the court for permission to reform the TWE partnership to remove final voting control from US West, which owns 25 percent of TWE. In its court filing, Time Warner said US West used its position in the partnership to block major proposed cable and telephone-related initiatives of the partnership. According to Time Warner, those failed deals included a joint venture with Sprint Corp., for local wireline and cellular telephone service, a joint venture with Tele-Communications Inc., (TCI) to create an online computer service over cable lines, and a joint venture with a major telecommunications company to offer telephone and cable services through TWE cable systems. Time Warner alleges that US West's actions caused Time Warner to lose valuable time in the highly competitive and rapidly evolving cable and telephone industry due to US West's insistence that TWE operate under the terms of the US anti-trust settlement with AT&T Corp. Time Warner also said in the court papers that US West chief executive, Richard McCormick, once told Time that "US West's traditional local telephone business is dead meat" because of competition from cable television and cellular phone companies. A US West spokesperson told The Denver Post newspaper McCormick doesn't remember making that remark. US West called Time Warner's countersuit "a diversion, a public relations tactic meant to make noise." "When lawyers have the facts on their side, they pound hard on the facts; when lawyers have the law on their side, they pound hard on the law; when lawyers have neither, they pound hard on the table. Time Warner's response is table-pounding," said US West. US West is preparing to seek shareholder approval later this month of a plan that would allow separate trading of US West stock in its core 14-state phone business and its Media group, which includes the TWE partnership. Earlier this month US West announced the new management organization in conjunction with its cellular operations merger with AirTouch Communications (NYSE: ATI). Beginning November 1, 1995 Wireless Management Company (WMC), which was formed to serve as a single management resource, will begin providing support services for both companies' separate domestic cellular operations. In the second phase of the merger the two cellular operations will be merged. That is scheduled for late July 1996 or when regulatory restrictions related to the Bell system breakup are lifted or at Airtouch's option, which ever occurs later. Once the merger is complete the two companies' equally owned PCS partnership will be contributed to the WMC. The PCS partnership, which will require large amounts of capital for the buildout of PCs markets, is expected to lose lots of money for several years. (Jim Mallory/19951013/Press contact: Steve Lang, US West, 303-754-5441) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 10/13/95 TELECOM US West Wants To Offer Phone Service Outside Its Region (NEWS)(TELECOM)(MSP)(00021) US West Wants To Offer Phone Service Outside Its Region 10/13/95 WASHINGTON, D.C., U.S.A., 1995 OCT 13 (NB) -- The US Justice Department gave thumbs-up to a plan by US West (NYSE:USW) to offer long-distance phone service over its cable systems outside its region. The recommendation now goes to US District Judge Harold Greene. If the plan receives Greene's approval, US West could offer a range of telephone services in dozens of cable television systems it owns with Time Warner, along with some Atlanta systems it owns outright. Green is the same judge who issued the order to break up then-monopoly AT&T in 1984. The Justice department said US West should only be allowed to offer long-distance service in areas where it would compete with a carrier that's already there, and only to customers who buy US West's local phone service. US West officials were not available for comment on this story. In a separate announcement, AT&T (NYSE:T) said it consents with the Justice department ruling. The company said it sees the US West cable phone service as a "potentially valuable experiment that could help further an important goal that AT&T has been advocating for years: the introduction of real competition and consumer choice in the local telephone company business that today is a complete monopoly." The company also said the move would also further the belief that customers should have the right to choose their long-distance carriers, and long- distance carriers can obtain access to their customers on a fair basis. This statement would seem to fall in line with a supposed plan by AT&T to re-enter the local telephone business. AT&T neither confirmed nor denied any such plan, which was first reported by Newsbytes based on a Wall Street Journal article last August. (Bob Woods/19951013/Press Contact: Lois Leach, U.S. West, 303-793- 6355) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 10/13/95 BROADCAST Video News Roundup (NEWS)(BROADCAST)(MSP)(00022) Video News Roundup 10/13/95 MINNEAPOLIS, MINNESOTA, U.S.A., 1995 OCT 13 (NB) -- This is a look at the top stories this week in the world of video news reporting: NBC Desktop Video to use General Electric compression, desktop video networks growing, ENG safety issues and in new products; the Panasonic AG-DS550 S-VHS Superdeck, Crestron touch screens and the Apex optical drive. #IMAGE 1 20 TWPCX \images\95101322.PCX Click here for photo New Software for NBC Desktop Video In a New York Times story by Laurence Zuckerman, it's reported that NBC will be using a new compression scheme for its Desktop Video service. Developed by General Electric, the new scheme eliminates certain inaudible portions of the audio. This will allow audio to be transferred at 4 kilobits a second. This is about half of the bandwidth of the most popular audio compression software presently on the Internet, according to the story. As with most audio "cheats," it only works well with voice data, not music. The new software will be supported by Netscape and following Netscape's lead, NBC intends to offer the audio reader for free on the net, but charge for the encoding and authoring tools. Desktop Video Networks Growing NBC made known its commitment to desktop video by building a new digital studio. Television Broadcast's September issue reports that NBC's three services NBC Professional (NBC PRO), NBC Private Financial Network (NBC PFN), and NBC Desktop Video On Demand is serviced by a combination production studio and newsroom. Two of the channels are strictly live so there is no editing equipment. Meanwhile CNN's "CNN at Work," operating since last fall, is doing well. TV Broadcast quotes CNN Interactive's Director of Operations Sandy Bernard, "This is, in a sense, interactive television, except it shows up on your PC. It's making the analog television signal interactive." Other publications are looking into the fundamentals of this trend. September's Advanced Graphic Imaging reports on Networked Desktop Video for commercial and industrial end users. Besides the various technical issues is the use factor. The article sees it has a benefit for corporate communications and training. It could revolutionize employee education with "just in time" training delivered to the employees desktop with a minimum of interruption to the work schedule. October's Digital Video includes "Managing Desktop Video on a LAN (Local Area Network)." The Desktop Video article was written by Nels Johnson, author of How to Digitize Video, mentioned in the previous Video Roundup. He notes that "you should be aware that off the shelf LAN solutions have improved dramatically over the last year or so, allowing QuickTime and AVI clips played over local networks to rival desktop video played from double speed CD-ROM drives." September's Broadcast Engineering also covers the issue. They see it as a way for broadcasters, who have content on hand, to compete with cable and telco services. Data broadcasting is seen as a growing force. "With televisions in virtually every home and household PC penetration approaching 40%, it appears that the marriage of the television and computer is inevitable." ENG Field Safety Television Broadcast notes a story about a mast accident in Florida. A WINK-TV Fort Meyers news photographer and reporter were seriously injured when the microwave mast hit a power line as it was being raised. Broadcast Engineering goes in depth with an article on truck safety. Besides traffic, traffic code and electrical issues, safety for operators is covered in a sidebar "Safety Awareness for ENG/SNG Operators" (Electronic and Satellite News Gathering). Mast problems, lightening, cab equipment, carbon monoxide, and RF energy (Radio Frequency) are some of the topics addressed. New Products Panasonic has announced a beefing up of its S-VHS line affording middle range pricing for a high performance S-VHS editing deck. The new model is the AG-DS550 Hi-Fi Editing Recorder. Dubbed the "Superdeck" it features built in LTC/VITC (Longitudinal Time Code / Vertical Interval Time Code) time code generators and readers, time base correction and Y/C digital noise reduction. A playback model is available, the AG-DS540 S-VHS Hi-Fi Editing Player. AV Video's Product Focus for September features the Apex 4.6 GB drive by Pinnacle Micro. It's said to have the world's highest capacity on a single 5.35-inch disk. Average seek time is 17 ms. Video Systems features the Crestron Color Touch. The touch screen control panels come in a 6-inch diagonal (CT-1500) and 10-inch (CT-3000) model. For programming, they come with the Crestron VisionTools PC-based software. (Newsbytes Staff/19951005/SUPERDECK951013/PHOTO) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 10/13/95 PC UK - Apricot Unveils Home PC Range, Goes Retail (NEWS)(PC)(LON)(00023) UK - Apricot Unveils Home PC Range, Goes Retail 10/13/95 BIRMINGHAM, ENGLAND, 1995 OCT 13 (NB) -- Apricot, widely considered to be a business PC vendor, has gone consumer, unveiling a new range of MS540 machines, which will be sold through retail channels such as Currys and Dixons, as well as PC World. The move is a significant one for Apricot, a subsidiary of Mitsubishi Electric, since it marks a turning point for the company as it moves into the booming retail sector and away from the business sector, which is in a state of great flux. Backing up the shift to retail, Apricot has announced plans to run a major TV and national press advertising campaign during November and December, with the express intention of pushing the company's new consumer range in the all-important pre-Christmas market "Traditionally, we have been a business PC company. With the new MS540 range, we have added a clear new consumer focus to this heritage. The success of our previous multimedia PCs has convinced us that this Christmas was the right time for us to focus our extensive design expertise and experience on this new market," explained Chris Buckham, Apricot's group marketing director. "Often home computer users are given a choice of a business PC adapted for the home and multimedia; poorly designed, unattractive and with compromised quality to keep a low cost. Or they get an over-specified and over-priced system that relies on bells and whistles the user doesn't really need -- we believe it is time to listen to customers and give them what they want," he said. According Buckham, a veteran of some 10 years in the UK business computer channel, success in the home market is not just about having an excellent product -- the channel, he claims, is vital. "So this Christmas, we have joined forced with the Dixons Group, putting Apricot PCs into the high street in PC World and selected Dixons and Currys' stores throughout the UK. To support this drive in to the home market we are also undertaking our first product TV advertising -- we're very serious about giving the home customer a choice of aggressively priced and high quality PCs to choose from," he explained. The MS540 series unveiled this week by Apricot consists of an amazing 37 models in total, spanning the low end of the consumer market and across into the SOHO (small office, home office) side of the market. The home range kicks off with the MS540e, a 75 megahertz (MHz) Pentium system with 8 megabytes (MB) of memory, Soundblaster audio, Sony quad CD-ROM, 20 watt hi-fi speakers, 840MB hard disk and 14-inch VGA monitor. The pricing of this system is UKP 1,399. In the SOHO market, the LS550 series starts at UKP 1,419 for the 550E, a 75MHz Pentium system with 8MB of memory, Ethernet and a 640MB hard drive. Topping out the revamped Apricot range is the VS series, aimed at SOHO and business users. This range is claimed to be designed for the cost- conscious business user who is not looking for the network-readiness of the LS series, but wants a robust system. Prices for the VS series start at UKP 1,349 for the VS550, with the same specifications as the LS550e, but without Ethernet. (Steve Gold/19951012/Press Contact: Lisa Francis, Text 100 +44-181- 242-4194; Internet Email: lisaf@text100.co.uk; Reader Contact: Apricot Computers +44-121-717-7171; Fax +44-121-717-0132) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 10/13/95 TRENDS ****Time Warner Sends Hidden Messages In New CD-ROM Game (NEWS)(TRENDS)(SFO)(00024) ****Time Warner Sends Hidden Messages In New CD-ROM Game 10/13/95 BURBANK, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1995 OCT 13 (NB ) -- Next week. Time-Warner Interactive is launching a new CD-ROM game, called Endorfun. Designed to uplift the spirit and provide entertainment, Endorfun contains 100 positive affirmations which are subliminally transmitted while the game is being played. Time Warner admits there is no scientific evidence which decidedly proves subliminal messages affect behavior, but Endorfun's motto is "Play More. Feel Better." The hidden messages are contained on Endorfun Suite, an original music soundtrack created and performed by The O Band. Prepared for the fact that some users may object to the messages, the developer allows a user to turn off the music, but keep the game's sound effects. To make sure customers are comfortable with the specific affirmations, Time Warner lists the entire 100 messages on the CD-ROM packaging. Michael Feinberg, the developer behind Endorfun and director of Onesong Partners, spoke to Newsbytes about the affirmations and concepts of his latest project. "I have worked on games for the past 10 years and always focused on material which uplifts people. Like my other projects, Endorfun is an alternative to the many CD-ROM games which stress violence and tension," explained Feinberg. Revealing a few of the 100 affirmations, he commented, "They are very straightforward and simple, such as 'I feel joyful,' 'I feel abundance,' 'I love being alive.' We have watched people sit and play the game, people who do not know there are subliminal messages, and the game makes them smile and feel good. Even people who are watching the game sometimes begin to feel happy. We are not saying this is scientific proof. It is just what players report to us and what we see." The game requires players to maneuver a three-dimensional, six-colored cube around an ever-changing grid which contains pulsating, colored squares called "life forces." The goal is to make a calculated move to land the cube on a matching life force cell before time runs out or a player gets trapped by non-matching cells. The moving of squares is only part of the game. The game's developers say the entire game is meant to stimulate the mind and uplift the spirit through a combination of game playing, original music, kinetic art and subliminal affirmations. The O Band is lead by Onye Onyemaechi, a Nigerian master drummer and spiritual teacher and the soundtrack is a homage to the spirit of the tribal village. In the early development stage, Feinberg said he showed the game to a number of different companies. "The people at Time Warner were the least afraid and the most appreciative of what Onesong is trying to do. They wanted to do something well-intentioned. Perhaps it has to do with some of the bad publicity they received from controversial material, but they have been completely supportive of our efforts to develop a title which is positive and appealing to males and females, novice gamers and experienced gamers," he said. Endorfun should begin to appear on software retail shelves next week. The $29.95 title is available on a hybrid CD which means one CD contains Windows and Macintosh versions. Users may install a Windows 3.1, Windows 95, Macintosh 68040x or a Power Mac version of the game. Multimedia computer systems with a 300-kilobyte-per- second CD transfer rate or higher are required and Mac users need System 7.1 or higher. Feinberg is currently working on a version for the Sony Playstation and the Sega Saturn system and projects a first of the year shipping date. (Patrick McKenna/19951013/Press Contact: Norma Velvikis, Faiola Davis Public Relations, tel 213-933-4959; /ENDORFUN951013/PHOTO) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 16 10/13/95 GENERAL Compaq's Innovate Forum 95 Kicks Off Oct (NEWS)(GENERAL)(DEN)(00025) Compaq's Innovate Forum 95 Kicks Off Oct 16 10/13/95 HOUSTON, TEXAS, U.S.A., 1995 OCT 13 (NB) -- Thousands of participants from all over the globe will congregate next week in Houston to explore the world of corporate computing. The event is the invitation-only Compaq Computer Corp. (NYSE: CPQ)-sponsored Innovate Forum 95. The company said the forum is designed to "help management and technical professionals address the current and upcoming challenges in information technology." The four-day event will offer technical and strategic roundtable discussions and keynote speeches by industry luminaries. The program will consist of a dozen half and full-day sessions that will highlight case studies and examine how the spotlighted companies handled their own corporate computing challenges and technical hurdles. Specific topics will include how companies are using network management and other tools to lower network ownership costs, disaster recovery planning and risk management for client/server platforms and how to justify costs for those plans to management. Sessions on mobile computing will highlight how mobile computing can be used for applications like multimedia, disaster recovery and desktop replacements. Other sessions include "Enabling Remote Workers," "The Office of the Future," "Exploiting the Internet," "Managing the Transition to Windows 95," and "Reengineering Business Processes in a Client/Server Environment." Innovate Forum 95 won't be all lecture and discussion. Participants will be able to explore products and services on display in the 60,000 square foot display exhibit area. More than 40 vendors, including Microsoft, IBM, Sybase, Oracle, SAP, Lotus, SCO Cheyenne and Banyan will be showing their wares. There will also be numerous technical breakout sessions for engineers who design and develop advanced technologies. (Jim Mallory/19951013/Press contact: Compaq Public Relations, 713-374-0484) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 10/12/95 PC Compaq To Support Third-Party PC Cards (NEWS)(PC)(DEN)(00026) Compaq To Support Third-Party PC Cards 10/12/95 HOUSTON, TEXAS, U.S.A., 1995 OCT 12 (NB) -- In a move that will eliminate confusion over who should provide support for some PC peripherals, Compaq Computer Corp. (NYSE: CPQ) has announced it will provide technical support for PC cards from a number of vendors and will also publish a list of other products that have been tested for compatibility with its computers. #IMAGE 1 20 TWPCX \images\95101226.PCX Click here for photo PC Card is the terminology now in use for what used to be called PCMCIA (Personal Computer Memory Card International Association) devices, the credit-card sized cards that slip into expansion slots in most laptop PCs to provide a data/fax modem, network connections, sound, additional memory, device emulation and other peripheral services. In the past it has been easy for users to become frustrated when they are told "it's not our device, you need to call the other company to find out how to configure it." The Compaq policy eliminates any possibility of that happening if your using one of that company's computers and have installed a PC card on the tested and approved list. Compaq spokesperson John Sweney told Newsbytes the list of devices either tested by the company or tested by the vendor using Compaq guidelines will be updated quarterly. You can ask to see the list when you buy your Compaq PC or obtain it from Compaq's faxback system. It's also posted on Compaq's home page on the World Wide Web at the Uniform Resource Locator address http://www.compaq.com . The list is divided into two parts. Sweney said cards on the Premier PC Card list have been jointly tested by the company and the vendor on all Compaq PCs that have PC Card slots and on all Compaq pre-installed operating systems, including Windows 3.1 and Windows 95. By mid-1996 the cards will also be approved for use with Windows NT, IBM's OS/2 Warp and Windows for Workgroups. About 20 PC Cards are currently on the Premier list. Vendors get to put the Compaq PC Card Solutions logo on their product packaging and in their advertising for devices on the list. The logo is a vertical rectangle with the word "Compaq" at the top and "PC Card Solution" at the bottom. A large check mark occupies the center of the rectangle. It's devices on that list for which Compaq will provide technical support. In addition to well-known vendors like Intel, 3Com, IBM, Xircom and Compaq, less familiar names like Hotline, Lasat, Psion, Calluna Technology, SanDisk, New Media and DCI are currently on the Premier list. The Compaq support covers questions about device configuration and installation. "We will support those cards as if they are our own," said Sweney. the service does not provide warranty repair of PC Cards. That will still have to be done through the manufacturer, said Sweney. PC Cards on the second list, called Standard PC Card Solutions, have been vendor-tested at Compaq's lab using Compaq specifications. Compaq said these cards are qualified on Windows 3.1 and tested on an ongoing basis on Windows 95 and other popular operating systems. Sweney said while Compaq doesn't provide technical support for those products, "They have been tested and we are reasonably sure they work with our products." Presently there are about 70 products on the Standard list. (Jim Mallory/19951012/Press contact: Compaq Public Relations, 713-514-0484; Public contact: Compaq, 800-345-1518 or Compaq forums on America Online, Compuserve and Prodigy or 800-345-1518 for faxback/PCCARD951013/PHOTO) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 10/13/95 IBM IBM Intros TeamConnection "Groupware" For Developers (NEWS)(IBM)(BOS)(00027) IBM Intros TeamConnection "Groupware" For Developers 10/13/95 ARMONK, NEW YORK, U.S.A., 1995 OCT 13 (NB) -- IBM's new TeamConnection combines IBM-created configuration management with an object database from Object Design Inc., to let teams of developers migrate mainframe applications to the client-server environment, in addition to building enterprise-level "second- generation three-tier" applications from scratch, said IBM's Ralph Rodriguez, in a briefing for Newsbytes. Corporations today are moving away from "brittle, monolithic applications" to more adaptive, object-oriented environments that support workgroup enablement, workflow, and "network centricity," according to Rodriguez, an exec in IBM's Software Solutions Division. "Organizations are also trying in use information about their businesses in business process re-engineering (BPR). They're also trying to figure out how to leverage their `value-added' relationships (in software). And, if they happen to be global, they are also concerned about multiple platforms and languages, cost distribution and management, and scalability to the enterprise," Rodriguez told Newsbytes. "We are the first to provide this level of scalability to the client-server development environment. So we regard TeamConnection as a very important announcement," the IBM exec maintained. IBM, he revealed, chose Object Design's ObjectStore as TeamConnection's object repository on the basis of ObjectStore's ability to store fine-grained objects, such as intricate GUIs (graphical user interfaces) with "a multitude of parts," as well as coarse-grained objects, such as documentation code. "ObjectStore is a place where you can store all your assets: data, objects, and code," Rodriguez elaborated. Other kinds of components that can be stored in the object database include relational databases, operational data and relationships, objects representing business processes, and meta data, for "managing the parts," he illustrated. On top of ObjectStore, IBM has built configuration services, as well as data constraints for "defining the information in the repositories," version control, problem tracking, and change control, according to Rodriguez. Developers can be notified of changes to development data, and alerted as to when they should take action. TeamConnection also allows for "integrated build" functionality, permitting teams to split up development into "multiple parallel tasks" for higher efficiency, he maintained. Other features include a reporting facility, backup and recovery of archival storage, and integration with crossplatform tools from IBM that include VisualGen 2.0, VisualAge for C++, VisualSet for OS/2 Cobol, and PL/I for OS/2. TeamConnection also includes a set of APIs (application programming interfaces) for integrating third- party tools into the team development environment. A built-in "information model" allows the tools to share data. Also during the briefing, Patrick Deville, a TeamConnection beta user, told Newsbytes that his company, Ciba-Geigy Ltd., has integrated PACBASE/CS -- a life-cycle development environment first built with VisualGen -- with TeamConnection in a pilot application. Ciba-Geigy, a biological and chemical company with 80,000 employees worldwide, is interested in obtaining benefits of the client-server environment that include reduced costs, "more robust applications," and crossplatform portability, said Deville, who is new technologies consultant for Ciba-Geigy, a firm that moved from the mainframe environment last year. "We also want to be able to use TeamConnection as the basis for integrating other client-server tools," he reported. Ultimately, Ciba-Geigy expects to extend the use of TeamConnection to a development team of about 40 staffers, according to Deville. Rodriguez told Newsbytes that client and server components of TeamConnection for IBM's OS/2 environment will ship on October 24. IBM will deliver a Windows NT server, as well as clients for "the Windows family," in the first half of 1996. Client and server functionality will be available for AIX and HP-UX 90 days from now, and for other Unix platforms within the next six to 12 months, said the IBM exec. (Jacqueline Emigh/19951012/Reader Contact: IBM, 914-765-1900; Press Contacts: Keith Mary Rantas-Drew, IBM, 914-766-1211; Chris Webber, Brodeur & Partners for IBM, 617-622-2854) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 10/13/95 TELECOM France Telecom Pulls Out Of Austrian GSM License Bid (NEWS)(TELECOM)(LON)(00028) France Telecom Pulls Out Of Austrian GSM License Bid 10/13/95 PARIS, FRANCE, 1995 OCT 13 (NB) -- France Telecom has announced it has pulled out of the bidding for a third GSM (global system for mobile communications) digital cellular network in Austria. The move leaves just two players in the running, Telecom Finland and a consortium of private investors, for Austrian's proposed third GSM network. Industry experts are predicting that Telecom Finland is the likely candidate, but a decision by the Austrian Government is not expected until later this year. The news comes just as Motorola's European Cellular Infrastructure Division has started work on a $50 million Phase 2 expansion of the PTV (Generaldirektion fur die Post-und Telegraphenverwaltung) private GSM network in Austria. The project will mean that the PTV network will have the same coverage as its analog network, and push the state D-Netz GSM network into second position as far as coverage is concerned. According to PTV, the phase 2 installation will increase coverage of the PTV GSM network on a national scale, building on the Motorola digital cellular infrastructure already in place in every major Austrian city and transportation route. The resources that PTV is pouring into expanding its GSM network in Austria may pour cold water on Telecom Finland's aspirations to become Austria's third GSM network provider, since most other European countries only have two GSM networks. Experts have been predicting for some time that the Austrian Government's plan to operate three GSM nets in the country was overly optimistic, given the costs of installing a GSM network. (Sylvia Dennis/19951012/Press Contact: France telecom Direction de L'International +33-1-4444-6732; Fax +33-1-4656-1474) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 10/13/95 ONLINE Japan's High-Speed Academic Link To Thailand (NEWS)(ONLINE)(HKG)(00029) Japan's High-Speed Academic Link To Thailand 10/13/95 BANGKOK, THAILAND, 1995 OCT 13 (NB) -- Thailand and Japan have inaugurated a high-speed data communications link to promote joint international study and research development funded by the Japanese Government. Thailand's Minister of Science, Technology and Energy Yingphan Manasikarn presided at the formal opening of a two megabits per second (2mbps) link between the ThaiSarn academic network and Japan's largest computer network, the Science Network (SINET) of the National Centre for Science Information Systems (NACSIS). The high-speed link, which will effectively quadruple existing data communications links between Thailand and the outside world, is funded by Japan's Ministry of Education, Science, Sports and Culture to the tune of 160 million yen (40 million baht) a year. This data link allows computers to "talk" to one another, and the two-megabit link enables digitized information to be transferred some 70 times faster than the fastest telephone dial- up computer modem allows at 28.8Kbps -- effectively allowing many more simultaneous links to be maintained. The link will enhance academic Internet access, allow for teleconferencing, provide access to electronic library services and for the interconnection of supercomputers, explained NACSIS Director General Hiroshi Inose. Signing a memorandum of understanding was Dr Inose and National Electronics and Computer Technology Centre (NECTEC) Director Professor Pairash Tachjayapong. The link will augment Japan's existing high-speed data links between SINET and the United States and the United Kingdom, and is the first such link of its kind in the region for the Japanese Government agency. Dr Inose said that the government of Japan is now actively pursuing investment in an information infrastructure, and that the rapid development in Thailand's economy has helped narrow the gap between the two countries, thus providing the opportunity for Japan to assist with this network link. He added that some 10 years ago, the Japanese economy and those of its neighbors had vast differences, but that now the economies of Thailand, Singapore and Korea are growing up more easily, so it helps the Japanese economy. "If not for the rapid growth in Thailand's economy, Japan's recession would be much worse," he noted. The link between Thailand and Japan will promote joint international study and R&D experiments aimed at developing solutions for future academic information systems and networks on the road to the Global Information Infrastructure, Dr Inose added. "We would regard this communications link as the first step towards globalization," for Japan's communications, he said. (Tony Waltham and Post Database-Bangkok Post/19951004) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 10/13/95 GOVT Thailand - EDI Venture Tradesiam Gets Go-ahead (NEWS)(GOVT)(HKG)(00030) Thailand - EDI Venture Tradesiam Gets Go-ahead 10/13/95 BANGKOK, THAILAND, 1995 OCT 13 (NB) -- The Thai Cabinet has approved the establishment of a joint government and private sector venture to be called Tradesiam, which will be an electronic data interchange (EDI) operator. The 260 million baht (US$10.4 million) in registered capital for Tradesiam will be funded by the government agencies, with a 49 percent holding, and private investors. The government shareholders comprise National Science, Technology Development Agency of the Ministry of Science, Technology and Environment, the Ministry of Transport and Communications, the Finance Ministry and the Commerce Ministry. The National Electronics and Computer Technology Centre (NECTEC) will be in charge of seeking investors from the private sector, while related state enterprises and government offices will consider the jointly investing in the project. Thai Cabinet ministers also agreed that private investors must come from the Crown Property Bureau, the transport sector, the financial and insurance businesses or be industry users such as the Federation of Thai Industries, Thai Chamber of Commerce, and Thai Bankers' Association. Tradesiam, a project of Thailand's National Information Technology Policy Committee, will receive Board of Investment privileges. Dr Pichet Durongaveroj, director of NITC secretariat office, told Newsbytes that Tradesiam would need a year to prepare for providing services. The process will comprise setting up a committee, seeking funds, locating premises, recruiting personnel and obtaining equipment. At this stage NECTEC will be responsible for seeking funds from the private sector and would appoint company board members and a managing director. After that, other processes will be the responsibility of the managing director, he said. The firm will run as a private sector business with the government to overlook confidential information on international trading. He said there might be many EDI systems in a country such as EDI in banks and department stores. However, Tradesiam will oversee only international trade. "Thailand should quickly establish an international EDI service since our neighboring countries such as Malaysia and Singapore have already done so," he said, adding it will attract more foreign investors to Thailand. Tradesiam will provide EDI services to government offices such as the Customs Department as well as private sector. (Tony Waltham and Post Database-Bangkok Post/19951004) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 10/13/95 GENERAL Australian News Briefs (NEWS)(GENERAL)(SYD)(00031) Australian News Briefs 10/13/95 SYDNEY, AUSTRALIA 1995 OCT 13 (NB) -- Here are today's news briefs from down under: Sydney's Mac Computer Systems saved from oblivion, PCS Australia records record profits, Sharp says color computer sales booming, CeBit applications close, Navy offers charts of Australia's coast, Sydney museum gets antique computer, awards for best Australian business software, QBE Insurance standardizes on IBM's Warp. Sydney's Mac Computer Systems Saved From Oblivion G.M. Computer Engineering has purchased the failed Sydney Apple reseller Mac Computer Systems (MCS) from the receiver. According to a statement from Apple Computer Australia, Gibbons has confirmed that G.M. Computer will merge its service business with MCS. The doors have already opened for trade at the old MCS address in Sydney. Apple says it will honor orders prepaid by customers of the former MCS. Affected customers are advised to call 1 800 807 495 to make the necessary arrangements. PCS Australia Records Record Profits PCS Australia, computer product distributor and reseller, says it has turned in record profits to September 30, despite a management buy-out earlier in the year. According to PCS, the buy-out was finalized in April, and saw PCS directors sweep up three of the company's seven partners. "We have cemented our position as NEC Information Systems Australia's number one reseller in this country," says Syd Borg, CEO at PCS. PCS claims to be one of the 25 largest computer hardware retailers in Australia. Sharp Says Color Computer Sales Booming Sharp Australia says sales of its Color Star PC 3010 and 3050 486 computers are charging along. Mark Leathan, Sharp's SOHO sales and marketing manager, says three months' worth of stock was sold in two weeks when the machines were released in August. On the basis of this success, Sharp is now planning to launch new models in November based on what it calls "next-generation processor technology." CeBit Applications Close Australian applications for the 1996 CeBit exhibition in Hanover have now closed. According to InTelligent Australia, there have been more than 100 bookings for display space from companies and industry bodies. "We are especially encouraged that 20 of the applications from individual companies are from newcomers," says Dieter Le Comte, Austrade's executive general manager for Europe. CeBit is scheduled for March 1996. Exhibitors will be briefed during a national road show kicking off in Perth on October 31. Navy Offers Charts Of Australia's Coast The Australian Navy has launched the first of its new official electronic computer charts of the Australian coastline. Andy Waddington, survey manager on HMAS Moresby, said the charts had debuted with the Australian Navy's new electronic navigation system ECDIS (The Electronic Chart Display and Information System). Waddington says real-time functionality is a feature of the charts. "A paper chart tells you where you have been. You plan on the paper chart where you want to go and fix the ship's position," he said, adding, "The electronic charts update it every two seconds and display that information in real time." Sydney Museum Gets Antique Computer Sydney's Powerhouse Museum has successfully bid for a nineteenth century calculating machine designed by British mathematics professor Charles Babbage, paying a reported AUS$279,265 for the antique, around three times the value estimated by Christie's auction house. Reuters reports that the calculating machine was expected to sell for about 50,000 pounds ($79,015), but went to the Powerhouse after strong bidding. Babbage's Difference Engine No. 1 was conceived in 1821 and developed between 1823 and 1833 to help eliminate mathematical errors in navigation, science, surveying, and banking. Initially government-funded, Babbage's project faltered in 1833 after the funding was revoked. Sections built later according to Babbage's design showed that it would have worked. According to Reuters, the part of the Difference Engine sold by Christie's was one of six assembled in 1879 by Babbage's son, Henry, from pieces of the original. Awards For Best Australian Business Software The Nine TV network's Small Business Show in Australia is launching an award for the best Australian business software. The Nine Network says the award is worth about AUS$30,000 in cash and prizes. "The award is open to every type of software for any industry, on either a PC or Mac platform. The only prerequisite is that it's a business application," says Stephen Rice, executive producer of the program. Entries close on November 13. QBE Insurance Standardizes On IBM's Warp Who said OS/2 Warp is dying? Not QBE Insurance which has revealed plans to introduce 1000 new PCs running Warp to 70-odd branches round Australia. The deal is part of a systems upgrade being handled by ISSC Australia (the IBM-Lend Lease services joint venture). QBE's desktops previously ran under DOS; now they'll use Warp and Lotus SmartSuite to access the company's core insurance system, running under MVS/DB2. (Computer Daily News/19951006) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 10/13/95 CHIPS China - Motorola Semiconductor Plant In Tianjin (NEWS)(CHIPS)(PEK)(00032) China - Motorola Semiconductor Plant In Tianjin 10/13/95 BEIJING, CHINA, 1995 OCT 13 (NB) -- Motorola will invest US$720 million to build a semiconductor plant in Tianjin of North China, the company announced recently in a news conference in Beijing. Construction of the new plant is expected to begin in November. It is scheduled to be operational in the first quarter of 1998. The new plant of 3 million square feet in the Xiqing area represents the company's increasing interests in Tianjin, bringing the total investment of Motorola China Electronics Ltd., (MCEL) to more than US$1 billion in the port city. Motorola decided that profits earned in China will be reinvested within the country, the company said. The firm's level of re-investment has made it a leader among foreign investors in China's electronics industry, the company noted. MCEL, located in Tianjin Economic and Technology Development Area, started up in 1992 with an initial investment of 120 million. It made an additional investment of 160 million in April 1994. The new investment designed to enhance the existing capacity in producing semiconductors, will finance the set up of a high-technology semiconductor plant. By the end of 2000, the firm's total investment in China should reach $1.2 billion, the company said. The newly announced investment scheme will not only include the construction of the plant but also involve expanding MCEL's capacity regarding radio-pager and cellular phone production in Tianjin. Mass production which is expected to start in 1998 will not only be targeted for Chinese consumers but also for foreign markets. MCEL is very active in the Chinese market and it earned two awards last year for being among the top 10 foreign invested firms in exports and in sales issued by the Chinese Foreign Investment Association. Motorola was the only electronics company that won two of the association's awards. Besides in Tianjin, Motorola also plans to set up a joint venture with the Nanjing Panda Electronics Group Corporation to produce personal computers. The two parties expect to sign a contract this October. (Chih-Ho Yu & Ning Huang/19951006/Reader Contact: Motorola China Electronics Ltd., tel +86-10 843-7222) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 10/13/95 LEGAL China - 12 Publishing Houses Punished For CD Piracy (NEWS)(LEGAL)(PEK)(00033) China - 12 Publishing Houses Punished For CD Piracy 10/13/95 BEIJING, CHINA, 1995 OCT 13 (NB) -- The State Copyright Administration (SCA) has announced in Beijing that 12 publishing houses and companies discovered to have pirated CDs and video discs, have been brought before the courts. The announcement comes just prior to the half- yearly review of China's piracy crackdown by US negotiators. A SCA spokesman said that a number of publishing houses and companies were caught during a recent raid aimed at seizing pirated CDs. Although there was no release of a complete list of those companies, the spokesman said that Beijing Video and Audio Corp, Shanghai Video and Audio Publishing House, Guangdong Provincial Phonograph Corp, the Nanjing Video and Audio Publishing House, and Shenzhen Video and Audio Corp, were caught during the raid. The spokesman said that the pirated works included films from the United States and other countries and those of some Hong Kong pop singers. Some of the publishing houses had false authorization papers, and some made false claims about having legal authorization, he said. The SCA and local copyright administrations will cooperate in a new anti-piracy campaign soon, which will focus on video discs and CD-ROMs, the spokesman said. The spokesman stated strongly that no copyrighted products will be allowed to be published until they are authorized by the copyright owners and he further emphasized that those who break the copyright law to a serious extent will be caught and handed over to the court. (Chih-Ho Yu & Ning Huang/19951006) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 10/13/95 LEGAL ****US/China's Overcrowded Copyright Talks Bogged Down (NEWS)(LEGAL)(HKG)(00034) ****US/China's Overcrowded Copyright Talks Bogged Down 10/13/95 CENTRAL, HONG KONG, 1995 OCT 13 (NB) -- American and Chinese officials in Beijing are deep into another round of talks on policing copyright. The half-yearly review is looking at how Beijing is living up to an agreement to stamp out copyright piracy signed last year. Newsbytes was told last night that negotiators are still stumped over an old issue -- control and closure of CD manufacturing plants. "The consultations have been going along in a positive manner," said Business Software Alliance (BSA) Director Alix Parlour, just returned to Hong Kong from Beijing. "[But] there are still differences between the two sides." The differences arise from the continued operation of plants, which produce allegedly pirated material. The US side maintains they should have been shut down -- as China was committed to do. Following pressure from the US software, film and publishing industries, which, together, claim they're losing billions through Mainland theft, US Trade Representative staff entered into tough negotiations with Chinese officials late last year. After much huffing and puffing on both sides, the Americans finally got the Chinese to agree to clamp down hard on violators. A big feature of that undertaking concerned closing down CD manufacturing plants which were known to be shipping pirated software and CDs across Asia. The Chinese assured the Americans they would close these plants, or at least clean them up, by last July. But, according to Parlour, 22 of the original 27 plants are still in business. Earlier this year, with much fanfare, Beijing announced the closure of the infamous Shenyang plant. But that was back in business within weeks. "Beijing seems unable to get the provincial authorities to stop the manufacture of illegal copyrighted material," said Parlour. As if to make the point, Hong Kong Customs officers have just seized 25,000 CDs smuggled into the territory earlier this week. The BSA was asked to examine the contraband and declared the entire cache counterfeit. "Think about it -- 25,000 CDs," Parlour exclaimed. "Any major publisher would be pleased to ship that amount." The talks, due to end Friday, have been stretched out to accommodate the profusion of ministries China has marshalled for the session. Even the Aviation Ministry has asked to put its oar in. "Everyone has to have their say," groaned the BSA chief. The US side is being led by deputy assistant trade representative Lee Sands. (Nigel Armstrong & I.T. Daily/19951012) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 10/13/95 BUSINESS Shoddy Workmanship Shuts ICL China PC Plant (NEWS)(BUSINESS)(HKG)(00035) Shoddy Workmanship Shuts ICL China PC Plant 10/13/95 CENTRAL, HONG KONG, 1995 OCT 13 (NB) -- Just months after it opened, and with just 2,000 PCs to show for the trouble, ICL's Guangdong PC assembly plant in Panyu has been shut down. According to John Cohem, ICL's marketing director in Hong Kong, the plant just wasn't up to turning out quality products -- a sorry record that threatened to drive the cost of ICL's warranty program through the roof. The factory, the brain-child of former managing director Kenneth Ng, assembled the units from knock-down kits. Cohem wouldn't be drawn on how much ICL dropped on the venture. But he did say it made a lot of financial sense for ICL to pull out of it sooner rather than later. "The warranty claims on the computers out of the factory became painful," said Cohem. The idea behind setting up the assembly plant was to bypass import duties on PCs sold in China. "But the cost of the warranty claims meant that, even with import duties, computers manufactured in Scandinavia made nearly double the profit -- so we closed it down," Cohem confessed. The move came a step ahead of the closing of ICL's Beijing office, which will eventually be replaced by a joint venture office with Fujitsu, which has a 70% stake in the company once billed as Britain's largest computer firm. In July, Fujitsu joined forces with its UK unit and agreed to take charge of ICL PC sales throughout Asia, under a separate company called FITA -- Fujitsu, ICL Trading Asia. In that role, FITA will support ICL's PC and mid-range products in China, with the help of third parties like TOP Asia. One ICL insider confided the company had trouble getting money and service out of some of its distributors in China. With Fujitsu apparently spending heavily to break into the China market, added to the fact that FITA had just been created, it made more sense to hand operations over to its Japanese parent, he said. FITA, based in Singapore and run by Ian Leech of ICL, is a 60/40 Fujitsu/ICL project. According to ICL, 80% of Beijing office sales revenue came from PCs. Most mid-range China sales originated in Hong Kong. Customers would buy in the territory and ship product out themselves. (Nigel Armstrong & I.T. Daily/19951012) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 10/13/95 TELECOM Nortel Snaps Up US$14 Million China Deal (NEWS)(TELECOM)(HKG)(00036) Nortel Snaps Up US$14 Million China Deal 10/13/95 CENTRAL, HONG KONG, 1995 OCT 13 (NB) -- Northern Telecom has sold a US$14.5 million fiber radio system to the China National Postal and Telecommunications Appliances Corporation (PTAC). Officials said the system will form the backbone of the country's first major synchronous digital hierarchy radio transmission network. The network, which can link to conventional networks, uses digital technology to transmit more data and voice than is possible on current lines. The FibreWorld SDH Radio 5/40 system obviates laying hundreds of kilometers of fibre. The net will serve Hubei, Jaingxi and Fujian provinces and run 900 km, spliced by 18 relay points. Nortel said it will be capable of carrying the equivalent of over 24,000 voice channels simultaneously. (Nigel Armstrong & I.T. Daily/19951011) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 10/13/95 GENERAL Newsbytes Week In Review (NEWS)(GENERAL)(MSP)(00037) Newsbytes Week In Review 10/13/95 MINNEAPOLIS, MINNESOTA, U.S.A., 1995 OCT 13 (NB) -- This is a look at the top stories this week, listing with their category code: Mentor & Microtec To Merge, Stac Electronics Acquires California Software, Caere To Acquire ViewStar, Compuserve To Page Users When E-Mail Is Received, UUNet Technologies Announces Intent To Acquire Unipalm, Jim Manzi Resigns As Lotus CEO, IBM Senior VP, Viacom & Tellabs To Offer Cable TV/Phone Service, IBM Germany To Shed 1,200 More Jobs, Lotus 1-2-3 Aims To "Take Back Lead" From Microsoft, FCC Grants AT&T Non-Dominant Status, US/China's Overcrowded Copyright Talks Bogged Down, AT&T Interchange Online Links To World Wide Web, Time Warner Sends Hidden Messages In New CD-ROM Game. Mentor & Microtec To Merge (BUSINESS) SAN JOSE, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1995 OCT 10 (NB) --Mentor Graphics Corporation (NASDAQ: MENT), and Microtec Research Inc. (NASDAQ:MTEC) have agreed to merge in a stock swap valued at $130 million. Microtec Research is a supplier of software products for the development of embedded systems, and Mentor Graphics primarily designs, manufactures, markets and distributes electronic design automation (EDA) software. Stac Electronics Acquires California Software (BUSINESS) SAN DIEGO, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1995 OCT 10 (NB) -- Well-known data compression specialist, Stac Electronics (NASDAQ:STAC) plans to develop a suite of Internet business applications as data compression becomes integrated into operating systems. In a move designed to "build an internal foundation for these new applications," Stac has announced the acquisition of California Software. Caere To Acquire ViewStar (BUSINESS) LOS GATOS, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1995 OCT 10 (NB) -- Building on last year's merger with Calera, Caere, a leader in optical character recognition (OCR) technology, has announced an agreement to merge with ViewStar, a developer of workflow, document, and image management software. The $40 million merger will take Caere technology into the high-end client/server and minicomputer/mainframe environments. Compuserve To Page Users When E-Mail Is Received (ONLINE) COLUMBUS, OHIO, U.S.A., 1995 OCT 11 (NB) -- Compuserve is extending its reach from the wired world of online services and the Internet to the wireless realm of paging services. Starting in November, the online network will page its subscribers when electronic-mail is waiting from either other members or through the Internet, among other features. UUNet Technologies Announces Intent To Acquire Unipalm (BUSINESS) CAMBRIDGE, ENGLAND, 1995 OCT 11 (NB) -- UUNet Technologies Inc., the US Internet service provider (SP), has announced its intention to acquire Unipalm, the UK Internet group that owns Pipex, which is widely recognized as being the largest UK Internet SP. Pipex also has deals with several European Internet SPs for effective pan-European Internet access. Jim Manzi Resigns As Lotus CEO, IBM Senior VP (IBM) CAMBRIDGE, MASSACHUSETTS, U.S.A., 1995 OCT 11 (NB) -- In a teleconference today, Jim Manzi publicly announced plans to resign from his 13-year post as president and chief executive officer (CEO) of Lotus Development Corporation, as well as from the role he assumed as senior VP of IBM when IBM acquired Lotus in June. Viacom & Tellabs To Offer Cable TV/Phone Service (BUSINESS) SAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1995 OCT 12 (NB) -- Cable giant Viacom, and Tellabs (NASDAQ:TLAB), are combining their respective cable delivery system and voice and data transport technology to offer full telephone service alongside standard cable television features. Following a California Public Utility Commission ruling, Viacom says it is building a pilot program in Castro Valley, California, which offers cable TV and full service local and long distance calling. IBM Germany To Shed 1,200 More Jobs (IBM) STUTTGART, GERMANY, 1995 OCT 12 (NB) -- IBM has announced plans to shed 1,200 staff over the next 12 months. According to Horst Richter, a member of the supervisory board of Big Blue's German operation, and a senior member of IG Metall, the German trade union, the staff cuts are on top of the 6,000 positions already lost over the last year. Lotus 1-2-3 Aims To "Take Back Lead" From Microsoft (IBM) CAMBRIDGE, MASSACHUSETTS, U.S.A, 1995 OCT 13 (NB) -- Through a "complete rebuild" of Lotus 1-2-3 for the Windows 95 environment, supported by a new $30 rebate plan for current 1-2-3 for Windows 3.1 users, Lotus is squaring off to "take back the lead" from Microsoft in the spreadsheet market, said Jeffrey Anderholm, director of product marketing for spreadsheets at Lotus, in an interview with Newsbytes. FCC Grants AT&T Non-Dominant Status (TELECOM) WASHINGTON, D.C., U.S.A., 1995 OCT 13 (NB) -- The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has relieved AT&T (NYSE:T) of the special dominant carrier status the company has had since long-distance telephone competition began in the United States. The ruling means AT&T is now subject to the same rules as its newer rivals, notably MCI Corp. (NASDAQ:MCIC) and Sprint Corp. (NYSE:FON). In particular, AT&T will now be allowed to change its rates a day after notifying the FCC, like the other long-distance carriers. US/China's Overcrowded Copyright Talks Bogged Down (LEGAL) CENTRAL, HONG KONG, 1995 OCT 13 (NB) -- American and Chinese officials in Beijing are deep into another round of talks on policing copyright. The half-yearly review is looking at how Beijing is living up to an agreement to stamp out copyright piracy signed last year. AT&T Interchange Online Links To World Wide Web (ONLINE) SAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1995 OCT 13 (NB) -- AT&T Interchange Online Network, a specialized service of independent publishers, incorporated Netscape Communication's (NASDAQ:NTSC) Netscape Navigator 1.2 into its online software. Subscribers to Interchange may now access the service through an Internet connection. Time Warner Sends Hidden Messages In New CD-ROM Game (TRENDS) BURBANK, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1995 OCT 13 (NB ) -- Next week. Time-Warner Interactive is launching a new CD-ROM game, called Endorfun. Designed to uplift the spirit and provide entertainment, Endorfun contains 100 positive affirmations which are subliminally transmitted while the game is being played. (Ian Stokell/19951012) (SUMMARY)(GENERAL)(MSP)(00038) Newsbytes Daily Summary 10/13/95 MINNEAPOLIS, MINNESOTA, U.S.A., 1995 OCT 13 (NB) -- These are capsules of all today's news stories: ======================================================================== ------------| N E W S B Y T E S D A I L Y S U M M A R Y |---------- ------------| Friday, October 13, 1995 |---------- ======================================================================== (c) Newsbytes News Network (Tm) Editor in Chief: Wendy Woods ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Newsbytes News Network's 1995 Update CD-ROM for Mac, DOS, and Windows is now available for $29.95 (includes s&h). Contains 1983-1995 news stories, more than 64,000 keyword searchable stories and 475 digitized images. For more information or to order, fax to 612-430-0441 or e-mail to 'administrator@newsbytes.com' -- MC, Visa, Amex accepted. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ CATEGORY HEADLINES (*** indicates today's top stories) STORY # ======================================================================== BROADCAST ACTV, Sarnoff Center To Develop Digital TV Products........ 08 BROADCAST Video News Roundup......................................... 22 BUSINESS Germany - AT&T Closes Augsberg Facility.................... 04 BUSINESS Round 2 In Time Warner-US West Battle...................... 20 BUSINESS Shoddy Workmanship Shuts ICL China PC Plant................ 35 CHIPS China - Motorola Semiconductor Plant In Tianjin............ 32 GENERAL Asia Market Fastest-growing For Lexmark.................... 10 GENERAL Personnel Roundup.......................................... 19 GENERAL Compaq's Innovate Forum 95 Kicks Off Oct 16................ 25 GENERAL Australian News Briefs..................................... 31 GENERAL Newsbytes Week In Review................................... 37 GOVT Thailand - EDI Venture Tradesiam Gets Go-ahead............. 30 IBM IBM Intros TeamConnection "Groupware" For Developers....... 27 LEGAL "British FBI" Coming....................................... 05 LEGAL China - 12 Publishing Houses Punished For CD Piracy........ 33 LEGAL ****US/China's Overcrowded Copyright Talks Bogged Down.... 34 ONLINE Lucky Lotto On The Internet................................ 02 ONLINE Internet Update............................................ 03 ONLINE ZD Net Offers Free Personalized News On Internet........... 09 ONLINE Service Shortens Long Internet Addresses................... 12 ONLINE US West's Internet-Based Network For Businesses............ 13 ONLINE ****AT&T Interchange Online Links To World Wide Web....... 15 ONLINE Japan's High-Speed Academic Link To Thailand............... 29 PC Australia - Compaq Opens Christmas Hamper.................. 11 PC UK - Apricot Unveils Home PC Range, Goes Retail............ 23 PC Compaq To Support Third-Party PC Cards..................... 26 TELECOM UK Firm Slashes UK/US Call Costs To 16c/minute............. 06 TELECOM China Coming Onstream With GSM Mobile Phones............... 14 TELECOM Russia - Ericsson Installs Cellular Network In Irkutsk..... 16 TELECOM ****FCC Grants AT&T Non-Dominant Status................... 18 TELECOM US West Wants To Offer Phone Service Outside Its Region.... 21 TELECOM France Telecom Pulls Out Of Austrian GSM License Bid....... 28 TELECOM Nortel Snaps Up US$14 Million China Deal................... 36 TRENDS Financial Institutions At Risk From Info Strangulation..... 17 TRENDS ****Time Warner Sends Hidden Messages In New CD-ROM Game.. 24 UNIX Insignia Boosts PC Emulation To 80486 Under Unix........... 07 WINDOWS ****Lotus 1-2-3 Aims To "Take Back Lead" From Microsoft... 01 ======================================================================== These are the headlines and first paragraphs of each story, in order: 1 -> ****Lotus 1-2-3 Aims To "Take Back Lead" From Microsoft -- Through a "complete rebuild" of Lotus 1-2-3 for the Windows 95 environment, supported by a new $30 rebate plan for current 1-2-3 for Windows 3.1 users, Lotus is squaring off to "take back the lead" from Microsoft in the spreadsheet market, said Jeffrey Anderholm, director of product marketing for spreadsheets at Lotus, in an interview with Newsbytes. 2 -> Lucky Lotto On The Internet -- The tiny European country of Liechtenstein, nestled between the Swiss and Austrian borders, has launched the first lotto to be conducted exclusively on the Internet. The operators hope to entice people with the attraction of the highest prize pool payout in the world. 3 -> Internet Update -- In this roundup of new services and resources on the global Internet: The Selena trial on the Web, APEC official Website, missing kids on the Web, European telework week, new sites in Asia, Digital Ink: new offerings from newspapers, Salvador Dali virtual museum of art, Australian Webindex. 4 -> Germany - AT&T Closes Augsberg Facility -- AT&T's Global Information Solutions (DIS) division has announced plans to close its Augsberg PC production facility. The closure will involve 450 layoffs and forms part of AT&T's global strategy of moving out of PC productions, officials said. 5 -> "British FBI" Coming -- The British Government, currently at its annual Conservative Party conference in Blackpool, is reported to be preparing plans for a British version of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI). 6 -> UK Firm Slashes UK/US Call Costs To 16c/minute -- First Telecom, a new UK telecoms carrier, has opened a new global calling service for UK telecoms subscribers. The service claims to be the cheapest on the market, offering calls to the US for 10 pence (16 cents) a minute at offpeak times. 7 -> Insignia Boosts PC Emulation To 80486 Under Unix -- Insignia Solutions has dramatically upgraded its PC emulator for the Unix environment. SoftWindows 2.0 for Unix now has the ability, the company claims, to run all DOS and Windows applications, including Windows enhanced modem packages, as if they were running on a 80486 processor-based system. 8 -> ACTV, Sarnoff Center To Develop Digital TV Products -- The David Sarnoff Research Center and ACTV Inc. will jointly collaborate in the developing of individualized television products, both companies have announced. The agreement will combine Sarnoff's system and hardware designed with ACTV's individualized programming technology, officials said. 9 -> ZD Net Offers Free Personalized News On Internet -- World Wide Web devotees can now read personalized computer industry news reports online at Ziff-Davis Interactive's ZD Net site. 10 -> Asia Market Fastest-growing For Lexmark -- Lexmark unveiled five new laser printers and an infrared device for mobile computing yesterday, and visiting US CEO and Chairman Marvin Mann was on deck at Sydney's Manfredi restaurant to witness the Australian birth. 11 -> Australia - Compaq Opens Christmas Hamper -- Compaq Australia is banking on a Christmas consumer rush, and is already sniffing the lucrative December air for the aroma of dollars wafting from the wallets of harried shoppers in search of a new home computer. 12 -> Service Shortens Long Internet Addresses -- Long, unwieldy Internet World Wide Web uniform resource locators (URLs) may become a thing of the past, if Branch Internet Services Inc., has its way. The company is offering a new service that will use a short "vanity" address to point to a Web site that uses long URLs. 13 -> US West's Internet-Based Network For Businesses -- US West has announced !NTERACT, an Internet-based desktop computer networking service that lets desktop users share information, messages and networked programs with colleagues, business partners or customers regardless of where they are or the type of desktop computers they use. 14 -> China Coming Onstream With GSM Mobile Phones -- Nokia has announced that its mobile telecoms division has been contracted to supply a GSM (Global System for Mobile communications) digital mobile phone net to the Government of the Chinese Hannan Province. 15 -> ****AT&T Interchange Online Links To World Wide Web --AT&T Interchange Online Network, a specialized service of independent publishers, incorporated Netscape Communication's (NASDAQ:NTSC) Netscape Navigator 1.2 into its online software. Subscribers to Interchange may now access the service through an Internet connection. 16 -> Russia - Ericsson Installs Cellular Network In Irkutsk -- Ericsson has announced the successful installation of a D-AMPS (Digital American Phone System) network, with AMPS capabilities, in the Irkutsk region of Russia. The network will have an impressive capacity of almost a million subscribers, Newsbytes notes. 17 -> Financial Institutions At Risk From Info Strangulation -- Price Waterhouse, Informix and Sun Microsystems have formed an alliance to meet what they claim are the increasing information demands of the financial sector. The idea behind the alliance is to educate and encourage users to install a data warehouse in their organization. 18 -> ****FCC Grants AT&T Non-Dominant Status -- The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has relieved AT&T (NYSE:T) of the special dominant carrier status the company has had since long-distance telephone competition began in the United States. The ruling means AT&T is now subject to the same rules as its newer rivals, notably MCI Corp. (NASDAQ:MCIC) and Sprint Corp. (NYSE:FON). In particular, AT&T will now be allowed to change its rates a day after notifying the FCC, like the other long-distance carriers. 19 -> Personnel Roundup -- This is a regular feature, summarizing personnel changes not covered elsewhere by Newsbytes: America Online Inc., Mitsubishi Consumer Electronics America Inc., Virtual Open Network Environment Corp., Zenith Electronics Corp., Novell Inc., LSI Logic Corp., Data Broadcasting Corp., Xerox Corp., Silicon Graphics Inc. 20 -> Round 2 In Time Warner-US West Battle -- US West Inc. (NYSE: USW) and Time Warner Inc. (NYSE: TWX) have come out swinging in round two of the battle started by US West when it moved to block the Time Warner-Turner Broadcasting merger. 21 -> US West Wants To Offer Phone Service Outside Its Region -- The US Justice Department gave thumbs-up to a plan by US West (NYSE:USW) to offer long-distance phone service over its cable systems outside its region. The recommendation now goes to US District Judge Harold Greene. 22 -> Video News Roundup -- This is a look at the top stories this week in the world of video news reporting: NBC Desktop Video to use General Electric compression, desktop video networks growing, ENG safety issues and in new products; the Panasonic AG-DS550 S-VHS Superdeck, Crestron touch screens and the Apex optical drive. 23 -> UK - Apricot Unveils Home PC Range, Goes Retail -- Apricot, widely considered to be a business PC vendor, has gone consumer, unveiling a new range of MS540 machines, which will be sold through retail channels such as Currys and Dixons, as well as PC World. 24 -> ****Time Warner Sends Hidden Messages In New CD-ROM Game -- Next week. Time-Warner Interactive is launching a new CD-ROM game, called Endorfun. Designed to uplift the spirit and provide entertainment, Endorfun contains 100 positive affirmations which are subliminally transmitted while the game is being played. 25 -> Compaq's Innovate Forum 95 Kicks Off Oct 16 -- Thousands of participants from all over the globe will congregate next week in Houston to explore the world of corporate computing. 26 -> Compaq To Support Third-Party PC Cards -- In a move that will eliminate confusion over who should provide support for some PC peripherals, Compaq Computer Corp. (NYSE: CPQ) has announced it will provide technical support for PC cards from a number of vendors and will also publish a list of other products that have been tested for compatibility with its computers. 27 -> IBM Intros TeamConnection "Groupware" For Developers -- IBM's new TeamConnection combines IBM-created configuration management with an object database from Object Design Inc., to let teams of developers migrate mainframe applications to the client-server environment, in addition to building enterprise-level "second- generation three-tier" applications from scratch, said IBM's Ralph Rodriguez, in a briefing for Newsbytes. 28 -> France Telecom Pulls Out Of Austrian GSM License Bid -- France Telecom has announced it has pulled out of the bidding for a third GSM (global system for mobile communications) digital cellular network in Austria. 29 -> Japan's High-Speed Academic Link To Thailand -- Thailand and Japan have inaugurated a high-speed data communications link to promote joint international study and research development funded by the Japanese Government. 30 -> Thailand - EDI Venture Tradesiam Gets Go-ahead -- The Thai Cabinet has approved the establishment of a joint government and private sector venture to be called Tradesiam, which will be an electronic data interchange (EDI) operator. 31 -> Australian News Briefs -- Here are today's news briefs from down under: Sydney's Mac Computer Systems saved from oblivion, PCS Australia records record profits, Sharp says color computer sales booming, CeBit applications close, Navy offers charts of Australia's coast, Sydney museum gets antique computer, awards for best Australian business software, QBE Insurance standardizes on IBM's Warp. 32 -> China - Motorola Semiconductor Plant In Tianjin -- Motorola will invest US$720 million to build a semiconductor plant in Tianjin of North China, the company announced recently in a news conference in Beijing. Construction of the new plant is expected to begin in November. It is scheduled to be operational in the first quarter of 1998. 33 -> China - 12 Publishing Houses Punished For CD Piracy -- The State Copyright Administration (SCA) has announced in Beijing that 12 publishing houses and companies discovered to have pirated CDs and video discs, have been brought before the courts. The announcement comes just prior to the half- yearly review of China's piracy crackdown by US negotiators. 34 -> ****US/China's Overcrowded Copyright Talks Bogged Down -- American and Chinese officials in Beijing are deep into another round of talks on policing copyright. The half-yearly review is looking at how Beijing is living up to an agreement to stamp out copyright piracy signed last year. 35 -> Shoddy Workmanship Shuts ICL China PC Plant -- Just months after it opened, and with just 2,000 PCs to show for the trouble, ICL's Guangdong PC assembly plant in Panyu has been shut down. 36 -> Nortel Snaps Up US$14 Million China Deal -- Northern Telecom has sold a US$14.5 million fiber radio system to the China National Postal and Telecommunications Appliances Corporation (PTAC). Officials said the system will form the backbone of the country's first major synchronous digital hierarchy radio transmission network. 37 -> Newsbytes Week In Review -- This is a look at the top stories this week, listing with their category code: Mentor & Microtec To Merge, Stac Electronics Acquires California Software, Caere To Acquire ViewStar, Compuserve To Page Users When E-Mail Is Received, UUNet Technologies Announces Intent To Acquire Unipalm, Jim Manzi Resigns As Lotus CEO, IBM Senior VP, Viacom & Tellabs To Offer Cable TV/Phone Service, IBM Germany To Shed 1,200 More Jobs, Lotus 1-2-3 Aims To "Take Back Lead" From Microsoft, FCC Grants AT&T Non-Dominant Status, US/China's Overcrowded Copyright Talks Bogged Down, AT&T Interchange Online Links To World Wide Web, Time Warner Sends Hidden Messages In New CD-ROM Game. (Wendy Woods/19951013) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 10/12/95 ONLINE Cable TV's Travel Channel On The Web (NEWS)(ONLINE)(MSP)(00001) Cable TV's Travel Channel On The Web 10/12/95 ATLANTA, GEORGIA, U.S.A., 1995 OCT 12 (NB) -- The Travel Channel cable TV network is expanding onto the Internet's World Wide Web. The channel has unveiled "The Travel Channel Online Network," designed to inform people about places, events, culture, and food from around the world. The new online network integrates online and broadcast content so travelers can access the Web resource for many travel needs. The site is designed for anyone interested in travel, officials said, from grandparents to "Generation X-ers." "We created the Travel Channel Online Network in response to our television viewers' requests for more in-depth information," said Kevin Senie, president and chief executive officer, Travel Channel Networks. "They are looking for an authoritative source for this information, and are asking us to be that source." "We had about 6,000 calls last month from viewers who are asking for more information," Teri Wall Bemis, Travel Channel online producer, told Newsbytes. She also said the company sees this site as, not only complementing the cable network, but also standing on its own. "It will make us the premier travel place, between cable and online," she said. "We see it as a way to serve travel-interested people, not just for people who watch the cable network." The online network is organized into seven separate areas. The "Spotlight" section focuses on a different topic each week. This week's spotlight is on Vancouver, British Columbia. "Travel Talk" contains bulletin boards and a chat room with real-time information exchange. Ten travel newsletters written by authorities in the field can be found in the "Travel Facts and Opinions" area. Net surfers can enter a monthly photo contest in the "Photo Gallery." Every picture submitted to the Travel Channel Online Network will be featured in this area, officials added. A virtual online brochure for various trips is available in the "Vacations, Holidays, and Getaways" section. "Connections" lists hotlinks to other travel- related Web sites, while a searchable guide for the Travel Channel's on-air programming is available through "The Travel Channel Cable Networks" area. Bemis also said several search engines are available through the site, including one that goes through 20,000 Web pages on travel. When Newsbytes surfed to the site, we found a well laid-out index page, with all of the sections clearly labeled. The chat room in the "Travel Talk" area intrigued us, so we went there. The "room" is actually run by InfiNet's "Talker" program. Unfortunately, no one was in the room while we were there. But other "rooms" within Talker (not connected with the Travel Channel) are available. The channel claims an audience of 17.5 million households. The new online network was announced this week during simultaneous "Wired for Adventure" events at cyber cafes in New York and San Francisco. At the cafes, participants surfed the site for the first time, officials said. (Bob Woods/19951011/Press Contact: Denise Jenkins, Alexander Communications, 404-897-2300) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 10/12/95 TELECOM Hong Kong Plans Full Telecom Competition (NEWS)(TELECOM)(HKG)(00002) Hong Kong Plans Full Telecom Competition 10/12/95 CENTRAL, HONG KONG, 1995 OCT 12 (NB) -- Hongkong Telecom's new rival in supplying telephone lines, New T&T, has the first phase of its fiber optic network and digital switching system up and running. This comes only three months after getting its license. The firm is connecting customers in Tsimshatsui, Central, and Causeway Bay districts to its network. As part of the Wharf group, New T&T has the advantage of being able to access the fiber cable network of Wharf Television, which has given it a head start in competing with Hongkong Telecom. The company is expecting to compete in high-speed data transmission services and enhanced messaging, as well as conventional telephony, using its newly installed Northern Telecom DMS 100 switching system. The announcement of the completion of its first phase of networking comes only days after it placed another challenge at the doorstep of traditional phone carrier, Telecom. In an ongoing tit-for-tat price war, New T&T further cut rates on its One2One international calling card. Until the end of next month it is offering bonus days on calls to the US, Canada, Japan, France, Germany, and the UK, and cutting its prices by 25%. Its first round of lower international charges forced Telecom to cut charges on many overseas destinations. (Nigel Armstrong & I.T. Daily/19951012) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 10/12/95 BUSINESS 3Com To Set Up Offices In Thailand & Vietnam (NEWS)(BUSINESS)(HKG)(00003) 3Com To Set Up Offices In Thailand & Vietnam 10/12/95 BANGKOK, THAILAND, 1995 OCT 12 (NB) -- 3Com Corporation plans to set up representative offices in both Thailand and in Vietnam, according to 3Com ASEAN Channels Manager Eric Lee. He said that, after the company had established an office in the Philippines, it would establish an office in Thailand within six months. "We are now looking for staff and a location," he said. The market in Thailand is five times larger than in Vietnam. Consequently, he said the company planned to cover the market In Thailand before expanding to Indochina. Speaking at the High Performance Networking seminar recently held by The Value System, its distributor, Lee said that 3Com intended to offer customers all networking product lines including adapter cards, routers and switching for both local area networks (LANs) and wide area networks (WANs). During the seminar, 3Com launched a Fast Ethernet 100 Base-T Workgroup hub for cooperate companies who require image transfer and high-speed transaction processing. The company was targeting banks, financial brokerage houses, insurance, and hospital sectors, he said, adding that the firm is working with Novell Inc. to offer customers worldwide a "total solutions" package for branch office networks that are "reliable, manageable and scalable." The partnership includes enhanced interoperability in network management, routing and desktop technologies. It will offer products through The Value Systems' partners: Computer Man, CDG Microsystems, and Multimedia Technology. According to The Value Systems President Narong Intanate, some 40 percent of existing PCs are connected to networks. "There are four PCs in ten connected to a network," he said, adding that the number will increase to 50 percent of the PC market. The networking technology will move to FDDI (fiber distributed data interface) and ATM (asynchronous transfer mode) technologies that support not only data, but sound and image transfer for multimedia architectures, he noted. (Tony Waltham and Post Database-Bangkok Post/19951012) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 10/12/95 TRENDS Color Inkjet Printing Increases In Australia (NEWS)(TRENDS)(SYD)(00004) Color Inkjet Printing Increases In Australia 10/12/95 SYDNEY, AUSTRALIA, 1995 OCT 12 (NB) -- The demand for high quality, low-cost printing is driving color inkjet sales onward and upward in what research group IDC Australia is calling a "quiet, but colorful" revolution. In its recent report, "The Australian Printer Market, Review and Forecast 1994-1999," IDC says the gap between the price of monochrome dot-matrix printers and color inkjets is narrowing fast, and vendors are shifting their sales efforts to new areas of the market to absorb the loss of market share in the dot-matrix segment. IDC reports that the color inkjet market grew faster than any other in 1994 in terms of unit shipments, increasing by 214.3 percent to take up 12 percent of 1994's total printer market, up from 4.2 percent in 1993. End-user value of the market, says IDC, rose 141.3 percent. Average prices were down from $1,212 in 1993 to $930 in 1994. According to IDC's figures, Hewlett-Packard is heading the vendor charge, and trebled its color inkjet shipments last year, but lost market share anyway, falling from 77.8 percent to 51.5 percent. Olivetti and Epson, newcomers to the color inkjet scene in Australia, put in strong showings. Epson took a reported nine percent of the market, and Olivetti 4.8 percent. Canon chewed up 24.5 percent of the market. The dot-matrix market, however, is far from dead. "Although in decline in 1994, it remained larger than the laser printer market in unit terms, despite market perception that it is a small and dying marketplace," said Martin Ross, IDC's printer analyst. In a press release accompanying the printer report, he said sales of personal laser printers have also shown strong growth, with shipments up 41.1 percent last year. According to the report; the impact printer market will continue to decline; the page printer and inkjet printer markets will keep growing; the monochrome inkjet is the new entry-level printer; and growth in the page printer market will continue for five years. The hardest hit market will be the 9-pin and 24-pin dot-matrix. By 1999, these will account for under 10 percent of the total printer market. Total printer shipments in Australia increased 9.5 percent in 1994, says IDC, with 583,687 units shipped as against 533,098 in 1993. The total installed base of printers is estimated at 3,145,000. Copies of the full report are available from IDC. (Computer Daily News/19951012/Public Contact: tel +61-2-9922-5300) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 10/12/95 TRENDS Australian Study Says Computer Games Not Bad For Kids (NEWS)(TRENDS)(SYD)(00005) Australian Study Says Computer Games Not Bad For Kids 10/12/95 CANBERRA, AUSTRALIA, 1995 OCT 12 (NB) -- A Australian study by an associate professor of psychology claims to show that people worry unnecessarily about the effects of computer games on children. Professor Kevin Durkin of the University of Western Australia claims research did not support "dramatic anxieties" about computer games. The Federal Attorney-General, Michael Lavarch, launched the report of Professor Durkin's study in Brisbane recently. The Office of Film and Literature Classification commissioned the study, "Computer Games: Their Effects on Young People," to help it classify games. Professor Durkin claims that computer games might even improve family relations, encouraging joint activities on a scale rarely seen since TV came into our lives. He said the games were "unlikely" to harm young people, and that more boys than girls played computer games. He added that, "genuinely addictive" game-playing was rare. he also claims that research had found no link between aggressive behavior and game play at home, and no indication whether a limited correlation between aggression and game play in arcades was due to the games or to the arcade environment. Lavarch will take the study's findings to State and Territory censorship ministers in Adelaide on November 3. They will discuss the future direction for research. (Computer Daily News/19951005) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 10/12/95 TELECOM China - Shanghai Buys SDH System From AT&T (NEWS)(TELECOM)(PEK)(00006) China - Shanghai Buys SDH System From AT&T 10/12/95 BEIJING, CHINA, 1995 OCT 12 (NB) -- A US$13 million contract was signed recently between AT&T and Shanghai Posts and Telecommunications Bureau (SPTB) for SPTB to buy synchronous digital hierarchy (SDH) equipment from AT&T within a year. The purchase is reportedly part of the city's "information superhighway" plan. Shanghai, the largest city in China, is mapping out an information blueprint scheduled to go into effect next year, an official with SPTB said. Building the information highway, together with the Pudong International Airport and deep-water port, are the city's three huge infrastructure projects. The scheme of the information highway is expected to have five aspects: setting up a high-speed telecommunications and computer network in city to transmit images and multimedia information; providing public information services and fostering the local information industry; providing advanced computers and telecommunications devices; and drawing up regulations and standards. The SDH transmission system is a key part of the information telecommunications platform, the official said. The project will cover more than 90 telephone bureaus. Along with contracts signed in the first half of this year, the investment for the first phase of SDH expansion totals US$20 million, an AT&T official said. Under the contract, AT&T will supply 170 intelligent synchronous multiplexers, eight digital cross-connect systems and operation systems within this year. The SDH system can hold 30,000 telephone channels in a hair-thin fiber-optical line, four to 16 times more than the previous digital hierarchy. (Chih-Ho Yu & Ning Huang/19951005) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 10/12/95 WINDOWS DOS/Windows Welsh Spelling-Checker Intro'd (NEWS)(WINDOWS)(LON)(00007) DOS/Windows Welsh Spelling-Checker Intro'd 10/12/95 CARDIFF, WALES, 1995 OCT 12 (NB) --The Welsh Language Board (Bwrdd Yr Iaith Gymraeg) has announced the release of CySill 2.0+, a Welsh language spelling-checker designed for use with most DOS or Windows 3.xx word processors. According to the Board, the UKP45 package is compatible with Microsoft Word, WordPerfect. Ami Pro, Wordstar, and the new Windows 95 operating system. "The software builds on CySill 1.0, which was a basic word processing spelling-checker, and can work with a wide variety of word processors," explained a spokeswoman for the board to Newsbytes. The company is not offering demo versions of the package because of its low cost, but the board is offering a money-back guarantee, and, if companies are interested in site licenses, then a single-user copy can be supplied for demonstration purposes. According to the board, CySill 2.0+ was developed by a team from the Department of Psychology at the University of Wales in Bangor, Wales. The aim of the team was to create a spelling-checker that would allow a user to write in Welsh in their favorite English word processor, and then run the spelling-checker as normal. One of the most interesting features of Welsh is its support for formal and informal words, plus phrases with the same meaning. This approach is similar to German and Japanese, Newsbytes notes. According to the board, the package takes account of these different words and phrases and offers them to the user instead of the more literary alternatives. Bundled with the package is a comprehensive bilingual manual, as well as a short tutorial which outlines some of the basic procedures. In addition, the software has an online help file, as well as a dedicated telephone helpline which offers office hours support. Lord Elis-Thomas, the chairman of the board, said that the development of the package is one of significant historical importances to the prosperity of the Welsh language in a world of increasingly sophisticated technology. "I congratulate all of those involved in this pioneering work and am confident that this heralds the beginning of a new relationship in terms of the Welsh language and technology," he said. CySill 2.0+ is available in two discrete editions: DOS and Windows. The DOS version comes on a single 1.44 megabyte (MB) disk and needs DOS 5.x or later, plus at least 1.5MB of free hard disk space. The Windows edition comes on two disks and needs Windows 3.1 or higher, as well as at least 2.5MB of free hard disk space. The package costs UKP45 in both editions, and is inclusive of postage, even for international purchasers. Existing users of the package (version 1.0) can upgrade to 2.0+ for UKP30 inclusive. (Steve Gold/19951011/Press & Reader Contact: tel +44-1222-224744, fax +44-1222-224577) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 10/12/95 BUSINESS ****Bill Gates' Company Buys Photo Archives (NEWS)(BUSINESS)(DEN)(00008) ****Bill Gates' Company Buys Photo Archives 10/12/95 BELLEVUE, WASHINGTON, U.S.A., 1995 OCT 12 (NB) -- Corbis Corp., a company owned by Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ: MSFT) Chairman Bill Gates, has purchased one of the world's largest photo agencies, the Bettmann Archive. The 16 million photos will be digitized and distributed and licensed to publishers of magazines, books, advertisements, films, television programs, newspapers, and other print and electronic media. This isn't Corbis' first venture into the world of electronic stock photography. The company already owns images from the collections of the Philadelphia Museum of Art, the Sakamoto Archive, the National Gallery of London, and the Library of Congress. Now, with the purchase of the Bettmann Archive, it also owns the United Press International collection of news photos and photos from the Olympiads as far back as 1896, a Corbis spokesperson told Newsbytes. The deal should be welcome news to online browsers. According to Corbis spokesperson Scott Sedlik, computer users will eventually be able to wander the vast collection of photos via the Internet and the World Wide Web. "With these millions of images, every individual accessing the archive could browse through images of the Civil War or travel to Italy" through photographs, said Sedlik. Bettmann was founded in the 1930s by Dr. Otto Bettmann, a photojournalist who came to the United States in 1935 as the Nazi party came into power in Germany. Stock photos, images recorded by photographers and kept on file for use and reuse by stock agencies, have long been a source of images for print publications. While financial arrangements vary, its common practice for the photographer to receive a payment each time the photo is used. Currently there isn't much consumer market potential, but the growth of electronic publishing could change that. Corbis purchased the Bettmann Archive from Kraus Organization Limited. The purchase price was not disclosed. "Corbis" is the Latin word for "woven basket" and was reportedly selected by Gates for its meaning as a container for storing valuable items. (Jim Mallory/19951011/Press contact: Jane Vonderembse, Waggener Edstrom for Corbis, 206-637-9097) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 10/12/95 IBM IBM To Roll Out More Internet Bundles At Internetworld (NEWS)(IBM)(BOS)(00009) IBM To Roll Out More Internet Bundles At Internetworld 10/12/95 ARMONK, NEW YORK, U.S.A., 1995 OCT 12 (NB) -- IBM's newly unveiled plans to bundle Web servers from IBM and Netscape with RS/6000 workstations and servers will be followed by a long list of other software bundles for a range of IBM hardware, including additional Internet packages to be announced at the end of this month, IBM officials reported, during a press teleconference and follow-up briefing for Newsbytes. "This is only the first," noted Irving Wladawsky-Berger, general manager of IBM's RISC System/6000 Division, speaking during the teleconference, which was attended by Newsbytes this week. In a Q&A session at the close of the phone event, journalists and analysts were told that IBM expects to extend its bundling strategy to other hardware platforms, in addition to more application areas, including databases. During a follow-up briefing for Newsbytes, IBM's Tom Fornoff and Syed Pasha contended that the IBM/Netscape Web server deals for RS/6000 will provide users who are interested in launching Web sites with "one-stop shopping," as well as a way of "coming up to speed quickly" in "one of the hottest application areas today." IBM is offering the new Web server bundles across its RS/6000 line, noted Fornoff, who is director of workstation marketing for IBM. The bundles are priced at the cost of the RS/6000 hardware, plus the cost of the Web server. "But we supply `value-add' in (factory) pre-testing, installation, and delivery," he told Newsbytes. An entry-level workstation/Web browser package from IBM can be purchased for under $10,000, he continued. Users can select between four Web browsers: IBM Internet Connection Server 1.0; IBM Internet Connection Secure Server 1.1; Netscape Communications Server 1.1; and Netscape Commerce Server 1.1, Netscape's "secure" Web server. "Many of our scientific/technical customers are already `Web savvy,'" Fornoff added. But the IBM and Netscape Web servers are also "very well suited to business users" who want to set up Web sites for purposes like marketing or technical support. "These are servers that you can install with `a few clicks of the mouse,'" he maintained. Each Internet bundle also provides AIX 4.1.4, an operating system that includes: the IBM Web Explorer for AIX browser; a library of sample Web home pages and templates; all necessary cables; unlicensed documentation; and an optional backup copy of the installed software products. Users are given the choice of building a home page, starting the Web server, or configuring TCP/IP (Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol). Although increasing numbers of Web servers are migrating to Windows NT, AIX is actually a better platform for this purpose due to its "history and track record in systems management, security, and scalability," he asserted. IBM opted to give users a choice between IBM and Netscape browsers out of a "spirit of openness," Newsbytes was told. "We felt it was important to (include) the vendor with the largest (Web server) market share." Bundles built around the IBM Internet Connection Server will be available on October 20, according to the IBM exec. Bundles that include the Netscape Communications Server or the Netscape Commerce Server will ship on December 1. The IBM Internet Secure Connection Server is slated for delivery on December 22. But even before then, IBM will roll out other bundling deals at the Internetworld show, to be held in Boston from October 30 to November 1, according to Pasha, who is product planner for IBM's Internet Power Solutions. Future Internet-oriented bundles from IBM will include "various other applications, from IBM and third-parties, that will run on top of these (Web) servers," Pasha revealed. (Jacqueline Emigh/19951011/Reader Contact: IBM, 914-765-1900; Press Contacts: William O'Leary, IBM, 914-766-3642; Marlena Villafane or Pam Preston, Technology Solutions for IBM, 212-696-2000) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 10/12/95 IBM IBM Plans Operating System Combining MVS & Unix (NEWS)(IBM)(BOS)(00010) IBM Plans Operating System Combining MVS & Unix 10/12/95 ARMONK, NEW YORK, U.S.A., 1995 OCT 12 (NB) -- In the first quarter of 1996, IBM will officially announce and deliver a new operating system for IBM mainframes that will be able to run MVS- and Unix applications simultaneously, IBM officials revealed, during a press teleconference and follow-up interview with Newsbytes. Code-named OS/390, the upcoming operating system (OS) represents a commitment to "transforming (the mainframe) to an open server" that first began several years ago on the hardware side, with the introduction of features such as CMOS (complementary metal oxide semiconductor) technology and air cooling, said Linda Sanford, general manager of IBM's System 390 Division, speaking during the teleconference, which was attended by Newsbytes earlier this week. "Now, we are taking yet another significant step. This time, it is to transform (the OS)," the IBM exec told the reporters and analysts. The new OS will "preserve the classic strengths" of MVS, such as "rock solid availability and support for massive transaction volumes," while also eliminating the current need for more than 30 software products related to MVS, and adding support for Unix "open systems" and applications, she asserted. "Writing or porting new applications will be easier, because all of the component software will be integrated," Sanford remarked. The OS/390 base server will also incorporate all tools needed for installation, systems management, communications, and LAN (local area network) integration, plus SOMobjects and built-in "multimedia enhancements" able to deliver "hundreds of simultaneous video streams to workstation users." In addition, IBM will offer a series of optional functions for the new OS that will include a Security Server and "extended development environments in C/C++ and advanced object-oriented programming" designed to add extra speed and flexibility to application development and deployment. Customers will be able to work with the optional functions experimentally, on a "trial basis," Sanford noted. In a follow-up interview with Newsbytes, Charles Likel, IBM's VP of OS/390 development, said that IBM's decision to create OS/390 was prompted by two motives. "It fits into our view that we have real growth potential in the mainframe arena," Likel maintained. The inclusion of the OS/390 announcement among a slate of announcements around IBM's RS/6000 and PC servers was no accident, he added. OS/390 will give users the chance to choose between running two-tier and three-tier applications from a series of smaller servers, or running applications "directly from one large (mainframe) server." With the Parallel Enterprise Server introduced in June, IBM "restructured the (mainframe) cost structure to that of a large Unix type of server," he contended. Also with the "second generation of CMOS," IBM doubled the capacity of the mainframe engine, nearly tripled total SMP (symmetrical multiprocessor) capacity to ten-way SMP, and added the ability to accommodate plug-in adapters for "open systems" protocols such as FDDI (fiber distributed data interface), he pointed out. "We're riding the CMOS curve," Newsbytes was told. But although IBM perceives strong potential for its mainframes, the industry currently faces an increasing shortage of "skilled (MVS) system programmers," as individuals trained in MVS programming grow older and retire, according to Likel. IBM's inclusion of Unix in its new OS will mean that applications written for AIX as well as other flavors of Unix can be quickly ported to the mainframe, he predicted. On the Unix side, the new OS will eventually provide full support for the X/Open Single Unix specification, according to Likel. Initially, support will be supplied for DCE (Distributed Computing Environment), the OSF (Open Software Foundation)'s DFS (Distributed File System), and extensions to Parallel Sysplex, along with standards for object-oriented development. The forthcoming OS will provide communications through an integrated Communications Server supporting VTAM, AnyNet, and TCP/IP (Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol), according to Likel. The optional Security Server will supply both DCE Security Server and RACF (Resource Access Control Facility) security. Likel added that developers working with OS/390 in beta have told IBM that the version of Unix incorporated in the system represents "one of the easiest (Unix) ports." At the same time, though, OS/390 will be "fully backward compatible" with earlier applications written for MVS. So far this year, membership in IBM's organization for corporate mainframe developers has about quadrupled, from between 100 and 200 at the beginning of 1995 to over 450 currently, Likel told Newsbytes. The developers association is "working very closely" with Unix third-party vendors. SAP has already committed to port its R/3 middleware to OS/390, and Oracle is now "looking closely" at migrating Oracle 7, as well, the VP said. Both third-party vendors already offer parallel editions of their middleware products for IBM's RS/6000-based SP parallel computer systems. Likel told Newsbytes that IBM expects to officially announce its new mainframe system in January or February of next year, and to make Release 1 of the system generally available at the end of the first quarter. System updates will subsequently be issued about once every six months. "We started this OS/390 concept about nine months ago. That shows how much (the mainframe environment) has really changed," the IBM VP maintained. (Jacqueline Emigh/19951011/Reader Contact: IBM, 914-765-1900; Press Contacts: Marta Decker, IBM, 914-892-7358; Kathryn Lancioni, Technology Solutions for IBM, 212-696-2000) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 1999 10/12/95 BROADCAST Inmarsat P Satellite Phone Set For (NEWS)(BROADCAST)(LON)(00011) Inmarsat P Satellite Phone Set For 1999 10/12/95 LONDON, ENGLAND, 1995 OCT 12 (NB) -- Inmarsat, the UK-based satellite phone and data comms network provider, has announced plans to launch Inmarsat P (for Personal), a personal satellite phone services aimed at consumers rather globe-trotting businesspeople. Although it is still far too early to talk specifics, the idea behind Inmarsat P is that terrestrial GSM (global system for mobile communications) digital nets will provide service in most countries, switching to a GSM hybrid service from 12 satellites ringing the globe to offer total coverage anywhere on the earth's surface. Using the approach will allow Inmarsat to undercut Iridium's satphone pricing, since dual-modem GSM handsets can be used, rather than satellite-specific phones. This approach will also allows calls to be priced at consumer, rather than business, rates, Newsbytes notes. Liz Hess, of Inmarsat's UK office, told Newsbytes that Inmarsat P is just one of the planned family of digital mobile satellite communications services being planned under the working title of Project 21. Consumer phone services will be complemented by pager, datacomms, fax, and other mobile comms services, using hand-held terminals. Rather than going for 60-plus satellites spinning around the globe at high speed, as the rival Iridium project calls for, Project 21 centers around 12 satellites -- 10 operational and two backup -- in an intermediate circular orbit (ICO) satellite ring, which will start operations in 1999. By locating the 12 Project 21 satellites at 10,000 kilometers (km) above the earth's surface, the satellites will slowly pass across the sky, with at least two in line of sight of the mobile. Inmarsat has applied for, and obtained, membership of the GSM Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) group, making it the only satphone service provider to be a member. The group consists of 138 licensed mobile network operators and national regulatory authorities from 77 countries. Commenting on the membership and official unveiling of Project 21 with Inmarsat P, Olof Lundberg, Intelsat's director general, explained that the aim of the project is to complement, rather than compete with, the GSM nets. The GSM MoU group was established in 1987 and aims to act as an information group among mobile operators and regulatory authorities in Europe. So how will Inmarsat P phones differ from today's phones? According to Inmarsat, the phones will be very similar to the GSM or PCN (personal communications network) digital handsets of today, with a short "rubber duck" style aerial. In areas where GSM is available, the phone will perform as any other, but, where GSM is unavailable, the phone will "lock on" to one of the 10 available Project 21 satellites orbiting the earth. Although the phones will use a GSM time-slot system, the timing periods will be relaxed from their current 50km from basestation maximum to allow for signals to traverse the 10,000km to the satellite. The timing limit of 50km is imposed on GSM mobiles because each available digital channel has eight time slots available for eight different mobiles. If a mobile attempts to lock on to a base station more than 50km away, then the signal requesting access to a given time-slot will arrive after the time-slot "wait time" has been passed. By relaxing the time- slot wait time, a greater distance from the base station can be achieved, although the downside is that fewer mobiles per available channel can be supported, Newsbytes notes. According to Inmarsat, aircraft-based field trials conducted last year demonstrated that an Inmarsat P handheld phone can automatically select the best quality link from two or more satellites visible. As with terrestrial mobiles, if a link is shadowed or blocked out by trees or buildings, for example, then the mobile automatically selects the next available satellite. Inmarsat remains coy on call charges for Inmarsat P, but experts are predicting a satphone charge of as little as $1 a minute for local satellite calls -- that is, normally inland calls in the country in question -- rising to $2 a minute for global calls. (Steve Gold/19951011/Press Contact: Inmarsat, tel +44-171-728-1000, fax +44-171-728-1044) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 10/12/95 GENERAL Japan Newsbriefs (NEWS)(GENERAL)(TYO)(00012) Japan Newsbriefs 10/12/95 TOKYO, JAPAN, 1995 OCT 12 (NB) -- In this roundup of news from Japan: PHS subscriptions down, Local authority IT spending up, IBM Japan unveils new hard disk, NEC extends Internet service, Tax returns via the Internet, Konami to make Windows 95 games, Sharp develops new LCD. PHS Subscriptions Down The number of new subscribers to the new PHS (personal handyphone system) telephone networks has dropped again. In September, just 23,000 people signed for service to the two operational networks, down by 12,000 on August's figure, which itself was down on July. In August, the reason given for the drop was a belief that many people went to shops to buy PHS, but when they arrived decided to go for cellular telephones instead. In September, a number of technical faults on the networks, one which took out service in most of Tokyo, were blamed. Subscriber rates in October are expected to show an increase after Astel joins NTT Central Personal and DDI Tokyo Pocket in providing service in Tokyo. The latter two networks will also begin offering the low-cost service nationwide from this month. Local Authority IT Spending Up The Nikkei Research Institute of Industry and Markets released figures late last week that show local authority spending on information technology (IT), which includes personal computers and Internet and cable TV connections, has jumped 92% in the current fiscal year to 52.9 billion yen ($529 million). The Nikkei research, compiled by sending out forms to 3,250 local governments, received 1,462 responses of which 77% indicated a belief that such spending was necessary to improve the local class of life. IBM Japan Unveils New Hard Disk IBM Japan is to begin selling a one gigabyte (GB) hard disk drive that fits inside a standard 2.5-inch package, small enough to be installed inside a laptop computer. The hard disk was developed at IBM's Fujisawa center and is scheduled to enter production in Thailand in the near future. In Japan, the expected sample price will be 41,500 yen to 62,500 yen depending on the model chosen. At the same time, the Tokyo based company also unveiled a range of 2 GB hard disks in 3.5-inch packages. NEC Extends Internet Service NEC Corporation will extend the services it offers via the Internet from Monday. The company is to begin offering a new product catalog with details of electronics products and semiconductors. At the same time, a new online magazine will debut on the Internet Cyber Plaza. The magazine is currently available on the company's PC-VAN computer network and features text, images and sound written by well known authors. It will be available free of charge. Tax Returns Via The Internet The National Tax Administration Agency may soon allow people to file tax returns via computer networks according to tax offices agency chief Tadashi Ogawa, quoted by news services last week. Initially the new electronic tax declaration system will be offered to corporations and may be extended to individuals, in time. The agency have promised a decision on deployment of the system by March, 1998. Konami To Make Windows 95 Games Computer games manufacturer Konami is to begin making computer games for computers running the Windows 95 operating system. The company predicts sales of around two billion yen ($20 million) in its first year. The announcement comes after a deal with Microsoft and Japan's Softbank was announced in which the Japanese company will make computer games for the new operating system in a drive to improve the PCs competitiveness against dedicated games machines. Sharp Develop New LCD Sharp Electronics has developed a new design of LCD (liquid crystal display) that saves energy by doing away with the backlight. The new units use just 3% of the total power required by previous models, although they can only be used in well-lit rooms. NEC Corporation has also developed a similar display, shown to Newsbytes last June, although commercialization is being held back by the restrictions on light levels in rooms where it can be used. (Martyn Williams/19951012) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 10/12/95 BROADCAST Major Hughes Investment Follows China Satellite Order (NEWS)(BROADCAST)(TYO)(00013) Major Hughes Investment Follows China Satellite Order 10/12/95 TOKYO, JAPAN, 1995 OCT 12 (NB) -- Hughes Electric Corporation has announced it will invest $1 billion in China over the next ten years, following an order received by Hughes Space and Communications Corporation for a satellite from the Chinese government. The satellite deal was concluded early this week after Michael Armstrong, chief executive officer of Hughes Electronics Corp., the parent of Hughes Space and Communications, met with President Jiang Zemin on Monday. The country has agreed to buy a Hughes HS-376 satellite. No details of the value of the sale were given, but Newsbytes notes previous recent sales have been worth around $200 million. The Hughes HS-376 is the company's second best-selling satellite, and will be equipped with 24 transponders in the configuration requested by the Chinese. As part of the deal, Hughes will also provide ground control equipment and training for staff of the Xichang Satellite Launch Center, from where the satellite will be launched aboard a locally made Long March 3 launcher next July. China has previously manufactured its own satellites for telecommunications and broadcasting applications in a program known as Chinasat. The purchase of a Hughes satellite is a first for the Asian country although not the first time Hughes has dealt with China. A year ago, the Los Angeles-based company reserved options on ten Long March rockets that Hughes planned to pass on to customers wishing to buy satellites and launches. That deal was worth around $600 million and followed the 1990 launching of a Hughes satellite by a Long March rocket, the first ever foreign satellite to be launched by the Chinese. After the satellite deal was announced, Hughes agreed to invest $1 billion in joint ventures, technology sharing, and direct investment with Chinese companies over the next ten years. The deal will cover the telecommunications, automobile, and space industries. Among the investment plans Hughes already has for the country, Armstrong revealed that the company hopes it will be possible to launch the company's DirecTV digital direct to home satellite television service in China. The country has been seen for some years as the world's most lucrative television market leading to several broadcasters, including Home Box Office, Hong Kong's TVB, the Discovery Channel and ESPN, rushing to the market and launching Chinese language versions of television services. Currently, viewers require large and expensive motorized satellite dishes to catch all the programming available, although the launch of a system similar to DirecTV would mean a smaller dish and all-in-one receiver-decoder could receive most available programming. Hughes is pursuing such a vision in other regions of the world. In Latin America, plans are well advanced for the start of a direct-to- home service and the company is looking at Europe as a possible future market also. The new deals are a marked contrast to the relationships between the two in February this year. A Long March rocket exploded shortly after take off sending Apstar-2, a long awaited and much need television broadcasting satellite, into the side of a local mountain. After the event Ta Kung Pao, a pro-China newspaper in Hong Kong, denied any faults onboard the rocket and alleged that faults in the satellite, built by Hughes, caused the accident in which five people died. The final report put the cause as windshear. (Martyn Williams/19951012) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 10/12/95 ONLINE ICL Offers Commercial Online Publishing Service (NEWS)(ONLINE)(TYO)(00014) ICL Offers Commercial Online Publishing Service 10/12/95 GENEVA, SWITZERLAND, 1995 OCT 12 (NB) -- ICL is using the Telecom 95 expo to show, for the first time, a new system aimed at organizations wishing to make a success of commercial publishing on the Internet's World Wide Web. The system attempts to address problems concerning such ventures, including copyright protection and product branding. The ICL Commands system allows a publisher to maintain complete control over an online publishing service explained ICL's Mark Berner, publishing services marketing manager for the UK-based company. The system splits up a publication into individual parts and components. To each of these components, the publisher can assign the rights owned and determine the pricing and subscription schemes across the database. The software builds Web pages, based on programmed designs, on-the-fly as users request them. This allows the benefits of pages specifically tailored for the user to be displayed which can include or exclude certain links based on certain criteria. This could be based on the subscription level paid by the user or their location, in the case of material that was licensed for particular territories only. Stories could also have release or expiry times tagged to them and only displayed after, or before, a certain time. One of the greatest features of the new system, say ICL, is its copy deterrents. Because pages are built on-the-fly, the pages can be programmed to display, for example, the user name and password for the system. This information, explained Berner, would make users less likely to pass on the material, because they would be giving away their passwords. On demonstration at Geneva, the system's special URLs (uniform resource locators) that had the time, date, and user name coded into them, could be observed. This meant the pages could not be bookmarked or the URLs passed onto others. When another user attempted access, the system would detect the attempt to access a page that was specially created, and would return the unauthorized user to a basic home page. ICL recognizes that no-one will ever be able to prevent copying of material on Web pages, but by adding small features, the company says it can help deter the illegal activity. For the future, the system is also capable of writing the menus and pages for a variety of access systems. While HTML (hypertext markup language) would be used to create a page for a user accessing the database from the World Wide Web, a different type of page is needed for people accessing the information from a cable set-top box. The entire system makes use of databases built using Fujitsu's ODB-II database management system, a system that can support plain text as well as images, sound and video and handle relationships between all the individual data formats and links within documents. (Martyn Williams/19951012/Press contact: Mark Berner, ICL, tel +44-1344-472067, fax +44-1344-473674, Internet e-mail mark.berner@bra0512.wins.icl.co.uk; Reader contact: ICL Multimedia Solutions Help Desk, tel +44-181-565-7993, fax +44-1782-794870, Internet e-mail commands@itc.icl.ie, Internet World Wide Web http://www.icl.co.uk/ ) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 10/12/95 TRENDS UK Firm Intros Universal Multimedia Comms Unit (NEWS)(TRENDS)(LON)(00015) UK Firm Intros Universal Multimedia Comms Unit 10/12/95 LOUGHBOROUGH, LEICESTERSHIRE, ENGLAND, 1995 OCT 12 (NB) -- Loughborough Sounds Image (LSI) has developed an integrated system that combines multimedia (voice and audio comms), with fax, data, electronic-mail and data sharing facilities all in one "black box." Known as Video Processing Architecture (ViPA), the technology is currently being sold to multiple PC OEMs (original equipment manufacturers) around the world, ready for shipment as an integral part of multimedia systems shipped from next spring. Ralph Weir, business manage of LSI, told Newsbytes that the ViPA technology will run over many different comms topologies, including most networks, leased lines and ISDN (integrated services digital network) lines. A version is also under development that will work across dial-up links using high-speed modem technology. "Dial-up support is the holy grail as far as this technology is concerned," he said, adding that, in its first iteration, ViPA is several steps ahead of anything else currently on the market. "Many companies we have spoken to about this technology have been working in-house on it. We approached them and asked them what they wanted and, when we developed ViPA, went back to them with a price for the OEM quantities and they plan to source ViPA from us instead," he explained. According to Weir, ViPA has four primary components: a hardware- based platform centered around an advanced DSP (digital signal processing) processor, and a custom-made ViPA media chip; a software environment to allow multiple media applications to be run at once; control APIs (application programming interfaces) to handle the complex different inputs that the device has to deal with; and media applications that can be added and rewritten to give ViPA its flexibility. According to Weir, ViPA has media applications for a videophone, data conferencing, fax modem, TAM (telephone answering machine), and business audio. MPEG (Motion Picture Experts Group)-1 and MPEG-2 support will follow in iteration two, to allow compressed video on CD-ROMs to be played back and recorded by the ViPA system. Weir told Newsbytes that, despite its planned support for MPEG1 and 2 in the future, ViPA does not make use of the technology for compressing data across comms links. "With dial-up, because of the way in which multimedia data is compressed by the systems, the existing V.42bis and MNP (Microcom Network Protocol) systems are not appropriate. For compression, we use the H261 and new H263 standards for videoconferencing data compression," he explained. "PC-based videoconferencing is the most obvious application for ViPA and the one that has generated the most interest amongst OEMs and PTTs. The leap in performance and reduction in cost that ViPA enables in videoconferencing is impressive in its own right, but it would be wrong to look upon ViPA as being simply a videoconferencing technology," he said. ViPA is in the process of being sold to OEMs and PTTs and will not be available as a consumer product as such. The plan is that PC-based videoconferencing systems, as well as other systems using the technology, will carry a distinctive ViPA mark, so that consumers can know they have bought a product that delivers the benefits of ViPA. According to Weir, ViPA will probably add around $1,000 to the cost of a suitably-equipped PC, although this cost will fall to around $500 within the first two years. (Steve Gold/19951011/Press Contact: Firefly Communications, +44-171-381-4505, Internet e-mail +44-171-381-4505; Reader Contact: Loughborough Sound Images, +44-1509-634444) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 10/12/95 BUSINESS Netscape & Geac Join Forces In Library Market (NEWS)(BUSINESS)(TOR)(00016) Netscape & Geac Join Forces In Library Market 10/12/95 MARKHAM, ONTARIO, CANADA, 1995 OCT 12 (NB) -- Geac Computer Corp. (TSE:GAC) has announced an alliance with the prominent developer of Internet access software Netscape Communications Corp. (NASDAQ:NSCP). Geac will become a Netscape affiliate, selling the California firm's World Wide Web browser software to its customers pre-installed on Geac systems. Geac sells computer systems to a handful of vertical markets, including libraries. Susan Beck, marketing manager at the company's US subsidiary, Geac Computers Inc., in Boston, said there is very strong demand for access to the Internet throughout the library market. Netscape's World Wide Web browser will work with Geac's existing GeoPac multimedia client search application, which resides on the client system and can be used to search for information on the Web. The client search application also works with other Web browsers, Beck said. Netscape's Navigator Web browser software will come pre-installed on Geac systems when the customers request it. Company officials said Netscape products will complement Geac's own Geos2 client/server line, including its GeoWeb search and server applications. Geac said libraries will be able to use the combination of its own and Netscape's software to provide information their users are demanding. Netscape has been a darling of high-tech investors in recent months. The company went public in early August, with an initial share price of $14, and the stock traded as high as $75 within the first few days after the offering. Its price is currently in the $65 range. Geac, by contrast, is a quiet survivor. Despite a brush with bankruptcy in the early 1990s, it has come through by concentrating on a few niches, including library automation, systems for the financial industry, and manufacturing and distribution systems. (Grant Buckler/19951012/Press Contact: Carolyn Williamson, Geac, tel 905-475-0525, fax 905-475-3847) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 10/12/95 BUSINESS 3-Way Contest For DMR Group (NEWS)(BUSINESS)(TOR)(00017) 3-Way Contest For DMR Group 10/12/95 MONTREAL, QUEBEC, CANADA, 1995 OCT 12 (NB) -- Amdahl Corp.'s (AMEX:AMH) plan to buy DMR Group Inc., (TSE:DR) an information technology consulting firm, looks less certain of success now that two other bidders have joined the race. This week, a Quebec court cleared the way for BDM International Inc. (NASDAQ:BDMI) to proceed with a counter-offer for DMR, and IBM Canada Ltd., encouraged by the court decision, jumped in with its own higher offer. The two new offers both hinge on a decision by the Quebec Superior Court, which ruled that holders of Class A shares in DMR could convert their shares to Class B shares in order to tender them in response to Amdahl's or BDM's offer. Without this ruling, no other bidder would have had much hope of competing with the Amdahl offer, since it already had the endorsements of DMR's major shareholders, who hold the vast majority of the Class B shares. Since the major shareholders control fewer of the Class A shares, BDM and IBM Canada have at least a shot at defeating the Amdahl bid. Amdahl, of Sunnyvale, California, and DMR, had earlier announced plans for a takeover at a share price of C$8.25 per share. BDM's offer is for a weighted average purchase price of C$8.77 per share. IBM Canada has upped the ante significantly, however, offering C$11 per share. At Newsbytes' deadline, spokesman Todd Stottlemyer of BDM, in McLean, Virginia, told Newsbytes his company has not yet seen IBM Canada's official offer and will wait until it does to respond. Mike Quinn, a spokesman for IBM Canada of Markham, Ontario, said the official circular will be issued by the end of this week. IBM's offer will close three weeks after the circular is issued, meaning early in November, he said. The offer still needs the formal approval of the board of IBM Canada's parent company, IBM (NYSE:IBM), which meets October 30. IBM Canada said its offer is also conditional on the holders of at least 90 percent of DMR's Class B shares -- including those converted from Class A -- accepting its offer. This means the company needs to bring DMR's major shareholders around to its side. "We haven't seen the actual agreement (between DMR and Amdahl) but their circular contemplates that a higher offer may be made and accepted," Quinn told Newsbytes. Thus, he said, there must be a mechanism for the key shareholders to back out of the sale to Amdahl and accept another offer. All three bidders say they would keep DMR as a separate entity. Amdahl said it would roll its own Business Solutions Group into DMR. Stottlemyer said BDM would similarly merge its BDM Technologies subsidiary into a separate DMR subsidiary. IBM Canada also said it would run DMR as a separate subsidiary. DMR this week announced revenues of C$64.89 million and net income of C$854,000, or six cents per share, in its first quarter, down slightly from C$66.02 million and C$1.07 million, or 7.6 cents per share, in the same quarter a year ago. At Newsbytes' deadline, Amdahl officials were reported to be considering a challenge to the court decision, but neither Amdahl nor BDM had announced a higher offer to meet or exceed IBM's price. DMR stock, meanwhile, was trading at slightly more than C$11 on the Toronto Stock Exchange. (Grant Buckler/19951012/Press Contact: Mike Quinn, IBM Canada, 905-316-2255; Todd Stottlemyer, BDM, 703-848-5115, Internet e-mail tstottle@bdm.com; John Radewagen, The Benjamin Group for Amdahl, 408-559-6090) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 10/12/95 WINDOWS ABI Intros More business Listing CD-ROMs (NEWS)(WINDOWS)(DEN)(00018) ABI Intros More business Listing CD-ROMs 10/12/95 OMAHA, NEBRASKA, U.S.A., 1995 OCT 12 (NB) -- American business Information Inc. (NASDAQ: ABII) has introduced two more searchable marketing and reference products on CD-ROM -- one a list of American manufacturers, and the second a list of 160,000 companies that employ 100 or more workers. ABI said "American Manufacturers on CD-ROM" includes more than half a million US manufacturing firms. The listing includes the number of employees, annual output volume, names of key executives, multiple SIC codes identifying all lines of business, fax numbers, and a credit score. The disk can be searched by almost any criteria, said ABI. The company said it can be used to find new customers, locate suppliers, and research competitors. Betts said all ABI CD-ROM, diskette-based, and online products use the same Windows-based software interface, called List Wizard, to make searches easier. Icons representing search categories are shown across the top of the window, with a sub-category icon toolbar down the right side of the screen. The "Big Businesses" CD-ROM includes information about more than 430,000 key executives and directors and lists employment figures, sales volume, the name of the parent company if appropriate, stock exchange information and all lines of business. ABI said this disk is well-suited for sales prospecting, job searches, market research, or as a general reference on top US companies. Vinod Gupta, chairman and chief executive officer of ABI, said an executive search function, which allows a user to search on a name and get a listing of all the companies that individual is involved in, is particularly popular. ABI spokesperson Jack Betts told Newsbytes the credit scores are not credit ratings in the traditional sense of how promptly companies pay their bills. Instead, the score is derived from other information contained in ABI listings such as the number of employees, how long they have been in business, the stability of the industry in general, and other similar factors. "It's an indicator of their probable ability to pay," said Betts. He called the credit score a supplement to other credit information available in the market, such as the D&B or TRW credit reports. ABI also sells a CD-ROM/printed document credit score package that covers millions of businesses, and offers TRW credit reports to its customers. The credit score package, which also includes an online subscription to look up the data online, costs $1,295. TRW credit reports cost $25 each. You can also subscribe to a $4.95 per month ABI service that lets you get up to 100 quick lookups on millions of companies via a toll-free telephone call. Both new CD-ROM products being introduced carry a $595 price tag, which includes a semi-annual update. Both are available immediately in Windows and DOS version. Betts said the DOS version is still produced because many libraries have not converted to Windows yet. No Mac version of any of the ABI products is planned. (Jim Mallory/19951012/Press contact: Jack Betts, ABI, 402-593-4500; Public contact: American Business Information, 402-593-4500, Internet e-mail corp@abii.com ) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 10/12/95 BUSINESS Standard & Poor's Outlook On NTT Is Negative (NEWS)(BUSINESS)(TYO)(00019) Standard & Poor's Outlook On NTT Is Negative 10/12/95 TOKYO, JAPAN, 1995 OCT 12 (NB) -- Standard and Poor's said this morning in London that it has assigned its preliminary AAA rating to the 600 billion yen ($6 billion) shelf-registration program of Nippon Telegraph and Telephone (NTT) in the Japanese market. This is a refilling of an existing registration that expired Wednesday. The organization also affirmed its existing AAA long-term and A-1-plus short-term ratings of NTT. Total rated debt is about two trillion yen (US$20 billion). An S&P spokeswoman in London told Newsbytes the rating was the highest possible and only around ten companies worldwide enjoy such a good rating. The credit rating organization explained the ratings were a product of NTT's "dominant position and important role in the Japanese telecommunications market, and strong cashflow and financial profile among major international peers." S&P noted that despite competition from new private telephone operators, the new common carriers, NTT still holds a 90% share of the domestic telecommunications market. "NTT's financial profile remains very strong" said the report which noted that the operator was making good profits from its mobile telephone operations and a February rise in basic telephone connection charges and line rental helped offset money lost from a price decrease forced by continuing competition. Of comparable international telecommunications operators, NTT's debt coverage is over eight times, ranking among the highest of rated international peers. On the outlook for the company, S&P have assigned a "negative" tag due to increased competition from the NCCs and possibilities of a government ordered break up. The report said, "NTT announced its plan to allow competitors direct access to its local telephone network. Depending on the terms and conditions of the interconnection agreements, the introduction of competition in the core business could result in a significant deterioration of NTT's market position and financial performance. Standard & Poor's will review NTT's ratings, if current discussions by the Advisory Committee of the Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications result in the break-up of the national telecom carrier into one long-distance and several regional telephone companies." (Martyn Williams/19951012/Press contact: Daisuke Fukutomi, Standard And Poor's Tokyo, +81-3-3213-5301) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 10/12/95 APPLE ****Apple Forms New Division (NEWS)(APPLE)(SFO)(00020) ****Apple Forms New Division 10/12/95 CUPERTINO, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1995 OCT 12 (NB ) -- Apple Computer Inc. (NASDAQ:APPL) has combined its Apple USA and Apple Canada subsidiaries to form Apple North America. Given the proximity and similarity of the two divisions, Apple says the strengths of the two can "more easily be leveraged" through on grouping. To head Apple North America, the company has chosen James J. Buckley, currently a senior vice president of Apple, and formerly president of Apple USA. He assumes the new position as president of Apple North America. Apple Canada will remain as a separate subsidiary of Apple Computer and its existing president, Peter Jones will continue to head the Canadian office. Jones also retains his vice president position at Apple Computer. He will report directly to Buckley, but the Apple Canada subsidiary will continue its operations with the current Canadian staff. Apple Canada's commitments to the Canadian government through the MERIT and Quebec economic partnership programs will continue to be developed and maintained through the Canadian staff. Apple says these changes are effective immediately and implementation should be complete within the next six months. Buckley said, "There are numerous synergies between our two regions. Leveraging resources across the US and Canada makes sound business sense." Looking at the benefits of the new alignment, Jones commented, "This move will be of long-term benefit to Apple Canada and our customers. It will enable us to take advantage of the resources within the US organization. We expect this alignment to give us even greater capacity to fully serve the Canadian market." Apple Canada was originally part of Apple Pacific region. An Apple spokesperson told Newsbytes, "From a business sense, and a geographical sense, we think this is a better way to build business in Canada. The two areas share so many similarities and we can use these facts to streamline and combine our efforts in both groups." (Patrick McKenna/19951012/Press Contact: Pam Miracle, Apple Computer, 408-974-0688) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 10/12/95 EDUCATION School "Tech Corps" Education Program "Goes National" (NEWS)(EDUCATION)(BOS)(00021) School "Tech Corps" Education Program "Goes National" 10/12/95 NEWTON, MASSACHUSETTS, U.S.A., 1995 OCT 12 (NB) -- At a White House press conference in Washington DC, and again at a meeting of the Mass. Software Council (MSC) in Newton, Massachusetts, officials announced that the "Mass. Tech Corps," a volunteer program for bringing the expertise of computer professionals into school classrooms, has now "gone national." Like its Massachusetts forerunner, the new national organization, formally launched this week by President Bill Clinton, will be 100 percent funded by the private sector, said Virtual Entertainment CEO (Chief Executive Officer) David Blohm, speaking at the MSC Fall Membership Meeting, an event attended by Newsbytes. So far, Blohm noted, the national group is known under two different names: the National Tech Corps, and the US Tech Corps. Blohm told the MSC audience that he had just returned from the White House press conference, where Clinton announced the nationwide Tech Corps, along with other initiatives for "computers in the classroom." Clinton assembled a "very impressive list of people" for the Washington press conference, including Ted Turner, George Lucas, and Ron Brown, according to Blohm, who is also chair of the MSC's Education Committee. Karen Black, who has headed up the Mass. Tech Corps, is now in charge of the national Tech Corps effort. Gary Beach, publisher of Computerworld and a major architect of the volunteer program, will serve as spokesperson at the national level, Blohm added. First rolled out at the MSC 1995 Annual Meeting in January, the Tech Corps matches volunteers to classrooms that need their skills in areas such as classroom instruction, technology planning, mentoring, technical support, hardware/software acquisition, local area networking, and wide area networking. As previously reported in Newsbytes, many of the first participants in the Mass. Tech Corps were previously active in the Switched-On Classroom, a "strategic planning guide" designed to provide schools with a blueprint for assessing their technology needs and planning for implementation. The Mass. Tech Corps is co-sponsored by the MSC, Computerworld, and Deloitte & Touche. Blohm also told the MSC members this week that the Mass. Tech Corps has been expanded this year from the original 12 school districts of last year's pilot program to an additional 47 school districts throughout Massachusetts. (Jacqueline Emigh/19951012/Reader Contact: Mass. Software Council, 617-437-0600; Press Contact: Miller Communications for the MSC, 617-536-0470) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 10/12/95 TELECOM LCI Intros Flat-Rate Int'l Calls (NEWS)(TELECOM)(MSP)(00022) LCI Intros Flat-Rate Int'l Calls 10/12/95 MCLEAN, VIRGINIA, U.S.A., 1995 OCT 12 (NB) -- LCI International (NYSE:LCI) said it will start charging flat rates to its residential customers for international phone calls. The plan, called "Extend Your Reach," offers one flat rate around-the-clock, with varying rates for individual countries. LCI officials said they started the new plan in response to "growing demand for simplicity in residential long-distance service," and the simple pricing is similar to the company's domestic "All America Plan" calling plan. For example, company officials said customers who call France or Germany from the US will pay 46 cents a minute. Calls to the United Kingdom will cost 44 cents per minute, and ringing a destination in Japan would set the customer back 58 cents per minute. "We're the only carrier, as far as I know, that has this same (international) rate 24 hours a day," Kelly Seacrist, LCI spokesperson, told Newsbytes. In addition, all LCI international calls are rounded to the nearest six second increment, a feature Seacrist said helps the customer when it comes to their pocketbooks. "Since the customer isn't using that time, we don't need to bill them that time," while the major international phone carriers round up to the nearest minute, she said. LCI cited industry analysts when it claimed that six-second incremental billing can save consumers up to ten percent off their domestic long- distance calls. Because international calls carry a higher per-minute rate, the savings earned when calling abroad with LCI can be even greater, officials said. "We're not doing anything that would be detrimental to our profits," Seacrist said. "But, just based on what the price of the call is for us to originate and terminate, this is something we can offer" in terms of both lower prices and flat-rates for LCI customers, she added. The Extend Your Reach plan is the only international calling plan LCI offers its residential customers, officials said, reaching more than 60 countries with no additional monthly fees. (Bob Woods/19951012/Press Contacts: Kelly Seacrist, 703-848-4407, or Gerry Simone, 703-848-4478, both of LCI International. Public Contact: LCI International, 800-LCI-INTL) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 10/12/95 ONLINE Individual To Offer News On Microsoft Network (NEWS)(ONLINE)(MSP)(00023) Individual To Offer News On Microsoft Network 10/12/95 REDMOND, WASHINGTON, U.S.A., 1995 OCT 12 (NB) -- Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ:MSFT) has acquired a minority interest in information provider Individual Inc. As a part of the agreement, both companies will collaborate on product development, including the delivery of personal daily news on The Microsoft Network (MSN). Rich Vancil, vice president of marketing for Individual, told Newsbytes he could not reveal any dollar amount regarding the deal, nor could he say how much of his company Microsoft acquired. He did say Microsoft would be represented on Individual's board of directors. "We're delighted not only for the capitol, but for the strategic partnership," Vancil said. "We feel this investment that Microsoft is making is a nice 'seal of approval' that our technologies do represent 'best of breed' for the personalization of news." The first product both companies will collaborate on for MSN is called 'iNews." Vancil described iNews as a "low-priced, daily news service that's delivered to every MSN users' mailbox." Each subscriber to iNews will have the ability to custom-tailor a news profile, which will consist of topical and company-oriented material. From there, iNews uses a SMART (system manipulation and retrieval of text) text processing technologies to analyze all of the news that Individual retrieves from its sources, and tailor that news to each subscriber's profile. "It'll be a personal newspaper at a low monthly price, that uses the most advanced text retrieval and recognition technologies," Vancil said. He didn't have any specific pricing information available for iNews, but he did say a subscription would cost under $10 a month. In addition, both companies are looking at the potential of developing other projects that will take advantage of Individual's proprietary news-filtering and distribution technologies. Vancil said his company is looking forward to using Microsoft's upcoming authoring tool "Blackbird" to enhance the interactivity and the "feel" of online presentations. (Bob Woods/19951012/Press Contacts: Rich Vancil, Individual Inc., 617- 273-6000; Beth Winkowski, WTM Advertising and Public Relations, 617- 337-3634; June McLaren Peters or Anne Marshall, 206-637-9097, Waggener Edstrom) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 10/12/95 BROADCAST Video News Roundup (NEWS)(BROADCAST)(MSP)(00024) Video News Roundup 10/12/95 MINNEAPOLIS, MINNESOTA, U.S.A., 1995 OCT 12 (NB) -- This is a look at the top stories this week in the world of video news reporting: Scitex Buys Abekas, Newsgroup for ENG Professionals, Video storage and server news, The Maxi Sound Multimedia Keyboard, and A how-to book for computer video. Scitex To Integrate ImMix And Abekas The September 25th issue of Broadcasting and Cable Technology reports that the Israeli digital prepress company Scitex has acquired Abekas for $52 million in cash. Last September, Scitex bought ImMix, makers of the TurboCube non-linear edit system, from Carlton Communications for $21 million cash. The report says that Scitex President and CEO (Chief Executive Officer) Arie Rosenfeld says that the purchase "will allow us to achieve our stated goal of a $100 million business in digital video." ImMix and Abekas will now be a part of Scitex's digital video division. Professional Video Newsgroup On The Internet An article in the September issue of Television Broadcast alerts ENG (electronic news gathering) professionals to a new newsgroup made for them, rec.video.professional. Michael Silbergleid, the article's author, is the newsgroup moderator. Created on August 21, the moderated group, writes Silbergleid, will not deal with "copying tapes for your niece or flame wars." Other groups such as rec.video, rec.video production, and rec.video.desktop are not moderated. Some of the topics will include; FCC policy, Professional Events, ENG equipment specifications, New Technology, Tape Formats, Editing (linear and non-linear), Trouble Shooting and Tips, and Production Formats. Video Storage And Server News There are several items regarding digital video. The September 25th issue of Broadcasting and Cable Technology reports that BTS and the hard disk manufacturer Micropolis have formed a partnership. The goal is to develop disk drive solutions targeted to broadcast and pro video. Many Web sites and persons are dealing with the hassle of huge video files. The September issue of Advanced Imaging features a story on Netvideo. The company, based in Sunnyvale, California, has started a video warehouseing, compression, and Internet transmission service. Netvideo will be a host server where users can put their video files. The September issue of Broadcast Engineering has an article on the emerging technology of video servers. The five parameters for server technology are: quality (using tape formats as a yardstick); the storage media and access time; fault tolerance; along with expandability and upgrading. The August cover story was on video storage. New Products Presentations September New Products mentions the Maxi Sound Multimedia Keyboard. The two built-in speakers use proprietary technology from Altec Lansing, the speaker manufacturer. It also has audio connections to support professional microphones and line outs. Also in AV Video is a review of How to Digitize Video by Nels Johnson, Fred Gault and Mark Florence of San Francisco's Canyon Group. Canyon developed Quicktime for Windows. It's a valuable overview of the pleasure and pain of video in the computer world. Both Mac and PC platforms are covered. The reviewer, Cecil Smith, writes, "Pay particular attention to the section Understanding Cross Platform Playability Issues -- it could save you big bucks. If you're just getting started using computers in the television business, How to Digitize Video is a good book to keep handy." (Newsbytes Staff/19950929) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 10/12/95 ONLINE Internet CD Music Store With 100,000 Titles (NEWS)(ONLINE)(LAX)(00025) Internet CD Music Store With 100,000 Titles 10/12/95 LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1995 OCT 12 (NB) --Pentagon CDs & Tapes, a 24-hour Internet record store claims the most extensive music database available on the Internet's World Wide Web. Pentagon's database contains over 100,000 albums cross-referenced by artist, album title, song title, and category. Adam Lilling, president of Pentagon, told Newsbytes, "We have, in our Oracle 7 database, 100,000 CDs for sale at discount prices -- $11.99 is our regular price, not our promotional or sales price. We can ship from our warehouse every title, next day. "It is our goal to be able to allow sound clips from every album to be downloaded and played real-time on a PC. For now, we will have music clips from our 60 featured albums every month. We will archive those clips so that they can be downloaded from that time forward. The featured albums will each have three song clips available to listen to in real-time via StreamWorks, a new version of real-time audio streaming created by the Xing Corporation," said Lilling. HuskyLabs has produced all of Pentagon's programming to date, and configured the database for use over the Internet. According to Lilling, through the customizing of a Oracle 7 relational databases, Pentagon is able to process thousands of simultaneous queries online. Pentagon has also teamed up with SoundScan to provide Internet users with all the latest SoundScan/Billboard national sales charts for various genres of music. Pentagon is now a SoundScan reporter, having its sales count towards chart rankings. "I set three goals for Pentagon," Lilling said. "First, to disseminate as much information as is available about an album, artist, or group. Second, to deliver the music in as fast a turn-around as possible to maintain the advantage of home shopping. And third, to make the music available at a price competitive with any music store." Pentagon CDs & Tapes is headquartered in Los Angeles, California, and can be found on the World Wide Web at http://www.pentagon.net . (Richard Bowers/19951012/Press Contact: Agent Starling, Pentagon CDs and Tapes, 800-9Pentagon) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 10/12/95 BUSINESS ****Bosses Picked For Two Fragments Of AT&T (NEWS)(BUSINESS)(TOR)(00026) ****Bosses Picked For Two Fragments Of AT&T 10/12/95 NEW YORK, NEW YORK, U.S.A., 1995 OCT 12 (NB) -- The top managers have been named for two of the three companies that will emerge from the breakup of AT&T (NYSE:T). They are current AT&T managers except for Henry B. Schacht, the 60-year-old former chairman and chief executive of Cummins Engine Co. Inc., who will head the new communications systems and technology company. Schacht, who recently retired from Cummins and is currently an adviser to investment firm E.M. Warburg-Pincus and a member of the AT&T board of directors, is to become chairman and chief executive of the still-unnamed equipment company in the first half of 1996. Richard A. McGinn, currently chief executive of AT&T's Network Systems Group, will be president and chief operating officer of the new company. At the same time as both take office, AT&T said, about 15 percent of the stock in the new company will be sold through an initial public offering. The new $20-billion firm will be built around AT&T Bell Laboratories, and will include the Network Systems Group, Global Business Communications Systems, Consumer Products, AT&T Paradyne, and the microelectronics unit. In a press conference announcing the breakup last month, company Chairman Robert E. Allen said one reason for splitting AT&T's equipment and technology operations off from its communications services was growing rivalry between AT&T and the regional Bell operating companies (RBOCs) separated from it in the earlier divestiture. RBOCs are interested in getting into the long-distance business in competition with AT&T, he said, and consequently are growing reluctant to buy equipment from a company they increasingly see as a future competitor. The AT&T name will stay with the communications services company, as will Allen, who is to remain chairman and chief executive of what will be a $50-billion operation. Alex J. Mandl, currently chief executive of AT&T's Communications Services Group, has been named president and chief operating officer of the new and smaller AT&T. The third unit created by the breakup will be a computer company, essentially AT&T's Global Information Solutions operation, most of which was the old NCR Corp. Top management for the independent GIS has not yet been named, but Lars Nyberg, currently chief executive of GIS, has been given the responsibility for overseeing that transition. AT&T earlier assigned the corresponding roles at the other units to McGinn and Mandl. (Grant Buckler/19951012/Press Contact: Adele Ambrose, AT&T, 908-221-6900; Jim Byrnes, AT&T, 908-221-7876) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 10/12/95 BUSINESS ****Viacom & Tellabs To Offer Cable TV/Phone Service (NEWS)(BUSINESS)(SFO)(00027) ****Viacom & Tellabs To Offer Cable TV/Phone Service 10/12/95 SAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1995 OCT 12 (NB) -- Cable giant Viacom, and Tellabs (NASDAQ:TLAB), are combining their respective cable delivery system and voice and data transport technology to offer full telephone service alongside standard cable television features. Following a California Public Utility Commission ruling, Viacom says it is building a pilot program in Castro Valley, California, which offers cable TV and full service local and long distance calling. Viacom says customers will see no changes in the way their telephone or cable TV system operate. Standard telephone services such as direct-dial, local and long-distance calling, custom calling features and choice of long-distance carriers, are an integral part of the program. The pilot program, scheduled to begin during January and last through June, 1996, consists of 200 residential homes in an area Viacom has previously used to test new technologies and services. Surprisingly, Tellabs' system, called Cablespan 2300, allows Viacom to use existing coaxial cables which currently deliver television programming to residential and business locations. Expanding on the technological side, Jon Grimes, vice president of network access systems at Tellabs, told Newsbytes, "For our Cablespan system, the cable operator does not have to run a fiber-optic line to each residence. Fiber-optic lines are used to supply nodes which then distribute programming to anywhere from 500 to 2,000 residences. From the node, the cable company uses its regular coaxial cable. Our technology, installed at the cable head and at the residence, allows voice and data transmission to be sent on the same wire." Tellabs says its Cablespan technology is capable of delivering data speeds of 10 megabits-per-second (Mbps). High speed T-3 lines, used as the backbone of the Internet, handle 45 Mbps, and T-1 lines, used by many businesses for an Internet connection transmit 1.544 Mbps. For desktop computer users, 10 Mbps data transmission means wide bandwidth capabilities which will allow for full video, high-quality audio, and extremely fast data transmission in both directions. Looking into the near future, Grimes said, "There will be no need for a modem on a computer user's desk. The same Cablespan device which connects to each residence can easily incorporate a modem which will handle high-speed data transmissions for the Internet and online services." Viacom serves more than 600,000 California residents and a total of 1.1 million subscribers in five states. Tellabs' Cablespan system is being tested in a number of locations by other cable providers as deregulation spreads across various states in the US. Grimes also said cable companies could possibly provide cheaper phone service than the Bell companies and customers should expect to see interesting promotional packages which might include special pay-per-view features tied to telephone usage. When asked how soon consumers could expect to see deployment of a telephony/cable system, Grimes said, "I think Viacom will be pleasantly surprised with their pilot program. Cablespan 2300 has been thoroughly tested and is ready to be put into action. If everything else were in place, wider distribution of this system to Viacom customers could begin in the second half of 1996." The pilot program will include a two-line telephone capability, and additional lines are possible when and if the system is extended. A pricing structure is still under consideration. Viacom will not actually put PacBell out of business. It will change who brings the service to your house or residence. The Viacom telephony/cable TV system still requires switching technology at a certain level within Viacom's cable network to complete telephone transmissions through a Bell company's network. Grimes added, "From a subjective point of view, we think our tests show the Cablespan system provides a clearer telephone connection with almost no noise." Line distortions and noise are often the cause of failure for data transmitted over the Internet. Along with the tremendous speed capability, the cleaner lines support even better service for online users. (Patrick McKenna/19951012/Press Contact: Thomas Scottino, Tellabs, 708-512-7504) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 10/12/95 IBM ****IBM Germany To Shed 1,200 More Jobs (NEWS)(IBM)(LON)(00028) ****IBM Germany To Shed 1,200 More Jobs 10/12/95 STUTTGART, GERMANY, 1995 OCT 12 (NB) -- IBM has announced plans to shed 1,200 staff over the next 12 months. According to Horst Richter, a member of the supervisory board of Big Blue's German operation, and a senior member of IG Metall, the German trade union, the staff cuts are on top of the 6,000 positions already lost over the last year. Richter told journalists this week that the broad outline for the plan had been agreed between himself, and other members of the board, including Personnel Director Hans-Werner Richter. Rather than simply lay off staff, IBM plans to instigate an early retirement program which will take around 300 from the 1,200 job losses figure. Nevertheless, IBM officials said that it expects that around 900 staff will have to leave over the next year. Currently, IBM Deutschland employs 21,900 staff. Interestingly, IBM's German operation, perhaps aware of the need that it may have to shed staff, has been moving steadily away from open- ended contracts and moving towards fixed-term agreements, renewable by negotiation between staff and management. Of the 21,900 staff currently with IBM, only 16,500 are classed as permanent, with the remainder having fixed-term or temporary contracts. According to Big Blue, the staff cuts are almost certain to be in the back office on the administrative side, and involve jobs which have no direct contact with customers. According to Richter, the works council is worried that the bulk of the cuts may hit Stuttgart, although it seems likely that some of the small units within IBM Deutschland may be closed down, such as those in Reutlingen or Villingen-Schwenningen. Richter said that IBM Deutschland has no major control over the cuts, since the instruction was handed down by the US parent. Under the guidelines, IBM Deutschland must cut costs by around 30 percent over the coming year, using 1994 as the base benchmark figure. A further 20 percent cuts are to be achieved by 1997, and IBM has not ruled out further cutbacks in the 1996/97 time frame. (Sylvia Dennis/19951012/Press & Reader Contact: IBM Deutschland, tel +49-711-7850, fax +49-711-785-3511) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 10/12/95 IBM IBM Teams With PictureTel On Global Resale, OS/2 Port (NEWS)(IBM)(BOS)(00029) IBM Teams With PictureTel On Global Resale, OS/2 Port 10/12/95 SOMERS, NEW YORK, U.S.A., 1995 OCT 12 (NB) -- In a teleconference this afternoon, IBM and PictureTel announced that IBM will resell PictureTel's complete line of videoconferencing systems on a global basis, and that PictureTel, in turn, will port its PCS 50 desktop videoconferencing system to IBM's OS/2 Warp. The deal represents the first "global marketing relationship" that IBM has forged with any other videoconferencing vendor, said IBM's Bob Riddle, speaking during the teleconference, which was attended by Newsbytes. Jim Gant, VP, Solution Developer Operations for IBM, opened the teleconference by pointing out that the new pact represents an earlier reseller agreement with PictureTel, forged in June, 1994, in which IBM is selling PictureTel videoconferencing products throughout Europe. Most of IBM's current customers for PictureTel in Europe are large corporations, but, as IBM expands distribution of PictureTel products to other countries, expansion will also occur in other kinds of markets, Gant added during a Q&A session. Dom LaCava, VP, Personal Systems Division, for PictureTel, told reporters that the deal with IBM is "consistent" with PictureTel's strategy of "aligning with world leaders" in the areas of networking and telecommunications. The resale agreement with IBM covers consulting and other services, plus related products, in addition to videoconferencing systems, according to LaCava. The deal is not "exclusive" for either side, he reported. The IBM and PictureTel officials declined comment on the financial ramifications of the deal. But IBM's Riddle said that, although IBM currently resells some other vendors' videoconferencing systems, "if a vendor demands a single source," IBM does not have any other relationships in the videoconferencing arena of the same "scope" as the expanded deal with PictureTel. (Jacqueline Emigh/19951012/Reader Contact: PictureTel, 508-762- 5000; IBM, 914-765-1900; Press Contacts: Kevin Flanagan, PictureTel, 508-762-5178; Glen Zimmerman, Beaupre & Company for PictureTel, 603-436-6690; Glenn Rossman, IBM, 914-766-1711) (SUMMARY)(GENERAL)(MSP)(00030) Newsbytes Daily Summary 10/12/95 MINNEAPOLIS, MINNESOTA, U.S.A., 1995 OCT 12 (NB) -- These are capsules of all today's news stories: ======================================================================== ------------| N E W S B Y T E S D A I L Y S U M M A R Y |---------- ------------| Thursday, October 12, 1995 |---------- ======================================================================== (c) Newsbytes News Network (Tm) Editor in Chief: Wendy Woods ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Newsbytes News Network's 1995 Update CD-ROM for Mac, DOS, and Windows is now available for $29.95 (includes s&h). Contains 1983-1995 news stories, more than 64,000 keyword searchable stories and 475 digitized images. For more information or to order, fax to 612-430-0441 or e-mail to 'administrator@newsbytes.com' -- MC, Visa, Amex accepted. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ CATEGORY HEADLINES (*** indicates today's top stories) STORY # ======================================================================== APPLE ****Apple Forms New Division.............................. 20 BROADCAST Inmarsat P Satellite Phone Set For 1999.................... 11 BROADCAST Major Hughes Investment Follows China Satellite Order...... 13 BROADCAST Video News Roundup......................................... 24 BUSINESS 3Com To Set Up Offices In Thailand & Vietnam............... 03 BUSINESS ****Bill Gates' Company Buys Photo Archives............... 08 BUSINESS Netscape & Geac Join Forces In Library Market.............. 16 BUSINESS 3-Way Contest For DMR Group................................ 17 BUSINESS Standard & Poor's Outlook On NTT Is Negative............... 19 BUSINESS ****Bosses Picked For Two Fragments Of AT&T............... 26 BUSINESS ****Viacom & Tellabs To Offer Cable TV/Phone Service...... 27 EDUCATION School "Tech Corps" Education Program "Goes National....... 21 GENERAL Japan Newsbriefs........................................... 12 IBM IBM To Roll Out More Internet Bundles At Internetworld..... 09 IBM IBM Plans Operating System Combining MVS & Unix............ 10 IBM ****IBM Germany To Shed 1,200 More Jobs................... 28 IBM IBM Teams With PictureTel On Global Resale, OS/2 Port...... 29 ONLINE Cable TV's Travel Channel On The Web....................... 01 ONLINE ICL Offers Commercial Online Publishing Service............ 14 ONLINE Individual To Offer News On Microsoft Network.............. 23 ONLINE Internet CD Music Store With 100,000 Titles................ 25 TELECOM Hong Kong Plans Full Telecom Competition................... 02 TELECOM China - Shanghai Buys SDH System From AT&T................. 06 TELECOM LCI Intros Flat-Rate Int'l Calls........................... 22 TRENDS Color Inkjet Printing Increases In Australia............... 04 TRENDS Australian Study Says Computer Games Not Bad For Kids...... 05 TRENDS UK Firm Intros Universal Multimedia Comms Unit............. 15 WINDOWS DOS/Windows Welsh Spelling-Checker Intro'd................. 07 WINDOWS ABI Intros More business Listing CD-ROMs................... 18 ======================================================================== These are the headlines and first paragraphs of each story, in order: 1 -> Cable TV's Travel Channel On The Web -- The Travel Channel cable TV network is expanding onto the Internet's World Wide Web. The channel has unveiled "The Travel Channel Online Network," designed to inform people about places, events, culture, and food from around the world. 2 -> Hong Kong Plans Full Telecom Competition -- Hongkong Telecom's new rival in supplying telephone lines, New T&T, has the first phase of its fiber optic network and digital switching system up and running. 3 -> 3Com To Set Up Offices In Thailand & Vietnam -- 3Com Corporation plans to set up representative offices in both Thailand and in Vietnam, according to 3Com ASEAN Channels Manager Eric Lee. 4 -> Color Inkjet Printing Increases In Australia -- The demand for high quality, low-cost printing is driving color inkjet sales onward and upward in what research group IDC Australia is calling a "quiet, but colorful" revolution. 5 -> Australian Study Says Computer Games Not Bad For Kids -- A Australian study by an associate professor of psychology claims to show that people worry unnecessarily about the effects of computer games on children. 6 -> China - Shanghai Buys SDH System From AT&T -- A US$13 million contract was signed recently between AT&T and Shanghai Posts and Telecommunications Bureau (SPTB) for SPTB to buy synchronous digital hierarchy (SDH) equipment from AT&T within a year. The purchase is reportedly part of the city's "information superhighway" plan. 7 -> DOS/Windows Welsh Spelling-Checker Intro'd --The Welsh Language Board (Bwrdd Yr Iaith Gymraeg) has announced the release of CySill 2.0+, a Welsh language spelling-checker designed for use with most DOS or Windows 3.xx word processors. According to the Board, the UKP45 package is compatible with Microsoft Word, WordPerfect. Ami Pro, Wordstar, and the new Windows 95 operating system. 8 -> ****Bill Gates' Company Buys Photo Archives -- Corbis Corp., a company owned by Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ: MSFT) Chairman Bill Gates, has purchased one of the world's largest photo agencies, the Bettmann Archive. The 16 million photos will be digitized and distributed and licensed to publishers of magazines, books, advertisements, films, television programs, newspapers, and other print and electronic media. 9 -> IBM To Roll Out More Internet Bundles At Internetworld -- IBM's newly unveiled plans to bundle Web servers from IBM and Netscape with RS/6000 workstations and servers will be followed by a long list of other software bundles for a range of IBM hardware, including additional Internet packages to be announced at the end of this month, IBM officials reported, during a press teleconference and follow-up briefing for Newsbytes. 10 -> IBM Plans Operating System Combining MVS & Unix -- In the first quarter of 1996, IBM will officially announce and deliver a new operating system for IBM mainframes that will be able to run MVS- and Unix applications simultaneously, IBM officials revealed, during a press teleconference and follow-up interview with Newsbytes. 11 -> Inmarsat P Satellite Phone Set For 1999 -- Inmarsat, the UK-based satellite phone and data comms network provider, has announced plans to launch Inmarsat P (for Personal), a personal satellite phone services aimed at consumers rather globe-trotting businesspeople. Although it is still far too early to talk specifics, the idea behind Inmarsat P is that terrestrial GSM (global system for mobile communications) digital nets will provide service in most countries, switching to a GSM hybrid service from 12 satellites ringing the globe to offer total coverage anywhere on the earth's surface. 12 -> Japan Newsbriefs -- In this roundup of news from Japan: PHS subscriptions down, Local authority IT spending up, IBM Japan unveils new hard disk, NEC extends Internet service, Tax returns via the Internet, Konami to make Windows 95 games, Sharp develops new LCD. 13 -> Major Hughes Investment Follows China Satellite Order -- Hughes Electric Corporation has announced it will invest $1 billion in China over the next ten years, following an order received by Hughes Space and Communications Corporation for a satellite from the Chinese government. 14 -> ICL Offers Commercial Online Publishing Service -- ICL is using the Telecom 95 expo to show, for the first time, a new system aimed at organizations wishing to make a success of commercial publishing on the Internet's World Wide Web. The system attempts to address problems concerning such ventures, including copyright protection and product branding. 15 -> UK Firm Intros Universal Multimedia Comms Unit --Loughborough Sounds Image (LSI) has developed an integrated system that combines multimedia (voice and audio comms), with fax, data, electronic-mail and data sharing facilities all in one "black box." Known as Video Processing Architecture (ViPA), the technology is currently being sold to multiple PC OEMs (original equipment manufacturers) around the world, ready for shipment as an integral part of multimedia systems shipped from next spring. 16 -> Netscape & Geac Join Forces In Library Market -- Geac Computer Corp. (TSE:GAC) has announced an alliance with the prominent developer of Internet access software Netscape Communications Corp. (NASDAQ:NSCP). Geac will become a Netscape affiliate, selling the California firm's World Wide Web browser software to its customers pre-installed on Geac systems. 17 -> 3-Way Contest For DMR Group -- Amdahl Corp.'s (AMEX:AMH) plan to buy DMR Group Inc., (TSE:DR) an information technology consulting firm, looks less certain of success now that two other bidders have joined the race. This week, a Quebec court cleared the way for BDM International Inc. (NASDAQ:BDMI) to proceed with a counter-offer for DMR, and IBM Canada Ltd., encouraged by the court decision, jumped in with its own higher offer. 18 -> ABI Intros More business Listing CD-ROMs -- American business Information Inc. (NASDAQ: ABII) has introduced two more searchable marketing and reference products on CD-ROM 19 -> Standard & Poor's Outlook On NTT Is Negative -- Standard and Poor's said this morning in London that it has assigned its preliminary AAA rating to the 600 billion yen ($6 billion) shelf-registration program of Nippon Telegraph and Telephone (NTT) in the Japanese market. This is a refilling of an existing registration that expired Wednesday. 20 -> ****Apple Forms New Division -- Apple Computer Inc. (NASDAQ:APPL) has combined its Apple USA and Apple Canada subsidiaries to form Apple North America. Given the proximity and similarity of the two divisions, Apple says the strengths of the two can "more easily be leveraged" through on grouping. 21 -> School "Tech Corps" Education Program "Goes National -- At a White House press conference in Washington DC, and again at a meeting of the Mass. Software Council (MSC) in Newton, Massachusetts, officials announced that the "Mass. Tech Corps," a volunteer program for bringing the expertise of computer professionals into school classrooms, has now "gone national." 22 -> LCI Intros Flat-Rate Int'l Calls -- LCI International (NYSE:LCI) said it will start charging flat rates to its residential customers for international phone calls. The plan, called "Extend Your Reach," offers one flat rate around-the-clock, with varying rates for individual countries. 23 -> Individual To Offer News On Microsoft Network -- Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ:MSFT) has acquired a minority interest in information provider Individual Inc. As a part of the agreement, both companies will collaborate on product development, including the delivery of personal daily news on The Microsoft Network (MSN). 24 -> Video News Roundup -- This is a look at the top stories this week in the world of video news reporting: Scitex Buys Abekas, Newsgroup for ENG Professionals, Video storage and server news, The Maxi Sound Multimedia Keyboard, and A how-to book for computer video. 25 -> Internet CD Music Store With 100,000 Titles --Pentagon CDs & Tapes, a 24-hour Internet record store claims the most extensive music database available on the Internet's World Wide Web. Pentagon's database contains over 100,000 albums cross-referenced by artist, album title, song title, and category. 26 -> ****Bosses Picked For Two Fragments Of AT&T -- The top managers have been named for two of the three companies that will emerge from the breakup of AT&T (NYSE:T). They are current AT&T managers except for Henry B. Schacht, the 60-year-old former chairman and chief executive of Cummins Engine Co. Inc., who will head the new communications systems and technology company. 27 -> ****Viacom & Tellabs To Offer Cable TV/Phone Service -- Cable giant Viacom, and Tellabs (NASDAQ:TLAB), are combining their respective cable delivery system and voice and data transport technology to offer full telephone service alongside standard cable television features. Following a California Public Utility Commission ruling, Viacom says it is building a pilot program in Castro Valley, California, which offers cable TV and full service local and long distance calling. 28 -> ****IBM Germany To Shed 1,200 More Jobs -- IBM has announced plans to shed 1,200 staff over the next 12 months. According to Horst Richter, a member of the supervisory board of Big Blue's German operation, and a senior member of IG Metall, the German trade union, the staff cuts are on top of the 6,000 positions already lost over the last year. 29 -> IBM Teams With PictureTel On Global Resale, OS/2 Port -- In a teleconference this afternoon, IBM and PictureTel announced that IBM will resell PictureTel's complete line of videoconferencing systems on a global basis, and that PictureTel, in turn, will port its PCS 50 desktop videoconferencing system to IBM's OS/2 Warp. (Ian Stokell/19951012) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 10/11/95 PC European Firms Happy With PC Industry - Report (NEWS)(PC)(LON)(00001) European Firms Happy With PC Industry - Report 10/11/95 BRACKNELL, BERKSHIRE, ENGLAND, 1995 OCT 11 (NB) -- European corporations give the computer industry high marks for its leading-edge technology, according to a report from Dell Computer's European operations. According to the survey, corporations in Europe also rate the provision of other customer priorities, such as pricing, service, support, and the timing plus delivery of PC products. The report, which was carried out by Research International by Dell, also reveals a high level of concern amongst large users over the lack of compatibility in PC products and standardization in the industry. According to Dell, the survey was conducted amongst 400 information technology (IT) purchasers in companies of more than 100 staff across France, Germany, Greece, the Netherlands, Spain, and the UK, to determined the key IT priorities and needs of large users, an area of the market that Dell is pitching hard at. Despite a good degree of positive feedback, Martyn Ratcliffe, vice president and general manager of Dell Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA), said that the computer industry needs to avoid complacency and further improve the total PC experience for corporate customers. Specifically, Ratcliffe said that the European PC industry needs to put the needs of customers before the proprietary interests when developing products. In addition, the report suggests that PC vendors need to enhance the scope, quality, and responsiveness of their service and support programs. "The European PC industry should be proud of its accomplishments in meeting the expectations of corporate computer users," Ratcliffe said, adding that Dell is encouraged that the factors which corporate users identify as their top priorities -- prompt technical support, technical expertise of staff, and reliable delivery -- are the strengths of its direct model. "Customized service and support before, during and after the sale, mass customization, competitive pricing, and quick time-to-market are the hallmarks of the direct model, pioneered more than a decade ago by Dell," he said. In the survey, 70 percent of all respondents identified service and support issues in the aggregate as priorities. European companies said that they are satisfied with customized service and warranty programs, extended customer care programs and the expertise of technical support staff, but said there is room for some improvement in the promptness of the support they receive. Interestingly, 60 percent of all respondents felt that customized service and warranty programs are important in selecting a supplier, and 89 percent of respondents said that they were happy with the customized service and warranty programs of their current supplier. One in four German companies said that their supplier exceeded their expectations in this area. Almost two thirds of respondents said that the technical expertise of support staff was an important factor in their supplier selection decision-making, and 85 percent were happy with the staff expertise of their current supplier. Of the 15 percent who expressed dissatisfaction, public sector organizations were the most unhappy -- one in five said that the technical expertise of their supplier's support staff fell short of their expectations. (Sylvia Dennis/19951010/Press Contact: Fleischman Hillard, tel +44-171-306-9008, fax +44-171-497-0096; Reader Contact: Dell Computer, +44-171-306-9008) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 10/11/95 GENERAL Software 2000 To Add Windows 95, NT, Unix To Apps (NEWS)(GENERAL)(BOS)(00002) Software 2000 To Add Windows 95, NT, Unix To Apps 10/11/95 BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS, U.S.A., 1995 OCT 11 (NB) -- Products for Windows 95, Windows NT, and Unix will follow newly released Windows and OS/2 clients in a major object-oriented (OO) update to Software 2000's AS/400-based business applications software, revealed Erin Golden, at a meeting with Newsbytes in Boston. Meanwhile, the Cape Cod-based software company views recent competition from the likes of SAP and Peoplesoft as "validating" AS/400 as an underlying platform, she contended. Software 2000's financial accounting and human resources (HR) applications have been based on AS/400 ever since the company's founding in Hyannis, Massachusetts, back in 1981, according to Golden, who is Software 2000's director of marketing. Since then, the company has grown from a handful of employees to more than 460. Till 1994, the software was entirely text-based. But about a year ago, Software 2000 shipped Infinium:Human Resources (Infinium:HR) 1.0, a graphical client-server application featuring an underlying architecture built with Smalltalk, the marketing director told Newsbytes. Last spring came the release of Infinium: Desktop Manager, an OO "environment" for managing Infinium applications and sharing information with Windows- and OS/2-based personal productivity tools like spreadsheets and word processors. And now, Software 2000 has delivered Infinium:Financial Management (Infinium:FM), along with the Infinium:HR 1.1 upgrade. Why the object "renaissance" for Software 2000? Golden told Newsbytes that object technology has allowed Software 2000 to use AS/400 as the basis for corporate data warehouses that are easily accessible to the end user. The new applications are especially useful in traditional AS/400 strongholds such as finance and manufacturing, because users can "preserve their investments." But Infinium is also helping to bring new customers to AS/400, in industries ranging from utilities to theme parks, according to Golden. Golden added that the recent entry of SAP and Peoplesoft into the AS/400 financial/HR software market corroborates Software 2000's choice of AS/400 as a "robust and cost effective" server. But, she asserted, Infinium supports processing of "larger volumes of data," and also permits a greater degree of user customization, than rival products. Users and analysts attested to the advantages of Infinium over Software 2,000's previous text-based interface. In addition, customers who had "shopped around" told Newsbytes that Infinium meets their needs better than competing products. Matt Parsons, project manager for Infinium:FM at EDS, said that EDS looked at "15 major financial management systems" before signing a recent licensing deal with Software 2000. Initially, the deal calls for the integration of Infinium products with an existing data processing system that EDS operates for over 300 Saturn car dealerships. Ultimately, EDS plans to market a system incorporating Infinium to other General Motors dealerships. Parsons told Newsbytes that the existing system at Saturn was created in 1989. The ability to continue using AS/400 hardware was a "big key, so as not to create obsolescence." But in evaluating applications for AS/400, he added, EDS found Infinium to provide "the best usability for end users," in addition to a "GUI that can be customized to many different levels of users -- from AR (accounts receivables) clerks to top executives," according to the EDS exec. John Millward, another user, told Newsbytes that his company purchased AS/400 hardware because of Infinium, rather than the other way around. "Software 2000 is solid and reliable. There are no `shocks' -- no nasty surprises," remarked Millward, who is manager of financial services for Alberta Pacific (AL-Pac) Forest Industries. Millward recalled that the lumber company assessed a number of accounting packages, including VAX-based products, a few years ago, while still in start-up mode. Today, Al-Pac also runs a VAX- based production system and a Sun-based GIS (geographic information systems), along with a number of RS/6000 servers and workstations. "Infinium will also let us import data from Truck Base, a product we developed in conjunction with another firm, into a program for our woodlands. And it is really nice to use," noted the financial services manager. Bill Gannon Jr., an analyst at Sentry Market Research (SMR), told Newsbytes that some users previously thought of Software 2000 as "legacy-based," but that new research results from SMR show Infinium's GUI (graphical user interface) and object architecture to be giving the company a strong "bump" upward in user perceptions. During a demo of the new Infinium:FM at the meeting with Newsbytes, Golden showed how users can quickly "drill down" through layers of information to find needed accounting facts. Infinium:FM, she maintained, consists of "highly integrated" components for general ledger, accounts payable, accounts receivable, and management of "global currencies and global taxation." Golden displayed how the user can access budgets for various "functional areas" by dragging and dropping an icon for the "`budgets' business object" on to icons for the functional areas. Aside from "budgets," objects that can be dragged and dropped within the "icon view" include invoices, payments, accounting "notes," journals, companies, vendors, and customers, among others. Users can then drill down into a series of screens providing progressively more detail, she said. You might drill, for example, from an "account balance, all balances" screen into another screen giving detail for "travel expenses -- product (line 3.)" Golden added that ultimately, Infinium will also let users build three-tier applications, involving a desktop client, an AS/400 server, and a second server for Unix or Windows NT. Software 2000 will release clients for Windows 95 and Windows NT in the first quarter of 1996, with Unix and Windows NT servers to follow some time later next year, she told Newsbytes. (Jacqueline Emigh/19951010/Reader Contact: Software 2000, 508-778-2000; Press Contacts: Gail Fulciniti, Software 2000, 508-778-2000; Deb Dionne or Heather Robb, FitzGerald Communications for Software 2000, 617-494-9500) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 10/11/95 NETWORK Novell Technology To Help Manage Energy Consumption (NEWS)(NETWORK)(DEN)(00003) Novell Technology To Help Manage Energy Consumption 10/11/95 OREM, UTAH, U.S.A., 1995 OCT 11 (NB) -- Novell Inc. (NASDAQ: NOVL) has announced a partnership to "develop and jointly market" applications that will allow consumers to optimize their use of energy consumption in their homes and offices. It could also be the connection that plugs that home or office into the information superhighway. The network software company has entered into a partnership with Utilicorp United, a Kansas City, Missouri-based international energy generation, transmission and marketing company to form the Smart Energy Network Alliance. The two companies will use Novell Embedded Systems Technology (NEST) to exchange information over conventional power lines. Products are expected to be commercially available next year. The partnership announcement is important because electric companies, with their existing connections into every home and office in the world, hope to be the pathway to the information superhighway of the future. However, they are not alone in seeking that objective, facing opposition with equally well- positioned providers like the telephone and cable companies. Novell's NEST Powerline technology will use existing power lines to transfer data at speeds up to two megabits-per-second. The utility companies could use NEST to automate and manage functions like heating and cooling, refrigerators, air conditioners and fax machines. It can also allow your utility company to remotely read, activate or deactivate your electric meter, which may be the first application of the technology. Novell said the level of control provided by NEST will eventually allow utility companies to exercise demand-side power management and allocate energy resources depending on the need of a device at a given time. In the long-run power officials expect that to benefit consumers and distributors. "Smart energy network management means that large companies, businesses of all sizes and the home consumer, will receive more value for their energy expenditures," according to Robert Frankenberg, Novell chairman and chief executive officer. The two companies declined to reveal details of the technology, saying that would be announced at a later time. They said the NEST Powerline technology is not intended to replace the need for Ethernet or Token Ring networks, but augment other networks by extending the network connections to every wall outlet. Novell also said NEST Powerline is a higher performance, lower cost network protocol than ISDN (integrated services digital network). While the electric, cable and telephone companies fight for dominance in providing a connection between your house or business and the world of information, the real question may be whether the consumer cares, according to Computer Intelligence/Infoworld analyst Stan Schatt. "The vast majority of the population... doesn't want anything more complicated than the telephone in the home," the analyst told Newsbytes. "We haven't really been able to get to the point through artificial intelligence.. to get it down to one or two buttons.:" (Jim Mallory/19951010/Press contact: Shannon Smith, Novell, 800-429-5850 or Ethan Hirsh, Utilicorp, 816-467-3509/SMART951010/PHOTO) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 10/11/95 GOVT ****Electronics Industry Groups Hail Export Decision (NEWS)(GOVT)(TOR)(00004) ****Electronics Industry Groups Hail Export Decision 10/11/95 WASHINGTON, D.C., U.S.A., 1995 OCT 11 (NB) -- The Electronic Industries Association (EIA) and the American Electronics Association (AEA) have both praised a government decision to loosen restrictions on the export of high-powered computers, saying the Clinton administration has recognized the pace at which technology is advancing. The administration has raised the "supercomputer threshold," which defines machines covered by strict limits on export, from 1,500 million theoretical operations per second (MTOPS) to 10,000 MTOPS for many countries, and 7,000 MTOPS for others. It is the first time the threshold has been raised since September of 1993, when the Clinton government also said it would periodically review the limit in light of technological advances. Though both industry associations praised the move, the AEA also said it would like to see a review of the threshold become routine. The organization would like the threshold reviewed at least annually, AEA spokeswoman Beneva Schulte told Newsbytes. The EIA, meanwhile, suggested that the ultimate goal should be the end of controls on the export of high-powered computers. And the AEA noted that while the government can control the export of individual high-powered computers, it cannot stop smaller computers from being networked together to provide power equivalent to that of the most powerful single systems. "The government is realizing that while it may be difficult to restrict the export of a high-performance computer, it's virtually impossible to restrict the export of high-performance computing," said Bill Archey, president and chief executive of the AEA, in a prepared statement. The AEA said it advised the government in January that it should raise the threshold to a minimum of 10,000 MTOPS. The association also said security conditions on the export of supercomputers can cost as much to implement as the computers themselves cost. (Grant Buckler/19951010/Press Contact: Beneva Schulte, American Electronics Association, 202-682-4443; Mark Rosenker, Electronic Industries Association, 703-907-7790) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 10/11/95 PC Europe - Tulip Unveils "Silent Workstation" (NEWS)(PC)(LON)(00005) Europe - Tulip Unveils "Silent Workstation" 10/11/95 CRAWLEY, WEST SUSSEX, ENGLAND, 1995 OCT 11 (NB) -- Tulip Computers has taken the seemingly regressive step of removing the fan from its latest PC, the ID-45 series. According to Steve Roberts, the company's product marketing manager, the idea isn't a cost-cutting move, but one based on technology enhancement. According to Roberts, the 80486-based small footprint system has been engineered to keep power consumption to a minimum, and keep the heat of the main board down to a minimum, so meaning a fan -- the noisiest part of a PC -- is no longer required. Ironically, the very earliest clone PCs, notably the PC1512 from Amstrad in the mid- to late-1980s, had a high level of integration on the motherboard. As the chipsets of the day (8086/8 and 80286) ran at relatively slow speeds by today's standards, this high level of integration meant that fans on these machines were not necessary. These days, only notebook PCs, which are designed to run at lower power and heat levels, avoid the need for fans. Desktops always tend to need a fan -- until the ID-45 series, that is. "Typically, the heat thrown out from a standard PC is of the order of a couple of joules. That's the equivalent of a 100-watt light burning every minute -- all wasted energy," explained Roberts, adding that, what Tulip has done is to reduce the overall power consumption, "using superior design rules, and using the latest power saving techniques, so there is less heat generated by the machines. "The added benefit is that the ID-45 does not require a fan to cool the insides -- and that makes the whole machines quieter as well," he said. According to Roberts, the ID-45 PC produces a noise level typically around the 30 decibels level, and, on the power front, it consumes just six watts when running in eco-mode, the lowest power (economy) setting of five on the machines. The eco-mode is billed as Energy Star- compliant, for those buyers looking for UK energy-saving compliance. It's not just in the absence of a fan that the ID-45 is unusual. The machine comes with an IRDA (Infra Red Data Association) infra red link as standard. According to Roberts, Tulip sees the IRDA links as a convenient, wireless communications path between desktops and notebooks. Other features of the ID-45 series include very high levels of integration, with onboard Ethernet, business sound, between eight and 64 megabytes (MB) of memory, 1MB to 2MB of video memory, a 256 kilobyte cache -- for the AMD 486 chipset and Cyrix M1/SC scaleable architecture processor -- on the motherboard as well. Pricing on the ID-45 series starts at UKP1,239 excluding monitor in the UK -- a price point that Jonothan Sultan, Tulip's marcomms manager said neatly fits in with other machines from the company, "offering a low cost entry into workstations connected to local and wide area networks." (Steve Gold/19951010/Press Contact: Worldview Marketing, +44- 1342-323525; Reader Contact: Tulip Computers, +44-1293-420200) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 10/11/95 BROADCAST Skyphone Opens Satellite Earth Station In Singapore (NEWS)(BROADCAST)(LON)(00006) Skyphone Opens Satellite Earth Station In Singapore 10/11/95 SENTOSA ISLAND, SINGAPORE, 1995 OCT 11 (NB) -- Skyphone, the satellite phone consortium formed by British Telecom (BT), Singapore Telecom and Telenor International, has announced the opening of its fifth worldwide ground earth station in Singapore. According to officials with Skyphone, the new facility will considerably strengthen the position of the Skyphone's global network. Ray Woodfine, aeronautical services manager with Skyphone, explained that the consortium's members are concerned with the intensive growth of the network, and to ensure continuous functionality and network's capacity, they see the need to boost the existing range of services -- hence the opening of the fifth ground station. According to Skyphone, satellite telephone usage has been growing in popularity amongst airline passengers in recent months -- since the beginning of 1994, the number of calls processed by Skyphone has surged by more than 160 percent and, over the next five years, call traffic is expected to rise between five or six times, as more Skyphone comms equipment is installed on board aircraft. "With eleven major airlines operating Skyphone service, the consortium's customer base is continuing to expand and we need to ensure that the networks resilience grows with that demand. The second GES (Ground Earth Station) facility in Singapore gives us 100 percent redundancy, which means we can still carry calls as normal, even in the unlikely event of a catastrophic failure," Woodfine explained. Skyphone's existing operational Sentosa GES facility will still offer the priority service provision for passenger satcoms in the Pacific Ocean Region (POR), while the new GES - the second installation on Sentosa Island, will give the necessary network enhancement and diversity in the Indian Ocean region (IOR), in collaboration with the GES in Norway. According to Skyphone, the GES at Sentosa Island is the second step of the Skyphone's managed network plan, due to be completed in 1996. At the end of the network program, traffic management strategy for performance prioritization, diversity and restoration will be implemented. (Sylvia Dennis/19951010/Press Contact: Spec Communications, +44-1494-680555) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 10/11/95 ONLINE UK - Demon Internet Offers RealAudio Service (NEWS)(ONLINE)(LON)(00007) UK - Demon Internet Offers RealAudio Service 10/11/95 LONDON, ENGLAND, 1995 OCT 11 (NB) -- Demon Internet has installed a RealAudio server on its system. According to the Internet service provider (SP), it is the first time that a commercial Internet SP has offered this service in the UK. RealAudio offers real-time playback of a stereo AM radio-quality sound channel across the Internet. Unlike other "voice across the Internet" services, the RealAudio links works in real time, since it uses a simplex (one-way) link and lower audio sampling rates. It also differs from services such as TalkRadio, since it does not require a download and subsequent playback, but operates in real time. RealAudio is available on US-based servers across the Internet, but the provision of a server on the Demon Internet system means that subscribers to Demon can upload RealAudio sound files to the Demon Web server, for download or incorporation into their Web pages. The RealAudio decoder and encoders, which, respectively, decode and convert various sound formats into RealAudio format, is available users of the Apple Mac and PC Windows computing platforms, are available for download from the RealAudio server which is on http://www.realaudio.com . According to Demon, plans call for the RealAudio facility to be incorporated in future revisions of NetScape and Windows 95. Demon officials told Newsbytes that there are already many radio stations broadcasting on the Internet, including stations in Australia, Japan, America, Italy, Canada, and Hawaii. Receiving information from these sites, plus the innumerable music sites across the Internet, will now be faster and more efficient, using RealAudio. James Gardiner, a spokesman for Demon Internet, told Newsbytes that the availability of the RealAudio server will be of significant benefit to subscribers to Demon who host their Web pages on the Demon services. "It's a fascinating addition to the visual aspects of the Internet. The service requires a 10 kilobits/second link into the Internet and, surprisingly, works better over dial-up modem, rather than leased lines into the Internet," he said. Further details of RealAudio, together with the Demon Internet range of services, can be found on Demon's Web pages, which are located at: http://www.demon.net . (Steve Gold/19951010/Press Contact: Foresight PR, +44-181-371-3711; Internet e-mail pr@demon.net; Reader Contact: Demon Internet Svcs, +44-181-371-1234; Internet e-mail sales@demon.net) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 10/11/95 ONLINE Oklahoma Firm Launches Virtual Cities (NEWS)(ONLINE)(DEN)(00008) Oklahoma Firm Launches Virtual Cities 10/11/95 TULSA, OKLAHOMA, U.S.A., 1995 OCT 11 (NB) -- A Tulsa, Oklahoma company has awarded a four-part contract to various contractors to develop a complete "interactive city" for Tulsa on the Internet. The World Wide Web site, to be called "City-Surf," will feature a real estate section called "Visual Realty" and a virtual "Yellow Pages" business directory to be known as the "Merchant Magazine." The prime contractor for the "virtual city" is Virtual Media Services Inc. (VMS). The company said City-Surf is designed so citizens can explore business, entertainment and general information on the Internet. The service is scheduled to launch during the first week of November, and VMS said it plans to roll out City-Surf in five other cites, with the Web sites eventually expanding nationwide. In the first phase of City-Surf more than 300 homes currently on the real estate market will be listed, thanks to the cooperation of several Tulsa real estate agencies. When the service kicks off anyone with Internet access can obtain a listing of homes that meet the user's criteria of price range, construction style and school district as well a dozen other search criteria in just a few seconds. A clickable map locator will pinpoint the exact location of the selected properties within the city. The user will also be able to check on the latest mortgage rates from 14 different participating mortgage banks, and Merchant Magazine will include a business directory of services in the housing industry for the Tulsa area. Furniture stores, interior designers, insurance companies and title companies will be listed in a searchable data base. Phase 1 will also include a Tulsa restaurant guide complete with coupons. VMS said eventually the online service will include Chamber of Commerce services, all components of city government, the arts and non-profit organizations. To see City-Surf use a Web browser to reach the Uniform Resource Locator (URL) address http://www.citysurf.com after the first of November. (Jim Mallory/19951010/Press contact: Anthony Cole Link, VMS, tel 918-627-4375, fax 918-627-4479) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 10/11/95 TELECOM Row Over Belgian GSM Net Licensing (NEWS)(TELECOM)(LON)(00009) Row Over Belgian GSM Net Licensing 10/11/95 BRUSSELS, BELGIUM, 1995 OCT 11 (NB) -- A blistering row has broken out between Belgacom, the privatized telecoms operation formerly owned by the Belgian Government, and the Belgian Ministry of Telecommunications, over a license fee payable for the operation of a GSM (global system for mobile communications) digital mobile phone net. The original fee that the Belgian Government asked from Belgacom was Belgian Francs (BF) 3.5 billion. However, according to John Goosens, the telecom company's chief executive officer (CEO), when Mobistar, a private company, approached the Government, it was asked to pay BF9 billion. Now the Government is turning to Belgacom to ask for the extra BF5.5 billion. "Originally the Government asked us for 3.5 billion and that is what we are willing to pay. If tomorrow somebody comes and wants to pay 20 billion for another license and then go bankrupt we do not want to follow them," he told journalists at a news conference. Interestingly, Goosens claims that Belgacom should be treated on the same basis as other European GSM operators, as far its own GSM license is concerned. "The operators in other countries did not have to pay anything," he explained. However, as reported by Newsbytes earlier this month, the European Commission (EC) has now instructed Telecom Italia that it must now pay a Lire 750 billion license to the Italian Government, the same fee as was charged by the Government for Omnitel's operating license earlier this year. In April of this year, Telecom Italia was given the go-ahead to formally launch its GSM service, following an acrimonious legal dispute with Omnitel Pronto, the second GSM licensee. Omnitel officials had lodged a formal complaint with the EC over the Italian Government's dual standards policy -- i.e. charging nothing for Telecom Italia's GSM license, yet charging Omnitel for the same privilege. The Italian GSM saga was itself based on a similar situation with Telefonica, the GSM network provider in Spain, which again had to pay a sizeable fee to the Government on the advice of the EC. Industry experts are now predicting that the Belgian Government has started back-tracking on its original license fee agreement with Belgacom GSM, which is only 75 percent owned by Belgacom, the state telco, and 25 percent owned by Airtouch in the US. Despite all the bluster, it looks as though Goosens will have to abide by what is an EC precedent. (Sylvia Dennis/19951010/Press Contact: European Commission, +32-2-299-1111; Belgacom, tel +32-2-202-9736, fax +32-2-202-2417) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 10/11/95 TELECOM Finland's Nokia Opens Japanese R&D Operation (NEWS)(TELECOM)(LON)(00010) Finland's Nokia Opens Japanese R&D Operation 10/11/95 HELSINKI, FINLAND, 1995 OCT 11 (NB) -- Nokia has announced plans to open a research and development (R&D) operation in Japan, with the specific aim of furthering the company's cellular services in that country. According to the Finnish telecoms company, which has carved out a significant slice of the GSM (global system for mobile communications) and PCN (personal communications network) digital cellular markets in the West, the surge in demand for digital cellular in Japan makes it necessary to open an R&D, as well as sales/support operation, in that country. Nokia claims that it is the only European telecoms company selling digital cellular phones in Japan. Currently, the phones are sold through distributors and sales outlets in that country, but the opening of the new R&D and sakes facility, which will be located in Akasaka Mitsuke prefecture, will aid Nokia greatly in this respect. Interestingly, while Nokia has been successful in penetrating the digital handyphone market in Japan, the company has been having something of a quiet success in China as well, Newsbytes notes. Last October, Nokia announced that the first call on its GSM network in China has been made. The call, the first public digital call ever made in China, was made at the Expocomm exhibition which took place in the early part of the month. According to Nokia, the Chinese GSM network was one of the fastest installed, with the contract for installation only having been signed in May, 1994. (Sylvia Dennis/19951010/Press Contact: Nokia +358-400-418605) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 10/11/95 ONLINE Pipeline USA Plans More Local Services (NEWS)(ONLINE)(TOR)(00011) Pipeline USA Plans More Local Services 10/11/95 HERNDON, VIRGINIA, U.S.A., 1995 OCT 11 (NB) -- Pipeline USA, an online service and Internet access provider that already operates a local service in New York, has announced plans to offer local content in seven more US cities. The unit of PSINet (NASDAQ:PSIX) will launch four of its new "virtual neighborhoods" by year-end, officials said. Like the existing Pipeline New York service, the new services will offer local news, entertainment and event listings, and special features of interest to local communities, company spokeswoman Aggie Nteta told Newsbytes. In New York, for instance, subscribers can take courses online from the New School of Social Research and participate in a newsgroup run in cooperation with the Authors' Guild. Atlanta, Boston, Chicago, Dallas, Los Angeles, San Francisco, and Washington DC, are in line to get local Pipeline services over the next few months. Four of these are to be launched before the end of this year, but Nteta said it is not yet certain which four. Pipeline said it will look at offering such services in other centers that have high enough concentrations of Internet or online users in the future. Pipeline USA provides unlimited Internet access and its own content for a flat monthly fee of $19.95. The new local content will be available at no extra charge, the company said. Pipeline also said it will be adding Winsock compliance and a personal home page authoring tool -- which will carry a surcharge of $5 per month after the first two months -- later this month. During the holiday shopping season, Pipeline plans to feature a Holiday Shopping Guide with links to Web sites and user groups that offer shopping services. (Grant Buckler/19951010/Press Contact: Aggie Nteta, Pipeline USA, 703-904-4100 ext 1356, Internet e-mail ntetaa@psi.com or aggie@usa.pipeline.com; Public Contact: Pipeline USA, 800-453-7473) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 10/11/95 IBM ****IBM Fills Out PC Server Lineup (NEWS)(IBM)(TOR)(00012) ****IBM Fills Out PC Server Lineup 10/11/95 SOMERS, NEW YORK, U.S.A., 1995 OCT 11 (NB) -- By launching two new PC Server lines and adding models to a third, IBM (NYSE:IBM) said it has filled out its personal computer server lineup as promised. As part of a wide-ranging server announcement Tuesday, IBM added the new server models along with new releases of its NetFinity systems- management software and ServerGuide network-operating-system installation aid. The PC Server 310 line is a low-priced mini-tower server meant for small businesses and workgroups. It offers a combination of the Peripheral Component Interconnect (PCI) bus with either Industry Standard Architecture (ISA) or IBM's own Micro Channel Architecture (MCA) and lists from about $3,260. The new 520 line, which can provide as many as 22 bays for storage devices, will also be a multi-processor, dual-bus system (PCI with either MCA or EISA). Prices will start at $7,699. A new PC Server 320 model will come with one or two 75 megahertz (MHz) Pentium processors and a dual PCI and Extended ISA (EISA) bus, and will start at $4,250. The 310 is to ship by the end of October, the 520 in November, and the 320 is already in resellers' warehouses, IBM officials said. Brian Fullington, manager of the server brand in IBM's PC Server division, told Newsbytes that the inclusion of the PCI bus in the new models reflects IBM's belief that this bus will emerge as an industry standard. However, he said IBM still has many customers who want Micro Channel or the older bus standards, and the dual-bus systems are meant to address their needs. Company officials said during a press teleconference Tuesday that ease-of- use was a common theme of all the server announcements, which included RISC System/6000, AS/400, and System/390 products. Fullington said this ease-of-use focus showed up in the PC Server announcements with the upgrades of ServerGuide, which is designed to simplify the installation of network operating systems, and NetFinity. IBM added support for Santa Cruz Operation Inc.'s SCO Unix to ServerGuide, and support for Microsoft's Windows 95 to NetFinity. During the press conference, IBM officials reaffirmed that they plan to continue offering servers in all four of the company's hardware lines, saying each line has strengths that appeal to particular customers. Fullington told Newsbytes that the PC Server line's appeal lies primarily in its low prices and in the familiarity of PC technology -- a "comfort factor" for many buyers, he said. Now that IBM has fleshed out its PC Server offerings, the company plans to continue updating the product line regularly, though Fullington said the complexity of server technology means complete refreshes every six months or so, which have become common in the desktop PC market, probably will not happen in the server arena. Newsbytes reported on IBM's RS/6000 server announcements on Tuesday, and today's edition includes coverage of other elements of the announcements. (Grant Buckler/19951010/Press Contact: Liz Arends, IBM Server Group, 914-766-4256, Internet e-mail earends@vnet.ibm.com) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 10/11/95 ONLINE ****Compuserve To Page Users When E-Mail Is Received (NEWS)(ONLINE)(MSP)(00013) ****Compuserve To Page Users When E-Mail Is Received 10/11/95 COLUMBUS, OHIO, U.S.A., 1995 OCT 11 (NB) -- Compuserve is extending its reach from the wired world of online services and the Internet to the wireless realm of paging services. Starting in November, the online network will page its subscribers when electronic-mail is waiting from either other members or through the Internet, among other features. An exclusive agreement with RPA, a New Jersey-based automated paging network provider, is the enabler behind this new service, Compuserve officials said. The agreement also "lays the foundation for the development of the next generation in wireless communication," officials said. With the new service, anyone with e-mail capabilities will be able to send alphanumeric messages and numeric codes to pagers belonging to Compuserve members. "We want to extend the Compuserve community as far as we can," Jeff Shafer, Compuserve spokesperson, told Newsbytes. "One of the big reasons why people use online services, the Internet, and the like, is for communication," and the company wants to make its communication capability as extensive as possible, he said. Shafer also said the fact that the messages would reach anyone with a pager, and not just people who have paging services through one company, is a tremendous advantage for Compuserve. "This is the ability to page anyone in the country who has pagers," along with a Compuserve account, he added. Today's action is the first of many that result from Compuserve's relationships with wireless business partners, including MoblieComm, PageMart, PageNet, and SkyTel. Shafer said any member who has services with Compuserve's partners will receive their pages at no extra charge above and beyond normal subscription and hourly rates. Subscribers who have pager services from other providers will have to pay transaction surcharges, which have yet to be determined, he added. Future applications will include "SmartRules," which will enable members to filter important messages and forward them to their pagers or other destinations. Also, personalized information like stock quotes, sports scores, news, and other information from the Compuserve Information Service will be sent directly to pagers. Further down the line, Shafer said the company is looking into sending wireless messages to mini-computers and personal digital assistants (PDAs). (Bob Woods/19951010/Press Contacts: Jeff Shafer, 614-538-4632, or R. Pierce Reid, 614-538-4571, both of Compuserve; Dan Hurley, RPA, 201-217-3832) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 10/11/95 ONLINE RealAudio Allows PCs To Put Audio On The Internet (NEWS)(ONLINE)(SFO)(00014) RealAudio Allows PCs To Put Audio On The Internet 10/11/95 SEATTLE, WASHINGTON, U.S.A., 1995 OCT 11 (NB) -- Progressive Networks, the company responsible for bringing on-demand audio to the Internet, has announced RealAudio Personal Server, new software which allows desktop PC users to deliver their own audio content over the Internet. A beta version for Windows 95 and Windows NT is currently available for testing through the company's World Wide Web site. It was six months ago when attendees at Internet World were astounded to hear National Public Radio content delivered over the Internet. The necessary server software could be purchased by a Web site owner and Progressive provided the client software, called RealAudio Player, free to the entire Internet community. Once installed on a desktop computer, the client software allowed users to hear AM radio-quality music, speeches and other audio content delivered through the server software on the Web. To date some 450,000 Players have been downloaded and more than 130 Web sites offer RealAudio content. Earlier types of software for audio delivery lacked the necessary data compression and decompression to allow audio content to be delivered in "near- realtime." A year ago, a computer would take 25 minutes to download a five-minute speech. Today, Progressive Network software allows users to deliver what is described as "almost instant," on-demand audio content. Speaking for Progressive Networks, Maria Cantwell, vice president of marketing, told Newsbytes, "The 450,000 Players are just from our own count. We do not know how many have been downloaded through arrangements we have with other companies. I expect by the end of the year, we will have released approximately two million Players." The original server software was built to handle a large volume of client calls and depending on specific volume requirements cost anywhere from $1,500 to $10,000 for a large active commercial site. With RealAudio Personal Server, a small individual Web site owner is now able create his or her own audio content and deliver it to the Internet community. Instead of multiple streams of data, the new software supports two external streams and one local stream of data which means two people and the server owner can listen concurrently in realtime. For the time being, audio content created by Web site owners using Personal Server software is most easily delivered across a designated Web server. John Shay, Progressive Network's product manager, told Newsbytes, "A user could add audio content to their Web page through a dial-up provider, but it would require some technical adjustment." Shay suggested a utility which facilitates audio delivery through a dial-up provider may be under development. He also said the Personal Server product could be used to distribute audio content over a local area network. Using the RealAudio Personal Server graphical user interface (GUI), the owner converts standard audio files into the RealAudio format with a single button. Once converted the files are ready to be accessed by the RealAudio Player. The owner is also able to monitor who accesses the content and what content is being accessed. Describing early adopters of the company's audio technology, Cantwell said, "We have seen a lot of different uses of this technology, but some of the most popular have been the delivery of news, information, sports, and entertainment. Companies with a broadcast background are particularly interested in providing real-time audio on their Web sites." With the addition of RealTime Personal Server software, Progressive has four products in its stable: the Player; a RealAudio Encoder; the Professional Server software; and Personal Server software. Cantwell would not provide details about future products but did confirm the company is researching and developing technology which will increase the quality of Internet audio content. The beta version of RealAudio Personal Server is expected to last about three months. The first 10,000 Internet users to download this new server software will receive a free upgrade of the final version. The company says Personal Server will have a suggested retail price of $99. A Macintosh version is planned for the end of the year. (Patrick McKenna/19951011/Press Contact: Katie Cotton, KillerApp Communications, 818-939-5991) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 10/11/95 GENERAL Japan Newsbriefs (NEWS)(GENERAL)(TYO)(00015) Japan Newsbriefs 10/11/95 TOKYO, JAPAN, 1995 OCT 11 (NB) -- In this roundup of news from Japan: Mobile telephone subscribers continue to rise, Sony stops TV exports, Nippon Iridium decides earth station site, Microsoft narrows Windows 95 launch date, Compaq announces new PC models, HDTV sales continue strong rise, TV, Fujitsu gets first US supercomputer order, VCR export figures released. Mobile Telephone Subscribers Continue To Rise The total number of subscribers to mobile telephone networks in Japan stood at 6,669,900 by the end of September, according to data just released. In the first half of the current fiscal year, that ended on 30 September, a total of 2,338,900 new contracts were signed for mobile telephone services, a number greater than the total number of new subscribers in all of fiscal 1994. Of the 6.7 million people using mobile telephones, 3,274,000 held contracts with NTT DoCoMo, the cellular affiliate of national domestic giant NTT. In second place with 1,387,300 subscribers were the eight local DDI providers, followed by 875,300 subscribers on the IDO network. The Digital Phone Group has 584,900 customers, just ahead of the TU-KA Cellular companies with 548,400. Sony Stops TV Exports In what has been seen by many as the end of an era, Sony have decided to stop making television sets in Japan for export. In recent years the company has been moving production to other plants nearer the destination markets. Sony sells around 90% of all sets overseas and has seen the domestic market slowly moving towards widescreen sets, to the point where it is almost difficult to buy a standard-ratio Sony television, which have not sold well overseas. At present, around 35,000 small six- and eight-inch sets are produced each month in Japan and exported, well down from its peak years in the mid-1980s when over 1.5 million units were exported each year. Nippon Iridium Decides Earthstation Site The local affiliate of the planned worldwide satellite telephone service, Iridium, has chosen a site for the country's Earthstation into the satellites. Nippon Iridium said it chose the site, in Nagano prefecture, because it is well suited between Tokyo, Osaka, and Nagoya -- the three cities that most international telephone calls originate from, according to the organization. The new telephone service, planned to begin in late 1998, makes use of 66 low earth orbiting satellites to offer global mobile telephone coverage. Microsoft Narrows Windows 95 Launch Date Microsoft Japan has further narrowed down the launch date for the localized version of Windows 95. The product, previously with no launch date, was announced at hitting the streets of Tokyo between November 23rd and December 8th. The company now says it will release the package between November 23rd and 26th. Imported copies of the English version are already on sale, although many users are waiting for the Japanese language edition before taking the plunge. Compaq Announces New PC Models Compaq Japan KK will launch a new range of personal computers in Japan from October 25. The new computers will add three models to the existing Presario range. The Presario 5526 is targeted at home users and priced at 200,000 yen ($2,000), the Presario 7170 is targeted at light business users and will sell for 230,000 yen ($2,300), and the Presario 9542 is aimed at serious users and will retail for 300,000 yen ($3,000). The range will also come preloaded with software to access the Internet. Users simply need enter a few details and the software, already preconfigured for Internet access, takes care of the rest. HDTV Sales Continue Strong Rise When Japan's NHK began broadcasting programming using the MUSE Hi-Vision high definition television format in 1983, the nation's set makers sold just 12,000 units. Last year that number had doubled to 23,000 but this financial year sales of sets that include the necessary decoder have soared. Already this year 31,000 sets have been sold, and in August alone 4,000 units were sold representing an increase of over 640% on the year before. Behind the growth is an increase in MUSE broadcasting, now totaling 12 hours a day on BS satellite channel 9, and a big increase in the range of televisions with built in decoders. A 28-inch set currently costs around 400,000 yen ($4,000). Fujitsu Gets First US Supercomputer Order Fujitsu Ltd. says it has received its first-ever direct order for a supercomputer from an American company. The order, for the new VPP300 model, was placed by Western Geophysical, a Houston, Texas-based company involved in exploration of oil. Total value of the contract is put, by Fujitsu, at 200 million yen ($2 million). The Tokyo-based company makes around 20% of the world's supercomputers, but has always had a hard time in the US market because of the dominance of Cray. TV, VCR Export Figures Released Japan's imports of televisions and video recorders increased in August while seeing a decrease in the amount of exports of the same products thanks to the strong yen. That was revealed by figures just released by the Electronics Industry Association of Japan and the Finance Ministry. The data shows VCR exports plunged 29.6% to 868,000 against an increase in imports of 18.3% to 235,000. Television exports dropped 18.3% to 235,000 during the month which saw imports rise 53.4% to 616,000. The total domestic monthly output of video recorders in August of 897,000 represents the lowest figure in 13 years. (Martyn Williams/19951011) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 10/11/95 ONLINE ****AT&T Opens Asian Backbone Network (NEWS)(ONLINE)(TYO)(00016) ****AT&T Opens Asian Backbone Network 10/11/95 TOKYO, JAPAN, 1995 OCT 11 (NB) -- AT&T has introduced a new Internet service in several Asian countries made possible by the company's new Internet Asian backbone. It is the first such major backbone and inter-regional connection in Asia, says the company. From today, AT&T Internet Services is offering businesses and Internet service providers in Hong Kong the opportunity to connect on to the new network and benefit from a high-speed path into other Asian countries and the heart of the Internet in the United States. The service will be offered in Australia within two months. For the last two years, AT&T Jens Corporation has been involved in SPIN, a joint venture company between AT&T and 20 Japanese companies, which has been offering business connections to the Internet in Japan and the new service builds on the experience the company has in dealing with Asian countries gained in Japan. Launching the service in Hong Kong are Jardine Fleming Holdings Limited, the financial services and consulting firm, and the Asian Sources Media (ASM) Group, Asia's leading trade publisher. Initially, the new service will provide a dedicated and secure gateway to the network for Jardine Fleming, with further plans to open a World Wide Web server at a later stage. In the ASM project, the company is using AT&T's new network to connect a Web server to the network carrying details of the company's products. Commenting on the new service, Kathleen Earley, AT&T's vice president of Business Multimedia Groupware Services said, "An increasing number of Asia/Pacific businesses are gaining a competitive edge through electronic commerce -- using the Internet and other electronic technologies to conduct their business, AT&T Internet Services will provide all the necessary tools for these businesses to not only gain access to the millions of worldwide Internet users but to set up, manage and support on-going operations for quick, secure and reliable service." A variety of connection options are being offered by the new service which include both dial-up and dedicated connections. For direct connections, the company supports speeds from 64 kilobits-per-second (kbps) upwards on leased lines. Internet mail gateways and batched services to LAN (local area network) workgroups are also offered. On the dial-up service side, AT&T are offering connections on speeds up to 28.8 kbps and LAN access, although these are still aimed at companies and not individuals. Host Unix-to-Unix Copy Protocol (UUCP) allows corporate customers to connect a LAN site via dial-up modem for batch transmissions and reception of data and electronic-mail. Backbones are high-speed lines connecting many smaller networks together allowing a high-speed path across the Internet rather than a route across many small networks. In the United States there are several backbone networks operated by companies such as MCI, PSI, UUnet, Sprint. Save for a few exceptions, mostly in Europe, backbone networks have yet to move outside the United States, especially not into Asia. Previously most inter-Asian communications has been routed via the United States but the new service should speed up traffic by keeping it within the continent. Earlier this year, AT&T announced the AT&T WorldNet services in the United States and AT&T Internet Solutions in Europe. (Martyn Williams/19951011/Press contact: Scott Horne, AT&T Hong Kong, +852-2506-5026, Internet e-mail horne@attmail.com; Diane Nakamura, AT&T USA, 201-331-4061) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 10/11/95 ONLINE Internet Update (NEWS)(ONLINE)(TYO)(00017) Internet Update 10/11/95 TOKYO, JAPAN, 1995 OCT 11 (NB) -- In this roundup of new services and resources on the worldwide Internet: Volcanoes - Live, New online telephone directories, Travel planning with the Internet, Television stations continue coming, Web builder software, USDA economic research service, Comic book art. Volcanoes - Live! On September 23, Mt Ruapehu, the largest mountain in the North Island of New Zealand, started erupting. Wanting more than the TV pictures, two adventurous climbers placed a video camera on the mountain, connected it to the Telecom NZ cellular network and are putting new pictures on the Internet every two minutes. World Wide Web: http://www.actrix.gen.nz/ruapehu/ New Online Telephone Directories Two major telephone directories have just debuted on the Internet. Central Source Inc. has launched the first Yellow Pages directory on the Internet, listing virtually every business in the United States, with instant access to more than ten million up-to-date business listings by yellow page heading, company name and phone number. World Wide Web: http://www.telephonebook.com/ For the last few years, Japan's NTT has published CitySource - an English-language white and yellow pages directory covering the major cities of Japan. In a two-year trial project, that directory is now available on the Internet. Initially covering Tokyo and Osaka, the directory lists thousands of businesses in Japan's two largest cities. World Wide Web: http://www.pearnet.org/jtd/ Travel Planning With The Internet The new "Hotelanywhere" Web site indexes and lists thousands of travel related Web sites from all over the world. The listings include Web sites, usenet groups and many other travel related services available via the Internet World Wide Web: http://www.earthlink.net/~hotelanywhere/ The Inn Traveler, an independent resource for travelers and agencies, has begun an Internet service. The pages offer listings of B&B (bed and breakfast) and country inns and includes the complete PAII (Professional Association of Innkeepers International) "Professional Inn Guide." World Wide Web: http://www.biddeford.com/inntravel/ Craighead's Business Reports have excerpted information from its publications to build a Web site of country specific information for 50 countries of particular interest to the business traveler. World Wide Web: http://www.craighead.com/craighead/ If you are interested in traveling to the Duchy of Luxembourg in central Europe, the new Web server from Luxair will help you with the complete flight schedule, fares information, and some details of what to do in Luxembourg once you arrive. World Wide Web: http://www.luxair.lu/luxair/index.html Television Stations Continue Coming Three television channels have joined the long list of broadcast and cable programmers that maintain online services. Canada's only sports channel, The Sports Network, has debuted a site on the Internet at the same time as The Travel Channel, home of cable travel services in the UK and the US. World Wide Web: http://www.tsn.ca/ World Wide Web: http://www.travelchannel.com/ The Discovery Channel's Web site features a different theme each day. All are related to the channel's programming and cover history, nature, science, people, exploration, living and "your story." Regular updates, including photos, sound and video, are added to each themed area. World Wide Web: http://www.discovery.com/ Web Builder Software The final release of HTMLed Pro is now available. The software, for the Microsoft Windows operating system, can be downloaded as a time- limited demo version from the maker's ftp server. World Wide Web: http://www.ist.ca/htmledpro/htprdemo.html Web Warrior, a new HTML (hypertext markup language) editor for the Macintosh system has also just become available. Two versions of the software are available and include drag-and-drop editing, creation of large Web pages, and more. World Wide Web: http://www.bact.wisc.edu/WebWarriorTop.html USDA Economic Research Service The USDA ERS is an official information source for agricultural economics. Via the server, the organization provides economic and other social science information and analysis for public and private decisions on agriculture, food, natural resources, and rural America. World Wide Web: http://www.econ.ag.gov/ Comic Book Art If you love comic books from the forties a new server is available offering an ever increasing amount of cover art from the comics. The next big attraction, "an early Superman" is promised for November. World Wide Web: http://www.ultranet.com/~adjm/ (Martyn Williams/19951011) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 10/11/95 TELECOM Japan - Companies Look To New PHS Applications (NEWS)(TELECOM)(TYO)(00018) Japan - Companies Look To New PHS Applications 10/11/95 GENEVA, SWITZERLAND, 1995 OCT 11 (NB) -- As Japan's PHS (personal handyphone system) mobile telephones continue to grow in importance and the system becomes more widely available across the country and the rest of Asia, Japan's major telecom equipment manufacturers are already showing new devices that make use of the system's high data capacity. The PHS system allows the transmission and reception of data at 32 kilobits-per-second (kbps) across a single channel compared with 9,600 bits-per-second (bps) available on standard cellular telephones. Currently, the system is being used for voice only, but a panel is finalizing a standard for data use of the network that should be completed next March or April. The higher speed is achieved by by-passing the digital codecs and pushing data directly into the network. By using a standard PHS handset and adapter jack, it is possible to transmit data at 9,600 bps -- equivalent to a standard cellular telephone. Once the data standard is decided on, a whole new range of portable data devices will become available that may become more important in terms of use than the voice telephony applications, said some engineers who spoke to Newsbytes at Telecom 95 in Geneva. Heading the list of most exciting developments were the portable video devices that NTT (Nippon Telegraph and Telephone)(TOKYO:9432) and Matsushita Electric Industrial Co. (TOKYO:6752) had on display. The new Matsushita video telephone marries a PHS handset with a 2.5- inch color LCD (liquid crystal display) display screen and a small CCD camera in a handheld package measuring 85 millimeters (mm) by 219mm by 46mm. Company engineers noted that, despite the prototype being displayed in Geneva, the system would be commercialized in three to four years, by which time it should be smaller and lighter. NTT's PHS video system was based around a "mobile multimedia terminal" that will act as a basis for an information system. On display, the system allowed access to a traffic information service that sent pictures from cameras mounted alongside major routes and junctions in Tokyo. NTT researchers expect the system could also be used to access a menu guide for local restaurants or shopping information from a shopping center, in fact, any information stored on a central server. A standard telephone keypad is supplemented by a row of four function keys and three extra keys for use in navigating the information systems provided. Operating in a similar manner, although with full-motion video, was NTT's ATM Wireless Access System. A PHS link from a laptop computer controlled access to three video cameras. The digitized pictures from the cameras were communicated back to the computer via a microwave link operating in the 22 gigahertz (GHz) band where the data speed could easily be increased to beyond that of PHS according to NTT engineers. Redefining the meaning of small when talking about mobile telephones, Toshiba was proudly showing its latest achievement - the world's smallest PHS telephone. Measuring just 140mm by 35mm by 12 mm and weighing only 85 grams, the telephone was smaller than most television remote control units. A Toshiba engineer explained to Newsbytes the size was possible because of new custom chips that replaced many individual components previously needed. A built-in antenna and lithium-ion battery further allowed reductions in size and weight. Waiting for the PHS data standard to be fixed is Toshiba's new "Advanced Function PHS Terminal" which looks more like a personal organizer than a telephone. The unit is a small pen computer combined with a PHS telephone that allows users to send faxes, access PC data services such as NiftyServe, and utilize the memory for telephone books, memos, and other such applications. The memo pad also allows the user to draw on the screen and send this data directly to a fax machine. All this is accomplished in a package not significantly bigger than existing PHS handsets. OKI Electric was one of several companies demonstrating a PHS module attached to the end of a PCMCIA (Personal Computer Memory Card International Association) card. Such devices will allow 19.2 kbps access to data services when they become available next year. Not only does this include laptop computers but also the growing number of personal organizers and pen computers with PCMCIA card slots. OKI's card was demonstrated inside the company's MC210 personal communicator pen computer. (Martyn Williams/19951011/Press contacts: Matsushita Electric, tel +81-3-3578-1237, fax +81-3-3437-2776; NTT Human Interface Laboratories, fax +81-468-59-2829, Internet email telecom-pmc@mhosun.ntt.jp; Toshiba Corporation, tel +81-3-3457-2105, fax +81-3-3456-4776; OKI Electric, tel +81-3-3501-3111, fax +81-3-3581-5522) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 10/11/95 BUSINESS Dazel Teams With Tivoli/CA/AT&T/4th Dimension (NEWS)(BUSINESS)(BOS)(00019) Dazel Teams With Tivoli/CA/AT&T/4th Dimension 10/11/95 AUSTIN, TEXAS, U.S.A., 1995 OCT 11 (NB) -- By teaming with Tivoli, Computer Associates (CA), AT&T GIS, and 4th Dimension on integration of its client-server software for managing printer, fax, electronic-mail, and pager communications, Dazel Corp. is partnering with companies that would otherwise be competitors, said Ford Tamer, VP of marketing, in an interview with Newsbytes. At the same time, he continued, the Dazel (pronounced "Dazzle") Output Management System competes against IBM's new Printing Systems Manager (PSM) and Printxchange, a collaborative effort by Xerox, Digital Equipment Corp., and Sun Microsystems. But unlike Dazel's offering, PSM and Printxchange are aimed at managing print output only, he contended. Tamer told Newsbytes that Dazel was founded in 1991 as "Atrium," with venture capital funding. Two years later, the Austin, Texas- based software vendor started shipping the Dazel product, which is designed to combine mainframe-style centralized control over communications output with multi-tier distribution across multiple platforms. Dazel extends beyond the three-tier model with an "n"-tier architecture that allows printing, fax, electronic mail and paging output functions to be distributed across virtually any combination of multivendor "output servers" on a client-server network, the Dazel exec elaborated. The Dazel client-server system also uses logical addressing, as opposed to physical addressing, resulting in "destination-independent" communications, according to Tamer. The Dazel Output Management System includes the Dazel Output Server, the Dazel Express client, and Dazel SDK (Software Developers Kits), in addition to Dazel gateways to mainframes, Netware, and VAX. The Dazel Server currently runs on Unix-based platforms that include SunOS (operating system), Sun Solaris, HP-UX, IBM AIX, and DCE (Distributed Computing Environment). In addition, through a recently inked deal with AT&T GIS, the server is being ported to another Unix platform, with availability on AT&T GIS slated for the first quarter of next year. A Windows NT server is under development, as well. At present, the Dazel Output Management System server software can be controlled through Dazel clients for Windows and Motif. Also, Dazel has just released Dazel for CA-Unicenter, an interface designed to provide integration between Dazel's output management Computer Associates' system management offering through the Dazel API (application programming interface), he said. Available for SunOS, Sun Solaris, IBM AIX, and HP-UX, Dazel for CA-Unicenter also uses Unicenter's event management capabilities for delivery of centralized status information on Dazel jobs, events, and destinations. Dazel has signed similar pacts with Tivoli and 4th Dimension, Tamer noted. Also newly available is the Dazel/Tivoli Event Adapter, a product aimed at providing embedded control over Dazel from the Tivoli/Enterprise Console (T/EC), a central event management and automation server for Unix- and PC-based systems and networks. The new Dazel/Tivoli Event Adapter automates Dazel tasks, as well as displaying notices and events, according to Tamer. Dazel and 4th Dimension are now working together on an upcoming product, to be called Control-D/Delivery, that will integrate the Dazel Output Server with 4th Dimension's Control-D and Control-D/PC for delivering output on Unix and well as mainframes and PCs. "4th Dimensions's previous background was as a mainframe report distribution environment," Tamer explained. Boole & Babbage will be distributing Control-D/Delivery -- and as a result of the deal with Dazel, "will effectively be distributing Dazel, as well," Newsbytes was told. In contrast to Dazel, other output management systems for client-server environments are more or less limited to "print spool management," he asserted. But because Tivoli, CA, and 4th Dimension previously provided some output management capabilities of their own, Dazel regarded these companies as competitors. PSM and Printxchange also handle print management only, according to Tamer. "But we believe that, for networks of the future, you need to support more than print-on-demand." Dazel's "multi-functionality" is already benefiting users, with capabilities like the ability to transmit faxes from fax devices "all around the world," and "to send an alert to the systems administrator by pager if the printer runs out of paper," the VP observed. Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railroad has used the Dazel API to integrate Dazel into an in-house application for providing employees of the railroad with "mission critical safety-related information," said Wally Swanson, manager of dispatching systems for the railroad's network operations center. Swanson told Newsbytes that the railroad is now beginning to deploy the 24-by-7 integrated information system on AIX servers to field offices and other locations enterprise-wide. Dazel is the only client-server system the railroad could find that is able to provide integrated management of printing, fax, e-mail and paging, he maintained. Dazel's logical addressing is also helpful, according to Swanson. "You can send a file attached to a program command. The system then knows what to do with it -- whether to send it to a fax or a printer, for instance," illustrated the railroad exec. "I'm impressed by Dazel's ability to manage all kinds of output," echoed Sylvia Clark, an senior analyst at the Aberdeen Group, Boston, Massachusetts. The analyst added that she sees Dazel as one sign that "the client-server environment is finally starting to get `mainframe' types of tools for in-house, mission-critical applications." Novadyne's products for client-server software management represent another example of this emerging trend, according to Clark. (Jacqueline Emigh/19951010/Reader Contact: Dazel Inc., 512-418- 8338; Press Contact: Laura Beck or Rick McLaughlin, Lois Paul & Partners for Dazel, 617-860-5640) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 10/11/95 BUSINESS Microsoft & Software AG To Offer OLE On Most Platforms (NEWS)(BUSINESS)(DEN)(00020) Microsoft & Software AG To Offer OLE On Most Platforms 10/11/95 REDMOND, WASHINGTON, U.S.A., 1995 OCT 11 (NB) -- A deal between Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ: MSFT) and Software AG, an international software and services company, will soon bring Microsoft's object linking and embedding (OLE) technology to most non-Microsoft computer operating systems. Microsoft said the deal will provide "a uniform method of integrating software across an enterprise" and "help shorten the development cycles." Microsoft said the agreement also calls for Software AG to incorporate OLE into its own software products and provide consulting services and support for the technology worldwide. Software AG said it will make OLE available on all major variants of Unix, IBM MVS, OS/400, and other server and mainframe operating systems. The first platforms are expected to ship in early 1997. In the meantime, Software AG said it will make products available "that ease integration of legacy applications" with applications running on Microsoft platforms by encapsulating the legacy applications in OLE interfaces. The products will be extensions to Software AG's Entire middleware products. Component software allows software applications to be treated as building blocks that can share information, and be combined to create new applications. That makes it faster and cheaper to create new applications. Microsoft already has a deal with Digital Equipment Corp. to make OLE available on major industry operating systems through Digital's own products. It also has license agreements with companies that participate in the Windows Interface Source Environment program, which includes Lotus, Mainsoft, Bristol Technology, Insignia Solutions and Locus Computing, to make the Windows user interface and programming environments like OLE available on non-Microsoft operating systems such as Unix. In its simplest form, OLE allows the developer or user to either link one object with another or embed an object in another. The difference is that changes in a linked object are reflected in the file the object is linked to. Embedded objects do not change as the original file is edited. For example, a user might link or embed a spreadsheet in a word processing document. (Jim Mallory/19951011/Press contact: Ann Goldmann, Waggener Edstrom for Microsoft, 503-245-0905; Public contact: Microsoft, 206-882-8080 of 800-426-9400) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 10/11/95 ONLINE Netscape Offers Rewards To "Bug Catchers" (NEWS)(ONLINE)(LAX)(00021) Netscape Offers Rewards To "Bug Catchers" 10/11/95 MOUNTAIN VIEW, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1995 OCT 11 (NB) -- Netscape Communications Corporation (NASDAQ: NSCP) has announced the "Netscape Bugs Bounty" program that rewards users who help the company find and report "bugs" in the beta versions of its recently released Netscape Navigator 2.0 World Wide Web browser software. Users who are the first to report a particular bug will be rewarded with various prizes depending on its importance. The contest begins with the beta versions of Netscape Navigator 2.0 that are already on the Internet. Full rules for the contest will be available on Netscape's home page at http://home.netscape.com . Speaking to Newsbytes, Roseanne Siino a spokesperson for Netscape, said, "As far as we can determine, this is the first contest of its kind. Netscape's whole approach to broad-based beta testing on the Internet was new, and we hope the contest will enliven the beta testing process." Users who are the first to report a particular bug will be rewarded with prizes depending on the "bug class." Users reporting "significant security bugs," as determined by Netscape, will collect cash prizes, while users finding any security bugs will win Netscape "merchandise." Users finding other "serious" bugs will be eligible to win "a choice of items" from the Netscape General Store. Siino pointed out that there are no caps on winners. Top prize will be $1,000 for any and all bugs in the top category: Severe Security Bugs. To win, the finder has to be the first, and, according to the company, it is important to be constantly using the current versions. The beta versions are available now for downloading on the Internet for free evaluation. Netscape's beta testing of 2.0 is already underway. Users who downloaded previous beta versions of the 2.0 software should download today's versions, which fix major and minor bugs identified since its initial release, including security bugs in the pre-release version of the Java language support integrated in 2.0. Netscape has released special beta versions of 2.0 that include Java for users wanting to test it. Because bugs will be reported and fixed on an ongoing basis, Netscape asks users to stay current on the beta version they are using, so that the latest software is constantly being refined. "We are continuing to encourage users to provide feedback on new versions of our software, and the Netscape Bugs Bounty is a natural extension of that process," said Mike Homer, vice president of marketing at Netscape. "By rewarding users for quickly identifying and reporting bugs back to us, this program will encourage an extensive, open review of Netscape Navigator 2.0 and will help us to continue to create products of the highest quality." Netscape has created two versions of its Netscape Navigator 2.0 beta, available for downloading from Netscape's home page at http://home.netscape.com . Version b1J for Windows 95, Solaris, and Irix platforms includes Java and is for users who want to participate in the bounty program. For general users or those on other Unix environments, Windows 3.1, and Macintosh, Netscape has posted beta versions without Java. After initial testing is complete, future beta versions for all supported platforms will contain Java. (Richard Bowers/19951000/Press Contact: Roseanne Siino, Netscape, 415-254-1900) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 10/11/95 LEGAL Compaq-Packard Bell Wars Heat Up Again (NEWS)(LEGAL)(DEN)(00022) Compaq-Packard Bell Wars Heat Up Again 10/11/95 SACRAMENTO, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1995 OCT 11 (NB) -- The war between Packard Bell Electronics Inc. (PB) and Compaq Computer Corp. (NYSE:CPQ) has heated up again with the filing, by PB, of a suit against Compaq alleging unfair competition, defamation, and false advertising. The PB suit alleges Compaq falsely described Packard Bell's return policies and "purposely misled customers in comparing the two companies' polices," according to the British news service Reuters. The suit seeks punitive damages, reimbursement for loss of income, and a court order requiring Compaq to run corrective advertising. A Compaq spokesperson said Packard Bell did not specify the amount of damages it is seeking. Some details of the suit were sealed because they reveal confidential business practices, but Reuters said the suit alleges that a Compaq executive, senior vice president Ross Cooley, made "racist" and "morally reprehensible" statements about the PB workforce. Compaq outside counsel Bill Coston of the Washington DC law firm Venable acknowledged that Cooley did make what Coston characterized as "an extremely poor choice of words," and said Cooley later issued a clarification and apology. Coston told Newsbytes the Packard Bell counterclaim is a standard move in litigation by a defendant and is not unexpected. "It's meant to be a distraction to the principal issue in the case, which is Packard Bell's continued practice of using used returned parts in machines that they sell as new, without disclosing that to the customer before they buy," said the attorney. In April of this year Compaq filed suit charging Packard Bell with selling products that contain used components and passing them off as new. Packard Bell called that lawsuit "a public relations strategy to divert our efforts and slow our growth." The two companies are in hot competition for computer buyer's dollars. Compaq finished 1994 as the number one seller of PCs overall and appears on the road to capturing the 1995 crown as well. Packard Bell captured the number four position on the worldwide sales list last year and was third in US sales. After Compaq filed its suit, a number of consumers filed several class-action suits against Packard Bell which resulted in PB agreeing to set up a $1 million fund to reimburse buyers for out-of-pocket repairs to used components and in extending warranty contracts. Packard Bell did not admit any wrong-doing in settling the class action suits. Coston explained that the class action settlement allows Packard Bell to sell machines that contain used parts so long as they include a document with the PC that states used, serviceable parts are installed. Coston said that still doesn't reveal to the purchaser that the machine contains used parts until they open the box and find the disclosure document. "They have no obligation to tell people before they buy and that is the principal focus of the Compaq suit against Packard Bell," Coston stated. He said the class action settlement imposed some limits on the hours used-parts can have been in use and the number of times a part such as a hard drive can be installed in various PCs. Coston cited as an example, a hard drive that can be installed in as many as three separate Packard Bell PCs sold as new and can have up to 200 hours of use. This isn't the first time Compaq and Packard Bell lawyers have packed their briefcases and headed for court. In December, 1994, Newsbytes reported Compaq had filed a patent infringement suit against Packard Bell that alleged willful infringement of three Compaq patents on desktop and laptop computer power functions and video displays. Compaq spokesperson Yvonne Donaldson told Newsbytes that suit is still pending. Compaq also re-uses PCs that are returned to it, which include "unsold dealer inventory," allegedly defective products, and what the company called "convenience returns" from consumers. Compaq said a computer is considered new if it is returned in an unopened, original box. If the box has been opened, the company said it tests the unit to determine if it has been used. If the PC has been used, said Compaq, it may be sold as "refurbished." If there is no evidence of use, it might be sold as new, possible with upgraded features, said the company. Donaldson told Newsbytes Compaq technicians look for use indicators such as user-installed software, commands issued to the operating system, or if software shrink-wrapped packages have been opened. (Jim Mallory/19950411/Press contact: Yvonne Donaldson, Compaq, 713-514-4463 or Liz O'Donnell, The Bohle Co. for Packard Bell, 310-785-0515) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 10/11/95 ONLINE Encyclopedia Britannica Online Now By Subscription (NEWS)(ONLINE)(MSP)(00023) Encyclopedia Britannica Online Now By Subscription 10/11/95 CHICAGO, ILLINOIS, U.S.A., 1995 OCT 11 (NB) -- Encyclopedia Britannica's "Britannica Online" site on the Internet's World Wide Web is out of its testing phase, and now offers subscription pricing, the company said. Subscriptions will cost $150 per year, which amounts to about 41 cents per day, said Joseph J. Esposito, Encyclopedia Britannica president and chief executive officer. The service is also offered to businesses and professional consumers for $300, with site licensing available for companies and Internet service providers (ISPs). New customers will get a seven-day free trial before they subscribe, officials added. Accounts may be started by either calling in via an 800 number (800-522-8656), or directly at Encyclopedia Britannica's Web site at http://www.eb.com . The site uses data encryption for Netscape and other secure browsers, a company spokesperson told Newsbytes. The actual Britannica Online service is also accessed at that address. Britannica Online was named 1994 Product of the Year by Database Magazine, company officials said. The services provides access to text from the 44 million word encyclopedia, along with 1,200 additional articles, more than 2,200 illustrations, and hotlinks to other Web informational sources. The services search engine lets users enter questions in simple English. Last June, Newsbytes first reported on the commercial availability of the site on a test basis through Time Warner's Pathfinder site, at http://www.pathfinder.com . The service had been available to colleges and universities by site license since the fall of 1994. A spokesperson told Newsbytes Britannica Online will still be available through the Time Warner site, but only for subscribers. In addition, the articles in the Britannica Online site will still have hotlinks to content in Pathfinder, as it did during the test phase. About 25,000 customers had tested Britannica Online through the Pathfinder site, officials said. With its Web site, Britannica now publishes information in several forms, both "traditional" and electronic. Besides its time-honored 32-volume printed set, the company also produces a CD-ROM version of its encyclopedia. Esposito said the variety of forms in which Britannica is available reflects "the company's commitment to giving its customers choice." (Bob Woods/19951011/Press Contacts: Pam Pesavento, 312-988-3807, or Cathy Gately, 312-988-3812, for Ogilvy Adams & Rinehart) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 10/11/95 TRENDS Partnership Targets Billion Dollar Smart Card Market (NEWS)(TRENDS)(DEN)(00024) Partnership Targets Billion Dollar Smart Card Market 10/11/95 DENVER, COLORADO, U.S.A., 1995 OCT 11 (NB) -- Racom Systems Inc. has entered into a multi-million dollar partnership with Rohm Co. Ltd, a Japanese company, to manufacture the ferroelectric chips used in contactless, battery-free smart cards. The deal also calls for Rohm to manufacture a new generation of advanced microprocessor-based chips currently under development for use in high-security financial applications. #IMAGE 1 20 TWPCX \images\95101124.PCX Click here for photo Rohm is currently starting up a new 0.6 micron wafer fabrication operation in Kyoto, Japan, dedicated to the high-volume manufacture or ferroelectric chips, and has licensed Racom's contactless, battery-free technology specifically for the Japanese market. Racom said the cards are already in use in over 100 installations worldwide. Racom spokesperson Laura Keane told Newsbytes the ferroelectric-based smart cards, which exchange information with readers via radio waves instead of being passed through a reader like a credit card, are used for electronic ticketing;, automatic fare collection on buses, subways and trains, electronic point-of-sale, and electronic benefits transfer. Racom said the new cards are superior to the earlier smart cards that use conventional semiconductor technologies because of their unique combination of high-speed, low-power, non-volatile operation, and high reliability. The new smart cards have the ability to store as many as 16 different accounts, said Keane. It could hold your checking account, credit card account, let you pay for a bus or train ticket, and allow you access to controlled areas within your workplace. Keane spoke about some of the card's advantages. In automatic fare collection, users no longer have to carry the correct change or tokens, waiting times to board are reduced, and the risk of robbery of bus, subway and train operators is reduced since they have less cash on board. "It's a stored value card," said Keane. "You put money on the card and daily as you use it you wave it over an antenna and it deducts the fare for that day." Keane said electronic ticketing primarily benefits the frequent traveler. The user would simply wave their card over an antenna at a kiosk in the terminal after selecting their destination and class of accommodation for immediate ticketing. The card would have your seating preference and frequent flyer number recorded and would provide that information to the ticket machine. According to Jerome Svigals, publisher of Smart Cards & Comments and a consultant to the electronic banking industry, contactless technology is very valuable to the user because of its speed, convenience, ease of use, low cost and perhaps most importantly its security. "Even more significant is this smart cards' ability to manage multiple applications with contactless technology that ensures the highest long-term data integrity, especially important for electronic purse requirements," said the industry consultant. (Jim Mallory/19951011/Press contact: Laura Keane, Racom Systems, 800-789-7627; Public contact: 800-789-7627/RACOM951011/PHOTO) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 10/11/95 BUSINESS Warner Brothers & Acclaim Entertainment Form Alliance (NEWS)(BUSINESS)(SFO)(00025) Warner Brothers & Acclaim Entertainment Form Alliance 10/11/95 BURBANK, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1995 OCT 11 (NB) -- Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment (WB) has extended its working alliance with Acclaim Entertainment (NASDAQ:AKLM) in an agreement to jointly publish entertainment titles using WB characters and properties. Anywhere a video game can be played, WB and Acclaim says they plan to deliver titles based on next-generation technology. After a successful participation in the creation of some of the special effects for WB's Batman Forever film and earlier licensing agreements with WB, Acclaim says this new agreement will allow both companies to leverage the strengths of each other as they jointly produce cutting- edge interactive entertainment. For Acclaim, the agreement provides access to WB's extensive movie sets, animation cells, costumes and props. WB says Acclaims technological expertise in interactive games and titles allows the Interactive Entertainment division to extend the brand-name of WB's well-know products into a new and wider audience of customers. Dan Romanelli, president of Warner Bros. Worldwide Consumer Products, told Newsbytes, "We expect to see three titles in 1996 from this agreement. We are not ready to give the details, but I can assure you we will be producing together some of the best interactive entertainment in the industry." The public can expect to see these new titles developed for video arcade games, personal computers, and standard game systems such as those developed by Nintendo, Sega, and Sony. In response to trends in the video game industry, Romanelli commented, "We will be watching what is favored and what is not favored by consumers through their choices in the upcoming holiday season. The strength of Warner Brothers and the technology provided by Acclaim are a great example of a Hollywood power teaming with an outstanding multimedia and technology expert." The agreement also calls for the two companies to work together from film development and software storyboard stages to project completion. Their respective strengths in marketing, merchandising, and distribution are considered additional benefits to both companies. (Patrick McKenna/19951011/Press Contact: Kim Sudhalter, Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment, 818-977-4711) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 10/11/95 BUSINESS ****UUNet Technologies To Acquire Unipalm (NEWS)(BUSINESS)(LON)(00026) ****UUNet Technologies To Acquire Unipalm 10/11/95 CAMBRIDGE, ENGLAND, 1995 OCT 11 (NB) -- UUNet Technologies Inc., the US Internet service provider (SP), has announced its intention to acquire Unipalm, the UK Internet group that owns Pipex, which is widely recognized as being the largest UK Internet SP. Pipex also has deals with several European Internet SPs for effective pan-European Internet access. The deal values each Unipalm share at 450 pence, so valuing Unipalm at around UKP97 million. According to Unipalm, the deal represents a premium of 38 percent over the median share price of 327 pence per share for Unipalm as at 17 August this year. On October 10 this year, the share price stood at 410 pence per share, Newsbytes notes. Announcing the offer, John Sidgmore, UUNet's chief executive officer (CEO), said that he is delighted to announce the agreed offer for Unipalm, "with whom we have developed a good working relationship in recent years." "The offers represents a major step in the pursuit of UUNet's international expansion plans. We look forward to welcoming Unipalm's employees to UUNet," he said. Commenting on the deal for Unipalm, David Thorp, the group's chairman, said that the board has recognized the potential value of international collaboration for some time. "Unipalm already has a close working relationship with UUnet, which is one of the leading Internet service providers in the world. I'm confident that a combination of the operations of UUnet and Unipalm will lead to significant benefits for both companies," he said. Newsbytes notes that Microsoft has a modest stake in UUNet, which provides North American Internet service facilities to Microsoft for its Microsoft Network (MSN) online service. Subscribers outside of the US have been asked to wait for full Internet services from MSN until next spring, at which time MSN will launch its Internet services in Europe and the Far East. By acquiring Unipalm, UUNet, and therefore MSN, will be able to offer European Internet services to MSN subscribers within this time-frame. "It's all happening this week. UUNet takes Unipalm and Stac takes Kelsoft in the US. It illustrates the potential that Internet services providers have," said one industry observer who, for professional reasons, asked not be identified. Roland Perry, business development manager with UK Online, the Olivetti-backed consumer online service in the UK, told Newsbytes that he was unsurprised by the UUNet acquisition, but questioned the repercussions for Pipex resellers in the UK. "PIpex has never been overly keen on offering their service via resellers, but because of their position in the market, they do sell their Internet services through a number of resellers. One has to question whether the reseller side of the business is now going to get squeezed, now that MSN effectively has access to the European Internet SP network," he said. Rumors surrounding a possible acquisition of Unipalm have been circulating in Internet circles for several weeks, Newsbytes notes. Some sources had suggested that UUNet was pitching for Unipalm backed by Microsoft, but the logic of the deal only now becomes apparent. (Steve Gold/19951011/Press Contact: Katy Croft, GBC, +44-181-332-7022, Internet e-mail katyc@gbc.co.uk; Reader Contact: Pipex/Unipalm, tel +44-1223-250121, fax +44-1223-250121, Internet e-mail pipex@pipex.net) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 10/11/95 IBM ****Jim Manzi Resigns As Lotus CEO, IBM Senior VP (NEWS)(IBM)(BOS)(00027) ****Jim Manzi Resigns As Lotus CEO, IBM Senior VP 10/11/95 CAMBRIDGE, MASSACHUSETTS, U.S.A., 1995 OCT 11 (NB) -- In a teleconference today, Jim Manzi publicly announced plans to resign from his 13-year post as president and chief executive officer (CEO) of Lotus Development Corporation, as well as from the role he assumed as senior VP of IBM when IBM acquired Lotus in June. "It's been an exhilarating 13 years," Manzi said at the start of the teleconference, which was attended by Newsbytes. During brief remarks and a Q&A session that followed, Manzi went on to say that his move to leave Lotus and IBM is a "highly individual decision" prompted by a personal recognition that, although he has the right "attributes" for running a business $1 billion or larger, these are not the same attributes needed for working within a much bigger corporation such as IBM. Manzi told the journalists and analysts that, after tendering his resignation to IBM President and CEO Lewis Gerstner, he notified Lotus employees of his decision to resign at a staff meeting earlier today. "I don't have any immediate plans," Manzi said, in response to a question from one reporter about his future plans. But, he joked, in discussing the future with his wife and three young children at dinner last night, after returning home from New York, the one idea that "got unanimous acclaim around the dinner table" was that he should enter the "shrimping business." John Thompson will take over daily operations of Lotus on an interim basis, Manzi reported. Manzi declined comment on the plans of other senior executives at Lotus, how the company might be reorganized in the future, and Gerstner's reaction to the resignation. But, he said, there are "a tremendous number of talented number of talented people at Lotus, and at IBM." Added Manzi: "My part of this journey is over. (Now) there will be a different leader for the next part of the journey." Manzi also reflected on some of the highlights of his 13-year career at Lotus. The shipment of Lotus 1-2-3 in 1983 "obviously helped to define the industry," the journalists and analysts were told. Since then, there has been a "tremendous transition from the eighties to the nineties," a decade in which Lotus has helped to "transform the way that companies work," Manzi maintained. "What is very important for me is how we have done it," he pointed out. Lotus has been committed to principles such as the "human spirit," openness, teamwork, and integrity, according to Manzi. Manzi also said that there was no "single" factor or event that precipitated his decision to resign. Manzi noted that he had "put his ideas on the table over the past 100 days" about how to operate a software company, adding that he had experienced "tremendously open" discussions with IBM. "It would be silly to say we agreed on everything, and it would be silly to say that we disagreed on everything," he observed. "I'm pretty confident that, on a going-forward basis, IBM and Lotus can work together to provide the benefits of Notes. (We have accomplished) lots of good work," Manzi told the press. (Jacqueline Emigh/19951011/Reader Contact: Lotus Development Corporation, 617-577-8500; Lois Paul & Partners for Lotus, 617-862-4514) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 10/11/95 APPLE Oracle Offers Power Objects For Mac (NEWS)(APPLE)(SFO)(00028) Oracle Offers Power Objects For Mac 10/11/95 SAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1995 OCT 11 (NB) -- As part of its long-term plan to create an "open, cross-platform environment," Apple has formed an agreement with Oracle to develop Oracle Power Objects for the Macintosh. The visual programming tool allows application development for Macintosh and Windows platforms simultaneously. Oracle describes its Power Objects as an object-oriented database tool for rapid development and deployment of scalable, client/server applications. Different versions are optimized to run in Windows 3.1, Windows 95, or Macintosh operating systems (OS). When applications are developed using Power Objects, they are portable to all three operating systems without code modification. Oracle says an additional version supporting OS/2 is planned for later this year. Apple says Power Objects for the Mac means Macintosh software can be more integrated into corporate enterprises and database management systems which are often based on a Windows OS. The new development tool also means Mac users have access to more client/server applications. An Oracle spokesperson told Newsbytes, "This announcement allows developers of Macintosh applications to easily create applications for both platforms. If a developer uses Windows to create applications, Power Objects for Windows allows the developer to easily create the same application for Windows and Macintosh platforms." As an introductory offer, Apple says it will market Oracle Power Objects Standard Edition 1.0 for $99 through Apple developer and reseller channels. The Standard Edition lists for $395. Oracle also offers a Client/Server Edition which is bundled with native data access drivers for any Oracle 7 database, Sybase SQL Server (version 2.4 or higher) and Microsoft SQL Server (also version 4.2 or higher). The price is $1,995. Oracle also offers a 90-day free trial of Power Objects Standard Edition available through its Web site at http://www.oracle.com . The company is also offering a $99 competitive upgrade to developers using other tools. Specifics of the competitive upgrade may be found at the Web site. (Patrick McKenna/19951011/Press Contact: Tim Marklein, Applied Communications, 415-375-8881) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 10/11/95 TRENDS ****Sun Lays Foundation For Universal OS (NEWS)(TRENDS)(LAX)(00029) ****Sun Lays Foundation For Universal OS 10/11/95 MOUNTAIN VIEW, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1995 OCT 11 (NB) -- Sun Microsystems has announced the first major piece to the Java puzzle that the company expects will lead it into a "universal operating system." Sun's Neo family of network technology will reportedly enable companies to build applications that run on both the corporate network and the Internet. Bryan Croll, director of Object Product Marketing at Sun, told Newsbytes, "The mantra at Sun is that 'the network is the computer,' and the Internet is the ultimate network. It is the Internet that will ultimately thrust the home PC into the network world. Sun, through the Java operating language, will change how computers are going to be used. Windows 95 has created a lot of interest, but the future is in the network. When using Java, you are viewing the computer world as if there was a universal operating system. Traditional operating systems won't matter. "Using the Java language, developers can create dynamic World Wide Web browsers or expand current Web browsers," said Croll. "Using Java browsers there is no such thing as installing software. Software transparently migrates across the network. It shows up when you need it. It gets there automatically." Continued Croll, "A Java browser uses the Java language to expand the capabilities of current browsers by allowing the downloading of small software programs. Instead of simply reading pages, a browser users execute computer applications on their screens, so they can interact in real-time. Together with Java, Sun's language for developing interactive Web applications, Neo extends the client-server computing model to the World Wide Web." According to Sun, the Neo product family will create complete development, operating and management environment for object-oriented networked applications. Neo software's networked objects are modular application components or services that are distributed across a network and shared by numerous applications. These services are designed to be accessed by other services, as well as by a variety of clients, including workstations, PCs, and even Internet browsers. Applications developed for the Neo environment can be accessed from many desktop application environments, including SunSoft's Solaris, Microsoft Windows, and Java-enabled Web browsers such as Sun's Hot Java or Netscape's Navigator. The initial release of Solaris Neo 1.0 will include: Neonet and Neoshare. Solstice administration tools for Neonet and Neoshare will be bundled with Solaris Neo 1.0. Solaris Neo 1.0 pricing begins at $990. WorkShop Neo 1.0. will include: Neoworks, SPARCworks, and SPARC compilers. WorkShop Neo 1.0 pricing begins at $11,995. Special promotional pricing will be offered for a limited time at $5,995. "Our aim is to turn the Web into an interactive and ubiquitous access point to a world of computing resources," said Janpieter Scheerder, SunSoft president. "While the Web has emerged as the on-ramp to the information superhighway, it has provided only limited utility for real business applications. Now, with Neo, the Web can finally provide a real opportunity for doing commerce on the Internet." (Richard Bowers/19951011/Press Contact: Judy Zimbelman, Sun Microsystem, 415-336-5091) (SUMMARY)(GENERAL)(MSP)(00030) Newsbytes Daily Summary 10/11/95 MINNEAPOLIS, MINNESOTA, U.S.A., 1995 OCT 11 (NB) -- These are capsules of all today's news stories: ======================================================================== ------------| N E W S B Y T E S D A I L Y S U M M A R Y |---------- ------------| Wednesday, October 11, 1995 |---------- ======================================================================== (c) Newsbytes News Network (Tm) Editor in Chief: Wendy Woods ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Newsbytes News Network's 1995 Update CD-ROM for Mac, DOS, and Windows is now available for $29.95 (includes s&h). Contains 1983-1995 news stories, more than 64,000 keyword searchable stories and 475 digitized images. For more information or to order, fax to 612-430-0441 or e-mail to 'administrator@newsbytes.com' -- MC, Visa, Amex accepted. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ CATEGORY HEADLINES (*** indicates today's top stories) STORY # ======================================================================== APPLE Oracle Offers Power Objects For Mac........................ 28 BROADCAST Skyphone Opens Satellite Earth Station In Singapore........ 06 BUSINESS Dazel Teams With Tivoli/CA/AT&T/4th Dimension.............. 19 BUSINESS Microsoft & Software AG To Offer OLE On Most Platforms..... 20 BUSINESS Warner Brothers & Acclaim Entertainment Form Alliance...... 25 BUSINESS ****UUNet Technologies To Acquire Unipalm................. 26 GENERAL Software 2000 To Add Windows 95, NT, Unix To Apps.......... 02 GENERAL Japan Newsbriefs........................................... 15 GOVT ****Electronics Industry Groups Hail Export Decision...... 04 IBM ****IBM Fills Out PC Server Lineup........................ 12 IBM ****Jim Manzi Resigns As Lotus CEO, IBM Senior VP......... 27 LEGAL Compaq-Packard Bell Wars Heat Up Again..................... 22 NETWORK Novell Technology To Help Manage Energy Consumption........ 03 ONLINE UK - Demon Internet Offers RealAudio Service............... 07 ONLINE Oklahoma Firm Launches Virtual Cities...................... 08 ONLINE Pipeline USA Plans More Local Services..................... 11 ONLINE ****Compuserve To Page Users When E-Mail Is Received...... 13 ONLINE RealAudio Allows PCs To Put Audio On The Internet.......... 14 ONLINE ****AT&T Opens Asian Backbone Network..................... 16 ONLINE Internet Update............................................ 17 ONLINE Netscape Offers Rewards To "Bug Catchers................... 21 ONLINE Encyclopedia Britannica Online Now By Subscription......... 23 PC European Firms Happy With PC Industry - Report............. 01 PC Europe - Tulip Unveils "Silent Workstation................. 05 TELECOM Row Over Belgian GSM Net Licensing......................... 09 TELECOM Finland's Nokia Opens Japanese R&D Operation............... 10 TELECOM Japan - Companies Look To New PHS Applications............. 18 TRENDS Partnership Targets Billion Dollar Smart Card Market....... 24 TRENDS Sun Lays Foundation For Universal OS....................... 29 ======================================================================== These are the headlines and first paragraphs of each story, in order: 1 -> European Firms Happy With PC Industry - Report -- European corporations give the computer industry high marks for its leading-edge technology, according to a report from Dell Computer's European operations. According to the survey, corporations in Europe also rate the provision of other customer priorities, such as pricing, service, support, and the timing plus delivery of PC products. 2 -> Software 2000 To Add Windows 95, NT, Unix To Apps -- Products for Windows 95, Windows NT, and Unix will follow newly released Windows and OS/2 clients in a major object-oriented (OO) update to Software 2000's AS/400-based business applications software, revealed Erin Golden, at a meeting with Newsbytes in Boston. Meanwhile, the Cape Cod-based software company views recent competition from the likes of SAP and Peoplesoft as "validating" AS/400 as an underlying platform, she contended. 3 -> Novell Technology To Help Manage Energy Consumption -- Novell Inc. (NASDAQ: NOVL) has announced a partnership to "develop and jointly market" applications that will allow consumers to optimize their use of energy consumption in their homes and offices. It could also be the connection that plugs that home or office into the information superhighway. 4 -> ****Electronics Industry Groups Hail Export Decision -- The Electronic Industries Association (EIA) and the American Electronics Association (AEA) have both praised a government decision to loosen restrictions on the export of high-powered computers, saying the Clinton administration has recognized the pace at which technology is advancing. 5 -> Europe - Tulip Unveils "Silent Workstation -- Tulip Computers has taken the seemingly regressive step of removing the fan from its latest PC, the ID-45 series. According to Steve Roberts, the company's product marketing manager, the idea isn't a cost-cutting move, but one based on technology enhancement. 6 -> Skyphone Opens Satellite Earth Station In Singapore -- Skyphone, the satellite phone consortium formed by British Telecom (BT), Singapore Telecom and Telenor International, has announced the opening of its fifth worldwide ground earth station in Singapore. 7 -> UK - Demon Internet Offers RealAudio Service -- Demon Internet has installed a RealAudio server on its system. According to the Internet service provider (SP), it is the first time that a commercial Internet SP has offered this service in the UK. 8 -> Oklahoma Firm Launches Virtual Cities -- A Tulsa, Oklahoma company has awarded a four-part contract to various contractors to develop a complete "interactive city" for Tulsa on the Internet. 9 -> Row Over Belgian GSM Net Licensing -- A blistering row has broken out between Belgacom, the privatized telecoms operation formerly owned by the Belgian Government, and the Belgian Ministry of Telecommunications, over a license fee payable for the operation of a GSM (global system for mobile communications) digital mobile phone net. 10 -> Finland's Nokia Opens Japanese R&D Operation -- Nokia has announced plans to open a research and development (R&D) operation in Japan, with the specific aim of furthering the company's cellular services in that country. 11 -> Pipeline USA Plans More Local Services -- Pipeline USA, an online service and Internet access provider that already operates a local service in New York, has announced plans to offer local content in seven more US cities. The unit of PSINet (NASDAQ:PSIX) will launch four of its new "virtual neighborhoods" by year-end, officials said. 12 -> ****IBM Fills Out PC Server Lineup -- By launching two new PC Server lines and adding models to a third, IBM (NYSE:IBM) said it has filled out its personal computer server lineup as promised. 13 -> ****Compuserve To Page Users When E-Mail Is Received -- Compuserve is extending its reach from the wired world of online services and the Internet to the wireless realm of paging services. Starting in November, the online network will page its subscribers when electronic-mail is waiting from either other members or through the Internet, among other features. 14 -> RealAudio Allows PCs To Put Audio On The Internet -- Progressive Networks, the company responsible for bringing on-demand audio to the Internet, has announced RealAudio Personal Server, new software which allows desktop PC users to deliver their own audio content over the Internet. A beta version for Windows 95 and Windows NT is currently available for testing through the company's World Wide Web site. 15 -> Japan Newsbriefs -- In this roundup of news from Japan: Mobile telephone subscribers continue to rise, Sony stops TV exports, Nippon Iridium decides earth station site, Microsoft narrows Windows 95 launch date, Compaq announces new PC models, HDTV sales continue strong rise, TV, Fujitsu gets first US supercomputer order, VCR export figures released. 16 -> ****AT&T Opens Asian Backbone Network -- AT&T has introduced a new Internet service in several Asian countries made possible by the company's new Internet Asian backbone. It is the first such major backbone and inter-regional connection in Asia, says the company. 17 -> Internet Update -- In this roundup of new services and resources on the worldwide Internet: Volcanoes - Live, New online telephone directories, Travel planning with the Internet, Television stations continue coming, Web builder software, USDA economic research service, Comic book art. 18 -> Japan - Companies Look To New PHS Applications -- As Japan's PHS (personal handyphone system) mobile telephones continue to grow in importance and the system becomes more widely available across the country and the rest of Asia, Japan's major telecom equipment manufacturers are already showing new devices that make use of the system's high data capacity. 19 -> Dazel Teams With Tivoli/CA/AT&T/4th Dimension -- By teaming with Tivoli, Computer Associates (CA), AT&T GIS, and 4th Dimension on integration of its client-server software for managing printer, fax, electronic-mail, and pager communications, Dazel Corp. is partnering with companies that would otherwise be competitors, said Ford Tamer, VP of marketing, in an interview with Newsbytes. 20 -> Microsoft & Software AG To Offer OLE On Most Platforms -- A deal between Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ: MSFT) and Software AG, an international software and services company, will soon bring Microsoft's object linking and embedding (OLE) technology to most non-Microsoft computer operating systems. Microsoft said the deal will provide "a uniform method of integrating software across an enterprise" and "help shorten the development cycles." 21 -> Netscape Offers Rewards To "Bug Catchers -- Netscape Communications Corporation (NASDAQ: NSCP) has announced the "Netscape Bugs Bounty" program that rewards users who help the company find and report "bugs" in the beta versions of its recently released Netscape Navigator 2.0 World Wide Web browser software. Users who are the first to report a particular bug will be rewarded with various prizes depending on its importance. 22 -> Compaq-Packard Bell Wars Heat Up Again -- The war between Packard Bell Electronics Inc. (PB) and Compaq Computer Corp. (NYSE:CPQ) has heated up again with the filing, by PB, of a suit against Compaq alleging unfair competition, defamation, and false advertising. 23 -> Encyclopedia Britannica Online Now By Subscription -- Encyclopedia Britannica's "Britannica Online" site on the Internet's World Wide Web is out of its testing phase, and now offers subscription pricing, the company said. 24 -> Partnership Targets Billion Dollar Smart Card Market -- Racom Systems Inc. has entered into a multi-million dollar partnership with Rohm Co. Ltd, a Japanese company, to manufacture the ferroelectric chips used in contactless, battery-free smart cards. The deal also calls for Rohm to manufacture a new generation of advanced microprocessor-based chips currently under development for use in high-security financial applications. 25 -> Warner Brothers & Acclaim Entertainment Form Alliance -- Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment (WB) has extended its working alliance with Acclaim Entertainment (NASDAQ:AKLM) in an agreement to jointly publish entertainment titles using WB characters and properties. Anywhere a video game can be played, WB and Acclaim says they plan to deliver titles based on next-generation technology. 26 -> ****UUNet Technologies To Acquire Unipalm -- UUNet Technologies Inc., the US Internet service provider (SP), has announced its intention to acquire Unipalm, the UK Internet group that owns Pipex, which is widely recognized as being the largest UK Internet SP. Pipex also has deals with several European Internet SPs for effective pan-European Internet access. 27 -> ****Jim Manzi Resigns As Lotus CEO, IBM Senior VP -- In a teleconference today, Jim Manzi publicly announced plans to resign from his 13-year post as president and chief executive officer (CEO) of Lotus Development Corporation, as well as from the role he assumed as senior VP of IBM when IBM acquired Lotus in June. 28 -> Oracle Offers Power Objects For Mac -- As part of its long-term plan to create an "open, cross-platform environment," Apple has formed an agreement with Oracle to develop Oracle Power Objects for the Macintosh. The visual programming tool allows application development for Macintosh and Windows platforms simultaneously. 29 -> Sun Lays Foundation For Universal OS -- Sun Microsystems has announced the first major piece to the Java puzzle that the company expects will lead it into a "universal operating system." Sun's Neo family of network technology will reportedly enable companies to build applications that run on both the corporate network and the Internet. (Ian Stokell/19951011) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 10/10/95 TRENDS Japan Telecom Shows Next-Generation Public Phone (NEWS)(TRENDS)(TYO)(00001) Japan Telecom Shows Next-Generation Public Phone 10/10/95 GENEVA, SWITZERLAND, 1995 OCT 10 (NB) -- Japan Telecom used the Telecom 95 expo in Geneva to show a new, next-generation public payphone. The unit features videoconferencing, fax, and multimedia access in a single unit, the company's Toshifumi Nagamatsu told Newsbytes at the event. The telephone connects to integrated services digital network (ISDN) telephone lines that are now available in many countries and looks like a conventional, upright, public payphone, but with a larger screen. At the top of the unit is a small smoked plastic panel behind which, a CCD camera hides. In videoconferencing mode the camera records the image of the caller and the large screen displays the image of the called party. In addition to videoconferencing, another function the unit can accomplish is the sending of fax messages. At waist height on the telephone is what at first appears to be a shelf, that a user can place a bag or papers on while telephone calls are being made, but the top hinges up to reveal the bed of a fax machine on which papers can be laid and then scanned and faxed to others. The display panel is actually a color LCD (liquid crystal display) touch-screen with which Japan Telecom was demonstrating another feature -- an interface to a visual data search system that can offer local information, maps, and directories of all sorts. A memo pad function is also a feature of the new phone which puts an end to the annoying scramble for a pen an paper when messages or a telephone number are given to you at a public telephone. The touch-screen allows the user to write down the information using just their finger. At the Geneva expo, the telephone on show contained software that allowed users to buy tickets for the Japanese Shinkansen trains, better known as "bullet trains." The whole process, from selection of the railway line to seat reservation, was accomplished via a touch- screen interface and a printer unit alongside the telephone which printed the tickets. A card reader in the telephone allows all telephone charges to be billed to a credit card along with other charges incurred during use, such as the purchase of railway tickets. In the future, Japan Telecom predicts a smart card programmed with the user's own telephone number would be inserted into the machine, allowing the reception of telephone calls to take place. Japan Telecom is one of Japan's new common carriers and competes with NTT in the domestic long distance market. The Japan Railways Group (JR) is a major shareholder in the company, and through the association the company has already placed its own telephones at many JR stations. The company predicts the telephones will be introduced within the next two or three years, initially at major railway stations on Shinkansen lines linking into Japan Telecom's national fiber optic network which runs alongside the lines. (Martyn Williams/19951010/Press contact: Japan Telecom, tel +81-3-5540-8017, fax +81-3-5543-1967) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 10/10/95 TELECOM Japan - Int'l Telcos Cautious On Deregulation (NEWS)(TELECOM)(TYO)(00002) Japan - Int'l Telcos Cautious On Deregulation 10/10/95 GENEVA, SWITZERLAND, 1995 OCT 10 (NB) -- Executives from Japan's two newest international telephone carriers told Newsbytes in Geneva that deregulation of the telephone market in Japan must be handled "carefully" and "cautiously," if the companies are to survive. The interviews were carried out at Telecom 95, an international telecommunications expo taking place at Geneva's Palexpo center all last week and this week. Japan's 330 billion yen ($3.3 billion) international telecommunications market is currently dominated by KDD which, until several years ago, held a monopoly on the market. In 1986 it was joined by International Telecom Japan (ITJ) and International Digital Communications (IDC), dubbed new common carriers (NCCs). Users decide which carrier to use by dialing a different international access code. ITJ, known by most Japanese as "0041" after its access number, is owned by a consortium of over 100 companies, with main investors Mitsubishi Corporation, Mitsui & Co., Sumitomo Corporation, and Matsushita Electric Industrial Co. each holding 9%. IDC, which has the nickname "0061," has a smaller number of shareholders. Itochu Corporation, Toyota Motor Corp., and Cable & Wireless Plc, are the largest shareholders with 17.2% each. The two NCCs initially began offering business services, but in 1989 started international direct dial services for home users and between them currently hold approximately 30% of the market. Recently the Japanese government has been examining the domestic telephone service, which is structured in a similar way, which NTT dominates with three smaller NCCs. Early last week news agencies reported NTT had asked the government for permission to enter the international market. While KDD flatly denied that such an application had been made, representatives of the competing NCCs were more forthcoming. "If NTT enters the international market we will get damaged," said Seisuke Nozaki, corporate director of ITJ. "We entered under the condition that both markets are separate. When the government throws out the situation, something must be done. You must understand, we entered the market under certain situations and now they want to change the situation." Satoshi Naito, public relations manager at IDC said, "It is natural and appropriate for NTT to challenge the domestic market. If NTT joined the international market, the NCCs, and maybe KDD, would disappear." To better survive in such a situation would the carriers anticipate forming alliances with the domestic NCCs to better compete? "We must enhance our fundamental power before thinking about an alliance," said IDC's Naito. "After we can make a good presence in this field and industry." "The NCCs may merge and make an alliance as an international giant," commented Nozaki, referring to the possibility of IDC and his company joining together. With the growing alliances between, competition from, and strengths of international telephone companies, Nozaki could see the advantage of a less complicated market. "Many foreign companies are trying to enter Japan. To compete, NTT is better able to handle them. We need one giant and only NTT can compete. That's my view as a Japanese (person), as a member of the staff at a NCC, I hope the regulations continue." During the first years of operation, business callers made up the majority of customers, but that has slowly changed, said both companies. "Five or ten years ago, KDD had a monopoly and international calls were very expensive. Eighty to 90 percent of our calls were made by business customers. Now KDD has made drastic discounts and today there is much consumer demand. For IDC, 60% of our customers are now consumers," although, as Naito continued, the business sector would regain its top position. "The consumer market will not disappear, but business use will increase in importance" he said. Calls to the United States make up 20% of all IDC traffic, and are the top destination for business callers. The top destination for consumers is China, which accounts for 12% of all calls. Calls to South Korea make up 10% of all calls, to the Philippines 9%, and to Taiwan 6%. At ITJ the top destinations are similar. Among growing markets, IDC says it is seeing a rise in call volume to Vietnam and India principally. (Martyn Williams/19951010) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 10/10/95 TELECOM NEC Executive Speaks On Current Japanese Market (NEWS)(TELECOM)(TYO)(00003) NEC Executive Speaks On Current Japanese Market 10/10/95 GENEVA, SWITZERLAND, 1995 OCT 10 (NB) -- Seijiro Yokoyama, senior executive vice president of Japan's NEC Corporation, says Japan is on the verge of a period of expanding growth in the telecoms sector as the country learns to adopt information technology. He talked to Newsbytes in a special interview at the Telecom 95 expo in Geneva last week. "The American market is two to three years ahead of the Japanese market, so if we look at the US, we can see what will happen in Japan," he said, as he presented his personal view of the business that NEC will record sales in of 3.35 trillion yen ($33.5 billion) this year alone. "Until 1992, the US telecoms sector had showed small growth," he said. "From 1993 to 1994 the sector recorded a year on year growth of 15%. For 1995 to 1997, the same large scale growth is forecast. He continued: "The private business sector re-engineered, which has given US business extremely large competitive advantages. Re-engineering has not just improved US telecoms, but all markets. But the largest movement has been seen in the information technology sector." Yokoyama attributed the growth to several major reasons. "In 1992, vice-president Gore announced the information superhighway initiative. In 1993 the North American Information Infrastructure was put forward as a concept and in 1994 Gore made the famous Global Information Infrastructure speech in Buenos Aires. "In 1992 and 1993, the US became an information orientated society so in the communications industry this had a big impact. Business became aware of information technology and it has grown and gone forward because of this initiative. "Capital investment in 1992 was 23%, and in 1994 it was 26%. (As a result), investment has shifted (to the information technology sector). In Japan in 1994 it was a zero, or even minus growth market. Regulation, high costs, and no flexibility hampered growth. "Japan is less used to using information technology. As an example, if we look at the electronic-mail use of a Japanese business man in the US and an American business man in Japan, the American would use several times more e-mail than the Japanese in the US, despite the much higher costs and difficulties of using such systems in Japan. "In Japan we have a phrase, 'I'm sorry to use the phone,' when we call people on business. Meeting face to face is part of our culture. In Japan I believe we will see a big, fast change in these attitudes. To survive, business must use information technology. "In 1994 a Japanese National Information Infrastructure was proposed and local government was encouraged to use information technology. As a result, the second half of 1994 saw a several percentage point growth in information technology. "I feel a great change is beginning to take place, even though not all the figures show it. Systems such as Personal Handyphone System (PHS) telephones and digital cellular being introduced into the market are causing the growth. This is similar to the US in 1992. "There are still vast differences between the two (countries), but in Japan there is change. We have entered the Japanese telecommunications age." Yokoyama continued and focused more on the telecommunications market in Japan, Asia, and the world, saying: "In Europe, there is still a monopoly in each country, except the UK. From 1998 there will be liberalization. Europe is also similar to the US in 1992. In developing countries, it's not multimedia but telephones that are the core technology. Infrastructure and planning must be in place before investment by foreign countries can take place. "Developing countries in Asia and South America are quickly privatizing the national infrastructure, so if good planning takes place, quick and good advances and development will happen. Carriers are investing in developing countries. AT&T and British Telecom, and other mega carriers, are starting alliances as a base for global advances and development. Such alliances will fuel a worldwide telecoms explosion. From the NEC perspective, one of our goals is 'bringing the global village to life,' so we look at telecoms as a global business market." Asked to expand on his views of the barriers to use for information technology in Japan, Yokoyama responded, "There are many different factors holding back IT use in Japan. Use in cellular telephones has jumped because the price has fallen. However, just because something is cheap, it does not mean it will be used more. "If we don't use information technology effectively, we won't remain competitive. As we push to use more e-mail and videoconferencing, that will change our culture and the way we see technology. "Five years ago at NEC, e-mail was a hobby for computer researchers. Now everyone in the entire company uses e-mail. The first thing I do each day is to check my e-mail. When I first used it, I realized it was very good and time-saving. "I also have teleconferencing equipment so now when I need to speak to people within NEC, I can save time. Instead of having to travel to factories I can stay in my office and save two or three hours." The company's best-selling PC-98 range of computers is now selling at record levels. Yokoyama says user's wanting to use e-mail and computer communications facilities is one of the reasons behind the growth. He also believes that, once the private sector adopts the systems, the government will follow with better legislation, "Business will make the first moves, and the government after. Multimedia can provide wonderful systems such as tele-medicine, so existing laws must be changed." Growing use of the new technology will mean great benefits to his company, Yokoyama concluded, saying: "We have a wide variety of products from ATM (asynchronous transfer mode) switches to fiber and wireless. Everything is important because communications is a complete system. Our strength is total integration of such systems. We are strong in areas from telecoms to semiconductors." (Martyn Williams/19951010) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 10/10/95 TELECOM Fujitsu In Talks With Russia Over Future Network (NEWS)(TELECOM)(TYO)(00004) Fujitsu In Talks With Russia Over Future Network 10/10/95 GENEVA, SWITZERLAND, 1995 OCT 10 (NB) -- Fujitsu's president, Tadashi Sekizawa, held talks with Russia's Minister of Posts and Telecommunications at the Telecom 95 expo in Geneva last Thursday over the possibility of the two working together to build a new national telecommunications network. Sekizawa visited Moscow en-route to Geneva to attend the opening of the new Fujitsu Moscow office. At the time, the previous Friday, the minister could not attend, but when it was discovered that he was in Geneva, last Thursday, the company president invited him to the Fujitsu stand. The two agreed to "cooperate in the telecoms field to create a telecommunications network covering all of Russia and CIS (Commonwealth of Independent States)" said Sekizawa at a news conference. To date, Fujitsu has struck no commercial deals with Russia, to which Sekizawa attributed mainly to problems surrounding type approval in the country. He said that in Russia, and many emerging democracies, getting approvals from the government often means long delays. He added: "Type approval is the big problem." Asked by Newsbytes what type of systems and network was under discussion, Sekizawa replied, "We would intend to offer SDH which would be necessary for multimedia. We would like to offer it over the whole region. We must offer switching for the plain telephone service and then upgrade the software and hardware and offer more later. In Moscow and St. Petersburg a high service should be offered. In the CIS, we should offer a basic telephone service first," he said. Sekizawa said the company saw the Telecom 95 as, "An opportunity to seek new partners. We would like to expand our ventures with others." Several other Japanese companies are already doing business in the Russian telecommunications field. Recently, NEC Corporation and Sumitomo Corporation received a $19 million order for an optical communications system to link Moscow and St. Petersburg. Fujitsu's international telecoms alliances include links with British Telecom, Deutsche Telecom, NTT, and Singapore Telecom. (Martyn Williams/19951010/Press contact: Mike Bierne, Fujitsu Ltd., tel +81-3-3215-5236, fax +81-3-3216-9365, Internet e-mail mike@hq.fujitsu.co.jp) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 10/10/95 CORRECTION TRENDS Correction - Technology Executives Conservative About Future (CORRECTION)(TRENDS)(DEN)(00005) Correction - Technology Executives Conservative About Future 10/10/95 SCOTTSDALE, ARIZONA, U.S.A., 1995 OCT 10 (NB) -- In a story of this title which ran on the Newsbytes wire on October 5, Agenda '96 officers reported to Newsbytes that only 8 percent of survey respondents planned to be developing Macintosh software in 1996, compared to more than half today. Agenda '96 officers have issued a correction, saying that 65 percent plan to develop Macintosh software next year, not eight percent, an increase, not a decrease. (Newsbytes/19951010) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 10/10/95 TELECOM UK's GPT To Supply First Smart Card Phones To China (NEWS)(TELECOM)(TYO)(00006) UK's GPT To Supply First Smart Card Phones To China 10/10/95 GENEVA, SWITZERLAND, 1995 OCT 10 (NB) -- Britain's GPT has signed agreements that will put 2,000 smart card payphones on the streets of Beijing and Guangdong in China. #IMAGE 1 20 TWPCX \images\95101006.PCX Click here for photo The contracts were signed with the Beijing Telecommunications Administration (BTA) and the Guangdong Telecommunications Administration (GTA) after a field test of the units in the capital city earlier this year. Full installation of the telephones is scheduled to be complete by early next year. The BTA believe the order is another step along the road towards Beijing becoming an "international metropolis with a popular, convenient public payphone network to fully meet the needs of the people," according to a statement. At the Telecom 95 expo in Geneva last week, Bernard Brooks, managing director of GPT Payphone Systems commented, "We have the latest technology and total payphone solutions to assist the Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications in its aims to build and expand a state-of-the-art public payphone network across the country." The cities have ordered GPT's Sapphire payphones, the same units that are currently deployed in Swindon, England, as part of the Mondex cashless society experiment that began earlier this year. The Sapphire was chosen for its wide range of payment options and its ability to withstand extremes of climate and temperature said GPT. The Chinese versions will accept prepaid IC cards, China's name for smart cards, credit cards, and coins as means of payment. GPT magnetic card telephones have been in use by the Shenda Telephone Company since the early 1990's in Shenzhen. The contract is the latest stage in GPT's involvement in the Chinese telecommunications industry that began in 1986 when the company was involved in the improvement and upgrade of facilities in the Shenzhen Special Economic Zone in Guangdong province. GPT Payphone Systems is owned by GEC of the UK and Siemens of Germany. In addition to the UK trials and the Chinese order, Sapphire payphones are in use in Finland, the Isle of Man, Argentina, Thailand, Jersey, United Arab Emirates, Nigeria, and Macau. (Martyn Williams/19951010/Press contact: GPT, +44-115-9433687, Internet e-mail press_office@ncp.gpt.co.uk/GPT-CHINA951010/PHOTO) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 10/10/95 TELECOM Personal Handyphones Expand Into Asia (NEWS)(TELECOM)(TYO)(00007) Personal Handyphones Expand Into Asia 10/10/95 TOKYO, JAPAN, 1995 OCT 10 (NB) -- Japan's PHS (personal handyphone system) is taking its first steps outside the country with the establishment of an Asian promotion group and the adoption of the system by Hong Kong, the first results of an effort by Japan to help the system become a regional, if not worldwide, system. Hong Kong Telecom (HKT) announced last week that it had decided PHS was most-suited to become the standard in a next-generation mobile telecommunications network in the British colony. The system has also been adopted by Hutchison Telecom, an HKT rival, for use in the country. Choice of the system in Hong Kong is seen as strategically important as it may offer a foot in the door to the massive Chinese market when the country assumes control of Hong Kong in 1998. The HKT announcement was widely expected after the company announced its part in a four company promotion team two days previously. HKT is joined with Japan's largest PHS operator, Nippon Telegraph and Telephone (NTT), Itochu Corporation, and Cable and Wireless PLC of Britain in the establishment of PHS International, a Hong Kong-based company. In addition to the Hong Kong announcement, the system is enjoying a warm reception in many countries. In Singapore in April, NTT Mobile Communications Network Inc. carried out joint research on the suitability of PHS with a local university. The project led to the nation's adoption of PHS for certain applications from next year. In Thailand, KDD, Japan's largest international call carrier, began testing the system with the Communication Authority of Thailand (CAT) on Monday. KDD has installed 20 PHS antennas inside and around the CAT building and supplied 30 handsets to workers who will use them over the next three months. Last week a Chinese university announced it would conduct the first experiments with the system in that country in cooperation with Osaka- based equipment maker Matsushita. Beijing's Qinghua University will begin testing the system on its campus this week. The nations of Malaysia, Indonesia, Taiwan, and Vietnam are also being targeted by Japanese manufacturers and operators. PHS service only began in July in the Japanese cities of Tokyo and Sapporo, but already has nearly 100,000 users. The number is expected to rise to half a million by next March as a new service provider in Tokyo, coupled with nationwide roll out of the system by the exiting two operators, begins this month. It was designed as a low-cost mobile telephone system that offers almost all of the attractions of cellular telephones. Rather than contacting cell stations situated every few kilometers, the PHS system uses base-stations at telephone boxes and on the side of buildings with a range of around 100 meters. This makes the system unsuitable for use in a moving vehicle, but more suited to use in metropolitan areas, such as Hong Kong, where interference caused by buildings can be a problem. PHS also offers a much higher data speed, 32 kilobits-per-second against 9,600 bits-per-second available on standard cellular telephones, and new multimedia applications are already under development to make use of the capacity. (Martyn Williams/19951010) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 10/10/95 GENERAL Japan Newsbriefs (NEWS)(GENERAL)(TYO)(00008) Japan Newsbriefs 10/10/95 TOKYO, JAPAN, 1995 OCT 10 (NB) -- In this roundup of news from Japan: Japan Telecom allies with Bellcore, Fujitsu to begin Vietnam operations, FM paging faces deregulation, Canon to launch advanced camcorder in Europe, Foreign makers register jump in PC sales, Asahi Kasei establishes US company, Internet providers cut prices, JVC unveils Hi-Vision VCR, Nagoya Stock Exchange heads to the Internet. Japan Telecom Ally With Bellcore A memorandum of understanding has been signed between Japan Telecom and Bellcore, covering joint development of services, software systems, and teaming arrangements. The two will work together and provide manpower support, training, and consulting. Japan Telecom will also send a team of engineers to Bellcore and possible technical transfer was also under discussion. "This MOU is important because Japan Telecom, as well as its customers, will benefit significantly from Bellcore's distinguished technical knowledge and experience in the highly competitive telecommunications market," said Koichi Sakata, president of Japan Telecom. Japan Telecom is a domestic new common carrier owned in part by the Japan Railways Group. Fujitsu To Begin Vietnam Operations Fujitsu Ltd. has established a wholly owned subsidiary company in Vietnam. Fujitsu Computer Products of Vietnam Inc. will manufacture parts for computers and aims for first year sales of $420 million from its beginning of operations in September next year. It will operate from a base in an industrial zone near to Ho Chi Minh City. FM Paging Faces Deregulation The Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications is to introduce more competition into the FM paging market by allowing more than just existing paging services to use the frequencies. The service broadcasts data alongside signals from existing FM broadcasters and is regarded as having potential to become a nationwide, low-cost network. Applications for use of the space are now being encouraged from all companies, except those currently running paging services. Earlier this year, the JFN network began broadcasting data to "visual radios" from key station Tokyo FM that included news, weather, programming details, and urgent information such as earthquake news. Canon To Launch Advanced Camcorder In Europe Canon Inc. will begin sales of its Movieboy E2 advanced camcorder in Europe next week. The unit, known as the EX5000, will be called the UCX2Hi in Europe and features a focus mechanism that is controlled by movement of the operator's eye. Canon hope a price tag of around DM3,700 will generate sales of 10,000 a month. Foreign Makers Register Jump In PC Sales Apple Japan has announced total sales in fiscal year 1994 of 700,000 units. The figure represents a 25% rise in sales in Japan and is delivered against a background of continued growth, said John Floisand, president of Apple Japan. The local arm of Compaq also announced an increase in sales for the first nine months of the current calendar year. Compaq KK said sales doubled. Both companies expect total PC sales in Japan to amount to five million units this year and six million the following year. Asahi Kasei Establishes US Company The world's largest provider of semiconductors for the cellular telephone industry, Asahi Kasei, has established AKM Semiconductor Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary. The new company will be based in San Jose, California, home of AKM's liaison office for the last three years. A team of ten will be headed by Yoshihisa Iwasaki, previously head of the international department. The new company has been set up to better service the US cellular telephone industry. Internet Providers Cut Prices Two of Japan's largest Internet providers are cutting prices in a move to attract more of the companies that are heading online. Internet Initiative Japan Inc. (IIJ) is cutting between 2% and 28% off basic monthly charges for leased circuits from ISDN (integrated services digital network) to 1.5 megabits-per-second lines. The monthly membership fee for ISDN connections will fall from 397,000 yen ($4,051) to 285,000 yen ($2,908). IIJ's dial-up service will cut per minute fees from 30 yen ($0.31) to 25 yen ($0.26) between 8am and midnight. Competing Fujitsu, which runs the Infoweb service, also announced a cut in fees for dial-up customers who will soon pay 10 yen ($0.10) per minute, rather than the current 20 yen ($0.20) per minute charge. JVC Unveils Hi-Vision VCR Victor Company of Japan (JVC) is to begin selling a new video cassette recorder capable of recording widescreen, high definition transmissions broadcast in the MUSE Hi-Vision format, Japan's high definition broadcasting system, in addition to regular NTSC (North American Television Standards Committee) format pictures from broadcast and cable television. The HR-W5 will be priced at 340,000 yen ($3,470), around half the price of any other Hi-Vision video recorders. A previous model by JVC sold 4,500 units and the company hopes the lower price will result in sales of around 2,000 units a month for the new model. This still compares unfavorably with sales of Hi-Vision television sets which are expected to top 100,000 in the current fiscal year. Nagoya Stock Exchange Heads To The Internet The Nagoya Stock Exchange (NSE) in central Japan will become the first Japanese exchange on the Internet later this year when it launches a home page providing price quotes of the 122 companies on the board. Opening and closing prices plus intra-day highs and lows and trading volume will all be on offer in English and Japanese. (Martyn Williams/19951010) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 10/10/95 BROADCAST Motorola - TV & Data Are Separate Applications (NEWS)(BROADCAST)(TYO)(00009) Motorola - TV & Data Are Separate Applications 10/10/95 GENEVA, SWITZERLAND, 1995 OCT 10 (NB) -- While many companies are showing, or dreaming of, all-in-one set-top boxes that bring programs, data services, and the Internet to the television set at the Telecom 95 expo in Geneva this week, a senior executive at Motorola said such systems should remain separate. Jim Phillips, corporate vice president and general manager of the Multimedia Group, spoke to Newsbytes and gave his views on future multimedia systems and the strengths of his company in the field. Phillips believes that personal computers are much more suited to information applications than an integrated set-top box could ever be. He argued that computers were much more data-intensive than television, which is a very one-way medium requiring no input from the user. "The personal computer is a second appliance, television is much more passive and entertainment orientated," said Phillips. "Do you really need anything more than a channel changer when you are watching television? Would you want to surf an encyclopedia when you are watching television or when you are doing homework on your PC?" But will this always be the case? "You won't have an all-in-one device until there is a file server in the house and an all-in-one display and data system." Not surprisingly, Motorola has solutions for cable operators that believe in such a situation. The company is using RF (radio frequency) methods to allow operators to offer voice telephony and data services across an existing co-axial networks. The use of such technologies comes from Motorola's long history in the field, "Worldwide we have 140,000 people working in RF, and we are a world leader. This type of system is a very close cousin to cellular frequency agility -- the upstream path is very similar," he said. The system overcomes the two biggest problems companies have had with such systems, claimed Phillips, "There is very low power consumption -- around half a watt," he said, adding that low noise is achieved through frequency agility methods. A single, six megahertz (MHz) wide, channel that would otherwise by used for television programming is split into ten 600 kilohertz (KHz)- wide channels, and use of time division multiplexing allows the smaller channels to be utilized for many calls at once. A single controller could handle 6,000 homes said Phillips. "We offer the lowest cost, highest quality, highest speed solution," claimed Phillips. Around the world, Phillips sees developing markets as offering the best opportunities for the company and system. "Eastern Europe is very lucrative. In the United States, 95% of homes are passed by cable and if the communications act goes through 155 million lines will become available." In other regions of the world Phillips see regulations holding back some markets, "I'm sorry to say the information highway will hit large parts of Asia before a good part of Europe. We are particularly interested in Malaysia, the Philippines, India, Indonesia, Australia, and Japan." Such systems will not just happen though because they can, believes Phillips, who added, "Competition breeds innovation -- technology is second." Without compelling content, people will not be interested to utilize online and data services so, "Motorola has purchased parts of five or six content builders," said Phillips. "The US currently has the best content" he said. (Martyn Williams/19951010/Press contact: Inge Wallage, Motorola, tel +44-1753-575555, fax +44-1753-516243) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 10/10/95 TELECOM Japan - Govt Panel Urges NTT Break-Up (NEWS)(TELECOM)(TYO)(00010) Japan - Govt Panel Urges NTT Break-Up 10/10/95 TOKYO, JAPAN, 1995 OCT 10 (NB) -- A research panel established at the Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications to investigate the advantages and disadvantages of a break-up of Nippon Telegraph and Telephone (NTT) has recommended the telecoms giant be broken up. The research panel was set up by the head of the ministry and investigated the matter of NTT's breakup in parallel with the Telecommunications Council, the official ministry "set-up organization" that will report its findings next February. The result from such panels is often used in Japan to indicate future changes in government policy. This, coupled with the ministry's investigation of the matter, and a previous study several years ago which concluded the company should be broken up, is being seen by analysts as a clear sign that the company will be broken up. NTT, the world's largest telecommunications company, maintains a monopoly on the local call market in Japan and competes with three other companies, dubbed new common carriers (NCC), for the long distance market. It, and its domestic competitors, offer no international services. The report calls for the splitting up of NTT into several parts: one for long distance communications, and several other smaller regional operators which would provide local call services and offer connections in customer's homes and businesses. NTT has been fighting calls for its break-up and has recently announced several measures that it hoped would persuade the panel it was open to competition. These included the separation of several businesses, such as software engineering, into individual companies, and the opening of the its local network to the NCCs, which can currently only connect at one point in each prefecture. The new system would allow competitors to access NTT's local network wherever a switch exists, meaning less time is used on the NTT network and lower charges are levied. NCC pays for use of the local network at a cost of around 12.57 yen ($0.13) per call. The charges come to around half the entire annual income of all the NCCs at 300 billion yen ($3 billion). Costs of setting up to the new Personal Handyphone System, combined with the recent rate cut in leased line fees, has led to NTT predicting a profits down-turn next year. (Martyn Williams/19951010/Press contact: NTT Corporation, tel +81-3-3509-3101, fax +81-3-3509-4290; Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications, tel +81-3-3504-4161, fax +81-3-3504-0265) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 10/10/95 TRENDS ****New TV Displays A Hit At Telecom 95 Expo (NEWS)(TRENDS)(TYO)(00011) ****New TV Displays A Hit At Telecom 95 Expo 10/10/95 GENEVA, SWITZERLAND, 1995 OCT 10 (NB) -- Despite a proliferation of new delivery methods and technologies, SONET (synchronous optical network), ATM (asynchronous transfer mode), video-on-demand, and digital satellite broadcasting, what has been proving more of a hit with visitors to Telecom 95 in Geneva has been what we will be watching television on in the future, and not how it gets to our homes. The show has been one of the first major exhibitions to see the newly announced plasma display panels (PDP) on display. Conventional LCD (liquid crystal display) screens are difficult to manufacture is sizes above 20 inches, so the new technology not only allows for much larger screens but, through the use of the new technology, better pictures. A growing list of Japanese companies has the screens in development, a list that was joined by Pioneer Corporation this week when it announced the development of a 40-inch PDP screen that should become available next year. The main advantage of a PDP is its weight and size. Because the screens are developments of LCD technology, the television sets they will sit inside will be much thinner that those of today, just as LCD screens on laptop computers are thinner than desktop monitors. Fujitsu's 42-inch widescreen display is just 3.2 centimeters (cm) thick and weighs 20 kilograms (kg), a fraction of the weight of today's cathode ray tubes which include a very thick, and heavy, glass tube. Mike Beirne, spokesman for Fujitsu, told Newsbytes that the PDP on display by his company was generating a lot of interest, "Everybody loves the plasma display." Fujitsu are investing 60 billion yen in the new product which will begin appearing in stores next year. A new production line will be built at the company's existing factory in Miyazaki prefecture that will produce 20,000 screens a month initially. Sometime in 1997 output will be increased to 100,000 units a month. NEC says it plans to pump 10 billion yen into development of PDP televisions and computer monitors. Some of that will be needed to build a new plant in Japan to handle production. The displays will begin rolling off the production line next year at a rate of 10,000 per month, but that figure will be increased to 150,000 units per month by the turn of the century. Other companies also involved in PDP development include Sony, Matsushita, and Sharp. Japan's national broadcaster, NHK (Nippon Hoso Kyokai), is already heavily involved in widescreen high definition broadcasting through the Japanese MUSE Hi-Vision television format and twelve hours a day of broadcasts in the system. At Telecom 95, NHK was showing a high definition flat screen that was still in the early prototype stage. Despite the screen showing small imperfections and faults, reportedly because it was still under development, the device showed clear and crisp television pictures that NHK hopes will equal the quality of Hi-Vision sets with picture tubes that are sold today. (Martyn Williams/19951010) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 10/10/95 TELECOM UK - Cheaper To Fax Than Mail Letters? (NEWS)(TELECOM)(LON)(00012) UK - Cheaper To Fax Than Mail Letters? 10/10/95 LONDON, ENGLAND, 1995 OCT 10 (NB) -- Equisys, a fax modem and connectivity specialist, claims that businesses would be better off faxing their post in the UK (to other UK addresses) than using the Royal Mail to post the letters. According to Mike Elms, a spokesman for the company, the company came to this conclusion when it compiled its own figures, which the firm says are confirmed by an independent report entitled "Hidden Fax Board Costs and Secrets to Savings," from Davidson Consulting, a fax consultant in the US. "We were going to compile the whole report ourselves until we came across the report from Davidson Consulting," Elms told Newsbytes, adding that, by marrying in Equisys' own figures on its own outbound fax traffic, the company was able to substantiate the assertion that, for inland mail, fax is cheapest. According to Equisys, using the most common form of fax technology in the UK, a typical three-page business letter is estimated to take a total of 124 seconds to transmit. At current daytime, weekday rates on British Telecom (BT), this costs 17.2 pence. On weekday nights, the cost falls to 10.2 pence, and 5.8 pence at the weekend. These costs, Newsbytes notes, compare with 19 pence for second class and 25 pence for first class letter post within the UK. If the fax modem technology is boosted to 14,400 (from 9,600) bits-per-second (bps), and fast connect fax modems are used, then the time spent transmitting the fax drops to 52 seconds, which costs 7.2 pence during office hours to anywhere in the UK. These calculations extrapolate out, Equisys claims, so that, if an average 150 documents a week are faxed instead of posted, it produces a saving of more than UKP1,200 a year. On 50 faxes a week, UKP407.68 savings accrue each year, while on 250 faxes a week, UKP2,038.40 savings accrue each year. Commenting on the figures, Chris Oswald, Equisys' managing director, said that he questions anyone who posts letters in the UK. "Even this simple comparison is weighted in favor of the Royal Mail, as it takes no account of the consumables involved in posting a letter -- paper, printer wear and tear, toner, envelope -- that simply do not enter the equation when sending a fax," he explained. Oswald, not unexpectedly, sang the praises of Zetafax, Equisys' LAN (local area network) connectivity system. "Advanced network fax software like Zetafax can route inbound faxes directly to an individual's PC, eliminating any argument regarding document confidentiality," he said, adding that, when using network fax software, "privacy becomes a PC security issue, not a fax security issue." Oswald also argues that there are a number of other less tangible benefits to be derived from using Zetafax or a similar networked fax system over postal services, such as the ability to immediately fax a document across the network, lessening the risk that a letter may be "put aside" for dealing with later. "At the end of the day, the post can be missed, but not a fax line. Scheduling enables non-urgent or lengthy faxes to be sent at off-peak times, producing the same, overnight result at first class mail. Proof of delivery, in the form of a transmission report, is `free' with every fax transmitted," he explained. BT, not unexpectedly, is keen on Equisys' findings. "It's no secret that phone lines are an ideal medium for data transmission, but the secret of its good value seems to have been better bet. A phone line has got to be a more natural way for an electronic document to travel than by road or rail," said a spokesman. (Steve Gold/19951006/Press Contact: Profile PR, +44-181-995-1595; Internet e-mail tim.smith@profile.ccmail.compuserve.com; Reader Contact: Equisys, +44-171-403-2227; Peter Davidson Consulting, tel 818-842-5117; Fax 818-8425488) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 10/10/95 GENERAL Exabyte Ships New 8mm Tape Backup System (NEWS)(GENERAL)(DEN)(00013) Exabyte Ships New 8mm Tape Backup System 10/10/95 BOULDER, COLORADO, U.S.A., 1995 OCT 10 (NB) -- Exabyte Corp. (NASDAQ: EXBT) has introduced a new eight millimeter (mm) tape backup system for local networks that is a complete tape drive kit including a CD-ROM drive, and can store up to 14 gigabytes (GB) of data in compressed form. Exabyte's new EXB-8700 is an 8mm helical-scan system the company said provides nearly twice the capacity of DDS-2 drives. The system can store up to 14GB of data in compressed form at a transfer rate of up to 60 megabytes (MB)-per-minute (MBpm). The EXB-8700 includes a CD-ROM drive and a choice of several backup software packages for Novell Netware Loadable Modules (NLMs), DOS, Windows, or Windows NT. A software "key" unlocks the backup package of choice. Users can choose from Arcada Backup for DOS/Windows plus either Arcada Backup Exec for NT, Arcada Backup Exec for NLM, Cheyenne ARCserve for Netware (Windows edition), or Palindrome Backup Director for NLM. The user also gets Adaptec's CI/O SCSI (small computer system interface) management software to remotely monitor SCSI device performance and diagnose problems from any Windows-based client. The Arcada and Cheyenne applications are available in English, French, and German. Full documentation comes on the CD-ROM disk. The system comes with an Adaptec SCSI-2 interface card, Adaptec EX-SCSI installation software, an Exabyte 8mm data cartridge, a cleaning cartridge, SCSI cable and terminator, power supply and cord and installation and operation manuals. A two year warranty is provided. The suggested retail price of the complete kit is $2,695. Exabyte said the value of the included CD-ROM drive, software and accessories represents as much as another $1,695, but is included with the system at no extra charge. (Jim Mallory/19951006/Press contact: Vibeke Arentz, Exabyte, 303-417-7038; Public contact: Exabyte, 800-392-2983) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 10/10/95 ONLINE Journal Register Newspapers To Go Online Via Interchange (NEWS)(ONLINE)(TOR)(00014) Journal Register Newspapers To Go Online Via Interchange 10/10/95 TRENTON, NEW JERSEY, U.S.A., 1995 OCT 10 (NB) -- Journal Register Co., a New Jersey-based publisher, has signed an agreement to put its New Haven Register, and possibly other newspapers, online through AT&T's (NYSE:T) Interchange service. Register Online will start operation in November, providing local news and sports reports, restaurant listings and reviews, local entertainment and cultural calendars, and newspaper archives back to 1986. It will also include discussion groups, searchable classified advertising, information about local community services and organizations, and direct access to the Internet. Diane Pardee, a spokeswoman for Journal Register, told Newsbytes that the company will "evaluate what happens with the Register" before deciding whether to launch online editions of others of its 17 daily newspapers and 98 non-daily publications. The deal with Journal Register is in line with Interchange's focus to date on working with publishing interests in general and newspapers in particular. The other services currently operating through Interchange include the Washington Post, the Minneapolis Star-Tribune, and computer-magazine publisher Ziff-Davis, which developed the Interchange service before selling it to AT&T in late 1994. Also on Interchange is an information service run by the Gartner Group, a computer consulting firm. AT&T will launch its AT&T Business Network through Interchange in November. Jennifer Christensen, a spokeswoman for AT&T New Media Services, told Newsbytes the company is promoting Interchange as a "publisher's publishing platform" allowing publishers to create "durable, branded online franchises." And Pardee said one reason Journal Register selected Interchange as its means for going online was the service's emphasis on publishing. Subscribers to Register Online and to other specific Interchange services also get access to Interchange Central, which provides material from other information providers and lets subscribers find out about the other separate services offered through Interchange, Christensen said. (Grant Buckler/19951006/Press Contact: Diane Pardee, Journal Register Co., 609-396-2200; Jennifer Christensen, AT&T New Media Services, 617-252-5477; Public Contact: AT&T Interchange, 800-556-9018) (ADVISORY)(GENERAL)(MSP)(00015) NewsPix Images For Newsbytes Publishers 10/10/95 MINNEAPOLIS, MINNESOTA, U.S.A.,1995 OCT 10 (NB) -- These photos correspond to recent Newsbytes stories. They are online in the Newsbytes menu on America Online, NiftyServe, and the Newsbytes private bulletin board system in Minneapolis. JPEG (Joint Photographic Experts Group) files are larger in size, PICT files are designed as thumbnails for onscreen viewing. The photos are titled with name/year/month/day. PICT/thumbnail pictures are black and white (gray scale). File message will indicate color if the JPEG image is color. Some of the "for use" images, may be PICT files. To distinguish these files from the thumbnail preview PICT images, the tag for the color "for use" image will have PICT, all caps. The thumbnail will remain noted as "pct." To become a licensed Newsbytes publisher, call Newsbytes at 612-430-1100 (US) or write to administrator@newsbytes.com on the Internet. Licensing applies to any medium. --------------------------- Week of OCTOBER 09 - OCTOBER 13,1995 --------------------------- - NEW THIS WEEK - T2-951004 - color / Thrustmaster Intros New Game Steering Console: shot of the unit on limbo white, steering wheel and pedals. ABC-3D951005 - color / ABC Graphics Goes 3-D: screen shot of text illustrating the "Instant 3D." KODIAK951002 - color / Storagetek Intros New Product, Settles Old Lawsuit: the Kodiak 9890 Scalable Storage Facility. LAT-LX951004 - color / Dell Ships New Latitude Portables: unit with nice color Dell logo on screen. THINKPAD951003 - color / IBM Aims New ThinkPads At Desktop Market: shot of the 760CD unit, with flowers on screen and cd tray open. --------------------------------------------------------------- - PARTIAL LISTING OF PREVIOUS ITEMS - FUJITSU950914 - color / Fujitsu Develops New Display Panel: the large lcd panel with model. VCON950922 - color / VCON Intros Desktop Videoconferencing For LANs: woman at desk with desktop videoconferencing. DITOEASY950925 - color / Iomega's $150 800MB Tape Backup Drive: the unit on a tabletop with pen for scale. SKYTEL950926 - color / Microsoft/Skytel Offer 2-way Paging Via Microsoft Network: the unit on limbo tabletop. ZENOGRAPHICS950928 - color / Zenographics' SuperPrint 4.0 Speeds Win 95 Printing: shot of the software package. MACROMEDIA950928 - color / Macromedia Upgrades FreeHand For Macs: shot of the box. TRIMBLE950925 - color / Trimble Wins Japanese Anti-Earthquake Network Order: nice shot of surveyor and Golden Gate Bridge in SF. AMDAHL950915 - b&w / Amdahl To Acquire Canada's DMR Group: head shot of Amdahl's president and chief executive officer (CEO), Joseph Zemke. MS_BOB950919 - color / What Ever Happened To Microsoft Bob?: the Bob logo, smiley face with glasses. MS_PROJ950919 - color / Microsoft Project For Windows 95 To Ship Next Week: shot of package graphics. GAZETTEER950920 - color / Global Post Code & Demographic Info On The Web: screenshot of home page. D3SEA950922 - color / Video Update: photo of Panasonic D3 camcorder used by Scuba Diver for underwater photography. Actual shot of camera in action, diver is Capt. Steve Hogan, president of Sea Eagle Productions, Maui, Hawaai. APTIVA950912 - color / IBM Updates Aptiva PC Line: the PC with logo onscreen. GATEHOUSE950913 - color / Tour Bill Gates' Showplace Home Via The Internet: shot of house under construction. MEDIAKIDS950908 - color / Apple Japan Holds MediaKids Summer Camp: screen shot of kids homepage, with lots of kanji. ENIAC950912 - b&w / ENIAC 50th Anniversary Set For 1996: great archive photo of the original ENIAC room. PRESARIO950915 - color / Compaq Intros New Home PCs, Fall Ad Campaign: the Presario 9500, tower not seen, just keyboard & monitor on tabletop. CYRIX_M1950906 - color / M1 Fastest Chip For Windows 95, Says Cyrix: the M1 chip with Cyrix logo on it. VINEYARDS950906 - color / Virtual Vineyards' CyberCash Credit Card Security: shot of Peter Granoff and Robert Olson, principal founders with a table of wine before them. Photo credit: Anne Hamersky. TLKALONG950901 - b&w / US West Offers Do-It-Yourself Cell Phone Activation: cell phone and packaging on a limbo background. ABCGRAPH950901 - color / Micrografx Graphics Suite For Windows 95: see NewsPix ABCGRAPH950717. GROLIERGOLF950906 - color / Grolier's Greg Norman Golf Simulation: screenshot of golf scenario. COGNOS950829 - color / Cognos On World Wide Web: site graphics. INTERART950828 - color / 3-D Real Estate & Hotel Walkabouts On The Web: the food page with salsa ad, looks good! NEC950831 - color / NEC Develops "Snake-Like" Robot: shot of the snake with camera dome at head. KIDS950829 - color / Novell Intros Perfectworks For Kids: screen shot of the 'Me by Me' page. MEDIAMALL950828 - color / Media Mall Offers Online Multimedia Info: screen graphics/logo. CASHGRAF950830 - color / CashGraf Gets New Name, Intros 2 Acct Packages: screen shot of the main menu. RADSHACK950814 - b&w / Radio Shack Gets New Image: before and after arrangement of Radio Shack ads. LTE5000950821 - color / Compaq Intros Modular Notebook PC 08: the notebook PC in action, associates at work on site using computer. TOUCH950822 - color / Touch Technology Moves Off The Display Screen: the Tanisys keyboard on neutral background. PAGEMAKR950823 - color / Adobe Ships Pagemaker 6.0 For Mac: shot of the software package. HARLEM950822 - color / Prodigy Offers Harlem Inner-City Area Online: welcome & home page. (Newsbytes/19951009) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 10/10/95 CHIPS New Motorola Chip Boosts Audio Performance (NEWS)(CHIPS)(DEN)(00016) New Motorola Chip Boosts Audio Performance 10/10/95 AUSTIN, TEXAS, U.S.A., 1995 OCT 10 (NB) -- Motorola Inc. (NYSE:MOT) has announced a new 24-bit digital signal processor (DSP) chip the company said will enable audio application developers to offer more features at a lower cost in products like audio/video receivers, digital video disks (DVD), and digital high-definition (HDTV) and standard-definition (SDTV) television. The DSP56009 chip with its 10 kilobyte (KB) words on-chip program ROM (read-only memory), 8.75KB words on-chip data RAM (random access memory) and a clock speed of 80 megahertz (MHz) is able to run Dolby AC-3 Surround Sound and Dolby Pro Logic algorithms as well as Digital Theater Systems' Coherent Acoustic algorithms without the need for external memory. According to Motorola the new chip is the pathway for those sophisticated audio algorithms to enter the consumer market in automotive entertainment systems, home theater equipment, set-top boxes and amplifiers. The company said the chip will be the first part in the industry to support all DVD audio formats as well as HDTV standards. Applications are already in the works, said Motorola. B&K Components will reportedly use the chip in its new DSP-based home theater audio/video control systems, while Harman Kardon plans to use it in its new Citation 7.5 controller which supports AC-3-formatted laser disks. Krell Industries said it plans to use the DSP56009 along with other DSPs in its audio/video standard for the home theater environments. The new chip expands Motorola's DSP Symphony family to a selection of three digital audio signal processing options. It's a pin and function-compatible derivative of the DSP56004 introduced in 1992 for the automotive and consumer audio markets as well as the DSP56007 designed for consumer and professional audio/video applications. Other features include: the digital audio peripherals available on the earlier Symphony chips like a serial host interface for communication with microcontrollers; an external memory interface for communication with SRAMs (static random access memory) and DRAMs (dynamic random access memory) which hold stored audio; and a serial audio interface for simple interface with analog-to-digital and digital-to-analog converters. The big difference between earlier Symphony chips and the 56009 is its large on-chip memory. That lets it run a wide variety of complex algorithms at full speed without the delays associated with fetching sections of external code. Additionally, up to 2.25KB of data RAM can be switched to program RAM to allow users to download their own algorithms in addition to those already on the chip. Motorola said an on-chip phase-lock loop allows an internal clock frequency of up to 80MHz to be generated from a low-frequency external clock oscillator that reduces electromagnetic interference. Access to all internal registers and memory and external memory during debugging is provided through an on-chip emulation port. Motorola will introduce three versions of the DSP56009 in the first quarter of 1996. The company has already started sampling customers for the first version, which will support Dolby AC-3 and Dolby Pro Logic. The second version will support DTS and Pro Logic. Both will be available to Dolby and DTS licensees. The chip will also be available without Dolby or DTS algorithms for customers who want to develop their own hardware. (Jim Mallory/19951010/Press contact: Michael Healey, Cunningham Communication for Motorola, 408-764-0785; Public contact: Motorola, 800-441-2447) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 10/10/95 GENERAL Canadian Product Launch Update (NEWS)(GENERAL)(TOR)(00017) Canadian Product Launch Update 10/10/95 KINGSTON, ONTARIO, CANADA 1995 OCT 10 (NB) -- This regular feature, appearing on the first day Newsbytes publishes each week, provides further details for the Canadian market on announcements by international companies that Newsbytes has already covered. This week: Compaq's new ProLineas, IBM's latest ThinkPad, several Notes-related announcements from Lotus, 3Com's Impact digital modem, and Wollongong's Emissary software for the Internet. Compaq Canada Inc., headquartered in Richmond Hill, Ontario, launched the ProLinea "e" series personal computers (Newsbytes, Oct. 3). The six Pentium-based models are available in volume right away, Compaq Canada said, with list prices ranging from C$2,159 to C$3,299. Markham, Ontario-based IBM Canada Ltd. introduced the ThinkPad 760C and 760CD notebook computers (Newsbytes, Oct. 3). Both come with a 12.1-inch color screen. There are two models of each, available through IBM Direct for prices from C$7,799 to C$10,999. Dealer prices may vary. Lotus Development Canada Ltd. followed the lead of its US parent with several announcements related to its Notes work-group development system and its cc:Mail electronic-mail software. On the cc:Mail front, Toronto-based Lotus Canada announced cc:Mail for the World Wide Web (Newsbytes, Sept. 27 & 28), which provides Internet access to e-mail. It is to be available in Canada before the end of the year, and pricing will be announced later, Lotus Canada said. On the Notes side, Lotus Canada unveiled NotesPump 1.0 and InterNotes Web Publisher 2.0, and previewed Notes Release 4.0 (Newsbytes, Sept. 27). NotesPump is to be available in Canada by the end of October with a suggested retail price of C$9,499, and InterNotes by the end of November with a suggested retail price of C$8,915. Notes 4.0 is due to ship by year-end, and Lotus Canada has not announced pricing yet. 3Com Canada Inc., of Toronto, said its Impact digital modem (Newsbytes, Sept. 8) is now available in Canada. The modem uses integrated services digital network (ISDN) lines to provide communications speeds up to 128 kilobits-per-second. 3Com gave only a US list price, US$649. A version with Multilink Point-to-Point Protocol (PPP) is available for US$749, and an upgrade to this version is US$129. Wollongong Canada, located in Waterloo, Ontario, said it is now shipping its Emissary software for Internet access in two versions: Emissary Office Edition and Emissary Desktop Edition (Newsbytes, Oct. 4). Retail prices are C$210 for Desktop Edition and C$560 for Office Edition, with promotional prices of C$140 and C$490 respectively available until the end of October, Wollongong said. Wollongong Canada is on the World Wide Web at http://www.twg.on.ca. (Grant Buckler/19951010/Press Contact: John Challinor II, Compaq Canada, 416-229-8936, fax 416-229-8898; Kevin McKee, IBM Canada, 905-316-3902; Marsha Connor, Lotus Canada, 416-364-8000, fax 416-364-1547; Sheldon Rose, The Communications Group for 3Com Canada, 416-696-9900, fax 416-696-9897, Internet e-mail tcg@inforamp.net; Heather Scott, The Communications Group for Wollongong Canada, 416-696-9900 ext. 26, fax 416-696-9897, Internet e-mail tcg@inforamp.net; Public Contact: Compaq Canada, 905-707-1715; Lotus Canada, 416-364-8000 or 800-346-1305; 3Com Canada, 416-498-3266, fax 416-498-1262; Wollongong Canada, 519-747-9900, fax 519-747-9902) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 10/10/95 ONLINE Photo Essays On The Web (NEWS)(ONLINE)(MSP)(00018) Photo Essays On The Web 10/10/95 NEW YORK CITY, NEW YORK, U.S.A., 1995 OCT 10 (NB) -- The Internet's World Wide Web provides all kinds of information -- from stock quotes, to information about various companies, to watching nuns learn the martial arts. The nuns, along with other "unique" picture stories, come from a new part of the Black Star Publishing Co. Web site. The new area is called "Black Star Photo Stories," and it highlights some of the many pictures it has available from its worldwide network of 350 photographers. John P. Chapnick, executive vice president of Black Star, told Newsbytes that while other parts of the Web site are designed to give information about his company, the Photo Stories area is a "resource for the photo professional." The main part of the Photo Stories section consists of "photo essays," a mix of photos and text that let the user in on some uncommon parts of our world. For example, New York City's East Harlem Order of Fraternite Notre Dame nuns are shown learning Tae Kwon Do for recreation and exercise, in "Black Belts and Blessings." Other "corners of the world" shown to Web surfers include: "Kids and Guns," which documents children carrying firearms in New Orleans; "Dolphin Teacher," where a child therapy program at the Dolphin Research Center in Florida helps a child with Downs Syndrome; and the hand-building of a $60,000 Steinway grand piano in "The Steinway Factory." "These photos are useful to any photo professional, whether it's a photographer or someone buying photography," Chapnick said, "or a magazine editor, because a lot of magazines call and buy these stories." When Newsbytes surfed to the site and clicked on the "Black Belts and Blessings" area, an intriguing mix of small photos and text. Because the photos were so small, the page loaded quickly. Individual pictures could then be clicked to bring up a larger version of the same photo, with an accompanying caption. Other features of the Photo Stories section include a hotlink page to other Web resources, and a how-to section on hiring photographers for assignments. Black Star's Web site is located at http://www.blackstar.com . (Bob Woods/19951010/Press Contact: John P. Chapnick, Black Star Publishing, 212-679-3288/BLACK951010/PHOTO) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 10/10/95 GENERAL Lingo Plans Executive Viewer For "Fiscal" Database Tool (NEWS)(GENERAL)(BOS)(00019) Lingo Plans Executive Viewer For "Fiscal" Database Tool 10/10/95 BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS, U.S.A., 1995 OCT 10 (NB) -- Lingo Computer Design Inc., makers of the Fiscal multidimensional ad hoc query and reporting tool for corporate data warehouses, plans to unveil a new executive front end, codenamed "dashboard viewer," within the coming month, disclosed John Chookolingo, company president, in a meeting with Newsbytes on a Boston press tour. Lingo's new "dashboard viewer," he reported, will run on Windows, Windows 95, Macintosh, and Motif, sitting on top of Fiscal, a product designed to give a "multidimensional query effect" to relational database management systems (RDBMS). Lingo's Fiscal product currently works with the Oracle, Sybase, and Informix databases. But Lingo also anticipates adding operability with other RDBMS, and IBM's DB2 is a strong possibility, he noted. Although Fiscal is often referred to as an executive information system (EIS), the tool is actually employed mainly by business analysts, who use it to perform multidimensional data mining, entering "plain English" queries to data warehouses built around RDBMS, and subsequently reporting their findings to senior level corporate executives, according to Chookolingo. Analysts also use a modeling tool from Lingo that is designed to let them capture corporate "business processes" in software. The modeling tool produces "meta data" for use with Fiscal, but at "a higher level of abstraction" than other products in this category, the CEO noted. Where most companies characterize "meta data" as "data about the data," Lingo prefers to use the description, "data about the business." In a demo of the current edition of the Fiscal viewer, Chookolingo showed Newsbytes how the product can be used to "drill down" through corporate data, with results presented in spreadsheet tables. "You can take a spot that isn't doing well, for example, and break it out by (dimensions such as) geographic regions, performance (measures), product line, and `time,'" Newsbytes was told. Organizations can define these criteria differently. A telecommunications company, for example, might use "hour" as the unit of time, whereas a company in another industry might describe "time" as a day, a month, or a year. Fiscal also displays business data in chart form, said Chookolingo, following up this observation by instantly creating some pie and bar charts. Lingo's forthcoming "dashboard viewer" will provide even greater ease of use, allowing senior executives to conduct multidimensional data mining directly, without relying on analysts as "intermediaries," the company president divulged. But Lingo plans to continue producing Fiscal and the business modeling tool for use by analysts, he added. Direct database feedback to executives is an important element in Lingo's "top down" approach to data warehousing, Newsbytes was told. While data warehousing is often thought of as a single entity, organizations really have different motives, he added. An organization might decide to build data warehouses out of an interest in moving off of mainframes, consolidating huge volumes of diverse data, or making information from legacy OLTP (online transaction processing) databases, written in older languages like RPG and Cobol, available to end users today. Lingo's products have no "direct competitors," he maintained. Planning Sciences Inc.'s Gentium provides some similar functionality, but Gentium uses its own built-in "proprietary" database, instead of widely used RDBMS like Oracle, Sybase, and Informix. Other products also overlap Lingo, but only on certain capabilities. The major reason why Lingo might decide to pursue DB2 as another data source for Fiscal is related to DB2's popularity in the AS/400 market, particularly among manufacturing firms in the Midwest, according to the company chief. Manufacturing is a major market for Lingo, in addition to telecommunications, he noted. Lingo's Fiscal viewer is currently priced at $85,000 for a 25-user license. A toolkit providing a 100-user license, plus the business modeling tool, is priced in the $100,000 range. "But the payback time is short. And we expect these prices to come down," Chookolingo told Newsbytes. (Jacqueline Emigh/19951009/Reader Contact: Lingo Computer Design Inc., 416-593-5334; Michael R. Becce, MRB Public Relations for Lingo, 908-249-3189) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 10/10/95 SUPERCOMPUTER Silicon Graphics Has Most Supercomputer Sites (NEWS)(SUPERCOMPUTER)(LAX)(00020) Silicon Graphics Has Most Supercomputer Sites 10/10/95 MOUNTAIN VIEW, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1995 OCT 10 (NB) -- The latest Top 500 Report shows Silicon Graphics' worldwide supercomputer installations eclipse those of Cray Research, IBM, Intel, Thinking Machines, and Digital Equipment. With 128 of the top 500 worldwide installations worldwide in 1994, Silicon Graphics topped Cray's 125 installations. The report, by Innovative Computer Laboratory(ICL), annually ranks the world's highest performance supercomputing installations. ICL was established by professors Jack Dongarra, University of Tennessee and Oak Ridge National Laboratory, and Hans W. Meuer and Erich Strohmaier of the University of Mannheim. Of the top 500 sites listed, Silicon Graphics led for the first time with 128, followed by Cray with 125, IBM with 72, Intel with 47, TMC with 37, Fujitzu with 36, NEC with 19, KSR with 10, and "others" with 26 According to the report, Silicon Graphics took the lead because of its 54 in new computer installations in the last year. Just three years ago, Cray had 200 of the top 500 sites, with Silicon Graphics none. Last year Cray had 146 to Silicon Graphics 72. Bob Murphy, product manager for Silicon Graphics' Power Challenge supercomputer, told Newsbytes, "These numbers show the tremendous growth in supercomputer market share for Silicon Graphics. We have taken the lead in the number of sites, but it must be mentioned that we are still not near the top in terms of size or power of the individual units. "Our rapid market share growth can be attributed to our powerful and affordable high-performance symmetric multiprocessing systems. Research firms, such as International Data Corporation (IDC), have noted that Silicon Graphics has captured more than one-third of the 1994 midrange, high-performance computing market. IDC reported that Silicon Graphics has approximately twice the midrange, high- performance computing market share of its nearest competitor," said Murphy. "We are impressed with the results of all of these market studies because they confirm that our strategy of deployable supercomputing is on target," said Willy Shih, director of marketing for Silicon Graphics' Computer Systems Group. "Less than two years ago, Silicon Graphics practically came from nowhere in this market to seize the sweet spot of the supercomputing sector. We are pleased with the results, and we greatly appreciate our customers' endorsement of our strategies, our technologies and our products." Silicon Graphics supercomputing systems are deployed by research and development laboratories and corporations around the world. Installations include the National Center of Supercomputing Applications (NCSA) at the University of Illinois, BMW, Bristol Meyers Squibb, Chevron, Glaxo Welcome, Texaco, NASA, Ford, Schlumberger, the University of Maryland, and the University of Delaware. (Richard Bowers/19951010/Press Contact: Ginny Babbitt, Silicon Graphics, 415-390-2527) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 10/10/95 BUSINESS ****Caere To Acquire ViewStar (NEWS)(BUSINESS)(SFO)(00021) ****Caere To Acquire ViewStar 10/10/95 LOS GATOS, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1995 OCT 10 (NB) -- Building on last year's merger with Calera, Caere, a leader in optical character recognition (OCR) technology, has announced an agreement to merge with ViewStar, a developer of workflow, document, and image management software. The $40 million merger will take Caere technology into the high-end client/server and minicomputer/mainframe environments. #IMAGE 1 20 TWPCX \images\95101021.PCX Click here for photo Under the agreement, Caere will exchange approximately 3,437,000 shares of common stock and options for all common stock, preferred stock and vested options of ViewStar. Caere additionally agrees to assume "certain ViewStar debts and obligations" valued at approximately $4.5 million. For accounting and financial purposes, the agreement is considered a pooling of interests. Subject to federal review, Caere and ViewStar expect to conclude the arrangement in the last calendar quarter of 1995. Known for its mission-critical, line-of-business process software, ViewStar products cover workflow automation, document image processing and information management. Its software system supports Windows NT and Unix platforms, Oracle 7, Microsoft SQL Server and Sybase System 10 databases. Netware, NT and Banyan file services are also supported. It products are sold into a wide spectrum of businesses including insurance, transportation, health care, financial services, oil and gas, utilities and transportation. Texaco, Aetna, and the Texas Commerce Bank are among its more than 200 customers. "We have concentrated on the desktop environment with our OCR products," said Dean Hovey, vice president of business development for Caere. "As we have entered the client/server workforce, we have seen the need for technology solutions which will allow us to quickly and easily expand in the client/server environment and the larger enterprise environment of minicomputers and mainframes. ViewStar provides us with the experience and technology we need to take that step." On the other side, ViewStar, a privately-held company, will now have the strong financial backing of a well-known public company. Commenting on such value, Hovey said, "When a CFO (chief financial officer) looks at a business relationship with a privately-held company, he or she may have questions about resting a company's financial future on a particular contract. With the strength of Caere as a publicly-held corporation, ViewStar can be seen as a company with strong financial backing and stability." Upon completion of the federal review process, ViewStar will operate as a subsidiary of Caere using the ViewStar name. The wholly-owned subsidiary will continue to operate out of its Alameda, California, headquarters with existing management and personnel. Combined 1994 revenues of ViewStar and Caere total $81.6 million. For the first six months of 1995, the combined revenues are $35.3 million. "If you double the 1995 combined revenues, it would appear we are $10 million below last year. This is not at all the case," said Ed MacBeth, Caere's manager of business development. "There is a seasonality for big ticket items for the Fortune 500 companies. Typically, these solutions are completed in the third and fourth quarters," he explained. (Patrick McKenna/19951010/Press Contact: Patrick Crisp, Caere, 408-395-7000/CAERE951010/PHOTO) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 10/10/95 TRENDS ****Semiconductor Book-To-Bill Ratio Drops Again (NEWS)(TRENDS)(LAX)(00022) ****Semiconductor Book-To-Bill Ratio Drops Again 10/10/95 SAN JOSE, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1995 OCT 10 (NB) -- According to Price Waterhouse's World Semiconductor Trade Statistics (WSTS), the 1.11 seasonally adjusted North American book-to-bill ratio showed another drop in September, from the all-time high of 1.22 in July, and a revised 1.17 in August. The book-to-bill ratio indicates that for every $100 worth of products shipped (billed), manufacturers received $111 of new orders (bookings). The ratio is computed by a three-month moving average, and seasonally adjusted. A ratio over 1.00 indicates that orders are higher than products that have been shipped, and is considered "bullish" for the semiconductor industry. The semiconductor industry has recorded book-to-bill ratios exceeding 1.10 every month this year. The last time the ratio dipped below 1.10 was the 1.07 mark for December, 1994. According to the Semiconductor Industry Association, historically, the ratio has remained flat or declined six out of the last nine years. During that period, the ratio dipped four times, remained unchanged twice, and increased three times. Chris Jones, the editor of "The IN-Stat Electronics Report," told Newsbytes, "The WSTS book-to-bill ratio is the semiconductor industry bellweather stat. The positive trend in the book-to-bill ratio can drive a lot of investment into the industry. We think however that sometimes too much attention is paid to this one statistic. The two-month drop, when put into perspective, could still be very positive." "We at In-Stat, when looking at the worldwide numbers, feel that we are probably seeing a return to the 'traditional' summer slowdown. The summer slowdown was a regular part of the semiconductor cycle until a couple of years ago. Before we read too much into what have been very strong numbers, we should not discount the summer slowdown," pointed out Jones. According to the World Semiconductor Trade Statistics, seasonally adjusted billings in the North America market increased to a new high of $4.06 billion. The September figure is 40.1 percent higher than the September, 1994, total of $2.89 billion. This number represents a 3.2 percent increase over the August mark of $3.93 billion. Seasonally adjusted bookings were up 44.2 percent from $3.11 billion in September, 1994, but down 2.1 percent from the $4.58 billion recorded in August. The September figure was $4.49 billion. WSTS projects that the $33.5 billion North America market will grow 34.0 percent to $44.9 billion at the end of this year. WSTS also predicted that the $101.8 billion global semiconductor market will increase 39.7 percent to $142.3 billion in 1995. The previous twelve months ratio has tracked: September 1994 - 1.08; October 1994 - 1.04; November 1994 - 1.05; December 1994 - 1.07; January 1995 - 1.12; February 1995 - 1.11; March 1995 - 1.15; April 1995 - 1.17; May 1995 - 1.20; June 1995 - 1.18 ; July 1995 - 1.23; AUG 1995 - 1.17 (Revised); September 1995 - 1.11 (Preliminary). (Richard Bowers/19950811/Press Contact: Kevin Brett, SIA, 408-246-2711) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 10/10/95 ONLINE Visa Intros Remote Banking Software (NEWS)(ONLINE)(MSP)(00023) Visa Intros Remote Banking Software 10/10/95 HERNDON, VIRGINIA, U.S.A., 1995 OCT 10 (NB) -- Visa International's "Visa Interactive" subsidiary is releasing remote-banking software for its member institutions to brand and market PC-based financial services to the institutions' customers. The Windows-based program utilized familiar graphics, like checks and registers, along with pull-down menus, officials said. The bank customer can pay bills, track and reconcile account activities, transfer funds, and verify account balances. The program also exchanges data with other personal-finance programs, including Quicken and Managing Your Money. Each bank will name its version of the software, as well as how it should be designed and delivered to the customer, Visa officials said. "There is a growing segment of customers who appreciate the ability to do their banking remotely," Greg Jones of Visa told Newsbytes. "That doesn't necessarily mean (bank) branches will be obsolete in 10 or 20 years. But what it does allow is another access option for customers who may find it more convenient to bank from their homes." A number of ways already exist to connect customers with institutions when it comes to remote banking, Jones said, including through a normal telephone and a screen telephone -- technologies which Visa already supports. "Now we want to give member financial institutions a number of options for them to give to their customers. We don't believe there is currently just one way for people to do their banking activities remotely." Minimum requirements for the software on the bank customer's PC is an IBM compatible 386 or higher, four megabytes (MB) of memory, 10MB free on a hard drive, MS-DOS 5.0, Windows 3.1 or higher, a VGA monitor, a mouse, and a Hayes-compatible modem with speeds no lower than 1,200 bits-per-second. Already on board are the Deposit Guaranty National Bank of Jackson, Mississippi, and Zions First National Bank of Salt Lake City, Utah. Other banks, both domestic and abroad, are expected to roll out their own branded software in late 1995 and early 1996. The banks will generally pass on the costs of the software to the customer, Jones said. For example, Deposit Guaranty is offering its "GuarantyConnect" brand software at $29.95 retail, with a monthly fee of $9.95. But for a limited time, Deposit Guaranty is waiving the $29.95 charge. The software also comes with a 90 day money-back guarantee. Visa offers an Internet World Wide presence at http://www.visa.com . (Bob Woods/19951010/Press Contacts: Greg Jones, Visa, 415-432-2753; Pam Kloha, Deposit Guaranty National Bank, 601-968-4759; Bill Hall, Zions First National Bank, 801-524-4637) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 10/10/95 IBM RS/6000 Announcements Emphasize Packaging, Connectivity (NEWS)(IBM)(TOR)(00024) RS/6000 Announcements Emphasize Packaging, Connectivity 10/10/95 SOMERS, NEW YORK, U.S.A., 1995 OCT 10 (NB) -- RISC System/6000 announcements that IBM (NYSE:IBM) made today as part of an omnibus server unveiling emphasize connectivity features and hardware-software packages to address specific customers' needs. IBM announced two RS/6000 packages: an Internet system that bundles either IBM's or Netscape's World Wide Web browser software with RS/6000 hardware, and the AIX Connections package, designed to make RS/6000 systems work easily as servers for networks of personal computers. Irving Wladawsky-Berger, general manager of the RS/6000 division, said in a press teleconference that these are the first of "what will be an ongoing series of packaged solutions." The RS/6000 Internet package will be offered with a choice of Netscape's browser or IBM's new Internet Connection Server. Acknowledging that the Netscape software "is out in the marketplace with quite a strong market share," Wladawsky-Berger said he could not give a concrete answer to a question about how the new IBM software will differentiate itself. IBM also said AIX 4.1.4, the latest release of its variant of the Unix operating system, adds various new connectivity options to make it easier to connect other systems to the RS/6000. The company also announced a "grab-bag" of connectivity hardware, including a new Fiber Channel adapter and switch, a High Performance Parallel Interface Driver, adapters for asynchronous transfer mode (ATM), Ethernet, and IBM's ESCON channels, and a coprocessor designed to let an RS/6000 act as a communications server between a wide area network and a mainframe. Wladawsky-Berger said a common theme in all IBM's server announcements today, including the RS/6000 moves, was the idea of packaging software to make it easier to install. IBM also unveiled a new RS/6000 model, the $9,995 Model E20. Aimed at departmental applications and using the Peripheral Component Interconnect (PCI) and Industry Standard Architecture (ISA) system buses, the E20 will have eight expansion slots, eight bays for storage devices, a quad-speed CD-ROM drive, a one-gigabyte (GB) magnetic hard disk, and from 16 to 512 megabytes (MB) of memory. IBM also added a version of its GXT1000 graphics accelerator for the PCI bus. During the press conference, Wladawsky-Berger noted that while IBM is trying to use the same technology in different server product lines wherever possible, the company has no plans to merge its four server lines -- PC Servers, RS/6000, AS/400, and System/390 mainframes -- into one. "The market continues to value" the different strengths of different servers, he said. "If the market changes, then we will change." IBM's Server Group also announced new hardware and software in its PC Server, AS/400, and System/390 lines. Newsbytes reported some details of the announcements on Friday, and additional coverage is appearing today and tomorrow. (Grant Buckler/19951010/Press Contact: Liz Arends, IBM Server Group, 914-766-4256, Internet e-mail earends@vnet.ibm.com) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 10/10/95 BUSINESS ****Mentor & Microtec To Merge (NEWS)(BUSINESS)(LAX)(00025) ****Mentor & Microtec To Merge 10/10/95 SAN JOSE, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1995 OCT 10 (NB) --Mentor Graphics Corporation (NASDAQ: MENT), and Microtec Research Inc. (NASDAQ: MTEC) have agreed to merge in a stock swap valued at $130 million. Microtec Research is a supplier of software products for the development of embedded systems, and Mentor Graphics primarily designs, manufactures, markets and distributes electronic design automation (EDA) software. Under the terms of the merger agreement, each outstanding share of Microtec Research common stock will be converted into approximately 0.693 shares of Mentor Graphics common stock. The closing price of Mentor Graphics' common stock on October 6, 1995, as quoted on the NASDAQ National Market System, was $20.125 per share. The total value of the transaction is estimated to be approximately $130 million. The merger is subject to conditions, including receipt of "certain regulatory approvals" and approval by the stockholders of Microtec Research, and is expected to close by year end. Jennifer Guimond, a spokesperson for Mentor, told Newsbytes, "Microtec Research will operate as a new business unit within Mentor Graphics. Microtec has 350 employees, and they will report to Mentor's Hardware Software Systems Division. Both companies marketing programs will be integrated at the executive level." "The design, integration, and test of embedded software is quickly becoming the dominant factor in the development cost, time-to-market, and value proposition of electronic systems, whether they are implemented as printed circuit boards or single chips," said Walden C. Rhines, Mentor Graphics' president. "These issues cannot be addressed adequately without reaching outside of the confines of the traditional EDA industry." He added: "We have, in effect, defined a new company, dedicated to providing solutions that avoid the sub-optimization of disjoint hardware and software design flows prevalent today. "We will accelerate our investment in the technologies and products that are important to Microtec Research's customers," Rhines said. "Combining the companies will allow Microtec Research to achieve its strategic technology goals sooner than if they had remained independent." "Mentor Graphics was the best company to get us to the point where we could meet customers' requirements for next-generation design methodologies," said Jerry Kirk, Microtec Research president. "Mentor Graphics offers increased financial strength which will allow Microtec Research to pursue its strategic technology goals sooner than if we had remained independent." Microtec is headquartered in Santa Clara, California, with worldwide offices in London, Munich, Paris, Seoul, and Tokyo. Established in 1981, Mentor Graphics is headquartered in Wilsonville, Oregon. The company had revenues of $356,156,000 over the last reported 12 months. The company currently employs approximately 2,000 people worldwide. (Richard Bowers/19951010/Press Contact: Laura Barber, Mentor Graphics, 503-685-1809) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 10/10/95 ONLINE Open Market Web Site Launches Free "Internet Security" (NEWS)(ONLINE)(BOS)(00026) Open Market Web Site Launches Free "Internet Security" 10/10/95 CAMBRIDGE, MASSACHUSETTS, U.S.A., 1995 OCT 10 (NB) -- In a teleconference, Open Market launched a three-pronged attack on Internet "security breaches" that includes an online "security checker" for multivendor Web browsers belonging to end users, free upgrades from the Netscape Secure Server to the Open Market's Secure WebServer, and the giveaway of sample code to operators of "any extensible secure Web server." The trio of security remedies will all be available free of charge starting this week from the Open Market Web site at http://www.openmarket.com, officials reported during the teleconference, which was attended by Newsbytes. "Our entire business is based on people having trust in open networks," noted Shikhar Ghosh, Open Market's chief executive officer (CEO). "We'll make a significant investment, with the view that all of will suffer if (the public) loses trust." Consumers are only "gradually gaining some confidence" in the Internet, according to Ghosh. But recently, reports have surfaced of security problems with the Netscape Secure Server, and some Web sites using the Netscape product have been "saying they are going to go off the air." As a result, he added, Open Market is introducing a policy that allows licensed users of the Netscape Secure Server to download Open Market's Secure WebServer "at no cost." The other two planks in Open Market's new pro-security Web "resource center" are "informational," the journalists and analysts were told. Open Market will work with the makers of Web browsers to track information on "known problems" with browsers, including browser tampering. "We will (also) inform the (Web) software companies of problems," the CEO maintained. The Open Market Web site will perform a database look-up on the type of browser in use, and will then report back to the user on any security issues known to be associated with that kind of browser, elaborated Open Market's Win Treese. "One strength we have is that we don't have a browser. We are agnostic," Ghosh told the telephone audience. Open Market also performs "extensive testing" on Web browsers. "We do as many as several hundred versions of browsers coming in at any time. We definitely expect (to) unite the industry, rather than dividing the industry," he added. The sample code to be offered from the Open Market Web site will provide "underlying code" for "reference implementations on what are the major ways of handling the known (Internet security) problems," according to Ghosh. "To reiterate, security is one of those pillars on which the entire industry rests," contended the Open Market chief, to conclude the teleconference. (Jacqueline Emigh/19951010/Reader Contact: Open Market, 617-621-9500; Press Contacts: Wendy Ziner, Open Market, 617-374- 6508; Dawn Geary or Merrill Freund, Schwartz Communications for Open Market, 617-431-0770) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 10/10/95 BUSINESS ****Stac Electronics Acquires California Software (NEWS)(BUSINESS)(SFO)(00027) ****Stac Electronics Acquires California Software 10/10/95 SAN DIEGO, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1995 OCT 10 (NB) -- Well-known data compression specialist, Stac Electronics (NASDAQ:STAC) plans to develop a suite of Internet business applications as data compression becomes integrated into operating systems. In a move designed to "build an internal foundation for these new applications," Stac has announced the acquisition of California Software. Stac's interest in California Software centers around the company's flagship product, InterAp, and its underlying technology. The acquired company's strength in the electronic distribution channel and service alliance potential were also mentioned as positive factors in moving forward with the acquisition. Stac's vice president of business development, Robert Monsour, said, "What caught our eye was how InterAp's intelligent agents and OLE (object linking and embedding) 2-enabled applications really stand out against the competition." The deal calls for Stac to put up $9 million in cash and $1 million in its common stock. Additionally, Stac will make a $2 million investment in a new information investment services company built by the founder of California Software, Bill Baker. Stac also said it plans to shut down California Software's headquarters and bring the acquired technology in-house. There are no plans to transfer employees and control of the California Software name is still in discussion. With the announcement of Internet business applications, Stac sees its main competition as Netscape and Quarterdeck. The latter announced a full suite of Internet products last fall and began shipping the line this year. To differentiate itself from the competition, Stac's vice president of marketing, John Bromhead, told Newsbytes, "Our new line of Internet business products represent a form of computing we call 'Interprise Computing.' Successful enterprises are going to be those which communicate and deal with their customers through the Internet and at the same time open the Internet as a tool for their employees. Our suite of Internet applications will focus on both of these concepts." Stac is keeping quiet about specific product details. "We do not want to tell our competition of our plans, but I can say we plan to use InterAp technology to reduce the time it takes to find information. Right now, there are Internet services which help users find sites where they can search for information, but we want to develop tools which allow a user to find real information, not just a site where they have to do further searching," continued Bromhead. Now that Stac's compression technology is built into DOS and Windows 95, its Stacker program is no longer the hot property it was a few years ago. Revenues from its compression technology, however, register $1 million each month in royalties. That allows Stac to build the company in new directions, which include server replication software and the new Internet applications. Newsbytes learned California Software's technology received strong programming support from an Estonian group of 25 code experts with extensive experience in the Soviet Union's military defense, prior to the country's historic reorganization. A contractual relationship with the Estonian company shall continue as part of the acquisition. (Patrick McKenna/19951010/Press Contact: John Bromhead, Stac Electronics, 619-794-4311) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 10/10/95 NETWORK IBM Intros ATM, LAN Products For Campus Networking (NEWS)(NETWORK)(BOS)(00028) IBM Intros ATM, LAN Products For Campus Networking 10/10/95 WALTHAM, MASSACHUSETTS, U.S.A., 1995 OCT 10 (NB) -- "We believe that ATM (asynchronous transfer mode) is the only technology robust enough for campus-wide switched virtual networking," said IBM's Peter A. Chadwick, at a meeting with Newsbytes in Waltham, Massachusetts, about a slate of new networking products. The products incorporate 155 megabits-per-second (Mbps) ATM backbone hubbing, LAN (local area network) switches, ATM and LAN adapters, and network management, mobile networking and remote access products. IBM's ATM architecture continues to expand, from "the backbone to the desktop," added Chadwick, who is manager, hub brand management, in IBM's Networking Hardware Division. IBM's latest batch of networking products includes the ATM Fibermode I/O Card for IBM's 8260 Nways Multiprotocol Intelligent Switching Hub, 8260 Nways Hub, 8271 Ethernet LAN Switch, 8272 Nways Token Ring LAN Switch, and 155 Mbps and 25 Mbps ATM adapters. Also on IMB's list of new networking products are: PCI (Peripheral Component Interconnect) and ISA (Industry Standard Architecture) Ethernet and Token Ring adapters; ATM, Ethernet, Token Ring, and RMON (remote monitoring) network management packages for both AIX and HP-UX; ISDN (integrated services digital network) support for 8235 dial-in LAN access; and new enhancements to IBM's CDPD (cellular digital packetized data) and Ardis wireless modems, according to Chadwick. With the expanding scope of IBM's ATM product line, a new technology called "adaptive cut through switching," and increasingly lower pricing, IBM is "very well positioned" versus other vendors in the emerging market of switched virtual networking, the IBM exec told Newsbytes during the briefing. IBM's new 155 Mbps ATM card provides 155 Mbps ATM links of up to 12.4 miles, or 20 kilometers (km). The single-port card installs on the ATMFlex Module, a previously announced product for IBM's 8260 hub that is designed to accommodate two cards. ATMFlex supports either a pair of ATM Fiber Monomode I/O (input/output) cards, or a mix of Monomode Fiber and Multimode Fiber cards. The ATMFlex Module can also be used in conjunction with IBM's 100 Mbps ATM Concentration Modules in the same hub. The 3260 hub can be used with other 3260s across an ATM backbone, with the new 8271 or 8272 LAN switch, and with IBM's existing 8281 Nways ATM LAN Bridge, for ATM LAN bridging. The 3260 also works with the 8282 Nways ATM Concentrator and new 25 Mbps ATM adapters, for 25 Mbps ATM on the desktop, with the new 155 Mbps ATM desktop adapter cards, and with IBM's SP2 parallel processor computers, Newsbytes was told. "Switching is to shared LANs as the private line was to the party line," Chadwick remarked. LAN switching, he pointed out, provides benefits that include support for virtual LANs. Chadwick added that IBM's new "adaptive cut through" technology, being introduced in IBM's new 8271 and 8272 LAN switches, is aimed at helping customers to migrate from the older technology of store-and-forward to the newer and faster method of "cut through" switching. "In `cut through' switching, the switch copies the destination address as soon as it's received," Chadwick noted. IBM's "adaptive cut through" capability allows administrators to set error thresholds for switching from "cut through," a technology still believed by some customers to be less reliable, to store-and-forward, he added. The new LAN switches can also be set in either "cut through-only" or "store-and-forward-only" mode. The new LAN switches also work with new universal feature cards (UFCs) that are intended to let the administrator "customize" the switches by adding capacity in speed and number of ports on an "as-needed" basis. The UFCs are being offered in versions for 155 Mbps ATM, Ethernet, Fast Ethernet, Token Ring, FDDI (fiber distributed data interface), and 100 VG. Models 108 of the 8271 and 8282 full-duplex LAN switches provide eight ports and one Universal Feature Slot (UFS). Models 216 of the two LAN switches, scheduled for availability in the first half of 1996, will offer 16 ports and two UFS. Meanwhile, he added, IBM has phased out its previous 8271 eight-port Ethernet switch, which did not include UFS. IBM's new network management packages support ATM, Token Ring, Ethernet on both SystemView for AIX and HP OpenView. In addition, RMON is supported on Windows as well as SystemView and OpenView, according to Chadwick. On the mobile networking and remote LAN access sides, IBM plans to add ISDN support to 8235 dial-in access to LANs during the fourth quarter of this year, Chadwick told Newsbytes. In addition, IBM's Cellular/CDPD and Ardis wireless modems have both been outfitted with much shorter cables to external battery connections. IBM has also added landline access to the public phone networks, as well as SLIP (serial line Internet protocol) support, to the Cellular/CDPD wireless modem. Analysts agreed that the extensiveness of IBM's product line-up puts the company in strong position within the ATM and switched virtual networking markets. "Up to now, most of the (campus network) switching that's been done has been performed by the smaller LAN vendors at the workgroup level. What's unique about IBM is its breadth," said Don Czubek, president of Gen2 Ventures, Saratoga, California. Mary Petrosky, a senior analyst for the Burton Group, Salt Lake City, Utah, maintained that 3Com and Cisco now boasts the widest switching product line-up, 3Com through its merger with Chipcom, and Cisco by incorporating switching in its routers. "But IBM has invested more money in ATM, and IBM also has all the pieces of the switching infrastructure," the analyst told Newsbytes. (Jacqueline Emigh/19951009/Reader Contact: IBM, 914-765-1900; Press Contacts: Pam Atkinson, IBM, 919-254-2121; Jayne Wilson, Brodeur & Partners for IBM, 617-622-2829) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 10/10/95 EDUCATION ****Clinton Plan Putting Computers In Schools (NEWS)(EDUCATION)(MSP)(00029) ****Clinton Plan Putting Computers In Schools 10/10/95 WASHINGTON, D.C., U.S.A., 1995 OCT 10 (NB) -- President Clinton has announced $9.5 million in funds to place technology in schools, which would connect them to the, so-called, "information superhighway." The federal government is kicking $9.5 million into the program, the first installment in a five-year commitment to the program. The awards are going to community partnerships, with matching commitments coming from the corporate sector to the tune of $7 million in the first year, and more than $300 million during the five-year span of the projects. The partners in the project are committing equipment, software development, technical support, and telecommunications services to the plan, officials said. Businesses, educational concerns, libraries, museums, the military, the states, and cities around the nation make up the partnership, which has 380 members. Some of the businesses in the partnership include Disney, Turner Broadcasting, and Time Warner. "The recipients of these challenge grants and their partners are committed to developing creative responses to the 'information age' requirements of all students, including those in inner cities and rural areas," President Clinton said. "These grants will support visionary educators, parents, business partners, and community leaders who are working to retool their schools for the future." Education Secretary Richard Riley held a news teleconference this morning, which Newsbytes attended, to explain the deal and why it will be good for students. Those involved in the partnership are reportedly "pleased" that the Clinton administration is "providing national leadership on the use of technology in education for all of America's children," Riley said. "For children to learn more, and to be prepared for the future, they simply have to be up to speed when it comes to technology, and that's where we need to make a push." But he added that that push needs to be "planned, focused, and directed," which is what the new partnership is about. Riley said the $9.5 million coming from the government is a small drop in the bucket in terms of what is spent on education in the US each year. But the private and public money together, along with the partnerships, will enable 134 school districts to have access to the technology, he added. Clinton administration officials said first-year support for these projects comes from both fiscal year 1995 and 1996 funds, with today's grants coming from fiscal year 1995. The president wants Congressional support to fully fund the grants at more than $85 million, with a request of $70 million for fiscal year 1996. The House recommended $25 million, while the Senate is considering funding of $15 million. (Bob Woods/19951010/Press Contact: Melinda Kitchell Malico, US Department of Education, 202-401-1008) (SUMMARY)(GENERAL)(MSP)(00030) Newsbytes Daily Summary 10/10/95 MINNEAPOLIS, MINNESOTA, U.S.A., 1995 OCT 10 (NB) -- These are capsules of all today's news stories: ======================================================================== ------------| N E W S B Y T E S D A I L Y S U M M A R Y |---------- ------------| Tuesday, October 10, 1995 |---------- ======================================================================== (c) Newsbytes News Network (Tm) Editor in Chief: Wendy Woods ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Newsbytes News Network's 1995 Update CD-ROM for Mac, DOS, and Windows is now available for $29.95 (includes s&h). Contains 1983-1995 news stories, more than 64,000 keyword searchable stories and 475 digitized images. For more information or to order, fax to 612-430-0441 or e-mail to 'administrator@newsbytes.com' -- MC, Visa, Amex accepted. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ CATEGORY HEADLINES (*** indicates today's top stories) STORY # ======================================================================== BROADCAST Motorola - TV & Data Are Separate Applications............. 09 BUSINESS ****Caere To Acquire ViewStar............................. 21 BUSINESS ****Mentor & Microtec To Merge............................ 25 BUSINESS ****Stac Electronics Acquires California Software......... 27 CHIPS New Motorola Chip Boosts Audio Performance................. 16 EDUCATION Clinton Plan Putting Computers In Schools.................. 29 GENERAL Japan Newsbriefs........................................... 08 GENERAL Exabyte Ships New 8mm Tape Backup System................... 13 GENERAL NewsPix Images For Newsbytes Publishers.................... 15 GENERAL Canadian Product Launch Update............................. 17 GENERAL Lingo Plans Executive Viewer For "Fiscal" Database Tool.... 19 IBM RS/6000 Announcements Emphasize Packaging, Connectivity.... 24 NETWORK IBM Intros ATM, LAN Products For Campus Networking......... 28 ONLINE Journal Register Newspapers To Go Online Via Interchange... 14 ONLINE Photo Essays On The Web.................................... 18 ONLINE Visa Intros Remote Banking Software........................ 23 ONLINE Open Market Web Site Launches Free "Internet Security...... 26 SUPERCOMP Silicon Graphics Has Most Supercomputer Sites.............. 20 TELECOM Japan - Int'l Telcos Cautious On Deregulation.............. 02 TELECOM NEC Executive Speaks On Current Japanese Market............ 03 TELECOM Fujitsu In Talks With Russia Over Future Network........... 04 TELECOM UK's GPT To Supply First Smart Card Phones To China........ 06 TELECOM Personal Handyphones Expand Into Asia...................... 07 TELECOM Japan - Govt Panel Urges NTT Break-Up...................... 10 TELECOM UK - Cheaper To Fax Than Mail Letters...................... 12 TRENDS Japan Telecom Shows Next-Generation Public Phone........... 01 TRENDS Correction - Technology Executives Conservative About Futur 05 TRENDS ****New TV Displays A Hit At Telecom 95 Expo.............. 11 TRENDS ****Semiconductor Book-To-Bill Ratio Drops Again.......... 22 ======================================================================== These are the headlines and first paragraphs of each story, in order: 1 -> Japan Telecom Shows Next-Generation Public Phone -- Japan Telecom used the Telecom 95 expo in Geneva to show a new, next-generation public payphone. The unit features videoconferencing, fax, and multimedia access in a single unit, the company's Toshifumi Nagamatsu told Newsbytes at the event. 2 -> Japan - Int'l Telcos Cautious On Deregulation -- Executives from Japan's two newest international telephone carriers told Newsbytes in Geneva that deregulation of the telephone market in Japan must be handled "carefully" and "cautiously," if the companies are to survive. 3 -> NEC Executive Speaks On Current Japanese Market -- Seijiro Yokoyama, senior executive vice president of Japan's NEC Corporation, says Japan is on the verge of a period of expanding growth in the telecoms sector as the country learns to adopt information technology. He talked to Newsbytes in a special interview at the Telecom 95 expo in Geneva last week. 4 -> Fujitsu In Talks With Russia Over Future Network -- Fujitsu's president, Tadashi Sekizawa, held talks with Russia's Minister of Posts and Telecommunications at the Telecom 95 expo in Geneva last Thursday over the possibility of the two working together to build a new national telecommunications network. 5 -> Correction - Technology Executives Conservative About Future -- In a story of this title which ran on the Newsbytes wire on October 5, Agenda '96 officers reported to Newsbytes that only 8 percent of survey respondents planned to be developing Macintosh software in 1996, compared to more than half today. Agenda '96 officers have issued a correction, saying that 65 percent plan to develop Macintosh software next year, not eight percent, an increase, not a decrease. 6 -> UK's GPT To Supply First Smart Card Phones To China -- Britain's GPT has signed agreements that will put 2,000 smart card payphones on the streets of Beijing and Guangdong in China. 7 -> Personal Handyphones Expand Into Asia -- Japan's PHS (personal handyphone system) is taking its first steps outside the country with the establishment of an Asian promotion group and the adoption of the system by Hong Kong, the first results of an effort by Japan to help the system become a regional, if not worldwide, system. 8 -> Japan Newsbriefs -- In this roundup of news from Japan: Japan Telecom allies with Bellcore, Fujitsu to begin Vietnam operations, FM paging faces deregulation, Canon to launch advanced camcorder in Europe, Foreign makers register jump in PC sales, Asahi Kasei establishes US company, Internet providers cut prices, JVC unveils Hi-Vision VCR, Nagoya Stock Exchange heads to the Internet. 9 -> Motorola - TV & Data Are Separate Applications -- While many companies are showing, or dreaming of, all-in-one set-top boxes that bring programs, data services, and the Internet to the television set at the Telecom 95 expo in Geneva this week, a senior executive at Motorola said such systems should remain separate. 10 -> Japan - Govt Panel Urges NTT Break-Up -- A research panel established at the Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications to investigate the advantages and disadvantages of a break-up of Nippon Telegraph and Telephone (NTT) has recommended the telecoms giant be broken up. 11 -> ****New TV Displays A Hit At Telecom 95 Expo -- Despite a proliferation of new delivery methods and technologies, SONET (synchronous optical network), ATM (asynchronous transfer mode), video-on-demand, and digital satellite broadcasting, what has been proving more of a hit with visitors to Telecom 95 in Geneva has been what we will be watching television on in the future, and not how it gets to our homes. 12 -> UK - Cheaper To Fax Than Mail Letters -- Equisys, a fax modem and connectivity specialist, claims that businesses would be better off faxing their post in the UK (to other UK addresses) than using the Royal Mail to post the letters. 13 -> Exabyte Ships New 8mm Tape Backup System -- Exabyte Corp. (NASDAQ: EXBT) has introduced a new eight millimeter (mm) tape backup system for local networks that is a complete tape drive kit including a CD-ROM drive, and can store up to 14 gigabytes (GB) of data in compressed form. 14 -> Journal Register Newspapers To Go Online Via Interchange -- Journal Register Co., a New Jersey-based publisher, has signed an agreement to put its New Haven Register, and possibly other newspapers, online through AT&T's (NYSE:T) Interchange service. 15 -> NewsPix Images For Newsbytes Publishers -- These photos correspond to recent Newsbytes stories. They are online in the Newsbytes menu on America Online, NiftyServe, and the Newsbytes private bulletin board system in Minneapolis. 16 -> New Motorola Chip Boosts Audio Performance -- Motorola Inc. (NYSE:MOT) has announced a new 24-bit digital signal processor (DSP) chip the company said will enable audio application developers to offer more features at a lower cost in products like audio/video receivers, digital video disks (DVD), and digital high-definition (HDTV) and standard-definition (SDTV) television. 17 -> Canadian Product Launch Update -- This regular feature, appearing on the first day Newsbytes publishes each week, provides further details for the Canadian market on announcements by international companies that Newsbytes has already covered. This week: Compaq's new ProLineas, IBM's latest ThinkPad, several Notes-related announcements from Lotus, 3Com's Impact digital modem, and Wollongong's Emissary software for the Internet. 18 -> Photo Essays On The Web -- The Internet's World Wide Web provides all kinds of information 19 -> Lingo Plans Executive Viewer For "Fiscal" Database Tool -- Lingo Computer Design Inc., makers of the Fiscal multidimensional ad hoc query and reporting tool for corporate data warehouses, plans to unveil a new executive front end, codenamed "dashboard viewer," within the coming month, disclosed John Chookolingo, company president, in a meeting with Newsbytes on a Boston press tour. 20 -> Silicon Graphics Has Most Supercomputer Sites -- The latest Top 500 Report shows Silicon Graphics' worldwide supercomputer installations eclipse those of Cray Research, IBM, Intel, Thinking Machines, and Digital Equipment. With 128 of the top 500 worldwide installations worldwide in 1994, Silicon Graphics topped Cray's 125 installations. 21 -> ****Caere To Acquire ViewStar -- Building on last year's merger with Calera, Caere, a leader in optical character recognition (OCR) technology, has announced an agreement to merge with ViewStar, a developer of workflow, document, and image management software. The $40 million merger will take Caere technology into the high-end client/server and minicomputer/mainframe environments. 22 -> ****Semiconductor Book-To-Bill Ratio Drops Again -- According to Price Waterhouse's World Semiconductor Trade Statistics (WSTS), the 1.11 seasonally adjusted North American book-to-bill ratio showed another drop in September, from the all-time high of 1.22 in July, and a revised 1.17 in August. The book-to-bill ratio indicates that for every $100 worth of products shipped (billed), manufacturers received $111 of new orders (bookings). 23 -> Visa Intros Remote Banking Software -- Visa International's "Visa Interactive" subsidiary is releasing remote-banking software for its member institutions to brand and market PC-based financial services to the institutions' customers. 24 -> RS/6000 Announcements Emphasize Packaging, Connectivity -- RISC System/6000 announcements that IBM (NYSE:IBM) made today as part of an omnibus server unveiling emphasize connectivity features and hardware-software packages to address specific customers' needs. 25 -> ****Mentor & Microtec To Merge --Mentor Graphics Corporation (NASDAQ: MENT), and Microtec Research Inc. (NASDAQ: MTEC) have agreed to merge in a stock swap valued at $130 million. Microtec Research is a supplier of software products for the development of embedded systems, and Mentor Graphics primarily designs, manufactures, markets and distributes electronic design automation (EDA) software. 26 -> Open Market Web Site Launches Free "Internet Security -- In a teleconference, Open Market launched a three-pronged attack on Internet "security breaches" that includes an online "security checker" for multivendor Web browsers belonging to end users, free upgrades from the Netscape Secure Server to the Open Market's Secure WebServer, and the giveaway of sample code to operators of "any extensible secure Web server." 27 -> ****Stac Electronics Acquires California Software -- Well-known data compression specialist, Stac Electronics (NASDAQ:STAC) plans to develop a suite of Internet business applications as data compression becomes integrated into operating systems. In a move designed to "build an internal foundation for these new applications," Stac has announced the acquisition of California Software. 28 -> IBM Intros ATM, LAN Products For Campus Networking -- "We believe that ATM (asynchronous transfer mode) is the only technology robust enough for campus-wide switched virtual networking," said IBM's Peter A. Chadwick, at a meeting with Newsbytes in Waltham, Massachusetts, about a slate of new networking products. The products incorporate 155 megabits-per-second (Mbps) ATM backbone hubbing, LAN (local area network) switches, ATM and LAN adapters, and network management, mobile networking and remote access products. 29 -> Clinton Plan Putting Computers In Schools -- President Clinton has announced $9.5 million in funds to place technology in schools, which would connect them to the, so-called, "information superhighway." The federal government is kicking $9.5 million into the program, the first installment in a five-year commitment to the program. The awards are going to community partnerships, with matching commitments coming from the corporate sector to the tune of $7 million in the first year, and more than $300 million during the five-year span of the projects. (Ian Stokell/19951010) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD Ê Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 10/05/95 ONLINE ****New Sponsor-Supported AIDS Web Site (NEWS)(ONLINE)(MSP)(00001) ****New Sponsor-Supported AIDS Web Site 10/05/95 NEW YORK CITY, NEW YORK, U.S.A., 1995 OCT 5 (NB) -- Information on AIDS presented as a "global community" is hitting the Internet's World Wide Web through a new sponsor-supported site. Called "The Body," the site is touted as a one-stop shop for reaching AIDS experts, organizations, and publications nationwide. The site will deal with medical, cultural, legal, and political aspects of the deadly disease, for which there is no known cure. Jamie Marks, founder of The Body, told Newsbytes the site will unite users in the fight against AIDS by networking people with AIDS, their loved ones, and caretakers, as well as health professionals and laypeople. "We think that AIDS touches the lives of most people today," he said. "There is a lot of useful information for people with HIV, who have medical, legal, and mental health questions." He said he wants to make the site as accessible as possible for all people. The site itself contains four main sections. A "Forum" area offers access to the Internet's best HIV/AIDS forums on Usenet. "Insight" is a comment area for professionals dealing with HIV/AIDS from the medical, legal, and mental health fields. The politics of HIV/AIDS is dealt with in "Political Action." And a list of groups whose information is carried by The Body is in an "Organizations to Join" area. Some of the groups providing content to The Body include the AIDS Action Council, People for the American Way, Lambda Legal Defense and Education fund, the Centers for Disease Control, and the American Psychiatric Association. Marks said the site itself is targeted to people whose lives are touched by AIDS/HIV, and "that group has an intense interest and a vital need to know (about AIDS/HIV), and will have what they're looking for." The site is advertiser supported, and Marks said sponsors have shown "tremendous interest" regarding The Body. Some of the industries that are being targeted for advertising monies include the financial services market and the pharmaceutical industry. Already, Escalon Opthalmics has signed on as a charter sponsor. Advertisers on the site will "address the needs and sensitivities of The Body's audience," officials said, and sponsors will not amend the content at the site. Marks said one of the site's goals is to demonstrate a "targeted resource like this one can sustain itself economically on the Internet," he said. The Body is located at http://www.thebody.com . (Bob Woods/19951004/Press Contacts: Michael Kaminer or Shelly Bates, Kaminer Public Relations, 212-627-8098) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 10/05/95 TRENDS UK - Sony's Battery-Powered Data/Audio Mini Disk System (NEWS)(TRENDS)(LON)(00002) UK - Sony's Battery-Powered Data/Audio Mini Disk System 10/05/95 WEYBRIDGE, SURREY, ENGLAND, 1995 OCT 5 (NB) -- Sony has unveiled the MD Data, a battery-power, portable mini-disk unit that can store up to 140 megabytes (MB) of data, as well as up to 60 minutes of audio. Pricing in at UKP499, the MD Data is aimed at portable PC users who need high capacity but removable storage devices that are extremely compact. The unit weighs just 340 grams and measures 86 by 30 by 131 millimeters, making it about the same size as a Walkman. By plugging in a pair of headphones and a remote control, the unit actually turns into a mini-disk Walkman. Neil Berville, sales and marketing manager with Sony Computer Peripherals, claims that the unit is unique in the marketplace and will change the way that notebook users store their data. "Just as the Walkman changed the way we listen to music, we anticipate that the portability and high capacity of the MD Data will change the way in which we store information on the move, similar to when Sony introduced the 3.5-inch floppy disk," he explained. Berville claims that the MD Data unit is the first truly portable high capacity removable storage system, and "is set to be become the floppy disk of the multimedia age." As supplied, the unit comes with headphones and remote control for audio use, as well as a lithium ion rechargeable battery, a case for dry batteries, one recordable disk, and DOS, Windows, and Apple Mac installation and driver software. Connection to the unit is via SCSI-2 (small computer system interface type 2) and PCMCIA (Personal Computer Memory Card International Association) connections. A parallel port from Shuttle Technologies is also available as an optional extra. (Steve Gold/1991004/Press Contact: Claire Walker, LJL, +44-1628-522222; Reader Contact: Sony Response, +44-181-760-0500/MDDATA19951005/PHOTO) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 10/05/95 TELECOM China - Hunan & Liaoning Expand Analog Cellular Nets (NEWS)(TELECOM)(LON)(00003) China - Hunan & Liaoning Expand Analog Cellular Nets 10/05/95 HUNAN PROVINCE, CHINA, 1995 OCT 5 (NB) -- Ericsson China has signed two major contracts with the Hunan Province and Liaoning Province Telephone Companies. Terms of both contracts call for the telecoms company to expand the province's respective analog cellular networks. The Hunan Province network expansion contract is worth $43 million and calls for Ericsson to expand the current provincial mobile cellular net, operated by Hunan PTA, to service more than 200,000 subscribers across the Province. Hunan Province is located in the South Central section of China and has a population of around 63 million. It currently represents Ericsson's second largest market for TACS (Total Access Cellular System) cellular systems in China. The $34.5 million contract for the expansion of the TACS network in Liaoning Province will provide the Liaoning Mobile Communications Company with a total capacity of around 160,000 subscribers. Deliveries for both contracts are scheduled to start at the end of this year. Analog is not the only market that Ericsson is pushing into China with, Newsbytes notes. The company has just signed a parallel contract with the Liaoning Province for the supply of a pilot GSM (global system for mobile communications) network. (Sylvia Dennis/19951004/Press Contact: Olof Lenneman, Ericsson China Company, +86-10-505-1190; Anders Moberg, Mobile Network Design for Market Operations, +46-8-404-2715) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 10/05/95 ONLINE NetManage & Cylink In Internet Encryption Deal (NEWS)(ONLINE)(LON)(00004) NetManage & Cylink In Internet Encryption Deal 10/05/95 GUILDFORD, SURREY, ENGLAND, 1995 OCT 5 (NB) -- NetManage, a TCP/IP (Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol) specialist company, has signed a licensing deal with Cylink Corporation. According to Karen Thomas, a spokeswoman for the company, which has offices on both sides of the Atlantic, plans call for the Cylink public key cryptography technology to be incorporated in future editions of NetManage's Internet applications software. The move is significant, Newsbytes notes, since it marks the beginnings of a competitor to the Netscape "secure" Web browsing software, which has had two security flaws identified in recent weeks. Initially, NetManage's Chameleon Enterprise TCP/IP applications suite will incorporate the Cylink public key encryption technology, but plans are also in hand to include encryption facilities in Internet Chameleon, a UKP139 PC-Windows access suite designed for dial-up access to the Internet. Both NetManage and Cylink plan to support an open interface for Internet security which addresses the flaws found in Netscape. The idea is to establish an open set of standards to which Internet access packages of all types will adhere to, and so ensure that companies developing Internet software do not "re-invent the wheel" when writing their software, and possibly open their applications up to flaws. According to NetManage, establishing a secure Internet connection requires an Internet application to perform two functions: authenticating the user, and encrypting the data flow. The link with Cylink will allow NetManage to license and include the Cylink public key encryption technology in its applications. Plans call for a variety of ciphering systems to be used in the NetManage suite, including: DES (Data Encryption System), Triple DES, Safer, IDEA, Skipjack, RC-2, and RC-4. According to NetManage, the current implementations of security proposed as standards by Netscape and RSA Data Security are flawed, and fail to fully accommodate "open and interoperable secure communications" between computers which use different bulk encryption ciphers. These problems, the company claims, have limited the adoption of Internet security as a widespread interoperable feature of all Internet software and hardware products, including end-user applications, servers, firewalls, and secure routers. Later this month, NetManage and Cylink plan to announce a next- generation "plug and play" Internet encryption system. The implementation will be open, Newsbytes understands, and will not lock software or hardware developers into the use of encryption technology from any one vendor, as is the case with Netscape, say the companies. Plans call for the related APIs (application programming interfaces), key exchange technology, and encryption, to be made publicly available to other software and hardware vendors. Licensing will include source code and no per-copy royalty fees. Further information can be downloaded from NetManage's World Wide Web site at http://www.netmanage.com . (Steve Gold/19951004/Press & Reader Contact: NetManage Europe, +44-1483-302333; NetManage US, 408-973-7171) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 10/05/95 LEGAL BSA Urges Hong Kong Governor To Form Piracy Taskforce (NEWS)(LEGAL)(HKG)(00005) BSA Urges Hong Kong Governor To Form Piracy Taskforce 10/05/95 CENTRAL, HONG KONG, 1995 OCT 5 (NB) -- The Governor of Hong Kong, Chris Patten, has received a letter urging him to create a taskforce to stamp out software piracy in the British colony which, according to the Business Software Alliance (BSA) is costing its members up to US$500,000 a month in lost sales. The request follows a new legal offensive launched by the BSA against retailers who sell counterfeit and pirated software in the notorious Golden Shopping Arcade in Shamshuipo district, which the BSA says is a major distribution outlet for illegal software produced in China and sold, not only in Hong Kong, but throughout Asia, and even as far away as the US and Europe. According to Valerie Colbourn, Hong Kong-based BSA vice president, there is a "desperate need" for government agencies to work together to combat this multi-million dollar counterfeiting and distribution operation, and the BSA is asking the governor for action. What lies behind this latest public move is a long-term secret investigation of retail outlets in the Golden Shopping Arcade. The investigation has resulted in 22 injunctions being laid against distributors in the arcade -- the largest civil action taken by the BSA in Asia or by anyone in Hong Kong. Over the past few days the BSA has spent over HK$1 million investigating the outlets and taking legal action against them. After many hours of concealed observation, filming and undercover buying, the BSA's investigators managed to accumulate enough evidence to persuade Judge Jerome Chan to grant 22 ex-parte injunctions. "These injunctions allow us to serve them on staff in the shops making them personally liable for selling illegal software," Colbourn told Newsbytes. Because it is a civil action and investigators were unaccompanied by officers from either Customs & Excise or the Royal Hong Kong Police, getting the individuals to identify themselves was impossible. But under the terms of Judge Chan's ruling, the shops in question were secretly filmed and the staff photographed selling illegal software, and this evidence can be used in court for identification purposes. If the staff are discovered repeating the action, they can be charged with contempt of court. "We're continuing our observation and the whole thing is an ongoing process. We're determined to make someone pay," said Colbourn. The BSA returns to court soon to apply for the injunctions' continuance. Because the injunctions were ex-parte -- granted without informing those they are aimed at -- there has to be a second court appearance for them to defend themselves. "It'll be interesting to see how many turn up, we'd be most interested in them identifying themselves," said Colbourn. To the BSA, there is more to the issue than just retail outlets selling illegal software. Newsbytes was told: "The fact is this matter shouldn't be in a civil court. Firstly we're losing both ways -- they're stealing from us and then we have to pay over a million dollars of our own money to try and stop them," said Colbourn. "Some of those businesses are unregistered -- this breaks tax laws, trade and industry regulations, and the business registrar's rules. That's why it should be a multi-agency taskforce tackling the problem." But the problem goes deeper than counterfeit software from illegal retail operations in Shamshuipo. Much of the software is being sold on compact disks, meaning extensive and influential links into advanced disk manufacturers in mainland China. It also includes breaches of film copyright. "What's worse is that what we've discovered through raids in the Philippines and Singapore shows resellers are being supplied with illegal software from the outlets in Hong Kong," said Colbourn. (Nigel Armstrong & I.T. Daily/19951004) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 10/05/95 TRENDS Report Urges Hong Kong into Software Development (NEWS)(TRENDS)(HKG)(00006) Report Urges Hong Kong into Software Development 10/05/95 CENTRAL, HONG KONG, 1995 OCT 5 (NB) -- A Dataquest report just completed for Hong Kong's Industry Department calls for the territory to focus on becoming a packaged software development center competing in the global marketplace. Two years ago, the Hong Kong Government retained an outside consultant to assess Hong Kong's information technology (IT) future and suggest possible roles the territory might play. At that time, when traditional manufacturing was already fast slipping across the border to lower cost sites in China, revenue generated by local software concerns amounted to an estimated US$30 million -- only 0.44% of Hong Kong's US$67.5 billion GDP in 1993. Much of that, in fact, was tied to hardware sales and custom work, not to generating widely marketable packages, according to the study. The report's authors tell the Government that success on the software front would require industrialists to junk their manufacturing mindset -- with its focus on making physical goods with low-cost labor -- in favor of hiring the best developers and product marketers money can find. Even coding, manual writing and disk manufacturing, the report said, should be farmed out to leave Hong Kong to focus exclusively on the high value end of the process. Among areas locals should focus on: double-byte applications for China, multi-currency packages, shipping and I/E, entertainment and media applications, and any others that leverage historic Hong Kong in cyberspace. The suggested strategy calls for sending potential developers and marketers overseas for training and bringing the "best available overseas talent" into the territory to transfer their skills on the ground. It also calls for everyone getting quickly acquainted with networks and cyberspace -- and vigorously policing piracy. For the longer haul, the report suggests universities review programs with a view to improving their IT and marketing components to fit Hong Kong's new role. (Nigel Armstrong & I.T. Daily/19951004) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 10/05/95 BUSINESS China - Bay Networks Hopes For A Larger Market Share (NEWS)(BUSINESS)(PEK)(00007) China - Bay Networks Hopes For A Larger Market Share 10/05/95 BEIJING, CHINA, 1995 OCT 5 (NB) -- Bay Networks plans an investment of US$5 million in China over the next two years to further expand its network of distributors, value-added resellers, and system integrators. Hoping to capture a lion's share of China's huge and rapidly growing market for computer networking equipment, Bay Networks opened its Beijing office in October, 1994. The company's Shanghai office, which opened recently, will concentrate on developing and expanding the company's customer base in the potentially lucrative business and financial sector in and around Shanghai, the company said. By the end of this year, the company hopes to expand its coverage of China even further with the opening of an office in Guangzhou to serve southern China, including special economic zones like Shenzhen. In Shanghai and South China, there is significant growth in the demand for sophisticated networking solutions, Bay Networks said. The company also plans to set up a logistics center in China so that it can speed up the delivery of spare parts of replacement products to local customers, the company said. Bay Networks' expansion program will also include the implementation of a 24-hour custom service and support operation with direct links to the company's main support centers in Australia, the US, and Europe. The virtual support centers will be unlike anything Bay Networks has offered in the past, said the company. The virtual support center is actually a global network of service and support resources. Spearheaded by a team of experienced inter-networking engineers based in China, the center will offer 24-hour support to customers throughout China. (Chih-Ho Yu & Ning Huang/19950926/Reader Contact: Beijing Office of Bay Networks, tel +86-10 876-7094 or +86-10 837-1801) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 10/05/95 TRENDS Apple Claims Computers Good For Students (NEWS)(TRENDS)(LAX)(00008) Apple Claims Computers Good For Students 10/05/95 CUPERTINO, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1995 OCT 5 (NB) -- Apple Computer Inc., (NASDAQ: AAPL) has marked the tenth anniversary of its Apple Classrooms of Tomorrow (ACOT) research project with the release of a report of what happens when teachers and students are given access to technology. The report concludes that computers are good, and if given the chance, can solve the problems confronting education. For example, Apple claims several key findings, including: "Technology acts as a catalyst for fundamental change in the way students learn and teachers teach." The report added that, "Students become re-energized and much more excited about learning -- resulting in significantly improved grades -- while drop-out and absenteeism rates decrease dramatically." With regard isolation, the report said: "Students actually interact and collaborate more when using technology, debunking the myth that technology might isolate children and teachers." "We found that students using technology to master basic skills perform better on standardized tests," said David Dwyer, Apple manager of learning technologies. "We also found that students write more because the keyboard is easier to use than pencils or pens for students as young as 2nd and 3rd graders. For high school students in the program, we watched drop-out rates fall from 30% to 0%, absenteeism fell from 8% to 4%, and college attendance dramatically jumped from an expected 30% rate to 90%." Concluded Dwyer, "But what's really important is that positive results like these allow us to change the conversation. We can now focus on teaching and learning and finding better ways to prepare children for success in the twenty-first century workplace." The results of the study were not lost by the federal government, Linda G. Roberts, director of the Office of Educational Technology, US Department of Education, said, "For more than a decade, researchers, practitioners and technology developers have been able to work together to increase our understanding of what can happen in classrooms when powerful technology and effective instruction are joined. The lessons learned provide a rich foundation of experience and knowledge to guide current investments in technology at the local, state and national level." ACOT is a study run and organized and funded by Apple. It started ten years ago with schools throughout the country that had little or no computer backgrounds. According to Apple, the company donated computers and then participated on a regular basis in the development of each school's computer program. The study is based on this controlled model. (Richard Bowers/19951004/Press Contact: Stacey Byrnes of Apple Computer, 408-974-6076) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 10/05/95 BUSINESS Silicon Graphics Asia Restructuring On The Cards? (NEWS)(BUSINESS)(HKG)(00009) Silicon Graphics Asia Restructuring On The Cards? 10/05/95 CENTRAL, HONG KONG, 1995 OCT 5 (NB) -- Reports circulating out of Hong Kong's IT (information technology) Expo last week suggest a massive restructuring within the senior ranks of Silicon Graphics (SGI) in Asia. It seems the regional office is to move from Tokyo to Hong Kong, creating a ripple effect through the rest of the organization. Steven Szeto, the company's China/Hong Kong director told Newsbytes there were major changes in the works but that nothing had been confirmed. He said: "The changes I'm thinking of have yet to be confirmed by the board of directors in Mountain View." Mountain View is SGI's corporate headquarters in California. "Certainly there is some sort of restructuring going on," he added. But Newsbytes' information indicates the decisions have already been made and approved, meaning a new marketing drive for SGI throughout Asia. It's understood that SGI's east Asia vice president, Teruysau Sekimoto, has been in Hong Kong inquiring about new accommodation and is set to leave Tokyo to take up the reins in the territory. While this is unconfirmed, Szeto did say it was "probable" that the east Asia headquarters would move to Hong Kong. He said that move would make sense since it was more accessible to the marketplace. Szeto has been tipped to move Singapore to run the ASEAN markets. The Singapore office has been without a general manager for some time. When I.T. Daily called Singapore and asked for Szeto we were told he wasn't there but that he was expected to take up a new position in the Lion City at the end of the week. Szeto laughed when it was put to him that he was packing for Singapore, but did say "I'm thinking about it." Szeto, who has run SGI's China operation for four years and managed to carve large market revenues from the petroleum, auto, and aerospace industries, is likely to be replaced by former director of marketing, Steven Lau. However, Lau's empire may be carved up before he takes over. Sources have indicated that the current single Hong Kong/China market may be divided into two separate regions: one run from Hong Kong, the other from Beijing. (Nigel Armstrong & I.T. Daily/19951004) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 10/05/95 GENERAL Hong Kong - Computer Society Calls for Accountability (NEWS)(GENERAL)(HKG)(00010) Hong Kong - Computer Society Calls for Accountability 10/05/95 CENTRAL, HONG KONG, 1995 OCT 5 (NB) -- The Hong Kong Computer Society (HKCS) has publicly called on the government to create a registration scheme to ensure accountability among information technology (IT) professionals. Speaking to Newsbytes, HKCS spokesman Alex Yu said the call was the first step in getting government participation. "We believe it's time that professionals in the IT industry try and achieve similar recognition as legal and medical professionals." He pointed out that information technology staff had now reached positions in companies which could seriously influence performance, such as mission- critical business applications and security issues in banking. Agnes Mak, president of the HKCS, said accountability among one's peers was something the industry should strive for. "And accountability even to the degree of removal from the industry's professional body if adherence to those standards is not maintained," she added in a speech at the Society's 25th annual dinner. Yu said many of the details for the registration had yet to be hammered out and the society was setting up a sub-committee to look at the issues. David Lai, the HKCS vice president for external affairs, is expected to chair the new body, and the society hopes government will participate. (Nigel Armstrong & I.T. Daily/19951005) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 10/05/95 TELECOM Oracle & Philips Launch E-Mail For Screen Phone (NEWS)(TELECOM)(TOR)(00011) Oracle & Philips Launch E-Mail For Screen Phone 10/05/95 GENEVA, SWITZERLAND, 1995 OCT 5 (NB) -- Oracle Corp. (NASDAQ:ORCL) and Philips Home Services demonstrated at the Telecom 95 trade show their electronic-mail service for Philips' screen phones. The service will be available in the United States in the first quarter of 1996, Philips spokesman Paul Chapple told Newsbytes, and elsewhere later. The e-mail service will make it possible to exchange messages with anyone who has an Internet e-mail address, Chapple said. While the obvious market for e-mail equipped screen phones seems to be consumers who do not have personal computers and modems, Chapple said Philips actually hopes to sell the technology to PC users as well. The reason, he said, is that sending e-mail from a screen phone will be much faster than turning on a PC, making a connection to an online service or Internet access provider and then sending mail. What Philips and Oracle will be pushing, he said, is "very fast, simple messaging." If one assumed that a PC was being bought strictly for e-mail, the screen phone would also be a cheaper option. Though not widely available in retail outlets yet, the screen phones are currently selling for $450 to $500, Chapple said. Most of the approximately 20,000 screen phones in use in the United States today are leased through Citibank, which is offering them to customers at $7 per month as part of a home-banking service. Those customers will be the first to get the new e-mail service, Chapple said. He added that the price of the phones continues to fall, from around $1,000 three years ago, and Philips expects it to level off at a little more than $200 within a couple of years. As the price drops, Chapple said, widespread retail distribution will become more viable. Receiving messages through the e-mail service will be free, and Chapple said Philips and Oracle have not yet settled on the price for sending messages. (Grant Buckler/19951005/Press Contact: Paul Chapple, Philips Home Services, 617-238-3414; Dawn Echols, Oracle, 415-506-9034) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 10/05/95 ONLINE WebCrawler's New Interface, Sponsorships (NEWS)(ONLINE)(MSP)(00012) WebCrawler's New Interface, Sponsorships 10/05/95 VIENNA, VIRGINIA, U.S.A., 1995 OCT 5 (NB) -- America Online's (NASDAQ:AMER) WebCrawler, an Internet World Wide Web search engine available to all Web users free of charge, now has both a new interface design and advertisers to possibly help keep the service free to use by real Web crawlers. Already, WebCrawler has indexed more than 60,000 Web sites, and more than 3,000 are added per month, officials said. The new WebCrawler interface is described as having "more colorful graphics" to "heighten the experience of going into the area," Miriam Grossman, America Online spokesperson, told Newsbytes. "We're a graphically-oriented service, and enhanced graphics are a part of our strategy." Ted Leonsis, president of America Online Services, said the new interface will make the exploration of the Web even easier. WebCrawler's new interface also integrates advertising from five charter sponsors. Flagship advertisers include American Airlines, AT&T, and Netscape. The five distribution slots are rotated every few seconds to insure uniform distribution, officials said, and advertisers may by as many of the five weekly distributions as they like without limitations. WebCrawler advertising rates start at $22,000 per month, money that will be used to keep the service free for all Internet users, Grossman said. Officials said Web surfers request more than nine million searches each week, and more than 900,000 Internet users search the Web with WebCrawler. This represents an 800 percent increase in usage in the six months since AOL acquired WebCrawler. Rob Wilen, general manager of WebCrawler, told Newsbytes the increase in usage can be attributed more to the growth of the Web in general rather than a direct result of the AOL acquisition. He also said a majority of the traffic WebCrawler sees is not coming from AOL Web surfers. "One thing we can say is that had we not been acquired by America Online, we would not have seen that growth, because we would not have had the capacity to handle the kind of traffic we've had," Wilen said. Other changes include promoting AOL branded services along with AOL's Global Network Navigator (GNN) brand. In addition, advertising space is being donated to Amnesty International, in a strategy similar to the public service announcement on television and radio, Grossman told Newsbytes. The WebCrawler is located on the Web at http://webcrawler.com . Developed at the University of Washington, officials said WebCrawler was the first full-text search available on the Web. (Bob Woods/19951005/Press Contact: Miriam Grossman, America Online, 703-918-2062; Potential sponsors should contact Jenny Shore at 510-883-7220) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 10/05/95 PC UK - NEC Unveils Budget CD Jukebox System (NEWS)(PC)(LON)(00013) UK - NEC Unveils Budget CD Jukebox System 10/05/95 LONDON, ENGLAND, 1995 OCT 5 (NB) -- NEC has unveiled the MultiSpin, claimed to be the industry's first internal quad-speed CD-ROM drive for PCs that can also multichange between four full-size disks. Despite its technical complexity, the unit, which fits into a single drive bay on a PC, will sell for just UKP199 ($320). According to Nick Bayat, NEC Business Equipment Division's CD-ROM manager, the drive unit will be sold globally through NEC's various operations, and at a broadly similar price. He told Newsbytes that the product is unique in the market and, at the price, an amazing bargain. "The idea is that storage is maximized, and handling of disks is minimized. This means that time is saved on all the actions normally associated with a CD-ROM drive, such as eject, play, and disk removal," he claimed. Bayat went on to say that all the disk change functions are carried out using on-screen instructions. "The Multispin 4x4 is revolutionary, not only in terms of CD-ROM drive versatility and ease of use, but also in terms of price," he said. The drive was first conceived by NEC Japan at the beginning of the year. "We then sat down and drew up a wish list for this unit in May of this year, and now we have actual product," he said, adding that the quad speed of the drive adds to the speed disk access times. Operation time on the drive has been optimized to give a 250 millisecond access time to data on each disk. The drive has a memory cache of 256 kilobytes, and an overall data transfer speed of 600 kilobytes-per-second. As supplied, the drive is compatible with the Red, Yellow and Orange (Part 2) book, CD-ROM XA, CD-Audio, and Photo CD (multi- and single- session) standards. (Steve Gold/19951005/Press Contact: Dan Bausor, Words Etc., +44-171- 938-4746, Internet e-mail daniel@words-etc.co.uk; Reader Contact: NEC Business Equipment Decision, +44-181-993-8111) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 10/05/95 WINDOWS UK - Sophos Intros Windows 95 Virus Scanner (NEWS)(WINDOWS)(LON)(00014) UK - Sophos Intros Windows 95 Virus Scanner 10/05/95 ABINGDON, OXFORDSHIRE, ENGLAND, 1995 OCT 5 (NB) -- Sophos has announced plans to ship a Windows 95 version of its Sweep virus detection software. According to Richard Jacobs, Sophos' technical manager, the package will ship from November. Sophos is pricing the package at UKP295 for a year's subscription, including 12 monthly updates. Newsbytes suggested that, given the consumer market pitch by Microsoft for Windows 95, this price tag is way too high. "I agree that the price is high, but it is aimed at our corporate users rather than consumers and is in line with pricing of Sweep for our other platforms," he said, adding that the company does not anticipate selling many in the first year of the package's lifetime. "We're finding that, although a number of our corporate customers are not going for Windows 95 immediately, many expect to migrate to the new operating system within the next year, and it's this audience that the Windows 95 edition of Sweep has been readied for," he said. Jacobs said that there are some corporations that are going with Windows 95 now, rather than later, and they will want to install Sweep on their systems. "My own view is that migrating to Windows 95 so soon after the product's launch is rather cavalier, but that is why this version of Sweep has been developed," he told Newsbytes. According to Jacobs, Sweep is capable of detecting more than 7,000 viruses. While most DOS Viruses replicate under Windows 95, existing Windows scanners cannot cope with the new operating system. Sweep for Windows 95, on the other hand, runs as a continuous 32-bit application and can therefore detect viruses in Windows 95 environment, Sophos claims. Jacobs, who headed up the Windows 95 development team for Sweep, claims that the package combines the "accuracy and flexibility" for which Sweep is known, "with the convenience of a modern GUI (graphical user interface) application." In use, Sweep can be scheduled to run at pre-determined times and alerts are issued through Microsoft Exchange, if a virus is encountered. Further details of Sweep can be found on Sophos' World Wide Web pages, which are located at http://www.sophos.com/ . (Steve Gold/19951005/Press & Reader Contact: Sophos, tel +44-1235- 559933, fax +44-1235-559935, Internet e-mail sales@sophos.com) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 10/05/95 BUSINESS British Telecom Forms Indian Joint Venture With Wipro (NEWS)(BUSINESS)(LON)(00015) British Telecom Forms Indian Joint Venture With Wipro 10/05/95 BANGALORE, INDIA, 1995 OCT 5 (NB) -- British Telecom (BT), has announced the formation of a joint venture company with Wipro Limited of India. The new company, Wipro BT, will offer VSAT (very small aperture terminals) and VANS (value-added network services) to companies across the Indian continent. Announcing the formation of the new company, Ian McKenzie, general manager of BT's Global Satellite Services, said that India is now the tenth largest industrialized nation in the world, with more than 100,000 medium to large businesses established. "Due to the poor terrestrial infrastructure and the increasing requirement by business for high-speed connectivity, the current opportunities for satellite solutions such as VSAT services are superb. VSATs will be able to provide customers with fast and efficient communications between cities and more remote areas," he explained. McKenzie argues that satellite systems will allow Indian businesses to have a greater choice of communications services, greater flexibility, and the ability to reach remote geographical regions. "This is a whole new experience for many Indian companies faced with the challenge of communicating effectively with their dispersed operations around the country. Wipro BT services will help such businesses improve their operational efficiency and, in turn, improve the service they provide to their own customers," he explained. According to Mr A. H. Premji, chairman of Wipro Corporation, Wipro BT brings together Indian's technology leader with the global expertise of BT. "It therefore heralds a new era in communications services business communications in India," he said. Wipro BT will be headquartered in Bangalore with four regional offices and 82 customer service centers across India. Plans call for the company to take on 100 staff in the first year, rising to 175 by the end of the fifth year of operation. The new company, which is 50/50 owned by the two parent firms, is headed up by Anand Talwai, the chief executive, and Fritz Hoffecker, who is the deputy chief executive. (Sylvia Dennis/19951005/Press Contact: Katie King, Text 100, tel +44-181-242-4117, fax +44-181-242-4200, Internet e-mail katiek@text10.co.uk; Reader Contact: BT Global Satellite Services, tel +44-171-728-5116, fax +44-171-728-5502) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 10/05/95 TRENDS ****Oracle's Vision Of Networked Future (NEWS)(TRENDS)(TYO)(00016) ****Oracle's Vision Of Networked Future 10/05/95 GENEVA, SWITZERLAND, 1995 OCT 5 (NB) -- Larry Ellison, chairman and chief executive officer (CEO) of Oracle Corporation (NASDAQ:ORCL), has unveiled his company's view of the future information superhighway at the Telecom 95 expo in Geneva. Ellison began by outlining the basic beliefs the company holds that soon, personal computers will be replaced by new devices that rely almost exclusively on fast networks and have very little intelligence inside. Oracle's interactive television set-top box, currently being used in trials in the United Kingdom and the US, is the first example of such a next-generation device. "Fast, cheap, networks mean computers will cost $500, not $5,000," he explained, dubbing the new devices network computers, or NCs, as opposed to today's personal computers. Network computers and similar devices, such as the interactive video set-top box, contain almost no software, just a basic input/output system (BIOS) system, and download a complete operating system when switched on. This whole process takes only seconds to complete. "An NC is very different (to a PC): just $500 and two connectors -- one for electrons, one for bits," he said referring to the power connection and network data port. The advantages of NCs are many, he explained, "If there is a new operating system you don't go down to the store - you turn the NC on the next day and it's there. It's not a major cultural event!" Using existing technology, such machines can be made for less money, and attain higher performance than PCs he said, "The reason you need 16 megabytes (MB) of memory is that Windows 95 needs 8MB - half for them, half for you." NCs will require between 4MB and 8MB of memory to accomplish any number of multimedia tasks, Ellison claimed. The machines will not have to wait for new technology either, "For $20 we can buy a faster microprocessor than an Intel Pentium at $460 - sounds like a good deal to me!" he added. In a world full of cheap, almost disposable, network computers, users will be able to carry a smart card to allow access to the network. Because all programs are downloaded from the network, and because everyone's personal data files and backups are stored on servers connected to the system it will be possible to slide a card into any NC and instantly begin work, as if the user were at home using their own machine. "Network computers will not replace PCs, after all the PC didn't replace the mainframe. PCs have hundreds of thousands of uses, the NC just has four: Internet browsing, electronic-mail, word processing, and videoconferencing," he said, adding, "By the way, that's all I ever do with my PC, and that's all my friends ever do with theirs!" Alongside the NC and interactive TV set-top box, Oracle envisages a family of network appliances all connected to the high-speed data highway. Internet screen telephones and personal digital assistants with facilities such as two-way paging were two such advantages. After outlining his, and the company's vision of the future, Ellison then moved onto more specific areas and, in particular, the area of video across the network. Through a collection of new products, the US-based company envisages "video enabling the Internet." Ellison demonstrated a new Oracle written World Wide Web browser and server. The browser, Ellison explained, was fully Netscape-compatible, and supported Java and Visual Basic applets and local databases. The Oracle software was built with video in mind, whereas other browsers currently available, such as Netscape, could display video, but were really unsuited for the task he said, adding later, "Netscape's a kind of old-style browser. It will be obsolete next year." Oracle's web servers will work in cooperation with each other by establishing local caches of information at points around the world, meaning accessing sites halfway across the world over congested lines could become much less common. Instead, users will simply be accessing a local server with the whole process being invisible to the user. This system would also take a lot of the "hit and miss" out of Internet access, he claimed. The new software, and market forces, will take the Internet into the video-age Ellison predicted. He outlined his predicted most important applications as: education, commerce, ads, news-on-demand, and entertainment. Entertainment services, and particularly movies-on-demand, will not drive future growth Ellison predicted, "Movies-on-demand are silly. There are numerous things to do with a network, the cable companies can't justify a new network just for movies-on-demand. We can think of nothing less important than movies-on-demand." The Web browser was demonstrated accessing a news-on-demand service that Oracle had set up with NBC News reports running across a local area network (LAN). To prove it worked in the real world, Ellison moved on to a commercial application, CD Now, where he could sample and buy CDs. That system was running across ISDN (integrated services digital network) connections to the Internet and accessing the store's server in Northern California, he said. Both systems contained virtually no intelligence and were downloading all the information and software needed to run the applications across the network. Commerce was another important future application, said Ellison. He forecasted that, despite there being electronic markets for stocks and shares, "There are no effective electronic markets for Rolex watches or Sony Handycams. But there should be, there can be, and there will be." Oracle was already embracing online commerce by offering its software via the Internet. He explained the company's position on software sales, saying, "It's uneconomical and immoral to deliver software any other way then electronically." Responding to reporters questions after the presentation, Ellison said that he believed Netscape was "enormously vulnerable" to competition, especially from the likes of Oracle because "Netscape achieved number one position in a market with no competitors by giving away its software." He added humorously, "We think Netscape is as exciting as 3DO. Not since Go Corp. have I been so excited about a company!" (Martyn Williams/19951005) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 10/05/95 BUSINESS Germany - Preussag Sells Off Hagenuk Operation (NEWS)(BUSINESS)(LON)(00017) Germany - Preussag Sells Off Hagenuk Operation 10/05/95 HANNOVER, GERMANY, 1995 OCT 5 (NB) -- Preussag Systemhaus, the German industrial group, has announced the sale of Hagenuk Telecom to Escom, the PC manufacturer, for an undisclosed sum. The sale of Hagenuk is significant, since it marks the final stage in Preussag's announced intention to divest itself of its telecoms subsidiaries, leaving it free to concentrate on the light and heavy industries, which are becoming extremely competitive in Germany, Newsbytes notes. Announcing the deal, Manfred Schmitt, Preussag's senior stockholder, said that the sale is part of the group's "strategic disinvestment" in the telecoms market, which started last year when Preussag sold its entire main telecoms division to RWE, another German company. Hagenuk Telecom is perhaps best known for its mobile telecoms products and accessories. Preussag officials said that the Kiel-based Hagenuk electronics division, as distinct from Hagenuk Telecom, will remain under the company's control. Preussag is under pressure in the German industrial market, Newsbytes notes. The company's Hagenuk operation, which is headquartered in Kiel, Germany, and included (until this week's sale) the Hagenuk Telecom operation, reported a loss of around DM99 million on sales of DM400 million in the year to October, 1994. (Sylvia Dennis/19951005/Press & Reader Contact: Preussag Systemhaus GmbH, tel +49-511-566-1797, fax +49-511-566-1167) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 10/05/95 TELECOM Germany's Siemens In Digital Comms Joint Ventures (NEWS)(TELECOM)(LON)(00018) Germany's Siemens In Digital Comms Joint Ventures 10/05/95 ERLANGEN, GERMANY, 1995 OCT 5 (NB) -- Siemens has announced the formation of two cross-border joint ventures with, respectively, Italtel in Italy, and General Electric in the UK. The joint ventures center around the development of SDH (synchronous digital hierarchy) products for sale on a pan-European basis, and build on the links on the electronics technology fronts that Siemens already has with the other two companies. The General Electric joint venture, Newsbytes notes, centers around the GPT telecoms company that both companies have a stake in. According to officials with Siemens, the aim of the joint ventures is to further a fledgling technology known as synchronous transport evolution (STE), which the companies have been working on. Siemens has been very active on the networking front in the last month. Last week saw the German information technology giant acquire Ornet Data Communications Technologies (ODCT), the Israeli networking company, along with its US subsidiary, O-Net, for an undisclosed sum. Ornet was acquired, officials said at the time, for its knowledge of the switched Ethernet market, which will add to Siemens Network Systems Ethernet products portfolio. Siemens has refused to say whether the Ornet acquisition is tied in with the SDH links with General Electric in the UK or Italtel in Italy. (Sylvia Dennis/19951005/Press & Reader Contact: Siemens, tel +49-9131-724-426, fax +49-9131-724-422) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 10/05/95 GENERAL UK - Mercury Comms To Sponsor Kids Multimedia Exhibit (NEWS)(GENERAL)(LON)(00019) UK - Mercury Comms To Sponsor Kids Multimedia Exhibit 10/05/95 LONDON, ENGLAND, 1995 OCT 5 (NB) -- Mercury Communications, in collaboration with parent company Cable & Wireless, has announced plans to sponsor a "live" communications network exhibition, to be held in the London's Science Museum. According to Mercury, the exhibition, which will run for five years, is dedicated to children visiting the museum and gives them the opportunity to experiment with old and new achievements in communications technology. Inside the exhibition, the kid's host, Digit the Dog, will help visitors to tour the system which is built in six different places of the Science Museum. According to Mercury, the system is called "The Network" and a seventh terminal is located in the National Museum of Photography, Film and Television in Bradford, almost 200 miles away. On every terminal, a video camera and a touch-screen has been installed, so that children can interact remotely on a videoconferencing link and work together on solving puzzles and playing games, for example. Announcing the exhibition, which opens later this year, Peter Howell- Davies, Mercury's chief executive, said that, while many children are acquainted with the modern technology such as computers and printers, they don't get many opportunities to interact with communications and networking technology. Howell-Davies claims that many adults, meanwhile, due to the nature of their jobs, never had the chance to explore the new technological facilities, and the exhibition will create a great opportunity for them to become familiar with modern technologies. "Although use of home computers and multimedia programs is growing rapidly, many children, as indeed many adults, still don't have access to this kind of technology. We believe that everyone should have an opportunity to experience the latest developments in communications and see where this exciting technology is going," he said. "By supporting this exhibition, which demonstrates this technology in an entertaining and educational matter, we will be helping to close this gap," he added. Mercury SwitchBand, a pay-as-you-use digital communications service used for videoconferencing applications, will support the link from London to Bradford. According to Mercury, the service has the ability to handle short bursts of high-volume traffic. SwitchBand is already widely used in distance learning and telemedicine applications. Mercury and Cable & Wireless are planning to built extensions for the exhibition in the cities of Leeds, Hong Kong, and in the Bermuda Islands. (Sylvia Dennis/19951005/Press Contact: Emma Tarring, Mercury Press Office, +44-171-528-2547) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 10/05/95 TRENDS ****Distribution Key As Internetworking Firms Converge (NEWS)(TRENDS)(TOR)(00020) ****Distribution Key As Internetworking Firms Converge 10/05/95 BOCA RATON, FLORIDA, U.S.A., 1995 OCT 5 (NB) -- Both local area networking (LAN) and wide area networking (WAN) companies are trying to broaden their product lines to address the internetworking market from end to end, says the co-author of a recent study. While the companies' strategies vary widely, distribution is a critical factor. Mergers, acquisitions, and alliances among companies in the internetworking market will also continue as the various firms try to put together complete product offerings, said Tom Nelms, vice-president of the Chandler Group and co-author of the research firm's recent study, "Market, Product & Distribution Report: Internetworking Companies." "All of the top internetworking companies basically are working toward a strategy of end-to-end computing," Nelms said, and alliances are key part of their strategies. In other ways, he added, the strategies of different companies vary. For instance, Cisco Systems Inc. is trying to build on its large installed base of routers, essentially telling customers that since Cisco got them to where they are in internetworking, it will get them from there to where they want to go. Smaller specialists in asynchronous transfer mode (ATM) technology are countering that by saying "Don't listen to that, they did get you there, but they aren't going to get you out," Nelms said. Fore Systems Inc. is positioning itself as the company that can make ATM work, while Newbridge Networks Inc. is trying to build on its strength in the telecommunications sector, Nelms said. But for these and other internetworking contenders, distribution is "the name of the game," he maintained. In much of the internetworking market, tiered distribution is increasingly common, with companies selecting a few big resellers to deal with directly, while everyone else must go through national distributors such as Merisel, Tech Data, and Ingram. This is not as true in the fledgling ATM market, Nelms noted. Nelms described the internetworking market as a hotbed of mergers and acquisitions, pointing in particular to Cisco's acquisitions, and Newbridge's apparent strategy of investing in various companies and leaving them alone until they produce some technology Newbridge can use. He said the pattern of consolidation will probably continue, as will the growth of the internetworking business as a whole. "I think the internetworking space is the growth area of high-tech at the moment," he said. (Grant Buckler/19951005/Press Contact: Pat Colbert, Chandler Group, 407-392-9220) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 10/05/95 WINDOWS ABC Graphics Goes 3-D (NEWS)(WINDOWS)(DEN)(00021) ABC Graphics Goes 3-D 10/05/95 RICHARDSON, TEXAS, U.S.A., 1995 OCT 5 (NB) -- Micrografx Inc. (NASDAQ: MGXI) has added three-dimensional (3-D) capability to its ABC Graphics Suite with the inclusion of Instant 3D for Windows 95 from Visual Software. #IMAGE 1 20 TWPCX \images\95100521.PCX Click here for photo The new version of ABC Graphics Suite has an estimated street price of $299.95. Current users of an older version of ABC Graphics, competitive products, and Microsoft Office, can upgrade for about $149.95 to include the 3-D capability. Micrografx spokesperson Ingo Heel told Newsbytes Instant 3D will be available by the end of the month. ABC Graphics Suite is an integrated collection of software that lets the user do diagramming, flowcharting, clip-art management, painting, image editing, and drawing. With its Microsoft Office for Windows 95 interface the user can add 3-D text and graphics to any component of the Office software suite. You can apply 3-D effects to documents produced in Micrografx Designer or PicturePublisher or in Word for Windows document, PowerPoint presentations, or other Windows 95 applications. Micrografx said Instant 3D's Office interface lets users create effects like turning text into a 3-D object wrapped in a texture like wood or chrome, or choose from hundreds of included 3-D clip-art objects like planes, balloons and 3-D buttons for use in creating your own home page on the Internet's World Wide Web. Textures include stones, wood, skin, and even red chili peppers, and the clip-art can be spun and scaled. The Micrografx ABC Graphics Suite integrates Windows 95 versions of Designer, Flow Charter, PicturePublisher, and Media Manager. The company said the 32-bit performance speeds up operations like file open, graphic importation and creation, and filter application by as much as two or three times. Micrografx said there is also a significant improvement in functions that include OLE (object linking and embedding) tasks like drag-and-drop, in-place editing, and 32-bit OLE automation. Instant 3D works with the user's application by adding its own button bar and menu option. It uses standard Windows TrueType fonts that can be extruded, beveled, wrapped along a line, and deformed using a variety of pre-defined shapes. Media Manager, one of the applications in the ABC Graphics Suite, is a new product that makes it easier to perform tasks like dragging and dropping clip-art, photos, and diagramming symbols into, and out of, ABC Graphics Suite or other Windows 95 application. Media Manager can handle more than 50 file formats including TIFF, BMP, DXF, and Coreldraw. ABC Graphics Suite comes with over 20,000 pieces of clip-art, more than 7,500 photos, 2,000 diagramming symbols, and 250 fonts. Micrografx operates a home page on the Internet at http://www.micrografx.com . (Jim Mallory/19951005/Press contact: Ingo Heel, Micrografx, 214-994-6369; Public contact: Micrografx, 800-676-3110 or 214-234-1769/ABC-3D951005/PHOTO) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 10/05/95 WINDOWS ABI Offers Business Listings On CD (NEWS)(WINDOWS)(DEN)(00022) ABI Offers Business Listings On CD 10/05/95 OMAHA, NEBRASKA, U.S.A., 1995 OCT 5 (NB) -- American Business Information Inc.(NASDAQ:ABI) has released three new CD-ROMs that collectively contain almost six million listings of business professionals, small business owners, and women who own businesses. ABI promotes the information collections as "sources for sales leads." ABI is shipping "3.7 Million Small Business Owners," "1.1 Million Professionals," and "1.1 Million Female Business Owners, Executives and Professionals." The company said the disks contain telephone- verified address, telephone number, and demographic information. You can find the full name, company name, mailing address, telephone and fax number, number of employees, sales volume, industry code (SIC), and even credit rating codes. The company said it takes just seconds to sort through the millions of records. Records can be viewed on-screen, and custom-targeted lists can be printed to mailing labels. When you order one of the new CD-ROM disks, you are purchasing a license that lets you search the database and to download up to 1,000 records. A meter on the disk keeps track of how many you have used. You can purchase additional thousand-record blocks up to the full capacity of the disk. The price for 1,000 records is $395. The cost includes a spring and fall update. In addition to the new databases being shipped, ABI publishes a multi-language talking yellow pages program that allows the user to select the default language (English, French, or Spanish) and the gender of the voice that speaks the information. You can search for a listing by name or by phone number, but can't download or print the data. The program has a street price of about $20 and includes about 10 million records. There is also a version of the same program that sells for about $49 that lets the user download or print the records. The company also offers its "70 Million Household Numbers," a residential listing on CD-ROM, a nine-digit ZIP directory, and specialized listings for various industries, including medical and health, with a street price of about $20. (Jim Mallory/19951005/Press contact: Bill Chasse, ABI, 402-593-4500; Public contact: ABI, 402-593-4500 or 800-624-0076 to order) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 10/05/95 NETWORK Artisoft Ships Euro Language LANtastic Power Suite (NEWS)(NETWORK)(DEN)(00023) Artisoft Ships Euro Language LANtastic Power Suite 10/05/95 TUCSON, ARIZONA, U.S.A., 1995 OCT 5 (NB) -- Artisoft Inc. has announced shipment of European language versions of its LANtastic Power Suite and its LANtastic Dedicated Server. You can now get French, Italian, German, Spanish, and Dutch versions of Power Suite, and French, Italian, German, and Dutch Versions of Server. Power Suite is version 6.1 of Artisoft's LANtastic network operating system combined with communications software. LANtastic Dedicated Server is a 32-bit drop-in server for networks running LANtastic version 5.0 and higher, as well as LANtastic Power Suite. The company said the European localized versions consists of five integrated products: the LANtastic network operating system; the Cheyenne Communications Bitware fax and modem communications software; Cheyenne's Bitshare modem-sharing and pooling software; Lotus cc:Mail communications software; and Lotus Organizer networked group scheduler and personal information manager (PIM). Artisoft is offering the localized versions of Power Suite as software-only packages for one, five, 10 or 25 users. You can also get: two-user starter kits that include the software, network interface cards and cable; add-on kits with software and a network interface card, and upgrade kits for one, five, 10 or 25 users. The packages can be combined in networks of 100 or more workstations. Artisoft said LANtastic Dedicated Server drop-in software is designed for from two to 100 users on its LANtastic networks, version 5.0 and later, as well as the LANtastic Power Suite. The company claims the software can improve file access, enhance printer response, and increase overall network throughput by from 66 to 100 percent. Those results are based on customer feedback and recent tests conducted by the company. You can obtain the localized versions of Dedicated Server in packages for two-10 users, and you can get a kit to upgrade from the earlier Corstream server version 1.0 to LANtastic Dedicated Server version 1.1. Artisoft also offers licenses for five, 10, 25, and 50 users with a six-language installation guide. (Jim Mallory/19951005/Press contact: Bill Peterson, Artisoft, 520-670-7304; Public contact: Artisoft, tel 800-233-5564 or 520-670-7100, fax 520-670-7101) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 10/05/95 ONLINE BBN Launches Web Page, Plans Threading, "Visionaries" (NEWS)(ONLINE)(BOS)(00024) BBN Launches Web Page, Plans Threading, "Visionaries" 10/05/95 CAMBRIDGE, MASSACHUSETTS, U.S.A., 1995 OCT 5 (NB) -- BBN, the "founder of the Internet," will soon add threaded conferencing. along with input from "industry visionaries," to a newly launched Web page that already includes offerings like a special section for CEOs (chief executive officers) and CIOs (chief information officers), plus TechWatch, for highlighting emerging technologies at BBN, revealed BBN's Catherine Miller, in an interview with Newsbytes. A major intent behind BBN's new spot in Cyberspace is to produce a "corporate document" for publishing "engaging" corporate and industry information. "Not many companies are really doing that on the Web yet," maintained Miller, who decided to revamp BBN's previous home page after moving from the job of communications projects manager to the newly created slot of manager of interactive communications at BBN. The Web "document" will also provide lots of interactivity and "collaborative interlinking" among BBN, its various subsidiaries, outside partners, and the business and technology public at large, according to Miller. "BBN is very complex, and the Web is an ideal way to show it to people," the BBN manager told Newsbytes. The home page opened this week with several "magazine-style" sections, she noted. This month, the new TechWatch highlights BodyLAN (local area network), a technology now under development at BBN that uses sensors placed on the human body, in addition to PDAs (personal digital assistants) and wireless LANs, to transmit information on bodily functions. "BBN has a lot of rich technologies, and BodyLAN is only the first one that will be featured in TechWatch." BodyLAN carries the potential for commercial applications ranging from physical therapy to sports training, she asserted. Meanwhile, BBN's new electronic magazine "section" for CEOs and CIOs has kicked off with a sweeping examination of whether so- called "productivity tools" actually generate productivity. The section includes online "feature stories," along with "sidebars" on topics such as intelligent agents, Newsbytes was told. What, specifically, is in store for the future? Another online "section" is now under development, with "techies" as its target audience. Beyond that, BBN plans to add conference threading, plus Sound Board, a special forum that will include "invited guests." Plans for real-time discussions are also in the works, and industry luminaries like Bill Bluestein and Charles Ferguson have both agreed to write articles for the BBN Web page. "You'll be able to click on the article to respond," Miller disclosed. You can access BBN's new home page on the Web at http://www.bbn.com . (Jacqueline Emigh/19951005/Reader Contact: BBN, 617-873-4000; Press Contact: John Vincenzo, Fitzgerald Communications for BBN, 617-494-9500) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 10/05/95 TELECOM UK - Low-Cost ISDN Card Intro'd (NEWS)(TELECOM)(LON)(00025) UK - Low-Cost ISDN Card Intro'd 10/05/95 LONDONDERRY, NORTHERN IRELAND, 1995 OCT 5 (NB) -- AVM Telecom, claimed to be Europe's leading supplier of ISDN (integrated service digital network) controllers, has launched the UK's cheapest ISDN system. Pricing in at just UKP198 ($320), the AVM A1 ISDN PC card is being sold into the UK and German markets initially. AVM, Newsbytes notes, is Germany's largest ISDN controller manufacturer and has more than 50 percent of the German domestic market. The company claims this new UK price point will encourage many smaller companies and Internet users to take advantage of the data throughput and cost advantages of ISDN. The AVM A1 version 3.0 is a short 16-bit PC card for ISA/EISA (Industry Standard Architecture/Extended ISA) PC buses, and supports the industry standard of two 64,000 bits-per-second (bps) B channels, and a single 16,000 bps D channel. The card bundle includes driver software for the ETSI (European Technical Standards Institute) standard, as well as for all major national ISDN protocols. It is also supplied with drivers for all popular operating systems including DOS, Windows 3.11, and Windows 95. The Windows drivers are native 32 bit VxD drivers. Announcing the PC card, Paul Dukes, AVM Telecom's UK marketing director, said that the new price point now brings ISDN cards to a comparable price level to that of quality V.34 modems. "To date, the market for ISDN in the UK has been hampered by the high cost of hardware and connection. But now with this fall in hardware costs, most companies who use the Internet regularly, or who transfer large amounts of data, could offset the initial installation cost against a reduction in call charges," he explained. "Our experience elsewhere in Europe has been extremely positive and we expect this move to have a significant effect on the UK market," he added. In the UK, AVM will be bundling the A1 ISDN card with a new PC comms application, called EZ-Com. According to the company, EZ-Com enables the use of standard modem-orientated communications software over ISDN. This, the company claims, allows standard comms packages such as Procomm Plus for Windows or PC Anywhere for Windows to be used with AVM's new A1 card at speeds of up to 128,000 bps. AVM also claims that EZ-Com also works with standard dial-up Internet software such as NetManage from Chameleon, or Trumpet Winsock. AVM EZ-Com supports V.110 as well as synchronous and asynchronous PPP (point-to-point protocol). (Steve Gold/19951005/Press Contact: Nick Spencer, +44-1344-873445, Internet e-mail nspencer@cix.compulink.co.uk; Reader Contact: AVM Telecom, tel +44-1504-370370, fax +44-1504-370880) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 10/05/95 BUSINESS NEC Opens PC Divisions In Spain & Sweden (NEWS)(BUSINESS)(LON)(00026) NEC Opens PC Divisions In Spain & Sweden 10/05/95 MADRID, SPAIN, 1995 OCT 5 (NB) -- NEC has announced it is opening new PC division offices in Spain and Sweden. The move comes after soaring sales of its PC products in those countries, through its existing distributor arrangements. The opening of the new offices means that NEC will now have five sales offices dotted around Europe, including locations in Germany, Italy, and the UK. The company has also outlined plans to open a sixth office in Paris, France, early in the New Year. Announcing the opening of the Spanish and Swedish offices, Graeme Simons, European product marketing manager for NEC Europe's PC division, said that the move to expand the company's PC business in Europe over the next few months asserts its presence in the region. "It represents a very exciting time for the PC division -- both our new, strong product portfolio+ and our increased visibility will make it a formidable competitor in the European marketplace and will enable us to offer a truly European service to our customers," he said. The Spanish office is located in Madrid, while the Swedish office is situated in Bromma. The opening of the new offices comes just as the company has taken the wraps off the Versa 4000, its new flagship notebook system, The Versa 4000 is based on a 2.9-volt Pentium chipset that runs at 75 or 90 megahertz (MHz). Other features of the notebook include a 540 or 720 megabyte (MB) hard disk, and a bundled CD-ROM. Three versions of the machine are available in Europe: the 4000 D/540 at UKP2,795; the 4000C/720 at UKP3,350; and the 4050H/720 at UKP3,795. (Steve Gold/19951005/Press Contact: Samantha Baxter, Words Etc, +44-171-838-4746, Internet e-mail sam@words-etc.co.uk; Reader Contact: NEC, +44-81-993-8111) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 10/05/95 TRENDS ****Microsoft's "Harder Side" Better To Hit - Survey (NEWS)(TRENDS)(BOS)(00027) ****Microsoft's "Harder Side" Better To Hit - Survey 10/05/95 BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS, U.S.A., 1995 OCT 5 (NB) -- Although 69 percent of PC users are "cautious" about Windows 95, Microsoft is still "strongly perceived as delivering good products," and vendors who want to take on the software giant should hit at Microsoft's "harder side," said Peter Moran, president of IDG's Marketing Services Division, during a presentation of IDG survey results in Boston. In related findings, IDG also uncovered strong brand loyalty among Apple customers, as well as among users of the Microsoft Excel and Lotus 1-2-3 spreadsheets and the Microsoft Word and Novell/WordPerfect word processing programs, Moran and two analyst colleagues contended at the meeting, which was attended by Newsbytes. As previously reported in Newsbytes, the survey also suggested that PC makers such as Compaq, Dell and Gateway have landed in the top bracket of the industry by providing qualities like "reliability" and "high performance" that appeal to "heavyweight" customers. Other companies that wish to gain market share should also target the same group of users, Moran and the other two analysts advised, during a portion of the presentation called "Brand and the Buying Process." But in a solo talk at the meeting for high tech marketers, Moran shined the analytical spotlight on Microsoft. Recent press reports concerning Microsoft have tended to focus on lower than expected retail sales of Windows 95, the company president pointed out. But at the same time, Microsoft was widely regarded as "making great products" by the group of 2,031 business managers, computer professionals, and home users who responded to IDG's survey on the PC industry. When asked about their "attitudes toward Windows 95," only 31 percent of the survey participants replied, "It has beneficial features, and I'm looking forward to it." Another 20 percent answered, "I'm happy now, and don't need it." But 49 percent -- or almost half -- told IDG, "It's a version 1.0 product, and I'm skeptical," Moran said during his speech, which was entitled "Competing in PC Software In a Windows 95 World." Users also think that Microsoft has "too much dominance over the software industry," Moran added. Yet conversely, the customers "don't worry about Microsoft's dominance." Only 13 percent of the respondents reported that they "don't like" Microsoft's dominance, and merely ten percent expressed personal concern over being "too dependent on Microsoft." "Customers are open to new (software) products, so software marketers have an opportunity," Moran informed the audience. Microsoft, however, led on all five characteristics rated by the respondents as "strong motivators" for trying a new software product: "works seamlessly with desktop operating systems; improves teamwork and data sharing; lower support cost; works seamlessly with network operating system; and company has clear vision." And Microsoft also came out number one among the respondents on both "harder" personality attributes (technology leadership, visionary, successful, innovative, smart/savvy), and "softer" attributes (trustworthy, caring about what customers think, down to earth/friendly, "cool or hip"). But other major software vendors had their own followings, too. Novell received a 51 percent rating as "best product" for the characteristic of "works seamlessly with network operating systems," versus Microsoft's 66 percent. Lotus got 23 percent of the users' votes for "improves teamwork and data sharing," as opposed to 51 percent for Microsoft. On both the "harder" and "softer" personality attributes, Microsoft scored 64 percent, in contrast to 21 percent for Novell and 15 percent for Lotus. During the co-delivered talk on "Brand and the Buying Process," Scott Kleinman, director of strategic research for IDG's Marketing Division, noted that, since a similar IDG study last year, Microsoft Word has surpassed Novell's WordPerfect in "top-of-mind- awareness" for word processors, and that Microsoft Excel has done the same over Lotus 1-2-3 among spreadsheets. But on the other hand, the numbers of users who said they wanted to "stand by their brand" were exactly the same this year for Excel and 1-2-3: 12 percent for both spreadsheets. And the numbers of customers who said they would "make a strong stand or actively plead with the boss" to use a particular word processor actually increased more significantly this year for WordPerfect (rising from 50 percent to 58 percent) than for Word (inching up one point to 51 percent). In the PC hardware realm, Apple scored a resounding 36 percent on brand loyalty, in comparison to just 2 percent for Packard Bell, said Jeff Goodell, a partner at Griggs/Anderson/Prescott. And in the portable PC market, Apple took second place among all brands, at 20 percent, in terms of "customers willing to pay a price premium." Winning first place this year on that question, at 28 percent, was IBM, a company that has "surged quite a bit" in the portable arena from its previous 20 percent, according to Kleinman. Apple's score on the question last year was 46 percent. Also in this year's survey, Apple ranked number two behind IBM for both "awareness" and "consideration" in the home market, Kleinman said. Compaq came in third among the home users, and Packard Bell fourth. In a meeting with Newsbytes at the close of the presentation, Moran said that, although Apple's strategy is proving successful in the home market, and probably in specialized business markets such as publishing, IDG's survey results indicate that Apple does not seem to be capturing the "heavyweight" users who buy most of the PCs. Among desktop PC brands "preferred" by the heavyweights, Apple came in sixth at seven percent. Also among the "top eight" were: Compaq and Dell (tied at 22 percent each); Gateway (16 percent); Hewlett- Packard (11 percent); IBM (8 percent); Digital Equipment Corp. (6 percent); and AST (4 percent). (Jacqueline Emigh/19950105/Reader Contact: IDG, 508-875-5000; Meghan Dvora, Alexander Communications for IDG, 415-923-1660) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 10/05/95 SUPERCOMPUTER Silicon Graphics Supercomputer Picked For Europe Project (NEWS)(SUPERCOMPUTER)(LAX)(00028) Silicon Graphics Supercomputer Picked For Europe Project 10/05/95 MOUNTAIN VIEW, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1995 OCT 5 (NB) -- Silicon Graphics Inc. (NYSE: SGI) has announced that its Power ChallengeArray multiprocessor supercomputing system has been selected as an official parallel processing architecture by Europort-2. The supercomputer will be used by a variety of government and private institutions and will be managed by Smith System Engineering. Europort is a formation of 32 consortia comprised of major industries and institutions throughout Europe. Europort-2 is the second supercomputer project funded by the European Commission. Some of the end-user partners include: Bayer, British Aerospace, Merck, Ericsson, Municipality of Barcelona, Philips, and Unilver. Europort claims its "main objective is to create a European Community of industrial users who are able to exploit the opportunities provided by the use of parallel high-performance computing in order to enhance their competitiveness." Some of the applications include computational chemistry, oil and gas industrial simulation, computational electromagnetics, earth observation, network simulation, and drug design. Mark Burger, manager of industrial chemistry for Silicon Graphics, told Newsbytes, "In just the area of pharmaceuticals there is no limit to the power and size needed to model potential compounds. With the Power ChallengeArray multiprocessor supercomputing system, configured for Europort, scientists will be able to model a single molecule of a drug in a vacuum or in water to determine its attributes. In the future they will want to be able to model that drug moving through a membrane in the stomach, varying such things as temperature and pressure." "We expect the results to show that parallel processing on Power ChallengeArray systems give the industry a significant improvement in throughput and productivity," said Dave Orton, vice president and general manager of Silicon Graphics' Advanced Systems Division. "This allows the industry to address new and more complex problems in computational chemistry, while allowing current computations to be performed in an interactive fashion through the graphical front-end." Under the agreement between Silicon Graphics and Europort-2, the system to be used is the 64-processor Power ChallengeArray system at the Silicon Graphics European Supercomputing Technology Center, located at Silicon Graphics' manufacturing facility in Cortaillod, Switzerland. Silicon Graphics supercomputing systems are deployed by research and development laboratories and corporations around the world. Installations include: the National Center of Supercomputing Applications (NCSA) at the University of Illinois, BMW, Bristol Meyers Squibb, Chevron, Glaxo Welcome, Texaco, NASA, Ford, Schlumberger, the University of Maryland, and the University of Delaware. (Richard Bowers/19950905/Press Contact: Ginny Babbitt, Silicon Graphics, 415-390-2527 ) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 10/05/95 TRENDS ****Technology Executives Conservative About Future (NEWS)(TRENDS)(DEN)(00029) ****Technology Executives Conservative About Future 10/05/95 SCOTTSDALE, ARIZONA, U.S.A., 1995 OCT 5 (NB) -- It's a tough job, but someone has to do it, and several hundred top executives from leading technology companies traveled to the Arizona desert mecca of Scottsdale recently to decide important technology issues, in addition to their favorite ice cream flavor. The meeting wasn't all fun and games. In addition to picking Ben & Jerry's Cherry "Garcia" as the flavor of choice for the ninth annual ice cream social, the industry leaders concluded that: Apple Computer is in trouble; Compaq, Intel, America Online, and Compuserve are riding high; and the traditional computer retail outlets are becoming increasingly less important. The industry leaders probably didn't have much trouble declaring Apple is in difficulty. The company has continued to lose market share and its chief financial officer quit this week, just 24 hours after the Agenda Conference participants made their pronouncements. More than half of the respondents said they are currently selling or developing Macintosh products, but just eight percent expects to still be doing so in 1996. Apple also faces a serious problem in the decline of developers willing to write new software for the Macintosh platform. More and more developers, seeing their vision of the future through Windows, have elected to write for that platform instead of for Apple's offering. Hardware platforms rely on software for their acceptance, and even Microsoft's public assurance that the software company will continue to develop products for the Mac can't assure its future, claim some analysts. America Online and Compuserve are also logical bets. Both offer graphical user interface software and an Internet connection for their subscribers. To further sweeten its offering, Compuserve this week announced a $4.95 per month worldwide Internet access service that provides the consumer three hours of "net" access and includes free access software. Personal digital assistants have fallen out of favor somewhat. This year, about half the executives predict PDA sales will reach $100 million by the year 1999, but only eight percent said their companies will develop software for the compact devices. At last year's gathering the survey predicted PDAs would break the $100 million barrier by 1997 and 30 percent of the respondents planning to develop PDA applications. Another shift from last year's survey is the expectation of slightly more than half the Agenda participants predicting a reduction in the importance of retail stores to the distribution of product, with mass merchandisers, computer superstores, and consumer electronics channels gaining ground. The executives also predicted the Internet or other online distribution methods would become more important. Most of the participants predicted PC sales will grow slowly but steadily around the world, with the growth rate being 10 to 25 percent annually. "This is a very conservative prediction, given that most other data predicts growth, particularly in Europe," said Stewart Alsop, executive vice president of Infoworld Publishing Company and the initiator of the annual survey. In what could be bad news for the companies scrambling to bring the world to the living rooms of America, just over half of the technology top dogs said the PC will still be the device consumers are most likely to use to access the information superhighway in the year 2000. One-fourth predict a household network switch will replace the PC by the end of the century, with a TV set-top box the next most popular choice. The Agenda survey was conducted by Intelliquest Inc., an Austin,Texas-based international market research firm. (Jim Mallory/19951005/Press contact: Deb McAlister, Infoworld, 800-381-3546) (SUMMARY)(GENERAL)(MSP)(00030) Newsbytes Daily Summary 10/05/95 MINNEAPOLIS, MINNESOTA, U.S.A., 1995 OCT 5 (NB) -- These are capsules of all today's news stories: ======================================================================== ------------| N E W S B Y T E S D A I L Y S U M M A R Y |---------- ------------| Thursday, October 5, 1995 |---------- ======================================================================== (c) Newsbytes News Network (Tm) Editor in Chief: Wendy Woods ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Newsbytes News Network's 1995 Update CD-ROM for Mac, DOS, and Windows is now available for $29.95 (includes s&h). Contains 1983-1995 news stories, more than 64,000 keyword searchable stories and 475 digitized images. For more information or to order, fax to 612-430-0441 or e-mail to 'administrator@newsbytes.com' -- MC, Visa, Amex accepted. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ CATEGORY HEADLINES (*** indicates today's top stories) STORY # ======================================================================== BUSINESS China - Bay Networks Hopes For A Larger Market Share....... 07 BUSINESS Silicon Graphics Asia Restructuring On The Cards........... 09 BUSINESS British Telecom Forms Indian Joint Venture With Wipro...... 15 BUSINESS Germany - Preussag Sells Off Hagenuk Operation............. 17 BUSINESS NEC Opens PC Divisions In Spain & Sweden................... 26 GENERAL Hong Kong - Computer Society Calls for Accountability...... 10 GENERAL UK - Mercury Comms To Sponsor Kids Multimedia Exhibit...... 19 LEGAL BSA Urges Hong Kong Governor To Form Piracy Taskforce...... 05 NETWORK Artisoft Ships Euro Language LANtastic Power Suite......... 23 ONLINE ****New Sponsor-Supported AIDS Web Site................... 01 ONLINE NetManage & Cylink In Internet Encryption Deal............. 04 ONLINE WebCrawler's New Interface, Sponsorships................... 12 ONLINE BBN Launches Web Page, Plans Threading, "Visionaries....... 24 PC UK - NEC Unveils Budget CD Jukebox System.................. 13 SUPERCOMP Silicon Graphics Supercomputer Picked For Europe Project... 28 TELECOM China - Hunan & Liaoning Expand Analog Cellular Nets....... 03 TELECOM Oracle & Philips Launch E-Mail For Screen Phone............ 11 TELECOM Germany's Siemens In Digital Comms Joint Ventures.......... 18 TELECOM UK - Low-Cost ISDN Card Intro'd............................ 25 TRENDS UK - Sony's Battery-Powered Data/Audio Mini Disk System.... 02 TRENDS Report Urges Hong Kong into Software Development........... 06 TRENDS Apple Claims Computers Good For Students................... 08 TRENDS ****Oracle's Vision Of Networked Future................... 16 TRENDS ****Distribution Key As Internetworking Firms Converge.... 20 TRENDS ****Microsoft's "Harder Side" Better To Hit - Survey...... 27 TRENDS ****Technology Executives Conservative About Future....... 29 WINDOWS UK - Sophos Intros Windows 95 Virus Scanner................ 14 WINDOWS ABC Graphics Goes 3-D...................................... 21 WINDOWS ABI Offers Business Listings On CD......................... 22 ======================================================================== These are the headlines and first paragraphs of each story, in order: 1 -> ****New Sponsor-Supported AIDS Web Site -- Information on AIDS presented as a "global community" is hitting the Internet's World Wide Web through a new sponsor-supported site. Called "The Body," the site is touted as a one-stop shop for reaching AIDS experts, organizations, and publications nationwide. 2 -> UK - Sony's Battery-Powered Data/Audio Mini Disk System -- Sony has unveiled the MD Data, a battery-power, portable mini-disk unit that can store up to 140 megabytes (MB) of data, as well as up to 60 minutes of audio. 3 -> China - Hunan & Liaoning Expand Analog Cellular Nets -- Ericsson China has signed two major contracts with the Hunan Province and Liaoning Province Telephone Companies. Terms of both contracts call for the telecoms company to expand the province's respective analog cellular networks. 4 -> NetManage & Cylink In Internet Encryption Deal -- NetManage, a TCP/IP (Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol) specialist company, has signed a licensing deal with Cylink Corporation. 5 -> BSA Urges Hong Kong Governor To Form Piracy Taskforce -- The Governor of Hong Kong, Chris Patten, has received a letter urging him to create a taskforce to stamp out software piracy in the British colony which, according to the Business Software Alliance (BSA) is costing its members up to US$500,000 a month in lost sales. 6 -> Report Urges Hong Kong into Software Development -- A Dataquest report just completed for Hong Kong's Industry Department calls for the territory to focus on becoming a packaged software development center competing in the global marketplace. 7 -> China - Bay Networks Hopes For A Larger Market Share -- Bay Networks plans an investment of US$5 million in China over the next two years to further expand its network of distributors, value-added resellers, and system integrators. 8 -> Apple Claims Computers Good For Students -- Apple Computer Inc., (NASDAQ: AAPL) has marked the tenth anniversary of its Apple Classrooms of Tomorrow (ACOT) research project with the release of a report of what happens when teachers and students are given access to technology. The report concludes that computers are good, and if given the chance, can solve the problems confronting education. 9 -> Silicon Graphics Asia Restructuring On The Cards -- Reports circulating out of Hong Kong's IT (information technology) Expo last week suggest a massive restructuring within the senior ranks of Silicon Graphics (SGI) in Asia. It seems the regional office is to move from Tokyo to Hong Kong, creating a ripple effect through the rest of the organization. 10 -> Hong Kong - Computer Society Calls for Accountability -- The Hong Kong Computer Society (HKCS) has publicly called on the government to create a registration scheme to ensure accountability among information technology (IT) professionals. 11 -> Oracle & Philips Launch E-Mail For Screen Phone -- Oracle Corp. (NASDAQ:ORCL) and Philips Home Services demonstrated at the Telecom 95 trade show their electronic-mail service for Philips' screen phones. The service will be available in the United States in the first quarter of 1996, Philips spokesman Paul Chapple told Newsbytes, and elsewhere later. 12 -> WebCrawler's New Interface, Sponsorships -- America Online's (NASDAQ:AMER) WebCrawler, an Internet World Wide Web search engine available to all Web users free of charge, now has both a new interface design and advertisers to possibly help keep the service free to use by real Web crawlers. 13 -> UK - NEC Unveils Budget CD Jukebox System -- NEC has unveiled the MultiSpin, claimed to be the industry's first internal quad-speed CD-ROM drive for PCs that can also multichange between four full-size disks. Despite its technical complexity, the unit, which fits into a single drive bay on a PC, will sell for just UKP199 ($320). 14 -> UK - Sophos Intros Windows 95 Virus Scanner -- Sophos has announced plans to ship a Windows 95 version of its Sweep virus detection software. According to Richard Jacobs, Sophos' technical manager, the package will ship from November. 15 -> British Telecom Forms Indian Joint Venture With Wipro -- British Telecom (BT), has announced the formation of a joint venture company with Wipro Limited of India. The new company, Wipro BT, will offer VSAT (very small aperture terminals) and VANS (value-added network services) to companies across the Indian continent. 16 -> ****Oracle's Vision Of Networked Future -- Larry Ellison, chairman and chief executive officer (CEO) of Oracle Corporation (NASDAQ:ORCL), has unveiled his company's view of the future information superhighway at the Telecom 95 expo in Geneva. 17 -> Germany - Preussag Sells Off Hagenuk Operation -- Preussag Systemhaus, the German industrial group, has announced the sale of Hagenuk Telecom to Escom, the PC manufacturer, for an undisclosed sum. 18 -> Germany's Siemens In Digital Comms Joint Ventures -- Siemens has announced the formation of two cross-border joint ventures with, respectively, Italtel in Italy, and General Electric in the UK. 19 -> UK - Mercury Comms To Sponsor Kids Multimedia Exhibit -- Mercury Communications, in collaboration with parent company Cable & Wireless, has announced plans to sponsor a "live" communications network exhibition, to be held in the London's Science Museum. 20 -> ****Distribution Key As Internetworking Firms Converge -- Both local area networking (LAN) and wide area networking (WAN) companies are trying to broaden their product lines to address the internetworking market from end to end, says the co-author of a recent study. While the companies' strategies vary widely, distribution is a critical factor. 21 -> ABC Graphics Goes 3-D -- Micrografx Inc. (NASDAQ: MGXI) has added three-dimensional (3-D) capability to its ABC Graphics Suite with the inclusion of Instant 3D for Windows 95 from Visual Software. 22 -> ABI Offers Business Listings On CD -- American Business Information Inc.(NASDAQ:ABI) has released three new CD-ROMs that collectively contain almost six million listings of business professionals, small business owners, and women who own businesses. ABI promotes the information collections as "sources for sales leads." 23 -> Artisoft Ships Euro Language LANtastic Power Suite -- Artisoft Inc. has announced shipment of European language versions of its LANtastic Power Suite and its LANtastic Dedicated Server. 24 -> BBN Launches Web Page, Plans Threading, "Visionaries -- BBN, the "founder of the Internet," will soon add threaded conferencing. along with input from "industry visionaries," to a newly launched Web page that already includes offerings like a special section for CEOs (chief executive officers) and CIOs (chief information officers), plus TechWatch, for highlighting emerging technologies at BBN, revealed BBN's Catherine Miller, in an interview with Newsbytes. 25 -> UK - Low-Cost ISDN Card Intro'd -- AVM Telecom, claimed to be Europe's leading supplier of ISDN (integrated service digital network) controllers, has launched the UK's cheapest ISDN system. Pricing in at just UKP198 ($320), the AVM A1 ISDN PC card is being sold into the UK and German markets initially. 26 -> NEC Opens PC Divisions In Spain & Sweden -- NEC has announced it is opening new PC division offices in Spain and Sweden. The move comes after soaring sales of its PC products in those countries, through its existing distributor arrangements. 27 -> ****Microsoft's "Harder Side" Better To Hit - Survey -- Although 69 percent of PC users are "cautious" about Windows 95, Microsoft is still "strongly perceived as delivering good products," and vendors who want to take on the software giant should hit at Microsoft's "harder side," said Peter Moran, president of IDG's Marketing Services Division, during a presentation of IDG survey results in Boston. 28 -> Silicon Graphics Supercomputer Picked For Europe Project -- Silicon Graphics Inc. (NYSE: SGI) has announced that its Power ChallengeArray multiprocessor supercomputing system has been selected as an official parallel processing architecture by Europort-2. The supercomputer will be used by a variety of government and private institutions and will be managed by Smith System Engineering. 29 -> ****Technology Executives Conservative About Future -- It's a tough job, but someone has to do it, and several hundred top executives from leading technology companies traveled to the Arizona desert mecca of Scottsdale recently to decide important technology issues, in addition to their favorite ice cream flavor. (Ian Stokell/19951005) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 10/04/95 TELECOM ****Major Carriers Plan Lotus Notes Public Networks (NEWS)(TELECOM)(TYO)(00001) ****Major Carriers Plan Lotus Notes Public Networks 10/04/95 GENEVA, SWITZERLAND, 1995 OCT 4 (NB) -- Lotus Development Corporation has announced support for the Lotus Notes platform from eleven major public data and communications carriers. The carriers are British Telecom, Compuserve, Deutsche Telekom, Nippon Telegraph and Telephone, NTT Data Communications, SNET, Telestra, Telecom Italia, Telekom Malaysia, Unisource, and US West. The eleven will work together and with existing Notes public network carriers, IBM and AT&T, towards interoperability. The agreement means that Notes users can take advantage of the carrier's "strengths" and "global reach" to utilize its network as a global wide area network. Customers will soon be able to send messages across the world as easily as across the office, said Larry Moore, vice president of Lotus. With interoperability as an additional goal, system businesses can deploy services and applications on one network, but enjoy accessibility from customers using any of the other partner systems. In addition, Lotus recently announced Inter Notes, an Internet publishing package that allows users to convert Notes documents to World Wide Web pages automatically. At the Telecom 95 expo in Geneva, Jim Manzi, IBM senior vice president and chief executive officer of Lotus, announced the agreements, saying: "Today is a major milestone for Lotus, its customers, and business partners. These carriers have selected Notes to become core infrastructure for the next generation of business applications that require easy applications development, rapid deployment, and industrial strength security." The companies will use a specially optimized version of Lotus Notes Server version 4 software to build the Notes networks. The announcement is being seen as a firm signal that IBM, new owners of Lotus, wishes to make Notes a worldwide business electronic-mail standard. (Martyn Williams/19951004/Press contact: Lotus Development Corporation, 617-693-5625) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 10/04/95 LEGAL UK - Novell Offers End-User Legal Software Education (NEWS)(LEGAL)(LON)(00002) UK - Novell Offers End-User Legal Software Education 10/04/95 BRACKNELL, BERKSHIRE, ENGLAND, 1995 OCT 4 (NB) -- Following a trend started earlier this summer by Microsoft with its LegalWare end-user education program, Novell has announced plans for a major NetWare legislation and education campaign for the UK. According to Novell, the scheme has been piloted successfully in the company's Europe, Middle East, and African (EMEA) region and is now being rolled out in the UK, with a possible launch in the US later this year. The aim of the scheme, with a motto "Say yes to original software," is to educate users, and is a "direct response" to recent figures from the Business Software Alliance (BSA) which claimed to show that 43 percent of UK software is unlicensed. Announcing the campaign, David Godwin, Novell UK's country manager, said that many users have purchased their software in good faith, but "Through no fault of their own, have been supplied with an illegal copy of the product." Godwin is referring to the recurring problem of exceptionally good copies of Novell's packages, usually originating from the Far East, which find their way into European distribution channels. The problem is, since the end-user believes the package to be legitimate, problems regarding licensing only become apparent when the user asks Novell directly for telephone or similar support. According to Godwin, the legislation campaign is the first step in targeting dealers and resellers who are selling these illegal products. Novell is asking all its NetWare users in the UK to contact their authorized Novell resellers to check on whether their software is legal. Godwin explained that this is not a witch hunt. "If we find that an end-user has an illegal copy of NetWare, providing certain conditions are met, we will provide a license to the end-user free of charge, making available to the user all of the benefits currently enjoyed by users of legitimate software," he said. The objective of the scheme, Godwin went on to say, is two fold: "First, we wish to support users who have been disenfranchised by the actions of illegal resellers; and second, we are seeking information which will enable us to pursue these resellers through the courts," he explained. Current UK legislation, Novell claims, provides for a prison term of up to two years, as well as, or instead of, an unlimited fine for software theft. (Steve Gold/19951002/Press Contact: Vivienne Wilson, Novell Press Relations, +44-1344-724460, Internet e-mail vivienne_wilson@novell.com; Reader Contact: Novell UK, tel +44-1344-724000, fax +44-1344-724001) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 10/04/95 TELECOM UK - Hutchison Telecom Joins Fraud Avoidance Database (NEWS)(TELECOM)(LON)(00003) UK - Hutchison Telecom Joins Fraud Avoidance Database 10/04/95 BRISTOL, AVON, ENGLAND, 1995 OCT 4 (NB) -- Hutchison Telecom's Orange PCN (personal communications network) digital mobile phone company, has joined the Credit Industry Fraud Avoidance Scheme (CIFAS). The idea behind CIFAS, according to Hutchison, is to allow companies who are members to share credit information on suspect customers on a reciprocal basis. Each company records all known frauds under six different categories. When a credit check takes place, via any of the three main credit check agencies, they are advised if they "hit" an address where fraudulent activity has taken place. CIFAS, Newsbytes notes, was set up in 1991 and has a Police observer on its board of management. The company has around 140 member firms already, including American Express, Barclays, and Marks & Spencer's Financial Services operation. According to Lisa Gernon, Hutchisons group director of marketing, membership of CIFAS will help the company in battling fraud in its cellular phone, as well as paging and mainstream cellular, operations. "We already have stringent credit checking procedures and this adds yet another level," she explained. Fraud is particularly rife in the UK cellular industry, Newsbytes notes, owing to the high subsidies (UKP300 or more) offered by the cellular networks for signed contracts from users who are encouraged to buy phones, which cost around UKP200 trade, but are sold to the end-user at little or no cost, thanks to the subsidy. (Steve Gold/19951003/Press Contact: Richard Rumbelow, Hutchison Telecom, tel +44-1992-502600, fax +44-1992-502601) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 10/04/95 TELECOM Maltese Communications Conference Set (NEWS)(TELECOM)(LON)(00004) Maltese Communications Conference Set 10/04/95 LONDON, ENGLAND, 1995 OCT 4 (NB) -- The European Electronic Messaging Association (EEMA) has announced it is hosting its next regional conference in Malta on November 29 this year. According to officials with the not-for-profit organization, "Business Communications -- Transfoming the Global Society," will run for three days and has been jointly organized in conjunction with Computer Advisory Services (CAS) and Telemalta. Plans call for the conference, which is open to both members and non- members of the EEMA, to focus on business communications issues such as trading over the Internet, Electronic Directories, Security & Legal Issues in Messaging, Business Process Re-engineering (BPR), and the World Wide Web. The aim of the meeting is to "educate" anyone who has an interest in becoming more familiar with electronic-mail and messaging technology generally. The conference is aimed at anyone interested in these topics, with a specific additional interest in sales, marketing, and distribution. According to EEMA officials, the conference will be of additional benefit to telecom and information technology (IT) administrators and directors who work in either the private or public sectors and who are interested in the preparation of their organizations for the electronic methods of trading and other communications. On the first day of the conference, a seminar will be given on how an organization can use the Internet for its commercial operations in an "appropriate manner." Benefits and dangers will be presented, as well as ways of dealing with new problems and choosing "the right solution." During the second day, the focus will be on how communications can assist in change management and BPR. Organizations will be presented with ideas on rationalization of skill resources, while technology advances. On the third day of the conference, participants will learn how to exploit the Internet to gain maximum business benefits. Topics such as electronic directories will be discussed, and the session will address the issues, technologies and pitfalls associated with the creation of enterprise directory technologies. Issues such as security and legal matters will also be discussed. As with previous EEMA conferences, delegate pricing has been set at a low level, namely MP (Maltese Pounds) 95 for the first delegate and MP80 for subsequent delegates from the same organization. EEMA members receive the discounted MP80 price for the conference on the first delegate as well. (Sylvia Dennis/19950927/Press Contact: Claire Batten, Noiseworks, +44-1628-522122; Reader Contact: EEMA, +44-1386-793028) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 10/04/95 GENERAL EMC/Oracle/HP Move "Largest Database" To Mass. (NEWS)(GENERAL)(BOS)(00005) EMC/Oracle/HP Move "Largest Database" To Mass. 10/04/95 HOPKINTON, MASSACHUSETTS, U.S.A., 1995 OCT 4 (NB) -- "I wouldn't call the database `mobile." But it's certainly `transportable,'" said EMC Corp.'s Roy Sanford, during a discussion with Newsbytes about the move of a four terabyte (TB) decision support system (DSS) -- characterized by co-creators EMC, Oracle and Hewlett-Packard as containing the largest relational database on record -- from the Boston area, to Philadelphia, and back again. The new, jointly produced 1.3 TB Oracle relational database can be rightly described as "not just a very large database (VLDB), but an `ultra' large database, or `ULDB,'" said Sanford, who is the director of EMC's Solutions Partner Program. And although the Oracle release 7.3 database and surrounding DSS were originally put together for Internal Oracle User Week in Philadelphia in mid-September, the data warehouse application is no "one-shot deal." After spending several days on production and testing at EMC headquarters in Hopkinton, Massachusetts, and then transporting the eight-ton data warehouse down to Philadelphia, the three partners have hauled the DSS back to Massachusetts, where it will serve as a basis for further collaboration, Sanford told Newsbytes. The DSS prototype combines the Oracle database with an eight-way HP-9000 T500 symmetrical multiprocessor (SMP) system and four EMC Symmetrix 3500 Integrated Cached Disk Array (ICDA) redundant array of inexpensive disks (RAID) systems, each supporting over 1TB of data, according to Sanford. The EMC/Oracle/HP joint database effort differs in intent from VLDBs such as the database Oracle has devised for Digital Equipment Corp.'s AlphaServer, he pointed out. A primary goal of Oracle's VLDB for Alpha is "very large memory, related to how fast you can run Oracle operations by placing them in Alpha memory." The new EMC/Oracle/HP "ULDB"-based system, on the other hand, is aimed essentially at "high availability" decision support applications in industries like telecommunications, manufacturing, financial services, transportation, government, retail and insurance, he elaborated. After producing the new 1.3TB relational database, a team from Oracle put about 100 hours into loading the ULDB, which incorporates more than 5.5 billion line item rows, onto the Symmetrix ICDAs, Sanford said. In the prototype configuration, one of the ICDA RAID systems contains the data, and the other is employed for data joins and creation. The configuration is mirrored, in order to bring the aggregate size of the database to over 4TB, as well as to provide the redundancy required for "high availability." The partners then executed the database on the HP9000 SMP system, performing a newly defined stress-test for load, query, and data placement on storage systems. During the test phase, the three companies "successfully loaded, indexed and joined a full terabyte of data," including three "ultra large" tables, according to Sanford. "We packed the DSS up, shipped it to Philadelphia, and had it up and running again in 12 hours," he continued. A week later, the trio of companies went through similar procedures to move the DSS back to Massachusetts again, where it will be used to "validate scalability" and to establish new test procedures for ongoing DSS activities. Was the transport effort worth it? Sanford definitely thinks so. "The benefits are three-fold. First, we've shown that three industry partners can work together to meet customer needs. Second, we've clearly demonstrated that databases are capable and viable in `open systems.' And third, there's been a lot of knowledge transfer. The three companies are learning from each other," he maintained. The EMC exec then listed a few of the lessons learned so far. "Clearly, data placement in the data warehouse is critical, in that it affects the ability to query large tables," he explained. Beyond that, the partners have seen that, in a large data warehouse, hardware and software redundancy become especially valuable in maintaining high availability. Without redundancy, the possibility of losing data becomes more profound. But Sanford was also careful to caution that, at this point, the activities of the partnership do not constitute a performance test. "The three companies have agree not to release individual figures," he added. Now that the Oracle `ULDB' and accompanying DSS system are back in Hopkinton, the three vendors plan to continue putting the system to work. HP and EMC will each use results of the stress-test to `optimize' their products for other large-scale systems. Oracle, for its part, will incorporate the newly defined stress-test into its standard pre-release test suite, he told Newsbytes. In related news, he noted, EMC recently announced the sale of three Symmetrix 5000 ICDA and two Centriplex 2000 ICDA storage systems to AlliedSignal Inc. The $12.8 million automotive, aerospace and engineering manufacturer, which purchased two other Symmetrix 5000 systems last year, sealed this year's deal after evaluating other storage systems from IBM and Storage Technology, according to Sanford. (Jacqueline Emigh/19950929/Reader Contact: EMC Corp., 508-435-1000; Press Contact: Rick Lecroix or Dave Farmer, EMC, 508-435-1000) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 10/04/95 GENERAL Animated E-mail Greeting Cards (NEWS)(GENERAL)(LAX)(00006) Animated E-mail Greeting Cards 10/04/95 SANTA CLARA, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1995 OCT 4 (NB) -- Gold Disk Inc. has announced Studio M, a new product designed to create personalized animated greeting cards, multimedia photo albums, and interactive party announcements. Consumers can pull down templates and create personalized self-running multimedia greetings to family and friends by electronic-mail or on a floppy disk. Speaking to Newsbytes, Marshall Goldberg product manager for Gold Disk, said, "Within two minutes of opening Studio M, users can create a personalized multimedia greeting card. We have 50 pull-down templates that are missing only the message. The user adds their personal greeting or announcement and it is ready to e-mail. Photos, graphics, voice, music, or text can be added." "Until now, creating multimedia quickly and easily has been out of reach of the consumer. Studio M changes that by bringing multimedia into the home," said Allan Thygesen, vice president and general manager for consumer products at Gold Disk. "We designed Studio M to be easy, fun and affordable for consumers who are looking for exciting, new creative uses for their home computer. Think of Studio M as a multimedia printshop for the interactive age." Studio M comes with more than 50 templates, complete with animations, sound and special effects. These templates include greeting cards, photo albums, gift certificates, invitations and announcements. Over 1,800 pieces of animated clip-art, background images, sounds, and music clips are bundled with Studio M. Studio M includes a Solutions Guide that explains how to scan photos, insert images from a Photo CD or Photo floppy disk, capture video, e-mail a project to others, print in color at home or at a copy shop. Each template also provides help for adding personalized media, transitions, special effects, or messages to a project. Self-running Studio M projects can be distributed via e-mail or floppy disk, printed in either color or black-and-white, or played back on the consumer's own computer. A typical file is about 800-900 kilobytes (KB) in size, and plays back on any Windows PC with four megabytes (MB) of memory and 256 color display. The estimated street price for Studio M is $49.95. The product will be carried by national distributors, including: Ingram Micro, Merisel, and TechData. It will be available through all major retailers and mail- order companies, including: CompUSA, Computer City, Egghead, Best Buy, Electronics Boutique, Software Etc., Babbages, Tiger Software, and PC Warehouse. Studio M requires an IBM compatible 486 or higher personal computer running Windows 3.1 or higher (Windows 95 compatible), eight megabytes (MB) of RAM, 10MB hard disk space, 256 color display, a sound card, and CD-ROM drive. (Richard Bowers/19950929/Press Contact: Karen Garske, Studio M, 408-982-0200) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 10/04/95 WINDOWS "Plug-In" Makes Windows "User-Friendly" (NEWS)(WINDOWS)(MSP)(00007) "Plug-In" Makes Windows "User-Friendly" 10/04/95 ALPHARETTE, GEORGIA, U.S.A., 1995 OCT 4 (NB) -- Plannet Crafters Inc. is letting Windows 95 users "plug-in" additional functionality to the new operating system (OS) with Plug-In for Windows Version 2.6. The program creates a "user-friendly desktop environment" by adding features not found in Windows, according to the company. "Windows 95 filled in a lot of the holes that were present in Windows 3.1," David Mandell, president of Plannet Crafters, told Newsbytes, "but Windows 95 created some holes of its own. Plug-In for Windows fills those holes." He said even though the new version of the program is designed mainly for Windows 3.1, there are some 32-bit applications that will take advantage of Windows 95's 32-bit environment, including changing the font style in the titlebar. Future editions of Plug-In for Windows will have many more 32-bit functions for Windows 95, he added. Plug-In for Windows is different from other utilities that "replace" the desktop environment by literally "plugging in" what the company calls the "missing functions and features" of Windows. In fact, Mandell said Plug-In works hand-in-hand with many of those replacement utilities. The program has no icon and is accessible from any Windows application, the company said. The new version includes features like: nested groups in the Program Manager, support for a Separate Data Directory, a Title Bar Clock, reminder alarms, full sound support, one-button access to a customizable multi-level QuickRun menu, resource alerts, and custom cursors. Plug-In for Windows is available for $20, and quantity site and corporate licenses are available. A 386 PC or higher is recommended, along with a sound card, although the card is not mandatory. (Bob Woods/19950929/Press Contacts: Robert A. Toledo, Open City Communications, 212-714-3575; Public Contact: Plannet Crafters, 800-651-1000, Internet e-mail 73040.337@compuserve.com) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 10/04/95 IBM IBM Opens Advanced Pan-European Phone Support Center (NEWS)(IBM)(LON)(00008) IBM Opens Advanced Pan-European Phone Support Center 10/04/95 GREENOCK, SCOTLAND, 1995 OCT 4 (NB) -- The Scottish Silicon Valley, namely Greenock, has been chosen as the site for a pan-European telephone support facility by IBM. Officials with Big Blue say that the new facility will offer 24 hour support for users of the company's hardware and software products. The IBM HelpCenter has been set up alongside the company's European PC manufacturing facility in Greenock and will employ up to 200 multilingual helpline agents before the end of the year. Big Blue claims it plans to offer an average response time of under 30 seconds for every support call. Paul McNutt, manager of the new European HelpCenter, claimed that the high tech equipment used in the center will provide "fast and efficient dedicated telephone support" for customers all over Europe. Currently, countries already covered by the new HelpCenter include the UK, Ireland, Belgium, France, Luxembourg, and Switzerland. IBM has installed extended links to its existing help center lines in these countries, routing calls to the Greenock facility, but offering the service for the price of an inland call in these countries. "This is one-stop support for European customers. From anywhere in Europe, a customer can call the HelpCenter for the price of a domestic phone-call and be immediately connected to a technical support agent, fluent in his or her language. Highly trained HelpCenter's staff will handle calls from the novice users to the technical guru," he explained. According to McNutt, the HelpCenter will look after all users of IBM PC hardware and software users, including the Aptiva range of home computers, the commercial desktop line, IBM PC servers and ThinkPad mobile computers, OS/2 Warp system, and many other IBM software products. McNutt claims that, with the wide variety of technical support for many IBM products, the company wants to establish its position on the market as a "responsible dealer and post-buy service provider." Commenting on this week's opening of the new center, David Winn, general manager of the IBM PC Company's Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA) region said that the company understands how important it is to be there when the customers need them. "Our investment in this new HelpCenter is further evidence of our commitment to delivering high-quality, fast and reliable support that is unrivaled in the region," he said. (Sylvia Dennis/19950929/Press Contact: Vincent Smith, +44-1256-344430, Internet e-mail vincent_smith@uk.ibm.com; Reader Contact: IBM, tel +44-171-202-3744, fax +44-171-202-3792) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 10/04/95 TELECOM The Radiopager Joins The Mobile Comms Revolution (NEWS)(TELECOM)(LON)(00009) The Radiopager Joins The Mobile Comms Revolution 10/04/95 DARLINGTON, TYNE AND WEAR, ENGLAND, 1995 OCT 4 (NB) -- During a visit Newsbytes made to Hutchison Telecom's communication headquarters recently, we had a chance to talk with Tony Vimal, Hutchison's product marketing manager, about the possibilities of linking electronic-mail to the "humble" radiopager. According to Vimal, after a period of several years during which most people shunned the pager, or beeper, in favor of the mobile phone, users are becoming sophisticated in their approach to mobile comms, and are starting to appreciate the pager as a product that is actually superior to the mobile phone, since it allows messages to be taken by a human operator, and relayed discreetly to the pager, even if they are in a meeting, since many pagers can be set to operate in a silent, vibrating alert mode. While Lotus has been promoting the cc:Mail pager gateway for PC environments, Newsbytes suggested that Microsoft would do well to introduce a similar gateway module for Microsoft Mail. Vimal agreed, but noted that there were several issues involved, not the least being one of "support." The support issues, he said, meant that, while Hutchison might be interested in developing universal server paging package, which conformed to the TAP paging protocol found in computer-paging interface applications, the support issues precluded this. "We are a communications company, not a software company. While we could develop such a package, our support staff are not geared up for supporting computer users. This is the main reason why we have not developed this technology yet," he explained. Interestingly, Vimal noted that, while the media discusses the interfacing of e-mail systems to pagers a lot in Europe, the take-up of the facility is only limited. This contrasts with the US, he noted, adding that in-bound mobile calls in the US tend to be chargeable, whereas pager calls are usually not billable to the recipient. "This means that people are more aware of the pager as a communications device, since it works just as well in many situations, but also costs less to run than a mobile phone," he said. Increasingly, however, users are becoming aware of how the pager can be used in conjunction with e-mail. Already, several commercial packages are available in the US which conform to TAP protocol standards and allow interfacing. compuserve and several cellular operators are known to be experimenting with e-mail to paging services, and Hutchison Orange is looking at the possibility of introducing such a service early next year. "People are coming back to the pager as a communications tool, and realizing its advantages over a mobile phone. This is good for the mobile communications industry," Vimal commented. (Steve Gold/19950929/Press Contact: Paragon Communications, +44-171- 734-6030; Reader Contact: Hutchison Telecom, tel +44-1992-502600, fax +44-1992-502601) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 10/04/95 WINDOWS Delrina Unveils Telephone Add-On For WinFax (NEWS)(WINDOWS)(TOR)(00010) Delrina Unveils Telephone Add-On For WinFax 10/04/95 TORONTO, ONTARIO, CANADA, 1995 OCT 4 (NB) -- Delrina Corp. (TSE:DC; NASDAQ:DENAF) has announced TalkWorks, an add-on for its WinFax facsimile software that works with a voice-capable modem as a substitute for a telephone answering machine. Delrina expects the software to appeal to home and small-business users, as well as independent professionals, company spokesman Shelly Sofer told Newsbytes. TalkWorks will ship as part of Delrina's CommSuite 95 applications suite, and will also be available to WinFax users on request for a shipping and handling fee of about $15, Sofer said. Besides acting as an answering machine, TalkWorks can distinguish voice from fax calls on a single line -- this capability does not depend on having the telephone company's distinctive ring feature with separate voice and fax numbers, Sofer said -- and can provide fax-on-demand capabilities and support voice telephony features such as speed dialing, hands-free operation through a full-duplex speakerphone, and conference calling. It also supports caller identification so the owner can see who is calling before deciding whether to pick up the telephone, though Sofer noted that this capability is not available from all telephone companies today. The software also can handle multiple mailboxes, so that a caller can choose to leave a message for one of several people by pressing a number on a telephone keypad. WinFax with the TalkWorks add-on cannot support fax and voice communications on separate lines, Sofer said, except if two copies of the software are used. Thomas Clancy, an independent software tester in Massachusetts who was a TalkWorks beta tester, told Newsbytes the software would be quite suitable for a home office like his own or for a small business. The user interface makes TalkWorks easy to use, Clancy said, and the beta code appeared stable. "I haven't run into any bugs," he said. The software is to be available by the end of the year, Delrina said. Delrina is on the Internet World Wide Web at http://www.delrina.com . (Grant Buckler/19951003/Press Contact: Shelly Sofer, Delrina, 416-441-4702, Internet e-mail shellys@delrina.com; Public Contact: Delrina, 800-268-6082) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 10/04/95 ONLINE Wollongong Unveils Emissary Web Browser Technology (NEWS)(ONLINE)(LON)(00011) Wollongong Unveils Emissary Web Browser Technology 10/04/95 BRACKNELL, BERKSHIRE, ENGLAND, 1995 OCT 4 (NB) -- Wollongong, the business networking company, has taken the wraps off two new Internet packages: Emissary Desktop Edition and Emissary Office Edition. The Internet suites, which will be sold on a global basis through Wollongong offices and distributors around the world, allow users to browse, organize, and work with data on the Internet. Although the release of Internet suites is nothing new in the Internet-savvy world of today, it marks an interesting change, as Wollongong markets its products mainly through its direct sales force around the world, with limited sales through the value-added reseller channels. This means that the Internet packages will almost certainly be sold as an add-on to existing Wollongong packaged products, rather than as a shrink-wrapped system on their own. The Desktop Edition, which sells for UKP125 in Europe, supports telnet and Web browsing functions, as well as the creation of multimedia mail or news messages, and allows users to see text, graphics, sound, and file attachments in a single window. The suite also features an integral HTML (hypertext markup language) editor, and supports local area network (LAN)-based connectivity with Wollongong's VXD-based TCP/IP (Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol) stack system. The Office Edition of Emissary sells for UKP299 in Europe and includes all the features of the Desktop Edition, as well as the ability to log in with advanced terminal emulation including DEC VT, IBM 3270/5250, and Wyse 50/60 standards. This version also allows users to publish directly on to the network using a personal FTP (File Transfer Protocol) server, as well as print with IPR/LPR utilities. According to Bob Lawton, Wollongong's vice president of marketing, both packages run under Windows 3,1, Windows for Workgroups 3,11, Windows 95, and Windows NT. Apart from being sold through direct and VAR channels, what's so special about Emissary over, say, Quarterdeck's Internet Suite? According to Wollongong, the Emissary range are built on extensible, object-oriented architecture that uses the company's Client Object Linking Technology (COLT). COLT is billed as an open application programming interface (API) that allows corporate information technology) (IT) departments, VARs and systems integrators to build new or upgrade existing capabilities that simply "snap in" software-wise into the main Emissary code. Using this approach, Wollongong claims, allows any new component to use existing Emissary services for user interface, file management, electronic-mail, protocol and transport handling, image viewing, and HTML editing. (Steve Gold/19951003/Press Contact: Citigate Technology, +44-1604- 232223; Reader Contact: Wollongong US, 415-596-7100) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 10/04/95 BROADCAST Canadian MSAT Network Live, Nearing Commercial Launch (NEWS)(BROADCAST)(TOR)(00012) Canadian MSAT Network Live, Nearing Commercial Launch 10/04/95 OTTAWA, ONTARIO, CANADA, 1995 OCT 4 (NB) -- Canada's Mobile Satellite Communications (MSAT) network is now operating and being tested, and will be ready for commercial service before year-end, according to its operator, TMI Communications and Co. The service, which uses a satellite that covers most of North America, the Caribbean and Central America, will provide mobile voice communications, and later data and facsimile, from almost anywhere in Canada, TMI said. It will not compete directly with cellular and other land-based mobile communications services, company spokeswoman Janis Downey told Newsbytes. Rather, TMI expects its customers will mainly be those who need mobile communications in remote areas the existing wireless networks -- and even the wired networks in some cases -- do not serve. Some customers will use the MSAT network when they are out of range of cellular, but switch to cellular in urban areas, Downey said. To support that, TMI's equipment offerings include one telephone that works with cellular as well as with the MSAT network, and Mobility Canada, the cellular arm of the Stentor phone-company consortium, will be a national distributor for TMI. TMI expects the network to enter commercial service before the end of the year, initially just supporting voice communications. Support for data transmission at 4,800 bits-per-second will follow within a few months, Downey said, and TMI is currently negotiating with a supplier of facsimile equipment to work with the network. Further details of that agreement could be released within a couple of weeks, she said. The launch of commercial MSAT service will be the payoff at the end of a rough road for TMI, which has had to delay the service more than once over the past few years. Launched as Telesat Mobile in 1988, the company briefly slipped into bankruptcy in 1993 before re-emerging as TMI Communications. It is now controlled by BCE Ltd., the holding company for Bell Canada and Northern Telecom Ltd. as well as other interests. (Grant Buckler/19951003/Press Contact: Janis Downey, TMI, 800-558-4702, Internet e-mail j.downey@tmi.telesat.ca; Public Contact: TMI, tel 613-742-0000, fax 613-742-4100) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 10/04/95 TELECOM Voiceview Adds Digital Simultaneous Voice/Data (NEWS)(TELECOM)(DEN)(00013) Voiceview Adds Digital Simultaneous Voice/Data 10/04/95 BOULDER, COLORADO, U.S.A., 1995 OCT 4 (NB) -- Radish Communications Systems Inc. has announced the availability of digital simultaneous voice/data (DSVD) under the Voiceview protocol. Voiceview allows integrated voice and data communications using a telephone and a PC. Voiceview can select from a variety of data modes during an ordinary phone call. Alternating voice and data transmission has been available in the past with Voiceview, but the new technology (Voiceview/DSVD) makes simultaneous voice and data services one of the selectable data modes. Voiceview can automatically determine which data modes are available on each end of a telephone call, allowing the most appropriate method of delivering data to be selected based on the equipment available. Dr. Guy Blair, Intel Architecture Lab's architecture marketing manager, calls the integration of voice and data "an important step for the advancement of the personal computer, helping to fulfill its emerging role as a true communications device." The new Voiceview/DSVD data mode supports the Digital Simultaneous voice and Data Protocols Specification 1.2 developed by Creative Labs, Hayes Microcomputer Products, Intel Corp., Rockwell, and US Robotics. The Voiceview protocol has already been licensed by major chipmakers, PC original equipment manufacturers and modem vendors. Companies announcing support for Voiceview/DSVD include AT&T, Boca Research, Cardinal Technologies, Creative Labs, Hayes Microcomputer Products, Intel Corp., Sierra Semiconductor, and Texas Instruments. Radish said Voiceview's existing data modes currently provide support for low-cost communications devices, digital phone-equipped call centers, interaction with visual voice response severs via interactive forms, and a fast-train data mode optimized for electronic commerce transactions. Support for DSVD adds person-to-person application sharing, remote control desktop conferencing, and real-time games. "The concurrent use of voice and data is an important trend that is changing our work style and the way we use computers," according to Lisa Pelgrim, a computer-telephony analyst at Dataquest. Pelgrim said the unification of Voiceview and DSVD under one protocol simplifies that evolution. Radish said devices incorporating Voiceview/DSVD are anticipated in prototype form at the Fall Comdex trade show in Las Vegas in November. (Jim Mallory/19951003/Press contact: Paul Davoust, Radish Communications Systems, 303-443-2237; Public contact: Radish Communications, tel 303-443-2237, fax 303-443-1659) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 10/04/95 ONLINE Univ Of Pittsburgh Plans Info Highway Conference (NEWS)(ONLINE)(TOR)(00014) Univ Of Pittsburgh Plans Info Highway Conference 10/04/95 PITTSBURGH, PENNSYLVANIA, U.S.A., 1995 OCT 4 (NB) -- The University of Pittsburgh plans to hold, what it said is, the first regional conference on the National Information Infrastructure on October 9. The conference will aim to develop an action agenda for implementing the information infrastructure -- often called the information highway -- in southwestern Pennsylvania. The university's School of Library and Information Science and its Interim Chancellor will sponsor the conference with support from the Henry C. Frick Education Fund of the Buhl Foundation. Toni Carbo Bearman, dean of the School of Library and Information Science, is the only academic on the federal government's 37-member Advisory Council on the National Information Infrastructure. Bearman told Newsbytes she hopes the conference can serve as a model for similar conferences elsewhere in Pennsylvania and throughout the United States. "We feel that what is going on here could easily be replicated elsewhere as well," she said. Participation in the Monday conference is by invitation only, the university said, and leaders of business, education, community organizations, and government have been asked to take part. Bearman said the intention is that after the conference those leaders will "pick up the agenda and work together to implement it." There will also be public demonstrations, including electronic tours of medieval cathedrals of Europe and of a three-dimensional model of a beating heart, from noon to 3:00pm. There will also be a directory of existing information highway projects, intended to "give people an idea of what is already being done and what can be done," Bearman said. On October 10 and 11, the university is to host a meeting of the Advisory Council on the National Information Infrastructure, at which the council is scheduled to work on the recommendations it will present to the government in January and discuss "Kickstart," its project to link every classroom and library to the information infrastructure by 2000. This meeting, at the university's William Pitt Union Assembly Room, will be open to the public. The National Information Infrastructure Advisory Council was set up for a two-year period to advise the administration on developing the information highway. Most of its members are corporate executives. (Grant Buckler/19951004/Press Contact: Michelle Amato, University of Pittsburgh, 412-624-4148, Internet e-mail amato+@pitt.edu) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 10/04/95 ONLINE America Online & ABC Sponsor Online Papal Mass (NEWS)(ONLINE)(MSP)(00015) America Online & ABC Sponsor Online Papal Mass 10/04/95 VIENNA, VIRGINIA, U.S.A., 1995 OCT 4 (NB) -- Pope John Paul II, already one of the most traveled popes in history, is making a big splash in the cyberspace pool. Two more electronic concerns, America Online (AOL) and the New York Times Electronic Company, are bringing a Papal mass to anyone with a computer and the right access. First, AOL and ABC News will simulcast what they call the world's first online mass given by the Pope into the homes of its members. ABC will provide a text simulcast of the Papal mass at Camden Yards in Baltimore, Maryland, live on AOL. The mass is scheduled for Sunday, October 8 at 10:45am EDT. Margaret Ryan, AOL spokesperson, told Newsbytes the simulcast will give AOL members a more interactive experience than simply watching the event on TV. "During the simulcast, members will have the chance to actually 'talk' to people who are there (at Camden Yards)," she said. "Also, they'll be able to interact with other people around the country in an auditorium that holds 5,000 people." In addition to the live coverage, AOL members can access to articles about the Papal visit, the Pope's schedule, and news from Reuters, the Associated Press, and the Catholic News Service. Subscribers can also discuss issues on message boards, and access related Internet World Wide Web sites. AOL members can reach the special area by typing the keyword: Pope. Papal coverage will also be on a new site by the online and Internet unit of The New York Times. The new site, at http://www.nytimes.com/pope , represents the first Web page by the unit, which also produces "@times" on America Online. The Papal visit is being widely covered in other areas of cyberspace. Newsbytes has previously reported on two such efforts. One comes from New Jersey Online, which is sponsoring a full site at http://www.nj.com/popepage . Besides providing up-to-the-minute coverage of the Pope's swing through New Jersey, the service is giving people a chance to write to the pope via electronic-mail, with the messages being delivered to the Pontiff's representatives before he leaves October 8. The Roman Catholic Church will also be on the Internet with the "Catholic Information Center on the Internet" (CICI). Besides offering continuous video and stills of the Papal visit, the site will provide a central directory on all Web-related information that reflects the "authoritative teachings of the Catholic Church," officials said. The Web site is at http://www.catholic.net . (Bob Woods/19951003/Press Contact: Margaret Ryan, America Online, 703-883-1625; Public Contact: America Online, 800-827-6364) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 10/04/95 WINDOWS Videos Reduce Office 95 Learning Curve (NEWS)(WINDOWS)(DEN)(00016) Videos Reduce Office 95 Learning Curve 10/04/95 PROVO, UTAH, U.S.A.,1995 OCT 4 (NB) -- Like any new software, Microsoft Office 95 takes time to learn. But a Utah company has introduced a line of videotapes it says can smooth out the learning curve for the suite of Microsoft productivity software. Keystone Learning Systems Corp. said its new video courses teach the "ins and outs" of the latest Microsoft software bundle that includes word processor Word, spreadsheet program Excel, and Powerpoint, a presentation graphics program. Some packages also include the Access database and Schedule+ scheduling/calendaring software. Keystone said its new videos can be used in the office or at home. Training is presented by certified trainers. The company promotes the courses as being able to take the place of, or supplement, formal classroom training. They can also be useful to train workers who either can't get away from the office to take an extended course or who prefer to learn in a one-on-one setting. The Keystone tapes cover basic, intermediate, and advanced features of each application. The videos are accompanied by a line of companion texts called Keynotes to reinforce the material presented on tape and to serve as a desktop quick reference. Taped courses are available in various subject combinations. You can get Word, Excel, Powerpoint, Access, and Schedule+ courses bundled in Standard, Pro and Plus combinations. The Standard set includes beginning, intermediate, and advanced videos for Word, Excel and PowerPoint on nine tapes totaling over 17 hours of training. The Pro set includes the Standard package plus beginner through advanced videos for Access and a bonus video on Schedule+. This package has 13 videos with over 24 hours of training. The Plus package comes with the entire content of the Pro set plus beginning, intermediate, and advanced training on the new Windows 95 operating systems on 16 videos with more than 29 hours of training. Keystone said it also offers one-tape classes on just the new features of Windows 95 for experienced PC users, and an Office 95 "integration video" that teaches users how the features of Word, Excel, PowerPoint and Access work together. Keystone spokesperson Clint Argyle told Newsbytes the cost of the Office 95 video courses are $349.95 for the Standard, $495.95 for Pro, and $579.95 for the Plus editions. You can also buy the course material for each subject and each user level separately. The beginning, intermediate, and advanced level tapes are priced at $49.95 each or all three for $129.95. Four-year-old Keystone said it offers volume corporate discounts and a 30-day money back guarantee. Argyle said Keystone also has courses for developers on subjects like Visual C++, Visual Basic and Visual Foxpro priced at $89.95 for each user level tape when purchased separately or you can buy the three-tape package for $249.95. The company also offers training on other company's products like Wordperfect and PerfectOffice from Novell and SmartSuite from Lotus Corp. (Jim Mallory/19951004/Press contact: Clint Argyle, Keystone Learning Systems, 801-375-8680; Public contact: Keystone Learning Systems, 800-748-4838) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 10/04/95 PC Dell Ships New Latitude Portables (NEWS)(PC)(DEN)(00017) Dell Ships New Latitude Portables 10/04/95 AUSTIN, TEXAS, U.S.A., 1995 OCT 4 (NB) -- Dell Computer Corp. (NASDAQ: DELL) has started shipping two new models in its Latitude portable computer family that feature active-matrix video displays. #IMAGE 1 20 TWPCX \images\95100417.PCX Click here for photo Active matrix displays provide a sharper image with higher contrast than their passive matrix cousins. That is accomplished by using a separate transistor to control each of the primary colors (red, green and blue) for each pixel. The pixels, or picture elements, are the little dots that make up each character and the images on your screen. Passive matrix screens use one transistor to control each row of pixels and are cheaper to build and use less power. Dell said independent research indicates that a notebook PC's display is one of the most important features customers consider when buying a new portable computer. The company said that is why it put high-resolution SVGA (Super Video Graphics Array) monitors in the new portables. The Super VGA video standard was established by the Video Electronics Standards Association in 1989. It initially specified a horizontal resolution of 800 pixels and a vertical resolution of 600 pixels but was later extended to include 1024 by 768 and now includes 1280 by 1024 resolution. The new Dell models include the XPiP90ST with a 10.4-inch screen (PC monitor dimensions are measured diagonally), an Intel 90 megahertz (MHz) microprocessor, a 420 megabyte (MB) hard drive, 8MB of memory, and a three-year warranty for $4,299. The first year of the warranty includes on-site service, and Dell will extend the on-site coverage to the second and third year of the warranty period for an additional $99. Configurations with more memory and larger hard drives are also available. The other system being introduced, the Dell Latitude LX4100T uses an Intel DX4 100MHz processor with a level 2 cache, a 420MB hard drive, 8MB of memory, and one-year of on-site warranty starts at $2,299. Dell spokesperson Adrianne MacPherson told Newsbytes you can equip your Latitude with an external Sony double-speed CD-ROM drive with integrated speakers for $499. MacPherson said the double-speed drive is the fastest one available at this time for the Latitude products. Some companies offer quad speed CD-ROM drives and 6X drives (drives that run six times as fast as the first CD-ROM drives that came to market) are now available. (Jim Mallory/19951004/Press contact: Adrianne MacPherson, Dell, 512-728-4100; Public contact: Dell, 512-238-4400/LAT-LX951004/PHOTO) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 10/04/95 BROADCAST RadioShack Intros Onscreen Services Device (NEWS)(BROADCAST)(DEN)(00018) RadioShack Intros Onscreen Services Device 10/04/95 FORT WORTH, TEXAS, U.S.A., 1995 OCT 4 (NB) -- RadioShack has introduced an interactive system that lets the user select from onscreen program listings, perform one-touch programming of their VCR, and check the news, weather and sports scores. RadioShack said the VideoGuide set-top receiver and its remote control unit works with any television set. A subscription to the VideoGuide services offered by BellSouth's MobileComm wireless paging network is required, with the cost starting at under $1 per week. To view a program, the user selects it from the on-screen program listing and clicks the button on the remote control unit, the same way you click on an icon on your PC to launch a program. The on-screen listings show the day of the week, the time, and the logo of the network the station is affiliated with. It's very similar to the block listings in printed television guides. As you highlight a program a description of up to four lines appears at the bottom of the program grid. The on-screen guide shows program listings for one week at a time. The sports listings show up-to-the-minute scores and detailed summaries of completed and in-progress games. You can also call up an on-screen "newspaper" that features regional, national and international news and weather from the Associated Press, United Press International and other news sources. RadioShack said VCR one-touch programming is equally easy. The user selects the program from the on-screen listing and clicks on the on-screen "record" button. VideoGuide had its public debut at the Macworld trade show in Boston last month. VideoGuide also has a feature that's part of the basis service called "smart sorting." VideoGuide spokesperson Anne-Marie Boucher told Newsbytes "smart sorting" knows which TV channel you watch the most and automatically moves that one to the top of the listings. Other channels are also arranged in order of viewing frequency. VideoGuide sells for $99.99 at RadioShack stores. Boucher said VideoGuide works with just about any television set and any VCR that's remote-control capable. If you have a problem getting the set-top box to work with an older TV, VideoGuide engineers said they can walk you through the necessary steps to make the system work, using the company's toll-free customer support line. When you purchase VideoGuide you get a free 30-day subscription to all VideoGuide information services with the system. Boucher said the basic service costs $4.99 per week, including on-screen program guide, one-touch VCR recording and "smart sorting." The Newsguide and the Sportsguide each add $0.50 to your weekly bill. VideoGuide wants to be known as a "green" company, so they prefer to bill you on an annual basis for a savings of about 20 percent. That brings the yearly cost of the basic service to $50, or $75 for basic plus either newsguide or sportsguide. You can get all the services for an annual subscription of $99 and the company said it offers discounts for multi-year subscriptions. (Jim Mallory/19951004/Press contact: Tony Margoulis, RadioShack, 817-878-4852/VIDGUIDE951004/PHOTO) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 10/04/95 TELECOM Advanced Voice Messaging For Namibia (NEWS)(TELECOM)(LON)(00019) Advanced Voice Messaging For Namibia 10/04/95 FLEET, HAMPSHIRE, ENGLAND, 1995 OCT 4 (NB) -- Mobile Telecommunications (MTC), Namibia's GSM (global system for mobile communication) digital mobile network provider, has entered into a contract with a European/African consortium, represented by Web Systems and Octel Communications Europe. Terms of the contract call for the consortium to provide messaging technology for MTC's network. The move is significant, not just for Namibia, but for GSM phone users, since it means that GSM phone subscribers in Namibia will have access to Octel's advanced voice messaging system. In addition, because Namibia's phone system is antiquated, MTC plans to offer voice-mail for anyone, whether or not they have a GSM phone. The idea is that people without a phone can use the voice-mail system as an answering system. MTC's GSM network, meanwhile, aims to fill a hole in terms of telephone market penetration, which is still relatively low in Namibia. According to MTC, provided the GSM service is priced correctly, it will be an ideal alternative to landline communications, which tend to be concentrated on centers of population, rather than across the whole of the country, which has a scattered population of around 1.8 million. Per Ericsson, a spokesman for MTC, explained that the voice messaging system is expected to be a best seller in Namibia, both for GSM subscribers and for direct subscribers. "Voice messaging is viewed as an additional, cost-effective communications tool that will make a significant contribution to the social and economic needs of Namibia, by enabling even those without access to their own dedicated phone to send and receive messages," he said. (Sylvia Dennis/19951004/Press Contact: Yvonne Caunter, Octel Communications Europe, +44-1252-303000) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 10/04/95 TELECOM Moscow Set To Have Digital Mobile Phone Network (NEWS)(TELECOM)(LON)(00020) Moscow Set To Have Digital Mobile Phone Network 10/04/95 MOSCOW, RUSSIA, 1995 OCT 4 (NB) -- Vimpelcom, the Russian mobile phone network company, has contracted with Ericsson of Sweden for the supply of a D-AMPS (Digital American Mobile Phone System) cellular phone network for the Moscow area. The contract, worth around $18 million, calls for Ericsson to install a digital net to complement Vimpelcom's existing analog AMPS cellular network and will cover the supply and installation of cellular base stations and minilink transmission equipment. The Vimpelcom network will be Moscow's first digital network and, as such, will avoid all the problems of cellular fraud, such as cloning of phone chipsets, that has hit Russian mobile phone networks so hard in recent times. Moscow's cellular phone network service providers have battled long and hard against cloning fraud, which is reported to account for around five percent of all calls made in the region. Part of the reason for the phenomenally high incidence of fraudulent cellular calls in Moscow is the operation of the Russian Mafia. The Russian Mafia, who are reputed to have greater control over the citizens of Moscow than the Government itself, impose taxes on all forms of business in Russia's capital and make extensive use of cellular communications, for which they very rarely pay. Vimpelcom already has 15,000 subscribers in Russia and the opening of the new digital network, with the possibility of roaming to other country's digital nets, is expected to attract a large number of new phone subscribers. D-AMPS is gaining ground on GSM 900 and 1800 digital mobile phones and, according to Ericsson, has around 1.5 million phone users worldwide, most of whom are in the US. Like GSM, D-AMPS has the ability to support roaming between networks, but its proponents claim that the technology makes better use of the available radio spectrum than GSM, and is a lot easier to integrate with existing analog cellular phone networks. (Sylvia Dennis/19951004/Press Contact: Per Bengtsson, Ericsson Area Radio Communications, +46-8-757-2159; Reader Contact: Ericsson Cellular Systems - American Standards, +46-8-404-2280) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 10/04/95 GOVT Australian Govt To Outsource Mainframes (NEWS)(GOVT)(SYD)(00021) Australian Govt To Outsource Mainframes 10/04/95 SYDNEY, AUSTRALIA, 1995 OCT 4 (NB) -- The Australian Department of Finance (DoF) one of Canberra's bigger users of computers, will consider outsourcing its mainframe operations. In other government computer- oriented news, a government committee has continued to study the problem of online pornography. The DoF put its toe in the outsourcing pond some time ago when it was looking at its applications development program, but found the water too hot and decided to keep things in-house. However, as its Amdahl 1400 comes up for replacement, it will try the pond again. The DoF is also looking at outsourcing as a possible route for its local area network support, and for other information technology (IT) requirements. The department believes all its IT functions are contestable. If private enterprise can do it better and cheaper, private enterprise will get the work, said the department. Down the corridor, after its debut hearing at Parliament House recently, the Senate Select Committee inquiring into the regulation of computer online services, thinks it will have to have another hearing in Canberra and hold sessions in Sydney and Melbourne and perhaps in other centers. When and where they will occur will depend on how the committee can slot the sessions into a busy Parliamentary calendar, and the volume and quality of submissions. The committee, which is worried about pornography and similar content on the Internet and other online services, hopes to complete its hearings in October, and plans to table its report in the Senate on November 30. That is the day Parliament is due to rise, but it almost always overshoots its schedule. The committee has also released a report based on a public seminar it held on Canberra on April 4. For a copy contact +61-6-277 3545, or fax +61-6-277-5809. (Computer Daily News/19951004) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 10/04/95 PC Hong Kong - Aztech's "Orchestra On A Sound Board" (NEWS)(PC)(HKG)(00022) Hong Kong - Aztech's "Orchestra On A Sound Board" 10/04/95 CENTRAL, HONG KONG, 1995 OCT 4 (NB) -- Singapore's Aztech Systems has introduced a three-dimensional (3-D), 16-bit, wave table sound card, called Sound Galaxy WaveRider PRO 32-3D. The company claims the board provides an exact reproduction of 128 instrumental sounds and 69 drum effects with its built-in 32 voice wave table synthesis. "The 3-D features in WaveRider PRO 32-3D add realism and professionalism to your corporate presentation, home entertainment and interactive games," said Michael Mun, president of Aztech Systems. He likened the product to a "live" first class orchestra on the desktop. According to the company, not only can film-quality sound effects be achieved with the product, but musical compositions can also be given "ambiance and depth." The firm claims a clear 3-D sound effect is created through a combination of SRS (sound retrieval system) with Aztech's 16-bit WaveRider sound technology. SRS is the technology used by Sony in its high-end television sets. The product does not require any special programming to achieve 3-D effects, whether in recording and playback of music, movie sound tracks, video games, or any other audio sources. Featuring MIDI (musical instrument digital interface) compatibility with Roland MPU 401 interface, it allows a choice of MIDI connections to musical keyboards and drum machines for recording and playback. With 13 multimedia and business software, the WaveRider is priced at US$159. Aztech has also announced a family of multimedia kits bundled with 6x speed CD-ROM drives and audio products. It says the Home Office 2000-6X is the first multimedia kit that bundles the Audio Telephony 2000 card with the 6X Speed CD-ROM drive. "The Home Office 2000-6X provides leading-edge answers to users who need powerful computing from the 6x CD-ROM drive and the convenience of a system that will function as a complete office. It does the job of a secretary and a clerk, providing 24 hours of administrative support, both at home and at office," said Mun. Audio Telephony 2000 is a six-in-one function card that integrates fax, modem, and sound features on a single add-on card. The pack is bundled with a pair of speakers, a microphone, and eight CD titles, including Microsoft Works, Microsoft Money, Encarta, and Dangerous Creatures. (Nigel Armstrong & I.T. Daily/19951004) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 10/04/95 ONLINE Hong Kong - ASM On The World Wide Web (NEWS)(ONLINE)(HKG)(00023) Hong Kong - ASM On The World Wide Web 10/04/95 CENTRAL, HONG KONG, 1995 OCT 4 (NB)-- Hong Kong-based trade publishing empire Asian Sources Media has entered the world of electronic commerce, announcing it would build a "massive World Wide Web site," publish CD-ROMs, and open an EDI (electronic data interchange) service, backed by its own trade management software pack. Called e-Trade, the EDI service is designed to link up with the freight-forwarding industry's CargoNet service and with HongKong Bank's Hexagon for clearing letters of credit. "We'll be ready to link up with Tradelink in 1996," boasted one ASM insider tongue in cheek. The snafu-plagued government trade document handling service is supposed to open before then. Sarah Benecke, chief executive officer (CEO) of ASM's Publishing Division, flew to Taipei recently to prepare for launch ceremonies. At the Hong Kong launch, she said a revolution was under way in the export/import business "and Asian Sources intends to lead it." ASM's General Manager of Content Peter Houston, told I.T. Daily that Asian Sources On-Line will be the center of the Web site that will extend out as far as importers and exporters care to take it. He said that, starting December, importers worldwide will receive monthly CD-ROMs along with their ASM magazines -- allowing buyers to search for products or suppliers, and scan product images or country reports. An introductory offer invites current advertisers to have up to four images and profile space on the disks for HK$2,000. Non-advertisers can have the same thing for double that, he said. Houston said the company had invested US$4 million building its electronic commerce platform. He said it was too soon to think about revenue projections or the extent of its electronic customer base, explaining that the number of traders who still weren't online was "significant." The CD-ROMs include an extensive range of products and suppliers from the company's huge advertising base throughout Asia, a year's worth of back issues of the publication in question, as well as trade and travel data, said the company. But much more interesting from ASM's standpoint is the button that allows users to click into Asian Sources On-Line directly. Tapping into Asian Sources On-Line (http://www.asiansources.com ), buyers will be able to get product and pricing data from both advertising and editorial sources. Participating exporters will appear monthly on both Asian Sources On-Line and on the CD-ROMs distributed free with magazines. "When a company takes out an advertisement in one of our magazines," explained Benecke, "we will set up a home page for them at no charge. We will provide Internet access for all of our advertisers, along with electronic-mail addresses. We'll make their transition to the future as painless as possible." She called the integration of publications, online services, CD-ROMs and trade management software a "significant breakthrough" that will shape the way trade gets done. The group, which publishes 47 monthly titles, claims to have the world's largest database of importers and exporters. It also claims a roster of 4,000 advertisers. (Nigel Armstrong & I.T. Daily/19950920) NEWS)(TRENDS)(BOS)(00024) ****Survey - PC Vendors Succeed By Targeting "Heavyweights" 10/04/95 BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS, U.S.A., 1995 OCT 4 (NB) -- PC makers like Compaq, Dell, and Gateway have landed in the top industry bracket by providing qualities such as "reliability" and "high performance" that appeal to "heavyweight" customers -- and other makers of PC hardware and software should follow suit if they want to gain market share, IDG officials advised, at a presentation of newly reached IDG survey results in Boston. But how these "heavyweight" customers rank the top ten characteristics varies markedly from one industry segment to another, the three marketing experts said at the meeting, which was attended by Newsbytes. In the PC segment, the heavyweight customers rated the descriptive qualities in the following order: reliability, high performance, aggressive pricing, customer service/support, "works well on a network," widely used/market standard, easy to install and use, and feature rich, said Scott Kleinman, director of strategic research for IDG's Marketing Division. But with regard to software suites, the order of preference was somewhat reversed, pointed out Jeff Goodell, a partner at Griggs/Anderson/Prescott. In that software category, the "heavyweights" are primarily interested in qualities like ease- of-use and "feature richness" that fall of the bottom of the list on the PC side. Peter Moran, president of IDG's Marketing Services Division, told the audience of "technology marketers" that IDG's 1995 PC industry survey follows a similar industry assessment conducted last year. Since its first days, he noted, the PC industry has been dominated by the group of people with the "critical skills" needed at any particular point in time. At first, venture capitalists were the dominant force, followed by technologists and manufacturers, who have recently focused on more "efficient" production of products. Today, we are moving into an era where marketers are coming to the fore, as development of "brand image" becomes more and more important. Results of IDG's 1994 and 1995 PC industry surveys show that "to build preference, a brand image must align with attributes critical to customers," according to Moran. As a consequence, marketers should "craft your image so that it is consistent with customer requirements and highlights your sources of differentiation." In this year's survey, IDG introduced a new question, which asks users to "think of the brand like you would (think of) another person," said Goodell. About 10 percent of the users questioned answered that they would "want and expect (the brand) to be faithful," he added. "And these are the kinds of customers you want." The heavyweights constitute the 20 percent of users who make 80 percent of expected purchases, according to Kleinman. Other characteristics of heavyweights include "broad expertise" across four to eight industry categories, strong influence over other purchasers, and the tendency to actively seek out product information. Just over three-quarters (76 percent) of the heavyweights consider computer publications to be "very important when purchasing," followed by friends/colleagues at 33 percent, and lesser numbers for manufacturer brochures/catalogs, VARs/consultants, dealers/salespeople/ and general interest publications/TV. The speakers acknowledged, though, that the IDG survey found some differences among various user groups. The survey was conducted among 2,031 respondents, including 788 computer professionals, 461 managers, and 782 home users. Dell and Gateway, for example, are particularly popular among more "techie" users, whereas IBM, Compaq and HP appeal more to business managers. Also, companies should adapt the findings to their own particular market situations, the audience was advised. Canon, for example, has gained three percentage points this year in "top-of-mind- awareness" within the inkjet printer market by targeting "middleweight" customers rather than heavyweights, noted Kleinman. Canon's success stems from recognizing that HP is virtually "unchallengeable" in the enterprise printer market, and pursuing smaller businesses and home users instead, with the message that "Canon makes printers that are right for you," he theorized. But a large part of the IDG presentation dealt with illustrations of how specific companies might find greater success by tailoring their products more closely to the characteristics considered important by the "heavyweights." Compaq and IBM, for example, both ranked relatively low on "aggressive pricing" and "customer service/support," and would be better off to improve in these areas, Kleinman said. HP's PCs are emerging as a "strong potential force." Dell did not do especially well on any particular measure, but succeeded on the basis of the "sum of its parts." Gateway "lagged on reliability, but dominated price." Apple seems to be emanating "misplaced messaging," since its ratings were high on "easy to install and use" and "feature rich" -- two characteristics not very important to heavyweights -- but were low on "aggressive pricing" and "high performance." But HP's PCs are emerging as a "strong potential force." In an interview with Newsbytes at the close of the presentation, Moran said that the IDG survey covered both the desktop and notebook markets, and came up with similar findings for both. Moran also noted strong trends at present toward the development of multinational corporations within the PC industry, and toward the use of a single ad agency by each corporation. (Jacqueline Emigh/19951003/Reader Contact: IDG, 508-875-5000; Meghan Dvora, Alexander Communications for IDG, 415-923-1660) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 10/04/95 GENERAL Lexmark Intros 5 Printers (NEWS)(GENERAL)(TOR)(00025) Lexmark Intros 5 Printers 10/04/95 GREENWICH, CONNECTICUT, U.S.A., 1995 OCT 4 (NB) -- Lexmark International Inc. has launched five new laser printers, including the company's first entry in the fledgling color laser market. All the new models are additions to Lexmark's Optra line. Lexmark also announced MarkNet IR, an infrared (IR) connection device compatible with the Infrared Data Association (IrDA) standard for wireless communications among computers and printers, and added support in its MarkVision network printer management utility for IBM's OS/2 Warp operating system and Microsoft's recently launched Windows 95. Lexmark's new color laser, the Optra C, prints 600 by 600 dots-per-inch (dpi), Lexmark said, and can produce 12 pages-per-minute (ppm) in monochrome or three ppm in color. It supports three screening techniques: continuous tone or ConTone, Color Grade, and Stochastic. Lexmark said the ConTone technique blends from lighter to darker areas for high photographic quality, Color Grade provides high-quality half-tone images, and the Stochastic technique eliminates recurring patterns in images and graphic fills through pseudo-random placement of same-size dots. The four new monochrome Optra models -- the Optra R+, Rt+, Lx+, and Lxi+ -- print eight ppm at 1,200 by 1,200 dpi and up to 16 ppm at lower resolutions, and have better processing performance and media handling features than their predecessors, according to Lexmark. Lexmark said its new MarkNet IR infrared adapter attaches to printers or desktop PCS to provide wireless file transfer and printing at speeds as high as 1.152 megabits-per-second (Mbps). It is compatible with the IrDA standard, a relatively new specification for infrared data transfer. Mike McGuire, an analyst with Dataquest Inc. in San Jose, California, said some elements of the IrDA standard have yet to be worked out, but Dataquest expects about 36 million computers and peripherals with IrDA support to ship in 1997, worldwide. Lexmark said it will shortly deliver support for OS/2 Warp and Windows 95 in its MarkVision network printer management utility. The company also said it improved installation and driver update facilities in MarkVision, added NetWare Directory Services (NDS) support for Windows 3.1x clients, and integrated MarkVision into the ManageWise network management product for Novell Inc.'s NetWare local area network operating system. Suggested retail prices for the new printers are US$6,849 or C$10,995 for the Optra C, US$1,749 or C$2,630 for the Optra R+, US$1,999 or C$2,995 for the Rt+, US$2,699 or C$5,365 for the Lx+, and US$3,549 or C$5,400 for the Optra Lxi+. (Grant Buckler/19951004/Press Contact: Colleen Browne, Lexmark Canada, 905-477-2311 ext. 272; Sheryl Steinberg, Cohen Group for Lexmark Canada, tel 905-886-8086, fax 905-886-8087) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 10/04/95 GENERAL DEC Plans More Storage Controllers For OEMs (NEWS)(GENERAL)(BOS)(00026) DEC Plans More Storage Controllers For OEMs 10/04/95 MAYNARD, MASSACHUSETTS, U.S.A., 1995 OCT 4 (NB) -- Digital Equipment Corp.'s new SC-4200 controller, which brings a new "entry-level" price point, is the first in a series of new storage controllers for PC servers and Unix that Digital StorageWorks will add each year to help "off-load" component production from OEMs (original equipment manufacturers), revealed David Guy, OEM business manager for StorageWorks, in a strategy briefing for Newsbytes. Guy told Newsbytes that Digital's StorageWorks now produces storage components that include controllers, RAID (redundant array of inexpensive disks) subsystems, enclosures, and disk drives for a total of about 30 "OEM partners." About 75 percent of these partners are located in the US, and most of the remainder in Europe. But the OEMs also include Goldstar in Korea and Epson in Japan, and StorageWorks expects to add more customers in the Asia Pacific region in the near future, he noted. StorageWorks' other OEM customers include: Cambex, ICL and DataLink in the US; ICL in Europe, DPT in both the US and Europe; and Siemens-Nixdorf worldwide. StorageWorks' OEM product line-up is similar to the StorageWorks family of "branded" storage products, except that the components produced for private labeling typically involve customization on Digital's part to permit OEMs to "differentiate" their products, said Guy. Some customers, such as IPL, add their own storage controllers to their private label RAID subsystems, while others, such as Cambex and DataLink, use a StorageWorks controller in their RAID subsystems, added Jim Hom, StorageWorks' product marketing manager for OEM, in a separate interview with Newsbytes. StorageWorks positions its products against competing offerings from a range of other component makers on the basis of the "breadth" of the StorageWorks line-up, along with Digital's reputation for "expertise in systems and I/O (input/output)," maintained Guy, a 15-year storage industry veteran who joined Digital last November. StorageWorks competes against players that include Data General and EMC in the RAID subsystems market, Mylex in the controller market, and Trim in the device enclosure market, he continued, pointing out that most of these other vendors do not "play" in all of StorageWorks' markets. Guy, whose job responsibilities at StorageWorks run the gamut from sales to engineering, has previously been employed by both EMC and Storage Technology. StorageWorks' new "entry-level" SC-4200 controller provides the same capabilities as StorageWorks previously released SC-4600 controller, except that the SC-4200 offers a smaller form factor, with only two SCSI (small computer systems interface)-2 buses, in comparison to the SC-4600's six SCSI-2 buses, according to Hom. The SC-4200 comes in a 5.25-inch form factor. The SC-4600, in contrast, measures 8.5-inches by 11-inches by one-inch, the product marketing manager informed Newsbytes. In addition to the two SCSI interfaces, the SC-4200 provides a fast-wide single-ended interface to the host computer, plus a choice of four or 16 megabytes (MB) read/write-back cache. The SC-4200 is available to OEMs either with or without StorageWorks' new HA-720W or L-720W enclosure. The HA-720W enclosure provides: redundant power supplies and cooling; "true hot swap" of disk drives and power supplies; and automatic monitoring, failure detection and recovery, and event notification. In addition, an Environmental Monitoring Unit (EMU) measures temperature, air flow, and status of the power supply. The new L-720W enclosure, for "lower-end applications," brings the same capabilities, with the exception of redundant power supplies and cooling, reported Hom. Guy told Newsbytes that Digital's future plans call for adding at least one new storage controller each year to StorageWorks' OEM product line-up. The upcoming controllers will reflect industry movements toward lower pricing and support for increasingly larger storage capacities, he revealed. Storage capacity of four gigabytes (GB) is already the "industry standard" at the low end of the network server market, and this standard will soon step up to 9 GB, according to the OEM business manager. (Jacqueline Emigh/19951004/Reader Contact: Digital Equipment Corp., 800-333-4545; Press Contact: Laura S. Kirkley, Digital, 508-841-6781; Janice Cashman or Heather McLellan, The Weber Group for Digital, 617-661-7900) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 10/04/95 APPLE ****Apple Board Of Directors Back Spindler (NEWS)(APPLE)(SFO)(00027) ****Apple Board Of Directors Back Spindler 10/04/95 CUPERTINO, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1995 OCT 4 (NB) -- Apple's board of directors have reportedly restated their "faith" in Michael Spindler, the company's chief executive officer. Meanwhile, the company's chief financial officer has resigned. A number of analysts and pundits question the strength and direction of Apple's upper management as the company attempts to solve product availability problems and its low market share of personal computers. A.C. Markkula, chairman of the board of directors, clearly stated, "The board will continue working with Mr. Spindler to address the challenges and exciting opportunities we face in the dynamic personal computer industry. The unprecedented demand for our new products demonstrated the growing appeal of the Macintosh platform." He added, "We are committed to actively working with the management team of Apple under Mr. Spindler's leadership to create value for our shareholders." Speculation about how long Spindler would remain in the head seat at Apple is in response to continued difficult times for the computer manufacturer. Two weeks ago Apple announced its upcoming fiscal quarter results would not meet Wall Street projections as the company continues to report lower revenues than expected. In January, the Wall Street Journal reported Apple's worldwide marketshare of personal computers to be at 8%. A recent Dataquest study now places Apple's marketshare at 7.4%. It was just a few years ago when Apple's marketshare reached the mid-teens. Media reports continually state Apple did not accurately project the demand for its products, especially the reduced instruction set computing (RISC)-based PowerPC Macintosh computers. At the end of its third fiscal quarter this past June, Apple claimed unfilled orders were in excess of $1 billion. Rather than a miscalculation, some analysts have said the problem lies with the inability of Motorola to produce the latest PowerPC chip in high volume. Fabricating chips from a wafer of silicon is a complicated process and reports indicate the yield of good chips per wafer may be as low as three or five for the fastest PowerPC chip, which is in heavy demand. The complaint against Apple is that it should have anticipated these yield problems and not announced new products without resolving chip production issues. Apple also faces a very successful launch of Microsoft's Windows 95 operating system. More than a month after its official launch, Windows 95 is selling about a million copies a week and no major bugs have surfaced. While Windows 95 may not be moving as fast as originally projected, its success to date complicates matters for Macintosh software developers who are facing a market in which only one person out of ten PC customers is a potential customer for their products. Porting an existing Windows software title to the Macintosh platform has its difficulties. In a recent discussion with a small Windows software developer, Newsbytes was told, "We cannot justify the cost of developing for the Macintosh platform. The price we would have to charge to recoup our development costs would make the price of the software too high to sell." In addition, Apple recently released a PowerPC notebook, called the PowerBook 5300. Two weeks into sales, Apple revealed the new lithium ion battery used to power the portable computer had caused two of the units to catch fire. After a quick recall, Apple quickly revamped the 5300 with a nickel metal-hydride-battery used in earlier PowerBook models and restarted shipment within 10 days. InfoWorld Publishing Corp. recently announced a survey of attendees of its annual Agenda Conference in Scottsdale, Arizona. Fifty-seven percent of them are now selling or developing Macintosh products. However, only 8% of them say they expect to do so next year. The board meeting also revealed Joseph A. Graziano, Apple's executive vice president and chief financial officer, announced his intention to resign as director, effective immediately, and leave the company by the end of the year. Graziano says his reason for parting is due to differences with CEO Michael Spindler, but the resignation is "amicable" and he will "continue working with Spindler." Michael Murphy, editor of the California Technology Stock Letter, told Newsbytes, "Losing a superstar like Graziano is not good for Apple. Now they have to go out and find someone of comparable stature. They are losing one of the most respected people in the industry. It would not surprise me if his resignation comes from the fact that he went to the board and asked for some dramatic changes. Perhaps the resignation of Spindler. The outcome is that the board decided to support Spindler and thus prompted the resignation of Graziano. No one really knows." Apple remains silent on other issues the board may have discussed. Even the length of the meeting is not publicized. Apple spokesperson, Pam Miracle, told Newsbytes, "Other than the official press release, we do not comment on anything related to board meetings." When asked if solutions to its current product availability problems were addressed at the board meeting, Miracle said, "In the past couple of weeks we have issued press releases regarding that issue. At this time, we have no other comments." (Patrick McKenna/19951004/Press Contact: Pam Miracle, 408-974-0688) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 10/04/95 ONLINE ****Compuserve's Sub-$5 Per Month Internet Service (NEWS)(ONLINE)(SFO)(00028) ****Compuserve's Sub-$5 Per Month Internet Service 10/04/95 COLUMBUS, OHIO, U.S.A., 1995 OCT 4 (NB) -- The Internet Division of Compuserve has announced a new worldwide Internet service, called Spryte. With a $4.95 per month fee, three hours on the Internet, and an hourly charge of $1.95 for additional hours, Compuserve says it intends to open the Internet community to the "largest possible audience." Using its global network, Compuserve says Spryte customers can use local access lines to access the Internet in more than 96% of the United States and overseas in numerous cities such as Brussels, Tokyo, Paris, Copenhagen, Berlin, Bogota, and Moscow. Spryte is a new venture which is separate from Compuserve's main online service, Compuserve Information Service. A Compuserve spokesperson told Newsbytes, "We want to make the Internet affordable for the world. With Spryte we will be able to make the Internet and the World Wide Web as common as an answering machine or fax machine." A Spryte account comes with the necessary Internet software, including Spry Mosaic, Spry Mail, and Compuserve's program for creating Web pages, Home Page Wizard. Spry Mosaic is available as a 16-bit or 32-bit application. The company spokesperson said the $4.95 package was designed for novice users who want to find an affordable way to be introduced to the Internet. As a user advances navigation skills and interests, they can change the $4.95 plan to a Silver Surf Club fee or a Gold Internet Club fee. The Silver Club is available for $9.95 per month and includes the first seven hours of use. The Gold Internet Club is offered at $19.95 a month and includes the first 20 hours of use. Additional hours of use on either program is charged in minutes at $1.95 per hour. Spryte should be ready for shipping by the end of this year. It is another Compuserve product which is the result of the purchase of Spry, a leading developer of Internet software, last year. Spryte customers will have their own electronic-mail address and an allotted space on the World Wide Web for a personal home page. Spryte also offers directories, Web searching capabilities, and a "what's new" section. (Patrick McKenna/19951004/Press Contact: Rebecca Gelinas, Compuserve/Spry, 206-442-2598) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 10/04/95 PC Thrustmaster Intros New Game Steering Console (NEWS)(PC)(DEN)(00029) Thrustmaster Intros New Game Steering Console 10/04/95 PORTLAND, OREGON, U.S.A., 1995 OCT 4 (NB) -- Thrustmaster Inc. (NASDAQ: TMSR) has announced shipment of its new Formula T2 driving control for use with motor racing simulation software. #IMAGE 1 20 TWPCX \images\95100429.PCX Click here for photo The T2 is an enhanced version of the earlier Formula T1 device. A driving control is analogous to a joystick for other games. The T2 "puts you right in the cockpit of your favorite racing car" with its steering console with steering wheel, gear shifter, two dash buttons, and a separate gas and brake pedal unit that sits on the floor. The dash buttons perform different functions depending on what specific game you are using the Formula T2 with. The system attaches to the PC's game port via an included cable. The T2 comes with a new dual clamping mechanism to mount the console unit more securely to any desktop surface. The T1 used velcro fasteners. The company has also redesigned the steering wheel to add a one-inch thick foam rubber grip that Thrustmaster said feels more comfortable and provides greater control with less fatigue. Thrustmaster spokesperson, Laura Rawlins, told Newsbytes the gas and brake pedals have also been redesigned and now look and feel more like real pedals. They also provide more control and less foot slippage than the older version, said the company. The pedals in the T1 version were rollers. The company also claims it improved the gear shift lever, giving it a longer throw for more realism. The Formula T2 driving control, including the steering console and the gas and brake pedal unit, has a suggested retail price of $179.95, and is available in retail outlets and through mail-order houses. (Jim Mallory/19951004/Press contact: Laura Rawlins, Thrustmaster, 503-639-3200; Public contact: Thrustmaster, 503-639-3200/T2-951004/PHOTO) (SUMMARY)(GENERAL)(MSP)(00030) Newsbytes Daily Summary 10/04/95 MINNEAPOLIS, MINNESOTA, U.S.A., 1995 OCT 4 (NB) -- These are capsules of all today's news stories: ======================================================================== ------------| N E W S B Y T E S D A I L Y S U M M A R Y |---------- ------------| Wednesday, October 4, 1995 |---------- ======================================================================== (c) Newsbytes News Network (Tm) Editor in Chief: Wendy Woods ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Newsbytes News Network's 1995 Update CD-ROM for Mac, DOS, and Windows is now available for $29.95 (includes s&h). Contains 1983-1995 news stories, more than 64,000 keyword searchable stories and 475 digitized images. For more information or to order, fax to 612-430-0441 or e-mail to 'administrator@newsbytes.com' -- MC, Visa, Amex accepted. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ CATEGORY HEADLINES (*** indicates today's top stories) STORY # ======================================================================== APPLE ****Apple Board Of Directors Back Spindler................ 27 BROADCAST Canadian MSAT Network Live, Nearing Commercial Launch...... 12 BROADCAST RadioShack Intros Onscreen Services Device................. 18 GENERAL EMC/Oracle/HP Move "Largest Database" To Mass.............. 05 GENERAL Animated E-mail Greeting Cards............................. 06 GENERAL Lexmark Intros 5 Printers.................................. 25 GENERAL DEC Plans More Storage Controllers For OEMs................ 26 GOVT Australian Govt To Outsource Mainframes.................... 21 IBM IBM Opens Advanced Pan-European Phone Support Center....... 08 LEGAL UK - Novell Offers End-User Legal Software Education....... 02 ONLINE Wollongong Unveils Emissary Web Browser Technology......... 11 ONLINE Univ Of Pittsburgh Plans Info Highway Conference........... 14 ONLINE America Online & ABC Sponsor Online Papal Mass............. 15 ONLINE Hong Kong - ASM On The World Wide Web...................... 23 ONLINE ****Compuserve's Sub-$5 Per Month Internet Service........ 28 PC Dell Ships New Latitude Portables.......................... 17 PC Hong Kong - Aztech's "Orchestra On A Sound Board........... 22 PC Thrustmaster Intros New Game Steering Console.............. 29 TELECOM ****Major Carriers Plan Lotus Notes Public Networks....... 01 TELECOM UK - Hutchison Telecom Joins Fraud Avoidance Database...... 03 TELECOM Maltese Communications Conference Set...................... 04 TELECOM The Radiopager Joins The Mobile Comms Revolution........... 09 TELECOM Voiceview Adds Digital Simultaneous Voice/Data............. 13 TELECOM Advanced Voice Messaging For Namibia....................... 19 TELECOM Moscow Set To Have Digital Mobile Phone Network............ 20 WINDOWS "Plug-In" Makes Windows "User-Friendly..................... 07 WINDOWS Delrina Unveils Telephone Add-On For WinFax................ 10 WINDOWS Videos Reduce Office 95 Learning Curve..................... 16 ======================================================================== These are the headlines and first paragraphs of each story, in order: 1 -> ****Major Carriers Plan Lotus Notes Public Networks -- Lotus Development Corporation has announced support for the Lotus Notes platform from eleven major public data and communications carriers. 2 -> UK - Novell Offers End-User Legal Software Education -- Following a trend started earlier this summer by Microsoft with its LegalWare end-user education program, Novell has announced plans for a major NetWare legislation and education campaign for the UK. 3 -> UK - Hutchison Telecom Joins Fraud Avoidance Database -- Hutchison Telecom's Orange PCN (personal communications network) digital mobile phone company, has joined the Credit Industry Fraud Avoidance Scheme (CIFAS). 4 -> Maltese Communications Conference Set -- The European Electronic Messaging Association (EEMA) has announced it is hosting its next regional conference in Malta on November 29 this year. 5 -> EMC/Oracle/HP Move "Largest Database" To Mass -- "I wouldn't call the database `mobile." But it's certainly `transportable,'" said EMC Corp.'s Roy Sanford, during a discussion with Newsbytes about the move of a four terabyte (TB) decision support system (DSS) 6 -> Animated E-mail Greeting Cards -- Gold Disk Inc. has announced Studio M, a new product designed to create personalized animated greeting cards, multimedia photo albums, and interactive party announcements. Consumers can pull down templates and create personalized self-running multimedia greetings to family and friends by electronic-mail or on a floppy disk. 7 -> "Plug-In" Makes Windows "User-Friendly -- Plannet Crafters Inc. is letting Windows 95 users "plug-in" additional functionality to the new operating system (OS) with Plug-In for Windows Version 2.6. The program creates a "user-friendly desktop environment" by adding features not found in Windows, according to the company. 8 -> IBM Opens Advanced Pan-European Phone Support Center -- The Scottish Silicon Valley, namely Greenock, has been chosen as the site for a pan-European telephone support facility by IBM. Officials with Big Blue say that the new facility will offer 24 hour support for users of the company's hardware and software products. 9 -> The Radiopager Joins The Mobile Comms Revolution -- During a visit Newsbytes made to Hutchison Telecom's communication headquarters recently, we had a chance to talk with Tony Vimal, Hutchison's product marketing manager, about the possibilities of linking electronic-mail to the "humble" radiopager. 10 -> Delrina Unveils Telephone Add-On For WinFax -- Delrina Corp. (TSE:DC; NASDAQ:DENAF) has announced TalkWorks, an add-on for its WinFax facsimile software that works with a voice-capable modem as a substitute for a telephone answering machine. Delrina expects the software to appeal to home and small-business users, as well as independent professionals, company spokesman Shelly Sofer told Newsbytes. 11 -> Wollongong Unveils Emissary Web Browser Technology -- Wollongong, the business networking company, has taken the wraps off two new Internet packages: Emissary Desktop Edition and Emissary Office Edition. 12 -> Canadian MSAT Network Live, Nearing Commercial Launch -- Canada's Mobile Satellite Communications (MSAT) network is now operating and being tested, and will be ready for commercial service before year-end, according to its operator, TMI Communications and Co. 13 -> Voiceview Adds Digital Simultaneous Voice/Data -- Radish Communications Systems Inc. has announced the availability of digital simultaneous voice/data (DSVD) under the Voiceview protocol. Voiceview allows integrated voice and data communications using a telephone and a PC. 14 -> Univ Of Pittsburgh Plans Info Highway Conference -- The University of Pittsburgh plans to hold, what it said is, the first regional conference on the National Information Infrastructure on October 9. The conference will aim to develop an action agenda for implementing the information infrastructure 15 -> America Online & ABC Sponsor Online Papal Mass -- Pope John Paul II, already one of the most traveled popes in history, is making a big splash in the cyberspace pool. Two more electronic concerns, America Online (AOL) and the New York Times Electronic Company, are bringing a Papal mass to anyone with a computer and the right access. 16 -> Videos Reduce Office 95 Learning Curve -- Like any new software, Microsoft Office 95 takes time to learn. But a Utah company has introduced a line of videotapes it says can smooth out the learning curve for the suite of Microsoft productivity software. 17 -> Dell Ships New Latitude Portables -- Dell Computer Corp. (NASDAQ: DELL) has started shipping two new models in its Latitude portable computer family that feature active-matrix video displays. 18 -> RadioShack Intros Onscreen Services Device -- RadioShack has introduced an interactive system that lets the user select from onscreen program listings, perform one-touch programming of their VCR, and check the news, weather and sports scores. 19 -> Advanced Voice Messaging For Namibia -- Mobile Telecommunications (MTC), Namibia's GSM (global system for mobile communication) digital mobile network provider, has entered into a contract with a European/African consortium, represented by Web Systems and Octel Communications Europe. Terms of the contract call for the consortium to provide messaging technology for MTC's network. 20 -> Moscow Set To Have Digital Mobile Phone Network -- Vimpelcom, the Russian mobile phone network company, has contracted with Ericsson of Sweden for the supply of a D-AMPS (Digital American Mobile Phone System) cellular phone network for the Moscow area. 21 -> Australian Govt To Outsource Mainframes -- The Australian Department of Finance (DoF) one of Canberra's bigger users of computers, will consider outsourcing its mainframe operations. In other government computer- oriented news, a government committee has continued to study the problem of online pornography. 22 -> Hong Kong - Aztech's "Orchestra On A Sound Board -- Singapore's Aztech Systems has introduced a three-dimensional (3-D), 16-bit, wave table sound card, called Sound Galaxy WaveRider PRO 32-3D. The company claims the board provides an exact reproduction of 128 instrumental sounds and 69 drum effects with its built-in 32 voice wave table synthesis. 23 -> Hong Kong - ASM On The World Wide Web -- Hong Kong-based trade publishing empire Asian Sources Media has entered the world of electronic commerce, announcing it would build a "massive World Wide Web site," publish CD-ROMs, and open an EDI (electronic data interchange) service, backed by its own trade management software pack. 25 -> Lexmark Intros 5 Printers -- Lexmark International Inc. has launched five new laser printers, including the company's first entry in the fledgling color laser market. All the new models are additions to Lexmark's Optra line. 26 -> DEC Plans More Storage Controllers For OEMs -- Digital Equipment Corp.'s new SC-4200 controller, which brings a new "entry-level" price point, is the first in a series of new storage controllers for PC servers and Unix that Digital StorageWorks will add each year to help "off-load" component production from OEMs (original equipment manufacturers), revealed David Guy, OEM business manager for StorageWorks, in a strategy briefing for Newsbytes. 27 -> ****Apple Board Of Directors Back Spindler -- Apple's board of directors have reportedly restated their "faith" in Michael Spindler, the company's chief executive officer. Meanwhile, the company's chief financial officer has resigned. 28 -> ****Compuserve's Sub-$5 Per Month Internet Service -- The Internet Division of Compuserve has announced a new worldwide Internet service, called Spryte. With a $4.95 per month fee, three hours on the Internet, and an hourly charge of $1.95 for additional hours, Compuserve says it intends to open the Internet community to the "largest possible audience." 29 -> Thrustmaster Intros New Game Steering Console -- Thrustmaster Inc. (NASDAQ: TMSR) has announced shipment of its new Formula T2 driving control for use with motor racing simulation software. (Ian Stokell/19951004) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 10/03/95 GENERAL Fathers Of Communication Satellite Honored (NEWS)(GENERAL)(WAS)(00001) Fathers Of Communication Satellite Honored 10/03/95 WASHINGTON, D.C., U.S.A., 1995 OCT 3 (NB) -- John Pierce and Harold Rosen, the engineers who developed communication satellite technology, last week were named recipients of the $400,000 Charles Stark Draper Prize, the world's largest award exclusively for engineering achievement. Pierce, 85, and Rosen, 69, were honored at the annual meeting of the National Academy of Engineering, which established the Draper Prize in 1988. John Foster, chair of the committee that selected Pierce and Rosen, said, "Every time we watch the news, we see the results of their sheets. Whenever we make a call or send a fax oversees, make a bank transaction or plan a trip based on a weather forecast, we should thank Pierce and Rosen." Science fiction writer and aerospace engineer Arthur C. Clarke is generally credited with proposing communication satellite networks in space in 1945 in an article entitled "Extra-Terrestrial Relays." "John Pierce and Harold Rosen are the fathers of the communication satellite," said Clarke. "They designed, developed, and produced it, making real that which I and others thought only to write and dream about." Pierce, while working at AT&T Bell Laboratories, designed and launched the famous Telstar 1, the world's first active communication satellite. Rosen, at Hughes Aircraft, then devised the method of placing the Syncom II satellite in geosynchronous orbit, orbiting at the same pace as the earth's rotation, so that it appears to remain at a fixed location. The Draper Prize is endowed by the Charles Stark Draper Laboratory Inc. of Cambridge, Mass. Charles "Doc" Draper was the father of modern inertial guidance systems used in aircraft, space vehicles, strategic missiles and submarines. The first Draper Prize was awarded in 1989 to Jack Kilby and Robert Noyce, the engineers who invented the integrated circuit. The second Prize went in 1991 to Hans von Ohain and Sir Frank Whittle for the development of the jet engine, and the third, in 1993, when to John Backus for the development of FORTRAN, the first high-level computer language. (Kennedy Maize/19951002/Press Contact: Chuck Blue, NAE, 202-334-1237) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 10/03/95 TELECOM Geneva Telecom - European Paging Association Expands (NEWS)(TELECOM)(LON)(00002) Geneva Telecom - European Paging Association Expands 10/03/95 GENEVA, SWITZERLAND, 1995 OCT 3 (NB) -- The European Public Paging Association (EPPA) will be appearing at the Telecom 95 telecoms exhibition, which opens today in Geneva. According to officials of the association, membership has now been expanded to 29 companies scattered around Europe. The EPPA was formed in January of last year and is a nonprofit organization with the broad aim of stimulating demand for the European paging market by increasing the public's awareness of paging services. Jacques Couvas, chairman of the EPPA and vice president of MTel's European operations, explained that the association hopes to sign up even more members at the show. This will, he said, allow the organization to move towards its aim of creating an effective forum for cooperation among European paging companies. "We want to signal that paging is a modern, state-of-the-art technology that is representative of today's fast moving telecoms industry," he said, adding that all leads from the show will be passed to the organization's members around Europe. As reported by Newsbytes in a recent visit to Hutchison Paging's headquarters in Darlington, England, paging is still viewed as a "second best" in many markets to the mobile phone. The fall in purchase cost of a mobile phone, coupled with the ubiquitousness of the cellular systems, has meant that paging is now staging a "second coming" as businesses realize the value of paging technology. It's precisely this approach that the EPPA wants to get across to businesses in Europe, hence it's taking a stand at the Telecom 95 show. The theme of EPPA's stand at the show is "be in touch," with a 2.6 meter-sized hand on the stand holding a pager, on to which are flashed live messages from the exhibition. "An important reason for EPPA's presence at Telecom 95 is to recruit new members from the European paging industry. We accept members from paging operators, terminal and infrastructure manufacturers, distributors, service providers and public network operators," said Lieselotte Claydon, a spokeswoman for Ericsson's Radio Messaging operations. Claydon, Newsbytes notes, is the EPPA board member responsible for coordinating the EPPA's presence at Telecom 95. (Sylvia Dennis/19951002/Press Contact: Susan Gutmans, Y&R Business Communication +41-22-738-8410; Fax +41-22-738-8411) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 10/03/95 TELECOM Ericsson Secures Two Major Chinese Contracts (NEWS)(TELECOM)(LON)(00003) Ericsson Secures Two Major Chinese Contracts 10/03/95 STOCKHOLM, SWEDEN, 1995 OCT 3 (NB) -- Ericsson has announced the signing of two major contracts with the Chinese Ministry of Post and Telecommunications (MPT). According to the Swedish telco, the first contract calls for Ericsson to supply AXE public switching hardware for installation on the Chinese landline network. The second contract revolves around a memorandum of understanding with the Chinese MPT for extended cooperation on developing SDH (Synchronous Digital Hierarchy) transmission systems for the Chinese marketplace. Under the first contract, Ericsson will deliver exchange hardware capable of servicing more than 2.6 million exchange lines. The contract, which runs for the next two years, requires Ericsson to ship exchange equipment from its local manufacturing plant, Nanjing Ericsson Communications, across China, and install the systems. The aim of the project is to greatly increase the availability of landline telephony in Southern China. According to Anders Ingel, a spokesman for Ericsson, the company has delivered and/or completed work on AXE exchange equipment capable of servicing more than nine million exchange lines in China. Lam Ramquist, Ericsson's CEO, meanwhile, claims that the company is continually raising its profile in the Chinese telecoms market, and these two contracts will raise its profile to a much greater extent than before. "We consider this AXE agreement an important base for our objective to further increase volume, market share and production capacity in China," he said. According to Ramquist, the memorandum of understanding with the Chinese MPT in the SDH transmission arena is a continuation of the company's pilot license and cooperation agreement signed between Ericsson and the Wuhan Research Institute recently. Terms of the contract call for WRI to be responsible for the design, marketing and distribution of Ericsson's SDH products on to the Chinese market. WRI specializes in advanced fiber optics and transmission equipment. The company is situated in Wuhan, with all the research and development, as well as production, facilities on hand. Employing over 1600 people, the company is one of the major suppliers to the Chinese markets. WRI is owned by the Chinese MPT company, but the collaboration between Ericsson and WRI will continue with the transfer of technology, along with localized production in joint venture operations and what Ramquist terms "other profitable options" for both companies. (Sylvia Dennis/19951002/Press Contact: Anders Ingel, Ericsson Business Area Public Telecommunications +46-8-719-1378; Reader Contact: Olof Lenneman's office, Ericsson China Company +46-10-275-5107) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 10/03/95 ONLINE Barclays Stockbrokers Plug Into The Internet (NEWS)(ONLINE)(LON)(00004) Barclays Stockbrokers Plug Into The Internet 10/03/95 LONDON, ENGLAND, 1995 OCT 3 (NB) -- Barclays Bank has announced it is offering a variety of stockbrokering information on the Internet via the bank's World Wide Web site on http://www. barclays.co.uk . According to Di Skidmore, a spokeswoman for Barclays, the information on the stock trading side of the bank's Web pages is highly interactive and designed to act as a shop window for the bank's stock dealing services. "We see the Internet as very much an information medium for customers, rather than a medium for dealing," she told Newsbytes, adding that the bank is looking at offering dealing services to customers, once the security issues are resolved. "We are aware of other dealing services on the Internet, but we are watching the situation very carefully. When our customers ask for dealing services on the Internet, we will provide them," she explained. According to Barclays, the bank's stockbroker site differs from other stockbrokers' Internet sites in that it provides an interesting, topical and useful information service, and does not just detail its own range of dealing services. The information on the Web site includes the Stock Exchange dealing calendar, as well as a detailed list of perks available to shareholders of many UK-listed companies. In addition, the bank plans to publish topical articles on stock market issues and explanations on how stocks and shares work. Announcing the opening of the new service, Tony Vine-Lott, Barclays Stockbrokers' managing director, said that the company has undertaken a wide range of initiatives to promote investment understanding and encourage wider and deeper share ownership in the UK. "The Internet offers an innovative and interesting way to help inexperienced investors gain a better understanding of the stock market, at the same time as providing seasoned shareholders with valuable dealing information," he explained. "Looking to the future, we are aiming to allow users to access their portfolios as well as to buy and sell shares directly into the market at a cost-effective price," he said. (Steve Gold/19951002/Press Contact: Barclays Press Relations +44-171- 699-2672; Internet Email: joanne.wright@gf.barclays.co.uk) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 10/03/95 TELECOM Ameritech Launches ISDN Resellers Program (NEWS)(TELECOM)(MSP)(00005) Ameritech Launches ISDN Resellers Program 10/03/95 CHICAGO, ILLINOIS, U.S.A., 1995 OCT 3 (NB) -- Ameritech (NYSE:AIT) is launching a new program to use resellers to sell its ISDN (Integrated Services Digital Network) services. The program, called "ISDN Allies," is expected to double Ameritech's ISDN growth, company officials said. Ameritech is teaming with IntelliCom Solutions, Inc., which will help integrators of all sizes that want to get into the convergence market. IntelliCom will also provide the equipment needed by customers to hook up into ISDN. The program, which is scheduled to kick off this month, includes 300 resellers in Ameritech's five-state region. Those resellers will attend training programs on ISDN installations, applications, and support, officials said. The training stems from requests of a reseller and computer dealer focus group who wanted to learn more about how to sell ISDN to support their customer's needs. ISDN Allies will initially target specific consumer applications, like LAN (local area network) to LAN connectivity, remote LAN access, Internet access, and remote control access to office computers. Rich Maganini, Ameritech spokesperson, told Newsbytes his company is starting this program because he wants to expand into another sales channel. "We know there's a lot of demand for ISDN out there, and this is another way for us to help capture this demand," he said. Ameritech has other ISDN offerings, including a home professional package designed for consumers and small businesses, which is currently on trial, Maganini said. That program should be available soon to the general public, he added. Most of Ameritech's customer base already have access to ISDN, company officials said, with 80 percent penetration throughout its region, and 90 percent in major metropolitan areas. The launch of the ISDN Allies program coincides with a major push by the Regional Bell Operating Company (RBOC) to expand availability and support capabilities for ISDN. (Bob Woods/19951002/Press Contact: Rich Maganini, Ameritech, 312-364- 2134, or 312-750-5628. Public Contact: Daryle Brown, Ameritech, 313- 223-5750; IntelliCom, 610-458-6617) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 10/03/95 TELECOM UK Company Offers Global Mobile Phone In A Suitcase (NEWS)(TELECOM)(LON)(00006) UK Company Offers Global Mobile Phone In A Suitcase 10/03/95 LONDON, ENGLAND, 1995 OCT 3 (NB) -- Nera Telecommunications, a high- end mobile telecoms supplier, has announced it is selling a global phone in a suitcase for $10,000. According to Bob Tutor, a spokesman for the company, this price tag includes the high degree of "handholding" regarding licensing and airtime provisions that many users are unaware of when they are looking to buy a phone for use with the Inmarsat M satphone service. "You can see the list price of $12,000 from many vendors, but the phone cannot be used in its basic state. You need licensing and an airtime contract. What we've done is to take the hardware, which we can supply on a purchase, leasing or rental basis to the customer, and offer a range of innovative airtime packages with that phone," he told Newsbytes. Although there are a number of different tariffs available, ranging up to UKP 5 ($8.00) a minute via Inmarsat, Nera claims that, since it is an airtime provider, it has put together a system whereby users can pre-pay their calls and get a discounted UKP 3-00 per minute tariff, regardless of when in the day their calls are made, and no matter where the calls originate and end up in the world. Martin Braime, Nera's managing director, said that the Nera World Phone package is easy to set up and is ideally suited to businesses that want a simple phone for their staff to use anywhere in the world. "Businesses simply can't afford to be at the mercy of the local telephone system and cellular mobiles do not yet provide the truly global coverage that the World Phone can offer today," he explained. The World Phone comes in a suitcase for rapid assembly, and is "bundled" with 365-days-a-year advice and support as a standard feature. Airtime can be billed or prepaid as required. According to Tutor, the unit supports voice telephony, as well as Group III fax transmissions up to 2,400 bits per second (bps), using the analog fax port. A data service across the Inmarsat M service is under active trials at the moment and should be available in a couple of months, also operating to around 2,400 bps, Tutor told Newsbytes. Operationally, the World Phone is billed as being capable of operating at between minus 35 and plus 55 degrees centigrade, and in high humidity (to 95 percent at 40 degrees C), and even works in heavy rain (two inches an hour). Tutor told Newsbytes that the World Phone package and airtime contract is available globally through the company's agents. (Steve Gold/19951002/Press Contact: Sue Rizello, The Rowland Company +44-171-436-4060; Internet Email: susanr@rowland.mhs.compuserve.com; Reader Contact: Nera Telecommunications +44-181-686-5701; Fax +44-181- 686-6811) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 10/03/95 TELECOM Geneva Telecom - Ericsson's Advanced Cellphone (NEWS)(TELECOM)(LON)(00007) Geneva Telecom - Ericsson's Advanced Cellphone 10/03/95 GENEVA, SWITZERLAND, 1995 OCT 3 (NB) -- Ericsson has taken the wraps off an advanced version of its best-selling analog EH-237 cellular phone. The new phone, known as the EH-238, has all the features of its forebear, which won the 1994 Mobile Phone of the Year award, but has an updated internal software system that enhances reception and offers no less than nine ringing signals. The phone was formally unveiled at the Telecom 95 show in Geneva, Switzerland, which runs for the next two weeks. According to officials with the company, the phone incorporates the same static aerial technology, with an aerial that does not need to be pulled out, as seen on the EH-337, and now comes with a lithium ion battery, which gives 140 minutes of talk time or almost 24 hours on standby. The phone now comes with additional software features that include a minute timer system for checking on call time, a PIN electronic lock and an enhanced LCD (liquid crystal display) screen. The new analog version of Ericsson's 230-gram tiny phone is being produced in Europe to the TACS (Total Access Communications System) standard. Versions are under development for the AMPS (American Mobile Phone System) network in the US, as well as for the Japanese Handyphone network. The release of the EH238 is significant, Newsbytes notes, as several manufacturers, notably Panasonic, have ceased developing new models and even producing analog models in favor of digital units. The fact that Ericsson is producing a new analog model of its best seller is an indicator that analog cellular is going to be here for some years to come. (Sylvia Dennis/19951002/Press Contact: Paula Wagstaff, Ericsson +44- 1444-234354; Reader Contact: Ericsson Telecom +44-1444- 234567/ERICSSO951003/PHOTO) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 10/03/95 BUSINESS ****Connectsoft Disconnects From Medio Purchase (NEWS)(BUSINESS)(DEN)(00008) ****Connectsoft Disconnects From Medio Purchase 10/03/95 BELLEVUE, WASHINGTON, U.S.A., 1995 OCT 3 (NB) -- Connectsoft Inc., has announced it has terminated its agreement to purchase the assets of Medio Multimedia, Inc. A Connectsoft spokesperson told Newsbytes the deal was contingent on the fulfillment of various conditions and "a number of contingencies were not met on both sides by the September 29 deadline," but declined to reveal further details. In early July, Newsbytes reported that ConnectSoft Inc., planned to purchase financially troubled Medio Multimedia Inc., for an undisclosed amount. The purchase would have saved Medio from almost certain bankruptcy. In mid-June Medio president Steve Podradchik told Newsbytes the company was behind on its payroll and praised the company's employees for sticking with Medio through difficult times. Medio laid off about 35 employees in early June. Before cancelling the deal, Connectsoft had said it would retain all of Medio's 35 employees and the Medio home page on the Internet would continue to be available. Medio published a monthly magazine on CD-ROM disk, was developing an online network and an interactive television system, as well as multimedia entertainment on CD-ROM. Its first entertainment product, "JFK Assassination: A Visual Investigation," was released almost a year ago. Podradchik had hoped a financial white knight would ride to Medio's rescue. Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen, already a multi-million dollar investor in Medio and the owner of the Portland Trail Blazers professional basketball team, had been considered a candidate for that role, but Allen staffers told Newsbytes Allen would consider putting additional funds into Medio only if the company could find another investor. That didn't happen. No one was answering any of the phone extensions at Medio today. (Jim Mallory/19951003/Press contact: David Kaufer or Pam Miller, Kaufer Miller Communications for ConnectSoft, 206-450-9965; Public contact: Connectsoft, 206-827-6467; Medio, Multimedia, 206-867-5500) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 10/03/95 TELECOM EC Attempts To Clean Up Mobile Phone Market (NEWS)(TELECOM)(LON)(00009) EC Attempts To Clean Up Mobile Phone Market 10/03/95 LONDON, ENGLAND, 1995 OCT 3 (NB) -- Ask anyone involved in the cellular phone industry, especially in the UK marketplace, as to their opinion of the trade in general, and it's certain that words like "shark," "crooks" and "dodgy" will come up. The European Commission (EC), perhaps aware of this, has awarded a contract to Ovum, the UK- based research and report company, to help develop a code of conduct for pan-European mobile service providers. The aim of the Code is cover both independent service providers and service providers who form part of a mobile network operation. Unfortunately, Newsbytes notes, the code will be voluntary, but its status will be reviewed on a six monthly basis. Interestingly, despite the voluntary nature of the code, it was strongly supported at a European level by the cellular industry in an EC public consultation, following the issue of a green paper (consultative document) on mobile and personal comms last year, Newsbytes notes. More cynical observers said at the time that the reason that the industry sided with the EC's green paper was because of worries over mandatory EC legislation being imposed. Ovum plans to send out its first ideas on the code to interested parties in the form of a consultative document later this month. The document will, according to Martin Garner, an Ovum manager who is coordinating the creation of the code of conduct, be very much a foundation and inquiry paper, which will be sent to all mobile service providers in Europe. "It's something of a gradual, but planned, program to create the code. We plan to send out the preliminary document later this month and, by January of next year will have completed most of the ground work. At that stage, we move on to a public consultation, which will probably start in March, before submitting the code to the EC for its approval," he told Newsbytes. Despite the fact that Ovum is an English-speaking operation based in London, Garner explained that the code will be compiled with the consultation of, and for, the pan-European cellular industry. All interested parties in Europe, he said, will be consulted in preparing the draft code of conduct. Anyone interested in receiving a copy of the consultative document is asked to fax Martin Garner on +44-171-255-1995 or e-mail him on mng@ovum.mhs.compuserve.com. (Steve Gold/19951003/Press Contact: Jennie Morales, PR Manager, Ovum +44-171-312-7258; Internet Email: jhb@ovum.mhs.compuserve.com; Reader Contact: Ovum +44-171-255-2670; Fax +44-171-255-1995; Internet Email: info@ovum.mhs.compuserve.com) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 10/03/95 BUSINESS Czech Republic Switches To Convertible Currency (NEWS)(BUSINESS)(LON)(00010) Czech Republic Switches To Convertible Currency 10/03/95 PRAGUE, CZECH REPUBLIC, 1995 OCT 3 (NB) -- Following Poland's switch to a convertible Zloty last year, the Czech Republic's unit of currency, the Koruna, became a fully convertible currency on Sunday of this week. The move does not mean that anyone wanting Korunas can march into their local bank or currency exchange office and exchange the currency -- like the Zloty, the Koruna is still a limited demand currency and, as such, has to be ordered through most bank offices. The switch to convertible status will, however, have profound implications for trading with the Czech Republic, especially as regards IT (information technology) products. Previously, citizens of the Republic were limited to taking K100,000 ($2,400) out of the country on any one trip abroad. This limitation is now removed, as is the limitation that all foreign transactions to the West must be routed through government banking channels. It mean that Czech checks and other financial instruments are presentable on demand through Western banking channels, and can be "paid out" in foreign "hard currency." Commenting on the transition of the Koruna into a convertible currency, Vaclav Klaus, the Czech Republic's Prime Minister, said that, though the switch will benefit trading with the West, there are a number of risks attached, since the economic wind "can blow stronger than before." Nevertheless, Klaus, who has piloted the currency towards its goal of convertibility, both during his time as PM and before that, as finance minister, claims that the country's currency is in a much stronger position than other "B" currency nations such as Mexico, since the republic has no national debt, no budget deficit and, unlike Mexico, does not issue government float bonds, such as the Tesoro bonds, to raise currency. In a speech given at the SBC Warburg annual lectures in London late last week, Klaus said that he had no intentions of following the route taken by Poland, and currently being taken by Hungary, of devaluing the currency to balance the currency against others on a free market. Klaus said that the last time the Koruna was devalued was in 1990 and, since then, the currency had maintained a stable exchange rate with the main Western currencies, a policy that he likened to a creeping revaluation. With the Republic planning to apply for European Community membership early next year, he said that this stability will greatly aid the transformation process in achieving membership. (Sylvia Dennis/19951003) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 10/03/95 CORRECTION ONLINE Correction - America Online Unexpectedly Goes Down (CORRECTION)(ONLINE)(MSP)(00011) Correction - America Online Unexpectedly Goes Down 10/03/95 VIENNA, VIRGINIA, U.S.A., 1995 OCT 3 (NB) -- In a story entitled "America Online Unexpectedly Goes Down," Newsbytes inadvertently gave an incorrect date for when the online network experienced a three- plus hour outage. The article should have said September 29. Newsbytes regrets the error. (Bob Woods/19951003/Press Contacts: Pam McGraw, America Online, 703- 556-3746) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 10/03/95 WINDOWS Microsoft Cuts Home Software Pricing (NEWS)(WINDOWS)(DEN)(00012) Microsoft Cuts Home Software Pricing 10/03/95 REDMOND, WASHINGTON, U.S.A., 1995 OCT 3 (NB) -- Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ: MSFT) announced this week it has cut the price of its home software products, with more than 30 titles now available for an estimated street price under $50. With some of the prices being reduced by as much as 45 percent, Microsoft said some of the titles will be available for as little as $29.99. Patty Stonesifer, Microsoft senior vice president of the consumer division, said the software company estimates that the installed base of about 11 million multimedia-ready personal computer will nearly double this year to 20 million. "This represents a tremendous expansion of the PC into American homes. Once people buy hardware, they need software," said the Microsoft executive. Stonesifer said Microsoft research indicates that the overall software growth could be even greater if software prices were designed to hit the levels of those for books and movies. "That's why we're making this move. We want consumers to get the message that, in the world of the PC, Microsoft speaks the language consumers understand - superb products at great prices," said the Microsoft executive. Microsoft said effective immediately the price of products like Automap street, the Microsoft Bookshelf 95 CD-ROM reference library, the Microsoft Cinemania 96 interactive movie guide, Encarta 96 encyclopedia, Encarta 96 World Atlas, Microsoft Golf, three Magic School Bus interactive science adventures, Microsoft Music Central 96 interactive music reference and entertainment guide, and Microsoft 3D Movie Maker are expected to range from $29.99 to $34.95, $39.99 to $44.85 and $49.99 to $54.95 depending on the product. Microsoft said it spent several months researching price points and conducting in-store research. In some cases those tests led to retailers tripling the number of Microsoft products sold, according to Microsoft. The company said the price reductions affect both Windows-based products and software for the Macintosh. The cuts are also in effect outside the US with slight variations. (Jim Mallory/19951003/Press contact: Phil Missimore, Waggener Edstrom for Microsoft, 408-986-1140; Public contact: Microsoft, 206-882-8080 or 80-426-9400) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 10/03/95 EDUCATION Apple Extends School Market Share (NEWS)(EDUCATION)(LAX)(00013) Apple Extends School Market Share 10/03/95 CUPERTINO, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1995 OCT 3 (NB) -- Apple Computer, Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL) claims a commanding lead in the kindergarten through high school market. According to new research from Quality Education Data's (QED) "1995-96 Technology Purchasing Forecast" report, 63 percent of the computers used in United States public schools are Apple-branded, up from 59 percent last year. Apple has long used the educational market as a springboard into the general marketplace. Kathleen Dixon, a spokesperson for Apple, told Newsbytes, "Apple's commitment to the education market has been a major marketing strategy since the very successful 'Kids Can't Wait' program that seeded every school in California with free Apple II computers. The thought in 1977 was that people would use the brand of computers they had in school all their lives." According to Dixon, the education market in total represents about twenty percent of all revenue for Apple. The QED report also predicts that Apple will continue to be the leader by a wide margin in the education market. School districts report that 58 percent of the units they plan to purchase during the 1995-96 school year are Macintosh. This is more than three times the planned purchases for the second leading brand, IBM, with an 18 percent share of planned purchases. Non-named brands make up the third-largest segment of planned purchases, at 12 percent. Planned purchases for other name-brand systems were lower, including Compaq at seven percent, and Dell at four percent. QED President Jeanne Hayes says, "Our research clearly indicates that the majority of districts are planning the future of their schools around the Macintosh platform. The average district plans to buy 28 Macintosh computers, eight IBMs, and ten other IBM- compatibles during the 1995-96 school year." "Based on this research, the installed base and planned-purchase results show that Macintosh is increasing its position as the system of choice for schools," says Dr. Terry Crane, Apple vice president of K-12 sales. "More than 17 years ago Apple made an investment in education that continues to this day." Copies of the QED Report can be ordered from Quality Education Data at 1600 Broadway, 12th Floor, Denver, Colorado 80202, or by e-mail at qedinfo@qeddata.com. (Richard Bowers/19951003/Press Contact: Stacey Byrnes, Apple Computer, 408-974-6076) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 10/03/95 TELECOM Hitachi Develops Single Frequency Duplex Radio (NEWS)(TELECOM)(TYO)(00014) Hitachi Develops Single Frequency Duplex Radio 10/03/95 GENEVA, SWITZERLAND, 1995 OCT 3 (NB) -- Hitachi Electric has developed a private mobile radio (PMR) system that allows full duplex communications across a single frequency and is displaying it for the first time at the Telecom 95 show in Geneva. The system, the first and only such system in the world according to Hitachi, allows full two-way communications across a single radio channel -- something that has not been possible until now. Previously, similar systems required two frequencies for duplex communications. In a single frequency situation, simplex communications was only possible, just one person could speak at a time. The new system allows two people to talk simultaneously across a single radio channel. The system, called Single Frequency Duplex (SFD) is already being used by the ground self defense forces in Japan and interest has been shown by the Russian military and Japanese emergency services. Speaking to Newsbytes, Nobuo Sekiguchi, senior engineer and developer of the technology, explained by use of audio compression and time switching on the frequency makes the simultaneous, two-way communication possible. The audio from one party is split into 400ms blocks, each of which is compressed to take up just under 200ms. The two units are synchronized so that while one is transmitting the other is receiving and vice versa, he explained. By using such a system, much more effective use of the available frequency spectrum can be made with twice as many channels available as current systems, something that is particularly important for armies and emergency services which can suddenly need a large number of channels. A total of 18 channels can be handled by the system which should see use in many developing nations where the public telephone system is less developed. The one-watt power allows users to roam within a 4km distance from the base station and still remain in touch. An interface into the public telephone network is also available, allowing the system to function as a mobile telephone connected though a base station. Hitachi staff demonstrated the system by placing calls to desk telephones and PHS mobile system handsets installed at the Telecom stand. In Japan such connection onto the telephone network is prohibited but in many countries there are no such restrictions allowing the SFD radios to extend the distance of telephones into areas where no fixed line or cellular service exists. (Martyn Williams/19951003/Press contact : Hitachi Ltd, +81-3-3258-2055, fax +81-3-3258-5480) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 10/03/95 TELECOM US Compainies Join GSM (NEWS)(TELECOM)(TYO)(00015) US Compainies Join GSM 10/03/95 GENEVA, SWITZERLAND, 1995 OCT 3 (NB) -- The GSM (Global System for Mobile Communications) MoU Association has announced four new American companies have signed to the system as the number of worldwide subscribers hits ten million: Bellsouth, American Personal Communications Mobile Services, Western Wireless and Pacific Bell. Of the companies, Bellsouth and Western Wireless both won A and B licences in the recent government frequency auctions. American Personal Communications Mobile Services is currently completing the build of a system in Washington, DC and Pacific Bell is building networks in California and Nevada. The new signatories join a list that already includes Omnipoint, which is about to complete a new network in New York City, and Microcell which is building a network in Canada. In addition, Airlink, DCR Communications and GO Communications are all signatories to the GSM MoU but have yet to obtain licences and will be bidding in the coming US frequency auctions. The news means the customers of the new networks will have GSM compatible telephones that can be used on any other networks around the world that offer GSM compatibility. The system will also work in reverse with users from overseas being able to make calls in the areas served by the companies in the USA. Currently 156 companies in 86 countries around the world are members of the GSM MoU Association although this number is set to expand further towards the end of the century. Mike Short, chairman of the GSM MoU Association, told Newsbytes he expects the system to have at least 80 million users in 120 countries by the turn of the century. Growth figures revealed today show 750,000 people are signing up each month, adding to the 40 million calls made each day over the network. By the end of the year around 12 million people should be using GSM services in 86 countries worldwide, an impressive number, Short contends, given the system was still in trials four years ago. One of the notable exceptions in the list of countries that does not offer GSM service is Japan which has its own cellular telephone system and the new Personal Handyphone. Short told Newsbytes the association is in "very formative" talks with both cellular and PHS operators in Japan. "I don't think we will see the GSM system in Japan but I envisage a plastic roaming agreement." Plastic roaming, he explained, would mean a GSM customer could take their smart card to Japan and insert it into a locally hired telephone for service as opposed to hardware roaming which means customers must take their handsets overseas. Japan's largest international telephone operator, KDD, is a member of the association because it operates a GSM compatible service in Mongolia, Short added. In Japan, both Sanyo and Toshiba have been producing GSM handsets for the international market since early this year. The GSM system enjoys high rates of usage in Europe, where it was originally developed as a continent-wide system, and is growing in use in other areas. Companies in several African countries have signed to the system and Short sees the GSM trials in Chile and Peru as a base for future expansion in Latin and South America. At the recent plenary meeting. 18 new operators in 9 countries joined the association. Tanzania, Seychelles, Ukraine, Libya, Malawi, Ghana, Monaco, Mongolia and the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia are all studying adoption of GSM as a national standard for digital cellular telephones. (Martyn Williams/19951003/Press contact : Mary King, GSM MoU Association, +353-1-269-5922) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 10/03/95 PC Compaq Launches Another Prolinea Series (NEWS)(PC)(DEN)(00016) Compaq Launches Another Prolinea Series 10/03/95 HOUSTON, TEXAS, U.S.A., 1995 OCT 3 (NB) -- Compaq Computer Corp. (NYSE: CPQ) has announced another series in its Prolinea business product line that appears designed to keep pricing pressure on competitors like Hewlett-Packard and IBM. Lewis Schrock, Compaq senior business manager for commercial desktop systems, wouldn't go so far as to say the pricing of the new products is the precursor to a price war, but did tell Newsbytes there is a "value positioning leadership" war going on, particularly between Hewlett-Packard and Compaq. "What we are constantly seeing are salvos being fired in a war that has been going on for years," said the Compaq executive. According to Schrock, that competition benefits the consumer. "The continued aggressiveness continues to bump the value." Asked if prices are headed downward, Schrock told Newsbytes PC prices have been remarkable stable over the past couple of years. "What has happened is people are getting far more for their money than they used to." Schrock said business users are primarily interested in gigabyte-size hard drives, 12 or more megabytes of memory and better displays, while the home and small business user is more apt to be interested in peripheral devices like CD-ROM drives. Compaq said the six new Prolinea "E" models range in estimated selling price, also known in the industry as the "street price," from $1,369 to $1,999, although that figure does not include a monitor. Compaq spokesperson Mike Berman told Newsbytes a 14-inch monitor is available "for around $300, street price, and you can go up from there." Compaq will offer E models equipped with a variety of Pentium microprocessors from 75 megahertz (MHz) to 120MHz. PCI/ISA (Peripheral Component Interconnect/Industry Standard Architecture) expansion bus architecture, hard drives starting at 630 megabytes (MB), 8MB of memory and a three year limited warranty are all standard on the new PCs. You can buy a Prolinea 575e equipped with a Pentium processor, 8MB of memory and a 630MB hard drive for a street price of $1,369 said Compaq. An optional 256 kilobyte secondary cache adds $95 to the cost of the 575e. Compaq said that configuration is comparable to a Hewlett Packard Vectra VE model or an IBM PC 330. If you want a PC powered by a 100MHz Pentium chip, Compaq offers the Prolinea 5100e, with 8MB of memory and a 630MB hard drive for a street price of $1,639. The 256KB cache also adds $95 to this system. Or you can go to the top of the E model line with a 5120e, with its Pentium 120MHz chip and 8MB of memory. With a 630MB hard drive the 5120e is street priced at $1,849 according to Compaq. The same system is available with a 1GB hard drive for about $1,999. In its comparison with HP and IBM systems, Compaq claims those companies don't offer a comparable desktop PC. Despite a recent announcement by one chip maker that it would get out of the 486 market before the price bottom dropped out, Schrock said the 486 market is far from dead. He also said the 486 still has a place in the market. "It's not dead, but it's declining pretty rapidly in market share. There is a market preference for the Pentium performance if people can obtain it. There are a percentage of people who are comfortable with their 486-based products and that is why we continue to offer them," Schrock stated. Price cuts on earlier Prolinea models were part of sweeping cost reductions announced in March for more than 60 Compaq PCs. (Jim Mallory/19951003/Press contact: Compaq, 713-514-0484; Public contact: 800-345-1518/PROLIN-E951003/PHOTO) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 10/03/95 TELECOM Sweden's Ericsson Unveils Super Cordless Technology (NEWS)(TELECOM)(LON)(00017) Sweden's Ericsson Unveils Super Cordless Technology 10/03/95 STOCKHOLM, SWEDEN, ENGLAND, 1995 OCT 3 (NB) -- Ericsson has announced the Super Cordless range of digital cordless phones, together with digital base stations, for use as a wide area PCS (Personal Communications System) digital phone system. Super Cordless is a stepping stone between digital cordless phones with a range of a few hundred meters, and licensed PCS, as seen in several US and European cities. The basic technology does not support cellular communications, that is, the ability to move between cells while a call is in progress, but does offer many of the features of PCS, such as digital clear calls and operation over a fairly wide area. Super Cordless is being targeted at the US marketplace, where digital cordless phones are still in their infancy for the home and office. Base stations for use with Super Cordless are about the same size as a desktop PC casing (11 x 9 x 3 inches). The handsets, meanwhile, are small and light, tipping the scale at just 4.6 ounces and can work for nine hours of talk time or 45 hours on standby. Ericsson says the system can be used in a wide variety of situations, but initially is being targeted at businesses which require multi- building cordless systems installed. The system can also be used in an advanced version which supports cellular handoffs (i.e. movement between base stations on a single call) for use as a localized PCS configuration. According to the Ericsson, the linear growth of the telephone network with the use of the Super Cordless, allows service providers to expand the existing size of their facility without any major expenditure, accordingly to the growing demands at the time. Announcing Super Cordless, Doug Smith, vice president of US sales for Ericsson Network Systems, said that users can enjoy all of the benefits of extending existing wired telephone networks into the mobile domain with the new system. "Ericsson sees this product as a way to expand the existing wireline business. Instead of every household having only one subscription, now every household can have one phone for each person and also allow that person to be mobile," he explained. According to Ericsson, the Super Cordless is the first of a new generation of mobile phone systems available on the American telecommunication market. The company claims it is effective for both licensed and unlicensed PCS, thanks to its use of the AXE multi function switch, on which the new product has based its technological development. The Super Cordless system consists of an AXE Mobility Manager, Radio Exchanges, Base Stations and small handsets. (Sylvia Dennis/19951003/Press Contact: Kathy Egan, Vice President of Communications, Ericsson US +1-212-685-4030) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 10/03/95 ONLINE America Online To Be Preloaded On More Computers (NEWS)(ONLINE)(MSP)(00018) America Online To Be Preloaded On More Computers 10/03/95 VIENNA, VIRGINIA, U.S.A., 1995 OCT 3 (NB) -- America Online Inc. (NASDAQ:AMER) (AOL) said three more manufacturers will pre-load the online service's access software onto their computers. Gateway 2000, Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC), and Packard Bell join more than 20 manufacturers that preinstall AOL on their personal computers for the consumer market. With the preinstalled AOL software, customers of those manufacturers will be able to access the service "out of the box." Steve Case, AOL president and chief executive officer, said this feature "plays a key role in gaining new subscribers for this new medium, and by teaming with leading computer manufacturers we are able to offer buyers of new personal computers a simple way to sign onto AOL." "As marketing programs go, bundling with manufacturers is one of our key marketing programs," Pam McGraw, AOL spokesperson, told Newsbytes. Others include direct mail and a new advertising campaign, she added. Even though AOL is now preloaded on more computers, this does not erase the company's objection to Microsoft's strategy of bundling the Microsoft Network (MSN) access software with Windows 95. Last June Newsbytes reported on Case's plea to unbundle MSN, saying consumers should be free to choose which online service they want to subscribe to. "By only bundling MSN with Windows 95, Microsoft is depriving consumers of choice," he said at the time. McGraw echoed that sentiment. "There is certainly a large issue that there is an unlevel playing field," she said, and that Microsoft has a unfair advantage because it has a guaranteed distribution channel. McGraw also pointed out AOL pays for its preloading, while MSN comes for free because it is integrated into Windows 95. Some of the 20-plus companies that install AOL onto their hard drives at the factory include AST, AT&T, Acer, Canon, Compaq, Dell, Epson, Hewlett-Packard (HP), IBM, and NEC. In addition, manufacturers like Acer, Compaq, DEC, Dell, Gateway 2000, HP, IBM, and NEC, have interactive areas on AOL. (Bob Woods/19950928/Press Contact: Pam McGraw, America Online, 703- 556-3746. Public Contact: America Online, 800-827-6364) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 10/03/95 GOVT BT Sheds Staff In Australian State Govt War (NEWS)(GOVT)(SYD)(00019) BT Sheds Staff In Australian State Govt War 10/03/95 SYDNEY, AUSTRALIA 1995 OCT 3 (NB) -- After pulling out of protracted negotiations with the New South Wales (NSW) state Government for the provision of a telephone and data network, BT Australasia has retrenched 45 staff and issued an ambiguous and bitterly worded press release announcing the move. It reads: "BT Australasia announced that it has retrenched 45 people, effective today, in the wake of the termination of its contract to provide a telephone and data network for the NSW Government." "This is the harshest effect of the termination of the NSW Government contract," says Robert Kaye, BT's managing director later in the statement. Kaye alleges that the Government has "cut off" BT's ability to provide other telecommunications services outside the scope of the contract. "This violates BT Australasia's clear understanding that our differences on the contract would not affect other services provided by BT to the NSW Government," continues Kaye. "It has to be made clear that BT terminated the contract," said a spokesman for the NSW Department of Public Works and Services. He declined to make further comment, as BT is currently suing the NSW Government and Telstra, and the matter is before the courts. BT Australia, the local subsidiary of the privatized British Telecom, terminated its contract last month, claiming the Government was bypassing BT's role by entering into direct contracts with Telstra to provide virtual private network services. (Computer Daily News/19950925) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 10/03/95 BUSINESS Thailand - Software AG, Control Data Business Partners (NEWS)(BUSINESS)(TYO)(00020) Thailand - Software AG, Control Data Business Partners 10/03/95 BANGKOK, THAILAND, 1995 OCT 3 (NB) -- Germany's Software AG has appointed Control Data (Thailand) as its sole business partner for Thailand and plan to initially target the banking sector, according to CDG Group Business Development Director Soottipong Winyoopradist. CDG will firstly provide Cardsys, a credit card and merchant management system application, which will be available through its subsidiary Software City, while Software AG's technology tools will be marketed through CDG subsidiaries such as Control Data (Thailand), CDG System and Logic Company Limited. These tools include Adabas-D, a relational database supporting Unix and Microsoft NT systems, Natural 4GL for application development from PC to mainframe, Entire Middleware for data access and data transfer and Esperant, an end-user query and reporting tool. Logic Assistant General Manager Suthep Oonmettachit said the company would provide products bundled with Sun servers to banks, petrol companies and department stores. He said the credit system management market would be a potentially lucrative opportunity for the company since increasing numbers of people were using credit cards to pay for purchases. Software AG (Asia Pacific) Senior Vice President Bruce Dahl told Newsbytes that the company's goal was to focus on developing products and long term relationships with customers by customizing products for each customer's working environment. Software AG has provided 650 systems and applications for large enterprise and complex companies in Asia such as airline and transportation firms, he said. Its big markets are in Indonesia and Malaysia. He said Thailand would hopefully be added to that list in the future. The company has been establishing a presence on the Asian market for 18 months, he said, adding that Software AG had 100 staff members in Korea, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore and Taiwan with headquarters in Hong Kong. The Asian market was expected to grow approximately 120 per cent, he said and added that the total value of the market would be some US$200 million in next five years. (Tony Waltham and Post Database-Bangkok Post/19950922) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 10/03/95 GOVT Control Data Wins Thai Census Project (NEWS)(GOVT)(TYO)(00021) Control Data Wins Thai Census Project 10/03/95 BANGKOK, THAILAND, 1995 OCT 3 (NB) -- Control Data Systems has been awarded the Bangkok Metropolitan Administration (BMA) project to install the Computerized National Census and Services Project, which includes 40 districts in and around Bangkok. BMA Governor Krisda Arunvongse na Ayutthaya said that the 287 million baht (US$11.5 million) project would be completed and ready for service by the beginning of next year. The BMA's new online system will contain names, addresses, national ID card numbers, and census information such as birth and death records and address changes. It will also be of benefit for checking individual tax returns and will help to facilitate the compiling of census statistics. He said the computerized system had been a pilot project in the Bang Khen district office for one year. "We found out that we can serve people rapidly, accurately and conveniently," he noted. Control Data Group Managing Director Nart Liuchareon said the company had to comply with the BMA request to reduce the project's price tag from 427 million (US$17.1 million) to 287 million baht (US$11.5 million). He said the company agreed to the price reduction because the project was important, and would build up a good image for the company. He added that it was possible for the company to win other bids for BMA projects. "We want to complete this project because it has been delayed a long time," he said, adding that if it was a business contract, it would not be done because there were many requirements but limited funds. The computerized system will link 35 districts together with Datanet, a voice/data multiplexing system which allows data to be transferred over normal telephone lines. The remaining districts will be connected using ordinary telephone links. (Tony Waltham and Post Database-Bangkok Post/19950922) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 10/03/95 GOVT Hong Kong - Another Slap In Face For Tradelink (NEWS)(GOVT)(HKG)(00022) Hong Kong - Another Slap In Face For Tradelink 10/03/95 CENTRAL, HONG KONG, 1995 OCT 3 (NB) -- Nobody officially came out and said it, but CargoNet, Hong Kong's new electronic data interchange (EDI) provider, is another slap in the face for Tradelink, the quasi-government consortium set up in the late 1980s to develop Hong Kong's EDI capabilities, and which has yet to deliver a single product. Launched after only four months of testing and an investment of HK$50 million, CargoNet offers a relatively inexpensive way for manufacturers, traders, shippers and freight forwarders to receive the benefits of EDI. CargoNet software which can run on a Windows PC or larger systems, uses the international EDIFACT standard and provides a global link to electronically process bills of lading, quotations, purchase orders and bookings. It has achieved something in four months that Tradelink has been unable to do in almost a decade. CargoNet is backed by a group of companies including Kenwa Communications, Global Logistics Systems, Traxon (partly owned by Cathay Pacific), the Hong Kong Association of Freight Forwarders and, its main backer, Hongkong International Terminals (HIT). While refusing to be drawn on making an outright comment on Tradelink's complete absence of any EDI solution, Richard Pearson, the deputy managing director of HIT said, "There's a need for an EDI solution and we decided 'let's just get something out there'." He added that the broad base of the backers of CargoNet was an advantage because if it had just been a HIT initiative people would be more reticent in using the system. "But someone has to get on and do it," he added. In terms of productivity, Pearson pointed out that by not having an EDI system, Hong Kong was wasting million of dollars a year. He said one study showed that it cost an average shipper about half a million dollars a year to process paperwork, "and think what that means to HIT when we're moving millions of containers a year." In what some attendees saw as a sideswipe at Tradelink, Lloyd Sanford, general manager of CargoNet, said there was a lack of understanding of EDI in Hong Kong. "Most people think EDI is proprietary systems, they think it's costly and time consuming and takes away from their core business." Other executives at CargoNet were more forthright in their comments on Tradelink. One source said it was depressing to look at years wasted. "Even the Philippines and Indonesia have their act together to have an EDI solution," said one. In May this year, tired of Tradelink's inactivity, the Hong Kong Article Numbering Association (HKANA) and IBM launched Hong Kong's first independent EDI system, EZTrade, for the manufacturing, distribution, and retail industries. Interest in getting freight-forwarding and shipping EDI solutions was apparent by the hundreds of shippers and traders that turned up to see CargoNet's demonstration of the system at the Mandarin Hotel recently. (Nigel Armstrong & I.T. Daily/19950928) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 10/03/95 EDUCATION 13 Microsoft Training Centers In Central & East Europe (NEWS)(EDUCATION)(LON)(00023) 13 Microsoft Training Centers In Central & East Europe 10/03/95 PRAGUE, CZECH REPUBLIC, 1995 OCT 3 (NB) -- Microsoft has announced that it has certified thirteen Solution Provider Authorized Training Centers (SP-ATCs) in Central & East Europe where it does not have subsidiaries. The new centers, located in Estonia, Latvia, Ukraine, Belorussia, Romania, Bulgaria and Croatia. The centers offer training on Microsoft desktop products and, in some centers, advanced training on Windows NT and the Backoffice family of products. These SP-ATCs assist local professionals to obtain the training necessary to pass the Microsoft Certified Professional exams. The new SP-ATCs are BCS, IT and Gensi in Estonia; SWH Riga in Latvia; Nef and Computerland Minsk in Belorussia; Kvazar Micro in Ukraine; Norbert Computer, Omnilogic, CPC and CPI in Romania; and Express Consult in Bulgaria and Z1C in Croatia. In Central & Eastern Europe (CEE), Microsoft has subsidiaries in Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, Russia, and Slovenia with one in the Slovak Republic to be opened "in a few days," said Vassili le Moigne, SP-ATC program coordinator at the Microsoft office in Munich, Germany. Microsoft also has SP-ATCs in Poland and Slovenia and SP- ATECs (Solution Provider Authorized Training & Education Centers) in the Czech Republic, Hungary and Poland. This brings the total number of ATCs in CEE to over 70, according to Vassili le Moigne. Training on Windows 95 and Office 95 will be available in these training centers as these new products penetrate these markets. The upgrade process is already in full swing among the big users. According to Ivan Pilny, director of the Microsoft subsidiary in Prague, Czech Republic, Komercni banka, the largest Czech bank, will upgrade 12,000 licenses next month and several other big customers in the financial and energy sectors will also soon make the upgrade. (Steven Slatem, IntelliTech/Press & Reader Contact: Vassili le Moigne, Program Coordinator, Microsoft, tel +49 89 3176 3838, fax +49 89 3176 3830, e-mail: Vassili@Microsoft.com; Ivan Pilny, Director, Microsoft s.r.o., tel.: +42 2 24237089, fax +42 2 24234343) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 10/03/95 EDUCATION Philippines - University Modernizes With 350 PCs (NEWS)(EDUCATION)(TYO)(00024) Philippines - University Modernizes With 350 PCs 10/03/95 MANILA, PHILIPPINES, 1995 OCT 3 (NB) -- Centro Escolar University (CEU) recently acquired 350 '486 PCs and peripherals from Ecoline Automations Systems valued at $700,000 to further boost its computerization efforts in line with the University's thrust to "modernize" its existing curriculum. Conrado E. Inigo, Jr., Ph.D., Dean of CEU's College of Accountancy, Commerce and Secretarial Administration, added that CEU is also nearing completion of a building which will house eight computer laboratory rooms. "By January, 1996 the new building will have been completed and the hardware acquired will have been properly installed ready for inter- collegiate student use," Inigo explained. CEU, in a response to the need of the industry for computer science graduates with a business background, introduced a Bachelor's Degree in Commerce major in Computer Science and Information Systems (CSIS) in 1990. "I believe we were the first institution approved by the Department of Education, Culture and Sports to introduce this major, and so far industry feedback has been very positive. Other than that, I think other schools are emulating CEU in offering CSIS as one of the majors for their commerce curriculum," Inigo stressed. All the PCs will be linked by Novell NetWare and will be used by students from all colleges who are taking computer subjects. "The use of the computer rooms will not be confined to commerce students but even to those who are taking dentistry, optometry, liberal arts and education," said Inigo. Inigo views the upgrade as "inevitable" considering the rapid pace of the information technology. The 350 IBM 486 PCs will be pre-loaded with Windows and all related software necessary in an academic environment. (Metropolitan Computer Times/19950829/Internet e-mail dilips@netcom.com) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 10/03/95 TELECOM China - Shanghai Phone Installation Difficult (NEWS)(TELECOM)(PEK)(00025) China - Shanghai Phone Installation Difficult 10/03/95 BEIJING, CHINA, 1995 OCT 3 (NB) -- Although phone numbers in Shanghai will be upgraded from 7 to 8 digits, some customers still have to wait years to get phones installed, officials with Shanghai Posts and Telecommunications Administration (SPTA) said. SPTA officials said that the eight-digit system will expand the available telephone number in Shanghai from the current 8 million to 80 million, paving the way for further development. It is committed to easing the strain on the local telephone network. However, some customers still have to wait years to have phones installed. Currently, 560,000 local households applied and wait for phone installations. Some customer have waited for more than five years. Officials say it is hard to serve these applicants because most live in an area without sufficient telephone lines. In the first half of 1995, SPTA invested RMB1.92 billion (US$231 million) to boost the capacity of the local telephone system by 928,700 lines. About 414,000 households and work units benefited from telephone installation in the first six months of the year. Although the upgrading should open up available numbers, there will still be a long waiting period for new customers. In Shanghai, among the 2 million phone subscribers, 70 percent are residential. One in three Shanghai households now has a residential telephone, SPTA said recently. (Chih-Ho Yu & Ning Huang/19950926) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 10/03/95 TELECOM China - National Mobile Phone Network Operational (NEWS)(TELECOM)(PEK)(00026) China - National Mobile Phone Network Operational 10/03/95 BEIJING, CHINA, 1995 OCT 3 (NB) -- China is now covered by mobile phone communications networks and mobile phone subscribers now can use their cellular phones from any city or county in China, a spokesman with Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications (MPT) announced recently in Beijing. The nationwide networks consist of two types of 900 megahertz analogue cellular phone systems provided by Motorola and Ericsson. They has been under trial operation since January 1. However, the operation of this network is considered only the first stage of China's ultimate mobile phone service by the Ministry, according to Zhang Chunjiang, director of the Mobile Communications Bureau of the ministry. The second stage development calls for the systems to be joined to form the world's largest network of mobile phone communications. This will be implemented by the end of this year. Also, MPT recently gave approval to Motorola for sales of its latest version cellular phone in the Chinese market. The GSM Microtac 8200 phone, weighting 149 grams, is manufactured in Britain. Currently, there are more than 2 million mobile phone subscribers in China. More people use pagers for one-way mobile communications and the number of pager subscribers has reached 12.4 million, according to statistics from MPT. (Chih-Ho Yu & Ning Huang/19950926/Reader Contact: Telecommunications Bureau, Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications, tel +86-10 601-1235) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 10/03/95 ONLINE ****Survey Counts 5.8 Million Internet Users (NEWS)(ONLINE)(TYO)(00027) ****Survey Counts 5.8 Million Internet Users 10/03/95 SEBASTOPOL, CALIFORNIA, USA, 1995 OCT 3 (NB) -- O'Reilly & Associates has released details of the first survey undertaken by its new Online Research Group. The survey found the size of the US Internet is currently 5.8 million people. O'Reilly claims the new survey is the first statistically defensible study of Internet users and carries a margin of error of just one percent. To determine the size of the US Internet, the survey group used a technique known as Random Digit Dialling (RDD). For the purposes of this survey, an Internet user was defined as a US individual resident over 18 years of age who has direct access to the Internet, uses electronic mail or has access and use one or more specific Internet tools, excluding individuals communicating only through a commercial online service provider. With direct Internet access now available via the major online services, such users will be included in future surveys. A total of 29,901 interviews were completed and one Internet user per 1,149 households was identified. The survey also found that where one user was found, it was common to find more. The number of users per Internet household is 1.53. In addition to the 5.8 million with direct Internet access, the survey found 3.9 million adults who subscribe to commercial online services only and an additional million people who used both the Internet and online services. Of the users with direct Internet access, 67% are male and 33%, a higher percentage than previously thought, are women. When the Internet users are broken down by age, 25% are between 18 and 24, 17% between 25 and 29, 15% between 30 and 34, 25% between 35 and 44, 15% between 45 and 54, 3% between 55 and 64 and just 1% are above 65. Median annual income in 1994 is reported as between $50,000 and $75,000 with over half of all users enjoying incomes between $35,000 and $75,000. When the survey was conducted almost half of all Internet users worked at organizations with more than 1,000 employees. Of non-educational users, 15% worked in engineering and 19% in sales. Among the online service users, the ratio of men to women was almost the same, males made up 64% of all users. Half of all users work at companies with less than 100 employees, showing a very different pattern to Internet access. Most common occupations are sales, 20%, and senior executive management, 14%. Online service users also tend to be slightly older, with a median age range of 35 to 44. The purpose of the survey was to provide detailed figures of users and answer questions posed by survey sponsors under the title "Defining The Internet Opportunity - A Multiclient Survey." Full details of the survey are now being made available to the sponsors who paid around $25,000 and include International Thompson Publishing, IBM, Lotus Development, Turner Broadcasting Systems, MCI/News Corporation Online and EM Warburg, Pincus & Co. Previous estimates had put the number of Internet users at anything between 15 and 30 million people worldwide. (Martyn Williams/19950929/Press contact: Sara Winge, Public Relations Director, O'Reilly & Associates, 707-829-0515, fax 707-829-9043, email sara@ora.com) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 10/03/95 CORRECTION ONLINE Correction - SEC Web Address (CORRECTION)(ONLINE)(WAS)(00028) Correction - SEC Web Address 10/03/95 WASHINGTON, D.C., U.S.A., 1995 OCT 3 (NB) -- An article September 29 (SEC Launches Internet Site), reporting on the new World Wide Web site offering free public access to Securities and Exchange Commission electronic filings and other investor information gave an incorrect address for the Securities and Exchange Commission's new site. The correct address is http://www.sec.gov . Newsbytes apologizes for the error. (Kennedy Maize/19951003) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 10/03/95 TRENDS Wireless Business Boom Continues (NEWS)(TRENDS)(WAS)(00029) Wireless Business Boom Continues 10/03/95 WASHINGTON, D.C., U.S.A., 1995 OCT 3 (NB) -- The number of cellular phone users in the United States has topped 30 million, according to the Cellular Telecommunications Industry Association, more than the population of Canada. CTIA said the total of wireless users hit 28 million at the end of June and, based on current growth rates, hit the 30 million mark around the end of September. The number of cellular customers in the first six months of 1995 grew by more than 4 million, versus the 3.3 million customers added in the first half of 1994. For the year from July 1994 through June 1995, the number of cellular customers grew by more than 8.9 million, or 46 percent. "This amazing growth once again demonstrates the popularity of wireless telecommunications," said Thomas Wheeler, president of CTIA. As users grew, prices declined. The average local monthly bill for subscribers dropped to $52.45 during the fist six months, compared to $58.65 per month in June 1994. In 1987, the average monthly bill for cellular service was almost $100. CTIA says that to keep pace with this growth, the industry invested $2.8 billion during the first six months of 1995, bringing total cumularly investment since the industry began in 1983 to more than $21.7 billion. According to the trade group for the cellular industry, more than 2,000 new cell sites sites, the basic building blocks of the cellular telecommunications system, were added in the first half of 1995. The national total is now 19,833. The industry set its 22nd consecutive record for six-month revenues, at $8.7 billion, up 33 percent over the $6.5 billion in the first half of 1994. For the year ended June 30, 1995, revenues totaled $16.5 billion, compared to $12.6 billion for the 12 months ended June 30, 1994. Twice a year, CTIA surveys the 1,581 cellular systems that serve 734 markets in the US. Farren & Lanman, an independent accounting firm, compiles and tabulates the data. (Kennedy Maize/19951003/Press Contact: Mike Houghton, CTIA, 202-736-3207) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 10/03/95 ONLINE ****NBC Desktop Video To Intro Online Player (NEWS)(ONLINE)(MSP)(00030) ****NBC Desktop Video To Intro Online Player 10/03/95 NEW YORK CITY, NEW YORK, U.S.A., 1995 OCT 3 (NB) -- The National Broadcasting Company's (NBC) Desktop Video unit said it has developed a "low-bit" multimedia player which will allow users to access audio, text, and pictures on the Internet's World Wide Web. The user would be able to access these files at 14.4Kbps (kilobits per second), with no download time. With the new multimedia player, users will be able to access the unit's existing information services, NBC Professional and NBC Private Financial Network, via the Web. That service will begin in December, 1995. Mike Wheeler, president of NBC Desktop Video, told Newsbytes this move will be in addition to the unit's normal proprietary delivery system. Wheeler also said the delivery of video won't have the quality of full- motion video. But the new offering will provide more information delivery services than are currently available on the Internet. "They (competitors) have audio at 14.4," he said. "We have audio with pictures, text, and graphics at 14.4." The audio will transmit at half the data rate of existing services, which frees up bandwidth for picture and text transmission. The media player itself was developed in conjunction with the General Electric Research and Development Center. Besides providing a player, NBC Desktop Video will provide authoring tools that will allow companies to add multimedia to their Web sites that can be accessed with a 14.4 modem. Those tools will be licensed to other companies as well as to NBC affiliates. NBC officials added that by the end of the first quarter of 1996, the new technology will allow for real-time multimedia coverage of live events on the Web. NBC officials also said that Microsoft, Sun Microsystems, and Netscape have agreed to support and be compatible with NBC Desktop Video's applications. Officials added that BBN Planet will provide Internet services for the NBC unit. In addition, Sun will provide software that allows viewing of multimedia stories, incorporating Sun's Java technology. The Java technology will also enable a user-alert for NBC Desktop Video stories that a customer would have an interest in, based on a personal profile. For additional information, NBC maintains a Web site at http://www.nbc.com . (Bob Woods/19951003/Press Contact: Paul Lief Rosengren, NBC, 212- 664-2756) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 10/03/95 IBM ****IBM Aims New ThinkPads At Desktop Market (NEWS)(IBM)(TOR)(00031) ****IBM Aims New ThinkPads At Desktop Market 10/03/95 SOMERS, NEW YORK, U.S.A., 1995 OCT 3 (NB) -- IBM's (NYSE:IBM) new ThinkPad computers are notebooks, but IBM is hoping some customers will buy them instead of desktop machines. The firm is pitching the machines, equipped with larger screens and tiltable keyboards, as alternatives to traditional desktops. #IMAGE 1 20 TWPCX \images\95100331.PCX Click here for photo The 12.1-inch color screen used in the new ThinkPad 760C and 760CD also makes the machines well suited to the mobile presentation market, said a spokeswoman for the company, Andrea Bell. By trying to sell the ThinkPad line as a desktop alternative, IBM may be hoping to use the highly regarded ThinkPad to grab sales away from its rivals in the desktop arena, since its own desktop PCs have been less well received than its notebooks. International Data Group, a Boston research firm, has just released a report noting that IBM and Toshiba are both gaining in the portable PC market, largely at the expense of Compaq Computer Corp. and Apple Computer Inc. In the desktop market, however, IDG said Compaq is the preferred brand for business customers, while IBM has more strength in the home. Both new ThinkPads use Intel Corp. Pentium processors. The 760CD uses a 90-megahertz (MHZ) Pentium, which the 760C is available with the 90-MHZ or the 120-MHZ version. The 760CD also has a video decoder chip and IBM's Mwave media processor providing sound, 28,800-bit-per-second modem, telephone, answer machine, and fax functions. Both 760 machines have a keyboard that rises at the rear as the screen is folded upward, placing it at the same angle as a desktop keyboard, Bell told Newsbytes. For those who prefer a level keyboard, there is a latch that lets the keyboard drop back. This keyboard is not to be confused with the "butterfly" keyboard introduced with IBM's ThinkPad 710 series earlier this year. The ThinkPad 760s use lithium-ion batteries, and Bell said that with a single battery either model can run on battery power for three to nine hours. It is also possible to take out either the diskette drive or the CD-ROM drive supplied with the 760CD and substitute a second battery, extending the manufacturer's claimed battery life to between six and 18 hours. Both ThinkPad 760 models come with eight megabytes (MB) of memory as standard equipment, expandable to 40 MB. The 760C ships with a 720MB hard disk, while the 760CD ships with a 1.2-gigabyte drive, Bell said. The units also boast infrared communications interfaces for wireless printing, and a liquid-crystal display for vital statistics such as remaining battery power. IBM's catalog prices are $5,349 to $7,449. (Grant Buckler/19951003/Press Contact: Michael Corrado, IBM, 914-766-3419; Jonathan Gandal or Andrea Bell, Brodeur & Partners for IBM, 914-697-9711/ THINKPAD951003/PHOTO) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 10/03/95 WINDOWS Morningstar, Dataware Offer Mutual Fund CD-ROM (NEWS)(WINDOWS)(TOR)(00032) Morningstar, Dataware Offer Mutual Fund CD-ROM 10/03/95 CAMBRIDGE, MASSACHUSETTS, U.S.A., 1995 OCT 3 (NB) -- Morningstar, an investment-information publisher, will distribute 14 gigabytes (GB) of United States mutual fund data on a set of CD-ROM disks developed with Dataware Technologies, Inc. (NASDAQ:DWTI). The set of 30 CD-ROMs is meant for institutional investors and researchers. The set will be available directly from Morningstar, according to Dataware spokeswoman Sarah Dehler at the company's Canadian office in Ottawa. It will cost $30,000 per year. Acknowledging that this seems a hefty price tag, Dehler told Newsbytes that the package is meant to replace one or more research staff people. Morningstar will supply monthly updates consisting of two or three disks of updated mutual-fund information and will re-index the entire database twice a year. The CD-ROM set is meant for use with personal computers running Microsoft Windows, Dehler said. There are no immediate plans for other versions. There are also no current plans to develop counterpart products for countries other than the United States, Dehler said. Morningstar contracted Dataware, a developer and marketer of software and services for electronic publishing, to create the CD-ROM set using its CD Author and CD Answer authoring and retrieval software for CD-ROMs. The CD-ROMs contain data compiled by Morningstar and already provided to customers by other means. Morningstar officials said CD-ROM technology is an ideal way for the company to distribute the large volumes of data involved. Morningstar has been producing CD-ROMs since 1991. Its previous CD-ROM titles consisted of financial data and its manipulation, officials said. (Grant Buckler/19950929/Press Contact: Sarah Dehler, Dataware Technologies, 613-225-2300 ext. 248, fax 613-225-2304, Internet e-mail sdehler@dataware.com; Paul Fox, Morningstar, 312-696-6170) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 10/03/95 TRENDS Canadian Info Highway Report Includes Dissenting View On Jobs (NEWS)(TRENDS)(TOR)(00033) Canadian Info Highway Report Includes Dissenting View On Jobs 10/03/95 OTTAWA, ONTARIO, CANADA, 1995 OCT 3 (NB) -- The main body of the Canadian Advisory Council on the Information Highway's final report talks about employment mainly as something to be increased through incentives for research and development and more teaching of technical skills in schools. However, council member Jean-Claude Parrot, executive vice-president of the Canadian Labour Congress, has distanced himself from the majority report by writing his own statement, included as an appendix to the report. While the main report says the development of the information highway should be left largely to the private sector and government should focus on promoting competition and market forces, Parrot argues that this approach, while currently popular, will not protect the rights of workers. "Market-driven solutions to unemployment clearly do not work," Parrot writes. "They ignore the responsibility, which ought to be shared between the private sector and the government, to create jobs." Parrot notes that "some 35 million people are out of work in OECD (Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development) countries (which account for 75 percent of world economic activity) and many millions more are out of work in developing countries; global unemployment rates remain at their highest levels since the 1930s." He maintains that increased use of technology is among the reasons for this high unemployment, and also that "information technology has diffused itself throughout the economy and demonstrated its inherent capacity to transfer work across national borders." Though he acknowledges the argument that new technology will also create new jobs, Parrot goes on to say that "whether one is inclined to emphasize the job-creating or job-destroying impact of new technology, there can be little dispute over the reality of, at the very least, short-term dislocation." And, he forecasts, "the introduction of these technologies creates a bipolar distinction of work and income with an elite class of highly paid, highly skilled knowledge workers and a large pool of lower-paid, variable-skilled workers with narrowly defined skill sets." In his minority statement, Parrot calls on the government to link information highway initiatives formally to job creation programs, act to reduce job displacement and the erosion of labor standards by new technologies, and require firms that lay off employees on a large scale to take all available means of reducing the cuts, such as job-sharing and reduced working hours. He calls for measures to help workers move between jobs, more support for training, and greater use of new technology such as national communication networks to help match workers with jobs. Parrot's statement also recommends "legislated, mandatory, employer-paid training and skills upgrading for workers affected by the introduction of new technologies and processes that cause changes to workplace organization or definition." One of his recommendations also calls for mandatory employment-impact statements from employers seeking government support or tax breaks for information-highway-related projects. Also, he urges changes to relevant laws to ensure that people working at home receive the same benefits and protection as other workers, and stronger limits on electronic surveillance of workers. The council's main report, on the other hand, says little about possible job losses due to new technology. Its position is that Canadian jobs can be preserved if Canadian companies are globally competitive and the country's work force is well educated and trained. "While initially there may be job losses and dislocation, jobs will also be created," the council says, arguing that the key to this will be a "cycle of innovation," driven largely by research and development. "Innovation is the key to growth in the knowledge-based economy. Research and development is critical to innovation on the information highway, which in turn will foster higher productivity and, thus, growth and jobs." To that end, the council's final report recommends that the federal government expand its program of tax incentives for scientific research and development. It also encourages partnerships involving both the private and the public sector, such as the Canadian Network for the Advancement of Research, Industry, and Education (CANARIE). But it maintains that research and development should be privately funded wherever possible, and suggests that CANARIE -- now supported in part by government funds -- might be made into a commercial venture in future. Arguing that better education and training, and frequent retraining throughout people's working lives, will be important to the success of Canadian businesses, the council urges the Canadian government to develop a comprehensive national strategy for "lifelong learning." It argues that "if Canadians are to embrace and welcome change, they must create a society which places learning at its very heart, and nourishes them in their personal and working lives." Though the Canadian work force is generally thought of as quite highly skilled, the council claims that about 38 percent of Canadians lack the basic literacy skills required in today's workplace, and even more lack computer literacy. As new jobs require more and more education, this will become more of a problem, the report notes. "Illiteracy and innumeracy cost the Canadian economy an estimated $4 billion per year," the report claims. "Savings of $26 billion could be achieved if the high school dropout rate falls from its current level of 20-30 percent to 10 percent by the year 2000." The council thinks technology, including the information highway, can help solve this problem. "Technology-based tools are effective because they allow the learner and the source of information to interact," and, "when indirect costs such as travel and time off the job are taken into account, technology-based tools are particularly cost-efficient and more so with increased usage." However, the report says, the Canadian market for technology-based learning tools is fragmented because each province makes its own decisions about curriculum and materials. The provinces should try to work together and governments should support the development of Canadian materials, the report urges. The council also recommends that telecommunications carriers be encouraged to provide special reduced rates for educational institutions. Carriers are likely to welcome this recommendation, as they have asked regulators for the freedom to offer different rates to schools and universities. The full report of the Advisory Council on the Information Highway is available on the World Wide Web through the home page of the Industry Canada department at http://www.ic.gc.ca . (Grant Buckler/19950929) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 10/03/95 ONLINE CompuServe Covers OJ Not-Guilty Verdict (NEWS)(ONLINE)(SFO)(00034) CompuServe Covers OJ Not-Guilty Verdict 10/03/95 COLUMBUS, OHIO, U.S.A., 1995 OCT 3 (NB) -- Leveraging its relationship with CNN, CompuServe opened its Convention Center so members can listen to commentary and discuss the result of the "Trial of the Century." Read at 10:00 am Pacific Standard Time today, the not-guilty verdict gathered international attention and filled online chats and forums with comments, messages and discussions. Michelle Moran, spokesperson for CompuServe, told Newsbytes, "We have been diligently working hard to create an environment for our subscribers to discuss this event since we heard the jury had reached a verdict yesterday. The outcome of the trial is like a national event or crisis and we have always created special areas for these kinds of events." Along with its live online coverage through CNN, CompuServe is also offering information through its US News & World Report, African- American Forum, Issues Forum, Journalism Forum, Associated Press Online, Legal Forum, Time-Warner's Crime Forum, Reuters News Pix Forum and a part of its Entertainment Drive called Court TV. CompuServe says events will continue throughout the week. Photographs of Simpson, Judge Ito, prosecutors and defenders are also available. Documents related to the trial, transcripts and media comments from around the world will be provided. The CNN area offers coverage from Nancy Grace, Assistant District Attorney for Fulton County, Georgia, and Jerry Freolich, a criminal defense attorney who practices in northern Georgia. America Online and Prodigy are also experiencing heavy loads of user traffic as members, some of whom are cheering and some of whom are shocked, discuss their opinions. (Patrick McKenna/19951003/Press Contact: Michelle Moran, CompuServe, tel 614-538-4000) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 10/03/95 TRENDS ****Sybase Chosen For Mammoth Environmental Research Project (NEWS)(TRENDS)(SFO)(00035) ****Sybase Chosen For Mammoth Environmental Research Project 10/03/95 WASHINGTON, D.C., U.S.A., 1995 0CT 3 (NB) -- Hughes Information Technology, Corp., the prime contractor for NASA's Earth Observing System Data and Information System (EOSDIS) project, has selected Sybase (NASDAQ:SYBS) as the core software provider. When this futuristic project is operational in 1998, database information will grow at a rate of one trillion bytes per day. EOSDIS is planned as the world's largest environmental monitoring effort. Its chief mission is to gather data from satellites, space shuttle flights and various land and sea stations in order to determine how human behavior affects the earth's environment. The storage and management of data from these sources will enable scientists from around the world to replace data models with real data for a wide range scientific areas. NASA says the project has seven primary areas of study. They include the role of clouds, radiation, water vapor and precipitation; the productivity of oceans, their circulation and air/sea exchange; sources and sinks of greenhouse gases and their atmospheric transformations; changes in land use, land cover, primary productivity, and the water cycle; the role of polar ice sheets and sea level; the coupling of ozone chemistry with climate and the biosphere; and the role of volcanos in climate change. The agreement between Hughes and Sybase involves the licensing of more than 700 Sybase products and means Sybase will be the foundation for what NASA calls "The Database of the Century." Soon after the project is operational, this scientific database will reach 3 terabytes and, according to projections, will grow into the petabyte range. Giving a comparison to identify a petabyte of data, Sybase says it is the equivalent a stack of typical office memos 2,500 miles high. Sybase is to supply database, middleware and development tool products and its SQL Sever and Replication Server represent the backbone of the agreement. Other core Sybase technologies include Enterprise SQL Server Manager, Open Gateways and SQS. Enterprise SQL server manager is a tool for local and remote administration of the SQL server environment. Open Gateways is a family of products for read/write access which provide complete SQL translation and location transparency and the ability to easily merge information from different data sources. Sybase's SQS is a high performance spatial query engine for managing spatial data in the Sybase SQL Server. To provide hardware and software procurement for the EOSDIS project Hughes selected Electronic Data Systems (EDS). EDS officials say Sybase's client/server technology was chosen after an exhausting, competitive review of potential products currently available. Hardware for the project includes products from Silicon Graphics, IBM, Sun Microsystems, Hewlett-Packard, Digital Equipment and others. Asked if its primary competitor, Oracle, was also reviewed, a spokesperson for Sybase told Newsbytes, "It is my understanding that Oracle was also considered. We are very pleased that Sybase is the company chosen." The total dollar value of the agreement was not provided at this time. When sufficient assembled data is available, participating scientists plan to develop predictive models which will serve as a basis for environmental policy decisions in the US. The data and images contained in the database will be made available to a educational institutions worldwide. More information may be found at the EOSDIS World Wide Web site, http://spso.gsfc.nasa.gov/spso or the Hughes home page,, http://ecsinfo.hitc.com . (Patrick McKenna/19951003/Press Contact: Joan Mankoff, Blanc & Otis, tel 415-512-0500) (SUMMARY)(GENERAL)(MSP)(00036) Newsbytes Daily Summary 10/03/95 MINNEAPOLIS, MINNESOTA, U.S.A., 1995 OCT 3 (NB) -- These are capsules of all today's news stories: ======================================================================== ------------| N E W S B Y T E S D A I L Y S U M M A R Y |---------- ------------| Tuesday, October 3, 1995 |---------- ======================================================================== (c) Newsbytes News Network (Tm) Editor in Chief: Wendy Woods ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Newsbytes News Network's 1995 Update CD-ROM for Mac, DOS, and Windows is now available for $29.95 (includes s&h). Contains 1983-1995 news stories, more than 64,000 keyword searchable stories and 475 digitized images. For more information or to order, fax to 612-430-0441 or e-mail to 'administrator@newsbytes.com' -- MC, Visa, Amex accepted. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ CATEGORY HEADLINES (*** indicates today's top stories) STORY # ======================================================================== BUSINESS ****Connectsoft Disconnects From Medio Purchase........... 08 BUSINESS Czech Republic Switches To Convertible Currency............ 10 BUSINESS Thailand - Software AG, Control Data Business Partners..... 20 EDUCATION Apple Extends School Market Share.......................... 13 EDUCATION 13 Microsoft Training Centers In Central & East Europe..... 23 EDUCATION Philippines - University Modernizes With 350 PCs........... 24 GENERAL Fathers Of Communication Satellite Honored................. 01 GOVT BT Sheds Staff In Australian State Govt War................ 19 GOVT Control Data Wins Thai Census Project...................... 21 GOVT Hong Kong - Another Slap In Face For Tradelink............. 22 IBM ****IBM Aims New ThinkPads At Desktop Market.............. 31 ONLINE Barclays Stockbrokers Plug Into The Internet............... 04 ONLINE Correction - America Online Unexpectedly Goes Down......... 11 ONLINE America Online To Be Preloaded On More Computers........... 18 ONLINE ****Survey Counts 5.8 Million Internet Users.............. 27 ONLINE Correction - SEC Web Address............................... 28 ONLINE ****NBC Desktop Video To Intro Online Player.............. 30 ONLINE CompuServe Covers OJ Not-Guilty Verdict.................... 34 PC Compaq Launches Another Prolinea Series.................... 16 TELECOM Geneva Telecom - European Paging Association Expands....... 02 TELECOM Ericsson Secures Two Major Chinese Contracts............... 03 TELECOM Ameritech Launches ISDN Resellers Program.................. 05 TELECOM UK Company Offers Global Mobile Phone In A Suitcase........ 06 TELECOM Geneva Telecom - Ericsson's Advanced Cellphone............. 07 TELECOM EC Attempts To Clean Up Mobile Phone Market................ 09 TELECOM Hitachi Develops Single Frequency Duplex Radio............. 14 TELECOM US Compainies Join GSM..................................... 15 TELECOM Sweden's Ericsson Unveils Super Cordless Technology........ 17 TELECOM China - Shanghai Phone Installation Difficult.............. 25 TELECOM China - National Mobile Phone Network Operational.......... 26 TRENDS Wireless Business Boom Continues........................... 29 TRENDS Canadian Info Highway Report Includes Dissenting View On Jo 33 TRENDS ****Sybase Chosen For Mammoth Environmental Research Proje 35 WINDOWS Microsoft Cuts Home Software Pricing....................... 12 WINDOWS Morningstar, Dataware Offer Mutual Fund CD-ROM............. 32 ======================================================================== These are the headlines and first paragraphs of each story, in order: 1 -> Fathers Of Communication Satellite Honored -- John Pierce and Harold Rosen, the engineers who developed communication satellite technology, last week were named recipients of the $400,000 Charles Stark Draper Prize, the world's largest award exclusively for engineering achievement. 2 -> Geneva Telecom - European Paging Association Expands -- The European Public Paging Association (EPPA) will be appearing at the Telecom 95 telecoms exhibition, which opens today in Geneva. According to officials of the association, membership has now been expanded to 29 companies scattered around Europe. 3 -> Ericsson Secures Two Major Chinese Contracts -- Ericsson has announced the signing of two major contracts with the Chinese Ministry of Post and Telecommunications (MPT). 4 -> Barclays Stockbrokers Plug Into The Internet -- Barclays Bank has announced it is offering a variety of stockbrokering information on the Internet via the bank's World Wide Web site on http://www. barclays.co.uk . 5 -> Ameritech Launches ISDN Resellers Program -- Ameritech (NYSE:AIT) is launching a new program to use resellers to sell its ISDN (Integrated Services Digital Network) services. The program, called "ISDN Allies," is expected to double Ameritech's ISDN growth, company officials said. 6 -> UK Company Offers Global Mobile Phone In A Suitcase -- Nera Telecommunications, a high- end mobile telecoms supplier, has announced it is selling a global phone in a suitcase for $10,000. 7 -> Geneva Telecom - Ericsson's Advanced Cellphone -- Ericsson has taken the wraps off an advanced version of its best-selling analog EH-237 cellular phone. The new phone, known as the EH-238, has all the features of its forebear, which won the 1994 Mobile Phone of the Year award, but has an updated internal software system that enhances reception and offers no less than nine ringing signals. 8 -> ****Connectsoft Disconnects From Medio Purchase -- Connectsoft Inc., has announced it has terminated its agreement to purchase the assets of Medio Multimedia, Inc. A Connectsoft spokesperson told Newsbytes the deal was contingent on the fulfillment of various conditions and "a number of contingencies were not met on both sides by the September 29 deadline," but declined to reveal further details. 9 -> EC Attempts To Clean Up Mobile Phone Market -- Ask anyone involved in the cellular phone industry, especially in the UK marketplace, as to their opinion of the trade in general, and it's certain that words like "shark," "crooks" and "dodgy" will come up. The European Commission (EC), perhaps aware of this, has awarded a contract to Ovum, the UK- based research and report company, to help develop a code of conduct for pan-European mobile service providers. 10 -> Czech Republic Switches To Convertible Currency -- Following Poland's switch to a convertible Zloty last year, the Czech Republic's unit of currency, the Koruna, became a fully convertible currency on Sunday of this week. 11 -> Correction - America Online Unexpectedly Goes Down -- In a story entitled "America Online Unexpectedly Goes Down," Newsbytes inadvertently gave an incorrect date for when the online network experienced a three- plus hour outage. 12 -> Microsoft Cuts Home Software Pricing -- Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ: MSFT) announced this week it has cut the price of its home software products, with more than 30 titles now available for an estimated street price under $50. With some of the prices being reduced by as much as 45 percent, Microsoft said some of the titles will be available for as little as $29.99. 13 -> Apple Extends School Market Share -- Apple Computer, Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL) claims a commanding lead in the kindergarten through high school market. According to new research from Quality Education Data's (QED) "1995-96 Technology Purchasing Forecast" report, 63 percent of the computers used in United States public schools are Apple-branded, up from 59 percent last year. 14 -> Hitachi Develops Single Frequency Duplex Radio -- Hitachi Electric has developed a private mobile radio (PMR) system that allows full duplex communications across a single frequency and is displaying it for the first time at the Telecom 95 show in Geneva. 15 -> US Compainies Join GSM -- The GSM (Global System for Mobile Communications) MoU Association has announced four new American companies have signed to the system as the number of worldwide subscribers hits ten million: Bellsouth, American Personal Communications Mobile Services, Western Wireless and Pacific Bell. 16 -> Compaq Launches Another Prolinea Series -- Compaq Computer Corp. (NYSE: CPQ) has announced another series in its Prolinea business product line that appears designed to keep pricing pressure on competitors like Hewlett-Packard and IBM. 17 -> Sweden's Ericsson Unveils Super Cordless Technology -- Ericsson has announced the Super Cordless range of digital cordless phones, together with digital base stations, for use as a wide area PCS (Personal Communications System) digital phone system. Super Cordless is a stepping stone between digital cordless phones with a range of a few hundred meters, and licensed PCS, as seen in several US and European cities. 18 -> America Online To Be Preloaded On More Computers -- America Online Inc. (NASDAQ:AMER) (AOL) said three more manufacturers will pre-load the online service's access software onto their computers. Gateway 2000, Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC), and Packard Bell join more than 20 manufacturers that preinstall AOL on their personal computers for the consumer market. 19 -> BT Sheds Staff In Australian State Govt War -- After pulling out of protracted negotiations with the New South Wales (NSW) state Government for the provision of a telephone and data network, BT Australasia has retrenched 45 staff and issued an ambiguous and bitterly worded press release announcing the move. 20 -> Thailand - Software AG, Control Data Business Partners -- Germany's Software AG has appointed Control Data (Thailand) as its sole business partner for Thailand and plan to initially target the banking sector, according to CDG Group Business Development Director Soottipong Winyoopradist. 21 -> Control Data Wins Thai Census Project -- Control Data Systems has been awarded the Bangkok Metropolitan Administration (BMA) project to install the Computerized National Census and Services Project, which includes 40 districts in and around Bangkok. 22 -> Hong Kong - Another Slap In Face For Tradelink -- Nobody officially came out and said it, but CargoNet, Hong Kong's new electronic data interchange (EDI) provider, is another slap in the face for Tradelink, the quasi-government consortium set up in the late 1980s to develop Hong Kong's EDI capabilities, and which has yet to deliver a single product. 23 -> 13 Microsoft Training Centers In Central & East Europe -- Microsoft has announced that it has certified thirteen Solution Provider Authorized Training Centers (SP-ATCs) in Central & East Europe where it does not have subsidiaries. The new centers, located in Estonia, Latvia, Ukraine, Belorussia, Romania, Bulgaria and Croatia. 24 -> Philippines - University Modernizes With 350 PCs -- Centro Escolar University (CEU) recently acquired 350 '486 PCs and peripherals from Ecoline Automations Systems valued at $700,000 to further boost its computerization efforts in line with the University's thrust to "modernize" its existing curriculum. 25 -> China - Shanghai Phone Installation Difficult -- Although phone numbers in Shanghai will be upgraded from 7 to 8 digits, some customers still have to wait years to get phones installed, officials with Shanghai Posts and Telecommunications Administration (SPTA) said. 26 -> China - National Mobile Phone Network Operational -- China is now covered by mobile phone communications networks and mobile phone subscribers now can use their cellular phones from any city or county in China, a spokesman with Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications (MPT) announced recently in Beijing. 27 -> ****Survey Counts 5.8 Million Internet Users -- O'Reilly & Associates has released details of the first survey undertaken by its new Online Research Group. The survey found the size of the US Internet is currently 5.8 million people. 28 -> Correction - SEC Web Address -- An article September 29 (SEC Launches Internet Site), reporting on the new World Wide Web site offering free public access to Securities and Exchange Commission electronic filings and other investor information gave an incorrect address for the Securities and Exchange Commission's new site. 29 -> Wireless Business Boom Continues -- The number of cellular phone users in the United States has topped 30 million, according to the Cellular Telecommunications Industry Association, more than the population of Canada. 30 -> ****NBC Desktop Video To Intro Online Player -- The National Broadcasting Company's (NBC) Desktop Video unit said it has developed a "low-bit" multimedia player which will allow users to access audio, text, and pictures on the Internet's World Wide Web. The user would be able to access these files at 14.4Kbps (kilobits per second), with no download time. 31 -> ****IBM Aims New ThinkPads At Desktop Market -- IBM's (NYSE:IBM) new ThinkPad computers are notebooks, but IBM is hoping some customers will buy them instead of desktop machines. The firm is pitching the machines, equipped with larger screens and tiltable keyboards, as alternatives to traditional desktops. 32 -> Morningstar, Dataware Offer Mutual Fund CD-ROM -- Morningstar, an investment-information publisher, will distribute 14 gigabytes (GB) of United States mutual fund data on a set of CD-ROM disks developed with Dataware Technologies, Inc. (NASDAQ:DWTI). The set of 30 CD-ROMs is meant for institutional investors and researchers. 33 -> Canadian Info Highway Report Includes Dissenting View On Jobs -- The main body of the Canadian Advisory Council on the Information Highway's final report talks about employment mainly as something to be increased through incentives for research and development and more teaching of technical skills in schools. However, council member Jean-Claude Parrot, executive vice-president of the Canadian Labour Congress, has distanced himself from the majority report by writing his own statement, included as an appendix to the report. 34 -> CompuServe Covers OJ Not-Guilty Verdict -- Leveraging its relationship with CNN, CompuServe opened its Convention Center so members can listen to commentary and discuss the result of the "Trial of the Century." Read at 10:00 am Pacific Standard Time today, the not-guilty verdict gathered international attention and filled online chats and forums with comments, messages and discussions. 35 -> ****Sybase Chosen For Mammoth Environmental Research Project -- Hughes Information Technology, Corp., the prime contractor for NASA's Earth Observing System Data and Information System (EOSDIS) project, has selected Sybase (NASDAQ:SYBS) as the core software provider. When this futuristic project is operational in 1998, database information will grow at a rate of one trillion bytes per day. (Wendy Woods/19951003) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 10/02/95 APPLE Seybold - Multi-Ad Services' Mac Software Upgrades (NEWS)(APPLE)(SFO)(00001) Seybold - Multi-Ad Services' Mac Software Upgrades 10/02/95 SAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1995 OCT 2 (NB) -- Multi-Ad Services, a major supplier of software for creating ads on the Macintosh computer, announced version 3.8 of Multi-Ad Creator and version 3.1 of Multi-Search. The company also introduced Multi-Ad Creator Pro Pack, a complete bundle for an advertising department using Macs. The new version of Creator is compatible with Adobe Acrobat 2.0 Distiller, which means ads can be faxed electronically and printed to a non-PostScript device. Version 3.1 also has an improved interface and a new commands palette for quick access to often-used commands. Support for placing, decompressing and separating Storm JPEG (Joint Photograpic Experts Group) files is provided. Multi-Ad Search 3.1, an image database, includes improved Power PC support for cataloging TIFF, JPEG, GIF, and Adobe PhotoShop files and thumbnail extraction from QuarkXPress files. According to Multi- Ad, this latest version is more user-friendly and faster than previous versions. Users are now able to drag a file from a Search catalog and drop it into a Creator document or to the Finder. Both of these upgrades include AppleEvent support and technical support. The Creator upgrade is priced at $140 for registered users of earlier versions. The Search upgrade is priced at $24.95. Multi-Ad's Creator Pro Pack includes Creator 3.8, Search 3.1, Creator General and Seasonal Borders, useful AppleScript, and the Creator Art Essentials Package. If you are a registered user of Creator 3.7 and Search 3.0, the upgrade package is priced at $195. The price is $295 for registered users of Creator 3.7 only. A Multi-Ad representative at the company's booth told Newsbytes, "We set the newspaper standard for advertising layouts in the Macintosh environment. These upgrades are part of our commitment to meet customer needs and supply the most advanced support services." (Patrick McKenna/19950929/Press Contact: Rob Jennings, Multi-Ad Services, 309-692-1530) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 10/02/95 WINDOWS Seybold - Corel Gets License For Xara Studio (NEWS)(WINDOWS)(SFO)(00002) Seybold - Corel Gets License For Xara Studio 10/02/95 SAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A, 1995 OCT 2 (NB) -- Corel announced a licensing agreement with Xara Ltd. for its Xara Studio. The new technology will be added to Corel's drawing and multimedia software products as CorelXara. Xara Studio is a 32-bit vector drawing package for Windows 3.1, Windows 3.11, Windows NT, and Windows 95. A spokesperson for Corel told Newsbytes, "The Xara technology is an excellent addition to our product line as a compliment and as a stand-alone product. We plan to place it alongside our other products so customers from around the world will have the opportunity to use it." As part of the agreement with Corel, Xara will continue to work on Xara technology with Corel personnel. The British company is well- known for its desktop publishing application, called Impression, which has more than 40,000 users. Corel says CorelXara is being developed as an "ultra fast" vector and bitmap illustration tool with full anti-aliasing features and unique special effects which compliment CorelDraw, Corel Ventura and other graphics and DTP products. As a stand-alone product, CorelXara will work well for customers who do not require color separations. Corel says it has not established a price for the Xara product, but a demo CD of the product is in its final stages. Interested customers can request the demo by sending an electronic-mail to Corel at custserv@corel.ca or calling Corel at 800-772-6735. A sneak preview of CorelXara is planned for the CorelDraw User Conference in Dallas, Texas beginning October 22. The official product unveiling is scheduled for Fall Comdex in Las Vegas. Comdex begins on November 13 and runs through November 18. CorelXara will also be part of a roadshow of Corel products which the company will tour in North America, the UK, and Australia and New Zealand. (Patrick McKenna/19950929/Press Contact: Fiona Rochester, Corel, 613-728-0826) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 10/02/95 GENERAL Seybold - Monotype's Desktop Publishing Resource CD (NEWS)(GENERAL)(SFO)(00003) Seybold - Monotype's Desktop Publishing Resource CD 10/02/95 SAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1995 OCT 2 (NB) -- Monotype Typography, well-known marketer of font and related software products, introduced a resource CD-ROM for the professional desktop publishing market. The company is also beginning to deliver fonts to its customers through the commercial online services. DTP Resource CD 1.0 expands on the company's font software with tools for popular graphics design programs. The CD includes: more than 300 PhotoShop, PageMaker and Illustrator Plug-ins; QuarkXTensions; and Freehand Extras. The resources are encrypted on the CD and can be unlocked an hour after an order is placed with the software contained in the CD. Monotype built DTP Resource CD with products from eighteen different companies. Illustrator Plug-ins come from BeInfinite, Cytopia Software, Human Software and Sundae Software. Plug-ins for PhotoShop come from Alien Skin Software, Cytopia Software, Andromedia Software, Eastman Kodak, HSC Software, Human Software, ImageXpress, Soft Furnishings, Xaos Tools and Zephyr Design. PageMaker Plug-ins come from Bullfrog Software, EDCO Services, Extensis, Mapsoft, Shadetree Marketing, Sundae Software, TechPool Software, and Virginia Systems. QuarkXTensions are provided by Datastream Imaging Systems Soft Furnishings and Vision's Edge. Freehand Xtras are licensed from Human Software. A spokesperson for Monotype told Newsbytes, "We want to be a company graphics professionals and publishers turn to for more than fonts. We are providing a wide range of products which are easily available and add to our customers productivity." Monotype says the new CD will be available in November and it will ship free with every Monotype CD 5.0. DTP Resource CD will also be bundled with other desktop publishing software products. Prices for the tools offered on the CD begin at $19. Monotype also announced a plan to deliver fonts to its customers' accounts on Compuserve, Prodigy, eWorld, America Online, and Microsoft Network. The firm says that, being as they are relatively small files, an electronic pack of fonts requires very little download time, and online delivery is cheaper than placing the fonts on a disk and sending them through a standard postal system. Online delivery is available now. (Patrick McKenna/19950928/Press Contact: Danielle Kenney, Monotype, 312-855-1440) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 10/02/95 TELECOM Hong Kong - Unisys Wins New T&T Telecom Deal (NEWS)(TELECOM)(HKG)(00004) Hong Kong - Unisys Wins New T&T Telecom Deal 10/02/95 CENTRAL, HONG KONG, 1995 OCT 2 (NB) -- New T&T in Hong Kong has signed a service and installation contract with Unisys to supply hardware and software for the start-up phone company's new messaging system. While no official figures were released, it's thought the deal is initially worth over US$1 million and, in the long term, possibly as much as US$10 million. New T&T, part of the Wharf Group, won one of the three licenses issued early this summer for fixed line and enhanced IDD services as part of the local telecoms deregulation. The Unisys deal supplies New T&T with, what is known as, a network application processor, which will be the core of its enhanced messaging service. The service aims to give subscribers call-answering, voice- messaging, "never-busy" fax, and audiotext, among other things. According to New T&T's Eddie Paterson, manager for data and applications markets, the software and hardware Unisys is providing, assures system expandability and flexibility. "For example, if customers want continual updates on securities information, the audiotext stock market reports can be posted to their voice-mail boxes at regular intervals," Paterson told I.T. Daily. Unisys sells a lot of telecom-related equipment around Asia but it's the company's first such sale in Hong Kong. "We only had Hong Kong Telecom here but now it's opened up," said Garry Scarborough, marketing director with Unisys. The system runs over a Unisys 'A' series mainframe. Few of these have sold in Asia -- and only two reportedly sold last year in Hong Kong. But the big boxes remain Unisys' most profitable line -- turning over something like US$70 million across the region last year -- and kicking in the best margins in the Unisys product range. (Nigel Armstrong & I.T. Daily/19950928) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 10/02/95 BUSINESS IBM & Great Wall in Another Chinese Joint Venture (NEWS)(BUSINESS)(HKG)(00005) IBM & Great Wall in Another Chinese Joint Venture 10/02/95 CENTRAL, HONG KONG, 1995 OCT 2 (NB) -- IBM has announced a manufacturing joint venture with China Great Wall Computer Group and Kaifa Technology of Hong Kong. The deal comes within days of the official opening of Big Blue's new research and development laboratory in Beijing. The new venture, Shenzhen GKI Electronics, will manufacture and develop electronic equipment, including electronic card technology, design, assembly, and testing kits. The new company will be based in the Shenzen Science & Industry Park. Initially the GKI will have US$9 million in capital with IBM holding 60% of the equity, Great Wall 25%, and Kaifa 15%. Great Wall's chairman, Wang Zhi, has been named chairman of GKI, with IBM installing Arthur Yarzumbeck as general manager. It is IBM's second joint venture with Great Wall. The first was signed last year to make computers for the domestic and overseas market. (Nigel Armstrong & I.T. Daily/19950928) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 10/02/95 BUSINESS Novell Pushes PerfectOffice & PerfectWorks Into Europe (NEWS)(BUSINESS)(LON)(00006) Novell Pushes PerfectOffice & PerfectWorks Into Europe 10/02/95 BRACKNELL, BERKSHIRE, ENGLAND, 1995 OCT 2 (NB) -- Novell has signed a distribution deal with Nordoc in the Netherlands, one of Europe's leading software distributors, for the distribution of PerfectOffice 3.0 and PerfectWorks 2.1 into small- and medium-sized resellers across Europe. Dick de Vaal, a spokesman for Nordoc, explained that the company wanted to offer its customers across Europe, desktop applications of high quality. "We chose Novell's products because of their quality compared to the other products available on the market," he said, adding that the packages are ideally suited to small- and medium-sized businesses. "Nordoc is a significant strategic partner for Novell and opens up new channels of distribution for Novell's leading desktop software applications throughout Europe," commented Chris Giggs, OEM (original equipment manufacturer) sales manager with Novell. According to Giggs, the deal strengthens Novell's portfolio of strategic partners in Europe and "reinforces its initiatives to allow distribution houses to offer customers complete software including the license. With other major software vendors, resellers must purchase the software and the license separately." (Steve Gold/19950928/Press Contact: Stuart Yeardsley, A Plus, +44-1753-790700, Internet e-mail syeardsl@aplus.co.uk; Reader Contact: Novell, tel +44-1344-724000, fax +44-1344-724001) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 10/02/95 TRENDS HP Pushes CD-ROM-Recordable Pricing Down In UK (NEWS)(TRENDS)(LON)(00007) HP Pushes CD-ROM-Recordable Pricing Down In UK 10/02/95 BRACKNELL, BERKSHIRE, ENGLAND, 1995 OCT 2 (NB) -- The UK division of Hewlett-Packard has taken the wraps off the SureStor 4020i, a CD-ROM recordable (CD-ROM-R) system that costs just UKP829. The unit has also been launched in the US, officials told Newsbytes. According to Karen Widdows, HP's Information Storage marketing manager, the system is a PC internal variety and, as far the company is aware, is the lowest priced system currently on the market. HP officials are pitching the system as a "complete recording kit." Despite its low pricing point, HP claims that the SureStor CD-Writer 4020i is targeted at business users, as well as home enthusiasts for applications such as archiving data, recording music CDs, creating Photo-CDs and as a low-cost means of distributing information. The system can cope with most CDs, both audio and data, and comes with four software applications to make the creation of CDs as simple as possible and eliminate, what HP claims is, the difficulty previously associated with CD recording. The system consists of a compact double-speed recorder and quad-speed reader that installs in a PC's half-height 5.25-inch drive bay. The drive can record up to 650 megabytes (MB) of data or up to 72 minutes of audio on a single disk. Two CD-ROM-R disks, a SCSI-2 (small computer system interface type 2) intelligent interface card, plus relevant cables and manuals, are also bundled with the system. According to Adam Thew, a spokesman for HP's UK operation, the system does not pose a serious piracy risk, despite its very low price point. "The media costs for the CD-ROM-R disks work out at UKP9.90 per disk, which puts the disks beyond a practical price for serious pirates," he told Newsbytes, adding that anyone wanting more than 20 copies of a single disk would find it cheaper to make a "glass master" up and have copies of the disk run off by a duplication plant. "For a run of 200 disks or more, you're looking at a price of UKP1 or less per disk, so this is the route that we see pirates taking, rather than using CD-ROM-R technology such as the SureStor," he explained. Having said this, Thew claims that HP goes to considerable lengths to ensure that the thorny problem of software piracy is tackled by its documentation on the SureStor. "We have a number of disclaimers in our documentation that clearly points out the fact that users should not use the equipment to copy data to which they do not have the rights to," he said, adding that, while the company acknowledges that some users will use the system to bring together software on to a single disk, "they almost certainly have paid the license fee for the original copy of the software." "Obviously we don't condone this sort of behavior, but it's not a real threat on a piracy level," he said, noting that such use was similar to taping CDs for use in the car. According to HP, bundled software with the SureStor system allows users to perform a number of CD recording and retrieval tasks, including: a Magic Lantern application for Photo CD viewing and multimedia presentation and preparation; Easy-CD audio, which lets users prepare custom audio disks; Alchemy Personal for HP, which lets users create and search custom databases (which includes a run-time player for use on any PC); and Easy-CD for HP, an extension of the Windows File Manager for easy file transfer to CD. "The introduction of the SureStor CD-Writer 4020i is a significant milestone in the development of the CD-R market." Widdows commented. He added that, with more than 30 million CD readers installed worldwide, the SureStor system "fills the need for an affordable CD recordable drive that allows PC users to tap the potential of CD media for transferring information from one PC to another." To ensure media compatibility with the large installed base of CD readers, the SureStor 4020i conforms to all current industry standards for recording and reading data on CDs. These include: Red Book (Digital Audio); Yellow Book (CD-ROM); Green Book (CD-Interactive); Orange Book (CD-MO and CD-WO); Orange Book (CD-R); White Book (Video CD); and ISO 9060 Logical File Formats. (Steve Gold/19950925/Press Contact: PA Consulting, +44-171-730-9000; Reader Contact: Hewlett-Packard, +44-1344-369222) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 10/02/05 TELECOM Sony To Bypass Airtime Providers In UK Cellphone Deal (NEWS)(TELECOM)(LON)(00008) Sony To Bypass Airtime Providers In UK Cellphone Deal 10/02/05 WEYBRIDGE, SURREY, ENGLAND, 1995 OCT 2 (NB) -- Sony has neatly sidestepped government regulations that prohibit the two main cellular network services in the UK from selling direct to the public, by setting itself up as a network airtime provider (ATP), an intermediary, in its own right. The ATP will be known Sony Cellular Services Limited. Because ATPs bulk-buy their airtime from the networks (Cellnet and Vodafone) on a pay-per-second basis, and at a healthy discount on normal pricing, they theoretically have the flexibility to offer innovative airtime deals to their subscribers. In practice, however, UK ATPs tend to price in 30-second time slices, subject to a 60-second call minimum, and impose hefty monthly subscriptions on subscribers. Sony is planning to "enhance" its cellular service to its subscribers by supplying both the phone (Sony handsets, of course) and an innovative airtime package. The company has signed an ATP agreement with Vodafone and, according to Dave Danielli of Vodafone's press office, can now act as its own ATP. Previously, Sony has only sold its cellular hardware through the cellular sales channels and, although contracting with specific ATPs for its latest models, notably Call Connections, a subsidiary of BT Mobile, has had little power over pricing of the handsets, or the deals available to users of its phones. By becoming its own ATP, the company hopes to change all that. Sony is not breaking the 60+30 second billing rate that UK ATPs charge. Instead, it is offering a "frequent use" points system for other Sony products, as well as a discount calling scheme that kicks in after the subscriber has been with the ATP for a full year. After 12 months, all call charges are reduced by five percent. After 24 months, subscribers get a 7.5 percent discount, and after 36 months, the discount rises to 10 percent. Backing up the Sony contracts is a "constantly-manned help-desk" for subscribers, and the help-desk number is pre-programmed into the customers handset. Several Sony handsets are available from the new company. The most notable is the CMDX-1000, a GSM (global system for mobile communications) small handset that is the first of its type to use a lithium ion battery. This gives the UKP199.99 handset an impressive 50 hours on "standby," and up to seven hours of "talk time." The handset also features the "pop-up" earpiece that was seen on the CMH333 "Mars Bar" analog hand portable release a few years ago. Sony is also backing its customers with a "Walk in and talk" repair service, whereby subscribers can walk into their local repair center for a while-you-wait repair. If same-day repairs are not possible, the center will issue a loan phone. For phones outside their warranty period, Sony is offering a courier and return service that offers repairs within five days. Announcing the setting up of the new company, Jay Chinnadorai, sales and marketing director for Sony's Infocom Products in the UK, said that the company is one of the world's leading brands because of the commitment of its customers. "There is no doubt that mobile telecoms is in need of this level of customer care and we're confident that Sony Cellular Services will provide this. We have created a clear proposition for the public -- Sony handsets and Sony Customer Care. I'm sure that mobile users will be pleased to find a service where they will not have to worry about the small print," he said. (Steve Gold/19950925/Press Contact: Kable PR, +44-171-287-0093; Reader Contact: Sony Customer Info Line, +44-990-111333) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 10/02/95 GENERAL UK - cc:Mail Anti-Virus Package (NEWS)(GENERAL)(LON)(00009) UK - cc:Mail Anti-Virus Package 10/02/95 READING, BERKSHIRE, ENGLAND, 1995 OCT 2 (NB) -- Integralis, a UK network connectivity specialist, has unveiled MIMEsweeper, an anti-virus utility for Lotus cc:Mail users. In use, the package is billed as "automatically scanning all incoming and outgoing data for any unusual and destructive attachments." Company officials claim that, without slowing down cc:Mail's operations, the scan operates "smoothly and efficiently," checking down to short byte strings, to prevent a virus infection from external sources. Lotus UK has given the thumbs-up to the application. According to Andy Watts, director of product management with Lotus, the package is a useful way for organizations to shield themselves against external infection and is several steps beyond a passive "firewall." "MIMEsweeper gives electronic-mail administrators a way to automatically examine incoming and outgoing messages -- including file attachments -- for viruses and other undesirable attributes. As such, it promises to provide a high level of protection without compromising messaging throughput," he said. According to Integralis, MIMEsweeper has a major potential user base worldwide, since almost every cc:Mail user will find the package useful. Integralis notes that more than seven million licenses for cc:Mail have been sold, making the package a possible best seller. Pricing on MIMEsweeper depends on the number of Post Offices in use on the cc:Mail network the package is to be installed on. The first Post Office license sells for UKP3,500 and covers all users directly linked to that Post Office, while extra Post Offices which are located other than at the main Post Office site, are charged at UKP250 each. (Sylvia Dennis/19950925/Press & Reader Contact: David Guyatt, Integralis, +44-1734-306060) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 10/02/95 TELECOM Hutchison Links Lotus cc:Mail With Radiopagers (NEWS)(TELECOM)(LON)(00010) Hutchison Links Lotus cc:Mail With Radiopagers 10/02/95 DARLINGTON, TYNE & WEAR, ENGLAND, 1995 OCT 2 (NB) -- Hutchison Telecom has announced it is allowing full data access to its radiopaging system, linking in with Lotus to allow cc:Mail users to send their electronic-mail headers and urgent messages through to their pager. The key to this new service is a new Philips radiopager with a large LCD (liquid crystal display) on one side of the unit that, by working with a dot matrix display, can show graphics, and/or seven lines of text. According to Anthony Vimal, sales and marketing director with the company's paging operation, the pager is a major step forward for radiopaging users, owing to its highly graphical rather than text- based display. "The pager is sophisticated in that it has a file card-type approach to the messages it receives. Messages can be moved into an indexed electronic database, stored, or deleted at will. It's also possible to edit and even create totally new file cards within the pager itself," he told Newsbytes. Hutchison is working closely with Lotus on the cc:Mail pager gateway, with Lotus supplying a cc:Mail pager gateway package for UKP635 through its dealer channels, and with Hutchison working closely with customer organizations to install the system and get it up and running with the "minimum of fuss." In use, the gateway software runs on the cc:Mail server and is available to all users on the cc:Mail network. The user simply routes a message to the person's pager address, rather than the desktop, using mnemonics if required, and the messages is routed via the server, across a modem or X.25 data link, to the Hutchison network center, where it is handled as any other UHF paging message. Although the server software is designed to run under Windows, any cc:Mail client can send page messages. This means that almost any mainstream PC user (foe example, Mac, OS/2, or palmtop) can address pager messages. Moreover, since cc:Mail uses a rules-based message management approach, the recipient can program their desktop PC to automatically screen and forward all incoming messages of urgent priority to the recipient. Although Hutchison is pitching the new Philips 99 message pager as a product for cc:Mail users, the cc:Mail gateway will work with any Hutchison pager, including two-line numeric and text pagers, and even the tone-only units. Pricing on the paging services depends on the pager required. Vimal told Newsbytes that, since the cc:Mail gateway package was designed to act as a server add-in, only one package need be installed on a cc:Mail network, no matter how large that network may be. (Steve Gold/19950927/Press Contact: Paragon Communications, +44-171-734-6030; Reader Contact: Hutchison Telecom, tel +44-1992-502600, fax +44-1992-502601) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 10/02/95 NETWORK UK - Epson Intros Dual Network PCMCIA LAN Card (NEWS)(NETWORK)(LON)(00011) UK - Epson Intros Dual Network PCMCIA LAN Card 10/02/95 HEMEL HEMPSTEAD, HERTFORDSHIRE, ENGLAND, 1995 OCT 2 (NB) -- Epson has unveiled, what it claims is, the industry's first high performance PCMCIA (Personal Computer Memory Card International Association) LAN (local area network) adapter to offer both 10BaseT and 10Base2 facilities on a single card. The card is aimed at notebook PC users with a PCMCIA Type II slot on their machines. The card runs under IBM/MS-DOS 5.0 or later, or DR-DOS 6.0 or later, and comes with DOS ODI (Open Data-link Interface) and NDIS (Network Driver Interface Specification) driver software. This, Epson claims, provides support for most network operation systems, for example, NetWare, LAN Manager, LAN Server, Windows for Workgroups, and Banyan Vines. The card has integral support for "hot swapping," so allowing for temporary removal of the card, or for modem and memory insertions. The Ethernet card can then be reinserted and the connection to the network is automatically reinstated. Epson officials claim that the driver software also provides Generic Card and Socket services, plus Point Enabler. The data bus width on the card is 16-bits with programmed I/O (input/output) and 8-bit or 16-bit for shared memory. The buffer memory on the card is 16 kilobytes (KB). Other features of the card include supporting a maximum network reach of 100 meters using 0.8-watts of power in 10BaseT mode, and 185 meters using 2.2 watts of power. Shipment of the twin-network card is expected later this year, at which point pricing will be announced. (Steve Gold/19950927/Press Contact: Peter Hayward, Vector Communications, +44-1442-877167; Reader Contact: Epsom, +44-1442-227291) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 10/02/95 WINDOWS Ligature's Competitive Program OCR Software Upgrade (NEWS)(WINDOWS)(DEN)(00012) Ligature's Competitive Program OCR Software Upgrade 10/02/95 BURLINGTON, MASSACHUSETTS, U.S.A., 1995 OCT 2 (NB) -- Ligature Software Inc. has released a competitive upgrade program for users of optical character recognition (OCR) software. The Ligature offer lets users of any OCR product switch to the company's CharacterEyes Pro for Windows for $149 and proof of purchase of their original OCR software. CharacterEyes Pro is a 32-bit standalone program that includes de-skewing of up to 20 degrees, batch processing capabilities, the ability to real all Western European character sets, dictionaries for proofing documents, automatic image rotation, and a trainable mode that lets users teach the software to read obscure typefaces such as calligraphy, Greek letters, or Gothic fonts. The term "skewing refers to the misalignment of a page that might adversely affect scanning. CharacterEyes Pro supports Hebrew characters, although that is support is provided through a separate Ligature product called Characterize for Hebrew. Ligature spokesperson Barry Braunstein said Characterize for Hebrew, which has a suggested retail price of $995, requires the Hebrew version of Microsoft Windows. Ligature offers an upgrade to Hebrew Windows for about $100. The company said its OCR software uses a unique algorithm for Omnifont reading and the OCR engine can read characters at 200, 300, and 400 dots-per-inch (dpi). CharacterEyes Pro can capture text at up to 300 characters-per-second at a recognition level of up to 99.7 percent. A scanned document can be exported into the user's word processor, retaining page layout and attributes such as point size, tabs, margins, and bold and italic formatting. Braunstein told Newsbytes a CharacterEyes Pro installation option lets the user install the OCR on their favorite application's File menu. That lets the user launch CharacterEyes Pro from within the application. Once the document has been scanned, it is then automatically dumped into a file for that particular application. CharacterEyes Pro supports most major scanners and image file formats as well as TWAIN, the industry scanning standard. It also incorporates Hewlett-Packard's AccuPage scanning technology. HP says AccuPage lets you scan from colored or stained backgrounds and also recognizes small typefaces. CharacterEyes Pro requires four megabytes (MB) of memory and less than 3MB of hard drive space. In order to assure an accurate scan, CharacterEyes Pro makes a second pass which uses spelling dictionaries to proof-read the document and correct recognition errors. The company said that can improve recognition accuracy in some documents by as much as 25 percent. For buyers who purchase CharacterEyes Pro without a competitive product trade-in the suggested retail price is $495. The company also offers a software developers kit that lets developers integrate OCR into their own application software. To take advantage of the upgrade offer, you have to fax a photocopy of your present OCR package's installation disk or the front page of the user manual to your software distributor. Charactereyes Pro is available from mail-order firms like Microwarehouse, PC Zone or Stream International, which was formerly known as Corporate Software. (Jim Mallory/19950928/Press contact: Alan Weinkrantz, Alan Weinkrantz & Co for Ligature, 210-820-3070; Public contact: Ligature, tel 617-238-6734 or 800-444-6433, or fax 617-272-3085/EYES951002/PHOTO) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 10/02/95 BUSINESS FLAG Opens Netherlands, Middle Eastern Offices (NEWS)(BUSINESS)(LON)(00013) FLAG Opens Netherlands, Middle Eastern Offices 10/02/95 HAMILTON, BERMUDA, 1995 OCT 2 (NB) -- FLAG, the Fiber-optic Link Around the Globe telecoms project consortium, has announced the opening of two regional sales offices: the first in Amsterdam, the Netherlands; and the second in Amman, the Middle East. Announcing the opening of the new offices, John Parry, president of Nynex's Bermuda operations, explained that the offices were set by Nynex, which is FLAG's exclusive marketing agent. As reported previously by Newsbytes, when the FLAG project is completed in two years time, the 17,000 mile cable will be the longest of its type in the world, connecting three continents on a route linking businesses centers and high growth regions between the UK and Japan. "The new offices will bring us closer to our customers, the carriers who have already purchased circuits on FLAG, as well as other potential customers throughout the regions," said Parry, adding that the rapidly evolving telecoms needs in these regions offers great opportunities. According to Parry, the two new offices will complement FLAG's existing regional sales office, which is located in Hong Kong. Unlike previous cable systems, FLAG is being privately financed. Sponsors are underwriting the $1.2 billion cost of construction through a combination of debt and equity. This means that, rather than paying a portion of the construction costs in order to use the cable, international carriers have the ability to buy capacity on demand. The construction of the FLAG cable system and landing stations began in the summer of this year, and ships will start laying the cables n December. Parry describes FLAG as giving an unprecedented reach to telecoms carriers around the world. "FLAG buys direct fiber optic connectivity to international financial capitals, as well as developing nations, that will drive the world's economy for decades to come," he said, adding that the cable also offers diverse routing to international carriers. Carriers will connect to the FLAG cable, either directly or via other cables, at landing plants in the UK, Spain, Italy, Egypt, the United Arab Emirates, India, Malaysia, Thailand, Hong Kong, China, Korea, and Japan. (Sylvia Dennis/19950928/Press Contact: Richard Price, European Marketing Consultants, +44-181-879-3033; Reader Contact: Nynex, 914-644-7589) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 10/02/95 TELECOM Low-Cost ISDN Internet Access Planned For Germany (NEWS)(TELECOM)(LON)(00014) Low-Cost ISDN Internet Access Planned For Germany 10/02/95 MUNICH, GERMANY, 1995 OCT 2 (NB) -- FTP Software has teamed up with AVM Computersysteme Vertriebs to develop enhanced software interfacing for FTP's TCP/IP (Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol) applications that will allow the packages to be used on ISDN (integrated services digital network) systems that conform to the Capi 2.0 ISDN specification, which is also known as the Euro ISDN system. According to Mike Hibbert, a spokesman for FTP, the European ISDN implementations, notably those in Germany, use "subtly different" switching protocols than the ISDN two-channel system found in the UK and the US. By developing support for the advanced nature of ISDN seen in Euro ISDN systems, AVM can now offer FTP's range of applications into the German marketplace. Andreas Widmer-Shulz, director of international sales with FTP, said that the relationship with AVM is a direct result of demand from the company's European customers for products which support Capi. "We expect FTP Software's product range to be supporting Capi 2.0 before the end of the autumn," he explained. AVM claims to be the leading manufacturer of ISDN adapters and applications software for PCs in the German market. The company has subsidiaries in the US and UK, and also markets its products in more than 40 countries using distributorships. (Steve Gold/19950928/Press Contact: Ruth Kelion, A Plus, +44-1753- 790700; Reader Contact: Manuela Dorken, FTP Software Worldwide, +49-89-5904-7155) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 10/02/95 GENERAL Insights Ships Motivation Software Titles (NEWS)(GENERAL)(SFO)(00015) Insights Ships Motivation Software Titles 10/02/95 PLAYA DEL REY, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1995 OCT 2 (NB) -- Insights Software, a developer of motivational software titles, says it is shipping fourteen titles based on best-selling motivational books, such as How to Win Friends and Influence People, by Dale Carnegie, and New York Times number one bestseller, Chicken Soup for the Soul, by Jack Canfield. Rather than develop the titles as screensavers, Insights uses its own "affirmation generator." In an interview with Newsbytes, Andrew Maltin, Insights' chief executive officer, said, "The 'personal growth' market is an $11 billion market and the computer industry is just now beginning to play a role in the distribution of personal growth information. Famous authors and speakers in the motivational field use books, audio tapes, and video cassettes to deliver their messages. Now their information can be delivered to computer users in a very special and customized way." The text and graphics included in an Insights title can be used as a standard screensaver which turns on when a computer user has stopped using the keyboard or pointing device for a defined time. But Maltin said his titles are "affirmation generators" which can be scheduled to give a computer user a break from keyboard activity and provide specific motivational and inspirational text and graphics. A user may want to schedule a short break for every hour or hour-and-a-half. The software allows a wide schedule which the user customizes. "Besides the short motivational message and image a user receives, our software also allows a user to take a break from repetitive keyboard and pointing device tasks. In terms of health this is a very important issue," said Maltin. He continued, "We have taken the highlights of these famous motivational titles and delivered them to the computer desktop. People who have read the books are delighted to have reminders in the words of their favorite authors and speakers. For users who have not heard of the author, this is an exposure to some new ideas and may lead the user to buying the book." Insight titles allow users to choose a display of specific text, have the material randomly generated or display custom text entered by the user. Maltin says his motivational titles are popular with individual computer users and the small office/home office (SOHO) market. He acknowledged some computer users balk at the idea of a friendly message on their computer, but said the type of person interested in motivational material is a more intellectual type and "not part of the group that goes home and watches 'Rosanne.'" Insight titles also include: Success Through A Positive Mental Attitude, by W. Clement Stone; The Leader in You, by Dale Carnegie; The Psychology of Winning, by Dr. Denis Waitley; The Magic of Big Thinking, by Dr. David J. Swartz; and Live Your Dreams, by Les Brown. Insights calls its list of motivational titles "Successware," and the first 14 are being shipped to "most" computer superstores, "most" large bookstores, and other retail outlets. Expected street price for each title is $14.95. Successware titles are built for and run on all versions of Windows. The software is shipped on a 3.5-inch disk. Insights says it has plans to deliver 60 titles through the second quarter of 1996. The company will expand on its motivational titles to include health and fitness, business, and spiritual/inspirational categories. More information about Successware is available at http://www.motivation.com . (Patrick McKenna/19950927/Press Contact: Rita Lencioni, The Terpin Group, 310-821-6100/INSIGHTS951002/PHOTO) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 10/02/95 BUSINESS India - TCS Wins Stanchart Deal (NEWS)(BUSINESS)(DEL)(00016) India - TCS Wins Stanchart Deal 10/02/95 NEW DELHI, INDIA, 1995 OCT 2 (NB) -- India's leading banking systems developer, Tata Consultancy Services Ltd. has won, in worldwide competitive bidding, a project to develop and implement a $30 million custody information processing system for Standard Chartered Equitor Group, the Bank's Asian custody and clearing division. The system will help control the heightened operational risks apparent at times of large volume surges in physical securities clearing and settlement markets, officials of Standard Chartered and TCS said. The system, scheduled for implementation in 1997, would enable the group to "enhance the ability to manage risk efficiently and provide instant investment solutions." Equator, headquartered in Singapore, presently has a network in 16 countries managing assets worth $55 billion. The dominant part of client base comprises global custodians for whom Equitor acts as sub-custodian in Asia, Japanese trust banks, fund management houses, and several brokers and dealers from the US, Europe, and Japan. (C.T. Mahabharat/19951002) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 10/02/95 NETWORK Microsoft Golf 2.0 On Your Office LAN (NEWS)(NETWORK)(DEN)(00017) Microsoft Golf 2.0 On Your Office LAN 10/02/95 REDMOND, WASHINGTON, U.S.A., 1995 OCT 2 (NB) -- DO you want to play golf in the office? The boss may not like it, but Microsoft Corp.(NASDAQ: MSFT) has announced it will soon ship Microsoft Golf 2.0 on CD-ROM, and the program lets local area network (LAN) users challenge colleagues to a round of golf at the click of a button. Microsoft said a technology called "Playernet" lets multiple players "connect easily" over a LAN and socialize in twosomes, threesomes, or foursomes before they ever reach the 19th hole. Network users can challenge friends to a round, drop by for a lesson, or offer commentary on a match in progress. Golfers and spectators can also enter the Playernet game room where they can chat with other players, join a multiplayer match in progress, or just voice their opinions from the grandstand. "Playernet adds a social dimension to Golf usually reserved for the clubhouse," said Tony Garcia, entertainment business unit manager at Microsoft. "With their friends watching from the gallery, golfers feel even more pressure to sink that $200,000 putt." Microsoft Golf 2.0 on CD-ROM offers the player 36 holes at Torrey Pines and Firestone Country Club, and a "Skins" game-scoring feature. The new golf program has the same photorealism as the floppy disk version did, plus "fly-by" aerial views of the golf courses and "club pro" video tips. Microsoft said the graphics offer multiple viewing angles for each hole, textured fairways, realistic water hazards, and seasonal effects to test players' abilities. Players can customize the way they play the game and can maintain detailed statistics to track their performance. You can record whole games or individual shots. The program is compatible with Microsoft Golf Championship courses, including Mauna Kea, Pinehurst, Banff Springs, and all Links the Challenge of Golf courses. To run Microsoft Golf 2.0 on CD-ROM you need Windows 3.1 or Windows 95. The company said Golf is a 32-bit application, so you can get the advantages of Windows 95 features like Autoplay if you have installed Microsoft's new operating system. Autoplay automatically launches CD-ROM programs. Microsoft recommends a PC equipped with a 486 chip, although the program will run on a 386DX-based system. You also need eight megabytes (MB) of memory, a Super VGA display capable of displaying 256 colors, a CD-ROM drive, a mouse or compatible pointing device, and an audio board. To take advantage of the Playernet feature, each player has to have a copy of Microsoft Golf 2.0 on CD-ROM, the Windows 95 or Windows NT Workstation operating system 3.51 or later, and a Windows-compatible network card. Microsoft said Microsoft Golf 2.0 will be on retail shelves in November and is expected to sell for about $44.95. (Jim Mallory/19950928/Press contact: David Hufford, Waggener Edstrom for Microsoft, 408-986-1140; Public contact: Microsoft, 206-882-8080 or 800-426-9400) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 10/02/95 TELECOM Motorola Reduces Pricing On ISDN Products (NEWS)(TELECOM)(MSP)(00018) Motorola Reduces Pricing On ISDN Products 10/02/95 HUNTSVILLE, ALABAMA, U.S.A., 1995 OCT 2 (NB) -- Motorola's (NYSE:MOT) Information Systems Group's (ISG) Transmission Products Division said it is dropping prices for its BitSurfr Digital ISDN (integrated services digital network) modem and its BitSurfr PC internal ISA (Industry Standard Architecture) card by as much as $120. The new pricing puts both modems at $375. Before, the Digital Modem was at $495, while the internal card cost $445. The BitSurfr models claim to give customers transmission speeds up to four times faster than 28.8 kilobits-per-second (Kbps) modems. Depending on the model, the BitSurfr either connects with the serial port of a PC or a Macintosh computer, or in an expansion slot in a PC. ISDN users have the choice of either staying with their current communications software, or using the HyperAccess communications program included with the package. Both products also have a built-in feature that lets users plug directly into ISDN, as well as a port for a standard telephone, fax machine, or analog modem. Both models also support ISDN guidelines, making it easier to order ISDN service directly from the local telephone company, according to the company. All shipments of BitSurfr's are also Windows 95-compliant, Motorola officials said. If customers want to update older BitSurfr's to Windows 95, they can purchase an upgrade option from Motorola Technical Service for $59. Trish Perry, Motorola ISG spokesperson, told Newsbytes the price drop was designed with, not only the business market in mind, but the home market as well. "We think people are going to adopt (ISDN) as they put computers into their homes, and start accessing the Internet and their workplace," she said. Also helping the ISDN push into the residential market is a dropping of ISDN service prices by some of the regional Bell operating companies (RBOCs), she said. "There are some places where it's extremely competitive to get an ISDN line. Then you get a computer line, plus an extra phone line." Both modems are available at major retail outlets, and through Motorola ISG's Authorized Distributors in the US and Canada. Motorola product information can be accessed via the Internet's World Wide Web at http://www.mot.com/MIMS/ISG . (Bob Woods/19950928/Press Contacts: Trish Perry or Mary Ellen Egemoyne, Motorola ISG, 205-430-7080; Wendy Lavallee or Jan Jahosky, LNS Communications, 617-577-9777) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 10/02/95 TRENDS Kids Watch Less TV When PC Is In Home - Study (NEWS)(TRENDS)(MSP)(00019) Kids Watch Less TV When PC Is In Home - Study 10/02/95 NEW YORK CITY, NEW YORK, U.S.A., 1995 OCT 2 (NB) -- When it comes to comparing computers and television, more kids are finding the tv "boring," according to a new study from FIND/SVP and Grunwald Associates. The survey also found television viewing declines dramatically when children have a PC available in the home. The nine-month long study was sponsored by more than 20 leading US learning, computer, and media companies. Focus groups of parents and children, along with using an in-depth questionnaire in 1,200 family households, were used in gathering the data. Topics included television viewing, online and Internet use, home PC hardware and software applications, household spending on learning resources, and parental interest in using a range of interactive content and equipment. Parents in nearly two-thirds of households with PCs found their kids watch less TV as a direct result of using the PC. That number rises to nearly three-quarters when the PC is equipped with multimedia capabilities, including a CD-ROM. When kids do fire up their PCs, they are not just using it for games, the survey showed. Thomas E. Miller, vice president of the Emerging Technologies Research Group at FIND/SVP, told Newsbytes that 40% of kids' time was spent on games. But he said this means they are using the computer for other application types 60% of the time, including online usage, multimedia encyclopedias, word processing for school papers, and some desktop publishing, among other uses. Other findings include some "surprising" data, according to FIND/SVP. Young girls spend more time using home PCs than young boys, and mothers are now as likely to use their computers as fathers. Also, moms are very much involved in making the "buy" decision for PCs. In addition, Miller said the main reason for a family to buy a PC has changed. He said "educational purposes" has replaced "work-at-home" as the number one reason why families take the plunge into computing. Miller said computers won't replace television, because while using a PC is an interactive experience, watching TV is a non-active pleasure some kids still want to have. "But when PCs get video capability, there's no question kids will move over to that platform. Both educational and entertainment will be much more valuable to them in a computerized television environment," he said. But Miller added that kids said they definitely don't want to give up the tv. For additional information, FIND/SVP maintains an Internet World Wide Web site at http://etrg.findsvp.com . (Bob Woods/19950929/Press Contact: Mary Porter, FIND/SVP, 212-807- 2781; Public Contact: Dana Simmons, FIND/SVP, 800-965-4636) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 10/02/95 TELECOM ****Telecom 95 Opens In Geneva (NEWS)(TELECOM)(TYO)(00020) ****Telecom 95 Opens In Geneva 10/02/95 GENEVA, SWITZERLAND, 1995 OCT 2 (NB) -- The two week Telecom 95 exhibition in Geneva opened today with an address from Dr. Pekka Tarjanne, secretary general of the International Telecommunications Union, the UN agency organizing the event. Underlying the fast-moving pace of the telecommunications world, Tarjanne opened with the observation that "none of us today knows exactly what will happen even five years from now." As an example he observed, "Today's World Wide Web hardly existed four years ago, when we held Telecom 91, who knows what we all will be using in four years time, at Telecom 99." One of the greatest forces driving the industry today is "convergence," the coming together of the traditionally separate technologies of telecommunications, computing, and broadcasting. Convergence, he said, had some interesting parallels with a similar process that the television and film companies underwent in the 1940s and 1950s. That process "led to the creation of the major television networks and the massive subsequent popularity of television as a medium." After Tarjanne's short opening statement he introduced the second edition of the ITU's World Telecommunications Development Report. The 250-page report seeks to survey the status of telecom infrastructures around the world and the forces that are driving use and development. Tarjanne noted, "There is still a large telecommunications gap among countries of the world. As new advances are made in technology we should ensure that all countries can benefit. We know there will be no economic or social growth without the basic infrastructure of our information society, the telecom networks, and services." As an opening to the report, the ITU provided some fascinating statistics about the growth and use of the global networks. Each day, $2.3 trillion flows across electronic networks around the world, a figure greater than the economy of most countries. In addition, the report notes that: telecommunications systems are now employed by children in Singapore to keep in touch with parents; Australian aborigines use videoconferencing to sell paintings; Brazilians connect to their banks via the Internet; and the French use Minitel to consult an online telephone directory or pay bills. In 1994 the number of new connections to the world's telephone networks grew by 38.0 million, an increase on the previous year which saw 31.3 million connections. Mobile telephone services saw 19.2 million new subscribers, up from 11.0 million the year before and the amount of new users to the Internet totaled 13.9 million, up from 6.0 million the previous year. Cable television saw much slower growth with 14.5 million new subscribers, almost similar to 1993 when 13.7 million people connected for the first time. In 1994 Japan's NTT once again came out on top of the world's info-telecommunications companies, a position that is now at threat from increased competition and a possible government-forced break up. NTT's sales totaled $79.070 billion, just ahead of AT&T in second place at $71.977 billion. The rest of the top five was: IBM, with sales of $64.052 billion; Sony Corporation, at $44.758 billion; and NEC Corporation, with sales of $43.326 billion. Deutsche Telekom, Matsushita, Fujitsu, Hitachi, and Toshiba filled out the rest of the top ten in sales. When it came to profits, NTT couldn't compete with AT&T, which made $4.710 billion followed by IBM at $3.021 billion. Standing out among the top 25 sales ranked companies was Japan's Sony which lost $3.296 billion last year. The ITU reports that, of the "vehicles of the information highway," a comparison of the worldwide installed base of television sets, telephones and computers, 58.4% are television sets, 32.5% are telephone lines, and 9.1% are personal computers. When the ownership of such devices is broken down by income, an obvious difference can be seen among the groups. Almost 90% of all personal computers are owned by people in the high income group. The same group also accounts for 30% of main telephone lines and 50% of all television sets, despite making up just 20% of the world's population. Low income individuals account for over 50% of the world's population, but own under 10% of the world's telephone lines and less than 1% of the world's computers, but around 30% of television sets installed. Among nations ranked for multimedia access, the United States came out on top, Denmark was second, followed by Canada and Sweden. In joint fifth place was Australia, France, and Switzerland. The Netherlands, Germany, and Japan completed the top ten. The ranking counts numbers of telephone lines, television sets, and personal computers per 100 inhabitants. (Martyn Williams/19951002) (ADVISORY)(GENERAL)(MSP)(00021) NewsPix Images For Newsbytes Publishers 10/02/95 MINNEAPOLIS, MINNESOTA, U.S.A.,1995 OCT 2 (NB) -- These photos correspond to recent Newsbytes stories. They are online in the Newsbytes menu on America Online, NiftyServe, and the Newsbytes private bulletin board system in Minneapolis. JPEG (Joint Photographic Experts Group) files are larger in size, PICT files are designed as thumbnails for onscreen viewing. The photos are titled with name/year/month/day. PICT/thumbnail pictures are black and white (gray scale). File message will indicate color if the JPEG image is color. Some of the "for use" images, may be PICT files. To distinguish these files from the thumbnail preview PICT images, the tag for the color "for use" image will have PICT, all caps. The thumbnail will remain noted as "pct." To become a licensed Newsbytes publisher, call Newsbytes at 612-430-1100 (US) or write to administrator@newsbytes.com on the Internet. Licensing applies to any medium. --------------------------- Week of SEPTEMBER 25 - SEPTEMBER 29,1995 --------------------------- - NEW THIS WEEK - FUJITSU950914 - color / Fujitsu Develops New Display Panel: the large lcd panel with model. VCON950922 - color / VCON Intros Desktop Videoconferencing For LANs: woman at desk with desktop videoconferencing. DITOEASY950925 - color / Iomega's $150 800MB Tape Backup Drive: the unit on a tabletop with pen for scale. SKYTEL950926 - color / Microsoft/Skytel Offer 2-way Paging Via Microsoft Network: the unit on limbo tabletop. ZENOGRAPHICS950928 - color / Zenographics' SuperPrint 4.0 Speeds Win 95 Printing: shot of the software package. MACROMEDIA950928 - color / Macromedia Upgrades FreeHand For Macs: shot of the box. TRIMBLE950925 - color / Trimble Wins Japanese Anti-Earthquake Network Order: nice shot of surveyor and Golden Gate Bridge in SF. --------------------------------------------------------------- - PARTIAL LISTING OF PREVIOUS ITEMS - AMDAHL950915 - b&w / Amdahl To Acquire Canada's DMR Group: head shot of Amdahl's president and chief executive officer (CEO), Joseph Zemke. MS_BOB950919 - color / What Ever Happened To Microsoft Bob?: the Bob logo, smiley face with glasses. MS_PROJ950919 - color / Microsoft Project For Windows 95 To Ship Next Week: shot of package graphics. GAZETTEER950920 - color / Global Post Code & Demographic Info On The Web: screenshot of home page. D3SEA950922 - color / Video Update: photo of Panasonic D3 camcorder used by Scuba Diver for underwater photography. Actual shot of camera in action, diver is Capt. Steve Hogan, president of Sea Eagle Productions, Maui, Hawaii. APTIVA950912 - color / IBM Updates Aptiva PC Line: the PC with logo onscreen. GATEHOUSE950913 - color / Tour Bill Gates' Showplace Home Via The Internet: shot of house under construction. MEDIAKIDS950908 - color / Apple Japan Holds MediaKids Summer Camp: screen shot of kids homepage, with lots of kanji. ENIAC950912 - b&w / ENIAC 50th Anniversary Set For 1996: great archive photo of the original ENIAC room. PRESARIO950915 - color / Compaq Intros New Home PCs, Fall Ad Campaign: the Presario 9500, tower not seen, just keyboard & monitor on tabletop. CYRIX_M1950906 - color / M1 Fastest Chip For Windows 95, Says Cyrix: the M1 chip with Cyrix logo on it. VINEYARDS950906 - color / Virtual Vineyards' CyberCash Credit Card Security: shot of Peter Granoff and Robert Olson, principal founders with a table of wine before them. Photo credit: Anne Hamersky. TLKALONG950901 - b&w / US West Offers Do-It-Yourself Cell Phone Activation: cell phone and packaging on a limbo background. ABCGRAPH950901 - color / Micrografx Graphics Suite For Windows 95: see NewsPix ABCGRAPH950717. GROLIERGOLF950906 - color / Grolier's Greg Norman Golf Simulation: screenshot of golf scenario. COGNOS950829 - color / Cognos On World Wide Web: site graphics. INTERART950828 - color / 3-D Real Estate & Hotel Walkabouts On The Web: the food page with salsa ad, looks good! NEC950831 - color / NEC Develops "Snake-Like" Robot: shot of the snake with camera dome at head. KIDS950829 - color / Novell Intros Perfectworks For Kids: screen shot of the 'Me by Me' page. MEDIAMALL950828 - color / Media Mall Offers Online Multimedia Info: screen graphics/logo. CASHGRAF950830 - color / CashGraf Gets New Name, Intros 2 Acct Packages: screen shot of the main menu. RADSHACK950814 - b&w / Radio Shack Gets New Image: before and after arrangement of Radio Shack ads. LTE5000950821 - color / Compaq Intros Modular Notebook PC 08: the notebook PC in action, associates at work on site using computer. TOUCH950822 - color / Touch Technology Moves Off The Display Screen: the Tanisys keyboard on neutral background. PAGEMAKR950823 - color / Adobe Ships Pagemaker 6.0 For Mac: shot of the software package. HARLEM950822 - color / Prodigy Offers Harlem Inner-City Area Online: welcome & home page. (Newsbytes/19951002) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 10/02/95 ONLINE ****America Online Unexpectedly Goes Down (NEWS)(ONLINE)(MSP)(00022) ****America Online Unexpectedly Goes Down 10/02/95 VIENNA, VIRGINIA, U.S.A., 1995 OCT 2 (NB) -- An America Online (NASDAQ:AMER) spokesperson has confirmed to Newsbytes that the service went down for about three and a half hours last Friday, October 30. AOL members who tried to log in during that time could not, and those already logged in eventually lost their connection. Pam McGraw, AOL spokesperson, told Newsbytes that a bug in the system that manages the sign-ons and sign-offs of its members had a flaw, and the entire system had to be brought down to fix the problem. The service was down from 7:30pm EDT until about 11pm EDT. She said AOL received call inquiring as to the service's status during that time frame, and that a letter from AOL President Steve Case was posted after the outage explaining the situation. In the "Community Update" letter, Case explained the problem as being "related to the installation of new system software for a portion of our host computer complex." He also said AOL engineers are now working on tuning the performance of the overall system. McGraw told Newsbytes the service is running smoothly as of today. This was the second problem relating to service that AOL has had in less than two weeks. On September 20, AOL members had trouble accessing certain areas of the online service. In a different Community Update letter, Case acknowledged the problem, and said his computer engineering team addressed and monitored the problem as soon as it occurred. Even though some areas were unavailable, features like chat, electronic-mail, message boards, and instant messaging remained intact, said the company. (Bob Woods/19951002/Press Contact: Pam McGraw, America Online, 703-556-1625) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 10/02/95 LEGAL Storagetek Intros New Product, Settles Old Lawsuit (NEWS)(LEGAL)(DEN)(00023) Storagetek Intros New Product, Settles Old Lawsuit 10/02/95 LOUISVILLE, COLORADO, U.S.A., 1995 OCT 2 (NB) -- Storage Technology Corp. (NYSE:) has rolled out its Kodiak scalable storage product and won preliminary approval for a proposed settlement of a class action lawsuit filed by a few shareholders more than three years ago that grew to include thousands of investors. #IMAGE 1 20 TWPCX \images\95100223.PCX Click here for photo The Kodiak 9890 Scalable Storage Facility was introduced this week during FORUM95, Storagetek's annual user group meeting. The company said about 400 customers are attending FORUM95. Kodiak is a new product designed for mainframe storage and retrieval applications. Storagetek estimates that market at about 20 percent of the total mainframe disk storage market, known as direct access storage device, or DASD. The company said Kodiak has demonstrated higher levels of input and output than have ever been published for a magnetic disk subsystem for the mainframe market. The results were achieved during laboratory testing. Also being announced this week is the Arctic Fox 9800, a shared-access facility that is a subset of Kodiak. Arctic Fox supports up to four gigabytes (GB) of storage without any disk drives. Kodiak is available now and the company said Houston, Texas-based BMC Software Inc. is the first customer for the storage system. Jeanne Moreno, BMC chief financial officer, said the company will keep its beta-level Kodiak system for continued testing and has purchased a 360GB Kodak for production use. Kodiak is based on RAID (redundant arrays of inexpensive disks)-5 architecture and will eventually support ESCON (Enterprise Systems Connection) architecture. That connectivity is currently in beta testing, according to Storagetek. A remote dual copy capability is also in beta testing. The minimum Kodiak configuration is 46GB of storage, 256 megabytes (MB) of mirrored cache, four ESCON channels, and two device controllers. In that configuration, the suggested retail price is $609,100. At the other end of the configuration spectrum you can get a Kodiak system with 1,394GB of storage, 4,096MB of mirrored cache, 16 ESCON channels, and 12 device controllers. The US list price for that configuration is just under $8.8 million. The preliminary approval for the proposed $55 million settlement was granted by a federal judge in a class action suit filed in 1992 by four shareholders who alleged that the company failed to immediately report delays in its Iceberg disk storage system. The judge set December 1 as the date for a hearing on final approval of the settlement. The original lawsuit grew to include several thousand investors, who claimed reports of delays in the release of Iceberg came months after Storagetek executives sold off millions of dollars in shares at high prices for their own gain. The proposed settlement calls for Storagetek to pay $30.7 million and for its insurer to pay $24.3 million. Attorney's fees and other legal costs would be deducted from the total amount before the plaintiffs were paid. Storagetek maintains a home page on the World Wide Web at http://www.stortek.com . (Jim Mallory/19951002/Press contact: Judith Hargrave, Storagetek, 303-673-5559; Public contact: Storagetek, 303-673-5020/KODIAK951002/PHOTO) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 10/02/95 TRENDS Bill Gates Is Richest American On Forbes 400 List (NEWS)(TRENDS)(DEN)(00024) Bill Gates Is Richest American On Forbes 400 List 10/02/95 REDMOND, WASHINGTON, U.S.A., 1995 OCT 2 (NB) -- Bill Gates, chairman of Microsoft Corp., (NASDAQ: MSFT) has grabbed the top spot on the Forbes magazine 400 richest Americans for the second consecutive year. "Richest" is a title Gates is undoubtedly become accustomed to, since he has also captured one of the two top spots on the World Billionaire and Richest American lists each year since 1991. Gates' approximately $14.8 billion in net worth, based on his Microsoft stock holdings, edged out investment mogul Warren Buffet with $11.8 billion. Gates and Buffet have held the top spots for several years. Gates joined the elite group of the world's and nation's wealthiest in 1991 when he was recognized as the second richest American on the Forbes 400 list with an estimated net worth of $$4.8 billion. In 1992 he moved to the top spot on the magazine's list with an estimated $6.3 billion. Gates' public recognition isn't limited to appearing on "richest" lists. In 1993 he was selected as the recipient of the Price Waterhouse Information Technology Leadership Award for Lifetime Achievement. That same year Forbes listed Gates as the nations fifth richest billionaire with about $6.7 billion and the second richest American. By 1994 Gates' net worth had climbed to $8.2 billion in July to keep his hold on the second richest in the world spot and the top position on the richest American list by the end of the year when his wealth had climbed to $9.35 billion. When Forbes released its world's richest list this July Gates held the number one spot with $12.9 billion in estimated worth. Capturing the second spot on this year's 400 list is Buffet, chairman of Berkshire Hathaway Inc., whose net worth jumped by about $400 million after Walt Disney offered $19 billion for Capital Cities/ABC, one of Buffet's longtime holdings. The top five richest Americans list is rounded out by: John Kluge, chairman of Metromedia Co.; Paul Allen, co-founder of Microsoft and owner of the Portland Trail Blazers basketball team; and Sumner Redstone, chairman of Viacom Inc. (Jim Mallory/19951002) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 10/02/95 GENERAL Canadian Product Launch Update (NEWS)(GENERAL)(TOR)(00025) Canadian Product Launch Update 10/02/95 KINGSTON, ONTARIO, CANADA 1995 OCT 2 (NB) -- This regular feature, appearing on the first day Newsbytes publishes each week, provides further details for the Canadian market on announcements by international companies that Newsbytes has already covered. This week: Apple Canada begins shipping the PowerBook 5300 line. Apple Canada Inc., of Markham, Ontario, has started shipments of the PowerBook 5300 notebook computer. Its US parent company recently resumed shipments of the machine (Newsbytes, Sept. 25), after halting them earlier due to a problem with the original lithium-ion batteries. Apple Canada said it is now shipping the 5300 systems with nickel- hydride batteries, eliminating the safety problem that was reported with the lithium-ion units. Apple Canada said Canadian prices for the 5300 machines will range from C$3,349 for the 5300/100 with a gray-scale screen, eight megabytes (MB) of memory, and a 500MB hard disk, to C$10,099 for a PowerBook 5300ce/117 with an active-matrix color screen, 32MB of memory, and a 1.1 gigabyte (GB) hard disk. The 5300-series PowerBooks are available right away, Apple Canada said, except for the 5300ce. Apple Canada also said the PowerBook 190 series will be shipping in mid-October, and the PowerBook Duo 2300 in November. (Grant Buckler/1995-10-02/Press Contact: Linda Grant or Susan Taylor, Apple Canada, 905-477-5800, Internet e-mail s.taylor@eworld.com; Public Contact: Apple Canada, 800-665-2775 ext 450, or fax-on-demand service at 800-263-3394) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 10/02/95 ONLINE Software Uses Web To Link Remote Users To LAN E-Mail (NEWS)(ONLINE)(TOR)(00026) Software Uses Web To Link Remote Users To LAN E-Mail 10/02/95 OWINGS MILLS, MARYLAND, U.S.A., 1995 OCT 2 (NB) -- Although electronic-mail remains the most common use of the Internet, Infinite Technologies said its new WebMail software will uses the "net" for mail in a rather different way. WebMail will use the World Wide Web to connect remote users to their own electronic mailboxes on the local area network (LAN) mail system back at the office. While messages from an in-house mail system could be forwarded over the Internet to remote users, said Infinite's director of marketing, Patricia Lummis, WebMail connects the remote user to the LAN e-mail system itself. The value of this is that the user has complete access to the in-house mail system -- he or she can send and receive messages, look at the corporate directory, and so on. Lummis told Newsbytes the software is aimed at people who spend a lot of time out of the office, such as consultants and professional trainers. It will let them check their mailboxes from any computer with access to the Web, she said. Also, Lummis noted, an organization could use WebMail to give a customer or supplier at a different site a mailbox on its internal mail system. With this product, which will support Microsoft Mail, Lotus Development Corp.'s cc:Mail, the Messaging Application Programming Interface (MAPI), and ExpressIT!, Infinite seems to be taking aim at an emerging Internet opportunity: organizations using the net for internal communications between locations. Industry analysts as well as vendors have suggested in recent months that for some organizations, Internet connections could be an attractive alternative to private lines for linking remote offices. Speaking at a Toronto conference on the Internet recently, Mark Skapinker, president of software vendor Delrina Corp., observed that the Internet currently has about 40 million users, but 80 percent of them use the net only for e-mail. A recent study by Forrester Research, Inc., of Cambridge, Massachusetts, forecast that sales of Internet-related software will approach $3 billion by the end of the decade. Forrester also recently forecast that security concerns about the Internet -- currently a roadblock to many business applications -- will be worked out within about 18 months. Lummis said WebMail -- which received a Best of Show award in the Internet category at the recent NetWorld+Interop trade show -- will be shipping in November. Prices will start at $495, she said, and will range upward depending on the number of users supported. The software will not require a dedicated server, Lummis said. Besides the mail systems currently supported, Infinite said it is working on support for BeyondMail, Da Vinci Email, Notework, and GroupWise. (Grant Buckler/19951002/Press Contact: Patricia Lummis, Infinite Technologies, tel 410-363-1097, fax 410-363-0846, Internet e-mail patty@infinite.ihub.com; Public Contact: Infinite Technologies, 410-363-1097) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 10/02/95 GOVT EPA & Intel In Air Pollution Deal (NEWS)(GOVT)(WAS)(00027) EPA & Intel In Air Pollution Deal 10/02/95 PORTLAND, OREGON, U.S.A., 1995 OCT 2 (NB) -- The US Environmental Protection Agency, Oregon pollution regulators, and Intel Corp. have coupled air pollution reductions with greater flexibility in federal and state permitting. Under the deal, the EPA will allow Intel to adjust its manufacturing processes on its own, without having to go through the rigorous Title V permitting process, as long as the overall pollution levels are within EPA specifications. In return for the regulatory flexibility, Intel agrees to use pollution prevention processes as the primary way of managing air emissions. EPA, which has frequently been criticized for rigidity in its air permitting process, says it will use the Intel agreement as a nationwide model. "The high-tech industry moves at a lightning-fast pace," says Craig Barrett, Intel executive vice president. "Having the flexibility to improve the manufacturing process quickly and with a minimum of paperwork is essential for us to grow and prosper in the US. This method maintains high standards of environmental protection, encourages efforts for pollution prevention, and creates an opportunity for common sense to be applied to environmental safeguards." The idea for the innovative arrangement was hatched at an April, 1993, pollution prevention conference and Florida, with informal discussions involving the EPA and several industries in the Pacific Northwest. By November, 1993, EPA, Oregon air quality regulators, and Intel had worked out the general outlines of an approach and identified regulatory barriers. Under the agreement, the Title V permit contains emission limits for the entire plant site instead of limits for each vent or pipe. As long as Intel meets its site-wide emission limits, all minor process changes will be pre-approved. The agreement covers Intel's Aloha facility in Aloha, Ore., the company's largest site. Intel employs about 2000 workers at the site, which opened in 1976. The site includes to wafer fabrication factories and a wafer development factory. (Kennedy Maize/19951002/Press Contact: Howard High, Intel, 408-765-1488) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 00 10/02/95 TRENDS ****Xerox Enters SOHO With 5-Function Device Under $ (NEWS)(TRENDS)(BOS)(00028) ****Xerox Enters SOHO With 5-Function Device Under $700 10/02/95 BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS, U.S.A., 1995 OCT 2 (NB) -- In creating Document WorkCenter 250, a newly unveiled fax machine-printer-copier-scanner that is Xerox's first product for the SOHO (small office/home office) market, Xerox decided to pursue a different course from some competitors by incorporating the company's top technologies, contended Xerox's Debbie Abbott, in a meeting with Newsbytes on a Boston press tour. The new Document WorkCenter 250 provides much higher resolution than rival "multifunction devices" (MFDs) for SOHO, in addition to Xerox's "professional-quality" TextBridge Professional Edition optical character recognition (OCR) software, according to Abbott, who is product marketing manager for the Xerox Desktop Document Systems (DDS) division. For estimated street pricing of under $700, the new WorkCenter 250 integrates plain paper fax, PC fax, inkjet printing, scanning, and copying under a central Windows-based interface called ControlCenter, the Xerox exec reported. The five-function device outputs at 300 dots-per-inch (dpi) resolution. Together with TextBridge Pro 3.0, bundled software includes Delrina's Winfax Lite software for PC faxing. TextBridge ordinarily retails for $299. Abbott told Newsbytes that Xerox also produces MFDs for the "shared/work group" environment that include the WorkCenter 610 for "midvolume fax environments" and the 3000 Series for small offices and small workgroups in the enterprise. DDS opted to step into the SOHO market due to forecasts of continuing high growth for the industry segment from BIS Strategic Decisions and other analysts. But with its new product, the Xerox division is departing from a tradition in the SOHO peripherals market which calls for offering minimal capabilities in an "entry-level" offering, she asserted. The conventional approach almost compels users to upgrade, she charged. Instead, Xerox DDS is interested in meeting the needs of home and small business users as "fully" as possible right out of the gate, so that this new group of users will emerge with favorable impressions and expectations of both Xerox and MFDs, according to Abbott. In comparison to the corporate environment, the home office typically faces a limited budget and space constraints. It is also more "solitary," and it lacks a MIS (management information systems) department, she told Newsbytes. As a result of these factors, the new WorkCenter 250 offers a number of capabilities, specifically aimed at SOHO, that are not present in some competing devices, according to the product marketing manager. Beyond Textbridge OCR and 300 dpi resolution, the MFD from Xerox allows for "multitasking," which eliminates the need to wait for a document to stop printing before sending a fax, for example, she maintained. In addition, the WorkCenter 250's footprint is smaller than that of other MFDs, Newsbytes was told. The product from Xerox also lets users configure settings in two ways: from the Windows-based ControlCenter, and through a liquid crystal display (LCD) panel. Xerox is backing up the new MFD with its customer hotline, plus a newly created "Service While You Sleep" guarantee, certifying product replacement of the WorkCenter 250 within 24 hours if any problems crop up, she pointed out. DDS, a division of Xerox launched in 1992, has always been "entrepreneurial," added Abbott. As previously reported in Newsbytes, DDS's TextBridge OCR software is meant to offer a range of advanced OCR technologies such as a "word verifier" for confirming and correct words while recognition is in progress; "automatic segmentation," for distinguishing the number of columns, locations of images, and correct read order of text in a compound document; and "automatic page orientation," for automatically correcting image and text placement on a skewed, or crooked, page. In a demo for Newsbytes on the Boston press tour, Abbott scanned and printed out a document on the mew Document WorkCenter 250. The exec then proceeded to compare results from the new MFD from Xerox with output she said had been produced by four competing products. The WorkCenter 250 appeared to provide a much higher level of detail and clarity throughout both light and shaded areas of a scanned-in photo. Also during the demo, Abbott told Newsbytes that Xerox's TextBridge Pro performs OCR more quickly than contending software, and that, unlike other products, which restrict viewing to smaller "zones," TextBridge lets the user see an entire "OCR'd document" in a single glance. (Jacqueline Emigh/19951002/Reader Contact: Xerox Document Systems, 415-813-6800; Press Contacts: Peter Warren, Xerox Desktop Document Systems, 415-813-7213; Cathy Brooks or Craig Sutphin, Blanc & Otus for Xerox, 415-512-0500) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 10/02/95 IBM IBM To Expand App Devt Product Line & Services (NEWS)(IBM)(BOS)(00029) IBM To Expand App Devt Product Line & Services 10/02/95 BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS, U.S.A., 1995 OCT 2 (NB) -- In coming months, IBM will make a string of announcements in the application development arena related to specific areas that will include the TeamConnection repository, development languages, third-party tools, and "network-centric computing," revealed Skip McGaughey, market manager for the VisualAge family and object-oriented tools, in a briefing for Newsbytes. McGaughey told Newsbytes that IBM's upcoming announcements will adhere to an overriding strategy of "modularity, scalability. simplicity, and adaptability to change." The application development market has changed dramatically over the past 10 to 15 years, moving from its previous focus on the mainframe, batch processing, and OLTP (online transaction processing) to the point where, today, "the network itself is becoming the computer," noted the IBM exec. "We've been providing a lot of leadership in the transition to distributed client-server computing. Now as we go forward, you'll see a lot of complementary activity from us in `network-centric computing,' including everything from specific networks to the Web," McGaughey asserted. Users today also demand increasing scalability, simplicity, and adaptability on the part of application development tools, according to the market manager. ISVs (independent software vendors) and corporate developers alike require tools that will allow faster development of new applications, updates to existing applications, and ports to new operating environments, he elaborated. "Where (corporate developers) used to spend nine months (in creating) a new application, now they want to be able to do that in nine hours. Related to that, (ISVs) want to decrease the amount of time it takes them to bring new products to market," McGaughey continued. IBM, he added, has been meeting this need by providing functionality such as the ability to integrate legacy code into new, object-oriented applications with the use of Cobol and C wrappers in VisualAge Smalltalk. In the future, the company will continue to move toward more rapid development, as well as toward providing "greater simplicity in terms of packaging and the user interface," plus scalability that extends "from the individual, to the small group, to the enterprise," he contended. McGaughey characterized the overall positioning of IBM's application development products as "modular, as opposed to monolithic." To facilitate further evolution of this strategy, he divulged, IBM has arrived at the model of an "integrated application development environment" with three functional areas: design, build, and manage. In the "design" area, IBM is concentrating on modeling business processes, according to the marketing exec. In the "build" phase, on the other hand, "the idea is that you will have both a `language of choice' and a `platform of choice.'" A developer might choose to work in VisualAge, C++, RPG, Basic, or Bart, he illustrated. Client and server components of an application might run on OS/2, Unix, Windows NT, and Windows, for instance. IBM ultimately intends to expand its product line-up to let the developer build applications in any language, for any environment. The "manage" stage is "primarily focused on the TeamConnection repository," Newsbytes was told during the briefing. Over time, IBM will integrate the repository with development languages, Lotus technology, and third-party tools. "We're going to begin integrating the ability to engineer business problems. What are the applications that (users) need to access their data?" McGaughey reported. Beyond extending its application development environment, IBM also expects to issue announcements concerning education, training, and consulting services, disclosed the IBM exec. IBM's Object Technology University (OTU) is one example of an existing program in this category, McGaughey told Newsbytes. (Jacqueline Emigh/19950925/Reader Contact: IBM, 914-765-1000; Press Contact: Parna Sarkar-Basu or Beth Kitchener, Brodeur & Partners for IBM, 617-622-2800) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 10/02/95 NETWORK Cabletron Launches Switching Products (NEWS)(NETWORK)(TOR)(00030) Cabletron Launches Switching Products 10/02/95 ROCHESTER, NEW HAMPSHIRE, U.S.A., 1995 OCT 2 (NB) -- Cabletron Systems Inc. (NYSE:CS) has announced a handful of new switching products, including modules for its MMAC-Plus switching system and a Token Ring switch with an uplink to fiber distributed data interface (FDDI) technology. Robert Travis, product marketing development manager for Token Ring and Systems Network Architecture (SNA) at Cabletron, told Newsbytes his company sees a growing demand for Token Ring switching as 16 megabits- per-second (Mbps) networks begin running out of bandwidth. Similar switching for Ethernet networks, which have lower bandwidth than Token Ring, has already become popular. Travis said banks and financial institutions are among the early adopters of Token Ring switching. The Yankee Group, a research firm in Boston, has projected sales of Token Ring switches at $54 million this year, rising to $481 million by 1998, Cabletron said. Cable not the only network vendor with an eye on this market. Last week, IBM (NYSE:IBM) and Bay Networks Inc. (NASDAQ:BNET), announced that they will work together to promote Token Ring switching as part of an alliance that will also involve joint-marketing arrangements. Travis said Token Ring switches can relieve network users' bottlenecks immediately by replacing older bridging technology used in existing networks. Later, he said, Cabletron expects many of its customers will use the FDDI uplink capability to tie into FDDI backbones while retaining Token Ring technology from the wiring closet out to the desktop. If that still does not eliminate the bottlenecks, he said, users can resort to assigning a port to each user in what is being called dedicated Token Ring networking. Cabletron spokesman Rich Teplitsky told Newsbytes that Cabletron is emphasizing FDDI as a backbone technology at the moment because it has a larger installed base than asynchronous transfer mode (ATM), another high-speed networking technology that is getting a good deal of attention. Cabletron's Token Ring switch, the TSX-1620, is made by Nashoba Networks. It is a stackable or stand-alone device available with eight or 16 ports. The basic switch without the FDDI uplink will be available in 60 days for $1,625 per port. The TSX-1620-F4 version, with the FDDI uplink, is to be available in the first quarter of 1996 and pricing will be announced then, Cabletron said. Cabletron also launched the MMAC SmartSwitch line of switching modules for its MMAC-Plus switching system. The company said the new switches, based on application specific integrated circuit (ASIC) technology, will increase switching performance by a factor of 10. Initially, the line includes Ethernet and FDDI modules. Token Ring, ATM, 100Base-T, and VGAnyLAN modules are also in the works, company officials said. (Grant Buckler/19951002/Press Contact: Rich Teplitsky, Cabletron, 603-337-1356, Internet e-mail rteplitz@ctron.com; Public Contact: Cabletron, 603-332-9400) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 10/02/95 BUSINESS ****Farcast News Service On Magic Link (NEWS)(BUSINESS)(LAX)(00031) ****Farcast News Service On Magic Link 10/02/95 MENLO PARK, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1995 OCT 2 (NB) -- Sony New Technologies Inc. and Farcast Inc. have agreed to jointly develop a version of Farcast's electronic news service to be made available for the Sony Magic Link personal communicators. The news service will provide news and stock quotes to meet specific search criteria. Scott Love, Farcast's president, told Newsbytes, "Using Farcast, a request for information is processed and delivered almost immediately. Updates can be delivered either at a specific time each day, or on an as-needed basis. For a flat rate a user has up to fifteen individual search and delivery modes, and unlimited access to over 8,000 articles every day. "We operate from the Internet, and the news will come to the user when, how, and now where they want it. Unlimited use of the Farcast service will be available to users of Sony's Magic Link and Motorola's Envoy personal communicators for a six-month subscription price of $179. We expect to ship before the end of 1995," said Love. "Customized news delivery marks an important development in our goal of transforming the Magic Cap platform into a personal medium," said John Kelly, director of marketing for Sony New Technologies. "Someone interested in the entertainment industry, for example, can now receive all the latest breaking news and stock quotes in that field at any time - and in any place where they can carry a personal communicator." Love added, "Users of personal communicators are often precisely the same on-the-go business people who must stay current with news in their industry, so we see this alliance with Sony as bringing the promise of the PDA vision another step closer to reality." Farcast is a privately held company headquartered in Menlo Park, California. Commercial applications began in July, 1994. Magic Cap is the operating system developed by General Magic Inc. for personal communicators such as the Magic Link from Sony and the Motorola Envoy. (Richard Bowers/19951002/Press Contact: Scott Love, Farcast, 415-327-2446) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 10/02/95 WINDOWS ****"First Aid 95" Attacks 10,000 Windows 95, 3.1 Woes (NEWS)(WINDOWS)(BOS)(00032) ****"First Aid 95" Attacks 10,000 Windows 95, 3.1 Woes 10/02/95 BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS, U.S.A, 1995 OCT 2 (NB) -- CyberMedia's new First Aid 95 is the first product on the market to address and solve the software configuration problems that plague Windows 95 and Windows 3.1, maintained Srikanth Chari, VP of marketing, during a meeting with Newsbytes on a Boston press tour. "Windows 3.1 has some really serious software configuration problems, and Windows 95 is making things much worse," Chari told Newsbytes. All together, First Aid 95 is able to automatically detect and fix more than 10,000 configuration woes associated with Windows 95, Windows 3.1, and related productivity tools, multimedia drivers, and networking and online access software, according to the CyberMedia VP. Other diagnostic and repair programs for Windows today focus on either hardware problems or software viruses. Yet hardware diagnostic products like Norton Utilities were originally devised before the advent of Windows, noted the exec. Beyond that, only about one-tenth of all support calls received by software and hardware vendors today are related to hardware problems, he asserted, pointing to market research results from industry analysts as well as articles in general interest and trade publications. Despite increasing improvements on the hardware side, one major PC manufacturer reported a jump in support calls from 12,000 per month in 1991 to 100,000 per month in 1993, for example, according to an article in InfoWorld cited by Chari. By March, 21, 1995, the same PC maker was receiving 25,000 phone calls a day, a 50 percent rise over the previous year, says a story from the Wall Street Journal published that day. "First Aid is the only product for the `software era,'" Chari pronounced. The new First Aid 95 is an update to an earlier product from CyberMedia for Windows 3.1 only, the VP continued. The company's latest release ships with two separate programs -- a 32-bit product for Windows 95, and a 16-bit offering for Windows 3.1 -- contained in the same box. What are some of the most prevalent and pressing configuration problems posed by Windows 3.1 and Windows 95? One major difficulty arising from both environments involves a tendency of Windows dynamic link library (DLL) files to "scatter" when new programs are loaded, according to Chari. These files, which are necessary for tasks like spell specking and printing, are typically stored in the WIN.INI, SYSTEM.INI, or system subdirectories. When the DLLs are split into fragments, they sometimes cease to function properly with pre-existing applications. Other difficulties the two Windows environments share in common include out-of-memory errors, invalid initialization (.INI) files, and user errors such as incorrect "uninstallation" of applications and accidental DLL deletion. Chari informed Newsbytes that Windows 95 magnifies Windows problems by using a mix of 32-bit and 16-bit code, requiring many 16-bit Windows and DOS applications to use extra DLLs to operate properly within the new environment. Also according to the marketing chief, some software vendors will include pieces of older 16-bit code in their Windows 95 applications, creating yet another source of conflict. In addition, the new "Plug and Play" feature in Windows 95 can only be helpful to people who buy the new Plug and Play- compatible peripherals, Chari pointed out. In a demo for Newsbytes, Chari showed how the new First Aid 95 combines an interface somewhat reminiscent of anti-viral software with a artificial intelligence (AI) knowledge base designed for diagnosing and fixing software configuration problems. Like a virus checker, First Aid operates in a background mode, in this case monitoring the system for configuration problems, Newsbytes was told. In most situations, First Aid will notice a problem before the user does, flashing a warning on the screen, describing the problem in simple English, and suggesting what needs to be done, he maintained. For many common problems, all the user needs to do is click on an "Autofix" button, Chari added. First Aid will then perform tasks like modifying configuration files, and locating and copying missing DLLs, at the same time updating an internal database to the changes. Users can also employ First Aid more proactively, either by running a "full system check" or by selecting from a list of frequent problems. To illustrate this capability, Chari entered the information, "CD-ROM doesn't work." First Aid then came back with the reply: "MCI driver not installed in right drive." Beyond support for Windows 95, the upgrade from CyberMedia adds a new SafteyNet feature, aimed at "automatic recovery from crashes caused by global protection faults" (GPFs); a new Windows cleaner, for cleaning up orphaned files and DLLs; and a simplified user interface, according to Chari. First Aid 95 also supplies first-time support for the "top 50 sound cards" -- including Sound Blaster, Media Vision, Turtle Vision, Diamond, and Reveal -- as well as for Windows configuration problems associated with online access to the Web, Microsoft Network, Compuserve, America Online (AOL), and Prodigy, he reported. First Aid 95 is available now for a suggested retail price (SRP) of $49.95. The software is bundled with a hardcopy edition of "Windows 95 for Dummies," from IDG Books; the American Training Institute's Windows 95 video tutorial; and a database listing 2,000 tech support hotlines. CymerMedia also provides 90 days of free technical support; a 30-day "unconditional" money-back guarantee; and free support through Compuserve and the CyberMedia BBS. Users will be able to download support from either Compuserve or the CyberMedia BBS for new Windows 95 applications, as these applications become available, said the CyberMedia VP. (Jacqueline Emigh/19950927/Reader Contact: CyberMedia, 800-PC- AID; Press Contacts: Giselle Bisson, CyberMedia, 415-868-9819; Andrew de Vries, Phase Two Strategies for CyberMedia, 415-772-8431) (SUMMARY)(GENERAL)(MSP)(00033) Newsbytes Daily Summary 10/02/95 MINNEAPOLIS, MINNESOTA, U.S.A., 1995 OCT 2 (NB) -- These are capsules of all today's news stories: ======================================================================== ------------| N E W S B Y T E S D A I L Y S U M M A R Y |---------- ------------| Monday, October 2, 1995 |---------- ======================================================================== (c) Newsbytes News Network (Tm) Editor in Chief: Wendy Woods ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Newsbytes News Network's 1995 Update CD-ROM for Mac, DOS, and Windows is now available for $29.95 (includes s&h). Contains 1983-1995 news stories, more than 64,000 keyword searchable stories and 475 digitized images. For more information or to order, fax to 612-430-0441 or e-mail to 'administrator@newsbytes.com' -- MC, Visa, Amex accepted. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ CATEGORY HEADLINES (*** indicates today's top stories) STORY # ======================================================================== APPLE Seybold - Multi-Ad Services' Mac Software Upgrades......... 01 BUSINESS IBM & Great Wall in Another Chinese Joint Venture.......... 05 BUSINESS Novell Pushes PerfectOffice & PerfectWorks Into Europe..... 06 BUSINESS FLAG Opens Netherlands, Middle Eastern Offices............. 13 BUSINESS India - TCS Wins Stanchart Deal............................ 16 BUSINESS ****Farcast News Service On Magic Link.................... 31 GENERAL Seybold - Monotype's Desktop Publishing Resource CD........ 03 GENERAL UK - cc:Mail Anti-Virus Package............................ 09 GENERAL Insights Ships Motivation Software Titles.................. 15 GENERAL NewsPix Images For Newsbytes Publishers.................... 21 GENERAL Canadian Product Launch Update............................. 25 GOVT EPA & Intel In Air Pollution Deal.......................... 27 IBM IBM To Expand App Devt Product Line & Services............. 29 LEGAL Storagetek Intros New Product, Settles Old Lawsuit......... 23 NETWORK UK - Epson Intros Dual Network PCMCIA LAN Card............. 11 NETWORK Microsoft Golf 2.0 On Your Office LAN...................... 17 NETWORK Cabletron Launches Switching Products...................... 30 ONLINE ****America Online Unexpectedly Goes Down................. 22 ONLINE Software Uses Web To Link Remote Users To LAN E-Mail....... 26 TELECOM Hong Kong - Unisys Wins New T&T Telecom Deal............... 04 TELECOM Sony To Bypass Airtime Providers In UK Cellphone Deal...... 08 TELECOM Hutchison Links Lotus cc:Mail With Radiopagers............. 10 TELECOM Low-Cost ISDN Internet Access Planned For Germany.......... 14 TELECOM Motorola Reduces Pricing On ISDN Products.................. 18 TELECOM ****Telecom 95 Opens In Geneva............................ 20 TRENDS HP Pushes CD-ROM-Recordable Pricing Down In UK............. 07 TRENDS Kids Watch Less TV When PC Is In Home - Study.............. 19 TRENDS Bill Gates Is Richest American On Forbes 400 List.......... 24 TRENDS ****Xerox Enters SOHO With 5-Function Device Under $700... 28 WINDOWS Seybold - Corel Gets License For Xara Studio............... 02 WINDOWS Ligature's Competitive Program OCR Software Upgrade........ 12 WINDOWS "First Aid 95" Attacks 10,000 Windows 95, 3.1 Woes..........32 ======================================================================== These are the headlines and first paragraphs of each story, in order: 1 -> Seybold - Multi-Ad Services' Mac Software Upgrades -- Multi-Ad Services, a major supplier of software for creating ads on the Macintosh computer, announced version 3.8 of Multi-Ad Creator and version 3.1 of Multi-Search. The company also introduced Multi-Ad Creator Pro Pack, a complete bundle for an advertising department using Macs. 2 -> Seybold - Corel Gets License For Xara Studio -- Corel announced a licensing agreement with Xara Ltd. for its Xara Studio. The new technology will be added to Corel's drawing and multimedia software products as CorelXara. 3 -> Seybold - Monotype's Desktop Publishing Resource CD -- Monotype Typography, well-known marketer of font and related software products, introduced a resource CD-ROM for the professional desktop publishing market. The company is also beginning to deliver fonts to its customers through the commercial online services. 4 -> Hong Kong - Unisys Wins New T&T Telecom Deal -- New T&T in Hong Kong has signed a service and installation contract with Unisys to supply hardware and software for the start-up phone company's new messaging system. 5 -> IBM & Great Wall in Another Chinese Joint Venture -- IBM has announced a manufacturing joint venture with China Great Wall Computer Group and Kaifa Technology of Hong Kong. The deal comes within days of the official opening of Big Blue's new research and development laboratory in Beijing. 6 -> Novell Pushes PerfectOffice & PerfectWorks Into Europe -- Novell has signed a distribution deal with Nordoc in the Netherlands, one of Europe's leading software distributors, for the distribution of PerfectOffice 3.0 and PerfectWorks 2.1 into small- and medium-sized resellers across Europe. 7 -> HP Pushes CD-ROM-Recordable Pricing Down In UK -- The UK division of Hewlett-Packard has taken the wraps off the SureStor 4020i, a CD-ROM recordable (CD-ROM-R) system that costs just UKP829. The unit has also been launched in the US, officials told Newsbytes. 8 -> Sony To Bypass Airtime Providers In UK Cellphone Deal -- Sony has neatly sidestepped government regulations that prohibit the two main cellular network services in the UK from selling direct to the public, by setting itself up as a network airtime provider (ATP), an intermediary, in its own right. The ATP will be known Sony Cellular Services Limited. 9 -> UK - cc:Mail Anti-Virus Package -- Integralis, a UK network connectivity specialist, has unveiled MIMEsweeper, an anti-virus utility for Lotus cc:Mail users. 10 -> Hutchison Links Lotus cc:Mail With Radiopagers -- Hutchison Telecom has announced it is allowing full data access to its radiopaging system, linking in with Lotus to allow cc:Mail users to send their electronic-mail headers and urgent messages through to their pager. 11 -> UK - Epson Intros Dual Network PCMCIA LAN Card --Epson has unveiled, what it claims is, the industry's first high performance PCMCIA (Personal Computer Memory Card International Association) LAN (local area network) adapter to offer both 10BaseT and 10Base2 facilities on a single card. 12 -> Ligature's Competitive Program OCR Software Upgrade -- Ligature Software Inc. has released a competitive upgrade program for users of optical character recognition (OCR) software. The Ligature offer lets users of any OCR product switch to the company's CharacterEyes Pro for Windows for $149 and proof of purchase of their original OCR software. 13 -> FLAG Opens Netherlands, Middle Eastern Offices -- FLAG, the Fiber-optic Link Around the Globe telecoms project consortium, has announced the opening of two regional sales offices: the first in Amsterdam, the Netherlands; and the second in Amman, the Middle East. 14 -> Low-Cost ISDN Internet Access Planned For Germany -- FTP Software has teamed up with AVM Computersysteme Vertriebs to develop enhanced software interfacing for FTP's TCP/IP (Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol) applications that will allow the packages to be used on ISDN (integrated services digital network) systems that conform to the Capi 2.0 ISDN specification, which is also known as the Euro ISDN system. 15 -> Insights Ships Motivation Software Titles -- Insights Software, a developer of motivational software titles, says it is shipping fourteen titles based on best-selling motivational books, such as How to Win Friends and Influence People, by Dale Carnegie, and New York Times number one bestseller, Chicken Soup for the Soul, by Jack Canfield. Rather than develop the titles as screensavers, Insights uses its own "affirmation generator." 16 -> India - TCS Wins Stanchart Deal -- India's leading banking systems developer, Tata Consultancy Services Ltd. has won, in worldwide competitive bidding, a project to develop and implement a $30 million custody information processing system for Standard Chartered Equitor Group, the Bank's Asian custody and clearing division. 17 -> Microsoft Golf 2.0 On Your Office LAN -- DO you want to play golf in the office? The boss may not like it, but Microsoft Corp.(NASDAQ: MSFT) has announced it will soon ship Microsoft Golf 2.0 on CD-ROM, and the program lets local area network (LAN) users challenge colleagues to a round of golf at the click of a button. 18 -> Motorola Reduces Pricing On ISDN Products -- Motorola's (NYSE:MOT) Information Systems Group's (ISG) Transmission Products Division said it is dropping prices for its BitSurfr Digital ISDN (integrated services digital network) modem and its BitSurfr PC internal ISA (Industry Standard Architecture) card by as much as $120. 19 -> Kids Watch Less TV When PC Is In Home - Study -- When it comes to comparing computers and television, more kids are finding the tv "boring," according to a new study from FIND/SVP and Grunwald Associates. The survey also found television viewing declines dramatically when children have a PC available in the home. 20 -> ****Telecom 95 Opens In Geneva -- The two week Telecom 95 exhibition in Geneva opened today with an address from Dr. Pekka Tarjanne, secretary general of the International Telecommunications Union, the UN agency organizing the event. 21 -> NewsPix Images For Newsbytes Publishers -- These photos correspond to recent Newsbytes stories. They are online in the Newsbytes menu on America Online, NiftyServe, and the Newsbytes private bulletin board system in Minneapolis. 22 -> ****America Online Unexpectedly Goes Down -- An America Online (NASDAQ:AMER) spokesperson has confirmed to Newsbytes that the service went down for about three and a half hours last Friday, October 30. AOL members who tried to log in during that time could not, and those already logged in eventually lost their connection. 23 -> Storagetek Intros New Product, Settles Old Lawsuit -- Storage Technology Corp. (NYSE:) has rolled out its Kodiak scalable storage product and won preliminary approval for a proposed settlement of a class action lawsuit filed by a few shareholders more than three years ago that grew to include thousands of investors. 24 -> Bill Gates Is Richest American On Forbes 400 List -- Bill Gates, chairman of Microsoft Corp., (NASDAQ: MSFT) has grabbed the top spot on the Forbes magazine 400 richest Americans for the second consecutive year. "Richest" is a title Gates is undoubtedly become accustomed to, since he has also captured one of the two top spots on the World Billionaire and Richest American lists each year since 1991. 25 -> Canadian Product Launch Update -- This regular feature, appearing on the first day Newsbytes publishes each week, provides further details for the Canadian market on announcements by international companies that Newsbytes has already covered. This week: Apple Canada begins shipping the PowerBook 5300 line. 26 -> Software Uses Web To Link Remote Users To LAN E-Mail -- Although electronic-mail remains the most common use of the Internet, Infinite Technologies said its new WebMail software will uses the "net" for mail in a rather different way. WebMail will use the World Wide Web to connect remote users to their own electronic mailboxes on the local area network (LAN) mail system back at the office. 27 -> EPA & Intel In Air Pollution Deal -- The US Environmental Protection Agency, Oregon pollution regulators, and Intel Corp. have coupled air pollution reductions with greater flexibility in federal and state permitting. 28 -> ****Xerox Enters SOHO With 5-Function Device Under $700 -- In creating Document WorkCenter 250, a newly unveiled fax machine-printer-copier-scanner that is Xerox's first product for the SOHO (small office/home office) market, Xerox decided to pursue a different course from some competitors by incorporating the company's top technologies, contended Xerox's Debbie Abbott, in a meeting with Newsbytes on a Boston press tour. 29 -> IBM To Expand App Devt Product Line & Services -- In coming months, IBM will make a string of announcements in the application development arena related to specific areas that will include the TeamConnection repository, development languages, third-party tools, and "network-centric computing," revealed Skip McGaughey, market manager for the VisualAge family and object-oriented tools, in a briefing for Newsbytes. 30 -> Cabletron Launches Switching Products -- Cabletron Systems Inc. (NYSE:CS) has announced a handful of new switching products, including modules for its MMAC-Plus switching system and a Token Ring switch with an uplink to fiber distributed data interface (FDDI) technology. 31 -> ****Farcast News Service On Magic Link -- Sony New Technologies Inc. and Farcast Inc. have agreed to jointly develop a version of Farcast's electronic news service to be made available for the Sony Magic Link personal communicators. The news service will provide news and stock quotes to meet specific search criteria. 32 -> "First Aid 95" Attacks 10,000 Windows 95, 3.1 Woes -- CyberMedia's new First Aid 95 is the first product on the market to address and solve the software configuration problems that plague Windows 95 and Windows 3.1, maintained Srikanth Chari, VP of marketing, during a meeting with Newsbytes on a Boston press tour. (Ian Stokell/199501002) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 09/29/95 APPLE Seybold - Apple's Spindler Touts Macs On The Internet (NEWS)(APPLE)(SFO)(00001) Seybold - Apple's Spindler Touts Macs On The Internet 09/29/95 SAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1995 SEP 29 (NB) -- Apple's chief executive officer, Michael Spindler, opened the Seybold conference in San Francisco with a keynote boasting of the use of Macintoshes on the Internet and hailing the use of the Internet for publishing by individuals. Spindler said, "Macintosh systems today represent about 46% of the commercial publishing and communications marketplace. And in very key growth sectors such as Internet and publishing on the Web, we now are the second best selling Web server product. We believe that about 25 to 50% of Internet clients are Macs. More than half of all the sessions here are devoted to either Internet or new media." Apple's leader repeatedly stressed Apple's role in Internet publishing and the need to respond to the people using the computer. "We must put the technology in the hands of the creators, not the computer people, but the creators of content to let them publish on any medium there is," said Spindler. He also said that in this time of change, businesses must still focus on building a digital brand through publishing. In this time of change to the Internet where brands may not seem important, Spindler said corporations should strive to identify themselves. To do this, the industry must push to bring greater color technology to the Internet and other networks. Noting a trend, Spindler said corporations are beginning to use the Internet internally as a distribution mechanism and radically changing their "CC:Mail, their MS Mail, whatever mail, into an Internet-based centric view -- and we plan to be a major part of that conversation." In closing, Spindler said next year we would see a read-only device for the Internet. (Patrick McKenna/19950929) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 09/29/95 TRENDS Seybold - The Future Of Print (NEWS)(TRENDS)(SFO)(00002) Seybold - The Future Of Print 09/29/95 SAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A, 1995 SEP 29 (NB) -- Seybold San Francisco 95 Conference and Expo's second keynote, called The Future of Print, was delivered by six industry leaders, who proclaimed that print is not dead, but due to the influence of electronic publishing, is evolving into something new. Representing advertisers, printers, industry equipment suppliers, newspapers and visionaries, the panel consisted of Shimon Alon of Scitex America, Dennis Dunlap of RR Donnelley & Sons, Dr. Hunter Madsen from J. Walter Thompson, Paul Soffo of The Institute for the Future, and Peter Winter from New Century Network. Jonathan Seybold was moderator. Seybold began, saying, "The thing we hear most when we are talking to people, is basically, 'What is the future of print?' In this world in which we have now made documents electronic, we are moving towards the ability to distribute them electronically and print them on demand. We have new possibilities opening up. What is the landscape going to look like? Is print going to be wiped out by all of this? Is print going to still exist and what form of print will exist? How will this new landscape, the new possibilities sort themselves out? This is the focus of this opening session." In all, the panel agreed the role of print is changing in view of electronic publication and delivery of information, but in its changing role it is redefining itself. The speakers stressed the role of communication, advertising, entertainment and commerce. Each acknowledged not only print, but information and its delivery are in a period of dramatic change. During that change we do not have all the answers. Paul Soffo summed the overall view, saying, "Five years ago everybody imagined paper was immortal and that was wrong. Now today, everybody is imagining paper and print are obsolete that is also wrong. The right way to think about this is to look back in the history of media and it becomes immediately obvious that no old medium is ever made obsolete by any new medium." He continued, "I think what you will see over the next 30 to 50 years is that the consumption of electronically mediated information will grow very very quickly and vastly more quickly than our use of paper. But for the short term at least, our consumption of paper and print mediated information will also increase. No new medium ever replaces an old medium -- what it does is come in and does something the old medium could not do at all, or does poorly, and then eventually displaces and re-invents the old medium." Soffo compared today to the fifties when people said movies would die due to the advent of television. "Both radio and movies re-invented themselves and both paper and print have a long bright future ahead perhaps after a profound and painful short term reinvention. It will hit different industries in different ways. Academic printing is paperless. My advice: it (the reinvention) will not happen overnight, do not live in the past for longer than it lasts and do not live in the future sooner than it is here." (Patrick McKenna/19950929) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 1 09/29/95 APPLE Seybold - Quark Releases Publishing System 1. (NEWS)(APPLE)(SFO)(00003) Seybold - Quark Releases Publishing System 1.11 09/29/95 SAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1995 SEP 29 (NB) -- Quark, a developer and marketer of software for graphics professionals and publishers, released version 1.11 of Quark Publishing System (QPS). The company also announced an agreement with Digital Equipment Corporation. Earlier versions of QPS, a Macintosh-oriented workgroup publishing product, featured three different folders for three different types of files: articles, layouts and pictures. Version 1.11 offers new folder architecture which allows files to be stored in subfolders within the three file types with each subfolder holding a limited number of QPS files. According to Quark, a very large number of files in a singe folder slowed performance. With fewer files per folder, it is easier to access files in storage folders from the Macintosh Finder. The new version also has additional network support. The 1.11 QuarkDispatch server adds the ability to update the Macintosh Address Mapping Table. Now users can increase the size of the Table and allow a large number of clients to be connected without causing network traffic problems. The Digital Equipment agreement calls for both companies to market and support QPS with Digital becoming a Quark-authorized QPS integrator. Digital's multimedia services consulting group will provide sales, support and installation to newspapers and magazines in North America. Quark's president and chief executive officer, Fred Ebrahimi, said, "Digital is uniquely positioned to handle all the needs of the publishing marketplace. The powerful Alpha systems, combined with Digital's publishing industry experience, will provide a great resource for customers." Quark also is shipping a gamma version of QuarkConnect for Windows which will give QPS customers their first opportunity to use Windows products with QPS. A company spokesperson told Newsbytes, "We are committed to cross-platform capabilities and we are striving to make it possible for our customers to use the applications and platforms they choose." In another announcement, Quark said Power Macintosh-compatible applications of QuarkCopyDesk and QuarkDispatch XTensions are now shipping. QuarkCopyDesk Special Edition will ship next month. (Patrick McKenna/19950929/Press Contact: Chuck Moozakis, Quark, tel 303-894-3204) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 09/29/95 LEGAL ****Euro Piracy Costs 87,000 Jobs, $2.3 Billion Says BSA (NEWS)(LEGAL)(DEN)(00004) ****Euro Piracy Costs 87,000 Jobs, $2.3 Billion Says BSA 09/29/95 BRUSSELS, BELGIUM, 1995 SEP 29 (NB) -- The Business Software Alliance has released a report that indicates if European software piracy could be reduced to the US level, tens of thousands of new jobs would be created and billions in additional tax revenues generated. The report, with the weighty title "Contribution of the Packaged Business Software Industry to the European Economies," was commissioned by BSA and produced by Price Waterhouse. Robert Holleyman, BSA president, calls piracy "a major social and economic problem." The report says that in 1994 alone, reducing European software piracy to 35 percent (the present US piracy level) from its current level of almost 60 percent would have created over 56,000 additional jobs and an extra $1.4 billion in tax revenues. The same reduction by the year 2000 would account for 87,000 new jobs and $2.3 billion in tax revenues. If piracy levels off in Europe at 35 percent, by the year 2000 the packaged business software industry would support over 350,000 jobs and contribute over $9 billion to the European economy in taxes alone. BSA spokesperson Diane Smiroldo acknowledges that 35 percent is a whopping number, and says that while it certainly isn't acceptable, the trade group used it as a benchmark to compare with European figures. She also pointed out to Newsbytes that while the US figure is incredibly high, it's the lowest piracy rate in the world. Software makers lost an estimated $2.8 billion in revenue due to piracy last year. Asked if we should get used to the fact that 35 percent of the software in use is stolen, Smiroldo said that's not acceptable. "We don't want to accept the 35 percent level in the US or in Europe. That's why the industry has joined forces ... to reduce that level and to increase the legitimate market for software." BSA said packaged business software is the fastest growing segment of a total market that is growing at 13 percent each year and will reach almost $44 billion by 1997. It contributed some $4.4 billion to Western European government revenues in 1994 and accounted for over 170,000 jobs. By 2000, said the trade group, it will account for 270,000 jobs and that number will jump to over 350,000 if piracy levels can be brought down to the US levels. Looking at the effect of packaged business software on individual countries, BSA said in Germany by the year 2000 the industry would support over 93,000 and contribute $2.4 billion in tax revenues if software piracy is controlled. That's more than twice the 1994 results. BSA estimates software piracy cost Germany almost $1.9 billion. BSA wants the EC (European Community) Software Directive to be reinforced with national legislation based on the provisions of GATT TRIPs Agreement. It is also calling for stronger cooperation between software industry copyright holders and public enforcement agencies. The trade group proposes a five-step solution to the problem. It proposes stronger criminal penalties for illegal software copying, a more visible commitment from public agencies to enforcing criminal copyright penalties against software law breakers, higher damages and full recovery of costs in civil cases to ensure defendants bear the full cost of enforcement, and faster court procedures for both civil and criminal cases. Finally, BSA proposed wider availability of the court-ordered "surprise" procedure needed to seize and capture illegal software before the evidence is erased by the offender. To reduce piracy in the US, President Bill Clinton's administration established a working group in intellectual property rights as part of the White House Information Infrastructure Task Force. The working group, chaired by Assistant Secretary of Commerce Bruce Lehman, produced the Lehman Report which Smiroldo said makes specific recommendations on how to make the copyright laws more effective. The basic theme of the report, said the BSA, is that the existing copyright law is effective, but modest changes are needed to ensure that it remains appropriate in light of changing technologies. (Jim Mallory/19950929/Press contact: Robin Burton, BSA London, tel 44.171.491.1974 or Diane Smiroldo, BSA headquarters in Washington, D.C., 202-872-5500) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 09/29/95 TRENDS Seybold - New Challenges From The Internet (NEWS)(TRENDS)(SFO)(00005) Seybold - New Challenges From The Internet 09/29/95 SAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1995 SEP 29 (NB) -- Yuri Rubinsky of SoftQuad gave the Seybold San Francisco audience a whirlwind overview of what's happening with the new technology on the Internet. Rubinsky has been involved with the Internet through a number of different founding committees and he is know for his involvement with the development of Internet languages SGML and HTML. He opened, saying, "We (speaking for SoftQuad) believe in the past. We believe there is no need to panic about being on the Web or not being on the Web. Any of you who have ever opened a book and used the table of contents and an index and maybe a cross-reference, have actually used hypertext slightly more sophisticated than what is available on today's Web." His rhetorical question was "Are we really in on the birth of a new medium (the Web)?" To answer this, he first cited security issues, saying "So far the people who are most convinced and most vocal about saying the Web is secure, by coincidence, happen to be those who have a vested interest. I think it would be fair to say we have seen the first attempts at secure transactions on the Web and depending on whether you think they are half-empty or half-full, they have made it clear to us that we are at a stage where we have to go back to the drawing board, test the heck out of it and redeploy, being prepared to go back the drawing board again and again." After looking at many of the problems surrounding the Web, Rubinsky added, "The Web is a social invention in exactly the same way that moveable type was, or the newspaper as opposed to a patentable idea. This is interesting in part because no one makes money off the idea itself. We have ... the opportunity to approach this new medium as if it's a blank canvas and we're artists. We can be like the first person to think of creating crossword puzzles for newspapers or like the person who said, 'Gosh, I can see where selling a few ads might help this thing pay for itself.' " "We can bring forward the traditions, techniques and content from other media and migrate them to the Web and at the same time we can set our imaginations to work and bring forth electronic phenomena that have no parallel in and owe nothing to our publishing past and today's way of doing business," summed Rubinsky. In closing, he added, "Public acceptance of course can change the best laid plans and visions. We know the online technologies work and we know they will get better and better. You in this room and the organizations you represent are probably a completely sufficient force in terms of actually making online media function as a permanent part of our communications infrastructure, of taking their place beside and different from and complimentary to television, radio, print media, film, fax, phone and the highways. Better yet, you in this room are a sufficient force to really make these new technologies sing!" (Patrick McKenna/19950929) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 09/29/95 GOVT ****Govt Online Officials Say Budget Cutbacks "Cause For Alarm" (NEWS)(GOVT)(MSP)(00006) ****Govt Online Officials Say Budget Cutbacks "Cause For Alarm" 09/29/95 ATLANTA, GEORGIA, U.S.A., 1995 SEP 29 (NB) -- The director of the US Government's largest publicly accessible online information system said that large cutbacks in the overall federal budget is a "cause for alarm" for the government's information infrastructure. "There is a trend we are seeing in relation to this (budget- cutting) that I think is reason for alarm," said Donald Johnson, director of the US Department of Commerce's National Technical Information Service. The NTIS operates the Fedworld database of US government announcements, information, and archives, which is accessible through the Internet or via direct dialup. Part of the problem, Johnson told a seminar at Networld+Interop Thursday, is that many agencies will seek to control printing costs by creating computerized-only versions of these documents on Web servers. Yet not everyone has access to the Web, and many of these documents, in Johnson's view, are hard to navigate. "There are many agencies in government that have traditionally been publishing documents in paper for many many years. One of the advantages of the paper documents is that they went into some kind of permanent repository where you could always find those documents in the future. We're finding that many agencies -- now that their budgets are being reduced -- are simply not publishing a paper version at all. They are putting their material up on a Web server. Oftentimes, it is very difficult to find these Web servers," he said. Of the more than 1,000 Web servers in the US government, "many of them are very poorly indexed. You can't find the documents that are on the server. The result is, most of the past customers who used paper reports never have access to this material that is now going on a Web server," Johnson noted. Johnson then pointed out an even more insidious problem. Since the storage capacity of most Web servers is finite, "many of the agencies simply wait until the memory is filled and they need more capacity. Then, they dump everything that was there and start over again. There's no archiving, no indexing. What this means is that the record of the government in those agencies is simply being lost," he said. Another top government information official, the US Treasury Department's Michele Rubenstein, added that the same pressures that encourage electronic storage of documents has the potential of creating future confusion. As an example, she noted recent ruling by the US National Archives and Records Administration that announced that intra-agency electronic mail is a matter of public record. "That poses the question of what are we going to have to do if we have to archive our electronic mail," she said. "Are we going to publish it on paper and stick in a box and warehouse all the boxes or are we going to archive it electronically. If so, and retention is ten years, or indefinite, what's to say whatever media we choose ... is going to be readable in the future? "That is going to reduce warehousing costs, but what about access costs in terms of permanent records in part of future," she added. Yet Johnson stressed that the budgetary cutbacks may have a positive effect for Fedworld. "We have been discussing this with about a dozen different federal agencies in the last few weeks. The budget cuts are having a very pronounced impact on printing budgets in agencies. They are looking at every kind of cost saving they can find, and in many cases, they are looking at some economy of scale such as we can provide them in Fedworld, to provide for reduction in overall operating costs. Because of this, we see our business increasing," he said. (Russell Shaw/19950929) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 1 09/29/95 GOVT US NTIS To Debut World News Connection November (NEWS)(GOVT)(MSP)(00007) US NTIS To Debut World News Connection November 1 09/29/95 ATLANTA, GEORGIA, U.S.A., 1995 SEP 29 (NB) -- The US Government's daily collection of news summaries from around the world, used for internal intelligence and decision-making purposes, will be made available to the public starting Nov. 1. The service will be called World News Connection, a new Internet and dialup service of the U.S. Department of Commerce's National Technical Information Service. "It is a news service that is based on the government's own collection efforts," said NTIS director Don Johnson during a Networld+ Interop Thursday session, where the offering was announced for the first time. "There are collections of information from more than 10,000 sources around the world that are performed by the US Government on a daily basis for intelligence purposes. There are collections from radio broadcasts, newspapers and TV news broadcasts, from magazine articles, all that material is translated into English and transmitted to a server at NTIS. We have received copyright clearance to this material from sources of this material overseas and are about to make it available as a commercial news service," Johnson noted of World News Connection, which will be assembled daily by the NTIS' Research Services Branch. "You'll be available to come into that service on a subscription basis, and search it with a very sophisticated natural language search engine that will allow you to make individual custom searches, will allow you to specialize a search special interest profile that you can post to the system and will automatically deliver it to your electronic mailbox on a daily basis," Johnson pointed out. The lag time between original publication or broadcast in the source nation and posting on World News Connection will be 24 to 48 hours. The service will be available via one weekly and three monthly pricing plans. WNC1, at $21, will include a seven-day introductory offer with unlimited interactive searching, but no profiles. WNC2, at $50 a month, will feature one month of unlimited interactive searching but no profiles. WNC3 will supply one month of unlimited interactive searching, with one profile, for $75 a month. The most extensive option, WNC4, will allow one month of unlimited searching with up to five profiles for $100 a month. Although WNC will not be available until Nov. 1, order information became obtainable on the Web yesterday at http://wnc.fedworld.gov or via fax on demand at (703) 487-4140, product code 8645. (Russell Shaw/19950929) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 09/29/95 TELECOM Japan - NTT To Open Local Telephone Network (NEWS)(TELECOM)(TYO)(00008) Japan - NTT To Open Local Telephone Network 09/29/95 TOKYO, JAPAN, 1995 SEP 29 (NB) -- Nippon Telegraph and Telephone is to open its local telephone network to competitors, allowing many more access points onto the NTT system than at present ,which, the company said, will lead to a more competitive marketplace. Currently, NTT has a virtual monopoly on the local telephone market in Japan and its competitors, the new common carriers (NCC), in the national long distance market can connect into the NTT local network at only one point in each of Japan's sixty prefectures. The alternative carriers then pay for use of the local network at a cost of around 12.57 yen ($0.13) per call. This arrangement is to be expanded as the national telecoms giant will allow access at any of its 6,000 local switches across Japan which will mean calls travel further on the competitor's own network and only connect to NTT's network at the switch nearest the destination. This is expected to lead to a reduction in the charges that its competitors pay to NTT and thus a reduction in the price of calls via the NCCs. The impact on company profits caused by the charges is huge. In the last financial year, the three NCCs, DDI, Japan Telecom and Teleway Japan, lost around half of their entire income to the charges levied by NTT, around 300 billion yen. The announcement adds details to the previously stated intention to open the local call market but makes no mention of when this will happen and how it will affect the charges paid by the NCCs. Many see the move by NTT as part of a larger attempt to show the Telecommunications Council that it is open to competition and does not dominate the market in Japan. The council is a government set-up panel currently studying the advantages and disadvantages of breaking up NTT. Its final report is due in February next year. The Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications had previously recommended to NTT that it open the local network to allow better competition in the telephony market. The loudest campaigners for the breakup of NTT have been the NCCs which charge that they can't compete with a company like NTT because is too big and powerful. At the close of business Thursday, DDI stock closed at 840,000 yen, up 57,000 yen or 6.7%. Following comments by NTT Chairman Kojima that the network opening would have a large impact on NTT profits, shares fell 28,000 yen to 870,000 yen. (Martyn Williams/19950929/Press contact : NTT Corporation, +81-3-3509-3101, fax +81-3-3509-4290; DDI Corporation, +81-3-3221-9526, fax +81-3-3221-9527; Japan Telecom, +81-3-5540-8017, fax +81-3-5543-1967; Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications, +81-3-3504-4161, fax +81-3-3504-0265) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 09/29/95 GENERAL Japan Newsbriefs (NEWS)(GENERAL)(TYO)(00009) Japan Newsbriefs 09/29/95 TOKYO, JAPAN, 1995 SEP 29 (NB) -- In this roundup of news from Japan, profits up at Japan Telecom - newspaper, NTT reviews Pocket Bell pricing, Sanyo establishes new Chinese venture, Americans join Japan cellular group, Matsushita plans China expansion, online karaoke system planned. Profits Up At Japan Telecom - Newspaper Japan's leading business newspaper, The Nikkei Shimbun, has reported fiscal 1995 profits at Japan Telecom, a long distance telephone provider, will rise around 50%. Such a rise would mean Japan Telecom will post an unconsolidated pretax profit or 27 billion yen ($275 million), 3 billion yen ($31 million) more than originally forecast by the company. Operating revenue is predicted by the newspaper to be the same as that forecast by the company at 328.3 billion yen ($3.35 billion). NTT's recent announcement to open the local call market could also result in a reduction paid for use of local lines and an increase in profits. NTT Reviews Pocket Bell Pricing Nippon Telegraph and Telephone's mobile communications unit, DoCoMo, is to review its pricing for pagers, known as Pocket Bells in Japan, in a move to encourage users to keep chosen models longer rather than upgrading. NTT DoCoMo currently charge 500 yen a month compared to a retail price of around 10,000 yen. Under the new scheme, rental in the first year will be 700 yen a month and will drop to 500 yen a month the second year. NTT DoCoMo says that many users, particularly young women users, change their Pocket Bells every few months to keep up with the latest models. Sanyo Establishes New Chinese Venture Sanyo Electric has established a joint-venture company in Guangdong, China, to design audio-visual products. The new company, Shenzhen Huaquiang Sanyo Technology Design Co., is scheduled to begin operation in 1996 to design televisions and video and audio cassette recorders for Huaquiang Sanyo Electronics Co., an existing joint venture company. Americans Join Japan Cellular Group AirTouch Communications and GTE Corporation have both bought stakes in the ninth Digital Tu-Ka mobile telephone service provider in Japan. Digital Tu-Ka Shikoku Co. Ltd. joins similar companies in Kyushu, Chugoku, Tohoku, Hokkaido and Hokuriku areas. Both American companies already own parts in the sister companies which were set up by two competing mobile networks, Tu-Ka Cellular and Digital Phone, to offer a joint network in areas of the country where it would otherwise be expensive to operate individual networks. Both companies bought 4.5% stakes in the new company. Matsushita Plans China Expansion Osaka-based Matsushita Electric Industrial Co. will seek a nationwide network of 3,000 retail outlets across China by 1997 to boost its presence there. Current sales in China total around 150 billion yen and comprise both products made in China and those made in Japan. The Nihon Keizai Shimbun newspaper reported electrical and electronic stores will be offered the chance to become an special authorized dealer if Matsushita products make up over 50% of total sales although Matsushita denied such a condition would apply. Online Karaoke System Planned Joining other similar ventures previously announced, Nintendo, Just Systems and Square Co. have announced a new online Karaoke system will begin operations from early next year. Special software and a telephone adaptor will connect with Nintendo's new 64-bit game machines to deliver home karaoke to subscribers. It is hoped the system will also feature home shopping and banking within the next five years. (Martyn Williams/19950929) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 09/29/95 GOVT SEC Launches Internet Site (NEWS)(GOVT)(WAS)(00010) SEC Launches Internet Site 09/29/95 WASHINGTON, D.C., U.S.A., 1995 SEP 29 (NB) -- Securities and Exchange Commission Chairman Arthur Levitt just became the first user of the SEC's new site on the World Wide Web. The site offers free public access to be agency's Edgar database of filings at http:// www.sec.com . The documents range from corporate annual reports to quarterly filings to special filings companies must make any time a significant event occurs. The information is quite valuable and a small industry has been born to deliver that information to corporate clients. The SEC is attempting to walk a narrow path between full disclosure and the business interests of the disclosure firms. So the SEC data will be delayed 24 hours, giving the commercial distributors a slight edge over Internet access. The Internet site will also carry SEC investor information, SEC speeches and congressional testimony, press releases and rulemaking proceedings. "This new site will take information collected by the SEC and make it wore widely available to the investment public," said Levitt. "Investors will benefit, and so will our capital markets." An experiment begun in 1993 with a National Science Foundation grant allowed the Washington-based Internet Multicasting Service to offer Edgar access on the Web. But funding for that project ran out this year. In a related development, the Patent and Trademark Office -- also subject to criticism for not offering electronic access -- said this week that it will offer summaries of all patents on the Internet. That site has not yet been launched. (Kennedy Maize/19950929/Press Contact: Michael Bartell, 202-942-8090) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 09/29/95 TELECOM US Court Clears PCS Auction (NEWS)(TELECOM)(WAS)(00011) US Court Clears PCS Auction 09/29/95 WASHINGTON, D.C., U.S.A., 1995 SEP 29 (NB) -- A federal appeals court yesterday cleared the way for the Federal Communications Commission to hold its long-delayed special of licenses for personal communications systems. By a 2-1 vote, the US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia lifted an earlier stay forbidding the FCC from holding the auction, which had been scheduled for August 29. The option would distribute some 500 licenses to small businesses and businesses owned by minorities or women. The auction was originally scheduled for the spring, but a Supreme Court ruling on minority set-aside programs caused the commission to delay while it could formulate new procedures. But some small firms objected to the new auction rules. Omnipoint, a Colorado company planning to bid in the auction, complained that the new rules discriminate against companies that are not minority-owned. Omnipoint said that flexible financing provisions, previously available only to firms owned by women and minorities and extended to all small business bidders, did not allow enough time for the new bidders to make financial arrangements. The court put the auction on hold until it could consider Omnipoint's objections. An earlier PCS auction, not limited to small businesses, raised some $9 billion for the Treasury, demonstrating that auctioning the spectrum can raise large sums. The court did not issue a written opinion with yesterday's decision, saying it would do so later. Judges Harry Edwards and David Sentelle voted to lift the stay. Judge Patricia Wald dissented, arguing that the FCC had not justified its policy on flexible financing. The FCC has not yet set a new date for the auction. Meanwhile, Congress has been considering the issue of FCC spectrum auctions. On a party-line vote of 10-9, the Senate Commerce Committee this week passed a measure that would forbid the FCC from giving broadcasters a second television channel to implement digital TV. Instead, the committee said, the FCC should auction the spectrum allocated for the broadcasters, generating some $15 billion by 2002. In 1992, the commission gave the broadcasters the second channel as an inducement to develop the digital technology. But most broadcasters say they will use the channel for multicasting conventional TV, not digital video. The House has no similar provision, and observers expect the Senate action will not hold in a final bill. (Kennedy Maize/19950929) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 09/29/95 LEGAL Thailand - BSA Offers Cash Reward To Nab Pirates (NEWS)(LEGAL)(HKG)(00012) Thailand - BSA Offers Cash Reward To Nab Pirates 09/29/95 BANGKOK, THAILAND, 1995 SEP 29 (NB) -- The Business Software Alliance (BSA), in its efforts to track down corporate users of pirated software, has announced a campaign to reward informers in Thailand who provide information leading to the conviction of a company that uses unlicensed software. The BSA is offering a 100,000 baht (US$4,000) reward following the successful conviction of an offender while introducing a "hotline" number for informers to call to report alleged violations. Staff manning this number will also inquiries about software licensing, according to BSA Vice President Ron Eckstrom. He noted that the Hotline operators would answer any software- related questions in addition to inquiries about the Thai Copyright Act, which became enforceable law in March 1995. This Hotline service joins a number of other BSA hotlines in the region which include Australia, New Zealand, Taiwan and Singapore. Mr Eckstrom did not say how long the reward campaign would last, and that the length of the campaign depended on the BSA's Asia committee. He said the BSA recently warned some known users of unlicensed software that they could be the subject of a lawsuit by the BSA, and that the BSA had already issued other warnings to the Thai public with seminars and through the press. He added that last week the BSA sent over 14,000 letters to companies outlining the Thai Copyright Act, the risk of incurring substantial criminal penalties as well as penalties for software copyright infringement. The hotline concept has been successful in Australia, Taiwan, Japan, New Zealand, Europe and in the US, he told Newsbytes. Mr Eckstrom noted the decreasing piracy rates of other countries when the BSA offered the reward campaign: Australia's rate was reduced from 55% in 1992 to 38% in 1994 -- the third lowest piracy rate in the world; Singapore went down to 58%; and piracy in Taiwan was reduced from 94% to 72%. He said there were 85 calls per week to the Hotline in New Zealand. BSA hopes the piracy rate in Thailand would also decrease as a result of this reward campaign. However, no accurate figures would be available until April 1996, he said. There are currently 26 cases of copyright infringement pending in Thailand, he added. Apart from the BSA's investigation team in Bangkok, there are also teams in major provinces such as Chiang Mai, Hat Yai and Phuket. The Business Software Alliance comprises major software publishers including Microsoft, Lotus, Autodesk, Novell, Aldus, Adobe and Borland while Symantec has just joined the group. (Tony Waltham and Post Database-Bangkok Post/19950922) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 09/29/95 TELECOM IBM Picks Thailand For Regional Network Hub (NEWS)(TELECOM)(HKG)(00013) IBM Picks Thailand For Regional Network Hub 09/29/95 BANGKOK, THAILAND, 1995 SEP 29 (NB) -- IBM (Thailand) is expected to become a regional hub for the IBM Global Network (IGN) as well as become the third active Internet services provider by the end of this month. Dr Chatchavalit Saravari of IBM (Thailand) is expected to be named regional IGN manager for ASEAN/South Asia overseeing five ASEAN countries -- Thailand, Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia and Philippines -- as well as for India, Bangladesh and Vietnam. He said IBM is planning to provide access to IGN in India next year and is also conducting a feasibility study to offer access to the network in Vietnam. By the end of the month, IBM will also begin providing commercial Internet access services in Thailand, competing with existing providers Internet Thailand Service Centre and KSC Comnet. Dr Chatchavalit said current IGN users have access to the Internet since IBM is already part of the Internet. The difference between IGN users and Internet users would be in the value-added services and security, since IGN is a private network while the Internet is public, he said. Dr Chatchavalit noted that IBM was now considering the pricing of its Internet services, hoping to offer cheaper service fees than other providers. The Internet service would help IBM expand its current IGN customer base, which is composed primarily of organizations, to encompass individual users, he said. IGN clients include the Port Authority of Thailand, Amway, Sanyo and Proctor & Gamble, among others. Dr Chatchavalit noted the growth rate of network users was less than expected as local businesses were not yet ready for network services. However, he said, many businesses are aware of the Internet. He added that IBM would add new services to the IBM Global Network, which would include outsourcing and content hosting. Content hosting employs a shopping mall format where IBM is the mall owner investing in infrastructure and necessary equipment; interested customers can rent a "room" in the mall and display their products or information about their businesses, much like a World Wide Web page. Customers wishing access to the mall must register with IBM to obtain an ID and password. Viewing will be free; those wishing to make purchases can do so through use of a special card provided by IBM for that purpose. This concept would encompass all IBM branches in the Asia Pacific, said Dr Chatchavalit. In addition, IGN's current services include value-added transactions, database service and customer network solutions. IGN is managed globally through three sites located in New York, Japan and Europe. Connection services are available for voice, satellite, cellular, wireless and ATM networks in some countries. IGN also offers an electronic commerce and is the first network carrier to receive an ISO 9000 certificate. There are approximately 25,000 clients with some 2 million users on the system which links 850 major cities in over 100 countries worldwide. It is also accessed by 500 private networks. (Tony Waltham and Post Database-Bangkok Post/19950922) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 09/29/95 BUSINESS ****Seagate and Conner Confirm Merger (NEWS)(BUSINESS)(HKG)(00014) ****Seagate and Conner Confirm Merger 09/29/95 CENTRAL, HONG KONG, 1995 SEP 29 (NB) -- Rumors of merger talks between Seagate and Conner Peripherals have been confirmed by both parties. The deal is waiting for the approval by both boards of directors and the legal paperwork and the final vote of stockholders in the two firms. From its headquarters in San Jose, California, Conner Peripherals told Newsbytes the merger is in process. The next step is a definitive agreement and the two companies are working on the details at this time. No date has be set for the release of the agreement which will officially layout the plans and details of this merger. Newsbytes did hear that the announcement should be coming soon, possibly as early as next week. Neither company is free to discuss details at this time. At present it's understood the deal will give the stockholders of Conner 0.442 of a share in Seagate stock for every share they hold in Conner. Seagate's official statement says the deal is a "pooling of interests." Both firms manufacture and sell disk drives and announced plans to build new plants in Singapore earlier in the year. There has been no comment so far on whether these plans would be affected by the merger. (Nigel Armstrong & I.T. Daily & Patrick McKenna/19950928) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 09/29/95 GENERAL HK IT Expo Opens On Internet Traffic Jam (NEWS)(GENERAL)(HKG)(00015) HK IT Expo Opens On Internet Traffic Jam 09/29/95 CENTRAL, HONG KONG, 1995 SEP 29 (NB) -- Hong Kong's IT Expo opened on Wednesday for a four-day spree and organizers said at 5pm on the opening day that 10,000 visitors had already been through the doors. It's the sixth Expo and so far the largest, with over 240 exhibitors attending. Unlike other years, major computer manufacturers were notable by their absence -- with only IBM, Digital and Microsoft making their presence felt with large stands. Most of the action on Day One was centered around Internet products and service providers. But Wednesday was not the best of days to start putting the Internet through its paces before the public. As the crowds turned up and providers began hyping the wonders of e-mail, databases and World Wide Web sites from Alabama to Zagreb, computer response became embarrassingly slow. One of the territory's largest providers, Asia On-Line, reported a major problem somewhere in the US "backbone" of the Internet. Technical staff were unsure which company was having problems, but noted that the system kept looking for alternative routes, indicating that one of the larger data highways was closed to traffic. (Nigel Armstrong & I.T. Daily/19950928) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 09/29/95 LEGAL Six Russians Arrested As Citibank Scam Unravels (NEWS)(LEGAL)(LON)(00016) Six Russians Arrested As Citibank Scam Unravels 09/29/95 ST PETERSBURG, RUSSIA, 1995 SEP 29 (NB) -- Russian Police have arrested six people in connection with a $2.8 million scam allegedly perpetrated on Citibank. While the names of the six people arrested have not been revealed, the Organized Crime Division in St Petersburg said that several computers and computer disks were confiscated as the raids took place and that investigations are ongoing. As reported last month by Newsbytes, the Citibank fraud came to light when Vladimir Levin, an alleged Russian hacker, was arrested while en- route between Russia and the US. As Levin's extradition goes through the British judicial system, other arrests in the US and Russia have been made, but the Russian authorities have said that the masterminds behind the major scam are still at large. Although the alleged incidents occurred a year ago, the case only came to light last month after Citibank was seemingly forced to make a public statement over its decision to push for the extradition of the 24-year-old student to the US. As reported last month by Newsbytes, an issue of the London Financial Times said that, if the case is proven against Levin, then "it is thought likely to be regarded in banking circles as the most prominent example yet of how banks' computer security systems can fall and place clients' funds at risk." During the extradition proceedings, the extradition solicitors, acting for the US Government, have claimed that Levin had carried out the fraud with the assistance of another, unnamed Russian computer entrepreneur. In July of last year, Levin is alleged to have met with his accomplice, claiming that he had gained unauthorized access to the Citibank computer system at Wall Street in New York, and made two transfers to a bank in Finland. The pair then allegedly transferred further small sums to a colleague of Levin's in San Francisco. In August, Levin is alleged to have used his terminal at AO Saturn, a St Petersburg, Russia-based computer company, transferring two sums of money to the Bank of America's network in San Francisco. When B of A queried the transactions, because the money was left in the account too long, his US accomplice then fled back to Russia. Despite this setback, Levin and his Russian accomplice pursued their project and, at the end of August, allegedly transferred $2.78 million to bank branches in California and Israel. The illicit transfers were picked up by security within the Citibank system and Levin was subsequently arrested while passing through London earlier this year. Since Levin's preliminary extradition hearings in London last month, Citibank has claimed that it has received all but $400,000 of the lost money. There is still no word from the US authorities, however, on when a likely trial, in the US, will start. (Sylvia Dennis/19950927) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 09/29/95 NETWORK ****Novell Previews Global Network Vision (NEWS)(NETWORK)(DEN)(00017) ****Novell Previews Global Network Vision 09/29/95 OREM, UTAH, U.S.A., 1995 SEP 29 (NB) -- Novell Inc. (NASDAQ: NOVL) has announced several strategic initiatives the company said will promote delivery of its vision of pervasive computing called the Smart Global Network, but specific details are still sketchy. Novell said its goal is to achieve one billion networked connections by the year 2000. Bob Frankenberg, Novell chairman and chief executive officer, said an extended version of Netware will be the foundation of the Smart Global Network to meet the needs of electronic commerce workgroup computing and business-to-business communication. Novell said in addition to strengthening its client support of popular desktop systems like Windows 95, Windows NT, Unix, Macintosh and OS/2, it will extend the Netware environment to support servers operating systems such as Windows NT, SCO Open Server, UnixWare, HP/UX and OS/2. The company will also enhance the Netware operating system to include memory protection, clustering and distributed object management. As further support for Smart Global Network, Novell said it will deliver the first commercial availability of AT&T Netware Connect Services (ANCS) in December of this year. ANCS is a public data network service based on Netware which Novell said will significantly simplify connecting organizations to public networks, including the Internet. More information about ANCS is expected in coming weeks. Novell will expand its Internet access products with a new Netware World Wide Web Internet server in the first quarter of 1996, and Frankenberg announced Net2000, a set of application programming interfaces (APIs) designed to let developers get the most out of Smart Global Network. The Novell executive said the Net2000 APIs will be accessible from any device, desktop or server platform. Net2000 will be delivered as extensions to various programming tools, including languages and environments for various operating systems. The company said its soon-to-be-released PerfectOffice for Windows 95 software suite will include a new set of networking features that include applications management, network performance optimization, software distribution and Netware Directory Services integrations. Novell will ship a new version of Groupwise in the first half of 1996 that will include a "Universal Inbox" that will hold the user's electronic mail (e-mail), voice messages, faxes, work assignments, task management and personal schedule. Groupwise will also include a full replication facility to enhance mobile access and support. Frankenberg said access to the Smart Global Network will be through a variety of communications media and heterogeneous devices. He said networks are no longer limited to wire connections in an office, but will be available through the phone system, over radio networks, over cable TV and soon even via power lines. Novell recently entered into a partnership with UtiliCorp United to provide the infrastructure for energy management applications. (Jim Mallory/19950928/Press contact: Melanie King, Novell, tel 408-577-6842) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 09/29/95 TELECOM France - Alcatel Secures $300M Digital Phone Contract (NEWS)(TELECOM)(LON)(00018) France - Alcatel Secures $300M Digital Phone Contract 09/29/95 PARIS, FRANCE, 1995 SEP 29 (NB) -- Alcatel has secured a $300 million contract for the supply of digital mobile telephony equipment from the Hermes Europe rail telephony consortium known as Hermes Europe Railtel, a joint venture between Global TeleSystems in the US and 11 country rail operators around Europe. The idea is that the rail operators make use of GSM technology for voice and data telecoms systems on their own network, and then lease spare capacity to third party companies. In theory, the Railtel network could offer lower cost GSM telephone services in specific countries, but Railtel has said on several occasions it does not intend to compete with the national telcos and mobile phone operators in this respect. Instead, the Railtel network will probably license its spare network capacity to major corporate clients who require mobile digital access to a low-cost international private voice and data network. More immediately, however, the Railtel GSM network will need to be built over the next four to five years. According to Alcatel, the $300 million deal is for the first phase of the Railtel project, which could be worth more than twice this amount in total. Initially, the Railtel GSM network will span most major cities in Western Europe, but plans are in hand to develop the network to cover more than 50 cities in Western and Eastern Europe by the end of the decade. Setting up a pan-European GSM network is not as strange as it first seems, Newsbytes notes. The railways of Europe already have numerous telecoms lines strung alongside the track, so upgrading these to fiber optic links will greatly increase the available capacity, and allow the rail network operators to capitalize on a low-cost international network owned and operated by themselves. According to Alcatel, the bulk of the $300 million contract calls for the French telecoms and IT (information technology) giant to install synchronous digital hierarchy transmission equipment, as well as switches and fiber optic links across Europe. (Sylvia Dennis/19950928/Press & Reader Contact: Alcatel Networks +33- 1-4076-1010) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 09/29/95 PC Germany - Compaq Unveils LTE 5000 Notebook Series (NEWS)(PC)(LON)(00019) Germany - Compaq Unveils LTE 5000 Notebook Series 09/29/95 MUNICH, GERMANY, 1995 SEP 29 (NB) -- Compaq Europe has unveiled the LTE 5000, a 64-bit notebook PC it claims is one of the powerful in the PC industry, and promises the machine will be available later this year in Compaq's Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA) region with a price tag around US$4,400. The LTE 5000 is a Pentium-driven modular machine and includes a choice of hard drives (from 510 to 1,350 megabytes), an integrated CD-ROM drive, support for two battery packs (NiMH and Lithium Ion), as well as a floppy, but removable, disk drive. The modular system is known as the Multibay Expansion Base (MEB) and will be a feature of Compaq's high-end notebooks in the future. The LTE 5000 was designed as a multimedia notebook and its features include a new software technology called Motion Video Acceleration for crisper imaging. Pentium chip choices include 75, 90 and the new mobile 120-megahertz (MHz) Intel chipset. Screen choices includes an 10.4 or a 11.3-inch color STN (super twist nematic) or 10.4-inch color TFT (thin film transistor) screen with support for 800 x 600 pixels resolution. Other features of the notebook include a 64-bit Pentium architecture and PCI local bus graphics. The notebook has a IRDA (Infra Red Data Association) wireless connection system that will work with any other IRDA-compliant notebook. Liz Pushman, UK portable products manager with Compaq, said that the notebook also supports the MPEG (Motion Picture Experts Group) system of video compression and decompression, allowing the user to give dynamic, full-screen, full-motion video presentations with interleaved, synchronized, stereo audio. "The LTE 5000 is the ultimate business tool for mobile professionals who require a combination of top performance and configuration flexibility. With this announcement, we are back as a strong contender to take back the number one position in the notebook market," she said. An optional modular expansion base is also available with the machine. The base works with the LTE 5000 docked in the unit, and allows users to charge up to four battery packs at a time, access two additional hard drives, a CD-ROM drive and an additional floppy drive. The expansion base also includes two PCMCIA (Personal Computer Memory Card International Association) type II slots, an IRDA port, a MIDI/Games port, plus a dedicated space for an MPEG and TV video adapter option. Entry level pricing on the LTE 5000 is UKP 2,995. This is for the 75MHz system with a 510 megabyte drive. The six-strong range of machines tops out with the UKP 4,895 120MHz version with 1,350 megabyte hard drive. (Sylvia Dennis/19950925/Press Contact: Kate Alexander, Firefly +44- 171-381-4505; Internet Email: kalexand@firefly.co.uk; Reader Contact: Compaq +44-181-332-3000) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 09/29/95 ONLINE USENIX/LISA - Computer Security Is Not Enough (NEWS)(ONLINE)(SFO)(00020) USENIX/LISA - Computer Security Is Not Enough 09/29/95 MONTEREY, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1995 SEP 29 (NB) -- Via Clarinet. Even the best computer security in the world is not enough to protect the confidential data of the world's major corporations, according to Ira Winkler of Science Applications International Corp. Winkler spoke at a security highlights panel recently at the LISA 95 Systems administration conference, sponsored by USENIX (The Unix Users Association) and SAGE (The System Administrator's Guild). Systems are vulnerable to what Winkler termed "Social Engineering" attacks which penetrate more old-fashioned holes in corporate security to gain access to computer systems and other company secrets. Winkler's firm performs security audits for its clients. "Firms that spend hundreds of thousands of dollars on fancy network 'firewalls' are still vulnerable to social engineering attacks," said Winkler. Low-tech "social engineering" involves the use of plain old lying and clever detective work to take advantage of the trust most people have. For most employees, "They want to be helpful. It's their job." Direct attacks include dumpster diving to get confidential printouts and password sheets, or getting temporary jobs with companies or the janitorial or temporary worker systems they use. According to Winkler, most corporate offices are full of passwords stuck to computers or written in notebooks available to cleaning staff who were hired days ago. To prove how vulnerable most companies are, Winkler detailed a typical attack he had performed on a client. In this case, he and his associates were able to pierce company security without ever visiting company offices or logging on to company computers. Through the use of public information such as annual reports, Winkler's team identified the basic corporate structure and names of executives. They then called company insiders, pretending to be new employees asking for information on basic company procedures -- which the insiders naturally gave. Armed with the knowledge that ordering things internally at this firm required employee and department accounting numbers, they reversed roles, and pretended to be checking orders for things, extracting the needed numbers from a company executive. They then used this executive's numbers to order a company telephone directory to be shipped to them FedEx at the executive's expense. From this book and other sources they found the real goldmine they wanted -- lists of the newest hires at the company. New employees are a particular weak link in any firm. They don't know procedures and expect to get calls from people telling them how to do things or asking them questions. Unless they are given a Draconian security briefing and told to trust no one, new employees will answer almost any official sounding question. Low level employees are also vulnerable. "It'a amazing what somebody will tell you if you tell them you're checking arrangements for an overseas junket for them." In particular, new staff will usually answer a request from somebody claiming to be a computer system operator asking to confirm that they were set up with computer access, and asking them to read off the user ID and password they were given. Winkler's team was able to get to this stage from thousands of miles away in under 4 days. Once in with an insider's account and password, most systems have holes which can be exploited for more serious access -- something everybody at the LISA conference knew. In one other case Winkler related, employees had special access "smart cards" which display a constantly changing number known to the card and the central computer. These cards allow you to assure that the person logging in has the card, and thus is likely the authorized person. Winkler's staff were able to get employees to not only give their userid and password, but also to read off the current number from the security card, to "confirm that it's working." The number, good for a dozen seconds, could then let Winkler's team into the computers, defeating even this supposedly trustworthy system. Defences against such attacks are hard, says Winkler, and when asked whether companies which followed his recommendations were then safe, he was reluctant to answer yes. In the end, outside of spy agencies, people are far too trusting and willing to help. The LISA conference featured sessions on managing all aspects of large systems and large networks, which these days are usually based on the Unix operating system. Also covered were farther reaching topics such as electronic commerce, the history of the Arpanet and the Internet and the future of computing in the year 2000. USENIX can be reached at conference@usenix.org, or at http://www.usenix.org on the World Wide Web. (Brad Templeton and Clarinet/19950925) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 09/29/95 BUSINESS Computer Sciences Strategic Alliance With SAS (NEWS)(BUSINESS)(LAX)(00021) Computer Sciences Strategic Alliance With SAS 09/29/95 EL SEGUNDO, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1995 SEP 29 (NB) -- Computer Sciences Corp. (NYSE:CSC) announced a three-year strategic alliance with the SAS Institute, the nation's ninth largest independent software vendor. The alliance makes Computer Sciences (CSC) one of the SAS's major systems integration and consulting partners. With 1994 revenues of $482 million, SAS Institute Inc., based in Cary, North Carolina, claims to be the world's largest privately held independent software company. Computer Sciences had $3.6 billion in annual revenues for the 12 months ended June 30, 1995. The company has headquarters in El Segundo, and has 33,000 employees in 575 offices worldwide. Mary Rhodes, a spokesperson for Computer Sciences, told Newsbytes "We don't manufacture hardware or software. CSC provides clients with a wide range of professional services including management consulting, business re-engineering, information systems consulting and integration, and outsourcing. SAS manufactures software, and we will include their software in the range of services we offer." "SAS is an industry leader in the fast-growing software market of "data warehousing," which allows users to pull data from different parts of an organization, tapping various files, platforms and architectures. SAS software provides the analytical tools to help users combine data from these different sources, organizing it into a common format in one central location,"said Rhodes. "SAS Institute is a leader in enterprise-wide software solutions currently installed at 29,000 sites in 119 countries. Traditionally," Rhodes continues, "SAS has relied on its own direct-sales channels to handle consulting and implementation of its products. We will be SAS's first partner allowed to market their products." According to Van B. Honeycutt, CSC president and chief executive officer, the company's agreement with SAS broadens its consulting capabilities in the area of data storage and analysis, and gives it access to a new tier of clients. (Richard Bowers/19950900/Press Contact: Mary Rhodes, Computer Sciences, 310-615-0311 ) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 09/29/95 ONLINE AP, Weekly World News Now On America Online (NEWS)(ONLINE)(MSP)(00022) AP, Weekly World News Now On America Online 09/29/95 VIENNA, VIRGINIA, U.S.A., 1995 SEP 29 (NB) -- The latest happenings at the O.J. Simpson double murder trial, and "coverage" of Bigfoot being shot and killed in Montana are just two of the diverse stories that are being covered by America Online's (NASDAQ:AMER) (AOL) new media partners. The online service said the Associated Press (AP) wire service and the Weekly World News supermarket tabloid are now available to its subscribers. AP will be contributing news photos and multimedia sports information to AOL, Judy Tashbook, AOL spokesperson, told Newsbytes. In the "News" section of the service, the top news stories of the day from sources like Reuters will now have AP photos and captions to accompany the story text, Tashbook said. In addition, AP will produce sports stories and photos from the service's recently announced multimedia sports service "AP MegaSports." Hundreds of sports stories, capsules, round-ups, sports briefs, and sports photos from AP can be accessed by AOL subscribers. AP's sports content will be available through AOL's Sports Channel, which can be reached by typing Keyword: Sports, and hitting the "Sports News" button. On the other side of the news spectrum, screaming headlines like "Nostradamus Predicts Worst Storms In US History" and "Statue of Angel Found in Moon Rock" will now enchant AOL surfers when they access the new Weekly World News area. An AOL news release put the News' content contribution like this: "Weekly World News will combine the raw energy of its newspaper with the interactive power of AOL to create an electronic environment packed with drama, humor, advice, inspiration, and pure shock value." Tashbook said the fact that both the Associated Press and Weekly World News are joining AOL just shows the diversity of content offerings provided by the online service, "Just like the Congressional Record existing side by side with the New Republic, or The Weekly World News with @Times (an online offering from the New York Times), both reside and happily co-exist in the AOL Newsstand." Ted Leonsis, president of America Online Service Company, said in a prepared statement, "Now, (AOL members) can read those scandalous stories they've been missing all these years. We think this romping journalistic entertainment will be a fun counterpoint to the comprehensive news we offer on AOL." What's more, the Weekly World News is going to keep expanding into electronic entertainment, with the premiere of "Weekly World News On Television." The program is scheduled to debut on cable TV's USA Network in January 1996, a spokesperson said. (Bob Woods/19950928/Press Contacts: Judy Tashbook, America Online, 703-918-1452; Julie Denny, Associated Press, 800-AP-Call-1. Public Contact: America Online, 800-827-6364) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 09/29/95 ONLINE Microsoft, Paramount Launch Star Trek On Microsoft Network (NEWS)(ONLINE)(DEN)(00023) Microsoft, Paramount Launch Star Trek On Microsoft Network 09/29/95 REDMOND, WASHINGTON, U.S.A., 1995 SEP 29 (NB) -- The starship "Enterprise" will soon fly again, this time in the vacuum of Internet space, thanks to a partnership between Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ: MSFT) and Paramount Television. The deal will also let you re-play your favorite Entertainment Tonight shows. Microsoft said this week it will show exclusive content from Paramount's "Star Trek" and "Entertainment Tonight" properties on the Microsoft Network (MSN) online service. The Star Trek site will include episodes from the original TV series "Star Trek" as well as from "Star Trek: The Next Generation," "Star Trek: Deep Space Nine" and "Star Trek: Voyager." Paramount Television is the main production unit of entertainment company Viacom Inc. Microsoft said Star Trek episodes and Entertainment Tonight properties will be available at three sites on MSN beginning in January 1996. The deal gives the software company another way to find new customers for its recently launched online service. MSN is competing with established online offerings like America Online, Compuserve, GEnie and Prodigy. There are numerous sites on the Internet where Trekkies can re-visit the crew of the Enterprise and re-live the adventures of Jim Scotty, Bones and Uhuru as well as newer additions to the crew, but Paramount stressed that the deal with Microsoft will provide exclusive and original material that Star Trek fans can't get elsewhere on the Web. The alliance will also offer chat groups for the show's fans to discuss the programs. In addition to the Star Trek and Entertainment Tonight episodes the Star Trek sites will include "Starfleet Academy" where online users can earn rank and access some exclusive content areas. Users will be able to access historical information on Star Trek episodes as well as information about the characters, the actors, aliens, technology and other material. There will also be advance information on television shows, motion pictures and books will be offered. The original 79 episodes of Star Trek aired from 1966 to 1969 and have a broad cult following that includes annual conventions where many fans appear costumed as their favorite characters. There has been seven Star Trek motion pictures for the big screen that were later released for the home video market. A $2 billion retail market has sprung up for Star Trek brand toys, collectibles and other products and there are more than 250 official licensees producing Star Trek items. An eighth Star Trek movie is currently in development. Entertainment tonight is currently in its 15th season as a syndicated magazine format show. Paramount and Microsoft said they will also develop a third Internet site on MSN with as-yet unannounced content. Paramount operates a home page on the Internet at the Uniform Resource Locator (URL) http://www.paramount.com and users will be able to preview the new areas on MSN by dialing into the Paramount site. There will be hot links from the Paramount site that will let MSN members jump to the Star Trek and Entertainment Tonight areas on MSN. The two companies said the partnership could eventually include three-dimensional navigational features, multiplayer games, full-motion video clips, animation, live interviews and online shopping. (Jim Mallory/19950928/Press contact: June Peters, Waggener Edstrom for Microsoft, 206-637-9097 or John Wentworth, Paramount, 213-956-5965; Public contact: Microsoft, 206-882-8080 or 800-426-9400) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 09/29/95 BROADCAST UK - BBC Inaugurates World's First Digital Radio System (NEWS)(BROADCAST)(LON)(00024) UK - BBC Inaugurates World's First Digital Radio System 09/29/95 LONDON, ENGLAND, 1995 SEP 29 (NB) -- The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) has announced the availability of digital radio in the London area, and unveiled plans to roll the service out progressively across the UK over the next five years. The move means that the BBS is the first broadcaster to actively support and start its own digital radio system. The bad news is that, as yet, there are no digital radios in the stores, nor will there be at least until the end of next year. Until then, customers with around $3,000 to spend on a radio will have to order a radio through the BBC, from one of a small number of manufacturers, where it will be built to order. That's for a home hi-fi radio of course. Build-to-order radios for cars have the console in the fascia of the car where an ordinary analog radio would go, while the receiver/decoder is so big it has to be installed in the trunk. Despite these minor new technology problems, the BBC is upbeat on the prospects for digital radio, which uses the same VHF/FM radio spectrum used by existing analog radio. The advantage of digital radio, the BBC claims, is that the system negates the effect of fading seen in normal car radios and also offers very clear and hi-fi fidelity (to CD audio standards) signals. Announcing the BBC digital radio net, Elizabeth Forgan, BBC Radio Network's managing director, dismissed press criticism that the BBC was launching its digital radio net far too early, and said that, by offering the world's first digital radio net, the BBC was pushing forward the frontiers of radio technology. "It's the dawn of the third age of radio, the technological progression from AM -- now 100 years old -- and FM -- now 50 years old -- into the digital and multimedia world of the 21st Century," she said. According to Forgan, like the digital TV services, digital radio makes far more efficient use of the available radio spectrum, which is becoming fairly crowded in most major cities in the UK, as more and more local stations arrive on the scene. The digital radio service also supports text and data services, which can be broadcast alongside the audio element of the signals. Plans call for the BBC to boost reception of the new digital service from the current 20 percent to around 60 percent over the next three years, powering up another 22 transmitters to service the population. Despite the high price and limited broadcasting area, Forgan claims that the BBC will stimulate demand for the receivers and so get the price down over the next year. "We are at an introductory stage and consumer sets will not be in the shops for two years," she explained. (Sylvia Dennis/19950928/Press & Reader Contact: BBC +44-171-580-4468) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 09/29/95 TELECOM ****MCI Becomes World's Fastest Telecom Network (NEWS)(TELECOM)(MSP)(00025) ****MCI Becomes World's Fastest Telecom Network 09/29/95 DALLAS, TEXAS, U.S.A., 1995 SEP 29 (NB) -- MCI Inc. (NASDAQ:MCIC) said it is now the "fastest telecommunications company in the world," because it has deployed technology that lets it transmit information across its digital network at a speed of 10 gigabits, or 10 billion bits of information per second. The 10-gigabit traffic, which MCI says is four times faster than its nearest competitors, is initially being carried along a 125-mile stretch of MCI's network between Dallas and Longview, Texas. It uses Northern Telecom's Transport Node OC-192 transmission system, marking the first time the system has been successfully deployed in a commercial telecommunications network, MCI officials said. With data speeding along at 10 billion bits per second, big businesses, technology-related companies, health care concerns, or other companies needing that kind of speed will be the big winners, Leslie Aun, MCI spokesperson, told Newsbytes. "For your average person using the telephone, it's not going to make a big difference, because our existing phone lines give us real-time conversational capabilities," she said. "But let's say you're a hospital, and you're trying to do telemedicine imaging, it's going to enable you to transmit information, like the results of tests, much more quickly, instead of waiting hours to download the information." Other areas expected to be impacted by this new technology include interactive multimedia and teleconferencing. Aun said the "jerky, ghost" images in teleconferencing would be diminished, and customers will get a "much more real-time" image. MCI officials said the 10 gigabit speeds allow for the simultaneous transmission of 1,600 channels of premium quality video in teleconferencing. MCI's future plans call for jacking up the speed to 40 gigabits of capacity in the next two to three years, leveraging existing technology to the maximum without having to spend more money by laying new fiber optic routes. At 40 gigabits, the entire US mail list of names and addresses can be transmitted from New York to Los Angeles in about four seconds, officials said. (Bob Woods/19950927/Press Contacts: Jim Collins or Leslie Aun, MCI, 800-719-3456; Shelly Grandy, Nortel, 905-238-7434) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 09/29/95 GENERAL Anaheim, Dallas Featuring ComputerMania (NEWS)(GENERAL)(LAX)(00026) Anaheim, Dallas Featuring ComputerMania 09/29/95 FOSTER CITY, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1995 SEP 29 (NB) -- ComputerMania, a new series of hands-on interactive shows by Softbank, will give consumers their first glimpse of the home computer products available this holiday season. More than 75 companies will be demonstrating hardware and software as ComputerMania stops at the Anaheim Convention Center (September 29-October 1, 1995) and Dallas Infomart (October 13-15, 1995). Celia Canfield, sales director for the ComputerMania shows, told Newsbytes, "ComputerMania, produced by Softbank Exposition, with Ziff-Davis Publishing, Microsoft Home and Hewlett-Packard as lead sponsors, targets home computing enthusiasts. The show is intended to offer hands-on interactive displays at each of its exhibits. It will offer consumers something they seldom get to do and that is to try out the products, and see them in action before they buy." "These shows will start in Anaheim, but we intend to take them throughout the United States during 1996. Very few consumer shows have been national in scope, but ComputerMania intends to cover the country in a continuing series of events," said Canfield. Interactive Learning Zones will ring the exhibits at each event, with 12 different stages offering a total of 96 opportunities each day for attendees to get tips, ideas and recommendations by editors and contributors, well-known authors, and experts in all aspects of home computing. Some of the products in the show include: Newsweek's new-media projects include Newsweek Interactive online service; Broderbund Software's In The 1st Degree is a compelling legal game; Berkeley Systems' You Don't Know Jack, an interactive pop-culture quiz show game; Virgin Sound and Vision's Get Ready for School, Charlie Brown! features the original voices of the entire Peanuts gang; and Putt-Putt Saves the Zoo, by Humongous Entertainment featuring more than 25,000 frames of animation. ComputerMania is a part of the family of hands-on trade shows produced by Softbank Exposition and Conference Company. These events begin with educational conferences, and the event's impact is extended year-round with a collection of newsletters and online events. Softbank events include NetWorld+Interop, Seybold Seminars, Digital World, Windows Solutions and now ComputerMania. (Richard Bowers/19950927/Press Contact: Kathleen Burke, Softbank, 415-578-6963) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 09/29/95 TELECOM Big Pentagon Telecom Procurement Coming (NEWS)(TELECOM)(WAS)(00027) Big Pentagon Telecom Procurement Coming 09/29/95 WASHINGTON, D.C., U.S.A., 1994 SEP 29 (NB) -- Major telecommunications companies are working on bids for a Pentagon contract known as the "mega-network" and one of the biggest telecommunications projects ever. The multi-billion dollar contract will consolidate military voice, data and video linkages worldwide in a major upgrade of the Defense Information Systems Network (DISN). AT&T manages the current telecommunications network for the Defense Department. Its 10-year-old contract expires next year and AT&T will be a bidder for the new contract. But no one will have a leg up, Defense Information Systems Agency spokeswoman Betsy McDonald told Newsbytes. The competition will be on an "open playing field," she said. The new contract could be worth $360 million a year for up to 20 years, so it will be a big prize for the winner. DOD issued the requests for proposal on August 31. It is designed first to lnk all military facilities in the US, and later, all those overseas as well. A Pentagon committee earlier this year described the mission of the DISN. "The DOD's worldwide protected network must allow warfighters to plug-and an push or pull information in a seamless, interoperable and global battlespace," said the committee. Proposals for the network are due at the Pentagon on October 31. The contract should be awarded next year and work should begin next summer, according to the Pentagon. (Kennedy Maize/19950928/Press Contact: Betsy McDonald, 703-607-6048) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 09/29/95 ONLINE ****CompuServe To Debut Online Ads (NEWS)(ONLINE)(SFO)(00028) ****CompuServe To Debut Online Ads 09/29/95 COLUMBUS, OHIO, U.S.A., 1995 SEP 29 (NB) -- When version 2.0 of CompuServe's Windows CompuServe Information Manager (WINCIM), is installed on subscribers' computers, CompuServe will begin its first paid advertisements online. Promised to be unobtrusive and value-added, the ads are being sold from $2,500 to $20,000. Jeff Shafer, CompuServe spokesperson, told Newsbytes, "We expect to ship WINCIM version 2.0 during the middle of October. We have been very careful to introduce advertising in a way which our members will not find it offensive. Actually, we encourage advertisers to create value through their ads." Newsbytes learned one of the first advertisers is American Airlines. Using them as an example, Shafer said, "Typically, American Airlines will offer special listings of discounted flights or perhaps a special coupon which subscribers will want to have. Since the ads are selected by the user, it is important to offer them a real value and incentive for opening the advertising area." For the advertisers, CompuServe says this is an opportunity to deliver an image of the company or products from the company to a very defined audience. Over the years, online services have gathered very detailed statistical profiles of its users and their habits. "Being able to define an audience allows an advertiser to customize its message in a most effective manner," said Shafer. When users sign on the service and select one of the 16 categories listed in the new version of the software, a small icon or button at the bottom will indicate an ad from a specific company. By clicking on the ad, a subscriber will open the advertiser's area which is completely designed by each company. Advertisers will be able to incorporate hyperlinks to the World Wide Web. Shafer also said the introduction of advertising will help to control the monthly and hourly charges incurred by members. Until now, advertising has been limited to CompuServe's Electronic Mall. The advertising will also be incorporated into CompuServe's World Wide Web site. (Patrick McKenna/19950929/Press Contact: Jeff Shafer, tel 614-538- 4632) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 09/29/95 EDITORIAL APPLE Editorial - Apple Faces Tough Times (EDITORIAL)(APPLE)(WAS)(00029) Editorial - Apple Faces Tough Times 09/29/95 WASHINGTON, D.C., U.S.A., 1995 SEP 29 (NB) -- By Kennedy Maize. Apple Computer is facing the most perilous time in its corporate history. It's a reasonable bet that, this time next year, there won't be an Apple as a free-standing company. Makers of really fine computers, with an operating system that has been far in advance of its competition in the PC world for years, Apple continues to see its market share erode. Today, the Cupertino titan's slice of the pie has dropped to around eight percent. That's not enough to sustain critical mass. The company has also been shooting itself in the foot. It misjudged how many Power PC chips it would need and now its customers face backlogs. It has orphaned systems repeatedly. The company is telling financial analysts its next quarterly results won't be up to expectations. The stock is sliding downward. And then comes Windows 95. Bill Gates may finally have the Apple eater he's been looking for. Yes, yes, Apple got there first. But that doesn't matter to new users. Windows 95 has enough of the ease and elegance of the Apple OS to overcome what has traditionally been the best reason to buy an Apple. Apple founder Steve Wozniak wrote recently in an e-mail to Hotwired (http://www.hotwired.com ) that Apple's biggest mistake was when the company sued Microsoft over Windows 3.0, alleging theft of its look and feel. Instead, Wozniak said, Apple should have licensed the system software to Gates for 25 cents. Wozniak is right. That would have meant that Microsoft would have used the Apple OS, and all the great software that got written for DOS and Windows would have been written for the Macintosh instead. Software is the real reason to buy a computer, and there is no doubt that the richness of the software available for the Microsoft systems is a major reason to go that direction. Apple is dying on rootstock that is not watered by adequate software. Even a great OS is not enough to overcome that. After all, most users work from within their application and could care less about system software. Ask yourself this question, and be honest about the answer: If you were a software publisher, responsible for a dozen or so folks who depend on you for their paycheck, would you write for the Windows environment or for the Mac? So Apple will have to increasingly seek out niche markets, such as Web servers, or find new markets, such as its so-far failed Newton. And Apple becomes a takeover candidate of major proportions. (Kennedy Maize/19950919) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 09/29/95 GENERAL China - Technology Newsbriefs (NEWS)(GENERAL)(PEK)(00030) China - Technology Newsbriefs 09/29/95 BEIJING, CHINA, 1995 SEP 29 (NB) -- In the technology news roundup from China, US-based Maxtor expects 15 percent of hard disk drive market, Shaanxi's Intellectual Property Right Exchange Market starts operation, Hebei province plans to promote more electronics production, and the electronics industry soars in Shenyang city of Liaoning Province. Maxtor Expects 15 Percent Share of Hard Disk Drive Market As a late comer, US-based Maxtor is edging into China's hard disk drive market and expects a 15 to 20 percent market share in 1995, the company said. Through its two representatives in China, the company is currently promoting its 270 to 850 MB hard disk drives, and the next step will be promoting its 1600 MB products. Although late, Maxtor believes it is still in time to enter the huge Chinese market, a manager with Maxtor said. Shaanxi Opens Intellectual Property Right Exchange A provincial Intellectual Property Right Exchange Market began operation recently in Shaanxi Province in West China. The market, the first of this kind in China, is overseen by the Shaanxi Administration for Industry and Commerce. It will serve as an intermediate agency in China's fledgling copyright industry. Its major business is to purchase and sell trademarks, patents, and other intellectual products. Hebei Province Plans More Electronics Production The electronics industry in Hebei Province reported a 30 percent increase in total production output over the same period last year. Sales recorded a 41 percent increase in the period. However, pre-tax profits are estimated to grow only 15 percent. For the second half of this year, the province projects that total production value of its electronics industry will grow at a rate of 12 percent. Electronics industry Soars in Shenyang of Liaoning Province During the first half of this year, the electronics industry in Shenyang City of Northeast China's Liaoning Province registered a 38.95 percent increase in general production over the same period last year. Pre-tax profits increased by 171 percent with the total sales volume up 26.93 percent. The fast increase was attributed to the city's efforts to attract more overseas investment in high-tech sectors, and to the improvement in management in electronic enterprises. (Chih-Ho Yu & Ning Huang/19950910) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 09/29/95 GOVT US Continues Visa Restrictions to Indian SW Professionals (NEWS)(GOVT)(DEL)(00031) US Continues Visa Restrictions to Indian SW Professionals 09/29/95 NEW DELHI, INDIA, 1995 SEP 29 (NB) -- The Indian Government's inability to pin down the US on its move to ban free movement of software professionals has made it possible for the latter to impose visa restrictions, thereby circumventing the concessions gained by India on the movement of India's citizens under WTO, according to commerce ministry officials in the country. This situation has come about because the US is using its immigration laws to reject H-1 visas to software professionals, even while it is taking the official stance that no barriers have been erected on the free movement of "genuine business travellers." Most of the H-1 applications at present are being rejected by Washington primarily on the grounds that they represent "potential immigrants." Nasscom, the country's apex software industry organization has been taking up the matter where it feels that the rejections are unjustified, according to commerce ministry sources, since there are no set parameters to differentiate between the so-called "genuine business travellers" and "potential immigrants." (C. T. Mahahbharat/19950929) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 09/29/95 WINDOWS Vendors Announces Windows NT Telephony API Support (NEWS)(WINDOWS)(DEN)(00032) Vendors Announces Windows NT Telephony API Support 09/29/95 ATLANTA, GEORGIA, U.S.A., 1995 SEP 29 (NB) -- More than a dozen telephone switching and voice processing equipment companies have jumped on the Microsoft Windows NT Telephony API (Application Programming Interface) bandwagon, announcing support for the telecommunications technology. The TAPI allows Windows NT to function as a telephony client or a telephony server for uses such as application servers for PBX telephone systems, call center and automatic call distribution systems, interactive voice response servers, voice messaging and other communications applications. TAPI works with cellular networks, ISDN and analog circuits. "It will not be long before every PC will have a built-in speaker phone," according to Charles Fitzgerald, product manager in the Personal Systems Division at Microsoft. Fitzgerald made his remark at a four-day "bake-off" in July where 45 different companies testing telephony products based on Windows TAPI. Companies announcing plans to support TAPI on Windows NT include Comdial Enterprise Systems, Dialogic Corp., Digital Systems International Inc., Ericsson Business Networks AB, Executone Information Systems Inc., Fujitsu, GPT Limited, Incite, Matra Communication, Mitel Corp., Natural MicroSystems, NEC, Northern Telecom, Panasonic, Rockwell and Toshiba. The companies said they will provide drivers that allow TAPI applications to integrate with their telephone switching and/or voice processing systems. Most of the companies already provide TAPI drivers that work with Windows 3.1 and/or Windows 95 and all are participants in the early beta program for TAPI on Windows NT. Microsoft said the TAPI architecture will let customers move their telecommunications applications off expensive, single-function servers and integrate their telecommunications systems with both client and server-based computer applications. Users can expect applications that include visual call control, smart answering machines, call screening and forwarding, voice commands at the desktop and from remote locations, message integration of telephone, e-mail and faxes, and videoconferencing. Microsoft defines TAPI as a specification to bridge the gap between the telephone and the computer by helping the PC to understand how telephone networks work and to let programmers exploit network capabilities within Windows-based applications. (Jim Mallory/19950929/Press contact: Delona Lang, Waggener Edstrom for Microsoft, 503-873-2404; Public contact: Microsoft, 206-882-8080 or 800-426-9400) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 09/29/95 BUSINESS Advantage Memory And Memory International Merge (NEWS)(BUSINESS)(SFO)(00033) Advantage Memory And Memory International Merge 09/29/95 IRVINE, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1995 SEP 29 (NB) -- Advantage Memory and Memory International, both suppliers of memory and PC cards to the computer industry, have agreed to a $70 million merger. Citing a boom in their memory business, the two companies say this is the time to leverage their combined strengths and business relationships. John Harriman, president of Advantage Memory, told Newsbytes, "The two companies have been working out of the same complex for years and we have had a long standing relationship." Harriman has actually been friends with Memory International's chief executive officer, Dave Reed, since the two were in high school. Is Windows 95 causing an effect on the memory business? Harriman said, "It is a most dramatic influence. People are moving from 4 megabytes (MB) of memory to 8MB memory and in a lot of cases from 8MB to 16MB. We are also seeing a demand for memory on both the Windows and Macintosh-based computers. The entertainment, graphics and pharmaceutical industries are also propelling the demand for memory. The books for both companies show the powerful demand for memory over the past three years. Annual revenues for Advantage Memory grew from $600,000 in 1991 to $27 million in 1994. During the same period, Memory International's revenues grew from $1.5 million to $23 million. The combined corporate entity will use the Advantage Memory name and display the Memory International logo. Riding on what is now the time of greatest demand, the two companies say the merger does not mean any personnel layoffs. The new company plans to hire additional staff during 1995. The fiscal year for the two companies ends in October and they predict combined revenues of $70 million. John Harriman is now president of the new Advantage Memory Corporation and Dave Reed is chief executive officer. Rob Reed, formerly president of Memory International, is the new executive vice president of Advantage. (Patrick McKenna/19950929/Press Contact: Jennifer Levine, Marketing Works, tel 714-489-5707; /ADVANTAGE950929/PHOTO) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 09/29/95 IBM More On Lotus's NotesPump Database Integration Tool (NEWS)(IBM)(BOS)(00034) More On Lotus's NotesPump Database Integration Tool 09/29/95 CAMBRIDGE, MASSACHUSETTS, U.S.A., 1995 SEP 29 (NB) -- Lotus's newly rolled out NotesPump tool for Notes/RDBMS (relational database management system) integration reflects plans by Lotus to expand Notes' customer base from a current level of 2 million users to 20 million users, a ten-fold growth rate that will benefit Lotus's partners in addition to Lotus, maintained Tim Dempsey, Lotus's director of Notes marketing, in an interview with Newsbytes. Dempsey told Newsbytes that Lotus's NotesPump will allow for two- way integration between RDBMS (relational database management systems), for "data processing," and the "document database, secure messaging, replication, and rich application development environment" capabilities of Notes. Lotus's new bi-directional database integration tool, which is slated to ship within the next 30 days. will initially include the NotesPump engine and modules for Notes, ODBC (Open Database Connectivity), and either Oracle or Sybase, with an integrated management application that runs on a client workstation. In addition, Lotus expects to ship a trio of APIs (application programming interfaces) to ISVs (independent software developers), probably in the first quarter of next year, Dempsey said. The APIs are intended to spur development of new third-party applications to support NotesPump. Several of Lotus's third-party partners now produce tools that overlap NotesPump's capabilities, the Lotus exec acknowledged. "But our strategic direction is to add functionality to our product line," he asserted. Lotus, he added, will continue to provide the same level of co-marketing support to third-party tools. "The great majority of new Notes business is led by our partners." But the combined elements of Lotus's current campaign to multiply the Notes customer base by a factor of ten will create "huge demand for our partners' products," according to the Notes marketing director. The new NotesPump, he contended, offers "pricing head room" between database integration tools from Lotus partners. NotesPump is also tightly integrated with "the Notes server, NotesView, and the Notes application development environment," Newsbytes was told. NotesView allows SNMP (Simple Network Management Protocol) administration of NotesPump. NotesPump's server operations monitor data exchange activities between Notes and the RDBMS to "automatically reinitiate" data exchange in case of server or database connection failure, according to Dempsey. The administrator receives status notification through Notes mail. Administrators can add new database components without stopping or starting NotesPump. NotesPump also allows for automatic scheduling of data exchange at selected times or days, Dempsey pointed out. Different data exchange activities can be scheduled to run as dependent processes. Supported data exchange activities include replication, polling for specific conditions for initiating data transfer (such as "when a loan over a certain dollar amount is requested," in the case of a bank); and direct transfer, including SQL (structured query language) and Notes formulas. NotesPump also features tunable load balancing, in which the administrator can determine which jobs will by run by which machine. For example, the Oracle database driver might be used for array processing, and the Sybase driver for bulk transfers. The three upcoming APIs for NotesPump include the Database Link API, for adding other database interfaces beyond Notes, Oracle, Sybase, and ODBC; a second API for adding data processing functions to data exchange; and a third for embedding control of activities in outside applications as well as for adding new front ends to NotesPump. NotesPump will initially support OS/2 and Windows NT. In the future, Lotus will add support for the HP-UX platform, as well as for IBM's DB2 family of RDBMS, according to Dempsey. NotesPump is priced at $7,995 for the NotesPump engine and modules for Notes, ODBC, and either Oracle or Sybase. Additional modules will be priced at $1,995. NotesPump OS/2 servers require Lotus Notes Release 3 client or server edition. NotesPump Windows NT servers use the Notes server edition only. NotesPump Administrator requires a Notes client edition. (Jacqueline Emigh/19950929/Reader Contact: Lotus Development Corp., 617-577-8500; Press Contact: Suzanne Diaz or Susan Kwon, Lois Paul & Partners for Lotus, 617-862-4514) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 09/29/95 ONLINE Germany's Vebacom To Take Stake In Europe Online (NEWS)(ONLINE)(LON)(00035) Germany's Vebacom To Take Stake In Europe Online 09/29/95 DUSSELDORF, GERMANY, 1995 SEP 29 (NB) -- After several weeks of rumors, Vebacom has announced it plans to take up to a 10 percent stake in Europe Online, the yet-to-launch pan-European online service. According to Ulf Bohla, Vebacom's chairman, the company is discussing the possibility of taking a stake in the online venture with the existing shareholders of company. According to German media reports, two main shareholders in Europe Online -- Pearson in the UK and Matra Hatchette in France -- will reduce their shares to allow Vebacom to come on board. Vebacom itself is a joint venture between Cable & Wireless and Veba, the German technology company. The telecoms company is the main competitor to Deutsche Telekom and is fast establishing itself as a force to be reckoned with by rapidly expanding its cable telephony operations across Germany. Newsbytes notes that, during the summer, overtures were rumored between European Online and Deutsche Telekom. On investigation, this bureau concluded that the reports were simply reports of early discussions and that nothing resulted. The move by Vebacom confirms those findings. The move by Vebacom comes at a time when the European Commission (EC) has announced it is holding a routine investigation into Europe Online, as to whether the project breaches anti-competitive guidelines set out by the EC's Treaty of Rome. Although by no means cut and dried, a Vebacom linkup would go a long way towards meeting any anti- competitive worries that the EC might have over the Europe Online project. Although no one is talking about a share shuffle, even with Vebacom buying into the project, it seems possible that Pearson and Matra- Hatchette may reduce their stake by more than the 10 percent needed to allow Vebacom into the fold, possibly to allow other shareholders, which include the German publishing companies of Axel Springer Verlag and Burda Verlag, to increase their stake in the project. The addition of Vebacom will allow European Online to offer its services across Germany. Previously, critics of the project had suggested that the project would only be available in the UK and France, owing to Cable & Wireless' interests in those countries. The solidifying of Europe Online means that the other three main players in the pan-European online marketplace, America Online (a joint venture between AOL in the US and Bertelsmann of Germany), CompuServe and Microsoft Network, will have to make way for a serious fourth contender, Newsbytes notes. (Steve Gold/19950929/Press & Reader Contact: Vebacom +49-211-45790; Fax +49-211-4579-599) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 09/29/95 IBM IBM To Make PCs In Czech Republic Under License (NEWS)(IBM)(LON)(00036) IBM To Make PCs In Czech Republic Under License 09/29/95 PRAGUE, CZECH REPUBLIC, 1995 SEP 29 (NB) -- IBM Europe has announced plans to start manufacturing its PCs in Prague, in the Czech Republic, in order to meet rising demand for hardware in Central and Eastern Europe. IBM is sub-contracting the assembly of the PC100 and PC300 series of computers to Elko Holdings, a company that already supplies PC from Big Blue, as well as other vendors, into the Czech Republic. Initially, the company will use parts supplied from IBM Europe in Paris, but plans are in hand to manufacture the parts more locally. Making PCs behind the former Iron Curtain has a number of advantages for Big Blue, not least in tax and transport terms. The main advantage for the immediate future is that it gets round the problem of exporting the resultant profits from the sale of IBM PCs into Eastern Europe from those countries which do not have a free foreign exchange system. The Czech Republic, in contrast, is very much a switching point for such currencies. Money from, say, Russia and Hungary, can be routed to the Czech Republic far easier than, for example, to the US. In Prague, the money can be used to fund local manufacture of PC hardware, rather than routing the money onwards to the West. Announcing the deal with Elko, Jan Dohnal, IBM's Czech operations director, said that the primary aim of the deal is to move the final stage of production much closer to the customer. This will, he told journalists, allow the company to offer supply-to-order purchases, rather than offer customers a series of pre-configured systems, on a 48-hour response basis. The deal is quite remarkable for IBM, since it marks the first time that Big Blue's machines have been produced on the continent of Europe. To date, IBM's PCs have only been manufactured at the Greenock plant in Scotland. According to Dohnal, Elko will assemble around 500 PCs for the first few months, rising to 1,000 early in the new year and up to 1,500 units by the spring. The resultant machines will be sold through approved outlets in the Czech and Slovak Republics, as well as into Bulgaria, where Elko already handles IBM PCs. This Newsbytes bureau first came across Elko at the Cebit Computer Faire in Germany this spring. The company, which is well-known as a distributor in the German markets, is a licensed distributor for products from Hewlett-Packard. Microsoft, Cherry, Teac, Nashua, Genius, Epson, Hercules, Samsung, Western Digital, Novell, Syquest, NEC, Quantum, Maxtor, Seagate, Iomega and Colorado products. (Sylvia Dennis/19950929/Press & Reader Contact: Elko +49-941-463110; Fax +49-941-400060) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 09/29/95 GENERAL Personnel Roundup (NEWS)(GENERAL)(MSP)(00037) Personnel Roundup 09/29/95 MINNEAPOLIS, MINNESOTA, U.S.A., 1995 SEP 29 (NB) -- This is a regular feature, summarizing personnel changes not covered elsewhere by Newsbytes: Cable & Wireless Inc., Capital Cities/ABC Inc., Spectrum HoloByte Inc., Level One Communications Inc., Lotus Development Corp., General Magic Inc., Databook Inc., AT&T New Media Services, US West Interactive Services Group, Microsoft Corp., Open Software Foundation, and Netcom On-Line Communication Services Inc. Joseph A. Basile, Jr. has been named chief operating officer (COO) of Cable & Wireless, Inc (703-734-4534). Basile (39), previously held the position of senior vice president, network and systems operations for the firm. Basile joined Cable & Wireless in 1991 as senior vice president, system services. Capital Cities/ABC Inc. (NYSE: CCB - 212-456-6171) and Spectrum HoloByte Inc. (Nasdaq: SBYT - 510-814-6336), announced the appointment of Deborah Cheek-Wahler as general manager of the previously announced joint venture company formed to develop and produce interactive game software for personal computers and video game machines, using the ABC Sports brand. Cheek-Wahler, 41, will head the company. Most recently, Cheek-Wahler was the vice president, Marketing for MicroProse, a subsidiary of Spectrum HoloByte. Level One Communications Inc. (Nasdaq: LEVL - 916-855-5000) has announced that John Kehoe, 49, has been named vice president of finance and administration and chief financial officer. Most recently Kehoe was senior vice president and chief financial officer of Focus Surgery, a pioneer in high intensity focused ultrasound technology based in Fremont, California. Jeffrey R. Beir has been promoted to senior vice president of Lotus Development Corp.'s (617-693-1284) desktop business group. Beir succeeds Ilene Lang, who resigned last week for personal reasons. Beir, most recently vice president of development for new application technologies, will be responsible for all desktop development and marketing. Robert Kelsch has been named chief COO and executive vice president of General Magic Inc. (Nasdaq: GMGC - 408-774-4040). Kelsch, 49, will be responsible for setting General Magic's overall product strategy and managing day-to-day business operations. He will oversee the company's three newly formed divisions: the Magic Cap Division; the Telescript Division; and the Worldwide Field Operations Division. David Moreno has been named vice president of engineering for Databook Inc. (508-762-9779). In his new role, his responsibilities will include managing all aspects of engineering development and manufacturing, and guiding the future direction of the company in the PCMCIA (Personal Computer Memory Card International Association) industry. Moreno most recently held the position of vice president of product development for Software House. AT&T has announced that it has established an AT&T New Media Services (617-252-5211) unit in Cambridge, Mass., and named Michael E. Kolowich to be its president. The unit will create a series of AT&T-branded information services, targeted primarily at business and professional markets. Kolowich has been president of AT&T Interchange Online Network Services. Kolowich was founder of Ziff-Davis Interactive and PC/Computing magazine. Larry Levine has been named vice president of Content for US West Interactive Services Group (303-784-2572). Levine has been vice president and general manager of US West Communications Broadband and Multimedia Services Group since January, 1994. In his new role, Levine will be responsible for working with US West Communications Group and with US West Media Group to determine domestic and international cable programming needs, develop and implement a worldwide content strategy, and cultivate strategic content relationships for US West. Microsoft Corp. (Nasdaq: MSFT - 503-245-0905) has appointed Peter Neupert and Russell Siegelman to vice president. Neupert becomes vice president of strategic partnerships in the applications and content group and Siegelman becomes vice president of The Microsoft Network division. Neupert's previous positions at Microsoft included managing the international product development strategy for the worldwide products division, and business operations and product development for Microsoft's Far East region. Siegelman, 33, was responsible for the development in just two years of The Microsoft Network. Prior to forming the MSN division, Siegelman worked on Microsoft's networking strategy and as a product manager for the Microsoft Windows operating system in the personal systems division. He joined the company in 1989. The Open Software Foundation (617-621-7246) has announced that Dr. James R. Bell has been named as the interim president and chief executive officer. Bell succeeds David Tory who recently stepped down after seven years in the role. Dr. Bell is on sabbatical from his current position as director of Open Systems Alliances for Hewlett-Packard (HP). He is responsible for coordinating HP's strategic relationships and standards activities, particularly in the area of open systems. Netcom On-Line Communication Services Inc. (Nasdaq: NETC - 408-556-3211) has announced the addition of Eric V. Goffney as senior vice president of Customer Support. Goffney will report to David W. Garrison, president and CEO for Netcom. Most recently, Goffney has been director of support services for Lotus Development's cc:Mail division. (Ian Stokell/19950929) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 09/29/95 ONLINE Microsoft Releases Beta of Explorer 2.0 Browser (NEWS)(ONLINE)(DEN)(00038) Microsoft Releases Beta of Explorer 2.0 Browser 09/29/95 REDMOND, WASHINGTON, U.S.A., 1995 SEP 29 (NB) -- Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ: MSFT) has announced it has released a beta version of the Microsoft Internet Explorer, version 2.0., the newest version of its Internet browser for the Windows 95 user interface and operating system. Microsoft said the new release adds features like support for secure transactions, tables, multimedia and 3-D graphics. It also supports HTML (Hypertext Markup Language) 3.0 tables, access to Internet newsgroups, a toolbar button for instant access to the Web search engine, and the ability to run animations using client-pull technology. You also get "cookies" or tokens which let Web browsers shop at their favorite Internet online stores. Explorer includes Favorites, a way to keep track of Internet sites you have visited and may want to return to quickly, and a search button on the Explorer toolbar gives you access to search engines like Yahoo, Lycos and Infoseek. A full e-mail package in Explorer lets you send and receive mail over the Internet. The e-mail application is integrated with the Windows 95 Exchange inbox so all of your mail can be viewed from the same location and you can maintain a common address book. The mail package also supports the Internet MIME standard for sending attached files in Internet mail messages. Microsoft said security features include support for Secure Sockets Layer (SSL), RSA encryption and Private Communication Technology. PCT is an upgrade to the SSL protocol. Explorer will also support Secure Transaction Technology (STT), an electronic payment technology jointly developed by Microsoft and Visa International, when that technology is available. A Microsoft spokesperson told Newsbytes the STT specifications are available on the Microsoft Internet home page at the URL http://www.microsoft.com . The Microsoft-Visa announcement reported earlier this month by Newsbytes said STT is built as an electronic version of the payment card system used today, while PCT builds on the current Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) standard by incorporating "strong authentication and other technologies we developed for STT," according to Microsoft officials and Visa officials. To encourage widespread adoption, both companies have published STT and PCT specs on the Internet, so they can be easily incorporated into other products. With Web pages becoming more sophisticated, Microsoft said Explorer 2.0 takes advantage of features like embedded video, scrolling banners, background audio and context-sensitive menus. Explorer will also support inline Virtual Reality Markup Language (VRML) for fast viewing of 3-D objects and animations. Microsoft said it will deliver VRML technology for Explorer and Windows 95 by the end of 1995. Other Explorer 2.0 features include progressive rendering, read-ahead mode, a multithreaded user interface and support for Hypertext Transport Protocol Keep-Alive. Keep-Alive is a protocol enhancement that allows the Explore to open and download multiple items over the same HTTP connection instead of opening a new connection for each file. You also get support for Windows Shortcuts to the Internet, an Internet tutorial and search engine and support for text and graphics drag and drop. Proxy servers, which allow protected access to the Internet through corporate "firewalls" is also supported, and users get Realaudio Player. That lets users with conventional multimedia-capable PCs and a voice grade telephone line to browse, select and play back audio or audio-based multimedia content in real time, said Microsoft. The company said the beta version of Internet Explorer 2.0 will be available for download from the company's home page on the Internet (http://www.windows.microsoft.com ) at no charge other than online time, if applicable, this week. You need Windows 95 installed on your PC in order to use Explorer 2.0. (Jim Mallory/19950929/Press contact: Kathy Gill, Waggener Edstrom for Microsoft, 503-245-0905; Public contact: Microsoft, 206-882-8080 or 800-426-9400/EXPLORER950929/PHOTO) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 09/29/95 TELECOM Sweden's Ericsson Secures Argentina D-AMPS Contract (NEWS)(TELECOM)(LON)(00039) Sweden's Ericsson Secures Argentina D-AMPS Contract 09/29/95 STOCKHOLM, SWEDEN, 1995 SEP 29 (NB) -- Ericsson has signed an agreement with two Argentinean cellular operators - Telefonica Comunicaciones Personales (TCP) and Compania de Comunicaciones Personales (CCPI) -- for the completion of a nationwide D-AMPS (Digital American Phone System) cellular network in Argentina. In parallel with the tri-signatory contract, the Swedish telco has signed a further deal with Movistar for the extension of the existing cellular network in Buenos Aires, the capital of Argentina. Plans call for the D-AMPS network to service around 200,000 subscribers by the end of the year, with this number rising rapidly in the first six months of the new year. The value of the linked contracts is around $200 million, Ericsson officials said. The D-AMPs network will be one of the first digital networks to operate in South America, Newsbytes notes, and has been designed to cope with high levels of city usage. Using cellular will allow easier calls, especially to destinations outside of Argentina. "With Ericsson as our supplier, we will be able to offer the same state-of-the-art technology to all our customers, regardless of whether they are in small villages or in the big cities," said Martin Mayorga, general manager of TCP. Ericsson claims that Argentina will soon be blanketed with an extensive D-AMPS network using more than 1,300 cellular base stations, switching calls through Ericsson-supplied mobile switching centers. The Swedish telco is also supplying a significant amount of its RBS base stations and the new RBS 884 Macro/Compact base stations, CMOS network supervision and MiniLink microwave transmission systems for the project. Much of the equipment is being supplied pre-assembled to ensure a rapid network rollout. Both the network operators are linked to France Telecom, Italian STET and Spanish Telefonica, Newsbytes notes. According to Sven-Christen Nilsson, Ericsson's vice president and general manager for business operations, the way the network will be rolled out will ensure even coverage and less congestion than would be expected from analog networks. Nilsson also predicted that, since Argentina will use D-AMPS technology, there is a significant opportunity in offering international roaming with D-AMPS customers in the US. "The addition of Argentina to the D-AMPS coverage area in Latin America is an important step, enabling operators to provide seamless coverage throughout the region, and the beginning of inter-regional roaming with North America and Asia," he said. (Sylvia Dennis/19950929/Press & Reader Contact: Per Bengtsson, Information Director, Ericsson +46-8-757-2159) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 09/29/95 TELECOM UK - NTL Powers In With Orange Digital Network Contract (NEWS)(TELECOM)(LON)(00040) UK - NTL Powers In With Orange Digital Network Contract 09/29/95 LONDON, ENGLAND, 1995 SEP 29 (NB) -- National Transcommunications Limited (NTL) has announced the signing of a major contract with Hutchison Orange, the PCN (Personal Communications Network) digital cellular network that now covers 75 percent of the UK's population. According to NTL, the five year deal is worth several million pounds and means that Orange is the second 2 megabit/second (Mbps) customer for its mobile phone switching net. Orange joins Vodafone, which has been using NTL since September of last year. Announcing the deal, Chris Hutchings, general manager of NTL's telecom services division, said that the NTL SDH (Synchronous Digital Hierarchy) network will interlink Orange's main cellular exchanges, supplying multiple circuits on a flexible demand-driven basis. Using SDH, NTL claims, will offer Orange a high level of reliability and resilience against downtime. "The investment we've made in technology and support systems means that we can deliver unparalleled digital network solutions on a flexible basis to any telecoms operator," he explained. (Newsbytes/19950929/Press Contact: Nelson Bostock Communications +44- 171-229-4400; Bruce Randall, NTL +44-1962-822582; Richard Rumbelow, Hutchison Telecom +44-1992-502600) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 09/29/95 IBM IBM, Partners Team On Web-Based Image Search, Printing (NEWS)(IBM)(BOS)(00041) IBM, Partners Team On Web-Based Image Search, Printing 09/29/95 ARMONK, NEW YORK, U.S.A., 1995 SEP 29 (NB) -- Through a newly inked deal between IBM, Sedona, and PIP Printing, home users and small businesses will be able to employ the Web to search for and remotely print out images on color and black-and-white printers that offer professional quality output, executives of the three companies asserted, in an interview with Newsbytes. Bruce MacDonald, CEO (chief executive officer) of Sedona Systems Corp., told Newsbytes that users of the new turnkey system will employ a PC/Macintosh utility that is "the first to combine multimedia document retrieval with remote electronic printing." The upcoming Web-based system, which is slated to appear in January, will employ IBM's QBIC (Query By Image Content) multimedia search technology, imbedded into Sedona's Reprint software for remote printing, MacDonald reported. Users of the system will first search for images on the Sedona Web home page, download the images, and then transmit those images by modem, either to the PIP Web page, or to a local PIP store. PIP will then print out the images, and send the hard copy output by overnight delivery, either direct to the end user or to a nearby PIP store, according to the Senoma CEO. MacDonald added that IBM first reviewed Senoma's Reprint product about a year ago. "IBM signed an agreement to preload Reprint on IBM PCs. Then, about six weeks ago, we came across QBIC, from (IBM's) Santa Teresa Labs," Newsbytes was told. Senoma subsequently signed with IBM to become QBIC's first third-party licensee, and with PIP to provide Reprint technology imbedded with QBIC, he explained. Larry Bowden, IBM's multimedia brand manager, told Newsbytes that IBM is now using QBIC in its own products, in addition to offering the multimedia search technology to licensees on an OEM (original equipment manufacturer) basis. "QBIC is a fundamental base technology in which IBM is investing. This is something that we will use at IBM against all of our media types, rolling out at different times," Bowden added. Unlike conventional search technologies, which require words to appear within documents, QBIC uses "meta data, or word, descriptors," according to the IBM exec. If a user is looking for a red-and-yellow sunset, for example, the descriptors might include "red, yellow, and sunset," he illustrated. The user might then further specify that the image should contain "70 percent red, 20 percent yellow, and 10 percent `other colors.'" QBIC would then present the user with a list of all images in the object database that fit that description. IBM currently uses QBIC in its Digital Library, as well as in its Ultimedia Manager product, Bowden noted. "And we are also considering QBIC for use in a number of other areas," he continued. Within the Digital Library, the multimedia search engine is used to search for musical and sound "engagements," Newsbytes was told. "The core technologies in our Digital Library are extensible into different areas," he added. In the future, one of these areas might include "police engagements," according to the director of multimedia brand management. (Jacqueline Emigh/19950929/Reader Contact: IBM, 914-765-1900; Press Contacts: Rick Bause, IBM, 914-766-1750; Parna Sarkar-Basu, Margaret Bonilla, or Pooneh Rassekh, Brodeur & Partners for IBM, 617-622-2800; Bruce MacDonald, Sedona Systems, 602-991-8246; Susan Falck, PIP Printing, 880-3843) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 09/29/95 GENERAL Newsbytes Week In Review (NEWS)(GENERAL)(SFO)(00042) Newsbytes Week In Review 09/29/95 MINNEAPOLIS, MINNESOTA, U.S.A., 1995 SEP 29 (NB) -- This is a look at the top stories this week, listing with their category code: Microsoft Ships C2 Security Release Of Windows NT, Apple Restarts PowerBook 5300 Shipments, Netscape Offers Beta Version Security Fix, More On Time Warner-Turner Merger & US West Protest, SGI & NCSA Create National Data Laboratory, Microsoft & MCI Announce Networking Alliance, Compaq Considers "Disposable" PCs Under $500, Unix Expo - Catholic Church Launches Web Site, Unitel Restructuring Will Give AT&T Larger Stake, Chip Spy Says Feds Set Him Up, Will Novell Dump WordPerfect?, Microsoft & Visa Publish Secure Transaction Specs, Networld+Interop - Netscape Says No To Provider Wars, High Court To Hear Lotus-Borland Copyright Dispute, Seybold - Hitachi Intros Graphics Tablet, Euro Piracy Costs 87,000 Jobs, $2.3 Billion Says BSA, US Online Data Officials Say Budget Cutbacks "Cause For Alarm," Seagate and Conner Confirm Merger, Novell Previews Global Network Vision, MCI Becomes World's Fastest Telecom Network, CompuServe To Debut Online Ads. Microsoft Ships C2 Security Release Of Windows NT (NETWORK) REDMOND, WASHINGTON, U.S.A., 1995 SEP 25 (NB) -- Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ: MSFT) has announced availability of a C2-level security release for Windows NT Workstation and Windows NT Server version 3.5, and his signed an agreement with Starnine Technologies Inc. for that company to develop, market, sell and support the Microsoft Mail server for AppleTalk networks. Apple Restarts PowerBook 5300 Shipments (APPLE) CUPERTINO, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1995 SEP 25 (NB) -- Almost one week after Apple Computer (NASDAQ:AAPL) stopped shipments of its first PowerPC-based notebook, the PowerBook 5300, the company says it is ready to ship new models with a nickel-metal-hydride battery. Customers can expect to see a $100 retail price reduction on the entire series. Netscape Offers Beta Version Security Fix (ONLINE) MOUNTAIN VIEW, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1995 SEP 25 (NB) -- Netscape Communications (NASDAQ:NCSA) says it will offer a beta version security update to correct a flaw found in its Navigator software. After learning two University of California at Berkeley students found the flaw and posted their discovery on the Internet, Netscape quickly announced the problem to the general public and promised a prompt software correction. More On Time Warner-Turner Merger & US West Protest (BUSINESS) DENVER, COLORADO, U.S.A., 1995 SEP 25 (NB) -- Doug Holmes, the vice president and chief financial officer of US West Media Group, called the proposed merger of Time Warner and Turner Broadcasting System "a conflict of interest and a breach of fiduciary responsibility" as he provided a glimpse into the complicated way conglomerate businesses are often structured, but seldom seen by the general public. Holmes' remarks were made during a teleconference Friday afternoon. SGI & NCSA Create National Data Laboratory (TRENDS) CHAMPAIGN, ILLINOIS, U.S.A., 1995 SEP 26 (NB) -- Silicon Graphics Inc. (NYSE: SGI) and the National Center for Supercomputing Applications (NCSA) at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign have announced that they will create a National Data Laboratory for high-performance commercial computing applications. Silicon Graphics, through the National Data Lab, will deliver technology to commercial markets such as finance, telecommunications, and manufacturing . Microsoft & MCI Announce Networking Alliance (NETWORK) ATLANTA, GEORGIA, U.S.A., 1995 SEP 26 (NB) -- MCI Inc. (NASDAQ:MCIC) and Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ:MSFT) have announced a joint marketing agreement where MCI will join its network services with Microsoft Windows NT and BackOffice software to provide wide area network (WAN) "solutions." Compaq Considers "Disposable" PCs Under $500 (PC) HOUSTON, TEXAS, U.S.A., 1995 SEP 26 (NB) -- A Compaq Computer Corp. (NYSE: CPQ) marketing executive has resurrected a concept for a line of PCs in the $500 range to meet consumer demand for computers in Eastern Europe, Africa, and Asia. Unix Expo - Catholic Church Launches Web Site (ONLINE) NEW YORK, NEW YORK, U.S.A., 1995 SEP 26 (NB) -- In a press conference at Unix Expo, the Roman Catholic Church announced plans to pave the "info highway" for Pope John Paul II's visit to the US in October with a new home page on the Web called the Catholic Information Center on the Internet (CICI). Unitel Restructuring Will Give AT&T Larger Stake (TELECOM) TORONTO, ONTARIO, CANADA, 1995 SEP 27 (NB) -- The three shareholders of Unitel Communications Inc. have agreed on a restructuring that will leave AT&T (NYSE:T) with slightly less than half the company and three Canadian banks with the rest. Rogers Communications Inc. and Canadian Pacific Ltd., both of which had already written off their investments in the money-losing long-distance company, will give up their interests and get no money back. Chip Spy Says Feds Set Him Up (CHIP) PHOENIX, ARIZONA, U.S.A., 1995 SEP 27 (NB) -- In a plot that sounds like the story line for the latest best-selling spy thriller, a software engineer charged with stealing computer secrets said he was set up by the federal government. Will Novell Dump WordPerfect? (BUSINESS) OREM, UTAH, U.S.A., 1995 SEP 27 (NB) -- The recent restructuring of Novell Corp. (NASDAQ: NOVL) apparently won't include dumping WordPerfect, the popular word processing program Novell acquired when it merged with WordPerfect Corp. However, a statement made by Robert Frankenberg this week may have left the door open for some sort of change. Microsoft & Visa Publish Secure Transaction Specs (ONLINE) NAPERVILLE, ILLINOIS, U.S.A., 1995 SEP 27 (NB) -- Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ:MSFT) and Visa International said they've published two specifications that will secure payments over public networks, like the Internet, and private networks. In a separate announcement, Spyglass Inc. (NASDAQ:SPYG) said it will develop and be the prime licensee of the new specifications, to be called Secure Transaction Technology (STT) and Private Communication Technology (PCT). Networld+Interop - Netscape Says No To Provider Wars (ONLINE) ATLANTA, GEORGIA, U.S.A., 1995 SEP 27 (NB) -- With its announcement last week that it intends to spend $100 million to buy message-based collaborative software firm Collabra Software, Netscape Communications is broadening its reach in Internet-based services. Yet, there's one major type of service that Netscape Chief Executive Officer (CEO) and President Jim Barksdale says the newly public, "flush-with-cash" firm will never get into: the Internet access provider, point-of-presence wars. High Court To Hear Lotus-Borland Copyright Dispute (LEGAL) WASHINGTON, D.C., U.S.A., 1995 SEP 28 (NB) -- The US Supreme Court yesterday agreed to decide the long-running copyright dispute between Lotus and Borland over the command structure of Lotus's 1-2-3 spreadsheet program. The decision is a major victory for Lotus, now owned by IBM. Seybold - Hitachi Intros Graphics Tablet (TRENDS) SAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A, 1995 SEP 28 (NB) -- Hitachi, which markets its MultiPad professional graphics tablet, has unveiled a smaller, less expensive model called StudioPad. With a suggested $200 price tag, this compliment to MultiPad is designed for "graphics professionals and upscale home users." Euro Piracy Costs 87,000 Jobs, $2.3 Billion Says BSA (LEGAL) BRUSSELS, BELGIUM, 1995 SEP 29 (NB) -- The Business Software Alliance has released a report that indicates if European software piracy could be reduced to the US level, tens of thousands of new jobs would be created and billions in additional tax revenues generated. US Online Data Officials Say Budget Cutbacks "Cause For Alarm" (GOVT) ATLANTA, GEORGIA, U.S.A., 1995 SEP 29 (NB) -- The director of the US Government's largest publicly accessible online information system said that large cutbacks in the overall federal budget is a "cause for alarm" for the government's information infrastructure. Seagate and Conner Confirm Merger (BUSINESS) CENTRAL, HONG KONG, 1995 SEP 29 (NB) -- Rumors of merger talks between Seagate and Conner Peripherals have been confirmed by both parties. The deal is waiting for the approval by both boards of directors and the legal paperwork and the final vote of stockholders in the two firms. Novell Previews Global Network Vision (NETWORK) OREM, UTAH, U.S.A., 1995 SEP 29 (NB) -- Novell Inc. (NASDAQ: NOVL) has announced several strategic initiatives the company said will promote delivery of its vision of pervasive computing called the Smart Global Network, but specific details are still sketchy. Novell said its goal is to achieve one billion networked connections by the year 2000. MCI Becomes World's Fastest Telecom Network (TELECOM) DALLAS, TEXAS, U.S.A., 1995 SEP 29 (NB) -- MCI Inc. (NASDAQ:MCIC) said it is now the "fastest telecommunications company in the world," because it has deployed technology that lets it transmit information across its digital network at a speed of 10 gigabits, or 10 billion bits of information per second. CompuServe To Debut Online Ads (ONLINE) COLUMBUS, OHIO, U.S.A., 1995 SEP 29 (NB) -- When version 2.0 of CompuServe's Windows CompuServe Information Manager (WINCIM), is installed on subscribers' computers, CompuServe will begin its first paid advertisements online. Promised to be unobtrusive and value-added, the ads are being sold from $2,500 to $20,000. (Ian Stokell/19950929) (SUMMARY)(GENERAL)(MSP)(00043) Newsbytes Daily Summary 09/29/95 MINNEAPOLIS, MINNESOTA, U.S.A., 1995 SEP 29 (NB) -- These are capsules of all today's news stories: ======================================================================== ------------| N E W S B Y T E S D A I L Y S U M M A R Y |---------- ------------| Friday, September 29, 1995 |---------- ======================================================================== (c) Newsbytes News Network (Tm) Editor in Chief: Wendy Woods ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Newsbytes News Network's 1995 Update CD-ROM for Mac, DOS, and Windows is now available for $29.95 (includes s&h). Contains 1983-1995 news stories, more than 64,000 keyword searchable stories and 475 digitized images. For more information or to order, fax to 612-430-0441 or e-mail to 'administrator@newsbytes.com' -- MC, Visa, Amex accepted. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ CATEGORY HEADLINES (*** indicates today's top stories) STORY # ======================================================================== APPLE Seybold - Apple's Spindler Touts Macs On The Internet...... 01 APPLE Seybold - Quark Releases Publishing System 1.11............ 03 APPLE Editorial - Apple Faces Tough Times........................ 29 BROADCAST UK - BBC Inaugurates World's First Digital Radio System.... 24 BUSINESS ****Seagate and Conner Confirm Merger..................... 14 BUSINESS Computer Sciences Strategic Alliance With SAS.............. 21 BUSINESS Advantage Memory And Memory International Merge............ 33 GENERAL Japan Newsbriefs........................................... 09 GENERAL HK IT Expo Opens On Internet Traffic Jam................... 15 GENERAL Anaheim, Dallas Featuring ComputerMania.................... 26 GENERAL China - Technology Newsbriefs.............................. 30 GENERAL Personnel Roundup.......................................... 37 GENERAL Newsbytes Week In Review................................... 42 GOVT ****US Online Data Officials Say Budget Cutbacks.......... 06 GOVT US NTIS To Debut World News Connection November 1.......... 07 GOVT SEC Launches Internet Site................................. 10 GOVT US Continues Visa Restrictions to Indian SW Professionals.. 31 IBM More On Lotus's NotesPump Database Integration Tool........ 34 IBM IBM To Make PCs In Czech Republic Under License............ 36 IBM IBM, Partners Team On Web-Based Image Search, Printing..... 41 LEGAL ****Euro Piracy Costs 87,000 Jobs, $2.3 Billion Says BSA.. 04 LEGAL Thailand - BSA Offers Cash Reward To Nab Pirates........... 12 LEGAL Six Russians Arrested As Citibank Scam Unravels............ 16 NETWORK ****Novell Previews Global Network Vision................. 17 ONLINE USENIX/LISA - Computer Security Is Not Enough.............. 20 ONLINE AP, Weekly World News Now On America Online................ 22 ONLINE Microsoft, Paramount Launch Star Trek On Microsoft Network. 23 ONLINE ****CompuServe To Debut Online Ads........................ 28 ONLINE Germany's Vebacom To Take Stake In Europe Online........... 35 ONLINE Microsoft Releases Beta of Explorer 2.0 Browser............ 38 PC Germany - Compaq Unveils LTE 5000 Notebook Series.......... 19 TELECOM Japan - NTT To Open Local Telephone Network................ 08 TELECOM US Court Clears PCS Auction................................ 11 TELECOM IBM Picks Thailand For Regional Network Hub................ 13 TELECOM France - Alcatel Secures $300M Digital Phone Contract...... 18 TELECOM ****MCI Becomes World's Fastest Telecom Network........... 25 TELECOM Big Pentagon Telecom Procurement Coming.................... 27 TELECOM Sweden's Ericsson Secures Argentina D-AMPS Contract........ 39 TELECOM UK - NTL Powers In With Orange Digital Network Contract.... 40 TRENDS Seybold - The Future Of Print.............................. 02 TRENDS Seybold - New Challenges From The Internet................. 05 WINDOWS Vendors Announces Windows NT Telephony API Support......... 32 ======================================================================== These are the headlines and first paragraphs of each story, in order: 1 -> Seybold - Apple's Spindler Touts Macs On The Internet -- Apple's chief executive officer, Michael Spindler, opened the Seybold conference in San Francisco with a keynote boasting of the use of Macintoshes on the Internet and hailing the use of the Internet for publishing by individuals. 2 -> Seybold - The Future Of Print -- Seybold San Francisco 95 Conference and Expo's second keynote, called The Future of Print, was delivered by six industry leaders, who proclaimed that print is not dead, but due to the influence of electronic publishing, is evolving into something new. 3 -> Seybold - Quark Releases Publishing System 1.11 -- Quark, a developer and marketer of software for graphics professionals and publishers, released version 1.11 of Quark Publishing System (QPS). The company also announced an agreement with Digital Equipment Corporation. 4 -> ****Euro Piracy Costs 87,000 Jobs, $2.3 Billion Says BSA -- The Business Software Alliance has released a report that indicates if European software piracy could be reduced to the US level, tens of thousands of new jobs would be created and billions in additional tax revenues generated. 5 -> Seybold - New Challenges From The Internet --Yuri Rubinsky of SoftQuad gave the Seybold San Francisco audience a whirlwind overview of what's happening with the new technology on the Internet. Rubinsky has been involved with the Internet through a number of different founding committees and he is know for his involvement with the development of Internet languages SGML and HTML. 6 -> ****US Online Data Officials Say Budget Cutbacks -- The director of the US Government's largest publicly accessible online information system said that large cutbacks in the overall federal budget is a "cause for alarm" for the government's information infrastructure. 7 -> US NTIS To Debut World News Connection November 1 -- The US Government's daily collection of news summaries from around the world, used for internal intelligence and decision-making purposes, will be made available to the public starting Nov. 1. 8 -> Japan - NTT To Open Local Telephone Network -- Nippon Telegraph and Telephone is to open its local telephone network to competitors, allowing many more access points onto the NTT system than at present ,which, the company said, will lead to a more competitive marketplace. 9 -> Japan Newsbriefs -- In this roundup of news from Japan, profits up at Japan Telecom - newspaper, NTT reviews Pocket Bell pricing, Sanyo establishes new Chinese venture, Americans join Japan cellular group, Matsushita plans China expansion, online karaoke system planned. 10 -> SEC Launches Internet Site -- Securities and Exchange Commission Chairman Arthur Levitt just became the first user of the SEC's new site on the World Wide Web. The site offers free public access to be agency's Edgar database of filings at http:// www.sec.com . 11 -> US Court Clears PCS Auction -- A federal appeals court yesterday cleared the way for the Federal Communications Commission to hold its long-delayed special of licenses for personal communications systems. 12 -> Thailand - BSA Offers Cash Reward To Nab Pirates -- The Business Software Alliance (BSA), in its efforts to track down corporate users of pirated software, has announced a campaign to reward informers in Thailand who provide information leading to the conviction of a company that uses unlicensed software. 13 -> IBM Picks Thailand For Regional Network Hub -- IBM (Thailand) is expected to become a regional hub for the IBM Global Network (IGN) as well as become the third active Internet services provider by the end of this month. 14 -> ****Seagate and Conner Confirm Merger -- Rumors of merger talks between Seagate and Conner Peripherals have been confirmed by both parties. The deal is waiting for the approval by both boards of directors and the legal paperwork and the final vote of stockholders in the two firms. 15 -> HK IT Expo Opens On Internet Traffic Jam -- Hong Kong's IT Expo opened on Wednesday for a four-day spree and organizers said at 5pm on the opening day that 10,000 visitors had already been through the doors. It's the sixth Expo and so far the largest, with over 240 exhibitors attending. 16 -> Six Russians Arrested As Citibank Scam Unravels -- Russian Police have arrested six people in connection with a $2.8 million scam allegedly perpetrated on Citibank. 17 -> ****Novell Previews Global Network Vision -- Novell Inc. (NASDAQ: NOVL) has announced several strategic initiatives the company said will promote delivery of its vision of pervasive computing called the Smart Global Network, but specific details are still sketchy. Novell said its goal is to achieve one billion networked connections by the year 2000. 18 -> France - Alcatel Secures $300M Digital Phone Contract -- Alcatel has secured a $300 million contract for the supply of digital mobile telephony equipment from the Hermes Europe rail telephony consortium known as Hermes Europe Railtel, a joint venture between Global TeleSystems in the US and 11 country rail operators around Europe. 19 -> Germany - Compaq Unveils LTE 5000 Notebook Series -- Compaq Europe has unveiled the LTE 5000, a 64-bit notebook PC it claims is one of the powerful in the PC industry, and promises the machine will be available later this year in Compaq's Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA) region with a price tag around US$4,400. 20 -> USENIX/LISA - Computer Security Is Not Enough -- Via Clarinet. Even the best computer security in the world is not enough to protect the confidential data of the world's major corporations, according to Ira Winkler of Science Applications International Corp. Winkler spoke at a security highlights panel recently at the LISA 95 Systems administration conference, sponsored by USENIX (The Unix Users Association) and SAGE (The System Administrator's Guild). 21 -> Computer Sciences Strategic Alliance With SAS -- Computer Sciences Corp. (NYSE:CSC) announced a three-year strategic alliance with the SAS Institute, the nation's ninth largest independent software vendor. The alliance makes Computer Sciences (CSC) one of the SAS's major systems integration and consulting partners. 22 -> AP, Weekly World News Now On America Online -- The latest happenings at the O.J. Simpson double murder trial, and "coverage" of Bigfoot being shot and killed in Montana are just two of the diverse stories that are being covered by America Online's (NASDAQ:AMER) (AOL) new media partners. The online service said the Associated Press (AP) wire service and the Weekly World News supermarket tabloid are now available to its subscribers. 23 -> Microsoft, Paramount Launch Star Trek On Microsoft Network -- The starship "Enterprise" will soon fly again, this time in the vacuum of Internet space, thanks to a partnership between Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ: MSFT) and Paramount Television. The deal will also let you re-play your favorite Entertainment Tonight shows. Microsoft said this week it will show exclusive content from Paramount's "Star Trek" and "Entertainment Tonight" properties on the Microsoft Network (MSN) online service. 24 -> UK - BBC Inaugurates World's First Digital Radio System -- The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) has announced the availability of digital radio in the London area, and unveiled plans to roll the service out progressively across the UK over the next five years. The move means that the BBS is the first broadcaster to actively support and start its own digital radio system. The bad news is that, as yet, there are no digital radios in the stores, nor will there be at least until the end of next year. 25 -> ****MCI Becomes World's Fastest Telecom Network -- MCI Inc. (NASDAQ:MCIC) said it is now the "fastest telecommunications company in the world," because it has deployed technology that lets it transmit information across its digital network at a speed of 10 gigabits, or 10 billion bits of information per second. 26 -> Anaheim, Dallas Featuring ComputerMania -- ComputerMania, a new series of hands-on interactive shows by Softbank, will give consumers their first glimpse of the home computer products available this holiday season. More than 75 companies will be demonstrating hardware and software as ComputerMania stops at the Anaheim Convention Center (September 29-October 1, 1995) and Dallas Infomart (October 13-15, 1995). 27 -> Big Pentagon Telecom Procurement Coming -- Major telecommunications companies are working on bids for a Pentagon contract known as the "mega-network" and one of the biggest telecommunications projects ever. The multi-billion dollar contract will consolidate military voice, data and video linkages worldwide in a major upgrade of the Defense Information Systems Network (DISN). 28 -> ****CompuServe To Debut Online Ads -- When version 2.0 of CompuServe's Windows CompuServe Information Manager (WINCIM), is installed on subscribers' computers, CompuServe will begin its first paid advertisements online. Promised to be unobtrusive and value-added, the ads are being sold from $2,500 to $20,000. 29 -> Editorial - Apple Faces Tough Times -- By Kennedy Maize. Apple Computer is facing the most perilous time in its corporate history. It's a reasonable bet that, this time next year, there won't be an Apple as a free-standing company. 30 -> China - Technology Newsbriefs -- In the technology news roundup from China, US-based Maxtor expects 15 percent of hard disk drive market, Shaanxi's Intellectual Property Right Exchange Market starts operation, Hebei province plans to promote more electronics production, and the electronics industry soars in Shenyang city of Liaoning Province. 31 -> US Continues Visa Restrictions to Indian SW Professionals -- The Indian Government's inability to pin down the US on its move to ban free movement of software professionals has made it possible for the latter to impose visa restrictions, thereby circumventing the concessions gained by India on the movement of India's citizens under WTO, according to commerce ministry officials in the country. 32 -> Vendors Announces Windows NT Telephony API Support -- More than a dozen telephone switching and voice processing equipment companies have jumped on the Microsoft Windows NT Telephony API (Application Programming Interface) bandwagon, announcing support for the telecommunications technology. The TAPI allows Windows NT to function as a telephony client or a telephony server for uses such as application servers for PBX telephone systems, call center and automatic call distribution systems, interactive voice response servers, voice messaging and other communications applications. 33 -> Advantage Memory And Memory International Merge -- Advantage Memory and Memory International, both suppliers of memory and PC cards to the computer industry, have agreed to a $70 million merger. Citing a boom in their memory business, the two companies say this is the time to leverage their combined strengths and business relationships. 34 -> More On Lotus's NotesPump Database Integration Tool -- Lotus's newly rolled out NotesPump tool for Notes/RDBMS (relational database management system) integration reflects plans by Lotus to expand Notes' customer base from a current level of 2 million users to 20 million users, a ten-fold growth rate that will benefit Lotus's partners in addition to Lotus, maintained Tim Dempsey, Lotus's director of Notes marketing, in an interview with Newsbytes. 35 -> Germany's Vebacom To Take Stake In Europe Online -- After several weeks of rumors, Vebacom has announced it plans to take up to a 10 percent stake in Europe Online, the yet-to-launch pan-European online service. 36 -> IBM To Make PCs In Czech Republic Under License -- IBM Europe has announced plans to start manufacturing its PCs in Prague, in the Czech Republic, in order to meet rising demand for hardware in Central and Eastern Europe. 37 -> Personnel Roundup -- This is a regular feature, summarizing personnel changes not covered elsewhere by Newsbytes: Cable & Wireless Inc., Capital Cities/ABC Inc., Spectrum HoloByte Inc., Level One Communications Inc., Lotus Development Corp., General Magic Inc., Databook Inc., AT&T New Media Services, US West Interactive Services Group, Microsoft Corp., Open Software Foundation, and Netcom On-Line Communication Services Inc. 38 -> Microsoft Releases Beta of Explorer 2.0 Browser -- Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ: MSFT) has announced it has released a beta version of the Microsoft Internet Explorer, version 2.0., the newest version of its Internet browser for the Windows 95 user interface and operating system. 39 -> Sweden's Ericsson Secures Argentina D-AMPS Contract -- Ericsson has signed an agreement with two Argentinean cellular operators - Telefonica Comunicaciones Personales (TCP) and Compania de Comunicaciones Personales (CCPI) 40 -> UK - NTL Powers In With Orange Digital Network Contract -- National Transcommunications Limited (NTL) has announced the signing of a major contract with Hutchison Orange, the PCN (Personal Communications Network) digital cellular network that now covers 75 percent of the UK's population. 41 -> IBM, Partners Team On Web-Based Image Search, Printing -- Through a newly inked deal between IBM, Sedona, and PIP Printing, home users and small businesses will be able to employ the Web to search for and remotely print out images on color and black-and-white printers that offer professional quality output, executives of the three companies asserted, in an interview with Newsbytes. 42 -> Newsbytes Week In Review -- This is a look at the top stories this week, listing with their category code: Microsoft Ships C2 Security Release Of Windows NT, Apple Restarts PowerBook 5300 Shipments, Netscape Offers Beta Version Security Fix, More On Time Warner-Turner Merger & US West Protest, SGI & NCSA Create National Data Laboratory, Microsoft & MCI Announce Networking Alliance, Compaq Considers "Disposable" PCs Under $500, Unix Expo - Catholic Church Launches Web Site, Unitel Restructuring Will Give AT&T Larger Stake, Chip Spy Says Feds Set Him Up, Will Novell Dump WordPerfect?, Microsoft & Visa Publish Secure Transaction Specs, Networld+Interop - Netscape Says No To Provider Wars, High Court To Hear Lotus-Borland Copyright Dispute, Seybold - Hitachi Intros Graphics Tablet, Euro Piracy Costs 87,000 Jobs, $2.3 Billion Says BSA, US Online Data Officials Say Budget Cutbacks "Cause For Alarm," Seagate and Conner Confirm Merger, Novell Previews Global Network Vision, MCI Becomes World's Fastest Telecom Network, CompuServe To Debut Online Ads. (Wendy Woods/19950929) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 09/28/95 BROADCAST ****Philips Plans Set-Top For Web, MCD For Video/Audio/Data (NEWS)(BROADCAST)(BOS)(00001) ****Philips Plans Set-Top For Web, MCD For Video/Audio/Data 09/28/95 BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS, U.S.A., 1995 SEP 28 (NB) -- Over the next year or so, Philips and its partners will roll out a new set-top box providing Web connectivity to TV sets over standard phone lines, plus a variety of systems that are based on the new MCD (Multimedia Compact Disk) high density, "high resolution" CD format for interoperable use with CD-ROM, CD-Audio, Video CD, and CD-I (compact disk interactive), Philips officials revealed, at a press briefing attended by Newsbytes in Boston. Robert Van Eijk, director of CD Recordable Products, told reporters and analysts at the briefing that Philips expects to ship complete MCD systems as well as OEM (original equipment manufacturer) components supporting audio, video and data in late 1996, and to add support for rewritable MCD in 1997. Philips will also produce MCD-compliant stand-alone consumer devices, said Dr. Ir. Frans J. Van Empel, program manager for multimedia, speaking with Newsbytes during the press event, one of several group briefings presented by Philips in Boston. Philips and Sony first proposed MCD, an optical disk format that combines features of the MMCD (Multi Media Compact Disk) and SD formats, in August, to members of an industry group called the SD Alliance, according to the Philips officials. In the following weeks, the MCD standard was fine-tuned, and received the endorsement of major PC makers and Hollywood studios. Van Eijk said that other manufacturers will also produce MCD-compliant products in the 1996 to 1997 time-frame, but that some of these products might ship either somewhat earlier or somewhat later than Philips' products. In addition to supplying an interoperable format for CD-ROM, CD- Audio, Video CD, and CD-I, MCD will allow for the same "D-1 quality resolution" currently seen in major Hollywood films, the Phliips execs maintained, during a demo of an MCD edition of the movie "Three Weddings and a Funeral" on a prototype MCD television system. TV systems, computers, and other systems based on MCD will be backward-compatible with all previously released CD-ROM, CD-Audio, Video CD, and CD-I optical disks, the officials contended. In another demo, Frans Speijer, an international marketing rep for Philips, showed the briefing attendees in Boston a prototype of Philips' new TV set top box for the Web. In its current incarnation, the system consists of a Philips CD-I set top box, with a special CD-I disk that provides both an HTML (hypertext markup language)-compatible browser and the communications software needed for connecting the box and TV set to the Internet, according to Speijer. The system also requires a 14.4 megabits-per-second (Mbps) modem. Speijer informed Newsbytes that Philips has begun testing the new "set-top box for the Web" with British Telecom in the UK, and that the company is now about to finalize a deal for a trial of the TV- to-Web connectivity system with an affiliate of another major European telecommunications provider. Dan Godwin, director of new business development, told Newsbytes that Philips is also in the process of entering negotiations for Web set-top box trials with several major telecommunications carriers in the US. Philips currently expects to charge about $500 for the Web set-top system, a price that will include a subscription for an optical disc with quarterly updates, according to the officials. Plans call for the user to enter a "Philips Online" home page when signing on to the Web, with information from advertisers and hyperlinks to other Web sites. Speijer told the journalists and analysts that Philips envisions the TV set-top box as a way of bringing Web access to many millions of US and European homes that are not yet equipped with PCs. Van Eijk told the group that industry opinion is divided as to whether the MCD market will be driven primarily by the consumer or business side. Video CD is presently more popular in Europe and Japan than in the US, where videocassette recorders (VCRs) tend to prevail instead, he acknowledged. Unlike current CDs, which are based on single-layer, single-sided discs, MCD will give CD makers the option of using either single or dual layers (or "substrates"), and either one or both sides of a disk, according to Van Eijk. Dual-substrate capability is what provides the ability for "cinematic-quality" resolution, he contended, illustrating this point by pausing "Three Weddings and a Funeral" several times to show the fine detail displayed in photographic images such as a wedding veil and a strand of pearls. Dual-substrate provides CD makers with flexibility in "focusing," much like a camera lets the user "place the focus on either the fence, or the house behind the fence," the attendees were told. Philips has dubbed its MCD-based dual-layer CD technology DVD (Digital Video Disk). The DVD edition of "Three Weddings and a Funeral," which was shown on a European-built prototype MMCD TV system from Philips, was encoded in SECAM. But MCD also allows for encoding in MPEG (Motion Picture Experts Group)-2, PAL, and NTSC (North American Television Standards Committee) video. The MCD specification also calls for EFM (Extended Functionality Mode) Plus signal modulation and RS-PC error-correction code, plus a choice of form factors for standard and "miniature" CDs, the executives reported. Van Empel told Newsbytes that Philips will use both MCD form factors. (Jacqueline Emigh/19950927/Reader Contact: Philips Media Inc., 310- 444-6600; Press Contacts: Martin Gordon, Philips Media, 310-444- 6501; Marijke van Horren, Philips Electronics NV, 31-40-734-866) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 09/28/95 NETWORK Zenith Data Systems Adds To Server Line, NetWare Support (NEWS)(NETWORK)(MSP)(00002) Zenith Data Systems Adds To Server Line, NetWare Support 09/28/95 BUFFALO GROVE, ILLINOIS, U.S.A., 1995 SEP 28 (NB) -- Zenith Data Systems (ZDS) said it will support quad processors for its Z-Server MX network server platform, and a higher speed option for its dual processor Z-Server WG server line. The company also announced support for NetWare 4.1 SMP on its entire Z-Server line of multiprocessor server platforms. These additional configurations mean ZDS customers can buy servers that range from a single 75 megahertz (MHz) Pentium processor to quad 100MHz or dual 120MHz systems, ZDS officials said. The Z-Server MX will now support single, twin, or quad 100MHz Pentium processors, officials said, at either the time of purchase or through a field upgrade. It can also support up to six hot-plug SCSI (small computer systems interface) drives, up to one megabyte (MB) dedicated CPU (central processing unit) cache, and up to 768MB of memory. The MX is backed by a three-year, on-site, next-business-day limited warranty. Both the server and the processor upgrades are available now from ZDS authorized resellers and distributors. The Z-Server WG line now support single or dual 75MHz, 90MHz, or 120MHz Pentium processors, either off-the-shelf or field-upgradeable. As with the MX, the WG server and processor upgrades are now available through distributors and resellers. In addition, all Z-Server machines will now support the NetWare 4.1 SMP operating system. Company officials said ZDS has committed to delivering NetWare 4.1 SMP to its customers as soon as all software and hardware components have been thoroughly tested and certified. ZDS seems to be making a bigger push into the network server arena. Earlier this month the company announced it is bringing to market new servers based on the PowerPC microprocessor, targeted to the business-critical application server. The PowerPC line will support both single processor and multiprocessor platforms. At the time, Steve Bosak, ZDS spokesperson, told Newsbytes his company is making a move into the PowerPC market because "off-the-shelf Intel parts can't get you to a certain segment of the marketplace with servers." For informational purposes, ZDS maintains an Internet World Wide presence at http://www.zds.com . (Bob Woods/19950927/Press Contacts: Steve Bosak, Zenith Data Systems, 708-808-4855; Public Contact: Zenith Data Systems, 800-533-0331) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 09/28/95 TRENDS ****Symposium Looks At Wearable Computers (NEWS)(TRENDS)(WAS)(00003) ****Symposium Looks At Wearable Computers 09/28/95 FAIRFAX, VIRGINIA, U.S.A., 1995 SEP 28 (NB) -- Holy socks Batman, wearable computers! Computer Products & Services Inc. (CPSI) is running a technical symposium on wearable computers next week in Washington's Virginia suburbs. In a written announcement, the company says, "Wearable computers represent a new paradigm in hands-free mobile computing that is just beginning to take off as a productivity tool." It's an evolution from desktop to laptop to "skintop." CPSI has begun shipping the first commercially wearable computing system, called the Mobile Assistant. It features a fully functional, belt-mounted personal computer the size of a canteen, a head-mounted display, a spoken interface, and a lithium ion battery pack. The company says wearable computers are a natural for jobs in areas such as maintenance, repair, and inspection, where a worker needs to access computer generated data while leaving the hands free for other purposes. The company says many of the advances that have led to the notion of wearable computers were pioneered in a military setting. But there are other applications, from medicine to warehousing to distribution, that could benefit from hands free, heads up computing. The symposium on October 3 will begin with a session devoted to descriptions of the need for wearable computers and what the requirements for this technology might be. Some observers feel such devices will be commonplace in five years. The symposium will also look at the state-of-the-art in belt-mounted technology, batteries, and heads up displays. As Apple recently found with its new Powerbooks, battery technology is critical, and no-one with a computer around the waist wants batteries that break into flames. According to CPSI, speakers at the symposium will include representatives from the Defense Department's Advanced Research Projects Agency, AT&T, Rockwell International, and consultants Booz Allen. (Kennedy Maize/19950928/Press Contact: Carol Covin, 703-631-6925) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 09/28/95 ONLINE Internet Update (NEWS)(ONLINE)(TYO)(00004) Internet Update 09/28/95 TOKYO, JAPAN, 1995 SEP 28 (NB) -- In this roundup of new products and services on the global Internet: Real change on the Internet, Swiss, German governments resources, Yucky home page debuts, Live jazz on the net, Irish film festival, Internet audio mailing list, Interactive insurance launches, Australian observatory online. Real Change On The Internet The Real Change is a newspaper sold by homeless people in Seattle. The newspaper has made available its content on the Internet which includes news, opinion, art, poetry and photography regarding issues of poverty and class. The newspaper is also calling for the establishment of similar newspapers in every major US city before the turn of the century. World Wide Web: http://www.speakeasy.org/realchange/ Swiss, German Governments Resources The Swiss government has begun loading official documents onto the World Wide Web. Most of the papers are available in Switzerland's official languages of German, French and Italian but an increasing number are also being made available in English. World Wide Web: http://www.admin.ch/ Six German politicians are presenting themselves and their work in the Bundestag and local regions on the Internet. Each represents a different political party and the site is the work of Woche Im Bundestag, a weekly newspaper reporting politics and the happens in the German Federal Parliament. World Wide Web: http://www.fu-berlin.de/POLWISS/mdb-projekt/ Yucky Home Page Debuts Liberty Science Center and New Jersey Online have started what the two call the "Yuckiest Site on the Internet." The subject matter, all devoted to science, is presented in a "yucky-yet fascinating" way which will attract children to the pages and encourage them to become science enthusiasts. First under the eye of the service will be cockroaches. Kids can learn about them from science center staff and entomologist Dr. Betty Faber, known to children as "The Bug Lady." World Wide Web: http://www.nj.com/yucky Live Jazz On The Net The Warner Bros/Reprise Records Jazz department has announced its first live concert to take place on the Internet. On October 5 at 7pm EST from the Fashion Cafe in New York City, the record company will broadcast a concert by the Joshua Redman Quartet. To hear the concert users need a copy of the Streamworks live audio software produced by Xing Technology and available for Windows and Mac. World Wide Web: http://www.jazzonln.com/JAZZ/WBjazz.htm Irish Film Festival Details and information on the 40th Cork International Film Festival can be found on the Internet. The screening program, contact details and booking information for the entire event from October 1st to 8th are available, World Wide Web: http://www.eirenet.net/ciff/ Internet Audio Mailing List This year has seen the start of several new technologies that carry live audio across the Internet such as Digiphone, IPhone, NetPhone, WebChat, RealAudio, Streamworks, Truespeech, and PowWow. A new mailing list has been set up to enable discussion of all the software from an end-user and technological aspect. Email: majordomo@pulver.com Message Body: subscribe von-digest Interactive Insurance Launches Miami, Florida-based Inter@ctive Insurance Innovations Incorporated has begun a service on the Internet offering "fast, economical, unbiased answers to personal, business, financial insurance and risk management questions - from claims to coverage, home/auto, complex business insurance matters, professional liability, life, health or disability insurance." World Wide Web: http://www.iiii.com/insurance/ Australian Observatory Online Woodlands Observatory in Australia has opened its own home page with all types of astronomy information. Visitors can find information on comet Hale-Bopp, Astrophotographs, the latest Sky Data, Sky Chart and Sky Almanac and links to over 50 other related sites. World Wide Web: http://www.ozemail.com.au/~pudney/ (Martyn Williams/19950928) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 09/28/95 ONLINE NTT Launches US Internet Consultancy Service (NEWS)(ONLINE)(TYO)(00005) NTT Launches US Internet Consultancy Service 09/28/95 TOKYO, JAPAN, 1995 SEP 28 (NB) -- The American subsidiary of Japan's largest domestic telecommunications company, Nippon Telegraph and Telephone, has entered the north American Internet market with a specialist Internet consultancy and connection service. For a $50 a month subscription, users of the "Net de Pon" service get Internet access and technical support, in Japanese, from the NTT America staff. The service shouldn't be mistaken for an Internet service provider targeting the Japanese community though as Junichi Kishigami, director of research and development at NTT America, explained to Newsbytes, "We are not an Internet provider. We offer technical assistance and consulting to private people and companies that want to use the Internet, the Web, electronic-mail and other tools in Japanese." Net de Pon operates on two levels, the first dealing with people and companies that are not connected to the Internet. That service advises them on what they can get out of being connected and what type of connection they need. The second level to the service involves offering technical support once online. Many Japanese Internet users face great problems connecting to the Internet because of the localized software they must obtain and problems concerning getting 8-bit Japanese encoded text across some systems designed for 7-bit ASCII code. With the NTT America service subscribers get support from people that have much experience in setting up and running Japanese language software from web browsers and servers to e-mail clients. Internet access is offered via a dial-up connection with local call access available in the Bay Area. Despite that, it is available nationwide if any user needs it, "If people on the east coast want to use our service they can, but they need to use long distance calls so it's expensive," added Kishigami. Before the service area extends to all of the United States, Kishigami's next target is to offer local dial-up connection for Net de Pon customers when they are in Japan. Technically this would be quite easy as NTT already operates a nationwide Internet access service domestically, but it is not quite as easy as that. "NTT is domestic in Japan so it's a sensitive problem," said Kishigami, referring to government restrictions that prohibit NTT from offering international services to and from Japan, even though it can offer domestic services in other countries. International telecommunications is handled by KDD and several other smaller carriers such as ITJ and IDC. Despite the problems posed by the licensing restrictions, Kishigami hopes to extend service to his customers when they travel to Japan in the future, "We're thinking of such a service, I hope we can offer it," he said. (Martyn Williams/19950928/Press contact: Junichi Kishigami, NTT America, 415-940-6530, Internet e-mail kisigami@nttca.com) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 09/28/95 BROADCAST Scientific Atlanta Wins Chinese Emergency Network Order (NEWS)(BROADCAST)(TYO)(00006) Scientific Atlanta Wins Chinese Emergency Network Order 09/28/95 BEIJING, CHINA, 1995 SEP 28 (NB) -- Scientific Atlanta Inc. (NYSE:SFA) has won a large order from China's Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications for a nationwide emergency and disaster communications network. The new system will be used during relief operations when a natural disaster, such as flooding or an earthquake, disables the public telephone network, or in areas where there is no telephone access in the first place. Under the terms of the deal, worth around $3.7 million, the Atlanta- based company is to supply a complete satellite communications network with eight base stations and over thirty mobile satellite units. The equipment ordered is the company's Skylinx.DDS Digital DAMA (Demand Assigned Multiple Access) telephony system. The hub of the network will be in Shanghai where a 4.5-meter satellite dish will be installed alongside a master earth-station facility. As phase one of the project, across the country, seven other earth-stations, each equipped with 3.6-meter satellite dishes, will also form the fixed part of the system. During times of emergency the eight centers can communicate with each other and any one of 37 mobile VSAT (very small aperture terminal) satellite uplinks that will be stationed across the country and be ready for quick deployment to areas in need of help. The eight fixed dishes will also be put into use at other times by adding capacity to the severely congested national telephone network via PBX (private branch exchange) connections that will also be installed by Scientific Atlanta. Ultimately, each of 22 provinces will have a fixed 3.6-meter satellite dish and earth station supplemented by at least five mobile VSAT stations. VSAT is an emerging satellite technology that allows satellite uplinks to operate on dishes as small as 1.2- to 1.8-meters, at least half the size of previously needed dishes and much more portable. The whole system will link together via ku-band transponders on the Asiasat-2 satellite, scheduled for launch late this year. John Mann, vice president of worldwide sales of Scientific-Atlanta's Satellite Networks Division commented, "We are honored that MPT, with its communications expertise and technical knowledge, has selected us to install the network that will provide the communications capability to serve China's citizens when a natural disaster occurs." The new network is similar to a $9.9 million project announced in late August in which the company will supply a voice and data satellite communications network to the Ministry of Foreign Trade and Economic Cooperation. That system will also make use of a planned 200 VSAT terminals across the country and link through the same capacity on Asiasat-2. (Martyn Williams/19950928/Press Contact: Laurie Sillay Lahr, Scientific-Atlanta, tel 770-903-6156, fax 70-903-6246) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 09/28/95 BROADCAST Video News Roundup (NEWS)(BROADCAST)(MSP)(00007) Video News Roundup 09/28/95 MINNEAPOLIS, MINNESOTA, U.S.A., 1995 SEP 28 (NB) -- This is a look at the top stories this week in the world of video news reporting: Desktop video price breakthrough announced by Miro, Virtual Studio Sets, and Researchers refine video grabbing. In product news, Panasonic D-3 cameras go underwater, and Hitachi announces new SDTV decoder. #IMAGE 1 20 TWPCX \images\95092807.PCX Click here for photo New Budget Desktop Video for Windows Miro Computer Products announced this week the introduction of MiroVideo DC1 plus, a new desktop video system for Windows 3.1 and Windows 95. According to Miro, for a suggested retail price of $449, the user gets on-board real-time JPEG (Joint Photographic Experts Group) motion compression and direct to tape or hard disk print abilities. Software bundled with the edit program includes Adobe Premiere 4.0 LE, Photoshop LE and Asymetrix 3D FX. The MiroVideo DC1 Plus supports common video standards, including NTSC (North American Television Standards Committee), PAL and SECAM. It uses the standard ISA (Industry Standard Architecture) interface and is designed to work with a 486DX/33 processor. Pentium-based PCs provide optimum product performance. It has a two-year warranty. Computer Generated Sets The September 11th issue of Broadcasting and Technology features an article on a curious trend. Virtual sets made news at last April's NAB (National Association of Broadcasters) convention, but this new technology is still in its beta phase. The foundation of the system is the Silicon Graphics Onyx. Virtual set vendors include Accom, Electrogig, and Softimage. Patrick Renvoise of Accom commented, "Five years from now, who's going to be using real sets?" While initial costs at this time are high, hardware prices are expected to fall. The reduction, if not elimination, of set support costs, such as teardown, construction and storage, are also factors. Electrogig's Reality Tracking is the only virtual set system to have been beta tested. ABC News produced a special report for air and by the production's end the host was said to be comfortable. Rochester Group Refines Video Stills The August issue of Advance Imaging reports efforts by the Center for Electronic Imaging Systems at the University of Rochester to improve the quality of stills taken from video "grabs." The group, backed by Eastman Kodak, has been able to, not only compensate for motion between video frames (already common), but also motion during the video capture. The process, aimed at video environments such as sports, can compensate even at capture times as brief as 1/100th of a second. The process may also have uses in video scan conversions and scientific applications. Panasonic To Scuba and HDTV on Standard Sets Sea Eagle Productions of Maui Hawaii has purchased two Panasonic AJ-D310 D-3 camcorders. A custom housing protects the cameras. Sea Eagle President Steve Hogan said, "Underwater, red is usually the first color to fade. With D-3, the red is so vibrant, I haven't seen any other format that even comes close."(Editor's note: see attached photo) Broadcasting and Cable magazine reports that Hitachi is developing a decoder that would enable HDTV (high definition television) to be viewed on a standard set. The set-top box should cost about $300 and ease the transition to the coming HDTV broadcast standard. (Newsbytes Staff/19950922/D3SEA950928/PHOTO) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 09/28/95 APPLE New Version Of Act! For Mac (NEWS)(APPLE)(SFO)(00008) New Version Of Act! For Mac 09/28/95 CUPERTINO, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1995 SEP 28 (NB) -- Symantec Corporation (NASDAQ:SYMC) has announced a new Macintosh version of its popular contact manager Act!. The new version, Act! 2.5 for Macintosh, highlights file and database synchronization capabilities important to business users. Data synchronization allows Mac users to share and distribute database changes "quickly and easily." Symantec says Act! users often work with several contact databases on desktop and mobile computers. By simply clicking on the "synchronize" button updates, corrections and "to-do" notes are automatically transferred to other databases. A bi-directional feature allows Act! 2.5 to send and receive changes at the same time. Working with the synchronization feature, users choose either a "direct" or "remote" process. The direct process updates two databases simultaneously so transfer data can be sent both ways between a desktop and laptop computer. The remote process has two-steps which uses shared folders on a network for storing and forwarding synchronization files. The remote process is suited for multi-user databases, remote synchronization using Apple Remote Access remote networking software, and cross-platform synchronization with Act! For Windows users. A new interface allows users to display multiple calendars, views and lists at the same time. A "type-ahead" feature detects company names and fills in common information stored for the specific company. Symantec uses Apple Guide technology to support an on-screen tutorial called, Quick Start Guide. The guide starts with simple instructions and leads the users into learning more complex tasks, says the company. The new version also allows users to use drag-and-drop capabilities to attach "any type of file" to an individual contact record. A Symantec spokesperson told Newsbytes, "We had great success with synchronization on our Windows product and now we are pleased to be able to offer it to our Macintosh users. Synchronization brings a tremendous added-benefit to Act! and means the program now allows users to work more efficiently whether it is as an individual or as a network user." Requirements for Act! 2.5 for Macintosh include a color-compatible Mac or Power Mac, two megabytes (MB) of available RAM, at least 5MB of hard disk space, and System 7.0 or higher. Apple PowerTalk System Software is needed for electronic-mail support and Novell NetWare version 3.0 or higher is required for cross-platform networking. Symantec says the new version has an estimated street price of $169.95 and registered users of current version of Act! for Macintosh may purchase an upgrade for $49.95. A four-node network pack is available for $499.95 or an upgrade for $149.95. (Patrick McKenna/19950926/Press Contact: Diane Carlini, Symantec, 408-725-2783) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 09/28/95 APPLE Macromedia Upgrades FreeHand For Macs (NEWS)(APPLE)(SFO)(00009) Macromedia Upgrades FreeHand For Macs 09/28/95 SAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1996 SEP 28 (NB) -- Macromedia (NASDAQ:MACR) has announced version 5.5 of FreeHand for Macintosh and Power Macintosh. The software and design illustration tool is claimed to be 25% faster than the previous version, offers 10,000 free clip-art images and includes 500 free fonts. #IMAGE 1 20 TWPCX \images\95092809.PCX Click here for photo Macromedia spokesperson, Jane Chuey, told Newsbytes, "When we survey our users, they consistently say their number one request is speed, and we have concentrated on delivering the fastest illustrator possible." Besides saying its new version runs 25% faster than the previous version, Macromedia claims this new version is 200 to 400% faster than Adobe Illustrator 5.5 and other competing products especially when working in color preview mode. FreeHand 5.5 for Power Macs also includes special optimizations for the newest Power Mac models, such as the Power Mac 9500. Macromedia also says this version is the first drawing application to support third-party Photoshop plug-ins such as Kai's Power Tools and XAOS Paint Alchemy. Designers are also able to open PhotoCD files and operate scanning software created for Photoshop in FreeHand through use of Photoshop acquisition filters. Expecting more plug-ins this quarter, Macromedia says FreeHand's capabilities become more valuable to designers. A new inline graphic feature allows designers to place graphic objects within text blocks. This makes it easy to place a logo or another type of artwork in a block of text. This version also has improved output, allowing users to output PICT images. Macromedia says FreeHand 5.5 is currently available in the US for $599. Registered users of earlier versions are being offered an affordable upgrade path and users of Macintosh versions of Adobe Illustrator, Deneba Canvas or Claris MacDraw may "sidegrade" to FreeHand for $149. Foreign language versions are planned for a later date. (Patrick McKenna/1995/Press Contact: Mary Leong, Macromedia, 415-252-2118/MACROMEDIA950928/PHOTO) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 09/28/95 WINDOWS Expense Software Downloads Credit Card Data (NEWS)(WINDOWS)(DEN)(00010) Expense Software Downloads Credit Card Data 09/28/95 BELLEVUE, WASHINGTON, U.S.A., 1995 SEP 28 (NB) -- Portable Software Corp. (PSC) said it is now shipping version 1.6 of its QuickXpense software that includes 32-bit compatibility with Windows 95 and can access the user's corporate charge card transactions with a single mouse click. The technology that makes that credit card access possible is called XpenseLink, which was jointly developed with GE Capital to meet customer demand for the ability to automatically fill in charge card transaction data in expense reports. PSC said XpenseLink lets GE Capital Corporate MasterCard customers electronically "pre-populate" (fill in) their expense reports, saving time and reducing errors associated with manual data entry. The new version of QuickXpense includes support for object linking and embedding (OLE), long filenames, Microsoft Network, and Microsoft Exchange. The OLE support allows the user to drag-and- drop expense reports to e-mail messages. In addition to importing credit card charges and other information such as dates, XpenseLink can automatically assign an expense type to entries using vendor SIC (standard industry classification) codes. The new software also comes with a feature called HotelXpert, a feature that automatically fills in standard information like room rate and tax over the specified range of dates a traveler stays in each hotel. XpenseLink also has the ability to produce an expense form that meets the format of many companies. PSC said it already has more than 1,900 forms available, 850 of them from Fortune 1000 companies. For companies that do not require a specific expense report format the software comes with 35 industry- and occupation-specific forms or you can get a custom form designed that matches your specific format. That process takes about three weeks. PSC spokesperson Jill Miailovich told Newsbytes that registered QuickXpense users can upgrade for $29.95. If you bought the pre-Windows 95 version of the software within 45 days of the new release shipping, you are eligible for a free upgrade. Users of other expense reporting software programs can get a $20 rebate against the suggested retail price of $99.95. Miailovich said the estimated street price is $69.95. QuickXpense first came to market in October of 1994, and the company shipped version 1.5 in May 1995. The company said accurate expense reporting is important because travel and entertainment processing the third-highest controllable expense for most corporations. (Jim Mallory/19950926/Press contact: Jill Miailovich, PSC, 206-637-8808 ext 247; Public contact: PSC, 800-478-7411/EXPENSE950928/PHOTO) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 09/28/95 WINDOWS Zenographics' SuperPrint 4.0 Speeds Win 95 Printing (NEWS)(WINDOWS)(SFO)(00011) Zenographics' SuperPrint 4.0 Speeds Win 95 Printing 09/28/95 IRVINE, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1995 SEP 28 (NB) -- Zenographics, a Windows printing and graphic enhancement software developer, has announced SuperPrint 4.0. Designed for all versions of Windows, the print utility allows Windows 95 to perform true 32-bit printing tasks, according to the company. #IMAGE 1 20 TWPCX \images\95092811.PCX Click here for photo "Windows 95 graphical device interface (GDI) is primarily 16-bit, so that it can perform DOS, Windows 3.1, and Windows 3.11 printing. The queuing portion of Windows 95 printing is 32-bit, but it must pass through the 16-bit GDI," said C.J. D'Angelo, Zenographics vice president of sales and marketing. He continued, "We have rewritten Microsoft's GDI as a true 32-bit program, so that the complete process is 32-bit." According to Zenographics, a true 32-bit printing process means this software increases printing speeds, smoothes background printing, and eliminates bottlenecks. D'Angelo added, "When we played Pinball and ran a printing task using Windows 95 without SuperPrint, we found that Pinball pauses at times. Our software takes control of the printing process and increases multi-tasking performance. We prevent events like the pausing in Pinball." Zenographics says SuperPrint 4.0 also speeds printing and enhances clarity on all Windows platforms. The advantages are more pronounced with use in Windows 95. The company's 32-bit rasterizer completely bypasses the rasterization by the Windows 95 16-bit printing engine. Along with the increased 32-bit processing, SuperPrint also includes a hypertext markup language (HTML) driver which allows users to convert a document to the standard Internet format. Most pages are automatically "Web-ready," but others may need minor cleanup with an HTML editor. Additional SuperPrint tools allow users to drag-and-drop image files to the printing queue and view and print Level 1 and 2 PostScript files on non-PostScript printers. For network use, SuperPrint optimizes background printing performance on the client desktop and minimizes network printing traffic through use of ultra-compact supermetalfiles. SuperPrint 4.0 is delivered on a CD-ROM and contains Windows 95, NT, 3.1, and 3.11 versions. The anticipated street price is $49.95. Zenographics will display their products at this week's Seybold show and at Comdex in November. Additional information about Zenographic products is available via the company's World Wide Web site at http://www.zeno.com . (Patrick McKenna/19950927/Press Contact: Rolland Going, The Terpin Group, 310-821-6100/ZENOGRAPHICS950928/PHOTO) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 09/28/95 ONLINE Quarterdeck InternetSuite Available In Netherlands (NEWS)(ONLINE)(LAX)(00012) Quarterdeck InternetSuite Available In Netherlands 09/28/95 SANTA MONICA, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1995 SEP 28 (NB) -- Quarterdeck Corporation (NASDAQ: QDEK), maker of the Quarterdeck Mosaic browser, and Videotex Nederland N.V., one of the Netherlands' Internet services providers, have announced an agreement to provide Internet access in the Netherlands. The Quarterdeck InternetSuite will be available through Videotext's World Access for an estimated retail price of 99 Dutch Guilders with one month free Internet usage. Emerick Woods, vice president for Internet Business Unit at Quarterdeck, told Newsbytes, "As part of the agreement, World Access services will be bundled in the Netherlands with Quarterdeck's InternetSuite software, which includes Quarterdeck's browser. In addition, Quarterdeck Mosaic and InternetSuite will be bundled with World Access service and distributed by Videotex and retail channels." "The Internet market in the Netherlands is rapidly approaching that of the US market in terms of acceptance," said Gaston Bastiaens, chief executive officer of Quarterdeck. "The cooperation between Quarterdeck and Videotex Nederland will greatly contribute to the rapid market development in the Netherlands." "With Quarterdeck's user-friendly Connect and Play features and state-of-the-art Internet technology, we can provide our customers with a complete solution," said Nils Kijkuit, product manager Internet Services for Videotex Nederland. "Quarterdeck's reputation for its high quality products will help boost our position as a leading Internet access provider in the Netherlands." Quarterdeck InternetSuite is a group of five tools: Quarterdeck Mosaic; Quarterdeck Message Center; QTERM (Telnet); QFTP(file transfer protocol); and Quarterdeck Location Manager. Quarterdeck InternetSuite includes integrated Windows SLIP/PPP(serial line Internet protocol/point-to-point protocol) support for dial-up connections to the Internet. Videotex Nederland is a fully commercial operating company focused on electronic information, communications and transaction services. Since February, 1995, World Access has provided dial-up connections to the Internet in the Netherlands. (Richard Bowers/19950900/Press Contact: Ellen Spooren, Quarterdeck Corporation, 310-314-4261) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 09/28/95 HEALTH New Web Site For Disease Management (NEWS)(HEALTH)(MSP)(00013) New Web Site For Disease Management 09/28/95 KALAMAZOO, MICHIGAN, U.S.A., 1995 SEP 28 (NB) -- Greenstone Healthcare Solutions, a subsidiary of The Upjohn Company (NYSE:UPJ), is entering the world of cyberspace with an Internet World Wide Web site devoted to the field of disease management. The new offering is more of a combined Web site and newsgroup that encourages the exchange of information and ideas to improve the cost, quality, and delivery of health care, said the company. They firm is also calling the site the "first of its kind on the Web," when it comes to dealing with disease management. Greenstone officials are demonstrating the Web site today to colleagues at the National Managed Health Care Congress Midwest meeting in Chicago. The site is split into three categories. Daniel J. Watts, Upjohn spokesperson, told Newsbytes the part of the site most health care professionals would be interested in is the "Disease Management Forum." In that area, medical pros can ask their colleagues about a range of issues, including wellness programs and health risk assessments, clinical guidelines and treatment regimens, and outcomes measurements, in a bulletin board-style fashion. Other icons will take the user to the two other areas of the Web site. One area gives information on Greenstone Healthcare Solutions, the other lists other health care information sites on the Web, including hospitals, universities, and various government agencies. Watts said the site is geared towards health professionals, and "people in the field looking to have a dialogue about disease management," he said. "But someone who is interested in health care in general and disease management might find it interesting to tap into. But it's geared more for the decision makers and people in the field looking for an exchange of ideas." The site is at http://www.sapien.net/greenstone/ . Last June, Newsbytes reported on Upjohn's first foray into the Web with an informational site on its Rogaine product. Rogaine is claimed to regrow hair on the scalps of both men and women. That site is located on the Web at http://www.igroup.com.rogaine . The company said all Rogaine product information at the site is taken from existing promotional material that has been reviewed by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA). (Bob Woods/19950927/Press Contact: Daniel J. Watts, Upjohn, 616-323-6369) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 09/28/95 APPLE Adobe Intros Mac Pagemaker Developer's Kit (NEWS)(APPLE)(DEN)(00014) Adobe Intros Mac Pagemaker Developer's Kit 09/28/95 SEATTLE, WASHINGTON, U.S.A., 1995 SEP 28 (NB) -- Adobe Systems Inc. (NASDAQ: ADBE) has introduced a software developer kit (SDK) for Adobe Pagemaker 6.0 for the Macintosh and Power Macintosh platforms. The SDK provides third-party developers with an interface to the Pagemaker program's menu commands, tools and publication data, in order to create plug-in programs that extend the functionality of Pagemaker. The kit comes with documentation in the Adobe Portable Document format (PDF), sample plug-in code, the Adobe Acrobat Reader version 2.1, and the Filter Developers Toolkit. In addition to supporting the file format of Adobe Pagemaker 6.0, the SDK includes private data, multiple master pages, and access to the Story Editor. The private data lets developers attach a caption to a placed graphic. They can also access and define up to 256 maser pages within the Pagemaker program to create page templates with repeating elements. Pagemaker 6.0 for Mac and Power Mac shipped in late August. The new version has several features that help users create documents for the Internet, a hot topic right now, according to Adobe spokesperson Peter Card. He told Newsbytes the new version has a plug-in used to create publications in Adobe's Portable Document Format (PDF). Hypertext markup language (HTML) document authoring is also supported. HTML is a document format used to create Web documents that support hypertext linking and publishing on the World Wide Web. Version 6.0 comes with a CD-ROM that contains a bunch of free software Adobe said is worth thousands of dollars, including the Acrobat Distiller, Acrobat Reader, and Adobe Type On Call 4.0. The latter program contains more than 200 free fonts that can be unlocked when you register the CD. Other new features include multiple master pages, integrated trapping, and support for Hexachrome colors, the Kodak color management system and support for hi-fi color. You also get group and ungroup and position lock. Pagemaker 6.0 for the Macintosh and Power Macintosh has a suggested retail price of $895. Adobe said the SDK will be available in October through the company's Graphic Applications Plug-in (GAP) program. GAP is a $195 per-year service that furnishes developer's SDKs for Adobe products, regular program updates, technical support, a monthly newsletter and discounts of Adobe software. You will also be able to download the SDK from Adobe's bulletin board and its FTP (File Transfer Protocol) site and on the company's home page on the World Wide Web at http://www.adobe.com/support/service.html . The FTP site is located at ftp.adobe.com . However, the free versions don't include phone or electronic support. (Jim Mallory/19950927/Press contact: Peter Card, Adobe, 206-628-2368) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 09/28/95 ONLINE Vossnet Offers Global Yacht Sales Web Site (NEWS)(ONLINE)(LON)(00015) Vossnet Offers Global Yacht Sales Web Site 09/28/95 SLOUGH, BERKSHIRE, ENGLAND, 1995 SEP 28 (NB) -- Vossnet, a UK Internet service provider, has announced the creation of Yacht Link, an Internet-accessible buying and selling service for yacht owners. According to Mark Cox, sales and marketing director with Vossnet, the service was linked to the Web when the potential of the Internet was realized. The Web pages, which are accessible through Vossnet's main pages on http://www.vossnet.co.uk , are designed to act as a buying and selling area for European yacht owners. "The service has been running well, but got a boost recently when American Boat Listings, a New York-based yacht sales company that covers all of the US, announced it was joining the service, effectively turning it into a global facility. "It costs UKP12.50 to register a yacht online and sell it through the service," Cox told Newsbytes, adding that the low cost of advertising through the service is a major plus point in its favor. Cox claims that the Yacht Link service is now the largest in the world, with more than 8,500 used yachts on the services, as well as detailed information regarding yacht charter companies and manufacturers who promote their products and services via the Internet. So where did the idea of Yacht Link come from? According to Cox, it was a natural progression for the company which, after opening its own online business service two and half years ago to allow businesses to sell products and services, it spotted the opportunity that the Internet offered, and became an Internet service through EuNet, and opened the Vossnet service, although with a property sales service, on the Web. "Although we only have a few hundred properties on the property side of the business, it's the yachting side of the business that has really taken off," he said, adding that the Yacht Link services has become very popular. (Steve Gold/19950927/Press & Reader Contact: Voss Net, tel +44-1753- 737800, fax +44-1753-737850, Internet e-mail markcox@vossnet.co.uk) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 09/28/95 TRENDS Limited Role For Govt In Info Highway - Report (NEWS)(TRENDS)(TOR)(00016) Limited Role For Govt In Info Highway - Report 09/28/95 OTTAWA, ONTARIO, CANADA, 1995 SEP 28 (NB) -- The Canadian Advisory Council on the Information Highway has published its final report, calling on the Canadian government to liberalize communications regulation in some areas, rely largely on the private sector to build the so-called information highway, but retain a role as a protector of consumers and Canadian culture. The report predicts that the convergence of once-separate information technologies and industries will have an "enabling effect" -- a phrase used earlier by the Information Technology Association of Canada (ITAC), a high-tech lobby group -- that will stimulate industrial development throughout the economy. "The Council believes that Canada's Information Highway will be key to improving Canada's competitive position," the report says. "It is essential for a successful transition to an economy in which jobs and wealth are based on the creation, movement and application of information. "The investment challenge of the information highway, and the desire of consumers for more choice, cannot be met without a quick move from monopoly toward fair and sustainable competition," the sizable report says, though it adds that remaining monopoly services should not be permitted to cross-subsidize competitive services. To prevent that, the council calls for speeding up the move toward price-cap rather than rate-of-return regulation in communications, a shift already under way. The council also concludes that government cannot set the timetable for deployment of new communications technology. "The private sector, users and providers, will, and should, drive the pace and scope of development." The report suggests a loosening of restrictions on foreign ownership of Canadian telecommunications carriers and broadcasters. "The objective of retaining national sovereignty over the information highway could be realized by liberalizing foreign ownership limits to some degree, while at the same time ensuring that firms, regardless of their origins, operate in a manner consistent with Canada's economic, social and cultural objectives," reads the report. As a first step, the council suggests, ownership regulations in the Broadcasting Act should be harmonized and liberalized with those of the Telecommunications Act. Currently, a foreign investor can own 20 percent of either a broadcaster or a telecommunications carrier directly, but can also hold 33.33 percent of a holding company which may in turn hold an unlimited interest in a telecommunications carrier. AT&T (NYSE:T) announced earlier this week that it will take advantage of this to take a stake of close to 50 percent in Unitel Communications Inc., a Toronto-based long-distance carrier. The advisory council recommends changing the rules for ownership of broadcasters to agree with those for telecommunications carriers. The government has already begun a policy review on this point, the report notes. In general, the council recommends that "all levels of government in Canada, federal, provincial and municipal, should review their legislation, regulations and policies to identify and eliminate obstacles to the use and development of the Highway by individuals and firms." But this emphasis on the market and deregulation does not mean the government has no role, according to the committee. "There is no choice but to be involved," the report says, observing that government's first responsibility is to establish the ground rules and ensure that there are appropriate enforcement mechanisms. Since it will be the consumer who ultimately pays for the new services and products, care must be taken to ensure that access is affordable and user friendly, the report warns. "The challenge for Canadians in this new electronic age is to avoid creating new divisions in society between information `haves' and `have-nots.'" The report recommends that "basic access facilities for the delivery of information highway services should be locally available, at reasonable cost, regardless of location. There must be equitable opportunity for all, including people with disabilities and groups with special needs, to access and use the information highway." However, the report notes that it is hard to tell today which of the various emerging services will qualify as essential. This will have to be decided based on the demand for different services over time, it says, and only once this is clear should action be taken to ensure universal access to those services deemed essential. Recognizing that an Internet connection in every home may be impossible in the foreseeable future, the report says public-access systems such as FreeNets or community nets can make the Internet universally accessible through public terminals. However, the council also urges that the roughly 300,000 phone lines remaining in Canada that cannot support facsimile or high-speed modem communications should be upgraded as soon as possible. Most of these are in rural and remote areas, and they represent about three percent of all Canadian residential lines. Other concerns include assuring privacy and security -- the council endorses the efforts of the Canadian Standards Association to develop a voluntary national code for the protection of personal information) -- protecting and informing consumers, and making sure that Canadians get the content they need and want. The full report of the Advisory Council on the Information Highway is available on the World Wide Web through the home page of the Industry Canada department at http://www.ic.gc.ca . (Grant Buckler/19950928) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 09/28/95 TRENDS Info Highway Report Grapples With Content Issues (NEWS)(TRENDS)(TOR)(00017) Info Highway Report Grapples With Content Issues 09/28/95 OTTAWA, ONTARIO, CANADA, 1995 SEP 28 (NB) -- Content, as pundits are fond of saying, is the most important element of the so-called information highway. To what extent that content should be controlled is a sensitive issue for governments, and the newly released report of the Canadian Advisory Council on the Information Highway tries to deal with content issues of universal concern as well as issues more particularly Canadian. The discussion of content cannot help raising the issue of possibly offensive material, notably on the Internet. This has been a contentious issue in Canada and the United States recently. The Canadian report advocates several measures, which include fine-tuning existing laws to make it clear that they apply to new forms of electronic communication, and trying to establish multilateral agreements among governments to get around the fact that material considered illegal in one jurisdiction may be legal in another and the Internet's global nature makes it difficult if not impossible to limit its circulation. At the same time, the report urges support for work on hardware and software that would allow parents to control what their children can get at via the Internet or other new media. Being adjacent to the United States, Canada has for years been concerned about protecting its cultural industries from being overwhelmed by the much larger economy to the south. The Information Highway Advisory Council notes that this will become even more of a challenge as new media appear. Pointing to speculation about the Information Highway's potential to "bring down borders" between nations, the report points out that bringing down borders can lead to a blurring of national identities. The report also expresses concern about preserving the French language in Canada. "Past federal policies have attempted to give Canadians a fighting chance in the cultural marketplace" the report says, presumably referring to such provisions as quotas for Canadian content on television and radio. "These policies have been effective: 60 years ago we were a market for British, American and French cultures; today Canada is a major exporter of film and television products." The committee says its members debated how appropriate it would be to apply the same kind of rules to new communications channels as the Canadian government currently does to broadcasting. For instance, the report says, the Internet is more a medium for private communication than an analog to television. "As long as the Internet remains principally a private communication medium, used as a depository of databases and scientific information or as a promotional tool, regulating its content is no more appropriate than regulating the content for the telephone or, for that matter, publicity flyers," says the report. "But if the Internet evolves into a medium for the commercial provision of programming, cultural policy goals will have to be set." Admitting that quotas may protect Canadian culture within the country but cannot make cultural industries internationally competitive, the council also recommends that the government levy a charge -- calculated as a percentage of revenues from the distribution in Canada of broadcast services -- on all carriers governed by the Broadcasting Act. The money would be used to support the production of Canadian programming, including interactive multimedia products. The report also called on Ottawa to create new funding or tax incentives to encourage Canadian businesses to invest in new products, including Canadian multimedia products. In addition, the council recommends that Section 19 of the Income Tax Act, which denies Canadian companies tax deductions for advertising in foreign print and broadcast media directed at the Canadian market, be extended to apply to new media, including online services. The government also has a role, the council suggests, as a "model user" of new communications technologies. The report points to several ways in which the government is already doing this, such as the SchoolNet initiative in which schools across the country are being networked. The council calls on the government to make it a priority to "become a world leader in the rapid introduction and generalized use of electronic information and communications systems, and in affording all Canadians the opportunity to communicate and interact electronically with its departments and agencies in either official language." According to the report, making greater use of new communications technologies should save the government money and make it more efficient. The full report of the Advisory Council on the Information Highway, which also deals with various questions about government regulation and the impact of new technology on jobs, is available on the World Wide Web through the home page of the Industry Canada department at http://www.ic.gc.ca . (Grant Buckler/19950928) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 09/28/95 GENERAL Seybold - Canon Intros ColorGear Color Mgt (NEWS)(GENERAL)(SFO)(00018) Seybold - Canon Intros ColorGear Color Mgt 09/28/95 SAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1995 SEP 28 (NB) -- Canon of Tokyo and Canon Information Systems of Palo Alto, California, opened Softbank Expo's Seybold show with the introduction of ColorGear. Defined as a "cross- platform color management system" (CMS), ColorGear is a collection of software tools and device profiles. Canon's engineering manager for ColorGear, Smadar Nehab, told Newsbytes, "From high-end business clients to individual desktop users, our customers tell us they want to be able to produce the same image across all platforms regardless of the output device. The main accomplishment with ColorGear is its cross-platform capabilities. ColorGear works on Macintosh, all versions of Windows and Unix and complies with the International Color Consortium specification." CMS supports object-based color matching for documents which contain a variety of object types such as spot-color graphics, text, scanned images, and bitmaps. At the Seybold show, Canon demonstrated ColorGear in its recently announced BubbleJet printer, the BJC-4100. Images printed with the new technology were placed against the same image printed without ColorGear support. The striking difference attracted crowds of tradeshow attendees. Canon says ColorGear will be made available for all of its printer customers from the individual desktop user to users of high-end digital imaging systems. For novice users, ColorGear is transparent and automatic in its operation. More advanced users are able to configure ColorGear for accuracy, control and cross-platform portability and performance. The BJC-4100 is shipping with ColorGear technology. During this quarter, Canon plans to ship another BubbleJet printer, the BJC-210, with ColorGear. In the coming months, ColorGear will be added to color copiers, scanners and other product lines. This new technology also meets Apple's ColorSync technology specifications and Microsoft's ICM standard. (Patrick McKenna/19950928/Press Contact: Cathy Cloud, McLean Public Relations, tel 415-513-8800/CANON950928/PHOTO) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 09/28/95 APPLE Viewpoint Intros 3-D Object Clip-Art (NEWS)(APPLE)(DEN)(00019) Viewpoint Intros 3-D Object Clip-Art 09/28/95 OREM, UTAH, U.S.A., 1995 SEP 28 (NB) -- Viewpoint Datalabs International rolled out its Z-Art software this week at the Seybold tradeshow in San Francisco. Z-Art is a collection of design-ready three-dimensional (3-D) objects which can be used as clip-art, but have the flexibility of manipulation. "3-D hardware and software for the desktop is becoming easier to use and more affordable, but modeling is a unique talent," said Evan Ricks, vice president of production and creative director for Viewpoint. The company points out that unlike two-dimensional (2-D) clip art, Z-Art can be personalized by rotating, stretching, lighting, texturing and coloring the object according to the specific design or animation needs of the user. The models are proportionally correct with logical grouping and representative details, and include textures and colors. According to Jeff Barney at Barney McKay Design Group, the use of 3-D objects can be useful in bypassing research photo shoots. Instead, you can experiment with an object's angle, perspective, lighting and positioning in a layout without ever leaving the computer. Barney said that's particularly useful in the case of objects that are difficult or impractical to locate and photograph. Viewpoint said the Z-Art library features thousands of models representing a wide variety of icons, characters, and props. Walter Noot, production manager at Viewpoint, told Newsbytes that architecture, anatomy, sports, animals, buildings, people, vehicles and airplanes, and office product images, are just some of the categories of 3-D still images available. "They are all simple, real world objects," said Noot. The software is available in most major 3-D file formats including: Adobe Dimensions, Alias Sketch, Apple QuickDraw 3DMF, Autodesk 3D, Studio 3DS, Calagari Truespace2, ElectricImage, Macromedia Macromodel, Ray Dream Designer, Specular Infini-D, Strata Studio Pro, and DXF for cross-platform importing. The company said the first two distributors of Z-Art will be Corel Corp. and Ray Dream Inc. More than 750 Z-Art models are available in the Coreldream 3D modeling and rendering application module of the Coreldraw 6 suite for Windows 95. The 32-bit Coreldraw 6 package shipped in late August with five applications for illustration, photo editing and painting, business and multimedia presentations, 3-D rendering, and 3-D animation. Coreldraw 6 has a suggested retail price of $695. More than 400 Z-Art objects will be available in the Dream Models component of Ray Dream Studio, an integrated 3-D imaging suite for creating illustrations and animations. Ray Dream Studio will be available for the Macintosh and Power Macintosh, Windows 3.1, Windows 95, and Windows NT in the fourth quarter. Studio has a suggested retail price of $499. Users of earlier versions of Studio can upgrade for $149. Users will be able to purchase Z-Art collections directly from Viewpoint through the company's World Wide Web home page at http://www.viewpoint.com in the first quarter of 1996. (Jim Mallory/19950927/Press contact: Margaret Burniston, Corel, 613-728-0826 ext 1177; Teri Chadbourne, Ray Dream, 415-960-0768 ext 121; Leslie Kesselring, MacKenzie Kesselring for Viewpoint, 801- 359-1005; Public contact: Viewpoint, 800-328-2738/Z-ART950928/PHOTO) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 09/28/95 ONLINE Wave Technologies' New Internet Training Program (NEWS)(ONLINE)(DEN)(00020) Wave Technologies' New Internet Training Program 09/28/95 ST LOUIS, MISSOURI, U.S.A., 1995 SEP 28 (NB) -- Wave Technologies International Inc. (NASDAQ: WAVT) has introduced new training programs that include using the Internet in business and Microsoft Certified Systems Engineer (MCSE) certification. Wave (WTI) said it has aggressively accelerated its Internet curriculum development and will offer six "in-depth" instructor-led classes in October that focus on implementing and managing business use of the Internet. Wave's instructor-led courses are available at the company's 13 training centers across the country. WTI will also bring its courses and instructors to large account sites. The Internet courses will include: Internet Security Principles, a two-day course that costs $695 by itself; Creating a Web Presence (2 days for $695); Hands-On Guide to the Internet (2 days, $595); Internet TCP/IP Fundamentals (2 days, $595); Doing Business on the Internet (1 day, $295); and Connecting Your LAN (local area network) to the Internet (2 days, $695). Wave spokesperson Marjorie Pingel told Newsbytes if you purchase the entire package it has a $2,995 price tag. TCP/IP (Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol) is the traffic cop of the Internet that routes data packets to their destination via the most efficient path and also makes sure bottlenecks don't occur as the packets whiz along the electronic roadway of the net. Security is particularly important to businesses wanting to sell products or services on the Internet and charging those items to the user's credit card, so hackers can't steal information like credit card numbers. "Network security and the World Wide Web are the most relentlessly pursued topics in technical and popular media today," according to Eric Egipciaco, Internet Curriculum Director for Wave. Egipciaco said there are numerous avenues for an intruder to crack a network, and as many products claiming to be the solution for all network/Internet security problems. Wave will also release two new self-study products in mid-October that support the examinations for Microsoft's MCSE certification program. The company said Microsoft Implementations of TCP/IP and Supporting SQL Server v4.2 provide the materials needed by MCSE candidates to prepare for the certification exams. The courses are priced at $395 individually, or $595 for the pair. You get a training manual, videotape, hands-on exercise manual, a study guide and a targeted version of Wave's MCSE Challenge Interactive! The latter is a testing product with over 150 questions that lets individuals take practice tests before they sit down to attempt the real thing. You can also purchase just the study guide and subject-specific practice test for $129 for either subject, beginning in mid-October. MCSE Challenge! Interactive tracks the learner's progress on subsequent testing attempts and provides links to technical reference material. Wave will also ship Microsoft Implementations of TCP/IP as an instructor-led class in mid-October. The company said the class is designed for anyone implementing Microsoft Windows products, particularly Windows NT products, in a TCP/IP environment. The course covers design and implementation issues and network testing and troubleshooting that combines lecture and hands-on practice. Each student also gets a video for after-class reference. WTI maintains a home page on the World Wide Web at http://www.wavetech.com where it posts information about its curricula. The company said its MCSE curricula have been upgraded to meet Microsoft's latest MCSE standards. (Jim Mallory/19950928/Press contact: Marjorie Pingel,WTI, 314-692-1910; Public contact: WTI, tel 314-995-5767 or 800-828-2050, fax 314-995-9059/WAVE950928) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 09/28/95 PC Australia - Acer PCs In Different Colors (NEWS)(PC)(SYD)(00021) Australia - Acer PCs In Different Colors 09/28/95 SYDNEY, AUSTRALIA 1995 SEP 28 (NB) -- The Aspire line of "colorful, designer" PCs, announced recently by Acer, will probably make it to Australia by November, but local customers will initially be able to purchase them in only one color. The alleged aesthetic value of the new line will also come with a price premium, and it is understood that a $200-$300 "good looks" mark-up (around US$200) could be on the cards, to offset the millions said to have been spent on the design with California-based Frogdesign -- a company responsible for much of Apple's industrial design. "This is a fantastic type of product," said Acer's marketing boss Jonar Z. Nader. He predicts that people will be prepared to pay extra for a PC that matches their decor. "It seems that for a long time PCs have been nothing but a boring white or beige box," he says, and hopes to attach the upmarket lure that comes with a Porsche to the humble computer. Both charcoal gray and "deep emerald" will be available eventually, but one color must be chosen to ensure early supplies, he said. It is "too risky" to split the order, he maintained. Which color will Australia get first? According to Nader, Acer has not yet decided, and distribution channels for the Aspire PCs have not been finalized. However, asked if leading department store chain David Jones might be on the list of possibilities, he replied: "You could imagine that." (Computer Daily News and Paul Zucker/19950928) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 09/28/95 BUSINESS IPC Woos Asia's Corporations With New Hardware (NEWS)(BUSINESS)(HKG)(00022) IPC Woos Asia's Corporations With New Hardware 09/28/95 CENTRAL, HONG KONG, 1995 SEP 28 (NB) -- In a vigorous stab at exploiting the potential of the corporate market, Singapore-based PC manufacturer IPC has introduced a new suite of products ranging from desktop computers and notebooks, to servers and videoconferencing systems. The products were rolled out recently in Singapore at a seminar, "IPC Computing Solutions: Driving your business ahead of the competition", the first in a series of seven seminars to be held in the Asia-Pacific region. Bernard Ngiam, IPC's sales and marketing director, said that, with companies increasingly looking to information technology (IT) solutions to gain a competitive edge, IPC's theme for the regional seminar reflected the challenges faced by businesses in the 1990s. "These systems have been designed to fit into any corporate environment. The products are readily adaptable for future technologies, such as the new generation CPUs (central processing units) from Intel, thereby ensuring that organizations can safeguard their investments," he said. The products unveiled by IPC included: Nukleus servers, Pentium-based desktop computers, Radiance notebooks, and i2i videoconferencing hardware. The seminar highlighted the needs of today's corporate office and explained how IT can address them. It also featured talks from key industry leaders, including: Intel, Novell, Lotus, SCO, and Conner Peripherals. "It is IPC's policy to strike alliances with technological leaders. Together, we will be able to deliver crucial leading-edge technologies to customers that will better meet their computing and network requirements," Ngiam said. Other IPC seminars are to be held in China, Korea, Hong Kong, Malaysia, Indonesia, and Australia ending October 4. (Nigel Armstrong & I.T. Daily/19950928) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 09/28/95 BUSINESS Philippine Long Distance Telephone Shows Promise? (NEWS)(BUSINESS)(HKG)(00023) Philippine Long Distance Telephone Shows Promise? 09/28/95 CENTRAL, HONG KONG, 1995 SEP 28 (NB)-- Investors should ignore headline net income figures and focus on underlying performance when assessing Philippine Long distance Telephone (PLDT) and its likely future share price performance, according to investment bank Salomon Brothers. The firm believes the headline net income increase of 3.1% recorded by PLDT in the first six months of the year does not represent real achievement, due to the company's accounting policy of using month-end exchange rates to translate US dollar revenues into pesos. If income growth is determined on a constant currency basis, revenues were up 20.7% and the net income grew by 31.7%, according to bank analysts. In Salomon's recent telecommunications report, "Philippine Long Distance Telephone -- Headline First-Half Results Distort True Message," leading regional telecommunications analyst Dr. Andrew Harrington says PLDT's accounting policy requires investors to look at the company's accomplishments, such as growth in access lines, call volumes, and national long-distance revenues, to gain a clear impression of the company's performance. "Favorable year-to-year currency comparisons in the next six months should ensure that much of the underlying growth will show up in the published results," Dr. Harrington said. In the second half of the year, Salomon Brothers predicts that PLDT will see an acceleration in access line growth to 25% for the full year, equivalent to an installation of around 180,000 access lines in the second half. The operator should also see an acceleration in international call volume growth to over 20% for the full year, which will only be partially counterbalanced by declining international market share, which Salomon Brothers anticipates will fall from 81% at end June to around 75% by year-end. In the long-term, Salomon Brothers believes substantial headline earnings growth is still possible, even in a pessimistic exchange rate environment, because of the expected acceleration in the growth rate of the Philippine telecommunications market, which is likely to swamp any strengthening of the exchange rate or any market share loss by PLDT to its carriers. (Nigel Armstrong & I.T. Daily/19950928) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 24 09/28/95 GENERAL Comdex Asia Set For October (NEWS)(GENERAL)(HKG)(00024) Comdex Asia Set For October 24 09/28/95 CENTRAL, HONG KONG, 1995 SEP 28 (NB) -- It has all the trappings of a major event -- big names in government and industry, masses of space (over 17,000 square-meters, fully booked months ahead) spread over three levels of Singapore's Suntec City, the promise of several product launches, and the backing of many heavyweights, including the National Computer Board. Giving Comdex/Asia at Informatics 95, slated to open on October 24, a further edge, is the award of Approved International Fair (AIF) status by the Singapore Trade Development Board. Not surprisingly, Michael Liew, senior vice-president of the Times Publishing Group, joint organizers of the three-day show, is ecstatic. "The award is in recognition of the effort we have put into making this show the premier event in Asia for the information technology (IT) industry," he said at a briefing in Singapore. Over 260 exhibitors are taking part in the show, which has registered a 220% increase in terms of space over its predecessor, Informatics. The biggest booth is being put together by Digital Equipment, occupying 450 square meters. David Chin, Deputy chief executive officer (CEO) of TDB, pointed out that Comdex, making its Asian debut, won the AIF award in view of its international content and the comprehensive range of products and services it offers that are key to the needs of IT and communications industries in the region. Privileges of the award include tax incentives for eligible companies and market development assistance by the TDB. The show will also be publicized on TDBs GlobaLink, an online computer database of trade and market information. The show will be declared open by Singapore's Deputy Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong. According to Michael Fleming, organizer of seminars, Comdex will have keynote addresses by a host of big speakers. They include: Stan Shih, chairman and CEO of the Acer Group; and John Gage, director of Sun Microsystems. Visitors can also look forward to regional pavilions from India, Canada, Australia, Taiwan, and the UK. A free CD-ROM, complete with information on the show, will be given to visitors. The event is jointly organized by Times Conferences and Exhibitions, the Singapore Federation of the Computer Industry and Softbank Comdex. (Nigel Armstrong & I.T. Daily/19950928) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 09/28/95 BUSINESS Unisys Charges Into China PC Market (NEWS)(BUSINESS)(HKG)(00025) Unisys Charges Into China PC Market 09/28/95 CENTRAL, HONG KONG, 1995 SEP 28 (NB)-- Looking for instant positioning in China's PC market, Unisys Corp. has signed Beijing's Founder Corp. as its mainland and Hong Kong distributor in a deal reportedly worth US$27 million. As I.T. Daily reported nearly two months ago, Unisys and Founder had been working feverishly on putting the venture on the rails. If it meets only the minimum first year sales target of 25,000 units on the mainland, Founder will have made Unisys a major player in China's cut-throat desktop market. The trade-off is that Unisys is expected to have to settle for "shavings" for profit margins. Founder is committed to selling 2,500 units in Hong Kong, but Unisys Hong Kong Marketing Director Garry Scarborough is betting the targets will turn out to be on the conservative side. "In truth we expect to see more sales in the high-end desktop and server areas," he said. Founder, a publishing systems vendor, turned Digital into a big PC name overnight in China and hopes to do the same for Unisys, selling 486 CWDs, so-called terminal replacements, and low-end to high-end Pentium-powered PCs, some of these ready for Intel P6 upgrade. Richard Wong, general manager of Founder Hong Kong's PC department, said Unisys had proven its commitment to the PC market, laying out a range that spanned sub-notebooks to high-end desktops in less than a year. "These are an indication of how active Unisys is in the PC arena," Wong said. Unisys, a newcomer in the small systems game, must have been encouraged by recent news that AT&T is to exit the PC market. AT&T had ambitions for China, repackaging PCs absorbed in its takeover of NCR Corp. as GIS Globalyst. All in all, AT&T reportedly lost US$312 million through its Global Information Solutions computer unit, the renamed NCR. (Nigel Armstrong & I.T. Daily/19950928) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 09/28/95 IBM ****Boston Chicken President Replaces Cannavino At IBM (NEWS)(IBM)(TOR)(00026) ****Boston Chicken President Replaces Cannavino At IBM 09/28/95 ARMONK, NEW YORK, U.S.A., 1995 SEP 28 (NB) -- The former cereal-company boss who now heads IBM has named another veteran of the food industry to the post of chief strategist at the computer company. IBM Chairman and Chief Executive Louis Gerstner has appointed J. Bruce Harreld as senior vice-president of strategy. To take his new job, Harreld will step down as president of Boston Chicken, a Golden, Colorado, firm known for its highly successful initial public offering. Before joining Boston Chicken in 1993, Harreld was senior vice-president for marketing and information services at Kraft General Foods Inc. Before holding that post he was also chief information officer at Kraft for three years. Earlier, as a consultant with Boston Consulting Group, he worked with clients in the telecommunications and cable television industries. Harreld will take over the duties formerly held by James Cannavino, IBM spokesman Rob Wilson confirmed. Cannavino left the company in March. Wilson told Newsbytes that Harreld, who will be based at IBM headquarters in Armonk, will assume his new role immediately. However, a statement from Boston Chicken said he will continue his day-to-day duties at the Colorado firm until Oct. 16. Wilson said that while Harreld may need to some time to move to the new job, IBM considers the appointment effective when it is announced. Boston Chicken, which operates a franchise chain of retail stores specializing in complete meals, credited Harreld with building an "organizational, communication and information infrastructure" for the company. On assuming his new job at IBM, Harreld will continue as an outside director of Boston Chicken, a post he held before becoming president of the company in 1993. (Grant Buckler/19950928/Press Contact: Rob Wilson, IBM, 914-765-6565; Gary Gerdemann, Boston Chicken, 303-384-5638) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 09/28/95 BUSINESS ****Apple Consolidates Online Into One Division (NEWS)(BUSINESS)(LAX)(00027) ****Apple Consolidates Online Into One Division 09/28/95 CUPERTINO, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1995 SEP 28 (NB) -- Apple Computer Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL) has "expanded and consolidated" all of the company's Internet and online content and services development into one division. The new division will be called Apple Internet Services. Led by Peter Friedman, a vice president of Apple, in charge of Apple Internet Services, the group will work "in tandem" with the company's software organization, under the leadership of Vice President Ike Nassi, to develop new Apple products for the Internet. Susan Marino, spokesperson for Apple Computer, told Newsbytes, "The new division -- Apple Internet Services -- will be responsible for the launching of a series of new, Apple-branded, World Wide Web sites, and all of the company's 25 World Wide Web sites will be consolidated and put under the direction of the new division. "The new division will also take over the management of eWorld, the company's online service, moving it toward an Internet-based service. We have eWorld brand Web pages now, but the plans are to have eWorld on the Internet," said Marino. "We think the future of the information industry -- open platforms, diverse media, the elevated customer voice for differentiated services -- is unfolding on the Internet today," said Michael Spindler, Apple's president. "We plan to build on our existing strengths and leadership in the electronic services realm and advance aggressively." Spindler continued, "By consolidating our Internet content and services work, and focusing our online service on the Internet, we aim to quickly create a powerful and influential Apple community on the Web. We believe the Apple brand can be as renown in cyberspace as it is in publishing, education, and the home." Apple Internet Services expects to develop, both independently and in conjunction with other companies, a portfolio of World Wide Web sites that address Apple's targeted markets. Apple expects to be delivering Web sites focused on, among others, creative professionals, family computer users, K-12 teachers and students, as well as college and university students and professors. Two such sites are presently available in pilot: Web City at www.eworld.com/general/ and Learning Community at www.eworld.com/learning/. (Richard Bowers/19950928/Press Contact: Susan Marino, Apple Computer, 408-974-8028) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 09/28/95 BUSINESS Quarterdeck Acquires StarNine Technologies (NEWS)(BUSINESS)(LAX)(00028) Quarterdeck Acquires StarNine Technologies 09/28/95 SANTA MONICA, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1995 SEP 28 (NB) -- Quarterdeck Corporation (NASDAQ: QDEK) has acquired StarNine Technologies Inc. for approximately 670,000 shares of Quarterdeck common stock. StarNine developed the first commercial Web server for the Apple Macintosh. At current stock prices, the purchase price of StarNine would be around $12.5 million. The merger will be treated as a pooling of interests for accounting purposes. Bob Cutnick, vice president of business development at Quarterdeck, told Newsbytes, "This acquisition gives us, for the first time, a strategic position in the Mac world. StarNine is very well-respected and known in the Internet Community, and fits perfectly in the Quarterdeck product line." "With this acquisition, Quarterdeck becomes the world's market leader for commercially distributed Web servers across all platforms," said Gaston Bastiaens, president and chief executive officer of Quarterdeck. "StarNine is the leading developer and distributor of Macintosh Internet server applications. This acquisition represents an excellent opportunity for us to begin offering Internet solutions to the Macintosh user. "The StarNine team has developed several winning products that are today putting millions of documents on the World Wide Web from the Macintosh platform. The StarNine team will also play a key role in porting our PC-based family of Internet products to the Macintosh platform. Besides that, StarNine's electronic-mail connectivity product enables our remote computing division to offer complete Macintosh connectivity as well as the Unix, Windows 3.1, NT and 95 solutions," Bastiaens said. "StarNine already enjoys a leadership position in Macintosh-based Internet server products and a large base of more than several thousand installed Web servers," said Rusty Rahm, president of StarNine. "Teaming up with Quarterdeck gives us the needed worldwide distribution, sales and support organization to further strengthen our market position." StarNine Technologies, located in Berkeley, California, is a developer of Internet server software and e-mail connectivity products for the Apple Macintosh. StarNine's MailLink product line includes 13 e-mail gateways connecting CE Software's QuickMail, Microsoft Corporation's Microsoft Mail for AppleTalk Networks, and Apple Computer Inc.'s PowerTalk and PowerShare to the Internet. StarNine's WebStar Web server software is used by individuals, corporations and organizations. ListStar is a listserver and Email-On-Demand processor for Internet and local area network-based e-mail. (Richard Bowers/19950928/Press Contact: Ellen Spooren, Quarterdeck, 310-314-6241) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 09/28/95 ONLINE Seybold - Communication Arts Magazine Opens Web Site (NEWS)(ONLINE)(SFO)(00029) Seybold - Communication Arts Magazine Opens Web Site 09/28/95 SAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1995 SEP 28 (NB) -- Communication Arts magazine, the industry digest for design professionals, has announced a World Wide Web site. The well-known journal for the design industry says its readers now have an Internet source for information about the growing world of online technology. Patrick Coyne, editor and designer of Communication Arts, told Newsbytes, "As Internet publishing has grown, we have been printing articles about various technologies, software, tools, and general knowledge. But the best place to have information about the Web is on the Web itself. We have created a site which is truly designed for visual communicators and image makers." The Communication Arts' Web site, which is at http://www.commarts.com , includes: Exhibit Online which contains the latest examples of design, advertising, photography and illustration; Creative Resources for professional contacts, book reviews and current industry-related articles; Production Resources where users can get listings of service bureaus, printers and paper products; Tools and Technology for computer software and literature; Creative Community where users learn about clubs and organizations; Business and Career for seminars, conferences, legal issues and job listings; CA Magazine which offers some of the magazine content; and Web Resources which direct users to other Web sites for tools and information. Coyne said the site is designed to "meet the needs" of graphic designers, art directors, copywriters, photographers, illustrators, multimedia designers, and students. "Working with the magazine, we have a two- month lead time. With our Web site, we are able to compliment the printed material with timely updates. Instead of waiting months for important news, our readers can access it almost immediately," said Coyne. Coyne also said interactive design is the fastest growing area in the field of visual communications. Currently, 18% of Communication Arts' 66,000 readers are doing interactive design and another 32% are planning to do so in the next 12 months. (Patrick McKenna/19950928/Press Contact: Michael Krigel, Communication Arts, 415-326-6040/COMMARTS950928/PHOTO) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 09/28/95 LEGAL ****High Court To Hear Lotus-Borland Copyright Dispute (NEWS)(LEGAL)(WAS)(00030) ****High Court To Hear Lotus-Borland Copyright Dispute 09/28/95 WASHINGTON, D.C., U.S.A., 1995 SEP 28 (NB) -- The US Supreme Court yesterday agreed to decide the long-running copyright dispute between Lotus and Borland over the command structure of Lotus's 1-2-3 spreadsheet program. The decision is a major victory for Lotus, now owned by IBM. Lotus appealed a ruling last March by a federal appeals court in Boston. That court concluded that the menu structure of the Lotus program "is uncopyrightable subject matter" and is merely a "method of operation." Lotus brought suit against Borland in 1990, claiming that Borland's Quattro spreadsheet, which mimicked the Lotus command structure, violated Lotus copyrights. In 1993, a district court agreed with Lotus and Borland appealed to the next level of federal court. The Copyright Act of 1976 protects computer programs, defined as "a set of statements or instructions to be used directly or indirectly in a computer in order to bring about a certain result." In appealing to the Supreme Court, Lotus said that "software developers and their investors can no longer tell whether, or to what extent, their creative efforts will receive effective protection or may encroach on the rights of others." Lotus described the appeals court ruling as "a jarring departure from the prevailing consensus" and said it would damage the software industry. The company noted that five other federal appeals courts have allowed copyright protection for command structures. Lawyers for Borland urged the high court to reject the appeal, arguing that all courts "are in agreement that words used as buttons to operate a program, unlike the program itself, are uncopyrightable." Borland sold Quattro to Novell in March, 1994. But Borland would continue to be liable for damages if Lotus wins the suit. The court will hear the case in January.The case is Lotus vs. Borland, No. 94-2003. The high court yesterday also agreed to hear a patent infringement case of interest to high-tech industries. The case tests whether there is a constitutional right to a jury trial to resolve factual disputes over patents. In the case -- Markman vs. Westview Instruments, No. 95-26 -- the US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit ruled in April that judges should determine what a patent means. The court is a specialized body that has nationwide jurisdiction over patent issues. The appeals court, by an 8-3 vote, said judges are better training for unraveling patent disputes than juries in an increasingly complex and technically sophisticated world. In accepting the case, the Supreme Court will be examining whether the Seventh Amendment confers a right to a trial by jury in civil cases. (Kennedy Maize/19950928) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 09/28/95 IBM IBM Plans Turnkey Data Warehousing, 3rd-Party Deals (NEWS)(IBM)(BOS)(00031) IBM Plans Turnkey Data Warehousing, 3rd-Party Deals 09/28/95 BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS, U.S.A., 1995 SEP 28 (NB) -- IBM's plans and activities in data management call for commercial shipment of DB2 Parallel Edition this week, creation of new algorithms for "data mining," completion of a new "turnkey data warehouse" called Visual Warehouse, and collaboration with Lotus and third-party partners on future data warehousing front ends, said IBM executives Janet Perna and George Zagelow, in a briefing for Newsbytes. "Only 10 percent of all data today is digitized. And I think that, IBM, as a company, is uniquely positioned to help deal with this," remarked Perna, who is IBM's director of database technology. IBM's answer to data capture and management is based on both "industrial strength" products from IBM on the back end and "front office skills for connecting people together" in the form of tools like Notes, cc:Mail, and SmartSuite from the newly acquired Lotus, according to the IBM exec. IBM views its DB2 relational database as the underlying "foundation" for using digitized data in emerging client-server computing applications such as data mining and data warehousing, she continued. With the release this week of DB2 Parallel Edition for IBM's RS/6000 Scalable PowerParallel (SP) systems, DB2 is now available across all IBM platforms, as well as on Sun and HP. In addition, DB2 is now in beta for Windows 95, Windows NT, Sun, and Siemens- Nixdorf. "And that's the beginning of the game," Perna said. As previously reported in Newsbytes, beta applications for DB2 Parallel Edition have included scientific/technical implementations, such as a 512-node SP machine at Cornell University, along with commercial applications in data mining. Perna told Newsbytes this week that IBM is now at work on new data mining algorithms that will provide data with enhanced abilities "to tell us about itself, and to draw patterns." In addition, she noted, IBM has published a new architecture called DRDA (Distributed Relational Database Administration). IBM has also made DRDA available to X/Open. Zagelow told Newsbytes that Visual Warehouse, IBM's upcoming turnkey data warehousing system, entered beta testing in May, and is targeted for release by the end of this year. "The idea is to provide the customer with a standalone data mart that can be `up and running' right away," he asserted. Visual Warehouse will include: DB2 for OS/2; DataHub, a platform for integrating data warehousing tools; Data Propagator, for data replication; DataJoiner, a gateway to multivendor databases; a set of Visual Warehouse Adapters for extracting data from non- relational databases. DDCS (Distributed Database Connection Services) for OS/2; Visualize Query and Charting; and DataGuide, a "directory of all objects" in the warehouse. "But as broad as our spectrum is, there are areas where other vendors can provide some very useful functionality. We won't be doing a `cast of thousands' announcement. But we will be (announcing plans) to work with third-party vendors. We'll be taking a much stronger technical look at integration of the data warehouse," maintained Zagelow, who is program director, Data Warehousing Solutions. Meta data, which provides the data warehouse user with "data about the data," is "probably the primary area for help," Zagelow added. IBM is now "talking with potential alliance partners" about how to integrate DataGuide with third-party end user applications such as popular spreadsheets and charting programs so that users can view meta data from their choice of a variety of front ends, Zagelow reported. "This should be a nice seamless interface, with a strong connection back into DB2," he elaborated. Data warehouses of the near future will typically be built around an RDBMS (relational database management system) such as DB2, with "maybe some smaller relational datamarts, and some smaller specialized databases such as MDDS (multidimensional database management system)," he predicted. The RDBMS is able to warehouse huge stores of information, he explained. "But I don't see the MDDS (multidimensional database system) as being that scalable." On the other hand, though, the MDDS provides capabilities for "discovery" and data mining that complement RDBMS query capabilities, so that RDBMS and MDDS will often be used in the same data warehouse, according to the IBM exec. Through the query process, users are essentially "confirming their hypotheses," he noted. In contrast, through the MDDS "discovery" process, users can often detect unexpected and interesting "patterns" among the data being explored. Perna observed that, also this week, IBM is announcing shipment of its first DB2 gateways for the Web. Right now, the Web gateways to AIX and OS/2 DB2 servers are being sold on a standalone basis, she pointed out. "But we are also looking at other packaging options, and we might eventually package the gateways as part of DB2." Meanwhile, she revealed, IBM is working with Lotus to connect DB2 to Approach and the Notes database server, and well as to link IBM's "enterprise MQSeries" to Notes, cc:Mail, and SmartSuite. (Jacqueline Emigh/19950928/Reader Contact: IBM, 914-642-3000; Press Contact: Parna Sarkar-Basu, Brodeur & Partners for IBM, 617-622- 2800) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 09/28/95 ONLINE Seybold - Connect Intros OneServer Software (NEWS)(ONLINE)(SFO)(00032) Seybold - Connect Intros OneServer Software 09/28/95 SAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1995 SEP 28 (NB) -- Connect Inc. gathered attendees' attention with its OneServer software, an end-to-end Internet and private network system for companies wanting to establish an online marketplace for digital products. OneServer was demonstrated at Seybold with its first announced customer, PhotoDisc. Called OneServer Digital Product Distribution System (DPDS), the new software is a "serious" business application for large companies which need a custom product to produce online sales, licensing, distribution, and tracking of multimedia digital products online. Connect says its product was designed as an answer to companies looking for one complete software package to establish business on the Internet or on a private network. When Connect says "serious" business, it means what it says. An entry-level version of OneServer begins with a price tag of $80,000 and, depending on the platform, configuration, and database volume, may run as high as $1,500,000. Tom Kehler, Connect's president and chief executive officer (CEO), told Newsbytes, "OneServer is a means of setting up an electronic storefront with everything a customer needs to do business. If a large company went out and set up a new storefront the costs are extremely high compared to building an electronic presence which opens the door to global sales." With OneServer, PhotoDisc is introducing PhotoDisc Online. It offers more than 10,000 royalty-free images electronically to more than 40,000 design professionals. Future plans call for the addition of another 40,000 images early next year. This means PhotoDisc Online will offer approximately 20 gigabytes (GB) of images and information. Connect also announced an agreement with Hewlett-Packard to include OneServer software in HP's Internet Solutions Program. As part of the program, OneServer is available on HP 9000 servers sunning HP-UX 10.x. Connect says the arrangement allows an even wider audience of potential customers to learn about OneServer. (Patrick McKenna/19950928/Press Contact: Robin M. Foster, Miller Communications, 415-962-9550) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 09/28/95 TRENDS ****Seybold - Hitachi Intros Graphics Tablet (NEWS)(TRENDS)(SFO)(00033) ****Seybold - Hitachi Intros Graphics Tablet 09/28/95 SAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A, 1995 SEP 28 (NB) -- Hitachi, which markets its MultiPad professional graphics tablet, has unveiled a smaller, less expensive model called StudioPad. With a suggested $200 price tag, this compliment to MultiPad is designed for "graphics professionals and upscale home users." Available for Macintosh and Windows-based personal computers (PCs), StudioPad is a four-inch by five-inch tablet offering "convenience and portability" over the larger StudioPad, says the company. It weighs less than a pound and provides pen and mouse functions. Hitachi says StudioPad is designed so it draws very little power when used with a notebook. StudioPad has a fifteen electronic function keys which are operated with a touch of the stylus. Hitachi says users are able to draw pictures and diagrams, annotate a document or add a signature to a letter "quickly and easily." Hitachi spokesperson, Tom Bock, told Newsbytes, "We are overwhelmed here at the show. People are very excited about StudioPad. We have two artists here at the booth and three stations for conference attendees to try the tablet." Supporting Bock's statement, customers were lining up to buy StudioPad at a special conference price of $119. MultiPad, also on display, was also selling briskly for $100 less than its suggested advertised price of $299. Hitachi says you do not have to be an artist to use StudioPad. Users are able to trace images which can be placed under the drawing surface. The tablet features 256 levels of pressure and it has an 0.01-inch accuracy. For the Windows model, StudioPad connects through a standard nine-pin connector and Hitachi supplies a 25-pin adapter for connecting to COM port 2, 3, and 4. Potential buyers can expect to see the graphics tablet at computer superstores and most major consumer electronic stores, such as The Good Guys. Hitachi has also formed an agreement with Fractal Design to bundle StudioPad with the popular Dabbler paint program. (Patrick McKenna/19950928/Press Contact: Tom Bock, Hitachi, 408-747-0777/HITACHI950928/PHOTO) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 09/28/95 ONLINE More On Lotus cc:Mail For The Web (NEWS)(ONLINE)(BOS)(00034) More On Lotus cc:Mail For The Web 09/28/95 CAMBRIDGE, MASSACHUSETTS, U.S.A., 1995 SEP 28 (NB) -- Lotus's newly unveiled cc:Mail for the World Wide Web is designed to ease cc:Mail access from home offices and on-the-road, as well as to simplify the management chores of cc:Mail administrators, maintained Amy Shaw, senior product manager, in an interview with Newsbytes. Organizations can employ the new Web server-based software to let users access basic cc:Mail functions from any computer equipped with a Web browser, whether that computer is located on company grounds, in an employee's home office, or in a hotel lobby, according to Shaw. Meanwhile, the product will make life smoother for administrators by allowing them to perform cc:Mail updates over the Web, instead of via "sneakernet," and by permitting the quick set-up and configuration of mailboxes for temporary and contract workers on Web servers, she contended. "All the administrator needs to do is define a user address, or URL (Uniform Resource Locator)." Lotus decided to create the new Web-based offering after receiving requests from users for a way to access their cc:Mail software on computers not equipped with cc:Mail client software, Newsbytes was told. Computers with Web browsers are starting to show up in more and more places, including hotel lobbies, Shaw pointed out. In the future, Web connectivity will even extend to airport kiosks, she predicted. The new cc:Mail for the Web can be used on any Windows NT-based HTML (hypertext markup language)-compliant Web server, including secure Web servers, she noted. Each server license supports multiple cc:Mail post offices, and each cc:Mail post office supports about 200 users. In addition, the new product allows basic cc:Mail access from any HTML-compliant browser. So far, Lotus has only had time to certify the product for use with Netscape, but the certification process will extend to other Web browsers in the future, she continued. In its first release, cc:Mail for the Web lets users view, create. read, and respond to cc:Mail electronic mail, according to the Lotus exec. Users cannot send documents with attached files over the Web, but they can both receive documents with attached files, and forward these documents to other users. In the future, Lotus intends to add the ability to let users receive cc:Mail documents with attached files over the Web, as well as to receive notification and to utilize cc:Mail rules. Also planned are editions of the Web server software for OS/2 and Unix, according to the senior product manager. Lotus cc:Mail for the World Wide Web is slated for availability within the next 90 days, at expected pricing of $195 for a server license and no more than $20 per user license. For the next 30 days, users can view an interactive demo on the Web at http://salsa.ccmail.com:8324/silver40.3 . Demo viewers should employ the fictitious user name "John Valentine," and the password "JV." (Jacqueline Emigh/19950929/Reader Contact: Lotus Development Corp., 617-577-8500; Press Contact: Victor Cruz, Meryl Franzman, or Kevin Kosh, Lois Paul & Partners for Lotus, 617-862-4514) (SUMMARY)(GENERAL)(MSP)(00035) Newsbytes Daily Summary 09/28/95 MINNEAPOLIS, MINNESOTA, U.S.A., 1995 SEP 28 (NB) -- These are capsules of all today's news stories: ======================================================================== ------------| N E W S B Y T E S D A I L Y S U M M A R Y |---------- ------------| Thursday, September 28, 1995 |---------- ======================================================================== (c) Newsbytes News Network (Tm) Editor in Chief: Wendy Woods ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Newsbytes News Network's 1995 Update CD-ROM for Mac, DOS, and Windows is now available for $29.95 (includes s&h). Contains 1983-1995 news stories, more than 64,000 keyword searchable stories and 475 digitized images. For more information or to order, fax to 612-430-0441 or e-mail to 'administrator@newsbytes.com' -- MC, Visa, Amex accepted. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ CATEGORY HEADLINES (*** indicates today's top stories) STORY # ======================================================================== APPLE New Version Of Act! For Mac................................ 08 APPLE Macromedia Upgrades FreeHand For Macs...................... 09 APPLE Adobe Intros Mac Pagemaker Developer's Kit................. 14 APPLE Viewpoint Intros 3-D Object Clip-Art....................... 19 BROADCAST ****Philips Plans Set-Top For Web, MCD For Video/Audio/Dat 01 BROADCAST Scientific Atlanta Wins Chinese Emergency Network Order.... 06 BROADCAST Video News Roundup......................................... 07 BUSINESS IPC Woos Asia's Corporations With New Hardware............. 22 BUSINESS Philippine Long Distance Telephone Shows Promise........... 23 BUSINESS Unisys Charges Into China PC Market........................ 25 BUSINESS ****Apple Consolidates Online Into One Division........... 27 BUSINESS Quarterdeck Acquires StarNine Technologies................. 28 GENERAL Seybold - Canon Intros ColorGear Color Mgt................. 18 GENERAL Comdex Asia Set For October 24............................. 24 HEALTH New Web Site For Disease Management........................ 13 IBM ****Boston Chicken President Replaces Cannavino At IBM.... 26 IBM IBM Plans Turnkey Data Warehousing, 3rd-Party Deals........ 31 LEGAL ****High Court To Hear Lotus-Borland Copyright Dispute.... 30 NETWORK Zenith Data Systems Adds To Server Line, NetWare Support... 02 ONLINE Internet Update............................................ 04 ONLINE NTT Launches US Internet Consultancy Service............... 05 ONLINE Quarterdeck InternetSuite Available In Netherlands......... 12 ONLINE Vossnet Offers Global Yacht Sales Web Site................. 15 ONLINE Wave Technologies' New Internet Training Program........... 20 ONLINE Seybold - Communication Arts Magazine Opens Web Site....... 29 ONLINE Seybold - Connect Intros OneServer Software................ 32 ONLINE More On Lotus cc:Mail For The Web.......................... 34 PC Australia - Acer PCs In Different Colors................... 21 TRENDS ****Symposium Looks At Wearable Computers................. 03 TRENDS Limited Role For Govt In Info Highway - Report............. 16 TRENDS Info Highway Report Grapples With Content Issues........... 17 TRENDS ****Seybold - Hitachi Intros Graphics Tablet.............. 33 WINDOWS Expense Software Downloads Credit Card Data................ 10 WINDOWS Zenographics' SuperPrint 4.0 Speeds Win 95 Printing........ 11 ======================================================================== These are the headlines and first paragraphs of each story, in order: 1 -> ****Philips Plans Set-Top For Web, MCD For Video/Audio/Data -- Over the next year or so, Philips and its partners will roll out a new set-top box providing Web connectivity to TV sets over standard phone lines, plus a variety of systems that are based on the new MCD (Multimedia Compact Disk) high density, "high resolution" CD format for interoperable use with CD-ROM, CD-Audio, Video CD, and CD-I (compact disk interactive), Philips officials revealed, at a press briefing attended by Newsbytes in Boston. 2 -> Zenith Data Systems Adds To Server Line, NetWare Support -- Zenith Data Systems (ZDS) said it will support quad processors for its Z-Server MX network server platform, and a higher speed option for its dual processor Z-Server WG server line. The company also announced support for NetWare 4.1 SMP on its entire Z-Server line of multiprocessor server platforms. 3 -> ****Symposium Looks At Wearable Computers -- Holy socks Batman, wearable computers! Computer Products & Services Inc. (CPSI) is running a technical symposium on wearable computers next week in Washington's Virginia suburbs. 4 -> Internet Update -- In this roundup of new products and services on the global Internet: Real change on the Internet, Swiss, German governments resources, Yucky home page debuts, Live jazz on the net, Irish film festival, Internet audio mailing list, Interactive insurance launches, Australian observatory online. 5 -> NTT Launches US Internet Consultancy Service -- The American subsidiary of Japan's largest domestic telecommunications company, Nippon Telegraph and Telephone, has entered the north American Internet market with a specialist Internet consultancy and connection service. 6 -> Scientific Atlanta Wins Chinese Emergency Network Order -- Scientific Atlanta Inc. (NYSE:SFA) has won a large order from China's Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications for a nationwide emergency and disaster communications network. The new system will be used during relief operations when a natural disaster, such as flooding or an earthquake, disables the public telephone network, or in areas where there is no telephone access in the first place. 7 -> Video News Roundup -- This is a look at the top stories this week in the world of video news reporting: Desktop video price breakthrough announced by Miro, Virtual Studio Sets, and Researchers refine video grabbing. In product news, Panasonic D-3 cameras go underwater, and Hitachi announces new SDTV decoder. 8 -> New Version Of Act! For Mac -- Symantec Corporation (NASDAQ:SYMC) has announced a new Macintosh version of its popular contact manager Act!. The new version, Act! 2.5 for Macintosh, highlights file and database synchronization capabilities important to business users. 9 -> Macromedia Upgrades FreeHand For Macs -- Macromedia (NASDAQ:MACR) has announced version 5.5 of FreeHand for Macintosh and Power Macintosh. The software and design illustration tool is claimed to be 25% faster than the previous version, offers 10,000 free clip-art images and includes 500 free fonts. 10 -> Expense Software Downloads Credit Card Data -- Portable Software Corp. (PSC) said it is now shipping version 1.6 of its QuickXpense software that includes 32-bit compatibility with Windows 95 and can access the user's corporate charge card transactions with a single mouse click. 11 -> Zenographics' SuperPrint 4.0 Speeds Win 95 Printing -- Zenographics, a Windows printing and graphic enhancement software developer, has announced SuperPrint 4.0. Designed for all versions of Windows, the print utility allows Windows 95 to perform true 32-bit printing tasks, according to the company. 12 -> Quarterdeck InternetSuite Available In Netherlands -- Quarterdeck Corporation (NASDAQ: QDEK), maker of the Quarterdeck Mosaic browser, and Videotex Nederland N.V., one of the Netherlands' Internet services providers, have announced an agreement to provide Internet access in the Netherlands. The Quarterdeck InternetSuite will be available through Videotext's World Access for an estimated retail price of 99 Dutch Guilders with one month free Internet usage. 13 -> New Web Site For Disease Management -- Greenstone Healthcare Solutions, a subsidiary of The Upjohn Company (NYSE:UPJ), is entering the world of cyberspace with an Internet World Wide Web site devoted to the field of disease management. 14 -> Adobe Intros Mac Pagemaker Developer's Kit -- Adobe Systems Inc. (NASDAQ: ADBE) has introduced a software developer kit (SDK) for Adobe Pagemaker 6.0 for the Macintosh and Power Macintosh platforms. The SDK provides third-party developers with an interface to the Pagemaker program's menu commands, tools and publication data, in order to create plug-in programs that extend the functionality of Pagemaker. 15 -> Vossnet Offers Global Yacht Sales Web Site -- Vossnet, a UK Internet service provider, has announced the creation of Yacht Link, an Internet-accessible buying and selling service for yacht owners. 16 -> Limited Role For Govt In Info Highway - Report -- The Canadian Advisory Council on the Information Highway has published its final report, calling on the Canadian government to liberalize communications regulation in some areas, rely largely on the private sector to build the so-called information highway, but retain a role as a protector of consumers and Canadian culture. 17 -> Info Highway Report Grapples With Content Issues -- Content, as pundits are fond of saying, is the most important element of the so-called information highway. To what extent that content should be controlled is a sensitive issue for governments, and the newly released report of the Canadian Advisory Council on the Information Highway tries to deal with content issues of universal concern as well as issues more particularly Canadian. 18 -> Seybold - Canon Intros ColorGear Color Mgt -- Canon of Tokyo and Canon Information Systems of Palo Alto, California, opened Softbank Expo's Seybold show with the introduction of ColorGear. Defined as a "cross- platform color management system" (CMS), ColorGear is a collection of software tools and device profiles. 19 -> Viewpoint Intros 3-D Object Clip-Art -- Viewpoint Datalabs International rolled out its Z-Art software this week at the Seybold tradeshow in San Francisco. Z-Art is a collection of design-ready three-dimensional (3-D) objects which can be used as clip-art, but have the flexibility of manipulation. 20 -> Wave Technologies' New Internet Training Program -- Wave Technologies International Inc. (NASDAQ: WAVT) has introduced new training programs that include using the Internet in business and Microsoft Certified Systems Engineer (MCSE) certification. 21 -> Australia - Acer PCs In Different Colors -- The Aspire line of "colorful, designer" PCs, announced recently by Acer, will probably make it to Australia by November, but local customers will initially be able to purchase them in only one color. 22 -> IPC Woos Asia's Corporations With New Hardware -- In a vigorous stab at exploiting the potential of the corporate market, Singapore-based PC manufacturer IPC has introduced a new suite of products ranging from desktop computers and notebooks, to servers and videoconferencing systems. 23 -> Philippine Long Distance Telephone Shows Promise -- Investors should ignore headline net income figures and focus on underlying performance when assessing Philippine Long distance Telephone (PLDT) and its likely future share price performance, according to investment bank Salomon Brothers. 24 -> Comdex Asia Set For October 24 -- It has all the trappings of a major event 25 -> Unisys Charges Into China PC Market -- Looking for instant positioning in China's PC market, Unisys Corp. has signed Beijing's Founder Corp. as its mainland and Hong Kong distributor in a deal reportedly worth US$27 million. 26 -> ****Boston Chicken President Replaces Cannavino At IBM -- The former cereal-company boss who now heads IBM has named another veteran of the food industry to the post of chief strategist at the computer company. IBM Chairman and Chief Executive Louis Gerstner has appointed J. Bruce Harreld as senior vice-president of strategy. To take his new job, Harreld will step down as president of Boston Chicken, a Golden, Colorado, firm known for its highly successful initial public offering. 27 -> ****Apple Consolidates Online Into One Division -- Apple Computer Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL) has "expanded and consolidated" all of the company's Internet and online content and services development into one division. The new division will be called Apple Internet Services. 28 -> Quarterdeck Acquires StarNine Technologies -- Quarterdeck Corporation (NASDAQ: QDEK) has acquired StarNine Technologies Inc. for approximately 670,000 shares of Quarterdeck common stock. StarNine developed the first commercial Web server for the Apple Macintosh. 29 -> Seybold - Communication Arts Magazine Opens Web Site -- Communication Arts magazine, the industry digest for design professionals, has announced a World Wide Web site. The well-known journal for the design industry says its readers now have an Internet source for information about the growing world of online technology. 30 -> ****High Court To Hear Lotus-Borland Copyright Dispute -- The US Supreme Court yesterday agreed to decide the long-running copyright dispute between Lotus and Borland over the command structure of Lotus's 1-2-3 spreadsheet program. The decision is a major victory for Lotus, now owned by IBM. 31 -> IBM Plans Turnkey Data Warehousing, 3rd-Party Deals -- IBM's plans and activities in data management call for commercial shipment of DB2 Parallel Edition this week, creation of new algorithms for "data mining," completion of a new "turnkey data warehouse" called Visual Warehouse, and collaboration with Lotus and third-party partners on future data warehousing front ends, said IBM executives Janet Perna and George Zagelow, in a briefing for Newsbytes. 32 -> Seybold - Connect Intros OneServer Software -- Connect Inc. gathered attendees' attention with its OneServer software, an end-to-end Internet and private network system for companies wanting to establish an online marketplace for digital products. OneServer was demonstrated at Seybold with its first announced customer, PhotoDisc. 33 -> ****Seybold - Hitachi Intros Graphics Tablet -- Hitachi, which markets its MultiPad professional graphics tablet, has unveiled a smaller, less expensive model called StudioPad. With a suggested $200 price tag, this compliment to MultiPad is designed for "graphics professionals and upscale home users." 34 -> More On Lotus cc:Mail For The Web -- Lotus's newly unveiled cc:Mail for the World Wide Web is designed to ease cc:Mail access from home offices and on-the-road, as well as to simplify the management chores of cc:Mail administrators, maintained Amy Shaw, senior product manager, in an interview with Newsbytes. (Ian Stokell/19950928) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 09/27/95 ONLINE Silicon Graphics Internet Publishing Tool (NEWS)(ONLINE)(LAX)(00001) Silicon Graphics Internet Publishing Tool 09/27/95 MOUNTAIN VIEW, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1995 SEP 27 (NB) -- Silicon Graphics Inc. (NYSE: SGI) has announced MindShare OutBox, a new product that uses World Wide Web technology for collaborating within heterogeneous environments. The desktop Web publishing tool will be bundled with all of the current SGI Internet products, such as Silicon Graphics' Indy and Indigo2 desktop systems. Eileen Caetano, a spokesperson for Silicon Graphics, told Newsbytes, "MindShare OutBox is the first drag-and-drop desktop Web publishing tool that allows organizations to capture the power of internal Web technology for heterogeneous workgroup collaboration. Users can employ OutBox to automatically generate Web pages hyper-linked and easily accessed by PC, Macintosh systems, or other Unix platforms. "With the MindShare OutBox software corporate deployment behind the firewall can create the atmosphere of an internal server. Integrating Silicon Graphics' easy-to-use WebMagic HTML (hypertext markup language) editor, MindShare OutBox leverages internal networks, enabling effective collaboration," said Caetano "Companies throughout the world have realized the vast potential of the World Wide Web as a powerful vehicle to tighten the communication gap between themselves and their customers," said Tom Furlong, vice president and general manager of Silicon Graphics' Digital Media Systems division. "With tools like MindShare OutBox, these same companies can now utilize the Web to serve as a dynamic communication and collaboration medium within their organizations." Indy and Indigo2 users can employ OutBox to automatically generate Web pages hyper-linked to any data type. Corporate users can then retrieve published information by browsing these generated Web pages using industry standard Web browsers. (Richard Bowers/19950926/Press Contact: Eileen M. Caetano, Silicon Graphics, 415-390-2036) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 09/27/95 ONLINE Russia - Online Media Conf Set For October (NEWS)(ONLINE)(LON)(00002) Russia - Online Media Conf Set For October 09/27/95 MOSCOW, RUSSIA, 1995 SEP 27 (NB) -- New Media for a New World 1995, an East-West conference on online media, will be presented October 23-25 at the Russian-American Press and Information Center in Moscow. This year's event will help Russian journalists become more familiar with online tools for news gathering and publishing. The conference is just part of a comprehensive two-year program aimed at promoting professional collaboration and technological convergence between regional Russian print and broadcast media and the online computer networks. Details regarding this program are available at http://solar.rtd.utk.edu/~aboyle/new.world.html/ Organizers of the conference include: the Art Pattison Communications Exchange Program, the Russian-American Press and Information Center, the Center for Civil Society International, GlasNet, Relcom, and Sovam Teleport. Funding is provided through the Russian-American Media Partnership program, jointly administered by Internews and the Center for War, Peace and the News Media. The seminar will offer hands-on training in the use of online tools such as the World Wide Web and other Internet resources, as well as Lexis/Nexis and other information databases. It will also examine online ventures such as the St. Petersburg Press and TribNet/Vladivostok News, and explore future commercial opportunities in the online news industry. The first "New Media for a New World" conference took place in July, 1994, in Moscow, with the "virtual keynote" address given via electronic-mail by Vice President Al Gore. Proceedings of that conference, as well as information about this year's event, are available via the World Wide Web at http://solar.rtd.utk.edu/~aboyle/new.world.html. (Steven Slatem/19950927/Press & Reader Contact: Art Pattison Communications Exchange Program, tel 206-432-8927, fax 206-682-1697, Internet e-mail: glasnews@eskimo.com or 73420.753@compuserve.com) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 09/27/95 WINDOWS UK - Isocor Intros Fast Windows NT Messaging Products (NEWS)(WINDOWS)(LON)(00003) UK - Isocor Intros Fast Windows NT Messaging Products 09/27/95 LONDON, ENGLAND, 1995 SEP 27 (NB) -- Isocor, a provider of open client- server messaging products, has unveiled its Isocor Messaging for Windows NT product family. According to Paul Gigg, the company's UK managing director, the range is released in time for an expected surge in demand for messaging environments for Windows NT, now that Windows NT v3.51 has gained widespread acceptance in the corporate world. "Windows NT has become a popular operating system in the business world. Our products have been available for the Unix environment for some time, but it's only recently that we realized that the Windows NT platform was starting to become popular. The release of our products for Windows NT means we are perfectly positioned for the surge in demand for Windows NT applications," he told Newsbytes. The range of Windows NT messaging products from Isocor includes messaging servers, client tools for Microsoft MAPI on Windows 95. Directory Synchronization gateways for Lotus cc:Mail and Microsoft Mail, Admin Tools for directory management and Directory Servers based on X.500. According to Gigg, the entire suite of packages run over a variety of communications topologies, including TCP/IP (Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol)) and the Internet. The packages are billed as capable of service as a managed, high-performance backbone for EDI (electronic data interchange), electronic-mail, and Microsoft Exchange systems. The major components of the Isocor Messaging for Windows NT product range include: Isoplex, an X.400 messaging server; Isogate for cc:Mail and Microsoft Mail, which features X.500 directory synchronization; Isotrade for Windows NT, an EDI package; Isoplex DS, an X.500-based Directory Server with a World Wide Web gateway; and Isoplex DS Navigator, a Windows-based management tool. Applications for Isocor Messaging for Windows NT include large backbone systems for major corporate and government organization, value-added network providers, and telcos. The packages run on both single and multiprocessor Intel-based systems for Windows NT. Isoplex for Windows NT will ship this month, while the other isocor packages for Windows NT and Windows 95 will ship during the fourth quarter of the year. Pricing has yet to be confirmed. Further details of all Isocor products, including details of the company's global offices, can be found on the company's Web site, which is at http://www.isocor.com . (Steve Gold/19950926/Press Contact: Ingeborg Seel, tel +44-181-758-2521, fax +44-181-847-1079, Internet e-mail ingeborg.seel@parabox1.parasoft.co.uk; Reader Contact: Isocor, tel +44-181-754-8115, fax +44-181-754-8120, Internet e-mail sales.info@isocor.com) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 09/27/95 GENERAL UK - Portcullis' Windows NT/95 & OS/2 Anti-Virus Prgms (NEWS)(GENERAL)(LON)(00004) UK - Portcullis' Windows NT/95 & OS/2 Anti-Virus Prgms 09/27/95 PINNER, MIDDLESEX, ENGLAND, 1995 SEP 27 (NB) -- Portcullis has announced plans to ship Windows 95, Windows NT, and OS/2 Warp versions of its F-Prot Professional range of anti-virus packages. According to Bob Hoxey, the company's managing director, the packages will ship on a phased basis over the next few months. "F-Prot Professional has been available for the DOS, Windows 3.x, and OS/2 operating system environments for some time, and they have been popular. We're now developing the range for the latest incarnations of operating systems," he told Newsbytes. According to Hoxey, the company will be charging broadly the same price for the three new versions, i.e. UKP90, although a surcharge of UKP10 to UKP15 is being considered, for the Windows NT and 95 editions. "It comes down to which editions the users want. If they want to go straight in with the Windows 95 edition, they obviously don't need the DOS or Windows 3.x version, so we will only charge them UKP90. If they want these earlier editions, we will only charge a modest extra fee," he explained. According to Hoxey, F-Prot Professional includes native versions for all operating system platforms where viruses are common. The package can also be configured to support multiple operating system platforms on a network, with one master copy of F-Prot Professional acting as the lead workstation. In this scenario, the administrator or supervisory can use a Windows 3.x, NT or 95, or am OS/2 Warp workstations and receive reports from the network every time a virus is found in any computer on the network. Plans call for F-Prot Professional for Windows 95 to be included free of charge within the standard package. Existing users will be allowed to upgrade to the Windows 95 version free of charge. "What we're trying to do with our pricing policy is to play fair with the customer. If they're got an existing edition of F-Prot Professional, we're not going to charge them major amounts to upgrade to a new computing platform version," he explained. (Steve Gold/19950926/Press & Reader Contact: Portcullis, tel +44-181-868-0098, fax +44-181-868-0017, Internet e-mail sales@portcul.dircon.co.uk) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 09/27/95 ONLINE UK - Internet Fantasy Football Contest (NEWS)(ONLINE)(LON)(00005) UK - Internet Fantasy Football Contest 09/27/95 LONDON, ENGLAND, 1995 SEP 27 (NB) -- One of the most popular competitions for football (soccer)-loving couch potatoes in the UK has been to subscribe to a Fantasy Football program through a national paper, with calls to select your fantasy team routed through a premium rate phone line, so generating revenue and paying for prizes. Now the Electronic Telegraph (ET) has gone one better and announced a Fantasy Football scheme across its Web pages. Signup to the service costs just UKP10, which entitles subscribers to entry into the competition on a weekly basis until May, 1996. The system works with Web users "buying" squads of 17 players with a fantasy budget of UKP55 million. The fantasy football squad must consist of two goalkeepers, three full- backs, three center-backs, six midfielders, and three strikers, with no more than two players from any single FA Carling Premiership Club. The scheme is an enhanced version of the Daily Telegraph's (the printed newspaper version of ET) Fantasy Football competition, which ET claims was the first print version in the UK. Fantasy League Online, as the game is known, is claimed to be more interactive and visual than is possible with the printed version. Cyberspace managers get to choose the strip (team colors) of their squad, and can make online "transfers" between teams at any time. Players can also decide each week which 11 men they want to play with and can change their selection as often as they like. The football game also gives players the chance to search through past performances of their team members, with Web hotlinks to individual player profiles. The Electronic Telegraph will also carry a Premier League home page and a link to the web sites for all the teams within the league. Each month, a prize of UKP750 will be given to the cyberspace manager of the month, and, at the end of the season, the highest scoring manager will win UKP6,000, plus tickets for the real world FA Cup Final. The scheme is being run in conjunction with Littlewoods Pools and, according to Hugo Drayton, ET's marketing manager, is the first major competition being run online. "A small team has been evaluating the development of the game for the past four months and the initial response from potential players has been extremely encouraging. The game is the first of kind on the Internet, ensuring ET retains its reputation of being genuinely innovative," he said. Since entries can be submitted online and payment can be by plastic card (or check), the game is effectively open to anyone in the world with a Web Internet access. Further details of the game can be found on http:/www.telegraph.co.uk . (Steve Gold/19950926/Press Contact: Katie Hatfield, +44-171-538-6256; Reader Contact: Electronic Telegraph, +44-171-371-1200) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 09/27/95 BUSINESS Germany - Siemens Acquires Israeli Networking Firm (NEWS)(BUSINESS)(LON)(00006) Germany - Siemens Acquires Israeli Networking Firm 09/27/95 ERLANGEN, GERMANY, 1995 SEP 27 (NB) -- Siemens, the German information technology (IT) giant, has announced plans to acquire Ornet Data Communications Technologies (ODCT), the Israeli networking company. According to officials with Siemens, financial terms of the deal are not being made public. Ornet is being acquired, officials said, for its knowledge of the switched Ethernet market, which will add to Siemens Network Systems Ethernet solutions portfolio. The deal comes as Siemens is revving up sales on the PC front -- earlier this month, the German company's computing division said it plans to break the one million PC production barrier this year. The target production figure is around 67 percent up on the 600,000 production units recorded last year, which itself was 50 percent up on previous years. During the first half of this year, Siemens Nixdorf became the market leader in Germany, according to Dataquest, with 12.3 percent of the market. From January to June, more than 200,000 PCs were sold in Germany, a rise of over 80 percent on the same period the previous year. On a pan-European basis, Siemens has a 4.6 percent market share in PC terms, ranking it fifth in PC vendor terms. (Sylvia Dennis/19950926/Press & Reader Contact: Siemens, tel +49-9131-724-426, fax +49-9131-724-422) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 09/27/95 TELECOM France Telecom Awards 4 Contracts For Info Highway Trials (NEWS)(TELECOM)(LON)(00007) France Telecom Awards 4 Contracts For Info Highway Trials 09/27/95 PARIS, FRANCE, 1995 SEP 27 (NB) -- France Telecom has awarded four major contracts for the construction and servicing of optical fiber networks across France. The aim of the project is to create a pilot "information superhighway" across France to trial broadband data communications technology services. Plans call for the networks to be operational towards the end of 1996, at which stage France Telecom plans to plug them in the Transpac packet data network (PDN) as a major backbone to the network. The contracts have a total value of FF500 million (US$100 million), and have been awarded to Alcatel Alsthom, Societe Anonyme de Telecommunication (SAT), Germany's Siemens, and a joint venture between Sweden's Ericsson and France's Matra. While Alcatel, SAT and the Matra/Ericsson combine are working on network infrastructures capable of supporting a wide variety of online data channels, including multimedia, video-on-demand and online services, the Siemens contract calls for the German information technology (IT) giant to develop a network to support future telecoms services. In parallel with the major info superhighway contract deals, France Telecom is working on a series of advanced telecoms services for launch at the end of this year. The services, which will lay the foundations for the advanced backbone network next fall, will include video-on-demand and multimedia services, building on the success of the French Minitel viewdata services. (Sylvia Dennis/19950926/Press & Reader Contact: tel +33-1-4444-6732, fax +33-1-4656-1474) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 09/27/95 TRENDS UK - Logitech's TrackMan Marble Technology (NEWS)(TRENDS)(LON)(00008) UK - Logitech's TrackMan Marble Technology 09/27/95 BRACKNELL, BERKSHIRE, ENGLAND, 1995 SEP 27 (NB) -- Logitech, the mouse and pointing technology company, has announced TrackMan Marble, a new mini-trackball that has no moving parts. According to the company, the TrackMan Marble uses an electronic net to sense changes in trackball and direct the on-screen pointer. Using this approach to pointing devices, the company claims that electronic tracking ball movement offers users virtually maintenance- free and consistently smooth operation. According to Martin Pickering, Logitech's general manager, until now, the mechanical nature of trackball technology -- usually a complex system compressed of rollers, shafts and wheels -- has given rise to a number of problems, including the blocking of shafts by dust particles, as well as reaction and/or corrosion of metallic parts of the mechanism caused by oils and chemicals from the user s skin. "TrackMan Marble is a true technological breakthrough, with great significance for both the OEM (original equipment manufacturer) and retail markets. In the OEM arena, systems manufacturers are looking for a low-cost, reliable trackball for portable computing solutions, whilst on the retail side, problems with keeping trackball smoothness and accuracy are among the most common complaints of the end users," Pickering explained. According to Pickering, in the Marble Sensing Technology (MST) seen in TrackMan Marble, an embedded sensor remotely tracks the movements of a pattern of dots printed on an inner layer of the ball, which is itself protected from wear by a special coating. The TrackMan Marble is billed Plug and Play-ready, offering automatic identification and configuration per device and the ability to hot plug under Windows 95. System requirements for the TrackMan Marble include an PC-compatible system, DOS 3.3 or higher and an available serial or mouse port. Logitech plans to ship retail versions of the TrackMan Marble later this year, at which time OEM versions should start appearing. Pricing on the product will be announced closer to shipment date. (Steve Gold/19950926/Press Contact: Bogard Communications, +44-1753- 654333, Internet e-mail bogard@cix.compulink.co.uk; Reader Contact: Logitech, +44-1344-894300) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 09/27/95 ONLINE Eye Magic's $20 Homepage Builder For Web Publishing (NEWS)(ONLINE)(SFO)(00009) Eye Magic's $20 Homepage Builder For Web Publishing 09/27/95 LAS VEGAS, NEVADA, U.S.A., 1995 SEP 27 (NB) -- Eye Magic Media, a new software development company, has announced its Windows 95, World Wide Web title, called Homepage Builder. The new CD-ROM program, priced at $20, is designed to offer a "quick and easy" tool to build homepages With plans to ship Homepage Builder by early November, Eye Magic says the new program differs from most Web page builder applications by keeping the Internet document format, hypertext markup language (HTML), completely in the background. "Homepage Builder allows users with basic word processing skills to sit down and create a Web page without having to work with unfriendly HTML tools or buy an expensive program," said Eye Magic's founder, Diane Heppting. The former chairman of Aris Entertainment, Heppting, says homepage development is the fastest growing component of the Internet and individual users and small companies need a tool which allow them to quickly and easily create a homepage for their Web sites. "Large companies can afford to hire specialists to create a custom Web page, but the large majority of Internet users need tools which are affordable and do not require special skills," said Heppting. Homepage Builder is a word processor-style editor which uses standard buttons and pull-down menus. Users never see or deal with HTML. Noting an explosion of personal homepages marked by widespread interest and provision of personal Web page space for subscribers of online services, Heppting says the market for Homepage Builder is growing daily. She described existing Web page development tools and programs as a group which included "simple shareware solutions" to programs which cost thousands of dollars. "From the beginning we decided Homepage Builder would have to be inexpensive and offer users the opportunity to create well-designed Web pages produced by more expensive tools," said Heppting. Homepage Builder provides users with a "fill-in the blanks" template. Building on the template, users choose from 100 different backgrounds, 150 icons, 50 full-color photographs, 100 dividing lines, 75 buttons and dingbats, and 300 flags of the world to create a custom homepage. Images using the GIF or JPEG (Joint Photographic Experts Group) format may be added to any page built with Homepage Builder. "Another advantage of Homepage builder is the licensed images. Users never have to worry about copyright infringement because we have licensed all of the images included in Homepage builder," continued Heppting. For users who feel they need help in this new area of computing, the program includes a tutorial. Committed to Windows 95, Eye Magic says it does not plan versions for other platforms or earlier versions of Windows at this time. The company plans to sell Homepage Builder through standard computer and software outlets. More information is available on Eye Magic's Web site at http://www.eye-magic.com . (Patrick McKenna/19950926/Press Contact: Rolland Going, 310-821-6100/EYEMAGIC950927/PHOTO) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 09/27/95 GENERAL Japan Newsbriefs (NEWS)(GENERAL)(TYO)(00010) Japan Newsbriefs 09/27/95 TOKYO, JAPAN, 1995 SEP 27 (NB) -- In this roundup of news from Japan: Ministry decides budget spending, NEC announces multimedia phone, MPT to review telephone regulations, NEC establishes two software ventures, Widescreen to become market leader, Sony takes Digital Handycam overseas. Ministry Decides Budget Spending The Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications has decided how it will spend to 400 billion yen ($4 billion) allocated to it in last week's additional economic stimulus package. The MPT is to establish seven research and development institutes that will concentrate on data telecommunications. The institutes will be based in Kawasaki, Yokosuka and Atsugi in Kanagawa Prefecture, Sendai in Miyagi Prefecture, Sasebo in Nagasaki Prefecture, Tokyo and Kochi Prefecture. The establishment in Sendai will work with Tohoku University to develop optical communications devices. NEC Announces Multimedia Phone Following an announcement earlier this week by Matsushita, Tokyo-based NEC Corporation says it has developed a multimedia teleconferencing system that runs on the Personal Handyphone System (PHS). NEC's new portable terminal connects to PHS handsets allowing the system to be used for teleconferencing and is hoped to be available next year. MPT To Review Telephone Regulations The Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications has announced it will develop regulations concerning the positioning of antenna on mobile telephones. The MPT is concerned that some telephone designs leave the antenna too close to the user's head meaning the caller is exposed to high frequency radio signals just millimeters from their heads. NEC Establishes Two Software Ventures NEC Corporation is setting up two foreign software ventures with Marcam Corporation of the United States. The new companies will be based in Massachusetts and Singapore and work on systems integration in object-oriented technologies. The Japanese company will contribute the entire capital investment and management staff for the two companies in the first three years. NEC predicts sales in fiscal year 1999 to hit 1.5 billion yen for the US company and 300 million yen for the Singapore based venture. Marcam retains an option to purchase up to half of the company in three years time. Widescreen To Become Market Leader Sales of Widescreen television sets, those with a 16:9 aspect ratio, will surpass those of conventional aspect sets to become the dominant format in the Japanese market within two years. With predicted sales of 2.3 million units in the current fiscal year, a jump of more than 100% over the previous year, the new format will account for 40% of all televisions sold in the country. In 1996 industry estimates predict over six million widescreen sets will be sold making it a more popular format than 4:3 aspect ratio screens. All of the major electronics manufacturers are making widescreen sets, and for most, the majority of models in each catalog are widescreen. Screen sizes range from a 16-inch model up to a monster 56-inch version set for launch next year. Sony Takes Digital Handycam Overseas Sony has this week begun selling its new Digital Handycam camcorder overseas. From September 25 the unit has been available worldwide, becoming the first digital camcorder available in the United States, according to Sony. The new model uses the Digital VHS format to record video and audio digitally. Matsushita have also developed a digital camcorder which will debut internationally in the US market from next month and in Europe from early next year. Both units began sales in Japan a month ago. (Martyn Williams/19950927) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 09/27/95 LEGAL Czech Republic - Counterfeit Telephone Cards Available (NEWS)(LEGAL)(LON)(00011) Czech Republic - Counterfeit Telephone Cards Available 09/27/95 BRNO, CZECH REPUBLIC, 1995 SEP 27 (NB) -- SPT Telecom management has not yet determined how large its financial losses are as a result of telephone cards with prolonged dialing capabilities (the cards usually enable up to 100 local calls). The counterfeit cards are currently offered on the black market in Brno, the second largest city in the Czech Republic, by a number of sources. Such eternal cards, with which is it is possible to make unlimited phone calls free-of-charge, are being sold namely by African and Asian students. "It is good business. The 5,000 Czech crowns which I paid was a good investment. I can call anytime to Syria and, further, I know plenty of foreigners which pay me well for borrowing my card," said a foreign student, who does not fear that SPT Telecom or the police will prevent his business. The student declined to reveal who produces the cards, but did say that the card-making process is not especially difficult. "It is sufficient to acquire the basic knowledge of the technology of manufacturing the cards," he said. He explained that the card maker can delete, relatively easily, from the card memory a code which holds all the information about the impulse count. Such a modified card no longer has anything on its counter. SPT Telecom staff and users refer to these as "eternal" cards. Brno city police maintain that the market for such cards has expanded. "We still do not know what the cards look like and this is why it is almost impossible to search for them," said Emerich Marecek from the economical criminal division of the police. "When it happens that we will have signals about who and where the altered cards are used, it will help us in obtaining a conviction by producing a video film." SPT Telecom's press spokesman Evzen Stanek believes that the altered cards are not yet widely distributed. He said that if the police do not catch the users of such cards directly at the scene of the crime it will be difficult to obtain a conviction. Despite this, the Prague police succeeded last week when they took into custody a 43 year old Syrian which used such an "eternal" card. Under Czech law, those who produce, distribute and sell such cards can be sentenced by the judge to up to five years in jail for counterfeiting or altering "official materials." Those that purchase and use such cards can face up to two years in jail. SPT Telecom will start next year with the installation of second- generation public telephones that will feature better protection against abuse, according to Josef Sedlacek, director of long-term planning of SPT Telecom in Brno. (Steven Slatem/19950927) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 09/27/95 BUSINESS Sequent China Shows Hong Kong How It's Done (NEWS)(BUSINESS)(HKG)(00012) Sequent China Shows Hong Kong How It's Done 09/27/95 CENTRAL, HONG KONG, 1995 SEP 27 (NB) -- Open client/server systems specialist Sequent Computer Systems Inc. has radically rethought its presence in Hong Kong and China. It has set up a new company, Sequent China/Hong Kong Ltd., which will merge the personnel and resources of both the People's Republic of China and Hong Kong operations, with the management team from Sequent China retaining overall control. According to Sequent, the new development is intended to replicate in Hong Kong the dramatic success of its China joint venture which has seen the company capture a significant share of the mainland's online transaction processing (OLTP) market. In the last 18 months, Sequent China has won a string of major contracts with key customers, including the People's Insurance Company of China, Industrial & Commercial Bank of China, and the People's Construction Bank of China. "A recent report on client/server Unix systems between US$800,000 and US$2 million showed that Sequent leads the field with some 35% of the market," claimed Dave Gunderson, Sequent's vice president for Asia Pacific and Latin America operations. "However, as successful as Hong Kong's economy has undoubtedly been, the market here for high-availability OLTP systems is simply not big enough to sustain a separate business entity. In view of the performance of our mainland operation, it made sense to merge the two businesses to create a single, focused enterprise." Sequent's North Asia business will remain headquartered in Hong Kong. The local sales operation will report to Ron Chan, managing director of Sequent China/Hong Kong, who reports back to Sequent North Asia. "The immediate result of this new joint venture structure is the announcement of a teaming agreement with Unisys Hong Kong Ltd. to cover Hong Kong," said Chan. "Our parent companies have a worldwide teaming agreement and we have been working together informally. Now, with this new agreement we will ramp up the scale of our joint activities in Hong Kong." Unisys and Sequent work under a similar teaming agreement in China, signed in 1994. Sequent Hong Kong already has 14 major accounts in the territory, including Hong Kong Telecom, Hong Kong Ferries, and Yaohan Food Processing. Accounts that Sequent has won in conjunction with Unisys include the territory-wide banking ATM network JETCO, Morning Star Travel, and the government's Hospital Authority. "As Sequent China/Hong Kong, we will be targeting the top 20 OLTP accounts in Hong Kong," said Chan, confidently predicting that "by bringing the experience, expertise, and resources of this new and expanded company, Sequent China/Hong Kong will claim the lion's share of the OLTP market, both here and in the People's Republic." Sequent has been operating in China since 1992. However, because of COCOM restrictions, the company said it was unable to fully exploit the potential of the China market. The situation changed dramatically following the relaxation of COCOM restrictions in 1994, and Sequent established a China joint venture with two main strategies: to focus on the high-end Unix mainframe market, and tackle the country's extensive banking market. The company is now in the process of ramping up its presence in the People's Republic of China in a bid to capture a larger slice of the country's lucrative banking and finance information technology (IT) market which, Sequent says, analysts predict could be worth US$8 billion in 1996. "The Asia Pacific Region is the fastest growing region in the world today, both economically and in terms of its usage of information technology products. And China is leading the charge," said Gunderson. "The demand for IT in Asia continues to grow faster than the US, Europe or the rest of the world, with estimates predicting that the region will represent over a quarter of world IT spending in 1996. China will account for a significant and rapidly increasing share of that market." "Sequent is experiencing an annual growth rate of around 75% to 100% in Asia. China is one of the fastest growing areas in the region and is growing at perhaps twice that figure," claimed Gunderson. "We hope that our expansion program will help boost these impressive figures still further." (Nigel Armstrong & I.T. Daily/19950927) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 09/27/95 TELECOM Philippines Cellphone Business A Two-way Fight (NEWS)(TELECOM)(HKG)(00013) Philippines Cellphone Business A Two-way Fight 09/27/95 MANILA, PHILIPPINES, 1995 SEP 27 (NB) -- In the Philippines, the fierce competition within the cellular phone business is narrowing down to a two-way contest between Piltel and SMART Communications in the next two to three years, according to the Union Bank of Switzerland (UBS) Securities. The two companies "each took a third of the incremental subscribers in 1995 and are the real forces to watch in the market," says the UBS Global Research in its August, 1995, report on Philippine telecoms. Having entered the market earlier in 1988, Piltel has the advantage of a larger network, more subscribers (about 152,000 as of June) and deep pockets because of its successful initial public offering in the Philippine Stock Exchange. But UBS says, SMART is "a threat" having built up a subscriber base of about 70,000 in just a year and a half of operations since February, 1994. "SMART appears to have taken the number two spot from Extelcom," the 62-page report says. "SMART's current ability to connect more subscribers than Piltel challenges Piltel's dominant position." UBS credits SMART's rapid rise in the market to the company's low cost air-time packages under its Price Buster program. SMART claims to offer the lowest prices and the best deal among the country's cellphone services providers, like Globe Telecom, Piltel, Islacom, and Extelcom SMART will also launch paging, conventional telephone, and additional international long distance services within the year. The Philippine cellular phone market continues to grow at great speed because of the inability of the local telephone companies to provide regular telephone lines, in spite of the government's deregulation of the telephone and telecommunications industry. The number of subscribers grew roughly 50% in the first half of 1995, from 194,000 at end-1994 to 294,000. New subscribers in the first semester this year equaled the number added during all of 1994. UBS compares cellular growth in the Philippines with that of Thailand, which "has also been spectacular, in large part because of low service rates. If Thailand today can be a proxy for the near-term growth of the Philippines, cellular growth in the archipelago has a bright future," the UBS report says. (Metropolitan Computer Times/19950911) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 09/27/95 GENERAL China - Wyse To Use "Five-Strike" Chinese Input Method (NEWS)(GENERAL)(PEK)(00014) China - Wyse To Use "Five-Strike" Chinese Input Method 09/27/95 BEIJING, CHINA, 1995 SEP 27 (NB) -- To increase the input speed of Chinese characters on its terminals, US-based WYSE recently purchased a license of "Five-Strike" technology from WangMa Computer Company, a Beijing TV Station reported. The "Five-Strike" coding method is popular in China. Although some Chinese language experts criticize the method, claiming it is a pollution to Chinese writing and learning, most professional Chinese character typists are still using the fast-input method. The "Five-strike" method is also called "WangMa," meaning "Wang's coding method" in Chinese. Wang Yongming who used to be a professor with Beijing University, is reportedly the inventor of the coding method. To provide users with the fast input method, WYSE recently obtained the license from WangMa Computer Company. The signing ceremony was quite grand, and the 91-years-old Vice Chairman of The Standing Committee of People's Congress Yan Jici, who used to be the president of Beijing University, attended the event. During the signing ceremony, Wang Yongming did not answer the inquiry as to how much money was involved in the agreement, according to a newspaper. In addition, he declined to respond to the question about the lawsuit that another group has filed, claiming that "Five-Strike" is their intellectual property. WangMa Computer Company will cooperate with WYSE to install the Five Strikes method on various Chinese terminals produced and/or being developed by WYSE. WYSE is currently promoting its WY-888 series Chinese terminals in China. The quality and performance of WYSE terminals in China put them in the leading position, the company said. WYSE and its Chinese partner are preparing the establishment of research and development centers, as well as manufacturing bases, in China. Cooperating with Chinese firms, enterprises, and government agencies, WYSE says it is willing to make the effort to develop industrial standards for Chinese terminals. (Chih-Ho Yu & Ning Huang/19950831/Reader Contact: WYSE Beijing Office, tel +86-10-256-4809) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 09/27/95 TRENDS Survey On Visitors To China's Silicon Valley (NEWS)(TRENDS)(PEK)(00015) Survey On Visitors To China's Silicon Valley 09/27/95 BEIJING, CHINA, 1995 SEP 27 (NB) -- A survey of visitors to Zhongguancun area, the so-called China's "Silicon Valley" in Beijing, was conducted by China Infoworld. It was found that more than 60 percent of the visitors are from other cities and provinces, and 30 percent of them are dealers coming to buy goods for resale. The survey was conducted in May and June of this year with a sample size of 2,828 people, the report said. Sixty-three percent of the visitors were from outside of Beijing, of which about 90 percent were from northern provinces (north to Yangtze River). The largest group (328 people or 12 percent) were from the Shandong province alone. Only 3.6 percent of the non-local visitors were marketing their products/goods in the Zhongguancun area, but 45 percent of them are buying there, the report said. Two thirds of these buyers were looking for electronics for their companies/institutes, and the rest were there to buy something for themselves or their families. About 21 percent of the non-local visitors were just coming for visiting in their trips to Beijing for other purposes, the survey said. What did they buy in the electronics street? About 60 percent of those buyers said that they would buy computers, 50 percent said that they were interested in computer components, and 20 percent put office automation equipment and consumer products in their shopping list. It was a little surprising that only about 30 percent of the visitors revealed they would buy software, the survey report said. Any problems with their local electronic markets? About 50 percent of the non-local visitors said they could not find what they wanted in their local markets, or the prices there were higher than in Zhongguancun. About 20 percent said they did not trust local technical support. About three years ago, sales in Beijing's computer/electronics market was 70 percent of the China's total. Now the percentage has dropped to 17 percent. While the glory of Zhongguancun's "old days" does not exist any more, China's "Silicon Valley" still attracts many businessmen and customers, the survey concluded. (Chih-Ho Yu & Ning Huang/19950917) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 09/27/95 BUSINESS Hong Kong - Back To The "Good Old NCR Days" For AT&T (NEWS)(BUSINESS)(HKG)(00016) Hong Kong - Back To The "Good Old NCR Days" For AT&T 09/27/95 CENTRAL, HONG KONG, 1995 SEP 27 (NB) -- In a bizarre twist in the unfolding AT&T GIS story, Hong Kong-based Strategic Communications Manager Grace Su insisted insiders felt "relieved" about the recent decision to dismantling of the company, saying everyone was now "free to get back to their old jobs." "We weren't that integrated anyway," she told I.T. Daily. She said that, compared to the comparatively lithe NCR, getting things done at the new Global Information Solutions -- buried as it was in the giant AT&T structure -- was painfully slow. The recent announcement took the company out of the PC business. Reminded of AT&T's high-blown talk last November of cross-corporate synergy going into building AT&T's now abandoned Globalyst PC line, she said: "The benefits of integration turned out to be long and drawn out." As many as 10% -- but "probably less" -- of Asia's 1,300-strong workforce will be cut from the payroll, she said, adding that efforts were being made to find places for Globalyst personnel in surviving units. "The headhunters have been all around us," she said. Meanwhile, Shanti Kumar, who headed the PC's unit's regional marketing operations, is headed for Taipei to take over as Philips' regional marketing chief. His GIS support team is scattering to parts still unknown. Company sources maintain that Shanti knew early which way the wind was blowing and would have jumped sooner, but was apparently pressed to stay on for the official statement. By Su's account, he acquitted himself well, pushing sales 27% ahead of the region's sales target of 55,000 units in Globalyst's first and final year. "Believe it or not, we made money," she said. But that's history, as is the Globalyst production line in Taiwan. The AT&T joint venture plant there will return to making what it apparently does best -- switches. Locally, the Globalyst name will continue for a while yet. Cathay Pacific, just weeks ago, put in an order for several hundred units and has been assured AT&T will honor its service and support commitments. According to Su, the airline was alerted beforehand that AT&T was about to close the unit the company just bought the PCs from. (Nigel Armstrong & I.T. Daily/19950926) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 09/27/95 TELECOM ****Unitel Restructuring Will Give AT&T Larger Stake (NEWS)(TELECOM)(TOR)(00017) ****Unitel Restructuring Will Give AT&T Larger Stake 09/27/95 TORONTO, ONTARIO, CANADA, 1995 SEP 27 (NB) -- The three shareholders of Unitel Communications Inc. have agreed on a restructuring that will leave AT&T (NYSE:T) with slightly less than half the company and three Canadian banks with the rest. Rogers Communications Inc. and Canadian Pacific Ltd., both of which had already written off their investments in the money-losing long-distance company, will give up their interests and get no money back. Under the restructuring agreement, AT&T is to put another C$125 million into the company, while the Bank of Nova Scotia, the Toronto-Dominion Bank, and the Royal Bank of Canada will jointly invest another C$125 million in exchange for equity in the company. The three banks also agreed to restructure Unitel's existing debt. Specifics on the stakes to be held by the banks and AT&T have not been released. However, under the Canadian Telecommunications Act, AT&T as a foreign investor can hold a maximum of 20 percent of Unitel directly, plus as much as 33 percent of a holding company which can in turn have an unlimited stake in the carrier. This means that counting a stake held through a holding company, AT&T can legally own no more than 46.4 percent of the company. "I think at the end of the day what you'll see it AT&T holding somewhat less than 50 percent," Carleen Carroll, a spokeswoman for Unitel, told Newsbytes. As part of the deal, AT&T has also agreed to let Unitel use its brand name under a long-term contract. This raises the possibility that Unitel might do business as AT&T Canada, much as Sprint Canada, a company controlled by Call-Net Communications Inc. of Toronto, uses the Sprint name in Canada. Rogers Communications, which owns 29.5 percent of Unitel, and Canadian Pacific, which owns 48 percent, will get no money back when they surrender their stakes in the company, Carroll said. "They have walked away from their investments." The restructuring is expected to be complete by the end of 1995. Officials said they expect the additional $250 million in funding from AT&T and the three banks will be enough to meet Unitel's needs until it starts to make money. (Grant Buckler/19950927/Press Contact: Carleen Carroll, Unitel, 416-345-2114; Jim Wentzell, AT&T, 416-756-5034) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 09/27/95 ONLINE Ibex Electronic Commerce System Launches (NEWS)(ONLINE)(TOR)(00018) Ibex Electronic Commerce System Launches 09/27/95 NEW YORK, NEW YORK, U.S.A., 1995 SEP 27 (NB) -- Ibex, a worldwide electronic commerce system developed by Global Business Alliance Inc. of Ottawa, Canada, held its official launch this week and introduced the addition of three new corporate partners. Chase Manhattan Bank, computer-maker Digital Equipment Corp., and publisher Simon & Schuster, are new additions to the group supporting Ibex. Peter Sandiford, president and chief executive of Global Business Alliance, told Newsbytes the system is now taking orders for its software, which is due to ship within a couple of weeks, and expects that "people will be doing deals in the month of October." First announced in March, Ibex is an electronic deal-making system designed to match up businesses so that they can buy and sell goods or services, establish partnerships, or exchange investments. Officials said the system is designed to support business deals from start to finish. Initially Ibex will not handle actual financial transactions, Sandiford said, but that capability is to be added in 1996. Newly announced partner Chase Manhattan will play a key role in working out the details of international finance and secure transactions, he said. The system relies on software that runs on personal computers equipped with Microsoft Windows. Subscribers pay a one-time fee of C$350 (about US$260) to register, and typical usage fees of C$7 (about US$5.20) per functional transaction. The system runs over a variety of communications links, including commercial services from AT&T and GE Information Services, as well as the Internet, officials said. Sandiford said Ibex management expects to have some 750 companies on the system in October. Companies in a variety of industries have shown interest, he said, and as firms commit to the system, the Ibex sales force is identifying and contacting other companies that might be likely business partners. In addition to the newly announced backers, the partners in the Ibex project include AT&T, Dun & Bradstreet, GE Information Services, SHL Systemhouse, and the United States Chamber of Commerce. Ibex has a page on the Internet World Wide Web at http://www.nstn.ca/ibex-gba (Grant Buckler/19950927/Press Contact: Cathy Browne, Hill & Knowlton for Global Business Alliance, 613-786-9951; Public Contact: Global Business Alliance, tel 613-230-5371, fax 613-230-3597) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 09/27/95 NETWORK Amex To Adopt Wireless Terminals For Trading (NEWS)(NETWORK)(TOR)(00019) Amex To Adopt Wireless Terminals For Trading 09/27/95 NEW YORK, NEW YORK, U.S.A., 1995 SEP 27 (NB) -- The American Stock Exchange is installing a wireless local area network on its trading floor to let traders communicate with their offices and with other traders. The Amex has chosen a wireless system shortly after the New York Stock Exchange announced that it had approval from the Securities and Exchange Commission to use wireless, hand-held terminals on its trading floor. Mary Sedaret, a spokeswoman for the exchange, told Newsbytes that traders will exchange information with their home offices and with other traders using the portable units, making communications more effective and more foolproof. Initially, she said, the exchange is implementing the terminals in its options-trading operations, which account for roughly half the Amex's total volume. That part of the plan is expected to be completed in a year to 18 months, Sedaret said, and after that the exchange plans to expand the use of the terminals to equities trading as well. The installation of the wireless network -- supplied by Symbol Technologies Inc., of Bohemia, New York -- is not a step toward eliminating the trading floor, Sedaret said. The New York Stock Exchange has also said it does not plan to replace its trading floor with an electronic system. Some other exchanges, such as the Toronto Stock Exchange, are moving toward completely electronic trading. The wireless terminals will accept input using an electronic pen, and will replace the paper order tickets currently used to record trading information. Sedaret said they could also replace the hand signals and shouting that traders have traditionally used to exchange information among themselves on the trading floor. Cone Software Inc. of Boothwyn, Pennsylvania, is developing a gateway software system to manage information transmitted over the wireless network. Exchange personnel will use hand-held terminals supplied by Spectrum, but member firms may choose their own terminal suppliers. (Grant Buckler/19950927/Press Contact: Mary Sedaret or Arda Nizaren, American Stock Exchange, 212-306-1635; Doug Picker or Nancy Tully, Symbol Technologies, 516-244-4699; David Hastings, Cone Software, 610-497-0300) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 09/27/95 LEGAL ****Chip Spy Says Feds Set Him Up (NEWS)(LEGAL)(DEN)(00020) ****Chip Spy Says Feds Set Him Up 09/27/95 PHOENIX, ARIZONA, U.S.A., 1995 SEP 27 (NB) -- In a plot that sounds like the story line for the latest best-selling spy thriller, a software engineer charged with stealing computer secrets said he was set up by the federal government. Guillermo Gaede, also known as William Gaede, 43, was arrested September 23 by Federal Bureau of Investigation agents at his home is Mesa, Arizona. He was later transferred to California, where changes were filed. Gaede, an Argentine national, faces charges of mail fraud and interstate transportation of stolen property. He is accused of sending a videotape to Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) from Argentina that shows how Intel Corp. makes its Pentium computer chip. Intel and AMD are rival chipmakers. Federal agents allege that in mid-January Gaede sent a package via Federal Express to AMD in Sunnyvale, California, that contained three videocassettes and a letter. Authorities said the videocassettes contained proprietary information belonging to Intel relating to the fabrication process of the company's computer chips. The process was referred to in the letter, said the FBI. Authorities allege that the information defrauded Intel. The complaint further alleges that Gaede conducted his criminal activity during his respective employment tenure at AMD and later Intel. An FBI spokesperson told Newsbytes that, if convicted on the mail fraud charge, Gaede faces a maximum penalty of up to $1,000 or up to five years in jail, or both. The Interstate transportation of stolen property charge carries a maximum $10,000 fine or up to 10 years in jail or both. The value of the stolen information was placed at "tens of millions of dollars," according to an FBI document. AMD immediately turned over the material to federal agents, said the FBI. The case is being investigated by members of the FBI's San Jose (California) Resident Agency High-Tech Squad and the Palo Alto (California) Economic Espionage Squad. The FBI said Gaede was a software engineer for Intel in Chandler, Arizona, a Phoenix suburb from September, 1993, to June, 1994. He reportedly worked for AMD for a ten-year period prior to joining Intel. In a jail-house interview this week, Gaede spun a complicated tail of international intrigue, telling reporters he acted as a go-between for Cuban and US intelligence agencies. He said the US government wanted Cuban military secrets in exchange for information about US technology. Earlier this year, Gaede said in newspaper interviews he had passed on information he stole from AMD to Cuba, China, North Korea, and Iran. He also claimed to have given data to the Soviet Union and East Germany during the final years of the Cold War. In a New York Times interview in May of this year, Gaede claimed that in 1992 he turned himself in to the Central Intelligence Agency and confessed to stealing information from AMD. He said the CIA turned him over to the FBI. He now alleges his current problems were a setup on the part of the US government because of his bungled spying for an unnamed agency. The Times also reported that Gaede said he initially stole secrets because of his allegiance to Communism, but later did it for personal gain. The San Jose Mercury News reported Sunday that Gaede fled for Argentina after a storage locker he rented was broken into and plans for Intel devices were discovered. The story did not say who broke into the locker or when. Gaede has reportedly been living in Mesa since he returned from Buenos Aires this summer. (Jim Mallory/19950926/Press contact: George Grotz, Federal Bureau of Investigation, 415-553-3716) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 09/27/95 BUSINESS ****Will Novell Dump WordPerfect? (NEWS)(BUSINESS)(DEN)(00021) ****Will Novell Dump WordPerfect? 09/27/95 OREM, UTAH, U.S.A., 1995 SEP 27 (NB) -- The recent restructuring of Novell Corp. (NASDAQ: NOVL) apparently won't include dumping WordPerfect, the popular word processing program Novell acquired when it merged with WordPerfect Corp. However, a statement made by Robert Frankenberg this week may have left the door open for some sort of change. Novell acquired WordPerfect in a stock and options swap deal worth an estimated $855 million that was completed in June, 1994. In response to questions from reporters at the Seybold conference in San Francisco this week, Frankenberg said "The company has no plans to sell all of the WordPerfect product line." Frankenberg was not available this morning to clarify the remark. Novell recently announced a restructuring it said was designed to allow the company to focus on its network business. As part of that reorganization, Novell sold its Unix operating system software business to Santa Cruz Operations Inc. (NASDAQ: SCOC). SCO also develops Unix software. Novell purchased Unix Systems Labs from AT&T in 1993. A Novell public relations representative told Newsbytes that no downsizing was expected in the approximately 400 person workforce in the Unix business. SCO said it will consolidate its SCO OpenServer system and Novell's Unixware into a high-volume Intel-based Unix operating system that will have an interface in common with Hewlett Packard's version of Unix, called HP-UX. As part of the agreement between Novell, SCO, and Hewlett Packard, Novell will work with HP to produce a high-performance implementation of its NetWare Directory Services (NDS) and File/Print Services for HP-UX, and integrate NDS with DCE. Hewlett Packard will lead the effort to combine the 64-bit HP-UX and SCO Intel-based systems. Frankenberg said sale of Novell applications increased somewhat after the release of Microsoft's Windows 95 operating system and user interface in late August, even though the company does not have a Windows 95 version of its office suite PerfectOffice yet. A Windows 95 version of PerfectOffice is expected to ship in early 1996. (Jim Mallory/19950927/Press contact: Melanie King, Novell, 408-577-6842) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 09/27/95 TELECOM Telecom 95 Begins Next Week (NEWS)(TELECOM)(TYO)(00022) Telecom 95 Begins Next Week 09/27/95 GENEVA, SWITZERLAND, 1995 SEP 27 (NB) -- Five thousand telephone lines, 135 kilometers (km) of electrical wiring, an extra 60 helicopter slots at Geneva airport daily, enough power to supply a town of 40,000 people, and 2,000 kilograms (kg) of cheese are just some of the things needed to create Telecom 95, the "Olympics" of the telecommunications industry, which begins next Monday in Geneva, Switzerland. Under the organization of the Geneva-based International Telecommunications Union, the exhibition, and conference running parallel, begin with a "press day" on Monday, immediately before the official opening on Tuesday, October 3. The event continues until the following Wednesday, October 11. Telecom 95 will bring together 986 exhibitors from 52 countries showing a growing internationalization of the industry and the exhibition which, in 1991, saw 849 companies from 36 nations. The event is predicted to be just as well attended as the 1991 expo with 133,000 people predicted to visit over the 10 days. Under the ITU's theme of "Connect!," the industry is displaying its current leading-edge technology which centers around the global data and information infrastructure and next-generation communications systems. The ITU sees the events as a way to pursue its primary mandate: "to serve as a catalyst for advancing the technology." At next week's exhibition, the hottest new technology is likely to surround the interconnection of global networks and the marriage of traditionally separate systems such as telephone, data, video, and audio. While the interconnection of global networks is seen as the primary technology at Telecom 95, the beginning of individual worldwide networks was seen at the previous expo, Telecom 91. On demand services that can offer video, data, and audio to users when they want it will also be featuring strongly as well as several new multimedia operating systems and servers - the technology that makes it all possible. The rapid increase in use of mobile communications, from zero to 50 million users in just over 15 years, will be at the heart of several new systems designed to make communications, by voice, video, or data, as easy for people on the move as those in an office. Helping to remind visitors that new technology can vastly improve the quality of life, the ITU has brought together a selection of exhibitors to a single stand, the "Smart House," otherwise known as the "1 in 10 stand." The stand bears the name "1 in 10" to reflect the number of people suffering from a disability of some type. The stand shows how the selected new technologies can assist the 500 million people in this category worldwide. The International Telecommunications Union is a specialized organization of the United Nations covering telecommunications. More details on Telecom 95 can be found on the Internet's World Wide Web at http://www.itu.ch/TELECOM/ . (Martyn Williams/19950927/Press contact: Francine Lambert, International Telecommunications Union, tel +41-22-730-5969, fax +41-22-733-7256; Public contact: Internet World Wide Web http://www.itu.ch/ ) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 09/27/95 TRENDS European & US Leased Circuits - Report (NEWS)(TRENDS)(LON)(00023) European & US Leased Circuits - Report 09/27/95 LONDON, ENGLAND, 1995 SEP 27 (NB) -- Ovum has issued a new report, entitled "National Leased Circuit Tariffs and Discount Policies," which aims to analyze the published tariffs in Europe and US, and so assist anyone with a need for such circuits to select the best and most economical service. The idea behind the report is more than simple pricing issues, however. The report looks at how leased circuit tariffs compare with each other and also looks at the reasons why tariffs in competitive countries are lower than those in monopoly countries. Interestingly, the report notes that US circuits are only marginally cheaper overall than European circuits. According to Ovum, the report analyzes in-depth 10 carriers in Europe and three in the US, using as its basis the tariff comparison basket (the Performance Indicators for Public Telecoms Operators) pioneered by the OECD. The results make for some surprising reading, with two main comparisons: list pricing and discount tariffs. On list pricing, Bell Atlantic comes out cheapest, with Telecom Italia the most expensive by a significant measure, ahead of Spain's Telefonica. On the discounted tariff listings, depending on what sort of call volumes are involved, the report shows that Mercury of the UK is cheapest, while Telecom Italia and Telefonica again come in as the heaviest priced services. The bottom line for the report, Newsbytes notes, is that it debunks the idea that US tariffs are significantly less than European tariffs. According to Alex Nourouzi, a co-author of the report, "The standard price for a leased circuit in the US is, in fact, higher than in several European countries. The very low prices which are sometimes claimed for US circuits are only available to the largest customers who are in a position to negotiate special deals," he said. "National Leased Circuits: a Comparison of Tariffs and Discount Policies," by Alex Nourouzi, David Rogerson and Brigette Engelien, costs UKP295 in Europe, AUS$720 in Australia, and US$450 in the rest of the world. (Steve Gold/19950927/Press Contact: Jennie Morales, +44-171-312-7258, fax +44-171-255-1995, Internet e-mail jhb@ovum.mhs.compuserve.com; Reader Contact: Ovum, tel +44-171-255-2670, fax +44-171-255-1595, Internet e-mail info@ovum.mhs.compuserve.com) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 09/27/95 ONLINE Fee-Based Homework Service To Open On The Web (NEWS)(ONLINE)(SFO)(00024) Fee-Based Homework Service To Open On The Web 09/27/95 FOSTER CITY, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1995 SEP 27 (NB) -- Information Access Company (IAC), a provider of reference information to private and public libraries, has announced a World Wide Web, fee-based research tool called Cognito! Junior and senior high school students and college students are the primary, targeted audience. An IAC spokesperson, told Newsbytes, "We have not determined the exact pricing scheme, but it will involve a monthly subscriber fee and an additional fee for downloading articles. A certain amount of articles will be available for downloading without cost." Cognito! is an assembly of tens of thousands of articles gathered from encyclopedias, reference books, magazines, pamphlets, and Internet sources. IAC says it is "wired homework." This new research tool uses the full text of Colliers's Encyclopedia, three "Information Please" almanacs, and the full text of 600 magazines. The service either links to or directly mirrors hundreds of historical documents. The service is rounded out with hyperlinks to other Web sites which offer additional reference material. Promising to provide the latest information possible, IAC says its editors will continually update reference material through current periodical literature. Through the use of Personal Library Software, users are able to ask questions in a natural language form or they can browse the database by clicking on keywords which identify topics and articles. The natural language form means users ask questions in their own manner of speaking. Instead of trying to find the correct term to search a database, the user simply states a request such as "What are the major rivers in the United States." A similar service, HomeWork Helper, has been available as a proprietary service on Prodigy for the past year. For an additional $9.95 per month, Prodigy members have complete search and download capabilities of the reference database. IAC joins a small group of company's which are developing subscriber- and fee-based services. The majority of companies on the Web are supported through advertising and say the fee-based model is difficult to sell to the Web community. IAC's Cognito! service is located at http://www.cognito.com . (Patrick McKenna/19950927/Press Contact: Proctor Lippincott, Spring, O'Brien, 212-213-4133) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 09/27/95 BUSINESS Silicon Graphics Teams With Netscape (NEWS)(BUSINESS)(LAX)(00025) Silicon Graphics Teams With Netscape 09/27/95 SAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1995 SEP 27 (NB) -- Silicon Graphics Inc. (NYSE: SGI) and Netscape Communications Corporation (NASDAQ: NSCP) has announced that Netscape Internet Applications will be available for the Silicon Graphics' WebForce product line. Netscape's system integrates high-volume transaction processing, data management, and encrypted communications for creating online services and large-scale businesses on the "net." Speaking to Newsbytes, John McCrea, manager of WebForce Business Unit, said, "Designed for publishers, Internet service providers, merchants, and individual retailers, Netscape Internet Applications will work in concert with Silicon Graphics' high-bandwidth, high availability WebForce servers. "The Web is one of our most important emerging markets, and teaming with Netscape is very important to Silicon Graphics. Both companies have a strong open system approach. However, we consider ourselves Netscape's number one OEM (original equipment manufacturer) partner. As of now, Netscape has only three OEM partners, with Digital Equipment and Sun Microsytems being the other two," said McCrea. WebForce is a line of integrated hardware and software for Web authoring and Web serving. WebForce systems enable businesses to create content and serve high traffic Web sites. WebForce consists of: the WebForce Indy, a system designed for integrated Web authoring and entry-level serving; WebForce Challenge servers; and WebForce Indigo 2 Extreme, a dedicated authoring system that allows users to enhance their Web sites with three-dimensional (3-D) graphics and animation. Netscape Internet Application's include: Netscape Merchant System, which enables large retailers or merchants to create and manage virtual shopping malls; Netscape Publishing System, which provides billing and management tools for tracking data to publishers who want to create online publications; Netscape Community System, which gives organizations the ability to create virtual communities; and Netscape IStore, which enables individual merchants to create online stores on the Internet. "As commercial ventures on the Internet evolve into strategic investments, businesses need integrated, turnkey solutions to execute large-scale electronic commerce," said Tom Furlong, vice president and general manager of Silicon Graphics' Digital Media Systems division. "Silicon Graphics' high-performance servers combined with Netscape's powerful integrated software applications will give companies the competitive edge needed to stand out in cyberspace." "The Netscape application family offers a powerful set of solutions for customers ranging from small stores to sophisticated online services and large-scale business on the net," said Jim Sha, vice president and general manager, Internet Applications at Netscape. "The Silicon Graphics platform is an ideal platform for such applications." Netscape's full suite of Internet Applications for Silicon Graphics' WebForce product line will be available within 90 days. Pricing starts at $50,000 and includes Netscape Commerce Server and a relational database management system in addition to advanced application functionality. (Richard Bowers/19950927/Press Contact: Eileen M. Caetano, Silicon Graphics, 415-390-2036) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 09/27/95 ONLINE ****Microsoft & Visa Publish Secure Transaction Specs (NEWS)(ONLINE)(MSP)(00026) ****Microsoft & Visa Publish Secure Transaction Specs 09/27/95 NAPERVILLE, ILLINOIS, U.S.A., 1995 SEP 27 (NB) -- Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ:MSFT) and Visa International said they've published two specifications that will secure payments over public networks, like the Internet, and private networks. In a separate announcement, Spyglass Inc. (NASDAQ:SPYG) said it will develop and be the prime licensee of the new specifications, to be called Secure Transaction Technology (STT) and Private Communication Technology (PCT). The Microsoft-Visa announcement said STT is built as an electronic version of the payment card system used today, while PCT builds on the current Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) standard by incorporating "strong authentication and other technologies we developed for STT," officials said. To encourage widespread adoption, both companies have published STT and PCT specs on the Internet, so they can be easily incorporated into other products. In addition, Microsoft will make the specifications available at no charge to all software developers, businesses, card brands, and financial institutions that want to create compliant applications. Both specifications can be found at the Microsoft Internet World Wide Web page at http://www.microsoft.com . Andrew Parker, Spyglass director of business development, told Newsbytes that, if introducing the new specs is done in an open way, and everyone can use them in their own products, then STT and PCT "should become the new standard. "Electronic commerce will take a huge jump forward" with STT and PCT, Parker told Newsbytes. "People will be able to know that the system is fully secure and approved by their bank, and can be used." Parker added that it's important the new standards are open for anyone to use. "The only way you can move forward is with open standards. Any time you try to do anything all by yourself on the Internet, people have a tendency to either not use the technology or attack the technology." As prime licensee, Spyglass will be granted sub-licensing rights for both client and server STT implementations on all platforms. Spyglass officials said that, as a result of the agreement, both Spyglass and Microsoft will be "leaders in deploying this new technology." Besides Spyglass, STT is already supported by the Internet Shopping Network and RSA Data Security, officials said. The PCT specification has support from Cylink Corp., FTP Software, the Internet Shopping Network, Spyglass, NetManage, OpenMarket, and Starwave. (Bob Woods/19950928/Press Contacts: Randy Pitzer, Spyglass, 708-505- 1010; Mike Jackman, Waggener Edstrom, 415-388-3216; David Melancon, Visa, 415-432-2427) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 09/27/95 ONLINE Networld+Interop - "Platinum" Internet Services Coming (NEWS)(ONLINE)(MSP)(00027) Networld+Interop - "Platinum" Internet Services Coming 09/27/95 ATLANTA, GEORGIA, U.S.A., 1995 SEP 27 (NB) -- As the Internet grows, transmission logjames may become more common and prompt large Internet service providers (ISPs) to offer an enhanced tier of service to their major corporate users. That's according to Howard Anderson, managing director of the Boston, Mass.-based data communications and computing consultancy The Yankee Group, which is hosting a two-day Internet Summit as part of the Networld + Interop Conference underway in Atlanta through Friday. "With all this increased usage, service is likely to be terrible from time to time. Six-second delays will be common, generating the supplying of platinum-level services," Anderson said. Anderson didn't get into technical specifics about how such a service would operate, but said it would be closer to the Internet backbone and would have a contingency for backup, direct point-to-point transmission outside the Internet should it lock up. Anderson positioned this extra service as a smart move in the ultra-competitive ISP world. Yankeee group figures report that the national access provider segment of the ISP industry will grow from $750 million net revenue in 1996, to $1.2 billion in 1997, and $1.8 billion by 1998. ISPs will offer more than "brown-out" protection, however. Anderson said that tomorrow's Internet will be a more intuitive one than today's, with ISP-provided smart agents able to comb the entire Internet and execute natural language search commands. "I could tell my smart agent 'to look for the best price on a Nissan Sentra,' and it will find that information for me," he added. Anderson then quantified his projections for the future of the Internet with numbers gathered from a recent poll of 200 Yankee Group customers -- among them some of the major corporations in the US. Some of the major findings: Corporate Internet use will be near-universal in a few years. Fifty-five percent of companies polled are "using the Internet in some form" now, but 88 percent expect to do so by 1998. Security concern is the main obstacle to wider deployment. The holdouts were asked to rate "issues delaying implementation" on a one to five scale. The three biggest obstacles cited were: security, 4.8; support capabilities, 3.37; and cost, 3.34. Firewalls are the best safeguard. Firewalls, which separate a site's internal computers from outside entry to electronic-mail addresses and Web sites, are found in 88 percent of current users. This is followed by "limited access to applications," 63 percent, and "access limited to certain employees," 58 percent. More technically advanced screens like data encryption, at 22 percent, and digital signatures, 12 percent, are less common. The three most common corporate Internet applications are: customer service and support, 38 percent; promotion/advertising, 37 percent; and selling products, 35 percent. Only 14 percent of respondents are using the Internet for internal communication, but that number is expected to jump by another 30 percent by 1998. (Russell Shaw/19950627) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 09/27/95 ONLINE ****Networld+Interop - Netscape Says No To Provider Wars (NEWS)(ONLINE)(MSP)(00028) ****Networld+Interop - Netscape Says No To Provider Wars 09/27/95 ATLANTA, GEORGIA, U.S.A., 1995 SEP 27 (NB) -- With its announcement last week that it intends to spend $100 million to buy message-based collaberative software firm Collabra Software, Netscape Communications is broadening its reach in Internet-based services. Yet, there's one major type of service that Netscape Chief Executive Officer (CEO) and President Jim Barksdale says the newly public, "flush-with-cash" firm will never get into: the Internet access provider, point-of-presence wars. "We don't think so," said Barksdale of the issue during a presentation at Networld + Interop this morning. "We think of that as sort of competing with our customers. "I've gotten into this problem before, having done business with people who were competing with me and selling to me at the same time. I never felt good about that. "That's something we've tried to stay away from," Barksdale added. "Certainly, it is out there, but that is a much more cost-intensive business than being purely in software. We're in the software business. That's what we like to do." Reinforcing that point, Barksdale added that future software business acquisitions can be expected -- and that is exactly what Mountain View, California-based Netscape is planning. "We've done a good job with the browser, being the market leader, and we've done a good job with the IPO (initial public offering of stock)," Barksdale said. "We're looking at a lot of things. Consolidation goes on in any business. We went public with the purpose of raising cash, and we raised three times what we wanted to. As to how we use it (cash generated from the sale of stock), we're looking at a lot of things, and have people who are very good at that sort of thing," said Barksdale of assessing potential acquisition targets. Since most of Barksdale's audience were managers of corporate networks, Barksdale tailored most of his prepared remarks to their interests. He suggested that putting up an internal, Netscape-supported Web site would not only be an adept technical move for a corporate chief information officer, but would have political benefits as well. Barksdales said this could be accomplished by migrating non- confidential corporate documents from an internal database into a Web page. He suggested that internal Web pages could include material like employee manuals, general company data, and training materials, as well as helpful hints, such as hot-linked menus of restaurants near corporate locations. "These things are intuitive and easy to use. As more and more browsers use these applications, it becomes a very easy point- and-click interface. Putting up a Web site inside your firewall can make you a hero in your company," Barksdale added. (Russell Shaw/19950627) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 09/27/95 BUSINESS AT&T To Cut 20,000 Jobs In Restructuring? (NEWS)(BUSINESS)(MSP)(00029) AT&T To Cut 20,000 Jobs In Restructuring? 09/27/95 NEW YORK CITY, NEW YORK, U.S.A., 1995 SEP 27 (NB) -- AT&T Corp. (NYSE:T) is beginning to plan job cuts to the tune of more than 20,000 positions, along with a major restructuring of finances, the Wall Street Journal is reporting today. These actions are a result of the company's recently announced plans to break up into three independent companies. The Journal quotes industry experts and AT&T insiders as saying the jobs will be cut by the time the break-up takes effect late next year. Previously, Newsbytes reported that 8,500 would be immediately eliminated from its computer manufacturing subsidiary, the old NCR Corp., as a result of the break-up. Last week's announcement of the break-up said the company would separate into a communications services company, a communications equipment manufacturer, and a computer concern. AT&T currently employs about 300,000, the Journal said. Many of the cuts could come from AT&T's corporate staff of about 28,000 workers, the Journal said. In general, the paper said the planned job cuts underscore that even though the company has made vast changes since the old company broke up in 1984, more needs to be done to bring AT&T in line with competitors like MCI, LM Ericsson, and Motorola. Already, more than 100,000 jobs have been cut since Ma Bell's break up. AT&T wouldn't comment to the Journal about the number of workers that might be affected in the restructuring, and the company said the review is just beginning. AT&T officials did not return calls to Newsbytes for further comment by the daily deadline. A financial analyst told the Journal a cut of 25,000 to 30,000 jobs would save AT&T from $1.25 billion to $1.5 billion on a yearly basis. Blake Beth, an analyst at Sanford Bernstein & Co. also said AT&T's earnings would rise by 50 to 60 cents a share with the cuts. Last month, the Wall Street Journal reported on what it called plans by AT&T to re-enter the local telephone service area of telecommunications, a market that's valued at $90 billion a year. Those plans include a secret project to install more than 100 switches to route local calls in virtually every market where a regional Bell operating company (RBOC), the so-called "Baby Bells" spun off when AT&T broke up in 1994, operates. At that time, an AT&T spokesperson told Newsbytes the company would not comment on any plans until pending legislation was passed that would allow AT&T to re-enter the local phone market. (Bob Woods/19950927/Press Contact: John Skalko, AT&T, 908-221-8413) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 09/27/95 IBM NetWorld+Interop - IBM Intros DB2 Gateways, Secure Servers (NEWS)(IBM)(BOS)(00030) NetWorld+Interop - IBM Intros DB2 Gateways, Secure Servers 09/27/95 BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS, U.S.A., 1995 SEP 27 (NB) -- "We want to be known as the company that puts business processes on the Web," said Drew Pearson, IBM's manager of Internet/Web Software Solutions, in a phone interview with Newsbytes from NetWorld+Interop, where IBM is unveiling DB2 gateways to the Internet, IBM Internet Connection Secure Web Servers, the Internet Secure WebExplorer browser, and other new software for the Internet and I/T (information technology) security. The ultimate goal of IBM's Internet software activities is to let businesses safely conduct electronic commerce on the Web, elaborated the IBM exec. As a result, users can expect to see many of the newly unveiled and upcoming products included in IBM's new InfoMarket service for electronic transactions, he revealed. IBM's new DB2 gateways to the Internet are available immediately for AIX and OS/2, according to Pearson. This fall, he added, IBM will announce DB2 Internet gateways for non-IBM Unix platforms. The new gateways are designed to let users query DB2 databases over the Web by accessing any HTML (hypertext markup language) Web server, including IBM's newly introduced IBM Internet Connection Secure Web Servers, according to Pearson. "Several beta users have been heavily involved, including hospitals, universities, and even a drafting company," Pearson told Newsbytes. The drafting company is using the gateways to access parts from outside suppliers' DB2 databases. The new gateways can be run on any platform-supported database server anywhere on a network, he noted. The HTML Web server can be operated on any platform. To query the database, the user can either enter an ad hoc query, or employ a querying tool that specifically supports HTML. The latest release of HTML, version 2.0, provides form capabilities that are very useful for building query applications, and the forthcoming HTNL 3.0 will provide even "more powerful" query functionality, he pointed out. Also at NetWorld+Interop, he revealed, IBM is showing sneak previews of a new version of IBM's VisualAge application development tool that includes pre-built parts that "understand HTML." The update to VisualAge will let developers quickly produce "Web savvy" business applications that "are not simply toys, or other forms of amusement," Pearson predicated. Beta testing on the VisualAge update has begun. For the future, IBM is looking into integrating similar "HTML awareness" into other products, Newsbytes was told. In addition, future products for the Web from IBM will be based on VRML (virtual reality markup language)+, will include "new ways of accessing Web information, and will "leverage the Web-related capabilities of Lotus's software," according to the IBM official. One way IBM will use VRML+ is to produce "three-dimensional (3-D) front-ends to Internet malls, or storefronts," Pearson continued. IBM's newly unveiled Internet Connection Secure Web Servers will run on the OS/2 and AIX platforms, he reported. The Internet Connection Secure WebExplorer browser will run on OS/2 Warp. The three products, which are scheduled for release on December 8, will use the S-HTTP (Secure HyperText Transfer Protocol) and SSL (Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) protocols. Also at NetWorld+Interop, IBM has announced: an update to the NetSP Secured Network Gateway, which will now run on RS/6000 over AIX 4.1.3; the addition of password synchronization to RACF (Resource Access Control Facility); and the expected availability in November of IBM AntiVirus Software for Windows 95. (Jacqueline Emigh/19950927/Reader Contact: IBM, 914-765-1900; Press Contact: Beth Kitchener, Brodeur & Partners for IBM, 617-622-2800) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 09/27/95 PC Networld+Interop - Lotus Intros NotesPump, cc:Mail For Web (NEWS)(PC)(BOS)(00031) Networld+Interop - Lotus Intros NotesPump, cc:Mail For Web 09/27/95 BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS, U.S.A., 1995 SEP 27 (NB) -- Lotus' newly unveiled NotesPump takes advantage of Notes replication, while the newly shipping InterNotes Web Publisher exploits versioning and other team computing capabilities of Lotus' application software, maintained Steve Herrot, Lotus's director of advanced technology, in a phone interview from Networld+Interop. At the show, Lotus is also previewing Notes 4.0, and introducing Lotus cc:Mail for the Web. Herrot told Newsbytes that organizations can use NotesPump to pull data from a variety of outside RDBMS (relational database management systems), including IBM DB2, Oracle 7, Sybase 10 or any ODBC (Open Database Connectivity)-compliant RDBMS. Then, he said, users can utilize Notes replication to synchronize and update their own Notes mailboxes to any new information that has come in, even after they have been offline. "With Notes replication, you are always connected," the Lotus exec contended. The upcoming Notes 4.0, which is being previewed this week, provides replication enhancements which include field level replication, for replicating only fields that have changed in a document, and multiple replicators, for raising replication throughput and performance. Also in the phone briefing with Newsbytes, Herrot said that, like NotesPump, InterNotes Web Publisher is complementary to Notes, but in a "reverse" kind of way. As previously reported in Newsbytes, InterNotes Web Publisher is designed to let publishers convert Notes databases and documents into hypertext markup language (HTML), and also to manage changes to any HTTP Web server. Herrot pointed out this morning that Lotus applications like 1-2-3 and the new Word Pro word processor can be used with Notes as Notes authoring tools. By exploiting newly emerging team computing features in these applications, he maintained, publishers can produce Web-publishable documents with capabilities such as version and access control. These capabilities are especially useful for Web-based documents, which tend to consist of many pages, Herrot added. Publishers can then republish the Notes documents that have been authored in the Lotus applications to the Web with the new InterNotes Web Publisher, according to Lotus's director of advanced technology. Also in the Web arena, the new cc:Mail for the World Wide Web, being rolled out this week at NetWorld+InterOp, is aimed at providing cc:Mail connectivity from the Web. The new edition of cc:Mail is designed to let users access cc:Mail messages -- as well as their inboxes, folders, and public bulletin boards -- while browsing the Web with an HTML (hypertext markup language) browser. The new cc:Mail Web requires a cc:Mail Post Office, cc:Mail Web administrative software, and an HTTP Server operating on Windows NT 3.51 or higher. Lotus plans to support other Web server platforms, including OS/2, in the future. Lotus' upcoming Notes 4.0 is slated to include increased support for SMP (symmetrical multiprocessing), enhancements to server performance, and new administration tools, in addition to the improvements in Notes replication. One enhancement in server performance, called "Notes server passthrough," is meant to allow a mobile or network-connected user to access or manage multiple Notes servers running different network protocols, all simultaneously. New administration tools in Notes 4.0 include: a graphical administrative control panel; a new server console panel; the ability to delegate administrative privileges and roles; a centralized server configuration record; and a new N&A and ACL (access control list) tool. Notes 4.0 is scheduled to ship in the fourth quarter. (Jacqueline Emigh/19950927/Reader Contact: Lotus Development Corp., 617-577-8500; Press Contact: Lois Paul & Partners for Lotus, 617- 862-4514) (SUMMARY)(GENERAL)(MSP)(00032) Newsbytes Daily Summary 09/27/95 MINNEAPOLIS, MINNESOTA, U.S.A., 1995 SEP 27 (NB) -- These are capsules of all today's news stories: 1 -> Silicon Graphics Internet Publishing Tool 09/27/95 Silicon Graphics Inc. (NYSE: SGI) has announced MindShare OutBox, a new product that uses World Wide Web technology for collaborating within heterogeneous environments. The desktop Web publishing tool will be bundled with all of the current SGI Internet products, such as Silicon Graphics' Indy and Indigo2 desktop systems. 2 -> Russia - Online Media Conf Set For October 09/27/95 New Media for a New World 1995, an East-West conference on online media, will be presented October 23-25 at the Russian-American Press and Information Center in Moscow. 3 -> UK - Isocor Intros Fast Windows NT Messaging Products 09/27/95 Isocor, a provider of open client- server messaging products, has unveiled its Isocor Messaging for Windows NT product family. 4 -> UK - Portcullis' Windows NT/95 & OS/2 Anti-Virus Prgms 09/27/95 Portcullis has announced plans to ship Windows 95, Windows NT, and OS/2 Warp versions of its F-Prot Professional range of anti-virus packages. According to Bob Hoxey, the company's managing director, the packages will ship on a phased basis over the next few months. 5 -> UK - Internet Fantasy Football Contest 09/27/95 One of the most popular competitions for football (soccer)-loving couch potatoes in the UK has been to subscribe to a Fantasy Football program through a national paper, with calls to select your fantasy team routed through a premium rate phone line, so generating revenue and paying for prizes. Now the Electronic Telegraph (ET) has gone one better and announced a Fantasy Football scheme across its Web pages. 6 -> Germany - Siemens Acquires Israeli Networking Firm 09/27/95 Siemens, the German information technology (IT) giant, has announced plans to acquire Ornet Data Communications Technologies (ODCT), the Israeli networking company. 7 -> France Telecom Awards 4 Contracts For Info Highway Trials 09/27/95 France Telecom has awarded four major contracts for the construction and servicing of optical fiber networks across France. The aim of the project is to create a pilot "information superhighway" across France to trial broadband data communications technology services. 8 -> UK - Logitech's TrackMan Marble Technology 09/27/95 Logitech, the mouse and pointing technology company, has announced TrackMan Marble, a new mini-trackball that has no moving parts. According to the company, the TrackMan Marble uses an electronic net to sense changes in trackball and direct the on-screen pointer. 9 -> Eye Magic's $20 Homepage Builder For Web Publishing 09/27/95 Eye Magic Media, a new software development company, has announced its Windows 95, World Wide Web title, called Homepage Builder. The new CD-ROM program, priced at $20, is designed to offer a "quick and easy" tool to build homepages 10 -> Japan Newsbriefs 09/27/95 In this roundup of news from Japan: Ministry decides budget spending, NEC announces multimedia phone, MPT to review telephone regulations, NEC establishes two software ventures, Widescreen to become market leader, Sony takes Digital Handycam overseas. 11 -> Czech Republic - Counterfeit Telephone Cards Available 09/27/95 SPT Telecom management has not yet determined how large its financial losses are as a result of telephone cards with prolonged dialing capabilities (the cards usually enable up to 100 local calls). The counterfeit cards are currently offered on the black market in Brno, the second largest city in the Czech Republic, by a number of sources. 12 -> Sequent China Shows Hong Kong How It's Done 09/27/95 Open client/server systems specialist Sequent Computer Systems Inc. has radically rethought its presence in Hong Kong and China. It has set up a new company, Sequent China/Hong Kong Ltd., which will merge the personnel and resources of both the People's Republic of China and Hong Kong operations, with the management team from Sequent China retaining overall control. 13 -> Philippines Cellphone Business A Two-way Fight 09/27/95 n the Philippines, the fierce competition within the cellular phone business is narrowing down to a two-way contest between Piltel and SMART Communications in the next two to three years, according to the Union Bank of Switzerland (UBS) Securities. 14 -> China - Wyse To Use "Five-Strike" Chinese Input Method 09/27/95 To increase the input speed of Chinese characters on its terminals, US-based WYSE recently purchased a license of "Five-Strike" technology from WangMa Computer Company, a Beijing TV Station reported. 15 -> Survey On Visitors To China's Silicon Valley 09/27/95 A survey of visitors to Zhongguancun area, the so-called China's "Silicon Valley" in Beijing, was conducted by China Infoworld. It was found that more than 60 percent of the visitors are from other cities and provinces, and 30 percent of them are dealers coming to buy goods for resale. 16 -> Hong Kong - Back To The "Good Old NCR Days" For AT&T 09/27/95 In a bizarre twist in the unfolding AT&T GIS story, Hong Kong-based Strategic Communications Manager Grace Su insisted insiders felt "relieved" about the recent decision to dismantling of the company, saying everyone was now "free to get back to their old jobs." 17 -> ****Unitel Restructuring Will Give AT&T Larger Stake 09/27/95 The three shareholders of Unitel Communications Inc. have agreed on a restructuring that will leave AT&T (NYSE:T) with slightly less than half the company and three Canadian banks with the rest. Rogers Communications Inc. and Canadian Pacific Ltd., both of which had already written off their investments in the money-losing long-distance company, will give up their interests and get no money back. 18 -> Ibex Electronic Commerce System Launches 09/27/95 Ibex, a worldwide electronic commerce system developed by Global Business Alliance Inc. of Ottawa, Canada, held its official launch this week and introduced the addition of three new corporate partners. Chase Manhattan Bank, computer-maker Digital Equipment Corp., and publisher Simon & Schuster, are new additions to the group supporting Ibex. 19 -> Amex To Adopt Wireless Terminals For Trading 09/27/95 The American Stock Exchange is installing a wireless local area network on its trading floor to let traders communicate with their offices and with other traders. The Amex has chosen a wireless system shortly after the New York Stock Exchange announced that it had approval from the Securities and Exchange Commission to use wireless, hand-held terminals on its trading floor. 20 -> ****Chip Spy Says Feds Set Him Up 09/27/95 In a plot that sounds like the story line for the latest best-selling spy thriller, a software engineer charged with stealing computer secrets said he was set up by the federal government. 21 -> ****Will Novell Dump WordPerfect? 09/27/95 The recent restructuring of Novell Corp. (NASDAQ: NOVL) apparently won't include dumping WordPerfect, the popular word processing program Novell acquired when it merged with WordPerfect Corp. However, a statement made by Robert Frankenberg this week may have left the door open for some sort of change. 22 -> Telecom 95 Begins Next Week 09/27/95 Five thousand telephone lines, 135 kilometers (km) of electrical wiring, an extra 60 helicopter slots at Geneva airport daily, enough power to supply a town of 40,000 people, and 2,000 kilograms (kg) of cheese are just some of the things needed to create Telecom 95, the "Olympics" of the telecommunications industry, which begins next Monday in Geneva, Switzerland. 23 -> European & US Leased Circuits - Report 09/27/95 Ovum has issued a new report, entitled "National Leased Circuit Tariffs and Discount Policies," which aims to analyze the published tariffs in Europe and US, and so assist anyone with a need for such circuits to select the best and most economical service. 24 -> Fee-Based Homework Service To Open On The Web 09/27/95 Information Access Company (IAC), a provider of reference information to private and public libraries, has announced a World Wide Web, fee-based research tool called Cognito! Junior and senior high school students and college students are the primary, targeted audience. 25 -> Silicon Graphics Teams With Netscape 09/27/95 Silicon Graphics Inc. (NYSE: SGI) and Netscape Communications Corporation (NASDAQ: NSCP) has announced that Netscape Internet Applications will be available for the Silicon Graphics' WebForce product line. Netscape's system integrates high-volume transaction processing, data management, and encrypted communications for creating online services and large-scale businesses on the "net." 26 -> ****Microsoft & Visa Publish Secure Transaction Specs 09/27/95 Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ:MSFT) and Visa International said they've published two specifications that will secure payments over public networks, like the Internet, and private networks. In a separate announcement, Spyglass Inc. (NASDAQ:SPYG) said it will develop and be the prime licensee of the new specifications, to be called Secure Transaction Technology (STT) and Private Communication Technology (PCT). 27 -> Networld+Interop - "Platinum" Internet Services Coming 09/27/95 As the Internet grows, transmission logjames may become more common and prompt large Internet service providers (ISPs) to offer an enhanced tier of service to their major corporate users. That's according to Howard Anderson, managing director of the Boston, Mass.-based data communications and computing consultancy The Yankee Group, which is hosting a two-day Internet Summit as part of the Networld + Interop Conference underway in Atlanta through Friday. 28 -> ****Networld+Interop - Netscape Says No To Provider Wars 09/27/95 With its announcement last week that it intends to spend $100 million to buy message-based collaberative software firm Collabra Software, Netscape Communications is broadening its reach in Internet-based services. Yet, there's one major type of service that Netscape Chief Executive Officer (CEO) and President Jim Barksdale says the newly public, "flush-with-cash" firm will never get into: the Internet access provider, point-of-presence wars. 29 -> AT&T To Cut 20,000 Jobs In Restructuring? 09/27/95 AT&T Corp. (NYSE:T) is beginning to plan job cuts to the tune of more than 20,000 positions, along with a major restructuring of finances, the Wall Street Journal is reporting today. These actions are a result of the company's recently announced plans to break up into three independent companies. 30 -> NetWorld+Interop - IBM Intros DB2 Gateways, Secure Servers 09/27/95 "We want to be known as the company that puts business processes on the Web," said Drew Pearson, IBM's manager of Internet/Web Software Solutions, in a phone interview with Newsbytes from NetWorld+Interop, where IBM is unveiling DB2 gateways to the Internet, IBM Internet Connection Secure Web Servers, the Internet Secure WebExplorer browser, and other new software for the Internet and I/T (information technology) security. 31 -> Networld+Interop - Lotus Intros NotesPump, cc:Mail For Web 09/27/95 Lotus' newly unveiled NotesPump takes advantage of Notes replication, while the newly shipping InterNotes Web Publisher exploits versioning and other team computing capabilities of Lotus' application software, maintained Steve Herrot, Lotus's director of advanced technology, in a phone interview from Networld+Interop. At the show, Lotus is also previewing Notes 4.0, and introducing Lotus cc:Mail for the Web. (Ian Stokell/19950927) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 09/26/95 GOVT South Australia Govt In IT Deals With US Firms (NEWS)(GOVT)(SYD)(00001) South Australia Govt In IT Deals With US Firms 09/26/95 NEW YORK, NEW YORK, 1995 SEP 26 (NB) -- South Australian (SA) state Premier Dean Brown chose New York City to launch a sweeping round of information technology (IT) purchasing decisions recently, along with a multi-million dollar deal with the IBM and Lend Lease joint venture ISSC Australia. The agreement covers establishment of an Electronic Services Business (ESB) to support electronic marketing and sales of products from SA companies. According to IBM, ISSC's direct investment in the project will run to about $35 million, spread across two main areas: a Center of Competence for Intelligent Cities at South Australia's Technology Park, which will resurrect the Multi Function Polis (MFP) concept as a test-bed for new technologies and services; and establishment of electronic kiosks to support activities such as electronic exchange of legal documents and electronic payment of bills. It is understood that the kiosk services will also be available through home PCs. Brown said the existence of an electronic commerce and service delivery business in South Australia will allow the State to take front running in the Asia Pacific region. "This project is a major boost to our plan to develop a sustainable new industry for South Australia, based on our desire to transform the way governments, businesses, and their customers communicate and interact," said the Premier. The agreement is the result of a tender won by ISSC. It is not yet clear how many jobs will be created as a result of the deal. Brown also announced a State Government contract for the supply and service of 8,000 PCs a year over the next two years. According to a statement issued by the Premier's Department, seven companies have been selected as suppliers in a deal worth $25-$30 million. The high per-computer cost (more than $3,000) is due to three-year warranties, delivery, and on-site installation and pre-loaded software, the Premier's office says. Pre-loading of Windows 95 is yet to be negotiated. Desktop models will be supplied by Fujitsu, IBM/CPM&S, Lodin, Microbits, and Protech. Notebook models will come from IBM/CPM&S, NEC, and Toshiba. Apple is notably absent from the list, calling into question the fate of the 4,000-odd Apple Macintoshes in SA's government departments and schools. A spokesman for the Premier said Apple's computers in schools will remain, but those in administrative areas are likely to be phased out. (Computer Daily News/19950926) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 09/26/95 ONLINE Australian Govt Plans To Consolidate Online Inquiries (NEWS)(ONLINE)(SYD)(00002) Australian Govt Plans To Consolidate Online Inquiries 09/26/95 CANBERRA, AUSTRALIA 1995 SEP 26 (NB) -- Australian federal public servants have recognized the problem of overlapping government inquiries into unsuitable material on the Internet and other computer services, but don't yet know what to do about it. A recent meeting of the Government Information Services Policy Board discussed, but did not resolve the issue. Most board members felt that it was something for the Committee of Officials on Information Services (COIS). The COIS is a high-level group chaired by Neville Stevens, head of the Department of Communications and the Arts, with members of deputy secretary rank from other Commonwealth agencies. It advises the National Information Services Council (NISC) which the Prime Minister chairs. COIS should have enough clout to do something about duplication at the official level, but will not stop the Senate Select Committee holding its own inquiry. As well as the Senate Select Committee, the Australian Broadcasting Authority is to investigate online information and entertainment services, and the departments of Attorney-General's and Communication and the Arts are seeking submissions on their joint consultation paper. Meanwhile, Canberra's new Office of Government Information Technology, which reports to Finance Minister Kim Beazley, has taken over chairmanship of the Commonwealth-State Internet Working Group which is working towards uniformity and consistency in government approaches to Internet-type services. (Computer Daily News/19950926) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 09/26/95 BUSINESS Yokogawa Electric Plans Software Venture In India (NEWS)(BUSINESS)(DEL)(00003) Yokogawa Electric Plans Software Venture In India 09/26/95 NEW DELHI, INDIA, 1995 SEP 26 (NB) -- Yokogawa Blue Star Ltd. (YBS), a joint venture of Japan-based Yokogawa Electric Corp., and Blue Star Ltd., has stated that a software facility will be set up by the company in India. The facility will be treated as a global engineering center catering to the software needs of all the Yokogawa affiliates and subsidiaries across the globe. Disclosing this, the chairman of the Yokogawa Electric Corp., T. Yamanaka, stated that as a part of the company's global engineering policy, Yokogawa Singapore was earlier being used as the main source for engineering and software needs. However, with Singapore becoming increasingly costly, the company had looked at the Philipines, China, and India as an alternate basis for reducing the cost of software engineering -- finally choosing India as the best and most competitive source. Yokogawa Japan is among the largest instrument manufacturers in the world, with total sales of $1.8 billion. The global network of the Japanese company spans 21 countries, and includes 14 factories, 12 joint ventures, and 74 sales and engineering locations. YBS is a joint venture set up in 1987 to supply industrial automation systems and products to various core industries. The company has a manufacturing facility in Bangalore and has also set up a software technology park for export of software to Japan, Singapore, and other countries. The joint venture expects to export software worth R10 crore in 1995-96, around 10 percent of the company's annual turnover. (C.T. Mahabharat/19950926) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 09/26/95 TELECOM India - 40,000-Line Digital Switch Intro'd (NEWS)(TELECOM)(DEL)(00004) India - 40,000-Line Digital Switch Intro'd 09/26/95 NEW DELHI, INDIA, 1995 SEP 26 (NB) -- The Center for Development of Telematics (C-DOT), India's premier research and development body in the public sector, has successfully built "the first 40,000-line hi-tech digital main automatic exchange." According to Bishnu Pradhan, executive director of C-DOT, the development "demonstrates to the world that Indian research and development personnel are second-to-none in areas considered the monopoly of the West." The switch, which is presently undergoing rigorous tests in Bangalore and also in C-DOT's labs in Delhi, is expected to be commissioned in another two weeks. With this, C-DOT will attain the objective for which it was set up in August, 1994. The switch will have 32 base modules, of which nine will be connected to subscribers and 23 will be co-located with the exchange itself. It will have a capacity to handle 30,000 lines and can be expanded as and when required, Pradhan said. While welcoming the liberalization and privatization of the telecoms sector, Pradhan claimed that the MNCs wanted to destroy the C-DOT as it posed a direct threat to their expensive telecom products like the high capacity switch. "They have taken a number of our promising engineers and are now offering their equipment at a lower subsidized rate which they don't even consider offering in their country," he said. According to him, by quoting a lower price deliberately, the MNCs wanted to destroy C-DOT and ITI (Indian Telephone Industries) Ltd., in one stroke so that they can dominate the equipment market for the Government. C-DOT, he said, will invest more on R&D, work closely with a few foreign companies, like Motorola of the US and Telstra of Australia, as well as Indian universities and engineering and research institutes. With Motorola, C-DOT has developed a "wireless in local loop" telephone system for India. The agreement involves interfacing Motorola's trunked sub-systems and C-DOT's rural and main automatic exchanges into an integrated fixed wireless product. On the other hand, its agreement with Telstra involves the joint development of network management systems and the export of C-DOT rural exchanges for Telstra's use in its international operations and R&D cooperation with the company's own R&D units. (C.T. Mahabharat/19950926) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 09/26/95 BROADCAST Hong Kong Telecom's Video-On-Demand Project Update (NEWS)(BROADCAST)(HKG)(00005) Hong Kong Telecom's Video-On-Demand Project Update 09/26/95 CENTRAL, HONG KONG, 1995 SEP 26 (NB)-- Mystery surrounds HongKong Telecom's video-on-demand project -- specifically, why a system builder hasn't been selected. In early August, when Telecom Multimedia Director William Lo announced his shortlist of competing consortia, he said the deal would be done by the end of that month. But that date may have been inaccurate. According to a source in Lo's department: "There was a recent newspaper report that the decision would be made in a couple of months," she said. In fact, it look like the system builder will be chosen by November. There is reportedly no time to waste. HK Telecom has already promised it will have a video-on-demand service up and running by mid-1996. The final version is supposed to be under testing in April. In August, and running a week late, Telecom announced its preferred supplier roster of five consortia: AT&T, IBM, Iwatani Intl Corp., NEC, and NPB Partners. The company's Interactive Media Service is supposed to encompass much more than video services and include home shopping, banking, educational, and other services. The corporate affairs official told I.T. Daily that the pilot had just wrapped up and was judged very successful. "Many of the participants want to sign up for the service," she said. (Nigel Armstrong & I.T. Daily/19950926) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 09/26/95 BUSINESS Hong Kong's ISL In Major China Distribution Deal (NEWS)(BUSINESS)(DEL)(00006) Hong Kong's ISL In Major China Distribution Deal 09/26/95 CENTRAL, HONG KONG, 1995 SEP 26 (NB)-- Integrated Solutions Ltd -- which came to preeminence in Hong Kong software circles tying together data systems for cross-border enterprises -- has signed a distribution agreement that could propel the company into the big league. According to ISL, Guangdong Province Computer Co., known as GDC, has agreed to promote ISL's flagship Manufacturing Information System (MIS) package across the southern Chinese province. The GDC link puts ISL within reach of thousands of manufacturers at a time when China's imminent reentry in the World Trade Organization requires the country's industry to be on its toes. "If China is to resume its membership in the WTO by removing trade barriers and opening up its market to international competitors," ISL Managing Director Ricky Leung warned, "such expertise will be of paramount importance to the survival of domestic manufacturing firms." ISL developed its MIS package as a series of different modular add-ons. Depending on the mix used, managers can zoom in and out of operations, taking financial readings of what's coming in, going through, and going out of their plants, and do it in English, as well as in standard and simplified Chinese. Unveiling an earlier version of the system on an another occasion, Leung explained his was the first manufacturing package designed and built for local users, negating the need to customize different parts of imported kits to suit currency or other requirements. Zhong Ke Ren, general manager of GDC, said he welcomed MIS into the company's product portfolio, saying it was flexible and ideal for the market's range of light manufacturers engaged in electronics, electrical goods, toys, watches, and similarly compact goods. The distribution agreement also moved ISL closer to Guangdong's still-to-emerge material resources planning (MRP) market. MRP, which is considered pivotal in just-in-time manufacturing -- processes massive amounts of data to keep tabs on every detail in the manufacturing process. Among other things, MRP systems automatically order every component required to make a replacement product for one just sold. The system theoretically pares inventories to the bone, and with those, the cost of maintaining large component stocks and the space used to store them. GDC said it plans to promote MRP across the province and Leung said he was pleased to be invited in to help. "It will allow us to analyze manufacturing problems more closely, and then adapt our software." (Nigel Armstrong & I.T. Daily/19950926) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 95 09/26/95 EDUCATION Hong Kong Univ Switches To Windows (NEWS)(EDUCATION)(DEL)(00007) Hong Kong Univ Switches To Windows 95 09/26/95 CENTRAL, HONG KONG, 1995 SEP 26 (NB) -- The Hong Kong University of Science & Technology (HKUST) says it has committed to purchase up to 3,000 copies of both Windows 95 and Microsoft Office for Windows 95. HKUST is the first large organization in Hong Kong to upgrade to the new operating system, which will be installed on up to 75% of the university's network. The first stage of a four-phase installation began with the recent opening of a pilot test facility in the general computer laboratories. Further stages will roll-out to all labs, staff quarters, students' halls and administration offices within a six-month to 12-month time frame. (Nigel Armstrong & I.T. Daily/19950926) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 09/26/95 GOVT China - Shanghai Curbing Copyright Violations (NEWS)(GOVT)(PEK)(00008) China - Shanghai Curbing Copyright Violations 09/26/95 BEIJING, CHINA, 1995 SEP 26 (NB) -- The Shanghai Copyright Agency (SCA) claims to have achieved success in promoting international culture and information exchanges, while curbing copyright violations, according to China Daily. Established in August, 1993, SCA is a subsidiary of the Shanghai Publishing Bureau. SCA has been engaged mainly in copyright trading and protection. It has established representative offices in the United States, Japan, and Germany. SCA has purchased the copyrights of some 120 books from copyright owners in many foreign countries, such as the United State, Japan, Germany, Britain, the Netherlands, Republic of Korean, and South Africa. To date, SCA has transferred the copyrights from the owners and/or international publishing companies to more than 20 publishing houses in China. SCA provides legal services to copyright owners and also closely monitors the media market in case of any copyright violations. Last year, SCA became the authorized representative of the American Hemingway Foreign Rights Trust for publication of Chinese editions of all the works of Ernest Hemingway through the year 2004. In June, through SCA, Shanghai Yiwen Publishing House purchased the sole publishing rights of Hemingway's works in Chinese. However, according to SCA, three other publishing houses on the mainland and one Taiwan publisher are negotiating with Shanghai Yiwen and SCA for "usage rights." (Chih-Ho Yu & Ning Huang/19950926/Reader Contact: Shanghai Publishing Bureau, +86-21-437-0176) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 09/26/95 TRENDS China - Mastercard Credit Card Usage Up (NEWS)(TRENDS)(PEK)(00009) China - Mastercard Credit Card Usage Up 09/26/95 BEIJING, CHINA, 1995 SEP 26 (NB) -- While the government is promoting the "Golden Card" Project, Mastercard International hopes to expand its share of the Chinese market, where it already has a solid footing. The "Golden Card" project is designed to develop a computerized financial system and encourage people to use bank/credit cards instead of cash. With more than 10 million cards issued in China by the end of last year, Mastercard International expects to enjoy a 50 percent annual card issuance growth in the coming decade, the company's Asia-Pacific region general manager said. Since Mastercard International entered China in 1987, the company has been enjoying a fast expansion in the country. More than 6.5 million Mastercard cards have been issued in China during the first quarter of this year. Its total transaction volume reached US$12.3 billion before the end of March of this year, 101.4 percent more than the same period of last year. By the end of March, the company had 128,700 retail members across the country, 53 percent more than in the same period of 1994. To fulfill its future expansion plan, the organization is planning to accept more Chinese banks as members. So far, Mastercard has seven member banks in China, including the Bank of China, the People's Construction Bank of China, the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China, the Agricultural Bank of China, Bank of Communications, Guangdong Development Bank, and China Merchant's Bank. The regional manager said that the Chinese market is so huge that existing member banks are far from enough. He said there are at least 200 million people in China who could qualify for a credit card. The manager also said that Mastercard is applying to set up its second office in Guangzhou. The company launched its Beijing office in 1988. However, according to a very informal survey conducted by Newsbytes, many Chinese have problems using their credit/bank cards -- few ATMs (automated teller machines) are available, and many of those are out of order. Also, card holders complain that only a few stores accept credit/bank cards, and checking their credit or account balance usually takes a long time. (Chih-Ho Yu & Ning Huang/19950926) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 09/26/95 TRENDS Russia -- Sales Of Dell PCs Up, Win95 Set For October (NEWS)(TRENDS)(LON)(00010) Russia -- Sales Of Dell PCs Up, Win95 Set For October 09/26/95 MOSCOW, RUSSIA, 1995 SEP 26 (NB) -- At a press event recently in Moscow, Dell Computer Corp. announced that it is doubling its yearly sales volume with its partner IBS and seeks to expand its service center network to 30 by the end of 1996. Also at the event, Microsoft announced that a Russian version of Windows 95 will start shipping in mid-October. In the course of a two-day visit to Moscow, managers of the marketing department of Dell Computer Corp. -- Andrew Lis and Jean-Baptiste Nani -- discussed with officers of IBS company, Dell's authorized dealer in Russia, the potential of the local computer market. The visit ended up with the joint press conference held at the Hotel Kempinski. The conference was also attended by the head of the marketing department at Microsoft's Moscow subsidiary, Ilya Billig. Discussions of the technical features of the latest Dell computers were accompanied by a demonstration of the new Windows 95 operating system. The Dell managers expressed their satisfaction with the sales volume of Dell computers in Russia through IBS. Badalov, the head of the PC department of IBS, attributed the success to providing "reliable and fast support" to end-users through the network of seven certified maintenance centers. "On the average," Badalov told the audience, "it takes us one business day to provide a customer with service, which is unique for Russia. We expect that towards the end of 1996, the number of service centers will reach thirty." "The management of the company wants to double sales volumes each year in Russia and is seriously considering opening a Dell office in Moscow," Jean-Baptist Nani said in a conversation with IntelliTech. (Vladimir Vetrov/19950926/Press & Reader Contact: Dell Corp., Andrew Lis, tel +44-1344-860456, fax +44-1344-723565; Jean- Baptiste Nani, EDS, tel +44-1344 723748, fax +44-1344-723565) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 09/26/95 TELECOM Microsoft/Skytel Offer 2-way Paging Via Microsoft Network (NEWS)(TELECOM)(DEN)(00011) Microsoft/Skytel Offer 2-way Paging Via Microsoft Network 09/26/95 REDMOND, WASHINGTON, U.S.A., 1995 SEP 26 (NB) -- Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ: MSFT) and Skytel, a company owned by Mobile Telecommunication Technologies Corp. (NASDAQ: MTEL), have teamed to allow users of Windows 95 and Microsoft Network (MSN) to send and receive two-way paging messages. #IMAGE 1 20 TWPCX \images\95092611.PCX Click here for photo SkyTel 2-Way's two-way paging network was launched earlier this month. SkyTel's messaging software makes it possible for Windows 95 users to send and receive messages and the two companies are working together to let MSN subscribers send messages to, and receive replies from, SkyTel 2-Way users. That service is expected to be available shortly. Microsoft spokesperson John McGill told Newsbytes that MSN subscribers will also be able to send one-way messages via Skytel. The SkyTel messages and replies are gathered in Exchange, the universal Windows 95 electronic-mail in-box. Skytel said it has developed a service provider interface that is compliant with Microsoft's messaging applications programming interface (MAPI). Once the SkyTel software is installed, users have a seamless access to SkyTel 2-Way. Skytel 2-Way transmissions are carried on new radio frequencies licensed last year by the US government for use by personal communications services (PCS). Pager users can respond to a pager message by selecting from multiple choice responses offered by the sender, such as "reschedule at 1pm?" or "Reschedule at 2pm?" If the sender doesn't offer possible answers, the Skytel pager has some preprogrammed stock responses such as "OK" or "On my way" or "I'll call you" that are sent at the touch of a button on the pager. Skytel spokesperson Jennifer O'Mahoney told Newsbytes the pager can store up to a dozen response choices. The pager displays four lines at a time and the user can scroll through up to 500 message characters. O'Mahoney said the two-way service is already available in about 1,300 major cities and will eventually be accessible nationwide. The pager resembles a standard alphanumeric paging unit with an added hinged lid, which contains the transmitter portion of the system. There is no visible antenna. The system has store-and-forward capability so your messages will be waiting even if you turn your pager off. Skytel recently launched a home page on the World Wide Web at http://www.skytel.com , which has hotlinks to the Microsoft home page at http://www.microsoft.com . Last year Microsoft invested a reported $30 million in MTEL to help launch that company's Nationwide Wireless Network. NWN eventually evolved to become the Skytel 2-Way system. (Jim Mallory/19950925/Press contact: John McGill, Microsoft, 206-882-8080; Public contact: Microsoft, 206-882-8080 or 800-426-9400/SKYTEL950926/PHOTO) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 09/26/95 CORRECTION WINDOWS Correction - What Ever Happened To Bob? (CORRECTION)(WINDOWS)(DEN)(00012) Correction - What Ever Happened To Bob? 09/26/95 REDMOND, WASHINGTON, U.S.A., 1995 SEP 26 (NB) -- A representative at Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ: MSFT) public relations firm Waggener Edstrom has asked Newsbytes to publish a clarification to a recent story that appeared on the Newsbytes News Network about Microsoft Bob, the nerdy guy with the heavy glasses that represents a "more friendly user interface" to Microsoft Windows. The Waggener Edstrom representative told Newsbytes that the story that Microsoft will send a free copy of Microsoft Bob and a Frisbee-like flyer to any registered Microsoft Bob user submitting a suggested enhancement for Bob was incorrect. She told Newsbytes the information packet was intended to make that free software offer only to a select group of about 200 editors. The Waggener Edstrom spokesperson told Newsbytes the company has received numerous requests from readers for the free software. (Jim Mallory/19950925/Press contact: Gaby Adam, Waggener Edstrom, 206-637-9097) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 09/26/95 TRENDS CD-ROM Distribution Changes Forecast (NEWS)(TRENDS)(TOR)(00013) CD-ROM Distribution Changes Forecast 09/26/95 CAMBRIDGE, MASSACHUSETTS, U.S.A., 1995 SEP 26 (NB) -- CD-ROM producers are unhappy with their existing distribution channels, and traditional software retailers have a few unkind words for the CD-ROM producers as well. But they may not have each other to kick around for much longer, according to a recent study by Forrester Research Inc. Forrester's study, "CD-ROM Channel Changes," found CD-ROM producers grumbling that software retailers do not understand their products, fail to promote them, and are slow in paying. Retailers, meanwhile, say CD-ROM producers don't differentiate their products from those of their competitors and need to do a better job of marketing. "Distribution problems are strangling the CD-ROM business," Forrester said. "Multimedia consumers are frustrated with lack of guidance, high prices, and poor selection at retail. Publishers pay exorbitant fees for access to limited shelf space, while retailers struggle to make a profit selling content." Forrester said those conclusions came from interviews with some 35 CD-ROM developers and publishers, plus executives from several major retailers and two top channel strategy consultants, Garner Lester and Joey Tamer. Researchers also visited a number of retail outlets and World Wide Web sites that sell software. The report said the power in CD-ROM distribution is concentrated in the traditional software retail channels -- computer superstores and software stores. However, that may be going to change. As artists learn to make better use of multimedia technology, and the products get better as a result, Forrester predicts that a new class of retailers will get interested in CD-ROMs. Adult education and reference titles will appear on bookstore shelves. Entertainment titles will turn up in music stores, children's titles in toy stores, and "top-40" hits will be sold by mass merchants such as Wal-Mart, Target, and BJ's. "These changes will revitalize the industry," Forrester said, "as they fundamentally restructure the power relationships offered by today's dominant CD-ROM channels." To deal with these changes, Forrester has recommended that publishers develop separate distribution strategies for different types of content. The research firm also said publishers should develop new and more compact packaging that will fit comfortably on the shelves of bookstores and music stores, like the "jewel boxes" used for audio compact disks. Finally, Forrester said, publishers should spend their marketing budgets on creating "consumer pull" through advertising and public relations. (Grant Buckler/19950926/Press Contact: Nicole Lee, Forrester Research, 617-497-7090, Internet e-mail nlee@forrester.com) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 09/26/95 EDUCATION UK - British Telecom & FTP Offer Schools Internet Access (NEWS)(EDUCATION)(LON)(00014) UK - British Telecom & FTP Offer Schools Internet Access 09/26/95 LONDON, ENGLAND, 1995 SEP 26 (NB) -- FTP Software, along with British Telecom (BT), has announced a scheme whereby schools and other UK educational establishments can access the World Wide Web and other Internet services much more easily. The joint scheme is called Campus World, and allows schools and colleges to use a BT-customized version of FTP Software's Explore 2.0 and Explore Anywhere to link them to the World Wide Web using BT's BTNet Internet service. The customized versions of Explore 2.0 and Explore Anywhere are being supplied pre-configured with the necessary UK telephone codes for access on a local calling basis for most of the UK, either through asynchronous modem links, or ISDN (integrated services digital network) channels. According to David Zirkle, FTP's president, the Campus World program will change the technical side of education in the UK, allowing schools and collages access to a more interactive online world than they enjoy at present. Zirkle claims that, by being more interactive, the service will provide the necessary stimulus for students to pay more attention and also provide a lot of answers to their questions. "The process will be far more interactive, allowing students to ask questions via Internet and receive answers from experts on line. Schools will be able to take part in joint projects with other schools, not only in the UK, but around the world," he explained. According to FTP, Campus Watch is several steps beyond the Campus 2000 service, which allowed interaction originally using BT's Prestel viewdata network and more recently, using BT's Mailbox Dialcom electronic-mail services. Explore 2.0 for Windows is a suite of Internet access applications for small workgroup local area networks (LANs), telecommuters, and home PC users. Explore Anywhere, meanwhile, is a similar suite, but engineered to allow corporate LAN users to gain access to the World Wide Web. The idea behind the customized versions of the packages is to allow educational staff and pupils to switch easily between the LAN and the Internet. (Sylvia Dennis/19950926/Press Contact: Lisa Cann, A Plus, +44-1753- 790700; Reader Contact: Manuela Dorken, FTP Software Worldwide, +49-89-590-47155) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 09/26/95 TRENDS High-Tech Firms Getting More For R&D Dollars - Study (NEWS)(TRENDS)(TOR)(00015) High-Tech Firms Getting More For R&D Dollars - Study 09/26/95 WESTON, MASSACHUSETTS, U.S.A., 1995 SEP 26 (NB) -- High-technology companies in the United States are getting a better return on the money they spend on research and development now than they did three years ago, according to a recent study. The study, by management consulting firm Pittiglio Rabin Todd & McGrath (PRTM), examined the performance of more than 200 companies in the semiconductor, telecommunications, electronic equipment, aerospace and defense, automotive and industrial, and medical device industries. Using a measure the consulting firm calls the "R&D Effectiveness Index," it found that the over-all return on R&D investments has increased 84 percent since 1992, when PRTM developed the index. The R&D Effectiveness Index measures the profit from new products relative to the money invested in R&D investment. In 1992, PRTM reported the index was .25, meaning companies got 25 cents in return for every dollar they spent on R&D, on average. In 1994, the consulting firm said, the index was .46, meaning a dollar spent on R&D brought 46 cents in product revenues. According to PRTD, companies have come to see that effective new product development is the key to success in the long term, so they are putting more emphasis on improving that process. As firms work to reduce time-to- market and increase development productivity, the management consultants said, their return on R&D investments is rising. PRTD noted that according to figures from the National Science Foundation, industry R&D spending has increased only two percent since 1993. In reaping an increased return of $21 billion, PRTD said, US high-tech companies are showing an ability to get more from the same level of investment. PRTD's formula for calculating the R&D Effectiveness Index (EI) is EI = New Product Revenue % x (Net Profit % + R&D %)/R&D %, where all percentages are calculated as percentages of revenue. (Grant Buckler/19950926/Press Contact: Michael McGrath, PRTM, 617-647-2800) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 09/26/95 CHIPS Motorola Intros 24-Bit DSP Chip Family (NEWS)(CHIPS)(DEN)(00016) Motorola Intros 24-Bit DSP Chip Family 09/26/95 AUSTIN, TEXAS, U.S.A., 1995 SEP 26 (NB) -- Motorola Inc. (NYSE: MOT) has introduced a new family of 24-bit digital signal processor (DSP) chips for wireless, telecommunications, and multimedia applications. The company said the DSP56300 architecture provides the industry's first one-instruction-per-clock-cycle, which effectively doubles the number of instructions executed without increasing the clock speed of the chip. The DSP56300 architecture is a product of Motorola's Digital Signal Processing Division, part of the company's Microcontroller Technologies Group. Motorola said in addition to the first offering in the product line, the DSP56301, it will also market several additional chips in the same family. The new chip architecture is software compatible with the DSP5600 family of processors. The 56301 will initially be available as a 66 MIPS (million instructions-per-second) at 66 megahertz (MHz). A 80MIPS, 80MHz version is scheduled to ship in the second quarter of 1996, and eventually chip performance will reach 100MIPS/MHz. The company said it has won design competition for use of the new microprocessor from customers producing applications that include wireless infrastructure like cell phone base stations, videoconferencing, multi-line voice/data/fax processing, asynchronous transfer mode (ATM) and integrated services digital network (ISDN). The latter two applications are used in high-speed data communications. Graham Mills, manager of advanced multimedia services at British Telecommunications in the United Kingdom, said BT intends to use the DSP56301 in future videoconferencing products. "It's an ideal chip for audio compression/decompression and advanced telecommunications control functions," said Mills. Motorola said the low power consumption of the chip is a key element in the product's performance. The company integrated several power saving features into the chip. The low power, fully static CMOS (complimentary metal oxide semiconductor) design lets users throttle internal clock speed from 80MHz to zero. The initial chip runs at 3.0- to 3.6-volts, and the company said future versions will reduce power consumption to between 2.7- and 1.8-volts. In addition to Stop and Power Down modes, the new DSP chips have an intelligent power management system that automatically powers down unused memories, peripherals and unused core logic on an instruction by instruction basis. The DSP56300 chips use a parallel instruction set to control the four concurrent execution unit. The units are: the Arithmetic Logic Unit, the Address Generation Unit, the Program Control Unit, and the Direct Memory Access Unit. The Data ALU features a fully pipelined 24- by 24-bit parallel multiply-accumulator which is further enhanced by a 56-bit parallel barrel shifter providing single-clock-cycle throughput. The barrel shifter supports efficient data stream parsing, which reduces software overhead. Motorola said the instruction cache support is user-transparent, provides hardware cache management and implements no access penalty for cache misses. It configures one kilobyte (KB) word of program memory (PRAM) to instruction cache and allows the user to lock or flush individual sectors. The DSP56301 contains a total of 4KB of PRAM which can be reconfigured to provide 3KB word of PRAM and 1KB word of instruction cache. The instruction cache can lower the requirements for expensive high-speed external memory. There is also 4KB word of data memory on the chip, which is split into 2KB word of X memory and 2KB word of Y memory. The new chips' external bus supports glueless connection to external DRAM (dynamic random access memory), SRAM (static random access memory), synchronous SRAM, ROM (read-only memory), and peripherals on a 24-bit address and 24-bit data bus. Four user-programmable address attributes are provided to eliminate external logic and allow interfacing to a variety of memories and peripherals. Motorola has developed a glueless interface to the Peripheral Controller Interface and has placed it onboard the chip. To support chip application development Motorola offers a cross linker, assembler, and simulator software development package, a C compiler, and an application development system. The Motorola spokesperson told Newsbytes the DSP56301 is immediately available at a price point of $48 per 100,000 of the 66MHz units. (Jim Mallory/19940926/Press contact: Michele Healey, Cunningham Communications for Motorola, 408-764-0785) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 09/26/95 TRENDS ****SGI & NCSA Create National Data Laboratory (NEWS)(TRENDS)(LAX)(00017) ****SGI & NCSA Create National Data Laboratory 09/26/95 CHAMPAIGN, ILLINOIS, U.S.A., 1995 SEP 26 (NB) -- Silicon Graphics Inc. (NYSE: SGI) and the National Center for Supercomputing Applications (NCSA) at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign have announced that they will create a National Data Laboratory for high-performance commercial computing applications. Silicon Graphics, through the National Data Lab, will deliver technology to commercial markets such as finance, telecommunications, and manufacturing . High-performance commercial computing uses advanced technology such as parallel processing, high-performance databases, and advanced data mining techniques. The National Data Laboratory will use this computing power to develop software technologies based on "intelligent algorithms" for recognizing and analyzing patterns in commercial databases. Daryl Ramm, internal analyst for SGI, told Newsbytes, "The Lab will research technologies such as employing neural networks that mimic the processes of the human brain, and genetic algorithms that mirror the evolutionary process of organisms in various environments. Technologies such as these are being used today in understanding consumer purchasing trends, detecting credit card or financial trading fraud, and other complex data analysis problems. "The use of 'intelligent algorithms' is in its embryonic stage. The major handicaps to further research has been the lack of available supercomputers, and the inability to run them on parallel systems. The National Data Laboratory should solve both of these problems," said Ramm. The National Data Laboratory will also have state-of-the-art data visualization facilities originally created for scientific data visualization that will now also be used to develop and test new technology for commercial applications. Silicon Graphics' Onyx graphics workstations and Challenge servers will be used as development and serving platforms. These systems will be tightly coupled to NCSA's 64-processor Power ChallengeArray supercomputer to enable the most powerful computations in support of the data analysis. "NCSA has provided technology and tools that have radically changed the use of supercomputers and networks in scientific and technical environments," said Larry Smarr, director of NCSA, the organization that developed the Mosaic browser. "Our relationship with Silicon Graphics will allow both organizations to deliver the latest high- performance commercial computing technology to leading Fortune 500 companies." "Revolutionary changes are occurring in commercial processing," said Ross Bott, vice president and general manager of Silicon Graphics' Network Systems Division. "The rapid growth in the amount of data available today coupled with new technologies that exploit this information are making traditional data processing techniques uncompetitive. With customers mining databases larger than 500 gigabytes (GB), Silicon Graphics is driving the high-performance commercial computing revolution. Our collaboration with NCSA will accelerate this revolution." NCSA, a unit of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, is dedicated to high-performance computing and communications in academia and industry. The center receives major funding to support its research from the National Science Foundation, the Advanced Research Projects Agency, NASA, corporate partners, the State of Illinois, and the University of Illinois. (Richard Bowers/19950926/Press Contact: Lisa Bergamo, Silicon Graphics, 415-390-2968) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 09/26/95 ONLINE MCI Intros Enhanced NetworkMCI Business Software (NEWS)(ONLINE)(MSP)(00018) MCI Intros Enhanced NetworkMCI Business Software 09/26/95 ATLANTA, GEORGIA, U.S.A., 1995 SEP 26 (NB) -- MCI Inc. (NASDAQ:MCIC) is distributing the newest version of "networkMCI Business," an integrated software package that includes fax and electronic-mail messaging, videoconferencing, and Internet connectivity, among other features. Current networkMCI Business users will receive the upgrade for free, MCI officials said. New customers can buy the software for $100. The new networkMCI Business is designed for small- and mid-sized businesses, officials said. "In one box we have combined all the information and communications tolls American companies need to efficiently manage their business," said Brian Brewer, vice president of business marketing for MCI. The upgrade now includes: "messageMCI," an integrated e-mail, fax, and paging product MCI officials call "a first;" a personalized news and information retrieval service called "infoMCI;" multipoint document sharing and videoconferencing via "conferenceMCI;" and "internetMCI," a secure graphical Internet browser based on Netscape technology, along with a dial-up access package. Paul Adams, MCI spokesperson, told Newsbytes there are several "new" components in the upgrade. The messageMCI section has now integrated the e-mail and fax features, and the paging feature is brand new. Also included with the paging is the ability to recall pages from networkMCI paging or SkyTel paging up to 99 hours after the pages were sent. Two new features of conference MCI include the ability to share documents over standard telephone lines in up to 24 locations, and a new conference scheduling form. And more content providers highlight the new offerings from infoMCI, as up to 150 publishers are now represented. MCI's Internet access costs $9.95 per month, which includes five hours of access time. Additional hours cost $2.50 each. The equipment needed for desktop videoconferencing can be purchased, rented, or leased from MCI for as low as $120 per month. Customized news and reports are available for a monthly charge of $35 if the customer subscribes to MCI Vision, Vnet, or the networkMCI Calling for Small Business service. Non-MCI business customers pay $45. (Bob Woods/19950926/Press Contacts: Paul Adams, MCI Telecommunications, 404-668-6406; Heather Jameson, Ketchum Public Relations, 404-877-1826. Public Contact: MCI, 800-955-6505) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 09/26/95 TELECOM Connect2Voice Reads Your E-Mail To You (NEWS)(TELECOM)(TOR)(00019) Connect2Voice Reads Your E-Mail To You 09/26/95 OWINGS MILLS, MARYLAND, U.S.A., 1995 SEP 26 (NB) -- Aiming at customers who often want to check the electronic mailboxes at their offices while on the road, Infinite Technologies has announced Connect2Voice, software that will read e-mail messages over the telephone to a remote user. Connect2Voice, which requires at least a 486 processor and a pair of Dialogic boards, plus firmware from Berkeley Speech Technologies, will let callers listen to their e-mail messages from any touch-tone telephone. Currently it works with electronic-mail software that uses Novell Inc.'s Message Handling Service (MHS), including BeyondMail, DaVinci Email, ExpressIt!, and Notework. Infinite has plans to support Lotus Development Corp.'s cc:Mail and Microsoft Mail, probably in the second quarter of next year, said Patricia Lummis, director of marketing. Besides reading e-mail, Connect2Voice can also serve as a voice-mail system, taking incoming voice messages and storing them in the e-mail in-box for later retrieval by computer or telephone. Infinite stressed that Connect2Voice is not meant to replace existing electronic-mail systems, but to complement them by making it easier to retrieve messages remotely. Callers do not control the system with voice commands, but by entering numeric codes on a touch-tone keypad in response to voice prompts from the system. These codes include a login ID and password that are used to provide security. As another security feature, the system administrator can control which e-mail accounts are accessible remotely, Infinite Technologies said. Prices for Connect2Voice will vary with the number of users supported, Lummis told Newsbytes, starting from $3,499 for a 50-user system. The software is scheduled to ship in mid-November, she added. (Grant Buckler/19950926/Press Contact: Patricia Lummis, Infinite Technologies, tel 410-363-1097, fax 410-363-0846, Internet e-mail patty@infinite.ihub.com) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 09/26/95 ONLINE Online Service Offers Addresses/Zip Codes/Phone Numbers (NEWS)(ONLINE)(SFO)(00020) Online Service Offers Addresses/Zip Codes/Phone Numbers 09/26/95 INGLEWOOD, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1995 SEP 26 (NB) -- PC411, a software developer, has announced an online information service which provides its users access to phone numbers, addresses, and zip codes for more than 90 million different US locations. Saying its service is faster than comparable service on the Internet, online services or CD-ROM, PC411 charges fifty cents for each standard search. Unlike many online services, PC411 does not apply monthly charges, hourly fees, and minimum-use requirements. Users only pay for the listings found in each search. PC411 does not require a commercial online service connection, an Internet connection, or a CD-ROM drive. Using the company's software, PC411 for Windows 1.1, and a modem, users are able to search area codes, regions, states or the entire United States to locate a person or business. At this time, the software searches only names with listed phone numbers. PC411 for Windows is programmed to automatically look for other versions of a name. For example, if a user types Franklin Smith, the search will include Franklin Smith, F. Smith and Frank Smith. It is important to use the correct spelling, said the company. If a user typed "Franklin Smits," for example, a charge would be incurred for the results of the search. Christopher Hansen, president of PC411, told Newsbytes, "Many people do not realize how much money they spend on information calls. If you need to call information in Indiana, you might have to call local information to get the area code and then dial a long distance information number for the local number. This process can easily cost $1.25 and you still do not have the zip code or address of the party you want to reach." Hansen continued, "Most searches take less than a minute and information returned from the search can be copied to word processors, personal information managers, or other applications. If a search does not find the name listed by the user for a specific area, the software will expand its search to surrounding areas such as suburbs of a metropolitan area." PC411 for Windows has the ability to run in the background while it searches. This means users are free to perform other work on their computer while PC411 searches its database of information. Its proprietary network is designed to handle multiple calls and most searches are completed in less than one minute, said the company. The company is targeting PC411 for individuals, small businesses, and large companies. According to Hansen, there are 6.8 billion 411 calls made each year in the United States. He says his service provides more information, works more efficiently, and "costs the same or less." Users do have to dial a Los Angeles number to connect to the network, but Hansen says since the search takes less than a minute, the long distance charge should be approximately 28 cents or less. Version 1.0 of PC411 was released previously and was used in limited situations to develop feedback for the national roll-out of version 1.1. PC411 for Windows 1.1 is scheduled to ship during October. It can be purchased direct from PC411 for $24.95, or it can be downloaded free from the PC411 World Wide Web site at http://www.pc411.com . Customers who purchase the software package for $24.95 receive a $15 credit towards PC411 service. Those who download the software are required to pay a $15 advance towards calls when they register. Each time a $15 credit reaches $10, PC411 adds another $15 charge to a user's credit card. There are no minimum-time or minimum-use requirements. A customer can keep a balance for months without using the service, said the company. The PC411 service requires a 386 or faster processor, Windows 3.1 Windows NT or Windows 95, a Hayes-compatible modem and a major credit card. (Patrick McKenna/19950926/Press Contact: Rolland Going, 310-821-6100; Public Information: PC411, 800-2-GET-411 or 310-645-1114/PC411950926/PHOTO) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 09/26/95 ONLINE Compuserve Electronic Mall Free To Access (NEWS)(ONLINE)(MSP)(00021) Compuserve Electronic Mall Free To Access 09/26/95 COLUMBUS, OHIO, U.S.A., 1995 SEP 26 (NB) -- Compuserve members are now able to "walk" into the online service's "Electronic Mall," and not be charged for the privilege. The online network announced it is again offering free access to its shopping area. The new offering began yesterday, Compuserve officials said. Compuserve subscribers can now access the mall without even being charged for their connect time. The move is in response to member feedback concerning the Electronic Mall and its status under Compuserve's new pricing structure, which was recently reduced, officials said. This move means Compuserve is the "only major online service" to offer free access to its shopping area, officials claimed. "Compuserve prides itself on listening to its members, and that's exactly what we've done here," said Keith Arnold, manager of the Electronic Mall. "It was important to our members that using the Electronic Mall be just like roaming through a real mall. That means browsing, bargain hunting, and window shopping for free." Compuserve's pricing structure changed September 10. Members now get five hours of free connect time with their monthly $9.95 membership fee. Additional hours are billed at $2.95 an hour. With the new Electronic Mall policy, time spent in the area won't be charged against either the five free hours, nor will the $2.95 an hour fee apply. In a previous Newsbytes article, Compuserve officials are quoted as saying the Electronic Mall has experienced "particularly strong growth" in the past five years, after being in cyberspace for more than ten years. Average annual increases of 50 percent in orders and 70 percent in number of accesses have been the norm in that time period, company officials added. In addition to its online service, Compuserve maintains an Internet World Wide Web presence at http://www.compuserve.com . Last May, Newsbytes reported Compuserve would be bringing its Electronic Mall to the Web so Internet surfers could also shop from the service's stores. Other new Compuserve services Newsbytes has reported on in the last month include the online network's new Web page offering, where members can construct their own Web sites, and access to a database of CD-ROMs, with nearly 1,800 publishers represented in the database. (Bob Woods/19950926/Press Contact: Jeff Shafer, Compuserve, 614-538-4632. Public Contact: Compuserve, 800-524-3388) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 09/26/95 ONLINE Internet Update (NEWS)(ONLINE)(TYO)(00022) Internet Update 09/26/95 TOKYO, JAPAN, 1995 SEP 26 (NB) -- In this roundup of new products and services on the global Internet: Hurricane Marilyn hits the net, Radio Twist news available, Hawaii research home page, Disaster preparedness information, Worldwide government links, Digital PC home page, Internet college choice tool. Hurricane Marilyn Hits The Net Hurricane Marilyn recently hit the US Virgin Islands causing havoc and destroying around 80% of all homes on the island of St Thomas. Transportation and communication to and from the island has also been crippled, but information is available on the Internet, at the following sites: St. Thomas Emergency Response Center World Wide Web: http://www.icanect.net/thomas/index.htm The National Hurricane Center World Wide Web: http://www.nhc.noaa.gov/index.html The Response Net Services World Wide Web: http://www.response.org/ Crossnet on the World Wide Web: http://www.crossnet.org/arc/whats_new/disaster/index.htm Hurricane '95 World Wide Web: http://www.pbpost.com/storm95/marilyn7.htm Radio Twist News Available Slovakia's Radio Twist has connected itself to the Internet and is making its hourly flash news bulletins and the main "Zurnal" news broadcast available to all network users. The files are available in Sun Audio file and Real Audio formats from EUnet Slovakia's ftp server. Radio Twist is an independent FM radio station in the country that broadcasts in Slovak. A Canadian ftp archive, which may offer better performance, is also available. World Wide Web: http://www.eunet.sk/twist/twist.html Anonymous FTP: ftp://ftp.eunet.sk/radio-twist Anonymous FTP: ftp://fermat.uvic.ca/pub/radio/RadioTwist Hawaii Research Home Page The Hawaii Research + Technology page is offering links to research and technology by Hawaii-based private sector and non-profit organizations, and the University of Hawaii. The majority of research projects are concentrated in the space, ocean, earth, life, and information sectors. World Wide Web: http://www.hawaii.org/ Disaster Preparedness Information Epicenter - The Emergency Preparedness Information Center, is devoted to raising awareness of emergency preparedness. Visitors to the pages will learn how to prepare for disasters like earthquakes and hurricanes. World Wide Web: http://nwlink.com/epicenter/ Worldwide Government Links Yale University's Government Document Library Site offers a comprehensive set of links to American and international government sources and sites with particular emphasis on non-US services. Rather than organizing all links by nation, the site offers access via menus classified by subject. World Wide Web: http://www.library.yale.edu/govdocs/govdoc2.html Digital PC Home Page Digital Computer has just begun its own home page. Via the site, current Digital PC owners can obtain free software device driver updates and current customer information. Potential customers are catered for with product information and the latest news about Digital's line of PCs. Hot links to other company and non-company Web sites are also featured. World Wide Web: http://www.pc.digital.com/ Internet College Choice Tool The first interactive college planning service on the Internet, CollegeAssist, has recently debuted. Targeted at sophomore through senior high school students and their school counselors, CollegeAssist provides both free information and fee-based services to guide students through the complex process of gaining admission to their college of choice. World Wide Web: http://www.edworks.com/ (Martyn Williams/19950926) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 09/26/95 TRENDS Hitachi Teams With Oracle For Multimedia OS (NEWS)(TRENDS)(TYO)(00023) Hitachi Teams With Oracle For Multimedia OS 09/26/95 TOKYO, JAPAN, 1995 SEP 26 (NB) -- Hitachi Ltd. (TOKYO:6501) and Oracle Corporation (NASDAQ:ORCL) have agreed to cooperate in the development of an interactive television (ITV) system. The new system will draw on the strengths of each company and should see first results next year when initial products will go on sale. Hitachi's RISC (reduced instruction set computers)-based parallel system and set-top boxes will be used as the base for the video server which will run on software based on Oracle's suite of interactive software products. The entire system will feature advanced ITV applications such as on-line shopping, news-on-demand, and movies-on-demand. The Oracle products to be used include: Oracle Media Server, which stores and manages stream audio and video data; Oracle Media Objects interactive authoring environment; and Oracle Media Net networking software which masks the complexity of interactive networks. Alongside the development of ITV systems, Hitachi and Oracle plan to cooperate in other areas such as the implementation of interactive real-time video delivery using ISDN (integrated services digital networks) and video enabled enterprise LAN (local area network) applications. In a company statement, Hiroshi Kuwahara, executive vice-president and representative director of Hitachi, Ltd. explained the new alliance will market its products worldwide, "Marriage between Oracle's technology and Hitachi's broad range of products and systems integration expertise will enable us to provide customers around the world with comprehensive solutions to their ever growing ITV system requirements." Lawrence J. Ellison, chairman and chief executive officer (CEO) of Oracle Corp. commented, "Oracle's technology, both proven and scalable, has been chosen by all of the telecommunications companies running interactive deployments because it is real and works today. Oracle has established the new foundation for information management and access based on its ability to manage very large databases, of any data type. We are honored to be chosen by Hitachi for the important partnership." Oracle already has several working arrangements with major Japanese electronics companies. A recently announced deal will lead to the development of localized versions of Oracle's application software by Toshiba Corporation, which will also market the new software in Japan. The American company is also involved in deals with NTT Mobile Communications Network and NEC Corporation, its largest Japanese distributor, amongst others. The new system will compete in the ITV operating system market with America's Microsoft and Japan's Sony, which have both developed similar software. The two previously announced operating systems together with the Hitachi/Oracle system will be on show next week at the Telecom 95 show in Geneva. (Martyn Williams/19950926/Press contact: Dawn Echols, Oracle Corporation, 415-506-9034; Hitachi Ltd., +81-3-3258-2055) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 09/26/95 BUSINESS Toshiba & Sun Microsystems Tie In New Markets (NEWS)(BUSINESS)(TYO)(00024) Toshiba & Sun Microsystems Tie In New Markets 09/26/95 TOKYO, JAPAN, 1995 SEP 26 (NB) -- Confirming the success of a relationship that has existed for the last ten years, Toshiba Corporation (TOKYO:6502) and Sun Microsystems (NASDAQ:SUNW) have announced an enhancing of the working relationship between the two in the emerging areas of right-sizing, Internet, and interactive technology. Costs involved in product development, marketing and distribution will be shared jointly by Toshiba and Sun as part of the agreement. Toshiba has also announced plans to develop and build systems based on Sun's 64-bit UltraSPARC microprocessor. As part of the agreement Toshiba is working with Sun to right-size its internal computer system based on Sun hardware. The Japanese company has already begun replacing its existing mainframes and PCs with Sun servers and workstations and will apply experience gained in the project when working on similar systems at other Japanese companies. Right-sizing internally at Toshiba will cost the company around 30 billion yen ($300 million) over the next four years. In the fields of Internet use, the two are jointly developing methods for remote access to information retrieval systems by an increasing mobile workforce. Central to the project will be Sun's previously developed Netra Internet Server, Java and Hot Java technologies, which will be combined with Toshiba's experience in semiconductors, LCDs (liquid crystal displays), and portable computing equipment. Toshiba is licensing the Java and Hot Java technologies from Sun. Java is a object-oriented language for cross-platform, secure distributed applications, and Hot Java is a World Wide Web browser that enables the display of dynamic, interactive content on any Web page using the Java language. Under the Interactive Technology part of the deal, Toshiba will use Sun's media server technology as the basis for a future multimedia system offering video-on-demand service. As part of the system, Toshiba will also work on applications targeted at the Japanese market. Toshiba will also develop and build system-level products based on Sun's next-generation 64-bit UltraSPARC chip, a new high-performance 64-bit microprocessor. On the other side of the deal, Sun will use Toshiba's multimedia technologies, such as ATM (asynchronous transfer mode) switching, data storage and filing, and encoding and decoding in the system. The Japanese company will develop applications for information systems in the retail and public utility industries. Parts of the new systems will be on display at Telecom 95 in Geneva next week. Toshiba and Sun have worked together since 1985 when Toshiba became one of Sun's first ever customers and signed the American company's first OEM (original equipment manufacturing) contract. Over the last ten years the relationship has grown to include research and development and marketing of Sun's SPARC/Solaris workstation and server products for the Japanese market. Toshiba developed the world's first SPARC/Solaris laptop workstation. (Martyn Williams/19950926/Press contact: Susan Siegel, Sun Microsystems Inc., 415-786-8251; Toshiba Corporation, +81-3-3457-2105) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 09/26/95 TELECOM BosCom95 -- Internet Impact Is Seismic, Negroponte Says (NEWS)(TELECOM)(BOS)(00025) BosCom95 -- Internet Impact Is Seismic, Negroponte Says 09/26/95 BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS, U.S.A., 1995 SEP 26 (NB) -- The Internet is being met with an extraordinary mix of "hype and understatement," remarked Nicholas Negroponte, founder and director of the MIT Media Lab, senior columnist for Wired Magazine, and the author of Being Digital, during a speech at the Mass. Telecom Council (MTC)'s Boscom95 conference in Boston. Some observers are strongly critical of what they perceive as an overblown image for the Web. But beneath any surface brouhaha, the Internet carries an underlying impact measuring "10.5 on the Richter scale of social change," Negroponte said during his talk, which was attended by Newsbytes. Ironically, middle-aged professionals -- a top target of many advertisers -- are, by and large, the group least affected by the Internet, according to the "new media" expert. But by now, "It's close to zero percent of 13-year-olds who are digitally illiterate." And unexpectedly, senior citizens are signing on to online services at a greater rate than any other age group, Negroponte told the MTC members and their international guests. Often, elderly people are motivated to "get a laptop" and go online by a desire to share experiences in common with their grandkids, Negroponte continued. Grandparents have "all the assets and none of the liabilities" of being a parent. But working adults are not entirely immune to the presence of the Internet, the Boscom speaker suggested. Negroponte revealed that, at one point, he was astonished to learn that most subscriptions to Wired Magazine are purchased by kids, as gifts to their moms and dads. The kids see Wired as a way of initiating parents to "their world," he maintained. Meanwhile, the Internet has been employed by Arab zealots to call for the extradition of Michael Jackson and Madonna to the Middle East, by North Carolina police to help secure the extradition of a couple of fugitives in California, and by a Web user in Russia to point the finger of the law at a pornography writer in the US, according to Negroponte. Michael Jackson and Madonna never were extradited. As to the other accused parties, though, "It was their bits, not their atoms, that got them into trouble," Negroponte said, drawing on a metaphor he used in the widely read book, Being Digital. The pornography writer, who "made the mistake of using someone's real name," was arrested, "and his glasses were confiscated." Ultimately, the porn writer was released -- and his glasses returned -- when a judge deemed the works that had been published on the Web to belong to the category of fiction, the Boscom audience was told. In a more general sense, virtually anyone today can access thousands of books from a digital library on the Web, as opposed to the few volumes at a time that can be taken out "as atoms" from a traditional library, Negroponte pointed out. Negroponte also told the crowd that, these days, he personally participates in no more than five phone calls daily, conducting the bulk of his conversations by electronic mail (e-mail) instead. "Is that a prototype for what's doing to happen in the future?" he asked rhetorically. Negroponte noted that he holds two e-mail addresses: one public, and one private. In another illustration of the impact of the Internet, the pundit recalled that, in one instance, he received a letter in his private mailbox with a return address he did not recognize. After worrying about how his "security had been broken," he realized that the bearer of the unfamiliar address was his own mother, who had just joined the ranks of online service subscribers. During a Q&A session that followed, one audience member asked Negroponte for his predictions as to the future use of languages on the Web. As the Internet continues to expand, it will paradoxically become more "local," as well, Negroponte responded. Although English will continue to be widely used for personal communications, so will many other tongues, including pictographic languages, right on down to the local dialect level. English will also emerge as a sort of "air traffic control language" for the Web, the author/academician added. The MTC's BosCom is a worldwide forum designed to bring together Massachusetts-based telecommunications companies and international visitors. Guests at the event came from countries as diverse as Japan, Argentina, the UK, Egypt, Israel, China, Malta, Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, Holland, Ireland, Australia, Germany, Belgium, and South Africa. Sponsored by the Bank of Boston, Deloitte & Touche LLP, and MassPort, the forum also featured a speech by Rep. Edward W. Markey, ranking Democrat on the US House of Representatives Subcommittee on Telecommunications and Finance; a panel discussion on "The Worldwide Development of the Information Superhighway," moderated by Lincoln Millstein of the Boston Globe; and presentations by 25 telecommunications "companies to watch." BosCom's "companies to watch" included Adaptive Networks; Agile Networks; Analog Devices; BBN Corp.; Boston Technology; Brooktrout Technology; Continental Cablevision; Digital Equipment Corporation; Excel Inc.; Fiber Optic Network Solutions (FONS); GTE; Hammer Technologies; Lotus Development Corp; Massachusetts Corp. for Educational Telecommunications (MCET); Mercury Computer Systems; Natural MicroSystems (NMS); Nextel Communications; Nynex; Proteon; Shiva; Steinbrecher Corp; Telco Systems; Videocom; VideoServer; and Windata. (Jacqueline Emigh/19950925/Reader Contact: Mass. Telecommunications Council, 617-439-8600; Press Contact: Cheryl DelGreco, Charles Spofford, or Craig Librett, Miller/Shandwick Technologies for the MTC, 617-536-0470) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 09/26/95 UNIX Unix Expo - Candle Command Center For Multivendor Nets (NEWS)(UNIX)(BOS)(00026) Unix Expo - Candle Command Center For Multivendor Nets 09/26/95 NEW YORK, NEW YORK, U.S.A., 1995 SEP 26 (NB) -- Candle Command Center, delivered in its first phase at Unix Expo, is designed to supply easy-to-use systems management for complex multivendor enterprise networks, particularly for mainframe administrators moving from the "glass house" to Unix and Windows NT, reported Candle Corp. Chairman and CEO (Chief Executive Officer) Aubrey Chernick, in a meeting with Newsbytes at the show in New York City. Command Center, the result of a seven-year, $500 million investment effort, combines Candle's historic expertise in mainframe systems management with a new object-oriented Candles Technologies (CT) infrastructure for systems, network, and console management across mainframe, AIX, HP-UX, SunOS, Windows NT, and NetWare environments, said Craig P. Campbell, director of marketing, and Michael P. Piece, solutions manager for distributed systems, also during the briefing. The three Command Center systems that are available from Candle now include Command Center for Unix, CICSplex, and Sysplex, according to the three Candle execs. Components include: the Candle Management Server (CMS), for either MVS or Unix; the Candle Management Workstation (CMW), an OS/2-based management station; and Omegamon Monitoring Agents. Over the next 12 months, Candle plans to add Command Cemter systems for Windows NT, NetWare, CA (Computer Associates)-Unicenter, Oracle, Sybase, and "distributed console management." Also forthcoming within the year are the following Command Center systems for mainframes: mainframe console management, MQSeries, IMSplex, and DB2plex. During the meeting at Unix Expo, Newsbytes saw a live demo of the use of a single CMW in the Candle booth to manage both a 12-node RS/6000 Scalable PowerParallel (SP) machine in the IBM booth, and a 512-node SP server located at the Cornell University in Ithaca, New York. Chernick told Newsbytes that the machine at Cornell is the largest SP machine yet to be implemented. Campbell and Pierce pointed out that Command Center's object- oriented CT infrastructure complies with standards that include Distributed Computing Environment (DCE) and Portable Operating System Interface and System Administration Interface/Printing (POSIX). One of the major ways in which Command Center eases systems administration is through a Visual Programming interface to the CMW that "looks a little like Visual Basic," Campbell told Newsbytes. "And it is not a second or third generation language," he added. Visual Programming allows systems administrators to perform tasks like creating and maintaining alert and automation rules without knowledge of programming languages such as C and C++, Pierce maintained. The same interface is used across Command Center environments. An administrator trained in MVS or Windows NT, who is suddenly faced with Unix systems newly added to the network, does not have to deal with learning to carry out arcane chores like writing Unix shell scripts, he illustrated. Using Visual Programming, he continued, the administrator can "write" rules simply by answering questions posed by Command Center, such as "How many nodes?" Rules can then be dragged-and- dropped to icons representing target nodes and networks. If the administrator needs to change the rules, Command Center will automatically redistribute the new rules to the target systems. Campbell added that Command Center's intelligent agents are designed to cut down on network traffic by preventing unnecessary data transmission. The agents collect information from throughout the network, but "only send data relevant to a change in status" for viewing as alerts. Newsbytes saw how, when a "critical" red or a yellow "warning" alert appears, the administrator can "drill down" for more information, just by clicking on the screen. If the problem turns out to be "CPU (central processing unit) usage," for example, the administrator might see a color-coded chart displaying "idle CPU, system CPU, and user CPU." Command Center also provides graphical maps of the network, according to the officials. At the conclusion of the briefing, Chernick contended that the comprehensiveness of Command Center is also of special value to traditional mainframe administrators, who have typically been trained as specialists in one particular area of mainframe operations, instead of systems and network administration generalists. (Jacqueline Emigh/19950926/Reader Contact: Candle Corporation, 310-829-5800; Press Contact: Wendy Allen or Leslie Furuta, Miller/Shandwick Technologies for Candle, 310-822-4669) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 09/26/95 NETWORK ****Microsoft & MCI Announce Networking Alliance (NEWS)(NETWORK)(MSP)(00027) ****Microsoft & MCI Announce Networking Alliance 09/26/95 ATLANTA, GEORGIA, U.S.A., 1995 SEP 26 (NB) -- MCI Inc. (NASDAQ:MCIC) and Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ:MSFT) have announced a joint marketing agreement where MCI will join its network services with Microsoft Windows NT and BackOffice software to provide wide area network (WAN) "solutions." Officials said the agreement represents the industry's first single- source service for WAN development and management, and will increase the availability of networked communications to small- and mid-sized groups. The announcement was made at a news teleconference, which Newsbytes attended. In an effort that's been termed "WAN-in-a-box," MCI will combine Windows NT servers with MCI's HyperStream Frame Relay services, internetMCI, and WAN network management services into a "single-source solution." In effect, the MCI-Microsoft teaming will create a "one- stop shop for WANs. Officials said the new offering will make WAN network management services more practical and affordable for small- and medium-sized businesses, because they'll no longer need to invest money and personnel to deploy and manage WANs. MCI transport and Internet services on Windows NT will also be available to larger companies that prefer individual services. Other plans include expanding the offering to switched multimegabit data services (SMDS), leased lines, and other transport capabilities. "What we have done, very simply, is taken the routing requirements for frame or SMDS networking, and implemented that into the Windows NT software," said Stephen Von Rump, vice president of marketing for MCI Data Services, "and created a capability where a user from a single workstation with Windows NT can create a networked environment for Windows applications." He also said the process is seamless. "In a nutshell, what I think we've done for wide area networking is what Windows and graphical user interfaces have done for the PC world," Von Rump said. Unsavvy network users can easily establish network enterprise connectivity, without having to understand exactly how its done, he added. The agreement between the two companies includes jointly recruiting resellers, and cooperating in sales and customer support training efforts. MCI and Microsoft will also work on developing new network protocols and network services for the WAN community. The new services are slated to be available in January, 1996. (Bob Woods/19950926/Press Contacts: C. David Sutton, MCI Telecommunications, 800-644-NEWS; Heather Jameson, Ketchum Public Relations, 404-877-1826) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 00 09/26/95 PC ****Compaq Considers "Disposable" PCs Under $ (NEWS)(PC)(DEN)(00028) ****Compaq Considers "Disposable" PCs Under $500 09/26/95 HOUSTON, TEXAS, U.S.A., 1995 SEP 26 (NB) -- A Compaq Computer Corp. (NYSE: CPQ) marketing executive has resurrected a concept for a line of PCs in the $500 range to meet consumer demand for computers in Eastern Europe, Africa, and Asia. "We see all this intellectual potential, all those people who can't afford today's PCs," Bruno Didier, vice president in charge of commercial business for Compaq in Europe, the middle East and Africa told the British news service Reuters earlier this week in talking about the potential market for the low-cost systems. Compaq spokesperson John Sweney told Newsbytes the idea isn't a new one. "We've been talking about low-end PCs since Innovate 93 two years ago. It's the kind of thing Eckhard (Pfeiffer, Compaq president and chief executive officer) has been talking about for a while," said Sweney. Innovate 93 was a worldwide technology conference and exhibition sponsored by Compaq in September, 1993, to highlight technology and look at the future of computing. In his keynote address at Innovate 93, Pfeiffer predicted that by the year 2000, the market will have grown to $130 billion, with the consumer portion representing over half the total market. He predicted that by the end of the century, 75 percent of the US households will own PCs. The Compaq leader said the key to successful adoption of the PC in the home is for the price to drop to $500, in addition to vendors making a PC easier to use and easier to own over its useful life. The new PCs, if they do come to market, would have to run Windows 95, the new Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ: MSFT) operating system and user interface, as well as powerful word processing and spreadsheet programs, and be equipped with eight megabytes (MB) of memory. They would also have to be Internet-ready. Producing a PC with that configuration at under $500 could be the biggest challenge hardware and software manufacturers face. In order to offer those features the "disposable PCs" would have to forego multimedia luxuries like a CD-ROM drive, stereo audio, and built-in microphone and speakers. Sweney declined to discuss what products are currently under development at Compaq. One reason the idea might get the nod from Compaq top management is the rapid growth of the market for computers in Europe. While sales there haven't caught up with the US yet they are growing rapidly, driven partially by users wanting to access the Internet and by businesses upgrading to the more powerful Pentium-based systems, but Didier thinks the less affluent class may be an untapped market. "Maybe instead of focusing our design efforts toward more power we have to think more about price. We don't think the speed of a processor will be relevant anymore," Didier told Reuters. Didier told Reuters he isn't worried that a low-end PC could drive the whole market down and lead to a collapse in prices. Sun Microsystems Inc. is also considering a low-cost, bare bones PC that would have just enough features to log onto the Internet or a network. The user wouldn't need lots of expensive software, since the computer would download the portion of the program needed to perform tasks, like personal banking. Once the immediate work was finished, the software would disappear, eliminating the need for hard disk or CD-ROM drives. Scott McNealy, Sun chairman and chief executive officer said this week while it might take several years for such machines to reach stores, some companies have already created prototypes, according to an Associated Press report. (Jim Mallory/19950926/Press contact: Compaq Computer, 713-374-0484) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 09/26/95 ONLINE ****Unix Expo - Catholic Church Launches Web Site (NEWS)(ONLINE)(BOS)(00029) ****Unix Expo - Catholic Church Launches Web Site 09/26/95 NEW YORK, NEW YORK, U.S.A., 1995 SEP 26 (NB) -- In a press conference at Unix Expo, the Roman Catholic Church announced plans to pave the "info highway" for Pope John Paul II's visit to the US in October with a new home page on the Web called the Catholic Information Center on the Internet (CICI). CICI provides a central directory of all information on the Web that reflects the Magisterium -- or the "authoritative teachings of the Catholic Church" -- with hyperlinks to related home pages, documents and discussion groups, said Roman Anderson, project leader, in an interview with Newsbytes during the press conference. All Roman Catholic archdiocese in the US will be able to offer their own online publications on CICI, added Anderson, who has worked in the computer industry both in the US and Russia. The Archdiocese of Boston, for example, might choose to run The Pilot, he illustrated. The various archdiocese can choose to design and host their own Web sites -- with hyperlinks to CICI -- or to have their sites designed and hosted by CICI, Newsbytes was told. CICI resides on a Unix server running Secure Netscape. In addition, during the Pope's trip to the US, CICI plans to offer continuous video and stills from VISN, a religion cable TV network, along with a detailed itinerary, "expert commentary," the full text of the Pope's remarks at each stop, and both audio and simultaneous closed captioning of the Pope's words, according to the project leader. The multimedia materials from the Pope's visit will use Xing Technology's StreamWorks for data streaming. Users with T1 or ISDN (integrated services digital network) connections will be able to view the Pope's visit in full-motion MPEG (Motion Picture Experts Group) video and listen to CD audio. Users with 14.4 megabits-per- second (Mbps) or 28.8 Mbps modems will be able to receive AM or FM quality audio, plus a server-pushed slide show. Outside of the Pope's visit, other initial offerings on CICI include: the forward and first chapter from the Pope's Crossing the Threshold of Hope (Knopf Publishing); a Catholic news service; the national and international Catholic publications Our Sunday Visitor, Catholic World Report, Inside the Vatican, Crisis and Homiletic, and Pastoral Review; and a new quarterly digital magazine known as Spirituality for Today. Also available are: Papal encyclicals of the past 200 years; documents of Church councils; a directory of Catholic organizations; access to the Bible Gateway; and a live forum, entitled "Issues and Facts," that focuses on issues like marriage, divorce, contraception, abortion, and "evolution and creation," according to Anderson. CICI is being operated by the Vatican's New York City-based Path to Peace Foundation. The idea for the Web site came from James Mulholland Jr., an investor in Meckler Media, the publishers of Internet World, as well as a founder of Hayden Publishing Inc., the publishers of Electronic Design, MicroWaves, Computer Decisions, Systems and Software, and Personal Computing, a publication that has merged with Ziff-Davis's PC Computing. Researchers and students at New Jersey Institute of Technology's Center for Computerized Conferencing and Communications embarked on the technical underpinnings for CICI last year through a grant from Paths to Peace. At first, most information on CICI will be delivered in English, but more languages are slated to be added in coming months. Other anticipated additions include: downloadable Church art; a directory of pro-life obstetrician-gynecologists, by region; curricula for Catholic parents who home-school their children; "on-line theologians and experts who can authoritatively answer queries on Church teachings," and an online bookstore selling books, software, tapes, Christmas cards, and religious items, and statuary. CICI can be accessed at http://www.catholic.net . Funding for the site will come from voluntary user donations, corporations, and foundations, with additional support expected from online catalog sales. To have a publication designed and by CICI, the archdiocese should forward its materials, along with the publication's logo and a photo of the archbishop, to the Path to Peace Foundation, Anderson told Newsbytes. (Jacqueline Emigh/19950926/Reader and Press Contact: Path to Peace Foundation, 201-664-2148) (SUMMARY)(GENERAL)(MSP)(00030) Newsbytes Daily Summary 09/26/95 MINNEAPOLIS, MINNESOTA, U.S.A., 1995 SEP 26 (NB) -- These are capsules of all today's news stories: ======================================================================== ------------| N E W S B Y T E S D A I L Y S U M M A R Y |---------- ------------| Tuesday, September 26, 1995 |---------- ======================================================================== (c) Newsbytes News Network (Tm) Editor in Chief: Wendy Woods ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Newsbytes News Network is a computer and telecom industry news wire and digitized picture service. Our news stream includes more than 30 daily first-hand reported US and international news stories about computing and telecommunications. For more information, please e-mail to 'administrator@newsbytes.com' ------------------------------------------------------------------------ CATEGORY HEADLINES (*** indicates today's top stories) STORY # ======================================================================== BROADCAST Hong Kong Telecom's Video-On-Demand Project Update......... 05 BUSINESS Yokogawa Electric Plans Software Venture In India.......... 03 BUSINESS Hong Kong's ISL In Major China Distribution Deal........... 06 BUSINESS Toshiba & Sun Microsystems Tie In New Markets.............. 24 CHIPS Motorola Intros 24-Bit DSP Chip Family..................... 16 EDUCATION Hong Kong Univ Switches To Windows 95...................... 07 EDUCATION UK - British Telecom & FTP Offer Schools Internet Access... 14 GOVT South Australia Govt In IT Deals With US Firms............. 01 GOVT China - Shanghai Curbing Copyright Violations.............. 08 NETWORK ****Microsoft & MCI Announce Networking Alliance.......... 27 ONLINE Australian Govt Plans To Consolidate Online Inquiries...... 02 ONLINE MCI Intros Enhanced NetworkMCI Business Software........... 18 ONLINE Online Service Offers Addresses/Zip Codes/Phone Numbers.... 20 ONLINE Compuserve Electronic Mall Free To Access.................. 21 ONLINE Internet Update............................................ 22 ONLINE ****Unix Expo - Catholic Church Launches Web Site......... 29 PC ****Compaq Considers "Disposable" PCs Under $500.......... 28 TELECOM India - 40,000-Line Digital Switch Intro'd................. 04 TELECOM Microsoft/Skytel Offer 2-way Paging Via Microsoft Network.. 11 TELECOM Connect2Voice Reads Your E-Mail To You..................... 19 TELECOM BosCom95 -- Internet Impact Is Seismic, Negroponte Says.... 25 TRENDS China - Mastercard Credit Card Usage Up.................... 09 TRENDS Russia -- Sales Of Dell PCs Up, Win95 Set For October...... 10 TRENDS CD-ROM Distribution Changes Forecast....................... 13 TRENDS High-Tech Firms Getting More For R&D Dollars - Study....... 15 TRENDS ****SGI & NCSA Create National Data Laboratory............ 17 TRENDS Hitachi Teams With Oracle For Multimedia OS................ 23 UNIX Unix Expo - Candle Command Center For Multivendor Nets..... 26 WINDOWS Correction - What Ever Happened To Bob..................... 12 ======================================================================== These are the headlines and first paragraphs of each story, in order: 1 -> South Australia Govt In IT Deals With US Firms -- South Australian (SA) state Premier Dean Brown chose New York City to launch a sweeping round of information technology (IT) purchasing decisions recently, along with a multi-million dollar deal with the IBM and Lend Lease joint venture ISSC Australia. The agreement covers establishment of an Electronic Services Business (ESB) to support electronic marketing and sales of products from SA companies. 2 -> Australian Govt Plans To Consolidate Online Inquiries -- Australian federal public servants have recognized the problem of overlapping government inquiries into unsuitable material on the Internet and other computer services, but don't yet know what to do about it. A recent meeting of the Government Information Services Policy Board discussed, but did not resolve the issue. 3 -> Yokogawa Electric Plans Software Venture In India -- Yokogawa Blue Star Ltd. (YBS), a joint venture of Japan-based Yokogawa Electric Corp., and Blue Star Ltd., has stated that a software facility will be set up by the company in India. The facility will be treated as a global engineering center catering to the software needs of all the Yokogawa affiliates and subsidiaries across the globe. 4 -> India - 40,000-Line Digital Switch Intro'd -- The Center for Development of Telematics (C-DOT), India's premier research and development body in the public sector, has successfully built "the first 40,000-line hi-tech digital main automatic exchange." According to Bishnu Pradhan, executive director of C-DOT, the development "demonstrates to the world that Indian research and development personnel are second-to-none in areas considered the monopoly of the West." 5 -> Hong Kong Telecom's Video-On-Demand Project Update -- Mystery surrounds HongKong Telecom's video-on-demand project 6 -> Hong Kong's ISL In Major China Distribution Deal -- Integrated Solutions Ltd 7 -> Hong Kong Univ Switches To Windows 95 -- The Hong Kong University of Science & Technology (HKUST) says it has committed to purchase up to 3,000 copies of both Windows 95 and Microsoft Office for Windows 95. 8 -> China - Shanghai Curbing Copyright Violations -- The Shanghai Copyright Agency (SCA) claims to have achieved success in promoting international culture and information exchanges, while curbing copyright violations, according to China Daily. 9 -> China - Mastercard Credit Card Usage Up -- While the government is promoting the "Golden Card" Project, Mastercard International hopes to expand its share of the Chinese market, where it already has a solid footing. 10 -> Russia -- Sales Of Dell PCs Up, Win95 Set For October -- Sales Of Dell PCs Up, Win95 Set For October 09/26/95 MOSCOW, RUSSIA, 1995 SEP 26 (NB) 11 -> Microsoft/Skytel Offer 2-way Paging Via Microsoft Network -- Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ: MSFT) and Skytel, a company owned by Mobile Telecommunication Technologies Corp. (NASDAQ: MTEL), have teamed to allow users of Windows 95 and Microsoft Network (MSN) to send and receive two-way paging messages. 12 -> Correction - What Ever Happened To Bob -- A representative at Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ: MSFT) public relations firm Waggener Edstrom has asked Newsbytes to publish a clarification to a recent story that appeared on the Newsbytes News Network about Microsoft Bob, the nerdy guy with the heavy glasses that represents a "more friendly user interface" to Microsoft Windows. 13 -> CD-ROM Distribution Changes Forecast -- CD-ROM producers are unhappy with their existing distribution channels, and traditional software retailers have a few unkind words for the CD-ROM producers as well. But they may not have each other to kick around for much longer, according to a recent study by Forrester Research Inc. 14 -> UK - British Telecom & FTP Offer Schools Internet Access -- FTP Software, along with British Telecom (BT), has announced a scheme whereby schools and other UK educational establishments can access the World Wide Web and other Internet services much more easily. 15 -> High-Tech Firms Getting More For R&D Dollars - Study -- High-technology companies in the United States are getting a better return on the money they spend on research and development now than they did three years ago, according to a recent study. 16 -> Motorola Intros 24-Bit DSP Chip Family -- Motorola Inc. (NYSE: MOT) has introduced a new family of 24-bit digital signal processor (DSP) chips for wireless, telecommunications, and multimedia applications. The company said the DSP56300 architecture provides the industry's first one-instruction-per-clock-cycle, which effectively doubles the number of instructions executed without increasing the clock speed of the chip. 17 -> ****SGI & NCSA Create National Data Laboratory -- Silicon Graphics Inc. (NYSE: SGI) and the National Center for Supercomputing Applications (NCSA) at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign have announced that they will create a National Data Laboratory for high-performance commercial computing applications. Silicon Graphics, through the National Data Lab, will deliver technology to commercial markets such as finance, telecommunications, and manufacturing . 18 -> MCI Intros Enhanced NetworkMCI Business Software -- MCI Inc. (NASDAQ:MCIC) is distributing the newest version of "networkMCI Business," an integrated software package that includes fax and electronic-mail messaging, videoconferencing, and Internet connectivity, among other features. 19 -> Connect2Voice Reads Your E-Mail To You -- Aiming at customers who often want to check the electronic mailboxes at their offices while on the road, Infinite Technologies has announced Connect2Voice, software that will read e-mail messages over the telephone to a remote user. 20 -> Online Service Offers Addresses/Zip Codes/Phone Numbers -- PC411, a software developer, has announced an online information service which provides its users access to phone numbers, addresses, and zip codes for more than 90 million different US locations. Saying its service is faster than comparable service on the Internet, online services or CD-ROM, PC411 charges fifty cents for each standard search. 21 -> Compuserve Electronic Mall Free To Access -- Compuserve members are now able to "walk" into the online service's "Electronic Mall," and not be charged for the privilege. The online network announced it is again offering free access to its shopping area. 22 -> Internet Update -- In this roundup of new products and services on the global Internet: Hurricane Marilyn hits the net, Radio Twist news available, Hawaii research home page, Disaster preparedness information, Worldwide government links, Digital PC home page, Internet college choice tool. 23 -> Hitachi Teams With Oracle For Multimedia OS -- Hitachi Ltd. (TOKYO:6501) and Oracle Corporation (NASDAQ:ORCL) have agreed to cooperate in the development of an interactive television (ITV) system. The new system will draw on the strengths of each company and should see first results next year when initial products will go on sale. 24 -> Toshiba & Sun Microsystems Tie In New Markets -- Confirming the success of a relationship that has existed for the last ten years, Toshiba Corporation (TOKYO:6502) and Sun Microsystems (NASDAQ:SUNW) have announced an enhancing of the working relationship between the two in the emerging areas of right-sizing, Internet, and interactive technology. 25 -> BosCom95 -- Internet Impact Is Seismic, Negroponte Says -- Internet Impact Is Seismic, Negroponte Says 09/26/95 BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS, U.S.A., 1995 SEP 26 (NB) 26 -> Unix Expo - Candle Command Center For Multivendor Nets -- Candle Command Center, delivered in its first phase at Unix Expo, is designed to supply easy-to-use systems management for complex multivendor enterprise networks, particularly for mainframe administrators moving from the "glass house" to Unix and Windows NT, reported Candle Corp. Chairman and CEO (Chief Executive Officer) Aubrey Chernick, in a meeting with Newsbytes at the show in New York City. 27 -> ****Microsoft & MCI Announce Networking Alliance -- MCI Inc. (NASDAQ:MCIC) and Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ:MSFT) have announced a joint marketing agreement where MCI will join its network services with Microsoft Windows NT and BackOffice software to provide wide area network (WAN) "solutions." 28 -> ****Compaq Considers "Disposable" PCs Under $500 -- A Compaq Computer Corp. (NYSE: CPQ) marketing executive has resurrected a concept for a line of PCs in the $500 range to meet consumer demand for computers in Eastern Europe, Africa, and Asia. 29 -> ****Unix Expo - Catholic Church Launches Web Site -- In a press conference at Unix Expo, the Roman Catholic Church announced plans to pave the "info highway" for Pope John Paul II's visit to the US in October with a new home page on the Web called the Catholic Information Center on the Internet (CICI). (Ian Stokell/19950926) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 09/25/95 TELECOM Sweden's Ericsson Prepares For Geneva Telecom (NEWS)(TELECOM)(LON)(00001) Sweden's Ericsson Prepares For Geneva Telecom 09/25/95 STOCKHOLM, SWEDEN, 1995 SEP 25 (NB) -- As the dust settles on Networld+Interop, which took place in Paris, France recently, the European information technology (IT) industry is gearing itself up for the next major event -- Telecom 95 -- which takes place in Geneva, Switzerland, from October 3 to 11. Ericsson, the Swedish connectivity giant, has announced plans to "take Telecom 95 by storm," and plans to present the latest developments in telecoms systems technology and future projects of networks and services. According to the company, its strategy is to meet the expectations of individual users as well as big organizations and have new services tailored accordingly to the need of every customer. These services are also aimed to be "user-friendly and affordable." "What we want to achieve is to show our potential customers Ericsson's competence in the telecommunication area, especially in mobile telephony, where we are the leaders. It is more of a show than just a display. We show our visitors what a particular system can do," said Per Bengtsson, chief press officer for Ericsson. Several on-stand demonstrations will provide the information and advice on what services such as multimedia have to offer and in what direction the technological development is heading. According to Ericsson, particular attention will be focused on how ordinary people might respond to, and use, the technology. Visitors to the show will be able to see the latest developments in switching, transport, management, and access for all types of networks and services. Network and service evolution issues will be under considerable attention, particularly in the areas of broadband, wireless data communications, business communications, mobile telephony, personal telecommunications, and network and service management. Ericsson claims it will be looking into new developments in services such as Class and ISDN (integrated services digital network) technologies for AXE, and how the world's most popular switching system is evolving towards the support of rapid service development and deployment. Plans call for the role of "intelligent network" techniques in new service development and customization to also be discussed, as well as the new services such as Centrex and virtual private network for the business community. (Sylvia Dennis/19950922/Press Contact: Per Bengtsson, chief press officer for Ericsson at Telecom 95, +46-8-757-2159) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 09/25/95 NETWORK UK - Fibernet Offers High-Speed Nationwide Network (NEWS)(NETWORK)(LON)(00002) UK - Fibernet Offers High-Speed Nationwide Network 09/25/95 ALDERMASTON, BERKSHIRE, ENGLAND, 1995 SEP 25 (NB) -- Fibernet, a data networking specialist company, has announced the creation of TANet (Total Area Network), which it claims is the UK's first nationwide high-speed comms service that provides switched data links at speeds of up to 622 megabits-per-second (Mbps). According to Charles McGregor, Fibernet's managing director, while many of the telcos in the UK have been providing switched or managed data links for companies, few have ventured into the kind of speeds that Fibernet is offering. "We're also cheaper and quicker to offer service," McGregor told Newsbytes, adding that the company has its own "figure of eight" network spanning the main areas in the UK, with two "rabbit ears" linking up to Scotland. For other more distant areas of the UK, Fibernet has agreements with two major carriers to allow spur links to the customer's premises to be installed, and for the customer to access the Fibernet network in this way. According to McGregor, it is still early days as regards international data comms at these kinds of speeds. "We will work with a customer and its international service provider, taking the networking right up to the international service provider's head end," he said. Fibernet claims that, using TANet, business users in the UK will, for the first time, be able to achieve LAN (local area network)-like data throughput and performance on a country-wide basis. Customers will be offered either the switched equivalent of a leased line, or on a pay- as-you-use basis. "In this latter case, we obviously have to ensure that the bandwidth is available on demand, for the customer to use whenever they want to," he said. Price savings are claimed to be of the order of 50 percent of the equivalent service -- where available -- from British Telecom or Mercury Communications. The real benefit, McGregor notes, however, is that new higher speed links will be available for the first time. "Wide area network performance has always been the bottleneck in corporate networks. Now, for the first time, affordable LAN-like performance is available across the wide area. This means that companies can now be structured in a way that best fits their business needs, without being tied by the limits of communications technology," he said. Fibernet was awarded its UK public telecom operator's license on May 26 this year, clearing the way for its TANet service. According to Mcgregor, TANet encompasses a suite of high-speed services that will effectively provide corporate users with a bandwidth-on-demand service at performance levels that range from two to 622 Mbps. The core of TANet is based on a network of fiber optic links that span the UK. Two levels of service are initially being offered -- backbone and discreet. Backbone products are made available over long distances on the TANet service, and include point-to-point services operating at 2, 8, 34, 155, and 622 Mbps. Together with full-speed LAN and ATM (asynchronous transfer mode), the services operate at 10Mbps (Ethernet), 16Mbps (Token Ring), 25Mbps (ATM Desktop), 100Mbps (fiber distributed data interface, Fast Ethernet, Fiber Channel ATM, and Taxi), 166 Mbps, and 622 Mbps (ATM Backbone). Discreet-based services are available over shorter distances where dedicated fiber cabling is installed for the client. The same levels of service are available as with the backbone service and additional fiber links are available for other purposes. (Steve Gold/19950922/Press Contact: Johnson King, +44-181-293-9292; Reader Contact: Fibernet, +44-1734-819122) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 09/25/95 GENERAL Japan Newsbriefs (NEWS)(GENERAL)(TYO)(00003) Japan Newsbriefs 09/25/95 TOKYO, JAPAN, 1995 SEP 25 (NB) -- In this roundup of news from Japan: Matsushita unveils new PHS handset, NEC predicts greater overseas sales, IBM Japan announces world's smallest color notebook, NTT to refund for overcharging, Singapore firm gets satellite license, Fujitsu unveils karaoke CD-ROM disks. Matsushita Unveils New PHS Handset Osaka-based Matsushita Electric has unveiled a new handset for Japan's PHS (Personal Handyphone System) that includes a 2.5-inch LCD (liquid crystal display) monitor and a mini-camera that makes the unit a portable video phone system. Although just developed, Matsushita hopes to put the unit on the market from next year. PHS telephones can cope with data rates three times the speed of conventional mobile telephones and link into antennas stationed in metropolitan areas and city centers that are often stationed at NTT's ISDN (integrated services digital network) telephone boxes. The PHS system, introduced this summer, offers a cheaper alternative to conventional mobile telephones and is currently available in Tokyo and Sapporo although service will expand next month to other areas of Japan. NEC Predicts Greater Overseas Sales NEC Corporation, which leads the Japanese domestic market with a market share of over 50%, is expecting a 70% increase in overseas sales to 600,000 units in the current fiscal year. NEC attributes the rise to a sales agreement with Circuit City Stores Inc., an American consumer electronics chain, which added an extra 380 stores to the 420 that were already selling the computers. At the beginning of the year NEC predicted its Japanese sales would also rise to 2.3 million units and later raised that to 2.8 million. IBM Japan Announces World's Smallest Color Notebook Weighing in at just 600 grams, IBM Japan has announced the world's smallest notebook computer with a full color display. The new model, which goes on sale next month, features an internal modem, speaker, and microphone. The top-of-the-range version will sell for around 290,000 yen ($2,900) with the cheapest of the new line at 170,000 yen ($1,700). NTT To Refund For Overcharging Nippon Telegraph and Telephone says it has overcharged thousands of people subscribing to a special discount scheme -- with none of them noticing. NTT says it will refund around 38,000 subscribers to its Tele Choice system which offers discounts on regular call charges after a monthly payment. A total of almost two million people subscribe to the service and refunds to those overcharged will reach around 20 million yen ($200,000). Singapore Firm Gets Satellite License Pacific Century Corporate Access, a Singapore telecommunications company, has received government approval to build a satellite communications station in Japan. A license is expected to follow shortly, making PCCA the first foreign company to operate in Japan's telecommunications market. The company will link Japan and China with a data and fax service from November according to its plans. In allowing an overseas company the license, Japan is signaling a growing acceptance that its markets cannot stay closed forever say observers. Fujitsu Unveils Karaoke CD-ROM Disks Fujitsu will begin selling computer CD-ROM disks that feature music and accompanying software that displays the song's lyrics on the users screens in English and Japanese. Alongside the music and lyrics data, the disks will also contain some background information on the artists. Prices begin at 2,800 yen ($28) which compares favorably with the standard audio CD album price of 3,000 yen ($30). Sales targets are set at 100,000 units in the first year of production says Fujitsu. (Martyn Williams/19950925) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 09/25/95 TELECOM Octel's Inter-System Voice-Mail Switching (NEWS)(TELECOM)(LON)(00004) Octel's Inter-System Voice-Mail Switching 09/25/95 FLEET, HAMPSHIRE, ENGLAND, 1995 SEP 25 (NB) -- Octel Communications (NASDAQ; OCTL) has announced Octelink, which it claims is the industry's first "messaging post office" that can handle voice-mail messages to and from any voice-mail system, regardless of protocol, system size, or geographic location. The idea behind Octelink, company officials explained, is to allow groups of users with common interests, but with different voice-mail systems, to be able to route voice-mail to each other, regardless of what voice-mail system they are using. The Octelink system acts as a switching hub for the various private systems, carrying out the required protocol translations on the fly. Initially, the Octelink service is available in the US, but plans are in hand to roll out the service across Europe and the rest of the world during next year. Pricing for the service will depend on anticipated traffic from each customer company that registers with Octel Communications. Rather than use a complex X.400/X.500 addressing system, Octelink identifies users based on their voice-mail phone number, prefixed with their country code as appropriate. Anyone sending a voice-mail message on their home system would address the message to the recipient's phone number, and the home system would route the message to the Octelink central hub, onward outing the message as required. Kim Fennell, vice president and managing director of Octel Europe, claims that Octelink will do for voice-mail what the Internet has done for electronic-mail. "Fast, reliable, global information exchange is essential for professional life and increasingly desirable for personal life. Every message exchange medium available today, from phone voice- mail to fax and e-mail, is growing at extraordinary rates, and it is vital that Octelink support these media," he said. According to Fennell, by linking disparate voice processing and other messaging systems, and providing quick plus efficient media conversion, "Octelink makes it simple, fast and easy for people to create, exchange and access any type of message, anywhere, anytime." Octel is not expecting the industry to flock to its door for an unproven service. The company already provides managed voice-mail services under its Tigon brand in the US and claims that it performs millions of messaging transactions for upwards of a million end-users for 600 major customers on a daily basis. The system is in the process of being offered to existing customers, and will be tied in with external voice-mail systems progressively this year. Backing up the Octelink service is a 24-hour, seven-day-a-week helpdesk service for customers. This will also handle transmissions by e-mail and fax for customers. According to Octel, anyone with a voice-mail system can subscribe to Octelink, with no new hardware required. All that is needed is a networking port on the voice-mail system and Octel claims it is supporting all major vendors of voice-mail, including AMIS analog with extended feature sets of Octelnet customers. Future plans also allow for Octelink to allow delivery of voice-mail to mailbox holders using a telephone and tone keypad. (Sylvia Dennis/19950922/Press Contact: Joe Carter, Firefly Communications, +44-171-381-4505; Internet e-mail jcarter@firefly.co.uk; Reader Contact: Octel Communications, +44-1252-303000) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 09/25/95 NETWORK ****Microsoft Ships C2 Security Release Of Windows NT (NEWS)(NETWORK)(DEN)(00005) ****Microsoft Ships C2 Security Release Of Windows NT 09/25/95 REDMOND, WASHINGTON, U.S.A., 1995 SEP 25 (NB) -- Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ: MSFT) has announced availability of a C2-level security release for Windows NT Workstation and Windows NT Server version 3.5, and his signed an agreement with Starnine Technologies Inc. for that company to develop, market, sell and support the Microsoft Mail server for AppleTalk networks. Microsoft claims to be the first vendor to satisfy C2 evaluation for mainstream commercial operating systems. Information provided to Newsbytes by a Microsoft public relations representative states that the C2 designation requires that the owner of a resource, such as a file, must be able to control that resource, system administrators must be able to audit security-related events and the actions of individual users, and the operating system must protect data stored in memory for one process so that it is not reused by other processes. Microsoft said Windows NT protects memory such that its contents cannot be read after it is freed by a process. C2 also requires that each user must have a unique identifier. In Windows NT, Microsoft said this is achieved by typing in a unique logon name and password before being allowed to access the system. The system also has to be able to use the unique information to track the activities of each user. Microsoft said the National Computer Security Center, a division of the National security Agency, recently determined that the Windows NT Workstation and Windows NT Server software, combined with Service Pack 3 for Windows NT 3.5, satisfy the requirements for class C2 status. The combination eliminates for need for any additional hardware or software to meet C2 evaluation criteria, according to the software company. Now that the base components of the NT operating system have been through the labor-intensive testing, Microsoft said it is now participating in the rating maintenance phase that will allow new components and hardware to be evaluated at a much faster pace and will add other platforms and processors to the evaluated configuration. Network components of Windows NT workstation and Windows NT Server 3.51 are currently in C2 evaluation. The deal with Berkeley, California-based Starnine calls for the mail product to be marketed under the name Starnine Mail. A future release will support the Apple PowerPC architecture as well as Internet integration. In June of last year, Microsoft said it was stopping future development of Microsoft Mail Server for AppleTalk networks in order to focus server development on Microsoft Exchange Server, its forthcoming electronic-mail (e-mail) server with integrated groupware. Microsoft said it will provide Exchange client software for the Apple Macintosh as part of the Exchange product family. Microsoft's Windows NT Server software supports a range of network environments, including AppleTalk, allowing users to deploy Exchange Server in the Macintosh environment. The C2 release has an estimated selling price of $319 for the workstation and $999 for the 10-client pack. Both come on CD-ROM. Starnine said it is developing a version of Starnine Mail, formerly known as Microsoft Mail for AppleTalk networks, that will allow the server and the client to run in native mode on the PowerPC platform and take advantage of the RISC (reduced instruction set computing)-based platform's performance advantages. That software is scheduled to ship in about 30 days with an approximate price of $269. The company said a PowerPC version of Starnine Mail is scheduled to ship by the first quarter of 1996. Starnine said that, when it begins shipping the current version of Microsoft Mail for AppleTalk network servers under the Starnine Mail name, it will include a 10-user version of Starnine's UUCP gateway, Mail*Link Remote, for Internet connectivity and interoperability with other e-mail systems. The client will also include a PowerTalk gateway for Starnine Mail so end-users can access the server from either the standalone client or from within PowerTalk. Starnine said it will announce detailed plans for the future development of the mail products, including an enhanced version of the client and integration with its Internet server technology, in November. (Jim Mallory/19950922/Press and public contact: Microsoft, 206-882-8080 or 800-426-9400; Starnine, tel 510-649-4949, fax 510-548-0393, Internet e-mail info@starnine.com) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 09/25/95 DOS Peachtree Complete Accounting Upgrade Ships (NEWS)(DOS)(DEN)(00006) Peachtree Complete Accounting Upgrade Ships 09/25/95 NORCROSS, GEORGIA, U.S.A., 1995 SEP 25 (NB) -- Peachtree Software Inc., a subsidiary of Automatic Data Processing Inc.(NYSE: AUD), has announced version 9 of its Peachtree Complete Accounting software that is scheduled to ship by the end of September. Release 9 works with DOS, Windows 3.1, and Windows 95, said the company. The program includes: General Ledger, Budgeting, Accounts Payable, Accounts Receivable, Sales Invoicing/Order Entry, Inventory, Payroll, Purchase Order, Job Cost, Fixed Assets, and Custom Report Writing. The user installs only the modules needed. The new version allows the user to apply partial open credits to invoices as well as print comments from invoices on reports. In the Accounts Payable module you can specify which fields, such as company name or check number, you want printed on checks and stubs. AP allows up to eight default General Ledger accounts per vendor. The upgrade also allows the user to activate an option to round prices to the nearest 5 or 9 and specify the number of decimal points from 0 to 4. You can print a physical inventory and inventory status reports by location and/or department. Inventory can now copy from existing assemblies when creating new ones, and Purchase Order can now include extended descriptions from inventory records. In the Payroll module, manual checks are now printed on the check register and can be listed by either employee ID or check number order. Payroll now automatically calculates taxes and net pay for manual checks. In the Sales Invoicing module, version 9 updates order total as soon as each new item is entered, and prices can be edited across a range of repeating documents by either an amount or a percentage. In Accounts Receivable, prices for auto transactions can also be updated by a fixed amount or a percentage. Sales Invoicing also includes the ability to ship all available quantities ordered automatically without editing the order. Peachtree Complete Accounting version 9 has a suggested retail price of $199. Version 9 is also available in a multiuser edition, with a suggested retail price of $299. For a limited time current registered users can upgrade to single user version 9 for $149 or the multiuser edition for $199. To run Peachtree Complete Accounting version 9, you need a PC running DOS version 5.0 or later and 640 kilobytes of memory. Hard drive space requirements vary with the number of accounts and how many modules you install. The multiuser version is certified as compatible with Novell, LANtastic, and IBM networks. The company's World Wide Web home page is at http://www.peach.com . (Jim Mallory/19950922/Press contact: Kira Perdue, Alexander Communications for Peachtree, tel 404-897-2300; Public contact: Peachtree, tel 800-247-3224) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 09/25/95 BUSINESS US Companies Plan Asian Expansion (NEWS)(BUSINESS)(TYO)(00007) US Companies Plan Asian Expansion 09/25/95 TOKYO, JAPAN, 1995 SEP 25 (NB) -- Three American companies have announced expansion of Asian production facilities. Motorola is building a factory in China as part of planned major investment there, and in Singapore, Western Digital and StorMedia will both build new hard disk drive plants. The new 320,000 square-meter Chinese factory will be built by Motorola China Electronics Ltd. which will invest $750 million in a semi-conductor plant to be built in Tianjin. Motorola has run a factory in the Tianjin Economic Development Area since 1992. The new facility will produce chips which will be used in several of Motorola's products, including automation systems, communications, and personal computers. The investment is part of a total $1.2 billion which Motorola says it has earmarked for Chinese investment between now and the end of the century. The American company holds more than 50% of the domestic Chinese mobile telephone market. In Singapore, two US hard disk manufacturers announced late last week that they would be giving a boost to the country's already strong hard drive industry. StorMedia, which already operates a plant in Singapore, will open a new plant in Loyang estimated by local sources to be costing around $40 million. The company's current factory in Tuas cost a similar amount to set up. StorMedia's main clients include Seagate, Quantum, Western Digital, and Maxtor, and unconfirmed reports suggest Seagate has committed to buy the entire output of the new plant which will be increasing production all the time by adding a new production line every three months. A similar amount is being spent by Western Digital which will supplement its current factory in Chai Chee with a new one at the Jurong Industrial Estate employing an additional 500 people. The Chai Chee plant was responsible for turning out 80% of the company's total output last year, around 8.6 million drives. Compared to Singapore's total drive output last year of 29 million units, around 40% of the world total, Western Digital accounts for 30% of all manufacturing. The new factory will turn out 100,000 units a month taking the firm's total Singapore output to almost 10 million hard drives a year. Hoya of Japan, StorMedia, Conner Peripherals, and Seagate, have all announced plans this year to build production capacity in Singapore. IBM recently opened its first plant in the country at Kaki Bukit, set up at a cost of US$100 million. (Martyn Williams/19950925) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 09/25/95 BROADCAST Trimble Wins Japanese Anti-Earthquake Network Order (NEWS)(BROADCAST)(TYO)(00008) Trimble Wins Japanese Anti-Earthquake Network Order 09/25/95 TOKYO, JAPAN, 1995 SEP 25 (NB) -- Trimble has been awarded a multi-million dollar contract by Japan's Geographical Survey Institute (GSI) to expand a nationwide earth monitoring network that is being used to aid in the prediction of earthquakes. #IMAGE 1 20 TWPCX \images\95092508.PCX Click here for photo The enlarged network will be made up of 600 global positioning system (GPS) receivers across the country that continually receive signals from US military satellites to calculate their exact position. Any movement in the earth's crust, such as those during an earthquake, will be recorded by the units and sent back to scientists at the Institute. The GSI hopes that by matching land movements with earthquake data, patterns may emerge that will help lead to an effective earthquake prediction system that will offer vital advance warning in the country plagued by the events. Trimble (NASDAQ:TRMB) received the order from GSI's prime contractor HZS, the information systems subsidiary of Hitachi Zosen Corporation, which will act as systems integrator for the GSI. The small network that exists at present will be enhanced with 400 Trimble 4000SSI receivers, together with workstation-based real-time kinematic software which downloads and processes data from the remote stations at the same time it is collected, allowing constant survey analysis. All of the monitoring points are connected via microwave radio links which relay information back to the GSI. GPS systems for civilian use, such as those in the popular car navigation systems, offer accuracy to around 100 meters, although this is useless for the GSI system which needs to measure much smaller movements. Frank O'Mahony of Trimble explained to Newsbytes that there are ways around the problem, "The 'raw' signal from GPS satellites has accuracy degradation of up to around 100 meters, for security reasons (the US Defense forces get 100% accuracy). However, a technology called 'differential GPS' (DGPS) makes up for that degradation and improves the accuracy to centimeter level. "It is widely available and uses signals from known accurate survey points to correct the GPS signal. There are several commercial services which provide DGPS signals using FM frequencies, and in the US, the Coastguard provides it for shipping. Any precision surveying application, such as the Japan GSI system, uses it," explained O'Mahoney. The majority of GSI observations are taking place in the Kanto region, which includes the capital city Tokyo, and the Tokai region, where scientists believe a major earthquake will hit in the next five years. The data is combined with that from sea-level data and analyzed in real time by computers at the Ministry of Construction which shares the information with the Meteorological Agency. In a similar project, Trimble's GPS units are also being used in San Francisco to track movements of the Golden Gate Bridge before, during and after future earthquakes. The Bay Area project produced a three- dimensional map of the Golden Gate Bridge which engineers hope will enable them to increase the "survivability" of the structure in a major 1906-level earthquake. O'Mahoney also noted the company has seen its units used in other unusual applications such as a talking map developed by Arkenstone which allows blind people to get around unfamiliar areas, and in the motion picture "Forrest Gump" where the makers used an atomic clock, as well as the positioning capabilities of GPS, to get the exact time and location of the famous opening shot of the feather landing on Gump's feet. Full details of the Japan Geographical Survey Institute's project are available on the organization's World Wide Web page at http://www.gsi-mc.go.jp/ . (Martyn Williams/19950925/Press contact : Frank O'Mahoney, Trimble, 408-481-8572, Internet e-mail frank_o'mahony@trimble.com/TRIMBLE950925/ PHOTO) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 09/25/95 TELECOM UK Gets Wired For National Games Net (NEWS)(TELECOM)(LON)(00009) UK Gets Wired For National Games Net 09/25/95 LONDON, ENGLAND, 1995 SEP 25 (NB) -- British Telecom (BT) has taken the wraps off Wireplay, a multimedia online games service that uses "fiber to the home" networks. According to BT officials, a pilot version of Wireplay will be offered to a selected number of subscribers in Colchester and other East Anglian towns which will be plugged into "narrowcast" fiber to the home systems early next year. Speaking at the Live 95 entertainment show in London last week, where the Wireplay system was unveiled, BT officials said that the games system was several steps ahead of competing systems available in the global market. In addition, they said, the system is wholly British developed. "This will appeal to a far wider number of players. The elderly and infirm could get a great deal of satisfaction from organizing 'whist' drives with friends around the country," explained Rupert Gavin, BT's director of multimedia services. Gavin told journalists that he expects the Wireplay system will be offered on an international basis, if the concept takes off. The idea is that individual countries could install their own Wireplay computers, which would interact for specialist games such as chess. BT claims that its grandiose plans for pitching Wireplay into the international arena are not "pie in the sky." It claims that its US telecoms partner, MCI Communications, has expressed an interest in the project. Although Wireplay requires the home user to have fiber to the home, BT says some users may elect to install an analog modem to use ordinary phone lines to access the service, which will be accessible on a special cheap rate tariff, specific to Wireplay. The possibility of cheap rate tariffs is an interesting one, Newsbytes notes. BT is reported to be working on a scheme, for possible introduction this November, by which a limited set of local numbers can be selected by the customer, and, in return for an annual fee, calls to those numbers would be free of charge. A Wireplay console, which plugs into the home TV, is expected to sell for about the same as a 16-bit or 32-bit game console in the UK. Games, meanwhile, will be priced according to their complexity, with rates starting at a few UKP. Although the pilot tests of the Wireplay system are expected to be limited in the early part of next year, BT claims that the service will be rolled out nationally by the end of 1996, at which stage game players will be able to interact with other the length and breadth of the UK. (Steve Gold/19950925/Press Contact: BT Corporate Communications, +44-171-356-5369) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 09/25/95 BROADCAST British Broadcasting Watchdog Fines MTV For "Smut" (NEWS)(BROADCAST)(LON)(00010) British Broadcasting Watchdog Fines MTV For "Smut" 09/25/95 LONDON, ENGLAND, 1995 SEP 25 (NB) -- It used to be that MTV in the US was regarded as somewhat racy in the late 1980s, but now the TV station seems to have slipped into sensible "broadcast middle age." Unfortunately, no-one seems to have informed its offspring, MTV Europe, of this notion, as the company has just been fined UKP60,000 for unacceptable levels of "smut" in its daytime broadcasts. The surprisingly high fine, imposed by the Independent Television Commission, a Government-appointed TV watchdog, come after several warnings were issued to the station, officials said. The Commission claims that matters came to a head recently when MTV broadcast an explicit program on safe sex, as well as a commercial that condoned "destructive behavior," both during daytime hours. The Commission says that, while such programming is acceptable after the 9pm watershed, exposing younger viewers to this type of material is unacceptable. MTV Europe, which is controlled by Viacom Corporation, has been fined the UKP60,000 for three separate breaches of the ITC's Programming and Advertising Codes. The case is the first time that a penalty has been levied against a satellite TV channel. Industry watchers note that MTV's decision to encrypt its programming, and restrict sale of decoder cards to specific European countries may have had something to do with the ITC's move. Many now view MTV, because of its English-speaking programming, as specific to the UK, where its programs are created, even though they are broadcast on the Astra pan-European satellite TV system. MTV, meanwhile, has protested against the imposition of the fine, claiming that its programming is acceptable, and that the program on safe sex was more educational than entertaining. Peter Einstein, business director of MTV Networks Europe, said that he views the fine as using MTV as a scapegoat. "I feel strongly that MTV Europe is being used as a `sacrificial lamb' by the ITC in its attempts to strengthen regulation of cable and satellite broadcasters," he told journalists. One element of the fine, UKP15,000, was imposed after an episode of "Safe'n'Sexy," a safe sex program, was broadcast at 9pm one evening. According to the ITC, the program was "clearly aimed at sexually active viewers and included sections, notably on sado-masochism and anal sex, unsuited to young viewers." Einstein, meanwhile, criticized the ITC for failing to understand the needs of the modern generation. He said that the program was very carefully scripted and produced, to provide young adults with essential information on the risks of AIDS and HIV. Ironically, the whole affair is bound to attract attention to MTV's programs from the very audience it is aiming its programs at -- young adults. Media watchers in the UK press suggest that MTV will easily be able to recoup the fine from extra ad revenue that the whole affair has generated. (Steve Gold/19950925/Press Contact: ITC, +44-171-284-2000; MTV Networks Europe, +44-171-284-7777) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 09/25/95 TELECOM Ericsson & Chinese Partners Team On Telecoms Deals (NEWS)(TELECOM)(LON)(00011) Ericsson & Chinese Partners Team On Telecoms Deals 09/25/95 CENTRAL, HONG KONG, 1995 SEP 25 (NB) -- Ericsson has announced that its Hong Kong subsidiary, Ericsson Hong Kong, has teamed up with the Guangdong Post and Telecommunication Administration (GPTA) and the Machinery Import and Export Bureau (Machimpex) for the supply of Telecommunications Energy Systems in the Guangdong Province of the People's Republic of China. According to Bengt Callmer, Ericsson Components' director of communications, the agreement will support the growth of Ericsson Energy Systems in China, as the company's products are already established in the market. "The idea of the partnership is that we will continue to distribute Ericsson's and its assistants' equipment throughout the Guangdong Province together with the Guangdong authorities," Callmer explained, adding that there is a possibility of forming a joint venture between the two companies, to pitch for new contracts and business in mainland China. "They are very interested to have some sort of local adaptation or assembly. The Guangdong partners are interested to expand their distribution territory on the mainland of China," he said. The partnership agreement was signed by representatives of each interested party at the end of August -- by Madame Yang, president of Machimpex, and John Gilbertsson, managing director of Ericsson Hong Kong. The contract was witnessed by: Mr Lu, Vice Governor of Guangdong; Li Yi Sheng, the director of GPTA; and Dr Bert Jeppsson, president of Ericsson Components. (Sylvia Dennis/19950925/Press Contact: Bengt Callmer, director of communications, Ericsson Components, +46-8-757-4689; John Gilbertsson, managing director, Ericsson Hong Kong, +852 2590 2300) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 09/25/95 GENERAL Canadian Product Launch Update (NEWS)(GENERAL)(TOR)(00012) Canadian Product Launch Update 09/25/95 KINGSTON, ONTARIO, CANADA 1995 SEP 25 (NB) -- This regular feature, appearing on the first day Newsbytes publishes each week, provides further details for the Canadian market on announcements by international companies that Newsbytes has already covered. This week: ClarisImpact 2.0, Compaq's new Presario models, and Hewlett-Packard's LaserJet 5L and DeskJet 340. Claris Canada Inc., of Toronto, said it is now shipping ClarisImpact 2.0, charting and diagramming software for the Apple Macintosh and Microsoft Windows (Newsbytes, Aug. 14). The suggested retail price for both versions in Canada is C$199, while upgrades from ClarisImpact 1.0 are C$69 and competitive upgrades from rival graphics products as well FileMaker Pro and ClarisWorks are C$99. Compaq Canada Inc., of Richmond Hill, Ontario, launched its Presario 7100, Presario 5500, and Presario 9500 series of PCs (Newsbytes, Sept. 15). Compaq describes all three lines as multimedia PCs. Canadian list prices range from C$2,499 to C$4,399. The four 7100 models start at C$2,499, the two 5500 models cost C$3,299 and up, and the lineup of three Presario 9500 models costs from C$3,399, a company spokesman told Newsbytes. Hewlett-Packard (Canada) Inc., based in Mississauga, Ontario, unveiled a new personal laser printer, the LaserJet 5L (Newsbytes, Sept. 20). The 600 by 600 dots-per-inch printer has a suggested list price in Canada of C$855, HP Canada said. HP Canada also introduced the DeskJet 340, a mobile ink-jet printer (Newsbytes, Sept. 22). The DeskJet 340 has an infrared link that allows it to print documents from a computer located not more than three feet away without the use of a cable, HP said. The Canadian suggested list price for the DeskJet 340 is C$514. (Grant Buckler/19950925/Press Contact: Ilyse Smith, Atkins & Ellis for Claris Canada, 416-368-6880; John Challinor II, Compaq Canada, 416-229-8936; Danny Savard, Hewlett-Packard Canada, 905-206-3144; Public Contact: Claris Canada, 800-361-6075 or 416-941-9611, fax 416-941-9532; Compaq Canada, 905-707-1715, fax 416-229-8898; Hewlett-Packard Canada, 800-387-3867) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 09/25/95 TRENDS Face-Recognition System Aimed At Security Apps (NEWS)(TRENDS)(TOR)(00013) Face-Recognition System Aimed At Security Apps 09/25/95 WELLESLEY, MASSACHUSETTS, U.S.A., 1995 SEP 25 (NB) -- Miros Inc., is aiming new software, said to be able to recognize people's faces, at security applications such as access control and fraud detection. Miros claimed to have solved a problem that has been holding back face-recognition: the difficulty of recognizing the same face reliably in spite of different expressions and minor changes such as haircuts. Miros' TrueFace 1.3 software can run on an ordinary desktop computer, according to the company's President Michael Kuperstein. It can compare the image from a camera attached to the computer to a stored database of faces at the rate of 200 faces per second, according to the company. Kuperstein said that while the use of such technology has been held back in the past by the fact that small changes in a person's face could throw the system off, TrueFace concentrates on constant features rather than variables such as the length of hair, expression, or orientation of the face. He admitted that TrueFace has some limitations in this respect, though. Dark sunglasses will keep the system from recognizing a face, Kuperstein said, as will the addition or removal of a heavy, dark beard. Mustaches and light beards will not throw the system off, however, nor will changes in hair styles or makeup. Kuperstein told Newsbytes that controlling access to buildings or rooms is one likely application for TrueFace. Miro also expects to see its software used by immigration authorities, law enforcement agencies, and prisons. TrueFace might also be used to control fraud in government programs by matching the faces of claimants to a database so as to catch so-called "double-dippers." In addition, it might be used to control access to computer networks where highly sensitive material such as military information is concerned, or to verify identity in certain types of point-of-sale transactions such as the sale of prescription drugs, Kuperstein suggested. (Grant Buckler/19950925/Press Contact: Michael Kuperstein, Miros, 617-235-0330; Public Contact: Gene Burnard, Miros, 508-624-9991) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 09/25/95 BUSINESS XcelleNet & Shiva In Remote Computing Alliance (NEWS)(BUSINESS)(MSP)(00014) XcelleNet & Shiva In Remote Computing Alliance 09/25/95 ATLANTA, GEORGIA, U.S.A., 1995 SEP 25 (NB) -- Two companies involved in the remote computing market said they're getting together to simplify and improve the way remote and mobile computer users gain access to centralized information. XcelleNet Inc. (NASDAQ:XNET) and Shiva have inked the new agreement, which will create a "one-button solution" for remote access. XcelleNet and Shiva will cooperate on providing products that work together, so that when users initiate a connection to a Shiva LanRover on a local area network (LAN), they will seamlessly launch XcelleNet RemoteWare at the same time. RemoteWare is used to create application systems that would run applications like field team transaction sharing, compound database queries, and subscription and messaging services. LanRover offers high-speed, multiprotocol, multiplatform access to LAN services so that the user is essentially a fully-functional node on the network. The new alliance is in response to calls in the marketplace for such a combination of software "solutions." In fact, Dan McCall, senior manager of marketing and alliances for Shiva, told Newsbytes he knows of several companies already using the two programs in conjunction with each other. Together, both programs offer customers with large field organizations a "one-button solution" for optimized and secure access to connection- deferred and connection-dependent applications. "The real key to this announcement and this stage of the relationship is to put a stake in the ground that says 'these are not competing technologies, these are complimentary'" McCall said. "So this is not like saying 'well, they work together.' They work really well together." Shiva and XcelleNet will be showing the interoperability of the two products at this week's Network+Interop show in Atlanta. In the future, both companies also said they will undertake joint marketing initiatives, including channel activities, joint account development, and market education. (Bob Woods/19950925/Press Contacts: Mindy Aronin, XcelleNet, 770-804- 8100, Internet e-mail maronin@xcellenet.com; Len Dieterle, Crescent Communications, 770-698-8650, Internet e-mail ldieterle@crescomm.com; Christine Simeone, Lois, Paul & Partners, 617-860-5681) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 09/25/95 APPLE Extensis Announces Graphics Add-Ons (NEWS)(APPLE)(DEN)(00015) Extensis Announces Graphics Add-Ons 09/25/95 PORTLAND, OREGON, U.S.A., 1995 SEP 25 (NB) -- Extensis Corp. has announced three new add-on products for Adobe Pagemaker, Adobe Illustrator, and Macromedia Freehand and Adobe Photoshop. The Pagemaker add-on is PageTools 2.0, an integrated set of 18 plug-ins for Pagemaker 5.0 and 6.0. Extensis said the upgrade improves the original ten components as well as adding eight new ones. The new tools include a character styles palette, a glossary function and word counter. Extensis has also added multiple, customizable toolbars, and enhanced support for the new functions found in Pagemaker 6.0. DrawTools is the new add-on for Adobe Illustrator and Macromedia Freehand. The integrated set of 17 filters includes three modules: DrawTools Color, to edit color ramps, mix and replace colors, convert colors to grayscale, randomly replace colors, and create duotones and multitones; DrawTools Move, to allow the user to "precisely resize and position objects" between layers; and DrawTools Shape that allows the user to apply three-dimensional (3-D) effects to objects by projecting them onto geometric shapes such as spheres, cylinders, cones, water, waves, and diamonds. There is also a "free projection" feature. The Photoshop Plug-in is called Intellihance 2.0, a tool that uses artificial intelligence to automatically adjust image contrast, brightness, saturation, and sharpness and "despeckle" images all in one step. Intellihance works with any scanned, stock or Photo CD image, said Extensis. The company said Intellihance is compatible with Photoshop 2.5.1 or later as well as any other application that supports Photoshop plug-ins including Pagemaker 6.0 and QuarkXPress 3.3.1 with QX-Tools. X-Tools is an integrated set of Xtensions for QuarkXpress and was introduced in August of this year. PageTools 2.0 for the Macintosh will ship on November 20 with a suggested retail price of $149, or $99.95 if you buy it direct from Extensis. Users who purchased PageTools 1.0 for Mac -- the earlier version of the program -- after September 1 will get a free upgrade to version 2.0. To run PageTools, you need Pagemaker 5.0 or 6.0, and Apple's System 7.1 or later operating system. Extensis said a Windows version of PageTools 2.0 is scheduled to ship in the first quarter of 1996. DrawTools for Macintosh is scheduled to ship on October 20 with a price tag in retail outlets of $149, or $99.95 when purchased direct from Extensis. It requires Adobe Illustrator 5.0 or later, or Macromedia Freehand 5.0 or later, and the System 7.1 or later operating system. Extensis said Intellihance for the Mac is also scheduled to ship October 20, with the same pricing as the other products. To run Intellihance you need Adobe Photoshop 2.5.1 or later, Pagemaker 6.0 or later, or QuarkXPress 3.3.1 with QX-Tools or later, and System 7.1 or later. QX-Tools for the Mac is already available and has a price tag of $149 in stores and $99.95 from Extensis. It requires QuarkXpress 3.3.1 or later and System 7.1 or later. (Jim Mallory/19950925/Press contact: John Chaffee, Extensis, 503-274-2020; Public contact: Extensis, 800-796-9798 to order in the US, or 31-0-3462-50584 in Europe, fax 503-274-0530) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 09/25/95 NETWORK IBM & Bay Form Network Partnership (NEWS)(NETWORK)(TOR)(00016) IBM & Bay Form Network Partnership 09/25/95 RESEARCH TRIANGLE PARK, NORTH CAROLINA, U.S.A., 1995 SEP 25 (NB) -- IBM (NYSE:IBM) and Bay Networks Inc. (NASDAQ:BNET) have announced an agreement to work together on various aspects of networking. As a first step, IBM is to resell Bay's Centillion 100 integrated Token Ring, Ethernet, and asynchronous transfer mode (ATM) switch, and Bay is to resell IBM's 8272 Nways Token Ring workgroup switch. Besides these and possible future cross-marketing arrangements, the deal calls for Bay Networks and IBM to work together to promote standards, and to test their products for interoperability. While the companies are considering selling more of each other's products in the future, there are no further plans definite enough to be announced now, IBM spokeswoman Pamela Atkinson told Newsbytes. Atkinson also said that, although the alliance with Bay Networks touches on some of the same product areas as an existing alliance between IBM and Chipcom Corp., which is in the process of being acquired by 3Com Corp., IBM is "definitely" going to continue the alliance with 3Com. IBM will not pass technology through from 3Com to Bay or vice versa as a result of the two relationships, she said, adding, "They're really two separate areas." IBM and Bay Networks will work together to promote Token Ring switching and Token Ring to ATM migration products, including full-duplex Token Ring networking and standard interfaces for virtual LANs. The two firms said they also plan to push the ATM Forum, an industry group, to back Integrated Private Network-to-Network Interface (I-PNNI) and Multiprotocol Over ATM (MPOA) standards. Bay Networks was formed in the fall of 1994 when SynOptics Communications merged with Wellfleet Communications. The merged firm now has revenues of more than $1.3 billion per year, officials said. (Grant Buckler/19950925/Press Contact: Pamela Atkinson, IBM, 919-254- 2121; Drusie Demopoulos, Bay Networks, 415-969-6700 ext 136, Internet e-mail drusie_demopoulos@baynetworks.com) (ADVISORY)(GENERAL)(MSP)(00017) NewsPix Images For Newsbytes Publishers 09/25/95 MINNEAPOLIS, MINNESOTA, U.S.A.,1995 SEP 25 (NB) -- These photos correspond to recent Newsbytes stories. They are online in the Newsbytes menu on America Online, NiftyServe, and the Newsbytes private bulletin board system in Minneapolis. JPEG (Joint Photographic Experts Group) files are larger in size, PICT files are designed as thumbnails for onscreen viewing. The photos are titled with name/year/month/day. PICT/thumbnail pictures are black and white (gray scale). File message will indicate color if the JPEG image is color. Some of the "for use" images, may be PICT files. To distinguish these files from the thumbnail preview PICT images, the tag for the color "for use" image will have PICT, all caps. The thumbnail will remain noted as "pct." To become a licensed Newsbytes publisher, call Newsbytes at 612-430-1100 (US) or write to administrator@newsbytes.com on the Internet. Licensing applies to any medium. --------------------------- Week of SEPTEMBER 25 - SEPTEMBER 29,1995 --------------------------- - NEW THIS WEEK - AMDAHL950915 - b&w / Amdahl To Acquire Canada's DMR Group: head shot of Amdahl's president and chief executive officer (CEO), Joseph Zemke. MS_BOB950919 - color / What Ever Happened To Microsoft Bob?: the Bob logo, smiley face with glasses. MS_PROJ950919 - color / Microsoft Project For Windows 95 To Ship Next Week: shot of package graphics. GAZETTEER950920 - color / Global Post Code & Demographic Info On The Web: screenshot of home page. D3SEA950922 - color / Video Update: photo of Panasonic D3 camcorder used by Scuba Diver for underwater photography. Actual shot of camera in action, diver is Capt. Steve Hogan, president of Sea Eagle Productions, Maui, Hawaai. --------------------------------------------------------------- - PARTIAL LISTING OF PREVIOUS ITEMS - APTIVA950912 - color / IBM Updates Aptiva PC Line: the PC with logo onscreen. GATEHOUSE950913 - color / Tour Bill Gates' Showplace Home Via The Internet: shot of house under construction. MEDIAKIDS950908 - color / Apple Japan Holds MediaKids Summer Camp: screen shot of kids homepage, with lots of kanji. ENIAC950912 - b&w / ENIAC 50th Anniversary Set For 1996: great archive photo of the original ENIAC room. PRESARIO950915 - color / Compaq Intros New Home PCs, Fall Ad Campaign: the Presario 9500, tower not seen, just keyboard & monitor on tabletop. CYRIX_M1950906 - color / M1 Fastest Chip For Windows 95, Says Cyrix: the M1 chip with Cyrix logo on it. VINEYARDS950906 - color / Virtual Vineyards' CyberCash Credit Card Security: shot of Peter Granoff and Robert Olson, principal founders with a table of wine before them. Photo credit: Anne Hamersky. TLKALONG950901 - b&w / US West Offers Do-It-Yourself Cell Phone Activation: cell phone and packaging on a limbo background. ABCGRAPH950901 - color / Micrografx Graphics Suite For Windows 95: see NewsPix ABCGRAPH950717. GROLIERGOLF950906 - color / Grolier's Greg Norman Golf Simulation: screenshot of golf scenario. COGNOS950829 - color / Cognos On World Wide Web: site graphics. INTERART950828 - color / 3-D Real Estate & Hotel Walkabouts On The Web: the food page with salsa ad, looks good! NEC950831 - color / NEC Develops "Snake-Like" Robot: shot of the snake with camera dome at head. KIDS950829 - color / Novell Intros Perfectworks For Kids: screen shot of the 'Me by Me' page. MEDIAMALL950828 - color / Media Mall Offers Online Multimedia Info: screen graphics/logo. CASHGRAF950830 - color / CashGraf Gets New Name, Intros 2 Acct Packages: screen shot of the main menu. RADSHACK950814 - b&w / Radio Shack Gets New Image: before and after arrangement of Radio Shack ads. LTE5000950821 - color / Compaq Intros Modular Notebook PC 08: the notebook PC in action, associates at work on site using computer. TOUCH950822 - color / Touch Technology Moves Off The Display Screen: the Tanisys keyboard on neutral background. PAGEMAKR950823 - color / Adobe Ships Pagemaker 6.0 For Mac: shot of the software package. HARLEM950822 - color / Prodigy Offers Harlem Inner-City Area Online: welcome & home page. (Newsbytes/19950925) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 09/25/95 TRENDS CSI Study On Internet Security (NEWS)(TRENDS)(LAX)(00018) CSI Study On Internet Security 09/25/95 SAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1995 SEP 25 (NB) -- Computer Security Institute's (CSI) "1995 Internet Security Survey" describes the extent and nature of security precautions large firms are taking with there Internet connections. The report will appear in next months issue of the Computer Security Alert, but is available now on request. Richard Power, analyst for Computer Security Institute, told Newsbytes, "The survey was based on 320 responses from information security professionals in Fortune 500 companies, government agencies, and universities.Sixty-six percent of these enterprises have 1,000 or more employees, 32% have over $1 billion in annual revenues." The report concluded that, one out of every five Internet sites within this study group have suffered a security breach, and that almost 40% of sites don't have "firewalls" in place. Even with firewalls in place, 30% of breaches occurred after a firewall was installed. CSI's survey also takes a look at the firewall marketplace and what products are being used. "We consider a firewall to be any combination of software and hardware that is used to prevent unauthorized entry into internal networks. No firewall product has gained dominance in the marketplace as of now. In addition to this survey we just published "CSI Firewall Product Matrix" that appeared in the Spring 1995 Computer Security Journal, which lists most of the available firewall technologies," said Powers. Computer Security Institute is located in San Francisco, California, and is a wholly owned subsidiary of Miller Freeman Publishing. Miller Freeman publishes over fifty trade magazines including Dr. Dobbs Journal, Unix Review, and LAN Magazine. Computer Security Institute publishes a monthly newsletter, a semi-annual Journal, an annual Buyers Guide, and a online bulletin board. To obtain an advance copy of "1995 Internet Security Survey," call 415-905-2310. (Richard Bowers/19950922/Press Contact: Patrice Rapalus, CSI, 415-905-2310) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 09/25/95 TRENDS Software Best Seller List Adds Windows 95 Section (NEWS)(TRENDS)(WAS)(00019) Software Best Seller List Adds Windows 95 Section 09/25/95 RESTON, VIRGINIA, U.S.A., 1995 SEP 25 (NB) -- PC Data has added a new category to its list of software best sellers -- Windows 95. Also, the Virginia market research firm is seeing sales of Windows 95 software in its regular categories of software hits. Not surprisingly, Windows 95 upgrade leads the new Windows 95 list for August. In second place is Microsoft's Plus package, followed in third by Symantec's Norton Utilities Upgrade. Windows 95 also led the list of CD-ROM titles for August, followed by the Microsoft Plus software. Last month's leader in the volatile CD-ROM category -- Ultimate Doom Thy Flesh -- dropped to 10th place. Finally, the Windows 95 upgrade, Microsoft Plus, and the Norton Utilities Upgrade for Windows 95 took the first three places in the business software (Windows) category, pushing Microhelp's Uninstaller to fourth place. In the business software (Macintosh) list, RAM Doubler from Connectix was in first place, followed by the Aldus PageMaker upgrade. For business software (DOS/OS/2) Microsoft's DOS 6.2 upgrade continued to hold first place, followed by QEMM for Quarterdeck, the same lineup as in July. For personal productivity titles in the DOS and Windows world, Intuit continued its strong performance, with Quicken in first place and Quicken Deluxe in second, a repeat performance from July. Intuit's Quicken Family Lawyer moved up to fourth place from ninth in July. For Macintosh personal productivity titles, Nova Development's 3000 Mega Clip Art Pack moved up from third in July to first place in August, pushing Quicken down to second. In the PC games category for DOS and Windows, Mechwarrior II from Activision jumped from fifth place in July to occupy first in August, followed by Microsoft's Flight Simulator and Myst from Broderbund. For Macintosh games, Interplay's Dungeon Master II zoomed from seventh place in July to first in August, with GT Interactive's Doom II jumping from nowhere on the list to second, dropping Lucas Arts' Dark Forces from first the third place. In the DOS-Windows home education category, Mavis Beacon Teaches Typing from Mindscape moved up to first from second place in July, while Davidson's Math Blaster: In Search of Spot moved up from third to second. Disney's Lion King Storybook dropped to third from first place in July. But Lion King continued to hold first place on the Macintosh home education list, with Buried in Time from Sanctuary Woods in second and Sim Town from Maxis in third. (Kennedy Maize/19950925/Press Contact: Nicole Field, 703-435-1025) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 09/25/95 GOVT Pittsburgh Supercomputer Center Gets $6Mil Grant (NEWS)(GOVT)(WAS)(00020) Pittsburgh Supercomputer Center Gets $6Mil Grant 09/25/95 BETHESDA, MARYLAND, U.S.A., 1995 SEP 25 (NB) -- The National Institutes of Health has awarded the Pittsburgh Supercomputer Center $6 million over five years for work on applying supercomputing to molecular biology. The grant also funds programs at the center for training biomedical researchers. The biomedical program at the Pittsburgh center began in 1987, when NIH authorized a three-year, $2.2 million grant, the first of its kind to couple supercomputers and biomedical research. In 1990, NIH came up with another $6 million over five years. The latest grant renews the 1990 award, funding five core research projects: improved methods for calculating molecular dynamics; a model of how metal ions bond to proteins; a protein-structure database; an artificial intelligence method of predicting protein structure; and better methods for protein and DNA sequence analysis. One specific project has been the development of a three-dimensional computational model of blood flow in the heart, valves and major vessels, work led by Charles Peskin of New York University. Pittsburgh biologist John Rosenberg used the supercomputer facilities to examine interactions between DNA and proteins, which led to fundamental insights. In another project, biologist Chien Ho of Carnegie Mellon University is studying the structure of hemoglobin, aimed at developing a replacement for donated blood. The Pittsburgh center, begun in 1986, is a joint project of Carnegie Mellon and the University of Pittsburgh, along with Westinghouse Electric Corp., with funds from the National Science Foundation. (Kennedy Maize/19950925/Press Contact: Michael Schneider, 412-268-4960) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 09/25/95 TELECOM New Protocol For Videoconferencing (NEWS)(TELECOM)(MSP)(00021) New Protocol For Videoconferencing 09/25/95 LEXINGTON, MASSACHUSETTS, U.S.A., 1995 SEP 25 (NB) -- VideoServer Inc. (NASDAQ:VSVR) said it is introducing a new non-proprietary videoconferencing protocol, called "ConferenceTalk." It is also submitting ConferenceTalk to the International Telecommunications Union (ITU) and the International Multimedia Teleconferencing Consortium (IMTC) for possible inclusion into a new standard for videoconferencing scheduling. The standard being developed, which is called "T.RES," defines a generic model for videoconferencing reservation systems which specifies the interactions between the end user's conferencing terminal, multipoint control units (MCUs), and reservation servers. The draft definition of T.RES describes conference scheduling, the administration of MCU resources, and the control of MCUs so they can create or join conferences for which they're responsible. "There probably will be things in T.RES that won't be in ConferenceTalk and there certainly things in ConferenceTalk that won't be in T.RES," Jack O'Neil, VideoServer spokesperson, told Newsbytes. "This is not a one-to-one mapping." What ConferenceTalk means to the videoconferencing market is that VideoServer is going away from using a proprietary interface, O'Neil said. "This is the first time a vendor of MCU has said its scheduling interface will be non-proprietary," he said. Because of this, O'Neil said VideoServer is encouraging third-party companies to write scheduling applications for the product with the opening of the ConferenceTalk interface. "This would be good because third-party companies could safely code to this protocol, knowing that it's open and it's been submitted for a standard, so the probability of having to re-do the work is much lower" than a proprietary interface." Company officials said the new ConferenceTalk protocol is the "first step toward open access for a worldwide, multi-vendor network for multimedia conference scheduling. ConferenceTalk defines an open interface between scheduling systems and conferencing equipment, making it easier to schedule conferences from the desktop, officials added. (Bob Woods/19950925/Press Contacts: Jack O'Neil, VideoServer, 617-863- 2300; Nancy Kashanck, Schwartz Communications, 617-431-0770) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 09/25/95 APPLE ****Apple Restarts PowerBook 5300 Shipments (NEWS)(APPLE)(SFO)(00022) ****Apple Restarts PowerBook 5300 Shipments 09/25/95 CUPERTINO, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1995 SEP 25 (NB) -- Almost one week after Apple Computer (NASDAQ:AAPL) stopped shipments of its first PowerPC-based notebook, the PowerBook 5300, the company says it is ready to ship new models with a nickel-metal-hydride battery. Customers can expect to see a $100 retail price reduction on the entire series. On September 14, Newsbytes and other media sources reported two 5300 PowerBooks caught on fire because of the overheating problems with the lithium ion battery used to power the computer. Apple immediately contacted suppliers and resellers who were involved with 1,000 units which had been shipped and stopped all sales. In order to reach the 200 people who had purchased a 5300 model, the company attempted to contact them directly through resellers and also set-up an 800 number. Apple says it has found virtually every model shipped. With the announced retail price reduction, Apple says a gray scale, entry-level PowerBook 5300 with eight megabytes (MB) of RAM and 500MB of storage will range from $2,099 to $2,199 at the retail level. On the high-end of the series, the 5300ce with active-matrix color, 32MB of RAM and 1.1 gigabyte (GB) of memory should sell in from $6,399 to $6,699. When asked if any customers reported overheating problems with their 5300 PowerBook, Apple spokesperson, Russell Ito, told Newsbytes, "I am not aware of any reports of any cases outside of the two which occurred here at Apple." Ito also said Apple knows the circumstances under which the problem occurred, but not why it took place. He did confirm the vendor who supplies the lithium battery is still investigating the problem. Newsbytes also learned Apple has not ruled out implementation of the lithium ion battery if all safety concerns are resolved and thorough testing completed. Ito said, "The lithium ion battery is very efficient. It is lighter, it provides longer battery life, and it charges faster. We are open to considering the lithium technology if all of the problems are resolved." (Patrick McKenna/19950925/Press Contact: Russell Ito, Apple, 408-974-5693/APPLE950925/PHOTO) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 09/25/95 ONLINE E-Mail The Pope During His US Visit (NEWS)(ONLINE)(MSP)(00023) E-Mail The Pope During His US Visit 09/25/95 JERSEY CITY, NEW JERSEY, U.S.A., 1995 SEP 25 (NB) -- If you want to talk to or see Pope John Paul II when he visits the US early next month, but you can't get tickets, New Jersey Online is offering the next best thing. On the Internet World Wide Web, you can send electronic-mail messages to the Pontiff, as well as view a site dedicated to his visit. New Jersey Online has set up the "Pope's Virtual Visit" Web site at http://www.nj.com/popepage . Web users can send e-mail messages to the Pope in time for his Newark airport arrival October 4. New Jersey Online officials will deliver the messages to the Pontiff's representatives before the Pope leaves October 8. "A lot of younger Catholics access the Internet," Peter Levitan, president of New Jersey Online, told Newsbytes. "This is an audience that is not necessarily reached by the traditional media. We think the Internet provides a unique and interesting vehicle to reach this audience with information about the Pope." He also said the Internet allows people to interact with the Pontiff through services like his company's. The service will also provide up-to-the-minute coverage of the Pope's visit to New Jersey, through a "virtual newsroom" that has a staff of reporters and photographers. Other features of the Web page include: an audio greeting from the Archbishop of the Archdiocese of Newark; sound clips from the Pope's previous masses; text, maps, and photos of the Pontiff's itinerary, and "amazing facts about the Pope." Levitan said the virtual newsroom wasn't going to be launched until later this year. Instead, it began operating earlier than expected because of this event, and the possibility of a hurricane hitting New Jersey earlier this month. New Jersey Online is a daily service that began with New Jersey Weather last April. The service is built on what New Jersey Online officials call a "new publishing model in which breaking news, community services, and original content" give users a chance to participate in a local and regional electronic community. Since April, officials said the site has registered about 9,000 unique accesses daily. (Bob Woods/19950925/Press Contacts: Beth Harris, Poppe Tyson, 201-539- 0300, Internet e-mail bharris@nj.poppe.com; Peter Levitan, New Jersey Online, 201-217-2759, Internet e-mail levitan@www.nj.com) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 09/25/95 TELECOM Boscom95 - Rep. Markey Calls For "Networked Schools" (NEWS)(TELECOM)(BOS)(00024) Boscom95 - Rep. Markey Calls For "Networked Schools" 09/25/95 BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS, U.S.A., 1995 SEP 25 (NB) -- US. Rep. Edward M. Markey, ranking Democrat on the US House of Representatives Subcommittee on Telecommunications and Finance, called for network connectivity among all schools nationwide by the year 2000, and in Massachusetts within the current year, in a speech at the Mass. State House to Mass. Telecommunications Council (MTC) members and international guests. California, another high tech hotbed, recently forged a public-private initiative to link all K-12 schools statewide, Markey pointed out during his speech, held Friday night as part of the MTC's Boscom95 conference, and attended by Newsbytes. The US congressman from Massachusetts challenged citizens of his home state to seize the gauntlet thrown down by the Golden State, by beating California in a race to become the first state with school-to-school connectivity. Markey also voiced his opposition to restrictions on foreign investments in US businesses, as well as his strong support for the Platform for Internet Content Selection (PICS), a new standard for "individual control" of online content that is being created by the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) and other collaborators. In addition, Markey, who co-authored the 1994 US Telecommunication Act, continued to urge rejection of recent amendments in currently pending legislation that would extend deregulation to all cable TV providers, would "completely deregulate" the radio industry, and would allow two or more TV networks or local TV stations to be owned by the same individuals. Merely a small percentage of US homes today are using modems, according to Markey. As a result, the schools must play a major role in training young people for the highly skilled jobs that will be created by GATT (General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade), suggested the legislator, noting that he had been one of only "six congressmen from north of the Mason-Dixon line" who voted to approve that bill. Technological progress often faces a "reactionary undercurrent," Markey remarked, citing as evidence a newspaper article from the 1920s about public reactions to "talkie movies." Only about 50 percent of "flappers and their beaus" favored cinematic sound, according to the author of the article, who was film critic for the New York Times back in the Roaring Twenties. The other half felt that the audio interfered with their "whispered conversations." Movie-goers of seven decades ago also expressed concern that "the talkies" would cause some 15,000 piano players nationwide to lose their jobs. These days, friction is emerging between "nouveau" users of the Web and "earlier inhabitants of cyberspace," Markey noted. The Democract also urged people today not to be content to simply point with pride to past accomplishments of the computer industry, characterizing that attitude as "ancestor worship." "What we should be worshipping is the future," the congressman asserted. "The geniuses are the 15-year-olds. And their younger brothers and sisters will be passing them in five years." By becoming the first state to provide network connectivity to K- 12 schools, Massachusetts would be in a stronger position to keep attracting and retaining national and international "brainpower," Markey continued. At the same time, Massachusetts would serve as a "model" to the rest of the US, he contended. But just as young people have the right to computer literacy, parents should be "empowered" with the ability to "screen out" pornography and other unwanted input from the Info Superhighway, according to Markey. Markey reported that he "applauds AOL (America Online), Microsoft" and other companies for coming together to form PICS, a recently announced initiative to develop user-selectable "rating protocols" for online services built upon filtering technologies. The congressman added that he has "successfully sponsored" similar legislation supporting the use of chips in TV set-top boxes to "block" programming deemed offensive by parents. Markey also told the Boscom95 audience that the US cannot have "a limit of 20 or 25 percent on foreign ownership" if the nation expects to "open up the market on a reciprocal basis." The MTC's Boscom is a worldwide forum designed to bring together Massachusetts-based telecommunications companies with international visitors. As previously reported in Newsbytes, the Telecommunications Act of 1994 passed the US House by a 423-to-4 vote last year, when Markey was committee chair, but was killed in the Senate later in the session. Now that the Republicans have achieved House majority, the House committee is being chaired by Rep. Jack Fields. This year, Markey has expressed support for surviving stipulations of the original bill that would provide a "Privacy Bill of Rights" and that would link classrooms to the "Info Superhighway," but he has repeatedly denounced some newly added stipulations. "In the bill now before Congress, cable companies are deregulated whether they face competition or not. This is simply inconsistent with the competitive model followed in the rest of the bill," Markey said, during a speech at the MTC Investors Conference in June, which was also attended by Newsbytes. "Today, people can only own four radio stations -- 2 FM, 2 AM, in any given market. Today we only allow a person to own one TV station in a market. And if you own a TV station, you can't gobble up the town newspaper or buy its cable system. (But) the bill in its current form would lift the existing limits on the ownership of various media properties to allow for a concentration of power that would make Citizen Kane look like an underachiever," Markey maintained. (Jacqueline Emigh/19950924/Reader Contact: Mass. Telecommunications Council, 617-439-8600; Press Contact: Cheryl DelGreco, Charles Spofford, or Craig Librett, Miller/Shandwick Technologies for the MTC, 617-536-0470; Reader and Press Contact: Office of US Rep. Edward M. Markey, 202-225-2836) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 09/25/95 UNIX Unix Expo - SunExpress Adds Products And Nations (NEWS)(UNIX)(BOS)(00025) Unix Expo - SunExpress Adds Products And Nations 09/25/95 NEW YORK, NEW YORK, U.S.A., 1995 SEP 25 (NB) -- SunExpress, Sun Microsystems' Chelmsford, Massachusetts-based international aftermarketing company, has now added peripheral upgrades to its US product line-up, and both Canada and Japan to the roster of countries in its worldwide service territory, said Jenelle Trader, director of worldwide marketing and business development, during a meeting with Newsbytes at Unix Expo. The peripheral upgrades for the US market and the addition of RDI Powerlite Portable Workstations for the SunExpress European market were both announced at the trade show in New York City. Beyond discussing the already added products and service regions, Trader told Newsbytes that SunExpress now plans to add a seventh country to its European coverage, and that the aftermarketing arm is "looking into" Australia and New Zealand, as well. The new Japanese region, she said, is now being serviced out of a recently opened office in that country, whereas calls from Canada are being fielded by English/French Canadian bilingual staffers at a SunExpress facility in Massachusetts. Like Sun users in other nations outside the US, users in Canada and Japan are being provided with localized catalogs listing a "subset" of products that appear in the US catalog, based on user demand in the respective countries, she observed. However, any international user who wants to order a product available in the US, but not listed in the localized catalog, can do so through special order, according to the marketing/business development director. Users in Japan, where the Western custom of direct mail ordering is not yet strongly entrenched, have tended to "test the waters" of SunExpress by ordering small items first, and then following up with larger orders, Trader told Newsbytes. In Europe, SunExpress is now serving users in six countries -- the UK, Holland, Germany, France, Switzerland, and Sweden -- out of a central facility with multilingual staff, reported the SunExpress exec. "We'll be adding a seventh country in Europe soon," she divulged. SunExpress is also exploring the prospect of adding Australia and New Zealand, Trader noted. One possibility being weighed is to expand the SunExpress facility in Japan to serve other countries in the Asia Pacific, including Australia and Japan. Through the new addition of peripheral upgrades to US catalog offerings, users can now purchase CPU (central processor upgrades), as well as the following peripheral upgrade products: TurboGXplus and TurboZX frame buffers; Model 102 storage arrays, and upgrades to new color monitors. The RPI PowerLite 110 and 85 portable workstations, now being offered through the European catalogs, offer "all the capabilities of a desktop workstation," according to Trader. Features include: processors that operate at 110 megahertz (MHz) or 85 MHz; up to 128 megabytes (MB) of memory; 3.6 gigabytes (GB) of storage; the "same input/output (I/O) ports as those on a Sun Sparcstation 5;" and compatibility with Solaris 1.1.3 as well as Solaris 2.4. (Jacqueline Emigh/19950925/Reader Contact: SunExpress, 508-442- 0003; Press Contact: Patty Long, SunExpress, 508-442-2517; Nancy Kashanek, Schwartz Communications for SunExpress, 617-431-0770) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 09/25/95 IBM Unix Expo - IBM Intros Printing Systems Manager (NEWS)(IBM)(BOS)(00026) Unix Expo - IBM Intros Printing Systems Manager 09/25/95 NEW YORK, NEW YORK, U.S.A., 1995 SEP 25 (NB) -- IBM's new Printing Systems Manager (PSM) for centralized network control of multivendor printers is designed to save time and money for organizations by preventing waste of printing supplies, paper, and human effort, maintained IBM's Kerry W. Bensman and Keith Duvall, in a briefing session for Newsbytes at Unix Expo in New York City. IBM's new, object-oriented system represents the first product to implement the Palladium print management system that was originally prototyped in MIT's Project Athena, asserted Bensman, who is director of Software Solutions for the IBM Printing Systems Company. The first edition of PSM operates on RISC/6000 under AIX, but the object-oriented print server can also be networked to multivendor Unix systems, according to Bensman. During a demo in the IBM booth, Newsbytes saw how PSM manages administration and user access to printing resources such as print queues, schedulers, and multivendor print servers and printers, including all printers adhering to the PostScript, PCL (Printer Control Language) and PPDS formats supported by AIX, as well as all printers supported by PSF (Print Services Facility) for AIX, an IBM print server. Bensman told Newsbytes that users can submit print jobs with the use of AIX, OS/2 and Windows clients, or over a TCP/IP (Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol) gateway. On AIX-based clients, PSM also provides administrative functions, sending alerts directly to the AIX workstation to warn the administrator that the printer is out of paper or needs more toner, or the queue is backed up, for example. PSM uses the OSF's (Open Software Foundation's) DCE (Distributed Computing Environment) to manage multivendor hardware and software as "a single system," according to the IBM exec. In addition, DCE security services are employed to control users' level of access to printing functions. By eliminating "piles of paper" and wasted consumables from duplicate printing jobs, as well as countless trips by users to the printer, PSM can cut printing services in half -- from a current level of 6 cents per page to 3 cents per page, for instance -- thereby saving an organization $20 million or more each year, said Duvall, who is senior technology consultant to the IBM Printing Systems Company, also during the briefing. PSM, he predicted, will also reduce costs by bringing centralized IS (information systems) control to multivendor printers, many of which have been added over the years in ad hoc fashion at the departmental level. Duvall told Newsbytes that IBM is releasing PSM now because it is ready today. The next release of IBM's SystemView, which is slated for delivery by the end of this year, will add integration with the new print management systems, the senior consultant revealed. PSM's printing command language and API (application programming interface) are defined by the IEEE/POSIX (Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Portable Operating System Interface and System Administration Interface/Printing) draft standard, according to the two IBM officials. Other standards supported by PSM include ISO (International Standards Organization/Document Printing Organization), which defines attributes and object definitions of distributed print systems, and X/Open's PSIS (Printing Systems Interoperability Specification), which provides definitions for application-level interoperability, as well as for interoperability of the client, server, and other components of a print system. Pricing for a PSM for AIX "base package" is $2,495, including a single-server license and an unlimited number of desktop clients. A PSM graphical user interface (GUI) for administration on AIX workstations is separately priced at $4,995. (Jacqueline Emigh/19950925/Reader Contact: IBM, 914-765-1900; Press Contacts: Peter Lazaroff, IBM Printing Systems Company, 303-924- 4675; Rachel Postlethwaite, Technology Solutions for IBM, 212-696-2000) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 09/25/95 ONLINE ****Netscape Offers Beta Version Security Fix (NEWS)(ONLINE)(SFO)(00027) ****Netscape Offers Beta Version Security Fix 09/25/95 MOUNTAIN VIEW, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1995 SEP 25 (NB) -- Netscape Communications (NASDAQ:NCSA) says it will offer a beta version security update to correct a flaw found in its Navigator software. After learning two University of California at Berkeley students found the flaw and posted their discovery on the Internet, Netscape quickly announced the problem to the general public and promised a prompt software correction. Versions of the fix will be available for Netscape Navigator 1.2 for Windows, Netscape Navigator 1.1 for Macintosh and Unix, Netscape Commerce Server 1.1 and Netscape Proxy Server 1.1. All versions will be posted on Netscape's World Wide Web page (http://www.netscape.com ) on Wednesday, September 27, and all users are "encouraged to download the software as soon as possible." Netscape says the fix also includes updates to other portions of Netscape's Internet software series. Domain-name limitations in its international version of Netscape Navigator and potential stack overflow conditions are addressed with the new software. Providing more detail about the fix, Netscape says the point of vulnerability found by the two students was found in the amount of information used to seed the random number generator employed to implement security. The update software increases the amount of information over the previous version and this increased random information adds a much greater degree of difficulty in identifying the key used to encrypt a particular Internet session. This immediate fix is a beta version which Netscape is still testing with independent security experts. Jeff Treuhaft, Netscape's security product manager, told Newsbytes, "We have tested the fix and have complete confidence in it. Before we make a production version of the update, we want to have it fully tested by independent experts and anyone on the Internet who wants to test it." The source code changed to address the security issue is posted on the Internet for examination by interested parties. Final versions of the update will be posted when all testing is complete. Netscape recently announced version 2.0 of Netscape Navigator. The company planned to post the new version this week, but the time required to integrate new security changes in the source code means version 2.0 has been slightly delayed. Netscape says it will now post a beta version of Navigator 2.0 early next week. (Patrick McKenna/19950925/Press Contact: Rosanne Siino, Netscape, 415-528-2619) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 09/25/95 BUSINESS ****More On Time Warner-Turner Merger & US West Protest (NEWS)(BUSINESS)(DEN)(00028) ****More On Time Warner-Turner Merger & US West Protest 09/25/95 DENVER, COLORADO, U.S.A., 1995 SEP 25 (NB) -- Doug Holmes, the vice president and chief financial officer of US West Media Group, called the proposed merger of Time Warner and Turner Broadcasting System "a conflict of interest and a breach of fiduciary responsibility" as he provided a glimpse into the complicated way conglomerate businesses are often structured, but seldom seen by the general public. Holmes' remarks were made during a teleconference Friday afternoon. Holmes said the conflicts of interest are based on the fact that there are separate legal and economic structures within Time Warner Inc. He explained that Time Warner Entertainment is a limited partnership of which US West owns 25 percent. That partnership, in turn, owns Warner Brothers studios, HBO, Cinemax, and the associated copyrights and content libraries of those businesses. It also owns Time Warner Cable. Time Warner Inc. owns Time Warner Music and Music Publishing, and is the entity that would acquire Turner Broadcasting System (TBS) under the proposed merger. "In the press conference held by Time Warner Ted Turner commented that in the past they were competitors and there were many conflicts of interest in the business. That is exactly our point in filing this litigation," said Holmes. Holmes said the conflicts exist because of the different economic and legal structures of Time Warner Inc. and Time Warner Entertainment (TWE). As one example of the conflicts and potential problems, Holmes cited the notion of a film script. Warner Bros Studios, New Line Cinema, or Castle Rock Films might all compete for the script. But said Holmes, if Time Warner decided only one of those companies should bid, US West might miss an opportunity for a 25 percent interest in the economic gains of that business venture. Holmes said the original US West $2.5 billion stake in Time Warner is now worth an estimated $3.5 billion to $4 billion. US West had no part in structuring the proposed TBS-Time Warner deal, he said. The proposed merger agreement includes a non-compete clause that specifies the two merging companies won't compete on programming and cable businesses, and that's the heart of the US West complaint, said Holmes. He told reporters US West has raised the issue of conflict of interest ever since it heard about the merger and had continued to raise them ever since, but to no avail. "We had numerous discussions with them," said Holmes. He also declined to comment on a question about US West being interested in being purchased. The US West executive said what he called "the misalignment" would allow Time Warner to "syphon business from Warner Bros Studios and simply build up New line and Castle Rock and run Warner Bros Studios into the ground. We would have a huge economic loss as a result of that." Asked about the move of HBO to the Time Warner video division under Ted Turner that's called for in the merger deal, Holmes said that was another example of the problem. "How can you have Ted Turner making decisions about HBO and also making decisions about CNN? Who gives the next great idea for a cable TV station network and if Ted makes that decision we have a big problem with that," said the US West executive. Holmes repeatedly told reporters conflict of interest was the problem, but declined to offer a suggestion as to what sort of agreement would satisfy US West. He also declined to say if there is a possibility US West would try to put together an investor group of its own to acquire any portion of Time Warner, and reiterated a previous US West announcement that the company has no interest in purchasing the Seagram's block of Time Warner stock. Holmes said the US West lawsuit is in no way linked to an anti-trust issue, but that is something officials in the US Attorney General's office will have to consider. That office, under the leadership of Assistant Attorney General Anne Bingaman, has been extremely visible recently in proposed mergers such as the Microsoft-Intuit deal which was eventually died of old age because of the barriers raised by the government. TBS did not return interview requests by Newsbytes by press time. (Jim Mallory/19950925/Press contact: Lois Leach, US West, 303-793-6355) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 09/25/95 TRENDS Iomega's $150 800MB Tape Backup Drive (NEWS)(TRENDS)(DEN)(00029) Iomega's $150 800MB Tape Backup Drive 09/25/95 ROY, UTAH, U.S.A., 1995 SEP 25 (NB) -- Iomega Corp. (NASDAQ: IOMG) has announced an external tape backup drive that can store up to 800 megabytes (MB) of data and has an estimated street price of under $150. That price makes it affordable for just about any PC user to backup their data, an important task that often gets overlooked by home and business computer owners alike. #IMAGE 1 20 TWPCX \images\95092529.PCX Click here for photo Iomega said the Ditto Easy 800, with internal and external versions set for shipment in early October, lets users save the contents of their hard drive in a single step by clicking on the appropriate icon. You don't have to pick the directories, subdirectories or files you want to backup, since the Ditto Easy 800's software backs up the entire hard drive. Iomega spokesperson Cory Maloy told Newsbytes once the user launches the first backup, preferably as soon as the Ditto Easy tape drive is installed, the software "remembers" to backup your hard drive every eight hours, without any user intervention and does it in the background so you can continue to use the PC. For more sophisticated users data can be backed up selectively, said Maloy. The external version of the Ditto Easy 800 will plug into your printer port, and the printer then plugs into the Easy 800's connector in piggyback fashion. You can position the external backup drive vertically or horizontal on your desktop. Iomega said Ditto Easy 800 supports the popular QIC tape formats including Travan, QIC-WIDE, and standard QIC cartridges. The backup software is compatible with Windows 95 as well as earlier versions of Windows, and with OS/2, DOS, and Novell, and LANtastic operating environments. Iomega also offers some accessories for the Ditto product line, including: Ditto Dash, an accelerator card the company said cuts backup time in half; the Ditto carrying case for external Ditto drives; and Ditto tape cartridges. The company said it will offer the one-step backup software to users of current Ditto models for $29.95. Maloy told Newsbytes a full 800MB backup will take about 45 minutes. Maloy said the Ditto Easy drive has been completely redesigned and now weighs less than one pound. It measures about one-inch high, seven- inches long, and just over five-inches wide. The Ditto line of backup drives were first shown to the public at the 1995 Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, where the company introduced 250MB and 750MB QIC models. Ditto systems use direct drive technology rather than belt drives. (Jim Mallory/19950925/Press contact: Cory Maloy, Iomega, 801-778-3712; Public contact: Iomega, 800-697-8833 or 801-778-1000/DITOEASY950925/PHOTO) (SUMMARY)(GENERAL)(MSP)(00030) Newsbytes Daily Summary 09/25/95 MINNEAPOLIS, MINNESOTA, U.S.A., 1995 SEP 25 (NB) -- These are capsules of all today's news stories: ======================================================================== ------------| N E W S B Y T E S D A I L Y S U M M A R Y |---------- ------------| Monday, September 25, 1995 |---------- ======================================================================== (c) Newsbytes News Network (Tm) Editor in Chief: Wendy Woods ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Newsbytes News Network is a computer and telecom industry news wire and digitized picture service. Our news stream includes more than 30 daily first-hand reported US and international news stories about computing and telecommunications. For more information, please e-mail to 'administrator@newsbytes.com' ------------------------------------------------------------------------ CATEGORY HEADLINES (*** indicates today's top stories) STORY # ======================================================================== APPLE Extensis Announces Graphics Add-Ons........................ 15 APPLE ****Apple Restarts PowerBook 5300 Shipments............... 22 BROADCAST Trimble Wins Japanese Anti-Earthquake Network Order........ 08 BROADCAST British Broadcasting Watchdog Fines MTV For "Smut.......... 10 BUSINESS US Companies Plan Asian Expansion.......................... 07 BUSINESS XcelleNet & Shiva In Remote Computing Alliance............. 14 BUSINESS ****More On Time Warner-Turner Merger & US West Protest... 28 DOS Peachtree Complete Accounting Upgrade Ships................ 06 GENERAL Japan Newsbriefs........................................... 03 GENERAL Canadian Product Launch Update............................. 12 GENERAL NewsPix Images For Newsbytes Publishers.................... 17 GOVT Pittsburgh Supercomputer Center Gets $6Mil Grant........... 20 IBM Unix Expo - IBM Intros Printing Systems Manager............ 26 NETWORK UK - Fibernet Offers High-Speed Nationwide Network......... 02 NETWORK ****Microsoft Ships C2 Security Release Of Windows NT..... 05 NETWORK IBM & Bay Form Network Partnership......................... 16 ONLINE E-Mail The Pope During His US Visit........................ 23 ONLINE ****Netscape Offers Beta Version Security Fix............. 27 TELECOM Sweden's Ericsson Prepares For Geneva Telecom.............. 01 TELECOM Octel's Inter-System Voice-Mail Switching.................. 04 TELECOM UK Gets Wired For National Games Net....................... 09 TELECOM Ericsson & Chinese Partners Team On Telecoms Deals......... 11 TELECOM New Protocol For Videoconferencing......................... 21 TELECOM Boscom95 - Rep. Markey Calls For "Networked Schools........ 24 TRENDS Face-Recognition System Aimed At Security Apps............. 13 TRENDS CSI Study On Internet Security............................. 18 TRENDS Software Best Seller List Adds Windows 95 Section.......... 19 TRENDS Iomega's $150 800MB Tape Backup Drive...................... 29 UNIX Unix Expo - SunExpress Adds Products And Nations........... 25 ======================================================================== These are the headlines and first paragraphs of each story, in order: 1 -> Sweden's Ericsson Prepares For Geneva Telecom -- As the dust settles on Networld+Interop, which took place in Paris, France recently, the European information technology (IT) industry is gearing itself up for the next major event 2 -> UK - Fibernet Offers High-Speed Nationwide Network -- Fibernet, a data networking specialist company, has announced the creation of TANet (Total Area Network), which it claims is the UK's first nationwide high-speed comms service that provides switched data links at speeds of up to 622 megabits-per-second (Mbps). 3 -> Japan Newsbriefs -- In this roundup of news from Japan: Matsushita unveils new PHS handset, NEC predicts greater overseas sales, IBM Japan announces world's smallest color notebook, NTT to refund for overcharging, Singapore firm gets satellite license, Fujitsu unveils karaoke CD-ROM disks. 4 -> Octel's Inter-System Voice-Mail Switching -- Octel Communications (NASDAQ; OCTL) has announced Octelink, which it claims is the industry's first "messaging post office" that can handle voice-mail messages to and from any voice-mail system, regardless of protocol, system size, or geographic location. 5 -> ****Microsoft Ships C2 Security Release Of Windows NT -- Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ: MSFT) has announced availability of a C2-level security release for Windows NT Workstation and Windows NT Server version 3.5, and his signed an agreement with Starnine Technologies Inc. for that company to develop, market, sell and support the Microsoft Mail server for AppleTalk networks. 6 -> Peachtree Complete Accounting Upgrade Ships -- Peachtree Software Inc., a subsidiary of Automatic Data Processing Inc.(NYSE: AUD), has announced version 9 of its Peachtree Complete Accounting software that is scheduled to ship by the end of September. 7 -> US Companies Plan Asian Expansion -- Three American companies have announced expansion of Asian production facilities. Motorola is building a factory in China as part of planned major investment there, and in Singapore, Western Digital and StorMedia will both build new hard disk drive plants. 8 -> Trimble Wins Japanese Anti-Earthquake Network Order -- Trimble has been awarded a multi-million dollar contract by Japan's Geographical Survey Institute (GSI) to expand a nationwide earth monitoring network that is being used to aid in the prediction of earthquakes. 9 -> UK Gets Wired For National Games Net -- British Telecom (BT) has taken the wraps off Wireplay, a multimedia online games service that uses "fiber to the home" networks. According to BT officials, a pilot version of Wireplay will be offered to a selected number of subscribers in Colchester and other East Anglian towns which will be plugged into "narrowcast" fiber to the home systems early next year. 10 -> British Broadcasting Watchdog Fines MTV For "Smut -- It used to be that MTV in the US was regarded as somewhat racy in the late 1980s, but now the TV station seems to have slipped into sensible "broadcast middle age." Unfortunately, no-one seems to have informed its offspring, MTV Europe, of this notion, as the company has just been fined UKP60,000 for unacceptable levels of "smut" in its daytime broadcasts. 11 -> Ericsson & Chinese Partners Team On Telecoms Deals -- Ericsson has announced that its Hong Kong subsidiary, Ericsson Hong Kong, has teamed up with the Guangdong Post and Telecommunication Administration (GPTA) and the Machinery Import and Export Bureau (Machimpex) for the supply of Telecommunications Energy Systems in the Guangdong Province of the People's Republic of China. 12 -> Canadian Product Launch Update -- This regular feature, appearing on the first day Newsbytes publishes each week, provides further details for the Canadian market on announcements by international companies that Newsbytes has already covered. This week: ClarisImpact 2.0, Compaq's new Presario models, and Hewlett-Packard's LaserJet 5L and DeskJet 340. 13 -> Face-Recognition System Aimed At Security Apps -- Miros Inc., is aiming new software, said to be able to recognize people's faces, at security applications such as access control and fraud detection. Miros claimed to have solved a problem that has been holding back face-recognition: the difficulty of recognizing the same face reliably in spite of different expressions and minor changes such as haircuts. 14 -> XcelleNet & Shiva In Remote Computing Alliance -- Two companies involved in the remote computing market said they're getting together to simplify and improve the way remote and mobile computer users gain access to centralized information. XcelleNet Inc. (NASDAQ:XNET) and Shiva have inked the new agreement, which will create a "one-button solution" for remote access. 15 -> Extensis Announces Graphics Add-Ons -- Extensis Corp. has announced three new add-on products for Adobe Pagemaker, Adobe Illustrator, and Macromedia Freehand and Adobe Photoshop. 16 -> IBM & Bay Form Network Partnership --IBM (NYSE:IBM) and Bay Networks Inc. (NASDAQ:BNET) have announced an agreement to work together on various aspects of networking. As a first step, IBM is to resell Bay's Centillion 100 integrated Token Ring, Ethernet, and asynchronous transfer mode (ATM) switch, and Bay is to resell IBM's 8272 Nways Token Ring workgroup switch. 17 -> NewsPix Images For Newsbytes Publishers -- These photos correspond to recent Newsbytes stories. They are online in the Newsbytes menu on America Online, NiftyServe, and the Newsbytes private bulletin board system in Minneapolis. 18 -> CSI Study On Internet Security -- Computer Security Institute's (CSI) "1995 Internet Security Survey" describes the extent and nature of security precautions large firms are taking with there Internet connections. The report will appear in next months issue of the Computer Security Alert, but is available now on request. 19 -> Software Best Seller List Adds Windows 95 Section -- PC Data has added a new category to its list of software best sellers 20 -> Pittsburgh Supercomputer Center Gets $6Mil Grant -- The National Institutes of Health has awarded the Pittsburgh Supercomputer Center $6 million over five years for work on applying supercomputing to molecular biology. The grant also funds programs at the center for training biomedical researchers. 21 -> New Protocol For Videoconferencing -- VideoServer Inc. (NASDAQ:VSVR) said it is introducing a new non-proprietary videoconferencing protocol, called "ConferenceTalk." It is also submitting ConferenceTalk to the International Telecommunications Union (ITU) and the International Multimedia Teleconferencing Consortium (IMTC) for possible inclusion into a new standard for videoconferencing scheduling. 22 -> ****Apple Restarts PowerBook 5300 Shipments -- Almost one week after Apple Computer (NASDAQ:AAPL) stopped shipments of its first PowerPC-based notebook, the PowerBook 5300, the company says it is ready to ship new models with a nickel-metal-hydride battery. Customers can expect to see a $100 retail price reduction on the entire series. 23 -> E-Mail The Pope During His US Visit -- If you want to talk to or see Pope John Paul II when he visits the US early next month, but you can't get tickets, New Jersey Online is offering the next best thing. On the Internet World Wide Web, you can send electronic-mail messages to the Pontiff, as well as view a site dedicated to his visit. 24 -> Boscom95 - Rep. Markey Calls For "Networked Schools -- US. Rep. Edward M. Markey, ranking Democrat on the US House of Representatives Subcommittee on Telecommunications and Finance, called for network connectivity among all schools nationwide by the year 2000, and in Massachusetts within the current year, in a speech at the Mass. State House to Mass. Telecommunications Council (MTC) members and international guests. 25 -> Unix Expo - SunExpress Adds Products And Nations -- SunExpress, Sun Microsystems' Chelmsford, Massachusetts-based international aftermarketing company, has now added peripheral upgrades to its US product line-up, and both Canada and Japan to the roster of countries in its worldwide service territory, said Jenelle Trader, director of worldwide marketing and business development, during a meeting with Newsbytes at Unix Expo. 26 -> Unix Expo - IBM Intros Printing Systems Manager -- IBM's new Printing Systems Manager (PSM) for centralized network control of multivendor printers is designed to save time and money for organizations by preventing waste of printing supplies, paper, and human effort, maintained IBM's Kerry W. Bensman and Keith Duvall, in a briefing session for Newsbytes at Unix Expo in New York City. 27 -> ****Netscape Offers Beta Version Security Fix -- Netscape Communications (NASDAQ:NCSA) says it will offer a beta version security update to correct a flaw found in its Navigator software. After learning two University of California at Berkeley students found the flaw and posted their discovery on the Internet, Netscape quickly announced the problem to the general public and promised a prompt software correction. 28 -> ****More On Time Warner-Turner Merger & US West Protest -- Doug Holmes, the vice president and chief financial officer of US West Media Group, called the proposed merger of Time Warner and Turner Broadcasting System "a conflict of interest and a breach of fiduciary responsibility" as he provided a glimpse into the complicated way conglomerate businesses are often structured, but seldom seen by the general public. Holmes' remarks were made during a teleconference Friday afternoon. 29 -> Iomega's $150 800MB Tape Backup Drive -- Iomega Corp. (NASDAQ: IOMG) has announced an external tape backup drive that can store up to 800 megabytes (MB) of data and has an estimated street price of under $150. That price makes it affordable for just about any PC user to backup their data, an important task that often gets overlooked by home and business computer owners alike. (Ian Stokell/19950925) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 09/22/95 TRENDS ****Asia Pacific Software Sales Still Strong (NEWS)(TRENDS)(TYO)(00001) ****Asia Pacific Software Sales Still Strong 09/22/95 TOKYO, JAPAN, 1995 SEP 22 (NB) -- Software sales in the Asia Pacific region in the second quarter surpassed the $300 million mark to reach $325 million, almost double the revenue over the same period last year, according to the latest quarterly report from the Software Publishers Association. In the first quarter of the year total software sales totaled $240 million compared to $325 million in the second quarter which ended August 31. The period represented a 94% increase over the second quarter of 1994. In addition, unit sales increased 175% for the quarter and 150% for the half. Across the region strong growth continued in Japan where US companies sold $216.2 million of applications software, a 121% growth over the same period last year, but an even more impressive 195% unit growth on the quarter. Japan is now the largest market for US software, at more than twice the size of the nearest competitor, Germany. In format terms, the SPA announced Windows software dominates the market although Macintosh software is taking an increasing amount of sales. Across the region, Mac versions of software accounted for 13% of all sales. In Japan, Macintosh software made up 18% of total sales compared to 13% a year ago. New Zealand outperformed Australia in growth terms, registering a 171% increase to $10 million against a 17% increase in Australian sales at $44.5 million. Revenues in New Zealand for the first half of 1995 are more than double those of the same period last year. Asia's developing markets registered big increases over the same period a year ago with China leading the pack with a 455% increase on total second quarter revenues of $1.7 million, the smallest figure of all the nations surveyed. Across the half, revenues were $2.7 million, a 322% increase. India and Pakistan achieved the second greatest revenue increase for the quarter at 398% with revenues of $1.9 million for the quarter and $4.8 million for the half, the latter figure representing a 198% increase over the first half last year. Other nations registering three digits percentage increases for the quarter included Thailand, Japan, and Taiwan. For the half, Thailand, Singapore, India, Pakistan, and China all counted among nations with a percentage revenue increase above 100%. The combined Australia & New Zealand second quarter revenues were $55.6 million, an increase of 30%. First half revenues climbed 17% to reach $91.4 million. In Hong Kong revenues continued a steady rise, up 44% to $7.9 million in the second quarter and up 31% to $14.1 million in the first half of the year. Revenues in Korea were up 65% to $9.1 million in the second quarter and up 60% to $17.0 million in the half. Malaysia managed a 48% jump to $3.2 million total revenues in the quarter, $5.4 million in the half, a rise of 45%. Neighboring Singapore registered higher quarter growth of 85% to $8.9 million and first half revenues of $21.0 million, a 129% jump. An increase in quarter revenues in Taiwan of 112% to $14.5 million was accompanied by a 95% rise on the half to $22.2 million. Thailand recorded treble digit jumps in both measured periods, up 354% to $3.1 million in the quarter and up 341 % to $5.2 million in the half. All other Asian countries, accounted for revenues to US software makers of $2.2 million, an increase of 304% in the quarter, while the half total jumped 353% to $3.9 million. Combined, the entire Asia Pacific region recorded a 94% jump in second quarter revenues to $325.0 million, on the half revenues increases 65% to 564.7 million. Commenting on the strong growth, particularly in Asia's developing markets, Ken Wasch, president of the Software Publishers Association said, "The emerging markets in the Asia/Pacific exemplify the potential growth for US software publishers, while we must continue to press efforts to eliminate the software piracy plaguing this region, that software sales in countries such as Taiwan have doubled from this time last year indicates progress in reaching these crucial markets." The quarterly report measures revenues in each Asia Pacific country and is compiled by Arthur Andersen Accounting to whom the SPA International Data Program's 27 member software companies submit sales data. Member companies include Borland, Claris, Lotus, Microsoft, Software Publishing, and Symantec. (Martyn Williams/19950922/Press contact: Sally Lawrence, Software Publishers Association, 202-452-1600 ext 320, Internet e-mail slawrence@spa.org ; Reader contact: Software Publishers Association, World Wide Web http://www.spa.org/ ) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 09/22/95 GENERAL Japan Newsbriefs (NEWS)(GENERAL)(TYO)(00002) Japan Newsbriefs 09/22/95 TOKYO, JAPAN, 1995 SEP 22 (NB) -- In this roundup of news from Japan : Pump priming sets aside money for telecoms, HP enters Japan notebook market, Secom to begin Internet service, Casio establishes Philippines pager company, New on the Japanese Internet, New televisions announced, Kyoto cable to expand. Pump Priming Sets Aside Money For Telecoms A government "pump priming" package unveiled Wednesday aimed at kick- starting the stagnating Japanese economy includes 400 billion yen ($4.06 billion) for scientific research, as well as the development of information and telecommunications technology. The Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications has not revealed how its part of the 14.22 trillion yen ($144 billion) economic package will be spent though. HP Enters Japan Notebook Market Taking its first step into the Japanese notebook computer market, Hewlett Packard has announced it will begin selling three models of its OmniBook range in Japan. The company, which will launch the systems on 1 October, hopes it will sell 30,000 in the first year at prices from 295,000 yen ($2994). Secom To Begin Internet Service Secom, a leading security service company, has set up a subsidiary to offer Internet connections to businesses. Before the end of the year it will have offices in Sapporo, Nagoya, and Omiya, Saitama Prefecture with more to opened next year. Through a leased line connection service, the company hopes to generate annual sales of over 2 billion yen in three years. Secom is one of around 30 companies that owns Tokyo Internet, which is also expanding its service into Japan's smaller cities, and has interests in cable television networks. Casio Establishes Philippines Pager Company Tokyo's Casio Computer is to begin selling pagers in the Philippines. The sales will begin next January and be manufactured and sold by Casio Philippines Corp., a new wholly owned subsidiary set up for the project. The company is projecting sales of 600,000 pages worth three billion yen ($30 million) in fiscal year 1996. Within two years, the company hopes to be selling 1.8 million pagers, worth 9.1 billion yen ($92 million), a year to the 70 million people of the country. New On The Japanese Internet Fujitsu has released a search engine for the Japanese portion of the World Wide Web that will access around 300 servers to search for user- defined key words. The service is offered free of charge and will include foreign servers in the future, the company said. World Wide Web: http://infonavi.infoweb.or.jp/ The Japan Motor Industrial Federation has placed complete details of the Tokyo Motor Show onto the Internet. The site offers details of exhibitors and products on show plus full details about getting to the exhibition which will be held in October. The service is available in English and Japanese. World Wide Web: http://teleparc.infoweb.or.jp/tms/ New Televisions Announced NEC has said it will begin selling new energy saving televisions from October 1. The new models feature the ability to automatically switch into wide screen mode when EDTV2 signals are being received resulting in a 10% energy saving according to the company. The widescreen televisions will be available in 24-inch, 20-inch, and 16- inch models at prices of 100,000 yen ($1,015), 75,000 yen ($761), and 55,000 yen ($558), respectively. Also this week, Hitachi said it will begin selling a 39-inch widescreen television that includes a new type of cathode ray tube that reduces the depth of the set to just 39.5 centimeters (cm). The set is also compatible with NHK's MUSE system Hi-Vision high definition television broadcasts. The company will make 1,000 sets a month and sell them for 800,000 yen ($8,121). At the same time it will also begin sales of a 520,000 yen ($5,279) "Nextage" model that boasts the ability to display up to nine channel windows on the screen at any one time. Kyoto Cable To Expand The Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications has given the green light to further expansion of the cable television network in Kyoto. Virtually all the wards of the city will soon be offered service by Kyoto Cable Communications which already covers the Ukyo ward. The new network, targeted to begin operation next April, will mean the company passes 450,000 homes making it one of Japan's biggest networks. (Martyn Williams/19950922) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 09/22/95 UNIX Unix Expo - 1995 Fall Hot Iron Award Winners (NEWS)(UNIX)(BOS)(00003) Unix Expo - 1995 Fall Hot Iron Award Winners 09/22/95 NEW YORK, NEW YORK, U.S.A., 1995 SEP 22 (NB) -- In a press conference at Unix Expo, AIM Technology named the following vendors as winners of the 1995 Fall Hot Iron Awards: Digital Equipment Corp., Olivetti, Silicon Graphics, Compaq, Fujitsu, and Chen Systems. AIM benchmark-tests and evaluates systems in eight different categories for price-performance, as well as for load-mix, said Jim Geers, president and chief executive officer (CEO) of AIM, during an interview with Newsbytes at the event. The Hot Iron Awards, now in their third incarnation, recognize performance leaders in three selected categories, he added. Products honored at the Unix Expo '95 awards competition included workstations, file servers, and "multi-user shared systems." AIM launched the Hot Iron Awards at Unix Expo '94, and held its second contest at Uniforum, Newsbytes was told. Among the winners of this fall's awards, RISC (reduced instruction set computing) processors continued to dominate in price/performance among workstations, although Intel processors took the lead for price/performance in other product categories, according to Geers. Novell's UnixWare 2 was given special mention for being installed on nine of the Intel-based winning machine. In addition, this was the first time that multiple-CPU (central processing unit) machines outnumbered single-processor computers among the award winners. In each of six performance categories, AIM chose winners in two or three different price brackets. For "Best Throughput Performer" among multiuser shared systems, this year's Hot Iron winners were the Olivetti SNX 400/4 RS Systema (less than $50,000); the Compaq ProLiant 4500 5/133 ($50,000 to $149,000); and the Digital AlphaServer 8400 5/133 (over $149,000). For "Best Price/Performance Throughput" among multiuser shared systems, the winners were: the Digital Prioris XL Server 5100DP (less than $50,000); Fujitsu ICS superserver J554i, ICL ($50,000 to $149,000); and Chen Systems CS1000 Model 10 (over $149,000). In the workstation arena, the two machines that got the nod for "Best Performer" were both from Digital: the DEC 3000 Model 600 (under $25,000), and Digital AlphaStation 600 5/300 (over $25,000). The two workstations that took the honors for "Best Price/Performance" were both from Silicon Graphics: the Silicon Grphics Indy R4600PC 133 MHz (under $25,000); and Indigo2 R4400 200 MHz (over $25,000). Among file servers, victorious systems for "best Throughput Performer" included the Digital Prioris HX 5100MP/2 (under $50,000); the Compaq ProLiant 4500 5/133 8-disk ($50,000 to $149,000); and Compaq ProLiant 4500 5/133 36-disk (over $150,000). File servers recognized by AIM for "Best Price/Performance Throughput" were the Digital Prioris LX 590 (under $50,000); Compaq ProLiant 4500 5/133 8-disk ($50,000 to $149,000); and Compaq ProLiant 4500 36-disk (over $150,000). (Jacqueline Emigh/19950921/Reader Contact: AIM Technology, 408-748-0161; Press Contact: Tammy Bauer, AIM, 708-516-9013) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 09/22/95 PC Creative Labs Europe Intros 3-D PC Game Card (NEWS)(PC)(LON)(00004) Creative Labs Europe Intros 3-D PC Game Card 09/22/95 LONDON, ENGLAND, 1995 SEP 22 (NB) -- Creative Labs has announced, what it claims is, the industry's first three-dimensional (3-D) game card for use with home PCs. According to officials with the multimedia company, the 3-D Blaster is high performance add-in board that brings all of the advantages of sophisticated arcade games to the home PC user. "By bringing workstation-level graphics performance to the home PC, we are enabling consumers to get all the excitement and realism of the latest high-end 3-D arcade games from their current generation home PC. We are setting a new standard for PC gaming on home computers," claimed Sim Wong Hoo, Creative Technology's chairman. According to Creative Labs, the 3-D Blaster is being aimed at 80486- based home PC users, which the company claims means a potential market of 20 million worldwide. Plans call for the 3-D Blaster card to be the first of a family of games cards for PCs, and the company hopes to see other firms adopting the system as a de facto standard. Creative Labs claims that the 3-D Blaster has attracted attention and support from several companies in the advanced audio industry and many software vendors plus computer game developers such as Interplay, EA/Bullfrog, Microsoft, Mindscape, Looking Glass, and others. The company claims that the good level of support for the 3-D Blaster system confirms the strong belief in the industry that the availability of advanced 3-D graphics accelerator cards will soon bring more 3D titles to the market. Creative also claims it has been working closely with Microsoft on interfacing the games card technology to Windows 95. According to Brad Silverberg, senior vice president of Microsoft's Personal Systems Division in the US, the 3-D Blaster takes computing gaming to new levels. "The 3D Blaster is optimized for the Windows 95 DirectDraw, Reality Lab and Direct3D API's (application programming interfaces) and provides us with the first opportunity to demonstrate the true two-dimensional (2-D) and 3-D gaming capabilities inherent in Windows 95," he explained. Initially, the 3-D Blaster games card will be sold in a bundle with a suite of 3-D software, taking advantage of 3-D Blaster such as EA/Bullfrog's Magic Carpet Plus, Mindscape's Cybersled and Azreal's Tear, Papyrus' NASCAR, PF Magic's Ballz Out! And Looking Glass Technologies' Fight Unlimited. Pricing will be announced closer to shipment date, which will be towards the end of this year. (Sylvia Dennis/19950921/Press & Reader Contact: Creative Labs, +44-1734-344322) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 09/22/95 TRENDS HP's Wireless Portable Printer (NEWS)(TRENDS)(LON)(00005) HP's Wireless Portable Printer 09/22/95 BRACKNELL, BERKSHIRE, ENGLAND, 1995 SEP 22 (NB) -- Hewlett-Packard (HP) has taken the wraps off its first notebook printer that supports the IRDA (Infra Red Data Association) infra red wireless connection technology. The DeskJet 340 is a UKP234 mobile printer that can be driven by an IRDA-compatible PC, typically a notebook, at up to three-feet distance. According to HP's UK operation, the printer is being launched this week on a worldwide basis, with US pricing expected to come under the $400 mark. IRDA is an association of more than 90 companies, including HP, Microsoft and IBM, who finalized a standard in 1994 by which different kinds of computer devices could communicate via infrared links. HP, Newsbytes notes, introduced its first infrared capable laser printer, the LaserJet 5 series, earlier this year. Announcing the release of the new printer, Richard Hanscott, HP's Personal Printer Marketing Manager, said that, as the wireless office comes of age, "point-and-click home and office technology will be as common as TV remote controls." "For mobile workers who value a compact printer with desktop performance, we have added another dimension of freedom and versatility in mobile printing," he said. HP cites figures released recently by Dataquest, which it claims show that sales of infrared devices are expected to grow to $36 million annually by 1997. Sales were one million in 1993. HP itself estimates that the mobile printer market will have grown 43 percent between 1995 and 1996, and that notebook PC sales will continue to grow at a double-digit rate until 1998. In addition, HP predicts that notebook PC shipments will account for 25 percent of all PC shipments by the time 1998 comes around. The DeskJet 340 mobile printer, which replaces the older DeskJet 320 unit, also features a lightweight, portable sheet feeder. The 30-page sheet feeder weighs less than one pound. In use, the printer handles letter, legal, and A4-size cut sheet paper, transparencies, film, and labels. An optional desktop cut-sheet feeder, which holds up to 60 sheets of paper, is available for UKP63. The printer can work at resolutions of up to 600 by 300 dots-per-inch (dpi) and includes HP's Resolution Enhancement technology for sharp print edging. In standard mode, the printer can work at three pages-per- minute (ppm) in monochrome and 4ppm with the optional color printing kit. (Steve Gold/19950921/Press Contact: Ralph Tuckwell, PA Consulting Group, +44-171-730-9000; Reader Contact: Hewlett-Packard, +44-1344- 369222) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 09/22/95 NETWORK Europe - Proteon's Globetrotter Internet Products (NEWS)(NETWORK)(LON)(00006) Europe - Proteon's Globetrotter Internet Products 09/22/95 NOTTINGHAM, ENGLAND, 1995 SEP 22 (NB) -- Proteon has unveiled the Globetrotter range of Internet and InterOffice Access devices. According to Bill Mew, a spokesman for the company, the networking products represent a new area for Proteon, since they allow LAN (local area network) interconnects with the Internet and other network services. Mew told Newsbytes that, to date, Proteon has concentrated on the bridges and router markets, carving out a niche for itself on the price-competitive front. The aim of the Globetrotter range is to create a similar price competitive name for the company, with pricing on an Ethernet unit costing UKP530. Formal launch of the Globetrotter range is expected in early October, when the products will be launched in the US as well. Shipment, Mew told Newsbytes, is expected later this year. The Globetrotter series kicks off with the Model 60, a UKP530 unit which has Internet access through a single LAN attached device. The Model 62, meanwhile, sells for UKP665 and supports IP (Internet Protocol), IPX (Internet Packet Exchange) plus AppleTalk routing, as well as bridging between remote offices. Proteon claims that the Globetrotter range are the most compact and fully functional routers of their type in the world, and offer the industry's least expensive solution for internetworking. The idea behind the development of the Globetrotter range is that connectivity is made a lot easier from the user's perspective. The company claims that installing a Globetrotter LAN connection system takes around five minutes, and allows any network-attached PC or workstation with IP (Internet Protocol) client software to send and receive electronic-mail, download files using FTP (File Transfer Protocol) and also access the World Wide Web. In addition to basic IP routing, the Globetrotter series are billed as handling other protocols, including IPX, AppleTalk and bridging functions. The aim is to cut the cost of internetworking right down to the lowest level, allowing networking across the Internet as an option for LAN users wanting interconnection. As supplied, the Globetrotter systems come with connections for one Ethernet LAN and one wide area network (WAN). The initial offering from Proteon supports one synchronous WAN link with speeds up to T1/E1. Plans call for asynchronous and ISDN (integrated services digital network) connectivity to be supported in a second wave of products scheduled for release in early 1995. (Steve Gold/19950921/Press Contact: Bill Mew, Firefly Communications, +44-171-381-4505, Internet e-mail wmew@forefly.co.uk; Reader Contact: Proteon, +44-1509-670444) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 09/22/95 TELECOM Italy's Omnitel To Begin GSM Net Tests Next Month (NEWS)(TELECOM)(LON)(00007) Italy's Omnitel To Begin GSM Net Tests Next Month 09/22/95 MILAN, ITALY, 1995 SEP 22 (NB) -- Omnitel has announced that its planned GSM (global system for mobile communication) digital cellular net will start test operations within the next few weeks, prior to a formal launch in December of this year. According to Francesco Caio, Omnitel's managing director, when the network begins operation before Christmas, subscribers will find that around 40 percent of Italy's population areas will be covered by the network. Roaming with foreign networks should also start within the same time frame, as roaming agreements with several other national GSM networks across Europe are now in place. Interestingly, Omnitel appears to be copying the stand of Cellnet and Vodafone's GSM nets in the UK, which do not allow roaming to each other's network. According to Caio, Omnitel subscribers will not be able to roam between their own network and that of Telecom Italia's system, and vice versa. This lack of roaming is something that Omnitel is working on, Ciao added, claiming that the Italian Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications is looking into the problem of lack of roaming between technically compatible networks. Caio told journalists that, because of this lack of roaming, Omnitel is pouring large amounts of resources into expanding its network. The company claims to have already spent 550 billion lire on its network, and will invest a further 300 billion on expansion within the next six months. (Steve Gold/19950921/Press Contact: Omnitel, +39-2-415-0618) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 09/22/95 ONLINE America Online Offers "Online Photo Service" (NEWS)(ONLINE)(MSP)(00008) America Online Offers "Online Photo Service" 09/22/95 VIENNA, VIRGINIA, U.S.A., 1995 SEP 22 (NB) -- America Online Inc. (NASDAQ:AMER) is introducing an "electronic photo service" that lets its members share pictures with anyone having a computer and access to electronic-mail or the Internet's World Wide Web. The new service, called PicturePlace, lets members see their prints via AOL and distribute them to others 24 hours after the service physically receives the prints, slides, or negatives. This method is more cost-effective than having the service send back the digitized pictures on disk via the mails, officials said. "Communications online have become much more graphical," Judy Tashbook, AOL spokesperson, told Newsbytes. "When you go into an online service or the Web, you see pictures everywhere. But the average consumer doesn't have a way to participate in that," until now, she said. Normal photos cost only 99 cents to digitize, with no minimum, officials said. Images can then be either downloaded or stored at the PicturePlace site on AOL. If downloaded, the images can be stored in either the ".gif" or ".jpg" formats. All charges will be billed to a credit card of the customer's choice. Other features of the area include a "PictureAlbum," which allows users to store unlimited numbers of pictures without using the hard drive space on their own computers. Storing 100 photos for up to one year costs $24.95. A "PictureCircles" program lets members share photos with friends, family, business associates, or the world. Available for $9.95 per year, members can define unlimited numbers of online users giving them access to the same photos and interactively work with their pictures to create a variety of picture-based products, said the company. Those products include graphics for word processing programs, content for Web pages, and printed or online greeting cards. Besides e-mail, AOL members can put the pictures into their own Web pages on the service, Tashbook said. The PicturePlace area on AOL can be reached by typing the Keyword "PicturePlace" (without quotes). PicturePlace is a partner of AOL's Greenhouse program, a business unit of AOL that gives support to "infopreneurs" in creating content exclusively for the online medium. (Bob Woods/19950921/Press Contact: Judy Tashbook, America Online, 703-918-1452. Public Contact: America Online, 800-827-6364, PicturePlace area, Keyword: PicturePlace) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 09/22/95 TRENDS ****Video Rental Group Supports Digital Video (NEWS)(TRENDS)(LAX)(00009) ****Video Rental Group Supports Digital Video 09/22/95 CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1995 SEP 22 (NB) -- The Video Software Dealers Association (VSDA) has expressed its support for the accord reached between the providers of two competing digital video disk (DVD) formats. VSDA is a non-profit trade association for the $20 billion home video industry. VSDA had taken a position favoring a single DVD format and avoiding a conflict similar to the VHS-Betamax battle of the early 1980's. The association called for an agreement that would result in a single format as an essential requirement to the introduction of DVD in the market place. Jeffrey Eves, president of VSDA, told Newsbytes, "This important development will bring home video entertainment into the digital decade. However, the video-cassette will be around for some time since VCRs are in more than 80% of all homes -- over a half-billion units." "VSDA maintains its historic position that the DVD must be available for rental as well as sell-through," Eves added, "and studio executives have assured VSDA they will support the rental marketplace. Video retailers have built the current VCR-based home video market into a $20 billion industry through the rental of movies on video tape. The rental market is the key to the successful implementation of this new technology. Of course, this also implies that the new DVD product be designed and marketed with the special requirements of the rental environment in mind." Availability of DVD for rental has come into question by the United States Department of Commerce "white paper" on international copyright issues. The United States has long held that video cassette rentals were subject to the so-called "first sale doctrine." This doctrine establishes the consumer's right to rent videocassettes once it becomes available for sale. In Europe, the producer of a movie has the right to restrict the buyer of a videocassette from renting it. The Department of Commerce has been toying with the idea of creating a "European rule" for digital reproductions in the United States. In a letter to the Department of Commerce, Eves wrote, "We see no rational distinction between rental of digital products for home entertainment and educational purposes and the rental of analog products. The United States has led the world in promoting home entertainment by way of videocassette rental and sale. It should not be swayed by efforts to retreat in whole or in part." (Richard Bowers/19950900/Press Contact: Cynthia Citron, VSDA, 818-385-1500) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 09/22/95 IBM IBM Europe Intros OS/2 Warp Entertainment Toolkit (NEWS)(IBM)(LON)(00010) IBM Europe Intros OS/2 Warp Entertainment Toolkit 09/22/95 LONDON, ENGLAND, 1995, SEP 22 (NB) -- IBM has announced the OS/2 Warp Entertainment Toolkit. According to Big Blue, the package is designed to assist PC entertainment software creators for OS/2. IBM officials claim that the Toolkit improves software capabilities as far as sound, visual, and player interaction areas are concerned. As with most SDK (software development kits), the Toolkit is not sold as a standalone item, but is sold on a developer's subscription basis. According to Val Russell, a spokeswoman for IBM, the package builds on the existing resources in "The Developer Connection for OS/2" (DevCon) by including several new IBM technologies. Tools, software technology and information are distributed to the 17,000 of DevCon members every quarter on the CD-ROM disc to bring them up-to-date new technological achievements in the OS/2 area. Membership of IBM's DevCon group costs UKP131 a year. Subscribers receive an initial CD-ROM with the toolkit and associated software when they join, and various utilities, updates, technology, and information news is sent to them on CD-ROM on a quarterly basis. Commenting on the availability of this new toolkit for OS/2 software developers, Lee Reiswig, general manager of IBM's Personal Software Products division, said that the kit "empathically supports our continued dedication to the home and desktop market." "This will allow developers to capitalize on the multimedia features OS/2 offers and will build on our broad range of PC entertainment for home use," he explained. The OS/2 Warp Video side of the toolkit provides advanced support inclusive of a full screen for PC entertainment programs, and features Direct Interface Video extensions (DIVE), Direct Access to Video Buffer, and 32-bit virtual I/O (input/output) support. Another element of the toolkit is OS/2 Warp 3-D, which helps with modeling and rendering of three-dimensional graphics, with the use of enhanced DIVE interface for maximum visual efficiency. The OS/2 Warp Audio element of the toolkit assists anyone working on a software direct audio interface and gives a high-speed audio alternative for those applications where expensive, complex methods of synchronizing sound with visual effects can not be considered. According to IBM, the trend of bringing to the market new solution's support for OS/2 Warp is growing in the industry. Big Blue claims that almost 60 software developers have presented their plans related to development of more than 100 native OS/2 Warp applications for the Intel and PowerPC platforms. IBM also claims that, during the year to date, more than 2.7 million copies of OS/2 were sold as the market for these products grows. (Sylvia Dennis/19950921/Press Contact; Val Russell, IBM, +44-171-202-3798) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 09/22/95 ONLINE Quarterdeck Teams With Demon For UK Internet Services (NEWS)(ONLINE)(LON)(00011) Quarterdeck Teams With Demon For UK Internet Services 09/22/95 COLCHESTER, ESSEX, ENGLAND, 1995 SEP 22 (NB) -- Quarterdeck's UK division has teamed up with Demon Internet Services (DIS) to offer, what it claims, is one of the most "aggressively priced" Internet access packages and services available in the market. In return for UKP49.95, users get a copy of Quarterdeck's InternetSuite of Internet software, which includes the company's Mosaic Browser package, plus free sign-up and a month's free access to the Demon Internet service. For experienced Internet users, Quarterdeck is also offering a copy of its Mosaic Web Browser software for UKP19.95, which also includes the free sign-up/month Demon service package. Steve Kennedy, business development manager with Demon, said, "The Internet is growing rapidly, and this will strengthen our position to gain market share as the leading Internet access provider in the UK." At Quarterdeck, meanwhile, Gordon Bastiens, the company's chief executive officer (CEO), said that the Demon deal will allow the company to forge ahead in its plan to become a major player in the European Internet market. "The UK market is strategically very important to us, and in cooperation with Demon Internet, we will be able to develop a leading market position," he said. As previously reported by Newsbytes, Quarterdeck Mosaic is designed for new as well as experienced Internet users and, in addition to assisting users in exploring and obtaining information from the World Wide Web, allows the user to filter the information found and organize it into customized folders with a simple drag-and-drop interface. The package also includes a directory of pre-installed Web addresses organized by topic. The Quarterdeck InternetSuite, meanwhile, includes the English version of Quarterdeck Mosaic, as well as applications that simplify set-up and use of dial-up Internet connections. The package includes Quarterdeck Mosaic, Quarterdeck Message Center QTERM (Telnet), QFTP (File Transfer Protocol), and Quarterdeck Location Manager. The suite also includes integrated Windows SLIP/PPP support for easy dial-up connections to the Internet. Further details of the software, together with details of the Demon bundling arrangement, can be found on Quarterdeck's Web pages, which are at http://www.qdeck.com . (Steve Gold/19950919/Press Contact: Nick Spencer UK, tel +44-1344-873445, fax +44-1344-873446, Internet e-mail nspencer@cix.compulink.co.uk; In the US: Linda White, Brodeur & Partners 408-562-6108, Internet e-mail lwhite@brodeur.com; Reader Contact: Quarterdeck UK, +44-1245- 496699, Internet e-mail info@qdeck.co.uk; Demon Internet, +181-371-1234) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 09/22/95 ONLINE Delrina's Skapinker Outlines Internet Opportunities (NEWS)(ONLINE)(TOR)(00012) Delrina's Skapinker Outlines Internet Opportunities 09/22/95 TORONTO, ONTARIO, CANADA, 1995 SEP 22 (NB) -- Where's the money in the Internet business? Possibly in providing access to the Internet and software to use with it, and possibly in advertising-supported information services. However, it is probably not in information services that rely on subscription revenue, according to Mark Skapinker, president of software vendor Delrina Corp. Speaking to an overflow audience at E-Mail World, Web World, and Internet Expo, a combined show and conference at the Metropolitan Toronto Convention Centre this week, Skapinker outlined six potential business models for making a buck out of the Internet. His list included: the subscription model, the shopping mall model, the software sales model, the advertising model, the computer services model, and the travel agent model. Skapinker said the subscription model, in which information providers get their revenue directly from network users, historically has not been very profitable and "the era of end-user subscriptions for content is ending." He said the advertising model, in which revenue comes from advertising to support the provision of content that in turn attracts people to the site so that they read the advertising, is more promising. The major issue with this model, he added, is how to charge for the advertising. It is possible to charge by the number of "hits," meaning the number of times someone connects with the page containing the ad. However, this can be misleading because some people only come to a page on the way to another one and do not really look at it closely. Selling goods directly is another way businesses might make money on the "net." This is Skapinker's shopping mall model, and he pointed out that the $51 million print catalog business is a natural for conversion to the Internet. Skapinker cited a World Wide Web site at http://www.onsale.com as an example of what can be done in this area. The travel agent model refers to making money not by selling goods or by carrying advertising for them, but by facilitating transactions. Just as a travel-agent earns commissions by connecting travelers with transportation providers, this type of Internet business would make its money by linking up net users with people who could provide the goods and services they wanted. The remaining two models rely on helping people use the Internet. One is the computer services model, in which businesses can make money by creating Web pages, providing servers, consulting, and the like. The other is the business Skapinker's own company is in -- providing software to help people use the Internet. One interesting area of Internet activity today, Skapinker said, is audio. The Internet lacks the bandwidth to handle video effectively at the moment, but it can transmit real-time audio. Skapinker said a service called Realaudio makes it possible to receive what amounts to a real-time radio broadcast over the Internet -- except that unlike radio, Realaudio lets the listener select and skip around within the content. For instance, with a radio newscast you have no alternative to listening to the first story in its entirety before getting to the second. With Realaudio, as with a newspaper, if you lose interest part way through the first item you can skip ahead to the second. One of Skapinker's statistics suggested that the current fascination with the Internet could be blown out of proportion, though. There are currently about 40 million Internet users, he said -- but 80 percent of them are limited to electronic-mail. (Grant Buckler/19950922) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 09/22/95 TELECOM MobileWare Software Launched In Canada (NEWS)(TELECOM)(TOR)(00013) MobileWare Software Launched In Canada 09/22/95 TORONTO, ONTARIO, CANADA, 1995 SEP 22 (NB) -- MobileWare, software for remote office communications from MobileWare Corp. in Dallas, has come to Canada thanks to a deal between MobileWare and Bell Mobility, the wireless communications unit of regional telephone carrier Bell Canada. Bell Mobility, which serves central Canada, will offer the MobileWare software. The software lets people on the road or at home receive electronic-mail and fax messages from their offices via wired or wireless links to their portable computers. The software can connect to various mail packages over cellular or regular phone lines, wide area networks, or local area networks, company officials said. It runs on a Microsoft Windows NT server, said Peggy Burt, vice-president of marketing at MobileWare. However, the software can also be used with a Novell Inc. NetWare network by setting up the MobileWare server on a Windows NT system (which may be running either the server or the client version of NT) attached to the NetWare network, Burt told Newsbytes. MobileWare supports cellular digital packet data (CDPD) transmission, but can also work with standard switched cellular, which is more widely available, Burt noted. It does not currently work with the Ardis network, which uses radio frequencies to transmit data, but Burt said this capability could be added quite easily if the demand arises. A mobile user can write e-mail messages on his or her portable computer at will. When the computer is connected to the MobileWare server, the software will upload the outgoing messages to the server, which will pass them on to the mail system. At the same time, it will download any messages for that user that the server has received since the last connection. (Grant Buckler/19950922/Press Contact: Angela Hislop, Bell Mobility, 416-213-3308; Public Contact: Bell Mobility, 800-599-4698, Internet e-mail data_solutions@mobility.com) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 09/22/95 NETWORK Intel & Lotus Intro Real Notes, IBM Adds Support (NEWS)(NETWORK)(SFO)(00014) Intel & Lotus Intro Real Notes, IBM Adds Support 09/22/95 CAMBRIDGE, MASSACHUSETTS, U.S.A., 1995 SEP 22 (NB) -- Lotus Development (NASDAQ:LOTS) and Intel have jointly announced a new version of Lotus Notes, called RealTime Notes, based on Intel's ProShare conferencing technology. In addition, IBM unveiled significant new support of the Intel conferencing tool. RealTime Notes is immediately available and the boxed edition is based on Intel's Premier version of ProShare. Premier is a point-to-point (two- person) version of ProShare which allows a whiteboard for real-time sharing of data and applications. RealTime Notes may be used to connect two people across a local area network or a wide area network and allow them to work simultaneously on the same files. Features of the new Notes product include application and file sharing, a conferencing-enabled address book, a conference journal, special icons, and conferencing developers tools. Additionally, RealTime Notes users who have Intel's video version of ProShare are able to integrate videoconferencing into a RealTime Notes session. For RealTime Notes users who do not have the videoconferencing tool, Intel is offering a special upgrade. RealTime Notes is being shipped with all new Lotus Notes 3.x clients for Windows through December 95. There is no additional cost for RealTime Notes. Intel says its Premier version of ProShare being used with RealTime is a $299 value which is included in RealTime Notes. From a teleconference, Newsbytes learned the RealTime announcement is the result of an Intel/Lotus announcement made last year. In that announcement, both companies said they would team to investigate customers needs and produce products as a result of such an investigation. Patrick Gelsinger, vice president and general manager of Intel's Personal Conferencing Division, said, "Together, we have the answer customers want. By coming together, Intel and Lotus are offering a combined product which expands the benefits of each separate product and more specifically fits customers needs." Answering a question about the slow adoption of ProShare technology, Gelsinger said, "Getting ProShare into popular use has been tougher than we expected, but now we are seeing steady growth. I think the price points have been an issue, but they are coming down. With this announcement and the value of the product, we think more people will become exposed to ProShare technology. Now every Notes users is a potential ProShare user." Providing extra strength to Intel's campaign to increase the popularity and use of ProShare, is IBM. Also participating in the teleconference, IBM announced support for the ProShare conferencing technology. Big Blue says it will offer ProShare on its OS/2 operating system for customers who want conferencing in their Windows environment. OS/2 already has its own proprietary conferencing product, Person-to-Person, built into OS/2. In further support, IBM says selected models of its newly announced Aptiva line will have ProShare conferencing preloaded. IBM will market ProShare with its mobile and commercial desktop computers. (Patrick McKenna/19950922/Press Contact: Jon Jackson, Intel, 503-264-9463) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 09/22/95 TELECOM Wireless PCS Trial Completed In Montreal (NEWS)(TELECOM)(TOR)(00015) Wireless PCS Trial Completed In Montreal 09/22/95 MONTREAL, QUEBEC, CANADA, 1995 SEP 22 (NB) -- LanSer Personal Communications, one of the companies that has applied for a license to offer personal communications services (PCS) in Canada, recently completed a trial of wireless time division multiple access (TDMA) technology in Montreal. The 16-day test involved faculty and students at the Ecole Polytechnique de Montreal. Patrick Fernet, vice-president of engineering and chief technical officer at LanSer, told Newsbytes he was "very happy about the results." Equipment from several different manufacturers worked well together, Fernet said, and a student assigned to try to break the security of the system was not able to do so. Fernet said 10 equipment manufacturers were involved in the trial, with seven students and six faculty members testing the system. Besides privacy, the trial was meant to test the safety, environmental, educational, and health-care implications of the PCS equipment, LanSer said. Fernet said the trial was a useful learning process for LanSer, which "solved a lot of problems during the trial." LanSer, which is partly owned by AT&T Wireless of Seattle and partly owned by Helix (Quebec) Inc., filed an application Sept. 15 for a nationwide 30 megahertz (MHz) license to offer broadband PCS services. The federal government is currently considering applications and will be issuing several licenses for PCS operations. LanSer plans to link its PCS services in Canada to those of AT&T in the United States. While it waits for the government's decision, LanSer plans to move ahead with another trial, probably starting next month. There are "a few things we'd like to try and demonstrate," Fernet said. "We're certainly not sitting idle." (Grant Buckler/19950922/Press Contact: Mike Abramsky, LanSer Personal Communications, 416-495-0010; Patrick Fernet, LanSer Personal Communications, 514-485-7104) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 09/22/95 BUSINESS ****Netscape Acquires Collabra Software (NEWS)(BUSINESS)(LAX)(00016) ****Netscape Acquires Collabra Software 09/22/95 MOUNTAIN VIEW, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1995 SEP 22 (NB) -- Netscape Communications Corporation (NASDAQ: NSCP) has announced the signing of a definitive agreement to acquire Collabra Software Inc. an independent developer of collaborative, computing software. The acquisition is aimed at extending Netscape into the collaboration and messaging market. Netscape will purchase 100 percent of Collabra, a privately held company, for 1.85 million shares of Netscape stock. At current market values this would place the transaction over $100 million. Rosanne Siino, a spokesperson for Netscape, told Newsbytes, "This is our first acquisition since we went public. One of the reasons we went public was to create a trading currency for acquisitions that fit and can grow our company. This acquisition is a natural fit, and although we are not planning to announce any other soon, we will be looking for acquisitions that have the same appeal as Collabra." "By combining Collabra's products and technologies with our own, we broaden our ability to offer customers strong, integrated solutions for easily communicating and collaborating within and beyond the enterprise using open standards," said Jim Barksdale, president of Netscape. "We also gain the benefit of Collabra's tremendous team of people, who bring world-class expertise in providing messaging and collaborative technologies." "With the overwhelming majority of our enterprise customers wanting to integrate their internal messaging systems with the Internet, we are extremely excited to join Netscape," said Eric Hahn, president of Collabra. "Working with Netscape's outstanding team will enable us to deliver our market-leading collaboration technology on the platform our customers are requesting." Collabra Software was founded in 1993 by Hahn, a former manager of Lotus' Mail Division, to develop messaging-based collaborative computing products. Collabra currently employs 47 people, including more than 20 engineers. Collabra is a privately held company, and neither it nor Netscape would release Collabra's financials. Collabra's flagship product, Collabra Share, first shipped in July, 1994, and is a group conferencing and information sharing application. Collabra Share provides electronic discussion forums where people can distribute and discuss information. Collabra Share is currently available on Microsoft Exchange, Microsoft Mail, Novell Groupwise, Banyan BeyondMail, and Lotus cc:Mail. "Our customers on enterprise networks have asked us for collaboration and messaging tools to enable people in their organizations to work together more effectively," said Marc Andreessen, vice president of technology for Netscape. "Our research showed Collabra's technology to be best-of-class for providing open systems, collaborative computing solutions. By integrating Collabra's technology tightly into the Netscape open systems platform, we can provide our customers with the first comprehensive collaboration and communications platform spanning the enterprise and the Internet." Netscape announced that it will incorporate Collabra's collaboration and messaging capabilities into future versions of Netscape Navigator and Netscape server products. Netscape will continue to market, and support Collabra Share 2.0. By 1996, Netscape will release upgrades to Netscape Navigator and Netscape servers which will begin to integrate Collabra Share. (Richard Bowers/19950922/Press Contact: Rosanne Siino, Netscape, 415-528-2619) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 09/22/95 BROADCAST VCON Intros Desktop Videoconferencing For LANs (NEWS)(BROADCAST)(DEN)(00017) VCON Intros Desktop Videoconferencing For LANs 09/22/95 DALLAS, TEXAS, U.S.A., 1995 SEP 22 (NB) -- VCON Inc. has introduced its Armada Escort system, a product that provides video and audioconferencing capabilities between users whether they are on the same local area network (LAN) or in different parts of the world. #IMAGE 1 20 TWPCX \images\95092217.PCX Click here for photo The H.320-compliant PC-based Armada system includes a PCI (Peripheral Component Interconnect)-based hardware codec (coder-decoder) board, a camera, audio handset and user software with documentation. VCON said the suggested retail price of $1,495 is about half the cost of competing products. Features of the Armada system include dual video windows capability, an available bandwidth of 384 kilobits-per-second (Kbps), and a choice of audio options that includes a hands-free mode which utilizes the speakers attached to the user's PC. The system uses hardware-based video compression. Armada also offers file transfer at 40Kbps, electronic whiteboarding, and an some advanced features under the name MeetingPoint which lets conferees share applications on a PC in real-time. It also includes video mail, which sends a recorded message with video of the person sending the message, and a remote printing capability that lets either conferee print on the other party's printer. VCON also offers a $1,995 software developer's kit for developers and system integrators who want to create their own videoconferencing applications or port existing applications to work with the Armada Escort system. Mike Clifford, VCON vice president of sales and marketing, told Newsbytes the SDK includes open source code, tech support, and free software upgrades for one year. The company recently announced the Armada Cruiser system which has been retitled Armada Cruiser 50, a $1,395 desktop videoconferencing product for use over ISDN (integrated services digital network) Basic Rate Interface (BRI) lines that also comes with the MeetingPoint package. Armada is intended for implementation over ATM (asynchronous transfer mode) and ISO-Ethernet networks, but VCON said a software upgrade will be provided in the first quarter of 1996 for operating over existing Ethernet LANs. The company demonstrated a live videoconferencing link through an ISO-Ethernet hub at the recent Networks Expo trade show. VCON will introduce Armada Cruiser 100, a product similar to Cruiser 50, but with improved video quality, said Clifford. It will have a suggested retail price of $1,595. The Armada Escort and the Cruiser 50 and Cruiser 100 are all scheduled to ship in early November. (Jim Mallory/19950922/Press contact: Alan Weinkrantz, Alan Weinkrantz and Company for VCON, 210-820-3070; Public contact: VCON, tel 214-774-3890 or fax 214-774-3893/VCON950922/PHOTO) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 09/22/95 GENERAL The Jewish World On CD-ROM (NEWS)(GENERAL)(DEN)(00018) The Jewish World On CD-ROM 09/22/95 SHAKER HEIGHTS, OHIO, U.S.A., 1995 SEP 22 (NB) -- A new CD-ROM-based magazine may promote Jewish culture, but a spokesperson for the company told Newsbytes it's more important to recognize that technology is beginning to impact specific cultural groups. JEMM Productions, an Israel-based publisher with US offices in Shaker Heights, Ohio, has released CD-JEMM, a CD-ROM magazine the company said harnesses the latest technology to the "service of Jewish family education and entertainment, offering culture, heritage and fun." The initial issue of the magazine, which is updated four times a year, was shipped recently in time for the Jewish New Year next week. Jews around the world will celebrate the holiday Monday, September 25, 1995. Selections in the inaugural edition include a story of how the author's father and uncle survived Buchenwald and made their way to Palestine. The article includes audio testimony, video interviews and clips from US Army films of the liberation of the infamous prison camp. There's also a story titled the Golan Dilemma that addresses the question of Israel returning the historical Golan Heights to Syria. On the lighter side are: "From Schmattes To Riches: American Jews in the Fashion Trade," complete with glamour photos; and a story about the history and use of the ritual ram horns, called shofars, complete with sample recordings. The shofar is blown in the synagogue during Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year. Rosh Hashanah begins the Ten Days of Penitence, which end with Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement. Teenage Jews have their own section in CD-JEMM. Included is a story on Jewish jazzman Brian Gelfand and a segment on TV that includes short videos with Jewish jazz and a parody TV show called "Jewpardy." JEMM Productions said each issue will include 20 to 30 stories, separate sections for teens and pre-teens, advertising from Israeli-based and Jewish-oriented firms offering travel, jewelry, software and food, and will have special offers and on-screen versions of television commercials. The publishers of the CD-ROM said future issues will include URLs (Uniform Resource Locators, the online Internet World Wide Web addresses) within articles so users who are also Internet subscribers with Web browsers can call up on-line background material or shop online. An annual subscription to CD-JEMM costs $99.95, but if you subscribe before the end of the year you can take advantage of an introductory offer of $69.95. The single-issue retail price will be $29.95. CD-JEMM will run on either an Apple Macintosh or Windows PC equipped with a CD-ROM and a sound card. A 2X or faster CD-ROM drive is recommended as well as a 256-color video display. JEMM Productions said it will also publish on CD-ROM "The Multimedia Holocaust Museum on CD-ROM. The company said the product does not rely on the familiar newsreel clips so often seen. The price of that product, when it ships, will be about $65. (Jim Mallory/19950922/Press contact:Alan Weinkrantz, Alan Weinkrantz and Associates for JEMM Productions, 210-820-3070; Public contact: JEMM Productions, tel 216-751-4030 for information or 800-871-0694 to subscribe/CD_JEMM950922/PHOTO) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 09/22/95 GOVT Bell Atlantic Gives Library Of Congress $1.5 Million (NEWS)(GOVT)(WAS)(00019) Bell Atlantic Gives Library Of Congress $1.5 Million 09/22/95 WASHINGTON, D.C., U.S.A., 1995 SEP 22 (NB) -- Bell Atlantic today gave the Library of Congress $1.5 million, kicking off a program to digitize priceless books, documents, records, videos, and photographs, and make them available on the Internet. At the same time, the regional Bell operating company is giving four schools in its service territory grants to enable them to set up ISDN (integrated services digital network) service for rapid Internet access. "Nothing is more important in the construction of the information highway than ensuring that the benefits of education are available to all," said Raymond Smith, Bell Atlantic chairman and chief executive officer. "We're working to provide accessibility to technology across all social strata." Bell Atlantic calls its program "Project CANDLE," for "creating a national digital library for everyone." "Project CANDLE will help begin to illuminate the pathway of knowledge for everyone, everywhere," said Smith. Smith has been working with the Library of Congress since 1990, when he played an important role in the early digitization of some of the library's contents through the "American Memory" project. Smith is a member of the library's board of directors. Documents ranging from the Declaration of Independence to Lincoln's Gettysburg Address to Walt Whitman's notebooks are available on the library's World Wide Web site at http://www.loc.gov . The first schools in the pilot project are: Keene Elementary in Washington, DC; St. Patrick's Elementary in Jersey City, NJ; Woodbridge Junior High School in Bridgeville, Del., and John Handley High School in Winchester, Va. "The treasures these students will see through Project CANDLE represent only the beginning," said Smith at a news conference at the library. "As we build our interactive networks through our region, people who use their PCs to gather text today someday will use their screens to meet with fellow students on joint projects and download crystal clear images that rival the real thing right here at the library." (Kennedy Maize/19950922/Press Contacts: Shannon Fioravanti, Bell Atlantic, 703-974-5455; Guy Lamolinara, Library of Congress, 202-707-9217) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 09/22/95 TRENDS Latin America Software Sales Up (NEWS)(TRENDS)(WAS)(00020) Latin America Software Sales Up 09/22/95 WASHINGTON DC, U.S.A., 1995 SEP 22 (NB) -- Software sales are up solidly in Latin America, according to the Software Publishers Association. SPA said second quarter Latin American sales at $40.8 million were up 21 percent over last year. Brazil's sales of $16.9 million were up 91 percent over the second quarter of 1994. For the first half of the year, Latin American sales of US software totaled $89 million, a 49 percent jump. In Brazil, first half sales hit $35.4 million, up 168 percent over the first half of 1994. In Latin America, Windows is boss, with 92 percent of the market, about the same as in the US. Total Mac application sales declined 37 percent from the second quarter of last year, with revenue totaling just over half a million dollars. "Clearly, the positive increases for the majority of the Latin American software market indicate that this region is rapidly becoming a major growth area for US software publishers, says Ken Wasch, president of SPA. "The continual surge of the Brazilian market in particular gives every indication that the US should consider it among the top countries for potential sales." The dark spot in the region was Mexico, where sales of $6.1 million for the quarter represent a decline of 43 percent over the 1994 quarter. SPA says that is the result of decreasing value of the Mexican peso. SPA's figures represent total revenues of 40 primarily US-based software firms that submit confidential data to the accounting firm of Arthur Andersen. Among the participants are Borland, Claris, Lotus, Microsoft, Software Publishing, Symantec, and Novell's WordPerfect division. (Kennedy Maize/19950922/Press Contact: Sally Lawrence, 202-452-1600, ext. 320) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 09/22/95 UNIX Unix Expo - SunSoft Intros WabiServer (NEWS)(UNIX)(BOS)(00021) Unix Expo - SunSoft Intros WabiServer 09/22/95 NEW YORK, NEW YORK, U.S.A., 1995 SEP 22 (NB) -- WabiServer, a newly unveiled server-based implementation of SunSoft's Wabi, will allow users of low-end Sparc systems and X terminals not supported by Wabi till now to start running Windows applications as "full clients," maintained SunSoft's Tracey Wyatt and Matt Koehler, in a briefing session for Newsbytes at Unix Expo. Users of higher-end workstations will also benefit from WabiServer, since the server-based implementation of SunSoft's Windows emulation software frees up memory and hard disk space at the desktop, predicted Wyatt, who is product manager for Wabi. WabiServer, a product slated to ship in November, supports up to 16 simultaneous users per CPU (central processing unit), according to the two SunSoft execs, who spoke with Newsbytes in the Sun Microsystems suite at the Unix extravaganza in New York City. WabiServer also brings systems administration tools that reduce the amount of time needed for installing Windows applications, and that provide the ability to either enable or prevent floppy drive access at the desktop, noted Koehler, who is engineering manager for SunSoft's Desktop Integration Group. Installing Microsoft Office, for example, on individual workstations with the use of floppy disks is a process that can easily consume more than two hours per user, he illustrated, during a demo of WabiServer for Newsbytes. Wyatt told Newsbytes that WabiServer operates on Sparc Solaris, Sparcstation 20, PowerPC Solaris, and Solaris x86 and Pentium servers. At the low end, clients can include X terminals, "any X server," and Sparcstation 1, 2, and Classic models. The Wabi product manager also pointed out that SunSoft's server-based Windows emulation software eliminates the need for "a PC beside every workstation." According to estimates by the Gartner Group, WabiServer will permit organizations to save up to $8,000 per PC annually, when hardware, software, and support costs are all taken into account, she elaborated. WabiServer is also more "cost-effective" than competing products like WinDD from Tektronix or Hewlett-Packard's Windows Application Server, Wyatt contended. WinDD is priced at $352 per for the minimum software-only configuration, and Windows Application Server at $267 per user, in contrast to only $100 per user for WabiServer, Newsbytes was told. In addition, unlike WinDD, WabiServer provides "floatable/scaleable windows," and permits users to cut-and-paste between Unix and Windows applications, Koehler reported. Future directions for WabiServer include load balancing at the server level, improved integration with SunSoft's Solstice and SolarNet, and the addition of software metering, according to the two officials. The execs also pointed out that, beyond Wabi and WabiServer, SunSoft produces related products that include SunPC/SoftWindows, for access to Windows and DOS applications for Solaris/Sparc; Merge, for access to Windows and DOS applications on Solaris x86; and MAE (Macintosh Application Environment), for access to Mac applications on Solaris/Sparc. In other major announcements at the show in New York City, SunSoft rolled out a set of development tools for Java. Also for application developers, Gupta and SunSoft introduced SQLWindows, a Windows/Solaris cross-platform development environment. The MSRP (manufacturer's suggested retail price) for SunSoft's new WabiServer is $1,000 per server, and $1,000 per client ten-pack. The product will be sold through Sun resellers, as well as through SunExpress. (Jacqueline Emigh/19950922/Reader Contact: 1-800-SUNSOFT; Press Contacts: Cindy Johnson, SunSoft, 508-442-0546; Pamela Hamilton or Alison Buckholtz, Collaborative Communications, Inc. for SunSoft, 617-621-1595) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 09/22/95 UNIX Unix Expo - Nutcracker Gets Update, Intro To Japan (NEWS)(UNIX)(BOS)(00022) Unix Expo - Nutcracker Gets Update, Intro To Japan 09/22/95 NEW YORK, NEW YORK, U.S.A., 1995 SEP 22 (NB) -- Nutcracker is designed to let developers work with Unix APIs (application programming interfaces) while porting applications to Windows NT and Windows 95, DataFocus officials said, in a meeting with Newsbytes at Unix Expo, where DataFocus announced Nutcracker 1.5, plus the introduction of the product to Japan. Windows NT is "coming on strong" against Unix, acknowledged Pat Bosanko, company president and chief operating officer (COO). But, he asserted, by allowing Unix developers to build crossplatform Win32/Unix applications with the use of familiar Unix APIs (application programming interfaces), Nutcracker is actually helping to "preserve the Unix infrastructure." Also during the interview in New York City, DataFocus Chairman and CEO (Chief Executive Officer) Pat Higbie pointed out that the resulting 32-bit Win32 applications can be converted between Windows NT and the new Windows 95 environment with only "a few architectural changes." DataFocus first introduced Nutcracker last year, Bosanko told Newsbytes. The product today has more than 250 customers, including AT&T GIS, Compuserve, Digital Equipment Corp., EDS, Fujitsu, Honeywell, IBM, Informix, Mentor Graphics, Salomon Brothers, Sony, and the US Department of Defense, according to the two execs. The new Nutcracker 1.5, which is slated for release in October, reduces porting time and cost by about 75 percent, Bosanko estimated. Also in the Nutcracker update, DataFocus will use Wintif technology from SCO (Santa Cruz Operation), through an "exclusive license in the NT market." As a result, developers will be able to write applications to Motif APIs without rewriting Motif code, the company president reported. Nutcracker 1.5 will also add an optional "local X server," Bosanko noted. By enabling X client applications to run on the same machine as an X display server, the new option will lower the price of X server applications, he maintained. Most customers run ported X applications directly on the workstation, according to the DataFocus chief. Higbie told Newsbytes that DataFocus will bring Nutcracker to Japan through a newly inked deal with the Japanese giant Mitsui & Company Ltd. "We're very excited about this agreement. Matsui has strong relationships with a number of companies that are now potential candidates for Win32," the CEO remarked. Nutcracker consists of three main components: the Nutcracker Software Development Kit, for porting server and character-mode Unix applications; the Nutcracker S/Software Development Kit, for porting X/Motif-based applications; and the Nutcracker X Server, for running X Windows applications. The Nutcracker X Server includes the new local X server. Nutcracker's technology is grounded in Win32 DLLs (dynamic link libraries) that compile Unix code into native Win32 applications, Newsbytes was told. Nutcracker is able to port applications from any flavor of Unix written in C, C++ or Fortran. Nutcracker also allows direct access to and utilization of all Win32 APIs, including OLE (object-linking-and-embedding) 2.0, MAPI (Microsoft Application Programming Interface), ODBC (Open Database Connectivity), and DDE (Dynamic Data Exchange). The product supports Visual C++, Visual Basic, and other programming tools for the Microsoft environment, according to the DataFocus officials. (Jacqueline Emigh/19950922/Reader Contact: DataFocus Inc., 703-631- 6770; Press Contacts: Wendy Mades, DataFocus, 703-818-1398; Jill Pembroke, Pembroke Resources for DataFocus, 503-873-2404) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 09/22/95 UNIX Unix Expo - IBM Plans First PCI-Based Server (NEWS)(UNIX)(BOS)(00023) Unix Expo - IBM Plans First PCI-Based Server 09/22/95 NEW YORK, NEW YORK, U.S.A., 1995 SEP 22 (NB) -- An RS/6000 604 PowerPC-based server with PCI (Peripheral Component Interconnect) and ISA (Industry Standard Architecture) buses, demonstrated at Unix Expo in prototype form, will ultimately become IBM's first PCI-based server, revealed IBM's Thomas G. Arthur and Joseph J. Czajkowski, during a strategy briefing for Newsbytes at the trade show in New York City. Up to now, IBM has used PCI only in low-end workstations, as opposed to high-end Microchannel-based systems, said Czajkowski, who is program manager for IBM's RS/6000 workstations. But over time, PCI will be "migrated upward," he maintained. IBM actually migrates new technologies both up and down its hardware line, pointed out Arthur, who is brand manager for RS/6000. The OpenGL graphics that have begun appearing in IBM's high-end systems in recent months will later show up in lower-end servers and workstations, according to the brand manager. In a word, IBM's hardware is characterized by "scalability," Arthur told Newsbytes. The product family ranges all the way from ThinkPad notebooks to SP2 parallel servers, AS/400 midrange systems, and mainframes. There is some overlap in performance between IBM's top-end RS/6000 servers and the company's AS/400 midrange systems, Arthur acknowledged. But RS/6000 and AS/400 appeal to different sets of users, he added. The AS/400, he maintained, is designed for organizations that prefer "turnkey systems." Across all levels of IBM hardware, the predominant trend is "faster, faster, and faster," advised Arthur, who has been employed in various hardware divisions of IBM ever since the early 1980s. IBM is constantly at work on finetuning system performance, whether the improvements mean "a new controller, enhancements to middleware, or better graphics," agreed Czajkowski, also a long-time IBM veteran. IBM's latest top-of-the-line RS/6000 systems offer faster 3-D (three-dimensional) graphics performance than competing products from Hewlett-Packard, Sun, and Silicon Graphics (SGI), Arthur asserted. The 3-D graphics are targeted at commercial applications, as well as at the scientific/technical market, he observed. Over the years, engineering workstations have expanded way beyond their original applications in CAD (computer-aided design) wireframe modeling, to the point where they are now used for "highly realistic" product and architectural 3-D walkthroughs, according to the IBM exec. The walkthroughs are based on precise computations, and permit viewing from virtually any perspective. As a result, the computerized mock-ups can do a better job of pinpointing potential trouble spots than actual physical architectural models or product prototypes, he contended. IBM's systems also provide similar potential for 3-D animation as SGI workstations, which are currently the mainstay of the professional animation market, he added. Over time, these animation capabilities will trickle down toward the lower end, for more generic 3-D "entertainment" applications, predicted the IBM brand manager. (Jacqueline Emigh/19950922/Reader Contact: IBM, 914-765-1900; Press Contact: Marlena Villafane, Pam Preston, or Rob Cronin, Technology Solutions for IBM, 212-696-2000) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 09/22/95 PC Fujitsu Intros 10 PC Cards For US Market (NEWS)(PC)(BOS)(00024) Fujitsu Intros 10 PC Cards For US Market 09/22/95 BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS, U.S.A., 1995 SEP 22 (NB) -- Fujitsu's newly unveiled line of ten PC Cards for the US market provides a wider range of functionality than any competitor's products, Fujitsu officials contended, during a briefing for press and analysts attended by Newsbytes in Boston. Some PC Card vendors, such as Megahertz and US Robotics, specialize in modem cards, while other competitors, such as Xircom and 3Com, are strong in the networking market, said John Ervin, Fujitsu's director of PC products. But, he added, Fujitsu's new line covers all three "functionality areas" of portable computing: communications, multimedia, and networking. Fujitsu first announced its intentions to offer PC Cards for the US market on July 31, noted Bradford C. Pierce, VP of Fujitsu's Communications Products Group. Fujitsu has long been active in the PC Card market in Japan, although technical specifications such as drivers and bios are different in that country, Ervin pointed out. Fujitsu's new Type II cards for the US market are designed to comply with the latest edition of the PC Card specification, as well as to provide backward compatibility with earlier card slots, he asserted. All ten of the new cards use the same installation routine, according to the Fujitsu execs. There is "no need to reboot Windows when changing from one card to another." The products also feature an idle/standby/power-saving mode for low battery consumption. Fujitsu's new communications cards include 14.4 and 28.8 megabit- per-second (Mbps) fax/modem cards; a new serial adapter offering; and an ISDN (integrated systems digital network) card. In the multimedia arena, Fujitsu is offering a stereo sound card, plus SCSI (small computer systems interface) 600 and SCSI 1200 adapters. PC Cards in the networking category include 10BaseT LAN (local area network) and 10BaseT/2 LAN adapters, along with the 10BaseT LAN/SCSI Combo Adapter Card. Most of the ten new cards from Fujitsu will ship by October 15, Ervin told the journalists and analysts. The ISDN interface, though, will not be released until November, due to a desire by Fujitsu to conduct further studies on differences between the US and Japanese ISDN markets, he maintained. All ten cards will operate on Windows 95, Windows 3.0 or higher, DOS 4.0 or higher, OS/2, Windows for Workgroups, and Windows NT. In addition, all of the PC Cards except for I/O (input/output) cards such as the serial adapter will also run in the Mac environment, according to Ervin. The new PC Cards are priced from $169 for the 10BaseT LAN adapter to $600 for the ISDN adapter. Fujitsu will distribute the products through "VARs (value-added resellers) specializing in mobile computing," he added. In the future, Fujitsu plans to develop additional multifunction cards beyond the LAN/SCSI Adapter, the Fujitsu official revealed. (Jacqueline Emigh/19950922/Reader Contact: Fujitsu Microelectronics Inc., 408-922-9000; Press Contacts: John Ervin, FMI PC Card Business Unit, 408-922-9052; Jennifer Hwang, A&R Partners for Fujitsu, 415-363-0982) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 09/22/95 ONLINE Pres. Clinton & AOL In California Schools Internet Plan (NEWS)(ONLINE)(SFO)(00025) Pres. Clinton & AOL In California Schools Internet Plan 09/22/95 SAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1995 SEP 22 (NB) -- President Clinton and Vice President Gore have announced a plan to connect every public school in California to the Internet by March, 1996. Joining in the strategy, America Online also announced its intention to provide free, unlimited access of AOL and Internet content to more than 2,000 California public schools. By the end of 1995, Clinton said he plans to have one-fifth of the public schools connected to the Internet. The California project is only the beginning step as the President aims to have every US public kindergarten, elementary, middle, and high school connected to the Internet by the year 2000. Clinton said the California project will be funded by money from the private sector. Along with AOL, Clinton's ambitious plan is backed by Xerox, Sun Microsystems, Apple Computer, Silicon Graphics, AT&T, TCI Communications, Sprint, and others. Smart Valley, a group of Silicon Valley companies, have already contributed $15 million. "Children with access to computers learn faster and learn better. Just as essential as teaching them to read and write and the new math, our mission is to connect every school in America by the year 2000. It will take same tenacity and effort that it took to build the nation's railroads. So let us begin," proclaimed the President. In further support of the President, Oracle and Apple computer execs say it is possible and important to put a computer on the desk of every student. Both Larry Ellison, chief executive officer (CEO) at Oracle, and Michael Spindler, Apple's CEO, are suggesting the task can be accomplished at a cost of $500 per computer. While all the handshaking and smiles took place in San Francisco, a number of school district officials wondered how the task could be accomplished when there are problems with painting, asbestos removal, miscellaneous repairs, theft, vandalism, and other issues which confront many schools. One school district official said hardwiring one of the district's schools for networking could run as much as $50,000. Newsbytes asked AOL what it estimated the cost of delivering unlimited free access to California's students and teachers. A company spokesperson said, "the California project is a test ground and will allow us to determine what kind of costs are involved. At this time, we do not have any projections." AOL did confirm its CEO Steve Case and other AOL officials have been working with the Clinton administration in preparation for the Internet announcement. Participants at the press conference commented on the Internet child safety problem and all agreed some form of censorship would be needed. A number of software "solutions" are just now entering the consumer channels and the online service companies have also made a significant effort to build-in parental controls which control and record a users navigation of the Internet. (Patrick McKenna/19950922/Press Contact: Pam McGraw, AOL, 703-556-3746) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 09/22/95 TELECOM Motorola Intros Digital Base Station (NEWS)(TELECOM)(MSP)(00026) Motorola Intros Digital Base Station 09/22/95 ARLINGTON HEIGHTS, ILLINOIS, U.S.A., 1995 SEP 22 (NB) -- Motorola's (NYSE:MOT) Cellular Infrastructure Group (CIG) is introducing a cell cite that supports the leading technologies for the new personal communications services (PCS) market, called the SC 4800. The new unit can support both code division multiple access (CDMA) and narrowband advanced mobile phone service (NAMPS) platforms, along with a mixed-mode operation. It combines centralized control components with state-of-the-art radio frequency (RF) equipment to offer expansion, low maintenance, and remote diagnostic abilities, Motorola officials said. It is designed to operate in the 1.9 gigahertz (GHz) band. The new unit will ship in the first quarter of 1996. Speaking to Newsbytes from the PCS '95 Personal Communications Showcase in Orlando, Florida, a Motorola spokesperson said the unit marks an "industry first," because it supports both CDMA and NAMPS. The SC 4800 was displayed at the Orlando exhibition. "The SC 4800, which is based on our successful SC family architecture, provides operators with a one cabinet solution that can be quickly and easily deployed in PCS networks," said Tony Hennen, senior vice president and general manager, Motorola's Advanced Products division of CIG. "This new product directly addresses the PCS operators' need for a wireless platform with concentrated RF in a very small footprint." The footprint, which measures 24-inches by 32-inches, is an example of CIG's "FitFactor" design program, officials said. The program reduces the size, weight, and power consumption of cell sites and the cost associated with deploying PCS networks, officials said. Other features include the initial implementation of analog transmissions with the ability to upgrade to digital, the capability to add additional analog and digital cards in the first frame, and the ability to add new frames. Motorola officials said the SC 4800's components are front accessible, which simplifies installation and maintenance. The unit can be deployed in an existing shelter, or in an optional outdoor enclosure. John Towers, manager of emerging market development for the Pan American cellular infrastructure group, told Newsbytes the market for PCS in general is going to be a booming one. In the area of CDMA alone, Turner said Motorola already has shipped units to more than 400 sites, and more than 1,000 by year-end. These units are operating in frequencies ranging from 800 megahertz to 1.9GHz. (Bob Woods/19950922/Press Contact: Mary Anne McAndrew, Motorola Cellular Infrastructure Group, 708-632-2775) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 09/22/95 BUSINESS ****Motorola/TCI Agreement For High-Speed Cable Trials (NEWS)(BUSINESS)(MSP)(00027) ****Motorola/TCI Agreement For High-Speed Cable Trials 09/22/95 CHICAGO, ILLINOIS, U.S.A., 1995 SEP 22 (NB) -- Motorola's (NYSE:MOT) Multimedia Group has inked an accord with TCI Telephone Services. The multi-year agreement marks the first step in TCI's plans to deliver telephone and other advanced telecommunications services over existing television cable lines. Specifically, this deal will see Motorola selling up to 220,000 CableComm subscriber units, along with other infrastructure supplies, to TCI over a five-year period. The cable telephone service will begin with TCI subscribers in the Chicago area beginning in early 1996, officials said. Initially, the CableComm units will be used to provide voice service over the cable network. Future plans call for high-speed data communications, two-way video, and interconnection of wireless services. TCI has been upgrading its local cable network in Chicago for the new services. Already, CableComm units are up and running in suburban Arlington Heights, Illinois, as a part of a technical for the Sprint Telecommunications Venture (STV), of which TCI is a partner. The trial of Motorola's advanced cable data products, which include the CyberSURFR cable data modem and the Cable Router system, is also a part of the agreement. Both are designed for online services, telecommuting, and other emerging services for home and business PC users, Motorola officials said. The cable data trial will also begin in TCI's Arlington Heights system later this year. "The first major industry agreement immediately confirms TCI and Motorola as leaders of the next true revolution in communications," said James M. Phillips, corporate vice president and general manager of Worldwide Distribution and Marketing of the Motorola Multimedia Group. "Within the near future, cable consumers will have access to total telecommunications solutions, including telephony, two-way video, and extremely high-speed access to what has become an enormous world of online information." TCI Telephone Services is a division of Tele-Communications Inc. (NYSE:TCOMA). Motorola's Multimedia Group is a unit of Motorola's Messaging, Information, and Media Sector. (Bob Woods/19950922/Press Contacts: Deborah A. O'Connor, Motorola Multimedia Group, 708-632-7005; Scott Phillips, Phillips + Associates, 312-943-8858) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 09/22/95 ONLINE Audit Bureau Announces Test Audits Of Web Sites (NEWS)(ONLINE)(MSP)(00028) Audit Bureau Announces Test Audits Of Web Sites 09/22/95 SCHAUMBURG, ILLINOIS, U.S.A., 1995 SEP 22 (NB) -- The same people who count numbers of people reading certain magazines said they will now start providing the same service for Internet World Wide Web sites. The Audit Bureau of Circulations (ABC) will begin test audits of Web media beginning October 1. The ABC is working with Market Arts' WebTrack system to manage the technical process of online auditing, and to further develop auditing software. The audit software will measure activity in a secure environment, independent of a publisher's usage log, and will compare activity with the publisher's usage log to flag discrepancies. ABC's board of directors, which represents advertiser, advertising agency, and publishers members, gave approval to begin the beta tests based on its policy that the new electronic media require independent, third-party validation by an industry resource which is "credible and responsive to the needs of its core constituencies," officials said. Initially, the four so-called "beta" sites ABC will be testing are CondeNet; The Atlantic Monthly's interactive edition; TimesFax, an electronic edition of the New York Times; and "Adfinder.WSJ," the advertising Web site of the Wall Street Journal, ABC officials said. Arnie Semsky, a member of ABC's Interactive Sub-committee, called Web sites a "census-based medium," because user activity can be captured, audited, and reported. He said advertisers using this new medium should take advantage of this opportunity to establish census-based measurements. ABC and WebTrack will use activity statistics or counts supplied by the Web site operators, and will not produce any record-keeping or accounting software for end-users. ABC officials said this is "directly analogous" to the functions they now perform for print publishers. Both ABC and WebTrack have sites on the Web. ABC's is at http://www.accessabc.com , and WebTrack's is located at http://www.webtrack.com . (Bob Woods/19950922/Press Contact: Monica Segura, Audit Bureau of Circulations, 708-605-0909) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 09/22/95 BUSINESS ****US West Files To Block Time-Warner, Turner Merger (NEWS)(BUSINESS)(DEN)(00029) ****US West Files To Block Time-Warner, Turner Merger 09/22/95 ENGLEWOOD, COLORADO, U.S.A., 1995 SEP 22 (NB) -- Moments after Turner Broadcasting System Inc. and Time Warner Inc. announced an agreement to merge, US West (NYSE: USW) said it has asked a Delaware Chancery Court to block the merger that would create the world's largest entertainment conglomerate. US West said it filed its complaint based on the agreements under which it was admitted to the Time Warner Entertainment Partnership, which it said includes covenants that prohibit the partners from competing with each other. If the merger goes through the combined company will offer products as diverse as: Time, People and Sports Illustrated magazines; Cable News Network (CNN) and CNN Airport; the Atlanta Braves and the Atlanta Hawks, professional baseball and basketball teams, respectively; Six Flags Theme Parks; World Championship Wrestling; Warner Brothers; TNT; and HBO; as well as the music of the Warner Music Group. Also included in the package are the cartoon libraries of Warner Brothers, Looney Tunes, and Hanna-Barbera, and the pre-1948 movie library owned by TBS as well as the current Warner Bros. film library. The merger deal calls for Time Warner Inc. to issue up to 178 million common shares to acquire TBS. TBS shareholders will receive 3/4 of a share of Time Warner for each TBS Class A or B common share. Each TBS Class C preferred holder will get .80 of a Time Warner common share for each of the 6 shares of Class B common that their Class C preferred shares are convertible to. The combined companies reported 1994 revenues of $18.7 billion. The merger is tax free to TBS shareholders, and TBS will become a wholly-owned subsidiary of Time Warner Inc. Turner will become vice chairman of Time Warner and head of the Time Warner Video Division, and gets the right to designate two Time Warner Inc. directors. Turner will be one of those directors. US West said the Time Warner Entertainment partnership is a competitor of Turner Broadcasting, and that ownership of Turner by Time Warner would pose conflicts for Time Warner. US West alleges that when the Time Warner Entertainment Partnership was formed it was the expressed intent of the partners to carry out cable, programming and filmed entertainment through one vehicle. The proposed merger "will create endless operational and legal problems in terms of conflicts and business opportunities," said US West. "For example, Time Warner would be required to decide whether New Line Cinema, which it would own outright, or Warner Bros., of which it owns 75 percent, should make a particular film or buy a particular script," said the communications company. Richard McCormick, US West chairman and chief executive officer, said his organization has had continuing discussions with Time Warner about these issues since the Turner merger first surfaced. "We have explained our concerns to Time Warner that the separate legal and economic structures of Time Warner Inc. and Time Warner Entertainment will make the potential synergies of the Turner merger difficult to realize and will create innumerable conflicts of interest and violations of fiduciary obligations," said McCormick. McCormick said US West filed its complaint to protect the rights of its shareholders. If the merger should go through it would make Time Warner the world's largest entertainment company, even bigger than the company formed by the recently announced merger of Walt Disney Company and Capital Cities/ABC Inc. However, the Turner-Time Warner deal still faces the US West lawsuit and regulatory approval by the Federal Communications Commission and government anti-trust officials, and stockholder approval. The two companies said the deal should be completed in 1996. Ted Turner launched his empire with the purchase of an independent UHF channel in Atlanta in 1970. Turner has been frustrated in recent efforts to purchase a broadcast and appears ready to sell. Turner has been quoted as saying he believes huge media companies have the best chance of competing globally. (Jim Mallory/19950922/Press contact: Lois Leach, US West, 303-793-6355) (SUMMARY)(GENERAL)(MSP)(00030) Newsbytes Daily Summary 09/22/95 MINNEAPOLIS, MINNESOTA, U.S.A., 1995 SEP 22 (NB) -- These are capsules of all today's news stories: ======================================================================== ------------| N E W S B Y T E S D A I L Y S U M M A R Y |---------- ------------| Friday, September 22, 1995 |---------- ======================================================================== (c) Newsbytes News Network (Tm) Editor in Chief: Wendy Woods ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Newsbytes News Network's 1995 Update CD-ROM for Mac, DOS, and Windows is now available for $29.95 (includes s&h). Contains 1983-1995 news stories, more than 64,000 keyword searchable stories and 475 digitized images. For more information or to order, fax to 612-430-0441 or e-mail to 'administrator@newsbytes.com' -- MC, Visa, Amex accepted. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ CATEGORY HEADLINES (*** indicates today's top stories) STORY # ======================================================================== BROADCAST VCON Intros Desktop Videoconferencing For LANs............. 17 BUSINESS ****Netscape Acquires Collabra Software................... 16 BUSINESS ****Motorola/TCI Agreement For High-Speed Cable Trials.... 27 BUSINESS ****US West Files To Block Time-Warner, Turner Merger..... 29 GENERAL Japan Newsbriefs........................................... 02 GENERAL The Jewish World On CD-ROM................................. 18 GOVT Bell Atlantic Gives Library Of Congress $1.5 Million....... 19 IBM IBM Europe Intros OS/2 Warp Entertainment Toolkit.......... 10 NETWORK Europe - Proteon's Globetrotter Internet Products.......... 06 NETWORK Intel & Lotus Intro Real Notes, IBM Adds Support........... 14 ONLINE America Online Offers "Online Photo Service................ 08 ONLINE Quarterdeck Teams With Demon For UK Internet Services...... 11 ONLINE Delrina's Skapinker Outlines Internet Opportunities........ 12 ONLINE Pres. Clinton & AOL In California Schools Internet Plan.... 25 ONLINE Audit Bureau Announces Test Audits Of Web Sites............ 28 PC Creative Labs Europe Intros 3-D PC Game Card............... 04 PC Fujitsu Intros 10 PC Cards For US Market................... 24 TELECOM Italy's Omnitel To Begin GSM Net Tests Next Month.......... 07 TELECOM MobileWare Software Launched In Canada..................... 13 TELECOM Wireless PCS Trial Completed In Montreal................... 15 TELECOM Motorola Intros Digital Base Station....................... 26 TRENDS ****Asia Pacific Software Sales Still Strong.............. 01 TRENDS HP's Wireless Portable Printer............................. 05 TRENDS ****Video Rental Group Supports Digital Video............. 09 TRENDS Latin America Software Sales Up............................ 20 UNIX Unix Expo - 1995 Fall Hot Iron Award Winners............... 03 UNIX Unix Expo - SunSoft Intros WabiServer...................... 21 UNIX Unix Expo - Nutcracker Gets Update, Intro To Japan......... 22 UNIX Unix Expo - IBM Plans First PCI-Based Server............... 23 ======================================================================== These are the headlines and first paragraphs of each story, in order: 1 -> ****Asia Pacific Software Sales Still Strong -- Software sales in the Asia Pacific region in the second quarter surpassed the $300 million mark to reach $325 million, almost double the revenue over the same period last year, according to the latest quarterly report from the Software Publishers Association. 2 -> Japan Newsbriefs -- In this roundup of news from Japan : Pump priming sets aside money for telecoms, HP enters Japan notebook market, Secom to begin Internet service, Casio establishes Philippines pager company, New on the Japanese Internet, New televisions announced, Kyoto cable to expand. 3 -> Unix Expo - 1995 Fall Hot Iron Award Winners -- In a press conference at Unix Expo, AIM Technology named the following vendors as winners of the 1995 Fall Hot Iron Awards: Digital Equipment Corp., Olivetti, Silicon Graphics, Compaq, Fujitsu, and Chen Systems. 4 -> Creative Labs Europe Intros 3-D PC Game Card -- Creative Labs has announced, what it claims is, the industry's first three-dimensional (3-D) game card for use with home PCs. According to officials with the multimedia company, the 3-D Blaster is high performance add-in board that brings all of the advantages of sophisticated arcade games to the home PC user. 5 -> HP's Wireless Portable Printer -- Hewlett-Packard (HP) has taken the wraps off its first notebook printer that supports the IRDA (Infra Red Data Association) infra red wireless connection technology. The DeskJet 340 is a UKP234 mobile printer that can be driven by an IRDA-compatible PC, typically a notebook, at up to three-feet distance. 6 -> Europe - Proteon's Globetrotter Internet Products -- Proteon has unveiled the Globetrotter range of Internet and InterOffice Access devices. According to Bill Mew, a spokesman for the company, the networking products represent a new area for Proteon, since they allow LAN (local area network) interconnects with the Internet and other network services. 7 -> Italy's Omnitel To Begin GSM Net Tests Next Month -- Omnitel has announced that its planned GSM (global system for mobile communication) digital cellular net will start test operations within the next few weeks, prior to a formal launch in December of this year. 8 -> America Online Offers "Online Photo Service -- America Online Inc. (NASDAQ:AMER) is introducing an "electronic photo service" that lets its members share pictures with anyone having a computer and access to electronic-mail or the Internet's World Wide Web. 9 -> ****Video Rental Group Supports Digital Video -- The Video Software Dealers Association (VSDA) has expressed its support for the accord reached between the providers of two competing digital video disk (DVD) formats. VSDA is a non-profit trade association for the $20 billion home video industry. 10 -> IBM Europe Intros OS/2 Warp Entertainment Toolkit -- IBM has announced the OS/2 Warp Entertainment Toolkit. According to Big Blue, the package is designed to assist PC entertainment software creators for OS/2. 11 -> Quarterdeck Teams With Demon For UK Internet Services -- Quarterdeck's UK division has teamed up with Demon Internet Services (DIS) to offer, what it claims, is one of the most "aggressively priced" Internet access packages and services available in the market. 12 -> Delrina's Skapinker Outlines Internet Opportunities -- Where's the money in the Internet business? Possibly in providing access to the Internet and software to use with it, and possibly in advertising-supported information services. 13 -> MobileWare Software Launched In Canada -- MobileWare, software for remote office communications from MobileWare Corp. in Dallas, has come to Canada thanks to a deal between MobileWare and Bell Mobility, the wireless communications unit of regional telephone carrier Bell Canada. 14 -> Intel & Lotus Intro Real Notes, IBM Adds Support -- Lotus Development (NASDAQ:LOTS) and Intel have jointly announced a new version of Lotus Notes, called RealTime Notes, based on Intel's ProShare conferencing technology. In addition, IBM unveiled significant new support of the Intel conferencing tool. 15 -> Wireless PCS Trial Completed In Montreal -- LanSer Personal Communications, one of the companies that has applied for a license to offer personal communications services (PCS) in Canada, recently completed a trial of wireless time division multiple access (TDMA) technology in Montreal. 16 -> ****Netscape Acquires Collabra Software -- Netscape Communications Corporation (NASDAQ: NSCP) has announced the signing of a definitive agreement to acquire Collabra Software Inc. an independent developer of collaborative, computing software. The acquisition is aimed at extending Netscape into the collaboration and messaging market. 17 -> VCON Intros Desktop Videoconferencing For LANs -- VCON Inc. has introduced its Armada Escort system, a product that provides video and audioconferencing capabilities between users whether they are on the same local area network (LAN) or in different parts of the world. 18 -> The Jewish World On CD-ROM -- A new CD-ROM-based magazine may promote Jewish culture, but a spokesperson for the company told Newsbytes it's more important to recognize that technology is beginning to impact specific cultural groups. 19 -> Bell Atlantic Gives Library Of Congress $1.5 Million -- Bell Atlantic today gave the Library of Congress $1.5 million, kicking off a program to digitize priceless books, documents, records, videos, and photographs, and make them available on the Internet. 20 -> Latin America Software Sales Up -- Software sales are up solidly in Latin America, according to the Software Publishers Association. SPA said second quarter Latin American sales at $40.8 million were up 21 percent over last year. 21 -> Unix Expo - SunSoft Intros WabiServer -- WabiServer, a newly unveiled server-based implementation of SunSoft's Wabi, will allow users of low-end Sparc systems and X terminals not supported by Wabi till now to start running Windows applications as "full clients," maintained SunSoft's Tracey Wyatt and Matt Koehler, in a briefing session for Newsbytes at Unix Expo. 22 -> Unix Expo - Nutcracker Gets Update, Intro To Japan -- Nutcracker is designed to let developers work with Unix APIs (application programming interfaces) while porting applications to Windows NT and Windows 95, DataFocus officials said, in a meeting with Newsbytes at Unix Expo, where DataFocus announced Nutcracker 1.5, plus the introduction of the product to Japan. 23 -> Unix Expo - IBM Plans First PCI-Based Server -- An RS/6000 604 PowerPC-based server with PCI (Peripheral Component Interconnect) and ISA (Industry Standard Architecture) buses, demonstrated at Unix Expo in prototype form, will ultimately become IBM's first PCI-based server, revealed IBM's Thomas G. Arthur and Joseph J. Czajkowski, during a strategy briefing for Newsbytes at the trade show in New York City. 24 -> Fujitsu Intros 10 PC Cards For US Market -- Fujitsu's newly unveiled line of ten PC Cards for the US market provides a wider range of functionality than any competitor's products, Fujitsu officials contended, during a briefing for press and analysts attended by Newsbytes in Boston. 25 -> Pres. Clinton & AOL In California Schools Internet Plan -- President Clinton and Vice President Gore have announced a plan to connect every public school in California to the Internet by March, 1996. Joining in the strategy, America Online also announced its intention to provide free, unlimited access of AOL and Internet content to more than 2,000 California public schools. 26 -> Motorola Intros Digital Base Station -- Motorola's (NYSE:MOT) Cellular Infrastructure Group (CIG) is introducing a cell cite that supports the leading technologies for the new personal communications services (PCS) market, called the SC 4800. 27 -> ****Motorola/TCI Agreement For High-Speed Cable Trials -- Motorola's (NYSE:MOT) Multimedia Group has inked an accord with TCI Telephone Services. The multi-year agreement marks the first step in TCI's plans to deliver telephone and other advanced telecommunications services over existing television cable lines. 28 -> Audit Bureau Announces Test Audits Of Web Sites -- The same people who count numbers of people reading certain magazines said they will now start providing the same service for Internet World Wide Web sites. The Audit Bureau of Circulations (ABC) will begin test audits of Web media beginning October 1. 29 -> ****US West Files To Block Time-Warner, Turner Merger -- Moments after Turner Broadcasting System Inc. and Time Warner Inc. announced an agreement to merge, US West (NYSE: USW) said it has asked a Delaware Chancery Court to block the merger that would create the world's largest entertainment conglomerate. (Ian Stokell/19950922) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 09/21/95 NETWORK Novell UK Offers Technical Assistance To Windows 95 Users (NEWS)(NETWORK)(LON)(00001) Novell UK Offers Technical Assistance To Windows 95 Users 09/21/95 BRACKNELL, BERKSHIRE, ENGLAND, 1995 SEP 21 (NB) -- Novell UK has announced it is providing its dealers and end-users with technical information relating to NetWare, and associated networking technologies, and Microsoft Windows 95. As well as offering enhanced Windows 95 technical support for NetWare users via the usual support lines in the UK, Novell has placed what it claims is "detailed technical information" on NetWire, its online technical information service, accessible on Compuserve (GO NETWIRE) or across the Internet on Web page http://www.netwire.novell.com . According to David Bennie, Novell UK's brand marketing manager for business applications, the company has trained its technical support engineers to assist customers when integrating Windows 95 with NetWare. The information on NetWire, as well as through the tech support operators, including a series of FAQs (frequently asked questions), installation and trouble shooting guides, technical information documents (TIDs), and downloadable maintenance releases. "We expect a variety of technical support issues will be raised by the initial release of Windows 95, and Novell is prepared to help its service partners and customers with those issues," Bennie said. According to Bennie, Novell has also prepared a searchable database containing all known issues relating to the integration of Novell technologies with Windows 95, and has created two new sections on the Compuserve NetWire: one for NetWare Client 32 for Windows 95, the other for VLM Clients on Windows 95. In addition, the company has created content locations specific to Windows 95 issues for each of its electronic-based technical support offerings. "The first item listed in NetWire on Novell's Web page is Windows 95 support. Customers can find the information easily accessible on all major delivery vehicles -- online, over the Internet, via fax, and on our Knowledgebase CD-ROM," he explained. Newsbytes asked Mandie Jordan-Smith, a spokeswoman for Novell UK, if Novell wasn't "asking for trouble" by offering technical support to NetWare users who are experiencing problems with Windows 95. Given the fact that Microsoft support lines are reportedly clogged with calls from frustrated Windows 95 users, isn't it opening the doors to problems? "I don't think it will cause any problems, mainly because our engineers have been planning ahead for this service. It's also worth noting that we don't have any Windows 95-specific products out there in the marketplace as yet. When actual products ship, we expect to be prepared for this," she replied. As well as NetWire on Compuserve and across the Internet, Novell's faxback service for NetWare users is available on 01932-826910 in the UK and across Europe, while Novell also maintains a technical bulletin board for users on 01932-826900. (Steve Gold/19950920/Press Contact: Novell Public Relations, +44- 1344-724301, Internet e-mail mandie_jordan-smith@novell.co.uk; Reader Contact: Novell UK, tel +44-1344-724000, fax +44-1344-724001) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 09/21/95 TRENDS UK - HP's Low Cost Color DeskJet Printer (NEWS)(TRENDS)(LON)(00002) UK - HP's Low Cost Color DeskJet Printer 09/21/95 BRACKNELL, BERKSHIRE, ENGLAND, 1995 SEP 21 (NB) -- Hewlett-Packard (HP) has taken the wraps off the DeskJet 400, a color-capable inkjet printer aimed at the consumer end of the market. Unusually for HP, the UKP239 printer is only being launched in the UK as a test market, in preparation for a global launch early next year. In the UK, HP is only selling the printer through Dixons, a UK high street store that offers discount deals on many information technology (IT) products. According to HP, the color kit is being bundled with the printer as a standard option, rather than costing extra. Targeted at the consumer market, the DeskJet 400 is claimed to produce spreadsheets, student reports, business letters and other documents "quickly and efficiently" at three pages-per-minute (ppm), working at 600 by 300 dots-per-inch (dpi). "Computers and printers are being used in more versatile ways than ever before, from home finances to school work to entertainment," said Richard Hanscott, HP Personal Printers marketing manager. "The presence of color is making those tasks even more creative, and with the introduction of the DeskJet 400 for UKP239 effectively removes the price premium of color." According to HP, industry analysts anticipate that color output will be the dominant media by the end of the decade and consumers are reluctant to purchase any printer that is not color capable. In the UK test market, only the color kit upgrade will be sold with the printer as standard and not as an option. According to HP, with the color kit, consumers are afforded the benefit of color and the company's new ColorSmart technology (which HP claims automates color printing in much the same way autofocus cameras simplified 35 millimeter photography). HP claims that printer software and font installation have been reduced to a single step. The company also claims that printer's built-in 50-page sheet feeder means less paper refills and the media variety of the auto-feed capability offers a "high degree of flexibility." The printer's manual feed accepts a wider variety of media, including labels, post cards and standard-sized envelopes and additional paper sizes (legal, executive, and B5). The HP DeskJet 400's compact design "also gives home users the flexibility to fit the printer into any space in their home," said the company. HP officials told Newsbytes that the new DeskJet uses approximately 80 percent less energy than typical dot-matrix printers, making them better than the US Government's Energy Star-compliance levels in energy usage terms. (Sylvia Dennis/19950919/Press Contact: Ralph Tuckwell, PA Consulting Group, +44-171-730-9000; Reader Contact: Hewlett-Packard, +44-1344- 369222) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 09/21/95 TELECOM Sweden - Ericsson To Cut 6,000 Business Sales Staff (NEWS)(TELECOM)(LON)(00003) Sweden - Ericsson To Cut 6,000 Business Sales Staff 09/21/95 STOCKHOLM, SWEDEN, 1995 SEP 21 (NB) -- Ericsson may be riding high on the crest of wave of contracts, but that doesn't mean the telecoms giant is being complacent about its future. According to officials with the Swedish telco, a new business plan has been drawn up that plots the path of the company for next few years, and as part of the changes planned, the firm plans to shave around 6,000 staff from its business sales payroll. The announcement has come as something of a shock in the normally placid Swedish technology marketplace, since it means that Ericsson will progressively reduce its 30,000-strong workforce down to 24,000 by the end next year. Under the changes announced this week, Ericsson's Public Telecommunications Business (PTB) division will transfer its resources to the core operations related to the development of AXE exchanges system and development of broadband solutions. Plans also call for non-core operations, which cannot operate profitably within Ericsson itself, to probably be spun off or sold to external partners. According to Ericsson, this could affect around 2,200 members of staff in the company's PTB division in Sweden, as well as a significant number outside the country. "These extensive reductions are necessary in order to be able to cope with stiffening competition and to ensure that we become increasingly stronger in the public telecommunications," said Anders Igel, head of Ericsson's Business Area Public Telecommunications operations. According to Igel, the company expects, but does not guarantee, that a significant number of its staff scheduled to be laid off within the business comms divisions will be offered employment in the company's radio communications division. "We are also seeking other solutions to soften the effect of the reductions for the individual employee. Termination notices will be avoided to the greatest extent, but this possibly cannot be eliminated," he explained. The reason for the changes, Igel went on to explain, is that earnings within Ericsson's PTB operations are not satisfactory, although the AXE operations within the business area are operating "very favorably." Ericsson claims that, in order to stay ahead of the competition, various rationalization measures within the AXE operations must be speeded up. The telco claims that concentrating on areas closest to the core operations and increased cooperation with partners should result in an increase in responses to customer demands for "total solutions" in the broadband area, where operations are generally developing at a slower pace. According to Igel, with greater effort put on the core operations, plus all additional rationalization measures, Ericsson is aiming to strengthen its position as a world leader in narrowband applications and become a leader in the broadband area when the market develops further. "The measures will create a scope for continuing technical investments and market expansion," he explained. (Sylvia Dennis/19950920/Press Contact: Anders Igel, Ericsson Business Area Public Telecommunications, +46-8-719-1378; Lars Wilkund, Ericsson Human Resources, +46-8-719-2611) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 09/21/95 TRENDS World's "Smallest Computer" In Hearing-Aid (NEWS)(TRENDS)(LON)(00004) World's "Smallest Computer" In Hearing-Aid 09/21/95 ERIKSHOLM, DENMARK, 1995 SEP 21 (NB) -- Oticon claims to have developed the world's smallest computer, the DigiFocus. Tipping the scales at under a quarter of an ounce, the computer is incorporated inside the world's first digital hearing aid. Peter Hahn, a spokesman for Oticom, told Newsbytes that the hearing aid will be available worldwide during the first half of next year, and, while it will be expensive, it will operate like no other hearing aid before it. "What the DigiFocus does is to take an analog audio signal, digitize the information in the first of its two microprocessors, and then filter the digital sound into seven frequency bands. These bands can then be manipulated to meet the needs of the user and present the clearest possible sound into the user's ear," he told Newsbytes. According to Hahn, the decision to split the audio into seven bands was taken after extensive tests proved that any less than seven caused problems when tweaking the sound for the user, while more than this number of bands became too confusing for the user. "The DigiFocus allows hard-of-hearing users to manipulate the digital sound in ways they have never thought about. The sound output from the DigiFocus can be manipulated to meet the exact needs of the user, and to compensate for hearing loss in specific areas of the audio spectrum," he explained. According to Hahn, traditional hearing aids have only up to ten adjustable parameters, but Oticon's new digital audio processor supports a maximum of a 100 software-controlled adjustment parameters. The digital audio processor inside the DigiFocus is claimed to be smaller than a fingertip. The computing capacity of the microprocessor amounts to 14 million instructions-per-second (MIPS), which means that a hard-of-hearing person can wear computing power in or behind their ear that equals a standard 80486-based PC. Oticom claims that the real breakthrough with the DigiFocus is the radical reduction of the voltage required to run the microchip, which needs only 0.9 volts compared to the 3.3 volts required by a standard computer processor. Thanks to this, the chips inside the hearing-aid can run for 200 hours on a single battery. Announcing the development of DigiFocus, Lars Kolind, president of Oticon, said the hearing aid is the result of an unusual organizational structure initiated four years ago. "We abolished job titles and introduced flexible work teams resulting in what we call a `spaghetti organization,' and in this way we were able to dissolve the traditional barriers between fields of expertise and break new ground," he said. Further details on the DigiFocus can be found on Oticon's World Wide Web page at http://www.oticon.dk . (Steve Gold/19950920/Press Contact: Amanda Rosen 212-872-8129; Oticon, tel +45-3917-7100, fax +45-3927-7900) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 09/21/95 PC Netherlands - Tulip's Windows 95-Ready Notebooks (NEWS)(PC)(LON)(00005) Netherlands - Tulip's Windows 95-Ready Notebooks 09/21/95 AMSTERDAM, THE NETHERLANDS, 1995 SEP 21 (NB) -- Tulip Computers has revamped its range of notebooks, bringing the minimum specification on the machines up to a 100 megahertz (MHz) 486 processor and eight megabytes (MB) of memory. In the process, the company's notebook range will be known as the Motion Line series. Pete Bresser, a spokesman for the company, told Newsbytes that the Motion Line series is designed to fulfill a dual role: that of a desktop and a portable machine. "Most portables these days tend to be purchased to meet this dual need," he said. Because of this, the Motion Line series has virtually all the functionality and optional extras available that a desktop machine has. The only exception to this is the LCD (liquid crystal display) screen, which is a standard VGA. "When the notebook is plugged into an external monitor, however, it displays Super VGA or higher. Using this approach means that the Motion Line range really can be used as a desktop system," he said. All the Motion Line series come with a IRDA (Infra Red Data Association) infra red link that allows the notebook to interface with other IRDA compatible machines and peripherals. The IRDA standard has been adopted as the wireless communications standard for many portables, including those from Hewlett-Packard. The Motion Line series is capable of resolving up to 1,024 by 768 pixels in 256 colors when hooked up to an external monitor. The machines have an 86-key keyboard and have a range of hard disk options starting at 500MB. As supplied, the Motion Line series comes with a single battery, but there is a second slot for a second battery or an alternative add-in, such as a CD-ROM driver. Pricing is still being worked out by Tulip and will be announced later this year, when the machines ship. (Sylvia Dennis/19950920/Press Contact: Worldview Marcoms, tel +44- 1342-323525, fax +44-1342-323613; Reader Contact: Tulip Computers, tel +44-1923-429200, fax +44-1293-420252) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 09/21/95 TRENDS Regis McKenna's Marketing With Info Technology Advice (NEWS)(TRENDS)(MSP)(00006) Regis McKenna's Marketing With Info Technology Advice 09/21/95 SEATTLE, WASHINGTON, U.S.A., 1995 SEP 21 (NB) -- Not only do consumers have more information about products and more products to choose from than ever before, they have more ways to purchase those products -- for example, malls, superstores, mail-order catalogs, TV, online -- and the result is a muddled market where brand names are more difficult to establish, and ironically, less valuable to possess, argues Regis McKenna in "Real-Time Marketing" (Harvard Business Review, July/Aug. 1995, pp. 87-95). McKenna says that while the market environment has changed, most companies are still using the increasingly ineffective marketing techniques of the past. The way to rebuild the power of brands, he says, is to harness the force that helped to make today's marketplace so complex: information technology. "Using current and emerging technologies, such as high-speed communications, computer networks, and advanced software programs, companies can start real-time dialogues with their customers and provide interactive services," McKenna writes. "Technology-facilitated conversation and service will allow companies to cut through the market chaos and establish binding relationships with their customers." McKenna goes on to identify the three requirements for real-time marketing: "replacing the broadcast mentality that has long dominated marketing with a willingness to give consumers access to the company and to view their actions and feedback as integral to developing or improving products; focusing on real-time customer satisfaction, providing support, help, guidance, and information necessary to win customers' loyalty; and being willing to learn how information technology is changing both customer behavior and marketing, and to think in new ways about the role of marketing within the organization." In the lengthy article, McKenna includes examples of how Apple Computer, Levi Strauss, and Federal Express are beginning to apply these concepts with promising results. This story is republished with permission from the September 1995 Cybernautics Digest, a monthly summary of reports about converging information technologies. (Contact: Terry Hansen, Cybernautics Digest, c/o KFH Publications Inc., 3530 Bagley Ave. N., Seattle, WA 98103; 206-547-4950; Fax: 206-547-5355; E-mail: cyber@cuix.pscu.com. U.S. rate: $24; $2 sample issue) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 09/21/95 ONLINE Cyberspace - Journalism's Brave New World (NEWS)(ONLINE)(MSP)(00007) Cyberspace - Journalism's Brave New World 09/21/95 SEATTLE, WASHINGTON, U.S.A., 1995 SEP 21 (NB) -- Will the emerging deregulated digital info-structure be good for journalism and the general public, or will money-hungry media titans put traditional ethics and ideals on the chopping block to yield a possibly better entertained but far less well-informed public? Neil Hickey tackles this important question in a lengthy piece for the July/Aug. 1995 Columbia Journalism Review ("Revolution in Cyberia," pp. 40-47). Hickey first reviews the ongoing political efforts to undo decades of regulatory restraint on private exploitation of the nation's communications channels, and then recounts the key issues these changes raise, and how the press has covered it all -- when it has covered it all, that is. Hickey ends with a rhetorical question to which, we suspect, he fears the disturbing answer: "Who will speak for the public to help assure that the palpable benefits of the New Cyberia will not be denied those less able to pay -- the poor, as well as libraries, schools, museums, and hospitals?" He continued: "Or have the people no standing in an increasingly privatized world except as they are allowed to vote with their pocketbooks -- as consumers of an immense, new, seductive array of goods and services in the great electronic shopping mall under construction? And will the people be denied what they need to know about this by a press increasingly subsumed in the vested and conflicting self-interests of merged mega-corporations?" This story is republished with permission from the September 1995 Cybernautics Digest, a monthly summary of reports about converging information technologies. (Contact: Terry Hansen, Cybernautics Digest, c/o KFH Publications Inc., 3530 Bagley Ave. N., Seattle, WA 98103; 206-547-4950; Fax: 206-547-5355; E-mail: cyber@cuix.pscu.com. U.S. rate: $24; $2 sample issue) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 09/21/95 CORRECTION WINDOWS Correction - What Ever Happened To Microsoft Bob? (CORRECTION)(WINDOWS)(DEN)(00008) Correction - What Ever Happened To Microsoft Bob? 09/21/95 REDMOND, WASHINGTON, U.S.A., 1995 SEP 21 (NB) -- A recent Newsbytes story about Microsoft Bob, the nerdy looking guy with the heavy glasses that represents a "more casual user interface" to Microsoft Windows, requires some clarification. Newsbytes reported that you can get a free copy of Bob by faxing or sending an electronic-mail message to Microsoft's public relations firm Waggener Edstrom with ways you would like to see Bob enhanced. Waggener Edstrom has asked Newsbytes to report that the offer of a free copy of Bob is available only to users who are already registered owners of the program. If you are a registered owner of Bob, Microsoft will send a copy of Bob and a Bob "Frisbee-like flyer" to the person of your choice at no charge. Send your ideas for enhancing Bob and the name and address of the person to receive a copy of Bob to Gaby Adam at 206-637-9963 (fax) or at the e-mail address gaby@wagged.com . Bob comes on CD-ROM (or floppy disk on request) and requires: Windows 95, Windows 3.1 or Windows for Workgroups; a 486SX or DX-based PC; eight megabytes (MB) of memory; 33MB of available hard disk space; a super VGA, 256-color monitor; and a mouse or compatible pointing device. If you want to send e-mail using Bob, you will need a modem, and Microsoft said a sound card and speakers or headphones are recommended. (Jim Mallory/19950918/Press and public contact: Microsoft, 206-882-8080 or 800-426-9400) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 09/21/95 WINDOWS Microsoft BackOffice 1.5 Goes To Manufacturing (NEWS)(WINDOWS)(DEN)(00009) Microsoft BackOffice 1.5 Goes To Manufacturing 09/21/95 REDMOND, WASHINGTON, U.S.A., 1995 SEP 21 (NB) -- Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ: MSFT) said this week that version 1.5 of its BackOffice integrated server software suite has gone to manufacturing and should be available in retail channels shortly. The new version of BackOffice includes Microsoft SQL Server version 6.0, Microsoft SNA Server version 2.11, Microsoft Systems Management Server version 1.1, and Microsoft Mail Server version 3.5. Microsoft said Mail Server will provide a direct upgrade path to Microsoft Exchange Server, the company's client-server messaging system scheduled to ship later this year. All of the BackOffice components run on the Windows NT Server network operating system version 3.51. For Windows 95 users, Windows NT offers integrated remote dial-in between the desktop and the server, long filename support, and automatic setup and configuration. Automated installation of Windows 95 and Office 95 is provided through the Systems Management Server, and the NT Server automatically assigns TCP/IP (Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol) addresses to Windows 95-based desktops. The Windows NT Server directory services provide users with a single logon without the administrator needing additional software, and NT Server also includes an automated, over-the-network installation for a single Windows 95 desktop. The single logon lets users access files and printers on the network as well as information stored in any of the BackOffice server applications. Microsoft is preparing to ship a software development kit (SDK) through the Microsoft Developer Network Level II. The SDK provides technical instruction and sample code on how to exploit the various components of BackOffice, according to Microsoft. The company is also introducing the BackOffice server test platform, designed for use by developers to test their applications. The test platform is available now through the Developer Network Level III. BackOffice 1.5 will be available in two retail packages: BackOffice Client Access License and BackOffice Server. The client access license allows users to access any of the individual BackOffice components running on any server in the organization. It has an estimated selling price of $269 per user. Microsoft said it you are accessing three or more Microsoft BackOffice components it is more cost-effective to upgrade desktops to the client access license. BackOffice Server is intended for customers who want to run all components on a single server, such as small businesses and branch offices. You can continue to license each of the components in BackOffice separately if you want to run them on separate servers. Server has an estimated selling price of about $2,199. Microsoft is offering special upgrade pricing from the individual components of BackOffice to BackOffice Client Access License of BackOffice Server. Additionally, companies that want to upgrade desktops running Microsoft Office business application suite to Microsoft BackOffice Client Access License can do so through the end of 1995 for about $229. (Jim Mallory/19950921/Press and public contact: Microsoft, 206-882-8080 or 800-426-9400) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 09/21/95 BUSINESS 3Com Posts Record Profits, Australian Office Gets Top Marks (NEWS)(BUSINESS)(SYD)(00010) 3Com Posts Record Profits, Australian Office Gets Top Marks 09/21/95 SYDNEY, AUSTRALIA, 1995 SEP 21 (NB) -- 3Com's first fiscal quarter for 1996 ended on August 31 with record sales of US$430.4 million, 64 percent higher than the same period last year. Australia and New Zealand sales were almost double last year. According to 3Com, overall net income was up 93 percent to $59.4 million, or 38 cents per share. The company's Australia and New Zealand operation is busy taking a slice of the glory for the big quarter, with General Manager Scott Ferguson claiming that local sales were up 87 percent on the same period last year, and revenues had increased by 18 percent over the previous quarter. "The year has started extremely well with our switching and ATM (asynchronous transfer mode) products all enjoying consistently strong sales growth," said Ferguson. Large systems sales into Foxtel, Westrail, and the Department of Primary Industries are also credited with weighting the balance sheets in the right direction. Internationally, systems product sales were up 99 percent on the previous year, and at $224.7 million, represent more than half of total sales for the first time, says 3Com. "The growth in our systems business clearly demonstrates the validity of our high performance scalable networking architecture for customers building enterprise wide networks," said 3Com Chief Executive Officer Eric Benhamou. (Computer Daily News/19950921) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 2001 09/21/95 ONLINE A Billion Connected Internet Devices By (NEWS)(ONLINE)(SYD)(00011) A Billion Connected Internet Devices By 2001 09/21/95 SYDNEY, AUSTRALIA, 1995 SEP 21 (NB) -- The deluge of new Internet connections will be accompanied by an unprecedented growth in the number of home PCs, as home users go computer mad over Christmas. So says Geoff Huston, keynote speaker at AUUG '95 in Sydney this week, who emphasized the awesome changes in communication heralded by the Internet. Huston works in Telstra's Internet Services area -- the part of Telstra which used to be AARNet. He is also secretary of the Internet Society, and is best known for his 1994 bid -- along with a couple of colleagues -- to charge an annual "leasing" fee for the use of Internet addresses. The scheme fell in a heap after Internet users pilloried the idea. "As humans, we live to communicate," Huston told the delegates. "You and I play as equals," he said, adding, "Most of the investment happens on your desk." However, when challenged by an audience member to talk about Telstra's plans to make the investment more affordable for average users, he retreated. "I'm here as secretary of the Internet Society, and would like to direct you to Telstra for those kinds of questions," he responded. "Where the World Wide Web Went Wrong" was the title of Andrew Pam's presentation at AUUG '95. Pam, from Xanadu Australia, and a friend of hypertext pioneer Ted Nelson of Xanadu US, talked about heady concepts such as the Web's lack of transparent mirroring, limited support for computer mediated communication, and lack of "bi-visibility, bi-followability, and transcopyright" in his 20 minutes on stage. Xanadu is intended to be a global document repository and after two years in operation is recording 250,000 accesses a month. Another problem encountered by Pam is familiar to many -- the failure of publishers to keep back issues of electronic copies of their publications in the same way hard copies are kept. "One proposal I'd like to see is for publishers to assert they will keep their documents available for a certain period of time, " he said. Pam also used some words you might like to put in your dictionary before Net surfing: transclusion, meaning virtual inclusion; and transcopyright, meaning that an author has declared that their work can be distributed providing a link to the original document is provided. A term to delete, he says, is "information superhighway." Day two at AUUG '95 kicked off with an address from Joseph Hardin, associate director for software development at the National Center for Supercomputing Applications (NCSA) in the US. Hardin's specialty is the World Wide Web, the new user communities emerging on the Net, and the potential for what he calls a "global interaction space." Harden was involved with the development of Mosaic and early Web browsers such as Viola. A short two and a half years after Mosaic made its first steps into the online world, it is being out-performed by Hot Java, and, according to Harden, all work on Mosaic is now being frozen. In addition, the NCSA is moving its energies to the expanded capabilities of the new software. The only exception to the freeze is on the Windows platform, where Harden says Microsoft still has an interest in Mosaic. Australian Internet providers have not recovered their balance since Telstra took over AARNet in July this year, and are unsure of the influence large players like MCI, Prodigy, and America Online will have on the Australian service provision market in the future. So says Frank Crawford, who presented a paper on service provider choices and costs at AUUG '95. "Everyone sort of knew where they stood with AARNet," he said, but acknowledged that they were not always happy with the old service. As for Telstra's new charges, Crawford says they are about the same as the old fees if 25 percent of bandwidth is used. Any more than that, and prices skyrocket. A 10 megabits-per-second service could cost a company up to $2 million a year if it used all of its bandwidth, he said. (Computer Daily News/19950921) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 09/21/95 SUPERCOMPUTER ****US To Ease Supercomputer Export Rules? (NEWS)(SUPERCOMPUTER)(WAS)(00012) ****US To Ease Supercomputer Export Rules? 09/21/95 WASHINGTON, D.C., U.S.A., 1995 SEP 21 (NB) -- US Commerce Secretary Ron Brown sent a signal yesterday that the restrictive government policy on export of supercomputers could be about to change. Brown told reporters at a press conference that the White House would "soon" decided whether to change the policy and allow more powerful machines to be sold abroad. "We are betting that they will ease the rules substantially," a Washington high-tech trade group official who requested anonymity told Newsbytes. "It only makes sense. From a national security standpoint, our current policy is simply sticking our heads in the sand. And 1996 is an election year. Bill Clinton needs the high-tech community. He had them in 1992 and won." Brown refused to say what his embattled department, targeted for elimination by Republicans in Congress, had recommended. "We've submitted a proposal," he said. "It is on the table for decision. The Commerce Department has a firm position. We expect the decision to be made very soon." But Brown tossed out tantalizing hints about the recommendation. In the past, the Defense and State Departments and other national security agencies have been opposed to liberalizing exports of supercomputers, arguing that they can be used to develop nuclear weapons. Brown said that State, Defense, and other agencies "are increasingly in accord with" his department's recommendation. "It's a much-needed decision. It's very timely. We need to continue to liberalize and deregulate, and that's exactly the direction in which we're moving." One of the obstacles to easing exports of supercomputers in the past has been the Department of Energy. DOE's nuclear weapons laboratories have been the prime customers of the domestic supercomputer manufacturers, and have opposed exports of top-of-the-line machines. A well-placed source in DOE told Newsbytes that the agency's historic opposition to supercomputer exports has been overcome. According to that individual, Energy Secretary Hazel O'Leary "has become convinced that holding the line on supercomputer exports really didn't serve the interests of national security, since the technology of building a crude but exceedingly dangerous nuclear devices is well known. So the only thing the current policy does is hurt US businesses." A major part of O'Leary's reasoning is that supercomputer technology is increasingly available from companies in other countries, especially Japan, that are far less reluctant to sell it to anyone who can pay the price. Under current procedures, US sales of supercomputers require a rite of passage through a complex licensing process. Any machine that can exceed 1.5 billion theoretical operations per second must be licensed for export. Every time a company has to go through that process, says Greg Garcia of the American Electronic Association, "it loses a customer." Garcia says industry is recommending a limit on licensing to no lower than 10 billion theoretical operations per second. Newsbytes' sources have confirmed that this is the level that Brown has recommended. (Kennedy Maize/19950921/Press Contact: Greg Garcia, AEA, 202-682-9110) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 09/21/95 TELECOM Huge Bid In Indian Telecoms Privatization (NEWS)(TELECOM)(DEL)(00013) Huge Bid In Indian Telecoms Privatization 09/21/95 NEW DELHI, INDIA, 1995 SEP 21 (NB) -- Little known Israeli firm HFCL-Bezeq combine has swept the financial bids for operating basic telephone services in India by committing a total of R859.25 billion (US$26,85 billion) for nine of the 20 telecom circles. After the technical evaluation, the financial bids were recently opened by the Department of Telecommunications (DOT) and a total of R1,115.53 billion (US$34.86 billion) will come into the Government's coffers over the 15-year license period. This will help the cash-strapped DOT, which owns India's main phone services, to implement massive equipment modernization. Unlike the cellular mobile service, where two private firms will get the license in one circle, the DOT will give only one license to the private operator in each basic telecom circle for providing the service along with the services provided by the DOT. It is yet to take a decision as to the maximum number of circles a company would be allowed to provide its services. HFCL Bezeq Telecom Ltd., which is a joint venture between Israel's Bezeq and Delhi-based Himachal Futuristic Communications Ltd., is the highest bidder for Delhi (R150.85 billion), West Bengal (R90.65 billion), Gujarat (R150.85 billion), Uttar Pradesh (West) (R65.80 billion), Orissa (R20.65 billion), Punjab (R90.65 billion), Haryana (R40.60 billion), Kerala (R95.55 billion), and Andhra Pradesh (R153.65 billion). Other significant winners were Hughes Ispat with a winning bid worth R139.09 billion for Maharashtra, followed by Tata Teleservices (P) Ltd., a joint venture between the Tatas and Canada's Bell, with a bid of R13.69 billion. The combine has made a bid for R95.55 billion for operating basic services in Kerala, followed by Shyam-Guongdong PTT's R12.60 billion. The BPL-US West combine's US West BPL Telecom Services Ltd. emerged as the highest bidder in Tamil Nadu with an offer of R40.6 billion. The quantum of bids has alarmed industry observers. There is a feeling among several of them that, if the government puts a cap on the number of circles, the entire process is destined to go into a tailspin. (C.T. Mahabharat/19950921) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 09/21/95 ONLINE World Wide Web Services For Indian Businesses (NEWS)(ONLINE)(DEL)(00014) World Wide Web Services For Indian Businesses 09/21/95 NEW DELHI, INDIA, 1995 SEP 21 (NB) -- Indian companies will now get an opportunity to advertise their products on the Internet via the World Wide Web. Bombay-based Sound Electric Co. (Sound Electric Co.) has tied up with Infodigm Corp. of the US to provide technical collaboration for the project. The link to the Web will be provided through Infodigm's facilities in Hartford, Connecticut. The objective of the new venture is to provide exporters, the tourism business, and other businesses engaged in international marketing, access to the Internet to display their product catalogs, sales brochures, ordering information, and company literature. Advertising by international traders such as garment and leather exporters will involve paying a one-time fee ranging from R50,000 (about $1,600) to R1.5 lakh (about $4,800) depending on the amount of information they want to provide to SEC. All advertising will be customized "according to the clients' needs," said the company. SEC is part of the Gurshani Group of Companies with a turnover of R100 crore ($32 million). (C.T. Mahabharat/19950921) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 09/21/95 BUSINESS China - Loral Radar Systems In Weather Radar Deal (NEWS)(BUSINESS)(PEK)(00015) China - Loral Radar Systems In Weather Radar Deal 09/21/95 BEIJING, CHINA, 1995 SEP 21 (NB) -- Loral Radar Systems Co. of the United States, and China National Huayun Technology Development Co., have entered into an agreement to establish a US$6 million joint venture to develop a new generation of weather radar systems to replace out-of-date equipment now used in meteorological observatories and weather satellites across China. China National Huayun Technology Development Corp. is a company owned and operated by the China Meteorological Bureau. Loral will take a 51 percent stake in the new venture. The new venture will use US technology and equipment to produce Doppler weather radar for the domestic market. It is estimated that at least 165 Doppler weather radar systems will be produced by the venture to equip the country's network of meteorological observatories. An official with the China Meteorological Bureau said that China lacks the technology to develop advanced meteorological equipment. The majority of weather radars in service are obsolete and incapable of providing much- needed weather forecasts for agriculture and industries, company officials said. Poor weather forecasts, accomplished using inadequate meteorological equipment, have been blamed for heavy losses to the national economy. There is a huge market for weather radar systems in China. It is expected to take about 20 years to replace old weather radar equipment with new equipment. The government has worked out a long-term plan to encourage Chinese companies to introduce foreign investment and technology to set up meteorological equipment manufacturing ventures in China, bureau officials said. (Chih-Ho Yu & Ning Huang/19950921) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 09/21/95 BUSINESS China - Liming Targets Financial Sector Networking (NEWS)(BUSINESS)(PEK)(00016) China - Liming Targets Financial Sector Networking 09/21/95 BEIJING, CHINA, 1995 SEP 21 (NB) -- A young company, Liming ComNet Co. Ltd., is focusing on the computerization of China's financial systems. With a total investment of RMB33 million (US$3.98 million), the firm has completed computer networks for China's two securities exchanges, in Shanghai and Shenzhen. Liming ComNet is a young high-tech company from the standpoint of both company history and employee ages. About 80 percent of the firm's employees are computer network professionals with an average age of 26. Networking is important to China's financial systems, and the market is huge, as many institutions are updating their international communications, said Deng Yihui, general manager of Liming ComNet. As a sales and service company, Liming ComNet mainly focuses on targeting large companies and banking organizations. China's young securities market requires efficient and reliable information links between exchanges and clients. In 1993, Liming ComNet equipped China's first 64 kilobits-per-second digital data network. Since then, the company networked more than 100 financial organizations and 300 securities clients in Shenzhen, Shanghai, Hangzhou, Xi'an, Xinjiang, and Zhuhai, to the securities exchanges. Liming ComNet has maintained an annual growth rate of 200 percent over the past four years. Sales volume reached more than RMB200 million (US$24 million) last year. (Chih-Ho Yu & Ning Huang/19950921) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 09/21/95 BROADCAST ****Power Dispute Cuts Off Siberian Communications (NEWS)(BROADCAST)(TYO)(00017) ****Power Dispute Cuts Off Siberian Communications 09/21/95 LONDON, ENGLAND, 1995 SEP 21 (NB) -- Failure to pay an electricity bill has left Siberia's most important satellite communications station without power and the region cut off with the rest of the world. Officials at the power company in the territory of Khabarovsk took the decision to sever the service to the Azimut-2 satellite communications facility on Monday. Immediately, the region lost its relays of Russian Central Television's channels one and two and Moscow's radio services, which are all delivered via satellite. Russia's official news agency, ITAR-TASS, confirmed to Newsbytes that the long distance telephone service was also suffering. Trunk lines to Magadan and Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky have been lost and satellite links to other cities in the regional are also down it said. The Siberian region and much of the Russian Far East is linked through the satellite facility. Russia's Communications Minister, Vladimir Bulgak, has asked the power company to immediately reconnect the electricity supply explaining the failure to pay the bill came from mistakes made at Russian Public Television in Moscow concerning the annual budget for the relay services. Recently a similar situation forced Ukraine to take action against Russian TV which had failed to pay a $9 million bill for relay of the television service in the country. Ukrainian officials initially replaced all Russian prime time television, except the main Vremya evening news broadcast, with local television. Later, Russian TV was moved from the powerful channel one frequency to another, less powerful channel which resulted in the loss of around 25% of Ukrainian viewers who were unable to receive the new signal. The severing of power in Siberia came on the same day that Major General Vladimir Osadchy warned the Russian Armed Forces would be unable to pay its own utilities bills which are estimated to reach around 5.5 trillion roubles compared with the budgeted figure of 1.3 trillion roubles. Osadchy also revealed the Pletesk launch facility and testing range in the Russian Far East had power supplies cut after failure to pay bills. Such military facilities and communications stations do not hold a position on the special preferential list, meaning power companies can cut supplies if bills go unpaid for over a month. (Martyn Williams/19950921) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 09/21/95 ONLINE Internet Update (NEWS)(ONLINE)(TYO)(00018) Internet Update 09/21/95 TOKYO, JAPAN, 1995 SEP 21 (NB) -- In this roundup of new services and resources on the global Internet: Ryder Cup gets wired, Unabomber manifesto available, More news online, For ladies only, Sun SITE Central Europe, US regional information centers, Dutch film festival server. Ryder Cup Gets Wired The official World Wide Web site of the 31st Ryder Cup golf tournament, and two unofficial sites, are now available and offering up-to-date news and information from the annual sporting event. The official site is run by the US Professional Golf Association. World Wide Web: http://www.rydercup.pga.org/ The Democrat and Chronicle/Times-Union newspapers in Rochester, New York, where the event is taking place, have also announced they will provide extensive news and reports from the contest. World Wide Web: http://www.rochesterdandc.com/sports/ryder/rydhome.html A third site is also available, with links to others. World Wide Web: http://www.roccplex.com/atroch/ryder Unabomber Manifesto Available Everyone predicted it would not take long to get the Unabomber's full length manifesto online after it was published by the Washington Post this week. And so it came as no surprise to find it on the Web, at Time-Warner's Pathfinder service, just hours after being published by the Post. World Wide Web: http://www.pathfinder.com/pathfinder/features/unabomber/manifesto.html More News Online More newspapers have established Internet services. Joining the already long list of publications offering daily and weekly news updates are Australia's Sydney Morning Herald which offers the complete text of its Metro entertainment section. World Wide Web: http://www.smh.com.au/metro The daily English language newspaper, The Jerusalem Post, is on the Internet offering news, business, sports, reviews, opinion, columns and features about Israel and the region. World Wide Web: http://www.jpost.co.il/ Japan's Jiji Press news agency has begun offering news reports on the Internet via the Japan Window Web server, a joint project of Stanford University and NTT. World Wide Web: http://jw.nttam.com/cgi-bin/jwnews/jw_news Another news related Web server is offering links to free news sources covering the state of Virginia. Also included are local TV and radio stations and civic groups. World Wide Web: http://emporium.turnpike.net/~walk/hometown/va.htm For Ladies Only Described as "the first, friendly & searchable database of links to information online relevant to women and girls," the Femina website is now online and offering an index of over 500 links. World Wide Web: http://www.femina.com/ In addition to the new Femina service, the Washington based Cybergrrl Web server has been added to and updated. World Wide Web: http://www.cybergrrl.com/ Sun SITE Central Europe Based in Aachen, Germany, the Sun SITE Central Europe is now offering access to file archives of programs for Hot Java, the CICA archive, Amiga, and Linux programs, plus other free and shareware software. World Wide Web: http://sunsite.informatik.rwth-aachen.de/ US Regional Information Centers Two regions of the United States have new home pages with links to many local sites and resources. The South Eastern Information Depot covers Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Virginia, and West Virginia with links to business, government, education, leisure, community, employment, real estate, trade and others. World Wide Web : http://www.southeast.org/ In New England, the NE Information Network offers a similar service with museums, lodging, restaurants, video rental sites, and more, including information about the war of revolution in the state. World Wide Web: http://www.neinfo.net/ Dutch Film Festival Server The Dutch Film Festival began September 20th and will continue until the 29th. Internet users can get access to information and screening guides plus live chat sessions with local celebrities, online previews, a film catalog, and more, all via Digital Region Utrecht. World Wide Web: http://www.dru.nl/nedfilmfest/ (Martyn Williams/19950921) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 09/21/95 BUSINESS ****AT&T To Split, GIS Employees Face Cuts (NEWS)(BUSINESS)(TOR)(00019) ****AT&T To Split, GIS Employees Face Cuts 09/21/95 NEW YORK, NEW YORK, U.S.A., 1995 SEP 21 (NB) -- AT&T (NYSE:T) is splitting up again. Unlike the government-ordered divestiture of the early 1980s, however, this split is voluntary -- decided upon by AT&T management and directors who have concluded that the problems of running a large and diversified business outweigh the benefits. AT&T intends to divide into a telephone services business, a communications equipment manufacturer, and a computer company. The company also plans to sell its AT&T Capital Corp. operation. In a New York press conference, AT&T Chairman Robert Allen suggested that the kind of vertical integration AT&T has pursued in the past may be "an idea whose time may have passed in this industry." He added that one reason for separating the equipment and services businesses is growing rivalry between AT&T and the regional Bell operating companies (RBOCs) separated from it in the earlier divestiture. RBOCs are interested in getting into the long-distance business in competition with AT&T, he said, and consequently are growing reluctant to buy equipment from a company they increasingly see as a future competitor. Allen added that after the split, even rival long-distance carriers such as MCI Communications Corp. might also become customers for the equipment company. The AT&T name will stay with the services company, which will continue to provide long-distance telephone service as well as the wireless services of the former McCaw Cellular Communications. The AT&T Universal Card Services Corp. and the newly established AT&T Solutions consulting and systems integration organization will also be part of the new AT&T. The equipment company, which has yet to be named, will be built around AT&T Bell Laboratories, and will include the Network Systems Group, Global Business Communications Systems, Consumer Products, AT&T Paradyne, and the microelectronics unit. AT&T said it may offer some 15 percent of the shares of this company in an initial public offering in the first half of 1996. AT&T Global Information Solutions -- essentially the former NCR Corp. -- will also be spun off. Before that happens, though, AT&T admitted it has to turn the struggling company around. To that end, GIS has confirmed that it will be cutting some 8,500 jobs. As Newsbytes reported earlier this week, those cuts are part of a reorganization plan the unit announced earlier in the summer. AT&T GIS also said it will stop manufacturing its Globalyst personal computer line and will get out of selling PCs except as part of larger contracts, where it will resell equipment made for it by one or more other vendors. The company plans to focus on the retail and financial services markets and on communications, where its management believes it is strongest. Other than the 8,500 cuts at GIS, the impact on AT&T employees remains unclear. Allen admitted that there will probably be fewer jobs at the new companies in total than at AT&T today, but said the exact numbers will depend on the managers of the new firms. AT&T currently has about 303,000 employees. Allen sought to emphasize the positive in the announcement, saying that the two major units resulting from the split will be $49 billion and $21 billion companies respectively. "It creates the spirit and the energy of a startup company with the size and the financial strength and market position of a leader." However, in speaking to employees before the press conference, Allen also admitted that "there's bound to be a sense of loss as we take this next step into our future." He reminded staffers that "the AT&T name is worth a lot. The AT&T spirit is worth much more." Current AT&T shareholders are to get shares in each of the three new companies. AT&T officials said they expect this transaction to be tax-free to shareholders. AT&T will take a one-time charge of about $1.5 billion against its third-quarter earnings to over the cost of changes in the GIS unit. Allen is to remain chairman and chief executive of the new AT&T services company. He appointed senior officers to take charge of each new unit during the transition. Alex Mandl, chief executive of the Communications Services Group, will be responsible for the services company. Richard McGinn, chief executive of the Network Systems Group, will oversee the systems and technology unit. Lars Nyberg, the chief executive of GIS, and Thomas Wajnert, chief executive of AT&T Capital, will be responsible for their respective organizations during the transition. (Grant Buckler/19950921/Press Contact: Adele Ambrose, AT&T, 908-221-6900; Dick Gray, AT&T, 908-221-5057; Jim Byrnes, AT&T, 908-221-7876; Jane Moulton, AT&T, 908-221-8422) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 09/21/95 BUSINESS Italy's Olivetti Announces Major Layoffs (NEWS)(BUSINESS)(LON)(00020) Italy's Olivetti Announces Major Layoffs 09/21/95 IVREA, ITALY, 1995 SEP 21 (NB) -- Olivetti has announced it is shedding around 4,000 staff from its global payroll. Roughly half of the staff cuts will affect the company's operations in Italy, while the other 50 percent will be outside of Italy in its international operations. According to a statement issued by Carlo de Benedetti to the Italian Government this week, the bulk of the redundancies will be completed by June of next year, and are in line with plans outlined to the Government earlier this month. Although this is the first that the Italian public has heard about the layoff plans, de Benedetti has said that around 1,000 of the layoffs have already been agreed with the unions, suggesting that the staff cuts are a planned measure, rather than a "knee jerk" reaction to the share price falls that the Italian technology giant has been experiencing this past few weeks. Announcing the layoffs, de Benedetti told journalists that "this isn't a pleasant matter but we're dealing with a serious industrial plan," adding that he was working on the next stage of the layoffs with the unions concerned. De Benedetti's claim of consulting with unions does not seem to cut much ice with the unions themselves, however. As news of the planned layoffs filtered out the Italian news media late on Wednesday this week, the unions announced a two-hour token strike for later in the week, claiming that discussions with management on the layoffs have broken down. Olivetti's union problems, in spite of the severity of the layoff plans, seem to be coming at a time when the Italian information technology) giant is pulling back into the black. Earlier this week, Olivetti announced a joint venture with Nortel (Northern Telecom) to distribute and service Nortel's telecommunications products and systems for the Italian market. Olivetti has also reported its first full year's worth of profits, having reported four years of losses previously. (Sylvia Dennis/19950921/Press Contact: Luciano Luffarelli, Olivetti, +39-125-522566) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 09/21/95 LEGAL Large Software Seizure In Singapore BSA Raid (NEWS)(LEGAL)(HKG)(00021) Large Software Seizure In Singapore BSA Raid 09/21/95 CENTRAL, HONG KONG, 1995 SEP 21 (NB)-- The spotlight is back on piracy in Singapore, with a raid by the Business Software Alliance (BSA) yielding 200 copies of illegal CD-ROMs containing programs valued at over S$8.5 million. The seizure was from a BSA crackdown on 888 Computer Company in Sim Lim Square, one of the two popular complexes exclusively dealing with computers and software. The raid, signaling a stepping up of the BSA campaign against the illegal trade, followed a tip-off made to its hotline. BSA representatives visited the company and made a "trap purchase" of the Power Software compilation CD-ROM for S$60. As infringing programs were found in the CD-ROM, the BSA obtained a search warrant from the Subordinate Court and carried out the raid on the company on August 15. The seized CD-ROMs contained illegal copies of software titles from BSA members, including Microsoft, Novell, Lotus, and Autodesk. Some of the titles are Microsoft Word, WordPerfect, AutoCAD, and Lotus 1-2-3. The raid comes hardly a month after the BSA, together with officials from the Commercial Crime Divisions IPR Warrant Unit, swooped down on Prima Soft Computer Service at another shopping complex, the Peninsula Plaza. It resulted in seizure of CD-ROM titles and diskettes containing illegal copies of software from BSA members. The market value of the original copies of the seized titles was pegged at over S$500,000. Criminal action has been initiated against both the offenders by the BSA under Singapore's Copyright Act. Bryan Ghows, BSAs vice-president, said: "Our actions are in line with our determination to clamp down on software piracy at a retail level. The BSA will continue to work with the Commercial Crime Division. We want to promote the use of original software." (Nigel Armstrong & I.T. Daily/19950920) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 09/21/95 BUSINESS ****MCI To Buy SHL Systemhouse For $1 Billion (NEWS)(BUSINESS)(TOR)(00022) ****MCI To Buy SHL Systemhouse For $1 Billion 09/21/95 WASHINGTON, D.C., U.S.A, 1995 SEP 21 (NB) -- MCI Communications Corp. (NASDAQ:MCIC) has announced its intention to buy Ottawa-based systems integrator SHL Systemhouse Inc. for about US$1 billion, or $13 per share. MCI's president and chief operating officer, Gerald Taylor, said in a teleconference with reporters that his company wants SHL to help it provide systems integration and other such services to its customers. MCI set up its Integrated Client Services Division (ICSD) last year to go after this type of business, he said, and expected that most of its business would be with small- and medium-sized customers. Instead, large companies have shown unexpected interest in ICSD's services, outrunning the new division's ability to provide those services. MCI has worked with SHL Systemhouse on a number of joint projects over the past couple of years, Taylor said, and has "grown to really like SHL, its capabilities, its quick-moving people." Offering integration services to its customers is important for MCI, not just because of the revenue potential, but because "we become inextricably linked to their entire business process," Taylor said. That makes MCI less vulnerable to other long-distance carriers trying to lure away its customers, he explained. For SHL Systemhouse, meanwhile, the benefit appears to be size. "MCI will give us the size and scope to tackle the US and world markets," said John Oltman, chairman and chief executive of the Canadian firm. Oltman said the deal will not result in job losses or the closure of facilities in Canada. In fact, he claimed, "this partnership will create significantly more demand for our services and offerings," and will present "a wonderful opportunity for Canada to take advantage in a much bigger way of the global market." MCI's Taylor defended the price his company is paying for Systemhouse, which works out to about $13 per share. Though SHL Systemhouse has been trading at $8 per share or less in recent months, Taylor said MCI expects the company's profit margins to improve. Systemhouse's margins are significantly lower than those of others in the systems integration business, he said, but the company has recently put in a new management team and contracts signed under the new team have margins in line with industry norms. Therefore "we're highly confident that those margins will improve," he said. Systemhouse had revenues of C$1.2 billion in 1994. The deal is to be accomplished through a tender offer and will be conditional on the tender of at least 75 percent of the shares. The companies hope to close the deal by mid-November. However, the acquisition is subject to approval under the Investment Canada Act, which governs foreign acquisitions of Canadian companies, as well as under antitrust laws in both countries. (Grant Buckler/19950921/Press Contact: Kevin Inda, MCI Communications, 800-644-NEWS, Internet e-mail newsmci@mcimail.com; Rick Gray, SHL Systemhouse, 800-644-NEWS, Internet e-mail rgray@shl.com) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 09/21/95 WINDOWS ****China Accepts Windows 95 Standard (NEWS)(WINDOWS)(DEN)(00023) ****China Accepts Windows 95 Standard 09/21/95 BEIJING, CHINA, 1995 SEP 21 (NB) -- Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ: MSFT) Chairman Bill Gates and Chinese Communist Party Chief Jiang Zemin have apparently settled their differences and have agreed to standardize the Chinese version of the Microsoft Windows 95 operating system as the software development standard for China. The Chinese State Bureau of Technology Supervision (CSBTS) and the Chinese Ministry of Electronics industry (MEI) announced the agreement not long after Gates and Jiang met in a discussion described as relaxed and friendly. Gates met with Jiang during a two-week vacation trip. On Gates last visit to China the Chinese premiere reportedly saw Gates as not understanding the Chinese culture. A recent news report from China quoted Gates as telling Jiang during their most recent meeting that the Microsoft executive has been studying the Chinese culture. Under terms of the new agreement, the CSBTS and the Chinese System Platform Standardization Technical Committee (CPTC) under MEI's Committee on Information Technology Standards (CITS) are to formulate software development procedures in accordance with China's industrial standard for Windows 95. The deal also calls for MEI and CSBTS to endorse Windows 95 as a preferred product and recommend it to computer users. As part of the software development process, CSBTS will propose the scope and standards of software evaluation. The agreement specifies that the character set of the Chinese version of Windows 95 will include all the characters in the GB2312 and all Chinese characters in the GB13000 character set. The Chinese version of Windows 95 will follow the Standard Chinese fonts and input method as recommended by the CITS. The committee will transfer the technology to Microsoft at what were described as "reasonable terms and conditions" as determined by the Chinese government. Yao Shiquan, deputy director of CSBTS, said the Chinese government recommended the TrueType Chinese fonts and input method, as well as the GB2312 expansion plan, in order to speed up the joint development of the Chinese edition of Windows 95. The official said the expansion plan will be the basis for all relevant Chinese information technology standards. "This will promote the formalization and standardization of Chinese information technology," said Yao Shiquan. Microsoft said the Chinese version of Windows 95 is expected to be available by the end of the year. (Jim Mallory/19950921/press contact: Andrea Cook, Microsoft, 206-936-4436) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 09/21/95 UNIX ****Unix Expo - Novell Sells UnixWare To SCO For $60Mil (NEWS)(UNIX)(BOS)(00024) ****Unix Expo - Novell Sells UnixWare To SCO For $60Mil 09/21/95 NEW YORK, NEW YORK, U.S.A., 1995 SEP 21 (NB) -- In a press conference at Unix Expo, officials of Novell, Santa Cruz Operations (SCO), and Hewlett-Packard announced the sale of Novell's UnixWare business to SCO for approximately $60 million in common stock, along with plans by SCO to consolidate its SCO OpenServer System with UnixWare into an integrated PC-based Unix operating system (OS) with interfaces in common to HP-UX. "For the past two months, we've been investigating the possibility of integrating SCO (with UnixWare)," said Robert J. Frankenberg, president and chief executive officer (CEO) of Novell, speaking at the press event in New York City, which was attended by Newsbytes. Under the agreement, Novell will receive 6.1 million shares of SCO common stock, amounting to about 17 percent of SCO's outstanding capital stock, according to Frankenberg. In addition, as a "sweet hand-off," Novell will receive a revenue stream from SCO based on UnixWare's performance, he noted. "We will share our success with Novell," remarked SCO's Alok Mohan, president and CEO of SCO. The revenue stream provision, which expires in the year 2004, carries a cap of $84 million. The consolidated SCO OpenServer/Novell UnixWare product will offer binary compatibility with existing SCO OpenServer and UnixWare applications, according to the officials. SCO plans to ship "enhanced" editions of OpenServer and UnixWare in the first half of next year, to be followed in consecutive order by a beta of the merged product and a software migration toolkit, also in 1996. A final release of the merged product is targeted for 1997. Also under terms of the deal, Hewlett-Packard will integrate the "consolidated" SCO/UnixWare into a 64-bit version of HP-UX, reported William P. Roelandts, senior VP and general manager, Computer Systems Organization, for Hewlett-Packard. In addition, Novell will work with Hewlett-Packard to produce an implementation of NetWare Directory Services (NDS) and File/Print Services for HP-UX, and to integrate NDS and public key security with the Distributed Computing Environment (DCE). Novell will license the implementations of NetWare services to both SCO and Hewlett-Packard, according to Frankenberg. The officials acknowledged that their three-way cooperative effort also contains elements of competition. "The fact of the matter is that there will be situations where HP and SCO are competing for customers," Mohan observed. Frankenberg referred to the Novell/SCO/Hewlett-Packard deal as "coopetition." But, he added, "This is win, win, win" for the three companies concerned. "One of the things this will do is that Unix systems vendors will have fewer Unix systems, with more capabilities," Frankenberg told the journalists and analysts. Other advantages cited by the execs include: better access to corporate data, from the integration of NetWare services and Unix; a single Unix platform to develop for, at both the source and binary levels; and a wider selection of applications and tools. In an interview with Newsbytes later, Grover Righter, VP of strategic marketing for SCO, said that the 6.1 million shares of SCO common stock being exchanged in the transaction amounts to about 16.1 percent of SCO's outstanding capital stock pre-sale, and about 19 percent post-sale. SCO common stock is currently valued at about $10 per share, according to the SCO VP. HP, he elaborated, plans to offer separate editions of its upcoming 64-bit operating system for HP-UX on PA-8000, "at the high-end enterprise level," and for the Intel environment, "at the lower end, to be sold through high volume commodity channels." Added Righter: "HP customers on the PA architecture will get 64-bit in an earlier time frame, according to HP's current plans." Novell began to produce UnixWare after acquiring Unix Systems Laboratories (USL) from AT&T in 1992 at a price of $320 million. (Jacqueline Emigh/19950921/Press Contacts: Catherine Stewart, Novell, 201-443-6264; Monika Laud, Santa Cruz Operation, 408-427- 7421; Gary McCormack, HP, 303-229-2370) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 09/21/95 ONLINE NetManage Licenses Public Key Cryptography (NEWS)(ONLINE)(MSP)(00025) NetManage Licenses Public Key Cryptography 09/21/95 CUPERTINO, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1995 SEP 21 (NB) -- NetManage Inc. said it has signed a licensing agreement with Cylink Corporation for technology which incorporates "fundamental patents covering public key cryptography." The two firms also said they will provide support for an open interface for Internet security which will address recent flaws found in Netscape Communications' encryption, along with security holes in other Internet security protocols. NetManage officials said current security protocols, including those from Netscape, include flaws and "fail to fully accommodate open and interoperable secure communications between computers which use different bulk encryption ciphers." The company said the flaws have limited the adoption of Internet security as a widespread feature of all Internet software. Next week, NetManage, Cylink, and other major software and hardware developers will announce the release of a publicly available security implementation which allows for "plug and play" operations for Internet security users. This open standard won't lock software or hardware developers into using encryption from just one vendor, NetManage officials said. The announcement will also endorse protocol extensions which, according to NetManage, will improve the reliability of current proposed Internet security standards. The new standard is intended to eliminate the financial and interoperability barriers that have "been holding back widespread use of public key cryptography on the Internet," NetManage officials said. In making the announcement, NetManage said the public key authentication and data encryption technologies will be a fundamental component of its Chameleon Enterprise strategy. NetManage officials did not make themselves available to Newsbytes for additional comment by the daily deadline. In a separate announcement, Cylink said it had won a patent lawsuit with RSA Data Security, which found that RSA had infringed on US patents held by Cylink which cover "all known implementations of public key technology," as the company put it. (Bob Woods/19950921/Press Contact: Nancy Carlson, NetManage Inc., 408-973-7171) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 09/21/95 WINDOWS ****Magazine Says Windows 95 Has Suspect E-mail Security (NEWS)(WINDOWS)(DEN)(00026) ****Magazine Says Windows 95 Has Suspect E-mail Security 09/21/95 MANHASSET, NEW YORK, U.S.A., 1995 SEP 21 (NB) -- A magazine that reports on Microsoft Windows said this week Microsoft's new operating system and user interface, Windows 95, has a security flaw that can leave important proprietary data unprotected from co-workers or even outsiders. "Anyone who can click on the Inbox icon on your desk can read your mail," said an editor at the magazine. According to the editors of CMP Publications' Windows Magazine Exchange, the universal inbox that comes with Windows 95, has a security gap that can leave important and confidential information like budgets, salary information, personnel files, and other confidential company documents vulnerable to exposure and even theft. MS Exchange is the heart of the Windows 95 messaging system, and allows users to receive and send mail and faxes through numerous gateways, including online services and the Internet. But Fred Langa, Windows Magazine editorial director, said Exchange has a security hole that gapes so wide that your electronic-mail may be at risk. "You can close the hole, but if you aren't aware of it, you may be in for a very nasty surprise," said Langa. Langa said that when Windows 95 users convert their old e-mail to the Exchange format, they think that Exchange will use their old password to protect their new e-mail. "Wrong," says Langa. "If you're using Exchange's default settings, chances are any of your co-workers can walk up to your machine and gain access to your 'private' e-mail account with no special hacking, cracking or other knowledge required." Langa says that even though Exchange asks for your old password, the software doesn't use the password to protect your files. The problem, Langa told Newsbytes, is that it appears the developers of Windows 95 and Exchange didn't adequately communicate. Exchange asks for and will accept a password when you first set it up. The software caches that password and never asks for it again, said Langa. "Exchange wants to rely on Windows 95 security and network security to prevent unauthorized snooping in your mailbox. Unfortunately the people on the Windows 95 team chose not to play up the hooks that they have for security. The Windows 95 password logon, for instance, really doesn't do anything unless and until you track down and run the Profile editor to set up individual user accounts," the editor said. Out of the box, said Langa, you have Exchange looking to Windows 95 to provide security and Windows 95 not providing it. "The bottom line is that when you have an Exchange account set up as it comes out of the box, anyone can walk up, log on and read your mail even though it asks you for a password." Langa said an intruder might even be able to access sensitive information from outside the company by dialing into your system, depending on how the dial-in was set up. "If there were no dial-in security, the same problem would pertain," he told Newsbytes. Langa said the solution to the problem is to go to Exchange's Tools/Services menu, select the Personal Folder file, and click on Properties. Next, click on Change Password and enter a new password. You should also make sure the Save This Password box is not checked. While it might seem that you would want to save the password, checking this box will allow access to the Inbox without asking the user for the correct password. A Microsoft public relations representative characterized the Windows Magazine story as "misleading in that there are options that (the user) can do that aren't in the (story)." She told Newsbytes that Microsoft made an intentional design decision to make password protection activation an optional feature. "It isn't a security flaw, as they said," she said. (Jim Mallory/19950921/Press contact: Catherine Jarrat Koatz, CMP, 516-562-7827 or Colleen Lacter, Waggener Edstrom for Microsoft, 503-245-0905) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 09/21/95 ONLINE ****Jupiter Online Conference - Compuserve CEO Keynotes (NEWS)(ONLINE)(SFO)(00027) ****Jupiter Online Conference - Compuserve CEO Keynotes 09/21/95 SAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1995 SEP 21 (NB) -- Jupiter Communications opened its Online Developers II conference with a keynote address from Compuserve's President and Chief Executive Officer Bob Massey. Online content developers filled the room to hear the comments of the man who has taken over the head spot at Compuserve. With the World Wide Web established, the online services continuing to grow, and Microsoft's online service, Microsoft Network (MSN) introduced, Massey's address left behind last year's issues and concentrated on a "vision" of the near future. In opening he said, "Peter Drucker writes in his book, 'Post Capitalist Society,' that 'Every few hundred years in Western history there occurs a sharp transformation. Within a few short decades, society rearranges itself, its world view, its basic values, its social and political structure, its arts and its key institutions. Fifty years later, there is a new world. And the people born then cannot ever imagine the world in which their own parents were born. We are currently living through just such a transformation.'" He continued, "Frank Koelsch, in his book, 'The Infomedia Revolution,' says 'The infomedia revolution will bring change as profound and far- reaching as the first metals, the first steam engine, the first TV and the first computer. The infomedia age will be a new age of wonders!' These are exciting times!! The only thing that I can tell you with any certainty is, wherever it's going, it's getting there fast. There will be lots of changes and we can only begin to guess where those changes will lead." Looking at the dramatic growth of online use and the Internet, Massey said, "According to Jupiter's own analysis, there will be nearly 10 million people online by the end of this year; a growth rate in excess of 40% over last year. By the end of 1998, the estimated online service audience will be 35 million. Of course that pales in comparison to our complimentary service, the Internet. Right now, by some estimates, the Internet is approaching something like 20 million users worldwide, depending upon whose statistics you believe. By 1998, that number is expected to grow at a compound annual rate of 75% to a level that will exceed 100 million users! The Internet represents a fundamental computing shift -- a transition from private, centralized networks to a global web of public, client server-based networks. "Obviously the Internet offers tremendous opportunities for online service providers, and all of us here today. The rush is on to exploit and expand these opportunities. And clearly, the Internet is a defining force for the future. But it isn't the only one. Other factors driving Compuserve and the online industry as a whole to embrace the Internet include: the explosive growth of the US market, fueled almost daily by the media and the financial markets; and a European market which is getting ready to explode. There are netcafes and cyberpubs springing up around the UK to feed a hungry market that's just beginning to acquire home PCs. There is the influx of novice computer users, more families, more women, more kids, and more first-time consumer users. "All of which means continued segmentation into new communities of interest, an even greater emphasis on high-speed connections, more affordable pricing structures, more customer support, enhanced graphical user interfaces (GUIs), intuitive navigation, and creative multimedia applications like enhanced CD-ROMs. And, of course (it also means) faster and improved quality of communications, which will be an essential ingredient of online services for some time to come," said Massey. Outlining the tasks online companies need to tackle, Massey summed up, "Companies like Compuserve must invest aggressively in Internet technology and expand content relationships. The online service companies already have recognized the need to integrate seamlessly with Internet browsers and content tools. The online service companies must provide cost-effective pricing and improved overall value to their members. They must expand and upgrade the online access networks to handle increased usage at faster speeds, including ubiquitous 28.8 connections and ISDN (integrated services digital networks) service. Interactive cable access that will send information at 10 million bits-per-second, or 500 times faster than regular phone lines, are about to become a reality. Another important ingredient of success is the approach of the online service providers to content development. "A goal should be to put more control into the hands of end users -- to allow them to customize the service, based on their personal content preferences. That means that. as system developers. we must maintain an unwavering commitment to constant product improvement and innovation. We must also step beyond GUIs and intuitive navigation and deliver content designed for a wide variety of markets, including both the Internet and online services." He outlined the course of action saying, "We do that first, by supplying the most advanced online infrastructure possible for the most sophisticated multimedia applications possible. Secondly, by simplifying the enabling technology to encourage the full range of interactivity, and to make life as easy as possible for the content development community. You dont succeed in this environment by creating a proprietary system. When it comes to online technology, one must support, and be committed to, open standards. Remember that the Internet and the Web are the very result of a technical community steeped in open standards. And while open standards can be at times confusing and limiting -- open standards also give software developers the chance to compete for the best implementation. "As I close, only one thing is for certain: what the online world has been is not what it will be. Even more importantly, it is in our hands, right now to impact that future. So my challenge to each of you today, is to dream about the future right now! Seize the moment and develop innovative content for this rapidly expanding market." (Patrick McKenna/1995/Press Contact: Russ Robinson, Compuserve, 614-538-4274) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 09/21/95 ONLINE Automotive Group Offers "Internet-Like" Network (NEWS)(ONLINE)(MSP)(00028) Automotive Group Offers "Internet-Like" Network 09/21/95 DETROIT, MICHIGAN, U.S.A., 1995 SEP 21 (NB) -- Citing concerns about security and speed, the Automotive Industry Action Group (AIAG) said it will pursue the development of a TCP/IP (Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol) network dedicated to the automotive industry. Although this new network is not intended to replace the public Internet, it addresses several issues AIAG said are important to the auto business. The new network, called "Automotive Network eXchange" (ANX), was announced this week during a tutorial session at the Auto-Tech '95 show in Detroit. AIAG's Telecommunications Work Group gained a consensus on standardizing a TCP/IP network in late 1994, and has been working on the ANX concept for the last six months. The goal of ANX is to consolidate multiple connections to individual trading partners. This will cut telecommunications costs while providing one platform for current and emerging telecommunications needs, officials said. The ANX will connect automotive OEMs (original equipment manufacturers) and trading partners, using certified service providers connected to a private ANX exchange point. A number of applications used in the automotive industry already support TCP/IP, which includes file transfer, electronic-mail, messaging, terminal access, and client-server environments addressing legacy and emerging applications on high-performance networks. The AIAG workgroup will also work on replacing the existing TCP/IP networks used by the "Big Three" automakers of Ford, Chrysler, and General Motors, along with many major suppliers, with ANX. An AIAG spokesperson told Newsbytes that establishing a private network solves two big concerns about using the Internet: security and speed. "Typically, traffic on the Internet travels through many service providers," he said. "What the ANX will do is to have one service provider. This way performance is controllable. This method is also much more secure." The spokesperson also said the proprietary network will be isolated from the Internet for the most part. No-one will be able to get in, because ANX will be protected through a "firewall." But a supplier has the ability to go out to the Internet via ANX if they choose to do so, he added. The next steps the AIAG will take are selecting an exchange operator, and implementing the network beginning in 1996, officials said. (Bob Woods/19950921/Press Contacts: Jim Bianchi or Dave Roznowski, Bianchi Public Relations, 810-646-9732; Richard Marsolais, Automotive Industry Action Group, 810-358-9777) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 09/21/95 GOVT Defense Dept Funds $400 Million LCD Project (NEWS)(GOVT)(LAX)(00029) Defense Dept Funds $400 Million LCD Project 09/21/95 SAN JOSE, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1995 SEP 21 (NB) -- Silicon Video Corporation (SVC) has announced a funding agreement with the United States Department of Defense's Advanced Research Projects Agency (ARPA) to aid in the development and manufacture of thin cathode ray tube (CRT) flat panel displays. The company has to-date gained $95 million in committed investments through government programs, private investors and partners that include Hewlett-Packard and Compaq Computer. Half of this first $95 million is committed by various government programs, most coming from the Department of Defense. The company is on target to raise a total of $400 million by 1998, an objective that will fund a fully operating manufacturing plant producing one million thin CRT flat panel displays per year. Mike Sturiale, director of marketing for SVC, told Newsbytes, "With the help of the Department of Defense, we hope to regain a segment of the consumer electronics market lost to foreign manufacturers in the 1960s. The flat panel display market is currently dominated by large, vertically integrated Japanese and Korean manufacturers of active matrix liquid crystal displays (AMLCD), devices commonly found in laptop PCs. "The Department of Defense is the principle driving force for this initiative. Today, they are locked out of access to the leading edge AMLCD technology. Not only can't the Defense Department be involved in advanced product development with foreign manufacturers, they can't get these critical displays made to military specifications. The soldier of tomorrow will be carrying some sort of portable computer and he will need state-of-the-art displays made in the United States," said Sturiale. The Department of Defense's funds slated for development of thin CRTs can be used for both commercial and defense applications. In the commercial arena, flat panel displays are currently used for laptop and portable computers, as well as a growing number of devices in the consumer and communications markets. Defense uses range from miniature displays for head-mounted and weapons-sighting applications, to larger devices for cockpit instrumentation and laptop or desktop computer displays. According to SVC, their product will be based on a variant of field emission technology. SVC's thin CRT design combines state-of-the-art semiconductor and cathode ray tube manufacturing techniques that are expected to produce flat panel displays that will be easier to manufacture, carry a lighter weight, and consume less power than AMLCDs. "The ARPA award recognizes that the display market is being served by a deficient technology and that market share can be won back by a new player with the tight team and right technology," said Harry Marshall, president of Silicon Video Corporation. "The developmental life of AMLCDs is slowing and savvy users are demanding better. That signals a technology transition where SVC, and its corporate partners, can assert its manufacturing prowess and present a formidable challenge to the AMLCD community." (Richard Bowers/19950900/Press Contact: Don Gentile, SVC, 415-375-8881) (SUMMARY)(GENERAL)(MSP)(00030) Newsbytes Daily Summary 09/21/95 MINNEAPOLIS, MINNESOTA, U.S.A., 1995 SEP 21 (NB) -- These are capsules of all today's news stories: ======================================================================== ------------| N E W S B Y T E S D A I L Y S U M M A R Y |---------- ------------| Thursday, September 21, 1995 |---------- ======================================================================== (c) Newsbytes News Network (Tm) Editor in Chief: Wendy Woods ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Newsbytes News Network's 1995 Update CD-ROM for Mac, DOS, and Windows is now available for $29.95 (includes s&h). Contains 1983-1995 news stories, more than 64,000 keyword searchable stories and 475 digitized images. For more information or to order, fax to 612-430-0441 or e-mail to 'administrator@newsbytes.com' -- MC, Visa, Amex accepted. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ CATEGORY HEADLINES (*** indicates today's top stories) STORY # ======================================================================== BROADCAST ****Power Dispute Cuts Off Siberian Communications........ 17 BUSINESS 3Com Posts Record Profits, Australian Office Gets Top Marks 10 BUSINESS China - Loral Radar Systems In Weather Radar Deal.......... 15 BUSINESS China - Liming Targets Financial Sector Networking......... 16 BUSINESS ****AT&T To Split, GIS Employees Face Cuts................ 19 BUSINESS Italy's Olivetti Announces Major Layoffs................... 20 BUSINESS ****MCI To Buy SHL Systemhouse For $1 Billion............. 22 GOVT Defense Dept Funds $400 Million LCD Project................ 29 LEGAL Large Software Seizure In Singapore BSA Raid............... 21 NETWORK Novell UK Offers Technical Assistance To Windows 95 Users.. 01 ONLINE Cyberspace - Journalism's Brave New World.................. 07 ONLINE A Billion Connected Internet Devices By 2001............... 11 ONLINE World Wide Web Services For Indian Businesses.............. 14 ONLINE Internet Update............................................ 18 ONLINE NetManage Licenses Public Key Cryptography................. 25 ONLINE ****Jupiter Online Conference - Compuserve CEO Keynotes... 27 ONLINE Automotive Group Offers "Internet-Like" Network............ 28 PC Netherlands - Tulip's Windows 95-Ready Notebooks........... 05 SUPERCOMP ****US To Ease Supercomputer Export Rules................. 12 TELECOM Sweden - Ericsson To Cut 6,000 Business Sales Staff........ 03 TELECOM Huge Bid In Indian Telecoms Privatization.................. 13 TRENDS UK - HP's Low Cost Color DeskJet Printer................... 02 TRENDS World's "Smallest Computer" In Hearing-Aid................. 04 TRENDS Regis McKenna's Marketing With Info Technology Advice...... 06 UNIX ****Unix Expo - Novell Sells UnixWare To SCO For $60Mil... 24 WINDOWS Correction - What Ever Happened To Microsoft Bob........... 08 WINDOWS Microsoft BackOffice 1.5 Goes To Manufacturing............. 09 WINDOWS ****China Accepts Windows 95 Standard..................... 23 WINDOWS ****Magazine Says Windows 95 Has Suspect E-mail Security.. 26 ======================================================================== These are the headlines and first paragraphs of each story, in order: 1 -> Novell UK Offers Technical Assistance To Windows 95 Users -- Novell UK has announced it is providing its dealers and end-users with technical information relating to NetWare, and associated networking technologies, and Microsoft Windows 95. 2 -> UK - HP's Low Cost Color DeskJet Printer -- Hewlett-Packard (HP) has taken the wraps off the DeskJet 400, a color-capable inkjet printer aimed at the consumer end of the market. Unusually for HP, the UKP239 printer is only being launched in the UK as a test market, in preparation for a global launch early next year. 3 -> Sweden - Ericsson To Cut 6,000 Business Sales Staff -- Ericsson may be riding high on the crest of wave of contracts, but that doesn't mean the telecoms giant is being complacent about its future. According to officials with the Swedish telco, a new business plan has been drawn up that plots the path of the company for next few years, and as part of the changes planned, the firm plans to shave around 6,000 staff from its business sales payroll. 4 -> World's "Smallest Computer" In Hearing-Aid -- Oticon claims to have developed the world's smallest computer, the DigiFocus. Tipping the scales at under a quarter of an ounce, the computer is incorporated inside the world's first digital hearing aid. 5 -> Netherlands - Tulip's Windows 95-Ready Notebooks -- Tulip Computers has revamped its range of notebooks, bringing the minimum specification on the machines up to a 100 megahertz (MHz) 486 processor and eight megabytes (MB) of memory. In the process, the company's notebook range will be known as the Motion Line series. 6 -> Regis McKenna's Marketing With Info Technology Advice -- Not only do consumers have more information about products and more products to choose from than ever before, they have more ways to purchase those products 7 -> Cyberspace - Journalism's Brave New World -- Will the emerging deregulated digital info-structure be good for journalism and the general public, or will money-hungry media titans put traditional ethics and ideals on the chopping block to yield a possibly better entertained but far less well-informed public? Neil Hickey tackles this important question in a lengthy piece for the July/Aug. 1995 Columbia Journalism Review ("Revolution in Cyberia," pp. 40-47). 8 -> Correction - What Ever Happened To Microsoft Bob -- A recent Newsbytes story about Microsoft Bob, the nerdy looking guy with the heavy glasses that represents a "more casual user interface" to Microsoft Windows, requires some clarification. 9 -> Microsoft BackOffice 1.5 Goes To Manufacturing -- Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ: MSFT) said this week that version 1.5 of its BackOffice integrated server software suite has gone to manufacturing and should be available in retail channels shortly. 10 -> 3Com Posts Record Profits, Australian Office Gets Top Marks -- 3Com's first fiscal quarter for 1996 ended on August 31 with record sales of US$430.4 million, 64 percent higher than the same period last year. Australia and New Zealand sales were almost double last year. 11 -> A Billion Connected Internet Devices By 2001 -- The deluge of new Internet connections will be accompanied by an unprecedented growth in the number of home PCs, as home users go computer mad over Christmas. So says Geoff Huston, keynote speaker at AUUG '95 in Sydney this week, who emphasized the awesome changes in communication heralded by the Internet. 12 -> ****US To Ease Supercomputer Export Rules -- US Commerce Secretary Ron Brown sent a signal yesterday that the restrictive government policy on export of supercomputers could be about to change. Brown told reporters at a press conference that the White House would "soon" decided whether to change the policy and allow more powerful machines to be sold abroad. 13 -> Huge Bid In Indian Telecoms Privatization -- Little known Israeli firm HFCL-Bezeq combine has swept the financial bids for operating basic telephone services in India by committing a total of R859.25 billion (US$26,85 billion) for nine of the 20 telecom circles. 14 -> World Wide Web Services For Indian Businesses -- Indian companies will now get an opportunity to advertise their products on the Internet via the World Wide Web. Bombay-based Sound Electric Co. (Sound Electric Co.) has tied up with Infodigm Corp. of the US to provide technical collaboration for the project. 15 -> China - Loral Radar Systems In Weather Radar Deal -- Loral Radar Systems Co. of the United States, and China National Huayun Technology Development Co., have entered into an agreement to establish a US$6 million joint venture to develop a new generation of weather radar systems to replace out-of-date equipment now used in meteorological observatories and weather satellites across China. 16 -> China - Liming Targets Financial Sector Networking -- A young company, Liming ComNet Co. Ltd., is focusing on the computerization of China's financial systems. With a total investment of RMB33 million (US$3.98 million), the firm has completed computer networks for China's two securities exchanges, in Shanghai and Shenzhen. 17 -> ****Power Dispute Cuts Off Siberian Communications -- Failure to pay an electricity bill has left Siberia's most important satellite communications station without power and the region cut off with the rest of the world. 18 -> Internet Update -- In this roundup of new services and resources on the global Internet: Ryder Cup gets wired, Unabomber manifesto available, More news online, For ladies only, Sun SITE Central Europe, US regional information centers, Dutch film festival server. 19 -> ****AT&T To Split, GIS Employees Face Cuts -- AT&T (NYSE:T) is splitting up again. Unlike the government-ordered divestiture of the early 1980s, however, this split is voluntary 20 -> Italy's Olivetti Announces Major Layoffs -- Olivetti has announced it is shedding around 4,000 staff from its global payroll. Roughly half of the staff cuts will affect the company's operations in Italy, while the other 50 percent will be outside of Italy in its international operations. 21 -> Large Software Seizure In Singapore BSA Raid -- The spotlight is back on piracy in Singapore, with a raid by the Business Software Alliance (BSA) yielding 200 copies of illegal CD-ROMs containing programs valued at over S$8.5 million. 22 -> ****MCI To Buy SHL Systemhouse For $1 Billion -- MCI Communications Corp. (NASDAQ:MCIC) has announced its intention to buy Ottawa-based systems integrator SHL Systemhouse Inc. for about US$1 billion, or $13 per share. 23 -> ****China Accepts Windows 95 Standard -- Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ: MSFT) Chairman Bill Gates and Chinese Communist Party Chief Jiang Zemin have apparently settled their differences and have agreed to standardize the Chinese version of the Microsoft Windows 95 operating system as the software development standard for China. 24 -> ****Unix Expo - Novell Sells UnixWare To SCO For $60Mil -- In a press conference at Unix Expo, officials of Novell, Santa Cruz Operations (SCO), and Hewlett-Packard announced the sale of Novell's UnixWare business to SCO for approximately $60 million in common stock, along with plans by SCO to consolidate its SCO OpenServer System with UnixWare into an integrated PC-based Unix operating system (OS) with interfaces in common to HP-UX. 25 -> NetManage Licenses Public Key Cryptography -- NetManage Inc. said it has signed a licensing agreement with Cylink Corporation for technology which incorporates "fundamental patents covering public key cryptography." The two firms also said they will provide support for an open interface for Internet security which will address recent flaws found in Netscape Communications' encryption, along with security holes in other Internet security protocols. 26 -> ****Magazine Says Windows 95 Has Suspect E-mail Security -- A magazine that reports on Microsoft Windows said this week Microsoft's new operating system and user interface, Windows 95, has a security flaw that can leave important proprietary data unprotected from co-workers or even outsiders. "Anyone who can click on the Inbox icon on your desk can read your mail," said an editor at the magazine. 27 -> ****Jupiter Online Conference - Compuserve CEO Keynotes -- Jupiter Communications opened its Online Developers II conference with a keynote address from Compuserve's President and Chief Executive Officer Bob Massey. Online content developers filled the room to hear the comments of the man who has taken over the head spot at Compuserve. 28 -> Automotive Group Offers "Internet-Like" Network -- Citing concerns about security and speed, the Automotive Industry Action Group (AIAG) said it will pursue the development of a TCP/IP (Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol) network dedicated to the automotive industry. Although this new network is not intended to replace the public Internet, it addresses several issues AIAG said are important to the auto business. 29 -> Defense Dept Funds $400 Million LCD Project -- Silicon Video Corporation (SVC) has announced a funding agreement with the United States Department of Defense's Advanced Research Projects Agency (ARPA) to aid in the development and manufacture of thin cathode ray tube (CRT) flat panel displays. The company has to-date gained $95 million in committed investments through government programs, private investors and partners that include Hewlett-Packard and Compaq Computer. (Ian Stokell/19950921) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 95 09/19/95 NETWORK Artisoft Intros 32-bit Client For Windows (NEWS)(NETWORK)(DEN)(00001) Artisoft Intros 32-bit Client For Windows 95 09/19/95 TUCSON, ARIZONA, U.S.A., 1995 SEP 19 (NB) -- Artisoft Inc. (NASDAQ:ASFT) has announced a new LANtastic 32-bit client software package that will let LANtastic users add PCs running Windows 95 to their networks as full clients. The company will distribute the software at no cost to users of LANtastic, LANtastic Power Suite, and Simply LANtastic networks. According to Bill Peterson, vice president of worldwide marketing at Artisoft, the company will make the software available so LANtastic users can move to Windows 95 at their own pace. "Our small and medium business customers tell us they will generally not move rapidly to Windows 95, and will instead gradually add Windows 95 machines to their current environments," said Peterson. Artisoft said the Windows 95 client package will provide LANtastic network users with fully functional client access to their network resources. Users can also get multiplatform connectivity to Novell NetWare, Microsoft NT, IBM LAN Server, and Microsoft Windows for Workgroups, as well as LANtastic networks and resources. In July of this year Newsbytes reported on a price cut for Artisoft's LANtastic Dedicated Server software. Power Suite, which shipped in June of this year, is an integrated software package that combines the LANtastic network operating system software with mail, scheduling, and communications programs. You get Lotus cc:Mail, the Lotus Organizer group scheduler for networks, and a personal information manager, Cheyenne Communications' Bitware fax and modem communications software, Cheyenne's BitShare modem-sharing and pooling software, and Netcom's NetCruiser Internet access software. Artisoft said the Windows 95 client software will be available on its bulletin board system (BBS), its FTP (File Transfer Protocol) server, and its World Wide Web home page in mid-October. You can reach the Artisoft BBS at 520-884-8648. The address of the FTP server is FTP.artisoft.com , and Artisoft's home page on the Web is at http://www.artisoft.com . A "readme" file contains the complete setup documentation, and the client package software contains online, context-sensitive help files. (Jim Mallory/19950918/Press contact: Bill Peterson, Artisoft, 602-670-7304; Public contact: Artisoft, tel 520-670-7100, fax 520-670-7101) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 09/19/95 LEGAL BSA Nets $0.5Million In 3 Piracy Settlements (NEWS)(LEGAL)(WAS)(00002) BSA Nets $0.5Million In 3 Piracy Settlements 09/19/95 WASHINGTON, D.C., U.S.A., 1995 SEP 19 (NB) -- The Business Software Alliance has reached settlements with three firms totaling $548,000 to settle charges of software piracy. BSA says one settlement -- for $325,000 with Professional Service Industries -- is one of several recent settlements exceeding a quarter of a million dollars. So far this year, BSA spokeswoman Kim Willard told Newsbytes, BSA had recovered over $4 million in copyright infringement settlements and topped the mark set last year. BSA uses the settlements to fund education, public policy, and enforcement activities aimed at reducing and preventing piracy. In the case of Professional Service Industries, based in Lombard, Ill., an audit of company computers, performed at BSA's request, found multiple, unlicensed copies of products published by BSA members Autodesk, Lotus, Microsoft, and Novell. BSA says the company "responded quickly and cooperated completely" once the illegal copies were discovered. "It is unfortunate that it took this kind of situation to drive home the importance of proper software management," said Mark Weiland, an official with the Illinois company. "PSI does not condone software piracy. To the contrary, we fully support the objectives of the BSA and are committed to total compliance in the future." In another case, Memotec Communications Corp. of North Andover, Mass., agreed to pay $175,000 following an investigation that found illegal copies of software by Lotus, Microsoft, and Novell. BSA says the pirated software was installed at a time when the company was under different management. Bob Kruger, BSA's enforcement director, said, "This case illustrates the importance of auditing all computers on a regular basis -- particularly if they were someone else's responsibility in the past." In a third case, involving CeraMem Corp. of Waltham, Mass., the settlement of $48,000 ended a lawsuit BSA filed in June. BSA representatives, accompanied by law enforcement personnel, showed up at CeraMem's offices and did a court-ordered audit. CeraMem agreed to settle when it could not produce a sufficient number of licenses to support all the copies of Autodesk, Lost, Microsoft, and Novell programs running on its computers. Kruger noted that CeraMem "owns and operates a relatively small number of computers in its offices," evidence that BSA is out after small- to medium-sized firms as well as the Fortune 500. In a related matter, Symantec (Nasdaq: SYMC) says it has signed on as a worldwide member of BSA. Symantec had been a regional BSA member in Europe, but now joins the worldwide efforts in over 60 countries to stop software piracy. "Our operations now span countries where software piracy is significant," said Gordon Eubanks, Symantec president and chief executive officer. "For instance, according to BSA's own figures, three fast-growing markets for Symantec products -- Brazil, the Czech Republic, and Thailand -- are estimated at having 83 percent, 85 percent, and 99 percent piracy rates respectively, representing losses to the software industry in the vicinity of $648 million." (Kennedy Maize/19950918/Press Contact: Kim Willard, BSA, 202-872-5500 ext 107) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 09/19/95 WINDOWS What Ever Happened To Microsoft Bob? (NEWS)(WINDOWS)(DEN)(00003) What Ever Happened To Microsoft Bob? 09/19/95 REDMOND, WASHINGTON, U.S.A., 1995 SEP 19 (NB) -- Have you been wondering what ever happened to Microsoft Bob, the nerdy looking guy with the heavy glasses that represented a "more casual user interface" to Windows? Well, Bob is still around and according to his parents -- Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ: MSFT) -- he will now come to work for less money. #IMAGE 1 20 TWPCX \images\95091903.PCX Click here for photo Microsoft Bob is the symbol that represents the animated cartoon character-based user interface Microsoft hoped would attract casual home PC users, although Bob himself doesn't ever appear in the software. The "social interface" as it was dubbed by Microsoft, allows the user to select one of several animated characters to represent them. The user moves the selected character through various on-screen rooms where he or she can write letters, balance checkbooks, keep personal calendars, send and receive electronic-mail, play a quiz game, and keep track of household functions like getting the car lubed or planning what to plant in a garden. Some of the features work together. For example, you can insert an address from the Address Book into a letter or send the letter electronically via e-mail. The original Bob included Rover the dog, Chaos the cat, Scuz, a teenager; and Java, a friendly dragon, for users to select as their personal representatives. Now Microsoft, in an apparent attempt to boost sales for the pending holiday season, is offering a Bob Plus Pack that includes some new personal guides, new home styles, and some holiday clip-art. The new guides include: Baudelaire, a gargoyle; Chaz, a man with a horn; Lucy the monkey; the Dot, a red dot; and Will Shakespeare. The new home styles that can be used to decorate your onscreen "home" include an abstract color wash and sketch, haunted, space and pastoral decors. The new holiday clip-art includes wreaths, pumpkins, Christmas tree, and ornaments. Microsoft said the clip-art can be used in the Letter Writer, Bob's word processor, and with the Great Greetings add-on product. Great Greetings is an add-on pack for Bob that lets the user create greeting cards. Microsoft said there will be more Bob add-ons in the future, but declined to reveal any specifics. Microsoft won't say how many copies of Bob have been sold, but did say sales during the launch period "exceeded expectations." Microsoft has lowered the price of Bob to an estimated selling price of $54.95 from the original $99. You can order the Bob Plus Pack from Microsoft at no cost, a Microsoft spokesperson told Newsbytes. Microsoft has a toll-free number, 800-426-9400, for that purpose. Bob comes on CD-ROM (or floppy disk on request) and requires: Windows 95, Windows 3.1, or Windows for Workgroups; a 486SX or DX-based PC, eight megabytes (MB) of memory; 33MB of available hard disk space; a super VGA, 256-color monitor; and a mouse or compatible pointing device. If you want to send e-mail you will need a modem, and Microsoft said a sound card and speakers or headphones are recommended. When Bob first appeared, Microsoft said it planned a Macintosh version by mid-1996. When asked if that release is still "in the works" a Microsoft spokesperson said "it is still being discussed." You can get a free copy of Bob, possibly for your Mom or a friend or another relative, by faxing or e-mailing to Microsoft's public relations firm Waggener Edstrom ways you would like to see Bob enhanced. Microsoft will send a copy of Bob and a Bob "Frisbee-like flyer" to the person of your choice at no charge. Send your ideas for enhancing Bob and the name and address of the person to receive a copy of Bob to Gaby Adam at 206-637-9963 (fax) or at the e-mail address gaby@wagged.com. (Jim Mallory/19950918/Press and public contact: Microsoft, 206-882-8080 or 800-426-9400/MS_BOB950919/PHOTO) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 09/19/95 ONLINE Using E-Mail To Send Snail Mail (NEWS)(ONLINE)(MSP)(00004) Using E-Mail To Send Snail Mail 09/19/95 SEATTLE, WASHINGTON, U.S.A., 1995 SEP 19 (NB) -- Sending real mail via cyberspace -- the type the post office delivers, not electronic-mail -- is now a reality. The OutPost Network lets anyone who has Internet World Wide Web access send greeting cards, post cards, and letters, without ever leaving their computer keyboard. The OutPost Network is billing itself as the "Internet Post Office," because it allows Net users to write messages and correspondence on their computers, which are then printed on all forms of media, including post cards, stationery, and greeting cards. The messages are then stamped and sent through the US Postal Service. The service offers stationery and a wide selection of cards from major card companies, which can be viewed at the company's Web site. The costs of the service aren't much more than buying a card in a store. Orders can be placed via credit card, and online transactions are secured via the Netscape Commerce Server, officials said. "There are times when e-mail just isn't appropriate for messages," John Arnold, president and chief executive officer of The OutPost Network, told Newsbytes. "Say a birthday card, a sympathy card, or a forgiveness card. There's times when you need to have more impact. Being able to preserve the convenience of e-mail, and then tie it to real mail, I think is something that will be emotionally appreciated by the receiver." Arnold said the main type of person who will use this service is the busy person who doesn't have the time to go to the store, pick up a card or stationery, stamp the card, then mail it themselves. "It's going to appeal to both technical people and the consumer market in general," he said. Other services from the company's Web page include change of address requests, ordering catalogs, and the ability to erase one's name from "junk" mailing lists. The OutPost Network's Web page is at http://www.outpost.net . The company is making the announcement the same week the US Postal Service marks its 206th anniversary. (Bob Woods/19950915/Press Contact: Belinda Young, Belinda Young Public Relations, 206-932-3145, Internet e-mail 76722.232@compuserve.com/ OUTPOST950919/PHOTO) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 09/19/95 EDUCATION Earn High School Diploma On The Web (NEWS)(EDUCATION)(MSP)(00005) Earn High School Diploma On The Web 09/19/95 BLOOMINGTON, MINNESOTA, U.S.A., 1995 SEP 19 (NB) -- For people who want to complete their high school education, but don't want to travel long distances or go to school at odd times of the day or night, the Bloomington (Minnesota) Public School system has developed a way to "attend" class via the Internet. The program is called "Mindquest," and its from "Shape," a suburban Minneapolis adult education program. Anyone from anywhere around the world can enroll. The program is free to Minnesota residents, while others might be able to work out a tuition agreement through a local school district. The program is available 24-hours a day, seven days a week. And for those people who don't have computers, loaners are available from the school district, Kevin Byrne, Bloomington Public Schools' Coordinator of Adult and Alternative Learning, told Newsbytes. "There are a lot of people without a lot of money," he said, "and (the computer loans) makes it easier to get a diploma." Each student works with a Mindquest counselor to develop a custom learning plan that takes into account their learning style, educational needs, and interests. Previous high school credits can be applied toward graduation. The Internet-based "classroom" even has more teachers committed to it as compared to a similar "real-life" classroom situation, Byrne said. Byrne already calls the program a success, because the first "class" is practically full. Many of the students are from Minnesota, Byrne said, but one is from New York state, one is from Australia, and another person from the United Arab Emirates is showing interest in the program. The Bloomington Public Schools Mindquest Web page can be found at http://informns.k12.mn.us:80/~0271eis/mindquest/ . Any diplomas awarded will come from either the Bloomington School District #271, or from another school district with an agreement from the local principal. (Bob Woods/19950918/Press Contact: Julie Williams, Bloomington Public Schools, 612-885-8535; Public Contact: Kevin Byrne, SHAPE, 612-885- 8511, Internet e-mail shape4@primenet.com) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 09/19/95 EDUCATION Internet CollegeAssist For High School Students (NEWS)(EDUCATION)(LAX)(00006) Internet CollegeAssist For High School Students 09/19/95 LOS ALTOS, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1995 SEP 19 (NB) -- CollegeAssist, a new college planning service, will debut on the Internet September 26. Targeted at sophomore through senior high school students and their counselors, CollegeAssist provides information helping students gain admission to their college of choice. CollegeAssist, produced by Edworks Inc., provides online information that matches students with schools that "meet their goals and objectives." It will help in making a selection, and then organizing, scheduling, and tracking all tasks in the college admissions process. CollegeAssist even offers guidance and direct help in writing application essays. David Hoffman, President of Edworks, told Newsbytes, "CollegeAssist takes advantage of the Internet's accessibility and its ability to make the massive databases required for this type of program available. CollegeAssist offers comprehensive information on 2000 private four- year colleges, as well as 400 two-year and vocational schools. It also maintains a database of more than 200,000 private and public scholarship, loan, and grant sources." "High school students, their parents and school counselors all agree that there is a huge need for expert assistance in effective college planning. There's just too much information to absorb and too little time. The Internet is the perfect vehicle for today's computer literate kids," said Hoffman. There are a number of different programs in CollegeAssist: CalendarAssist is a personal organizer to keep track of the deadlines for each of the colleges you have selected. AnswerAssist is a research tool that allows students to get in-depth information on colleges or educational parameters that interest them. PhoneAssist provides 24-hour access by phone to a student's personalized calendar. ProfileAssist is a personal memory and reporting tool that allows students to quickly generate detailed resumes for college admissions. These resumes can be customized as a student adds new colleges to their list. EssayAssist provides access to online tips and suggestions for writing compelling and interesting application essays, along with reviews from accredited teachers. A one-year subscription to CollegeAssist costs $99 and includes unlimited access to the CalendarAssist with SmartSchedule, PhoneAssist, and ProfileAssist services. EssayAssist, the college essay critique service, costs $39 for the first essay, and $29 for subsequent essays. Students subscribing by December 31, 1995, will receive one free EssayAssist critique redeemable during calendar year 1996. FundAssist, priced at $75, uses the student's personal profile to do an extensive search of more than 200,000 available public and private loans, grants, and scholarships. Edworks inc., is a privately held company headquartered in Los Altos, California. CollegeAssist can be reached on the Web at http://www.edworks.com. (Richard Bowers/19950918/Press Contact: Judy Diaz, Edworks, 415-694-7991) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 09/19/95 BUSINESS Top 5 Australian Apple Reseller Fails (NEWS)(BUSINESS)(SYD)(00007) Top 5 Australian Apple Reseller Fails 09/19/95 SYDNEY, AUSTRALIA, 1995 SEP 19 (NB) -- Leading Sydney Apple reseller Mac Computer Systems Pty Ltd., has gone down the tubes and the receivers are working against the clock to organize a sale while the business is still ticking over. John Gibbons, of the Ernst & Young group, advertised the Sussex Street Apple Centre in last week's Sydney papers. Gibbons said at the weekend that his team had received inquiries from potential buyers on Friday. The ad claimed an annual turnover of $18 million and a "well-established and experienced sales force." Apart from the Mac range, the company also sells Acer and IBM equipment. Gibbons says he hopes to have an information package available for prospective purchasers any day, because a fast sale is "essential." The main strength lies in MCS's forward orders, he said, and these "dissipate the longer you go." MCS was best known for what Apple Computer Australia described at the weekend as its "aggressive pricing." An Apple spokesperson classed MCS as among the "top five in the Sydney region." Apple stepped quickly in to shore up confidence when MCS folded. The company said it "will honor orders placed and prepaid by customers." Apple will also offer free 30-day up-and-running support. "Customers who paid for computer equipment to be supplied by MCS via a credit card and who have not received their goods should contact their respective credit card provider to discuss refunds," said Apple. The spokesperson added that it isn't yet clear how many customers are affected by the demise of MCS, but the company expects a clearer picture within a week, once the receiver has fully assessed the company's finances. Plugging the gap, Apple advises the following phone toll-free phones: In Australia, 1-800 807-495, for fulfillment of prepaid orders and also for customers who have equipment being repaired; and in Australia, 1-800 025-355 to have warranties honored. (Computer Daily News/19950918) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 09/19/95 BUSINESS Microsoft Australia Refutes Press Story About "Loyalty" (NEWS)(BUSINESS)(SYD)(00008) Microsoft Australia Refutes Press Story About "Loyalty" 09/19/95 SYDNEY, AUSTRALIA, 1995 SEP 19 (NB) -- A Financial Review newspaper report which claimed Microsoft was to be carpeted by the Federal Government for failing to meet its partnership obligations was "totally inaccurate" in its thrust, Microsoft's advanced technology chief Daniel Petre said on Sunday in a press release. Petre, an Australian who now sits at Bill Gates' right hand, was bought into the controversy over last Friday's meeting between Microsoft and the Australian Department for Science, Industry and Technology (DIST) with a blistering attack on "inaccurate media reports." Given the links between Prime Minister Paul Keating and Gates, sensitivity to the report that Microsoft wasn't pulling its weight has lifted the response higher than Chris Kelliher, the local managing director. Petre echoed Prof Vance Gledhill who said the relationship between DIST and Microsoft was fine and getting better. Gledhill was the sole Microsoft attendee at Friday's meeting. In fact, says Petre, the meeting was to discuss future initiatives. Microsoft had gone far beyond its obligations, though not all its initiatives were part of the partnership program. As examples, Petre cited: allocation of Microsoft's manufacturing business which brought duplicator R R Donnelly into the country; its On Australia joint venture with Telstra; and establishment of its Asia Pacific HQ in Australia. He said Friday's meeting had been requested by Microsoft to discuss plans to increase its Partnerships For Development commitments by 50 percent. (Computer Daily News/19950918) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 09/19/95 ONLINE Internet Update (NEWS)(ONLINE)(TYO)(00009) Internet Update 09/19/95 TOKYO, JAPAN, 1995 SEP 19 (NB) -- In this roundup of new services and resources on the global Internet: Hitachi America joins the Web, Political cartoon of the day, Worldwide cultural exchange, Online high school diploma available, African information resource, Catholic information center on the Internet, Autoweek goes AWOL, Newsfile medical information. Hitachi America Joins The Web The US subsidiary of Japan's Hitachi Ltd. has opened a center on the World Wide Web. Visitors to the site will find corporate information and details of the division's products and services. With links to other Hitachi companies, the site offers access to Hitachi across the world, according to the company. World Wide Web: http://www.hitachi.com/ Political Cartoon Of The Day Seasoned Canadian political cartoonist D.H. Monet is producing exclusive cartoons especially for Internet users each day. The cartoons are available from 10am EST every weekday at the Cartoon-of-the-Day page. World Wide Web: http://www.tcm.com/aim/cartoon-of-the-day/ Worldwide Cultural Exchange A Web site providing information on worldwide cultural exchange opportunities has been created by the College Division of the American Institute for Foreign Study, an organization that annually helps 40,000 students with college and high school international exchange programs. The Web page offers students information about the organization, the exchange programs offered and how to get more information all separated into sections for US and non-US students. World Wide Web: http://www.aifs.org/ Online High School Diploma Available The Bloomington Public Schools has created, what it claims is, the world's first completely Internet-based high school diploma for people who have dropped out of school. The Mindquest program is described as highly interactive and is on offer to students around the world. The education department specializes in at-risk youth and is especially keen on bridging the technology gap with computers offered on loan to some. World Wide Web: http://informns.k12.mn.us:80/~0271eis/mindquest/ African Information Resource Africa Online is now offering an information resource intended for people interested in, or writing about, Africa. Local news sources are supplemented with pages of background on Africa covering all countries and territories and a fax to an electronic-mail gateway. World Wide Web: http://www.africaonline.com/ Catholic Information Center On The Internet A new Web site, officially sanctioned by the Roman Catholic Church, has opened on the Internet to spread its mission of salvation ahead of a visit to New York by Pope John Paul II. The Web site, designed to appeal to Catholics and non-Catholics, offers details of the church, religion, and issues confronting the world. During the Pope's visit, the site will offer complete updates of the trip and full text copies of all speeches given. World Wide Web: http://www.catholic.net/ Autoweek Goes AWOL Weekly automobile magazine Autoweek is offering the latest industry news and events in a new service, Autoweek Online, or AWOL. The magazine says the new service makes it the first US car enthusiast publication to go online. The primary attraction of the new service is likely to be Autoweek's complete classified service of cars, trucks, and specialty items that totals around 21,000 advertisements per year. The database, created with a customized search capability, allows visitors to self-select specific makes and models for view. Visitors can also browse the classifieds as they would in the magazine. World Wide Web: http://www.autoweek.com/ Newsfile Medical Information The world's largest producer of weekly health information has launched NewsFile on the Internet's World Wide Web. At the center of the new service is a section detailing the week's top health news. The site also allows viewing or downloading recent full text issues of AIDS Weekly Plus, Blood Weekly, Cancer Biotechnology Weekly, Fertility Weekly, Gene Therapy Weekly, Health Letter on the CDC, Hepatitis Weekly, Infectious Disease Weekly, Malaria Weekly, TB Weekly, Vaccine Weekly, and Women's Health Weekly. World Wide Web: http://www.newsfile.com/ (Martyn Williams/19950919) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 09/19/95 BUSINESS Japan - NTT Profits Fall As Firm Fights Break Up Call (NEWS)(BUSINESS)(TYO)(00010) Japan - NTT Profits Fall As Firm Fights Break Up Call 09/19/95 TOKYO, JAPAN, 1995 SEP 19 (NB) -- Faced with the increasing possibility of a break up of the company, Nippon Telegraph and Telephone (NTT) has announced a reorganization plan. At the same time, a leading newspaper said profits in the current fiscal year would be down. The Nihon Keizai Shimbun reported that NTT expects to file an unconsolidated pretax profit of 290 billion yen ($2.79 billion) for the current financial year that ends in March 1996. NTT posted its first profits rise in five years, last year. The newspaper said increased costs of setting up the new Personal Handyphone System (PHS) network were partly to blame. The new system, costing 80 billion yen ($769 million) to establish, was around 40% more expensive than originally planned. A recent rate cut in leased line fees will also bring in less money than originally forecast. With the specter of a government enforced break-up hanging over the company, the newspaper speculated the lower profits forecast may be an attempt to deflect criticism that it makes too great a profit from its position as the monopoly supplier of local, and near monopoly supplier of long distance traffic. The Tokyo-based company also this week announced it would initiate a rationalization program that would streamline the company and make it more efficient. NTT drew up the plans after receiving recommendations from the Management and Coordination Agency and will present the plans to the Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications this month. In February, 1993, the corporation announced it would attempt to reduce its total workforce to 200,000 by 1996, but has already accomplished that with the total number of staff currently at 195,000. The new plan will seek to reduce that number further. In addition to the layoffs, NTT will cut back the number of telegraph offices across Japan to just 60. A fall in the use of telegram services and more advanced technology has enabled the cut backs to be made. The company is also in talks with Japan's three alternative long distance suppliers over access charges to NTT's network. The talks with DDI Corporation, Teleway Japan, and Japan Telecom, are expected to be concluded this month after the operators said NTT's charges were too high. Around half the annual income of the alternative carriers is paid to NTT, a figure that amounted to a combined 300 billion yen ($2.88 billion) in the previous fiscal year. At the current rates of 12.57 yen per three-minute call, a one yen cut in costs would boost profits at the smaller carriers by 20 billion yen annually. Among those calling for a break up of NTT, the private carriers have been some of the most vocal. The government panel will report its findings next February although a recent leak of the panel's provisional report suggests the investigating body, the Telecommunications Council, will recommend the splitting up of NTT into five companies, one for long distance calls and four local call providers across the country. (Martyn Williams/19950919/Press contacts: NTT Corporation, tel +81-3-3509-3101, fax +81-3-3509-4290; Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications, tel +81-3-3504-4161, fax +81-3-3504-0265) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 09/19/95 IBM IBM's AS/400 System Gains Popularity In Russia (NEWS)(IBM)(LON)(00011) IBM's AS/400 System Gains Popularity In Russia 09/19/95 MOSCOW, RUSSIA, 1995 SEP 19 (NB) -- IBM's AS/400 mid-range computer platform is gaining in popularity in Russia. Initially, promotion of this system was hindered by unavailability of Russian counterparts of the computers, although manufacturing of PC and mainframes was under way. "The system was totally unknown to customers because there had been no similar products manufactured by domestic computer industry," said Mr. Perevozchikov, the AS/400 team leader at IBM Moscow, in an interview with IntelliTech. "In the pre-perestroika years, local plants produced only PCs and mainframes, leaving the niche of mid-range computers vacant. Due to COCOM restrictions, AS/400 and its predecessors did not penetrate the local market at all." Having detected this peculiarity, the Moscow IBM division of IBM East Europe and Asia Ltd. developed a specific marketing strategy. "We started distributing AS/400 systems among software companies and MBA schools offering a substantial (priced down to 80%) discounts on software packages," said Perevozchikov. "The idea was to start compiling adequate software and provide graduates from MBA schools -- whom we viewed as prospective managers on the decision-taking level -- with an opportunity to get the feel of the system's unique capabilities. Time proved that we were right." Sales of the AS/400 have exhibited a steady 20% to 30% growth on a quarterly basis and the order-to-delivery latency period is a thing of the past, Perevozchikov said. Now the system is requested by commercial banks and medium-sized enterprises. It is considered as a primary candidate for the support of large- scale federal programs. Among the latter, Perevozchikov named the Russian Federal Employment Registrar and the Federal Pension Fund. "A timely change in the IBM administration scheme" was identified by Perevozchikov as a key to its success. "Reorganization of the company into vertically-integrated, product-focused departments made resolving operational matters much easier," he continued. "From the very onset, our marketing activity was fully supported by the IBM East Europe and Asia office in Vienna. On the other hand, one cannot discard that growing sale volumes helped us to improve our status within the company and expand the space for maneuver," Perevozchikov mused. "We enjoy this management style and make use of new opportunities. It is sufficient to say that, because of these changes, up to three IBM laboratories are involved now in developing new functions in the AS/400 operational system requested by a big prospective customer which signifies connecting yet another feedback loop in our company." (Vladimir Vetrov, IntelliTech/19950918/Press & Reader Contact: IBM East Europe/Asia Ltd., Alexey Perevozchikov, tel +7-095-2356602, fax +7-095-2354849, Internet e-mail 82189117@vievma.vnet.ibm.com) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 09/19/95 ONLINE Open Text Teams With Yahoo! On Searchable Web Guide (NEWS)(ONLINE)(BOS)(00012) Open Text Teams With Yahoo! On Searchable Web Guide 09/19/95 BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS, U.S.A., 1995 SEP 19 (NB) -- In a videoconferenced and teleconferenced press event, Open Text announced plans to incorporate its Web Search Server into the Yahoo! Internet guide, the first in a planned series of online- oriented OEM (original equipment manufacturer) deals for Open Text's search and retrieval technology, commercially marketed as Open Text Latitude. In the enhanced Yahoo! now being readied for initial public view in early October, Yahoo! will continue to provide a hierarchical index to the Internet, while Open Text will add powerful "dictionary"-and agent-based search and retrieval, an API (application programming interface), and administrative tools, said officials of the two companies, speaking from the New York City-based global cyber-event, attended by Newsbytes in Boston, Massachusetts. Tom Jenkins, president and chief executive officer (CEO) of Open Text, termed the Open Text 5 search engine "truly comprehensive," and "almost like a phone book." Jerry Yang, Jenkins' counterpart at Yahoo! Corporation, referred to the Open Text "dictionary" as the "backbone" of the upcoming jointly developed technology. Open Text 5 combines "the fastest word and phrase searching on the market" with indexing, complex boolean searches and "intelligent" search capabilities for structure, similarity, and proximity, including "an understanding of the structure and elements of HTML (hypertext markup language)," according to the officials. David Weinberger, Open Text's VP of strategic marketing, told the reporters and analysts that the Open Text Web Search Server also includes an API for Internet and enterprise-based Web applications, utilities for monitoring and administering Web Search Server applications, and "Open Text Crawlers," a set of agents that "constantly scour" the Web. The "crawlers" are intended to index each word found on the Web, and to record the structural context of each indexed string, revisiting sites often to add new words and phrases to the "master index." Tim Bray, senior VP of technology for Open Text, reported that developing Open Text's index was much more difficult than "solving the dictionary" piece of the Web navigation puzzle. "Why is indexing so hard?" asked Bray. "The Web is in dozens of languages. Any page can change at any time," he answered. In addition, new servers are joining the Web all the time, and any server "can be slow or off the air." Yahoo!'s Internet indexing capabilities, the Open Text VP proclaimed, "stand head and shoulders above the crowd." Yahoo!'s upcoming implementation of the Open Text Web Search Server will let Yahoo! users carry out simple, Boolean, weighted, and similarity searches, narrowing searches to specific categories in the Yahoo! hierarchical Internet index. Through the "similarity" searches, in which Open Text looks for documents "similar" to those are discovered, users will be able to expand their searches gradually and "flexibly," according to the execs. In addition, Open Text's "understanding" of HTML will allow Yahoo! users to "use (HTML) structural considerations such as document titles, sub headings, body copy, and footnotes as `qualifiers' for their searches." Open Text's Weinberger also pointed out that corporations are now beginning to adopt the Web for internal communications. Customers for Latitude, the "enterprise version" of Open Text's technology, include IBM, Oracle and Caterpillar. Beyond Yahoo!, additional upcoming partnerships for Open Text will include other major Internet vendors, as well as corporate networking application developers, according to the speakers from Open Text. Open Text and Yahoo! each offer Internet navigation aids on the Web. The Open Text Index, a "power search" tool for the Internet, can be accessed free of charge from the Open Text home page, at http://www.opentext.com. The Yahoo! guide for "navigating through the Internet and gathering online information for both business and pleasure" is located at http://www.yahoo.com. (Jacqueline Emigh/19950918/Reader Contact: Open Text, 519-888-7111; Yahoo!, 415-934-3230; Press Contact: Brenda Nichols or Derek Lane, Parker, Nichols & Company for Open Text, 508-369-2100; Marian Sly, Niehaus Ryan Haller for Yahoo!, 415-827-7069; Reader and Press Contact: Interactive Information Networks, 800-766-7898) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 09/19/95 UNIX HP Intros PowerWise UPS Packages, Price Reductions (NEWS)(UNIX)(BOS)(00013) HP Intros PowerWise UPS Packages, Price Reductions 09/19/95 PALO ALTO, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1995 SEP 19 (NB) -- Hewlett-Packard's new PowerWise UPS (uninterruptible power supply) packages incorporate "significant price reductions," plus four other big items that HP has found on UPS users' wish lists since entering the UPS market less than a year ago, said John Page, PowerWise UPS program manager, in an interview with Newsbytes. With companies like American Power Conversion, Best, Deltec, and Exide already active in UPS, HP decided to step into the arena due to "customer requests," Page told Newsbytes. HP, he reported, has since determined "four major areas where (UPS) users would like to see improvements." Generally speaking, all four areas revolve around ease of use. "Most people are simply not experts in UPS," according to the program manager. As a result, HP's new L1250 PowerWise and re-packaged L600 VA, L900 VA, 1000 VA, and 2100 VA PowerWise UPS each come in "a single box," with all needed hardware and software included, Page contended. In addition, software equivalent to about "five different programs" is all provided on a single PowerWise Assistant CD-ROM disk. Added Page: "Then, you want to be able to be able to set up (the UPS) quickly, and know that it's working correctly." In response to the first of these requirements, the PowerWise Assistant provides an express installation and configuration mode, the HP exec pointed out. With regard to the second wish, he maintained, PowerWise Assistant introduces "proactive" UPS power protection, monitoring and predicting battery wearout prior to failure, for example. "People love this, because you don't have to check (the UPS) constantly. If something is wrong, it will tell you." HP has provided even greater proactiveness by integrating UPS with SNMP (Simple Network Management Protocol) for administration via HP OpenView or other SNMP-compliant network management software, according to Page. "People like to control the UPS in the same way as other network devices, from a central location," he asserted. Slated to ship in October, all five of HP's new UPS packages incorporate a management application for HP OpenView, an integrated installation program, a CD-ROM version of the PowerWise Assistant (including shutdown, management, and diagnostics software), and cables. The OpenView management application is designed to provide inventory management reports that list all UPS on a network with battery condition and other statistics. The new L1250 and re- packaged L600 VA, L900 VA, and 1000 VA PowerWise UPS also include SNMP Agent Software. The PowerWise Assistant CD-ROM comes standard with support for Windows NT and Novell NetWare. Support for OS/2, HP-UX, AIX, SCO (Santa Cruz Operation) Unix, UnixWare, Sun Solaris, and Banyan Vines (cable) is also available, at separate pricing. Within the next few months, said Page, every HP NetServer will begin to ship with PowerWise Assistant integrated with NetServer Navigator, a step that will bring a single setup process for PowerWise UPS and NetServers. Meanwhile, standard pricing for HP's four existing UPS units has been lowered by anywhere from 24.7 percent to 52.8 percent. New pricing is $319 for the L600 VA, $489 for the L900 VA, $519 for the 1000 VA, and $1,179 for the 2100 VA UPS. The new L1250 PowerWise UPS is priced at $649. (Jacqueline Emigh/19950919/Reader Contact: Hewlett-Packard, 800- 752-0900; Press Contact: Julie Lydon, Pat Arcand or Tim Hurley, Copithorne & Bellows for HP, 617-252-0606) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 09/19/95 BUSINESS Japan - OKI Ties With Sensar For Advanced Security (NEWS)(BUSINESS)(TYO)(00014) Japan - OKI Ties With Sensar For Advanced Security 09/19/95 PRINCETON, NEW JERSEY, USA, 1995 SEP 19 (NB) -- Sensar Inc. has announced the first in a string of coming business alliances with major corporations in the financial market over a new security system that could replace systems such as PIN numbers in bank automated teller machines (ATM) and find its way to desktop computers as part of videoconferencing systems. The New Jersey-based company has entered into a development, distribution, and supply agreement with Tokyo's OKI Electric. Under the terms of the deal, OKI are supplying a minimum of $25.8 million for development and research in return for exclusive rights to use the iris recognition systems in financial services transactions within the Japanese banking industry. Sensar Inc. is a majority owned subsidiary of the David Sarnoff Research Center, a supplier and developer of real-time iris image- based personal identification products and services. Sensar's system, currently in the development and testing stage, will offer far greater security than existing systems at a low cost as the company's Kevin McQuade, vice president of strategic business development, explained to Newsbytes, "We can take a picture of your eyes with a regular camcorder. The iris is probably the most unique thing in your body. As an example, there are 68 discriminators on your fingers, there are 400 in iris. "We can pick up you eye from three feet, using a system originally developed for missile targeting by the Defense Department, with regular camera and different, but off-the-shelf, lenses." Sensar's system takes a snapshot scan of a user's eye and iris pattern as the basis for a highly accurate and virtually fraud-proof personal identification system. The system is designed to replace traditional security systems such as those based on PIN numbers and passwords. "There is no word in the English language to describe how accurate it is," enthused McQuade who explained that there were around 10 to the 30th power combinations because of the 400 discrimination points available. "By contrast, 10 to the 10th power is one in a billion," he said. The whole process takes place within the two to three seconds from when you first approach the machine to starting your transactions. Accuracy is high with no mistakes being made during thousands of tests the company has carried out, McQuade claimed. OKI's involvement will see the system employed in bank ATM machines replacing the current systems based on PIN numbers. The two companies will begin work on a next-generation ATM machine next year. Within the next 60 days, Sensar will announce two more major partners. McQuade could not be drawn on the identity of the two, but promised they were major US corporations. Details will be announced when final details of the agreements has been finalized, although it has already received investment from the two. The entire system will add around $5,000 to the cost of an ATM machine, about the same as the amount a bank could loose in a single fraud, prompting speculation that the system could be installed in all future machines and find uses in other applications. "With more development, we hope to bring prices down dramatically to well below $1,000. Ultimately we want to go point-of-sale and computer security," said McQuade. He also outlined future plans that could bring the system to the desktop, "The computers coming out today with video capabilities can be used, with a little work we believe, for identification." A small software application would be able to verify the identity of the person contacting users via desktop videoconferencing. McQuade concluded by adding, "I haven't talked to a single top ten US bank that is not interested." (Martyn Williams/19950919/Press contact: Michele Donoher, Sensar, 609-734-2931) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 09/19/95 ONLINE First Union Offers Internet Banking For Business/Consumers (NEWS)(ONLINE)(MSP)(00015) First Union Offers Internet Banking For Business/Consumers 09/19/95 CHARLOTTE, NORTH CAROLINA, U.S.A., 1995 SEP 19 (NB) -- First Union Corporation (NYSE:FTU) will begin allowing its consumer and business customers to manage their accounts with the bank via the Internet's World Wide Web. The new program, called "WEBInVision," will launch services for its business customers in November, after testing the system in early to mid-October. In the same time frame, First Union will begin an interactive retirement information service called "Retirement Solutions," dubbed the first such service on the Internet by First Union officials. With the new offering, customers will be able to open new accounts and access a variety of information about existing accounts. Some of the specific transactions they'll be able to conduct include accessing account balances and reviewing maturity dates, making financial projections to determine retirement requirements, and updating withholding amounts. The other new service, WEBInVision, is designed for the small business owner or corporate treasurer who needs immediate access to their company's cash situation. First Union's cash management sales consultants will also be available via electronic-mail (e-mail), and data on regional and national economic conditions can also be accessed. Both services offer encryption via Netscape browser, although they can be access with any Web browser, Sandy Deem, First Union spokesperson, told Newsbytes. If First Union customers don't have a browser, but they want to access the bank via the Internet, First Union will supply them with a free copy of Netscape, Deem said. The free copy is made possible through an agreement between the bank and MCI Communications, she added. Deem told Newsbytes it's hard to say if these new services will "take off" immediately, or if they'll take some time to grow. "We've had some customers already asking for this, so we feel some will use this right away," Deem said. "With others, it may take time for them to get used to the technology, especially with the retirement management side." First Union's Web page is at http://www.firstunion.com . The company operates full-service banking offices in Florida, North Carolina, Georgia, Virginia, South Carolina, Tennessee, Maryland, and Washington D.C. (Bob Woods/19950918/Press Contact: Sandy Deem, First Union Corp., 704-374-2710) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 09/19/95 TELECOM UK - Cable & Wireless Wins Submarine Cable Deal (NEWS)(TELECOM)(LON)(00016) UK - Cable & Wireless Wins Submarine Cable Deal 09/19/95 LONDON, ENGLAND, 1995 SEP 19 (NB) -- Cable & Wireless has announced it has won a $105 million contract to lay the major part of the world's longest ever submarine telecoms cable. According to officials with C&W, the contract is the largest ever submarine cable deal of its type and will result in the Eastern and Western hemispheres of the world being linked by submarine fiber optic cable. Announcing the deal, Dave Foot, C&W Marine's chief executive officer (CEO), said that the order, which was awarded by AT&T Submarine Systems, calls for the company to install two thirds of the FLAG (Fiber optic Link Around the Globe) cable system. The high capacity system, which is laid almost entirely underwater, will provide a link between the existing Private Transatlantic Cable (PTAT) and Transpacific (NPC -- North Pacific Cable) cable systems. "As many recognize, C&W is a truly global player, and so it is particularly satisfying that we have been chosen to install the longest ever global cable, which will link together several Federation business units," Foot said. Under the terms of the contract, C&W Marine will lay two of its longest segments from Palermo in Sicily to Mura in Japan. This is a total of 17,871 kilometers (km) out of a total cable span from the UK to Japan of 26,112 km. The remaining sections of the FLAG cable will be installed by AT&T and Kokusai Denshin Denwa (KDD) of Japan. According to C&W, the order follows a complex survey carried out by Worldwide Ocean Surveying, a subsidiary of C&W Marine, to determine the route. Route clearance for the system starts this month, in preparation for the start of cable laying this December. Plans call for the cable system to become operational by the end of 1997, when it will be capable of supporting up to 600,000 simultaneous telephone conversations per segment, and provide route diversity for major telcos around the world. The contract will, C&W officials said, involved around 812 ship days of main cable laying work, much of which will be carried out by C&W's new flagship, Cable Innovator. (Steve Gold/19950918/Press Contact: Charles Stewart-Smith, C&W Europe, +44-171-353-1500) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 09/19/95 BUSINESS Italy - Olivetti/Northern Telecom Joint Venture (NEWS)(BUSINESS)(LON)(00017) Italy - Olivetti/Northern Telecom Joint Venture 09/19/95 IVREA, ITALY, 1995 SEP 19 (NB) -- Olivetti and Nortel (Northern Telecom) have announced the formation of a joint venture between the two companies to distribute and service Nortel's telecommunications products and systems for the Italian market. Terms of the deal call for Nortel to take a 49 percent stake in Sixtel, a subsidiary of Olivetti. The joint venture will involve the merging of Sixtel's resources in Italy with those of Nortel's in the area, with projected revenues of more than $60 million for the current year. The aim of the linkup between the two companies is that they will secure a major slice of the Italian PBX (private branch exchange) market in Italy, as well as the consequent transmission network markets. "This joint venture is a tremendous opportunity for Olivetti to strengthen its position in the Italian telecommunications market," said Carlo de Benedetti, Olivetti's chairman, announcing the deal. According to de Benedetti, Nortel offers a considerable degree of experience in enterprise and carrier networks and "will enhance our global offering as the main private telecommunications services provider in Italy. In addition, the Sixtel initiative further reinforces our existing commercial and technological ties with Nortel, which date from the late 1970's," he explained. According to de Benedetti, a wide range wide range of Nortel's products are already supplied to the Italian marketplace through Sixtel, whose customers include the Bank of Italy, the Italian Ministry of the Interior, the Ministry of Defense and a number of major private sector companies including Zanussi, Enichem, and 3M. Sixtel will service customers' needs through a combined operation of 15 sales and marketing support centers across Italy. Sixtel is also closely involved with the expansion of the telecoms network operated by Infostrada, Olivetti's Telemedia operation, which is set to become Italy's alternative telecoms operator. Sixtel is already working on installing several new ATM (asynchronous transfer mode) nodes, which will form the backbone of the new Infostrada network. "This joint venture is a tremendous opportunity for Olivetti to strengthen its position in the Italian telecommunications market. Nortel offers considerable experience in enterprise and carrier networks and will enhance our global offering as the main private telecommunications services provider in Italy. In addition, the Sixtel initiative further reinforces our existing commercial and technological ties with Nortel," de Benedetti said. (Sylvia Dennis/19950918/Press Contact: Jean-Yves Besnier, Nortel Europe, +33-1-4696-1753; Luciano Luffarelli, Olivetti, +39-125-522566) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 09/19/95 ONLINE UK - Carrera Sponsors Internet Innovation Dome (NEWS)(ONLINE)(LON)(00018) UK - Carrera Sponsors Internet Innovation Dome 09/19/95 LONDON, ENGLAND, 1995 SEP 19 (NB) -- Carrera Technology, the English PC manufacturer, has announced it is sponsoring the Innovation Dome at the Laboratory Science In Action Exhibition, which opens on October 3 and runs for three days at the Earls Court 2 exhibition center in London. According to officials with the PC manufacturer, the show aims to show visitors how scientists use the Internet for projects and information exchange. Plans call for 12 Internet-ready Carrera PCs with Easynet software to be set up at the exhibition to display various aspects of scientific information. Various demonstrations of the Internet and how it can be used by scientists will take place during the exhibition's three-day run. "This exhibition offers a positive example of how all kinds of people are using the Internet for everyone's benefit. It will give people the opportunity to see how British science is embracing the latest in communications technology to continue pushing forward the boundaries of knowledge," explained Colin Collier, Carrera Technology's managing director. According to Collier, the exhibition will present, in some detail, the history of the Internet and its benefits to visitors. Visitors will be encouraged to use the Internet on a hands-on basis, and search a selection of Web sites cover topics such as protein modeling by electronic-mail, three-dimensional molecular modeling, gene maps and specific gene sequences, online copies of major scientific journals, and ways of discussing the biodiversity topic over Internet. "As the first UK supplier of Internet-ready PCs and preferred supplier to the Cyberia chain of cyberfaces, Carrera was the natural choice as sponsor of the Innovation Dome," said Anita Howard, the Exhibitions Director for Reed Exhibitions. "This is the first time the Internet has featured so prominently in the Laboratory Science In Action Exhibition. With Carrera's advice and expertise, I'm confident our first Innovation Dome will be a huge success," she added. (Sylvia Dennis/19950918/Press Contact: Tim Crabtree, Lewis Communications, +44-171-831-4890) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 09/19/95 WINDOWS Microsoft Project For Windows 95 To Ship Next Week (NEWS)(WINDOWS)(DEN)(00019) Microsoft Project For Windows 95 To Ship Next Week 09/19/95 REDMOND, WASHINGTON, U.S.A., 1995 SEP 19 (NB) -- Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ: MSFT) has announced it will ship a Windows 95 version of its Microsoft Project software next week. #IMAGE 1 20 TWPCX \images\95091919.PCX Click here for photo The company said the upgrade to the project management software includes improved workgroup functionality, full ODBC (Open Database Connectivity) support, and integration with Microsoft Office for Windows 95. Microsoft Project version 4.0 added electronic-mail to allow workgroup participants to share project scheduling information, and Microsoft said Project for Windows 95 goes even further, with its improved workgroup functionality. Users can access MAPI (Mail Application Programming Interface) and vendor-independent messaging interface e-mail address books directly and can create customizable e-mail forms automatically. The forms can be used to help project managers delegate tasks, track confirmations and changes and compile status over existing e-mail systems like Microsoft Mail, cc:Mail, and Lotus Notes. Microsoft said it has also expanded the integration of Project with Microsoft Schedule+ for Windows 95 so project team members can automatically keep track of their tasks and progress in Schedule+, and can send status updates to the project manager via e-mail. The ODBC support added to Project for Windows 95 lets users integrate information from other databases into the project database. Project for Windows 95 can directly open or save project files in ODBC databases by using standard ODBC drivers. Support for Microsoft Exchange Server, which is scheduled for release by the end of 1995, is also included in Project for Windows 95. That support will allow users to post Project 95 files to Exchange Server public folders. Those folders can be replicated automatically throughout an enterprise network so users with appropriate access rights can view them. Through custom OLE (object linking and embedding) file properties, Project allows key data like percent complete, cost and finish dates to be exposed for each project file in the public folder without opening the file. Users can also drill down on the project file for more specific information. Project 95 includes a user-assistance model that is consistent with Office for Windows 95, Microsoft's multi-application software suite. Project includes AnswerWizard to answer user's questions, and Intellisense technologies like AutoCorrect are also available. AutoCorrect corrects typing errors as they occur. Microsoft said Project 95 also shares other features of Office for Windows 95, such as: File Open/Find; File Save; ScreenTips, the little yellow explanation boxes for functions that appear when your cursor moves over the function icon in an application; shortcut menus, menus relating to the current function that pop up at the click of the right mouse button; and the common user interface. Project 95 also takes advantage of Windows 95 features like long file names, Win32 API support, and Windows 95-style menus and tool bars. To use Microsoft Project for Windows 95 you need: a personal computer using a 386DX or higher chip (Microsoft recommends a 486); Microsoft Windows 95 or Microsoft Windows NT Workstation version 3.51 or later; a minimum of six megabytes (MB) of memory if running Windows 95 or 12MB of memory if running on Windows NT; one 3.5-inch floppy disk or a CD-ROM drive; a VGA or higher-resolution monitor (SVGA is recommended); and a mouse or compatible pointing device. If you are running Windows for Workgroups, you need a Windows- compatible network operating system and a MAPI-compliant or VIM mail system. Microsoft said Project 95 will be available at retailers for about $469 on September 25. Users of Microsoft Project 4.0 can upgrade for $149, but will get a $70 rebate, making the upgrade cost $79. Users of all other versions of Project can upgrade for about $149, and don't get a rebate. (Jim Mallory/19950918/Press contact: Courtenay Miles, Waggener Edstrom for Microsoft, 503-245-0905; Public contact: Microsoft, 206-882-8080 or 800-426-9400/MS_PROJ950919/PHOTO) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 09/19/05 NETWORK UK's Sonix To Launch ISDN Products Into US Marketplace (NEWS)(NETWORK)(LON)(00020) UK's Sonix To Launch ISDN Products Into US Marketplace 09/19/05 CIRENCESTER, GLOUCESTERSHIRE, ENGLAND, 1995 SEP 19 (NB) -- Sonix, now part of the 3Com group, has announced it will launch its Arpeggio range of ISDN (integrated services digital network) adapters at the Interop 95 show in Atlanta, which runs from September 27 to 29. The push into the US market, according to Cary Davey, a spokeswoman for Sonix, is made possible by 3Com's acquisition of Sonix earlier this year. "We will be using 3Com's resources in the US," she told Newsbytes, adding that the Arpeggio range will be sold through 3Com's US sales outlets. Bob Jones, the founder and managing director of Sonix, explained that, in the past, European companies have found it extremely difficult to compete in the US marketplace. "However, the limitation was often infrastructure rather than the products themselves. The combination of the well-proven Arpeggio range and 3Com's support organization makes us confident of becoming a major player in the US ISDN access market," he enthused. Interestingly, Jones notes that ISDN has been developing in different directions around the world. In the UK, he claims, the emphasis has been on interconnecting local area networks (LANs) and corporate access, while in the US, the main driver has been Internet access -- while the core technology is the same worldwide for ISDN bridging and routing. Because of this, Sonix claims it can capitalize on its market-leading position in the UK market, and the inherent economies of scale in producing for the US and UK markets. Apart from subtle differences in line interfaces, the US products are functionally identical to those in Europe. Products can interwork with the same performance and no loss of facilities," said Jones. "Matching the sheer scale of 3Com's purchasing and manufacturing capabilities with our understanding of this rather specialist market has enabled us the bring highly featured technology to market at very competitive prices," he explained. Newsbytes notes that Sonix, since its launch in 1992, has pushed the ISDN market forward in the UK and now holds 46 percent of the market. According to the company, its strategy for the US market is two-fold: to grow the underdeveloped market for small businesses and branch offices accessing corporate LANs across ISDN; and to carve itself a share of the exploding Internet access market. "We have the experience of opening up the market in the UK, where we took a complex technology and translated it into a business environment to bring real benefits to customers. We intend to repeat the process in the US," Jones said. According to Jones, ISDN in the US was initially hampered by carriers adopting different standards, so making transcontinental ISDN connections difficult, and resulting in ISDN being used primarily on a regional basis. "The US market is still somewhat fragmented, but things have improved significantly. The installed base is substantial and growing at a faster rate than anywhere else in the world. The sheer population density and the adoption of telecommunications and computer technology make it certain that demand for ISDN technology in North America will soon outstrip the whole of Europe," he said. (Steve Gold/19950918/Press & Reader Contact: Sonix, tel +44-1285-641651, fax +44-1285-642098) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 09/19/95 IBM Mainframe Delays Could Hurt IBM Quarter (NEWS)(IBM)(TOR)(00021) Mainframe Delays Could Hurt IBM Quarter 09/19/95 WHITE PLAINS, NEW YORK, U.S.A.,1995 SEP 19 (NB) -- A shortage of power supplies is holding up shipments of new mainframe computers that IBM (NYSE:IBM) announced during the summer, and customers eager for the new systems won't be the only ones hurt. IBM's results for the current quarter are likely to suffer as shipment delays push revenue over into the next quarter. Rob Wilson, a spokesman for IBM, told Newsbytes that the delays could push about $250 million in revenue from the third to the fourth quarter. He said IBM had no comment on the possible effect on its quarterly earnings. The problem, according to company spokesman Mike Shore, is that a third-party supplier is not making power supplies fast enough to keep up with IBM's production schedule for the mainframes. "He's not making as many as we need to meet our ramp-up," Shore told Newsbytes. IBM is working with the supplier, and expects production of the power supplies to catch up with demand for the new mainframes by about the end of the year, Shore said. In the meantime, he admitted, some customers will face delays of one to four weeks in getting the systems. The machines affected are new air-cooled units using complementary metal-oxide semiconductor (CMOS) technology, Shore said. Announced in early June, the System/390 Parallel Sysplex mainframes include a dozen models with from one to 10 processors. When they were announced, IBM touted them as more than doubling the power of existing CMOS servers. (Grant Buckler/19950919/Press Contact: Mike Shore, IBM, 914-892-7451; Rob Wilson, IBM, 914-765-6565) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 09/19/95 NETWORK CA Turns To Cheyenne For Data Mgt Alliance (NEWS)(NETWORK)(TOR)(00022) CA Turns To Cheyenne For Data Mgt Alliance 09/19/95 ISLANDIA, NEW YORK, U.S.A., 1995 SEP 19 (NB) -- Continuing its strategy of using alliances with other companies to build on the capabilities of its Unicenter systems management software, Computer Associates International Inc. (NYSE:CA) has announced an alliance with Cheyenne Software Inc. (AMEX:CYE). CA said it will sell new storage management options for Unicenter, based on Roslyn Heights, New York-based Cheyenne's backup and redundant arrays of inexpensive disks (RAID) technology. The deal adds data-management capabilities to Unicenter, which is a systems management product for Unix and other systems. Yogesh Gupta, senior vice-president of product strategy at Computer Associates, said in a teleconference with reporters and analysts that CA will offer two capabilities based on Cheyenne's technology: RAID-based backup providing fault-tolerance, and high-speed image-based disk backup. "Both of these," he said, "are added capabilities that go beyond the fundamental capabilities that Unicenter offers for backup and recovery." ReiJane Huai, president and chief executive of Cheyenne, said his company's technology will let CA's customers back up their disks at much higher speeds than they could before, and will also speed up data restore operations. Cheyenne said its RAID backup technology writes data to multiple tape drives at the same time, using RAID formats, so as to guarantee maximum data integrity. According to Huai, the agreement to link Cheyenne's technology with CA's Unicenter means that users of distributed systems, such as Unix machines, will have access to the same sort of data and enterprise management services available on older proprietary or "legacy" systems. CA plans to offer the Cheyenne products through all of its distribution channels, Gupta said. "The products are almost ready to go" in their Unicenter-adapted form, and beta versions will be available before the end of the next quarter, he said, with full availability planned soon afterward. Computer Associates has a site on the World Wide Web at http://www.cai.com . (Grant Buckler/19950919/Press Contact: Denise Behringer, Cheyenne Software, 516-629-4459; Bob Gordon, Computer Associates, tel 516-342-2291, fax 516-342-5329) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 09/19/95 PC Dell Cuts Optiplex PC Prices (NEWS)(PC)(DEN)(00023) Dell Cuts Optiplex PC Prices 09/19/95 AUSTIN, TEXAS, U.S.A., 1995 SEP 19 (NB) -- Dell Computer Corp. (NASDAQ: DELL) has announced price cuts of up to 16 percent for popular configurations of the company's Optiplex line of desktop PCs. Dell said the reduced prices are effective immediately on all Dell Optiplex X500 models, a line designed for corporate users, and the Optiplex DGX systems targeted at power users. Dell first introduced the Optiplex line in August, 1993, as part of its marketing plan to create specific products for different user levels. The Optiplex is targeted at "techno-critical" users. The company defines a "techno-critical user" as a corporate or business user who relies on computers for more sophisticated tasks which are critical to doing his or her job, such as computer-aided design or computer-aided engineering. According to Tom Martin, Dell vice president of major accounts marketing, the pricing action is the result of component cost savings and efficiencies within the company. Under the new pricing schedule, an Optiplex XL 5133 slimline desktop PC that has been priced at $3,805 when configured with a 133 megahertz (MHz) Pentium microprocessor, 16 megabytes (MB) of memory, a one gigabyte (GB) capacity hard drive, a 15-inch color monitor, and a mouse, and with Microsoft Windows 95 or Windows 3.11 pre-installed got the biggest reduction -- 16 percent -- and now carries a $3,215 price tag. Other examples of the new pricing are an Optiplex DGX 5133 133MHz Pentium-based dual-processor capable system with 32MB of memory, a 1GB SCSI (small computer system interface) hard drive, mouse, 15-inch monitor, and Windows NT installed was cut from $5,380 to $4,770. At the low end of the Optiplex line is the XL 5100 slimline with a 100MHz Pentium processor, 8MB of memory, a 540MB hard drive, mouse, and Windows 95 or Windows 3.11, which now sells for $2,340, a six percent savings. In the mini-tower configurations, an Optiplex XMT 5120, with a 120MHz chip, 16MB of memory, a 540MB hard drive, 15-inch color monitor, a mouse, and Windows, now sells for $2,975. Dell provides a three-year service and support program that includes unlimited toll-free hardware technical support around the clock and a 30-day money-back guarantee. Dell maintains a toll-free number and a home page on the World Wide Web at http://www.dell.com/ for additional information about its products. (Jim Mallory/19950919/Press contact: Dean Kline, Dell Computer, 512-728-4100; Public contact: Dell, 512-338-4400 or 800-289-3355) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 09/19/95 ONLINE America Online "Official Online" Home Of NFL (NEWS)(ONLINE)(MSP)(00024) America Online "Official Online" Home Of NFL 09/19/95 VIENNA, VIRGINIA, U.S.A., 1995 SEP 19 (NB) -- The crackling of shoulder pads, the grunts of linemen as they protect their quarterback, and the cheers of the crowd don't translate well into cyberspace. What does work is information about football teams -- and ABC Sports, the National Football League (NFL), and America Online (NASDAQ:AMER) will begin providing those details electronically for AOL members to access. The three companies have announced a three-way partnership in which AOL will become the exclusive online provider for the NFL during the regular season, as well as the official online site through the playoffs and the 1996 Pro Bowl Game. ABC Sports will produce the area, called "Team NFL," which is scheduled to launch in October. Ann Kirschner, vice president of programming and media development for NFL Enterprises, told Newsbytes, AOL does an "excellent job" in providing sports information to its subscribers. "America Online has a premier position, not only in overall subscriptions, but in sports programming," she said, and the latter attracted the NFL to AOL. Also, she said the three-way partnership will be a "unique combination" in providing NFL coverage. The agreement lasts through the 1995-1996 season only, she added. The Team NFL area will include message boards, exclusive live chat events, team profiles and information, player stats, and game schedules. In addition, Pro Bowl ballots will be taken through AOL, so members can vote on their favorite players. Those players then meet in the Pro Bowl, which occurs after the Super Bowl. The NFL also produces an area on the Internet's World Wide Web, also called Team NFL, at http://nflhome.com . (Bob Woods/19950919/Press Contacts: Andrew Dallos, ABC Sports Media Relations, 212-456-4878; Mary Griswold, National Football League, 212-758-1500; Pam McGraw, America Online, 703-556-3746) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 09/19/95 ONLINE ****AT&T Launches Business Network (NEWS)(ONLINE)(TOR)(00025) ****AT&T Launches Business Network 09/19/95 CAMBRIDGE, MASSACHUSETTS, U.S.A., 1995 SEP 19 (NB) -- AT&T (NYSE:T) is going after the business market with a new online service it calls AT&T Business Network. Based on the Interchange Online Network that AT&T acquired from publisher Ziff-Davis, the Business Network is due to be generally available this fall after testing slated to begin in two weeks. AT&T also announced the formation of AT&T New Media Services, a business unit that the company said will offer online services aimed at business and professional users. Michael Kolowich, former president of the AT&T Interchange unit, becomes president of New Media Services. Interchange becomes part of the new business unit. John Petrillo, president of AT&T Business Communications Services, said in a teleconference this morning that the company is also setting up a second new unit to address the consumer online market. He said these new businesses are part of the online and Internet strategy the company unveiled in mid-August. Kolowich said during the teleconference that AT&T Business Network will be the first of a number of new services that AT&T New Media Services will launch over the coming year. AT&T Business Network will provide an assortment of business news and information from various information providers, including Dow Jones & Co., Dun & Bradstreet Information Services, the Bureau of National Affairs, the Kiplinger Washington Editors Inc., and others. In addition to 24 information providers named at launch, Kolowich promised that "a steady stream of additional announcements...can be expected from us between now and the end of the year." Besides the information on the network itself, AT&T's offering will also provide access to the Internet. Built into the Business Network will be Netscape's Navigator browser for the World Wide Web, and the system will also provide access to other Internet services such as Usenet news groups, officials said. Kolowich said AT&T intends to focus its marketing on small businesses and individuals initially, believing that these are the customers with the most need for services like those the Business Network provides. AT&T will also be selling advertising on the network, but will not begin this in earnest until the first half of 1996, he said. AT&T Business Network will cost $39.95 per month for 10 hours of connect time, plus $2.95 per hour for additional hours. Those who sign up by the end of this year will get a reduced rate of $24.95 per month through June 30, 1996. The monthly fee includes Internet links, the Netscape Navigator software, and electronic-mail. However, some of the information providers will charge premiums for all or part of the information they offer on the network. Using the system will require a personal computer with a 386 or later processor, Microsoft Windows 3.1 or Windows 95, four megabytes (MB) of memory (AT&T strongly recommends 8MB), 10MB of available hard disk space, a VGA display or better, a modem that handles at least 9,600 bits- per-second, and a Windows-compatible mouse. (Grant Buckler/19950919/Press Contact: Lisa Landa, AT&T New Media Services, 617-252-5211; Jennifer Christensen, AT&T New Media Services, 617-252-5477; Public Contact: AT&T Business Network, 800-660-2299) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 09/19/95 ONLINE Bell Canada Backs Down On "The Net" Trademark (NEWS)(ONLINE)(TOR)(00026) Bell Canada Backs Down On "The Net" Trademark 09/19/95 TORONTO, ONTARIO, CANADA, 1995 SEP 19 (NB) -- Apparently bowing to an outcry that arose late last week in certain Internet newsgroups, Canada's largest telephone company has dropped its bid to obtain a Canadian trademark on the phrase "The Net." To Internet users around the world, that phrase -- usually without the capital letters -- is an abbreviation for "the Internet." In messages that appeared in the can.infohighway, can.legal, and other newsgroups last week, a number of users protested Bell's bid to trademark the name, which was made known by a Hamilton, Ontario lawyer in a newsgroup posting recently. For Bell, The Net has been the name of a proprietary set of communications offerings from subsidiary WorldLinx Telecommunications Inc. for several years. Sarah Hastie, director of marketing and communications at WorldLinx, told Newsbytes her company applied for the trademark in 1992, at which time officials weren't aware the name would become so widely associated with the Internet. "We were looking for a phrase that would indicate the fact that this was for a set of network-centric services," she said. Last week's outcry on the Internet included a posting by David Jones at McMaster University in Hamilton, saying that a group called Electronic Frontier Canada would formally oppose Bell's trademark application, and saying that Bell's move was widely considered "arrogant" among the Canadian online community. On Friday, Hastie posted a message to newsgroups where the debate was taking place, saying Bell had decided to withdraw the trademark application. However, she told Newsbytes WorldLinx plans to continue using the name for its portfolio of communications services for the foreseeable future. She denied that the popular association of the phrase with the Internet is a disadvantage for WorldLinx. "We have penetration and market presence in an electronic business environment," she said, noting that many of WorldLinx's customers are not heavy Internet users and the phrase may not have the same associations for them as it does for the Internet community. (Grant Buckler/19950919/Press Contact: Sarah Hastie, WorldLinx Telecommunications, 416-350-1350) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 09/19/95 CHIPS ****Chip Maker Says 486 Price Slashing Inevitable (NEWS)(CHIPS)(DEN)(00027) ****Chip Maker Says 486 Price Slashing Inevitable 09/19/95 RICHARDSON, TEXAS, U.S.A., 1995 SEP 19 (NB) -- A senior executive at the chip company that successfully challenged Intel Corp. told analysts this week that his company will exit the 486 chip market before the bottom drops out of the market for those chips. Jim Chapman, senior vice president at Cyrix Corp. (NASDAQ: CYRX) made his remarks at a Montgomery securities conference in San Francisco earlier this week. Chapman said Cyrix is "very close" to beginning volume shipments of its new M1 chip, its competitor to Intel's Pentium chip. The company's vice president of marketing said the M1 will ship early in the fourth quarter. Chapman said personal computers made with 486 chips face very little current demand, and consequently, inventory by all makers is building up. The executive called the situation "a recipe for severe price declines with very little price elasticity." "We are very happy to be exiting the 486 market," Chapman said. Steve Tobak, Cyrix vice president of marketing, told Newsbytes consumers who don't need "bleeding edge" technology can, or will shortly be able to, buy a fully configured multimedia 486-based PC with monitor included for under $1,000 and Pentium-class machines are also dropping in price, heading for the $1,200 or $1,300 price point. However, he cautions that if you need high-level multimedia capabilities you will still need a Pentium, or better yet an M1-based PC. He also cautions that 486-based PCs bought today may have trouble running the applications of tomorrow. "The consumer needs to be really concerned with where the future is going. If the consumer is interested in doing multitasking on Windows 95, wants to run high-performance applications and games and do telephony applications, and do some modeming, the consumer needs to be a little bit concerned with the capabilities of the 486 in terms of processing power for multimedia applications," he told Newsbytes. The Cyrix marketing executive said the consumer market is actually ahead of the commercial market these days. Consumers want the latest technology, while commercial buyers lag behind "by quite a ways." "You can still sell 486 machines in the commercial market but the pricing is definitely collapsing very rapidly," Tobak told Newsbytes. Tobak said the M1 will compare favorably with the cost of the Pentium and even Intel's next-generation P6 chip. The M1 also performs favorably in competition to Intel processors, according to benchmark test results released recently and reported by Newsbytes. Cyrix also markets a 5x86 chip, an earlier product now shipping in high-volume quantities which Tobak describes as an entry-level processor comparable to the 100MHz Pentium chips. He explained that the 5x86 not only integrates some of the performance features of the M1 chip, but also has a 486 interface. That lets Cyrix market the 5x86 for makers of motherboards that were designed to use 486 chips. The Cyrix chip reportedly offers entry-level Pentium class performance equivalent to a Pentium 75-MHz or 90MHz chip but in a 486 package. "That means it can effectively plug into, or be designed into, a 486 mother- board. We were playing off the knowledge that the 486 margins were collapsing rapidly. We knew there would be a tremendous demand by motherboard manufacturers to be able to offload their 486 designs but with Pentium class performance," according to Tobak. Tobak told Newsbytes the M1 chip will cost several times more than the 5x86 and will be priced "similarly" with the Pentium chip. The M1 is both superscalar and superpipelined, meaning the pipeline is divided into seven stages to provide higher frequencies and better performance. It uses two separate instructions pipelines so the chip can execute two separate sets of instructions in parallel. Don't look for a Cyrix announcement about a successor to the M1 in the near future. Tobak said Cyrix designers are working on several new architectures, but doesn't expect to make a new chip announcement "for a long time." He said the way chip makers stretch out the life of a chip is to increase the speed of the chip. The M1 will launch at 100MHz and will then evolve to 120MHz, 133MHz, and faster versions. Cyrix came to life as a company that marketed math coprocessor chips and later upgrade chips. It successfully challenged Cyrix in court and won the right to sell competitive chips. The company reported record sales of $246 million for 1994, nearly doubling its 1993 results. Earnings per share for 1994 were $1.88. Cyrix revenues in the first half of 1995 were almost completely derived from the sale of 486 chips. (Jim Mallory/19950919/press contact: Michelle Moody, Cyrix, 214-968-8302; Public contact: Cyrix, 214-968-8387 or 800-486-2974) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 09/19/95 ONLINE ****Prodigy Brings US Papal Visit To Internet (NEWS)(ONLINE)(SFO)(00028) ****Prodigy Brings US Papal Visit To Internet 09/19/95 WHITE PLAINS, NEW YORK, U.S.A., 1995 SEP 19 (NB) -- Prodigy is creating a multimedia presentation built around the October visit of Pope John Paul II. Prodigy members and Internet users will have access to live transcripts of mass homilies and appearances, photos, live chat interviews, and a directory of official documents and speeches. The US Papal Tour begins October 4 and concludes October 8. Pope John Paul II's visit centers around the fiftieth anniversary of the United Nations. His address to the UN highlights the four-day visit which covers stops in New York, Brooklyn, Newark, New Jersey, and Baltimore. When asked about possible subjects for the Papal address, Father Paul Keenan, assistant director of the Archdiocese of New York and Prodigy weekly chat host, told Newsbytes, "This is the Year of the Woman and after the Beijing conference, I think the Pope will speak on some of the issues which were discussed at the conference. Along with issues surrounding morality, we expect to hear the Pope address economic and social issues." Keenan continued, "I expect part of the Pope's address will focus on the problems of worldwide literacy and violence to women and children. In addition to, and as a compliment to, women's issues, he will also address the issues surrounding families and our youth." Newsbytes learned the Pope plans a separate visit with representatives from the Muslim faith and a separate visit with leaders of the Jewish faith. Prodigy's online team plans to provide extensive coverage of the four-day tour. A press room at the New York Sheraton Hotel will be headquarters for much of the coverage and Prodigy plans to offer a number of live conferences and interviews with various dignitaries and papal officials. Prodigy says its presentation of religious topics and events is one of its most active areas. Now that Prodigy is designed in hypertext markup language (HTML), its multimedia coverage of the tour may be immediately linked to other Papal and Roman Catholic World Wide Web sites. The coverage may be found on Prodigy under "Papal Visit" or at http://www.prodigy.com on the Internet. (Patrick McKenna/19950919/Press Contact: Carol Wallace, Prodigy, 914-448-2496) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 09/19/95 ONLINE ****Compuserve To Offer Online Voice Conferencing (NEWS)(ONLINE)(SFO)(00029) ****Compuserve To Offer Online Voice Conferencing 09/19/95 COLUMBUS, OHIO, U.S.A., 1995 SEP 19 (NB) -- Compuserve has licensed Xing Technology's voice and audio compression and decompression software for live delivery of audio from online conferences. The new technology is built into Compuserve's new version of software which ships the first part of October. Jeff Shafer, spokesperson for Compuserve, told Newsbytes, "With version 2.0 of WinCIM, our members will be able to easily receive an almost instantaneous audio transmission with online conferences. Any member with the software and a Windows-compatible sound system on their personal computer can receive the audio delivery." At this time, Compuserve is not saying which conference will be the first to offer full audio, but some observers expect the online service will feature a highly advertised, current event. Xing Technology, of San Louis Obispo, California, is the creator of StreamWorks and Compuserve has licensed the audio components of the software. Xing's StreamWorks technology uses low bit rate (LBR) voice audio to compress approximately one second of voice into 1,000 bytes of data. This means Compuserve members can receive "AM radio quality sound" in almost real-time. StreamWorks technology is meant for live audio transmission and does not replace standard .wav files. Shafer also said, "Right now, audio quality is limited by existing bandwidth capabilities. As the bandwidth is increased, audio quality will begin to reach the level of CD audio quality." Adding almost real-time audio to conferencing is just the first implementation of this technology for Compuserve. Shafer says users should expect more audio features to the entire service throughout the year. Newsbytes also learned Compuserve plans to reveal more features of WinCIM Version 2.0 in the next few weeks. Until this audio announcement, Compuserve has released very few details of the new version saying its main feature is a built-in Internet/Web browser. Compuserve members can expect even more integration of audio technology in WinCIM version 3.0 which is scheduled for the end of 1995. The deal with Xing also includes MPEG (Motion Picture Experts Group) audio technology. MPEG audio means users will be able to experience the same quality of audio found in standard CDs. Portions of Xing's audio and video technology has also been licensed by Microsoft, Intel, Bellcore, NTT Japan, Hewlett-Packard, Fujitsu, Samsung, and IBM. (Patrick McKenna/1995/Press Contact: Jeff Shafer, Compuserve, 614-538-4632) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 09/19/95 ONLINE ****Compuserve Is Not Buying Interest In Prodigy (NEWS)(ONLINE)(SFO)(00030) ****Compuserve Is Not Buying Interest In Prodigy 09/19/95 COLUMBUS, OHIO, U.S.A., 1995 SEP 19 (NB) -- Trying to put an end to an "unfortunate" rumor, both Compuserve and Prodigy are saying there is not truth to the stories about Compuserve attempting to purchase 50% of Prodigy held by Sears & Roebuck. Jeff Shafer, spokesperson for Compuserve told Newsbytes, "There is no truth to the story which is currently on the all the news services. We have asked for, and expect a retraction, from a number of media sources." Apparently, Ad Age ran a story suggesting Compuserve was looking into the possibility of buying Sears' interest in Prodigy. Compuserve says Ad Age was unable to get in touch with Compuserve and ran the story. Once it was picked-up by the wire services, the news ran fast and furiously about Compuserve buying a 50% share of Prodigy. Prodigy is owned by IBM and Sears & Roebuck. In the past year, a number of rumors have surfaced about Sears' desire to sell its 50% interest, which is estimated at $500 million. While most analysts think Sears has had talks with IBM and others regarding a possible purchase, this particular story is denied by both Compuserve and Prodigy. Prodigy executive, Brian Ek, told Newsbytes, "I had a call from Compuserve and they told me about the Ad Age story and assured me there was no truth to it. That is the end of it." (Patrick McKenna/19950919) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 09/19/95 ONLINE ****Security Flaw In Netscape Browser (NEWS)(ONLINE)(SFO)(00031) ****Security Flaw In Netscape Browser 09/19/95 MOUNTAIN VIEW, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1995 SEP 19 (NB) -- Two first year graduate students from the University of California have discovered a flaw in Netscape Communications (NASDAQ:NSCP) Navigator World WIde Web browser software. Not only that, but they released their findings on the Internet, saying a criminal could break into the software's security system in less than a minute. In an interview with Newsbytes, Netscape confirmed the existence of the flaw as discovered by the students. Jeff Treuhaft, Netscape's product manager, said, "We will have a fix ready in one week. The reason it is taking so long is that we want to pass it (the fix) through RSA Labs and other security experts." Yesterday, Netscape announced Navigator 2.0 and said it will be available as a public beta next week. The flaw was found on earlier versions of Navigator and Netscape says version 2.0 will not contain the flaw when the software becomes available next week. Treuhaft also said the flaw was very specific and localized. The vulnerability discovered by the students was limited to two platforms. (Patrick McKenna/1995/Press Contact: Rosanne Siino, Netscape, 415-528-2619) (SUMMARY)(GENERAL)(MSP)(00032) Newsbytes Daily Summary 09/19/95 MINNEAPOLIS, MINNESOTA, U.S.A., 1995 SEP 19 (NB) -- These are capsules of all today's news stories: ======================================================================== ------------| N E W S B Y T E S D A I L Y S U M M A R Y |---------- ------------| Tuesday, September 19, 1995 |---------- ======================================================================== (c) Newsbytes News Network (Tm) Editor in Chief: Wendy Woods ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Newsbytes News Network's 1995 Update CD-ROM for Mac, DOS, and Windows is now available for $29.95 (includes s&h). Contains 1983-1995 news stories, more than 64,000 keyword searchable stories and 475 digitized images. For more information or to order, fax to 612-430-0441 or e-mail to 'administrator@newsbytes.com' -- MC, Visa, Amex accepted. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ CATEGORY HEADLINES (*** indicates today's top stories) STORY # ======================================================================== BUSINESS Top 5 Australian Apple Reseller Fails...................... 07 BUSINESS Microsoft Australia Refutes Press Story About "Loyalty..... 08 BUSINESS Japan - NTT Profits Fall As Firm Fights Break Up Call...... 10 BUSINESS Japan - OKI Ties With Sensar For Advanced Security......... 14 BUSINESS Italy - Olivetti/Northern Telecom Joint Venture............ 17 CHIPS ****Chip Maker Says 486 Price Slashing Inevitable......... 27 EDUCATION Earn High School Diploma On The Web........................ 05 EDUCATION Internet CollegeAssist For High School Students............ 06 IBM IBM's AS/400 System Gains Popularity In Russia............. 11 IBM Mainframe Delays Could Hurt IBM Quarter.................... 21 LEGAL BSA Nets $0.5Million In 3 Piracy Settlements............... 02 NETWORK Artisoft Intros 32-bit Client For Windows 95............... 01 NETWORK UK's Sonix To Launch ISDN Products Into US Marketplace..... 20 NETWORK CA Turns To Cheyenne For Data Mgt Alliance................. 22 ONLINE Using E-Mail To Send Snail Mail............................ 04 ONLINE Internet Update............................................ 09 ONLINE Open Text Teams With Yahoo! On Searchable Web Guide........ 12 ONLINE First Union Offers Internet Banking For Business/Consumers. 15 ONLINE UK - Carrera Sponsors Internet Innovation Dome............. 18 ONLINE America Online "Official Online" Home Of NFL............... 24 ONLINE ****AT&T Launches Business Network........................ 25 ONLINE Bell Canada Backs Down On "The Net" Trademark.............. 26 ONLINE ****Prodigy Brings US Papal Visit To Internet............. 28 ONLINE ****Compuserve To Offer Online Voice Conferencing......... 29 ONLINE ****Compuserve Is Not Buying Interest In Prodigy.......... 30 ONLINE ****Security Flaw In Netscape Browser..................... 31 PC Dell Cuts Optiplex PC Prices............................... 23 TELECOM UK - Cable & Wireless Wins Submarine Cable Deal............ 16 UNIX HP Intros PowerWise UPS Packages, Price Reductions......... 13 WINDOWS What Ever Happened To Microsoft Bob........................ 03 WINDOWS Microsoft Project For Windows 95 To Ship Next Week......... 19 ======================================================================== These are the headlines and first paragraphs of each story, in order: 1 -> Artisoft Intros 32-bit Client For Windows 95 -- Artisoft Inc. (NASDAQ:ASFT) has announced a new LANtastic 32-bit client software package that will let LANtastic users add PCs running Windows 95 to their networks as full clients. The company will distribute the software at no cost to users of LANtastic, LANtastic Power Suite, and Simply LANtastic networks. 2 -> BSA Nets $0.5Million In 3 Piracy Settlements -- The Business Software Alliance has reached settlements with three firms totaling $548,000 to settle charges of software piracy. BSA says one settlement 3 -> What Ever Happened To Microsoft Bob -- Have you been wondering what ever happened to Microsoft Bob, the nerdy looking guy with the heavy glasses that represented a "more casual user interface" to Windows? Well, Bob is still around and according to his parents 4 -> Using E-Mail To Send Snail Mail -- Sending real mail via cyberspace 5 -> Earn High School Diploma On The Web -- For people who want to complete their high school education, but don't want to travel long distances or go to school at odd times of the day or night, the Bloomington (Minnesota) Public School system has developed a way to "attend" class via the Internet. 6 -> Internet CollegeAssist For High School Students -- CollegeAssist, a new college planning service, will debut on the Internet September 26. Targeted at sophomore through senior high school students and their counselors, CollegeAssist provides information helping students gain admission to their college of choice. 7 -> Top 5 Australian Apple Reseller Fails -- Leading Sydney Apple reseller Mac Computer Systems Pty Ltd., has gone down the tubes and the receivers are working against the clock to organize a sale while the business is still ticking over. John Gibbons, of the Ernst & Young group, advertised the Sussex Street Apple Centre in last week's Sydney papers. 8 -> Microsoft Australia Refutes Press Story About "Loyalty -- A Financial Review newspaper report which claimed Microsoft was to be carpeted by the Federal Government for failing to meet its partnership obligations was "totally inaccurate" in its thrust, Microsoft's advanced technology chief Daniel Petre said on Sunday in a press release. 9 -> Internet Update -- In this roundup of new services and resources on the global Internet: Hitachi America joins the Web, Political cartoon of the day, Worldwide cultural exchange, Online high school diploma available, African information resource, Catholic information center on the Internet, Autoweek goes AWOL, Newsfile medical information. 10 -> Japan - NTT Profits Fall As Firm Fights Break Up Call -- Faced with the increasing possibility of a break up of the company, Nippon Telegraph and Telephone (NTT) has announced a reorganization plan. At the same time, a leading newspaper said profits in the current fiscal year would be down. 11 -> IBM's AS/400 System Gains Popularity In Russia -- IBM's AS/400 mid-range computer platform is gaining in popularity in Russia. Initially, promotion of this system was hindered by unavailability of Russian counterparts of the computers, although manufacturing of PC and mainframes was under way. 12 -> Open Text Teams With Yahoo! On Searchable Web Guide -- In a videoconferenced and teleconferenced press event, Open Text announced plans to incorporate its Web Search Server into the Yahoo! Internet guide, the first in a planned series of online- oriented OEM (original equipment manufacturer) deals for Open Text's search and retrieval technology, commercially marketed as Open Text Latitude. 13 -> HP Intros PowerWise UPS Packages, Price Reductions -- Hewlett-Packard's new PowerWise UPS (uninterruptible power supply) packages incorporate "significant price reductions," plus four other big items that HP has found on UPS users' wish lists since entering the UPS market less than a year ago, said John Page, PowerWise UPS program manager, in an interview with Newsbytes. 14 -> Japan - OKI Ties With Sensar For Advanced Security -- Sensar Inc. has announced the first in a string of coming business alliances with major corporations in the financial market over a new security system that could replace systems such as PIN numbers in bank automated teller machines (ATM) and find its way to desktop computers as part of videoconferencing systems. 15 -> First Union Offers Internet Banking For Business/Consumers -- First Union Corporation (NYSE:FTU) will begin allowing its consumer and business customers to manage their accounts with the bank via the Internet's World Wide Web. The new program, called "WEBInVision," will launch services for its business customers in November, after testing the system in early to mid-October. 16 -> UK - Cable & Wireless Wins Submarine Cable Deal -- Cable & Wireless has announced it has won a $105 million contract to lay the major part of the world's longest ever submarine telecoms cable. According to officials with C&W, the contract is the largest ever submarine cable deal of its type and will result in the Eastern and Western hemispheres of the world being linked by submarine fiber optic cable. 17 -> Italy - Olivetti/Northern Telecom Joint Venture -- Olivetti and Nortel (Northern Telecom) have announced the formation of a joint venture between the two companies to distribute and service Nortel's telecommunications products and systems for the Italian market. 18 -> UK - Carrera Sponsors Internet Innovation Dome -- Carrera Technology, the English PC manufacturer, has announced it is sponsoring the Innovation Dome at the Laboratory Science In Action Exhibition, which opens on October 3 and runs for three days at the Earls Court 2 exhibition center in London. 19 -> Microsoft Project For Windows 95 To Ship Next Week -- Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ: MSFT) has announced it will ship a Windows 95 version of its Microsoft Project software next week. 20 -> UK's Sonix To Launch ISDN Products Into US Marketplace -- Sonix, now part of the 3Com group, has announced it will launch its Arpeggio range of ISDN (integrated services digital network) adapters at the Interop 95 show in Atlanta, which runs from September 27 to 29. 21 -> Mainframe Delays Could Hurt IBM Quarter -- A shortage of power supplies is holding up shipments of new mainframe computers that IBM (NYSE:IBM) announced during the summer, and customers eager for the new systems won't be the only ones hurt. IBM's results for the current quarter are likely to suffer as shipment delays push revenue over into the next quarter. 22 -> CA Turns To Cheyenne For Data Mgt Alliance -- Continuing its strategy of using alliances with other companies to build on the capabilities of its Unicenter systems management software, Computer Associates International Inc. (NYSE:CA) has announced an alliance with Cheyenne Software Inc. (AMEX:CYE). 23 -> Dell Cuts Optiplex PC Prices -- Dell Computer Corp. (NASDAQ: DELL) has announced price cuts of up to 16 percent for popular configurations of the company's Optiplex line of desktop PCs. 24 -> America Online "Official Online" Home Of NFL -- The crackling of shoulder pads, the grunts of linemen as they protect their quarterback, and the cheers of the crowd don't translate well into cyberspace. What does work is information about football teams 25 -> ****AT&T Launches Business Network -- AT&T (NYSE:T) is going after the business market with a new online service it calls AT&T Business Network. Based on the Interchange Online Network that AT&T acquired from publisher Ziff-Davis, the Business Network is due to be generally available this fall after testing slated to begin in two weeks. 26 -> Bell Canada Backs Down On "The Net" Trademark -- Apparently bowing to an outcry that arose late last week in certain Internet newsgroups, Canada's largest telephone company has dropped its bid to obtain a Canadian trademark on the phrase "The Net." 27 -> ****Chip Maker Says 486 Price Slashing Inevitable -- A senior executive at the chip company that successfully challenged Intel Corp. told analysts this week that his company will exit the 486 chip market before the bottom drops out of the market for those chips. 28 -> ****Prodigy Brings US Papal Visit To Internet -- Prodigy is creating a multimedia presentation built around the October visit of Pope John Paul II. Prodigy members and Internet users will have access to live transcripts of mass homilies and appearances, photos, live chat interviews, and a directory of official documents and speeches. 29 -> ****Compuserve To Offer Online Voice Conferencing -- Compuserve has licensed Xing Technology's voice and audio compression and decompression software for live delivery of audio from online conferences. The new technology is built into Compuserve's new version of software which ships the first part of October. 30 -> ****Compuserve Is Not Buying Interest In Prodigy -- Trying to put an end to an "unfortunate" rumor, both Compuserve and Prodigy are saying there is not truth to the stories about Compuserve attempting to purchase 50% of Prodigy held by Sears & Roebuck. 31 -> ****Security Flaw In Netscape Browser -- Two first year graduate students from the University of California have discovered a flaw in Netscape Communications (NASDAQ:NSCP) Navigator World WIde Web browser software. Not only that, but they released their findings on the Internet, saying a criminal could break into the software's security system in less than a minute. (Ian Stokell/19950919) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 09/18/95 TELECOM Australia - Computers & Comms Council Meeting (NEWS)(TELECOM)(SYD)(00001) Australia - Computers & Comms Council Meeting 09/18/95 SYDNEY, AUSTRALIA 1995 SEP 18 (NB) -- Now that he has On Australia up and operating, Bill Gates' eyes have turned to the heavens above Australia. Trenholme Griffin and Ed Miller, from Teledesic USA, rocked up to the Sydney Opera House recently as late starters for the International Computers and Communications world leaders council. Teledesic is the $10 billion venture in which Microsoft's Bill Gates has invested personally, along with US giant McCaw Cellular. It plans to launch no fewer than 840 small satellites to introduce universal broadband digital communication, carrying voice, data, graphics, animation, and video. The advantage is that it is independent of fixed cabling, which allows it to serve mobile and rural areas where Telstra and Optus wire will not stretch for many years, if ever. Teledesic aims to provide multi-cellular 1.2 gigabits-per-second (Gbps) services at low cost or millions of 16 kilobits-per-second (Kbps) voice or data circuits (or alternatively combinations of bandwidths). Conference organizers say the Sydney meeting is occurring at a critical time in the convergence of computers and communications. Simon Maxwell, managing director of Information Gateways in Sydney, who is co-chairman of the conference, predicts that as the information technology (IT) streams converge, telecoms will follow the computer path of doubling capacity every 18 months or so. Said Maxwell, "The network will no longer be the computer nor the telecommunications network. But rather, the network is the marketplace. Banks, insurance companies, government, publishers, and many others will use transactions in this new network marketplace as their common currency (Computer Daily News/19950915) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 09/18/95 ONLINE Compuserve Offers Database Of CD-ROMs, Aptiva PC Bundling (NEWS)(ONLINE)(MSP)(00002) Compuserve Offers Database Of CD-ROMs, Aptiva PC Bundling 09/18/95 COLUMBUS, OHIO, U.S.A., 1995 SEP 18 (NB) -- Compuserve has announced two new programs that either help existing subscribers, or help the service gain new members. The network's members can now access information on more than 9,300 CD-ROMs, and buyers of IBM Aptiva computers will be able to access the service as soon as they turn on their new systems. First, Compuserve has started offering "CDROMBase Online," which is a searchable database of software titles that run on Windows, DOS, Macintosh, and 11 other platforms. Nearly 1,800 publishers are represented in the database, which was compiled by Optical Publishing Association (OPA) President Rich Bowers. "Our members are very much involved in multimedia as well as online," Jan Bowers (no relation to Rich Bowers), Compuserve spokesperson, told Newsbytes. "We have had several products that marry the two media together, including the Compuserve CD." In addition, she said the online service has hosted a CD-ROM forum for several years. The categories of software in the database span from children's games to business resources, and titles from the "AAA Trip Planner" to "Zelda" The Wand of Gamelon." Prices for the programs also vary widely, from $4.95 to more than $50,000 per year. The OPA estimates CD sales at about $3 billion in 1994, rising to $4.5 billion in 1995. The organization also said CD-ROMs are distributed more widely than any other storage medium, with sales occurring in all types of settings. The CDROMBase Online can be reached within Compuserve by typing "GO CDROM" (without quotes). People who purchase new IBM Aptiva computers will be able to easily connect to Compuserve, because the Compuserve Information Manager (CIM) will already be preloaded on the buyer's machine, officials said. The Aptiva also features a software program called "Journalist," which will automatically search the service for topics pre-selected by the computer user. The results from the search are then presented with a newspaper-style document. An IBM product support forum is also available through the online service for Aptiva users, along with other IBM computer owners. Compuserve subscribers can access the forum by typing "GO IBM" (without quotes). Compuserve's CIM is also bundled on personal computers from companies like Compaq, Packard Bell, AST, NEC, Acer, Epson, and Digital Equipment. For additional information on Compuserve, Internet users can access the company's World Wide Web page http://www.compuserve.com . The company is a division of H&R Block Company (NYSE:HRB). (Bob Woods/19950915/Press Contacts: Debra Young, 614-538-4553, or Carrie Reber, 614-538-4092, both of Compuserve) (ADVISORY)(GENERAL)(MSP)(00003) NewsPix Images For Newsbytes Publishers 09/18/95 MINNEAPOLIS, MINNESOTA, U.S.A.,1995 SEP 18 (NB) -- These photos correspond to recent Newsbytes stories. They are online in the Newsbytes menu on America Online, NiftyServe, and the Newsbytes private bulletin board system in Minneapolis. JPEG (Joint Photographic Experts Group) files are larger in size, PICT files are designed as thumbnails for onscreen viewing. The photos are titled with name/year/month/day. PICT/thumbnail pictures are black and white (gray scale). File message will indicate color if the JPEG image is color. Some of the "for use" images, may be PICT files. To distinguish these files from the thumbnail preview PICT images, the tag for the color "for use" image will have PICT, all caps. The thumbnail will remain noted as "pct." To become a licensed Newsbytes publisher, call Newsbytes at 612-430-1100 (US) or write to administrator@newsbytes.com on the Internet. Licensing applies to any medium. --------------------------- Week of SEPTEMBER 18 - SEPTEMBER 22,1995 --------------------------- - NEW THIS WEEK - APTIVA950912 - color / IBM Updates Aptiva PC Line: the PC with logo onscreen. GATEHOUSE950913 - color / Tour Bill Gates' Showplace Home Via The Internet: shot of house under construction. MEDIAKIDS950908 - color / Apple Japan Holds MediaKids Summer Camp: screen shot of kids homepage, with lots of kanji. ENIAC950912 - b&w /ENIAC 50th Anniversary Set For 1996: great archive photo of the original ENIAC room. PRESARIO950915 - color / Compaq Intros New Home PCs, Fall Ad Campaign: the Presario 9500, tower not seen, just keyboard & monitor on tabletop. --------------------------------------------------------------- - PARTIAL LISTING OF PREVIOUS ITEMS - CYRIX_M1950906 - color / M1 Fastest Chip For Windows 95, Says Cyrix: the M1 chip with Cyrix logo on it. VINEYARDS950906 - color / Virtual Vineyards' CyberCash Credit Card Security: shot of Peter Granoff and Robert Olson, principal founders with a table of wine before them. Photo credit: Anne Hamersky. TLKALONG950901 - b&w / US West Offers Do-It-Yourself Cell Phone Activation: cell phone and packaging on a limbo background. ABCGRAPH950901 - color / Micrografx Graphics Suite For Windows 95: see NewsPix ABCGRAPH950717. GROLIERGOLF950906 - color / Grolier's Greg Norman Golf Simulation: screenshot of golf scenario. COGNOS950829 - color / Cognos On World Wide Web: site graphics. INTERART950828 - color / 3-D Real Estate & Hotel Walkabouts On The Web: the food page with salsa ad, looks good! NEC950831 - color / NEC Develops "Snake-Like" Robot: shot of the snake with camera dome at head. KIDS950829 - color / Novell Intros Perfectworks For Kids: screen shot of the 'Me by Me' page. MEDIAMALL950828 - color / Media Mall Offers Online Multimedia Info: screen graphics/logo. CASHGRAF950830 - color / CashGraf Gets New Name, Intros 2 Acct Packages: screen shot of the main menu. RADSHACK950814 - b&w / Radio Shack Gets New Image: before and after arrangement of Radio Shack ads. LTE5000950821 - color / Compaq Intros Modular Notebook PC 08: the notebook PC in action, associates at work on site using computer. TOUCH950822 - color / Touch Technology Moves Off The Display Screen: the Tanisys keyboard on neutral background. PAGEMAKR950823 - color / Adobe Ships Pagemaker 6.0 For Mac: shot of the software package. HARLEM950822 - color / Prodigy Offers Harlem Inner-City Area Online: welcome & home page. (Newsbytes/19950918) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 09/18/95 HEALTH New Pharmaceutical Industry Web Site (NEWS)(HEALTH)(MSP)(00004) New Pharmaceutical Industry Web Site 09/18/95 NEW YORK CITY, NEW YORK, U.S.A., 1995 SEP 18 (NB) -- The Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturing of America (PhRMA) group has entered cyberspace, with an outpost on the Internet's World Wide Web. The new site includes information on healthcare, ranging from answers to questions regarding pharmaceuticals to pointers on a variety of health issues. "Being on the Internet gives us the opportunity to educate more Americans about the pharmaceutical industry, and our positions on certain issues in healthcare," Jeff Trewhitt, PhRMA spokesperson, told Newsbytes. "One of the things we've come to realize in the debate on health care reform is that a lot of people don't know anything about this industry," so the site passes on that type of information, he said. The other reason for the site is to give the general public, journalists and researchers, and lawmakers, information about health care. "A lot of what will be put on the Internet, over time, will deal with health care," Trewhitt said. The site isn't geared so much toward the health professional, he said, although there will be some statistical data that will be put in the site that would interest medical pros as well. PhRMA produces booklets on specific diseases including stroke, heart attacks, and breast cancer, in a "Health Guide Series" area. This library of information will be available at the new site, PhRMA officials said, beginning with the topic of strokes. The site will be updated and enhanced on a regular basis, to continually provide visitors with useful new information in a "Latest News" section. PhRMA is a non-profit organization that represents 100 US companies that conduct pharmaceutical research. The PhRMA Web site is at http://www.phrma.org/ . The site was designed by "poppe.com," the online interactive unit of Poppe Tyson Advertising and Public Relations. The company also created, and currently hosts and maintains Web sites for Chrysler, Valvoline, Intel, Netscape, and other clients. (Bob Woods/19950914/Press Contact: Jon Boroshok, Poppe Tyson, 201-539-0300) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 09/18/95 BUSINESS Australia - Attachmate Plans Increased Tech Support (NEWS)(BUSINESS)(SYD)(00005) Australia - Attachmate Plans Increased Tech Support 09/18/95 SYDNEY, AUSTRALIA, 1995 SEP 18 (NB) -- Attachmate President and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) James Lindner slipped into Australia recently to address Sydney's ICC conference (International Computers and Communications world leaders council), launch a new product, pin down some local partners, and expand Attachmate's service operations. It has been a busy 12 months for the PC-mainframe connectivity specialist, which last year merged with Digital Communications Associates (DCA) and acquired another connectivity specialist, DDP. Armed with the resulting capabilities, the company is now stalking the Internet market, with its eyes on electronic commerce. In Australia, Attachmate plans to double its investment in technical support, and has set up a service center. Phil Pead, Attachmate's managing director (MD) for Asia Pacific and Latin America, says the center will provide technical support to South East Asia by the end of the year, with possible future support for Japan and Korea. Bob Stewart, Attachmate Australasia MD, says there are five staff at present, and that number "will rapidly double." As for new investment dollars for Australia, the privately held Attachmate was giving nothing away. The product announced recently was IRMA for Internet, a suite of software applications for business users. According to Attachmate, the product offers "secure access," the latest Netscape browser, and security features for electronic commerce. Stewart said he envisaged that customers would use the software as well as an Internet service provider. The recommended retail price of the product is AUS$120. (Computer Daily News/19950915) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 09/18/95 APPLE Europe - Adobe Claims Mac Plug-Ins Improve Photoshop (NEWS)(APPLE)(LON)(00006) Europe - Adobe Claims Mac Plug-Ins Improve Photoshop 09/18/95 LONDON, ENGLAND, 1995 SEP 18 (NB) -- Adobe has unveiled three plug-ins for Photoshop 3.0.4 for the Apple Mac. Scheduled to ship in Europe this week, the packages are designed to enhance the performance of the Photoshop application, company officials claim. Two of the plug-ins bring significant speed enhancements to the program, taking advantage of the new platform enhancements -- Apple's multiprocessor API and the Power PC microprocessor. The third plug-in supports the GIF (Graphics Interchange File) format, which Newsbytes notes is used for Internet Web page design. According to Ricky Liversidge, Adobe Systems UK's marketing director, Photoshop supports multiprocessors in the Sun, Silicon Graphics and Windows NT computing/operating system platforms. This means that the package can carry on with the main application in the foreground, while the plug-ins run in the background, smoothing out the overall workload on the main program. "Sophisticated Adobe Photoshop users are always looking for ways to improve their productivity, particularly when manipulating large image files. The flexibility of Adobe Photoshop's plug-in architecture allows us to quickly provide updates to our user base that take advantage of the latest enhancements to operating system and hardware platforms," he explained. The plug-ins will be available on a bundling basis with a Mac OS-based workstation -- the Genesis MP -- from DayStar Digital. The workstation will come with four Power PC 604 processors which can offer the speed of running Photoshop on the Power Mac enhanced by three to five times. "Advanced users of imaging applications such as Adobe Photoshop love the Macintosh but need real workstation performance. The multiprocessor plug-in for Adobe Photoshop, combined with the Mac OS-based Genesis MP, offers them the best desktop imaging solution," said Andrew Lewis, president of DayStar Digital. Pricing on the plug-ins has not yet been announced. (Sylvia Dennis/19950914/Press & Reader Contact: Nancy Wilson, Adobe Systems, +44-181-6064000) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 09/18/95 TELECOM Hong Kong - Exec Jumps CT-2 Telecom Ship (NEWS)(TELECOM)(HKG)(00007) Hong Kong - Exec Jumps CT-2 Telecom Ship 09/18/95 CENTRAL, HONG KONG, 1995 SEP 18 (NB)-- In what could be a signal of the end of CT-2 call-out-only mobile phone technology in Hong Kong, Chevalier Telepoint Managing Director Neil Montefiore jumped ship last week to just-created Cable & Wireless Mobile. Contacted at his temporary quarters in a 34th floor Telecom Tower conference room, Montefiore told I.T. Daily late Friday he couldn't say what he or his new employer would be doing until a formal announcement is made in the next few weeks. "I'd been (at Chevalier) for four years," he said, hinting it was time to move on. A C&W old boy, it took Montefiore 15 years to part company with his employer last time around. Cable & Wireless Mobile is expected to be a component of the London-based giant's charge across Asia. With competition threatening to cut into revenues generated by its paramount money-spinner Hongkong Telecom Group, and its UK unit Mercury turning in abysmal numbers, Cable & Wireless plc is hungry for business in the region around the British territory. Asked if CT-2 technology was dead, Montefiore laughed, then added: "You'd better ask (Chevalier)." Pressed further, he said: "The future of it probably lies in an upgrade path to PCS (personal communications system) technology." Following the PCS route could be tough, given stiff competition for the six Hong Kong licenses to be issued at some still unknown date in the future. Issuance was supposed to be wrapped up by October, but the Office of the Telecommunications Authority (OFTA) recently put bidders on notice that the Joint Liaison Group, a body set up to supposedly smooth the transition of power from Britain to China in 1997, has put its oar in, delaying a decision. Chevalier had been stymied in its attempt to make gains in China as it tried to move beyond Hong Kong's flattening CT-2 market. The problem, apart from a proliferation of frequency standards, is China's prohibition on foreign concerns owning or managing networks -- where the real money is made. Several Hong Kong companies setting up pager and mobile services have been skirting the problem by striking so-called revenue-sharing deals -- which had them acting as consultants rather than operators. Blistering about this, Montefiore said last October: "We just can't go in and sign a joint venture or earn revenue by signing unusual deals -- with our responsibility to shareholders, we need official state authority." In the meantime, advances in technology are robbing shareholders of the opportunity of considering even unusual deals, analysts say. (Nigel Armstrong & I.T. Daily/19950917) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 09/18/95 BUSINESS Compaq Plans Bigger Role For China PC Plant (NEWS)(BUSINESS)(HKG)(00008) Compaq Plans Bigger Role For China PC Plant 09/18/95 CENTRAL, HONG KONG, 1995 SEP 18 (NB)-- Compaq Computer Corp. Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Eckhard Pfeiffer went to Hong Kong and then headed across the China border to Shenzhen to do some official ribbon cutting at the company's assembly plant. Opened a year ago last August to assemble desktops and power supplies, the facility could play additional roles, Pfeiffer hinted. "We are also considering further expansion plans in the volume of CPU (central processing unit) production and other new manufacturing activities," Pfeiffer said. The fifth operation to join the Houston-based company's global manufacturing network -- after the US, Singapore, Scotland, and Brazil -- Compaq Computer Technologies (China) Ltd is a joint venture with Beijing Stone (Group) Ltd. Compaq holds 90% of the venture. The CEO took the opportunity to praise Stone Group as a Chinese private company "with a proven track record and excellent market reputation for professionalism, entrepreneurship, and vision." Pfeiffer let the unit's general manager, Wong Chee-wai, get to the important details. Said Chee-wai, "This facility will enable Compaq to sell products in China in RMB and reduces logistics and costs." Wong added that most of the plant's output is being sold in China and North Asia. Power supply units are being made for Compaq's plants worldwide. Plans are being made, he added, to source components locally "whenever costs permit." Typically, the thing that holds up multinationals from sourcing locally in China is not cost, but quality. While headquarters and local Compaq executives were checking their corsages for Saturday's ceremonies marking the official opening of the 170,000 square-foot facility, Compaq Singapore was moving ahead with its project to double the size of manufacturing operations -- to 730,000 square-feet. Once completed, the Lion City plant will be the company's largest, outspacing Compaq's operations in Houston by 120,000 square- feet. Pfeiffer, now nursing a leading 21.3% PC market share on the mainland, according to Dataquest, didn't leave Shenzhen without trotting out every visiting CEO's all-purpose truism: "China is a market with a huge potential," he said. (Nigel Armstrong & I.T. Daily/19950917) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 09/18/95 TRENDS ****Sierra On-line Intros Voice-Controlled Game (NEWS)(TRENDS)(DEN)(00009) ****Sierra On-line Intros Voice-Controlled Game 09/18/95 BELLEVUE, WASHINGTON, U.S.A., 1995 SEP 18 (NB) -- No more fumbling with the mouse or remembering keystrokes in the heat of battle as you compete with other gamers, just shout out "fire" and other commands. That's what game players can do to control the action if they buy "Command: Aces of the Deep," a CD-ROM game that game maker Sierra On-Line (NASDAQ: SIER) says is the world's first voice-controller CD-ROM game. Sierra has used IBM's VoiceType speech recognition technology to add the new dimension to simulation gaming in "Command," a submarine simulation game that puts the game player in command of a World War II submarine known as a U-Boat. Sierra said VoiceType can recognize entire phrases and even sentences delivered in normal or even faster speech patterns without pauses. The company said the technology allows just about anyone to play the game without having to train the software to recognize the player's voice, a disadvantage of early speech recognition technology. In what most gamers will probably consider an understatement, Ken Williams, president and chief executive officer of Sierra On-Line, calls the new software, "A significant advance in our gaming interface." He said being able to command a sub with your voice instead of a mouse or keyboard adds to the realism and speeds game play. "It just feels right," said the game software executive. "Command" players take their World War II German undersea raider beneath the surface of the North Atlantic as they stalk the enemy in a contest that can quickly turn the hunter into the hunted. Sierra On-Line spokesperson, Eddie Ranchigoda, told Newsbytes that "Command" is not a native Windows 95 application but does use some of the Windows 95 features, including playing from the CD-ROM. The game requires Microsoft's new operating system in order to run. Sierra said new features in the "Command" version of "Aces" that weren't available in the floppy disk edition include improved Super VGA graphics, Gouraud shading and texture mapping that makes the graphics more realistic, enhanced arcade-speed action that includes a rapid-fire deck gun and an additional mission in the Mediterranean Sea commanding an improved type of submarine, the XXI. For an added dimension, Sierra has included a series of video interviews with actual World War II German U-boat commanders and a cinematic introductory animated sequence that shows the different viewpoints of the U-boat and examples of the type of action you will participate in, such as plotting the enemy's location, preparing the torpedoes, firing and seeing your torpedoes hit the target. "It puts you in the mood," said Ranchigoda. Ranchigoda said the company will wait to see how the voice recognition capability is accepted by gamers before applying the technology to other games. He said the technique is particularly good for simulation games. The floppy disk version of " Aces of the Deep" is still available direct from Sierra although Ranchigoda said he doesn't expect to see it in retail outlets much longer. "Command: Aces of the Deep" is available for Windows 95 on CD-ROM with a suggested retail price of $54.95 and is available at software stores, mass retailers or direct from Sierra by calling the company's toll-free order number. Ranchigoda said the company recommends a 66 megahertz 486-based PC with 12 megabytes (MB) of memory and equipped with a double-speed CD-ROM drive. The game will run on a 33MHz 486 system with 8MB of memory and a double-speed CD-ROM drive. The company maintains a presence on the World Wide Web at http://www.sierra.com . (Jim Mallory/19950915/Press contact: Eddie Ranchigoda, Sierra On-Line, 206-649-9800 ext 3030; Public contact: Sierra Direct, 800-757-7707 to order product) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 09/18/95 NETWORK Interop - NetWorth Intros Drop-In Fast Ethernet (NEWS)(NETWORK)(LON)(00010) Interop - NetWorth Intros Drop-In Fast Ethernet 09/18/95 PARIS, FRANCE, 1995 SEP 18 (NB) -- NetWorth took the occasion of the recent Networld+Interop show in Paris to announce its Smart Uplink drop-in 100Base-T upgrade to the networking community. According to officials with NetWorth, Smart Uplink is a drop-in upgrade to existing 10BaseT networks to allow them to perform at 100 megabits-per-second (Mbps). Interestingly, NetWorth claims that, until now, the benefits of 100BaseT Fast Ethernet have been marred by a double restriction: no more than two repeater hops along any data path, and no more than five meters between repeaters. To date, the only way to get around this problem, the company claims, has been to add further bridges and routers when upgrading from 10BaseT. This solution, the company claims, adds cost and complexity, as well as introducing latency delays and the risk of losing packets from buffer overflow. Smart Uplink, the company claims, addresses all of these problems when used with NetWorth 100BaseT hubs. The system costs no more than a single managed 100BaseT node, and allows any number of repeaters to be paced at up to 100 meters apart. "The real point of 100BaseT was to provide the perfect upgrade path from 10BaseT," claimed Jacques Gripekoven, Networth Central Europe's director. He added that, unlike technologies such as ATM (asynchronous transfer mode) and 100VG-AnyLAN, Smart Uplink was tailored for maximum re-use of existing 10BaseT structure, knowledge and management tools. "To do this they had to introduce the repeater-hop restrictions, and that meant that 100BaseT could no longer just drop into the existing network structure," he said. According to Gripekoven, Smart Uplink is the missing key to successful 100BaseT implementation. "We will be licensing the technology to other vendors, once the patent application is complete, because we believe that the future of 100BaseT depends on it," he said. So why is there the restriction on repeater hops on conventional 100BaseT installations? According to NetWorth, the restriction was enforced because 100BaseT inherits the collision detection protocol of 10BaseT. Collision detection under 100BaseT takes as long as it did under 10BaseT, being bound by the speed at which signals pass along the cable, although the data itself is ten times as dense. According to NetWorth, without Smart Uplink, the only way round this problem is to restrict the collision domain or to segment the network with bridges or routers. Smart Uplink, Newsbytes notes, adds the intelligence to isolate each side into its own collision domain, to perform cut-through routing for minimum latency and, if its buffers approach saturation, it will throttle back stations in either domain, rather than lose data. Smart Uplink will be formally launched later this year by the company into the European market. Pricing has yet to be decided. Newsbytes readers interested in learning more about Smart Uplink and the limitations of 100BaseT are invited to contact NetWorth for a free copy of the company's white paper on the technology entitled: "Overcoming the Configuration Limits of Fast Ethernet." (Steve Gold/19950915/Press Contact: Mark Fox, CTC Eurobase, tel +44-1734-304090, fax +44-1734-304124; Reader Contact: NetWorth Central Europe, tel +32-2-676-7778, fax +32-2-672-1647) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 09/18/95 BUSINESS Hypercom Sets Up New Offices In Europe (NEWS)(BUSINESS)(LON)(00011) Hypercom Sets Up New Offices In Europe 09/18/95 BUDAPEST, HUNGARY, 1995 SEP 18 (NB) -- Hypercom, the Phoenix, Arizona-based networking company, has formed a new company, called Hypercom Europe Limited, which will work out of new offices in Budapest, Hungary. At the same time, the company has opened an additional sales office in Luton, England. According to Hypercom, the reason for opening sales and operations offices in Europe, rather than relying on existing sales routes, is the considerable growth the company has experienced in recent years from Europe. Today, around 40 percent of the company's income is generated outside of the US. George Wallner, Hypercom's chairman, said that the company's Integrated Enterprise Network hybrid routers have been popular in Europe. This, he said, has been a contributory factor in opening the new offices. "A rapidly increasing number of European organizations are looking to link up their remote sites cost effectively. Just as in the US, two of the biggest challenges these organizations face are having to combine LAN (local area network) and legacy traffic, and trying to optimize costs using the best combinations of protocols and technologies. We've grown our market share so rapidly because we address these issues," he explained. (Sylvia Dennis/19950915/Press Contact: Lisa Kutz, Hammond Farrell, 212-995-5680; Reader Contact: Hypercom, +44-1582-715372) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 95 09/18/95 WINDOWS Mastersoft Ships Viewer For Windows (NEWS)(WINDOWS)(DEN)(00012) Mastersoft Ships Viewer For Windows 95 09/18/95 SCOTTSDALE, ARIZONA, U.S.A., 1995 SEP 18 (NB) -- Mastersoft Inc., the company that produced the Word for Word document format conversion program, is now shipping Viewer95, its file viewing utility for Windows 95. The beauty of Viewer95, like its predecessor Viewer3.1, is that you can view and print formatted files prepared in any of more than 150 formats without having the source application loaded or even available, claims the company. The company said Viewer95 works with word processing documents, spreadsheets, databases and graphics. It also claims that even if you have the source application on your PC Viewer95 can display files faster. You can even view files that are archived with PKZIP or UUencode. Viewer95 integrates with: the Windows 95 Explorer; electronic-mail applications like Lotus Notes, Microsoft Mail, and Lotus cc:Mail; and word processing packages automatically to add file-management and viewing capabilities to those applications. You can also view HTML (hypertext markup language) documents downloaded from the Internet. Value-added resellers and system integrators can use Viewer95's command line capabilities to incorporate file viewing into their custom applications. An interesting feature of Viewer95 is the ability to detach one or more views of a document and keep it on your desktop while working in other applications. Up to 10 views can be on the desktop simultaneously. Used as a standalone application or as part of an integrated application Viewer95 offers zoom, print from view, copy to clipboard, text search, document comparison and can even launch applications. The file management features include move, delete, and rename files and directories. A "File Find" feature lets the use search by file name, file format, file date or text string within a file. Viewer95 has a "Save As" feature that lets the user save files in various file formats while keeping the formatting intact. File formats from DOS, Windows, Macintosh, and Unix are supported. Viewer95 has a suggested retail price of $79. Viewer3.1 is still available for users who haven't or don't plan to convert to Windows 95. The company offers LAN (local area network) and site licensing prices and custom configurations. (Jim Mallory/19950915/Press contact: Sue Scheen, Mastersoft, 602-948-4888; Public contact: Mastersoft, tel 602-948-4888, fax 602-948-8261) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 09/18/95 TRENDS 2nd Generation "Iceberg" Arrives (NEWS)(TRENDS)(DEN)(00013) 2nd Generation "Iceberg" Arrives 09/18/95 LOUISVILLE, COLORADO, U.S.A., 1995 SEP 18 (NB) -- Storage Technology Inc. (NYSE: STK) has announced availability and pricing of its second-generation Iceberg disk array unit, as well as some new features for the system that can be ordered with new systems or as upgrades. Storagetek said it has shipped about 775 Iceberg disk arrays since the product was introduced. The second-generation Iceberg disk array unit has been designated the Model 9220, and all production has been shifted to the new series. According to David Weiss, Storagetek executive vice president and chief operating officer, the new series provides almost four times as much storage in the same footprint as its predecessor. Weiss said the log-structured file system that is the basis for Iceberg's storage architecture gives the company a head start that will keep competitive systems at bay until 1997. Iceberg storage systems consist of a disk array controller and one or more disk array units. Storagetek said the entry-level 9220-A20 disk array includes two disk arrays and an extended storage capacity of 90 gigabytes (GB). The maximum configuration consists of an A42 disk array and a 9220-B42 disk array as well as the controller and has a storage capacity of 720GB. Disk array controller models range from the 9200-XB3 with an effective cache size of 192 megabytes (MB) to the 9200-XP3 with a cache size of 4.6GB. Storagetek said US list prices for the Iceberg subsystems begin at $756,220 for a minimum configuration with 4 ESCON (Enterprise Systems Connection architecture) links. The new features being rolled out by Storagetek include: connectivity via ESCON to support faster channel transfer rates; 80 percent more storage capacity for previously installed 9210 array units; and cache memory increases to up to 4.6GB. The company also announced strong demand for its high-end storage systems, including Iceberg and Timberline, but still expects third quarter results will be at the lower range of financial analysts' estimates. According to Ryal Poppa, Storagetek president and chief executive officer, costs related with the integration of Network Systems Corp. and longer than expected customer acceptance cycles for the company's new internetworking products will contribute to lower than anticipated results for the quarter. Storagetek maintains a home page on the World Wide Web at http://www.stortek.com . (Jim Mallory/19950915/Press contact: David Reid, Storagetek, 303-673-4815; Public contact: Storagetek, 303-673-5020) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 09/18/95 NETWORK Interop - CrossComm's Ethernet/ATM Segment Technology (NEWS)(NETWORK)(LON)(00014) Interop - CrossComm's Ethernet/ATM Segment Technology 09/18/95 PARIS, FRANCE, 1995 SEP 18 (NB) -- CrossComm Corporation has taken the wraps off the newest members of its ClearPath network systems -- the Ethernet Segment Switch (ESS) and the ATM (asynchronous transfer mode) Edge Switch (AES). According to the Paris-based company, these new families of products, which were unveiled at the Networld+Interop show in Paris recently, offer new levels of scalability, availability, and price/performance ratios, because they use second-generation technology. The ESS and AES switches connect Ethernet Workgroup Switches, older shared Ethernet hubs and routers. The company claims that they offer the best value for organizations that are looking at implementing ATM, but who also need a scalable, easily manageable and highly available switched virtual network. Typical applications for the second generation systems are organizations implementing bandwidth intensive remote office or client/server workgroup applications, such as Lotus Notes, document imaging, full-motion video, medical imaging, multimedia, and similar visualization applications. According to Gary Wood, director of ATM and LAN switching with the company, explained that being able to manage high-powered switched networks more efficiently is a key customer issue. Wood went on to say that CrossComm has embedded LAN analyzer facilities and Network General's RMON+ technology into a new generation of products. "Because all this is managed from the network operation center, it centralizes control, so you get very rapid error detection and fault isolation -- with no impact on performance," he explained. According to Wood, the new range of CrossComm products provide remote "sniffer-like" facilities for all ports, and can detect more than 94 percent of all network problems from a central management station. The alternative, he said, was to physically move a network analyzer all over the network trying to locate the problem. "In addition to the Fore/ANT ASIC (application specific integrated circuit) and Network General LAN monitoring technologies, we have integrated our Address Processor and Directory, plus ATM capabilities. Our distributed architecture design ensures no single point of failure," he said. Thanks to this, the ESS and AES technologies are claimed to be suited to mission-critical applications, thanks to high dependability and mission critical reliability, right down to port level, he said. According to CrossComm, the ESS systems provide switched 10 megabit, full duplex, and 100 megabit Fast Ethernet, as well as an optional ATM connection. In shared networks, the system improves performance dramatically by dividing the LAN so that each user or segment can have a dedicated 10 megabit of high capacity bandwidth. The AES systems, meanwhile, are designed to take advantage of ATM bandwidth and integrate up to 24 Ethernet switched ports, an ATM port and an embedded LAN analyzer in a single module. ESS products will ship later this month, with pricing ranging from UKP8,900 for 16 ports to UKP12,800 for a 32-port module including two 100BaseT ports. AES modules will start shipping worldwide in November of this year, with prices starting from UKP14,995 for the ATM OC3MM with 24 10BaseT ports. An ESS module with switched 100 megabits ports will be available in the first quarter of next year. (Steve Gold/19950916/Press & Reader Contact: A. Caroline Tanguay, CrossComm Corp., tel +33-1-4692-2486, fax +33-1-4692-2400, Internet e-mail ctanguay@crosscom.com) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 09/18/95 TRENDS ****Study Shows High Interest In Internet Commerce (NEWS)(TRENDS)(LAX)(00015) ****Study Shows High Interest In Internet Commerce 09/18/95 REDWOOD CITY, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1995 SEP 18 (NB) -- VeriFone Inc. (NYSE: VFI) has released the results of a market study to assess merchant and consumer attitudes toward commerce over the Internet. VeriFone, who just announced its entry into the Internet payment industry, joined with MasterCard International and Visa International to sponsor the study. The study was conducted by Global Concepts Inc., an Atlanta-based research and consulting company specializing in the payments industry. The study consisted of three primary components: telephone interviews with 40 retailers, ranging from Fortune 500 corporations to small businesses; focus groups of consumers using online services; and an online survey of World Wide Web users. Speaking to Newsbytes, Pam Glinski, a consultant who worked on the study, said about the online survey, "We had pointers on the Web at thirty sites directing users to our survey. Of the Web users who responded to our online survey, 32 percent said they have already bought products and services over the Internet and that 91 percent plan purchases in the future." Consumers ranked credit cards as their number one preference for making Internet purchases. Ranked on a scale of one to five points, with one being equal to respondents' "least preferred" and five representing "greatest preference," the market study found users assigning credit cards a value of 3.66 out of a total of five points. Digital cash and checking account withdrawals were not far behind, with 3.33 and 3.25 points, respectively. ATM cards, with 2.80 points, and prepaid cards, with 2.62 points, completed the list. Consumers ranked card fraud as their number one concern in making Internet purchases. Ranked on a scale of one to five points, with one being equal to respondents' "least concern" and five representing "greatest concern," the market study found concern over card fraud at 3.6 points. Card fraud was closely followed by: having to pay for previously free information, 3.3 points; lack of privacy with Internet purchases, 3.1 points; and the viability of Internet merchants at 2.9 points. In speaking about the merchant interviews, Glinski said, "Many merchants who we interviewed are waiting to take full advantage of Internet commerce until the exchange of card data is more secure. Merchants are also waiting because women over age 55 do not yet comprise a significant percentage of online shoppers. "Merchants also expressed concern over the limited bandwidth available to most consumers who are online. Slow response times, especially with graphics or photos, create a negative impression. They acknowledge that this problem is being addressed with the development of new technology," said Glinski. (Richard Bowers/19950915/Press Contact: David B. Barnes, VeriFone, 415-696-8823) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 09/18/95 ONLINE Philippines - Manila Newspaper To Go Online (NEWS)(ONLINE)(TYO)(00016) Philippines - Manila Newspaper To Go Online 09/18/95 MANILA, PHILIPPINES, 1995 SEP 18 (NB) - Once the largest circulated English newspaper in Asia prior to martial law 20 years ago, The Manila Times, will now become Asia's first electronic major daily when it begins offering an online edition in late September. The Manila Times On-Line subscribers will be able to download files when Portal Inc., a new Philippine commercial online services as well as Internet access provider, begins commercial operations. Subscribers can make a full text search for the contents of each issue of the Manila Times. They will also be able to search for complete information on each subject that saw print in each issue of the electronic edition. Although Portal Inc. approached all the major Manila dailies for possible inclusion into their online information services when it was still being planned late in 1994. It was only Liza Gokongwei, Manila Times general manager who realized the virtues of being first online and signed up for the privilege. Liza Gokongwei is the daughter of Filipino-Chinese tycoon John Gokongwei who bought the newspaper in 1989 after its former owners, the Roces family, had resumed its publication with the restoration of Philippine democracy in February, 1986, after the ouster of then president Ferdinand Marcos. An added attraction is a weekly discussion tentatively scheduled for Tuesdays to be conducted by Manila Times Editor-in-Chief Malou Mangahas with subscribers over the newspapers chat line. (Metropolitan Computer Times/19950918/Internet e-mail dilips@netcom.com) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 09/18/95 IBM IBM Offers Internet Services In Central/Eastern Europe (NEWS)(IBM)(LON)(00017) IBM Offers Internet Services In Central/Eastern Europe 09/18/95 VIENNA, AUSTRIA, 1995 SEP 18 (NB) -- IBM has announced the availability of commercial Internet services via its IBM Global Network nodes in major Central & Eastern European (CEE) cities. The IN-Gateways (IBM's Internet connectivity nodes) are now operational in the cities of: Prague, Czech Republic; Bratislava, Slovak Republic; Budapest, Hungary; Ljubjana, Slovenia; Warsaw, Poland; and Moscow, Russia. They will also be available shortly in: Sofia, Bulgaria; Zagreb, Croatia; and St. Petersburg, Russia. IBM will is offering Internet dial-up access to users of IBM OS/2 Warp and Microsoft Windows at modem speeds up to 14.4 kilobits-per- second (Kbps) with plans to increase this in the future. Leased line connectivity is targeted for availability in the Czech Republic and Russia before October, and in other CEE countries before year end. User support is currently being offered in English or German from the help-desk in the Netherlands. Just like in other parts of the globe, customers in Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) are increasingly aware of the benefits to be had with access to the tremendous amount of information available on the Internet. It is really just beginning in a big way for business users this fall, claim analysts, with several new providers entering the arena and bringing the competition necessary to offer customers affordable rates. IBM is targeting both small customers for access via dial-up connections and larger, more serious customers for access via leased line connectivity or those that wish their content hosted on an IN-Gateway server, according to Astrid Brunnbauer, business communications manager at IBM Central Europe and Russia, based in Vienna. Customers with dial-up connections will make use of electronic-mail and search/retrieval of information, according to Brunnbauer. More heavy-duty customers targeted include financial service providers (stock exchange, banks, consultants), publishers (electronic magazines), computer-oriented software providers and dealers, travel agencies, government agencies and chambers of commerce), political parties, and entertainment groups. "At the moment, companies just want to be on the Internet and they feel that to be connected to the Internet is strategic for them," said Brunnbauer. IBM is using Motorola Codex modems of various speeds up to 14.4 Kbps in all of the cities except the Czech cities, in which they are using US Robotics modems. Support will be provided through IBM's International multilingual Help desk in the Netherlands in English and German, 8:30 to 24:00 during weekdays, and through its international project office in Dublin, Ireland. Customers with credit cards can register online by dialing up once to the Netherlands center. All further connections can then be made with the local nodes. This procedure is in IBM's standard offering, included in Warp and Windows software. Business users without credit cards will have to apply for their user IDs at the local IBM offices, where a central process has been developed to handle this. The dial-up access charges include a one-time-charge of DM30 (US$20), which is waived in 1995, plus a monthly subscription fee of DM27 (US$18), including up to three hours of connect time, or DM52 ($35), including up to 30 hours of connect time. Each additional hour will cost DM7 ($4.67, which works out to $0.08 per minute) for both pricing options. IBM is preparing to offer leased line access throughout CEE before year end. Many analysts reason that IBM is targeting medium-sized and large-sized companies with such dedicated connections to the local nodes at bulk rates. This way of getting online is especially attractive for organizations with a large number of users -- organizations which are typically most capable of generating revenues in CEE. Smaller companies typically could not afford nor make use of such connectivity. Leased line connectivity is targeted for availability in Russia and the Czech Republic before October and in other countries before year end, according to Brunnbauer. Dial-in access (recreational) customers are not a key interest for IBM Global Network in CEE, said Brunnbauer. "We will, in our marketing actions, focus on leased line customers and content- hosting customers," she said. Regarding security, Brunnbauer said that encryption and firewalls will be deployed to deal with these issues where important. She also mentioned that local national help desks will be put in place to deal with the local language issue. (Steven Slatem/19950918/Press Contact: Astrid Brunnbauer, IBM Central Europe & Russia, tel +43-1-211456678, fax +43-1- 211456488, Internet e-mail bastrid@vnet.ibm.com) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 09/18/95 GOVT China - Govt Statistical Info Network Established (NEWS)(GOVT)(PEK)(00018) China - Govt Statistical Info Network Established 09/18/95 BEIJING, CHINA, 1995 SEP 18 (NB) -- China's first statistical information network -- linking Shanghai, Beijing, Tianjin, and Guangzhou -- is operational, according to China Information. The computerized network is expected to help local governments formulate plans for local economic development and push regional cooperation, the newspaper said. Under the National Statistics Bureau (NSB), China's statistical information processing has been computerized and the establishment of statistical information networks allows the network users to obtain the latest statistical data, China Information, a newspaper under NSB said. Currently, all 30 provinces or autonomous regions in China have established statistical data computing centers, and 320 out of the 338 cities/districts have also set up computer centers for statistical information processing, the newspaper said. Also, more than 90 percent of the county statistical departments/offices have been equipped with computers and have computer operators. More than 4,000 computer/network professionals work for statistical information processing with 100 or so at the state bureau level, about 640 at the provincial level, and 1,700 at the city/district level. It is estimated that 13,000 IBM-compatible PCs, more than 1,000 workstations, and about 40 small computers are used for China's statistical information processing, the newspaper said. Networks covered not only provinces and cities, but also many counties, the newspaper said. The computerized networks, through which various statistics are provided, can help local governments formulate plans for local economic development and push regional cooperation, says the government. (Chih-Ho Yu & Ning Huang/19950831/Reader Contact: State Statistics Bureau, tel +86-10-803-3618) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 09/18/95 GENERAL Canadian Product Launch Update (NEWS)(GENERAL)(TOR)(00019) Canadian Product Launch Update 09/18/95 KINGSTON, ONTARIO, CANADA 1995 SEP 18 (NB) -- This regular feature, appearing on the first day Newsbytes publishes each week, provides further details for the Canadian market on announcements by international companies that Newsbytes has already covered. This week: IBM upgrades three ThinkPad models with 75 megahertz (MHz) Pentium processors. IBM Canada Ltd., based in Markham, Ontario, announced that it has put 75MHz Pentium chips into its ThinkPad 755CD, 755CDV, and 755CV notebook computers (Newsbytes, Sept. 5). The three models were also enhanced with 256 kilobytes (KB) of Level 2 cache. IBM Canada now has five Pentium-based ThinkPad models. The latest three Pentium models are due to be available by the end of September, IBM Canada said, with IBM Direct prices starting at C$7,499 for the 755CD, C$8,699 for the 755CV, and $9,999 for the 755CDV. Canadian prices have also been cut on existing ThinkPad 755 models, by seven to 11 percent, and on the ThinkPad 701 by five to eight percent. The entry-level ThinkPad 340CSE has also been reduced by C$400 to C$2,599. (Grant Buckler/19950918/Press Contact: Kevin McKee, IBM Canada, 905-316-3902; Susan Davison, Goodman Communications for IBM Canada, 416-924-9100; Public Contact: IBM Canada, 800-465-7999) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 09/18/95 BUSINESS ****AT&T GIS To Announce Job Cuts Soon? (NEWS)(BUSINESS)(TOR)(00020) ****AT&T GIS To Announce Job Cuts Soon? 09/18/95 NEW YORK, NEW YORK, U.S.A., 1995 SEP 18 (NB) -- The computer unit of AT&T (NYSE:T) will announce specifics of its cost-cutting plans before the end of this month. The changes at AT&T Global Information Solutions are likely to include some layoffs, but the company is not commenting on a published report that as many as 10,000 people could lose their jobs. Bob Farkas, a spokesman for AT&T GIS, told Newsbytes that the company sent a letter to its employees in July, telling them that the business would be narrowed to concentrate on three industry sectors rather than six. That letter also promised that details would be announced by the end of the third quarter, which means the end of this month. AT&T GIS plans to de-emphasize the transport industry, the public sector, and consumer goods manufacturing, and to continue its focus on the retail, communications, and finance sectors, Farkas said. He also confirmed that the company is expected to be smaller following the restructuring. However, Farkas said AT&T has no comment on a report that appeared in The Wall Street Journal on Friday, saying that GIS may cut as many as 10,000 jobs, which would be slightly more than 20 percent of the unit's work force. At the end of the second quarter, the GIS unit had 42,800 employees. AT&T GIS was formerly NCR Corp. AT&T acquired the company in 1991. Since then, the unit's payroll has dropped from around 54,000 to its present level. (Grant Buckler/19950918/Press Contact: Bob Farkas, AT&T Global Information Solutions, 513-445-2078) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 09/18/95 GOVT ****High-Tech Firms Fight Immigration Reform (NEWS)(GOVT)(WAS)(00021) ****High-Tech Firms Fight Immigration Reform 09/18/95 WASHINGTON, D.C., U.S.A., 1995 SEP 18 (NB) -- Dozens of executives from high-tech firms pounded the pavement on Capitol Hill last week, lobbying against a bill that would cut legal immigration. Legislation is moving in both the House and Senate. The executives are concerned that they will be unable to hire highly skilled workers as legal immigrants become pawns in a political battle over illegal immigration. Their immediate target last week was a bill sponsored by Rep. Lamar Smith (R-Texas), chairman of the House Judiciary Committee's immigration subcommittee. It would cut legal immigration by 30 percent, reduce admissions of refugees by 50 percent, and crack down on illegal immigration by increasing funds and positions for the Border Patrol. Of the legal limit of 800,000 immigrants for fiscal 1995, "skill-based admissions" are 140,000. The Smith bill would cut more than 32,000 from that figure. A bill sponsored by Sen. Alan Simpson (R-Wyo.), chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee's immigration subcommittee, would cut the skill-based admissions even further, to 75,000. "Our ability to get the best talent in the world is critical to us," said Kenneth Alvarez of Sun Microsystems in a hearing on the Smith bill. Cutting the ability to hire immigrants "is going to kill us," he said. "We will not be able to compete." Charles Billingsley of the Information Technology Association of America said the immigration reductions could cost jobs in the United States, as companies move to where they can find the labor force they need. "I don't think that's what the legislators have in mind," he said. Under the Simpson bill, employers of highly skilled immigrants such as computer engineers, would pay a fee of 30 percent of the employee's first year salary into a fund that would be used to train Americans. "Legal immigration strengthens and energizes America," said the National Association of Manufacturers in a written statement. "America's high-tech employees and international personnel should not be considered in the same bill as undocumented entrants and criminal law violators." (Kennedy Maize/19950918/Press Contact: Charles Billingsley, ITAA, 703-522-5055) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 09/18/95 GENERAL Japan Newsbriefs (NEWS)(GENERAL)(TYO)(00022) Japan Newsbriefs 09/18/95 TOKYO, JAPAN, 1995 SEP 18 (NB) -- In this roundup of news from Japan: Fujitsu raises profits forecast, NEC predicts better PC sales, Sakura bank picks HP, Tokyu plans Internet via cable tests, Teleway Japan applies for rate cut, KDD enters Mongolia. Fujitsu Raises Profits Forecast Fujitsu Ltd. has raised its profits forecast for the current fiscal year ending March 31, 1996. The company predicts year-end parent company net profits will rise to 50 billion yen from an actual result last year of 30.51 billion yen. The previous forecast was 35 billion yen. Strong sales, predicted at 2.57 trillion yen from 2.27 trillion yen last year are behind the increase which was announced in Tokyo. Group net profits are predicted to double from 45.02 billion yen to 90 billion yen at the end of this financial year. NEC Predicts Better PC Sales NEC Corporation has revised its personal computer sales predictions for the current fiscal year from 2.8 million to three million units. The increase comes after the Tokyo-based company has experienced stronger than anticipated demand for its PC-9800 range. The 2.8 million sales target was also a revision, of an earlier projection of 2.3 million sales in the year. The PC-9800 is Japan's top selling computer format with a more than 50% market share. The format's two millionth total sale was only achieved earlier this year. Sakura Bank Picks HP Sakura Bank has selected Hewlett-Packard (HP) to build a global risk-management system. The Tokyo-based bank said it chose HP based on the company's "expertise in providing solutions to global financial-services companies." The new, $30 million, system will connect Sakura's trading desks in London, New York, Tokyo, Hong Kong, and Singapore. HP will utilize the HP-9000 family of PA-RISC-based servers and workstations and work closely with Information Services International - Dentsu, Ltd. (ISID), a systems integrator based in Tokyo and Japan's leading provider of risk-management systems. Tokyu Plans Internet Via Cable Tests The Tokyu Cable network says it will begin offering access to the Internet via its Tokyo network in late 1996. The system is teaming up with international telecommunications operator KDD to link its network to the Internet in the United States. The system is claimed to be the first of its kind to offer wide bandwidth access to the Internet allowing access to more multimedia services and much faster connections than is currently possible with standard telephone lines. Teleway Japan Applies For Rate Cut Private domestic telecommunications operator Teleway Japan has applied to the Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications to reduce the charges its leased line customers pay. High-speed digital circuit charges will drop by an average of 54%, while analog lines will fall in cost by 43%. The move follows recent cuts by its competitors, DDI and Japan Telecom, which themselves followed rate cuts by NTT. KDD Enters Mongolia KDD and trading house Sumitomo Corporation have jointly announced an intention to launch a mobile telephone network in Ulan Bator, the capital of Mongolia. The two will each own 44.5% of MobiCom Corp., the company that will operate the service, with the remainder being held by Newcom Co., a Mongolian communications consulting firm. The new company has been capitalized at $9 million and represents the largest investment in the Asian country by Japanese firms. (Martyn Williams/19950918) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 09/18/95 TELECOM New Sunspot Cycle Begins, Earth Comms Disrupted (NEWS)(TELECOM)(TYO)(00023) New Sunspot Cycle Begins, Earth Comms Disrupted 09/18/95 TOKYO, JAPAN, 1995 SEP 18 (NB) -- CalTech Observatory in Pasadena, California, has announced the beginning of a new sunspot cycle with the sighting of the first sunspot in the new cycle. Sunspots run in eleven year cycles and when at their peak, have the capacity to cause damage to satellites and disrupt communications and power systems on the Earth. The first sunspot was observed on Saturday August 12 by astronomers at the California Institute of Technology's Big Bear Solar Observatory in Big Bear City, California. "This makes us happy," said Hal Zirin, professor of astrophysics at Caltech and director of the Big Bear Solar Observatory. "The sun is a lot more interesting to study when things are going on." Whilst astronomers find plenty to watch and observe, as the sun nears its maximum period of activity in late 2000 and through 2001, communications experts on Earth may be cursing the sun for the problems it is causing. Sunspots are dark areas that typically appear in groups on the sun's surface and bring with them strong magnetic fields and solar flares that send solar radiation thousands of kilometers out into space causing the problems on earth. Professor Zirin explained some of the difficulties. "Sunspot activity and big flares produce many effects on the Earth," he said. Satellites decay faster because the upper atmosphere gets denser and surges occur in long distance transmission lines, sometimes producing big power outages. Oil-well logging is disrupted and GPS (global positioning system) positions fluctuate as the air path changes." On the positive side, "The quality of shortwave communications improves as sunspot activity increases, because solar UV enhances the ionosphere," said Zirin. Right now, explain scientists at CalTech, the sun is in a state of transition with the last sunspots of the old season still visible and the new ones just beginning to show themselves. The difference between new and old sunspots can be determined by the opposite magnetic fields they possess and the latitudes at which they appear. Internet users with access to the World Wide Web can view images taken of the sun by the telescope at Big Bear Observatory by accessing http://sundog.caltech.edu/ . (Martyn Williams/19950918/Press contact: Jay Aller, California Institute of Technology, 818-395-3631, Internet e-mail aller@caltech.edu) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 09/18/95 ONLINE ****Netscape Navigator 2.0 Intro'd (NEWS)(ONLINE)(SFO)(00024) ****Netscape Navigator 2.0 Intro'd 09/18/95 MOUNTAIN VIEW, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1995 SEP 18 (NB) -- Netscape Communications (NASDAQ:NSCP) has announced version 2.0 of its World Wide Web browser, Navigator, along with a software online document tool, and new developer tools. Like other versions of Navigator, the first public beta of 2.0 will be available for downloading via anonymous File Transfer Protocol (FTP) without charge to students and staff of academic institutions and charitable organizations. Netscape says it plans to have the new version posted early next week. Navigator 2.0 operates in Windows (3.1, 3.11, Windows 95), Macintosh, and X Window Systems. Highlights of version 2.0 include secure electronic-mail, threaded discussion groups and support for "live objects" such as inline, third- party plug-ins. The latter readies Navigator for Macromedia's Director player and functions and a viewer for Adobe Portable Document Format documents. Rosanne Siino, spokesperson for Netscape, spoke to Newsbytes, saying, "Version 2.0 offers a lot of functionality which meets the immediate needs of a lot of users and also includes tools which we think will become more important in the near future." Secure e-mail may seem like a feature needed by a limited number of corporate users, but Siino said, "As the Internet grows and people learn how easily someone can use your e-mail address, we expect to see secure e-mail become a standard part of the system. While it is seldom that someone would try to impersonate a regular user through e-mail, it can be done and is done." To use secure e-mail, Netscape Navigator 2.0 users will obtain digital signatures through VeriSign. Called, "Internet driver licenses," these electronic signatures are based on public key encryption technology. Users can use the signature simply to identify themselves as certificate holders, encrypt part of an electronic message, or encrypt an entire document. The recipient does not need VeriSign software to see that an electronic message has a digital signature, but recipient software is necessary to read any encrypted messages. Navigator 2.0 support for "live objects" also includes: support for Java applets; a feature called "frames" which allows for the display of multiple panels on a single screen; the Secure Courier open protocol; and Enhanced Bookmarks. In its final release in December, version 2.0 will be available in US English, French, German, and Japanese. Users who purchase Navigator 1.1 or 1.2 at this time will receive a free upgrade to the new version. Netscape also announced Netscape Navigator Gold 2.0 which gives all users a software tool which combines with version 2.0 of Navigator to create, edit, and navigate online documents. This WYSIWYG (what you see is what you get) feature means more users can easily take online information and customize it or create it entirely in the exact form it will appear on the Internet. Siino said Navigator Gold addresses a new area of the Internet for a lot of users, but as more and more people begin to develop and design their own World Wide Web pages, a tool such as Navigator Gold will become invaluable. "Navigator Gold is so easy, anyone can create and edit Web material," said Siino. This new utility features support for hypertext markup language (HTML), cut-and-paste, drag-and-drop, "live object" insertion, a form design feature, layout capabilities, and a program editor. Netscape says Navigator Gold will be available in October with a price of $79. Volume discounts will also be announced. From the developer side, Netscape announced LiveWire and LiveWire Pro Visual Online Development Environment. Both LiveWire tools provide developers with an integrated, visual environment to build and manage live applications and content for enterprise networks and the Internet. The Pro version of LiveWire adds database connectivity to the creation and management tool. LiveWire uses the Java Programming language. Commenting on the new developer tools, Siino said, "As Web sites grow bigger and bigger, developers find it harder and harder and harder to manage. This tool allows them to have a full view of the all the Web pages in a site." LiveWire and LiveWire Pro are expected to ship in October and pricing starts at under $500 and under $1,000, respectively. Both products work with Netscape Communications Server and Netscape Commerce Server and both will be available for Windows 95, Windows NT and popular Unix operating systems. (Patrick McKenna/19950918/Press Contact: Rosanne Siino, Netscape, 415-528-2619) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 09/18/95 TRENDS More Consumers Want Online Access - Study (NEWS)(TRENDS)(MSP)(00025) More Consumers Want Online Access - Study 09/18/95 PRINCETON, NEW JERSEY, U.S.A., 1995 SEP 18 (NB) -- A new survey from Response Analysis Corporation shows online service and Internet usage by the consumer market will continue to grow, but factors like the advent of the Microsoft Network (MSN) and a "fear of nerding" might inhibit that upswing in usage. The study, which was conducted via phone calls to households with annual incomes of $35,000 or more, found record levels of access of not only online service use, but of plans to add online access capabilities as well. More than 60% of these households have at least one personal computer, 38% had data or data/fax modems, 18% use online services, and 10% "surf" the Internet, the survey said. Based on those statistics, usage of online services should increase 20% in the next month, Response Analysis officials said. Even with these glowing numbers, the explosion of online interest comes despite concerns, said Response Analysis Vice President Raymond Boggs, with many people still being "shy" about hooking up. Also, the gender gap remains expansive, with 80% percent of households identifying a male Internet user, while only 42% say a female surfs the 'Net. Other factors that might affect current and future Internet users include a "fear of nerding," or a consumer's concern about the required time or commitment needed to be a successful user. Another reason people might be dissatisfied with the Internet is, what Response Analysis calls, "Post-Traumatic Web Syndrome," or finding the experience of being online "less than satisfying." A third factor is called "Windows 95 Overload," with consumers wondering if they should upgrade to the new operating system and MSN, and possibly even upgrading their current hardware. But Response Analysis believes Windows 95 and MSN will ultimately encourage online service growth. When it comes to buying computers in general, the survey showed the development of computer literacy in children is a major motivator in buying a new system. What's more, children might help their parents find the modem in their system. "We know that virtually all computers sold at retail over the past five years have modems, yet only half of the PC households are aware that they even have one," Boggs said. As more households buy PCS to go online, modem consciousness should increase, Response Analysis officials added. (Bob Woods/19950918/Press Contact: Raymond Boggs, Response Analysis Corporation, 609-921-3333) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 09/18/95 TRENDS Report Bullish On Windows NT, Object-Oriented Tools (NEWS)(TRENDS)(TOR)(00026) Report Bullish On Windows NT, Object-Oriented Tools 09/18/95 WESTBOROUGH, MASSACHUSETTS, U.S.A., 1995 SEP 18 (NB) -- Microsoft's Windows NT will prosper on client PCs as well as servers, and the use of object-oriented technology has begun to grow rapidly. These are the key conclusions of the 1995 Corporate Application Development Market Intelligence Report from Software Productivity Group Inc. Microsoft's NT is generally thought of as primarily a server operating system, with Windows 3.x running on DOS and the new Windows 95 perceived as the main contenders in the client arena. But Software Productivity Group said in this year's report, as well as last year's, that NT will be a major force on the desktop as well. Dan Kara, director of research at Software Productivity Group and the primary author of the report, said his company was "castigated" last year for saying NT would do well on the client, but this year's results support that stand and the research firm believes others are beginning to see that it was right. NT is looking more attractive as a client OS largely because of the delay in releasing Windows 95, Kara said. Though Windows 95 is now shipping, it reached the market more than a year later than planned. Originally, corporate PC managers planned to move to Windows 95 as an interim measure while they waited for a future release of NT code-named Cairo. That would have made sense if Windows 95 had come out with three to four years still to wait for Cairo. With Cairo now more like two years away -- assuming it is not also delayed -- Kara said it makes more sense to go to the current release of NT now than to make the Windows 95 transition now and then another transition in a couple of years. Kara noted that Microsoft originally meant NT to be both a server and a client operating system, but had to back off from the client market when it was unable to reduce the system's memory requirements as much as it had hoped. Microsoft is now pushing NT as a client platform for large organizations, he said. So where does that leave Windows 95? Principally in the home, according to Kara. Kara also said that in his company's latest survey of corporate application developers, roughly 64 percent said they are using object-oriented development tools. He was quick to note that most of these are only using object-oriented technology for pilot projects at the moment, with fewer than 20 percent relying on it for mission-critical work. However, he said the survey also found that 55 percent of those using the technology have been doing so for less than one year. Since any new technology is likely to be used first in pilot projects, Kara said he expects to see many of those users starting to put object-oriented tools to work in production systems in the next two years. Kara said standards, the complexity of object-oriented tools, and problems with integration into existing environments, have been key obstacles to the adoption of object-oriented technology. As those problems begin to be overcome, developers are adopting the tools because they "think they can re-use software, and to a lesser degree that they're going to get improved reliability and quality." (Grant Buckler/19950918/Press Contact: Leland Katz, Software Productivity Group, tel 508-366-3344 ext 226, fax 508-366-8030, Internet e-mail 76102.1472@compuserve.com) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 95 09/18/95 WINDOWS Inso Intros Quick View Plus For Windows (NEWS)(WINDOWS)(BOS)(00027) Inso Intros Quick View Plus For Windows 95 09/18/95 BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS, U.S.A., 1995 SEP 18 (NB) -- Inso Corp.'s Quick View Plus for Windows 95, "complements" the Quick View viewer in Windows 95, a technology licensed by Microsoft from Inso, with over six times the number of supported file formats, plus the addition of printing and clipboarding support, said Inso President and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Steven Vana-Paxhia, in an interview with Newsbytes. "Our products complement some of the leading hardware and software technologies in the world, and we think that there's no better one to complement right now than Windows 95," Vana-Paxhia told Newsbytes. The Quick View file viewing feature in Windows 95, which is based on Inso's Outside In technology, replaces the Windows file manager, the CEO pointed out. Quick View lets Windows 95 users view applications in about 30 different text, graphics, and database file formats, without initializing an application, simply by clicking on the application, he maintained. The new Quick View Plus utility, however, adds to that capability with a total of 200 viewable file formats, including HTML (hypertext markup language) and PKUNZIP, according to the company president. Quick View Plus also extends beyond the Quick View viewer by permitting Windows 95 users to print and copy-and-paste files in viewable file formats, also without initializing the applications, he added. Inso Corp. is the largest software company in the city of Boston, Massachusetts, with 180 employees, Vana-Paxhia noted. Inso was launched in 1982 as a division of Houghton-Miflin Publishing, with spell correction software as its first product, Newsbytes was told. The spell correction software has since expanded into an Inso product family called Proofing Tools. Inso's newly unveiled Quick View Plus for Windows 95 belongs to another product family, called Information Management Tools, as does Inso's Intelliscope software. Inso Corp. will soon add to this family with a "search expansion capability," he revealed. The upcoming product has yet to be named. A third family, Dynamic Information Products, is made up of electronic dictionaries and encyclopedias, along with Inso's Information Please Almanacs, according to the company chief. Inso Corp. expects to release Quick View Plus for Windows 95 on September 30, at estimated street pricing of $49. (Jacqueline Emigh/19950918/Reader Contact: Inso Corporation, 617- 753-6500; Press Contact: Gene Carozza, Rourke & Company for Inso, 617-267-0042) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 09/18/95 BUSINESS Sun Enters Embedded Market (NEWS)(BUSINESS)(LAX)(00028) Sun Enters Embedded Market 09/18/95 SUNNYVALE, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1995 SEP 18 (NB) -- Sun Microsystem's SPARC Technology Business has announced plans to target the embedded computing market, focusing on telecommunications, networking, and printing. Sun hopes to leverage its line of RISC (reduced instruction set computer) microprocessors and networking expertise to enter the embedded market. Mike Joplin, embedded strategy manager for Sun, told Newsbytes, "This is a radical move for Sun. We are the leading vendor for engineering workstations, and we want to leverage into the embedded market. While we have been around the edges of the embedded market, we have not focused on this area. Now we intend to focus and become a major player in this field. The three markets that we are focused on are all network-centric." SPARC Technology Business will apply its networking expertise to an "embedded-based solution," said the company. "The move will include: new embedded processors and boards designed for the embedded market; new operating system options; real-time development tools; and Solaris for the embedded systems," said Joplin SPARC Technology Business has begun licensing its microprocessor core to meet the requirements of high-performance embedded systems manufacturers. To date, SPARC Technology Business has eight CPU (central processing unit) licensees, with more to follow later this year. "We're responding to both our customers and the end-users," claimed Joplin. "Computer systems are becoming network-centric, requiring increasingly larger network bandwidth. The trend is toward designing multifunction systems that integrate printing, copying, faxing, and scanning and then networking the stations together. "These trends toward network-centric designs translate into the need for higher and higher processing and network-specific RISC microprocessors," said Joplin. Recognizing the role of real-time operating systems and development tools in the design of embedded systems, SPARC Technology Business is also expanding its third-party support. The company announced it has added a fifth real-time operating system port for the SPARC architecture. There are also plans to offer a configurable version of the Solaris operating system, in conjunction with SunSoft, for the line of embedded processors. Sun claims third-party development support for the SPARC architecture now includes five operating systems, 14 design kits, more than a dozen operating environments, and more than 30 development tools. Complete information on SPARC Technology Business is available via the World Wide Web at http://www.sun.com/stb. Information on the SPARC architecture, including a complete list of its supporters, is available at http://www.sparc.com. (Richard Bowers/19950918/Press Contact: Sheree G. Fitzpatrick, Sun, 408-774-8703) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 09/18/95 BROADCAST US West & Orlando Sentinel To Market Interactive TV Guide (NEWS)(BROADCAST)(DEN)(00029) US West & Orlando Sentinel To Market Interactive TV Guide 09/18/95 ORLANDO, FLORIDA, U.S.A., 1995 SEP 18 (NB) -- US West Interactive Services Group and The Orlando Sentinel newspaper have announced they will jointly market an interactive television entertainment guide in the Orlando, Florida market later this year. The guide, called GOtv, will be a local movie, dining and event guide developed by US West. The two companies said they will develop video and other content to test the service on the US West/Time Warner Entertainment Full Service Network. US West spokesperson Carolyne Kennedy said the launch date of the network will be announced later. Kennedy told Newsbytes there won't be any cost to the consumer, at least initially. "These services are being offered during the market trial at no charge. It's a learning opportunity for US West, the programming participants and the network folks." Kennedy said it is anticipated that the service will be advertiser-supported, but that is a decision that will be made after US West obtains feedback from the viewers and the advertisers during the trial. The Tribune Interactive Network Services (TINS), a division of the newspaper, will provide information and video on local restaurants, restaurant reviews, a calendar of local entertainment events, venues, show times, ticket information, theater and stadium seating charts and movie reviews. That information will be part of GOtv's interactive programming. Users will also be able to purchase movie tickets through MovieFone, a provider of show time information. Interactive television holds the promise of menu-selected services that include video-on-demand, ordering products from online home shopping services, and a host of other services in which the consumer uses the television set and computer-like menus to acquire information and services. Numerous companies are working on interactive offerings and interactive tests are currently being conducted in several parts of the company. The two companies said they believe the agreement is the first of its kind between a regional Bell operating company (RBOC) and a newspaper publishing company. John O'Farrell, president and chief executive officer of US West Interactive Services Group, said bringing together the core competencies of the two companies with their expertise in gathering, packaging and distributing entertainment and information via a new technology is a milestone in the evolution of the interactive television industry. US West said it will use new animation and production technologies in the GOtv programming. Local and national advertisers are being solicited, and Visa and seven major Hollywood studios will participate in the trial. US West said viewers will be able to click on icons advertising messages to display the ads that interest them. The Sentinel currently publishes a weekly calendar section, which is also available in electronic form through the Orlando Sentinel Online forum on the online subscription service America Online. US West said GOtv will be like an expanded interactive video version of the Calendar section. The Sentinel will provide content, and its critics and reviewers will be featured in the various content areas. The newspaper operates a multimedia production enter in Orlando that has video production capabilities as well as the technology to handle compression of video for the interactive service. US West said other interactive television services are being developed for the network that will include local news beginning this fall and classified advertising, consumer and commercial services and community-based content in 1996. Kennedy said it is too early to provide details about those services. (Jim Mallory/19950918/Press contact: Carolyne Kennedy, US West, 303-784-2572 or Bette Jore, The Orlando Sentinel, 407-420-5596) (SUMMARY)(GENERAL)(MSP)(00030) Newsbytes Daily Summary 09/18/95 MINNEAPOLIS, MINNESOTA, U.S.A., 1995 SEP 18 (NB) -- These are capsules of all today's news stories: 1 -> Australia - Computers & Comms Council Meeting 09/18/95 Now that he has On Australia up and operating, Bill Gates' eyes have turned to the heavens above Australia. Trenholme Griffin and Ed Miller, from Teledesic USA, rocked up to the Sydney Opera House recently as late starters for the International Computers and Communications world leaders council. 2 -> Compuserve Offers Database Of CD-ROMs, Aptiva PC Bundling 09/18/95 Compuserve has announced two new programs that either help existing subscribers, or help the service gain new members. The network's members can now access information on more than 9,300 CD-ROMs, and buyers of IBM Aptiva computers will be able to access the service as soon as they turn on their new systems. 3 -> NewsPix Images For Newsbytes Publishers 09/18/95 These photos correspond to recent Newsbytes stories. They are online in the Newsbytes menu on America Online, NiftyServe, and the Newsbytes private bulletin board system in Minneapolis. 4 -> New Pharmaceutical Industry Web Site 09/18/95 The Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturing of America (PhRMA) group has entered cyberspace, with an outpost on the Internet's World Wide Web. The new site includes information on healthcare, ranging from answers to questions regarding pharmaceuticals to pointers on a variety of health issues. 5 -> Australia - Attachmate Plans Increased Tech Support 09/18/95 Attachmate President and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) James Lindner slipped into Australia recently to address Sydney's ICC conference (International Computers and Communications world leaders council), launch a new product, pin down some local partners, and expand Attachmate's service operations. 6 -> Europe - Adobe Claims Mac Plug-Ins Improve Photoshop 09/18/95 Adobe has unveiled three plug-ins for Photoshop 3.0.4 for the Apple Mac. Scheduled to ship in Europe this week, the packages are designed to enhance the performance of the Photoshop application, company officials claim. 7 -> Hong Kong - Exec Jumps CT-2 Telecom Ship 09/18/95 In what could be a signal of the end of CT-2 call-out-only mobile phone technology in Hong Kong, Chevalier Telepoint Managing Director Neil Montefiore jumped ship last week to just-created Cable & Wireless Mobile. 8 -> Compaq Plans Bigger Role For China PC Plant 09/18/95 Compaq Computer Corp. Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Eckhard Pfeiffer went to Hong Kong and then headed across the China border to Shenzhen to do some official ribbon cutting at the company's assembly plant. 9 -> ****Sierra On-line Intros Voice-Controlled Game 09/18/95 No more fumbling with the mouse or remembering keystrokes in the heat of battle as you compete with other gamers, just shout out "fire" and other commands. That's what game players can do to control the action if they buy "Command: Aces of the Deep," a CD-ROM game that game maker Sierra On-Line (NASDAQ: SIER) says is the world's first voice-controller CD-ROM game. 10 -> Interop - NetWorth Intros Drop-In Fast Ethernet 09/18/95 NetWorth took the occasion of the recent Networld+Interop show in Paris to announce its Smart Uplink drop-in 100Base-T upgrade to the networking community. According to officials with NetWorth, Smart Uplink is a drop-in upgrade to existing 10BaseT networks to allow them to perform at 100 megabits-per-second (Mbps). 11 -> Hypercom Sets Up New Offices In Europe 09/18/95 Hypercom, the Phoenix, Arizona-based networking company, has formed a new company, called Hypercom Europe Limited, which will work out of new offices in Budapest, Hungary. At the same time, the company has opened an additional sales office in Luton, England. 12 -> Mastersoft Ships Viewer For Windows 95 09/18/95 Mastersoft Inc., the company that produced the Word for Word document format conversion program, is now shipping Viewer95, its file viewing utility for Windows 95. 13 -> 2nd Generation "Iceberg" Arrives 09/18/95 Storage Technology Inc. (NYSE: STK) has announced availability and pricing of its second-generation Iceberg disk array unit, as well as some new features for the system that can be ordered with new systems or as upgrades. 14 -> Interop - CrossComm's Ethernet/ATM Segment Technology 09/18/95 CrossComm Corporation has taken the wraps off the newest members of its ClearPath network systems -- the Ethernet Segment Switch (ESS) and the ATM (asynchronous transfer mode) Edge Switch (AES). 15 -> ****Study Shows High Interest In Internet Commerce 09/18/95 VeriFone Inc. (NYSE: VFI) has released the results of a market study to assess merchant and consumer attitudes toward commerce over the Internet. VeriFone, who just announced its entry into the Internet payment industry, joined with MasterCard International and Visa International to sponsor the study. 16 -> Philippines - Manila Newspaper To Go Online 09/18/95 nce the largest circulated English newspaper in Asia prior to martial law 20 years ago, The Manila Times, will now become Asia's first electronic major daily when it begins offering an online edition in late September. 17 -> IBM Offers Internet Services In Central/Eastern Europe 09/18/95 IBM has announced the availability of commercial Internet services via its IBM Global Network nodes in major Central & Eastern European (CEE) cities. 18 -> China - Govt Statistical Info Network Established 09/18/95 China's first statistical information network -- linking Shanghai, Beijing, Tianjin, and Guangzhou -- is operational, according to China Information. The computerized network is expected to help local governments formulate plans for local economic development and push regional cooperation, the newspaper said. 19 -> Canadian Product Launch Update 09/18/95 This regular feature, appearing on the first day Newsbytes publishes each week, provides further details for the Canadian market on announcements by international companies that Newsbytes has already covered. This week: IBM upgrades three ThinkPad models with 75 megahertz (MHz) Pentium processors. 20 -> ****AT&T GIS To Announce Job Cuts Soon? 09/18/95 The computer unit of AT&T (NYSE:T) will announce specifics of its cost-cutting plans before the end of this month. The changes at AT&T Global Information Solutions are likely to include some layoffs, but the company is not commenting on a published report that as many as 10,000 people could lose their jobs. 21 -> ****High-Tech Firms Fight Immigration Reform 09/18/95 Dozens of executives from high-tech firms pounded the pavement on Capitol Hill last week, lobbying against a bill that would cut legal immigration. Legislation is moving in both the House and Senate. 22 -> Japan Newsbriefs 09/18/95 In this roundup of news from Japan: Fujitsu raises profits forecast, NEC predicts better PC sales, Sakura bank picks HP, Tokyu plans Internet via cable tests, Teleway Japan applies for rate cut, KDD enters Mongolia. 23 -> New Sunspot Cycle Begins, Earth Comms Disrupted 09/18/95 CalTech Observatory in Pasadena, California, has announced the beginning of a new sunspot cycle with the sighting of the first sunspot in the new cycle. Sunspots run in eleven year cycles and when at their peak, have the capacity to cause damage to satellites and disrupt communications and power systems on the Earth. 24 -> ****Netscape Navigator 2.0 Intro'd 09/18/95 Netscape Communications (NASDAQ:NSCP) has announced version 2.0 of its World Wide Web browser, Navigator, along with a software online document tool, and new developer tools. 25 -> More Consumers Want Online Access - Study 09/18/95 A new survey from Response Analysis Corporation shows online service and Internet usage by the consumer market will continue to grow, but factors like the advent of the Microsoft Network (MSN) and a "fear of nerding" might inhibit that upswing in usage. 26 -> Report Bullish On Windows NT, Object-Oriented Tools 09/18/95 Microsoft's Windows NT will prosper on client PCs as well as servers, and the use of object-oriented technology has begun to grow rapidly. These are the key conclusions of the 1995 Corporate Application Development Market Intelligence Report from Software Productivity Group Inc. 27 -> Inso Intros Quick View Plus For Windows 95 09/18/95 Inso Corp.'s Quick View Plus for Windows 95, "complements" the Quick View viewer in Windows 95, a technology licensed by Microsoft from Inso, with over six times the number of supported file formats, plus the addition of printing and clipboarding support, said Inso President and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Steven Vana-Paxhia, in an interview with Newsbytes. 28 -> Sun Enters Embedded Market 09/18/95 Sun Microsystem's SPARC Technology Business has announced plans to target the embedded computing market, focusing on telecommunications, networking, and printing. Sun hopes to leverage its line of RISC (reduced instruction set computer) microprocessors and networking expertise to enter the embedded market. 29 -> US West & Orlando Sentinel To Market Interactive TV Guide 09/18/95 US West Interactive Services Group and The Orlando Sentinel newspaper have announced they will jointly market an interactive television entertainment guide in the Orlando, Florida market later this year. (Ian Stokell/19950918) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 09/15/95 UNIX Clickshare Server Beta Available In October (NEWS)(UNIX)(MSP)(00001) Clickshare Server Beta Available In October 09/15/95 WILLIAMSTOWN, MASSACHUSETTS, U.S.A., 1995 SEP 15 (NB) -- Newshare Corp. said it will begin a beta test phase for its Clickshare Unix server software, which allows Internet World Wide Web users to be charged when they view content on home pages. The software will be available in early October, with the evaluation phase beginning in mid-October. The Clickshare concept, profiled by Newsbytes earlier this week, will enable the transfer of chargeable information on a "by the click" basis among multiple Internet sites. Internet surfers wouldn't have to register at each site using Clickshare, because the system established uniform registration, user profiling, and authentication. The software itself will be available for use on Unix-based machines running versions of Linux. Other ports to Unix-based servers will follow, Newshare officials said. Creative works by independent writers, authors, and publishers can be sold on the Internet, without having to go through an online service for publication, with Clickshare. Newshare officials said the system is similar to a credit card network, or a transaction clearing system. Internet users will generate the revenue; they can either download the articles or art works, or purchase a subscription. Newshare officials said if an article, art work, or other data is purchased for 10 cents, the Internet service provider (ISP) would bill the user for the full amount through Clickshare. From that dime the ISP would keep 3.5 cents as commission, and electronically remit the other 6.5 cents to Clickshare. From that amount the artist, writer, or other form of publisher would get five cents, with Clickshare pocketing the rest. The Clickshare software is available as freeware. Potential users should send electronic mail (e-mail) to "beta@clickshare.com" (without quotes). After January 1, 1996, when the transaction-processing function goes online, an ISP will need to enroll as a Clickshare "technical member" for a membership fee of $100, plus $1.00 per year for each Clickshare enabled user. ISPs can submit requests to be considered for "Exclusive Publishing Member" status of the Newshare system for their geographical user area. The membership includes the right to use the Newshare name and service concept. For more information on this, ISPs can surf the Web to http://www.newshare.com/Clickshare/index.html/ . In 1996, Newshare Corp., will also establish a nationwide electronic brokerage for the multimedia collection, editing, moderation, and sale of time-sensitive general-interest local news and advertising using billable hypertext links. This venture will be separate from Clickshare, officials said. Newshare maintains a Web presence at http://www.newshare.com . (Bob Woods/19950915/Press Contacts: Bill Densmore or Lynn Duncan, Newshare Corp., 413-458-8001. Public Contact: Newshare Corp., 413-458- 8001, Internet e-mail mail@newshare.com) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 09/15/95 BUSINESS 3DO Plans To Diversify Beyond Games (NEWS)(BUSINESS)(LAX)(00002) 3DO Plans To Diversify Beyond Games 09/15/95 REDWOOD CITY, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1995 SEP 15 (NB) -- 3DO Co.(NASDAQ:THDO) plans to diversify and expand its business beyond the video game market. The strategy is intended to reduce risk, improve cash flow and increase 3DO's independence from a single market. Shernaz Daver, a spokesperson for 3DO, told Newsbytes, "It is fair to say that 3DO is going to face stiff competition in the advanced game market. It is also fair to say that about all of our competitors. If you look at the numbers, everyone will face difficulties. We have been the major player in this segment of the game market for the last few years, and we want to leverage our technology to other markets." As previously reported by Newsbytes, market research firm DFC Intelligence stated that in 1994 video games and entertainment software for PCs generated $4.3 billion in US revenues. This was down slightly from 1993's $4.4 billion. The market for video game hardware took a more significant dip in 1994, declining 18% to $1.5 billion. According to David Cole, president of DFC Intelligence, "The market will not pick up until the next generation hardware systems start to gain momentum." Cole claims there are four separate advanced systems that will be in the marketplace by next year: the Sega Saturn, the Sony PlayStation, the Nintendo Ultra 64 and the 3DO system. It could take over a year for the new systems to gain momentum. DFC Intelligence forecasts that in 1995, software revenue will be down 14%, while the number of hardware units sold will be down 36%. According to Devar, in no way is 3DO abandoning the advanced game market. 3DO stated that it fully intends to continue developing its next generation 64-bit M2 consumer game products. "We see demand for the M2 technology in applications that complement the dedicated game market, such as PCs, arcade systems and digital video disc players," said Trip Hawkins, president of 3DO. "We expect to complete our M2 plans in the coming months and believe the net result will be a stronger business for 3DO in the long term." (Richard Bowers/19950914/Press Contact: Shernaz Devar, 3DO, 415- 261-2792) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 09/15/95 NETWORK DEC's Multistack System For Network Hubs (NEWS)(NETWORK)(BOS)(00003) DEC's Multistack System For Network Hubs 09/15/95 MAYNARD, MASSACHUSETTS, U.S.A., 1995 SEP 15 (NB) -- By allowing network hubs to be "stacked, racked, and distributed," Digital Equipment Corp.'s new Multistack System brings "flexibility, extensibility, and affordability" not available from any other vendor, asserted Dick Lausch, director of marketing for Digital's Network Product Business Unit, in a conference call with Newsbytes. Lausch told Newsbytes that Digital's new Multistack System is built around a new "stackable unit" that can be used on a stand-alone basis, "stacked" at one location, distributed at multiple locations up to 195 meters apart, or "racked" in a standard 19-inch rack. Up to 16 hubs, or 232 ports, are supported per stack, according to Lausch. Hubs are available for Ethernet 10BaseT, ThinkWire/AUI, 10Base2, ThinWire, and 10BaseFL/FOIRL (Fiber-Optic Inter-Repeater Link) media. "The Multistack System extends our enVISN architecture to the remote branch office," Lausch maintained. When used with DECswitch 900 products, he noted, the stacking system can be employed as a "switched-edge stack" for building "virtual LANs" (local area networks) from switched LAN segments between remote, distributed locations. Any existing module for the DEChub 90 chassis can be used in the stackable unit, he added. Examples include the Digital NetRider 90 for remote access, the Digital RoamAbout Access Point for wireless connections to the wired LAN, the DECpacketprobe 90 for RMON (remote monitoring) traffic analysis, and the Digital RouteAbout Access EW for Internet, frame relay, and other WAN (wide area network) connectivity. In addition, he reported, all Digital 90-series repeaters -- including the new DECrepeater 90T016, the DECrepeater 90TS, and the DECrepeater 90FS -- can now be managed as a single SNMP (Simple Network Management Protocol) domain, in either co-located or distributed configurations. In contrast, the stackable hub systems of competing companies consist of "multiple disconnected stacks," the marketing director contended. When used with Digital's HUBwatch network management software, the Multistack System and other Digital hubbing systems bring "hot swappability" that allows a network manager to replace a failed module without shutting down the entire system, he pointed out. "I think that our VARs (value-added resellers) will find Multistack to be a very versatile and expandable system," predicted Eric Erickson, VP of channel services for MicroAge. Michael Howard, president of Infonetics, likened the new stacking units to "stackable garages." The units provide a "new way of enclosing modules that is less expensive than a hub," the analyst told Newsbytes. Pricing for Digital's MultiStack System begins at under $50 per port, according to Lausch. (Jacqueline Emigh/19950914/Reader Contact: Digital Equipment Corporation, 508-4935111; Press Contacts: Susan Ursch, Digital, 508-486-5198; Veronica Fergot, Rourke & Company for Digital, 617- 267-0042) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 09/15/95 IBM DCE For OS/2 Warp Entering Beta Tests (NEWS)(IBM)(LON)(00004) DCE For OS/2 Warp Entering Beta Tests 09/15/95 LONDON, ENGLAND, 1995 SEP 15 (NB) -- IBM has announced it is accepting candidates for participation in an OS/2 Warp Distributed Computing Environment (DCE) 2.1 beta program. According to Val Russell, a spokeswoman for IBM, by entering into the beta program, users can begin application prototyping, development, testing and provide feedback to IBM. The IBM DCE 2.1 for OS/2 Warp beta program is based on the function of the Open Software Foundation's (OSF's) most recent DCE, Version 1.1, and, according to Big Blue, is enriched by IBM's enhancements. "With this beta, IBM is the first company to offer open, heterogeneous client/server computing to PC LAN users with a product based on the latest version of OSF/DCE," explained Art Olbert, vice president of IBM's LAN Systems division. Big Blue claims that the beta program provides a solid foundation for developing distributed client/server applications based on open standards and enables software developers, independent software vendors, channel partners and users to gain experience with distributed computing technologies for the desktop and server environment. OSF/DCE is billed as an integrated set of industry-leading distributed computing technologies. These technologies allow multi-vendor computing networks to function as a single, logical environment for distributed applications and workstation users. DCE, meanwhile, is an enabling technology. The beta version of the software is claimed to expand developers' abilities to write software that provides true open distributed client/server computing. In addition to the core DCE functions of remote procedure call, cell directory services, security services, time services and DCE threads, the package also provides the new OSF/DCE 1.1 functions, including: Extended Registry Attributes (ERA); General Security Service API (GSS- API); Delegation; DCE Daemon (DCED); DCE Control Program (DCECP); Serviceability; Extended Log-in; Backing Storage Library; and Access Control List (ACL) Checking Library. The idea behind the beta program for IBM DCE 2.1 for OS/2 Warp is that software developers can get a head start on developing applications that are truly plug-and-play and will fully exploit distributed services. To make working with DCE simpler, IBM claims it has provided enhancements and ease of use features including: Administration Graphical User Interface (GUI); Simplified Install; Managed Object Class Library; OS/2 Distributed File System (DFS) Client; Commercial Data Masking Facility (CDMF) Support; and Native NetBIOS support. According to IBM, in order to accelerate the acceptance and deployment of distributed computing environments, IBM and Hewlett-Packard (HP) are working through the OSF to define a common set of managed objects for the DCE core infrastructure. This will, the companies claim, provide consistent administrative/management interface definitions across heterogeneous distributed computing platforms. Further details of the beta program can be found on IBM's World Wide Web site which us at http://www.ibm.com . (Steve Gold/19950914/Press Contact: Val Russell, IBM UK +44-171-202- 3798) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 09/15/95 WINDOWS Colorado Firm's Technology Leads To Advanced Speech Rec (NEWS)(WINDOWS)(DEN)(00005) Colorado Firm's Technology Leads To Advanced Speech Rec 09/15/95 BOULDER, COLORADO, U.S.A., 1995 SEP 15 (NB) -- Speech Systems, Inc. (SSI) has announced a licensing agreement with AT&T that the company said will yield new telephony-based speech recognition development tools for Windows 95 and other operating systems. Speech Systems Inc. (SSI) said the licensing agreement with AT&T's Advanced Speech Products Group combines the technologies of the two companies to produce tools for operating systems that use AT&T's Advanced Speech Applications Program Interface. SSI said AT&T will introduce Watson Advanced Speech Applications Platform for Windows 95, its first product that incorporates Speech Systems' methods, in September. Watson is based on BLASR Speech Recognition and Flextalk Speech Synthesis developed in the AT&T Bell Laboratories. Ivan Perez-Mendez, president of SSI, told Newsbytes telephony-based speech recognition tools will become more important as PCs become more widely connected to nationwide or even worldwide telephone networks. Perez-Mendez cited an example of the technology. He explained that one use is to allow a person to call a computer from a remote location and issue voice commands, such as "send file to me at 303-555-1212," and the computer will dutifully transfer the file. He said users would also be able to cut through levels of voice messaging menus by calling a company and instructing the computer to connect the caller with a specific individual, read e-mail and even return messages. In addition to the convenience of those uses, Perez-Mendez said the technology also cuts down on the time required to make a phone call and reach a party or get someone to transfer a file. That saved time translates to reduced call length and makes more minutes available on the network. "By having a technology that allows you to do this AT&T can increase their network use, which is their final goal," he told Newsbytes. SSI said it will provide technical services to AT&T throughout the development process, and will market BLASR and FlexTalk in addition to its current lines of continuous speech recognition engines and development tools. AT&T BLASR Speech Recognition is an advanced set of development tools for creating telephony-based speech recognition applications on the Windows 95 platform. The products will be SASPI (Speech Application Programming Interface) and TAPI (Telephone Application Programming Interface) compliant and allow customers to automate customer services. AT&T's FlexTalk offers SAPI compliant speech synthesis for voice prompting and feedback. SSI said BLASR and FlexTalk will be available from AT&T this month. Flextalk includes male and female voices, 8- and 11-kilohertz (KHz) output and adjustable vocal tract size, speed, volume and pitch. The company said FlexTalk delivers accurate pronunciation of most proper names. (Jim Mallory/19950914/Press contact: Paula Fujimoto, Interactive Public Relations for Speech Systems, 415-703-0400; Public contact: Speech Systems, 303-398-1110 or send e-mail to info@speechsys.com) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 09/15/95 BUSINESS Amdahl To Acquire Canada's DMR Group (NEWS)(BUSINESS)(SFO)(00006) Amdahl To Acquire Canada's DMR Group 09/15/95 SUNNYVALE, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1995 SEP 15 (NB) -- Amdahl, a worldwide supplier of System/390 processors, Unix systems software and servers, and other high-end services and support, announced plans to acquire DMR Group, a worldwide consulting firm to the enterprise market. DMR's principal shareholders have agreed to the $90 million deal. #IMAGE 1 20 TWPCX \images\95091506.PCX Click here for photo Terms of the acquisition call for Amdahl to initiate a cash tender offer on or before October 12 to purchase all outstanding shares of DMR for $8.25 (Canadian) per share. Based on recent currency exchange rates the deal amounts to approximately $90 million (US). The proposed acquisition is subject to certain conditions including acceptable due diligence findings. Pleased with the strength of DMR and the industry recognition of its name, Amdahl's president and chief executive officer (CEO), Joseph Zemke, told Newsbytes, "We plan to have DMR continue to operate as DMR. It will now be a Amdahl company, but we want to leverage its strength and recognition and use it as the linchpin to build on our corporate strategy." So pleased is Amdahl with the DMR name and strengths that it plans to integrate its own Amdahl Business Solutions Group into DMR. The combination of DMR and the Business Solutions Group will provide Amdahl with more than 3,100 employees worldwide focusing on consulting services and support for information technology (IT) needs of medium and large corporations and organizations. The acquisition will give Amdahl a total of 8,400 employees with 6,000 of those operating in the field. DMR operates in North America, Europe and the Asia-Pacific Region. Annual revenues for DMR amount to almost $200 million (US). Its founder, president, CEO and general manager, Mr. Pierre Ducros, is scheduled to become CEO of the new entity and Mr. Michael Poehner, the vice president and general manager of Amdahl's Business Solutions Group, will become president of the new entity. Amdahl continues to build on its diversification strategy of becoming a more fully integrated hardware, software and service supplier. Moving from a company which once focused on mainframe hardware, Amdahl is in a building process designed to allow the company to deliver complete IT business systems across the enterprise. When asked if the DMR acquisition was an indication of more growth through mergers and acquisitions, Zemke emphasized that further acquisitions could be expected in the not too distant future. (Patrick McKenna/19950915/Press Contact: John Radewagen, The Benjamin Group, tel 408-559-6090/AMDAHL950915/PHOTO) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 09/15/95 UNIX Zenith Data Systems Intros PowerPC Servers (NEWS)(UNIX)(MSP)(00007) Zenith Data Systems Intros PowerPC Servers 09/15/95 BUFFALO GROVE, ILLINOIS, U.S.A., 1995 SEP 15 (NB) -- Zenith Data Systems (ZDS) is bringing to market new PowerPC based network servers targeted to the business-critical application server market. The new machines will have both single and multiple processors. The two new lines consist of the Z-Power monoprocessor models, and the Escala symmetrical multiprocessor (SMP) line. ZDS officials said both model lines run the AIX 4.1 operating system, have hot-plug disks, remote maintenance capability, and automatic notification of impending failures, among other features. Both lines are also binary compatible among themselves and across other AIX systems. In addition, the Z-Power series can also run the Microsoft Windows NT 3.5 Advanced Server operating system. The Z-Powers will also be able to run other operating systems as they are ported to the PowerPC platform. The Z-Power series, based on the PowerPC 604 processor, breaks down into the "DT," a desktop model, and the "MT," a mini-tower configuration. The DT can accommodate up to a 4GB internal disk drive and up to 128MB of memory, at a starting list price of $4,219. The MT can take up to a 6GB disk drive and 128MB of memory. Both offer features like on-board 16-bit Ethernet networking, SVGA graphics, and business audio. The Z-Power series comes with a three-year, on-site, next business day limited warranty. The Escala models are based on the PowerPC 601 processor, and can be upgraded to the 604 or 620. The "MT" series consists of a mini-tower box, the option of having from one to four processors, and the ability to hold up to 512MB of memory and 13GB of disk storage. The "DS" line is a deskside system that holds from two to eight CPUs, can be configured with a maximum 2048MB of memory, and can hold up to 36GB of internal storage. The warranty for the Escala is a one-year, on-site limited warranty. Both Escala systems can also have external cabinets for other hard drives. With the cabinets, the MT can expand to 105GB, and the DS can hold up to 63GB. Steve Bosak, ZDS spokesperson, told Newsbytes his company is expanding to the PowerPC marketplace because "off-the-shelf Intel parts can't get you to a certain segment of the marketplace with servers," he said. Bosak stressed that ZDS won't give up its Intel microprocessor-based line of products with the introduction of the PowerPC-based servers. The two different types of processors are considered competitors in the computer industry. In fact, one of the reasons why ZDS chose to market PowerPC machines is because of the differences between the two platforms. "We just wanted to give our customers, our distributors, our partners, and our VARs (value added resellers) a choice between the two platforms," Bosak said. ZDS will be adding more Intel-based servers in the future, Bosak added. ZDS maintains an Internet World Wide Web address at URL (uniform resource locator) http://www.zds.com . The ZDS PowerPC-based systems are a result of agreements and other business arrangements among ZDS, its parent company Groupe Bull, and Motorola. (Bob Woods/19950915/Press Contact: Steve Bosak, Zenith Data Systems, 708-808-4855. Public Contact: Zenith Data Systems, 800-533-0331) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 09/15/95 BROADCAST Videonics Acquires Abbate Video (NEWS)(BROADCAST)(MSP)(00008) Videonics Acquires Abbate Video 09/15/95 CAMPBELL, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1995 SEP 15 (NB) -- Two leaders in the budget video field have joined forces. Known for its stand-alone video controllers and support equipment, Videonics Inc., announced that it is acquiring Abbate Video. Abbate makes the Video Toolkit, oneof the most versatile applications in budget Apple Computer Macintosh desktop video. The fit between Videonics' widely accepted budget units and Abbate's software would seem ideal. Videonics has also been establishing more of a professional broadcast presence. It exhibited at the NAB (National Association of Broadcasters) convention this year. Newsbytes talked to Mark Abbate, president of Abbate and developer of Video Toolkit. "I am very happy with this arrangement. Abbate will be keeping its present offices and locations and will get additional development support." Abbate will remain with the new company and will be in charge of development. Although favorably reviewed by industry journals and many users, Video Toolkit never garnered the profile needed to become a true application hit. "We just never got to that critical mass in our marketing," Mark Abbate told Newsbytes. "Videonics' distribution and marketing power is what Video Toolkit needed," he added. Jack Aiello, vice president of marketing for Videonics, told Newsbytes, "Many of our customers have asked us for software over the years. With the acquisition of Abbate we can now fulfill those demands." Aiello believes that the potential synergy of these products is impressive. He says Videonics is looking forward to the coming product integration. Michael D'Addio, Videonics' chief executive officer, commented in press reports, "We view Abbate Video's software products as a cornerstone in Videonics' open solution for video post production. Their current products, which operate in both Windows and Macintosh environments for use with Adobe Premiere, provide affordable state of the art solutions for personal computer users. In combination with Videonics' real-time digital video technology, we believe Abbate's base software technology will ultimately provide a truly affordable, real-time non linear solution." Video ToolKit is a software and control cable application for logging, editing and if desired, digitizing video footage. The cable uses the Macintosh's modem or printer port to control a source camcorder or VCR. Scenes are logged and then organized into an EDL (edit decision list). This EDL can then be auto-assembled as QuickTime movies or onto tape. The VTK PlugInPack works with Adobe Premiere. It expands Premiere's source deck support by allowing deck or camcorder control with Control-L (LANC), Control-M (Panasonic 5-pin), RS422, RS232 and Sony VISCA. (Newsbytes Staff/19950914/Videonics, Jack Aiello 408-866-8300 or http://www.videonics.com ;Abbate Video Inc. 508-376-3712) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 09/15/95 PC ****Compaq Intros New Home PCs, Fall Ad Campaign (NEWS)(PC)(DEN)(00009) ****Compaq Intros New Home PCs, Fall Ad Campaign 09/15/95 HOUSTON, TEXAS, U.S.A., 1995 SEP 15 (NB) -- Compaq Computer Corp. (NYSE: CPQ) has introduced more PCs designed for the home market and some of the new Presario models incorporate audio and video technology. Compaq has also launched a fall television ad campaign to promote its new Presario PCs but declined to say how much it will spend on the promotional effort. #IMAGE 1 20 TWPCX \images\95091509.PCX Click here for photo Compaq rolled out its Presario 7100 desktop systems this week, along with the Presario 5500 all-in-one PC and the minitower 9500 models. The all-in-one and minitower models are equipped with Compaq's TrueQ Sound and Motion. The 5500 and 9500 versions include SpeechMail voice recognition that lets the user remotely retrieve voice mail messages by using natural speech commands. Compaq said its TrueQ Sound and Motion combines hardware-based MPEG video support, 3-D sound, high fidelity speakers and wavetable synthesis audio technology. TrueQ is an optional feature on the Presario 5500. The Pentium-based Presario 7100 series PCs start at $1,699 and comes with an 840-megabyte (MB) or one-gigabyte (GB) capacity hard drive, 8MB of memory, which can be expanded, and Windows 95 pre-installed. Compaq prices its systems without the monitor, and you can order a Presario 7100 with a 14-inch Presario 14SV for $299 or the 15-inch 150i for $399. A new graphical user interface called Presario Plaza lets the user select the environment according to their level of experience. There is Kids Corner for children, Activity Company for new users and Windows Gallery for advanced users. In Kids Corner parents can lock children out of important files using a specially designed utility that lets them choose the installed applications they want their children to be able to access. The Presario 7100 90MHz and 100MHz models come with more than 30 software titles of personal finance, reference, online services, education ad entertainment programs. That includes PerfectWorks for Windows, a productivity package that includes word processing, database, spreadsheet, painting, drawing and communications modules. The Windows 95 version of PerfectWorks is expected to ship in January 1996. The Presario 5500 and 9500 models also have their own user interface, Presario Gallery. It offers four choices of environment. You can pick Launch Pad for the kids, Activity Manager for novice users, TabWorks for the intermediate user, or direct access to the Windows 95 program manager. The 5500 and 9500 are bundled with more than 40 software titles, including the first MPEG version of Microsoft Encarta, as well as Discovers and The Face of Life. There are also two program, MediaPilot and MiniPilot that Compaq said provide faster access to the multimedia features. The 5500 line starts at $1,999 with its built-in Super VGA monitor, speakers, 16-bit stereo sound, a 75 megahertz (MHz) microprocessor and a 1GB hard drive. The 5500 and 9500 models are scheduled to ship in October 1995. The 9500's provide five drive bays and five expansion slots for additional peripherals. You can get Pentium 100MHz and 133MHz microprocessors and 1GB and 1.6GB hard drives. The 9500 line starts at $2,099. A 14-inch $399 monitor and a 15-inch $499 monitor are available. The monitors include detachable speakers and a built-in cable wrap area to keep the speaker cable off your desk or kitchen table. The monitors are also scheduled to ship in October. Compaq maintains a home page on the World Wide Web where it posts product information. The Uniform Resource Locator (URL) is http://www.compaq.com . The company also has forums on America Online, Compuserve and Prodigy. Meanwhile, Compaq's "Compaq - Has it changed your life yet?" campaign is set to begin airing nationally in November and was designed by New York ad agency Ammarti and Puris/Lintas. Compaq is also promoting recent testing by the National Software Testing Laboratories (NSTL) that the company said shows TrueQ provides double the performance of the MPEG video playback on a Packard Bell Legend. Packard Bell has emerged from the pack of PC makers to threaten the sales leaders over the past year and now has a healthy chunk of the retail sales market. Compaq also compares its The TrueQ Sound system to the system used in Packard Bell's Legend system, claiming better performance in speaker frequency response, distortion, sound pressure level, signal-to-noise ratio, total harmonic distortion and noise response, line-out frequency response and output power. Compaq said the wavetable synthesis technology its uses to access sound files offers more realistic sounds in games and "edutainment" applications; supports 16-bit stereo at 44 kilohertz sample rate, the same rate as music CDs; and supports 128 samples melodic instruments, 47 samples percussion instruments and can play 32 notes at one time. Compaq said the three-dimensional audio technology provided by Spatializer Audio Laboratories Inc. provides three-dimensional surround sound from the two conventional speakers. Compaq wrestled the worldwide sales crown away from long time king of the hill Apple Computer Inc., last year after Apple held the top spot for 10 years. According to market research company Dataquest, Compaq shipped about 850,000 more units than Apple in 1994. Compaq also captured the top spot in domestic shipments, grabbing almost 13 percent of the US market share. Packard Bell was number four on the worldwide sales list for 1994, more than doubling its shipments over the previous year. Earlier this month Newsbytes reported that Compaq grabbed the market leadership for the second quarter of 1995 in the Asia/Pacific market. That area is currently a hotbed of sales activity and competition among PC makers. (Jim Mallory/19950914/Press contact: Compaq, 713-374-0484; Public contact: Compaq, 800-345-1518/PRESARIO950915/PHOTO) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 09/15/95 ONLINE VeriFone's Automated Transaction For Internet (NEWS)(ONLINE)(LAX)(00010) VeriFone's Automated Transaction For Internet 09/15/95 REDWOOD CITY, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1995 SEP 15 (NB) -- VeriFone, Inc. (NYSE: VFI), a worldwide supplier of automated credit card authorization terminals, plans to make purchases on the Internet safer with its Internet payment system that allows multiple payment options, including credit and debit cards, low-value "micropayments," electronic cash and electronic check. VeriFone has, in the last few months, invested over $32 million dollars in Internet-related companies. The firm spent $28 million buying Enterprise Integration Technologies, a software company specializing in Internet security, and also invested $4 million in CyberCash, a company developing a new Internet transaction system. VeriFone is a leading global provider of automated counter-top terminals used to deliver electronic payment services to various retail, government and healthcare markets. The firm claims to have installed over 4.4 million credit card authorization terminals world-wide. Speaking to Newsbytes, Roger B. Bertman, general manager of VeriFone's Internet Commerce Division, said, "What is needed in the Internet world is similar to what is needed at the physical merchant counter-top. On the counter-top, terminal merchants need security, quick communication, and the necessary processing. Merchants in the physical world find these functions in the VeriFone terminal on the counter. In the Internet these functions must occur at different locations, in the PC, at the Web server site, and at the actual place where the money is exchanged." "VeriFone's Internet strategy is to extend the same payment functionality that we now offer at the physical retail sales counter to the virtual world of the Internet," said Bertman. "As with VeriFone's stand-alone Transaction Automation systems, we will support industry security standards to ensure compatibility. These include the forthcoming MasterCard and Visa security protocol specifications," said Bertman. "Further, our solution will be open and vendor-neutral, interoperating with the broadest possible selection of payment options, payment networks and Internet platforms," he concluded. VeriFone is announcing three software components in its software system. VeriFone's Pay Window Software will reside on the consumer's PC and interface with World Wide Web browser software from any vendor. It will provide secure communications with "virtual terminal software" on the merchant's server and can interface with various third-party PC applications such as personal financial management software. The Virtual Terminal Software, which will reside on the merchant's server and provide services similar to that provided by VeriFone systems commonly found at the physical retail counter. It will interface with the consumer's Pay Window software to capture payments, and communicate with the payment network's host computer for authorization and settlement. Internet Gateway Software will reside on the merchant's server to facilitate communications with the various payment networks. The Virtual Terminal software product will be available to Internet commerce software vendors in the fourth quarter 1995. Plans to release the remaining products will be announced next year. (Richard Bowers/19950914/Press Contact: David B. Barnes, VeriFone, 415-696-8823) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 09/15/95 NETWORK Connectware Extends ATM With "High Bandwidth Apps" (NEWS)(NETWORK)(BOS)(00011) Connectware Extends ATM With "High Bandwidth Apps" 09/15/95 BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS, U.S.A., 1995 SEP 15 (NB) -- Connectware, a communications start-up that wants to "drive bandwidth up, and costs down," will soon unveil pacts with First Virtual and IBM, a PC Card for stored video, and an ATM NIC (asynchronous transfer mode network interface card) for integrated data/voice/video to the desktop, revealed Tim Smith, president and CEO (chief executive officer), at a meeting with Newsbytes in Boston yesterday. Smith, a 21-year veteran of IBM, told Newsbytes that he proposed the concept behind Connectware to AMP two years ago this month, after serving as a consultant to the $4.03 billion maker of electrical connectors. Today, the wholly owned AMP subsidiary has parlayed a string of acquisitions into a product line-up that encompasses the ConnectWorks family of "high bandwidth applications," in addition to "legacy" Token Ring, Ethernet and FDDI (fiber distributed data interface) LAN (local area network) products, and ATM offerings in LAN emulation, chips, NICs, servers, and workgroup and enterprise switches. The ConnectWorks family currently includes PC Cards, as well as RasterVideo, for "live feeds of broadcast quality video" to Sun workstations; Cruiser, a telephone management software product supporting remote connectivity; and Phoneworks, a CTI (computer telephony integration) device designed to support voice/fax and PBX-like capabilities through Microsoft's TAPI (Telephony Applications Programming Interface). From its inception in September, 1993, Connectware has aimed to provide a strategic framework for AMP's acquisitions, according to Smith, who worked for eight years in executive officer level positions at Northern Telecom after a 21-year stint at IBM where he focused on development, market introduction, and company-wide direction of communications and network management products. One month after its founding, Connectware bought a division of Fischer and Porter, Smith recalled. In December, 1993 came Connectware's acquisition of the ATM (asynchronous transfer mode) Systems of NetExpress and the formation of Connectware's ATM Development Team. During the first two acquisitions by start-up firm, Fischer and Porter's Adrian Porter and Dr. Larry Roberts of NetExpress each made employment moves to Connectware, he added. Roberts, who is widely regarded as "the father of ATM," subsequently went on to complete the definition of a rate-based scheme for flow control that was recently adopted by the ATM Forum. Since then, Porter, Roberts' colleague at Connectware, has produced NICs that are the first to comply with the rate-based scheme in silicon, as opposed to software, je asserted. As previously reported in Newsbytes, rate-based flow control is intended to provide more "economical" delivery of ATM than the previous "credit-based" approach. During an earlier interview with Newsbytes, Roberts maintained that credit-based flow control results in "buffers that are bigger than we can afford." Under credit-based flow control, "You start out with a certain number of `credits,' and you are able to send that much data. Then, if you want to send more data, you can request more credits," Roberts told Newsbytes. In contrast, rate-based flow control "tells you how fast you can send the data. You can't send faster than that without my permission. And I can also tell you to slow down," he added. Smith told Newsbytes yesterday that Connectware's ATM NICs provide rate-based flow control even when used with ATM switches from other vendors that do not yet support the new specification. In August of 1994, he continued, Connectware bought Vitec (Visual Information Technologies), the originator of the imaging technology that will be used in Connectware's upcoming stored video PC Card. Along the way, Connectware has taken over responsibility for AMP's PC Card Unit, as well as for several acquisitions made by the parent company, including Raylan, a maker of fiber optic LAN cabling, and the LAN and design/development/manufacturing arms of Acsys. Currently at Connectware, Roberts is working on a "large enterprise ATM switch" that will supersede the company's current 4 gigabyte- per-second (Gbps) switch in bandwidth, Smith noted. Also in the ATM arena, Connectware will soon announce a joint development agreement with First Virtual Corp. In its ATM NICs, the company plans to introduce simultaneous data/video/voice connectivity, as well as to be the first third-party vendor to support IBM's implementation of ATM LAN emulation. Other ATM NICs today support data only, according to Smith. Also in the future, Connectware intends to augment RasterVideo with ATM. Connectware's video technology is currently being used by CNN, NBC, Reuters, Dow Jones and Financials News, as well as for corporate inhouse TV and CBT (computer-based training) applications and about 2,000 "distance learning" projects in government and education. A few months from now, Connectware will roll out a PC card that will display stored video in a pair of windows on the screen, the CEO reported. Over time, the upcoming card will be augmented with live video, voice, and ATM capabilities. Connectware already sells flash memory, "business audio," Ethernet, and fax modem/voice/data PC Cards. At this point, ISDN (integrated services digital network), wireless LAN, and "fax modem plus cellular" PC Cards are also in the works, he elaborated. It is high bandwidth applications, rather than specific enabling technologies such as ATM, that are of greatest interest to Connectware overall, summed up Smith. Over the next six years, Connectware foresees an explosion in "ConnectWorks market opportunities" from just over $5 billion today to more than $35 billion in the year 2001, according to the company chief. Connectware's home page on the Web can be accessed at http://www.connectware.com . (Jacqueline Emigh/19950914/Reader Contact: Connectware, 214-907- 1594; Press Contact: Alan Leverett, Connectware, 214-997-4184) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 09/15/95 ONLINE ****Internet Domain Names No Longer Free (NEWS)(ONLINE)(WAS)(00012) ****Internet Domain Names No Longer Free 09/15/95 ARLINGTON, VIRGINIA, U.S.A., 1995 SEP 15 (NB) -- No more free rides on the Internet. Swamped by applications for domain names, the National Science Foundation has announced that as of now, organizations that maintain addresses on the Internet will have to pay $50 per year for the privilege. If they forget to pay, their address will disappear and the lights will go out on their Internet site. The new fee does not apply to the millions of people who get their electronic messages through Internet providers. Instead, it applies to the businesses and other organizations that are service providers. For example, America Online must pay $50 per year for its AOL.com address, but its 3.5 million subscribers will not have to pay. As Internet access has expanded, it has taken more money from the NSF budget and more time from Network Solutions, the Herndon, Va.,-based private company that runs the registry for NSF, to manage awarding new addresses. In 1993, according to Network Solutions, there were 7,500 Internet addresses. Now there are 110,000, 90 percent registered by companies and businesses. Major companies have been staking out thousands of domain names in recent days. Kraft in the past month has registered "hotdogs.com" and "velveeta.com" while Proctor & Gamble has nailed down "toiletpaper.com" and "pimples.com," according to the New York Times. "All of a sudden we were baby-sitting Baby Huey," said Beth Gaston, a spokeswoman for NSF. "It grew beyond our interest and our capabilities. It's not appropriate for taxpayer money to pay for General Electric to get on the Internet." NSF funds for Internet domain registration -- currently running at about $5 million a year -- run out October 1, the start of the new federal fiscal year. "In the last two years, registrations have jumped ten fold," Network Solutions spokesman Dave Graves told Newsbytes. "It's estimated that by the end of this year, the figure will have topped 20,000 per month. This unbelievable volume has put us five weeks behind, and we had to impose the fee immediately to avoid an Oklahoma land rush of registrations trying to beat a deadline." Under the new fee schedule, new applicants will pay $100 to register a name for two years, plus $50 a year thereafter. Those who already own a domain name will pay $50 annually, beginning on the next anniversary date of their original registration. Network Solutions will send out three electronic reminders at 60, 30 and 15 days before a payment is due. Credit card payments can be sent by facsimile and checks can be mailed. But no payments can be made over the Internet. (Kennedy Maize/19950914/Press Contacts: Beth Gaston, NSF, 703-306-1070; Dave Graves, Network Solutions, 703-742-4884) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 09/15/95 TELECOM NetComm Posts $972,000 Loss (NEWS)(TELECOM)(SYD)(00013) NetComm Posts $972,000 Loss 09/15/95 SYDNEY, AUSTRALIA 1995 SEP 15 (NB) -- Listed modem maker NetComm has recorded a AUS$972,000 loss for the year to June 30, but would probably have been in the black had it not been for the global shortage of Rockwell modem chipsets, chief executive officer and co-founder Chris Howells says. The loss was after abnormal restructuring costs of AUS$752,000 and a "conservative" tax expense of AUS$185,000, Howells said. Net loss before abnormals and tax was put at AUS$35,000. A normal supply of Rockwell chips would have added AUS$1-1.5 million to the bottom line, Howells said. AUS$1 is about US$0.75. The loss was recorded on revenue of AUS$34.1 million, up from AUS$29.8 million in the 1994 financial year, when NetComm finished with an AUS$1.4 million profit. This year's abnormal items comprised AUS$185,000 for independent strategic review, AUS$295,000 for redundancies and AUS$272,000 from stock writeoffs in discontinued businesses. With NetComm carrying no debt and a barely touched access to bank credit, Howells described these results as a "squeaky clean" balance sheet. He predicted boom times ahead for NetComm, fortified by an AUS$2 million cash injection from new 15.7 percent shareholder ADC Telecommunications of the US, and plans to develop, manufacture and market a cable modem for the world market to suit ADC's Homeworx fiber-coax hybrid technology. The Australian modem market alone, in which NetComm is the dominant player, is tipped to hit AUS$200 million by 1997. Howells denied the presence of ADC on the shareholder list and at the boardroom table posed a potential threat to Australian control of NetComm. Howells and a cofounder jointly own 25 percent of the action. "They (ADC) recognize our intellectual property capabilities and marketing skills, which are different from theirs," Howells said. NetComm shareholders will vote on the ADC share placement on September 21. The deal also requires Foreign Investment Board approval. Currently NetComm makes what you might like to think of as standard modems. They fit between the telephone line and a personal computer and run at speeds up to the international V.34 standard which is 28,800 bits per second -- twice as fast as the fastest fax. Now NetComm is moving into a new generation of modems. These will connect between the computer and the coaxial cable which will be both a television feed and a telephone feed, using the same cable. The plan is that both Telstra and Optus will lay fiber optic to the curb and then from a node to, say, 500 houses with co-axial cable. This is both for television and for telephone use. NetComm will be making modems designed to work with the Optus network although there is no reason why the Telstra network should not later come on board. In the first quarter of next year NetComm will introduce modems that will handle 64,000/128,000 bps -- two to four times current modem speeds -- and one that will work at 512kbps, all via Optus cable. A six-megabit modem will be tested by mid-1996 and should be in production towards the end of the year. That will allow videoconferencing and video on demand. (Computer Daily News/19950914) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 09/15/95 BROADCAST Video News Roundup (NEWS)(BROADCAST)(MSP)(00014) Video News Roundup 09/15/95 MINNEAPOLIS, MINNESOTA, U.S.A., 1995 SEP 15 (NB) -- This is a look at the top stories this week in the world of video news reporting: NBC orders receivers for desktop video service, Huygen Codec arrives, the video rifle, microwave transmissions direct from video cameras, and PCI Editors debut. NBC Orders Receivers For Desktop Video Service NBC has ordered Wegner Corporation's DVR 95 digital video receivers for its NBC Desktop Video service. The MPEG-1 unit will deliver uninterrupted commercial-free business news for broadcast, cable and business TV venues. NBC Desktop delivers by satellite and land full-motion video or multimedia directly to the user's desktop PC, workstation or TV monitor. Among the services offered are NBC Professional, NBC Private Financial Network, and NBC Desktop Video On Demand. The news services include NBC News, CNBC, CNBC Europe, CNBC Asia, Newschannel, Canal de Noticias and the 215 NBC affiliates. The August 14th issue of Electronic Media features articles on Network plans for implementing compression. NBC is taking the lead with a target date of Jan 1, 1997 for compressed signal feeds to affiliates. According to the report, CBS will be doing some experimenting, while ABC has no plan at all. ABC feels that 4:1 compression cannot be accomplished without serious image flaws. Huygen Codec Arrives A new CODEC has arrived. The "Huygen Codec" was developed by Christian Huygen, a direct descendent of the famous Dutch astronomer, mathematician, physicist and natural philosopher Christiaan Huygens (1629-95), along with associate David Whipple. This codec is software based, not hardware based. Motion Pixels, sister company to Sirius Publishing, has purchased the "Huygen Codec" technology and its underlying patents. The firm has retained the services of developers Christian Huygen and David Whipple as the lead development team for Motion Pixels. "This software-based codec provides a quality of video playback superior to most current hardware-based systems," said Richard Gnant, founder and CEO of Sirius Publishing Inc., a leading independent CD-ROM publisher. PCI Machines Debut The August Videography's Headline News column features the new Data Translation Media 100. This system is based on the new PCI-based Power Mac and features a new single board digital video engine. John Molinari, GM of Data Translations Multimedia Group commented, "The incorporation of Media 100 onto a single PCI card is a major technological achievement. Media 100 is still the only nonlinear system that achieves its real-time performance using off-the-shelf peripherals, maintaining 100 percent QuickTime compatibility." The August issue of Graphic Imaging has a PCI roundup with an interesting sidebar on PCI issues to consider. Especially critical are transfer speeds on board memory and card size. Video Rifle Graphic Imaging reports the "first commercially delivered imaging system designed to be attached to working rifles for live remote viewing of what the user has, literally, in his sights." The Video Riflescope is made by Cast Glance Optical Consultants of Ventura California. Images can be color or b&w, tied to phone or cellular or intensified for night work and transmitted by RF. The Riflescope was designed for real time training applications. However, the possibilities for broadcast exploitation are there. September 4th's Broadcasting and Cable reports that the Telex CamLink 200 offers high power microwave transmission directly from the ENG camera. It attaches to the back, much like a battery pack or docking unit. The transmitter, compatible with all NP-1 and PAG type cameras, draws less than 600 milliamps. With 250 milliwatts of RF output, the CamLink can transmit more than 300 meters back to the remote truck. (Newsbytes Staff/19950914) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 09/15/95 GENERAL Sydney Gets Flashy Cathay Pacific Data Processing Center (NEWS)(GENERAL)(SYD)(00015) Sydney Gets Flashy Cathay Pacific Data Processing Center 09/15/95 SYDNEY, AUSTRALIA 1995 SEP 15 (NB) -- The flashiest stately dome to come out of Cathay since Samuel Taylor Coleridge hit the opium for a vision of Xanadu has to be in suburban Sydney, Australia. Yesterday Senator Peter Cook sprinkled electronic glitter on the new Cathay Pacific data-processing center and strained his technological expertise to plug in a couple of mystery modules to bring it all on-line. A year ago, it was a pleasant vista of paddocks and cows. No more. The $250 million Cathay data-processing center hulks in the meadows like an alien spaceship. Using Telstra fiber input from Hong Kong and about 135 other centers worldwide, the center is taking over Cathay's reservations, communications, and flight-planning operations. "Our airline now runs on computers," said Cathay MD Rod Eddington, incidentally a former nuclear physicist and cricketer. "If the computers go down for a fortnight, we won't have an airline any more." They're not likely to -- DP manager, Esther Hui, has all the services duplicated and quadruplicated. Self-contained power, water and air-conditioning installations are at opposite sides of the building, with each unit internally duplicated. In what it claims is the biggest "hot" relocation ever attempted, the airline's IBM 258-mip ES/9000-952 and 130-mip Unisys 2200/9222M and 5533M mainframes, plus untold gigabytes of storage, were whisked from Hong Kong to Sydney, while locally IBM and Unisys provided temporary capacity to keep the systems going. IBM and Unisys will now provide disaster recovery to make use of the capacity they installed. With the hardware came key staff from Hong Kong who, with Australian recruits, will eventually number about 75. Cook hailed the success of the plan to lure regional HQs to Australia saying the government drive had, so far, attracted 160 and with them an investment of $1.7 billion. (Computer Daily News/19950914) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 09/15/95 GOVT 14,000 PCs Sought For Australian Tax Office (NEWS)(GOVT)(SYD)(00016) 14,000 PCs Sought For Australian Tax Office 09/15/95 CANBERRA, AUSTRALIA, 1995 SEP 15 (NB) -- The Australian Taxation Office is gearing up to replace 14,000 outdated desktop computers in a three-year contract valued at AUS$30 million. The acquisition is part of a 10-year, AUS$1.3 billion modernization strategy, and the lucrative contract is likely to be thrown open to tender in October. Endorsed suppliers will be eligible to compete. These include AT&T, IBM, Ipex, Dell and Total Peripherals. According to the latest issue of industry newsletter Technology Transactions, the successful supplier will need to demonstrate commitment to Australian industry, and have the capacity to install around 1,000 units a month for the first year to replace the most outdated machines. Many of these are understood to be 386SX and 386DX systems purchased between 1988 and 1993 from Bull HN. Peter Wilson, the ATO's assistant commissioner for IT services, said that the goal for delivery of the first batch of computers is February-March 1996. The first step will be a draft Request for Quotation (RFQ,) to be sent to all PE60 members for comment by the end of this month. It is hoped that the final RFQ will go out in October, Wilson said. "Our intention would be to get five years from the PCs," he added, but indicated that a review may be possible after three years. No decision has been made to upgrade from Windows 3.1 to Windows 95 on the ATO's desktops. "If we did decide to take that decision," he said, it would not be 'til the second half of 1996." (Computer Daily News/19950914) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 09/15/95 ONLINE Hong Kong - Electronic Ming Pao Daily News Goes Online (NEWS)(ONLINE)(PEK)(00017) Hong Kong - Electronic Ming Pao Daily News Goes Online 09/15/95 CENTRAL, HONG KONG, 1995 SEP 15 (NB) -- One of Hong Kong's biggest Chinese-language newspapers, Ming Pao Daily News, has announced joint development of its World Wide Web electronic news information service with local Internet provider HKNet. The service can be accessed using any World-Wide Web browser under a Chinese operating environment such as Chinese Microsoft Windows or Macintosh Chinese Language Kit. Articles, editorials and photographs from most sections of the daily newspaper are currently online for free at http://www.hknet.com/mingpao . Ming Pao will soon provide subscription, customer service and classified ad services online, as well as the ability for reporters and readers to have online communication. Ming Pao's electronic version will also publish an online special focusing on the September 17 Hong Kong Legislative Council election. According to the company, other Ming Pao Group publications, Ming Pao Weekly, Ming Pao Monthly, and Yazhou Zhoukan will soon be added to the online service. The Ming Pao Group has been actively pursuing digital information business in recent years. Earlier this year it entered an agreement with Dialog Information Service to supply its digital Chinese-language content to Dialog's international information services. Ming Pao also provides Chinese news to the Computer Service Centre of the Chinese University of Hong Kong in support of its multimedia network application research and development. The URL for this effort is at http://www.cuhk.hk/mingpao . (Nigel Armstrong & I.T. Daily/19950906) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 09/15/95 DOS Czech Anti-Virus Software Aimed At US Market (NEWS)(DOS)(LON)(00018) Czech Anti-Virus Software Aimed At US Market 09/15/95 PRAGUE, CZECH REPUBLIC, 1995 SEP 15 (NB) -- ALWIL Software s.r.o., which claims over 60,000 legal installations of its anti-virus software AVAST, is in negotiations to enter the US and West European markets. US-based software companies are said to be seeking a license for the Czech anti-virus AVAST product, which has garnered rave reviews in prestigious publications. AVAST won third and second place in DOS-based virus scanner reviews published by the Virus Bulletin (Oxfordshire, England) in January and July of 1995, respectively, according to Eduard Kucera, vice president (VP) and Pavel Baudis, VP at ALWIL. AVAST consists of seven stand-alone anti-virus programs: Locate-Guard, Resident-Guard, Virus-Guard, Sum-Guard, Alter-Guard, File-Guard And Boot-Guard. In addition to virus scanning, AVAST performs checksumming, which involves the tracking of changes in files and storing of information that can be used to reconstruct damaged files and resident programs, sometimes called behavior blockers, according to Kucera. The current versions of ALWIL's programs feature bundled support for DOS, Windows, and Windows for Workgroups. The product also runs on Novell NetWare. AVAST 95 for Microsoft Windows 95 is to be released in late October at the INVEX exposition in Brno, Czech Republic. An improved version will be ready before the Virus Bulletin Conference taking place this autumn in Boston. A beta version is available for evaluation on the company's Web site at http://www.anet.cz/alwil/alwil.htm . There are 100 new viruses reported each month, according to Baudis. About 5% of discovered viruses are found "in the wild" (outside the "laboratory"). "The antivirus companies noticed years ago that without cooperation it's not possible for any of them to survive, so we cooperate with many companies all over the world," said Baudis. "We exchange information, virus samples and other things even if we are competitors in the business." Asked about the kind of person who writes viruses, he said: "There is no such thing as an 'average virus writer.' Every person who writes viruses has different reasons for it and knowledge how to write them. Most virus writers are just teenagers, 12 to 20 years old. I think they are fascinated that they create something that has its own life. The other could be the challenge of writing something that becomes famous. Of course there are others that wish to destroy some data or do some other damage." Many viruses originate in the UK, Germany, Israel and the USA, although there is an increasing problem with viruses coming from Central & East European countries. "It used to be Bulgaria some years ago, then Russia, and now it's interesting that many viruses are being created in Slovakia," said Baudis. "Dangerous viruses," added Kucera. ALWIL has been in negotiations with several US software companies and expects that it may soon enter a licensing agreement with one. Under terms of such an agreement, the product would be marketed under the US company's brand name. ALWIL's 1994 turnover was $500,000 with 1995 turnover expected to be $1--$1.2 million. The current $30-$40,000 coming from exports each year is expected to increase at least ten-fold pending cooperation with a US anti-virus developer. "Our goal with our partner is to install our common product on every PC in the world," proclaimed Kucera. ALWIL, which employs six people full-time and three students part-time, spends annually about $77,000 on advertising and another $77,000 on computer hardware and software, according to Kucera. (Steven Slatem, IntelliTech/19950905/Press Contact: Eduard Kucera, VP and Pavel Baudis, VP, ALWIL Software s.r.o., tel +42 2 7822553, fax +42 2 782255, Internet e-mail baudis@alwil.anet.cz; Reader Contact: Vladimir Bures, Director, ALWIL Trade s.r.o., tel +42 2 7822547-8, fax +42 2 7810548, Internet World Wide Web http://www.anet.cz/alwil/alwil.htm ) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 09/15/95 TRENDS Nikon Supports Fast Growing MO Technology (NEWS)(TRENDS)(TYO)(00019) Nikon Supports Fast Growing MO Technology 09/15/95 TOKYO, JAPAN, 1995 SEP 15 (NB) -- Nikon will join the growing list of companies supporting magneto-optical (MO) drives and disks next year when it begins manufacturing MO disk products. The Nihon Keizai Shimbun newspaper reported today that Nikon will mass-produce 3.5-inch, 640-megabyte and 5.25-inch, 2.6-gigabyte rewritable disks from July 1996. The company will also produce MO disk drives which, according to the newspaper report, will sell at 300,000 yen for the 5.25-inch version. Nikon hopes to grab a 20% share of the 160,000 drives sold annually. Nikon's concentration on the 5.25-inch drive is based on a belief that use of the system in workstations, which account for most of the larger version's sales, will increase. Demand for the MO system is set to grow, according to the Magnetic-Media Industry Association of Japan. It predicts the market for 3.5-inch disks will expand from 4 million units last year to 7.6 million units this year. Fujitsu has set sales targets of around 2 million 3.5-inch drives which the company said would be used in notebook computers. The Tokyo- based company said it believe the system would initially begin to take over the market held currently by compact discs. After that, Fujitsu hopes to target the floppy disc sector and eventually sees the system used as the standard removable medium for all notebook computers. The company has also just announced development of MO disks capable of holding up to 4GB of data and retaining complete compatibility with existing drives. The new technology, a major advance in MO technology, was accomplished by changing the way data is read from the new disks and changing the disks themselves. While current disks are available in sizes up to 230MB, the new disks will be introduced in two years. By retaining compatibility with current disks, Fujitsu hopes it will increase the market by allowing people to buy a useful product now with the knowledge it will become more useful in the years to come. (Martyn Williams/19950915) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 09/15/95 GENERAL Japan Newsbriefs (NEWS)(GENERAL)(TYO)(00020) Japan Newsbriefs 09/15/95 TOKYO, JAPAN, 1995 SEP 15 (NB) -- In this roundup of news from Japan: DEC Japan reports profits increase, Fujitsu announces new ATM switch, Apple Computer expects strong sales in Japan, NEC enters Chinese WP market, instant Internet connections. DEC Japan Reports Profits Increase Digital Equipment Corp Japan has announced a 21% increase in profits for the 1994/5 financial year that ended June 30th. Total profits stood at 6.64 billion yen on a small increase in sales, 1.4%, to 103.71 billion yen. DEC Japan President Kuniaki Watanabe predicted an 8% sales increase for the current financial year. In an expanding personal computer market, DEC Japan said it expects to sell 120,000 computers this fiscal year. Fujitsu Announces New ATM Switch Fujitsu is now taking orders for a new asynchronous transfer mode (ATM) switch capable of handling 160GB of data per second. Fujitsu's previous top speed switch passed through 10GB/s, roughly equivalent to handling 64 ISDN lines simultaneously. The new switch can control 1,000 lines while taking up one third the physical size. The FETEX-150 ESP B160 sells for 1 billion yen. Apple Expects Strong Sales In Japan Apple Computer Japan predicts it will sell around 700,000 personal computers by the end of the current financial year compared to 520,000 it sold last year. Apple Japan's new chief, John Floisand, told a press conference in Tokyo that the company's sales, making up 18% of total Japanese sales, were growing faster than the general market. Floisand took over at the helm of Apple Japan, from the position of chairman, after the previous president, Seiji Sanda, resigned over differences with the US parent. NEC Enters Chinese WP Market Tokyo's NEC Corporation has entered the word processing market in Japan with the launch of its first Chinese language model. As with current Japanese versions, the new Wen Hua 5SV will allow the user to type in Romanized versions of a message and automatically change it to Chinese characters. Price at 15,000 yuan (150,000 yen), the company hopes it will sell 10,000 units in the first year. Instant Internet Connections Customers at any of the nine Sofmap stores in the Tokyo area can now buy instant Internet connection kits. The packs will allow instant dial-up IP connections to the Internet through Internet provider Wiz System Co. (Martyn Williams/19950915) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 09/15/95 NETWORK Interop - Israeli Company Unveils High Speed Wireless LANs (NEWS)(NETWORK)(LON)(00021) Interop - Israeli Company Unveils High Speed Wireless LANs 09/15/95 PARIS, FRANCE, 1995 SEP 15 (NB) -- RDC Communications of Jerusalem, Israel, unveiled a new range of wireless LAN systems at the Networld+Interop show in Paris this week. According to officials with the company, the RDC products are rapidly selling in the global wireless LAN marketplace. At Interop, RDC announced a joint marketing deal with Novell, with the intention of offering RDC's wireless LAN technology on a global basis. Both companies were busy demonstrating RDC's PortLAN wireless LAN system on the "Yes Novell Pavilion" at the show. Jocelyne Attal, vice president of Novell's European region, explained that the company's resellers have been looking for practical wireless LAN systems for a long time, and the RDC system offers them the best systems for their customers. "We were impressed with the radio technology developed by RDC and we found that PortLAN delivers a very reliable service and the longest range in the market today," she said. According to RDC, meanwhile, PortLAN is several steps ahead of competing wireless LAN technologies, since its operation is transparent to the network operating system (NOS). The system consists of a series of LAN adapters on the user's side, including a PCMCIA (Personal Computer Memory Card International Association) or ISA (Industry Standard Association) interface and a small radio unit, and a series of access points (APs) defining cells connected to an Ethernet backbone. The software comes with Open Datalink Interface (ODI) drivers for Novell NetWare. In use, each AP defines a cell with a maximum range stated as 820 meters in free space, and typically 150 meters in a building. Unlike competing systems, PortLAN's transmission protocol is extremely robust, allowing it to successfully transmit in RF (radio frequency) hostile conditions, the firm contends. According to officials with RDC in the Novell Pavilion at Interop, PortLAN is robust against interference because it uses spread spectrum frequency hopping technology on the VHF radio band. The system has already passed the type approval tests laid down by the European Commission's ETS 300-328 specification. "PortLAN was designed from the ground up with NetWare compatibility built in," explained Frederic Benichou, RDC's sales and marketing director, adding that the system can interwork with all types of NetWare-based networks, from "small workgroups of a few users all the way up to large configurations where users can roam freely from cell to cell in a campus and a multistory building." The PortLAN system is expected to achieve Novell "Tested and Approved" status in the final quarter of this year, at which point it will be offered as a wireless LAN system to all Novell resellers in the world. Pricing has yet to be confirmed. (Steve Gold/19950916/Press Contact: Charlotte Gutman +32-2-375-2100; Fax +32-2-375-9162; Internet Email: 100046.611@compuserve.com; Reader Contact: RDC Communication +972-2-652-1874; Fax +972-2-651-9314) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 09/15/95 LEGAL ****Software Cops Hit Ecuador (NEWS)(LEGAL)(DEN)(00022) ****Software Cops Hit Ecuador 09/15/95 QUITO, ECUADOR, 1995 SEP 15 (NB) -- The long arm of the software cops reached out and touched alleged software pirates in Ecuador this month. The Business Software Alliance (BSA), a trade group dedicated to putting a crimp in software piracy wherever it occurs, said this week that a judicial inspection for suspected software piracy was carried out earlier this month at the premises of Systenev, a computer and software shop located in the Ecuadorian capital, Quito. The BSA said the surprise inspection, which was conducted by a criminal judge assisted by court officers and a team of technical experts, was the result of a petition submitted by the BSA on behalf of its members Autodesk, Lotus and Microsoft. The criminal judge authorized the inspection to determine if Systenev was making illegal copies of computer software. An article of the Ecuadorian Criminal Code allows such inspections. The BSA said the inspection lasted about two hours and is the first legal action conducted in Ecuador for suspected software piracy. Several copies of software published by BSA member companies were found. In Ecuador copyright infringement is a violation of the copyright laws of the country and of the Andean Pact. BSA spokesperson Diane Smiroldo told Newsbytes the pact is similar to the GATT accord and NAFTA (North American Free Trade Agreement). Participating companies have agreed to protect software as an intellectual property. Participating countries are Columbia, Ecuador, Bolivia, Peru and Venezuela. Under Ecuadoran law, evidence obtained in a judicial inspection can be used as a basis for a civil or criminal action. The law provides for prison terms up to five years and large fines if convicted. According to the BSA software piracy in Ecuador reached an estimated 98 percent in 1994. In other words, only two percent of the software in use in Ecuador is purchased legitimately, said Smiroldo. She said piracy costs legitimate software publishers over seven million dollars in lost revenue in Ecuador alone. Worldwide, BSA estimates piracy caused the loss of an estimated $15.2 billion in 1994. Piracy also translates into lost tax revenue for the country. BSA said for every legitimate software package sold, 19 illegal copies are distributed without paying the appropriate value added tax. BSA has targeted 42 countries, citing what the group calls "their inadequate protection of US intellectual properties." As Newsbytes reported in March of this year, BSA maintains a presence on the Internet. Online users can receive information about the software industry, reach most BSA members companies and access reports, statistics and BSA's Guide to Software Management. The Guide can be downloaded instead of waiting for it to arrive via the US Postal Service. The document explains how to know the software you are using is legitimate. You can reach the BSA on the World Wide Web at the Uniform Resource Locator address http://www.bsa.org/bsa . There are a series of hyperlinks that take you to various BSA services and to the Web sites of most BSA members. (Jim Mallory/19950915/Press contact: Diane Smiroldo, BSA, 202-872-5500; Public contact: BSA, 202-872-5500. Call the BSA anti-piracy hotline in Quito at 229-692 or 800-688-2721 in the U.S.) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 09/15/95 GENERAL CA Elaborates On Legent Plans (NEWS)(GENERAL)(TOR)(00023) CA Elaborates On Legent Plans 09/15/95 ISLANDIA, NEW YORK, U.S.A., 1995 SEP 15 (NB) -- Computer Associates International Inc. (NYSE:CA) plans to drop two products of recently acquired Legent Corp., but otherwise will continue all Legent and CA products even where they overlap, CA President Sanjay Kumar said in a teleconference Thursday. Kumar said Legent's MVS Tape Management System and its Rerun-Restart Tape System, which he described as minor products with technical problems, will be dropped. CA will help users of those products migrate to comparable CA products, Kumar promised. He noted that the Rerun-Restart Tape System was the subject of litigation a few years ago between CA and Goal Systems, a company later acquired by Legent. In most other cases, Kumar said CA plans to apply its traditional policy of keeping overlapping products after acquisitions. Whether customers have products that CA offered before the acquisition, or that Legent offered, "both investments are very well protected," he said. In a few cases, he went on, CA will take the approach Legent took in past acquisitions of its own: It will eventually develop a new product that is a superset of both previous products and to which customers can easily move from either one. Kumar said he expected the announcement will put customers fears at rest in the wake of the acquisition that took place this summer. The fears of most Legent employees apparently have also been put at rest. Kumar said those people who will keep their jobs permanently -- more than 90 percent of the total -- have been notified, while those who will stay on only for a transition period or be let go immediately have also received the bad news. This was done within two weeks of completing the acquisition, Kumar said. Kumar said CA expects to take a one-time charge for purchased research and development of about $810 million -- close to its earlier estimate of $800 million -- as a result of the buyout. He also noted that because CA is accounting for the deal as a purchase rather than a pooling of interests, deferred maintenance on Legent's balance sheet will not come over to CA. Kumar said CA conducted a major training event for its sales people about three weeks ago, involving all North American sales staff and about half of those from the rest of the world. There have been no major structural changes in CA's sales staff following the Legent takeover, he said, but two new divisions have been created by separating chunks of the largest North American divisions, and some middle managers from Legent have been promoted to "rather senior" sales-management positions in CA. (Grant Buckler/19950915/Press Contact: Bob Gordon, Computer Associates, 516-342-2391, fax 516-342-5329) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 09/15/95 BROADCAST Hughes, Telesat Bring DirecPC To Canada (NEWS)(BROADCAST)(TOR)(00024) Hughes, Telesat Bring DirecPC To Canada 09/15/95 VANCOUVER, BRITISH COLUMBIA, CANADA, 1995 SEP 15 (NB) -- DirecPC, a service that broadcasts information to personal computers via satellite, has come to Canada through an agreement between Hughes Electronics Corp. and Telesat Canada. Telesat, the monopoly domestic satellite carrier, will market the service across Canada, with help from NII Norsat International, a nationwide consumer satellite equipment supplier. The Hughes Network Systems unit of Hughes recently launched DirecPC in the United States. It uses a small dish antenna and receiver kit that connects to a personal computer to receive live video feeds, software, and large data files. One function of the service will be downloading large files from the Internet at high speeds. A spokesman for Telesat told Newsbytes that while the satellite service will not be used as a primary Internet connection, subscribers will be able to log on to the Internet in the usual way, then request that specific large files be sent via satellite to save transmission time. According to Telesat and Hughes, the DirecPC service will be able to move such files at speeds as high as 12 megabits per second, meaning a document that could take an hour to transfer by modem would come over the satellite link in 90 seconds. The service will also offer CBC Newsworld, the all-news channel operated by the Canadian Broadcasting Corp. 24 hours a day. Subscribers will be able to see the Newsworld video feed on their computer screens. The service is also expected to provide other online news services and software which subscribers will be able to select from an on-screen menu. And a Digital Package Delivery option is to let information providers transmit large volumes of data on a scheduled or on-demand basis to numerous separate locations. The basic charge for the service is to be C$19.95 per month, the spokesman told Newsbytes, though there will be some premium services that carry additional charges. The access kit is expected to cost in the neighborhood of C$1,800. DirecPC is expected to begin service in Canada October 1. DirecPC is on the Internet World Wide Web at http://www.direcpc.com, and Telesat has a home page at http://www.telesat.ca. (Grant Buckler/19950915/Press Contact: Brad Poulos, Telesat Canada, 416-733-4032, Internet e-mail b.poulos@telesat.ca; Judy Blake, Hughes Network Systems, 301-428-7113; Margo Raport, CBC Newsworld, 416-205-2517; John Anderson, Norsat, 604-597-6200, Internet e-mail jca@norsat.com; Mark Langton, Environics Communications for Telesat, 416-964-9000 ext. 252, Internet e-mail mark_langton@environics.ca) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 09/15/95 APPLE ****Apple Projects Lower Earnings, Reveals PowerBook Problem (NEWS)(APPLE)(SFO)(00025) ****Apple Projects Lower Earnings, Reveals PowerBook Problem 09/15/95 CUPERTINO, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1995 SEP 15 (NB) -- Apple Computer (NASDAQ:APL) says it expects fourth quarter earnings to be below analysts' expectations. Along with continued product availability problems, Apple announced it has stopped shipment of its newly announced PowerBook 5300 series due to a safety problem with its lithium ion battery. These early fourth quarter projected results are based on Apple's internal estimates and Apple says these projections can change. Final results on the current fourth quarter are not expected until mid-October. The company says demand for its products remains high and production and shipments should be higher in this quarter than in the same quarter last year. At the same time, Apple says total shipments, revenues, and gross margins will be negatively impacted by continued inavailability of products, delays in product ramps, and pricing pressures on older products. To complicate matters, Apple has found a safety problem with the lithium ion battery used to power its new reduced instruction set computing (RISC)-based PowerBook 5300 series. Introduced two weeks ago, the 5300 was advertised as offering longer battery operating time due to the lithium battery. Apple says it will resume shipment of the 5300 series with a nickel metal hydride battery, but significant shipments will not resume during the quarter. Commenting on Apple's announcement, Michael Murphy, editor of the California Technology Stock Letter, told Newsbytes, "They (Apple) have some terrible problems. This announcement comes at a very difficult time when you see and hear all of the news about Windows 95. The continued product availability problems are largely based on chip production difficulties at Motorola. The high end RISC chips, which are the ones users really want, are just not coming out fast enough. I think it is a yield problem. For each silicon wafer produced, few usable chips are yielded. This problem may take anywhere from 6 to 13 weeks to correct." Describing the chip fabrication process, Murphy said, "The high-end RISC chip is very hard to build. I would estimate there are at least 300 steps in the fabrication process. When the yield per-wafer is low, the availability of the chip becomes a problem." Regarding pricing pressures on older products, Murphy said Apple has decided not to join in the downward pricing spiral occurring with the Intel/clone-based personal computers. "This means some of their older models like the Performas cannot be competitive with PCs." "The lithium ion battery problem with the PowerBook 5300 will be very expensive to correct. Not only do they have to absorb the cost of changing to a different battery, they also have to reach the customers who have purchased the new PowerBook to provide a satisfactory solution," said Murphy. When asked about the possibility of a turnaround for Apple, Lisa Byrne, a spokesperson for Apple, told Newsbytes, "We really cannot comment on that now. It is important to remember that today's announcement is not based on the actual fourth quarter results which ends on September 30, but internal projections. We do want to emphasize the fact that the demand for our products remains very high." Also commenting, Murphy said, "I do not think it (a turnaround) will happen easily. They are very vulnerable at this time." Murphy also mentioned a "huge bug with Open Transport in the Power Macintosh 9500 system." He continued, "Users cannot access the Internet and AppleTalk at the same time. This is causing a lot of calls to ISPs (Internet Service Providers) who cannot fix what is an internal software problem. It now appears Apple will not have this problem corrected until January." (Patrick McKenna/19950915/Press Contact: Lisa Byrne, Apple Computer, tel 408-974-3983) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 09/15/95 GENERAL Personnel Roundup (NEWS)(GENERAL)(MSP)(00026) Personnel Roundup 09/15/95 MINNEAPOLIS, MINNESOTA, U.S.A., 1995 SEP 15 (NB) -- This is a regular feature, summarizing personnel changes not covered elsewhere by Newsbytes: Jazz Multimedia Inc., Harris Corp., CompUSA Inc., The Sprint Telecommunications Venture, AT&T Interchange Online Network, SHL Systemhouse Inc., Proteon Inc., CompuServe Inc., and General Instrument Corp. Barry J. Lebu has been appointed president and chief executive officer (CEO) of Jazz Multimedia Inc., (408-727-8900). Formerly president, CEO, and founder of 50/50 Micro Electronics Inc., Lebu grew sales to $50 million in less than three years by placing memory and multimedia video card products in over 5,000 retail outlets throughout the United States and Europe. Previously, Lebu served as vice president of sales for CAL-ABCO, a sister company of Packard Bell. Debbie J. Mitchell has been appointed vice president-investor relations with Harris Corporation. Mitchell was formerly vice president-investor relations/government relations at Wendy's International. Mitchell, 41, will report to Phillip W. Farmer, Harris chairman and CEO. She will be responsible for planning and implementation of investor-relations strategies and programs including communications with shareholders and the investment community. Mitchell joined Wendy's International in 1985 as director-investor relations and was promoted to vice president-investor relations/government relations in 1988. Tony Weiss has been appointed vice president of Direct Sales for CompUSA Inc. (NYSE: CPU - 214-383-4679). Weiss will oversee CompUSA's direct sales operations which include Corporate Sales, Government and Education Sales, and Mail Order Sales. Weiss, 28, joined CompUSA in 1988 as a retail salesperson. He soon was promoted to general manager and advanced through the ranks to serve as regional manager over the Ohio Valley and Northeast Regions. Weiss was then promoted to senior director of direct sales. Robert M. Neumeister, Jr., has been named chief financial officer (CFO) for The Sprint Telecommunications Venture (913-624-3552), composed of Sprint, Tele-Communications Inc., Comcast Corporation, and Cox Communications. Neumeister, 45, will be responsible for the venture's full range of financial operations. His appointment is effective Sept. 18, and he will report to Ronald T. LeMay, the venture's CEO. Neumeister previously served as vice president-finance with Northern Telecom, where he directed global financial strategies and asset restructuring and recapitalization projects. W. David Power has been appointed vice president and general manager of AT&T's (NYSE: T - 617-252-5211) AT&T Interchange Online Network (SM), a division dedicated to helping publishers build high-value, durable franchises through online publishing. In his new position, Power will be responsible for managing and guiding the teams that develop, market and operate the AT&T Interchange network, and that support Publishing Partners in creating their services. He will report to Michael E. Kolowich, president of AT&T Interchange Online Network. Prior to joining AT&T, Power was a vice president and general manager in Sun Microsystems Inc.'s SunSoft division in Chelmsford, Mass Louis J. "Lou" Rupnik will join SHL Systemhouse Inc. (Nasdaq-NNM: SHKIF - 312-697-5668) on September 25 as president and chief operating officer (COO). Rupnik will be responsible for SHL's three complementary global operating units that combine to deliver Transformational outsourcing services. He will report to SHL chairman and CEO, John R. Oltman. Rupnik, 53, is a 16-year operations veteran with Toronto-based Moore Corporation Ltd. Proteon Inc. (Nasdaq: PTON - 508-898-2800) has announced the appointment of three new regional sales directors for the North American region. William (Tim) Greer now heads up the company's sales operations in the Eastern region, while Rick Corn Jr. is the new director for the Western region of North America. Both Greer and Corn are new appointments. Craig Baily, of Proteon, was recently named director for the Central region. The appointments are effective immediately. CompuServe Inc., (614-538-4571) has announced changes in its management team. Tim Oren has been named vice president and general manager of CompuServe's Internet Division. Oren was vice president of future technology at CompuServe. David Pool has been named executive vice-president for strategic development and will have a key role in integrating and leveraging CompuServe and H&R Block products, services and capabilities. Carol J. Klein has been named vice president, communications of General Instrument Corp.'s (NYSE: GIC - 215-956-6448) GI Communications Division. In this newly created position, Klein reports directly to Division President Larry Osterwise. Most recently, she was vice president, communications and member of the operations committee of NovaCare. In other Harris Corp. news, the company has named Allen E. Dukes vice president-general manager of the company's Information Systems Division, effective October 1. He will replace R. Phillip Henderson, 65, who is retiring after a 22-year career with Harris. (Ian Stokell/19950915) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 09/15/95 GENERAL ****DVD Dispute Ends In Compromise (NEWS)(GENERAL)(TYO)(00027) ****DVD Dispute Ends In Compromise 09/15/95 TOKYO, JAPAN, 1995 SEP 15 (NB) -- Sony and Toshiba, the lead players in the dispute over the format of next generation digital video disks (DVD), have come to an agreement over a common system. The deal has averted what would have been a costly standards war between the world's major electronics companies and certain consumer confusion. Toshiba Corporation announced in Tokyo late today that it and six other members of the Super Density (SD) disk consortium had reached the agreement with Sony Corporation which, together with Philips Electronics, was promoting its own Multi Media Compact Disc (MMCD) standard. The agreed system was proposed by Sony and Philips after it began to look like the rival SD system was gaining more support. First suggestions of a desire to end the battle came when, speaking as chairman of the Electronic Industry Association of Japan, Sony Chairman Norio Ohga, said that the existence of two standards was undesirable. A recent public announcement by IBM that it backed a common system also helped brig the two groups together. The new system takes parts of both systems but is mainly based on the SD format. Under the plan, MMCD's signal modulation protocols are to be combined with SD's double-sided error correction protocol in the new, as yet un-named, system. Announcing the news, Taizo Nishimuro, executive vice president of Toshiba declared "The victor is the consumer." The first DVD hardware was due to be launched next summer, a date which will now be pushed back by around three months to facilitate the redesigning of hardware and systems. The MMCD system offered a data capacity of 7.4 MB on a single-sided 12cm disk with the ability to store up to 270 minutes of digital video. In contrast, the SD format would have held 18 GB of data on a double-sided disc of the same size. The Toshiba-led SD system was supported by Hitachi, Matsushita Electric Industrial, MCA, Pioneer Electronics, Thomson Multimedia, Time Warner, Matsushita-Kotobuki Electronics Industries, Mitsubishi Electric, Victor Co. of Japan (JVC), Nippon Columbia, Toshiba-EMI, Pioneer LDC, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, Turner Home Entertainment, Zenith Electronics, Samsung Electronics, Toray and SKC. The MMCD system jointly developed by Sony and Dutch consumer electronics giant Philips, who also jointly developed the music CD format, has received support from Nokia, Aiwa, Bang and Olufson, Grundig, Magnavox and Marantz, Mitsumi, NEC Home Electronics, Gateway 2000, TEAC and Ricoh, and Western Digital. There was no word on which members of the SD consortium had endorsed the deal. Earlier in the week, press reports suggested the camp was split between companies that wanted a single system and those that did not. The Tokyo stock market was closed Friday for Respect for the Elderly day but analysts predict strong approval from the markets on Monday morning. (Martyn Williams/19950915/Press contacts : Philips Electronics, +31-40-734866; Sony Corporation, +81-3-5448-2200, fax +81-3-5448-3061; Toshiba Corporation, +81-3-3457-2105, fax +81-3-3456-4776; Matsushita Electric, +81-3-3578-1237, fax +81-3-3437-2776) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 09/15/95 APPLE ****Apple's PowerBook 5300 Battery Pack Causes Fire (NEWS)(APPLE)(SFO)(00028) ****Apple's PowerBook 5300 Battery Pack Causes Fire 09/15/95 CUPERTINO, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., SEP 15 (NB) -- In an press release late yesterday, Apple Computer (NASDAQ:APL) said it stopped shipment of its new PowerPC-based PowerBook 5300 due to problems with the lithium ion battery used to power the laptop computer. The problem was found internally when a 5300 caught fire. Apple says customers of the new PowerBook should not use the computer. Since the new model of PowerBook was only announced two weeks ago, Apple has shipped less than 1,000 models. Out of that number, Apple says approximately 200 have been sold and there have been no reports about difficulties with the battery pack from any of these customers. Lisa Byrne, the Apple spokesperson who told Newsbytes of the internal problem, said, "It is important that people realize the lithium ion battery is only used in the PowerBook 5300 series. All of our other Powerbooks are powered by nickel metal hydride batteries." Describing the event which occurred at Apple this week, Byrne said, "An employee was working with a PowerBook 5300 when it overheated and caught fire. Shortly after that a similar incident occurred with another employee working with a 5300." Byrne said, "We did a lot of testing on the 5300 before it was shipped and we never had an indication of any problems of this nature. We have stopped the sale of any of the 5300s in the channel and we are trying to reach the 200 customers who have purchased the new PowerBook." Apple asks all PowerBook 5300 customers to call: 1-800-SOS-APPL. (Patrick McKenna/19950915/Press Contact: Lisa Byrne, Apple, tel 408-862-5154) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 09/15/95 GOVT Microsoft In Hungarian Government Deal (NEWS)(GOVT)(LON)(00029) Microsoft In Hungarian Government Deal 09/15/95 BUDAPEST, HUNGARY, 1995 SEP 15 (NB) -- Microsoft has announced the signing of two deals with the Hungarian Government, terms of which call for the increased use of PCs in the educational and consumer markets in Hungary. The educational side of the deal is between Microsoft and the Hungarian Ministry of Culture and Education, and calls for Microsoft to supply its software into the Hungarian educational system. Under a deal signed between Microsoft and the Hungarian Government, Microsoft will provide public schools and universities in Hungary with a broad array of technical assistance and support, along with copies of Windows 95 and associated applications, at a discount. The consumer side of the deal, meanwhile, revolves around a contract between Microsoft and Matav, the state-owned telecoms company in Hungary, terms of which call for both companies to work together to develop new products and services that will allow home PC users to access online resources. "Hungary will benefit greatly from these agreements," said Gyula Horn, the Hungarian Prime Minister, adding that the deals "represent an important step in our continued efforts to ensure that the Hungarian economy benefits as quickly as possible from the broad use of computer technology." "My government is committed to ensuring that Hungary remains at the forefront of these technological developments, and I'm particularly pleased that Microsoft is investing to support these efforts," he added. According to Microsoft, the memorandum of understanding with Matav represents the software giant's first agreement in Central and Eastern Europe to stimulate online and future broadband communications. "Especially with the spread of PC-based communications, software can help stimulate economic development and bolster democratic institutions around the world," said Bill Gates, Microsoft's president, adding that Hungary has already made impressive strides in spreading advanced telecommunications and computer technology. "Matav's continued strong leadership in this direction will no doubt contribute to economic expansion in the future. Microsoft is excited to be a part of this continued growth," he said. (Sylvia Dennis/19950915/Press Contact: Maria Eitel, Microsoft Europe +33-1-4635-1010; Andras Goenczi, Microsoft Hungary +36-1-268-1668) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 09/15/95 NETWORK Interop - FTP Unveils Next Generation Internet Suites (NEWS)(NETWORK)(LON)(00030) Interop - FTP Unveils Next Generation Internet Suites 09/15/95 PARIS, FRANCE, 1995 SEP 15 (NB) -- FTP Software has announced Explore version 2.0 for Windows, a new version of its Internet suite of software, at the Paris Interop show this week. According to company officials, the suite is ideal for home and small business users of the Internet. In parallel with the launch of Explore 2.0/Win, FTP has launched version 2.0 of the firm's OnNet TCP/IP (Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol) networking system for enterprise and workgroup users. These two new versions of the company's applications now feature KeyView, a document viewing and information access system. The KeyView technology is the direct result of the company's recent acquisition of Keyword Office Technologies of Calgary, Alberta, in Canada. According to FTP staffers on the Interop stand, KeyView offers file viewing facilities to Internet and network users. The KeyView facility allows users to download and simultaneously view fully formatted files created by several word processors, graphics, image, and spreadsheet files without the creator program being present. These image files can also be printed to any LPT or network-connected printer. Explore 2.0/Win includes a Virtual Device Driver (VxD) kernel and a suite of Windows applications that includes a Web browser, e-mail, news, Gopher Plus, Telnet and FTP (File Transfer Protocol) facilities. OnNet 2.0/Win is a combination of the company's TCP/IP 32-bit kernel technology and a range of Windows applications that include Interdrive 95, a high performance Windows 95 ready NFS (Network File System) client. OnNet 2.0's kernel is billed as providing several new advanced connectivity functions such as: kernel IP switching, for switching between LAN or serial connections; NetWare/IP v2.1 client, which enables LAN Workplace applications and NetWare/IP to run over the FTP software kernel; IP Trace; Router Discovery, which discovers and auto configures additionally available routers, saving on network admin costs; and Serial IP scripting, which provides scripting language support for a variety of connections such as SLIP, PPP and ISDN. Both new packages will ship worldwide within the next few months, with prices to be confirmed. (Steve Gold/19950916/Press Contact: A Plus +44-1753-790700; Internet Email: lcann@aplus.co.uk; Reader Contact: Vincent James, FTP Software Worldwide +49-89-5904-7159; Internet Email: vjames@ftp.com) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 09/15/95 NETWORK Hong Kong - BT Gets Acer Contract (NEWS)(NETWORK)(HKG)(00031) Hong Kong - BT Gets Acer Contract 09/15/95 CENTRAL, HONG KONG, 1995 SEP 15 (NB) -- Acer Computer International (ACI) has chosen British Telecommunications (BT) to meet its global networking requirements in its market covering Asia Pacific, Middle East, Africa and CIS. According to BT, the multi-million-dollar contract is one of the largest signed by BT in the Asia Pacific region. Through its Concert Global Managed Data Services, BT will connect Acer's worldwide network of offices during a five-year period. The announcement follows Acer's initial public offering on the main board of the Singapore Stock Exchange on August 28. Yap Chee Yuen, director of information systems at ACI, said: "The coverage of BTs service worldwide is a significant factor in the selection of BT as a service provider. Density of network coverage is essential to us in ensuring that our diverse operations around the world could be integrated through faster and more cost-effective technology." He also said applications operated on the global network would allow the company's branch offices to transfer essential data to the headquarters in Singapore and Taipei. "By going through the local network, each branch can access critical information from the headquarters. The Concert Services will provide functionalities that are critical to ACI business processes and operations," he said. Graham Moore, managing director of BT North East Asia, saw in the contract a testimony to the strength of BTs global capability. He emphasized his company's commitment to developing a long-term, worldwide relationship with "one of the leading companies in the PC industry." ACI will use Concert Frame Relay Service to connect high-speed applications in its dispersed locations while Concert Packet Services will help the company in achieving global connectivity of its e-mail system. The system is expected to be operational by the end of the year. (Nigel Armstrong & I.T. Daily/19950903) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 09/15/95 NETWORK Hong Kong - IBM Gets Jockey Club IT Project (NEWS)(NETWORK)(HKG)(00032) Hong Kong - IBM Gets Jockey Club IT Project 09/15/95 CENTRAL, HONG KONG, 1995 SEP 15 (NB) -- IBM China/Hong Kong Corp. has signed a HK$17 million deal with the Royal Hong Kong Jockey Club (RHKJC) to provide network infrastructure for the club's on-course cash betting terminals and on-course business admin/office automation system. The project, to be completed this month, is part of the RHKJC's overhaul of its IT infrastructure. IBM was selected by the RHKJC for a pilot run after a three-phase bidding process and a pilot network was run from March to June. According to John Markwell, RHKJC's director of information technology, "We were looking for a solution which satisfied our open systems interface standards and met our high performance criteria. Initial testing is very satisfactory and I have every reason to believe that IBM will live up to its long-term support obligations." (Nigel Armstrong & I.T. Daily/19950907) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 09/15/95 BROADCAST China - Scientific Atlanta Sells Ground Satellite Stations (NEWS)(BROADCAST)(PEK)(00033) China - Scientific Atlanta Sells Ground Satellite Stations 09/15/95 BEIJING, CHINA, 1995 SEP 15 (NB) -- China's Ministry of Foreign Trade and Economic Cooperation (MOFTEC) recently signed a contract with the US- based Scientific Atlanta for purchase of 60 ground satellite stations. To assist information exchanges between Chinese foreign trade authorities and companies, China will buy satellite telecommunications equipment from Scientific Atlanta, officials with MOFTEC said. The first 60 ground satellite stations are valued at US$9.99 million. MOFTEC plans to buy another 140 stations before the end of the century for the second phase of its large satellite communications network. The network includes provincial foreign trade and cooperation bureaus, MOFTEC regional facilities and foreign trade companies. The network will also connect to customs, taxation, shipping, banking and insurance institutions. The Georgia-based Scientific Atlanta entered China two years ago, and its sales in the huge market have reached US$100 million. The company has set up a joint venture in Shanghai and opened branch offices in Beijing and Shanghai. A MOFTEC official said that Scientific Atlanta was chosen from 11 candidates largely due to its dependable technology and good after-sale services. MOFTEC officials said the 60 ground satellite stations are scheduled to start operation next year. The first phase of the network will mainly cover provincial government branches and foreign trade and enterprises under the auspices of MOFTEC. The network connecting with the General Customs, banks, and departments of taxes, transportation, and insurance, and even some Chinese embassies will facilitate the flow of information such as import and export quotas, licenses and other foreign trade-related statistics and services. More enterprises are expected to join the network, the MOFTEC official said. The network generally is open to all kinds of clients. The operation of the satellite communications network is expected to improve data and voice exchange in the foreign trade system, and help pave the way for application of EDI (electronic data interchange) standards. (Chih-Ho Yu & Ning Huang/19950910) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 09/15/95 WINDOWS Microsoft Denies Windows 95 Upgrade Due This Year (NEWS)(WINDOWS)(TYO)(00034) Microsoft Denies Windows 95 Upgrade Due This Year 09/15/95 MANILA, PHILIPPINES, 1995 SEP 15 (NB) -- "There will be no other Windows 95 releases within the near future," says Microsoft Asia-Pacific regional director, Mr. Jeff Lum, as he squelched persistent rumors worldwide that a release 2 of Windows 95 would roll out shortly after its worldwide launch. Lum added that Windows 95 has been positioned as a high-end desktop operating system which "the masses of PC users want." Thus, it should never be compared technically with IBM's OS/2 Warp with regard to mission-critical features. Instead, the more apt Microsoft operating system for technical comparisons would be Windows NT. He said further that with regard to mission-critical and security features, Windows NT would be superior. "There is therefore no reason to choose OS/2 Warp," he proclaimed. Lum revealed that Bill Gates may soon visit the Philippines, as early as next year if his planned Asian tour becomes a reality. (Metropolitan Computer Times/19950911/Internet e-mail dilips@netcom.com) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 09/15/95 PC Philippines - Compaq Cuts Prices In Spite Of Lead Position (NEWS)(PC)(TYO)(00035) Philippines - Compaq Cuts Prices In Spite Of Lead Position 09/15/95 MANILA, PHILIPPINES, 1995 SEP 15 (NB) -- "Sweeping" price cuts on Compaq's various products, up to 21 percent on the Prolinea line, and up to 22 percent on the Deskpro series, have been announced for the Philippines. Compaq servers are likewise now offered with an 8% price off. "Reductions are most dramatic on the Pentium products," announced Phey Tek Moh, general manager of Compaq Computer Asia Pte Ltd., who said the price cut on Pentiums amount to 21 percent. In anticipation of an IT industry boom, Compaq is building on its leadership position in the worldwide PC industry and its strategic role as the Microsoft Lead Systems Partner for Windows 95. "This announcement is designed to further increase our market share during what industry analysts predict will be an exceptionally strong second-half buying season," Phey said. Assessing the Philippines as somewhere within the competing circle of Indonesia, Taiwan, Hong Kong and Singapore in terms of market growth for Compaq, Phey cited low labor cost as well as the Filipino's affinity for the English language as reasons for the country's edge over its Asian neighbors. The Philippines posted a 338 percent growth for units shipped in the first half of 1995 compared to a year ago, and a 267 percent growth for value, according to Phey. Worldwide, Compaq has outpaced all rivals by shipments in the first half of 1995 and is well-positioned to lead the market at year end for the second consecutive year. At the end of June 1995, Compaq is reportedly 600,000 units ahead of closest competitor IBM. As for Windows 95, Phey explained that Compaq spent 10,000 hours to make sure the operating system will work perfectly with Compaq machines. "Compaq PCs with Windows 95 are easier to use than ever," Phey stressed. Significantly, Compaq PCs bundled with Windows 95 will implement plug and play and intelligent manageability features. Compaq PCs and notebooks purchased between August 31 and September 22, according to Phey, are entitled to a free upgrade to Windows 95. As for possible upgrade problems with the Contura models, Phey assured that there won't be much hassle. "When upgrading, you will be asked to create a backup of Windows 3.1 so if you don't like 95, you can re- install 3.1." (Metropolitan Computer Times/19950911/Internet e-mail dilips@netcom.com) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 09/15/95 TELECOM Smart 95 - Canadian Telecom Liberalization Continues (NEWS)(TELECOM)(TOR)(00036) Smart 95 - Canadian Telecom Liberalization Continues 09/15/95 TORONTO, ONTARIO, CANADA, 1995 SEP 15 (NB) -- The Canadian telecommunications market continues moving toward competition and deregulation, and even restrictions on foreign ownership of telecommunications carriers may be relaxed in the near future, according to lawyers from a Toronto law firm with a significant telecom-industry practice. "A lot of us think that there may be progress in the next year or so, maybe within the NAFTA (North American Free Trade Agreement) framework, to have further liberalization of the foreign-ownership restrictions," said Jack Quinn, partner in Blake, Cassels & Graydon. Quinn was speaking in a workshop on legal and regulatory issues at Smart 95, the annual conference of the World Teleport Association, attended by Newsbytes. Today, foreign interests cannot directly control more than 20 percent of a company considered a common carrier in Canada. The definition of a common carrier is and subject to regulatory discretion, but at least includes local and long-distance telephone companies that operate their own networks, though not resellers of long-distance services. One tangible effect of this restriction is to prevent AT&T from acquiring a larger share of Toronto-based Unitel Communications Inc., a struggling national long-distance carrier in which AT&T is a minority shareholder. Unitel's largest shareholder, Canadian Pacific Ltd., is seeking to sell out. Quinn noted that a kind of loophole in the ownership restrictions allows a "qualified corporation" to own the 80 percent of a common carrier that cannot be foreign-owned. The definition of a qualified corporation says that 66-2/3 percent of its common shares must be controlled by Canadians. Thus the remaining 33-1/3 percent can be foreign-owned, potentially giving foreign interests a total of 46.6-percent ownership of the common-carrier subsidiary if the maximum 20 percent direct holding is combined with 33-1/3 percent of the 80 percent controlled by the holding company. However, Quinn also noted that another clause, open to regulators' interpretation, prohibits foreign interests from obtaining "effective control" of a common carrier. He noted that the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) has the power to exempt any company from common-carrier regulation, including ownership restrictions. The CRTC also has a power of forbearance, which allows it to free any regulated company from certain requirements, including the requirement to file tariffs with the CRTC. Ben Jetten, also a partner in the Toronto office of Blake, Cassels & Graydon, noted that the CRTC recently used this power to free the young long-distance carriers, including Unitel and Sprint Canada Inc., from filing tariffs. Stentor, the consortium of former monopoly phone companies that provide local as well as long-distance service, still has to file tariffs. Quinn said there are also signs that restriction on the use of non-Canadian satellites to carry Canadian traffic may be loosening. Quinn pointed out that both American and Canadian satellites are accessible from 90 percent of the land area of both countries, but a long-standing agreement between the two countries says neither country's satellites will carry the other's traffic. Both American and Canadian satellite-communications operators want to be able to provide cross-border service, he said, so that for instance a trucking company can go to one carrier and get service that will keep its fleet in touch with headquarters even when they cross the international boundary. A solution to this problem now being considered is to let Canadian carriers buy capacity on US satellites and resell it to US customers operating in Canada, on behalf of those companies' US suppliers, Quinn said. A member of the audience at the seminar observed that there is also an incentive to relax the restrictions in the fact that US satellites are running short of capacity on what is called the C band, while Canada's Anik E satellites still have C-band capacity to spare. In general, Jetten concluded, the Canadian telecom market is moving toward more competition, with local phone competition approved in principle, rebalancing of local and long-distance likely to happen to some degree in the near future, and cable television and telephone firms increasingly crossing over onto each other's turf. (Grant Buckler/19950915) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 09/15/95 TRENDS Smart 95 - IT Comes To Aid Transportation, Not Bury It (NEWS)(TRENDS)(TOR)(00037) Smart 95 - IT Comes To Aid Transportation, Not Bury It 09/15/95 TORONTO, ONTARIO, CANADA, 1995 SEP 15 (NB) -- You might expect to see people from the transportation business not at a conference about advanced telecommunications, but across town worrying about what an economy built on moving information over wires and through the air means to their business of moving physical goods. But at least some in the transportation industry see information technology as a complement and an aid to their business. Moving goods efficiently is a matter of information, said Lutz Moeller of Mannesmann Transmodal GMBH in a panel discussion on Telecommunications and the Transportation Sector at Smart 95, the annual conference of the World Teleport Association. Moeller's company promotes the idea of transmodal transport, which means using combinations of different transportation methods to move goods. The success of this depends on using information technology to make sure the goods and the means of transportation are in the right places at the right times, he said. Moeller noted that the volume of goods to be transported in Europe is expected to double within 15 years, and roads could become clogged unless better systems are developed. When asked about the impact of technology on jobs in the transportation industry, he argued that with increasing volumes, technology will not destroy jobs but will simply allow more goods to be moved. Suminaka Shimomura, general manager of the NYK shipping line in Japan, said his country needs a unified information system for handling transport information such as export and import documents. While Europe tends to have centralized port authorities, he said, Japanese ports have numerous different authorities, "therefore we have to send the same documents or similar documents to all authorities." In Japan, Shimomura said, a tougher competitive environment due to the strength of the yen is causing transportation companies to turn to information technology in a quest for new efficiencies. Nick Catalano, director of economic development for the Regional Municipality of Hamilton Wentworth, near Toronto, said businesses that consider locating in his region ask about both telecommunications and transportation infrastructure. "If we do not have the infrastructure to deliver those goods and services to market," he said, "telecommunications becomes a very small component." Moeller echoed the point, observing that "even a container filled with the latest type of small supercomputer cannot be shipped via the Internet." (Grant Buckler/19950915) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 09/15/95 GENERAL Newsbytes Week In Review (NEWS)(GENERAL)(MSP)(00038) Newsbytes Week In Review 09/15/95 MINNEAPOLIS, MINNESOTA, U.S.A., 1995 SEP 15 (NB) -- This is a look at the top stories this week, listing with their category code: Hackers Break Into America Online, Compuserve Lets Users Build Own Web Pages, End Is In Sight For 486-Based Computing - Study, Macromedia & AOL's NaviSoft To Enhance Web Tools, 230MB Floppy Disk Storage For Powerbooks, Newsbytes' Pacifica Website Among Best 5% On Web, Child Porn Ring Using America Online Busted, Networld+Interop '95 Opens In Paris - Overview, Microdyne Buys Nat Semi's Ethernet Card Business, Novell & UtiliCorp Team On Powerline Network, Internet Domain Names No Longer Free, Software Cops Hit Ecuador, Apple Projects Lower Earnings, Reveals PowerBook Problem, Apple's PowerBook 5300 Battery Pack Causes Fire, Compaq Intros New Home PCs, Fall Ad Campaign. Hackers Break Into America Online (ONLINE) VIENNA, VIRGINIA, U.S.A., 1995 SEP 11 (NB) -- America Online Inc. (NASDAQ:AMER) has informed its members that it is fighting hackers who are causing problems on the largest consumer online service. Also, a San Francisco Chronicle article claims rogue "computer experts" have already tampered with business and customer information files, creating a security breech. Compuserve Lets Users Build Own Web Pages (ONLINE) COLUMBUS, OHIO, U.S.A., 1995 SEP 11 (NB) -- Compuserve will start letting its subscribers build their own "outposts" in cyberspace, by enabling them to build, design, and submit their own home pages on the Internet's World Wide Web. Beta testing begins later this month, and Compuserve members should have their own pages up and running by November. End Is In Sight For 486-Based Computing - Study (TRENDS) LA JOLLA, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1995 SEP 12 (NB) -- A study from Computer Intelligence InfoCorp (CII) finds that Pentium-based desktop computer systems are now outselling similar systems powered by 486 processors. Measuring computer sales in the first seven months of 1995, CII reports the 486 desktop/tower and portables market dropped from 71% of all sales to 48%, while Apple's Motorola-based systems dropped from 13% to 8% in the same period. Macromedia & AOL's NaviSoft To Enhance Web Tools (BUSINESS) SAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1995 SEP 12 (NB) -- Macromedia (NASDAQ:MACR), well known for Director and other multimedia development tools, and Navisoft, an America Online (NASDAQ:AMER) company which develops World Wide Web site building and management tools, have announced plans to integrate Director into NaviSoft's Web tools. The resulting new tools will allow developers to build multimedia enriched Web sites. 230MB Floppy Disk Storage For Powerbooks (TRENDS) CUPERTINO, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1995 SEP 13 (NB) -- Apple Computer (NASDAQ:AAPL) and Fujitsu have announced, what the firms claim is, the world's smallest magneto-optical rewriteable drive for Apple's new line of Powerbooks. The $449 drive provides as much as 230 megabytes (MB) of floppy storage and should be available this fall. Newsbytes' Pacifica Website Among Best 5% On Web (ONLINE) MINNEAPOLIS, MINNESOTA, U.S.A., 1995 SEP 14 (NB) -- The Newsbytes Pacifica Website has been rated among the top 5% of all sites on the Internet by Point Survey, a service of Point Communications designed to direct Web surfers to the best places to go on the Internet. Newsbytes News Network and Island Telecommunications' Newsbytes Pacifica home page is located at http://www.islandtel.com/newsbytes/ Child Porn Ring Using America Online Busted (ONLINE) VIENNA, VIRGINIA, U.S.A., 1995 SEP 14 (NB) -- The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) said it has arrested 12 suspected pedophiles and pornographers who allegedly used the America Online (NASDAQ:AMER) service to distribute graphic images and lure minors to have sex with them. The arrests come in the wake of a nationwide two-year investigation called "Innocent Images," and resulted in raids of more than 120 homes. Networld+Interop '95 Opens In Paris - Overview (NETWORK) PARIS, FRANCE, 1995 SEP 14 (NB) -- Running all this week in Paris, Networld+Interop 95 proved to be something of a "preview ground" for the Interop show in the US, which opens in a few weeks. Microdyne Buys Nat Semi's Ethernet Card Business (BUSINESS) ALEXANDRIA, VIRGINIA, U.S.A., 1995 SEP 14 (NB) -- Continuing its acquisition drive, Microdyne Corp. (Nasdaq:MCDY) has purchased National Semiconductor's (NYSE: NSM) Ethernet adapter card business, for an undisclosed sum. Novell & UtiliCorp Team On Powerline Network (TRENDS) WASHINGTON, D.C., U.S.A., 1995 SEP 14 (NB) -- Network specialist Novell and UtiliCorp United, a Kansas City-based electric and gas utility with national aspirations, has announced what could be a revolution in both computing and energy management. The two firms said they are jointly developing a technology that will cheaply and efficiently turn the nation's electrical network, including the wiring in the house, into an intelligent network able to control appliances, provide computer networking capabilities, and offer a high-speed onramp to the information superhighway. Internet Domain Names No Longer Free (ONLINE) ARLINGTON, VIRGINIA, U.S.A., 1995 SEP 15 (NB) -- No more free rides on the Internet. Swamped by applications for domain names, the National Science Foundation has announced that as of now, organizations that maintain addresses on the Internet will have to pay $50 per year for the privilege. If they forget to pay, their address will disappear and the lights will go out on their Internet site. Software Cops Hit Ecuador (LEGAL) QUITO, ECUADOR, 1995 SEP 15 (NB) -- The long arm of the software cops reached out and touched alleged software pirates in Ecuador this month. The Business Software Alliance (BSA), a trade group dedicated to putting a crimp in software piracy wherever it occurs, said this week that a judicial inspection for suspected software piracy was carried out earlier this month at the premises of Systenev, a computer and software shop located in the Ecuadorian capital, Quito. Apple Projects Lower Earnings, Reveals PowerBook Problem (APPLE) CUPERTINO, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1995 SEP 15 (NB) -- Apple Computer (NASDAQ:APL) says it expects fourth quarter earnings to be below analysts' expectations. Along with continued product availability problems, Apple announced it has stopped shipment of its newly announced PowerBook 5300 series due to a safety problem with its lithium ion battery. Apple's PowerBook 5300 Battery Pack Causes Fire (APPLE) CUPERTINO, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., SEP 15 (NB) -- In an press release late yesterday, Apple Computer (NASDAQ:APL) said it stopped shipment of its new PowerPC-based PowerBook 5300 due to problems with the lithium ion battery used to power the laptop computer. The problem was found internally when a 5300 caught fire. Apple says customers of the new PowerBook should not use the computer. Compaq Intros New Home PCs, Fall Ad Campaign (PC) HOUSTON, TEXAS, U.S.A., 1995 SEP 15 (NB) -- Compaq Computer Corp. (NYSE: CPQ) has introduced more PCs designed for the home market and some of the new Presario models incorporate audio and video technology. Compaq has also launched a fall television ad campaign to promote its new Presario PCs but declined to say how much it will spend on the promotional effort. (Ian Stokell/19950915) (SUMMARY)(GENERAL)(MSP)(00039) Newsbytes Daily Summary 09/15/95 MINNEAPOLIS, MINNESOTA, U.S.A., 1995 SEP 15 (NB) -- These are capsules of all today's news stories: ======================================================================== ------------| N E W S B Y T E S D A I L Y S U M M A R Y |---------- ------------| Friday, September 15, 1995 |---------- ======================================================================== (c) Newsbytes News Network (Tm) Editor in Chief: Wendy Woods ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Newsbytes News Network's 1995 Update CD-ROM for Mac, DOS, and Windows is now available for $29.95 (includes s&h). Contains 1983-1995 news stories, more than 64,000 keyword searchable stories and 475 digitized images. For more information or to order, fax to 612-430-0441 or e-mail to 'administrator@newsbytes.com' -- MC, Visa, Amex accepted. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ CATEGORY HEADLINES (*** indicates today's top stories) STORY # ======================================================================== APPLE ****Apple Projects Lower Earnings, Reveals PowerBook Probl 25 APPLE ****Apple's PowerBook 5300 Battery Pack Causes Fire....... 28 BROADCAST Videonics Acquires Abbate Video............................ 08 BROADCAST Video News Roundup......................................... 14 BROADCAST Hughes, Telesat Bring DirecPC To Canada.................... 24 BROADCAST China - Scientific Atlanta Sells Ground Satellite Stations. 33 BUSINESS 3DO Plans To Diversify Beyond Games........................ 02 BUSINESS Amdahl To Acquire Canada's DMR Group....................... 06 DOS Czech Anti-Virus Software Aimed At US Market............... 18 GENERAL Sydney Gets Flashy Cathay Pacific Data Processing Center... 15 GENERAL Japan Newsbriefs........................................... 20 GENERAL CA Elaborates On Legent Plans.............................. 23 GENERAL Personnel Roundup.......................................... 26 GENERAL ****DVD Dispute Ends In Compromise........................ 27 GENERAL Newsbytes Week In Review................................... 38 GOVT 14,000 PCs Sought For Australian Tax Office................ 16 GOVT Microsoft In Hungarian Government Deal..................... 29 IBM DCE For OS/2 Warp Entering Beta Tests...................... 04 LEGAL ****Software Cops Hit Ecuador............................. 22 NETWORK DEC's Multistack System For Network Hubs................... 03 NETWORK Connectware Extends ATM With "High Bandwidth Apps.......... 11 NETWORK Interop - Israeli Company Unveils High Speed Wireless LANs. 21 NETWORK Interop - FTP Unveils Next Generation Internet Suites...... 30 NETWORK Hong Kong - BT Gets Acer Contract.......................... 31 NETWORK Hong Kong - IBM Gets Jockey Club IT Project................ 32 ONLINE VeriFone's Automated Transaction For Internet.............. 10 ONLINE ****Internet Domain Names No Longer Free.................. 12 ONLINE Hong Kong - Electronic Ming Pao Daily News Goes Online..... 17 PC ****Compaq Intros New Home PCs, Fall Ad Campaign.......... 09 PC Philippines - Compaq Cuts Prices In Spite Of Lead Position. 35 TELECOM NetComm Posts $972,000 Loss................................ 13 TELECOM Smart 95 - Canadian Telecom Liberalization Continues....... 36 TRENDS Nikon Supports Fast Growing MO Technology.................. 19 TRENDS Smart 95 - IT Comes To Aid Transportation, Not Bury It..... 37 UNIX Clickshare Server Beta Available In October................ 01 UNIX Zenith Data Systems Intros PowerPC Servers................. 07 WINDOWS Colorado Firm's Technology Leads To Advanced Speech Rec.... 05 WINDOWS Microsoft Denies Windows 95 Upgrade Due This Year.......... 34 ======================================================================== These are the headlines and first paragraphs of each story, in order: 1 -> Clickshare Server Beta Available In October -- Newshare Corp. said it will begin a beta test phase for its Clickshare Unix server software, which allows Internet World Wide Web users to be charged when they view content on home pages. The software will be available in early October, with the evaluation phase beginning in mid-October. 2 -> 3DO Plans To Diversify Beyond Games -- 3DO Co.(NASDAQ:THDO) plans to diversify and expand its business beyond the video game market. The strategy is intended to reduce risk, improve cash flow and increase 3DO's independence from a single market. 3 -> DEC's Multistack System For Network Hubs -- By allowing network hubs to be "stacked, racked, and distributed," Digital Equipment Corp.'s new Multistack System brings "flexibility, extensibility, and affordability" not available from any other vendor, asserted Dick Lausch, director of marketing for Digital's Network Product Business Unit, in a conference call with Newsbytes. 4 -> DCE For OS/2 Warp Entering Beta Tests -- IBM has announced it is accepting candidates for participation in an OS/2 Warp Distributed Computing Environment (DCE) 2.1 beta program. According to Val Russell, a spokeswoman for IBM, by entering into the beta program, users can begin application prototyping, development, testing and provide feedback to IBM. 5 -> Colorado Firm's Technology Leads To Advanced Speech Rec -- Speech Systems, Inc. (SSI) has announced a licensing agreement with AT&T that the company said will yield new telephony-based speech recognition development tools for Windows 95 and other operating systems. 6 -> Amdahl To Acquire Canada's DMR Group -- Amdahl, a worldwide supplier of System/390 processors, Unix systems software and servers, and other high-end services and support, announced plans to acquire DMR Group, a worldwide consulting firm to the enterprise market. DMR's principal shareholders have agreed to the $90 million deal. 7 -> Zenith Data Systems Intros PowerPC Servers -- Zenith Data Systems (ZDS) is bringing to market new PowerPC based network servers targeted to the business-critical application server market. The new machines will have both single and multiple processors. 8 -> Videonics Acquires Abbate Video -- Two leaders in the budget video field have joined forces. Known for its stand-alone video controller, Videonics Inc., announced that it is acquiring Abbate Video. Abbate makes the Video Toolkit, one of the most versatile applications in budget Apple Computer Macintosh desktop video. 9 -> ****Compaq Intros New Home PCs, Fall Ad Campaign -- Compaq Computer Corp. (NYSE: CPQ) has introduced more PCs designed for the home market and some of the new Presario models incorporate audio and video technology. Compaq has also launched a fall television ad campaign to promote its new Presario PCs but declined to say how much it will spend on the promotional effort. 10 -> VeriFone's Automated Transaction For Internet -- VeriFone, Inc. (NYSE: VFI), a worldwide supplier of automated credit card authorization terminals, plans to make purchases on the Internet safer with its Internet payment system that allows multiple payment options, including credit and debit cards, low-value "micropayments," electronic cash and electronic check. 11 -> Connectware Extends ATM With "High Bandwidth Apps -- Connectware, a communications start-up that wants to "drive bandwidth up, and costs down," will soon unveil pacts with First Virtual and IBM, a PC Card for stored video, and an ATM NIC (asynchronous transfer mode network interface card) for integrated data/voice/video to the desktop, revealed Tim Smith, president and CEO (chief executive officer), at a meeting with Newsbytes in Boston yesterday. 12 -> ****Internet Domain Names No Longer Free -- No more free rides on the Internet. Swamped by applications for domain names, the National Science Foundation has announced that as of now, organizations that maintain addresses on the Internet will have to pay $50 per year for the privilege. If they forget to pay, their address will disappear and the lights will go out on their Internet site. 13 -> NetComm Posts $972,000 Loss -- Listed modem maker NetComm has recorded a AUS$972,000 loss for the year to June 30, but would probably have been in the black had it not been for the global shortage of Rockwell modem chipsets, chief executive officer and co-founder Chris Howells says. 14 -> Video News Roundup -- This is a look at the top stories this week in the world of video news reporting: NBC orders receivers for desktop video service, Huygen Codec arrives, the video rifle, microwave transmissions direct from video cameras, and PCI cameras debut. 15 -> Sydney Gets Flashy Cathay Pacific Data Processing Center -- The flashiest stately dome to come out of Cathay since Samuel Taylor Coleridge hit the opium for a vision of Xanadu has to be in suburban Sydney, Australia. Yesterday Senator Peter Cook sprinkled electronic glitter on the new Cathay Pacific data-processing center and strained his technological expertise to plug in a couple of mystery modules to bring it all on-line. 16 -> 14,000 PCs Sought For Australian Tax Office -- The Australian Taxation Office is gearing up to replace 14,000 outdated desktop computers in a three-year contract valued at AUS$30 million. The acquisition is part of a 10-year, AUS$1.3 billion modernization strategy, and the lucrative contract is likely to be thrown open to tender in October. 17 -> Hong Kong - Electronic Ming Pao Daily News Goes Online -- One of Hong Kong's biggest Chinese-language newspapers, Ming Pao Daily News, has announced joint development of its World Wide Web electronic news information service with local Internet provider HKNet. 18 -> Czech Anti-Virus Software Aimed At US Market -- ALWIL Software s.r.o., which claims over 60,000 legal installations of its anti-virus software AVAST, is in negotiations to enter the US and West European markets. US-based software companies are said to be seeking a license for the Czech anti-virus AVAST product, which has garnered rave reviews in prestigious publications. 19 -> Nikon Supports Fast Growing MO Technology -- Nikon will join the growing list of companies supporting magneto-optical (MO) drives and disks next year when it begins manufacturing MO disk products. The Nihon Keizai Shimbun newspaper reported today that Nikon will mass-produce 3.5-inch, 640-megabyte and 5.25-inch, 2.6-gigabyte rewritable disks from July 1996. 20 -> Japan Newsbriefs -- In this roundup of news from Japan: DEC Japan reports profits increase, Fujitsu announces new ATM switch, Apple Computer expects strong sales in Japan, NEC enters Chinese WP market, instant Internet connections. 21 -> Interop - Israeli Company Unveils High Speed Wireless LANs -- RDC Communications of Jerusalem, Israel, unveiled a new range of wireless LAN systems at the Networld+Interop show in Paris this week. According to officials with the company, the RDC products are rapidly selling in the global wireless LAN marketplace. 22 -> ****Software Cops Hit Ecuador -- The long arm of the software cops reached out and touched alleged software pirates in Ecuador this month. The Business Software Alliance (BSA), a trade group dedicated to putting a crimp in software piracy wherever it occurs, said this week that a judicial inspection for suspected software piracy was carried out earlier this month at the premises of Systenev, a computer and software shop located in the Ecuadorian capital, Quito. 23 -> CA Elaborates On Legent Plans -- Computer Associates International Inc. (NYSE:CA) plans to drop two products of recently acquired Legent Corp., but otherwise will continue all Legent and CA products even where they overlap, CA President Sanjay Kumar said in a teleconference Thursday. 24 -> Hughes, Telesat Bring DirecPC To Canada -- DirecPC, a service that broadcasts information to personal computers via satellite, has come to Canada through an agreement between Hughes Electronics Corp. and Telesat Canada. Telesat, the monopoly domestic satellite carrier, will market the service across Canada, with help from NII Norsat International, a nationwide consumer satellite equipment supplier. 25 -> ****Apple Projects Lower Earnings, Reveals PowerBook Problem -- Apple Computer (NASDAQ:APL) says it expects fourth quarter earnings to be below analysts' expectations. Along with continued product availability problems, Apple announced it has stopped shipment of its newly announced PowerBook 5300 series due to a safety problem with its lithium ion battery. 26 -> Personnel Roundup -- This is a regular feature, summarizing personnel changes not covered elsewhere by Newsbytes: Jazz Multimedia Inc., Harris Corp., CompUSA Inc., The Sprint Telecommunications Venture, AT&T Interchange Online Network, SHL Systemhouse Inc., Proteon Inc., CompuServe Inc., and General Instrument Corp. 27 -> ****DVD Dispute Ends In Compromise -- Sony and Toshiba, the lead players in the dispute over the format of next generation digital video disks (DVD), have come to an agreement over a common system. The deal has averted what would have been a costly standards war between the world's major electronics companies and certain consumer confusion. 28 -> ****Apple's PowerBook 5300 Battery Pack Causes Fire -- In an press release late yesterday, Apple Computer (NASDAQ:APL) said it stopped shipment of its new PowerPC-based PowerBook 5300 due to problems with the lithium ion battery used to power the laptop computer. The problem was found internally when a 5300 caught fire. Apple says customers of the new PowerBook should not use the computer. 29 -> Microsoft In Hungarian Government Deal -- Microsoft has announced the signing of two deals with the Hungarian Government, terms of which call for the increased use of PCs in the educational and consumer markets in Hungary. 30 -> Interop - FTP Unveils Next Generation Internet Suites -- FTP Software has announced Explore version 2.0 for Windows, a new version of its Internet suite of software, at the Paris Interop show this week. According to company officials, the suite is ideal for home and small business users of the Internet. 31 -> Hong Kong - BT Gets Acer Contract -- Acer Computer International (ACI) has chosen British Telecommunications (BT) to meet its global networking requirements in its market covering Asia Pacific, Middle East, Africa and CIS. According to BT, the multi-million-dollar contract is one of the largest signed by BT in the Asia Pacific region. Through its Concert Global Managed Data Services, BT will connect Acer's worldwide network of offices during a five-year period. 32 -> Hong Kong - IBM Gets Jockey Club IT Project -- IBM China/Hong Kong Corp. has signed a HK$17 million deal with the Royal Hong Kong Jockey Club (RHKJC) to provide network infrastructure for the club's on-course cash betting terminals and on-course business admin/office automation system. The project, to be completed this month, is part of the RHKJC's overhaul of its IT infrastructure. 33 -> China - Scientific Atlanta Sells Ground Satellite Stations -- China's Ministry of Foreign Trade and Economic Cooperation (MOFTEC) recently signed a contract with the US- based Scientific Atlanta for purchase of 60 ground satellite stations. 34 -> Microsoft Denies Windows 95 Upgrade Due This Year -- "There will be no other Windows 95 releases within the near future," says Microsoft Asia-Pacific regional director, Mr. Jeff Lum, as he squelched persistent rumors worldwide that a release 2 of Windows 95 would roll out shortly after its worldwide launch. 35 -> Philippines - Compaq Cuts Prices In Spite Of Lead Position -- "Sweeping" price cuts on Compaq's various products, up to 21 percent on the Prolinea line, and up to 22 percent on the Deskpro series, have been announced for the Philippines. Compaq servers are likewise now offered with an 8% price off. 36 -> Smart 95 - Canadian Telecom Liberalization Continues -- The Canadian telecommunications market continues moving toward competition and deregulation, and even restrictions on foreign ownership of telecommunications carriers may be relaxed in the near future, according to lawyers from a Toronto law firm with a significant telecom-industry practice. 37 -> Smart 95 - IT Comes To Aid Transportation, Not Bury It -- You might expect to see people from the transportation business not at a conference about advanced telecommunications, but across town worrying about what an economy built on moving information over wires and through the air means to their business of moving physical goods. But at least some in the transportation industry see information technology as a complement and an aid to their business. 38 -> Newsbytes Week In Review -- This is a look at the top stories this week, listing with their category code: Hackers Break Into America Online, Compuserve Lets Users Build Own Web Pages, End Is In Sight For 486-Based Computing - Study, Macromedia & AOL's NaviSoft To Enhance Web Tools, 230MB Floppy Disk Storage For Powerbooks, Newsbytes' Pacifica Website Among Best 5% On Web, Child Porn Ring Using America Online Busted, Networld+Interop '95 Opens In Paris - Overview, Microdyne Buys Nat Semi's Ethernet Card Business, Novell & UtiliCorp Team On Powerline Network, Internet Domain Names No Longer Free, Software Cops Hit Ecuador, Apple Projects Lower Earnings, Reveals PowerBook Problem, Apple's PowerBook 5300 Battery Pack Causes Fire, Compaq Intros New Home PCs, Fall Ad Campaign. (Wendy Woods/19950915) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 09/14/95 ONLINE Cyber Ribs & Silicon Pork Chops On The Web (NEWS)(ONLINE)(MSP)(00001) Cyber Ribs & Silicon Pork Chops On The Web 09/14/95 DES MOINES, IOWA, U.S.A., 1995 SEP 14 (NB) -- When many people think about making dinner, they usually consult a cookbook. Now the National Pork Producers Council (NPPC) is bringing "the other white meat" to cyberspace, with its existing Internet World Wide Web site. The site highlights recipes, cooking tips, and useful information about pork to computers in the home, NPPC officials said. The site aims to spread "the word about the great taste, versatility, and convenience of pork and giving consumers fresh ideas for cooking and entertaining with friends and families," said one official. When Newsbytes accessed the site, we found four sections within the recipe area. One page featured "This Week's Recipe," which provides a photo and directions on how to cook pork each week. This week's recipe is for "Mushroom Stuffed Pork Burgers." A second area, called "Food Lover's Insights," contains a "tip of the week," with cooking ideas, new food trends, facts about low-fat foods, and interviews with chefs. The "Taste of the Season" page contains full menus for a variety of seasons and occasions. This area featured recipes for pork burgers, tortilla soup, and Swedish-style meatballs. The final area contains a list of frequently-asked questions (FAQ) about pork. The site itself, which Newsbytes first reported on last June, started out as an informational site about the NPPC for both its members and the general public. "It probably seems strange to a lot of people that pork producers would be on the Web," Charles Harness, vice president of communications, told Newsbytes at the time. "But they are business people too, and this is a business, just like others around the country. They have interests in sharing information with each other." The NPPC represents about 85,000 pork producers around the nation. Information about the NPPC and its producers is still available at the Web site. Users just need to click the appropriate button to be hotlinked to that part of the NPPC's site. The NPPC site is located at http://www.nppc.org/ . (Bob Woods/19950913/Press Contacts: Robin Kline, Pork Information Bureau, 515-223-2629; Jaye Hilton, National Pork Producers Council, 312-988-2335) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 09/14/95 WINDOWS Microsoft Plans Dev't Tools Automated Test Prgm (NEWS)(WINDOWS)(DEN)(00002) Microsoft Plans Dev't Tools Automated Test Prgm 09/14/95 REDMOND, WASHINGTON, U.S.A., 1995 SEP 14 (NB) -- Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ: MSFT) has announced it will ship an automated testing tool later this year that will test applications of just about any size and created with any development tool. Microsoft said its Visual Test version 4.0 lets developers automate their application testing to catch errors early and deliver "more reliable software." Visual Test 4.0 can test applications for Windows 95 and Windows NT, usually without modification, said Microsoft. The software company said Visual Test's speed of test execution can save up to 80 percent of testing time and works with application development tools such as Microsoft Visual Basic, Powersoft's PowerBuilder, and Gupta's SQLWindows. Visual Test supports testing of technologies such as OLE (object linking and embedding) Controls, and can measure the performance of server applications under heavy loads. Microsoft said developers can synchronize tests on as many as 250 machines across a network to stress the server. Visual Test has an integrated development environment called Microsoft Developer Studio. Within Developer Studio is the Scenario Recorder, which records the user's actions for later playback. Microsoft said many common tests, such as verifying the existence of a menu, can be created without any additional scripting. Visual Test includes the same editor Microsoft uses in Visual C++. The visual editing ability and tear-away toolbars let developers modify existing tests rather than recreating each test from scratch. Visual Test also lets developers store tests with the project source files. Accidental overwrites are prevented during team development, and project organization can be done using any of several compatible version-control managers, including Microsoft Visual SourceSafe version 4.0. Test also has a feature called Suite Manager that allows developers to manage and organize collections of tests, called suites. Test suites can be created by dragging and dropping existing tests from a test project. Tests can be left to run unattended and collect results for later analysis. Results, including the test name, start and stop times, test-failure information, and optional user-defined values are logged to a viewport windows or to a database. Visual Test included automatic error detection technology from Nu-Mega Technologies. BoundsChecker detects memory and resource leaks, data and heap corruption and C++ pointer errors. Microsoft said Visual Test 4.0 will be available in early November for an estimated selling price of $599. Licensed users of previous versions of Microsoft Test can upgrade for about $199. (Jim Mallory/19950913/Press contact: Frank Kane, Waggener Edstrom, 503-245-0905; Public contact: Microsoft, 206-882-8080 or 800-426-9400 or Nu-Mega Technologies, 800-468-6342) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 09/14/95 ONLINE Microsoft Network To Dominate Canadian Online - Survey (NEWS)(ONLINE)(TOR)(00003) Microsoft Network To Dominate Canadian Online - Survey 09/14/95 OTTAWA, ONTARIO, CANADA, 1995 SEP 14 (NB) -- A new survey by Ottawa-based research firms Phase 5 Consulting Group and Opinion Search Inc. suggests that Microsoft's strategy of bundling access to its new Microsoft Network (MSN) online service with Windows 95 will create a new cadre of commercial online users that could vault the fledging network to overnight market dominance in Canada. According to the independent survey, 28 percent of PC-using business subscribers to commercial online services who were polled said they will likely buy Windows 95 in order to obtain access to the Microsoft Network. Furthermore, 24 percent of respondents who do not currently subscribe to a commercial online service at work told the pollsters they will also likely to buy Windows 95 in order to use MSN. Microsoft has confirmed that the MSN connection built into Windows 95 is currently the only way to gain access to the new online service. The research firms contend that their figures translate into a potential Canadian organization market (as opposed to the consumer market) of more than 600,000 subscribers for the Microsoft Network, two-thirds of them new commercial online service subscribers. The firms also predict that Windows 95 will significantly increase the size of the Canadian work-based online services market, which the study estimates currently at C$570 million per year. "If adoption occurs at the rate anticipated, we should see at least a 55 percent jump in the number of commercial online users in the Canadian workplace," said Doug Church, a partner with Phase 5 Consulting. "This would put the number of workplace commercial online service subscribers at over a million. Assuming the new users spend what current users do, this translates into more than C$300 million in annual fees for the Microsoft Network from new users alone." Just how much market share Microsoft captures from current suppliers will depend on the extent to which current users decide the new network serves their needs. According to the survey, CompuServe, with 26 percent of current online users signed up, has the most to lose. "Windows 95 is definitely going to boost the size of the business online services market", said Michel Lucas, a partner with Opinion Search Inc. "It's long-term success in this market, of course, depends on Microsoft's ability to deliver services that actually help people do their jobs. And, based on our findings, that means helping companies earn revenue." The study, conducted in June and July of this year, polled 2,529 Canadian workers in the private, public, and not-for-profit sectors on their use of computers at work. Of those, 702 were surveyed in-depth on their use of published electronic information and online services. The results from the survey of 702 information users are deemed to be accurate to within four percent, 19 times out of 20, the companies claim. Results from the poll of 2,529 Canadian workers are deemed accurate to within three percent, 19 times out of 20. Detailed results of the study, officially titled the Canada Information Monitor, are expected to be available later this month. (Trevor Horsley/19950912/Press Contact: Phase 5 Consulting, Doug Church, 613-241-7555; Opinion Search Inc., Michel Lucas, 613-230-9109) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 09/14/95 ONLINE "A Day In The Life Of Cyberspace" From MIT (NEWS)(ONLINE)(TOR)(00004) "A Day In The Life Of Cyberspace" From MIT 09/14/95 BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS, U.S.A., 1995 SEP 14 (NB) -- The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) Media Lab is celebrating its tenth anniversary with a number of events, including "A Day In The Life Of Cyberspace" -- a "global, online participatory event" designed to generate a multimedia portrait of the people who "inhabit" the virtual realms of the Internet and the proprietary online services. "The idea comes from Rick Smolan's series of photography books 'A day in the life of...'," organizer Gilberte Houbart explained. "Rick also recently developed two multimedia CD-ROMs: 'Alice to Ocean' and 'Passage to Vietnam.' He's been in touch with the Media Lab to help contact photographers who would like to contribute their pictures for this event." The official call for entries, which is open to anyone, states: "We are seeking images that address: Who is online? What constitutes identity in cyberspace and how can it be portrayed? How are essential human experiences -- family, religion, community, sex -- being transformed in the digital arena?" Organizers say prizes for the top entries will be provided by Kodak. The "best of the best" will be featured in the Portraits in Cyberspace exhibit on the World Wide Web, which organizers expect "will be seen by millions of viewers worldwide." A permanent digital exhibit and even a printed book are also reportedly being considered. Houbart noted that the actual juried exhibit of "images and writings that depict the inhabitants of the global networked world" will open officially on October 10, in conjunction with an anniversary symposium by Media Lab faculty and the official launch of a new Media Lab research consortium, called Things That Think. The consortium, Houbart said, "Will be about integrating intelligence and computing power into everyday objects from tables to clothing." Further details on the symposium and the Things That Think consortium is available at the Media Lab's World Wide Web site at http://www.media.mit.edu/ . The official call for participation says submissions to the Day In The life Of Cyberspace project will be accepted from September 17-24. For more information and details on how to enter your work, visit the special exhibit Web site at http://www.1010.org/Exhibit/ . You can also receive information by electronic-mail at exhibit@www.1010.org. (Maggie Troone/19950912/Press Contact: Gilberte Houbart, Internet e-mail gilberte@media-lab.mit.edu; Public Contact: Internet World Wide Web http://www.1010.org/Exhibit/ ) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 09/14/95 ONLINE UK - Electronic Telegraph Offers Internet Ads (NEWS)(ONLINE)(LON)(00005) UK - Electronic Telegraph Offers Internet Ads 09/14/95 LONDON, ENGLAND, 1995 SEP 14 (NB) -- Electronic Telegraph, the Daily Telegraph's electronic newspaper, has announced plans to open a classified advertising section in its online newspaper. Known as Classified Marketplace, the service will initially be split into five main sections: appointments, business to business, property, travel, and business network. According to Mark Payne, the Telegraph's classified advertisement director, the paper hopes to eventually expand its range of Classified Marketplace advertisement headings to include all available classified areas. The Classified Marketplace area will be located within the Electronic Telegraph's commercial forum, where current advertisers include the TSB Bank, Barclays Bank, Mercury Communications, Vauxhall Motors, and United Airlines. Potential advertisers on the service can electronic-mail the advertising sales reps at the Electronic Telegraph on classad@telegraph.co.uk. Payne said that the company's research has shown that Electronic Telegraph has a different readership profile to the Daily Telegraph. "Launching Classified Marketplace gives us the ideal opportunity to generate new revenues alongside our core business. Demand for this type of service will increase rapidly and we intend to stay at the forefront of new developments," he said. Launched earlier this year, Electronic Telegraph claims it now has 90,000 registered users and that 15,000 individuals access around 100,000 pages on its http://www.telegraph.co.uk Web site each day. (Steve Gold/19950911/Press Contact: Katie Hatfield, Daily Telegraph, +44-171-538-6256; Reader Contact: Daily Telegraph, tel +44-171-538- 6259, fax +44-171-513-2412) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 09/14/95 TELECOM UK - Hayes "Gets Aggressive" On Modem Pricing (NEWS)(TELECOM)(LON)(00006) UK - Hayes "Gets Aggressive" On Modem Pricing 09/14/95 FLEET, HAMPSHIRE, ENGLAND, 1995 SEP 14 (NB) -- In the wake of the abortive merger with Boca Research, Hayes is getting serious on modem pricing in Europe. The modem manufacturer has announced it is slashing the price of its Accura 14,400 bits-per-second (bps) fax/data modem from UKP179 to UKP129. Bundled with the modem is a free CompuServe membership pack that includes UKP10 worth of credit. Bundled with the Accura is a copy of the company's Windows LE and Smartcom Fax for Windows LE software. According to Hayes, despite the aggressive pricing on the modem, the company, unlike many competitors, is bundling a PC-to-modem cable plus dual phone line adapter, with the system. According to Lyn Webster-Scott, a spokeswoman for Hayes, the Smartcom package is very useful for intending users of a single phone line, since it is intelligent enough to autoswitch between fax and data, meaning that the user does not have to be proficient at comms in order to use the Accura modem. While the thrust of the pricing deal is on the PC version of the Accura, similar reductions apply to the Mac edition, which also comes with all necessary cabling and software. Newsbytes notes that the Class 2 fax facilities of the Accura are unusual on Mac modems. (Steve Gold/19950911/Press & Reader Contact: Hayes Microcomputer Products, tel +44-1252-775555, fax +44-1252-775511, Internet e-mail hayes@cix.compulink.co.uk) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 09/14/95 TELECOM Europe - Orbitel Intros Small GSM Phone (NEWS)(TELECOM)(LON)(00007) Europe - Orbitel Intros Small GSM Phone 09/14/95 BASINGSTOKE, HAMPSHIRE, ENGLAND, 1995 SEP 14 (NB) -- Orbitel Mobile Communications has taken the wraps off the 905 series GSM (global system for mobile communication) pocketphone. The unit, which is designed to replace the existing popular 902 series handset, is thinner and substantially smaller, Newsbytes notes. The 905 phone was shown in prototype format at the Cebit Computer Faire in Germany in March of this year. The phone unveiled this month has all the facilities of the prototype, including light weight (215 grams) and high power (two watts). The 905 pocketphone is slimmer than the 905, despite being around half the size. The handset is 24 millimeters (mm) thick, and measures 147mm by 60mm. The menu functions on the 905 are interactive, rather than passive as seen on 902, and include self-explanatory text that is displayed using a four line, 48 character illuminated LCD (liquid crystal display) screen that also shows battery and signal strength indicators. According to Orbitel, the 905 is expected to be even more popular than the earlier 902 phone, which has sold well in Europe and Australia. Orbitel claims that the 902 has secured around 19 percent of the UK pocketphone market. Corinne Norris, a spokeswoman for Orbitel, told Newsbytes that the 905 pocketphone has no less than five power sources: standard or slim nicad, standard or slim NiMH, and an alkaline battery option. The standard NiMH battery supports up to three hours talk time or 36 hours on standby -- impressive in mobile phone terms. Optional extras for the 905 include an SMS (Short Message System) cable for connecting to a PC via the PCMCIA (Personal Computer Memory Card International Association) card slot. Surprisingly, the phone will not have data facilities, as the company is working on an improved version of the 905 for launch later this year that does support data over GSM. No pricing on the 905 has been set, although Norris told Newsbytes that the handset will be "competitively priced" when it reaches retail sale across Europe in the next few weeks. (Steve Gold/19950911/Press Contact: Corinne Norris, Vodafone Press Office, +44-1635-33251; Reader Contact: Orbitel, tel +44-1256-843468, fax +44-1256-843207/ORBITEL19950914/PHOTO) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 09/14/95 BUSINESS France - Groupe Bull Outlines Capital Plans (NEWS)(BUSINESS)(LON)(00008) France - Groupe Bull Outlines Capital Plans 09/14/95 PARIS, FRANCE, 1995 SEP 14 (NB) -- The board of Compagnie des Machines Bull (CMB) met recently to discuss the measures needed to implement the resolutions adopted by the combined shareholders general assembly which met on September 8. These measures, Newsbytes notes, are needed to begin opening up CMB to the private sector. According to CMB, these measures will be carried out entirely by an increase in the capital of the group. The measures also take into account the shareholding increases and shuffles outlined earlier this year by the French Government. CMB claims that the increase in capital for the group is something of a landmark, since it allows for a progressive shift from a state funded company into a privately owned operation. The first stage will, the group claims, open Bull's capital to private investors, so enabling the establishment of a coherent group of industrial shareholders. Each of the major shareholders will hold 17 percent of the capital. It will also allow for the inclusion of employees and former employees of the company in the capital. Under the changes agreed at the meeting, NEC will increase its share holding in CMB from 4.7 to 17 percent. France Telecom maintains its 17 percent stake, by subscribing to a reserved capital increased by advancing FF569 million to the group. Meanwhile, Motorola will acquire 17 percent of CMB's shares. As previously reported by Newsbytes, in doing this, the companies will have a 51 percent stake in CMB, paid for at a price of FF11.04 per share. Further downscale, Dai Nippon Printing and IPC will also take a 3.3 percent stake each in CMB, at a cost of FF50 million each. On September 22, CMB will issue shares with attached warrants to the French Government, equal to 3.93 percent of the group's capital, or around 5.440 million shares. From September 25 and to October 9, these shares will be offered to existing and former employees of the company. With the French Government taking a 36.4 percent stake in CMB, this leaves around 0.50 percent of the group's shares to be sold to the public in France. This equates to around 697,000 shares in total. (Sylvia Dennis/19950911/Press Contact: Text 100, +44-181-242-4148; Reader Contact: Bull Information Systems, tel +44-181-568-9191. fax +44-181-479-2599) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 09/14/95 ONLINE UK Firm Sets Up Internet Web Site Consultancy (NEWS)(ONLINE)(LON)(00009) UK Firm Sets Up Internet Web Site Consultancy 09/14/95 LONDON, ENGLAND, 1995 SEP 14 (NB) -- The JHC Group, the company responsible for setting up MarketNet, which is claimed to be the UK's first online shopping site on the Web, has set up a new operating division, JHC Internet Services, to provide a "one stop shop" for companies looking to develop a World Wide Web site. Dave Hargreaves, a spokesman for the company, told Newsbytes that the new division is aiming at offering consultancy services to major companies and organizations who are thinking of publishing their data on a Web site. "They will work through what the Internet can and cannot do, and monitor the Web pages for the client," he explained, adding that the new division was passing on its Internet expertise gained from setting up the Marketnet site. According to JHC, by housing the Web servers in a specially built, secure facility, the company can remove many of the security concerns of setting up a Web site. To ensure its clients' Web servers are accessible 24 hours a day, the company is setting the systems up so that, if a fault occurs, an engineer is automatically paged. Using remote diagnostics, the company claims that the engineer can rectify most faults immediately. JHC has developed an Internet outsourcing package, called NetMonitor. The company claims that the package can monitor all activity relating to "hits" on the Web server, so allowing clients with full reports, details and analysis of Web site activity. Heading up the new division is Bill Carey-Evans, who worked on the MarketNet project. According to JHC, Carey-Evans has already completed a number of Internet consultancy projects for the company, including one with the publishers of the New Scientist magazine, IPC. "As the service provider for MarketNet, JHC Internet Services has demonstrated its ability to take an idea, in this case an online shopping site, from conception to delivery in a way which generates revenue on the Internet -- the Holy Grail for many companies looking into the Net as a business opportunity," he explained. According to Carey-Evans, the company believes that, "By offering a full Internet outsourcing service which examines the business opportunities presented by the Internet and then implementing and monitoring the site, it will be able to help its customers better exploit the Internet as a market medium and develop revenue opportunities for them." (Steve Gold/19950911/Press Contact: Firefly Communications, +44-171- 381-4505; Internet e-mail dhargrea@firefly.co.uk; Reader Contact: JHC Internet Services, +44-171-916-1188, Internet e-mail bill@jhc.co.uk) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 09/14/95 ONLINE ****Newsbytes' Pacifica Website Among Best 5% On Web (NEWS)(ONLINE)(MSP)(00010) ****Newsbytes' Pacifica Website Among Best 5% On Web 09/14/95 MINNEAPOLIS, MINNESOTA, U.S.A., 1995 SEP 14 (NB) -- The Newsbytes Pacifica Website has been rated among the top 5% of all sites on the Internet by Point Survey, a service of Point Communications designed to direct Web surfers to the best places to go on the Internet. Newsbytes News Network and Island Telecommunications' Newsbytes Pacifica home page is located at http://www.islandtel.com/newsbytes/ Point is a free service which rates and reviews only the best sites on the World Wide Web. "We provide surfers with a standard of excellence: a catalog of the most lively, useful, and fun sites on the Net," says Todd Whitney, director of network relations. He says the service aspires to be the "TV Guide of the Internet." On a scale of 1-50, the Newsbytes Pacifica Website won a 42 for content, a 33 for presentation, and a 40 for "experience." Whitney defines the latter as "the whole experience of going to the site, and how interactive it is." Reviewers said this about the Newsbytes Pacifica Website: "Newsbytes acts like a wire service covering the computer industry -- and it does one heck of a job. Every day it presents a series of reports from correspondents around the world. (On a recent visit we read about Conner Peripherals' increased investment in a Singapore facility, and Magnetic Software's release of a new version of BlankCheck software.) One great resource is "Web Cites," which lists online sites of companies mentioned in the daily reports. If a computer company has been in the news, you can easily find the appropriate home page here." Newsbytes Pacifica is divided into eight content areas: Newsbytes Pacifica Headlines, Newsbytes Daily Summary, Japan Newsbriefs, Internet Update, Weekly Review, Newspix, "Web Cites," an index of Web sites cited in Newsbytes reports, and Japanese language Newsbytes. Japanese language Newsbytes is currently the most popular content area on Newsbytes Pacifica. Of particular note are the built-in hyperlinks to the next and previous stories at the top and bottom of each page. Rather than require a reader to bounce back and forth to an index page to get to another story, the reader can smoothly flow through fifty or more documents just by following the [Next] link. Point's Top Ten list has been featured on CNN and in many publications, and Point Survey ratings are provided to media around the world, according to Whitney. The company bases its ratings solely on a Website's merit, as judged by users and reviewers. Point's own Website is located at http://www.pointcom.com/ . It is an advertiser-supported site, currently hosted by Netscape, with no charge to the consumer. Reviews have been compiled for the past six months. Whitney says the accumulating online catalog currently lists 3,500 to 4,000 Web sites ranked "best" of the 300,000 currently on the Internet. Point Communications has a CD-ROM coming out this month from Softkey International, detailing its choices of top Websites, and a book due in the first quarter of 1996 entitled "The Top 1000. Sites on the Web." Point also is creating a daily events calendar to let users know about celebrity Web visits, contests, and other Web features. Point Communications is a privately held company based in New York City. Newsbytes News Network is an international news organization based in Minneapolis. Island Telecommunications, creator of the Newsbytes Pacifica Website, is located in Tokyo, Japan. (Newsbytes Staff/19950914/Press Contact: Todd Whitney, Internet e-mail todd@pointcom.com, Point Communications, tel 212-674-0200 ext 155, fax 212-674-2700; Wendy Woods, Newsbytes, 612-430-1100; John Keegan, Island Telecommunications, 81-44-857-5932) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 09/14/95 TELECOM World Teleport Assoc Meets In Toronto (NEWS)(TELECOM)(TOR)(00011) World Teleport Assoc Meets In Toronto 09/14/95 TORONTO, ONTARIO, CANADA, 1995 SEP 14 (NB) -- Smart '95, the 11th annual assembly of the World Teleport Association, is under way this week in Toronto. It is the first time the worldwide organization has met in a Commonwealth country. The word Teleport, coined about a decade ago, still does not appear in any dictionary. But the association itself defines it as "an access facility to a full-scale telecommunications medium incorporating a distribution network and telecommunications business services to serve the greater regional community." Speakers at this conference have offered various examples of what that can mean and where it can lead. For instance, Robert Annunziata is president and chief executive of Teleport Communications Group, which set up one of the first teleports on Staten Island, New York. His company now operates in 45 markets and has more than 5,000 miles of fiber-optic cable. From a company providing special telecommunications services to businesses in and around New York City, Annunziata said, Teleport Communications Group is rapidly evolving into an alternative local telephone company for many centers in the United States. To date, the firm has only served business, he added, but in Arlington Heights, Illinois, it is testing technology for delivering residential phone service over cable-television lines. Teleport de Montreal, on the other hand, is a real-estate development built around a battery of advanced telecommunications equipment. Jacques Bernier, president of the company, touted the synergies that companies occupying the building can obtain by working together. He said tenants are chosen to complement rather than compete with each other, and noted that a few years ago, when tough times left Montreal with office vacancy rates of 20 to 25 percent, Teleport de Montreal's vacancy rate was only one to two percent. Paris Ile de France Region's teleport is helping small- and medium-sized businesses in the French capital penetrate world markets, and is also contributing to better health care by connecting doctors and other medical personnel, said Nicole Toucor-Morichaud, a member of the regional board. In Western Canada, the Calgary Infoport was conceived as part of a plan to sustain prosperity that could support increasing quality of life, claimed futurist Ruben Nelson of Square One Management, a member of the committee that ran that project. Nelson noted that quality of life is too often neglected in putting new technology to work, and technology for technology's sake becomes the driving force instead. "It's not merely about getting rich," he said. "It's about living well." Smart buildings, with extensive built-in computer and telecommunications technology, fall into the association's area of interest. Peter Barnes, vice-president of public affairs with AT&T Canada, noted that there are still only about 50 of these around the world. The first day of conference sessions -- Monday and Tuesday were devoted to city tours and other events -- contained some paeans to technology and a more-than-healthy complement of sales pitches by a number of the conference speakers. But it also brought some warnings about putting too much faith in technology. One of these came from Nelson, who said communications technology will do little good without a "culture of use" in which people are prepared to put information to good use. That may meet some resistance, he added, because "high-quality information is incredibly disruptive." In fact, Nelson said, "if you talk to people in organizations, they all know things that would help the organization work better, that the organization doesn't want to know." And Dan Branda, president and chief executive of Hewlett-Packard (Canada) Ltd., struck a similar note when he observed in a later session that "fundamentally, informed people and not technology represent the most important asset any company has." (Grant Buckler/19950913/Press Contact: Sally Yan, Smart '95, tel 416-364-2784, fax 416-364-1426, Internet e-mail smart@io.org) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 09/14/95 GENERAL World Teleport Assoc - Extend Privacy Controls To Companies (NEWS)(GENERAL)(TOR)(00012) World Teleport Assoc - Extend Privacy Controls To Companies 09/14/95 TORONTO, ONTARIO, CANADA, 1995 SEP 14 (NB) -- Rules governing the privacy of personal information collected by governments in most Canadian provinces should be extended to cover information collected by the private sector as well, Canada's federal privacy commissioner told the conference of the World Teleport Association. Bruce Phillips, whose job is to oversee the privacy of information collected by government and to deal with complaints, said that while all provinces but Prince Edward Island have privacy legislation in place, only in Quebec does it cover information collected by private companies. "The level of privacy protection in Canada is hopelessly inadequate," he said. Phillips pointed out that privacy legislation governing corporate data collection has existed in Europe for more than 20 years. He also noted that despite protests and dire predictions before the Quebec law was passed a couple of years ago, no damage appears to have been done to business in the province. Phillips said computer and communications technology are making it easier to gather and disseminate data about individuals. "I already see in front me the entire world turning into one gigantic keyhole," he said, "and you're sitting on one side, nude." The whole world can look through that keyhole, he went on, and see not only what people look like but how they think. Phillips told his audience of business people, largely from the telecommunications industry, that they should pay more attention to privacy issues. He also said voluntary codes of privacy protection do not solve the problem. "They're fine provided they (businesses) live by them," he argued. "The only problem is that they won't ever let anybody come and see whether they're living by them." (Grant Buckler/19950913) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 09/14/95 TRENDS Smart '95 Conference Hears Plea For Real News (NEWS)(TRENDS)(TOR)(00013) Smart '95 Conference Hears Plea For Real News 09/14/95 TORONTO, ONTARIO, CANADA, 1995 SEP 14 (NB) -- Microprocessors, optical fibers, and satellite dishes are plentiful in this much-hyped information age, as are mergers and acquisitions. But one thing is in short supply, a prominent television journalist said in a keynote address at the World Teleport Association's Smart '95 conference: information. Information, by former NBC News reporter Arthur Kent's definition, means real news, or "hard news" as he and others in his business call it. And Kent blasted major media companies, including the former employer with which he fought a court battle, for de-emphasizing international news and responsible reporting in favor of "tabloid television." "There is a higher meaning and a higher purpose to what we do than explaining the intricacies of the glove found on the (murder suspect O.J.) Simpson estate." Kent referred repeatedly to the former Yugoslavia, which has been much in the news in the past few days as the United Nations and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) eventually took decisive action against the Bosnian Serbs. Kent said the war in the Balkans has dragged on too long. He blamed governments for not acting sooner, but added that "I think there is a direct relationship" between the length of time western governments took to respond to the situation in Yugoslavia and a "dramatic decrease" in foreign news reporting in the United States in particular. Kent maintained that NBC executives, in their reshaping of the network's news strategy, cut the percentage of the news budget allocated to hard news from 70 to 30 percent. The network set out to turn news into "prime time entertainment" in a move that brought many journalists into direct conflict with management, he said. Kent noted that close to 75 journalists have been killed on the job in former Yugoslavia since 1991. "The journalists have done their part there," he said. "Have the news companies done their part?" Businesses need solid general-news coverage as much as they need good business coverage, Kent argued, asking his audience if they would buy a business newspaper that quoted only the exchange rates from a bureau de change in a European red light district and the stock prices of glitzy Hollywood stocks. "You can't afford to receive anything less than the best in international news," he said, and he urged his listeners to put pressure on the companies that hold the news media's purse strings to stop diverting money from journalism to tabloid television and sensationalism. (Grant Buckler/19950913) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 09/14/95 ONLINE Cleveland Indians At Bat In Cyberspace (NEWS)(ONLINE)(MSP)(00014) Cleveland Indians At Bat In Cyberspace 09/14/95 CLEVELAND, OHIO, U.S.A., 1995 SEP 14 (NB) -- Rounding the bases, heading for home, and going straight out of Jacobs Field, the Cleveland Indians have landed -- in cyberspace. The Indians have opened a new site on the Internet's World Wide Web. The Web page gives Chief Wahoo fans around the world access to news about the team, other information about the Indians, and the merchandise fans can buy. When the Indians' site is accessed, 'Net surfers can click and hear a special welcome and thank you message from team president and chief executive officer, Richard E. Jacobs. Indians fanatics can obtain statistics about their favorite players, including runs batted in (RBIs), earned run averages (ERAs), batting averages, and the like. Users can also see player biographies and photos, leave messages on various aspects of the team through special online forums, and play online trivia. Also, the top 15 highlights from the season can be accessed via audio clips. The site comes just in time for the Indians, because of heightened interest in the club with the team's clinching of the American League Central division. "We wanted to provide Cleveland Indians fans scattered around the world with a chance to keep up with what's happening," Bob DiBiasio, vice president of public relations for the Indians, told Newsbytes. "There's just total hysteria around the Indians. We're sold out of every game in a year when attendance is down." Fans can sign a special digital "good luck" card to show support for the team as it tries to win its first World Series in 45 years. In addition, information about the team's merchandise is at the site. "We think there is great potential for fans around the world who want to tap into the craze that's going on about the Cleveland Indians, in terms of buying merchandise," DiBiasio said. A special "shopping cart" function helps users organize their orders of baseball hats and T-shirts, which can be placed online. Purchasing tickets online is planned for the 1996 season, DiBiasio said. The Indians' site, located at http://www.indians.com , was designed and built by the DigiKnow division of Marcus Advertising. Other Web sites with information on all baseball teams include Major League Baseball's at http://www.majorleaguebaseball.com , MCI's "@Bat" site located at http://www.internetMCI.com , and ESPNET Sports Zone at http://ESPNET.SportsZone.com . (Bob Woods/19950913/Press Contacts: Bob DiBiasio, Cleveland Indians, 216-420-4394; King Hill, Marcus Advertising, 216-292-4700/INDIANS950914/ PHOTO) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 09/14/95 NETWORK Microsoft Ships Windows 95 Client For SNA Server (NEWS)(NETWORK)(DEN)(00015) Microsoft Ships Windows 95 Client For SNA Server 09/14/95 REDMOND, WASHINGTON, U.S.A., 1995 SEP 14 (NB) -- Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ: MSFT) has started shipping Microsoft Windows 95 client software for Microsoft SNA (System Network Architecture) Server. The client software is a native 32-bit supplement to SNA Server version 2.11 that runs on the Microsoft Windows NT Server operating system and connects desktop PCs to IBM mainframe and AS/400 systems. Microsoft said more than 20 independent software vendors are planning to support SNA Server in upcoming versions of their products for Windows 95. The Windows 95 client includes single-session 3270 and 5250 emulation applets, which Microsoft said are intended for evaluation and support purposes only. The applets are licensed for one user per SNA server. Full-function emulators are available from independent software vendors. The applets are native 32-bit emulators, and can be used to evaluate the functionality of SNA Server version 2,1, which includes support for native TCP/IP (Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol), IPX (Internetwork Packet Exchange) and dial-up connections between Windows 95 and SNA Server. You also get integrated security, load balancing, and hot backup. The client software includes an ODBC (Open Database Connectivity) driver for access to IBM DB2 databases such as DB2 for MVS and DB2/400 by using the Distributed Relational Database Architecture protocol. The driver is compatible with Microsoft Office for Windows 95 and allows applications such as Microsoft Excel, a spreadsheet program, to access data on the host databases without additional host software. The drive, which was developed for Microsoft by Starware Inc., is licensed for one user per SNA Server. Additional licenses are available. Another feature is an AFTP (APPC File Transfer Protocol) file transfer utility, an IBM-developed protocol that duplicates for the SNA environment what the FTP utility does in the TCP/IP environment. The utility lets users perform multi-megabyte file transfers between the host and the Windows 95-based desktop by using native SNA protocols. That eliminates the need to install an expensive and CPU (central processing unit)-intensive TCP/IP stack on the host in order to perform FTP file transfers. In order to facilitate development of new 32-bit Windows-based SNA applications, the Windows 95 client for SNA Server includes a full set of 32-bit SNA application programming interfaces (APIs) that can be used to develop applications that use the LU6.2 protocol to access other APPC or CPI-C AS/400 access utilities. The APIs are compatible with the WOSA (Windows Open Services Architecture) SNA API standard and are binary compatible with the SNA APIs for Windows NT. Microsoft said the Windows 95 client for SNA Server is immediately available as a no-cost software supplement to SNA Server versions 2.1 and 2.11. It can also be installed on Windows NT Workstation version 3.51, but Microsoft said a compatible Windows NT client is already provided with the current SNA Server version 2.11. You can download the client software from the Microsoft FTP server at the Internet address ftp.microsoft.com: bussys/winnt/sna-public. It's also available on the Microsoft Network in the MSSNA forum and on Compuserve (type GO MSSNA). Those sites also contain a technical paper about the SNA Server. (Jim Mallory/19950913/Press contact: Tony Fisch, Tony Fisch Consulting for Microsoft, 818-501-6608; Public contact: Microsoft, 206-882-8080 or 800-426-9400) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 09/14/95 BUSINESS Storm Clouds Gathering Over Hong Kong AST (NEWS)(BUSINESS)(HKG)(00016) Storm Clouds Gathering Over Hong Kong AST 09/14/95 CENTRAL, HONG KONG, 1995 SEP 14 (NB)-- AST officials in Hong Kong remained out of reach in the wake of Tuesday's American HQ shake-up that saw President Jim Shraith pushed out the door, along with two vice presidents. The Irvine, California-based PC maker announced the changes after conceding that losses for the quarter would be significantly higher than last quarter's US$40 million loss. Chief Executive Officer (CEO) and co-founder Safi Qureshey -- the "S" and only surviving letter in the initials AST -- said poor US sales were further weakened by Windows 95's delay in coming to market. This, coupled with weak seasonal European sales, added up to a devastating combination that made the hemorrhaging difficult to contain. Shraith was appointed the company's "Mr Fix-It" 13 months ago, but only succeeded in racking up US$200 million in further losses. One of the changes he effected was reorganizing the company's Hong Kong-based Asia-Pacific operations which put Bob McFarlane in charge. McFarlane is reportedly in Irvine. A local AST source, who wished to remain anonymous, explained that no-one would know how the reorganization at the top would affect regional operations until McFarlane got back to deliver new marching orders in person. Since restructuring was implemented locally, AST has seen its Hong Kong market share drop by half and its number one spot in the China market ceded to Compaq -- although the world's top PC vendor only leads by half a percentage point, according to International Data Corp. AST has been hurting locally, the source said, because production costs had been running ahead of estimates as the company grappled with components supply. That made for another growing problem -- late roll-outs. Between the two, I.T. Daily was told, long-time corporate accounts had begun to consider more reliable options -- the biggest single reason for AST's dramatic slump in Hong Kong, the source claimed. Now there's word that the Hong Kong country manager has walked, lengthening an already sobering list of defections. McFarlane's new regional marketing chief jumped to Digital Equipment within weeks of taking on the job. The news of mounting losses is expected to scatter corporate customers even more. "The company already announced a turnaround strategy with Shraith. Now it's announcing yet another turnaround strategy," the source said. After a while the market just doesn't buy the line, he added. Back in Irvine, the company announced it has retained the services of the Boston Group to help turn operations around. There was no word on what Samsung Electronics, which recent took a 40% stake in the company, plans to do in the face of AST's mounting losses. (Nigel Armstrong & I.T. Daily/19950913) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 09/14/95 ONLINE UB Networks Tech Support Via The Internet (NEWS)(ONLINE)(HKG)(00017) UB Networks Tech Support Via The Internet 09/14/95 CENTRAL, HONG KONG, 1995 SEP 14 (NB)-- Network specialist firm UB Networks has set up its Internet Knowledge Exchange (IKE), a new service program designed to let customers quickly and easily resolve common technical support issues through the Internet. Accessible via UB Networks' World Wide Web site at www.ub.com/ , the new customer support service makes use of a fully interactive database which takes customers step-by-step through their network installation in order to resolve their network problems. Typically, UB Networks expects more than 70% of all common network problems to be resolved via the system. According to Keith Lee, UB Networks' managing director for North Asia, "Knowledge Exchange is the most advanced program of its type available and allows customers to get access to the very same tools and information that our own field and technical support engineers use." Lee said the overall aim of the program is to help customers attain a greater degree of self sufficiency with their networks. "Knowledge Exchange allows customers to access troubleshooting information at a time which is convenient to them, rather than at a time which is convenient to the reseller or vendor," he said. (Nigel Armstrong & I.T. Daily/19950913) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 09/14/95 BROADCAST Sony Resuming Home Satellite Shipments, "Fixes" Older Units (NEWS)(BROADCAST)(MSP)(00018) Sony Resuming Home Satellite Shipments, "Fixes" Older Units 09/14/95 PARK RIDGE, NEW JERSEY, U.S.A., 1995 SEP 14 (NB) -- A couple of weeks after it stopped shipping home satellite systems, Sony Electronics said it is resuming deliveries to consumer electronics retailers and satellite specialists of its DSS (Digital Satellite System), and delivering a "solution" to a picture blanking problem via the airwaves. Sony officials said it received complaints from consumers reporting periodic brief picture disruptions. Officials were quick to point out the calls came from less than 2.5 percent of all Sony brand DSS owners. Lisa Baldino, Sony spokesperson, told Newsbytes the new units should be hitting the stores immediately, because they began shipping Monday. She also said some stores had sold through their inventory, and need the new units. The company said it worked with both DSS program providers, DirecTV and USSB (United States Satellite Broadcasting Co.) on a "high-tech" fix for the problem. The answer is a software upgrade that will be transmitted this week to all Sony brand DSS units via the DirecTV and USSB satellites. The procedure is described by Sony officials as being similar to downloading a computer software upgrade. The Sony unit only needs to be plugged in to automatically receive the software upgrade. Sony officials called the whole process a "first" in the home satellite industry. "We believe this is unprecedented in the consumer electronics industry in that consumers will receive an automatic adjustment from more than 22,000 miles in outer space right into their homes on Earth," said Jim Palumbo, senior vice president of Sony Electronics' Consumer Television Products Group. The upgrade will be transmitted once an hour for as long as it's needed, Baldino said. Customers who bought DSS systems during the period of non-shipment will receive the upgrade just like those people who have older units, she added, and at no time were retailers advised to stop selling Sony DSSs. Sony is also extending the warranty on its DSS units both currently in consumers' homes and those sold through the end of 1995 to one year on parts and labor. Sony called this action a reflection of "confidence in this innovative solution." Three units are in the DSS line. Two units are already available at manufacturers suggested retail prices of $749 and $849. A third deluxe unit is scheduled to be released in early October at a suggested price of $949. (Bob Woods/19950913/Press Contacts: Rick Clancy, Sony Electronics, 201-930-6909; Linda Brill, DirecTV, 310-535-5062; Bill Blum, USSB, 612-642-4666) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 09/14/95 ONLINE Russian Online Service Opens For Business (NEWS)(ONLINE)(SFO)(00019) Russian Online Service Opens For Business 09/14/95 MOSCOW, RUSSIA, 1995 SEP 14 (NB) -- Sovam Teleport, a private and joint US-Russian company, has announced Russia-On-Line, the first commercial online service for the country. The new service claims to offer its own comprehensive online content and Internet Gateway. Citizens of the Russian Federation are being offered standard online features such as electronic-mail, bulletin boards, Russian information services including Isvestiya and Kommersant, electronic shopping, software, and games. Russia-On-Line is available 24-hours-a-day, seven days a week. A spokesperson for Sovam Teleport told Newsbytes, "We have tried to create an online service which meets the needs of a lot of different people, from business and educational professionals, to home users. We want this new service to increase productivity and communication and at the same time offer educational content, entertainment, and local information such as weather and news." Russia-On-Line has an approximate US$34 per-month charge, plus any local telephone charges by the state. Text, graphics, and photographs are used to deliver the content. Confidential data such as credit card and identification information can be securely transmitted. Sovam Teleport is joint venture of a US company called Global Telesystems Group (formerly known as SFMT) and a Russian company named Automated Systems. Users can communicate in either Russian or English and common Internet standards are employed. Information about the new online service can be found on the Russia- On-Line World Wide Web site at http://www.onlin.ru . Looking for a wide range of subscribers, Russia-On-Line says it is designed for academicians, artists, business professionals, consumers, government officials, researchers, and students. The service is immediately available and Sovam hopes to build the service into subscribers numbering in the millions. (Patrick McKenna/19950913/Press Contact: Tiffany Nance, Sovam Teleport Public Relations, 7095-252-5882) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 09/14/95 GENERAL Wordperfect Available For OpenVMS/ Alpha Platform (NEWS)(GENERAL)(DEN)(00020) Wordperfect Available For OpenVMS/ Alpha Platform 09/14/95 OREM, UTAH, U.S.A., 1995 SEP 14 (NB) -- If you use a OpenVMS/Alpha-based computer to do your work and have been jealous of your peers who can use Wordperfect on their systems, you can now have the same word processing capabilities they enjoy. That's because Novell Inc. (NASDAQ: NOVL) and Spire Technologies Inc. have announced Wordperfect 5.1+ for the OpenVMS/Alpha platform. The word processor is file-compatible with versions of Wordperfect for other platforms, including VAX. The announcement makes Wordperfect available for DOS, Windows, Macintosh, Unix, and OpenVMS. Digital Equipment Corp. has designated Wordperfect as the "word processor of choice" for its VAX and Alpha platforms running OpenVMS as well as the All-In-1 environment. The company said that fills the gap left by the recently retired WPS-PLUS word processor. Wordperfect 5.1+ includes the ability to integrate text, graphics and spreadsheet capabilities in a single document. It provides an equation editor, a macro editor, tables, more than 1,700 typographic characters and emulates the WPS-PLUS keyboard. It also supports the latest printer drivers including the new Hewlett Packard Laserjet 5. Spire Technologies not only managed the development, marketing and support of Novell's VMS products for the past 14 months, it has also worked with Lotus Corp. since May 1993 to develop Lotus 1-2-3 Release 2.1 for the OpenVMS/VAX and OpenVMS/Alpha platforms. Spire Technologies maintains a home page on the Internet that can be reached at http://answersspire.com . (Jim Mallory/19950913/Press contact: Tracy Goden, Spire Technologies, 801-226-3355; Public contact: Spire Technologies, 801-226-3355) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 09/14/95 ONLINE ****Child Porn Ring Using America Online Busted (NEWS)(ONLINE)(MSP)(00021) ****Child Porn Ring Using America Online Busted 09/14/95 VIENNA, VIRGINIA, U.S.A., 1995 SEP 14 (NB) -- The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) said it has arrested 12 suspected pedophiles and pornographers who allegedly used the America Online (NASDAQ:AMER) service to distribute graphic images and lure minors to have sex with them. The arrests come in the wake of a nationwide two-year investigation called "Innocent Images," and resulted in raids of more than 120 homes. The FBI used undercover agents to snare the 12 suspects, and more arrests are likely. In total, the raids were conducted in 57 of the nation's 94 federal districts, although most concentrated on the East coast. The Justice Department confirmed the cities involved include Miami, New York City, Dallas, and Newark, New Jersey. No other details are being released at this time, the FBI said, because authorities want to complete arresting suspects before talking further. FBI officials said the "Innocent Images" operation is the first time federal agents have investigated the alleged misuse of a nationwide online service. Although US child protection laws already make it illegal to create, possess, or distribute child pornography, Congress is debating whether it should put in place stricter laws which would restrict the types of materials distributed over computer networks. Those types of networks include online services like AOL, and the Internet. AOL used a "Community Update" letter to alert its members about the misuse of the service, although the message didn't say anything about the FBI investigation or raids. Steve Case, president of AOL, said members forwarded to AOL's Terms of Service (TOS) staff electronic-mail (e-mail) messages containing graphic files that appeared to be child pornography. "Upon receiving this material and verifying that it was a violation of TOS and in all likelihood illegal, we immediately contacted the law enforcement authorities," he said. TOS refers to a series of guidelines all AOL members must adhere to if they want to use the service. Case said the service does not monitor any private communications, including e-mail, instant messages sent between two members, and private chat rooms. But if a member reports a potential member, "we will enforce the AOL Terms of Service and comply with federal and state laws," he said. Those actions include terminating a user's account and reporting them to the proper authorities after a court order or subpoena is served. AOL staffers are working hard to combat such illegal uses of the online service, Case said. The Terms of Service crew and online volunteers are being aggressively staffed to provide help to members in public chat rooms and other areas of the service. Members are asked to use an online "neighborhood watch" type program to report illegal activity. Case also said parental controls are also being beefed up to allow parents to limit their children's access to various parts of AOL and the Internet. In addition, the TOS policies are more prominent throughout the service, and new members must "proactively review and agree to abide by them," Case said. "To those using AOL for illegal purposes, let the message be heard: we will terminate the accounts of those participating and we will notify the proper authorities of any illegal activity that is brought to our attention," he added. Case did ask members to keep these incidents in perspective. "Although it is disheartening, the fact is that any community with more than 3.5 million citizens will have its share of illegal activity." (Bob Woods/19950914/Press Contact: Pam McGraw, America Online, 703-556-3746) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 09/14/95 TRENDS Fujitsu Develops New Display Panel (NEWS)(TRENDS)(TYO)(00022) Fujitsu Develops New Display Panel 09/14/95 TOKYO, JAPAN, 1995 SEP 14 (NB) -- Fujitsu has developed an ultra- thin, large size, multipanel, seamless liquid crystal display (LCD) display screen measuring 227 centimeters (cm) across the diagonal (90-inches). The new system offers improvements on image quality and power consumption over conventional screens, typically seen at conferences and exhibitions. #IMAGE 1 20 TWPCX \images\95091422.PCX Click here for photo Fujitsu says the use of LCD screens gives the panel a much thinner profile than currently available screens. Most large screen display systems make use of projection systems or cathode ray tube screens arranged in a large panel. Typical thickness of these systems is anywhere from 90cm to several meters, according to Fujitsu. The newly developed display is just 28cm thick and can thus be hung on walls say the makers. In addition to boasting a greater thinness, the new panels also offer a "seamless" display by utilizing projection technology. The grid pattern normally seen on such large size systems is hidden because the new Fujitsu system magnifies each image to be larger than its frame size and then projects them on a common screen so that the magnified images are arranged tightly. The whole display is made up of a six by eight arrangement of conventional 26cm (10.4-inch) thin film transistor (TFT) LCD display panels which can be re-arranged to give smaller or larger displays as desired. In its 6 by 8 configuration, the whole panel, including the 48 screens, weighs around 450 kilograms. Intended applications include the use in exhibitions and displays where large screen displays are needed. The high resolution offered, 4,960 by 2,790 pixels, also makes the system suitable for high definition television displays. It is also expected to be used as a wall-mounted display unit for a variety of business and residential uses. The new display will be on show on Fujitsu's stand at the upcoming Telecom 95 show in Geneva and is scheduled to enter production late next year. Fujitsu estimate the price will be around 3 million yen ($29,268). (Martyn Williams/19950914/Press contact: Mike Beirne, Fujitsu Ltd., tel +81-3-3215-5236, fax +81-3-3216-9365, Internet e-mail mike@hq.fujitsu.co.jp /FUJITSU19950914/PHOTO) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 09/14/95 TELECOM Foreign Firms In Vietnam Telecom Deals (NEWS)(TELECOM)(TYO)(00023) Foreign Firms In Vietnam Telecom Deals 09/14/95 HO CHI MINH CITY, VIETNAM, 1995 SEP 14 (NB) -- Three foreign companies have become the latest international corporations to take a part of Vietnam's growing telecommunications sector. Japan's Mitsui and Co., and Hughes Network Systems of the US, announced the winning of a $200 million contract to supply components for Vietnam's new satellite telephone network. Specifically, the two will build and supply demand-assigned multiple access control equipment to be installed at a network operations center (NOC) to be established in Ho Chi Minh City and supply forty VSAT (very small aperture terminal) units that will be stationed around the country and link into the NOC. The satellite telecoms project, led by Mitsui, will start operations next year. Another North American telecoms company, Telecommunications American International Inc. (TAI), working jointly with Saigon PTS Corporation has been awarded a license to build and operate a cellular telephone network, an international long distance gateway, telephone calling centers, and telecommunications equipment manufacturing facilities, as well as cable and broadcast television services in Vietnam. Investment in the Asian country will begin in late 1995. The two most recent announcements are the latest in a series that points to growing international investment in the national telecommunications infrastructure. Other projects include a $300 million joint project between the Vietnam Mobile Telephone Company and Comvik International and its parent company, Industriforvaltnings AB Kinnevik. Regional telecommunications firms Singapore Telecom International and Thailand's Shinawatra International are also involved in projects. The government is also keen to see its own communications satellite launched and is currently considering such plans. Local news sources have reported around five international corporations, including Hughes Space, Matracom Space and Alcatel Space, are in talks with the authorities. (Martyn Williams/19950914) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 09/14/95 ONLINE Internet Update (NEWS)(ONLINE)(TYO)(00024) Internet Update 09/14/95 TOKYO, JAPAN, 1995 SEP 14 (NB) -- In this roundup of new resources and services on the global Internet: News from Hong Kong, Superbowl online, Canon Europe online, Sun user magazine, Online Shuttle snaps, 1996 elections index, Your guide to Ireland, OKRA white pages directory. News From Hong Kong Hong Kong's leading Chinese language daily newspaper has debuted on the World Wide Web. The electronic version of Ming Pao Daily News is available daily through HKNet. World Wide Web: http://www.hknet.com/mingpao The Social Science Research Center at the University of Hong Kong is currently conducting daily surveys on the Hong Kong Legco 1995 Election. Visitors can also find reviews of other opinion polls conducted by the major news organizations. World Wide Web: http://www.hku.hk/ssrc/pop/legco95/legcopoll.html Superbowl Online The official Web site of Super Bowl XXX, the annual championship of American Football, is now online. Fans can check out the preparations for the big event, order official merchandise, and check team stats as the season moves towards the Super Bowl. World Wide Web: http://www.superbowl.com/ Canon Europe Online The European unit of Japan's Canon has opened a Web server from its Dutch headquarters. The site aims at providing pre-sales information and post-sales support via the Web for Europe, Africa, and the Middle East. Users can also download printer drivers, view electronic printer brochures, and see detailed comparisons of printers. The site will soon expand to take in the company's fax, copier, and camera products. World Wide Web: http://www.europe.canon.com/ Sun User Magazine SunWorld Online is an independent monthly magazine for the SPARC and Solaris community. It includes news, features, and columns with a weekly updated new products column. The September issue has just appeared and includes features on making money on the Internet, the new 64-bit common Unix platform and regular columns. World Wide Web: http://www.sun.com/sunworldonline Online Shuttle Snaps There is now a page that takes screen shots from NASA TV every ninety seconds and displays them on the Web, giving users current pictures from the Shuttle mission. The current flight status and details from mission control are also online along with links to many Shuttle related pages. World Wide Web: http://www.prairienet.org/~tgnally/shuttle.html 1996 Elections Index Countdown '96 provides an "unbiased" resource covering the 1996 Presidential primaries and general election. Links are included to all the candidates, parties, issues, special interest groups and voter information, as well as political humor. World Wide Web: http://comeback.com/countdown/ Your Guide To Ireland Paddynet is now providing a "comprehensive, searchable index" to all Irish related sites on the Internet. The Green Pages provide links to Irish related sites worldwide and a new noticeboard allows visitors to place classified ads free of charge. World Wide Web: http://www.paddynet.ie/pages OKRA White Pages Directory The Department of Computer Science at the University of California, Riverside, has announced a white pages database. The "OKRA: net.citizen Directory Service" is a freely searchable database of currently over half a million electronic-mail addresses. Search keywords can be e-mail addresses, names, organizations, and hostnames and it's growing all the time. World Wide Web: http://okra.ucr.edu/okra/ (Martyn Williams/19950914) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 09/14/95 SUPERCOMPUTER Cray Demos Largest Oracle Database (NEWS)(SUPERCOMPUTER)(MSP)(00025) Cray Demos Largest Oracle Database 09/14/95 EAGAN, MINNESOTA, U.S.A., 1995 SEP 14 (NB) -- Cray Research Inc. (NYSE:CYR) claims to have set a new world's record in open systems by demonstrating scalability for queries on databases up to 1.6 terabytes (trillion bytes) in size. Test results showed efficient scalability on databases ranging in size from 10 gigabytes (billion bytes) to the 1.6 terabyte figure. The showing puts the Cray CS6400 enterprise database server, along with the Oracle7 database, as a leading open "solution" for data warehousing, Cray officials said. Said the company, "These tests confirm that even the most challenging data warehouse requirements can now be addressed with an open solution consisting of the scalable SMP architecture of the CS6400 server (which has up to 64 processors) combined with the parallel, full-function capabilities of Oracle7." Company officials equated one terabyte to literally a mountain of data, which would be higher than the summit of Mount Everest if it were in book form. Such a publication with one terabyte of data would be more than 34,000 feet (10,590 meters) thick, or more than 6.5 miles (10.6 kilometers) thick -- beating Mount Everest's summit, which is at 29,028 feet (8,848 meters). Mardi Larson, Cray spokesperson, told Newsbytes the types of industries that would take advantage of the server/database data warehousing combination include banking, finance, insurance, retail, telecommunications, and transportation. "We also have customers who have already purchased the CS6400 that are now targeting that system to build huge data warehouses," she added. Larson said the types of queries run on the server/database combination "are the types of queries that marketing department, sales departments, and other departments within corporations and businesses, would like to do on large repositories of databases." Also, the database and server can be used to simulate and analyze buying trends for consumer products. The product gives companies "improved decision support within a company," she said. Bobbi Hazard, vice president and general manager of Cray's Business Systems Division, said both her company and Oracle have proven that general-purpose open systems "solutions," like the CS6400/Oracle7 system, can address the needs of businesses that implement data warehouses, from a gigabyte pilot deployment through multi-terabyte production systems." (Bob Woods/19950914/Press Contacts: Mardi Larson, Cray Research, 612-683-3538; Louis Olson, Oracle Corp., 415-506-9364) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 09/14/95 ONLINE Compuserve E-Mail Upgrade Causes Temporary Delays (NEWS)(ONLINE)(SFO)(00026) Compuserve E-Mail Upgrade Causes Temporary Delays 09/14/95 COLUMBUS, OHIO, U.S.A., 1995 SEP 14 (NB) -- Earlier in the week, incoming Internet electronic-mail to Compuserve accounts was bounced back to the Internet senders. Compuserve says a "temporary problem" occurred while it was upgrading its e-mail system. News hit the Internet fast and furious, and in a very short time various accounts of Compuserve's problem appeared on the Internet. A number of Internet newsgroups postings began to travel around the Internet claiming Compuserve's Internet e-mail gateway had been malfunctioning for as much as 48 hours, while hundreds of thousands of e-mail messages were bounced back to their respective Internet senders. "This is definitely not true," said Compuserve spokesperson, Pierce Reid. "We did have a temporary problem which resulted from an upgrade to our e-mail system, and it did cause incoming Internet e-mail to be returned to senders. It occurred on Monday night and we caught it on Tuesday about 10:00am. By 3:00pm it was fixed," said Reid. According to Compuserve, the upgrade to its e-mail system included the addition of e-mail hosts. If more than 20 hosts are added, some Internet mail becomes undeliverable and is bounced back to the senders. In the process of upgrading, Compuserve added 21 hosts. Reid also said, "There were no lost e-mail messages as a result of this problem. We notified our customer service representatives in case there were complaints, but we actually had very few calls." By the time the messages were bounced back to the senders and resent, Compuserve says it had solved the problem. (Patrick McKenna/19950914/Press Contact: Pierce Reid, Compuserve, 614-538-4571) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 09/14/95 NETWORK Interop - Lotus Discusses 4th Generation Notes (NEWS)(NETWORK)(LON)(00027) Interop - Lotus Discusses 4th Generation Notes 09/14/95 PARIS, FRANCE, 1995 SEP 14 (NB) -- Following its merger with IBM, Lotus appears to be flush with funds for investment in research and development (R&D). As a result, the company is starting to talk openly about its R&D into fourth generation messaging systems. According to Lotus, first generation electronic-mail was simple internal messaging on a single network or platform. Second generation messaging allows users to include binary attachments, while the current third generation enhances the ability of the message body itself to support rich text -- that is, formatted text, graphics, and tables. Fourth generation messaging involves extending the concept of attaching a file to the field of a virtual network. This means that, although the sender of a message "embeds" a file within the transmitted message, the file can be anywhere on the virtual network and is only "pulled down" from the network when the user reads the message at the other end. This is important, Lotus claims, since it allows a file to be updated centrally or on a dispersed basis, and for that file to be auto- updated when the message is subsequently read by the recipient. Using this approach not only ensures that files are bang up to date when they are read by the recipient, but it reduces network bandwidth to sensible levels -- if a recipient does not read the message, the attached files are not transmitted across the network. This concept is known as "pull file messaging," and is different from the "push" system seen on most current messaging systems, which mandate the user attaching a file or group of files, to a message, and for the resultant block of data being transmitted in its entirety (pushed) across the network. According to Lotus, a fourth generation messaging system includes the ability to store objects centrally (for "pulling" files down), a high level of security, and includes support for mobile users. Other features, such as directory support, migration facilities and flexible transport plus routing facilities, are also supported by fourth generating messaging applications. According to officials with Lotus, fourth generation messaging, and in particular, support for mobile users, is something that Lotus wants to bring to the fore in its next generation of products. More immediately, however, the company was showing Lotus Notes reporter for Windows 1.0 at Networld+Interop 95. The package is a report writing and analysis tool for Notes. The package should ship in the US and Europe very shortly at $59 per unit for orders of 100 packages or more. According to Jeff Papows, Lotus' vice president for comms products, the software is a read-only report writing utility designed for Lotus Notes users who need to analyze and report on information contained in Notes databases. The package can access Notes data transparently from files on a local drive or from Notes server based databases. According to Papows, using the package, users can create reports, crosstabs, worksheets, charts, and mailing labels on Notes data. The software can also distribute any of the data views across Notes e-mail. (Steve Gold/19950914/Press & Reader Contact: Lotus France, tel +33-1-3012-5800, fax +33-1-3012-5899) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 09/14/95 NETWORK Interop - Adaptec Enters European ATM Market (NEWS)(NETWORK)(LON)(00028) Interop - Adaptec Enters European ATM Market 09/14/95 PARIS, FRANCE, 1995 SEP 14 (NB) -- Adaptec, the US networking company, has announced plans to launch its range of ATM (asynchronous transfer mode) networking systems into the European marketplace. Speaking at the Networld+Interop 95 show in Paris this week, officials from the company explained that the products will be aimed at high bandwidth users in Europe, who typically have networking applications such as Lotus Notes, CAD/CAM (computer-aided design/manufacturing), multimedia, videoconferencing, and digital imaging systems. Adaptec's ATM Networking Interface Cards (NICs) are available in two main flavors: ATM25 for PCI Peripheral Component Interconnect), Sbus, and Micro Channel systems; and ATM 155 for PCI and Sbus systems. The number after the ATM refers to the speed of the cards in megabits-per- second (Mbps). According to officials with Adaptec, all the company's range of ATM NICs (network interface cards) come bundled with comms software that supports the ATM Forum UNI 3.0 and 3.1 specifications for the private user to networking interface. Despite their relative complexities, Adaptec claims that the NICs are also single slot PC cards, yet can support full duplex transmissions and up to 1,024 virtual channel identifiers. In the US, the company's range of ATM NICs supports the FCC's Class B standards for interference suppression. The release of the cards into the European market has meant the company has applied for, and obtained, the CISPR 22 EN55022 standard certification, which Adaptec officials claim is the European equivalent of the FCC standards. John Adler, the company's chairman, claims that Adaptec has successfully been solving storage bottlenecks in the US networking marketplace. "The proliferation of compound documents and multimedia applications plays right into our strengths -- relieving the bottlenecks that have inhibited users from receiving information as efficiently as possible to their desktops," he explained. "Given the steep growth trajectory for bandwidth intensive applications over the network, our family of ATM NICs strategically positions us as a major force in the high speed networking marketplace," he said. UK pricing on Adaptec's ATM25 range of systems ranges from UKP256 to UKP330, while the company's range of ATM155 cards starts at UKP656 and ranges to UKP730. (Steve Gold/19950924/Press Contact: Adaptec, 408-957-6638; Reader Contact: Adaptec Europe, tel +44-1272-811200, fax +44-1252-811212) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 09/14/95 NETWORK ****Networld+Interop '95 Opens In Paris - Overview (NEWS)(NETWORK)(LON)(00029) ****Networld+Interop '95 Opens In Paris - Overview 09/14/95 PARIS, FRANCE, 1995 SEP 14 (NB) -- Running all this week in Paris, Networld+Interop 95 proved to be something of a "preview ground" for the Interop show in the US, which opens in a few weeks. By far and away the main topic at the show is how quickly ATM (asynchronous transfer mode) will take on a stronger role in the networking backbone market. Most vendors were displaying their ATM technology and the way it interfaces with other asynchronous and synchronous networking technologies. Against this backdrop, though, many of the smaller vendors are questioning the high cost of ATM, and whether medium- to small-sized businesses need ATM technology. According to Steve Jenkins, Bay Networks' UK managing director, ATM may be a major seller in the big business arena, but the telcos will see an upswing in demand for switched public networking technology in the next few years. Switched public networking is often referred to as VPN (virtual private networking) and allows companies to link their local and wide area network systems into a public carrier system, usually an X.25 carrier network, for switched routing to another X.25-linked host network. Using this approach to WAN topology means that, instead of companies using leased or private links between their offices around the country/world, their LAN interconnects become similar to their PABX (private automatic branch exchange) systems, which plug into the PSTN (public switched telephone network). Jenkins argues that virtual switched networks, as Bay refers to VPN, is going to be the big thing for the networking arena over the next 12 to 18 months, as company network administrators realize that, once the cost of plugging to a VPN carrier net is paid for, the calls are charged for on a pay-as-you-go basis, on the basis of time and data bandwidth. Using switched public networking also ensures that network bottlenecks or even "busy tones" are avoided. So where does this leave ATM? Networking companies at Networld+Interop were unsure, but since most vendors already have ATM offerings, they claim that ATM will be able to interwork with other networking topologies that users choose to use for LAN interconnection. On the modem front, meanwhile, several vendors are now talking enthusiastically about DSVD (digital simultaneous voice and data) technology. DSVD is a relatively simple concept, that of multiplexing several data channels onto a single 28,800 bits-per-second (bps) data stream, which then routes across a V.34 modem as normal. DSVD has been called a "poor man's ISDN" (integrated services digital network) by many in the modem industry and, perhaps surprisingly at Networld+Interop, given France Telecom's low ISDN connection and line rental rates, interest was extremely high in this technology. At Networld+Interop, only US Robotics had a DSVD modem on display. The US Robotics modem is the Sportster Vi PC card unit that is currently on sale in the US at $399. The US Robotics Sportster Vi 28.8 fax PC modem card is actually a proprietary DSVD modem. Like the early Courier HST modems of the late 1980s, which used 14,400/300 bps asymmetric links to offer a low-cost alternative to the then expensive 14,400 bps full duplex modem, the $399 Sportster Vi unit will only communicate using DSVD protocols with another Vi 28.8 unit in DSVD mode. Externally. the Sportster Vi card modem looks like any normal V.34 PC card modem, but it's only when you get up close that you can see the difference, as the card has two standard RJ11 phone jacks -- one for the phone, the other for the fax modem -- and twin I/O ports -- one for a microphone, one for a speaker. Although the Sportster Vi modem is only shipping in the US at the moment, attendees to Networld+Interop were interested in the modem, and especially in ProShare, the Intel software package that comes bundled with the modem. ProShare is advanced personal conferencing package that includes a conferencing whiteboard and application sharing. Using ProShare, two people can jointly edit a file in an OLE (object linking and embedding)-compliant word processor, or play an interactive game of Descent, a 3D combat game that comes bundled with the USR modem. Although US Robotics' European staff are not too familiar with the Sportster Vi modem, several corporate attendees Newsbytes spoke with at Networld+Interop said that the only drawback with the modem is a slight loss of volume on voice telephony calls. Multiplexing, then, both in the low-end DSVD modem, as well as the high-end ATM marketplace, looks to be the hot topic at this year's Paris Networld+Interop. This leads this Newsbytes bureau to suggest that the next six months are going to be something of a watershed in the networking arena, as costs of multiplexing hardware, software and network devices fall, and demand for inter-networking technology continues to rise. (Steve Gold/19950914/Press & Reader Contact: Softbank Expositions, tel +33-1-4639-5656, fax +33-1-4639-5699) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 09/14/95 NETWORK Interop - Acanthe Unveils Network Security Technology (NEWS)(NETWORK)(LON)(00030) Interop - Acanthe Unveils Network Security Technology 09/14/95 PARIS, FRANCE, 1995 SEP 14 (NB) -- Acanthe Software, a French company that started operations in April of this year, unveiled a raft of security products at the Networld+Interop 95 show this week. According to the company, the security market, especially for networking applications, is still largely untapped. On show at the Paris networking event, were versions of the company's PerfView and AgentView systems for IBM's NetView 6000, as well as OpenMapCopy and SNA (Systems Network Architecture) View for HP's OpenView system, and ARS 2.0, a Web security system. PerfAgent is a multi-platform management report generator for the operation of SNMP (Simple Network Management Protocol) hardware. According to the company, the FF 82,500 utility has been designed so it can be used by administrator and users, offering a real time monitoring facility, archiving of indicators in relational databases, and trend observation reports. AgentView, meanwhile, is an enhanced graphic monitoring utility that the company claims provides network administrators with user-friendly management of each element of their networks. In use, the package offers a graphical representation of the front and rear of an SNMP- compliant unit, and allows administrators to assess the status of the components of the hardware. The package sells for FF15,000 in a runtime version, and ranges from FF15,000 to FF35,000 for a library version. A development version costs FF130,000. OpenMapCopy is billed as a topology transfer utility for HP's OpenView environment. According to the company, using the package allows users to transfer topologies between HP OpenView 3.3x graphics boards in the HP-UX system environment. The idea behind the FF 10,000 package is that it allows users to reconstruct the backed-up maps in another sub- map while complying exactly with the layout and representation of each symbol and connection. In use, it allows for the import and export to and from an OpenView board located on another machine. SNAView is an SNA network management app that is integrated to the HP OpenView NMN 3.3 platform running under the HP-UX environment. According to company officials, the FF110,000 software supports automatic discovery of the SNA objects to be monitored and manual construction of the network topology from a hierarchical view. Last, but not least, is ARS, a client/server application from Remedy, another French company, that supervises the automatic creation of dockets. According to the company, ARS (Action Request System) can be used as a help desk application, as well as a network incident monitoring system or client base management utility. The FF72,000 system allows users to define reports using all or part of the information available in a database, using Boolean algebra sort routines if required. Although most of the packages were revealed for new platforms at the Networld+Interop show, company officials told Newsbytes that most applications from the company are available, or will shortly be available, for the HP-UX, IBM/AIX, and Sun/Solaris environments. The software can also be integrated with HP's OpenView, IBM's NetView 6000, SunNet Manager, or ISM environments. (Steve Gold/19950914/Press Contact: Herald Communications, tel +33-1-4742-6363, fax +33-1-4266-3959; Reader Contact: Acanthe Software, tel +33-1-6986-0606, fax +33-16986-9728) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 95 09/14/95 NETWORK Interop - FTP Software Ships First NFS For Windows (NEWS)(NETWORK)(LON)(00031) Interop - FTP Software Ships First NFS For Windows 95 09/14/95 PARIS, FRANCE, 1995 SEP 14 (NB) -- FTP Software has announced that InterDrive 95, the networking industry's first Network File System for the Windows 95 environment, will shortly be available on a worldwide basis. Shown for the first time at the Networld+Interop 95 show in Paris this week, the package is billed as providing users with higher performance and flexibility, by allowing all network resources under Windows 95 to be shared. In Europe, as in the US, InterDrive 95 will be available as a standalone app or as an integrated component of the company's OnNet for Windows 2.0 suite. The package itself is a 32-bit multi-threaded application that works at the same level of priority as the operating system (i.e. high), so providing, the company claims, users with a higher network performance. In use, InterDrive is claimed to work with either FTP's software, or the Windows 95 TCP/IP (Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol) kernel, and can also interact with other network operating systems, including LAN Manager from Microsoft, Vines from Banyan, and NetWare from Novell. No pricing has been announced for the package, but, according to Bart Broussard, FTP's vice president of marketing, local country pricing will be available very shortly. He claims that the company has been working very closely with Microsoft to get the package to market. (Sylvia Dennis/19950914/Press Contact: Lisa Cann, A Plus, +44-1753- 790700; Internet e-mail lcann@aplus.co.uk; Reader Contact: FTP Software, +49-89-5904-7155) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 09/14/95 TELECOM MCI Intros Cellular Service For Business (NEWS)(TELECOM)(MSP)(00032) MCI Intros Cellular Service For Business 09/14/95 ATLANTA, GEORGIA, U.S.A., 1995 SEP 14 (NB) -- MCI Inc. (NASDAQ:MCIC) is introducing NetworkMCI Cellular, described as a "one-stop solution" for local cellular, cellular telephone equipment, and long distance services for business when it comes to wireless communications service. The new plan will initially be available in 10 US markets. "This adds one more piece to the telecommunications puzzle," Paul Adams, MCI spokesperson, told Newsbytes. "We're not just a long distance company anymore. We're capable of providing so much more than what MCI has traditionally provided. This adds one more piece to that, one more part of the telecommunications solutions for businesses." Already, MCI provides data services, electronic-mail, Internet access, and paging services for business customers, Adams said. NetworkMCI Cellular gives customers all of the advantages of existing land-based network services like call forwarding, call waiting, three- way calling, call transfer, and voice-mail, officials said. Also traveling NetworkMCI Cellular subscribers can take advantage of extensive roaming agreements MCI has with other cellular providers. The fact that NetworkMCI Cellular offers businesses a single point of contact for customer service, order entry, and billing, is unique in the industry, officials said. Some NetworkMCI Cellular customers can even take advantage of free cellular air time, depending on the rate plan selected. In addition, new customers can get a 50 percent savings on all cellular long distance for 12 months, when they sign a one-year cellular service contract. That option is available through the end of this year. With this newest offering, "MCI is reinforcing its commitment to help businesses overcome many of the challenges that are present with other cellular services by making cellular phones easy to purchase, improving cost controls, and integrating cellular technology as part of a complete telecommunications solution," MCI officials said. The ten markets where NetworkMCI Cellular is now available are: Boston, Chicago, Los Angeles, Milwaukee, New York City, Philadelphia, San Diego, San Francisco, and Washington DC. (Bob Woods/199500914/Press Contact: Paul Adams, MCI, 404-668-6406; Public Contact: MCI, 800-727-4044) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 09/14/95 BROADCAST Microsoft Expands Interactive TV Test (NEWS)(BROADCAST)(DEN)(00033) Microsoft Expands Interactive TV Test 09/14/95 REDMOND, WASHINGTON, U.S.A., 1995 SEP 14 (NB) -- Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ: MSFT) said it will expand the interactive television testing it is currently conducting with its employees to include more cities beginning in the second and third quarter of 1996. Microsoft produces the software for the set-top boxes connected to television sets. It's that software that puts the "interactive" into the system. Microsoft, in collaboration with Denver-based Tele-Communications Inc. (TCI), has been testing an interactive cable television system with 100 Microsoft employees' families and at 150 of its own development offices in Redmond. TCI is the nation's largest cable system operating, providing service in 49 states, the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico. Interactive television will allow viewers to view information such as television guides on screen, as well as use menus to select movies and other services. The user will be able to activate on-screen reminders for programs they want to watch in the future. Craig Mundie, senior vice president of Microsoft's consumer systems division, told a technology conference in Dallas this week the test will expand in Seattle in cooperation with TCI, and kick of in Richardson, Texas, with SBC Communications-owned Southwestern Bell and in Tokyo in conjunction with Japan's Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corp. Mundie said the new tests will be slightly staggered and will take place in the second and third quarters of 1996. The Microsoft executive told reporters another half dozen companies have agreed to work toward running beta tests in their own cities, but declined to name the cities, which are expected to come on line in late 1996 or early 1997. A Microsoft spokesperson told Newsbytes the companies involved are expected to name the cities by the end of this year. (Jim Mallory/19950914/Press and public contact: Microsoft, 206-882-8080) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 09/14/95 PC Itronix Intros 486-Based, Windows PC For Field Apps (NEWS)(PC)(BOS)(00034) Itronix Intros 486-Based, Windows PC For Field Apps 09/14/95 BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS, U.S.A., 1995 SEP 14 (NB) -- The new X-C 6000 Cross Country PC from Itronix, unveiled this week, is built on a "dramatic new design" that brings together the "ergonomics," computing power, and client-server functionality of a notebook PC for mobile professionals with the ruggedness and "application- specific needs" of a handheld PC for mobile workers, maintained Steven L. Gevurtz and Mark R. Waldin, in a meeting with Newsbytes on a Boston press tour. Based on a 40 megahertz (MHz) 486 processor and 260 or 420 megabyte (MB) hard disk, the X-C 6000 comes with a built-in 14.4 kilobits- per-second (Kbps) fax modem, a Type II or Type III PC card slot, and pre-loaded Windows, for running client-server productivity tools and "mission-critical, enterprise" applications, said Waldin, who is director of marketing for Itronix. On the other hand, though, other capabilities are specifically aimed at "in the field" use, he added. Usable when walking or standing, the new PC features multiple carrying options, as well as the ability to work in "clipboard, vehicle cradling, and vertical mount" modes, he said. The PC's VGA monochrome display provides "automatic temperature correction," and is designed to be viewable both indoor and outdoors, from any angle and under any lighting conditions, including bright sunlight, he contended. A touch screen option is also available. Power management has also been "optimized" for the field, observed Gevurtz, who is president of Itronix. Power management features include full-day operation and battery logging, monitoring and history tracking, with a choice of NiCd or NiMH batteries. Another capability, a built-in speaker phone, is targeted at "no- hands" voice communications. Wireless cellular voice and data access will be provided through Ardis, RAM, and CDPD. Most other handheld PCs today are still DOS-based, with limited functionality beyond the "application-specific," according to the Itronix execs. As a result, many companies are outfitting mobile professionals with notebook PCs, and these machines tend to break under unanticipated stresses. In a demo, Waldin showed Newsbytes how the XC-6000 can withstand repeated drops from several feet above the floor. The PC comes in a magnesium case with Sanoprene bumpers, which has been "totally sealed against rain, dust, snow, and coffee spills," he quipped. A removable keyboard is likewise sealed. The hard drive and display are both shock mounted. The XC-6000 is designed to operate at temperatures ranging from -4 degrees to 140 degrees Fahrenheit. But the device can also be used at colder temperatures for several hours after being brought outside from indoors, asserted Gevurtz. Itronix, a Telxon Corp. subsidiary with $380 million in revenues, boasts a worldwide customer base that encompasses Ameritech, Eastman Kodak, GTE, Sears, Spring, Bank of America, AT&T, Fujitsu, MCI, and Southwest Bell, Newsbytes was told. The company's portable and wireless devices are used for retail, industrial, transportation, health care, mobile field repair, and route management. Early users of the XC-6000 include 13,500 field service workers at GTE, 15,000 workers at Sears, and another 350 "very active" users at MCI, the two execs told Newsbytes. (Jacqueline Emigh/19950912/Reader Contact: Telxon Corporation, 800- 800-8001; Press Contact: Joanne Anderson, Copithorne & Bellows for Telxon/Itronix, 617-252-0606) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 09/14/95 BUSINESS ****Microdyne Buys Nat Semi's Ethernet Card Business (NEWS)(BUSINESS)(WAS)(00035) ****Microdyne Buys Nat Semi's Ethernet Card Business 09/14/95 ALEXANDRIA, VIRGINIA, U.S.A., 1995 SEP 14 (NB) -- Continuing its acquisition drive, Microdyne Corp. (Nasdaq:MCDY) has purchased National Semiconductor's (NYSE: NSM) Ethernet adapter card business, for an undisclosed sum. The purchase includes three lines of Ethernet products, including National's InfoMover network interface cards for advanced local area networking called "fast Ethernet." Microdyne will continue to use National microprocessors on the cards. The acquisition follows Microdyne's January purchase of Eagle Technology from Artisoft. Microdyne, National, and Artisoft at one time all held rights to market "certain computer networking products" under the Novell brand name. Microdyne is now, with the latest acquisition, the only manufacturer of Novell-labeled cards. Both Microdyne and National have close ties to Novell, the software company that dominates networking with some 60 percent of the market. Microdyne's link to Novell dates to 1984, when a predecessor, Federal Technology Corp., began specifying and installing Novell network operating system software in federal government LANs. Philip Cunningham, Microdyne chairman and chief executive officer, said that while he sees benefits in acquiring National's 10 megabit adapter card business, his real target is the fast Ethernet market for computers with 16-bit ISA (Industry Standard Architecture) buses. "Sometime in late 1995 or early 1996, there will be a shift in the market toward fast Ethernet technology as organizations begin to shift their networks to accommodate applications requiring significantly higher bandwidth," he said. Cunningham noted that while other companies were pushing fast Ethernet for computers with 32-bit PCI (Peripheral Component Interconnect) buses, "there are millions of computers with ISA buses that will also be connected" into the networks. National recognized that, when other board makers did not, he said. "The question is what comes of the tens of millions of ISA-bus computers, some of which are only a year old," said Cunningham. "I can't see organizations throwing out a computer that can be readily connected into a higher-speed network." (Kennedy Maize/19950914/Press Contact: Neal Sanders, 703-329-3700) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 09/14/95 TRENDS ****Novell & UtiliCorp Team On Powerline Network (NEWS)(TRENDS)(WAS)(00036) ****Novell & UtiliCorp Team On Powerline Network 09/14/95 WASHINGTON, D.C., U.S.A., 1995 SEP 14 (NB) -- Network specialist Novell and UtiliCorp United, a Kansas City-based electric and gas utility with national aspirations, has announced what could be a revolution in both computing and energy management. The two firms said they are jointly developing a technology that will cheaply and efficiently turn the nation's electrical network, including the wiring in the house, into an intelligent network able to control appliances, provide computer networking capabilities, and offer a high-speed onramp to the information superhighway. The two companies also said they are launching an open consortium to turn the technology into an industry standard, called the Smart Energy Network Alliance. The key element in the announcement is Novell Embedded Systems Technology, or NEST, that works with a cheap, low-cost embedded microchip to allow information to be exchanged over conventional power lines. According to a Novell background paper, the NEST technology can take advantage of "previously unused bandwidth on standard electrical wiring." NEST can transfer data over power lines at speeds up to two megabits-per-second (Mbps), or about two-thirds the speed of a high-cost T1 telephone line. Simply plugging an intelligent device with the chip embedded into it is sufficient to connect the device into a network consisting of all the other smart devices in a home or office. "Our two companies share a global vision in which the future of information systems and energy use are increasingly intertwined," Rick Green, UtiliCorp chairman and president, told reporters at a press conference in Washington. "This partnership launches the interface between Novell's networking technology and the utility industry's infrastructure and customer base, thereby opening the door to industry-wide standards for networked communications." Under the partnership, Novell and UtiliCorp will co-develop, co-own, and jointly market applications that allow customers to optimize energy use on a 24-hour, real-time basis. The first products are expected to be commercially available during 1996, Green told reporters, through a combined UtiliCorp Energy One and Novell branding program. UtiliCorp is using the Energy One name to launch nationwide energy services as local utility monopolies break down. "As the leading supplier of networking technology and services," said Novell Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Robert Frankenberg, "Novell is strategically positioned to bring the utility industry into the world of smart energy networks and make networking as pervasive as the electric utility." The hardware required for the smart appliances, Frankenberg told Newsbytes, are simple, low-cost devices that will be manufactured by a leading chip maker, which he refused to identify. "As you know," he said, "Novell is not in the hardware business." The chips will need only a few kilobytes of memory to operate effectively, and will cost less than $1 each to manufacture, Frankenberg said. All told, he said, the embedded hardware would likely add less than $20 to the cost of an appliance. The key elements of the chips is that they operate in analog and digital combination, and that they have isolation from high voltages in power lines that could fry the silicon circuitry. Physically, Frankenberg said, the chip will be a very small package. Once embedded in an appliance, consumers and energy suppliers will be able to carefully tune energy consumption to follow specific needs of the appliance and the customer. In a joint statement, the two companies said, "This level of control will allow utilities to exercise demand-side power management and allocate energy resources depending on the specific needs of a device at a given time. This method of energy resource management will result in significant benefits to all who consumer energy, as well as to utilities that generate and distribute energy to their customers." (Kennedy Maize/19950914/Press Contacts: Shannon Smith, Novell, 801-429-5850; Sally McElwreath, UtiliCorp, 8916-467-3000) (SUMMARY)(GENERAL)(MSP)(00037) Newsbytes Daily Summary 09/14/95 MINNEAPOLIS, MINNESOTA, U.S.A., 1995 SEP 14 (NB) -- These are capsules of all today's news stories: ======================================================================== ------------| N E W S B Y T E S D A I L Y S U M M A R Y |---------- ------------| Thursday, September 14, 1995 |---------- ======================================================================== (c) Newsbytes News Network (Tm) Editor in Chief: Wendy Woods ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Newsbytes News Network's 1995 Update CD-ROM for Mac, DOS, and Windows is now available for $29.95 (includes s&h). Contains 1983-1995 news stories, more than 64,000 keyword searchable stories and 475 digitized images. For more information or to order, fax to 612-430-0441 or e-mail to 'administrator@newsbytes.com' -- MC, Visa, Amex accepted. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ CATEGORY HEADLINES (*** indicates today's top stories) STORY # ======================================================================== BROADCAST Sony Resuming Home Satellite Shipments, "Fixes" Older Units 18 BROADCAST Microsoft Expands Interactive TV Test...................... 33 BUSINESS France - Groupe Bull Outlines Capital Plans................ 08 BUSINESS Storm Clouds Gathering Over Hong Kong AST.................. 16 BUSINESS ****Microdyne Buys Nat Semi's Ethernet Card Business...... 35 GENERAL World Teleport Assoc - Extend Privacy Controls To Companies 12 GENERAL Wordperfect Available For OpenVMS/ Alpha Platform.......... 20 NETWORK Microsoft Ships Windows 95 Client For SNA Server........... 15 NETWORK Interop - Lotus Discusses 4th Generation Notes............. 27 NETWORK Interop - Adaptec Enters European ATM Market............... 28 NETWORK ****Networld+Interop '95 Opens In Paris - Overview........ 29 NETWORK Interop - Acanthe Unveils Network Security Technology...... 30 NETWORK Interop - FTP Software Ships First NFS For Windows 95...... 31 ONLINE Cyber Ribs & Silicon Pork Chops On The Web................. 01 ONLINE Microsoft Network To Dominate Canadian Online - Survey..... 03 ONLINE "A Day In The Life Of Cyberspace" From MIT................. 04 ONLINE UK - Electronic Telegraph Offers Internet Ads.............. 05 ONLINE UK Firm Sets Up Internet Web Site Consultancy.............. 09 ONLINE ****Newsbytes' Pacifica Website Among Best 5% On Web...... 10 ONLINE Cleveland Indians At Bat In Cyberspace..................... 14 ONLINE UB Networks Tech Support Via The Internet.................. 17 ONLINE Russian Online Service Opens For Business.................. 19 ONLINE ****Child Porn Ring Using America Online Busted........... 21 ONLINE Internet Update............................................ 24 ONLINE Compuserve E-Mail Upgrade Causes Temporary Delays.......... 26 PC Itronix Intros 486-Based, Windows PC For Field Apps........ 34 SUPERCOMP Cray Demos Largest Oracle Database......................... 25 TELECOM UK - Hayes "Gets Aggressive" On Modem Pricing.............. 06 TELECOM Europe - Orbitel Intros Small GSM Phone.................... 07 TELECOM World Teleport Assoc Meets In Toronto...................... 11 TELECOM Foreign Firms In Vietnam Telecom Deals..................... 23 TELECOM MCI Intros Cellular Service For Business................... 32 TRENDS Smart '95 Conference Hears Plea For Real News.............. 13 TRENDS Fujitsu Develops New Display Panel......................... 22 TRENDS ****Novell & UtiliCorp Team On Powerline Network.......... 36 WINDOWS Microsoft Plans Dev't Tools Automated Test Prgm............ 02 ======================================================================== These are the headlines and first paragraphs of each story, in order: 1 -> Cyber Ribs & Silicon Pork Chops On The Web -- When many people think about making dinner, they usually consult a cookbook. Now the National Pork Producers Council (NPPC) is bringing "the other white meat" to cyberspace, with its existing Internet World Wide Web site. 2 -> Microsoft Plans Dev't Tools Automated Test Prgm -- Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ: MSFT) has announced it will ship an automated testing tool later this year that will test applications of just about any size and created with any development tool. 3 -> Microsoft Network To Dominate Canadian Online - Survey -- A new survey by Ottawa-based research firms Phase 5 Consulting Group and Opinion Search Inc. suggests that Microsoft's strategy of bundling access to its new Microsoft Network (MSN) online service with Windows 95 will create a new cadre of commercial online users that could vault the fledging network to overnight market dominance in Canada. 4 -> "A Day In The Life Of Cyberspace" From MIT -- The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) Media Lab is celebrating its tenth anniversary with a number of events, including "A Day In The Life Of Cyberspace" 5 -> UK - Electronic Telegraph Offers Internet Ads -- Electronic Telegraph, the Daily Telegraph's electronic newspaper, has announced plans to open a classified advertising section in its online newspaper. Known as Classified Marketplace, the service will initially be split into five main sections: appointments, business to business, property, travel, and business network. 6 -> UK - Hayes "Gets Aggressive" On Modem Pricing -- In the wake of the abortive merger with Boca Research, Hayes is getting serious on modem pricing in Europe. 7 -> Europe - Orbitel Intros Small GSM Phone -- Orbitel Mobile Communications has taken the wraps off the 905 series GSM (global system for mobile communication) pocketphone. The unit, which is designed to replace the existing popular 902 series handset, is thinner and substantially smaller, Newsbytes notes. 8 -> France - Groupe Bull Outlines Capital Plans -- The board of Compagnie des Machines Bull (CMB) met recently to discuss the measures needed to implement the resolutions adopted by the combined shareholders general assembly which met on September 8. These measures, Newsbytes notes, are needed to begin opening up CMB to the private sector. 9 -> UK Firm Sets Up Internet Web Site Consultancy -- The JHC Group, the company responsible for setting up MarketNet, which is claimed to be the UK's first online shopping site on the Web, has set up a new operating division, JHC Internet Services, to provide a "one stop shop" for companies looking to develop a World Wide Web site. 10 -> ****Newsbytes' Pacifica Website Among Best 5% On Web -- The Newsbytes Pacifica Website has been rated among the top 5% of all sites on the Internet by Point Survey, a service of Point Communications designed to direct Web surfers to the best places to go on the Internet. Newsbytes News Network and Island Telecommunications' Newsbytes Pacifica home page is located at http://www.islandtel.com/newsbytes/ 11 -> World Teleport Assoc Meets In Toronto -- Smart '95, the 11th annual assembly of the World Teleport Association, is under way this week in Toronto. It is the first time the worldwide organization has met in a Commonwealth country. 12 -> World Teleport Assoc - Extend Privacy Controls To Companies -- Rules governing the privacy of personal information collected by governments in most Canadian provinces should be extended to cover information collected by the private sector as well, Canada's federal privacy commissioner told the conference of the World Teleport Association. 13 -> Smart '95 Conference Hears Plea For Real News -- Microprocessors, optical fibers, and satellite dishes are plentiful in this much-hyped information age, as are mergers and acquisitions. But one thing is in short supply, a prominent television journalist said in a keynote address at the World Teleport Association's Smart '95 conference: information. 14 -> Cleveland Indians At Bat In Cyberspace -- Rounding the bases, heading for home, and going straight out of Jacobs Field, the Cleveland Indians have landed 15 -> Microsoft Ships Windows 95 Client For SNA Server -- Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ: MSFT) has started shipping Microsoft Windows 95 client software for Microsoft SNA (System Network Architecture) Server. 16 -> Storm Clouds Gathering Over Hong Kong AST -- AST officials in Hong Kong remained out of reach in the wake of Tuesday's American HQ shake-up that saw President Jim Shraith pushed out the door, along with two vice presidents. 17 -> UB Networks Tech Support Via The Internet -- Network specialist firm UB Networks has set up its Internet Knowledge Exchange (IKE), a new service program designed to let customers quickly and easily resolve common technical support issues through the Internet. 18 -> Sony Resuming Home Satellite Shipments, "Fixes" Older Units -- A couple of weeks after it stopped shipping home satellite systems, Sony Electronics said it is resuming deliveries to consumer electronics retailers and satellite specialists of its DSS (Digital Satellite System), and delivering a "solution" to a picture blanking problem via the airwaves. 19 -> Russian Online Service Opens For Business -- Sovam Teleport, a private and joint US-Russian company, has announced Russia-On-Line, the first commercial online service for the country. The new service claims to offer its own comprehensive online content and Internet Gateway. 20 -> Wordperfect Available For OpenVMS/ Alpha Platform -- If you use a OpenVMS/Alpha-based computer to do your work and have been jealous of your peers who can use Wordperfect on their systems, you can now have the same word processing capabilities they enjoy. 21 -> ****Child Porn Ring Using America Online Busted -- The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) said it has arrested 12 suspected pedophiles and pornographers who allegedly used the America Online (NASDAQ:AMER) service to distribute graphic images and lure minors to have sex with them. The arrests come in the wake of a nationwide two-year investigation called "Innocent Images," and resulted in raids of more than 120 homes. 22 -> Fujitsu Develops New Display Panel -- Fujitsu has developed an ultra- thin, large size, multipanel, seamless liquid crystal display (LCD) display screen measuring 227 centimeters (cm) across the diagonal (90-inches). The new system offers improvements on image quality and power consumption over conventional screens, typically seen at conferences and exhibitions. 23 -> Foreign Firms In Vietnam Telecom Deals -- Three foreign companies have become the latest international corporations to take a part of Vietnam's growing telecommunications sector. 24 -> Internet Update -- In this roundup of new resources and services on the global Internet: News from Hong Kong, Superbowl online, Canon Europe online, Sun user magazine, Online Shuttle snaps, 1996 elections index, Your guide to Ireland, OKRA white pages directory. 25 -> Cray Demos Largest Oracle Database -- Cray Research Inc. (NYSE:CYR) claims to have set a new world's record in open systems by demonstrating scalability for queries on databases up to 1.6 terabytes (trillion bytes) in size. 26 -> Compuserve E-Mail Upgrade Causes Temporary Delays -- Earlier in the week, incoming Internet electronic-mail to Compuserve accounts was bounced back to the Internet senders. Compuserve says a "temporary problem" occurred while it was upgrading its e-mail system. 27 -> Interop - Lotus Discusses 4th Generation Notes -- Following its merger with IBM, Lotus appears to be flush with funds for investment in research and development (R&D). As a result, the company is starting to talk openly about its R&D into fourth generation messaging systems. 28 -> Interop - Adaptec Enters European ATM Market -- Adaptec, the US networking company, has announced plans to launch its range of ATM (asynchronous transfer mode) networking systems into the European marketplace. 29 -> ****Networld+Interop '95 Opens In Paris - Overview -- Running all this week in Paris, Networld+Interop 95 proved to be something of a "preview ground" for the Interop show in the US, which opens in a few weeks. 30 -> Interop - Acanthe Unveils Network Security Technology -- Acanthe Software, a French company that started operations in April of this year, unveiled a raft of security products at the Networld+Interop 95 show this week. According to the company, the security market, especially for networking applications, is still largely untapped. 31 -> Interop - FTP Software Ships First NFS For Windows 95 -- FTP Software has announced that InterDrive 95, the networking industry's first Network File System for the Windows 95 environment, will shortly be available on a worldwide basis. 32 -> MCI Intros Cellular Service For Business -- MCI Inc. (NASDAQ:MCIC) is introducing NetworkMCI Cellular, described as a "one-stop solution" for local cellular, cellular telephone equipment, and long distance services for business when it comes to wireless communications service. The new plan will initially be available in 10 US markets. 33 -> Microsoft Expands Interactive TV Test -- Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ: MSFT) said it will expand the interactive television testing it is currently conducting with its employees to include more cities beginning in the second and third quarter of 1996. 34 -> Itronix Intros 486-Based, Windows PC For Field Apps -- The new X-C 6000 Cross Country PC from Itronix, unveiled this week, is built on a "dramatic new design" that brings together the "ergonomics," computing power, and client-server functionality of a notebook PC for mobile professionals with the ruggedness and "application- specific needs" of a handheld PC for mobile workers, maintained Steven L. Gevurtz and Mark R. Waldin, in a meeting with Newsbytes on a Boston press tour. 35 -> ****Microdyne Buys Nat Semi's Ethernet Card Business -- Continuing its acquisition drive, Microdyne Corp. (Nasdaq:MCDY) has purchased National Semiconductor's (NYSE: NSM) Ethernet adapter card business, for an undisclosed sum. 36 -> ****Novell & UtiliCorp Team On Powerline Network -- Network specialist Novell and UtiliCorp United, a Kansas City-based electric and gas utility with national aspirations, has announced what could be a revolution in both computing and energy management. The two firms said they are jointly developing a technology that will cheaply and efficiently turn the nation's electrical network, including the wiring in the house, into an intelligent network able to control appliances, provide computer networking capabilities, and offer a high-speed onramp to the information superhighway. (Ian Stokell/19950914) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 09/13/95 WINDOWS Microsoft Announces Visual C++ Version 4. (NEWS)(WINDOWS)(DEN)(00001) Microsoft Announces Visual C++ Version 4.0 09/13/95 REDMOND, WASHINGTON, U.S.A., 1995 SEP 13 (NB) -- Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ: MSFT) has announced version 4.0 of its Visual C++ development system for Windows 95 and Windows NT. The company said one of the software's most important features is the ability to reuse code. Visual C++ 4.0 uses a Component Gallery to store and manage OLE (object linking and embedding) controls and C++ components. That lets developers store C++ classes, resources and header files as C++ components for reuse or for sharing with other developers. The new edition comes with a series of Custom AppWizards that make it easier for developers to create and use templates to "jump-start" a new application development. The Custom AppWizards can be based on existing projects or modify Microsoft's standard AppWizards. Developers can also license Custom AppWizards from third-party providers. The new Visual C++ comes with dynamic link libraries, called MFC Extensions, that extend Microsoft Foundation Extensions by deriving new custom classes. MFC Extensions available from third parties provide support for multimedia, imaging, and client-server development. The Visual C++ compiler supports new language features taken from the current working papers of the ANSI/ISO X3J16 committee on C++, including namespaces and run-time type information. Version 4.0 also includes the Hewlett-Packard Standard Template Library. Other features in Visual C++ version 4.0 include ClassView, a background no-compile browser that's integrated with the project workspace window. Microsoft said Classview allows developers to view and edit code as a collection of classes. You also get the WizardBar, a toolbar function that lets developers add handlers for Windows messages without leaving the source code. Microsoft said Incremental Compilation and Minimal Rebuild is a technology that saves time during executable creation by only recompiling the modified functions after a source file is edited, instead of recompiling the entire file. It also causes only the affected source files to be recompiled when a header file changes, instead of recompiling every file that includes the changed header. A tool called Development Studio integrates multiple development tools into a central environment. Developer Studio gives developers access to Microsoft Development Library, Fortran PowerStation and Visual Test without exiting from the Studio. Various source-code control systems, including Microsoft Visual SourceSafe, can also be accessed from within the developer Studio. Visual C++ version 4.0 supports multiplatform development, with Visual C++ Cross Development Edition for the Macintosh adding support for native Power Mac development. It also supports OLE and ODBC, a new incremental linker, and Win32 common tools. Visual C++ 4.0 RISC edition now has extended support for additional Windows NT-based platforms, including the PowerPC, MIPS, and Alpha AXP. Microsoft said Visual C++ version 4.0 will ship in November, 1995. The Subscription Edition will have a price of just under $500. Subscribers of Visual C++ can receive three additional releases as they become available during the subscription year, so current subscribers of Visual C++ will automatically receive the new release. Users of all previous editions can upgrade to Visual C++ 4.0 for about $199 or to Visual C++ 4. Subscription Edition for about $349. The Macintosh Cross-Development Edition and the RISC version are also scheduled to ship in November and will be priced at about $499. (Jim Mallory/19950912/Press contact: Terri Nopp, Waggener Estrom for Microsoft, 503-245-0905; Public contact: Microsoft, 206-882-8080 or 800-426-9400) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 09/13/95 ONLINE Foreign Versions Of Netscape Navigator Intro'd (NEWS)(ONLINE)(SFO)(00002) Foreign Versions Of Netscape Navigator Intro'd 09/13/95 MOUNTAIN VIEW, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1995 SEP 13 (NB) -- Using the same graphical interface of its well-known Internet browser, Navigator version 1.1, Netscape (NASDAQ:NCSP) says it is ready to offer a French, German, and Japanese version of the software. All of the features of the latest English language version are incorporated into the new foreign language programs. Netscape says its Internet/World Wide Web browser, Navigator, is the most popular browser in the industry, and foreign interest in local language versions has been very high. "Making the browser available in local languages allows us to bring many more users to the Internet. These new users will be able to have all of the features found on the Internet and, with Navigator's security features, they will be able to conduct commerce," said a Netscape spokesperson. Fourteen Japanese companies have agreed to distribute Netscape Navigator in Japanese. They include: Integrated Systems International Dentsu Ltd., Itochu Corporation, Mitsubishi, NEC, Nippon Telephone and Telegraph, Softbank Corporation, Software Japan International, Sony, Toshiba, CSK Corporation, Allied Telesis K.K., Hitachi, and Nomura Research Institute. Netscape says each distributor will determine the price in Japan. In Europe, the German and French versions will be distributed by Softline GmbH of Germany and Softway S.A. of France. The German price is listed at DM69 and in France the native language version is FF250. Access Graphics and Ingram Micro Devices have agreed to support distribution in Canada of the French version. The Canadian version is priced at C$56. These foreign language versions will be available for all common desktop operating systems. Netscape says anyone who purchases Navigator 1.1 is automatically licensed for a full upgrade to any new version of the software introduced within 90 days of purchase. Volume discounts are available for multiple user licenses. (Patrick McKenna/19959012/Press Contact: Chris Holten, Netscape, 415-528-2521) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 09/13/95 ONLINE New NetShark Internet Browser/App (NEWS)(ONLINE)(MSP)(00003) New NetShark Internet Browser/App 09/13/95 HERNDON, VIRGINIA, U.S.A., 1995 SEP 13 (NB) -- InterCon Systems has announced two products for World Wide Web applications. NetShark is a combined multimedia electronic-mail program with a World Wide Web browser, while InterServer Publisher is a Macintosh-based Internet server package. The NetShark product was introduced during a news teleconference, which Newsbytes attended. "NetShark brings our industry-leading code support and experience to the consumer side of the marketplace," claimed Gaige Paulsen, senior vice president and chief technical officer for InterCon. "We're taking the Internet forward in the areas of both technology and support." NetShark's multimedia e-mail lets users send and receive messages with in-line multimedia elements. The program also supports enriched text like bold and italic attributes. "Today's e-mail, in other packages, lacks the ability to communicate emotion and emphasis," Paulsen said. "Smiley faces and all caps can hardly express very much emotion. NetShark has raised the bar for e-mail." The browser is designed to optimize the speed of display. It also allows for the downloading of images and files while the user is browsing other Web pages, Paulsen said, "bringing the multitasking of Internet services to the consumer customer." The browser also lets users listen to audio files while being downloaded. NetShark is compatible with Windows 95, Windows 3.1, and Macintosh System 7.x. NetShark is immediately available via the Internet, at http://netshark.inter.net . Users then can upgrade to the retail version for $39.95. InterCon will also be licensing the software to Internet service providers (ISPs) and others. All NetShark users receive free customer support via telephone or e-mail 24 hours a day, seven days a week, no matter what version they're using, said the company. InterCon's second product introduction, InterServer Publisher, is the "industry's first integrated Macintosh-based Internet server package," the company claimed. The program lets users to create Web, file transfer protocol (FTP), and Gopher server presences on the Internet with any Mac running System 7.x. Designed for small to mid-sized companies with the need for an Internet presence, it is also ideal for departments within larger corporations or educational institutions, the company said. The product will ship with templates, and MacHTTP (Macintosh Hypertext Transfer Protocol)-compatible CGI (common gateway interface) support to let users add interactive features to their Web sites, officials said. InterServer Publisher will also have realm-based authentication capabilities, to restrict access to certain pages. InterServer Publisher is available now for $495. That price will increase to $795 after the introductory period expires October 31. InterCon is on the Web at http://www.intercon.com . (Bob Woods/19950912/Press Contacts: Tanya Prather, InterCon Systems Corp., 703-709-5526; Mike Maney, Poppe Tyson, 201-539-0300; Public Contact: InterCon Systems Corp., 703-709-5500) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 09/13/95 ONLINE NetWorld+Interop Trade Show On Internet (NEWS)(ONLINE)(LAX)(00004) NetWorld+Interop Trade Show On Internet 09/13/95 FOSTER CITY, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1995 SEP 13 (NB) -- NetWorld+Interop, a trade show slated for September 25-29 at the Atlanta Georgia World Congress Center, has announced the opening of N+I Online for the Internet. N+I Online will operate two weeks prior to the event, the week of the event, and two weeks after the close of the show. NetWorld+Interop trade show offers a combination of conferences, tutorials, workshops, exhibits, and interactive technology demonstrations, all addressing the networking industry. The series of trade shows was launched in Las Vegas by Softbank Expo in 1994. NetWorld+Interop and Softbank also produce events in London, Sydney, Frankfurt, Tokyo, Atlanta, and Paris. Marcia Trask, spokesperson for Softbank, told Newsbytes, "More than 10,000 registered attendees accessed the inaugural N+I Online during NetWorld+Interop Las Vegas 95. N+I Online is an interactive extension to the NetWorld+Interop trade show, and attendees can use it to register for the event, obtain the latest exhibitor product news, participate in interactive media events, and visit with almost 60 networking companies." According to Softbank, N+I Online consists of several different areas, including Exhibitor virtual booths, technology pavilions, search tools for finding exhibitors, as well as product and conference information. N+I Online also offers attendees basic information on all NetWorld+Interop show exhibitors and provides them with electronic-mail capabilities, allowing "real-time communication" between exhibitors and attendees. "For exhibitors, N+I Online represents a strategic opportunity to reach their customers and business partners over the Internet," said Trask. "With N+I Online, exhibitors will not only be able to track the attendees that come into their booths, but will also be able to attract a greater number of highly qualified and targeted customers. In addition, exhibitors broaden their reach with an alternative vehicle to showcase products and services." Added Trask: "Because each virtual booth in N+I Online can also link the user directly to the World Wide Web home page of any participating NetWorld+Interop exhibitor, vendors have made a special effort to develop unique on-line content for the show." N+I Online is accessible to attendees at NetWorld+Interop via Network Application Centers located throughout the show floor. There is no cost to access or use N+I Online, and it can be reached now at http://www.interop.com . (Richard Bowers/19950912/Press Contact: Sharon Zovod, The Weber Group, 415-325-8300) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 09/13/95 BROADCAST ****Microsoft To Collaborate On In-flight TV (NEWS)(BROADCAST)(DEN)(00005) ****Microsoft To Collaborate On In-flight TV 09/13/95 REDMOND, WASHINGTON, U.S.A., 1995 SEP 13 (NB) -- Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ: MSFT) has announced it will offer Microsoft Interactive Television (MITV) on airplanes for in-flight entertainment systems. MITV is Microsoft's software architecture and applications platform for the delivery of interactive entertainment and services in various venues. Microsoft first showed off its MITV distributed operating system and application platform publicly at the Dallas Cable 95 trade show in May. Microsoft and Tele-Communications Inc. are currently jointly testing the MITV technology in the northwest portion of the US. In related announcements, Sony Trans Com, Formation Inc., and Hughes-Avicom said they are "committed" to supporting Microsoft's MITV platform and will integrate it into their in-flight entertainment systems for airlines. Formation, an original equipment manufacturer (OEM), said it will deliver hardware components that manage on-demand access to stored multimedia. According to Laura Jennings, senior director of marketing and business development for the commercial systems division at Microsoft, in-flight entertainment is "a compelling application" for MITV. She said the platform's design will allow airlines to use a single system to entertain passengers and to assist flight crews. For passengers, MITV offers video-on-demand, online shopping, and games. The flyer can browse an onscreen library, choose the movie they want to see, as well as start, stop, rewind, or pause as often as they want. Credit cards can be accepted to do online shopping. Jennings said flight crews could use the platform to do inventory management, facilitate order-tracking by seats or class, provide passenger personal services and travel information, integrate public-address system announcements into audio and video channels, and perhaps perform close-out assistance. Sony said it will work with Microsoft to develop hardware to provide a video-on-demand system. Hughes announced it will develop in-flight systems that allow programming of different types and will also allow the system to be upgraded as the technology improves. In-flight digital movies and computer games are already available on airliners, piped to screens mounted in commercial airliner's seatbacks. As Newsbytes reported in December, 1994, The Network Connection's Airview uses a 13-inch flat screen that tilts and swivels and is mounted just above the seatback tray. The screen can be divided into two or more windows, allowing airline travelers to simultaneously watch a movie and play a game. Airview uses the Microsoft NT Advanced Server software. (Jim Mallory/19950912/Press contact: Nikke Wiebe, Waggener Edstrom for Microsoft, 206-637-9097; Public contact: Microsoft, 206-882-8080 or 800-426-9400) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 95 09/13/95 WINDOWS Europe - Tektronix Supports For Windows (NEWS)(WINDOWS)(LON)(00006) Europe - Tektronix Supports For Windows 95 09/13/95 LONDON, ENGLAND, 1995 SEP 13 (NB) -- Tektronix, the manufacturer of network color printing devices and cross-platform computing systems, has announced the Phaser range of color printers, and a new driver package, WinDD. According to the company, the Phaser range of printers are fully Windows 95-compliant, as is the Unix-based WinDD package. Bob McNinch, general manager of Tektronix's European Color Printing and Imaging division, said that the WinDD package allows Unix platform users to access Windows 95 applications. "Because Windows 95 will be the force in the market for desktop PC operating systems, Tektronix will support Windows 95 features in future product releases," he said. All the Phaser range of color printers are billed as compatible with Windows 95, but two printers, the Phaser 340 and Phaser 540 Plus, are designed to be fully compliant with the Plug and Play architecture of the new operating system. Support for Plug and Play on the printers will eliminate the many time-consuming complications when installing peripheral devices. Tektronix is supporting Microsoft's Image Color Management (ICM) system under Windows 95. This, the company claims, offers the simplicity of a single color management system for use across various applications and output devices. The combination of a Plug and Play compatible printer with Windows 95, the company claims, produces a high quality, easy-to-use printing option. The WinDD software, meanwhile, allows Unix users to access both Windows 3.X and Windows 95 applications running on a PC application server. Running on an 80486 class processor, WinDD is billed as coping with as many as 20-25 Unix platform users running PC applications from a single server. In use, WinDD is billed as allowing mixed platform enterprise users the option of upgrading to Windows 95 without leaving Unix users behind. WinDD is available now for Tektronix NetStations and X terminals and workstations from Sun, Hewlett-Packard, Silicon Graphics, IBM, and DEC. Pricing of the package depends on site licensing requirements. (Sylvia Dennis/19950912/Press Contact: Neil Foster, Lindsay Associates, +44-171-240-4460) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 09/13/95 WINDOWS Windows 95 "A Red Herring" In OS Marketplace - Report (NEWS)(WINDOWS)(LON)(00007) Windows 95 "A Red Herring" In OS Marketplace - Report 09/13/95 LONDON, ENGLAND, 1995 SEP 13 (NB) -- "All the hype about Windows 95 is detracting from the key issue in the operating system market," claims Heather Stark, author of "Operating Systems: Markets and Futures," a new report from the Ovum group. According to Stark, all eyes should be on Windows NT Server, "since the increasing power of the corporate operating system is making the workgroup server market the most strongly contested segment of the European operating systems market." Stark predicts that, between now and the year 2000, Windows NT Server will be the fastest growing server operating system in the European operating system market. She also predicts that there will be a compound growth of around 52 percent for Windows NT Server, which means the package will achieve sales of just over a million units by the end of the decade. In the short term, the report notes, Windows NT Server will not affect European Unix prospects, although it will soon start to exert serious price pressure at the entry-level end of the market. According to the report, Windows NT Server poses a more immediate threat to the network operating system (NOS) market, which is dominated by Novell's NetWare. Interesting, Ovum's report suggests that Windows NT Server's best opportunity for growth in Europe lies in an attempt to redefine the NOS market out of existence. The report notes that Microsoft's success in this respect relies on its ability to convince existing LAN (local area network) users that they need a general purpose operating system providing server functions, rather than a NOS. So where does this leave Windows 95 in the business market? According to Ovum, while Windows NT Server has a good future, it has fought its way into its niche, and is slowly expanding it -- the same cannot be said for the workstation version of Windows NT. Ovum suggests that the most effective competition that Microsoft faces here is from itself -- Windows 95. The new operating system, the report suggests, offers many of the features which make an upgrade from Windows 3.x an attractive option. "Operating Systems: Markets & Futures" costs UKP725 in Europe, AUS$1,745 in Australia, and US$1,850 in the rest of the world. (Steve Gold/19950912/Press Contact: Jennies Morales, Ovum, +44-171- 312-7258, Internet e-mail jhb@ovum.mhs.compuserve.com; Reader Contact: Ovum, tel +44-1710255-2670, fax +44-171-255-1995, Internet e-mail info@ovum.mhs.compuserve.com) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 09/13/95 ONLINE UK - Barclays Bank Hooks Into Microsoft Network (NEWS)(ONLINE)(LON)(00008) UK - Barclays Bank Hooks Into Microsoft Network 09/13/95 LONDON, ENGLAND, 1995 SEP 13 (NB) -- Barclays Bank has announced it has started banking operations on Microsoft Network (MSN) for UK subscribers to the online service. According to the bank, it is the only UK financial institution that is available on MSN. Announcing the launch of the service on MSN, Roger Alexander, Barclays' Emerging Markets division managing director, said that MSN represents a potentially very powerful new delivery channel for the bank to reach existing and prospective customers. "MSN fits in with our strategy of providing a range of delivery channels to meet the needs and requirements of our customers. This means making services available through ATMs (automated teller machines), our high street branches, over the phone and now, increasingly, through customers' own PCs. At present, our intention is to provide good quality information to customers, but we are not ruling out banking transactions over MSN, once sufficient security is in place," he explained. According to Barclays, the bank took a "lifestyle" approach to designing its pages on MSN, aiming to interest and entertain customers, as well as informing them of the services available. The pages are split into eight sections: kids, youth and students, starting out, couples and singles, families, in business, leisure and travel, and retirement. A special section on the Barclays pages includes the bank's credit card, Barclaycard. Once into the Barclaycard section, PC users can download video clips from bank's ad campaign, as well as selection of foreign phrases which mean the equivalent of "Can I pay by Barclaycard?" According to Alexander, because of its graphical nature, MSN offers a lot of interesting options to present banking information. "MSN is a new delivery channel which gives us the opportunity to experiment in terms of what consumers want from it," he explained. "We hope the approach we have taken, which may surprise many, will encourage MSN users to return frequently to Barclays pages and find us a useful source of information on a wide variety of issues, and not just banking," he said. (Steve Gold/19950912/Press Contact: Chris Tucker, Barclays Bank, +44- 171-699-2669, Internet e-mail chris.tucker@gf.barclays.co.uk) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 09/13/95 ONLINE UK - NatWest Unveils Interactive TV Banking (NEWS)(ONLINE)(LON)(00009) UK - NatWest Unveils Interactive TV Banking 09/13/95 LONDON, ENGLAND, 1995 SEP 13 (NB) -- NatWest has announced what it claims is the world's first interactive TV banking service. The service is available to customers in the Cambridge area, as part of Online Media's home shopping and entertainment services trial. Later this year, the bank plans to offer the service as part of British Telecom's Interactive Trial in Ipswich and Colchester. By using high-speed "fiber to the home" links, NatWest claims it can offer a graphical and two-way flow of data between the bank's computers and the customer's TV set. No computer system is needed at the account holder's end of the link, and the Calling Line Identification (CLI) of the fiber to the home link, coupled with a PIN (personal identification number) system, will ensure that account data remains confidential. Using the service, customers are able to check balances, check transactions that have gone through accounts, transfer money between accounts, and pay bills using interbank clearing. According to NatWest, the range of product information, which is accessible to anyone on the trial services, is presented in a totally new way, making full use of the multimedia facilities of the interactive TV system being used. Additional services accessible via the home banking service include the facility of travelers checks and foreign currency, as well as the ability to arrange an appointment with a member of the bank's staff during office hours. Access to the NatWest credit card files of account holders will also be available. Stuart Chandler, deputy chief executive with NatWest's UK operation, explained that the service will be available to around 250 homes in the Cambridge area later this year, and will be available to 2,500 more when the BT interactive TV trial starts later this year. "The concept of home banking, whether over the phone, PC or TV, is not new, but delivering a truly interactive TV service that allows our customers the freedom to contact NatWest, manage their bank accounts from their home and view a comprehensive range of financial services, all at a time that suits them, is a world first," he said. Security on the NatWest system is maintained by using a unique six- digit PIN. According to NatWest, the PIN is longer than the four-digit PIN used with most bank plastic cards, to offer increased security, plus the avoidance of confusion as to which PIN is to be used. NatWest appears to be pulling out all the stops with its interactive banking system trial, Newsbytes notes, as customers will able to interrogate the computer for details of their standing orders and direct debit (checkfree) instructions to the bank. Chandler claims that NatWest is planning to offer all its available services, wherever possible, via the interactive TV trial. "TV banking is a very personal way for the bank to communicate with its customers and is probably the most powerful communications medium we have. When you consider that more than 90 percent of homes in the UK have a TV set -- as opposed to only about four percent who have a PC capable of handling home banking or Internet services -- the potential for interactive TV banking is enormous," he said. (Sylvia Dennis/19950912/Press Contact: NatWest PR, +44-171-920-5285) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 09/13/95 ONLINE UK - Pegasus Extends EDI Acct Software Reach (NEWS)(ONLINE)(LON)(00010) UK - Pegasus Extends EDI Acct Software Reach 09/13/95 KETTERING, NORTHAMPTONSHIRE, ENGLAND, 1995 SEP 13 (NB) -- Pegasus has acquired Accredit, PCD's electronic data interchange (EDI) applications software, for an undisclosed sum. The deal means that the accounting software house can include the EDI package within its Senior accounts suite. According to Jonathon Hubbard-Ford, Pegasus' chief executive, the version of Senior for EDI, known as Pegasus Edition for Senior, will be available very shortly to the company's 20,000-plus Senior users. The move comes three months after the release of Edition for Opera, the EDI-compliant version of Pegasus' large company accounting software, which is currently in use at more than 3,500 locations. Hubbard-Ford said that the company is delighted that it has been able to reach agreement with PCG over the transfer of the rights to the EDI package. "PCG has extensive experience in this field and, together, we are committed to providing sophisticated, but affordable solutions," he said. Pricing on Pegasus Edition for Senior will be announced closer to shipment date. According to Hubbard-Ford, the release of the package will meet a rising need amongst accounting software users. "The next decade will, we believe, lead to a great demand from all sectors of industry for EDI capability to be integrated directly into leading accounting packages," he said. (Steve Gold/19950912/Press Contact: Systems Publicity, +44-1206- 866611; Reader Contact: Pegasus Software, tel +44-1536-410044, fax +44-1506-81786) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 09/13/95 PC Olivetti Previews Envision Home Multimedia PC (NEWS)(PC)(LON)(00011) Olivetti Previews Envision Home Multimedia PC 09/13/95 MILAN, ITALY, 1995 SEP 13 (NB) -- Olivetti has previewed Envision, a multimedia PC system for the home that it claims offers a complete range of functions for work, entertainment, information, and communications, to the press in Italy. Built around a Windows 95 PC infrastructure, Envision has been nine months in the making and will ship towards the end of this year. The machine has an infra-red keyboard and remote control. The idea behind the remote control is that Envision is less of a PC system and more the center of a multimedia system. Software on the system includes a package known as Olipilot, an interactive and graphical user interface that is designed to front-end on to Windows 95. Olipilot offers the user a series of "rooms," into which different objects (for example, the TV, calculator, and phone) are assigned to different elements of the suite of software installed on the machine's hard disk. This simplistic approach to Envision means that users of all levels can gain access to a variety of multimedia functions on their machines, such as movies, music, online information, games, business and learning applications, as well as the Internet and fax/data facilities. The Envision range of machines has a high entry-level specification, with a 100 megahertz (MHz) DX4 processor. A 75MHz Pentium chipset is also available on the machine. Both machines have a quad-speed CD-ROM drive fitted as standard. According to Olivetti, Olipilot is designed as a user-friendly front- end to Windows 95. For more experienced users, the company says that Windows 95 is more appropriate. In use, Olipilot offers the user three rooms: living room, study, and playroom. So where does the remote control come into this? Because the Envision system is designed to be left on all the time, it uses intelligent power-down facilities to save energy. Features such as CD-I (Compact Disk Interactive) and Photo CD facilities can then be accessed using the remote, and the images piped to a TV or multimedia home entertainment system of which Envision forms the basis. Although very much a technology preview, rather than product preview, the Envision system is designed as a home system, rather than an office system. The system, while having PC-style cases, is designed to fit into a home hi-fi cabinets. The system's keyboard, meanwhile, is different, since it has two large handles on each side so that it can be grasped like a car steering wheel when no worktop is available. The right hand side of the keyboard has a trackball that can be driven using the thumb, while the two handles ensure that the keyboard can balance easily on a user's knees, rather than the worktop. (Sylvia Dennis/19950911/Press Contact: Vital PR, +44-181-940-4144; Reader Contact: Rosemary Vaux, Olivetti, +44-181-943-5343) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 09/13/95 TRENDS PCS Will Take Time, Cellular Incompatibilities Loom - Forrester (NEWS)(TRENDS)(TOR)(00012) PCS Will Take Time, Cellular Incompatibilities Loom - Forrester 09/13/95 CAMBRIDGE, MASSACHUSETTS, U.S.A., 1995 SEP 13 (NB) -- Much-talked-about new personal communications services (PCS) will take years to become widely available in the United States, according to Forrester Research Inc., and in the meantime, changes in cellular phone technology will lead to a rash of incompatibility problems. In a recent report, called "Demystifying PCS," Forrester says PCS -- a low-cost, short-range wireless telephony technology -- will take five years to arrive in full force, but when it does, the competition for customers will be as intense as it is in the personal computer market today. This competition will help drive down the cost of wireless phone service and may improve the quality of service as competition from new PCS operators forces cellular carriers to clean up their acts. "With only two carriers in each city, cellular carriers (cellcos) have little incentive to fix fuzzy phone calls or reduce rates," Forrester says. But when PCS becomes widespread, "instead of two cellular carriers per region that price in lock step, the new frequencies will bring the number of competitors engaged in rate wars to five." PCS deployment will take time, though, because newly licensed PCS providers must install millions of new cell sites. Even covering populous areas will take years, Forrester predicts. The PCS companies will also face substantial costs, because they must relocate current microwave users from the frequency spectrum now allocated for PCS at their expense, and because landlords and town boards are likely to see dollar signs in PCS carriers seeking locations for their cell sites. In the meantime, Forrester reports, "Cellular is full of holes, but consumers buy it anyway." New problems will appear with cellular, the research firm contends, as cellular carriers move from analog to one of three new digital-cellular standards. The new and incompatible standards will result in customers ending up with phones that work only on one carrier's network, meaning that if they want to change service providers they will have to buy new phones."To facilitate customer acquisition," the report says, "Forrester believes carriers will spend over $1 billion per year for phone trade-ins and giveaways." Though PCS will take time, Forrester predicts a dramatic impact a decade from now. "In the year 2005, after four years of intense competition," the report says, "a wireless call will cost half of today's cellular rate and about one-third of the population will carry wireless devices." Among the results of this will be an upswing in junk phone calls -- or as Forrester calls them, "push marketing" -- such as a record publisher broadcasting text messages promoting a new record album. Forrester also predicts that wireless phone competition will lead to co-marketing deals such as arrangements in which the same smart card will be used for ticketless air travel and telephone calls. (Grant Buckler/19950912/Press Contact: Nicole Lee, Forrester Research, 617-497-7090, Internet e-mail nlee@forrester.com) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 09/13/95 GENERAL Gartner Symposium To Include Top Industry Execs (NEWS)(GENERAL)(TOR)(00013) Gartner Symposium To Include Top Industry Execs 09/13/95 STAMFORD, CONNECTICUT, U.S.A., 1995 SEP 13 (NB) -- Chief executives of six top technology companies will form a panel that will try to predict the course of the industry over the next five years at Gartner Group Inc.'s Symposium/ITxpo 95, to be held in Lake Buena Vista, Florida, October 9-13. The panel, moderated by NBC news anchor Tom Brokaw, will be part of a five-day event in which more than 150 Gartner Group analysts will also participate. The panel, made up of Bill Gates from Microsoft, Ekhard Pfeiffer of Compaq Computer Corp., Scott McNealy of Sun Microsystems Inc., Robert Frankenberg from Novell Inc., Mark Hoffman from Sybase Inc., and Lawrence Babbio of Bell Atlantic, will face questions from Gartner analysts and from prominent chief information officers, including Michael Lezenski of the Bank of Boston and Jodie Ray of Texas Instruments Inc. Analysts from the Stamford-based computer-industry research firm will run workshops and other sessions on such topics as workgroup computing, software costs, business process re-engineering, electronic commerce, and systems management. A spokeswoman for Gartner Group told Newsbytes that more than 3,000 people are expected to attend. Along with the conference, Gartner plans an exhibition floor where more than 100 exhibitors will be marketing their hardware, software, and services. Among the exhibitors will be Digital Equipment Corp., IBM, Microsoft, Novell, and Intel Corp. The conference costs $1,495 for Gartner Group clients and $1,995 for non-clients, the spokeswoman said, and each tutorial session is an extra $75. The cost to attend only the exhibition is $195. Those who want to register can call Ashley Pearce at 800-778-1997 or register via the World Wide Web at http://www.gartner.com . (Grant Buckler/19950912/Press Contact: Kate Berg, Gartner Group, 203-316-6793; Public Contact: Ashley Pearce, Gartner Group, tel 800-778-1997, fax 800-778-1998 or 203-316-6774) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 09/13/95 BROADCAST US/Japanese Group Plans Digital TV (NEWS)(BROADCAST)(TYO)(00014) US/Japanese Group Plans Digital TV 09/13/95 TOKYO, JAPAN, 1995 SEP 13 (NB) -- A consortium made up of an American firm and several Japanese companies has said it will begin studies to work towards the start of digital satellite broadcasting in Japan. Such technology has yet to be introduced to Japan despite its growing use in the United States and Europe. The group includes Hughes Communications, operators of the digital DirecTV service in North America, Space Communications Corp. (SCC), a Japanese communications satellite operator owned by Mitsubishi, Culture Convenience Club (CCC), an Osaka-based video rental chain, and Dai Nippon Printing Co. The four plan to begin a digitally delivered, direct-to-home TV package via SCC's new SuperBird C, a satellite being built by Hughes Space and Communications International Inc., which will be launched in early 1997. Around 200 million yen ($1.96 million) has already been earmarked for investigation into the feasibility of such a project. The study will determine a suitable launch date and the number of channels to be broadcast. The Japanese press has suggested the venture is looking at a launch of a 100 channel service in late 1996 or early 1997. Ownership of the company will fall mainly between Hughes and CCC, each with a 42.1% stake. Satellite owners SCC will hold 10.0% and the remaining shares will be owned by Dai Nippon Printing. SCC currently sends a selection of around ten pay TV channels from its SuperBird B satellite with competition from JSAT which broadcasts a 5-channel package from its own satellite, JC-Sat 2. Both systems, which use incompatible scrambling systems and so require two decoders, never caught on with the public. Total subscriptions to both packages number around one million. In contrast the higher powered BS satellite delivers just three channels, two free from state broadcaster NHK and the pay movie service Wowow, but gets a much greater level of viewership because many televisions have the required tuner built in. The new digital service hopes that the attraction of a small antenna and all in one package of around 50 channels will prove irresistible for the Japanese, many of whom receive only two state channels and between three and six commercial networks. A similar venture has already been planned by JSAT, an Itochu Corp. company, which expects to begin a digital TV service early next year using the recently launched JC-Sat 3 satellite. The service will be operated by Digital Media Corp. (DMC) and send around 50, as yet unnamed, stations using digital compression. Seeking to avoid the incompatibility that has led to low take-up of the two analog services, JSAT and SCC announced in February of this year that they would work together to promote a single digital broadcasting and encryption system that would minimize consumer confusion. Japan has around 30 cable TV services with more planned. The major broadcast networks are also interested in using satellite as a way to deliver programming across Japan, a mountainous country not particularly suited to terrestrial TV. Earlier this year the government announced it would allow foreign channels to broadcast direct to Japan, something not previously possible. Already Rupert Murdoch's Hong Kong-based Star Television and Ted Turner's TNT & Cartoon Network have announced they will launch soon in the country. Earlier this week, Country Music Television (CMT) also gained permission to broadcast to Japan. (Martyn Williams/19950913/Press contact: Space Communications Corporation, tel +81-3-5462-1350, fax +81-3-5462-1390; Japan Satellite Systems Inc., tel +81-3-5511-7777, fax +81-3-5512-7180) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 09/13/95 GENERAL Japan Newsbriefs (NEWS)(GENERAL)(TYO)(00015) Japan Newsbriefs 09/13/95 TOKYO, JAPAN, 1995 SEP 13 (NB) -- In this roundup of news from Japan: Mitsumi profits soar, Netscape introduces localized Navigator, Sega plans online games machine, Digital radio planned, Telephone calls up, IBM steps up OS/2 campaign. Mitsumi Profits Soar Mitsumi Electric has announced a 219.1% jump in net profits to 1.44 billion yen on a 104.18 billion yen increase in sales. Unconsolidated pretax profits were up 164.5% on the year. The company now predicts an overall 75% jump in pretax profits for the current fiscal year. Netscape Introduces Localized Navigator Netscape Communications have introduced a localized version of the Netscape Navigator software, a top rated browser for the World Wide Web. The standard edition already handles Japanese language Web pages but the new Japanese language version also offers menus in the language and greater support for Japanese users. A group of 14 companies are selling the software, each of which sets the price it will sell the program for. Sega Plans Online Games Machine Sega will begin selling a version of its Sega Saturn games machine with a built-in modem from next year. The new unit will sell for around 50,000 yen ($487) compared with the current retail price of 34,800 yen ($339) for the standard version. The machine will be able to access computer networks and perform some online gaming functions. Digital Radio Planned Nihon Shortwave Broadcasting (NSB) has applied for a license to begin offering its radio service as a satellite delivered digital service. NSB operates two radio channels, Radio Tanpo 1 and 2, nationwide via shortwave although the station expects modern technology will overtake shortwave broadcasting in the coming years. Telephone Calls Up Japanese residents made 6.7% more telephone calls in the last fiscal year than any other year, according to figures released by the Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications. The total for the period, which ended in March of this year, was 87.43 billion calls; 83.26 billion of those were from fixed telephones with mobile telephones accounting for 4.17 billion calls, a 64.2% increase on the previous year. IBM Steps Up OS/2 Campaign IBM Japan has increased its marketing of the OS/2 operating system by announcing a new telephone support line for business customers. The new IBM Answer Line is operated by IBM Japan, Just Systems, and Lotus Development. Product support for Just System's popular Ichitaro word processor will be a key feature of the service which will also provide specific support for Lotus and IBM applications plus OS/2 in general. (Martyn Williams/19950913) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 09/13/95 TRENDS Digital Video Disk Compromise Reached? (NEWS)(TRENDS)(TYO)(00016) Digital Video Disk Compromise Reached? 09/13/95 TOKYO, JAPAN, 1995 SEP 13 (NB) -- The Kyodo news agency in Japan has reported Toshiba has reached agreement with Sony over a single standard for next generation Digital Video Disks (DVD). A Toshiba spokesman, however, denied the report to Newsbytes. In a report from Tokyo, Kyodo says the compromise has split the SD supporting group, half of which agree with the modified system and half of which want to stick to SD. The report continued that the compromise would be agreed at a meeting this Friday. Speaking to Newsbytes, Toshiba's Keisuke Ohmori denied a compromise had been reached, "We are confused by the story. The Kyodo story is incorrect, we are still in discussions" he said. Regarding the reported meeting this Friday, Ohmori would not confirm or deny such a meeting is to take place, simply saying "We cannot comment. "We are trying to work out a unified standard. We have been asked by our users to work out a new standard. IBM would like an SD-based standard taking in some elements of Sony technology such as the modulation methods" he added. Ohmori did add the company expected an agreement would be reached. Currently the world's electronics and entertainment industry companies are facing a decision over which of two systems to support. A group led by Toshiba and Matsushita has developed the Super Density (SD) format that is being challenged by the Multimedia Compact Disk (MMCD) system developed by Sony and the Dutch Philips group. Initially both groups said they would like a single system but were unwilling to compromise on any format other than their own but as the launch date, currently scheduled for next year, grew nearer, both sides started looking at a compromise. Behind the decision was a desire to avoid what would certainly be a costly format battle that one side would eventually loose. Sony's defeat in the video cassette format battle, which saw its Beta system loose to VHS, and Philips' loss in the digital audio battle, in which the DCC system lost to Sony's Mini-Disk, were fresh in the companies memories. First news of a move to compromise can from the Sony Philips camp during the IFA exhibition in Berlin two weeks ago. Strong support from IBM for a unified format has also helped the resolve of both sides to reach an agreement. An original proposal to keep two systems but use MMCD for computer- based applications and data storage and the SD system for digital video was quickly superseded by the current proposal which marries the two systems together. Sony's modulation technology would be combined with Toshiba's SD disk technology. (Martyn Williams/19950913/Press contact: Keisuke Ohmori, Toshiba Corporation, tel +81-3-3457-2105, fax +81-3-3456-4776) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 09/13/95 BROADCAST Teledesic's Better Satellite Bandwidth (NEWS)(BROADCAST)(MSP)(00017) Teledesic's Better Satellite Bandwidth 09/13/95 SEATTLE, WASHINGTON, U.S.A., 1995 SEP 13 (NB) -- The immense cost of laying fiber optic cable may be hampering efforts to connect rural areas, but residents in outlying areas afflicted with the bandwidth blues could find relief from three firms planning low Earth orbit satellite (LEOS) systems. Francis Hamit reports in .MDRV/Advanced Imaging.MDNM/ that, while these systems may help some, only the relatively new Teledesic initiative is focusing on providing low-cost satellite imaging applications such as telemedicine ("A Powerful New Pair," June 1995, pp. 50-55). "The three original LEOS firms, Loral/Qualcomm (Globalstar), Motorola Satellite Communications (Iridium) and TRW Inc. (Odyssey) are not, it now appears, planning to offer the kind of two-way interactive high resolution video and graphics capability that most people envision for image communications on the so-called 'Information Superhighway,'" Hamit writes. Teledesic, led by Craig McCaw and Bill Gates, plans to encircle the globe with at least 840 small satellites. Because they will orbit much lower than competing satellites, Hamit says, they will require less power, eliminate the half-second lag time associated with higher orbits, and require less powerful ground stations. Hamit dismisses critics who have charged that the Teledesic plan is overly ambitious and notes that the company looks to expand outside of the domestic market to Asia and elsewhere. "(Teledesic's) plan to provide not just POTS [plain old telephone service] capabilities, but broadband digital systems that allow real-time interactive two-way imaging and universal service at the same cost as local telephone calls," Hamit concludes, "should dramatically change the world and fulfill the demand that others now regard as unlikely to be realized." The efforts of Motorola, Loral and TRW are the focus of Harlan S. Byrne's article "Far Out" (.MDRV/Barron's.MDNM/, June 19, 1995, pp. 31-35). Byrne questions the prudence of investing $20 billion or more to build six proposed satellite systems and wonders whether the companies involved are banking on short-term sales of new phones, satellites, and antennas and hoping a long-term market emerges. "It's important to note that the attraction big technology companies have for launching satellite phone systems is not any overwhelming desire to make sure that backpackers in Kenya stay in touch with their grandmothers in Kansas City," Byrne writes. "Rather, it's the hope that many of the world's far-distant regions will someday be served by satellite phones, as opposed to traditional systems." This story is republished with permission from the August 1995 Cybernautics Digest, a monthly summary of reports about converging information technologies. (Contact: Terry Hansen, Cybernautics Digest, c/o KFH Publications Inc., 3530 Bagley Ave. N., Seattle, WA 98103; 206-547-4950; Fax: 206-547-5355; E-mail: cyber@cuix.pscu.com. U.S. rate: $24; $2 sample issue) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 09/13/95 CHIPS China - Xilinx Gate Array Training Design Centers (NEWS)(CHIPS)(HKG)(00018) China - Xilinx Gate Array Training Design Centers 09/13/95 CENTRAL, HONG KONG, 1995 SEP 13 (NB)-- IC vendor Xilinx Asia Pacific, in cooperation with Hong Kong-based distributor Memec (Asia Pacific) Ltd, will open training design centers in Beijing, Shanghai, and Shenzhen by the end of the year. The centers will support manufacturers who are using field programmable gate arrays (FPGAs), programmable logic devices (PLDs), and gate arrays. The first training and design center in Shanghai was recently joined by a second, at the city's Fudan University. They will be followed by the University of Electronic Technology and Science in Chengdu and Shenzhen University. Last year, Memec opened Xilinx's first center in China through a partnership with Tsinghua University in Beijing. "The centers will focus on three areas. They will train local engineers, they will train university under- and post-graduates, and they will serve as open labs. Customers who lack R&D personnel or our development systems can use our labs to do their own designs. The development systems in the labs will be both PC and workstation based," said Stacey Fender, regional sales manager for Xilinx Asia Pacific. "We are selling FPGAs and EPLDs in China mainly to telecom customers who want higher integration in their systems," said Fender. The telecom equipment includes PBXs (private branch exchanges), central office switches, optical fiber, and microwave systems. In the past, according to Fender, Chinese telecom manufacturers used discrete components for the same type of systems but are switching to higher integration devices to simplify the design cycle, reduce power dissipation, and improve system reliability. "In the telecom area, Chinese companies are starting to make some high-end products, so Xilinx is doing quite well there," Fender said. The new design centers will complement an existing network of distributors in China selling Xilinx products. (Nigel Armstrong & I.T. Daily/19950910) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 09/13/95 TRENDS Compaq Leads Asia/Pacific PC Pack (NEWS)(TRENDS)(HKG)(00019) Compaq Leads Asia/Pacific PC Pack 09/13/95 CENTRAL, HONG KONG, 1995 SEP 13 (NB) -- Driven by vigorous demand in the home and server-class PC markets, Compaq Computer ended the second quarter as the market leader in Asia/Pacific with 128,000 units shipped, according to preliminary PC shipment estimates released by Dataquest. The research company's figures confirmed earlier findings from rival researcher IRG that, for the first time, Compaq has surpassed AST Research to become the leading PC vendor in China. "Compaq continues to outclass all rivals in the Asia/Pacific market and is well positioned to lead the market at year-end," said Niall O' Reilly, Hong Kong-based industry analyst at Dataquest. "Overall, the competitive nature of the regional PC market is set to explode, with Dell Computer building a manufacturing plant in Malaysia, and Packard Bell and NEC examining manufacturing options in China." Dataquest placed Compaq as the market leader in China, Australia, Hong Kong, Singapore, and Thailand. Acer Computer maintained its market lead in Taiwan, Indonesia and Malaysia, while Samsung Electronics was the leader in Korea. The top four PC vendors by Asia/Pacific shipments for the second quarter were: Compaq, with 128,000 units representing a 10.1% market share; Acer (92,000 units, 7.2%); Samsung (87,000 units, 6.9%); and AST Research (73,000 units, 5.8%). Total shipments in the second quarter were 1,267,000 units. The home market continued to be the fastest growing segment in mature markets such as Australia, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Singapore, and Malaysia, while business, government, and infrastructure projects are driving volume sales in most of the other emerging Asia/Pacific markets, said Dataquest. Second quarter results also show the most decisive shift yet to 64-bit Pentium technology for the Asia/Pacific market, although the demand for 486-technology lagged behind in China and Indonesia. Dataquest plans to examine the entire Asia/Pacific Market in a series of conferences scheduled September 22 in Seoul, Korea, September 25 in Hong Kong, September 27 in Taipei, Taiwan, September 29 in Singapore, and October 3 in Bangkok, Thailand. Readers wishing to attend any of these conferences can contact Joann Tsoi in Dataquest's Hong Kong office at (852) 2824-6168. (Nigel Armstrong & I.T. Daily/19950906) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 09/13/95 GENERAL Australia - Printer Manufacturer Sponsors Expedition (NEWS)(GENERAL)(SYD)(00020) Australia - Printer Manufacturer Sponsors Expedition 09/13/95 SYDNEY, AUSTRALIA, 1995 SEP 13 (NB) -- Printer manufacturer Star Micronics is sponsoring the Australian Green Ice Traverse expedition through Greenland, and is asking 1,000 other companies to pledge $1 per kilometer, with the money going to the Salvation Army Homeless program in Australia. The expedition is to honor the Australian explorer John Rymill, in a journey which includes 500 kilometers (km) of kayaking through icebergs and rapids and a 500km sled and ski crossing of Greenland's forbidding ice cap. Rymill was a great polar adventurer who mapped more of the Antarctic than the more famous Sir Douglas Mawson. In 1930-31, Rymill was part of an expedition to Greenland to chart an air route between Britain and North America. Ironically, heat has been the greatest enemy of the present day expeditioners as they've made their way up to the 3000 meter level on the ice cap, dragging 90 kilograms (kg) of equipment each. Warm weather has made the going tough as the ice turns to slush and the ice cap is cut with rivers that empty into huge storm drains. The team is now past the danger of polar bears on the east coast and is hoping for a stretch of smoother ice in which to harness the wind with their quadrifoils. This will allow them to pick up speed in preparation for the final and most difficult section. In that location, the wind-chill can push temperatures down as much as 50 degrees C below zero. The destination is Sondre Stromfiord on the west coast of Greenland. Star Micronics invites other technology companies to join it in sponsoring the expedition, and to pledge $1 per kilometer. You can contact Star's managing director Leon Howe on tel. +61-2-748 4300 +61-2-748 3527. And if you really want to be part of things, call Mary O'Malley who is accompanying the expedition. Her satellite phone number is +87-4-685 505 520. (Joanne Bowcock/19950825) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 09/13/95 BUSINESS Computer Associates To Invest In Australia's IT Industry (NEWS)(BUSINESS)(SYD)(00021) Computer Associates To Invest In Australia's IT Industry 09/13/95 SYDNEY, AUSTRALIA, 1995 SEP 13 (NB) -- The Australian federal minister for Industry, Science and Technology says that Computer Associates has signed a $55 million, four-year Fixed Term Agreement with the Australian Government. The agreement provides for export-related activities and investment in regional centers, providing technical support, training, and consulting. It is believed that 35 new jobs will be created. Key initiatives include: an Asia-Pacific Technical Support Center, which is claimed to complete CA's worldwide support operation by complementing the US and European centers; an Asia-Pacific Training Center which will be designed to provide high-level training to the region in Sydney and subsidiary locations throughout Asia-Pacific; a regional consulting center which is proposed to facilitate business opportunities for third party Australian consulting companies; a business partners program to assist Australian software companies to develop and export products throughout the world. Senator Cook said CA's agreement was further evidence of Australia's ability to attract the high-value-added regional service operations of major, global IT corporations. Stephen Richards, managing director of CA Australia said his company had made a significant commitment to Australia because of the availability of a "highly educated, multilingual workforce, and a range of world-class software developers." (Pas Carnevale and Paul Zucker/19950825) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 09/13/95 IBM China - IBM PCs Made In China (NEWS)(IBM)(PEK)(00022) China - IBM PCs Made In China 09/13/95 BEIJING, CHINA, 1995 SEP 13 (NB) -- Great Wall Group, the number one domestic computer firm, has launched a campaign to promote its PCs made domestically by its joint venture with IBM. The firm encourages computer trade-in to attract home computer buyers upgrading their computers and offers a 10 percent discount to college freshmen. Great Wall Group has sold 40,000 computers in China in the first half of this year, which is 40 percent of its total sales goal for 1995, the company said. Since the sales volume ratio between the first and second half years is usually 1:2, the company is "confident" that the original goal for sales of 100,000 computer can be reached. Using a large sign that says, "IBM PC Made In China," Great Wall Group recently started a new promotion. Any college freshmen can purchase a Great Wall S300/486DX2/50 computer at a 10 percent discount, the company said. The regular price of a 486DX computer with four megabytes (MB), a 450MB hard drive, and a 3.5-inch floppy disk drive is RMB8,800 (US$1,060) including a color monitor, a sales manager of Great Wall told Newsbytes. With the college admission letter or a student Identification, a college freshman can buy a computer at RMB7,980 (US$961) with sales tax and value-added tax included. To encourage home computer users to upgrade their computer, Great Wall has also started a "computer trade-in" business. A low-class home computer such a Little Blaster (using the TV as the monitor) can be valued at RMB500 (US$60) or so as a credit towards the purchase of a new 486 computer. An XT or AT (8086 or 286) is valued at around RMB1,000 (US$120), the sales manager told Newsbytes. However, they must be in working condition, she added. The traded-in out-of-date computers will be given to schools in remote areas of China, the company said. These old computers can be used at least for the children there to learn basic computer knowledge and for typing and practicing basic computer operations. (Chih-Ho Yu & Ning Huang/19950824/Reader Contact: Great Wall Computer Monopoly Shop, tel +86-10-253-4155) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 09/13/93 BUSINESS India - PCL Bags DuPont Order (NEWS)(BUSINESS)(DEL)(00023) India - PCL Bags DuPont Order 09/13/93 NEW DELHI, INDIA, 1995 SEP 13 (NB) -- Mindware PCL Pte Ltd., the Singapore software subsidiary and export unit of the R369.8 crore Pertech Computers Ltd. (PCL), has bagged a R3 crore contract from the global chemicals and energy major DuPont, under which the software company will provide technical programming support for DuPont's customer order processing system operating in the Asia-Pacific region. Mindware PCL, which already has clients such as IBM, Deutsche Bank, and Singapore Telecom, had earlier signed up with the German software company, Software AG, to provide a dedicated facility for a business of over R1 crore. Under the contract with DuPont, Mindware PCL will provide remote maintenance for their order processing systems, including system enhancements and modifications, new module development, performance tuning and troubleshooting. A seven-member team from Mindware PCL Pte Ltd. (MPCL) will first train in Singapore and the US, and then relocate in Bangalore and supply their services from the country. According to Harish Nim, vice president Mindware PCL, Singapore,"The benefits of this tie-up are two-fold: first, it is a breakthrough for us in the area of remote maintenance; and second, DuPont's confidence in us shows that we are now in the big league." PCL, which has been ranked as the third largest infotech company in India recorded a turnover of R369.8 crore in the financial year ending 1994-95. It has tie-up with the US-based Dell Computer Corp., and has been front-ending the products and services of Motorola, SCO, and Novell. (C.T. Mahabharat/19950913) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 09/13/95 ONLINE ****Tour Bill Gates' Showplace Home Via The Internet (NEWS)(ONLINE)(DEN)(00024) ****Tour Bill Gates' Showplace Home Via The Internet 09/13/95 KIRKLAND, WASHINGTON, U.S.A., 1995 SEP 13 (NB) -- Millions of people may soon be viewing the 40,000 square-foot lakeside mansion being constructed by Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates and his bride of 20 months, Melinda, and the bride is reportedly not happy about the intrusion, even though not a single visitor will press their nose against a window pane or even set foot in the home. #IMAGE 1 20 TWPCX \images\95091324.PCX Click here for photo That's because the tour is an electronic one on the Internet sponsored by high-tech west coast public relations firm MorseMcFadden Communications Inc. The public relations company has placed color images of the Gates mansion on its World Wide Web site at the URL (Uniform Locator Address) http://www.morsepr.com . "Since there are a number of people wondering what happens to the $89 they spend on Windows 95, we thought it only fitting that they be given the opportunity to see where some of these dollars are being invested," said Dan McFadden, MorseMcFadden president. Microsoft is not a MorseMcFadden client. Dan McFadden told Newsbytes the Web site features a wide shot of the home to establish perspective, and closer shots made with a telephoto lens to show detail of construction. There are also text files that contain information about features of the mansion, including the 50-vehicle garage and the underwater stereo system for the swimming pool. Construction estimates have ranged from $30 million to $40 million, but those numbers are unconfirmed. Despite being contacted by a representative of Melinda Gates, McFadden said his company will continue to offer the photos and information. According to her representative "Melinda is dismayed that you are doing this," said McFadden. The media executive said the Internet content is all public information and Puget Sound tour boats regularly pass by the location. "We are just taking advantage of the new technology which Bill himself is embracing, to disseminate (the information) to a larger crowd." Although this is the beginning of the wet season on the Puget Sound, MorseMcFadden officials said their photographers will continue their soggy treks to obtain new photos for the bi-weekly update of the Web site. Asked by Newsbytes about additional coverage of the Gates home, McFadden said he is considering an aerial shot of the home site. Following a recent radio station interview, a photographer contacted the public relations firm with an offer to provide aerial shots. McFadden said if the firm decides to accept the photographer's offer the photos will be "within the confines of good taste and without divulging anything." Security was tight at the Gates' wedding on one of the Hawaiian islands in January, 1994. All the helicopters, campsites, hotel rooms, and rental cars were booked in an apparent attempt to keep reporters off the island. A television reporter from Seattle was arrested and told to leave the island, although Gates later apologized to the reporter. The journalist, who filed a civil rights lawsuit, also got at least $50,000 which he said he would donate to charity, and an island high school got thousands of dollars worth of multimedia computers and software in the settlement. McFadden told Newsbytes the idea of showing photos and information about the Gates residence grew out of a meeting to plan a client's home page on the World Wide Web. Seeking a way to draw Web browsers to the client's home-based products, the media experts came up with the idea of posting pictures of the Gates home. The client wasn't ready to launch its home page for another six months, and MorseMcFadden executives decided the idea was too good to wait. In addition to the imagery of the Gates' home, MorseMcFadden provides more serious services, such as an Intel ProShare Video Conferencing system installed in its offices that allows clients to demonstrate their products for editors, writers and producers using a high-speed ISDN (integrated services digital network) phone line and a video camera directly integrated into a computer server. (Jim Mallory/19950913/Press and public contact: MorseMcFadden, 206-889-0528/GATEHOUSE950913/PHOTO) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 09/13/95 EDUCATION Sprint Offers Internet Access To Cal State Students (NEWS)(EDUCATION)(LAX)(00025) Sprint Offers Internet Access To Cal State Students 09/13/95 LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1995 SEP 13 (NB) -- Nearly half a million California State University students will be able to purchase Internet access through Sprint this fall. Internet subscriptions will be available at touchscreen kiosks placed on campus throughout the California State University system. Sprint will supply all the Internet connections, through its new "SprintLink on Campus" program. The kiosks and multimedia applications are being supplied by North Communications, and the first kiosks will be up in late October. With the Sprint program Students can prepay for Internet access at $12.50 per month, for 165 hours. Eileen B. Doherty, spokesperson for Sprint, told Newsbytes, "Students can pay for an Internet account, and get online quickly. Today, connecting to the Net can be difficult for students because there is extremely heavy demand and the university network is overburdened. California State University is very worried that their internal access program will be completely blocked in the very near future." In an exclusive multi-year contract award, the California State University system authorized Sprint to provide dial-up accounts for students. Sprint will provide routers, network modems, data circuits, and management. It will ultimately serve 475,000 students, faculty and staff, encompassing 22 campuses statewide. Each of the 22 campuses has an option of whether or not to sign up with sprint. Doherty confirmed that only three or four of the campuses have signed up as of now, but that Sprint fully expects all of them to be on-board soon. The kiosks feature a touch-interface, full-motion video, and audio. Students can learn about the Internet and Sprint services, obtain and pay for Internet access, and receive all initial sign-up information on the spot, including passwords and instructions on how to get connected from their own computers. "Students can be on the Internet quickly and easily at a cost of 7.5 cents an hour," said Don Teague, vice president and general manager of Sprint's Government Systems Division. "SprintLink on Campus answers an ever-growing challenge for the California State University system as demand for Internet access continues to rise." Michael North, president of North Communications, said, "Students will be able to touch the screen, swipe their credit or bank card at the kiosk in the student union building, the library, the registrar's office, or even the cafeteria, and by the time they get home they will be online. This is a major innovation in the public access industry and we anticipate that it will quickly be made available nationwide." All of the internal financial clearing, processing of connection information to the University's network of Internet servers, and ongoing customer support, will be handled by the North Communications data center in Marina del Rey, California. "The contract represents the first agreements between a university and business to provide the benefits of the Internet to large numbers of students. An important feature is that the new service requires no capital outlay on the part of the university to provide this service to students," said Doherty Sprint is a telecommunications company with more than $12.6 billion in annual revenues. North Communications kiosks are being used by many government organizations, including the states of California, Texas, Pennsylvania, and Florida, the City of New York, Los Angeles County, the Social Security Administration, and in Canada, Australia, and Singapore. (Richard Bowers/19950913/Press Contact: Eileen B. Doherty, Sprint, 202-828-7423) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 09/13/95 BROADCAST Virtual Desk Videoconferencing System (NEWS)(BROADCAST)(MSP)(00026) Virtual Desk Videoconferencing System 09/13/95 PITTSBURGH, PENNSYLVANIA, U.S.A., 1995 SEP 13 (NB) -- Imagelink Inc. said its new "Virtual Desk PC" desktop videoconferencing system is "selling like hotcakes." The new system reportedly features no-blur, real-time video, and can be used on a local area network (LAN), a wide area network (WAN), or with integrated services digital networks (ISDN). Paul Cummings, president of Imagelink, told Newsbytes about two hundred units of the product have already shipped in the first few months it has been available, with another 2,000 on back order. "We've really got to belly up to the bar to get these out," he said. Virtual Desk PC is fully scalable to permit use in both point-to-point communications between desktops or transportables, and in multi-user conferencing in a board room or other large setting. It also works on virtually all of the currently accepted LAN and WAN protocols, as well as over ISDN phone lines. Imagelink licenses a coding/decoding (codec) technology that allows for Virtual Desk PC's unique ability to present synchronized video and audio. The video window, which can range in size from a postage stamp to full-screen, can display from less than 10 frames-a-second to the full 30 frames-a-second required for full-motion video, Cummings said. The frame scalability is important for people who use lower band networks, Cummings added. The system supports network throughput up to two megabits-per-second. A shared whiteboard is also used for collaborative computing for data and graphic applications. The temporary distortion or "blurring," seen in other videoconferencing systems, is eliminated due to a pixel refresh feature that conducts a dot-by-dot search for areas of the picture that have changed, Imagelink officials said. Cummings said the videoconferencing market is maturing, and people who buy these systems expect to see full-motion, no-blur video with synchronized audio. "A lot of customers who have purchased our product who have had other products have come back and told us 'This is what we thought videoconferencing would look like.'" Virtual Desk PC minimum requirements are a 386 IBM-compatible, running Windows 3.1 or better, a standard ISA (Industry Standard Architecture) bus architecture, four megabytes (MB) of RAM, and 10MB of usable hard drive space. Cost is $4,699 per system, including codec hardware, videoconferencing and shared whiteboard software, camera, speakers, microphone, headset, manuals, and a one-year warranty. (Bob Woods/19950913/Press Contacts: Jodi Perkins, S&S Public Relations, 708-291-1616; Public Contact: Imagelink, 800-420-1110) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 09/13/95 IBM IBM Intros VisualGen 2.0 For Client-Server App Dev't (NEWS)(IBM)(BOS)(00027) IBM Intros VisualGen 2.0 For Client-Server App Dev't 09/13/95 SOMERS, NEW YORK, U.S.A., 1995 SEP 13 (NB) -- VisualGen 2.0, a new update to IBM's "visual environment" for fourth-generation language (4GL) development, allows for creation of applications that run 10 times faster than in the past, while adding pre-built "multimedia parts," version control, and support for more multivendor execution and middleware environments, maintained IBM's Dana Marks, in an interview with Newsbytes. VisualGen provides the same kinds of capabilities to 4GL programmers that IBM's VisualAge "application generator" gives to C++ and SmallTalk developers, noted Marks, who is program manager for Enterprise Application Development Marketing at IBM. "We have a philosophy (at IBM) about application development that, while you can use (a visual environment) at the highest levels, you still hit a point where you need to use some kind of programming language to specify the application logic involved," Marks told Newsbytes. "So the approach we're taking is to use a visual builder and construction-from-parts environment for front-end design and the highest-level specification. Then, when you have to fall into to a procedural language, we give you a variety of choices. VisualAge today gives you C++ and SmallTalk as the languages. VisualGen lets you use a 4GL, if that's what you want to do." IBM has also released a similar "application generator" for Programming Language/1 (PL/1), he continued. A fourth visual development environment, allowing developers to use COBOL for building application logic, is now under development. Although VisualGen operates under OS/2, the product lets the developer specify "a variety of platforms for the resultant application to run on, or `execution times,'" Newsbytes was told. The new version 2.0 adds support for Microsoft Windows, IBM 0S/400, and IBM's Intelligent Messaging System (IMS) transaction manager as execution environments. Marks added that VisualGen also permits generation of either COBOL or C++ code. "After you've (used the 4GL) to specify your logic, you can just say `generate,' and it will output COBOL or C++ for all the platforms you want to run your programs on," he contended. VisualGen, he asserted, allows for production of "very sophisticated" client-server applications, including three-tier architectures. "We (also) automatically generate all the middleware, which is the `glue' that holds the client-server application together." All the developer needs to do is to define what the middleware environment is going to be -- such as TCP/IP (Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol) or APPC (Advanced Program-to-Program Communications), according to Marks. "When the code is generated, it will be generated with calls to APPC, for example, in order to transfer messages from the client to the server, and vice versa," he illustrated. New in version 2.0 is support for IMS and Customer Information Control System (CICS) 6000 middleware environments. Also new are pre-built graphical user interface (GUI) and multimedia components that the developer can incorporate into applications. The new GUI components support file access and scrolled windows, while also providing improved GUI controls. The new image, video, and audio components can be exchanged with outside applications through the use of Dynamic Data Exchange (DDE), Marks reported. In another enhancement, VisualGen is now outfitted with links to IBM's TeamConnection, a software code library and repository, equipped with software configuration management and version control, that is currently in beta. TeamConnection will also incorporate Data Atlas, a "data dictionary" for defining, creating, and accessing databases. Though Data Atlas, developers will be able to store "COBOL copy files, PL/1 declares, and other structures that can be used by VisualGen," Marks maintained. "We will also be integrating other tools with our TeamConnection product. But VisualGen will be the first," the IBM exec revealed. IBM's VisualGen 2.0 is available now, at pricing of $3,999 for the first license and $3,599 for additional licenses. Upgrades from version 1.0 and 1.1 are priced at $719 for the first license, and $649 for subsequent licenses. (Jacqueline Emigh/19950911/Reader Contact: IBM, 800-IBM-3333; Press Contacts: Keith Mary Rantas-Drew, IBM, 914-766-1211; Chris Webber or Margaret Bonilla, Brodeur & Partners for IBM, 617-622-2800) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 09/13/95 ONLINE S&S Teaches About Viruses In Online, Museum Activities (NEWS)(ONLINE)(BOS)(00028) S&S Teaches About Viruses In Online, Museum Activities 09/13/95 BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS, U.S.A., 1995 SEP 13 (NB) -- "Viruses aren't `bugs,' and they aren't trojans," maintained David Emm, customer services manager for S&S Software, during a presentation at the Computer Museum in Boston, held to mark a multivendor observance of Virus Awareness Day (VAD) that is happening on Compuserve, the Web, and elsewhere in the world through the end of September. At the recent presentation, which was attended by Newsbytes, Pat Bitton, VP of marketing for S&S, told journalists and MIS (management information systems) specialists that S&S is also honoring VAD by taking part in a VAD Forum on Compuserve -- co-sponsored by the NCSA (National Security Association) and a multi- vendor VAD Consortium -- and by setting aside a special section of the S&S Web page for "virus awareness" activities. Also during the presentation in Boston, Bitton briefed attendees on upcoming product plans for S&S Software's Dr. Solomon's Anti-Virus Toolkit -- which include ports to Windows 95, Macintosh, and SCO (Santa Cruz Operation) Unix -- and Glenn Jordan, senior technology consultant for S&S, delivered a demo on the use of current Windows- and DOS-based versions of the product to detect a "boot-sector form virus." The presentation to reporters and corporate MIS staffers on the evening of Friday, September 8 was sandwiched between three days of strictly educational seminars, also delivered by S&S at the Computer Museum. On each of three days -- Friday through Sunday -- S&S offered one two-hour technical tutorial on virus prevention, plus three 15-minute introductory sessions for the general public. The company also staffed an information booth during museum exhibit hours, according to Bitton. At the Friday night event, Emm began his talk by spelling out the differences between viruses, trojans, and mere software "bugs." In contrast to bugs, which occur accidentally, viruses and trojans are "deliberately written," said the customer service manager. In another area of commonality, viruses and trojans are both built around "hidden agendas," he reported. But unlike viruses, trojans are unable to replicate. Emm told the group that all viruses contain at least two types of code: "copying" code, and "hiding" code. Some viruses, he added, also contain "trigger" and "payload" code. As one example, the S&S exec cited the Michelangelo virus, which takes hold of infected computers on March 6 of each year. For Michelangelo, March 6 is the "trigger," he illustrated. The "payload" is the result of the "trigger." Michelangelo also stands as an example of a "form" virus, or a virus that remains hidden except on those days specified by the virus writer, according to Emm. The more than 5,000 computer viruses known to exist today include an abundance of "form" or "repeating" viruses, ranging from Anarkia, which strikes on any "Tuesday the 13th" of the month, to AntiCAD (computer-aided design) 2, a "fourth-quarter" virus whose presence is only felt from September 20 through December 31. Emm also delineated a number of other viral varieties. In the "Nomenklatura virus," for instance, "the data is all there, but just in the wrong order." The "stealth virus," on the other hand, "attempts to conceal its growth." Emm added that where legitimate software programmers often tend to avoid writing TSR (terminate-and-stay-resident) programs, the reverse is true of virus writers. "To the virus writer, if (the system) crashes, that's all to the good." The best way to prevent viruses is through "good network management practices" such as distributing only "write-protect" disks to end users, he continued. But a good anti-viral software product like Dr. Solomon's can protect against "almost all viruses," he contended. "A lot of virus writers think that if you can't deal with a virus, you shouldn't be allowed to use a computer," said Jordan, the next speaker. During his demo, Jordan described the "boot sector virus." Contrary to what many people think, boot sector viruses are not spread by system disks alone, according to the S&S consultant. Any infected floppy disk can spread the virus, if it resides in a floppy drive at the time of system start-up. Jordan also showed the audience a few of the differences between the DOS and Windows 3.1 versions of Dr. Solomon's Anti-Virus Software. Because the Windows 3.1 edition employs extended memory, it is able to be more precise in pinpointing the kind of virus present, he asserted. In Jordan's demo of the "boot sector form virus," the DOS version of Dr. Solomon's was able to detect a "form virus," but the Windows edition knew that it was a "form a" type of virus. Bitton told the audience that Dr. Solomon's started out as a DOS- based product, and was then ported to Windows and OS/2, adding a virus analysis program along the way. S&S now plans to release versions for Windows 95, Mac, and SCO by the end of this year, plus a new "multivendor family" by the second quarter of 1996, she noted. S&S will also add "links to Novell NetWare" that will appear on existing platforms in October, and in the upcoming Windows 95 edition in November, according to the S&S VP. As previously reported in Newsbytes, S&S Software, a company billed as the top producer of anti-viral software in Europe, opened a US headquarters in Burlington, Massachusetts in March of this year. You can access the VAD Forum on Compuserve by typing GO VAD. S&S Software International is located at www.drsolomon.com on the Web. (Jacqueline Emigh/19950911/Reader Contacts: S&S Software, 617-273- 7400; Computer Museum, 617-426-2800; Press Contacts: Steven J. Leon, Technopolis Communications for S&S, 310-670-5806; Gail Jennes, Computer Museum, 617-426-2800) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 09/13/95 ONLINE ****AT&T/BBN's WorldNet Enters Nationwide US Rollout (NEWS)(ONLINE)(BOS)(00029) ****AT&T/BBN's WorldNet Enters Nationwide US Rollout 09/13/95 CAMBRIDGE, MASSACHUSETTS, U.S.A., 1995 SEP 13 (NB) -- In a coast- to-coast videoconference, AT&T and BBN Planet announced nationwide availability of the first phase of AT&T WorldNet Managed Service, plus the first three customers for the Internet access service for business customers, a "tailored" pricing model, and plans to start beta testing a second slate of Internet services five weeks from now. Initially accessible over leased lines and Accunet frame relay to 672 AT&T and BBN points-of-presence (POPs), AT&T WorldNet carries a fixed monthly price that is based on "width of pipe," said AT&T's Tom Evslin, speaking during the IIN (Interactive Information Networks) videoconference, conducted yesterday afternoon from New York City and attended by Newsbytes via a downlink to Redgate Communications, Cambridge, Massachusetts. For businesses with pre-established access arrangements with AT&T, WorldNet fees for accessing the Internet can be as low as "zero dollars," meaning that many of the initial slate of users will come from AT&T's existing customer base, reported Evslin, who is VP for Gateway Services at AT&T. Beyond basic Internet access, many related services are immediately available on an optional basis, such as the lease of premises equipment at $125 per month and Primary DNS (Domain Naming Service) at $100 per month, and network monitoring and security services, also at separate pricing. "Customers don't have to pay for anything more than what they need," Evslin told the broadcast audience. Evslin and Cliff Conneighton, VP of marketing for BBN Planet, both emphasized that AT&T and BBN are launching the nationwide commercial rollout ten weeks after the initial announcement of the joint effort in June, as initially planned. WorldNet entered regional rollouts in some US cities in August. In another five weeks, AT&T and BBN will begin to beta test additional WorldNet services that will include dialup access and Internet directories, the two officials revealed. BBN's Conneighton maintained that, on average, the Web is now adding "one new business" every four minutes. "Eventually, (the Web) will become a competitive imperative for every business," he said. "That represents a huge opportunity for both of us, and we're looking forward to continuing to work with AT&T." Evslin noted that the first three commercial customers for WorldNet -- Promus Hotel Corp., McCann-Erickson Worldwide, and the Associated Group -- are each employing Internet access for multiple purposes. AT&T and BBN expect this to pattern to be prevalent among WorldNet users, he added. In many situations, he predicted, WorldNet customers will use different forms of access -- such as high-speed T1 leased lines, 56 kilobits-per-second (Kbps) access, and dial-in access over standard phone lines -- for different purposes. Monthly tariff prices for T1 and 56 Kbps access run about $2,600 and $1,200, respectively, according to Conneighton. Norman Cavin, director of consumer marketing for Promus, told the videoconference viewers that the hotel corporation is initially using WorldNet to provide Internet access to all corporate employees, as well as for a home page on the Web that is "taking hotel information to customers." Promus owns and oversees the Embassy Suites, Hampton Inn, and Homewood hotel chains. Services provided by Promus's home page include a complete listing of services for customers, with "graphical maps of properties," plus an electronic-mail (e-mail) channel for receiving comments and opinions. Later this month, Promus intends to add a "reservation capability for all our customers online," Cavin added. The hotel corporation is using a Netscape Web server, with encryption from RSA Data Security for "secure" credit card transactions. Along similar lines, McCann-Erickson signed up for WorldNet as a way of conducting business with the company's suppliers and 3,000 clients, as well as to carry out market research and "explore new media," said Nic Di Iorio, senior VP and director of information technology for the ad agency. Ed Leer, VP for corporate networks at The Associated Group, told the audience that the diversified insurance and financial firm will ultimately use WorldNet to provide Web access to 13,000 employees at 200 offices throughout the US, as well as to offer a variety of home pages on the Web to customers. During a phone Q&A at the close of the videoconference, Evslin said that AT&T and BBN plan to provide multiple Internet directory services, both "exhaustive, like the (telephone directory) white pages," and "edited," for finding "interesting services." Conneighton added that there are two "fundamental uses" of the Internet. "One is when you're trying to be found. The other is (communicating with) `communities of interest.'" These communities can be "very large but not public," calling for tasks like "moving rich information between clients," he elaborated. Also in the future, WorldNet will add access via ATM (asynchronous transfer mode) and ANCS (AT&T NetWare Connect Service), a joint venture between AT&T and Novell. according to Evslin. ATM will be useful for handling "surges" in demand, as well as for "isynchronous" applications mixing data with voice and video, he said. "ANCS (will provide) a `managed network,' as opposed to a `managed connection.' We think of it as a `subnetwork,'" the AT&T VP elaborated. But Evslin also denied industry reports, broached by one journalist, that AT&T's Imagination Network no longer "fits into" AT&T's plans. "We don't have any plans to sell off our services. Over time, I'd look at services like the Imagination Network to be more accessible (to the Internet)," he responded. (Jacqueline Emigh/19950913/Reader Contact: AT&T, 800-309-3349; BBN Planet, 617-873-2000; Press Contacts: Rick Brayall, AT&T, 617-574- 3196; Brenda A. Nichols, Parker, Nichols & Company for BBN, 508- 369-2108; Reader and Press Contact: IIN, 800-766-7898) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 95 09/13/95 WINDOWS ****Netcom's Web Browser Does Run On Windows (NEWS)(WINDOWS)(SFO)(00030) ****Netcom's Web Browser Does Run On Windows 95 09/13/95 SAN JOSE, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1995 SEP 13 (NB) -- An erroneous story spread through the national media this past week-end when Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) briefly posted information saying a version of Netcom's (NASDAQ:NETC) browser, Navigator, was not compatible with Windows 95. Microsoft's Internet site carried the posting which said version 1.1b of the browser was not compatible with the new Microsoft operating system. After speaking to Netcom, Newsbytes learned the national Internet provider never had a version 1.1b of NetCruiser. The current versions of NetCruiser at this time are 1.6 and 2.0. A company spokesperson said, "We were really surprised to read the stories which appeared in the media. We have never had a version 1.1b of NetCruiser. Both the 1.6 and 2.0 versions were tested thoroughly and found to be fully compatible with Windows 95." After the story broke, Netcom immediately called Microsoft to correct the problem. In response, the companies teamed to create a press release assuring everyone of NetCruiser's Windows 95 compatibility. In the press release, Microsoft's Windows 95 product manager, Mike Conte, is quoted as saying, "We're very pleased that Netcom has selected Windows 95 as the supporting platform for NetCruiser and regret any misperceptions the industry might have reached based upon the miscommunication on our home page. Microsoft is committed to making Windows 95 the ideal platform for third-party applications." Netcom says it is pleased with Microsoft's response and wants to assure the industry and its customers that NetCruiser went through extensive Windows 95 testing with Microsoft prior to the introduction. Version 1.6 of the browser was first available in April. Version 2.0, the latest upgrade, was recently introduced and can be downloaded through a free online transfer. Netcom was surprised at how quickly the media picked-up the story and ran it without checking the facts and contacting the company. "A lot of this could have been avoided by checking the facts with us," said the company spokesperson. (Patrick McKenna/19950913/Press Contact: Jeannie Slone, Netcom, 408-556-3211) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 09/13/95 APPLE ****230MB Floppy Disk Storage For Powerbooks (NEWS)(APPLE)(SFO)(00031) ****230MB Floppy Disk Storage For Powerbooks 09/13/95 CUPERTINO, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1995 SEP 13 (NB) -- Apple Computer (NASDAQ:AAPL) and Fujitsu have announced, what the firms claim is, the world's smallest magneto-optical rewriteable drive for Apple's new line of Powerbooks. The $449 drive provides as much as 230 megabytes (MB) of floppy storage and should be available this fall. Called PowerBook DynaMO 230, the new drive connects to a PowerBook's expansion bay connector. The drive is slightly more than a half-inch high (17 millimeters) and weighs 12.6 ounces. A special magneto- optical 3.5-inch floppy disk is used to store data. These disks can hold either 128MB or 230MB of data and may be rewritten to an unlimited number of times. At 230MB, a magneto-optical floppy for the PowerBook DynaMO 230 holds almost 160 times the data of a standard floppy disk. PowerBook DynaMO 230 is designed specifically for the new PowerBook 190 (PowerPC upgradable) and 5300 (Power PC) series. It is a portable version of Fujitsu's DynaMO 230. Apple says the new drive will be available through standard Apple channels. Apple spokesperson, Russ Ito, told Newsbytes, "We think the combination of a removable and rewriteable storage device is a valuable asset to mobile computer users. With 230MB of storage, a company can create a presentation which may be sent to its other offices where custom information may be added or specific editing take place. Instead of using a CD which may not be edited, users can now choose the PowerBook DynaMO 230 and have the added benefit of running a presentation or program faster than a quad-speed CD-ROM drive." Ito said the 230MB floppies will sell for about $20 each. He also said the thickness of the magneto-optical (MO) floppy is slightly less than the thickness of two standard magnetic floppies. Unlike the standard floppy, the MO floppy cannot be accidentally erased by close contact to magnetic fields. Fujitsu's DynaMO 230 is a compatible desktop drive which is a small computer system interface (SCSI) device. With the drive installed on a desktop Macintosh computer, a user can use a MO floppy on either the PowerBook or desktop computer. (Patrick McKenna/1995/Press Contact: Russ Ito, Apple, 408-894-3565/APPLE950913/PHOTO) (SUMMARY)(GENERAL)(MSP)(00032) Newsbytes Daily Summary 09/13/95 MINNEAPOLIS, MINNESOTA, U.S.A., 1995 SEP 13 (NB) -- These are capsules of all today's news stories: 1 -> Microsoft Announces Visual C++ Version 4.0 09/13/95 Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ: MSFT) has announced version 4.0 of its Visual C++ development system for Windows 95 and Windows NT. The company said one of the software's most important features is the ability to reuse code. 2 -> Foreign Versions Of Netscape Navigator Intro'd 09/13/95 Using the same graphical interface of its well-known Internet browser, Navigator version 1.1, Netscape (NASDAQ:NCSP) says it is ready to offer a French, German, and Japanese version of the software. All of the features of the latest English language version are incorporated into the new foreign language programs. 3 -> New NetShark Internet Browser/App 09/13/95 InterCon Systems has announced two products for World Wide Web applications. NetShark is a combined multimedia electronic-mail program with a World Wide Web browser, while InterServer Publisher is a Macintosh-based Internet server package. 4 -> NetWorld+Interop Trade Show On Internet 09/13/95 NetWorld+Interop, a trade show slated for September 25-29 at the Atlanta Georgia World Congress Center, has announced the opening of N+I Online for the Internet. N+I Online will operate two weeks prior to the event, the week of the event, and two weeks after the close of the show. 5 -> ****Microsoft To Collaborate On In-flight TV 09/13/95 Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ: MSFT) has announced it will offer Microsoft Interactive Television (MITV) on airplanes for in-flight entertainment systems. MITV is Microsoft's software architecture and applications platform for the delivery of interactive entertainment and services in various venues. 6 -> Europe - Tektronix Supports For Windows 95 09/13/95 Tektronix, the manufacturer of network color printing devices and cross-platform computing systems, has announced the Phaser range of color printers, and a new driver package, WinDD. According to the company, the Phaser range of printers are fully Windows 95-compliant, as is the Unix-based WinDD package. 7 -> Windows 95 "A Red Herring" In OS Marketplace - Report 09/13/95 "All the hype about Windows 95 is detracting from the key issue in the operating system market," claims Heather Stark, author of "Operating Systems: Markets and Futures," a new report from the Ovum group. 8 -> UK - Barclays Bank Hooks Into Microsoft Network 09/13/95 Barclays Bank has announced it has started banking operations on Microsoft Network (MSN) for UK subscribers to the online service. According to the bank, it is the only UK financial institution that is available on MSN. 9 -> UK - NatWest Unveils Interactive TV Banking 09/13/95 NatWest has announced what it claims is the world's first interactive TV banking service. The service is available to customers in the Cambridge area, as part of Online Media's home shopping and entertainment services trial. Later this year, the bank plans to offer the service as part of British Telecom's Interactive Trial in Ipswich and Colchester. 10 -> UK - Pegasus Extends EDI Acct Software Reach 09/13/95 Pegasus has acquired Accredit, PCD's electronic data interchange (EDI) applications software, for an undisclosed sum. 11 -> Olivetti Previews Envision Home Multimedia PC 09/13/95 Olivetti has previewed Envision, a multimedia PC system for the home that it claims offers a complete range of functions for work, entertainment, information, and communications, to the press in Italy. 12 -> PCS Will Take Time, Cellular Incompatibilities Loom - Forrester 09/13/95 Much-talked-about new personal communications services (PCS) will take years to become widely available in the United States, according to Forrester Research Inc., and in the meantime, changes in cellular phone technology will lead to a rash of incompatibility problems. 13 -> Gartner Symposium To Include Top Industry Execs 09/13/95 Chief executives of six top technology companies will form a panel that will try to predict the course of the industry over the next five years at Gartner Group Inc.'s Symposium/ITxpo 95, to be held in Lake Buena Vista, Florida, October 9-13. The panel, moderated by NBC news anchor Tom Brokaw, will be part of a five-day event in which more than 150 Gartner Group analysts will also participate. 14 -> US/Japanese Group Plans Digital TV 09/13/95 A consortium made up of an American firm and several Japanese companies has said it will begin studies to work towards the start of digital satellite broadcasting in Japan. Such technology has yet to be introduced to Japan despite its growing use in the United States and Europe. 15 -> Japan Newsbriefs 09/13/95 In this roundup of news from Japan: Mitsumi profits soar, Netscape introduces localized Navigator, Sega plans online games machine, Digital radio planned, Telephone calls up, IBM steps up OS/2 campaign. 16 -> Digital Video Disk Compromise Reached? 09/13/95 The Kyodo news agency in Japan has reported Toshiba has reached agreement with Sony over a single standard for next generation Digital Video Disks (DVD). A Toshiba spokesman, however, denied the report to Newsbytes. 17 -> Teledesic's Better Satellite Bandwidth 09/13/95 The immense cost of laying fiber optic cable may be hampering efforts to connect rural areas, but residents in outlying areas afflicted with the bandwidth blues could find relief from three firms planning low Earth orbit satellite (LEOS) systems. 18 -> China - Xilinx Gate Array Training Design Centers 09/13/95 IC vendor Xilinx Asia Pacific, in cooperation with Hong Kong-based distributor Memec (Asia Pacific) Ltd, will open training design centers in Beijing, Shanghai, and Shenzhen by the end of the year. The centers will support manufacturers who are using field programmable gate arrays (FPGAs), programmable logic devices (PLDs), and gate arrays. 19 -> Compaq Leads Asia/Pacific PC Pack 09/13/95 Driven by vigorous demand in the home and server-class PC markets, Compaq Computer ended the second quarter as the market leader in Asia/Pacific with 128,000 units shipped, according to preliminary PC shipment estimates released by Dataquest. The research company's figures confirmed earlier findings from rival researcher IRG that, for the first time, Compaq has surpassed AST Research to become the leading PC vendor in China. 20 -> Australia - Printer Manufacturer Sponsors Expedition 09/13/95 Printer manufacturer Star Micronics is sponsoring the Australian Green Ice Traverse expedition through Greenland, and is asking 1,000 other companies to pledge $1 per kilometer, with the money going to the Salvation Army Homeless program in Australia. 21 -> Computer Associates To Invest In Australia's IT Industry 09/13/95 The Australian federal minister for Industry, Science and Technology says that Computer Associates has signed a $55 million, four-year Fixed Term Agreement with the Australian Government. 22 -> China - IBM PCs Made In China 09/13/95 Great Wall Group, the number one domestic computer firm, has launched a campaign to promote its PCs made domestically by its joint venture with IBM. The firm encourages computer trade-in to attract home computer buyers upgrading their computers and offers a 10 percent discount to college freshmen. 23 -> India - PCL Bags DuPont Order 09/13/93 Mindware PCL Pte Ltd., the Singapore software subsidiary and export unit of the R369.8 crore Pertech Computers Ltd. (PCL), has bagged a R3 crore contract from the global chemicals and energy major DuPont, under which the software company will provide technical programming support for DuPont's customer order processing system operating in the Asia-Pacific region. 24 -> ****Tour Bill Gates' Showplace Home Via The Internet 09/13/95 Millions of people may soon be viewing the 40,000 square-foot lakeside mansion being constructed by Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates and his bride of 20 months, Melinda, and the bride is reportedly not happy about the intrusion, even though not a single visitor will press their nose against a window pane or even set foot in the home. 25 -> Sprint Offers Internet Access To Cal State Students 09/13/95 Nearly half a million California State University students will be able to purchase Internet access through Sprint this fall. Internet subscriptions will be available at touchscreen kiosks placed on campus throughout the California State University system. 26 -> Virtual Desk Videoconferencing System 09/13/95 Imagelink Inc. said its new "Virtual Desk PC" desktop videoconferencing system is "selling like hotcakes." The new system reportedly features no-blur, real-time video, and can be used on a local area network (LAN), a wide area network (WAN), or with integrated services digital networks (ISDN). 27 -> IBM Intros VisualGen 2.0 For Client-Server App Dev't 09/13/95 VisualGen 2.0, a new update to IBM's "visual environment" for fourth-generation language (4GL) development, allows for creation of applications that run 10 times faster than in the past, while adding pre-built "multimedia parts," version control, and support for more multivendor execution and middleware environments, maintained IBM's Dana Marks, in an interview with Newsbytes. 28 -> S&S Teaches About Viruses In Online, Museum Activities 09/13/95 "Viruses aren't `bugs,' and they aren't trojans," maintained David Emm, customer services manager for S&S Software, during a presentation at the Computer Museum in Boston, held to mark a multivendor observance of Virus Awareness Day (VAD) that is happening on Compuserve, the Web, and elsewhere in the world through the end of September. 29 -> ****AT&T/BBN's WorldNet Enters Nationwide US Rollout 09/13/95 In a coast- to-coast videoconference, AT&T and BBN Planet announced nationwide availability of the first phase of AT&T WorldNet Managed Service, plus the first three customers for the Internet access service for business customers, a "tailored" pricing model, and plans to start beta testing a second slate of Internet services five weeks from now. 30 -> ****Netcom's Web Browser Does Run On Windows 95 09/13/95 An erroneous story spread through the national media this past week-end when Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) briefly posted information saying a version of Netcom's (NASDAQ:NETC) browser, Navigator, was not compatible with Windows 95. Microsoft's Internet site carried the posting which said version 1.1b of the browser was not compatible with the new Microsoft operating system. 31 -> ****230MB Floppy Disk Storage For Powerbooks 09/13/95 Apple Computer (NASDAQ:AAPL) and Fujitsu have announced, what the firms claim is, the world's smallest magneto-optical rewriteable drive for Apple's new line of Powerbooks. The $449 drive provides as much as 230 megabytes (MB) of floppy storage and should be available this fall. (Ian Stokell/19950913) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 1996 09/12/95 GENERAL ENIAC 50th Anniversary Set For (NEWS)(GENERAL)(TOR)(00001) ENIAC 50th Anniversary Set For 1996 09/12/95 PHILADELPHIA, PENNSYLVANIA, U.S.A., 1995 SEP 12 (NB) -- February 14, 1996, will be the 50th anniversary of the day researchers at the University of Pennsylvania's Moore School of Electrical Engineering switched on ENIAC, precursor of the modern computer. Next year, the University of Pennsylvania and the city of Philadelphia plan a year-long celebration of that event. #IMAGE 1 20 TWPCX \images\95091201.PCX Click here for photo Vice-President Al Gore, noted as a politician with a strong interest in technology, is the honorary chairman of the celebration, which will include special exhibits and interactive kiosks, a February 14 dinner honoring contributors to modern computing, and more than 20 computing- related trade shows and conferences taking place in Philadelphia. Because of the ENIAC 50th anniversary, Philadelphia will host more than its usual complement of computing-related shows and conferences in 1996, University of Pennsylvania spokeswoman Barbara Beck told Newsbytes. Among them will be the Association for Computing Machinery's (ACM) Computing Week 96 conference. During the summer, the University of Pennsylvania will lead a series of international symposia exploring information technology's impact on society. During the 1995-96 school year, Unisys Corp. of Blue Bell, Pennsylvania, and The Franklin Institute will install new computers in selected elementary schools across the United States as part of a three-year, $6 million Science Learning Network project funded by Unisys and the National Science Foundation. The Franklin Institute also plans to open a $7 million permanent exhibit on information processing during the summer of 1996. The committee in charge of the ENIAC 50th anniversary includes Dr. Judith Rodin, president of the University of Pennsylvania, James Unruh, chairman and chief executive of Unisys, and Edward Rendell, mayor of Philadelphia. The acronym ENIAC stood for Electronic Numerical Integrator and Computer. The ENIAC 50th celebration has a home page on the World Wide Web at http://www.seas.upenn.edu/ . (Grant Buckler/19950911/Press Contact: Barbara Beck, University of Pennsylvania, tel 215-898-8658, fax 215-898-1203, Internet e-mail beck@pobox.upenn.edu/ENIAC950912/PHOTO) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 09/12/95 GENERAL Wordperfect Magazines Get New Publisher (NEWS)(GENERAL)(DEN)(00002) Wordperfect Magazines Get New Publisher 09/12/95 OREM, UTAH, U.S.A., 1995 SEP 12 (NB) -- Novell Inc. (NASDAQ: NOVL) says it has structured a management buyout deal of the division that publishes Wordperfect Magazine, Wordperfect for Windows Magazine, and other end user-oriented publications. Novell said it has arranged the buyout with IVY International Communications Inc. to take over Novell's magazine division. IVY will continue to publish Wordperfect Magazine, Wordperfect for Windows Magazine, and other printed and electronic publications and products. The buyout brings full circle the publishing function of Wordperfect magazines, since it was formerly produced by Wordperfect Publishing Corp., an independent company that was acquired by Wordperfect Corp. in April, 1993. Wordperfect Corp. merged with Novell last year. Novell and IVY have also entered into a publishing partnership that calls for IVY to function as Novell's "preferred publishing partner" for magazines related to Novell's personal productivity line of software applications. Craig Woolley, former Novell magazine division director and now president of IVY, said the deal lets the two companies "concentrate on what they do best." The relationship is a symbiotic one, with the publisher helping Novell sell software by showing users "how to use Novell products effectively," while Novell will help ensure the continued publication of the magazines and the development of new applications titles such as the PerfectOffice Newsletter. Novell said subscribers to the Wordperfect magazines and other publications can expects a smooth transition. In addition to the Wordperfect magazines and the PerfectOffice newsletter, IVY will offer a Disk of the Month, the WPMag Online, and magazines on CD. The PerfectOffice newsletter is slated to launch October 15, said IVY spokesperson Shannon Harmon, with an electronic version to follow at a later date. Harmon told Newsbytes the electronic versions of the magazines are offered online at no cost and contain selected articles from the print edition. The online edition also contains Tips, which IVY's Bob Wright said are changed daily, and New content that changes three times a week and has never appeared in the hard copy. Online readers are also encouraged to submit tips and macros, and often exchange ideas, said Wright. Online readers can reach the Wordperfect for Windows electronic magazine at http://wpwinmag@wordperfect.com , and the DOS electronic edition at http://wpmag@wordperfect.com . The Web address changes on September 15 to substitute "ivy.com" for "wordperfect.com" in both addresses. The printed editions of all the Wordperfect magazines, including a version for the United Kingdom, are $24 per year. (Jim Mallory/19950911/Press contact: Shannon Harmon, IVY International Communication, 801-227-3447 or Barbara French, Novell, 408-577-6382; Reader contact: Ivy, 800-228-9626) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 09/12/95 ONLINE "The Biz" E-Zine Officially Launches (NEWS)(ONLINE)(MSP)(00003) "The Biz" E-Zine Officially Launches 09/12/95 NEW YORK CITY, NEW YORK, U.S.A., 1995 SEP 12 (NB) -- Marinex Multimedia Corp. has officially launched "The Biz: The Digizine for the Entertainment Industry," described as an Internet World Wide Web trade publication for the entertainment "biz" with "consumer appeal." Specifically, The Biz covers film, television, music, multimedia, and traditional print publishing. Newsbytes first covered the publication in July, when it was first announced to the public. The Biz claims it "is dedicated to talking with the movers, the shakers, the dealmakers, and other behind-the-scenes celebrities in the entertainment business," Jonathan Braun, co-publisher of The Biz, told Newsbytes at the time. In a more recent conversation, Braun told Newsbytes the site has been increasing in the number of hits and visits. He also said several advertising agencies had already contacted Marinex about possible ads and sponsorships. The core of the magazine centers around interviews with behind-the- scenes celebrities, including Billboard publisher Howard Lander, record producer Scott Litt, and director/screenwriter Melvin Van Peebles. The interviews feature downloadable audio clips, with video clips planned for the future. All of the interviews are conducted by Braun, a former Parade Magazine editor and New York Sunday News feature writer. The Biz will also feature daily news and press releases, through a deal with Business Wire's Entertainment wire. A "Source" section contains a "Who's Who" list of the entertainment world. Hotlinks are also available to other entertainment-related Web sites. In addition, weekly columns are featured in The Biz on topics ranging from Wall Street entertainment analysis to legal affairs. Newsbytes' own Bob Woods serves as the multimedia columnist. His article this week explores Bill Gates' interest in Hollywood. Marinex also publishes "Trouble & Attitude," a bi-monthly CD-ROM magazine Newsbytes has also previously covered. The Biz is located on the Web at http://www.bizmag.com . (Newsbytes Staff/19950911/Press Contacts: Katherine Keating, Marinex Multimedia Corp., 212-334-6700) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 09/12/95 GENERAL Novell Certification In High School Curriculum (NEWS)(GENERAL)(LAX)(00004) Novell Certification In High School Curriculum 09/12/95 SAN JOSE, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1995 SEP 12 (NB) -- Nearly 100 San Jose, California, high school students will be enrolling in new computer network administration courses, developed in partnership with Novell Inc. (NASDAQ: NOVL) and the San Jose Education Network (SJEN). High school students who successfully complete the network administration curriculum and pass a Novell certification exam will become Certified Novell Administrators (CNAs). "By offering the CNA program at the high school level, Novell is able to give back to the community," said Carolyn G. Rose, vice president and general manager of Novell Education. "Technology changes so rapidly. It's difficult for schools to keep up, especially as they face funding and appropriations challenges. This is just one example of how the private sector can make a difference." The courses began as part of a three-year-old initiative of the San Jose school system. Within three years, the four San Jose school districts, representing 30 high schools, expect to include the Certified Novell Administrator curriculum in all of their high schools as part of the regular course of study. The San Jose Education Network currently consists of a wide area network (WAN) connecting 64 Santa Clara county schools. Ten of these schools offer total distributed access to the WAN from any computer on site over a NetWare 4.1 network. These 10 schools are the ones that will be offering the CNA class to selected students this year. David Katz, director of the San Jose Education Network, told Newsbytes, "SJEN receives financial support, as well as products and services, from many public and private sources, including Novell, 3Com Corp., Sun Microsystems, Pacific Bell, and the City of San Jose." According to documents submitted to Newsbytes, The San Jose Education Network has spent over $13.5 million on the program with millions more needed to finish the network. While private sector contributions have reached $5.5 million, public monies spent have reached over $8 million. Public monies spent by the school districts have included over $2 million for training, $2.5 million for wiring, and $2.25 million for equipment. The City of San Jose gave $1 million in cash to start the program in 1993. Stated goals for the $17 million project include: build a telecommunications network that links every classroom in participating high schools" to the Internet; train teachers and students to effectively integrate technology into educational programs for the purpose of systematic reform; extend the network to at least a single point in every elementary and middle school as a tool for developing curriculum; and develop and support innovative programs to integrate technology into curriculum. (Richard Bowers/19950911/Press Contact: David Katz, San Jose Education Network, 408-453-6748) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 09/12/95 LEGAL Law Reform Bill Stalled In Congress (NEWS)(LEGAL)(WAS)(00005) Law Reform Bill Stalled In Congress 09/12/95 WASHINGTON, D.C., U.S.A., 1995 SEP 12 (NB) -- Legislation to reform the nation's civil litigation system -- long sought by high-tech companies including computer firms -- is stalled in Congress and unlikely to see action this year. That's the conclusion of legislative experts who followed both House and Senate passage of tort reform bills earlier this year. The problem is that the two measures are very different, with the Senate bill much more moderate than a hard-edged bill that passed the House. And the leadership of both bodies appears unwilling to compromise at this moment. House Speaker Newt Gingrich (R-Ga.) has made it clear that he does not expect a House-Senate conference committee to work out differences in the two measures this year. "I don't think there's any hurry to move on this," an anonymous aide, probably Gingrich press secretary Tony Blankley, told the New York Times. "One side has to budge, and right now that's not going to happen." If the bill to change the way lawsuits are filed in state courts fails this year, it is unlikely to be resuscitated next year, a presidential and congressional election year. The legislation is controversial, pitting business interests against those of the popular and powerful trial bar. If the bill fails, it will represent a failure of the new Republican majority in the House. The attempt to discourage civil lawsuits was part of the Republican Contract with America, a 1994 campaign manifesto that guided the House GOP during the first 100 days of the 104th Congress. The House approach to tort reform swept through in March on the momentum of the Republican takeover. The trial lawyers were unable to modify even a comma in the Republican bill. The House bill would limit the amount of punitive damages that courts could award in a number of cases, product liability lawsuits. The bill includes limits on awards by judges and juries in state and federal courts. It was seen by many analysts as a major victory for corporate America. But the trial lawyers and their supporters in the consumer movement, such as Ralph Nader, were more successful in the Senate, where they were able to water down many of the high-octane House provisions. Although Senate Majority Leader Bob Dole (R-Kan.) pushed hard for tough legislation, he was unable to overcome a coalition of Democrats and moderate Republicans. The result was a recipe for stalemate. (Kennedy Maize/19950911) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 09/12/95 GOVT ****Firms Team On Parental Control (NEWS)(GOVT)(WAS)(00006) ****Firms Team On Parental Control 09/12/95 WASHINGTON, D.C., U.S.A., 1995 SEP 12 (NB) -- A group of more than 20 computer and online communications firms are scheduled to announce a new coalition to establish a system that would give parents control of what their children can access on the Internet and the World Wide Web. The coalition, to be called the Platform for Internet Content Selection, or PICS, includes the three largest online service companies -- America Online, CompuServe, and Prodigy -- as well as IBM, Microsoft, AT&T, Netscape, MCI, Time Warner, and others. Institutional members include researchers at MIT and the World Wide Web Consortium, which sets technical standards for the Web and is affiliated with MIT. The consortium plans to develop a series of filters that parents can use to block access to the Web, and to newsgroups. The group will set standards for the filters and develop building blocks that can be used to develop filters for specific needs. With the tools in hand, various groups could build filters specifically tailored to their needs. The tools would be free to any group that wished to use them. The expectation is that the online companies would give their customers the filters for free. Others, such as Surf-Watch Software of Los Altos, Calif., would sell their products on the market. The move to create the new PICS coalition comes as Congress is considering banning "indecent" material from the Internet. The Senate earlier this year passed a measure sponsored by Sen. James Exon (D-Neb.) that would criminalize pornography on the Internet, using a definition that civil libertarians say far exceeds anything in existing law. High-tech companies have been looking for an alternative that empowers parents, and not the government. That's where PICS comes in. (Kennedy Maize/19950911) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 09/12/95 TRENDS UK - Computron Attacks Vendor Hype Over Client/Server (NEWS)(TRENDS)(LON)(00007) UK - Computron Attacks Vendor Hype Over Client/Server 09/12/95 WATFORD, HERTFORDSHIRE, ENGLAND, 1995 SEP 12 (NB) -- Computron has announced a major offensive "in asserting its technology leadership" in the market for client/server financial management and accounting systems. The move comes in the wake of the firm's floatation in the US but, interestingly enough, the company is also taking an aggressive stance on the hype over client/server that it claims some vendors have given out in the past. According to Charlie Hoult, a spokesman for Computron, this is not as strange as it might first sound for the company. Hoult refuted Newsbytes' suggestions that Computron was berating its competitors in allegedly over-hyping client/server technology, when that is the same area of the market that Computron is aiming at. "Computron majors on offering open systems solutions to organizations with mini or mainframe computer systems, not in the lower client/server market," he replied. He added that client/server, in the PC arena at least, is not the universal panacea to computing requirements that some vendors portray it as. According to Hoult, Computron has developed client/server applications since 1988 and now offers "mature financial management and accounting systems," together with supporting applications for workflow, imaging, and records management. Computron cites the Gartner Group report of 22 February this year in its arguments that client/server may not be all it is claimed to be by the industry. "Users are cautioned against blindly taking the simple architectures and success stories associated with simple environment and applying them to more complex circumstances," the Gartner report notes. So what should potential users of open systems architecture be looking for in their networking systems, if they are not to fall into the "trap" of assuming client/server is the ultimate solution? According to Computron, the Gartner Group has isolated six areas that need to be technically evaluated by any organization looking at specifying a new computer system: [] Environment - what is the fit between the technology of the application and the technology chosen by the organization? [] Architecture - does the split of business processing between client and servers promote scalability, configurability, and manageability? [] User interface and usability - does the GUI (graphical user interface) improve productivity and support cross-platform integration? [] Development environment - will the tools facilitate the continuing translation of business requirements to production applications? [] Extensible application model - is there a working blueprint to allow extension and integration of applications across business areas? [] Application management tools - can configuration, application changes, and performance be management consistently across application elements? (Steve Gold/19950905/Press Contact: Wilson Harvey, tel +44-171-704-1177, fax +44-171-704-1252; Reader Contact: Computron, tel +44-1923-474200, fax +44-1923-219366) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 09/12/95 BUSINESS Tandem Chooses IBS As Russian Partner (NEWS)(BUSINESS)(LON)(00008) Tandem Chooses IBS As Russian Partner 09/12/95 MOSCOW, RUSSIA, 1995 SEP 12 (NB) -- Tandem Computers Inc. has chosen the Moscow software and networking company IBS as a provider of its software and supporter of it products. During the three years to date of its activity, IBS has gained a wealth of experience in serving the banking sector, said the company. The firm has reportedly installed banking networks featuring ATM and currency exchange machines, built local data management systems, established a computer dealership network, opened a subsidiary company involved in wholesale computer business and installed a clearing account settling system in the city of Pskov, said Mr. D. Lebedinsky, spokesman at IBS, in an interview with IntelliTech. "Our success is unambiguously attributed to thorough strategic business planning," said Lebedinsky. "First we started with banking systems and continued with installing local computer networks. At the next stage we offered Dell Computer to sign an exclusive dealership agreement with us. We are happy that Dell paid attention to the numerous peculiarities of the Russian market and accepted our proposal. According to our estimates, sales of Dell computers in Russia through our dealership network now match those of Compaq." In March of this year, IBS acquired a wholesale company, called DeaLine, which now operates under IBS's umbrella. It quickly became a leader in this business, claims the company, having arrangements with more than 200 VAR (value-added reseller) companies to date throughout Russia. The time spent on developing logistics pays off, said Lebedinsky. DeaLine's two fully automated warehouses in New York and Finland enable fulfillment of any VAR's request within one day after paying for the shipment. DeaLine distributes products from vendors 3Com, 3M, APC, Borland, Conner, Epson, Hewlett-Packard, IBM, Intel, Lexmark, Logitech, Lotus, Micropolis, Microsoft, MultiTech, NEC, Novell, Samsung, ViewSonic, and others. "Having started as a small company, we developed into a large holding enterprise employing the best experts in the computer software business. The new arrangement with Tandem gives yet another proof that IBS is moving in the right direction, Lebedinsky concluded. (Vladimir Vetrov/19950912/Press & Reader Contact: D. Lebedinsky, IBS, tel +7-095-4887621, fax +7-095-2889519, Internet e-mail D_Lebed@ibs.msk.su) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 09/12/95 ONLINE DEC Plans To Take Web "Into 21st Century" (NEWS)(ONLINE)(BOS)(00009) DEC Plans To Take Web "Into 21st Century" 09/12/95 MAYNARD, MASSACHUSETTS, U.S.A., 1995 SEP 12 (NB) -- Digital Equipment Corp. plans to use its new PC home page on the World Wide Web, not just to distribute information, but to "take Internet technology into the 21st century." That will involve electronic commerce, remote PC diagnosis, and "online interactive focus groups" that might ultimately include multimedia avatars, said Deb Buckley, Digital's Internet program manager, in an interview with Newsbytes. "We're getting tremendous `hits.' The Web gives you exposure to the entire world, in a very cost-effective way. With the technologies now emerging, we see the Web as providing incredible opportunities for real-time marketing and merchandising, (in which) we can be very responsive to customers," Buckley told Newsbytes. "One of the things we've done to take (Digital's PC home page) in this direction is to set up an online guest book, designed to collect demographic information from users throughout the world. We put information on the home page that says, `If you sign our guest book, your name will be entered in a random drawing for a Digital Hi-Note notebook.'" Users signing the guest book can "elect" to participate in ongoing market research studies, or to be added to a mailing list, according to Buckley. "The response to both has been great. We're getting good, solid leads, as well as establishing a database." As part of the guest book registration process, users provide personal and "organizational" demographics such as name, age group, name of company, and company size. "Essentially, we get a good `snapshot' as to the type of PC user we're talking to. We can then set up specific criteria saying that we're looking for (a group consisting of) 25 percent of people from the US, 25 percent from Europe, and 50 percent from the Asia-Pacific, for example. From there, we can do a crosstab: for people who work in the utilities industry, who are employed by companies of over `X' billion, or who are in the SOHO (small office/home office) market," she illustrated. Some PC users, whose "profiles" fit current research needs, will be invited to participate in online focus groups -- and like members of traditional focus groups, they will be paid an "honorarium" for their work, Newsbytes was told. Through the online focus groups, Digital intends to "work with customers `in partnership,' to find out how we can better enhance our (PC) products." Some of the focus group activities will consist of "static" surveys, but others will be carried out in "real time," Buckley noted. At first, "interactivity" will probably revolve around text-based chat. "But over time, our strategy is to evolve (the PC home page) by taking advantage of multimedia, sound, and virtual reality," she revealed. In addition, from the "PC sales side of the house," Digital is "looking at how we can integrate EDI (electronic data interchange) and SAP (products) into the Internet -- and with our reseller community -- around electronic commerce." Digital is examining the same questions on the corporate level, said Buckley, adding that she is also a member of Digital's Corporate Internet Program Office, a group set up to "explore the `galactic strategy' for all businesses within Digital." In addition, she elaborated, Digital's PC Business Unit has established a goal of supporting 25 percent of its service calls through the Web. "We've seen the evolution of all kinds of online, remote diagnostics, and we're going to be taking advantage of some of them, too." Already on Digital's graphical PC home page, users can access information that includes product specifications and backgrounders, locations of sales outlets and service centers, and a "newswire" containing current reviews and other press coverage on Digital's PC products, according to Buckley. The PC home page is divided into "main areas" that encompass: Products, Customer Support, PC Sales, and Newswire. The Customer Support section lets users provide feedback on Digital's service and support programs. The PC Sales section covers retail locations as well as government resellers in the US, plus additional resellers throughout the world. A fifth section -- Employment -- lists current job opportunities within Digital's PC Business Unit, the qualifications required, and details on how to request additional information or send in a resume over the Internet. A sixth section provides hotlinks to other Digital sites on the Web, as well as to partner sites (home pages for Intel and Microsoft's Windows 95, for example) and other "Web resources." The Web resources include USA Today, NewsPage, TravelWeb, Ticketmaster, and home pages for Sega and the 1996 Olympics, along with Web "navigation services" like Netsurfer, Yahoo, and the Nynex Interactive Yellow Pages. Digital's additional sites on the Web, launched within the past year, include Corporate, Windows NT, Customer Service, and Internet home pages, Buckley reported. As to the future, the Internet program manager maintained: "We're a technology company, so we understand the power of (emerging) technologies. Especially in the PC space, we're dealing with an audience that's used to high stimulation. We're going to make sure we give customers what they're looking for." Newsbytes asked Buckley whether Digital is considering the use of avatars for multimedia focus groups. "Absolutely. In fact, we're evaluating something like that right now," she replied. Users can access Digital's new PC home page either directly -- at www.pc.digital.com -- or through a hotlink from Digital's corporate home page, at www.digital.com . (Jacqueline Emigh/19950907/Reader Contact: Digital Equipment Corp., 508-493-5111; Press Contact: Lisa Rolf for Digital, 508-264-7977) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 09/12/95 ONLINE Novell's Binder Indexes Online Magazines (NEWS)(ONLINE)(DEN)(00010) Novell's Binder Indexes Online Magazines 09/12/95 OREM, UTAH, U.S.A., 1995 SEP 12 (NB) -- Novell Inc. (NASDAQ: NOVL) is offering a free program that, not only reads the company's online magazines in the same format as the printed version, but also indexes the articles and finds them again when needed. The software is called Binder, and you can download it at no cost, except the connect charges, from Novell's forum on Compuserve or America Online. It will also be available soon on the World Wide Web at http://wpwinmag@wordperfect.com , or http://wpmag@wordperfect.com . Those URLs (uniform resource locators) change on September 15 when you will need to substitute "ivy.com" for "wordperfect.com" in both addresses. The download includes an index that makes it easier to find stories about specific subjects, and tells the user exactly what file to download if that story doesn't already reside on your hard disk. The Binder viewer was first released in August, 1994. The current version, Binder 2.1, shipped in January of this year. Earlier this week, Novell announced a management buyout of its magazine publishing division. Under the agreement Ivy International Communications Inc., will publish the printed and electronic versions of the magazines about Novell products, including Wordperfect and Wordperfect for Windows. Bob Wright, a spokesperson for Ivy, told Newsbytes the Binder viewer is a little like the Acrobat Reader published by Adobe, but "does more." For example, Binder uses publisher-embedded information in each article to specify where that document belongs in the hierarchy of the electronic magazine, and automatically stores the story in the correct electronic folder on your PC that corresponds to the correct magazine, volume, and issue. "We say it's really like the postman putting the magazine in the correct binder," Wright told Newsbytes. Binder 2.1's indexing capabilities let the user search on any word to find stories. The program presents a list of articles that contain the specific word or words, and the user clicks on the correct choice to read the story. If the article hasn't been downloaded, Binder will tell you exactly what file to download. There is no cost to read Novell's electronic magazines, which contain selected articles from the printed versions. A subscription to the hard copy magazines costs $24 per year. Ivy also sells a CD-ROM that contains every article from every magazine about Novell Windows-based products ever produced. The CD sells for $49.95, and Binder can also retrieve articles from that disk. "It doesn't matter whether the article is on a CD-ROM, local drive, or network drive," said Wright. (Jim Mallory/19950912/Press contact: Bob Wright, Novell, 801-227-3421; Public contact: Novell, 800-451-5151) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 09/12/95 PC Texas Instruments Intros Notebooks (NEWS)(PC)(DEN)(00011) Texas Instruments Intros Notebooks 09/12/95 DALLAS, TEXAS, U.S.A., 1995 SEP 12 (NB) -- Texas Instruments Inc. (NYSE: TXN) has introduced a new line of notebook computers designed for home office and small business users. TI said the Extensa family will be available in three models -- the 450/450T, 550, and 550CD/550CDT -- with variations in hard disk drive capacity, battery technology, memory size, and type of display. Pricing for the Extensa family begins at $1,799. The Models 450 and 450T are powered by an Intel DX4 microprocessor running at 75 megahertz (MHz) and come equipped with a 340 megabyte (MB) hard drive, a modular floppy disk drive that can be interchanged with an optional lithium ion battery, and a touchpad pointing device in place of a mouse. If you aren't familiar with a touchpad, it is a rectangular area at the center lower edge of the keyboard. The user drags a finger across the touchpad to move the cursor. Memory is available from 4MB to 32MB. The 450 is equipped with a 10.4-inch dual-scan color monitor, while the 450T comes with a 9.4-inch TFT (thin film transistor) display. A nickel-metal-hydride battery is standard, and the optional lithium-ion is available. The 450 series weigh five pounds and have an estimated street price of $1,799 with the dual-scan display, while the TFT version is expected to sell for about $2,399. The model 550 is a 75MHz Pentium-based system with a 524MB hard drive and the same modular floppy disk that can be interchanged with the optional lithium-ion battery as the other models. Memory is available from 8MB to 40MB, and the 550 has a 10.4-inch dual-scan color display and a touchpad in lieu of a mouse. It weighs 6.2 pounds and is expected to sell for about $2,499, said TI. The top of the line 550CD and 550CDT are also Pentium-based 75MHz systems with a 524MB hard drive and interchangeable floppy disk drive. In addition to swapping the floppy drive for a lithium-ion battery, you also get a modular dual-speed CD-ROM drive. Eight to 40MB of memory is available and the 6.4-pound unit is also equipped with a touchpad. A dual-scan 10.4-inch display or the same size TFT is available. TI said the dual-scan version will sell for about $2,999, while the TFT edition will go for just under $3,600. The 550 also comes with 16-bit Sound Blaster Pro stereo sound and is capable of playing .WAV or MIDI (musical Instrument digital interface) files. An internal microphone and speaker are included, and there are external line-in, speaker, and microphone ports. TI also offers an optional port replicator that connects to the expansion bus in the Extensa PCs and includes interfaces for parallel, serial, PS/2 mouse, or keyboard ports, VGA, and serial infrared. The company said all models of the Extensa line have a 256 kilobyte (KB) cache and have Windows 95 pre-installed. (Jim Mallory/19950911/Press contact: Jerry Ricaj, TI, 817-774-6110; Public contact: TI, 800-848-3927/EXTENSA950912/PHOTO) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 09/12/95 CHIPS NEC Licenses UK Firm's RISC Technology (NEWS)(CHIPS)(TYO)(00012) NEC Licenses UK Firm's RISC Technology 09/12/95 TOKYO, JAPAN, 1995 SEP 12 (NB) -- NEC Corp., the world's largest supplier of ASIC (application specific integrated circuit) products, has signed a licensing agreement with Advanced RISC Machines Ltd. (ARM) of the UK. The agreement covers ARM's 32-bit reduced instruction-set computer (RISC) microprocessor core -- the ARM7TDMI -- which the Tokyo-based company will integrate with its peripheral components to produce complete embedded ASIC products for a "wide range of applications." Worldwide production and marketing of the device is also covered by the license, which will allow NEC to integrate it into its worldwide product line-up. Alongside the hardware, the company will also distribute development tools, software, and documentation to support the microprocessor core. The new deal with NEC provides a greater worldwide stage for the chip which has already found a large user base in Europe. Robin Saxby, managing director and chief executive officer (CEO) of ARM Ltd., said, "NEC has extensive sales and marketing experience throughout the world. We are honored such an important company has recognized ARM's merits and joined our partnership." The other members of the partnership include Japan's Sharp Electronics, the UK's GEC Plessey Semiconductors, and VLSI Technologies. Its low power consumption, around a tenth of that of comparable devices, together with an embedded internal multiplier and embedded ICE debugging system, have made the device the top microprocessor core in Europe, according to the companies. A group of other firms, including Asahi Kasei Microsystems, Cirrus Logic, Digital Semiconductor, ES2, Samsung, and Texas Instruments, all have ARM products in development. NEC recently committed itself to taking an increasing part in the development of RISC-based microprocessors. In August, it became a sponsor member of the Precision RISC Organization, a group of leading global companies from key market segments of the computer industry united by the common mission of meeting business needs by advancing products based on PA-RISC. (Martyn Williams/19950912/Press contact: Mark Pearce, NEC Corp., tel +81-3-3798-6511, fax +81-3-3457-7249, Internet e-mail maku_10-22150@aladdin.nec.co.jp) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 09/12/95 TRENDS ****End Is In Sight For 486-Based Computing - Study (NEWS)(TRENDS)(SFO)(00013) ****End Is In Sight For 486-Based Computing - Study 09/12/95 LA JOLLA, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1995 SEP 12 (NB) -- A study from Computer Intelligence InfoCorp (CII) finds that Pentium-based desktop computer systems are now outselling similar systems powered by 486 processors. Measuring computer sales in the first seven months of 1995, CII reports the 486 desktop/tower and portables market dropped from 71% of all sales to 48%, while Apple's Motorola-based systems dropped from 13% to 8% in the same period. CII is a Ziff-Davis Publishing company which surveys and studies computer sales data through its StoreBoard Channel Tracking system. This current study looked at desktop and tower personal computers systems as one group and desktop/tower personal computer systems and portables in a second group. According to the study, desktop and tower systems using Intel's Pentium processor surpassed 486 DX-based models for the first time during the month of July. Pentium systems made up 53.3% of all sales for the month of July, 486 DX-based systems garnered 33.8% of the market, and other based systems (486 SX and Motorola) held 12.9% of the market. When CII examined the second group, which included portable computing devices, it found the 486 processors (all models) powered 48% and the Pentium powered 43% of the systems sold during July. From January to July 1995, Pentium systems grew from 16% of all sales to 43%, while 486 based systems in the same period dropped from 71% to 48%. Stella Kelly, service director for CII's StoreBoard Channel Tracking, said, "It is now impossible to deny the success of the Pentium processor. Intel's pricing strategy to its OEMs (original equipment manufacturers), and in particular to market leaders such as Compaq, have made it financially unwise for vendors to continue manufacturing and marketing 486 products except on a short-term basis." CII's second group looked separately at Motorola-based systems from Apple Computer and found market share dropped consistently from 13% in January, to 8% in July. Kelly commented, "it's a powerful reality shock to Apple which must overcome the inertia of the installed base of Intel-based models and the Microsoft operating environment. What's needed is a clear redirection of its corporate strategy toward regaining mindshare for Macintosh/Motorola-based solutions, especially in the dealer channel." Looking at the dealer channel, CII additionally determined 51% of desktop and tower systems sold incorporated Pentium technology. Additional information is available from CII's World Wide Web site http://www.compint.com . (Patrick McKenna/19950911/Press Contact: Judith Vanderkay, Rogers Communications, 617-224-1100) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 09/12/95 BUSINESS Australia - Unisys & Ansett Airline In Database Deal (NEWS)(BUSINESS)(HKG)(00014) Australia - Unisys & Ansett Airline In Database Deal 09/12/95 CENTRAL, HONG KONG, 1995 SEP 12 (NB) -- Unisys has signed a US$6.5 million contract with the Australian domestic airline, Ansett Australia Holdings Limited, to develop and implement a "Customer Loyalty Management Solution." The Unisys Customer Management System to be installed at Ansett is an information management "solution" incorporating an integrated customer database capable of consolidating information from multiple independent operational systems, according to the company. "This is an exciting system which is creating considerable interest among our airline customers in the Asian region, as well as in Australia and the rest of the world," said Philip Marlow, sales director for airlines at Unisys Hong Kong. Unisys' airline customers include Hong Kong carrier Cathay Pacific as well as airlines in China, Japan, India, and other parts of the region. The resulting system will initially allow Ansett to perform real-time updates of its loyalty program database, such as tracking frequent flyer mile awards and usage. In addition, the system will manage information related to other loyalty programs, such as those for airport lounge memberships or special-needs passengers. It will eventually integrate all Ansett's separate databases containing customer information. "Client information is seen as a critical Ansett resource of increasing importance in the strategic marketing of airline products. The Customer Management System database will form a core part of Ansett's decision-support capabilities," said Mike Pogson, chief information officer at Ansett Australia. (Nigel Armstrong & I.T. Daily/19950910) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 09/12/95 BROADCAST Scientific-Atlanta In Chinese Satellite Deal (NEWS)(BROADCAST)(HKG)(00015) Scientific-Atlanta In Chinese Satellite Deal 09/12/95 CENTRAL, HONG KONG, 1995 SEP 12 (NB)-- Scientific-Atlanta Inc. is to supply China's Ministry of Foreign Trade & Economic Cooperation (MOFTEC) with a voice and data satellite communications network for its "Golden Customs Project," a key "Golden Project" being implemented by the Chinese government to "improve operations" in areas such as agriculture, civil works, technology, and communications. The US$9.9 million network will enable MOFTEC, which is responsible for China's customs and a wide range of import and export activities, to establish reliable voice and interactive data communications between its regional facilities and provincial foreign trade and cooperation bureaus. The network will also connect MOFTEC with foreign trade companies as well as associated customs, taxation, shipping, banking, and insurance institutions. Two master earth stations will be installed in Beijing and Shenzhen to provide communications with the nearly 60 remote very small aperture terminal (VSAT) sites that are planned for the first phase of the network. Future plans call for 140 additional remote sites to be installed. In addition to supporting the network in China, the Shenzhen earth station also will provide worldwide communications gateway services. Special features of the network are its support of China #1 signaling, a hot-standby network management system (NMS) and dial restoral for the data network through CHINAPAC. The ability to implement the China #1 signaling protocol was critical in MOFTEC's awarding of the contract, according to Scientific-Atlanta. The hot-standby NMS will be installed at the Shenzhen hub. In the event of a catastrophic event at the main hub in Beijing, the standby NMS would be activated automatically to provide the critical network management and disaster-recovery functions necessary to maintain reliable network operations. The MOFTEC satellite network will use Ku-band transponder space leased on the AsiaSat 2 Satellite. To provide additional communications capabilities, the MOFTEC system also includes two transportable stations. The network is scheduled to be operational by mid-1996. (Nigel Armstrong & I.T. Daily/19950912) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 09/12/95 BUSINESS China - Fujitsu Targets Computer Market (NEWS)(BUSINESS)(PEK)(00016) China - Fujitsu Targets Computer Market 09/12/95 BEIJING, CHINA, 1995 SEP 12 (NB) -- Fujitsu has entered China's lucrative computer business. The company will market three of its new systems through China's fourth largest computer company -- Lang Chao Electronic Informational Industrial Group Inc. Established in 1935, Fujitsu is reportedly the world's second largest computer company. Including its telecommunications and semiconductor operations, the company generated sales volume of $37 billion last year. With a worldwide staff of 164,000, Fujitsu has outlets in more than 100 countries. Lured by the Chinese computer market, Fujitsu will sell its new FMV-590T2, FMV-575D4, and FMV-466D4 PCs through Lang Chao, headquartered in Shandong Province. The computers are popular models in Japan with a home market sales target of 1.3 million units, sources from Fujitsu said. The company's first-year sales target in China, started recently through Lang Chao's 600 sales outlets, is 10,000 units. Besides sales, Fujitsu is also planning investments throughout China, in the development and manufacture of hardware and software. Such investment will be carried out through Fujitsu Ltd., Fujitsu's US$30 million investment organization launched in May. Fujitsu's cooperation with Lang Chao will not be limited to sales, but will be expanded to include joint development and design of computer products. A Lang Chao source said that "fast growth" and "great potential" in China's computer industry will provide a solid foundation for Sino-foreign cooperation in the sector. Since 1974, Fujitsu has provided cables and telecoms switching systems to 13 Chinese cities. (Chih-Ho Yu & Ning Huang/19950912) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 09/12/95 BUSINESS South Korean Firms Turn To India For Software (NEWS)(BUSINESS)(DEL)(00017) South Korean Firms Turn To India For Software 09/12/95 NEW DELHI, INDIA, 1995 SEP 12 (NB) -- Three South Korean firms -- Samsung Corp., Hyundai, and the LGE group -- are finalizing plans to set up bases, or at least establish alliances, for software development in India. In the past few months, delegations from all the three companies have visited India, and conducted discussions with the Department of Electronics (DOE), and a number of leading software companies. There are two main factors seen as encouraging the firms to commit to India. First, there is the cost advantage gained by using Indian manpower over Koreans or Americans -- which is up to four times less. Second, all three companies are aggressively expanding their semiconductor business, where they have a lead over their Japanese counterparts in 4-megabit DRAM chips and their information processing businesses -- where they are once again challenging dominance of the Japanese in LCD (liquid crystal display) screens and CD-ROM drives. Both these areas require extensive software input, at the product development stage as well as the product application stage. Of the three conglomerates, Samsung has been the first to make its intentions clear. It electronics division has recently decided to set up a fully-owned subsidiary in Bangalore. The operations in India are expected to support software for its new semiconductor chips, and its venture into application specific integrated circuits (ASICs). The Indian operation is also expected to significantly contribute to Samsung's, already dominant, presence in the hardware arena. Hyundai, on the other hand, is initially looking at working with CMC Ltd. to develop teleconferencing software, as well as reengineer application software for its own needs. Later on, the Korean company plans to work with the Indian company to bid for large-scale government contracts in the country as well as in other third world countries. LG Electronics, on the other hand, is still in the negotiation stage. It has had discussions with several leading software companies and is evaluating the prospects to go for an exclusive arrangement with one of them. Under the arrangement, the Indian company will set up operations for LGE, which will cater only to the needs of the LGE Group. The Korean company also intends to use India, not only as a development center for its semiconductor operations, but also for its venture into multimedia technology and information-delivery technologies such as high-speed CD-ROMs. (C.T. Mahabharat/19950912) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 09/12/95 BUSINESS 3Com Plans Indian Subsidiary (NEWS)(BUSINESS)(DEL)(00018) 3Com Plans Indian Subsidiary 09/12/95 NEW DELHI, INDIA, 1995 SEP 12 (NB) -- Following the footsteps of other leading information technology giants, the $1.2 billion US networking company, 3Com Corp., has decided to set up a 100 percent subsidiary -- 3Com Pvt. Ltd. The new company will tap the R128 crore networking market in the country, which is expected to further expand between 80 to 100 percent a year in the next five years, according to Subhash Bal, general manager of 3Com's liaison office in India. 3Com's decision to set up a fully-owned subsidiary comes a year after it started distributing its products in the country through Delhi-based CMS Technology Ltd. It had set up a liaison office about four months ago, and since then has appointed several distributors for its products, which include names like PCL Ltd., Modi Olivetti, and Godrej Trading Services Ltd. According to Bal, the company's objective to set a fully-owned subsidiary is to cash in on the networking boom when it comes. 3Com also wants to prepare and develop the information technology industry in the country for large-scale networking, and have direct access to all its clients, rather than just through the systems integrators and distributors of its products. The California-based company is exploring investments in the range of US$2 to US$3 million initially. Although it does not have any immediate plans to set up a manufacturing base, it is keen on using Indian expertise to develop new products, as well as modify the existing range of routers, hubs, and adapter cards for PCs for use in the Indian market, said Bal. Another area that 3Com is looking at is training. According to Bal, the need to train both IT professionals, as well as MIS (management information system) personnel is imperative, as this sector is very technology- intensive, with product changeover being very fast. Training will, however, not be done on a commercial basis, and the company proposes to use the services of training institutes already present in the domestic market. (C.T. Mahabharat/19950912) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 09/12/95 IBM IBM Updates Aptiva PC Line (NEWS)(IBM)(TOR)(00019) IBM Updates Aptiva PC Line 09/12/95 SOMERS, NEW YORK, U.S.A., 1995 SEP 12 (NB) -- IBM (NYSE:IBM) has announced new versions of its Aptiva home computer, adding built-in support for Motion Picture Experts Group (MPEG) video, and extending the line's speech-recognition capabilities. #IMAGE 1 20 TWPCX \images\95091219.PCX Click here for photo The new Aptiva models also come with pre-loaded Internet access software and with built-in modem and speakerphone capabilities, coupled with IBM's Wake Up On Ring feature, which allows the computer to turn itself on to receive incoming telephone calls and faxes, then shut itself off afterward. All the new Aptiva systems come with Pentium processors, ranging in speed from 75 to 133 megahertz (MHz). Some come with eight and some with 16 megabytes (MB) of memory, a spokeswoman for the company told Newsbytes, and there is a choice of one gigabyte (GB) and 1.6GB hard disk drives. IBM's VoiceType Control technology, which accepts spoken commands such as "open document" and "save file," is now standard on all Aptiva models. In last year's line it was offered only with high-end models. This year, the spokeswoman said, the high-end models get additional speech- recognition capabilities in the form of IBM's VoiceType Dictation, which IBM said can recognize entire phrases spoken at a natural pace and does not have to be trained to each speaker. By adding its own "media processor" chip to complement the Pentium, IBM said it has made possible full-motion, full-screen video and stereo-quality sound without sacrificing performance. Complying with the MPEG standard, the video and audio capabilities are called Total Image Video and TheatreSound, IBM said. A number of MPEG video titles, including a game called Silent Steel and The Blockbuster Movie Guide to Movies and Videos, come with the system. Other multimedia titles and games, as well as financial and productivity software, also come with the new Aptiva. They include Intuit's Quicken for Windows financial software, trial subscriptions to America Online, Compuserve and Prodigy, and the Journalist news-gathering software. IBM's OS/2 Warp operating system is preloaded along with IBM's version of DOS and Microsoft's Windows 3.11 or Windows 95. Through IBM's PC Direct, the new Aptivas will sell for $1,800 to $3,000, the spokeswoman said. They will also be sold through retailers, whose prices may vary. (Grant Buckler/19950912/Press Contact: Kelly Wright, Brodeur & Partners for IBM, 914-697-9711; Bobbi Keene, Brodeur & Partners for IBM, 914-697-9711; Public Contact: IBM Direct, 800-IBM-2YOU/APTIVA950912/PHOTO) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 09/12/95 TRENDS Semiconductor Book-To-Bill Ratio Drops (NEWS)(TRENDS)(LAX)(00020) Semiconductor Book-To-Bill Ratio Drops 09/12/95 SAN JOSE, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1995 SEP 12 (NB) -- According to Price Waterhouse's World Semiconductor Trade Statistics (WSTS), the 1.18 seasonally adjusted book-to-bill ratio showed a drop in August, from the all-time high of 1.22 in July. The book-to-bill ratio indicates that for every $100 worth of products shipped (billed), manufacturers received $118 of new orders (bookings). The ratio is computed by a three-month moving average, and seasonally adjusted. A ratio over 1.00 indicates that orders are higher than products that have been shipped, and is considered bullish for the semiconductor industry. Chris Jones, the editor of "The IN-Stat Electronics Report," told Newsbytes, "The WSTS book-to-bill ratio is the semiconductor industry bellweather stat. The positive trend in the book-to-bill ratio can drive a lot of investment into the industry. We think, however, that sometimes too much attention is paid to this one statistic. The August drop, when put into perspective, could be very positive. A book-to-bill ratio of 1.18 is extremely healthy on its own, and there is some evidence that when the ratio gets over 1.20 the market is overheated." According to the World Semiconductor Trade Statistics , seasonally adjusted billings in the North America semiconductor market rose to a new high of $3.88 billion. The August mark is 2.7 percent higher than the $3.78 billion recorded in July, and 38.7 percent above the August 1994 total of $2.80 billion. Seasonally adjusted bookings eased slightly from a record high of $4.64 billion in July to $4.58 billion in August, a 1.3 percent decline. The August figure is 52.2 percent higher than the $3.01 billion mark of August 1994. WSTS projects that the $33.5 billion North America market will grow 34.0 percent to $44.9 billion at the end of this year. WSTS also predicted that the $101.8 billion global semiconductor market will increase 39.7 percent to $142.3 billion in 1995. The previous twelve months ratio has tracked: August 1994 - 1.08; September 1994 - 1.08; October 1994 - 1.04; November 1994 - 1.05; December 1994 - 1.07; January 1995 - 1.12; February 1995 - 1.11; March 1995 - 1.15; April 1995 - 1.17; May 1995 - 1.20; June 1995 - 1.18; July 1995 - 1.22 (Revised); August 1995 - 1.18 (Preliminary). In-Stat is a market research firm founded in 1981, and is headquartered in Scottsdale, Arizona. In-Stat provides research on the semiconductor and communication industries, with a monthly newsletter, "The IN-Stat Electronics Report." (Richard Bowers/19950811/Press Contact: Kevin Brett, SIA, 408-246-2711) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 09/12/95 UNIX MKS Launches Code Integrity Software (NEWS)(UNIX)(TOR)(00021) MKS Launches Code Integrity Software 09/12/95 WATERLOO, ONTARIO, CANADA, 1995 SEP 12 (NB) -- Mortice Kern Systems Inc. (MKS) has introduced a source code analysis tool for C programming on various flavors of Unix. MKS Code Integrity includes a code analysis engine, an application program interface (API) database, and a graphical user interface, MKS said. Company spokeswoman Ellyn Winter-Robinson said that while MKS's existing Source Integrity software for Microsoft Windows focuses on configuration management, Code Integrity analyzes code to identify potential problems involving issues such as portability. When a Windows version of Code Integrity and a graphical Unix version of Source Integrity are ready (Source Integrity is available now for Unix with a command-line interface) MKS plans to build links between the two products, she added. For instance, information from Code Integrity's analysis could be passed to Source Integrity to be factored into the release process, she said. Though the version of Code Integrity to be formally announced at the Unix/Expo trade show next week is called Version 1.1, it is the first commercial release of the software, Winters-Robinson told Newsbytes. "We had a fairly extensive beta period," and the beta version was considered Version 1.0, she explained. Code Integrity is to be available initially for C programmers working on Solaris, SunOS, HP/UX, and AIX. MKS also announced plans to port the software to IBM's OpenEdition platform by the first quarter of 1996. A version of Code Integrity for C++ programming is also expected early next year. The company said the new software will help developers take a Software Development Kit approach to their information technology architecture, create portable and maintainable code, and reduce unexpected system and architecture dependencies. It will also provide easy access to API and standards information, officials said, and will reduce porting and maintenance costs and help manage complex code development. Now shipping, Code Integrity has an introductory price of US$1,500 through the end of 1995. (Grant Buckler/19950912/Press Contact: Ellyn Winters-Robinson, MKS, tel 519-883-4346, fax 519-884-8861, Internet e-mail ellyn@mks.com) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 09/12/95 ONLINE Internet Update (NEWS)(ONLINE)(TYO)(00022) Internet Update 09/12/95 TOKYO, JAPAN, 1995 SEP 12 (NB) -- In this roundup of new resources and services on the global Internet: In the news, HTMLed Pro timed edition available, Hong Kong online, Webmaster guide, Pigs in cyberspace, Bilingual OS/2 information online, Red Cross opens on the net, The house that Bill built, Free access in Bay Area In The News The Fourth World Conference On Women currently taking place in Beijing, China, offers details of the event on the Internet. Daily updated conference news, flash news, general information about the conference and the schedule is online. World Wide Web: http://www.iisd.ca/linkages/women.html HTMLed Pro Timed Edition Available A time-limited edition of HTMLed Pro, which will expire on October 1, was placed on the Internet over the weekend. The software seeks to make the task of writing HTML (hypertext markup language) language pages easy with functions such as an ability to import and convert .rtf format files, a visual table designer, large file handling and more. World Wide Web: http://www.ist.ca/htmledpro/htprdemo.html Hong Kong Online The second edition of the Hong Kong Online guide is now available. The new edition features hot news on aliens, the immigrant kind, in Hong Kong, movie reviews, and features covering interactive science fiction, the mid-autumn festival, and more. World Wide Web: http://www.hk.super.net/~webzone/hk.html Webmaster Guide If you maintain a Web server of Web pages, or want to, a 480-site reference guide has been compiled by Internet Connect Inc. Links are given connected with all sides of running a Web site, such as getting the server running, and details of Web page writing, such as details of the HTML language. World Wide Web: http://ic.corpnet.com/~aking/webinfo Pigs In Cyberspace Any Muppet Show fan worth their salt will remember the "Pigs in Space" segments of the show, but now in the wired nineties we have Pigs in Cyberspace, it's nothing to do with the clueless pigs from the TV show either. The National Pork Producers Council has established the NPPC pork site on the World Wide Web. Visitors will find recipes, cooking tips and other useful information about pork on the Web. World Wide Web: http://www.nppc.org/ Bilingual OS/2 Information Online A series of pages and data on IBM's OS/2 operating system is available on the Internet maintained by Team OS/2 Austria. The information, in English and German, covers news and software resources and also offers an archive of IBM WebExplorer animations. World Wide Web: http://www.os2forum.or.at/TeamOS2/ Red Cross Opens On The Net The International Committee of the Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (ICRC) has begun offering information on the Internet. Organization press releases, fact sheets, aims and other information is offered to Web site visitors along with news of current projects and disasters that the ICRC is involved in. World Wide Web: http://www.ifrc.org/ The House That Bill Built Users of Microsoft's new Windows 95 software are now able to see where all of their money is going. Photos of Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates' new house are being placed on the Internet and are updated weekly. World Wide Web: http://www.morsepr.com/ Free Access In Bay Area EasyAccess Information Systems is the first free Internet access provider in the San Francisco Bay Area. The company also acts as an Internet presence provider and will design and maintain a complete online presence for any company, at a fee. World Wide Web: http://www.easyaccess.com/ (Martyn Williams/19950912) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 09/12/95 TRENDS Foreign Share Of Japanese Semiconductor Market Rises (NEWS)(TRENDS)(TYO)(00023) Foreign Share Of Japanese Semiconductor Market Rises 09/12/95 TOKYO, JAPAN, 1995 SEP 12 (NB) -- The foreign share of Japan's semiconductor market during the first three months of fiscal 1995 stood at 22.9% and 23.8% under each of the two measurements systems used to calculate the figure. The figures represent a solidifying of the foreign share and signals that the percentages will increase, according to some analysts. Under the 1991 Japan-US Semiconductor Arrangement, the market share is measured two ways: known as formula one and formula two. The former does not reflect pure-captive sales in Japan, while the latter does include pure-captives in its calculation. Pure captive sales are those within a company, from one operating division to another. In addition, formula one defines nationality of the semiconductors based on the headquarters location of the final assembly manufacturer, while under formula 2, nationality is defined by brand name. The more important figure, which both the US and Japan announce, is the share measured under formula one. The Japanese government alone announces formula two figures. Under formula one, market share was 22.9%, a slight increase on the figure for the first three months of the calendar year which was 22.8%. The figure peaked at the end of 1994 with a market share of 23.7% after rising sharply in the previous two quarters. Before that, the share had risen steadily each month since figures were first calculated in 1991 when the formula one share was 14.1%. Showing a similar trend was the formula two figure which stood at 23.8%, again a slight rise from the previous month of 23.6% but down on the 1994 last quarter share of 24.7%. In 1991 the formula two figure stood at 16.2% Commenting on the newly released data, Keiya Toyonaga, chairman of Electronic Industry Association of Japan's (EIAJ) Users's Committee of Foreign Semiconductors (UCOM) and senior vice president of Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., Ltd., said, "The second quarter results demonstrate again that foreign semiconductors have established a solid position in the Japanese market, despite fluctuating variables such as the extremely high yen, the worldwide shortage of semiconductors, and the shift offshore of much Japanese consumer electronics production." Toyonaga added that the globalization of the semiconductor industry has meant an increasing need for companies to form better long distance relationships with customers around the world, something UCOM is working towards. He said, "Users and suppliers have to further strengthen the bonds of cooperation between them. It is to this end that UCOM and the U.S. Semiconductor Industry Association (SIA) jointly sponsored a design-in promotion campaign, Chip-in II, from May to July of this year. "UCOM will continue to promote activities aimed at bringing about closer relations between users and suppliers in the future." he added. (Martyn Williams/19950912/Press contact : Tamotsu Harada, EIAJ, +81-3-3213-5861) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 09/12/95 GOVT Scientists Rally Behind Standards Institute (NEWS)(GOVT)(WAS)(00024) Scientists Rally Behind Standards Institute 09/12/95 WASHINGTON, D.C., U.S.A., 1995 SEP 12 (NB) -- With the Republican Congress on the verge of killing the National Institute of Standards and Technology, the American Physical Society (APS) is rallying scientists behind the beleaguered high-tech government agency. APS on Monday held a press conference in Washington, distributing a letter to Congress signed by 25 Nobel laureates calling for support for NIST. At the same time, the physicists unveiled a similar letter signed by the presidents of 18 scientific societies. "Concern over the fate of NIST laboratories has aroused an unprecedented response by scientific leaders," APS spokesman Robert Park told Newsbytes. Park is also a professor of physics at the University of Maryland. "As recipients of the Nobel Prize in physics," the open letter said, "we are writing to emphasize the essential role to the nation of the NIST laboratories and urge that federal funding of these facilities be maintained in the process of downsizing or reorganizing the Department of Commerce. "It is unthinkable that a modern nation could expect to remain competitive without these services," said the letter, which urges Congress to "make every possible effort to preserve this national treasure." Bills in both the House and Senate would dismantle Commerce and sell off NIST to the private sector. A Senate subcommittee last week approved a measure that would transfer "standard-setting functions" to a new Office of Patents, Trademarks and Standards, and abolish NIST. That subcommittee bill, sponsored by Sen. William Roth (R-Del.), was a deliberately vague substitute for a measure sponsored by Sen. Spencer Abraham (R-Mich.) that would have moved standards to the National Science Foundation and sold NIST to the highest bidder. President Clinton has said he will veto any bill that abolishes Commerce. But Congress is also moving to cut the NIST budget substantially. A particular target is the advanced technology program, much favored by both the White House and the high-tech industry. House Republicans have called it "corporate welfare." The letter from the leaders of the 18 scientific societies, including Patel Kumar of APS, said that "the laboratories operated by NIST and funded by the Department of Commerce are a vital scientific resource for the nation and should be preserved in the process of downsizing the federal government." APS is the scholarly society for America's physicists. Its World Wide Web address is http://aps.org . (Kennedy Maize/19950912/Press Contact: Robert Park, 202-662-8700) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 09/12/95 BUSINESS Motorola Picks Virginia Site For Power PC Plant (NEWS)(BUSINESS)(WAS)(00025) Motorola Picks Virginia Site For Power PC Plant 09/12/95 RICHMOND, VIRGINIA, U.S.A., 1995 SEP 12 (NB) -- Motorola says it will exercise an option to buy 230 acres west of Richmond, Va., for a $3 billion manufacturing plant for Power PC processors. The chips that run in the top-end Apple computers are in chronic short supply. The West Creek plant "will be the most advanced wafer fabrication site that Motorola has ever developed," Thomas George, president of Motorola's semiconductor sector, said at a news conference. He said the plant is his sector's highest priority. The Virginia plant, along with a factory nearing completion in Texas, should allow Motorola to meet current and future demand for the Power PC chip. "Before the end of the 20th century, West Creek will be pioneering high-technology manufacturing processes for the leadership products of the 21st century," said George. Site preparation is scheduled for this fall, with construction of an administration building to begin by the end of the year. The construction of the wafer fabrication complex should begin next year, with semiconductor production starting in 1998. The wafer fabrication facility will be known as MOS 19, with MOS standing for metal oxide semiconductor. The plant will be vertically integrated, with raw silicon wafers coming to the plant for fabrication and the entire manufacturing process occurring on site. Motorola announced last April that it had obtained an option from NationsBank. The company also holds a five-year option on an additional 140 acres adjacent to the primary site. Two other chip makers have also announced expansion plans. Hitachi is expanding its Irving, Texas, plant and Mitsubishi is enlarging a facility in North Carolina. (Kennedy Maize/19950912/Press Contact: Linda Cacara, 602-952-4103) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 09/12/95 TRENDS ****2nd Qtr Software Sales Solid, Says SPA (NEWS)(TRENDS)(WAS)(00026) ****2nd Qtr Software Sales Solid, Says SPA 09/12/95 WASHINGTON, D.C., U.S.A., 1995 SEP 12 (NB) -- Software sales in North America hit $1.57 billion for the second quarter of 1995, according to the Software Publishers Association. That represents a 7.8 percent increase over the second quarter of last year. Unit sales in North America increased a strong 47 percent, said SPA. As in most other recent quarters, Windows applications have been dominant, increasing 18.9 percent for the quarter, and reaching $1.16 billion. DOS sales are in a free-fall and are now smaller than Macintosh sales. DOS sales of $167 million fell 32 percent over the year-ago quarter. Macintosh sales totaled $226.5 million for the quarter, a decline of 7 percent over the second quarter of 1994. Macintosh databases and languages were down by 50 percent, said SPA. Although business/productivity categories remain the largest in dollar volume, home applications were once again the growth leader in sales through June. Entertainment software sales rose 109 percent to $291.8 million. Personal finance software swept through the tax season with spectacular growth of 627 percent in the quarter, reaching total sales of $212 million for the first six months of the year. "The consumer software industry continues to drive growth rates as home users find new productivity gains and entertainment value from their PCs," said Ken Wasch, SPA president. "The rapid growth in the use of personal computers in American homes is creating millions of new customers for software." SPA, which represents some 1,160 publishers, can be reached on the World Wide Web at http:// www.spa.org . (Kennedy Maize/19950912/Press Contact: Sally Lawrence, 202-452-1600 ext 320) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 09/12/95 BUSINESS ****Macromedia & AOL's NaviSoft To Enhance Web Tools (NEWS)(BUSINESS)(SFO)(00027) ****Macromedia & AOL's NaviSoft To Enhance Web Tools 09/12/95 SAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1995 SEP 12 (NB) -- Macromedia (NASDAQ:MACR), well known for Director and other multimedia development tools, and Navisoft, an America Online (NASDAQ:AMER) company which develops World Wide Web site building and management tools, have announced plans to integrate Director into NaviSoft's Web tools. The resulting new tools will allow developers to build multimedia enriched Web sites. The two companies are holding a formal announcement this morning in San Francisco, California. Lydia Dobyns, vice president and general manager of NaviSoft, spoke to Newsbytes this morning prior the announcement saying, "Until now, developers of Web sites and multimedia developers have been working with a separate and incompatible set of tools. With today's announcement, we invite developers to begin working with a set of tools which will incorporate both full multimedia features and Web authoring." Newsbytes learned the final version of NaviPress, embedded with the Director engine, is still under development, but a bundled version of both products is being offered. A free upgrade will be made available when the embedded version is ready. Accompanying Dobyns was John Duhring, NaviSoft's vice president of marketing. Commenting on the overall process of incorporating Director technology into NaviPress, he said, "Developers can start working with Director and NaviPress now. While early work is being developed, a number of Internet browsers will begin to incorporate the Director player which is necessary to view Director files." AOL's browser and Netscape's Navigator are expected to be the first browsers to accommodate the necessary player. Duhring also said both multimedia and Web developers will still be confronted with limitations of file size caused by bandwidth capabilities, but he said this limitation can be seen a challenge to produce very creative work. When asked what Web users should expect to see from this announcement, Dobyns said, "I think at first users will see rich multimedia snippets or applets. As bandwidth capabilities are increased, developers will be free to create even richer and faster multimedia features for Web sites." AOL founded Navisoft earlier this year as a complete Internet and World Wide Web publishing, hosting, and maintenance service for software developers and businesses wanting to establish a Web site. Navisoft products and services cover both the client and server environments on the Web. NaviPress, NaviServer, and NaviService are all trademarked names under NaviSoft. With this agreement, Windows and Macintosh developers are being offered the capability to import Director content into NaviSoft's Web site authoring system, NaviPress. With the Director engine embedded directly into the Web tool, NaviPress easily allows Director multimedia content to be integrated into any Web site, said the company. While authoring can take place on either a Mac or a Windows-based computer, Director-developed content can be ported to Windows, Macintosh, and OS/2 Warp-based computers and to interactive television networks such as OS/9, DAVID, Online Media, and the Apple set-top box. Content can also be ported to the Internet and services such as Microsoft Blackbird. Netscape Navigator and Silicon Graphic's WebForce. Macromedia and NaviSoft are saying their combined products will bring a new level of enriched content and interactivity on the Web. Along with the embedded Director engine, NaviPress is enhanced to recognize and manage Director files on NaviServer. Macromedia says this additional Web platform opens new avenues for multimedia developers working with Director and at the same time opens Director to Web developers. Either way, Macromedia says it will be easier and faster to incorporate rich video, audio, and animation into Web sites. Current Windows and Macintosh versions of Director and NaviPress are bundled and available through The PC Zone (800-258-2088) and The Mac Zone (800-248-0800) for a limited promotional price of $999. Hyperlinks to either Zone can be found in Macromedia's Web site (http://www.macromedia.com ). (Patrick McKenna/19950912/Press Contact: Dana Lieske, Copithorne & Bellows, 617-252-0606) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 09/12/95 TRENDS Boca Intros Voice/Video Modems, Multimedia Card (NEWS)(TRENDS)(MSP)(00028) Boca Intros Voice/Video Modems, Multimedia Card 09/12/95 BOCA RATON, FLORIDA, U.S.A., 1995 SEP 12 (NB) -- Boca Research Inc. (NASDAQ:BOCI) has announced three new products, all of which are video-oriented. One product is a multimedia video graphics card, the other two are modems that use digital simultaneous voice and data (DSVD) capabilities. First, Boca said it is bringing to market the "Voyager Movie Player," which has a multimedia accelerator from the company "S3," a Motion Pictures Expert Group (MPEG) decoder, and an audio component. The card has true 64-bit graphics, one megabyte (MB) of RAM standard (upgradable to 2MB), retails at $399, and should be available in late September. This new card is Boca's top of the line video graphics card, Jami McCarty, marketing manager for Boca Research, told Newsbytes. She also said the MPEG standard is in the hardware, and not the software. This means the Voyager decompresses the video enabling the CPU (central processing unit) to manage other tasks without dropping video frames. McCarty also said this means the card only takes up one expansion slot on the customer's computer. Besides the enhanced video capability, the card also provides three-dimensional (3-D) surround-sound from SRS Labs. Applications supported by the Voyager Movie Player include Windows 95, Windows NT, Windows 3.x, AutoCAD, and Microstation. Future drivers can be downloaded at no charge from Boca's bulletin board system. Also introduced are two modems that use DSVD technology, which lets users talk and see each other on ordinary voice lines. Others in the industry have called DSVD a "poor man's ISDN (integrated services digital network). One of the products is the SoundExpression 28.8SVD, which features a 14.4 kilobits-per-second (Kbps) fax and 28.8 Kbps modem, a voice-mail system, full-duplex speakerphone with echo cancellation, Caller ID support, and a 16-bit sound card with SDS 3-D surround-sound. Suggested retail pricing on the SoundExpression is $449. The other modem, the V.34 Office Communicator, is essentially the same as the SoundExpression 28.8SVD, except it lacks sound capabilities. Boca said pricing on the Office Communicator is $369. Both products are expected to ship in early October. Boca Research is on the Internet World Wide Web at http://www.boca.org . (Bob Woods/19950912/Press Contact: Gale Blackburn, Boca Research, 407-997-8621) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 09/12/95 ONLINE Newshare's Digital Online Writers' Syndicate (NEWS)(ONLINE)(MSP)(00029) Newshare's Digital Online Writers' Syndicate 09/12/95 WILLIAMSTOWN, MASSACHUSETTS, U.S.A., 1995 SEP 12 (NB) -- Newshare Corp. is about to unveil a new software product in which writers will be able to collect royalties from their works that are published in cyberspace. The software, called "Clickshare," will be unveiled in early October. Clickshare will make the sale possible of creative works by independent artists, authors, and publishers via the Internet alone, and get paid for those works, Newshare officials said. This is opposed to using one of the commercial online services. Only transaction records must be coordinated, and Clickshare automatically performs that task. Newshare officials said Clickshare can be described as a "transaction clearing system," like a credit card network, which will pay not only writer royalties, but publishers' commissions as well. The revenues will be generated by Internet users who "download" articles or art works, or by subscription. A download can cost as little as ten cents, and still be economical, officials said. While the Clickshare system requires special software be set up on Web servers, no special set-up is required on the user's end, except for Internet access. Also, a writer has the option of letting the Newshare Syndicate or other Clickshare-enabled syndicates to negotiate rights on their behalf when Internet surfers request publication, reposting, or other distribution rights. Bill Densmore, president and cofounder of Newshare, told Newsbytes the general idea behind Clickshare came to him back in 1979 as more of an FM broadband delivery service. Only last year did he transfer the idea to the Internet, and the World Wide Web, after he met and discussed his idea with a computer expert. "I realized that here was something that was interactive and personalized," he said. "The other thing that amazed me was how fast you could get the information when you clicked on something" when using a Web browser like Mosaic, he added. Newshare maintains a Web presence at http://www.newshare.com . (Bob Woods/19950912/Press Contacts: Bill Densmore or Lynn Duncan, Newshare Corp., 413-458-8001) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 09/12/95 ONLINE Oracle E-mail Software On Screen Phone (NEWS)(ONLINE)(LAX)(00030) Oracle E-mail Software On Screen Phone 09/12/95 CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1995 SEP 12 (NB) -- Oracle Corp. (NASDAQ: ORCL) and Philips Home Services have announced that they are working together to allow consumers to communicate and exchange information electronically, without the use of personal computers. Oracle is developing a version of its Oracle Office electronic messaging software that will work with Philips' screen phones. Paul Chapple, a spokesman for Philips Home Services, told Newsbytes, "The electronic-mail service will initially be deployed to home banking consumers who use the Philips P100 screen phone." Marketed by Philips Home Services, a subsidiary of Philips Electronics NV, the P100 combines voice with a five-inch text screen. "Philips' screen phones are currently in use around the world through financial institutions, with 20,000 current screen phone users. For example, Citibank offers the screen phone as part of their home banking service. Citibank buys the phones from Philips and offers them along with home banking," said Chapple. "Our alliance with Philips gives consumers immediate and simple access to e-mail messaging services from low-cost and convenient devices. This has tremendous appeal for the 70 percent of the consumer market which is not currently using personal computers, and connects them with the rest of the world that is using e-mail for timely communications," said Karen White, Oracle's senior vice president for Strategy and Planning. Gerrit Schipper, president of Philips Home Services, said, "Whereas online services require an expensive home PC and have been known to consume time, screen phones are designed to save time and are a natural extension of standard telephone services." Participating customers will receive a personal screen phone equipped with an e-mail mail box, in addition to the existing network of services offered by Philips. The built-in mail box will provide consumers with immediate access to e-mail messaging services. The screen phone e-mail system will be based on Oracle Office, which provides messaging, group calendaring and scheduling, directory services, and mobile access. Production release of the screen phone messaging software is slated for early 1996. "The Oracle software will enable consumers to send electronic messages using the Philips screen phone, and to receive electronic messages via the phone from other screen phones, any personal computer, or personal digital assistants. Oracle's e-mail system will incorporate the simple, one-button operation and ATM-like text menus that are the hallmark of Philips' screen phone services, giving e-mail access to even the most computer-adverse consumer. Users will also be able to access voice mail and e-mail on one device, another valuable breakthrough," said Chapple (Richard Bowers/19950900/Press Contact: Dawn Echols, Oracle, 415-506-9034) (SUMMARY)(GENERAL)(MSP)(00031) Newsbytes Daily Summary 09/12/95 MINNEAPOLIS, MINNESOTA, U.S.A., 1995 SEP 12 (NB) -- These are capsules of all today's news stories: ======================================================================== ------------| N E W S B Y T E S D A I L Y S U M M A R Y |---------- ------------| Tuesday, September 12, 1995 |---------- ======================================================================== (c) Newsbytes News Network (Tm) Editor in Chief: Wendy Woods ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Newsbytes News Network's 1995 Update CD-ROM for Mac, DOS, and Windows is now available for $29.95 (includes s&h). Contains 1983-1995 news stories, more than 64,000 keyword searchable stories and 475 digitized images. For more information or to order, fax to 612-430-0441 or e-mail to 'administrator@newsbytes.com' -- MC, Visa, Amex accepted. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ CATEGORY HEADLINES (*** indicates today's top stories) STORY # ======================================================================== BROADCAST Scientific-Atlanta In Chinese Satellite Deal............... 15 BUSINESS Tandem Chooses IBS As Russian Partner...................... 08 BUSINESS Australia - Unisys & Ansett Airline In Database Deal....... 14 BUSINESS China - Fujitsu Targets Computer Market.................... 16 BUSINESS South Korean Firms Turn To India For Software.............. 17 BUSINESS 3Com Plans Indian Subsidiary............................... 18 BUSINESS Motorola Picks Virginia Site For Power PC Plant............ 25 BUSINESS ****Macromedia & AOL's NaviSoft To Enhance Web Tools...... 27 CHIPS NEC Licenses UK Firm's RISC Technology..................... 12 GENERAL ENIAC 50th Anniversary Set For 1996........................ 01 GENERAL Wordperfect Magazines Get New Publisher.................... 02 GENERAL Novell Certification In High School Curriculum............. 04 GOVT ****Firms Team On Parental Control........................ 06 GOVT Scientists Rally Behind Standards Institute................ 24 IBM IBM Updates Aptiva PC Line................................. 19 LEGAL Law Reform Bill Stalled In Congress........................ 05 ONLINE "The Biz" E-Zine Officially Launches....................... 03 ONLINE DEC Plans To Take Web "Into 21st Century................... 09 ONLINE Novell's Binder Indexes Online Magazines................... 10 ONLINE Internet Update............................................ 22 ONLINE Newshare's Digital Online Writers' Syndicate............... 29 ONLINE Oracle E-mail Software On Screen Phone..................... 30 PC Texas Instruments Intros Notebooks......................... 11 TRENDS UK - Computron Attacks Vendor Hype Over Client/Server...... 07 TRENDS ****End Is In Sight For 486-Based Computing - Study....... 13 TRENDS Semiconductor Book-To-Bill Ratio Drops..................... 20 TRENDS Foreign Share Of Japanese Semiconductor Market Rises....... 23 TRENDS ****2nd Qtr Software Sales Solid, Says SPA................ 26 TRENDS Boca Intros Voice/Video Modems, Multimedia Card............ 28 UNIX MKS Launches Code Integrity Software....................... 21 ======================================================================== These are the headlines and first paragraphs of each story, in order: 1 -> ENIAC 50th Anniversary Set For 1996 -- February 14, 1996, will be the 50th anniversary of the day researchers at the University of Pennsylvania's Moore School of Electrical Engineering switched on ENIAC, precursor of the modern computer. Next year, the University of Pennsylvania and the city of Philadelphia plan a year-long celebration of that event. 2 -> Wordperfect Magazines Get New Publisher -- Novell Inc. (NASDAQ: NOVL) says it has structured a management buyout deal of the division that publishes Wordperfect Magazine, Wordperfect for Windows Magazine, and other end user-oriented publications. 3 -> "The Biz" E-Zine Officially Launches -- Marinex Multimedia Corp. has officially launched "The Biz: The Digizine for the Entertainment Industry," described as an Internet World Wide Web trade publication for the entertainment "biz" with "consumer appeal." Specifically, The Biz covers film, television, music, multimedia, and traditional print publishing. 4 -> Novell Certification In High School Curriculum -- Nearly 100 San Jose, California, high school students will be enrolling in new computer network administration courses, developed in partnership with Novell Inc. (NASDAQ: NOVL) and the San Jose Education Network (SJEN). High school students who successfully complete the network administration curriculum and pass a Novell certification exam will become Certified Novell Administrators (CNAs). 5 -> Law Reform Bill Stalled In Congress -- Legislation to reform the nation's civil litigation system 6 -> ****Firms Team On Parental Control -- A group of more than 20 computer and online communications firms are scheduled to announce a new coalition to establish a system that would give parents control of what their children can access on the Internet and the World Wide Web. 7 -> UK - Computron Attacks Vendor Hype Over Client/Server -- Computron has announced a major offensive "in asserting its technology leadership" in the market for client/server financial management and accounting systems. 8 -> Tandem Chooses IBS As Russian Partner -- Tandem Computers Inc. has chosen the Moscow software and networking company IBS as a provider of its software and supporter of it products. 9 -> DEC Plans To Take Web "Into 21st Century -- Digital Equipment Corp. plans to use its new PC home page on the World Wide Web, not just to distribute information, but to "take Internet technology into the 21st century." That will involve electronic commerce, remote PC diagnosis, and "online interactive focus groups" that might ultimately include multimedia avatars, said Deb Buckley, Digital's Internet program manager, in an interview with Newsbytes. 10 -> Novell's Binder Indexes Online Magazines -- Novell Inc. (NASDAQ: NOVL) is offering a free program that, not only reads the company's online magazines in the same format as the printed version, but also indexes the articles and finds them again when needed. 11 -> Texas Instruments Intros Notebooks -- Texas Instruments Inc. (NYSE: TXN) has introduced a new line of notebook computers designed for home office and small business users. 12 -> NEC Licenses UK Firm's RISC Technology -- NEC Corp., the world's largest supplier of ASIC (application specific integrated circuit) products, has signed a licensing agreement with Advanced RISC Machines Ltd. (ARM) of the UK. 13 -> ****End Is In Sight For 486-Based Computing - Study -- A study from Computer Intelligence InfoCorp (CII) finds that Pentium-based desktop computer systems are now outselling similar systems powered by 486 processors. Measuring computer sales in the first seven months of 1995, CII reports the 486 desktop/tower and portables market dropped from 71% of all sales to 48%, while Apple's Motorola-based systems dropped from 13% to 8% in the same period. 14 -> Australia - Unisys & Ansett Airline In Database Deal -- Unisys has signed a US$6.5 million contract with the Australian domestic airline, Ansett Australia Holdings Limited, to develop and implement a "Customer Loyalty Management Solution." 15 -> Scientific-Atlanta In Chinese Satellite Deal -- Scientific-Atlanta Inc. is to supply China's Ministry of Foreign Trade & Economic Cooperation (MOFTEC) with a voice and data satellite communications network for its "Golden Customs Project," a key "Golden Project" being implemented by the Chinese government to "improve operations" in areas such as agriculture, civil works, technology, and communications. 16 -> China - Fujitsu Targets Computer Market -- Fujitsu has entered China's lucrative computer business. The company will market three of its new systems through China's fourth largest computer company 17 -> South Korean Firms Turn To India For Software -- Three South Korean firms 18 -> 3Com Plans Indian Subsidiary -- Following the footsteps of other leading information technology giants, the $1.2 billion US networking company, 3Com Corp., has decided to set up a 100 percent subsidiary 19 -> IBM Updates Aptiva PC Line -- IBM (NYSE:IBM) has announced new versions of its Aptiva home computer, adding built-in support for Motion Picture Experts Group (MPEG) video, and extending the line's speech-recognition capabilities. 20 -> Semiconductor Book-To-Bill Ratio Drops -- According to Price Waterhouse's World Semiconductor Trade Statistics (WSTS), the 1.18 seasonally adjusted book-to-bill ratio showed a drop in August, from the all-time high of 1.22 in July. The book-to-bill ratio indicates that for every $100 worth of products shipped (billed), manufacturers received $118 of new orders (bookings). 21 -> MKS Launches Code Integrity Software -- Mortice Kern Systems Inc. (MKS) has introduced a source code analysis tool for C programming on various flavors of Unix. MKS Code Integrity includes a code analysis engine, an application program interface (API) database, and a graphical user interface, MKS said. 22 -> Internet Update -- In this roundup of new resources and services on the global Internet: In the news, HTMLed Pro timed edition available, Hong Kong online, Webmaster guide, Pigs in cyberspace, Bilingual OS/2 information online, Red Cross opens on the net, The house that Bill built, Free access in Bay Area 23 -> Foreign Share Of Japanese Semiconductor Market Rises -- The foreign share of Japan's semiconductor market during the first three months of fiscal 1995 stood at 22.9% and 23.8% under each of the two measurements systems used to calculate the figure. The figures represent a solidifying of the foreign share and signals that the percentages will increase, according to some analysts. 24 -> Scientists Rally Behind Standards Institute -- With the Republican Congress on the verge of killing the National Institute of Standards and Technology, the American Physical Society (APS) is rallying scientists behind the beleaguered high-tech government agency. 25 -> Motorola Picks Virginia Site For Power PC Plant -- Motorola says it will exercise an option to buy 230 acres west of Richmond, Va., for a $3 billion manufacturing plant for Power PC processors. The chips that run in the top-end Apple computers are in chronic short supply. 26 -> ****2nd Qtr Software Sales Solid, Says SPA -- Software sales in North America hit $1.57 billion for the second quarter of 1995, according to the Software Publishers Association. That represents a 7.8 percent increase over the second quarter of last year. 27 -> ****Macromedia & AOL's NaviSoft To Enhance Web Tools -- Macromedia (NASDAQ:MACR), well known for Director and other multimedia development tools, and Navisoft, an America Online (NASDAQ:AMER) company which develops World Wide Web site building and management tools, have announced plans to integrate Director into NaviSoft's Web tools. The resulting new tools will allow developers to build multimedia enriched Web sites. 28 -> Boca Intros Voice/Video Modems, Multimedia Card -- Boca Research Inc. (NASDAQ:BOCI) has announced three new products, all of which are video-oriented. One product is a multimedia video graphics card, the other two are modems that use digital simultaneous voice and data (DSVD) capabilities. 29 -> Newshare's Digital Online Writers' Syndicate -- Newshare Corp. is about to unveil a new software product in which writers will be able to collect royalties from their works that are published in cyberspace. The software, called "Clickshare," will be unveiled in early October. 30 -> Oracle E-mail Software On Screen Phone -- Oracle Corp. (NASDAQ: ORCL) and Philips Home Services have announced that they are working together to allow consumers to communicate and exchange information electronically, without the use of personal computers. Oracle is developing a version of its Oracle Office electronic messaging software that will work with Philips' screen phones. (Ian Stokell/19950912) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 09/11/95 WINDOWS WinShield Controls Access To Windows 95 Features (NEWS)(WINDOWS)(DEN)(00001) WinShield Controls Access To Windows 95 Features 09/11/95 HOUSTON, TEXAS, U.S.A., 1995 SEP 11 (NB) -- Kent-Marsh Limited has announced it will ship a desktop and configuration protection program for Windows 95 in mid-September. The company said WinShield is designed to prevent accidental or deliberate damage to the Windows 95 environment by limiting configuration changes and controlling the use of peripherals. The company added that the software can even protect against effective software piracy and unsupervised "surfing" on the Internet. According to Vance Nesbitt, Windows 95, Microsoft's recently released operating system and graphical user interface (GUI), is the simplest operating environment ever created for the PC. "With it users can now delete files, copy expensive applications, change settings, alter configurations and access valuable peripherals with a click of the mouse, often before they realize the damage they may have caused." Nesbitt said WinShield allows complete access to all of the features in Windows 95, but makes sure the user can't make the kind of changes they'd regret. "In addition to Windows 95's advances in GUI and ease of use, it also has this befuddling array of mechanisms to get to information," Nesbitt told Newsbytes, referring to "right clicks," Explorer, Shortcuts, the Start menu, and other new or changed features. "Someone can rapidly get themselves or the operating system in trouble," he said. WinShield can be used to prevent changes to peripherals, system settings, desktop appearance, and other operating and application properties and settings. The company said it can selectively restrict access to applications, floppy and CD-ROM drives, DOS, control panels, Explorer tools, and the network. It can even allow specific CD's to be played and set others for rejection when they are inserted in the drive. It can also enhance Windows 95's screen saver password to provide extra access security. WinShield has a suggested retail price of $49.95. Nesbitt told Newsbytes the street price as a standalone product is about $33, although you can find the software in some outlets as low as $19.95 when it is bundled with Windows 95. (Jim Mallory/19950908/Press contact: Bob Wesolek, Kent-Marsh Limited, 713-522-5625; Public contact: Kent-Marsh, tel 713-522-5625 or 800-325-3587, fax 713-522-8965) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 09/11/05 BUSINESS Germany's Vobis Relaunches Into UK PC Marketplace (NEWS)(BUSINESS)(LON)(00002) Germany's Vobis Relaunches Into UK PC Marketplace 09/11/05 LONDON, ENGLAND, 1995 SEP 11 (NB) -- After seeing its year-long partnership with Dixons turn in UK sales of just 0.1 percent of the UK PC marketplace, both companies have gone their separate ways, leaving Vobis, the giant German PC vendor, to team up with PowerStore, another electrical retailer, to secure a foothold in the competitive UK PC marketplace. This time around, Vobis is doing a lot more than simply selling its machines through a retailer -- the German giant has formed a joint venture company, Vobis-PowerStore, 51 percent owned by Vobis, which will sell and support its PCs through PowerStore's 88 strong retail outlets, using a PC department concept that the company already uses in German outlets. By taking a joint venture approach to selling machines and, presumably, splitting the profits with PowerStore (financial details of the joint venture have not been released), profit margins that would normally accrue to the retail outlet all go to the joint venture. Theo Lieven, Vobis' managing director in Germany, claims that using this approach will allow Vobis to push the slender margins normally found on PC retail products much higher, possibly as high as 30 percent gross. While fighting to secure a share of the PC market, Vobis is undoubtedly tracking the progress of its arch-rival in Germany -- Escom -- which has made a success of selling PCs in the UK, although at a high capital cost, since it has opened its own retail outlets in the UK high street. In June of last year, Lieven, speaking with journalists from his company's Aachen headquarters in Germany, said he expected turnover in the coming year to be up by more than 30 percent, to top the DM2,400 million mark, in Germany alone. That prediction came in the wake of a similar growth increase in 1993, when turnover reached the DM1,850 million mark, although profits did halve to DM30 million in the year's trading. Last year, Lieven said that he is unhappy with the 1994 fall in profits and has taken action to improve the situation during the current year. Interestingly, Lieven views the bloodbath taking place in the no-name unbranded PC marketplace in Europe as "not affecting" Vobis' German operation, as the company's Highscreen PC brand name is established in Germany. Unfortunately for Lieven, Newsbytes notes, Vobis is a little- known brand in the UK, as witnessed by the "catch 22" situation with Dixons, where prices were cut to the bone, yet sales were low against the other "unknown" brand systems. (Sylvia Dennis/19950908/Press & Reader Contact: Vobis +49-2405-4440, fax +49-2405-444-400) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 09/11/95 ONLINE Compuserve Adds 4 UK Online Stores (NEWS)(ONLINE)(LON)(00003) Compuserve Adds 4 UK Online Stores 09/11/95 READING, BERKSHIRE, ENGLAND, 1995 SEP 11 (NB) -- Compuserve has beefed up its already busy online electronic shopping mall with the addition of four more virtual UK stores. This time around, members of Compuserve, no matter where they are in the world, can shop at Selfridges, January, Office World, and the London Science Museum. The expansion of the UK online shopping section on Compuserve (GO UKSHOP) follows on from the launch of the service in April of this year. According to Compuserve, the service is still the UK's first and most comprehensive online shopping service. Announcing the addition of the four vendors to Compuserve, Martin Turner, the company's director of product marketing at Compuserve, said that subscriber response to the UK Shopping Centre has been tremendous. "The retailers who joined us in April have seen business exceed all expectations and together we have achieved many hundreds of thousands of pounds worth of sales," he said. Existing retailers on Compuserve's UK Shopping Centre include WH Smith, Interflora, Virgin Our Price, PC World, Dixons, Great Universal Stores, Tesco, and Past Times. (Steve Gold/19950908/Press Contact: Judith Coley, Compuserve UK Ops, +44-1734-525516, Internet e-mail jcoley@csi.compuserve.com; Reader Contact: Customer Support, toll-free 0800-289458) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 09/11/95 TRENDS Growth In UK Windows & Client/Server Markets - Survey (NEWS)(TRENDS)(LON)(00004) Growth In UK Windows & Client/Server Markets - Survey 09/11/95 LONDON, ENGLAND, 1995 SEP 11 (NB) -- The Business & Accounting Software Developer's Association (BASDA) has released details of its annual Business Systems Survey. According to the association, more than a quarter of all users now expect to operate Windows-based accounting systems, while almost 40 percent are planning to run their financial systems in a client/server environment. The 1995 BASDA Trends in Business Systems Survey was compiled by surveying the views of 800 financial directors from companies with a turnover of UKP50,000 to UKP500 Million. Other trends highlighted by the survey indicate that mid-range proprietary platforms are all but dead in the financial arena with only the IBM AS/400 minicomputer series holding its own, but showing no potential growth. The planned purchases of Unix systems has slowed and around eight percent of users intend to move to Windows NT in the next twelve months. The most popular features demanded by users of accounting systems are "drill-down zoom" and "multi-currency" capability. As more users develop integrated business systems, they want their accounting software to link to other packages such as databases and spreadsheets. According to Dennis Keeling, BASDA's director, this year's survey shows significant new integration trends to electronic data interchange (EDI) and executive information systems (EIS) which have had low priority in previous years. The survey also gives details of the most popular suppliers of both hardware and software and the users preferred methods of buying, use of consultants. Keeling plans to review the implications of the survey in a series of seminars at the forthcoming Softworld in Finance and Accounting Show at the Birmingham NEC in the UK, scheduled to be held on September 27 and 28. "This is the fourth year that we have undertaken our Trends in Business Systems survey, which has proved to be a very accurate barometer of what is happening in the industry, and gives accurate feedback to end-users on the trends in buying patterns of business and accounting applications," Keeling claimed. After the Softworld Show later this month, copies of the full survey, with the last four years' comparative results, will be available from BASDA at a cost of UKP100, inclusive of sales tax and mailing costs. (Sylvia Dennis/19950908/Press Contact: Wendy Haylock, +1628-520276; Reader Contact: BASDA, +44-1494-431768) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 09/11/95 TRENDS Europe - NEC Intros Scan Doubling 37-Inch Monitor (NEWS)(TRENDS)(LON)(00005) Europe - NEC Intros Scan Doubling 37-Inch Monitor 09/11/95 LONDON, ENGLAND, 1995 SEP 11 (NB) -- As you peer into your 14-inch or 15-inch computer monitor, the thought of using a 37-inch monitor may be appealing, but NEC claims it has increased the interest of potential users of such large monitors by shipping the industry's first 37-inch units complete with scan doubling technology. So who uses such large monitors? According to NEC, users running CAD/CAM (computer-aided design/manufacturing) applications software tend to go for such large monitors. With scan doubling and the NEC's super-flat cathode ray tube (CRT), the company claims that its X.37 and XP37 series of monitors now offer a "far superior quality" image than the competition. Both the new modems are billed as Plug and Play for Windows 95, including NEC's multi-lingual On-Screen Manager (OSM) system designed for multimedia presentations and CAD/CAM visualization applications. The OSM system is a series of buttons on the front of the monitor that activate a pop-up menu system that allow screen adjustments such as color and image geometry to be tweaked. Now the bad news, the monitors sell for UKP6,895 and the UKP9,995, respectively. The entry-level MultiSync X.37 features a full SVGA non-interlace/interlace 1,024 by 768 pixels resolution, while the XP37 extends NEC's Professional range by pushing resolution of 1,280 by 1,204 pixels at up to 78 kilohertz for CAD/CAM applications. In use, the scan doubling system scales up the video input from a variety of sources to produce 1,250 lines instead of the usual 625 lines found in European monitors. Simeon Joseph, NEC's Business Equipment Division's product marketing manager, claims that the monitors are the first 37-inch units to feature Windows 95 Plug and Play capabilities. Both monitors support inputs from PC and Apple Mac computers using the PAL, NTSC (North American Television Standards Committee) and HDTV (high definition television) broadcast video standards and high resolution S-Video sources. The monitors also feature integral intelligent power management systems which NEC claims allow them to run at eight watts when not in use. (Sylvia Dennis/19950908/Press Contact: Daniel Bausor, Words Etc., +44-171-938-4746; Reader Contact: NEC UK, +44-181-993-8111) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 09/11/95 LEGAL UK - Peritas/SPA/FAST Team On Software Education (NEWS)(LEGAL)(LON)(00006) UK - Peritas/SPA/FAST Team On Software Education 09/11/95 OLD WINDSOR, BERKSHIRE, ENGLAND, 1995 SEP 11 (NB) -- Peritas, which claims to be the UK's largest information technology (IT) training company, has teamed up with the Software Publishers Association (SPA) and the Federation Against Software Theft (FAST) to tackle the problem of illegal copies of software in businesses. Peritas is offering UK businesses a one-day "Certified Software Manager" course to anyone prepared to pay UKP395, or UKP299 for members. According to Peritas, protecting an organization's software investment against illegal copying is a common corporate headache. More and more companies, Peritas claims, are having to face up to the fact that their organizations may already be guilty of using many unlicensed software packages. In support of this, the company quotes recent statistics from the Business Software Alliance (BSA) which show that, in 1994, the UK software industry lost around $543 million through software piracy. According to some sources, as many as 43 percent of all packages in use in UK businesses are pirated. The Peritas course consists of a series of interactive lecture sessions interspersed with exercises. Sessions cover such issues as: understanding copyright legislation and licensing agreements; developing a corporate software policy; selling software management to the board and employees; the process of software auditing; and managing plus metering software on an office network. (Steve Gold/19950908/Press Contact: Leading Edge Communications, +44- 171-454-9360, Internet e-mail leadingedge@cix.compulink.co.uk; Reader Contact: Sally Pocock, Peritas, +44-1753-868181, Internet e-mail s.v.pocock@wsr0102.wins.icl.co.uk; FAST, +44-1653-527999) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 09/11/95 BUSINESS Correction - Random Access Shareholders To Vote On Buyout (CORRECTION)(BUSINESS)(DEN)(00007) Correction - Random Access Shareholders To Vote On Buyout 09/11/95 DENVER, COLORADO, U.S.A., 1995 SEP 11 (NB) -- Earlier this month, Newsbytes reported that Random Access Inc. (NASDAQ: RNDM) has called a special meeting of shareholders for September 19, 1995, to vote on the proposed acquisition of the company by ENTEX Information Services Inc., a privately held company based in Rye Brook, New York. That story contained an error regarding the restructuring of Random Access. The story stated that Rich Schineller, Entex manager of corporate communications, told Newsbytes if the deal is approved, Random Access will be absorbed into the Entex operation. Schineller has informed Newsbytes that his understanding of the situation was incorrect, and Random Access will continue to operate as a wholly owned subsidiary. If the deal goes through, Random Access shareholders would receive a cash payment of $3.25 per share of their common stock. That's slightly lower than originally anticipated, when Entex said in May it would pay $3.50 per share. (Jim Mallory/19950907/Press contact: Blair McNea, Random Access, 303-752-5192 or Rich Schineller, ENTEX, 914-935-3684) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 09/11/95 GENERAL Canadian Product Launch Update (NEWS)(GENERAL)(TOR)(00008) Canadian Product Launch Update 09/11/95 KINGSTON, ONTARIO, CANADA 1995 SEP 11 (NB) -- This regular feature, appearing on the first day Newsbytes publishes each week, provides further details for the Canadian market on announcements by international companies that Newsbytes has already covered. This week: Lotus SmartSuite 96 Edition for Windows 95 and Microsoft's toll-free number for Windows 95 customers affected by a virus during installation. Lotus Development Canada Ltd., of Toronto, has announced that SmartSuite 96 Edition for Windows 95 (Newsbytes, Aug. 30) will ship in November. The Canadian estimated retail price for the new desktop applications suite is C$565, Lotus said. Those who bought SmartSuite or individual Lotus applications for Windows 3.1 since June 20, 1995, can upgrade free through the Lotus Buyers' Assurance Plan until year-end. The upgrade price for others is C$279. Microsoft Canada Inc., of Mississauga, Ontario, said Canadian customers who run into virus problems when installing the new Windows 95 from diskettes can call a special toll-free number, 800-207-7766 (Newsbytes, Sept. 5) Microsoft said a few users have had trouble with the installation when viruses already resident on their computers infected the Windows 95 master disks. The company recommends running virus-checking software before installation and write-protecting the diskettes, but said it will provide replacement diskettes to those whose originals become infected. (Grant Buckler/19950908/Press Contact: Marsha Connor, Lotus Canada, 416-364-8000; Andrew Dixon, Microsoft Canada, 905-712-0333 ext 7228; Public Contact: Lotus Canada, 416-364-8000; Microsoft Canada, tel 905-568-0434, fax 905-568-1527) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 09/11/95 ONLINE NewsFile Health Site On Web (NEWS)(ONLINE)(MSP)(00009) NewsFile Health Site On Web 09/11/95 ATLANTA, GEORGIA, U.S.A., 1995 SEP 11 (NB) -- A company called CW Henderson, Publisher, is launching a new Internet World Wide Web site. The weekly health information service is providing what it calls the "world's most important health news" each week. The new Web site is part of the company's HendersonNet home page, a "high-tech cyberspace online service." Charles W. Henderson, editor-in-chief of NewsFile, told Newsbytes the site is designed for both health professionals and "lay people" alike. "We write in a style that everyone can read, and most people can understand," he said. "Everybody wants to read stuff that's fairly easy to understand," including people who work in the health profession and those who receive their services, Henderson added. "Obviously there will be a lot of stuff that the health-conscious consumer will not be interested in, and only drug company researchers or medical professionals will be interested in," Henderson said, but much of the content will apply to most anyone who accesses to the site. Henderson said his staff of journalists meets every Wednesday morning to determine what is the most important health news of the week. The articles resulting from that decision are then posted on NewsFile on Mondays. "Just the accomplishment of that one task is great, because you have to have all of that health information for the week, and you have to evaluate the info," he said. NewsFile is divided into topic areas, including the subjects of cancer, AIDS, and infectious diseases. Henderson said more "exotic" topics -- malaria and gene therapy -- are also covered. Users can download or view recent issues of AIDS Weekly Plus, Blood Weekly, Cancer Biotechnology Weekly, Fertility Weekly, and the Health Letter on the CDC (Centers for Disease Control). Future additions to NewsFile will include the publications Emerging Pathogen Weekly, HealthWatch on Asia and the Pacific Rim, and Antiviral Weekly. The site also provides hypertext links to other sources of health information on the World Wide Web. The NewsFile site is on the Web at http://www.newsfile.com . Internet electronic-mail can be addressed to info@hendersonnet.atl.ga.us. (Bob Woods/19950908/Press Contact: Charles W. Henderson, CW Henderson, Publisher, 770-507-7777) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 09/11/95 ONLINE CyberDiner Provides Internet Access For Restaurants (NEWS)(ONLINE)(LAX)(00010) CyberDiner Provides Internet Access For Restaurants 09/11/95 LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1995 SEP 11 (NB) -- CyberDiner Internet Cafe Systems claims to provide the hardware, software and expertise to turn any restaurant into a "cyber diner." When connected, workstations at tables will allow diners to interact through the Internet, while being served their morning coffee. Len Day, contributor to the NASA Mars and Jupiter probes and the upcoming Saturn Probe, and partner Mike Williams, will, "for as little as $15,000," take any restaurant and convert it into a cyber diner. The starter package includes five workstations with high-speed connection to the Internet. Day told Newsbytes, "We are not in the restaurant business. We go in and transform all or part of the establishment. The system is completely 'plug and play,' and is designed for people who have never used the Internet before. A diner can come in and start experimenting immediately. "Diners will have their own account on the system addressed to the restaurant. Once registered, they can send and receive electronic-mail from the restaurant site. This tie to the restaurant should bring people back to the establishment time and time again," claimed Day. He continued: "Cyber diners extend Internet access to people who haven't purchased the necessary equipment and learned how to use it. Basically a cyber diner is a place where you can be served food and drink, access the Internet, and have live people around for help, moral support, or just plain companionship." The Almost Paradise Cafe, located at 4148 1/2 Viking Way, Long Beach, is the CyberDiner Internet Cafe Systems' first site and showcase. Appropriately The Almost Paradise Cafe is owned by the "Klingon" John Shull. Shull is known to many as the Klingon, Molor, in "Star Trek: The Next Generation." He is co-owner, with several other members of the Star Trek team, of the Almost Paradise Cafe. "CyberDiner Systems is the first and only company to offer a turnkey Internet cafe system designed to be installed almost anywhere and operated by almost anyone. There are over one hundred cyber diners in the world today, with about fifty in Europe and fifty in the United States. We opened the first cyber diner in Southern California two months ago, now two more have opened," said Day. Anyone wanting more information can visit CyberDiner Internet Cafe Systems' homepage at http://www.cyberplace.com/cyberdiner.html or contact Len Day directly at led@paradise.cyberplace.com. (Richard Bowers/19950908/Press Contact: Patrick Salvo, CyberDiner Internet Cafe Systems, 213-469-6732) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 09/11/95 APPLE Adobe Ships Prepress Automation Product (NEWS)(APPLE)(DEN)(00011) Adobe Ships Prepress Automation Product 09/11/95 SEATTLE, WASHINGTON, U.S.A., 1995 SEP 11 (NB) -- Adobe Systems Inc. (NASDAQ: ADBE) has announced it is shipping Open, its automated production workflow environment for prepress operations. Open is a modular, server-based architecture in which prepress production processes such as trapping, digital imposition, and image replacement can be automated. Adobe explained that the prepress stage is the final phase of the print production process in which color separation and publication assembly takes place. Open controls the flow of jobs from one function to another, provides parameters for each process, executes the process, and passes the job to the next process. Eric Bean, product line manager for Adobe's commercial prepress products, said as many as half of the repetitive-type jobs going through a prepress operation can be automated with the new software. He called the software the "integral glue" that ties the various prepress processes together. Bob Malecki, product manager for Open, said the software is a modular approach to production and was designed to be an open architecture to integrate with applications from multiple vendors. Open users define what tasks Open will perform by setting linked processes using graphical production templates, called Workflow Pipelines. Users employ the graphical user interface to drag-and- drop icons representing the different applications to their place in the Pipelines. Each Pipeline consists of any combination of linked processes and allows users to have custom settings for each process within the Pipeline. The workflow can be set to pause at specific steps for manual operations and to pass through others using a set of default or defined operational steps. An unlimited number of Pipelines can be linked together to allow the workflows to converge. Open has a messaging system that keeps users updated about the status of their files. Error logs and queues help manage problem files, and "hold baskets" pause the process at user-specified intervals for operator intervention. Adobe said more than 65 electronic prepress and computer companies belong to the Adobe Open Developer Program. Membership in the program gives the firms access to the Open Software Developer Kit, which describes three tiers of Open compliancy. Each tier provides a different level of interaction for the developers to link their applications to the Open system. Open has a suggested retail price of $4,495. Adobe's recommended system requirements include any Apple Macintosh Quadra series or better computer, including the Power Mac. The PC should be running System 7.5 and have 16 megabytes (MB) of memory and 500MB of available hard disk space. (Jim Mallory/19950908/Press contact: Barbara Burke, Burke & Associates for Adobe, 206-938-8827; Public contact: Adobe, 800-685-6736) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 09/11/95 ONLINE Delrina Unveils Cyberjack Internet Software (NEWS)(ONLINE)(TOR)(00012) Delrina Unveils Cyberjack Internet Software 09/11/95 TORONTO, ONTARIO, CANADA, 1995 SEP 11 (NB) -- Delrina Corp. (TSE:DC; NASDAQ:DENAF) has formally announced Cyberjack. The Internet access software is part of a series of new packages Delrina is launching this fall to work with Microsoft's new Windows 95 operating system. Delrina is touting the way Cyberjack integrates access to different Internet services, such as the World Wide Web, File Transfer Protocol (FTP), electronic-mail, and Usenet news groups. As with most Internet software suites, the programs used to connect to these different services are separate in Cyberjack, company spokesman Shelly Sofer told Newsbytes, but Cyberjack binds them together with a central facility called the Guidebook. The Guidebook is a catalog of Internet addresses that can include Web sites, FTP sites, and mail addresses. While an experienced Internet user could run the appropriate piece of the Cyberjack suite to connect to a Web site, send mail, or transfer files using FTP, any user could also enter the Guidebook, select a resource, and tell the software to connect to it, without worrying about which part of the package should be used to do so. Sofer explained that Cyberjack can also parse references to Internet resources and connect to them automatically. For instance, he said, if an incoming e-mail message contained a recommendation to look at a certain Web site, the recipient could simply click on the Uniform Resource Locator (URL) given in the message and Cyberjack would make the connection using its Web browser. Delrina is only offering Cyberjack for Windows 95. Sofer said a number of its features depend on capabilities not found in previous Windows releases, such as the newest version of Microsoft's object linking and embedding (OLE) specifications and Windows 95's improved multitasking capabilities. Expected to ship in November, Cyberjack will be sold with Delrina's WinComm 7.0 communications suite for a suggested retail price of US$129 or C$159, Delrina said. Delrina has a World Wide Web site at http://www.delrina.com. The company is in the process of being taken over by Symantec Corp. (NASDAQ:SYMC) of Cupertino, California. (Grant Buckler/19950908/Press Contact: Shelly Sofer, Delrina, 416-441-4702, Internet e-mail shellys@delrina.com; Josef Zankowicz, Delrina, 416-441-4658, Internet e-mail josefz@delrina.com; Public Contact: Delrina, 800-268-6082) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 09/11/95 WINDOWS McAfee Plans Windows 95 Enterprise Software (NEWS)(WINDOWS)(LON)(00013) McAfee Plans Windows 95 Enterprise Software 09/11/95 BRACKNELL, BERKSHIRE, ENGLAND, 1995 SEP 11 (NB) -- McAfee has announced SiteExpress 3.0, an enterprise software distribution package for NetWare 3.x and 4.x servers, running with Windows 3.1, Windows 85, DOS, and OS/2 workstations. According to the company, with its optimized support for the Windows 95 operating system and application distribution, TCP/IP (Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol), NetWare Directory Services (NDS), and SNMP (Simple Network Management Protocol) trapping, the package is one of the first "truly enterprise-ready" software distribution applications. "With Windows 95, network managers will be faced with the prospect of having to individually guide estimates at between 30 to 60 minutes per workstation. SiteExpress greatly eases the migration burden by allowing administrators to centrally automate enterprise distribution and installation of their Windows 95 operating systems and applications," claimed Tracey Mustacchio, senior product manager with McAfee. Fiona McDineen, a spokeswoman for McAfee's UK operation, told Newsbytes that the package will ship during the fourth quarter of this year on both sides of the Atlantic. UK pricing has been set at UKP399 for between one and 25 users, UKP714 for 26 to 50 users, and UKP1,260 for between 51 and 100 users. "These prices include two years site support," she explained. SiteExpress 3.0 has several new facilities over earlier editions, including support for the Windows 95 operating system. The package is billed as fully enterprise-enabled with support for TCP/IP, which the company claims has become the enterprise internetwork protocol of choice for wide area network (WAN) administrators. According to McAfee, a key advantage of supporting the TCP/IP system is that it allows administrators to distribute software to remote IP servers that are not part of their local IPX (Internetwork Packet Exchange) network. To help administrators prepare for software distribution, a new "Wizard" routine walks administrators through the steps required to assemble a "package." A package is a complete set of scripts, files and recipients necessary to successfully complete a distribution. (Steve Gold/19950907/Press Contact: MCC, +44-1420-542598; Reader Contact: McAfee UK, tel +44-1344-304730, fax +44-1344-306902) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 09/11/95 NETWORK UK - Asante's PC & Mac PCI/Ethernet Cards (NEWS)(NETWORK)(LON)(00014) UK - Asante's PC & Mac PCI/Ethernet Cards 09/11/95 LONDON, ENGLAND, 1995 SEP 11 (NB) -- Asante Technologies has unveiled a range of PCI (Peripheral Component Interconnect)/Ethernet cards for the PC and Apple Mac platforms. The company has also taken the wraps off an update card for the Windows 95 and Windows NT environments, as well as a range of 10/100 NuBus and 10BASE-T PCI cards. Paul Smith, vice president of marketing with the company, claims that timing of the release of the new adapter cards proves that it is keeping up with the quickly advancing world of Ethernet networking, and general migration to the PCI bus by PC and Mac users. "Asante's adapter family mirrors the heterogeneous companies our customers work in supporting everyone from people whose systems remain unchanged for years at a time to those who push computer technology to the absolute cutting edge," said Paul Smith, vice president of marketing at Asante. The NuBus card -- the AsanteFAST 10/100 Adapter for NuBus -- is billed as a high-speed adapter designed to connect NuBus-based Macs, including Quadras, Mac IIs, and most of the Power Mac family. According to Smith, the card offers a "very effective" migration path for existing local area network (LAN) networks to move to 100 megabits-per- second (Mbps) networking. Asante claims that the auto-negotiation facility in the NuBus card ensures good compatibility and network connection. The card will ship in Europe during the fourth quarter of this year. The new 10BASE-T PCI card, meanwhile, is called the AsanteNIC, and uses a 32-bit bus which increases network throughput higher than that of ISA (Industry Standard Architecture), EISA (Extended Industry Standard Architecture), and Mac NuBus cards. According to Asante, PCI technology can greatly enhance the speed of other buses when transferring large files on the network. The AsanteNIC card works on any PCI-capable PC or Power Mac computer. Interestingly, the same UKP199 card is used for both PC and Power Mac computing platforms -- just the software drivers are different. The update to the AsanteFAST 10/100 for PCI will ship free of charge from later this month for users who have already purchased the system. The AsanteNIC card for PCs is available immediately, with the Apple Mac version expected by the end of the year. (Sylvia Dennis/19950907/Press & Reader Contact: Richard Strong, Asante Technologies, +44-181-332-1326 Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 09/11/95 NETWORK Poorly Designed Networks Are Wasting Money (NEWS)(NETWORK)(LON)(00015) Poorly Designed Networks Are Wasting Money 09/11/95 MANCHESTER, ENGLAND, 1995 SEP 11 (NB) -- Salford Networking International, a networking services company, claims that poorly designed networks are costing companies a significant amount of money. To answer this problem, the company has announced the availability of IPT-Netsolv Global, a global network planning and design application package that runs under Windows. According to Leigh Richards, a company spokesman, SNI is joint venture operation between Salford University and Manchester Airport and, as far as the company can see, it is the only independent company operating in this area of the networking market. "Because the company has access to the academic resources at the university, it can offer a very high level of consultancy," Richards told Newsbytes, adding that the company's services are quite wide ranging. Central to SNI's operations is a Windows application that offers intelligent network design on a global basis. Previously, the software only supported European network design, but the package has now been enhanced to offer global networking design and costings. The package requires the user to input details of the company's networking requirements and, based on this, it will come up with a "networking solution" that is based on lowest cost pricing and network performance. "The package has details of all the world's networking systems, including their costs, and makes its suggestions based on the costings and routings available. Unlike other packages of this type, the application is unbiased and offers solutions based on costings rather than routing availability," Richards said. The package costs from UKP2,995 upwards, and is available in a variety of configurations, either sold direct to the customer, via a reseller who uses the package to consult for the customer, or through the company itself, where consultancy can be added if required. The idea behind IPT-Netsolv Global is that it provides the means to develop optimal price/performance network topologies no matter where in the world the network is based or extends. By this means, the company claims that the user abolishes the wasted resource arising from poor network design. At the heart of the system software lies the details of over 100,000 worldwide locations of carriers and PTTs, together with thousands of line tariffs for switched and leased services including international and country specific tariffs. Tariffs are maintained by SNI with regular updates and the user can include their own tariff information. Equipment information is added to the system by the user. The user can enter whatever equipment details they choose, whether for existing equipment or potential equipment purchases. Powerful algorithm-based analysis tools then perform optimization analyses to identify the "best" lines and equipment to achieve the "optimal least-cost solution." Analyses can be applied to the whole network or just a part. Analyses, the company claims, are based upon user defined network requirements, for example whether it is performance, cost, capacity or resilience which is of most importance. One useful feature is that the user can experiment on a "what-if" scenario basis by adjusting parameters. These might vary from a change of carrier or equipment to a change of traffic. Results of designs are presented in graphical and tabular format, and can, the company claims, be readily integrated into other documents including spreadsheets and databases. The graphical display is icon based and icons can be moved to create the desired display. (Steve Gold/19950907/Press Contact: The Right Image, tel +44-1932-240055, fax +44-1932-247646, Internet e-mail therightimage@cix.compulink.co.uk; Reader Contact: SNI, tel +44-161-877-4433, fax +44-161-877-0278) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 95 09/11/95 WINDOWS Gold Disk's Astound Multimedia Prgm Supports Windows (NEWS)(WINDOWS)(LON)(00016) Gold Disk's Astound Multimedia Prgm Supports Windows 95 09/11/95 READING, BERKSHIRE, ENGLAND, 1995 SEP 11 (NB) -- Gold Disk has announced a new version of Astound, its Windows 3.x multimedia package. According to the company, version 2.1, which will ship on both sides of the Atlantic within the next few weeks, includes a native 32-bit Windows 95 runtime player and has also undergone a series of Windows 95 compatibility tests. According to David Aldridge, European vice president with the company, the idea behind including a Windows 95 runtime module is that, when users want to playback or distribute a multimedia presentation, they will have two environments to choose from: Windows 95 and Windows 3.1. Included in Astound 2.1 is Astound Studio, a collection of separate editors, each of which can manipulate a particular media format for use in an Astound presentation. The company claims that, together, they address all of the media elements that can be used in an Astound presentation: sound, digital video, animation, photo images, and structured graphics. "Astound is the type of product that will take advantage of the speed and performance users will see when using multimedia under the Windows 95 environment," Aldridge explained. He added that, over the last year, the industry has seen more and more powerful technology being brought into the lives of users, both old and new. "Astound paves the way for business presenters, educators, and developers to be more effective and dynamic in their communication efforts. Research has shown that a far greater level of information is retained from presentations combining motion and sound," he said, adding that Astound 2.1 for Windows is "a natural evolution of our power-with-ease philosophy raising the benchmark by which all presentation software is evaluated." UK pricing on Astound 2.1 remains at UKP189, while upgraders from competing packages can migrate to v2.1 of Astound for UKP99. Existing users of the package can upgrade to this, the latest release, for the standard upgrade fee of UKP39. (Steve Gold/19950907/Press Contact: Profile Public Relations, +44-181-995-1595, Internet e-mail profilepr@cix.compulink.co.uk; Reader Contact: Gold Disk, +44-1734-814230) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 09/11/95 ONLINE Asiaweek Online With Pathfinder (NEWS)(ONLINE)(HKG)(00017) Asiaweek Online With Pathfinder 09/11/95 CENTRAL, HONG KONG, 1995 SEP 11 (NB)-- Asiaweek has become the first regional newsweekly to set up a presence on the Internet's World Wide Web, through its parent-company Time Warner's Pathfinder site. The online version offers selected news, opinions and features from the print version of Asiaweek. Links within articles take readers to related stories. For example, by clicking on a country on the online Newsmap, that nation's news items for previous weeks will appear on the screen, a company statement said. According to Asiaweek Associate Editor Cesar Bacani, "Readers are also able to contribute their own comments and views through the Asiaweek Online site, creating an important direct dialog with our subscribers." The Hong Kong-based weekly, which claims the highest regional newsweekly circulation, can be found at http://www.pathfinder.com/Asiaweek . (Nigel Armstrong & I.T. Daily/19950907) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 09/11/95 TRENDS SAP Sees Hong Kong Acct Software Business Soar (NEWS)(TRENDS)(HKG)(00018) SAP Sees Hong Kong Acct Software Business Soar 09/11/95 CENTRAL, HONG KONG, 1995 SEP 11 (NB)-- German-based accounting software specialist SAP AG has substantially increased its investment in Hong Kong, where the company says its business has doubled in the past year and its staff increased from eight to 25 employees. "Hong Kong is one of our fastest growing markets in one of the most dynamic regions in the world," said Lutz Kettner, president and chief executive officer (CEO) of SAP Asia. "As the worldwide market leader in integrated client/server business applications, SAP is riding the crest of a huge wave. Our software is used by seven of the top 10 companies in BusinessWeek's Global 1000. We are committed to achieving similar results in the Asia-Pacific region." Speaking at the opening of SAP Hong Kong's new office, Kettner said that high-quality education for customers' staff was essential to the success of a business process reengineering project and said SAP had responded to this need by doubling its customer training resources in Hong Kong. Founded in 1972, SAP AG has grown to become one of the world's largest independent software vendors and claims to be the market leader in standard business software applications. It has more than 5,000 customers in over 50 countries. In Hong Kong they include BASF, Caltex, Dow Chemical, Dupont, Henkel Asia Pacific, HIT, Kowloon Canton Railway Corporation, National Semiconductor, OOCL, Philip Morris, San Miguel, and the Shun Hing Group. An SAP spokesperson declined to give I.T. Daily a dollar figure on the amount of business the company conducts in Hong Kong, or the level of its investment. With its regional HQ in Singapore, SAP has local Asian offices in Malaysia, Thailand, the Philippines, and Hong Kong. According to the company, offices will also shortly be opened in Beijing, Shanghai, Bangalore, and Seoul. (Nigel Armstrong & I.T. Daily/19950907) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 09/11/95 TELECOM China - Many Emergency Phone Numbers Unknown To Users (NEWS)(TELECOM)(PEK)(00019) China - Many Emergency Phone Numbers Unknown To Users 09/11/95 BEIJING, CHINA, 1995 SEP 11 (NB) -- In China, you can call 119 when there is a fire, or 110 when someone is trying to break into your house, or 120 for life saving. However, many phone users do not know these numbers, China Information claims. The total number of phone subscribers in China has reached more than 29 million, according to statistics released by the Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications. However, despite these numbers' importance, Newsbytes searched a 1994-95 China Phone Directory, the only phone directory available in the post office, which is published by China Telephone Directory Corporation, and failed to find these emergency numbers in the 1,600-page book. There are other useful phone numbers which are not listed in the phone directory either: 112 for reporting phone line troubles; 113 for operator assistance in domestic long-distance calls; 103 for operator assistance in international calls; 114 for phone directory assistance; 117 for time; and 121 for weather forecast. Calling 184 one can get help to find zipcodes in China. In many places, post offices will return mail if there is no zipcode in the upper right corner of the envelope. Phone numbers with 160 or 168 as the first three digits are information phone stations and they usually charge a caller by the minute. Also, 108xx are numbers of foreign phone companies in China: for example, 10810 and 10811 for AT&T, 10812 for MCI, and 10813 for Sprint. (Chih-Ho Yu & Ning Huang/19950831) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 09/11/95 BUSINESS Australia - Jarrah Bought By Open Environment Corp. (NEWS)(BUSINESS)(SYD)(00020) Australia - Jarrah Bought By Open Environment Corp. 09/11/95 SYDNEY, AUSTRALIA 1995 SEP 11 (NB) -- Three months after Australian client/server outfit Jarrah Technology launched itself onto the world stage with its SQL WinGuide -- a design and construction aid for Gupta-based client/server applications developers -- it has been snapped up by US-based company Open Environment Corporation for AUS$10 million. The deal will see Open Environment hand over 408,000 shares of its common stock, and Jarrah Technologies change its name to Open Environment Australia. Earlier this year, Jarrah claimed to have 20,000 worldwide users of its TeamWindows repository tool product, now marketed by Gupta internationally as a key element of its SQLWindows range, and revenues of around AUS$6 million. A combination of the Gupta connection and an Asia-Pacific presence appear to be central to the Open Environment acquisition. "This acquisition allows Open Environment to better service its customer base in the Asia Pacific region," said Open Environment president and Chief Executive Officer Nathan Morton in a press release. Philip Copeland, Jarrah's founder and executive chairman, becomes director of technology Asia Pacific for Open Environment Corporation in the new regime. David Miller, Jarrah's managing director (MD) -- and one-time Microsoft Australia MD -- becomes MD Asia Pacific. Open Environment was founded in Boston in 1992, and develops and markets software to support application development for distributed computing systems. It is a publicly listed company trading on the NASDAQ exchange. (Computer Daily News/19950901) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 09/11/95 ONLINE Techway Offers WebAustralia (NEWS)(ONLINE)(SYD)(00021) Techway Offers WebAustralia 09/11/95 SYDNEY, AUSTRALIA 1995 SEP 11 (NB) -- Early browsers may like to focus their Netscapes on WebAustralia, a new Internet information provider service being launched by Australian computer manufacturer Techway. The venture will take Techway from being a computer box maker for corporate and government buyers into commercial databases. The company is pledging to build applications for small- to medium-sized businesses on a Microsoft NT software platform with Pentium 90 servers. Using gateways supplied by TMX and Tangent, WebAustralia will offer newsletters, bulletin boards, and business information on databases which will include real estate lists, banking, tourism, and various community services. Revenues will be sourced by the individual providers. Web Australia has been quietly releasing details of its service since early this year. In April its range of offerings included PCs, Internet file servers, network hardware and software, installation, maintenance, and electronic publishing services. It also featured some very reasonable charges for services, such as home page creation at AUS$45. The latest pricing schedule reflects an upward shift in scale and charging. Specialized Web publishing services, for example, include a design report and project plan at AUS$3,000. To build the design, AUS$60 an hour is quoted, with graphic design coming in at AUS$120 an hour. (Computer Daily News/19950901) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 09/11/95 BUSINESS India - Spectrum & ITI In Market Resource Planning Deal (NEWS)(BUSINESS)(DEL)(00022) India - Spectrum & ITI In Market Resource Planning Deal 09/11/95 NEW DELHI, INDIA, 1995 SEP 11 (NB) -- The public sector giant -- ITI (Indian Telephone Industries) Ltd. -- which earlier had a tie-up with the US-based Minx Inc. for its market resource planning (MRP) package, is now looking at a fresh agreement with Spectrum Inc., also of the US, for the distribution of Pointman, the MRP software from the US company. ITI Ltd. is presently holding talks with Spectrum Inc. and Valvas of Singapore for a three-way agreement involving the setting up of a reference sight, marketing, and software development of Pointman. Valvas is already ITI's partner in its joint venture, ITI Communications Pte Ltd. in Singapore, which was primarily set to tap the overseas telecom market. There is also a proposal to set up a separate marketing agency in India to market Pointman. The total project cost on Pointman is expected to be around R7 crore. (C.T. Mahabharat/19950911) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 09/11/95 BUSINESS India - TCS & DEC In Enterprise Resource Deal (NEWS)(BUSINESS)(DEL)(00023) India - TCS & DEC In Enterprise Resource Deal 09/11/95 NEW DELHI, INDIA, 1995 SEP 11 (NB) -- Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) and Digital Equipment (India) Ltd., the Indian subsidiary of US-based Digital Equipment Corp., have signed a deal to provide a complete package for enterprise resource planning. According to the agreement signed, Digital India will sell Avalon, the 22-year-old enterprise resource planning software developed by Avalon Software Inc., and marketed in India exclusively by TCS, along with its own Alpha range of workstations. TCS picked up a stake in Avalon about a year-and-a-half ago, investing $1.2 million and thereby getting exclusive marketing rights for India and implementing rights worldwide. "The Alpha workstation, a relational database management system (which will most probably be Oracle), and Avalon, will be bundled together and sold as a complete solution for enterprise resource planning," said Binod Singh, vice president, systems business unit of Digital India. Digital India will have to pay a fixed price to TCS for each Avalon package sold with its machines. However, TCS will provide the implementation and software support. (C.T. Mahabharat/19950911) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 09/11/95 GENERAL Japan Newsbriefs (NEWS)(GENERAL)(TYO)(00024) Japan Newsbriefs 09/11/95 TOKYO, JAPAN, 1995 SEP 11 (NB) -- In this roundup of news from Tokyo: KDD achieves improved long distance ATM transmission, NTT multimedia tests to begin, Mini-Disk gains another supporter, Consortium to develop cheap CNC formed, Hitachi plans Telecom exhibit. KDD Achieves Improved Long Distance ATM Transmission International telecommunications firm KDD says it has achieved ATM (Asynchronous transfer mode) transmission over 14,000 kilometers (km) using an improved version of the ATM system. The test linked KDD's Shinjuku office in Tokyo will Bell Laboratories in New Jersey, and operated over fiber optic cable. KDD's new technology allows over twice as much data as was previously possible to be sent in the same space, something that will appeal to high capacity users such as broadcast television stations who will be offered the service in three years. NTT Multimedia Tests To Begin Nippon Telegraph and Telephone will tomorrow begin trials of a new multimedia system including cable television, video-on-demand and cable telephony to 300 homes in Tokyo's Tachikawa City. The trial will take place jointly with My Television Ltd., the cable TV operator in the city which will offer pay Karaoke on demand and movies on demand, plus a free feed of CNN International news on demand. The company is investing 3.4 billion yen ($34 million) in the project to build and run the all fiber network that will connect the homes and an NTT center. Mini-Disk Gains Another Supporter Matsushita began selling personal Mini-Disk players to consumers across Japan on Saturday, the first time the company has offered such a product. Matsushita originally backed the Digital Compact Cassette (DCC) system developed by Philips of the Netherlands, but saw very poor sales worldwide. In Japan Mini-Disk has recently begun to slowly take off and several companies have announced new Mini-Disk-based products. The company's first product, the SL-MR10, sells for 69,800 yen ($703). Projected demand for Mini-Disk players has risen to 600,000 for the current fiscal year compared with the previous year's figure of 230,000. Consortium To Develop Cheap CNC Formed A consortium of six major Japanese companies has been formed to develop cheap computer numerical controlled (CNC) robots and machinery for factories. The group will seek to establish machinery that can be commanded by personal computers running suitable software. Toyoda Machine Works Ltd., Toshiba Machine Co., IBM Japan Ltd., Mitsubishi Electric Corp., Yamazaki Mazak Ltd., and SML have all agreed to work together on the project. Detailed specifications are hoped to be drawn up by the end of this year with the system being commercially available by the end of next year. Hitachi Plans Telecom Exhibit Hitachi has unveiled the theme for its stand at the upcoming Telecom 95 show in Geneva. Under the slogan "The Seamless Universe," the Tokyo-based company will be showing a high definition-based ATM teleconferencing system, a parallel computing-based cable TV video-on-demand system, an "electronic art museum" in which paintings are displayed on ultrahigh-resolution screens, and a sign-language translation telephone system. Hitachi will be exhibiting products and applications at its main booth and in a booth at Telecom's Japan Pavilion. At the main Hitachi booth, the focus will be public network system equipment and applications. The Telecom 95 show is held every four years by the International Telecommunications Union (ITU) and brings together all the companies of the telecommunications industry. (Martyn Williams/19950911) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 09/11/95 CHIPS Fujitsu's Major UK Chip Plant Expansion (NEWS)(CHIPS)(TYO)(00025) Fujitsu's Major UK Chip Plant Expansion 09/11/95 TOKYO, JAPAN, 1995 SEP 11 (NB) -- Fujitsu Microelectronics Ltd., a subsidiary of Japan's Fujitsu Ltd., has announced a major expansion plan for its current chip plant in Durham, Northern England. The expansion, at a total investment of UKP816 million, will result in a brand new factory, scheduled for completion in February, 1997, custom built for the manufacture of dynamic random access memory (DRAM) chips. The semiconductors, used in products such as computers and cellular telephones, are predicted to be in short supply over the coming years as demand increases sharply. When the new facility opens in mid-1997 it will process the chip wafers using 0.32 micron technology (one micron is a thousandth of a millimeter) but in 1998 move on to 0.25 micron work. Initially 16 megabit DRAMs will be produced with production of greater capacity 64 megabit DRAMs due in 1999. At a ceremony held on Friday at the existing plant in County Durham, Geoff Peppiette, marketing director of integrated circuits for Fujitsu in Europe, commented, "Durham is an example of Fujitsu's strategy of local manufacturing excellence within a worldwide network, and also of our commitment to the European marketplace. The decision to add another wafer fabrication plant in Durham is largely conditioned by the buoyant market situation for DRAMs in Europe and worldwide which is expected to continue well into the future. We believe we will be in a far better position to serve our customers as a result of this expansion." The existing factory is already producing 2.2 million DRAMs per month. The new facility is expected to add 10 million chips to the output over the first two years of operation. The devices will be destined for use in computers and electronic devices the world over. Around 500 local jobs will be created by the new plant in addition to the 520 people already employed at the existing factory. Llew Aviss, personnel director at the Durham plant, estimated the company's capital investment at the plant will work out to around one million pounds per head. In 1994, the County Durham plant won a group award as the best Fujitsu plant worldwide and also gained ISO-9002 accreditation the same year. (Martyn Williams/19950911/Press contact: John Evans, External Relations Officer, Fujitsu Microelectronics Limited, tel +44-1325- 301111, fax +44-1325-306060) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 09/11/95 TRENDS Strong Japanese Cellular Growth Continues (NEWS)(TRENDS)(TYO)(00026) Strong Japanese Cellular Growth Continues 09/11/95 TOKYO, JAPAN, 1995 SEP 11 (NB) -- The number of new subscribers to Japan's cellular telephone networks hit 410,000 in August, a slight decrease over July's record figure, while the number of people signing on to the two month old PHS system dropped by over half. Figures released by the Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications revealed 31,000 new subscribers to the Personal Handyphone System (PHS) compared with 81,000 new accounts in July, the first month of service for the system. PHS offers telephone calls less than half the price of those of conventional mobile telephones, but with a much smaller service area compared to the almost nationwide coverage of cellular telephones. PHS telephones are also unsuitable for use in moving vehicles. Analysts suggest that many users, attracted by the cheap prices, went to buy PHS telephones but opted for cellular telephones when the differences were explained by sales people in stores. The system also suffered two embarrassing breakdowns during the month, one of which caused a failure of the complete DDI network across Tokyo. PHS services are currently running in Tokyo and Sapporro and are operated by DDI Pocket and NTT Central Personal Communications. The network is being expanded and should be available in the Tokai and Kansai areas before the end of the year. Marketing has already begun in those areas. In contrast, the cellular telephone operators kicked off an aggressive marketing campaign in the months before the PHS launch combined with price cuts that have made the units more competitive. After a record number of new accounts in June, at 424,000, the current all-time record for new subscribers was 470,000 in July, 60,000 above the August total. At the beginning of the current fiscal year in April, total cellular subscribers stood at 4.17 million, and is now passed the six million mark with half of those subscribers signed up to the NTT DoCoMo network. (Martyn Williams/19950911) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 09/11/95 BROADCAST Singapore & Taiwan In Satellite Deal (NEWS)(BROADCAST)(TYO)(00027) Singapore & Taiwan In Satellite Deal 09/11/95 SINGAPORE, 1995 SEP 11 (NB) -- Singapore and Taiwan have signed a satellite memorandum of understanding (MoU) that will result in the two nations launching a new TV broadcast satellite within the next three years. Singapore Telecom and Taiwan's Directorate General Telecommunications signed the MoU late last week. Under the terms of the agreement, the two nations will jointly develop the satellite at a cost of between $200 million to $215 million. The deal was made necessary because Taiwan, which wants to operate a satellite, is not a member of the International Telecommunications Union (ITU) and so does not have any orbital slots assigned. The slots are parking places for satellites in the Clarke Belt, a part of the sky 36,000 kilometers (km) above the equator where all broadcasting satellites are positioned. The ITU in Geneva, Switzerland, coordinates the placing of satellites and issues licenses for the various frequency bands to ensure no interference is caused to other nation's satellites. Singapore, unlike Taiwan, is a member and has an orbital slot which the country had no immediate plans to use. The new satellite will be placed there. The deal was originally planned for August, but became a casualty of the summer slowdown in the governments of both countries. Now the MoU has been signed, a committee will be set up to decide where the satellite should be purchased from and which launcher will be used. A target launch date of 1997 has been set with broadcasts scheduled to begin in 1998. The satellite will carry 24 transponders, or channels, with each country talking twelve. They will carry television broadcasting stations, private business networks and other telecommunications. Control of the satellite will be joint with a major control center in each country. (Martyn Williams/19950911) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 09/11/95 APPLE ****Power Computing Ships New Mac Clone (NEWS)(APPLE)(LAX)(00028) ****Power Computing Ships New Mac Clone 09/11/95 CUPERTINO, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1995 SEP 11 (NB) -- Power Computing has begun shipping the Power 120, a 120 megahertz (MHz) PowerPC 601+ Macintosh compatible computer. The company has also debuted a mini-tower enclosure available across the Power lineup. The Power 120 is most similar to Apple's PowerMac 8100. Both operate with a PowerPC 601 RISC (reduced instruction set computing) microprocessor, but the Power 120 comes with a 120MHz chip, which is faster than any configuration on the PowerMac 8100. Michael Rosenfelt, director of marketing for Power Computing, told Newsbytes, "The licensing and client support effort at Apple is directly on target. Apple has chosen four companies worldwide to license their operation system. Power Computing was the first selected, and the first to ship. "Demand for our flagship product -- the Power 100 -- is exceeding our production capabilities. We are shipping many thousands of units of the Power 100 per month, and the Power 120 is being shipped when we said it would be," said Rosenfelt. Pricing for the desktop Power 120 begins at $1,999. It is also available in a mini-tower configuration with pricing beginning at $2,099. Each Power 120 includes the Macintosh System 7.5 OS with eight megabytes (MB) of RAM, a 365MB hard drive, three NuBus slots, one processor direct slot), built-in video, on-board Ethernet networking, an extended keyboard, and a mouse. Bundled software includes Intuit's Quicken, FWB's Hard Disk ToolKit PE, CD-ROM ToolKit PE, Clarisworks, Now Utilities, Now Up-to-Date, Now Contact, American Online, and 250 Bitstream Type 1 and Truetype fonts. Options for the Power 120 systems include 200MB of RAM, four gigabyte (GB) hard drives, a quad-speed CD-ROM, additional L2 cache, as well as audio-video capabilities. "Compared to similarly-equipped Pentium-based CPUs (central processing units), the Power 120 represents a substantial price breakthrough," said Stephen Kahng, president of Power Computing Corp. "This is a hands-down price performance leader in its class, giving users the raw unrivaled horsepower of the PowerPC microprocessor coupled with the world's greatest operating system." (Richard Bowers/19950911/Press Contact: Michael Rosenfelt, Power Computing, 512-250-2015) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 09/11/95 LEGAL ****HP Pursues Trademark/Fraud Suits (NEWS)(LEGAL)(SFO)(00029) ****HP Pursues Trademark/Fraud Suits 09/11/95 PALO ALTO, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1995 SEP 11 (NB) -- Hewlett-Packard (NYSE:HWP) has asked consumers to report suspected printer toner-cartridge fraud, as the firm says it is continuing its "aggressive" pursuit of companies and distributors selling refilled toner-cartridges, but marked as new. Along those lines, Permanent injunctions against International Data Machines (IDM) and Allstate Technology have recently been granted. The permanent injunctions against IDM, a southern California-based firm selling toner-cartridges in Texas, and Allstate, another California- based company, are among a list of distributors, sellers, and label and box manufacturers which HP has identified through legal action. HP alleges the two companies, and others, deceive and confuse the public while "causing HP immediate and irreparable harm." The name Hewlett-Packard, the initials HP, the HP logo, and several representations of HP toner-cartridges model number HP92295A and 95A have been identified in the IDM, Allstate and other cases, says the company. The permanent injunctions and seizure of suspected cartridges and related documents by federal marshals are only the beginning of HP's legal action. In both the IDM and Allstate cases, the defendants have agreed to pay damages to HP. Trademark-infringement allegations against other companies are still pending. In urging consumers to step forward, HP is asking anyone using an HP toner-cartridge who experiences a number of failures or poor print quality to contact HP immediately. It may be that, what appears as a new HP toner-cartridge, is actually a refilled cartridge packaged and represented as new. Toni Berria, HP's toner product manager, told Newsbytes, "Most of these fraud cases involve cartridges for the LaserJet II and III printers. We first became aware of this problem in 1992 through a group of universities which were having quality problems with our printers. We found all of the quality problems were directly related to falsely labeled toner-cartridges. Since then, we have continued to aggressively pursue companies which market these refilled cartridges and sell them as our new cartridges." Berria said a new HP toner cartridge is sold at retail for $65 to $75. If you are paying less than this price, you may want to contact HP to determine if you have purchased one of the refilled cartridges. Low prices are not always a means to detect toner-cartridge fraud. Berria said some companies are buying what they think are new cartridges from telemarketers and paying three to four times the value plus 18% for shipping. This amounts to $250 per cartridge in some cases, according to her, some telemarketers will tell customers the price of new toner-cartridges will soon be raised to $300, but if they order now, they can purchase cartridges for $200. Companies also need to be aware of phone callers who say they are updating their database and need to know what kind of printers are used by the office. Once the caller has this information, refilled cartridges are shipped and billed to the office without authorization. Surprising, this often goes unnoticed and the bill is paid. Berria also warned customers to be suspicious of telemarketers who offered personal free gifts to the person placing the cartridge order for a company. To report suspected toner-cartridge fraud to HP, call 208-333-3988. (Patrick McKenna/19950911/Press Contact: Stacie Savage, HP, 619-655-4451) (ADVISORY)(GENERAL)(MSP)(00030) NewsPix Images For Newsbytes Publishers 09/11/95 MINNEAPOLIS, MINNESOTA, U.S.A.,1995 SEP 11 (NB) -- These photos correspond to recent Newsbytes stories. They are online in the Newsbytes menu on America Online, NiftyServe, and the Newsbytes private bulletin board system in Minneapolis. JPEG (Joint Photographic Experts Group) files are larger in size, PICT files are designed as thumbnails for onscreen viewing. The photos are titled with name/year/month/day. PICT/thumbnail pictures are black and white (gray scale). File message will indicate color if the JPEG image is color. Some of the "for use" images, may be PICT files. To distinguish these files from the thumbnail preview PICT images, the tag for the color "for use" image will have PICT, all caps. The thumbnail will remain noted as "pct." To become a licensed Newsbytes publisher, call Newsbytes at 612-430-1100 (US) or write to administrator@newsbytes.com on the Internet. Licensing applies to any medium. --------------------------- Week of SEPTEMBER 11 - SEPTEMBER 15,1995 --------------------------- - NEW THIS WEEK - CYRIX_M1950906 - color / M1 Fastest Chip For Windows 95, Says Cyrix: the M1 chip with Cyrix logo on it. VINEYARDS950906 - color / Virtual Vineyards' CyberCash Credit Card Security: shot of Peter Granoff and Robert Olson, principal founders with a table of wine before them. Photo credit: Anne Hamersky. TLKALONG950901 - b&w / US West Offers Do-It-Yourself Cell Phone Activation: cell phone and packaging on a limbo background. ABCGRAPH950901 - color / Micrografx Graphics Suite For Windows 95: see NewsPix ABCGRAPH950717. GROLIERGOLF950906 - color / Grolier's Greg Norman Golf Simulation: screenshot of golf scenario. --------------------------------------------------------------- - PARTIAL LISTING OF PREVIOUS ITEMS - COGNOS950829 - color / Cognos On World Wide Web: site graphics. INTERART950828 - color / 3-D Real Estate & Hotel Walkabouts On The Web: the food page with salsa ad, looks good! NEC950831 - color / NEC Develops "Snake-Like" Robot: shot of the snake with camera dome at head. KIDS950829 - color / Novell Intros Perfectworks For Kids: screen shot of the 'Me by Me' page. MEDIAMALL950828 - color / Media Mall Offers Online Multimedia Info: screen graphics/logo. CASHGRAF950830 - color / CashGraf Gets New Name, Intros 2 Acct Packages: screen shot of the main menu. RADSHACK950814 - b&w / Radio Shack Gets New Image: before and after arrangement of Radio Shack ads. LTE5000950821 - color / Compaq Intros Modular Notebook PC 08: the notebook PC in action, associates at work on site using computer. TOUCH950822 - color / Touch Technology Moves Off The Display Screen: the Tanisys keyboard on neutral background. PAGEMAKR950823 - color / Adobe Ships Pagemaker 6.0 For Mac: shot of the software package. HARLEM950822 - color / Prodigy Offers Harlem Inner-City Area Online: welcome & home page. FOTOFUN950811 - b&w / Fargo Ships $399 Photo-Quality Digital Printer: picture of the unit with family photo emerging. HP950815a - color / HP To Intro New Windows 95 Home PCs: shot of the HP Pavilion 7000. Two screen shots are tagged HP950815b & HP950815c. HP950815b - color / HP To Intro New Windows 95 Home PCs: personal page in the comic book style. HP950815c - color / HP To Intro New Windows 95 Home PCs: personal page in the scultpted marble style. IBMLIBRARY950816 - color / More On AT&T Web Services For Consumers, Businesses: IBM Digital Library home page. CREATIVE950817 - b&w / 3-D Becomes Major Strategy At Creative Labs: portrait shot of Creative's chairman and chief executive officer, W.H. Sim, quoted extensively in story. PANTRAFCAM950817 - b&w / Video News Roundup: two images in one file: Shadow Traffic control (left), and the Panasonic WV-E550 traffic and surveillance camera (right). (Newsbytes/19950911) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 09/11/95 TRENDS Firms Team To Develop Standard Peripherals Connection (NEWS)(TRENDS)(DEN)(00031) Firms Team To Develop Standard Peripherals Connection 09/11/95 REDMOND, WASHINGTON, U.S.A., 1995 SEP 11 (NB) -- Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ: MSFT) has teamed with Compaq and National Semiconductor to develop an industry initiative designed to produce an open host controller interface (HCI) standard for the Universal Serial Bus (USB). Intel said it is also working on a similar interface which will be compatible with the Microsoft-Compaq-National interface. The initiative would develop an open, widely-available interface called Open HCI (Host Controller Interface) for USB. The intention is to create a standard that connects any device to any PC through a standard connection, or port. The analogy is simple. In your residence you can connect a vacuum cleaner, a hair dryer or a personal computer to any electrical outlet in the building or apartment and they will work. USB would operate in the same manner, although the concept of delivering connectivity to transfer data is more complex than providing electrical power, said Bob Jackson, Compaq Computer Corp. (NYSE:CPQ) vice president of business relations. Jackson explained that USB, which is Plug-and-Play compatible, will replace the present serial and parallel ports, or connectors, with one, or perhaps two, USBs. The user will connect a single device, such as a printer, mouse, or a telephone to the USB and daisy-chain other peripherals, including PC-to-telephony devices. Jackson said that in addition to simplicity, a second advantage to the end-user is the standardization of cabling. Although the parallel and serial cables you presently use won't work with USB, there will be a universal USB cable that will connect any USB-compatible device to your PC. Jackson said the USB port, which is about the size and shape of one of the keys on a touch-telephone keypad, will also allow the user to attach a telephone to their computer so they can integrate voice messaging. "You will have one integrated place to stop and understand where all your messages are," he told Newsbytes. Don't look for PC makers to replace all the serial and parallel ports on their PCs with a USB connection right away. Jackson said during a transition period, manufacturers will first add a USB port to the existing connections before those are phased out, as peripheral makers come to market with USB-compliant devices. Jackson said he won't be surprised if some enterprising company markets a USB adapter that connects to the USB port and lets you connect your serial and parallel devices to the adapter. About 25 companies have already announced support for the initiative, and Microsoft said the Open HCI will be fully supported in future versions of Microsoft Windows 95 and Windows NT. That seal of approval in itself is almost enough to guarantee acceptance, a task that isn't always easy. Microsoft and Compaq said defining a non-proprietary standard will allow companies to rapidly develop products and components that will be incorporated into systems, motherboard and add-in cards for connection to USB peripherals. Jackson said the USB will, in most instances, be on the PC's motherboard. That will save on the cost of daughterboards to provide connections to peripherals and will make more expansion slots available. The Compaq executive told Newsbytes that USB chips are expected to be available this year, testing will be done during the first half of 1996, and the first end-user products should reach the marketplace by the end of the second quarter of 1996. Compaq expects to market a PC with a USB port during the summer of 1996. Joining Microsoft, Compaq, and National to support the Open HCI initiative are: Analog Devices, Digital Equipment, Microchip, NEC, Philips, SMC, Texas Instruments, Atmel, NexGen, Phoenix Technology, IBM, and a number of other companies. Developers apparently are anxious to embrace USB technology. Jackson said organizers at last week's USB developers conference expected about 250 attendees, but more than 700 people showed up. About 200 had to be turned away, said Jackson. A free copy of the draft Open HCI Specification is available at no cost on the World Wide Web on Compaq's home page at http://www.compaq.com , or you can request a copy via electronic- mail by sending a message to Microsoft at ihv@microsoft.com. The USB specification package is also available at no charge on the Web at http://www.teleport.com/~USB , or by calling 800-433-3652. If you call there is a $35 printing and shipping cost. (Jim Mallory/19950911/Press contact: Compaq, 713-374-0484 or Microsoft, 206-882-8080) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 09/11/95 ONLINE ****Hackers Break Into America Online (NEWS)(ONLINE)(MSP)(00032) ****Hackers Break Into America Online 09/11/95 VIENNA, VIRGINIA, U.S.A., 1995 SEP 11 (NB) -- America Online Inc. (NASDAQ:AMER) has informed its members that it is fighting hackers who are causing problems on the largest consumer online service. Also, a San Francisco Chronicle article claims rogue "computer experts" have already tampered with business and customer information files, creating a security breech. The Chronicle article quoted sources associated with the company as saying the hackers appeared to have accessed a wide variety of files, including the personal files of AOL president and chief executive officer, Steve Case. The paper also said other recent attacks have centered around a hacker program called "AOHell." Pam Case, AOL spokesperson, confirmed to Reuters the service has been having problems with hackers using AOHell, but she didn't provide any further details. When Reuters specifically asked whether hackers had breached AOL, McGraw repeated the earlier statement regarding AOHell. In his monthly "Letter from Steve Case," the AOL executive acknowledged the service has experienced problems with hackers. He wrote that a recently-installed software system is designed to fix some recent "problems" that have been discovered. He also reminded users to change their passwords. A new program has also started to remind AOL members to change passwords. Case also cautioned members not to give out passwords online. He said cases have been reported in which certain individuals are passing themselves off as representatives of AOL, and asking members for their passwords. No-one from AOL would ever ask a member for their password, Case said. AOL officials did not return phone calls by Newsbytes' deadline. However, both the Chronicle and Reuters reported that AOL was not very forthcoming about discussing additional information regarding the break-ins and other hacker troubles. The Chronicle report appeared the same day that AOL announced that it now has more than 3.5 million members, and is the largest online service in the world. (Bob Woods/19950911/Press Contact: Pam McGraw, America Online, 703-556-3746) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 09/11/95 ONLINE ****ZD Net Reaches New Usage Highs (NEWS)(ONLINE)(MSP)(00033) ****ZD Net Reaches New Usage Highs 09/11/95 CAMBRIDGE, MASSACHUSETTS, U.S.A., 1995 SEP 11 (NB) -- Ziff-Davis Interactive has released usage and subscriber statistics that the company says puts its "ZD Net" near the top of the heap, when it comes to the various online services and the Internet's World Wide Web. According to the latest statistics provided by Ziff-Davis, the "ZD Net/World Wide Web Edition" has reached two new milestones. The site is currently receiving more than 1.5 million page requests per week, which is up from 600,000 on June 13. The second milestone is that the site receives more than one million "hits" per day. Ziff-Davis officials said the increase in traffic demonstrates that "ZD Net is not only the single largest destination location for computing buying news and information, but is also more heavily visited than many more general, consumer-oriented Web sites operated by other publishers." Cara Washburn, director of marketing and circulation for Ziff-Davis Interactive, told Newsbytes, "We didn't have a specific plan for what usage was going to be. But it has grown, and we're quite pleased with the growth. We're especially pleased that the site has kept pace and even outpaced some of the more broad-based publishing efforts." Washburn also told Newsbytes that the company's servers, which are maintained by Open Market, are handling the loads quite well. In fact, she said that more high-speed networking lines have been installed in anticipation of further growth. Ziff-Davis is also growing in the commercial online service segment, according to Simba Information's Electronic Information Report. Data from the report, quoted by Ziff-Davis, showed ZD Net's online service is fourth largest, behind the "big three" of America Online, Compuserve, and Prodigy. Simba said ZD Net grew by 10 percent in the first half of 1995 to 285,000 members. Even though the company's offerings are growing in cyberspace, Washburn said no drops in circulation has been noted in Ziff-Davis' magazines, including PC Magazine, PC Week, Mac Week, and PC Computing. In fact, she called the combination of online publishing and print publishing as being "win-win," because the magazines can react and publish more quickly online rather than wait a week or a month to publish breaking stories. ZD Net is located on the Web at http://www.zdnet.com . Commercial online users can subscribe to ZD Net through Compuserve, Prodigy, AT&T Interchange, Apple's eWorld, and The Microsoft Network. (Bob Woods/19950911/Press Contacts: Martha Papalia, Ziff Davis Interactive, 617-225-3340; Janice Brown, Janice Brown and Associates, 603-764-5800) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 09/11/95 ONLINE ****Compuserve Lets Users Build Own Web Pages (NEWS)(ONLINE)(MSP)(00034) ****Compuserve Lets Users Build Own Web Pages 09/11/95 COLUMBUS, OHIO, U.S.A., 1995 SEP 11 (NB) -- Compuserve will start letting its subscribers build their own "outposts" in cyberspace, by enabling them to build, design, and submit their own home pages on the Internet's World Wide Web. Beta testing begins later this month, and Compuserve members should have their own pages up and running by November. Subscribers won't have to learn any authoring languages, like hypertext markup language (HTML), either, officials said. They will offer a software program called "The Home Page Wizard," which offers drag-and- drop editing, templates, and helpful hints to help design attractive home pages. The program also provides the ability to add hotlinks that lets Internet surfers who have accessed the Compuserve member's homepage jump to other sites on the Web. Also included in The Home Page Wizard is the ability to insert images, and Compuserve will even scan pictures onto a floppy disk for its customers. "The Internet is becoming an important part of people's use of online services," Jeff Shafer, Compuserve spokesperson, told Newsbytes. Regarding the service's home page feature, Shafer said, "It's a fun thing, it can be a useful thing, and it's a service the market demanded. It's a neat idea to go out onto the Internet landscape and 'stake your claim' on your own piece of land. What we've done is make this thing as easy as possible for our customers to use." Working with the Home Page Wizard will be another tool called "The Publishing Wizard," which will let users "beam" their completed pages onto the Web. Then, all Web surfers will be able to access the member's new Web site. The Publishing Wizard obtains the member's personal URL (uniform resource locator), at http://compuserve.com/home/USER'SNAME, and also offers the ability for Compuserve members to upload other HTML pages not created by The Home Page Wizard. Both services are a part of the members' monthly $9.95 fee, and subscribers will be able to store up to one megabyte of information on Compuserve's servers. Compuserve has a corporate presence on the Web at http://www.compuserve.com . (Bob Woods/19950911/Press Contacts: Jeff Shafer, Compuserve, 614-538-4632; Deanna Leung, Compuserve Internet Division, 206-442-8231; Public Contact: Compuserve, 800-524-3388) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 09/11/95 BUSINESS Dataplex Acquires Intellifile (NEWS)(BUSINESS)(DEN)(00035) Dataplex Acquires Intellifile 09/11/95 DALLAS, TEXAS, U.S.A., 1995 SEP 11 (NB) -- Dataplex Corp., a wholly-owned subsidiary of Affiliated Computer Services Inc. (NASDAQ: ACSA) has acquired Intellifile, a Dallas-based provider of information and image management services. Twenty-five year old Dataplex provides document management, archival, and retrieval services. The company's primary services include information and image capture, consulting, storage, protection, and retrieval of "critical business information." The acquisition of Intellifile is a small, but important expansion for Dataplex since it gives the company state-of-the-art electronic imaging capabilities, according to ACS spokesperson Peter McLaughlin. Dataplex currently offers image processing, microfilm, microfiche, storage, and retrieval services. The deal gives Dataplex access to the Filenet system, a high-speed scanning and imaging software system for the mortgage industry, since Filenet and Intellifile are business partners. Filenet runs on an IBM RS/600, Hewlett Packard or Sun platform. The company reportedly did $220 million in 1994, according to Dataplex spokesperson Dave Byerley. Byerley told Newsbytes that Dataplex uses the Filnet technology to deliver imaging services to its customers. Byerley said Dataplex and Filenet are discussing other possible relationships, but declined to reveal further details. McLaughlin said the access to Filenet saves ACS about 24 months of ramp-up time in entering the document imaging field for the mortgage vertical market. ACS already offers document imaging to the banking industry, providing service to clients like Bank of America and Nation's Bank. Mclaughlin declined to reveal the purchase price of Intellifile, but did tell Newsbytes it was less than $10 million. ACS reported approximately $313 million in sales in 1994. The company recently acquired Watermark Software Inc., a Burlington, Massachusetts-based document imaging software company. Intellifile was established in 1987 to facilitate document image processing of Lomas Mortgage USA. Intellifile later spun off as an independent company. Mclaughlin said the personnel changes are anticipated at Intellifile and top management will remain the same. ACS National Systems, another subsidiary of Affiliated Computer Services, operates a computerized network covering nine states that helps locate absent parents who are delinquent with their child support. (Jim Mallory/19950911/Press contact: Peter McLaughlin, Affiliated Computer Services, 214-841-6285) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 09/11/95 ONLINE PICS Aimed At "Individual Control" Of Online Services (NEWS)(ONLINE)(BOS)(00036) PICS Aimed At "Individual Control" Of Online Services 09/11/95 CAMBRIDGE, MASSACHUSETTS, U.S.A., 1995 SEP 11 (NB) -- World Wide Web and online service providers are teaming up with publishers, telecommunications companies, and academia to create Platform for Internet Content Selection (PICS), a new standard that is intended to allow individuals to control the online content they receive, said Albert Vezza, senior research scientist and associate director of MIT's Laboratory for Computer Science, in an interview with Newsbytes. Vezza told Newsbytes that the concept behind PICS was first broached at the initial meeting of the advisory meeting of the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) in December, 1994. Since then, a number of companies outside W3C have approached the organization with an interest in collaborating on PICS, Vezza added, citing "media attention" to the Web as a major contributing factor. PICS will probably result in the development of multiple rating "protocols," somewhat along the lines of today's movie ratings, but selectable by individual end-users, Newsbytes was told. The PTA (Parent Teachers Association) and local religious groups are examples of organizations that might establish PICS protocols, he illustrated. The new standard will "build upon existing filtering technologies" to let users "screen out" or "screen in" content, according to Vezza. IHPEG (Information Highway Parental Empowerment Group) -- an organization formed in July, 1995, by Microsoft, Netscape, and Progressive Networks -- is one of the groups that will "contribute expertise to PICS." Others include Apple, America Online, AT&T, Center for Democracy and Technology (CDT), CompuServe, IBM, Information Technology Association of America (ITAA), Interactive Services Association (ISA), MCI, Microsoft, MIT/W3C, Netscape, Open Market, Prodigy Services Company, Progressive Networks, Providence Systems/Parental Guidance, SafeSurf, Spyglass, SurfWatch, Time Warner, and Viacom's Nickelodeon. (Jacqueline Emigh/19950911/Press Contact: Albert Vezza, MIT, 617-253-0531) (SUMMARY)(GENERAL)(MSP)(00037) Newsbytes Daily Summary 09/11/95 MINNEAPOLIS, MINNESOTA, U.S.A., 1995 SEP 11 (NB) -- These are capsules of all today's news stories: ======================================================================== ------------| N E W S B Y T E S D A I L Y S U M M A R Y |---------- ------------| Monday, September 11, 1995 |---------- ======================================================================== (c) Newsbytes News Network (Tm) Editor in Chief: Wendy Woods ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Newsbytes News Network's 1995 Update CD-ROM for Mac, DOS, and Windows is now available for $29.95 (includes s&h). Contains 1983-1995 news stories, more than 64,000 keyword searchable stories and 475 digitized images. For more information or to order, fax to 612-430-0441 or e-mail to 'administrator@newsbytes.com' -- MC, Visa, Amex accepted. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ CATEGORY HEADLINES (*** indicates today's top stories) STORY # ======================================================================== APPLE Adobe Ships Prepress Automation Product.................... 11 APPLE ****Power Computing Ships New Mac Clone................... 28 BROADCAST Singapore & Taiwan In Satellite Deal....................... 27 BUSINESS Germany's Vobis Relaunches Into UK PC Marketplace.......... 02 BUSINESS Correction - Random Access Shareholders To Vote On Buyout.. 07 BUSINESS Australia - Jarrah Bought By Open Environment Corp......... 20 BUSINESS India - Spectrum & ITI In Market Resource Planning Deal.... 22 BUSINESS India - TCS & DEC In Enterprise Resource Deal.............. 23 BUSINESS Dataplex Acquires Intellifile.............................. 35 CHIPS Fujitsu's Major UK Chip Plant Expansion.................... 25 GENERAL Canadian Product Launch Update............................. 08 GENERAL Japan Newsbriefs........................................... 24 GENERAL NewsPix Images For Newsbytes Publishers.................... 30 LEGAL UK - Peritas/SPA/FAST Team On Software Education........... 06 LEGAL ****HP Pursues Trademark/Fraud Suits...................... 29 NETWORK UK - Asante's PC & Mac PCI/Ethernet Cards.................. 14 NETWORK Poorly Designed Networks Are Wasting Money................. 15 ONLINE Compuserve Adds 4 UK Online Stores......................... 03 ONLINE NewsFile Health Site On Web................................ 09 ONLINE CyberDiner Provides Internet Access For Restaurants........ 10 ONLINE Delrina Unveils Cyberjack Internet Software................ 12 ONLINE Asiaweek Online With Pathfinder............................ 17 ONLINE Techway Offers WebAustralia................................ 21 ONLINE ****Hackers Break Into America Online..................... 32 ONLINE ****ZD Net Reaches New Usage Highs........................ 33 ONLINE ****Compuserve Lets Users Build Own Web Pages............. 34 ONLINE PICS Aimed At "Individual Control" Of Online Services...... 36 TELECOM China - Many Emergency Phone Numbers Unknown To Users...... 19 TRENDS Growth In UK Windows & Client/Server Markets - Survey...... 04 TRENDS Europe - NEC Intros Scan Doubling 37-Inch Monitor.......... 05 TRENDS SAP Sees Hong Kong Acct Software Business Soar............. 18 TRENDS Strong Japanese Cellular Growth Continues.................. 26 TRENDS Firms Team To Develop Standard Peripherals Connection...... 31 WINDOWS WinShield Controls Access To Windows 95 Features........... 01 WINDOWS McAfee Plans Windows 95 Enterprise Software................ 13 WINDOWS Gold Disk's Astound Multimedia Prgm Supports Windows 95.... 16 ======================================================================== These are the headlines and first paragraphs of each story, in order: 1 -> WinShield Controls Access To Windows 95 Features -- Kent-Marsh Limited has announced it will ship a desktop and configuration protection program for Windows 95 in mid-September. 2 -> Germany's Vobis Relaunches Into UK PC Marketplace -- After seeing its year-long partnership with Dixons turn in UK sales of just 0.1 percent of the UK PC marketplace, both companies have gone their separate ways, leaving Vobis, the giant German PC vendor, to team up with PowerStore, another electrical retailer, to secure a foothold in the competitive UK PC marketplace. 3 -> Compuserve Adds 4 UK Online Stores -- Compuserve has beefed up its already busy online electronic shopping mall with the addition of four more virtual UK stores. This time around, members of Compuserve, no matter where they are in the world, can shop at Selfridges, January, Office World, and the London Science Museum. 4 -> Growth In UK Windows & Client/Server Markets - Survey -- The Business & Accounting Software Developer's Association (BASDA) has released details of its annual Business Systems Survey. According to the association, more than a quarter of all users now expect to operate Windows-based accounting systems, while almost 40 percent are planning to run their financial systems in a client/server environment. 5 -> Europe - NEC Intros Scan Doubling 37-Inch Monitor -- As you peer into your 14-inch or 15-inch computer monitor, the thought of using a 37-inch monitor may be appealing, but NEC claims it has increased the interest of potential users of such large monitors by shipping the industry's first 37-inch units complete with scan doubling technology. 6 -> UK - Peritas/SPA/FAST Team On Software Education -- Peritas, which claims to be the UK's largest information technology (IT) training company, has teamed up with the Software Publishers Association (SPA) and the Federation Against Software Theft (FAST) to tackle the problem of illegal copies of software in businesses. Peritas is offering UK businesses a one-day "Certified Software Manager" course to anyone prepared to pay UKP395, or UKP299 for members. 7 -> Correction - Random Access Shareholders To Vote On Buyout -- Earlier this month, Newsbytes reported that Random Access Inc. (NASDAQ: RNDM) has called a special meeting of shareholders for September 19, 1995, to vote on the proposed acquisition of the company by ENTEX Information Services Inc., a privately held company based in Rye Brook, New York. That story contained an error regarding the restructuring of Random Access. 8 -> Canadian Product Launch Update -- This regular feature, appearing on the first day Newsbytes publishes each week, provides further details for the Canadian market on announcements by international companies that Newsbytes has already covered. This week: Lotus SmartSuite 96 Edition for Windows 95 and Microsoft's toll-free number for Windows 95 customers affected by a virus during installation. 9 -> NewsFile Health Site On Web -- A company called CW Henderson, Publisher, is launching a new Internet World Wide Web site. The weekly health information service is providing what it calls the "world's most important health news" each week. 10 -> CyberDiner Provides Internet Access For Restaurants -- CyberDiner Internet Cafe Systems claims to provide the hardware, software and expertise to turn any restaurant into a "cyber diner." When connected, workstations at tables will allow diners to interact through the Internet, while being served their morning coffee. 11 -> Adobe Ships Prepress Automation Product -- Adobe Systems Inc. (NASDAQ: ADBE) has announced it is shipping Open, its automated production workflow environment for prepress operations. 12 -> Delrina Unveils Cyberjack Internet Software -- Delrina Corp. (TSE:DC; NASDAQ:DENAF) has formally announced Cyberjack. The Internet access software is part of a series of new packages Delrina is launching this fall to work with Microsoft's new Windows 95 operating system. 13 -> McAfee Plans Windows 95 Enterprise Software -- McAfee has announced SiteExpress 3.0, an enterprise software distribution package for NetWare 3.x and 4.x servers, running with Windows 3.1, Windows 85, DOS, and OS/2 workstations. 14 -> UK - Asante's PC & Mac PCI/Ethernet Cards -- Asante Technologies has unveiled a range of PCI (Peripheral Component Interconnect)/Ethernet cards for the PC and Apple Mac platforms. The company has also taken the wraps off an update card for the Windows 95 and Windows NT environments, as well as a range of 10/100 NuBus and 10BASE-T PCI cards. 15 -> Poorly Designed Networks Are Wasting Money -- Salford Networking International, a networking services company, claims that poorly designed networks are costing companies a significant amount of money. To answer this problem, the company has announced the availability of IPT-Netsolv Global, a global network planning and design application package that runs under Windows. 16 -> Gold Disk's Astound Multimedia Prgm Supports Windows 95 -- Gold Disk has announced a new version of Astound, its Windows 3.x multimedia package. According to the company, version 2.1, which will ship on both sides of the Atlantic within the next few weeks, includes a native 32-bit Windows 95 runtime player and has also undergone a series of Windows 95 compatibility tests. 17 -> Asiaweek Online With Pathfinder -- Asiaweek has become the first regional newsweekly to set up a presence on the Internet's World Wide Web, through its parent-company Time Warner's Pathfinder site. 18 -> SAP Sees Hong Kong Acct Software Business Soar -- German-based accounting software specialist SAP AG has substantially increased its investment in Hong Kong, where the company says its business has doubled in the past year and its staff increased from eight to 25 employees. 19 -> China - Many Emergency Phone Numbers Unknown To Users -- In China, you can call 119 when there is a fire, or 110 when someone is trying to break into your house, or 120 for life saving. However, many phone users do not know these numbers, China Information claims. 20 -> Australia - Jarrah Bought By Open Environment Corp -- Three months after Australian client/server outfit Jarrah Technology launched itself onto the world stage with its SQL WinGuide 21 -> Techway Offers WebAustralia -- Early browsers may like to focus their Netscapes on WebAustralia, a new Internet information provider service being launched by Australian computer manufacturer Techway. 22 -> India - Spectrum & ITI In Market Resource Planning Deal -- The public sector giant 23 -> India - TCS & DEC In Enterprise Resource Deal -- Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) and Digital Equipment (India) Ltd., the Indian subsidiary of US-based Digital Equipment Corp., have signed a deal to provide a complete package for enterprise resource planning. 24 -> Japan Newsbriefs -- In this roundup of news from Tokyo: KDD achieves improved long distance ATM transmission, NTT multimedia tests to begin, Mini-Disk gains another supporter, Consortium to develop cheap CNC formed, Hitachi plans Telecom exhibit. 25 -> Fujitsu's Major UK Chip Plant Expansion -- Fujitsu Microelectronics Ltd., a subsidiary of Japan's Fujitsu Ltd., has announced a major expansion plan for its current chip plant in Durham, Northern England. 26 -> Strong Japanese Cellular Growth Continues -- The number of new subscribers to Japan's cellular telephone networks hit 410,000 in August, a slight decrease over July's record figure, while the number of people signing on to the two month old PHS system dropped by over half. 27 -> Singapore & Taiwan In Satellite Deal -- Singapore and Taiwan have signed a satellite memorandum of understanding (MoU) that will result in the two nations launching a new TV broadcast satellite within the next three years. 28 -> ****Power Computing Ships New Mac Clone -- Power Computing has begun shipping the Power 120, a 120 megahertz (MHz) PowerPC 601+ Macintosh compatible computer. The company has also debuted a mini-tower enclosure available across the Power lineup. 29 -> ****HP Pursues Trademark/Fraud Suits -- Hewlett-Packard (NYSE:HWP) has asked consumers to report suspected printer toner-cartridge fraud, as the firm says it is continuing its "aggressive" pursuit of companies and distributors selling refilled toner-cartridges, but marked as new. Along those lines, Permanent injunctions against International Data Machines (IDM) and Allstate Technology have recently been granted. 30 -> NewsPix Images For Newsbytes Publishers -- These photos correspond to recent Newsbytes stories. They are online in the Newsbytes menu on America Online, NiftyServe, and the Newsbytes private bulletin board system in Minneapolis. 31 -> Firms Team To Develop Standard Peripherals Connection -- Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ: MSFT) has teamed with Compaq and National Semiconductor to develop an industry initiative designed to produce an open host controller interface (HCI) standard for the Universal Serial Bus (USB). Intel said it is also working on a similar interface which will be compatible with the Microsoft-Compaq-National interface. 32 -> ****Hackers Break Into America Online -- America Online Inc. (NASDAQ:AMER) has informed its members that it is fighting hackers who are causing problems on the largest consumer online service. Also, a San Francisco Chronicle article claims rogue "computer experts" have already tampered with business and customer information files, creating a security breech. 33 -> ****ZD Net Reaches New Usage Highs -- Ziff-Davis Interactive has released usage and subscriber statistics that the company says puts its "ZD Net" near the top of the heap, when it comes to the various online services and the Internet's World Wide Web. 34 -> ****Compuserve Lets Users Build Own Web Pages -- Compuserve will start letting its subscribers build their own "outposts" in cyberspace, by enabling them to build, design, and submit their own home pages on the Internet's World Wide Web. Beta testing begins later this month, and Compuserve members should have their own pages up and running by November. 35 -> Dataplex Acquires Intellifile -- Dataplex Corp., a wholly-owned subsidiary of Affiliated Computer Services Inc. (NASDAQ: ACSA) has acquired Intellifile, a Dallas-based provider of information and image management services. 36 -> PICS Aimed At "Individual Control" Of Online Services -- World Wide Web and online service providers are teaming up with publishers, telecommunications companies, and academia to create Platform for Internet Content Selection (PICS), a new standard that is intended to allow individuals to control the online content they receive, said Albert Vezza, senior research scientist and associate director of MIT's Laboratory for Computer Science, in an interview with Newsbytes. (Ian Stokell/19950911) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 09/07/95 HEALTH UK - Racal Plugs Health Service Into Electronic Banking (NEWS)(HEALTH)(LON)(00001) UK - Racal Plugs Health Service Into Electronic Banking 09/07/95 BASINGSTOKE, HAMPSHIRE, ENGLAND, 1995 SEP 7 (NB) -- Racal's Network Services division has secured a major and high profile contract with the National Health Service (NHS) in the UK. Terms of the contract call for the communications company to act as a messaging relay between the UK's health authorities and the Paymaster General's Office (PMGO). Under the new arrangement, Racal's X.400 electronic messaging service will switch mail to and from the PMGO and around 400 health service managers who manage their respective authorities' funds. The PMGO operates the main financial feed to the various authorities, topping up local accounts for salary and other purposes. By relaying passive account information to the health authorities overnight, the idea is that the authorities can budget that much better and ensure that the British Government's main funding for the NHS is better balanced. Feeding money into Government departments is a big business, Newsbytes notes. Although the major banks in the UK offer favorable arrangements to the NHS and its various divisions, if a local health authority has to borrow money overnight, usually by a simple overdraft, the NHS must pay commercial rates. On the other hand, if the HMPG's office can send funds overnight to the authority, then it draws money down from the Government's accounts which, as any economist will tell you, costs very little as it usually involves the Government "creating" or "printing" more money. The Racal X.400 e-mail system replaces a telephone plus paper transaction system that left the health authorities without any details of their current financial position. Racal claims that the new Masterline service offers users access to the latest balance and transactions on an overnight basis and, if required, on an interactive e-mail basis. According to Racal, the PMGO handled transactions with a net value of around UKP900 million. Announcing the deal, David Elsbury, the chief executive of Racal Electronics said that the company is actively pursuing opportunities in the medical marketplace, "which we have identified as an area of major potential growth for the company. "We pioneered the introduction of managed network services with our successful Healthlink network and are still the only supplier to offer X.400 services to the health community. This achievement with the PMGO marks another milestone in Racal's provision of service solutions to the NHS," he said. The Masterline account information service is only one facet, Racal claims, of its EDI (electronic data interchange) system being implemented for the NHS. Racal claims that the full NHS EDI system has been in operation for four years and is growing from its current base of 12,000 users at the rate of 4,000 users a year. (Sylvia Dennis/19950906/Press Contact: Claire Tipler, Racal Network Services, +44-1734-669969; Reader Contact: Racal Network Services, tel +44-1734-669969, fax +44-1734-262121) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 09/07/95 ONLINE PictureTel Intros LiveTalk Technology (NEWS)(ONLINE)(LON)(00002) PictureTel Intros LiveTalk Technology 09/07/95 SLOUGH, BERKSHIRE, ENGLAND, 1995 SEP 7 (NB) -- PictureTel has unveiled LiveTalk, a PC software package that it claims is the first software- only application of digital simultaneous voice and data (DSVD) technology. As previously reported by Newsbytes, DSVD is a modem firmware technology endorsed by Creative Labs, Hayes, Intel, US Robotics, and others, that allows multiple data channels to be dynamically multiplexed across a single modem carrier. Industry experts describe DSVD, which is currently under study for possible ratification early next year by the International Telecoms Union (ITU) as "the poor man's ISDN (integrated services digital network). LiveTalk is a software add-in for PictureTel's Liveshare Plus data conferencing software. According to the company, the LiveTalk package effectively allows the PC's microprocessor to do the "leg work" in multiplexing the data, so allowing DSVD calls to be routed across plain vanilla modems. According to Tony Paradiso, director of marketing for PictureTel's Personal Systems Division, the software allows users to send both voice and data across the same analog phone line "without having to purchase expensive DSVD modems. "Our LiveShare Plus data conferencing software is greatly enhanced with the ability to use a single phone line for both voice and data. LiveTalk addresses the large installed base of modems and provides users with a practical migration path to data conferencing," he said. The LiveTalk package is being offered free of charge to existing users of PictureTel's LiveShare Plus data conferencing package. Later this month, the company plans to bundle LiveTalk free of charge with its LiveTalk Plus applications on both sides of the Atlantic. Interestingly, PictureTel claims that LiveTalk can run on any PC with a 33 megahertz (MHz) 80486 processor or faster, running Windows. The audio side of the call (i.e. the voice telephony circuit) is compressed down to a 9,600 bits-per-second (bps) data stream and multiplexed in with the normal data stream. The resultant data stream is then fed to the modem via the PC's serial port as normal. According to PictureTel, LiveTalk has features such as dynamic data rate control and silence detection, which reduce the audio bit rate during periods of silence and provides more bandwidth for LiveShare Plus data conferencing. The package also has manual audio override, which the company claims allows users to mute the microphone so that the whole modem bandwidth can be used for the data conferencing side of the call. There is also support for full- and half-duplex audio comms, depending on which sound card is installed in the PC. (Steve Gold/19950906/Press Contact: Veronique Froment, Roger Stanton Associates, tel +44-1628-4872222, fax +44-1628=487223; Internet e-mail rstaton@cix.compulink.co.uk; Reader Contact: PictureTel International, tel +44-1753-673000, fax +44-1753-733014, Internet e-mail raffoc@pictel.com) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 09/07/95 WINDOWS UK - Mercury Interactive's Windows 95 GUI Tester In Beta (NEWS)(WINDOWS)(LON)(00003) UK - Mercury Interactive's Windows 95 GUI Tester In Beta 09/07/95 KEITHLEY, YORKSHIRE, ENGLAND, 1995 SEP 7 (NB) -- Mercury Interactive has announced its WinRunner 3.5 client/server graphical user interface (GUI) Windows 95 testing tool has begun beta testing. According to the company, which claims to be the market leader in automated software quality (ASQ), the beta program should be completed within the next 45 to 60 days, at which point the package will go on sale to end users. According to Mercury Interactive, WinRunner for Windows 95 will enable developers and testers of Windows 95 applications to get a head start on cross-platform testing and quickly achieve high levels of software quality, while at the same time reducing the time necessary to deliver applications to end-users. A key feature of WinRunner for Windows 95 is that it offers support for Windows 95 objects. The idea behind the package is that it allows users to test Windows apps that need to be migrated to the Windows 95 operating system environment. The company cites a recent PC Week magazine labs finding, which stated that "corporations will have to test their applications very carefully before making the move to Windows 95." Announcing that the package has entered beta testing, David Green, Mercury Interactive UK's managing director said that the company is committed to providing tools for Windows 95 application development. "WinRunner is our first tool to support Windows 95, providing the ability to identify software errors and perform complete automated GUI testing of Windows 95 applications. Automated GUI testing provides far greater accuracy, speed, and efficiency than is possible with manual testing -- helping developers to deploy Windows 95 applications with confidence -- on time and within budget," he explained. According to Green, WinRunner for Windows 95 contains all the functionality of the company's WinRunner 3.5 for Windows 3.1 package. It is billed as a "comprehensive client/server application GUI testing tool that automates the software quality process." In use, WinRunner for Windows 95 is billed as including a unique Script Mapping for Adaptable and Reusable Tests (SMARTest) technology that minimizes script changes during application development and regression testing. For customers using WinRunner on other platforms, the company claims SMARTest also makes it possible to migrate existing Windows 3.1-based scripts to Windows 95 with little or no changes. SMARTest manages a dynamic table that tracks GUI objects for the test. According to the company, even as objects change in the course of development, SMARTest makes it possible to use the same tests without rework. The technology provides, what mercury Interactive describes as, unprecedented test script reusability and maintainability for faster and easier client/server regression testing. Pricing for WinRunner 3.5 for Windows 95 will be announced when it ships later this year. (Sylvia Dennis/19950906/Press & Reader Contact: Chris Hermann, Mercury Interactive, tel +44-1535-637055, fax +44-1535-632320, Internet e-mail chc@cix.compulink.co.uk) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 09/07/95 GENERAL UK - Adobe Intros Acrobat 2. (NEWS)(GENERAL)(LON)(00004) UK - Adobe Intros Acrobat 2.1 09/07/95 LONDON, ENGLAND, 1995 SEP 7 (NB) -- Adobe Europe has announced the availability of Acrobat version 2.1, which is now billed as the company's software for universal electronic publishing (UPE). According to company officials, this latest incarnation of the company's popular multi-platform publishing environment, now has expanded tools to create dynamic electronic information with "enhanced Internet integration and multimedia support." Adobe has announced Adobe Acrobat 2.1 software with new authoring tools for multimedia and World Wide Web publishing, as well as additional platform support for Microsoft Windows NT, Windows 95, native Power Macintosh, SunOS, Sun Solaris, HP-UX, and Silicon Graphics IRIX systems. With this release, Adobe has introduced Acrobat Search for CD-ROMs, which it claims is a "cost-effective publishing solution" that offers the Acrobat Reader with a full-text search capability, enabling publishers to create fully searchable, cross-platform CD-ROM titles. According to Adobe, the Acrobat 2.1 software family of universal electronic publishing tools simplifies the creation of electronic documents, allowing customers to use virtually any authoring application to create information that can be viewed, searched, and printed across all major computer platforms and printers. The Adobe Portable Document Format (PDF) is billed as "an open, cross- platform file format created by Acrobat software that preserves the fidelity of electronic documents, enabling information to be distributed in a single format across a broad range of media," including the World Wide Web, electronic mail, Lotus Notes, corporate networks, CD-ROM, and print-on-demand systems. "As corporations and commercial publishers rush to gain the advantages of distributing information electronically, they discover they have to support a disparate array of formats and tools that do not leverage current business processes or investments in existing applications," said Ricky Liversidge, Adobe Systems UK's marketing director. "With Acrobat 2.1 software, our customers can use their current tools to create information in a rich and dynamic electronic format that can be used in many ways to reach a very wide audience," he said. According to Adobe, this new release of Acrobat 2.1 expands the range of supported computer platforms to include Microsoft Windows NT, Windows 95, and Windows 3.1, Macintosh and native Power Macintosh, Sun OS 4.1.3 and higher, Sun Solaris 2.3 and 2.4, HP-UX 9.0.3 and above and 10.0 family, and Silicon Graphics IRIX 5.3-5.x. The company claims that this release is a major advance on previous versions. With the package, the company says that communicating is now easier, as well as more "visually captivating," with Acrobat 2.1 software through Weblink, a plug-in application for World Wide Web publishing, and Movie Tool, which allows multimedia elements to be added to PDF files. The idea behind Weblink, Newsbytes notes, is that it lets authors embed a uniform resource locator (URL) within a PDF file, allowing users to connect from an Acrobat document to any other supported file type on the World Wide Web. The company claims that Weblink works with a users' Web browser to communicate across the Internet and is supported by Netscape Navigator 1.1 and Spyglass Enhanced Mosaic 2.x. With Movie Tool, meanwhile, authors can easily incorporate multimedia elements into PDF files, including QuickTime and AVI video and audio files, claims the company. In addition, authors have greater control by being able to specify the placement and layout of a digital video file and the way it will be displayed. The Movie Tool utility is available with PC Windows and Apple Mac versions of Acrobat Exchange 2.1 software, and playback of movies and sounds is supported in Macintosh and Windows versions of Acrobat Reader 2.1. Plans call for PC Windows and Apple Mac versions of Adobe Acrobat Exchange 2.1 to be available globally later this month. Registered users can upgrade from Acrobat 2.0 for UKP25 or from Acrobat 1.0 for UKP55. SunOS, Sun Solaris and HP-UX versions of Acrobat Exchange 2.1 are expected to be available in October of this year. Registered users of Acrobat 1.0 for Unix can upgrade for UKP80. PC Windows and Apple Mac versions of Adobe Acrobat Pro 2.1 are expected to be available later this month. Registered users can upgrade from Acrobat Pro 2.0 for UKP80 or from Acrobat Pro 1.0 for UKP135. SunOS, Sun Solaris and HP-UX versions are expected to be available in October. Registered users can upgrade from Acrobat Distiller 1.0 to Acrobat Pro 2.1 for UKP475. Adobe Acrobat 2.1 for Workgroups, meanwhile, is expected to be available later this month. The price tag includes a 10-user license for any combination of Apple Mac and Windows versions of Acrobat Exchange 2.1, and a one-user license of either the Windows or Macintosh versions of the Acrobat Distiller 2.1 and Acrobat Catalog 2.1 programs. Registered users can upgrade from Acrobat for Workgroups 2.0 for UKP175 or from Acrobat 1.0 for Workgroups for UKP245. Last, but not least, Acrobat Search for CD-ROMs is expected to be available in October of this year and includes unlimited distribution rights on a per-CD-title basis for Acrobat Reader 2.1 with Acrobat Search. The Acrobat Reader 2.1 is widely distributed for free and supports Windows 3.1, Windows NT, Windows 95, native Power Macintosh, Apple Mac, SunOS, Sun Solaris, HP-UX, and SGI IRIX. (Steve Gold/19950906/Press Contact: Leading Edge Communications, +44-171-454-9360; Reader Contact: Adobe Systems, +44-181-606-4000) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 09/07/95 GENERAL OAG HotelDisk Hotel Guide Travel Database (NEWS)(GENERAL)(MSP)(00005) OAG HotelDisk Hotel Guide Travel Database 09/07/95 OAK BROOK, ILLINOIS, U.S.A., 1995 SEP 7 (NB) -- Official Airlines Guide (OAG) said it is paving the way for a "new method of travel planning" with a new software product called "OAG HotelDisk," described as a "comprehensive travel database." OAG HotelDisk also has mapping software that lets users zero in on hotels and build ground itineraries. Two versions of the software are available. The 30 largest metropolitan areas in the US are covered in the Metro version, while the North American version lets users access a continent-wide database of hotels along with a set of interactive maps for 90 of the largest metro areas in the US and Canada. Using the software, hotels can be selected by name, location, price, or 27 other factors. Once the preferences are selected, the OAG HotelDisk locates the hotels that meet the search criteria. With the software's mapping features travelers can zoom in on maps and overviews to locate local points of interest, including convention centers, museums, and landmarks. Peter Duckler, spokesperson for OAG, told Newsbytes the program is mainly designed for the corporate market, and specifically for people who are making travel arrangements for business people. "You may have lots of executives who are making sure that whoever does the planning, whether its secretaries or travel planners, giving them this software as a guide," he said. Meeting planners and travel agents would also benefit from the OAG HotelDisk, he added. Another reason why the corporate market might be interested in the new software, especially over the consumer market, is the price, Duckler said. The Metro version, which is available in a single-user Windows format, is priced at a subscription rate of $142. The North American version comes in both a single-user and a local area network (LAN) format, and costs $247 for the annual subscription rate. The subscriptions include quarterly updates, Duckler said. A Macintosh version is not available as of yet, but one may be in the company's future, depending on consumer demand, Duckler added. OAG is a division of the Reed Travel Group. (Bob Woods/19950906/Press Contact: Peter Duckler or Pamela Flores, HLB Communications, 312-649-0371) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 09/07/95 ONLINE Online Talent Search For TV News (NEWS)(ONLINE)(LAX)(00006) Online Talent Search For TV News 09/07/95 SAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1995 SEP 7 (NB) -- Don Fitzpatrick Associates and McHugh & Hoffman Inc., a subsidiary of Market Strategies Inc., have announced a joint venture to produce a digitized talent library and a direct online talent search access system. Both firms currently provide video talent search services for television news programming. Don Fitzpatrick, president of Don Fitzpatrick Associates, told Newsbytes, "Both Don Fitzpatrick Associates and McHugh & Hoffman operate talent bank video libraries. We tape examples of local news broadcasters in 160 of the largest markets in the United States. We compile and categorize the tapes, and show them to any news director who needs to hire new talent. Now a news director must come to San Francisco to see our videos, and this is a very expensive and time consuming. "The joint venture will create an online talent bank system that will incorporate a digital video talent library with an Internet delivery system for video and personnel data. This will enable broadcast executives seeking talent for news, information or entertainment programming to screen talent tapes and review talent data on an immediate-demand basis without leaving their offices," said Fitzpatrick. The software technology that supports this new talent access system has been developed by Columbia Information System, a subsidiary of Market Strategies Inc. Columbia Information System is located in Portland, Oregon, along with McHugh & Hoffman's current TalentBank. The digital talent library will be developed and marketed by Don Fitzpatrick Associates out of its San Francisco office. McHugh & Hoffman's current TalentBank library and database will be merged into Don Fitzpatrick Associates' library. Fitzpatrick said, "I have been searching for years for an advanced delivery system for talent video, but Columbia Information System is the only company that had both the understanding of the broadcast industry and the software technology to make the system immediately available and practical." He added: "The television industry is going through an enormous expansion of news and entertainment programming. In order for Don Fitzpatrick Associates to maintain its dominance in talent placement it must deliver services quickly and comprehensively." Speaking to Newsbytes, Adam Freifeld, director of McHugh & Hoffman's TalentBank, said, "The new digitized online service will provide fifteen seconds of 15 frames-per-second compressed video. Eventually all of the talent we represent will be digitized and available for viewing off an Internet database. We recommend an ISDN (integrated services digital network) line to take full advantage of the video quality." The system will be available for preview at the Radio Television News Directors Association World Expo in New Orleans on September 6, 7 and 8. Personnel from all the participating companies will be available to explain the system and how it can be used most effectively. (Richard Bowers/19950906/Press Contact: Deborah Coburn Rice, Don Fitzpatrick Associates, 408-741-1751) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 09/07/05 ONLINE UK - 28.8 PC Card Modem Internet-Ready (NEWS)(ONLINE)(LON)(00007) UK - 28.8 PC Card Modem Internet-Ready 09/07/05 ALDERMASTON, BERKSHIRE, ENGLAND, 1995 SEP 7 (NB) -- Electronic Frontier has announced an Internet-ready 28,800 bits-per-second (bps) PC card modem package that includes three month's free connection to the Internet, yet costs only UKP199.99. Bundled with the modem is the WorldWindows suite of Internet software, which normally sells for UKP69.99 on its own. The Frontier 28.8S PC card modem includes an integral 16550 UART for high-speed transmission. The modem supports all modem speeds to 28,800 bps, as well as up to 14,400 bps fax modem transmissions. The WorldWindows Internet Access suite, meanwhile, includes a licensed copy of the Netscape Web browser, as well as the usual telnet and other Internet PPP (Point-to-Point Protocol) facilities. The suite includes three month's free subscription to the Pipex Internet point of presence (PoP) network, which the company claims has 170 access points around the UK. Included in the WorldWindows suite is a fully-featured Internet toolkit. The WorldWindows toolkit consists of a hypertext markup language (HTML) editor, the Wincode uuencoding and uudecoding utility, a JPEG (Joint Photographic Experts Group) file viewer, a sound file player capable of handling all the popular sound formats, the Winzip file compressor, and Paint Shop Pro for manipulating graphics files. While Electronic Frontier has been going for a few years, the Internet Group is a newcomer to the UK comms industry. The company is based in Bloxham, Oxfordshire, and is a Unipalm Pipex Authorized Partner providing Internet access, training, and consultancy. The group comprises three companies: WorldWindow.net, Internet Centers, and Internet Consultants. The WorldWindow.net service provides everything needed to start using the Internet, mostly at local call rates. A corporate World Wide Web service allowing organizations to have their own home page has also been introduced. Last month saw the first Internet Center opened in Oxford, and others are set to open in cities up and down the country at the rate of one per month. The centers are designed to allow business and leisure users to access the Internet for just a few pence per minute via Pentium 90 PCs. They will also provide the opportunity to purchase anything from computer magazines to Internet-ready PCs. Each Internet Center will also offer training facilities, try-before-you-buy software, and a friendly coffee bar. The consultancy company, meanwhile, offers Internet users training and installation facilities and expects to offer online training and support services in the near future. Electronic Frontier now has a home page on the Internet at http://www.elecfron.com . (Steve Gold/19950906/Press Contact: Bridson & Bridson, tel +44-1869-338832, fax +44-1869-338843, Internet e-mail bandb@cix.compulink.co.uk; Reader Contact: Electronic Frontier, tel +44-1734-810600, fax +44-1734-811600, Internet e-mail david@elecfron.com) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 09/07/95 BUSINESS Computron Gets Serious About Europe (NEWS)(BUSINESS)(LON)(00008) Computron Gets Serious About Europe 09/07/95 WATFORD, HERTFORDSHIRE, ENGLAND, 1995 SEP 7 (NB) -- Computron has announced plans to upgrade its sales and support offices in the UK to become its new European and International headquarters. According to the company, the expansion and upgrading of the office's role comes just after the company's floatation on the US stock market The reason for the opening of the new offices is that the company claims that its range of customers has increased substantially in Europe over the last year, with major contracts being obtained from Deutsche Bank and TNT Worldwide Express. The company has also won a major project management operation with Ernst & Young. It has also signed a $8.3 million deal Computron with PKP, the Polish State Railway company. "We are bringing the game to SAP's (a financial services and system competitor of Computron) home turf. In the late 1980s and early 1990s, we pioneered and invested in a vision of interoperability which the market now supports wholeheartedly," claimed John Kerry, Computron's international vice president. "We have some of the first multi-tiered client/server finance and accounting sites up and running in Europe -- live and demonstrable -- while our competitors are still trying to fund the migration from a mainframe paradigm," he said. According to Kerry, Computron's products are configured to allow users the flexibility of wide functionality without any significant interruption or expensive consultancy fees. The systems are billed as integrating with others top quality applications due to the advantages of open technology. The financial management and accounting systems are based on multi-tiered networking architectures, with an open overflow, and imaging and archiving features. (Sylvia Dennis/19950906/Press Contact: Wilson Harvey, tel +44-171-704-1177, fax +44-171-704-1252; Reader Contact: Computron, tel +44-1923-474200, fax +44-1923-219366) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 09/07/95 BUSINESS Cisco Systems Reports Record Growth In Asia (NEWS)(BUSINESS)(HKG)(00009) Cisco Systems Reports Record Growth In Asia 09/07/95 CENTRAL, HONG KONG, 1995 SEP 7 (NB) -- Cisco Systems Inc., a leading worldwide supplier of computer networking devices, has reported record annual results for the period ending July 30, 1995. Asia continues to be the company's fastest growing geographical region with year-on-year sales up more than 140% on last year. Net sales for the 1995 fiscal year were US$1.97 billion, an increase of 59% on 1994 revenues. The results highlight Cisco's domination of the networking industry, claims the company. Fiscal 1995 has been an outstanding year for Cisco worldwide, particularly in the Asia region, said William Messer, managing director of Asian operations. "In every country in Asia, the company did spectacularly well, far surpassing the growth of our nearest competitors. "In the past year we have tripled the number of staff and offices in the region, adding offices in Bangkok, Beijing, Delhi, Jakarta, Kuala Lumpur, and Seoul. We are also pleased to report some spectacular successes, with major new accounts, including the Xinhua News Agency, the State Exchange of Administration Control and the Shanghai Stock Exchange in China, the Hong Kong Bank, POSCO in Korea, and Petronas in Malaysia," he said. Messer added that customers were increasingly looking for end-to-end network "solutions" from a single vendor. To address those needs, Cisco broadened its product set to offer "complete enterprise solutions," with Cisco Internetwork Operating System (Cisco IOS) software as the consistent fabric of the network, said the company. Acquisitions and strategic alliances continue to play a key role in Cisco's growth with the company this year completing the acquisition of Kalpana Inc., a leading Ethernet switched provider. In the ATM (asynchronous transfer mode) product arena, the company purchased the assets of LightStream Corp. Most recently, Cisco announced its intent to acquire Combinet Inc, a leader in ISDN (integrated services digital network) networking products. (Nigel Armstrong & I.T. Daily/19950907) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 09/07/95 CHIPS IDT Boosts SRAM Shipments By 500% (NEWS)(CHIPS)(HKG)(00010) IDT Boosts SRAM Shipments By 500% 09/07/95 CENTRAL, HONG KONG, 1995 SEP 7 (NB) -- Integrated Device Technology is dramatically increasing shipments of the IDT71V256SA 32K by 8 15 nanosecond (ns) static RAM, its third-generation 3.3-volt design, to support Pentium PC demand. Over the remainder of the fiscal year ending March 31, 1996, the company will expand production capacity using die shrinks and increased wafer starts to boost shipments by 500%. According to industry sources, 35 million Pentium systems are expected to ship this year. Virtually all will use high-speed secondary cache memory, reaching optimum performance at 256 kilobytes (KB). Installing IDT's 71V256SA 32K by 8 SRAM in Pentium systems without a cache will provide a 30 percent increase in performance, IDT claims. "The optimum Pentium secondary cache solution is the 15ns 32K by 8 3.3-volt SRAM and IDT has this part in high volume to meet demand," said Eric Cheong, IDT's Asia Pacific sales manager. "IDT's 71V256SA SRAM is an ideal solution for Pentium cache and as such, has experienced a tremendous increase in demand over the last few quarters. "Demand for 3.3-volt SRAMs has exceeded industry expectations and there is currently a worldwide shortage. We are committed to increasing capacity as fast as possible." IDT shipped its first 15ns 3.3-volt 32K by 8 in 1993. Since then the company's 3.3-volt technology has advanced significantly to produce the 71V256SA, IDT's third-generation 3.3-volt 32K by 8 SRAM design. "Virtually all our yield is 15ns because our 3.3-volt process technology meets the secondary cache performance needs of 90, 100, and 120 megahertz (MHz) Pentium systems," commented Cheong. To increase supply of the 71V256SA, IDT is shrinking the die size and increasing wafer starts. Along with the new Hillsboro, Oregon fab, expected to produce production quantities of silicon early in 1996, IDT is moving quickly to expand the San Jose manufacturing plant and has converted the Salinas plant from the production of five-inch to six-inch diameter wafers. Cheong added, "As we continue to increase 71V256SA shipments using our established volume 3.3-volt production technology, we are positioned for a smooth transition to 32K by 32 pipelined burst-SRAM production at Hillsboro in 1996." The 15ns IDT71V256SA is now in volume production and available in 28-pin TSOP Type I, SOJ, and PDIP packages. The TSOP Type I version is priced at US$10 each for 1,000-piece quantities, while both the SOJ and PDIP versions are offered at $8.70 each in 1,000-piece quantities. Information about IDT and its products is available through IDT's Home Page on the World Wide Web at http://www.idt.com . (Nigel Armstrong & I.T. Daily/19950907) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 09/07/95 WINDOWS Just In Time's Learning Windows 95 CD (NEWS)(WINDOWS)(TOR)(00011) Just In Time's Learning Windows 95 CD 09/07/95 OTTAWA, ONTARIO, CANADA, 1995 SEP 7 (NB) -- Just In Time (JIT) Learning Products Inc., of Ottawa, has released its new Learning Windows 95 CD-ROM-based tutorial and resource package. Unlike some other Windows 95-oriented software products, the package will reportedly run under both Windows 95 and Windows 3.x, allowing users who are upgrading from an earlier version of Windows to check out the What's New topic module before actually committing to installation of Windows 95, said the company. The package, which makes extensive use of sound and animation, packs a large volume of information behind a "simple, straightforward" point-and-click interface. The information can be accessed serially, in progressive tutorials, or randomly (as a pop-up "help") when you need specific guidance on a specific task, even while actually working in Windows 95. "Most people doing training these days are just taking video tape and throwing it on a CD," claimed JIT Chairman and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Michael Doyle. In contrast, he emphasized, JIT's emphasis is on well-organized content "rather than on simply recreating the conventional training video experience." In fact, the company sums up its goal, both verbally and on its packaging, as providing "the equivalent of two days of classroom training on a single CD-ROM for the price of a (standard third-party manual)." Areas covered in the Learning Windows 95 Topic Map (main screen) include: Getting Started, which provides simple instructions for navigating in the JIT learning environment; What's New, which briefs users of previous versions of Windows on new features and changes in Windows 95; Installing 95, how to install Windows 95 and how to prepare your computer for the installation process; Custom Look, all about Wallpaper, custom screen colors; Staying Organized, navigating in Windows 95; Accessorizing, adding utilities, fonts, peripherals; Lights, Camera, Action!, which details multimedia features; Cool Tools, which covers Windows' own utilities; and Getting Connected, which details such subjects as modems, Microsoft Network, and the Internet. Doyle said he was "pleasantly surprised" at how advanced JIT's products appeared compared to those of some of his competitors, after he conducted an informal survey at a major trade show in Atlanta, earlier this year. "We were painting the Mona Lisa and they were just discovering crayons," Doyle said, noting that many other "interactive digital" training packages are still based on Windows Help technology or the macro or scripting language of the specific application they are designed to support. He stressed that JIT packages are fully- independent, stand-alone programs created with powerful Windows application development tools. Doyle, who has more than a decade of experience in high-tech training, called the JIT system "a product of its time," saying "We've known how to do good training for years, but we lacked a (suitable) delivery mechanism. The advent of CD-ROM, sound cards, high-quality color displays and the computing power to drive it -- the multimedia PC -- have made it feasable." A free Learning Windows 95 demo CD is available from JIT by calling 1-800-548-3475, or by sending your name, full mailing address, phone and fax number to: JIT Learning Products, Suite 405, 1111 Prince of Wales Dr., Ottawa, Ont. Canada, K2C 3T2. Suggested retail price for Learning Windows 95 is US$49.95. To run the package, you will need a multimedia-ready PC, with a 386 or faster (486 or Pentium recommended) processor, at least eight megabytes (MB) RAM, a sound card, speakers, a CD-ROM drive, and either Windows 3.1 with DOS 6.0 or higher, or Windows 95. (Maggie Troone/19950901/ Media Contact: Merri Lemmex: 613-224-9113, Internet e-mail 76403.2117@compuserve.com; Public Contact: Toll-free 800-548-3475) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 09/07/95 BUSINESS Merisel Gets Compaq Distribution In Australia (NEWS)(BUSINESS)(SYD)(00012) Merisel Gets Compaq Distribution In Australia 09/07/95 SYDNEY, AUSTRALIA, 1995 SEP 7 (NB) -- Distributor Merisel has won sole national distributor status for Compaq Computer products in Australia. The move, which sees the Compaq line offered to Merisel's 4,500-strong list of resellers in Australia, holds the promise of a major boost to Compaq's Australian market penetration. Compaq was the overall PC market leader in Australia last year, with around 9.7 percent of sales, or 105,900 units, according to IDC figures. Chosen resellers will handle all Compaq products except high-end servers. The announcement brings Australia in line with other regions of the world, where Merisel already holds distribution rights. Dealers who want to take up the offer must first pass through an authorization process by Compaq. So far, according to Merisel Australia Managing Director Patrick Wood, 400 have signed up and passed through the process. They will begin getting their first supplies later this month. He expects between 500 and 1,000 resellers eventually to join the program. Under the agreement, Compaq will continue to deal directly with major corporate and government resellers as well as high-volume consumer outlets like Harvey Norman. State distribution programs under outfits like Dicker Data will also continue. Merisel's role is to provide access to smaller retail merchants and systems integrators, according to Wood. The appointment stems from a Merisel initiative. Wood says he began chasing the account in earnest last November, after a prior -- and not altogether happy -- arrangement handling Digital PCs came to an end. He believes the account will add "many millions" to Merisel's turnover. Questioned on how already thin margins may be stretched by the addition of an extra layer of distribution, Wood says the arrangements will actually give resellers scope for additional margins by bundling Merisel software lines with the central processing units (CPUs). The deal will involve Merisel in warehousing and physical handling of the boxes. But Compaq will be responsible for creating end-user demand. "As long as they've got pull-through, I'll push them into the marketplace," said a confident Wood. Compaq continues to distribute some Apple computer lines. (Computer Daily News/19950906) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 09/07/95 ONLINE Software Meant For Client/Server Apps On The Web (NEWS)(ONLINE)(TOR)(00013) Software Meant For Client/Server Apps On The Web 09/07/95 NASHUA, NEW HAMPSHIRE, U.S.A., 1995 SEP 7 (NB) -- Client/server applications that run over the Internet's World Wide Web? Though it may seem odd at first, that's the idea behind Open Software Associates' (OSA) new OpenWeb software, and the company's president says the idea is catching on even where he hadn't expected. Graeme Greenhill, president of OSA, told Newsbytes that the original intent of OpenWeb was to let his company's customers build client/server applications that their customers could connect to via the Web. Some customers are interested in doing that, he said, but OSA has also been surprised at the level of interest in using the software for purely internal applications. "People are setting up internal Web servers and Web pages that are only for their employees to use," Greenhill said. From there, it is a short step to using the Internet rather than a private network to link remote client sites to central servers within the same organization. However, Greenhill said, business-to-business applications also represent a fair share of the potential for OpenWeb, a new component to be added to OSA's OpenUI software this fall. OpenUI is a development environment designed to let client/server applications work across multiple hardware platforms and graphical user interfaces. OpenWeb will allow the client portion of such an application to be downloaded from a World Wide Web site and then linked to the server portion via the Internet. OpenWeb bypasses the hypertext markup language (HTML) standard used for Web documents once the client software has been installed on the local machine, he said. Admitting that security is a concern for many people contemplating business use of the Internet, Greenhill said that while the first version of OpenWeb, to be available this fall, will have very limited security provisions, the second phase, due to be available early in 1996, will add full security as well as whatever other enhancements customers ask for after trying out the first release. OpenWeb will be bundled with OpenUI, Greenhill said, and at present OSA expects the price of OpenUI will remain the same, at $3,500 to $7,900 per developer seat. Open Software Associates is on the World Wide Web at http://www.osa.com . (Grant Buckler/19950907/Press Contact: Graeme Greenhill, Open Software Associates, 603-886-4330, Internet e-mail graeme@nh.osa.com; Public Contact: Open Software Associates, 603-886-4330) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 09/07/95 ONLINE Letraset Offers Font Samples Online (NEWS)(ONLINE)(TYO)(00014) Letraset Offers Font Samples Online 09/07/95 TOKYO, JAPAN, 1995 SEP 7 (NB) -- The complete Letraset catalog, also nicknamed "the graphic designer's bible," is now available on the World Wide Web and, in an effort to make full use of the interactive technology available, visitors can obtain free samples of fonts before they buy. Through Letraset's Ripper Web page, users are able to type in a sample text and see it displayed in any of the 300 Letraset Fontek fonts available. "This is the perfect way for people to try out fonts before they buy." said Dave Taylor, marketing and development director at Esselte New Media. Taylor continued, "It is sometimes hard to imagine how the letters of a font will interact, especially with some of the more avant-garde fonts. Ripper enables users to adjust point size and change the font type in real time until they find the one that best suits their needs. It is a perfect example of how the World Wide Web can provide a really interactive situation between a company and a customer." Once the desired font, type style, and point size have been displayed, the page can be printed out and added to documents to see exactly what the chosen font would look like. Users are then free to purchase the full font or choose another. In addition to the font catalog and Ripper page, Letraset is enticing Web users back each month with the offer of a free font. Windows and Macintosh True Type or Postscript versions of a chosen font are available free of charge each month from the site. Through the scheme, and Ripper service, Letraset says its service is one of the most active on the World Wide Web, as Taylor maintained, "Our Web site has been tremendously successful. We are getting hit rates similar to the leaders." To make the service complete, the Letraset graphic design showcase is also included offering samples from the clip-art and background pictures catalog. The "Envelopes" plug in module for Illustrator and Freehand can also be downloaded from the site. Letraset's Web site is located at http://www.esselte.com/letraset/ . (Martyn Williams/19950907/Press contact: Dave Taylor, Esselte New Media, tel +44-171-928-3411, fax +44-171-401-2427, Internet e-mail dtaylor@esselte.com; Reader contact: Internet e-mail esselte-new-media@esselte.com /LETRA950907/PHOTO) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 09/07/95 ONLINE Internet Update (NEWS)(ONLINE)(TYO)(00015) Internet Update 09/07/95 TOKYO, JAPAN, 1995 SEP 7 (NB) -- In this roundup of new resources and services on the global Internet: All the world's news, Online money from Singapore, Search shop adds features, Dow Jones Television launches, Spike Lee conference scheduled, Morocco on the Web, Asian doctors group online. All The World's News Each day the Daily Inc provides a starting point and interface to the world's online newspapers. The Web server is divided into sections covering US news, business, technology, sports, entertainment, the Web, and tabloids, with links also included to cartoons. Each section offers the day's major headlines with links to online news sources covering the stories. World Wide Web: http://www.rhythm.com/~prash/inc/inc.shtml Online Money From Singapore The Singapore Mint has opened a home page on the World Wide Web. The Web page is primarily aimed at coin collectors and offers details, and a chance to see, its Singapore lion gold bullion coin, gold and silver Disney coins, gold proof medallion, and more. Access is available via two servers. World Wide Web: http://www.singapore.com/companies/sgmint World Wide Web: http://www.sgmint.com/companies/sgmint Search Shop Adds Features The SearchPlex, a single interface allowing searching of all the major Internet databases from a single source, has recently added new features. Users can now search the CNN Interactive database and the OpenText database in addition to the existing gateways to major search engines and "whois" and "finger" servers. World Wide Web: http://www.oimage.com/tools/search.html Dow Jones Television Launches A new home page has been created to serve information about the Dow Jones Investor Network, a subscription TV service for financial industry professionals. In addition details about the daily broadcasts, which includes a broadcast schedule for each day, users can also search a catalog and order video tapes or previously broadcast events. World Wide Web: http://www.djin.com/ Spike Lee Conference Scheduled Internationally famous movie director Spike Lee will be online September 12 to discuss his new movie, Clockers. The event is being simulcast on CompuServe, Microsoft Network, and the Internet. The Internet part of the event will be available via Universal Pictures' Web site, the MCA/Universal Cyberwalk. World Wide Web: http://www.mca.com/ Morocco On The Web Morocco's first Internet service provider, Azure net, has opened a Web site to provide details of the north African country to the world. One side of the site offers economic, cultural and tourism information, while the other half provides a comprehensive directory of Moroccan experts in the fields of public and road works. World Wide Web: http://www.azure.net/ World Wide Web: http://www.lpee.com/ Asian Doctors Group Online The Association of Medical Doctors for Asia (AMDA) has entered the online world with a home page on the Internet. The page makes AMDA the first non-governmental organization (NGO) in Japan to go online, according to the group. It hopes to offer travel advice and information about its medical assistance services, a tropical disease database and general information about the organization. World Wide Web: http://www.amda.or.jp/ (Martyn Williams/19950907) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 09/07/95 GENERAL UK - Desktop Publishing Calendar Design Competition (NEWS)(GENERAL)(LON)(00016) UK - Desktop Publishing Calendar Design Competition 09/07/95 LONDON, ENGLAND, 1995 SEP 7 (NB) -- Adobe Systems UK has announced the call for entries for its second annual calendar design competition. The competition is open to anyone in the UK with a desktop publishing (DTP) application capable of generating designs for a calendar to be printed by Adobe. According to the company, the Adobe 1996 calendar is a "prestigious showcase" for computer-generated art, and will be an exclusive, limited edition, high quality publication that will be an "impressive addition to winning designers' portfolios." According to Vicki Jay, a spokeswoman for Adobe, the competition is open to graphics professionals, students, and amateurs alike. The main condition for entry is that a computer has played a central role in the creation of the entered design. Entries can be designed using any software package and any computer. According to Adobe, the judges are looking for quality of concept, execution, and how well the design interprets the theme. The theme for the 1996 Calendar is a broad and simple one that should allow for a wide range of interpretations -- "communication." Twelve winners will be selected by a panel of judges which includes top designers, industry figures, and Adobe UK staff. In addition to having their entries published in the calendar, which will be sent to Adobe's customers in the graphic arts, advertising, and publishing worlds, each winner will receive hundreds of UK pounds worth of Adobe software. As well as receiving Adobe Acrobat software and the Adobe Type on Call font CD, each winner will be able to choose between PageMaker, Illustrator, Photoshop, or Premiere. "This is the second year of the UK competition, which parallels that of the US company. Response to last year's competition was excellent and we expect an even better set of entries this year," Jay said. For full details of the competition entry conditions and an entry form, Newsbytes readers are asked to fax or write to Jayne Birch at Adobe Systems UK, 1 Roundwood Avenue, Stockley Park, Uxbridge UB11 9AE. The fax number is +44-181-606-4004. (Steve Gold/19950906/Press Contact: Leading Edge Communications, +44-171-454-9360; Reader Contact: Adobe Systems, +44-181-606-4000) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 09/07/95 ONLINE PSINet Plans Canadian Expansion, Signs Korean Deal (NEWS)(ONLINE)(TOR)(00017) PSINet Plans Canadian Expansion, Signs Korean Deal 09/07/95 HERNDON, VIRGINIA, U.S.A., 1995 SEP 7 (NB) -- Performance Systems International Inc. (NASDAQ:PSIX) has announced plans to extend its Internet access service to 15 cities in Canada. The company, sometimes known as PSINet, also said it signed a deal to form a joint venture in South Korea. PSINet already operates in the United States, the United Kingdom, Japan, and Israel, company spokesman Brian Muys told Newsbytes. Its network is expected to reach Canadian centers before the end of this year, and officials said the joint-venture agreement with the Korean firm Hansol Paper Co. furthers a move into the Asia-Pacific region. Performance Systems has also completed its previously announced buyout of Eunet GB Ltd., an Internet service provider in the United Kingdom. Muys said PSINet hopes to attract customers in Canada on the basis of its full range of products and services. The company plans at some point to bring to Canada a version of its Pipeline USA service, which provides content as well as access to the Internet, he said, and it will also work with existing Internet access providers in Canada. A Canadian subsidiary, PSINet Ltd., is to open an office in Toronto in the fourth quarter of 1995, officials said. The subsidiary will start with as many as 20 employees. Until that office opens, PSINet said, the fledgling Canadian operations will be run from the United States. The 15 cities in which PSINet plans to install operating points of presence by year-end are: Halifax, Nova Scotia; Montreal and Quebec City, Quebec; Toronto, Ottawa, London, Guelph, Hamilton, Kitchener, and St. Catherines, Ontario; Winnipeg, Manitoba; Saskatoon, Saskatchewan; Calgary and Edmonton, Alberta; and Vancouver, British Columbia. PSINet said it will connect those cities with leased T1 telephone circuits able to transmit data at 1.5 megabits-per-second (Mbps). PSINet is on the World Wide Web at http://www.psi.net . (Grant Buckler/19950907/Press Contact: Brian Muys, PSINet, 703-904-4285, Internet e-mail muysb@psi.com; Public Contact: PSINet, 800-82PSI82 or 703-904-4100, Internet e-mail info@psi.com) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 09/07/95 TRENDS ****Will Residential Broadband Ever Happen? - Study (NEWS)(TRENDS)(MSP)(00018) ****Will Residential Broadband Ever Happen? - Study 09/07/95 NEW YORK CITY, NEW YORK, U.S.A., 1995 SEP 7 (NB) -- The residential broadband market is taking its time in getting off the ground, a new study released by Northern Business Information (NBI) said. The report looks at the market for network equipment for cable TV and telephone company voice and video networks, along with he market for asynchronous transfer mode (ATM) switches. Statistics in the report show that the home broadband market is not moving as quickly as expected. The study cited one statistic from mid-1994 that said US telephone companies expected nearly 1.7 million home users would have access to their video networks by year end. In reality, the report said only a handful of trials were up and running by mid-1995. Home broadband "will happen eventually, but much more slowly than anyone had projected," Mike Arellano, NBI spokesperson, told Newsbytes. "One of the factors is where can it be profitable. It's going to be much lower cost to do in urban areas and in, for example, apartment buildings, than in single-family residences." Arellano also said advanced services like video-on-demand have two factors working against them. "One is the high cost, and two is there's no established demand for them. So I think it will happen, but certainly much slower than what people are projecting." Other findings in the NBI study show cable operators spending $635 million, excluding installation costs, in 1999 to provide video-on- demand and voice services. Also telephone companies will provide video service to 8.4 million homes in 1999, by which time almost two million customers will subscribe to the new services. The 190-page report is available now from NBI, officials said. Northern Business Information is a unit of Datapro Information Services Group. Datapro is a unit of the McGraw-Hill Companies. NBI tracks the global telecommunications industry and provides research on that market to telecom vendors and service providers. (Bob Woods/19950907/Press Contact: Michael Galvin, Northern Business Information, 916-898-9110, Internet e-mail galvinmj@mcgraw-hill.com. Public Contact: Northern Business Information, 800-328-2776) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 09/07/95 ONLINE C/net Online Adds 100,000 Members In 10 Weeks (NEWS)(ONLINE)(LAX)(00019) C/net Online Adds 100,000 Members In 10 Weeks 09/07/95 SAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1995 SEP 7 (NB) -- After just ten weeks, C/net Online, the World Wide Web-based online service of C/net, has registered over 100,000 members and is delivering approximately 1.4 million pages each week. C/net claims to be the largest "original content" site on the Web. C/net, the computer network, produces a weekly television series called "C/net Central," that focuses on computers, multimedia, and digital technologies, and is currently airing six times a week on the USA Network and the Sci-Fi channels. It can also be seen on San Francisco television station KPIX 5, the CBS affiliate. Patrick Toland, public relations manager at C/net, told Newsbytes, "C/net Online was launched June 24 as the first full-function online service on the World Wide Web. In only the past four weeks, traffic at C/net Online has increased by over 300 percent with membership now growing by approximately 12,000 new members each week. In one two-day period C/net Online added over 5,000 registered members. Unlike many other sites on the Web, registration at C/net Online is voluntary and C/net's content is available free to anyone on the Web." Toland pointed out that the Mercury Center, the highly successful Web site of the San Jose Mercury News, delivers 300,000 pages per week, and Ziff-Davis, the publisher of 16 computer magazines, delivers approximately 700,000 pages per week on their Web site. "C/net is now delivering 1.4 million pages per week. We believe that this puts us number one in just 10 weeks." Kevin Wendle, president of C/net Television and executive producer of C/net Online said, "We're amazed at the spectacular growth we have experienced at such an early stage. Consumer response to both C/net Online and our TV programming has surpassed even our most optimistic projections." Christopher Barr, C/net's editor-in-chief said, "C/net Online showcases the advantage of publishing on the Web. Our feature stories combine compelling content with colorful graphics and links to related areas such as discussions, polls, and downloadable software." C/net Online includes daily news, feature stories, opinion columns, product reviews, a shareware library, access to hundreds of Internet mailing lists, hardware and software vendor directories, and technical support. C/net Online's member forum area features bulletin boards, member polls and contests, and its vendor area features product information from computer hardware, software and peripheral vendors. "Free to consumers, C/net Online is connected to C/net's television programming," said Toland. Each story featured on the television program is also available online, expanded in greater detail to allow viewers access to additional information. For example, we did a television piece on Web browsers. We were limited as to the content we could deliver on television, but we listed a report on every browser available on our Web site." C/net is headquartered in San Francisco, with offices in New York City and a technology center in New Jersey. C/net Online's content is available free to anyone on the Web at http://www.cnet.com/ . (Richard Bowers/19950900/Press Contact: Stacy O'Connell, C/net, 415-395-7800) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 09/07/95 GENERAL Adobe Offers Unlimited Toll-Free Tech Support (NEWS)(GENERAL)(DEN)(00020) Adobe Offers Unlimited Toll-Free Tech Support 09/07/95 SEATTLE, WASHINGTON, U.S.A., 1995 SEP 7 (NB) -- Adobe Systems Inc. (NASDAQ: ADBE) has introduced an unlimited toll-free technical support program for prepress product users and a new version of its electronic trapping software, Trapwise. Adobe said the prepress stage is the final phase of the print production process in which color separation and publication assembly take place. The new Adobe technical support program for its prepress products is called Press Pass. It provides unlimited toll-free technical phone support for a period of one year. Adobe said support calls will be handled by experienced prepress technicians who have worked in the prepress industry. However, the company cautions that at peak times callers may have to leave a message for an "immediate" return call. "We recognize that prepress service providers have special needs and concerns unique to their industry that cannot wait for someone to call back after the request has been logged in a queue," according to Harold Burns, Adobe prepress technical support manager, in describing why Adobe established the priority service program. Users will have the opportunity to purchase the year-long Press Pass support plan following the 90-day technical support period that is included with Adobe prepress products. A Press Pass card will be included with every Adobe prepress product box or upgrade. The card is activated and the user assigned an access code when the first call for technical support is made. Press Pass technical support is available from 7am to 5pm Pacific Time Monday through Friday. The program launches this month at an annual cost of $895. Press Pass customers also receive Adobe's Support Central newsletter covering technical advise for the company's products, access to Adobe's prepress online bulletin board system (BBS), trial versions of new Adobe prepress software, and the Adobe Acrobat Reader software to view and print Adobe Portable Document Format (PDF) files from the BBS. Adobe has also announced a new version of Trapwise, its electronic trapping software for the Power Macintosh platform. A "trap" is an overlap or underlap between colors that butt against each other to hide misregistration during printing. The company said Trapwise 2.5 will let high volume prepress operators trap Adobe Postscript and Encapsulated Postscript (EPS) language files four to ten times faster than with previous Trapwise versions. Adobe said Trapwise 2.5 can knockout trap zones so that small portions of traps can be changed quickly if a file or the base artwork has been modified at the last minute. It also has the ability to read Scitex Continuous Tone (CT) images. Adobe said that makes it possible for the software to trap all types of CT files. Enhanced image support in the new version of Trapwise enables the program to trap to high-resolution Desktop Color Separation (DCS) files, and Adobe Open Tier 2 support makes it possible to receive commands and communicate within the Adobe Open workflow environment. The company said the new trapping engine used in Trapwise 2.5 lets the software generate smoother traps up to 18-point, or one-quarter inch, widths. The new software can create electronic chokes and spreads that meet or exceed the standards of professional strippers, said Adobe. Ink mapping will map inks among applications to maintain consistent specifications and also allows the user to check those specs so that inks can be converted before a job goes into production. Users will also be able to preview individual color separations to catch errors before film output. Adobe has changed the user interface in version 2.5 and the measurement palette now floats and can be resized, and a new File Status palette will combine three dialog boxes to show job progress at a glance. Adobe said Trapwise 2.5 for the Power Mac is expected to ship in the fourth quarter of this year with a suggested retail price of $4,995. Registered owners of Trapwise 2.0 for the Mac and version 2.1 for the Power Mac can upgrade for $795. Localized French and German versions are also planned. (Jim Mallory/19950907/Press contact: Barbara Burke, Burke & Associates for Adobe, 206-938-8827; Public contact: Adobe, 800-685-6736) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 09/07/95 BUSINESS Boca & Midisoft Ink Marketing Deal (NEWS)(BUSINESS)(MSP)(00021) Boca & Midisoft Ink Marketing Deal 09/07/95 BOCA RATON, FLORIDA, U.S.A., 1995 SEP 7 (NB) -- Boca Research Inc. (NASDAQ:BOCI) has signed a licensing agreement with Midisoft Corp., a developer of multimedia audio and music software products. In the agreement, Boca will bundle Midisoft's MediaWorks software in several of its 14.4 kilobits-per-second (Kbps) and 28.8 Kbps modem products. Midisoft's MediaWorks comes with a unique virtual office interface, in which a user's screen displays a "typical office" setting, including a telephone and a fax machine. By clicking on the items in the interface, different programs are launched to perform tasks. "The new agreement gives the (Boca) products a different look and feel," Brynett Stephan, Boca spokesperson, told Newsbytes. "It's a totally different interface in terms of what the user is used to seeing. It has a different touch and feel for us, and it also gives us the room to expand and grow feature sets down the road." Boca plans to bundle MediaWorks with its new V.34 Boca Office Communicator. The software will also come with the company's latest SoundExpression line, including the SoundExpression 14.4SRS and the SoundExpression 28.8SRS. In addition to modem and faxing capabilities, the SoundExpression products have a voice-mail system, full-duplex speakerphone, CallerID support, and a 16-bit sound card with SRS Labs' three-dimensional surround sound, all on a single card. The Office Communicator provides all of those features, except for the sound card. Officials said both products support Plug and Play installation, and Windows 95-capability. Stephan said the modems with the MediaWorks bundles should begin shipping to distributors and retailers by the end of September. Boca maintains a presence on the Internet World Wide Web at http://www.boca.org for public inquiries. (Bob Woods/19950907/Press Contact: Gale Blackburn, Boca Research, 407-997-8621; Public Contact: Boca Research, 407-997-6227) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 09/07/95 BUSINESS Mindscape Acquires MicroLogic (NEWS)(BUSINESS)(LAX)(00022) Mindscape Acquires MicroLogic 09/07/95 NOVATO, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1995 SEP 7 (NB) -- Mindscape Inc., a publisher of consumer computer software, has acquired MicroLogic Software, an Emeryville, California-based software development company. MicroLogic is best known for PrintMaster Gold, a small office print software product which creates business cards, stationary, newsletters, and banner graphics. Nancy Van Natta, a spokesperson for Mindscape, told Newsbytes, "Since both parties are privately owned we are not releasing any financial data at this time, but Mindscape has annual revenue over $130 million per year, and this is a major acquisition for us. This purchase will give Mindscape a new line of products in an industry we have not had a presence in before." "This acquisition gives Mindscape a strong competitive position in print productivity, which is one of the largest categories in consumer software with annual sales of approximately $100 million," commented Bob Lloyd, chief executive officer (CEO) of Mindscape. "The synergy between the two companies is exceptional," added Frank Hainze, president of MicroLogic. "Having grown MicroLogic to this level, it will be exciting to see how much more we can do with the support of Mindscape's expertise and resources." "Mindscape will also benefit from MicroLogic's considerable expertise in direct marketing," said Lloyd. MicroLogic will become a subsidiary of Mindscape, which will distribute the company's current titles worldwide. MicroLogic is the third software company Mindscape has acquired in less than one year. In October, 1994, Mindscape acquired Strategic Simulations Inc. (SSI), a Sunnyvale, California-based developer of computer wargames, and fantasy role-playing games. Mindscape also acquired Atreid Concept, a French entertainment software company which created 3D Biomotion, a three-dimensional animation technology that Mindscape has used in two of its game titles this year. "We are pleased with our acquisitions to date," Lloyd explained. "We've increased SSI's revenues over 50% in the year since we've acquired them, and Atreid is responsible for Al Unser Jr. Arcade Racing, our first title for Windows 95." Mindscape Inc. was founded in 1980 as The Software Toolworks, and was known for learning programs such as Mavis Beacon Teaches Typing which, according to the company, sold over four million copies. Mindscape is a wholly owned subsidiary of Pearson plc, an international media group based in London. Pearson's other interests include Penquin Books, The Financial Times of London, and the Economist. MicroLogic was founded in 1985 as a developer of printer drivers and font technology. (Richard Bowers/19950907/Press Contact: Nancy Van Natta, Mindscape, 415-897-9900 ext 790) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 09/07/95 BUSINESS More On Bay Networks' Acquisition Of Xylogics (NEWS)(BUSINESS)(BOS)(00023) More On Bay Networks' Acquisition Of Xylogics 09/07/95 BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS, U.S.A., 1995 SEP 7 (NB) -- In a teleconference for the press, Bay Networks' Paul Severino and Xylogics' Bruce Sachs elaborated on Bay Networks' $330 million acquisition of Burlington, Massachusetts-based Xylogics, revealing that Bay Networks had also looked at other companies as possible acquisitions, and predicting that the purchase of Xylogics will bring more jobs to Massachusetts. During the teleconference, which was attended by Newsbytes, Severino, who is Bay Networks' chairman, described the planned purchase of Xylogics as a "stock-swap deal, with a pooling of interests." As previously reported by Newsbytes, Severino first announced the deal with Xylogics early yesterday, during a presentation in Boston to corporate sponsors of the Computer Museum, an event also attended by Newsbytes. Also prior to yesterday afternoon's teleconference for journalists, Bay Networks and Xylogics officials briefed analysts on the acquisition in a separate conference call. At the outset of the teleconference for the press, Severino maintained that, although Bay Networks is "very successful" in the "ROBO" (remote office/branch office) market, the Santa Clara, California-based company now sees new opportunities for remote access in two more markets: mobile professionals and SOHO (small office/home office). ROBO applications typically involve a LAN (local area network) installation at a branch office, which is connected over leased lines or frame relay for 24-hour-a-day access to the "enterprise network," the company chairman told the press. Bay Networks has installed "major branch networks" for companies that include Reuters, Nissan and ADP, he reported. "And our run rate on our network routers has been high, and growing." But, he noted, mobile professionals today are "literally running around with a notebook and a modem" when "on the road" to obtain access to information on corporate networks and the Web. Meanwhile, another strong market is emerging among SOHO users, who require technologies like "low-end personal routers, for switched high performance and easy access," and ISDN (integrated services digital network). "In both instances, Xylogics brings very important product capabilities and market presence," Severino told the teleconference participants. These capabilities include IPX (Internet Packet Exchange) and "the new technology of channelized T1, which allows for many, many modem-oriented connections into a switched T1 environment," according to the Bay Networks exec. In addition, he observed, through Xylogics' recent purchase of UK-based Scorpio, Xylogics is now marketing an "ISDN-based SOHO router" under the Nautica brand name. "We expect that this will be another key product, as we look at low-end router access," the journalists were told. Agreed Sachs: "We're obviously very excited about all this at Xylogics." The deal with Bay Networks represents a "tremendous opportunity for both sides," contended the Xylogics president and chief executive officer (CEO), who will retain the same title as head of Bay Networks' new Xylogics business unit. "Bay has entrenched themselves with large enterprise customers. We have (also) chosen to focus on enterprise opportunities, meaning larger networks, more ports, and multiple protocols, as opposed to smaller departmental applications," Sachs told the journalists. The new Nautica ISDN product also "fits in well," since it helps enable end-users "to dial in to corporate networks or the Internet from home," according to Sachs. Scorpion, which produces the ISDN product for Xylogics, will remain a separate business unit within Xylogics, he added. Xylogics acquired Scorpion in April at a reported cost of $9.9 million. Bay Networks and Xylogics already share some of the same reseller channels, including Westcon, and the two companies have worked together in the past on an OEM (original equipment manufacturer) basis, according to Sachs. In further synergies, the "cultures" of Bay Networks and Xylogics are "not that different." And although Bay Networks and Xylogics already have some customers in common, the acquisition will also bring opportunities to piggyback sales on to one another's existing accounts, said the Xylogics chief. From Xylogics' perspective, the acquisition will bring access to Bay Networks' 1500-member field sales force, as well as to Bay Networks' 7-by-24 support services and "tremendous wealth of technology," he informed the listeners. Xylogics today has only "about 38 people total in pre-sales technical support and sales," he pointed out. In a Q&A during the teleconference, Sachs predicted that the deal will also bring more jobs to Massachusetts. "We see a significant ramp in products we can sell, and that means that we can significantly ramp all the various functions of the company. So this is a significant `plus' for the local economy," he told a reporter. Chimed in Severino: "We are continuing to expand Bay Networks in Massachusetts. We just moved manufacturing to a larger facility in Billerica, and we continue to hire in sales, engineering and administration here (in Massachusetts). In general, networking is a `growth' business. We are growing our business, and Xylogics is growing their business." Another journalist asked whether Bay Networks had also looked at Shiva as a potential acquisition, describing Shiva as the "market leader" for remote access. "We looked at a number of other opportunities," Severino responded. Sachs asserted that Xylogics and Shiva are "essentially running neck-and-neck" for the market lead, but that Xylogics is the top seller in the "enterprise" space. "So I don't think that Bay made a decision `not to go with' the number one market share company. They chose the company that leads in the enterprise," the Xylogics president told the caller. (Jacqueline Emigh/19950907/Reader Contact: Bay Networks, 508-436- 3706; Xylogics, 617-272-8140; Computer Museum, 617-426-2800; Press Contacts: Barbara Ewen, Bay Networks, 508-436-3706; Amy McKnight, Schwartz Communications for Xylogics, 617-431-0770; Gail Jennes, Computer Museum, 617-426-2800) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 09/07/95 TRENDS Jupiter To Publish Yahoo Study (NEWS)(TRENDS)(MSP)(00024) Jupiter To Publish Yahoo Study 09/07/95 NEW YORK CITY, NEW YORK, U.S.A., 1995 SEP 7 (NB) -- Jupiter Communications is teaming with the popular Yahoo Internet World Wide Web service to study the demographics and habits of Web users. In the last month, Yahoo completed its own independent survey of users at its Web site, which is one of the most frequently visited sites on the Web. Now, Jupiter is conducting its own survey of Web users from volunteers. Jupiter will then combine the data from its own report along with Yahoo's results to provide what Jupiter's Adam Schoenfeld called a "comprehensive look at the demographics of Web users" for businesses. Schoenfeld told Newsbytes the survey is intended to answer the "unanswered question of who is using the Web, what are they doing there now, and what will they want to do in the future?" He said this data is crucial for people who are in new media. Schoenfeld said using Yahoo for data is good for the survey, because Yahoo is one of the most popular sites on the Web; 62,000 Yahoo users responded to questions about their Web usage and habits. Schoenfeld said the Yahoo survey gives his company a "very good snapshot" of the type of person who uses the Web. Some of the results from Yahoo's own survey showed that 63% were using the Netscape browser to access the Web, 22% had accounts with America Online, and well under 10% of the respondents were accessing the Web through a commercial online service. Schoenfeld said he was a bit surprised by the last figure, but he expects that number to increase in the days and months ahead. When it comes to the Web in general, Schoenfeld said it's not "quite there yet" when it comes to commercial applications, but he expects the survey to show it will be a vehicle for both businesses and consumers, and soon. The executive level report will be published at the end of September, and will sell for $2,495, Schoenfeld said. The Jupiter survey is intended for those people who are running a Web site, considering launching a Web site, advertising on the Web, selling products on the Internet, or anyone whose business involves new media, Jupiter officials said. Jupiter maintains an Internet World Wide Web presence at http://www.jupiter.com for public inquiries. (Bob Woods/19950907/Press Contact: Adam Schoenfeld, Jupiter Communications, 212-780-6060. Public Contact: Jupiter Communications, 212-780-6060) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 09/07/95 ONLINE "MarketplaceMCI" Redesigned, Expands (NEWS)(ONLINE)(MSP)(00025) "MarketplaceMCI" Redesigned, Expands 09/07/95 NEW YORK CITY, NEW YORK, U.S.A., 1995 SEP 7 (NB) -- Like the grand reopening of a mall or shopping center, News Corp/MCI Online Ventures has announced the "grand opening" and redesign of its online shopping venture, MarketplaceMCI. And as with many mall reopenings in the "real world," the Internet World Wide Web shopping site announced new stores, special daily "deals" from featured merchants, and even a sweepstakes. Some of the new virtual tenants in the shopping venture include FTD florists, Foot Locker, Borders Books and Music, and Aetna Life & Casualty. Another new store is CyberWarehouse, which sells computer and home electronic products from companies like US Robotics, Texas Instruments, Hewlett Packard, RCA, and other famous brand manufacturers. Scott Eisenberg, MarketplaceMCI product manager, told Newsbytes the redesign and reopening were a part of the company's plans for the site since it opened last March. "It was always planned to be adding new stores and learning from this experience," he said. "We did a relaunch because we have a significant amount of variety, and we've learned a lot about how to make shopping easy and convenient on the Internet. We also wanted the publicity to bring some more people in to see what we've put together." While some stores are new, others have expanded. Hammacher Schlemmer & Co. added more than 100 products to its outlet. OfficeMax now has more than 850 products in its store. And full language capability and more more meeting rooms are a part of Radisson Hotels International's area on MarketplaceMCI. Unlike most malls and shopping centers, officials said MarketplaceMCI is open 24 hours a day, seven days a week. MarketplaceMCI is located on the Web at http://www.internetmci.com/marketplace . (Bob Woods/19950907/Press Contacts: Nancy Morrisroe, News Corp/MCI Online Ventures, 212-462-5050; Barbara McLeod, MCI Business Markets, 800-644-NEWS) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 09/07/95 GENERAL ****Seattle Post Newspaper Rejects Compuserve Ad (NEWS)(GENERAL)(SFO)(00026) ****Seattle Post Newspaper Rejects Compuserve Ad 09/07/95 COLUMBUS, OHIO, U.S.A., 1995 SEP 7 (NB) -- Yesterday, Compuserve ran a one-time advertisement for its online service in US newspapers, including The Wall Street Journal, New York Times, Washington Post, USA Toady, and several local newspapers. However, plans for the add to run in one local newspaper, the Seattle Post Intelligencer, were curtailed when the Seattle paper refused to run the ad which referred to Microsoft Network as "still under construction." Pierce Reid, Compuserve spokesperson, told Newsbytes, "We were in shock when we heard the Post Intelligencer (PI) was unwilling to run our ad. No one here in the office can ever remember a business ad being refused!" The ad's main feature is a picture of a road sign which reads: "Construction Ahead" in reference to Microsoft's (NASDAQ:MSFT) new online service Microsoft Network (MSN). Below the road sign, the ad reads, "So this is the Microsoft Information Superhighway?" A short paragraph about Compuserve offerings, pricing and advantages closes the almost full-page ad. Its opening sentence begins: "If you really want to get somewhere today get Compuserve." Not far from Seattle is the city of Redmond, Washington, headquarters of the Microsoft empire. But Compuserve maintains it did not submit the ad to PI for that reason. Reid continued, "Seattle is our other hometown. We have more than 300 associates there through our Compuserve/Spry division (Compuserve acquired Spry earlier this year). We chose national newspapers and select regional/local papers which distribute to our key markets. We cannot understand why the Post Intelligencer would turn down a $13,000 ad." Reid repeated the explanation given to Compuserve by PI saying, "The Post Intelligencer told us, they do not run ads from online services. It is a competition thing. We want people to get their news from newspapers." In response, Compuserve mentioned previous ads Compuserve ran in PI for its Spry division's Internet in a Box product. According to Reid, the newspaper defended itself saying the Compuserve/Spry ad was for an online access product and not for an online service. Neither Compuserve or PI implied or indicated the refusal had any connection to Microsoft. In an official statement from Compuserve, Thomas Cullivan, the company's director of advertising is quoted as saying, "The Seattle market is one of the fastest growing hi-tech communities, and it concerns us that we appear to be locked out of this newspaper." The ad also ran in The Kansas City Star, Columbus Dispatch, and the San Jose Mercury News. Marji R. Ruiz, vice president of advertising for The Seattle Times Company which handles business and production for both the Seattle Times and PI, told Newsbytes, "We did reject the Compuserve ad. We make all of our decisions to run an ad based on whether or not subscriber revenues could be lost as a result of the ad. We have never accepted any advertising for paid subscription online services." Ruiz also said, "As early as 1987, we rejected an ad from Prodigy and The Wall Street Journal ran a story on the refusal. Although I cannot go into specifics, we also recently rejected a full-page color ad from America Online (another commercial online service) and you can imagine how much revenue we missed by refusing the ad." (Patrick McKenna/19950907/Press Contact: Pierce Reid, Compuserve, 614-538-4571) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 09/07/95 BUSINESS Quarterdeck Continues Expansion Strategy (NEWS)(BUSINESS)(SFO)(00027) Quarterdeck Continues Expansion Strategy 09/07/95 SANTA MONICA, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1995 SEP 7 (NB) -- Under the new leadership of Gaston Bastiaens, Quarterdeck continues to build on its base-strength of memory management products. Its latest moves includes an agreement to acquire Inset Systems, a developer of graphics utilities, and the intellectual property assets of Prospero Systems Research. Earlier this year, Quarterdeck released its family of Internet connectivity, browser, server, and authoring tool software packages. Last week, the company additionally announced a full-duplex Internet telephone software called Webphone. The first acquisition, Inset Systems, is based on the company's new graphics management product, HiJaak 95 for Windows 95. Added to the Quarterdeck family on Internet products, HiJaak will allow users to more efficiently browse, view and manipulate image and graphics files commonly found on the World Wide Web, said the company. HiJaak reportedly makes it easy to drag-and-drop graphics files between Windows 95 applications of more than 75 graphics formats without having to perform a separate conversion. Viewing, modifying, and converting support covers popular formats such as CorelDraw, Adobe Illustrator, WordPerfect WPG2, Image Technologies RLC, GIF, JPEG (Joint Photographic Experts Group), and others. Regulatory approval of the deal is expected by December. Under the agreement, Inset will receive 933,000 shares of Quarterdeck common stock and will be treated as a pooling of interests for accounting purposes. Alex Eckelberry, Quarterdeck's general manager of the utilities division, told Newsbytes, "There has been a lot of difficulty handling and viewing image and graphics files on the Internet. We want our customers to be able to view these files easily and quickly with one click of the mouse, and the addition of Inset's technology allows us to develop these features into our Internet products." Prospero Systems Research, a small San Francisco, California-based company, has worked with Quarterdeck in the development of Webphone, which should be available early next month. For its intellectual property assets, Prospero will receive approximately $3 million in shares of Quarterdeck common stock. Prospero's technology allows Webphone to execute the necessary "phone connection" and look up "phone numbers." The location capabilities of the software allows users to quickly locate and connect with other users online without having to know the user's Internet Protocol address. Webphone is a product which allows full-duplex, telephone conversations between Internet users with access to Internet Relay Chat (IRC). Quarterdeck's first version allows for two-way conversations only, but multiple party conferencing calls are being developed. Inside testers at Quarterdeck say the quality is the same as a normal telephone conversation. A spokesperson for Quarterdeck told Newsbytes, "Prospero's technology has been very important in the development of our Webphone product and having these intellectual properties is a great addition to our growing Internet strategy." (Patrick McKenna/19950906/Press Contact: Mike Brewer, Brodeur & Partners, 617-622--2800) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 09/07/95 EDUCATION Microsoft/Compaq To Sponsor Educator Training (NEWS)(EDUCATION)(DEN)(00028) Microsoft/Compaq To Sponsor Educator Training 09/07/95 REDMOND, WASHINGTON, U.S.A., 1995 SEP 7 (NB) -- Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ: MSFT) and Compaq Computer Corp. (NYSE: CPQ) will provide more than $1 million-worth of software to support a free technology workshop for educators across the nation during the 1995-96 school year. The software giant said "Help 95-96: A Straightforward Workshop for Educators Who Invest in Technology" will visit 125 cities across the nation and make available $1.5 million in software for the free all-day workshops that will emphasize integration of technology into the total school environment. The program will also focus on planning, multimedia networking and the Internet, and other online resources. Microsoft said the workshops will highlight successful schools from around the world to show attendees how those schools take advantage of technology. Other topics will include a 10-step process for developing a school technology plan that includes how to choose software and hardware to match school or district needs, and tips on how to fund and evaluate the program. Participants will receive a 45-minute video that outlines the 10 steps. Microsoft said everyone who attends this year's workshops will receive a free multimedia software program. More than 8,000 educators attended the free sessions last year, where Microsoft distributed more than $300,000 worth of Creative Writer software at no cost to the participants. A Microsoft public relations representative told Newsbytes no decision has yet been made on what software will be handed out this year. Attendees this year will get to see Windows-based applications demonstrated, thanks to Compaq Corporation, which will make available the hardware for the workshops. "Technology is a long term investment for schools, and we have a long-term commitment to make sure educators have the information they need to make good decisions that will lead them into the future," said John Neilson, Microsoft vice president. The new school year will be the second year Microsoft has offered the training. The program began in October of last year as a 20-city tour and expanded to more than 70 cities in five countries. For more information about the seminars and for the date it will visit a city near you, call Microsoft at 800-704-8215, or visit Microsoft's home page on the World Wide Web http://www.microsoft.com . In addition to the educator workshops, Microsoft also sponsors Family Technology Nights, free events offered through local school parent organizations to introduce parents, educators, and students to new technology for home and school use. (Jim Mallory/19950907/Press contact: Wendy Lienhart, Marcy Monyek and Associates for Microsoft, 312-263-2135; Public contact: Microsoft, 800-704-8215 for workshop information and schedule) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 09/07/95 PC Dell Intros New Dimension PCs (NEWS)(PC)(DEN)(00029) Dell Intros New Dimension PCs 09/07/95 AUSTIN, TEXAS, U.S.A., 1995 SEP 7 (NB) -- Dell Computer Corp. (NASDAQ: DELL) has introduced a half-dozen Pentium-based additions to its Dimension PC product line. The Dimension is Dell's small business and consumer product family, and the company said the new PCs are priced from $1,399 for a fully configured system, including a monitor. The new P75t, P90t, and P100t (the "t" designates the use of Intel's Triton chipset) models use Pentium chips running at 75, 90 and 100 megahertz (MHz), respectively. Dell spokesperson Jill Shanks told Newsbytes that, using Intel's Triton chipset provides a performance increase of as much as 20 percent. Other features of the new Dimension PCs include support for EDO (Extended Data Out) random access memory, and a flexible cache module design that allows users to choose exactly the amount of cache installed in the system, and also to select either asynchronous or the faster Pipeline Burst cache. Shanks said that, while the Pipeline Burst cache is about $50 higher, the performance increase can be as much as 10 percent. You also get support for larger Mode 4 hard disk drives and an integrated 64-bit local bus video subsystem, which Dell said offers "true color" support. All three units are available in either a mini-tower or mid-size desktop chassis and support Plug and Play, the technology that lets the PC recognize and automatically adjust to the peripherals installed in the system. Flash BIOS (basic input/output system) eliminates the need to replace chips on the system board every time a BIOS update is issued. Dell will configure its systems to the requirements of the buyer, with an accordingly adjusted price, but a P75t with eight megabytes (MB) of EDO memory, a 540MB hard disk, a 14-inch monitor, and 1MB of video memory carries a $1,399 price tag. A similar P90t system with the same configuration except with a 15-inch monitor, a quad-speed CD-ROM drive, Soundblaster 16 sound system, and ACS-5 speakers, is priced at $1,799. The P100t with 16MB of EDO memory, a one gigabyte (GB) hard drive , a 15-inch monitor, 2MB of video memory, quad-speed CD-ROM drive, Soundblaster sound system and ACS-31 speakers costs $2,379. Dell warranties its systems for one year, provides unlimited toll-free technical support via phone for the life of the system, and one year of next-business-day on-site service. You can also purchase extended service contracts covering parts, labor, or both, starting at $99. Dell has a program called Asset Recovery, a high-tech name for a trade-in program, for large corporate accounts. However, traditionally used PCs have little value unless sold to another user, so corporate accounts may garner greater benefit by donating their old hardware to a charity and taking the tax write-off. Government regulations are also stringent in regard to disposal of used PCs, so for a price, Dell will take the old equipment off the user's hands. The user then gets a credit toward the purchase of new equipment, and the old equipment is disposed of by Dell partners who donate it or sell it in other countries. Dell has a home page on the World Wide Web at http://www.dell.com , where the company posts information about its PCs and peripherals. (Jim Mallory/19950907/Press contact: Jill Shanks, Dell, 512-728-4100; Public contact: Dell, 800-289-3355) (SUMMARY)(GENERAL)(MSP)(00030) Newsbytes Daily Summary 09/07/95 MINNEAPOLIS, MINNESOTA, U.S.A., 1995 SEP 7 (NB) -- These are capsules of all today's news stories: ======================================================================== ------------| N E W S B Y T E S D A I L Y S U M M A R Y |---------- ------------| Thursday, September 7, 1995 |---------- ======================================================================== (c) Newsbytes News Network (Tm) Editor in Chief: Wendy Woods ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Newsbytes News Network is a computer and telecom industry news wire and digitized picture service. Our news stream includes more than 30 daily first-hand reported US and international news stories about computing and telecommunications. For more information, please e-mail to 'administrator@newsbytes.com' ------------------------------------------------------------------------ CATEGORY HEADLINES (*** indicates today's top stories) STORY # ======================================================================== BUSINESS Computron Gets Serious About Europe........................ 08 BUSINESS Cisco Systems Reports Record Growth In Asia................ 09 BUSINESS Merisel Gets Compaq Distribution In Australia.............. 12 BUSINESS Boca & Midisoft Ink Marketing Deal......................... 21 BUSINESS Mindscape Acquires MicroLogic.............................. 22 BUSINESS More On Bay Networks' Acquisition Of Xylogics.............. 23 BUSINESS Quarterdeck Continues Expansion Strategy................... 27 CHIPS IDT Boosts SRAM Shipments By 500%.......................... 10 EDUCATION Microsoft/Compaq To Sponsor Educator Training.............. 28 GENERAL UK - Adobe Intros Acrobat 2.1.............................. 04 GENERAL OAG HotelDisk Hotel Guide Travel Database.................. 05 GENERAL UK - Desktop Publishing Calendar Design Competition........ 16 GENERAL Adobe Offers Unlimited Toll-Free Tech Support.............. 20 GENERAL ****Seattle Post Newspaper Rejects Compuserve Ad.......... 26 HEALTH UK - Racal Plugs Health Service Into Electronic Banking.... 01 ONLINE PictureTel Intros LiveTalk Technology...................... 02 ONLINE Online Talent Search For TV News........................... 06 ONLINE UK - 28.8 PC Card Modem Internet-Ready..................... 07 ONLINE Software Meant For Client/Server Apps On The Web........... 13 ONLINE Letraset Offers Font Samples Online........................ 14 ONLINE Internet Update............................................ 15 ONLINE PSINet Plans Canadian Expansion, Signs Korean Deal......... 17 ONLINE C/net Online Adds 100,000 Members In 10 Weeks.............. 19 ONLINE "MarketplaceMCI" Redesigned, Expands....................... 25 PC Dell Intros New Dimension PCs.............................. 29 TRENDS ****Will Residential Broadband Ever Happen? - Study....... 18 TRENDS Jupiter To Publish Yahoo Study............................. 24 WINDOWS UK - Mercury Interactive's Windows 95 GUI Tester In Beta... 03 WINDOWS Just In Time's Learning Windows 95 CD...................... 11 ======================================================================== These are the headlines and first paragraphs of each story, in order: 1 -> UK - Racal Plugs Health Service Into Electronic Banking -- Racal's Network Services division has secured a major and high profile contract with the National Health Service (NHS) in the UK. Terms of the contract call for the communications company to act as a messaging relay between the UK's health authorities and the Paymaster General's Office (PMGO). 2 -> PictureTel Intros LiveTalk Technology -- PictureTel has unveiled LiveTalk, a PC software package that it claims is the first software- only application of digital simultaneous voice and data (DSVD) technology. 3 -> UK - Mercury Interactive's Windows 95 GUI Tester In Beta -- Mercury Interactive has announced its WinRunner 3.5 client/server graphical user interface (GUI) Windows 95 testing tool has begun beta testing. According to the company, which claims to be the market leader in automated software quality (ASQ), the beta program should be completed within the next 45 to 60 days, at which point the package will go on sale to end users. 4 -> UK - Adobe Intros Acrobat 2.1 -- Adobe Europe has announced the availability of Acrobat version 2.1, which is now billed as the company's software for universal electronic publishing (UPE). 5 -> OAG HotelDisk Hotel Guide Travel Database -- Official Airlines Guide (OAG) said it is paving the way for a "new method of travel planning" with a new software product called "OAG HotelDisk," described as a "comprehensive travel database." 6 -> Online Talent Search For TV News -- Don Fitzpatrick Associates and McHugh & Hoffman Inc., a subsidiary of Market Strategies Inc., have announced a joint venture to produce a digitized talent library and a direct online talent search access system. Both firms currently provide video talent search services for television news programming. 7 -> UK - 28.8 PC Card Modem Internet-Ready -- Electronic Frontier has announced an Internet-ready 28,800 bits-per-second (bps) PC card modem package that includes three month's free connection to the Internet, yet costs only UKP199.99. Bundled with the modem is the WorldWindows suite of Internet software, which normally sells for UKP69.99 on its own. 8 -> Computron Gets Serious About Europe -- Computron has announced plans to upgrade its sales and support offices in the UK to become its new European and International headquarters. According to the company, the expansion and upgrading of the office's role comes just after the company's floatation on the US stock market 9 -> Cisco Systems Reports Record Growth In Asia -- Cisco Systems Inc., a leading worldwide supplier of computer networking devices, has reported record annual results for the period ending July 30, 1995. Asia continues to be the company's fastest growing geographical region with year-on-year sales up more than 140% on last year. 10 -> IDT Boosts SRAM Shipments By 500% -- Integrated Device Technology is dramatically increasing shipments of the IDT71V256SA 32K by 8 15 nanosecond (ns) static RAM, its third-generation 3.3-volt design, to support Pentium PC demand. 11 -> Just In Time's Learning Windows 95 CD -- Just In Time (JIT) Learning Products Inc., of Ottawa, has released its new Learning Windows 95 CD-ROM-based tutorial and resource package. 12 -> Merisel Gets Compaq Distribution In Australia -- Distributor Merisel has won sole national distributor status for Compaq Computer products in Australia. The move, which sees the Compaq line offered to Merisel's 4,500-strong list of resellers in Australia, holds the promise of a major boost to Compaq's Australian market penetration. 13 -> Software Meant For Client/Server Apps On The Web -- Client/server applications that run over the Internet's World Wide Web? Though it may seem odd at first, that's the idea behind Open Software Associates' (OSA) new OpenWeb software, and the company's president says the idea is catching on even where he hadn't expected. 14 -> Letraset Offers Font Samples Online -- The complete Letraset catalog, also nicknamed "the graphic designer's bible," is now available on the World Wide Web and, in an effort to make full use of the interactive technology available, visitors can obtain free samples of fonts before they buy. 15 -> Internet Update -- In this roundup of new resources and services on the global Internet: All the world's news, Online money from Singapore, Search shop adds features, Dow Jones Television launches, Spike Lee conference scheduled, Morocco on the Web, Asian doctors group online. 16 -> UK - Desktop Publishing Calendar Design Competition -- Adobe Systems UK has announced the call for entries for its second annual calendar design competition. The competition is open to anyone in the UK with a desktop publishing (DTP) application capable of generating designs for a calendar to be printed by Adobe. 17 -> PSINet Plans Canadian Expansion, Signs Korean Deal -- Performance Systems International Inc. (NASDAQ:PSIX) has announced plans to extend its Internet access service to 15 cities in Canada. The company, sometimes known as PSINet, also said it signed a deal to form a joint venture in South Korea. 18 -> ****Will Residential Broadband Ever Happen? - Study -- The residential broadband market is taking its time in getting off the ground, a new study released by Northern Business Information (NBI) said. The report looks at the market for network equipment for cable TV and telephone company voice and video networks, along with he market for asynchronous transfer mode (ATM) switches. 19 -> C/net Online Adds 100,000 Members In 10 Weeks -- After just ten weeks, C/net Online, the World Wide Web-based online service of C/net, has registered over 100,000 members and is delivering approximately 1.4 million pages each week. C/net claims to be the largest "original content" site on the Web. 20 -> Adobe Offers Unlimited Toll-Free Tech Support -- Adobe Systems Inc. (NASDAQ: ADBE) has introduced an unlimited toll-free technical support program for prepress product users and a new version of its electronic trapping software, Trapwise. 21 -> Boca & Midisoft Ink Marketing Deal -- Boca Research Inc. (NASDAQ:BOCI) has signed a licensing agreement with Midisoft Corp., a developer of multimedia audio and music software products. In the agreement, Boca will bundle Midisoft's MediaWorks software in several of its 14.4 kilobits-per-second (Kbps) and 28.8 Kbps modem products. 22 -> Mindscape Acquires MicroLogic -- Mindscape Inc., a publisher of consumer computer software, has acquired MicroLogic Software, an Emeryville, California-based software development company. MicroLogic is best known for PrintMaster Gold, a small office print software product which creates business cards, stationary, newsletters, and banner graphics. 23 -> More On Bay Networks' Acquisition Of Xylogics -- In a teleconference for the press, Bay Networks' Paul Severino and Xylogics' Bruce Sachs elaborated on Bay Networks' $330 million acquisition of Burlington, Massachusetts-based Xylogics, revealing that Bay Networks had also looked at other companies as possible acquisitions, and predicting that the purchase of Xylogics will bring more jobs to Massachusetts. 24 -> Jupiter To Publish Yahoo Study -- Jupiter Communications is teaming with the popular Yahoo Internet World Wide Web service to study the demographics and habits of Web users. 25 -> "MarketplaceMCI" Redesigned, Expands -- Like the grand reopening of a mall or shopping center, News Corp/MCI Online Ventures has announced the "grand opening" and redesign of its online shopping venture, MarketplaceMCI. And as with many mall reopenings in the "real world," the Internet World Wide Web shopping site announced new stores, special daily "deals" from featured merchants, and even a sweepstakes. 26 -> ****Seattle Post Newspaper Rejects Compuserve Ad -- Yesterday, Compuserve ran a one-time advertisement for its online service in US newspapers, including The Wall Street Journal, New York Times, Washington Post, USA Toady, and several local newspapers. However, plans for the add to run in one local newspaper, the Seattle Post Intelligencer, were curtailed when the Seattle paper refused to run the ad which referred to Microsoft Network as "still under construction." 27 -> Quarterdeck Continues Expansion Strategy -- Under the new leadership of Gaston Bastiaens, Quarterdeck continues to build on its base-strength of memory management products. Its latest moves includes an agreement to acquire Inset Systems, a developer of graphics utilities, and the intellectual property assets of Prospero Systems Research. 28 -> Microsoft/Compaq To Sponsor Educator Training -- Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ: MSFT) and Compaq Computer Corp. (NYSE: CPQ) will provide more than $1 million-worth of software to support a free technology workshop for educators across the nation during the 1995-96 school year. 29 -> Dell Intros New Dimension PCs -- Dell Computer Corp. (NASDAQ: DELL) has introduced a half-dozen Pentium-based additions to its Dimension PC product line. (Ian Stokell/19950907) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 09/06/95 ONLINE Baseball's Cal Ripken Jr. Is Ripping On AOL (NEWS)(ONLINE)(WAS)(00001) Baseball's Cal Ripken Jr. Is Ripping On AOL 09/06/95 BALTIMORE, MARYLAND, U.S.A., 1995 SEP 6 (NB) -- Baseball fans can follow the consecutive game record now being set by Baltimore Orioles shortstop Cal Ripken Jr. on America Online. Ripken will break the record, originally set by New York Yankee Lou Gehrig in 1939 at 2130, in Baltimore today as he appears in his 2,131st consecutive game. The AOL site has a lot of information on Ripken, his streak, the Gehrig record that many baseball experts believed would never be broken, the struggling 1995 Orioles, and other related baseball trivia. For example, Cal has also set another record that is unlikely to be broken. During his consecutive game run, Ripken also appeared in 8,243 consecutive innings in 904 games between 1982 and 1987. But, according to the AOL site, the overall record for consecutive games in professional baseball belongs to Sachio Kingasa, who appeared in 2,215 games between 1970 and 1987 for the Hiroshima Carp. At today's game, Cal's daughters Rachel and Ryan will throw out the first ball. Bruce Hornsby and Branford Marsalis will perform the national anthem. All fans will get a free color poster of Cal and a photograph of him tying the record at the Tuesday game. Not long after Gehrig ended his streak in May of 1939, he was diagnosed as having the disease Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis. In two years, he was dead. Following tomorrow's record setting game, the Orioles will present a check to Baltimore's Johns Hopkins University for research into what has become known as Lou Gehrig's disease. Baseball fans can also follow Ripken's record breaking pace on the Internet. The World Wide Web site maintained by Major League Baseball is at http:// www.majorleaguebaseball.com . But the Web site is not as interesting as the material on AOL. For example, the Web site had not been updated since before the Labor Day weekend. Most of the material is recycled from the Orioles media handbook. (Kennedy Maize/19950905) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 09/06/95 GOVT GTSI Upgrades Pentium Air Force PC Offering (NEWS)(GOVT)(WAS)(00002) GTSI Upgrades Pentium Air Force PC Offering 09/06/95 CHANTILLY, VIRGINIA, U.S.A., 1995 SEP 6 (NB) -- Government Technology Services Inc. (Nasdaq: GTSI) is upgrading its offering on the Air Force's Desktop IV contract. GTSI is replacing the IBM 90 megahertz (MHz) Pentium unit with a 100MHz Pentium processor, for the same price. The Energy Star-compliant IBM P350 Pentium system includes 16 megabytes (MB) of RAM, 256 kilobytes (KB) cache, PCI (Peripheral Component Interconnect) slots, and comes factory-installed with an 850MB hard drive. GTSI is pricing that model at $2,430, which the reseller to government says is $162 less than the competitive offering from Zenith Data Systems. The Zenith system comes with a one gigabyte (GB) hard drive. According to GTSI, the most popular configuration includes the 850MB hard drive with a 210MB removable Syquest drive and a 17-inch, high resolution monitor. The machines come equipped with DOS 6.2 and Windows 3.1. There is no Windows 95 on the government schedules yet. "GTSI is committed to remaining the value leader on Desktop IV," said Alan Lawrence of GTSI, "and this rapid technology refreshment reflects our commitment." Lawrence said GTSI has some other upgrades waiting in the wings. The Air Force awarded Desktop IV in 1993 to both GTSI and Zenith, for three years, with a potential value estimated at $700 million. In less than two years, sales to Defense Department contract sales reached nearly 300,000 systems. GTSI and Zenith basically split the sales. Then the government froze the contract, which put GTSI's earnings in a tail spin. In August, the Air Force reopened the contract for orders, with an allocation of 100,000 systems, while a follow-on contract is being developed. The Air Force has released a request for proposals for Desktop V and those industry proposals are due this month. GTSI is expected to be one of the finalists for the new contract. (Kennedy Maize/19950905/Press Contact: Carter Cromley, 703-502-2035) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 09/06/95 APPLE Apple & HP Offer Updated Mac Apps On Unix For Japan (NEWS)(APPLE)(SFO)(00003) Apple & HP Offer Updated Mac Apps On Unix For Japan 09/06/95 CUPERTINO, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1995 SEP 6 (NB) -- Following a successful run with the first version of Macintosh Application Environment (MAE), Apple Computer Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) has teamed with Hewlett-Packard (NYSE:HWP) to announce MAE 2.0 and Nihango MAE 2.0. Both products allow Japanese users of high-end Unix workstations to run Macintosh applications. Emilio Robles, Apple's director of public relations, told Newsbytes, "Many Japanese scientific and electronic design professionals do their main work on a Unix workstation and use a Mac or PowerBook for productivity tasks such as report writing. MAE allows these users to run those Mac applications within Unix so the user does not have to switch to another computer. The sales of version 1.0 have been extraordinary and it looks as if 2.0 will do very well." The first product MAE 2.0 with Japanese Language Kit bundle has English menus and titles, but the user may write in Japanese. Nihango MAE 2.0 is a customized operating system which is entirely Japanese. Hewlett-Packard, which worked with Apple on the development of MAE, also agreed to distribute and support the new products across the Unix market in Japan. MAE runs on Unix-based workstations from HP and Sun Microsystems. Robles also said, "MAE allows these high-end users to save desktop real estate by using only one computer and provides greater productivity by delivering Macintosh applications on the user's main workstation." MAE's high level integration into Unix means Macintosh "off-the-shelf" applications can be introduced onto the Unix workstation. "As well as enhancing the work environment of Unix users, MAE also opens an additional market for Macintosh developers," said Robles. HP says it will also provide MAE 2.0 plus for HP-UX on HP workstations. The HP version is scheduled for late September and MAE 2.0 with Japanese Language Kit for Solaris is scheduled for late October. A Sun version and HP version of Nihongo should be available during the first half of 1996. (Patrick McKenna/19950905/Press Contact: Michael Adams, Eastwick Communications, 503-928-3581) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 09/06/95 PC "Snooper" Software Digs Into Computers (NEWS)(PC)(MSP)(00004) "Snooper" Software Digs Into Computers 09/06/95 SAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1995 SEP 6 (NB) -- Vias & Associates Inc. said it has introduced a new version of its "Snooper" system information utility. The author of the software said it is called Snooper because the program "snoops" around the computer to report its configuration and operating characteristics. John Vias of Vias & Associates told Newsbytes his company's program goes farther than other system information programs, including Microsoft's MSD (Microsoft System Detection), which is included in higher versions of the company's DOS operating systems. "I think Snooper is about the most accurate system information utility you can get," he said. "People say it's easy to use. It takes just one keystroke to go from the main screen to any other screen. It also has a built-in editor for 'autoexec' and 'config' files." In all, Snooper can detect more than 150 details about a person's computer, including CMOS settings, hard drive type and capacity, any installed Micro Channel cards, fax-modems, memory types and amount available to the user, and video memory and type. Snooper is targeted to all markets, Vias officials said, including the average user, network administrators, consultants, and technicians. In the provided documentation is a wish list regarding new features for future versions of Snooper, including brand detection of additional non-Intel central processing units (CPUs), detection of local bus cards and tapes, and the ability to differentiate among different types of hard drives. Although Snooper can run in either DOS or Windows, Vias said the program works best in the DOS environment. In Windows, some of the software's reports must be disabled. In addition, some of the test results may be in error or unpredictable. Snooper requires an IBM PC or 100% compatible machine, with at least 256 kilobytes (KB) of RAM, a DOS with version 3.1 or higher, and some kind of video card. Snooper retails for around $39, and is available as both a full version and as shareware. Vias also said he is working hard on a Windows 95 version of Snooper. When Newsbytes tested the software on a Windows 95 machine running in DOS mode, no problems were experienced. But running it in Windows mode made the program very unpredictable. (Bob Woods/19950904/Press Contact: Phil Hall, Open City Communications, 212-714-3575; Public Contact: Vias & Associates, 415-921-6262) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 09/06/95 IBM IBM Makes Solid Gains In China Market (NEWS)(IBM)(HKG)(00005) IBM Makes Solid Gains In China Market 09/06/95 CENTRAL, HONG KONG, 1995 SEP 6 (NB)-- IBM China has signed a software redistributor agreement with China National Computer Software & Technology Services Corporation (CS&S), the nation's largest software and services company. The new agreement allows CS&S to distribute the full range of IBM desktop software, including OS/2, LAN Server, midware, database, and development tools. IBM has said it will cooperate with CS&S on software application promotion and training as well as work with CS&S on developing products using OS/2. Two weeks ago, the Ministry of Electronics Industry (MEI) and IBM signed a statement of direction (SoD) in which MEI agreed to endorse OS/2 Warp as a preferred product and to recommend it to Chinese users. IBM's agreement signed with CS&S marks another step forward in that direction. Patrick Leung, general manager, software, for the IBM Greater China Group, said, "We are very glad to establish a new partner relationship with CS&S which has a strong team, not only for marketing, but also for software development. With our joint effort, we are sure that advanced IBM software products such as OS/2 Warp will soon become valuable software solutions in the hands of end users." (Nigel Armstrong & I.T. Daily/19950904) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 09/06/95 CHIPS M1 Fastest Chip For Windows 95, Says Cyrix (NEWS)(CHIPS)(DEN)(00006) M1 Fastest Chip For Windows 95, Says Cyrix 09/06/95 RICHARDSON, TEXAS, U.S.A., 1995 SEP 6 (NB) -- Cyrix Corp. claims the firm's sixth-generation microprocessor, the M1, will be the fastest processor running 16-bit applications under Windows 95, based on benchmark data developed during company testing. #IMAGE 1 20 TWPCX \images\95090606.PCX Click here for photo Cyrix, the upstart microprocessor company that has successfully challenged chip giant Intel Corp., said a 100 megahertz (MHz) M1 scored 164 on the Ziff-Davis Winstone 95 benchmark running under Windows 95, compared to a score of 159 achieved by an Intel Pentium 133 MHz running in the same system. Cyrix also claims the M1 is 30 percent faster than a 133MHz P6, Intel's next-generation chip. The company said the claim is based on Intel's published benchmarks and compares the two chips running under Windows for Workgroups 3.1. No figures were released for a similar comparative test of the P6 under Windows 95. Cyrix spokesperson Michelle Moody told Newsbytes the company is still developing test results for 32-bit applications under Windows 95 using the M1 chip versus Intel's offering. In order to maintain compatibility with the huge installed base of Windows 3.1 applications, Windows 95 is a combination of 16-bit and 32-bit computer code, and it is that combination that gives the M1 an advantage, according to Steve Tobak, Cyrix vice president for corporate marketing. "Windows 95 represents the state-of-the-art for today's desktop PC and is composed of a blend of 16-bit and 32-bit code. It's this mixed 16-bit and 32-bit code in the Windows 95 environment that trips up the P6," according to the marketing executive. Tobak said the M1 runs all standard off-the-shelf PC software regardless of whether it is 16-bit or 32-bit based. He said software has to be recompiled in order to reach peak performance on the P6. The M1 is a microprocessor that is both superscalar and superpipelined. Superpipelining divides the pipeline into seven stages, a design Cyrix says provides for higher frequencies and better performance. Superscalar means the M1 architecture comprises two separate instruction pipelines, allowing the chip to execute two separate sets of instructions in parallel. The chip includes a 64-bit data bus and a single 64-bit enhanced x87-compatible floating point pipeline. The on-chip floating point unit (FPU) uses a four-instruction queue and four independent 64-bit write buffers. Cyrix said the M1 will be produced in a 296-pin SPGA (scattered pin grid array) package, the same used by the Intel P54C. According to Cyrix, the M1 and P54C pinouts are similar enough that motherboards can be designed to accept either part with a minimal number of jumpers. The company said the only pinout differences are test and debug features not used by most system designs. The 3.3-volt clock-doubled chip will initially operate at 50/100 megahertz. The chip also includes a combination 16 kilobyte (KB) unified instruction and data cache and a fully associative dedicated 256 byte instruction line cache. The unified cache is dual-ported to allow for two simultaneous fetches, reads, writes or combination of any two. Cyrix said it will offer the M1 in 80MHz, 100MHz, and 120MHz versions. Cyrix got its big break in 1991 when a district court judge ruled it could continue to sell its Intel-compatible math coprocessor chips. The court said Intel had failed to establish that Cyrix had actually infringed on Intel's patents or that any of its products were not produced under a valid licensing agreement. In March, 1992, Newsbytes reported that Cyrix would enter the chip market in head-to-head competition with its 486 replacement chip which would fit in the socket used by Intel's 386 microprocessor. Power management features include the same system management mode (SMM) used in other Cyrix processors, an auto-power down math coprocessor, and a hardware method for placing the M1 in suspend mode. The M1 product family will be manufactured by both IBM Microelectronics and SGS Thompson using a .5 micron CMOS (complimentary metal oxide semiconductor) process. Initial chips will be manufactured using triple-layer metal. Moody said the M1 is scheduled to ship by the end of September. (Jim Mallory/19941121/Press contact: Michelle Moody, Cyrix, 214-968-8387; Public contact: Cyrix, 214-968-8387 or 800-486-2974/CYRIX_M1950906/PHOTO) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 09/06/95 TRENDS Internet Is Key To Winning Business, Says Gates (NEWS)(TRENDS)(DEN)(00007) Internet Is Key To Winning Business, Says Gates 09/06/95 REDMOND, WASHINGTON, U.S.A., 1995 SEP 6 (NB) -- The Internet, that global electronic spiderweb that is growing by thousands of users each day, is the key to winning business in the future, according to Bill Gates, Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ: MSFT) chairman and chief executive officer. Consequently, the company will invest heavily to become the market leader. "Even for us, we are planning a gigantic investment," Gates told attendees at the European IT Forum, a technology conference organized by International Data Corporation (IDC). "Our goal is to create a community of users, and to be the largest Internet company." The software executive didn't say what his definition of "gigantic" is, but the company is spending about $300 million to introduce Windows 95, its new operating system and user interface. The Internet started in the late 1960s as a government project to link research laboratories. Universities got connected in the 1970s and 1980s and individual PC users discovered the Internet in the 1990s. Some sources claim an estimated 38 million users now exchange mail, discuss issues, look up information, and exchange files. Business enterprises on the Internet are still in their infancy, but you can already shop for cars and book airplane flights, and the number of home pages on the Internet's World Wide Web is growing by leaps and bounds. Gates said that, so far, the Internet isn't a significant source of revenue, is short on content, and lacks security. "But these will be fixed over the next years, and we'll see retailing, finance, government, and it will be very important for education," he said. The software company executive make his remarks in Paris during a whirlwind tour of Europe to kick off Windows 95. The trip also included brief stops in Italy and Hungary. During his stop in Italy Gates finally got to see the Leicester codex, a 72-page manuscript showing Leonardo Da Vinci's theories on various subjects that Gates paid $30.8 million for sight unseen. The purchase is believed to be a world record for a manuscript. Gates spent about two hours alone studying the illustrated document. Microsoft built into Windows 95 an automatic connection to its own online service, Microsoft Network (MSN), which in turn can connect users to the Internet. MSN is also in its infancy, having launched simultaneously with Windows 95 on August 24. But Microsoft hopes to make it the "premier online service." Competitors like Compuserve and America Online have asked the government to step in and prevent Microsoft from offering the MSN link in Windows 95, alleging unfair competition. But the US Attorney General's declined to make a decision before the Windows 95 kickoff. Gates also told the European IT Forum attendees growth in the use of personal computers will be even faster over the next 10 years than it has been in the past decade. "The future of the personal computer is in communication, for mail, fax. It will allow people to stay in touch with people without regard to distance," the British news service Reuters quoted Gates as saying. Reuters said the software mogul predicted cheaper but more powerful computers will spur on software writers, drive prices down, and further penetrate into mass markets. Gates said the next step in the development cycle is in the hands of the telephone companies, which he said need to invest to provide an increasingly cheap communications infrastructure. But Reuters said Gates was careful to stress that Microsoft is not interested in challenging traditional media providers. Gates has met with Ted Turner, the chief executive officer of Turner Broadcasting System (TBS) to discuss a possible Microsoft investment in TBS. But Gates told his European audience those talks are now on hold. "We will wait for the combined entity to take shape before resuming." Last week TBS said it was talking about a possible merger with time Warner Inc. (Jim Mallory/19950905/Press and public contact: Microsoft, 206-882-8080) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 09/06/95 ONLINE IDG Web Site Targets "Technology Marketers" (NEWS)(ONLINE)(BOS)(00008) IDG Web Site Targets "Technology Marketers" 09/06/95 BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS, U.S.A., 1995 SEP 6 (NB) -- With content that already includes findings from IDC (International Data Corp.) research studies, plus selected articles from IDG (International Data Group) publications, IDG's newly opened World Wide Web site stands apart from other Web fare by serving as a "resource for technology marketers," maintained Peter Horan, president of IDG Marketing Services, in an interview with Newsbytes. "For a number of years, IDG has been regarded as the publishing company that knows the most about technology markets, because of our IDC research arm, as well as our (editorial) coverage of global markets. Over the past four or five years, we've been building up a reputation for knowing a lot about technology marketing, too. The Web server comes from that same point of view," Horan told Newsbytes. Each week, IDG editors choose "a handful of stories they think will be of interest to technology marketers, about what's going on in different markets around the world" for publication on IDG's Web site, reported the IDG exec. The new home page also plays host to the IDG newswire, circulation statistics and other information on IDG's 250 print publications worldwide, and hotlinks to several other online publications from IDG, in addition to summaries of major research reports from IDC, according to Horan. One of these capsules presents key findings from an ongoing study on "how to market computer technology more effectively." The long- term, "product-specific" survey is based on more than 10,000 interviews IDG has conducted over the past five years among business and government managers, computer pros, and home buyers on topics that include "the purchase process, the things people care about when choosing a brand, and the role of the channel," he said. IDC is now its sixth wave of research on the subject, a phase that has encompassed 1,800 phone interviews and 1,200 follow-up "disk- based" interviews, Newsbytes was told. Additional online publications from IDG include SunWorld Online, Macworld Online, PC World Online, Multimedia World Online, and, for multimedia developers, LiveDV WebSite, according to Horan. Other IDG publications, such as Network World and Computerworld, plan to open Web sites in the future. SunWorld Online (http:///www.sun.com:80 ) represents the conversion of SunWorld, a print publication from IDG, into an entirely electronic magazine, Horan added. SunWorld Online is "a full magazine, created specifically for the Web, with its own editorial staff," he contended. Although the online magazine is published by IDG, it is hotlinked to Sun Microsystems' home page on the Web. PC World Online (http://www.pcworld.com ) offers an Online Shopping Network, along with an "advertiser information area." LiveDV WebSite (http://www.livedv.com ) features case studies, product previews, and a product and service directory oriented to multimedia development. On August 18, Multimedia World Online (http:///www.macworld.com ) debuted an online "Cafe," with a "live editor and celebrity guest discussions." Also in August, IDG launched Macworld Online (http://www.macworld.com ) at Macworld Boston. Future plans for IDG's newly opened main Web site (http://www.idg.com ) call for discussion groups "including, but not limited to, online topics," along with hotlinks to non-IDG Web sites, Horan revealed. "We are not doing `broad-based linking' right now. But we will add links, over time, where this makes sense for technology marketers. For example, one of the things we'll probably develop is some kind of `agency showcase,' where ad agencies specializing in technology marketing -- and online marketing specifically -- will have the chance to display their work," he told Newsbytes. In related news, he noted, IDG Chairman Pat McGovern will deliver a keynote speech to the Magazine Publishers Association on October 24 that will "stake out IDG's vision" of electronic publishing. Summed up Horan: "(McGovern) is going to talk about different points of view on electronic publishing. Is (electronic publishing) a broadcast medium, or is it much more akin to direct marketing? And what are the economic models that will succeed?" (Jacqueline Emigh/19950901/Reader Contact: International Data Group, 617-872-8200; Press Contact: Chris McAndrews, 415-676-3026) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 09/06/95 NETWORK Cheyenne & Storage Dimensions Team On "DLT RAID" (NEWS)(NETWORK)(BOS)(00009) Cheyenne & Storage Dimensions Team On "DLT RAID" 09/06/95 ROSLYN HEIGHTS, NEW YORK, U.S.A., 1995 SEP 6 (NB) -- Storage Dimensions' JetArray, a backup system for NetWare "superservers" announced this week, adds a new RAID (redundant array of inexpensive disks) 5 architecture plus Cheyenne's new Jetserve "image-based" backup software to Quantum's DLT (digital linear tape) 4000 drives for "fault tolerance, and the fastest DLT ever clocked," asserted Storage Dimensions' Robert Hamilton, in a briefing for Newsbytes. Jetserve is also separately available for NetWare, Unix, and Windows NT, noted Cheyenne's John Staudenraus. Built around up to four DLT 4000 drives in a rack-mountable RAID array with a high-speed backplane, the new JetArray backs up data at a rate of 20 gigabytes (GB) per hour, with "restore search" speeds of up to 40,000 files per second, according to Staudenraus, Cheyenne's product manager for Jetserve. A four-drive JetArray provides up to 60GB native capacity, or 120GB capacity with 2:1 compression. When two arrays are used together, backup speed can rise to up to 40GB per hour, he contended. Added Hamilton, who is product manager for Storage Dimensions: "Before (Cheyenne's Jetserve software), we had really fast hardware in (Quantum's) DLT 4000 and DLT 2000. But there was no software that would let us use more than one or two DLT drives (in the same array). Jetserve lets you crank up the speed to where it's `blindingly fast.'" Staudenraus told Newsbytes that the new Jetserve backup software is based on DataJet, a backup and restore technology acquired from NetFrame in April. Cheyenne then "Cheyennized" this technology to provide support for "DLT and faster drives," as well as compatibility with Cheyenne's Arcserve backup and restore software. Unlike Cheyenne's Arcserve, which is designed for backup of multiple servers and remote locations, the new Jetserve is aimed at backup of "a single, large superserver," said Staudenraus, citing Tricord and Compaq's Proliant as a couple of brands in this category. Arcserve "'walks down' the (network) files, on a file-by-file basis," Staudenraus added. In contrast, the new Jetserve "bypasses the file structure," to "capture a snapshot." As a result of the image-based technology, Jetserve is able to back up data at the "full speed of the disk system," according to the product manager. Jetserve is "ideal" for single superserver backup applications, where no other machine is available for failover, according to Staudenraus. As the need for digital media storage increases, applications of this kind are on the rise, he observed. "People are consolidating and `centralizing' their data." The new software from Cheyenne supports RAID 5 data striping and fault tolerance, Newsbytes was told. Each tape set is a "complete backup" of the server, including directory information. meaning that a failed server can be brought up without reloading the network operating system or recovery database. Jetserve also supports "parallel streaming" of multiple jobs simultaneously, for higher throughput, Staudenraus maintained. Hamilton told Newsbytes that Storage Dimensions' new JetArray RAID array provides parallel streaming through the use of SCSI-2 (small computer systems interface)-2 drives, in addition to a 5.25-inch RAID storage enclosure with a new and "unique" backplane design. The individually addressable SCSI-2 drives prevent the need to force all drives in the array to "act as a single drive," according to the Storage Dimensions official. The backplane, which is aimed at streaming data to all drives simultaneously, operates at up to 20 megabytes (MB) per second, he added. The rack-mountable RAID storage enclosure can be used in any 19- inch rack configuration, according to Hamilton. Aside from plug-in DLT tape modules and a fast wide SCSI host adapter, other features of Storage Dimensions' JetArray include: dual redundant power supplies; three redundant fans; dual main power cords with cable lock guards; diagnostic testing of the host adapter, cabling and tape drives; NetWare file verification; and "byte-by-byte comparison of backed up data for error-free backup," according to Hamilton. The power supplies and fans are both hot-swappable. The NetWare edition of Cheyenne's Jetserve software that is bundled with JetArray is a multi-threaded NLM (NetWare Loadable Module), according to Staudenraus. Cheyenne is also offering Jetserve for Unix and Windows NT, he added. Staudenraus told Newsbytes that Cheyenne sees Arcserve and the new Jetserve as fulfilling complementary but different "roles" in network backup. Cheyenne, he reported, has no plans to migrate the image-based technology in Jetserve to its long-time Arcserve offering. Jetserve is geared to the "short backup window, high data volume" environment of the superserver, where frequent data protection is the most important factor, according to the product manager. On the other hand, Arcserve, a product for backup of multiple and remote servers and workstations, provides features that include: performance of deferential or incremental backup during non-peak hours; data filters such as name, attribute and time stamps; support for open and tape cascading and autochangers; and optional database agents for "live database backup." Cheyenne's Jetserve software is shipping at pricing of: $1,995, supporting a single tape drive; $7,995, supporting three tape drives; and $17,995, supporting eight tape drives. All components in Storage Dimensions' JetArray are also available now. Complete JetArray systems are slated for delivery from Storage Dimensions on September 13, at pricing of up to $38,000. (Jacqueline Emigh/19950905/Reader Contacts: Cheyenne Software, 800- 243-9562; Storage Dimensions, 408-954-0710; Press Contacts: Denise S. Behringer or Meira Primes, Cheyenne Software, 516-484-5110; Christian Salandro or Robin Lutchansky, The Benjamin Group for Cheyenne, 408-559-6090; Criss Gould, Storage Dimensions, 408-894- 1420; Mark Coker, Dovetail Public Relations for Storage Dimensions, 408-395-3600) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 09/06/95 WINDOWS ATI To Support MPEG Video Under Windows (NEWS)(WINDOWS)(TOR)(00010) ATI To Support MPEG Video Under Windows 09/06/95 MARKHAM, ONTARIO, CANADA, 1995 SEP 6 (NB) -- ATI Technologies Inc. (TSE:ATY) has announced plans to make it possible to play back Motion Picture Experts Group (MPEG) video on any personal computer running Microsoft Windows and equipped with one of ATI's 64-bit graphics accelerator cards. According to ATI, the video playback driver and player application to be supplied with its 64-bit graphics cards will do away with the need for a costly add-in MPEG decoder or replacement graphics card. MPEG is a standard for computer-based video sequences. Henry Quan, vice-president of marketing at ATI, told Newsbytes that the hardware needed for MPEG playback is included in ATI's 64-bit graphics cards, and the software ATI plans to supply starting in October will do the rest. The only other things the computer user needs, he said, are a Pentium processor, audio hardware, and at least a double-speed CD-ROM player. ATI said its software will provide full-motion, full-screen playback at up to 30 frames-per-second (fps). In one-megabyte (MB) configurations, ATI said, the driver and player will support 1,024 by 768 display resolution. MPEG is especially popular today in consumer applications such as games, Video CD, Compact Disk Interactive, reference titles, and karaoke. "Probably the business market is slower to adopt the video technology than the consumer applications," Quan said, but he maintained there are many possibilities for business applications, such as reference and computer-based training. The driver and player software will work with ATI's line of 64-bit graphics accelerators, which Quan said range in street price from about US$150 to about US$500. They include the Graphics Pro Turbo, Graphics Xpression, and Winturbo cards and the company's mach64 graphics components. Already-installed 64-bit cards will be upgradable at no charge, ATI officials said. ATI said its MPEG software uses code licensed from CompCore Multimedia Inc. of Sunnyvale, California. (Grant Buckler/19950906/Press Contact: Dan Coyle, ATI Technologies, tel 905-882-2611, fax 905-882-2620; Public Contact: ATI Technologies, 905-882-2600) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 09/06/95 WINDOWS Novell's WordPerfect 6.1 For Windows SGML (NEWS)(WINDOWS)(DEN)(00011) Novell's WordPerfect 6.1 For Windows SGML 09/06/95 OREM, UTAH, U.S.A., 1995 SEP 6 (NB) -- Novell Inc. (NASDAQ: NOVL) has announced WordPerfect 6.1 for Windows SGML Edition. SGML, the standard generalized markup language, is an International Organization for Standardization (ISO) standard format for document structure. Novell said the WordPerfect SGML edition is intended for users who need to create SGML documents, including publishing houses, government agencies and law firms that have adopted SGML as their standard format for document storage and exchange. For example, an SGML document might be stored in a database or publishing tool without needing to be reformatted for a different system each time it needs to be routed or shared. Mary LaPlante, executive director of SGML Open, a non-profit international consortium of companies that promotes the use of SGML, said the format is not just for technical publishing. "It is truly a standard for information interoperability," said LaPlante. Novell is a new member of SGML Open. Novell said the SGML Edition of WordPerfect 6.1 has the same word processing features, including QuickTasks, Coaches, templates and macros, that are included in other versions of the company's WordPerfect word processing software. The SGML format retains document elements such as titles, headers, footers, and paragraphs when they are identified and tagged. A program feature called Logic Chaining with Interactive Validation walks the user through the tagging process of a document. During the tagging process an error report is generated that automatically checks for missing or improperly placed tags and lists the errors in a pop-up windows for the user to correct. The final version of WordPerfect 6.1 for Windows SGML Edition won't ship until later this year, but Novell is making available a pre-release version. The suggested retail price of the production edition will be $595, but the pre-release version is $129 and purchasers get the final version for the cost of the materials. You can get more information about WordPerfect 6.1 for Windows SGML Edition on Novell's home page on the World Wide Web at http://www.novell.com , or on the SGML Open home page at http://www.sgmlopen.org/ . (Jim Mallory/19950906/Press contact: /Gina Trausch, Brodeur & partners for Novell, 617-622-2839; Public contact: Novell, 801-226-6800 or 800-451-5151) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 09/06/95 BROADCAST Europe - NBC Revamps Satellite TV Operations (NEWS)(BROADCAST)(LON)(00012) Europe - NBC Revamps Satellite TV Operations 09/06/95 LONDON, ENGLAND, 1995 SEP 6 (NB) -- After almost a year of promoting NBC Superchannel as a DTH (direct-to-home) satellite TV channel in Europe, NBC has decided to split the channel into two, and focus its marketing on promoting its European operation as a cable TV offering. Although NBC Superchannel has been broadcasting on several European- beamed satellites for some time, it was its decision to begin transmissions on the Astra 1D satellite late last year that meant it could potentially secure a pan-European English-speaking audience for the first time. Unfortunately, Astra 1D uses frequencies which are not available on first- and second-generation Astra satellite decoders, but only on decoder/receivers that have been sold in the last 18 months or so. In the UK, this meant that NBC Superchannel was only available to around half a million potential viewers, rather than the several million who could view Astra 1A, 1B, and 1C programming. In a meeting with journalists last week in Berlin, NBC said it plans to hive off the business elements of NBC Superchannel into a CNBC business channel that will be launched some time early in 1996. In the meantime, NBC Superchannel will undergo a major face-lift in programming, working to a banded-by-hour programming list which remains the same on different days. The popular Tonight Show with Jay Leno shuffles back in the schedules from 10:30pm CET (Central European Time) to 11:00pm, putting it more against the David Letterman show on other European satellite TV channels, Newsbytes notes. According to Patrick Cox, chairman of NBC Superchannel, the changes have been brought about by the surge in cable TV viewers. NBC Superchannel will now be focused as a cable TV channel for consumers, rather than the "thinking businessperson's satellite channel." Despite the lack of take-up on Astra 1D, NBC claims that NBC Superchannel now reaches into more than 68 million households in Europe, up by more than five million on June of last year. Cox claims that, by launching a dedicated business channel alongside the new consumer version of NBC Superchannel, new markets would open up for the broadcaster. "Plenty of cable operators would like to have a dedicated business channel in their program," he explained. NBC faces an uphill challenge with the CNBC business channel, Newsbytes notes, since it will be a 24-hour a day channel that will compete head-to-head with Ted Turner's Cable News Network International (CNNI). CNNI has been criticized in the past for its lack of European programming, but the channel has beefed up its presence in London and across Europe over the last year. (Sylvia Dennis/19950905) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 09/06/95 BUSINESS Motion Pixels Acquires Huygen Codec (NEWS)(BUSINESS)(LAX)(00013) Motion Pixels Acquires Huygen Codec 09/06/95 SCOTTSDALE, ARIZONA, U.S.A., 1995 SEP 6 (NB) -- Sirius Publishing's sister company, Motion Pixels Inc., has purchased the "Huygen Codec" technology and its underlying patents. Motion Pixels has also retained the services of the codec developers, Christian Huygen and associate David Whipple. Huygen's digital video compression algorithm is called the Huygen Codec. "This software-based codec (compression/decompression) provides a quality of video playback superior to most current hardware-based systems," said Richard Gnant, founder and chief executive officer of Sirius Publishing. Motion Pixels was formed last year by Gnant and long-time Sirius associate, Darell Smith. Smith, who was instrumental in developing audio compression technology for Sirius Publishing's early PC Karaoke efforts, is credited, by Sirius, with discovering Huygen. Bill Fidler, executive vice president of Motion Pixel, told Newsbytes, "The sole purpose of Motion Pixel is the research, development and marketing of the Huygen Codec. Unlike hardware-based video solutions which require new MPEG (Motion Picture Experts Group) cards, the Motion Pixels software-based technology will work on existing 486 DX2 microprocessors without additional hardware." According to Sirius, Huygen is a direct descendent of the famous Dutch astronomer, mathematician, physicist, and natural philosopher Christiaan Huygens (1629-95). Huygen's ancestor is best known for his invention of the pendulum clock, his wave theory of light, and his discovery of Saturn's rings. In 1666, Huygens became one of the founding members of the French Academy of Sciences. "I find it ironic that almost 300 years later, the computer industry's answer to high-quality video software compression comes from the descendent of one of history's most famous mathematicians," Gnant said. "I feel very fortunate to be working with someone as talented as Christian Huygen. Huygen and the Motion Pixels development team have achieved something that no other company, no matter what size, has been able to do," added Gnant. Motion Pixels will release the new software codec for beta testing over the Internet in the next few weeks. "Sirius is primarily a CD-ROM publisher. Sirius came out first with a multipack approach to marketing. One multipack offered ten CD-ROM titles wrapped in a hanging five-foot vinyl package for a suggested retail price of $39.95. The '5-Foot 10-Pak, Special Edition' was the third best CD-ROM seller in 1995. In less than one year, Sirius has sold over 18 million CD-ROMs," said Fidler. (Richard Bowers/19950905/Press Contact: Jim Matney, Sirius Publishing, 602-951-3288) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 09/06/95 GENERAL UK - HP Slashes Vectra PC Pricing (NEWS)(GENERAL)(LON)(00014) UK - HP Slashes Vectra PC Pricing 09/06/95 BRACKNELL, BERKSHIRE, ENGLAND, 1995 SEP 6 (NB) -- Hewlett-Packard has slashed Vectra PC pricing in the UK and Europe by up to 18 percent. The idea behind the price cuts is to "reinforce the company's intention to maintain its value leadership position in the corporate PC market," said the company. "For the combination of performance, price, support and reliability, customers will continue to find that the HP Vectra PC family consistently represents the industry's best value," claimed Andrew Gunyon, HP's desktop marketing manager. According to Gunyon, with today's price cuts, an entry-level Vectra VE PC with a 75 megahertz (MHz) Pentium processor, eight megabytes (MB) of memory, and a 540MB hard drive is only UKP1,335. HP's Vectra VL PC, meanwhile, with a 75MHz Pentium processor, 8MB RAM, and a 840MB hard disk is UKP1,450. Other sample pricing includes the Vectra XM Series 3 with a 75MHz Pentium processor, 8MB RAM, and an 840MB hard drive at UKP 1,590. According to HP, all the Vectra XU PCs include dual-processing support and industry-standard Desktop Management Interface software. Despite the price cuts, this Newsbytes bureau, which is in the process of acquiring a Pentium system for heavyweight online use, has concluded that HP's pricing is still not atypical of UK PC pricing. According to our own research, HP's pricing is still around 20 percent higher than prices of systems being sold through direct-sell vendors, and around 30 percent higher than PCs sold through "off the page" advertisers in the computer press. (Steve Gold/19950905/Press Contact: PA Consulting Group, +44-171-730-9000; Reader Contact: Hewlett-Packard, +44-1344-369222) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 09/06/95 ONLINE French Nuclear Tests Cause Internet Protests (NEWS)(ONLINE)(TYO)(00015) French Nuclear Tests Cause Internet Protests 09/06/95 TOKYO, JAPAN, 1995 SEP 6 (NB) -- The first of an expected series of nuclear test blasts in the South Pacific has sparked off a wave of protests around the world. As has been seen in other recent demonstrations, the global reach of the Internet has made it a center for protests from users across the world. When France first announced its decision to begin testing at the Mururoa-Atoll, Australian Internet provider AUSNet published the electronic-mail address of Jacques Chirac, France's president, and encouraged its users to send protest messages. Over 1,000 were sent, according to AUSNet. In Tokyo, a group of students at the University of Tokyo, led by Seishi Shimizu, Yuichi Nishihara, and Kiroh Harada, began collecting names for a petition that would be handed into the French Embassy in the city. By August 15, when the petition closed, 55,299 people from 102 countries had added their names to the list. As the expected beginning of the tests became nearer, more protests were posted to the Internet's Usenet messaging system and pages were added to the World Wide Web area. France's first test came early Tuesday morning, but a comment by a Japanese government official late last week had many expecting the tests would begin last weekend. Chief Cabinet Secretary Koken Nosaka was quoted as saying he had received information from a "reliable source" that testing would begin at around 3pm Tokyo time on Saturday. That news later proved to be incorrect, but was reported around the world as an official Japanese government announcement. Nosaka apologized earlier this week, explaining he received the information via a "sort of ham-radio," although Japanese newspapers later claimed it came to Nosaka across the Internet. Here are a selection of places Internet users can follow the French tests and the protests about them. Despite an attempt to find pages supporting the tests, none could be found. University of Tokyo student Seishi Shimizu's protest page. World Wide Web: http://www.iij.or.jp/nuke/ No More Hiroshimas Coalition, collecting signatures for a petition. World Wide Web: http://scully.rucc.net.au/no.more/ Greenpeace, updates from the Rainbow Warrior in the South Pacific. World Wide Web: http://www.greenpeace.org/~comms/rw/rw.html The Age Newspaper, Melbourne, Latest news and background data. World Wide Web: http://www.vicnet.net.au/~theage/french.htm (Martyn Williams/19950906) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 09/06/95 GENERAL Japan Newsbriefs (NEWS)(GENERAL)(TYO)(00016) Japan Newsbriefs 09/06/95 TOKYO, JAPAN, 1995 SEP 6 (NB) -- In this roundup of news from Japan: C-Cube wins two Japanese customers, Japan and China to begin cable talks, DoCoMo counts three million customers, Toshiba announces all-in-one display, Tokyo Internet expands, McMinn promoted at Toshiba America. C-Cube Wins Two Japanese Customers Both Sony Corporation and Sharp Electronics have signed deals with California based C-Cube to incorporate the American company's MPEG-1 (Motion Picture Experts Group-1) chipsets in equipment based on the VideoCD standard. VideoCD is becoming the de-facto standard for disk- based video in Japan and is used mainly in the thousands of Karaoke machines installed in the nation's bars. C-Cube say the decision by Sony and Sharp is important because, "they indicate that MPEG-1 has begun to emerge as the decompression standard for consumer electronics products that use digital video." Matsushita, Akai, and Samsung are amongst C-Cube's other customers. Japan And China To Begin Cable Talks A Japanese newspaper, The Nikkan Kogyo Shimbun, has reported major international telecommunications operator KDD and America's AT&T will jointly discuss with China the possibility of laying a second underwater fiber optic cable between Japan and China. The proposed cable will supplement C-JFOSC, a cable that began operating in December 1993. The new link will carry several thousand telephone circuits. DoCoMo Counts Three Million Customers Between them, the nine regional companies that make up NTT's DoCoMo mobile telecommunications network have passed the three million customer mark. On August 24 the group surpassed the milestone which was preceded by a breaking of the two million mark in February of this year. The network began operation in 1979 and the announcement demonstrates the rapid growth that mobile communications has enjoyed this year, helped mainly by the lowering of tariffs and the usefulness of cellular telephones in the wake of the Hanshin earthquake that hit Kobe in January. NTT DoCoMo holds around 50% of the cellular telephone market. Toshiba Announces All-In-One Display Following on from a similar announcement by Sony, Tokyo-based Toshiba Corporation has announced it is to begin selling a new television capable of also acting as a computer monitor. The 21-inch set, known as the Toshiba Integrated Multimedia Monitor in North America, will sell for 150,000 yen ($1,530) and be constructed in Toshiba's plant in Tennessee, US. In addition to displaying standard NTSC (North American Television Standards Committee) television signals, the unit will offer compatibility with VGA signals from DOS/V-based computers, NEC's PC-98, and Apple's Macintosh range. Tokyo Internet Expands Signaling the beginning of an effort to serve more than just the major metropolitan centers of Tokyo and Osaka, Tokyo Internet says it will establish a new Internet access company in Shizuoka, Central Japan. Together with two Shizuoka-based software companies, the new service provider will offer Internet services to several million people in the region that are currently unserved by local access, as in much of non-metropolitan Japan. McMinn Promoted At Toshiba America Stephen E. McMinn, formerly general manager of ASIC and ASSP marketing at Toshiba America Electronic Components Inc. (TAEC) has been promoted to vice president, semiconductor sales at the same company. Prior to joining Toshiba, he served as vice president of sales and marketing for Vertex, which became a wholly owned subsidiary of Toshiba. He has also held marketing positions at Siemens Components and American Microsystems. TAEC is a US subsidiary of Japan's Toshiba and is involved in design, production and marketing of many types of electronics components. (Martyn Williams/19950906) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 09/06/95 WINDOWS Microsoft Offers Windows 95 Install Tips (NEWS)(WINDOWS)(DEN)(00017) Microsoft Offers Windows 95 Install Tips 09/06/95 REDMOND, WASHINGTON, U.S.A., 1995 SEP 6 (NB) -- With over a million people already having purchased Windows 95, it is inevitable that some of them will have problems. As a result, Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ:MSFT) is offering some Windows 95 installation tips. The Microsoft support structure for Windows 95, which includes more than a dozen support providers and over 1,500 trained support technicians, is set up to handle 20,000 calls daily, but the system is overloaded to the point callers are getting busy signals. And if you do get through, you may have to wait as long as 15 minutes. Before you do any software installation, but particularly a new operating system or a new version of one, you should back up your data and programs, or at least your data. Applications can be reinstalled if you have the original program disks, but you will still have to do the tweaking to get the program just the way you want it if you don't back up your entire hard drive. After backing up your software, run a virus checking program. There have been reports of one or more viruses that will halt your Windows 95 installation by damaging one of the 13 Windows 95 disks. If that happens, you will have to contact Microsoft at their toll-free number (800-207-7766) to receive a free replacement. In addition to numerous commercial anti-virus programs at under $100, Symantec is offering a free program, the Norton Anti-virus utility, to check your system for viruses before installing Windows 95. The utility software is available on Symantec's own bulletin board system (BBS) at 503-484-6699 and on the company's forums on Compuserve, America Online, and the Microsoft Network. Download the file NAVSCANZ.EXE, a self-extracting file. Next, read the manual, and if you run into a problem during installation, go back to that document. It may save you time and frustration. If you are one of those cautious users that heeds software publisher's admonitions to make copies of original disks before installing programs on your PC, forget it for Windows 95. The Microsoft disks are Distribution Media Format disks and are not compatible with DOS copy and diskcopy commands. If you do find it necessary to call Microsoft for help, make sure you are sitting at the PC on which you want to install Windows 95 and have your product ID ready. Be ready to tell the technician the configuration of your computer, i.e., how much memory, the size of the hard disk, the type of microprocessor installed, and any peripherals attached. Be prepared to describe the problem as accurately as possible and to re-create it if asked. You should also note the exact wording of any error messages that have appeared. If the power fails or your computer restarts during installation, Microsoft says not to worry, Windows 95 setup has a feature called Safe Recovery. Depending on where the Setup was interrupted, if may be possible to just turn the PC on and run Setup again, choosing Safe Recovery when prompted. The same advice applies if your computer stops responding while detecting the hardware in your system. You can upgrade to Windows 95 from Windows 3.0 or later, Windows for Workgroups version 3.1 or later, or DOS 3.2 or later. If you are now using Windows 3.0 and Setup tells you it requires a newer version of Windows, run Setup from MS-DOS and choose to install Windows 95 in the same directory as Windows 3.0, says Microsoft. There are other sources of information about Windows 95 that can help if you have run into problems installing the program. Microsoft maintains a knowledgebase of information that is constantly updated as support technicians respond to user questions and encounter new problems, and you can access it on Prodigy, America Online, the Microsoft Network, and on Microsoft's home page on the World Wide Web at http://www.microsoft.com . A Microsoft spokesperson told Newsbytes it is the same database support staffers check for the answer when a user calls with a problem. (Jim Mallory/19950906/Press contact: Cara Walker, Waggener Edstrom for Microsoft, 503-245-0905; Public contact: Microsoft, 206-882-8080 or 800-426-9400/setup950906/PHOTO) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 09/06/95 IBM IBM Offers PC, RS/6000, VAX In One Server (NEWS)(IBM)(TOR)(00018) IBM Offers PC, RS/6000, VAX In One Server 09/06/95 CHARLOTTE, NORTH CAROLINA, U.S.A., 1995 SEP 6 (NB) -- IBM (NYSE:IBM) has announced the 7596 Cross-Platform Server, a rack-mount system that allows Intel x86, IBM RS/6000, and Digital Equipment Corp. (NYSE:DEC) VAX processors to be combined in one box. IBM is touting the system as a way for VAX users to move to IBM hardware without having to rewrite their existing VAX applications right away. Barry Goldstein, chief technology officer at Advanced Modular Solutions, which designed the system for IBM, said it could also appeal to PC users looking to migrate to the more powerful RS/6000. The Cross-Platform server comes with an Intel processor or processors as standard equipment. Options range from a single 486DX2 chip running at 66 megahertz up to dual Pentium processors, Goldstein told Newsbytes. Customers can then add modules containing RS/6000 and/or VAX processors. The VAX units are genuine DEC processors, Goldstein said, and are comparable to VAX 4000/106 or 4000/96 systems. A single rack enclosure can hold a total of four modules with any combination of processors, said Goldstein. The separate processors can communicate among themselves and share resources, Goldstein explained. "An application on one can seamlessly access services on the other." In fact, he said, while anyone could put PC, VAX, and RS/6000 systems together, the value of the Cross-Platform Server lies mainly in the way it integrates the three processor complexes, or what Goldstein called "packaged system integration." The base price of the 7596 Cross-Platform Server is $39,150, a spokesman for IBM told Newsbytes. The add-on RS/6000 module costs $18,030, and the VAX module $58,370, he added. IBM and Advanced Modular Solutions said they are setting up a center in Acton, Massachusetts, to help customers implement and use the system. (Grant Buckler/19950906/Press Contact: Ralph Hammock, IBM, 914-642- 5463, Internet e-mail jrhammock@vnet.ibm.com; Gary Baker or Chris Huston, Technology Solutions for IBM, 212-696-2000, Internet e-mail gbaker@tsipr.com) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 95 09/06/95 NETWORK Novell Intros NetWare Client 32 For Windows (NEWS)(NETWORK)(DEN)(00019) Novell Intros NetWare Client 32 For Windows 95 09/06/95 PROVO, UTAH, U.S.A., 1995 SEP 6 (NB) -- Novell Inc. (NASDAQ: NOVL) says it will a ship 32-bit version of its NetWare client software for Windows 95 by the end of September. The client software will include Novell's NetWare Application Launcher to track application usage in NetWare environments. The software will provide full access to NetWare services like Network Directory Services (NDS). Novell said the software can be installed either locally or across the network as part of a group Windows 95 installation. Users will be able to access NetWare file and print resources through the Network Neighborhood and Explorer interfaces. It also takes advantage of the use of long file names supported by Windows 95. NetWare servers can store Windows 95 user profiles so users get the same desktop configuration regardless of where they access the network. NetWare Client 32 enables Windows 95 System Policy support to be stored on NetWare servers so a network administrator can customize and manage each user's desktop from a central location. Other administrator features include the ability to select from popular network drivers such as ODI (Open Data-link Interface) or NDIS (Network Driver Interface Specification) and protocols that include IPX (Internetwork Packet Exchange) or TCP/IP (Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol). They can implement the NetWare Client 32's packet burst and large Internet packet (LIP) options and can enable packet signature and RSA password encryption for network security. Client 32 for Windows 95 extends the native Windows 95 Provider interface so users can get a network-wide view of resources like servers, printers, and directory trees. The user can browse directory trees, including the file system, map to drives and change NDS contexts and their passwords from their desktops. The Application Launcher lets network managers create application objects in NDS trees. Using the Application Launcher the administrator can deploy network applications and configure the users desktops from a central location. The Launcher also automates updates and filters applications available to users. Novell said a pre-release version of NetWare Client for Windows 95 will be available by the end of September at no cost from the Netwire forum on Compuserve (GO NETWIRE) and on Novell's FTP (File Transfer Protocol) server on the Internet. You can also find it on the company's World Wide Web site on the Internet at http://www.novell.com . (Jim Mallory/19950906/Press contact: Trudy Edelson, Cunningham Communication for Novell, 408-764-0749; Public contact: Novell, 800-638-9273) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 09/06/95 GENERAL Corel Launches Wild Board Games For Mac, Windows (NEWS)(GENERAL)(TOR)(00020) Corel Launches Wild Board Games For Mac, Windows 09/06/95 OTTAWA, ONTARIO, CANADA, 1995 SEP 6 (NB) -- Corel Corp. (TSE:COS; NASDAQ:COSFF) has launched Wild Board Games, the fifth in its line of "edutainment" CD-ROMs for children. The collection of games works with Apple Macintosh computers and with PCs running Microsoft Windows. The disk includes five board games adapted to the computer: chess, checkers, Reversi, Snakes & Ladders, and a Switch Puzzle. It also incorporates a handful of animated characters and some additional functions such as a paint editor, a space-invaders-like video game, a dressmaker activity, a cake-maker activity, a tic-tac-toe board, and a video viewer. The games and activities are organized into four areas modeled on parts of a home, including the kitchen, attic, back yard, and basement, each of which has certain characteristic activities and animations. The chess, checkers, and Reversi games each offer three different levels of difficulty, Corel said. They also include hints and an undo feature. Every scene in the package includes a help balloon to provide information about the game's object, rules, and strategy. Developed for Corel by Artech Digital Entertainments, Inc., also of Ottawa, the CD-ROM has a suggested retail price of US$39.95. To work with Windows it requires at least a 33 megahertz (MHz) 486 processor, Windows 3.1, DOS 5.0, eight megabytes (MB) of memory, a CD-ROM drive, a mouse, a monitor, a 1MB Super VGA video card, and a Sound Blaster or fully compatible audio card. To run on a Macintosh it requires at least a Macintosh LC III, System 7.1, 8MB of memory, a CD-ROM drive, a mouse, and a color or gray-scale monitor able to handle resolutions of at least 640 by 480. Wild Board Games is now shipping worldwide. So far, the package is available only in English, company spokeswoman Cindy Scott told Newsbytes. "We will wait till we see how successful the title is in the English market before we go ahead and do different translations," she said. Scott said Corel plans to announce two more consumer CD-ROM titles very soon. (Grant Buckler/19950906/Press Contact: Cindy Scott, Corel, 613-728-0826 ext 1326) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 09/06/95 ONLINE ****Free Newsbytes CD-ROM To New E-Mail Subscribers (NEWS)(ONLINE)(MSP)(00021) ****Free Newsbytes CD-ROM To New E-Mail Subscribers 09/06/95 MINNEAPOLIS, MINNESOTA, U.S.A., 1995 SEP 6 (NB) -- Newsbytes Pacifica is now offering the Newsbytes 1995 Update CD-ROM, a $29.95 value, free to all new subscribers of the new Newsbytes E-Mail Subscription Service until September 31, 1995. The Newsbytes Pacifica E-mail Subscription Service, which can be ordered from the Newsbytes Pacifica World Wide Web Site at the URL (uniform resource locator) http://www.islandtel.com/newsbytes/ , offers the complete text of Newsbytes news reports, as well as all Newspix digitized photos, delivered directly to a subscribers' Internet electronic-mail box each day for only $7.95 per month. Payment for the service is via FirstVirtual's secure Internet payment system; there's no need to send credit card information over the Internet. The Newsbytes News Network 1995 Edition Update CD-ROM contains twelve years of computer, telecom, and interactive services reporting by the global reporting team of the Newsbytes News Network, an international wire service devoted to high-tech daily news. Now in its fourth year, the Newsbytes CD-ROM series is updated twice a year. The current edition contains more than 64,000 keyword-searchable news stories and more than 475 images spanning May, 1983 through May, 1995. Newsbytes' 19-member Newsbytes reporting team covers the computer, telecom, interactive, and online services markets worldwide. These concise wire reports comprise a complete reference on the companies, people, and products that have shaped the global information infrastructure. The Newsbytes 1995 Update CD-ROM, published by Wayzata Technology, offers keyword searching of stories through a Textware search engine. Stories can be searched for individual words or text strings, or Boolean searched ("Microsoft" plus "OS/2" but not "OSF"). This makes it a valuable tool for researchers and corporate and public libraries. Newsbytes CD-ROMs are "hybrids" -- they run on the Apple Computer Macintosh, the Windows platform, and DOS PCs -- so any one disk can interchangeably run on all these platforms. Newsbytes Pacifica is Newsbytes News Network's first official World Wide Web server. The site features Newsbytes top daily stories on computing and telecom developments in the Asia-Pacifica region, Internet and World Wide Web news, and Japanese language Newsbytes. The service was developed by Island Telecommunications Corp., in cooperation with Newsbytes News Network. Newsbytes Pacifica is divided into eight content areas: Newsbytes Pacifica Headlines, Newsbytes Daily Summary, Japan Newsbriefs, Internet Update, Weekly Review, Newspix, "Web Cites," an index of Web sites cited in Newsbytes reports, and Japanese language Newsbytes. Newsbytes, a pioneering electronic publication offering both text and images, has provided daily coverage of the dynamic and complex computer and telecommunications industries since 1983. More than 180 media outlets, including print publications, online services, and database companies, are licensed to publish Newsbytes wire material. The wire service reports, on average, 30 stories each day, filed by 19 correspondents worldwide. All reporting is first-hand, original, and objective. News is gathered from independent sources, trade shows, and interviews with top industry professionals. Headquartered in Minneapolis, MN, in the United States, Newsbytes News Network has bureaus in San Francisco, Denver, Washington DC, Boston, Los Angeles, Toronto, London, Tokyo, Hongkong, Sydney, Beijing, Manila, and New Delhi. (Newsbytes Staff/19950906) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 09/06/95 BUSINESS ****Bay Networks Buys Xylogics For $330 Million (NEWS)(BUSINESS)(BOS)(00022) ****Bay Networks Buys Xylogics For $330 Million 09/06/95 BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS, U.S.A., 1995 SEP 6 (NB) -- Bay Networks' planned $330 million acquisition of Xylogics, announced today, will add remote access to a merged entity that already encompasses switching and hubbing from the former SynOptics, routing from the former Wellfleet, and LAN (local area network) connectivity from the recently purchased Centillion, said Bay Networks' top two officials, speaking in tandem today at the Computer Museum in Boston. Under terms of a newly unveiled "binding agreement," Xylogics will exchange 1.05 shares of common stock for each outstanding share of Xylogics' common stock. Bay Networks values the transaction at $330 million, based on the closing price of Xylogics' common stock of $50.25 on September 5, according to a written statement from the company, also issued today. With the rise of the Internet and online services, remote access is a particularly "hot" product area right now, said Paul Severino, chairman of the board of Bay Networks, announcing the acquisition this morning before an audience at the Computer Museum that included corporate museum sponsors, in addition to Xylogics President and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Bruce Sachs. Severino was previously president of Wellfleet. Minutes before, Severino's co-leader at Bay Networks, President and CEO Andy Ludwick, presented the audience with a list of "hot products" from Bay Networks that included "speed switching" from Bay Networks' new Centillion Product Business Unit (PBU), along with ATM (asynchronous transfer mode) and other offerings from "East Coast" and "West Coast" PBUs. Ludwick was formerly president of SynOptics. Like Centillion, Burlington, Massachusetts-based Xylogics is slated to become a Bay Networks business unit, according to the officials. The Xylogics unit will he headed by Sachs, who will report directly to Ludwick as the upcoming unit's president and general manager. Bay Networks and Xylogics embarked upon an OEM (original equipment manufacturer) agreement in 1993, and Xylogics' remote access server technology is now incorporated in Bay Networks' 5000 Network Center. In addition to remote access technology, Xylogics produces ISDN (integrated services digital network) routing. Ludwick told attendees at today's Computer Museum event that most of the "hot" new products currently under development at Bay Networks will ship in 1996. Severino reported that the forthcoming products are part of a three-part product, market and business plan that the new Bay Networks began putting together shortly after the announcement of the merger of Santa Clara, California-based SynOptics with Billerica, Massachusetts-based Wellfleet in July, 1994. The plan, he added, was aimed at obtaining "buy-in" from analysts and the press, as well as at helping to secure the necessary votes for approval of the merger by the two companies' shareholders last fall, at a time when some industry competitors were "sharpening their knives." Last summer, Bay Networks "took the plan on the road" for meetings with the press and analysts, Severino told the group. Then, in September, the company held a "Meet Bay Networks" event in Santa Clara. The product, market and business plan also helped to clarify roles for employees, Severino said. "Probably the worst mistake you can (make in an acquisition) is not to be clear about who is doing what," he observed. The merger, which was approved by shareholders as planned, was based on the premise that no other company would have as many of the ingredients needed for "frame-switching"-based WANs (wide area networks) as a merged SynOptics and Bay Networks, according to Severino. Ludwick told the audience that, despite the predictions of any naysayers, Bay Networks has already achieved strong financial results. Some major industry players recognized the potential of the merger immediately, he advised. AT&T and Microsoft, for example, "both came knocking on (Bay Networks') door right away," he illustrated. Bay Networks has since formed a reseller agreement with AT&T, and a technology transfer deal with Microsoft. One key element in the Bay Networks plan is a "Synergy PBU" that has been given responsibility for product planning, but without any engineering resources of its own, Ludwick continued. By working with the various engineering PBUs, the Synergy PBU helps to "migrate" technologies among the other PBUs, as well as to ease any "culture shock" stemming from the merger, he maintained. By now, he added, the merged company has started to develop its own "Bay Network culture." Corporate management has helped to inculcate this culture by making it clear that "East Coasters and West Coasters" alike are now members of the same "team," according to the Bay Networks president and CEO. (Jacqueline Emigh/19950906/Reader Contact: Computer Museum, 617- 426-2800; Bay Networks, 508-436-3706; Xylogics, 617-272-8140; Press Contacts: Gail Jennes, Computer Museum, 617-426-2800; Barbara Ewen, Bay Networks, 508-436-3706; Amy McKnight, Schwartz Communications for Xylogics, 617-431-0770) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 09/06/95 GOVT ****White House Lays Out Copyright Concepts (NEWS)(GOVT)(WAS)(00023) ****White House Lays Out Copyright Concepts 09/06/95 WASHINGTON, D.C., U.S.A., 1995 SEP 6 (NB) -- The Clinton administration has proposed a fine-tuning of the nation's copyright law to cope with issues raised by computer and telecommunications technology. "Without enforceable laws in place, intellectual property owners will be unwilling to put their work at risk in this rapidly expanding digital environment," said Bruce Lehman, patent and trademark commissioner and leader of the group that produced the report for the White House. The "Working Group on Intellectual Property Rights" said current copyright law is "fundamentally adequate and effective." But the group said that current law needs beefed up in several areas. The law should specify that electronic transmissions "fall within the exclusive distribution right of the copyright owner," said the report. The report also calls for tougher criminal penalties against copyright islanders and making it a crime to willfully distribute copies worth more than $5,000. Distribution of a few copies with limited value would not be a criminal violation. The report also recommends making it illegal to import, manufacturer and distribute devices designed to circumvent anti-copying technology. The working group would also make it easier for libraries to make electronic copies of copyrighted material without the creator's permission, and permit non-profit organizations to make copies of copyrighted works for the blind without the creator's permission. The existing copyright law, said Lehman, is generally sound, but "needs a few alterations." Commerce Secretary Ron Brown, at a news conference yesterday, said, "Unless we provide legal protection for intellectual property, customers won't be able to reap the benefits of these new technologies." President Clinton established the working group in 1993 to examine how new technologies and the copyright law are interacting. "Technology has altered the copyright balance -- in some instances in favor of copyright owners, and in others in favor of users," says a summary of the report. "The goal of the recommendations is to clarify existing law and adapt it where the balance has shifted." The software industry is largely pleased with the working group report. "BSA agrees with the basic theme of the Lehman report, that existing copyright law is effective," said Robert Holleyman, president of the Business Software Alliance in a written statement. Ken Wasch, president of the Software Publishers Association, said the recommendations would "make it easier to prosecute people who take copyrighted works and distribute them broadly" over computer networks. But some industry analysts are skeptical about whether copyright law can survive in the digital world. Nicholas Negroponte of the MIT Media Lab has frequently argued that the new communications technologies have turned copyright law into a nullity. Those issues will get a full airing, as the administration recommendations require congressional action. (Kennedy Maize/19950906/Press Contacts: Diane Smiroldo, BSA, 202-872-5500; Sally Lawrence, SPA, 202-462-1600 ext 320) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 09/06/95 GOVT ****Industry Slams Govt's Encryption Export Plan (NEWS)(GOVT)(WAS)(00024) ****Industry Slams Govt's Encryption Export Plan 09/06/95 WASHINGTON, D.C., U.S.A., 1995 SEP 6 (NB) -- The Clinton administration's new proposal on export controls on encryption in software got a tongue lashing from the software industry today. The administration's announcement of a so-called liberalization "suggests that the government is pursuing a 'son of Clipper' strategy that could lead to the mandatory use of government designed key escrow encryption," said Robert Holleyman, president of the Business Software Alliance. Speaking at a conference sponsored by the National Institute of Standards and Technology, Holleyman said the administration plan to allow export only if the encryption scheme involves key escrow reveals "a misunderstanding of the marketplace and unless significantly changed, will prevent key escrow encryption from ever being commercially adopted." The White House initiative, Holleyman said, "failed to provide immediate relief to software companies because it did nothing to liberalize export controls on generally available software employing non-key escrow encryption. "Each delay by the administration in permitting the export of software with strong encryption capabilities results in lost sales for American companies," said Holleyman. "Ironically, foreign software competitors, unconstrained by export controls, continue to fill this void, with more than 200 foreign encryption programs available from 21 countries." Under the new administration proposal, software companies that employ non-key escrow encryption would continue to be limited to a 40-bit key. Holleyman called for the administration to immediately permit 56-bit encryption without key escrow, which he said is the current world standard. Last year, the administration was pushing a hardware-software approach to encryption, called the Clipper chip, which would have employed government-designated escrow agents to hold keys. Law enforcement agencies would have been able to get access to the keys from the escrow agents. Of the administration proposal to loosen controls on key escrow encryption, Holleyman said that "the administration's inability to shake off the Clipper mind-set is effectively precluding the adoption of realistic criteria for commercial key recovery systems." Holleyman suggested that a workable system must include strong encryption where users -- in the US and elsewhere -- are able to specify the key holder. Current administration policy, Holleyman said, is jeopardizing the "future of the global information infrastructure and electronic commerce. Instead of paving the roads, the administration has left in place roadblocks on the information highway." (Kennedy Maize/19950906/Press Contact: Diane Smiroldo, 202-872-5500) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 09/06/95 ONLINE MCI & News Corp Launch Internet "News Center" (NEWS)(ONLINE)(MSP)(00025) MCI & News Corp Launch Internet "News Center" 09/06/95 NEW YORK CITY, NEW YORK, U.S.A., 1995 SEP 6 (NB) -- The joint News Corp./MCI Online Ventures has launched a state-of-the-art digital newsroom that will deliver interactive programming for the Internet. The operation, called "News Center," will be headed by veteran journalists Jonathan Miller of the London Sunday Times and Lew Silverman of the Public Broadcasting System's (PBS's) MacNeil-Lehrer Newshour. The News Center exists both in cyberspace and "reality." Its physical offices are in the Chelsea district of Manhattan, known as "Silicon Alley." More than 10 miles of coaxial and fiber optic cable were used in the News Center's construction. In the facility, state-of-the-art digital cameras immediately capture photographs to be included in news stories. Journalists can combine these visuals with video clips and text, and then lay over voices, music, and other sounds. Other reporters are able to pull news feeds and photos from wire services and weave them into stories as they are written, all at the reporters' desks. All of the News Center's coverage is available on the Internet's World Wide Web 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Nancy Morrisroe, News Corp./MCI Online Ventures spokesperson, told Newsbytes the News Center is broken down into different departments like any newspaper or television newsroom, including sports, national news, business, weather, and entertainment. She said already on the Web is a site devoted to the United Nations Conference on Women in Beijing. In recent weeks, a special site about the death of baseball great Mickey Mantle was developed, she added. "What we have built is a news center developed entirely for the online medium," Morrisroe said. "It's completely different because we started from scratch, and our reporters can provide stories in a completely digital format." She also said because there are so many different departments in the News Center, a wide audience will be attracted to the site. Morrisroe said News Center's output can currently be seen at either Delphi's Web page at http://www.delphi.com , or at "internetMCI's" site on the Web at http://www.internetMCI.com . A new joint Web site is in the offing, she added. (Bob Woods/19950906/Press Contacts: Nancy Morrisroe, News Corp./MCI Online Ventures, 212-462-5050, Internet e-mail nancy@delphi.com; Barbara McLeod, 800-644-NEWS, Internet e-mail newsmci@MCImail.com) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 09/06/95 TRENDS Nokia & Texas Instruments Show Slim, Large-Screen TV (NEWS)(TRENDS)(DEN)(00026) Nokia & Texas Instruments Show Slim, Large-Screen TV 09/06/95 DALLAS, TEXAS, U.S.A., 1995 SEP 6 (NB) -- It is almost inevitable that alert attendees at trade shows and exhibits will come across some application of leading-edge technology, and the IFA Internationale Funkausstellung( IFA) show in Dusseldorf, Germany this week was no exception. What IFA showgoers saw was a demonstration by Nokia Consumer Electronics, the company known for its small, low-cost cellular phones, of slim, large-screen rear projection consumer TVs that bring one step closer the concept of a huge television screen that hangs on the wall of your home and is no thicker than a framed picture. Nokia was demonstrating Texas Instruments' (NYSE:TXN) DLP (digital light processing) technology that will enable TV sets to offer sharp widescreen pictures of over 50 inches, even in normal room lighting conditions. The large screen sets measure 15-inches in depth and use no picture tube. The elimination of the tube weight will bring the weight down to about 35 kilograms, or 77 pounds. TI says the DLP technology produces an image with "truer, deeper colors, uniform geometry and high resolution" across the whole screen area and "high contrast over a wide brightness range." The Digital Micromirror Device (DMD) chip that makes the display possible is a digital light switch integrated circuit whose upper surface consists of a mirror array with about 500,000 digitally switched mirrors, each representing a pixel, or picture element. Pixels are the individual dots that make up the display on a television set or on your PC's monitor. Each mirror is individually controlled by digital signals applied to memory cells beneath the mirrored array. A high intensity light source is focused onto the DMD, which reflects the digitally created images from the mirrored surface through an imaging lens and then onto the viewing screen. The mirrors switch more than 1,000 times a second to form a video image. TI said that provides an image "of cinema-like quality." DLP is the invention of Dr. Larry Hornbeck, a Texas Instruments Fellow and solid-state physicist who was honored as the recipient of the Eduard Rhein Foundation's Technology Award for 1995 for his invention. TI and Nokia aren't strangers, having previously worked together on a number of products involving DSP technology, an alliance which led to the introduction of the first PALplus receiver in the European market. PAL is the European television standard - NTSC (North American Television Standards Committee) is the standard in the US - while PALplus in the European TV standard for wide screen images with an aspect ratio of 16 to 9. Nokia said it will have production models of the rear-projection TV set available for the European market by early 1997. (Jim Mallory/19950906/Press contact: Dave Leonnig, Texas Instruments, 214-995-2828) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 09/06/95 ONLINE Virtual Vineyards' CyberCash Credit Card Security (NEWS)(ONLINE)(SFO)(00027) Virtual Vineyards' CyberCash Credit Card Security 09/06/95 LOS ALTOS, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1995 SEP 6 (NB) -- Virtual Vineyards, an Internet retail shopping and information service, says it is the first company to offer CyberCash's Secure Internet Payment Service. Along with other Internet sites, Virtual Vineyards began beta tests of the credit card encryption technology last April. #IMAGE 1 20 TWPCX \images\95090627.PCX Click here for photo Robert Olson, president of Virtual Vineyards, told Newsbytes, "There has been a lot of concern about credit card security on the Internet. If a hacker could crack a merchant's server, that person could easily get credit card information." He continued: "With CyberCash's technology, a customer's credit card information is encrypted with client software on the user's desktop. As a merchant, I never see or store anything more than the encrypted information. This means even if a hacker was able to crack my server or any server relaying a customer's payment information that data would be useless." Along with security, customers also get fast and automatic transactions. Olson said CyberCash guarantees a completed transaction in 15 seconds or less. "Our experience is that the most transactions, including approval, require about five seconds," said Olson. Describing the payment procedure, Olson said, "Once a user downloads the client software, he or she simply clicks on an icon to establish a link with Virtual Vineyards and places an order using the encrypted information. We transmit the order back to the customer with our digital signature asking if the amounts are correct. If everything is correct, both our information and the customers information with digital signatures are transmitted to our merchant bank, Wells Fargo. We receive either approval or rejection of the transaction and process it accordingly to the customer." Virtual Vineyards plans to continue to offer other methods of payment. The accept checks, credit information via fax, and direct toll-free telephone orders. The company's World Wide Web site, located at http://www.virtualvin.com , offers select wines from small wineries and limited production bottlings from larger wineries. CyberCash's client software is available free at http://www.cybercash.com , in either a Macintosh or Windows version. (Patrick McKenna/19950906/Press Contact: Skye Ketonen, Niehaus Ryan Haller, 415-615-7905/VINEYARDS950906/PHOTO) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 09/06/95 GENERAL Grolier's Greg Norman Golf Simulation (NEWS)(GENERAL)(SFO)(00028) Grolier's Greg Norman Golf Simulation 09/06/95 LAGUNA NIGUEL, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1995 SEP 6 (NB) -- Promising to take golf simulation to the same level as jet flight simulators, Grolier has teamed with golf champion Greg Norman to create "Greg Norman Ultimate Challenge Golf." As the well-known print and multimedia reference giant continues its expansion, Grolier has also announced new divisions to promote its interactive games titles. #IMAGE 1 20 TWPCX \images\95090628.PCX Click here for photo "Until now golf games for the personal computer have been fairly simplistic like early flight simulators," said Joseph Szczepaniak, Grolier's senior vice president of sales. "With our new software, interactive golf simulation becomes as realistic any of the latest flight simulators." He continued: "Golf is a game which requires informed decisions combined with practiced skills. Other golf simulators have given users almost no information to make decisions. Ultimate Challenge Golf changes all of that. This game allows you to face the same challenges pro golfers experience." With the help of Greg Norman, Grolier has developed a game which allows users to: program their swing type, grip and stance; select clubs from a large collection; choose the type of ball best suited to one's play; select fade, draw, hook, or slice; determine weather conditions and course conditions; and select up to six different views. The features and realistic effects which Grolier produces in Ultimate Challenge Golf are based on a new simulation engine, says the company. Using sophisticated three-dimensional graphics from Friendly Software and Intel, Ultimate Challenge Golf provides "fast, high-quality graphics to produce its sense of realism," claims the firm. The Windows golf simulator is being introduced with a "Tee-Off with Greg Norman" contest. Participants will compete for a grand prize of an all expenses paid trip to Norman's home course. Second and third place prizes include 250 authentic Shark golf shirts and sleeves of three Maxfli golf balls for 1,000 winners, respectively. Future plans include an online component with interactive tournaments. To facilitate its expansion plans, Grolier has combined Grolier Electronic Publication and its European Matra-Hachette Multimedia to form Grolier Interactive. Grolier Interactive has three divisions: Grolier Kids, with a line of entertaining and educational children's titles; Grolier, for its mass appeal family products; and an as yet unnamed games, adventure division which will soon release a San Francisco-based homicide thriller and Terror Trax, an X-Files/Twilight Zone-like mystery title. Greg Norman Ultimate Challenge golf is scheduled to ship on October 27, with a suggested retail price between $39 and $49. (Patrick McKenna/1995/Press Contact: Pat Meier, Pat Meier & Associates, 415-957-5999/GROLIERGOLF950906/PHOTO) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 09/06/95 TRENDS Future Information Warfare Study Available (NEWS)(TRENDS)(LAX)(00029) Future Information Warfare Study Available 09/06/95 SAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1995 SEP 6 (NB) -- Computer Security Institute's "Special Report on Information Warfare" describes how war might be fought in the 21st century. The report will appear in the fall issue of the Computer Security Journal, but is available now on request. Patrice Rapalus, director of Computer Security Institute (CSI), told Newsbytes, "In recent weeks, mass media organizations such as Time Magazine, the Washington Post, and National Public Radio have done stories on information warfare. This report is a timely, comprehensive and practical study on information warfare and its impact on our future." The report defines information warfare in contrast to simple computer crime, "A computer crime is an act that violates a law. It could be specifically targeted. It could be isolated, or it could be one element of an overall plan of attack. The conduct of information warfare, in contrast, is never random or isolated (and may not even violate a law). The term implies a concerted effort to utilize information as a weapon with which to wage war, whether on an actual battlefield or in economic, political, or social arenas." Four aspects of information warfare are listed in the report: the electronic battlefield; infrastructure attacks; industrial espionage; and personal privacy attacks. "It is important to understand that the term 'information warfare' originated in the military and in its purest sense refers to the grim and dangerous business of real...country shattering war," says the report. Computer Security Institute is located in San Francisco, California, and is a wholly owned subsidiary of Miller Freeman Publishing. Miller Freeman publishes over fifty trade magazines including Dr. Dobbs Journal, Unix Review, and LAN Magazine. Computer Security Institute publishes, along with random studies like the "Special Report on Information Warfare," a monthly newsletter, a semi-annual Journal, an annual Buyers Guide, and a on-line bulletin board. To obtain an advance copy of "Special Report on Information Warfare," call 415-905-2310. (Richard Bowers/19950906/Press Contact: Patrice Rapalus, CSI, 415-905-2310) (SUMMARY)(GENERAL)(MSP)(00030) Newsbytes Daily Summary 09/06/95 MINNEAPOLIS, MINNESOTA, U.S.A., 1995 SEP 6 (NB) -- These are capsules of all today's news stories: ======================================================================== ------------| N E W S B Y T E S D A I L Y S U M M A R Y |---------- ------------| Wednesday, September 6, 1995 |---------- ======================================================================== (c) Newsbytes News Network (Tm) Editor in Chief: Wendy Woods ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Newsbytes News Network's 1995 Update CD-ROM for Mac, DOS, and Windows is now available for $29.95 (includes s&h). Contains 1983-1995 news stories, more than 64,000 keyword searchable stories and 475 digitized images. For more information or to order, fax to 612-430-0441 or e-mail to 'administrator@newsbytes.com' -- MC, Visa, Amex accepted. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ CATEGORY HEADLINES (*** indicates today's top stories) STORY # ======================================================================== APPLE Apple & HP Offer Updated Mac Apps On Unix For Japan........ 03 BROADCAST Europe - NBC Revamps Satellite TV Operations............... 12 BUSINESS Motion Pixels Acquires Huygen Codec........................ 13 BUSINESS ****Bay Networks Buys Xylogics For $330 Million........... 22 CHIPS M1 Fastest Chip For Windows 95, Says Cyrix................. 06 GENERAL UK - HP Slashes Vectra PC Pricing.......................... 14 GENERAL Japan Newsbriefs........................................... 16 GENERAL Corel Launches Wild Board Games For Mac, Windows........... 20 GENERAL Grolier's Greg Norman Golf Simulation...................... 28 GOVT GTSI Upgrades Pentium Air Force PC Offering................ 02 GOVT ****White House Lays Out Copyright Concepts............... 23 GOVT ****Industry Slams Govt's Encryption Export Plan.......... 24 IBM IBM Makes Solid Gains In China Market...................... 05 IBM IBM Offers PC, RS/6000, VAX In One Server.................. 18 NETWORK Cheyenne & Storage Dimensions Team On "DLT RAID............ 09 NETWORK Novell Intros NetWare Client 32 For Windows 95............. 19 ONLINE Baseball's Cal Ripken Jr. Is Ripping On AOL................ 01 ONLINE IDG Web Site Targets "Technology Marketers................. 08 ONLINE French Nuclear Tests Cause Internet Protests............... 15 ONLINE ****Free Newsbytes CD-ROM To New E-Mail Subscribers....... 21 ONLINE MCI & News Corp Launch Internet "News Center............... 25 ONLINE Virtual Vineyards' CyberCash Credit Card Security.......... 27 PC "Snooper" Software Digs Into Computers..................... 04 TRENDS Internet Is Key To Winning Business, Says Gates............ 07 TRENDS Nokia & Texas Instruments Show Slim, Large-Screen TV....... 26 TRENDS Future Information Warfare Study Available................. 29 WINDOWS ATI To Support MPEG Video Under Windows.................... 10 WINDOWS Novell's WordPerfect 6.1 For Windows SGML.................. 11 WINDOWS Microsoft Offers Windows 95 Install Tips................... 17 ======================================================================== These are the headlines and first paragraphs of each story, in order: 1 -> Baseball's Cal Ripken Jr. Is Ripping On AOL -- Baseball fans can follow the consecutive game record now being set by Baltimore Orioles shortstop Cal Ripken Jr. on America Online. Ripken will break the record, originally set by New York Yankee Lou Gehrig in 1939 at 2130, in Baltimore today as he appears in his 2,131st consecutive game. 2 -> GTSI Upgrades Pentium Air Force PC Offering -- Government Technology Services Inc. (Nasdaq: GTSI) is upgrading its offering on the Air Force's Desktop IV contract. GTSI is replacing the IBM 90 megahertz (MHz) Pentium unit with a 100MHz Pentium processor, for the same price. 3 -> Apple & HP Offer Updated Mac Apps On Unix For Japan -- Following a successful run with the first version of Macintosh Application Environment (MAE), Apple Computer Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) has teamed with Hewlett-Packard (NYSE:HWP) to announce MAE 2.0 and Nihango MAE 2.0. Both products allow Japanese users of high-end Unix workstations to run Macintosh applications. 4 -> "Snooper" Software Digs Into Computers -- Vias & Associates Inc. said it has introduced a new version of its "Snooper" system information utility. The author of the software said it is called Snooper because the program "snoops" around the computer to report its configuration and operating characteristics. 5 -> IBM Makes Solid Gains In China Market -- IBM China has signed a software redistributor agreement with China National Computer Software & Technology Services Corporation (CS&S), the nation's largest software and services company. 6 -> M1 Fastest Chip For Windows 95, Says Cyrix -- Cyrix Corp. claims the firm's sixth-generation microprocessor, the M1, will be the fastest processor running 16-bit applications under Windows 95, based on benchmark data developed during company testing. 7 -> Internet Is Key To Winning Business, Says Gates -- The Internet, that global electronic spiderweb that is growing by thousands of users each day, is the key to winning business in the future, according to Bill Gates, Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ: MSFT) chairman and chief executive officer. Consequently, the company will invest heavily to become the market leader. 8 -> IDG Web Site Targets "Technology Marketers -- With content that already includes findings from IDC (International Data Corp.) research studies, plus selected articles from IDG (International Data Group) publications, IDG's newly opened World Wide Web site stands apart from other Web fare by serving as a "resource for technology marketers," maintained Peter Horan, president of IDG Marketing Services, in an interview with Newsbytes. 9 -> Cheyenne & Storage Dimensions Team On "DLT RAID -- Storage Dimensions' JetArray, a backup system for NetWare "superservers" announced this week, adds a new RAID (redundant array of inexpensive disks) 5 architecture plus Cheyenne's new Jetserve "image-based" backup software to Quantum's DLT (digital linear tape) 4000 drives for "fault tolerance, and the fastest DLT ever clocked," asserted Storage Dimensions' Robert Hamilton, in a briefing for Newsbytes. Jetserve is also separately available for NetWare, Unix, and Windows NT, noted Cheyenne's John Staudenraus. 10 -> ATI To Support MPEG Video Under Windows -- ATI Technologies Inc. (TSE:ATY) has announced plans to make it possible to play back Motion Picture Experts Group (MPEG) video on any personal computer running Microsoft Windows and equipped with one of ATI's 64-bit graphics accelerator cards. 11 -> Novell's WordPerfect 6.1 For Windows SGML -- Novell Inc. (NASDAQ: NOVL) has announced WordPerfect 6.1 for Windows SGML Edition. SGML, the standard generalized markup language, is an International Organization for Standardization (ISO) standard format for document structure. 12 -> Europe - NBC Revamps Satellite TV Operations -- After almost a year of promoting NBC Superchannel as a DTH (direct-to-home) satellite TV channel in Europe, NBC has decided to split the channel into two, and focus its marketing on promoting its European operation as a cable TV offering. 13 -> Motion Pixels Acquires Huygen Codec -- Sirius Publishing's sister company, Motion Pixels Inc., has purchased the "Huygen Codec" technology and its underlying patents. Motion Pixels has also retained the services of the codec developers, Christian Huygen and associate David Whipple. 14 -> UK - HP Slashes Vectra PC Pricing -- Hewlett-Packard has slashed Vectra PC pricing in the UK and Europe by up to 18 percent. The idea behind the price cuts is to "reinforce the company's intention to maintain its value leadership position in the corporate PC market," said the company. 15 -> French Nuclear Tests Cause Internet Protests -- The first of an expected series of nuclear test blasts in the South Pacific has sparked off a wave of protests around the world. As has been seen in other recent demonstrations, the global reach of the Internet has made it a center for protests from users across the world. 16 -> Japan Newsbriefs -- In this roundup of news from Japan: C-Cube wins two Japanese customers, Japan and China to begin cable talks, DoCoMo counts three million customers, Toshiba announces all-in-one display, Tokyo Internet expands, McMinn promoted at Toshiba America. 17 -> Microsoft Offers Windows 95 Install Tips -- With over a million people already having purchased Windows 95, it is inevitable that some of them will have problems. As a result, Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ:MSFT) is offering some Windows 95 installation tips. 18 -> IBM Offers PC, RS/6000, VAX In One Server -- IBM (NYSE:IBM) has announced the 7596 Cross-Platform Server, a rack-mount system that allows Intel x86, IBM RS/6000, and Digital Equipment Corp. (NYSE:DEC) VAX processors to be combined in one box. 19 -> Novell Intros NetWare Client 32 For Windows 95 -- Novell Inc. (NASDAQ: NOVL) says it will a ship 32-bit version of its NetWare client software for Windows 95 by the end of September. 20 -> Corel Launches Wild Board Games For Mac, Windows -- Corel Corp. (TSE:COS; NASDAQ:COSFF) has launched Wild Board Games, the fifth in its line of "edutainment" CD-ROMs for children. The collection of games works with Apple Macintosh computers and with PCs running Microsoft Windows. 21 -> ****Free Newsbytes CD-ROM To New E-Mail Subscribers -- Newsbytes Pacifica is now offering the Newsbytes 1995 Update CD-ROM, a $29.95 value, free to all new subscribers of the new Newsbytes E-Mail Subscription Service until September 31, 1995. 22 -> ****Bay Networks Buys Xylogics For $330 Million -- Bay Networks' planned $330 million acquisition of Xylogics, announced today, will add remote access to a merged entity that already encompasses switching and hubbing from the former SynOptics, routing from the former Wellfleet, and LAN (local area network) connectivity from the recently purchased Centillion, said Bay Networks' top two officials, speaking in tandem today at the Computer Museum in Boston. 23 -> ****White House Lays Out Copyright Concepts -- The Clinton administration has proposed a fine-tuning of the nation's copyright law to cope with issues raised by computer and telecommunications technology. 24 -> ****Industry Slams Govt's Encryption Export Plan -- The Clinton administration's new proposal on export controls on encryption in software got a tongue lashing from the software industry today. The administration's announcement of a so-called liberalization "suggests that the government is pursuing a 'son of Clipper' strategy that could lead to the mandatory use of government designed key escrow encryption," said Robert Holleyman, president of the Business Software Alliance. 25 -> MCI & News Corp Launch Internet "News Center -- The joint News Corp./MCI Online Ventures has launched a state-of-the-art digital newsroom that will deliver interactive programming for the Internet. The operation, called "News Center," will be headed by veteran journalists Jonathan Miller of the London Sunday Times and Lew Silverman of the Public Broadcasting System's (PBS's) MacNeil-Lehrer Newshour. 26 -> Nokia & Texas Instruments Show Slim, Large-Screen TV -- It is almost inevitable that alert attendees at trade shows and exhibits will come across some application of leading-edge technology, and the IFA Internationale Funkausstellung( IFA) show in Dusseldorf, Germany this week was no exception. 27 -> Virtual Vineyards' CyberCash Credit Card Security -- Virtual Vineyards, an Internet retail shopping and information service, says it is the first company to offer CyberCash's Secure Internet Payment Service. Along with other Internet sites, Virtual Vineyards began beta tests of the credit card encryption technology last April. 28 -> Grolier's Greg Norman Golf Simulation -- Promising to take golf simulation to the same level as jet flight simulators, Grolier has teamed with golf champion Greg Norman to create "Greg Norman Ultimate Challenge Golf." As the well-known print and multimedia reference giant continues its expansion, Grolier has also announced new divisions to promote its interactive games titles. 29 -> Future Information Warfare Study Available -- Computer Security Institute's "Special Report on Information Warfare" describes how war might be fought in the 21st century. The report will appear in the fall issue of the Computer Security Journal, but is available now on request. (Ian Stokell/19950906) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 09/05/95 ONLINE Quarterdeck To Ship Internet Phone Product (NEWS)(ONLINE)(SFO)(00001) Quarterdeck To Ship Internet Phone Product 09/05/95 SANTA MONICA, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1995 SEP 5 (NB) -- Quarterdeck (NASDAQ:QDEK) says it plans to ship an Internet telephone product called Webphone. As an adjunct to Quarterdeck's family of Internet software, Webphone provides the capability for full two-way phone conversations on the Internet, according to the company. Earlier this year, the popularity of Internet telephone conversations began to increase. The first versions of software limited users to half- duplex conversations. This means only one user can speak at a given time, similar to radio communications involving a walkie-talkie. While some Internet users were impressed with the capability of speaking through a local phone call to locations around the world, the lack of full-duplex or simultaneous conversation limited commercial interest. With significant advances in audio compression, Quarterdeck decided to join a small number of companies involved in commercial, full- duplex Internet telephone conversations. Michelle Messina, director and general manager of Quarterdeck's Remote Computing Business Unit, told Newsbytes, "We have licensed very advanced speech compression technology from Lernout & Hauspie Speech Products. Essentially, its technology allows us to deliver a most sophisticated telephony product with very high audio quality." When asked if she felt her own experience of using the phone compared well to a standard long distance phone call, Messina said, "It is very similar to conversations I have through our long distance carrier. There is no delay or unusual noise. Given the amount of long distance phone calls, I personally make from my home phone, I would pay for the software (under $50) in two weeks." At this time, long distance carriers and local/regional telephone companies have not made a clear stance against the use of this technology. With the introduction of a commercial product which offers very similar quality to standard long distance, some observers wonder how long it will be before a formal statement or action is made by the carriers. Messina continued, "We think the Internet telephone is the next big wave of activity on the Internet and we are among the first to offer a full-duplex product. We are building on the number of our servers in offices throughout the world which will support the product." Using the software through an existing Internet connection, a user can connect to a Quarterdeck server which allows the user to view other parties who are capable of connecting to the Internet telephone. Webphone software shows participants interested in a specific subject such as sports so a user may easily choose a potential party for conversation. At this time, conversation are limited to two parties. Future versions of the software will allow more parties to participate in a conversation. (Patrick McKenna/19950901/Press Contact: Ellen Spooren, Quarterdeck, 310-314-4261) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 09/05/95 WINDOWS Miro Multimedia Products Windows 95-Compatible (NEWS)(WINDOWS)(LAX)(00002) Miro Multimedia Products Windows 95-Compatible 09/05/95 PALO ALTO, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1995 SEP 5 (NB) -- Miro Computer Products Inc. has announced that its complete line of multimedia products will ship with optimized drivers for Windows 95 by the end of September. The new Windows 95 drivers are also available free to current product clients. Miro Computer Products is a wholly owned subsidiary of Miro A.G., a German multinational with sales of over $200 million. Miro concentrates on multimedia products that include digital video playback, desktop video editing, digital sound, accelerated graphics, dual display, and integrated phone systems. John Roman, director of marketing for Miro, told Newsbytes, "Miro's major market is in North America. Our products are sold direct to value-added resellers, system integrators, and OEMs (original equipment manufacturers). We are the third largest provider of multimedia hardware and software for the PC market." He continued: "We are announcing that with the new drivers all of our products are compatible with Windows 95. Current Miro product users can obtain the new Windows 95 drivers at no charge from Miro's BBS (bulletin board system), accessible 24 hours a day, 7 days a week at 415-855-9944. Miro's new Windows 95 drivers are also available through Miro's Compuserve forum (GO MIRO)." During the month of September, all drivers will be available only through the online services. At the end of September, Miro will provide a complete driver update on CD-ROM to its dealers and distributors. "Miro's flagship product is the MiroVideo DC 1," said Roman. "It is a full-screen, full-motion desktop video editing and post production system. The MiroVideo DC 1 is an easy to install, real-time motion JPEG (Joint Photographic Experts Group) editing system. It is bundled with Adobe Premiere and Asymetrix's three-dimensional titling and animation software." "Due to early development efforts, Miro is able to quickly provide its users with these new, highly optimized Windows 95 drivers," claimed Bob Butchko, president of Miro Computer Products. (Richard Bowers/19950831/Press Contact: Marsha Adams, Miro, 415-855-0940) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 09/05/95 ONLINE UK - Verity Intros CD-ROM Web Publishing Kit (NEWS)(ONLINE)(LON)(00003) UK - Verity Intros CD-ROM Web Publishing Kit 09/05/95 EPSOM, SURREY, ENGLAND, 1995 SEP 5 (NB) -- Verity has unveiled, what it claims is, a first in the Internet Web publishing industry -- a Topic WebAgents Publishers Toolkit. According to Steve Cole, a spokesman for Verity, the kit "bridges the gap" created when organizations want to publish CD-ROM-based information on the World Wide Web. According to the company, using Topic WebAgents, publishers can now disseminate information on CD-ROMs, as well as provide live updates on the Internet. so providing customers with the "speed and convenience of local data with the timeliness of Web Agents." Pricing on the package is a fairly hefty UKP10,000, although Cole defends this pricing by claiming that the package offers a "seamless and extremely cost-effective solution" to organizations that distribute CD-ROM-based information. According to Verity, Topic WebAgents allows users to search for information using a standard Web browser to access a desktop CD-ROM, a local network, and the Internet. As a query is entered, Topic WebAgents can search for the information on the CD, as well as across the network, and the Internet. As far as the user is concerned, the data resource is one "single entity." Because the package integrates the different media under one umbrella database, updates to the CD-ROM can be downloaded across the network or the Internet, and presented to the user as if the data were on the CD-ROM itself. According to Cole, Topic WebAgents Publishers Toolkit standardizes on one set of documents and indexes for both Web and CD-ROM publishing. The package consists of three Verity indexing tools: Topic Remote Web Indexer, a tool that allows the publisher to build an index to HTML (hypertext markup language) and text pages located on the Web; Topic File Index, a tool that builds and maintains an index to a directory tree; and Topic advanced indexing utilities, a set of tools that includes CD-ROM optimization and Adobe Acrobat PDF (Page Display File) and SGML (standard generalized markup language) indexing support. The toolkit includes installation examples and a customizable CD-ROM layout template to create a single cross-platform CD. The toolkit runs on all three major operating systems -- Windows, Apple Mac, and Unix. WebAgents are bundled with Enhanced Mosaic from Spyglass and will soon be available with other Web browsers. The system is already used by a number of Verity's clients, including Hewlett-Packard and Cisco. In Cisco's case, its technical support operation has used Topic products to "reduce costs and increase customer satisfaction," said the company. According to Verity, Cisco found that the traditional approach to support -- teams of people answering phones -- was expensive, and "limited" in its ability to meet demand. Cisco's CD-ROM and Web publishing systems are now meeting most technical support needs, the company claims, and, since most technical support information is bundled electronically, the company is making print savings of around $1 million a month. (Steve Gold/19950831/Press Contact: Profile PR, +44-181-995-1595, Reader Contact: Verity UK, +44-1372-747076, Internet e-mail info@verity.com, Internet World Wide Web http://www.verity.com ) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 09/05/95 TELECOM UK - RAM Offers Fixed Fee Mobile Data Services (NEWS)(TELECOM)(LON)(00004) UK - RAM Offers Fixed Fee Mobile Data Services 09/05/95 WEST DRAYTON, MIDDLESEX, ENGLAND, 1995 SEP 5 (NB) -- RAM Mobile Data has announced it is starting to offer fixed price "solutions" to its customers. According to Steve Foster, head of the company's Field Service Business Unit, customers of the mobile data services company can now elect to pay a fixed fee per month -- with charges starting from UKP60 -- which covers the cost of their hardware, software, access to the RAM network, support, training, and installation. Foster defends what some might see as a high monthly fee by noting that this fee compares favorably with the cost of using private mobile radio (PMR) systems, as well as data over cellular technologies. "When you consider the UKP60 a month includes all network usage, regardless of what traffic goes over the network, plus training, support and software, it is a very good deal. Response from some of our trial customers has been very favorable," he told Newsbytes. According to Foster, the flat rate charge is being pitched at customers who have field service engineers. "These staff have a need for efficient mobile communications, so they can move on to the next job as quickly and efficiently as possible," he explained, adding that wasted time on a cellular phone is part of the costing equation that many customers miss when working out the charges. "These new ServiceNet offerings are a one-stop shop providing organizations of any size with a simple, affordable and upgradable means of putting mobile data to work quickly for their field forces," he said. RAM is offering a variety of systems for field engineers to use on its flat rate scheme. These range from a single box dedicated system that offers data dispatch and simple connection, to the host system at a company headquarters for the downloading of jobs, through an HP 1000CD palmtop with Mobidem radio modem for use in the field. "Obviously the monthly fee is negotiable, so for major companies we would work out an appropriate cost. The package is negotiable, but, from a company perspective, knowing what your mobile data comms costs are going to be on a month-by-month basis is obviously very useful when it comes to costing new staff and services," he explained. (Steve Gold/19950831/Press Contact: Lewis Communications, +44-1171-831-4890; Reader Contact: RAM Mobile Data, tel +44-181-990-9090, fax +44-181-990-9110) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 09/05/95 GOVT Dell & Olivetti Sign Australian Fixed Term Deals (NEWS)(GOVT)(SYD)(00005) Dell & Olivetti Sign Australian Fixed Term Deals 09/05/95 CANBERRA, AUSTRALIA 1995 SEP 5 (NB) -- The Australian Government has signed two more fixed term arrangements (FTAs) with overseas computer companies, despite grumbles from the Japanese. The latest deals, with Dell and Olivetti, came as news broke of major export deals by Australian software manufacturer Tracker in Japan (following an FTA deal with Panasonic) and by Australian board maker Hypertec in Europe. Senator Peter Cook, the Minister for Industry, Science and Technology, announced that Olivetti would create 40-50 high-tech jobs, as part of its FTA, by establishing a regional headquarters in Australia, along with a network control center, and also by sourcing some of its requirements locally. The HQ will aim at opportunities in banking applications in the Asian market. Dell is working on alliances with Australian software companies and plans to provide research and development support and marketing assistance through its global network. Dell's Managing Director Gary Elliott says he has formed strategic alliances with: Travel Computing Services, with a system for travel agents; CPR, which has a system for writing medical prescriptions; Genix, with a package to manage sound and lighting facilities; and Avitar, developers of the Dulux touch-screen paint selection package. (Computer Daily News/19950831) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 09/05/95 IBM IBM Opens Technical Center In Sweden (NEWS)(IBM)(LON)(00006) IBM Opens Technical Center In Sweden 09/05/95 LIDINGO, SWEDEN, 1995 SEP 5 (NB) -- IBM has opened a new technical support center in Lidingo, Sweden, for its European, Middle East, and African (EMEA) customers. According to Big Blue, the center aims to help customers' implementations of "networking solutions." Plans call for the new base to provide local and foreign customers with dedicated technical expertise to develop and implement, what IBM calls, "solid software platforms for running important business applications in distributed environments." Announcing the opening, Mark Elliot, vice president of software with IBM's Europe, Middle East, and European operation, explained that issues related to software management and maintenance in distributed environments "are at the core of the expertise at IBM Software Technical Center, which compliments our existing network of Open System Centers where customers can test their solutions in various heterogeneous and distributed environments." According to Elliot, foreign customers at the center will have access to various facilities such as the technical expertise, application development assistance, testing, and training. The center will provide support for IBM's networking products, as well as those from other leading manufacturers' equipment, including Intel and other RISC (reduced instruction set computing)-based systems. Plans call for a test lab to provide emulation situations of business- critical applications, so that customers will be able to "plan for new solutions within its organization." According to Elliot, this will make for faster implementation of networking products and the rapid transfer of technical skills on the products themselves, as well as in managing distributed environments. "We have identified that the costs of moving to client/server are largely under-estimated. Investments in technology and products account for just 20 percent of the total cost of client/server solutions, with the remaining 80 percent being accounted for by labor and ongoing operational costs," Elliot said. "The center in Sweden will help reduce these costs by shortening customers' implementation cycles and increasing their overall skills," he said. (Sylvia Dennis/19950830/Press Contact: Martin Harvey, IBM UK, +44-171-202-3744) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 09/05/95 BUSINESS Russian PC Dealer Adds Service Centers (NEWS)(BUSINESS)(LON)(00007) Russian PC Dealer Adds Service Centers 09/05/95 MOSCOW, RUSSIA, 1995 SEP 5 (NB) -- IVK, the Moscow-based assembler of IBM PCs, has expanded its network of authorized service centers with the opening a new facility in Chelyabinsk. IVK now has service centers which act as value-added resellers (VARs) in over 30 Russian and former Soviet cities. The opening of the new center marks the penetration of the leading Russian producer's IBM PCs into the lucrative Urals region. The center will be run by an independent Chelyabinsk company, called Garant-Service. Numerous pure and applied science institutions in this area are viewed by IVK and Garant-Service top managers as a market niche to be filled by IVK computers. Touching on the performance of the network of IVK service centers at the press-conference held recently, Mr. G. Sizonenko, vice president of the Joint Stock Company IVK, told reporters, "The policy of the company is to enter into dealership and service arrangements with reputable regional VAR companies to sell and maintain IBM computers produced by IVK." Sizonenko continued to say that IVK expects to expand its sales of IBM 486 and Pentium computers through a network of reliable VARs, and that the opening of the service center in Chelyabinsk "is yet another step in this direction". IVK produces IBM computers -- both PCs (90% of production) and RISC (reduced instruction set computing) System/6000 servers (10%) -- at its KVANT assembling facility in the Moscow satellite city Zelenograd. The service centers are established in more than 30 major cities throughout Russia and former Soviet countries. (Vladimir Vetrov/19950905/Press & Reader Contact: Grigory Korolyov, Garant-Service, Moscow tel +7-095-1540458; Chelyabinsk tel & fax +7-3512-612037; Grogory Sizonenko, IVK, tel: +7-095- 2848326, fax +7-095-9711077, Internet e-mail root@aoivk.msk.su ) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 09/05/95 TELECOM Sweden's Ericsson Wins Malaysian Cellular Contract (NEWS)(TELECOM)(LON)(00008) Sweden's Ericsson Wins Malaysian Cellular Contract 09/05/95 STOCKHOLM, SWEDEN, 1995 SEP 5 (NB) -- Ericsson has been awarded a major contract by Mobikom in Malaysia. Terms of the SK450 million contract call for the Swedish telecoms giant to expand Mobikom's Mobifon 800 megahertz (MHz) D-AMPS/AMPS (digital - American phone system) cellular network. According to Zamani Zakariah, chief executive officer (CEO) of Mobikom, the order includes cellular base stations and switching capacity, and will "greatly increase" the proportion of digital services on the Mobifon network. Zakariah claims that expansion of the network's digital subscribers in Malaysia gives the D-AMPS technology a significant boost and makes the TDMA (time division multiple access)-based D-AMPS system a "competitive technology of choice" in the Asia/Pacific region. "The new order caters to the rapidly increasing customer base which has expanded beyond our expectation," he said. "The response to the Mobifon 800 services has been so encouraging that the subscriber base of 130,000 at the end of August has exceeded the 1996 projection." According to Zakariah, with the latest expansion contract, Mobikom's accumulated capital investment in procurement and installation of systems and equipment for it D-AMPS/AMPS networks is estimated to be around the SK1,500 million mark. Encik Kamaludin Adbul Kadir, Perwira Ericsson's executive director, said that the Malaysian deal with Mobikom illustrates the confidence the company has in D-AMPS and Ericsson's products and services. Mobikom started operations just last year. The company is the third largest mobile system operator in Malaysia, and is the first to offer digital cellular services. Although D-AMPS is generally thought to be a US-specific digital cellular network technology, the system is now installed in 12 countries around the world, Newsbytes notes. According to Ericsson, there are now 1.3 million-plus cellular subscribers hooked into a D-AMPS network worldwide. (Sylvia Dennis/19950830/Press Contact: Perwira Ericsson, tel +603- 555-3501, fax +6018-820-0898; Per Bengtsson, Ericsson Business Area Radio Communications, +46-8-757-2159) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 09/05/95 GENERAL Lotus Symposium - Veritas Plans 12 Add-On Modules Per Year (NEWS)(GENERAL)(BOS)(00009) Lotus Symposium - Veritas Plans 12 Add-On Modules Per Year 09/05/95 BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS, U.S.A., 1995 SEP 5 (NB) -- Now that Veritas has released the Sales IntellAgents and IntellAgent Document Control modules for its IntellAgent Control System for Lotus Notes, the Dallas-based vendor will follow up with three new add-on modules per quarter, for a total of 12 each year, revealed Veritas President Howard Getson, in a meeting with Newsbytes at the recent Lotus Symposium in Boston. Veritas' recent release of the Sales IntellAgents and IntellAgent Document Control Modules coincided with the shipment of version 2.0 of the IntellAgent Control System, a major update to Veritas' tool for "intelligent" data collection and team management, the company president told Newsbytes. Currently in use by customers that include Sprint and American Express, the system from Veritas is aimed at letting companies consolidate, share and manage contacts and other information in the areas of sales, marketing, and customer service, in a modular and "user-customizable" way, he reported. Unlike competing products such as Lynx, which can only interact with outside contact management programs by importing data, the IntellAgent Control System 2.0 employs "selective replication" triggered by user-defined rules to utilize information from the Act! and Goldmine contact managers, he continued. "The system knows who you are, and what you want to do," Getson elaborated. Also as a result of selective replication, the Notes front-end for Windows, Apple Macintosh, IBM OS/2, and Unix is able to minimize consumption of hard disk space, by only making use of specified information, he contended. Replication, a capability provided by the Notes environment, allows databases to be copied so they can reside concurrently on multiple servers, according to the company chief. By automatically merging changes in databases, replication permits users to access data from any location at LAN (local area network) speeds, without hands-on database administration. Replication also allows for built-in retries, as well as automatic detection of the most recently edited version of a document. The "selective replication" of the Intelligent Control System combines replication with Veritas' Parameter Builder rulemaker. Through support for RTF (rich text format), the Veritas product also provides data compression, Getson pointed out. Version 2.0 is designed to serve as a central "hub" supporting related databases, Newsbytes was told. The update adds a new GUI (graphical user interface), along with new task and project management capabilities, and enhancements to the product's pre- existing account planning and "opportunity management" modules. In a demo, Getson showed Newsbytes how the system's new account planning and opportunity management functions can be used to identify and track "opportunities" related to specific companies, divisions, and contacts, and to rank and prioritize these opportunities by factors such as company, anticipated revenue, and anticipated closing date. A new "sales funnel" feature lets users track opportunities through a sales cycle, he said. Users can also produce "completely up-to- date" reports and views, as well as personal calendars by the day, week, or year. The user can view "companies" by "all, prospects only, or clients only," for example. Also included are multiple views for contact list, open opportunities, closed opportunities, open projects, completed projects, open activities, and completed activities. Users can add or delete views, based on their needs. Veritas' new Sales IntellAgents add-on module supplies a central database for storing information such as price lists, promotions, and product specifications, according to Getson. The new IntellAgent Document Control module permits users to create, store and update shared documents, as well as to make comments, revisions and modifications to both documents and workflow. In the future, Veritas plans to release "smarter files for other products" beyond the Act! and Goldmine contact managers, he maintained. Getson also told Newsbytes that, under a new pricing model, users can now purchase upcoming add-on modules for the IntellAgent Control System -- at the rate of three per quarter, or 12 per year -- along with one-year maintenance, for an annual fee of $60 above the standard price of the product. Standard pricing is $5,000 per server and $395 per seat. (Jacqueline Emigh/19950901/Reader Contacts: Veritas Technologies, 214-387-1812; Lotus Development Company, 617-577-8500; Press Contacts: Doug Fenn, Veritas, 214-387-1812; Lois Paul & Partners for Lotus, 617-862-4514) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 09/05/95 BUSINESS UK - Gateway 2000 & Software Warehouse In Win 95 Deal (NEWS)(BUSINESS)(LON)(00010) UK - Gateway 2000 & Software Warehouse In Win 95 Deal 09/05/95 DUBLIN, IRELAND, 1995 SEP 5 (NB) -- Gateway 2000 has teamed up with Software Warehouse on upgrading customers to the new Windows 95 operating system. Because Gateway 2000 is located in Ireland, yet services several European countries, shipping a copy of Windows 95 to customers would be an expensive business. As a result, the company is contracting Windows 95 sales out to Software Warehouse in the UK, which will mail out a copy of the new operating system. Pricing on the Windows 95 is a competitive UKP59, Newsbytes notes. Included in this price tag is 90 days free technical support from Microsoft. John Shepheard, Gateway 2000 UK and Ireland country manager, said that the linkup with Software Warehouse is an exclusive one and that the company has worked hard to get the most competitive price on the upgrade package. Software Warehouse's Steve Bennett, the company's managing director, said that the launch of Windows 95 is a "very significant event. Gateway 2000 carries a lot of clout in the industry, which has meant that, through our partnership, we've been able to offer the upgrade at a very competitive price." Existing Gateway 2000 customers wanting to upgrade to Windows 95 call up a special toll-free number, 0800-454108, and are offered next day shipment of Windows 95, either on floppy or CD-ROM. (Steve Gold/19950901/Press Contact: Text 100, +44-181-242-4212; Reader Contact: Gateway 2000, tel +353-1-797-2000, fax +353-1848- 2000; Toll-free UK 0800-600200; Toll-free Ireland 1-800-452000) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 09/05/95 PC UK - Colossus Intros New PC Range (NEWS)(PC)(LON)(00011) UK - Colossus Intros New PC Range 09/05/95 BURNLEY, LANCASHIRE, ENGLAND, 1995 SEP 5 (NB) -- Colossus Computer Corporation, part of the Granville Technology Group, has unveiled a new range of notebook, desktop, and tower PCs, all of which come with Windows 95 and six business applications pre-installed on the hard drive. Optional extras includes MS-DOS 6.xx and Window for Workgroups 3.11, also available on a pre-installed basis. According to the relatively new PC division, founded by PC industry veteran Dr Alan Gower, the release of the machines comes as a result of the company's recent acquisition of Highmead Technologies, the PC vendor that hit financial problems earlier this year. Colossus' entry-level system is the SBF Office, a 486DX4-100 megahertz (MHz) processor-based machine with eight megabytes (MB) of memory, a 540MB hard disk, quad-speed CD-ROM drive, and a 14-inch SVGA monitor. The system is housed in a seven-bay desktop case and costs UKP999, plus sales tax. Top of the range is the SBF standalone workstation that has a 133MHz Pentium processor. Costing UKP1,809, the system comes with 16MB of memory, a 1.6 gigabyte (GB) hard disk, color monitor, and a selection of software. According to Dr Alan Gower, all of the systems from Colossus are sold at "competitive prices," but also come with a "building block" principle upgrade path. This is designed, the company claims, so that the customer can adapt base systems using several upgrade options. "Colossus now has sales teams in the north and south, a complete product range, technical expertise, and a high standard of customer services. Our machines are suitable for all types of buyer, from the home user, right through to large corporate clients requiring mission- critical installation where we have a proven track record," he said. How competitive are these prices? Newsbytes asked Robert Schifreen, a computer industry veteran and director of Oakworth Business Publishing, a publisher of various computer advisory magazines and newsletters, for his opinion. "The PC market, especially now that Windows 95 is on the market, is going through a very price-competitive phase. Many vendors are offering Windows 95 deals, but my impression is that you can get an even better deal by going to London's Tottenham Court Road (an electronic mecca) and haggling with the shop owners there," he told Newsbytes. According to Schifreen, although users can get an exactly tailor-made system constructed at a bargain price in London, there is the benefit of going for a discount mail-order operation (such as Colossus) of knowing exactly who you are dealing with, and also that there is the level of support that you may need. "It really depends on what sort of machine you want and how much you're willing to pay for, or whether your need, support," he said. (Steve Gold/19950901/Press Contact: Insight Marketing, tel +44-1625- 500800, fax +44-1625-500900; Reader Contact: Colossus Computer Corp., tel +44-1282-770088, fax +44-1282-770688) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 09/05/95 PC UK - PCMCIA Encryption Card Intro'd (NEWS)(PC)(LON)(00012) UK - PCMCIA Encryption Card Intro'd 09/05/95 LONDON, ENGLAND, 1995 SEP 5 (NB) -- PPCP, a PCMCIA (Personal Computer Memory Card International Association) specialist, has begun shipping the Session Key, a PCMCIA Type II card from SCI Canada. According to John Nolan, the company's managing director, the card allows users to encrypt data on their PC hard disk, as well as across serial port linked devices, such as modems, using the DES algorithm. DES stands for Data Encryption Standard, a US-originated high security encryption system that is virtually unbreakable. According to Nolan, the Session Key allows users to protect their data on a selective basis. "Many of the competing systems out there are only capable of encrypting the user's entire hard disk. That obviously protects the user's data, but if you forget your password, you have serious problems," he explained. "With the Session Key card, you create a new drive, the 'D' drive, to store the encrypted data. The card also allows data to be transmitted by modem in DES format. That allows a user maximum flexibility," he told Newsbytes. When used to encrypt data on a user's hard disk, once the Session Key is removed from the PCMCIA slot, all data on the disk that is encrypted is protected against unauthorized access. The encrypted data cannot be read or used without reinserting the UKP349 card. Nolan told Newsbytes that SCI has developed a second-generation version of the Session Key, which will be available later this year. "That version will use RSA encryption techniques, as well Triple DES and a whole host of other encryption systems," he said. One of the problems with encryption devices like the Session Key is the fact that the US Government currently bans the export of certain types of encryption technologies, as well as restricts the sale of many technologies to "known parties." According to Nolan, this approval system can cause the company a few administrative problems. "We need to find out who is the actual end-user and pass their details back to SCI. My understanding is that the vetting is then carried out at a government level in Canada or the US," he said. He added that, apart from a short delay, typically a week or so before the card can be shipped to the customer, there is usually no problem. (Steve Gold/19950901/Press Contact: The Edge Partnership, +44-1625- 511966; Reader Contact: PPCP, tel +44-181-893-2277, fax +44-181-893- 1182, Internet e-mail 100302.1470@compuserve.com/PPCP950905/PHOTO) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 09/05/95 ONLINE Real Estate Inspection Info Goes Online (NEWS)(ONLINE)(MSP)(00013) Real Estate Inspection Info Goes Online 09/05/95 MINNEAPOLIS, MINNESOTA, U.S.A., 1995 SEP 5 (NB) -- Real estate agents, prospective home buyers, and mortgage lenders looking for completed home inspections can do so with a new online computer system, said officials from Real Estate Support Services (RESS) and Interactive Computer Corporation (ICC). The new system, called "RESSview," will allow people who want to either look at pre-inspected homes, or to check on a RESS inspection. ICC spokesperson, Michael Newell, told Newsbytes the system is very easy to use. He said anyone can dial into the online system and then either download the proprietary software needed to use RESSview, or have the software mailed to them on disk. The software runs on Windows 3.1 and Windows 95 platforms. RESSview reportedly provides full color pictures of a prospective home purchase. The inspection report is also included, which examines the home's structural integrity, roof, plumbing, heat, and air conditioning, and electrical wiring. Results of radon testing, pest inspections, and environmental reports are also provided in the survey. Newell said after each home inspection is completed, the forms and photos are sent to RESS headquarters, where they are audited. "Then the entire document is scanned and put online, including all of the full color photographs that are taken of the home," he said. "The home buyer, realtor, or mortgage lender can access that information." The service uses technology similar to the Netscape Navigator Internet World Wide Web browser, in that it allows "point-and-click" access to files and photos. The listings are from homes nationwide, Newell said, from the RESS network of more than 3,500 certified home inspectors. ICC has also designed online services like its own "Cyber City," and Fox29 Online for the Fox affiliate in the Twin Cities. (Bob Woods/19950901/Press Contact: Michael Newell, Interactive Computer Corp., 612-926-4001; Public Contact: Interactive Computer Corp., 612-926-4001) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 09/05/95 TRENDS IT's Control May Loosen In "Comms-Centric" Future (NEWS)(TRENDS)(TOR)(00014) IT's Control May Loosen In "Comms-Centric" Future 09/05/95 PITTSBURGH, PENNSYLVANIA, U.S.A., 1995 SEP 5 (NB) -- Organizations and their computer systems will become more and more "communications-centric" over the rest of this decade, according to Lynn Berg, vice-president of Gartner Group, a New York-based industry research firm. Meanwhile, information technology (IT) groups may have trouble controlling technology directions as other departments become more involved in decision-making. Berg is also research center director of integrative research and analysis at Gartner. She made the comments in a presentation to the Software Entrepreneurs' Forum, a quarterly meeting organized by the Enterprise Corporation of Pittsburgh, and in a later interview with Newsbytes. The Entrepreneurs' Forum speech was billed as a sneak preview of Berg's keynote address for Gartner's upcoming Symposium 1995 conference. By 2000, Berg told Newsbytes, the world will operate "in a very communications-centric fashion." Increasing reliance on contract, part-time, and home-based workers will increase the demand for high-speed communications between offices and other locations. Companies will also model their internal communications systems on the worldwide Internet. Even today, Berg said, some are starting to set up internal information-distribution systems with the same technology used for the World Wide Web, a popular Internet feature. This growing emphasis on communications will help drive the demand for more communications capacity, Berg added, thus promoting the use of new, faster networking technology. This and other new technologies will have to co-exist with existing hardware and software, which in some cases will create management headaches for systems people. A shortage of resources -- notably a lack of people with certain needed skills -- will help to aggravate those headaches, Berg added. She said many organizations will be relying more and more on buying new technology rather than developing it themselves, at least where they can't derive significant competitive advantages from rolling their own. Systems types may also find it harder to steer their organizations' technology strategies the way they want to go, partly because of the still-increasing pace of new technology development, and partly because other departments and individuals are taking more interest in technology and becoming involved in the decision-making process. Information technology organizations will probably have to substitute a looser strategy of "governance" for outright control, simply laying down guidelines for technology directions. Berg said most of the innovations in technology will continue to come from smaller, more flexible organizations, but few of these will survive for long. The more successful ones will be bought out by larger companies, while others will simply fold. Unable to be sure that the makers of the new technology they buy will be there to enhance and support it in a few years, organizations will have to give up the idea of expecting technology to pay for itself over a long period. Investments will have to be recouped in two or three years, Berg forecast. This proliferation of small vendors will also mean there will be no one "master platform" or supplier that can do it all. Instead, Berg said, computer vendors will have to cooperate to solve problems. However, she warned, these alliances rarely succeed in the long term. Faced with the need to use technology from multiple sources, and to cope with constant changes in the list of suppliers, organizations that use information technology will have to design and administer their own "master platforms" internally, Berg warned. (Grant Buckler/19950901/Press Contact: Lynn Berg, Gartner Group, 203-964-0096; Melissa Anderson, Enterprise Corp. of Pittsburgh, 412-578-3481) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 09/05/95 ONLINE Toronto-Dominion Bank Adds Services On Internet (NEWS)(ONLINE)(TOR)(00015) Toronto-Dominion Bank Adds Services On Internet 09/05/95 TORONTO, ONTARIO, CANADA, 1995 SEP 5 (NB) -- The Toronto-Dominion Bank, one of Canada's handful of national chartered banks, has added several new services to its site on the Internet's World Wide Web. The services offer investment advice and information. The bank's Web site, at http://www.tdbank.ca , has gained five new sections: the Life Planning Centre, the Mutual Fund Centre, the Credit Card Centre, Student Essentials Centre, and the Green Line Investor Services Inc. Centre. The Life Planning Centre contains a financial planning tool meant to help bank customers plan their investment strategies, and offers help with estate planning and Registered Retirement Savings Plans (RRSPs). The Mutual Fund Centre makes available daily unit prices for the TD's Green Line series of mutual funds, and recommends diversification strategies to investors based on their individual needs. The Credit Card Centre lists information about the bank's credit-card options, contains online application forms, and provides generic advice about using credit cards wisely. The Student Information Centre is designed to answer the questions that students might have about banking, and provides a sample student budget to help with financial planning. From the Green Line Investor Services Inc. Centre, run by a subsidiary of the bank, Internet users can download a demonstration copy of the MicroMax investment-management software. They can also use an Equities Commissions Calculator that the bank hopes will persuade them its own brokerage services can save them money. David Sypher, business manager for electronic delivery systems at Green Line Investor Services, told Newsbytes the day will come when customers will be able to buy and sell mutual funds over the Internet, using cash from their direct trading accounts. Customers can already handle such transactions by telephone. Security concerns are among the stumbling blocks, he said, and "we're taking it one step at a time." The TD Bank's Web site has been operating since February of this year, Sypher said. (Grant Buckler/19950901/Press Contact: Stephen Gesner, Toronto-Dominion Bank, 416-982-4088, Internet e-mail gesnes@tdbank.ca; Naomi Cornelius, TD Trust, 416-944-6321; Andy Annett, TD Asset Management, 416-982-2662; Sue de Stein, TD Bank Corporate Visa, 416-944-5762; Debra Wightman, TD Bank Financial Services, 416-307-1877; David Sypher, Green Line Investor Services, 416-982-4737) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 09/05/95 BUSINESS UK - Dynatech Gets Fast Ethernet Order From Sun Micro (NEWS)(BUSINESS)(LON)(00016) UK - Dynatech Gets Fast Ethernet Order From Sun Micro 09/05/95 HERTFORD, HERTFORDSHIRE, ENGLAND, 1995 SEP 5 (NB) -- Dynatech Communications, a communications and information processing specialist, has contracted to supply switched Fast Ethernet products for Sun Microsystems new headquarters. According to Dynatech, the UKP100,000 deal is significant, since Sun is the industry's leading Unix open systems supplier. Plans call for Sun Microsystems to use the Fast Ethernet network when it moves into its new sales offices in Farnborough. According to Dynatech, Sun plans to introduce flexible work practices when it moves into its new sales office, and the network will allow it to implement the new working practices. The new network will, Dynatech claims, ensure that all users get the dedicated, high-bandwidth network access they need with significant, technological improvements along the line. Dynatech has so far supplied 17 Grand Junction Fast Switches to G&A Computer Services, a SunService technical support provider, who will carry out the installation, implementation and support of the new network infrastructure at Farnborough. The speed on the network between client and server will reach around 100 megabits-per-second (Mbps) and the network will provide dedicated 10Mbps circuits to desk-top users. The new network aims to provide service for 150 office-based employees and support "nomadic" and telecommuting operations, as well as full wide area communications. Sun claims that it is one of the first to install a switched 10/100 Ethernet network on the scale at its new sales office. "Switched 10/100 Ethernet environments are relatively new, so it was important for us to work with companies such as Dynatech Communications and G&A, who have proven skills in this area," explained Dave Warwick, project manager with Sun Microsystems. "We believe, that, given the short implementation times required, the grand Junction solution offered both a technological and price- performance edge over competitive offerings," he said. Plans call for the new network to go live "very shortly." Dynatech Communications will provide technical back-up to information technology operations during installation and further support when the network becomes operational. (Sylvia Dennis/19950901/Press & Reader Contact: Mike Dolan, Dynatech Communications, +44-1992-633513) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 09/05/95 BUSINESS Europe - FastCAD Forms Software Publishing Unit (NEWS)(BUSINESS)(LON)(00017) Europe - FastCAD Forms Software Publishing Unit 09/05/95 HERTFORD, HERTFORDSHIRE, ENGLAND, 1995 SEP 5 (NB) -- FastCAD Europe has announced the formation of FastTrak Software Publishing. Plans call for the company's new software division to handle general sales and support for various FastCAD packages, including the AllClear range of flowcharting applications. "By launching this separate division, we are able to bring the level of support and service associated with FastCAD to a much wider market with a range of innovative and effective software solutions," claimed Julie Turner, sales and marketing manager for the new division. In parallel with the formation of the new software operation, FastCAD has signed an exclusive European republishing agreement with Clear Software in the US, for the distribution and support of AllClear, the flowcharting software. According to FastCAD, the deal supersedes a previous arrangement that Clear Software had with Guildsoft. FastTrak Software Publishing will be involved in the distribution of FastCAD's: popular space planning packages, the FloorPlan Plus and FloorPlan Plus 3D; together with 3D Design Plus, a drawing, shading, rendering & animation program; and Estimator, a project budgeting and cost estimation application. FastTrak has also unveiled On Cue Utilities, a UKP99 utility suite for Apple Mac users that allows them to control their files and memory management. FastTrak's first offering to market under the new agreement with Clear Software is AllClear III, a flowchart application that is billed as combining visual and text operation tools. According to FastTrak, the package enables clear communication of complex information. Features of the package include automatic space management, user definable shape patterns, and multi-level charts. "Other diagramming products require you to place each box where you think it should go. AllClear's text-based model for creating flowcharts, along with version 3.0's drag-and-drop templates, allow for a much more complex flowcharting design than could normally be achieved using graphic tools only. The whole approach not only gives customers the ability to chose the way they want to work, they can also reduce charting time by over 50 percent," Turner explained. AllClear for Windows is selling in the UK for UKP249. For users of competing packages, FastTrak is offering a trade-up option price of UKP99.95. The package is also available in network versions for Novell Netware, 3Com, Banyan, Microsoft LAN Manager, PathWorks, LANtastic, and others. (Sylvia Dennis/19950901/Press & Reader Contact: FastTrak Software Publishing, +44-1923-246427) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 09/05/95 GENERAL NTT's Global Bird Count (NEWS)(GENERAL)(TYO)(00018) NTT's Global Bird Count 09/05/95 TOKYO, JAPAN, 1995 SEP 5 (NB) -- On Sunday, October 8th, Japan's telecommunications giant Nippon Telegraph & Telephone, NTT, wants you to leave the computer off, stay away from the television, and get outside and enjoy nature. The event has been scheduled to coincide with the tenth anniversary of NTT's establishment as a corporation. NTT's World Bird Count will encourage people to "Be aware of the nature around us and rediscover the small nature that has been unnoticed or forgotten," by going out and counting as many different species of birds as possible on the day. At the end of the day, participants are asked to send in a list of birds seen to the NTT Nature and Multimedia Office via electronic- mail. The Tokyo-based company will then compile the data into a worldwide listing of types of bird seen. The exercise will make the most of the global communications possibilities of the Internet as well as proposing "a network environment which generates new values out of the Internet communication." NTT says, "The conventional form of communication between an individual and the other individual has been enlarged to the communication between an individual and the world. NTT holds that this new form of mass communication is the essence of multimedia." Two versions of the count are available, one for serious bird watchers and another where any types of birds, except those in books, are allowed. The telephone giant will also make a "humble" donation to BirdLife International for every species of bird seen on the day. As well as proving the Internet can bring together many people in a single project, NTT hopes that for each person taking part they can discover the nature around them that may have been forgotten or never discovered in the first place. More details on the event are available on the World Wide Web at http://www.nttls.co.jp/w-bird/ or via e-mail from bird@nttls.co.jp. (Martyn Williams/19950901) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 09/05/95 GENERAL Japan Newsbriefs (NEWS)(GENERAL)(TYO)(00019) Japan Newsbriefs 09/05/95 TOKYO, JAPAN, 1995 SEP 5 (NB) -- In this roundup of news from Japan: Sony, Toshiba, deny DVD compromise report, G-Search launches new software download system, Nokia expands in Japan, NEC buys stake in Portuguese telecoms company, VCR imports double on year, Yamaha to sell Mini-Disc players. Sony, Toshiba, Deny DVD Compromise Report Officials from Sony and Toshiba have denied reports in Yomiuri Shimbun that the two sides in the digital video disk (DVD) standards war are near to a compromise. The newspaper said in its morning edition that under the agreement, Sony's single-sided MMCD disk would be standardized for computer data applications and Toshiba's double- sided SD system be used for video storage. Newsbytes reported recently that the two sides were in talks aimed at avoidance of a costly standards battle. A Toshiba spokesman simply said the talks were underway but no result had been reached. G-Search Launches New Software Download System Fujitsu's G-Search database company and Fujitsu Electronics Ltd. have launched a new World Wide Web site that makes use of a newly developed technology for speeding up downloads. The system uses a new high compression system called Keyed High-Performance Compression which is capable of compressing files much more than conventional systems meaning less time is needed to retrieve a file. The system also offers encryption making it is suitable for software vendors on computer networks to use. G-Search is selling software via its Web site using the new system. World Wide Web: http://www.g-search.or.jp/ Nokia Expands In Japan Enjoying a booming domestic mobile telecommunications market, Nokia Mobile Phones (Japan) KK, a jointly owned company of Finland's Nokia and Mitsui & Co., will double its local workforce from forty to eighty within the next year. Most of the new staff will be involved in promotions and campaigns aimed at increasing Nokia's current 15% share of the mobile telephone market. The company supplies telephone handsets for the networks operated by Japan Telecom and NTT DoCoMo. NEC Buys Stake In Portuguese Telecoms Company NEC Corporation and an associated company are to buy a 60% stake in Portugal's Systel. The purchase, valued at 700 million yen, will provide NEC with a part of Portugal's only telecommunications equipment manufacturer. Japan based NEC Corporation will purchase 48% of Systel with NEC Brazil taking 12%. Systel is a major manufacturer of telephone switchboards used in telephone exchanges. VCR Imports Double On Year Figures just released by the Electronics Industries Association of Japan show imports of video cassette recorders have jumped 131% over the same period last year. The country imported 279,000 units while exporting 889,000 units, a fall of 32.1%. Total domestic production reached 1.049 million units. In the same period, color television imports grew 12.8% to 662,000 units, a new record. Exports slipped 30.4% to 173,000 units on total domestic production of 593,000. Yamaha To Sell Mini-Disk Players Yamaha Corporation will begin selling Mini-Disk players in late November. The players, to be priced at 89,000 yen, will be procured from Sony on an OEM (original equipment manufacturer) basis. Sony invented the Mini-Disk system and has been the driving force behind its promotion. The new product will be available as an add-on to existing or future hi-fi systems or as an integral part of new systems. It is the first time Yamaha has procured a product under an OEM agreement. (Martyn Williams/19950901) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 09/05/95 BROADCAST Mishap Halts Chile's Satellite Dreams (NEWS)(BROADCAST)(TYO)(00020) Mishap Halts Chile's Satellite Dreams 09/05/95 PLESETSK, RUSSIA, 1995 SEP 5 (NB) -- Chile's dreams of becoming a satellite operating nation were halted late last week after a technical fault left the country's Fasat-Alfa satellite attached to a Ukrainian satellite it was hitching a ride into space on. The satellite was launched on Thursday by a Ukrainian Tsiklon-3 rocket from the Plesetsk cosmodrome 1,000 kilometers (km) north of Moscow in Russia's far north. After a normal launch and separation from the rocket, Russian Military Space Force scientists and controllers at the cosmodrome sent a signal to the Chilean satellite to separate from the Ukrainian satellite it was connected to. Apparently, the satellite received the signal but failed to separate. A spokesman at the center was quoted by Reuter as saying, "The satellite received ground signals for separation but it did not happen." After trying for over twenty-four hours, the controllers gave up attempting the operation and declared the Chilean satellite useless. It will remain attached to Ukraine's SICH-1, a marine research satellite, which will be put into use as originally planned. The Fasat-Alfa carries a payload consisting of five grams of Chilean soil and apparatus for scientific experiments which would send the satellite orbiting the poles and sending back pictures and data on ultraviolet radiation and the condition of the ozone layer above the Antarctic. In addition to the scientific instruments, voice reception and transmission equipment for use by radio amateurs was also on-board. The equipment was designed by students at Chile University's Center for Space Studies. The satellite weighed only 50 kilograms and measured 70 by 36 by 36 centimeters. It was built by a team at Surrey Satellite Technology Ltd. in Surrey, England, who competed with American and Mexican companies for the deal. Surrey Satellite Technology Ltd. also offered post-graduate training at Surrey University for Chilean Air Force technicians. The company, associated with Surrey University, has a history of building small scientific and amateur radio satellites for the United Kingdom. The project was a source of great pride for the country which would have become the fourth satellite operating country in South America following Mexico, Brazil, and Argentina. (Martyn Williams/19950905) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 09/05/95 BUSINESS Toshiba & Itochu Swap Time Warner Stakes (NEWS)(BUSINESS)(TYO)(00021) Toshiba & Itochu Swap Time Warner Stakes 09/05/95 TOKYO, JAPAN, 1995 SEP 5 (NB) -- Time Warner Inc. (TWX) has agreed with Toshiba Corporation (TOKYO:6502) and Itochu Corporation (TOKYO:8001) to enhance the relationship between the two Japanese companies and the American entertainment giant by swapping the shares they already hold in Time Warner Entertainment for stock in Time Warner Inc. The agreement was announced jointly by Time Warner Inc. Chairman and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Gerald M. Levin, Itochu President and CEO Minoru Murofushi, and Toshiba President and CEO Fumio Sato. Under the terms of the agreement, Toshiba and Itochu will swap the equity they already hold for either eight million shares or seven million shares and $10 million in cash. Toshiba declined to indicate which option it would pursue, but Itochu said it would take the former. The stakes are worth roughly 3% of Time Warner Inc. The preferred shares in Time Warner Inc. have a liquidation value of $100 per share and are convertible at a stated price of $48 a share. The two companies can expect a dividend of $3.75 per share for each of the next four years. Upon completion of the deal, ownership of Time Warner Entertainment will be split between Time Warner Inc., holding 75%, and US West, holding 25%. Time Warner Entertainment comprises of Warner Bros., the HBO cable television service, and the Time Warner Cable business. Toshiba's Sato said, "The relationship (with Time Warner) has borne fruit in many areas for Toshiba, including the creation of the digital video disk which will be a future key platform to maximize cooperation with resources of Warner Bros., Warner Music Group, and Time Inc. The development of new businesses such as Time Warner Entertainment Japan and Titus Communications Inc., Japan's first MSO system operator, is another vital token of our effective business collaborations." Itochu's president also remarked on the work the three have done in establishing Titus Communications, a new cable TV operator in Japan, "As the world's largest trading company, Itochu has been extremely pleased with our strategic relationship with Time Warner. Success of our partnership with Time Warner to date includes the establishment of a cable MSO in Japan." Murofushi continued, "We are very happy to broaden and expand our role with Time Warner by becoming one of the company's largest shareholders. We are firm believers in Time Warner's strategy, and by acquiring an interest in all Time Warner assets, look forward to continuing and enhancing our relationship." The companies relationship stretches back to 1991. In June of the following year, the three established Time Warner Entertainment. (Martyn Williams/19950905/Press contact: Toshiba Corporation, tel +81-3-3457-2105, fax +81-3-3456-4776; Itochu Corporation, +81-52-203-2111) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 09/05/95 BUSINESS NEC Concludes Deal With Packard Bell (NEWS)(BUSINESS)(TYO)(00022) NEC Concludes Deal With Packard Bell 09/05/95 TOKYO, JAPAN, 1995 SEP 5 (NB) -- NEC Corporation has concluded a deal with Packard Bell, under which the Japanese electronics company will acquire a stake in that company. meanwhile, NEC has announced a new alliance with Tandem Computers to develop Windows NT-based servers. The Packard Bell deal, originally announced in July (Newsbytes, "NEC Takes Stake In Packard Bell," July 5), gives NEC, Japan's biggest personal computer manufacturer, a 19.99% stake in Packard Bell, number one in American PC sales, for a $170 million investment. The two companies plan to work together on research and development of advanced multimedia computer applications. In a separate announcement Tuesday morning in Tokyo, NEC said it has reached an joint development and OEM (original equipment manufacturing) agreement with Tandem Computers. Under the agreement, joint work will be carried out in the field of Windows NT-based servers. NEC's strengths in Windows NT technology and Tandem's parallel processing knowledge will be combined to produce the desired results. The servers that will be jointly developed will make use of the next- generation MIPS based microprocessor, the R1000, according to NEC, which says the units should begin shipping in the first half of fiscal year 1996 (March - October, 1996). In addition, Tandem has agreed to acquire and market on an OEM basis, models in NEC's Windows NT server range, including the RISCserver and RISCstation workstation model. These will be marketed from October this year. NEC has also undertaken to license its system management software to Tandem. In return for the ESM (Express server Systems Management) software from NEC, Tandem will license its control management software to NEC. The Tandem software allows servers to operate continuously when others have failed. Tandem will receive NEC's ESM license in November this year with the license for Tandem technology being received before the end of the year, according to NEC. The announcement today strengthens the position of Windows NT as a business based operating system. The Unix operating system is currently dominant in the market, but a trend towards client-server computing rather than mainframe based systems and an aggressive marketing campaign by Microsoft is slowly eroding the share of the market held by Unix. (Martyn Williams/19950905/Press Contact: Chris Shimizu, NEC Corporation, tel +81-3-3798-6511, fax +81-3-3457-7249, Internet e-mail shimizu_10-22150@aladdin.nec.co.jp; Naomi Misawa, Tandem Computers Japan, tel +81-3-5463-8570, fax +81-3-5463-6574, Internet e-mail misawa_naomi@tandem.co.jp) (ADVISORY)(GENERAL)(MSP)(00023) NewsPix Images For Newsbytes Publishers 09/05/95 MINNEAPOLIS, MINNESOTA, U.S.A., 1995 SEP 5 (NB) -- These photos correspond to recent Newsbytes stories. They are online in the Newsbytes menu on America Online, NiftyServe, and the Newsbytes private bulletin board system in Minneapolis. JPEG (Joint Photographic Experts Group) files are larger in size, PICT files are designed as thumbnails for onscreen viewing. The photos are titled with name/year/month/day. PICT/thumbnail Pictures are black and white (gray scale). File message will indicate color if the JPEG image is color. Some of the "for use" images, may be PICT files. To distinguish these files from the thumbnail preview PICT images, the tag for the color "for use" image will have PICT, all caps. The thumbnail will remain noted as "pct." To become a licensed Newsbytes publisher, call Newsbytes at 612-430-1100 (US) or write to administrator@newsbytes.com on the Internet. Licensing applies to any medium. --------------------------- Week of SEPTEMBER 5 - SEPTEMBER 8,1995 --------------------------- - NEW THIS WEEK - COGNOS950829 - color / Cognos On World Wide Web: site graphics. INTERART950828 - color / 3-D Real Estate & Hotel Walkabouts On The Web: the food page with salsa ad, looks good! NEC950831 - color / NEC Develops "Snake-Like" Robot: shot of the snake with camera dome at head. KIDS950829 - color / Novell Intros Perfectworks For Kids: screen shot of the 'Me by Me' page. MEDIAMALL950828 - color / Media Mall Offers Online Multimedia Info: screen graphics/logo. CASHGRAF950830 - color / CashGraf Gets New Name, Intros 2 Acct Packages: screen shot of the main menu. --------------------------------------------------------------- - PARTIAL LISTING OF PREVIOUS ITEMS - RADSHACK950814 - b&w / Radio Shack Gets New Image: before and after arrangement of Radio Shack ads. LTE5000950821 - color / Compaq Intros Modular Notebook PC 08: the notebook PC in action, associates at work on site using computer. TOUCH950822 - color / Touch Technology Moves Off The Display Screen: the Tanisys keyboard on neutral background. PAGEMAKR950823 - color / Adobe Ships Pagemaker 6.0 For Mac: shot of the software package. HARLEM950822 - color / Prodigy Offers Harlem Inner-City Area Online: welcome & home page. FOTOFUN950811 - b&w / Fargo Ships $399 Photo-Quality Digital Printer: picture of the unit with family photo emerging. HP950815a - color / HP To Intro New Windows 95 Home PCs: shot of the HP Pavilion 7000. Two screen shots are tagged HP950815b & HP950815c. HP950815b - color / HP To Intro New Windows 95 Home PCs: personal page in the comic book style. HP950815c - color / HP To Intro New Windows 95 Home PCs: personal page in the sculpted marble style. IBMLIBRARY950816 - color / More On AT&T Web Services For Consumers, Businesses: IBM Digital Library home page. CREATIVE950817 - b&w / 3-D Becomes Major Strategy At Creative Labs: portrait shot of Creative's chairman and chief executive officer, W.H. Sim, quoted extensively in story. PANTRAFCAM950817 - b&w / Video News Roundup: two images in one file: Shadow Traffic control (left), and the Panasonic WV-E550 traffic and surveillance camera (right). WEAC081195 - color / Weather Channel To Intro "Everything Weather" CD-ROM: the Hurricane Tracker page. IMWORKS950807 - color / Software Connects User To Internet Via Ad Home Pages: IMW logo. DIAGRAM950802 - color / Diagramming Software For Windows: color full and busy screenshot. OPTIPLEX950810 - color / Dell Intros PCs With Integrated Networking: shot of the PC. EARTHLINK950809 - color / Hollywood's Internet Provider Goes National: Earthlink logo. VISIO4-950809 - color / Visio Product Bundle For Windows 95: shot of software package. YAHOO950728 - color / Yahoo To Develop Internet Service: Jerry Yang (left) & David Filo (right), founders and current developers for the YAHOO internet navigator. OFFICE950727 - color / Microsoft Donates $6 Million In Software To Settle Suit: shot of the software package. DVUE950731 - b&w / U.S. Robotics Adds LED Lights to PCMCIA Modems: product shot, with card plugged into laptop. POWRSHOP950731 - b&w / Adaptive Ships Photoshop Accelerators: product shot of the card. SONYCAM950802 - b&w / Japan Newsbriefs: product shot of the new Sony digital handycams with the digital videocassette between. DOONESBURY950731 - color / Trudeau's Doonesbury ScreenSaver: screenshot of Zonker and his tan-meter. (Newsbytes/19950905) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 09/05/95 BUSINESS CA Sells Legent Disaster Recovery Unit (NEWS)(BUSINESS)(TOR)(00024) CA Sells Legent Disaster Recovery Unit 09/05/95 ISLANDIA, NEW YORK, U.S.A., 1995 SEP 5 (NB) -- Computer Associates International Inc. (NYSE:CA) has sold its Legent Information Integrity division to Panorama Software Corp. of Woodland Hills, California. Edward M. (Ted) Comfoltey, who founded Basic Software Group Inc. and 10 years ago sold it to Computer Associates, formed Panorama especially to buy the Legent division from CA. Basic Software developed the Accpac line of accounting software, which is a mainstay of CA's personal computer software business. The Legent Information Integrity division sells disaster-recovery automation software known as Sunrise and Lifeguard. Computer Associates closed its purchase of Legent Corp. at the end of July, after the United States Department of Justice gave its approval for the buyout on condition that CA grant non-exclusive licenses for certain Legent products to other companies. The sale of the Information Integrity division has nothing to do with that provision, CA spokesman Herman Chin told Newsbytes. According to Chin, Legent and Panorama had been discussing the sale of the division before CA acquired the Reston, Virginia, software maker, and "from CA's point of view ... we didn't want to stand in their way." Officials said the division being sold brought in gross revenues of $5.5 million in the Legent fiscal year ended Sept. 30, 1994. Legent had run it as an independent business unit since 1992. Comfoltey, who worked at Computer Associates for a time after selling Basic Software Group to the company in 1985 and later helped found Snif Security Inc., will become chief executive of Panorama Software. The staff of the Legent Information Integrity division will remain with the acquired operation, which will operate from its existing offices in Woodland Hills and Cleveland. Financial terms of the deal were not announced. (Grant Buckler/19950905/Press Contact: David Dunlap, Panorama Software, 818-710-7300; Herman Chin, Computer Associates, 516-342-2364) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 09/05/95 IBM IBM Upgrades ThinkPads To Pentium, 28,800bps Modems (NEWS)(IBM)(TOR)(00025) IBM Upgrades ThinkPads To Pentium, 28,800bps Modems 09/05/95 SOMERS, NEW YORK, U.S.A., 1995 SEP 5 (NB) -- IBM (NYSE:IBM) has beefed up three of its ThinkPad notebook computers with Pentium chips and 28,800 bits-per-second (bps) modems, bringing the total number of its Pentium-based ThinkPad models to five. The ThinkPad 755CD, 755CDV, and 755CV notebooks got 75 megahertz (MHz) Pentium processors and 28,800bps modems. IBM will continue selling older versions of the three models with 100MHz 486 processors, but has cut the price on the lower-powered editions, company spokesman Mike Corrado told Newsbytes. Like the 486-based versions, the Pentium-based 755CD, 755CDV, and 755CV come with IBM's see-through, active-matrix color screen, which can be detached from the computer to serve as a projection panel for use with an overhead projector, IBM officials said. Like other models in the ThinkPad line, they also use the TrackPoint pointing device, a small lever in the middle of the keyboard that plays the role of a mouse. The notebooks come with eight megabytes (MB) of memory and a choice of 810MB or 1.2 gigabyte (GB) removable hard disk drives, IBM said. Removable CD-ROM drives, stereo speakers, built-in answering machine and speakerphone, and dual high-speed infrared ports are also standard equipment. The CDV model also has a wireless remote control. With the latest announcement, IBM now offers five Pentium and seven 486 models in the ThinkPad line, Corrado said. Some of these are essentially the same models with different processors, he noted. All three new models are available right away. The prices in IBM's PC Direct catalog are $5,449 for the 755CD, $5,949 for the 755CV, and $6,649 for the ThinkPad 755CDV. Reseller prices may vary. (Grant Buckler/19950905/Press Contact: Mike Corrado, IBM, 914-766-3419; Jonathan Gandal, Brodeur & Partners for IBM, 914-697-9711; Public Contact: IBM PC Direct, 800-772-2227) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 09/05/95 BROADCAST ****Pac Bell's $16Bil Cable TV Plan For California (NEWS)(BROADCAST)(LAX)(00026) ****Pac Bell's $16Bil Cable TV Plan For California 09/05/95 SAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1995 SEP 5 (NB) --Pacific Bell is building an communications network that will provide state-of-the-art voice and data, with full cable television. Pacific Bell says it will bring a fiber/coaxial cable hybrid to one million homes by the end of 1996. Trials are about to begin in San Jose, California, and Pacific Bell expects to have 100,000 homes ready for hook-up by April, 1996. That will be followed by one million homes by the end of 1996, and half the state wired by the year 2000. Speaking to Newsbytes, Craig Watts, manager of corporate communications for Pacific Telesis Group, said, "The service will provide the same offerings to customers as provided by cable companies -- about 70 channels of analog programming. In addition, we will add up to 300 digital channels. We plan to offer movies on demand, interactive games, home shopping, and complete telephony. "We plan to spend $16 billion to build this digital network in California. We got a late start because of the Federal regulatory process, but when we are operating at full speed we will be able to wire 2,000 homes every day," said Watts. He added, "While we were not the first Baby Bell to win approval from the Federal Communication Commission to enter the cable business, we will leapfrog the others in 1996. Pacific Bell will have a full cable/telephony system in place before anyone else." Pacific Telesis said it plans to begin providing first phase service in San Jose, Los Angeles, San Diego and Orange County. Commercial services will be offered during the first quarter of 1996. "Pacific Telesis will provide high-speed data services in the next few months. This is going to be a full service network unlike anything you've ever seen," said Michael Fitzpatrick, president of Pacific Bell's Enterprise Group. Pacific Bell has also announced that, through it Pacific Telesis Video Services, it plans to develop content for the cable operations. It will also obtain video content from TELE-TV, a joint venture formed by Pacific Telesis, NYNEX, and Bell Atlantic. The regional telephone companies are making a huge bet in this approach to the cable television market, but they are hedging as to what technology will get them there. Pacific Telesis announced in April that plans to buy a wireless cable operation in Riverside, California. That move followed similar deals by other regional telephone companies to buy wireless technology. For example, Bell Atlantic and NYNEX recently announced a deal to invest $100 million in CAI Wireless Systems. (Richard Bowers/19950905/Press Contact: Craig Watts, Pacific Telesis Group, 415-542-6980) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 09/05/95 BUSINESS US Robotics Buys Palm Computing (NEWS)(BUSINESS)(MSP)(00027) US Robotics Buys Palm Computing 09/05/95 SKOKIE, ILLINOIS, U.S.A., 1995 SEP 5 (NB) -- US Robotics Corp. (NASDAQ:USRX) has bought Los Altos, California-based Palm Computing Inc. for about $44 million. The deal, which closed last Friday, saw Palm's outstanding capital shares converted into US Robotics shares worth $44 million. The transaction will be accounted for as a pooling-of-interests, US Robotics said. The company also said it will restate its prior period earnings to reflect the new deal when it reports fourth quarter and year ending results, which end October 1. Karen J. Novak, US Robotics spokesperson, told Newsbytes no layoffs are expected, and everything will be "business as usual" at Palm. Also, Novak said the present management team will stay in place. The company itself will be known as a wholly-owned subsidiary of US Robotics, she added. Palm develops operating systems and applications software for hand-held computers and communication devices. The company's product line also includes personal information management applications, and desktop-to- hand-held computer connectivity software. "Palm will be a real asset as we push our communications product strategy beyond the desktop computer and into the pockets of individual users," said US Robotics chairman, president, and chief executive officer, Casey Cowell. "We are committed to reaching all communications markets." Another market US Robotics has entered into in recent days is the ISDN (integrated services digital network) fray. Newsbytes reported last June about the company's first ISDN product, called the "Courier I-Modem with ISDN/V.34." At the time, US Robotics officials told Newsbytes the new modem embodies the company's "V.Everything" capability. This means the new Courier ISDN modem is backward- compatible with older standards for slower analog modems. "The key is that people shouldn't have to choose between ISDN and analog applications," Mark McMillan, ISDN product manager for US Robotics, told Newsbytes at the time. The new modem lists for $595, he added. (Bob Woods/19950905/Press Contact: Karen J. Novak, US Robotics, 708-952-5244) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 09/05/95 GENERAL Canadian Product Launch Update (NEWS)(GENERAL)(TOR)(00028) Canadian Product Launch Update 09/05/95 KINGSTON, ONTARIO, CANADA 1995 SEP 5 (NB) -- This regular feature, appearing on the first day Newsbytes publishes each week, provides further details for the Canadian market on announcements by international companies that Newsbytes has already covered. This week: new Apple PowerBooks and upgrades, Compaq's LTE 5000, and IBM's Global Network service for Lotus Notes. Apple Canada Inc., in Markham, Ontario, added three new models to its PowerBook line of notebook computers and unveiled upgrades for existing models (Newsbytes, Aug. 28). Apple's new PowerBook Duo 2300 will carry a Canadian price of C$5,549 with eight megabytes (MB) of memory and a 750MB hard drive. The 2300 is due to begin shipping worldwide in mid-October, Apple Canada said. Apple's PowerBook 5300, also newly launched, is to be available in Canada early in September. Estimated street prices will range from C$3,499 for a 5300/100 with a gray-scale display, 8MB of memory, and a 500MB disk drive to C$10,249 for a 5300ce/117 with an active-matrix color display, 32MB of memory, and a 1.1 gigabyte (GB) hard disk. The Macintosh PowerBook 190, with 4MB of memory and a 500MB hard drive, is expected to have a Canadian street price of C$2,599. The 190cs in the same configuration will have a street price of C$3,199, Apple estimated. Both are due to ship worldwide in October. PowerPC upgrades for Apple's PowerBook 200 and 500 series machines, including PowerPC processors and an added 4MB of memory, will be available in mid-October, Apple Canada said. The upgrade for the 200 series is expected to cost C$1,800 to C$2,000, while the 500 series upgrade will be in the US$1,000 to US$1,300 range. Compaq Canada Inc., of Richmond Hill, Ontario, introduced the LTE 5000 line of notebook computers (Newsbytes, Aug. 21). Due to be generally available late in September, the line is to include as many as six models, with prices starting at about C$5,800 for a system with a 75 megahertz (MHz) Pentium processor and a 510MB hard drive, and ranging up to about C$9,500 for a 90MHz Pentium with quad-speed CD-ROM and 810MB hard drive. Markham, Ontario-based IBM Canada Ltd. announced its IBM Global Network service for Lotus Notes (Newsbytes, Aug. 15), allowing customers to implement Notes applications on the IBM Global Network. Officials said it is to be widely available, in Canada and nearly 40 other countries, early in 1996. (Grant Buckler/19950905/Press Contact: Linda Grant or Susan Taylor, Apple Canada, 905-477-5800, Internet e-mail s.taylor@eworld.com; John Challinor III, Compaq Canada, 416-229-8936; Maureen Rourke, IBM Canada, 905-316-4425; Internet e-mail mrourke@vnet.ibm.com; Public Contact: Apple Canada, 800-665-2775 ext 450; Compaq Canada, tel 416-733-7876, fax 416-229-8898) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 09/05/95 WINDOWS ****Windows 95 Support Lines Jammed (NEWS)(WINDOWS)(DEN)(00029) ****Windows 95 Support Lines Jammed 09/05/95 REDMOND, WASHINGTON, U.S.A., 1995 SEP 5 (NB) -- Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ: MSFT) said the high volume of callers seeking technical support for the company's new operating system, Windows 95, has led to long waits and busy signals for many callers. In preparation for the Windows 95 launch, the company signed deals with numerous support contractors and trained about 1,600 support technicians, but even that massive effort cannot cope with the volume of phone calls. An estimated one million copies of Windows 95 were sold in the first four days following release of the software on August 24. As reported last month by Newsbytes, Microsoft also increased the number of hours support technicians were available to handle requests for assistance. In preparing for the launch of Windows 95, Microsoft built in the ability to handle as many as 20,000 calls each day, but even that number has been exceeded, a Microsoft spokesperson told Newsbytes. The spokesperson said when callers will have to wait more than 15 minutes for assistance the system automatically turns on a busy signal. In addition to phone calls, Microsoft said it has answered more than 170,000 requests for information over the Internet as of last Friday. Microsoft's Knowledgebase is available for users to search for answers to their Windows 95 questions on Microsoft's home page on the Internet at www.microsoft.com , and on Compuserve and the Microsoft Network. Microsoft said the average wait time is less than 15 minutes, but to callers on the toll-free lines that may seem like an eternity. The Microsoft spokesperson said the company has also shifted support engineers' working hours in order to have more support staffers available at peak hours. The number of callers may be higher than expected due to reports of several viruses which cause an error message to appear when the second of the 13 Windows 95 disks is inserted during the installation process, according to the spokesperson. The disk then has to be replaced, and Microsoft has set up a special telephone number (800-207-7766) for users who need a replacement disk. Users installing the CD-ROM version of Windows 95, which Microsoft said accounts for about half of the Windows 95 sales, don't experience the problem. The company recommends users upgrading to Windows 95 first backup their files and run virus scanning software. Symantec Corp. said it is making available a free virus scanning program for users who don't have such software. (Jim Mallory/19950905/Press and public contact: Microsoft, 206-882-8080) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 09/05/95 APPLE Apple Offers High-Speed Power Mac For Education (NEWS)(APPLE)(SFO)(00030) Apple Offers High-Speed Power Mac For Education 09/05/95 CUPERTINO, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1995 SEP 5 (NB) -- Apple Computer (NASDAQ:AAPL) says its new Power Mac 5300/100 LC workstation delivers PowerPC computing with extensive multimedia capabilities to the education market. Available immediately, the 5300/100 is designed for multimedia authoring and playback. The inclusion of reduced instruction set computing (RISC) processing technology allows the new model to handle the demands of video use in multimedia applications. Apple says the new model also has two expansion slots to accommodate future growth. One of the slots can be used to add Ethernet capabilities for networking. Power Mac 5300/100 LC is powered by a 100 megahertz (MHz) 603e RISC processor with 256 kilobytes (KB) Level 2 Cache, 16 megabytes (MB) of RAM (expandable to 64MB), and a 1.2 gigabyte (GB) hard disk. Multimedia features include an AppleCD 6001 quad-speed CD drive, built-in 16-bit stereo sound, a video-out connector, video capture card, TV tuner, and an Apple SuperDrive floppy disk drive. Since this model is designed for the education market, it is being sold direct for $2,399. The 5300 follows Apple's Power Mac 5200/75 LC, which Apple introduced this past April. Apple frequently offers a commercial version of its LC systems which are exclusively produced for students and educators. During the summer, Apple complimented the Power Mac 5200/75 LC with the Performa 5200. Speaking for Apple, Emilio Robles, director of public relations, told Newsbytes, "There has been a growing demand from the education market for more powerful systems which incorporate a capability for extensive video technology. Schools are anxious to include all multimedia features into their educational tools. The new Power Mac 5300/100 is our response to their rapidly growing interest in powerful computing and multimedia applications." Robles also said the incorporation of networked environments in schools continues to grow and the new 5300 LC offers the necessary expansion capabilities. (Patrick McKenna/1995/Press Contact: Maureen O'Connell, Apple Computer, 408-862-6689) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 09/05/95 ONLINE ****Nielsen & I/Pro Join In Web-Traffic Measurement (NEWS)(ONLINE)(TOR)(00031) ****Nielsen & I/Pro Join In Web-Traffic Measurement 09/05/95 NEW YORK, NEW YORK, U.S.A., 1995 SEP 5 (NB) -- Nielsen Media Research and Internet Profiles Corp. (I/Pro) have announced a deal whereby Nielsen will put its name on I/Pro's measurement and evaluation services for the Internet's World Wide Web and take a small stake in the San Francisco, California-based company. I/Pro offers two services that measure traffic on World Wide Web sites: I/Count and I/Audit. These will be renamed Nielsen I/Pro I/Count and Nielsen I/Pro I/Audit, officials said. The deal will not result in any changes in the services themselves in the near future, I/Pro spokeswoman Tina Lin told Newsbytes. What it brings I/Pro is the cachet of the Nielsen name -- best known for its television audience information service -- and added marketing resources. Both I/Count and I/Audit measure traffic on World Wide Web sites, not other Internet services. Lin said the services go beyond counting "hits" -- a widespread but sometimes misleading way of measuring the popularity of Web sites -- by recording more information about the Internet users who are connecting to the sites. I/Count is designed for the use of Web site operators. By logging on to I/Pro's own Web site, customers can get reports about the traffic on their sites, Lin said. I/Audit gathers essentially the same information, she explained, but I/Pro performs an extra step, checking the results for unusual patterns that might indicate misleading information, and producing standardized reports. These reports are meant for Web-site operators that sell advertising to provide to their customers and prospects, she said. I/Pro said it counts among its clients CMP Publications, Ziff-Davis Publishing, Chrysler Corp., Microsoft Corp., and others. As part of the deal between Nielsen and I/Pro, Nielsen -- a wholly owned subsidiary of Dun & Bradstreet Corp. (NYSE:DNB) is buying a minority interest in I/Pro. Lin refused to disclose the size of Nielsen's stake, other than to say it is small. (Grant Buckler/19950905/Press Contact: Jack Loftus, Nielsen, 212-708- 7724; Tina Lin, I/Pro, 415-975-5815; Calisa Cole, I/Pro, 415-324-3152; Public Contact: Nielsen, tel 212-708-7714, fax 212-708-7600, Internet e-mail interactive@nielsenmedia.com) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 09/05/95 CHIPS ****Motorola Intros PowerPC For Data Comms/Networking (NEWS)(CHIPS)(DEN)(00032) ****Motorola Intros PowerPC For Data Comms/Networking 09/05/95 AUSTIN, TEXAS, U.S.A., 1995 SEP 5 (NB) -- Motorola Inc.'s (NYSE:MOT) Microprocessor and Memory Technologies Group has introduced its first PowerPC chip specifically designed for the internetworking and data communications markets. The company said the MPC860, which a public relations spokesperson called "a router on a chip on steroids," will be available in five versions. The single-chip integrated microprocessor has its origins in the 32-bit 68360 and 68302 families. The new chip family, known as the PowerQUICC (Quad Integrated Communications Controller) integrates: a 32-bit embedded PowerPC core central processing unit; a memory controller; a second, RISC (reduced instruction set computing)-based communications processor module; and the equivalent of a complete circuit board of system functions on a single chip. Motorola said upgrading to the PowerQUICC series from previous 68360 designs will be easier through the availability of a wide range of development tools. The company said the MPC860 family is designed for a variety of telecommunications, internetworking and data communications tasks, including T1/E1 interface lines, simultaneous voice and data, LAN (local area network) and WAN (wide area network) connections, Ethernet bridges and routers, PBX (private branch exchange) switches, fault-tolerant LANs, smart hubs, and remote access routers. The MPC860 chips run at 40 and 25 megahertz (MHz). Motorola said the 40MHz version can handle 52 million-instructions-per-second (MIPS), while the slower chip runs 33 MIPS and uses less than one-third of a watt. Motorola supplies an MPC860 Application Development system for developers to use in evaluating the MPC860 and debugging target systems. The ADS package is priced at $2,995 direct from Motorola. Developers can also use tools designed for PowerPC-compliant processors. A host of third-party vendors have already signed up to offer development tools for the PowerQUICC chips, including Accelerated Technology, Cogent Computer Systems, Embedded Support Tools, Embedded System Products, Emulation Technology, Green Hills Software, Huntsville Microsystems, Integrated Systems, Intermetrics, Inverness Systems, JMI Software, MetaWare, Mirotec Research, Newbridge Microsystems, Software Development Systems, Synopsys Logic Modeling, Wind River Systems, and Xlnt Designs. The Motorola PowerQUICC controllers are currently in alpha sampling. The company said general sampling will begin in the fourth quarter of 1995 with production volumes being available in the second quarter of 1996. (Jim Mallory/19950905/Press contact: Lisa Hempel, Cunningham Communication for Motorola, 408-982-0400; Public contact: Motorola, 800-441-2447) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 09/05/95 IBM ****MA-Based Outsourcer Buys IBM Plant In Spain (NEWS)(IBM)(BOS)(00033) ****MA-Based Outsourcer Buys IBM Plant In Spain 09/05/95 CONCORD, MASSACHUSETTS, U.S.A., 1995 SEP 5 (NB) -- Manufacturers' Services Ltd., a Concord, Massachusetts-based start-up founded by former top officials of Sun Microsystems, has purchased IBM's manufacturing facility in Valencia, Spain, with backing from York City venture capitalists. The firm has also agreed to assume all IBM manufacturing and business relationships for the site in Spain. Established in June, 1994, by Kevin Melia, former VP of worldwide operations for Sun, and Bob Graham, Sun's former executive VP and general manager, Manufacturers' Services is a "contract manufacturer" that outsources the entire manufacturing process -- "from procurement to assembly" -- from original equipment manufacturers (OEMs), according to a company spokesperson. The outsourcer has previously made similar acquisitions from AT&T Global Information Systems (GIS) and LM Ericsson Inc., she told Newsbytes. Under the deal with IBM, she said, Manufacturers' Services has obtained ownership of the "state-of-the-art," 430,000 square-foot manufacturing plant in Valencia, and will take over manufacturing of "components and systems for point-of-sale (POS) terminals" previously produced by IBM, in addition to related business arrangements. Manufacturers' Services also plans to increase manufacturing output and productivity at the plant, which currently employs 400 people, Newsbytes was told. All workers employed at the plant as of September 1 will become employees of Manufacturers' Services Ltd. The company will provide manufacturing services at the site through its Spanish subsidiary, Global Manufacturers' Services Valencia SA. The capital needed for completing the purchase of the Valencia plant is being provided by DLJ Merchant Banking Partners, LP and affiliated investors, a $1 billion pool of investment capital managed by a subsidiary of the New York City-based investment banking and securities firm Donaldson, Lufkin & Jenrette. In the agreement with AT&T GIS, sealed in 1994, Manufacturers' Services acquired an AT&T plant in Roseville, Minnesota, and is now handling production of switching equipment, modems, Ethernet and Token Ring cards, and telecommunications test equipment that was previously managed directly by AT&T, the spokesperson added. In the Ericsson pact, also reached last year, the US-based manufacturing contractor bought Ericsson's facility in Athlone, Ireland. This fall, Manufacturers' Services expects to launch a new manufacturing plant in Sunnyvale, California, according to the company spokesperson. (Jacqueline Emigh/19950905/Reader Contact: Manufacturers' Services Ltd., 508-287-5630; Press Contacts: Susan Bassett or Amy Bermar, Corporate Ink for Manufacturers' Services, 617-969-9192; Antonio Echarri, IBM Spain, 341-397-5955) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 09/05/95 WINDOWS ****Symantec Offers Free Windows 95 Antivirus Pre-Scan (NEWS)(WINDOWS)(SFO)(00034) ****Symantec Offers Free Windows 95 Antivirus Pre-Scan 09/05/95 CUPERTINO, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1995 SEP 5 (NB) -- In response to a report from Microsoft, Symantec is offering a free DOS antivirus scan utility on its bulletin board system (BBS), Compuserve, America Online, and Microsoft Network. Microsoft has found that its Windows 95 "Install Disk #2" can be corrupted during installation on machines infected with a boot sector virus. Although the incidence of this virus problem has not been great and no damage to the personal computer has been reported, Symantec says computer users planning on installing Windows 95 can possibly save themselves a lot of time by taking a few minutes to run the free antivirus scan utility prior to installing the operating system. Symantec says users who have and use an antivirus program do not need the free utility, but should run their program to determine and eliminate all possible boot sector viruses. The Norton Antivirus (NAV) utility offered as a public service will also eliminate boot-sector viruses. Michael Sweeney, spokesperson for Symantec, told Newsbytes, "The occurrence of a boot-sector virus for users installing Windows 95 has been very small. We want to make it clear that we are a very strong proponent of Microsoft's new operating system. The fact that is does exist shows how important it is for users to use antivirus programs such as Norton Antivirus for Windows 95." Sweeney also reminds users that viruses are easily transmitted through the exchange of floppy disks from one computer to another and through online files downloaded to a personal computer. Shrinked-wrapped software seldom contains contaminated files. The pre-scan utility can be acquired from Symantec's BBS at 503-484-6699 or its Internet FTP (File Transfer Protocol) site at ftp.symantec.com. On Compuserve, America Online, and Microsoft Network, users should go the Symantec Forum and look for NAVSCANZ.EXE, a self-extracting file. (Patrick McKenna/19950905/Press Contact: Michael Sweeney, Symantec, 408-446-7142) (SUMMARY)(GENERAL)(MSP)(00035) Newsbytes Daily Summary 09/05/95 MINNEAPOLIS, MINNESOTA, U.S.A., 1995 SEP 5 (NB) -- These are capsules of all today's news stories: ======================================================================== ------------| N E W S B Y T E S D A I L Y S U M M A R Y |---------- ------------| Tuesday, September 5, 1995 |---------- ======================================================================== (c) Newsbytes News Network (Tm) Editor in Chief: Wendy Woods ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Newsbytes News Network's 1995 Update CD-ROM for Mac, DOS, and Windows is now available for $29.95 (includes s&h). Contains 1983-1995 news stories, more than 64,000 keyword searchable stories and 475 digitized images. For more information or to order, fax to 612-430-0441 or e-mail to 'administrator@newsbytes.com' -- MC, Visa, Amex accepted. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ CATEGORY HEADLINES (*** indicates today's top stories) STORY # ======================================================================== APPLE Apple Offers High-Speed Power Mac For Education............ 30 BROADCAST Mishap Halts Chile's Satellite Dreams...................... 20 BROADCAST ****Pac Bell's $16Bil Cable TV Plan For California........ 26 BUSINESS Russian PC Dealer Adds Service Centers..................... 07 BUSINESS UK - Gateway 2000 & Software Warehouse In Win 95 Deal...... 10 BUSINESS UK - Dynatech Gets Fast Ethernet Order From Sun Micro...... 16 BUSINESS Europe - FastCAD Forms Software Publishing Unit............ 17 BUSINESS Toshiba & Itochu Swap Time Warner Stakes................... 21 BUSINESS NEC Concludes Deal With Packard Bell....................... 22 BUSINESS CA Sells Legent Disaster Recovery Unit..................... 24 BUSINESS US Robotics Buys Palm Computing............................ 27 CHIPS ****Motorola Intros PowerPC For Data Comms/Networking..... 32 GENERAL Lotus Symposium - Veritas Plans 12 Add-On Modules Per Year. 09 GENERAL NTT's Global Bird Count.................................... 18 GENERAL Japan Newsbriefs........................................... 19 GENERAL NewsPix Images For Newsbytes Publishers.................... 23 GENERAL Canadian Product Launch Update............................. 28 GOVT Dell & Olivetti Sign Australian Fixed Term Deals........... 05 IBM IBM Opens Technical Center In Sweden....................... 06 IBM IBM Upgrades ThinkPads To Pentium, 28,800bps Modems........ 25 IBM ****MA-Based Outsourcer Buys IBM Plant In Spain........... 33 ONLINE Quarterdeck To Ship Internet Phone Product................. 01 ONLINE UK - Verity Intros CD-ROM Web Publishing Kit............... 03 ONLINE Real Estate Inspection Info Goes Online.................... 13 ONLINE Toronto-Dominion Bank Adds Services On Internet............ 15 ONLINE ****Nielsen & I/Pro Join In Web-Traffic Measurement....... 31 PC UK - Colossus Intros New PC Range.......................... 11 PC UK - PCMCIA Encryption Card Intro'd........................ 12 TELECOM UK - RAM Offers Fixed Fee Mobile Data Services............. 04 TELECOM Sweden's Ericsson Wins Malaysian Cellular Contract......... 08 TRENDS IT's Control May Loosen In "Comms-Centric" Future.......... 14 WINDOWS Miro Multimedia Products Windows 95-Compatible............. 02 WINDOWS ****Windows 95 Support Lines Jammed....................... 29 WINDOWS ****Symantec Offers Free Windows 95 Antivirus Pre-Scan.... 34 ======================================================================== These are the headlines and first paragraphs of each story, in order: 1 -> Quarterdeck To Ship Internet Phone Product -- Quarterdeck (NASDAQ:QDEK) says it plans to ship an Internet telephone product called Webphone. As an adjunct to Quarterdeck's family of Internet software, Webphone provides the capability for full two-way phone conversations on the Internet, according to the company. 2 -> Miro Multimedia Products Windows 95-Compatible -- Miro Computer Products Inc. has announced that its complete line of multimedia products will ship with optimized drivers for Windows 95 by the end of September. The new Windows 95 drivers are also available free to current product clients. 3 -> UK - Verity Intros CD-ROM Web Publishing Kit -- Verity has unveiled, what it claims is, a first in the Internet Web publishing industry 4 -> UK - RAM Offers Fixed Fee Mobile Data Services -- RAM Mobile Data has announced it is starting to offer fixed price "solutions" to its customers. According to Steve Foster, head of the company's Field Service Business Unit, customers of the mobile data services company can now elect to pay a fixed fee per month 5 -> Dell & Olivetti Sign Australian Fixed Term Deals -- The Australian Government has signed two more fixed term arrangements (FTAs) with overseas computer companies, despite grumbles from the Japanese. The latest deals, with Dell and Olivetti, came as news broke of major export deals by Australian software manufacturer Tracker in Japan (following an FTA deal with Panasonic) and by Australian board maker Hypertec in Europe. 6 -> IBM Opens Technical Center In Sweden -- IBM has opened a new technical support center in Lidingo, Sweden, for its European, Middle East, and African (EMEA) customers. According to Big Blue, the center aims to help customers' implementations of "networking solutions." 7 -> Russian PC Dealer Adds Service Centers -- IVK, the Moscow-based assembler of IBM PCs, has expanded its network of authorized service centers with the opening a new facility in Chelyabinsk. IVK now has service centers which act as value-added resellers (VARs) in over 30 Russian and former Soviet cities. 8 -> Sweden's Ericsson Wins Malaysian Cellular Contract -- Ericsson has been awarded a major contract by Mobikom in Malaysia. Terms of the SK450 million contract call for the Swedish telecoms giant to expand Mobikom's Mobifon 800 megahertz (MHz) D-AMPS/AMPS (digital - American phone system) cellular network. 9 -> Lotus Symposium - Veritas Plans 12 Add-On Modules Per Year -- Now that Veritas has released the Sales IntellAgents and IntellAgent Document Control modules for its IntellAgent Control System for Lotus Notes, the Dallas-based vendor will follow up with three new add-on modules per quarter, for a total of 12 each year, revealed Veritas President Howard Getson, in a meeting with Newsbytes at the recent Lotus Symposium in Boston. 10 -> UK - Gateway 2000 & Software Warehouse In Win 95 Deal -- Gateway 2000 has teamed up with Software Warehouse on upgrading customers to the new Windows 95 operating system. 11 -> UK - Colossus Intros New PC Range -- Colossus Computer Corporation, part of the Granville Technology Group, has unveiled a new range of notebook, desktop, and tower PCs, all of which come with Windows 95 and six business applications pre-installed on the hard drive. Optional extras includes MS-DOS 6.xx and Window for Workgroups 3.11, also available on a pre-installed basis. 12 -> UK - PCMCIA Encryption Card Intro'd -- PPCP, a PCMCIA (Personal Computer Memory Card International Association) specialist, has begun shipping the Session Key, a PCMCIA Type II card from SCI Canada. 13 -> Real Estate Inspection Info Goes Online -- Real estate agents, prospective home buyers, and mortgage lenders looking for completed home inspections can do so with a new online computer system, said officials from Real Estate Support Services (RESS) and Interactive Computer Corporation (ICC). The new system, called "RESSview," will allow people who want to either look at pre-inspected homes, or to check on a RESS inspection. 14 -> IT's Control May Loosen In "Comms-Centric" Future -- Organizations and their computer systems will become more and more "communications-centric" over the rest of this decade, according to Lynn Berg, vice-president of Gartner Group, a New York-based industry research firm. Meanwhile, information technology (IT) groups may have trouble controlling technology directions as other departments become more involved in decision-making. 15 -> Toronto-Dominion Bank Adds Services On Internet -- The Toronto-Dominion Bank, one of Canada's handful of national chartered banks, has added several new services to its site on the Internet's World Wide Web. The services offer investment advice and information. 16 -> UK - Dynatech Gets Fast Ethernet Order From Sun Micro -- Dynatech Communications, a communications and information processing specialist, has contracted to supply switched Fast Ethernet products for Sun Microsystems new headquarters. According to Dynatech, the UKP100,000 deal is significant, since Sun is the industry's leading Unix open systems supplier. 17 -> Europe - FastCAD Forms Software Publishing Unit -- FastCAD Europe has announced the formation of FastTrak Software Publishing. Plans call for the company's new software division to handle general sales and support for various FastCAD packages, including the AllClear range of flowcharting applications. 18 -> NTT's Global Bird Count -- On Sunday, October 8th, Japan's telecommunications giant Nippon Telegraph & Telephone, NTT, wants you to leave the computer off, stay away from the television, and get outside and enjoy nature. The event has been scheduled to coincide with the tenth anniversary of NTT's establishment as a corporation. 19 -> Japan Newsbriefs -- In this roundup of news from Japan: Sony, Toshiba, deny DVD compromise report, G-Search launches new software download system, Nokia expands in Japan, NEC buys stake in Portuguese telecoms company, VCR imports double on year, Yamaha to sell Mini-Disc players. 20 -> Mishap Halts Chile's Satellite Dreams -- Chile's dreams of becoming a satellite operating nation were halted late last week after a technical fault left the country's Fasat-Alfa satellite attached to a Ukrainian satellite it was hitching a ride into space on. 21 -> Toshiba & Itochu Swap Time Warner Stakes -- Time Warner Inc. (TWX) has agreed with Toshiba Corporation (TOKYO:6502) and Itochu Corporation (TOKYO:8001) to enhance the relationship between the two Japanese companies and the American entertainment giant by swapping the shares they already hold in Time Warner Entertainment for stock in Time Warner Inc. 22 -> NEC Concludes Deal With Packard Bell -- NEC Corporation has concluded a deal with Packard Bell, under which the Japanese electronics company will acquire a stake in that company. meanwhile, NEC has announced a new alliance with Tandem Computers to develop Windows NT-based servers. 23 -> NewsPix Images For Newsbytes Publishers -- These photos correspond to recent Newsbytes stories. They are online in the Newsbytes menu on America Online, NiftyServe, and the Newsbytes private bulletin board system in Minneapolis. 24 -> CA Sells Legent Disaster Recovery Unit -- Computer Associates International Inc. (NYSE:CA) has sold its Legent Information Integrity division to Panorama Software Corp. of Woodland Hills, California. 25 -> IBM Upgrades ThinkPads To Pentium, 28,800bps Modems -- IBM (NYSE:IBM) has beefed up three of its ThinkPad notebook computers with Pentium chips and 28,800 bits-per-second (bps) modems, bringing the total number of its Pentium-based ThinkPad models to five. 26 -> ****Pac Bell's $16Bil Cable TV Plan For California --Pacific Bell is building an communications network that will provide state-of-the-art voice and data, with full cable television. Pacific Bell says it will bring a fiber/coaxial cable hybrid to one million homes by the end of 1996. 27 -> US Robotics Buys Palm Computing -- US Robotics Corp. (NASDAQ:USRX) has bought Los Altos, California-based Palm Computing Inc. for about $44 million. 28 -> Canadian Product Launch Update -- This regular feature, appearing on the first day Newsbytes publishes each week, provides further details for the Canadian market on announcements by international companies that Newsbytes has already covered. This week: new Apple PowerBooks and upgrades, Compaq's LTE 5000, and IBM's Global Network service for Lotus Notes. 29 -> ****Windows 95 Support Lines Jammed -- Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ: MSFT) said the high volume of callers seeking technical support for the company's new operating system, Windows 95, has led to long waits and busy signals for many callers. 30 -> Apple Offers High-Speed Power Mac For Education -- Apple Computer (NASDAQ:AAPL) says its new Power Mac 5300/100 LC workstation delivers PowerPC computing with extensive multimedia capabilities to the education market. Available immediately, the 5300/100 is designed for multimedia authoring and playback. 31 -> ****Nielsen & I/Pro Join In Web-Traffic Measurement -- Nielsen Media Research and Internet Profiles Corp. (I/Pro) have announced a deal whereby Nielsen will put its name on I/Pro's measurement and evaluation services for the Internet's World Wide Web and take a small stake in the San Francisco, California-based company. 32 -> ****Motorola Intros PowerPC For Data Comms/Networking -- Motorola Inc.'s (NYSE:MOT) Microprocessor and Memory Technologies Group has introduced its first PowerPC chip specifically designed for the internetworking and data communications markets. 33 -> ****MA-Based Outsourcer Buys IBM Plant In Spain -- Manufacturers' Services Ltd., a Concord, Massachusetts-based start-up founded by former top officials of Sun Microsystems, has purchased IBM's manufacturing facility in Valencia, Spain, with backing from York City venture capitalists. The firm has also agreed to assume all IBM manufacturing and business relationships for the site in Spain. 34 -> ****Symantec Offers Free Windows 95 Antivirus Pre-Scan -- In response to a report from Microsoft, Symantec is offering a free DOS antivirus scan utility on its bulletin board system (BBS), Compuserve, America Online, and Microsoft Network. Microsoft has found that its Windows 95 "Install Disk #2" can be corrupted during installation on machines infected with a boot sector virus. (Ian Stokell/19950905) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 08/31/95 TRENDS NEC Develops "Snake-Like" Robot (NEWS)(TRENDS)(TYO)(00001) NEC Develops "Snake-Like" Robot 08/31/95 TOKYO, JAPAN, 1995 AUG 31 (NB) -- NEC Corporation has developed a robotically controlled electronic snake that offers far more movement that previously designed robots. The company says that the much greater freedom of movement "makes it perfect" for everything from industrial to disaster relief work. The secret of the new device lies in a revolutionary new type of universal joint. Previously joints in the body of robot have been restricted to movement in just one plane, either left and right or up and down. But the Tokyo-based company says it has succeeded in developing the world's first active universal joint. Controlled by two motors, the joint allows full freedom of movement in all planes at each of the six joints along the robot's body, allowing the unit to crawl into places previously inaccessible. At the heart of the robot is a computer processing unit that receives signals from the operator's handset and controls movement. The controller can instruct the computer to control all the joints in harmony or specify individual control of each joint if necessary. A video camera at the head of the robot sends signals back to the operator who can use them to steer the unit and also to examine places inaccessible to humans. The entire device is 1.4 meters long and measures 42 millimeters in diameter. It weighs 4.6 kilograms. The as-yet unnamed device is not yet commercially available, NEC's Mark Pearce told Newsbytes. "It will be a couple of years before everything in sorted out and it's ready to be sold. We have to increase the speed amongst other things," he said. NEC says typical applications for such a robot could be investigation of complex pipework or as an aid to search teams in disaster hit areas where the device could crawl through the rubble of collapsed buildings. (Martyn Williams/19950830/Press contact: Mark Pearce, NEC Corporation, tel +81-3-3798-6511, fax +81-3-3457-7249, Internet e-mail maku_10-22150@aladdin.nec.co.jp/NEC950831/PHOTO) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 08/31/95 PDA NYSE To Use Handheld Terminals On Trading Floor (NEWS)(PDA)(TOR)(00002) NYSE To Use Handheld Terminals On Trading Floor 08/31/95 NEW YORK, NEW YORK, U.S.A., 1995 AUG 31 (NB) -- The New York Stock Exchange has received the go-ahead from the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to put wireless, handheld computer terminals to work on its trading floor. The terminals will go into service some time in 1996. Andrew Yemma, the exchange's vice-president of media relations, told Newsbytes that the terminals will not be used to execute trades. They will transmit information about trades from broker to broker and from the brokers to their trading posts. The terminals will partly replace paper order slips, though Yemma said there will still be cases where traders will choose to record trades on paper slips. To meet exchange regulations that all trades must be in writing, brokers will be able to have the trade information they enter on their handheld terminals printed automatically. The handheld terminals are being custom-made for the stock exchange, Yemma said. They will accept both keyboard and hand-written input. As their use increases, he predicted, paperwork at the exchange should be reduced. The terminals are part of a $125 million technology plan the exchange announced last year. As part of that plan, the exchange has already put in new high-resolution computer screens, which Yemma said were installed "one post at a time over weekends" during the past year. The exchange has also installed an internal cellular telephone system -- it cannot be used to call out of the exchange, nor can anyone call in from outside -- which brokers use to communicate among themselves on the floor. While some stock exchanges, such as the Toronto Stock Exchange, have set out to do away with their trading floors entirely and replace them with electronic trading systems, Yemma said there is "not a chance" the New York exchange will close its floor. Nor does the introduction of handheld terminals change the fundamental method by which stocks are traded on the New York exchange, he said. (Grant Buckler/19950830/Press Contact: Andrew Yemma, New York Stock Exchange, 212-656-3000) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 08/31/95 ONLINE SPA To Launch World Wide Web Treasure Hunt (NEWS)(ONLINE)(WAS)(00003) SPA To Launch World Wide Web Treasure Hunt 08/31/95 WASHINGTON, D.C., U.S.A., 1995 AUG 31 (NB) -- Let's go surfin' now, everybody's learnin' how, come on a safari with the Software Publishers Association. SPA on October 24 will launch a World Wide Web treasurer hunt called CyberSurfari '95. Participants will use clues to seek out information on a variety of Web sites and compete for prizes. Once a player reaches a target site, or outpost, the CyberSurfari '95 logo will be displayed along with a clue. There will be 10 major sponsors that will each have 10 unique clues on the Web site, for a total of 100 outposts. Sponsors so far include Adobe Systems, Apple Computer, Beverly Hills Internet, CyberShop, Folio Corp., Microsoft, Open Text, and Prodigy. The contest begins at 6 pm eastern standard time on October 24 and ends at 6 pm on November 7. SPA says there are two ways to win: the race and the drawing. In the race, the first three CyberSurfers who submit any 90 of the 100 treasure codes will receive prizes. Those who submit at least 60 treasurer codes will be eligible for a drawing, where three winners will be selected randomly. According to SPA, a typical clue might ask, "What are the five different kinds of America crafts in the White House collection?" That suggests a visit to the White House Web page for the answer. Prizes include cash, T-shirts, and certificates of completion. The winners of the race and the drawing will get cash prizes, with a matching amount in a gift certificate in the winner's name to the accredited school of the winner's choice. Grand prize is $5,000. Second prize is $2,500. Third prize is $1,000. Also, T-shirts will go to 1,000 random selections from among those who posted codes for 60 or more sites. The first 5,000 who visit 60 outposts will receive a "Webmaster" certificate suitable for framing. According to SPA spokeswoman Sally Lawrence, "tens of thousands" of people will be playing CyberSurfari '95. Lawrence told Newsbytes that the game was an inspiration of Ken Wasch, SPA's chief. "He had a dream over Easter weekend," she said. "And he called us all together in the office and described it. We just had to do it. It's going to be more fun than anything we've done before." For more information on the game, contact the SPA Web site at http:// www.spa.org . (Kennedy Maize/19950830/Press Contact: Sally Lawrence, 202-452-1600 ext 320) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 08/31/95 TRENDS Intuit Scores Big In First Half Software Sales (NEWS)(TRENDS)(WAS)(00004) Intuit Scores Big In First Half Software Sales 08/31/95 RESTON, VIRGINIA, U.S.A., 1995 AUG 31 (NB) -- When it comes to personal productivity software, Intuit cleaned up in the first half of 1995, according to PC Data, a market research firm. PC Data reports that Turbo Tax Final held down first place, with Quicken in second, and Quicken Deluxe in third, in the world of Windows and DOS. In the Macintosh world, Macintax Final was in first, and Quicken in second. All are Intuit products. In reference software, Microsoft's Encarta was the leader, followed by Compton's Interactive Encyclopedia. In the world of games, Broderbund is leading the league, with Myst in first for both the Windows and Macintosh platforms. In the world of DOS and OS/2, Microsoft was in first place with its DOS 6.2 upgrade, followed by IBM's OS/2 Warp upgrade, and Quarterdeck in third with QEMM. For Windows business software, Uninstaller held first place for Microhelp, followed by Novell's WordPerfect for Windows upgrade. Microsoft Windows 3.1 was in third. For Mac business software, Connectix's Ram Doubler was the leading seller, followed by Symantec's Norton Utilities, and Filemaker Pro by Claris. In home education, Disney dominated in the first half of the year. Lion King Story Book was in first in the DOS/Windows category, with Aladdin Activity Center, also by Disney, in second. For the Mac category, Aladdin Activity Center was in first, followed by Mindscape's Mavis Beacon Teaches Typing. PC Data spokeswoman Nicole Filed told Newsbytes that her company publishes the sales data monthly. It makes the overall survey data public and sells detailed market reports to clients. The lists are compiled from units sold by 21 retail and mail-order chains, representing over 50 percent of the US market, according to PC Data. (Kennedy Maize/19950830/Press Contact: Nicole Field, 703-435-1025) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 08/31/95 LEGAL China - Man Selling Pirated CDs Sentenced To Prison (NEWS)(LEGAL)(PEK)(00005) China - Man Selling Pirated CDs Sentenced To Prison 08/31/95 BEIJING, CHINA, 1995 AUG 31 (NB) -- A man has been sentenced to nine months in prison and fined RMB50,000 (US$6,000) for illegally selling pirated CDs in Guangzhou, the China Daily reported. This is the first CD infringement case that has been successfully brought to court in the city. The illegal dealer, named Su Qiuchun, made profits of more than RMB25,000 by selling more than 60,000 pirated CDs from August to November last year, the newspaper said. The court accepted the case when the International Record Association complained to Guangzhou Procuratorate last September that Su was selling pirated CDs at the shop in Guangzhou Rixin Audio and Video World. Local government officials investigated, but Su ignored the warning and continued his illegal dealing until his arrest. In Beijing, a couple were detained for shipping pirated CDs from Guangdong province to Beijing and the 10,300 CDs were confiscated, Beijing Evenings reported. The couple, Zhang Menjun and Cheng Guomei, are farmers from Zhejiang province, the newspaper said. They also planned to buy plastic CD package boxes and put the pirated CDs into them to sell. However, they were caught at the goods station when they were claiming the eight big boxes. In Zhejiang province, more than 4,000 pirated CDs were confiscated when they arrived in Hangzhou through the post office, the Xinhua News Agency reported. These pirated CDs were also from Guangzhou, and some of them were pornographic, the news agency said. Policemen traced the receiver's address and found other pirated CDs stored by the receiver. All pirated CDs were confiscated and the receiver was detained for "further investigation." Newsbytes found there were still some people on the streets in Beijing and Tianjin peddling pirated CDs. Usually, a pirate audio CD sells for RMB15 (US1.8). A video and software CD sells at a higher price, ranging from RMB20 ($2.40) to RMB30 ($3.60). It is estimated that the cost to produce a pirated CD in China is about RMB4 (US$0.48). (Chih-Ho Yu & Ning Huang/19950831) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 08/31/95 TELECOM India - Nokia Plans Telecom Manufacturing (NEWS)(TELECOM)(DEL)(00006) India - Nokia Plans Telecom Manufacturing 08/31/95 NEW DELHI, INDIA, 1995 AUG 31 (NB) -- Nokia Telecommunications Ltd., the Finland-based telecom company, plans to set up a manufacturing base and research and development center in India. According to Matti Alahuta, president of Nokia, the company will be investing US$50 million in India over the next three years. A feasibility study has been commissioned to assess prospects and the mode of investment. Nokia has already invested US$10 million through its Indian subsidiary, Nokia Telecommunications India. The group is also thinking of bringing in the entire product range of its three group companies -- Nokia Telecommunications, Nokia Mobile Phones, and Nokia General Communications in India. For Nokia mobile phones, which will be the company's primary area of operation in the initial years, the company is looking at a sales figure of US$500 million, the company president said. He added that the company also has plans to introduce optical transmission and microwave radio links in India shortly. (C.T. Mahabharat/19950831) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 08/31/95 CHIPS India - Texas Instruments Plans Chip Design Center (NEWS)(CHIPS)(DEL)(00007) India - Texas Instruments Plans Chip Design Center 08/31/95 NEW DELHI, INDIA, 1995 AUG 31 (NB) -- Texas Instruments, the $10.31 billion suppliers of semiconductor products worldwide, has announced that it will be setting up a digital signal processing (DSP) design center in India by December this year. The first production release will be out in 1996. The center that will be opened in Bangalore, and will be one of only four such centers set up by TI worldwide, according to William B. Mitchell, the company's vice chairman. It will be designing DSP devices to suit the needs of TI customers internationally. The company plans to invest $8 million in the Bangalore operation -- which includes the setting up of a new facility to accommodate 500 engineers. Mitchell also announced that TI India will take a leadership role in developing application-specific DRAMs for use in high-end workstations and peripherals. (C.T. Mahabharat/19950831) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 08/31/95 APPLE Farallon's Fast Ethernet Mac NuBus Technology (NEWS)(APPLE)(LON)(00008) Farallon's Fast Ethernet Mac NuBus Technology 08/31/95 LONDON, ENGLAND, 1995 AUG 31 (NB) -- Farallon Computing has announced what it claims is the industry's first Fast Ethernet NuBus card for the Power Mac, Quadra, and Mac II series of Apple Mac computers. According to Chris Nation, a spokesman for the UK division of the company, the card will ship globally on September 15. UK pricing has been set at UKP295. "Apple has been working steadily towards supporting 10BaseT on the Mac for some time, so interest in fast networking technology has been rising. We're working towards that goal as well, which is why you're now starting to see cards supporting Fast Ethernet appearing from ourselves," he told Newsbytes. According to Farallon, its NuBus card supports both LocalTalk and Ethernet users and offers them a "cost-effective way" to upgrade to the benefits of Fast Ethernet, so speeding their network access by up to 10 times the normal bandwidth of 10 megabits-per-second (Mbps) Ethernet. According to Nation, the card is designed for customers who require more bandwidth for network-intensive applications such as those in engineering, graphic design, and publication workgroups, as well as publishing and pre-press graphics companies where users need to quickly share, transfer, and print multi-megabyte color graphics files. Farallon claims that Mac users with data throughput needs as high as 30 Mbps can take advantage of higher performance networks without the need for extensive system upgrades. Newsbytes notes that, like Farallon's Fast EtherTX-10/100 PCI (Peripheral Component Interconnect) card, which shipped in June of this year, the Fast Ether TX-10/100 NuBus Card incorporates 3Com's Fast Ethernet Parallel Tasking chipset. The card is billed as being compatible with several Mac network operating systems and protocols, including MacOS, MacTCP, MacIPX, MacSNMP, Novell NetWare, AppleShare, and Timbuktu, Farallon's own networking technology. (Steve Gold/19950829/Press Contact: Debra Raine, Strategic Alliance International, +44-1494-434434; Reader Contact: Farallon Computing, +44-181-758-7546, Internet World Wide Web http://www.farallon.com ) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 08/31/95 TRENDS Japan - Competing CD Standards Talk Compromise (NEWS)(TRENDS)(TYO)(00009) Japan - Competing CD Standards Talk Compromise 08/31/95 TOKYO, JAPAN, 1995 AUG 31 (NB) -- Faced with the prospect of a costly standards battle over the next generation video recording and playback technology, the two consortiums involved have announced they are working towards a common standard. A group led by Toshiba and Matsushita is leading a group of around 30 companies that have pledged to build equipment and support the Super Density (SD) format. The rival to SD is Multi Media Compact Disk (MMCD), a new format developed by Sony and Philips. The SD format is currently enjoying more support than MMCD, one of the reasons behind the common format talk that has come mostly from Sony and Philips, analysts believe. The MMCD group held a press conference at the recent Internationale Funkausstellung (IFA) media show in Berlin showing off the latest developments in the system technology and expressing a preference for a compromise solution. "We understand and share their belief that a single format would be in the best interest of the consumer," said Henk Bodt, executive vice president of Philips Electronics. "Toward this end, recently, Philips and Sony have written to the Technical Working group expressing our desire to work toward creating a single format that ideally combines the best features of the currently proposed MMCD and SD formats." The possibility of a compromise first came up in early August after Sony's chairman, Norio Ohga, speaking as chairman of the Electronic Industry Association of Japan, said the existence of two standards is undesirable. At that time spokesmen for both companies confirmed the existence of a single system would be preferable, but both were unwilling to accept the rival format. Keisuke Ohmori, a Toshiba spokesman, said "A unified system would be ideal from the customer's viewpoint. We'd like them (Sony) to come to accept our standard rather than developing a combined system which would be very costly and not beneficial." A Sony spokesman, agreeing with the chairman, told Newsbytes, "A single format is better," although he maintained that his is the better of the two. "We believe MMCD is superior," he said. The spokesman added that Toshiba is welcome to come over to the MMCD side. Sony lost out in a long standards battle when its Betamax system was beaten by VHS which offered a lower technical specification but longer recording time. Sony's MMCD system similarly has a shorter recording time because of the companies refusal to use double-sided disks which it says will mean a break in playback when the disk is changed over. This may prove to be a sticking point in the negotiations for a common format though. When Newsbytes spoke with Sony, it was insistent that a double-sided disk, with its break in playback half way through, was unacceptable. However, the Toshiba spokesman made a feature of SD's longer playing time. (Martyn Williams/19950829) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 08/31/95 ONLINE ****Microsoft Looks To Expand Japan Comms Network (NEWS)(ONLINE)(TYO)(00010) ****Microsoft Looks To Expand Japan Comms Network 08/31/95 TOKYO, JAPAN, 1995 AUG 31 (NB) -- Microsoft is looking to expand its current network of access points in Japan ahead of the official launch of Windows 95 in the country, Newsbytes has learned. Access to the Microsoft Network, currently in beta test in Japan along with the Windows 95 operating system, is currently offered via a network of eleven dial-up access points connecting across British Telecom's global X25 data network at speeds up to 14,400 bits-per- second (bps). Microsoft is planning to upgrade this network by offering access at speeds up to 28,800 bps and allowing users to connect to higher 64 kilo-bits-per-second (Kbps) speed ISDN (integrated services digital network) points-of-presence (POPs) using NTT's INS-64 service. Such an arrangement would make the online service much more competitive because some existing online services offer speeds up to 28,800 bps, but no ISDN access. Rival Compuserve offers connections via its Tokyo node at only 14,400 bps. To coincide with the new network launch, Microsoft will also switch to a TCP/IP (Transmission Control Protocol/Internet protocol)-based network to allow full Internet access, something which is not offered during the current beta test. Industry sources suggest the Washington state-based company is in talks with Internet Initiative Japan (IIJ) about use of its network. IIJ is a major Japanese Internet service provider offering Internet connections primarily to corporations and other, smaller, service providers. Customers include IBM's People online service, Hitachi, Asahi Net, ASCII net, Bekkoame Internet, and Rimnet. Of all the Internet service providers in Japan, IIJ is one of the few that already has such a network of high-speed access points and is the only one that is a customer of UUnet, a company that Microsoft partly owns. IIJ gets its connection to the US Internet backbone from UUnet. Microsoft acquired a stake in the company last December and has made it its primary access provider across the United States for the Microsoft Network, MSN. When asked to comment on the reports, IIJ's Naoshi Yoneyama said that he had no knowledge of any such discussions but that, if they were going on above his head he would be unaware of them. Microsoft offered no comment on the report. (Martyn Williams/19950831/Press contact : Naoshi Yoneyama, IIJ, +81-3-5276-6240, Microsoft Japan, +81-3-5454-8013) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 08/31/95 BROADCAST Japan Launches Telecoms Satellites (NEWS)(BROADCAST)(TYO)(00011) Japan Launches Telecoms Satellites 08/31/95 TOKYO, JAPAN, 1995 AUG 31 (NB) -- Japan launched two telecommunications satellites Tuesday from separate launchers in the United States and French Guiana. An Atlas rocket lifted the JCSat-3 satellite into orbit whilst NTT's N-Star-a satellite was placed into orbit by a European Ariane rocket. JCSat-3 was carried into orbit by an Atlas II-AS rocket of Lockheed Martin Marietta from the Cape Canaveral Air Station in Florida at 8:53pm EDT, 9:53am in Japan. The satellite separated from the rocket approximately 30 minutes after launch at which point the mission was declared a success. The satellite is now in an intermediate, elliptical, orbit ranging from 167 kilometers (km) to 78,800km above the earth. Rockets on board the satellite will fire shortly to take it into geo-stationary orbit at an altitude of 36,000km. Based on the popular HS-601 satellite platform built by Hughes Space and Communications, JCSat-3 will provide television and radio communications throughout Japan and the Asia Pacific region. From Spring next year a new 50 channel digital television package will be carried on the satellite aimed at direct-to-home satellite viewers. It will be the first such digital TV package in Japan. In Kourou, French Guiana, an Ariane 44P rocket carried Nippon Telegraph and Telephone's (TOKYO:9432) N-Star-a satellite into the sky at 2:41am EDT, 3:41pm Japan time. The satellite separated from the launcher 21 minutes into the mission. N-Star-a is a Space Systems/Loral built FS-1300 series satellite that will provide telecommunications facilities within Japan for NTT. Over the expected ten-year lifetime, the satellite will be used for all types of telecommunications purposes according to NTT's Akiko Kato, "N-STAR will be used for the communications with remote islands such as Ogasawara Islands. It will also used as back-up in case of disaster and a trunk line for long distance calls. NTT DoCoMo, one of our affiliates, will utilize N-Star for their cellular services. The current communications satellite, CS-3, belongs to NASDA." the spokeswoman told Newsbytes. Monday's launch will be followed by a sister satellite, N-Star-b, to be launched next year. (Martyn Williams/19950831) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 08/31/95 ONLINE Internet Recruitment "Classified Ads" (NEWS)(ONLINE)(MSP)(00012) Internet Recruitment "Classified Ads" 08/31/95 LOS ALTOS, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1995 AUG 31 (NB) -- Recruitment "classified ads" and online job fairs are two new services now being offered by HEART/Career Connections Inc. The services can be accessed via Telnet on the Internet, an Internet World Wide Web site, or via modem on a private bulletin board system (BBS). The classified ads are slightly different from job postings used by larger companies, in that HEART's (which stands for Human Resources Electronic Advertising and Recruiting Tool) classifieds list one job each, run for two week periods, and are organized by geography or discipline. An ad costs companies $175 for a two-week period. "Classifieds give small companies international exposure to our highly qualified candidate pool at a fraction of the cost of traditional advertisements or recruiting services," said Sandhya Davi, founder and president of the HEART system. She cited statistics that show 75 percent of the system's users are employed and have at least a bachelor's degree. The company also offers online job fairs, called "CyberFairs." These virtual fairs let prospective job candidates interview electronically with representatives from companies that are hiring new employees. The fairs add an interactive dimension to the recruitment process, officials said, which eliminates any time and distance factors between the job prospect and the hiring company. When Newsbytes telnetted to a CyberFair this week, we found an extensive form all prospective candidates had to fill out. The form asked not only for credentials like previous employers and education level, but it asked about situations and how the prospective employees would handle them. On Monday, a computer company was the focus of the CyberFair. HEART's Web address is http://www.career.com . The company can also be accessed by telnetting to career.com. The private BBS can be reached by dialing 415-903-5817. (Bob Woods/19950828/Press Contacts: Kay Paumier, Communications Plus, 510-656-8512; Public Contact: Heart/Career Connections, Internet World Wide Web http://www.career.com , Telnet career.com, BBS modem 415-903-5817) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 08/31/95 NETWORK UK - Asante Unveils Ethernet Hub Technology (NEWS)(NETWORK)(LON)(00013) UK - Asante Unveils Ethernet Hub Technology 08/31/95 LONDON, ENGLAND, 1995 AUG 31 (NB) -- Asante Technologies, the Ethernet network specialist company, has taken the wraps off the AsanteFast 100 Hub, a 12-port stackable hub unit. According to the company, the UKP1,895 unit is an ideal method of upgrading computer networks to 100 megabits-per-second (Mbps) Fast Ethernet in situations where there is congestion on the network. Asante claims that the speed of operations on a 100Base-TX network with the use of its AsanteFast 100 hub is increased by a factor of 10, when compared with a standard 10BaseT Ethernet network. In use, the AsanteFast 100 hub is billed as offering support for multiple computer platforms, Nway Auto-Negotiation, easy installation and stackability for up to 118 ports. According to Asante, the hub unit is designed to support large applications and various operations carried out on desktop publishing programs, pre-press, digital video processing, graphic modeling, medical imaging, and others. The unit is also claimed to be designed to be a user-friendly device. Paul Smith, vice president of marketing with Asante, claims that the hub combines the existing facilities of a network with new features, but without necessitating major alterations to the existing network infrastructure. "Asante's products are created with affordability, plug-and-play ease- of-use and reliable solutions in mind. The AsanteFast is ideal for companies where network bottlenecks are bringing productivity to a standstill," Smith said. According to Smith, many users are looking for efficient ways to upgrade their high-bandwidth workgroups without having to convert the entire network infrastructure. This is where Fast Ethernet systems such as the AsanteFast hub come in. Interestingly, the AsanteFast uses National Semiconductor's Nway auto- negotiation technology, Newsbytes notes, This system allows the adapter to automatically negotiate a network connection with compatible "bases." So, for example, if a non-compatible connection is attempted, such as with a 100Base-T4 unit, the adapter will detect it and interact with the port to minimize any interference. (Sylvia Dennis/19950829/Press & Reader Contact: Richard Strong, Asante Technologies, +44-181-332-1326) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 08/31/95 BUSINESS Compuserve & Artisoft In European Internet Deal (NEWS)(BUSINESS)(LON)(00014) Compuserve & Artisoft In European Internet Deal 08/31/95 PARIS, FRANCE, 1995 AUG 31 (NB) -- Compuserve has contracted with Artisoft to provide Internet access facilities for users of Artisoft's LANtastic Power Suite, the company integrated communications suite of software. Terms of the deal between the two companies call for Compuserve to provide an Internet starter kit for all buyers of the LANtastic Power Suite that includes free sign-up to Compuserve and 10 free hours of access. According to Artisoft, Compuserve's Internet facilities are ideal for users of the LANtastic Power Suite, since Compuserve has a wide spread of access ports across most European countries. Alan Scott, Compuserve Europe's marketing manager, explained that Artisoft is a prominent player for the company. "We see huge potential for more business use of Compuserve and the Internet, and consequently we're delighted to be part of the LANtastic Power Suite," he said. Olivier Zitoun, Artisoft's European vice president for sales and marketing, said that the linkup with Compuserve means that Power Suite users have a low cost method of accessing the Internet on a pan- European basis. The LANtastic Power Suite includes: the LANtastic network; Lotus cc:Mail communications software; Lotus Organizer networked group scheduler and personal information manager (PIM); Cheyenne Communications' BitWare fax and modem comms package; Cheyenne's BitShare modem-sharing and pooling software; and the Compuserve suite of applications. The addition of a Compuserve Internet starter kit to LANtastic Power Suite makes no difference to the package's price, which continues to be UKP135. According to Artisoft, the individual package prices total more than UKP480, which makes the Power Suite good value for money. (Sylvia Dennis/19950829/Press Contact: Richard Hewitt, Profile PR, +44-181-995-1595; Hervi Cadoret, Artisoft Europe, +33-1-4688-0818) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 08/31/95 BROADCAST UK Defense Ministry Picks Olivetti Videoconferencing (NEWS)(BROADCAST)(LON)(00015) UK Defense Ministry Picks Olivetti Videoconferencing 08/31/95 LONDON, ENGLAND, 1995 AUG 31 (NB) -- The UK's Ministry of Defense (MoD) has announced the result of a nine month EC (European Commission) Journal competition to select a desktop videoconferencing system. The winner of the project tender was Olivetti. The evaluation process involved complex tenders from eight suppliers, after which the MoD selected Olivetti's Personal Communication Computer (PCC) technology, a video and data conferencing system based on the Olivetti PCC software suite and British Telecom VC8000 hardware. As a result of the competition, Olivetti PCC is to be included as the only desktop videoconferencing system in the MoD's ICS catalog, a listing of MoD technology equipment. The initial award of the catalog is for 12 months, with the option to extend this for a further year. According to Robin Wells, Olivetti's sales manager for Public Authorities, the company's selection by the MoD is the fourth major public sector win for the PCC in the last nine months. The system has already been selected by the Department of Trade & Industry (DTI) for a videoconferencing trial for its new Business Links program, by Strathclyde Regional Council, as the UK's first teleschooling application, and by the Cheshire Deaf Society, for use a communications aid. "The PCC is a very strong products. It's making a major impact in the public sector arena where it has been selected by government ministries, universities, schools and charities in open competition with other desktop systems," Wells explained. According to Wells, a major reason why the PCC is being chosen over competing products is because of the investment that Olivetti has made in developing a Windows-based software suite, which he claims is the most advanced system available and the easiest to use. The PCC system consists of a video camera, which is mounted on the PC, an audio handset, audio/video a connection unit, and Olivetti's PCC videoconferencing software, which runs on Microsoft Windows 3.1x. The system itself works across ISDN (integrated services digital network) links. Commenting on the deal, Gerry Ralph, British Telecom's army account manager, said that the PCC MoD account win is the most significant step forward in the delivery of image, voice, text and data to the desktop, along with the sharing of applications within projects and workgroups in the different functional areas of the army. (Sylvia Dennis/19950829/Press Contact: Grazia Immediato, Kinross & Render, +44-171-831-3800; Annie Walshe, BT Visual Solutions, +44-171-298-4186; Kate Moore, Olivetti, +44-181-780-8232; Reader Contact: Olivetti, tel +44-181-785-6666, fax +44-181-874-3014) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 08/31/95 ONLINE USA Today's Web Site Now Free To Internet Users (NEWS)(ONLINE)(MSP)(00016) USA Today's Web Site Now Free To Internet Users 08/31/95 WASHINGTON, D.C., U.S.A., 1995 AUG 31 (NB) -- The "Nation's Newspaper" said it will stop excluding Internet World Wide Web surfers from reading its contents electronically. USA Today officials said they were opening access of its Web service to all Internet users for a limited time. Steven Anderson, manager of media relations for USA Today, told Newsbytes the move is in conjunction with the opening of the Microsoft Network (MSN). He said MSN users have to use the Web browser provided by Microsoft to access the site, at no charge. "We didn't feel like we could charge others" while MSN subscribers could access the site for free, he added. Anderson said the service would be free through October. As far as future plans for charges, Anderson only said his company is closely watching prices in the industry, and an announcement would be made at a later date. Officials said USA Today Online now boasts more than 12,000 pages of up-to-the-minute news, sports scores, three-dimensional graphics, complete weather, and other features. All of the content is available 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Newsbytes has reported on the USA Today subscription service throughout its short life, which began last April. The Web site had been available only to users of a customized USA Today browser who also subscribed to Internet access through USA Today. Officials said that stand-alone service is still available at a cost of $12.95 a month for three hours of Internet access, and $2.50 an hour for each additional hour. Access to the subscription service is made through a local dial-up telephone line provided by Compuserve, along with the customized software. Customers then are automatically logged into the USA Today service via the Compuserve line, but are never logged into Compuserve itself. Web surfers had been excluded from seeing the entire USA Today site, save a preview area that provided a "free taste" of what the home page offered users, Newsbytes reported in early June. The USA Today Web site is at http://www.usatoday.com . (Bob Woods/19950830/Press Contact: Steven Anderson, USA Today, 703-276-5872; Public Contact: Internet World Wide Web http://www.usatoday.com ) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 08/31/95 APPLE Extensis Offers QuarkXPress Extension Set For Mac (NEWS)(APPLE)(DEN)(00017) Extensis Offers QuarkXPress Extension Set For Mac 08/31/95 PORTLAND, OREGON, U.S.A., 1995 AUG 31 (NB) -- Extensis Corp. has announced shipment of QX-Tools for Macintosh, a collection of XTensions for QuarkXPress. The company said the central component of QX-Tools are its QX-Bars, Microsoft Word-style toolbars, which can be customized with buttons representing any QuarkXPress function as well as additional functions provided by QX-Tools. Other components include tools for navigating, applying character styles, scaling multiple objects, managing layers and objects, printing non-consecutive page ranges and applying Photoshop filters to images in QuarkXPress. QX-Styles is a floating palette for creating and applying character styles, while QX-Layers is used for assigning objects to layers which can then be shown, hidden or rearranged. QX-Scaler is a floating palette for scaling multiple objects by any percentage, unit or measurement or interactively by hand. It also supports Undo, and allows custom scale settings to be stored in sets for later use. QX-Viewer lets the user display thumbnail images of the pages and facilitates zooming, scrolling and paging operations, while QX-Filters lets you run Photoshop-compatible Plug-ins like Kai's Power Tools on images within QuarkXPress. The QX-Dingbats floating palette is used for displaying and entering difficult-to-remember character symbols. The user can modify the font size and insert characters into a document with a mouse click. QX-Manager is a utility that lets you decide which XTensions to automatically load or omit when launching. QX_Manager also lets the user create sets for grouping of multiple XTensions to load automatically as a set. QX-Print is a utility that lets the user print non-consecutive page ranges, print spot colors as process colors and print multiple plates in a single step. It can also save a user-selected region of a document as an EPS file. QX-Tips & Tricks displays an on-screen Tip of the Day for QuarkXPress from David Baltner's book QuarkXPress Tips & Tricks. All of the toolbars in QX-Tools can float or can be anchored to one of the four screen edges. They are also user-sizable. QX-Tools has a suggested retail price of $149, but the company is introducing it for a limited time for $99. It requires that you have QuarkXPress 3.3.1 or later and Apple Computer's system 7.1 or later operating system. (Jim Mallory/19950830/Press contact: John Chaffee, 503-274-2020; Public contact: Extensis, tel 800-796-9798 or 503-274-2020, fax 503-274-0530/QX-TOOLS950831/PHOTO) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 08/31/95 ONLINE AOL Offers Online Campus & Univ Of California (NEWS)(ONLINE)(SFO)(00018) AOL Offers Online Campus & Univ Of California 08/31/95 VIENNA, VIRGINIA, U.S.A., 1995 AUG 31 (NB) -- America Online (NASDAQ:AMER) is ready for back-to-school activity. If you need a box of pencils or a class from the University of California at Berkeley, AOL wants you online, and accredited courses from the well-known university are scheduled to begin later this year. Using Compton's NewMedia forum, NetNoir for information on Afro- American Colleges, RSP Funding for financial aid, Travel Channel for getting to college, OfficeMax Online, and Global Plaza for materials, and classes from a number of sources, AOL has unfolded an extensive back-to-school program. "Built around our Education Channel, the back-to-school effort is bigger and better than it has ever been," said an AOL spokesperson. Registration for classes began on August 28 for hundreds of online classes which cover diverse topics such as foreign languages, nutrition, professional interests, computer science, math, history, and art. Four- and eight-week courses are both available and cost $25 and $40 each, respectively. Later this fall, AOL will offer accredited courses from the University of California at Berkeley. With a new partnership signed, the two parties are in the process of developing a schedule of classes and a registration procedure. Details on classes and lectures will be published "as soon as possible." AOL says it has focused on a wide range of educational needs, which includes young children, teens, and adults. There are programs for children with special needs, gifted children, and children who are home-schooled. As an adjunct to classes and lectures, teachers and students can tour educational sites such as the Smithsonian, the Library of Congress, the National Conservancy and other cultural and academic institutions online. The Educational Channel offers an Academic Assistance Center, Homework Help Room, Teacher Pager Service and the Computer and Software Support Center. (Patrick McKenna/19950830/Press Contact: Judy Tashbook, AOL, 703-918-1452) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 08/31/95 APPLE Mac Software Sends Files Electronically To Prepress (NEWS)(APPLE)(DEN)(00019) Mac Software Sends Files Electronically To Prepress 08/31/95 SEATTLE, WASHINGTON, U.S.A., 1995 AUG 31 (NB) -- Adobe systems Inc. (NASDAQ: ADBE) said it is developing a telecommunications software product that enables remote delivery of files between graphic arts prepress providers and their clients. Adobe said its "Virtual Network for the Macintosh" software will eliminate geographical boundaries and courier costs as it transports electronically produced documents over telephone and ISDN (integrated services digital network) lines, AppleTalk networks, the Internet, or any communications method compatible with the Macintosh Communications Toolbox. A host module resides on a computer at the prepress provider site, while the customer can have unlimited client modules. Adobe said it used technology from Group Logic, a developer of telecommunications software for the desktop videoconferencing and graphics arts market, to develop Adobe Virtual Network. Adobe said the software can be used to send Adobe Portable Document Format (PDF) files, low-resolution For Position Only (FPO) images and other electronically produced files to prepress provider customers. The customers can use the software to connect to the provider's network to either retrieve files or submit job files. The host module can receive incoming jobs and route them automatically to processes within the production workflow such as an Adobe OPEN program pipeline or an Adobe Color Central software printing queue. Each job is compressed, given an electronic Job Ticket, and then transferred automatically to the right destination based on the user's preferences. In addition to communicating with the customized client module at the customer site, the host module can also communicate with the generic client modules that Adobe said will be bundled with independent applications such as Adobe Pagemaker and Adobe Illustrator. The client module, in addition to sending and receiving job files, will also be able to collect job files from the customer's computer network and collect job ticket information for job files. The user can also set the program to send files automatically to the host at a specific time. Adobe said it will also produce a Windows-based version of the customized client module so that customers and prepress providers can interact regardless of whether the host module is Macintosh- or Windows-based. To make it easy to find a service provider, a list of host purchasers who register their software will be included on a list of service providers posted on Adobe's World Wide Web home page and will also be listed in the company's faxback service. Minimum system requirements for the host and client is a 68030-based Mac or better, Apple System 7.0 or later, and two megabytes (MB) of memory available to the software. Adobe said virtual Network is expected to ship in the fourth quarter with a suggested retail price of $1,695 for up to 10 customized client packages, and $2,995 for an unlimited number of customized client sites. Pricing includes the host software. (Jim Mallory/19950830/Press contact: Barbara Burke, Burke & Associates for Adobe Systems, 206-938-8827; Public contact: Adobe Systems, 800-685-6736) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 08/31/95 ONLINE Prodigy's Access Atlanta Reaches 20,000 Subscribers (NEWS)(ONLINE)(MSP)(00020) Prodigy's Access Atlanta Reaches 20,000 Subscribers 08/31/95 ATLANTA, GEORGIA, U.S.A., 1995 AUG 31 (NB) -- The online interactive service "Access Atlanta," which can be found on Prodigy, celebrated its 20,000 subscriber milestone by giving the lucky new user a big prize - 20 free months of usage. Seth Ehrlich, of the Atlanta suburb of Norcross, is the 20,000th user who gets the free online time, officials said. He told Access Atlanta he joined because he could access a wide variety of information from the service. "I had some guests in from out-of-town and was able to pull up a list of local attractions and weekend entertainment activities in just seconds," he said. Access Atlanta offers more than 200 content areas, including information from the Atlanta Journal and Constitution, the Associated Press, and Newsbytes, among other providers. Access Atlanta also provides a hook-up with the Internet's World Wide Web through the Prodigy Network. Officials said the thirst for information on the 1996 summer Olympic Games in Atlanta is also driving the increase in subscribers. The service contains details on ticket prices, event schedules, and traffic forecasts. Access Atlanta Director Mike Gordon said the service "now has an Olympic information site on the World Wide Web, so the information is available to the global online audience as well." The Web site is located at http://www.ajc.com . Future plans include an "interactive electronic gateway" to the American South on the Web, providing information for visitors on Atlanta and the South. Access Atlanta is run by Cox Newspapers, which also publishes the Atlanta Journal and Constitution. The service is available to any personal computer user who also has a modem. The user can subscribe to just Access Atlanta for $6.95 a month, or can join Prodigy and have an additional $4.95 a month added to their Prodigy bill. (Bob Woods/19950830/Press Contacts: Debra Patterson or Sherrie Landis, Julie Davis Associates, 404-231-0660; Christy White, Access Atlanta, 404-614-2713; Public Contact: Access Atlanta, 800-PRODIGY ext 79, Internet World Wide Web http://www.ajc.com ) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 08/31/95 ONLINE UK Online Family Service Launches (NEWS)(ONLINE)(LON)(00021) UK Online Family Service Launches 08/31/95 SHEPTON MALLET, SOMERSET, ENGLAND, 1995 AUG 31 (NB) -- UK Online, which claims to the UK's first family online service, officially opens for business this week. In preparation for the September 1 launch day, the service has opened up a series of local call points-of-presence (POPs) for its subscribers to use. According to Roland Perry, UK Online's business development manager, this means that, not only is UK Online the first family online service in the country, but it is the most economical to use. Perry said that UK Online is set to become the most economical national online service provider in the country, since it offers more confirmed direct POPs than any other service provider, including Compuserve and Demon. The POPs allow local call access across 75 percent of the UK's population. The POPs have been installed as the result of an agreement with Energis, one of the UK's ATCs (alternative telecoms carriers). Family membership to UK Online costs UKP14.99 a month, which gives a family up to four discrete electronic-mail addresses on the Internet, as well as unlimited access to the Internet and UK Online. Personal membership, meanwhile, costs UKP9.99 a month, and offers up to 10 hours of access free of charge. Existing users of the Internet, defined as users who telnet or enter via the World Wide Web, rather than use the dial-up network, can subscribe to the UK Online service for UKP4.99 a month. Announcing the launch of UK Online, Dr Tim King, the company's managing director, said that, thanks to the service's extensive POP infrastructure, coupled with a simple to understand and economical charging system, UK Online "offers new and existing users of online services the most cost-effective, reliable and easy to use national service in the country. "In the face of the phenomenal growth in this sector, potential online organizations must be able to provide a sustainable customer service. This can only be achieved by investing in the subscriber support infrastructure. UK Online believes it has put in place the necessary infrastructure to achieve this mass market penetration," he explained. According to UK Online, independent research shows that 64 percent of UK families would rather have access to a service which features British-based content than a US-based service. "Unlike other online services," every online UK Online subscriber will be from the UK, the company claims. According to Perry, all products, shopping, information, and editorial will be aimed specifically at the UK audience, so creating a "community" of online users. UK Online also cites independent research that it claims reveals that 70 percent of adults are concerned about their children accessing adult material on the Internet and that 93 percent would prefer to have parental control over what their children might find there. Because of this, content supplied by UK Online must meet strict editorial criteria to ensure its suitability for a family audience. As a national family service provider, UK Online claims it has ensured that parents can limit their children's access to the Internet. "UK Online's unique parental control system allows the parent or guardian to specify, not only how much they have access to, but even the amount of time they can spend online. This, of course, can be changed as children grow and mature and can be modified by the parent," Perry explained. (Steve Gold/19950830/Press Contact: Caraline Brown, Midnight Communications, tel +44-1273-709977, fax +44-1273-709966, Internet e-mail caraline.midnight@ukonline.co.uk; Reader Contact: UK Online, +44-1749-333366, Internet e-mail sales@ukonline.co.uk) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 08/31/95 GENERAL ****Lotus Symposium - Notes Attracted IBM, Manzi Says (NEWS)(GENERAL)(BOS)(00022) ****Lotus Symposium - Notes Attracted IBM, Manzi Says 08/31/95 BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS, U.S.A., 1995 AUG 31 (NB) -- "In early June, I was an employee of a Cambridge software company, a Notes user, and one of several million people who use an IBM Think Pad. But then, in the course of two short weeks, largely because of Notes, I rose like a meteor to become senior VP of IBM," quipped Jim Manzi, who is also CEO (chief executive officer) of Lotus, in a keynote at the Lotus Symposium in Boston, an occasion that marked the shipment of 10 million seats of Lotus Notes and cc:Mail. "Let's take a look at what it was that so attracted IBM," Manzi added, in reference to IBM's recent acquisition of Lotus. The Notes product today has 10,000 business partners -- including Sun, co- sponsor of the Lotus Symposium -- as well as "thousands of customers" and 2 million users, according to Manzi. One large Notes customer -- namely, IBM -- "liked the product so much they bought the company," Manzi told the audience in Boston. There are three main reasons for the "remarkable growth" of Notes, he said. "We can start with the bottom-line: companies that have adopted Notes have been able to demonstrate real, tangible returns on their investments," he contended, pointing to a "very careful, conservative" study by IDC published last year. Conducted among 65 companies in a dozen different countries, the study showed an average return of investment of 179 percent for Notes, and a payback time of under two years, according to the Lotus chief. The second reason for the growth of Notes is that it is "not so much information-centric as it is communications-centric," he said. "We still tend to think of information as a physical thing -- like a mountain. Or we think of it as a stock -- like assets on a balance sheet. As a result, information becomes static and impersonal, the stuff of MIS (management information systems) reports or something that's in the possession of experts," he said. "But that's not the nature of information -- or at least it's a dead-end way to look at it. Information is really more animist than physical, more a flow than a stock. It is meant to be communication, which means it is lively, collaborative, and purposive," the attendees were told. The third reason is Notes's association with reengineering, downsizing, and other forms of "organizational change," he continued. "But while there's no inevitable link between the adoption of Notes and organizational change, it's obvious from the daily headlines that a basic change in the structure of the corporation is taking place." The "new networked organization" is using Notes to address the issue of "how to distribute risk in the periphery while managing complexity from the center," according to Manzi. Lotus's acquisition by IBM will "ensure that Notes customer success stories continue to proliferate." The merger "will be successful mainly because we are very focused on the human assets that provide the knowledge, experience, and the ability to innovate and capture new opportunities," he said. "IBM was very clear that this is what they were buying. They were acquiring our people, our culture, our commitment to excellence, and our ability to serve customers," Manzi maintained. Manzi also summed up a series of decisions reached by IBM and Lotus since the acquisition: that Notes is IBM's workgroup client, the Notes server is IBM's mail, messaging and groupware platform, SmartSuite is IBM's "strategic desktop suite," cc:Mail is IBM's mail client, and Notes will "continue to be open." Added the keynoter: "We don't view the Web as a competitor. We believe, instead, that Notes is an incredible Web authoring and process-management tool that can help companies truly exploit their presence on the Web." Lotus has introduced the InterNotes product line to "further extend the reach of Notes to what we've labeled as `extra-enterprise' applications with access to the Internet," Manzi asserted. In another keynote at the Symposium, Anil Gadre, VP of corporate marketing for Sun, described a long-standing partnership between Sun and Lotus that has included Lotus's use of "Sun internetworking" and the bundling of Notes with Sun products. Gadre also pointed to a series of large-scale business applications combining Sun with Lotus products, including a 1,000-user installation at Chrysler that features Sun workstations, Notes, and cc:Mail. In a third keynote, Neal David, director of marketing information systems for Waters Corp., outlined Waters' use of Notes in a sales automation application that replaced a paper-based system of distributing and qualifying leads, submitting sales reports, and performing sales forecasting. Benefits of the Notes applications have included faster reporting time, more accurate sales quotations, and "improved forecasting," according to the Waters exec. (Jacqueline Emigh/19950830/Reader Contact: Lotus Development Company, 617-577-8500; Press Contact: Joanna Eastman, Lois Paul & Partners for Lotus, 617-862-4514) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 08/31/95 TELECOM Singapore Telecom Net Wins Artificial Intelligence Award (NEWS)(TELECOM)(TYO)(00023) Singapore Telecom Net Wins Artificial Intelligence Award 08/31/95 SINGAPORE, 1995 AUG 31 (NB) -- A cellular network frequency management system designed and used by Singapore Telecom has been recognized for its use of artificial intelligence at an awards ceremony in Canada recently. The Autocell system was developed in Singapore by Singapore Telecom's MobileLink unit in collaboration with the Information Technology Institute of the National Computer Board. Autocell technology makes use of artificial intelligence to better manage the available frequencies in the cellular telephone band. Previously, engineers at MobileLink had to pre-assign frequencies to areas using maps and records or system demand to best predict how to use the limited number of channels most effectively. The new system is capable of re-assigning frequencies to different cells depending on system load and demand. The network benefits from a greater capacity to handle calls and users notice less network busy signals. Under the system, a business district may be assigned a greater number of channels during the day with the capacity slowly reducing in the evening as people leave the area and move to nearby residential areas which can then make use of channels that were used in the business area during the daytime. Singapore's MobileLink network is also capable of handling unexpected surges in demand caused by, for instance, a large traffic queue when many mobile users would want to call their homes or offices. A real-time look at network demand is also possible now with the system also capable of reporting historical call traffic data, forecasts future traffic patterns which all enable network planners to better decide which areas need upgrading. The Autocell system was developed by a five engineer team over a three-year period that ended last October when the system was put into use on the network. Total investment in the system was put at S$1.3 million. The engineers came from MobileLink, which provided the cellular telephony expertize, and the Information Technology Institute, which has experience in the advanced software development needed for the project. The group was awarded the Innovative Applications of Artificial Intelligence Award by the American Association for Artificial Intelligence at a ceremony held in Montreal, Canada, last week. Commenting on the award, Mr Lim Joo Hong, director of the Information Technology Institute said, "The IAAI award is more than a commendation for technical achievement. It also takes into account the commercial value of the development and recognizes the proven contribution to productivity brought about by the deployment of new applications. That is central to the mission of ITI." (Martyn Williams/19950831/Press contact: Geraldine Ho, MobileLink, tel +65 838 2026, fax +65 733 1350) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 08/31/95 GENERAL Canon President Dies (NEWS)(GENERAL)(TYO)(00024) Canon President Dies 08/31/95 TOKYO, JAPAN, 1995 AUG 31 (NB) -- Canon has announced that its president, Hajime Mitarai, died of pneumonia at a hospital in Tokyo early this morning. He was 56. Mitarai, son of the company's founder and first President Takashi Mitarai, had worked at the company since 1974, mainly involving himself in research and development activities. Amongst other projects, he was a part of the core team that developed the bubblejet printer, work that won him the Japan Institute for Innovation and Invention Prize in 1994. After joining Canon as an engineer, he became a company director the same year, 1974. He was promoted to managing director in 1979 and kept that position until becoming senior managing and representative director in 1983. His duties were enlarged to become head of the optical products division in 1989 where he stayed until assuming a similar position in the division for social and cultural contribution in 1991. Two years ago, in 1993, he was promoted to become president of the company. He graduated from the Oyamadai Public High School in 1957 after which he moved onto the Massachusetts Institute of Technology where he completed his studies in 1965. He was awarded a doctorate by Stanford University's faculty of electronic engineering in 1973. Between leaving MIT and taking up his first position at Canon, Mitarai worked as an engineer at Corning Glass in the USA from 1966 to 1972. In addition to his duties at Canon, Mitarai was also a director of the Communications Industry Association of Japan and the Japan Electronic Industry Development Association in addition to being a member of several other organizations. Mitarai entered hospital about two weeks ago. The suddenness of his death has shocked the company, Canon spokeswoman Luna Fujimoto told Newsbytes. He is survived by his wife, Michiko, his sons, Takahashi and Tsuyoshi, his daughter, Yumiko, and his mother, Toyoko. (Martyn Williams/19950831/Press contact : Canon Inc., +81-3-5482-8055) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 08/31/95 CORRECTION ONLINE Correction - Media Mall Offers Online Multimedia Info (CORRECTION)(ONLINE)(SFO)(00025) Correction - Media Mall Offers Online Multimedia Info 08/31/95 SAUSALITO, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A, 1995 AUG 31 (NB) -- In the story of this title which first ran on Newsbytes August 28, we listed the site's URL (uniform resource locator) alongside some internal photo availability data in the story's byline. The URL of this site is http://www.mediamall.com The presentation of the URL data next to the photo information was confusing for some readers. Newsbytes apologizes for the confusion. (Newsbytes Staff/19950831) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 08/31/95 EDUCATION ****Ameritech To Link Michigan Students To Internet (NEWS)(EDUCATION)(MSP)(00026) ****Ameritech To Link Michigan Students To Internet 08/31/95 DETROIT, MICHIGAN, U.S.A., 1995 AUG 31 (NB) -- Ameritech (NYSE:AIT) said it is investing $10 million for the children of the state of Michigan, in the form of starting a new program to connect school kids to the worldwide Internet of computers. The company's "Education Avenue" program provides for discounted access rates for participating schools, and fund a resource center and online help desk for teachers and students. About 500 Michigan public schools and community colleges will have the opportunity to link up to the Internet through the program, Ameritech officials said. So far, school districts from Saginaw to the Eastern Upper Peninsula to the upscale Detroit suburb of Grosse Ile have signed up for the program. Ameritech will also fund a $500,000 grant to a major university to create curriculum for teachers who can access materials via the Internet. "We're really committed to education in Michigan," Sara Snyder, Ameritech spokesperson, told Newsbytes. "This investment will put Michigan in the forefront of educational technology, and we have a long history of providing grants and donations that help put our children on the fast track of the information superhighway. Education Avenue is part of that," she said. Ameritech's offering provides for high-speed, direct access to the Internet, as opposed to dial-up access. The high-speed connections will provide for full Internet access, Snyder said, for more in-depth usage of what the Internet has to offer. But it is widely acknowledged that some parts of what the Internet has to offer isn't designed for the eyes of children. Snyder told Newsbytes that Ameritech isn't going to censor or monitor content, and that the responsibility rests with students and parents, "where it should rest," she said. The Education Avenue plan is one project that won't be spreading to the other areas that Ameritech serves with local phone service, Snyder said. That's due to an arrangement the regional Bell operating company (RBOC) made with the state of Michigan, where "we had some earnings we had to give back to our rate payers. We worked with the governor of Michigan and the Michigan Public Service Commission, and rather than refund some payments to customers in the amount of one or two dollars, we said let's give this back to education in the state." As part of that agreement, Ameritech voluntarily agreed to match the amount of earnings to create the Education Avenue program. (Bob Woods/19950831/Press Contact: Sara Snyder, Ameritech, 313-223-7192. Public Contact: Ameritech, 800-TEAM-DATA) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 08/31/95 NETWORK IBM Network Strategy Emphasizes ATM (NEWS)(NETWORK)(TOR)(00027) IBM Network Strategy Emphasizes ATM 08/31/95 WHITE PLAINS, NEW YORK, U.S.A., 1995 AUG 31 (NB) -- IBM (NYSE:IBM) has outlined a switched networking strategy that aims to move customers away from routers and eventually to asynchronous transfer mode (ATM) technology. Richard Geruson, vice-president of marketing in the company's Networking Hardware Division, told consultants in a teleconference Wednesday that switched virtual networking is the foundation of IBM's networking plans. In a telephone press conference later in the day, B.J. Johnson, Jr., general manager of the division, said switched virtual networking combines the best of local area network (LAN) switching, ATM routing, and other networking technologies. Johnson said IBM's switched virtual networking strategy is meant to "provide a smooth path for customers to upgrade their existing and current networks so as to capitalize on the ATM technology that is being developed today." While there may be disagreements about the timetable, Johnson commented, there is no question ATM is coming. IBM officials touted their networking plan as a more comprehensive architecture than those of competitors, extending from large systems to the desktop, and as one based on real products. "Most of them have shipped already," claimed Daniel Abensour, IBM's program director of ATM market development. IBM's plans call for distributed bridges to take over most of the role formerly played by routers. "The large stand-alone router is a product whose time has passed," Geruson said. Abensour explained that the way routers route packets independently of each other, while it has advantages, makes it hard to guarantee transmission time. Guaranteeing that specific bits of data will reach their destinations within a certain time is important in multimedia applications such as videoconferencing. Abensour said a connection-based approach, in which "you establish the connection prior to your starting the session," is more predictable. IBM also said its switch-based approach will be cheaper than using routers or other distributed routing approaches. And the company claimed it expects to bring the cost of ATM down into the same range as switched Ethernet, a technology some analysts have said is standing in the way of ATM to the desktop because it delivers as much capacity as most customers need at a lower cost. One element of IBM's plan is periphery switching, which will use LAN and ATM switches to connect a variety of users and network services. Another is backbone switching, connecting periphery switches at speeds from 155 megabits-per-second (Mbps) up to 2.48 gigabits-per-second (Gbps). IBM also said it will address network management with a two-part strategy including an end-to-end view of the network and advanced configuration management that allows people and network resources to move without manual changes to the network. The strategy also provides for virtual LANs, making it possible to set up virtual workgroups and to change the associations of users without concern for their physical location. The hardware supporting IBM's switched virtual networking architecture includes its 827x LAN switches, assorted ATM devices, and LAN adapters. The strategy will be implemented on products shipping today, IBM said. (Grant Buckler/19950831/Press Contact: Tom Belz, IBM, 914-766-1761) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 08/31/95 TRENDS Japan - Outlook Up At Electronics Companies (NEWS)(TRENDS)(TYO)(00028) Japan - Outlook Up At Electronics Companies 08/31/95 TOKYO, JAPAN, 1995 AUG 31 (NB) -- Japan's major electronics companies are facing a brighter outlook according to figures just released by some of them. NEC, Toshiba, Hitachi, and Oki are among the companies who announced a bullish outlook for the rest of the current financial year, partly helped by the recent rise in the dollar's value. NEC Corporation announced a new projected net profit for the year of 40 billion yen compared with the previous estimate of 33 billion yen and last year's profits of 30.29 billion yen. Strong demand for the company's PC-98 personal computer models, which have the largest market share in Japan, and telecommunications products, were chiefly responsible with the company adding that sales in most sectors are ahead of expectations. Sales of personal computers alone are expected to rise by 71% on the year helped by the new version of Windows 95 says NEC. The PC-98 machines run on NEC developed versions of MS-DOS and Windows currently with a modified version of Windows 95 under development. NEC has also announced several new "designed for Windows 95" computers. Total sales in the current financial year, which ends in March, 1996, at the Tokyo-based company are now predicted to be 3.35 trillion yen, a 430 billion yen increase on last year's sales. Toshiba Corporation has also raised its profits forecast for fiscal 1995. Pretax profits are expected to come in at around the 90 billion yen mark from 72 billion yen in the last financial year. Sales, buoyed by strong demand in the semiconductor and personal computer sectors, are expected to total 3.58 trillion yen, an 8% increase. Oki Electric has reported strong demands for its telecommunications products and increased its pretax profit estimate from 20 billion yen to 38 billion yen. The company will also pay an estimated five yen per share dividend at the end of this financial year, the first such dividend for two years. Net profit is expected to hit 19.00 billion yen on predicted sales of 535 billion yen, a 35 billion yen increase on the previous estimate. At Hitachi Electric, the unconsolidated pretax profit is predicted to hit 110 billion yen, a 24% increase on the year. The figure also represents a 10 billion yen increase on the previous prediction. Sluggish sales brought on by a deepening recession and the wake of the Hanshin earthquake coupled with massive foreign exchange losses sent many companies into the red last year, but the pickup in sales, and the recent drop in value of the yen, are expected to make the current financial year a more healthy one for electronics companies say analysts. (Martyn Williams/19950830) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 08/31/95 ONLINE Online Shopping Comes To Japan (NEWS)(ONLINE)(TYO)(00029) Online Shopping Comes To Japan 08/31/95 TOKYO, JAPAN, 1995 AUG 31 (NB) -- Encourged by a society with one of the largest disposable incomes in the world, and the cheapness of foreign goods compared to the Japanese counterparts, Internet shopping has hit Japan with several services already begun and more on the way. The largest of all the groups is the Smart Island Consortium (SIC), a collection of around 50 companies that will begin, from September, studying ways of making money in cyberspace and the entire electronic commerce system in general. The group was announced this week by the Japan Research Institute (JRI), an industrial think-tank belonging to Sumitomo Corporation. Amongst the group are some of Japan's biggest corporations with interests in all sides of the business. Telecommunications giant NTT, who will benefit from increased use of the telecoms infrastructure, is a member, as are NEC Corporation and Matsushita Electric. The latter two companies will manufacture set-top interactive shopping consoles for the cable networks of the future. SIC is not an exclusively Japanese group either -- Silicon Graphics, Eastman Kodak and Enterprise Integration Technology, which runs the Internet's Commercenet, are members. Links will also be established with Smart Valley Inc., the group's US counterpart. In addition to announcing SIC, JRI together wth Fujitsu and NTT also announced they have established Commercenet Japan. The group will focus on non-profit activities associated with online shopping and electronic commerce rather than the commercial activites that SIC will pursue. Before the two annoucements this week though, electronic shopping has already come to Japan via the Internet. Later this year in October, K-Net and trading group Mitsui & Co. are setting up an CD-ROM-based electronic-mall that will link to K-Net's online service to allow the placing of orders. The service has already attracted the likes of Mitsukoshi, a major Japanese department store, and hopes to have around 40 merchants at launch. Mitsui & Co has also begun an experiemental service that offer users goods from four British stores. The company will place orders and handle all import processing of the goods and delivery to the customer's door. Japanese consumers can choose goods from: Bertrams, a major book wholesaler; Tesser Galleryes, a woodcut print wholesaler; Corney & Barrow, a wine wholesaler; and Dryden of London, a retailer of pottery and branded goods. As well as attracting Japanese customers with foreign goods, some companies are hoping to establish sales in the opposite direction. Jin Corp, a Tokyo-based CD-ROM manufacturer has announced it will set up a store on the World Wide Web for Japanese disk producers wishing to sell their products overseas. (Martyn Williams/19950830) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 08/31/95 GENERAL Japan Newsbriefs (NEWS)(GENERAL)(TYO)(00030) Japan Newsbriefs 08/31/95 TOKYO, JAPAN, 1995 AUG 31 (NB) -- In this roundup of news from Japan: Compaq to offer free Windows 95, Microsoft sets Windows 95 fair this weekend, NTT counts 60 millionth subscriber, Dell cuts Japan prices. Compaq To Offer Free Windows 95 The Japanese unit of Compaq, Compaq KK, will give away copies of Microsoft's new Windows 95-J operating system to all purchasers of a Compaq computer between September 1 this year and January 31 next year. To get a free copy of the localized version of the new operating system, consumers must send a reply card found in the box of each computer. Microsoft Sets Windows 95 Fair This Weekend As part of a slowly building campaign to promote its new Windows 95 operating system, Microsoft will hold a fair in a Tokyo computer store to promote the software. Windows 95J, the localized version, officially launches in Japan between November 25 and December 7. The fair, at Laox in Tokyo's Akihabara electronics mecca, will give visitors the chance to try the new software hands-on NTT Counts 60 Millionth Subscriber The number of general subscribers to Nippon Telegraph and Telephone's domestic telephone network has passed the 60 million mark. At the end of May 60,060,000 people, or 48 in every 100 people in Japan, were subscribing to NTT's service. NTT said its first ever network, built in 1890, serviced 197 users. By 1943 the number of users had risen to over a million but fell back to half that level after the war. After NTT became a public corporation in 1953, the number of subscribers began rising again and passed 20 million in 1972. Dell Cuts Japan Prices Dell Computer is cutting the price of some of its desktop and laptop computer models. Reductions differ with each model, but buyers of desktop PCs will see discounts of up to 21%, while laptop purchasers will benefit from discounts of up to 24%. The price cuts come into effect immediately and are part of a drive to increase sales of Pentium based machines. (Martyn Williams/19950830) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 08/31/95 BUSINESS Compaq & Mattel In Product Development Deal (NEWS)(BUSINESS)(DEN)(00031) Compaq & Mattel In Product Development Deal 08/31/95 HOUSTON, TEXAS, U.S.A., 1995 AUG 31 (NB) -- Compaq Computer Corp. (NYSE: CPQ) and toy maker Fisher-Price, a subsidiary of Mattel Inc. (NYSE: MAT), acknowledged this week they have teamed up to develop, manufacture, and market a new line of education and entertainment-oriented products for young children. While specific information about the products was almost non-existent, Compaq said the products would involve the use of multimedia PCs. "We plan to link education, entertainment and PCs in a fun, imaginative and innovative way," said Byron Davis, president and chief executive officer of Fisher-Price. Although Compaq and Fisher-Price aren't giving out any details about the products to be developed, it could be a system that uses an entirely new proprietary system in much the same manner that Nintendo and other game systems do. A lucrative market seems to exist for such products, and it's tough for parents to say "No" when children want the newest gadget. According to information provided by Compaq, research by Link Resources Corp. shows that more than 35 million PCs have been sold into homes, and nearly 30 percent of the 18 million US households that have multimedia PCs also have children under the age of seven. Compaq said the products that come out of the partnership with Fisher-Price will utilize both hardware and software technology. A Compaq spokesperson told Newsbytes the product is expected to be shown early next year and will on PC and toy retailers' shelves by mid-1996. The deal calls for teams at the two companies to work on their respective parts of the product design, manufacturing and consumer marketing, with a joint group overseeing the entire project. There are reportedly no plans currently to create a joint task force to work at a single site. The companies said to ensure that the products provide the desired educational value they will be tested in Fisher-Price's special "child testing lab," and would utilize educational specialists on the project. (Jim Mallory/19950830/Press contact: Compaq Public Relations, 713-374-0484) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 08/31/95 ONLINE Compuserve Intros 28.8bps Access In UK (NEWS)(ONLINE)(LON)(00032) Compuserve Intros 28.8bps Access In UK 08/31/95 READING, BERKSHIRE, ENGLAND, 1995 AUG 31 (NB) -- Compuserve has announced that its number two London port is being upgraded this week to 28,800 bits-per-second (bps). Plans are also in hand to increase the access speeds for other European main network nodes as well. According to Andrew Gray, Compuserve's UK managing director, this means that callers to the London port (0171-570-5000) can, from this Friday onwards, double their access speed to the network at no extra charge. "28,800 access is very much at the top end of access speeds for commercial and individual users. This increased access speed demonstrates how committed we are to keeping pace with our customers' needs," said Gray. According to Gray, the London speed upgrade is part of Compuserve's plan announced in April this year to offer 28,800 bps access on all sites by May 1, 1996, with ISDN (integrated Services digital network) access in eight major European cities including London by Christmas, 1995, and a two to three times expansion in the number of dial-up ports. Gray went on to say that, despite Microsoft Network's (MSN's) official launch last week, and a UK launch this week, Compuserve still offers better value for money. "Our UK members are getting the best value for money through their membership of Compuserve. In financial terms, from September 10, the average user will pay only UKP6.20 ($9.95) per month for five hours of free Internet access. And that's before weighing up the benefits of more than 3,000 global services and over 60 UK-specific areas, which Compuserve is continuously enhancing," he said. "This compares incredibly well with any other service available to UK members -- particularly the limited number of potential MSN customers who will be paying UKP5.99 for two hours free usage of a far more limited service, and currently no internet access. This makes our charges for the average user less than half those of Microsoft, and for heavy users of online services Compuserve is over four times cheaper," he added. According to Gray, UK membership is growing at 5,000 new members per week, with the current membership at more than 150,000. As of yesterday, Compuserve has introduced new graphical UK menus, and UK subscribers can now "one mouse click" to the most popular UK areas on Compuserve using new icons. Alongside the existing content listing, members will click on an icon which takes them straight to the desired area. As examples, Newsbytes notes, the Sports menu now has a shortcut icon to the AA Golf Database, while on the Magazines menu, members can directly access the UK PC Online area. According to Compuserve, these new menu icons have been structured to minimize the time taken to download them, which is a once-only process. (Steve Gold/19950830/Press Contact: Judith Coley, CompuServe UK, +44-1734-525555, Internet e-mail jcoley@csi.compuserve.com; Reader Contact: tel +44-1734-525555, toll-free tel 0800-289378) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 08/31/95 ONLINE Web URL Addresses For "Webby" Nominees (NEWS)(ONLINE)(LAX)(00033) Web URL Addresses For "Webby" Nominees 08/31/95 HOLLYWOOD, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1995 AUG 31 (NB) -- Yesterday Glenn Davis, who created the Cool Site Of The Day, announced the winner of the first Cool Site Of The Year award. At Newsbytes' press time, however, the World Wide Web URLs (uniform resource locators) or addresses for nominees were not available. As a result, Newsbytes was not able to provide them to readers until now. What follows are the five finalists and their URLs, with an accompanying description provided by the award organizers. The Spot (the winner of the first "Webby") is a legendary California beach house where smart and sexy Tara Hartwick and her four twenty-something house mates share their diaries with Internet visitors. The Spot is the world's first episodic Web site where you can interact with the characters and have significant impact on their lives, in a virtual hangout that exists somewhere between fantasy and reality. The Spot executive producer is Russell Collins, producers Scott Zakarin and Troy Bolotkin. It can be reached at http://www.thespot.com . David Siegel's Home Page (the runner-up) reflects his humor and generosity as he guides visitors through Web Site design, graphics, typography, film theory, humorous stories, and "how to tie your shoe a better way." It can be reached at http://www.dsiegel.com . Rocktropolis (nominee) is a rock and roll fantasy theme park, a surreal city landscape inhabited by some of pop culture's greatest musicians and cult heroes, plus some new pretenders. The creation of record artist manager Nick Turner, Rocktropolis is narrated by Darryl Hannah. It can be reached at http://underground.net/Rocktropolis . Crash Site (nominee) is littered with consumer products and spectator sports. The inner and outer landscapes hurtle towards one another. The Crash Site is where music, art, and machine meet. It is designed by Charles Como and Jim Evans, and can be reached at http://www.crash site.com/crash . Mr. Showbiz (nominee) is a daily show business magazine, up to the minute entertainment news, celebrity profiles, movie reviews, television ratings, chat rooms, games, audio clips, reports on millennial movements around the world, and a wide array of strange and funny combinations of writing, photographs, illustrations, and sound. The editor-in-chief of Mr. Showbiz is Susan Mulcahy. It can be reached at http://web3.starwave.com/showbiz . Glenn Davis' Cool Site Of The Day is available at http://www.infi.net/cool.html . (Richard Bowers/19950830/Press Contact: Kay Dangaard, 310-822-2777 ) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 08/31/95 ONLINE ****Spyglass Enters European Market (NEWS)(ONLINE)(MSP)(00034) ****Spyglass Enters European Market 08/31/95 NAPERVILLE, ILLINOIS, U.S.A., 1995 AUG 31 (NB) -- Spyglass Inc. (NASDAQ:SPYG) has signed a licensing agreement that effectively puts the company into the European market. The company's newest licensee is Siemens Nixdorf Imformationsystems AG, of Paderborn, Germany. The licensing agreement allows Siemens Nixdorf to include Spyglass' Enhanced Mosaic Internet World Wide Web browser technology in its products. Terms of the agreement were not disclosed. Siemens Nixdorf officials said they would include the Enhanced Mosaic Web browser into its Sinix/Windows program, which will ship in the coming weeks. Sinix/Windows is an integrated graphical environment for Sinix systems from Siemens Nixdorf, which is based on Unix system V.R4. The Sinix/Windows user provides an easy-to-use interface that hides the complexities of Sinix from non-technical users, Siemens Nixdorf said. Spyglass officials cited the new agreement as a first "big step" in tapping the European market for its Web technology. "This is not a new direction for us," Marc Miller, executive vice president of marketing and business development for Spyglass, told Newsbytes. "We have been expanding our marketplace internationally. This does represent our first entry into the European market. But we've had a strong presence through a number of customers in the Far East and Asian markets," he said. Miller also said Enhanced Mosaic 2.1, which is the current version of Spyglass' client Web browser, supports the French and German languages, which will further help the company's marketing efforts in Europe. He said the browser will recognize the languages and automatically display Web pages designed in French and German. Spyglass also said the deal gives Siemens Nixdorf an edge in establishing itself as a leading supplier of Web-enabling applications in Europe. Miller told Newsbytes that Spyglass is looking at more global expansion, especially because "the Internet is a medium for worldwide communications. We will continue to look for partners wherever in the world they might be." Spyglass' business model calls for the company to license its Web technologies to other concerns. Those firms then add value to the programs by incorporating them into other products they produce. (Bob Woods/19950831/Press Contact: Randy Pitzer, Spyglass, 708-505- 1010; Public Contact: Spyglass, Internet e-mail mosaic@spyglass.com, Internet World Wide Web http://www.spyglass.com ) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 08/31/95 GENERAL Lotus Symposium - AT&T Network Notes Adds Services (NEWS)(GENERAL)(BOS)(00035) Lotus Symposium - AT&T Network Notes Adds Services 08/31/95 BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS, U.S.A., 1995 AUG 31 (NB) -- AT&T Network Notes, a Lotus/AT&T joint venture opened to commercial business earlier this month, holds future plans that include the addition of ANCS (AT&T NetWare Connect Services) access within the next few months, international dialup through local phone calls by early 1996, and a move to Windows NT servers, said Steve Brand of Lotus, during a session at the Lotus Symposium in Boston. "AT&T supplies the infrastucture. Lotus provides Notes," summed up Brand, who is Lotus's director of business development for AT&T Network Notes. AT&T and Lotus are also working with 45 business partners, who are providing customers with value-added Notes-based applications, he told the group. AT&T Network Notes is "designed from the ground up to be secure," according to the Lotus exec. Other capabilities of the Notes-based network include wide area connectivity, application hosting, customer care, billing and administration, and application publishing to the Web through Lotus's InterNotes. About 50 to 60 percent of companies in the network's current customer base are "connecting in through referrals from our business partners," reported Brand. Services for developers are offered at sites in Massachusetts and San Jose, California, he added. Many companies, he maintained, are looking to AT&T Network Notes as a way to communicate differential price lists and other competitive information that "you wouldn't want to put on the Web." But customers of AT&T Network Notes can also use InterNotes to "designate some of their content" for use on the Internet, he pointed out. Sales force automation is another popular application, said Brand. Others include "infrastructure outsourcing," VANs (value-added networks), information publishing, and electronic commerce. Customers range from very small to extremely large, according to the business development director. Ingram-Micro will ultimately use AT&T Network Notes to "connect to all its customers," he illustrated. Meanwhile, another company, made up of only three employees, is engaged in filling "custom orders for jeans" through a Notes-based application used at various stops in the bluejean assembly process. Egghead Software, another big customer, is building an application that connects Egghead to customers and outside suppliers, according to Brand. Users will be able to browse an online catalog, and fill in and transmit electronic purchase orders for software. The Egghead application incorporates Notes databases for product and order information, a Notes VIP front-end, and an EDI (electronic data Interchange) interface between Notes and Egghead's AS/400-based accounting and billing system. The databases consist of both "general databases," which are designed to replicate to all customers, and "customer-specific databases." Over time, Egghead plans to expand into "adding value around workflow management and groupware applications" in the roles of "product/information supplier, product/information concentrator or conduit, and consultant to suppliers and customers." At the present time, customers can connect to AT&T Network Notes through either Interspan dialup services or frame relay, with ANCS access to be added within the next few months, said Brand. Interspan includes "800" as well as "950 1-ATT" services, he observed. Customers can now dial in at up to 14.4 megabits-per- second (Mbps), and support for 28.8Mbps access will be added later on. AT&T Network Notes is now using OS/2 servers, but a move to NT is planned for the future, he revealed. Also in the future, service will expand from the current level of 32 simultaneous users to more than 100 simultaneous users, through the use of PPP (Point-to- Point Protocol), he told the audience. Speaking with Newsbytes at the close of the session, Brand said that, during the first quarter of 1996, AT&T Network Notes will add international access to 36 countries through a local phone call, with support services performed in English and "billing in dollars." In the third quarter, this service will expand to include multilingual access and billing in international currencies. As previously reported in Newsbytes, Lotus and AT&T announced the commercial rollout of AT&T Network Notes -- along with plans to extend the AT&T/Lotus relationship through "the end of the century" -- in a teleconference on August 7. During the teleconference, which was attended by Newsbytes, officials said that other customers for AT&T Network Notes include Great Plains Software; GroupVision's EnviroNet; Data Clearinghouse; TitleLink, with a networked service specializing in real estate closings; ELF Technologies, with a networked legal service; Immument, a national non-profit AIDS information service; and "wide area communications outsourcing" providers such as SandPoint Company LLC and McGladrey & Pullen LLP. (Jacqueline Emigh/19950831/Reader Contact: Lotus Development Company, 617-577-8500; Press Contact: Suzanne Diaz, Lois Paul & Partners for Lotus, 617-860-5602) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 08/31/95 EDUCATION Lotus Symposium - Univ Buys 30,000 Copies Of Notes (NEWS)(EDUCATION)(BOS)(00036) Lotus Symposium - Univ Buys 30,000 Copies Of Notes 08/31/95 BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS, U.S.A., 1995 AUG 31 (NB) -- With a newly announced agreement to buy 30,000 PCs equipped with Lotus Notes and SmartSuite, the University of Tennessee joins a list of "academic" Notes customers that also includes the University of Texas, Union Pacific, and the worldwide school system run by the US Department of Defense, said Alan Minard, director of Lotus Academic Marketing, in a meeting with Newsbytes at the Lotus Symposium in Boston. By starting to use Notes while still in school, students gain computer literacy skills as well as the ability to interact in a "collaborative" way, Minard told Newsbytes. Both kinds of capabilities are valuable in today's job market, he asserted. Lotus, he added, is attracting schools to Notes through the Academic Passport Program, a set of volume licensing discounts aimed at reducing pricing by 80 percent or more for K-12 school districts, colleges, and universities. Total Campus Option, the pricing plan chosen by the University of Tennessee, allows schools to run "core Lotus products" on every computer on campus, including PCs owned by students, for per user licensing fees of only $1.50 to $6.50, depending on school size. Offered on a three-year contract basis, the Total Campus Option also covers Lotus authorized help-desk support, and all upgrades, according to Minard. A "prime catalyst" for the agreement between Lotus and the University of Tennessee was Thomas Sudman, a "strong supporter" of the university who heads up Digital A.V., a Notes development firm in Knoxville, Tennessee, said Ramsey Valentine, director of strategic planning for the school's Division of Information Architecture, in a separate interview with Newsbytes. The purchasing decision also stems from a new initiative by the recently created division to "redefine messaging and the database environment," Ramsey maintained. "We're trying to recognize messaging as databases have been recognized in the past, focusing, in particular, on the information needs of faculty members. Traditional support didn't recognize that key ingredient," Newsbytes was told. A set of "faculty/student notebooks" constitutes the "most exciting" application for the university, according to Ramsey. The notebooks will provide faculty members and students with databases for storing documents ranging from student assignments to class lists, research notes, and committee responsibilities. The academic application also includes a career services database, a customer order tracking database, and a fourth database, known as "volXpress help desk," that will provide registration information to students and their parents, sending hard-to-answer questions by electronic mail to specialists at university departments. Coincidentally, the University of Tennessee is also participating in a partnership with IBM. "We have a broad generic agreement to work with IBM to improve the way we use technology on campus," Ramsey reported. But the school embarked on discussions with both companies long before IBM's recent acquisition of Lotus. Minard told Newsbytes that Lotus first instituted pricing discounts for universities in the late 1980s. By now, he noted, some schools are beginning to add computer ownership to their admission requirements. Schools today are using Notes for storing student pictures and other objects, in addition to text, Minard pointed out. By using photos, faculty members can learn student names more quickly, he contended. And taking part in Notes discussion groups is teaching students more than just computer literacy or "collaborative" savvy, he observed. Often, students discover the artificial nature of gender and race barriers when they do not find out, until after the fact, that another member of the discussion group was of a different sex or color. (Jacqueline Emigh/19950831/Reader Contact: Lotus, 617-577-8500; Press Contact: Joanna Eastman, Lois Paul & Partners for Lotus, 617-862-4514) (SUMMARY)(GENERAL)(MSP)(00037) Newsbytes Daily Summary 08/31/95 MINNEAPOLIS, MINNESOTA, U.S.A., 1995 AUG 31 (NB) -- These are capsules of all today's news stories: ======================================================================== ------------| N E W S B Y T E S D A I L Y S U M M A R Y |---------- ------------| Thursday, August 31, 1995 |---------- ======================================================================== (c) Newsbytes News Network (Tm) Editor in Chief: Wendy Woods ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Newsbytes News Network is a computer and telecom industry news wire and digitized picture service. Our news stream includes more than 30 daily first-hand reported US and international news stories about computing and telecommunications. For more information, please e-mail to 'administrator@newsbytes.com' ------------------------------------------------------------------------ CATEGORY HEADLINES (*** indicates today's top stories) STORY # ======================================================================== APPLE Farallon's Fast Ethernet Mac NuBus Technology.............. 08 APPLE Extensis Offers QuarkXPress Extension Set For Mac.......... 17 APPLE Mac Software Sends Files Electronically To Prepress........ 19 BROADCAST Japan Launches Telecoms Satellites......................... 11 BROADCAST UK Defense Ministry Picks Olivetti Videoconferencing....... 15 BUSINESS Compuserve & Artisoft In European Internet Deal............ 14 BUSINESS Compaq & Mattel In Product Development Deal................ 31 CHIPS India - Texas Instruments Plans Chip Design Center......... 07 EDUCATION ****Ameritech To Link Michigan Students To Internet....... 26 EDUCATION Lotus Symposium - Univ Buys 30,000 Copies Of Notes......... 36 GENERAL ****Lotus Symposium - Notes Attracted IBM, Manzi Says..... 22 GENERAL Canon President Dies....................................... 24 GENERAL Japan Newsbriefs........................................... 30 GENERAL Lotus Symposium - AT&T Network Notes Adds Services......... 35 LEGAL China - Man Selling Pirated CDs Sentenced To Prison........ 05 NETWORK UK - Asante Unveils Ethernet Hub Technology................ 13 NETWORK IBM Network Strategy Emphasizes ATM........................ 27 ONLINE SPA To Launch World Wide Web Treasure Hunt................. 03 ONLINE ****Microsoft Looks To Expand Japan Comms Network......... 10 ONLINE Internet Recruitment "Classified Ads....................... 12 ONLINE USA Today's Web Site Now Free To Internet Users............ 16 ONLINE AOL Offers Online Campus & Univ Of California.............. 18 ONLINE Prodigy's Access Atlanta Reaches 20,000 Subscribers........ 20 ONLINE UK Online Family Service Launches.......................... 21 ONLINE Correction - Media Mall Offers Online Multimedia Info...... 25 ONLINE Online Shopping Comes To Japan............................. 29 ONLINE Compuserve Intros 28.8bps Access In UK..................... 32 ONLINE Web URL Addresses For "Webby" Nominees..................... 33 ONLINE ****Spyglass Enters European Market....................... 34 PDA NYSE To Use Handheld Terminals On Trading Floor............ 02 TELECOM India - Nokia Plans Telecom Manufacturing.................. 06 TELECOM Singapore Telecom Net Wins Artificial Intelligence Award... 23 TRENDS NEC Develops "Snake-Like" Robot............................ 01 TRENDS Intuit Scores Big In First Half Software Sales............. 04 TRENDS Japan - Competing CD Standards Talk Compromise............. 09 TRENDS Japan - Outlook Up At Electronics Companies................ 28 ======================================================================== These are the headlines and first paragraphs of each story, in order: 1 -> NEC Develops "Snake-Like" Robot -- NEC Corporation has developed a robotically controlled electronic snake that offers far more movement that previously designed robots. The company says that the much greater freedom of movement "makes it perfect" for everything from industrial to disaster relief work. 2 -> NYSE To Use Handheld Terminals On Trading Floor -- The New York Stock Exchange has received the go-ahead from the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to put wireless, handheld computer terminals to work on its trading floor. The terminals will go into service some time in 1996. 3 -> SPA To Launch World Wide Web Treasure Hunt -- Let's go surfin' now, everybody's learnin' how, come on a safari with the Software Publishers Association. SPA on October 24 will launch a World Wide Web treasurer hunt called CyberSurfari '95. 4 -> Intuit Scores Big In First Half Software Sales -- When it comes to personal productivity software, Intuit cleaned up in the first half of 1995, according to PC Data, a market research firm. 5 -> China - Man Selling Pirated CDs Sentenced To Prison -- A man has been sentenced to nine months in prison and fined RMB50,000 (US$6,000) for illegally selling pirated CDs in Guangzhou, the China Daily reported. 6 -> India - Nokia Plans Telecom Manufacturing -- Nokia Telecommunications Ltd., the Finland-based telecom company, plans to set up a manufacturing base and research and development center in India. 7 -> India - Texas Instruments Plans Chip Design Center -- Texas Instruments, the $10.31 billion suppliers of semiconductor products worldwide, has announced that it will be setting up a digital signal processing (DSP) design center in India by December this year. The first production release will be out in 1996. 8 -> Farallon's Fast Ethernet Mac NuBus Technology -- Farallon Computing has announced what it claims is the industry's first Fast Ethernet NuBus card for the Power Mac, Quadra, and Mac II series of Apple Mac computers. 9 -> Japan - Competing CD Standards Talk Compromise -- Faced with the prospect of a costly standards battle over the next generation video recording and playback technology, the two consortiums involved have announced they are working towards a common standard. 10 -> ****Microsoft Looks To Expand Japan Comms Network -- Microsoft is looking to expand its current network of access points in Japan ahead of the official launch of Windows 95 in the country, Newsbytes has learned. 11 -> Japan Launches Telecoms Satellites -- Japan launched two telecommunications satellites Tuesday from separate launchers in the United States and French Guiana. An Atlas rocket lifted the JCSat-3 satellite into orbit whilst NTT's N-Star-a satellite was placed into orbit by a European Ariane rocket. 12 -> Internet Recruitment "Classified Ads -- Recruitment "classified ads" and online job fairs are two new services now being offered by HEART/Career Connections Inc. The services can be accessed via Telnet on the Internet, an Internet World Wide Web site, or via modem on a private bulletin board system (BBS). 13 -> UK - Asante Unveils Ethernet Hub Technology -- Asante Technologies, the Ethernet network specialist company, has taken the wraps off the AsanteFast 100 Hub, a 12-port stackable hub unit. According to the company, the UKP1,895 unit is an ideal method of upgrading computer networks to 100 megabits-per-second (Mbps) Fast Ethernet in situations where there is congestion on the network. 14 -> Compuserve & Artisoft In European Internet Deal -- Compuserve has contracted with Artisoft to provide Internet access facilities for users of Artisoft's LANtastic Power Suite, the company integrated communications suite of software. 15 -> UK Defense Ministry Picks Olivetti Videoconferencing -- The UK's Ministry of Defense (MoD) has announced the result of a nine month EC (European Commission) Journal competition to select a desktop videoconferencing system. The winner of the project tender was Olivetti. 16 -> USA Today's Web Site Now Free To Internet Users -- The "Nation's Newspaper" said it will stop excluding Internet World Wide Web surfers from reading its contents electronically. USA Today officials said they were opening access of its Web service to all Internet users for a limited time. 17 -> Extensis Offers QuarkXPress Extension Set For Mac -- Extensis Corp. has announced shipment of QX-Tools for Macintosh, a collection of XTensions for QuarkXPress. 18 -> AOL Offers Online Campus & Univ Of California -- America Online (NASDAQ:AMER) is ready for back-to-school activity. If you need a box of pencils or a class from the University of California at Berkeley, AOL wants you online, and accredited courses from the well-known university are scheduled to begin later this year. 19 -> Mac Software Sends Files Electronically To Prepress -- Adobe systems Inc. (NASDAQ: ADBE) said it is developing a telecommunications software product that enables remote delivery of files between graphic arts prepress providers and their clients. 20 -> Prodigy's Access Atlanta Reaches 20,000 Subscribers -- The online interactive service "Access Atlanta," which can be found on Prodigy, celebrated its 20,000 subscriber milestone by giving the lucky new user a big prize - 20 free months of usage. 21 -> UK Online Family Service Launches -- UK Online, which claims to the UK's first family online service, officially opens for business this week. In preparation for the September 1 launch day, the service has opened up a series of local call points-of-presence (POPs) for its subscribers to use. 22 -> ****Lotus Symposium - Notes Attracted IBM, Manzi Says -- "In early June, I was an employee of a Cambridge software company, a Notes user, and one of several million people who use an IBM Think Pad. But then, in the course of two short weeks, largely because of Notes, I rose like a meteor to become senior VP of IBM," quipped Jim Manzi, who is also CEO (chief executive officer) of Lotus, in a keynote at the Lotus Symposium in Boston, an occasion that marked the shipment of 10 million seats of Lotus Notes and cc:Mail. 23 -> Singapore Telecom Net Wins Artificial Intelligence Award -- A cellular network frequency management system designed and used by Singapore Telecom has been recognized for its use of artificial intelligence at an awards ceremony in Canada recently. 24 -> Canon President Dies -- Canon has announced that its president, Hajime Mitarai, died of pneumonia at a hospital in Tokyo early this morning. He was 56. 25 -> Correction - Media Mall Offers Online Multimedia Info -- In the story of this title which first ran on Newsbytes August 28, we listed the site's URL (uniform resource locator) alongside some internal photo availability data in the story's byline. The URL of this site is http://www.mediamall.com 26 -> ****Ameritech To Link Michigan Students To Internet -- Ameritech (NYSE:AIT) said it is investing $10 million for the children of the state of Michigan, in the form of starting a new program to connect school kids to the worldwide Internet of computers. The company's "Education Avenue" program provides for discounted access rates for participating schools, and fund a resource center and online help desk for teachers and students. 27 -> IBM Network Strategy Emphasizes ATM -- IBM (NYSE:IBM) has outlined a switched networking strategy that aims to move customers away from routers and eventually to asynchronous transfer mode (ATM) technology. 28 -> Japan - Outlook Up At Electronics Companies -- Japan's major electronics companies are facing a brighter outlook according to figures just released by some of them. NEC, Toshiba, Hitachi, and Oki are among the companies who announced a bullish outlook for the rest of the current financial year, partly helped by the recent rise in the dollar's value. 29 -> Online Shopping Comes To Japan -- Encourged by a society with one of the largest disposable incomes in the world, and the cheapness of foreign goods compared to the Japanese counterparts, Internet shopping has hit Japan with several services already begun and more on the way. 30 -> Japan Newsbriefs -- In this roundup of news from Japan: Compaq to offer free Windows 95, Microsoft sets Windows 95 fair this weekend, NTT counts 60 millionth subscriber, Dell cuts Japan prices. 31 -> Compaq & Mattel In Product Development Deal -- Compaq Computer Corp. (NYSE: CPQ) and toy maker Fisher-Price, a subsidiary of Mattel Inc. (NYSE: MAT), acknowledged this week they have teamed up to develop, manufacture, and market a new line of education and entertainment-oriented products for young children. 32 -> Compuserve Intros 28.8bps Access In UK -- Compuserve has announced that its number two London port is being upgraded this week to 28,800 bits-per-second (bps). Plans are also in hand to increase the access speeds for other European main network nodes as well. 33 -> Web URL Addresses For "Webby" Nominees -- Yesterday Glenn Davis, who created the Cool Site Of The Day, announced the winner of the first Cool Site Of The Year award. At Newsbytes' press time, however, the World Wide Web URLs (uniform resource locators) or addresses for nominees were not available. 34 -> ****Spyglass Enters European Market -- Spyglass Inc. (NASDAQ:SPYG) has signed a licensing agreement that effectively puts the company into the European market. The company's newest licensee is Siemens Nixdorf Imformationsystems AG, of Paderborn, Germany. 35 -> Lotus Symposium - AT&T Network Notes Adds Services -- AT&T Network Notes, a Lotus/AT&T joint venture opened to commercial business earlier this month, holds future plans that include the addition of ANCS (AT&T NetWare Connect Services) access within the next few months, international dialup through local phone calls by early 1996, and a move to Windows NT servers, said Steve Brand of Lotus, during a session at the Lotus Symposium in Boston. 36 -> Lotus Symposium - Univ Buys 30,000 Copies Of Notes -- With a newly announced agreement to buy 30,000 PCs equipped with Lotus Notes and SmartSuite, the University of Tennessee joins a list of "academic" Notes customers that also includes the University of Texas, Union Pacific, and the worldwide school system run by the US Department of Defense, said Alan Minard, director of Lotus Academic Marketing, in a meeting with Newsbytes at the Lotus Symposium in Boston. (Ian Stokell/19950831) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 08/30/95 WINDOWS CashGraf Gets New Name, Intros 2 Acct Packages (NEWS)(WINDOWS)(DEN)(00001) CashGraf Gets New Name, Intros 2 Acct Packages 08/30/95 ST PETERSBURG, FLORIDA, U.S.A., 1995 AUG 30 (NB) -- CashGraf Software Inc., formerly Target Software Group Inc., has introduced two accounting programs on CD-ROM designed for use by small businesses and home-based offices. The software includes word processing, a database manager, and a contact manager, as well as accounting functions. CashGraf Business Plus includes accounts payable, accounts receivable, general ledger, inventory, purchase orders, credit memos, a bills to pay feature, tracking of up to 99 separate bank accounts, and a simple payroll emulation using negative splits. A spokesperson explained that the payroll module does not compute the taxes nor does it automatically make deductions from the paycheck. Other features include budgets and projections, goal tracking, and a financial calendar. Standard business reports are provided including graphs and charts. The second program, CashGraf Home Office Plus, has a similar accounting system minus the payroll, inventory and invoicing features. The company said the accounting features of both products interact with the appointment scheduler, word processor, mail-merge, and databases. The contact manager includes an autodialer, and you also get a "one-click" client and vendor financial history display. Purchasers of either program get a VHS-format training videotape and a bag of microwave popcorn "to enjoy while viewing the tutorial," said the company. Both applications can run on Windows, OS/2, and Windows NT. A CashGraf spokesperson told Newsbytes that both programs require a minimum of four megabytes (MB) of memory, although 8MB is recommended. You also need 15MB of available space on the hard drive for either program. CashGraf Business Plus has a street price of about $200, while Home Office Plus is available for $100 or less. The software is also available on floppy disk. (Jim Mallory/19950829/press contact: Craig Grabiner, EBS Public Relations for CashGraf, 708-714-8600; Public contact: CashGraf, 800-872-0405/CASHGRAF950830/PHOTO) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 08/30/95 BUSINESS Conner Stepping Up Investment In Singapore (NEWS)(BUSINESS)(HKG)(00002) Conner Stepping Up Investment In Singapore 08/30/95 CENTRAL, HONG KONG, 1995 AUG 30 (NB)-- California-based disk and tape drive manufacturer Conner Peripherals is stepping up investment in its new facility in Singapore, from the planned US$44 million to US$110 million, with a view to accelerating the production of advanced disk media. It has decided to install three production lines instead of the one that was planned when an announcement on the new facility was made in July. The first of the lines will be operational early next year. The 133,000 square-foot unit, brought under the umbrella of Conner's wholly owned subsidiary, CDD Singapore, was to employ 230 new people. Now, following the expansion plans, its manpower requirement has more than doubled to 600. They are for technical, engineering and management positions besides direct labor. "We believe CDD Singapore is capable of producing the most advanced media at the lowest cost in the industry," said Finis Conner, chairman and chief executive officer. "We are making this investment to provide for Conner's requirements as well as support the growing industry need for high-technology media. This action should enable Conner to grow as a media supplier and improve its overall margins," he said. (Nigel Armstrong & I.T. Daily/19950829) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 08/30/95 APPLE Apple Upgrades Singapore Investment (NEWS)(APPLE)(HKG)(00003) Apple Upgrades Singapore Investment 08/30/95 CENTRAL, HONG KONG, 1995 AUG 30 (NB)-- Apple Computer is investing more than S$40 million in Singapore over the next four years to beef up its research and development presence to enable it to innovate and "Asianize" its multimedia personal computer technology. It also intends to expand in three other Asian countries, including India. In Singapore, the latest investment will boost its total investment there to over S$275 million, including an earlier S$40 million sunk into its R&D operations two years ago. Under the latest move, Apple has set up an additional R&D wing, named Apple Technology Singapore, under its Apple Design Center. This will be partially financed with help from the National Science and Technology Board (NSTB) under its Research Incentive Scheme for Companies (RISC) grant. The NSTB, however, declined to disclose the amount of the grant. "The Apple Design Center is focused on delivering new products for the high-potential markets, especially in Asia," said Cheung Ho Leong, Apple vice-president for Macintosh Desktop Systems. Apple Technology would spearhead Apple's thrust into Asia by developing expertise in areas such as hardware design, systems software, and user interface technologies for Asian countries such as Thailand, Taiwan, and Korea. In addition, software using Asian language-enabling technology will also be written for end-users in these markets. "It is essential that our product-focus groups understand fully the needs of local markets here in Asia," said Louis Woo, manager of the Apple Design Center. (Nigel Armstrong & I.T. Daily/19950829) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 08/30/95 GOVT Federal Info Technology Conf Set For Sept (NEWS)(GOVT)(WAS)(00004) Federal Info Technology Conf Set For Sept 08/30/95 WASHINGTON, D.C., U.S.A., 1995 AUG 30 (NB) -- The General Services Administration has set its 34th annual Information Resources Management Conference for September 5-8 in Hershey, Pennsylvania. "The annual IRMCO conference is a chance for senior information technology managers to exchange ideas on the latest trends in federal information technology management," said Joe Thompson, commissioner of GSA's Information Technology Service. "The approach to managing and acquiring information technology resources is changing rapidly. This year's conference will highlight many of these new ideas and proposals." Norman Ornstein, resident scholar at the American Enterprise Institute, will deliver a keynote speech on "reshaping government." Ornstein's columns have appeared in many newspapers and he is a frequent guest on television shows such as the MacNeil-Lehrer New Hour, Nightline, the Today Show, and Face the Nation. "Each year, IRMCO attracts the top leaders of the information resources management community, who consider this conference one of the premier IRM events of the year," says Frank McDonough, deputy commission of the ITS. According to GSA, the conference will feature more than 30 presentations on computing, telecommunications, records management, and acquisition policy. Among the speakers are: Bob Woods, GSA associate administrator in charge of the FTS2000 federal telephone system; Mary Ellen Condon, chair of the Information Technology Acquisition Review Board; Alan Balutis, chief information officer for the Department of Commerce; and Bruce McConnell, chief of information policy and technology at the Office of Management and Budget. (Kennedy Maize/19950829/Press Contact: Anne Marshall, 202-501-1231; Reader Contact: Betty Moore, 202-501-4298, Internet e-mail Betty.Moore@gsa.com) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 08/30/95 BUSINESS Performance Systems Buys Into Israel Internet Provider (NEWS)(BUSINESS)(WAS)(00005) Performance Systems Buys Into Israel Internet Provider 08/30/95 HERNDON, VIRGINIA, U.S.A., 1995 AUG 30 (NB) -- Performance Systems International (NASDAQ:PSIX) is acquiring a one-third share of Netvision Ltd., Israel's largest Internet service provider. PSI spokesman Brian Muys told Newsbytes the value of the deal is about $9 million. In a tax-free, stock-for-stock deal among PSI, Elron Electronic Industries, and Netmanage, each company ends up with 33 percent of Netvision. "Israel is a world leader in producing Internet software," said William Schrader, PSI president and chief executive officer. "This new relationship, expected to be formalized by the end of September, will involve extending the PSINet frame relay-ATM (asynchronous transfer mode) system throughout Netvision's network. "Global Internet traffic is growing at a fast pace and Internet service outside of North America comprises about half of the total market," Schrader said. Netvision's Internet services include modem dial-up, ISDN (integrated services digital network), dedicated lines, local area network (LAN)-to-LAN, virtual private networks for multinational corporations, and commercial World Wide Web and custom online services. Netmanage sells an integrated set of Internet applications for Windows, including the popular Chameleon World Wide Web browser. Elron, founded in 1962, is an Israeli-based multinational corporation with interests in medical diagnostic imaging, defense electronics, information technologies, manufacturing automation, and the semiconductor and software industries. Elron recently started ElroNet, a value-added network service aimed at the business community in Israel. PSI is an Internet service provider with points of presence in more than 155 cities. PSI bundles Netmanage software with several of its Internet packages. The PSI home page is http://www.psi.net . (Kennedy Maize/19950829/Press Contact: Brian Muys, 703-904-4285) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 08/30/95 GENERAL Lotus Intros VideoNotes 1.1, Adds NT Server Support (NEWS)(GENERAL)(BOS)(00006) Lotus Intros VideoNotes 1.1, Adds NT Server Support 08/30/95 CAMBRIDGE, MASSACHUSETTS, U.S.A., 1995 AUG 30 (NB) -- Lotus's newly unveiled VideoNotes 1.1 opens up the Notes "multimedia extension" to Windows NT-based as well as OS/2-based Notes servers, plus a wide range of video servers and multimedia file formats. It also adds Notes/FX integration and new CD-ROM distribution capabilities, said Arthur Souza, product manager, in an interview with Newsbytes. VideoNotes uses two types of servers -- a "Site Manager" Notes server, and a video server -- to let desktop users capture, edit, play, and distribute stored, full-motion video in Notes documents over local area networks (LANs) and wide area networks (WANs), according to Souza. VideoNotes 1.0 supported only OS/2 Site Managers and StarLite and Novell video servers, Souza said. But the new VideoNotes 1.1 brings support for Windows NT Site Managers, in addition to Ultimedia, First Virtual Corporation, and Unix-based media servers, the Lotus exec told Newsbytes. The VideoNotes update also expands beyond the Video for Windows AVI file support of version 1.0, with support for MPEG (Motion Picture Experts Group) JPEG (Joint Photographic Experts Group), Apple QuickTime (MOV), Windows (WAV) sound files, and most other video and audio file formats, he pointed out. VideoNotes' "Site Manager" Notes server is used to distribute and replicate video clips stored on the media server. Desktop users access and play back the stored digitized video by clicking on the video icon in Notes. Souza told Newsbytes that the new CD-ROM distribution capabilities in VideoNotes 1.1 permit the Notes administrator to "press" a CD-ROM disk on to the media server for network distribution of a multimedia title or video training application, through a process similar to batch processing. The new CD-ROM distribution capabilities in VideoNotes provide new avenues for CD-ROM publishers, he observed. "In the past, (the Notes administrator) would have needed to add each file individually, piece by piece. Now, you can put the whole thing out there, intact, on the networked video server," Newsbytes was told. The product manager added that, with the new Notes/FX integration in VideoNotes, properties are stored in the Notes database every time a user creates a new video clip file, allowing the administrator to build a "catalog" for managing and archiving the organization's video collection. VideoNotes 1.1 is priced at $2,695 per Site Manager license, and at $120 per user for Windows-based VideoNotes client software. (Jacqueline Emigh/19950829/Reader Contact: Lotus, 800-343-5414; Press Contact: Jessica Horwitz or Victor Cruz, Lois Paul & Partners for Lotus, 617-862-4514) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 08/30/95 BROADCAST Lockheed Sells China Comms Satellite (NEWS)(BROADCAST)(PEK)(00007) Lockheed Sells China Comms Satellite 08/30/95 BEIJING, CHINA, 1995 AUG 30 (NB) -- A contract was recently signed between China Orient Telecom Satellite Co. Ltd. and Lockheed Martin Corp. of the US for the purchase of a communications satellite. The contract involving the ChinaStar 1 satellite and control facility was signed in Augustin Beijing. According to the contract, China Orient Telecom Satellite Co Ltd, an affiliate of the Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications, will purchase an A2100 communications satellite from Lockheed. Although China Orient officials did not say how much the contract is worth, it is believed to involve millions of US dollars. The A2100 is an advanced communications satellite that can provide a total of 48 transponders. Each transponder can transmit one or two television programs, or 36 telecommunication lines. China's telecommunications capacity is expected to get a big boost from the satellite, said Hao Weimin, a senior official with Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications. By the year 2000, China will need a total of 140 satellite transponders to meet its huge communications demand, the official said. By the end of 1997, about 70 to 80 transponders are expected to be needed. China now has only 30 transponders in use, which is not enough, Hao said. The A2100 satellite, which is designed to have an orbital life-span of more than 15 years, will cover China, South and West Asia, and some of eastern Europe, according to the official. The satellite is scheduled to be launched by the Chinese Long-March 3B rocket at the Xichang Launch Center in Sichuan province in the second half of 1997. (Chih-Ho Yu & Ning Huang/19950830) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 08/30/95 TELECOM China - Shanghai Phone Numbers To Move To 8 Digits (NEWS)(TELECOM)(PEK)(00008) China - Shanghai Phone Numbers To Move To 8 Digits 08/30/95 BEIJING, CHINA, 1995 AUG 30 (NB) -- November 25 will be the launch date for Shanghai telephone numbers to be upgraded from seven digits to eight, officials with Shanghai Posts and Telecommunications Administration (SPTA) said recently. Following Paris, Tokyo, and Hong Kong, Shanghai will reportedly be the fourth city in the world to use eight-digit phone numbers. On September 1, 1957, phone numbers in Shanghai were upgraded from five digits to six digits. Then on November 12, 1989, one more digit was added. Statistics show that Shanghai's total exchange capacity in 1989 was 440,000 lines, but that capacity reached 2.31 million in 1994. The SPTA estimates that the exchange capacity in Shanghai will be more than 3.3 million lines before the end of this year. One problem hindering further expansion is that about 60 percent of telephone numbers have been used, SPTA officials said, and the eight- digit system will expand the available telephone numbers in Shanghai from the current eight million to 80 million, paving the way for further development. Preparations for the move to eight-digit phone numbers began in early 1994, said Chen Suxian, vice director of SPTA. The final plan was approved on June 30 by the Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications and the Municipal Science and Technology Commission. (Chih-Ho Yu & Ning Huang/19950830) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 08/30/95 WINDOWS Windows 95 Delayed For The Indian Market (NEWS)(WINDOWS)(DEL)(00009) Windows 95 Delayed For The Indian Market 08/30/95 NEW DELHI, INDIA, 1995 AUG 30 (NB) -- Although Windows 95 has finally been launched, Indian resellers will not receive it until mid-September. The delay is due to Microsoft omitting the time- zone feature in the package for the Indian market. The company has also decided to delay the release in order to rectify the erroneous maps of India in several of its other products. This follows the Indian Customs Authority's decision not to allow the import of programs that contain maps of India that show parts of Jammu and Kashmir in Pakistan and China. The import of two consignments of the firm's CD-ROM atlas by two Delhi-based companies -- Vintron Industries Ltd. and Akash Industries Ltd. -- had earlier experienced problems. The Windows 95 package contains a program feature which pertains to the time-zone map of the world. By selecting such Indian metropolitan cities as Delhi or Bombay, which are in an exclusive time-zone, the map gets highlighted without parts of Kashmir. Now, for all copies currently sold in India, the time-zone feature has been completely removed. According to Rajiv Nair, general manager of Microsoft India, the version to be shipped to India will be the only one not to have this feature. The company had followed the standard United Nations depiction in designing the feature, and it has recognized the local concern for it to be changed, he said. The Indian map was developed, not by Microsoft, but by a third party. Significantly, the time-zone map feature in Windows 95 has also drawn fiery protests in Latin America from Peru and Ecuador, as Microsoft removed the boundaries between the two countries due to a recent border dispute. Windows 95 will have an end-user price of R6,300 ($200) per copy, and R3,200 (about $100) per upgrade for users of earlier versions of Windows. (C.T. Mahabharat/19950830) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 08/30/95 BUSINESS Verifone Steps Up Indian Operations (NEWS)(BUSINESS)(DEL)(00010) Verifone Steps Up Indian Operations 08/30/95 NEW DELHI, INDIA, 1995 AUG 30 (NB) -- Verifone Inc., a leading US-based transaction automation company, has decided to set up a direct sales office in Bangalore, complete its 65,000 square-foot Verifone Technology Park by mid-1996, and invest more money to expand its research and development center. The company feels the increasing automation of the banking industry, ATM (asynchronous transfer mode) networks, the growing credit card market (which is projected to have 10,000,000 cardholders and 300,000 card merchants by the year 2000), and an economy fueled by foreign investments and privatization, has made India an important strategic market. The Bangalore office will open on September 1 and initially function as a business development office. Headed by its Country Manager Giri Khatod, the company will first analyze the market. Meanwhile, the firm's R&D center, set up by the company's subsidiary Verifone India Pvt. Ltd., will focus on developing client/server technology, electronic commerce on the Internet, network communications, network management, security of data and network access, vertical application software, and management information system (MIS) applications, for internal worldwide use. The export-oriented R&D center has developed various products and systems, most notably network and integrated systems. The company has reportedly earned foreign exchange worth $8.7 million from the center. (C.T. Mahabharat/19950830) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 08/30/95 GOVT Australian Govt Clears Win 95 For Military Use (NEWS)(GOVT)(SYD)(00011) Australian Govt Clears Win 95 For Military Use 08/30/95 SYDNEY, AUSTRALIA, 1995 AUG 30 (NB) -- The Australian Minister for Defense, Robert Ray, has told the parliament that despite concerns about the security aspects of Windows 95, the product has now been cleared. The original concerns came from some military personnel, in particular from the Australian Navy. They quoted reports which said Windows 95 was able to spy on the files and hardware on a user's PC. Ray said, "The security analysis has been completed, and in essence the Defense Department does not believe that there is any security concerns specific to the product." He added that this did not mean that the Navy had any intention of buying the product. The Australian Navy is believed to have around 8,000 installed copies of the prior version of Windows, 3.1. Internal estimates for the cost of upgrading to Windows 95 are placed at around US$500,000 for the software, but perhaps ten times this amount in logistical and retraining costs. Navy sources contacted by Newsbytes estimate that the cost of upgrading to newer versions of application software would be approximately the same, regardless of whether the Navy stays with the existing Windows or moves to the new version. They also said that the directive to naval personnel not to upgrade to Windows 95 did not mean that any individual user was planning to. As one person explained to Newsbytes. "It is not as though a sailor on a naval vessel would take it into his or her head to go to the computer store and buy a software package to load on a naval PC." (Paul Zucker/19950829) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 08/30/95 TRENDS UK - Battery Powered PCMCIA Adapter (NEWS)(TRENDS)(LON)(00012) UK - Battery Powered PCMCIA Adapter 08/30/95 LONDON, ENGLAND, 1995 AUG 30 (NB) -- TeleAdapt has developed a battery powered version of its Modulette, a PCMCIA (Personal Computer Memory Card International Association) card adapter for computers without a integral PCMCIA slot. Like its AC/DC-powered predecessor, the battery version of the Modulette has a PCMCIA slot at one end and a serial cable flying lead at the other. When the UK199.99 unit is plugged into the serial port of either a PC or an Apple Mac, it allows the host computer to "drive" the PCMCIA slot as if it were any normal serial device. Driver software, available for either PC or Mac users, allows the Modulette to function like a standard PCMCIA Type II slot. According to Colin Corby, TeleAdapt's marketing director, the Modulette is aimed at portable Mac users, specifically Powerbook 100 series and Duo users who want to use their battery powered portable machine with a data-enabled PCN (personal communications network) or GSM (global system for mobile communications) phone. Since the unit requires no separate power supply, the Modulette can be used anywhere there is digital mobile network coverage. Newsbytes notes that the Modulette can also be used with analog PCMCIA modems as well. Corby told Newsbytes that TeleAdapt is selling the battery power Modulette through its international sales offices in the US, and Australia, at similar localized prices to the UK price point of UKP199.99. "When we released the externally powered version of the Modulette earlier this year, we found that some buyers were powering the unit from the ADB port on the Mac, or through the power outlets on their Toshiba and other portables. That made us realize there was a need for a battery powered version of the unit," he explained. The Modulette supports data transfer speeds of up to 115,200 bits-per- second (bps) and includes a series of LEDs (light emitting diodes) and a speaker for monitoring purposes. TeleAdapt's co-founder and managing director, Gordon Brown, believes that the need to transmit data over the PCN and GSM networks will increase dramatically over the next 12 months. "With the Modulette, we are throwing a much needed lifeline to the installed base of Powerbook 100 and Duo users who, until now, have been unable to send data across digital mobile phone networks," he said. According to Brown, the Modulette enables such users to take advantage of the advances being made in mobile phone technology today. "As it is battery powered, it can be used to send electronic-mail, faxes, or connect to the Internet from any country with a PCN or GSM data services," he explained. (Steve Gold/19950829/Press Contact: Harvard PR, +44-181-759-0005, Internet e-mail simon@harvard.mhs.compuserve.com; Reader Contact: TeleAdapt Europe: tel +44-181-421-4444, fax +44-181-421-5308, Internet e-mail 100111.2713@compuserve.com; TeleAdapt US: tel 408-379-5105 fax 408-370-4110, Internet e-mail 72663.706@compuserve.com; TeleAdapt Australia: tel +61-2-966-1744, fax +61-2-966-1077, Internet e-mail 100116.637@compuserve.com) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 08/30/95 TELECOM UK - Dataflex Slashes ISDN Adapter Pricing (NEWS)(TELECOM)(LON)(00013) UK - Dataflex Slashes ISDN Adapter Pricing 08/30/95 LONDON, ENGLAND, 1995 AUG 30 (NB) -- Dataflex Design has shaved UKP200 -- 29 percent -- off the price of its best-selling Diamond ISDN (integrated services digital network) terminal adapter. According to Phil Benge, the company's sales and marketing director, the price cuts will encourage comms users to migrate from analog modem to the digital benefits of ISDN. "There can be no doubt that the relatively high price we have to pay for ISDN in the UK has stunted the market for digital comms products. For the last couple of years, terminal manufacturers like ourselves have been banging their heads against a brick wall trying to persuade BT to bring its Basic rate ISDN line installation and rental costs down to French and German levels," Benge explained. "There's been some movement, but not enough to influence users here (in the UK) to take up digital services to the extent we've seen on the continent," he said. According to Benge, now that the manufacturing costs of Dataflex have started to benefit from Amstrad's high volume buying power (Amstrad acquired Dataflex earlier this year), the company is in a good position to do something about the costs of ISDN itself. "The availability of a sub-UKP500 terminal adapter that enables users to maintain their investment in legacy analog equipment makes the switch to digital a far more cost-effective proposition," he explained. The Diamond T/A offers support for EuroISDN and V.110 digital line speeds, but its key feature -- and one that Dataflex knows will appeal to home and small business users -- is the inclusion of support for analog telecoms equipment. Integral to the unit are two "600 series" standard phone sockets, into which almost any analog telecoms equipment, including analog modems, can be plugged. Using this approach, Dataflex maintains, means that, while Basic rate ISDN line installation charges from BT are still high, the pain can be eased by savings made on analog line rental and installation charges. (Steve Gold/19950829/Press Contact: David Bridson, tel +44-1869-338832, fax +44-1869-338843, Internet e-mail bandb@cix.compulink.co.uk; Reader Contact: Dataflex Design, tel +44-181-543-6417, fax +44-181-543-7029) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 08/30/95 ONLINE ****UK - Global Internet "Games Online" Service (NEWS)(ONLINE)(LON)(00014) ****UK - Global Internet "Games Online" Service 08/30/95 LEICESTER, ENGLAND, 1995 AUG 30 (NB) -- Entertainment Online (E-On) is a new company that has been formed by Mark Bernstein of Virtuality fame and Dr Hermann Hauser, of Acorn/Olivetti fame. The new company plans to offer a variety of PC-oriented games services for UKP5 a month across the Internet, when the E-On service starts this coming November. Jan Oldfield, a spokesperson for the company, told Newsbytes that, although plans are still at an early stage for the online games service, a provisional launch date has been set for mid-November, at which point subscribers will be able to access via the World Wide Web and play a series of games, both online and off-line. "Some of the games will be downloadable into subscriber's machines for off-line playing, while others will be multi-player and therefore playable online," she explained, adding that discussions between E-On and cable TV operators are in progress. "There will also be the possibility that cable TV users will be able to download or interactively play games across their cable TV network and this is something we are working on," she told Newsbytes. Oldfield said that it is still too early to say exactly what games will be available via E-On. "We're playing all the old favorites, obviously, as well as some interesting new titles. We estimate that around 50 of the top video games will be available online, and this list will change regularly," she explained. According to Oldfield, games accessible via E-On will include "edutainment," and educational titles, as well as the usual multi- player games, in addition to the top 50 video games. There will also be a unique E-On online magazine, as well as online shopping facilities for subscribers. "E-On is going to be a family service, aimed at families on the Internet," she explained, adding that the service will be accessible via its own servers on the Internet. The Web site has just started operations, she went on to say, but is still very much in an early stage of construction. Although E-On will be sited in the UK, membership will be available globally, with subscriptions available in the US and across Europe, although, initially at least, the service will focus on the US, the UK and Germany to start with. Entertainment Online is currently in the process of negotiating deals with a number of access providers in the US, UK, Germany, and Italy, to allow access via the Internet, cable TV companies, and even phone companies. The deal, according to E-On, is quite favorable for the access providers, since it offers them 20 percent of subscription revenue, as well as a significant opportunity to sell extra services such as a second phone line and additional phone network revenue. As well as Bernstein and Hauser, other staff on the E-On payroll include Mark Strachan and John Tweedy. Strachan was the founder and, until recently, managing director of Domark Software, one of Europe's leading games software houses, while Tweedy is the retiring chairman of ELSPA, the European Leisure Software Professional Association. (Steve Gold/19950829/Press Contact: Rock Kitchen Harris, +44-116-233-7500, Internet e-mail 100641.2217@compuserve.com; Reader Contact: Entertainment Online, +44-1455-271121, Internet e-mail 100561.1464@compuserve.com) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 08/30/95 ONLINE Net Investor Moves Web Site, Improves Services (NEWS)(ONLINE)(MSP)(00015) Net Investor Moves Web Site, Improves Services 08/30/95 CHICAGO, ILLINOIS, U.S.A., 1995 AUG 30 (NB) -- The Net Investor, a service that claims to be the first fully integrated investment service and portfolio accounting system on the Internet, said it is both improving the services it provides its customers, and moving its World Wide Web site. The service is now located at http://pawws.com.tni . Richard S. Griffin, senior vice president of the Net Investor, told Newsbytes that the uniform resource locator (address) was shortened so the new address is easy to remember for its members to access the service. He also said the Web site has also undergone a dramatic change both graphically and in navigating the site. Newsbytes first reported on the Net Investor's opening last January. "The experience we've gained during that time has led to the release of this new home page," Griffin said, "which we feel is a vast improvement over what we had. We expect things to grow rapidly from where we at now." Officials said in the first six months of the Web site's presence they've identified two categories of client preferences, and have designed services to meet the needs of those two groups. Individual investors who tend to trade periodically and want free or discounted access to a broad array of financial information and other services will be best served by "Net Preferred" accounts, Griffin said. Users who trade frequently will want the "Net Value" accounts, because commissions are small and real-time quotes are provided to those people, he added. Also, all clients are offered automatic daily sweeps of dividends and other returns into interest bearing money accounts, plus they receive unlimited free check-writing privileges and Visa debit cards. The Net Investor is also offering customers broadened information services, including a one-page in-depth analysis on any of 1,500 major mutual funds from Morningstar, financial news and analysis from DTN Wall Street, and research data on more than 2,700 companies from Ford Investor Services. Griffin also said new services are being added all the time to the Web site. Transactions made within the Net Investor site are secure, as long as trades are made using Netscape Web browser software, officials said. The software contains advanced encryption technology that Griffin said maintains privacy and security. He also told Newsbytes in January that his company also has more "traditional controls" in place than any other brokerage would have. The Net Investor is a division of Howe Barnes Investments Inc., which is a Chicago-based full-service regional investment firm founded in 1915. (Bob Woods/19950829/Press Contacts: Richard S. Griffin, The Net Investor, 800-NET-4250; Wayne Larson, Selz/Seabolt Communications, 312-372-7090; Public Contact: The Net Investor, 800-638-4250, Internet World Wide Web http://pawws.com.tni ) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 08/30/95 ONLINE "Cooking On The Net" Fundraiser Helping Children (NEWS)(ONLINE)(SFO)(00016) "Cooking On The Net" Fundraiser Helping Children 08/30/95 PALO ALTO, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1995 AUG 30 (NB) -- Impact Online, a non-profit organization designed to use the Internet as "a force for social change," has announced "Cooking on the Net," a new World Wide Web site. With the support of "world famous chefs," the site provides special recipes for a $12 donation which "support computer resources" and "training for children unable to participate in the world of computers." To open the site, Impact Online received the support of chefs Jody Adams of Rialto in Boston, Michael Romano of The Union Square in New York, Charlie Trotter of Charlie Trotter's in Chicago, Jeremiah Tower of Stars in San Francisco, and Mark Peel and Nancy Silverton of Campanile in Los Angeles. The chefs were asked to provide a first course, appetizer recipe as an incentive for people to make a $12 donation. Along with the chef's contributions, Impact Online also raised direct donation support from corporate entities such as Microsoft, Wired Magazine. Novell, Ben & Jerry's Ice Cream, Chef's Catalog, The International Culinary & Nutrition Network, Medior and O'Reilly & Associates. Yahoo!, the Internet search tool, is donating Internet advertising, and PR Newswire is donating its distribution resources to reach the press. Cyndy Ainsworth, spokesperson for Cooking on the Net, told Newsbytes, "Impact Online was started by Steve Glickbarg, Cindy Shove, and Mark Benning. Mark and Steve are a couple of Stanford MBA (degree holders) who wanted to make a contribution to society. They originally set up a Web site to help non-profit organizations get on the Web." She continued, "Cooking on the Net is the first fundraiser they have put together. Through the efforts of a small team of individuals who have donated their time, Cooking on the Net became a reality." Five non-profits have been chosen as recipients of this fundraiser: Computer Clubhouse of the Computer Museum in Boston; Playing to Win in New York; Community Television Network in Chicago; Plugged In in East Palo Alto, California; and Computer Access Center in Los Angeles. All of these non-profits have programs designed to bring computer technology to children who do not have access to this fast-growing industry. Further sponsorship for this project includes the electronic payment technology of Fist Virtual Holdings, the photography and settings of Jon Lucich Photography and Andrea Lucich Food Styling, and the public relations work of Niehaus Ryan Haller. Ainsworth also said, "the online communities have always been helpful. They help one another and they have helped with natural disasters. Fundraising for non-profits is not well established online, but we feel the opportunity is there." Once a donation is recorded, a participant may download the recipes. For individuals unable to access the Web site, but interested in participating, Impact Online accepts donations by mail at: Impact Online, Attn: CookNet, 711 Colorado Avenue, Palo Alto, CA 94303. (Patrick McKenna/19950829/Press Contact: Chip Hall, Niehaus Ryan Haller, 415-827-7088, Internet World Wide Web http://www.cooknet.org ) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 08/30/95 TRENDS Santa Clara Convention Center On Virtual Reality CD (NEWS)(TRENDS)(SFO)(00017) Santa Clara Convention Center On Virtual Reality CD 08/30/95 SANTA CLARA, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1995 AUG 30 (NB) -- The Santa Clara County Convention Center has taken a lead in electronic advertising by tying a CD-ROM virtual reality (VR) tour of its facilities to its World Wide Web site. With VR and multimedia technology supplied by Xpand, Inc., the convention center CD and Web site are reportedly "interwoven." To reach convention and trade show producers, the Santa Clara Convention Center is shipping the CD portion of the combination on the cover of Expo magazine. Reaching 8,000 producers, managers, and planners of trade shows, along with key trade show exhibitors, Expo claims to allow the convention center to reach its target market. The CD works with either Windows or Macintosh computers. Once a potential client has the CD, they can take a tour of the convention center and a nearby Marriot Hotel. The tour shows important areas such as restaurants, meeting rooms, auditoriums, trade show floors, and other spaces in the two facilities. Users can view layouts of an area or room, get specifications and consider possible seating arrangements. Instant links to the corresponding Web sites allow users to determine the availability and cost of the convention center and the reservations situation with the Marriot. To complete the promotion, the convention center's Web site can link a user directly to the sales staff to make final arrangements or answer specific questions. Xpand uses its own proprietary tools to create the walk-through and the links. The company was founded four years ago to develop new advertising platforms using CD-ROM and Internet technologies. Jill Angle, major account manager for Xpand, explained to Newsbytes, "To use the CD, users dial their own Internet connection and then use the CD to interact with the Web site. We find this is a good way to make sure users are aware they are using metered time on their own Internet account." She also said, "We have worked with a number of large companies, such as Apple and the National Association of Broadcasters. Now that this technology is starting to appear and be successful, we are hoping to work with other types of services and products. Shopping centers are a perfect match for this type of advertising." (Patrick McKenna/19950829/Press Contact: Dennis Maxwell, Neale-May & Partners, 415-328-5555; Internet World Wide Web http://www.xpand.com/santa_clara.index ) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 08/30/95 DOS Magnetic Software Ships BlankCheck 3. (NEWS)(DOS)(SFO)(00018) Magnetic Software Ships BlankCheck 3.0 08/30/95 MOUNT AIRY, NORTH CAROLINA, U.S.A., 1995 AUG 30 (NB) -- Magnetic Software, a developer of magnetic ink character recognition (MICR) laser check printing software, has released BlankCheck 3.0. Check printing software, once a custom application costing thousands of dollars, is now available for $199. Magnetic Software's president, John Springthorpe III, told Newsbytes, "Like many software applications, check printing has undergone a revolution in the past couple of years. What was once an expensive and custom process limited to use by large corporations, is now available to small businesses and home businesses. Basically, any business which deals with multiple accounts can print custom checks for less than three cents per check." Springthorpe said payroll specific companies, lawyers who control and write checks from multiple trust accounts, property management groups and others are typical of Magnetic's clients. The latest release of BlankCheck, an upgrade of the company's two-year old version 2.0, includes: laser printing; a new interface which works with Quicken; Quickbooks; Peachtree; One-Write Plus; and DacEasy. It also includes use of the standardized banking font E-13B, support for company and bank logos, automatic check-signing with cut-off amounts, and on-demand check printing. BlankCheck 3.0 is available in a basic version for $199, and a corporate version for $495. While the basic version allows a user to work with four different accounts, the corporate version allows a user to create an unlimited amount of accounts. Magnetic Software also supplies the necessary MICR toner cartridges which are necessary to print characters recognizable by check processing machines. Springthorpe said, "Some people think check writing can be done on any laser printer. The actual case is that there is not enough iron oxide in standard cartridges to be sure the printed characters are properly read while being processed." The company said its goal with version 3.0 was to produce the "easiest and most intuitive" approach to check writing. "This process (check writing) does not have to be complicated. The most important element -- security -- is built into the software. There are three levels of security which the user can apply to each application." BlankCheck is a menu driven, DOS application. Magnetic carries a full range of MICR toner cartridges priced at $140 for most printers. (Patrick McKenna/19950829/Press Contact: Rolland Going, The Terpin Group, 310-821-6100/MAGNETIC950830/PHOTO) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 08/30/95 WINDOWS More On Microsoft Offering Word "Prank" Virus Fix (NEWS)(WINDOWS)(DEN)(00019) More On Microsoft Offering Word "Prank" Virus Fix 08/30/95 REDMOND, WASHINGTON, U.S.A., 1995 AUG 30 (NB) -- Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ:MSFT) has confirmed that there is, what it calls, a "prank macro" circulating that affects the saving of Microsoft Word documents, and that the company itself may have unwittingly helped spread the virus. Michael Hebert, Microsoft group manager for office applications, told Newsbytes the problem, which Microsoft calls a "prank" macro rather than a virus, is spread when a user sends a Word file to another user and the file contains the macro. Hebert told Newsbytes that an unknown party has created and distributed the macro for Microsoft Word that pops up a dialog box when the user opens any file that contains the macro. The user is offered only one choice -- "OK." More seriously, but not fatally, you can only save your document as a document template (Word stores templates with the file name extension .dot), even though it appears you are saving your file with the .doc file name extension. "It's much more of an annoyance than what is typically called a virus," said the Microsoft group manager. "The reason we are calling it a prank macro is because it doesn't cause corruption or data loss, as people typically think of a virus. But it does behave like a virus because it spreads." Hebert said if you don't ever get files from other PC users you shouldn't have to worry about getting the prank macro. Once the macro is in your system, any new Word document you create will contain the macro, and if you send the document to someone else, their system will have the macro. You can determine if you have the nuisance macro. In Microsoft Word, open the Tools Menu and select Macro. You will see a list of available macros. If that list includes macros starting with "aaa" you have the problem. Hebert said Microsoft became aware of the macro "a while back" but at the time thought it was a problem only within the Microsoft organization. Now that it knows differently, the company has made a fix readily available on the newly launched Microsoft Network and on its home page on the World Wide Web, as well as in its forums on several online services. The company is also contacting large accounts and partners to let them know about the problem. Asked about reports that the prank macro originated inside Microsoft, Hebert said, "We don't really know where it originated. We do know that we have actually passed it on." He said he was "pretty sure" it came from outside the company. On the Microsoft Web home page, select Word or Office forum and click on the item under Breaking News about having trouble saving your Word documents. You will see a series of questions and answers and you can download the fix file by clicking on it. The same instructions apply on MSN. In the Word and Office forums on Compuserve and America Online download the file scan.doc (Jim Mallory/19950830/Public contact: Microsoft, Internet World Wide Web http://www.microsoft.com ; Microsoft Telephone Support 206-4629673) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 08/30/95 ONLINE AOL Offers New Kids Services (NEWS)(ONLINE)(SFO)(00020) AOL Offers New Kids Services 08/30/95 VIENNA, VIRGINIA, U.S.A., 1995 AUG 30 (MB) -- In response to recent media coverage about dangers to children online, America Online (NASDAQ:AMER) has teamed with a number of partners to add new services for children and teens. According to the company, these new areas "focus on interactive participation" while being "educational and entertaining." "There has been a lot of media coverage about dangers to children online, and we support all of the efforts to make sure online activity is safe for all children," said Judy Tashbook, spokesperson for AOL. "AOL has added parental controls to extend child safety, because it is such an important issue. Now we are finding a lot of parents think of online activity as dangerous for children. We want to let them know that America Online offers both educational and entertainment features based on interactivity and participation. When a child is online, that child is not passively sitting and observing as if it were television," continued Tashbook. Partners for the new Child services include Blackberry Creek, KidSoft, WB Television Network, Highlights for Children, and Nickelodeon. Adding to the teen areas are companies like Seventeen Magazine, GamePro and Wizard: The Guide to Comics. Some of the areas have already launched and others are about to launch. "Blackberry Creek: The Kids' Creativity Community" is designed for children ages seven to 12 and "challenges children to think on their own while collaborating with others." One area in Blackberry Creek, called Story Tellers, asks children to write a short story on the theme: "My New Teacher - NOT!" For teens, GamePro, a video gaming magazine, brings some of its 2.2 million readership to its new online area. GamePro will offer many of its popular magazine features and specials, along with hyperlinks to hot gaming sites on the World Wide Web. For female teens, Seventeen Magazine delivers its features, horoscopes, advice, beauty and fashion tips, interviews, and body and fitness advice to an area where teens can chat, exchange ideas on message boards, participate in quizzes, surveys and contests and hang out in the Daily Cafe. (Patrick McKenna/1995/Press Contact: Judy Tashbook, AOL, 703-918-1452) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 08/30/95 GENERAL Pro CD Announces New CD-ROM Phone Books (NEWS)(GENERAL)(TOR)(00021) Pro CD Announces New CD-ROM Phone Books 08/30/95 DANVERS, MASSACHUSETTS, U.S.A., 1995 AUG 30 (NB) -- Pro CD Inc., a publisher of electronic phone directories, has announced a new United States phone book called Home & Business Phone. Available for DOS, Windows, and Macintosh systems, Home & Business Phone contains all 95 million white- and yellow-pages listings in the United States, a spokeswoman for the company told Newsbytes. The company said it intends the product for use in the home or home office. Pro CD also said it has updated its Home Phone and Business Phone CD-ROM directories with additional listings. Home & Business Phone contains the published name, address, city, state, zip code (Zip+4 when available), and publication date for each listing, Pro CD said. The two CD-ROMs of residential listings can be searched by name, while the single CD-ROM of business listings can be searched by name or telephone number. A feature called SmartFind will search business listings with partial information, recognizing similar spellings and nearby communities to find the closest match to the user's query. Another feature, ListMagic, can identify business listings that are new to the directory or have a Zip+4 code. MapView for Windows, formerly called MapLinx Lite, makes it possible to view the locations of listings on a map at 16 zoom levels from a national map down to zip code levels. Pro CD also said it has added new data-export capabilities. The software is available immediately for $49.99 from assorted computer and software retailers and mass merchants, or direct from the vendor. Quarterly updates will be available, the spokeswoman said. The charge for updates was not available at Newsbytes' deadline, but the spokeswoman said it will be lower than the initial price of the product. (Grant Buckler/19950829/Press Contact: Julie Garner, Alexander Communications for Pro CD, 404-897-2300 ext 335, Internet e-mail jgarner@cis.compuserve.com; Public Contact: Pro CD, 800-99-CD-ROM or 508-750-0000, fax 508-750-0020, Internet e-mail sales@procd.com; Internet World Wide Web http://www.procd.com ) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 95 08/30/95 WINDOWS Microsoft Ships Office For Windows (NEWS)(WINDOWS)(DEN)(00022) Microsoft Ships Office For Windows 95 08/30/95 REDMOND, WASHINGTON, U.S.A., 1995 AUG 30 (NB) -- Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ:MSFT) has shipped Microsoft Office for Windows 95, the software suite of productivity applications that includes word processing, spreadsheet, presentation graphics, scheduling, and database programs. Office 95 comes in standard and professional versions. The standard version includes Microsoft Word, Microsoft Excel, PowerPoint, and Schedule+. The pro version adds the Microsoft Access relational database management system. A 32-bit version of Access for Windows 95 isn't shipping yet so buyers of the pro edition of Office will get a voucher to redeem for that product when it becomes available. Microsoft said that should be about 60 days. In addition to supporting features of Windows 95 like long file names of up to 255 characters and multitasking, Office 95 also includes Office Binders. Binders allow users to create a single file that can include multiple files, sort of a file folder holding files. You might have a binder for a monthly report that includes a Word memo, an Excel spreadsheet and a PowerPoint presentation. Third party Office compatible products can also be included in Binders. Like other Windows 95 applications, Office 95 also uses Answer Wizards, a tool that tries to answer your typed questions. The Wizard interprets the question and tries to provide a range of appropriate answers as it helps complete the desired task. The various elements of Office 95 use shared code for functions like AutoCorrect, File Open, File New and Find Fast, and a shortcut toolbar is the launch point for all the Office 95 components. Other features include: Spell-it, a spelling checker for Word documents that checks the spelling as the user types; AutoFormat, which automatically inserts bullets, numbered lists, borders and headings on the fly; and WordMail, a Word formatting and text editing tool that can be applied to electronic-mail when it is written in the Windows 95 Inbox. AutoComplete finishes data entry after the user types the first few letters, and Shared Lists lets multiple users work simultaneously on the same spreadsheet list. PowerPoint has a feature called Meeting Minder that lets presenters capture meeting minutes and track action items that automatically appear on the last slide of the presentation. The user can export those notes to Word for later follow-up. There is also a Black & White View that previews how a color presentation will look when its printed in black and white. When Access ships it will have Filter by Selection, a feature that lets the user highlight something, click a button, and automatically find the matching information. A Table Analyzer Wizard will analyze flat-file data from a variety of file formats and automatically create a relational database structure. Schedule+ for Windows 95 lets individuals and networks share calendars, tasks, and contacts; a Custom View feature lets the user drag out the view they want to show multiple days, weeks or months at a time; a Meeting Wizard helps set up meetings, including coordinating information on attendees, travel time, resources and acceptable times; and a contact Manager lets you store and access names and other information. Support for the Windows 95 Dialer lets you dial those contacts at the click of the mouse. If you purchased Office 4.x for Windows 3.1 or Windows NT Workstation on or after July 15 you can upgrade to Office for Windows 95 at no cost except $7.50 for shipping and handling. To upgrade you have to send Microsoft your dated sales receipt. If you bought your version of Office before July 15 you can upgrade to the new Standard edition for $209 or to the Pro version for $309, after a $40 rebate. Individually Word 95, Excel 95, PowerPoint 95 and Access 95 carry a $399 sticker for new users, while Schedule+95 is priced at $99.95. For first time buyers Office 95 Standard has a $499 price tag, while Office 95 Professional is priced at $599, although the street prices are lower. Microsoft said you need at least a 386SX-based system, but the company recommends a 486 microprocessor. You also need Windows 95 or Windows NT Workstation version 3.51. The 32-bit programs written for Windows 95 will not run on earlier versions of Windows. Microsoft said you also need at least eight megabytes (MB) of memory to run two programs on Windows 95, 12MB to run Access, 12MB of memory to run two programs on Windows NT Workstation and 16MB to run Access on Windows NT Workstation. Even more memory is required to run three or more programs simultaneously, said the software company. Office standard requires 28MB of hard disk space for a compact install and 55MB for the "typical" setup. Office Pro needs 42MB for the compact version and 82MB for a typical installation. You also need a high-density 3.5-inch floppy drive or a CD-ROM drive, a Super VGA 256-color video display, and a mouse or compatible pointing device. (Jim Mallory/19950830/Press contact: Lynann Bradbury, Waggener Edstrom for Microsoft, 503-245-0905; Public contact: Microsoft, 206-882-8080/OFFICE95_950830/PHOTO) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 08/30/95 ONLINE TGV Lets Users Evaluate "MultiNet" Via Internet (NEWS)(ONLINE)(LAX)(00023) TGV Lets Users Evaluate "MultiNet" Via Internet 08/30/95 SANTA CRUZ, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1995 AUG 30 (NB) -- TGV Inc. (NASDAQ: TGVI) has announced that its customers can now use the Internet to evaluate its advanced MultiNet for Windows. Qualified customers will receive a free "evaluation license key" which enables them to download MultiNet for Windows evaluation software via the World Wide Web, FTP (File Transfer Protocol), or gopher. "TGV is distributing MultiNet via the Internet in response to demand from network managers who are using the Internet to make better-informed, more timely purchasing decisions," said Craig Conway, president of TGV. "Large corporations worldwide seeking the highest levels of performance, reliability and ease of use from their Windows TCP/IP (Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol) networks now have an easy and inexpensive means of evaluating MultiNet for Windows." Ann Sun, a spokesperson for TGV, told Newsbytes, "We currently use the Internet with support servers. This is the first product that we are marketing over the Internet. To download MultiNet for Windows from the Internet, the customer simply sends an electronic-mail message addressed to sales@tgv.com including their name, title, company, address, and phone number. "Qualified customers will receive an evaluation license key which enables them to download MultiNet for Windows evaluation software using TGV's World Wide Web, FTP, or gopher servers. The evaluation period can last between thirty and sixty days, depending on when downloaded," said Sun. TGV's MultiNet includes a suite of TCP applications including a 32-bit VxD (Virtual Device Driver) kernel, FTP (File Transfer Protocol) client and server, VT (Virtual Terminal) 1OO-320 and TN3270 emulations, network printing, e-mail, Web browser, and network diagnostics. The free evaluation version includes the complete MultiNet for Windows product, with the exception of Enhanced Mosaic for MultiNet. Pricing for TGV's MultiNet for Windows starts at $400 for a single-user license. (Richard Bowers/19950830/Press Contact: Ann Sun, TGV, 408-457- 5309; Public Contact: TGV, 800-TGV-3440 or 408-457-5200, Internet e-mail sales@tgv.com or connect, Internet World Wide Web http://www.tgv.com ) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 08/30/95 PC Adaptec Intros 32-bit EZ-SCSI Software (NEWS)(PC)(LAX)(00024) Adaptec Intros 32-bit EZ-SCSI Software 08/30/95 MILPITAS, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1995 AUG 30 (NB) -- Adaptec (NASDAQ:ADPT) has announced additions to its Adaptec EZ-SCSI (small computer system interface) software. Version 4.0 provides a suite of 32-bit applications and tools which can be used with an advanced SCSI programming interface (ASPI)-compliant host adapter to support "virtually all" major SCSI peripherals. Deanna Perez, a spokesperson for Adaptec, told Newsbytes, "Today, most users need to connect to one or more peripherals, including disk drives, tape drives, CD-ROM drives, scanners, and removable disk devices. As more users move to powerful multitasking operating systems, these peripherals will continue to gain popularity on the desktop. "Adaptec EZ-SCSI 4.0 software is the easiest and fastest way to use your SCSI peripherals. Available in one package, it provides a suite of 32-bit applications and tools for SCSI peripherals. It is designed for use with Windows 95, Windows NT, Windows for Workgroups, and Windows 3.1," said Perez. The applications and tools in EZ-SCSI 4.0 include: SCSI Tape Backup; CD-R mastering and duplication software; Photo CD Viewer and CD Players; SCSI Interrogator; Read and Write Cache; QuickScan; SCSIBench; and SCSITutor. The SCSI Tape Backup application backs up volumes, directories and individual files to prevent loss of data. It also includes restore capabilities. The CD Writer and Copier enables CD-R mastering from the desktop and the ability to backup the entire contents of one CD to a second CD. The Photo CD Viewer application allows stored photographic images to be viewed on a PC or edited and exported as data files for multimedia applications. Adaptec has included over 80 color photos for immediate use. The CD Player allows users to play Audio CDs on their PCs using controls that work like a home stereo system. Adaptec EZ-SCSI 4.0 software provides four different CD Player versions "for maximum flexibility." These versions include jukebox, standard, mini, and micro. The SCSI Interrogator tools displays detailed hardware characteristics for each device connected to the SCSI bus for "easy detection of device status and diagnosis," said the company. The Read and Write Cache tool allows users to control key drive performance parameters. QuickScan allows photos or images to be scanned and printed for immediate viewing or to be saved in one of several file formats. SCSIBench allows users to measure how their SCSI subsystems are performing under various system conditions. The drive light tool displays a visual graphic on the computer desktop to indicate disk activity. Finally, SCSITutor provides a SCSI tutorial with information and diagrams. (Richard Bowers/19950830/Press Contact: Adaptec, Deanna Perez, 408-957-7816; Public Contact: Internet World Wide Web http://www.adaptec.com.) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 08/30/95 GOVT Japan & US Settle Software Dispute (NEWS)(GOVT)(TYO)(00025) Japan & US Settle Software Dispute 08/30/95 TOKYO, JAPAN, 1995 AUG 30 (NB) -- Japan and the United States have reached an agreement over a controversial proposal by Japan to promote special quality registration for all companies selling software in Japan. After an unannounced meeting in Tokyo yesterday, the two sides announced this morning that Japan has agreed to adopt the internationally agreed ISO-9000 quality approval standard rather than the slightly changed version the country had favored. The JAB had proposed a voluntary scheme under which foreign companies selling software in Japan would gain a slightly modified ISO-9000- based quality registration. Concerns have been raised over several parts of the plan including worries that, even though it is initially voluntary, it will eventually become compulsory. There are also fears over the scope of the proposal, which is thought to include all software, whether it be shrink-wrapped Windows programs or code embedded in microprocessors inside cars, televisions, or aircraft. Almost two months ago, a group of 21 US software company chiefs sent a letter of complaint to US Trade Representative Mickey Kantor over the plans. In 1994, US companies sold $2.7 billion worth of software to Japan, an increase of 11% on the previous year, and the group feels this trade is at risk. Officials from the two countries respective standards groups -- the American National Standards Institute (ANSI) and the Japan Accreditation Board for Quality System Registration (JAB) -- said they had agreed to adopt the international standard rather than a proprietary Japanese one. The agreed resolution conforms to both International Organization for Standardization (ISO) and International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC) codes. The JAB had already agreed to delay implementation of the original plan pending talks with ANSI in Hawaii on September 20 and 21. Those talks are now unlikely to be needed following today's announcement. (Martyn Williams/19950830/Press contact: John Stern, American Electronics Association Japan Office, tel +81-3-3237-7195, fax +81-3-3237-1237) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 08/30/95 ONLINE ****1st World Wide Web "Webby" Awards Announced (NEWS)(ONLINE)(LAX)(00026) ****1st World Wide Web "Webby" Awards Announced 08/30/95 HOLLYWOOD, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1995 AUG 30 (NB) -- Glenn Davis, the special projects coordinator for Infinet, who created the popular "Cool Site Of The Day" on the Internet, has inaugurated an award for the Cool Site Of The Year. Called the "Webby," the winner of the first annual award is -- The Spot -- with executive producer Russell Collins, producers Scott Zakarin and Troy Bolotkin Kay Dangaard, a spokesperson for Infinet, told Newsbytes, "The Internet is the fastest-growing entertainment and communications medium in the world. Its capacity for reaching audiences in every country on the globe is unmatched. Glenn Davis plans to honor the creative forces on the World Wide Web with this annual award." Davis selected the five nominees, and the winner was determined by a vote of Internet users in 36 countries over a seven-day period. The Cool Site Of The Year award was presented in Hollywood, California, by John Brancato and Michael Ferris, writers of the Columbia Pictures hit "The Net." The five nominees chosen by Glenn Davis are listed with an explanation of each site prepared by the award committee. Rocktropolis is a rock and roll fantasy theme park, a surreal city landscape inhabited by some of pop culture's greatest musicians and cult heroes, plus some new pretenders. The creation of record artist manager Nick Turner, Rocktropolis is narrated by Darryl Hannah. David Siegel's Home Page (runner-Up) reflects his humor and generosity as he guides visitors through Web Site design, graphics, typography, film theory, humorous stories, and "how to tie your shoe a better way." Crash Site is littered with consumer products and spectator sports. The inner and outer landscapes hurtle towards one another. The Crash Site is where music, art and machine meet. It is designed by Charles Como and Jim Evans. The Spot (winner) is a legendary California beach house where smart and sexy Tara Hartwick and her four twenty-something house mates share their diaries with Internet visitors. The Spot is the world's first episodic Web site where you can interact with the characters and have significant impact on their lives, in a virtual hangout that exists somewhere between fantasy and reality. The Spot executive producer is Russell Collins, producers Scott Zakarin and Troy Bolotkin. Mr. Showbiz is a daily show business magazine, up-to-the-minute entertainment news, celebrity profiles, movie reviews, television ratings, chat rooms, games, audio clips, reports on millennial movements around the world, and a wide array of strange and funny combinations of writing, photographs, illustrations, and sound. The editor-in-chief of Mr. Showbiz is Susan Mulcahy. (Richard Bowers/19950830/Press Contact: Kay Dangaard, 310-822-2777) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 08/30/95 ONLINE ****More Libraries Are Providing Internet Access (NEWS)(ONLINE)(MSP)(00027) ****More Libraries Are Providing Internet Access 08/30/95 CHICAGO, ILLINOIS, U.S.A., 1995 AUG 30 (NB) -- The American Library Association (ALA) said almost a quarter of the libraries serving populations of 100,000 or more can connect their borrowers to the worldwide Internet. The survey was conducted as a part of the ALA's Public Library Data Service's "Statistical Report '95." The newly-released survey said that today's libraries contain much more than just books. Besides Internet access, more than 90 percent have CD-ROMs for public use, nearly 90 percent have an online public catalog (OPAC), and almost 70 percent provide access for homes and businesses via computer modem. In addition, more than half provide computers and software for public use, nearly 60 percent will fax information to a home or business on request, and more than 70 percent have special telephone devices for the deaf (TDD). George Needham, executive director of the ALA, told Newsbytes he was a bit surprised by the number of libraries that do not provide assistance for Internet users. Only five percent provide such help, the survey said. "I guess that shows a growing sophistication among library users for what resources are out there. I thought that number might be lower," he said. Needham also found surprising the sheer numbers of libraries that are connected to the Internet. "It shows an amazing depth of penetration for this new service. Public libraries have taken to computers faster than anything since the Dewey Decimal System," he said. The number of libraries hooked up to the Internet should continue to grow, Needham said. "As the Internet gets easier to use, and as more resources are available digitally, I think we're only going to see more growth in this area." The survey was released in conjunction with the ALA's "Library Card Sign-up Month," which is in September. The Public Library Data Association is a part of the Public Library Association, a service of the ALA. (Bob Woods/19950830/Press Contacts: Pamela Goodes or Linda Wallace, American Library Association, 312-280-5043 or 312-280-5042) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 08/30/95 BUSINESS ****Time Warner & Turner in Merger Talks (NEWS)(BUSINESS)(MSP)(00028) ****Time Warner & Turner in Merger Talks 08/30/95 NEW YORK CITY, NEW YORK, U.S.A., 1995 AUG 30 (NB) -- Time Warner Inc. (NYSE:TWX) and Turner Broadcasting Company (ASE:TBSA) have confirmed they are talking about merging the two companies. If talks are successful, the new company would be the world's largest media and entertainment company. The discussions are centered around an exchange of Time Warner stock for Turner Broadcasting stock, following which Turner would become a wholly-owned subsidiary of Time Warner, the companies said in a joint news release. But the brief announcement did say "significant issues remain to be negotiated, and there can be no assurance that an agreement will be reached or a transaction consummated." The Wall Street Journal, citing concerns close to the negotiations, had reported that Ted Turner, founder of Turner Broadcasting, is weighing the offer. The New York Times quotes a source as saying Turner is "enthusiastic" about the proposed merger. Time Warner already owns 18% of Turner, the Journal said, and the proposed transaction puts the remaining 82% of Turner stock at more than $8 billion. If and when they combine, the new company would be a major force in both the cable television and entertainment industries. Turner owns the various Cable News Network (CNN) services, Superstation TBS, Turner Network Television (TNT), and other cable and entertainment concerns. Time Warner owns Home Box Office (HBO), Cinemax, Time Warner Cable, and many other media and entertainment companies. The transaction requires the approval of shareholders of both companies, along with the blessing of the Federal Communications Commission (FCC). The deal comes on the heels of two other mega-mergers in the media arena. In the last month Westinghouse has offered to buy CBS, while Walt Disney is purchasing Capital Cities/ABC Inc. (Bob Woods/19950830/Press Contacts: Time Warner Inc., 212-484-6630; Turner Broadcasting System, 404-827-1792) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 08/30/95 BUSINESS Hewlett-Packard Consolidates (NEWS)(BUSINESS)(SFO)(00029) Hewlett-Packard Consolidates 08/30/95 PALO ALTO, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1995 AUG 28 (NB) -- Hewlett-Packard has announced a consolidation plan to bring all of its computer and computer-support departments into a single unit, called the Computer Organization. Richard E. Belluzzo, the current head of HP's Computer Products Organization, is directing the change-over and will be the new head of the Computer Organization. For the past five years, HP has operated with: a printers and personal computers division, called Computer Products Organization; a workstations, large computer systems and consulting service, called Computer Systems Organization; and a support division, called World Wide Customer Support Operations. These three divisions are now combined into the Computer Organization. With the appointment of Belluzzo as head of the newly consolidated group, HP also promoted him from senior vice president to executive vice president. He will report directly to HP's chairman, chief executive officer and president, Lewis E. Platt. HP credits Belluzzo for developing the printing and personal computer operations during a "time of dramatic growth." An HP spokesperson told Newsbytes, "We have done extremely well with the business model we have used for the past five years, but with the convergence of markets and technologies which has occurred in the past two years, we feel this new model will more effectively allow the company to leverage its strengths and grow." HP says this new model is being developed from a "position of strength" since it is now listed as the second largest computer company in the United States and the third largest computer company in the world. As alliances and mergers continue to highlight the computer industry and expand its role into open systems, the Internet, communications and entertainment, HP says its new model will allow it to compete and continue to build on its existing momentum. As examples of convergence, Platt cited its work with Intel on 64-bit architecture which will open systems to Unix, DOS, and Windows operating systems. He also said the demand for networking continues to grow and channel sales of its workstations and servers are accelerating. HP's computer business interests include Unix-based systems, reduced instruction set computing (RISC) systems, personal computers, notebooks, network products, printers, scanners, and plotters. It also produces electronic components and products for the medical industry, analytical systems, testing and measuring systems. (Patrick McKenna/19950830/Press Contact: Marlene Somsak, HP, 415-857-6805) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 08/30/95 ONLINE CNN On Web, Teams With Nexis (NEWS)(ONLINE)(MSP)(00030) CNN On Web, Teams With Nexis 08/30/95 ATLANTA, GEORGIA, U.S.A., 1995 AUG 30 (NB) -- Turner Broadcasting's (ASE:TBSA) Cable News Network (CNN) has announced that it is bringing to the Internet's World Wide Web a multimedia news service. CNN officials told Newsbytes that the site is already averaging more than 20,000 hits per hour. The new site sets itself apart as the only Web site with a 24-hour full-time staff that constantly reports on the news of the hour. Story content also includes video, sound clips, still photographs, and maps. Scott Woelfel, editor-in-chief of CNN Interactive, told Newsbytes that the new Web site has already provided coverage of two breaking stories in its first hours of operation -- the proposed Time Warner-Turner Broadcasting merger (which Newsbytes also reported), and the North Atlantic Treaties Organization (NATO) bombing of Serbian positions in Bosnia. "The World Wide Web is really ideal for what we're trying to do," Woelfel said. "We're primarily a television news organization. We can really bring a multimedia presentation to everything we do, and as you look at our site, you can see most of the stories have some sort of multimedia element, if not more than one." The CNN site incorporates 2,500 staffers worldwide in 30 bureaus, along with the resources of more than 600 broadcast affiliates around the globe to bring up-to-the-minute U.S. and international news to the Web, officials said. The site also contains hotlinks to other related Internet news locations, both within and outside of the CNN homepage. One of those services is called "TellMeMore," which is provided by Lexis- Nexis of Dayton, Ohio. TellMeMore links users to a Lexis-Nexis server that contains additional information about selected stories CNN is covering. "The user isn't searching for the information," Woelfel said, "We've done the search. It's another way of giving perspective on the news we're reporting." For those people who connect to the Web at slower speeds, CNN said its optimized its site to allow for a quick page load. Users who have Internet access at higher speeds can enjoy the multimedia benefits of the site, including audio and video clip feeds. The site is located on the Web at http://www.cnn.com/ . (Bob Woods/19950830/Press Contacts: Andy Mitchell, CNN, 404-827-5021; Steve Edwards, LEXIS-NEXIS, 513-865-1059. Public Contact: CNN, Internet World Wide Web http://www.cnn.com/ ) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 08/30/95 LEGAL TI To Appeal $58 Million Award Reversal (NEWS)(LEGAL)(DEN)(00031) TI To Appeal $58 Million Award Reversal 08/30/95 DALLAS, TEXAS, U.S.A., 1995 AUG 30 (NB) -- Texas Instruments Inc. (NYSE: TXN) said it will appeal an order by a federal district judge that negated a jury award of more than $51 million. TI announced the appeal following an order by Federal District Judge Barefoot Sanders which negated a jury verdict against Cypress Semiconductor Corp., VLSI Technology Inc., and LS Logic Corporation. Judge Sanders ruled that the jury verdict was correct in finding TI's patents were valid, but incorrect in finding that the defendants infringed. TI Senior Vice President and General Counsel Richard Agnich called the judge's ruling "inexplicable and in direct opposition to the jury's finding." The jury had ordered Cypress Semiconductor to pay $17.8 million in damages, LSI to pay $14.6 million, and VLSI to pay $19.4 million. At issue in the court case was whether the three companies had willfully infringed on TI's patented integrated circuit packaging technology by importing into the US and selling semiconductor devices allegedly manufactured using TI's technology illegally. TI said the technology helps make integrated circuits widely affordable by lowering the overall cost of manufacturing the devices. The process encapsulates integrated circuits by injecting fluid plastic through an aperture called a "gate" located in the bottom of a mold cavity that contains the device. TI spokesperson Robert Price told Newsbytes following an earlier administrative ruling that they were infringing on the TI technology, the three companies switched to top-gating, or injecting the plastic into the top of the cavity. Agnich said the jury verdict in May of this year was the third time TI's patents were found to be infringed in this same case. The International Trade Commission and the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit also ruled for the company against the same defendants in the same matter, said the TI executive. Price told Newsbytes the company is hopeful that the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit in Washington, DC., the jurisdiction that hears patent matters, will uphold the jury decision. TI said Judge Sanders' ruling will have no effect on the company's reported earnings. (Jim Mallory/19950830/Press contact: Robert Price, Texas Instruments, 214-995-2355) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 95 08/30/95 WINDOWS Lotus Symposium - SmartSuite For Windows (NEWS)(WINDOWS)(BOS)(00032) Lotus Symposium - SmartSuite For Windows 95 08/30/95 BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS, U.S.A., 1995 AUG 30 (NB) -- The day after Labor Day, in both a satellite-broadcast event and online, Lotus will launch SmartSuite for Windows 95, a package that will include a new version of Freelance with "TeamShow" and Web publishing features, plus new Windows 95 editions of Word Pro and Approach, and existing versions of Lotus 1-2-3 and Organizer, said Jeffrey E. Anderholm, director of spreadsheet marketing, in a meeting with Newsbytes at the Lotus Symposium in Boston. Lotus will release the first Windows 95 edition of SmartSuite in November, Anderholm reported. Lotus, he added, intends to offer SmartSuite, along with individual versions of all its desktop applications, in editions "optimized" for the underlying capabilities in Windows 95, OS/2, and Windows 3.1. In contrast, he asserted, the Windows 95 edition of the competing Microsoft Office is openly acknowledged by Microsoft to be only a "platform release." Lotus's SmartSuite for Windows 95 will be launched "live" at the Houston Area League (HAL) meeting in Houston, Texas on September 5, according to the marketing director. The rollout will be accompanied by a worldwide satellite broadcast for Lotus customers and partners, plus IBM sites, along with a "virtual launch" on the Web and a "real-time interactive" broadcast on the America Online (AOL) Computer Rotunda. The AOL "broadcast" will include a Q&A with user group panelists that will be open to both "online and on-site attendees." Anderholm told Newsbytes that all five applications in Lotus's first Windows 95 suite will be "team-enabled" with TeamMail, a feature aimed at allowing document distribution among a work group for comments. In addition, he revealed, the new version of Freelance will include TeamShow, a new capability for "remote presentations," together with TeamReview, a feature for maintaining, updating, and verifying a list of users for document sharing. Other new features in Freelance for Windows '95 will include the ability to remotely "borrow" graphics from team members to be used in presentations, and to publish presentations to the Web, according to the Lotus exec. Anderholm added that the upcoming Windows 95 edition of Approach will offer more levels of views, together with "easier searchability" through Finds. "We will also continue to provide integration between Approach and 1-2-3," Newsbytes was told. Microsoft, he noted, has adopted the same approach with Access and Excel in Microsoft Office for Windows 95. Among most users, Approach will become the "preferred front end" to IBM's DB2, Anderholm predicted. Developers, though, might also use LotusScript, sometimes in conjunction with Visual Basic (VB) or other tools supporting LotusScript, he acknowledged. Lotus's upcoming Word Pro for Windows 95 will include the same TeamConsolidate and TeamReview features that were recently introduced in Word Pro for Windows 3.1, he observed. During a series of group demos at the show in Boston, Anderholm displayed Word Pro's TeamConsolidate and TeamReview, along with a new version control feature. As previously reported in Newsbytes, TeamConsolidate is designed to let the user build "consolidated models" by assigning and receiving "contributions" from fellow team members. Anderholm also showed the symposium attendees how users will be able to set "specific access rights for specific people" in Word Pro. Options will include the ability to "edit text but not style," that prohibit "copying and saving," and that prohibit any modifications but allow the document to be printed out, he elaborated. A user might want to ban any copying or saving, for instance, in a situation where a document is being shared with a consultant or contractor, Anderholm illustrated. The marketing director also showed how the TeamShow feature in the forthcoming Freelance for Windows '95 will let the user take control of a remote computer, for long-distance display of a presentation. In another demo, Anderholm previewed a prototype of a 32-bit version of Lotus 1-2-3 that is scheduled to enter beta in September. During the meeting with Newsbytes later, Anderholm noted that the existing version of Lotus 1-2-3 for Windows 3.1 already includes TeamConsolidate. The 32-bit edition will include more features for "team computing," including capabilities that take advantage of "OLE (object linking and embedding) 2.0 embedding," the Lotus exec told Newsbytes. (Jacqueline Emigh/19950830/Reader Contact: Lotus Development Company, 617-577-8500; Press Contact: Melissa Federico, Lois Paul & Partners for Lotus, 617-860-5844) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 08/30/95 IBM IBM Plans Tighter Integration Between DB2, Lotus Notes (NEWS)(IBM)(BOS)(00033) IBM Plans Tighter Integration Between DB2, Lotus Notes 08/30/95 ARMONK, NEW YORK, U.S.A., 1995 AUG 30 (NB) -- IBM's future plans for DB2 include tighter integration with Lotus Notes and Approach, closer similarity of features between the PC/Unix versions and DB2 for MVS, and, next month, a beta test for a new Siemens-Nixdorf port as well as commercial rollout of DB2 Parallel Edition, said Janet Perna, director of database technology for IBM's Software Solutions Division, in a briefing for Newsbytes. IBM, she noted, recently started shipping the OS/2 and AIX editions of DB2 version 2, a relational database enhanced with a set of multimedia search engines and other "object-oriented extensions." DB2 version 2 for HP-UX and Sun is now in beta, the IBM exec told Newsbytes. One of IBM's current objectives is to "minimize the differences across the DB2 family," so as to leverage the skills of database administrators, according to Perna. "On the MVS side, you'll see us add things like object-oriented extensions. On the OS/2 and Unix sides, we'll add a lot of the `continuous availability' features we already provide on the mainframe," she elaborated. DB2 for MVS is now in version 4, she pointed out. Additional IBM platforms for DB2 include AS/400 and VM. But IBM also intends to achieve tighter integration between the DB2 database and some of the software products from newly acquired Lotus, according to the technology director. Perna told Newsbytes that, as a member of a post-acquisition transition team, she recommended that IBM halt development on the nascent Visual DB2 product, and go with Lotus Approach instead. "I concluded that what we were trying to develop in Visual DB2, we already had in Approach," Perna observed. Taking a look at Lotus's software products was like examining a "treasure trove," she recalled. A new version of Approach for Windows 95 and Windows NT is currently in the works, she added. "There was already a very high performing ODBC (Open Database Connectivity) driver. Now, we're working on a power key to DB2." IBM is also working on back-end integration between DB2 and the Notes database, for "replication into and out of Notes," she revealed. Meanwhile, IBM's new DB2 version 2 for OS/2 and Unix is "not only meeting but exceeding the competition," according to Perna. Aside from the new object-oriented extensions, DB2 2.0 provides performance enhancements, she asserted. DB2 version 2 permits multimedia data to be stored and indexed either as flat files or large object "blobs," Newsbytes was told. An object blob can consume a field as large as 2 gigabytes (GB) in the DB2 database. Also included are "user-defined data types" -- such as image, video, and audio -- and "constructs for user-defined functions," according to Perna. "You can think of the data types as `classes,' and the functions as `methods,'" she illustrated. Examples of user- defined functions include "Do a text search," and "Convert Canadian currency to US currency." In addition, IBM has bundled in five pre-built "user-defined functions," consisting of search engines for text, image, audio, video, and fingerprint data. The search engines provide "a single point of entry to either parametric or complex data types through SQL (structured query language)," Perna said. "But if you have specialized routines, such as `grant security authorization,' the constructs are there to write your own user- defined functions," she continued. DB2 has been available for HP-UX and Sun as well as AIX and OS/2 since version 1 of the desktop edition of the database. The ports to HP-UX and Sun, and now to Siemens, have all been prompted by user requests, according to Perna. Siemens and IBM workstations are both popular in the European banking business, she asserted. "In Germany, this is true across industry, but it is banking that really drove this move." A beta test of DB2 for Siemens-Nixdorf is scheduled to start in September. IBM is just finishing up a beta test of DB2 Parallel Edition, Perna added. The beta testers consist of about 30 commercial concerns, across a range of industries that includes finance, retail, and telecommunications. The Parallel Edition users are largely interested in data mining, the IBM exec reported. "`Finding out more about customers' is going to be the `killer app.'" IBM will start shipping DB2 Parallel Edition at the end of September, Perna told Newsbytes. (Jacqueline Emigh/19950829/Reader Contact: IBM, 914-765-1900; Press Contact: Parna Sarkar, Brodeur & Partners for IBM, 617-622-2833) (SUMMARY)(GENERAL)(MSP)(00034) Newsbytes Daily Summary 08/30/95 MINNEAPOLIS, MINNESOTA, U.S.A., 1995 AUG 30 (NB) -- These are capsules of all today's news stories: ======================================================================== ------------| N E W S B Y T E S D A I L Y S U M M A R Y |---------- ------------| Wednesday, August 30, 1995 |---------- ======================================================================== (c) Newsbytes News Network (Tm) Editor in Chief: Wendy Woods ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Newsbytes News Network's 1995 Update CD-ROM for Mac, DOS, and Windows is now available for $29.95 (includes s&h). Contains 1983-1995 news stories, more than 64,000 keyword searchable stories and 475 digitized images. For more information or to order, fax to 612-430-0441 or e-mail to 'administrator@newsbytes.com' -- MC, Visa, Amex accepted. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ CATEGORY HEADLINES (*** indicates today's top stories) STORY # ======================================================================== APPLE Apple Upgrades Singapore Investment........................ 03 BROADCAST Lockheed Sells China Comms Satellite....................... 07 BUSINESS Conner Stepping Up Investment In Singapore................. 02 BUSINESS Performance Systems Buys Into Israel Internet Provider..... 05 BUSINESS Verifone Steps Up Indian Operations........................ 10 BUSINESS ****Time Warner & Turner in Merger Talks.................. 28 BUSINESS Hewlett-Packard Consolidates............................... 29 DOS Magnetic Software Ships BlankCheck 3.0..................... 18 GENERAL Lotus Intros VideoNotes 1.1, Adds NT Server Support........ 06 GENERAL Pro CD Announces New CD-ROM Phone Books.................... 21 GOVT Federal Info Technology Conf Set For Sept.................. 04 GOVT Australian Govt Clears Win 95 For Military Use............. 11 GOVT Japan & US Settle Software Dispute......................... 25 IBM IBM Plans Tighter Integration Between DB2, Lotus Notes..... 33 LEGAL TI To Appeal $58 Million Award Reversal.................... 31 ONLINE ****UK - Global Internet "Games Online" Service........... 14 ONLINE Net Investor Moves Web Site, Improves Services............. 15 ONLINE "Cooking On The Net" Fundraiser Helping Children........... 16 ONLINE AOL Offers New Kids Services............................... 20 ONLINE TGV Lets Users Evaluate "MultiNet" Via Internet............ 23 ONLINE ****1st World Wide Web "Webby" Awards Announced........... 26 ONLINE ****More Libraries Are Providing Internet Access.......... 27 ONLINE CNN On Web, Teams With Nexis............................... 30 PC Adaptec Intros 32-bit EZ-SCSI Software..................... 24 TELECOM China - Shanghai Phone Numbers To Move To 8 Digits......... 08 TELECOM UK - Dataflex Slashes ISDN Adapter Pricing................. 13 TRENDS UK - Battery Powered PCMCIA Adapter........................ 12 TRENDS Santa Clara Convention Center On Virtual Reality CD........ 17 WINDOWS CashGraf Gets New Name, Intros 2 Acct Packages............. 01 WINDOWS Windows 95 Delayed For The Indian Market................... 09 WINDOWS More On Microsoft Offering Word "Prank" Virus Fix.......... 19 WINDOWS Microsoft Ships Office For Windows 95...................... 22 WINDOWS Lotus Symposium - SmartSuite For Windows 95................ 32 ======================================================================== These are the headlines and first paragraphs of each story, in order: 1 -> CashGraf Gets New Name, Intros 2 Acct Packages -- CashGraf Software Inc., formerly Target Software Group Inc., has introduced two accounting programs on CD-ROM designed for use by small businesses and home-based offices. The software includes word processing, a database manager, and a contact manager, as well as accounting functions. 2 -> Conner Stepping Up Investment In Singapore -- California-based disk and tape drive manufacturer Conner Peripherals is stepping up investment in its new facility in Singapore, from the planned US$44 million to US$110 million, with a view to accelerating the production of advanced disk media. 3 -> Apple Upgrades Singapore Investment -- Apple Computer is investing more than S$40 million in Singapore over the next four years to beef up its research and development presence to enable it to innovate and "Asianize" its multimedia personal computer technology. 4 -> Federal Info Technology Conf Set For Sept -- The General Services Administration has set its 34th annual Information Resources Management Conference for September 5-8 in Hershey, Pennsylvania. 5 -> Performance Systems Buys Into Israel Internet Provider -- Performance Systems International (NASDAQ:PSIX) is acquiring a one-third share of Netvision Ltd., Israel's largest Internet service provider. PSI spokesman Brian Muys told Newsbytes the value of the deal is about $9 million. 6 -> Lotus Intros VideoNotes 1.1, Adds NT Server Support -- Lotus's newly unveiled VideoNotes 1.1 opens up the Notes "multimedia extension" to Windows NT-based as well as OS/2-based Notes servers, plus a wide range of video servers and multimedia file formats. It also adds Notes/FX integration and new CD-ROM distribution capabilities, said Arthur Souza, product manager, in an interview with Newsbytes. 7 -> Lockheed Sells China Comms Satellite -- A contract was recently signed between China Orient Telecom Satellite Co. Ltd. and Lockheed Martin Corp. of the US for the purchase of a communications satellite. 8 -> China - Shanghai Phone Numbers To Move To 8 Digits -- November 25 will be the launch date for Shanghai telephone numbers to be upgraded from seven digits to eight, officials with Shanghai Posts and Telecommunications Administration (SPTA) said recently. 9 -> Windows 95 Delayed For The Indian Market -- Although Windows 95 has finally been launched, Indian resellers will not receive it until mid-September. The delay is due to Microsoft omitting the time- zone feature in the package for the Indian market. 10 -> Verifone Steps Up Indian Operations -- Verifone Inc., a leading US-based transaction automation company, has decided to set up a direct sales office in Bangalore, complete its 65,000 square-foot Verifone Technology Park by mid-1996, and invest more money to expand its research and development center. 11 -> Australian Govt Clears Win 95 For Military Use -- The Australian Minister for Defense, Robert Ray, has told the parliament that despite concerns about the security aspects of Windows 95, the product has now been cleared. 12 -> UK - Battery Powered PCMCIA Adapter -- TeleAdapt has developed a battery powered version of its Modulette, a PCMCIA (Personal Computer Memory Card International Association) card adapter for computers without a integral PCMCIA slot. 13 -> UK - Dataflex Slashes ISDN Adapter Pricing -- Dataflex Design has shaved UKP200 14 -> ****UK - Global Internet "Games Online" Service -- Entertainment Online (E-On) is a new company that has been formed by Mark Bernstein of Virtuality fame and Dr Hermann Hauser, of Acorn/Olivetti fame. The new company plans to offer a variety of PC-oriented games services for UKP5 a month across the Internet, when the E-On service starts this coming November. 15 -> Net Investor Moves Web Site, Improves Services -- The Net Investor, a service that claims to be the first fully integrated investment service and portfolio accounting system on the Internet, said it is both improving the services it provides its customers, and moving its World Wide Web site. 16 -> "Cooking On The Net" Fundraiser Helping Children -- Impact Online, a non-profit organization designed to use the Internet as "a force for social change," has announced "Cooking on the Net," a new World Wide Web site. With the support of "world famous chefs," the site provides special recipes for a $12 donation which "support computer resources" and "training for children unable to participate in the world of computers." 17 -> Santa Clara Convention Center On Virtual Reality CD -- The Santa Clara County Convention Center has taken a lead in electronic advertising by tying a CD-ROM virtual reality (VR) tour of its facilities to its World Wide Web site. With VR and multimedia technology supplied by Xpand, Inc., the convention center CD and Web site are reportedly "interwoven." 18 -> Magnetic Software Ships BlankCheck 3.0 -- Magnetic Software, a developer of magnetic ink character recognition (MICR) laser check printing software, has released BlankCheck 3.0. Check printing software, once a custom application costing thousands of dollars, is now available for $199. 19 -> More On Microsoft Offering Word "Prank" Virus Fix -- Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ:MSFT) has confirmed that there is, what it calls, a "prank macro" circulating that affects the saving of Microsoft Word documents, and that the company itself may have unwittingly helped spread the virus. 20 -> AOL Offers New Kids Services -- In response to recent media coverage about dangers to children online, America Online (NASDAQ:AMER) has teamed with a number of partners to add new services for children and teens. According to the company, these new areas "focus on interactive participation" while being "educational and entertaining." 21 -> Pro CD Announces New CD-ROM Phone Books -- Pro CD Inc., a publisher of electronic phone directories, has announced a new United States phone book called Home & Business Phone. 22 -> Microsoft Ships Office For Windows 95 -- Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ:MSFT) has shipped Microsoft Office for Windows 95, the software suite of productivity applications that includes word processing, spreadsheet, presentation graphics, scheduling, and database programs. 23 -> TGV Lets Users Evaluate "MultiNet" Via Internet -- TGV Inc. (NASDAQ: TGVI) has announced that its customers can now use the Internet to evaluate its advanced MultiNet for Windows. Qualified customers will receive a free "evaluation license key" which enables them to download MultiNet for Windows evaluation software via the World Wide Web, FTP (File Transfer Protocol), or gopher. 24 -> Adaptec Intros 32-bit EZ-SCSI Software -- Adaptec (NASDAQ:ADPT) has announced additions to its Adaptec EZ-SCSI (small computer system interface) software. Version 4.0 provides a suite of 32-bit applications and tools which can be used with an advanced SCSI programming interface (ASPI)-compliant host adapter to support "virtually all" major SCSI peripherals. 25 -> Japan & US Settle Software Dispute -- Japan and the United States have reached an agreement over a controversial proposal by Japan to promote special quality registration for all companies selling software in Japan. 26 -> ****1st World Wide Web "Webby" Awards Announced -- Glenn Davis, the special projects coordinator for Infinet, who created the popular "Cool Site Of The Day" on the Internet, has inaugurated an award for the Cool Site Of The Year. Called the "Webby," the winner of the first annual award is 27 -> ****More Libraries Are Providing Internet Access -- The American Library Association (ALA) said almost a quarter of the libraries serving populations of 100,000 or more can connect their borrowers to the worldwide Internet. The survey was conducted as a part of the ALA's Public Library Data Service's "Statistical Report '95." 28 -> ****Time Warner & Turner in Merger Talks -- Time Warner Inc. (NYSE:TWX) and Turner Broadcasting Company (ASE:TBSA) have confirmed they are talking about merging the two companies. If talks are successful, the new company would be the world's largest media and entertainment company. 29 -> Hewlett-Packard Consolidates -- Hewlett-Packard has announced a consolidation plan to bring all of its computer and computer-support departments into a single unit, called the Computer Organization. Richard E. Belluzzo, the current head of HP's Computer Products Organization, is directing the change-over and will be the new head of the Computer Organization. 30 -> CNN On Web, Teams With Nexis -- Turner Broadcasting's (ASE:TBSA) Cable News Network (CNN) has announced that it is bringing to the Internet's World Wide Web a multimedia news service. CNN officials told Newsbytes that the site is already averaging more than 20,000 hits per hour. 31 -> TI To Appeal $58 Million Award Reversal -- Texas Instruments Inc. (NYSE: TXN) said it will appeal an order by a federal district judge that negated a jury award of more than $51 million. 32 -> Lotus Symposium - SmartSuite For Windows 95 -- The day after Labor Day, in both a satellite-broadcast event and online, Lotus will launch SmartSuite for Windows 95, a package that will include a new version of Freelance with "TeamShow" and Web publishing features, plus new Windows 95 editions of Word Pro and Approach, and existing versions of Lotus 1-2-3 and Organizer, said Jeffrey E. Anderholm, director of spreadsheet marketing, in a meeting with Newsbytes at the Lotus Symposium in Boston. 33 -> IBM Plans Tighter Integration Between DB2, Lotus Notes -- IBM's future plans for DB2 include tighter integration with Lotus Notes and Approach, closer similarity of features between the PC/Unix versions and DB2 for MVS, and, next month, a beta test for a new Siemens-Nixdorf port as well as commercial rollout of DB2 Parallel Edition, said Janet Perna, director of database technology for IBM's Software Solutions Division, in a briefing for Newsbytes. (Ian Stokell/19950830) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 08/29/95 WINDOWS Novell Intros Perfectworks For Kids (NEWS)(WINDOWS)(DEN)(00001) Novell Intros Perfectworks For Kids 08/29/95 OREM, UTAH, U.S.A., 1995 AUG 29 (NB) -- Novell Inc. (NASDAQ: NOVL) has introduced a program designed specifically for children ages four to 10 that combines communication and creativity. Novell said its Perfectworks for Kids includes word processing, drawing and painting, as well as supporting Windows 95 fax and electronic-mail capabilities, and gives the young users one-click access to the online subscriber service America Online. However, Novell spokesperson Blake Stowell cautioned that Perfectworks for Kids is not a front-end for sending faxes. You still need fax or e-mail software installed on your PC for that. What Perfectworks for Kids does if you do have that software is make it easy to send a file via fax or e-mail. Perfectworks for Kids includes an address book that the user can use to click on the addressee to send the document. Stowell told Newsbytes the word processor in Perfectworks was developed specifically for the younger user. For example, while it does use some of the features of the company's other word processing applications it also uses larger icons on the toolbar at the top of the screen to make it easier for the kids to click on the desired function. The program includes the complete 250,000 word spelling checker from Wordperfect. The America Online connection is also customized for children. In addition to automating the logon so the kids don't have to remember their password, the program immediately jumps to the Kids Only section on AOL. Novell said AOL access provides children access to helpful research tools like the National Geographic World or Compton's Encyclopedia. Stowell told Newsbytes the drawing and painting tools in Perfectworks for Kids comes with more than 800 graphics organized in 26 categories that include transportation, seasons, animals, foods, fancy letters, people, clothes, decorations, holidays, and monsters. The user can insert the graphics in a document, and the images can be sized, flipped or reversed. Perfectworks for Kids provides multi-layer templates that let the user change parts of the activity without permanently altering the original template design. There are also visual effects like word balloons and magic words that appear when pictures are erased. Perfectworks for Kids supports color printing and incorporates a setup menu that lets the parents customize the program for the appropriate age and ability level. There is also an optional "Kid Mode" that locks the child out of the desktop or Program Manager, and keeps them from tampering with files on the hard drive. Particularly unique to Perfectworks for Kids is the text-to-speech feature that will read back to the child what has been written, if the PC is equipped with a sound card and speakers or headphones. Perfectworks for Kids has a suggested retail price of $49.95 and requires a 256-color video display, a 485-based PC, Windows 95 or Windows 3.1 running Win32s (it is included with Perfectworks for Kids), eight megabytes (MB) of memory, a double-speed or faster CD-ROM, a mouse, and sound card and speakers. As they grow older, Perfectworks for Kids users will be able to upgrade to Perfectworks for Windows 3.1 or Windows 95 for $34.95 plus shipping and handling, said Novell. Perfectworks includes a more powerful word processor, a spreadsheet, database, drawing, painting, and communications modules. Stowell said the software will be available in retail outlets in November. (Jim Mallory/19950829/Press contact: Blake Stowell, Novell, 801-228-7242; Public contact: Novell, 800-451-5151/KIDS950829/PHOTO) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 08/29/95 GENERAL Windows Solutions Expo Set For San Francisco (NEWS)(GENERAL)(SFO)(00002) Windows Solutions Expo Set For San Francisco 08/29/95 SAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1995 AUG 29 (NB) -- On August 29, Softbank Expos opens the Windows Solutions Conference and Exposition, the first business show to follow the debut of Microsoft's Windows 95. The show covers both Windows NT and Windows 95 products and technologies. Highlighting the show are many new Windows 95 applications, which include complex business and programming applications along with SOHO (small office/home office) and home applications and utilities. Keynote addresses from Gene Wang of Symantec, Robert McDowell from Microsoft, Christine Comaford of Corporate Computing, Larry Ellison from Oracle, and Scott Adams the creator of the Dilbert cartoon strip are featured from Tuesday through Friday. Symantec is holding its own Windows 95 TechFest within the exposition. The company says it is offering a team of experts to address technical information on application development, configuration management, remote access, and data security. Team experts include: Dan Saks, president of Saks & Associates, a C++ training and consulting firm; Scott Myers, an authority on C++; Patrick Taylor, product manager for Symantec's enterprise developer product line; Arun Gupta, principal architect of Symantec's Enterprise Systems Group; Paul Yao, president of International System Design, Michael Kerman, Symantec's PC AnyWhere product line manager and others. On Thursday, August 31, John Dvorak, well-known computer industry analyst and commentator will "argue, cajole and spar" with Robert X Cringley, columnist for InfoWorld Magazine. The event is called "The Great Debate." PC Week will host a "Best Practices" session which features live demonstrations of content-based applications selected as Best Practices by the magazine. A large audience is expected to attend "The Windows 95 New Technology and Product Review" scheduled for Wednesday morning. The conference and exposition is being held at the Moscone Convention Center in San Francisco. Windows 95 Developers sessions begin on Tuesday, August 29, and run through Thursday, September 1. Windows NT sessions are being held on Wednesday and Thursday of the same week. More than 200 companies from the computer industry are planning to showcase their products. (Patrick McKenna/19950828/Press Contact: Kathleen Burke, Softbank Expos, 415-578-6963) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 95 08/29/95 WINDOWS Novell Plans Perfectworks For Windows (NEWS)(WINDOWS)(DEN)(00003) Novell Plans Perfectworks For Windows 95 08/29/95 OREM, UTAH, U.S.A., 1995 AUG 29 (NB) -- Novell Inc. (NASDAQ: NOVL) has announced it will ship Perfectworks for Windows 95, an integrated software package that includes word processing, spreadsheet, database, paint and draw modules, by the end of the year. In addition to its productivity tools, Perfectworks for Windows 95 will include one-click access to the online subscription service America Online. Novell said the Windows 95 version of Perfectworks will take advantage of Windows 95 features, such as long file names and OLE (object linking and embedding) 2.0 that lets you drag-and-drop elements between Perfectworks and other applications. Perfectworks for Windows 95 also integrates: Quicken SE, the personal finance program; CallerID that tells you who is calling on the phone and logs the call; QuickCorrect, a feature that corrects spelling as you type; and Grammatik, a grammar and style checker for documents. The Perfectworks toolbar provides one click access to features like creating envelopes, annotations, labels, heads, footers, and footnotes. You can also use tab dialogs to access the various Perfectworks modules as well as templates and the most recently opened documents. Perfectworks on CD-ROM includes an AOL starter kit with 10 free hours of online time. Novell said users will conserve online time by using Perfectworks, since it bypasses the necessity to enter your password on AOL. You can also customize where you enter AOL in order to bypass various menu levels. Perfectworks users can save their files in Wordperfect, Quattro Pro, Word, Ami Pro, Excel, and Lotus 1-2-3 formats. Novell said it will announce the pricing of Perfectworks for Windows 95 shortly before the product ships. Users of Wordperfect Works, Perfectworks or the new Perfectworks for Kids can upgrade to the Windows 95 version by contacting Novell directly. (Jim Mallory/19950828/Press contact: Blake Stowell, Novell, 801-228-7242; Public contact: Novell, 800-451-5151 to purchase or upgrade to Perfectworks) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 08/29/95 WINDOWS UK - Elonex's Free/Cut-Price Windows 95 Training (NEWS)(WINDOWS)(LON)(00004) UK - Elonex's Free/Cut-Price Windows 95 Training 08/29/95 LONDON, ENGLAND, 1995 AUG 29 (NB) -- As the Windows 95 bandwagon gathers pace, Elonex is offering some practical assistance to buyers of its machines that elect to have Windows 95 on their machines. The company has teamed up with three other firms, including Microsoft, to offer half price training for the new operating system. The deal, which applies to all new PCs bought with Windows 95 pre- installed from Elonex, runs for the next three months and allows buyers to buy one free day's training from CTEC, the computer training company, as part of a deal that includes a half-price tutorial CD-ROM from CRT Multimedia, and a free six month subscription to the Microsoft Advantage User Group. According to Demetre Cheras, Elonex's systems director, the total potential savings available to any Elonex customers comes to more than UKP300. The training deal involves a free day's training on Windows 95 with any course from CTEC of two days or more. The six months free subscription to Microsoft Advantage is conditional on the CTEC training deal booking, and is worth UKP37.50, Newsbytes notes. The CRT Windows 95 training disk, meanwhile, normally sells for UKP39.99, while the offer voucher from Elonex sells the disk for UKP19.95. Last, but not least, Elonex Windows 95 PC users can buy a copy of the Microsoft Bonus Pack of extra software for UKP20, instead of UKP39. This price includes another voucher worth UKP10 against further Microsoft home packages. "We're aiming to provide something for everyone in our Windows 95 offering. The CD-ROM utilities from CRT Multimedia and Microsoft will be of most interest to home users, who we expect will be the early adopters of Windows 95," Cheras said. According to Cheras, the day's training with CTEC will mostly appear to business users, "who are likely to migrate to Windows 95 more slowly. Our offer will allow companies buying large numbers of PCs to make significant savings on the cost of training employees to use the new operating system. We believe the benefits of Windows 95 are exceptional, and the Elonex offer enables all users to take advantage of these benefits in the fastest way possible," he said. (Steve Gold/19950828/Press Contact: David Bridson, tel +44-1869-338832, fax +44-1869-338843, Internet e-mail bandb@cix.compulink.co.uk; Reader Contact: Elonex, tel +44-181-452-4444, fax +44-181-452-6422) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 08/29/95 GENERAL European IT Services Association Conf Details (NEWS)(GENERAL)(LON)(00005) European IT Services Association Conf Details 08/29/95 LONDON, ENGLAND, 1995 AUG 29 (NB) -- The Computing Services & Software Association (CSSA), a not-for-profit information technology (IT) organization in the UK, has announced it is organizing an IT outsourcing conference this coming October. According to Rob Wirszycz, a spokesman for the CSSA, the event is being organized on behalf of the newly-formed European IT Services Association (the National Computing Services Associations for Belgium, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Portugal, and Spain), and will be held at London's Grosvenor House Hotel on October 6 this year. The conference is billed as providing a definitive view on the state of IT outsourcing as it shifts towards being a route to "extracting maximum value from an organization's investments in information and communication technologies." Featured speakers at the one-day conference include seniors from several CSSA member organizations, including Hoskyns, Sema, CSC, the Co-operative Bank, and the Trustee Savings Bank. The CSSA claims it is looking to attract more than 250 people to the conference, with one third coming from Europe and another third coming from senior user VIPs. So why choose IT outsourcing as the topic for the event? According to the CSSA, IT outsourcing is the biggest phenomenon to affect IT buyers and suppliers since the advent of the PC. The IT outsourcing industry, the Association claims, is now growing at the rate of more than 40 percent a year. (Sylvia Dennis/19950828/Press Contact: Rob Wirszycz, CSSA, +44-171-405-2171, Internet e-mail rob@cssa.co.uk; Reader Contact: CSSA, tel +44-171-405-2171, fax +44-171-404-4119) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 08/29/95 TELECOM Germany - Deutsche Telekom Bearish On Outlook (NEWS)(TELECOM)(LON)(00006) Germany - Deutsche Telekom Bearish On Outlook 08/29/95 BONN, GERMANY, 1995 AUG 29 (NB) -- Deutsche Telekom (DT) has announced its preliminary sales and profits figures for 1994/95 and, according to the state-owned telco, which is making the transition to a free market in 1998, as decreed by the European Commission (EC), business prospects in Germany are improving. After reporting a steady stream of annual losses, DT, which has now dropped the Bundespost from its name, has turned in a profit for DM1.3 billion during 1994/95. According to Ron Sommer, the head of the telecoms company, the return to profitability was the result of an upswing in sales, coupled with a reduction in the payments made to the Germany Government. Sommer said that, as DT moves steadily towards the free telecoms market of 1998, the company's contribution to the Government would also reduce. Last year the telecoms company contributed more than DM5.2 billion, a bill that this year will fall to just over DM3 billion. According to Sommer, DT is weathering the transition very well, given that call charges are being cut in line with market forces. Despite the price cuts, the company's overall revenue stream had increased slightly as call volumes continue to climb. DT is also extremely pleased, Sommer said, that its deal with France Telecom to acquire a 20 percent stake in Sprint had been approved. As reported previously by Newsbytes, the project, known as Atlas, has just been approved by the anti-monopoly division of the EC. EC officials had previously voiced their concern that the deal between the two European country telecoms operations and Sprint may go against monopolistic legislation, and may be detrimental to EC telecoms consumers. The $4.2 billion deal will see the creation of a resultant joint venture company to be known as Phoenix and will also call for both European companies to work on offering voice and data services to major corporations, especially in the international marketplace. (Sylvia Dennis/19950828/Press & Reader Contact: Deutsche Telekom, tel +49-228-1810, fax +49-228-181-8871) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 08/29/95 ONLINE Cognos On World Wide Web (NEWS)(ONLINE)(LON)(00007) Cognos On World Wide Web 08/29/95 BRACKNELL, BERKSHIRE, ENGLAND, 1995 AUG 29 (NB) -- Cognos has announced the opening of its Web site on the Internet. Located at http://www.cognos.com , the site aims to offers visitors industry, product and company information, as well as "easy access" to related business information. "We see the Web as a vital new means of interacting with all of our publics -- current customers, prospective buyers, business partners, trade press, and analysts -- as well as the exploding audience of individual Internet surfers," said Neal Hill, vice president of Cognos' corporate marketing operations, announcing the Web site. According to Hill, the Web site, which has been in final testing since early last month, is fast becoming a strategic business tool. "While the first implementation of our Web site focuses on providing information on Cognos and its products in a fun and useful format, we expect it to quickly evolve into a full-scale, interactive communication and distribution channel for all of our products and services," he said. The Web site is, Hill went on to say, a highly visual environment, containing numerous graphics, product screen shots, and animated feature demonstrations. "One of our objectives was to effectively convey the character and some of the important features of our products -- PowerPlay, Impromptu and Axiant," he said. Hill went on to explain that the new Web site complements the existing company forum on Compuserve (GO COGNOS). "We expect to aggressively use all of the electronic pipelines available," he said, adding that, over time, "our users will tell us which types of channels they prefer for which types of interactions with us, and we will modify our offerings accordingly." (Sylvia Dennis/19950828/Press Contact: Insight Marketing, tel +44-1625-500800, fax +44-1625-500900, Internet e-mail aball@insight.demon.co.uk; Reader Contact: Cognos, tel +44-1344-486668, fax +44-1344-485124/COGNOS950829/PHOTO) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 08/29/95 ONLINE UK - Context Market Research On World Wide Web (NEWS)(ONLINE)(LON)(00008) UK - Context Market Research On World Wide Web 08/29/95 LONDON, ENGLAND, 1995 AUG 29 (NB) -- Context Market Research, a European information technology (IT) market research company, has opened up its World Wide Web site at http://www.context.co.uk . Sukie Read, a spokeswoman for the company, told Newsbytes that the company realized early on that there was a need for publishing company information on the World Wide Web. "We are using Demon Internet Services as our host provider and expect that the pages will act as a significant shop window for our services," she said, adding that, because of the need to offer a free service on the pages, the information is a sample of what the company can offer. "It is difficult to see how companies can make money out of the Internet, except by advertising, but we think that the Internet is a very powerful medium, especially in acting as a shop window for the company," she told Newsbytes. As well as acting as a shop window for Context's services, notably in the field of European computer market research, Context plans to offer support for its European information providers, as well as a "hot link" with the parallel Web site for Computer Intelligence InfoCorp, its US partner. According to Jeremy Davies, a senior partner with Context, the Web site offers Internet browsers a selection of data from the company's channel research database, including details of market sizes, forecasts, brand shares and pricing comparisons across the midrange, PC, printer, and networking markets in Europe. "This is an exciting step forward for Context,: he said, adding that the Web site will keep the company more in touch with its customers around the world, as well as a panel research members across Europe. (Steve Gold/19950828/Press Contact: Sukie Read, Communications Manager, Context, +44-1171-937-3595, Internet e-mail sread@context-ecis.co.uk; Reader Contact: Context: +44-171-937-3595, Internet e-mail jdavies@context-ecis.co.uk) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 08/29/95 PC Illustra Intros PC Tools Suite (NEWS)(PC)(LAX)(00009) Illustra Intros PC Tools Suite 08/29/95 OAKLAND, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1995 AUG 29 (NB) -- Illustra Information Technologies Inc., a data base management systems (DBMSs) provider, has announced a set of development tools that the company claims simplifies the creation of applications in the Microsoft Office environment. The company also maintains that its new tools eliminate the need for programming language such as C++ or structured query language (SQL). The new suite of PC tools include: an ODBC (Open Data Based Connectivity) driver; Schema Knowledge; Illustra C++ Interface; and the Illustra Client Toolkit for Windows. Charles Dickerson, product manager for Illustra, told Newsbytes, "If you look at client application development on Unix and Windows, they have completely different requirements. Most client-based database servers are not developed in C++. Traditionally, development for Illustra's server required knowledge of a programming language such as C++ or SQL. Illustra's new PC tools eliminate this barrier. "Now, popular Microsoft Office programs can be used with Illustra Server, allowing users to store, query, manipulate, manage, and retrieve any kind of data, including video, sound, images, geo-spatial, and other complex data," said Dickerson. He added: "These tools target a range of developer knowledge and experience, from C++ experts to non-programmers who want to create customized Windows and Windows NT applications that integrate multimedia, text, numbers, and other data. They can access Illustra's architecture from Excel spread sheets, Visual Basic, Access, or Microsoft Query." Said Dick Williams, president of Illustra, "We see a growing number of customers who want applications that integrate popular software they use everyday at the office. With these new PC development tools and our latest generation optimized NT server, Illustra continues in its commitment to remove barriers and broaden development environment choices to accommodate Windows-based applications as well as Unix." The ODBC driver provides a database interface to the Illustra server from Microsoft products such as Visual C++, Visual Basic, Excel, Access, and Query. Unlike other drivers, Illustra's ODBC driver allows Windows desktop applications to use Illustra's object- relational database technology, says the company. Schema Knowledge is a tool for developers working with schema objects such as tables, functions, data types, casts, operators, and aggregates. The Illustra C++ Interface is a development tool designed specifically for C++ developers. According to the company, the tool reduces code and makes it easy to create, debug, and modify applications for the Illustra server. The Illustra Client Toolkit for Windows includes Illustra Query, which enables development and debugging using SQL queries rather than APIs (application programming interfaces). It also includes the Visual Basic interface for accessing the Illustra server from Visual Basic rather than prototype C and C++. The suggested retail prices are: ODBC driver -- $99 per user; Schema Knowledge -- $695 per user; Illustra C++ Interface -- $395 per user; Illustra Client Toolkit -- free with purchase of any server. (Richard Bowers/19950828/Press Contact: Sandra Bateman, Illustra, 510-873-6209) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 08/29/95 WINDOWS Symantec Intros Windows 95-Compatible C++ (NEWS)(WINDOWS)(SFO)(00010) Symantec Intros Windows 95-Compatible C++ 08/29/95 CUPERTINO, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A, 1995 AUG 29 (NB) -- Symantec (NASDAQ:SYMC) claims Symantec C++ version 7.2 is a certified Windows 95-compatible product which will ship in September. With the new version, developers can use the latest Windows features and technologies for building new applications. Symantec C++ 7.2 includes full 32-bit operating System support, which includes "complete support" for all new Windows 95 controls such as slider, spin button, image list, tree view, list view, animate control hotkey control, tab control, header control, progress control, status bar control, toolbar control, and tooltips control, says the company. The new version also supports registry support, full install/uninstall capabilities, support for 16 by 16 icons, long file names and full OLE2 (object linking and embedding 2) support for containers and servers. The company recently announced Symantec C++ 7.0 and says it has garnered InfoWorld's Hot Pick Award over Borland and Microsoft products along with a PC Week Analyst's Choice award. Gene Wang, executive president of Symantec's applications and development tools, told Newsbytes, "We have gotten these awards and other great reviews before we included the Windows 95 features found in 7.2." This latest version of 7.2 allows developers to create applications for Windows 3.1 and 3.11, Windows 95, and Windows NT. Symantec and Microsoft earlier released a migration kit which assists developers in bringing a 16-bit application to a 32-bit application. Wang added, "It is our intention to provide developers with the latest tools possible so that they can quickly create any Window applications." The company says that, also included in 7.2 is: support for MFC 3.2 with support for Windows 95 controls; the Windows 95 software development kit with pre-existing Symantec C++ project files; a new documentation viewer with Windows 95 help; Windows 95 sample applications; increased speed, quality and stability; and the ability to facilitate migration from Borland and Microsoft projects to Symantec C++. Commenting on developer interest for Windows 95 tools, Wang added, "There is a huge developer interest in these tools. The demand from the developer community is very strong, and from that demand we expect to see a lot of new 32-bit, Windows 95 applications." (Patrick McKenna/19950829/Press Contact: Elisheva Steiner, Symantec, 408-446-7134) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 08/29/95 CORRECTION TELECOM Correction - Digiphone Goes To Manufacturing (CORRECTION)(TELECOM)(DEN)(00011) Correction - Digiphone Goes To Manufacturing 08/29/95 DALLAS, TEXAS, U.S.A., 1995 AUG 29 (NB) -- Earlier this month Newsbytes reported that Camelot Corporation had sent Digiphone Deluxe, its software program that lets Internet users carry on phone conversations without paying long distance charges, to manufacturing. The story stated that Digiphone Deluxe offers simplex operation, meaning that only one party to an Internet phone call can speak at any time. Danny Wettreich, Camelot chairman, has informed Newsbytes that both Digiphone and Digiphone Deluxe offer duplex operations. "In fact, that is why we are convinced our product will do much better than its competitors, which only offer half-duplex," said the Camelot chief executive. Camelot said Digiphone Deluxe not only supports phone conversations over the Internet, but will also include a World Wide Web browser, electronic-mail capability and other Internet support software programs. Wettreich told Newsbytes the company developed its own Web browser software. Digiphone also includes FTP (File Transfer Protocol) for downloading files from the Internet, and conference calling by phone. To have a phone conversation on the Internet, both parties must have Digiphone loaded on their PCs. When a Digiphone user has the software loaded and logs onto the Internet, a menu of other logged on Digiphone users appears. The phone connection is made by clicking on the user you want to call. Both PCs must be equipped with the appropriate sound board, microphone, and speakers or headphones. The company said you need at least a 386 computer with a 9600 bits-per-second (bps) or faster modem. Digiphone and Digiphone Deluxe are both written for Windows 3.1, but Wettreich told Newsbytes Digiphone versions for OS/2, Windows 95, and the Macintosh are all in development and should be ready by Christmas. Both Digiphone and Digiphone Deluxe are scheduled to ship in mid-September and will be available from CompUSA Inc., Egghead Software, Best Buy, and other mass merchandisers. The software will ship on both CD-ROM and floppy disks in the same box. Camelot said Digiphone will have a suggested retail price of $89.95, while Digiphone Deluxe with its extra features will carry a $149.95 price tag. (Jim Mallory/19950822/Press contact; Danny Wettreich, Camelot, 214-733-3005; Public contact: Camelot, 214-733-3005) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 08/29/95 TELECOM Cellular One's Card For European Cell Phones (NEWS)(TELECOM)(MSP)(00012) Cellular One's Card For European Cell Phones 08/29/95 SOUTH SAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1995 AUG 29 (NB) -- Cellular One said it is bringing to market a new card that lets users from the San Francisco Bay Area have access to cell phones in over 30 European, Middle Eastern, and Pacific Rim countries. The special card is inserted into cellular phones used in those countries by traveling Bay-area residents. The special card looks like a typical phone calling card, officials said, but with one big difference. Cellular One's "TransGlobal" card has in it a chip that the overseas phones will use to link up with Cellular One. The card is called a subscriber identification module (SIM). When the card is put into a phone that uses GSM (global system for mobile communications) technology, the user can make calls while in certain foreign countries, along with receiving calls via their normal cellular phone number. GSM is the standard for cellular service in most of western Europe, Hong Kong, Australia, and other parts of the world, Cellular One officials said. Cellular systems in the US, Canada, and Mexico use the different AMPS standard. Also, users can get 24-hour toll-free customer service in English while traveling by using the card. Besides a card, customers need a GSM phone. They can be rented from United Kingdom-based Cellhire Ltd., at a rate of $99 for two weeks. Also, frequent travelers can buy the phones for about $600 to $800. All Cellular One requires is three to five days notice to send a tested GSM phone and a pre-programmed TransGlobal Card. Cellular calls using the GSM phone and the TransGlobal card cost $2.49 a minute, which includes all long distance and cellular air-time charges for making a call, officials said. Cellular One will charge customers $2.49 a minute plus long distance charges for receiving a call. A year's subscription to the TransGlobal card is $49.95. Sue Swenson, Cellular One president, said the service is particularly valuable for people in the greater Bay area, which is rated the number one market for foreign travel per capita in the US. Cellular One officials said they obtained that information from "The Lifestyle Market Analyst," which said that 28.2 percent of the households in the San Francisco/San Jose/Oakland area participate in foreign travel annually. (Bob Woods/19950828/Press Contacts: Karen Schornstein, Cellular One, 415-827-5676; Steven Freemire, Torme & Kenney, 415-956-1791) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 08/29/95 TELECOM MCI Intros New ISDN Business Package (NEWS)(TELECOM)(MSP)(00013) MCI Intros New ISDN Business Package 08/29/95 ATLANTA, GEORGIA, U.S.A., 1995 AUG 29 (NB) -- MCI Inc. (NASDAQ:MCIC) said it is introducing a new ISDN (integrated services digital network) package for businesses that need to utilize high speed data, video, and audio transmissions on the same digital phone line. The new integrated service, called "MCI Switched Digital Services," is being launched nationwide, officials said. It will offer a range of expanded ISDN services to support applications like videoconferencing, document sharing, telecommuting, LAN (local area network)-to-LAN data sharing, and high-speed access to the Internet. Bob Manning, MCI senior product manager, told Newsbytes the new package will be marketed to a broad spectrum of businesses. "This will be widespread for medium to corporate national account-type companies," he said. "These are the ones that would have not only national, but global communications." MCI said it is the first major US long distance carrier offering both an integrated narrowband and switched 64 kilobits-per-second (Kbps) Multirate Service (MRBS) completely throughout the US, with the launch. This means customers can, in essence, obtain bandwidth- on-demand, without having to use expensive and specialized equipment like inverse multiplexing equipment. Also, MCI said it will be the first US carrier to offer switched Primary Rate Interface (PRI) multirate service as an access option for wideband MRBS services, allowing for wideband communications between and among customers not using the MCI network with those using MCI's services. Manning also said billing will be much simpler with this service. Instead of paying the same fee every month for service whether the service is used or not, customers will pay only for what they use -- similar to being charged for a long distance phone call. Also, Manning said all charges will be put on the same bill as other MCI services. MCI said with ISDN product revenues reaching almost $5 billion this year, circuit switched services represent a major growth market. The company quoted a study by Frost & Sullivan, which also said ISDN revenues were at $3.8 billion. (Bob Woods/19950828/Press Contacts: C. David Sutton, MCI Business Markets, 800-644-NEWS; Public Contact: MCI, 800-727-2074) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 08/29/95 PC ****New PC Virus Dismissed As Prank Macro By Microsoft (NEWS)(PC)(LON)(00014) ****New PC Virus Dismissed As Prank Macro By Microsoft 08/29/95 LONDON, ENGLAND, 1995 AUG 29 (NB) -- A new type of virus is being reported as causing infections in the US and Canada, the UK, France, Finland, Russia, Germany, and South Africa. The new virus reportedly infects data files -- specifically Microsoft Word documents -- instead of programs or the boot sectors of disks like existing viruses do. The virus is being hailed as revolutionary by some virus experts who say that if this type of virus catches on, it may lead to far more infections than from conventional viruses. The virus exploits the macro language -- Word Basic -- which allows Microsoft Word users to customize and automate aspects of their word processing. The virus uses a special kind of macro, called AutoOpen, which executes as soon as a document is opened in Word. At that time, the virus takes control and infects the standard Word document template -- NORMAL.DOT -- which is attached by default to all new documents. All new documents created using the infected document template are infected and thus spread the infection when they are sent via diskette, electronic-mail, the Internet or a local or wide area network. Microsoft has acknowledged the existence of the virus, although the firm has called it a "prank macro." The company has also issued two Application Notes -- XD1215 and WD1215 -- and what they call a workaround, SCAN.DOC, which cleans up the prank macro. The software giant's technical support services also suggest that you can avoid the virus activating by holding down the shift key when a suspect document is loaded -- this preventing the execution of the macro. Microsoft has alarmed some sections of the anti-virus community by claiming that the virus causes no damage. Virus experts say that as a general principle, any infection, whether or not it contains a damaging payload, causes damage because users have to clean up the infection which uses up resources and costs money. However, experts agree that there is no damaging payload within the virus itself, even though a macro called Payload is inserted into infected documents. They go on to caution against complacency because the macro language is so user friendly that even a novice could record a damaging payload and insert it into this or some other macro, including one other automatic macros such as AutoClose which could deliver a payload without the user even being aware of it. The virus works on almost any version of Word for Windows 6.x or later running on the Mac, Windows 3.x, Windows NT, Windows 95, and OS/2. In certain circumstances it could allegedly work on earlier versions, for example, Word for Windows 2.x, but not Word for Windows 1.x or Word for DOS. The virus does not work on other word processors or on Word documents which have been imported into other word processors. While Microsoft is playing down the new virus, anti-virus experts are hailing the new virus as revolutionary. Newsbytes spoke to Secure Computing magazine Editor Paul Robinson, who said that the truth was probably closer to the anti-virus community's claims than Microsoft's, though it was still too early to be certain. "If more of these viruses appear, we could be in for a very bad time. Imagine what would happen if this sort of thing spread to other applications from other software developers. The new advances made with smart documents could be undermined leaving users wary of exploiting recent technology advantages," he said. (Newsbytes UK & Europe/19950828/Press Contact: Paul Robinson, Secure Computing, +44-1792-324000, Internet e-mail secure@cix.compulink.co.uk; Microsoft UK, +44-1724-270001) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 08/29/95 LEGAL Epson Raids Singapore Firm, Seizes Fake Products (NEWS)(LEGAL)(HKG)(00015) Epson Raids Singapore Firm, Seizes Fake Products 08/29/95 SINGAPORE, 1995 AUG 29 (NB) -- Epson in Asia has yet again tracked down piracy in ribbons and ink cartridges. The company recently carried out raids on a company making counterfeit Epson products and seized more than 25,000 fake printer ribbons and ink cartridges valued at S$250,000. The raids were on sites in Singapore, where assembling and storage of the fakes was being carried out. According to Epson Singapore, the seized products included a large number of counterfeit cartridges for its popular Stylus series of inkjet printers. Included in the seizures was equipment used for assembly, 50,000 pieces of unassembled ribbons, and labels, plastic bags, and boxes bearing the Epson mark. The raids followed two months of private investigations. An Epson spokesman said the company would spare no effort in checking piracy of its products. He pointed out that last year, too, Epson unearthed similar illegal operations in Singapore. Fake printer consumables worth around S$100,000 were then seized and the culprits prosecuted. Sale of counterfeit printer ribbons and ink cartridges is an offense in Singapore under the Trade Marks Act and is punishable with a fine of up to S$10,000 for each infringing article, or a maximum of S$100,000 or imprisonment of up to five years, or both. (I.T. Daily/19950828) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 08/29/95 BUSINESS Acer Plans Singapore Public Offering (NEWS)(BUSINESS)(HKG)(00016) Acer Plans Singapore Public Offering 08/29/95 SINGAPORE, 1995 AUG 29 (NB) -- Acer Computer International (ACI) is expected to offer 42 million shares at between US$1.35 and US$1.70 in its Singapore initial public offer this month. Although ACI chief executive William Lu has not revealed the exact amount, he did say it "would not be a penny stock." ACI, which is the regional business unit of Taiwans Acer Group, recently obtained in-principle approval to list on the main board of the Stock Exchange of Singapore. Lu said that the proceeds from the public offer would be used to fund "business developments" in its emerging consumer electronics ventures. He said ACI planned to set up assembly plants in the Philippines, India, Saudi Arabia, Korea, and the Commonwealth of Independent States in the next year. ACI sells PCs under the Acer name, assembled from components sourced from its parent Acer Inc., and third-party suppliers. ACI is responsible for operations in most Asia-Pacific markets and has 12 assembly plants across these markets. ACI has made inroads into the Japanese market, hoisting sales there 300% last year Research firm IDC ranks Acer the top-selling PC brand in ASEAN and the Middle East, number three in Asia-Pacific, and number two in Latin America. Worldwide, the company ranks number seven, while in the US -- regarded as the world's toughest PC market -- it is ranked ninth. Last year, ACI posted net earnings of US$24 million on turnover of US$47 million. (I.T. Daily/19950828) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 08/29/95 APPLE UK - Apple Signs Time Computers As Direct Seller (NEWS)(APPLE)(LON)(00017) UK - Apple Signs Time Computers As Direct Seller 08/29/95 BURNLEY, LANCASHIRE, ENGLAND, 1995 AUG 29 (NB) -- Time Computers, a division of Granville Technology, and the UK's biggest direct seller of PCs, has announced it is now selling Apple Mac systems. The move is significant, Newsbytes notes, since Time has always adopted a very aggressive stance on PC pricing and, by its first showing in the Mac arena, seems to offer similar pricing on Mac hardware. Time is also offering its Mac systems on "easy terms." On an entry- level Performa 630, for example, the 68LC040-based machine, which comes with a 500 megabyte (MB) hard disk, 4MB of memory, and a 14-inch monitor, pricing has been set at UKP849 cash or from UKP46 per month. A Performa 630CD Plus, meanwhile, fitted with an Apple 300i Plus CD- ROM drive, 8MB of memory, a 500MB hard drive, and 15-inch multiple scan display, sells for UKP1,099, while, for an extra UKP100, the company sells a TV Plus version of the 630CD. Further upscale, the Performa 6200 -- based on the PowerPC 603 RISC (reduced instruction set computing) chipset -- starts at UKP1,179 for a 500MB hard disk, 8MB memory system with 14-inch monitor and quad- speed CD-ROM. Time is pre-installing System 7.5, as well as a copy of the Claris Works integrated software suite, At Ease security software, and PC Exchange, on its Macs. According to Colin Silcock, the company's sales manager, the Apple Mac has, until recently, been considered the Rolls Royce of computing, "offering unparalleled ease of use for even inexperienced users. Recent price falls have made these quality machines affordable to the mass market, and our attractive finance deals, software building and the security of buying from an established firm, make us the ideal Mac supplier." (Steve Gold/19950828/Press Contact: Insight Marketing, +44-1625-500800; Reader Contact: Time Computer Systems, tel +44-1282-777111, fax +44-1282-777111) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 08/29/95 TRENDS US Robotics Claims Number 1 In UK Modem Sales (NEWS)(TRENDS)(LON)(00018) US Robotics Claims Number 1 In UK Modem Sales 08/29/95 WOKINGHAM, BERKSHIRE, ENGLAND, 1995 AUG 29 (NB) -- US Robotics has announced its UK sales figures for 1994 and, according to numbers from Dataquest, claims it holds pole position in the UK modem market for the second year running. According to Clive Hudson, the company's managing director, the Dataquest figures show that the UK market in 1994 was estimated to have been worth around $255.1 million, representing 650,000 modems sold. By volume, the Dataquest figures show US Robotics as having secured 29.8 percent of the V.32bis 14,400 bits-per-second (bps) market, and 27.9 percent of the overall voice-band market, which includes modems of all speeds. Translating this into revenue, Dataquest's figures claim to show that US Robotics took 27.3 percent of the V.32bis market, and 19.3 percent of the overall market. "The market is growing at a tremendous rate thanks to the popularity of the Internet. We have followed a realistic pricing policy which is helping to stimulate demand amongst new users. We continue to sell only through the dealer and retail channels, and that policy appears to be paying dividends," Hudson said. Newsbytes notes that US Robotics joined the modem market in 1989 following the acquisition of Miracom. In 1990, the company had just a four percent market share, placing it 15th overall. According to Hudson, the sales success of the company in the UK marketplace has been down to its avoidance of the direct sales channel. Coupled with aggressive pricing, string product branding and promotion, Hudson explained that the company's UK ad spend, which is twice that of all the competition together, are all reasons why the company has come in number one for the second year running. (Sylvia Dennis/19950828/Press Contact: The Edge Partnership, +44-1625-511966; Reader Contact: US Robotics, tel +44-1625-228200, fax +44-1625-695555) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 95 08/29/95 GENERAL OSF/DCE - Microsoft Plans "Network OLE" For Windows (NEWS)(GENERAL)(BOS)(00019) OSF/DCE - Microsoft Plans "Network OLE" For Windows 95 08/29/95 BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS, U.S.A., 1995 AUG 29 -- The largest installed base for distributed objects is likely to come neither from DCE (Distributed Computing Environment) nor CORBA (Common Object Request Broker Architecture), but from an upcoming technology from Microsoft known as "Network OLE," (object linking and embedding), predicted industry guru David Chappell, during a speech at the OSF (Open Software Foundation)/DCE conference in Boston. But Microsoft's planned Network OLE, which is expected to be bundled with Windows 95 and Windows NT at some point next year, "is probably good news for DCE," added Chappell, who heads up Minneapolis-based Chappell & Associates. DCE, Chappell contended, already supports encapsulation and polymorphism, two of the three "magic words" in object-oriented (OO) technology. "Adding interface inheritance is easy, although adding implementation inheritance is not so easy," according to the consultant. In fact, many efforts have already been made to add 00 to DCE, generally through a C++ interface, Chappell told the audience. Examples include HP's OODCE (Object-Oriented Distributed Computing Environment), as well as "lots of public domain code," he illustrated. Efforts in this direction will continue on into the future, Chappell asserted. At some point -- "circa DCE 1.2" -- the DCE's IDL (Interface Definition Language) compiler will be outfitted with the ability to generate C++, he maintained. "This is just a source code change. C++ will be added to the source base." More object-oriented enhancements could be on the way, as well, he added. But CORBA, in contrast to DCE, has been "explicitly object-oriented from the start," Chappell pointed out. The OMG (Object Management Group)'s CORBA and the OSF's DCE seem to have turned into competitors of sorts, although some of the same companies -- such as IBM, Hewlett-Packard, and Digital -- are strongly involved in setting both industry standards, he observed. Chappell attributed this irony to a tendency for the OSF and OMG to reflect different sets of interests within the large companies, as well as the fact that the OMG also includes many smaller OO vendors. The consultant criticized the CORBA standard itself, but he held out high praise for CORBA-compliant products. The CORBA standard, he maintained, is too "loose" in its definitions. "Almost without exception, CORBA defines only interfaces to various things, including the ORB (Object Request Broker), application objects, and object services. These are defined in CORBA's IDL," Chappell told the audience in Boston. In some ways, CORBA's IDL is similar to DCE's IDL, he continued. "But they are not the same." In addition, unlike CORBA, DCE goes beyond interfaces to define a "common code base" between system components, according to the consultant. "A CORBA implementation may use DCE CDS (Cell Directory Services) and DCE Security, but it's not required. The CORBA standard defines an ORB as anything that `provides the means by which clients make requests and receives responses,'" he continued. "From a DCE perspective, CORBA probably shouldn't exist. The `right' technical approach is to extend DCE. CORBA is a fact of life, however," he added. At the same time, though, CORBA-compliant products are generally "excellent," according to Chappell. "They work very well," he attested. Current "leaders" in the CORBA market include Digital's ObjectBroker, Iona's Orbix, and IBM's SOM (System Object Model), in Chappell's assessment. Increasingly in the future, a few products will come to dominate the CORBA industry, and the rest will "disappear," he predicted. Meanwhile, though, Microsoft is in the process of adding network support to its COM (Common Object Model), according to the conference speaker. Under the Microsoft specification, interfaces to components can be defined in COM IDL. "And COM IDL is essentially a superset of DCE IDL," he noted. Microsoft's augmented COM, to be called Network OLE, probably will not "directly support" DCE CDS. "But it will be accessible through a gateway," said Chappell. "From a DCE perspective, Network OLE does mostly the right thing technically. To a large extent, it just extends DCE. How well DCE and Network OLE interoperate is likely to be very important for the future of DCE. It may also be important for the future of Network OLE," the audience was told. Even before the release of Windows 95, Microsoft boasted an installed base of 60 million for its Windows product line-up, Chappell said. Not only will Network OLE be bundled with Windows 95 and Windows NT, it will also ship with multiple client security options, he revealed. "(And) one of them will be DCE security." Furthermore, Digital's DCE products, which already support Microsoft's COM, will probably support the forthcoming Network OLE, as well, according to Chappell's crystal ball. (Jacqueline Emigh/19950827/Reader Contact: Open Software Foundation, 617-621-8700; Press Contact: Jane Smeloff, OSF, 617-621-8700) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 08/29/95 WINDOWS Passport's Rhapsody MIDI Software For Web Files (NEWS)(WINDOWS)(BOS)(00020) Passport's Rhapsody MIDI Software For Web Files 08/29/95 BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS, U.S.A., 1995 AUG 29 (NB) -- "World Wide Web surfing" has kicked up a sudden splash of interest in musical software among consumers, and Passport Design, a major player in MIDI (musical instrument digital interface) products for musical pros, is riding the wave with its new Rhapsody software for musical amateurs, said Passport's Dana Byrd, at a meeting with Newsbytes on a Boston press tour. The Windows-based Rhapsody delighted Passport by taking the number two sales spot among all products shown at a recent Egghead- sponsored consumer software expo, the Passport official recalled. Consumers represent a new -- and considerably larger -- market for Passport, a Half Moon Bay, California-based company founded by David Kusek, the "father of MIDI," according to Byrd. Passport sells its long-standing Encore software for entertainment pros direct to stars that span the scale from the U2 rock band to Herbie Hancock and Oscar Peterson, she told Newsbytes. Additional traditional Passport markets include recording studios, such as MCA Universal, the Boston Pops and other professional orchestras, as well as musical arrangers like Charlie Floyd, who handles the scores for Natalie Cole. "MCA won't use any (MIDI) software except Encore," contended Byrd. How are consumers using the new Rhapsody? One way is to obtain and print the musical notation from sound files downloaded off the Web, she replied. Another way is to key in the notes for music to be used in multimedia presentations, which are sometimes built around downloaded animation or graphics files. Other consumer customers, said Byrd, are merely curious are what MIDI is, and purchase Rhapsody to find out what the software will do. Rhapsody is also tailored to choirs, small ensembles, and other groups of amateur musicians, who use it to create orchestral scores and other musical compositions "from scratch." Available in CD-ROM and floppy disk editions, Passport's consumer product transcribes Master Tracks Pro, MIDI Workshop, and Music Time files into musical notation, according to Byrd. Additionally, music can be entered live from a MIDI instrument, or through either a mouse or QWERTY keyboard. Rhapsody also supports complete MIDI playback, including coda phrases, repeats, and first, second, and multiple endings. A "global transpose" capability is designed to transpose music into any key. Chord symbols and guitar fret diagrams are "automatically affected." Through another special feature, "guess durations," Rhapsody "accurately and automatically guesses the duration (of notes), and then beams them appropriately." Users can also "extract parts" -- such as melody and harmony lines for singers -- with "total control over lyrics and markings." An extracted part can be automatically printed on to a new score, according to Byrd. Rhapsody supports drag-and-drop editing features like cut, copy, paste and undo, as well as the ability to insert or delete measures, pages, systems, or staves anywhere in the composition. A special "tempo window" is designed for use in changing the tempo of a score during MIDI playback, or at "any other time." An "auto spacing" capability is meant to "automatically space notes within a measure based on the time signature. "Quick keys" are included for note durations, sharps, flats, naturals, enharmonics, and MIDI velocity. Rhapsody provides 32 staves per system, and eight voices per staff. "Full support" is supplied for color and MIDI Blank Select. The Passport product also includes markings for sustain pedals, dynamics, endings, repeats, and measure numbers, as well as symbols for rhythm-parts, chord slashes, arpeggio signs, and fingering numbers. Byrd told Newsbytes that, after the stop in Boston, she was headed for a week-long visit to New York City, to meet with publications ranging from musical trade papers to top computer magazines. Passport is interested in serving as a resource for articles aimed at "explaining MIDI to the consumer," she pointed out. Rhapsody carries a suggested retail price (SRP) of $249 for either the CD-ROM or floppy version. The musical software is available immediately through distributors and resellers such as Ingram, Computer City, Thinkware, Media Play, Guitar Center, and Sam Ash, as well as at over 5000 retail outlets, including Egghead stores. Users of MusicTime can upgrade directly from Passport for $69. (Jacqueline Emigh/19950824/Reader Contact: Passport Designs, 415-726-0280; Press Contact: Dana Byrd, Passport, 818-776-0715) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 08/29/95 WINDOWS Sheridan Intros "Sp_assist" For SQL Databases (NEWS)(WINDOWS)(BOS)(00021) Sheridan Intros "Sp_assist" For SQL Databases 08/29/95 BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS, U.S.A., 1995 AUG 29 (NB) -- Sheridan Software's new Sp_assist database development tool combines its own multi-user structured query language (SQL) database with a Visual Basic (VB) front-end to ease creation, coding and management of stored procedures, tables, triggers, and other SQL source code, maintained Sheridan President Bob Wolf, at a pre-briefing for Newsbytes in Boston. "Until now, SQL coding had to be done online. But the SQL server would often be unavailable when needed," Wolf told Newsbytes. By providing the industry's first off-line access to SQL objects, Sp_assist brings higher availability, and is able to reduce database development costs in the process, the company president contended, during the meeting with Newsbytes on the Boston press tour. The product's indexed database stores SQL source code in project files, adding multi-user access while at the same time safeguarding the "security" of the SQL server, according to Wolf. The new Sp_assist can also generate SQL code, including "insert, update, select, and delete" stored procedures or queries. "Dependencies are automatically updated," Newsbytes was told. In addition, he reported, the product generates VB code and type definitions, and the constants required for calling them. The VB code is automatically generated. Sheridan's latest product "interacts with the SQL server, calling and executing the query," as well as displaying results and messages from the server, according to the company chief. Sp_assist is also designed to allow the administrator to compile and edit SQL source code, and to track source code changes. The product can be set to prompt the developer to "grant rights" when compiling SQL objects. The product comes with database administration tools that provide "SQL grant right" functions, creation of ISQL scripts, and access to BCP functions, according to Wolf. Also included is a graphical interface to all SQL key words, system administration functions, and system stored procedures. The interface is built around "perfect SQL syntax," the executive asserted. Founded in 1991, Melville, New York-based Sheridan Software also produces a set of VB productivity tools known as VBAssist 3.5, in addition to Designer Widgets 2.0 and Calendar Widgets, the first two entries in a series of "Sheridan Reusable Components" aimed at providing 16-bit VB custom control as well as both 16-bit and 32-bit OLE (object linking and embedding) control. Priced at $595, Sheridan's new Sp_assist is designed to work with most SQL database servers. Over the next few months, Sheridan will introduce several other new products for database developers, including additional offerings for the 32-bit Windows 95 and Windows NT environments, the company president told Newsbytes. (Jacqueline Emigh/19950827/Reader Contact: Sheridan Software, 516-753-3661; Michael Becce, MRB Public Relations for Sheridan, 908-249-7700) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 08/29/95 GENERAL OSF/DCE - Encina To Add Windows NT, "Lite" Versions (NEWS)(GENERAL)(BOS)(00022) OSF/DCE - Encina To Add Windows NT, "Lite" Versions 08/29/95 BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS, U.S.A., 1995 AUG 29 (NB) -- Encina Monitor, a transaction monitor aimed at "advanced management" of both Distributed Computing Environment (DCE) and non-DCE environments, will soon add a new graphical user interface (GUI) and C++ application programming interface (API), plus a new "Lite" version and a port to Windows NT, disclosed Janet Johnston of IBM's Transarc subsidiary, during the Open Software Foundation (OSF)/DCE conference in Boston. Encina 2.0, an update to the full-scale edition that will feature the new Enconsole GUI and Encina++ API, will be available from Transarc by the end of September, Johnston said in a conference session. Also this year, Transarc will ship an initial version of the Encina for Windows NT transaction monitor with a Windows 3.1 client that is certified to run on Windows 95, added Johnston, who is a technical marketing executive for Transarc. A second release of Encina for NT, slated for 1996, will bring support for Structured File Server (SFS), Encina's "record-oriented file system," as well as PPC. Transarc originally planned to add Cobol support in the second release, too, but has since decided to "push that off," she told the audience in Boston. In the first quarter of 1996, she noted, Transarc will deliver editions of the new DE-Lite (pronounced "delight") for Sun and other environments that are currently running Transarc-branded Encina Monitor. IBM and Hewlett-Packard will release versions of DE-Lite for their own platforms, but on their own timetables, she observed. IBM purchased Transarc last year. The new DE-Lite will support both Encina and DCE servers, and will bring reduced requirements in the areas of systems resources, security, and naming, according to Johnston. A "lightweight" DE-Lite client will communicate with Encina and DCE application servers through a DE-Lite Gateway Server, which will contain the "DE-Lite application" as well as the "DE-Lite library." The "Lite" product will provide a "simplified interface for tools integration," portability ("no DCE dependencies"), and ultimately, "protocol independence," she pointed out. The product will initially support transmission control protocol (TCP) transport. Johnston told the audience at the OSF/DEC User's and Developer's Conference that DCE provides "open, network-wide services and a common, hierarchical naming structure for simplified administration." But applications can use DCE either "directly or via a product like Encina," she added. Even without the upcoming enhancements, the Encina Monitor already supports DCE as well as non- DCE Encina and "generic" servers, and affords an "advanced infrastructure for developing and deploying DCE applications," she contended. In place of DCE remote procedure calls (RPCs), she illustrated, the OLTP (online transaction processing) monitor employs "transactional RPCs" that add "transactional context information, (so) servers become an active part of the transaction," as well as "automatic two-phase commit coordination of all participating servers, and (information on) known state even when RPC fails." Encina's support for transactions means that "applications can treat data as if they were the only user," preventing the contention problems that can arise from RPCs, according to Johnston. Also, in the event of failure, Encina can "roll back partial updates" much more successfully than RPCs, in which "return codes can be ambiguous," she told the group. The Encina Monitor also offers "automated failure recovery" through automated server restart as well as automated client rerouting, she maintained. Aside from transactional RPCs, Encina supports transactions that include SQL (structured query language), ISAM, and Encina's own SFS and Recoverable Queuing Service (RQS), in addition to CPI-C and CPI-BR peer-to-peer communications. Unlike RPCs, in which client requests are handled on a "first come, first served" basis, RQS is able to "order requests" and to provide local batch scheduling, according to the Transarc exec. In addition, by using servers that enqueue and dequeue, RPS provides transactional support for "workflow models and long-running procedures." Encina Monitor is not compatible, however, with transaction monitors from other vendors, Johnston acknowledged, in response to a question from the audience. Johnston added that Encina's SFS expands on DCE's DFS with support for nested transactions, simplified parsing of information in/out of records, and extended support for threading. DCE provides "threading primitives," she asserted. In contrast, Encina allows for "structured parallelism" through support for concurrent (fork and join) and cofor (parallel loop) threading, and subthreading for asynchronous calls. Support for threading will become increasingly important in the future as more and more databases become available with threading, she told the OSF/DCE group. Johnston also said that Encina already provides some capabilities, such as Access Control Lists (ACLs), that DCE will add in DCE 1.1. ACLs let the administrator "build an ACL database to store authorization information," as well as providing "an administrative interface for add/delete/backup/restore operations," she elaborated. The upcoming Encina 2.0 will continue to provide SFS, but SFS will no longer be "required by the monitor as a repository," Johnston revealed. The update will also provide a 30 percent performance increase in typical RQS operations, she maintained. The new Encina for Windows NT will be built on Encina 2.0 source code, including Enconsole and Encina++, she continued. Encina for NT will consist of two main components: an Encina Monitor and Toolkit client, and the Encina for NT server, which will initially include the Encina Monitor, the Encina Toolkit Server Core and Executive, and Encina RQS. The product will require Microsoft RPC and a Digital DCE/NT client. (Jacqueline Emigh/19950825/Reader And Press Contact: Transarc, 412- 338-4400: Reader Contact: Open Software Foundation, 617-621-8700; Press Contact: Jane Smeloff, OSF, 617-621-8700) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 08/29/95 GENERAL Data General's Clariion Plans 15GB Drives, Video Support (NEWS)(GENERAL)(BOS)(00023) Data General's Clariion Plans 15GB Drives, Video Support 08/29/95 BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS, U.S.A., 1995 AUG 29 (NB) -- The computer industry is moving to a "storage-centric" model, and Data General's Clariion will support that movement with future products for Unix and high-end PC servers to include 15 gigabyte (GB) disk drives by early 1996, JBOD ("just a bunch of disks"), support for "very large clusters," and improved video streaming, said Peter Gibbs, director of marketing, in a meeting with Newsbytes in Boston. More and more, data is coming to be seen as a "strategic asset" for productivity and competitiveness, and as a "long-term investment," as disk capacities climb, CPU (central processor unit) costs fall, and new high bandwidth and "large block random" applications keep emerging, Gibbs told Newsbytes during the strategy briefing. The industry's new "storage-centric model" calls for centralized storage, manageable from a single terminal, that provides "high availability, reliable" data access throughout enterprise configurations that can include heterogeneous hosts as well as "homogenous clusters," according to the Clariion marketing director. In supporting this model, he noted, Clariion will continue to target a market "sweet spot" that encompasses multivendor Unix as well as high-end, Windows NT- and Novell NetWare-based PC servers. Clariion has added high-end PC servers to its strategic direction over the past year. Unix-based data storage also continues to be "very hot" in Clariion's eyes, with new applications that include data warehousing, decision support systems (DSS), and electronic distribution of graphics and video, he reported. Mainframe and low-end PC storage, however, constitute two markets that Clariion will not pursue, according to the Clariion exec. Mainframe subsystem storage is dominated by only a few players, and some of these, such as EMC, are currently expanding into the Unix arena, he observed. Mainframe storage also adheres to a "different business model" with a "long sales cycle," and is, from Clariion's perspective, "essentially a no-growth market," said Gibbs. Meanwhile, the vast majority of the more than 150 other companies in the RAID (redundant array of inexpensive disks) market today are honing in on low-end to midrange PC storage, he added. Where Clariion holds the edge is in "high-quality, advanced" storage subsystems that "support `open systems'" and "add high availability, data integrity and reliability, and redundancy," Gibbs contended. After stepping into the Unix storage market in 1991, Clariion introduced dual, active controllers the same year, "full redundancy and hot repair" in 1992, and mirrored write cache in 1994, he pointed out. Also in 1994, Clariion became the first systems vendor to ship 4GB disk drives, Gibbs asserted. Plans are now in gear to roll out 8GB drives "within the next few months," and 15GB drives by February or March, 1996. As of May of this year, Clariion had shipped 10,000 storage units, with a run rate at "2,000 units per quarter, and growing," according to the exec. Clariion's RAID line-up now ranges from the C150 workgroup subsystem, priced starting at under $11,000 for 6GB to 28GB of storage, to the C1000, a 40GB departmental subsystem, to the C2000 "enterprise" subsystem, aimed at "highly scalable, mainframe-like storage," he noted. The Clariion products offer RAID levels 0, 1, 3 and 5. In addition to NT- and NetWare-based PC servers, the systems support "virtually every Unix platform" on workstations and PC servers, including Solaris for Intel and SCO (Santa Cruz Operation) Unix for PC servers. Also over the coming year, Clariion plans to add support for AT&T GIS Unix-based workstations, he revealed. Clariion also produces "high availability" attaches and clusters. Gibbs told Newsbytes that the "attaches" use a single host equipped with an ATF driver. The host is attached to a storage subsystem that employs SCSI (small computer systems interface) I/O (input/output) for "multiple paths to disks." On Clariion node-clusters, SCSI I/O and system software can be used to produce a "heartbeat" between two hosts attached to a dual redundant storage subsystem, for "cluster failover." Clariion's Guardware software is used on Sun server-based Clariion node-clusters. HACMP (High Availability Cluster Multi-Processing) software is utilized on IBM RS/6000-based node-clusters. Clariion, he added, also supports centralized management of multiple disk arrays running in multivendor environments that might include, for example, homogenous Novell, Sun, and RS/6000 clusters, each with its own storage subsystem. In the future, he said, Clariion intends to add support for "large clusters" of more than four nodes; "very large configurations" of multiple terabytes; "enterprise-class capacity modeling tools;" fiber channel; distance options for disaster recovery; and JBOD, for "OS (operating system)-based RAID." Also in the works are improved video streaming, as well as "optimized RAID 5 support" for large block random applications like video-on-demand. In addition, Clariion intends to reduce costs on power, packaging and cooling to "the lowest possible level," and to unveil a new "cost-effective, scalable product" for entry-level users within Clariion's market "sweet spot," the marketing director told Newsbytes. (Jacqueline Emigh/19950825/Reader Contact: Data General, 508-898-5000; Reader Contacts: Kathleen M. Ficaro, Clariion, 508-898-5698; George Goldman, Edelman Public Relations for Clariion, 212-704-4440) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 08/29/95 ONLINE Fund-Raising Concert On Internet Today (NEWS)(ONLINE)(MSP)(00024) Fund-Raising Concert On Internet Today 08/29/95 LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1995 AUG 29 (NB) -- A live Internet concert tonight from the funk and world music band "Spearhead" will spearhead an event designed to collect pledges to help fight AIDS. The concert will take place at the Los Angeles music venue House of Blues on Sunset Strip, and will be "Internet-cast" over World Wide Web sites from the band, the House of Blues, and Spearhead's record label Capitol Records. It begins at 11:45pm EDT, or 8:45pm in Los Angeles. Spearhead is described by Columbia officials as a "funky mix of soul- based hip-hop, jazz, alternative, reggae, and James Brown-style funk." The band is currently touring promoting its new album "Home." All three Web sites will provide a way for Web surfers to contribute to "LIFEbeat," the music industry's AIDS charity. The concert will be brought to the Internet in video form via CU-See-Me technology by the Internet service provider (ISP) DirectNet. The software can be accessed from Spearhead's Web site. Capitol officials said anyone with a Web browser will be able to see the concert. Previously, only so-called "power users" of the Internet were able to effectively use CU-See-Me. The concert is being sponsored by Capitol, the House of Blues, and "rVision," a company that develops sites for the entertainment industry on the Web. The three Web sites where the concert can be accessed are: Spearhead's own site at http://www.crashsite.com/Crash/Music/Spearhead , Capitol Records' http://www.hollywoodandvine.com , and at the House of Blues' http://www.underground.net/HOB . (Bob Woods/19950828/Press Contacts: Jenny Roelle, Capitol Records, 310-473-4147; House of Blues, 213-650-0247; Public Contacts: Internet World Wide Web - Spearhead, http://www.crashsite.com/Crash/Music/Spearhead ; House Of Blues, http://www.underground.net/HOB ; Capitol Records http://www.hollywoodandvine.com ) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 08/29/95 BUSINESS ****Windows 95 Anticipation Hurts Delrina Results (NEWS)(BUSINESS)(TOR)(00025) ****Windows 95 Anticipation Hurts Delrina Results 08/29/95 TORONTO, ONTARIO, CANADA, 1995 AUG 29 (NB) -- Software maker Delrina Corp. (TSE:DC; NASDAQ:DENAF) suffered a fourth-quarter loss as customers waited for Microsoft's Windows 95 operating system and associated applications software. The weak quarter dragged down Delrina's earnings for the year ended June 30, though sales were up 31 percent for the year. Delrina recorded net income of C$9.16 million or 38 cents per share in the latest fiscal year, down from C$16.82 million or 76 cents per share in the previous year. Revenues were C$132.93 million, up from C$101.11 million the year before. In the fourth quarter, the company lost C$6.3 million or 28 cents per share, versus net income of C$4.9 million or 21 cents per share in the fourth quarter of fiscal 1994. Sales in the quarter were C$27.0 million, down from $31.8 million in the same period a year earlier, officials said. Delrina blamed the poor fourth quarter on the fact that customers have been delaying purchases while they waited for Windows 95 and for Delrina products designed to work with the new system. Delrina will be releasing its Winfax 7.0, Cyberjack, and CommSuite products for Windows 95 between September and December, company spokesman Josef Zankowicz told Newsbytes. In an effort to keep sales moving, Zankowicz said, Delrina is offering customers who buy its existing products now free upgrades to the Windows 95 products when they are ready. However, he admitted that the company expects its first quarter, now about half over, will also be weak. Delrina is not the only applications vendor to suffer financially due to Windows 95 anticipation. In late June, for instance, Corel Corp. of Ottawa announced a sharply reduced second-quarter profit which it blamed largely on a delay in reducing its CorelDraw 6 software. CorelDraw 6 was held back until the Windows 95 launch last week. Delrina, which makes forms processing, communications, and consumer software, is in the process of being acquired by Symantec Corp. (NASDAQ:SYMC) of Cupertino, California. (Grant Buckler/19950829/Press Contact: Michael Cooperman, Delrina, 416-441-4675; Josef Zankowicz, Delrina, 416-441-4658; Public Contact: Delrina, tel 416-441-3676, fax 416-441-0333) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 08/29/95 LEGAL Attorney Sues Microsoft/GE/NBC For $50 Million (NEWS)(LEGAL)(DEN)(00026) Attorney Sues Microsoft/GE/NBC For $50 Million 08/29/95 NEW YORK CITY, NEW YORK, U.S.A., 1995 AUG 29 (NB) -- The executive director of a political action committee announced yesterday he has filed a $50 million lawsuit against NBC, the broadcaster's parent company General Electric, and Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ: MSFT). Anthony Martin, executive director of the Committee to Fight Microsoft, made his announcement at the main entrance NBC headquarters at 30 Rockefeller Plaza in New York Monday afternoon. Martin said the suit stems from an incident last week when he alleges he was prevented from appearing on an NBC program just minutes before air time. The attorney claims his appearance was canceled because of what he calls "a smear dossier" provided to the radio station by Microsoft. Martin told Newsbytes the "smear dossier" included what he described as "old newspaper clips" of stories about people he had defended who were charged with drug offenses. He said he has copies of the documents and will provide them at the proper time, if asked. However, he declined to provide them to Newsbytes, citing advise of his attorney. A copy of the civil summons obtained by Newsbytes names General Electric Company, Jack Welch, chairman of GE; the National Broadcasting Company; Microsoft Corp.; Bill Gates, chairman of Microsoft Corp., America's Talking (NBC); Jason Klarman, whom the suit identifies as America's Talking's public relations official; and Daniel Edelman Inc., identified in the suit as a public relations company for Microsoft. Martin said the suit raises several First Amendment issues. "Can a network such as NBC which has entered into business deals with a company such as Microsoft provide objective coverage of Microsoft? Can a broadcast licensee use a non-broadcast affiliate to smear a opponent of the network's business partner? " Martin's suit, which lists him, not the Committee to Fight Microsoft, as the plaintiff, alleges that following an appearance on Seattle radio station KIRO-AM, a station employee referred to what Martin calls "a smear dossier." He alleges that Microsoft had the documents faxed to KIRO-AM in response to an invitation by KIRO for Microsoft to provide a person to debate Martin on the radio program. Martin's complaint continues that on August 24, 1995 America's Talking "bombarded him" with calls. He said he provided about 20 pages of information to the show's producers, and later America's Talking invited him to appear. The show allegedly sent a limo to bring him to the studio, but Martin said just minutes before air time, while he was in makeup, he was told his segment had been canceled. He claims that was false, and he was being censored from the segment because of the so-called "smear dossier." Martin claims Microsoft, GE and NBC are responsible for the smear tactic. The suit asks for $50 million apportioned among the defendants. Martin is also asking for court costs and attorney's fees. In addition to the malice charge, other counts in the suit allege libel (written defamation), a legal condition known as prima facie tort, defamation (slander) and civil conspiracy. The latter count alleges that the defendants have "created a network of business relationships which have destroyed the objectivity and impartiality of NBC as a news medium when it comes to reporting on Bill Gates and Microsoft." Martin cites using NBC employees like Jay Leno as "props" to promote Gates' Windows 95 activity. Leno was part of the Windows 95 rollout celebration at Microsoft headquarters August 24. Martin said the suit may be expanded later to include the directors of GE and Microsoft. He told Newsbytes he has informed GE he might open a campaign against that company. Martin declined to reveal the names of any Committee members, instead telling Newsbytes, "They are just ordinary people." Asked about finances, he said "We don't have a nickel." A Microsoft spokesperson said the company has no comment on the suit, and NBC Media Relations did not return Newsbytes' calls before press deadline. (Jim Mallory/19950828/Press and public contact: Anthony Martin, Committee to Fight Microsoft, 212-879-0086) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 08/29/95 ONLINE Quarterdeck Signs Up German Internet Provider (NEWS)(ONLINE)(LAX)(00027) Quarterdeck Signs Up German Internet Provider 08/29/95 SANTA MONICA, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1995 AUG 29 (NB) -- EUnet, one of Europe's leading Internet service providers and Quarterdeck (NASDAQ: QDEK), have announced an agreement to team up in the German market. EUnet services will be bundled in Germany with Quarterdeck's InternetSuite software which includes Quarterdeck's browser. Quarterdeck Mosaic will be bundled with the EUnet service and distributed by EUnet and through retail channels. The Quarterdeck InternetSuite will be available in the German market at an estimated street price of DM99 with one month free usage of the EUnet service. Emerick Woods, vice president for Internet Business Unit, told Newsbytes, "EUnet is the largest service provider in Germany. It began in much the same way the Internet began in the United States, as a group of independent users linked voluntarily together. EUnet now provides full service to individual and corporate clients. "Not only is EUnet dominate in Germany, it has franchises in other European countries. In every franchised country, EUnet is among the top three providers. They are especially strong in France and the United Kingdom. We think this partnership with EUnet gives Quarterdeck access to the entire European market," added Woods. Said Quarterdeck Chief Executive Officer Gaston Bastiaens, "Although Internet usage in Germany is not yet at the same stage of market development as in the United States, EUnet is without a doubt the leader in the German market. The cooperation between Quarterdeck and EUnet will greatly contribute to the rapid market development in Germany and as such gives Quarterdeck exciting opportunities to consolidate its market position in Europe." InternetSuite is a group of five tools that includes: Quarterdeck Mosaic, Quarterdeck Message Center, QTERM (Telnet), QFTP (File Transfer Protocol), and Quarterdeck Location Manager. InternetSuite includes integrated Windows SLIP (Serial Line Internet Protocol)/PPP (Point-to- Point Protocol) support for dial-up connections to the Internet. "This partnership with Quarterdeck gives us access to the leading Internet technology available today and allows us to deliver to our customers a complete solution with lots of added value," said Mark Sheldon, director of marketing and sales of EUnet. According to Quarterdeck, with Connect and Play, users can establish an account electronically in minutes with EUnet. In addition, Quarterdeck's Location Manager allows "simple connection" to EUnet's services from anywhere, whether at home or on the road. (Richard Bowers/19950829/Press Contact: Ellen Spooren, Quarterdeck, 310-314-4261) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 08/29/95 WINDOWS ****One Million Windows 95 Sold In First 4 Days (NEWS)(WINDOWS)(SFO)(00028) ****One Million Windows 95 Sold In First 4 Days 08/29/95 REDMOND, WASHINGTON, U.S.A., 1995 AUG 29 (NB) -- Late this morning, Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ:MSFT) announced that more than one million copies of Windows 95 have been sold in North America in the first four days of the new operating system's availability. The previous record for a million copies in record time was Microsoft's DOS version 6.0 which a took 40 days to reach the mark. Claiming its expectations have been exceeded, Microsoft says these sales translate to selling eight copies per second in the United States for every second retail outlets were open. Brad Chase, Microsoft's general manager of personal systems division marketing, said, "This is better than the record-setting receipts for 'Jurassic Park' in its opening week-end and more than double those of 'The Lion King.'" Microsoft also said "Microsoft Plus," a companion software package released with Windows 95 also sold beyond the company's original estimates. In a press release from Microsoft, Larry Mondry, Microsoft's executive vice president of merchandising, stated, "We had very high expectations going into the launch of Windows 95, and they have been met, if not exceeded, by our sales results. Windows 95 is just flying off the shelves." Microsoft did say the volume of sales exhausted the limits of its telephone support capacity which resulted in many customers receiving busy signals. Rather than put customers on hold, Microsoft is trying to return calls to many of the new users. Microsoft says it "apologizes to those individuals who have been inconvenienced." While the telephone support problem has been an added difficulty, Microsoft says it has not found any problems with the product which were unexpected. It also reminds customers of online support through the Internet and online services. (Patrick McKenna/19950829/Press Contact: Pam Kahl, Waggener Edstrom, 408-986-1140) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 08/29/95 ONLINE Virgin Records On America Online (NEWS)(ONLINE)(LAX)(00029) Virgin Records On America Online 08/29/95 LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1995 AUG 29 (NB) -- Virgin Records America has announced the debut of an interactive "cyberkiosk" devoted to Virgin artists on America Online (AOL). Beginning August 25, AOL subscribers will be able to immediately access the online area by entering the keyword: VIRGIN. Fans can browse and download a variety of information on Virgin's entire roster of recording artists. A different artists will be featured every day. Melissa Westfal, online marketing manager for Virgin Records, told Newsbytes, "Users can tap into Virgin Records database that includes sound samples, photos, upcoming online conferences, conference transcripts, interactive press kits, artist biographies, and album track listings, tour information, and itineraries. Within the next couple of months we will have videos available on this site. The videos will have full sound, but last only a few seconds. "We expect to have every artist represented on the interactive "cyberkiosk," said Westfal. "Currently there are sound samples for thirty-eight Virgin Records artists. Two of our artists, Lenny Kravitz and David Bowie, have there own World Wide Web sites, and we intend to use the Web for other artists in the future." Beginning with the launch, users can hear a sound sample from David Bowie's "Hearts Filthy Lesson," the debut single from his upcoming Virgin Records America debut, "Outside." This sound sample will only be available on American Online, according to the online service. The first week highlights a series of conferences with Virgin artists, including: a chat with vocalist/saxophonist Cleto Escobedo; a conference with Anglopop band Blur; an online link with blues pioneer John Lee Hooker; a conference with singer/guitarist Ben Harper; and a talk with the Rock quartet Brother Cane. Virgin Records America was founded in 1986, and purchased by Thorn EMI IN 1992. Current artists include Paula Abdul and Lenny Kravitz, each of whom began with Virgin. Others include Tina Turner, Steve Winwood, Keith Richards, and UB40. Two recent albums were "Voodoo Lounge" by the Rolling Stones, and "Janet" by Janet Jackson. (Richard Bowers/19950829/Press Contact: Charlene Brown, Virgin Records, 310-288-2420) (SUMMARY)(GENERAL)(MSP)(00030) Newsbytes Daily Summary 08/29/95 MINNEAPOLIS, MINNESOTA, U.S.A., 1995 AUG 29 (NB) -- These are capsules of all today's news stories: ======================================================================== ------------| N E W S B Y T E S D A I L Y S U M M A R Y |---------- ------------| Tuesday, August 29, 1995 |---------- ======================================================================== (c) Newsbytes News Network (Tm) Editor in Chief: Wendy Woods ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Newsbytes News Network's 1995 Update CD-ROM for Mac, DOS, and Windows is now available for $29.95 (includes s&h). Contains 1983-1995 news stories, more than 64,000 keyword searchable stories and 475 digitized images. For more information or to order, fax to 612-430-0441 or e-mail to 'administrator@newsbytes.com' -- MC, Visa, Amex accepted. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ CATEGORY HEADLINES (*** indicates today's top stories) STORY # ======================================================================== APPLE UK - Apple Signs Time Computers As Direct Seller........... 17 BUSINESS Acer Plans Singapore Public Offering....................... 16 BUSINESS ****Windows 95 Anticipation Hurts Delrina Results......... 25 GENERAL Windows Solutions Expo Set For San Francisco............... 02 GENERAL European IT Services Association Conf Details.............. 05 GENERAL OSF/DCE - Microsoft Plans "Network OLE" For Windows 95..... 19 GENERAL OSF/DCE - Encina To Add Windows NT, "Lite" Versions........ 22 GENERAL Data General's Clariion Plans 15GB Drives, Video Support... 23 LEGAL Epson Raids Singapore Firm, Seizes Fake Products........... 15 LEGAL Attorney Sues Microsoft/GE/NBC For $50 Million............. 26 ONLINE Cognos On World Wide Web................................... 07 ONLINE UK - Context Market Research On World Wide Web............. 08 ONLINE Fund-Raising Concert On Internet Today..................... 24 ONLINE Quarterdeck Signs Up German Internet Provider.............. 27 ONLINE Virgin Records On America Online........................... 29 PC Illustra Intros PC Tools Suite............................. 09 PC ****New PC Virus Dismissed As Prank Macro By Microsoft.... 14 TELECOM Germany - Deutsche Telekom Bearish On Outlook.............. 06 TELECOM Correction - Digiphone Goes To Manufacturing............... 11 TELECOM Cellular One's Card For European Cell Phones............... 12 TELECOM MCI Intros New ISDN Business Package....................... 13 TRENDS US Robotics Claims Number 1 In UK Modem Sales.............. 18 WINDOWS Novell Intros Perfectworks For Kids........................ 01 WINDOWS Novell Plans Perfectworks For Windows 95................... 03 WINDOWS UK - Elonex's Free/Cut-Price Windows 95 Training........... 04 WINDOWS Symantec Intros Windows 95-Compatible C++.................. 10 WINDOWS Passport's Rhapsody MIDI Software For Web Files............ 20 WINDOWS Sheridan Intros "Sp_assist" For SQL Databases.............. 21 WINDOWS ****One Million Windows 95 Sold In First 4 Days........... 28 ======================================================================== These are the headlines and first paragraphs of each story, in order: 1 -> Novell Intros Perfectworks For Kids -- Novell Inc. (NASDAQ: NOVL) has introduced a program designed specifically for children ages four to 10 that combines communication and creativity. Novell said its Perfectworks for Kids includes word processing, drawing and painting, as well as supporting Windows 95 fax and electronic-mail capabilities, and gives the young users one-click access to the online subscriber service America Online. 2 -> Windows Solutions Expo Set For San Francisco -- On August 29, Softbank Expos opens the Windows Solutions Conference and Exposition, the first business show to follow the debut of Microsoft's Windows 95. The show covers both Windows NT and Windows 95 products and technologies. 3 -> Novell Plans Perfectworks For Windows 95 -- Novell Inc. (NASDAQ: NOVL) has announced it will ship Perfectworks for Windows 95, an integrated software package that includes word processing, spreadsheet, database, paint and draw modules, by the end of the year. 4 -> UK - Elonex's Free/Cut-Price Windows 95 Training -- As the Windows 95 bandwagon gathers pace, Elonex is offering some practical assistance to buyers of its machines that elect to have Windows 95 on their machines. The company has teamed up with three other firms, including Microsoft, to offer half price training for the new operating system. 5 -> European IT Services Association Conf Details -- The Computing Services & Software Association (CSSA), a not-for-profit information technology (IT) organization in the UK, has announced it is organizing an IT outsourcing conference this coming October. 6 -> Germany - Deutsche Telekom Bearish On Outlook -- Deutsche Telekom (DT) has announced its preliminary sales and profits figures for 1994/95 and, according to the state-owned telco, which is making the transition to a free market in 1998, as decreed by the European Commission (EC), business prospects in Germany are improving. 7 -> Cognos On World Wide Web -- Cognos has announced the opening of its Web site on the Internet. Located at http://www.cognos.com , the site aims to offers visitors industry, product and company information, as well as "easy access" to related business information. 8 -> UK - Context Market Research On World Wide Web -- Context Market Research, a European information technology (IT) market research company, has opened up its World Wide Web site at http://www.context.co.uk . 9 -> Illustra Intros PC Tools Suite -- Illustra Information Technologies Inc., a data base management systems (DBMSs) provider, has announced a set of development tools that the company claims simplifies the creation of applications in the Microsoft Office environment. The company also maintains that its new tools eliminate the need for programming language such as C++ or structured query language (SQL). 10 -> Symantec Intros Windows 95-Compatible C++ -- Symantec (NASDAQ:SYMC) claims Symantec C++ version 7.2 is a certified Windows 95-compatible product which will ship in September. With the new version, developers can use the latest Windows features and technologies for building new applications. 11 -> Correction - Digiphone Goes To Manufacturing -- Earlier this month Newsbytes reported that Camelot Corporation had sent Digiphone Deluxe, its software program that lets Internet users carry on phone conversations without paying long distance charges, to manufacturing. 12 -> Cellular One's Card For European Cell Phones -- Cellular One said it is bringing to market a new card that lets users from the San Francisco Bay Area have access to cell phones in over 30 European, Middle Eastern, and Pacific Rim countries. The special card is inserted into cellular phones used in those countries by traveling Bay-area residents. 13 -> MCI Intros New ISDN Business Package -- MCI Inc. (NASDAQ:MCIC) said it is introducing a new ISDN (integrated services digital network) package for businesses that need to utilize high speed data, video, and audio transmissions on the same digital phone line. 14 -> ****New PC Virus Dismissed As Prank Macro By Microsoft -- A new type of virus is being reported as causing infections in the US and Canada, the UK, France, Finland, Russia, Germany, and South Africa. The new virus reportedly infects data files 15 -> Epson Raids Singapore Firm, Seizes Fake Products -- Epson in Asia has yet again tracked down piracy in ribbons and ink cartridges. The company recently carried out raids on a company making counterfeit Epson products and seized more than 25,000 fake printer ribbons and ink cartridges valued at S$250,000. 16 -> Acer Plans Singapore Public Offering -- Acer Computer International (ACI) is expected to offer 42 million shares at between US$1.35 and US$1.70 in its Singapore initial public offer this month. Although ACI chief executive William Lu has not revealed the exact amount, he did say it "would not be a penny stock." 17 -> UK - Apple Signs Time Computers As Direct Seller -- Time Computers, a division of Granville Technology, and the UK's biggest direct seller of PCs, has announced it is now selling Apple Mac systems. 18 -> US Robotics Claims Number 1 In UK Modem Sales -- US Robotics has announced its UK sales figures for 1994 and, according to numbers from Dataquest, claims it holds pole position in the UK modem market for the second year running. 19 -> OSF/DCE - Microsoft Plans "Network OLE" For Windows 95 -- The largest installed base for distributed objects is likely to come neither from DCE (Distributed Computing Environment) nor CORBA (Common Object Request Broker Architecture), but from an upcoming technology from Microsoft known as "Network OLE," (object linking and embedding), predicted industry guru David Chappell, during a speech at the OSF (Open Software Foundation)/DCE conference in Boston. 20 -> Passport's Rhapsody MIDI Software For Web Files -- "World Wide Web surfing" has kicked up a sudden splash of interest in musical software among consumers, and Passport Design, a major player in MIDI (musical instrument digital interface) products for musical pros, is riding the wave with its new Rhapsody software for musical amateurs, said Passport's Dana Byrd, at a meeting with Newsbytes on a Boston press tour. 21 -> Sheridan Intros "Sp_assist" For SQL Databases -- Sheridan Software's new Sp_assist database development tool combines its own multi-user structured query language (SQL) database with a Visual Basic (VB) front-end to ease creation, coding and management of stored procedures, tables, triggers, and other SQL source code, maintained Sheridan President Bob Wolf, at a pre-briefing for Newsbytes in Boston. 22 -> OSF/DCE - Encina To Add Windows NT, "Lite" Versions -- Encina Monitor, a transaction monitor aimed at "advanced management" of both Distributed Computing Environment (DCE) and non-DCE environments, will soon add a new graphical user interface (GUI) and C++ application programming interface (API), plus a new "Lite" version and a port to Windows NT, disclosed Janet Johnston of IBM's Transarc subsidiary, during the Open Software Foundation (OSF)/DCE conference in Boston. 23 -> Data General's Clariion Plans 15GB Drives, Video Support -- The computer industry is moving to a "storage-centric" model, and Data General's Clariion will support that movement with future products for Unix and high-end PC servers to include 15 gigabyte (GB) disk drives by early 1996, JBOD ("just a bunch of disks"), support for "very large clusters," and improved video streaming, said Peter Gibbs, director of marketing, in a meeting with Newsbytes in Boston. 24 -> Fund-Raising Concert On Internet Today -- A live Internet concert tonight from the funk and world music band "Spearhead" will spearhead an event designed to collect pledges to help fight AIDS. 25 -> ****Windows 95 Anticipation Hurts Delrina Results -- Software maker Delrina Corp. (TSE:DC; NASDAQ:DENAF) suffered a fourth-quarter loss as customers waited for Microsoft's Windows 95 operating system and associated applications software. The weak quarter dragged down Delrina's earnings for the year ended June 30, though sales were up 31 percent for the year. 26 -> Attorney Sues Microsoft/GE/NBC For $50 Million -- The executive director of a political action committee announced yesterday he has filed a $50 million lawsuit against NBC, the broadcaster's parent company General Electric, and Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ: MSFT). 27 -> Quarterdeck Signs Up German Internet Provider -- EUnet, one of Europe's leading Internet service providers and Quarterdeck (NASDAQ: QDEK), have announced an agreement to team up in the German market. EUnet services will be bundled in Germany with Quarterdeck's InternetSuite software which includes Quarterdeck's browser. 28 -> ****One Million Windows 95 Sold In First 4 Days -- Late this morning, Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ:MSFT) announced that more than one million copies of Windows 95 have been sold in North America in the first four days of the new operating system's availability. The previous record for a million copies in record time was Microsoft's DOS version 6.0 which a took 40 days to reach the mark. 29 -> Virgin Records On America Online -- Virgin Records America has announced the debut of an interactive "cyberkiosk" devoted to Virgin artists on America Online (AOL). Beginning August 25, AOL subscribers will be able to immediately access the online area by entering the keyword: VIRGIN. (Ian Stokell/19950829) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 08/28/95 ONLINE New Rock Hall Of Fame On Web (NEWS)(ONLINE)(MSP)(00001) New Rock Hall Of Fame On Web 08/28/95 CLEVELAND, OHIO, U.S.A., 1995 AUG 28 (NB) -- The words "Thank you, Cleveland" will be heard quite a bit next weekend, as the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame officially opens on the shores of Lake Erie. To tie in with the opening, the Cleveland Plain Dealer, Cleveland Online, and other organizations have opened an Internet World Wide Web site about the real Hall. The site is called "rockhall.com." William C. Barnard, director of public affairs for the Plain Dealer, told Newsbytes the Web seemed to be a logical place to go to promote the new Hall of Fame. "The Internet, and the World Wide Web, are areas that a lot of information providers are looking at as sources to augment basic product," he said. "We've met with the people from the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, and knew we could provide information services for them better than they were equipped to do themselves." Much of the information is supplied by the Plain Dealer, Barnard said. Included in the site is a searchable database of articles on rock and roll, many from the Plain Dealer's two reporters who are assigned to the rock beat. Going into the database next week will be content from a special four-section supplement on the Rock Hall from Sunday's Plain Dealer, Barnard said. Other features of the Web site include a "walking tour" of the museum, and information on each of the Rock Hall's inductees along with an audio sample from one of their songs. A list of the "500 Songs that Shaped Rock and Roll" is included. And rock fans can share memories with other fans. The site also contains hot links to Cleveland tourist information and a five-day weather forecast for the Cleveland area. The Rock Hall can be visited in cyberspace at http://www.rockhall.com . It can be physically visited during and after the Labor Day weekend. (Bob Woods/19950825/Press Contact: William C. Barnard, Cleveland Plain Dealer, 216-999-4242; Public Contact: Internet World Wide Web http://www.rockhall.com ) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 08/28/95 TELECOM UK - ALPS Intros Multi-Function Comms System (NEWS)(TELECOM)(LON)(00002) UK - ALPS Intros Multi-Function Comms System 08/28/95 ASCOT, BERKSHIRE, ENGLAND, 1995 AUG 28 (NB) -- ALPS Electric has announced plans to launch the Office FX system, a multi-functional communications system, into Europe next month. According to Claire Rhodes, a spokeswoman for the company, the system incorporates fax, data comms to 14,400 bits-per-second (bps), voice-mail, electronic-mail, and phone support, as well as a sound card, into a single "black box" that plugs into the PC and is driven by a Windows application. "The price of the system is expected to be around the UKP300 mark," she told Newsbytes, adding that the system is capable of supporting access to online services such as Compuserve and the Internet. Rhodes explained that the Office FX system is a difficult concept to sell to end-users, but the system will be sold through retail outlets, as well as through OEM (original equipment manufacturer) channels. According to ALPS, Office FX is particularly suited for use in small- to medium-sized businesses, with a unique unified "in box" to track incoming and outgoing correspondence. In use, the software allows all electronic and voice messages to be recorded in one place, for "quick and easy retrieval." The company claims it eliminates the need for a separate fax machine and answerphone. The Office FX system comes with sound card functions that support both DOS and Windows applications. The card supports 16-bit stereo digital sampling with .WAV sound file record and playback functions. Support for CD-ROM is also included as standard. Because the software is Windows 3.xx-based, it is billed as capable of multitasking. The applications can run in the background while other apps are running in the foreground, with the package only being "popped up" when comms facilities or monitoring of ongoing events is required. Announcing the system, Gerry Holman, ALPS' sales and marketing manager, said that, "With all the new communication methods, business is close to being overwhelmed by technology." "We now have the ideal solution, allowing the user to monitor the flow of information and control it from a single location," he claimed, adding that the system allows smaller businesses to manage their telecoms as effectively as larger ones. "It provides access to all of today's major comms channels in one go, and has the capacity to expand with the company and new technology," he added. (Steve Gold/19950824/Press & Reader Contact: ALPS Computer Peripherals, tel +44-1344-873853, fax +44-1344-874318) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 95 08/28/95 GENERAL OSF/DCE - More On DEC Products For NT & Windows (NEWS)(GENERAL)(BOS)(00003) OSF/DCE - More On DEC Products For NT & Windows 95 08/28/95 BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS, U.S.A., 1995 AUG 28 (NB) -- With the introduction of a full client-server implementation for Windows NT, which will be joined by a run-time client for Windows 95, Digital Equipment Corp. is offering "broad and heterogeneous support" for DCE (Distributed Computing Environment), maintained Digital's Tim Yeaton, in a press conference at the OSF (Open Software Foundation)/DCE Conference in Boston. Digital's DCE 1.1 for Windows NT, a product slated to ship on September 21, will use native 32-bit threads, and will incorporate a security server, a cell directory server, a developer's kit, and run-time services outfitted with an "integrated GUI (graphical user interface)" known as DCE Director, Yeaton noted during the press conference, which was attended by Newsbytes. The developer's kit incorporates GSSAPI (Generic Security Service Application Programming Interface) from the OSF's R1.1 release, for "non-RPC-based object services," as well as a feature from the OSF's R1.2.1 release that allows for "tighter coupling with C++," he added. DCE 1.1 for Windows NT will initially be offered as a "standalone product" for Alpha and Intel platforms, according to Yeaton. "We are looking at integrating it into Polycenter and Managed Works. But we wanted to get it out into the market," he told the press. Digital also produces DCE products on Digital Unix for Alpha and Open VMS for both Alpha and VAX, he pointed out. Both of these products are available now, as are Windows NT runtime services for DCE 1.0. To throngs of intrigued users, developers and journalists during a product expo at the conference in Boston, Digital displayed DCE 1.1 for Windows NT, in addition to the company's upcoming Windows 95 run-time client for DCE 1.1. Beth Benoit, Digital's software engineering manager for DCE development, and Laura P. Mazzaferro, senior software engineer in DCE engineering, told Newsbytes that the new Windows NT- and Windows 95-based products share a common source base. The Windows 95 client will provide an "event viewer" with "flexible views," according to the two engineers. Digital has not yet decided on all of the specific features to be included in the client, but the product will "take advantage of Windows 95 (capabilities) as much as possible," Benoit observed. DCE Security Server, another component in DCE 1.1 for Windows NT, will include "single log-in" and other new user authentication and authorization services provided for by DCE 1.1, as previously reported in Newsbytes. Single log-in is meant to allow users to log into multiple hosts with the use of a single password. Digital's DCE Authentication Service, also included in the DCE Security Server, is based on Kerberos encryption, which requires all users and resources to possess a "secret key." The Authentication Service is designed let users and resources "prove" their identity to one another. DCE Authorization verifies users' authorization to perform operations on resources through the use of a DCE Registry Service, containing a list of valid users, together with an Access Control List (ACL), which employs the DCE Registry Service to determine valid users for each resources. DCE Security Server's DCE Data Integrity Service is aimed at preventing tampering by using "cryptographic checksums" generated by remote procedure calls (RPCs) to find out whether data has been corrupted during transmission. Cell Directory Server (CDS), another product within Digital's new line-up for Windows NT, will support new cell directory functions in DCE 1.1 aimed at providing the ability to contact users and to locate servers, print queues, and other network resources without knowledge of their physical location on the network. CDS also includes the Global Directory Agent (GDA), intended for use in linking multiple "CDS namespace" through either BIND (the Internet Domain Name Server) or X.500. CDS requires installation of the DCE Security Server on a system in the same DCE cell. In addition, the DCE Run-time Services Kit must be installed on each system in the cell. Digital's new DCE Application Developer's Kit for Windows NT provides an RPC IDL compiler toolkit with an application template generator, an event logger and debugger, and DEC Fortran language support on Alpha platforms; sample programs and example source code; and all DCE APIs (application programming interfaces). In a demo during the product expo, Digital's Mahesh Gorkar showed Newsbytes how the new DCE Director in the Runtime Services provides a point-and-click mechanism for: creating, modifying, deleting, and browsing user accounts and security groups; browsing the CDS namespace; creating and deleting CDS directories; specifying where copies of a CDS directory will be stored; and editing the ACLs of CDS objects and applications. DCE Director is designed to provide management of multivendor DCE- compliant hosts, according to Gorkar. Other features of Runtime Services include: an RPC runtime API and library; a name service interface daemon for communication with Microsoft RPC client and server applications; administrative tools; and Time Service for both client and server. Runtime Services for DCE 1.1 for Windows NT will be priced at $95. Pricing is $1,500 for the Security Server, $1,500 for the Cell Directory Server, and $332 for the Software Developer's Kit. (Jacqueline Emigh/19950824/Reader Contacts: DECdirect, 800-344- 4825; Open Software Foundation, 617-621-8700; Press Contacts: Chuck Malkiel, Digital, 508-264-6740; Jane Smeloff, OSF, 617-621-8700) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 08/28/95 WINDOWS AlphaBlox Software Intros Windows 95 Suite (NEWS)(WINDOWS)(LON)(00004) AlphaBlox Software Intros Windows 95 Suite 08/28/95 MAIDENHEAD, BERKSHIRE, ENGLAND, 1995 AUG 28 (NB) -- A new company, AlphaBlox Software, has been formed to launch a suite of Windows 95 applications into the US, Canadian, European, and Australian marketplaces. According to Gideon Luke, a spokesman for AlphaBlox, the company's suite of applications -- OfficeBlox -- is one of the first third party suites available for the Windows 95 environment. "We are setting up offices in the UK, the US, Canada, South Africa, and Australia," he told Newsbytes, adding that, with a UK price point of UKP69.95 until November of this year, the package offers "excellent value" for money. "From November, the price goes to UKP99.95, but this is a retail price, so the street price should stay around, or even be less than, UKP70," he said. OfficeBlox is actually four applications -- NoteBlox, ListBlox, CalcBlox, and ToolBlox -- plus a 90-day demo version of WorkBlox. NoteBlox is a notebook package, ListBlox is a listing application, CalcBlox is a spreadsheet, and ToolBlox is a utility package. WorkBlox, meanwhile, is billed as a "snazzy, customizable, visual filing system." As with all the applications, WorkBlox is OLE (object linking and embedding)-compliant. According to Yusaf Hussan, previously with Lotus and Symantec, and now the managing director of AlphaBlox, for most people, more than three quarters of the software on their machines is wasted. "Either they don't use it because it's too complicated or because they simply don't need it. The component partners of OfficeBlox 95 have been developed to suit the way people really work. As soon as people try then, they'll see real advantages in terms of easier and more productive working days," he explained. According to AlphaBlox, OfficeBlox has been designed to compliment Windows 95 and Office 95. The suite is also claimed to be compatible with Windows NT 3.51 According to Gideon, each application within the suite requires just 300 kilobytes (KB) of memory, which he claims is less than five percent of the resources needed for a traditional application, and loads in around a second. In use, the package requires Windows 95, a minimum of four megabytes (MB) of memory, and a minimum of 2MB of hard disk space. A 80486 processor, or better, is also required. (Steve Gold/19950825/Press Contact: Prime Communications, +44-171-828- 6988, Internet e-mail 100656.1203@compuserve.com; Reader Contact: AlphaBlox UK, +44-1628-777475; AlphaBlox US 617-229-2924, Internet e-mail cbellion@mhs.compuserve.com) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 08/28/95 BUSINESS Europe - ESaSS & Reflex In Virus Partnership (NEWS)(BUSINESS)(LON)(00005) Europe - ESaSS & Reflex In Virus Partnership 08/28/95 LONDON, ENGLAND, 1995 AUG 28 (NB) -- ESaSS and Reflex Magnetics have announced the formation of a strategic alliance, which the companies claim strengthens their role in the ongoing fight against computer viruses. Under the agreement, the respective developers of the Thunderbyte and Disknet anti-virus systems will pool their technical resources in order to provide computer users with, what they claim is, the "most secure" anti-virus products available. Plans call for the two companies to integrate their development teams in order to create the next-generation of their respective utilities, as well as collaborating on new projects to protect PC systems. According to John Buckle, Reflex's managing director, the alliance will result in the construction of anti-virus products which are even more comprehensive and, ultimately, more powerful. Plans call for an early example of this alliance to be the cross-integration of segments of code from one product line to another. "By combining the technologies of the two companies, we are set to take the market by storm," said an enthusiastic Buckle, who added that the threats of computer viruses, unauthorized access and deliberate misuse are still prominent. "We are firmly committed to winning the war against these problems. Through tighter integration of our joint technology, ESaSS and Reflex are set to become the definitive providers of PC security solutions," he explained. meanwhile, according to Dick Gehiniau, vice president of ESaSS, by combining the technical strengths of each organization, "we are set to provide even safer computing. The strategic alliance will translate our technological excellence into increased market share. This closer working relationship is just the beginning." As part of the deal, ESaSS and Reflex gain the right to market the new products throughout the world, native markets excluded. Reflex will continue to sell Disknet in all regions except the Netherlands and Belgium, while ESaSS will continue to market Tbfence Professional everywhere except in the UK, Luxembourg, Switzerland, and Ireland. (Sylvia Dennis/19950825/Press Contact: Keene Communications, +44-171- 439-7227; Reader Contact: Reflex Magnetics, +44-171-372-6666; ESaSS BV, +31-889-42-2282, Internet e-mail 74514.3046@compuserve.com) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 08/28/95 TELECOM Sweden's Ericsson Plugs China In With Paging Services (NEWS)(TELECOM)(LON)(00006) Sweden's Ericsson Plugs China In With Paging Services 08/28/95 STOCKHOLM, SWEDEN, 1995 AUG 28 (NB) -- Ericsson, the Swedish telecommunications company, has received a major order for the supply and installation of paging equipment in China. According to Ericsson, the equipment will support the first phase of a nationwide paging system, which will be operational by the end of this year. The first stage of the project will include the establishment of radiopaging services in 45 major cities in ten Chinese provinces. The network is designed to support pagers for use by several million subscribers and, by the end the decade, should cover the whole of the Chinese mainland. In the first year of operation, Ericsson estimates that the network will sign up around 200,000 subscribers. Because of the diverse nature of China, Ericsson expects that many users will opt for paging rather than cellular telephony. Because of this, the Chinese paging service will have advanced facilities such as national roaming, automatic dial-up access, voice-mail, and even fax-mail add-ons. The contract for the installation of the system was signed recently between Ericsson and Beijing Asia Pacific First Star Communications Technology (BAPFS), a joint-venture between Beijing Asia Pacific Communications Technology Development, Asia Pacific Electronics (China), Beijing Jingfang Economic Development, Singapore Telecom International and ING Beijing Investment. This is not the first major project of its type for Ericsson. The Swedish telco is about to start work in the Shandong Province of China on the installation of the province's first GSM (global system for mobile communications) digital phone net. The network will be Ericsson's seventh digital phone net in China, Newsbytes notes. The Shandong GSM contract is worth around $17 million and calls for a network to span all three major cities in the province, which is one of the most populous in China with 80 million inhabitants. (Sylvia Dennis/19950825/Press & Reader Contact: Bertil Lagerman, Ericsson Hong Kong, +852-2590-2487) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 08/28/95 APPLE Europe - FastTrak's On Cue II Utilities For Mac (NEWS)(APPLE)(LON)(00007) Europe - FastTrak's On Cue II Utilities For Mac 08/28/95 WATFORD, HERTFORDSHIRE, ENGLAND, 1995 AUG 28 (NB) -- FastTrak Software Publishing, the newly formed division of FastCAD, has launched a new version of On Cue II Utilities. According to Julie Turner, the company's marketing manager, version 3.0 of the package has extended features and gives the user increased control over Mac applications, files, and the operating system. Turner explained that, with a ten-function toolbox, On Cue II Utilities 3.0 makes the Apple Mac more user-friendly and adds to its general productivity. The program is actually a set of software enhancement modules, which the company claims provides users with better control over the Mac. On Cue II 3.0 requires a Mac running System 7.0 or later, although the memory requirements are a lot lower, the company claims, than those of competing packages. "On Cue II gives users unmatched functionality within the Macintosh environment. All its features are extremely effective, saving time and providing solutions in a wide range of areas. It will benefit every type of Macintosh user, whatever their vocation," Turner explained. In use, the Toolbox is billed as enabling a user to open any file, application or stack with a single mouse click. A presentation, containing a set of documents, can be accessed directly. The Smart Open facility in the package also provides direct access to the most frequently used files and folders, together with the file management features. The features of the UKP99 software include: KeyLauncher, which operates after typing the first few letters of the lost file name; QuickFinder, which allows users to display a list of all files matching a particular file type or creator in seconds, and enables the launching of one or more selected files; Switch, which enables moving from one file to another; Level, a feature to set and save the color level and volume for every single application; and Shutdown & Restart, which allows the user to switch off and power up a computer from anywhere. (Sylvia Dennis/19950825/Press Contact: Nick Spencer, tel +44-1344-873445, fax +44-1344-873446, Internet e-mail nspencer@cix.compulink.co.uk; Reader Contact: Julie Turner, FastTrak Software Publishing, tel +44-1923-246427, fax +44-1923-228796) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 08/28/95 ONLINE UK Firm Offers Computer Training Via Microsoft Network (NEWS)(ONLINE)(LON)(00008) UK Firm Offers Computer Training Via Microsoft Network 08/28/95 LONDON, ENGLAND, 1995 AUG 28 (NB) -- Peritas, which claims to be the UK's largest information technology (IT) training organization and one of Europe's leading commercial education consultancies, has become the first UK training supplier to deliver online training courses via Microsoft Network (MSN). Peritas' services are being offered in the Microsoft Online Institute Section (MOLI) on MSN. According to the training company, it has been working with Microsoft for the past four months to prepare for the new facility on the online service. MOLI is being billed as a "virtual campus" where students worldwide can view training materials from their desktop, take classes online from experts around the world, access product and program information, and communicate with other MOLI users around the world in online forums and user groups. From this week onwards, MSN users will be able to sign up for, and access, two training courses from Peritas: Supporting Windows 95, and Windows NT 3.51. Announcing the linkup with MSN, Paul Butler, head of Peritas Learning Technology, said that, while Peritas' skill and experience in the world of training is an "acknowledged fact," "we remain committed to investigating new and dynamic ways of enhancing our services." "We have been researching the practicalities and the benefits of online delivery of training for some time now, and have witnessed significant customer interest. Indeed, during pilot testing for MSN, we generated a good deal of positive feedback from students across the world from the US to Europe. We are very excited by the opportunities that MSN presents," he said. Butler went on to say that online training is ideal for students who cannot attend conventional classroom training. "Via MOLI, they are now able to receive all the benefits of student-to-student and student-to- instructor interaction at their chosen time and location," he said. According to Butler, online training delivery also offers dramatic cost-savings over traditional classroom methods, which therefore appeals to the corporate customer. "MOLI can be used either by individual employees to progress their personal development plans, or by organizations unable to release employees to external classroom courses or who need to deliver training of a consistent content and quality to a wide geographical spread of employees," he said. "We believe that online training via MOLI will complement our established reputation as a leading provider of classroom and multimedia-based training courses in the fields of IT and personal development," he added. According to Butler, students accessing Peritas' courses via MSN are provided with self-paced materials, together with access to a Peritas Microsoft Certified Trainer who provides advice and guidance through interactive discussion as the student progresses through the course. (Steve Gold/19950825/Press Contact: Leading Edge Communications, +44- 171-454-9360, Internet e-mail leadingedge@cix.compulink.co.uk; Reader Contact: Sally Pocock, Peritas, +44-1753-868181, Internet e-mail s.v.pocock@wsr0102.wins.icl.co.uk) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 08/28/95 BUSINESS UK - Pace's Modem Operation Sold To Management (NEWS)(BUSINESS)(LON)(00009) UK - Pace's Modem Operation Sold To Management 08/28/95 SHIPLEY, WEST YORKSHIRE, ENGLAND, 1995 AUG 28 (NB) -- Pace Micro Communications, the oldest modem manufacturer in the UK, has been spun-off from the parent company, Pace, in a UKP3 million management buyout (MBO). The deal leaves Pace to concentrate on satellite TV products, an area of the market it is one of the brand leaders in Europe, Newsbytes notes. Matt Malloy, marketing manager with Pace, told Newsbytes that Pace Micro Communications is now the largest modem manufacturer in the UK, as well as being the oldest. In addition to the directors' funds, the buyout has been supported by Investment for Industry (3i), the investment capital company, as well as by NatWest's Corporate Business Development Unit in Nottingham, England. According to Malloy, Pace's managing director, Steve Lister, along with sales and marketing director John Cunningham, and Derek Oliver, the company's technical director, took over the effective day-to-day management of the company in December of last year in preparation for the MBO. "It's been in progress for some months now and I think it bodes well for the company as whole. It gives us control of the company fully and allows us to pursue new areas which we have wanted to explore for some time," Malloy told Newsbytes. Within the first six months of this year, the management team increased sales revenue for the modem business by 40 percent and profitability by 60 percent, when compared to the first six months of 1994. The three shareholders between them now hold more than 70 percent of the company's equity following the exchange of contracts this month. Steve Lister explained that success over the first half of 1995 laid the foundations for the MBO. He claimed that, in core markets alone, Pace Micro Communications is on course to over-achieve on a UKP9 million target for 1995. "To realize our ambitions for further growth, it became essential that management of the modem business remained within its own control," he explained, adding that, as a direct result of the buy-out, Pace is already embarking on European expansion. According to Lister, modem products are now approved across Scandinavia and in the Republic of Ireland, with a further four European approvals in progress. Announcements of new products and markets will be forthcoming over the next few months. In return for providing an element of funding for the purchase, 3i takes a stake in the company of just under 30 percent with additional capital investment available to initiate further expansion. Lister explained that 3i was chosen as a potential investor due to its longer term business perspective. "We have discussed our plans fully with 3i and they have given us 100 percent backing. Venture capital is not provided lightly, so this investment must be seen as proof of sustainable strength in British information technology (IT) manufacturing," he said. Plans now call for Pace Micro Communications to retain its name and continue to trade from offices in the Salts Mill complex in Shipley, West Yorkshire. (Steve Gold/19950825/Press Contact: Matt Malloy, Pace, tel +44-1274- 532000, fax +44-1274-537029, Internet e-mail pace@cix.compulink.co.uk) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 08/28/95 WINDOWS Windows 95 Sales Off To A Sluggish Start In UK, Europe (NEWS)(WINDOWS)(LON)(00010) Windows 95 Sales Off To A Sluggish Start In UK, Europe 08/28/95 LONDON, ENGLAND, 1995 AUG 28 (NB) -- Despite all the ramazataz associated with last week's launch of Windows 95, British consumers appear to be unphased by the whole affair, with sales of the new version of Windows off to a modest, if somewhat sluggish, start. Barry Fox, renowned IT (information technology) writer went on Sky TV's news program last Thursday) to detail some of the advantages -- and disadvantages -- of Windows 95. According to Fox, when Windows 95's features list is distilled down, the new operating system does not actually do much more than the Mac's System operating system of ten years ago, and IBM's OS/2 of three years ago. "The difference is that Microsoft is putting its millions of dollars worth of marketing behind the operating system, that's all," said Fox, adding that he likens Windows 95 to a new set of plumbing for computers that helps everything go around. One aspect of Windows 95 that Fox locked on to is that Microsoft is claiming that Windows 95 will run on PCs equipped with just four megabytes (MB) of memory. "Well, it will run on these machines, but I think users will have to check out how it runs," he said, adding that many users may have to look to upgrade to 8MB. CNN International, meanwhile, showed off stores in Moscow where pirate versions of Windows 95 -- complete with the local language packaging and instructions -- were freely on sale. Reports from Russia suggest that the pirate versions of Windows 95 are being snapped up, as the legitimate versions are in extremely short supply. Microsoft, meanwhile, is warning potential buyers off, claiming that the pirates are almost certainly early beta test versions. Microsoft's problem is that users are being encouraged to buy a CD-ROM version of Windows 95. With the arrival of CD-ROM recordable systems on the market below the $5,000 barrier in recent months, churning off several thousand pirates of the legitimate disk makes sound economic sense for the pirates, when the disks cost around $5 each and can then be sold on for ten times that price with a photocopied manual costing about the same to produce. In India, meanwhile, pirate copies of Windows 95 are being quickly snapped up, after Microsoft officials announced that the Indian version had been delayed by a week or so in order to correct a truncated map of India's northern states of Jammu and Kashmir. (Steve Gold/19950825) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 08/28/95 ONLINE 3-D Real Estate & Hotel Walkabouts On The Web (NEWS)(ONLINE)(SFO)(00011) 3-D Real Estate & Hotel Walkabouts On The Web 08/28/95 SANTA FE, NEW MEXICO, U.S.A., 1995 AUG 28 (NB) -- InterArt, a 2,000-page World Wide Web (Web) site, says it is adding three- dimensional (3-D) tours of exclusive real estate and resort hotels. Called "Walkabouts," the tours use Apple's QuickTime Virtual Reality software. This past May, Ansley Wallace, now the president of InterArt, teamed with three partners to open what is one of the largest commercial Web sites on the Internet. The virtual retail and information center has no real world retail counterpart. "The four of us got together and decided we had the resources and necessary experience to develop a dynamic commercial Web site," said Wallace The four entrepreneurs may have discovered a secret to making money on the Web. "We are not making millions," said Wallace, "but we are making money and in the black ink." The secret? Web surfers may purchase a $5.00 food item such as salsa or a $25,000 piece of original artwork. InterArt's 3-D hotels and homes tours are being added to a Web site which offers food, music, information, books, art, jewelry, astrology, and more. Wallace also said the company has focused on making a highly graphical and entertaining presentation which combines advertising and retail sales. With the right combination of graphics, variety and entertainment, Wallace says the company has created a successful operation. InterArt uses a "Flying Carpet" to take users from one area of the site to another and a "Magic Lamp" keeps visitors posted on the latest additions and changes to the site. The site is divided into six realms called: The Canyon, Galeria El Dorado, Goldust Cafe, Forbidden Cities, Inforizons, and Web Estates. The latter two contain the 3D Walkabouts. Due to the cost of developing 3-D sites, the use of 3-D technology is limited to high-end resort hotel and real estate advertisers. Wallace said it takes hundreds of photographs, the time to scan them into the computer, and then their manipulation into a series of 3-D graphical images, before a presentation is ready for the site. For its 3-D design work, InterArt has teamed with Designed Environments, a New Mexico-based company. To view the new 3-D images, which are scheduled for release on September 15, users will need Apple's QuickTime Virtual Reality player software. A hyperlink on InterArt's Web site will take users to an Apple site where the viewer may be downloaded. Windows and Macintosh versions are available. Wallace told Newsbytes she has had reports from America Online users who have trouble accessing the InterArt site. From her evaluation, there is something about the AOL browser which does not allow the site to properly download. Netscape's browser, Navigator, is the most used browser on the Internet and Wallace says her InterArt site is perfectly accessed with Navigator. (Patrick McKenna/19950825/Press Contact: Robyn McPeters, McPeters Co., 505-982-1428; Internet World Wide Web http://www.interart.net /INTERART950828/PHOTO) (ADVISORY)(GENERAL)(MSP)(00012) NewsPix Images For Newsbytes Publishers 08/28/95 MINNEAPOLIS, MINNESOTA, U.S.A.,1995 AUG 28 (NB) -- These photos correspond to recent Newsbytes stories. They are online in the Newsbytes menu on America Online, NiftyServe, and the Newsbytes private bulletin board system in Minneapolis. JPEG files are larger in size, PICT files are designed as thumbnails for onscreen viewing. The photos are titled with name/year/month/day. PICT/thumbnail pictures are black and white (gray scale). File message will indicate color if the JPEG image is color. Some of the 'for use' images, may be PICT files. To distinguish these files from the thumbnail preview PICT images, the tag for the color 'for use' image will have PICT, all caps. The thumbnail will remain noted as 'pct.' To become a licensed Newsbytes publisher, call Newsbytes at 612-430-1100 (U.S.) or write to administrator@newsbytes.com on the Internet. Licensing applies to any medium. --------------------------- Week of AUGUST 28 - SEPTEMBER 1,1995 --------------------------- - NEW THIS WEEK - RADSHACK950814 - b&w / Radio Shack Gets New Image: before and after arrangement of Radio Shack ads. LTE5000950821 - color / Compaq Intros Modular Notebook PC 08: the notebook PC in action, associates at work on site using computer. TOUCH950822 - color / Touch Technology Moves Off The Display Screen: the Tanisys keyboard on neutral background. PAGEMAKR950823 - color / Adobe Ships Pagemaker 6.0 For Mac: shot of the software package. HARLEM950822 - color / Prodigy Offers Harlem Inner-City Area Online: --------------------------------------------------------------- - PARTIAL LISTING OF PREVIOUS ITEMS - FOTOFUN950811 - b&w / Fargo Ships $399 Photo-Quality Digital Printer: picture of the unit with family photo emerging. HP950815a - color / HP To Intro New Windows 95 Home PCs: shot of the HP Pavilion 7000. Two screen shots are tagged HP950815b & HP950815c. HP950815b - color / HP To Intro New Windows 95 Home PCs: personal page in the comic book style. HP950815c - color / HP To Intro New Windows 95 Home PCs: personal page in the sculpted marble style. IBMLIBRARY950816 - color / More On AT&T Web Services For Consumers, Businesses: IBM Digital Library home page. CREATIVE950817 - b&w / 3-D Becomes Major Strategy At Creative Labs: portrait shot of Creative's chairman and chief executive officer, W.H. Sim, quoted extensively in story. PANTRAFCAM950817 - b&w / Video News Roundup: two images in one file: Shadow Traffic control (left), and the Panasonic WV-E550 traffic and surveillance camera (right). WEAC081195 - color / Weather Channel To Intro "Everything Weather" CD-ROM: the Hurricane Tracker page. IMWORKS950807 - color / Software Connects User To Internet Via Ad Home Pages: IMW logo. DIAGRAM950802 - color / Diagramming Software For Windows: color full and busy screenshot. OPTIPLEX950810 - color / Dell Intros PCs With Integrated Networking: shot of the pc. EARTHLINK950809 - color / Hollywood's Internet Provider Goes National: Earthlink logo. VISIO4-950809 - color / Visio Product Bundle For Windows 95: shot of software package. YAHOO950728 - color / Yahoo To Develop Internet Service: Jerry Yang (left) & David Filo (right), founders and current developers for the YAHOO Internet navigator. OFFICE950727 - color / Microsoft Donates $6 Million In Software To Settle Suit: shot of the software package. DVUE950731 - b&w / U.S. Robotics Adds LED Lights to PCMCIA Modems: product shot, with card plugged into laptop. POWRSHOP950731 - b&w / Adaptive Ships Photoshop Accelerators: product shot of the card. SONYCAM950802 - b&w / Japan Newsbriefs: product shot of the new Sony digital handycams with the digital videocassette between. DOONESBURY950731 - color / Trudeau's Doonesbury ScreenSaver: screenshot of Zonker and his tan-meter. TRAVAN950718 - color / 3M Predicts Travan Tape Drive To Exceed 15GB Capacity: shots of the two units, the 800 MB TR-2 (left) and the 1.6 GB TR-3 (right). EXPLORE950801 - color / Humongous Windows 95 Exploration Titles For Kids: screenshot from the new Let's Explore series. NEWSWEB950801 - color / Free Internet Press Release Service: screenshot of homepage, nice graphics. MUSIC080295 - color / The Music Shop Opens On The Internet: screen shot of the homepage. DELRINA950801 - b&w / Delrina Acquires Intel's Net SatisFAXtion: photo of Mark Skapinker, president of Delrina with the products floating over his head. DSP950725 - b&w / Paging Reminders To Take Medicine: pagers with phone in background. (Newsbytes/19950828) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 08/28/95 TRENDS ****CD Software Sales Soar 186% (NEWS)(TRENDS)(WAS)(00013) ****CD Software Sales Soar 186% 08/28/95 WASHINGTON, D.C., U.S.A., 1995 AUG 28 (NB) -- Sales of CD software hit $249.6 million for the first quarter of 1995, up 186 percent over the $87.3 million reported for the first quarter of 1994, according to the Software Publisher Association. Unit sales for the quarter were 6.86 million, a 125 percent increase. Sales of software for the Windows environment dominated the CD landscape, taking a 69 percent share of total sales, says SPA. CD software bundled with hardware declined as a share of units shipped -- from 46 percent is the first quarter last year to 32 percent this year. Home entertainment remains the largest category and one that is growing rapidly, up 40 percent in revenue over the first quarter of last year and 117 percent in unit sales. But business products are the fastest growing category of CD software, says SPA. Business tools such as word processors and spreadsheets rose by 754 percent while revenues grew by 2,654 percent. SPA says that this "represents the increasing dominance of business software suite sales. It is much faster and more economical to load one CD than perhaps 25 diskettes." Languages and software tools on CD sold $53.1 million in the first quarter of 1995, up 256 percent over last year. "The CD segment remains a very dynamic part of the software industry," says Ken Wasch, SPA president. We can see that CD software isn't just for kids anymore -- it includes business products like software suites, databases, accounting packages, and sophisticated graphics programs. As more businesses realize the productivity gains possible from CD data access and storage, we expect to see this segment of the market grow even further." SPA derives its sales data from aggregated information from participating companies. These firms send quarterly date to the accounting firm of Ernst & Young, which prepares the report for the SPA. (Kennedy Maize/19950828/Press Contact: Sally Lawrence, 202-452-1600 ext 320) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 08/28/95 TELECOM Japan - Final Digital Tu-Ka Cellular Company Formed (NEWS)(TELECOM)(TYO)(00014) Japan - Final Digital Tu-Ka Cellular Company Formed 08/28/95 TOKYO, JAPAN, 1995 AUG 28 (NB) -- A consortium of companies led by Nissan Motor and Japan Telecom have formed the final Digital Tu-Ka Cellular company on the smallest of Japan's four major islands, Shikoku. When all regional companies are offering service, the Digital Tu-Ka network will span Japan. National coverage of the country has been a negative selling point for potential telephone subscribers who have preferred to sign to the DoCoMo network operated by domestic telecoms giant NTT in favor of the networks run by Tu-Ka or the Digital Phone Group. NTT began building its analog network in 1979, some 15 years before the digital networks began operating in 1984. To hasten the building of a national network the two groups have joined forces in several areas to form jointly owned telephone providers that will service customers of both networks. Digital Tu-Ka companies have previously been announced in the Kyushu, Chugoku, Tohoku and Hokkaido regions with each company operating its own service in the more densely populated regions of Tokyo, Kansai and Tokai. The network is based on the PDC (personal digital communications) cellular telephone standard and operates in the 1.5 gigahertz (GHz) band rather than the 800 megahertz (MHz) band that older, analog, telephones use. Nationwide service is expected to begin in the summer of 1997. PDC is a Japanese TDMA (time division multiple access)-based technology. Ownership of the regional companies is held by a broad range of companies with Nissan Motor Corporation and Japan Telecom both holding around 24% of each company. Other shareholders include Hitachi Electric, Nippon Steel Corp., and Toyota Motor Corp., who each hold around 5% of each company. The local Japan Railways (JR) company usually holds a similar 5% stake in the regional telephone company through an association with Japan Telecom, which is owned by JR. Major American investors are AirTouch International and the GTE Mobile Communications International unit of GTE Corp. Other major foreign investors include the Britain's Cable & Wireless Plc and BT (International) Holdings Ltd. The number of cellular telephone users has risen dramatically in the last year with nearly half a million people signing up in July this year as prices have fallen and new competition has appeared from the Personal Handyphone System (PHS) which offers a much cheaper alternative to regular mobile telephones with only a few drawbacks. A recent survey by NTT DoCoMo showed call rates in Japan were around 50% higher than those in the United States when calculated using purchasing power parity, a system that takes into account the relative purchasing power of respective currencies. Six million people are now using mobile telephones in Japan. (Martyn Williams/19950828) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 08/28/95 ONLINE Internet Update (NEWS)(ONLINE)(TYO)(00015) Internet Update 08/28/95 TOKYO, JAPAN, 1995 AUG 28 (NB) -- In this roundup of new and updated resources and services on the Internet: Follow the US Open on the net, PCSI opens Web server, International affairs resources, Breaking windows on the Net, Public utility law home page, Sony launches US PlayStation Web, Techexpo offers technical conference details, and American Museum of Papermaking online. Follow The US Open On The Net An IBM sponsored World Wide Web site for the US Open in Flushing Meadows is available from today offering details of the championship, news items, player profiles, match schedules, a celebrity watch, previews of the "head to head" of the day, pictures and photos, helpful information, tips of the day and more. World Wide Web: http://www.usopen.org/ PCSI Opens Web Server Pacific Communication Sciences Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Cirrus Logic, has debuted on the Internet with a new home page. Through the page, the company, a leading supplier of products and technology for advanced wireless communications and telecommunications, will present the usual product range information, press releases and pricing details, but has also add a section with links to other wireless communications sites on the World Wide Web. World Wide Web: http://www.pcsi.com/ International Affairs Resources A comprehensive listing of links to international affairs organizations and information debuted on the Web on August 6. The page includes links to many UN associated sites and information on international law, Web resources and other major organizations such as the European Union, NATO, and the Organization of American States. World Wide Web: http://www.cam.org/~sac/SACIS.html Breaking Windows On The Net MCI and News Corporation, under their new joint venture, have opened a new home page dedicated to Microsoft's new Windows 95 operating system. "Breaking Windows Wide Open" features global on-the-street audio polls, user commentary, bulletin boards, and interactive exchanges. It can be accessed via MCI or Delphi's Internet home pages. More importantly, the site serves as an example of what Internet users can expect from the new collaboration the two companies say. World Wide Web: http://www.internetmci.com/ World Wide Web: http://www.delphi.com/ Public Utility Law Home Page A new Internet home page has been established to bring together information and links about public utility law. The page currently provides links to federal and state statutes of concern to public utilities such as electricity, gas, telecommunications, and water companies. There is also an index of company home pages and environmental information with more promised soon. World Wide Web: http://home.ptd.net/~sjrubin/pubutil.htm Sony Launches US PlayStation Web Sony Computer Entertainment has launched a new Web site to promote its new PlayStation games console. The new system, that has already taken Japan by storm, is a next-generation 32-bit games system and the Web site seeks to take users "on an interactive journey through a universe of PlayStation experiences." A unique feature of the Web site is the ability to save your position in the cyber-environment and return to it when you log in again, much like a video game. The site is within Sony's home page. World Wide Web: http://www.sony.com/ Techexpo Offers Technical Conference Details A new service has brought together details of trade and technical conferences and exhibitions. In addition, a directory of hi-tech companies is also available with brief descriptions of each company and the ability to perform key-word searches to create a personalized directory of companies. Organizers of exhibitions can register the events free of charge. World Wide Web: http://www.techexpo.com/ American Museum Of Papermaking Online Just before electronic technology kills off paper, the American Museum of Papermaking has debuted on the Web with a virtual tour that traces the history, art, and science of papermaking from 2000 BC to the high technology of today. World Wide Web: http://www.ipst.edu/amp/ (Martyn Williams/19950828) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 08/28/95 GENERAL Japan Newsbriefs (NEWS)(GENERAL)(TYO)(00016) Japan Newsbriefs 08/28/95 TOKYO, JAPAN, 1995 AUG 28 (NB) -- In this update of news from Japan: Oki replaces president, NTT satellite launch today, Fujitsu announces new chip research center, JVC develops S-VHS PALplus format, MITI to encourage chip design, and Canon Soft reports lower profits. Oki Replaces President Oki Electric announced today that it had replaced Jun Jinguji as company president. Shikou Sawamura, previously a vice president, has taken the place of Jinguji who recently suffered a stroke. NTT Satellite Launch Today A European Ariane rocket will launch the N-Star satellite for Nippon Telegraph and Telephone later tonight. The new satellite will take over functions currently performed on the government's Sakura CS-3 satellite. The new satellite will also enable NTT to offer a satellite telephone service and assist in next-generation multimedia communications. During any large scale disasters, such as earthquakes, the satellite will also provide telecommunications services to the affected area. Fujitsu Announces New Chip Research Center Fujitsu Electronics Ltd. will build a new semiconductor development center in Akigawa City, an area of western Tokyo. The new 12.7 hectare complex will bring together Fujitsu's current three separate facilities in Atsugi, Kawasaki, and Mie. The company says that the bringing together of all parts of the semiconductor design process under one roof will help the company keep competitive. Next-generation memory chips such as one gigabit DRAMs, made using 0.18 micron technology, will be among other products under development. JVC Develops S-VHS PALplus Format Victor Company of Japan, developer of the original VHS format, has announced a new version of the S-VHS format suitable for Europe's PALplus broadcasts. PALplus is a new broadcasting system that allows the broadcast of widescreen television pictures while retaining compatibility with existing PAL television sets. The new tape format is intended to better suit the wider frequency used by PALplus which is currently being broadcast by television stations in Germany and the UK and is expected to spread to many other European countries under an EU initiative. MITI To Encourage Chip Design Japan's Ministry of International Trade and Industry has said it will actively promote research and development of semiconductors, particularly memory chips such as four gigabit DRAMs. The initiative, revealed in the Nihon Keizai Shimbun newspaper last week, will also encourage more development of liquid crystal displays and research in others areas such as bio-technology and DNA techniques. Funding will be requested in the next budget which covers the financial year beginning in April, 1996. Canon Soft Reports Lower Profits The computer software arm of Canon Inc, has reported a slump in profits for the first six months of this year from the same period last year. Net profits stood at 29 million yen ($300,000) compared to 158 million yen ($1.64 million) a year ago. Sales slipped slightly from 4.81 billion yen ($49.8 million) to 4.06 billion yen ($42.1 million). (Martyn Williams/19950828) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 08/28/95 GENERAL Canadian Product Launch Update (NEWS)(GENERAL)(TOR)(00017) Canadian Product Launch Update 08/28/95 KINGSTON, ONTARIO, CANADA 1995 AUG 28 (NB) -- This regular feature, appearing on the first day Newsbytes publishes each week, provides further details for the Canadian market on announcements by international companies that Newsbytes has already covered. This week: Compaq's nine new 133 megahertz (MHz) Pentium systems and across-the-board price cuts. Compaq Canada Inc., of Richmond Hill, Ontario, followed the lead of its US parent and announced nine new personal computers using 133MHz Intel Pentium chips (Newsbytes, Aug. 16). The new models are additions to Compaq's ProLinea, Deskpro, and Deskpro XL computer lines. The two new ProLinea 5133 models have an estimated retail price of C$4,649. The lineup of five new Deskpro 5133 models will start at C$4,899. The two new Deskpro XL 5133 systems will start at C$6,199, Compaq said. The new systems, all with 16 megabytes (MB) of memory and 1.08 gigabyte (GB) hard drives, are to be available in volume by the end of September. Compaq Canada also joined parent Compaq Computer Corp. in cutting prices across its existing personal computer lines (Newsbytes, Aug. 16). The company said prices dropped 23 percent across its commercial PC product families. As an example a 75MHz Pentium ProLinea with 8MB of memory, a 630MB hard drive, and 256 kilobytes (KB) of cache now lists at C$2,499, while a Deskpro XL with a 90MHz Pentium chip, 16MB of memory, a 1GB hard drive, and 256KB cache now lists at C$3,999. (Grant Buckler/19950828/Press Contact: John Challinor II, Compaq Canada, 416-229-8936; Public Contact: Compaq Canada, tel 416-733-7876, fax 416-229-8898) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 08/28/95 APPLE ****Apple Intros PowerPC PowerBooks (NEWS)(APPLE)(SFO)(00018) ****Apple Intros PowerPC PowerBooks 08/28/95 CUPERTINO, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1995 AUG 28 (NB) -- Apple Computer Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) has announced two new PowerBook series, which include a full-sized notebook, the 5300, and a subnotebook, the 2300, both powered by PowerPC RISC (reduced instruction set computer) processors. A low priced model 190 PowerBook was also introduced. When Apple introduced its Power Macintosh desktop computers powered by RISC-based processors, users of Apple's PowerBook notebooks began asking when the high powered RISC processor would be incorporated into the notebook line. Seventeen months later, Apple says the first PowerPC PowerBook models should be available for purchase on September 11. PowerBook model 5300 ships with a gray scale display, 8 megabytes (MB) of RAM, and 500MB of hard disk storage, and is advertised with a price range of $2,199 to $2,299. The top model, 5300ce, with active matrix color, 32MB of memory, and 1.1 gigabyte (GB) of hard disk storage is priced in a range of $6,499 to $6,799. The 5000 series is built around 100 megahertz (MHz) and 117MHz 603e RISC processors. Along with the powerful performance of the RISC chip, the 5000 series features a three- to five-hour battery life through a lithium-ion battery, infrared technology for wireless networking with compatible infrared- equipped computers, increased battery power management, two Type II (one Type III) PC Card slot, an expansion bay and pre-installed software. Depending on options, a 5300 model weighs about six pounds. The first models of the subnotebook 2000 series use a 100MHz 603e processor and weigh about 4.8 pounds. Called the PowerBook Duo 2300 model, the first of the 2000 series is compatible with the earlier PowerBook Duo 200 series. Model 2300c has a 9.5-inch active-matrix, color display, 8MB to 20MB of RAM (expandable to 56MB), and either a 750MB or 1.1GB hard drive. The 2300 uses the trackpad pointing device Apple introduced in the 500 series. Pricing begins at $3,499. Apple is also offering PowerPC upgrades to all PowerBook Duo 200 and PowerBook 500 models. The 200 series notebooks can be upgraded with a full logic board upgrade kit in a price range of $1,199 to $1,299. The 500 series upgrade is accomplished through a dealer-installable daughterboard which includes 8MB of DRAM. Apple says the cost of the 500 series upgrade is less than $700. Hoping to attract first-time mobile computing customers, Apple says its PowerBook 190 models are full-featured notebooks built around the idea of expansion. Powered by a 66/33MHz Motorola 68LC040 processor, the 190 models feature trackpad technology and a basic software package. The 190 can be upgraded to PowerPC processing, 10.4-inch active-matrix color (which requires the PowerPC upgrade), lithium-ion batteries, and video output. Starting at $1,649 to $1,699, the model 190 with gray scale display, 4MB of RAM, and 500MB of storage is the entry model. An 8MB/500 190 is priced in the range of $1,849 to $1,899. The color display model, 190cs with 8MB of RAM and 500MB of hard disk storage is priced in a range of $2,199 to $2,299. Apple says it plans to begin shipping the 190 in the middle of October. Mike Murphy, editor and publisher of California Technology Stock Letter, told Newsbytes, "PowerBook users have been waiting a long time for these new models. I think a lot of them have been holding-off buying a new notebook until a PowerPC version was available." Recent reports through the first half of 1995 indicate Apple's share of the mobile computer market is 7.1%. A number of analysts have suggested this low figure has been caused by the anticipation of today's announcement. (Patrick McKenna/19950828/Press Contact: Russell Ito, Apple Computer, 408-974-5693/APPLE950828/PHOTO) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 08/28/95 BUSINESS ****Stratus Cutting 500 Jobs As Margins Sag (NEWS)(BUSINESS)(TOR)(00019) ****Stratus Cutting 500 Jobs As Margins Sag 08/28/95 MARLBORO, MASSACHUSETTS, U.S.A., 1995 AUG 28 (NB) -- Stratus Computer (NYSE:SRA) said it is reducing its worldwide staff by about 500 people this year in a struggle against declining profit margins. The company will take a one-time charge of about $20 million against its third-quarter earnings to provide for the cuts. Stratus already let about 100 employees go last month, company spokesman Paul LaBelle told Newsbytes, leaving it with some 2,700 employees now. Those 100 cuts are included in the 500-job cutback due to be complete by January of next year. LaBelle said the remaining 400 employees to be affected will start learning of the fate of their jobs this week. The cuts will be spread across the company in terms of both functional areas and geographic location, LaBelle said. He would not comment on whether Stratus customers may see an effect due to any office closings, cutbacks on product development work, or other reductions. Stratus officials said the cuts were needed because the company's gross margins fell faster than expected in the first half of 1995. Stratus said the over-all decline in margins is part of an industry-wide trend as the computer market becomes more competitive and shifts to open architectures and industry-standard hardware and software. However, Stratus' margins declined faster than the company had predicted in the first half of this year. LaBelle said this was because customers were buying more low-end, low-margin products than the company had thought they would. The special charge for the cuts will include about $12 million for severance pay for the employees who lose their jobs, plus about $8 million to cover the cost of consolidating facilities. Stratus said the staff cuts are possible because of increased efficiencies, such as improved manufacturing processes. (Grant Buckler/19950828/Press Contact: Paul LaBelle, Stratus, 508-460-2068) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 08/28/95 ONLINE ZD-Net Intros Technical Classified Ads (NEWS)(ONLINE)(MSP)(00020) ZD-Net Intros Technical Classified Ads 08/28/95 CAMBRIDGE, MASSACHUSETTS, U.S.A., 1995 AUG 28 (NB) -- For people who are looking for jobs that have to do with computers, Ziff-Davis Publishing said it has just the place to go -- its Internet World Wide Web page. There, they can find "ZD Net Job Database," which contains more than 2,000 technology-related employment opportunities. ZD Net claims to be the first computer publishing Web site to offer such a database. The postings are searchable by city and state, industry, discipline, and job title. The company's name and address, an overview of the job description, and qualifications are listed within each pasting. Applying for the jobs in the database is easy, too. The applicant fills out an online resume template. The person also has the option to save that template to apply for other jobs through the Job Database, and to post the resume in a different database that's searchable by companies looking for workers. For companies looking for workers, Ziff-Davis Interactive officials said the site offers a low cost at $75 per ad, high quality responses from people who tend to be more highly qualified, and new applications and postings updated in real-time. Alan Phillips, Internet product manager for Ziff-Davis Interactive, told Newsbytes that even though the "technology-related" field is a wide one, the site will try to cover every job that falls under that electronic umbrella. "We'd rather err on the side of having too many jobs than not enough," he said. Phillips also said the Web was a logical place to put this type of information. "We see the Web as a starting place for this relationship. But we're looking to see to expand it into the online areas." Currently, ZD Net is available on several online services, such as Compuserve, Prodigy, and the Microsoft Network (MSN). The database is available at no charge to Web surfers. The area is within the ZD Net site at http://www.zdnet.com . (Bob Woods/19950828/Press Contacts: Marcia Goff, 508-435-3068, or Janice Brown, 617-332-8066, both of Janice Brown and Associates; Cara Washburn, Ziff-Davis Interactive, 617-225-3333; Public Contact: ZD Net, Internet World Wide Web http://www.zdnet.com ) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 08/28/95 ONLINE SEC To Offer Free Internet Access To Edgar System (NEWS)(ONLINE)(WAS)(00021) SEC To Offer Free Internet Access To Edgar System 08/28/95 WASHINGTON, D.C., U.S.A., 1995 AUG 28 (NB) -- The death of free public Internet access to the Securities and Exchange Commission's Edgar computerized filing system has been greatly exaggerated. That's the word from SEC Chairman Arthur Levitt, who said Sunday that the SEC itself will maintain public access to the service after October 1, when non-profit groups that had been offering the service run out of funds. "It is a major commission priority to use electronic communications to bring clearer, faster, more complete disclosure to investors," Levitt told an investor group. "Taxpayers and shareholders have already paid to file this information. They should not have to pay again." Levitt said the cost to put Edgar online over the World Wide Web will be "quite modest." The SEC had already planned to launch a Web site this fall and it would cost little more to incorporate the Edgar data, said Michael Bartell, the SEC's chief information officer. "This is just an extension of our original plan," said Bartell. He said that no new staff will be needed, but the commission will upgrade the computers it plans to use with more RAM and larger disk drives. Earlier this month Internet Multicasting Service, a Washington-based non-profit organization, said that it would stop offering Edgar access when its National Science Foundation funds expire at the end of the current fiscal year. Several commercial information vendors offered plans for their own Internet access to Edgar, but those offerings were limited. For example, Global Information Systems said it would offer access but users would not be able to print or download unless the users subscribe to the company's commercial service. "We've had many creative offers from the private sector to keep Edgar on the Internet after October 1," said Levitt, "but all of them would in some way limit the amount of information available, or else attach too many commercial strings." Beginning this fall, said Levitt, "With a personal computer and a modem, you'll be able to have the entire SEC public reference room in your own living room." (Kennedy Maize/19950828/Press Contact: Michael Bartell, 202-942-8090) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 08/28/95 TRENDS SPA Sets Software Packaging Guidelines (NEWS)(TRENDS)(WAS)(00022) SPA Sets Software Packaging Guidelines 08/28/95 WASHINGTON, D.C., U.S.A., 1995 AUG 28 (NB) -- The Software Publishers Association's software packaging special interest group has issued guidelines for desktop software packaging, the first of their kind to be issued by the software industry. Software packaging standards have been a controversial issue for some five years, and SPA stresses that it is issuing voluntary guidelines, not industry standards. The guidelines encourage consistent language and placement of information in a consistent fashion. SPA says the consistent placement on packages will make it easier for purchasers to locate information and reduce the number of returns based on confusion language. The various aspects of software packaging targeted by SPA's recommended practices and guidelines include placement of the title, location of uniform identification codes, ratings, systems requirements, and platform and media specifications. The guidelines also include advice on the size of the package and the package's construction. SPA says it hopes the packaging guidelines will also reduce the amount of goods damaged in shipment and make the software as "theft proof" as possible, while encouraging creativity and environmental awareness. Founded in 1984 with 25 member companies, SPA has grown to a membership of nearly 1,200 member firms, and domestic and international activities. (Kennedy Maize/19950828/Press Contact: Mandy Braun Strum, 202-452-1600 ext 313) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 08/28/95 APPLE Simple Technology Supplies PC Cards For PowerBooks (NEWS)(APPLE)(SFO)(00023) Simple Technology Supplies PC Cards For PowerBooks 08/28/95 SANTA ANA, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1995 AUG 28 (NB) -- Simple Technologies has announced PC Card storage and modem products for Apple's new PowerBook 190 and 5300 models. The company also supplies memory modules which allow 190 and 5300 PowerBook users to expand RAM to 8 megabytes (MB), 16MB, 24MB, 32MB, and 48MB. On the same day Apple announced its new PowerPC, RISC (reduced instruction set computing) processor-based PowerBooks, Simple Technology, a supplier of memory upgrades and PC Cards for both Apple and IBM/compatible computers, says it is meeting its goal to have immediate memory upgrades and PC Card storage products available. The 190 models can be ordered with 4MB or 8MB of memory, while the 5300 can be ordered with 8MB, 16MB, or 32MB of memory. Both models are expandable up to 64MB of memory. In order to accommodate users who need more memory, Simple Technology is making memory upgrades immediately available. Russell Droullard, advertising manager for Simple Technologies, told Newsbytes, "it has been our goal to be the first company to have memory upgrades and PC Card storage products ready for the new 190 and 5300 PowerBooks. We have been supplying Apple computer users with memory upgrades since we started business in 1990." Droullard said dealer installation is recommended for the memory upgrades. The PC Card storage devices are type III cards with an average seek time of 12 milliseconds (ms). Apple users can purchase a 130MB, 170MB, or 260MB capacity PC Card drive. Sometime during October, Simple Technologies will ship a 14.4 and a 28.8 kilobits-per-second (Kbps) PC Card modem for the 190 and 5300. Both of the models have full data/fax/voice and cellular capabilities. Commenting on the market for upgrade products, Droullard said, "Sometimes a customer will want a specific PowerBook with a certain amount of memory, but a dealer does not have that particular configuration. Rather than back-ordering a PowerBook, it is much faster to buy from existing inventories and purchase the necessary memory upgrade from Simple Technologies." Simple Technologies' Apple products are available through standard Apple retail channels. (Patrick McKenna/1995/Press Contact: Alexx Wood, Simple Technologies, 714-476-1180) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 08/28/95 TRENDS Oracle Outlines Road Map To Future (NEWS)(TRENDS)(LAX)(00024) Oracle Outlines Road Map To Future 08/28/95 SAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1995 AUG 28 (NB) -- Jerry Held, Oracle Corp.'s (NASDAQ:ORCL) senior vice president of Server Technologies, has offered a vision for the future of software development and object- oriented computing. Held detailed a road map to the future that relies on object technology to aid the inevitable "transition from PCs to network-centric information systems." Jim Trezzo, senior product manager for Oracle, told Newsbytes, "Dr. Held is a pioneer in the database industry, and is Oracle's senior vice president of server technologies in charge of all database development. His vision for Oracle includes the incorporation of object technology into our mainstream relational database products." Continued: Trezzo, "Relational databases have become the dominant information management architecture over the past ten to fifteen years and Oracle7 is by far the industry's leading relational database management system (RDBMs). Oracle's vision is to expand the Oracle7 RDBMS into a "universal DBMS" that manages all types of information from a company's operational data to video, text, complex analytical information, and software objects." According to Held, Oracle will add object capabilities into its existing database and development tool product lines. These capabilities will lead to the integration of objects into existing systems without disrupting conventional enterprise computing environments. Held stressed that users want just a few vendors around on which to base their data management infrastructure, rather than having to integrate software products from dozens of suppliers. "The transition from PCs to network-centric information systems will be a substantial change, just like the shift from mainframes to PCs," said Held. "A new software model is emerging that offers great opportunity for new inventions and new ideas about computing. Objects will be an important part of that transition, so Oracle is making significant investments in object technology. Our goal is to create objects that can succeed in the commercial enterprise and seamlessly integrate into existing systems." "As of now," Trezzo pointed out, "object technology has been proven in smaller scale projects, but has failed to penetrate enterprise computing. Large database users want object oriented technologies, but today the attempts to provide object technology database management have failed." "In order for object technology to become an integral part of commercial computing and database management, we believe the current definition of software objects must expand to address important information about business process workflow, operational constraints, and user interface standards," said Held. He continued, "Oracle's object-oriented capabilities will be integrated into the core database engine. Layering object support on top of existing technology impedes database performance and does not provide a viable alternative for mission-critical applications. Likewise, pure object-oriented databases have failed to win broad acceptance because they only address specific computing needs, lack scalability, and limit systems to a relatively small number of users." Held called for a mechanism to enhance object interoperability, which he calls a "universal object manager." The mechanism would be able to handle software components regardless of where they reside on today's widely dispersed network systems. Held noted that Oracle's object-oriented development work will support existing standards, such as the Common Object Request Broker Architecture 2.0 (CORBA) and Microsoft's object linking and embedding (OLE). (Richard Bowers/19950828/Press Contact: David Downing, Oracle, 415-506-8273) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 08/28/95 WINDOWS New "Dr. Solomon's Anti-Virus" To Ship (NEWS)(WINDOWS)(MSP)(00025) New "Dr. Solomon's Anti-Virus" To Ship 08/28/95 BURLINGTON, MASSACHUSETTS, U.S.A., 1995 AUG 28 (NB) -- S&S Software said it will ship this week new versions of the popular "Dr. Solomon's Anti-Virus Toolkit" for Windows, MS/PC-DOS, Novell NetWare, and IBM's OS/2. S&S said the National Computer Security Association (NCSA) tested the toolkit and said it detects 100 percent of all viruses "in the wild." Company officials claim the new version lets users attack viruses with new weapons. Some of these new functions include an "advanced heuristic analysis" that detects, decrypts, and eradicates unknown viruses. S&S said between 150 and 200 new viruses are detected each month by its virus research team. Another new feature is "WinGuard," a virtual device driver (VxD) for 32-bit anti-virus protection under Windows 3.1 and Windows for Workgroups 3.11. Another new feature is that the toolkit will scan compressed files like .zip, .arc, and .arj files. This includes the ability to recursively scan compressed files packed inside compressed files. This checks and safeguards executables attached to electronic-mail, stored on disks, distributed on CD-ROMs, or downloaded from the Internet or an online service. Earlier this month, Newsbytes reported on a new virus that this new version of Toolkit can detect. It is called "Dir.Byway," and it takes control of disk operations from a Microsoft MS-DOS or IBM PC-DOS based system. At the time, S&S officials described the virus as a "super- fast, polymorphic infector affecting computer desktops, notebooks, and even computer networks." They also described it as being a particularly "dangerous" virus. The virus creates a file called "CHKLIST . MS" (without the quotes, but with the spaces around the period) in the root directory, and cross- links all infected executable files. Officials said the new Toolkit can also remove the virus and fix any damage. S&S officials said Windows 95 users who purchase Toolkits before November 1 will receive a free upgrade to Microsoft's new operating system. (Bob Woods/19950828/Press Contact: Pat Bitton, S&S Software International, 617-273-7400) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 08/28/95 WINDOWS Microsoft Intros Automap Streets 4.0 For Windows (NEWS)(WINDOWS)(DEN)(00026) Microsoft Intros Automap Streets 4.0 For Windows 08/28/95 REDMOND, WASHINGTON, U.S.A., 1995 AUG 28 (NB) -- Almost lost in the excitement surrounding the announcement of Windows 95 last week was the shipment of Automap Streets version 4.0, a Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ:MSFT) product for Windows that includes more than 28 million street segments. A Microsoft spokesperson defined a street segment as the part of the street that is displayed on the PC's monitor when you search for a specific address or location. According to Microsoft, if you drove your car at 60 miles per hour for eight hours a day, it would take 38 years to drive down every street shown in the Streets database. Microsoft said Automap Streets can help you find an address in a town or plot a trip across the country. The program includes digital street maps of the 48 contiguous states plus Hawaii, and has an estimated street price of $69.95. Automap Streets works "seamlessly" with Automap Road Atlas, allowing the user to jump between Road Atlas and Streets and back again at the click of the mouse. The spokesperson explained that Road Atlas is an overview of the country's highways while Streets covers just about every city and town in the US. Microsoft said Streets provides more than six million miles of roads and highways, enough to require two CD-ROM disks to store them all. Maps can be printed or stored on the hard drive of a portable computer. If you choose to take the electronic version on the road with you, make sure you pull over while reading the map on your traveling computer. Automap Streets has a Go To tool that lets the user jump to a different city or zero in on a street, intersection, airport, park. or natural feature anywhere in the country and even look for specific street addresses in most cities around the country, according to Microsoft. Microsoft said Streets works with Windows 3.1, Windows 95, and Windows NT Workstation. You need at least a 386SX or higher, four megabytes (MB) of memory, at least 8MB of available hard drive space, a Super VGA 256-color monitor, and a mouse or compatible pointing device. (Jim Mallory/19950828/Press contact: Suzanne Dennehy, Waggener Edstrom for Microsoft, 408-986-1140; Public contact: Microsoft, 206-882-8080 or 800-426-9400) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 08/28/95 WINDOWS Windows 95 Includes Help For Physically Challenged (NEWS)(WINDOWS)(DEN)(00027) Windows 95 Includes Help For Physically Challenged 08/28/95 REDMOND, WASHINGTON, U.S.A., 1995 AUG 28 (NB) -- Amidst all the hoopla that surrounded the rollout of Windows 95 last week, little was said about one set of features in Microsoft Corp.'s (NASDAQ: MSFT) new operating system and graphical user interface -- but those features could provide the tools for millions of people that otherwise might not be able to use a PC. Microsoft calls the feature set "accessibility features" and said they are built into Windows 95 to make computing easier for the physically challenged community, people who have sight or hearing problems, cognitive disabilities, or problems double-clicking or dragging. Microsoft said the accessibility features of Windows 95 were developed in cooperation with users who have disabilities, organizations representing people with disabilities, workers in the rehabilitation field, and developers and vendors who create products for this specialized market. Many of the features now offered in Windows 95 for the physically challenged are already available through third party vendors as add-on products with an added cost, but this is the first time most of them have been included in an operating system for personal computers. With a PC with Windows 95 installed users with limited vision or eyestrain can adjust the size of the window titles, scroll bars, menu text, icons, and other elements from the Control Panel. They can also choose from normal, large or extra large-size mouse pointers and can change the mouse color or add animation to increase the pointer's visibility. Another feature to help the visually impaired is the ability to set a global flag for Windows 95 to use high-contrast text and avoid black text on a gray background or text drawn over pictures. The physically challenged, such as those who have to use a mouth stick or can only type with one finger, benefit from StickyKeys, which lets the user press one key at a time and instruct Windows 95 to respond as if the keys had been pressed simultaneously, such as the Alt-Tab combination. Some users have difficulty controlling their extremities and may brush keys accidentally. For them, Microsoft has included a feature called FilterKeys, which tells Windows 95 to disregard keystrokes that are not held down for a user-specified period of time. Those same users can activate BounceKeys, a feature that tells Windows 95 to ignore extra key taps, or double-strikes. MouseKeys lets users control the mouse pointer using the keyboard instead of clicking, double-clicking and dragging and dropping with the mouse buttons. For hearing impaired users, ShowSounds sets a global flag to tell applications that present information audibly using digitized speech or other audible cues to present that information in a closed-caption display. A related tool, SoundSentry, tells Windows 95 to send a visual cue, such as a blinking title bar or screen flash, whenever the system makes a sound. Windows 95 also comes with a Chat utility that allows up to eight people to hold a typed conversation on networked computers, a handy alternative to telephone conversations in a work environment. Hearing impaired users can also adjust the sounds and the volume associated with various onscreen events to make them easier to distinguish. For PCs that are used by several people, some physically challenged and some not, Windows 95 has an automatic reset feature that returns a system to its default condition after a specified period of no use, removing any settings created for a challenged user. There is also an emergency hot-key activation feature that let a user easily turn on any major accessibility feature. Windows 95 can display the status of major accessibility features on the taskbar or in a floating windows to provide a visual signal about which features are turned on. Physically challenged users also benefit from one of the Windows 95 features intended for all users. That is the program's ability to store preferences and desktop settings for several different users. Those individualized configurations can include the accessibility features that come with Windows 95. (Jim Mallory/19950828/Press contact: Catherine Merten, Waggener Edstrom for Microsoft, 503-245-0905; Public contact: Microsoft, 206-882-8080 or 800-426-9400) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 08/28/95 ONLINE Media Mall Offers Online Multimedia Info (NEWS)(ONLINE)(SFO)(00028) Media Mall Offers Online Multimedia Info 08/28/95 SAUSALITO, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A, 1995 AUG 28 (NB) -- Hoping to contribute to the next generation of multimedia technology in CD-ROM titles, World Wide Web sites, and digital video, a small electronic communications agency, Communication Bridges, has launched Media Mall. With editorial and technological content, this new Web site is building a community center to communicate the latest thoughts, concepts and technology surrounding the use of multimedia. "Much like the early stages of desktop publishing, multimedia technology is in a growing process," said Jon Leland, president and creative director of Communication Bridges. "Just because all of the tools are available, we may not assume we can immediately do great work. We need to focus on the art of communication." He continued: "Media Mall is not like a shopping mall. It is a communication and multimedia resource center where users may easily learn about new multimedia technologies, preview new titles and conveniently link to many Web sites with related resources." Media Mall is set-up for both the professional multimedia developer and end-users who want to learn about the latest developments in the industry. The Web site has three areas: Now Media, a news and commentary area with links to other sites; Pro Media, an area for professional producers; and Fun Media, an area which previews new titles. Leland emphasized the latter area is not a place for the latest shooting and hitting title, but a place to preview new material which highlights the art of communication. As an example of who might use the site, Leland said many companies have opened Web sites and are using multimedia technology to offer sound, audio, complex graphics, and video. These companies now feel they need to use these tools to create a more powerful and compete communication with their audiences. "By bringing all these resources together in one place with our unique editorial focus, we will empower the next generation of communications by enabling users to access one site with an inter-linking array of valuable content," said Leland. Part of Leland's mission is to assure the latest concepts and technologies are available to all developers both large and small and both professional and amateur. Media Mall is supported through sponsorships by advertisers. Rather than offer direct advertisements, Media Mall commercial sponsors produce "Webvertorials," which are "areas of content much like a print 'advertorial' one finds in a magazine," said Leland. (Patrick McKenna/19950828/Press Contact: Jon Leland, Communication Bridges, 415-331-3133, Internet World Wide Web http://www.mediamall.com /MEDIAMALL950828/PHOTO) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 08/28/95 GENERAL IBM Ships Pair Of DataHubs, Plans To "Merge" Products (NEWS)(GENERAL)(BOS)(00029) IBM Ships Pair Of DataHubs, Plans To "Merge" Products 08/28/95 ARMONK, NEW YORK, U.S.A., 1995 AUG 28 (NB) -- A pair of new DataHub products from IBM -- DataHub for OS/2 version 2, and the expert system-based DataHub for the Unix operating system -- have both started shipping, and IBM plans to begin "merging" the capabilities of the two by next year, revealed Jeff Jones, brand manager for data replication and database management services, during a briefing for Newsbytes. Jones told Newsbytes that, like its predecessor, a product known merely as "DataHub," the new DataHub for OS/2 version 2 runs on OS/2, and supports centralized administration of the DB2 database running on all IBM DB2 platforms, including OS/2, AIX, MVS, VMS, and OS/400. In contrast, he said, the new DataHub for Unix is "agent-based," and represents IBM's "first multivendor database." The new entry allows management of DB2, as well as the Sybase and Oracle databases, running on either IBM's AIX operating system (OS), Sun's Solaris, or Hewlett-Packard's HP-UX, all from the same GUI (graphical user interface), according to the brand manager. "There is the notion (in DataHub for Unix) that you have agents that you can set up in advance to look for certain conditions. Then, when those actions are true, rules are evaluated, and actions are automatically kicked off -- whether they're alerts, or actual jobs that are run, or tasks that are processed," he maintained. DataHub for OS/2 version 2 provides a series of enhancements through a new graphical front-end, said Jones. New capabilities in the "version 2" product include the ability to browse catalogs, to grant privileges by different user types, to copy data and user authorizations, and to perform remote utility management, according to the IBM exec. "You get much richer support for the entire database command line through the new GUI. You can also do a lot of `relational detective work' -- looking for `locks held,' for example. And you get `beefier support' for large numbers," he noted. But the new, expert system-based DataHub for Unix provides "all these things and a lot more," according to Jones. "DataHub for Unix is the technology base that we will use when we merge the two DataHub products," he added. "There is the idea that there is `independent monitoring,' and that the databases will report back to you when certain things get out of range. You can tell DataHub agents to send an alert to the control point when Joe Johnson logs on, for example -- or to run a (specified) job when CPU utilization exceeds 80 percent -- or to start backup when free space in these five file structures exceeds 75 percent," he illustrated. Also in contrast to DataHub for OS/2, which performs tasks in the same way across databases, the new DataHub for Unix performs different actions on different databases, depending on "what makes sense" for that particular database, according to the IBM exec. "We believed that if we tried to take a `least common denominator' approach, there wouldn't be anything interesting in the intersection, because the databases are so different," Newsbytes was told. The new DataHub for Unix also includes new capabilities for system management, he pointed out. "You can look at the physical layout of data on your disk, so you can see when databases are getting fragmented. You can also view the amount of storage use by any file structure to find out which database is taking up the most space." At this point, the competing BMC Patrol, which is also agent-based, "probably supports a wider range of database types," Jones acknowledged. But, he contended, IBM's new product provides "stronger utilities and hands-on capabilities." DataHub for Unix "will only be a separate product for a short period of time," the brand manager observed. "The plans for merging databases are urgent. We will first use the technology in the `new DataHub' for DB2 for OS/2 and DB2 for MVS, because those are the two platforms highest in demand right now. We'll also add support for the new technology to DB2 on HP-UX and Solaris, which are currently supported by the `original DataHub,'" he said. "You'll probably see additional DB2 family members supported over time on DataHub for Unix. And you will probably see a (product) name change, to drop the Unix designation. the brand manager reported. IBM hopes to start beta testing an initial edition of the new "merged product" by the end of this year, and to deliver a product commercially in the first half of next year, according to Jones. David McGovern, president of Alternative Technologies, Boulder Creek, California, characterized shipment of the new DataHub for Unix as "an extremely important announcement." "DataHub for Unix is a very strong product for distributed systems administration. This product will provide a level of reliability and robustness that has been missing with regard to database servers in the Unix space," the analyst told Newsbytes. (Jacqueline Emigh/19950825/Reader Contact: IBM, 914-765-1900; Press Contact: Parna Sarkar, Brodeur & Partners for IBM, 617-622-2800) (SUMMARY)(GENERAL)(MSP)(00030) Newsbytes Daily Summary 08/28/95 MINNEAPOLIS, MINNESOTA, U.S.A., 1995 AUG 28 (NB) -- These are capsules of all today's news stories: ======================================================================== ------------| N E W S B Y T E S D A I L Y S U M M A R Y |---------- ------------| Monday, August 28, 1995 |---------- ======================================================================== (c) Newsbytes News Network (Tm) Editor in Chief: Wendy Woods ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Newsbytes News Network's 1995 Update CD-ROM for Mac, DOS, and Windows is now available for $29.95 (includes s&h). Contains 1983-1995 news stories, more than 64,000 keyword searchable stories and 475 digitized images. For more information or to order, fax to 612-430-0441 or e-mail to 'administrator@newsbytes.com' -- MC, Visa, Amex accepted. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ CATEGORY HEADLINES (*** indicates today's top stories) STORY # ======================================================================== APPLE Europe - FastTrak's On Cue II Utilities For Mac............ 07 APPLE ****Apple Intros PowerPC PowerBooks....................... 18 APPLE Simple Technology Supplies PC Cards For PowerBooks......... 23 BUSINESS Europe - ESaSS & Reflex In Virus Partnership............... 05 BUSINESS UK - Pace's Modem Operation Sold To Management............. 09 BUSINESS ****Stratus Cutting 500 Jobs As Margins Sag............... 19 GENERAL OSF/DCE - More On DEC Products For NT & Windows 95......... 03 GENERAL NewsPix Images For Newsbytes Publishers.................... 12 GENERAL Japan Newsbriefs........................................... 16 GENERAL Canadian Product Launch Update............................. 17 GENERAL IBM Ships Pair Of DataHubs, Plans To "Merge" Products...... 29 ONLINE New Rock Hall Of Fame On Web............................... 01 ONLINE UK Firm Offers Computer Training Via Microsoft Network..... 08 ONLINE 3-D Real Estate & Hotel Walkabouts On The Web.............. 11 ONLINE Internet Update............................................ 15 ONLINE ZD-Net Intros Technical Classified Ads..................... 20 ONLINE SEC To Offer Free Internet Access To Edgar System.......... 21 ONLINE Media Mall Offers Online Multimedia Info................... 28 TELECOM UK - ALPS Intros Multi-Function Comms System............... 02 TELECOM Sweden's Ericsson Plugs China In With Paging Services...... 06 TELECOM Japan - Final Digital Tu-Ka Cellular Company Formed........ 14 TRENDS ****CD Software Sales Soar 186%........................... 13 TRENDS SPA Sets Software Packaging Guidelines..................... 22 TRENDS Oracle Outlines Road Map To Future......................... 24 WINDOWS AlphaBlox Software Intros Windows 95 Suite................. 04 WINDOWS Windows 95 Sales Off To A Sluggish Start In UK, Europe..... 10 WINDOWS New "Dr. Solomon's Anti-Virus" To Ship..................... 25 WINDOWS Microsoft Intros Automap Streets 4.0 For Windows........... 26 WINDOWS Windows 95 Includes Help For Physically Challenged......... 27 ======================================================================== These are the headlines and first paragraphs of each story, in order: 1 -> New Rock Hall Of Fame On Web -- The words "Thank you, Cleveland" will be heard quite a bit next weekend, as the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame officially opens on the shores of Lake Erie. To tie in with the opening, the Cleveland Plain Dealer, Cleveland Online, and other organizations have opened an Internet World Wide Web site about the real Hall. 2 -> UK - ALPS Intros Multi-Function Comms System -- ALPS Electric has announced plans to launch the Office FX system, a multi-functional communications system, into Europe next month. 3 -> OSF/DCE - More On DEC Products For NT & Windows 95 -- With the introduction of a full client-server implementation for Windows NT, which will be joined by a run-time client for Windows 95, Digital Equipment Corp. is offering "broad and heterogeneous support" for DCE (Distributed Computing Environment), maintained Digital's Tim Yeaton, in a press conference at the OSF (Open Software Foundation)/DCE Conference in Boston. 4 -> AlphaBlox Software Intros Windows 95 Suite -- A new company, AlphaBlox Software, has been formed to launch a suite of Windows 95 applications into the US, Canadian, European, and Australian marketplaces. According to Gideon Luke, a spokesman for AlphaBlox, the company's suite of applications 5 -> Europe - ESaSS & Reflex In Virus Partnership -- ESaSS and Reflex Magnetics have announced the formation of a strategic alliance, which the companies claim strengthens their role in the ongoing fight against computer viruses. 6 -> Sweden's Ericsson Plugs China In With Paging Services -- Ericsson, the Swedish telecommunications company, has received a major order for the supply and installation of paging equipment in China. According to Ericsson, the equipment will support the first phase of a nationwide paging system, which will be operational by the end of this year. 7 -> Europe - FastTrak's On Cue II Utilities For Mac -- FastTrak Software Publishing, the newly formed division of FastCAD, has launched a new version of On Cue II Utilities. According to Julie Turner, the company's marketing manager, version 3.0 of the package has extended features and gives the user increased control over Mac applications, files, and the operating system. 8 -> UK Firm Offers Computer Training Via Microsoft Network -- Peritas, which claims to be the UK's largest information technology (IT) training organization and one of Europe's leading commercial education consultancies, has become the first UK training supplier to deliver online training courses via Microsoft Network (MSN). 9 -> UK - Pace's Modem Operation Sold To Management -- Pace Micro Communications, the oldest modem manufacturer in the UK, has been spun-off from the parent company, Pace, in a UKP3 million management buyout (MBO). The deal leaves Pace to concentrate on satellite TV products, an area of the market it is one of the brand leaders in Europe, Newsbytes notes. 10 -> Windows 95 Sales Off To A Sluggish Start In UK, Europe -- Despite all the ramazataz associated with last week's launch of Windows 95, British consumers appear to be unphased by the whole affair, with sales of the new version of Windows off to a modest, if somewhat sluggish, start. 11 -> 3-D Real Estate & Hotel Walkabouts On The Web -- InterArt, a 2,000-page World Wide Web (Web) site, says it is adding three- dimensional (3-D) tours of exclusive real estate and resort hotels. Called "Walkabouts," the tours use Apple's QuickTime Virtual Reality software. 12 -> NewsPix Images For Newsbytes Publishers -- These photos correspond to recent Newsbytes stories. They are online in the Newsbytes menu on America Online, NiftyServe, and the Newsbytes private bulletin board system in Minneapolis. JPEG files are larger in size, PICT files are designed as thumbnails for onscreen viewing. 13 -> ****CD Software Sales Soar 186% -- Sales of CD software hit $249.6 million for the first quarter of 1995, up 186 percent over the $87.3 million reported for the first quarter of 1994, according to the Software Publisher Association. Unit sales for the quarter were 6.86 million, a 125 percent increase. 14 -> Japan - Final Digital Tu-Ka Cellular Company Formed -- A consortium of companies led by Nissan Motor and Japan Telecom have formed the final Digital Tu-Ka Cellular company on the smallest of Japan's four major islands, Shikoku. When all regional companies are offering service, the Digital Tu-Ka network will span Japan. 15 -> Internet Update -- In this roundup of new and updated resources and services on the Internet: Follow the US Open on the net, PCSI opens Web server, International affairs resources, Breaking windows on the Net, Public utility law home page, Sony launches US PlayStation Web, Techexpo offers technical conference details, and American Museum of Papermaking online. 16 -> Japan Newsbriefs -- In this update of news from Japan: Oki replaces president, NTT satellite launch today, Fujitsu announces new chip research center, JVC develops S-VHS PALplus format, MITI to encourage chip design, and Canon Soft reports lower profits. 17 -> Canadian Product Launch Update -- This regular feature, appearing on the first day Newsbytes publishes each week, provides further details for the Canadian market on announcements by international companies that Newsbytes has already covered. This week: Compaq's nine new 133 megahertz (MHz) Pentium systems and across-the-board price cuts. 18 -> ****Apple Intros PowerPC PowerBooks -- Apple Computer Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) has announced two new PowerBook series, which include a full-sized notebook, the 5300, and a subnotebook, the 2300, both powered by PowerPC RISC (reduced instruction set computer) processors. A low priced model 190 PowerBook was also introduced. 19 -> ****Stratus Cutting 500 Jobs As Margins Sag -- Stratus Computer (NYSE:SRA) said it is reducing its worldwide staff by about 500 people this year in a struggle against declining profit margins. The company will take a one-time charge of about $20 million against its third-quarter earnings to provide for the cuts. 20 -> ZD-Net Intros Technical Classified Ads -- For people who are looking for jobs that have to do with computers, Ziff-Davis Publishing said it has just the place to go 21 -> SEC To Offer Free Internet Access To Edgar System -- The death of free public Internet access to the Securities and Exchange Commission's Edgar computerized filing system has been greatly exaggerated. 22 -> SPA Sets Software Packaging Guidelines -- The Software Publishers Association's software packaging special interest group has issued guidelines for desktop software packaging, the first of their kind to be issued by the software industry. 23 -> Simple Technology Supplies PC Cards For PowerBooks -- Simple Technologies has announced PC Card storage and modem products for Apple's new PowerBook 190 and 5300 models. The company also supplies memory modules which allow 190 and 5300 PowerBook users to expand RAM to 8 megabytes (MB), 16MB, 24MB, 32MB, and 48MB. 24 -> Oracle Outlines Road Map To Future -- Jerry Held, Oracle Corp.'s (NASDAQ:ORCL) senior vice president of Server Technologies, has offered a vision for the future of software development and object- oriented computing. Held detailed a road map to the future that relies on object technology to aid the inevitable "transition from PCs to network-centric information systems." 25 -> New "Dr. Solomon's Anti-Virus" To Ship -- S&S Software said it will ship this week new versions of the popular "Dr. Solomon's Anti-Virus Toolkit" for Windows, MS/PC-DOS, Novell NetWare, and IBM's OS/2. S&S said the National Computer Security Association (NCSA) tested the toolkit and said it detects 100 percent of all viruses "in the wild." 26 -> Microsoft Intros Automap Streets 4.0 For Windows -- Almost lost in the excitement surrounding the announcement of Windows 95 last week was the shipment of Automap Streets version 4.0, a Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ:MSFT) product for Windows that includes more than 28 million street segments. 27 -> Windows 95 Includes Help For Physically Challenged -- Amidst all the hoopla that surrounded the rollout of Windows 95 last week, little was said about one set of features in Microsoft Corp.'s (NASDAQ: MSFT) new operating system and graphical user interface 28 -> Media Mall Offers Online Multimedia Info -- Hoping to contribute to the next generation of multimedia technology in CD-ROM titles, World Wide Web sites, and digital video, a small electronic communications agency, Communication Bridges, has launched Media Mall. With editorial and technological content, this new Web site is building a community center to communicate the latest thoughts, concepts and technology surrounding the use of multimedia. 29 -> IBM Ships Pair Of DataHubs, Plans To "Merge" Products (Ian Stokell/19950828) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 08/25/95 TELECOM UK - Budget V.34 Multiplexer Intro'd (NEWS)(TELECOM)(LON)(00001) UK - Budget V.34 Multiplexer Intro'd 08/25/95 SLOUGH, BERKSHIRE, ENGLAND, 1995 AUG 25 (NB) -- Eloquence, a UK communications company, has unveiled the Quad Statistical Multiplexer, a UKP499 device that sits between the serial output from up to four devices, typically computers, and the single serial input to a V.34, 28,800 bits-per-second (bps), modem. Piers Tyler, a spokesman for the company, told Newsbytes that the unit has four RS232 inputs and a single RS232 output. The multiplexer, as the name implies, multiplexes up to four asynchronous data channels, each working at speeds of up to 19,200 bps, and feeds them out to the modem at up to 32,000 bps in synchronous mode. "Obviously all four channels cannot be transmitting at 19,200 bps all the time, but the realities of data communications are such that each serial line is not transmitting all the time, so the channels are statistically multiplexed down to a single channel," he explained. According to Tyler, two of the devices are needed on a typical installation -- one at each end of the phone link -- but the advantage is that any serial link working to V34 modem standards or even an ISDN (integrated services digital network) link, can be used to carry the data traffic. "As far as a V.34 modem is concerned, it's a single 28,800 or 32,000 bps data stream. You can plug this device into any V.34 modem, so it offers a low cost solution to multiple data channels that other vendors charge a lot more for," he explained. The Quad unit is being sold direct by Eloquence, as well as on an OEM (original equipment manufacturer) basis by the company. (Steve Gold/19950824/Press & Reader Contact: Eloquence, tel +44-628- 668941, fax +44-1628-668798/QUAD950825/PHOTO) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 08/25/95 TELECOM UK Cellular Firm Offers Consumer Guide (NEWS)(TELECOM)(LON)(00002) UK Cellular Firm Offers Consumer Guide 08/25/95 NEWBURY, BERKSHIRE, ENGLAND, 1995 AUG 25 (NB) -- Vodafone has unveiled a "Code of Practice for Consumers," a 20-page booklet for its two million-plus subscribers that use the company's analog and digital cellular services in the UK. Libby Pritchard, a spokeswoman for Vodafone, told Newsbytes that the guide is being circulated through Vodafone's various airtime providers and dealers, but cellular users -- or any other interested party -- can contact the company direct for a copy. "It's designed for anyone with an interest in cellular," she explained. The guide explains how the Vodafone system works in some detail, as well as explaining what services Vodafone offers to its subscribers. It then goes on to talk about billing and how to resolve any problems that the cellular user might have. It also details many useful names and addresses for cellular users. According to Vodafone, the explosive growth in consumer demand for mobile phones in recent years, and the introduction of new digital networks, have led to many requests for information from new and existing users, as well as potential users of cellular phones. Announcing the release of the guide, Chris Gent, Vodafone's managing director, said that the guide aims to provide a better understanding of Vodafone, its technologies, and the Vodafone services. "Purchasing a mobile phone has become a complex and sometimes confusing process with today's wide choice of networks and tariffs. We would like consumers to have the confidence that, should things go wrong, they can quickly and easily resolve any problems," he explained. The guide has been approved by the director general of Oftel, and is being circulated to service providers, dealers, public libraries, Citizens' Advice Bureaux, trading standards departments, and advisory committees on telecommunications. (Steve Gold/19950824/Press Contact: Libby Pritchard, Press Office, Vodafone, +44-1635-33251; Reader Contact: Vodafone, tel +44-1635-33251, fax +44-1635-45713) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 08/25/95 IBM IBM Europe Says OS/2 Warp Server In Beta (NEWS)(IBM)(LON)(00003) IBM Europe Says OS/2 Warp Server In Beta 08/25/95 LONDON, ENGLAND, 1995 AUG 25 (NB) -- IBM United Kingdom has announced that public beta testing of OS/2 Warp Server has begun in the UK and Europe, following preliminary testing that started in the US earlier this month. According to Val Russell, a spokeswoman for Big Blue's UK operation, the package is being pitched as IBM's business server for customers ranging from small businesses to large enterprises. Main UK beta testers should get their beta copy of OS/2 Warp Server some time in September, while the general public on both sides of the Atlantic will be able to buy the package early on next year. According to IBM, OS/2 Warp Server "builds on the success" of OS/2 Warp Connect and combines the "market-proven nature of OS/2 Warp and LAN Server 4.0 with a wealth of functional enhancements in system management, backup, remote access and advanced print functions." IBM claims that services such as file and print with the new version of OS/2 can be selectively installed, so allowing users to customize OS/2 Warp Server to meet their respective needs. According to Big Blue, the installation process also includes auto-detection of devices such as network cards. "OS/2 Warp Server will raise the bar on what customers and resellers should expect from a server operating system," said Phil Powers, IBM's director of marketing for LAN systems. According to Powers, IBM believes that OS/2 Warp Server will act as an excellent application server foundation, as well as "providing high performance file and print facilities in a single solution" for users. "The additional integrated features will also help users reduce the overall cost of managing their networks," he claimed. According to IBM's Russell, pricing for the package has yet to be decided, although IBM has confirmed there will be an upgrade program for LAN Server users. (Steve Gold/19950824/Press & Reader Contact: IBM UK, tel +44-171-202-3744, fax +44-171-202-3792, Internet World Wide Web http:/www.ibm.com ) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 08/25/95 LEGAL UK - Chip Theft Recovery Service Offered (NEWS)(LEGAL)(LON)(00004) UK - Chip Theft Recovery Service Offered 08/25/95 LONDON, ENGLAND, 1995 AUG 25 (NB) -- According to Response Computer Maintenance (RCM), theft of computer components represents one of the fastest-growing and most lucrative forms of crime in the UK today. According to the company, every week, hundreds of offices up and down the country are broken into and PCs stripped of their high-value components -- usually easily-removable processors and single in-line memory modules (SIMMs), which are now more valuable weight-for-weight than diamonds. RCM claims that these thefts may leave computer equipment relatively undamaged but unusable. Organizations hit by component theft will often go several days without access to computer-based information and applications while they wait for their dealer or manufacturer to supply replacement parts. The effect on day-to-day business can be devastating. Because of this, RCM has launched a new service to assist organizations in recovering more rapidly from the theft of computer components. Called PC Recovery, the service claims to provide on-site engineers to replace standard memory SIMMs and Intel processors within one working day of a call-out anywhere on the UK mainland. A two-hour response is also available at extra cost within metropolitan areas. Interestingly, RCM is not insisting that companies take out a maintenance contract with the company to use the PC Recovery service. Anyone, it claims, can call the company's hotline on 0345-686686 and be put in contact with one of RCM's eight UK branches, all of who have PC engineers on call. David Bridson, a spokesman for RCM, told Newsbytes that the company makes a fixed charge of UKP35 per hour for callouts, plus parts. "The point about the callout fees is that you know where you are. The hourly rate is a lot less than many dealers charge, and there is a guaranteed response time," he explained. Bridson, who works as a PR and marketing consultant for RCM, told Newsbytes that, when he joined the company, he polled about 500 businesses to discover where their needs lay as far as computer maintenance was concerned. "We came back with the interesting result that less than 30 percent of companies had any form of maintenance contract, mainly because they thought it was an expensive option. That's why RCM offers an on-demand service for callers although, obviously, they're in the business of selling maintenance contracts as well," he explained. (Steve Gold/19950824/Press Contact: Bridson & Bridson, tel +44-1869- 338382, fax +44-1869-338843, Internet e-mail bandb@cix.compulink.co.uk; Reader Contact: Response Computer Maintenance, tel +44-181-965-3225, fax +44-181-965-3246) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 08/25/95 TRENDS Library Licensing Of Reference Databases Up 67% (NEWS)(TRENDS)(SFO)(00005) Library Licensing Of Reference Databases Up 67% 08/25/95 FOSTER CITY, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A, 1995 AUG 25 (NB) -- Information Access, a marketer and developer of reference products for CD-ROM, online, microfilm, and magnetic tape systems, has released a public and academic library survey conducted by Opinion Technology. Its findings indicate that US libraries are quickly moving to incorporate licensed electronic reference databases into its traditional services. In the past few years, many libraries have offered CD-ROM-based reference materials to their members. This new survey indicates libraries are moving to licensed electronic information delivered online from a host server or on a locally loaded magnetic tape. From 1994 to 1995, library expenditures on these licensed databases increased by 67%. Daniel Woods, spokesperson for Information Access, told Newsbytes, "Libraries now see themselves as having to compete with the online information resources of CompuServe, AOL, Prodigy, and the Internet. Libraries have been slow to integrate electronic technology, but they are beginning to see themselves in the role of a full information conduit for their communities. Electronic accessed databases are critical to support the information needs of today's communities." Opinion Technology's survey found 28% of US public libraries and 39% of academic libraries have adopted some form of licensing electronic databases. At the same time, the survey found expenditures on CD-ROM based databases grew 5% in the past year. Woods commented, "Some people have suggested the use of CD reference content might be replaced by licensing electronic databases. That is not the situation. Both media are valuable resources to libraries. The CD information provides more specialized information, while electronic databases offer a large base of information which is capable of delivering the most current information." The survey also shows 54% of the expenditures were spent on Information Access' licensed databases. When asked if this new trend in licensing electronic databases meant a large investment in computer hardware, Woods said, "This is not the case. Most libraries are able to offer these resources over their existing workstations and some libraries are starting to offer remote access for their library members. This means those families and individuals in a community may access a library's reference resources from home or work. We do not have the exact figures, but I would generally estimate remote access has grown by 150% in the past year." He also said, "Between the growth of client/server technology and the Internet, libraries have the tools and the challenge to meet the needs and the demands of their members." (Patrick McKenna/19950825/Press Contact: Daniel Woods, Information Access, 415-358-4774) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 08/25/95 GENERAL Japan Newsbriefs (NEWS)(GENERAL)(TYO)(00006) Japan Newsbriefs 08/25/95 TOKYO, JAPAN, 1995 AUG 25 (NB) -- In this roundup of news from Japan: SD group gets four more supporters, Ascii plans network backup, Sony develops all-in-one television, NTT faces legal action over center closure, KDD applies for international satellite data license, CSK & Digital Media Lab join Optibase in development pact, Buoyant chip market raises Kyocera profit predictions. SD Group Gets Four More Supporters The Toshiba and Matsushita-led group promoting the super density digital video disk (DVD) standard have announced support from another four companies, just days after two others joined the group. TDK Corp., Mitsubishi Chemical Corp., Mitsui Toatsu Chemicals Inc. and Pioneer Video Corp. all announced they would support the SD format. Ascii Plans Network Backup National online service Asciinet has built an emergency network control and backup center in the Kansai region of western Japan. The new center, which goes live on September 1, has the ability to take over control of the computer network should a major disaster hit the current main center in Tokyo. In the event of a major earthquake or other such disaster, the Kansai center will assume network control and make the service available free of charge for electronic-mail communications. For security reasons, Asciinet declined to reveal the location of the center, but Newsbytes notes the Kansai region includes Osaka, Kyoto, Kobe, and Nara. The Kobe area was devastated by an earthquake in January that prompted many companies to consider the effect on communications such an earthquake would have if it hit Tokyo. Sony Develops All-In-One Television Sony Corporation will begin sales this autumn of a new television set that can also act as a computer monitor. The set makes use of a wide screen, 16:9 aspect ratio, high definition tube manufactured by Braun. Despite the tube being high definition, the set will not be compatible with Hi-Vision broadcasts, a Sony spokesman told Newsbytes. Two versions will be available from October 5 priced at 250,000 yen for a 28-inch model and 330,000 yen for a 32-inch model. Sony says it has no plans to sell the models outside of Japan. NTT Faces Legal Action Over Center Closure The Kyodo news service reports a group of radio operators at NTT's Chiba radio station have filed a lawsuit in an attempt to get the telecommunications giant to reverse a decision to close the site. The radio station, Japan's first, was set up in 1908 and today handles traffic between the country and ships at sea in addition to linking Japan's Antarctica base with home. NTT plans to move operations to a similar center in Nagasaki. KDD Applies For International Satellite Data License International communications company KDD has applied to the Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications for a license to operate an international data transmission service. Initially to enter service between Japan and Vietnam, the company says it will be expanded to other countries in Asia and Africa where advanced telecommunications systems are not in place. The service will use satellites operated by Intelsat. CSK & Digital Media Lab Join Optibase In Development Pact Israel's Optibase has entered into an agreement with the CSK Group and Digital Media Lab to work on the development of chips to handle real- time video digital compression. At the same time, the CSK Group, a consortium led by CSK Corporation and including IBM Japan, Mitsubishi and Sega, has acquired a $4 million stake in Optibase, some 11.2% of the company. Development will focus on chips that will operate on the MPEG-2 (Motion Picture Experts Group type 2) video compression system, an internationally adopted format for digital video. Buoyant Chip Market Raises Kyocera Profit Predictions Heavy demand for semiconductors has forced Kyocera, the largest manufacturer of semiconductor ceramic packages, to raise its profits forecast for the current financial year. Pretax profits are expected to reach 90.0 billion yen ($932 million) with net profits hitting 57.7 billion yen ($598 million). The figures represent a 23.3% increase in the pretax figures and a greater 49.9% increase in net profits on the last financial year. (Martyn Williams/19950825) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 08/25/95 TRENDS Fujitsu Plans Plasma Display Panels (NEWS)(TRENDS)(TYO)(00007) Fujitsu Plans Plasma Display Panels 08/25/95 TOKYO, JAPAN, 1995 AUG 25 (NB) -- Fujitsu has become the latest of the major Japanese electronics companies to announce the development of large screen plasma display panels. The company announced in Tokyo that it will invest 60 billion yen ($622 million) over the next five years in the development and production of the displays which are destined to replace the cathode ray tubes (CRTs) in television sets of the future. Twenty billion yen will be invested in a new production line to manufacture 42-inch PDP screens at the company's existing plant in Miyazaki prefecture. The remaining 40 billion yen will be spent in 1998 on building up production towards the year 2000. Fujitsu's president, Tadashi Sekizawa, said at a press conference, "Fujitsu will be the first and only electronics maker to start mass production of large PDPs next year." The Miyazaki plant will begin turning out 10,000 displays a month in October next year with the output hitting 100,000 a month be the turn of the century. At that time Fujitsu say it expects its annual sales to reach 200 billion yen ($2.07 billion) by the year 2000. The new displays measure 42-inches across the screen diagonally and feature a wide screen aspect ratio of 16:9. The display panels are just 75 millimeters (mm), making them suitable for wall mounting, something which offers large advantages over conventional cathode ray tubes which are around as long as they are wide. The color display boasts 16.7 million colors and a contrast ratio of 70:1 which, Fujitsu says, puts it on par with the best CRTs and better than all projection televisions. Earlier this week Newsbytes reported on two new PDPs that had been developed by Matsushita Electric in association with broadcaster NHK, Texas Instruments Japan, and DuPont. NEC Corporation made a similar announcement in June when it said it would start producing 10,000 units a month from April, 1997. NEC is predicting sales of 100 billion yen in 2000. Sony Corporation has teamed up with Tektronix Inc. of the US to develop PDP technology. The company has announced it will manufacture screens in sizes from 20- to 50-inches. Initial models will sell for several million yen although many manufactures has expressed a wish to bring the price down to around 10,000 yen ($103) per-inch by the turn of the century. (Martyn Williams/19950825/Press contact: Michael Beirne, Fujitsu Ltd., tel +81-3-3215-5236, fax +81-3-3216-9365, Internet e-mail mike@hq.fujitsu.co.jp) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 08/25/95 BUSINESS Matsushita Reports Loss For 1st Qtr (NEWS)(BUSINESS)(TYO)(00008) Matsushita Reports Loss For 1st Qtr 08/25/95 OSAKA, JAPAN, 1995 AUG 25 (NB) -- Japan's biggest consumer electronics maker, Matsushita, has announced a large net loss for the first quarter of the current financial year. Pretax profits at the group, which includes the National, Panasonic, Quasar, and Technics brands, plunged 127.7 billion yen ($1.33 billion) into the red compared to a 37.6 billion yen ($390 million) pretax profit over the same period last year. Sales for the three months to June stood at 1.528 trillion yen ($15.8 billion), slightly down on the same period last year which saw sales of 1.642 trillion ($17.0 billion). The company attributes much of the loss to the turmoil in the world's money markets over the last six months which has seen the yen slide from over 100 to the dollar down to an all time low of 79.60 and, recently, back up to around 96.5 yen to the dollar. Matsushita off-loaded its 80% stake in entertainment company MCA to Canada's Seagram in June. The stake was sold at a small loss in dollar terms, around $400 million, but when converted back to yen, represented a much greater loss of 165 billion yen ($1.7 billion). Strong sales and a continuing cost-cutting program are hoped to halve the first quarter loss over the rest of the year to give a total loss of around 64 billion yen ($663 million). Sony Corporation (TOKYO:6758) recently reported a net loss of 293.36 billion yen ($3.04 billion) for the last financial year, the largest recorded loss in Japanese company history. That loss was caused, the company says, by the same currency fluctuations and an under- performing US entertainment division. (Martyn Williams/19950825/Press contact: Matsushita Electric Co., tel +81-6-908-1471, fax +81-6-908-5853) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 08/25/95 BROADCAST Japan Satellite Launch On Monday (NEWS)(BROADCAST)(TYO)(00009) Japan Satellite Launch On Monday 08/25/95 TOKYO, JAPAN, 1995 AUG 25 (NB) -- A Lockheed Martin Marietta rocket will launch Japan's newest communications satellite, JCSat-3, on Monday, taking with it the infrastructure for a new digital television service for Japan. JCSat-3 is scheduled to launch on board an Atlas IIAS launch vehicle built for Hughes Space and Communications. The launch window starts from 2043 EDT (0043 UTC August 29, 0943 Japan time August 29). The satellite is a Hughes HS-601, configured to carry a cargo of 12 C-band and 28 ku-band transponders. The HS-601 is the world's most popular satellite type, with 56 ordered of which JCSat-3 will be the 23rd to launch. Other examples of the platform include some of Europe's popular Astra satellites and Direc-TV's Direc-1. The satellite will be owned and operated by Tokyo-based Japan Satellite Systems who already own and operate two predecessors, JCSat-1 and 2. Both satellites provide strong signals across all of Japan with JCSat-2 providing television to cable headends and direct-to-home viewers and JCSat-1 being used by broadcasters for satellite news gathering (SNG). JCSat-3 will provide even stronger coverage of Japan, but add spot beams that will cover Australia, East Asia, and India in the ku-band, and all of Asia plus Hawaii in the C-band. In Japan, the new satellite will be the launch pad for a planned 50- channel digital TV package currently being developed by Tokyo's DMC. The new service will launch digital television in Japan, a country that has fallen behind in the technology through many years of study into a now abandoned analog system. DMC hopes to begin service in the spring or summer of next year. Digital television converts conventional analog signals into digital and then compresses them. Such a technique means that, on JCSat-3, between six and eight digital channels can be carried on a single transponder that would have accommodated just one analog channel. A set-top decoder is needed to convert the digital signals back into the analog form that TVs understand. Direct-to-home satellite reception in Japan has been almost exclusively restricted in the past to a DBS satellite that carries two public service channels, a pay-movie channel, and twelve hours of Hi-Vision high-definition TV each day. This system was made popular because many TV sets come with built-in tuners requiring nothing but a small, cheap dish to receive the channels. Japan Satellite Systems also hopes to benefit from the explosion of satellite TV across Asia with the new coverage areas of its satellite. So far no customers have been announced, but JCSat-3 will almost certainly become an important broadcasting satellite in Asia's skies, say analysts. Satellite dish owners in North America can see the launch live on Galaxy IV, transponder 7 with audio in English and Japanese. (Martyn Williams/19950825/Press contact: Japan Satellite Systems, +81-3-5511-7777; Emery Wilson, Hughes Space and Communications, 310-364-6363) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 08/25/95 GOVT China - Govt To Merge 100 Univs & Colleges (NEWS)(GOVT)(PEK)(00010) China - Govt To Merge 100 Univs & Colleges 08/25/95 BEIJING, CHINA, 1995 AUG 25 (NB) -- More than 100 universities and colleges will be merged into 40 in order to "improve management efficiency and strengthen academic capacity," the State Education Commission (SEC) announced recently in Beijing. China has about 1,100 universities and colleges. This summer, about 895,000 students graduated from universities or colleges, and at the same time, about 2.53 million students took college entrance tests. That number is about 20,000 more than last year, Zhao Lianhong, deputy director of the University Student Department of the State Education Commission (SEC), said. College students in China used to pay no tuition fees and were subsidized by the state. Now the government has decided to implement a new policy requiring new students to pay fees. However, according to the government, the collected tuition fees can only cover a very small part of the expenditure of the schools. The biggest problem for China's 1,100 universities and colleges is the lack of funds, a spokesman for SEC said. The expansion of higher learning has been "too fast" in recent years, the spokesman said, adding that some of the newly established universities are managed in poor conditions. Other problems include ill-planned university layouts and structure, "unbalanced" teacher-student proportions, and the overbuilding of "unnecessary specialties and schools," the spokesman said. Therefore, the SEC says it will merge about 100 universities and colleges. Famous universities and small local colleges have been involved in the still-ongoing move, but the most prestigious schools, including Beijing and Tsinghua Universities are not included in the plan, the SEC spokesman said. Under the reform, surplus departments and specialties will be cut or merged, the spokesman said, but the students will continue to stay on campuses. (Chih-Ho Yu & Ning Huang/19950825/Reader Contact: Higher Education Bureau, State Education Commission, +86-10 602-0758) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 08/25/95 TRENDS China - Electronics & Computers Are Key For Shanghai (NEWS)(TRENDS)(PEK)(00011) China - Electronics & Computers Are Key For Shanghai 08/25/95 BEIJING, CHINA, 1995 AUG 25 (NB) -- As the electronics and computer industries start to play an important role in the economy of Shanghai, plans have been made to speed up the upgrading of these "pillar industries." Shanghai, China's largest city and industrial center listed the computer sector as a "pillar industry" at the end of 1993. Recently, the city government has made plans to upgrade its six pillar industries, which include telecommunications, computers, and electronic equipment. To replace the existing telephone exchange system in Shanghai, Bell Company invested US$29.6 million in developing a new generation of program-controlled switchboards. Shanghai's Pudong New Area is planning to build a modern telecom zone. The planned project will include a 100,000 square-meter international telecom center, a ground satellite station, an 80,000 square-meter information center, and a 40,000 square-meter long-distance telecom center. The computer industry in Shanghai harvested total sales of more than RMB1.6 billion (US$193 million) in the first half of this year, an increase of 166 percent compared with the same period of 1994. Shanghai enjoys bright prospects due to its special economic position in the country. The city's computer industry has attracted wide interest from many foreign computer giants, such as Intel, Hewlett Packard, and NEC. They have entered into Shanghai in various forms of cooperation with local enterprises. Intel has launched a chip sealing and testing enterprise in the city. NEC has entered into an agreement with Changjiang Computer Union and will produce PCs in August. In addition, Sony is planning to set up a monitor factory in Shanghai. (Chih-Ho Yu & Ning Huang/19950825) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 08/25/95 BROADCAST Video News Roundup (NEWS)(BROADCAST)(MSP)(00012) Video News Roundup 08/25/95 MINNEAPOLIS, MINNESOTA, U.S.A., 1995 AUG 25 (NB) -- This is a look at the top stories this week in the world of video news reporting: Panasonic Goes to the Olympics, Broadcasters Go To The Web, DEC and Digital Video, Portable Teleconferencing. Panasonic Supplies And Supports Atlanta Olympics Reported in the August issue of Television Broadcast in a special section on sports video is news on Panasonic's role as Official Broadcast Equipment and Systems Supplier to the Atlanta games. This involvement is not just on the supply side but also with systems design, gear installation, and support. Other third-party suppliers include Tektronix, Bauer, Grass Valley Group, Abekas, Canon, and Fujinon. Even though much of the gear is digital, the transmissions supplied to the world's broadcasters will be analog. Manuel Romera, managing director, says, "While the world's broadcasters will convert the signal to their standard, there are many who are not digital yet. It's not the time for digital." The Panasonic DVCPRO laptop editor will be used in ENG (electronic news gathering) coverage. TV Broadcast notes that Panasonic will have 15 people in systems design. There will be a hundred more on hand for operations at the games. Broadcasters Stampede To The Web Both Interactive Age and Electronic Media report on the move by major broadcasters to the World Wide Web. ABC, NBC, CBS, and Fox are all on, with Disney and Sony soon to follow. Sony's site will include information on Columbia Pictures Television, and Tristar Television. Interactive Age reports that NBC's new Web site is going to be deliberately lean. NBC wants to steer Web surfers to its site on the Microsoft Network (MSN). An NBC spokesman said the Web site will be "predominately promotional. The MSN site will create new content, new digital worlds, new information." Some of the addresses are: CBS at http://www.cbs.com NBC at http://www.nbc.com FOX at http://www.foxnetwork.com ABC News posts soundbites on RealAudio's Web page at http://www.realaudio.com DEC And Digital Video Joining BTS, Avid and others, Digital Equipment is working on a digital-based broadcast facility. The August issue of TV Broadcast reports that DEC is working with WMUR/Imes Communications, the ABC affiliate in Manchester, NH. The anchor for the system will be the DEC AlphaStudio Server. Vice President of Engineering for Imes Communications Joe Paciorkowski said, "If we use 8:1 compression, and that's what we're scaling the machine around, the staging rate is 24 hours of material. Computers, RAID (redundant array of inexpensive disks), and output channels are fully redundant." Linear and analog tape are not completely out of the picture. The server will be controlling linear tape libraries for playback and archiving. The news setup will keep its analog gear to back up the digital configuration during the upcoming presidential elections. New Products The August issue of Presentations features the Chinon ES-3000, another digital still camera compatible with both Macs and PCs. It has 24-bit color, 3x zoom and can scan at 640 by 480 pixels. Magni Systems is offering the Magnicoder. It can display Mac or PC screen output on a standard television monitor. It's set up to work with a VGA output, but an adapter is needed for Mac use. Unlike most VGA/Mac monitor adapters, this one is listed at $100. Dolch has put together a teleconferencing system for the road. The TelePac comes with video camera, flat panel interface, and 275 watts of system power. It is reported to have "all the necessary expansion capabilities for integrating the highest performance teleconferencing CODECs and ISDN (integrated services digital network) modems." (Newsbytes Staff/19950824) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 08/25/95 WINDOWS ****Windows 95 Launches In Carnival Atmosphere (NEWS)(WINDOWS)(DEN)(00013) ****Windows 95 Launches In Carnival Atmosphere 08/25/95 REDMOND, WASHINGTON, U.S.A., 1995 AUG 25 (NB) -- Fire eaters, jugglers, mimes and costumed characters entertained as the happy shoulder-to-shoulder crowd surged across the campus, wending their way in and out of sparkling white tents topped with orange, blue, green and yellow flags reminiscent of a medieval street fair, as a light breeze kept the temperature comfortable and the sun shone on everything. But the event was about as high-tech as you could get. The crowd was made up of reporters from across the globe who filed their print and electronic stories in dozens of different languages. There were also hundreds of beta testers and other invited guests, all in a tiny town in the state of Washington yesterday to see in person the launch of what history may deem one of the most important computer-related events in the 20th century. If you've been on a year-long ocean voyage with no means of communication, yesterday was the day Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ:MSFT) rolled out their long-awaited and oft-delayed Windows 95, a product even cynical reporters sat on the front edge of their seats to see on the huge video screens scattered throughout the mammoth tent. In the smaller tents scattered around the emerald green grassy field that's usually where Microsoft employees toss a football or a Frisbee around during their lunch hour were more than a hundred software and hardware vendors who came to Redmond to show their wares -- if they were compatible with Windows 95. PC makers Dell, Compaq, AST, and dozens of others were there, as were software companies like AutoCAD, PhoneDisk and of course Microsoft, with its Word, Office, Excel, Access, PowerPoint, and Microsoft Network. Some vendors took a different roll than you might expect. In addition to showing off their PCs running Windows 95, Compaq offered kabobs for the crowd's nourishment while another company dished up strawberry shortcake, and still another blended fruit drinks. You could even purchase Microsoft Windows 95 T-shirts, sweat shirts, caps, and other Windows 95 logo-emblazoned articles, with the proceeds going to charity. But the centerpiece of the entire show was a huge tent with several thousand seats, every one filled. As television crews and still photographers from Japan, Slobovia, Switzerland, Germany, South Africa, and a dozen other countries roamed the aisles, the good natured and expectant crowd, many of whom entered the tent more than an hour before the scheduled start time in order to get a front seat, waited to see how Microsoft would introduce its new combined operating system and graphical user interface. The show got off to a snappy start with special guest Jay Leno, star of NBC's Tonight Show rattling off jokes. Some samples? How about "NBC changed their name. The letters now stand for Now Bill Compatible!" Or "Windows 95 can store so much information it can keep track of all of OJ's alibis at one time!" Neither Bill Gates, Microsoft chairman and Leno's straight man for the show, nor President Bill Clinton were off limits to Leno. How about this one: "Bill may be a technical genius but did you know his VCR is still flashing 12 o'clock?" Talking about the government's decision not to pursue anti-trust actions against Microsoft for the way it licenses Windows, Leno the comic cracked, "Once the Whitewater people found out Windows can delete files, everything was OK!" Once his standup was finished, Leno drove off in a golf cart built to resemble a giant computer mouse, only to return periodically throughout the remainder of the show to encourage attendees to visit the various pavilions and to engage in snappy repartee with Gates, who obviously was enjoying himself. There was even a booth where you could have your own picture captured electronically, thanks to the folks at Micrografx. But in a demonstration of computer magic, while you stood alone in front of the camera, the finished picture produced about 45 minutes later shows you standing next to Jay Leno. When the preliminaries were over, Gates got down to business to demonstrate the features of Windows 95, assisted periodically by Leno and various Microsoft staffers. The big finale to the 90-minute show came as the curtain at the rear of the stage was ripped away to reveal outdoor bleachers filled with the hundreds of Microsoft staffers who worked on Windows 95, all wearing a T-shirt in one of the four Windows 95 colors (orange, yellow, blue and green). As the stage swung out of the way and the crowd filed out past them the developer crew applauded wildly, cheered, chanted and performed "The Wave" for the 10 minutes or so it took to empty the tent. (Jim Mallory/19950825/Press and public contact; Microsoft, 206-882-8080) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 08/25/95 GENERAL OSF/DCE Conference - More On IBM's DCE Implementations (NEWS)(GENERAL)(BOS)(00014) OSF/DCE Conference - More On IBM's DCE Implementations 08/25/95 BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS, U.S.A., 1995 AUG 25 (NB) -- New additions to IBM's DCE (Distributed Computing Environment) include Distributed File Service (DFS) and Printing Systems Manager (PSM) for cross-platform control over files and print services, plus new programs for application developers, along with multiple releases of DCE 1.1, said IBM's Art Gilbert, during a press conference at the OSF/DCE User's and Developer's Conference in Boston. "We're working hard to push (DCE 1.1) to different platforms," Gilbert noted at the press conference, which was attended by Newsbytes. IBM's new programs for developers are aimed at making the availability of hardware loaners, software, and training "easier and faster," according to the IBM exec. In other efforts to broaden use of IBM implementations of the OSF's environment for cross-platform distributed computing, IBM's upcoming DCE 1.1 for AIX will be bundled with "nested DCE threads," and accompanied by a "changed pricing model," Gilbert told the journalists and analysts. A beta test of DCE 1.1 for OS/2 Warp, to begin this week, will coincide with a trial of IBM's LAN (local area network) Server Enterprise, Gilbert reported. DCE 1.1 will be used to "administer" the network environment, he added. IBM is also readying a version of DCE 1.1 for MVS/ESA. IBM will provide both a client and server for PSM on AIX, in addition to PSM clients for OS/2 Warp and Windows, according to Gilbert. PSM is designed to allow management of PostScript, PCL, AFP, and other printers on a network from any administrative client. The product supports print requests from IBM systems, as well as from non-IBM systems that include Macintosh, Windows, SunOS, Sun Solaris, HP-UX, and DEC Ultrix. DFS will ship next month on MVS, Gilbert said. DFS is aimed at allowing access to files on any DCE-enabled computer on a network, without knowledge of their location. The user requests a file by its DCE pathname. IBM's implementation of DCE 1.1 for MVS will include OpenEdition DCE Security Server, OpenEdition DCE Base Services, and OpenEdition DCE Application Support, elaborated IBM's Jacqueline Voorhis, in an interview with Newsbytes later. Also for MVS developers, the S/390 Developer Association has been expanded to offer DCE support, Voorhis said. More information on the DCE support program for mainframes will be available in about a month, she told Newsbytes. Voorhis added that IBM has expanded its DCE Developer Assistance Program for AIX and OS/2 Warp to include free-of-charge availability of hardware loaners, DCE software, operating systems, marketing assistance, education, and support. IBM's European DCE Support Center is also offering marketing and technical support for AIX and OS/2 Warp, Newsbytes was told. In a product showcase at the OSF/DCE conference in Boston, IBM is displaying DCE 1.0 running on all five of its platforms: AIX, OS/2 Warp, MVS, VM, and OS/400. During a demo for Newsbytes, Stephen H. Dahlby, senior programmer for IBM, showed an order entry program running across DCE 1.0 for AS/400 and AIX. The DCE 1.0 client and server were each operating on both platforms, he pointed out. Dahlby also told Newsbytes that the user interface for DCE 1.0 is "identical" across all five of the IBM platforms. IBM, he noted, often introduces new systems on AIX first, as with DCE 1.1, before porting them to other platforms. Also at the product showcase, several IBM partners showed applications for DCE. Trinzic showed RuleServer, its new product for "creating distributed applications from existing applications," as well as AionDS, a development environment for RuleServer applications. Product availability is slated for December on OS/2 and for January on AIX. Open Horizon demonstrated DCE Connection, a product that provides "DCE enablement" and ODBC (Open Database Connectivity) database access. Other products shown included: Magna Software Corp.'s Application Generator for Encina and CICS; a "visual development environment" from Template Software; a product from Forte Software for native thread support on SMP (symmetrical multiprocessing) machines; an application from Open Environment Corp. for Mac access to DCE; and Oracle's SQL (structured query language) Net/DCE for "transparent use" of DCE services like single logon, "integrated security," and naming. In addition, Intraco displayed a distributed application for manufacturing statistical quality control. Another IBM partner, Open Systems Associates, demonstrated the Guru Realty Network. (Jacqueline Emigh/19950824/Reader Contacts: General DCE Assistance, IBM, 800-IBM-3333, Star200; Open Software Foundation, 617-621-8700; Press Contacts: Jacqueline Voorhis, IBM, 607-752-1321; Brodeur & Partners for IBM, 617-622-2800; Jane Smeloff, OSF, 617-621-8700) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 08/25/95 WINDOWS ****More Windows 95 Details (NEWS)(WINDOWS)(DEN)(00015) ****More Windows 95 Details 08/25/95 REDMOND, WASHINGTON, U.S.A., 1995 AUG 25 (NB) -- Computer industry watchers and PC users alike have waited for more than a year to find out in detail what goodies Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ:MSFT) included in Windows 95, and with the exception of beta testers and the other relatively few people who got advance copies for evaluation and testing, yesterday was the day. While the world's press gathered at Microsoft's sprawling headquarters campus, users lined up by the thousands at retail stores all over the world that re-opened their doors at one minute past midnight to sell the new software. The first person to buy Windows 95, a New Zealand teenager, was a media star on television sets all over the world for a few brief seconds. What users and reporters alike saw is a product that appears to meet Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates' promise of making computing easier. A single click is all it takes now to launch an application, move among loaded applications or perform other task. Even installation of Windows 95 is easier. A key figure in the launch campaign, and in the software itself, is the ever-present "Start" button. You can click there to start programs, open documents, get help, change system setting, find items and shut Windows 95 down. A brand new feature is the Recycle Bin, a temporary place to dump files you think you want to delete. As the name is intended to imply, if you later change your mind, you can "recycle" (retrieve) the deleted items. Macintosh users will recognize it as the trash basket that holds files until you empty the trash. Earlier Microsoft applications, as well as software from other publishers, list the last four files you opened. That function is now in Windows 95 and has been expanded to list the last 15 documents you have used, no matter what application they were created in. Also out is the "Tab-Alt" key combination that let the user switch between open applications. Windows 95 offers a task bar at the bottom of the screen. Each program that is running is represented on the bar by a button. Clicking on the appropriate button, which Microsoft compares to clicking a TV remote control to switch channels, switches the user to the selected application. The old method of minimizing or closing applications has also changed. In place of the small boxes and arrows in Windows 3.1 used for those tasks, there is now a design element bar containing three boxes. The box with the line minimizes, but does not close, an application. The center overlapping windows box maximizes the program, while the "x" box closes the selected application. Printer installation has also been simplified. Instead of trying to find the correct driver to make the software work with your particular printer, you can use the Printer Installation Wizard. What will probably be one of the most popular features in Windows 95 will be its ability to handle file names of up to 255 characters. No longer will you have to name a file "nb_aug25.den" in order to keep within the eight-character limit imposed by DOS. In Windows 95, that same file can be called "August 25 story about Windows 95 features." Again like Apple's Macintosh interface, each file is represented by an icon with the name below it. Users who make changes to their system, such as replacing a printer, adding a data/fax modem or connecting a CD-ROM drive or some other peripheral will also like Windows 95. A feature called Plug-and-Play (not Plug'n'Play) helps eliminate the need to understand "technobabble" like IRQs (interrupt requests), DMA (direct memory access) channels and other often incomprehensible terms. When Windows 95 is installed and you want to add a new peripheral -- if it is Plug-and-Play compatible, and most will be very soon -- just plug it in. When you restart Windows 95 will recognize it and make the necessary software changes automatically. Before installing such peripherals as a sound card, for example, a user can run the Add New Hardware Wizard which eventually lists available resources settings (such as IRQs) which the user can then use to configure the card before installing it. For users upgrading to Windows 95, the software will also recognize the older non-Plug-and-Play devices you have installed or attached and walk you through their setup. Windows 95 comes with device drivers for hundreds of the "legacy devices" in use today. Other features of Windows 95 include its 32-bit architecture, which means it will run 32-bit applications like word processing and spreadsheets faster. Preemptive multitasking lets you work on one task while your computer is busy doing something else you instructed it to do. You might start printing a very large, complex spreadsheet and then use your communications program to download your Internet electronic-mail. With Windows 95 you won't have to wait for the print job to complete before you "walk" to the e-mail box. Microsoft has also taken greater advantage of the right mouse button in the new operating system, and when using Microsoft Network. Clicking on that seldom-used button can do a myriad of tasks, depending on the application in use. For example, it will bring up a list of word choices to correct a spelling error. It is also a shortcut route to other program functions, such as customizing your desktop or finding out how much space is left on one of your drives. All in all, it won't take you as long to explore Windows 95's new features as it did the hundreds of software developers to write the code that makes them work. (Jim Mallory/19950825/Press and public contact: Microsoft, 206-882-8080) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 08/25/95 BUSINESS Chipcom Sells Ethermodem Business (NEWS)(BUSINESS)(TOR)(00016) Chipcom Sells Ethermodem Business 08/25/95 SOUTHBOROUGH, MASSACHUSETTS, U.S.A., 1995 AUG 25 (NB) -- Chipcom Corp. (NASDAQ:CHPM) has sold off its 10 year-old Ethermodem product line to International Control Services, a Decatur, Illinois, firm that specializes in taking over other companies' cast-off products. International Control Services will continue to sell all of Chipcom's existing Ethermodem products for the foreseeable future, according to Dennis Espinoza, vice-president of the Illinois company. Espinoza also told Newsbytes that his company will keep offering service and support for all the Ethermodem products that Chipcom was supporting, which includes some older products no longer sold. He did allow that at some time in the future the products could be dropped. Chipcom and International Control would not discuss the financial terms of their agreement, which turns over all marketing, manufacturing, and servicing rights for the Ethermodem products to International Control. Espinoza said no Chipcom employees will move to his company as a result of the deal. The Illinois company is built on product lines that no longer fit their originators' strategies. "The business we're in is taking over products from companies like (Chipcom) and continuing on with them," Espinoza said. International Control has similar arrangements with a number of other electronics manufacturers, officials said. Chipcom launched the Ethermodem product line in 1985, to support Ethernet networking over broadband or standard cable-television cabling. Current products in the series include the Ethermodem IV Transceiver, the Ethermodem Headend Remodulator, and the Ethermodem Bridge. The sale follows Chipcom's announcement in late July that it had signed an agreement to merge with 3Com Corp. of Santa Clara, California. That deal is expected to close in October. Chipcom said it is the world's third-largest supplier of intelligent network hubs, and reported revenue of $268 million in 1994. (Grant Buckler/19950825/Press Contact: John Ricciardone, Chipcom, 508-624-6840, Internet e-mail jricciar@chipcom.com; Dennis Espinoza, International Control Services, 217-422-6700; Public Contact: Chipcom, 508-460-8900; International Control Services, 217-422-6700) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 08/25/95 GENERAL Superconductor Consortium Created (NEWS)(GENERAL)(LAX)(00017) Superconductor Consortium Created 08/25/95 SUNNYVALE, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1995 AUG 25 (NB) -- Conductus (NASDAQ: CDTS) and Superconductor Technologies Inc. (NASDAQ:SCON) have formed the High-Temperature Superconductors (HTS) Thin-film Manufacturing Alliance (HTMA), a consortium to "further the development of superconducting thin-film components." Joining the two superconductor manufacturers will be a variety of university and industrial participants. Joe Madden, applications manager of Superconductor Technologies, told Newsbytes, "The two companies represent the commercial and technological leadership in current HTS technology. HTS technology has intrinsic performance advantages, but we must be competitive on a cost basis to penetrate high-volume markets. This will require continuing improvements that both Conductus and Superconductor Technologies believe can be most efficiently achieved through a joint program. "There are two types of superconductors," explained Madden. "The first was made of very simple metals and operated at near absolute zero. The second is high-temperature superconductors (HTS). HTS is made of complex ceramic compounds, and operates at a higher temperature, but still in a very cold state. HTS needs to be kept at -175 degrees centigrade." The two companies claim to have identified major near-term markets for HTS technology in wireless communications, radar, electronic defense systems, and magnetic resonance instrumentation. Specific products under development include filters for cellular base stations, adaptive switched filters for fighter aircraft radar systems, and probes for spectrometers. On July 5 HTMA entered into an agreement with the Advanced Research Projects Agency (ARPA) of the Department of Defense, under which it will receive three years of funding totaling $5.6 million. The participating organizations will match that amount, resulting in a $11.2 million total. The companies say Department of Defense interest might include HTS- based devices that would enable military radar systems to conduct simultaneous offensive and defensive operations while remaining small enough for use in the field. William Barker, the program manager for ARPA's Vapor Phase Manufacturing Program, stated, "HTMA has assembled an outstanding consortium team that will lead to cost-effective, flexible manufacturing of superconducting thin-film products for defense and commercial applications." According to Daniel Hu, president of Superconductor Technologies, "The HTS electronics community has made great strides in the advancement of wafer fabrication, and with the immediate HTS applications for such booming markets as wireless communications, we expect the HTMA consortium to augment the achievements of the past and increase our ability to produce with even greater quality and at higher volumes in the future. We are looking to begin high volume production of our filter technology for our commercial wireless products in the near future." Charles Shalvoy, president of Conductus, said, "At Conductus we plan to begin commercial shipments to the magnetic resonance instrumentation and the wireless communications markets during the next six to 18 months. In order to support these large, fast-growing markets, we need to increase our wafer fab capacity for HTS components. We look at the HTMA consortium as an important step toward developing high-volume, low-cost, wafer fabrication technologies for our industry." Each member of the Alliance will retain ownership of intellectual property it develops under the alliance agreement. The non-owner members will receive a license to use intellectual property developed under the alliance agreement in their products. Other participants expected to participate in HTMA include Stanford University and Georgia Tech University. Scientists at the Naval Research Laboratory and at Sandia National Laboratories will also work on projects. (Richard Bowers/19950825/Press Contact: Randy Simon, Conductus, 408-523-9950) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 08/25/95 ONLINE United Airlines & Microsoft Network Team For Travel (NEWS)(ONLINE)(MSP)(00018) United Airlines & Microsoft Network Team For Travel 08/25/95 CHICAGO, ILLINOIS, U.S.A., 1995 AUG 25 (NB) -- Through the use of the new Windows 95 operating system and the Microsoft Network (MSN), United Airlines hopes personal computer owners will turn their machines into "desktop travel stations" by logging into United Connection, a new travel reservation product on MSN. United and Microsoft inked the agreement just prior to the dual introductions of Windows 95 and MSN. United officials said a stand-alone diskette of United Connection will be available from the airline in November, with full incorporation into MSN happening early next year. United Connection lets users complete travel arrangements by booking airline flights, rental cars, and hotel rooms via the Apollo Reservations systems, officials said. All can be done with a few mouse clicks, without ever having to pick up the phone, United officials added. United Airlines Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Gerald Greenwald called the new system a "win-win" situation for the computer-savvy travelers who want more control over their reservations. "This state- of-the-art technology underscores United's commitment to its customers and its innovative leadership in the airline industry," he said. Travelers who use United Connection will be able to shop for flights with "the utmost flexibility and control," officials said. Users can scan and compare flight pricing, along with buying tickets. Other services include access to real-time flight arrival and departure information, up-to-date information on personal Mileage Plus frequent flyer mileage, aircraft seat maps, a travel information section, and a section that contains tips on booking travel. A United Airlines spokesperson told Newsbytes a version of United Connection has been up and running on the Compuserve online service since April, and has many of the same features as the new MSN offering. (Bob Woods/19950825/Press Contacts: Tony Moninaro, 708-952-4971, Joe Hopkins, 708-952-5770, or on nights/weekends, 708-952-4088, all of United Airlines) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 08/25/95 ONLINE Compuserve "Welcomes" Windows 95, Plans New Interface (NEWS)(ONLINE)(SFO)(00019) Compuserve "Welcomes" Windows 95, Plans New Interface 08/25/95 COLUMBUS, OHIO, U.S.A., 1995 AUG 25 (NB) -- Compuserve has issued a press release welcoming Microsoft's (NASDAQ:MSFT) new operating system Windows 95, but continues to equally state its objection to Microsoft bundling Microsoft Network with Windows 95. The oldest major online service is also building a new interface which supports Windows 95's 32-bit environment. In an official press release, CompuServe's new chief executive officer, Robert Massey, is quoted as saying, "Windows 95, with its easy-to-use features and outstanding user interface represents a milestone in the personal computing industry. By making a product that is easy to use and understand, Microsoft will open up the computer to millions who never before thought they could use a computer. In addition, the awareness of 'going online' that Microsoft has created with the launch of its Microsoft Network will benefit everyone in the online industry." In his objection, Massey stated, "While we are pleased that Windows 95 has finally arrived on the scene, we continue to oppose the bundling of Microsoft Network in the Windows 95 application. By attempting to leverage its control in the operating system market to dominate the online industry, Microsoft is casting a cloud over the future of cyberspace. However, we know that the Department of Justice is aggressively pursuing its antitrust investigation and we are confident that when Justice is ready to announce its findings, the case will be air-tight." CompuServe's support of the new Microsoft operating system is evident in the creation of numerous online areas which offer support to Windows 95 users. Along with the different areas, Compuserve announced Mosaic In A Box for Windows 95, an Internet product especially adapted to the Windows 95 environment. In further support of Windows 95, Compuserve plans to introduce a new version of its Compuserve Information Manager (CIM). Before the 32-bit CIM is delivered, Compuserve will deliver CIM 2.0. Jeff Shafer, a spokesperson for Compuserve, told Newsbytes, "During the second week of September, we will release CIM version 2.0. It has the same interface, but will be easier to use and have a built-in browser." Version 2.0 will be followed near the end of the year with CIM 3.0, which will support 16-bit and 32-bit applications. Said Shafer, "3.0 will provide Windows 95 users with 32-bit support, while its 16-bit support will allow it to work with older versions of Windows. It will have an entirely new interface and is our next-generation look. It is being built to be more fun and exciting than anything we have done before." Newsbytes recently reported CompuServe's plans to introduce an entirely new service for novice users, called WOW! The online company says WOW! is designed to compete with radio and television. Shafer said, "WOW! is different from CIM, much like USA Today is different from The New York Times." (Patrick McKenna/19950825/Press Contact: Jeff Shafer, Compuserve, 614-538-4571) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 08/25/95 ONLINE ZD Net Launched On Microsoft Network (NEWS)(ONLINE)(TOR)(00020) ZD Net Launched On Microsoft Network 08/25/95 NEW YORK, NEW YORK, U.S.A., 1995 AUG 25 (NB) -- Ziff-Davis Interactive, the electronic publishing arm of computer-magazine publisher Ziff-Davis, has inaugurated its ZD Net service on The Microsoft Network, which was launched this week along with the Windows 95 operating system. Like the ZD Net editions on established online services such as Compuserve, Prodigy, and Apple Computer's eWorld, as well as the Internet World Wide Web edition, ZD Net/Microsoft Network Edition will contain news, reviews, and other information from Ziff-Davis publications such as PC Magazine, PC Week, Computer Shopper, and Windows Sources. Besides material from Ziff-Davis publications, ZD Net will contain shareware libraries and will be the site for special online events and chats with Ziff-Davis editors and guests, Ziff-Davis officials said. Also, like the World Wide Web site, it will carry advertising. Ziff-Davis said it will be one of the first information providers on The Microsoft Network to do so. The Web site was the first version of ZD Net -- formerly known on some online services as Ziffnet -- to carry advertising. Earlier this summer, Ziff said the 12 charter advertisers on ZD Net/World Wide Web edition, were getting a combined total of tens of thousands of inquiries a week from the service. Access to ZD Net/Microsoft Network Edition is to be free to Microsoft Network members through the end of this year. Cara Washburn, a spokeswoman for Ziff-Davis Interactive, told Newsbytes that the fee structure for the service after that will likely be similar to what it is for other ZD Net editions, with a small membership fee plus possibly charges for access to some specific parts of the service. (Grant Buckler/19950825/Press Contact: Cara Washburn, Ziff-Davis Interactive, 617-225-3333; Janice Brown, Janice Brown and Associates for Ziff-Davis, 617-332-8066) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 08/25/95 TRENDS ****11.8 Million Subscribe To Online Services - Study (NEWS)(TRENDS)(MSP)(00021) ****11.8 Million Subscribe To Online Services - Study 08/25/95 WILTON, CONNECTICUT, U.S.A., 1995 AUG 25 (NB) -- The number of subscriptions to all online services grew more than 26 percent to 11.8 million in the second quarter of 1995, claims a report from Simba Information Inc. The "Electronic Information Report's Second Quarter Online Subscriber Survey" showed much of that increase came from the consumer end of the online service spectrum. Newsbytes obtained a copy of the report that showed the growth of online services. Consumer online services grew at a rate of more than 37 percent to 8.5 million subscribers, the survey showed. The other segments of the online market that brought up the total number to 11.8 million include business/professional services, computerized reservation systems, and financial networks. The commercial service with the largest growth was America Online. Simba said it gained 1.5 million members for a total of 3 million subscribers, for a 100 percent growth rate. Compuserve grew about 20 percent to 3.2 million subscribers, which preserved its number one status among the Big 3 services. Prodigy, considered to be the third of the Big Three, saw a 12.5 percent gain in subscribership to 1.4 million members. Of the business/professional services, Lexis-Nexis still reigns king at 734,000 subscribers, followed by Dow Jones News/Retrieval at 225,000 registered users. America Airlines' Sabre is the top computerized reservation system with 145,000 users. The Apollo system, used by United and other airlines, is second at 59,000. In the financial online service area, Reuter's Information Systems is in first place with more than 309,000 subscribers. In second place is Dow Jones News Services at 142,000 users. Simba officials also said the number of consumer online subscribers will exceed 11 million by the end of 1995, mainly fueled by strong gains in existing services, along with the emergence of the Microsoft Network (MSN), said Paulette Donnelly, Electronic Information Report's editor. "Expect online services to continue to grow dramatically over the next year, as scores of publishers, investors, software, cable, technology, and telecommunications companies jump on the online bandwagon," Donnelly added. The Electronic Information Report monitors, analyzes, and reports on trends and developments in the information services businesses. (Bob Woods/19950825/Press Contacts: Paulette Donnelly or Chris Elwell, Simba Information, 203-834-0033; Public Contact: Tom Schmalzl, Simba Information, 203-834-0033 ext 178) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 08/25/95 REVIEW APPLE Review of - The Lost Tribe (REVIEW)(APPLE)(MSP)(00022) Review of - The Lost Tribe 08/25/95 MINNEAPOLIS, MINNESOTA, U.S.A., 1995 AUG 25 (NB) -- By Naor Wallach. This Macintosh program has you take control of a tribe of prehistoric people as they move from their devastated homeland to a new location. Highly recommended as a strategy game. Your tribe of prehistoric people has been living in the shadow of a volcano for many generations. One day, as your leaders and best hunters were out in the field, the volcano rumbled, belched, and exploded. One of the unfortunate aftermaths was that the leaders and hunters were all killed. You are among the 23 adults that survived. The tribe elders have chosen you to be the leader. You are expected to make the tough decisions and find a suitable volcano to live near, all before the onset of winter. The player starts off with the least capable hunters, with most food sources destroyed by the blast, and the jealousy of another tribe member who thinks he should have been chosen and now vows to make life miserable for you. The program is large (over 7 MB) due to the large quantity of graphics and animation. This is a strategy game. There are no decisions that you need to make hastily. No trigger fingers are exercised. As the leader of the tribe you are responsible for making the big decisions. Among the most important is what you will do that day as a tribe. Your choices are to go hunting and/or gathering, move to a different location, practice your hunting skills and make more weapons, rest and feast, or carve different kinds of statues. Each of these activities has meaning and is necessary for the success of your mission. The game has status indicators on the screen which show the number of adults in the tribe at the time; the amount of food in your hands; the amount of spears that you have; how abundant is wildlife in that area (for hunting); how abundant are the veggies, roots, and grubs for gathering; how happy the tribe is with your leadership; how good the tribe is at hunting; and how many days there are before the onset of winter. It is a smart idea to constantly monitor these indicators so that you are not surprised. Different activities affect the indicators in different ways. For instance, resting may lead to consuming food, but will certainly enhance your stature as a leader, especially if the tribe has not had a rest day in a long time. Another example: you may choose practice your skill in hunting. But, consequently you will not actually be hunting and will need to consume food. On the good side, a day spent practicing will permanently increase your hunting capabilities. There are numerous random events that occur that also affect your tribe and how they see you. These can happen at any time and in any location. Some of the events end up positively for you while others serve to distract you from your goal. Still others can have very negative effects on the tribe. In certain cases, a wrong choice on your part can lead to the deaths of some of the tribe members. There is also the issue of Burgle. That's the man who wants to be the leader of the tribe in your place. He is a troublemaker. However, simply getting rid of him is not really an option as that would split the tribe. Since you start with only 23 adults, you cannot afford to lose people for this kind of reason. There are six difficulty levels in the game, all of which make this seem like six games in one. In addition, the location of the volcano that you are seeking changes from game to game. At the easiest level you can see a complete map of the world so that you can choose the most direct or easiest path to get to your destination; hunting is easy and plentiful as are gathering supplies. There are relatively few random events and very few dangers. At the toughest level, you can only see the locations adjacent to the one you are in; you have no idea where your destination is; hunting can be very tough and scarce as is gathering; traveling is a very dangerous affair; and there are numerous and frequent random events. All of the game controls are drawn on the screen so there is no need to memorize them or use the menubar. As a matter of fact, the only thing you need is the mouse. You choose the actions that you will take by clicking on either the map (for moving around) or any of the stone-like buttons arrayed to the map's side. A random event provides the player with a photograph or movie-like sequence of photos that describes the events. The producers of this game actually dressed up actors as cavemen and cavewomen and went to the woods of Michigan to have these pictures taken. Some of the pictures are absolutely hilarious while others are simply explanatory. When such an event happens, you hear some music, see the picture, and are asked to read the situation and choose what to do. When you complete a mission, you make it to a volcano. The game shows a movie of your tribe jumping excitedly in view of the volcano. Every time you complete a scenario successfully you are awarded a score. These points are calculated based on the different indicators of the game. So, you are awarded points for each person that still remains with the tribe at completion, the number of spears, food, and even how happy the tribe was with your leadership. The game keeps track of the top six scores in every scenario and if you succeed in getting there, your name is inscribed in that roll of honor. Overall the game was a lot of fun for me and my ten-year-old playtesters. Other adults did not like it but they are typically not interested in strategic games. The kids had a hard time figuring out the logic of the higher level scenarios. However, this did not stop them from having fun anyway. Hoots of laughter rang out each time a random event came up. I encountered no technical problems of any kind with this program and can therefore recommend it highly to all interested parents and kids. From: Lawrence Productions, 1800 S. 35th St., Galesburg, MI 49053, 800-421-4157; 616-665-7075 Price: $49.95 (Naor Wallach/19950805) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 08/25/95 REVIEW ONLINE Review - New Internet Books (REVIEW)(ONLINE)(MSP)(00023) Review - New Internet Books 08/25/95 MINNEAPOLIS, MINNESOTA, U.S.A., 1995 AUG 25 (NB) -- By Naor Wallach. Peachpit Press has arranged with America Online to publish a book/disk combination -- Point & Click Internet -- for Macintosh users who are Internet novices and seek to get on the net through AOL. What's on the Internet - Winter 94/95, is Peachpit's compendium of what's available in the different newsgroups on Usenet. Seth Godin's 100-page book has chapters that deal with all of the major parts of the Internet that can be surfed through America Online. E-mail, newsgroups and Gopher are the three main features offered by America Online and each take up a chapter in this book. The book is heavily illustrated with examples and samples of what can be found. Sidebars point out some of the more bizarre areas on the Internet. The book is written at a level that assumes one has very little computer knowledge and the writing style is very breezy. While the book/disk combination is a good basic approach to the Internet, the fact is, America Online does not give its users full access to the Internet. Several of the major services of the net are not provided via AOL at this time: Archie, ftp, Telnet, World Wide Web, Mosaic, and GNN. What's on the Internet - Winter 94/95 Usenet on the Internet is a collection of different groups of message bases dedicated to discussing single topics. Since Usenet is global in scope, and since the Internet is widely available in academia, it is not unusual to see world known experts participating in discussions in their fields. There are several thousand discussion groups. The structure of Usenet is continually evolving to meet the needs of the participants. The book takes a look at the various newsgroups, as they are called. Groups are indexed in various ways and each group is given a brief (one sentence) rundown on the sorts of topics being discussed. Newsgroups are addicting -- when you can ask a question on some topic, and within hours receive a multitude of responses from around the world, newsgroups can become a habit. As indicated by the title, the intent of the publishers is to release this book every quarter. This is due to the evolution of newsgroups. While a year ago the only mention of O.J. Simpson may have been in the sporting and trivia areas, today there are several newsgroups dedicated to sharing information about him, his ex-wife, and all aspects of the trial and the case. To make a book that is essentially a catalog appear more appealing, Peachpit Press has filled the book with illustrations and graphics that can be recovered from the net. Peachpit Press, 2414 Sixth St., Berkeley, CA 94710 (510) 548-4393 Price: $12.95 for Point & Click Internet; $19.95 for What's on the Internet (Naor Wallach/19950805) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 08/25/95 BUSINESS ****Merger Off, Hayes Not Committed, Says Boca Boss (NEWS)(BUSINESS)(DEN)(00024) ****Merger Off, Hayes Not Committed, Says Boca Boss 08/25/95 ATLANTA, GEORGIA, U.S.A., 1995 AUG 25 (NB) -- The pending merger between privately held modem maker Hayes Microcomputer Products Inc. and Boca Research Inc. (NASDAQ:BOCI) has been called off by Boca President Anthony Zalenski, who said Hayes' president and founder, Dennis Hayes, wasn't committed to the deal. Some recent news reports have criticized Dennis Hayes, president and chairman of the modem company that bears his name, for an unwillingness to give up control of the company. Hayes denies those allegations, saying he only wants what's best for the company and wants his employees to retain their jobs. Boca's statement announcing it had terminated negotiations said recent efforts by Dennis Hayes to seek alternatives to the merger, his refusal to suspend those efforts during continued negotiations with Boca Research, and the course of the negotiations over the past several days caused Boca to conclude he wasn't committed to the deal. However, a Hayes spokesperson told Newsbytes the Letter of Intent to merge with Boca, a company that is a customer of Hayes Microcomputer, only stipulates that Hayes cannot actively seek majority investors in the company during the talks. If the merger had gone through, that's the position Boca would have held. The spokesperson said Hayes has only been talking with entities that, if those discussions were successful, would become minority investors in the company, a move allegedly not in violation of the LOI. That would mean Dennis Hayes would retain control of the company he worked so hard to build and make successful. Dennis Hayes cited the need to protect the company's creditors as a reason to keep the door open to other potential investors in case the Boca merger fell through. In a formal statement released by Hayes Microcomputer, Dennis Hayes said the fact that Boca canceled the negotiations "confirms my concerns that since Boca was under no binding obligation to complete the proposed merger agreement or even to negotiate in good faith, they might try to back Hayes into a 'take it or leave it' scenario. Hayes felt a strong need for a back-up plan for this very reason." One sticking point in the negotiations between Boca and Hayes was a condition in the Letter of Intent that called for the payment by Hayes to Boca of one million dollars should the merger fall through. The Hayes spokesperson said the bankruptcy judge overseeing the negotiations declined to allow that provision, although he did say payment of reasonable business costs such as attorney and consultant fees, would be proper. Hayes currently is operating under protection of federal bankruptcy laws pending completion of its reorganization plan. In canceling the merger, Zalenski said it was apparent there were fundamental differences between Boca Research and Mr. Hayes relating to the management of the combined companies. "We determined that these differences would restrict Boca Research's management from taking the actions required to return Hayes to profitability and would jeopardize Boca's earnings growth." Despite the failure of the merger with Boca, Dennis Hayes said he is still confident that the company will get the necessary financing to emerge from Chapter 11, pay all valid creditors' claims in full plus interest, and continue the company's growth pattern. "What Boca found extremely valuable in Hayes, namely our global brand recognition and top-of-the-line technology, products and services, are still valuable," he said. Hayes has posted operating profits in each of the last three quarters since filing for Chapter 11 protection in November, 1994. (Jim Mallory/19950825/Press contact: Mike Brewer, Boca Research, 407-997-8621 or Andrew Wood, Hayes Microcomputer, 404-840-9200) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 08/25/95 WINDOWS Microsoft Intros Internet Assistant For Word (NEWS)(WINDOWS)(DEN)(00025) Microsoft Intros Internet Assistant For Word 08/25/95 REDMOND, WASHINGTON, U.S.A., 1995 AUG 25 (NB) -- One of the products being shown at the Windows 95 rollout yesterday by Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ:MSFT) was Internet Assistant for Microsoft Word for Windows 95. The software with the lengthy name is an add-on to Microsoft Word for Windows 95 that allows Word users to create HTML (hypertext markup language) documents for posting on the World Wide Web, which is part of the Internet, including preparing your own Internet Home Page complete with graphics and hypertext links. Hypertext links allow an Internet user looking at the document or at your home page to click on highlighted text and automatically jump to that reference, be it elsewhere in your document, elsewhere on the Internet or even to another file on the local drive or on a network. Assistant is part of the Plus pack that enhances the functions of Microsoft's newly available Windows 95 operating system and graphical user interface. Plus also includes 20 free connect hours to the Microsoft Network (MSN). MSN subscribers get a gateway to the Internet as part of their package. Assistant works from within Microsoft Word. Once the document is created, Assistant automatically converts the document to HTML format. That gives the user the advantages of Word, including: Spell It, the automatic spelling checker; AutoFormat, which formats the document as you type; and AutoCorrect. Assistant also has an Internet browsing capability built in that lets the user incorporate information from the Internet as they create their document. Other features of Word that users can take advantage of to create home pages or Web documents are multiple columns, text that wraps around graphics, formatted tables, a drawing layer, the ability to place text anywhere on a page, and OLE (Object Linking and Embedding) 2.0 embedded objects, such as a video clip. A Microsoft spokesperson told Newsbytes the Plus pack has a suggested retail price of $54.95. (Jim Mallory/19950825/Press and public contact: Microsoft, 206-882-8080) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 08/25/95 ONLINE America Online Delays Relaunch Of Global Navigator (NEWS)(ONLINE)(MSP)(00026) America Online Delays Relaunch Of Global Navigator 08/25/95 VIENNA, VIRGINIA, U.S.A., 1995 AUG 25 (NB) -- America Online (NASDAQ:AMER) (AOL) officials have confirmed to Newsbytes that the company's relaunch of the Global Network Navigator (GNN) has been delayed, partially because of the hoopla surrounding the release of Windows 95 and the new Microsoft Network (MSN) online service. According to an online report published by Interactive Week, AOL decided the attention given to yesterday's launch of both MSN and Windows 95 would eclipse the relaunch of GNN. The relaunch was also scheduled for yesterday. There's no word on when GNN, which is designed to be a separate online service for Internet users, will be re-introduced to computer users, Kathy Johnson, AOL spokesperson, told Newsbytes. "We are really shocked at the interest," Ted Leonsis, president of America Online Services Co., is quoted as saying in the article. "MSN has tended to hold editors spellbound. We were originally launching as a counter programming move but nobody's around. Everybody's going to Redmond (Washington, where Microsoft is headquartered). We want our own moment in the sun." But as Interactive Week pointed out, neither the anticipated publicity for Microsoft nor the testing of GNN are new factors. Leonsis had said as recently as August 1 that August 24 was a firm date for an announcement that GNN would formally launch, even though various media reports had been confirming that Microsoft would launch both Windows 95 and MSN on the same day. The date had also been repeatedly confirmed by Newsbytes. Johnson said the delay will give the company more time to test GNN, which is currently in beta. She said the extra time would also be used to improve the service's quality, and to get more feedback from users involved in the beta tests. (Bob Woods/19950825/Press Contacts: Pam McGraw, America Online, 703-556-3746; Tim Clark or Tom Steinert-Threlkeld, Interactive Week, 415-233-1748) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 08/25/95 EDITORIAL WINDOWS Editorial - How I Spent Microsoft Rollout Day (EDITORIAL)(WINDOWS)(WAS)(00027) Editorial - How I Spent Microsoft Rollout Day 08/25/95 KNOXVILLE, MARYLAND, U.S.A., 1995 AUG 25 (NB) -- By Kennedy Maize -- It was 3:30 pm on August 24, 1995. I was steering the Deere around the lower sheep pasture, getting in a late summer clip. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw a plume of dust. It was the Federal Express truck churning down my farm lane. I disengaged the mower and kicked the tractor into high gear, heading for the driveway. As I arrived, the FedEx man was pulling a foot-square cardboard box from the back of his truck. I squinted at the label, handicapped by a lack of reading classes. It looked like it said "Tiger Software." "Windows 95," said the FedEx man. "Wow! Holy logistics, Fedexman," I said, marveling that Microsoft could time things so closely that I received my copy of Windows 95 on the official day of rollout. And that was just the start of my admiration for Microsoft's skill with this new operating system. Abandoning mowing, I clutched my package under my arm and headed for my office. Into the caddy with the CD-ROM. Type "d:win95\setup" in the Run dialog box. We're off. Seldom does a major piece of software install so easily. This is a far cry from my sad experience with OS/2 Warp, which clobbered every device driver and warped my system so badly I had to completely reinstall Windows for Workgroups and all my applications. After about 30 minutes of following the instructions on the screen, Windows 95 was up and running. Now to test my regular applications. Everything works just fine, and the "Start" button on the bottom left corner of the screen is slick. The entire appearance of the Windows 95 screen is clean and uncluttered. Then there is the task bar along the bottom. That's a marvel. Finally, the acid test. Will the system run Dragon Dictate for Windows, the program that allows me to dictate copy to my computer, saving stress and strain on my wrists and elbows? Yes. It works just fine. And I spent the rest of the afternoon and evening getting to know Windows 95 better. It seems rock solid, with never a glitch during several hours of fooling around. More stable than Windows for Workgroups, and somewhat more intuitive. The new operating system has some similarities to the Macintosh OS, but it is also quite different. I am not an Apple evangelist nor a Mac basher. But I suspect Windows 95 will drive Apple's share of the market into single digits. The major reason to buy a Mac -- the excellent operating system -- has become considerably less compelling. Congratulations, Bill. The hype was excessive, but the product is good. Now watch the dollars roll in. (Kennedy Maize/19950825) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 95 08/25/95 WINDOWS Intersolv Development Suite Supports Windows (NEWS)(WINDOWS)(WAS)(00028) Intersolv Development Suite Supports Windows 95 08/25/95 ROCKVILLE, MARYLAND, U.S.A., 1995 AUG 25 (NB) -- Intersolv, developer of open client/server software tools, has announced that its Intersolv Development Suite will support Windows 95. Intersolv's PVCSA and Data Direct products are available now for Windows 95 and the company says it will provide new and existing customers with an upgrade plant for a transition to Windows 95 for other Intersolv products. Intersolv was a charter member of the Windows 95 beta test program and the Microsoft Developers Network. The company says it finds Windows 95 to be "an industrial-strength environment particularly well-suited for software development." Among the strengths that Intersolv says it finds in Windows 95 are: Common support for 32-bit applications interfaces that enables Intersolv and its customers "to develop once for both environments;" smooth and powerful network integration that makes Windows 95 clients more efficient; The ability to deploy 32-bit applications across Windows 95 and Windows NT, "enabling software applications to deliver greater power to their end-users; and increased ease of use and easier support, reducing the costs of operating client/server networks. "Windows 95 is an exciting, robust platform that will empower users to accomplish their tasks more quickly and with greater ease," says Kevin Burns, Intersolv chair and chief executive officer. "We anticipate a quick and successful adoption of the new platform in the developer community and Intersolv will be there with comprehensive support for Windows 95 across our entire development suite." Intersolv was the first vendor to offer full 32-bit open database connectivity drivers for Windows 95 through its early development's program, launched in February. The Data Direct drivers allow developers to move existing applications to the Windows 95 environment. The Data Direct pack and individual drivers are available at $499 for the pack and $99 for each particular driver. Intersolv's PVCS series, a standard for software configuration on local area networks (LANs), lets developers immediately begin full LAN activities on the new Windows 95 platform. PVCS version manager for Windows 95 is available for $499 per authorized user. (Kennedy Maize/19950825/Press Contact: Larry Death, 301-838-5228, Internet e-mail larry_death@intersolv.com) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 08/25/95 LEGAL Information Trade Group Wants Database Protection (NEWS)(LEGAL)(WAS)(00029) Information Trade Group Wants Database Protection 08/25/95 WASHINGTON, D.C., U.S.A., 1995 AUG 25 (NB) -- The Information Industry Association (IIA) has called on Congress to pass a law protecting private sector databases. The IAA board of directors adopted the policy resolution yesterday, and also stressed that they see copyright law as the primary protection for databases. "Creators of databases make enormous investments in money and intellectual effort to gather and organize the valuable information contained in their print and electronic compilations," said IIA President Ronald Dunn. "With the proliferation of new technologies for scanning print publications and transferring and copying data electronically, database producers face the possibility that the content of their works may be extracted, manipulated and resold, undermining their ability to continue providing valuable and useful products and services for the growing information marketplace." IIA says it has monitored case law since the US Supreme Court's 1991 decision in Feist Publications v. Rural Telephone Service Co. Inc., which dealt with the protectibility of compilations under the 1976 Copyright Act. The Association has also carefully watched developments in the European Union, which has been considering enactment of a special database protection regime for the last five years. In addition to commenting on the database directive recently approved by the European Commission, IIA earlier this month issued a white paper entitled "Database Protection: An Industry Perspective on the Issues." The paper explores a variety of issues that must be considered in relation to enacting any US statute to provide additional protection for databases. IIA represents more than 550 companies involved in the creation, distribution, and use of information in print and digital formats. IIA's members range from small businesses to Fortune 500 firms and include database publishers, online services, Internet service providers, software publishers, telecommunications companies, and financial information services. (Kennedy Maize/19950825/Press Contact: Emily Pilk, 202-639-8262) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 08/25/95 GENERAL Newsbytes Week In Review (NEWS)(GENERAL)(SFO)(00030) Newsbytes Week In Review 08/25/95 MINNEAPOLIS, MINNESOTA, U.S.A., 1995 AUG 25 (NB) -- This is a look at the top stories this weekin Newsbytes, listing with their category code: Windows 95/MSN Launch Under Observation Says EC; New Subscription Service For Newsbytes CD-ROM; Voice, Data, Video Over ATM, From MFS; Zilog's Violence Control Chip For TV; Justice Dept Blinks In Showdown With Microsoft; Gates Confirms Possible Venture With TBS; Apple Plans To Ship PowerPC Powerbooks; Windows 95 At Midnight; Newsbytes Launched On Microsoft Network; Microsoft Ships Windows 95; Apple Attacks Microsoft With "Truth" Campaign; Windows 95 To Impact Unix & OS/2 More Than Mac; More Windows 95 Details 08/25/95; More Windows 95 Details; 11.8 Million Subscribe To Online Services - Study. Windows 95/MSN Launch Under Observation Says EC (ONLINE) BRUSSELS, BELGIUM, AUG 21 (NB) -- Microsoft may be confident that its launch of Windows 95 can go ahead relatively unimpeded in the US, but the European Commissioner's (EC's) office in Brussels has warned the software giant that, as well as the Department of Justice's office in the US, it too is watching Microsoft's activities very closely. New Subscription Service For Newsbytes CD-ROM (GENERAL) MINNEAPOLIS, MINNESOTA, U.S.A., 1995 AUG 21 (NB) -- Newsbytes News Network is now offering "auto-ordering" -- a method by which the latest updates of the Newsbytes CD-ROM series will be shipped to a subscriber automatically, at a 20% discount, or $19.95. Subscribers can cancel at any time. The disk is offered for Macintosh, Windows, and DOS. Voice, Data, Video Over ATM, From MFS (NETWORK) BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS, U.S.A., 1995 AUG 21 (NB) -- MFS's new Wide Area Voice Exchange (WAVE) -- now available in five US cities, with others to follow in the US and Europe -- uses a new technology called variable bit rate (VBR) to provide the industry's first "integrated" voice, data and video transmission over asynchronous transfer mode (ATM), maintained Al Fenn, president and chief executive officer (CEO), in a conference call today with Newsbytes. Zilog's Violence Control Chip For TV (BROADCAST) CAMPBELL, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1995 AUG 21 (NB) -- Zilog (NYSE:ZLG) says its "V-Chip" family is capable of decoding program ratings, comparing ratings to standards, and providing controls to access or deny access to various programs. The company says its V89300 chips meet a growing demand to limit under-age viewers' access to violent movies and television programs. Justice Dept Blinks In Showdown With Microsoft (LEGAL) WASHINGTON, D.C., U.S.A., 1995 AUG 22 (NB) -- Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ: MSFT) and the US Department of Justice went eye-to-eye yesterday and the government blinked first, approving a settlement hammered out earlier this summer but stopped by the federal judge then assigned to the case. The judge was subsequently replaced. Gates Confirms Possible Venture With TBS (BROADCAST) REDMOND, WASHINGTON, U.S.A., 1995 AUG 23 (NB) -- Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ: MSFT) Chairman Bill Gates said on the Cable News Network television program "Larry King Live" this week that Microsoft has had discussions with Ted Turner about a possible interactive venture between Microsoft and Turner Broadcasting System (TBS). Apple Plans To Ship PowerPC Powerbooks (APPLE) CUPERTINO, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1995 AUG 23 (NB) -- On Monday, Apple Computer (NASDAQ:AAPL) is expected to announce a new series of Powerbook mobile computers powered by 603 PowerPC processors. Reuters reports the new PowerPC models will offer a wide range of features and sell from $2,000 to $6,000. Apple has no comment on the report. Windows 95 At Midnight (WINDOWS) SCHAUMBURG, ILLINOIS, U.S.A., 1995 AUG 24 (NB) -- The search- lights lit up the sky over the Chicago suburb of Schaumburg, beckoning one and all to come. But if they were expecting the opening of a restaurant or a night club, they must have been a bit disappointed when they got to the doors of a CompUSA -- and the launch of sales of the new Windows 95 operating system by Microsoft. Newsbytes Launched On Microsoft Network (ONLINE) MINNEAPOLIS, MINNESOTA, U.S.A., 1995 AUG 24 (NB) -- Newsbytes News Network, the award-winning daily computer and telecom industry wire and digitized picture service, is one of the premier services offered by Microsoft Network. Microsoft Ships Windows 95 (WINDOWS) REDMOND, WASHINGTON, U.S.A., 1995 AUG 24 (NB) -- With bands playing, the Empire State Building lit in Microsoft's colors, and Jay Leno hosting a launch party telecast around the world, Microsoft has delivered on its promise to release Windows 95. The new 32-bit operating system is available as an upgrade to earlier versions of Windows 3.1 and 3.11, as a new purchase, and as a pre-installed operating system on personal computers (PCs). Microsoft Network Formally Launches (ONLINE) REDMOND, WASHINGTON, U.S.A., 1994 AUG 24 (NB) -- After months of legal concerns and challenges from competitors, Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) formally announced the availability of its Microsoft Network (MSN), a new online service, and a MSN official told Newsbytes "all systems are go, and we're in good shape." Apple Attacks Microsoft With "Truth" Campaign (APPLE) CUPERTINO, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1995 AUG 24 (NB) -- Apple Computer Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL) is about to send a message to computer users worldwide, aiming to debunk the hype surrounding the launch of Microsoft's Windows 95 operating system. The company will unveil a worldwide print ad that simply reads "C:\ONGRTLNS.W95." Windows 95 To Impact Unix & OS/2 More Than Mac (WINDOWS) ALBANY, NEW YORK, U.S.A., 1995 AUG 24 (NB) -- Today's shipment of the long awaited Windows 95 will carry profound impacts throughout the software and hardware sides of the business, but the fallout will be stronger in the Unix and OS/2 environments than for Macintosh, predicted Giles MacNamee, senior VP of First Albany Corp., during an interview with Newsbytes. More Windows 95 Details (WINDOWS) REDMOND, WASHINGTON, U.S.A., 1995 AUG 25 (NB) -- Computer industry watchers and PC users alike have waited for more than a year to find out in detail what goodies Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ:MSFT) included in Windows 95, and with the exception of beta testers and the other relatively few people who got advance copies for evaluation and testing, yesterday was the day. 11.8 Million Subscribe To Online Services - Study (ONLINE) WILTON, CONNECTICUT, U.S.A., 1995 AUG 25 (NB) -- The number of subscriptions to all online services grew more than 26 percent to 11.8 million in the second quarter of 1995, claims a report from Simba Information Inc. The "Electronic Information Report's Second Quarter Online Subscriber Survey" showed much of that increase came from the consumer end of the online service spectrum. (Newsbytes Staff/129950825) (SUMMARY)(GENERAL)(MSP)(00031) Newsbytes Daily Summary 08/25/95 MINNEAPOLIS, MINNESOTA, U.S.A., 1995 AUG 25 (NB) -- These are capsules of all today's news stories: ======================================================================== ------------| N E W S B Y T E S D A I L Y S U M M A R Y |---------- ------------| Friday, August 25, 1995 |---------- ======================================================================== (c) Newsbytes News Network (Tm) Editor in Chief: Wendy Woods ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Newsbytes News Network is a computer and telecom industry news wire and digitized picture service. Our news stream includes more than 30 daily first-hand reported US and international news stories about computing and telecommunications. For more information, please e-mail to 'administrator@newsbytes.com' ------------------------------------------------------------------------ CATEGORY HEADLINES (*** indicates today's top stories) STORY # ======================================================================== APPLE Review of - The Lost Tribe................................. 22 BROADCAST Japan Satellite Launch On Monday........................... 09 BROADCAST Video News Roundup......................................... 12 BUSINESS Matsushita Reports Loss For 1st Qtr........................ 08 BUSINESS Chipcom Sells Ethermodem Business.......................... 16 BUSINESS ****Merger Off, Hayes Not Committed, Says Boca Boss....... 24 GENERAL Japan Newsbriefs........................................... 06 GENERAL OSF/DCE Conference - More On IBM's DCE Implementations..... 14 GENERAL Superconductor Consortium Created.......................... 17 GENERAL Newsbytes Week In Review....................................30 GOVT China - Govt To Merge 100 Univs & Colleges................. 10 IBM IBM Europe Says OS/2 Warp Server In Beta................... 03 LEGAL UK - Chip Theft Recovery Service Offered................... 04 LEGAL Information Trade Group Wants Database Protection.......... 29 ONLINE United Airlines & Microsoft Network Team For Travel........ 18 ONLINE Compuserve "Welcomes" Windows 95, Plans New Interface...... 19 ONLINE ZD Net Launched On Microsoft Network....................... 20 ONLINE Review - New Internet Books................................ 23 ONLINE America Online Delays Relaunch Of Global Navigator......... 26 TELECOM UK - Budget V.34 Multiplexer Intro'd....................... 01 TELECOM UK Cellular Firm Offers Consumer Guide..................... 02 TRENDS Library Licensing Of Reference Databases Up 67%............ 05 TRENDS Fujitsu Plans Plasma Display Panels........................ 07 TRENDS China - Electronics & Computers Are Key For Shanghai....... 11 TRENDS ****11.8 Million Subscribe To Online Services - Study..... 21 WINDOWS ****Windows 95 Launches In Carnival Atmosphere............ 13 WINDOWS ****More Windows 95 Details............................... 15 WINDOWS Microsoft Intros Internet Assistant For Word............... 25 WINDOWS Editorial - How I Spent Microsoft Rollout Day.............. 27 WINDOWS Intersolv Development Suite Supports Windows 95............ 28 ======================================================================== These are the headlines and first paragraphs of each story, in order: 1 -> UK - Budget V.34 Multiplexer Intro'd -- Eloquence, a UK communications company, has unveiled the Quad Statistical Multiplexer, a UKP499 device that sits between the serial output from up to four devices, typically computers, and the single serial input to a V.34, 28,800 bits-per-second (bps), modem. 2 -> UK Cellular Firm Offers Consumer Guide -- Vodafone has unveiled a "Code of Practice for Consumers," a 20-page booklet for its two million-plus subscribers that use the company's analog and digital cellular services in the UK. 3 -> IBM Europe Says OS/2 Warp Server In Beta -- IBM United Kingdom has announced that public beta testing of OS/2 Warp Server has begun in the UK and Europe, following preliminary testing that started in the US earlier this month. 4 -> UK - Chip Theft Recovery Service Offered -- According to Response Computer Maintenance (RCM), theft of computer components represents one of the fastest-growing and most lucrative forms of crime in the UK today. 5 -> Library Licensing Of Reference Databases Up 67% -- Information Access, a marketer and developer of reference products for CD-ROM, online, microfilm, and magnetic tape systems, has released a public and academic library survey conducted by Opinion Technology. Its findings indicate that US libraries are quickly moving to incorporate licensed electronic reference databases into its traditional services. 6 -> Japan Newsbriefs -- In this roundup of news from Japan: SD group gets four more supporters, Ascii plans network backup, Sony develops all-in-one television, NTT faces legal action over center closure, KDD applies for international satellite data license, CSK & Digital Media Lab join Optibase in development pact, Buoyant chip market raises Kyocera profit predictions. 7 -> Fujitsu Plans Plasma Display Panels -- Fujitsu has become the latest of the major Japanese electronics companies to announce the development of large screen plasma display panels. 8 -> Matsushita Reports Loss For 1st Qtr -- Japan's biggest consumer electronics maker, Matsushita, has announced a large net loss for the first quarter of the current financial year. 9 -> Japan Satellite Launch On Monday -- A Lockheed Martin Marietta rocket will launch Japan's newest communications satellite, JCSat-3, on Monday, taking with it the infrastructure for a new digital television service for Japan. 10 -> China - Govt To Merge 100 Univs & Colleges -- More than 100 universities and colleges will be merged into 40 in order to "improve management efficiency and strengthen academic capacity," the State Education Commission (SEC) announced recently in Beijing. 11 -> China - Electronics & Computers Are Key For Shanghai -- As the electronics and computer industries start to play an important role in the economy of Shanghai, plans have been made to speed up the upgrading of these "pillar industries." 12 -> Video News Roundup -- This is a look at the top stories this week in the world of video news reporting: Panasonic Goes to the Olympics, Broadcasters Go To The Web, DEC and Digital Video, Portable Teleconferencing. 13 -> ****Windows 95 Launches In Carnival Atmosphere -- Fire eaters, jugglers, mimes and costumed characters entertained as the happy shoulder-to-shoulder crowd surged across the campus, wending their way in and out of sparkling white tents topped with orange, blue, green and yellow flags reminiscent of a medieval street fair, as a light breeze kept the temperature comfortable and the sun shone on everything. 14 -> OSF/DCE Conference - More On IBM's DCE Implementations -- New additions to IBM's DCE (Distributed Computing Environment) include Distributed File Service (DFS) and Printing Systems Manager (PSM) for cross-platform control over files and print services, plus new programs for application developers, along with multiple releases of DCE 1.1, said IBM's Art Gilbert, during a press conference at the OSF/DCE User's and Developer's Conference in Boston. 15 -> ****More Windows 95 Details -- Computer industry watchers and PC users alike have waited for more than a year to find out in detail what goodies Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ:MSFT) included in Windows 95, and with the exception of beta testers and the other relatively few people who got advance copies for evaluation and testing, yesterday was the day. 16 -> Chipcom Sells Ethermodem Business -- Chipcom Corp. (NASDAQ:CHPM) has sold off its 10 year-old Ethermodem product line to International Control Services, a Decatur, Illinois, firm that specializes in taking over other companies' cast-off products. 17 -> Superconductor Consortium Created -- Conductus (NASDAQ: CDTS) and Superconductor Technologies Inc. (NASDAQ:SCON) have formed the High-Temperature Superconductors (HTS) Thin-film Manufacturing Alliance (HTMA), a consortium to "further the development of superconducting thin-film components." Joining the two superconductor manufacturers will be a variety of university and industrial participants. 18 -> United Airlines & Microsoft Network Team For Travel -- Through the use of the new Windows 95 operating system and the Microsoft Network (MSN), United Airlines hopes personal computer owners will turn their machines into "desktop travel stations" by logging into United Connection, a new travel reservation product on MSN. United and Microsoft inked the agreement just prior to the dual introductions of Windows 95 and MSN. 19 -> Compuserve "Welcomes" Windows 95, Plans New Interface -- Compuserve has issued a press release welcoming Microsoft's (NASDAQ:MSFT) new operating system Windows 95, but continues to equally state its objection to Microsoft bundling Microsoft Network with Windows 95. The oldest major online service is also building a new interface which supports Windows 95's 32-bit environment. 20 -> ZD Net Launched On Microsoft Network -- Ziff-Davis Interactive, the electronic publishing arm of computer-magazine publisher Ziff-Davis, has inaugurated its ZD Net service on The Microsoft Network, which was launched this week along with the Windows 95 operating system. 21 -> ****11.8 Million Subscribe To Online Services - Study -- The number of subscriptions to all online services grew more than 26 percent to 11.8 million in the second quarter of 1995, claims a report from Simba Information Inc. The "Electronic Information Report's Second Quarter Online Subscriber Survey" showed much of that increase came from the consumer end of the online service spectrum. 22 -> Review of - The Lost Tribe -- By Naor Wallach. This Macintosh program has you take control of a tribe of prehistoric people as they move from their devastated homeland to a new location. Highly recommended as a strategy game. 23 -> Review - New Internet Books -- By Naor Wallach. Peachpit Press has arranged with America Online to publish a book/disk combination 24 -> ****Merger Off, Hayes Not Committed, Says Boca Boss -- The pending merger between privately held modem maker Hayes Microcomputer Products Inc. and Boca Research Inc. (NASDAQ:BOCI) has been called off by Boca President Anthony Zalenski, who said Hayes' president and founder, Dennis Hayes, wasn't committed to the deal. 25 -> Microsoft Intros Internet Assistant For Word -- One of the products being shown at the Windows 95 rollout yesterday by Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ:MSFT) was Internet Assistant for Microsoft Word for Windows 95. 26 -> America Online Delays Relaunch Of Global Navigator -- America Online (NASDAQ:AMER) (AOL) officials have confirmed to Newsbytes that the company's relaunch of the Global Network Navigator (GNN) has been delayed, partially because of the hoopla surrounding the release of Windows 95 and the new Microsoft Network (MSN) online service. 27 -> Editorial - How I Spent Microsoft Rollout Day -- By Kennedy Maize 28 -> Intersolv Development Suite Supports Windows 95 -- Intersolv, developer of open client/server software tools, has announced that its Intersolv Development Suite will support Windows 95. Intersolv's PVCSA and Data Direct products are available now for Windows 95 and the company says it will provide new and existing customers with an upgrade plant for a transition to Windows 95 for other Intersolv products. 29 -> Information Trade Group Wants Database Protection -- The Information Industry Association (IIA) has called on Congress to pass a law protecting private sector databases. The IAA board of directors adopted the policy resolution yesterday, and also stressed that they see copyright law as the primary protection for databases. 30 -> Newsbytes Week In Review 08/25/95 -- This is a look at the top stories this weekin Newsbytes, listing with their category code: Windows 95/MSN Launch Under Observation Says EC; New Subscription Service For Newsbytes CD-ROM; Voice, Data, Video Over ATM, From MFS; Zilog's Violence Control Chip For TV; Justice Dept Blinks In Showdown With Microsoft; Gates Confirms Possible Venture With TBS; Apple Plans To Ship PowerPC Powerbooks; Windows 95 At Midnight; Newsbytes Launched On Microsoft Network; Microsoft Ships Windows 95; Apple Attacks Microsoft With "Truth" Campaign; Windows 95 To Impact Unix & OS/2 More Than Mac; More Windows 95 Details 08/25/95; More Windows 95 Details; 11.8 Million Subscribe To Online Services - Study. (Ian Stokell/19950825) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 08/24/95 NETWORK Plaintree Launches High-Speed Networking Products (NEWS)(NETWORK)(TOR)(00001) Plaintree Launches High-Speed Networking Products 08/24/95 WALTHAM, MASSACHUSETTS, U.S.A., 1995 AUG 24 (NB) -- Plaintree Systems has taken aim at the youthful high-speed local area network (LAN) market with new 100Base-TX, 100Base-FX, and 100VG-AnyLAN feature modules for its WaveSwitch 100 switch. The new modules support various 100 megabits-per-second (Mbps) Ethernet networking standards. All fit into the WaveSwitch 100 Ethernet Switch, allowing customers to connect existing Ethernet networks to high-speed links of their choice, according to Plaintree officials. Plaintree, which has research, development, and manufacturing operations in Ottawa, Canada, and US headquarters in Waltham, said its 100Base-TX P1 module is among the first products compatible with the IEEE 802.3u standard for Fast Ethernet networks. The 100Base-FX P1 interface also complies with IEEE 802.3u, the company said, but it is designed for use with optical fiber, while the 100Base-TX device is for copper wiring. Plaintree said it recommends 100Base-TX technology for connecting to local servers. 100Base-FX provides excellent noise immunity and greater network span than 100Base-TX, the company added. The 100VG-AnyLAN P5 switched interface module supports the IEEE 802.12 standard. It works with category 3, 4, or 5 unshielded twisted-pair cable, Plaintree said. The WaveSwitch 100 is a wire-speed store-and-forward switch based on application-specific integrated circuits (ASICs) that Plaintree developed. Company officials said it can improve the performance of an Ethernet network by dividing it into several less-populated segments, maintaining full network bandwidth on each segment. A spokeswoman for Plaintree told Newsbytes that the company sees the greatest demand for the high-speed networking products in workgroups. Demand has historically been strong for fiber distributed data interface (FDDI) networking technology in those situations, she said, and now demand for 100Base-TX and 100VG-AnyLAN is growing. Plaintree's new 100Base-TX P1 and 100VG-AnyLAN P5 modules both sell for $2,995 and are available now. The 100Base-FX P1 module, also available now, has a list price of $3,295. Plaintree's products are available worldwide, the spokeswoman said. (Grant Buckler/19950822/Press Contact: Debbie Kane, Plaintree Systems, 617-290-5800; Public Contact: Plaintree Systems, 800-Plaintree or 617-290-5800) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 08/24/95 WINDOWS "World's Easiest Software" Offers Simple Graphics Design (NEWS)(WINDOWS)(LAX)(00002) "World's Easiest Software" Offers Simple Graphics Design 08/24/95 MOUNTAIN VIEW, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1995 AUG 24 (NB) -- T/Maker Company has announced the release of World's Easiest Software, a point-and-click graphics design software line. World's Easiest Software gives users the ability to design, create and professionally print letterhead, stationery, business cards, Post-it Brand Notes, rubber stamps, and invitations. T/Maker Company is a division Deluxe Corp., the nation's largest custom printed products company. Founded over 80 years ago, Deluxe claims to be the nation's largest check printer. Nancy Spector, brand manager for T/Maker told Newsbytes, "With World's Easiest Software, even someone without any computer or graphics skills can make great-looking designs. All you have to do is type in your information and World's Easiest Software automatically formats it into dozens of layouts. Simply click and you're done. The user has simple, limited choices that will create quick, easy graphics." Added Spector, "You can customize your layout further with fonts, colors and clip-art, or import previously prepared graphics like your logo." "We're providing a complete design and printing solution for any consumer who wants great results," claimed Royal Philip Farros, vice president of T/Maker Company. "Our obvious emphasis is on ease-of-use. Many consumers still have difficulty using today's personal computers. Making World's Easiest as easy to use as a push-button appliance, yet powerful enough to handle sophisticated business design." Spector also said, "A tremendous advantage of using the World's Easiest Software is that users can print items from their own printer or send their orders to Deluxe Corporation right from their desktop." Deluxe Corporation has created what it calls "The World's Easiest Print Center," which reportedly allows for a direct electronic link from the user's computer to company. "This service allows customers to choose professional printed product designs, customize those designs to suit their needs, and transfer their designed products to Deluxe electronically. The customer can send the design to the World's Easiest Print Center via modem or disk, and will receive printed items back in the mail a few days later," said Spector. The World's Easiest titles will retail for $14.99. Titles include: Business Cards, Stationary, Certificates, Announcements, Invitations, and Custom Notes (custom Post-it Notes). World's Easiest is available on Windows and is compatible with Windows 95. Minimum system requirements are a 386 processor or higher, Windows 3.1 or Windows 95, four megabytes (MB) RAM, and 5MB of free disk space. (Richard Bowers/19950822/Press Contact: Michelle Mecham, T/Maker Company, 415-691-7762) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 08/24/95 WINDOWS ****Far East Gets Windows 95 First (NEWS)(WINDOWS)(HKG)(00003) ****Far East Gets Windows 95 First 08/24/95 CENTRAL, HONG KONG, 1995 AUG 24 (NB) -- Windows 95 Fever was going strong last night, where, due to the time difference, Microsoft's new operating system and graphical interface went on sale up to 16 hours earlier than in the US. First off the block was New Zealand (GMT -12 hours), where specially opened stores rang up their first sales at one minute past midnight on August 24 -- four hours ahead of a Singapore retail launch, where Microsoft's local information technology (IT) public relations company, PPR Asia, had arranged for stores in the six-story Funan computer shopping center to open at midnight for a four-hour sales spree. Such was the frenzy whipped up by PPR, that potential customers had been lining up to buy the software since early Wednesday afternoon and Microsoft's Singapore office was fielding 500 calls an hour from people trying to register to attend Thursday morning's launch ceremony which had a ceiling of 3,500 guests. In his speech at the launch, the US ambassador to Singapore, Timothy A. Chorba, said Windows 95 could be compared to a "shot heard around the world. That's what they called it in April, 1775, when a band of embattled farmers -- armed American colonists -- fired on British troops in the villages near Boston Massachusetts." He said the software launch was "another historic and revolutionary event whose impact will be felt around the world." There was extensive TV and media coverage of the Singapore launch as well as a special edition of the locally produced Microsoft Magazine. (Nigel Armstrong & I.T. Daily/19950823) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 08/24/95 GENERAL Comdex Asia A Sellout Splash (NEWS)(GENERAL)(HKG)(00004) Comdex Asia A Sellout Splash 08/24/95 CENTRAL, HONG KONG, 1995 AUG 24 (NB) -- Trade show Comdex Asia at Singapore Informatics 95 is set to mark its debut with a huge splash. Although still more than two months away from its opening at Singapore's Suntec City on October 26, the doors have been shut on any further occupancy, with the entire 17,000 gross square meters of exhibition space having already been taken up. No other information technology (IT) expo in Singapore has yet achieved 100% percent occupancy and much of the credit for this unprecedented support goes to the image of Comdex in the US, recognized as the world's largest annual IT event. For the Singapore show, the organizers have had to acquire additional floor space twice in view of the overwhelming response. "However, there can be no further increase in space," said Michael Liew, senior vice president of the Times Publishing Group, whose Times Conferences & Exhibitions is a joint organizer, along with the Singapore Federation of the Computer Industry and Softbank Comdex. Already looking ahead, Liew said next year the event would be made significantly larger, as some companies were unable to participate this year owing to the huge demand for space. Comdex Asia closely follows the US format and "exhibitors have been attracted to the pure trade aspect of the show as well as the comprehensive conference program," said Liew. Over 380 exhibitors have booked their presence at the show. They include companies from the US, UK, Australia, Japan, Israel, India, and several Asian countries. Some countries are also sending trade delegations to participate in business development seminars focusing on how to maximize IT opportunities in Asia. Some of the big-name exhibitors include: Aztech, 3M, Apple, Acer, Digital, Hewlett-Packard, Lotus, Novell, and Tech Pacific. Michael Mun, president of Aztech, hopes the show will increase awareness about the company among trade circles in Asia. "With the enormous growth in the computer industry in the region, especially in China and India, Comdex Asia is timely," he said. The largest exhibitor will be Digital, a regular participant in the US show. "I expect the first Comdex in Asia to be a 'must-participate' event for the Asia Pacific IT industry. That is why Digital is taking part in a big way," said its marketing communications manager for ASEAN region, Michael Liu. David Tynan, business development manager (data storage markets) for 3M Asia Pacific, said this is an opportunity to promote Comdex Asia as a "real" Pan-Asian trade show, and not just another IT show for the general masses. "Our business is in a real growth stage in Asia, and there have been minimal opportunities to reach manufacturers here. (Comdex Asia at Singapore Informatics 95) now gives us the opportunity to directly reach manufacturers and get in touch with IT professionals in a much better forum than was previously available at other Asian IT shows. With its trade focus, it qualifies as a true IT professionals-only event," he said. (Nigel Armstrong & I.T. Daily/19950823) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 08/24/95 ONLINE ESPN Web Site To Offer Subscription Service (NEWS)(ONLINE)(MSP)(00005) ESPN Web Site To Offer Subscription Service 08/24/95 BELLEVUE, WASHINGTON, U.S.A., 1995 AUG 24 (NB) -- Serious sports fans will soon be able to access a special area at ESPN's "ESPNET SportsZone" Internet World Wide Web site -- for a price. Starwave and ESPN have announced that, beginning next Monday, the two companies will offer a paid subscription service to ESPNET SportsZone users. The subscription area will give fans access to "enhanced content," officials said, including specialty coverage of events like the National Football League (NFL) Draft. Other offerings will include celebrity chat areas, news and photos from the Associated Press (AP), audio and video clips, and in-depth commentary from ESPN correspondents. Also included will be: analyses from more than 30 sports writers nationwide, including Frank DeFord; Player Profiles, which give comprehensive statistics on more than 4,000 college and pro athletes; graphics on data such as shot charts and game-flow diagrams; and sports-specific features, including NFL enhanced previews and college football matchups. Tom Phillips, vice president of online services at Starwave, said the new subscription service "enables us to offer serious fans a greater depth of analysis and commentary, as well as a richer presentation of the world of sports, for about 17 cents a day." ESPN and Starwave officials said SportsZone is one of the most popular sites on the Web, with more than 60,000 users surfing to the site each day. Monthly subscriptions are available for $4.95, which include a 30-day free trial. Yearly subscriptions are also available for $39.95, which officials said is a 30% savings off of the monthly rate. Prospective subscribers can sign up either through the Web site or via an 800 phone number using Visa or Mastercard. Fantasy football fans will also have their own area -- a real-time game of "pro-football." The game, appropriately called "Fantasy Football '95," will be available to both subscribers and non-subscribers of the paid service for $39.95. ESPN officials said fantasy football players who sign up by August 28 will get a free SportsZone subscription through the end of 1995. ESPNET Sports Zone is located at http://ESPNET.SportsZone.com . (Bob Woods/19950823/Press Contacts: Jason J. Hunke or Laura Thomas, Waggener Edstrom, 206-637-9097; Larry Baumann, Alan Taylor Communications, 212-714-1280; Public Contact: ESPNET Sports Zone, Internet World Wide Web http://ESPNET.SportsZone.com ) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 08/24/95 TELECOM UK's Mercury One-2-One Readies Int'l PCN Roaming (NEWS)(TELECOM)(LON)(00006) UK's Mercury One-2-One Readies Int'l PCN Roaming 08/24/95 LONDON, ENGLAND, 1995 AUG 24 (NB) -- Mercury One-2-One, one of the UK's two PCN (personal communications network) digital mobile phone networks, has revealed it will be operating an extended roaming test between its UK network and the new Swiss PTT PCN service this coming October. The roaming tests are available on demand from One-2-One and the Swiss PTT to selected users, and will be made during the Telecom 95 telecoms show in October, which takes place in Geneva, Switzerland. Andrew Donovan, a spokesman for One-2-One, told Newsbytes that tests would take place at Telecom 95 this October, in preparation for a public launch next Spring. Also in the pipeline, he said, is a parallel roaming agreement between One-2-One and the E-Plus network in Germany. Test roaming between One-2-One and E-Plus took place earlier this year at the Cebit Computer Faire in March, Newsbytes notes. Announcing plans for One-2-One to exhibit at the Telecom 95 show, Richard Goswell, the service's managing director, said that the Geneva roaming trial is phase one of the planned commercial roaming service. "This is the first step towards implementing a full commercial international roaming service across Switzerland," he said, adding that the German roaming agreement is also well under way. "We're now able to offer our customers not only the best value for money service within its own territory, but also provide similar roaming opportunities to these destinations as for GSM (global system for mobile communications) customers. We believe this move will be of significant importance to business customers in the future," he said. As part of the Telecom 95 event, One-2-One plans to be presenting its Network Information Systems (NIS) as part of the US West International stand at the exhibition. NIS is billed as state-of-the-art software tools used by One-2-One to manage its UK-based digital network. According to One-2-One, the software allows the company to monitor and track the performance and activity of every base station, network switch, microwave and cable link on its entire network, as well as monitor traffic levels and interrogate/correct network faults. (Steve Gold/19950823/Press Contact: Mercury One-2-One, tel +44-1956-700121, fax +44-956-700122) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 08/24/95 GENERAL Bull UK Offers Security Consultancy Services (NEWS)(GENERAL)(LON)(00007) Bull UK Offers Security Consultancy Services 08/24/95 BRENTFORD, MIDDLESEX, ENGLAND, 1995 AUG 24 (NB) -- Bull has launched a new security initiative that is aimed at reducing organizations' exposure to the misuse of information systems. According to Alison Campbell, the Practical Business Protection Service, as it is known, includes consultancy, a "complete range" of integration services, and security products. The initiative builds on Bull's expertise in security, primarily gained through contracts in government and financial organizations throughout the world and market-leading smartcard-based solutions, the company claims. According to Alex Laird, Bull Information Systems' manager of security services, the inspiration for the new strategy came partly from the "Code of Practice for Information Security Management (BS 7799)" which has revealed that preventing computer crime is not just about secure information technology (IT) systems, but the whole security package from staff and environmental security to network encryption. BS 7799 was recently published by the British Standards Institute (BSI) and is billed as indicating that computer abuse is primarily a people issue. The standard emphasizes the fact that security strategies should "embrace people as well as systems." "Computer crime is now so commonplace that it is referred to as a growth industry. Despite the fact that companies are already so dependent on their IT systems to support their business, many are still failing to recognize the increasing risk to which they are exposed," Laird said. "If they look a little way into the future, when most larger organizations will be dealing with each other on an electronic basis, the implications of not being secure are even more disturbing. The Practical Business Protection Service provides an organization with a realistic, feasible security solution based on a comprehensive audit of its risks," he claimed. (Steve Gold/19950823/Press Contact: Chris Wright, Text 100, +44-181- 242-4162, Internet e-mail chrisw@text100.co.uk; Reader Contact: Bull Information Systems, tel +44-181-568-9191, fax +44-181-479-2599) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 08/24/95 TELECOM China - Large GSM Net Opens In Central China (NEWS)(TELECOM)(PEK)(00008) China - Large GSM Net Opens In Central China 08/24/95 BEIJING, CHINA, 1995 AUG 24 (NB) -- A GSM (global System for mobile communications) network, claimed to be the largest commercially operating, was put into operation recently in the Hubei province of central China. Its initial service capacity will be 150,000 mobile telephone subscribers. The advanced digital mobile phone network in Hubei is provided by Italtel, an Italian-based telecom equipment manufacturer. The company was also the supplier of the equipment used for China's first GSM system in Hainan, which was put into operation in April. Five transmission centers have been located in five large cities in the province, including the provincial capital Wuhan. The service will be extended to all major metropolitan areas, as well as some smaller towns in the province, the Provincial Bureau of Posts and Telecommunications said. Alberto Chireleison, vice president and chief executive of Italtel, said the company will also negotiate with other provinces to provide GSM networks. Meanwhile, the company plans to set up a number of telecom equipment joint ventures in the near future. Although he did not name the locations being considered for the ventures, he said the company is looking at poorer areas -- the middle and western part of the country. Competition of foreign companies in China's telecom market is intensive and Italtel is not the country's only GSM supplier. Canada's Northern Telecom has signed a contract with Guangdong to provide GSM services in the South China province. Northern Telecom is also entering Hebei, Shanxi, and Heilongjiang provinces with its GSM systems. Finland's Nokia has also signed a contract with Beijing to provide a GSM system in the capital. (Chih-Ho Yu & Ning Huang/19950824) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 08/24/95 BUSINESS China - Compaq World'95 Set For September (NEWS)(BUSINESS)(PEK)(00009) China - Compaq World'95 Set For September 08/24/95 BEIJING, CHINA, 1995 AUG 24 (NB) -- Hoping to gain a larger share of China's lucrative PC market, Compaq says that Compaq World'95, a large show featuring the company's products and technologies will be held in Beijing, on September 19 and 20. The exhibition will include the firms' latest desktop and notebook computers and servers, as well as computer network management systems. The company also announced that a Compaq high-level delegation, including the company's president, will visit China and participant in a series of events, including the opening ceremony of Compaq World'95. Members of the delegation will also meet Chinese government officials, the company's representatives, and main distributors. Members of the delegation will also attend the opening ceremony of Compaq's joint venture in Shenzhen to celebrate its start of manufacturing. Celebration of the agreement renewal involving the Tsinghua-Compaq Training Center in Tsinghua University is also on the schedule. Hsi Tsu Chiang, managing director of Compaq China, said that Compaq is in the best development period in China. After two years in China, the company had a 22.7 percent share of China's PC market last year. Its market share rose to 23.5 percent during the first quarter of this year, he said. The company aims to increase its market share in China by five percentage points this year. The company, which already has offices in Beijing, Shanghai, and Chengdu, will open offices in Xi'an, Guangzhou, and Shenyan this year. The offices will help the company monitor changes in the market and formulate its marketing strategy, Hsi said. New offices will also bring sales and service "closer" to the customer and help solve problems promptly. Compaq also plans to speed up the construction of authorized maintenance centers in large Chinese cities. The company has 36 maintenance centers around the country and plans to raise that number to 50 by the end of the year. (Chih-Ho Yu & Ning Huang/19950824) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 08/24/95 WINDOWS Ipswitch Intros Internet Application Suite (NEWS)(WINDOWS)(TOR)(00010) Ipswitch Intros Internet Application Suite 08/24/95 LEXINGTON, MASSACHUSETTS, U.S.A., 1995 AUG 24 (NB) -- Ipswitch Inc., a maker of internetworking software, has unveiled a suite of Internet applications for Microsoft Windows. Ipswitch said its Cybersuite applications share a simple, consistent interface. Because Internet applications for different purposes tend to come from different vendors, they usually have a "grab bag" of different interfaces, Ipswitch officials said, so users do not get the consistency and ease of use that comes with suites of similarly designed applications. Cybersuite includes a World Wide Web browser built on Mosaic technology licensed from Spyglass Inc., a news reader, an electronic-mail client, and software for File Transfer Protocol (FTP) and Telnet. Ipswitch said its news reader comes with automatic searching that makes it easier to sift through large volumes of Internet news, and allows users to sort articles by subject, author, or date. It also has a facility for decoding encoded messages. The mail client allows separate mailboxes and address books, and supports both Simple Mail Transfer Protocol (SMTP) and the POP3 protocol, Ipswitch said. WFTP, the FTP client, has drag-and-drop file transfer, firewall protection, and support for more than 20 types of remote file systems. The Cybersuite VT320 Telnet emulator has keyboard remapping, an emulator control language for custom configurations, and a customizable toolbar, company officials said. Ipswitch sells its products directly, only in the United States at present, a spokeswoman for the company told Newsbytes. The company, which develops internetworking software for Windows, DOS, IBM OS/2, and Novell NetWare, has been in business since 1991. Due to ship in September, Cybersuite 1.0 will run on Windows 3.x, Windows NT, and the newly announced Windows 95. The list price is $95 per user, with volume discounts, site licenses, and original equipment manufacturer (OEM) prices available. (Grant Buckler/19950824/Press Contact: Lisa Gaudet, Ipswitch, 617-676-5700; Nancy Scott or Tasha McQueen, LNS Communications, 617-577-9777; Public Contact: Ipswitch, tel 617-676-5700, fax 617-676-5710, Internet e-mail info@ipswitch.com) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 08/24/95 WINDOWS ****Windows 95 At Midnight (NEWS)(WINDOWS)(MSP)(00011) ****Windows 95 At Midnight 08/24/95 SCHAUMBURG, ILLINOIS, U.S.A., 1995 AUG 24 (NB) -- The search- lights lit up the sky over the Chicago suburb of Schaumburg, beckoning one and all to come. But if they were expecting the opening of a restaurant or a night club, they must have been a bit disappointed when they got to the doors of a CompUSA -- and the launch of sales of the new Windows 95 operating system by Microsoft. Besides the lights, CompUSA management provided prospective purchasers with Pizza Hut pizza and drinks. The store itself did not close at its usual 9pm -- it stayed open through midnight, when it could officially sell the much talked about program. Rebecca Lopez, a manager at this particular CompUSA, told Newsbytes she thought the store would be "either busy or dead -- nothing in between" this particular evening. It turned out the former was true, as a Newsbytes-estimated crowd of 350 people waited in line to have the right to say they were one of the first to buy Windows 95. Lopez said the crowd was "more than I had expected." The very first person in line was Carol White. She told Newsbytes she had been in line since about 11pm, but she had been alone for quite a while. The chair at the beginning of the line was a big inducement to stay in line, she said, along with what she's heard about the new operating system. "I watched Bill Gates on TV last night, and it sounds like it's going to be a really great program," she said. "It's going to be much easier than what's out now." Others in line echoed that sentiment. A few others said they had either upgraded their systems or purchased new computers to run the new Microsoft offering. Then at 12:03am, the sounds of the Rolling Stone's "Start Me Up," which is the anthem for Windows 95, filled the store. The rush was on, as customers went through the store's warehouse to pick up not only the new operating system, but to buy Microsoft programs that are designed for Windows 95, including Word, Office, and PowerPoint. A warehouse clerk told Newsbytes that after the store closed, the next rush would come as workers would have to move the product out of the stockroom and onto the sales floor. Their Windows 95 programs in hand, some people headed to the upgrade area of the store, to buy additional hard drives and/or memory that was on sale. With press reports saying that many computers would need to be upgraded to run the new operating system, it seemed these people were taking no chances. A checkout clerk in the area told Newsbytes he was selling equal amounts of memory and hard drives. The search-lights must have had an effect similar to a magnet on Windows 95 buyers, if a very informal Newsbytes survey is correct. A nearby Office Max only had two cars in front of it, while an Egghead store that was very close to CompUSA had about ten people in a check-out line. The Computer City that sits across the street from CompUSA had about 20 shoppers. Office Depot advertised that most locations would open at 12 midnight, complete with coffee and doughnuts, but the Schaumburg store wasn't one of them. And in nearby Rolling Meadows, an Elek Tek location wasn't even open. The same can be said of Circuit City, Best Buy, and Silo locations in Schaumburg. Some of the people in line for computer upgrades at CompUSA felt an aggressive marketing campaign by the nationwide retailer contributed to the influx of people into the store. Besides search-lights and pizzas, deals on accessories abounded in the store. Many people in line had items like RAM-doubling programs, blank diskettes, and surge protectors that were all on sale. Then there was the man who didn't have a thing in his hands. He wasn't in the store to buy anything -- he was just wondering why people were standing in line. He said he had heard all of the hype, and he was wondering what was behind it. Based on the huge number of people in the store, he simply muttered "Bill's (Gates) done a good job." (Bob Woods/19950824) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 08/24/95 WINDOWS "What is Windows 95?" Audio Tape Helps New Users (NEWS)(WINDOWS)(MSP)(00012) "What is Windows 95?" Audio Tape Helps New Users 08/24/95 SPRING GROVE, MINNESOTA, U.S.A., 1995 AUG 24 (NB) -- For people who are rushing to their local software supplier for a copy of Windows 95, or for people who are buying a computer for the first time, Audio Computer Information Inc. (ACI) is introducing an audio tape called "What Is Windows 95?" to help users navigate the new operating system (OS). John Stewart, ACI president and producer/narrator of the tape, told Newsbytes the tape is part of a series of tapes that covers DOS, PC-DOS, and Windows 3.1. ACI also produced a tape on how to use a modem, which Newsbytes covered earlier this year. The new tape on Windows 95 assumes nothing when it comes to the person buying it. "There are going to be a lot of people who buy their very first computer who have never used DOS and never used the previous version of Windows," he said. So the tape addresses that audience, as well as the person who never got around to understanding DOS or Windows 3.1. The tape begins with a background on why Windows is so popular, and the differences between the various OSs. After that, the "guided tour" begins with the new "Taskbar." Then the "Start Button" and its menus are explained. Accessories provided with the tape are used for practice sessions and examples, Stewart said. The cassette case also includes a double-length folded "J card" that contains a non-technical glossary of Windows 95 terms, along with a screen shot of Windows 95 that shows the various features of the OS. Other Windows 95 features discussed include the "My Computer" area and an explanation of files and folders, the use of TrueType fonts, and a definition of "system resources." The tape itself runs about 85 minutes. Stewart said this is about ten minutes longer than the original tape on Windows 3.1, because the new tape handles the "important DOS-inspired material covering the organization of the hard drive." The tape will be sold in stores and direct from ACI, Stewart said. Manufacturer's suggested retail price for "What is Windows 95?" is $18.95, he said. If the user buys direct from ACI, shipping is included in the price, he added. Stewart also said the tape should be ready to ship next week. (Bob Woods/19950824/Press Contact: Alicia Andersen, Audio Computer Information, 507-498-3279, Internet e-mail radiojohn@delphi.com.; Public Contact: Audio Computer Information, 507-498-3279) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 95 08/24/95 WINDOWS UK - Microsoft Gives Away Times Newspaper With Win (NEWS)(WINDOWS)(MSP)(00013) UK - Microsoft Gives Away Times Newspaper With Win 95 08/24/95 LONDON, ENGLAND, 1995 AUG 24 (NB) -- Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) is buying an entire print run of the British paper The Times for a day today, to promote the launch of the new Windows 95 operating system, a Microsoft spokesperson has confirmed to Newsbytes. Spokesperson Beth Herrell told Newsbytes the company would be buying 1.2 million copies of the August 24 edition to give away to readers, which wire reports say is triple the paper's normal daily circulation. She didn't reveal the cost, but various wire services put Microsoft's payout in the neighborhood of $500,000 to $600,000. Today's issue includes a front-page banner about Windows 95, along with a 24-page supplement about the new operating system. Herrell said the company's Windows marketing group within Microsoft's United Kingdom subsidiary came up with the idea to literally "buy" the paper. "Each subsidiary is free to do their own creative thinking on how they want to commemorate their launch activities," Herrell said. "The reason we chose The Times is because it really matches our customer's needs and their focus, in terms of great business news, great world news, as well as a local focus." She added the Times promotion is a unique one, and won't be repeated for any US or other world paper. A Times spokesperson is quoted as saying this is the first time in the paper's 300-plus year history that it will be given away for free. Herrell added that the release of Windows 95 will be staggered around the world, because many countries are "on holiday" during the month of August. The areas that don't get the new operating system today will have the opportunity to join the feeding frenzy the first week of September. She also said company President Bill Gates will be in Europe the first week of September to promote Windows 95. (Bob Woods/19950824/Press Contact: Claudia Husemann, Waggner Edstrom, 503-245-0905) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 08/24/95 WINDOWS Asia Pacific Catches Windows 95 Fever (NEWS)(WINDOWS)(TYO)(00014) Asia Pacific Catches Windows 95 Fever 08/24/95 TOKYO, JAPAN, 1995 AUG 24 (NB) -- The Asia Pacific region got a head start on the rest of the world when it came to buying Windows 95 today. The time difference between the rest of the world meant some computer users were already running the new software before Americans settled down to Wednesday lunch. In New Zealand, which is 16 hours ahead of New York and 20 ahead of the US west coast, nineteen year old student Jonathan Prentice bought the first copy at a Microsoft organized midnight buying event in Whitcoulls Bookstore in Auckland. He was home before dawn broke over Microsoft's Redmond, Washington, headquarters the day before the launch. In Australia, eager users were able to get their hands on the software just a couple of hours after New Zealand. To celebrate, Microsoft floated a four-story Windows '95 logo on a barge in Sydney. In other centers across Asia, including Hong Kong, Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, Indonesia, and the Philippines, the new operating system was selling well from computer retailers and bookstores. Despite the enthusiasm surrounding the launch, and the accompanying Microsoft publicity stunts, all was quiet in Tokyo, Japan. Microsoft will not launch Windows '95 until later this year according to a Microsoft spokeswoman. The delays are caused by localization of the software and the many dialog boxes and menus that must be translated into Japanese. Microsoft Japan has just released a final beta version of the software to several thousand testers who each paid 4,000 yen ($41.45) for the software. Phone calls to several Tokyo computer stores this afternoon found no supplies of the English language version available. One quoted availability from late September at a price of 28,000 yen ($290), a large increase on the US retail price of $90. Despite the lack of availability of the product on Japanese shelves, it still made the top of the financial pages in evening newspapers and its release was one of the top stories on the evening television news. A similar story to Japan is found in South Korea and Taiwan which will also have to wait for localized versions until later this year. In China the new software is not expected out until early next year. (Martyn Williams/19950824/Press contact: Microsoft Japan, tel +81-3-5454-8013, fax +81-3-5454-7959) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 08/24/95 ONLINE Int'l Users Must Compare Online Charges Carefully (NEWS)(ONLINE)(TYO)(00015) Int'l Users Must Compare Online Charges Carefully 08/24/95 TOKYO, JAPAN, 1995 AUG 24 (NB) -- While users in the United States can compare costs of Microsoft's new Microsoft Network (MSN) and other online services quite easily, users overseas must spend more time working out which network is best for them as the additional "network surcharges" can often make prices very different. Microsoft has varied the membership fee of MSN in all of the 52 countries it will launch in. The number of free hours and the additional hourly fee are also different. Compuserve, the only comparable worldwide service, charges all users the same price, but adds communications surcharges for making use of networks owned by other companies. For example, in Singapore, MSN users will be charged $18 a month, get two free hours, then pay $12 an hour for connection to basic services such as electronic-mail, news, and Internet access. Compuserve, under its new pricing scheme, will charge $9.95 a month membership and give away five free hours before charging $2.95 an hour, but that's before the communications charges. Access in Singapore is via the Infonet World network which carries a usage charge of $15 an hour, all the time. This means the "free" hours are still costing $15 an hour with the additional hours priced at the sum of Infonet's fee and Compuserve's -- $17.95 each. Because Microsoft has rolled all charges into one for each country, the free hours are really free and the user pays no extra charges. In other countries the price difference is much closer. MSN members in the UK will pay UKP5.99 a month ($9.16) and UKP3.25 ($4.97) per hour after the initial three hours. Compuserve members in the UK pay the slightly higher membership fee of $9.95, but get five hours free then pay $2.95 an hour. Connection to Compuserve in the UK is via the service's own network which carries no surcharge in North America or Europe. This makes Compuserve a more economical option. The localization of charges in each country has also meant that MSN will be charging users in most European countries in local currencies making direct comparisons slightly more difficult as the price gap will move with the exchange rate. In all other regions of the globe, except Australia and New Zealand, MSN is charging in US dollars. In Australia, where Microsoft is launching MSN as a service independent from Windows 95, the monthly membership will be AUS$9.90 ($7.58) with each hour after the initial two free hours priced at AUS$5.00 ($3.83). Compuserve membership is the same, worldwide -- priced at $9.95, with hours after the first five priced at $2.95. In Australia, access is via the Compuserve Pacific Network which carries a AUS$9.15 ($7.00) an hour fee. There are many connection possibilities and these need to be studied carefully by users in foreign countries where there are more variables to be considered. The communications surcharges are eliminated, for instance, if users can connect to Compuserve across the Internet. In this case the standard fees are paid making CIS much cheaper than MSN, but that depends on how much the Internet connection costs are. (Martyn Williams/19950824/Press contact: Renee Dunn, Microsoft Corporation, 206-882-8080) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 08/24/95 WINDOWS ****Microsoft Canada Launches Windows 95, Quebec Waits (NEWS)(WINDOWS)(TOR)(00016) ****Microsoft Canada Launches Windows 95, Quebec Waits 08/24/95 TORONTO, ONTARIO, CANADA, 1995 AUG 24 (NB) -- Microsoft Canada Inc., of Mississauga, Ontario, is making Toronto's most visible landmark the centerpiece for the Canadian launch of its Windows 95 operating system this week. The glitzy coming-out party for the new software is being held at the CN Tower, the world's tallest freestanding structure, which overlooks downtown Toronto. Meanwhile, would-be Windows 95 users in Quebec will have to wait until November for the new operating system unless they buy new computers or select the English version of the software. Frank Clegg, general manager of Microsoft Canada, explained at a press conference in Toronto that a version of the software tailored to the French-speaking province will not be available until November. Microsoft decided not to sell the version designed for France in Quebec, as it did with its last new Windows release, because last time copies meant for Quebec found their way into the grey market in France, he said. However, hardware manufacturers that have bundling deals with Microsoft will be able to get the French software right away for the machines they sell in Quebec, he added. Microsoft Canada also announced that Microsoft Network, the company's new online service, will have local access numbers in 30 Canadian cities right away. Clegg said Microsoft Canada expects to double that number by the end of the year. Microsoft Network will provide access to Internet electronic-mail and newsgroups right away, Clegg said, but World Wide Web access won't be available for about 90 days. "We're taking the personal computer from an information appliance to what we believe is a communications appliance," Clegg said. Microsoft Canada is staging a four-day extravaganza at the CN Tower -- which is in the heart of Toronto and surrounded by theaters, shopping areas, and the city's main sports stadium -- during which it will gave away software and computers. The company sparked some controversy by hanging a banner advertising Windows 95 on the tower itself, and on Thursday afternoon a man was scheduled to rappel down from the tower's observation deck to the ground, carrying a notebook computer. Meanwhile, Apple Canada Inc. is trying to counter the hype by pointing out that its own Macintosh operating system has had many of Windows 95's features for years. "The Mac OS has an 11-year track record," David Wright, Apple Canada's director of marketing, told Newsbytes, adding that Microsoft's adoption of many of the ideas first seen on the Macintosh is helping to counter an earlier perception that the Mac's graphical operating system made it more of a toy than a serious computer. Wright said Apple has not seen customers defecting to Intel-based PCs because of the Windows launch, claiming that Apple's sales in Canada are up over last year. He noted that Apple's eWorld online service provides Internet access -- including the World Wide Web. But he also said Apple knows it cannot sit still. The company is preparing a new operating system release, code-named Copland, which it hopes to ship in mid-1996. Microsoft said it expected Windows 95 upgrades to sell for less than C$100. As in the United States, some Canadian computer and software stores planned to open at midnight on Wednesday to sell the software. Microsoft also announced Canadian member pricing for Microsoft Network. The annual plan costs C$70 per year with three hours of free usage per month. A special offer to the first 500,000 members cuts that price to C$56. The standard monthly plan is C$6.95 per month with three hours of free usage. With all these options, extra hours are C$3.50. The Frequent User Monthly Plan is C$35 per month including 20 free hours, plus C$2.80 per extra hour. (Grant Buckler/19950824/Press Contact: Ken Nickerson, Microsoft Canada, 905-568-0434 ext 4246; John Swinimer, Hill & Knowlton for Microsoft Canada, 905-568-0434 ext 4255; Public Contact: Microsoft Canada, tel 905-568-0434, fax 905-568-1527) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 08/24/95 ONLINE ****Newsbytes Launched On Microsoft Network (NEWS)(ONLINE)(MSP)(00017) ****Newsbytes Launched On Microsoft Network 08/24/95 MINNEAPOLIS, MINNESOTA, U.S.A., 1995 AUG 24 (NB) -- Newsbytes News Network, the award-winning daily computer and telecom industry wire and digitized picture service, is one of the premier services offered by Microsoft Network. Each business day, at least 30 breaking news stories will be online, and entire daily editions and digital photos are also available for downloading. There is also a free bulletin board for the posting of messages, and a free chat area for the interactive discussion of computer-related topics in the news. Newsbytes has been a trusted, and independent source of technology news reporting since 1983. Reporters cover PCs, Apple, Unix, legal and government developments, telecom and online services, including the Internet, technology in health and education, PDAs (personal digital assistants), supercomputers, data broadcasting, Windows, and more. Bureaus are in Washington, Boston, Denver, Minneapolis, Chicago, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Toronto, London, Sydney, New Delhi, Beijing, Japan, Hong Kong, and the Philippines. The photos in the Newsbytes area of Microsoft network originate from the Newspix photo service, and are images of the products, people, and places making news in JPEG (Joint Photographic Experts Group) format. The Newsbytes forum on Microsoft Network is managed by Newsbytes managing editor, Ian Stokell. Newsbytes is the primary source of breaking news reporting for more than 180 publications worldwide, including online services, magazines, newspapers, newsletters, fax services, broadcast programs, end-users on the Internet, and corporate executives. Newsbytes provides first-hand source reporting by a team of 19 award-winning journalists. Newsbytes has five times won Best Online Publication honors from The Computer Press Association and won Outstanding Online News Service at the 1994 John Dvorak Technical Excellence awards. For more information, contact Editor in Chief Wendy Woods at tel 612-430-1100 or fax 612-430-0441. She can be contacted via electronic-mail on Compuserve at 72241,337, on GEnie at NEWSBYTES, on Applelink at NEWSBYTES1, and on the Internet at administrator@newsbytes.com. (Newsbytes Staff/19950824) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 08/24/95 TRENDS AmCoEx Index Of Used Computer Prices (NEWS)(TRENDS)(SFO)(00018) AmCoEx Index Of Used Computer Prices 08/24/95 SAN DIEGO, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1995 AUG 24 (NB) -- By John Hastings. With all of the hoopla over Windows 95, everyone understands that Microsoft is big and getting bigger. Although it is the largest software company in the world, it is not the largest computer company. IBM's revenues are more than ten times that of Microsoft. In fact, in the second quarter of this year, IBM's profits were greater than Microsoft's sales. IBM seems focused on channeling most of its resources to stop the Microsoft juggernaut. And its resources are formidable. Not too long ago, the Justice Department would never have allowed IBM to acquire a company the size of Lotus. However, with its current underdog image, that acquisition may just be the first of many. With its lackluster sales of the OS/2 operating system, some are speculating that IBM may merge with Apple Computer. Since the Macintosh operating system is the second most popular desktop operating system in the world and is compatible with the IBM-developed PowerPC chip, the merger might make sense. While many feel the Macintosh is losing market share, the reality is Apple's sales are at record levels and the company is predicting a 30% growth rate. In fact, sales of the Macintosh are only limited by Apple's ability to manufacture the computers. If IBM put its resources behind this bottleneck, Microsoft's undefeatable image may be somewhat tarnished. John Hastings is the president of the American Computer Exchange. Since 1988, the American Computer Exchange has matched buyers and sellers of used microcomputers. For more information contact the American Computer Exchange at (800) 786-0717 or http://www.crl.com/~amcoex AmCoEx Index of Used Computer Prices The following prices are for August 21, 1995. Average Average Buyer's Seller's Machine Bid Ask Close Change($) IBM PS/1 486DX2/50 253MB 700 1150 750 .. IBM PS/2 Model 90 160MB 725 1100 800 +50 IBM ThinkPad 350C 1400 1800 1475 +25 IBM ThinkPad 700 900 1500 975 .. IBM ThinkPad 720 1000 1500 1100 -25 IBM ThinkPad 755c 2800 3400 3100 -150 * AST 486SX/25 170MB 450 850 575 +50 AST 486DX/66 340MB 600 1000 750 .. AST Pentium 90 540MB 1400 1800 1650 -125 * Dell 486DX/33 240MB 600 1050 700 +50 Dell Pentium 75 1GB 1500 2300 1800 -150 * Gateway 486/33 120MB 500 700 650 .. Clone 486/25 120MB, VGA 650 1000 725 +50 Clone 486DX/33 240MB 550 1000 625 .. Clone Pentium 60 540MB 1050 1600 1300 -100 * Compaq Contura 4/25 120MB 650 1000 750 -25 Compaq Deskpro 486/33 120MB 650 1100 700 +25 Mac IIci 80MB 400 850 550 .. Mac Performa 630 250MB 1000 1500 1250 -75 * Mac Quadra 700 230MB 700 1100 875 +50 Mac Quadra 800 500MB 900 1500 1225 .. Mac 7100/80AV 700MB 1700 2600 2250 -100 * Mac 8100/80 1GB 1950 3000 2575 -125 * PowerBook 170 40MB 800 1350 950 .. PowerBook 180 80MB 1000 1750 1350 +25 PowerBook 520 250MB 1250 1600 1400 -75 * PowerBook 540c 320MB 2100 2750 2400 -75 * LaserWriterPro 630 1100 1650 1275 +25 NEC Versa 340MB 1900 2600 2375 -75 * Toshiba 1960CS 320MB 1400 1900 1650 -50 * Toshiba 3200 SXC, 120MB 1700 2650 1850 +50 Toshiba 4800CT 500MB 2200 2900 2600 -75 * HP LaserJet II 350 850 425 .. HP LaserJet IIIP 250 650 325 +25 HP LaserJet III 500 900 550 .. HP LaserJet IV 800 1200 950 +25 (* denotes new items) (AMCOEX/19950824) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 95 08/24/95 TRENDS ****Analyst Predicts Few Upgrades With Windows (NEWS)(TRENDS)(LAX)(00019) ****Analyst Predicts Few Upgrades With Windows 95 08/24/95 SCOTTSDALE, ARIZONA, U.S.A., 1995 AUG 24 (NB) -- Market research firm In-Stat has poured cold water on some of the press hype involving Windows 95. While agreeing that Windows 95 is a very good operating system, the firm sees much lower hardware upgrade numbers than some are predicting. Mark Kirstein, senior analyst with In-Stat, told Newsbytes: "A lot of things in the press being attributed to Windows 95 are really part of industry trends and have little to do with this announcement. For example, the 30% increase in semiconductor growth is happening in spite of Windows 95, not because of it. Industry trends have been very positive for some time, they are already in place, and Windows 95 is just along for the ride. "Our forecast for semiconductor growth will be controlled by capacity for the near future not demand, and Windows 95 has nothing to do with capacity," said Kirstein. In-Stat believes that to get peak performance from Window 95 a Pentium PC with 16 megabytes (MB) of RAM is required. The assumption by many is that consumers will rush out to upgrade systems and memory. In-Stat points out that, according to Microsoft, Windows 95 will run on 386 machines with only four megabytes of RAM. Performance might be constrained, but it will, reportedly, run. Many programs released in 1994 had similar recommendations. Programs such as WordPerfect 6.0, Word 6.0, and Excel 5.0, all run better on bigger systems, but there was no stampede to upgrade memory. Windows 3.0 was released in the second quarter of 1990 and Windows 3.1 was released in the fourth quarter of 1992. In each of those two years, revenues for total microprocessors were down. In both releases, however, microprocessor unit shipments in PCs rose sharply after the releases, according to In-Stat. According to In-Stat, another important point that needs to be made is that the degree of innovation between Windows 95 and previous operating systems is not the same. Windows 95 does not make the same strides in development as were made by the previous two releases of Windows. "The economics does not point the way for Windows 95 to significantly effect upgrade sales. We think the average upgrade would run around $500, and most people will wait and buy a new system before spending that kind of money upgrading an outdated computer. Windows 95 is more important to new PC sales than hardware upgrades," said Kirstein. In-Stat is a market research firm founded in 1981, and is headquartered in Scottsdale, Arizona. In-Stat provides research on the semiconductor and communication industries, with a monthly newsletter, "The IN-Stat Electronics Report." (Richard Bowers/19950824/Press Contact: John Cerelli, In-Stat, 602-483-0400) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 08/24/95 TRENDS ****Visiontek Says Windows 95 Memory Shortages Unlikely (NEWS)(TRENDS)(MSP)(00020) ****Visiontek Says Windows 95 Memory Shortages Unlikely 08/24/95 GURNEE, ILLINOIS, U.S.A., 1995 AUG 24 (NB) -- Even though users who have less than eight megabytes (MB) of memory on their computers may end up shopping for more RAM, memory manufacturer VisionTek said that anticipated memory shortages recently reported in the media are unlikely. However, the company said prices for that memory might go up. "While it might increase their stock price in the short term, companies that are warning customers about a chip shortage are really crying wolf," said Brian Abrahams, VisionTek director of marketing. "Memory will become unavailable only if Windows 95 sells beyond every industry projection and demonstrates memory requirements beyond what is currently expected," he added. Recent media reports and reviews of the new operating system have said that Windows 95 needs at least 8MB of RAM to operate efficiently. Because of this several companies have said they are short of memory chips, including Texas Instruments (TI) , which Newsbytes reported on. TI is predicting a continued tight market into 1996. As far as VisionTek's own business goes, Abrahams told Newsbytes his company isn't seeing as much of an effect because VisionTek deals primarily with Fortune 500 companies that are taking a "wait and see" approach. But he did say the company has seen a sharp increase in its sales in August that might be attributed to consumers preparing for Windows 95. But Abrahams did admit that "incremental price increases for memory" might result because of increased memory demand brought on by the advent of Windows 95. He said he has seen only slight price increases so far. Abrahams also said there might be an effort by some to artificially push up pricing in the memory market. "In the past, there have been times when prices have artificially jumped, but the supply of memory was not affected." He cited the big explosion at a Japanese memory production facility in 1993 and last year's earthquake in Kobe, Japan as incidents which spurred artificial memory price increases. Abrahams also said some in the industry are overreacting when they advise computer users to double the amount of memory inside their computers. "While the public release of Windows 95 (today) is creating tremendous demand, we're telling customers to buy only what they need." (Bob Woods/19950824/Press Contacts: Paul J. Krappman, Selz/Seabolt Communications, 312-372-7090; Cynthia Kater, VisionTek, 708-360-7129) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 08/24/95 TELECOM Australia's Telstra Reveals UK Telecom Plans (NEWS)(TELECOM)(LON)(00021) Australia's Telstra Reveals UK Telecom Plans 08/24/95 LONDON, ENGLAND, 1995 AUG 24 (NB) -- Telstra, which claims to be Australia's largest telecoms operator, has outlined its plans for the next six months of operations in the UK. As reported previously by Newsbytes, Telstra began offering ATC (alternative telecoms carrier) services in the UK in March of this year. Boyd Foulks, Telstra's UK managing director, explained that the company currently offers three Asia-Pacific telecoms services for UK businesses based in London and the M25 corridor (the M25 is an orbital freeway around London): Telstra Link, a direct connect voice service; Telstra Net, an international voice service for businesses with smaller IDD (international direct dial) requirements; and Telstra Fax, an international fax service. From September of this year, Telstra plans to extend its services out to Oxford, Cambridge, and the M4 corridor west of London, with a national rollout in the UK by the end of October. As part of its expansion, Telstra is introducing a national direct dial (NDD) service for UK customers. This means that Telstra will be able to offer both trunk and international services for its UK customers, leaving British Telecom to handle local call routing. "When we launched our Asia-Pacific telecoms service in the UK at the end of March, our objective was to sign 30 key customers by the end of 1995. In just over four months, we have closed deals with 20 customers, representing an annual revenue to use of UKP750,000, putting us well ahead of target," Faulks explained. According to Faulks, by July of next year, the company expects to have more than 250 customers on its network. "In line with these plans, we will be recruiting additional staff for our customer-critical functions, which will double our personnel to around 60," he said. Telstra claims it is the only telecoms operator to focus solely on providing telecoms services for UK business who trade extensively with the Asia-Pacific region. Faulks claims that this niche marketing strategy is starting to pay dividends. "In March, we told potential customers that our Asia-Pacific strengths and advanced network technology and customer billing systems would help to put them more in control of their bottom line, and this is already starting to happen," he said. According to Faulks. customer feedback is telling the company that its network service is technically impressive. and that billing formats are easy to interpret and manage. "Increasingly, we are providing customer bills on disk using our traffic management reporting software, doing away with paper altogether, and making call costs easier to analyze," he explained. Future plans for Telstra are trials for the company's first virtual private network (VPN) in the fourth quarter of this year. Plans call for the company to offer a VPN commercial service by the end of the year, along with a toll-free business service, plus an international chargecard service. (Sylvia Dennis/19950824/Press Contact: Shandwick Communications, tel +44-171-835-1001, fax +44-171-373-4311; Reader Contact: Telstra, tel +44-171-828-2328, fax +44-171-828-7938) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 08/24/95 GOVT SEC's Edgar Lives! (NEWS)(GOVT)(WAS)(00022) SEC's Edgar Lives! 08/24/95 WASHINGTON, D.C., U.S.A., 1995 AUG 24 (NB) -- Global Information Systems, a commercial supplier of information from Securities and Exchange Commission filings, will offer free, limited Internet access to the SEC's Edgar computerized filing system, starting October 1. Phillip Brown of GSI told Newsbytes that the service -- to be called Free Livedgar -- is designed to help market its commercial online service Livedgar, as well as fill in the gap that will be left when a two-year experiment with free Internet access to the system through the Internet Multicasting Service ends with the close of the current federal fiscal year on September 30. "I want to make it clear. This is a commercial venture," says Brown. "We are not a bunch of nice guys out to perform a public service. We hope to expose people to our commercial service." According to Brown, the free Edgar service will be limited to 10 minutes at a time, and users will not be able to download or print files. In order to download or print files, a user would have to subscribe to the commercial Livedgar program. Both programs offer real time access to filings as they are released by the SEC as well as access to other filings since April 10, 1993. GSI says it is providing access to the filings not only to promote its commercial service but also to provide a "private market solution" to the pledge by Chairman Arthur Levitt to keep SEC documents available on the Internet. Brown said recent stories that indicated that commercial SEC document services were very expensive angered him. One story indicated that it cost the Fordham University library $622 to get the Microsoft annual report from a commercial provider. "That's outrageous," Brown said. "It would cost about $12 on our service and about the same for most of our competitors." The Free Livedgar client program will be available at no charge on GSI's home page on the World Wide Web at http://www.gsionline.com . (Kennedy Maize/19950824/Press Contact: Phillip Brown, 202-628-1155) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 08/24/95 BUSINESS "G'Day Mate," Globalink Goes Aussie (NEWS)(BUSINESS)(WAS)(00023) "G'Day Mate," Globalink Goes Aussie 08/24/95 FAIRFAX, VIRGINIA, U.S.A., 1995 AUG 24 (NB) -- Globalink (Amex:GNK), the leading publisher of language translation software, is moving into Australia. "The country's multi-cultural population with immigrants from Europe, Latin America, and Asia make it especially fertile ground for language translation software," says Ron Johnston, Globalink's chief operating officer. "Additionally, as in any other country, Australia's enterprises are looking beyond their nation's borders to do business. Globalink offers affordable, easy to use, foreign language communication tools that provide these companies with a competitive edge." Software Upgrades & Services, an affiliate of Globalink's Western Europe agent Interfunction Ltd., will be Globalink's representative in Australia. Software Upgrades & Services already represents Adobe, Autodesk, Software Publishing and other software companies in Australia. Vince O'Connor, a 25-year IBM veteran, is managing director of Software Upgrades & Services, located in a Sydney suburb. "Vince O'Connor's expertise and knowledge of the Australian market and his impressive track record with other software companies will serve us well in our new venture," said Jim Lewis, Globalink vice president for sales and marketing. Globalink offers a variety of bilingual translation tools for Spanish, French, Italian and German, running upon Windows and Macintosh platforms. The company has better than 80 percent of the market for translation software. But according to a spokeswoman, Globalink will not be offering products to translate American to Australian. (Kennedy Maize/19950824/Press Contact: Kelly Rae Mullins, 703-273-5600) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 95 08/24/95 WINDOWS ****Microsoft Ships Windows (NEWS)(WINDOWS)(SFO)(00024) ****Microsoft Ships Windows 95 08/24/95 REDMOND, WASHINGTON, U.S.A., 1995 AUG 24 (NB) -- With bands playing, the Empire State Building lit in Microsoft's colors, and Jay Leno hosting a launch party telecast around the world, Microsoft has delivered on its promise to release Windows 95. The new 32-bit operating system is available as an upgrade to earlier versions of Windows 3.1 and 3.11, as a new purchase, and as a pre-installed operating system on personal computers (PCs). The official statement from Microsoft states minimum requirements for Windows 95 are a PC powered by a 386DX or faster processor and four megabytes (MB) of RAM (8MB recommended). Additionally, approximately, 70MB of hard disk space is needed for full installation (40MB for a simple installation). The statement also says the upgrade is priced at $109 and the full version for first time Windows users is $209. Egghead, a national software retail chain, opened many of its stores at 12:00am this morning selling the upgrade for $89.95 and the full version for $189. With the purchase of the new operating system Egghead offers a coupon/rebate package and Microsoft Money. While promotional events are being staged around world, the center of the storm is Microsoft headquarters in Redmond, Washington. Jay Leno is hosting a "Tonight Show-style" extravaganza which is being transmitted to locations around the world. Supporting third party developers are participating with a display of new applications and PC systems amid a carnival atmosphere. Along with making the largest product promotion in the history of the computer industry, Microsoft says it has also staffed a new level of technical support staff to assist users of the new system with any installation and operation problems. Ninety days of no-charge technical support from the date of a user's first call is also included with the purchase. Windows 95 features may be more about what you do not see than what you see. Immediate highlights include a new look-and-feel through a different interface, Plug-and-Play, 32-bit architecture versus the 16-bit of earlier versions, Microsoft Network (MSN) sign-up, the ability to create long file names, better and easier multitasking, network support for Windows NT and Novell NetWare, Internet-ready, built-in send/receive fax management and extended communications capabilities. You do not see elements such as Microsoft's TAPI (telephony application programming interface). Some of the Windows 95 elements are waiting for software developers to access as they create new applications. The TAPI specifications allow developers to create both simple and complex communications applications which will completely incorporate the telephone into business and home computers. Microsoft says users should in the coming year expect to see many new applications enabled by Windows 95's power. For months the media has been speculating: "Should you buy Win 95?" "Do you need it?" Looking beyond those questions, Bill Gates, co-founder and chief executive officer of Microsoft said, "We are moving into the next era of computing, with broader communications via e-mail and the online world, dazzling multimedia and games, and richer educational software. Windows 95 helps open up this world." More specifically, the next era of computing involves not only new applications but new versions of common Windows applications. To take advantage of the power of Windows 95 these applications need to support a 32-bit environment. Steve Ballmer, executive vice president at Microsoft, told the media they should expect to see native applications in the next few weeks. Besides new applications, this means a new Word for Windows, Excel, WordPerfect and other everyday applications will be on retail software shelves. Newsbytes recently asked a software developer if an upgrade to Windows 95 can be one or two disks which upgrade a full application. The answer was no. These upgrades are complex and thorough. While the upgraded application may "look and feel" the same, it will have been entirely rewritten to take advantage of the speed offered in Windows 95. Commenting on the brisk sale of Windows 95, Jeff Mathia, store manager at an Egghead outlet in San Francisco, said, "We had more than 180 purchases in the first two hours when we opened at midnight. Sales remain very brisk and we are bracing for a heavy demand during the lunch hour. Before we opened last night, the line of customers was a half block long." (Patrick McKenna/19950824/Press Contact: Dawn Leonetti, Waggener Edstrom, 503-245-0905, Internet World Wide Web http://www.windows.microsoft.com ) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 08/24/95 ONLINE ****Microsoft Network Formally Launches (NEWS)(ONLINE)(MSP)(00025) ****Microsoft Network Formally Launches 08/24/95 REDMOND, WASHINGTON, U.S.A., 1994 AUG 24 (NB) -- After months of legal concerns and challenges from competitors, Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) formally announced the availability of its Microsoft Network (MSN), a new online service, and a MSN official told Newsbytes "all systems are go, and we're in good shape." Ken Schneider, group product manager for MSN, said that there's a lot of demand already for the new network on its first full day, and "there's been no reports of any specific problems that had any long duration." Schneider said MSN is working on making sure the online network runs smoothly and quickly, especially in anticipation of a high demand level once more people begin singing onto MSN. "We've all observed in the past what high demand can do to slow a system down or make it hard for people to get online," he said. "Clearly, we're new to this business, and we're learning a lot. One of our goals is to make sure customers signing onto MSN are absolutely satisfied." MSN's new "assured customer satisfaction plan" is in place to make sure customers are 100% satisfied with the whole service, Schneider said. Also, he said "what we're doing is creating a series of checkpoints, where we're going to check our work to make sure the system is reliable and scalable." The first "checkpoint" will take place when MSN has 500,000 customers, he added. Some content providers have said they have experienced problems in recent days uploading information to MSN, but Schneider said he hasn't seen any reports to confirm that issue. Microsoft officials said MSN includes full access to the worldwide Internet network of computers, along with content from more than 200 companies and 100 content experts. The newest offerings for MSN announced this week include content from Charles Schwab, Federal Express, Fidelity Management, PlanetOut, National PTA, Senior Net, and USA Today, as well as Newsbytes News Network. In addition, a slew of other companies announced today they would be on MSN. MSN also offers access to hundreds of special-interest bulletin boards, reference information from the popular Encarta and Bookshelf programs, and news and information from the service's news package called "MSN News." Advertising partners on MSN include Chrysler, Kellogg Company, Dockers Brans, McDonalds, and Swatch AG, officials said. Membership plans for MSN vary widely. A charter membership costs $39.95 per year, including three hours of usage each month. Each additional hour costs $2.50. The charter membership offer is limited to the first 500,000 MSN members, and recent press reports have indicated that number has already been reached. But Schneider said he could not confirm any membership numbers. Other plans include: a standard monthly arrangement, which costs $4.95 per month with three hours of time and each additional hour at $2.50; a frequent user monthly plan for $19.95 per month including 20 hours of time, and each additional hour costing $2; and an annual plan, which costs $49.95 per year, includes three hours of online time per month, and each additional hour at $2.50. Charges for usage time has been a hot issue recently, especially with recent reports about a pending lawsuit against America Online (AOL) concerning how it charges its customers. Microsoft officials said charges would be based on 30-second increments, and rounded to the nearest minute -- so if a member is online for three minutes and 29 seconds, they'll be charged for three minutes, while if they're on for three minutes and 30 seconds, they'll be billed for four minutes. MSN officials said the network is available in 50 countries, the software is localized into 26 languages, and the membership plans are priced in 19 currencies. (Bob Woods/19950824/Press Contact: June McLaren Peters, Waggener Edstrom, 206-637-9097) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 08/24/95 WINDOWS ****Microsoft Windows 95 Launched In Europe (NEWS)(WINDOWS)(LON)(00026) ****Microsoft Windows 95 Launched In Europe 08/24/95 LONDON, ENGLAND, 1995 AUG 24 (NB) -- Many British PC users were greeted with a free copy of the London Times newspaper flopping onto their doormats, while visitors to the newsagent were bombarded by posters and other notices advising people that The Times was free -- even if you had to carry off a 28-page supplement on Windows 95 as well. "It's all a bit bemusing," Val Russell, a spokeswoman for IBM UK, told Newsbytes when contacted by Newsbytes. According to Russell, all the hype surrounding Windows 95 -- in the Europe at least -- is way too much, especially given the low-key launch of OS/2 a few years ago. "Microsoft has spent a lot of money on Windows 95. One wonders whether they'll get it all back," she mused. Readers of the Times, or, for that matter, viewers to terrestrial TV channels across Europe, plus satellite channels, have been inundated with coverage of Windows 95. Certainly, this bureau notes, the advertising bill must have been huge. But then there was the editorial in all forms of media. Microsoft's public relation agencies across Europe have done their job well. In the UK, several computer stores either stayed open on Wednesday evening, or specially re-opened for midnight, to sell Windows 95 to eager shoppers. PC World's Lakeside, Thurrock store, opened through the night, tempting shoppers with wine and cheese, while they waited for the Midnight sales deadline. Even Toys'R'Us, which only "got serious" about PCs a year ago, opened at midnight to 1am in order to catch the rush. In London, the Virgin Megastore, Virgin's largest electronics emporium, hosted a Windows 95 party between 4pm and 8pm local time. Reports suggest that a significant number of PC users attended. Across Europe, meanwhile, local language versions of Windows 95 went on sale to shoppers in France, Germany, Italy, Spain, and Sweden. This is the first time that a major operating system has been released simultaneously in multiple languages, Newsbytes notes. Any chance that Polish PC users were annoyed at not having their own local language version of Windows 95 was assuaged as Microsoft took a group of journalists, plus a few lucky members of the public, under the waves of the Baltic sea in a submarine to "experience life without Windows." The real European hoo-hah surrounding Windows 95 is expected to start next week, however, when Bill Gates visits London to start a series of international roadshows. As previously reported, Gates will also attend an Irish event in Dublin to promote Windows 95. Yet, in the run-up to the launch of Windows 95, this Newsbytes bureau has found many corporate users of Windows electing to stay with version 3.51 of Windows NT, rather than migrating to Windows 95. The reasons given were different to the advise meted out to readers of Infoworld, but all pointed to the advantages that Windows NT has over Windows 95. Many people Newsbytes spoke with noted that the US Government had expressed its favor of Windows NT over Windows 95, partly because of its support for symmetric multiprocessing and C2 security clearance, not to mention its native support for TCP/IP (Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol). Contrast that with Windows 95's support for the ubiquitous proprietary Systems Management Server (SMS), which is tightly integrated with Windows 95 itself. But what happens, the press has asked, if you happen to prefer using Novell NetWare? Most PC watchers seem to be coming around to the fact that Windows 95 is likely to sell well in the consumer marketplace, while Windows NT will continue to sell into the business channel. This Newsbytes bureau notes that even Bill Gates agrees. Speaking at the April meeting of CAMP (the Corporate Association of Microcomputer Professionals) in Chicago, Ill., Chairman Gates promoted Windows NT as the most appropriate solution for the corporate desktop. When he was asked to clarify his comments at a later press event, he reiterated his earlier comments, claiming that NT is both a great product and architecture, which industry watchers interpreted as meaning that Windows 95 is a product more suited for the consumer rather than the business user. Microsoft Network (MSN) is clearly an attraction for many potential Windows 95 users. Unfortunately for MSN users in Europe, the service can only be accessed at a top speed of 14,400 bits-per-second (bps), added to that the fact that, in the UK at least, the full Internet portfolio of services (e.g. Telnet and Web access) will not be accessible until early next year. "Without Internet facilities, plus the fact that its 50 percent more expensive over here, MSN may not be such a major pull as it is in the US," said one journalist to Newsbytes. (Steve Gold/19950824) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 08/24/95 APPLE ****Apple Attacks Microsoft With "Truth" Campaign (NEWS)(APPLE)(LAX)(00027) ****Apple Attacks Microsoft With "Truth" Campaign 08/24/95 CUPERTINO, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1995 AUG 24 (NB) -- Apple Computer Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL) is about to send a message to computer users worldwide, aiming to debunk the hype surrounding the launch of Microsoft's Windows 95 operating system. The company will unveil a worldwide print ad that simply reads "C:\ONGRTLNS.W95." The campaign was developed by BBDO West, Apple's advertising agency for the past decade. David Lubars, BBDO West's executive creative director and president told Newsbytes, "The word around Apple is that Windows 95 equals Mac 89. Windows 95 is an upgrade trying to catch up to last years Mac. This years Mac, the PowerMac 9500 is light-years ahead, with full RISC (reduced instruction set computing) technology and much more sophisticated multimedia features. "Microsoft is spending a lot of money to tell customers that Windows 95 can do Mac-like things. Our strategy is to cut through the hype with engaging creative that reminds consumers that all the marketing dollars in the world do not replace superior technology," said Lubars. The C:\ONGRTLNS.W95 ad is part of a four-tiered "Truth Campaign," that compares the new features -- including the ability to type names of eight or more characters -- to those found for more than a decade in Apple's Macintosh operating system. "The tongue-in-cheek message, "C:\ONGRTLNS.W95" is a reminder that although Windows 95 looks more friendly, cryptic DOS-style commands and file names are still present behind the scenes and can emerge at the most unpredictable times," points out Lubars. This campaign follows two print campaigns targeted to PC and Mac users, and precedes another print ad scheduled to appear next week. These ads are all part of a larger campaign that includes television advertising, which will be rolled out throughout this Fall. The C:\ONGRTLNS.W95 ad debuts August 24 in the United States, European and Asian editions of the Wall Street Journal. The ad is also running in the Seattle Times, London Financial Times, and San Jose Mercury News on August 24, and will appear for three to four days on billboards and airport dioramas in the Seattle, Los Angeles, and San Jose areas. The ad will also appear on buses in the Seattle area. Additionally, the C:\ONGRTLNS.W95 ad can be accessed online at the Ziff-Davis World Wide Web site at http://www.zdnet.com. The campaign directed at Mac users compares the new features found in Windows 95 with those in the Macintosh platform. For example, one ad states "Introducing Windows 95. It lets you drop files anywhere on the desktop. Imagine that." Apple says the Macintosh operating system has allowed users to do this for more than 10 years. "For more than a decade, Apple Macintosh computer users have enjoyed a powerful, easy-to-use, intuitive operating system that drives a wide variety of software applications," said Michael Mace, director of Macintosh platform marketing at Apple Computer. "While Microsoft's new upgrade adds some much needed 'Mac-like' functionality to the system, it still falls short of the benchmark standard set by Apple. Nonetheless, we still believe this effort deserves our congratulations, in Microsoft's own language." The PC-user directed campaign, which also started on July 31, plays off Microsoft's ad campaign by stating, "Where do you want to go today?" followed by "Good question Microsoft" and on the second page, the headline, "But what about tomorrow?" The PC ads emphasize features in the next-generation Apple Macintosh platform technologies. Next week's ad, which will appear in the Wall Street Journal, Seattle Times, and San Jose Mercury News, suggests that Windows 95 "looks and acts like a Macintosh, but is still an imitation." The copy reads, "Looks like a duck. Walks like a duck. Quacks like a duck. Too bad it's a decoy." (Richard Bowers/19950800/Press Contact: Lynne Lawler, Apple Computer, 408-974-5431) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 08/24/95 TRENDS British Telecom Plans Intelligent Text/Speech System (NEWS)(TRENDS)(LON)(00028) British Telecom Plans Intelligent Text/Speech System 08/24/95 LONDON, ENGLAND, 1995 AUG 24 (NB) -- British Telecom (BT) has revealed that it is working on an intelligent text-to-speech technology for PCs, known as Laureate. Like competing systems, Laureate vocalizes text in a word processing file, but its key advantage is that it summarizes the text and only speaks those elements of the file it assesses need to be spoken. According to Phil Flavin, manager of the Center for Information Systems at BT's research labs, the system can summarize a document down to as little as five percent of its original volume, based on parameters the package is set up for. According to BT, tests have shown that a one twentieth abridgment of a file will still retain 75 percent of the important information. "What this means is that you will be able ring up your computer, and it will talk back to you with the information you want, in the form you want it. We see some very practical applications for this, such as accessing your electronic-mail by phone and getting an executive summary of your messages," he explained. One other option that Flavin reckons will be useful with Laureate is the ability to access summaries of the latest technical media or market reports by dialing up a voice response service when stuck in traffic, for example. Once connected to the database, users are asked to respond to a series of prompts asking how short or long a summary is needed, using a touch- tone phone keypad to instruct the original computer. The output from Laureate can be shortened by any amount down to two percent of its original length. BT is working on "user interface agent technology" which it claims will adapt and learn user priorities, and filter the information transmitted accordingly. "The fact there is now so much information on tap means it threatens to overwhelm the very people who need to absorb it," Flavin explained, adding that being able to access data intelligently over the phone when away from the desk will be a real boon. According to Flavin, Laureate is a real voice system, not synthesized, and is based on a real voice that is recorded, dissected, analyzed, and reconstructed. "It's not a synthetic voice like some others -- so that, when the database is being read to you, it might sound like your secretary speaking," he explained. BT is not saying when the first commercial implementations of Laureate will be make it to market, but sources close to BT suggest that a spring '96 launch through several manufacturers is under consideration. (Sylvia Dennis/19950824/Press Contact: Helena Turnbull, Barzilay PR tel +44-171-729-6088, fax +44-171-739-5436) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 08/24/95 WINDOWS ****Windows 95 To Impact Unix & OS/2 More Than Mac (NEWS)(WINDOWS)(BOS)(00029) ****Windows 95 To Impact Unix & OS/2 More Than Mac 08/24/95 ALBANY, NEW YORK, U.S.A., 1995 AUG 24 (NB) -- Today's shipment of the long awaited Windows 95 will carry profound impacts throughout the software and hardware sides of the business, but the fallout will be stronger in the Unix and OS/2 environments than for Macintosh, predicted Giles MacNamee, senior VP of First Albany Corp., during an interview with Newsbytes. "Macintosh is like `religion.' If you're Catholic, you don't usually switch to being Jewish overnight," MacNamee told Newsbytes. For its part, OS/2 still tends to be operated more often on servers than on the desktop, anyway, the investment analyst contended. "The same is true for Unix," he added. Moreover, Unix faces the additional problem of requiring a "$15,000 or $20,000 workstation," as opposed to a lower-priced PC, according to MacNamee. Windows 95 provides the same kinds of ease of use benefits as Apple System 6, Newsbytes was told. Apple has since marched forward into multiple iterations of System 7, and the 32-bit Copland lies ahead. But the roughly 200 million PC users out there in the current installed base will find Windows 95 features like Plug-and-Play, drag-and-drop, and multitasking a dramatically welcome change from Windows 3.1, according to MacNamee. "You won't even see the DOS prompt," he pointed out. Over the short term, the keenest impact will be felt in the home market, MacNamee maintained. PC makers like Compaq and Gateway, chip and board manufacturers, and producers of games and CD-ROM software all stand to gain. "Windows 95 is a good reason to buy a Pentium. You need twice as much RAM (random access memory) and disk space as for Windows 3.1. And getting a CD-ROM to work at home has always been problematic up to now," the analyst told Newsbytes. Corporations, on the other hand, will use the remainder of 1995 as a trial period, waiting until 1996 to start using Windows 95 in earnest. "Then, virtually every maker of software used on the corporate desktop will become available in an `optimized' 32-bit version for Windows 95," MacNamee concluded. (Jacqueline Emigh/19950824/Reader Contact: Press Contact: First Albany Corp., 518-447-8400; Brenda Stevenson, Schwartz Communications for First Albany, 431-0770) (SUMMARY)(GENERAL)(MSP)(00030) Newsbytes Daily Summary 08/24/95 MINNEAPOLIS, MINNESOTA, U.S.A., 1995 AUG 24 (NB) -- These are capsules of all today's news stories: ======================================================================== ------------| N E W S B Y T E S D A I L Y S U M M A R Y |---------- ------------| Thursday, August 24, 1995 |---------- ======================================================================== (c) Newsbytes News Network (Tm) Editor in Chief: Wendy Woods ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Newsbytes News Network's 1995 Update CD-ROM for Mac, DOS, and Windows is now available for $29.95 (includes s&h). Contains 1983-1995 news stories, more than 64,000 keyword searchable stories and 475 digitized images. For more information or to order, fax to 612-430-0441 or e-mail to 'administrator@newsbytes.com' -- MC, Visa, Amex accepted. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ CATEGORY HEADLINES (*** indicates today's top stories) STORY # ======================================================================== APPLE ****Apple Attacks Microsoft With "Truth" Campaign......... 27 BUSINESS China - Compaq World'95 Set For September.................. 09 BUSINESS "G'Day Mate," Globalink Goes Aussie........................ 23 GENERAL Comdex Asia A Sellout Splash............................... 04 GENERAL Bull UK Offers Security Consultancy Services............... 07 GOVT SEC's Edgar Lives.......................................... 22 NETWORK Plaintree Launches High-Speed Networking Products.......... 01 ONLINE ESPN Web Site To Offer Subscription Service................ 05 ONLINE Int'l Users Must Compare Online Charges Carefully.......... 15 ONLINE ****Newsbytes Launched On Microsoft Network................ 17 ONLINE ****Microsoft Network Formally Launches................... 25 TELECOM UK's Mercury One-2-One Readies Int'l PCN Roaming........... 06 TELECOM China - Large GSM Net Opens In Central China............... 08 TELECOM Australia's Telstra Reveals UK Telecom Plans............... 21 TRENDS AmCoEx Index Of Used Computer Prices....................... 18 TRENDS ****Analyst Predicts Few Upgrades With Windows 95......... 19 TRENDS ****Visiontek Says Windows 95 Memory Shortages Unlikely.... 20 TRENDS British Telecom Plans Intelligent Text/Speech System....... 28 WINDOWS "World's Easiest Software" Offers Simple Graphics Design... 02 WINDOWS ****Far East Gets Windows 95 First......................... 03 WINDOWS Ipswitch Intros Internet Application Suite................. 10 WINDOWS ****Windows 95 At Midnight................................. 11 WINDOWS "What is Windows 95?" Audio Tape Helps New Users........... 12 WINDOWS UK - Microsoft Gives Away Times Newspaper With Win 95...... 13 WINDOWS Asia Pacific Catches Windows 95 Fever...................... 14 WINDOWS ****Microsoft Canada Launches Windows 95, Quebec Waits..... 16 WINDOWS ****Microsoft Ships Windows 95............................ 24 WINDOWS ****Microsoft Windows 95 Launched In Europe............... 26 WINDOWS ****Windows 95 To Impact Unix & OS/2 More Than Mac........ 29 ======================================================================== These are the headlines and first paragraphs of each story, in order: 1 -> Plaintree Launches High-Speed Networking Products -- Plaintree Systems has taken aim at the youthful high-speed local area network (LAN) market with new 100Base-TX, 100Base-FX, and 100VG-AnyLAN feature modules for its WaveSwitch 100 switch. 2 -> "World's Easiest Software" Offers Simple Graphics Design -- T/Maker Company has announced the release of World's Easiest Software, a point-and-click graphics design software line. World's Easiest Software gives users the ability to design, create and professionally print letterhead, stationery, business cards, Post-it Brand Notes, rubber stamps, and invitations. 3 -> ****Far East Gets Windows 95 First -- Windows 95 Fever was going strong last night, where, due to the time difference, Microsoft's new operating system and graphical interface went on sale up to 16 hours earlier than in the US. 4 -> Comdex Asia A Sellout Splash -- Trade show Comdex Asia at Singapore Informatics 95 is set to mark its debut with a huge splash. Although still more than two months away from its opening at Singapore's Suntec City on October 26, the doors have been shut on any further occupancy, with the entire 17,000 gross square meters of exhibition space having already been taken up. 5 -> ESPN Web Site To Offer Subscription Service -- Serious sports fans will soon be able to access a special area at ESPN's "ESPNET SportsZone" Internet World Wide Web site 6 -> UK's Mercury One-2-One Readies Int'l PCN Roaming -- Mercury One-2-One, one of the UK's two PCN (personal communications network) digital mobile phone networks, has revealed it will be operating an extended roaming test between its UK network and the new Swiss PTT PCN service this coming October. 7 -> Bull UK Offers Security Consultancy Services -- Bull has launched a new security initiative that is aimed at reducing organizations' exposure to the misuse of information systems. According to Alison Campbell, the Practical Business Protection Service, as it is known, includes consultancy, a "complete range" of integration services, and security products. 8 -> China - Large GSM Net Opens In Central China -- A GSM (global System for mobile communications) network, claimed to be the largest commercially operating, was put into operation recently in the Hubei province of central China. Its initial service capacity will be 150,000 mobile telephone subscribers. 9 -> China - Compaq World'95 Set For September -- Hoping to gain a larger share of China's lucrative PC market, Compaq says that Compaq World'95, a large show featuring the company's products and technologies will be held in Beijing, on September 19 and 20. 10 -> Ipswitch Intros Internet Application Suite -- Ipswitch Inc., a maker of internetworking software, has unveiled a suite of Internet applications for Microsoft Windows. Ipswitch said its Cybersuite applications share a simple, consistent interface. 11 -> ****Windows 95 At Midnight -- The search- lights lit up the sky over the Chicago suburb of Schaumburg, beckoning one and all to come. But if they were expecting the opening of a restaurant or a night club, they must have been a bit disappointed when they got to the doors of a CompUSA 12 -> "What is Windows 95?" Audio Tape Helps New Users -- For people who are rushing to their local software supplier for a copy of Windows 95, or for people who are buying a computer for the first time, Audio Computer Information Inc. (ACI) is introducing an audio tape called "What Is Windows 95?" to help users navigate the new operating system (OS). 13 -> UK - Microsoft Gives Away Times Newspaper With Win 95 -- Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) is buying an entire print run of the British paper The Times for a day today, to promote the launch of the new Windows 95 operating system, a Microsoft spokesperson has confirmed to Newsbytes. 14 -> Asia Pacific Catches Windows 95 Fever -- The Asia Pacific region got a head start on the rest of the world when it came to buying Windows 95 today. The time difference between the rest of the world meant some computer users were already running the new software before Americans settled down to Wednesday lunch. 15 -> Int'l Users Must Compare Online Charges Carefully -- While users in the United States can compare costs of Microsoft's new Microsoft Network (MSN) and other online services quite easily, users overseas must spend more time working out which network is best for them as the additional "network surcharges" can often make prices very different. 16 -> ****Microsoft Canada Launches Windows 95, Quebec Waits -- Microsoft Canada Inc., of Mississauga, Ontario, is making Toronto's most visible landmark the centerpiece for the Canadian launch of its Windows 95 operating system this week. The glitzy coming-out party for the new software is being held at the CN Tower, the world's tallest freestanding structure, which overlooks downtown Toronto. 17 -> ****Newsbytes Launched On Microsoft Network -- Newsbytes News Network, the award-winning daily computer and telecom industry wire and digitized picture service, is one of the premier services offered by Microsoft Network. 18 -> AmCoEx Index Of Used Computer Prices -- By John Hastings. With all of the hoopla over Windows 95, everyone understands that Microsoft is big and getting bigger. Although it is the largest software company in the world, it is not the largest computer company. 19 -> ****Analyst Predicts Few Upgrades With Windows 95 -- Market research firm In-Stat has poured cold water on some of the press hype involving Windows 95. While agreeing that Windows 95 is a very good operating system, the firm sees much lower hardware upgrade numbers than some are predicting. 20 -> ****Visiontek Says Windows 95 Memory Shortages Unlikely -- Even though users who have less than eight megabytes (MB) of memory on their computers may end up shopping for more RAM, memory manufacturer VisionTek said that anticipated memory shortages recently reported in the media are unlikely. However, the company said prices for that memory might go up. 21 -> Australia's Telstra Reveals UK Telecom Plans -- Telstra, which claims to be Australia's largest telecoms operator, has outlined its plans for the next six months of operations in the UK. As reported previously by Newsbytes, Telstra began offering ATC (alternative telecoms carrier) services in the UK in March of this year. 22 -> SEC's Edgar Lives -- Global Information Systems, a commercial supplier of information from Securities and Exchange Commission filings, will offer free, limited Internet access to the SEC's Edgar computerized filing system, starting October 1. 23 -> "G'Day Mate," Globalink Goes Aussie -- Globalink (Amex:GNK), the leading publisher of language translation software, is moving into Australia. 24 -> ****Microsoft Ships Windows 95 -- With bands playing, the Empire State Building lit in Microsoft's colors, and Jay Leno hosting a launch party telecast around the world, Microsoft has delivered on its promise to release Windows 95. The new 32-bit operating system is available as an upgrade to earlier versions of Windows 3.1 and 3.11, as a new purchase, and as a pre-installed operating system on personal computers (PCs). 25 -> ****Microsoft Network Formally Launches -- After months of legal concerns and challenges from competitors, Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) formally announced the availability of its Microsoft Network (MSN), a new online service, and a MSN official told Newsbytes "all systems are go, and we're in good shape." 26 -> ****Microsoft Windows 95 Launched In Europe -- Many British PC users were greeted with a free copy of the London Times newspaper flopping onto their doormats, while visitors to the newsagent were bombarded by posters and other notices advising people that The Times was free 27 -> ****Apple Attacks Microsoft With "Truth" Campaign -- Apple Computer Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL) is about to send a message to computer users worldwide, aiming to debunk the hype surrounding the launch of Microsoft's Windows 95 operating system. The company will unveil a worldwide print ad that simply reads "C:\ONGRTLNS.W95." 28 -> British Telecom Plans Intelligent Text/Speech System -- British Telecom (BT) has revealed that it is working on an intelligent text-to-speech technology for PCs, known as Laureate. Like competing systems, Laureate vocalizes text in a word processing file, but its key advantage is that it summarizes the text and only speaks those elements of the file it assesses need to be spoken. 29 -> ****Windows 95 To Impact Unix & OS/2 More Than Mac -- Today's shipment of the long awaited Windows 95 will carry profound impacts throughout the software and hardware sides of the business, but the fallout will be stronger in the Unix and OS/2 environments than for Macintosh, predicted Giles MacNamee, senior VP of First Albany Corp., during an interview with Newsbytes. (Ian Stokell/19950824) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 08/23/95 BROADCAST ****Gates Confirms Possible Venture With TBS (NEWS)(BROADCAST)(DEN)(00001) ****Gates Confirms Possible Venture With TBS 08/23/95 REDMOND, WASHINGTON, U.S.A., 1995 AUG 23 (NB) -- Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ: MSFT) Chairman Bill Gates said on the Cable News Network television program "Larry King Live" this week that Microsoft has had discussions with Ted Turner about a possible interactive venture between Microsoft and Turner Broadcasting System (TBS). Gates said Microsoft officials sought out Turner as part of the software company's push to form alliances with media companies for services such as interactive television and for online content of Microsoft's online service, Microsoft Network, scheduled to launch this week. Turner is the chairman of TBS, which owns Cable News Network and other properties. "What he has done is incredible," said the Microsoft chairman. Gates said the talks were in very preliminary stages but could ultimately result in Microsoft taking an equity position in TBS. "I'm a big admirer of Ted Turner," Gates told King's viewers. He said Microsoft would consider an investment in TBS "if the right kind of interactive venture was worked out between the companies." How much that investment might be, even if it does happen, isn't known. Speculation has ranged from $1 billion to $2 billion but the software billionaire and the richest man in the United States declined to say what amount, if any, was being discussed. If Gates and Turner do strike a deal, it apparently won't have anything to do with Turner's attempt to purchase CBS, even if Turner can get together the more than $5.4 billion it would take to top the current offer by Westinghouse Electric Company for the television network. "We wouldn't be in a position to really control or influence that," said Gates. The TBS board of directors this week turned down the idea of trying to acquire King World Productions Inc., the TV program syndicator that distributes programs like "Wheel of Fortune" and "The Oprah Winfrey Show." King World is reportedly long on cash, money that could have helped the flamboyant Turner bid on CBS. (Jim Mallory/19950823/Press and public contact: Microsoft, 206-882- 8080) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 08/23/95 GENERAL Japan Newsbriefs (NEWS)(GENERAL)(TYO)(00002) Japan Newsbriefs 08/23/95 TOKYO, JAPAN, 1995 AUG 23 (NB) -- In this roundup of news from Japan, Taiwanese firms join Toshiba DVD system, IBM develop new PDA, reports newspaper, heat wave tests power companies, Mitsubishi plans Oregon chip plant, NTT details flat rate call scheme, Daiei to sell Packard Bell PCs, Fuji to digitize SNG network Taiwanese Firms Join Toshiba DVD System Two Taiwanese electronics companies, Tatung Co., and Inventec Corp., will support the Toshiba-led Super Density DVD format the Tokyo-based company has announced. The total number of companies now supporting the SD system stands at 25. A rival system proposed by Sony Corporation and Philips Electronics is also fighting to become the dominant system. IBM Develop New PDA - Newspaper Wednesday editions of the Nikkei Shimbun have reported IBM Japan has developed two new personal digital assistants (PDAs) that will run on the Windows operating system. Speaking to Newsbytes, an IBM Japan spokesman said, "Like everything in the Nikkei there's a grain of truth to it. We have been saying we are developing this type of device for quite some time but we have no announcements and no final products." IBM Japan previously designed a PDA called "Simon" which was manufactured by Mitsubishi for Bell Atlantic, the spokesman added. Heat Wave Tests Power Companies The longest heat wave in 101 years has seen records broken at Japan's power companies. The temperature has surpassed 30 degrees Centigrade for the last 32 days in Tokyo causing homes and offices all over Japan to switch on power-consuming air conditioners. Tokyo's TEPCO power company reported demand of 58 million kilowatts between 2 and 3 pm on August 8th, a new record. Power consumption has hit 55 million kilowatts for at least half the days of the heat wave. Mitsubishi Plans Oregon Chip Plant Mitsubishi Electric says it will expand an existing chip plant in Salem, Oregon. A total of $326 million will be spent building a production line to produce wafers for 64-megabit DRAM chips. Construction on the new facility is scheduled to begin in October with production starting in 1997. Mitsubishi is the latest of several Japanese companies to announce overseas factories to produce the wafers or 64-megabit chips themselves. The devices are predicted to be in short supply in the future as demand for computer memory grows. NTT Details Flat Rate Call Scheme NTT has revealed details of a flat rate call scheme for nighttime telephone users, reported first by Newsbytes last month. Under the new scheme, called "Tele Houdai," callers can register two numbers and enjoy unlimited calls between 11 pm and 8 am, NTT's nighttime period, for a fixed monthly fee. The cheapest scheme, at 1,800 yen ($18.55), will allow registration of numbers within the same area code. A scheme to cover numbers within 20 km is also available at 3,600 yen ($37.11) a month. Daiei To Sell Packard Bell PCs Nationwide discount supermarket chain Daiei is to begin selling Packard Bell computers at its 250 stores. The company's Pentium-based Force75CDX computer will retail for 188,000 yen ($1,938). The standard version will include Lines Ace, an educational software package used widely in Japan and comes with the ability to get support for the software online from maker Secom. Daiei hope to sell 10,000 computers in the first year. Fuji To Digitize SNG Network Fuji Television's Fuji News Network (FNN) will digitize its national satellite news gathering and distribution system in 1997. FNN will supply digital receivers and coders to its 26 affiliate stations across Japan in advance of the switch from analog, an investment that will cost around 3 billion yen ($30.9 million). In addition, ten mobile satellite news-gathering trucks will be fitted with digital equipment which allows FNN to broadcast four channels in the place of its current two for the same satellite rental. Digital transmission will also keep the signals private. (Martyn Williams/19950823) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 08/23/95 WINDOWS Logicraft Speeds Windows 95 Launch Event (NEWS)(WINDOWS)(DEN)(00003) Logicraft Speeds Windows 95 Launch Event 08/23/95 SEATTLE, WASHINGTON, U.S.A., 1995 AUG 23 (NB) -- It's usually the behind-the-scenes happenings that make or break a big public event, and that will be true at the rollout of Microsoft's new operating system and user interface tomorrow. Several thousand people will stand in line at one of 14 workstations to examine 14 different CD-ROM software programs at what may be the biggest product rollout of the decade and although nearly all of them have a good understanding of technology, in all likelihood not a one will know or wonder how the available titles can be loaded in the blink of an eye with a single click on a mouse without changing disks. But Logicraft Information Systems knows. Microsoft Corp., (NASDAQ: MSFT) asked the Nashua, New Hampshire-based company to install its new CDexecutive/XF server tower and software to provide instant accessibility to the software without users having to shuffle through a stack of CD-ROMs, remove the previous disk, install their choice, and launch the program. That will provide instant access to the Windows 95 educational applications being shown in the educational pavilion by various publishers during the Windows 95 product rollout. CDexecutive/XF is a Windows NT-based server system that uses a tower chassis to house the server hardware and as many as 14 CD- ROM drives. The system uses Windows 95 utilities to manage the server. To accomplish its work, Logicraft uses a technology it calls LanCD, a combination of networking software and hardware. The company said LanCD enables hundreds of simultaneous users to access thousands of CD-ROM databases in a multi-protocol environment. LanCD provides transparent integration of MS-DOS and Windows CD-ROM applications into the Windows user interface. Multiple applications can be opened simultaneously from the client using the same drive letters through the use of virtual drive mapping. Winsock compliancy allows users compatibility with any protocol that supports Winsock, such as TCP/IP (Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol). LanCD includes a program launcher that makes connecting to the appropriate CD-ROM transparent to the user. An option called FastCD creates virtual CD-ROM disks on physical SCSI (Small Computer System Interface) hard drives and allows users to access CD-ROM applications at speeds up to 300 times faster than using CD-ROM drives, said the company. FastCD includes licensing metering, a feature that provides license verification for CD-ROM applications. For each CD-ROM, the administrator can assign license values to control usage. Peak, current and restricted usage is displayed on the status screen. Another LanCD option is the Jukebox Manager, which supports up to 1,280 CD-ROM platters and 56 readers per server, with up to 10 servers per client. LanCD supports multiple jukeboxes simultaneously. LanCD supports up to four different network protocols simultaneously. Those include Banyan VINES, IPX/SPX, TCP/IP and any NetBIOS/NetBEUI operating system. Novell network routing is also supported. Logicraft said the system's modular architecture allows for expansion to a maximum capacity of up to 56 drives on each server. The system software lets the administrator catalog, mount and dismount, meter and track usage of CD-ROM applications. Client components are available for Windows and Windows for Workgroups as well as Windows 95. (Jim Mallory/19950823/Press contact: Melissa Rabin, S&S Public Relations for Logicraft, 708-291-1616; Public contact: Logicraft, 603- 880-0300) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 08/23/95 ONLINE Internet Update (NEWS)(ONLINE)(TYO)(00004) Internet Update 08/23/95 TOKYO, JAPAN, 1995 AUG 23 (NB) -- In this roundup of new and updated services and resources on the Internet, Apple opens Pacific Web site, Fox TV online, more free financial information, Volkswagen motors to the Web, University Web finder, Radio Singapore International introduces itself, local Internet indexes. Apple Opens Pacific Web Site Apple users in the Pacific region have a new place to go to get answers to questions such as where to buy a PowerBook in Australia, and how Apple distributes products in China. The company has opened an area on its Web server specifically for users in the Pacific region, an area which will account for 40% of worldwide growth over the next three years. Apple's Pacific area takes in Asia, Australia, Canada, Japan and Latin America. The Web server will feature Pacific-wide news and updates from Apple, regional events, product distribution information and PR contact information. World Wide Web : http://www.apple.com/pacific/ Fox TV Online America's fourth commercial TV network, Fox Broadcasting, has followed its competitors and launched a service on the Internet. Fox World includes video specifically made for the Web site and brings everything together under three major areas: Fox Entertainment, Fox Kids Network and Fox Sports. Full details of the channel's programs are also available. World Wide Web : http://www.foxnetwork.com/ More Free Financial Information Another new site offering free stock quotes and financial information has debuted. Digital Ink is providing corporate information, news releases, corporate profiles and free unlimited quotes for all major North American exchanges. The company says editorials, market newsletters, financial opinions and more related data will follow soon. World Wide Web : http://www.internet-publishing.com/financial/ Another finance related site just available is offering a free search service of an economic, markets and investments database. The operators say it will be of interest to anyone in the financial industry or involved in investment. World Wide Web : http://www.mlinet.com/mle/search2.htm Volkswagen Motors To The Web Volkswagen America has established a World Wide Web site to service existing and potential customers. Volkswagen says it had tried to be different from other auto-maker sites which it says are "mostly text based, on-line brochures." The VW home page features a road map, which acts as the home page, navigating the user to various general subject sites. One area, "Shakedown Street," takes the user down a road built in memory of late Grateful Dead member Jerry Garcia. World Wide Web : http://www.vw.com/ University Web Finder A new service on the Internet seeks to bring order to the hundreds of Web pages available at universities, colleges and other higher education establishments. Search methods include be domain, city, title or browse through an alphabetical or geographical list. World Wide Web : http://www.mid.net/HIGHER/ Radio Singapore International Introduces Itself Singapore's international broadcaster, Radio Singapore International, has established a presence on the Web. The radio station, a shortwave broadcaster from Singapore in English, Chinese, Malay and Tamil languages, is currently making its program schedules over Internet. World Wide Web : http://155.69.60.55:8000/rsi/index.htm Local Internet Indexes Halifax-based Global Web Design has opened its Canada Online Directory, a sorted directory of Canadian Internet sites. With a mission to provide free and rapid access to government, education, commercial, library and organizational resources, the pages classify almost all Canadian Internet resources. World Wide Web : http://emporium.turnpike.net/C/cmp/cod/index.html The Texas Agricultural Extension Service maintains a collection of Spanish language educational materials, available in Adobe PDF. Users should select the publications section for access. World Wide Web : http://128.196.30.1/ (Martyn Williams/19950823) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 08/23/95 APPLE Adobe Ships Pagemaker 6.0 For Mac (NEWS)(APPLE)(DEN)(00005) Adobe Ships Pagemaker 6.0 For Mac 08/23/95 SEATTLE, WASHINGTON, U.S.A., 1995 AUG 23 (NB) -- Adobe Systems Inc. (NASDAQ: ADBE) is now shipping Adobe Pagemaker version 6.0 for the Macintosh and Power Macintosh platforms. The company said the upgrade adds more than 50 new or enhanced features to the popular page layout software. #IMAGE 1 20 TWPCX \images\95082305.PCX Click here for photo Pagemaker version 6 is the first major upgrade to the program since Adobe merged with Aldus Corporation in 1994. It is also the 10th anniversary of the launch of the software. The new version has several features that help users create documents for the Internet, a hot topic right now, according to Adobe spokesperson Peter Card. He told Newsbytes the new version has a plug-in used to create publications in Adobe's Portable Document Format (PDF). The new release can also author Hypertext Markup Language (HTML) documents for electronic publishing on the World Wide Web. HTML is a document format used to create Web documents that support hypertext linking. Version 6.0 comes with a CD-ROM that contains a bunch of free software Adobe said is worth thousands of dollars, including the Acrobat Distiller, Acrobat Reader and Adobe Type On Call 4.0. The latter program contains more than 200 free fonts that can be unlocked when you register the CD. Other new features include multiple master pages, integrated trapping and support for Hexachrome colors, the Kodak color management system and support for hi-fi color. You also get group and ungroup and position lock. Pagemaker 6.0 for the Macintosh and Power Macintosh has a suggested retail price of $895. Card told Newsbytes there are plans to ship Pagemaker 6.0 for Windows 95 in October. Registered users of any earlier version of Pagemaker for the Macintosh can upgrade to version 6.0 for $149. If you purchased version 5.0 after June 17th, the upgrade is free, said Adobe. (Jim Mallory/19950823/Press contact: Peter Card, Adobe Systems, 206-628- 2368; Public contact: Adobe Systems, 415-961-4400 or 800-422- 3623/PAGEMAKR950823/PHOTO) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 08/23/95 ONLINE New Brunswick Election Online (NEWS)(ONLINE)(TOR)(00006) New Brunswick Election Online 08/23/95 FREDERICTON, NEW BRUNSWICK, CANADA, 1995 AUG 23 (NB) -- New Brunswick, the first Canadian province to have a government minister responsible for the information highway and a leader in providing universal access to the Internet, is having a provincial election, and a new site on the World Wide Web provides information on the race. Discscribe, a Fredericton-based digital documentation company, is working with two daily newspapers -- the English-language Telegraph Journal in Saint John and the French-language L'Acadie Nouvelle -- to provide news and other information on the election. Newsbytes visited the site, and found some signs that it is still under construction, but also a good deal of worthwhile content. The site includes a complete listing of the provincial ridings, with information about their boundaries and the names of candidates. Even maps of the ridings are available. There are also news stories from the Telegraph Journal and L'Acadie Nouvelle, updated daily. L'Acadie Nouvelle has posted the results of a poll by Montreal-based Leger & Leger, which puts the governing Liberal Party of Premier Frank McKenna comfortably in the lead with the Progressive Conservatives, headed by former federal politician Bernard Valcourt, in second place. The site lets visitors conduct keyword searches on the available content, turning up for instance all the news stories and other items that mention a particular candidate. In the introduction to its section of the site, L'Acadie Nouvelle points out that the project is very much experimental, asks for visitors' indulgence, and promises that the content will be enhanced over time. The experimental nature of the project shows up in a few formatting problems that make it hard to distinguish options on some pages, and in the fact that the French-language character set used in L'Acadie Nouvelle's reports becomes somewhat garbled when retrieved from a PC set up with an English keyboard. Sun Microsystems of Canada Inc., of Markham, Ontario, provided the hardware for the project. The New Brunswick Election 95 page is at http://www.discribe.ca/Election95 (Grant Buckler/19950822/Press Contact: George Butters, Discscribe, 506-455-3108, fax 506-455-8772, Internet e-mail georgeb@discribe.ca; Scott Anderson, Telegraph Journal, 506-632-8888, Internet e-mail tjetg@nbnet.nb.ca; L'Acadie Nouvelle, 800-561-2255; Jan Grant, New Brunswick Telephone, 506-658-6037, fax 506-658-7163; Susan Stuart, Sun Canada, 905-415-7903, Internet e-mail susan.stuart@canada.sun.com; Public Contact: Internet World Wide Web http://www.discribe.ca/Election95 ) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 08/23/95 TELECOM ****World Cellular Market Growing - Studies (NEWS)(TELECOM)(MSP)(00007) ****World Cellular Market Growing - Studies 08/23/95 NEW YORK CITY, NEW YORK, U.S.A., 1995 AUG 23 (NB) -- The world cellular network equipment market, which includes switching and base station tools, totaled $14.4 billion in 1994, and is expected to grow at a compound average growth of 27.8%, a new study on the market revealed. Northern Business Information, a unit of Datapro Information Services group, which is a division of The McGraw-Hill Companies (NYSE:MHP), published this report and another one that documents the growth of the Asian-Pacific cellular market. In the cellular network equipment study, which is called "World Cellular Network Equipment Markets: 1994/1995 Edition," data showed that the market will grow to US$16.2 billion by 1998. Other findings indicate that Ericsson and Motorola continue their domination of the global cellular infrastructure market. Both companies hold a combined market share that exceeds 50% in terms of annual equipment sales. AT&T holds in third place, while companies like Alcatel, NEC, Nokia, Siemens, and others have only single-digit shares of the market. The exponential growth of new cellular subscribers is driving the world cellular network equipment market, the study said, because cellular providers must upgrade their systems and increase traffic handling capacity. Also, the continuing emergence of developing and unexplored markets that need wireless technology is also helping the equipment market grow. In addition, cellular technology is becoming more reliable and cost effective because of advanced technologies like intelligent network equipment and digital cellular communications, the study said. Melanie Posey, Northern Business Information's senior analyst for this report, told Newsbytes she found that fact "interesting." She said the trend of the market is doing "more with less" as technology advances. It's new technologies like digital cellular that's fueling growth in the Asia-Pacific cellular market, Northern Business Information's other study shows. At the end of 1995, the market had more than 10.7 million subscribers, and is expected to grow to 30 million by 1998. The study said the Asia-Pacific cellular market now accounts for 23% of cellular subscribers worldwide. The report, called "Asia-Pacific Cellular Markets," contains market analyses and forecasts for 13 countries, including Japan, Australia, China, Hong Kong, India, New Zealand, the Philippines, Singapore, South Korea, and Taiwan. Meera Singa, senior analyst at Northern Business Information, said that cellular markets in the region are rushing to convert to digital, to advance their country to Western technological standards. "It is also significant that in countries where wireline service is not readily available, as in India, that wireless services provide an ideal 'quick-fix' substitute which contributes to high growth rates in the short-term." The study also showed cellular market monopolies will soon become a thing of the past, which will force cellular providers to keep customer service quality high while dropping prices. Overall revenues for the region are expected to grow at an annual rate of 28% through 1998, but service revenue per subscriber will decline, the report said. Both reports are available now through Northern Business Information. (Bob Woods/19950823/Press Contacts: Melanie Posey, Mirva Anttila, Meera Singh, or Bukasa Tshilombo, Northern Business Information, 212-512-2900, Internet e-mail northern@mcgraw-hill.com. Public Contact: Northern Business Information, 800-328-2776) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 08/23/95 BROADCAST First Pacific's Cable Telephony System In Netherlands (NEWS)(BROADCAST)(LAX)(00008) First Pacific's Cable Telephony System In Netherlands 08/23/95 SAN JOSE, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1995 AUG 23 (NB) -- First Pacific Networks Inc. (FPN) (NASDAQ:FPNX) announced that it has been selected as a vendor by Multikabel n.v. Kabeltelevisie Kop Noord- Holland (Multikabel) to supply the FPN1000i Cable Telephony System to The Netherlands. The FPN system enables the delivery of telephone service over Multikabel's hybrid fiber/coaxial broadband cable television networks, the first such commercial deployment in The Netherlands. Multikabel is a leading Dutch cable television operator serving over 160,000 subscribers. The Netherlands is not expected to have legislation in place until 1998 to permit full telecommunications competition, however the government does permit competition in "closed terrains" or "closed user groups" such as a hotel or holiday villages. M. Peter Thomas, president and chief executive officer of First Pacific Networks, told Newsbytes, "FPN supplies equipment for two-way communications over hybrid fiber/coaxial cable networks. The FPN1000i Cable Telephony System integrates telephony services into cable television. With our product a cable provider with a hybrid fiber/coaxial network can offer telephone service along with cable. Hybrid fiber/coaxial network are being tested now all over the world. FPN already is running tests in the UK and the Phillipines. Testing in the United States will begin in various locations soon," said Thomas. Thomas explains that, "A hybrid fiber/coaxial network uses fiber optics to reach into a small neighborhood of between one hundred to five hundred homes. In the neighborhood the fiber is switched to coaxial that will run to the individual home. With the FPN1000i on a hybrid fiber/coaxial network, full two-way telecommunications over cable is possible." J.P. Molenkamp, director of Multikabel stated, "Multikabel is actively engaged in enhancing and expanding its entire hybrid fiber- optic/coaxial broadband cable television networks in anticipation of coming deregulation. We will initially implement a three-hundred subscriber pilot project in Strandslag Julianadrop, a holiday village near Den Helder, The Netherlands, using the FPN1000i cable telephony system. The Strandslag pilot project will allow us to experiment with cable telephony two years earlier as a telephone operator to determine how we can service the entire North Holland market in 1998. First Pacific Networks Inc. was founded in 1988, and is headquartered in San Jose, California. FPN develops and markets systems for telephone, data, and energy management communications over hybrid fiber/coaxial cable networks, both domestically and internationally. (Richard Bowers/19950823/Press Contact: Jim Hirschy, First Pacific 408-943-7600 ) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 08/23/95 WINDOWS Microsoft To Publish Interactive CD-ROM Music Guide (NEWS)(WINDOWS)(DEN)(00009) Microsoft To Publish Interactive CD-ROM Music Guide 08/23/95 REDMOND, WASHINGTON, U.S.A., 1995 AUG 23 (NB) -- Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ: MSFT) announced this week it has signed a partnership deal with several music industry companies to provide content for the software company's new CD-ROM-based interactive music guide for Windows and Apple Computer Macintosh. The company said Microsoft Music Central 96 will be an interactive guide to popular music and artists. It will include content from the Muze discography, reviews from Q Magazine and biographical information on musicians from the Guinness Encyclopedia of Popular Music. The Muze data is currently available in the company's kiosks located in retail music outlets across the country where users can get help in selecting music they want to purchase. Muze continuously updates and expands the database, which it said tracks every recording currently available for sale, as well as significant out-of-print titles. Users can look up information by album titles, song title, artist name, genre, format or even record company. Q Magazine, published in the United Kingdom for the past ten years, provides review coverage of significant new releases and re-issued recordings across the gamut of pop, rock, urban music, jazz, country, folk and other subjects. Colin Larkin, editor of The Guinness Encyclopedia of Popular Music, describes the publication as "a reference work of popular music and artists as well as composers and related events and personalities that have shaped popular music during the last century." Microsoft said Music Central is more than just a reference, it can also suggest other artists and songs that are compatible with the user's musical tastes. For example, if you have evidenced an interest in Bruce Springsteen, the software can suggest up to 12 other groups or musicians the user might also like, ranging from Bob Dylan to Bruce Hornsby and the Range to John Mellencamp. The company said the Windows 95 and Macintosh versions of Music Central are scheduled to ship in November. The software will be part of Microsoft's Home product line. A Microsoft spokesperson told Newsbytes pricing for Music Central will be announced closer to the ship date. (Jim Mallory/19950823/Press contact: Suzanne Dennehy, Waggener Edstrom for Microsoft, 503-245-0905; Public contact: Microsoft, 206- 882-8080 or 800-426-9400) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 08/23/95 NETWORK Datacraft Upgrades ATM Services For China Banking (NEWS)(NETWORK)(HKG)(00010) Datacraft Upgrades ATM Services For China Banking 08/23/95 CENTRAL, HONG KONG, 1995 AUG 23 (NB) -- The Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (ICB) in Guangdong province has signed a deal with Datacraft China -- a subsidiary of Singapore-listed Datacraft Asia -- to implement a private wide area network to support the bank's automatic teller machines (ATMs). "The network proposed by Datacraft will greatly improve our customer services," said Zhong Jian Yi, chief of ICB's Science and Technology Department. "Local polling means ATM response times are shortened, which in turn shortens ATM queues. "Possible future enhancements to our facilities - like local area networks and frame relay connectivity -- will also be supported by the system," added Zhong. Currently the bank uses various types of host systems throughout the province, including Tandem, Hitachi, IBM and NCR machines. Datacraft's system uses 23 Telematics ACP 50 access devices on a 64 kilobits per second (kbps) X.25 backbone network to connect all the machines transparently. The ACP 50 is a component of Telematics' Universal Network Access (UNA) platform, allowing users to connect to remote sites using a range of network protocols and service options. Protocols supported concurrently include async, frame relay, X.25, TCP/IP, SNA BSC, SLIP and PPP. A special 'transparent' mode transmits any bit or byte synchronous protocol. On the network media aspect, users may choose between the public telephone network, basic rate ISDN, frame relay, PPP or even a leased line into a private circuit, in addition to the X.25 network chosen by ICB. A Smartview NMS installation will provide network management services. Anthony Chow, general manager for Datacraft China, said the Telematics units will employ a common standard protocol to support the connectivity. "In the real world, companies use a variety of proprietary machines." he said. "The ICB network is a demonstration of how these companies can realize the benefits of open systems without obsoleting their current computers. In the bank's case these benefits include improved customer services, and that's a major competitive advantage." The ICB network is currently being implemented. (Nigel Armstrong & I.T. Daily/19950822) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 08/23/95 GOVT GTSI Launches Electronic Commerce On Internet For NASA (NEWS)(GOVT)(WAS)(00011) GTSI Launches Electronic Commerce On Internet For NASA 08/23/95 CHANTILLY, VIRGINIA, U.S.A., 1995 AUG 23 (NB) -- Government Technology Services Inc., (Nasdaq: GTSI) has launched electronic commerce on the Internet on a major NASA contract. The NASA scientific engineering and workstation procurement (SWEP) contract is the first in the government to use a credit card on the Internet on an indefinite delivery, indefinite quantity contract, GTSI spokesman Carter Cromley told Newsbytes. According to Skip Kemerer, of NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, previously, a purchase under the SWEP contract took three days to be processed. With the new system, the process takes five minutes. Previously, according to a GTSI background paper, each SWEP ordering site needed an electronic data interchange (EDI) connection with NASA as well as a sophisticated security software package. Now, SWEP customers, which includes all NASA facilities and prime contractors, need only contact GTSI's World Wide Web site (http:// www.gtsi.com ) and use a secure browser such as Netscape to conduct credit card orders from the online, interactive GTSI catalog. According to Cromley, credit card purchases are available under GSA procurement schedules, but NASA is the first to implement them for the indefinite delivery, indefinite quantity contracts. NASA has been aggressively pushing ways to streamline and speed up procurement. The new system tracks purchases automatically. "I can go back and tell you exactly what was spent, and who bought it," said Kemerer. The new ordering process gives SWEP customers the ability to place orders right up to the end of the government's fiscal year. In the past, that was impossible because of the paperwork required. As a result, most federal agencies have advanced cut-off dates for procurement as the end of the year, September 30, approaches. Cromley told Newsbytes GTSI hopes that other agencies will adopt the NASA model for their indefinite delivery, indefinite quantity contracts. "This is our proposed solution," he said, "and we certainly hope others will adopt it. The marriage of electronic data interchange and the Internet is a significant advancement." (Kennedy Maize/19950822/Press Contact: Carter Cromley, 703-502-2035) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 08/23/95 ONLINE Digiphone Goes To Manufacturing, Duplex Edition Intro'd (NEWS)(ONLINE)(DEN)(00012) Digiphone Goes To Manufacturing, Duplex Edition Intro'd 08/23/95 DALLAS, TEXAS, U.S.A., 1995 AUG 23 (NB) -- Camelot Corporation said this week it has sent Digiphone Deluxe, its software program that lets Internet users carry on phone conversations without paying long distance charges, to manufacturing. The company also announced a version of the program called Digiphone that can handle duplex calls but doesn't include the other features of Digiphone Deluxe. Duplexing refers to the ability of both parties to a call to speak simultaneously and still hear each other, just as in a regular phone conversation. The version of Digiphone that went to manufacturing, called Digiphone Deluxe, only offers simplex operation, meaning that only one party can speak at a time, similar to a two-way radio communication. Camelot said Digiphone Deluxe not only supports phone conversations over the Internet but will also include a World Wide Web browser, electronic mail capability and other Internet support software programs. Danny Wettreich, Camelot chairman, told Newsbytes the company developed its own Web browser software. Digiphone also includes FTP (File Transfer Protocol) for downloading files from the Internet, conference calling by phone. "It's a one-stop Internet program. You have all the tools you need to use the Internet," said Wettreich. To have a phone conversation on the Internet, both parties must have Digiphone loaded on their PCs. When a Digiphone user has the software loaded and logs onto the Internet, a menu of other logged on Digiphone users appears. The phone connection is made by clicking on the user you want to call. Both PCs must be equipped with the appropriate sound board, microphone and speakers or headphones. The company said you need at least a 386 computer with a 9600 bits per second or faster modem. Digiphone and Digiphone Deluxe are both written for Windows 3.1, but Wettreich told Newsbytes Digiphone versions for OS/2, Windows 95 and the Macintosh are all in development and should be ready by Christmas. Both Digiphone and Digiphone Deluxe are scheduled to ship in mid-September and will be available from CompUSA Inc., Egghead Software, Best Buy and other mass merchandisers. The software will ship on both CD-ROM and floppy disks in the same box. Camelot said Digiphone will have a suggested retail price of $89.95 while Digiphone Deluxe with its extra features will carry a $149.95 price tag. (Jim Mallory/19950822/Press contact; Danny Wettreich, Camelot, 214-733-3005; Public contact: Camelot, 214-733- 3005) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 08/23/95 ONLINE WebInnovation December Conference In SF (NEWS)(ONLINE)(LAX)(00013) WebInnovation December Conference In SF 08/23/95 SAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1995 AUG 23 (NB) -- Interactive Marketing Communications (IMC) announces WebInnovation, a working conference for top Web content creators and application developers. WebInnovation will be held December 4-6, 1995 at the San Francisco Hilton & Towers. Silicon Graphics and Netscape Communications announced that they are sponsors of the event. Rick Parkhill, president of Interactive Marketing Communications, told Newsbytes, "Our partners intend this conference to be an advanced workshop for already existing Web professionals." "This conference is not meant to be a tutorial for people wanting to learn about the Internet, or on how to create a home page. This event will be for people who are already creating and doing business on the Web," said Parkhill. "The goal of WebInnovation is to enable professionals to attain an even greater level of success in the emerging Web industry. Attendees will learn to create even more compelling content and richer applications." WebInnovation will offer more than 25 sessions, focusing on the creation of Web content and the development of Web applications. Planned session topics will include, creating interactive 2-D and 3-D Web content, advanced image creation, audio and video enhancement, database and application integration, and distributed Web applications. "The Web is a powerful visual medium which has captured the imagination of millions of people globally. However, the full promise of the Web has yet to be realized," explained Tom Furlong, vice president of Silicon Graphics. "WebInnovation seeks to empower Web professionals to build the most engaging on-line content and real-world Web applications that will deliver on that promise." Conference attendee ticket price will be $895 for all sessions. Exhibitors will be charged $19.95 per square foot. There will be space for only thirty-five exhibitors. Interactive Marketing Communications, based in Capistrano Beach, Calif., is a producer of online media conferences and trade shows, including the annual Conference on Interactive Marketing and Camp Internet, being held this month in Beaver Creek, Colorado. For information on attending WebInnovation, contact Interactive Marketing Communications at 714-489-8649, or e-mail: IntMktgCom@aol.com (Richard Bowers/19950822/Press Contact: Lee Helper, Interactive Marketing Communications, 310-473-4147) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 08/23/95 TRENDS Matsushita Plasma Displays (NEWS)(TRENDS)(TYO)(00014) Matsushita Plasma Displays 08/23/95 OSAKA, JAPAN, 1995 AUG 23 (NB) -- Matsushita Electrical Industrial Co. has announced it will begin manufacture of 26 and 40-inch plasma display panels for use in thin, wall mounted, color televisions and video monitors. The new displays have been developed by the Osaka-based company in cooperation with NHK (Japan Broadcasting Corporation), Texas Instruments Japan and Du Pont Company. The smaller 26-inch displays will be available from October with the larger 40-inch models available from June 1996. Matsushita explained the new displays were originally proposed by NHK and the PDP consortium, a group of 25 companies that are also pursuing the new technology. After the proposal, Matsushita then developed the plans into a viable commercial product. Du Pont contributed ultra-high-precision thick film microelectronics technology which is used in the screenmaking process. Electrodes and other components must be sandwiched between two sheets of glass but the common process does not offer enough accuracy for high definition, large scale displays. Du Pont developed a new process to overcome the problem. The Japanese unit of America's Texas Instruments, TI Japan, designed ultra high speed pulse driver chips for the sets. The chips ensure electrical current to each of the color cells in the screen is maintained at the correct level and the entire screen is then capable of displaying 16,770,000 colors. Matsushita said "The sample PDPs developed through this program offer the highest performance ever achieved by such a product, and have reached a level at which they can be put into practical use." With the sample production lines already completed, the company is now focusing its efforts on producing television sets that use the new screens. Commercial availability of such televisions is fiscal 1996 for the 24-inch model and fiscal 1997 for the 40-inch model which will incorporate high definition technology to take advantage of NHK's new HDTV system that will begin in 1997. The first public showing of the displays takes place this week, from 23 to 29 August in Osaka at a special NHK exhibition celebrating the 70th anniversary of the commencement of broadcasting. Both screens feature a wide aspect ratio of 16:9 and wide viewing angle of 160 degrees. Matsushita tests indicate a 30,000-hour screen life and low power consumption of 200 watts and 350 watts for the 24 and 40-inch screens respectively. Matsushita has applied for 150 domestic and 20 overseas patents to cover the new technology. Earlier this year several other companies, including NEC and arch rivals Sony, announced similar plans to produce such screens. Fujitsu will announce similar devices later this week. No prices have been announced for the new displays but estimates for previously announced units put initial television set costs at around 1 million yen ($10,000) for the smaller screen models and 2 million yen ($20,000) for the larger screens. By the turn of the century, prices for small and large screen models should be around 200,000 yen ($2,000) and 400,000 yen ($4,000) respectively. (Martyn Williams/19950822/Press contact : Matsushita Tokyo PR, +81-3-3578-1237, fax +81-3-3437-2775) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 08/23/95 TRENDS Video Game Market In Decline (NEWS)(TRENDS)(LAX)(00015) Video Game Market In Decline 08/23/95 SAN DIEGO, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1995 AUG 23 (NB) -- According to a new report from DFC Intelligence, in 1994 video games and entertainment software for computers generated $4.3 billion in the United States. This was down slightly from 1993's $4.4 billion. The market for video game hardware declined even more in 1994, declining 18% to $1.5 billion. David Cole, president of DFC Intelligence, told Newsbytes, "The market will not pick up until the next generation hardware systems start to gain momentum. There are four separate systems that could rejuvenate the market: the Sega Saturn, the Sony PlayStation, the Nintendo Ultra 64 and 3DO systems. Sega and 3DO are already out there, Sony will introduce in September, while Nintendo Ultra 64 is expected in early 1996. It could take over a year for the new systems to gain momentum, but if they stumble it will mean big trouble for the industry." DFC Intelligence forecasts that in 1995, software revenue will be down 14%, while the number of hardware units sold will be down 36%. Cole claims that the 1995 holiday season is not looking strong. "The 16-bit market will decline sharply in 1995 and nothing has come along to replace it. The next generation systems are starting to look good, but still suffer from high price points and limited software availability." With so many competing systems on the market, DFC Intelligence predicts many consumers will wait out the holiday season to see what emerges as the best buy. DFC sees the long-term outlook for interactive entertainment promising. Consumer interest is at an all-time high and the industry demographics are expanding. According to Cole, "The hype over multimedia, CD-ROM and the Internet is introducing an older crowd to interactive entertainment. Adults could play a major role in the success of new game systems." Of the four newer systems that should dominate the market, DFC Intelligence believes the Nintendo Ultra 64 will be the strongest candidate. This assumes that Nintendo delivers as promised. The Sega Saturn is also a strong contender but faces competition from the Sony PlayStation. The dark horse in the race is 3DO. Last year, 3DO was a system with a high price and limited software availability. Today, 3DO has the widest assortment of software and is the low price leader. Another potential growth area is entertainment software for PCs. The market for PC entertainment software was up 21% in 1994 and should grow steadily over the next three years, says the report. Compared with 16-bit cartridges, sales of PC software is still modest. DFC Intelligence claims that, for the next few years, the bulk of revenues will continue to come from the console systems that attach to the television. The findings of DFC Intelligence are available in its latest report, "Video Games and Interactive Electronic Entertainment: Forecasts for the US Market." The 160 page report can be ordered for $995, by calling 619-484-5145. (Richard Bowers/19950822/Press Contact: David Cole, DFC Intelligence, 619-484-5145) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 08/23/95 ONLINE Data Broadcasting Expands Microsoft Network Offerings (NEWS)(ONLINE)(MSP)(00016) Data Broadcasting Expands Microsoft Network Offerings 08/23/95 SAN MATEO, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1995 AUG 23 (NB) -- Data Broadcasting Corporation (NASDAQ:DBCC) (DBC) said it will expand its lineup of content providers in its new online area on the Microsoft Network (MSN) on August 24. This is part of the company's move to establish a new department devoted to interactive content, an official told Newsbytes. DBC is known for providing real-time financial data to its customers via satellite, FM broadcasting, and cable TV networks. The advent of new online offerings doesn't mean DBC will be getting out of the "broadcast" business, Julie Craig, DBC spokesperson, told Newsbytes. "The product line we offer through our regular conduits is a rich product, and offers analysis that the online product cannot offer," she said. The new MSN area will have exclusive data aimed at helping investors make profitable decisions, DBC officials said. Several stock market advisory services, including SGA Goldstar's Whisper Stocks Report, Downing & Associates' Technical Analysis Reports, and Marketline will be producing special reports for the DBC area on MSN. Over the next several months real-time and delayed quotes, live forums with financial analysts, bulletin boards, charts, and software demos and downloads are scheduled to be added to the MSN offering. As a part of the new service, DBC said it has reached an agreement in principal with the Hudson Institute, to make the Hudson Reports available to DBC's customers. The Hudson Reports feature articles on global trade, Federal Reserve policy, tax policy, and other financial concerns. In addition, the Internet financial Network will provide exclusive feeds of Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) filings and notices to DBC's MSN customers and to existing wireless and cable TV networks. Options News Exchange of Chicago will also offer an exclusive "Hot Stocks Report" to the DBC MSN service. DBC also said it has reached an agreement with the USA Today Information Network to provide some of DBC's information to USA's online service. (Bob Woods/19950822/Press Contact: Julie Craig, Data Broadcasting, 415-571-1800) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 08/23/95 ONLINE AOL Company Helps Users Create Web Pages (NEWS)(ONLINE)(BOS)(00017) AOL Company Helps Users Create Web Pages 08/23/95 VIENNA, VIRGINIA, U.S.A., 1995 AUG 23 (NB) -- NaviSoft's new NaviService is designed for businesses of all sizes that are interested in creating their own Web pages, but that do not yet feel "ready" to host their own Web servers, maintained Lydia Dobyns, VP and general manager, during a briefing for Newsbytes. Available at four "levels," the newly introduced service from the America Online (AOL) company combines Web hosting by NaviSoft with customer preparation of the actual pages, the VP elaborated. Typically, NaviSoft's recently introduced NaviPress authoring software is used on the customer side, although users can employ other HTML (hypertext markup language) authoring tools, as well, according to Dobyns. The Web pages are hosted by NaviSoft with the use of the vendor's own NaviServer, a product that is also available to customers who wish to do their own Web hosting. "There are lots of Web authoring tools on the market right now, and lots of Web server products. But there really aren't any `integrated' Web authoring/server products aside from NaviPress and NaviServer," the NaviSoft exec maintained. With NaviPress and NaviServer -- and now with the new NaviService - - NaviSoft's emphasis is primarily on business and commercial users, as opposed to Web page "hobbyists," she added. "But NaviService provides four different price points for businesses of various sizes, opening up the `lure of the Internet' to businesses as small as a home business. Businesses can then `grow' their Web sites over time." The four service levels are "Home Page," a service priced at $14.95 per month; "Domain," which carries a one-time start-up fee of $199, plus a monthly service fee of $99; "Commercial," priced at $199; and "Dedicated," an offering with a start-up fee of $999, followed by a minimum monthly fee of $1,995. In the Web software market right now, Web authoring and server products are each breaking into two categories, and NaviSoft's products are at the high end in both cases, according to the VP. "There are low-end servers for `go get http pages,' and then there are the `super servers' like NaviServer. The highest profile competitor to NaviServer is NetScape's NetSite. But NetScape is fairly focused right now on commerce, and is not really looking at applications that might go beyond this," Dobyns asserted. In the authoring tools arena, low-end products consist of "HTML converters" such as Internet Assistant, she reported. "Pure (HTML) authoring tools" like NaviPress and Hot Metal are on the high end. NaviPress, though, is the only "pure authoring tool" with "browse while you author, and author while you browse" capabilities, she contended. "NaviService is worth its weight in gold," maintained Chuck Green, president of Cim3, a Chicago-based systems integrator specializing in managed health care applications. Green also characterized NaviService as "inexpensive," as well as "easy to use" and "incremental." Cim3 has already used the new service to design and post a "domain" service for internal use by a utilization review firm, he told Newsbytes. "We plan on upgrading this service as soon as we've reached a comfort level," he noted. Also in the future, said Green, Cim3 intends to use Web site development with NaviService as a vehicle for branching out into application development areas outside the managed health care field. A "large deal" that fits this description is now pending, he reported. "It makes more sense for someone who knows that they're doing to be managing a Web site on a good connection, and with a good machine. Outsourcing of Web sites is going to be big business," noted Jerry Michalski, managing editor of Release 1.0, New York City. "Secondly, there's going to be a big market for sophisticated Web site development tools. NaviSoft's products qualify for that," Michalski told Newsbytes. "A lot of Web authoring tools think of Web sites as merely `collections of pages.' They might do HTML validation if they're good, but they don't let you `see' the site. The NaviSoft products are the first I've come across that treat Web sites as Web sites. They actually let you visualize the site," the analyst added. (Jacqueline Emigh/19950822/Reader Contact: America Online, 703-448- 8700; Press Contact: Dana Lieske or Ameli Gardella, Copithorne & Bellows for NaviSoft, 617-252-0606; Pam McGraw, NaviSoft, 703-556- 3746) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 08/23/95 TRENDS China - Computers Monitor Traffic Flow (NEWS)(TRENDS)(PEK)(00018) China - Computers Monitor Traffic Flow 08/23/95 BEIJING, CHINA, 1995 AUG 23 (NB) -- Due to increasing numbers of vehicles converging on city streets, the average speed a car can travel in Shenyang, for instance, is 8 miles an hour. But a new computer vision system which modifies the intervals of stoplights at intersections, may help the situation. Pedestrian, bike, and automobile traffic jams are still a common sight in the morning and evening rush hour, causing many accidents. Traffic flow is usually be monitored through electric-magenetic sensors laid under the street. However, difficulties in maintenance, replacement and data flow have led civil engineers to newer, computer vision systems. In Shanghai, a camera system developed by Tongji University can count the number of automobiles passing through a line and estimate the average speed in real time. The system's error rate is reported to be less than 5 percent. In Beijing, besides counting the number of vehicles and determining their average speed, a system developed by Tsinghua University can also classify vehicles based on their size. Computer vision systems also help the government collect traffic fines. Traffic fines are a major source of revenue for big cities in China. For example, Shenyang last year raked in more than 10 million (US$1.2 million) fines. With computer vision systems, even night taxicabs have little chance of avoiding fines for running on red lights, no matter how late it is. Anyone disputing charges of traffic violations can visit the traffic ward's computer center, where he/she can see a video recording of his/her offense. (Chih-Ho Yu & Ning Huang/19950814/Reader Contact: Department of Computer Science, Tongji University, tel +86-21 545-5080; Department of Computer Science, Tsinghua University, tel +86-10 259-4141) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 08/23/95 APPLE ****Apple Plans To Ship PowerPC Powerbooks (NEWS)(APPLE)(SFO)(00019) ****Apple Plans To Ship PowerPC Powerbooks 08/23/95 CUPERTINO, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1995 AUG 23 (NB) -- On Monday, Apple Computer (NASDAQ:AAPL) is expected to announce a new series of Powerbook mobile computers powered by 603 PowerPC processors. Reuters reports the new PowerPC models will offer a wide range of features and sell from $2,000 to $6,000. Apple has no comment on the report. The new series will ship with a 100 megahertz (MHz) or a 120 MHz 603 processor, says Reuters. Along with the faster processor, the new series will have an infrared port, longer battery life and increased power management. Infrared technology allows a user to connect to a network server without cabling. Distance from the server is limited (usually 10' to 20'), but this feature allows mobile computing users to establish an almost immediate connection to a network. While many observers have been expecting the Power PC Powerbook, Apple has remained silent about specifics. Apple spokesperson Russ Ito told Newsbytes, "At this time we cannot comment on stories about the new Powerbook series." Kimball Brown, a Dataquest analyst, told Newsbytes, "The new Powerbook places Apple at the top of the list as one of the best mobile systems at this time." Seventeen months ago, Apple introduced desktop systems based on the PowerPC chip. The company more than met its goal of shipping one million models within 12 months. Its success was aided by the work of many Macintosh developers who created applications native to the reduced instruction set computing (RISC), PowerPC processor. The new Powerbooks will have the advantage of those applications. Apple has recently admitted to hardware shortages which have created serious availability problems in the past four months. While the company maintains it is working hard to resolve the problem, certain Apple desktop systems will continue to be shipped in limited quantities. It is not clear if these shortages will affect the availability of the new Powerbooks. Apple's notebook market share has been in steady decline. Through the first half of this year, the company had 7.1% share of the market, according to some reports. The opportunity for mobile users to incorporate the same high speed performance of native applications found on the PowerPC desktop systems is expected to boost Apple's share of the mobile computing market. (Patrick McKenna/19950823/Press Contact: Russ Ito, Apple, tel 408-974-5693) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 08/23/95 GOVT FBI Documents - Clipper Must Be Mandatory (NEWS)(GOVT)(WAS)(00020) FBI Documents - Clipper Must Be Mandatory 08/23/95 WASHINGTON, D.C., U.S.A., 1995 AUG 23 (NB) -- More than two years ago, federal law enforcement agencies concluded that the Clipper chip encryption technology should be mandatory and alternative forms of encryption should be banned in the US, according to documents released by the Electronic Privacy Information Center. EPIC obtained the documents from the Federal Bureau of Investigation through the Freedom of Information Act, receiving hundreds of pages of information from FBI files on Clipper and cryptography. The Clipper initiative, backed by the FBI, the National Security Agency, and the Justice Department, would give government access to encrypted information in "real time." This would be done by putting a set of keys to the code in the hands of government-designated agents known as escrow agents. Throughout the intense debate over the Clipper proposal, the White House insisted that its proposal was voluntary. Critics of the proposal charged that the administration was being disingenuous and the technique would work only if it were mandatory. The newly declassified documents support the critique by the digital liberties groups such as EPIC. A February 1993 briefing document titled "Encryption: The Threat, Applications and Potential Solutions," sent to the White House National Security Council by the FBI, NSA and Justice, concludes: "Technical solutions, such as they are, will only work if they are incorporated into all encryption products. To ensure that this occurs, legislation mandating the use of government-approved encryption products or adherence to government encryption criteria is required." An undated FBI report titled "Impact of Emerging Telecommunications Technologies on Law Enforcement" notes that "although the export of encryption products by the United States is controlled, domestic use is not regulated." The report goes on to recommend a "national policy embodied in legislation" and calls for a law that "prohibits cryptography that cannot meet the government standard." While the FBI was pushing mandatory government-controlled encryption, the administration was talking a different tune. Testifying before a Senate subcommittee in May, 1994, Jo Ann Harris, an assistant attorney general, said, "As the administration has made clear on a number of occasions, the key-escrow encryption initiative is a voluntary one; we have absolutely no intention of mandating private use of a particular kind of cryptography, nor of criminalizing the private use of certain kinds of cryptography." The FBI documents show "that the architects of the Clipper program -- NSA and the FBI -- have always recognized that key-escrow must eventually be mandated," David Sobel, EPIC legal counsel, told Newsbytes. "As privacy advocates and industry have always said, Clipper does nothing for law enforcement unless the alternatives are outlawed." Scanned images of some of the FBI documents are available on the World Wide Web that http:// www.epic.org/crypto/ban/fbi_dox/ (Kennedy Maize/19950823/Press Contact: David Sobel, 202-544-9240, WWW: http://www.epic.org ) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 08/23/95 BUSINESS Cash Register Rings For Intersolv (NEWS)(BUSINESS)(WAS)(00021) Cash Register Rings For Intersolv 08/23/95 ROCKVILLE, MARYLAND, U.S.A., 1995 AUG 23 (NB) -- Intersolv, continuing to play its open client/server game, has run up good financial results for the first quarter of the fiscal year, ending July 31. The software company saw revenues increase 20 percent to $28.9 million compared to $24.1 million for the first quarter of last year. Earnings per share, prior to adjustment for one-time charges related to recent acquisitions, increased 38 percent to 11 cents per share from 8 cents per share for last year's first quarter. Adjusting for the $2 million in nonrecurring charges related to acquiring PC Strategies & Solutions and C++/Views reduces earnings per share for the quarter to 3 cents. Intersolv bought the two software firms as part of its move into the second generation of client/server development tools based on object-oriented technology. Intersolv's client/server products accounted for 69 percent of its sales and grew 38 percent, while revenues from the company's traditional mainframe-oriented software products declined seven percent, as anticipated. Intersolv aims at becoming "the one-stop solution for open client/server development tools," Kevin Burns, Intersolv chairman and chief executive officer, told Newsbytes. The key to the Intersolv software, Burns said, is that it is truly open, unlike products from the big client/server database companies such as Oracle and Sybase. "We are the Switzerland of development tools. With our products, the client might be running on Windows and the server on Oracle with Unix, and it doesn't matter." Burns said he is "particularly excited about new products we will be rolling out later this year in the data warehousing, software configuration management and object-oriented development areas." After several years of red ink, Intersolv moved into the black last fiscal year. Burns said the company is on track for another profitable year. (Kennedy Maize/19950823/Press Contact: Kevin Burns, 301-838-5201) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 08/23/95 TRENDS ****No Immediate Boom For Mobile Data Market (NEWS)(TRENDS)(WAS)(00022) ****No Immediate Boom For Mobile Data Market 08/23/95 WASHINGTON, D.C., U.S.A., 1995 AUG 23 (NB) -- Serious growth in the mobile data market is unlikely before the late 1990s, says a study from the market research firm MTA-EMCI. MTA-EMCI's statistics show that the mobile data industry has grown from 200,000 subscribers in 1990 to approximately 1.1 million subscribers by mid-1995. The study says that while the annual growth rates are encouraging, the current number of mobile data users represents less than four percent of all mobile communications users, less than one percent of the US workforce, and a half percent of the total US population. MTA-EMCI says the mobile data market potential exceeds 13 million workers nationwide. Cellular/PCS and specialized mobile radio operators have the greatest market potential of any service, followed by dedicated networks and mobile satellite operators. MTA-EMCI predicts that the number of cellular data subscribers will more than double in the next five years, reaching 1.4 million by the year 2000. These subscribers are expected to generate $430 million annually by the year 2000. Specialized mobile radio (SMR) operators are projected to steadily increase their market share of mobile data subscribers from 13 percent of the 1995 market to 21 percent of the market by the year 2000. While a majority of this growth is projected to come from digital SMR subscribers, MTA-EMCI says that analog SMR operators will also increase their mobile data penetration of subscribers by offering automated dispatch, automatic vehicle location, and facsimile applications. After signing on their initial customers next year, MTA-EMCI says two-way paging operators will rapidly increase their presence in the market for mobile data services. Due to portable equipment, fixed service pricing and simplistic applications, MTA-EMCI believes that two-way paging services will become a strong competitor in the mobile data market, capturing 21 percent of all subscribers by the year 2000. Mobile satellite operators, led by Qualcomm's OmniTRACS service, serve about 12 percent of all mobile data subscribers in service in 1995 but capture in excess of 35 percent of the total revenues. Qualcomm was first in the market with an end-to-end service tailored for the trucking industry. Several other mobile satellite communications operators will bring increased competition to the marketplace over the next five years with data-only and voice & data services. (Kennedy Maize/19950823/Press Contact: Steve Virostek, 202-835-78000 Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 08/23/95 HEALTH AMA Web Site; Newsletter For Online Medicine (NEWS)(HEALTH)(MSP)(00023) AMA Web Site; Newsletter For Online Medicine 08/23/95 CHICAGO, ILLINOIS, U.S.A., 1995 AUG 23 (NB) -- The American Medical Association (AMA) has launched an Internet World Wide Web site that features content from its famous "Journal of the American Medical Association" (JAMA), along with other healthcare- related material. AMA officials said one of the first offerings on the Web site will be the full text of a controversial study on anti-hypertension medication, plus an editorial on the report. Those articles are to be posted later today. Those stories, which address whether patients taking calcium channel blockers face higher risks of heart attack than people who take other high blood pressure agents, are taken from the August 23/30 editions of JAMA. The site will feature weekly updates from JAMA, along with other association publications, AMA officials said. The nine-journal Archives series of specialty publications and American Medical News will also be at the site. Buttons on the AMA home page will link users to details on AMA membership, the AMA Medical Student Section's Web page, physician recruitment advertising, and other medical Web sites, among other offerings. The AMA site can be reached at http://www.ama-assn.org . The new AMA site just might make it into the pages of a new newsletter devoted to online medical information. Called "Internet and Online Medicine," the twice-monthly, six-page periodical will let executives and medical professionals keep up with, and profit from, the "boom in electronically disseminated medical information," said officials from Global Success Corp., publishers of the new newsletter. Articles will be written in a non-technical style, officials said. Topics will include corporate, non-profit, and public sector initiatives in healthcare cyberspace; regulatory and legal issues of medical cyberspace; critical reviews of online and Internet health offerings; and "success stories" and "autopsies" of online medical projects that target both the health professional and the lay public. The publication will be available in both a print and electronic mail (e-mail) version. The print version is available at a charter rate of $495 a year (list $695), while the e-mail newsletter will sell at a charter rate of $595 a year (list $795). The company is also launching several Internet initiatives, including a Web site called "Medville" at http://www.Medville.com (Bob Woods/19950823/Press Contacts: Dan Maier, 312-464-5382, or Jeff Molter, 312-464-4417, both of the American Medical Association; Lesley Tollette, Global Success Corp, 813-261-4335. Public Contact: American Medical Association, Internet World Wide Web http://www.ama-assn.org ; Global Success Corp., Internet World Wide Web http://www.Medville.com ) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 08/23/95 ONLINE Sirius Becomes Internet Service Provider (NEWS)(ONLINE)(LAX)(00024) Sirius Becomes Internet Service Provider 08/23/95 SCOTTSDALE, ARIZONA, U.S.A., 1995 AUG 23 (NB) -- Software publisher Sirius Publishing Inc., will become an Internet service provider with the launching of SiriusNet. Sirius has signed with Concentric Network, which is owned and operated by Concentric Research, to provide access to a nationwide network of dedicated lines. "Sirius Publishing has built loyal customer relationships by providing innovative multimedia products based upon quality and value," said Richard Grant, Sirius president. "SiriusNet will allow us to extend these relationships into the next generation of information and entertainment technology -- the Internet. Stan Mongeau, a spokesman for Sirius, told Newsbytes, "SiriusNet will give customers a nationwide information and entertainment network with a low-cost, high-speed, local-dialup connection to the Internet. Customers will have access through the more than 130 local access telephone numbers of the Concentric Network. The Concentric Network will give us access to over twenty-five thousand exchanges in nineteen-hundred communities. "SiriusNet will include access to more than ten thousand Usenet groups, use of a popular World Wide Web graphical browser, global chat, file transfer, telnet, e-mail and other Internet services," said Mongeau. "We are pleased that Sirius chose the Concentric Network to host its national service," said Henry R. Nothhaft, Concentric's president "As the need for information grows, we see companies like Sirius, which have a handle on distribution of software and data both on-line and through retail channels, as being best-positioned to grow and prosper in this new digital age." "Sirius is primarily a CD-ROM publisher. We were the first to come out with a multipak approach to marketing. Last year we came out with the 5-Foot 10-Pak Special Edition. This multipak offered ten CD-ROM titles wrapped in a hanging five foot vinyl package for a suggested retail price of $39.95. The 5-Foot 10-Pak Special Edition was the third best CD-ROM seller in 1995. In less than one year we have sold over 18 million CD-ROMs, " said Mongeau. SiriusNet software will be available on Sirius' new 5-Foot 10-Pak Collectors Edition, which will be released in October. Sirius Publishing Inc. is headquartered in Scottsdale, Arizona with operations in the United States, Canada, and Western Europe. Sirius Publishing's products are sold in more than 35,000 stores in 70 countries The company employs 60 people and has annual sales of $40 million. (Richard Bowers/19950823/Press Contact: Jim Matney, Sirius, 602-951-3288) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 08/23/95 NETWORK Novell Unveils Various NEST Applications (NEWS)(NETWORK)(LON)(00025) Novell Unveils Various NEST Applications 08/23/95 BRACKNELL, BERKSHIRE, ENGLAND, 1995 AUG 23 (NB) -- Novell UK has taken the wraps off a range of new applications that include its NetWare Embedded Systems Technology (NEST). According to Graeme Allen, brand marketing director with Novell, the company has delivered the products early on its promise. Allen said more than 45 NEST OEMs (original equipment manufacturers) have now produced 140 product designs with NEST development kits. "NEST's success in shortening development cycles demonstrates Novell's commitment to open architectures within its technology. Novell is honest with its product timetables and we know that we will be able to keep our promise of seeing NEST enabled products come to market before the end of 1995," Allen said. According to Allen, with NetWare extending its reach to so many new kinds of devices, "Novell is well on its way to building a billion node network." Allen said that the products of six leading sellers of office equipment and software such as Canon, Cheyenne, Digital Products, QMS, Ricoh and SerComm now have better network connectivity than ever before with the NEST technology. NEST, he explained, offers an open architecture which shortens development cycles for implementing network connections to intelligent devices. According to Novell, vendors can now easily integrate various devices such as digital copiers, printers, scanners, multi-function devices, storage devices, PBX systems and print servers with their data networks. "When the NEST provides network connectivity, vendors can free resources to include a wide range of network services into their products," Allen explained. According to Yoshio Kawajiri, vice president of research & development for fax products with Ricoh, NEST offers a significant advantage to users of office equipment. "In today's rapidly growing and changing technological environment it is important to have products that meet the needs of the business community. Our partnership with Novell does that. It broadens Ricoh's product line so that we have a solution for the diverse requirements of local-area-network environments," he said. The range of NEST-compliant products unveiled by Novell UK this week includes: [] Canon's GP Series multi-function systems, which provide workgroup support for printing, faxing, copying and scanning/filing. NetWare Directory Services are also included. [] Digital Products' NETPrint 1000, a three port multi-protocol print server which uses NEST to support printing under NetWare 4 using NetWare Directory Services (NDS). [] Cheyenne FAXserve, a fax management service for Novell networks. NEST Autoroute software expands fax delivery options to include e-mail boxes, copiers or a user's desktop. [] The QMS Magicolor LX Print System and a QMS 1660E Print System, which have been enhanced with advanced networking capabilities by the use of NEST. [] Ricoh's FAX2700L fax machine with NEST Autoroute, which allows faxes to be delivered to other faxes, computers and email boxes. [] SerComm's PrintMate Plus Print Server, which now supports NDS, available with NEST. According to Allen, Novell is in active discussions over the possibility of implanting NEST in motor vehicles to support remote diagnostics over wireless networks. (Sylvia Dennis/19950823/Press Contact: Vivienne Wilson, Novell UK +44-1344-724460) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 08/23/95 ONLINE Netcom Releases NetCruiser 2. (NEWS)(ONLINE)(SFO)(00026) Netcom Releases NetCruiser 2.0 08/23/95 SAN JOSE, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1995 AUG 23 (NB) -- Starting today, Netcom, one of the largest US Internet service providers (ISPs), is offering a new version of its proprietary Internet browser, NetCruiser. Version 2.0 features better graphics viewing capabilities, support for more third-party helper applications and access to the new McKinley Directory, Reuters newswire and the InfoSeek Internet search tool. Along with the new version, Netcom has revamped its home page to facilitate one-button access to a wider variety of information on differing topics. With the version 2.0, Netcom help files can be accessed online and easily updated by the company as information is added or deleted from the service. ClariNet e.News service which delivers several major daily news services, including Newsbytes, in newsgroup format, is now a one-button access feature on NetCruiser. ClariNet has more than 300 newsgroups updated 150 times a day. Improved graphics viewing is achieved through support of many Hypertext Markup Language (HTML) 2.0 and 3.0 specifications. This additional support facilitates access to many of the graphic images commonly found on the World Wide Web (Web). A spokesperson for Netcom told Newsbytes, "We are committed to making the Internet and World Wide Web access and navigation as easy as possible. Two of the most important additions to this version is the new McKinley Directory and access to InfoSeek Net Search service. Between these two resources, users will find that it is much easier to find out where the information they need is and how to get to it quickly." NetCruiser is the proprietary browser for Netcom's high speed access to the Internet. The new version is available free as a download from Netcom's Web site and included as part of the Netcom's $19.95 monthly pricing plan. Earlier versions of NetCruiser include Web access, Telnet, Gopher, File Transfer Protocol, Internet Relay Chat, e-mail, Usenet newsgroups and online registration. Version 2.0 includes all of these features. NetCruiser packages are available in more than 5,000 retail outlets and bundled with personal computer systems and peripherals such as modems and sound cards. (Patrick McKenna/19950823/Press Contact: Curt Kundred, Fleishman-Hillard, tel 415-837-0734; World Wide Web URL: http://www.ix.netcom.com ) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 08/23/95 GENERAL Oak Technology Supports Philips/Sony CD Format (NEWS)(GENERAL)(LAX)(00027) Oak Technology Supports Philips/Sony CD Format 08/23/95 CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1995 AUG 23 (NB) -- Oak Technology, Inc. (NASDAQ: OAKT) plans to build controllers for high density CD-ROM drives that support the Philips/Sony MultiMedia CD (MMCD) format. MMCD-ROM discs will store up to 7.4 GB (gigabytes) of data on a single-sided platter, more than ten times the capacity of today's 640MB (megabyte) CD. Don Bryson, chief operating officer at Oak Technology, told Newsbytes, "We support the move to the high density CD format, and Philips/Sony is one of the first developers of this format. There are great benefits in a single-sided compact disk that provides up to ten times the data capacity, while maintaining full backwards compatibility with current CD-ROM disks. Toshiba has also pioneered the high density format, but does not maintain full backwards compatibility. In the end we hope that the battle between these two competing systems will end in one high density standard." The Philips/Sony MMCD format will initially be produced by the great majority of the existing disk manufacturing infrastructure, he told Newsbytes. "For most manufacturing MMCD requires very little retooling, and for this reason their product has been accepted quicker. The Toshiba high density CD format requires greater retooling, and that puts them at a momentary disadvantage," said Bryson "Oak's focus on the multimedia market has led us to believe that the increase in both CD-ROM density and performance will enable significantly higher quality applications which, in turn, enable other advanced Oak products, such as the MPEG (Moving Picture Experts Group) video/audio decoder, graphics/video accelerators, and 3-D products, " continued Bryson. Before the high density format, increased performance has been accomplished by spinning the disc proportionately faster. By increasing the density of data on the disc, MMCD-ROMs obtain significantly faster data transfer rates without increasing the speed at which the disk spins. Oak Technology will develop and market the AT Attachment Packet Interface (ATAPI) CD-ROM controllers for the Philips/Sony MultiMedia CD. ATAPI controllers provide for higher data transfer rates and the handling of additional data formats. Current market research estimates, according to the company, indicate that more than 80 percent of the CD-ROM drives shipped today use an IDE (Integrated Drive Electronics)/ATAPI interface to connect to and share data with the PC. Oak's OEM customers, responsible for the majority of the IDE/ATAPI- based CD-ROM drives in use, could introduce high density drives based on the MMCD format sometime next year, said the company. According to the company, the recently introduced OTI-910, Oak's most advanced controller, allows data to be retrieved from the CD- ROM disc at up to 8X speed and transferred through the IDE/ATAPI interface in ATAPI mode 3 (10 mb/sec). All Oak controllers and supporting technologies enable plug-and-play configuration with Windows 95. Oak Technology, Inc. supplies high-performance multimedia semiconductors and related software for the personal computer, PC peripheral and consumer electronics industries. Oak claims it is currently the world's largest merchant supplier of CD-ROM controllers. (Richard Bowers/19950823/Press Contact: Scott Alberts, Oak Technology, 408-737-0888) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 08/23/95 ONLINE Integralis Announces UK's First Internet Roadshow (NEWS)(ONLINE)(LON)(00028) Integralis Announces UK's First Internet Roadshow 08/23/95 READING, BERKSHIRE, ENGLAND, 1995 AUG 23 (NB) -- Integralis has announced it will be hosting the UK's first nation-wide Internet roadshow with live Internet connections during October of this year. Tim Crabtree, a spokesman for the company, told Newsbytes that the aim of the roadshows, which take place in London (Oct 2/3), Birmingham (Oct 5), Manchester (Oct 6), Leeds (Oct 9), Edinburgh (Oct 11) and Glasgow (Oct 13), is to educate business people as to the benefits of the Internet. "Each day will start off with a briefing as to what the Internet is and what it can do for businesses. Later in the day, the delegates will get a chance to log on to the Internet and take a guided tour around various Web sites, which we will include on a menu card, and they will hopefully be able to get a flavor of what the Internet and the World Wide Web is about," he explained. According to Crabtree, the roadshow is a lot more than a simple guide to the Internet for businesses. "It aims to show businesses what the Web can do for them and their customers," he explained. Kevin Washburn, Integralis' director, said that the Web has a major potential for low-cost advertising. The roadshow events, he said, will discuss how to create marketing profiles of Internet users and the demographics of an online audience. "Our research shows businesses remain sceptical about the Internet. Integralis has therefore taken the effort out of creating Web pages and our clients are already discovering the benefits of online businesses," he explained. (Steve Gold/19950823/Press Contact: Lewis Communications +44-171-831- 4890; Fax +44-171-831-4889; Internet Email: lewiscom@cix.compulink.co.uk; Reader Contact: Integralis +44-1734- 306060; Fax +44-1734-302143; Internet Email: info@integralis.co,uk) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 08/23/95 IBM OSF/DCE Conference - IBM, DEC Add Platforms, Users Speak (NEWS)(IBM)(BOS)(00029) OSF/DCE Conference - IBM, DEC Add Platforms, Users Speak 08/23/95 BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS, U.S.A., 1995 AUG 23 (NB) -- In a press conference at the OSF/DCE (Open Software Foundation/Distributed Computing Environment) Conference in Boston, IBM, DEC, and three other vendors announced new DCE products and services, and users from MCI, Bell Northern, Motorola, and EDS discussed applications that attested to the rising implementation of DCE in corporate environments. During the 90-minute press conference, which was attended by Newsbytes, IBM's Art Gilbert told journalists and analysts that IBM is now offering DCE 1.0 across all five of the company's operating environments: AIX, OS/2 Warp, MVS, VM, and AS/400. Earlier this week, IBM unveiled an OS/2 Warp beta program for version 1.1 of the OSF's environment for multivendor distributed computing. In September, IBM will issue announcements concerning availability dates of upcoming versions of DCE 1.1 for both AIX and MVS, according to Gilbert. Also at the press conference in Boston, Tim Yeaton of DEC announced plans to deliver a full client-server implementation of DCE 1.1 for Windows NT, in addition to a run-time client for Windows 95. Digital's DCE 1.1 for Windows NT, which is scheduled to ship on September 21, will consist of four products, according to Yeaton. One component, DCE Security Server, will include "single log-in" and other new user authentication and authorization services in DCE 1.1. Another product, DCE Cell Directory Server, will support new cell directory functions in DCE 1.1 that provide the ability to contact users and to locate servers, print queues, and other network resources without knowledge of their physical location. DCE Runtime Services, another product, will include DCE Director, a new "task-oriented" GUI (graphical user interface) that is aimed at easing DCE management for systems administrators. A new Application Developer's Kit for the Windows NT edition of DCE 1.1 will include GSSAPI (Generic Security Service Application Programming Interface), a new feature from the OSF's R1.1 DCE release that is designed to support non-DCE-compliant applications that use peer-to-peer communication rather than DCE RPCs (remote procedure calls). The developer's kit will also provide a new feature from the OSF's R1.2.1 release of DCE that will let developers write applications in C++, for support of object-oriented distributed applications. Also at the press event, Nicholas Zaldastani of Open Horizon announced a new Enterprise Accelerator Program aimed at providing DCE services to non-DCE applications created with Visual Basic, Powersoft, or other client-server tools. Open Horizon is backing the new program with a promise to refund the $9,500 cost to the customer in any situation where applications cannot be "DCE-enabled" in five days, Zaldastani said. Open Horizon's program includes 10 copies of Gradient PC-DCE for Windows 3.x; 10 copies of Connection Client; one copy each of Connection Database Module (for Oracle, Sybase, Informix, DB2/6000, or SQL Server), DCE Security Module, and DCE Directory Module; one- year maintenance, support, and upgrade services for both PC-DCE and Connection; and on-site consulting for up to five days. In a series of related announcements, Gradient's Doug Fowler reported that Gradient is planning to upgrade PC/DCE with encrypted RPCs, PPP support, and an "optimized cell directory, for four-times faster log-in." Also under way from Gradient are a full client-server implementation for Windows NT, with cell directory services, and a client implementation for Windows 95, to be introduced in October, according to Fowler. Trevor Gee of Deloitte & Touche LLP told reporters that increasing customer demand for DCE sparked his company's decision to establish a new consulting service "focused on building enterprise-wide distributed computing infrastructure based on OSF/DCE." Bell Northern's Dina Feder informed the audience that Bell Northern has begun to use DCE both internally, to allow remote configuration of phone company switching from IMS data running on a mainframe, and externally, to develop client-server applications for customers. "More and more customers are pushing DCE. But administration still needs to be easier for client-server applications," Feder maintained. Warren Bernard of MCI explained that MCI has launched a DCE implementation of a "coordinated voice-data transfer" application involving third-party credit card authorization in MCI telemarketing. DEC has now been deployed on a "server-to-server" basis on 50 Digital Unix servers at MCI, Bernard said. The next step in the process is to begin deploying DCE over VISANet to 8,000 multivendor clients in environments ranging from Sun Solaris, to Digital Unix and VMS, to LAN Server, he added. Mike Danley of Motorola said that Motorola is using DCE in wafer fabrication applications, and Larry Wilhelm of EDS outlined EDS's use of DCE in a pair of applications for Cadillac. The first DCE implementation for Cadillac is an ordering application for 500 Cadillac dealers in Florida, Wilhelm told the journalists. The second application, involving "parts forecasting," is being rolled out on a global basis, with deployment scheduled for completion in Europe by the end of this year, and throughout the Asia/Pacific in 1996, according to the EDS exec. Speaking with Newsbytes at the close of the press conference, Wilhelm said that the forecasting application calls for integrating DCE and Encina with DB2 data running on a mainframe through a PPP gateway. D. Kurt Dahm, VP of sales for Open Horizon, said that his company's product already supports single log-on, and will incorporate support for all other features in DCE 1.1 in its next release. John P. Dohm, a manager for Deloitte & Touche LLP, told Newsbytes that Deloitte & Touche "easily" obtained DCE enablement for customers with the use an earlier version of the Open Horizon product. During a product showcase later that day, Stephen H. Dahlby, senior programmer for IBM, told Newsbytes that the "beauty" of DCE is that vendors can create their own user interfaces, while still complying "100 percent" with the underlying crossplatform DCE architecture. During a demo for Newsbytes of the new graphical DCE Director for Windows NT, DEC's Mahesh Gorkar of DEC noted that DEC also offers DEC products for Digital Unix and OpenVMS, which provide a command line interface for systems administrators. DEC first released DCE Runtime services for Windows NT in September, 1994. (Jacqueline Emigh/19950823/Reader Contact: Open Software Foundation, 617-621-8700; Press Contact: Jane Smeloff, OSF, 617- 621-8700) (SUMMARY)(GENERAL)(MSP)(00030) Newsbytes Daily Summary 08/23/95 MINNEAPOLIS, MINNESOTA, U.S.A., 1995 AUG 23 (NB) -- These are capsules of all today's news stories: ======================================================================== ------------| N E W S B Y T E S D A I L Y S U M M A R Y |---------- ------------| Wednesday, August 23, 1995 |---------- ======================================================================== (c) Newsbytes News Network (Tm) Editor in Chief: Wendy Woods ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Newsbytes News Network's 1995 Update CD-ROM for Mac, DOS, and Windows is now available for $29.95 (includes s&h). Contains 1983-1995 news stories, more than 64,000 keyword searchable stories and 475 digitized images. For more information or to order, fax to 612-430-0441 or e-mail to 'administrator@newsbytes.com' -- MC, Visa, Amex accepted. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ CATEGORY HEADLINES (*** indicates today's top stories) STORY # ======================================================================== APPLE Adobe Ships Pagemaker 6.0 For Mac.......................... 05 APPLE ****Apple Plans To Ship PowerPC Powerbooks................ 19 BROADCAST ****Gates Confirms Possible Venture With TBS.............. 01 BROADCAST First Pacific's Cable Telephony System In Netherlands...... 08 BUSINESS Cash Register Rings For Intersolv.......................... 21 GENERAL Japan Newsbriefs........................................... 02 GENERAL Oak Technology Supports Philips/Sony CD Format............. 27 GOVT GTSI Launches Electronic Commerce On Internet For NASA..... 11 GOVT FBI Documents - Clipper Must Be Mandatory.................. 20 HEALTH AMA Web Site; Newsletter For Online Medicine............... 23 IBM OSF/DCE Conference - IBM, DEC Add Platforms, Users Speak... 29 NETWORK Datacraft Upgrades ATM Services For China Banking.......... 10 NETWORK Novell Unveils Various NEST Applications................... 25 ONLINE Internet Update............................................ 04 ONLINE New Brunswick Election Online.............................. 06 ONLINE Digiphone Goes To Manufacturing, Duplex Edition Intro'd.... 12 ONLINE WebInnovation December Conference In SF.................... 13 ONLINE Data Broadcasting Expands Microsoft Network Offerings...... 16 ONLINE AOL Company Helps Users Create Web Pages................... 17 ONLINE Sirius Becomes Internet Service Provider................... 24 ONLINE Netcom Releases NetCruiser 2.0............................. 26 ONLINE Integralis Announces UK's First Internet Roadshow.......... 28 TELECOM ****World Cellular Market Growing - Studies............... 07 TRENDS Matsushita Plasma Displays................................. 14 TRENDS Video Game Market In Decline............................... 15 TRENDS China - Computers Monitor Traffic Flow..................... 18 TRENDS ****No Immediate Boom For Mobile Data Market.............. 22 WINDOWS Logicraft Speeds Windows 95 Launch Event................... 03 WINDOWS Microsoft To Publish Interactive CD-ROM Music Guide........ 09 ======================================================================== These are the headlines and first paragraphs of each story, in order: 1 -> ****Gates Confirms Possible Venture With TBS -- Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ: MSFT) Chairman Bill Gates said on the Cable News Network television program "Larry King Live" this week that Microsoft has had discussions with Ted Turner about a possible interactive venture between Microsoft and Turner Broadcasting System (TBS). 2 -> Japan Newsbriefs -- In this roundup of news from Japan, Taiwanese firms join Toshiba DVD system, IBM develop new PDA, reports newspaper, heat wave tests power companies, Mitsubishi plans Oregon chip plant, NTT details flat rate call scheme, Daiei to sell Packard Bell PCs, Fuji to digitize SNG network 3 -> Logicraft Speeds Windows 95 Launch Event -- It's usually the behind-the-scenes happenings that make or break a big public event, and that will be true at the rollout of Microsoft's new operating system and user interface tomorrow. Several thousand people will stand in line at one of 14 workstations to examine 14 different CD-ROM software programs at what may be the biggest product rollout of the decade and although nearly all of them have a good understanding of technology, in all likelihood not a one will know or wonder how the available titles can be loaded in the blink of an eye with a single click on a mouse without changing disks. 4 -> Internet Update -- In this roundup of new and updated services and resources on the Internet, Apple opens Pacific Web site, Fox TV online, more free financial information, Volkswagen motors to the Web, University Web finder, Radio Singapore International introduces itself, local Internet indexes. 5 -> Adobe Ships Pagemaker 6.0 For Mac -- Adobe Systems Inc. (NASDAQ: ADBE) is now shipping Adobe Pagemaker version 6.0 for the Macintosh and Power Macintosh platforms. The company said the upgrade adds more than 50 new or enhanced features to the popular page layout software. 6 -> New Brunswick Election Online -- New Brunswick, the first Canadian province to have a government minister responsible for the information highway and a leader in providing universal access to the Internet, is having a provincial election, and a new site on the World Wide Web provides information on the race. 7 -> ****World Cellular Market Growing - Studies -- The world cellular network equipment market, which includes switching and base station tools, totaled $14.4 billion in 1994, and is expected to grow at a compound average growth of 27.8%, a new study on the market revealed. 8 -> First Pacific's Cable Telephony System In Netherlands -- First Pacific Networks Inc. (FPN) (NASDAQ:FPNX) announced that it has been selected as a vendor by Multikabel n.v. Kabeltelevisie Kop Noord- Holland (Multikabel) to supply the FPN1000i Cable Telephony System to The Netherlands. The FPN system enables the delivery of telephone service over Multikabel's hybrid fiber/coaxial broadband cable television networks, the first such commercial deployment in The Netherlands. 9 -> Microsoft To Publish Interactive CD-ROM Music Guide -- Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ: MSFT) announced this week it has signed a partnership deal with several music industry companies to provide content for the software company's new CD-ROM-based interactive music guide for Windows and Apple Computer Macintosh. 10 -> Datacraft Upgrades ATM Services For China Banking -- The Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (ICB) in Guangdong province has signed a deal with Datacraft China 11 -> GTSI Launches Electronic Commerce On Internet For NASA -- Government Technology Services Inc., (Nasdaq: GTSI) has launched electronic commerce on the Internet on a major NASA contract. The NASA scientific engineering and workstation procurement (SWEP) contract is the first in the government to use a credit card on the Internet on an indefinite delivery, indefinite quantity contract, GTSI spokesman Carter Cromley told Newsbytes. 12 -> Digiphone Goes To Manufacturing, Duplex Edition Intro'd -- Camelot Corporation said this week it has sent Digiphone Deluxe, its software program that lets Internet users carry on phone conversations without paying long distance charges, to manufacturing. 13 -> WebInnovation December Conference In SF -- Interactive Marketing Communications (IMC) announces WebInnovation, a working conference for top Web content creators and application developers. WebInnovation will be held December 4-6, 1995 at the San Francisco Hilton & Towers. 14 -> Matsushita Plasma Displays -- Matsushita Electrical Industrial Co. has announced it will begin manufacture of 26 and 40-inch plasma display panels for use in thin, wall mounted, color televisions and video monitors. 15 -> Video Game Market In Decline -- According to a new report from DFC Intelligence, in 1994 video games and entertainment software for computers generated $4.3 billion in the United States. This was down slightly from 1993's $4.4 billion. The market for video game hardware declined even more in 1994, declining 18% to $1.5 billion. 16 -> Data Broadcasting Expands Microsoft Network Offerings -- Data Broadcasting Corporation (NASDAQ:DBCC) (DBC) said it will expand its lineup of content providers in its new online area on the Microsoft Network (MSN) on August 24. This is part of the company's move to establish a new department devoted to interactive content, an official told Newsbytes. 17 -> AOL Company Helps Users Create Web Pages -- NaviSoft's new NaviService is designed for businesses of all sizes that are interested in creating their own Web pages, but that do not yet feel "ready" to host their own Web servers, maintained Lydia Dobyns, VP and general manager, during a briefing for Newsbytes. Available at four "levels," the newly introduced service from the America Online (AOL) company combines Web hosting by NaviSoft with customer preparation of the actual pages, the VP elaborated. 18 -> China - Computers Monitor Traffic Flow -- Due to increasing numbers of vehicles converging on city streets, the average speed a car can travel in Shenyang, for instance, is 8 miles an hour. But a new computer vision system which modifies the intervals of stoplights at intersections, may help the situation. 19 -> ****Apple Plans To Ship PowerPC Powerbooks -- On Monday, Apple Computer (NASDAQ:AAPL) is expected to announce a new series of Powerbook mobile computers powered by 603 PowerPC processors. Reuters reports the new PowerPC models will offer a wide range of features and sell from $2,000 to $6,000. Apple has no comment on the report. 20 -> FBI Documents - Clipper Must Be Mandatory -- More than two years ago, federal law enforcement agencies concluded that the Clipper chip encryption technology should be mandatory and alternative forms of encryption should be banned in the US, according to documents released by the Electronic Privacy Information Center. 21 -> Cash Register Rings For Intersolv -- Intersolv, continuing to play its open client/server game, has run up good financial results for the first quarter of the fiscal year, ending July 31. The software company saw revenues increase 20 percent to $28.9 million compared to $24.1 million for the first quarter of last year. 22 -> ****No Immediate Boom For Mobile Data Market -- Serious growth in the mobile data market is unlikely before the late 1990s, says a study from the market research firm MTA-EMCI. 23 -> AMA Web Site; Newsletter For Online Medicine -- The American Medical Association (AMA) has launched an Internet World Wide Web site that features content from its famous "Journal of the American Medical Association" (JAMA), along with other healthcare- related material. 24 -> Sirius Becomes Internet Service Provider -- Software publisher Sirius Publishing Inc., will become an Internet service provider with the launching of SiriusNet. Sirius has signed with Concentric Network, which is owned and operated by Concentric Research, to provide access to a nationwide network of dedicated lines. 25 -> Novell Unveils Various NEST Applications -- Novell UK has taken the wraps off a range of new applications that include its NetWare Embedded Systems Technology (NEST). 26 -> Netcom Releases NetCruiser 2.0 -- Starting today, Netcom, one of the largest US Internet service providers (ISPs), is offering a new version of its proprietary Internet browser, NetCruiser. Version 2.0 features better graphics viewing capabilities, support for more third-party helper applications and access to the new McKinley Directory, Reuters newswire and the InfoSeek Internet search tool. 27 -> Oak Technology Supports Philips/Sony CD Format -- Oak Technology, Inc. (NASDAQ: OAKT) plans to build controllers for high density CD-ROM drives that support the Philips/Sony MultiMedia CD (MMCD) format. MMCD-ROM discs will store up to 7.4 GB (gigabytes) of data on a single-sided platter, more than ten times the capacity of today's 640MB (megabyte) CD. 28 -> Integralis Announces UK's First Internet Roadshow -- Integralis has announced it will be hosting the UK's first nation-wide Internet roadshow with live Internet connections during October of this year. 29 -> OSF/DCE Conference - IBM, DEC Add Platforms, Users Speak -- In a press conference at the OSF/DCE (Open Software Foundation/Distributed Computing Environment) Conference in Boston, IBM, DEC, and three other vendors announced new DCE products and services, and users from MCI, Bell Northern, Motorola, and EDS discussed applications that attested to the rising implementation of DCE in corporate environments. (Wendy Woods/19950823) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 08/22/95 ONLINE Prodigy Offers Harlem Inner-City Area Online (NEWS)(ONLINE)(SFO)(00001) Prodigy Offers Harlem Inner-City Area Online 08/22/95 NEW YORK, NEW YORK, U.S.A., 1995 AUG 22 (NB) -- Prodigy has teamed with Com.sortium and Odyssey 21st Century Communications to deliver "Harlem.NYC Uptown Online." As a preview, the new inner-city electronic area is running exclusively on Prodigy for the next thirty days. #IMAGE 1 20 TWPCX \images\95082201.PCX Click here for photo While Harlem.NYC Uptown Online focuses primarily on Afro-American interests, locally and internationally, it also includes other ethnic influences including Spanish American. Called a virtual community, Harlem.NYC is appearing as a preview site in its Prodigy debut. As the area is developed, it will include a community tour, a local calendar of events, economic, educational and cultural developments, a shopping mall and changes the community is going through in its "revitalization program." Com.sortium is providing the technology and programming management, Prodigy is furnishing the networking backbone, and Odyssey 21st Century Communications generates the community involvement and information. At this time Harlem.NYC is exclusive to Prodigy. Eventually, Harlem.NYC will have its own World Wide Web site opened to all Internet users. Larry Footer, a spokesperson for Com.sortium, told Newsbytes, the exclusive arrangement with Prodigy may be continued past the first thirty days depending on discussions and negotiations. Harlem, as a community, is a focus area for the US government's Empowerment Program. This new online version is part of bringing high technology to the community and placing Harlem business and activities before a large international audience of Internet users. Footer said, "The intention is to provide very basic, local information to those living in the community. This includes such things as shopping information, social services, employment opportunities, educational information, and entertainment attractions. We also want to reach Afro-Americans and other African-related communities and citizens around the world." Responding to questions concerning Afro-American access to the Internet, Footer said, "While there is a tremendous need to expand Internet and technology access to all levels of the various Afro-American communities, I think there are a lot more Afro-Americans online than people think. Access is affordable for most US middle-class citizens and many Afro-Americans, like the rest of the online population, have access through work or school. Footer also said Com.sortium is working on developing other electronic communities. On its drawing boards are more New York communities, a Jewish site, and an Asian site. (Patrick McKenna/19950822/Press Contact: Ted Schulman, Com.sortium, 212-517-4255/HARLEM950822/PHOTO) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 08/22/95 TRENDS MPEG Rolling Stones CD (NEWS)(TRENDS)(SFO)(00002) MPEG Rolling Stones CD 08/22/95 SAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1995 AUG 22 (NB) -- Software Affiliates, a distributor of educational and entertainment multimedia titles and Motion Picture Experts Group (MPEG) boards for full-motion, full-screen video, is offering an MPEG title which includes the Rolling Stones performing Start Me Up, the new promotion song for Windows 95. The Wall Street Journal has reported Microsoft plans to spend approximately $200 million to introduce Windows 95. In addition, the company is receiving ten times that amount of advertising through media coverage from print, radio, and television stories. "With the hottest release in the software industry due (this week), the MPEG community is getting an opportunity to ride the coat-tails of this major launch," said Rob Edenzen, president of Software Affiliates. He continued: "The Microsoft announcement about using the Rolling Stones' song Start Me Up as the promotion song for Windows 95 is the perfect time to step-up MPEG awareness. Although there has been significant talk in the industry about MPEG technology, it still remains slow to take off. With the availability to view the Rolling Stones performing Start Me Up and other songs from the entire Steel Wheels concert, I think computer users will now be able to learn about the power and added entertainment provided through MPEG." Software Affiliates is distributing a two-CD MPEG set of the Imax movie version of the concert. The company is currently offering PC manufacturers with MPEG capabilities and MPEG technology providers bundling and cross-marketing opportunities with the two CD set. Direct sales will be available in about two weeks. Expected street price for the set is $29.95. "Rolling Stones, Live At the Max!" requires an IBM compatible or Apple computer with multimedia and MPEG capabilities. The title also plays on 3DO stations, Compact Disk-Interactive (CD-I) players, and on the Amiga CD 32. (Patrick McKenna/19950822/Public Contact: Software Affiliates, 818-385-3710; Internet e-mail 75473.2636@compuserve.com) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 08/22/95 BUSINESS General DataComm Expands China Commitment (NEWS)(BUSINESS)(HKG)(00003) General DataComm Expands China Commitment 08/22/95 CENTRAL, HONG KONG, 1995 AUG 22 (NB) -- General DataComm has appointed China Telemetry, Telecontrol Research Institute (CTI), as a distributor for its access and internetworking products. CTI is one of the key research and development institutes of the Ministry of Electronics Industry (MEI) and is a major Chinese integrator of telecommunication network technologies -- ranging from satellite and microwave communication to voice switches and data communication networks. According to Gary Bacon, Asia Pacific VP for General DataComm, "CTI will help GDC expand its market presence in China and reach new sectors of the rapidly growing Chinese telecommunications market." CTI will distribute General DataComm's access and internetworking products and provide support services to end-users, such as banks, as well as to Unicom, China's newest carrier. General DataComm supports China's communications industry through its four distributors in China: China National Postal & Telecommunications Appliance Corporation; CTI; Hercules Data Comm; and Synergy Techno-Vision Ltd. Founded in 1952, CTI is based in Shijiazhuang in the Northern Chinese province of Hebei. The company employs 4,000 people and reported 1994 revenues of RMB600 million (US$72 million). (Nigel Armstrong & I.T. Daily/19950820) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 08/22/95 WINDOWS Free Windows NT Server Utilities CD (NEWS)(WINDOWS)(LON)(00004) Free Windows NT Server Utilities CD 08/22/95 SEVENOAKS, KENT, ENGLAND, 1995 AUG 22 (NB) -- The ServerWare Group has released a free CD-ROM disk that has various time-locked versions of Windows NT Server applications. There is even a 60-day time-locked copy of Windows NT Server on the disk, according to John Straw of the company. "The disk is being given out to our resellers, as well as the largest 5,000 organizations in the UK. Anyone who calls the company can have one copy, free of charge," he said. According to Straw, the package has a number of free utilities for NT Server on it, as well as a wide variety of applications that can be un-time-locked by keying in a reference number that is only given out if the user decides to register their applications. "Our resellers and major customers are impressed with the disk, since, by and large, it offers solutions for many of their problems. The advantage for us is that the customer can play around with the software, whether or not it is installed by our solution provider or dealer, and buy direct from us," he explained. Straw went on to say that the disk was compiled with the assistance of Microsoft UK, making it the first of its type. Julie Cox, Microsoft's Business Division marketing manager, said that, with the growing momentum in the marketplace behind Windows NT Server, "the selection of third-party products now available that complement Windows NT Server is very broad. "This compilation of best-of-breed products for Windows NT Server provides a one-stop shop opportunity for customers to easily evaluate the benefits of a Windows NT-based solution," she said. (Steve Gold/19950818/Press & Reader Contact: ServerWare, tel +44-1732-464624, fax +44-1732-465861, Internet e-mail sales@serverware.com) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 08/22/95 TELECOM China Plugs Into FLAG Global Cabling Project (NEWS)(TELECOM)(LON)(00005) China Plugs Into FLAG Global Cabling Project 08/22/95 BEIJING, CHINA, 1995 AUG 22 (NB) -- The Chinese Directorate General of Telecommunications (DGT) has agreed with FLAG (Fiber Link Around the Globe) Limited, the international telecoms cable project consortium, to add China to the undersea route of the FLAG cabling system. According to Joseph Timpanaro, FLAG's chairman, the cable will be landed in Shanghai. "We are very pleased to add China to FLAG's route. With the country's economy set to explode and the chance to leap-frog several technologies, China is planning to build a communications infrastructure that will serve its needs well into the future," he said. According to Timpanaro, participation in the FLAG project "will offer China the same kind of capability on an international basis." Timpanaro went on to say that China, with its 1.2 billion population, has approximately 20 million telephone lines. The goal set by the DGT is to get a further 11 million telephone lines operational by the end of the decade, a task that will dramatically increase the requirements for international circuits into and out of the country. According to Timpanaro, thanks to its submarine connection, FLAG will gain access to the Chinese telecommunication market and help to satisfy growing demands for telecommunications services. The Chinese DGT is currently involved in a number of international submarine initiatives, including: a fiber optic submarine cable linking China and Japan, which went into service in 1993; a China-Korea cable, to be connected later this year; and cables to Europe and South Asia. Presently, China uses satellite transmission and regional cable systems for communications. The FLAG option will offer a direct, highly advanced fiber optic link with cities in Europe, the Middle East, and the rest of Asia. Transmissions will have increased security and accuracy and support the high-bandwidth transmission of computer data and multimedia applications. (Sylvia Dennis/19950818/Press & Reader Contact: Richard Price, European Marketing Consultants, +44-181-879-3033) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 08/22/95 BUSINESS Gradient Technologies Opens European Office (NEWS)(BUSINESS)(LON)(00006) Gradient Technologies Opens European Office 08/22/95 HARLOW, ESSEX, ENGLAND, 1995 AUG 22 (NB) -- Gradient Technologies, the US provider of multi-platform DCE (Distributed Computing Environment) systems, has announced the opening of a new European headquarters in the UK. According to Dave Zwicker, vice president of marketing with the company, the European HQ will service the whole of Europe, as well as the company's Middle Eastern and African operations. "Gradient's global strategy and rapid growth drove the formation of our UK base of operations. A local presence will provide our business partners and end-users with the technical, sales, and support resources to build worldwide distributed computing environments," Zwicker explained. Currently, Gradient supports DCE technology on several computing platforms, including Windows 3.1, Windows NT, and Novell UnixWare. Plans are also in hand to release DCE-compliant products for the Apple Mac and Microsoft Windows 95 platforms. Because DCE has become the industry standard for client/server applications, Gradient plans to expand its product ranges sold into the European and other non-US markets. "The timing is perfect for Gradient to expand its operations. Client/server distributed computing is the architecture of choice, and DCE is the open industry standard that is becoming dominant," explained Peter Christou, Gradient's sales manager for the European, African, and Middle Eastern (EAME) region. Christou added that Gradient's strength is that it "enables users to have the power of a Unix platform combined with the friendliness of their Windows systems." (Sylvia Dennis/19950817/Press & Reader Contact: Peter Christou, Gradient, +44-1279-755247) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 08/22/95 WINDOWS Windows NT 3-D Graphics Accelerator (NEWS)(WINDOWS)(LAX)(00007) Windows NT 3-D Graphics Accelerator 08/22/95 CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1995 AUG 22 (NB) -- AccelGraphics Inc., a supplier of PCI (Peripheral Component Interconnect)-based three- dimensional (3-D) graphics accelerators for Windows NT, has announced the availability of the AG500 graphics accelerator board. The AG500 provides workstation-class, 3-D graphics and imaging performance for PCI-based computer systems. Greg Milliken, vice president of marketing for AccelGraphics, told Newsbytes, "The AG500 is the next step in the AccelGraphics product line. Following the AG300 product, the AG500 adds a new set of sophisticated high-end capabilities like a 24-bit Z buffer, double buffered overlays, GL stencils, and Window IDs. With these additions it is possible to run virtually any 3-D application in the Windows NT environment. "The AG500 supports screen resolutions up to 1280 by 1024 with 16-bit double buffering. Full support for dual-screen configurations is also provided, enabling customers to double their screen real estate with OpenGL graphics available on both screens," said Milliken. He added: "Featuring 12.5 megabytes (MB) of on-board RAM, enabling a large frame buffer and overlay support, the AG500 provides the high-end performance and features that were previously only available on Unix workstations." According to the company, the AG500 is capable of delivering a set of image processing features specifically targeted at the medical imaging and geographic information systems (GIS) markets. "GIS applications include the ability to overlay satellite images on maps and quickly pan, zoom, or manipulate the product," said Milliken. "Medical applications would include animating images from x-ray, cat-scan, or MRI, and being able to fully manipulate and overlay." The AG500's powerful graphics processor is capable of up to 205,000 Gouraud shaded triangles-per-second and up to 750,000 3-D vectors- per-second, says the company. AccelGraphics' strategy is to support all popular Windows NT platforms, including those based on the Intel Pentium, Digital's Alpha AXP, and Silicon Graphics MIPS processors. The AG500, with a list price of $3,495 is available immediately from any authorized AccelGraphics reseller and distributor. The AG300, has a list price of $2,195. The company says a Windows 95 version should be available in a few months. (Richard Bowers/19950822/Press Contact: Carol Nash, Sterling Communications, 408-441-4100) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 08/22/95 WINDOWS Free Guide To Windows Apps (NEWS)(WINDOWS)(LON)(00008) Free Guide To Windows Apps 08/22/95 BIRMINGHAM, WEST MIDLANDS, ENGLAND, 1995 AUG 22 (NB) -- CSM, an accounting software house, which claims to be the UK market leader in supplying software to accountants, is offering interested parties a free copy of "Getting to Grips with Windows," a 20-page guide to accounting software in the Windows domain. Carolyn Gordon-Smith, a spokeswoman for the company, told Newsbytes that the guide has been commissioned by Rod Newing, a charter accountant and specialist writer, and aims to be an impartial guide to Windows applications in the field of accountancy. "One of the problems we spotted was that, despite the success of Windows in other areas, many accountants were confused by what Windows is, and how it can be used on their systems. The guide is not simply a selling aide, but it is designed to be educational," she explained. Gordon-Smith went on to say that the guide has already been "tested" on a series of roadshows that CSM has hosted with around 1,500 of its client customers this summer, and the response to the guide has been "excellent." Readers, she said, see the guide, which includes a glossary, as "highly educational," even for experienced PC users. According to CSM, the guide's main aim is to explain Windows in "simple terms," and provide the accountancy profession with an "objective commentary" on the benefits and practicalities of making the transition from MS-DOS to Windows. The idea is that, by assessing the relevant information now, accountancy practices can begin planning a strategic program which incorporates the specific needs of their firm. A copy of the guide is available free of charge to any accountant who contacts CSM. According to Gordon-Smith, this offer is extended to non-UK readers of Newsbytes. "We welcome contact with non-UK accounting firms," she said. (Steve Gold/19950818/Press Contact: Cimma Marketing, tel +44-121-766-8228, fax +44-121-766-8086; Reader Contact: CSM, tel +4-121-377-6366, fax +44-121-377-6326) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 08/22/95 TRENDS Farewell To X-Ray Film (NEWS)(TRENDS)(SFO)(00009) Farewell To X-Ray Film 08/22/95 SEATTLE, WASHINGTON, U.S.A., 1995 AUG 22 (NB) -- Although medical technology is increasingly becoming digital, radiography continues to depend upon X-ray film which must then be digitized for further processing, a step that introduces unwanted distortion of the image. Considerable progress has apparently been made in developing large-area sensors capable of sensing X-rays directly, thus doing away with film altogether. Larry E. Antonuk, assistant professor of physics in the Department of Radiation Oncology at the University of Michigan Medical Center at Ann Arbor, provides a status report in the June issue of Photonics Spectra -- "Flat (-panel) Horizons In Digital X-Ray Imaging," pp. 108-116. "The flat-panel array designs and the large-area devices reported here probably represent only the beginning of a new era in diagnostic x-ray imaging technology, and we expect to see further innovations in imager design," Antonuk writes. The research was conducted in conjunction with Xerox PARC. This story is republished with permission from the August, 1995, Cybernautics Digest, a monthly summary of reports about converging information technologies. (Contact: Terry Hansen, Cybernautics Digest, c/o KFH Publications Inc., 3530 Bagley Ave. N., Seattle, WA 98103; 206-547-4950; Fax: 206-547-5355; E-mail: cyber@cuix.pscu.com. U.S. rate: $24; $2 sample issue) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 08/22/95 ONLINE There Goes The Cyberhood (NEWS)(ONLINE)(SFO)(00010) There Goes The Cyberhood 08/22/95 SEATTLE, WASHINGTON, U.S.A., 1995 AUG 22 (NB) -- As the masses flood onto the Internet, the old timers are leaving. Julie Chao explains why in "Internet Pioneers Abandon World They Created" (Wall Street Journal, June 7, 1995, pp. B1, B7). Actually, they aren't exactly leaving, just moving away from reading Usenet messages which have grown increasingly more "polemical" and "noisy" at the expense of "reason and accuracy." "Many of the veterans say they are avoiding free-for-all newsgroups and reading more moderated newsgroups, where someone screens the messages before they're posted," Chao writes. "Other are relying more on electronic mailing lists and the World Wide Web...." The Internet does have a lot of problems and Charles C. Mann manages to highlight most of them in his six-page Inc. Technology article "Is the Internet Doomed?" (1995, No. 2, pp. 47-54). Mann, a contributing editor in science at Atlantic Monthly, sees the much-heralded "infobahn" as a cross between hopelessly-congested citizens-band radio and a teenager-infested shopping mall in the midst of a full-scale looting. While he stops short of saying the Internet is, in fact, doomed, he makes it clear that the odds of it surviving its tremendous popularity are slim. "None of this guarantees that the Internet will not become what its boosters hope," Mann concludes. "Eventually -- decades from now, perhaps -- technology will drop the costs to almost zero and ensure security. But until then it will be a tall order for the Internet to preserve its essential features and radically change them at the same time. Unfortunately, one does not have to look very hard to find technological innovations that failed to meet this challenge." This story is republished with permission from the August, 1995, Cybernautics Digest, a monthly summary of reports about converging information technologies. (Contact: Terry Hansen, Cybernautics Digest, c/o KFH Publications Inc., 3530 Bagley Ave. N., Seattle, WA 98103; 206-547-4950; Fax: 206-547-5355; E-mail: cyber@cuix.pscu.com. U.S. rate: $24; $2 sample issue) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 08/22/95 WINDOWS UK - Plain English Database Query Package (NEWS)(WINDOWS)(LON)(00011) UK - Plain English Database Query Package 08/22/95 MAIDENHEAD, BERKSHIRE, ENGLAND, 1995 AUG 22 (NB) -- European Software Publishing (ESP) has unveiled English Wizard, a Windows utility that Mike Tait, the company's managing director, claims allows users to query databases in plain English. "Previous SQL (structured query language) interrogation packages have tended to be a bit on the technical side. English Wizard operates directly or though an existing reporting tool without users needing to understand SQL," he told Newsbytes. According to Tait, English Wizard was developed by Linguistic Technology Corporation in the US, which is selling the package into the US market. ESP has landed the UK and European distribution rights to the software. ESP claims that English Wizard can enable most relational database access tools to understand everyday English requests for information by translating the English questions into proper SQL code. The company also claims the package is capable of recognizing "having" clauses (a traditional stumbling block for SQL interrogative packages of this type, Newsbytes notes), join clauses, and complex data selections, dealing with any ambiguity in questions by asking for clarification when necessary. "By allowing users to ask ordinary English questions to access a database, information becomes a free and accessible commodity. It means that there is no longer a need for time-intensive and costly training to learn SQL," Tait explained, adding that, while natural language technology has been used for years, "English Wizard takes the technology a step further by automatically building database links and finding synonyms for English queries." When the package has been installed, it scans the database, creating a dictionary of English words and synonyms based on the data in the database. It then searches for any table joins and, ESP claims, automatically determines optimal join logic. According to Tait, English Wizard, which sells for UKP79 for a single user, or UKP119 for the software development kit version, can be used with most ODBC (Open Database Compliant) databases, applications and query tools, including Forest & Trees, Microsoft Access, PowerBuilder, and Visual Basic. Because the package is installed on each users' PC, a network version of the package is not available. Tait said that volume discounts are available for organizations with a network installation, however. (Steve Gold/19950821/Press Contact: A Plus, +44-1753-790700; Reader Contact: ESP, tel +44-1628-23453, fax +44-1628-33220) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 08/22/95 WINDOWS Europe - Tulip PCs "Windows 95-Ready" (NEWS)(WINDOWS)(LON)(00012) Europe - Tulip PCs "Windows 95-Ready" 08/22/95 CRAWLEY, SURREY, ENGLAND, 1995 AUG 22 (NB) -- Like most PC vendors, Tulip Computers is expecting a surge in sales as Windows 95 goes on sale this Thursday. According to Steve Roberts, the company's product marketing manager, however, Tulip has the largest installed base of Windows 95-ready machines in the industry. Roberts bases his comments on the notion that the company's machines have been Plug and Play-compliant since June of last year. "All of our Impression Line and Vision Line machines have been using PCI (Peripheral Component Interconnect)-based motherboards for well over a year, and we know that Windows 95 installs without problems on our machines. This makes for probably the biggest and easiest upgrade opportunity," he said. According to Tulip, as soon as Microsoft provides the software, all shipments of Tulip machines will have Windows 95 as standard. On the Impression range, the company plans for it to replace DOS and Windows 3.11 for Workgroups, just as the market demands, and on the Vision range, there will be an option for either Windows 95 or DOS/Windows 3.11. "Corporate users need the choice of which operating environment they will be happy with. By pre-installing both, that gives them the flexibility," explained Roberts. According to Roberts, corporations often make policies or statements of direction on hardware and software. "We are making things easier for them to keep to these, as well as making it easier for our dealers to supply the right system and software first time," he said. "Many people questioned Tulip when we announced the fact that our machines were Plug and Play, and therefore Windows 95-compliant, last year. Some said it was even arrogant. Now those same people are taking notice of the fact that our machines are Windows 95-ready," he told Newsbytes. Roberts went on to say that he has had calls from several computer journalists over the past week or so, asking what the company was going to do to prepare for Windows 95. "I've turned around and told them that we're not doing anything as we're already prepared," he said. (Steve Gold/19950821/Press Contact: Worldview Marketing & Communications, +44-1342-323525; Reader Contact: Tulip Computers, +44-1293-420200) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 08/22/95 NETWORK Novell UK Ships PerfectOffice Developer Reference Set (NEWS)(NETWORK)(LON)(00013) Novell UK Ships PerfectOffice Developer Reference Set 08/22/95 BRACKNELL, BERKSHIRE, ENGLAND, 1995 AUG 22 (NB) -- Novell UK has begun shipping the PerfectOffice Developer Reference Set for third-party developers. According to David Bennie, Novell UK's brand marketing manager, the Reference Set will help developers use parts of PerfectOffice more easily in their own development projects. Plans call for Novell UK to incorporate software developer kits (SDKs) into the Reference set, rather than offer them individually. So why the shift away from SDKs on their own? According to Novell, since the release of the PerfectOffice suite, many developers have expressed an interest in being able to integrate their current applications, or to create new applications that integrate with one or more of the PerfectOffice suite packages. The company claims that the Reference Set will guide developers through the integration process and provide samples. The Reference Set is being made available to all software developers, including developers who integrate applications with PerfectOffice and its components. "A key part of the PerfectFit Partner (Novell's name for its developers), third-party developer program, has been for independent software vendors (ISVs) and systems integrators (SIs) to easily build add-on and custom solutions to PerfectOffice," Bennie said. He added that, since PerfectOffice is the "most open suite on the market," the Reference Kit is a "more comprehensive solution" for developers than a simple SDK. (Steve Gold/19950821/Press Contact: Vivienne Wilson, +44-1344-724460, Internet e-mail vivienne_wilson@novell,co.uk; Reader Contact: Novell UK, tel +44-1344-724000, fax +44-1344-724001) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 08/22/95 TRENDS Touch Technology Moves Off The Display Screen (NEWS)(TRENDS)(DEN)(00014) Touch Technology Moves Off The Display Screen 08/22/95 AUSTIN, TEXAS, U.S.A., 1995 AUG 22 (NB) -- Touch technology, the ability to make things happen on a computer by touching boxes on the screen, isn't new. But a Texas company has now moved that technology off the screen and onto the frame of your desktop or laptop computer keyboard. #IMAGE 1 20 TWPCX \images\95082214.PCX Click here for photo According to Austin, Texas-based Tanisys Technology, controlling functions through touch rather than keyboard or mouse commands will be the next logical step in the evolution of PC technology, particularly as those PCs become the interfaces to CD-ROMs, fax machines, telephones, mail boxes, and even online shopping centers. The company said its Touch Technology allows the PC manufacturer to provide the end-user with access to primary functions usually hidden behind pull-down menus with a single touch. A secondary benefit, according to Tanisys, is that the touch icons can be any size or shape, and can be located at any desired location on the keyboard. Tanisys said its Touch Technology makes possible not just turning functions on and off or launching applications, but actions such as increasing or decreasing sound volume or screen brightness and contrast -- acts that usually require the user to turn a knob or slide a manual control. By touching a mailbox icon on the frame of your keyboard you can connect your PC to a server and download waiting mail. Or the phone rings and you touch the telephone icon to launch the communications software that answers the phone and displays the caller's name and number. Sliding your finger along a touch-enabled slide bar lets you adjust the volume of your CD player. Don't expect to buy an after-market keyboard for your present PC that incorporates the Tanisys technology just yet, said Mark Holliday, chief executive officer of Tanisys, although he expects that will be possible later. Right now the company has an agreement with several PC makers to provide touch-enabled keyboards with their PCs. However, Holliday told Newsbytes the company is also working with a keyboard manufacturer -- Precision Devices -- to bring to market an after-market keyboard with the touch technology incorporated. Holliday said both original equipment manufacturer (OEM) and after-market keyboards should be available in the first half of 1996. Holliday said PC makers will decide what functions, with their associated icons silk-screened on the keyboard frame, to offer. One PC model from a particular company might include a keyboard with touch icons for mail retrieval, CD-ROM volume control, and phone answering, while a different model from that company might offer that same functionality and add the ability to control a television set. Holliday declined to speculate on what affect the addition of touch technology to a keyboard's functionality would have on its price, but told Newsbytes the technology is "very low" in cost. (Jim Mallory/19950821/Press contact: Amy Greenberg, 708-291-1616; Public contact: Tanisys Technology, tel 512-263-1700, fax 512-263- 1683/TOUCH950822/PHOTO) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 08/22/95 GENERAL UK - HP Offers Budget Home Printers (NEWS)(GENERAL)(LON)(00015) UK - HP Offers Budget Home Printers 08/22/95 BRACKNELL, BERKSHIRE, ENGLAND, 1995 AUG 22 (NB) -- Hewlett-Packard has announced it is pitching into the home PC and Apple Mac printer market with the launch of its DeskJet 600 for PC users and the DeskWriter 600 for the Apple Mac. According to Richard Hanscott, HP's personal printers marketing manager, the new printers have been out in the US for almost a month now and have been well-received through the retail channel. As a result, the company is launching the two printers in Europe. Hanscott told Newsbytes that the printers will replace the DeskJet and DeskWriter 540 series, which were launched earlier this year. "The 540 series have had a relatively short lifespan, but these printers are much improved on the earlier models, which is why we've released them so soon after the 540," he explained. Both the 600 series printers are color-capable units that sell for UKP289 in Europe. The printers now support a much wider range of media, including labels, custom-sized paper from A5 to A4, envelopes, transparencies, and card stock. According to Hanscott, the DeskJet 600 and DeskWriter 600 printers can easily be upgraded to color by adding a UKP35 color kit. The printers also boast a "significant improvement" in print quality, thanks to the use of new print heads and ink formulas introduced by HP in May with the HP DeskJet 660C printer. The black print cartridge uses proprietary pigment-based ink that produces a richer black and smaller, more defined dots for sharper print, claims the company. The tri-chamber color cartridge uses new dye-based inks that produce vibrant colors, dry fast, and resist fading. Additional advances in print quality include HP's Resolution Enhancement Technology (RET) for what the company describes as "crisp black text and smooth edges," and enhancements to HP's ColorSmart technology for "sharper images and smoother color patterns." Resolution is increased to 600 by 600 dots-per-inch (dpi) for black and up to 600 by 300 dpi for color. Print speed has been increased to four pages-per- minute (ppm) for black and 1ppm for color. According to HP, the printers, which are Plug and Play ready for Windows 95, come with a three-year limited warranty, the "longest in the industry." The company claims that its DeskJet printers are inherently low power consumers, and the new printers use approximately 80 percent less energy than "typical" dot-matrix printers and have earned the US Environmental Protection Agency's Energy Star designation for low power consumption. (Steve Gold/19950821/Press Contact: PA Consulting, +44-171-730-9000; Reader Contact: Hewlett Packard, +44-1344-369222) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 08/22/95 NETWORK UK - Xylogics' Budget Four-Port Remote Net Server (NEWS)(NETWORK)(LON)(00016) UK - Xylogics' Budget Four-Port Remote Net Server 08/22/95 MILTON KEYNES, ENGLAND, 1995 AUG 22 (NB) -- Xylogics has unveiled a four-port, standalone version of its Remote Annex remote access server. According to the company, the unit costs UKP1,375 and, as such, is pitched at the budget end of the market. Despite its relatively low price, the four-port system supports high performance, multi-protocol access to all the resources of a corporate enterprise network, says the firm. In use, the server provides dial-in, dial-out and LAN-to-LAN (local area network) routing facilities in a single box. "Businesses of every size are finding they need to set up remote access programs for their employees in order to stay competitive," explained Amanda Giddins, Xylogics' international marketing manager. Because of this need, she said, the four-port Remote Annex 2000 was developed, to cater for those customers whose businesses that include smaller remote offices that need a completely integrated remote access system. "With the Remote Annex range, users can easily access any network resources from any remote location, while centralized network management and maintenance functions make the network manager's job easier," she explained. According to Xylogics, the Remote Annex 2000 supports both remote and mobile users of NetWare, Unix, Apple, and multi-user host systems with multi-protocol access to the corporate LAN and all of its resources. The system can support line speeds of up to 115,200 bits-per-second and is billed as compatible with V.34 modems. The system comes bundled with Fastlynx, the company's Windows dial-in client software, as standard. (Steve Gold/19950821/Press & Reader Contact: Xylogics International, tel +44-1908-222112, fax +44-1908-222115, Internet e-mail info@zylint.co.uk/REMOTE950822/PHOTO) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 08/22/95 TELECOM Ericsson Wins Austrian Army PBX Contract (NEWS)(TELECOM)(LON)(00017) Ericsson Wins Austrian Army PBX Contract 08/22/95 VIENNA, AUSTRIA, 1995 AUG 22 (NB) -- Ericsson Schrack Austria (ESA), the subsidiary of Ericsson in Sweden, has signed a major contract with the Austrian Ministry of Defense (MoD). Terms of the contract call for ESA to supply and install a network of Consono MD110 private branch exchange (PBX) systems in 36 bases throughout Austria. The Austrian MoD network will consist of more than 12,000 lines, drawn together to create a private national network that bridges many different sites around Austria. According to the Swedish communications giant, the switches on the network have been designed specifically to the army's requirements and interface with the military communications network. Plans call for many of the 12,000 lines to be cordless, based around the DECT (Digital European Cordless Technology) system, using Ericsson's Freeset digital mobile system. The cordless units will be registered on a PABX (private automatic branch exchange) or a repeater in the office for more remote sites. Although the MoD network is self-contained, there is an option in the contract for the MoD to install another MD110 PBX system to service a further 54 locations around Austria. The Consono is a new addition to Ericsson's family of voice, data, and multimedia communications systems for large private networks. The system was launched in February this year and combines the company's existing PABX and data networking offerings. According to Thord Anderson, a communications division spokesman with Ericsson's Business Area Networks operation, the new Consono offers enhanced capabilities including multimedia, communications, mobile communications, call center technology, and network management. In Austria alone, Ericsson claims to have supplied and connected equipment for more than 6,500 MD110 lines for military use in 38 different locations throughout the country. The MD110 is claimed to be one of the world's best-selling PABX's with more than nine million lines sold in over 60 countries. "It is a very popular system all around the world. We have connected over nine million lines. Our main markets in Europe are Great Britain, Germany, Spain, Northern countries, and Austria," Anderson told Newsbytes. (Sylvia Dennis/19950821/Press Contact: Thord Anderson, Communications, Ericsson Business Area Business Network, +46-8-422-0316) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 08/22/95 ONLINE Music Boulevard On The Web (NEWS)(ONLINE)(MSP)(00018) Music Boulevard On The Web 08/22/95 NEW YORK CITY, NEW YORK, U.S.A., 1995 AUG 22 (NB) -- Getting sound clips from albums, looking at album art or artist photos, or even checking who's at the top of the charts is now easier, Telebase Systems Inc. said, with the introduction of "Music Boulevard," which is being dubbed the "Internet's largest multimedia music store." The new Internet World Wide Web site is described as a "one-stop" service where customers can listen to 30-second sound samples, read album reviews or musician biographies, and buy from a catalog that contains more than 145,000 listings, which is fully searchable. Music Boulevard also provides Billboard chart listings, and an electronic newsstand where customers can buy subscriptions to music magazines and look at articles. Music Boulevard is also starting a daily music magazine called the "Music Wire," which is written and edited by a staff of professional music journalists. Jim Coane, president and chief executive officer of Telebase Systems, told Newsbytes the new site is intended to be much more than just another Web storefront of merchandise. "We're creating an environment that's rich in information, and will be an experience that will attract and hold the customer to the site," he said. Coane said since his company is an information provider, he's approaching the site as an informational vehicle first, and a merchandising venue second. "That's not saying that merchandising won't be a critical part of the service," he said. "In terms of value adding, we'll be doing extensive advertising and promotions." All CD's and cassettes will be discount-priced, he added. Future plans for the site call for the investigation and possible incorporation of emerging technologies like RealAudio, Zing, and Virtual Reality Modeling Language (VRML), Coane said. He also said that chat rooms and forum support are also in the offing. The site can be accessed at http://www.musicblvd.com . (Bob Woods/19950821/Press Contacts: Jill Holt or Cassandra Harris, Technology Solutions, 212-696-2000; Public Contact: Internet World Wide Web http://www.musicblvd.com ) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 95 08/22/95 WINDOWS Contests, Marching Bands To Roll Out Windows (NEWS)(WINDOWS)(DEN)(00019) Contests, Marching Bands To Roll Out Windows 95 08/22/95 DALLAS/FORT WORTH, TEXAS, U.S.A., 1995 AUG 22 (NB) -- Some of them will be open at one minute after midnight so you can be the first one to buy it, while others will use marching bands and searchlights to attract customers. What they all want you to buy is Windows 95, the new operating system and graphical user interface for personal computers from Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ: MSFT). In fact, the Windows 95 rollout may be the biggest and glitziest in an industry that is possibly second only to Hollywood in the way it premieres a new product. As reported in another Newsbytes story, Egghead Software will have its stores open at one minute after midnight so you can be the first on your block to get Windows 95. Now Tandy Corporation has announced it will close the doors of all its Incredible Universe "gigastores" at 9:00pm on August 24 while a marching band and other entertainment tries to draw customers to stores across the country easily identified by the searchlights roaming the skies. The company said the stores will reopen an hour later at 10:00pm for what Tandy is calling "The Windows 95 Premier Party." Sales of Microsoft Windows 95 software will begin at midnight. Included in the two hours of entertainment prior to the time the stores can sell Windows 95 will be a "Best Dressed Computer Nerd" contest, a Window Washer contest that has players guessing the number of Windows 95 packages in a special display stack to win free window cleaning for their home or office, and a year's supply of window cleaning products. There will also be movie passes, tickets to sporting events, and restaurant certificates. Later in the day you will also be able to watch a re-broadcast of the Windows 95 launch events that took place from Microsoft headquarters, participate in drawings every 20 minutes for $95 in cash and see demonstrations of Windows 95 and have your questions answered by Microsoft representatives. At Computer City, another Tandy Corp. retail chain, stores will stay open until 2:00am August 24 so you can buy Windows 95 and register for hourly door prizes. All Computer City locations will then re-open August 24 at 7:00am with Microsoft representatives on hand to demo products. Computer City will also offer a Windows 95 Bonus Pack that includes what the company said are hundreds of dollars worth of coupons, a special America Online/USA Today offer that is free with every Windows 95 upgrade purchase. Computer City is running newspaper ads that allow readers to make an advance reservation for a copy of Windows 95. They can also sign up for MCI long distance service and will receive certificates worth $90 of long distance calls. Computer City stores will be among hundreds of cites around the world that will receive a special live satellite broadcast at 1:00pm Pacific Time August 24 of the Windows 95 launch led by Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates. About 2,500 journalists and hundreds of VIPs have been invited to the event, which will take place on the Microsoft campus in Redmond, Washington. (Jim Mallory/19950822/Press contact: Mieke Henderson, Computer city, 817-347-7624 or Mike Dryden, Incredible Universe, 817-878-6676) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 08/22/95 LEGAL ****Justice Dept Blinks In Showdown With Microsoft (NEWS)(LEGAL)(DEN)(00020) ****Justice Dept Blinks In Showdown With Microsoft 08/22/95 WASHINGTON, D.C., U.S.A., 1995 AUG 22 (NB) -- Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ: MSFT) and the US Department of Justice went eye-to-eye yesterday and the government blinked first, approving a settlement hammered out earlier this summer but stopped by the federal judge then assigned to the case. The judge was subsequently replaced. The new judge appointed to hear the case, Federal Judge Thomas Jackson, approved what many consider a controversial settlement that had been hammered out between the DOJ and Microsoft last July. The approval ends a four-year government investigation into Microsoft business practices, but leaves untouched the ongoing separate investigation by US Attorney General Janet Reno's footsoldiers into Microsoft's decision to include in Windows 95 tools to automatically connect the user to the company's online service Microsoft Network (MSN). Competitive online services claim that including the connection technology is unfair competition, since they usually have to pay to have their software included on a PC when it is shipped. Windows 95 and MSN are set for simultaneous launch August 24 in a carnival-like atmosphere complete with a 50-foot Ferris wheel at the company's Redmond, Washington campus. Judge Jackson took just 20 minutes to accept the government's proposed settlement, which had been shot down by Jackson's predecessor on the case, Judge Stanley Sporkin. Sporkin reportedly based his decision on a non-fiction book he had read about Microsoft, saying the settlement was not in the public's best interests. The case dealt with the way Microsoft licenses its software to other companies such as PC makers who install Windows on their PCs prior to shipment. Sporkin was replaced after an appeals court panel ruled that he overstepped his authority by rejecting the accord. Microsoft did lose a couple of points as a result of the decision. Judge Jackson denied the company's request that the 6.5-year decree be entered retroactively. That would have put the start date of the decree on December 15, 1994, and would let the decree expire about eight months earlier than it will under the August 21 effective date set by Judge Jackson. In asking for the retroactive date, Microsoft argued that it has been complying with the terms of the agreement since last summer, however the company said it is satisfied with the decree. "Microsoft is very pleased," said a company public relations spokesperson. "We've been complying since last summer. It (the decision) shouldn't affect business at all," the spokesperson told Newsbytes. Jackson also declined to take action on Computer and Communications Industry Association's request to broaden the scope of the decree to also cover Windows NT. Newsbytes reported earlier this month that CCIA wanted Windows NT included because it stands to also become the dominant operating system for networked computers. At the time the original decree was entered, the judge ruled that Windows NT wasn't covered because it wasn't dominant in its area. (Jim Mallory/19950822/Press contact: Microsoft, 206-882-8080) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 08/22/95 BUSINESS Modatech In Cash Crunch (NEWS)(BUSINESS)(TOR)(00021) Modatech In Cash Crunch 08/22/95 VANCOUVER, BRITISH COLUMBIA, CANADA, 1995 AUG 22 (NB) -- Modatech Systems Inc. (TSE:MOD; NASDAQ:MODAF) is blaming a critical shortage of working capital on slow payments from software wholesalers, despite what it said is strong demand for its new contact management software, Maximizer Enterprise. The company said it may need to raise additional money in a way that will force it to be delisted from the Toronto Stock Exchange. Kim Dudra, Modatech's manager of investor relations, told Newsbytes that sales of Maximizer Enterprise, launched earlier this year, are steady. However, she said, Modatech is having trouble collecting its money quickly enough from large software distributors to keep up with the marketing costs for the new software. Modatech also said the selling cycle for Maximizer Enterprise has been longer than expected. Officials said Modatech is considering a financing proposal that could raise at least C$1.5 million through a convertible debenture and possibly another C$3.0 million through the exercise of warrants. The debenture will be convertible at market price, Modatech said. The warrants will be priced at a substantial discount. Dudra explained that if completed, this financing plan would dilute the company's stock beyond what the rules of the Toronto Stock Exchange allow, forcing Modatech to drop its TSE listing. Modatech will keep its listing on the US over-the-counter National Association of Securities Dealers Automated Quotation (NASDAQ) system in any event, she added. Modatech is also changing its marketing strategy. Dudra said the changes include moving the company's sales department from Dallas to Canada, which has meant some loss of about 10 jobs. Modatech currently employs between 60 and 70 people, she said. Dudra said further details of the proposed financing arrangements are likely to be released this week, while more information on changes to the company's marketing strategy will be available somewhat later. (Grant Buckler/19950822/Press Contact: Kim Dudra, Modatech Systems, 604-736-9666 ext 117) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 08/22/95 ONLINE Microsoft Internet Explorer To Use Spyglass Technology (NEWS)(ONLINE)(MSP)(00022) Microsoft Internet Explorer To Use Spyglass Technology 08/22/95 NAPERVILLE, ILLINOIS, U.S.A., 1995 AUG 22 (NB) -- The introduction of Windows 95 from Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) brings with it a new age where multiple Internet World Wide Web browsers will reside in one computer user's desktop, a high-ranking official with Spyglass (NASDAQ:SPYG) told Newsbytes. Marcus C. Miller, Spyglass executive vice president of marketing and business development, spoke with Newsbytes two days before the introduction of Microsoft's new operating system. Last week, Newsbytes reported that the company introduced the "Internet Explorer," a Web browser which uses Spyglass' Enhanced Mosaic Web browser technology. The browser can be used with any Internet service provider (ISP), but Microsoft said if the user selects the Microsoft Network (MSN), the company's new online service, sign-up and navigation would be "very easy." Miller said the Windows 95 launch supports Spyglass' business model, which calls for the company to license browser technology to other concerns. Those companies add value to the browser, then market it under their own name. Spyglass' business partners include AT&T, Oracle, Microsoft, and Compuserve. In the near future, Miller said software programs as diverse as word processors, CD-ROM catalogs, and financial planners will have integrated Web browsers. "Ultimately, you're going to have multiple browsers on your desktop," Miller said. "The excitement of having Spyglass as the technology that's underlying the Internet Explorer from Microsoft is that it validates our technology as the technology of choice." Miller also said that many people think of the Web browser market segment as a whole different industry. "But it's just another medium of communication," he said, "and effective client browsers and server products are key to facilitating the access to this communications device, and that's what we provide." Miller said Microsoft is using the 2.0 version of Enhanced Mosaic. Earlier this month, Spyglass introduced version 2.1 of the browser, which supports many of the newer hypertext markup language (HTML) tags now used on the Web. But Miller did say Microsoft may have enhanced the 2.0 version of the browser. (Bob Woods/19950822/Press Contact: Randy Pitzer, Spyglass, 708-505-1010, Internet e-mail rpitzer@spyglass.com; Public Contact: Internet World Wide Web http://www.spyglass.com ) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 08/22/95 WINDOWS Novell's New Wordperfect Internet Publisher For Windows (NEWS)(WINDOWS)(DEN)(00023) Novell's New Wordperfect Internet Publisher For Windows 08/22/95 OREM, UTAH, U.S.A., 1995 AUG 22 (NB) -- Novell Inc. (NASDAQ: NOVL) has announced availability of an enhanced version of Wordperfect Internet Publisher for Windows. The software is a free add-on to the Wordperfect 6.1 for Windows word processor that lets users create and view documents on the Internet without having to learn hypertext markup language (HTML) used to create documents on the World Wide Web. Novell said Internet Publisher includes Netscape Navigator version 1.1, the most recent version of the popular Web browser and new capabilities that support simple tables, print preview and a more WYSIWYG (what you see is what you get) authoring environment. According to David Harkness, director of marketing for Novell's electronic publishing tools, the changes were made after monitoring users of Internet Publisher since it first shipped. With the new release, Internet Publisher now contains fonts in the document template that makes what you see on the screen more closely resemble how the text will appear in Netscape (WYSIWYG). Even if you aren't connected to the Internet, you can use Navigator 1.1 to see what your Wordperfect documents will look like when they are posted to the Web. Novell said a new table conversion capability now lets users include tables in their Internet documents, and the company has also improved the Internet Publisher installation process so the program more accurately detect the components on the user's system. Internet Publisher includes a template to guide uses through the HTML document creation process, then a conversion program automatically converts the Wordperfect document to a native HTML format. Users have access to HTML features like hypertext links, graphics and bullet lists from the Wordperfect toolbar. You also get the Envoy document viewer with Internet Publisher which lets users publish documents on the Internet in the Envoy format without conversion. You can download your free copy of Wordperfect Internet Publisher from Novell's home page on the Web. You can also order the software on disk by calling Novell's toll-free number. Cost of the disk is $9. (Jim Mallory/19950822/Press contact: Gina Trausch, Brodeur & Partners for Novell, 617-622-2839; Public contact: Novell, 800- 861-2554 to order Publisher on disk, 800-451-5151 for Novell product information, or Novell on the Internet World Wide Web at http://wp.novell.com/elecpub/intpub.htm ) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 08/22/95 BUSINESS US Robotics Buys ISDN Systems (NEWS)(BUSINESS)(MSP)(00024) US Robotics Buys ISDN Systems 08/22/95 SKOKIE, ILLINOIS, U.S.A., 1995 AUG 22 (NB) -- A US Robotics (NASDAQ:USRX) spokesperson has confirmed to Newsbytes that the company has bought privately held ISDN Systems Corporation (ISC) in a $40 million tax-free exchange of stock. This deal lets US Robotics take advantage of applications that require ISDN (integrated services digital network)-only connectivity, and positions the company to "maximize opportunities" in the growing market of ISDN and frame relay access products, an official said. ISC will become a wholly-owned subsidiary of US Robotics, officials said. In the deal, all outstanding shares of ISC were converted into US Robotics shares worth approximately $40 million, in a "pooling-of-interests" accounting treatment. This means "you basically take two balance sheets and just add them up," Mark Remissong, chief financial officer for US Robotics, told Newsbytes. "This is in contrast to a purchase, where you re-value the assets that are acquired." ISC's management, employees, and product lines will now be operated under US Robotics' Corporate/Systems Division. ISC's president and chief executive officer, Asghar Mostafa, will be a senior manager in that business unit. ISC is based in the Washington DC, suburb of Vienna, Virginia. ISDN and frame relay PC adapters make up ISC's product lines, US Robotics officials said, along with boundary access devices. These products are used in telecommuting, Internet access, and branch office networking applications. The company has invested heavily in software- based core technology to run adapter and server cards under a variety of operating systems, including Windows 95, Windows 3.1, Windows NT Server, and Novell NetWare. Specifically, ISC's offerings include: SecureLink II BRI, an ISDN terminal adapter designed for Internet access and telecommuting; and FX-PRI, an ISDN adapter for server-based remote access and internetworking. US Robotics officials told Newsbytes the company will incorporate ISC technology into its entire product line, which includes remote access servers, enterprise communications systems, and desktop/mobile client products. US Robotics also gains a talent pool that has been working in the ISDN field. In return, ISC gains added marketing muscle, additional capital, and a broader distribution channel for its products, Remissong said. (Bob Woods/19950822/Press Contacts: Karen J. Novak, 708-982-5244, C. David Hall, 708-982-5162, both of US Robotics) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 08/22/95 GOVT ****White House Offers Encryption Compromise (NEWS)(GOVT)(WAS)(00025) ****White House Offers Encryption Compromise 08/22/95 WASHINGTON, D.C., U.S.A., 1995 AUG 22 (NB) -- The Clinton administration has offered a compromise on export of encryption technology. At a meeting last week, Ray Kammer of the National Institute of Standards and Technology and Michael Nelson of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy said the government will propose to allow export of key escrow products with a 64-bit encryption key. Under current policy, exports are limited to 40-bit encryption, which industry defines as "moderate encryption." But also last week, a hacker in France, using 120 workstations over eight days, cracked the 40-bit code in the export version of the Netscape World Wide Web browser. Industry officials, who have been pushing the administration for relaxation of export controls, seized on the French action as a demonstration of how out-of-date the current policy is. "Just this week," said Robert Holleyman, president of the Business Software Alliance, "a French computer hacker cracked the encryption codes of a popular Internet access software -- which was based on the currently allowed 40-bit (system) -- reaffirming that the current policy is outdated." The offer to compromise on 64-bit encryption, as long as there is an escrow agent that would be subject to a government order to disclose the key, is an attempt by the White House to resolve the two-year-old controversy. The initial industry response has been positive. "This is stronger encryption than the government has allowed up until now," said Greg Garcia, international trade manager at the American Electronics Association. "It illustrates the government's apparent commitment to maintaining US competitiveness in encryption technology." Software Publishers Association lobbyist Doug Miller said, "We have been looking for a process by which we can work through these problems, and that process seems to be taking shape." Holleyman said the move by the administration is "a step in the right direction." But Holleyman criticized the 64-bit limit. "A limitation of this kind," he said, "is unnecessary and incompatible with the whole purpose behind key escrow systems which will allow lawful government access and, importantly, assure users the privacy and security they need for their communications." But BSA said it is pleased that the government has offered its proposal, not its solution, BSA spokeswoman Diane Smiroldo told Newsbytes. "We expect they will meet with industry and talk about where we go next. They aren't etched in stone, which leads us to believe that further compromises are possible." (Kennedy Maize/19950822/Press Contacts: Diane Smiroldo, BSA, 202-872-5500; Greg Garcia, AEA, 202-682-4433; Doug Miller, SPA, 202-452-1600 ext 342) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 08/22/95 ONLINE Fake Bill Gates Talks Windows 95 On AOL (NEWS)(ONLINE)(MSP)(00026) Fake Bill Gates Talks Windows 95 On AOL 08/22/95 VIENNA, VIRGINIA, U.S.A., 1995 AUG 22 (NB) -- Someone claiming to be Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) Chairman Bill Gates told an America Online (NASDAQ:AMER) cyber audience that his company's new Windows 95 operating system (OS) will revolutionize the PC market by "rendering 90% of home PC's useless," and that Windows 95 is like what the Macintosh OS was in 1987 -- "only (Windows 95 is) NEW!" The Bill Gates wanna-be appeared as a part of the new Hecklers Online (HO) area on AOL, which Newsbytes covered earlier this month. The new area is about "cracking jokes and doing things you can get way with only in cyberspace," and lets AOL members satisfy their urge to heckle and make fun of just about anything. In announcing last night's event, one of the area's writers billed the exchange as being "an unusually frank and revealing pseudo-interview." In other words, it was a fake interview, with a fake "Bill." And from what Newsbytes saw of the exchange, it is a good thing the real Bill Gates was nowhere in sight. HO's Bill took mysterious yellow pills to calm himself, cyberly "adjusted" a cape, and took jabs about his hair and glasses. One of the many questions on the audience's mind was one on the new Microsoft Network (MSN), which will be integrated into Windows 95. A member asked if MSN's member will surpass AOL's, Compuserve's, and Prodigy's. Bill responded, "Either TMN (using the wrong acronym for MSN) will surpass its competitors, or I will personally buy each and every one of them and close up shop. So yes, I guess it will!" The fake Bill also said a new version of Windows 95 will come out in February, called Windows 96, which will fix the "bugs" of Windows 95. Bill also said his company is currently preparing "DOS 97," which is code-named "Cleveland." He said people will need Windows 95 for Windows 96 to work, "then we switch back to 'DOS 97,'" in Bill's words. He ended that response with the phrase "cha-ching!" When asked about older software compatibility with Windows 95, Bill said, "Up to 100% of your old software will be fully compatible." When pressed by the stage host about the "up to" phrase and if that included the number zero, Bill said "'up to' clearly included the number zero." Sean Michael, one of the Hecklers Online partners, told Newsbytes the whole event was mostly improvised, and that "we just thought it would be a lot of fun" to have a fake interview of Bill Gates. He also said the chat saw many more people than he had anticipated. The room sustained a level of 450 to 460 attendees throughout the 45 minute comedic presentation. An unexpected surprise also entered the fray, in the form of a hacker who got up on stage and proceeded to participate. "At least the person had a sense of humor," Michael said. The hacker said he created an AOL account to crash last week's Michael Jackson online simulcast, but security was too tight at that event. So he decided to crash the "Bill Gates" interview. Michael said he thinks the hacker thought HO's Bill was the real thing for most of his appearance. Another pseudo interview got HO into a bit of hot cyber-water. The area had planned to interview Elvis the day after the Michael Jackson interview. One of the topics the event would have touched on was the King of Rock and Roll's impressions of his new son-in-law, the King of Pop. But the whole event was canceled, due to "sensitivity at AOL," as Michael put it. He did say Elvis doesn't live far from HO headquarters, and he still wants to do the interview. But Michael said he wasn't sure if it would be in the form of a Center Stage event or a one-on-one interview. (Bob Woods/19950821/Press Contact: Kristi Szechenyi, Weber Group, 617-520-7086; Public Contact: America Online, 800-827-6364) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 08/22/95 WINDOWS ****Don't Be Too Quick To Do Windows 95 - Infoworld (NEWS)(WINDOWS)(DEN)(00027) ****Don't Be Too Quick To Do Windows 95 - Infoworld 08/22/95 SAN MATEO, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1995 AUG 22 (NB) -- This week's edition of the trade publication Infoworld says that, while Microsoft's new operating system Windows 95 has a lot of good features, the company needs to improve the program before users rush to upgrade. In the lead article for the August 21 edition of Infoworld, co-written by S. Ryan and Lisa Stapleton of the magazine's Reviews and Testing Department, Windows 95 got a better than average score of 6.1 when tested in Infoworld's labs. However, the writers said, "Our test results indicate that in most scoring categories, true advances run neck and neck with serious flaws." About 2,500 reporters and lots of VIPs will be on the Microsoft campus in Redmond, Washington Thursday to hear Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates officially kick off Windows 95. They will also have the opportunity to tour more than 100 booths set up by hardware and software makers to demonstrate their Windows 95-capable products. Microsoft expects to sell millions of dollars worth of upgrades to current users of Windows 3.1. The Infoworld article had good things to say about Windows 95's installation options, improved network support, and easy switching among applications. However, it took to task "too many incompatibilities with existing DOS and Windows applications, lack of stability, the incapability to multitask DOS and 16-bit Windows applications effectively, and the incapability to multitask 32-bit Windows 95 applications effectively when used along with DOS and Windows 16-bit applications," according to the story. Michael Conte, Microsoft group manager in the personal systems division, said Windows 95 does as good a job, or a better job, of multitasking 16-bit applications than Windows 3.1, but told Newsbytes users are better off using all 32-bit applications if they want the advantages of multitasking. Some sources, including the executive director of a Political Action Committee established to fight Microsoft, have criticized Microsoft for allegedly misleading the buying public about the system requirements needed to run Windows 95. Microsoft has said Windows 95 will work with four megabytes of memory, a statement disputed by critics. Infoworld spokesperson Nickolas Petreley said testing in the Infoworld labs indicated Windows 95 was "marginally usable on a 486 with 8MB of RAM." Conte disputes those criticisms. "It runs as well as or better than 3.1," he told Newsbytes. "You might even notice a few things are a little better. The basic message is you can upgrade your operating system and you don't have to change your hardware or your applications and you will get about the same amount of performance." Conte acknowledged that there may have been some confusion about what Microsoft says is the minimum configuration needed and what the company recommends. The Windows 95 packaging says 8MB of memory are recommended, but that is just for the operating system. "We also recommend you take a look at what your applications require," said Conte. His point is that Windows 95 itself will operate with 4MB of memory, but will work better with 8MB. However, each application -- word processing, spreadsheet, database, graphics or multimedia program, for example -- has its own overhead requirements in addition to those of the operating system. Conte said even if users don't upgrade their applications there are valid reasons to switch to Windows 95, including Plug and Play, an easier-to-use interface, and access to the Internet and to Microsoft Network without the need for extra software. The Infoworld article reports that on a 386 with 8MB of RAM, Windows 95 got an "unacceptable" rating. "Programs crashed and it just couldn't run with that little an amount of RAM," said the Infoworld spokesperson. The magazine recommends a bare minimum of 8MB of memory and preferably 12MB for successful use of the new operating system. Petreley told Newsbytes Infoworld criticized the program's stability because of the General Protection Faults that showed up during testing. "It's not as good an operating system as Windows NT or OS/2," he said. Petreley advises potential Windows 95 buyers "Upgrade with caution. Make sure you have enough hardware resources and the software you are planning to run on it is compatible," he said. In addition to its seven-page product review of Windows 95, Infoworld also published a Special Report on the implications of using Windows 95 in a corporate environment. The report includes a "tutorial" for corporate users on how to install and launch both Windows 95 and Windows 3.1 on the same PC. "Microsoft, of course, should have made this dual-boot setup a simple choice during the installation routine," according to Infoworld columnists Brian Livingston and Davis Straub. According to Conte, Windows 95 does include the capability of running the two operating systems, although that configuration is not one recommended by Microsoft. He said that's because running dual operating systems is what he described as "an advanced user feature requiring close tracking of the system's configuration." The complete text of the articles are available on Infoworld's home page on the World Wide Web at http://www.infoworld.com . (Jim Mallory/19950821/Press contact: Nicholas Petreley, Infoworld, 415-312-0670; Microsoft, 206-882-8080; Public contact: Internet World Wide Web http://www.infoworld.com ) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 08/22/95 IBM IBM Raises Speed, Lowers Pricing On Supercomputers (NEWS)(IBM)(BOS)(00028) IBM Raises Speed, Lowers Pricing On Supercomputers 08/22/95 SOMERS, NEW YORK, U.S.A., 1995 AUG 22 -- IBM has now shipped more than 500 Scalable Powerparallel (SP) systems, and these supercomputer users helped to "guide" development of IBM's Powerquery decision support tool, as well as today's newly unveiled 77 megahertz (MHz) wide node, "customized pre-load" service, and $90,000 entry-level SP2 model, said Mike Henesey, program director, High Performance Computing, in an interview with Newsbytes. At this point, the proportion of customers using the SP for commercial applications has reached 50 percent, Henesey told Newsbytes. Meanwhile, scientific/technical users are employing the AIX-based RS/6000 parallel computer for applications ranging from designing pharmaceuticals, to simulating auto acoustics, to predicting where to drill for oil, according to the IBM exec. "Speed" is the common thread that ties today's SP announcements together, Henesey reported. Powerquery, a turnkey hardware/software/services package first introduced in December, will ship on September 19, IBM has announced. "The idea behind Powerquery is to help commercial customers get rapidly up to speed with large-scale decision support," Henesey maintained. Powerquery includes an SP supercomputer, the IBM 7135 RAIDiant array disk subsystem, DB2 Parallel Edition, and consulting and installation services. IBM's new 77MHz wide node for SP, a product debuting for the first time today, brings a 15 percent performance boost over IBM's current 66MHz wide node, the program director asserted. "We will still produce the 66MHz wide node, but we are now reducing its price by 20 percent," he added. Henesey informed Newsbytes that IBM produces two types of SP nodes: wide and thin. The standard SP chassis, which is "about the size of a refrigerator," is able to accommodate either eight wide nodes, 16 thin nodes, or a combination. "The wide node has a little more real estate, meaning that you can put more memory on it," he noted. IBM's newly introduced entry-level model, priced starting at $90,000, uses a new "desk high" chassis, about half the size of the standard chassis, Newsbytes was told. The chassis can use four wide nodes, from two eight thin nodes, or a combination of wide and thin nodes. The new model was previously available by special request only. "The entry-level configuration is targeted at ISVs (independent software vendors), and also at divisions and local sites for application development or validation. As an example, you might have someone at (another university) doing application development on an entry-level system tied into the SP at the Cornell Theory Center," Henesey illustrated. With 512 nodes, the SP at Cornell is "the largest installed supercomputer today," he contended. Under IBM's newly rolled out "customized pre-load" service, users can request pre-installation of SP2 software before product shipment, according to Henesey. "Again, the focus is on speed. When the SP2 hits (the customer's) floor, it will be ready to go. This is a level of service that our users are saying would be extremely helpful. The folks who are buying these systems want to get them online fast," the IBM executive told Newsbytes. Also today, IBM announced SP model upgrades, in addition to trade-in exchange credits for memory upgrades. (Jacqueline Emigh/19950822/Reader Contact: IBM, 914-765-1900; Press Contacts: Nadine Taylor, IBM, 914-766-2458; Ed Trapasso, IBM, 914- 766-2475; Marlena Villafane, Technology Solutions for IBM, 212-696- 2000; Elizabeth Albrycht, Technology Solutions for IBM, 415-617-4573) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 08/22/95 ONLINE One BBSCON - Partner With Your Web Advertisers (NEWS)(ONLINE)(MSP)(00029) One BBSCON - Partner With Your Web Advertisers 08/22/95 TAMPA, FLORIDA, 1995 AUG 22 (NB) -- World Wide Web site and board operators attempting to attract advertisers to their services should consider taking payments from advertisers only if the ads work, an attorney for several such sites advises. "You are saying to people that 'I will only take payment if I produce results for you.' Taking it 'on faith' can create more of a comfort level within your marketing channel, because they (your advertisers) are going to pay you on results," said Eric Schlacter, an attorney with Cooley Godward Castro Huddleson & Tatum, Palo Alto, Calif., during the "Realities of Making Money on the Web" panel discussion at One BBSCON last Saturday. Schlacter feels that such a climate can foster an establishment of trust, especially among advertisers who are new to this medium. "This leads to a win-win situation for everyone. It minimizes the amount of money the sellers of goods and services have to lay out up front as well as helps you by giving you the incentive to do your best," he said. Schlacter advised that the best marketing partnership model for sites will eventually be a "commission-brokerage" arrangement, in which the graphical capabilities and telecommunications processing power of boards could be used to generate and take orders for goods. "Everyone knows that as soon as there is a secured transaction standard, commerce on the 'Net is going to explode. Since there are confusing standards at this point it will be difficult for you as a system operator to figure out the best way to reach your audience. Eventually, though, it will get sorted out," he said. Once secured transaction protocols have arrived, Schlacter thinks that the small board or site sysop should stay away from competing with the majors in favor of identifying unique product niches. Blue jeans, which are already a favorite item sold through electronic commerce channels, might not make as much sense for the small sysop to sell as offerings that require rich fields of illustration possible via graphic interface files. "Take hotel rooms, for instance," said Schlacter. "Because the Web allows you to have multimedia experience. A member could log in and say they want to be (shown a view from) the fifth to eighth floor of hotel, facing the river. "You can do that on the Web, and take a cut" of the room revenue after it is booked. "You could be talking about airplanes, or kayaking trips, or any number of unique services in which people want to control their experiences. You can work with your advertising partners to offer a package that will give them a preview of these experiences. If you can become the primary channel of distribution and marketing, you can set up a relationship to make a cut of the overall profit," he added. (Russell Shaw/19950822/Eric Schlacter: 415-843-5154, Internet e-mail schlactere@cooley.com) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 08/22/95 ONLINE ****Netscape For Windows 95 Announced (NEWS)(ONLINE)(SFO)(00030) ****Netscape For Windows 95 Announced 08/22/95 MOUNTAIN VIEW, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1995 AUG 22 (NB) -- Netscape Communications (NASDAQ:NSCP) has announced Netscape Navigator Personal Edition for Windows 95, a retail package designed to take advantage of Microsoft's 32-bit operating system. The company also introduced two Navigator utilities -- Netscape SmartMarks and Netscape Chat. Personal Edition for Windows 95 offers first time Internet users a package which includes a dialer and stack necessary for establishing an Internet account. Netscape worked with Internet service providers (ISPs) Netcom, MCI, Portal, and Concentric Research to offer new users a number of choices for Internet access. Using a Registration Wizard to assist users who do not have an Internet account, the new browser quickly sets up an Internet account. Its series of one-button screens allows a user to determine the best provider for specific locations and personal preferences. Personal Edition is based on Netscape Navigator 1.2, a 32-bit program designed for Windows 95, with the additional dialing and stack information. Like 1.2, Personal Edition is optimized to provide high performance over 14.4 kilobits-per-second modems (Kbps) and higher bandwidths with integrated security through the Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) open protocol. There is support for full hypertext markup language (HTML) 3.0 tables and backdrops and MIME-compliant news reading and posting. The new edition also includes Netscape Client application programming interface which provides support of third party applications and utilities. The Windows 95 Personal Edition has an interface designed from the Windows 95 look and includes Windows 95 enhancements such as drag-and-drop for placing World Wide Web icons on the Windows 95 desktop, support for Microsoft Exchange electronic-mail, enhanced bookmarks, enhanced file transfer features, and integration of Windows 95's stack and dialer for connecting to ISPs. Speaking to Newsbytes, Rosanne Siino, spokesperson at Netscape, said, "We think there will be a lot of new users on the Internet as PC systems with Windows 95 pre-installed move through the retail channel. Personal Edition for Microsoft Windows 95 provides users with an easy and fast way to get on the Internet and have a browser which takes advantage of the new operating system." Siino added the company expects to have the new edition in the retail channel sometime in September. The estimated retail price is $39 and includes 90 days of customer support. Netscape also plans to offer a 16-bit version for users currently running Windows 3.1. The retail package includes $70 in offers from CDnow, Lombard Brokerage, SportsLine USA, and ESPNET Sportzone. Personal Edition requires a PC powered by a 386 or faster processor using eight megabytes (MB) of memory with 6MB of available hard disk space. Along with the Personal Edition announcement, Netscape announced an advanced bookmark utility and a chat utility. These Windows utilities are the first commercial applications built on the Netscape Client application programming interface. Siino said the bookmark utility, Netscape SmartMarks, is a management tool for users needing advanced bookmarking features. She said, "If you are using a lot of bookmarks to keep in contact with specific sites and pages, this management tool will provide an easy way to collect, monitor, and organize those sites." Netscape Chat, the second utility, is Netscape's first in-house chat program. It allows novice and advanced users an easy and integrated way to participate in real-time, text-based conversations with other Internet users. Both utilities, as public betas (test versions) are available today from Netscape's Web site. The utility products are free for use by students, educational staffs, and charitable non-profit organizations. Final versions, priced at $24.95 each, are expected to ship in September. (Patrick McKenna/19950822/Press Contact: Rosanne Siino, Netscape, 415-528-2619, Internet World Wide Web http://home.netscape.com ) (SUMMARY)(GENERAL)(MSP)(00031) Newsbytes Daily Summary 08/22/95 MINNEAPOLIS, MINNESOTA, U.S.A., 1995 AUG 22 (NB) -- These are capsules of all today's news stories: ======================================================================== ------------| N E W S B Y T E S D A I L Y S U M M A R Y |---------- ------------| Tuesday, August 22, 1995 |---------- ======================================================================== (c) Newsbytes News Network (Tm) Editor in Chief: Wendy Woods ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Newsbytes News Network's 1995 Update CD-ROM for Mac, DOS, and Windows is now available for $29.95 (includes s&h). Contains 1983-1995 news stories, more than 64,000 keyword searchable stories and 475 digitized images. For more information or to order, fax to 612-430-0441 or e-mail to 'administrator@newsbytes.com' -- MC, Visa, Amex accepted. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ CATEGORY HEADLINES (*** indicates today's top stories) STORY # ======================================================================== BUSINESS General DataComm Expands China Commitment.................. 03 BUSINESS Gradient Technologies Opens European Office................ 06 BUSINESS Modatech In Cash Crunch.................................... 21 BUSINESS US Robotics Buys ISDN Systems.............................. 24 GENERAL UK - HP Offers Budget Home Printers........................ 15 GOVT ****White House Offers Encryption Compromise............... 25 IBM IBM Raises Speed, Lowers Pricing On Supercomputers......... 28 LEGAL ****Justice Dept Blinks In Showdown With Microsoft......... 20 NETWORK Novell UK Ships PerfectOffice Developer Reference Set...... 13 NETWORK UK - Xylogics' Budget Four-Port Remote Net Server.......... 16 ONLINE Prodigy Offers Harlem Inner-City Area Online............... 01 ONLINE There Goes The Cyberhood................................... 10 ONLINE Music Boulevard On The Web................................. 18 ONLINE Microsoft Internet Explorer To Use Spyglass Technology..... 22 ONLINE Fake Bill Gates Talks Windows 95 On AOL.................... 26 ONLINE One BBSCON - Partner With Your Web Advertisers............. 29 ONLINE ****Netscape For Windows 95 Announced...................... 30 TELECOM China Plugs Into FLAG Global Cabling Project............... 05 TELECOM Ericsson Wins Austrian Army PBX Contract................... 17 TRENDS MPEG Rolling Stones CD..................................... 02 TRENDS Farewell To X-Ray Film..................................... 09 TRENDS Touch Technology Moves Off The Display Screen.............. 14 WINDOWS Free Windows NT Server Utilities CD........................ 04 WINDOWS Windows NT 3-D Graphics Accelerator........................ 07 WINDOWS Free Guide To Windows Apps................................. 08 WINDOWS UK - Plain English Database Query Package.................. 11 WINDOWS Europe - Tulip PCs "Windows 95-Ready....................... 12 WINDOWS Contests, Marching Bands To Roll Out Windows 95............ 19 WINDOWS Novell's New Wordperfect Internet Publisher For Windows.... 23 WINDOWS ****Don't Be Too Quick To Do Windows 95 - Infoworld........ 27 ======================================================================== These are the headlines and first paragraphs of each story, in order: 1 -> Prodigy Offers Harlem Inner-City Area Online -- Prodigy has teamed with Com.sortium and Odyssey 21st Century Communications to deliver "Harlem.NYC Uptown Online." As a preview, the new inner-city electronic area is running exclusively on Prodigy for the next thirty days. 2 -> MPEG Rolling Stones CD -- Software Affiliates, a distributor of educational and entertainment multimedia titles and Motion Picture Experts Group (MPEG) boards for full-motion, full-screen video, is offering an MPEG title which includes the Rolling Stones performing Start Me Up, the new promotion song for Windows 95. 3 -> General DataComm Expands China Commitment -- General DataComm has appointed China Telemetry, Telecontrol Research Institute (CTI), as a distributor for its access and internetworking products. 4 -> Free Windows NT Server Utilities CD -- The ServerWare Group has released a free CD-ROM disk that has various time-locked versions of Windows NT Server applications. There is even a 60-day time-locked copy of Windows NT Server on the disk, according to John Straw of the company. 5 -> China Plugs Into FLAG Global Cabling Project -- The Chinese Directorate General of Telecommunications (DGT) has agreed with FLAG (Fiber Link Around the Globe) Limited, the international telecoms cable project consortium, to add China to the undersea route of the FLAG cabling system. 6 -> Gradient Technologies Opens European Office -- Gradient Technologies, the US provider of multi-platform DCE (Distributed Computing Environment) systems, has announced the opening of a new European headquarters in the UK. 7 -> Windows NT 3-D Graphics Accelerator -- AccelGraphics Inc., a supplier of PCI (Peripheral Component Interconnect)-based three- dimensional (3-D) graphics accelerators for Windows NT, has announced the availability of the AG500 graphics accelerator board. The AG500 provides workstation-class, 3-D graphics and imaging performance for PCI-based computer systems. 8 -> Free Guide To Windows Apps -- CSM, an accounting software house, which claims to be the UK market leader in supplying software to accountants, is offering interested parties a free copy of "Getting to Grips with Windows," a 20-page guide to accounting software in the Windows domain. 9 -> Farewell To X-Ray Film -- Although medical technology is increasingly becoming digital, radiography continues to depend upon X-ray film which must then be digitized for further processing, a step that introduces unwanted distortion of the image. Considerable progress has apparently been made in developing large-area sensors capable of sensing X-rays directly, thus doing away with film altogether. 10 -> There Goes The Cyberhood -- As the masses flood onto the Internet, the old timers are leaving. Julie Chao explains why in "Internet Pioneers Abandon World They Created" (Wall Street Journal, June 7, 1995, pp. B1, B7). 11 -> UK - Plain English Database Query Package -- European Software Publishing (ESP) has unveiled English Wizard, a Windows utility that Mike Tait, the company's managing director, claims allows users to query databases in plain English. 12 -> Europe - Tulip PCs "Windows 95-Ready -- Like most PC vendors, Tulip Computers is expecting a surge in sales as Windows 95 goes on sale this Thursday. According to Steve Roberts, the company's product marketing manager, however, Tulip has the largest installed base of Windows 95-ready machines in the industry. 13 -> Novell UK Ships PerfectOffice Developer Reference Set -- Novell UK has begun shipping the PerfectOffice Developer Reference Set for third-party developers. According to David Bennie, Novell UK's brand marketing manager, the Reference Set will help developers use parts of PerfectOffice more easily in their own development projects. 14 -> Touch Technology Moves Off The Display Screen -- Touch technology, the ability to make things happen on a computer by touching boxes on the screen, isn't new. But a Texas company has now moved that technology off the screen and onto the frame of your desktop or laptop computer keyboard. 15 -> UK - HP Offers Budget Home Printers -- Hewlett-Packard has announced it is pitching into the home PC and Apple Mac printer market with the launch of its DeskJet 600 for PC users and the DeskWriter 600 for the Apple Mac. 16 -> UK - Xylogics' Budget Four-Port Remote Net Server -- Xylogics has unveiled a four-port, standalone version of its Remote Annex remote access server. According to the company, the unit costs UKP1,375 and, as such, is pitched at the budget end of the market. 17 -> Ericsson Wins Austrian Army PBX Contract -- Ericsson Schrack Austria (ESA), the subsidiary of Ericsson in Sweden, has signed a major contract with the Austrian Ministry of Defense (MoD). Terms of the contract call for ESA to supply and install a network of Consono MD110 private branch exchange (PBX) systems in 36 bases throughout Austria. 18 -> Music Boulevard On The Web -- Getting sound clips from albums, looking at album art or artist photos, or even checking who's at the top of the charts is now easier, Telebase Systems Inc. said, with the introduction of "Music Boulevard," which is being dubbed the "Internet's largest multimedia music store." 19 -> Contests, Marching Bands To Roll Out Windows 95 -- Some of them will be open at one minute after midnight so you can be the first one to buy it, while others will use marching bands and searchlights to attract customers. 20 -> ****Justice Dept Blinks In Showdown With Microsoft -- Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ: MSFT) and the US Department of Justice went eye-to-eye yesterday and the government blinked first, approving a settlement hammered out earlier this summer but stopped by the federal judge then assigned to the case. The judge was subsequently replaced. 21 -> Modatech In Cash Crunch -- Modatech Systems Inc. (TSE:MOD; NASDAQ:MODAF) is blaming a critical shortage of working capital on slow payments from software wholesalers, despite what it said is strong demand for its new contact management software, Maximizer Enterprise. The company said it may need to raise additional money in a way that will force it to be delisted from the Toronto Stock Exchange. 22 -> Microsoft Internet Explorer To Use Spyglass Technology -- The introduction of Windows 95 from Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) brings with it a new age where multiple Internet World Wide Web browsers will reside in one computer user's desktop, a high-ranking official with Spyglass (NASDAQ:SPYG) told Newsbytes. 23 -> Novell's New Wordperfect Internet Publisher For Windows -- Novell Inc. (NASDAQ: NOVL) has announced availability of an enhanced version of Wordperfect Internet Publisher for Windows. The software is a free add-on to the Wordperfect 6.1 for Windows word processor that lets users create and view documents on the Internet without having to learn hypertext markup language (HTML) used to create documents on the World Wide Web. 24 -> US Robotics Buys ISDN Systems -- A US Robotics (NASDAQ:USRX) spokesperson has confirmed to Newsbytes that the company has bought privately held ISDN Systems Corporation (ISC) in a $40 million tax-free exchange of stock. 25 -> ****White House Offers Encryption Compromise -- The Clinton administration has offered a compromise on export of encryption technology. At a meeting last week, Ray Kammer of the National Institute of Standards and Technology and Michael Nelson of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy said the government will propose to allow export of key escrow products with a 64-bit encryption key. 26 -> Fake Bill Gates Talks Windows 95 On AOL -- Someone claiming to be Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) Chairman Bill Gates told an America Online (NASDAQ:AMER) cyber audience that his company's new Windows 95 operating system (OS) will revolutionize the PC market by "rendering 90% of home PC's useless," and that Windows 95 is like what the Macintosh OS was in 1987 27 -> ****Don't Be Too Quick To Do Windows 95 - Infoworld -- This week's edition of the trade publication Infoworld says that, while Microsoft's new operating system Windows 95 has a lot of good features, the company needs to improve the program before users rush to upgrade. 28 -> IBM Raises Speed, Lowers Pricing On Supercomputers -- IBM has now shipped more than 500 Scalable Powerparallel (SP) systems, and these supercomputer users helped to "guide" development of IBM's Powerquery decision support tool, as well as today's newly unveiled 77 megahertz (MHz) wide node, "customized pre-load" service, and $90,000 entry-level SP2 model, said Mike Henesey, program director, High Performance Computing, in an interview with Newsbytes. 29 -> One BBSCON - Partner With Your Web Advertisers -- World Wide Web site and board operators attempting to attract advertisers to their services should consider taking payments from advertisers only if the ads work, an attorney for several such sites advises. 30 -> ****Netscape For Windows 95 Announced -- Netscape Communications (NASDAQ:NSCP) has announced Netscape Navigator Personal Edition for Windows 95, a retail package designed to take advantage of Microsoft's 32-bit operating system. The company also introduced two Navigator utilities (Ian Stokell/19950822) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 08/21/95 WINDOWS ****Windows 95/MSN Launch Under Observation Says EC (NEWS)(WINDOWS)(LON)(00001) ****Windows 95/MSN Launch Under Observation Says EC 08/21/95 BRUSSELS, BELGIUM, AUG 21 (NB) -- Microsoft may be confident that its launch of Windows 95 can go ahead relatively unimpeded in the US, but the European Commissioner's (EC's) office in Brussels has warned the software giant that, as well as the Department of Justice's office in the US, it too is watching Microsoft's activities very closely. Unlike the US Government, the EC has not revealed its plans over Windows 95, and in particular, whether Microsoft Network (MSN) may violate the anti-monopoly laws in Europe. Since the EC announced it was looking closely at Microsoft's activities surrounding Windows 95 earlier this year, Microsoft has revealed that the European version of MSN will cost significantly more than in the US, and will not include Internet facilities until early on next year. As reported previously by Newsbytes, the EC announced in June of this year that it was investigating Microsoft's activities as to whether the software giant's actions had infringed on the EC's anti-monopoly legislation -- specifically whether Microsoft had abused its position as a major supplier in the market with MSN. EC officials point out that the US Justice Department is still continuing its investigation into MSN, although no action is planned against Microsoft before this Thursday's launch date. (Sylvia Dennis/19950821/Press & Reader Contact: +32-2-299-1111) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 08/21/95 ONLINE CompuServe Extends Spyglass Mosaic Contract (NEWS)(ONLINE)(MSP)(00002) CompuServe Extends Spyglass Mosaic Contract 08/21/95 NAPERVILLE, ILLINOIS, U.S.A., 1995 AUG 21 (NB) -- Spyglass Inc. (NASDAQ:SPYG) is extending its licensing agreement to all of CompuServe, after the online service acquired Spry earlier this year. Under the agreement, CompuServe will have access to the same Spyglass technology Spry had previously licenced. Terms of the agreement were not disclosed, but Randy Pitzer, Spyglass spokesperson, called the agreement "expansive." The technology is now present in CompuServe's NetLauncher, which contains the means to explore the Internet's World Wide Web via Spyglass's Enhanced Mosaic Web browser. Spry, which became CompuServe's Internet Division after the acquisition, also licenses Spyglass's Web browser technology through the division's Internet Office, Internet In A Box, and Mosaic In A Box products. Pitzer said the previous agreement between Spyglass and Spry had to be renegotiated after the Spry takeover by CompuServe. "The new agreement was never in doubt," Pitzer said. "CompuServe became a licensee after acquiring Spry. They realized they needed to extend the agreement throughout CompuServe to cover the service's needs. This is the extension of the previous agreement." He also said the was expanded, though no details were given. Spyglass's Enhanced Mosaic product is licensed to more than 36 companies, including Microsoft, AT&T, Digital Equipment Corp., IBM, and Oracle. Spyglass licenses the product to other companies that then add value to it and incorporate the browser into other products. Newsbytes has recently covered the introductions of Spyglass's new version of Enhanced Mosaic, along with the Spyglass Server, which manages and controls access to information stored at individual Web databases or sites. (Bob Woods/19950816/Press Contact: Randy Pitzer, Spyglass, 708-505- 1010. Public Contact: Spyglass, Internet World Wide Web http://www.spyglass.com ; Spry, 800-777-9638, Internet World Wide Web http://www.spry.com ; CompuServe, Internet World Wide Web http://www.compuserve.com ) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 08/21/95 GENERAL ****New Subscription Service For Newsbytes CD-ROM (NEWS)(GENERAL)(MSP)(00003) ****New Subscription Service For Newsbytes CD-ROM 08/21/95 MINNEAPOLIS, MINNESOTA, U.S.A., 1995 AUG 21 (NB) -- Newsbytes News Network is now offering "auto-ordering" -- a method by which the latest updates of the Newsbytes CD-ROM series will be shipped to a subscriber automatically, at a 20% discount, or $19.95. Subscribers can cancel at any time. The disk is offered for Macintosh, Windows, and DOS. The Newsbytes News Network 1995 Edition Update CD-ROM contains twelve years of computer, telecom, and interactive services reporting by the global reporting team of the Newsbytes News Network, an international wire service devoted to high-tech daily news. Now in its fourth year, the Newsbytes CD-ROM series is updated twice a year. The current edition contains more than 64,000 keyword-searchable news stories and more than 475 images spanning May, 1983 through May, 1995. Those who enroll in the "auto-order" program will receive this, and every new update disk, issued at approximate six month intervals, at a 21% discount -- $19.95 plus shipping and handling ($5). The auto-order program means no more upgrade forms to fill out. Your credit card will be charged at the time of each shipment. Subscribers wishing to disenroll from the auto-order program can cancel at any time. First-time buyers of The Newsbytes News Network 1995 Edition Update CD-ROM, who do not wish to enroll in the auto-order program, are charged US$24.95 plus US$5 shipping and handling. Newsbytes' 19-member Newsbytes reporting team cover the computer, telecom, interactive, and online services markets worldwide. These concise wire reports span the last 12 years and comprise a complete reference on the companies, people, and products that have shaped the global information infrastructure. The Newsbytes 1995 Update CD-ROM, published by Wayzata Technology, offers keyword searching of stories, as well as more than 475 publication-quality digitized images in JPEG format, illustrating the news stories. The digitized graphics and photographs are from the Newsbytes Newspix photo service, which is used by publishers worldwide. A Textware search engine enables Newsbytes CD-ROM disks to be keyword searched for stories in which individual words or text strings appear, or Boolean searched ("Microsoft" plus "OS/2" but not "OSF"). This makes it a valuable tool for researchers and corporate and public libraries. Newsbytes CD-ROMs are "hybrids" -- they run on the Apple Computer Macintosh, the Windows platform, and DOS PCs -- so any one disk can interchangeably run on all these platforms. "The Newsbytes CD-ROM series has a following of thousands of industry professionals, educators, and those interested in the high-tech arena, because it's low in cost, has the most extensive compilation of news reporting on these industries for the past 12 years, and it's fast," said Newsbytes Editor in Chief and founder, Wendy Woods. "It's an even better value than before, with over 12 years of computer industry news and over 400 color photos. A tremendous resource from a numerously acclaimed news source," says Mark Englehardt, CEO of Wayzata Technology, Inc., which produces the disk. Newsbytes, a pioneering electronic publication offering both text and images, has provided daily coverage of the dynamic and complex computer and telecommunications industries since 1983. More than 180 media outlets, including print publications, online services, and database companies, are licensed to publish Newsbytes wire material. The wire service reports, on average, 30 stories each day, filed by 19 correspondents worldwide. All reporting is first-hand, original, and objective. News is gathered from independent sources, trade shows, and interviews with top industry professionals. Headquartered in Minneapolis, MN, in the United States, Newsbytes News Network has bureaus in San Francisco, Denver, Washington DC, Boston, Los Angeles, Toronto, London, Tokyo, Hongkong, Sydney, Beijing, Manila, and New Delhi. Newsbytes can be read daily on Genie, America Online, Applelink, eWorld, Bix, Delphi, Ziffnet, Dialog, Compulink, NiftyServe, Interchange, Microsoft Network, and Newsnet. Newsbytes is also distributed via the Internet by Clarinet Communications and other information services. Newsbytes coverage has won Best Online Publication awards five times from the Computer Press Association, the largest organization of professional computer journalists worldwide Newsbytes is an independent, privately held news organization. To order the CD-ROM, send a check in equivalent local currency or US dollars drawn on a US bank, or submit a Visa, American Express, or Mastercard number, with expiration date, to CD-ROM Offer, Newsbytes News Network, Carriage House, 406 West Olive St., Stillwater, MN 55082 USA, or fax to 612-430-0441. Wholesale pricing is available for distributors. Electronic mail orders are also accepted, and should be sent to administrator@newsbytes.com (Internet). Include shipping address and credit card number with expiration date. (Newsbytes Staff/19950821) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 08/21/95 ONLINE AT&T Interchange Online Beta Testing Web Access (NEWS)(ONLINE)(SFO)(00004) AT&T Interchange Online Beta Testing Web Access 08/21/95 SAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1995 AUG 21 (NB) -- First known as Ziff-Davis' Interchange, an online service for distributing published print content, Interchange is finally up and running under the ownership of AT&T. This specialized services network has begun testing World Wide Web (Web) access using Netscape Navigator. "We are not competing with AOL (America Online) or MSN (Microsoft Network)," said AT&T spokesperson, Jennifer Christensen. "Interchange is a specialized service with four founding publishing partners: Ziff-Davis's ZD Net, The Washington Post, The Minneapolis/St. Paul Star Tribune, and The Gartner Group. AT&T supplies the network backbone and the necessary administrative tasks, but each partner is responsible for marketing and selling their own service as well as determining content," she said. AT&T Interchange focuses on information products, typically newspapers, magazines, special reports and newsletters, but subscribers do not subscribe through AT&T. They gain access through subscription to a partner such as The Washington Post. Still in its early stage of development, AT&T Interchange says Web access is a critical element to the network. The new Web access is gained through embedded hotlinks in the content of each firm's Interchange service. Once a hotlink is clicked, Netscape's Navigator is automatically launched and the linked site is opened to the subscriber. From there, the member may access any site on the Web. Netscape's Navigator is available free and the necessary access will be will be written into the next version of Interchange software. Subscribers will not need an additional Internet account. In addition to the content provided by each partner's online service, AT&T offers Interchange Central which includes additional news, information and entertainment content. Pricing is determined by each partner, but each partner is offering a fixed monthly content charge combined with an AT&T charge. The combined monthly fee (about $10 from several of the partners) includes five hours of access time. After the first five hours of access per month, members are charged $2.95 per month. AT&T is waiving its charge for the rest of this year for charter subscribers to any of the four services. (Patrick McKenna/1995/Press Contact: Jennifer Christensen, AT&T Interchange Online Network, tel 617-252-5477) (ADVISORY)(GENERAL)(MSP)(00005) NewsPix Images For Newsbytes Publishers 08/21/95 MINNEAPOLIS, MINNESOTA, U.S.A.,1995 AUG 21 (NB) -- These photos correspond to recent Newsbytes stories. They are online in the Newsbytes menu on America Online, NiftyServe, and the Newsbytes private bulletin board systems in Minneapolis and London. JPEG files are larger in size, PICT files are designed as thumbnails for onscreen viewing. The photos are titled with name/year/month/day. PICT/thumbnail pictures are black and white (gray scale). File message will indicate color if the JPEG image is color. Some of the 'for use' images, may be PICT files. To distinguish these files from the thumbnail preview PICT images, the tag for the color 'for use' image will have PICT, all caps. The thumbnail will remain noted as 'pct.' To become a licensed Newsbytes publisher, call Newsbytes at 612-430-1100 (U.S.) or write to administrator@newsbytes.com on the Internet. Licensing applies to any medium. --------------------------- Week of AUGUST 21 - AUGUST 25,1995 --------------------------- - NEW THIS WEEK - FOTOFUN950811 - b&w / Fargo Ships $399 Photo-Quality Digital Printer: picture of the unit with family photo emerging. HP950815a - color / HP To Intro New Windows 95 Home PCs: shot of the HP Pavilion 7000. Two screen shots are tagged HP950815b & HP950815c. HP950815b - color / HP To Intro New Windows 95 Home PCs: personal page in the comic book style. HP950815c - color / HP To Intro New Windows 95 Home PCs: personal page in the sculpted marble style. IBMLIBRARY950816 - color / More On AT&T Web Services For Consumers, Businesses: IBM Digital Library home page. CREATIVE950817 - b&w / 3-D Becomes Major Strategy At Creative Labs: portrait shot of Creative's chairman and chief executive officer, W.H. Sim, quoted extensively in story. PANTRAFCAM950817 - b&w / Video News Roundup: two images in one file: Shadow Traffic control (left), and the Panasonic WV-E550 traffic and surveillance camera (right). WEAC081195 - color / Weather Channel To Intro "Everything Weather" CD-ROM: the Hurricane Tracker page. --------------------------------------------------------------- - PARTIAL LISTING OF PREVIOUS ITEMS - IMWORKS950807 - color / Software Connects User To Internet Via Ad Home Pages: IMW logo. DIAGRAM950802 - color / Diagramming Software For Windows: color and busy screen shot. OPTIPLEX950810 - color / Dell Intros PCs With Integrated Networking: shot of the pc. EARTHLINK950809 - color / Hollywood's Internet Provider Goes National: Earthlink logo. VISIO4-950809 - color / Visio Product Bundle For Windows 95: shot of software package. YAHOO950728 - color / Yahoo To Develop Internet Service: Jerry Yang (left) & David Filo (right), founders and current developers for the YAHOO Internet navigator. OFFICE950727 - color / Microsoft Donates $6 Million In Software To Settle Suit: shot of the software package. DVUE950731 - b&w / U.S. Robotics Adds LED Lights to PCMCIA Modems: product shot, with card plugged into laptop. POWRSHOP950731 - b&w / Adaptive Ships Photoshop Accelerators: product shot of the card. SONYCAM950802 - b&w / Japan Newsbriefs: product shot of the new Sony digital Handycams with the digital videocassette between. DOONESBURY950731 - color / Trudeau's Doonesbury ScreenSaver: screenshot of Zonker and his tan-meter. TRAVAN950718 - color / 3M Predicts Travan Tape Drive To Exceed 15GB Capacity: shots of the two units, the 800 MB TR-2 (left) and the 1.6 GB TR-3 (right). EXPLORE950801 - color / Humongous Windows 95 Exploration Titles For Kids: screenshot from the new Let's Explore series. NEWSWEB950801 - color / Free Internet Press Release Service: screenshot of home page, nice graphics. MUSIC080295 - color / The Music Shop Opens On The Internet: screen shot of the home page. DELRINA950801 - b&w / Delrina Acquires Intel's Net SatisFAXtion: photo of Mark Skapinker, president of Delrina with the products floating over his head. DSP950725 - b&w / Paging Reminders To Take Medicine: pagers with phone in background. PHOENIX950706 - color / Phoenix Technologies Offers Telephony Suite Apps: interesting screenshot of virtual 'Phoenix Phone." MAGELLAN950713 - color / UK Firm Offers Low-Cost Handheld GPS Unit: the unit on neutral background. SDRAM950725 - color / TI Intros Faster Memory Chips: Picture of the Texas Instruments SDRAM in the Siemens Nixdorf Informationssysteme (SNI) AG mid-range server. ASK.ME950725 - color / Software Affiliates Intros Ask.Me For Windows 95: screen shot of the ASK.ME logo. NETVIEW950727 - color / More On IBM And Digital Joint Update To NetView: screenshot of 'a correlation rule to set a threshold' window. TAPIBAKE950728 - b&w / Microsoft, Intel, Pac Bell Hold TAPI "Bake-Off": shot of the AT&T Computer Telephone 8130, one of the contestants. (Newsbytes/19950821) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 08/21/95 BROADCAST Largest Satellite Network In China (NEWS)(BROADCAST)(HKG)(00006) Largest Satellite Network In China 08/21/95 CENTRAL, HONG KONG, 1995 AUG 21 (NB) -- Scientific-Atlanta, Inc. has signed a contract to supply China's nationwide satellite communications network to Yunnan King Modle Tobacco Telecom Corp. (YTT), the telecommunications subsidiary of Yunnan Provincial Tobacco Company, China's largest manufacturer of tobacco products. The US$16 million network calls for the installation of a Scientific-Atlanta SkyRelay VSAT (very small aperture terminal) network to connect over 2,200 manufacturing, distribution, and retail locations throughout China to coordinate the purchase of raw materials as well as to conduct tobacco auctions via the network and to monitor processing and production of tobacco products for delivery to a massive network of retail outlets. Yunnan Provincial Tobacco Company, headquartered in Kunming in China's southwestern Yunnan Province, has sales in excess of 20 billion yuan (US$2.5 billion) per year. While the network will be used primarily for data and voice communications, the contract also includes some Scientific-Atlanta MPEG-based (Moving Picture Experts Group) digital video compression encoding and decoding equipment for YTT to use in exploring the use of video and video conferencing within the network. "By touching every county in China with its new network, YTT and Yunnan Province are setting a worthy example for the rest of China to emulate in establishing satellite communications," said Don Upton, president of Network Sales, Service, and Systems Integration at Scientific-Atlanta, who was in Kunming for the contract signing. "Because this is the largest VSAT satellite network ever deployed in China, it is a bold undertaking. We are delighted that YTT chose Scientific-Atlanta, with our more than 40 years of experience, to be their partner to bring this communications capability to their country." YTT network will use Scientific-Atlanta's SkyRelay Interactive VSAT system and its Network Management Software to provide data and voice capabilities and comprehensive network monitoring and configuration services to remote locations. The remote VSAT antennas can be deployed rapidly and linked to the YTT master earth station to provide data and voice communications to virtually any location in China. The 7-meter VSAT hub antenna in Kunming will communicate via transponder space leased on the AsiaSat-2 satellite. Remote sites will use 1.8- or 2.4-meter antennas with SCPC (Single Channel Per Carrier) subsystems. The hub and over 550 remote sites are scheduled to be operational by the end of 1995 with a further 1,654 sites scheduled to go online in 1996. (Nigel Armstrong & I.T. Daily/19950820) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 08/21/95 BUSINESS Creative Labs Opens Operations Center In Europe (NEWS)(BUSINESS)(LON)(00007) Creative Labs Opens Operations Center In Europe 08/21/95 DUBLIN, IRELAND, 1995 AUG 21 (NB) -- Creative Labs has officially opened its European Operations and Technical Center (EOTC) in Dublin, Ireland. According to the company, the Blanchardstown center has already created around 250 jobs in the region. The EOTC, which is located at the Ballycoolin Business Park in Blanchardstown, is now fully operational and will eventually boost staffing numbers to 460 over the next five years. The EOTC is a 100,000-square-foot facility built on a five-acre site, representing an investment of around IRP (Irish Punts) 3.7 million in building, machinery and equipment. According to Creative Labs, the new facility constitutes phase one of a three phase, IRP 15 million plan being undertaken by the company in conjunction with the Irish Development Agency (IDA). Creative Labs' Irish operation will now be responsible for assembly, product localization, customer services, and technical support for the whole of Europe. The Technical Services Center based in the EOTC is billed as offering multi-lingual technical phone support to all Creative Labs end users at each local country call rate. "The Dublin EOTC operation will act as the central hub to Creative Labs' fast growing European business, providing efficient product supply and customer support to complement our subsidiaries activities in several countries," explained Michael Sullivan, vice president and general manager of Creative Labs Europe. "Our decision to locate in Ireland was as a result of the ready availability of a quality workforce and an excellent national infrastructure. The strength of the Irish infrastructure is evident from the range of suppliers, good communications, and access to Europe," he said. According to Sullivan, the opening of the EOTC will give a number of clear and competitive advantages to Creative Labs, shortening delivery times and reducing product unit costs. "This allows us the flexibility to produce a wider range of highly configured products, as well as expand the number of localized products for distinct European markets," he explained. (Sylvia Dennis/19950817/Press Contact: Joanne Coffey, Text 100 +353-1- 295-0800; Internet Email: joannec@text100.co.uk; Reader Contact: Creative Labs +44-1734-344322) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 08/21/95 BUSINESS EMC Captures 80% Of Philippines Market (NEWS)(BUSINESS)(HKG)(00008) EMC Captures 80% Of Philippines Market 08/21/95 CENTRAL, HONG KONG, 1995 AUG 21 (NB) -- According to a recent International Data Corporation (IDC) report, EMC Corporation has captured 80% of the Philippines' high-end data storage market. Rick Wojcik, general manager for EMC Asia/Far East, said the company, which entered the Philippine market two years ago, has sold its Symmetrix Integrated Cached Disk Array (ICDA) DASD systems to eight of the nine domestic banks in the country. It has also sold systems to a number of major insurance companies, including Philippine American Life Insurance. The ninth bank is currently investigating EMC data storage options, he said. "This is especially significant considering the tight economic conditions the Philippines has been experiencing over the past few years, and the substantial cost of investing in high-end data storage equipment." Wojcik said the key factors leading to such a large market share under the country's tight economic conditions include the way in which Symmetrix provides quantifiable cost benefits for organizations and even helps generate revenue. "Effective use of corporate information provides big dividends to almost any organization," said Wojcik. "In the Philippines, many companies have quickly discovered that EMC's Symmetrix solutions provided the most 'bang for their bucks.' The ability to generate money from innovative storage and information usage has been especially important in the Philippines." A feature unique to EMC is Symmetrix Remote Data Facility (SRDF), which enables organizations to mirror (copy) information simultaneously at two different locations. Using the SRDF structure, two Symmetrix 5200 units can be connected so that data can be simultaneously stored in the different storage units in different computer sites, protecting mission-critical data from natural disasters such as fires and typhoons. (Nigel Armstrong & I.T. Daily/19950817) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 08/21/95 GENERAL China - Technology Newsbriefs (NEWS)(GENERAL)(PEK)(00009) China - Technology Newsbriefs 08/21/95 BEIJING, CHINA, 1995 AUG 21 (NB) -- In this roundup of news from China, a LCD production line will be set up in Changchun, The joint R&D center by Bell-Northern Research (BNR) of Northern Telecom of Canada is celebrating its first anniversary in Beijing, Lotus cooperates with a research institute for Lotus Notes distribution and support, telecom and computer industries become important in Shenzhen, electronics becomes a pillar in Zhengjiang Province. LCD Production Line To Be Set Up in Changchun A large production line with annual capacity of 50,000 liquid crystal displays is to be set up in Changchun, the capital of Jilin province in northeast China. The US$3 million project will boost the domestic production of liquid crystal displays in China. LCDs have a wide range of applications for personal computers, portable communication terminals, video phones, game machines, and medical equipment. Anniversary of BUPT-BNR R&D Center BUPT-BNR Research and Development Center, a joint R&D center between Beijing University of Posts and Telecommunications (BUPT) and Bell- Northern Research (BNR) of Northern Telecom of Canada, has celebrated its first anniversary in Beijing. The center is designed to promote the domestic telecom industry and strengthen Northern Telecom's presence in China. Lotus Joins Hands With Research Institute Beijing Institute of Computer Application and Simulation Technology recently signed a letter of intent for economic and technological cooperation with IBM's Lotus. Lotus will provide technical support for Lotus Notes, a platform which is being used by the institute to develop software for the State's key projects. The institute will act as a distributor of Lotus Notes in China. In addition, both sides will cooperate on Lotus Notes training, consultation, and software development. Telecom and Computer Industries Important In Shenzhen The telecommunications and computer sectors have become the "pillar" industry in Shenzhen in South China. In 1994, the output value of the two industries reached RMB780 million (US$94 million), accounting for 50.4 percent of the city's total output by private enterprises. At the same time, the output of private software firms reached RMB105 million, making them a major force in Shenzhen's software industry. Electronics Also "Pillar Industry" in Zhengjiang In Zhengjiang province on the east coast of China, the electronics industry is considered the region's most lucrative. From January to June 1995, the electronics industry there exported US$163 million worth of goods, an increase of 58.4 percent over the same period of last year. The sector contributed US$50 million in tax payments to the local government, an increase of 41 percent over the same period of last year. The total output by the industry reached RMB8.325 billion (US$1 billion) in the first half of 1995, an increases of 56.3 percent over the same period last year. (Chih-Ho Yu & Ning Huang/19950815) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 08/21/95 UNIX Data General Intros AV 10000 32-Way SMP Server (NEWS)(UNIX)(BOS)(00010) Data General Intros AV 10000 32-Way SMP Server 08/21/95 WESTBORO, MASSACHUSETTS, U.S.A., 1995 AUG 21 (NB) -- Data General's new Aviion AV 10000 server, believed by the company to be the industry's first 32-way SMP (symmetrical multiprocessing) system, adds new technologies for near-term support of up to 3000 users and 10 terabytes (TB) of storage, while also serving as a stepping stone to future plans like the use of Intel P6 SHV (Standard High-Volume) boards, said DG's Steve Aucoin, in an interview with Newsbytes. The new AV 10000 provides about twice the scalability and processing power of DG's previous AV 9500 SMP server, along with greater redundancy and improved throughput, asserted Aucoin, who is DG's director of Aviion product marketing. The 16-way AV 9500 supports up to 1500 users. Scalable from 16 to 32 processors, the upcoming AV 10000 is targeted at customers in Aviion's existing, $2 billion installed base, as well as at new customers with large enterprise networks or a requirement to consolidate databases into data warehouses, Aucoin told Newsbytes. "Moving to 32 processors presents some interesting challenges, because one of the things we want to do with our product is to continue to scale -- so as customers add processors, they'll get nearly 100 percent of each processor's capabilities," he reported. The AV 10000 expands on new technologies first introduced in the AV 9500, including the use of four processors and third-level cache on the same board, and the concept of multiple system buses. "We learned from that, and added to it. Instead of just the four processors and third-level cache, we now have up to half a gigabyte (GB) of memory and I/0 (input/output) on the same board. In that jobs are broken up across processors, this helps with task scheduling. By keeping the processors and the memory as close to each other as possible, things can be kept in near memory, rather than all the way across the bus in far memory," Newsbytes was told. The AV 9500 also debuted a second system bus, running at 250 megabytes per second (MBps), for memory and CPU (central processor unit) traffic, according to the product marketing director. "Now, in the AV 10000, we have four 250 MBps buses, for an aggregate throughput of 1 gigabyte per second (GBps). We're obviously expanding the throughput. But also, if we experience a system bus failure, we'll be able to route around it," he pointed out. The new enhancements also support NUMA (Non-Uniform Memory Access), an evolving architecture designed to let SMP applications take advantage of SMP systems without rewriting, Aucoin added. NUMA will be an important ingredient of future Aviion systems based on Intel P6 SHV boards, he noted. "The (AV 10000) is a great high-end system, with a very large backplane, and multiple system buses across it for high bandwidth. But as you get into `next generation' systems beyond this, you'll be using lower cost boxes, and you'll have a lower cost interconnect between them, too. So you'll find that you don't want to put a lot of traffic across the bus," Aucoin said. "We've made a general statement of direction that we're going to buy P6 SHV boards from Intel for incorporation into our systems. We're also going to leverage (NUMA) technology as we do more and more (purchases) in the future," he continued. The AV 10000 also offers a "call home" feature known as AV Alert. "Each system ships with a modem. If there's a problem in the machine, it will phone the (DG) support center and report what's going on," Aucoin said. DG, he added, can then call and alert the customer, who may not have noticed a problem unless it has resulted in system downtime. Like previous Aviion servers, the new AV 10000 runs Data General's DG-UX OS (operating system), and is designed to support DG's "fault tolerant" Clariion RAID (redundant array of inexpensive disks) subsystems. "DG-UX is able to take advantage of our `high availability' hardware features such as routing around failures. It supports `multi-path I/O.' If on I/O path fails, it will automatically retry a different path. You can also have multiple SCSI (small computer systems interface) paths," he contended. DG-UX also supports clustering, a capability designed to ease data access, system management, and upgrades by making multiple systems appear as one system. "We're doing very well," Aucoin told Newsbytes, citing an IDC study that ranks DG number three in the "worldwide Unix medium-scale commercial marketplace." Unit shipments of DG's Aviion servers will exceed 30,000 this year, according to the exec. DG's new AV 10000 SMP server is scheduled to ship by the end of 1995. Pricing starts at $590,000 for a 16-processor configuration and under $1 million for a 32-processor system. (Jacqueline Emigh/19950818/Reader Contact: Data General, 508-366- 8911; Press Contacts: Jim Dunlap, Data General, 508-898-6546; Dee Anna McPherson or Kendra Collins, Edelman Public Relations for Data General, 212-704-8133/8286) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 08/21/95 PC Germany - Compaq Slashes European Server Pricing (NEWS)(PC)(LON)(00011) Germany - Compaq Slashes European Server Pricing 08/21/95 MUNICH, GERMANY, 1995 AUG 21 (NB) -- Compaq has announced a series of price cuts on its server range of machines sold in Germany and across Western Europe. The price cuts, which range from 11 to 15 percent, affect the ProSignia low-end servers and ProLiant mid-range server systems. Announcing the downward price shuffles, Bruno Didier, the company's vice president of marketing for the European, Middle-Eastern and African (EMEA) region, said that Compaq wants to remain competitive with newer manufacturers who are pitching into Europe. According to figures released last month by Dataquest, the market research company, while Compaq enjoyed more than a 13 percent market share in the second quarter of this year, the company has pushed its market share in the server arena to more than 25 percent. The price cuts seen the ProSignia 300 server system, which is widely regarded as a benchmark by European PC market watchers, falls by 15 percent to just under the $2,900 mark, while the ProSignia 500 falls by 11 percent to $4,300. Further upmarket, the ProLiant 1500 falls by just under 12 percent to $6,700. Compaq's price cuts come as Context, the European market research company, has released its figures for the European PC market. According to the company, PC shipments overall are expected to rise by around 13 percent in the current year. According to Context, Compaq will increase its European PC sales lead from 12.2 percent in 1994 to 13 percent in 1995, putting it firmly in pole position, closely followed by IBM with 10.6 percent and Apple Computer with 6.7 percent. Other top vendors likely to see an increase in market share in 1995, meanwhile, including AST, Hewlett-Packard, Packard Bell, Toshiba and Zenith Data Systems. Interestingly, Context's 1994 report and 1995 predictions show that Germany will remain the largest PC market in Europe with shipments rising by 15 percent to reach 3.3 million in 1995, which makes German PC sales account for 25 percent of the European total. (Sylvia Dennis/19950821/Press & Reader Contact: Compaq Computer +49- 89-99330; Fax +49-89-930-2897; Context +44-171-937-3595) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 08/21/95 TELECOM European Commission Approves C&W/Veba Telecoms Linkup (NEWS)(TELECOM)(LON)(00012) European Commission Approves C&W/Veba Telecoms Linkup 08/21/95 BRUSSELS, BELGIUM, 1995 AUG 21 (NB) -- The European Commission (EC) has announced it has approved plans submitted by Cable & Wireless and Veba. As reported previously by Newsbytes, in January of this year, Veba, the German technology giant, instructed NatWest Capital Markets to buy up to 10.5 percent of Cable & Wireless shares at 435 pence each or less. The deal was worth around $1.5 billion and, according to both companies, represents a far-reaching alliance. In return for Veba's investment, Cable and Wireless will take a 45 percent holding in Veba's telecoms operation in Germany. It is this second stage of the deal between the two companies that the EC investigated, once the plans were submitted to its antitrust division in Brussels. The original aim of the link-up was to establish a new company, to be known as Cable & Wireless Europe, with a 50/50 share split, which would operate on a pan-European basis, excluding the UK and German market. According to Cable & Wireless, the EC approval for the link-up has come as a great relief for both companies, since not only does it preclude any action by the EC, it also effectively precludes any complaints or anti-competitive action by their respective competitors. In Germany, meanwhile, Ulrich Hartmann, Veba's chairman, said that the link-up promises to be major in global telecoms terms. "We have made a quantum leap with Cable and Wireless. This arrangement gives us the entrance needed for our debut on the stage of international telecommunications," he said, adding that, as part of the deal, he will have a seat on the Cable & Wireless board of directors. Plans now call for Cable & Wireless Europe to be fleshed out in the coming months, with a cash infusion of around DM 11 billion ($7.4 billion) from both companies over the next decade. (Sylvia Dennis/19950821/Press & Reader Contact: Veba +49-228-989870) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 08/21/95 CHIPS Toshiba Joins Ramtron In FRAM Dev't (NEWS)(CHIPS)(TYO)(00013) Toshiba Joins Ramtron In FRAM Dev't 08/21/95 TOKYO, JAPAN, 1995 AUG 21 (NB) -- Toshiba Corporation has reached an agreement with Ramtron (NASDAQ:RMTR) over development and eventual production of ferroelectric random access memory (FRAM) chips. The new chips have the ability to retain data stored in memory when the power is removed. Under the agreement, Toshiba has gained a nonexclusive licence to FRAM technologies owned by Ramtron which, in return, has "licensing considerations" from Toshiba. The Japanese company is the third such partner for Ramtron. FRAM memory devices offer the same high speed as DRAM and SRAM chips combined with the nonvolatility of ROM, the best of both worlds, says the Colorado Springs-based company. Such features will find the devices eventually used in small, portable electronic products, Toshiba's Makoto Ueda told Newsbytes. "They will be used in devices such as PDAs (personal digital assistants) and handy portable devices because they can be driven at low power, low voltage, and the are fast. They are nonvolatile so they don't need to be powered all the time." While the nonvolatility feature is already available from devices such as EEPROM and flash memory, Ramtron say the FRAM chips require much less power to operate and offer higher speed programming. The new chips can also handle more rewrite cycles before wearing out. "We don't have a concrete plan but we hope to be able to introduce samples within 1997, it's our target," continued Ueda. Toshiba hopes mass production in the future will result in prices for the chips falling to around the same price as conventional memory. "Because it is not in mass production it's difficult to predict a price, our estimation is that we can say that we must make an effort to attain a similar level of price as a standard SRAM." The team is involved in early research now and Ueda would not be drawn on any details of the development although he did say the aim is to produce FRAM chips of 1-megabit size and above. L. David Sikes, chairman and CEO of Ramtron, said of the deal, "This agreement with Toshiba provides further evidence of the industry momentum toward ferroelectrics. Ramtron's goal is to maintain its leadership role in FRAM technology and products." (Martyn Williams/19950821/Press contact : Makoto Ueda, Toshiba Corporation, +81-3-3457-2105, Lee Brown, Ramtron, 719-481-7011 ; Reader contact : Ramtron, 1-800-545-3726, fax 719-488-9095) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 08/21/95 GENERAL Japan Newsbriefs (NEWS)(GENERAL)(TYO)(00014) Japan Newsbriefs 08/21/95 TOKYO, JAPAN, 1995 AUG 21 (NB) -- In this roundup of news from Japan, Jupiter Telecom announces cable telephone trials, Matsushita decides on US launch of digital camcorders, ASCII Net to introduce dictionary translation service, games sales equal consumer electronics, Sony renames US, European units. Jupiter Telecom Announces Cable Telephone Trials Tokyo-based cable TV operator Jupiter Telecom has announced it is to begin testing a new cable telephony service. The company, which is a joint venture between Sumitomo Corporation and TCI of the US, says the trials will involve service to 100 households ahead of a planned digital telephone service roll out next spring. Jupiter Telecom is the biggest cable operator in Japan. Matsushita Decides On US Launch Of Digital Camcorders Osaka-based Matsushita Electric Corporation has announced it will begin shipping its new digital camcorder previously reported by Newsbytes. The company's NV-DJ1 launches in Japan on 1 September with a 275,000 yen ($2,820) price tag. The camcorder will be available in the US from 1 October at an as-yet-unannounced price. The new camcorder features improved picture and sound due to an all digital path from the CCD camera right through to the tape, a new home use digital standard. ASCII Net To Introduce Dictionary Translation Service Japan's ASCIInet computer online service has announced it will introduce a new word-to-word translation service to allow Japanese speakers to make sense of foreign language pages. The new service will display the original document with a translation for each word into Japanese beneath the original language word. The new system is much cheaper than full-scale translation software because it only looks up words and does not attempt to create grammatically correct sentences. The new service will work with Internet pages and those from Delphi. Games Sales Equal Consumer Electronics The Asahi Shimbun newspaper reported in Sunday editions that the combined sales of video machine hardware and software equalled that of audio-visual equipment for the financial year 1993. The Japan Amusement Machine Industry Association carried out the survey for the newspaper which added that it expects games machines to become a major pillar of the electronics industry in Japan. Sony Renames US, European Units Sony Corporation has renamed its Sony Electronic Publishing Co., to Sony Interactive Entertainment Inc. Olaf Olafsson, president of the company, explained the new name better defined the company's current activities. At the same time, Sony Imagesoft's video game and computer software businesses have been renamed Sony Interactive Studios America and Sony Interactive PC Software America, respectively. To keep in line with the US changes, Sony Psygnosis, the UK-based entertainment software division, has been renamed Sony Interactive Europe. (Martyn Williams/19950821) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 08/21/95 TELECOM Ericsson Secures Japanese Digiphone Expansion (NEWS)(TELECOM)(LON)(00015) Ericsson Secures Japanese Digiphone Expansion 08/21/95 STOCKHOLM, SWEDEN, 1995 AUG 21 (NB) -- Ericsson has announced it has received an order from Central Japan Digital Phone (CDP) for the expansion of the company's digital cellular network in the Nagoya area of Japan. According to Ericsson, the deal is worth SEK 655 million and calls for deliveries of switching equipment, radio base stations and radio base hardware to be installed from the end of this month onwards. CDP's digital network conforms to the Japanese PDC (Personal Digital Phone) standard and is based on the PCS (Personal Communications System) seen in the West. Like PCS, PDV networks operate with lower power base stations, allowing greater densities of phone users to be supported by a higher density of base stations than conventional analog or digital cellular nets. The CDP network entered commercial service in July of last year and has expanded greatly, now signing up more than 10,000 subscribers every month. This is the second significant order from Japan for the Swedish communications giant this year. In June, the company received a similar expansion order from Tokyo Digital Phone (TDP), with deployment of the new equipment expected to start next month. Plans now call for the TDP network to cover around 87 percent of the population in the Kanto-area (Tokyo, Kanagawa, Yohohama and surrounding prefectures) by the end of 1997, officials said. According to Ericsson, digital and analog telephony is taking off in a big way in Japan. To date, more than 4.3 million phone users have signed up for mobile telephones and this figure is expected to grow expotentially over the next few years as the "digital Handyphone" services become available on a wide scale. (Sylvia Dennis/19950615/Press Contact: Per Bengtsson, Ericsson Business Area Radio Communications +46-8-757-2159) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 08/21/95 GENERAL Canadian Product Launch Update (NEWS)(GENERAL)(TOR)(00016) Canadian Product Launch Update 08/21/95 KINGSTON, ONTARIO, CANADA 1995 AUG 21 (NB) -- This regular feature, appearing on the first day Newsbytes publishes each week, provides further details for the Canadian market on announcements by international companies that Newsbytes has already covered. This week: Lotus Development's Notes: Newsstand and SmartSuite 4.0 for Windows 3.1. Lotus Development Canada Ltd., based in Toronto, announced Notes: Newsstand (Newsbytes, Aug. 4), a service and set of publishing tools for delivering publications to users of the company's Notes work-group software and to the Internet. Notes: Newsstand is available now and requires enrollment in the Lotus Notes Network. Publication subscription fees are set by information providers, who receive the publication tools when they contract with the service, Lotus said. Lotus Canada also announced SmartSuite 4.0 for Windows 3.1 (Newsbytes, Aug. 1). The new release of Lotus' suite of PC applications adds the company's new Word Pro word processor, Version 2.1 of its Organizer personal information manager, and ScreenCam 2.0, an updated tool for creating PC-based training movies and informal presentations. It also includes Release 5 of the 1-2-3 spreadsheet, Freelance Graphics 2.1, and Release 3.0 of Lotus' Approach database software. Lotus Canada estimated the retail price at C$619, and said upgrades will cost C$305. (Grant Buckler/19950818/Press Contact: Marsha Connor, Lotus Canada, 416-364-8000; Public Contact: Lotus Canada, 416-364-8000 or 800-GO-LOTUS, Internet World Wide Web http://www.lotus.com ) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 08/21/95 NETWORK ****Voice, Data, Video Over ATM, From MFS (NEWS)(NETWORK)(BOS)(00017) ****Voice, Data, Video Over ATM, From MFS 08/21/95 BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS, U.S.A., 1995 AUG 21 (NB) -- MFS's new Wide Area Voice Exchange (WAVE) -- now available in five US cities, with others to follow in the US and Europe -- uses a new technology called variable bit rate (VBR) to provide the industry's first "integrated" voice, data and video transmission over asynchronous transfer mode (ATM), maintained Al Fenn, president and chief executive officer (CEO), in a conference call today with Newsbytes. Unlike traditional time division multiplexing (TDM) voice technology, which employs a constant bit rate (CBR) scheme where a pre-determined amount of bandwidth is dedicated to voice traffic, VBR allocates capability to voice only when sound is present, according to Fenn. As a result, users of MFS's new WAVE service, which is being announced today, will be able to obtain an "efficient mix" of voice, data, and video interconnect services, the company president contended. WAVE can be used, for example, to send private branch exchange (PBX)-based voice traffic frame relay-based data to the same location over a single ATM network, Fenn illustrated. "What does this mean to customers? There are economies of scale to be achieved. We will be able to transmit only the (amount of voice traffic) necessary, and to share bandwidth on a very fine, ATM cell level basis, with other voice and data applications. This should lower costs to customers. It also should simplify network management, something that will become increasingly important as the sizes of their networks grow," he told Newsbytes. WAVE's VBR capability is being supplied by Northern Telecom (Nortel) through its Magellan Passport switch, which offers an ATM interface that is "fully compliant" with the ATM Forum's ATM specification, including the forum's provision for VBR, according to Fenn. MFS Communications Company, Inc. is deploying WAVE through MFS Datanet, its San Jose-based operating company. The five metropolitan areas where the new service is initially available -- San Jose, New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, San Francisco, and San Jose -- are areas where MFS has already deployed Ericsson voice switches, the CEO reported. The voice switches have been interconnected with WAVE's ATM services. WAVE will become available in additional cities in the US and Europe in 1996, he added. "WAVE is not complicated, but it is revolutionary," Fenn asserted. "It is one more step in a complete technological changeover in the communications infrastructure." MFS's first role was as a provider of alternative access services for the local loop, and the Omaha, Nebraska-based company is generally characterized in the press as a competitive access provider (CAP), according to Fenn. But MFS has actually grown into a diversified "communications services company" with offerings that include "local and long- distance voice services on a national and international basis, high-speed data services on a national and international basis, and video services to support things like NBC Desktop Video," Fenn elaborated. MFS now operates fiber optic networks in 40 US markets, as well as in London, Paris, Stockholm, Paris, and Frankfort, Germany, he continued. "(Competitive access) is our oldest business, and the fiber optic networks we built to support that business are critical and key components of our overall services. But today, (competitive access) isn't even our largest business, in terms of revenue," added Fenn. Several years ago, he noted, the communications industry made a commitment to ATM as a transport mechanism through the CCITT, and this move has provided carriers with "incentives in two directions." "One direction is maximize the use of your current network. The other is to push ahead as rapidly as you can in order to compete. Because of the carriers' concerns about not obsoleting their investments, new technology has been generally slow to get into major networks. But MFS, being a new player, has not had those same concerns," according to Fenn. "We've been quite willing to move ahead because we don't have a huge infrastructure supporting voice communications. So, more aggressively than most other companies, we've been putting new technologies in place to service new business needs," the CEO told Newsbytes. (Jacqueline Emigh/19950821/Reader Contacts: MFS Datanet, 408-975- 2200; MFS Communications Company, 402-342-8554; Press Contact: Karen Breehey, Rourke & Company for MFS, 617-267-0042) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 08/21/95 ONLINE VeriFone Acquires Enterprise Integration Technologies (NEWS)(ONLINE)(SFO)(00018) VeriFone Acquires Enterprise Integration Technologies 08/21/95 REDWOOD CITY, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1995 AUG 21 (NB) -- VeriFone (NYSE:VFI), a developer of automated transaction systems and software, announced an agreement to acquire Enterprise Integration Technologies (EIT), a developer of software and services related to Internet commerce. The $28 million deal is intended to strengthen VeriFone's position in the market of Internet commerce. Under the agreement in which EIT is becoming a wholly owned subsidiary of VeriFone, EIT's outstanding stock and stock options are to be exchanged for VeriFone's stock and stock options. The final exchange ratio is to be determined on VeriFone's average stock price during the 10 trading days prior to the close of the acquisition. Accounted as a pooling of interests, the deal also includes VeriFone taking a one-time charge over the third and fourth quarters of this year. The charge is expected to be in the range of $700,000 to $900,000. EIT's founder and chief executive officer, Jay M. Tenebaum, and Steven L. Harari, EIT's president, will remain as executives at EIT which will become part of VeriFone's Internet Commerce Division. After meeting all government regulations, VeriFone should be able to close the deal by November '95. VeriFone, known for its automated electronic transaction products and services, has shipped more than 4.4 million systems which are installed in more than 90 countries, the company reports. These systems are used in retail, health care and government markets. EIT's electronic commerce specialization is expected to give VeriFone a stronger presence in the growing Internet commerce market. EIT's software is widely used by commercial and organizational World Wide Web (Web) sites and the company is known for Secure Hypertext Transport Protocol (S-HTTP), an Internet standard for securing Internet commerce transactions. Last year, EIT co-founded Terisa Systems with RSA Data Security to market S-HTTP toolkits for Web software developers. Terisa Systems has received backing from CompuServe, AOL, IBM and Netscape Communications. EIT is also the founder and program manager of CommerceNet, a non-profit consortium which promotes Internet commerce. A spokesperson for VeriFone told Newsbytes, "This is a major acquisition for us. There is tremendous synergy between EIT and ourselves which we will leverage in the expansion of our Internet commerce business. We intend to build both products and services which we will rapidly bring to the Internet marketplace." (Patrick McKenna/19950821/Press Contact: David B. Barnes, VeriFone, tel 415-696-8823) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 08/21/95 PC Compaq Intros Modular Notebook PC (NEWS)(PC)(DEN)(00019) Compaq Intros Modular Notebook PC 08/21/95 HOUSTON, TEXAS, U.S.A., 1995 AUG 21 (NB) -- Compaq Computer Corp. (NYSE: CPQ) has introduced a Pentium-based notebook computer with a modular design that lets users select between a CD-ROM drive, up to 2.7 gigabytes (GB) of data storage, two batteries for up to eight hours of run time between charges, or a floppy drive. #IMAGE 1 20 TWPCX \images\95082119.PCX Click here for photo The LTE 5000's will be available in 75- and 90- megahertz versions equipped with 11.3-inch, 10-4 inch color STN or 10.4-inch color TFT displays. A feature Compaq calls MultiBay lets the user insert or remove a CD-ROM drive that can accept both 5.25-inch and 3.5-inch CDs in a variety of formats including video CD-, CD-i, Kodak Photo CDs and audio CDs; a second hard drive available in capacities of 510-, 810-megabytes (MB) or 1.35GB, a second floppy drive, or two batteries in a choice of either nickel metal hydride or lithium ion that Compaq said will run the system for up to eight hours. One also gets 16-bit digital stereo audio with integrated stereo speakers, and Compaq offers a portable MPEG (Motion Picture Experts Group) and TV Video Adapter option. One can also get a modular expansion base for the LTE that lets the modular devices be shared between the notebook and the base. A Compaq spokesperson told Newsbytes when the LTE 5000 is docked in the expansion base the system can accept up to two additional hard drives, floppy drives or CD-ROM devices. The expansion base will also charge two battery packs. The expansion base also includes two additional Type III PCMCIA (Personal Computer Memory Card International Association) slots in addition to the slots in the LTE 5000, and a space for the brick-like MPEG and TV Video Adapter. The TV function allows users to display the PC image on a television set for larger audience viewing. Pricing for the optional adapter, which will be available at the same time the LTE 5000 ships, will be announced at that time. Compaq spokesperson said the LTE 5000 wasn't scheduled for introduction until later this year but Microsoft asked for several hundred notebook PCs for use in its field sales and engineering offices to demonstrate Windows 95, Windows NT and BackOffice. The LTE product line was developed as part of a joint development relationship with Inventec Electronic Corp. of Taiwan. Compaq said the unit would be shipped in September and pricing will be announced at that time. The LTE 5000 will be demonstrated for the first time publicly at the Windows 95 launch extravaganza set for August 24 at the Microsoft campus in Redmond, Washington. (Jim Mallory/19950821/Press contact: Compaq Public Relations, 713-374-0484; Public contact: Compaq, 800-345-1518 or on the Internet at the URL http://www.compaq.com /LTE5000950821/PHOTO) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 08/21/95 TELECOM AT&T's New Calling Plan (NEWS)(TELECOM)(MSP)(00020) AT&T's New Calling Plan 08/21/95 BASKING RIDGE, NEW JERSEY, U.S.A., 1995 AUG 21 (NB) -- AT&T (NYSE:T) said it is introducing a new long-distance consumer calling program called "True Reach Savings," that offers discounts on all types of domestic phone calls. Company officials said the new program will give subscribers who spend $25 a month or more a 25 percent discount, and those who spend between $10 and $25 a month will get a 10 percent discount. The types of calls eligible for discounts include basic long-distance and local toll calls, cellular long-distance, operator-handled, AT&T Calling Card, directory assistance, conference calls, and the company's True Connections 500 service. AT&T said it plans to begin advertising the new rates tonight on television and later in newspapers. The campaign will feature the "anytime, anywhere" features of the new plan, as the company put it. "True Reach is the first calling program that lets you reach all the people you want, anytime, anywhere in the United States, while saving on every type of call," said Joseph P. Nacchio, president of AT&T's consumer long-distance business. The program is available in most areas now, and applies to domestic calls that appear on a consumer's AT&T phone bill, officials said. Calls to 900 services are excluded from the discount, except for calls made to 900 directory assistance (900-555-1212). John Skalko, AT&T spokesperson, told Newsbytes the company's older calling program, True USA Savings, is being curtailed to subscribers who currently use the service, and will be closed to any future enrollment. The Wall Street Journal reports today's move by AT&T matches one made earlier this month by MCI Communications (NASDAQ:MCIC), and may signal a cease-fire in the long-distance price wars. But with the seven Regional Bell Operating Companies (RBOCs) anxious to join the long-distance race, the Journal said recent actions by the major long distance carriers to streamline pricing might be just a lull in the fighting for the consumer long-distance dollar. (Bob Woods/19950821/Press Contacts: John Skalko, AT&T, 908-221-8413. Public Contact: AT&T, 800-TRUE-ATT, Internet World Wide Web http://www.att.com ) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 08/21/95 WINDOWS Egghead Does Windows At Midnight (NEWS)(WINDOWS)(DEN)(00021) Egghead Does Windows At Midnight 08/21/95 SEATTLE, WASHINGTON, U.S.A., 1995 AUG 21 (NB) -- Egghead Software has announced it will open most of its stores across the country at one minute after midnight on August 24 in order to be one of the first places where PC users who just can't wait until normal business hours can get their copy of Windows 95. Egghead spokesperson John Hough told Newsbytes most of the company's 164 stores will be open on Thursday from 12:01 a.m. to 2:00 a.m., then will re-open again at 7:00 a.m. Hough said that while the midnight opening was a one-day event only, the 7:00 a.m. opening will run for two weeks. Most Egghead stores' normal opening time is either 9:00 a.m. or 10:00 a.m. The program is called Midnight Madness and it will be augmented by a newspaper ad coupon that provides a five percent discount on purchases other than Windows 95 and a pack of rebate coupons that, if all the products were purchased, would get the buyer $1,000 in manufacturer rebates. The rebate packs will go to Windows 95 buyers. Egghead will be selling Windows 95 for $89.95 with an Egghead CUE discount card. That's about the same price quoted by Radio Shack in a recent mailer distributed to that outlet's customers. The chain is expecting buyer turnout to be heavy during the late-night hours and will provide what Terence Strom, Egghead president and chief executive officer, called "Christmas-level staffing." Strom said Egghead will offer special promotions in conjunction with the Windows 95 rollout and projects additional sales of about $80 million during the next six months during the Windows 95 rollout. Egghead reported revenues of about $900 million during its most recent fiscal year, which ended March 31, 1995. Windows 95 could be Christmas in August for many retailers. Strom said Windows 95 will likely generate as much sales volume as does the usual holiday season. "August's promotional impact and customer traffic are expected to continue right through the 1995 holiday season," said the Egghead executive. Egghead is also introducing an Egghead Visa credit card and nationwide drawings for Egghead gift certificates, which Hough said will total about $16,000. The company has launched its own home page on the Internet where users can do online shopping. Prospective Windows 95 buyers might want to first attend a live broadcast that will be available in many Sam's Club stores across the country that will feature Steve Ballmer, Microsoft executive vice president, talking about Windows 95. Ballmer, who will be joined by Wal-Mart Stores Inc. Chairman Rob Walton, will answer questions sent in by individual Sam's Club members about Windows 95. The broadcast will be Saturday, August 26, 1995 at noon Pacific Daylight Time, which is 3:00 p.m. Eastern Daylight Time. (Jim Mallory/19950821/Press contact: John Hough, The Rockey Company for Egghead Software, 206-728-1100 or Michelle Kreeger, SAM's Clubs, 703-519-0800; Public contact: Egghead Discount Software at the URL http://www.egghead.com on the Internet) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 08/21/95 ONLINE Attorney - Your Online Picture May Make You A "Public Person" (NEWS)(ONLINE)(MSP)(00022) Attorney - Your Online Picture May Make You A "Public Person" 08/21/95 TAMPA, FLORIDA, U.S.A., 1995 AUG 21 (NB) -- Bulletin-board operators who publish photos of themselves on their boards or on World Wide Web sites may lose some of the libel, slander, and copyright provisions afforded to private individuals under US law. That's according to Lance Rose, an attorney with Lance Rose & Associates, Montclair, N.J., whose presentation at One BBSCON last Friday in Tampa was entitled "Shooting The Rapids: New Online Legal Issues." Rose reminded his audience that under US statute, public people are afforded less of these safeguards under the rubric that not to do so would stifle debate about artistic works and political issues. The whole issue is actually pretty controversial," he said. "In my view, if you publish on the Web are you then for purpose of the Web thrusting yourself into a matter of public interest controversy? So if somebody says something about you, and says something even wrong, and you sue them in court, could the court call you a public figure and say [one is allowed] to say wrong things about you?" The attorney then said that such a hypothetical case might turn on how related the alleged slander is to the specific nature of the aspects of your public persona that you reveal to the world through your site. "My view if you go out into the public and you project yourself out there, there would be a question about what would be (considered) public. If you go on the Web and talked about your stuffed swordfish collection, does it give others the right to talk about your marital status?" he asked. Rose said that generally, this wouldn't be allowed, but an attack on the merits of the collection or even the qualifications or intentions of the collector posed in a forum such as an Internet newsgroup posting wouldn't be actionable. Copyright law violations may also turn on the specific nature of your Web site. Rose cited a recent "Babes On The Web" site, in which someone put up a site containing photos and "reviews" of women who had reproduced their own images on their Web pages. "Obviously, several women were offended, but is it a privacy violation if you publish your face to the world? To me, this is a pretty clear case of opinion rendering," Rose said. That, of course, introduces the subject of flaming, which can most concisely be described as hurling personal or professional insults online. Rose indicated that as a general rule, flaming is not actionable under US law. "Flaming a person doesn't map directly on to defamation law," he said. "Defamation is a false statement about somebody that hurts their reputation, but you can't simply sue everybody that makes a false statement. When you have a public figure, false things can be said about them but as long as statements are not made with reckless disregard for the truth or malice, you don't have too easy a path to defamation speech," he said. Rose said that flaming may be more actionable when done against a private person, but the case would be stronger if there was a deliberate distortion of the facts rather than insults. "When you talk about false statements of facts, especially against a private person, then you are getting into defamation territory. If, in a forum, you say that the car dealer down the street sold your friend a car with a new transmission (later revealed to be old), that would be a statement of fact. But a lot of flames are not defamation," Rose added. "You can even call someone a 'stinking liar,' but that is just kind of characterizing people. Horrible flames can sound a lot nastier than simple false statement, but they don't normally give rise to a legal matter. (Russell Shaw/19950821/Press and public contact: Lance Rose, 1-201-509-1700; elrose@well.com) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 08/21/95 ONLINE Sysops - Computer Stores Can Be Valuable Marketing Resource (NEWS)(ONLINE)(MSP)(00023) Sysops - Computer Stores Can Be Valuable Marketing Resource 08/21/95 TAMPA, FLORIDA, U.S.A., 1995 AUG 21 (NB) -- Two bulletin board system operators at One BBSCON recommend that boards seeking to get the word out should consider local computer retailers as indispensible allies. "Establishing a relationship with local computer stores, can be a real win-win situation for you and for them," said Sara Viener, who with husband Adam Viener operates the 23-line BBS and Internet service provider Cyberia Communications, Inc., in York, Pennsylvania. "That's because if you go to a local computer store, they are trying to sell modems, while you are trying to sell your service. If you can make a deal with them whereby you give them a free account, and they use you to demonstrate their modem, they are marketing for you," she added. Sara Viener said that to facilitate this process, a BBS might do well to give the retailer a free account and have the store give free trial coupons out for new purchasers of modems. "People will want to go home and naturally, do something with their new modems. This way, the store is actually doing marketing for you," she said. Adam Viener said that because online novices often contact computer stores first for information, that's another key reason for the bulletin board operator to establish strong relationships with them. "If I wanted to find a local bulletin board, I would call a local computer store. These are the people who are going to point you in the right direction. You'll want to make sure that they are the first person you contact. The more, the better. If you don't know the names of the people who are running the local computer stores, you are missing out," he said. The Vieners described this approach as being within the overall concept of "Guerilla Marketing Your BBS," which was the title of their presentation. "Guerilla marketing is a low cost alternative to traditional marketing," Adam Viener said. "It starts at the basic level, with the name of company and your logo. Every decision you make when you are setting up your system is a marketing decision. When you talk to people you are marketing, when you are thinking about what programs want to implement on technical level is still a marketing decision -- because ultimately people are going to use this stuff. You want the right people, your customers, to use it. The husband-and-wife team then broke down "Guerilla Marketing" into four basic components. These included: Person-To-Person: Chamber of Commerce membership, computer group participation, computer trade show exhibitions, speaking engagements, and live subscriber parties. Marketing Over The Modem: Participating in online chats and Internet Usenet Newsgroups that cover topics your BBS does; inclusion of your Web site in commercial search engine directories, if applicable; marketing on your own BBS. Playing The Media Game: press releases to local media, contacting the media and offering to ask as an "expert" resource on online issues or on specific subjects your BBS covers; inexpensive classified advertising in the "Computers Bought and Sold" listings offered by your local newspaper. Miscellaneous Tricks: new-caller mailings, business cards, newsletters, tee shirts, and vanity license plates. "You need to know what your mission is and where you are going. Once you know that, you can clearly identify your prospective customers, and then you can try to market to them by getting your name in front of them," Sara Viener added. (Russell Shaw/19950821/Public and press contact: Cyberia Communications, 1-717-848-1439. info@cyberia.com) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 08/21/95 ONLINE Prodigy Sysop - "Don't Take It Personally" (NEWS)(ONLINE)(MSP)(00024) Prodigy Sysop - "Don't Take It Personally" 08/21/95 TAMPA, FLORIDA, U.S.A., 1995 AUG 21 (NB) -- Bill Lessard, moderator of Prodigy's Personal Connection and several other high-traffic sites, says that bulletin board operators shouldn't get too personally involved with the often emotionally charged give-and-take that can happen online. "Don't take anything personally. Cyberspace is emotional space, an electronic comingling of souls that takes place via modem which in many cases is just as real as real live interaction," Lessard said at One BBSCON Saturday. Lessard stressed the highly personal, and even intimate, nature of online discourse. "E-mail is a place you tell someone how you feel and hear how they feel, e-mail is place for electronic pillow talk -- a BBS place to establish the intimacy that will become electronic pillow talk. That's true when you notice the phenomenon of online love. People are literally meeting and falling in love all the time in cyberspace," said Lessard, who added that Personal Connection has led to 22 marriages thus far, "with many more in the making." When these events transpire, Lessard said, the 'thank yous" from the newly betrothed "fly quickly and effusively." Yet Lessard admitted he has also seen the darker side of human nature while working as a sysop. "On the negative side, the emotional side of cyberspace is also infamous for stalkers, flamers, revolutionaries, hackers and other disenfranchised people," he said. "There is hatred, there is anger, there is an air of the electronic drive-by shooting They are inconsolable and they bring issues and an online persona online that has nothing to do with anything around them." "Some people very nice online, others very mean, but either way, the thought is, you shouldn't take anything personally," said Lessard. "You should also remember that you are not online for the same reason as [other] members are online. You are not looking to vent, to find love, to find community, you are there to facilitate, to produce, and make sure everyone's online needs are being met. If you are loved or hated in the process, it doesn't matter. Technology has changed, but human nature has not." Lessard as much as admitted that adhering to this lesson has occasionally tried his patience. "I often get blamed for things I have no control over. Every time there was a price increase (on Prodigy) it was my fault. Every time people were denied free hours or a free weekend it was also my fault. Every time someone had an obscene note sent out to them, it had to be 'Lessard was out to get them.' Every time, someone became engaged or married to an online love, it is as if I introduced them myself. "I have saved myself from 'sysop psychosis" by not taking any of these things personally. I have avoided taking things too personally by not getting too personal with the members," he added. "This gives you emotional distance and it makes it easier for you to function as an authority figure when defending your integrity while resolving a flame war or dealing with any other difficult situation." (Russell Shaw/19950821) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 08/21/95 ONLINE Stratton-Oakmont Case Causing Pain For Prodigy Sysops (NEWS)(ONLINE)(MSP)(00025) Stratton-Oakmont Case Causing Pain For Prodigy Sysops 08/21/95 TAMPA, FLORIDA, U.S.A., 1995 AUG 21 (NB) -- A recent New York court decision, which held that Prodigy Services may be liable for harmful statements made against a financial-services firm, has the independent-contractor Prodigy sysop community nervous. "The question from hell," multi-area Prodigy sysop Bill Lessard remarked when the question about sysop reaction to the recent ruling. Prodigy manager of bulletin board and chat communications, Jenny Ambrozek, told a forum audience at One BBSCON that in her view, the initial court decision was made on incomplete information and that an amicus brief would take care of that dilemma and ensure that the online service will ultimately prevail. The most emotional response to Stratton-Oakmont, however, was given by sysop Lynne Bundesen, who runs the Religion and Adoption bulletin boards on Prodigy and comments weekly for UPI Radio's News on the Internet. Bundesen was asked if Prodigy had given its sysops instructions about how to handle potentially slanderous postings. "The answer is yes and no, but the real answer is yes and no and maybe. Even if they did, none of us should listen to them," she fumed. Next, her voice quavering with emotion, Bundesen established just how deeply she feels about this issue. "Actually the most terrifying area of this work is to know that everybody goes into this with a good heart -- and to think you could make a mistake and held responsible to something is a very painful area of life. In my personal opinion, it [keeping a board free of potentially actionable postings] is an unreasonable expectation on the part of everyone." Just how the sysop should deal with the menacing specter of threatened legal actions arising from posting on their boards is a highly personal decision, added Bundesen, author of several books. "Each sysop had to find out for themselves how this should be dealt with," she said. The company cannot tell you what to do or what not to do without being liable themselves." Bundesen implied that there has been some contact from Prodigy about the issue, but again, the ultimate arbiter comes from within the conscience of each board operator. "The company cannot tell you what to do or what not to do without being liable themselves. I appreciate the contact, and know that they put themselves in a difficult position when they talk to you about it. The ultimate thing is, you have to make your own decisions about what to do," she added. "You have to hope that your own integrity and your own authenticity will be your ultimate defense." As a final word of advice, Bundesen said that the sysop community in general should take on the threat of online libel suits more proactively. "I hope that ultimately, more and more people stand up and say, 'Look, I am doing the best I know how to do, and if I made a mistake I am sorry, and if I didn't make a mistake, get off my back,'" she stated. "I think we should all say that and be more offensive about it." (Russell Shaw/19950821/Press and public contact: Lynne Bundesen, 1-212-662-5172) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 08/21/95 ONLINE ****Jim Warren Wins Dvorak Lifetime Achievement Award (NEWS)(ONLINE)(MSP)(00026) ****Jim Warren Wins Dvorak Lifetime Achievement Award 08/21/95 TAMPA, FLORIDA, U.S.A., 1995 AUG 21 (NB) -- At the annual Dvorak PC Telecommunications Excellence Awards dinner held Saturday night as part of the One BBSCON event, longtime cyberspace freedom of speech advocate Jim Warren won the prestigious Lifetime Achievement Award. Warren, a leading journalist on First Amendment-related and technology issues, as well as founder of InfoWorld magazine and the Computers, Freedom and Privacy Conferences, told the dinner audience that regardless of ideology, bulletin boards can be powerful tools for citizen empowerment by acting as forums for specific causes and office-seekers. "You can be the leaders. The saying is, 'When the people lead, the leaders will follow.' Let's do it. Let us make waves and 'surf' for freedom. Although it's never 'free,' all it takes is time and effort," said Warren to enthusiastic applause. The Dvorak awards are named for and were presented by John Dvorak, a computer-industry journalist for the last 15 years and a regular commentator on cyberspace issues for several leading computer and general-interest publications as well as a regular guest on radio and television talk shows. Dvorak is also the author of seven books, including "Dvorak's Guide To Connectivity" and "Dvorak Predicts - An Insider's View of the Computer Industry." Other winners of the 1995 Dvorak Awards were: Online Topical Index: Yahoo!, Yahoo! Corporation, Mountain View, Calif. Windows Client Server-based BBS Software: Mindwire, Durand Communications Network, Inc., Santa Barbara, Calif. Internet E-mail Client: E-mail Connection Version 2.5 Internet Edition- Connectsoft, Inc., Bellevue, Wash. Commercial Online Information Service: Prodigy, Prodigy Services Company, White Plains, N.Y. Web-based Magazine: Urban Desires, AGENCY.COM, New York, N.Y. Hardware Software TCP/IP Connectivity: Internet Protocol Adapter, Esoft, Inc., Aurora, Col. ISDN Router: Ascend Pipeline 50-ascend Communications, Inc., Alameda, Calif. OS/2-based BBS Software: PC Board For OS/2, Clark Development Company, Inc., Murray, Utah. Online Financial Service/software: Streetsmart, Charles Schwab & Company, Inc., San Francisco, Calif. BBS And Web Site: Software Creations BBS/Web; Software Creations, Clinton, Mass. HTML Technology Extension: Java/HotJava, Sun Microsystems, Mountain View, Calif. Server Software: Website; Bob Denny, Pasadena, Calif.; Gina Blaber, O'Reilly And Associates, Sebastapol, Calif.; Jay Weber, Eit Corporation, Menlo Park, Calif. TCP/IP Winsock Client-socket: Trumpet Winsock, Peter R. Tattam, Trumpet Software International Ltd., Bellerive, Tasmania, Australia. Person Of The Year: Alan Meckler; CEO, Mecklermedia, Westport, Conn. (Russell Shaw/19950821/Jim Warren: 1-415-851-7075; jwarren@well.com) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 08/21/95 PC DEC Updates Starion, Celebris Lines (NEWS)(PC)(TOR)(00027) DEC Updates Starion, Celebris Lines 08/21/95 MAYNARD, MASSACHUSETTS, U.S.A., 1995 AUG 21 (NB) -- Digital Equipment Corp. (NYSE:DEC) has announced its new Starion and Celebris GL personal computers for the fall. The new systems have features designed to make them work better with the new Windows 95 operating system, as well as some multimedia enhancements, DEC said. The five new Starion models, due to be available on Windows 95's August 24 launch date, use a keyboard designed especially for Windows 95, and support the Microsoft Plug and Play standard, which is supposed to make it easier to install add-on products. They also come with "getting started" software to help customers get acquainted with the new software. The new Starions will ship with Windows 95 installed. The new Celebris GL systems will also ship with Windows 95 installed, but they will come with a dual-install option that will let customers choose to run either Windows 95 or Windows for Workgroups 3.11 on top of the DOS operating system. DEC expects no delays in supplying Windows 95 with the new PCs, said Steve Harrington, product marketing manager for the Celebris GL products. Though DEC is hitching its wagon to the much-touted Windows 95 launch, the new line of Starions will also emphasize high-quality audio capabilities. The PCs come with JBL stereo speakers that Tim Eccles, director of product marketing for consumer products in DEC's personal computer business, described as "top of the line" speakers. "Many computers come with no-name speakers," he said, but for multimedia applications such as games better quality is desirable. DEC sees the JBL speakers as a key selling point for the new Starions, Eccles told Newsbytes. "Every six months just like clockwork we refresh our line," Eccles said. "It's kind of like fashion." The new models replace those previously on the market, he added. All the Starion models use the Intel Pentium processor, at speeds from 75 to 133 megahertz (MHZ). Some come with eight and some with 16 megabytes (MB) of memory, and the hard drives hold either 850 MB or 1.2 gigabytes (GB) of data, DEC said. Memory on all models can be expanded to 128 MB. List prices are $1,749 for the Starion 910, $1,999 for the Starion 915, $2,199 for the Starion 920, $2,499 for the Starion 930, and $2,999 for the Starion 940. DEC is offering a choice of 15-inch and 17-inch monitors, at $399 and $749 respectively. The new Celebris GL models come with Pentium processors at 90 to 133 MHZ. They come in short tower configurations with five expansion slots and six drive bays free, DEC said. Eight or 16 MB of memory is standard, depending on the model, and DEC offers 845-MB, 1.2-GB, and 2.0-GB hard disk drives. All models come with a quad-speed CD-ROM drive. An enhanced Desktop Management Interface (DMI) service layer is also included. Prices range from $2,799 for the Celebris GL 590 with eight MB of memory and an 845MB hard drive to $4,299 for the Celebris GL 5133ST with 16 MB of memory and a 1.2-GB drive, a company spokeswoman said. (Grant Buckler/19950821/Press Contact: Sandy McLaughlin, Digital Equipment, 508-264-7981) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 08/21/95 TELECOM AT&T Plots To Retake Local Phone Service - WSJ (NEWS)(TELECOM)(MSP)(00028) AT&T Plots To Retake Local Phone Service - WSJ 08/21/95 NEW YORK CITY, NEW YORK, U.S.A., 1995 AUG 21 (NB) -- AT&T (NYSE:T) is making plans to gobble up the local telephone service it had to give up to the so-called "Baby Bells" in 1984, the Wall Street Journal reported today. The local phone market is worth $90 billion a year, and the former "Ma Bell" plans to take a bruising when it re-enters the market with guns blazing, the Journal said. The Journal quoted company insiders as saying AT&T is at the war table planning strategy after markets are deregulated by legislation recently passed by both houses of Congress on Capitol Hill. Those plans include a secret project to install more than 100 switches to route local calls in virtually every Bell market, a $23 billion investment in wireless services, and cash infusions in both advertising budgets and in the back pockets of lobbyists at the federal and state level, the paper said. John Skalko, AT&T spokesperson, told Newsbytes the company would not discuss any plans until after the pending legislation is finally passed. Currently, the telecommunications bill is headed for conference committee review, the Journal said. How will the company retake local phone services? The Journal said company "insiders" said AT&T may sell some of its current companies, including its computer business, the former NCR Corp.; AT&T Network Systems, which the company may make a public offering on; and its Universal credit card business. Skalko told Newsbytes the company would not comment on the subject of the selling of businesses, which he called "pure speculation." The Journal said people inside AT&T say the company will make a first strike at the Illinois and Michigan markets of Ameritech (NYSE:AIT). An Ameritech official did not contact Newsbytes by the daily deadline. But last February Newsbytes covered an announcement by Ameritech that stated it no longer opposed a proposal to open its telephone network to local competition. The company made the announcement with the hope it would improve its chances to get into the long distance business. Currently, AT&T is testing local service in Rochester, New York, under a plan by New York state regulators to open the local phone market, the Journal reported. (Bob Woods/19950821/Press Contacts: John Skalko, AT&T, 908-221-8413; Larry Cose, Ameritech, 312-220-2379) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 08/21/95 APPLE Apple Announces QuickTime 2.1 For Mac (NEWS)(APPLE)(LAX)(00029) Apple Announces QuickTime 2.1 For Mac 08/21/95 CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1995 AUG 21 (NB) -- Apple Computer, Inc. announced the availability of QuickTime 2.1 for Macintosh. Enhancements in sound, video, and a new sprite (character-based animation) toolbox are added in this upgraded QuickTime version. Speaking to Newsbytes, Jackie Promes, a spokesperson for Apple, said, "QuickTime is a system software extension that lets users edit video, animation, music, and text on a computer. In addition to being a foundation developers use for creating multimedia content, QuickTime gives users a standard way to display, compress, copy and paste. "QuickTime 2.1 expands the benefits of QuickTime by offering new features including: sprite toolbox, Modifier Tracks, Sound Manager, higher-quality video, 256 color Cinepak, and ability to import Internet sound," said Promes. "Apple continues to push the envelope in multimedia innovation with this new version of QuickTime, especially for that vast majority of developers that use the Macintosh for multimedia content creation," commented Tom Ryan, director of media products at Apple. The new sprite, or character-based animation, toolbox in QuickTime 2.1 provides developers with a "high-performance sprite engine." All sprite images are stored as QuickTime compressed images. QuickTime 2.1 for Macintosh also adds a sprite track, which allows sprite animations to be included as part of a QuickTime movie. Because the sprite animation is contained in a movie, it is automatically synchronized with other multimedia elements such as sound. QuickTime 2.1 also includes a new Modifier Track feature that allows a video track to send its image data to a sprite track. When the movie is played, the video track appears as one of the sprites. Sound Manager 3.1, included with QuickTime 2.1 for Macintosh, provides enhanced recording and playback performance on all Power Macintosh computers. In fact, according to Promes, "performance increases of 500 percent or more have been achieved." According to the company, a new technique for authoring video content enables content developers to create video that is larger or full-screen. Consumers can play movies at full-screen on most computers; on others, the video can be played back half size. Cinepak, the most common digital video compression format in use today, according to Apple, has been stored in a format using millions of colors. Most computers only have 256 color display devices, resulting in image degradation when using Cinepak. QuickTime 2.1 for Macintosh adds a 256-color format to Cinepak, enabling high-quality video playback without any color remapping. Using QuickTime 2.1 for Macintosh, Sound Manager 3.1 and any QuickTime-aware application, a consumer can now transparently open and play format sound files commonly found on the World Wide Web, according to Apple. Also, QuickTime 2.1 for Macintosh provides a easy way for developers to change the monitor resolution within their title so the content fills the entire screen, says the company. The QuickTime 2.1 for Macintosh runtime software is available immediately for end-users, for $9.95. QuickTime 2.1 is available on the Macintosh Users Group (MAUG) on CompuServe. To access, users can type GO QTIME. QuickTime 2.1 for Macintosh is also available on the World Wide Web at http://quicktime.apple.com/ The Software Developers Kit (SDK) for developers is expected to be available in late 1995, for a price of $99. Developers can license the software free of charge for redistribution with applications, titles and media clip libraries that support QuickTime. QuickTime 2.1 for Macintosh requires a color Macintosh computer running System 6.0.7 or later. (Richard Bowers/19950821/Press Contact: Katy Boos, Big Sky Communications, 408-974-4451) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 08/21/95 BROADCAST ****Zilog's Violence Control Chip For TV (NEWS)(BROADCAST)(SFO)(00030) ****Zilog's Violence Control Chip For TV 08/21/95 CAMPBELL, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1995 AUG 21 (NB) -- Zilog (NYSE:ZLG) says its "V-Chip" family is capable of decoding program ratings, comparing ratings to standards, and providing controls to access or deny access to various programs. The company says its V89300 chips meet a growing demand to limit under-age viewers' access to violent movies and television programs. The chips' implementation into television sets through television manufacturers and companies building access control products is currently in negotiation, but the company is not revealing the parties involved at this time. Al Marquis, vice president of consumer video at Zilog, told Newsbytes, "The V89300 series of chips are designed to control volume, contrast, tuning and onscreen displays. Using the EIA 608 specification, the chips are able to decode such things as closed caption content and the data packets which contain program ratings." When the V89300 chips are implemented, a parent will access a set-up screen which allows the parent to determine which rated programs may be displayed on the television screen. Specific applications will determine the number of options and features a user will have. Zilog says television control and display functions may be easily modified with on-board RAM. The "V-chip" is currently in volume production with chip prices ranging from $4 to $6 in quantity. Zilog's production is well-timed with current US government talks and regulations regarding minor-aged children's access to violent and objectionable programming. The computer industry has been extremely vocal regarding any government censorship, claiming any control of content should be in the hands of individual consumers. This announcement from Zilog is a major technology step towards such individual controls. Marquis says one of the advantages with the Z89300 chip series is its affordability. He said a cost-effective solution is critical to carrying out any government regulations. A specification for the implementation of the V-chip series is still under development, but Zilog says the new series is clearly capable of decoding during the vertical blanking interval of transmission. (Patrick McKenna/19950821/Press Contact: Chris Bradley, Zilog, tel 408-370-8056) (SUMMARY)(GENERAL)(MSP)(00031) Newsbytes Daily Summary 08/21/95 MINNEAPOLIS, MINNESOTA, U.S.A., 1995 AUG 21 (NB) -- These are capsules of all today's news stories: ======================================================================== ------------| N E W S B Y T E S D A I L Y S U M M A R Y |---------- ------------| Monday, August 21, 1995 |---------- ======================================================================== (c) Newsbytes News Network (Tm) Editor in Chief: Wendy Woods ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Newsbytes News Network's 1995 Update CD-ROM for Mac, DOS, and Windows is now available for $29.95 (includes s&h). Contains 1983-1995 news stories, more than 64,000 keyword searchable stories and 475 digitized images. For more information or to order, fax to 612-430-0441 or e-mail to 'administrator@newsbytes.com' -- MC, Visa, Amex accepted. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ CATEGORY HEADLINES (*** indicates today's top stories) STORY # ======================================================================== APPLE Apple Announces QuickTime 2.1 For Mac...................... 29 BROADCAST Largest Satellite Network In China......................... 06 BROADCAST ****Zilog's Violence Control Chip For TV.................. 30 BUSINESS Creative Labs Opens Operations Center In Europe............ 07 BUSINESS EMC Captures 80% Of Philippines Market..................... 08 CHIPS Toshiba Joins Ramtron In FRAM Dev't........................ 13 GENERAL ****New Subscription Service For Newsbytes CD-ROM......... 03 GENERAL NewsPix Images For Newsbytes Publishers.................... 05 GENERAL China - Technology Newsbriefs.............................. 09 GENERAL Japan Newsbriefs........................................... 14 GENERAL Canadian Product Launch Update............................. 16 NETWORK ****Voice, Data, Video Over ATM, From MFS................. 17 ONLINE CompuServe Extends Spyglass Mosaic Contract................ 02 ONLINE AT&T Interchange Online Beta Testing Web Access............ 04 ONLINE VeriFone Acquires Enterprise Integration Technologies...... 18 ONLINE Attorney - Your Online Picture May Make You A "Public Perso 22 ONLINE Sysops - Computer Stores Can Be Valuable Marketing Resource 23 ONLINE Prodigy Sysop - "Don't Take It Personally.................. 24 ONLINE Stratton-Oakmont Case Causing Pain For Prodigy Sysops...... 25 ONLINE ****Jim Warren Wins Dvorak Lifetime Achievement Award..... 26 PC Germany - Compaq Slashes European Server Pricing........... 11 PC Compaq Intros Modular Notebook PC.......................... 19 PC DEC Updates Starion, Celebris Lines........................ 27 TELECOM European Commission Approves C&W/Veba Telecoms Linkup...... 12 TELECOM Ericsson Secures Japanese Digiphone Expansion.............. 15 TELECOM AT&T's New Calling Plan.................................... 20 TELECOM AT&T Plots To Retake Local Phone Service - WSJ............. 28 UNIX Data General Intros AV 10000 32-Way SMP Server............. 10 WINDOWS ****Windows 95/MSN Launch Under Observation Says EC....... 01 WINDOWS Egghead Does Windows At Midnight........................... 21 ======================================================================== These are the headlines and first paragraphs of each story, in order: 1 -> ****Windows 95/MSN Launch Under Observation Says EC -- Microsoft may be confident that its launch of Windows 95 can go ahead relatively unimpeded in the US, but the European Commissioner's (EC's) office in Brussels has warned the software giant that, as well as the Department of Justice's office in the US, it too is watching Microsoft's activities very closely. 2 -> CompuServe Extends Spyglass Mosaic Contract -- Spyglass Inc. (NASDAQ:SPYG) is extending its licensing agreement to all of CompuServe, after the online service acquired Spry earlier this year. Under the agreement, CompuServe will have access to the same Spyglass technology Spry had previously licenced. 3 -> ****New Subscription Service For Newsbytes CD-ROM -- Newsbytes News Network is now offering "auto-ordering" 4 -> AT&T Interchange Online Beta Testing Web Access -- First known as Ziff-Davis' Interchange, an online service for distributing published print content, Interchange is finally up and running under the ownership of AT&T. This specialized services network has begun testing World Wide Web (Web) access using Netscape Navigator. 5 -> NewsPix Images For Newsbytes Publishers -- These photos correspond to recent Newsbytes stories. They are online in the Newsbytes menu on America Online, NiftyServe, and the Newsbytes private bulletin board systems in Minneapolis and London. JPEG files are larger in size, PICT files are designed as thumbnails for onscreen viewing. 6 -> Largest Satellite Network In China -- Scientific-Atlanta, Inc. has signed a contract to supply China's nationwide satellite communications network to Yunnan King Modle Tobacco Telecom Corp. (YTT), the telecommunications subsidiary of Yunnan Provincial Tobacco Company, China's largest manufacturer of tobacco products. 7 -> Creative Labs Opens Operations Center In Europe -- Creative Labs has officially opened its European Operations and Technical Center (EOTC) in Dublin, Ireland. According to the company, the Blanchardstown center has already created around 250 jobs in the region. 8 -> EMC Captures 80% Of Philippines Market -- According to a recent International Data Corporation (IDC) report, EMC Corporation has captured 80% of the Philippines' high-end data storage market. 9 -> China - Technology Newsbriefs -- In this roundup of news from China, a LCD production line will be set up in Changchun, The joint R&D center by Bell-Northern Research (BNR) of Northern Telecom of Canada is celebrating its first anniversary in Beijing, Lotus cooperates with a research institute for Lotus Notes distribution and support, telecom and computer industries become important in Shenzhen, electronics becomes a pillar in Zhengjiang Province. 10 -> Data General Intros AV 10000 32-Way SMP Server -- Data General's new Aviion AV 10000 server, believed by the company to be the industry's first 32-way SMP (symmetrical multiprocessing) system, adds new technologies for near-term support of up to 3000 users and 10 terabytes (TB) of storage, while also serving as a stepping stone to future plans like the use of Intel P6 SHV (Standard High-Volume) boards, said DG's Steve Aucoin, in an interview with Newsbytes. 11 -> Germany - Compaq Slashes European Server Pricing -- Compaq has announced a series of price cuts on its server range of machines sold in Germany and across Western Europe. The price cuts, which range from 11 to 15 percent, affect the ProSignia low-end servers and ProLiant mid-range server systems. 12 -> European Commission Approves C&W/Veba Telecoms Linkup -- The European Commission (EC) has announced it has approved plans submitted by Cable & Wireless and Veba. As reported previously by Newsbytes, in January of this year, Veba, the German technology giant, instructed NatWest Capital Markets to buy up to 10.5 percent of Cable & Wireless shares at 435 pence each or less. 13 -> Toshiba Joins Ramtron In FRAM Dev't -- Toshiba Corporation has reached an agreement with Ramtron (NASDAQ:RMTR) over development and eventual production of ferroelectric random access memory (FRAM) chips. The new chips have the ability to retain data stored in memory when the power is removed. 14 -> Japan Newsbriefs -- In this roundup of news from Japan, Jupiter Telecom announces cable telephone trials, Matsushita decides on US launch of digital camcorders, ASCII Net to introduce dictionary translation service, games sales equal consumer electronics, Sony renames US, European units. 15 -> Ericsson Secures Japanese Digiphone Expansion -- Ericsson has announced it has received an order from Central Japan Digital Phone (CDP) for the expansion of the company's digital cellular network in the Nagoya area of Japan. 16 -> Canadian Product Launch Update -- This regular feature, appearing on the first day Newsbytes publishes each week, provides further details for the Canadian market on announcements by international companies that Newsbytes has already covered. This week: Lotus Development's Notes: Newsstand and SmartSuite 4.0 for Windows 3.1. 17 -> ****Voice, Data, Video Over ATM, From MFS -- MFS's new Wide Area Voice Exchange (WAVE) 18 -> VeriFone Acquires Enterprise Integration Technologies -- VeriFone (NYSE:VFI), a developer of automated transaction systems and software, announced an agreement to acquire Enterprise Integration Technologies (EIT), a developer of software and services related to Internet commerce. The $28 million deal is intended to strengthen VeriFone's position in the market of Internet commerce. 19 -> Compaq Intros Modular Notebook PC -- Compaq Computer Corp. (NYSE: CPQ) has introduced a Pentium-based notebook computer with a modular design that lets users select between a CD-ROM drive, up to 2.7 gigabytes (GB) of data storage, two batteries for up to eight hours of run time between charges, or a floppy drive. 20 -> AT&T's New Calling Plan -- AT&T (NYSE:T) said it is introducing a new long-distance consumer calling program called "True Reach Savings," that offers discounts on all types of domestic phone calls. 21 -> Egghead Does Windows At Midnight -- Egghead Software has announced it will open most of its stores across the country at one minute after midnight on August 24 in order to be one of the first places where PC users who just can't wait until normal business hours can get their copy of Windows 95. 22 -> Attorney - Your Online Picture May Make You A "Public Person -- Bulletin-board operators who publish photos of themselves on their boards or on World Wide Web sites may lose some of the libel, slander, and copyright provisions afforded to private individuals under US law. That's according to Lance Rose, an attorney with Lance Rose & Associates, Montclair, N.J., whose presentation at One BBSCON last Friday in Tampa was entitled "Shooting The Rapids: New Online Legal Issues." 23 -> Sysops - Computer Stores Can Be Valuable Marketing Resource -- Two bulletin board system operators at One BBSCON recommend that boards seeking to get the word out should consider local computer retailers as indispensible allies. 24 -> Prodigy Sysop - "Don't Take It Personally -- Bill Lessard, moderator of Prodigy's Personal Connection and several other high-traffic sites, says that bulletin board operators shouldn't get too personally involved with the often emotionally charged give-and-take that can happen online. "Don't take anything personally. Cyberspace is emotional space, an electronic comingling of souls that takes place via modem which in many cases is just as real as real live interaction," Lessard said at One BBSCON Saturday. 25 -> Stratton-Oakmont Case Causing Pain For Prodigy Sysops -- A recent New York court decision, which held that Prodigy Services may be liable for harmful statements made against a financial-services firm, has the independent-contractor Prodigy sysop community nervous. 26 -> ****Jim Warren Wins Dvorak Lifetime Achievement Award -- At the annual Dvorak PC Telecommunications Excellence Awards dinner held Saturday night as part of the One BBSCON event, longtime cyberspace freedom of speech advocate Jim Warren won the prestigious Lifetime Achievement Award. 27 -> DEC Updates Starion, Celebris Lines -- Digital Equipment Corp. (NYSE:DEC) has announced its new Starion and Celebris GL personal computers for the fall. The new systems have features designed to make them work better with the new Windows 95 operating system, as well as some multimedia enhancements, DEC said. 28 -> AT&T Plots To Retake Local Phone Service - WSJ -- AT&T (NYSE:T) is making plans to gobble up the local telephone service it had to give up to the so-called "Baby Bells" in 1984, the Wall Street Journal reported today. The local phone market is worth $90 billion a year, and the former "Ma Bell" plans to take a bruising when it re-enters the market with guns blazing, the Journal said. 29 -> Apple Announces QuickTime 2.1 For Mac -- Apple Computer, Inc. announced the availability of QuickTime 2.1 for Macintosh. Enhancements in sound, video, and a new sprite (character-based animation) toolbox are added in this upgraded QuickTime version. 30 -> ****Zilog's Violence Control Chip For TV -- Zilog (NYSE:ZLG) says its "V-Chip" family is capable of decoding program ratings, comparing ratings to standards, and providing controls to access or deny access to various programs. The company says its V89300 chips meet a growing demand to limit under-age viewers' access to violent movies and television programs. (Wendy Woods/19950821) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 08/18/95 GENERAL Japan Newsbriefs (NEWS)(GENERAL)(TYO)(00001) Japan Newsbriefs 08/18/95 TOKYO, JAPAN, 1995 AUG 18 (NB) -- In this roundup of news from Japan, Pioneer announces first quarter results, Sharp to introduce LCD televisions, Toshiba computers unaffected by Intel board fault, Asahi National Broadcasting online, NEC plans national PC service chain, new national online service planned. Pioneer Announces First Quarter Results Pioneer Electronics today announced a 283 million yen ($2.4 million) loss due to the strong rise of the yen in the first three months of the current fiscal year. For the three months to 30 June, the Tokyo based electronics manufacturer posted a 1.82 billion yen ($18.6 million) group net loss. In the last week the yen has fallen in value pushing the exchange rate up to around 98 yen to the dollar from an average of around 84 yen to the dollar during the period in question. Sharp To Introduce LCD Televisions Sharp Electronics will begin selling television sets with liquid crystal displays next month. The sets will be available in a variety of styles. Direct view screens will be used on sets with screens up to 21 inches while rear view projection screens will be utilized for larger screen sizes. The company hopes to sell several thousand of the sets a month because of their compact size meaning they can be taken anywhere. A 8.4 inch screen set will cost around $1,000 with the larger 10.4 inch screen set costing around $1,500. Toshiba Computers Unaffected By Intel Board Fault A Toshiba spokesman told Newsbytes that the company's desktop computers were not affected by a warning put out by Intel over faulty chips that have been used in some of the American company's motherboards. Toshiba said that the Intel boards in question have not been used in any Toshiba computers. Intel has been manufacturing computers for Toshiba since the beginning of this year. Asahi National Broadcasting Online One of Japan's commercial TV networks, TV Asahi, has joined the Internet with a new home page. The announcement was made at the end of "News Station," the major evening newscast, last night. Rival station TBS has been on the World Wide Web for some time and NTV is set to begin a service via the Yomiuri Shimbun's Web server soon. The only national commercial network yet to go online is Fuji Television. World Wide Web : http://www.tv-asahi.co.jp/ World Wide Web : http://www.tbs.co.jp/ NEC Plans National PC Service Chain Next month NEC Corporation will open a network of 140 "PC Clean Spots" across the country. The centers will offer general technical support, rapid repair of faults and advice for users of NEC computers. They will all open within existing NEC service centers. New National Online Service Planned The Central Federation of Societies of Commerce and Industry, an organization that links together local commercial societies across Japan, has announced plans to link its 1.1 million members together via a dedicated national multimedia computer network. Federation members will be able to use the system to promote and sell products they produce to consumers. First trials of the new network will begin in October in Tochigi and Wakayama prefectures and, if successful, expand nationwide within a year. (Martyn Williams/19950818) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 08/18/95 GENERAL Bill Gates To Visit Ireland In September (NEWS)(GENERAL)(LON)(00002) Bill Gates To Visit Ireland In September 08/18/95 DUBLIN, IRELAND, 1995 AUG 18 (NB) -- Microsoft Ireland had announced that Bill Gates, the company's chairman and CEO, will address a major event at the Royal Dublin Society in Dublin in early September. The Royal Dublin Society (RDS) is a society of businesspeople that operates in Ireland. With a broad business base, the society has become to be known as a major influence on Irish business life, as witnessed by its Royal Patronage. The event, which will be restricted to an invited audience, closely follows the worldwide launch of Windows 95 on the 24th of August 1995, Newsbytes notes. However, the launch of Windows 95, while making the visit timely, is not actually the reason for Gates' visit. The real reason is that it marks the tenth anniversary of Microsoft's presence in Ireland, from where all Microsoft products for the European market are translated, localized, manufactured and distributed. Because of the launch of Windows 95, however, Gates has called his speech "Windows 95 & Beyond," and aims to provide an insight into his vision of the future. Gates also plans to visit Microsoft's operations in Sandyford, Co. Dublin, where over 800 staff are employed. "Bill Gates' visit is an exciting part of our celebrations for Microsoft's tenth year in Ireland," said Ann Riordan, business manager at Microsoft Ireland. "He is acknowledged around the world as one of computer industry's leading visionaries and I believe there will be a very warm welcome for him here." (Sylvia Dennis/19950817/Press Contact: Text 100 +353-1-295-0800; Reader Contact: Microsoft Ireland +353-450-2113) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 08/18/95 LEGAL UK Thieves Score UKP 40,000 From Single ATM (NEWS)(LEGAL)(LON)(00003) UK Thieves Score UKP 40,000 From Single ATM 08/18/95 HOVE, EAST SUSSEX, ENGLAND, 1995 AUG 18 (NB) -- Police in East Sussex are searching for a gang of thieves who drained around UKP 40,000 from a single Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) ATM (automated teller machine) during June and July, Newsbytes has learned. According to Sussex Police, the unknown fraudsters made a series of withdrawals from the accounts of around 40 customers from the ATM. RBS officials say the ATM was put back in active use after certain security precautions were taken. "We are satisfied that we have detected all the cases and the customers have been refunded. In many cases, customers didn't even know," said a bank spokesman. Neither the bank, nor the police, are commenting on the modus operandi of the criminals. While police are continuing their search for the fraudsters, Newsbytes' sources suggest that the fraud is linked to a series of arrests carried out by police in the London and Kent areas late last month, when around 80,000 forged ATM cards were confiscated, along with a selection of computers capable of recording data on the magnetic stripes of ATM cards. Newsbytes' sources suggest that the July arrests and the RBS ATM scam may have something to do with a group of criminals who have "cracked" the PIN algorithm for certain types of ATM cards. The PIN algorithm is required for certain types of ATM cards since the ATMs cannot always reach the cardholder's home computer system. The closely guarded PIN algorithm for the cardholder account data is in the magnetic stripe of the ATM card and produces a PIN for the customer to use with that card. Because the PIN algorithm is the key to being able to draw money on customer accounts, UK banks and financial institutions have guarded its complexities very closely. The last few years, however, have seen successful robberies by thieves who have ram-raided banks and driven off with the complete ATM, ostensibly to break it open at their leisure and spend the money. It now appears that the criminals may have used these ATMS to extract the PIN algorithm. Provided the criminals have access to legitimate account holder data, usually obtained from ATM receipts, they can decode the PIN for a card with the account data stored on its magnetic stripe and withdraw funds from the cardholder accounts without permission. Commenting on the recent spate of ATM scams, Peter Sommer, a research fellow at the Computer Security Centre at the London School of Economics, told Newsbytes that the possible compromising of the ATM PIN algorithm does not detract from the fact that the technically simple act of cloning an ATM card makes it possible to defraud the ATM owners and/or account holders. "It remains the case that it is still possible to carry out a variety of ATM frauds by means of simple card cloning. The networks most at risk are those that are either off-line or if they are real time, do not have adequate checking mechanisms for daily withdrawals on each account," he said. As a result of the Hove incident, the Association for Payment Clearing Services, APACS, the UK banking group that coordinates action against ATM fraud, has warned its members of the potential problem. (Steve Gold/19950817) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 08/18/95 TELECOM France Telecom, DBT Back Off Sprint Deal (NEWS)(TELECOM)(LON)(00004) France Telecom, DBT Back Off Sprint Deal 08/18/95 PARIS, FRANCE, 1995 AUG 18 (NB) -- France Telecom and Deutsche Bundespost Telekom (DBT) have agreed to modify the terms of their Atlas joint venture agreement in the face of ongoing concerns by the European Commission (EC). As reported previously by Newsbytes, EC officials are concerned that the deal between the two European telecoms operations, which calls for them to take a joint 20 percent stake in Sprint in the US, may go against monopolistic legislation, and may be detrimental to EC telecoms consumers. The $4.2 billion deal will see the creation of a joint venture company to be known as Phoenix and also calls for both European companies to offer voice and data services to major corporations, especially in the international market. Both the French and German telecoms companies have also agreed to work with the EC on proposals to liberalize their own country's cable TV industries, despite the fact that no formal date for the liberalization has been set by the EC. Industry experts suggest that this agreement to look at cable TV market liberalization may be part of a private and informal agreement between Karel van Miert, the EC's anti-competition Minister and the two telcos, in order to get the Atlas deal past the European regulators. In a prepared statement issued in June of this year, Van Miert warned both telecoms companies that the proposed deal was not acceptable under EC anti-trust law, as it then currently stood. Van Miert's announcement came soon after France Telecom and Deutsche Telekom announced preliminary plans to work together when offering voice and data services to major corporations in the international telecoms arena. As with other deals of this type, the Atlas project must gain EC approval if it is to be allowed to proceed. Van Miert, however, said that the deal was unacceptable. "We have just sent Deutsche Telekom and France Telecom a warning letter saying that the agreement cannot in its current form meet with Commission approval," Van Miert told reporters at the time. As noted by Newsbytes, Van Miert added the rider that this stance does not mean that the deal is being condemned, or prohibited. Newsbytes sources at the time suggested that behind the scenes discussions were taking place and that a modified deal would be announced in due course, (Steve Gold/19950817/Press & Reader Contact: European Commission, +32-299-1111) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 08/18/95 TELECOM Phone Competition Hot Topic In Canada (NEWS)(TELECOM)(TOR)(00005) Phone Competition Hot Topic In Canada 08/18/95 TORONTO, ONTARIO, CANADA, 1995 AUG 18 (NB) -- Phone competition is the topic of heated discussion in Canada at the moment, with competing long-distance carriers squabbling over advertising practices while a group of business telecommunications users call for extensive hearings before federal regulators move ahead with plans for competitive local service. Unitel Communications Inc., the Toronto firm whose application to the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) gave birth to long-distance competition in this country, has asked the Bureau of Competition Policy to investigate the established telephone companies' advertising practices. According to Unitel spokeswoman Carleen Carroll, the bureau has said it will conduct the investigation. Unitel's complaints have to do with claims made in various ways by the regional phone companies about the savings customers get from their discount plans. Some telcos have made these claims in advertising, some by printing the amount allegedly saved on their monthly bills to customers -- the latter a response to the competing firms' practice of telling customers how much they have supposedly saved each month by switching from their regional phone company. Unitel claims it is misleading for the phone companies to use standard midweek daytime rates as the basis for comparison in calculating these discounts, since evening and weekend discounts have been available for many years. One of Unitel's examples is Bell Canada's advertisement of "60% Off Weekends" in November, 1994. Long-distance rates have been discounted by 60 percent for much of the weekend since well before long-distance competition, and Unitel maintains those reduced rates should now be considered the normal cost of calling at those times. Bell Canada, the largest of the established regional phone companies, responded to Unitel's complaint by calling it a "red herring," and argued that Unitel itself compares its best prices to the regional phone companies' regular prices in advertising, without mentioning their savings plans. Bell described the complaint as a "desperate act by a desperate company." Unitel has suffered large financial losses and its three shareholders are seeking a buyer. Earlier, Unitel took Maritime Telegraph and Telephone (MT&T), the regional telephone company serving Nova Scotia, to court over the methods MT&T allegedly used to win a government contract. Unitel has a request before the CRTC for permission to file a lawsuit against Newfoundland Telephone, alleging that company harassed a customer that had switched to Unitel's long-distance service. On the local-competition front, the Canadian Business Telecommunications Alliance (CBTA) has called on the CRTC to hold public hearings before introducing competition in local phone service. The CBTA is a group of large businesses and other organizations that use telecommunications services. It said local competition, which the CRTC has indicated it favors, will have even more impact on consumers than the existing competition in long-distance service. The CBTA said it agrees with the CRTC's support for local competition, but is unhappy with the implementation approach, which CBTA officials called "archaic and heavily bureaucratic" in a letter to the secretary-general of the CRTC, Allan Darling. The CBTA letter said the CRTC is missing significant issues, such as the handling of 911 emergency calls and how competing local phone companies will be regulated. (Grant Buckler/19950818/Press Contact: Carleen Carroll, Unitel, 416-345-2114; John Morris, Bell Canada, 613-785-0579; Douglas Robson, Canadian Business Telecommunications Alliance, 416-865-9993 ext. 24) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 08/18/95 ONLINE Bank of America On America Online (NEWS)(ONLINE)(LAX)(00006) Bank of America On America Online 08/18/95 SAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1995 AUG 18 (NB) -- Bank of America (NYSE; BAC) announced that it has signed an agreement with America Online, Inc. (AOL) (NASDAQ: AMER) to provide financial information and online banking services through a site to be established on America Online's Personal Finance Channel. This brings the nation's second largest bank to the number one online service. Bank of America plans to initially provide information about the bank and its services when the AOL site opens by year-end. The bank will add to its site on a continuing basis with a range of services, including home banking, online consumer loan and credit card applications, and E-mail customer service, the firm said. The entire process should be complete by mid 1996. Harvey Radin, vice president of communications at Bank of America, told Newsbytes, "This is another step by Bank of America in establishing a strategic position in online banking. For the last ten years we have offered our own home banking network, but less than one percent of our customers took advantage of this direct link. For the last two years we have not even marketed this service. This all changes now." "Last September, Bank of America became the first major commercial bank to establish a presence on the Internet, and earlier this summer we completed the acquisition of Meca Software, Inc. Meca is the developer of Managing Your Money software, the third most popular personal finance software," said Radin. B of A online will offer a range of services, including home banking, online loan applications, e-mail, direct bill paying, and personal finance information. All of this should be complete online within the first few months of 1996, he said. "Our customers want convenience and a choice of ways to transact their business with us," said Jeanine Brown, executive vice president for Interactive Banking at Bank of America. "Many of our customers are turning to online service as a way to conduct business and we're pleased to give them access to banking services through a well- established, innovative organization like America Online." Bank of America is headquartered in San Francisco, California. With $226 billion in assets, Bank of America claims to be the nation's second largest banking company. America Online, Inc. based in Vienna, VA, claims to be the largest and fastest growing provider of online services in the world. AOL has 3 million subscribers and a global workforce of more than 2,500 people. (Richard Bowers/19950818/Press Contact: Harvey Radin, Bank of America, 415-622-6320) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 08/18/95 GENERAL Personnel Roundup (NEWS)(GENERAL)(SFO)(00007) Personnel Roundup 08/18/95 MINNEAPOLIS, MINNESOTA, U.S.A., 1995 AUG 18 (NB) -- This is a regular feature, summarizing personnel changes not covered elsewhere by Newsbytes: Turtle Beach Systems, Pyramid Technology, Microsoft, US West, Mentor Graphics Corp., LSI Logic Corp., Maxtor Corp., Spectrum HoloByte Inc., Sun Microsystems Inc. Ezequiel "Zeke" Olazaba has joined Turtle Beach Systems (717-767-0200) as the new vice president of sales. Olazaba will be responsible for the distribution, retail, and international sales worldwide and will report directly to Marty Goldberg, president and chief executive officer (CEO) of Turtle Beach. Previously, Olazaba held the position of director of sales and marketing for Hyundai Electronics America in its PC and Monitor divisions. Rich Hammons has been appointed vice president and chief technology officer for Pyramid Technology (408-428-9000), a Siemens Nixdorf company. Hammons previously served as chief scientist responsible for Pyramid's Systems Technology Lab. He will continue to report to Raj Nathan, senior vice president of product technology. Prior to joining Pyramid, Hammons spent 22 years at Hewlett-Packard where he was responsible for development of Unix operating system products. Pyramid Technology also announced the promotion of Raymond Chiu to vice president of Asia sales. Chiu will continue to report directly to John Chen, CEO for Pyramid. Richard Fade, 40, has been appointed vice president for the Desktop Applications Division (DAD) of Microsoft (206-882-8080 - Nasdaq:MSFT). Fade, formerly vice president of Advanced Technology Sales, replaces Pete Higgins, who previously held the position. Fade will report to group vice presidents of the Applications and Content Group, Nathan Myhrvold and Pete Higgins. US West has formed a new group within the US West Media Group that will acquire and develop interactive consumer applications to be delivered on both television and on-line over broadband networks. John O'Farrell has been named president of the new US West Interactive Services Group (303-784-2454) that will concentrate on interactive consumer services that can be accessed from an armchair, using a remote control, or with a keyboard and PC screen. Mentor Graphics Corporation (503-221-2366 - Nasdaq: MENT) has announced the election of four vice presidents by its board of directors. The new officers include Eileen Boerger, general manager of Corporate Engineering; Callan Carpenter, director of Corporate Development; Glenn House, general manager of the IC and Mixed-Signal Design Division; and Dottie Wanat, director of Corporate Communications. LSI Logic Corporation (NYSE: LSI - 408-433-4067) announced the death of David R. LaRock, the company's senior vice president of US Marketing and Sales, following a lengthy battle with cancer. He was 52. LaRock joined LSI Logic in 1981 as the company's first field salesman. Rick R. Brantmeyer has been named senior vice president, sales and marketing,of Maxtor Corp. (NASDAQ:MXTR - 408-432-4567), effective August 21. Brantmeyer, 48, joins Maxtor from Western Digital, where his most recent position was vice president of marketing. Stephen M. Race has been appointed CEO of Interactive software publisher Spectrum HoloByte Inc., (Nasdaq: SBYT - 510-814-6336). He assumes the position from Gilman G. Louie, who was acting CEO and who remains Founder and chairman of the board. Sun Microsystems Inc. says that Andreas "Andy" Bechtolsheim, vice president of technology and co-founder of the company, has resigned to pursue a new venture in networking technology. Bechtolsheim, 39, was the architect of the original Sun workstation while a graduate student at Stanford University. He left in 1982 to co-found the company with Vinod Khosla, Scott McNealy and Bill Joy. In other Microsoft news, Gordon Bell, former head of research and development at Digital Equipment Corp. and a computing pioneer, has joined the Microsoft Research Group. While at Digital, Bell led the development of the VAX minicomputer and was responsible for the design and development of various other minicomputers and mainframes. (Ian Stokell/19950818) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 08/18/95 ONLINE ****Australian Watchdog Puts Microsoft On Warning (NEWS)(ONLINE)(SYD)(00008) ****Australian Watchdog Puts Microsoft On Warning 08/18/95 CANBERRA, AUSTRALIA 1995 AUG 18 (NB) -- The Australian Trade Practices Commission (TPC) has announced that it is dealing with complaints about the Microsoft Network (MSN), being promoted in Australia as On Australia. The TPC said it is continuing discussions with On Australia as well as partners Microsoft and Telstra. The basis of the complaints is that Microsoft Network access is included with all copies of Windows '95 which is to be released in a few days. Other complaints include the costs to other software vendors of using the MSN to offer services. A press release from the TPC Chairman Professor Alan Fels said that the TPC is not proposing to take any action at this stage. Fels also states that On Australia is not actually running yet, although Newsbytes had no trouble in signing up on the MSN using a release version of Windows '95. Fells also said that "the TPC is seeking written assurances with regard to the issues raised and will continue to monitor On Australia, and the joint venture's actions when the information service is available." He added that the TPC is keeping a close watch on investigations being undertaken by the United States Department of Justice. (Paul Zucker/19950818/Contact: Professor Alan Fels tel. +61-6-264 2829 fax. +61-6-264 2911) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 08/18/95 TELECOM Czech Republic Plans Rapid GSM Network (NEWS)(TELECOM)(LON)(00009) Czech Republic Plans Rapid GSM Network 08/18/95 PRAGUE, CZECH REPUBLIC, 1995 AUG 18 (NB) -- The Czech Republic has outlined plans to tender for two GSM digital mobile phone nets, Newsbytes has learned. The Ministry for Economics in the Republic reports that Ceska Radiokomunikace, the state-controlled telecoms body, will run one of the GSM networks, with the other licensed to the successful tendering company. The arrival of GSM with its digital data and fax facilities, along with international roaming options, will come as a significant boost to businesses in the Czech Republic, Newsbytes notes. The Republic is being left behind in the cellular revolution which has seen GSM spread around the world, and especially in Europe, like wildfire. Although Ceska Radiokimunikace runs the analog cellular services, its coverage is still relatively limited. The analog network was inherited from Eurotel, a joint venture among US West, Bell Atlantic, and the local PTTs which started its operation as one NMT 450 network in the early 1990s. With one switch in Bratislava and one in Prague, the network is now operated as two companies. Eurotel hoped to gain subscribers who use cellular as a substitute to the plain old telephone service (POTS), but this did not happen. Growth on the analog network was slower than expected and marketing plans had to be revised. RadioKontakt, a joint venture among Telediffusion de France and two local broadcasters, operates a paging service. Since GSM offers a radiopaging service using its Short Messaging Service (SMS) facilities, industry watchers predict that the planned GSM networks for the Republic will do very well. This perhaps explains the Czech Government's decision to push on with a rapid licensing and network deployment for GSM. (Sylvia Dennis/19950817) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 08/18/95 LEGAL ****Russian Citibank Hacker Case Hits UK Court (NEWS)(LEGAL)(LON)(00010) ****Russian Citibank Hacker Case Hits UK Court 08/18/95 LONDON, ENGLAND, 1995 AUG 18 (NB) -- According to a case that has broken this week in the British courts, a Russian computer hacker has allegedly defrauded Citibank's US operation of $2.8 million. US authorities, as the case opened on Thursday of this week at London's Bow Street Magistrates Court, have applied for Vladimir Levin's extradition to the US. Although the alleged incidents occurred a year ago, the case has only now come to light because of the extradition hearing, after the 24-year-old math graduate was detained while passing through the UK. Citibank has refused to comment on the case and it appears that the bank is maintaining a press blackout on the whole affair. According to today's issue of the London Financial Times, if the case is proven against Levin, then "it is thought likely to be regarded in banking circles as the most prominent example yet of how banks' computer security systems can fall and place clients' funds at risk." Peter Sommer, a research fellow with the Computer Security Center at the London School of Economics, who is acclaimed as a consultant in banking and risk analysis, told Newsbytes that the case was probably the first of its type. "This case is interesting as there has never been an actual example of banks being hacked for significant sums of money like this. There has always been a worry that banks' computer systems are susceptible to break-ins of this type, and it now looks like it is possible," he said. Sommer added the caveat that, because the case was a simple extradition hearing, which has now been adjourned to September 15, the facts of the case may be unclear. Nevertheless, the London Financial Times reports that US authorities are in the process of bringing charges of conspiracy, bank fraud and wire fraud against Levin. Alistair Kelman, a London Barrister who specializes in IT (information technology) matters, told Newsbytes that he was amazed at the case, if only because it was the first case of its type. He explained that the extradition hearing was only the first stage, since the case proper would get going when Levin was extradited to the US, something that looks quite possible. "It promises to be a fascinating case," he said. In court yesterday, the extradition solicitors, acting for the US Government, claimed that Levin had carried out the fraud with the assistance of another, un-named Russian computer entrepreneur. In July of last year, Levin is alleged to have met with his accomplice, claiming that he had gained unauthorized access to the Citibank computer system at Wall Street in New York, and made two transfers to a bank in Finland. The pair then allegedly transferred further small sums to a colleague of Levin's in San Francisco. In August, Levin is alleged to have used his terminal at AO Saturn, a St Petersburg, Russia-based computer company, transferring two sums of money to the Bank of America's network in San Francisco. When B of A queried the transactions, because the money was left in the account too long, his US accomplice then fled back to Russia. Despite this setback, Levin and his Russian accomplice pursued their project and, at the end of August, allegedly transferred $2.78 million to bank branches in California and Israel. The illicit transfers were picked up by security within the Citibank system and Levin was subsequently arrested while passing through London earlier this year. (Steve Gold/19950818) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 08/18/95 LEGAL Anti-Pirate Forces Move Into China's Interior (NEWS)(LEGAL)(HKG)(00011) Anti-Pirate Forces Move Into China's Interior 08/18/95 CENTRAL, HONG KONG, 1995 AUG 18 (NB) -- For the first time, anti-piracy forces have struck deep in China's interior, with Chengdu Administration for Industry and Commerce (AIC) and Chengdu Trademark Services officers swooping down on 22 shops in the Sichuan provincial capital. They seized "illegal" CD-ROMs, PCs and hard disks loaded with pirated software, according to the Business Software Alliance (BSA), which lodged complaints, spurring authorities to act. The raids focused on the Huayi Computer Market and -- with authorities displaying great sense of occasion -- the newly opened Chengdu Computer Market. According to the BSA, the illegal software trade in Chengdu is highly organized. Many of the shops raided are believed to be wholesalers who sourced their inventory from the Shenzhen special economic zone, on the border with Hong Kong. Hong Kong-based BSA vice president, Valerie Colbourn, said she was pleased to see the fight against piracy spread out from the coastal provinces. Viewing this first anti-piracy run into the interior with enthusiasm, she said: "These raids should demonstrate that no place is safe for software thieves wherever they operate in China." The 1,000-plus CD-ROMs seized in the raids are believed to be mainly compilation copies comprising many separate software programs. The legal value of the copied software on a single compilation CD-ROM disk can be as much as US$20,000, the BSA said. Business records were also seized, which should help authorities prepare their legal case. The raids highlight the increased cooperation between the local AIC and the BSA in the nationwide fight against illegal software dealers. Prior to this raid, staff members of the local AIC received technical training from the BSA on basic computer literacy and raid procedures, including methods to identify differences between genuine and fake software. The BSA had earlier mounted training sessions for AIC units in Beijing and Shanghai. (Nigel Armstrong & I.T. Daily/19950817) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 08/18/95 IBM IBM Promotes RISC System/6000 In Russia (NEWS)(IBM)(LON)(00012) IBM Promotes RISC System/6000 In Russia 08/18/95 MOSCOW, RUSSIA, 1995 AUG 18 (NB) -- Following the donation of a RISC System/6000 system to the St. Petersburg University in June, IBM is staging seminars this month throughout Russia to promote its RISC System/6000 systems. Big Blue is focusing on cooperation with local open systems software professionals and has also announced that its Solution Development Center is scheduled to open on November 1, 1995. 1994 and the first half of 1995 have been marked by a rapid growth of computer sales in the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) overall and particularly in Russia. Mr. L. Stavissky, AIX systems manager, IBM East Europe/Asia Ltd., told Newsbytes that his company has reorganized its Moscow office to take advantage of the changes. The production department was split into several independent specific product marketing groups, including a group lead by Mr. Stavissky which is currently promoting the IBM RISC System/6000 systems. In addition, marketing efforts are focusing on workshops which began in June with a week-long workshop held by IBM at the State University in St. Peterburg, which ranks among the leading Russian software centers. IBM and the St. Peterburg university officials signed an agreement calling for the delivery of a new IBM RISC System/6000 server equipped with a PowerPC 604 central processor, peripherals and software to the St. Peterburg university under condition that the university cannot resell the products. The system is intended for use in setting up a computer network laboratory in the university. According to the agreement, St. Peterburg programmers will additionally compile educational materials for the forthcoming semester and will proceed with the development of commercial software products which are to be marketed in Russia either independently or jointly with IBM. In compliance with the agreement, IBM can use the laboratory as its exhibition facility. In Moscow from August 21 - 25, 1995, IBM will stage another seminar covering Unix systems. The seminar will be attended by experts from the Moscow Physics Engineering University -- a top notch Russian fundamental science and engineering educational institution with a potential to become a software house in the near future. This seminar will also be attended by about a dozen IBM customers in Russia. This event will be followed up by a road show in St. Peterburg, Minsk, Kiev, Chelyabinsk, Alma-Ata, Novosibirsk and Vladivostok. IBM expects these measures to determine the market for IBM RISC System/6000 in Russia, and to establish a network of exhibition centers controlled by experts, as well as to develop software. IBM plans to open a Solution Development Center (scheduled on November 1, 1995) to be headed by Mrs. Anne Leonard, one of principal designers of AIX and advocates of Unix systems from IBM research facilities in Austin, Texas. (Vladimir Vetrov, IntelliTech/19950817/Press & Reader Contact: Mr. L. Stavissky, AIX Systems Manager, IBM East Europe/Asia Ltd., tel. +7 095 9402000, fax +7 095 9402070, Internet e-mail 82189106@vievma.vnet.ibm.com) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 08/18/95 WINDOWS Micrografx, Hallmark Intro Do-It-Yourself Cardmaking (NEWS)(WINDOWS)(DEN)(00013) Micrografx, Hallmark Intro Do-It-Yourself Cardmaking 08/18/95 RICHARDSON, TEXAS, U.S.A., 1995 AUG 18 (NB) -- Micrografx, Inc (NASDAQ: MGXI) has teamed with the company that wants you to send the very best, Hallmark Cards Inc., to produce computer software that lets you design your own personalized greetings. The two companies said Hallmark Connections Card Studio on CD- ROM also includes more than 1,000 pre-designed cards that feature familiar Hallmark characters, artwork and messages. You also get more than 200 selections of Hallmark artwork, over 900 Micrografx clip art symbols, more than 1,000 original messages created by Hallmark writers, and 40 specially selected greeting card lettering styles. You can also import graphics files such as images you created or photos you have taken. You can browse through the pre-designed cards by clicking on a card rack icon, or use the Card Finder option to find just the right message for that special event, birthday, holiday or anniversary. Card Studio also has a feature called Event Minder which helps you remember those special occasions with its built-in calendar that automatically displays reminders of dates you have entered each time the user enters Windows. Event Minder includes a database to store addresses, dates, gift preferences and a person's birthday. Card Studio comes with a stock of paper and envelopes and an order form is included so you can order additional supplies. Card Studio is compatible with Windows 3.1 and Windows 95. Hallmark said the program has a suggested retail price of $49.99 and is available through retailers like CompUSA, Computer city, Toys 'R Us, and Barnes & Noble bookstores. It can also be ordered direct from Micrografx and from some mail order companies. Canon Computer Systems Inc has announced it will include a starter version of Card Studio with each of its new color bubble Jet printers, the BJC-210, BJC-4100 and BJC-610. The intro version comes with 50 pre- designed cards. (Jim Mallory/19950817/Press contact; Mindi Ellis, Hallmark Cards, tel 816-274-5883 or David Wilson, Micrografx, tel 214-994-6534; Public contact: Micrografx, 214-234-1769 or 800-676-3110) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 08/18/95 EDUCATION Chinese Asked For Donations Of Old Computers To Schools (NEWS)(EDUCATION)(PEK)(00014) Chinese Asked For Donations Of Old Computers To Schools 08/18/95 BEIJING, CHINA, 1995 AUG 18 (NB) -- There are about 570,000 unused out-of-date computers in China and they should be given to middle and elementary schools for computer education, PC World China and Computer Fans magazines jointly appealed recently. Based on a survey conducted by PC World China, about 570,000 out-of-date computers in China, 17 percent of the total number of computers in the country, are not being used. Most of them are Apple II, 8086, 286, or 386-classes computers. Many high education and research institutions purchased new computers in recent years and the out-of-date computers were left idle since "giving away" is usually not allowed in state-owned institutions, or complicated procedures must be followed to "get rid" of unused computers. On the other hand, elementary and middle schools, especially those in remote areas, lack of funds to purchase even the simplest computers, the two magazines said. Therefore, the slogan "Popularization of Computer Knowledge from Childhood," espoused frequently by the government, cannot be turned into reality, say the editors. The two magazines are appealing for an end to the waste of computer resources and encourage individuals or businesses to donate or sell unused out-of-date computers to schools where those computers can be utilized. The two journals will provide free services to find new users of donated out-of-date computers. A honor roll will be published in the two magazines, they said, to appreciate the individuals or units who donate out-of-date computers for computer education in middle and elementary schools. (Chih-Ho Yu & Ning Huang/19950804/Reader Contact: PC World China, tel +86-10 852-9435) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 08/18/95 LEGAL China Pledges To Protect Software Developers (NEWS)(LEGAL)(PEK)(00015) China Pledges To Protect Software Developers 08/18/95 BEIJING, CHINA, 1995 AUG 18 (NB) -- China will continue to safeguard the interests of domestic and foreign software developers and dealers, said an official with Ministry of Electronics Industry (MEI) in Beijing recently. Chen Chong, the Deputy Director of the Department of Computer and Information Technology under MEI, claimed recently that China has established a "comparatively perfect" legal system including copyright laws and regulations regarding computer software management, to protect intellectual property rights. However, administrative management should continue to play an important role now, while detailed rules and regulations for implementing laws are still being completely worked out, he said. MEI and other government organizations will further strengthen their supervision of software manufacturing and market management to standardize this "special high-tech industry" as soon as possible, the director further pointed out. The effect of a package of strict legal and administrative measures adopted by the Chinese government during the past three years has been partly reflected by a significant increase in software sales, he said. Statistics show that the country's software sales were RMB2 billion in 1992 when the Regulations Regarding Computer Software Management first went into force. However, software sales volume more than doubled during the next two years and reached RMB4.9 billion in 1994. So far, there are more than 1,000 software development firms across the country employing at least 120,00 workers, according to the latest statistics of MEI. There has been a remarkable growth in foreign investment in the software sector over past few years, Chen said. The enhancement of administrative measures to help safeguard the interests of software developers and dealers will boost foreign companies' involvement in the domestic software business as well as domestic software development, he predicted. (Chih-Ho Yu & Ning Huang/19950810/Reader Contact: Ministry of Electronics Industry, tel +86-10 821-2233) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 08/18/95 GENERAL ****12 Years Of High-Tech History On CD-ROM (NEWS)(GENERAL)(MSP)(00016) ****12 Years Of High-Tech History On CD-ROM 08/18/95 MINNEAPOLIS, MINNESOTA, U.S.A., 1995 AUG 18 (NB) -- Twelve years of computer, telecom, and interactive services reporting by the global reporting team of the Newsbytes News Network, an international wire service devoted to high-tech daily news, is now on CD-ROM and being shipped. The Newsbytes 1995 Update CD-ROM for Mac, Windows, and DOS contains all Newsbytes news stories written from May, 1983 through May, 1995. The 1995 Update Disk -- 13 years worth of high-tech history -- is US$24.95 plus US$5 shipping and handling. The Newsbytes 1995 Update CD-ROM contains more than 64,000 news stories, written by the 19-member Newsbytes reporting team and contributing publications worldwide. Coverage includes the computer, telecom, interactive, and online services markets worldwide. These concise wire reports span the last 13 years and comprise a complete reference on the companies, people, and products that have shaped the global information infrastructure. The Newsbytes 1995 Update CD-ROM, published by Wayzata Technology, offers keyword searching of stories, as well as more than 475 publication-quality digitized images in JPEG format, illustrating the news stories. The digitized graphics and photographs are from the Newsbytes Newspix photo service, which is used by publishers worldwide. A Textware search engine enables Newsbytes CD-ROM disks to be keyword searched for stories in which individual words or text strings appear, or Boolean searched ("Microsoft" plus "OS/2" but not "OSF"). This makes it a valuable tool for researchers and libraries. Newsbytes CD-ROMs are "hybrids" -- they run on the Apple Computer Macintosh, the Windows platform, and DOS PCs -- so any one disk can interchangeably run on all these platforms. "The Newsbytes CD-ROM series has a following of thousands of industry professionals, educators, and those interested in the high-tech arena, because it's low in cost, has the most extensive compilation of news reporting on these industries for the past 13 years, and it's fast," said Newsbytes Editor in Chief and founder, Wendy Woods. "It's an even better value than before, with over 12 years of computer industry news and over 400 color photos. A tremendous resource from a numerously acclaimed news source," says Mark Englehardt, CEO of Wayzata Technology, Inc., which produces the disk. The Newsbytes 1995 Update CD-ROM is priced at US$24.95 (plus US$5.00 shipping and handling) for first-time buyers of a Newsbytes CD-ROM, and US$19.95 (plus US$4.50 shipping and handling) to all owners of any previous Newsbytes CD-ROM. Newsbytes, a pioneering electronic publication offering both text and images, has provided daily coverage of the dynamic and complex computer and telecommunications industries since 1983. More than 180 media outlets, including print publications, online services, and database companies, are licensed to publish Newsbytes wire material. The wire service reports, on average, 30 stories each day, filed by 19 correspondents worldwide. All reporting is first-hand, original, and objective. News is gathered from independent sources, trade shows, and interviews with top industry professionals. Headquartered in Minneapolis, MN, in the United States, Newsbytes News Network has bureaus in San Francisco, Denver, Washington DC, Boston, Los Angeles, Toronto, London, Tokyo, Hongkong, Sydney, Beijing, Manila, and New Delhi. Newsbytes can be read daily on Genie, America Online, Applelink, eWorld, Bix, Delphi, Ziffnet, Dialog, Compulink, NiftyServe, and Newsnet. Newsbytes is also distributed via the Internet by Clarinet Communications and other information services. Newsbytes coverage has won Best Online Publication awards five times from the Computer Press Association, the largest organization of professional computer journalists worldwide Newsbytes is an independent, privately held news organization. To order the CD-ROM, send a check in equivalent local currency or US dollars drawn on a US bank, or submit a Visa, American Express, or Mastercard number, with expiration date, to CD-ROM Offer, Newsbytes News Network, Carriage House, 406 West Olive St., Stillwater, MN 55082 USA, or fax to 612-430-0441. Wholesale pricing is available for distributors. Electronic mail orders are also accepted, and should be sent to administrator@newsbytes.com (Internet). Include shipping address and credit card number with expiration date. (Newsbytes Staff/19950818) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 08/18/95 REVIEW PC Review of Glidepoint Mouse Replacement (REVIEW)(PC)(WAS)(00017) Review of Glidepoint Mouse Replacement 08/18/95 MINNEAPOLIS, MINNESOTA, U.S.A., 1995 AUG 18 (NB) -- By John McCormick. Plagued by rodent problems? Forever trying to locate a few square inches of clear desk space to operate a mouse? Have I got a solution for you! What could be more natural than just moving your fingertip across a smooth pad and having the cursor follow every movement? No bulky mouse. No search for clear desk space. No search for a mouse that really fits your hand. No tired arm muscles from making large movements all day long. In short, none of the problems plaguing mouse haters. Glidepoint, a 2 1/4- by 1 1/2-inch rectangle of touch-sensitive pad, is as big a revolution in user interfaces as the mouse was and it doesn't even take up desk space. After simply unplugging my old PS/2 port mouse and plugging in the Glidepoint, I proceeded to test it on the most critical of applications programs found on modern PCs. That's Right! Microsoft Solitaire! Placing my index finger on the pad and sliding it across moved the cursor to a card. A quick tap-tap with a finger picked up the card and another slide caused the cards to move in lock step. Simplicity itself! It must have taken me all of twenty seconds to become accustomed to the new way of navigating among those pesky pixels and selecting cards. Whether highlighting text in WordPerfect (Novell) Office applications, selecting video clips in Adobe Premiere, or drawing in a CAD program, I love Glidepoint. When it first came out last year I immediately got a Glidepoint and on that same day packed my mouse, never to dig it out again; now Cirque has improved the Glidepoint by adding to the two original thumb buttons with a third. On my Compaq Business Audio keyboard the pad sits comfortably over the speaker, just above the number pad. You see, with all the writing I do, holding the keyboard on my lap is the only practical location. Of course you could always let it sit on your desk, or even jury-rig a vertical mount if you are one of those who just can't get the hang of translating horizontal movement to a vertical monitor screen. Laptop users need never again face the question of whether to struggle with a familiar mouse on an airplane, or keep switching between using a mouse at the office/home and being an eraser- head when using the laptop. The first time I showed Glidepoint to someone else they immediately voiced the concern that it would be difficult to replace your finger in exactly the right place each time, but since the software always assigns the present finger position to the cursor's present location, this doesn't matter. Because of this relative positioning, you can always have your finger in the center of the pad, no matter whether the cursor is in the middle of the screen, or at an extreme corner location. If you start moving the cursor and run out of room on Glidepoint, just lift the finger and place it elsewhere on the pad to start from right where you left the cursor. Because most people can move their fingers much more precisely than a bulky mouse, the tiny pad surface is plenty large enough to cover the screen without repositioning provided you start in the right place, e.g., if the cursor is in the upper left corner and you put your finger in the same corner on glidepoint, then moving your finger to the diagonally opposite corner will be more than enough to move the cursor off the screen at the corresponding corner. I find that after a day of intensive Windows use or drawing, my right arm is far less tired -- this can only be because I am only moving a finger around, not pushing a mouse around a much larger area. Also, although Glidepoint has buttons to match a mouse's, the fast double tap is a far more natural way for many people to activate icons or do anything else that the right button is normally used for. GlidePoint, $99 list, Cirque Corp., 2850 East 3300 South, Salt Lake City, Utah 84109 800-454-3375, fax 801-467-0208. Also sold under the ALPS brand name and available with serial port or Macintosh interface. Representative street price: $69 (Alps version) from USA-Flex 800-723-2261 or 708-582-6206. (John McCormick/19950817) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 08/18/95 BUSINESS Dell Doubles 2Q Net Income, Sales Up 52 Percent (NEWS)(BUSINESS)(DEN)(00018) Dell Doubles 2Q Net Income, Sales Up 52 Percent 08/18/95 AUSTIN, TEXAS, U.S.A., 1995 AUG 18 (NB) -- Dell Computer Corporation (NASDAQ: DELL) reported its net income for the second quarter rose 128 percent to $65.1 million on record sales of $1.2 billion. That earned shareholders $1.32 per share for the period versus $0.65 per share for the same period last year. In the second quarter last year, Dell income and earnings were reduced by $6.2 million and $0.15 per share respectively due to a charge related to the company's closure of its controversial investment derivatives portfolio as well as certain short-term investments. The results of the period just completed mark the sixth consecutive quarter of sequential income and revenue gains for the company. Dell said sales of Pentium-based systems continued to increase in the second quarter, accounting for 67 percent of system sales during the period. In the same quarter last year Pentium-based PCs accounted for 55 percent of system sales. Dell said sale of notebook PCs represented 15 percent of system sales during the second quarter of fiscal year 96, versus 17 percent in the second quarter last year. Dell introduced its Latitude notebook line during the most recent quarter. Desktop PCs and workstations accounted for 82 percent of sales in the quarter, while servers contributed three percent of sales in the period. Gross profit margin also rose slightly in the second quarter of FY 96, reported at 21.8 percent versus 21.4 percent last year. Dell said a moderate pricing environment and process improvements contributed to the margin stability. Operating expenses as a percentage of sales were 14.3 percent, down from 15 percent in the same period last year but up from the 13.1 percent reported in the first quarter of the current fiscal year. This is the ninth consecutive quarter Dell has reported positive cash flow from operations, with cash and investments of about $570 million on hand. The company said inventories represent about five weeks of sales, up slightly from the previous quarter. For the first six months of fiscal 1996 Dell reported sales of $2.3 billion versus $1.6 billion in the first six months of the previous fiscal year. Net income was $126.8 million versus $47.5 million. Primary earnings for the first six months was $2.43 per share, compared to $1.06 for the first half of FY 95. Dell spent $24.6 million for research, development and engineering in the second quarter of FY 96 compared to 415.9 million last year in the same period. That is also an increase over the first quarter of FY 96 when the company spend $20.8 million for R&D. (Jim Mallory/19950818/Press contact: Dwayne Cox, Dell, 512-728-4100) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 95 08/18/95 WINDOWS ****Rolling Stones To Push Windows (NEWS)(WINDOWS)(DEN)(00019) ****Rolling Stones To Push Windows 95 08/18/95 REDMOND, WASHINGTON, U.S.A., 1995 AUG 18 (NB) -- The musical group Rolling Stones has lifted its ban on selling song rights for use in advertising by letting Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ: MSFT) use their hit "Start Me Up" in commercials for Windows 95. Early Stones songs for which Stones songwriters Mick Jagger and Keith Richards do not own the copyrights have been heard in commercials. The new operating system and graphical user interface is scheduled to launch August 24 in a carnival-like atmosphere on the software company's campus in Redmond, Washington to an invited group of reporters, analysts and VIPs. The festivities will also be broadcast via satellite to about 20 Microsoft regional offices. That date also marks the kickoff of a multimillion ad campaign promoting Windows 95. The Stones tune title is a natural for Windows 95, since one of the features Microsoft is touting is the start button that launches programs in Windows 95. The button is also prominent in print ads appearing in the US. "The Start button really is the key to the design of Windows 95. With the push of just one button, users can find their programs and their documents, get help, and explore their computers," according to Brad Chase, general manager of personal systems division marketing at Microsoft. A Microsoft public relations representative told Newsbytes the company is not commenting on how much the Rolling Stones got for using the song. Various published reports have ranged from $12 million to $20 million, but the actual figure is probably less than $5 million, according to sources close to Microsoft. Microsoft kicks off its worldwide Windows 95 ad campaign next Thursday. A mix of 30 and 60-second ads will appear on network and cable television broadcasts. Print ads will run in national newspapers, business and consumer magazines and computer trade publications. The ads will appear in the US and more than 20 foreign countries. The Windows 95 ad campaign will be the biggest advertising campaign in the history of the software company. Portland, Oregon- based Wieden & Kennedy and Adnerson & Lembke, a San Francisco agency, created the ads. Microsoft estimates the campaign could reach as many as 3 billion readers and viewers. (Jim Mallory/199508218/Press contact: Microsoft, tel 206-882-8080) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 08/18/95 ONLINE Star Tribune Online Adds Web Access (NEWS)(ONLINE)(SFO)(00020) Star Tribune Online Adds Web Access 08/18/95 MINNEAPOLIS, MINNESOTA, U.S.A., 1995 AUG 18 (NB) -- Star Tribune Online, an electronic extension of the Minneapolis Star Tribune, says it plans to offer World Wide Web access this September. As part of AT&T Interchange Online Network, Star Tribune Online subscribers will be able to click on hyperlinks to the Internet. One of four founding members of Interchange, Star Tribune has just ended its beta tests of the electronic edition of the newspaper. Bob Schafer, publisher of Star Tribune Online, told Newsbytes, "We see our online service as a terrific adjunct to the printed edition. The online edition allows our members to get updates throughout the day, e-mail and additional information services." One of those services includes full content of Newsbytes News Network. While Schafer said it is too early to draw conclusions about the online tests, the company has seen certain trends. The primary market consists of a local/statewide audience with a variety of preferences for local, national and international news. A secondary market consists of subscribers outside the state. These are people who may have lived in the Twin Cities area or have relatives there. Schafer said many loyal Minnesota Viking fans who do not reside in the local area are pleased to have access to in-depth coverage of the NFL (National Football League) team. AT&T's Interchange Online Network offers an almost reverse role to standard online services. The Star Tribune is responsible for marketing and sales of its online edition for which AT&T supplies the network capabilities and administrative support. Star Tribune Online is available through local access numbers across the state and in cities throughout the US. Once Star Tribune subscribers are online, they also have access to Interchange Central, an additional content and entertainment offering from AT&T. Web access becomes available through hyperlinks in Star Tribune and AT&T content. Once a subscriber clicks on a hyperlink, Netscape's Navigator is automatically launched and a user may access the rest of the Web through the linked site. (Patrick McKenna/19950818/Press Contact: Teri Dewey, Star Tribune Online, tel 612-673-7229) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 08/18/95 WINDOWS Windows 95 Takes On Carnival Atmosphere (NEWS)(WINDOWS)(DEN)(00021) Windows 95 Takes On Carnival Atmosphere 08/18/95 REDMOND, WASHINGTON, U.S.A., 1995 AUG 18 (NB) -- Look out, Barnum & Bailey, the Microsoft circus wagon is in town, and it will lead about 2,500 invited guests to what may amount to the biggest show in town next week when Microsoft rolls out Windows 95, the software company's new operating system and graphical user interface that will look more like what Macintosh users see on their screens than like the current version of Windows. It truly will be a carnival-like atmosphere on Microsoft's Redmond, Washington campus. Micrografx will be operating a 60-foot high Ferris wheel Windows 95 launch attendees can ride after they check out the company's latest offering, the ABC Graphics Suite with its interface designed for Microsoft Office for Windows 95. Ferris wheel riders will get a picture of themselves with a celebrity, but Micrografx isn't saying who that might be. MobileWare Corp. will be showing its remote client/server software that provides a wireless connection to resources like printing, e-mail, faxing and file transfers. They will also be hosting an event dubbed the "MobileWare Challenge" as part of the midway games that will be operating during the product launch. For those who weren't invited to the circus, you can still participate via the Internet. All you have to do is sign on to Microsoft's home page on the World Wide Web. Unlike the one-day affair at the Microsoft campus, the online activities will continue for three weeks. Online events will include seeing and hearing Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates' keynote address, a tour of the Microsoft site, and snapshots direct from the launch event. There will also be online information about hundreds of products designed for Windows 95, as well as an interactive mystery game that can win you prizes that include three Packard Bell personal computers. The mystery game, sponsored by Microsoft and Packard Bell, is an online interactive scavenger hunt in which clues are revealed in the context of an unfolding mystery in the fictional Texas town of Bethany. Players can get clues and then accumulate points by finding and submitting the correct locations of the hiding places found on the Internet. Registration for the game opens August 24 and the game runs through September 11. The other launch-related activities will remain available on the Internet through September 14. In order to handle the expected volume of online participation, Digital Equipment Corp. has installed ten servers to run Microsoft's home page and handle the events surrounding the launch event and the game. Microsoft and Digital also announced a "Win This Web Server" giveaway as a prize to a randomly selected Web site visitor from those who electronically sign the "Guest Book." The server is a DEC Prioris HX 590DP system designed for large workgroup application. (Jim Mallory/19950818/Press contact: Microsoft, tel 206-882-8080 or on the Internet at the URL http://www.windows.microsoft.com ) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 08/18/95 BROADCAST Adobe After Effects 3.0 For Video Post Production (NEWS)(BROADCAST)(LAX)(00022) Adobe After Effects 3.0 For Video Post Production 08/18/95 CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1995 AUG 18 (NB) -- Adobe Systems (NASDAQ:ADBE) announced Version 3.0 of Adobe After Effects for Macintosh and Power Macintosh. Adobe claims a major upgrade for it's digital post-production software for film, broadcast video and multimedia production. Adobe After Effects 3.0 provides integration with Adobe Photoshop and Adobe Illustrator programs. New features include enhanced motion control, time remapping, keyframe assistants, bezier masking, multiple effects per layer, and batch rendering. Speaking to Newsbytes, Patricia Pane, spokesperson for Adobe, said "Adobe After Effects 3.0 gives direct support for Adobe Photoshop 3.0. The integration with Adobe Illustrator includes the ability to maintain vector information with imported Adobe Illustrator files. Users can then scale, rotate and manipulate Adobe Illustrator files in a resolution-independent fashion." "When used with Adobe Premiere, which provides non-linear digital video and audio editing, After Effects 3.0 forms the core of a professional, post-production product for creating and delivering all levels of output, from QuickTime movies on CD-ROM to D-1 broadcast- quality, digital video and film resolution for special effects," said Payne. Adobe offers After Effects 3.0 in two formats. Users will be able to purchase a retail version of the product through authorized resellers or buy a bundle tailored to the needs of professional film and video producers through value-added resellers. According to the company, the bundle increases the appeal to film and video professionals by including more advanced motion control, keying, distortion and device control plug-ins. Minimum system requirements for Adobe After Effects 3.0 include a Macintosh II or later computer with a Floating Point Unit (FPU); Apple System Software version 7.0 or later; 6 megabytes of application RAM (8 megabytes for Power Macintosh), an 80-megabyte or larger hard drive, a color monitor and QuickTime 2.0 (included). Recommended system requirements include a Power Macintosh computer, Apple System Software version 7.5, 32 megabytes or more of application RAM, two color monitors and a 500-megabyte hard drive. The retail version of Adobe After Effects 3.0 is expected to be available from authorized resellers in the third quarter of 1995 at a suggested retail price of $995. The Adobe After Effects 3.0 Production Bundle is also expected to be available through value added resellers in the third quarter of 1995 for $1,995. (Richard Bowers/19950800/Press Contact: Patricia J. Pane, Adobe Systems, 415-962-2967 ) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 08/18/95 WINDOWS "Control Center" For Windows 95 Released (NEWS)(WINDOWS)(LON)(00023) "Control Center" For Windows 95 Released 08/18/95 UTTOXETER, STAFFORDSHIRE, ENGLAND, 1995 AUG 18 (NB) -- The Thompson Partnership, a UK company that specializes in distributing and registering shareware packages, has released SmilerShell/95, a control center application for Windows 95. Steve Townsley, a spokesman for the company, told Newsbytes that the shareware package costs UKP 19-95 to register and offers Windows 95 users a greatly enhanced control center for Windows 95 than they have in the Microsoft operating system itself. "This package allows you to group your favorite programs together under one or more icons, which means you don't have to trawl through the Win 95 menus when you want various applications," he explained. Townsley went on to say that the package is a complete recode of Barry Smiler's Windows 3.1 package of the same name. In use, the software features a tiny button that hops on to the title bar of the currently active Windows application. Pressing left click on the mouse then reveals what Townsley calls the ultimate Windows command line. Or a right click brings up a menu of SmilerShell utilities, a list of favorite applications, and all currently running tasks. According to Townsley, SmilerShell/95 can search for files by name or contents, set a reminder alarm which displays a message when it goes off, and recognize all Windows-useful 4DOS/NDOS commands. It also includes a real time system resources monitor, a date/time clock and a command line. All the options can be set from one dialog under Windows. "I met up with Barry (the program' author) at the recent Shareware conference in Phoenix, Arizona, and he was discussing the Windows 95 package with me. At the time he wanted to call the package Win 95 Control Center, but I suggested that SmilerShell may be more appropriate and that's what the package is called," he told Newsbytes. SmilerShell/95 runs under Windows NT or 95 and uses around 100 kilobytes of memory and one percent of system resources while running. The package can be downloaded from UKSHARE section 7 on CompuServe or from the company's Web server at http://www.ttp.co.uk . (Steve Gold/19950818/Press & Reader Contact: The Thompson Partnership +44-1889-564601; Fax +44-889-563219; Internet Email: steve@ttp.co.uk) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 08/18/95 ONLINE ****Netscape Encrypted Data Cracked (NEWS)(ONLINE)(TYO)(00024) ****Netscape Encrypted Data Cracked 08/18/95 TOKYO, JAPAN, 1995 AUG 18 (NB) -- Two computer users have managed to break Netscape's Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) encryption code in response to a challenge posted to the Internet. But far from scare people away from using the system for online purchases, the results could reassure people of the safety. In mid July Hal Finney, a US computer user, posted data in an Internet message that he recorded when he sent an order, containing a fake name and credit card details, to Netscape's own computer. Setting a task for the hacking community, he wrote, "The challenge is to break the encryption and recover the name and address info I entered in the form and sent securely to Netscape." Early this week, news came from Damien Doligez, a French computer user, that he had cracked the code and revealed the contents of the message. Several hours later a message from an American team also claimed the same feat, actually cracking it two hours earlier than Doligez. While the results look damaging on the surface, Netscape, and Doligez, pointed out the amount of computer processing power needed to hack just one message and the difficulty in repeating the process. Roseanne Siino of Netscape told Newsbytes, "The real issue is whether this compromises security on the net. He used 120 computers for 8 days just to crack one message." Siino points out that to break into another message would require another eight days at the same 120 workstations and 2 parallel computers. In home computer terms, Doligez guesses a network of about 80 Intel Pentium-based machines would be equivalent to the system he had access to via his workplace, INRIA in Paris, and computers an Ecole Polytechnique and ENS. Netscape estimates the total cost of this computing time at around $10,000, meaning there are many more economical ways of getting credit cards numbers than hacking into Netscape SSL messages. Doligez agrees, writing on his home page: "The technical implications are almost zero. Everybody who understands the technical details knew perfectly well that this was do-able and even easy. You have to understand what happened exactly. I did not break SSL itself. I did only break one SSL session that used the weakest algorithm available in SSL. If I want to break another session, it will cost another 8 days of all my machines." The vulnerability of the encryption system is shown by its international use. The coding system available via Netscape software from the Internet makes use of a 40-bit encryption key. A stronger version, using a 128-bit key, is available to US citizens but restricted from export outside the United States by government regulations. Netscape's Siino explained the US government allows export of the lower security version "because they can break it." There are some hopes that this demonstration will help persuade the US government to lift export restrictions on some harder-to-crack versions of the code. Netscape is currently developing a new Secure Courier code which just encrypts the financial data in the messages using 56-bit keys. Siino explained, "You can export over 40-bit keys for a specific application." The new system should be available early next year. Many companies working on secure transaction systems hope the much more secure 128-bit code version of the system will be available for export eventually. This is said to be almost unbreakable, requiring a trillion times more processing power to crack than the 40-bit version. Internet users can view a copy of the original challenge, access Doligez's home page with details of his result, get copies of the program used to crack the code and read Netscape's response to the news through a special section at Netscape, http://home.netscape.com/newsref/std/key_challenge.html (Martyn Williams/19950818/Press contacts : Roseanne Siino, Netscape, +1-415-528-2619 , Internet email roseanne@netscape.com; Damien Doligez, Internet email damien.doligez@inria.fr ; Hal Finney, Internet email hfinney@shell.portal.com) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 08/18/95 WINDOWS Lotus Claims Bigger Share Of UK Windows WP Mkt (NEWS)(WINDOWS)(LON)(00025) Lotus Claims Bigger Share Of UK Windows WP Mkt 08/18/95 STAINES, MIDDLESEX, ENGLAND, 1995 AUG 18 (NB) -- Lotus Development's UK operation has revealed that its share of the Windows 3.1 word processing (WP) market is increasing steadily, despite the stiff competition from Microsoft Word and Novell's WordPerfect package. Jenny Cowell, a spokeswoman for the company, told Newsbytes that the company achieved an 18 percent share of the UK WP market in May, after seeing the figures steadily increasing over the the year to date. The figures are from Romtec, the computer market research company. According to Lotus, this share boost has been at the expense of Microsoft and WordPerfect. Also, within the suite market, Lotus has outsold Novell/Wordperfect every month. According to Neil Hudspeth, UK marketing manager for Lotus, the sales momentum is expected to continue as the company prepares to start shipping Lotus Word Pro for Windows 3.1, the advanced version of Ami Pro, next month. A version of Word Pro for Windows 95 is expected soon after September. "With a number of aggressive trade-up campaigns beginning, we see the strong growth in Ami Pro ensuring an immediate foundation for Word Pro in the UK. Our buyer's assurance scheme means that customers buying Ami Pro can now upgrade to Word Pro when available for free -- so it's really a win-win situation for our users," he explained. According to Hudspeth, Word Pro is a word processor that is aimed at the groupware market. The package is billed as helping individuals work together more effectively by streamlining the process of creating, reviewing and editing shared documents. Share documents is claimed to also be easy, thanks to Word Pro's focus on seamless file conversion. According to Lotus, Word Pro is not simply a revamped Ami Pro. Instead, the company claims, it has been written from the ground up. Versions for Windows 3.1, Windows 95 and OS/2 are being readied. (Steve Gold/19950818/Press Contact: Noiseworks +44-1628-522122; Reader Contact: Lotus UK +44-1784-455445; Fax +44-1784-445618) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 95 08/18/95 WINDOWS DEC Customers Test, Deploy Windows (NEWS)(WINDOWS)(BOS)(00026) DEC Customers Test, Deploy Windows 95 08/18/95 MAYNARD, MASSACHUSETTS, U.S.A., 1995 AUG 18 (NB) -- Users of Digital Equipment Corp.'s new Windows 95 migration services are already testing Windows 95 with the use of final code, and some customers are now "going forward with major migration," said Jennifer Beck, marketing manager for Digital's Technology Migrations Services for Windows 95, in a briefing for Newsbytes. Customers are "jumping on" Digital's new Quickstart Pilot package for migrating 100 PCs to Windows 95, and are then adding options as well as more PCs to their Windows 95 installations, Beck told Newsbytes. For end users, the Windows 95 GUI (graphical user interface) is much more "discoverable" than its Windows 3.1 counterpart, according to Beck. For professionals, Microsoft's upcoming 32- bit OS (operating system) offers "lots of good manageability," as well as the ability to enable or disable features, according to the Digital exec. "And because (Windows 95) requires you to do a full inventory and assessment of the environment before you deploy the technology, it presents an opportunity to get a handle on the desktop environment: to find out what's out there, and what applications are running, and do a full assessment of end user training needs," Beck asserted. Before rolling out its set of Technology Migration Services for Windows 95, Digital performed "extensive testing in multivendor environments," Newsbytes was told. In fact, 15,000 users within Digital were the first customers for the new Windows 95 migration services. "So we were aware of the interoperability and compatibility issues around the software product and the network, as well as the issue of minimum hardware configurations," Beck reported. "Microsoft has published a list of applications that they know will work (with Windows 95), and those that they know do not. But that still leaves some other applications, such as new 32-bit applications, and customers' propriety applications," she noted. Some of these proprietary applications require re-tooling, Beck added. "But the network piece appears to be fairly straightforward." The issue of minimum hardware requirements has become "a huge debate," she acknowledged. From Digital's perspective, the answer depends on what applications are running. "But we're certainly recommending a minimum of 8 megabytes (MB) of memory." To take part in Digital's Quickstart program, a company must have 100 networked PCs (Novell Netware, Microsoft NT, or Windows for Workgroups) that meet these minimum requirements: a 496DX/33 megahertz (MHz) processor, Windows 3.1 or Windows for Workgroups 3.11, 4 MB of main memory, and 40 MB of free hard disk space. Beyond "Quickstart," Digital is providing full-scale Windows 95 migration, as well as options that include hardware/software/network upgrades of PCs that would not otherwise meet Digital's minimum requirements for Windows 95 migration, and installation by Digital of Microsoft Office 95, according to Beck. Microsoft has already shipped the "gold code" for Windows 95 to Digital and other resellers, allowing early users to begin installing final product now, Newsbytes was told. The marketing manager added that Digital's Windows 95 migration program evolved out of Digital's recent selection as one of five "launch support partners" for Windows 95. Other companies picked as partners include Keane, Softmart, Unisys, and Stream International. Microsoft initiated the launch support program as a result of the huge volume of support calls that Microsoft expects to receive during the first few months after the release of Windows 95 on August 24, she continued. Microsoft, Digital, and the other four outsourcing partners will be answering support calls on a "roundrobin basis," and the use of outsourcing will be transparent to callers, according to Beck. Digital's Quickstart program for 100 networked PCs meeting minimum configuration requirements carries a fixed price of $20,000. Outside of Quickstart, pricing for Digital's Windows 95 migration services is $150 to $800 per seat. Use of the migration services will save time and money for customers, Beck contended. The Quickstart component will let them "experiment" with Windows 95 before deciding to move ahead with full-scale deployment, she added. Amy Osetek, an analyst for Dataquest, told Newsbytes that Dataquest has now begun to prepare a cost/benefit study on Microsoft's Windows 95 migration services. In a report on Digital's recently unveiled Help Desk Services for multivendor client-server environments that was issued earlier this summer, Osetek and Bob Johnson, another Dataquest analyst, observed that with its Windows 95 migration services, Digital was already trying "to rise above the noise of similar announcements from other vendors" around Windows 95. "Digital...will try to learn from its own experiences and extend these lessons to its customers. It will emphasize to prospective customers how Digital's experience can reduce the risk associated with a migration effort. Ultimately, in a fast-changing market the Windows 95 one about to erupt, the key to success is getting mindshare first, before the competition, by building high visibility and aggressive marketing efforts," said the two Dataquest analysts. (Jacqueline Emigh/19950817/Reader Contact: Digital Equipment Corp., 508-493-5111; Press Contact: Vickye Bone, Digital, 404-343-1464) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 08/18/95 TRENDS European Pentium Sales Healthy - Report (NEWS)(TRENDS)(LON)(00027) European Pentium Sales Healthy - Report 08/18/95 LONDON, ENGLAND, 1995 AUG 18 (NB) -- Figures just released by Context, the European computer market research company, show that France and Germany appear to following the UK shift in PC selling trends to the Pentium chipset, and away from 80486 and lesser-based systems. Jeremy Davies, a senior partner with Context, told Newsbytes that the company's European statistics show an interesting trend and highlight the fact that the French and Germany computer markets are tracking those in the UK. The European statistics build on the UK-specific report announced by Context earlier this week, and reported by Newsbytes. According to Context's European figures, sales of Pentium PC in the UK, France and Germany via the indirect (dealer and retail) channel grew by up to 28 percent in the first half of 1995. Germany showed the fastest growth, with Pentium desktop machines rocketing from a nine percent share of the total market in January to a 37 percent share by June. Davies went on to explain that German vendors "have adopted a policy of aggressive pricing of Pentium machines from the start which has led to an early acceptance of these high-end PCs." The Context figures show that similar trends are found in the UK and France with both percentage share of the total market by volume and by value increasing so far in 1995. During the half year to June 95, UK volume sales of Pentium systems rose from five to 29 percent, while in France they rose from seven to 28 percent of the market. In Germany, the volume figures for the Pentium chipset rose from nine to 37 percent. On the value sales front, UK Pentium market share figures rose from nine percent in January to 41 percent in June, while French value figures show a surge from 13 to 39 percent, and in Germany, value sales went from 19 to 54 percent. (Steve Gold/19950816/Press Contact: Sukie Read, Context +44-171-937- 3595; Internet Email: sread@context-ecis.co.uk; Reader Contact: Context +44-171-937-3595) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 08/18/95 LEGAL Group Wants Microsoft Consent Decree Altered (NEWS)(LEGAL)(DEN)(00028) Group Wants Microsoft Consent Decree Altered 08/18/95 WASHINGTON, D.C., U.S.A., 1995 AUG 18 (NB) -- The Computer and Communications Industry Association (CCIA) this week asked US District Judge Thomas Penfield Jackson to alter the 1994 consent decree between Microsoft and the Department of Justice that changed the way Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) licenses Windows software to PC makers. The group wants Windows NT added to the decree. The consent decree addressed issues such charging PC makers a per- processor licensing fee, licenses with a term exceeding one year, licenses containing a minimum commitment and lump-sum pricing. The decree was upheld by the US Circuit Court of Appeals in June of this year. That court ordered a lower court to approve the deal. The consent decree dealt with the way Microsoft Windows version 3.1 was licensed as well as the licensing of Windows 95 and s successors to those products. At issue now is Windows NT, a two- year old program similar to Windows 3.1 but designed specifically for use on the workstations and servers of computer networks. CCIA is basing its action on a comment by the Court of Appeals that seemed to suggest Windows NT should be included in the consent decree. "It might well be that the decree would be strengthened if Windows NT were explicitly covered, but that is of no great moment," wrote the appeals court. "It's only logical that Windows NT be covered by the agreement," said Black. "The industry widely views Windows NT as a significant alternative to Windows 95 for corporate users. In fact some industry analysts expect that many corporate customers may bypass Windows 95 in favor of Windows NT Workstation, which is a slimmed-down version of the NT operating system designed for desktop computers," said Black. Microsoft spokesperson Erin Carney said CCIA's action at the present time is outside the normal procedure and shouldn't be allowed. "It doesn't seem to make much sense, because the (CCIA) motion is to somehow conform the consent decree. The appellate court's decision is to enter the consent decree," Carney told Newsbytes. Carney said it's important to realize that Windows NT is not a covered product of the consent decree. "Windows NT is not marketed as Windows 95's successor, it is marketed for larger organizations as a product with greater security with portability and as a more robust system." She said the two products serve completely different market needs. "We don't see that there is an issue here at all," Carney told Newsbytes. Ed Black, president of CCIA, told Newsbytes 25-year old CCIA is an organization of small, medium and large firms representing the a cross-section from the communications and computer industries. "We were founded on the principles of open competition," the organization executive said. He told Newsbytes the group's founders were companies that had anti-trust problems with IBM and AT&T, but declined to publicly identify current member companies. CCIA contends that Microsoft's strategy now is to migrate existing users from the existing Windows 3.1 software to Windows NT. "The industry widely views Windows NT as a significant alternative to Windows 95 for corporate users," alleges Black. Microsoft is set to launch Windows 95, its new operating system and graphical user interface that is expected to replace Windows 3.1 on millions of computers worldwide, next week. Speaking about CCIA's future goals, Black said "We are going to be going after some folks sitting around the table who are in the entertainment content and related worlds." US Attorney General Janet Reno said this week the Justice Department is continuing its antitrust investigation of Microsoft. DOJ is considering whether to bring suit against Microsoft over complaints about the company building access to its new online service the Microsoft Network (MSN) into Windows 95. A hearing before District Court judge Jackson is scheduled for August 21. (Jim Mallory/19950818/Press contact: Microsoft, tel 206-882-8080) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 08/18/95 GENERAL Newsbytes Week In Review (NEWS)(GENERAL)(SFO)(00029) Newsbytes Week In Review 08/18/95 MINNEAPOLIS, MINNESOTA, U.S.A., 1995 AUG 18 (NB) -- This is a look at the top stories this week, listing with their category code: Motorola To Cut Wireless Unit Staff, Apple Plans To Overcome Supply Shortage By Spring, Microsoft To Invest In Turner Broadcasting?, NEC Counterfeit Memory Chips In Circulation, New 888 Numbers To Relieve Pressure On 800, First Mortgage Files Billing Suit Against AOL, AT&T Intros Web Service For Consumers/Business, Over 280 PC Makers Poised For Windows 95 Launch, Industry's First Web Site "Virus" Appears, Will Prodigy Get Heave-Ho by Sears?, Online Industry To Reach $3.3 Billion By '97, Ziff-Davis Adds Real Audio To Web Site, IDC Predicts 20 Million Win 95 Users In 4 Months, IBM Not Dumping Consumer OS/2 Warp, Russian Citibank Hacker Case Hits UK Court, Rolling Stones To Push Windows 95, Netscape Encrypted Data Cracked. Motorola To Cut Wireless Unit Staff (BUSINESS) SCHAUMBURG, ILLINOIS, U.S.A., 1995 AUG 14 (NB) -- A Motorola Corp. (NYSE:MOT) official has confirmed to Newsbytes that the company is cutting its wireless data group staff level. The Wall Street Journal reported about 180 employees, or approximately 20% of the staff, is being let go. Apple Plans To Overcome Supply Shortage By Spring (APPLE) BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS, U.S.A., 1995 AUG 14 (NB) -- Demand for Apple's computers still exceeds supply, but Apple expects to overcome the shortfall by next spring, according to Apple Chief Financial Officer (CFO) Joseph Graziano. Microsoft To Invest In Turner Broadcasting? (BUSINESS) REDMOND, WASHINGTON, U.S.A., 1995 AUG 15 (NB) -- Bill Gates, chairman of Microsoft Inc. (NASDAQ: MSFT), may be poised to invest as much as $2 billion of his company's money in Turner Broadcasting System (TBS), according to a story in the Los Angeles Times. NEC Counterfeit Memory Chips In Circulation (LEGAL) TOKYO, JAPAN, 1995 AUG 15 (NB) -- NEC Corporation (TOKYO:6701) says it has discovered below-standard memory chips illegally bearing the company's name in the South East Asia and the United States. The chips are believed to be factory rejects from prominent international electronics companies. New 888 Numbers To Relieve Pressure On 800 (TELECOM) MISSISSAUGA, ONTARIO, CANADA, 1995 AUG 15 (NB) -- North America is running out of 800 numbers. By some time next year, all the numbers in the 800 area code set aside for toll-free calls are likely to be taken up, so carriers will have to start using a new code: 888. First Mortgage Files Billing Suit Against AOL (LEGAL) WILMINGTON, DELAWARE, U.S.A., 1995 AUG 15 (NB) -- Claiming America Online (NASDAQ:AMER) is overcharging its members by millions of minutes, First Mortgage Corp. of Ardmore, Pennsylvania, has filed a class action suit. The claim states users who use more than 45 seconds of a minute are charged for two minutes. AT&T Intros Web Service For Consumers/Business (ONLINE) BOOTON, NEW JERSEY, U.S.A., 1995 AUG 15 (NB) -- In a teleconference today, AT&T announced a sweeping, three-pronged World Wide Web service, scheduled to enter the trial phase within the next 60 days, that will include dial-in access by consumers, LAN (local area network) access by business customers of AT&T's "800" service, and "integrated content" from AT&T and multiple partners. Over 280 PC Makers Poised For Windows 95 Launch (WINDOWS) REDMOND, WASHINGTON, U.S.A., 1995 AUG 16 (NB) -- Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ: MSFT) said that over 280 major PC manufacturers around the world are ready to pre-install Microsoft Windows 95 on, or soon after, the new operating system and graphical user interface launches on August 24, and the software company said it will extend the hours of its no-charge support for the product. Industry's First Web Site "Virus" Appears (ONLINE) SHEFFIELD, SOUTH YORKSHIRE, ENGLAND, 1995 AUG 16 (NB) -- What happens when someone tells you that a Web site has a virus planted within the HTML (Hypertext Mark-up Language) of its main page? The answer, as this bureau found out, is to use an old laptop, equipped with Mosaic, to access the site. Fortunately the Web page -- located on the US Winternet server (http://www.winternet.com/~drow/click.html ) -- is benign and nothing more than a hoax. Will Prodigy Get Heave-Ho by Sears? (ONLINE) WHITE PLAINS, NEW YORK, U.S.A., 1995 AUG 16 (NB) -- Sears, Roebuck & Company is reportedly considering selling its stake in the Prodigy online service, the third of the "Big Three" trio of online services, Cable News Network (CNN) is reporting. Online Industry To Reach $3.3 Billion By '97 (TRENDS) SAN JOSE, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1995 AUG 16 (NB) -- Dataquest, a unit of Dun & Bradstreet, announced that online services will grow from the current $2.7 billion to $3.3 billion in 1997. The growth in subscribers will grow at a much faster rate but income per user will decline dramatically. Ziff-Davis Adds Real Audio To Web Site (ONLINE) CAMBRIDGE, MASSACHUSETTS, U.S.A., 1995 AUG 17 (NB) -- Starting today, Ziff-Davis is adding Real Audio from Progressive Networks to its computer information and news World Wide Web site, called ZD Net. The first audio files offer a welcome message and columnist, Charles Cooper, reading his column. IDC Predicts 20 Million Win 95 Users In 4 Months (TRENDS) CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1995 AUG 17 (NB) -- International Data Corp. (IDC), a unit of International Data Group (IDG), predicts Microsoft will ship 20 million copies of Windows 95 in the first four months. IDC sees easy sailing for Microsoft in the home market, but tougher going with corporate customers. IBM Not Dumping Consumer OS/2 Warp (IBM) CENTRAL, HONG KONG, 1995 AUG 17 (NB) -- IBM's Hong Kong/China unit has slammed the New York Times, accusing it of misinterpreting Chairman Lou Gertzner's recent comments to securities analysts on the future of OS/2. Russian Citibank Hacker Case Hits UK Court (LEGAL) LONDON, ENGLAND, 1995 AUG 18 (NB) -- According to a case that has broken this week in the British courts, a Russian computer hacker has allegedly defrauded Citibank's US operation of $2.8 million. US authorities, as the case opened on Thursday of this week at London's Bow Street Magistrates Court, have applied for Vladimir Levin's extradition to the US. Rolling Stones To Push Windows 95 (WINDOWS) REDMOND, WASHINGTON, U.S.A., 1995 AUG 18 (NB) -- The musical group Rolling Stones has lifted its ban on selling song rights for use in advertising by letting Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ: MSFT) use their hit "Start Me Up" in commercials for Windows 95. Early Stones songs for which Stones songwriters Mick Jagger and Keith Richards do not own the copyrights have been heard in commercials. Netscape Encrypted Data Cracked (ONLINE) TOKYO, JAPAN, 1995 AUG 18 (NB) -- Two computer users have managed to break Netscape's Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) encryption code in response to a challenge posted to the Internet. But far from scare people away from using the system for online purchases, the results could reassure people of the safety. (Ian Stokell/19950818) (SUMMARY)(GENERAL)(MSP)(00030) Newsbytes Daily Summary 08/18/95 MINNEAPOLIS, MINNESOTA, U.S.A., 1995 AUG 18 (NB) -- These are capsules of all today's news stories: ======================================================================== ------------| N E W S B Y T E S D A I L Y S U M M A R Y |---------- ------------| Friday, August 18, 1995 |---------- ======================================================================== (c) Newsbytes News Network (Tm) Editor in Chief: Wendy Woods ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Newsbytes News Network's 1995 Update CD-ROM for Mac, DOS, and Windows is now available for $29.95 (includes s&h). Contains 1983-1995 news stories, more than 64,000 keyword searchable stories and 475 digitized images. For more information or to order, fax to 612-430-0441 or e-mail to 'administrator@newsbytes.com' -- MC, Visa, Amex accepted. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ CATEGORY HEADLINES (*** indicates today's top stories) STORY # ======================================================================== BROADCAST Adobe After Effects 3.0 For Video Post Production.......... 22 BUSINESS Dell Doubles 2Q Net Income, Sales Up 52 Percent............ 18 EDUCATION Chinese Asked For Donations Of Old Computers To Schools.... 14 GENERAL Japan Newsbriefs........................................... 01 GENERAL Bill Gates To Visit Ireland In September................... 02 GENERAL Personnel Roundup.......................................... 07 GENERAL ****12 Years Of High-Tech History On CD-ROM............... 16 GENERAL Newsbytes Week In Review................................... 29 IBM IBM Promotes RISC System/6000 In Russia.................... 12 LEGAL UK Thieves Score UKP 40,000 From Single ATM................ 03 LEGAL ****Russian Citibank Hacker Case Hits UK Court............ 10 LEGAL Anti-Pirate Forces Move Into China's Interior.............. 11 LEGAL China Pledges To Protect Software Developers............... 15 LEGAL Group Wants Microsoft Consent Decree Altered............... 28 ONLINE Bank of America On America Online.......................... 06 ONLINE ****Australian Watchdog Puts Microsoft On Warning......... 08 ONLINE Star Tribune Online Adds Web Access........................ 20 ONLINE ****Netscape Encrypted Data Cracked....................... 24 PC Review of Glidepoint Mouse Replacement..................... 17 TELECOM France Telecom, DBT Back Off Sprint Deal................... 04 TELECOM Phone Competition Hot Topic In Canada...................... 05 TELECOM Czech Republic Plans Rapid GSM Network..................... 09 TRENDS European Pentium Sales Healthy - Report.................... 27 WINDOWS Micrografx, Hallmark Intro Do-It-Yourself Cardmaking....... 13 WINDOWS ****Rolling Stones To Push Windows 95..................... 19 WINDOWS Windows 95 Takes On Carnival Atmosphere.................... 21 WINDOWS "Control Center" For Windows 95 Released................... 23 WINDOWS Lotus Claims Bigger Share Of UK Windows WP Mkt............. 25 WINDOWS DEC Customers Test, Deploy Windows 95...................... 26 ======================================================================== These are the headlines and first paragraphs of each story, in order: 1 -> Japan Newsbriefs -- In this roundup of news from Japan, Pioneer announces first quarter results, Sharp to introduce LCD televisions, Toshiba computers unaffected by Intel board fault, Asahi National Broadcasting online, NEC plans national PC service chain, new national online service planned. 2 -> Bill Gates To Visit Ireland In September -- Microsoft Ireland had announced that Bill Gates, the company's chairman and CEO, will address a major event at the Royal Dublin Society in Dublin in early September. 3 -> UK Thieves Score UKP 40,000 From Single ATM -- Police in East Sussex are searching for a gang of thieves who drained around UKP 40,000 from a single Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) ATM (automated teller machine) during June and July, Newsbytes has learned. 4 -> France Telecom, DBT Back Off Sprint Deal -- France Telecom and Deutsche Bundespost Telekom (DBT) have agreed to modify the terms of their Atlas joint venture agreement in the face of ongoing concerns by the European Commission (EC). 5 -> Phone Competition Hot Topic In Canada -- Phone competition is the topic of heated discussion in Canada at the moment, with competing long-distance carriers squabbling over advertising practices while a group of business telecommunications users call for extensive hearings before federal regulators move ahead with plans for competitive local service. 6 -> Bank of America On America Online -- Bank of America (NYSE; BAC) announced that it has signed an agreement with America Online, Inc. (AOL) (NASDAQ: AMER) to provide financial information and online banking services through a site to be established on America Online's Personal Finance Channel. This brings the nation's second largest bank to the number one online service. 7 -> Personnel Roundup -- This is a regular feature, summarizing personnel changes not covered elsewhere by Newsbytes: Turtle Beach Systems, Pyramid Technology, Microsoft, US West, Mentor Graphics Corp., LSI Logic Corp., Maxtor Corp., Spectrum HoloByte Inc., Sun Microsystems Inc. 8 -> ****Australian Watchdog Puts Microsoft On Warning -- The Australian Trade Practices Commission (TPC) has announced that it is dealing with complaints about the Microsoft Network (MSN), being promoted in Australia as On Australia. 9 -> Czech Republic Plans Rapid GSM Network -- The Czech Republic has outlined plans to tender for two GSM digital mobile phone nets, Newsbytes has learned. The Ministry for Economics in the Republic reports that Ceska Radiokomunikace, the state-controlled telecoms body, will run one of the GSM networks, with the other licensed to the successful tendering company. 10 -> ****Russian Citibank Hacker Case Hits UK Court -- According to a case that has broken this week in the British courts, a Russian computer hacker has allegedly defrauded Citibank's US operation of $2.8 million. US authorities, as the case opened on Thursday of this week at London's Bow Street Magistrates Court, have applied for Vladimir Levin's extradition to the US. 11 -> Anti-Pirate Forces Move Into China's Interior -- For the first time, anti-piracy forces have struck deep in China's interior, with Chengdu Administration for Industry and Commerce (AIC) and Chengdu Trademark Services officers swooping down on 22 shops in the Sichuan provincial capital. 12 -> IBM Promotes RISC System/6000 In Russia -- Following the donation of a RISC System/6000 system to the St. Petersburg University in June, IBM is staging seminars this month throughout Russia to promote its RISC System/6000 systems. Big Blue is focusing on cooperation with local open systems software professionals and has also announced that its Solution Development Center is scheduled to open on November 1, 1995. 13 -> Micrografx, Hallmark Intro Do-It-Yourself Cardmaking -- Micrografx, Inc (NASDAQ: MGXI) has teamed with the company that wants you to send the very best, Hallmark Cards Inc., to produce computer software that lets you design your own personalized greetings. 14 -> Chinese Asked For Donations Of Old Computers To Schools -- There are about 570,000 unused out-of-date computers in China and they should be given to middle and elementary schools for computer education, PC World China and Computer Fans magazines jointly appealed recently. 15 -> China Pledges To Protect Software Developers -- China will continue to safeguard the interests of domestic and foreign software developers and dealers, said an official with Ministry of Electronics Industry (MEI) in Beijing recently. 16 -> ****12 Years Of High-Tech History On CD-ROM -- Twelve years of computer, telecom, and interactive services reporting by the global reporting team of the Newsbytes News Network, an international wire service devoted to high-tech daily news, is now on CD-ROM and being shipped. 17 -> Review of Glidepoint Mouse Replacement -- By John McCormick. Plagued by rodent problems? Forever trying to locate a few square inches of clear desk space to operate a mouse? Have I got a solution for you! 18 -> Dell Doubles 2Q Net Income, Sales Up 52 Percent -- Dell Computer Corporation (NASDAQ: DELL) reported its net income for the second quarter rose 128 percent to $65.1 million on record sales of $1.2 billion. That earned shareholders $1.32 per share for the period versus $0.65 per share for the same period last year. 19 -> ****Rolling Stones To Push Windows 95 -- The musical group Rolling Stones has lifted its ban on selling song rights for use in advertising by letting Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ: MSFT) use their hit "Start Me Up" in commercials for Windows 95. Early Stones songs for which Stones songwriters Mick Jagger and Keith Richards do not own the copyrights have been heard in commercials. 20 -> Star Tribune Online Adds Web Access -- Star Tribune Online, an electronic extension of the Minneapolis Star Tribune, says it plans to offer World Wide Web access this September. As part of AT&T Interchange Online Network, Star Tribune Online subscribers will be able to click on hyperlinks to the Internet. 21 -> Windows 95 Takes On Carnival Atmosphere -- Look out, Barnum & Bailey, the Microsoft circus wagon is in town, and it will lead about 2,500 invited guests to what may amount to the biggest show in town next week when Microsoft rolls out Windows 95, the software company's new operating system and graphical user interface that will look more like what Macintosh users see on their screens than like the current version of Windows. 22 -> Adobe After Effects 3.0 For Video Post Production -- Adobe Systems (NASDAQ:ADBE) announced Version 3.0 of Adobe After Effects for Macintosh and Power Macintosh. Adobe claims a major upgrade for it's digital post-production software for film, broadcast video and multimedia production. 23 -> "Control Center" For Windows 95 Released -- The Thompson Partnership, a UK company that specializes in distributing and registering shareware packages, has released SmilerShell/95, a control center application for Windows 95. 24 -> ****Netscape Encrypted Data Cracked -- Two computer users have managed to break Netscape's Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) encryption code in response to a challenge posted to the Internet. But far from scare people away from using the system for online purchases, the results could reassure people of the safety. 25 -> Lotus Claims Bigger Share Of UK Windows WP Mkt -- Lotus Development's UK operation has revealed that its share of the Windows 3.1 word processing (WP) market is increasing steadily, despite the stiff competition from Microsoft Word and Novell's WordPerfect package. 26 -> DEC Customers Test, Deploy Windows 95 -- Users of Digital Equipment Corp.'s new Windows 95 migration services are already testing Windows 95 with the use of final code, and some customers are now "going forward with major migration," said Jennifer Beck, marketing manager for Digital's Technology Migrations Services for Windows 95, in a briefing for Newsbytes. 27 -> European Pentium Sales Healthy - Report -- Figures just released by Context, the European computer market research company, show that France and Germany appear to following the UK shift in PC selling trends to the Pentium chipset, and away from 80486 and lesser-based systems. 28 -> Group Wants Microsoft Consent Decree Altered -- The Computer and Communications Industry Association (CCIA) this week asked US District Judge Thomas Penfield Jackson to alter the 1994 consent decree between Microsoft and the Department of Justice that changed the way Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) licenses Windows software to PC makers. The group wants Windows NT added to the decree. 29 -> Newsbytes Week In Review -- This is a look at the top stories this week, listing with their category code: Motorola To Cut Wireless Unit Staff, Apple Plans To Overcome Supply Shortage By Spring, Microsoft To Invest In Turner Broadcasting?, NEC Counterfeit Memory Chips In Circulation, New 888 Numbers To Relieve Pressure On 800, First Mortgage Files Billing Suit Against AOL, AT&T Intros Web Service For Consumers/Business, Over 280 PC Makers Poised For Windows 95 Launch, Industry's First Web Site "Virus" Appears, Will Prodigy Get Heave-Ho by Sears?, Online Industry To Reach $3.3 Billion By '97, Ziff-Davis Adds Real Audio To Web Site, IDC Predicts 20 Million Win 95 Users In 4 Months, IBM Not Dumping Consumer OS/2 Warp, Russian Citibank Hacker Case Hits UK Court, Rolling Stones To Push Windows 95, Netscape Encrypted Data Cracked. (Wendy Woods/19950818) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 08/15/95 NETWORK MacWorld - Developers Use Novell AppWare ALMs (NEWS)(NETWORK)(BOS)(00001) MacWorld - Developers Use Novell AppWare ALMs 08/15/95 BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS, U.S.A., 1995 AUG 15 (NB) -- "The ALM (AppWare Loadable Module) is to the client as the NLM (NetWare Loadable Module) is to the server," remarked Edwin Firmage, director of marketing for Novell's NetWare Development Tools, in a press conference at MacWorld that featured demos of ALMs for Newton connectivity, imaging, and database retrieval from the Mac or Windows, created by third-party developers with Novell AppWare. By now, Novell and third-party vendors have used AppWare to produce at least 36 ALMs, and dozens more are planned for the future, Firmage said at the press conference, which was attended by Newsbytes. Upcoming ALMs will provide client components for the Novell NetWare file system, bindery, and schema manager, in addition to Perfect Office for Mac, Hewlett-Packard ScanJet, Folio, Visual Basic Extensions (VBX), and ICR/OCR (intelligent character recognition/optical character recognition), for example, he illustrated. The object-oriented (OO) ALM components are aimed at providing enough ease-of-use to allow systems integration by corporate developers as well as by in-house network administrators, according to Firmage. During an interview with Newsbytes at the close of the press event, Firmage maintained that AppWare eliminates the need for third-party developers and corporate staffers to be familiar with complex underlying software layers like network services, client operating systems, GUIs (graphical user interfaces), and database APIs (application programming interfaces). Instead, third-party vendors can produce ALM client applications in a drag-and-drop manner directly in AppWare, without the use of traditional SDKs (software development kits), compilers, and other development tools, he asserted. Ultimately, he added, corporate developers and administrators will be able to simply "plug" the ALM components into the AppWare Bus, an upcoming distributed bus for "managing ALM interaction across the network." Currently in version 1.2, AppWare is available for Windows and the Mac, according to Firmage. The Novell exec told journalists at the press conference that, during the 1995 to 1996 time frame, Novell will add PowerMac and Windows 95 editions to the AppWare environment, as well as international versions, localization, double-byte characters, and increasing support for OpenDoc. The 1996 to 1997 time frame will bring the introduction of the AppWare Distributed Bus, along with other new platforms, additional compliance with OpenDoc, a repository, and "performance optimization, improved debugging, and incremental compilation," he revealed. Also during the press event, Van C. Evans, president of Salt Lake City, Utah-based Revelar, told Newsbytes that Revelar has used AppWare to produce a new tool for the Apple Newton called the Revelar Connection Utility (RCU). The new tool allows simultaneous synchronization of multiple files between the Newton and Macintosh or Windows, as well as "instant access" to the Newton's Notes, Names, Dates, Day Notes, and To Do items, Evans contended. A developer's version is available for "integrating RCU features into a network-ready AppWare application," according to the company president. Alta Technology's Glen Lowry said that his Sandy, Utah-based company used Novell's object-oriented development environment to produce Imaging for AppWare, a new toolset for imaging developers that incorporates TMS's ViewDirector image viewing capabilities, together with ALMs for Kofax KIPP and HP ScanJet. Alta's imaging toolset is available for both Mac and Windows, but scanning functions are currently supported in the Windows version only. Hyper Active, a systems integrator headquartered in Columbus, Ohio, built the current ALM for Oracle connectivity, and has already used this ALM to produce Mac- and Windows-based database retrieval applications for the US Navy, as well as an Oracle-based financial information system for Sterling Software, noted Willie Neumann, president. In the Sterling application, the financial data is being downloaded into Oracle from an IBM 3090 mainframe accounting application. Hyper Active, he added, is now working on two ALM-based applications for AT&T's upcoming ANCS network. One application, which uses the NDS (NetWare Directory Services) in NetWare 4.1, will be used for registering and storing the names and IPX (Internet Package Exchange) addresses of all users on the ANCS network, the company chief told Newsbytes. Some of the other ALMs that are currently available include components for Apple Events, Tuxedo, DAL, ODBC (Open Database Connectivity), Sequelink, Crystal Reports, Attachmate, and Basic Script, as well as ALMs for certain NetWare services, such as authentication, and for communications, document management, and multimedia applications, according to Firmage. (Jacqueline Emigh/19950814/Reader Contact: Novell, 801-429-7000; Press Contact: Debbie Hendrickson, Niehaus Ryan Haller Public Relations for Novell, 801-645-8766) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 08/15/95 ONLINE eWorks, Medialink To Offer Internet Clipping Service (NEWS)(ONLINE)(DEN)(00002) eWorks, Medialink To Offer Internet Clipping Service 08/15/95 NEW YORK CITY, NEW YORK, U.S.A., 1995 AUG 15 (NB) -- Two New York City companies have formed a strategic alliance to provide a clipping service for Internet content. Medialink Public Relations Research and eWorks! said the service will utilize the latter's eWatch service to retrieve every qualified reference appearing on the Internet using a "predetermined list of client criteria." James Alexander, managing partner at eWorks! Inc., told Newsbytes eWatch searches are currently conducted through the more than 14,000 public areas, including forums and newsgroups whose users generate more than 45,000 messages every day, according to the company. Once the data has been collected by eWorks!, Medialink reads, codes, processes, and analyzes every reference and provides a report with content analysis. Medialink said that report allows the client to assess their Internet image to determine strengths and weaknesses, opportunities and vulnerabilities in terms that are "measurable, actionable, and scientific." Alexander said the analysis is particularly important in the case of companies that get hundreds of "hits" off the Internet based on the user-defined criteria. "They need to have that information digested before they get it," said Alexander. "As marketers search for alternatives, the Internet will continue to be more and more important within the communications mix. As such, it must be monitored rigorously and scientifically," said Mark Weiner, directory of Medialink's PR research division. Clipping services let companies know how many column inches they get in magazines and newspapers, but a similar service for Internet mentions is a new phenomenon from the content analysis covering traditional media. One of the things the Medialink analysis does is determine if the same mention of a company appears multiple times on the Internet. "Many clients want to know that, because it's a form of measurement to see how their article got out there in traditional channels and ended up in this new media (the Internet)," according to Alexander. He said if the client knows their efforts to communicate with the public are effective through the Internet, that information has value in planning future information releases. Alexander said once the Internet scan is done by a computer, a reader scans the "hits" to make sure each article matches the client's criteria. That can reduce the number of hits forwarded to the client by as much as 95 percent, he told Newsbytes. eWatch carries a price tag of $295 per month, plus $2 per article hit. The analyses are forwarded by electronic-mail or by fax, since most eWatch clients are not on the Internet. Each report includes an executive summary page that condenses the information about each article to a four-line entry. The summary underlines each match with the user-selected criteria and also includes the line above and the line below. Alexander said that much information is usually sufficient, but the client can also refer to the complete content of the hit if necessary. eWorks! is an electronic media advisor and producer with offices in New York and Minneapolis. The company claims eWatch is the first "commercial cyberspace clipping service." Medialink produces and distributes live and taped public relations video to US and international newsrooms, and investor relations video and audio to the desktop PCs of institutional investors. (Jim Mallory/19950814) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 08/15/95 BUSINESS Macromedia Announces European Partner Program (NEWS)(BUSINESS)(LON)(00003) Macromedia Announces European Partner Program 08/15/95 BRACKNELL, BERKSHIRE, ENGLAND, 1995 AUG 15 (NB) -- Macromedia, after operating dealer and developer sign-up programs in the UK for three months, has rolled its programs out into Europe. Initially, there are two distinct programs, both of which aim to sign up software developers and bureaus using Macromedia technology. Tony Tucker, the company's technical director, told Newsbytes that the pilot test in the UK was to ensure that the programs worked out the way they were supposed to. "It's been an interesting time and has allowed us to change the programs to meet the needs of the channel," he told Newsbytes. The first pan-European program is MAGIC, short for Macromedia's Authorized Graphics Imaging Center. The MAGIC program is designed to provide what the company describes as a comprehensive range of benefits for bureaus who output files created with Macromedia's digital design packages. The MAGIC program offers bureaus a free copy of Freehand for the Apple Mac or the PC Windows versions, priority technical support, technical notes, a technical newsletter, access to Macromedia's beta software program, and a copy of the company's Showcase CD-ROM. To become a member of the MAGIC program, bureaus are asked to contact Macromedia's UK office for an application. Memberships will be accepted from next month (September) onwards at UKP395 per application. The Developer program, meanwhile, aims at getting software developers to create better multimedia applications as they get better support from Macromedia. Sue Thexton, Macromedia's UK managing director, said the Developer program is a good link to the company "and its wealth of technical information and market support services." She continued: "We understand how important multimedia developers are to the growing world of interactive media. This program allows us to build partnerships with our customers by providing a range of benefits that enable developers to create superior tools for multimedia projects." Benefits from the Developer program including priority technical support, a 30 percent discount off the attendance fee for the company's annual international user conference, access to beta software, a members only CompuServe forum, technical newsletters, and client referrals. Membership of the Developer program, which officially starts next month (September) costs UKP300 per year, with a one-off sign-up fee of UKP575. Tucker told Newsbytes that, although pricing on the MAGIC and Developer programs is in UKP, the company accepts payment in the equivalent local currency from anywhere in Europe. (Steve Gold/19950814/Press Contact: Stewart-Muir Comms, +44-181-941-1152, Internet e-mail stewartmuir@easynet.co.uk; Reader Contact: Macromedia, +44-1344-761111, Internet e-mail sue_thexton@macromedia.com) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 08/15/95 TELECOM British Telecom To Open Network To Free Market? (NEWS)(TELECOM)(LON)(00004) British Telecom To Open Network To Free Market? 08/15/95 LONDON, ENGLAND, 1995 AUG 15 (NB) -- British Telecom (BT) should be forced to offer its rivals open access to its network in order to promote the development of the "information superhighway" in the UK, according to proposals just unveiled by Oftel, the British Government telecoms watchdog. This minor bombshell, which goes completely against previous thinking that smaller networks should pay for access to the main BT network in the UK, has caused something of a stir in the normally quiet waters of UK telecoms, Newsbytes notes. Announcing the proposals, Don Cruikshank, the director-general of Oftel. claims that BT should be forced to carry its competitor's signals, simply because of its market dominance. The proposals are outlined in a consultative document, "Beyond the Telephone, the Television and the PC," which has been published by Oftel. The telecoms watchdog is soliciting feedback to the proposals from the UK telecoms industry, although many telecoms experts see this as a complete U-turn for Oftel, almost certainly due to Government pressure. Despite the proposals effectively costing BT money if implemented, BT has given a cautious welcome to the paper, despite the fact that Oftel has banned BT from operating its own broadcast multimedia services to the general public. "BT is pleased to see Oftel addressing the issues and is satisfied with the broad thrust of the proposals," is BT's official stance on the consultative paper. The paper outlines a whole raft of proposals -- 20 main areas -- in what it sees as the "way forward" for UK telecoms. According to Oftel, it is too early to determine which of the proposed multimedia services for UK telephone will take off, but the paper suggests that there will be four main tiers of service offerings in the new generation telecoms market: information providers, service providers, distribution networks, and equipment manufacturers. "Oftel would like to see...dominant distribution network owners required to grant open access and with consideration given to whether exclusive arrangements with content creators or service providers are appropriate," the paper says. The paper notes, however, "that it is by no means clear that the implementation of these conclusions is entirely for Oftel." In the paper's conclusion, Oftel says that "structural separation between service providers and network owners is unnecessary, even for dominant networks." Perhaps surprisingly, BT has welcomed Oftel's planned split of the telecoms broadcast market into four main areas. Officials with the telecoms giant say that the company is happy with this conclusion. (Sylvia Dennis/19950814/Press Contact: British Telecom Corporate Affairs, +44-171-365-5369; Reader Contact: Oftel, tel +44-171- 634-8700, fax +44-171-634-8943) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 08/15/95 PC HP To Intro New Windows 95 Home PCs (NEWS)(PC)(SFO)(00005) HP To Intro New Windows 95 Home PCs 08/15/95 PALO ALTO, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1995 AUG 15 (NB) -- Hewlett-Packard (NYSE:HWP) says its new line of home computing systems -- the Pavilion -- will be on retail shelves of most popular computer outlets on August 24. However, the availability of Windows 95 for these reportedly sleek-designed systems may limit volume deliveries. #IMAGE 1 20 TWPCX \images\9508150a.PCX Click here for photo #IMAGE 1 20 TWPCX \images\9508150b.PCX Click here for photo #IMAGE 1 20 TWPCX \images\9508150c.PCX Click here for photo The company says the new line has a "consumer look," called the Sports Sleek Industrial Design, which is "more friendly and more in relation to other home electronic products." Its "rounded edges" and "softer look" are part of HP's goal to offer new users of computer systems a "friendlier look accompanied by easy-to-use software." Pavilions are multimedia systems loaded with 40 software programs along with Windows 95 as the operating system. Greg Hones, North American marketing manager at HP, told Newsbytes, "We have spent many hours to determine exactly what people want in a home computer system from hardware to software. Everyone of these 40 programs are things people really want. There are no 'throw-aways' in the entire group. "This entire line is designed to make home computing easier. The system opens with our own interface to guide and introduce a user to the new system. From the hardware side, all of our cables are color-coded and icon coded -- so setting the system up is very easy. We have had a 10-year old who was not technically savvy put a Pavilion system together, navigate that system and play a selected game in less than 10 minutes," said Jones. The HP tutorial/interface also assist users with Windows 95. Speaking of rumored problems with the timely shipment of Windows 95, Jones said, "We are confident in our long-standing relationship with Microsoft. They have told us it would be available and we are going by that confirmation. We are concerned, but remain confident in their promise." At this time, HP is saying a limited volume of Pavilion systems will be available on August 24. The entry-level multimedia Pavilion is powered by an Advanced Micro Devices 486DX4, 100 megahertz (MHz) processor, and priced at $1,499. Pavilion models come with eight megabytes (MB) of memory, a 635MB hard disk, a quad-speed CD ROM drive, 16-bit sound card, built-in speakers and microphone, and either a 14.4 kilobits-per- second (Kbps) or 28.8 Kbps modem. Additional options include 16MB of memory and a 1.36 gigabyte hard drive. Higher-powered Pavilion systems are available with faster processors including Pentium 75, 90, and 100 MHz models. Early in the fall, HP plans to deliver 120 MHz and 133 MHz powered models. Jones also said, "Packard-Bell continues to set the prices in retail outlets, but we will continue to be aggressively priced. Our focus here is to not only offer an aggressively priced system, but to deliver a new design with a new operating system to the home desktop. We have stressed ease of installation and fast start-up for any novice. These systems are also powerful enough for the advanced computer user." Pavilion systems are being shipped to CompUSA, Circuit City, Computer City, Best Buy, Micro Center, Office Depot, OfficeMax, Incredible Universe, and Staples. (Patrick McKenna/19950814/Press Contact: Jef Holove, HP, 408-553-3641/HP950815/PHOTO) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 08/15/95 TRENDS 3 Hard Disk Brands Share Chinese Market (NEWS)(TRENDS)(PEK)(00006) 3 Hard Disk Brands Share Chinese Market 08/15/95 BEIJING, CHINA, 1995 AUG 15 (NB) -- The country's hard disk drive (HDD) market is mainly shared by Conner, Quantum, and Seagate, and quality is the first criterion for users choosing HDDs, a survey of United Business Information claims. The survey covered 237 HDD dealers in the Zhongguancun area (the "Electronics Street") and 486 HDD users in Beijing. Last year, Conner had 49.3 percent of the market. However, the market shares of Quantum and Seagate showed significant increases this year, the survey reports. What is the main criterion for users choosing a HDD? The survey says that quality was listed top by 34 percent of the surveyed users; with 19 percent going for brandnames; 18 percent for after-sales services; 16 percent for price; 11 percent for capacity; and two percent for speed. Based on the survey report, 26 percent of the dealers said that Conner has the best sales, while 37 percent voted for Quantum, 26 percent for Seagate, three percent for Maxtor, and five percent for IBM. Users and dealers were also asked to grade the quality of various HDDs, taking five as the perfect score. The average scores given by users were: Conner at 4.21, Quantum at 4.33, Seagate at 4.27, Maxtor at 3.79, IBM at 3.92, and WD at 3.40. The average scores given by dealers were: Conner at 4.01, Quantum at 4.28, Seagate at 4.16, Maxtor at 3.90, IBM at 4.00, and WD at 3.94. In a similar survey last year, most users chose HDDs with a storage capacity of 210 megabytes (MB). Now, users prefer HDDs with larger capacities. About 42 percent of users chose 560MB, 30 percent chose 420MB, 14 percent chose 850MB and up, and less than 10 percent chose 210MB HDDs. (Chih-Ho Yu & Ning Huang/19950725/Reader Contact: Beijing Lanshi Information Services, tel +85-10 833-9059) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 08/15/95 TRENDS China - Overseas Patent Applications Increase (NEWS)(TRENDS)(PEK)(00007) China - Overseas Patent Applications Increase 08/15/95 BEIJING, CHINA, 1995 AUG 15 (NB) -- Overseas applications for patents in China have increased at a fast pace. During the first five months of this year, the Chinese Patent office received 4,472 overseas patent applications, showing a 22 percent increase over the same period of last year. Among the 4,472 overseas applications, Japan ranks first in terms of number, with 1,710 applications. The United States is second with 857 patent applications. German companies filed 398 applications, followed by those from Korea, with 319, and Hong Kong, with 245. The United States was on the top of the list in 1993, but last year Japan cam top, registering 3,461 applications, compared with 2,178 from the United States. Some analysts contend that the slower growth of US patent applications could be caused by Sino-US disputes over issues like the intellectual property rights (IPR) protection. However, considering the closer economic links between the US and China, and the improved IPR protection system reportedly in China, the number of US patent applications may increase in the future, said the secretary general of the All-China Patent Agents Association. Last year, China received 9,928 overseas patent applications, an 8.8 percent increase over 1993. Foreign patent applications constituted 12.8 percent of the total applications which the State Patent Office received last year. The number of overseas patent applications this year is expected to be more than 10,000. During the first five months of this year, the total number of patent applications filed at the office was 29,567, 15 percent of which were overseas applications. (Chih-Ho & Ning Huang/19950815) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 08/15/95 TRENDS Ireland - 100% Voice-Mail Penetration By 2000? (NEWS)(TRENDS)(LON)(00008) Ireland - 100% Voice-Mail Penetration By 2000? 08/15/95 DUBLIN, IRELAND, 1995 AUG 15 (NB) -- Telecoms company Octel has been working closely with Telecom Eireann (TE), Ireland's telecoms provider, to launch a state-of-the-art telephone answering and messaging service to Irish subscribers. According to Octel, TE has invested more than $1.6 million in Octel's voice messaging equipment that will allow TE phone users access to a range of "highly sophisticated messaging facilities" that are several steps beyond what is currently available in Europe. "The system that TE has installed will allow voice-mail for any subscriber in Ireland, no matter where they are," explained Jonathon Visball, a senior technical staffer with Octel. According to Octel, the delivery of telephone answering services to the residential and small business markets will revolutionize communications to and from the home, so replacing basic call answering offered traditionally by the answerphone. Octel is aiming that every TE phone subscriber in Ireland will have voice-mail by the end of the decade. "The voice-mail system is very sophisticated," Visball told Newsbytes, adding that the aim of the system was to ensure that the messages left on the system reached the phone user as quickly as possible. "The TE system actually plays back a message (with PIN protection if needed) within five seconds of a user picking up the phone to make an outgoing call, of they don't make a call. Dial-tone is interrupted by the voice-mail services," he explained. According to Visball, this feature is unique in voice-mail terms. "It's not something we normally offer, but we worked closely with TE and this is what they wanted, so we developed it," he said. On the TE voice-mail system, call answering will allow callers to leave messages of any length in a secure (PIN protected) voice mailbox. According to Octel, users will be able to save imported messages for further review and delete those that require no further attention. Such a service has not previously been available to European homes, the company claims. The TE voice-mail service was launched after a pilot study involving 1,200 homes in Ireland. TE saw the opportunity for extra income when it looked at what was happening in the US, where, according to Octel, voice-mail services have already proven their ability to deliver vital differentiation amongst telecoms providers in a competitive environment. "The success in the US led us to believe that, in addition to basic telephony services, we could provide our customers with enhanced voice services," explained Paula Jones, TE's marketing manager. According to Jones, voice-mail will help TE to position itself as a leader in the European marketplace: "As a telecoms provider with a genuine value-added service," she said. "We expect competition to be fierce as we approach 1998" -- the year when the free telecoms market is opened up by the European Commission. "We need to differentiate ourselves in order to attract more customers and to build our customer base," she said. "The fact that we will offer voice-mail to residential and small business customers shows that we understand our customer's needs and expectations for an increasingly sophisticated service," she added. National rollout of the voice-mail service in Ireland will be within the next few weeks. According to Octel, TE is already exploring the possibility of offering other enhanced services such as fax-mail, virtual telephony, and family mail-boxes. (Steve Gold/19950814/Press Contact: Annabel Abbs, Firefly Communications, +44-171-381-4505, Internet e-mail aabs@firefly.co.uk; Reader Contact: Octel Communications Europe, tel +44-1252-303000, fax +44-1232-303033/OCTEL950815/PHOTO) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 08/15/95 TELECOM Another Korean Telecom Deal For Sweden's Ericsson (NEWS)(TELECOM)(LON)(00009) Another Korean Telecom Deal For Sweden's Ericsson 08/15/95 STOCKHOLM, SWEDEN, 1995 AUG 15 (NB) -- Ericsson has signed a deal with Korea Telecom for the delivery and installation of a first phase mobile data network in the Seoul area. According to the Swedish communications company, the mobile data net is an important step toward establishing the Mobitex system as a data standard in Asia, as it has reportedly become in Europe and North America. The Korea Telecom network will consist of 30 base stations, one exchange, a network control center, and network software. Financial terms of the deal have not been revealed by Ericsson. Mobitex operates in much the same manner as analog cellular networks, dividing the coverage area into cells, each covered by a base station which transmits and receives data and text messages. These base stations are linked to area exchanges. The Mobitex system supports digital packet-switched data and text communication between mobiles and host computers. According to Ericsson, since radio frequencies are a scarce resource, they must be used as efficiently as possible -- hence the cellular approach. Moreover, because the Mobitex network supports packet switching, each available channel can be used by several mobiles, with packets being transmitted and received only when required. Unlike competing systems, Newsbytes notes, the Mobitex standard is billed as an open standard, allowing any developer to produce Mobitex access units and applications without, what Ericsson calls, the "limitations of proprietary technology." Mobitex networks are operational in the US, Canada, Chile, Australia, Singapore, the UK, Sweden, Norway, Finland, France, the Netherlands, Belgium, and Poland. French and German systems will be coming on stream in the coming year, Newsbytes understands. (Sylvia Dennis/19950814/Press Contact: Hans Severin, Ericsson, +46-8-757-3632; Per Bengtsson, Ericsson Communications, +46-8-757-2159) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 08/15/95 TELECOM Vodafone Links GSM Net With Spain/Gibraltar/Thailand (NEWS)(TELECOM)(LON)(00010) Vodafone Links GSM Net With Spain/Gibraltar/Thailand 08/15/95 NEWBURY, BERKSHIRE, ENGLAND, 1995 AUG 15 (NB) -- Vodafone has signed a roaming agreement with Telefonica of Spain, Gibtel of Gibraltar, and AIS of Thailand for its GSM (global system for mobile communications) digital network. Chris Gent, Vodafone's managing director, explained that Spain is the last major European country to go with the GSM standard. "Vodafone digital subscribers can now use their phones in 30 different countries, with 45 different operators throughout Europe, and as far afield as Australia, South Africa and the Far East," he said. "The network of agreements we have in place is probably the most comprehensive of any operator in the world," he added. According to Vodafone, the roaming agreements, which are two-way, are "just in time for the holiday season." In a parallel announcement, Vodac, the service provider owned by Vodafone, has caused a stir in the UK cellular business after it suddenly announced an increase in its peak time GSM calling periods from 8am to 7pm, up to 7am to 10pm Monday through Saturday -- an increase of four hours for Metroworld subscribers. At the same time, the company has rationalized its international calling rates, resulting in an increase for many subscribers, and doubled its directory assistance charges. The changes, which kicked in on August 1 for most subscribers, have caused some industry watchers to predict a fall-off in new subscriber numbers for Vodac, with other service providers taking up the slack. (Sylvia Dennis/19950814/Press Contact: Vodafone, tel +44-1635- 44251, fax +44-1635-45713) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 08/15/95 BUSINESS ****Microsoft To Invest In Turner Broadcasting? (NEWS)(BUSINESS)(DEN)(00011) ****Microsoft To Invest In Turner Broadcasting? 08/15/95 REDMOND, WASHINGTON, U.S.A., 1995 AUG 15 (NB) -- Bill Gates, chairman of Microsoft Inc. (NASDAQ: MSFT), may be poised to invest as much as $2 billion of his company's money in Turner Broadcasting System (TBS), according to a story in the Los Angeles Times. If true, the deal would give Turner Chairman Ted Turner the cash he needs to make a grab for the Columbia Broadcasting System (CBS). It's no secret that Turner has long wanted to get his hands on a broadcast television network. According to the LA Times story, Gates and Turner put their heads together in Seattle last week to discuss the deal. But the two executives would have to move quickly if Turner is to realize his dream of owning a TV network. Earlier this month Newsbytes reported that Walt Disney Company will merge with Capital Cities/ABC, apparently eliminating that network from availability. Westinghouse Electric Corp. has said it plans to acquire CBS, but Turner could step in the way of Westinghouse if he can come up with enough cash and get the approval of shareholders. If the Microsoft-TBS deal were to happen, it could provide Microsoft Turner's Cable News Network (CNN) content for use on Microsoft's online Microsoft Network. That service is scheduled to launch August 24th. Microsoft might also get access to Turner's video library. Turner is also involved in discussions with Time Warner Inc. and cable company Tele-Communications Inc. in an attempt to buy back Time Warner's 18 percent ownership of TBS, while Time Warner wants something in trade, perhaps Turner's successful Cartoon Network. Time Warner, with three seats on the TBS board of directors, opposes Ted Turner's plan to buy a network. His efforts are apparently supported by TCI. Its chairman, John Malone, reportedly said at last week's shareholders meeting that TCI wanted to do everything possible to help Turner get a network. "We invest in it. If he (Turner) comes up with something that he wants to do, and it makes sense, we'll support him" Malone told TCI shareholders, according to the British news service Reuters. The LA Times said Malone also supported Turner's talk with Gates. TCI recently invested $125 million to acquire a 20 percent stake in MSN. In June of this year, Newsbytes reported that TBS plans to start a business cable network that would put it head-to-head with the CNBC channel. The new network, scheduled to launch in January, 1996, will be called the CNN Financial Network (CNNFN), according to company officials. Asked to comment about the LA Times story, Microsoft spokesperson Mitch Mathews told Newsbytes "We don't comment on rumors." (Jim Mallory/19950814/Press contact: Microsoft, 206-882-8080; TCI, 303-267-5220; TBS, 212-852-6846) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 08/15/95 LEGAL ****NEC Counterfeit Memory Chips In Circulation (NEWS)(LEGAL)(TYO)(00012) ****NEC Counterfeit Memory Chips In Circulation 08/15/95 TOKYO, JAPAN, 1995 AUG 15 (NB) -- NEC Corporation (TOKYO:6701) says it has discovered below-standard memory chips illegally bearing the company's name in the South East Asia and the United States. The chips are believed to be factory rejects from prominent international electronics companies. So far, the only devices found have been DRAM chips mounted in single in-line memory module (SIMM) packages. The SIMMs contains one and four megabit DRAM memory chips and are selling for around $100. Company spokesman Mark Pearce told Newsbytes how the electronics giant first became aware of the problem, "They first turned up in assembly kits at several manufacturers. They complained to us about the chips and upon investigation we found they weren't ours. "We discovered them in the main in Taiwan and at US customs. Taiwan is the only place up until now where they have appeared on the market, but we suspect they are circulating in other countries. That is why we say it is an Asia-wide problem." Pearce said. Whilst the company suspects the original source of the devices, it is not commenting on this, but would say that they are believed to have come from several major Asian, American, and European semiconductor makers operating in the Asian region. The spokesman said it appears to be a case of the factory rejects falling into the wrong hands rather than companies deliberately selling rejected semiconductors. "It raises questions over the quality control," continued Pearce adding, "they obviously need more stringent quality control to make sure they destroy all the dud chips they produce." The devices make up the estimated 15% reject rate on DRAM production lines and have a variety of defects ranging from slow response time to an inability to store data. NEC says the chips are made to look like the company's own devices, but consumers can check the validity by careful examination of the package and printing. The counterfeit items have the NEC name printed in an easily erasable ink whilst the original products use a laser etching process to permanently mark the chip package. In a company statement, NEC warns: "Since these products are offered via unauthorized distribution channels, the company will not offer customers rebates or refunds on products that are identified as counterfeit. Customers who suspect they may have counterfeit products should contact their local NEC representative for further information." A similar situation occurred in the late 1980s when the chips of NEC and other electronics companies were counterfeited. "In a time of huge demand you seem to get these problems," observes Pearce. Currently, the world memory chip market is in a severe shortage with all companies operating at full capacity with order books filled for several months ahead. Strong demand for the memory chips, which are used in everything from computers and games machines to mobile telephones, will mean supply to many companies will fall short of their requirements. (Martyn Williams/19950815/Press contact : Mark Pearce, NEC Corporation, tel +81-3-3798-6511, fax +81-3-3457-7249, Internet e-mail maku_10-22150@aladdin.nec.co.jp) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 95 08/15/95 WINDOWS Symantec Toolkit Itemizes Costs For Windows (NEWS)(WINDOWS)(LAX)(00013) Symantec Toolkit Itemizes Costs For Windows 95 08/15/95 CUPERTINO, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1995 AUG 15 (NB) -- Symantec Corporation (NASDAQ: SYMC) has announced a planning and budgeting toolkit that helps corporate customers understand costs and planning involved in moving to Windows 95. The toolkit is designed specifically to help large corporate customers with these complicated transitional problems. The Planning and Budgeting for Windows 95 toolkit is available only to certified Symantec Enterprise Alliance Members (EAM). The product is not available through standard retail channels. John Norcross, director of Worldwide Programs for Symantec, told Newsbytes, "The Symantec Enterprise Alliance was established over a year ago, and is a partnership between Symantec and selected value- added resellers. This toolkit is for our partners to deliver to their corporate clients." "Given the magnitude of corporate computer resources, accurate planning and evaluation is imperative during the transition to Windows 95," said Ted Schlein, vice president of Symantec's Enterprise Solutions group. "The Planning and Budgeting for Windows 95 toolkit is one of many specialized services that Symantec's Enterprise Alliance Member's can offer corporate customers to help them evaluate the new technologies, along with the costs and processes involved in the Windows 95 migration." "The Planning and Budgeting for Windows 95 toolkit provides a combination of Symantec products that work together to provide reports and cost estimates," said Norcross. "The toolkit will help an information systems manager focus on what they have now and what they will need to migrate to Windows 95. For most large organizations this will require an expenditure of significant resources and will take many months to implement." "The toolkit allows an EAM to fully analyze this data and then produce budget estimates as well as recommended activity reports for different migration scenarios. It will analyze the standard configuration needed, compile both hardware and software costs, determine resources needed, schedule training and present a complete time line to completion," said Norcross "The transition to Windows 95 will be a challenging task and we think this product can simplify the problem," said Norcross. The Planning and Budgeting for Windows 95 toolkit combines separate Symantec products such as Norton Administrator for Networks (NAN), Norton AntiVirus Network Manager (NAV), Time Line Guides, On Target, and a custom developed Enterprise Developer application. According to the company, the toolkit uses the various Symantec products to inventory an organization's computer assets, scan for viruses while the inventory data is being gathered, and then perform a comprehensive analysis of the collected information. (Richard Bowers/19950814/Press Contact: Elisheva Steiner, Symantec, 408-446-7134; Reader Contact: 800-488-9914) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 95 08/15/95 WINDOWS Elektroson's CD Recording Software For Windows (NEWS)(WINDOWS)(SFO)(00014) Elektroson's CD Recording Software For Windows 95 08/15/95 BALA CYNWYD, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1995 AUG 15 (NB) -- Elektroson, a major developer of CD-R (CD-Recording) software, is shipping Gear 3.2 for Windows 95 and Windows NT. Expecting corporate users, multimedia developers and small business users of CD-R technology to quickly adopt Windows 95, Elektroson says it will ship the new version by the end of August. In a single package, Elektroson will ship Gear for Windows 95, NT, and 3.1. The company says users will have all the features they are accustomed to using with the 16-bit version, but will receive the high performance of Microsoft's 32-bit operating system. Using Microsoft's integrated Mini-port IO driver, the new versions of Gear are "easily installed" on Windows 95 and NT, said the company. Jiren Parikh, Elektroson's general manager, told Newsbytes, "The acceptance of CD-R for document archiving and electronic catalog production continues to grow in corporate offices and in SOHO (small office/home office) environments. The price of the drives themselves and the software are continuing to drop and I expect to see a sub-$900 unit announced at Comdex in November." Considering the excitement surrounding Windows 95, Parikh said he expects users of CD-R technology to move quickly to the new operating system and has prepared the company to make a timely delivery of its CD-R software for the new system. His assessment of Windows NT is similar. "I also think Microsoft's next version of NT will create a wider acceptance of the network operating system and a market which will include more users of CD-R technology." Elektroson says the new versions of Gear have enhanced caching and extended memory management to support the high transfer rates of quad-speed (4x) and 6x CD recording. Under Windows 95 and NT, Gear allows users to create 30 character directory and file names. Other new features include logical formatting up to ISO level 3, a "verify after write" option, a separate fixation option and an archive bit reset feature. There are also new interface features. The new Gear for Windows 95, NT, and 3.1 package has a retail price of $199 in the standard version or $499 for the multimedia version. Upgrade prices of $59 and $99, respectively, are being offered to registered users of earlier versions. Special consideration will be made for customers who have recently purchased either version. Elektroson is still working on the details for these newer customers. Elektroson's Gear is written for all popular CD-R drives, including the new Pioneer DRM-5004 CD-R replicator and CD-ROM jukebox. To give an example of CD-R power, Elektroson says a business or government may archive as much as 75 million pages in one night. CD-R technology still remains a business and government tool and Parikh says an erasable CD-R drive should appear on the market during the second quarter of 1996. The new drive will be a "read/write" device which will work as an adjunct to a hard disk drive. "It will be a couple of years before this technology is affordable for the everyday desktop environment. I would say sometime in 1997." (Patrick McKenna/19950815/Press Contact: Rolland Going, The Terpin Group, 310-821-6100) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 08/15/95 ONLINE New Survey Better Maps The Internet (NEWS)(ONLINE)(TYO)(00015) New Survey Better Maps The Internet 08/15/95 TOKYO, JAPAN, 1995 AUG 15 (NB) -- The latest Internet Host Count, the longest running survey of the global Internet computer network, shows the network is still experiencing strong growth in all areas of the world. The processed results have also been further analyzed to give the most accurate picture so far of the network and the computers that make it up. The base survey, carried out by Mark Lottor of Network Wizards, attempts to discover every announced host on the Internet by doing a complete search of the Domain Name System (DNS). It is usually carried out twice a year. The DNS is an inter-network system used to keep order in computer addresses and help packets route to their destination by converting computer host names, such as newsbytes.com, into the numeric address that the routing system uses. The whole system is usually transparent to a standard Internet user. After Lotter concluded his search, he handed the results to John Quarter of Texas Internet Consulting, publisher of Matrix News, who further analyzed the three letter Internet domains, such as .com and .edu, to try to determine worldwide use of them. The new host count, a measure of the number of computers directly connected to the network and accessible via a unique address, is 6.6 million. The figure shows the network's strong exponential growth is continuing, but slightly decreased since the previous survey, say the surveyors. It has always been difficult to determine the true number of host computers in a country because of the international use of three letter domain codes instead of country codes. For the first time a more accurate picture of use of the three letter domain names is available. Such domain names don't easily give away the country the computer is in, but Quarter's analysis attempted to find that out. The commercial .com domain is found in 54 countries, the .net domain used by network service providers is in use in 57 countries, while 27 countries and most UN agencies make use of the .org organization domain, and 16 countries use the .edu educational domain. Among significant use of these domains outside the United States, Canada has 1142 .com domains encompassing 30,484 host computers. In the United Kingdom 13,260 of the computers connected to the network use one of 241 .com domains. This information is important because it gives a better understanding of use of the non-country-specific domains are used worldwide. The 15 new countries connected to the network and counted for the first time are Antigua & Barbuda, Cayman Islands, Dominican Republic, Nepal, Guam, United Arab Emirates, Pakistan, Barbados, Ghana, Monaco, Macedonia, Anguilla, Cote d'Ivoire, Lebanon, and Kenya. While strong growth was reported in many countries Japan and Germany ranked top amongst industrialized nations, both showing increases of 40% and 41% respectively. The survey authors note that some German computers appear to be announced twice. The new top ten number of Internet hosts by country are: USA, 4,177,454; Germany, 60,434; Canada, 329,299; UK, 309,715; Australia, 207,876; Japan, 160,131; Netherlands, 145,139; Finland, 119,863; France, 115,841; Sweden, 112,881. The next nearest country, Switzerland, has around half that of the Sweden, the lowest of the top-ten countries. When classified by region, most areas managed an average 40% growth rate. The regional figures are: North America, 4,515,871; Western Europe, 1,530,057; Pacific, 252,014; Asia, 233,343; Eastern Europe & CIS, 67,648; Africa, 42,108; Caribbean, Central, & South America, 28,493; Middle East, 21,179. In domain terms, the commercial .com domain remains the biggest on the Internet and the fastest growing in numbers of new hosts. The top ten domain names, numbers of domains and six month growth figures are: Commercial (.com), 1,743,390, 24%; Education (.edu), 1,411,013, 20%; Germany (.de), 350,707, 41%; Network (.net), 300,481, 50%; UK (.uk), 291,258, 17%; US Government (.gov), 273,855, 24%; Canada (.ca), 262,644, 29%; US Military (.mil), 224,778, 22%; Australia (.au), 207,426, 22%; and Organization (.org), 201,905, 23%. As with any survey conducted about the Internet, the report team warns that because of its complexity -- it is actually 50,000 individual networks all linked together -- it is impossible to ever come up with a "true and exact count." Full results encompassing all countries can be found on the Internet Society's World Wide Web server at http://www.isoc.org/ or in the zone directory of ftp.isoc.org. The Internet Society is the non-governmental international organization for global cooperation and coordination for the Internet and its internetworking technologies and applications. (Martyn Williams/19950815/Press contact: Tony Rutkowski, Executive Director, Internet Society, tel 703-648-9888, fax 703-648-9887; Reader contact: Internet Society, Internet e-mail isoc@isoc.org) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 08/15/95 GOVT Japan - Govt Panel Proposes NTT Split (NEWS)(GOVT)(TYO)(00016) Japan - Govt Panel Proposes NTT Split 08/15/95 TOKYO, JAPAN, 1995 AUG 15 (NB) -- The world's biggest corporation, Nippon Telegraph and Telephone (TOKYO:9432), may be getting smaller if a government set-up panel has its way. The panel, given the job of studying ways of making the company, and Japan's telecommunications market, more competitive, will recommend the splitting of NTT into five companies, according to a Japanese newspaper. News of the report sent NTT stock down 6,000 to 774,000 in light holiday trading on the Tokyo Stock Exchange Monday. The Yomiuri Shimbun says the panel's draft report recommends NTT be carved up into five smaller companies, four of which will be regional local call providers, and one long distance supplier. The report also recommends NTT be allowed to enter the international telecommunications market, currently it only offers domestic services. The local call companies will be split along four geographical regions under the plan, one for eastern Japan (Hokkaido, Tohoku, Kanto and Shinetsu), western Japan (Hokuriku, Kansai, Chugoku and Shikoku), central Japan (Tokai), and Kyushu. Tokyo, in the Kanto region, would fall under the eastern Japan company with the cities of Osaka, Kobe, Kyoto, and Nara all coming under the western Japan region. A fifth company would handle long distance calls in competition with existing operators. In an unexpected decision, the draft recommends NTT be allowed to compete for international call traffic with the current international telecommunications carriers KDD, ITJ, and IDC. In addition, the newspaper reports, KDD would be allowed to compete head on with NTT for domestic traffic under the plan. Such a match between two telecoms giants would promote some real competition in the Japanese market, say analysts. Addressing the future multimedia systems and cable networks that are planned, the draft report proposes the NTT regional companies be allowed to offer cable telephone services in areas outside their own. This would result in NTT regional companies competing with each other for business across Japan. Presently the domestic call market is dominated by NTT with three long distance companies, DDI, Japan Telecom, and Teleway Japan, offering a cheaper alternative. The International market is similarly structured with KDD as the market leader and ITJ and IDC offering cheaper international access. Contacted by Newsbytes, an NTT spokesman had no comment to make on the newspaper article. Hideki Omichi, assistant manager of public relations at NTT in Tokyo said, "We are not in a position to talk about the discussions, we just hope an open discussion will continue." Asked whether the company would welcome the opportunity to compete internationally, Omichi said, "Actually, we are already allowed to operate overseas, for instance in Taiwan, but only domestically. We are not allowed to operate services between countries. We are hoping for international telecommunications." The spokesman would not, however, make any comment about the possibility of KDD gaining access to the domestic market. The final version of the report, which has not been completed yet, will be submitted to the government and is expected to have a strong influence of its final decision, although such a report alone could still mean the corporation stays together. In 1990, a report recommended that NTT be split up into two companies. One would service the local telephone market and the other would concentrate on the long distance sector, but the report was scrapped after fierce objections by the government's finance ministry and NTT itself. The final report will be submitted to a committee in November. (Martyn Williams/19950815/Press contact: Hideki Omichi, NTT, tel +81-3-3509-3101, fax +81-3-3509-4290) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 08/15/95 WINDOWS Microsoft Intros World Of Flight CD-ROM (NEWS)(WINDOWS)(DEN)(00017) Microsoft Intros World Of Flight CD-ROM 08/15/95 REDMOND, WASHINGTON, U.S.A., 1995 AUG 15 (NB) -- Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ: MSFT) has announced an interactive multimedia program on CD-ROM that explores the history, people, aircraft, and technology of aviation. Microsoft said the program, called the Microsoft World of Flight, examines aviation from the legend of Daedalus and Icarus to the space shuttle, including aircraft from the first balloon flights to the latest high-tech combat aircraft. Daedalus was an inventor and craftsman in Greek mythology. He built the minotaur's labyrinth in Crete. When King Minos refused to let him leave, the legend says he built wings of wax for himself and his son Icarus. They flew away, but Icarus flew too close to the sun, the wax of his wings melted, and he fell to his death. Daedalus escaped to Italy, says the legend. Users can learn about aircraft from the Wright Flyer and Fokker triplane to the B-29 and the F-14 Tomcat. Peel-away illustrations let the user look inside a dozen of the planes. The program is an addition to Microsoft's Home Exploration Series. Microsoft chose an appropriate venue for the World of Flight's launch -- the 43rd annual Experimental Aircraft Association fly-in convention and Sport Aviation Exhibition at the Wittman Regional Airport in Oshkosh, Wisconsin. Microsoft said World of Flight features more than 1,000 photographs from museums and archives around the world, as well as dozens of historical and documentary videos, scenes from feature films, animated maps, illustrations, more than 1,000 audio clips, 700 interactive articles and details about more than 400 aircraft. The program was produced in conjunction with aviation writers, historians, photographers, and illustrators. Microsoft said video clips included with World of Flight include the Hindenburg's fatal flight and let the user fly along on a combat mission as well as witness the experiences of world- record-setting pilots including early pioneers like Manfred von Richtofen (the Bed Baron), Amelia Earhart, Charles Lindbergh, and Orville and Wilbur Wright. Saying people are fascinated with flight, Lorena Peer, a product manager at Microsoft, said air shows are the second largest spectator event in America. The shows, said Peer, draw more than 26 million people annually. Characters like Captain Hal the airline pilot, Vince the air- traffic controller, and Laura the flight instructor take the user on tours through aviation's past, present and future. You can watch a jumbo jet being put together, see how aircraft are tested and watch the effects of G-forces on fighter pilots through animation and graphics as well as interactive games. To run Microsoft World of Flight you need a IBM-compatible PC running Windows 3.1 or Windows 95. World of Flight takes advantages of NoInstall, a Windows 95 feature that is installed the first time it is loaded, and AutoPlay, which launches a CD-ROM-based program automatically when the disk is inserted in the drive. You also need at least a 486 microprocessor, a CD-ROM drive, eight megabytes (MB) of memory, 3MB of available hard drive space, an audio board, a Super VGA or better display, mouse, and headphones or speakers. Microsoft World of Flight is scheduled to ship in October with an approximate selling price of $34.95. (Jim Mallory/19950815/Press contact: Suzanne Dennehy, Waggener Edstrom for Microsoft, 408-986-1140; Public contact: Microsoft, 206-882-8080 or 800-426-9400) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 08/15/95 LEGAL Novell Shoots Planet BBS Out Of The Sky (NEWS)(LEGAL)(DEN)(00018) Novell Shoots Planet BBS Out Of The Sky 08/15/95 OREM, UTAH, U.S.A., 1995 AUG 15 (NB) -- Novell Inc. (NASDAQ: NOVL) shot a planet out of the sky last week. It was the Planet Gallifrey bulletin board system (BBS) operating out of Salt Lake City, Utah. Novell filed suit in the US District Court for the District of Utah, Central Division, alleging that BBS operator Joseph Casalino III, who just celebrated his eighteenth birthday recently and can now be tried as an adult should the case come to court, infringed on Novell's copyrights and trademarks by duplicating portions of its network operating system software, NetWare. It further alleged that Planet Gallifrey illegally distributed that software over telephone lines to BBS subscribers and members. Planet Gallifrey fell out of orbit after US Marshals and members of the Novell anti-piracy team entered its site late last month and seized and impounded the equipment used to run the BBS. A Novell spokesperson told Newsbytes the board was a small operation and the agents seized one PC, a phone line, and hard disk.. Novell "does not condemn" all BBS operators because of the illegal actions of a few, "only those that operate illegally," according to a company official. However, those that do operate outside the law had better watch out, said the firm. "Bulletin Board Systems provide valuable services. However, in those cases where Novell copyrights and trademarks are violated, we will aggressively pursue the violators," said David Bradford, Novell senior vice president and general counsel. The Novell spokesperson told Newsbytes other company's software was apparently also being illegally distributed, but she declined to identify those products, saying investigators were still examining the software on the seized disks. Novell is seeking injunctive relief, monetary damages, and attorney fees from the board operator. The spokesperson declined to disclose the amount of damages Novell is seeking, but did say so far the amount is in "five figures and could go higher." In April, 1995, Newsbytes reported that US Marshals and investigators from Microsoft and Novell seized hardware, software, and business records in a raid on what is alleged to be one of the world's largest pirate bulletin boards. The agents raided the Lexington, Kentucky headquarters of the BBS known as the Assassin's Guild and seized equipment and software that included 13 computers, 11 modems, a satellite disk, nine gigabytes of online data and over 40 gigabytes of off-line data that dated to 1992. In February, 1995, Novell and Microsoft reached a settlement with a teenage computer operator charged with illegally distributing hundreds of copyrighted commercial programs that calls for the operator of the Deadbeat Bulletin Board to pay the two companies $25,000 and forfeit the equipment that was used to run the board. In September, 1994, the Washington, DC-based Software Publishers Association announced the first ever indictment of a bulletin board operator for distributing copyrighted commercial software. The SPA said the United States Attorney for Massachusetts had indicted a 43-year old system operator of a BBS known as Davy Jones Locker, located in Millbury, Massachusetts. The trade group Business Software Alliance said software piracy cost software publishers over $15 million last year. If convicted on civil claims BBS operators face fines of up to $100,000 for each willful copyright infringement. Criminal charges carry penalties of up to $250,000 and as long in five years in prison, or both, a BSA representative told Newsbytes. (Jim Mallory;/19950815/Press contact: Novell, 408-577-8739; Public contact to report suspected software piracy: Novell, 800-747-2837, Internet e-mail pirates@novell.com) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 08/15/95 ONLINE Time & CompuServe Team On New Pathfinder Venture (NEWS)(ONLINE)(MSP)(00019) Time & CompuServe Team On New Pathfinder Venture 08/15/95 COLUMBUS, OHIO, U.S.A., 1995 AUG 15 (NB) -- CompuServe Inc., owned by H&R Block (NYSE:HRB), and Time Inc., a subsidiary of Time Warner Inc. (NYSE:TWX), said they are joining forces to provide direct Internet access to Time's huge Pathfinder Internet World Wide Web site. The two companies have inked an agreement that will create a private label Internet access product that combines the content of Pathfinder with the CompuServe's global network of resources. CompuServe's "Internet In A Box" software will provide access to both the Pathfinder site and the Internet in general, Jeff Shafer, CompuServe spokesperson, told Newsbytes. "We're providing the technology for Time to produce and market its own browser," Shafer told Newsbytes. "What it will mean to the user is that they'll get this product, which will be distributed through the countless ways that Time Inc. is capable of distributing things. Then when they hop onto the Internet with this product, they will be taken directly to Pathfinder." He also said Pathfinder is already the most popular Web site in the world, and he expects the site to become even more popular after the introduction of the new product. Time Inc. says it is the first publisher with a major presence on the World Wide Web to create its own Internet information access service. That access will be made via the CompuServe network, which is accessible from more than 140 countries. All local access ports will have 28.8 kilobits-per-second (Kbps) access speeds by April 30, 1996, CompuServe officials said. Shafer stressed that when Pathfinder customers dial into the CompuServe network, they won't be accessing CompuServe in any way. Instead, the network works as a "doorway" to Pathfinder, he said. Pricing isn't immediately available, Peter Costiglio, Time spokesperson, told Newsbytes. He did say the product should be available in time for this year's Christmas buying season. (Bob Woods/19950812/Press Contacts: Jeff Shafer, CompuServe, 614-538-4632; Rebecca Gelinas, CompuServe Internet Services Division, 206-442-2598; Peter Costiglio, Time, 212-522-3927) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 08/15/95 ONLINE Oracle's Free Personal Oracle7 Trial Via Online (NEWS)(ONLINE)(LAX)(00020) Oracle's Free Personal Oracle7 Trial Via Online 08/15/95 REDWOOD SHORES, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1995 AUG 15 (NB) -- Oracle Corp. (NASDAQ: ORCL) and CompuServe, have announced a software distribution agreement that will deliver Oracle's Workgroup/2000 product family to 3.2 million subscribers. Under the agreement, CompuServe's members can now download fully functional 90-day free trial copies of Personal Oracle7 Enterprise Edition, by typing "GO ORACLE." Personal Oracle7 Enterprise Edition is a desktop version of the Oracle7 database management system. It features single-button installation, and is pre-tuned and pre-configured. System requirements include 16 megabytes (MB) of memory and 30MB of diskspace. Personal Oracle7 Enterprise Edition runs on Microsoft Windows 3.1 and IBM's OS/2 and is available in the US for $595. The agreement is the latest development in Oracle's strategy to distribute fully functional software via the Internet, which began in January, 1995. Oracle7 Workgroup Server, Personal Oracle7, Oracle Power Objects, Oracle Objects for OLE (object linking and embedding), and Oracle Media Objects, are currently available at Oracle's site on the World Wide Web. Speaking to Newsbytes, Laurent Pacalin, director of World Wide Distribution for Oracle, said; "Since the introduction of Oracle's Workgroup/2000 family of products on the World Wide Web, Oracle has had over 2.5 million hits on its Internet server site and more than 74,000 downloads for product evaluations. Since January, our growth rate in both hits and downloads has been phenomenal. "We added CompuServe to expand our on-line distribution efforts. CompuServe brings us clients not on the Internet, especially in Europe, where commerce over the Internet is not as far along as in the United States," said Pacalin. "The Internet has been an ideal medium for sharing information and facilitating direct interaction between Oracle and its users," said Marc Benioff, vice president of Oracle's Client/Server Systems Division. "With CompuServe, we have a unique opportunity to broaden our reach beyond the Internet and offer our users unparalleled worldwide support through the Oracle User Group Forum (GO ORAUSER) and impromptu online conferences." Fully functional versions of Personal Oracle7 Enterprise Edition are available on CompuServe by typing "GO ORACLE" and via Oracle's Internet based World Wide Web server at http://www.oracle.com/ for free 90-day trials. A free 90-day trial version of Oracle Power Objects is scheduled to be available for downloading from CompuServe next month. The product is generally available immediately and runs on Windows Version 3.1 and Macintosh System 7.0 or 7.5. An OS/2 version is scheduled to be available in the fourth quarter, 1995. Oracle Power Objects Standard Edition 1.0 is priced in the US at $395 and Oracle Power Objects Client/Server Edition 1.0 is priced in the US at $1,995. Designed from its inception to support cross-platform application development, Oracle Power Objects is a graphical, object-based development tool that enables creation of client/server applications. According to the company, the product is the first visual programming tool to run simultaneously on Windows 3.1 and the Macintosh operating system, with an IBM OS/2 version scheduled for availability in the first quarter of 1996. (Richard Bowers/19950815/Press Contact: Suzanne Burnip, Oracle, 415-506-0772) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 800 08/15/95 TELECOM ****New 888 Numbers To Relieve Pressure On (NEWS)(TELECOM)(TOR)(00021) ****New 888 Numbers To Relieve Pressure On 800 08/15/95 MISSISSAUGA, ONTARIO, CANADA, 1995 AUG 15 (NB) -- North America is running out of 800 numbers. By some time next year, all the numbers in the 800 area code set aside for toll-free calls are likely to be taken up, so carriers will have to start using a new code: 888. The new 888 numbers will work just the same as today's 800 numbers, and the two codes will coexist. Adding the 888 code will allow for another eight million toll-free numbers (the seven- digit number following the area code may not start with 0 or 1, so the number of possible combinations is eight times 10 to the sixth power). Before 888 numbers can be used, though, the telephone companies will have to modify their switching equipment to know what to do with the new area code. Northern Telecom Ltd. has just announced that it has the software ready to do just that to its DMS switching systems. Carriers will be able to make the changes to DMS 100, 200, 250, and 500 switches in November, Nortel spokesman Peter Janecek told Newsbytes, and to local DMS 10 switches in December. All of North America's telephone network is supposed to be ready for 888 numbers by April of 1996, Janecek said, and after that the telephone companies will be able to start assigning toll-free numbers starting with 888. In the meantime, because of the shortage of 800 numbers, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) in the United States has brought in limits on how many 800 numbers carriers can assign. At the moment, according to Northern Telecom, there are about 875,000 800 numbers still available for assignment. There were concerns, before the FCC imposed allocation limits, that these could be used up within months. (Grant Buckler/19950814/Press Contact: Peter Janecek, Northern Telecom, 905-566-3279, Internet e-mail peter.janecek@nt.com; Ted Hudak, Northern Telecom, 214-684-2758) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 08/15/95 ONLINE Pablo Slicer/Dicer Puts Multi-Dimensional Data On Web (NEWS)(ONLINE)(TOR)(00022) Pablo Slicer/Dicer Puts Multi-Dimensional Data On Web 08/15/95 KINGSTON, ONTARIO, CANADA, 1995 AUG 15 (NB) -- Multi-dimensional data -- summarized information said to help in spotting business trends and making strategic decisions -- can be sent over the Internet's World Wide Web with new software from Andyne Computing Ltd. (TSE:ADY; NASDAQ:ADYNF), company officials said. Pablo Slicer/Dicer 1.0 makes HyperCube and relational data accessible using any Web browser, the software company said. Pablo Slicer/Dicer runs on a server equipped with Microsoft Windows NT, company spokesman Steven Bonisteel told Newsbytes. The NT server can be connected to a separate Web server running a different operating system, such as Unix, and any client computer equipped with a Web browser, whether an Apple Macintosh or a PC running Microsoft Windows, can retrieve the data over the Web. Initially, Bonisteel said, Andyne expects its customers will use the software to make their own data accessible to their own employees in remote locations, using the Internet as a communications conduit. In time, he added, the software may also be used to make data available to customers and others. HyperCube databases are multi-dimensional databases that make it possible to look at the same data in a variety of different ways. Slicer/Dicer will also work with data in conventional relational database management systems, Andyne officials said. According to Andyne, Slicer/Dicer will let a decision-maker extract the subset of data he or she wants from the central or departmental HyperCube, then download it to a remote computer. The rest of the work with that data then takes place on the user's desktop, so it does not tie up network bandwidth. Slicer/Dicer comes bundled with the Pablo HyperCube Utilities kit, which has a list price of US$99. Pablo lists for US$695 per user copy. (Grant Buckler/19950815/Press Contact: Campbell Patterson, Andyne, 613-548-4355) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 08/15/95 ONLINE IBM Global Network Plans Lotus Notes Offering (NEWS)(ONLINE)(BOS)(00023) IBM Global Network Plans Lotus Notes Offering 08/15/95 BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS, U.S.A., 1995 AUG 15 -- Future plans for the IBM Global Network include supplying a new "Lotus Notes offering," video content from STET, and other services as components in "customizable packages," plus recruiting Notes developers and forming new partnerships with telecommunications carriers worldwide, said Steve Weyl, general manager (GM) of collaborative services at IBM, in a conference call with Newsbytes. IBM will give its newly unveiled Notes offering a "trademark name," as well as an intensive marketing campaign, when the Notes service reaches "wide availability" early next year, Weyl told Newsbytes. Meanwhile, IBM will work with about a dozen large enterprise customers and their business partners, as well as with Notes ISVs (independent software developers), on developing the new service offering for Notes, the IBM GM revealed. At the same time, he added, discussions will continue with telecommunications carriers around the world toward gaining "more effective access and egress" for IBM Global Network customers. Ultimately, the IBM Global Network will also provide bundles of preconfigured hardware for use on the network, as well as "augmented advisory services, ranging from training on how to design your application to complete systems integration work," according to the IBM exec. Weyl told Newsbytes that IBM has been working with "specific customers" on Notes-based applications for more than a year now, starting long before IBM's acquisition of Lotus in June. But now, with the official announcement of its own Notes-based service, the IBM Global Network will become "provisioned so as to make it easier for us to provide a standard service capability," he maintained. IBM's Notes offering will be "strikingly similar" in some ways to AT&T Notes and other Notes-based network services, according to the exec. "Something that Lotus is striving for is to make sure the Notes (client and server) are identical (between services), so that (users) don't have to learn different things on different services," Newsbytes was told. "Also, it is very much our intent to make our service interoperable with the other Notes network services -- just like an EDI (electronic data interchange) service, for example, wouldn't want to be an `isolated island,'" he added. Players in the Notes-based services market will differentiate their services on the basis of "customer care," the GM predicted, listing availability, reliability, and security as some of the elements to be emphasized. "But from IBM's perspective, we will also want to compete on the basis of our other forms of expertise. For one thing, IBM is also a hardware company, so we're going to be offering (hardware) bundles. But even more important (are) the augmented advisory services," he continued. Even before the Lotus acquisition, IBM had 500 "Notes experts" onboard, according to the general manager. Although some IBM staffers are still using IBM's legacy Profs and VM systems, about 50,000 of them are now employing Notes. "And Notes is absolutely going to be the workgroup standard within IBM. Over the next few months, we will be switching over very strongly to the Notes/cc:Mail combination," he pledged. IBM also brings "very substantial systems integration and consulting resources" to the table. "And, of course, Lotus itself also has a very large consulting organization," according to Weyl. As previously reported in Newsbytes, earlier this month, the IBM Global Network and STET, the $21 billion holding company that owns Telecom Italia, announced a joint enterprise aimed at combining the backbone networks of the two companies, while providing "value- added" telecommunications and network services. Services to be provided under the IBM/STET deal will include videoconferencing and interactive video applications now under development by STET, as well as Notes-based applications, said John Whiteside, general manager of the IBM Global Network, and STET Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Ernesto Pascale, during a teleconference on the deal that was attended by Newsbytes. Noted Weyl, two weeks after the teleconference: "The partnership with STET implies that the IBM Global Network and STET are part of one worldwide entity. Everything involved with the IBM network will be involved with that entity. And this entity will include other partners in the near future." Weyl told Newsbytes during the conference call that the IBM Global Network is already "awesomely worldwide." But in some parts of the world, the network relies on "individual arrangements" such as private lines, he acknowledged. "Periodically, though, we are able to get better prices and better availability for our customers by making deals with larger carriers," he pointed out. Weyl added that IBM is now conducting discussions with "a number of different carriers" around the world for network access. He declined to say whether AT&T is among these carriers, citing company policy against commenting on negotiations in process. But, he contended, IBM and AT&T are already "partners of one kind." "We get various kinds of services from AT&T, and vice versa. And we are certainly going to be talking to them about interoperability, so that people can talk across our services," asserted Weyl. The IBM Global Network is already running content from a number of third-party providers, and STET's videoconferencing and interactive video will be joining the mix. Accordingly, right now, recruitment of Notes ISVs is a major component of IBM's efforts, according to Weyl. "ISVs are very important to this whole thing. People want (content), not just raw capabilities," the IBM executive told Newsbytes. (Jacqueline Emigh/19950815/Reader Contacts: IBM, 914-765-1900; Lotus, 617-577-8500; Press Contacts: Ray Gorman, IBM, 914-766-1736; Meryl Franzman, Lois Paul & Partners for Lotus, 617-862-4514) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 08/15/95 PC Gateway Intros Pentium Notebook PC (NEWS)(PC)(DEN)(00024) Gateway Intros Pentium Notebook PC 08/15/95 NORTH SIOUX CITY, SOUTH DAKOTA, U.S.A., 1995 AUG 15 (NB) -- Gateway 2000 (NASDAQ: GATE) has announced a new line of Pentium-based multimedia notebook PCs that include modular internal CD-ROM and floppy drives, are powered by lithium ion batteries, and are "optimized" for Microsoft Windows 95. The company said the new Solo line, with a starting price of $3,699 with the CD-ROM drive, is available in both 75 megahertz (MHz) and 90MHz Pentium processor platforms. All the Solo PCs come with an active matrix VGA 10.2-inch (measured diagonally ) or a 10.4-inch Super VGA display, 256 kilobyte (KB) cache, at least 16 megabytes (MB) of memory, a lithium ion battery that can be charged either in or out of the PC and will run the unit for three to five hours according to Gateway, and two PCMCIA (Personal Computer Memory Card International Association) Type II slots that will also accept one Type III card. Equipped with a 540MB hard drive, a SVGA active matrix display and the optional bay cover, the Solo weighs 5.6 pounds. The bay at the front of the system can accept either a CD-ROM or a floppy drive. Either slips in an out easily. If you want both a CD-ROM and a floppy running simultaneously you can purchase an optional external floppy drive for $79, Gateway 2000 spokesperson Steve Sturgeon told Newsbytes. The Solo uses what Gateway calls an EZ-PAD in place of a mouse. The 1.5-inch square pad is located at the front center of the keyboard. The cursor is moved by dragging your finger across the pad. Mouse clicking is accomplished by tapping the pad twice or by pressing one of the two buttons below the pad to emulate right and left mouse clicks. The company said it will begin taking orders for Solo in early September, shortly after Microsoft Windows 95 is available. Windows 95, the software company's newest operating system and graphical user interface, is set to ship on August 24. Solo PCs will ship with Windows 95 and will include a keyboard specifically for Windows 95 use. Other features of the Solo include integrated stereo speakers, Soundblaster-compatible sound, an integrated microphone and jacks for external speakers, microphone, and headphones. Gateway said you get headphones when you buy a Solo system. Solo PCs can be equipped with a $149 optional docking bar that lets the user connect various peripheral devices such as an external monitor, a keyboard, mouse, or joystick. The docking bar will be available in October, said Sturgeon. The unit has infrared file transfer capability for wireless exchange of files between it and another similarly equipped system. Two keys on the keyboard support Windows 95 functions. When the user presses the Windows logo key by itself, that opens the Start menu. The application key brings up a context-specific menu, much like clicking the right mouse key in many current applications. (Jim Mallory/19950815/Press contact: Steve Sturgeon, Gateway 2000, 605- 232-2582; Public contact: Gateway 2000, 605-232- 2000/SOLO950815/PHOTO) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 08/15/95 LEGAL ****First Mortgage Files Billing Suit Against AOL (NEWS)(LEGAL)(SFO)(00025) ****First Mortgage Files Billing Suit Against AOL 08/15/95 WILMINGTON, DELAWARE, U.S.A., 1995 AUG 15 (NB) -- Claiming America Online (NASDAQ:AMER) is overcharging its members by millions of minutes, First Mortgage Corp. of Ardmore, Pennsylvania, has filed a class action suit. The claim states users who use more than 45 seconds of a minute are charged for two minutes. In following the case, Newsbytes attempted to call First Mortgage Corp. in Ardmore only to learn there was no phone number listed for such a company. After speaking to the attorney, Douglas MacGray, who filed the case (#14476) in Delaware Chancery Court, Newsbytes was told the person running First Mortgage Corp. was actually doing business as First M. Corp. in Ardmore. Again there was no listing of such a corporation. Newsbytes did confirm the case has been filed in the said court and the county clerk confirmed MacGray as the attorney who filed the claim in Delaware. MacGray told Newsbytes he could not release the name of the person running First M. Corp. or First Mortgage Corp. in Ardmore. He did say his firm, Murphy Welch & Spadaro of Wilmington, Delaware, was working with the actual firm, Greenfield & Rifkin of Haverford, Pennsylvania, representing First Mortgage Corp. Newsbytes was told the attorney handling the case, Scott Shepard, was on vacation and no one was available to comment on the case. Subscribers to America Online (AOL) are charged a flat monthly fee of $9.95 which includes 300 minutes (5 hours) of online usage. After the 300 minutes, users are charged $2.95 per hour in segments of one minute. Common understanding is any portion of use less than one minute is rounded to one full minute. Newsbytes attempted to reach AOL, but the person handling this issue was unavailable for comment by Newsbytes' deadline. (Patrick McKenna/19950815/Press Contact: Pam McGraw, AOL, 703-448-8700) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 08/15/95 ONLINE ****McKinley Internet Directory Debuts Today (NEWS)(ONLINE)(SFO)(00026) ****McKinley Internet Directory Debuts Today 08/15/95 SANTA CLARA, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1995 AUG 15 (NB) -- The McKinley Group and Personal Library Software announced a full-text- and concept-based search technology for the McKinley Internet Directory. Hosted by Netcom, what is called the "most comprehensive" online directory, "The McKinley," will be available free on the Internet for the next 60 days. Designed for novice and expert Net surfers, this new directory aims to make finding the information a user needs very easy. Citing one of the main criticisms of the Internet, the inability to quickly locate either general or specific information, The McKinley Group teamed with Personal Library Software to create the directory. The latter supplies the software backbone of The McKinley with intelligent retrieval techniques and easy to use graphical interfaces on the screen. The hardware and bandwidth capabilities are provided through an agreement with Netcom. A company spokesperson told Newsbytes the switch will be turned on sometime today as the directory opens to the public. The McKinley opens with 80,000 sites in its directory and users may access rated reviews of 20,000 of those sites. According to the designers, this new directory/search tool offers users either a wide, general topic approach or a specific, zoom into a single site. The reviewed sites are rated on a four star system with one star being the lowest level. McKinley says an International Advisory Board is used to maintain an "unbiased approach" to the reviews. Companies and individuals are encouraged to contact McKinley for entry into the directory. Once a site is located through a search, users will have a description, hyperlinks, keywords, and audience descriptors, producer information, the language of the resource and any associated costs. McKinley is the same group which publishes the Internet Yellow Pages. Its president, David Hayden, told Newsbytes, "We have been quietly working on this directory for more than two years and we are really pleased to bring the most advanced search technology combined with extensive review information to the Internet." Hayden said he is in a way competing with Yahoo and InfoSeek as the leading Internet directory services. "We differ from them in that we offer descriptive and review information about specific sites. As well, we are committed to developing an international service. One third of our listings are international and we have plans to develop the service in French, German, and Japanese. Later, we will add Spanish," he said. A Paris office is also planned. The McKinley Directory is being offered as a fee-based service to Internet providers (IPs) after the first sixty days of open Internet use. This means companies like AT&T, Netcom, and others will have the opportunity to provide the service to their subscribers. Whether they charge for that service is left to each company to decide. (Patrick McKenna/19950815/Press Contact: Helene Atkin, McKinley Group, 415-331-1884, Internet World Wide Web http://www.mckinley.com ) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 08/15/95 BUSINESS Maryland Firm Sells CD-I Business (NEWS)(BUSINESS)(WAS)(00027) Maryland Firm Sells CD-I Business 08/15/95 BETHESDA, MARYLAND, U.S.A., 1995 AUG 15 (NB) -- Capitol Multimedia (NASDAQ:CDIM) has sold much of its compact disk-interactive (CD-I) business to Philips Media, a subsidiary of Philips Electronics (NYSE:PHG). Philips has bought Capitol's interest in Infotravel and its Showmaster/Showholder products. Philips is turning over all of the 825,088 shares it owns of Capitol, plus $500,000 in cash and royalties over the next four years, not to exceed $2 million. Capitol's stock has been selling at around $3.625 per share. According to Robert Bogin, Capitol president and chief executive officer, "The decision to sell the CD-I professional assets to Philips was precipitated by a change in Capitol's strategic business plan from a developer of CD-I consumer and professional titles to a company focusing its strengths on the childrens market." In February, Capitol bought Animation Magic and its wholly owned subsidiary in St. Petersburg, Russia, which specializes in high-end art and animation. Capitol intends to create high quality, low-cost titles for children ages three-12. Capitol recently announced an agreement with Davidson & associates, a major multimedia distributor, to distribute six of Capitol's titles for Windows and Macintosh platforms worldwide. The six titles will be based on folklore with universal themes. The first three titles, scheduled for release for the 1995 holiday season, are Baba Yaga and the Magic Geese, a Russian folk tale, Imo and the King, an East African folk tale, and The Little Samurai, a Japanese folk tale. The final three titles of the series will come in the fall of 1996. (Kennedy Maize/19950815/Press Contact: John Donovan, 301-907-7000 ext 852) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 08/15/95 ONLINE Future Of Free Internet SEC Data In Doubt (NEWS)(ONLINE)(WAS)(00028) Future Of Free Internet SEC Data In Doubt 08/15/95 WASHINGTON, D.C., U.S.A., 1995 AUG 15 (NB) -- A two-year experiment with free access to Securities and Exchange Commission filings over the Internet is scheduled to end October 1, and it isn't clear whether anyone will fund it in the future. Since January, 1994, Internet Multicasting Service, a non-profit organization based in Washington, has made data from the SEC's database, called "Edgar," available on the Internet. According to Carl Malamud, president of the service, some 3.1 million SEC documents have been sent out electronically over the Internet. Edgar stands for Electronic Data Gathering Analysis and Retrieval. The service has been funded by private contributions and money from the National Science Foundation, but all the grants end at the end of the current fiscal year, September 30. What happens next is up in the air. Malamud wants to see continued free access over the Internet. "It doesn't conflict with the commercial market and it serves the fundamental public service of the SEC laws, which is public disclosure," he told a conference on Edgar in Washington on Monday. SEC officials were warm to the notion of continued free access, but short on details. "I'd like to get back to the original concept that the public has immediate access to this information for free," SEC Commissioner Steven Wallman told reporters. He said the commission will publish a rulemaking proposal next month. SEC Chairman Arthur Levitt told the New York Times that he would "do everything I possibly can" to continue free electronic access. "I want to find ways of delivering this service at the lowest possible cost to the most possible users. The Internet is one way. I'm sure there are others." But Rep. Dan Frisa (R-N.Y.), who has been studying Edgar and the SEC, wants to privatize the electronic service and try to turn it into a money maker for the government. James Love of the Taxpayer Assets Project told the meeting that citizens should not have to pay twice for the government data, once through taxes and again through fees to private sector providers. "The marginal cost of an individual getting the data is so trivial it would cost more to set up a billing process than to make the data available without charge." According to Malamud, maintaining the existing service on the Internet would cost about $175,000 annually. He contends the 1994 Paperwork Reduction Act requires the SEC to offer free electronic access to its records. The SEC built Edgar about a decade ago at a cost of more than $72 million. Today, the system is slow and the data is difficult to use in personal computer database or spreadsheet software, so in addition to the question of continued free access is the additional question of how to make the data more usable. At the conference, Leavitt noted, "In this world of instantaneous telecommunications, Edgar has come to resemble the Pony Express." He said he wants to rethink Edgard "from the ground up." (Kennedy Maize/19950815/Press Contact: John Heine, SEC, 202-942-8088; Internet Multicasting Service is on the World Wide Web at http://town.hal.org ) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 08/15/95 ONLINE ***AT&T Intros Web Service For Consumers/Business (NEWS)(ONLINE)(BOS)(00029) ***AT&T Intros Web Service For Consumers/Business 08/15/95 BOOTON, NEW JERSEY, U.S.A., 1995 AUG 15 (NB) -- In a teleconference today, AT&T announced a sweeping, three-pronged World Wide Web service, scheduled to enter the trial phase within the next 60 days, that will include dial-in access by consumers, LAN (local area network) access by business customers of AT&T's "800" service, and "integrated content" from AT&T and multiple partners. John Petrillio, president of AT&T Business Communications Services, and other AT&T officials said that the new service will incorporate and expand on other AT&T Web services that include AT&T Network Notes and AT&T's recently forged deal with BBN Planet for collaborative development and delivery of Web access and security services to businesses. Officials maintained that the time is right for extending Web services to consumers, now that studies show 25 percent of US homes to be equipped with PCs and modems. AT&T will provide "specially configured" Netscape software to consumers who do not currently have access to Web browsers. The company will also provide a Web interface designed to be as "easy to use as a telephone," journalists were told. Also during the phone conference, the AT&T officials characterized their upcoming service as "open," in contrast to a "closed" environment for the upcoming Microsoft Network, which is scheduled for rollout upon shipment of Windows 95 on August 24. (Jacqueline Emigh/19950814/Press Contact: Mike Miller, AT&T, 201-331-4141) (SUMMARY)(GENERAL)(MSP)(00030) Newsbytes Daily Summary 08/15/95 MINNEAPOLIS, MINNESOTA, U.S.A., 1995 AUG 15 (NB) -- These are capsules of all today's news stories: ======================================================================== ------------| N E W S B Y T E S D A I L Y S U M M A R Y |---------- ------------| Tuesday, August 15, 1995 |---------- ======================================================================== (c) Newsbytes News Network (Tm) Editor in Chief: Wendy Woods ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Newsbytes News Network's 1995 Update CD-ROM for Mac, DOS, and Windows is now available for $29.95 (includes s&h). Contains 1983-1995 news stories, more than 64,000 keyword searchable stories and 475 digitized images. For more information or to order, fax to 612-430-0441 or e-mail to 'administrator@newsbytes.com' -- MC, Visa, Amex accepted. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ CATEGORY HEADLINES (*** indicates today's top stories) STORY # ======================================================================== BUSINESS Macromedia Announces European Partner Program.............. 03 BUSINESS ****Microsoft To Invest In Turner Broadcasting............ 11 BUSINESS Maryland Firm Sells CD-I Business.......................... 27 GOVT Japan - Govt Panel Proposes NTT Split...................... 16 LEGAL ****NEC Counterfeit Memory Chips In Circulation........... 12 LEGAL Novell Shoots Planet BBS Out Of The Sky.................... 18 LEGAL ****First Mortgage Files Billing Suit Against AOL......... 25 NETWORK MacWorld - Developers Use Novell AppWare ALMs.............. 01 ONLINE eWorks, Medialink To Offer Internet Clipping Service....... 02 ONLINE New Survey Better Maps The Internet........................ 15 ONLINE Time & CompuServe Team On New Pathfinder Venture........... 19 ONLINE Oracle's Free Personal Oracle7 Trial Via Online............ 20 ONLINE Pablo Slicer/Dicer Puts Multi-Dimensional Data On Web...... 22 ONLINE IBM Global Network Plans Lotus Notes Offering.............. 23 ONLINE ****McKinley Internet Directory Debuts Today.............. 26 ONLINE Future Of Free Internet SEC Data In Doubt.................. 28 ONLINE ***AT&T Intros Web Service For Consumers/Business.......... 29 PC HP To Intro New Windows 95 Home PCs........................ 05 PC Gateway Intros Pentium Notebook PC......................... 24 TELECOM British Telecom To Open Network To Free Market............. 04 TELECOM Another Korean Telecom Deal For Sweden's Ericsson.......... 09 TELECOM Vodafone Links GSM Net With Spain/Gibraltar/Thailand....... 10 TELECOM ****New 888 Numbers To Relieve Pressure On 800............ 21 TRENDS 3 Hard Disk Brands Share Chinese Market.................... 06 TRENDS China - Overseas Patent Applications Increase.............. 07 TRENDS Ireland - 100% Voice-Mail Penetration By 2000.............. 08 WINDOWS Symantec Toolkit Itemizes Costs For Windows 95............. 13 WINDOWS Elektroson's CD Recording Software For Windows 95.......... 14 WINDOWS Microsoft Intros World Of Flight CD-ROM.................... 17 ======================================================================== These are the headlines and first paragraphs of each story, in order: 1 -> MacWorld - Developers Use Novell AppWare ALMs -- "The ALM (AppWare Loadable Module) is to the client as the NLM (NetWare Loadable Module) is to the server," remarked Edwin Firmage, director of marketing for Novell's NetWare Development Tools, in a press conference at MacWorld that featured demos of ALMs for Newton connectivity, imaging, and database retrieval from the Mac or Windows, created by third-party developers with Novell AppWare. 2 -> eWorks, Medialink To Offer Internet Clipping Service -- Two New York City companies have formed a strategic alliance to provide a clipping service for Internet content. Medialink Public Relations Research and eWorks! said the service will utilize the latter's eWatch service to retrieve every qualified reference appearing on the Internet using a "predetermined list of client criteria." 3 -> Macromedia Announces European Partner Program -- Macromedia, after operating dealer and developer sign-up programs in the UK for three months, has rolled its programs out into Europe. Initially, there are two distinct programs, both of which aim to sign up software developers and bureaus using Macromedia technology. 4 -> British Telecom To Open Network To Free Market -- British Telecom (BT) should be forced to offer its rivals open access to its network in order to promote the development of the "information superhighway" in the UK, according to proposals just unveiled by Oftel, the British Government telecoms watchdog. 5 -> HP To Intro New Windows 95 Home PCs -- Hewlett-Packard (NYSE:HWP) says its new line of home computing systems 6 -> 3 Hard Disk Brands Share Chinese Market -- The country's hard disk drive (HDD) market is mainly shared by Conner, Quantum, and Seagate, and quality is the first criterion for users choosing HDDs, a survey of United Business Information claims. 7 -> China - Overseas Patent Applications Increase -- Overseas applications for patents in China have increased at a fast pace. During the first five months of this year, the Chinese Patent office received 4,472 overseas patent applications, showing a 22 percent increase over the same period of last year. 8 -> Ireland - 100% Voice-Mail Penetration By 2000 -- Telecoms company Octel has been working closely with Telecom Eireann (TE), Ireland's telecoms provider, to launch a state-of-the-art telephone answering and messaging service to Irish subscribers. 9 -> Another Korean Telecom Deal For Sweden's Ericsson -- Ericsson has signed a deal with Korea Telecom for the delivery and installation of a first phase mobile data network in the Seoul area. 10 -> Vodafone Links GSM Net With Spain/Gibraltar/Thailand -- Vodafone has signed a roaming agreement with Telefonica of Spain, Gibtel of Gibraltar, and AIS of Thailand for its GSM (global system for mobile communications) digital network. 11 -> ****Microsoft To Invest In Turner Broadcasting -- Bill Gates, chairman of Microsoft Inc. (NASDAQ: MSFT), may be poised to invest as much as $2 billion of his company's money in Turner Broadcasting System (TBS), according to a story in the Los Angeles Times. 12 -> ****NEC Counterfeit Memory Chips In Circulation -- NEC Corporation (TOKYO:6701) says it has discovered below-standard memory chips illegally bearing the company's name in the South East Asia and the United States. The chips are believed to be factory rejects from prominent international electronics companies. 13 -> Symantec Toolkit Itemizes Costs For Windows 95 -- Symantec Corporation (NASDAQ: SYMC) has announced a planning and budgeting toolkit that helps corporate customers understand costs and planning involved in moving to Windows 95. The toolkit is designed specifically to help large corporate customers with these complicated transitional problems. 14 -> Elektroson's CD Recording Software For Windows 95 -- Elektroson, a major developer of CD-R (CD-Recording) software, is shipping Gear 3.2 for Windows 95 and Windows NT. Expecting corporate users, multimedia developers and small business users of CD-R technology to quickly adopt Windows 95, Elektroson says it will ship the new version by the end of August. 15 -> New Survey Better Maps The Internet -- The latest Internet Host Count, the longest running survey of the global Internet computer network, shows the network is still experiencing strong growth in all areas of the world. The processed results have also been further analyzed to give the most accurate picture so far of the network and the computers that make it up. 16 -> Japan - Govt Panel Proposes NTT Split -- The world's biggest corporation, Nippon Telegraph and Telephone (TOKYO:9432), may be getting smaller if a government set-up panel has its way. The panel, given the job of studying ways of making the company, and Japan's telecommunications market, more competitive, will recommend the splitting of NTT into five companies, according to a Japanese newspaper. 17 -> Microsoft Intros World Of Flight CD-ROM -- Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ: MSFT) has announced an interactive multimedia program on CD-ROM that explores the history, people, aircraft, and technology of aviation. 18 -> Novell Shoots Planet BBS Out Of The Sky -- Novell Inc. (NASDAQ: NOVL) shot a planet out of the sky last week. It was the Planet Gallifrey bulletin board system (BBS) operating out of Salt Lake City, Utah. 19 -> Time & CompuServe Team On New Pathfinder Venture -- CompuServe Inc., owned by H&R Block (NYSE:HRB), and Time Inc., a subsidiary of Time Warner Inc. (NYSE:TWX), said they are joining forces to provide direct Internet access to Time's huge Pathfinder Internet World Wide Web site. 20 -> Oracle's Free Personal Oracle7 Trial Via Online -- Oracle Corp. (NASDAQ: ORCL) and CompuServe, have announced a software distribution agreement that will deliver Oracle's Workgroup/2000 product family to 3.2 million subscribers. Under the agreement, CompuServe's members can now download fully functional 90-day free trial copies of Personal Oracle7 Enterprise Edition, by typing "GO ORACLE." 21 -> ****New 888 Numbers To Relieve Pressure On 800 -- North America is running out of 800 numbers. By some time next year, all the numbers in the 800 area code set aside for toll-free calls are likely to be taken up, so carriers will have to start using a new code: 888. 22 -> Pablo Slicer/Dicer Puts Multi-Dimensional Data On Web -- Multi-dimensional data 23 -> IBM Global Network Plans Lotus Notes Offering -- Future plans for the IBM Global Network include supplying a new "Lotus Notes offering," video content from STET, and other services as components in "customizable packages," plus recruiting Notes developers and forming new partnerships with telecommunications carriers worldwide, said Steve Weyl, general manager (GM) of collaborative services at IBM, in a conference call with Newsbytes. 24 -> Gateway Intros Pentium Notebook PC -- Gateway 2000 (NASDAQ: GATE) has announced a new line of Pentium-based multimedia notebook PCs that include modular internal CD-ROM and floppy drives, are powered by lithium ion batteries, and are "optimized" for Microsoft Windows 95. 25 -> ****First Mortgage Files Billing Suit Against AOL -- Claiming America Online (NASDAQ:AMER) is overcharging its members by millions of minutes, First Mortgage Corp. of Ardmore, Pennsylvania, has filed a class action suit. The claim states users who use more than 45 seconds of a minute are charged for two minutes. 26 -> ****McKinley Internet Directory Debuts Today -- The McKinley Group and Personal Library Software announced a full-text- and concept-based search technology for the McKinley Internet Directory. Hosted by Netcom, what is called the "most comprehensive" online directory, "The McKinley," will be available free on the Internet for the next 60 days. 27 -> Maryland Firm Sells CD-I Business -- Capitol Multimedia (NASDAQ:CDIM) has sold much of its compact disk-interactive (CD-I) business to Philips Media, a subsidiary of Philips Electronics (NYSE:PHG). Philips has bought Capitol's interest in Infotravel and its Showmaster/Showholder products. 28 -> Future Of Free Internet SEC Data In Doubt -- A two-year experiment with free access to Securities and Exchange Commission filings over the Internet is scheduled to end October 1, and it isn't clear whether anyone will fund it in the future. 29 -> ***AT&T Intros Web Service For Consumers/Business -- In a teleconference today, AT&T announced a sweeping, three-pronged World Wide Web service, scheduled to enter the trial phase within the next 60 days, that will include dial-in access by consumers, LAN (local area network) access by business customers of AT&T's "800" service, and "integrated content" from AT&T and multiple partners. (Ian Stokell/19950815) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 08/10/95 NETWORK Voice & Data Connectivity Via Laser (NEWS)(NETWORK)(MSP)(00001) Voice & Data Connectivity Via Laser 08/10/95 LANCASTER, PENNSYLVANIA, U.S.A., 1995 AUG 10 (NB) -- Laser Communications Inc. (LCI) said it has developed a new class of high-speed laser optic communications, combining the simultaneous building-to-building transmission of digital voice trunk and local area network (LAN) connectivity. All of this is done with a single laser beam, officials said. The new OmniBeam 2000 Data/Voice Link doesn't require any regulatory permits to dig beneath streets or tear up sidewalks to link buildings via a digital voice trunk or LAN, because it uses the laser which is shot between two buildings through windows or other openings, officials said. The unit provides concurrent send/receive capability, and can cover a range of 1.2 kilometers, or almost 4,000 feet. LCI officials said the OmniBeam 2000 Data/Voice Link is used in applications where a LAN and a digital voice trunk must be simultaneously connected between two sites. "A customer that wanted to have an Ethernet (network) link and a T1 voice link can do it on a single laser beam," Dick Guttendorf, president of LCI, told Newsbytes. "So now, one system is used instead of two." The Data/Voice Link supports T1 (1.544 megabits-per-second -- Mbps) or E1 (2.048 Mbps) voice trunk, along with an Ethernet (10 Mbps) or Token Ring (4 or 16 Mbps) LAN interface. The only thing the customer needs to supply is a clear line-of-sight between buildings and a solid supporting location underneath the units. Installation is simple, officials claim, by using a simple bar graph and tone-lock procedure. The company had been building laser applications, mainly for LANs. But Guttendorf said the firm has many requests for years for a voice/data laser product. The OmniBeam 2000 Data/voice Link is priced at $17,500, and the first units will ship in two weeks, Guttendorf said. LCI is a unit of Safeguard Scientifics (NYSE:SFE). (Bob Woods/19950809/Press Contact: Phil Hall, Open City Communications, 212-714-3575; Public Contact: Laser Communications, 800-LASER-40) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 08/10/95 TELECOM "V-Fast Modem Charger" Telephone Line Conditioners (NEWS)(TELECOM)(MSP)(00002) "V-Fast Modem Charger" Telephone Line Conditioners 08/10/95 ATLANTA, GEORGIA, U.S.A., 1995 AUG 10 (NB) -- NAI Datacomm has developed a series of telephone line conditioners that the company claims "clean up dirty phone lines" that can bog down high-speed data transmission and receiving equipment. Now, says the firm, users can get a "clean connection" with the "V.Fast Modem Charger" family, instead of getting expensive fiber optic or pre-conditioned phone lines. Specifically, the new line of phone line conditioners can: optimize transmission lines for higher throughput; automatically adjust gain and equalization; improve fax, electronic-mail (e-mail), dial-up video, and voice transmissions; and freeze adaptive balance adjustments, company officials said. Bryan Hutton, vice president of marketing and sales for NAI Datacomm, told Newsbytes the phone line conditioners were designed for people who need to take full advantage of their high-speed equipment. "This is geared toward to the heavy, two-wire dial-up service user," he said. "This product did not have a place in the market until the high-speed modems came out, and started pushing the limits of the phone service we currently have." Specifically, computer users who download heavy graphics, bulletin board system (BBS) operators, telecommuters, and value-added resellers, can all benefit from the new conditioner line, company officials said. Medical professionals who are in tele-radiology also benefit, because transit time is saved when sending x-ray images via telephone lines between a hospital emergency room and a doctor's office. And testing laboratories also save time, because analyses based on lab data can be done quicker with a line that's been cleared of noise via a phone line conditioner, the company said. The V.Fast Modem Charger line breaks down into three models, ranging in manufacturer's suggested retail price from $299 to $599, depending on the features the customer needs, Hutton said. (Bob Woods/19950809/Press Contact: Peter Christian, Computer Asset Solutions, 770-453-9550; Public Contact: Computer Asset Solutions, 770-613-0388) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 08/10/95 WINDOWS Caligari 3-D Graphics Software For Windows (NEWS)(WINDOWS)(LAX)(00003) Caligari 3-D Graphics Software For Windows 08/10/95 MOUNTAIN VIEW, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1995 AUG 10 (NB) -- Caligari Corporation has introduced Caligari Truespace/SE for Windows. Positioned as an entry-level software product for three-dimensional (3-D) graphics and animation, the product is priced at $149. Caligari Truespace/SE is a 3-D modeling, rendering, and broadcast- quality animation software program. According to the company, Truespace/SE enables graphic artists, multimedia developers, video professionals, architects and engineers to work in 3-D perspective space, manipulate objects directly, and interact in real-time. Stan Ziel, director of technical support for Caligari told Newsbytes, "When compared to other 3-D products at similar price points, Truespace/SE redefines entry-level 3-D graphics and animation software for price, performance, and ease-of-use." He continued: 'We want an entry-level product that gives the user the tools of the high-end products. For example, we feel it is important to give real-time feedback in a 3-D graphics application. Real-time feedback helps ease the learning curve into what can be a daunting experience." He added: "Truespace/SE's intuitive interface will appeal to amateurs looking to explore 3-D graphics. It has real-time movement of objects and quality output with unmatched ease of use. Users can create flying 3-D text, titles and logos, slide-ready illustrations, animations for video output, and 3-D objects for multimedia presentations. With products like CorelDraw and Adobe Illustrator, users create complex, fully three-dimensional, 32-bit photorealistic objects and scenes." According to the company, designers can view a 3-D object from all angles, rotate it in space, and directly bend, twist, mold, and manipulate it. The company claims that traditional 3-D packages require extensive training and laborious selection from dialog boxes or menus and often only allow artists to edit objects in 2-D views. Truespace/SE is available now through authorized distributors and resellers. Caligari Truespace/SE requires a 386 processor (486 is recommended) with a floating point co-processor, Windows 3.1 or higher, four megabytes (MB) RAM and 6MB of free hard disk space. A Windows graphics accelerator is also recommended. Caligari recently shipped the more advanced Truespace2, a 32-bit workstation-class 3-D graphics and animation software. Truespace2 features include shaded graphics modeling, 3-D Boolean operations, and "organic surface sculpting." Truespace2 has an suggested retail price of $795. (Richard Bowers/19950809/Press Contact: Neil McElwee, Caligari, 415-390-9600) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 08/10/95 GENERAL Microsoft Plans Toonz 4.0 For Silicon Graphics (NEWS)(GENERAL)(DEN)(00004) Microsoft Plans Toonz 4.0 For Silicon Graphics 08/10/95 REDMOND, WASHINGTON, U.S.A., 1995 AUG 10 (NB) -- Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ: MSFT) said it will ship version 4.0 of Softimage Toonz for the Silicon Graphics platform in November. Toonz is two-dimensional (2-D) software designed for use by cel animators working in the film, video, interactive games, and new media industries. The company shipped Toonz 3.5 in January. Microsoft said version 4 will include features such as a new pencil test module, a palette editor, an ink and paint module, a flip module, and Xsheet, and can be further customized by adding separate modules for scanning and rendering. The Toonz palette editor allows animators to predefine, lock in, and distribute palettes quickly and easily, according to the company, mixing colors just like you would on an artist's palette. Palette editor tools can mark up color models and label them by name as well as by spec. Names and file custom studio palettes can be labeled for repeated use, and the user can pull up a reference frame and interactively mix paints between cel levels and background elements. The pencil test module lets animators perform tasks ranging from performing simple line tests to checking animation in conjunction with complex camera moves. Pencil test also allows animators to load drawings at rough stages of completion and play them back at television resolution in real-time. Soundtracks can also be loaded and played back with the pencil test control panel, which resembles a VCR control panel with its play, rewind, forward, and other choices. Microsoft said the Xsheet has been enhanced to improve control and enhance interactivity with an unlimited number of pegs, cels, and columns. It also includes a multiplane camera for greater depth of field in a 2-D environment. Xsheet also has tools that allow the user to define explicit Z-values for pegs. The flip module simulates the traditional process of flipping action. It uses the Silicon Graphics cosmo compress board to let users play very long animated sequences at TV resolutions without memory problems. When the cosmo board is disabled, animators can view images in multiple windows to compare and analyze motion as well as zoom in and out. The flip module includes an "onion-skinning" mode to superimpose multiple images on one another for a "ghosting" effect. With onion-skinning, the current frame is shown in full ink color, while the underlying images are grey scale. Users can move through these multiple frames with the zoom slide and play back the animated sequences interactively. Audio files can also be loaded within flip and played back in sync with the animation. You also get an image library tool kit with Toonz 4.0 for access to public and proprietary file formats so you can write conversion programs, and "User Defined Interactive Transformations," which allow programmers to write custom effects such as ripple effects and dynamically load them at compositing time. Microsoft said Softimage Toonz 4.0 will ship in early November and will have an estimated price of $16,995. If you have a current maintenance contract on Toonz 3.5 you will get a no-charge upgrade to version 4. (Jim Mallory/19950809/Press contact: Lisa McKenzie, Waggener Edstrom for Microsoft, 503-699-0856; Public contact: Microsoft, 800-576-3846) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 08/10/95 TRENDS "Globalization" Vital To Market Share - Report (NEWS)(TRENDS)(LON)(00005) "Globalization" Vital To Market Share - Report 08/10/95 LONDON, ENGLAND, 1995 AUG 10 (NB) -- According to a report from Ovum, entitled "Globalization: Creating New Markets with Translation Technology," globalization is something that information technology (IT) businesses cannot afford to dismiss if they wish to expand into the international marketplace. Globalization refers to the need for international business services such as translation services. According to Jean Leston, the co-author of the report, companies are increasingly realizing the need for globalization: "multi-linguality at all stages of product development and delivery -- or risk losing heavily in international market share." According to Leston, the new Ovum report forecasts that the market for globalization products and services in Europe and the US will grow five times to reach $8.7 billion by the end of the decade. Leston's report claims that the need for globalization is driven by five basic forces: the emergence of new platforms and media for communicating business information; complex logistics resulting from multi-lingual information needs; an insufficient supply of human translators to meet the growing demand for translation services; the increased presence of software in many different products; and the rapid increase in the number of languages which must be handled in global business operations. According to Leston, translation products are making an increasing impact on globalization. The report predicts that, between now and the end of the decade, the market for translation products, including software, will grow by almost 50 percent per year, albeit from a small base, to reach $1.5 billion by the year 2000. The largest category identified by the report in the translation products marketplace is language reference and resource tools, which includes dictionaries, language checking tools, terminology handling systems and terminology databases, a market which will be worth $655 million by the end of the decade. The much larger services market, which is represented by the outsourcing of globalization requirements, is expected to triple by the end of the decade, to reach $6.3 billion. The report defines four main user types for globalization products and services: the software publishing industry; information industries and service companies; manufacturing companies; and the public sector. Over the years to the end of the decade, all market sectors are expected to show overall growth with the software and information industries increasing most as a percentage of the total market. "Globalization: Creating New Markets with Translation Technology" costs UKP1,195 in Europe, AUS$2,895 in Australia, and U$2,220 in the rest of the world. (Sylvia Dennis/19950809/Press Contact: Jennie Morales, Ovum, +44-171-312-7258; Internet e-mail jhb@ovum.mhs.compuserve.com; Reader Contact: Ovum, tel +44-171-255-2670, fax +44-171-255-1995; Internet e-mail info@ovum.mhs.compuserve.com) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 08/10/95 GENERAL UK - 3-D Images On CD-ROM (NEWS)(GENERAL)(LON)(00006) UK - 3-D Images On CD-ROM 08/10/95 LIVERPOOL, MERSEYSIDE, ENGLAND, 1995 AUG 10 (NB) -- Visual Software, a multimedia software specialist, has unveiled Simply Scenes, a range of CD-ROM disks that are aimed at graphic designers. According to officials with the company, the disks contain a large number of three-dimensional (3-D) images that can be used by 3-D computer graphic designers, as well as general PC image file users. The idea is that graphics designers use the visual images in their applications, just as they would any sound sample. Each Simply Scenes disk contains very detailed 3-D images, which are very easy to use even by users not experienced in the designing field, claims the company. According to Visual Software, using the disk image files cuts down on the time taken to create 3-D models of photo-realistic quality. Whole scenes can be used as virtual film sets and individual objects and textures can be put on the designer's model, then composed. "In the world of 3-D, having pre-built objects like the ones in Simply Scenes is even more important than clip-art is to 2-D users. 3-D users need a library of such pre-built models so that they can assemble 3-D imagery rather than have to built it from the ground up," explained Doug Richard, Visual Software's chief executive. According to Richard, Simply Scenes saves time, so that the artist can spend extra energy on the more creative parts of their projects. "It also enables 3-D graphics users to be able to show preliminary design ideas and concepts in much shorter timescales," he said. Three Simply Scenes disks are initially available: volumes I, II and III. Each disk is available in Windows and 3-D Studio versions, at UKP39 and UKP99, respectively. (Steve Gold/19950809/Press Contact: Gay Platts, Platform PR, +44-181-964-9149; Reader Contact: Visual Software, +44-151-933-8772) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 08/10/95 IBM Germany - IBM Wins Digital Library Contract (NEWS)(IBM)(LON)(00007) Germany - IBM Wins Digital Library Contract 08/10/95 BERLIN, GERMANY, 1995 AUG 10 (NB) -- IBM has announced the development of its latest Digital Library customer initiative at the Lutherhalle Wittenberg museum near Berlin, Germany. The project centers around the plan to digitally capture the museum's rare books and works of art, preserve them, and make them "more accessible." Susan Scott-Ker, a spokeswoman for IBM, told Newsbytes that the museum has more than 50,000 exhibits dating from the Middle Ages, making it the largest museum in the world dedicated to the history of the 16th Century Reformation. The museum holds old Bibles, a collection of leaflets about the Reformation, and several paintings and graphics generated during the period of the Reformation. Jon Prial. manager of IBM's Digital Library market development with the company's New York office, explained that, like any library archive or museum, the Lutherhalle faced the problem of safeguarding its historical material and offering it to scholars and the general public for viewing. "Lutherhalle needed a solution that would make its information obtainable at a reasonable cost, and we were able to deliver," he said. By using IBM's Digital Library technology, images systems and specialized scanners, the museum's rare books and works or art are now being captured onto disk. Using this approach allows any interested party to scan the images across a network or, if need be, across the Internet. The originals, meanwhile, stay in the museum. Although plans for the data from the project have yet to be finalized, it seems likely that the entire archive will be stored onto CD-ROM for future archival usage. Further details of the IBM Digital Library project can be found on IBM's home pages at http://www.ibm/com/features/library/ . (Steve Gold/19950809/Press Contact: Susan Scott-Ker, +44-171-202-3658; Reader Contact: IBM, tel +44-1705-561000, fax +44-1705-385081/LIBRARY950810/PHOTO) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 08/10/95 TELECOM UK - Husky's Ruggedized Modem For Handhelds (NEWS)(TELECOM)(LON)(00008) UK - Husky's Ruggedized Modem For Handhelds 08/10/95 COVENTRY, WEST MIDLANDS, ENGLAND, 1995 AUG 10 (NB) -- Husky Computers has unveiled an internal modem option for its Husky FS/2 range of handheld ruggedized computers. According to Keith Gallagher, marketing manager with the company, the 2,400 bits-per-second (bps) unit costs UKP350. "That may seem a high price, but this is a completely sealed unit that is ruggedized as well. The sealed RJ11 connector breakthrough is particularly significant because, in achieving this, we have not compromised Husky's position as the leading supplier of rugged field computing solutions," he told Newsbytes. According to Gallagher, the Husky FS/2 series of handhelds are gaining popularity with users in the engineering sectors, as well as other situations where the computer needs to be firmly gripped by the user with one hand, and the keyboard is operated by the other hand. Having a rugged modem facility means that the whole computer can be dropped on the floor where it will bounce and still remain usable. The modem addition for the FS/2 tips the scales at just 120 grams, which Gallagher said matches the lightweight nature of the handheld computer itself. The modem features error-correction and data compression facilities and its auto-dial and auto-answer. Call progress is monitored using a built-in speaker. Despite the modem being specific to the FS/2 handheld computer, the modem is Hayes "AT" compatible, making it compatible with most communications packages on the market and allows the user sufficient flexibility to build comms functionality into an applications. (Steve Gold/19950809/Press Contact: Wendy Walmsley, Pressline PR, +44-1275-818802; Reader Contact: Husky Computers, tel +44-1203- 604040, fax +44-1203-603060/HUSKY950810/PHOTO) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 08/10/95 GOVT China - Govt Emphasizes Foreign Copyright Protection (NEWS)(GOVT)(PEK)(00009) China - Govt Emphasizes Foreign Copyright Protection 08/10/95 BEIJING, CHINA, 1995 AUG 10 (NB) -- The Chinese government has shown "strong determination" to keep its "solemn promise" to protect international copyrights, claimed an article carried by several state-run newspapers in China. The moves reportedly emphasize both legislative and administrative measures for foreign copyright protection. The article used the Walt Disney case as an example to show the improvement on foreign copyright protection in China. In May, Walt Disney won a 17 month lawsuit against three Chinese publishing houses and a bookstore for violating the copyright of the company's cartoon characters. In June, 1991, the Copyright Law was put in affect in China. A year later, China became a member of the Universal Copyright Convention. In line with international and domestic laws, foreigners will be given the same treatment as national Chinese in terms of copyright protection in China, the article said. Beijing No.1 intermediary People's Court handled 16 cases on foreign copyrights last year. To facilitate lawsuits, the first intellectual property court was set up in Beijing in 1993, and since then many cities have established similar specialized courts. People's courts at different levels have performed their duties "promptly according to law," the article claimed. The article gave another example in which a publishing house in Beijing breached the copyright of a Japanese company by making a picture album containing the firm's cartoon images. As soon as the Beijing Intermediary People's Court received the suit brought by the Japanese company, it ordered to end sales of the illegal albums. In addition to the new legislation on the issue, the Chinese government has also reportedly adopted administrative measures to protect foreign copyrights. The State Copyright Bureau was set up in 1985 to be in charge of administering copyright protection. There are foreign firms which keep complaining about the protection of their copyrights, said the article. This is mainly because of their "ignorance of Chinese laws," "local situations," and especially "Chinese legal procedures," the article criticized. The plaintiffs should "cooperate with the court," the article advised. In some cases, indictments brought by foreign plaintiffs were disqualified. Either the indictments lacked copyright certifications or the materials were all in a foreign language, without Chinese translations. Foreign firms sometimes complain about small financial compensation amounts. The article claimed that in a developing country like China, to pay RMB100,000 to RMB200,000 (US$12,000 to US$24,000) as compensation is not at all a small sum to small- or medium-sized enterprises. Apart from compensation, the Chinese government also adopts many other ways of punishment, such as fines and confiscation, the article said. (Chih-Ho Yu & Ning Huang/19950808) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 08/10/95 GOVT Chinese "Silicon Valley" To Become Science Town (NEWS)(GOVT)(PEK)(00010) Chinese "Silicon Valley" To Become Science Town 08/10/95 BEIJING, CHINA, 1995 AUG 10 (NB) -- The Zhongguacun area, China's so-called "Silicon Valley," will be turned into a world-class "science town" within 15 years, promised by Mr. Zhou Guangzhao, the president of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS). In Beijing, there are two electronics industry areas -- Jiuxianqiao in Northeast Beijing, and Zhongguancun in Northwest Beijing. Jiuxianqiao is an old electronics town of 10 square kilometers (about 2,470 acres). It was developed in the late 1950s with assistance from the former Soviet Union. However, many large state-run firms and scientific research organizations are now in a bad condition and face strong competition from Zhongguancun. Zhongguancun covers a relative small area of 1.7 square kilometers (about 420 acres), and houses 150,000 CAS researchers and employees. There are more than 200 national research institutions, and 6,000 high-tech companies. China's leading educational institutes -- Beijing University and Tsinghua University -- are neighbors of Zhongguancun. Guangzhao said the area should be developed into one of the "best research centers in the world" to train "senior talented people" and "promote the development of the high-tech industry." The planned town will consist of 14 areas, including a science center, a science technology industry building, a physical and cultural center, residential buildings, hotels, and recreational facilities. The reconstruction money will mainly come from China-foreign cooperative projects and joint construction, Zhou said. CAS also plans to raise some overseas funds for the program. To work out a comprehensive design for the reconstruction of the science town, CAS and the Beijing municipal government have set up a working committee and visited "science towns" in the United States, Japan, Germany, and France. Earlier this year, CAS invited six universities -- Tsinghua, Southeast, Tongji, Zhejiang, Hong Kong, and Hong Kong Chinese -- to study designs. The good points of each university design will be incorporated into the final design and submitted to the Capital Construction Planning Commission for approval before the end of this year. (Chih-Ho Yu & Ning Huang/19950807) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 08/10/95 WINDOWS Windows 95 Local Language Versions Go To Manufacturing (NEWS)(WINDOWS)(DEN)(00011) Windows 95 Local Language Versions Go To Manufacturing 08/10/95 REDMOND, WASHINGTON, U.S.A., 1995 AUG 10 (NB) -- Parlez vous Francais? If you do, then you'll be happy to know you haven't been forgotten by Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ: MSFT), which has released to manufacturing 12 localized language versions of its soon-to-ship Windows 95 operating system and graphical user interface. The company said all 12 versions will be shipped simultaneously and are scheduled to be available in stores worldwide in the first week of September. Microsoft said it will eventually release at least 30 localized language versions of Windows 95, with most of those being available by this year's Christmas holiday season. The company said all localized versions will be available within six months of the US ship date, which is August 24. It took Microsoft two years to deliver 24 localized versions of Windows 3.1. The localized versions of Windows 95 ready for production are Danish, Dutch, Finnish, French, German, Italian, Norwegian, Pan European, Portuguese (Brazilian and Iberian), Spanish, and Swedish. The Pan Euro edition is an English version with the capability to run Eastern European applications. Both Windows 95 and Windows NT include the National Language Support (NLS) application programming interface (API), which is part of the Win32 API set. Microsoft said the NLS support facilitates using software and exchanging documents around the world and helps software developers deal with language differences as they develop new applications. All the localized language versions of Windows 95 on CD-ROM include multilanguage support, which lets many applications write text in not only Western European, but Eastern European languages. It also makes it easier to display and edit text of various languages in a single document. Microsoft said users can create and edit documents with content in multiple languages and exchange those documents with user of other language systems. Microsoft said users who want to run Eastern European applications, such as the Russian version of Microsoft Excel, will need either the Russian or the Pan European version of Windows 95. In addition to the dozen language versions sent to manufacturing this week, Microsoft said it will also release localized versions of Windows 95 in Arabic, Basque, Catalan, Chinese, Czech, Greek, Hebrew, Hungarian, Japanese, Korean, Polish, Russian, Slovenian, Thai, Turkish, and English-enabled Vietnamese. (Jim Mallory/19950810/Press and public contact: Microsoft, 206-882-8080 or 800-426-9400) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 08/10/95 APPLE MacWorld - Insignia Intros SoftWindows 2.0 For Power Mac (NEWS)(APPLE)(BOS)(00012) MacWorld - Insignia Intros SoftWindows 2.0 For Power Mac 08/10/95 BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS, U.S.A., 1995 AUG 10 (NB) -- SoftWindows 2.0 for Power Macintosh, a new update to Insignia Solutions' Windows and DOS emulation software, adds support for Windows 3.1 enhanced mode, Apple Guide, and AppleScript, said Robert E. Lee, Insignia's president and chief executive officer (CEO), during a press event at MacWorld that also featured appearances by officials of Apple and all three Power Mac "clone makers." At the event, which was held at the New England Aquarium and attended by Newsbytes, the speakers' presentations were preceded by a short film showing several kinds of situations in which running SoftWindows on a Power Mac can come into play. The scenarios included running PC applications from work on a Power Macintosh at home, and installing a Power Mac at the office in order to be able to communicate with outside, PC-based customers while continuing to use Macintosh applications internally. "Mac users will no longer be confined to one small section of the (software) store," Lee quipped afterward, in reference to the fact that some applications sold at retail are still available for PCs only. Insignia's SoftWindows 1.0 was among the original set of software products announced at the launch of Apple's first Power Macintosh last April, Lee told the group. In contrast to SoftWindows 1.0, which was based on the 286 PC instruction set, Insignia's new 2.0 update includes the 486 processor, with support for Windows 3.1 enhanced mode, according to the CEO. The 487 math co-processor instruction set is included as well. Lee characterized SoftWindows 2.0 as a "technological milestone." Booting Windows in enhanced mode calls for 35 million instructions, in contrast to only five million for booting Windows in standard mode, the company chief maintained. Also during the event, officials of four of Insignia's partner companies gave testimonials as to SoftWindows' usefulness in helping to boost sales of cross-platform machines. The speakers included: AppleSoft VP Ike Nassi; Radius Chairman and CEO Chuck Berger; DayStar Digital President and CEO Andrew Hill; and Steve Kahng, who heads up Power Computing. In a demo that followed, two Insignia execs showed Microsoft's Encarta multimedia application running in real time on SoftWindows 2.0. David Gibbs, VP of Macintosh sales, and Leigh Dworkin, product manager, also showed how SoftWindows' new "scriptability" through AppleScript allows automation of PC commands like launching a PC application, for instance, or running a report. The audience also saw how Apple Guide instructs the Mac user in how to perform tasks in DOS or Windows. Printing from Windows -- a task that "many Mac users have questions about," according to Gibbs -- was used as an example. SoftWindows now comes pre-installed with a LAN (local area network) Manager client, in addition to the Novell NetWare client included in version 1.0, Gibbs noted. Other new networking capabilities include simultaneous use of the IPX (Internet Packet Exchange) protocol in the Mac and PC environments, as well as simultaneous Mac and PC support for TCP/IP (Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol) when running PC applications that conform to Winsock, he said. Beyond the newly added networking support, SoftWindows continues to support Windows NT Server, Banyan Vines, LAN Server, Windows for Workgroups, and DEC Pathworks servers, and Ethernet and Token Ring LANs. SoftWindows 2.0 also brings a Windows driver for recording and playback of digital sound samples in WAV format, support for one Windows sound device for 8- or 16-bit sound samples, and support for double-byte applications and operating systems, according to the officials. Lee informed the audience that Insignia's SoftWindows 2.0 is available immediately in English and Japanese, with Korean, French, German, and Italian versions to follow within the next few weeks. Expected street pricing is $299 to $349. Upgrades are available for prices starting at $129. A version of SoftWindows that will provide full support for Windows 95 is slated for release about six months after Microsoft's shipment of Windows 95, a company spokesperson told Newsbytes. (Jacqueline Emigh/19950810/Reader Contact: Insignia Solutions, 415-335-7100; Press Contact: Joanne Sperans Hartzell, 415-335-7197) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 08/10/95 BUSINESS Sony Financials Hit By Yen Appreciation (NEWS)(BUSINESS)(TYO)(00013) Sony Financials Hit By Yen Appreciation 08/10/95 TOKYO, JAPAN, 1995 AUG 10 (NB) -- Sony Corporation (TOKYO:6758) has released financial results for the first three months of the financial year showing group profits have been hit by the sharp appreciation of the yen. In the first three months of the fiscal year, compared with the same period last year, the Japanese currency has risen 23% against the US dollar, 16% against the UK Pound Sterling and 3% against the German Deutsche Mark, something which has brought group consolidated sales down by 113 billion yen ($1.21 billion), according to the company. In today's results, the Tokyo-based electronics and entertainment giant reported a small rise, 3.3%, in consolidated sales and operating revenue at 892.7 billion yen ($9.81 billion). Operating income was sharply down by 50.6% to 15.7 billion yen ($172 million). Income before taxes stood at 29.4 billion yen ($323 million), a 24.6% increase, whilst net income rose by 80.4% to 7.5 billion yen ($82 million). The electronics division of the company said the reported drop in sales of video and audio equipment were due mainly to the strong Japanese currency. Sales of video equipment registered a 4.7% fall to 154.0 billion yen ($1.69 billion) although Sony said sales of products such as Digital Betacam and 8mm cameras increased. Whilst Walkman and CD player sales grew steadily, overall audio equipment sales were down 5.5% to 178.3 billion yen ($1.96 billion). Reflecting a buoyant computer display sector, sales of televisions grew 3.4% to be worth 152.7 billion yen ($1.68 billion) despite flat sales of color televisions. The greatest sector to record a growth, of 23.4% to 239.3 billion yen ($2.63 billion), included CD-ROM drives, batteries, semiconductors and the new video game market, where Sony is pushing its PlayStation games console. Sales of such products were mainly responsible for a 4.7% increase in overall electronic group sales at 724.4 billion yen ($7.96 billion). The effect of the strong yen, and strength of the PlayStation, could also be seen in Sony's regional sales figures. The company registered drops in sales in both Europe and the United States, but stronger sales in Japan. European sales were down by just 0.9% to 191 billion yen ($2.10 billion) with US sales off 5.9% at 236 billion yen ($2.59 billion). In Japan sales grew 15.2% to 282 billion yen ($3.09 billion). The PlayStation has just been launched in Europe and is scheduled for a US launch in September, something which should help Sony's year end figures. In accordance with Japanese regulations, Sony also announced estimates for its final year-end figures. The company sales should rise around 2% to 4.05 trillion yen ($44.5 billion). Operating profit is estimated to be 135 billion yen ($1.48 billion) compared with an operating loss of 170 billion yen ($1.86 billion) last year. The company also estimates final consolidated income before tax of 100 billion yen ($1.10 billion) versus a loss of 220 billion yen ($2.42 billion) last year. Net income is predicted to reach 41 billion yen ($451 million) compared with last year's loss of 293 billion yen ($2.12 billion). (Martyn Williams/19950810/Press contact: Sony Corporation, +81-3-5448-2200) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 08/10/95 LEGAL BSA Says Japan Piracy A Major Problem (NEWS)(LEGAL)(TYO)(00014) BSA Says Japan Piracy A Major Problem 08/10/95 TOKYO, JAPAN, 1995 AUG 10 (NB) -- The Business Software Alliance says it has received over 1,000 reports of software piracy on its special telephone in Japan in the first six months of this year. The reported firms included manufacturing companies, industrial companies, banks, insurance companies, trading companies, technical schools, and computer leasing agencies. Through an initially non-aggressive approach, the BSA has settled copyright violations with 31 companies so far this year and collected 100 million yen ($1.11 million) in payments. Upon receipt of a tip-off, the organization will usually send a letter to the suspected offenders explaining the law regarding piracy of computer software and the legal rights of the software copyright holder along with a request to carry out a self-audit of its computer system. When the self-audit is received it is compared with the original report and the organization takes up any discrepancies. Settlement is usually achieved out of court with the BSA demanding a promise that the company purchases new replacement software and pays a figure equivalent to twice the list price of the software illegally copied. In cases where companies prove unresponsive to the letters, the BSA will file suit against them. This is rare, however, with only one instance so far this year. If the anti-piracy organization uncovers a case of major copyright violation, such as a computer dealer or software rental shop, they refer the case to the Association of Copyright for Computer Software for investigation and possible criminal conviction. Tips are received through a telephone and electronic-mail hot-line service which computer users are encouraged to call with the promise of a 10,000 yen ($111) reward for any successful case. The telephone and fax number is 03-3239-7719 and e-mail MXI02550@niftyserve.or.jp. In a recent statement on the state of software piracy in Japan, the BSA said the majority of piracy takes the form of unauthorized copying by end-users, hard disk loading infringements by dealers and software rentals. Last year an estimated 100 billion yen ($1.23 billion) worth of business software was in illegal use across Japan, giving the country an estimated piracy rate of around 67%. Japan has the dubious distinction of holding the highest monetary loss per computer user to software manufacturers anywhere in the world. (Martyn Williams/19950810/Press contact: Yuko Honobe, BSA Japan PR, tel +81-3-3501-6179, fax +81-3-3501-6696) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 08/10/95 TRENDS Maxtor Announces Low Profile 1.34GB Drive (NEWS)(TRENDS)(LAX)(00015) Maxtor Announces Low Profile 1.34GB Drive 08/10/95 SAN JOSE, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1995 AUG 10 (NB) -- Maxtor Corporation (NASDAQ: MXTR), has unveiled its new high-capacity Laramie 2.5-inch disk drives for the portable computer market. Offering up to 1.34 gigabytes (GB), the drives are, according to the company, the highest capacity, 12.5 millimeter (mm), low-profile 2.5-inch drives announced to date. Maxtor has reduced the Z-height, or thickness, of ultra-high capacity 2.5-inch drives from the industry-standard 19mm to just 12.5mm. This allows original equipment manufacturers (OEM) to continue the movement to ever slimmer, lighter, and more powerful notebook computers. John Hagerman, vice president of Mobile Products for Maxtor, told Newsbytes, "We have been active in the mobile market for a long time. We pioneered the 1.8-inch drives. The market for 1.8-inch drives never developed like we thought it would, but we learned a lot about tight disk to disk spacing. Several of the technologies that enabled the development of these new slim, high-capacity 2.5-inch disk drives were leveraged from Maxtor's family of 1.8-inch drives." He continued: "The electronics architecture of the 2.5-inch Laramie drives is the same DSP (digital signal processor) architecture in Maxtor's 1.8-inch MobileMax drives. DSP allows a single processor to manage drive functions and reduce overall chip count. This reduction in chips has allowed Maxtor to trim the size of the printed circuit board assembly on Laramie drives to one-third the size of the competition's." "This architecture permits us to place the disk assembly in the same plane as the PCBA (printed circuit board assembly), fitting four disks in a 12.5mm space where others have only recently managed three," said Mike Wingert, Maxtor vice president of mobile and premium product development. "The fourth disk enables this new class of high-capacity, 12.5mm, 2.5-inch disk drives." Also key to the four-platter, 12.5mm design is Maxtor's patented disk clamping technology borrowed from the smaller drives. According to Maxtor, this technology was developed to squeeze multiple disks into a 1.8-inch head/disk assembly as well as to help prevent disk-slip in high shock environments. Laramie drives, have a non-operating shock specification of 300Gs and an operating shock specification of 100Gs. "Also developed for 1.8-inch drives," Hagerman said, "Laramie's advanced power management features reduce power consumption to as low as 30 milliwatts (mW) in sleep mode, resulting in extended battery life. Competitive 2.5-inch drives average 100mW power consumption in sleep mode." "At 1.34GB, Laramie 2.5-inch drives bring desktop storage capacity to notebook computing," Hagerman said. "As mobile users increasingly substitute notebook computers for desktop systems, there is pressure on portable computer manufacturers to raise notebook storage capacity to the level of desktop systems. New software, enhanced communications functions, and access to vast, worldwide computer networks are pushing capacity requirements for portable systems, and we believe they will continue to accelerate." OEM evaluation unit prices are $849 for the 1.34GB drive, $695 for the 1.0GB drive and $595 for the 837MB drive. Volume production is planned for the fourth quarter 1995. (Richard Bowers/19950810/Press Contact: Holly Campbell, Maxtor Corporation, 408-432-4468) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 08/10/95 ONLINE ****Grateful Dead Fans Mourn In Cyberspace (NEWS)(ONLINE)(MSP)(00016) ****Grateful Dead Fans Mourn In Cyberspace 08/10/95 SAN FRANCISCO, U.S.A., 1995 AUG 10 (NB) -- The man who's band began in the counterculture of the 1960's was remembered after his death in the new society of the 1990's -- cyberspace. Jerry Garcia, lead singer and guitarist of the Grateful Dead, died yesterday at a drug treatment center in California at age 53. Soon after news of his death hit the American consciousness, the on-ramps to the information superhighway clogged up like mourners in cars entering a roadway. The Usenet newsgroup "rec.music.gdead" saw an immediate influx of messages, first asking if the news was true. Then, messages of sorrow, support, and news of vigils flooded the newsgroup. By Newsbytes' count, more than 2,400 messages have been posted to rec.music.gdead since the first "Is It True?" message was left yesterday morning. Online services also experienced the mourning process. When subscribers logged onto the San Francisco-area based "WELL," they saw a message saying the service was experiencing a slowdown, due to Garcia's passing. On America Online (AOL), where a Grateful Dead forum has been around for more than three years, an influx of "Deadheads" filled chat rooms. Margaret Ryan, AOL spokesperson, told Newsbytes that a few hours after Garcia's death was made public, 10 chat rooms were filled in the Dead area. More than 500 people expressed their feelings about Garcia's passing, not only in the Grateful Dead area, but in messages and chat rooms in AOL's "News" section. Last night, an AOL vigil in the Grateful Dead area saw 900 people in a chat "auditorium" at one point, Ryan said. Mary Eisenhart and Geoff Gould, co-founders of the Grateful Dead Forum, led the mourners by answering questions and chatting about what the Dead meant to people around the world. Ryan said that AOL, and cyberspace in general, is "a place where they felt they (Deadheads) could go immediately" to talk. "This event exemplifies the feeling of 'community' online," she told Newsbytes. "Through the use of AOL, they're able to come together in a way that is very personal, and perhaps more than at a vigil in person. That's because the vigil on AOL was not regional -- it was open to anyone in general." The Grateful Dead Forum also has links available to Dead sites on the Internet's World Wide Web. People who aren't AOL subscribers, but do have Web access, can access Web site http://www.shore.net/~aiko for more information about the band and Garcia. (Bob Woods/19950810/Press Contact: Margaret Ryan, America Online, 703-883-1625) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 08/10/95 TRENDS Compaq Number 1 In PC Sales For 2Qtr - DataQuest (NEWS)(TRENDS)(DEN)(00017) Compaq Number 1 In PC Sales For 2Qtr - DataQuest 08/10/95 HOUSTON, TEXAS, U.S.A., 1995 AUG 10 (NB) -- International research firm Dataquest Inc. says that Compaq Computer Corporation (NYSE:CPQ) captured the title of number one selling PC vendor for the second quarter of 1995. Compaq has occupied the top spot since the first quarter of 1994, and also captured the top spot for the entire year of 1994. Dataquest said International Business Machines (IBM) ranked second, followed by Apple Computer Inc., NEC Corp., Packard Bell Electronics Inc., and Hewlett Packard. Compaq is well positioned to lead the market at year-end for the second consecutive year, Dataquest analyst Scott Miller told Newsbytes. The race wasn't even close, according to the Dataquest sales figures. Compaq held the lead by almost 400,000 units over IBM with shipment of 1.45 million units during the second quarter, which ended June 30, 1995. Compaq shipments were reported up 25 percent from the same period last year. IBM reportedly shipped 1.06 million units, a 24.7 percent increase over last year, while Apple increased its shipments 19.5 percent to 1.01 million units. Dataquest said NEC shipped 645,000 units, a 38.7 percent increase over the same period in 1994 while Packard Bell shipped 585,000 units and Hewlett Packard shipped 520,000 units, a whopping 55.2 percent increase. This is the first quarter HP reached the half-million mark for a single quarter and the first quarter the company shipped into the home market, which apparently accounted for the company's sizable jump in shipments. Dataquest said HP is expected to enjoy continuing growth in the future as it scrambles for its share of the home market. (Jim Mallory/19950810/Press contact: Dataquest, 408-437-8312; Compaq, 713-374-0484) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 08/10/95 ONLINE Visa & Worlds Inc. To Offer 3-D Internet Banking (NEWS)(ONLINE)(SFO)(00018) Visa & Worlds Inc. To Offer 3-D Internet Banking 08/10/95 SAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1995 AUG 10 (NB) -- Credit card giant Visa, and Worlds Inc., have previewed a virtual three-dimensional (3-D) banking "environment" which will allow customers to choose graphical images, walk into a virtual bank, and interact with bank employees using images. The partnership incorporates multi-user technology with secure transaction processing. Newsbytes has previously written about Worlds' World Wide Web site where users appear as a graphical image or avatar and journey through a 3-D environment while encountering and chatting with other avatars. Now in alliance with Visa, Worlds will offer a commercial version of a 3-D world for the banking industry. Each bank is able to have a completely custom environment created for its customers. Typically, a customer will walk into the virtual bank and see familiar sites such as a loans department, a "new accounts" desk, account information areas, and teller windows. These banks are not ready to have cash pop out of a floppy drive, but many standard transactions for personal accounts, merchant accounts, and financial institution interactions are possible. Credit card information and transactions, account information, transfer of funds, loan application and processing, and other standard bank services will be offered. Worlds spokesperson, Rob Schmults, told Newsbytes, "There are so many limitations to banking over the phone. With a 3-D interactive environment you have a visually compelling place to visit and you have all the necessary forms readily available. If you do not know how to fill out a loan request document, someone will be there to answer your question. People using our 3-D worlds have a personal experience with the other people online and it is much more personal interaction than a phone call. Like the telephone however, they never have to leave their homes or offices to get banking chores done." Schmults says a number of banks have expressed interest, and some of them may be currently negotiating with Visa and Worlds, but for the present, the two companies are unable to comment. A major US bank may be conducting 3-D, multi-user interactive banking by the end of the year. Both Visa and Worlds say their virtual, 3-D bank is the next-generation of Internet banking. They suggest the idea of a World Wide Web banking site limited to text, icons, and hyperlinks will pass quickly to an animated, personal environment where users could have real-time contact with their own personal banker from anywhere in the world. (Patrick McKenna/19950810/Press Contact: Peter Suciu, Connors Communications, 212-995-2200) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 08/10/95 ONLINE ****Radio On Internet, Net Access For Radio Listeners (NEWS)(ONLINE)(WAS)(00019) ****Radio On Internet, Net Access For Radio Listeners 08/10/95 FAIRFAX, VIRGINIA, U.S.A., 1995 AUG 10 (NB) -- A Washington-area firm that owns and operates 21 radio stations will begin offering live audio on the Internet's World Wide Web later this month. At the same time, the company, EZ Communications, is offering Internet access to radio listeners. Michael Rau, president of Radio Data Group, an EZ Communications subsidiary that is launching the plan, told Newsbytes, "We have had it up and running for two weeks now. We are shooting for the 19th to begin commercial service. There are no technical obstacles." EZ Communications will be the first commercial broadcast company using Xing Technology's Streamworks software, which delivers live audio, and video, to personal computers via the Internet. The software is based on the MPEG (Motion Picture Experts Group) standard and includes the same audio compression employed in many digital audio broadcasting applications. "The operation of the Xing software is very simple, much like the operation of a radio receiver," says Rau. "When a hypertext link is structured, the radio station program is instantly available and is the same program material that is being broadcast at the time. It is not an audio file that needs to be downloaded, or otherwise manipulated in any way." According to Rau, the initial rollout will be the audio from station KMPS in Seattle. EZ Communications operates in eight markets, including Charlotte, Kansas City, New Orleans, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Sacramento, Seattle, and St. Louis. At the same time it is offering its radio content on the Internet, EZ Communications will begin offering Internet access to its listeners. Radio Data Group has signed a deal with Internet Express, a national Internet service provider in Colorado Springs, for software, access, and support for its stations. In a background paper Rau wrote last month and made available to Newsbytes, he said the stations in the EZ system "will offer listeners the opportunity to access the Internet, in return for a one-time charge and fees ranging from $10 to $20 per month, plus a monthly usage fee if a specified number of hours is exceeded." The Rau paper notes, "Besides being a promising business itself, providing Internet access for listeners creates a combination from which a radio station can offer Internet marketing services for local advertisers." Radio stations, says Rau, have an advantage over conventional Internet access providers. "The Internet access companies who are our major competitors have little, if any, standing in the minds of consumers. PSINet, UUnet, BBN, Netcom and many, many others all offer direct Internet access, but with very high marketing costs and no name or brand recognition. The marketing and sales costs of a radio station to begin this business are essentially zero, and the loyalty of listeners to many stations should encourage purchases." EZ Communications' two Seattle stations, KMPS and KZOK, are the first to offer Internet to listeners. They also will create home pages on the World Wide Web, including audio links through Xing's software. Xing's listener software can be downloaded from the California company's Web site, at http:// www. xingtech.com . The client software, when registered for $29, includes full technical support. It is available for Windows and Unix/X-windows. The company says a Macintosh client will be available later this year. While the Xing Technology software offers radio stations the ability to send their programming to the Web, it also offers the possibility of nearly anyone becoming a radio or television broadcaster. In addition to the client software, Xing offers server software at a cost of $3,500 to $6,500. "With this system, virtually anyone can become an audio or video broadcaster on the World Wide Web," says Howard Gordon, president of Xing Technology. "Radio stations using Streamworks have already begun to broadcast to an international audience using the Internet and users will be able to follow local sports teams, political issues, or financial reporting, regardless of where they are located. We expect to place over 100 radio stations on the Internet with live and on-demand broadcasting by year-end." While the technology is here, the legal institutions may not be ready to deal with this further blurring of media boundaries. "Copyright is a very live issue," says Rau. In fact, he told Newsbytes, issues related to copyright are the only thing holding up the rollout of radio on the Net. (Kennedy Maize/19950810/Press Contacts: Michael Rau, 703-591-1000; Eric Redemann, Xing Technology, 805-473-0145) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 08/10/95 LEGAL Multimedia Newsletter Sues Disney (NEWS)(LEGAL)(WAS)(00020) Multimedia Newsletter Sues Disney 08/10/95 BETHESDA, MARYLAND, U.S.A., 1995 AUG 10 (NB) -- A tiny, high-tech Maryland publisher has sued giant Walt Disney Co. for copyright infringement, seeking $2.1 million in damages. The publisher of Multimedia Wire, an electronic daily delivered by fax and electronic-mail, claims that executives at Disney illegally made multiple copies of a valid subscription and distributed them throughout the Disney empire. The complaint in federal court in Maryland includes a copy of what the newsletter alleges is a distribution slip. Disney, notorious for vigorously defending its copyrights, infringed those of Multimedia Wire in order to avoid paying for additional subscriptions, the complaint alleges. Editor and Publisher Chris Sherman says he attempted to reach a settlement with Disney, but the entertainment giant never seriously considered the issue. According to the complaint, Sherman was tipped off about the copying by an anonymous source in Disney's accounting office. The caller also provided Sherman with the distribution list. Sherman said the source was annoyed that Disney would "regularly pursue others for infringement when its own personnel often used the work of others without permission." Disney is known for going after possible copyright infringement with the finesse of a bulldozer, including reportedly forcing a Florida day-care center to remove pictures of Disney characters from its walls. Sherman said he brought the suit not only to win damages but to educate others about the importance of copyright in a world of non-traditional ways of publishing and distributing information. "We need to protect this right and continue to provide an economic incentive for small, independent publishers to create and receive compensation for their work," he said. Multimedia Wire has put the information about its lawsuit, including a copy of the complaint and a copy of the alleged distribution list, on its World Wide Web site. The address is http:// www.mmwire.com . Disney declined comment. "We never comment on pending litigation," a spokesman told the Washington Post. (Kennedy Maize/19950910/Press Contact: Chris Sherman, 301-493-9290) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 08/10/95 BUSINESS Penril Datability Secures Major Russian Banking Deal (NEWS)(BUSINESS)(LON)(00021) Penril Datability Secures Major Russian Banking Deal 08/10/95 MOSCOW, RUSSIA, 1995 AUG 10 (NB) -- ArgusSoft, the Moscow-based computer dealership, has secured a major deal with the Moscow Savings Bank of the Russian Federation. The contract calls for ArgusSoft to supply a variety of 28,800 bits-per-second (bps) modems for installation at the more than 700 branches of the Moscow Bank for moving data between the branches. Terms of the deal have not been revealed, but David Dye, managing director of Penril Datacom, the company that supplied ArgusSoft with the modems, said that the deal is part one of an ongoing contract with the Moscow Bank. "The Russian phone network is still analog in many parts and that means that on a good day, you can get 9,600 bps out of the network in Russia. The financial institutions in Russia, however, are looking to the future, which is why they opted to go for 28,800 bps modems," he told Newsbytes. ArgusSoft will install Penril's modems at 35 regional branches of Moscow Bank, who will act as routing points for the 700-odd branch offices of the bank. ArgusSoft will install Penril's VCX 100 and 250 series of Access Servers and Series 600 management systems to provide an interlinked network. According to ArgusSoft, the network will take around a year to install. According to Penril's Dye, the contract with ArgusSoft is a significant one and, as a result, Penril is working with ArgusSoft on a joint venture basis. "It's vital for use to make a clear commitment to our clients in the Russian Federation," he explained, adding that the venture will support the bank, "as well as serving as a foundation to strengthen our position in this dynamic market." (Steve Gold/19950810/Press Contact: DDI Media Relations, tel +44-1672- 516060, fax +44-1672-516125, Internet e-mail info@ddimedia.co.uk; Reader Contact: Penril Datacom, tel +44-1256-817199, fax +44-1256- 817204; ArgusSoft +7-095-288-3602) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 08/10/95 BUSINESS CA Talks About Plans For Legent (NEWS)(BUSINESS)(TOR)(00022) CA Talks About Plans For Legent 08/10/95 ISLANDIA, NEW YORK, U.S.A., 1995 AUG 10 (NB) -- In the wake of its buyout of Legent Corp., Computer Associates International Inc. (NYSE:CA) has revealed some of its plans for the software company. CA said it is investing heavily in Legent's products as it integrates the company into its own operations. CA plans to retain all of Legent's development centers, company spokesman Bob Gordon told Newsbytes. Those centers include 13 in the United States and one in Copenhagen. While all development sites will remain, there could be some consolidation of local offices where Legent and CA have facilities close together, Gordon said. CA also said it plans to open a child development center at Legent's facility in Herndon, Virginia, modeled after the one at its world headquarters in Islandia. What CA will not say is how many of Legent's former employees will find jobs at Computer Associates. Gordon would say only that CA plans to hire enough of the Legent people to meet its customers' needs; the company will not be revealing how many jobs are lost in the merger, he said. For those former Legent staffers who are offered jobs at CA, there will be an extra bonus. CA said it will offer stock options and incentives to the ex-Legent people it hires, up to a maximum of 30 percent more than they would have received in severance pay had CA not hired them. The company will also provide outplacement help to those not offered jobs. Computer Associates said more than 90 percent of Legent shares were tendered in response to its $47.95-per-share offer. CA arranged a $2-billion line of credit to pay for the acquisition, which company officials said will help with the company's attempt to increase its focus on the client/server computing market. After a delay, the United States Justice Department's antitrust regulators approved the deal on the condition that CA license a handful of Legent products to a third party yet to be named. (Grant Buckler/19950810/Press Contact: Bob Gordon, Computer Associates, tel 516-342-2391, fax 516-342-5329) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 08/10/95 ONLINE Prodigy-Southam Online Plans In Canada On Hold (NEWS)(ONLINE)(TOR)(00023) Prodigy-Southam Online Plans In Canada On Hold 08/10/95 TORONTO, ONTARIO, CANADA, 1995 AUG 10 (NB) -- American online service operator Prodigy Services Co. and Toronto-based publisher Southam Inc. still have not moved ahead with plans for a new Canadian online service, 18 months after announcing that they were studying the idea. Carol Wallace, a spokeswoman for Prodigy in New York, told Newsbytes the idea is on hold indefinitely. She added, however, that Prodigy and Southam had said all along they would need to spend at least a year looking at the idea. The delay has probably been a good thing, she added, because in recent months Prodigy has completely revamped its user interface, rewriting all of the code in hypertext markup language (HTML), which is the standard used on the Internet's World Wide Web. It would not have been good for Southam to go ahead with development using the old interface, she said. Also, Wallace noted, Prodigy has been reviewing its overall international strategy. At the same time, she added, Southam has been evaluating all of its options for getting into the online business. "They wanted to do some market research and take a look at what's going on," she said. It has been reported Southam has talked with other major online services about joint ventures. Prodigy has more than 6,000 subscribers in Canada, Wallace said. Southam acts as an information provider for the service, with a Southam employee running a "bulletin board" designed for Canadian subscribers. Wallace said this effort is "rather modest," though Prodigy recently hosted a live online forum in which Preston Manning, leader of the right-wing populist Reform Party -- the third-largest party in the current Canadian parliament -- discussed capital punishment with subscribers. (Grant Buckler/19950810/Press Contact: Carol Wallace, Prodigy, 914-448-2496; Peter Irwin, Southam New Media Group, 416-442-3382) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 08/10/95 TRENDS Polaroid Intros Bright-Image LCD Projectors (NEWS)(TRENDS)(DEN)(00024) Polaroid Intros Bright-Image LCD Projectors 08/10/95 CAMBRIDGE, MASSACHUSETTS, U.S.A., 1995 AUG 10 (NB) -- Polaroid Electronic Imaging Systems, a division of Polaroid Corp. (NYSE: PRD) has introduced four new super-bright liquid crystal display (LCD) projectors the company said allow images from PCs and other video sources to be projected and easily viewed in a fully-lit room. The Polaview 105 is equipped with a metal halide lamp to produce 300- ANSI-lumen images. The 105 comes with a motorized 1.6-to-1 zoom lens with focus control that can be adjusted with the included remote control unit or from the keypad on the projector. The 105 has a focal distance from one meter to infinity and can display images of more than 30 feet across measured diagonally, said Polaroid. The Polaview 105 can handle input from multiple computer and video systems, allowing for dual presentations. The 105 supports input from NTSC (North American Television Standards Committee) and PAL (the US and European video standards respectively) and has a suggested list price of $9,495. The Polaview 95 uses a 400 watt metal-halide lamp system to achieve its 500-ANSI-lumen images. It has integrated video and audio capabilities and supports PAL, NTSC, and SECAM video and has a suggested list price of $8,995. The Polaview 90 provides a 300-ANSI-lumen image and integrated video and audio for a suggested list price of $7,495, while the Polaview 80, with its 300-ANSI-lumen image, is the least expensive of the new projectors with its suggested list price of $6,795. The Polaview 80 can be upgraded to support video. All four of the projectors are equipped with a stereo audio output system and wireless remote control. In other Polaroid news, the company said recently it will once again enter the Vietnam market with its instant cameras and films. To that end Polaroid has appointed the Ho Chi Minh City Photo Company as its marketing representative and retail distributor for the country. The photo company is an enterprise of the Vietnamese Ministry of Culture. The announcement marks the return of Polaroid instant photography to Vietnam after more than 20 years. Polaroid said its instant cameras and film, as well as specialized equipment for Vietnam's more than 6,000 street photographers and studio equipment for document portrait photography, will be sold in the country. Polaroid will also introduce its Studio Express franchise programs that provide cameras and film for instant document portraiture such as national identity cards, passports, visa, driver's licenses and government and company identification. (Jim Mallory/19950810/Press contact: Michael Spataro, Polaroid, 617-386-3573; Public contact: Polaroid, 800-816-2611 ext 970 for product info) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 08/10/95 NETWORK Dell Intros PCs With Integrated Networking (NEWS)(NETWORK)(DEN)(00025) Dell Intros PCs With Integrated Networking 08/10/95 AUSTIN, TEXAS, U.S.A., 1995 AUG 10 (NB) -- Dell Computer Corp. (NASDAQ: DELL) has introduced a new product family of Pentium-based desktop PCs that includes 3Com's Ethernet network option and Dell's Inspector system management software. #IMAGE 1 20 TWPCX \images\95081025.PCX Click here for photo Dell said the base system in its new Optiplex G family is the $1,838 GL 575 with a 75 megahertz (MHz) Pentium chip, eight megabytes (MB) of system memory, a 365MB hard drive, the 3Com Etherlink III Ethernet 10 megabits-per-second (Mbps) networking option, a 15-inch color Super VGA monitor, Microsoft Windows 3.11, and a mouse. You can also get a GL 575 with 16MB of memory, a 540MB hard drive, a quad-speed (4x) CD-ROM drive, Sound Blaster 16 audio adapter, and Altec-Lansing ACS-5 speakers for $2,582. The company also introduced two new versions of the Dell Optiplex DGX line, equipped with Intel's recently introduced 133MHz Pentium processor. The new DGX models are available as single or dual-processor 133MHz systems with 16MB of memory, a one gigabyte (GB) SCSI (small computer system interface) hard drive, 256 kilobytes (KB) of cache, an UntraScan 15-inch Trinitron color monitor, Windows NT 3.5, and a Microsoft mouse. The single-processor model starts at $4,790, while the dual-chip version has a $6,289 price tag with the described configuration. All Optiplex desktop systems come with Dell Inspector, a graphical user interface that helps network administrators obtain system information down to the component level. Dell said the new version of the Dell Inspector can provide information on Optiplex systems that are up to two years old. In addition to introducing the new Optiplex systems, Dell said this week it will spend $100 million to establish its manufacturing and sales operations in the Asia Pacific region. Morton Topfer, Dell vice chairman, told reporters at a Hong Kong news conference the company's goal is to have 30 percent of its sales come from the region within five years. In the fiscal year that ended in January, 1995, Dell reported total revenues of $3.5 billion, with about five percent of that coming from Asia, mostly Japan and Australia, said Topfer. The company said it has already put about $20 million into the establishment of a sales, service and manufacturing facility in Malaysia. The manufacturing operation is expected to start production of a full line of desktop and laptop computers and network servers in 1996, with production capacity starting at 5,000 units per month and ramping up to twice that number. Dell maintains a home page on the World Wide Web at http://www.del.com/ where the company provides information about its PCs. (Jim Mallory/19950810/Press contact: Bill Robbins, Dell, 512-728-4100; Public contact: Dell, tel 512-338-4400, fax 512-728-9357/OPTIPLEX950810/PHOTO) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 08/10/95 ONLINE Beware Of Web Site "Hit" Statistics (NEWS)(ONLINE)(SFO)(00026) Beware Of Web Site "Hit" Statistics 08/10/95 SEATTLE, WASHINGTON, 1995 AUG 10 (NB) -- World Wide Web sites that claim marketing value for advertisers often tout numbers of "hits" that may reach into the millions. Don't be fooled, though, since such impressive-sounding statistics may boil down to just a few thousand actual users, as Julie Chao explains in "Tallies of Web-Site Browsers Often Deceive" (Wall Street Journal, June 21, 1995, pp. B1, B5). "In fact," Chao explains, "hits count files, not people. The Web allows users to jump from page to page by clicking on icons or highlighted text. Since one file is required for every chunk of text and every graphic element on a Web page, one mouse click may count as a dozen or more hits, depending on the complexity of the page. Also, because most Web sites contain more than one page, hits can rapidly accumulate when the user clicks deeper and deeper into the site." Several companies (described in the article) claim to offer a better measure than hits, but the ultimate measuring stick still seems elusive. This story is republished with permission from the August 1995 Cybernautics Digest, a monthly summary of reports about converging information technologies. (Contact: Terry Hansen, Cybernautics Digest, c/o KFH Publications Inc., 3530 Bagley Ave. N., Seattle, WA 98103; 206-547-4950; Fax: 206-547-5355; E-mail: cyber@cuix.pscu.com. U.S. rate: $24; $2 sample issue) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 08/10/95 ONLINE Internet Instant Messaging Now Possible (NEWS)(ONLINE)(MSP)(00027) Internet Instant Messaging Now Possible 08/10/95 BOCA RATON, FLORIDA, U.S.A., 1999 AUG 10 (NB) -- PersonalNet's new "R.u.there?" product, which is a combination of client software and a remote server, lets Internet users instantly access other Net surfers for private, text-based conversations, company officials said. What makes this product unique is that it can search for both static and dynamically allocated Internet Protocol (IP) addresses, Murrey Hartley, president of PersonalNet, told Newsbytes. In fact, the system is so unique the company has received a patent on the technology, he added. R.u.there? is similar to the "Instant Messaging" feature found on online services like America Online (AOL), Hartley said, in that two people can converse immediately on the Internet, rather than having to wait for electronic-mail (e-mail) to pass back and forth. As long as both people are on the Internet and using the software, two people can chat. If a person is not available to chat, a note is left with the originator's name and time of contact for the absent user. Hartley told Newsbytes that R.u.there? is more of a subscription service, because the software works in conjunction with a server that keeps and updates IP addresses. The service itself costs $29 a year, while client software and upgrades are available for free. The service can also be used together with communication programs like "Cuseeme" videoconferencing software and VocalTech's Voice Chat Net "Telephone," because R.u.there? compensates for these products' inability to locate dynamic IP addresses. Hartley said the service comes with an "updated phonebook," called the Universal Member Locator. With this, members can search other member's e-mail addresses via a global Internet search. The locator is updated constantly because of the dynamic IP address changes. Users of some of the various online services, like CompuServe and AOL, will be able to use R.u.there? because they are assigned IP numbers when they access the World Wide Web, Hartley said. Future enhancements to the service include a multi-user version of R.u.there? that will let users chat in real-time with groups of people. The software can be downloaded from PersonalNet's Web site, at http://www.personalnet.com . Only Windows software is available for now, with Unix and Macintosh versions coming out later this year. (Bob Woods/19950810/Press Contact: Craig Settles, Successful Marketing Strategies, 510-644-3837; Public Contact: PersonalNet, 800-929-5553, Internet e-mail info@personalnet.com, Internet World Wide Web http://www.personalnet.com ) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 08/10/95 APPLE MacWorld - Avid Offers $199 MacWorld Video Bundle (NEWS)(APPLE)(BOS)(00028) MacWorld - Avid Offers $199 MacWorld Video Bundle 08/10/95 BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS, U.S.A., 1995 AUG 10 (NB) -- Avid Technology is placing a stronger emphasis on low-end desktop video -- and to underscore that point this week, Avid is offering MacWorld Boston attendees a bundle of three video applications, valued at $750, for only $199, said Steve Kreth, marketing manager for Avid's Desktop Group, in an interview with Newsbytes at MacWorld. Kreth told Newsbytes that the special three-product MacWorld bundle features: Elastic Reality, acquired through Avid's recent purchase of a company by the same name; a volume of transition effects called Transjammer; and VideoShop, a product first unveiled last year. "Our new charter is to `Go ahead and go after the low end,'" Kreth maintained. Avid initially focused only on the high end of the market, with the Media Composer non-linear editing system for professional film and video post-production, introduced in 1989. Since then, though, the company has branched out into midrange and low-end arenas -- and now, the "low end" is coming to incorporate growing groups of "creative communicators" in the corporate and educational markets, according to the marketing manager. In the corporate market, many of the new multimedia "communicators" are experienced users of desktop publishing or graphics packages who are just now moving into video, Kreth asserted. On the educational side, teachers are starting to assign multimedia "projects" to their students, he added. In keeping with Avid's expanded emphasis on entry-level video, Avid has appointed Rick Cramer to be VP and general manager of its Desktop Group, Kreth noted. Cramer was one of the first employees ever to be hired by Avid, and has helped considerably over the years to "build Avid's profitability," according to Kreth. Over the coming year, Avid plans to release a number of new desktop video products, including three or four more volumes of Transjammer by the end of 1995, Kreth revealed. Avid released the first volume of transition effects about four months ago, he estimated. Volume 2 is slated to become available in about two weeks. Another future goal for Avid is to standardize the use of Open Media Framework (OMF), the company's specification for cross-platform digital media interchange, across the industry, Kreth reported. During a demo of the upcoming Transjammer Volume 2, Newsbytes was told that the Transjammer libraries of transitional effects function a little bit like multimedia "clip art." Until a few years ago, though, effects of this caliber were only possible on systems costing hundreds of thousands of dollars, according to Kreth. Effects in Volume 2 include "Ying Yang," spinning squares, moons orbiting around a planet, and juggling balls, as well as complex morphs like "Bubbles," in which the video "morphs into bubbles which move up the screen to reveal the next scene." The user can preview the effect in a window before applying it to the video. Transjammer and VideoShop are available for both Mac and Windows. Each volume of Transjammer retails for $99.95. Volume 2 for Windows will add compatibility with Avid's Media Suite Pro for Windows, Adobe Premiere, and in:sync's Razor Pro. Avid's Elastic Reality morphing software runs on Macintosh, Windows, and SGI workstations. (Jacqueline Emigh/19950810/Reader Contact: Avid Technology, 508- 640-6789; Press Contact: Christa Degnan, Schwartz Communications for Avid, 617-431-0770) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 08/10/95 APPLE MacWorld - DayStar Plans MP Apple Upgrade, 2nd Machine (NEWS)(APPLE)(BOS)(00029) MacWorld - DayStar Plans MP Apple Upgrade, 2nd Machine 08/10/95 BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS, U.S.A., 1995 AUG 10 (NB) -- Beyond debuting the first multiprocessor (MP) model from an Apple licensee during MacWorld Boston, DayStar Digital is occupied with plans for a second MP computer, plus a two-processor upgrade card for Apple's Power Macintoshes, for 1996, said Andrew Hill, president and chief executive officer (CEO), during a meeting with Newsbytes at MacWorld. DayStar Digital's goal is to fill a void that now exists for MP machines in the graphics and multimedia markets, Hill revealed, in an interview with Newsbytes at a DayStar-sponsored MacWorld event. Although multiprocessor Windows NT and Unix computers are starting to be used for applications like network and application servers, transaction processing and database retrieval, hardware makers have not yet tapped the large potential market that exists for photo rendering and other image-intensive applications requiring heavy "pixel blasting," he maintained. At the same time, though, the need for MP computers in this market is critical, Hill continued. Production of multimedia CD-ROM titles is so time-consuming that few titles make a profit, even if they manage to sell in large volumes, he contended. As a result, he reasoned, venture capital funding for multimedia content is getting hard to come by. Hill also drew strong distinctions between DayStar's new Genesis MP machine and the SGI workstations that are also used for graphics and multimedia processing. Genesis MP's performance, he asserted, already surpasses that of the SGI machines for two-dimensional (2-D) processing, although SGI maintains the lead for three- dimensional (3-D) processing. In the future, he predicted, DayStar will be able to extend its current advantage in 2-D processing, since SGI will not be willing to expend the resources to keep its MIPS chips current with PowerPC, Pentium, and other high volume competitors in the 2-D world. DayStar Digital's new Genesis MP uses four 604 132 megahertz (MHz) processors, and is scheduled for release in October, Hill noted. DayStar has no plans to produce an MP machine with fewer than four chips, he added. But early next year, the company will release a two-processor upgrade board for Apple's Power Macintoshes, to be followed by a second MP machine from DayStar next summer, the company president told Newsbytes. (Jacqueline Emigh/19951010/Reader Contact: DayStar Digital, 404- 967-2077; Press Contact: Jason Smith, Copithorne & Bellows for DayStar Digital, 770-392-8611) (SUMMARY)(GENERAL)(MSP)(00030) Newsbytes Daily Summary 08/10/95 MINNEAPOLIS, MINNESOTA, U.S.A., 1995 AUG 10 (NB) -- These are capsules of all today's news stories: ======================================================================== ------------| N E W S B Y T E S D A I L Y S U M M A R Y |---------- ------------| Thursday, August 10, 1995 |---------- ======================================================================== (c) Newsbytes News Network (Tm) Editor in Chief: Wendy Woods ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Newsbytes News Network is a computer and telecom industry news wire and digitized picture service. Our news stream includes more than 30 daily first-hand reported US and international news stories about computing and telecommunications. For more information, please e-mail to 'administrator@newsbytes.com' ------------------------------------------------------------------------ CATEGORY HEADLINES (*** indicates today's top stories) STORY # ======================================================================== APPLE MacWorld - Insignia Intros SoftWindows 2.0 For Power Mac... 12 APPLE MacWorld - Avid Offers $199 MacWorld Video Bundle.......... 28 APPLE MacWorld - DayStar Plans MP Apple Upgrade, 2nd Machine..... 29 BUSINESS Sony Financials Hit By Yen Appreciation.................... 13 BUSINESS Penril Datability Secures Major Russian Banking Deal....... 21 BUSINESS CA Talks About Plans For Legent............................ 22 GENERAL Microsoft Plans Toonz 4.0 For Silicon Graphics............. 04 GENERAL UK - 3-D Images On CD-ROM.................................. 06 GOVT China - Govt Emphasizes Foreign Copyright Protection....... 09 GOVT Chinese "Silicon Valley" To Become Science Town............ 10 IBM Germany - IBM Wins Digital Library Contract................ 07 LEGAL BSA Says Japan Piracy A Major Problem...................... 14 LEGAL Multimedia Newsletter Sues Disney.......................... 20 NETWORK Voice & Data Connectivity Via Laser........................ 01 NETWORK Dell Intros PCs With Integrated Networking................. 25 ONLINE ****Grateful Dead Fans Mourn In Cyberspace................ 16 ONLINE Visa & Worlds Inc. To Offer 3-D Internet Banking........... 18 ONLINE ****Radio On Internet, Net Access For Radio Listeners..... 19 ONLINE Prodigy-Southam Online Plans In Canada On Hold............. 23 ONLINE Beware Of Web Site "Hit" Statistics........................ 26 ONLINE Internet Instant Messaging Now Possible.................... 27 TELECOM "V-Fast Modem Charger" Telephone Line Conditioners......... 02 TELECOM UK - Husky's Ruggedized Modem For Handhelds................ 08 TRENDS "Globalization" Vital To Market Share - Report............. 05 TRENDS Maxtor Announces Low Profile 1.34GB Drive.................. 15 TRENDS Compaq Number 1 In PC Sales For 2Qtr - DataQuest........... 17 TRENDS Polaroid Intros Bright-Image LCD Projectors................ 24 WINDOWS Caligari 3-D Graphics Software For Windows................. 03 WINDOWS Windows 95 Local Language Versions Go To Manufacturing..... 11 ======================================================================== These are the headlines and first paragraphs of each story, in order: 1 -> Voice & Data Connectivity Via Laser -- Laser Communications Inc. (LCI) said it has developed a new class of high-speed laser optic communications, combining the simultaneous building-to-building transmission of digital voice trunk and local area network (LAN) connectivity. All of this is done with a single laser beam, officials said. 2 -> "V-Fast Modem Charger" Telephone Line Conditioners -- NAI Datacomm has developed a series of telephone line conditioners that the company claims "clean up dirty phone lines" that can bog down high-speed data transmission and receiving equipment. Now, says the firm, users can get a "clean connection" with the "V.Fast Modem Charger" family, instead of getting expensive fiber optic or pre-conditioned phone lines. 3 -> Caligari 3-D Graphics Software For Windows -- Caligari Corporation has introduced Caligari Truespace/SE for Windows. Positioned as an entry-level software product for three-dimensional (3-D) graphics and animation, the product is priced at $149. 4 -> Microsoft Plans Toonz 4.0 For Silicon Graphics -- Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ: MSFT) said it will ship version 4.0 of Softimage Toonz for the Silicon Graphics platform in November. 5 -> "Globalization" Vital To Market Share - Report -- According to a report from Ovum, entitled "Globalization: Creating New Markets with Translation Technology," globalization is something that information technology (IT) businesses cannot afford to dismiss if they wish to expand into the international marketplace. 6 -> UK - 3-D Images On CD-ROM -- Visual Software, a multimedia software specialist, has unveiled Simply Scenes, a range of CD-ROM disks that are aimed at graphic designers. 7 -> Germany - IBM Wins Digital Library Contract -- IBM has announced the development of its latest Digital Library customer initiative at the Lutherhalle Wittenberg museum near Berlin, Germany. The project centers around the plan to digitally capture the museum's rare books and works of art, preserve them, and make them "more accessible." 8 -> UK - Husky's Ruggedized Modem For Handhelds -- Husky Computers has unveiled an internal modem option for its Husky FS/2 range of handheld ruggedized computers. According to Keith Gallagher, marketing manager with the company, the 2,400 bits-per-second (bps) unit costs UKP350. 9 -> China - Govt Emphasizes Foreign Copyright Protection -- The Chinese government has shown "strong determination" to keep its "solemn promise" to protect international copyrights, claimed an article carried by several state-run newspapers in China. The moves reportedly emphasize both legislative and administrative measures for foreign copyright protection. 10 -> Chinese "Silicon Valley" To Become Science Town -- The Zhongguacun area, China's so-called "Silicon Valley," will be turned into a world-class "science town" within 15 years, promised by Mr. Zhou Guangzhao, the president of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS). 11 -> Windows 95 Local Language Versions Go To Manufacturing -- Parlez vous Francais? If you do, then you'll be happy to know you haven't been forgotten by Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ: MSFT), which has released to manufacturing 12 localized language versions of its soon-to-ship Windows 95 operating system and graphical user interface. 12 -> MacWorld - Insignia Intros SoftWindows 2.0 For Power Mac -- SoftWindows 2.0 for Power Macintosh, a new update to Insignia Solutions' Windows and DOS emulation software, adds support for Windows 3.1 enhanced mode, Apple Guide, and AppleScript, said Robert E. Lee, Insignia's president and chief executive officer (CEO), during a press event at MacWorld that also featured appearances by officials of Apple and all three Power Mac "clone makers." 13 -> Sony Financials Hit By Yen Appreciation -- Sony Corporation (TOKYO:6758) has released financial results for the first three months of the financial year showing group profits have been hit by the sharp appreciation of the yen. 14 -> BSA Says Japan Piracy A Major Problem -- The Business Software Alliance says it has received over 1,000 reports of software piracy on its special telephone in Japan in the first six months of this year. 15 -> Maxtor Announces Low Profile 1.34GB Drive -- Maxtor Corporation (NASDAQ: MXTR), has unveiled its new high-capacity Laramie 2.5-inch disk drives for the portable computer market. Offering up to 1.34 gigabytes (GB), the drives are, according to the company, the highest capacity, 12.5 millimeter (mm), low-profile 2.5-inch drives announced to date. 16 -> ****Grateful Dead Fans Mourn In Cyberspace -- The man who's band began in the counterculture of the 1960's was remembered after his death in the new society of the 1990's 17 -> Compaq Number 1 In PC Sales For 2Qtr - DataQuest -- International research firm Dataquest Inc. says that Compaq Computer Corporation (NYSE:CPQ) captured the title of number one selling PC vendor for the second quarter of 1995. Compaq has occupied the top spot since the first quarter of 1994, and also captured the top spot for the entire year of 1994. 18 -> Visa & Worlds Inc. To Offer 3-D Internet Banking -- Credit card giant Visa, and Worlds Inc., have previewed a virtual three-dimensional (3-D) banking "environment" which will allow customers to choose graphical images, walk into a virtual bank, and interact with bank employees using images. The partnership incorporates multi-user technology with secure transaction processing. 19 -> ****Radio On Internet, Net Access For Radio Listeners -- A Washington-area firm that owns and operates 21 radio stations will begin offering live audio on the Internet's World Wide Web later this month. At the same time, the company, EZ Communications, is offering Internet access to radio listeners. 20 -> Multimedia Newsletter Sues Disney -- A tiny, high-tech Maryland publisher has sued giant Walt Disney Co. for copyright infringement, seeking $2.1 million in damages. 21 -> Penril Datability Secures Major Russian Banking Deal -- ArgusSoft, the Moscow-based computer dealership, has secured a major deal with the Moscow Savings Bank of the Russian Federation. The contract calls for ArgusSoft to supply a variety of 28,800 bits-per-second (bps) modems for installation at the more than 700 branches of the Moscow Bank for moving data between the branches. 22 -> CA Talks About Plans For Legent -- In the wake of its buyout of Legent Corp., Computer Associates International Inc. (NYSE:CA) has revealed some of its plans for the software company. CA said it is investing heavily in Legent's products as it integrates the company into its own operations. 23 -> Prodigy-Southam Online Plans In Canada On Hold -- American online service operator Prodigy Services Co. and Toronto-based publisher Southam Inc. still have not moved ahead with plans for a new Canadian online service, 18 months after announcing that they were studying the idea. 24 -> Polaroid Intros Bright-Image LCD Projectors -- Polaroid Electronic Imaging Systems, a division of Polaroid Corp. (NYSE: PRD) has introduced four new super-bright liquid crystal display (LCD) projectors the company said allow images from PCs and other video sources to be projected and easily viewed in a fully-lit room. 25 -> Dell Intros PCs With Integrated Networking -- Dell Computer Corp. (NASDAQ: DELL) has introduced a new product family of Pentium-based desktop PCs that includes 3Com's Ethernet network option and Dell's Inspector system management software. 26 -> Beware Of Web Site "Hit" Statistics -- World Wide Web sites that claim marketing value for advertisers often tout numbers of "hits" that may reach into the millions. Don't be fooled, though, since such impressive-sounding statistics may boil down to just a few thousand actual users, as Julie Chao explains in "Tallies of Web-Site Browsers Often Deceive" (Wall Street Journal, June 21, 1995, pp. B1, B5). 27 -> Internet Instant Messaging Now Possible -- PersonalNet's new "R.u.there?" product, which is a combination of client software and a remote server, lets Internet users instantly access other Net surfers for private, text-based conversations, company officials said. 28 -> MacWorld - Avid Offers $199 MacWorld Video Bundle -- Avid Technology is placing a stronger emphasis on low-end desktop video 29 -> MacWorld - DayStar Plans MP Apple Upgrade, 2nd Machine -- Beyond debuting the first multiprocessor (MP) model from an Apple licensee during MacWorld Boston, DayStar Digital is occupied with plans for a second MP computer, plus a two-processor upgrade card for Apple's Power Macintoshes, for 1996, said Andrew Hill, president and chief executive officer (CEO), during a meeting with Newsbytes at MacWorld. (Ian Stokell/19950810) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 08/09/95 BROADCAST Ericsson To Supply Largest Brazilian Cable TV Project (NEWS)(BROADCAST)(LON)(00001) Ericsson To Supply Largest Brazilian Cable TV Project 08/09/95 STOCKHOLM, SWEDEN, 1995 AUG 9 (NB) -- Ericsson has announced it has received a major order from Telebahia, the Brazilian cable TV company. The order, which is worth $34 million to the Swedish communications firm, calls for the installation of specialized equipment for the network, which will be the largest of its type in Brazil. According to officials with the company, Ericsson will be responsible for the delivery and installation of access network solutions and services on an ongoing basis. Plans call for the first stage of the network to be operational by the end of the year, at which stage Ericsson will have a broadband network operating for Telebahia. The equipment to be installed on the network includes advanced hybrid access solutions based on the fiber optic and coaxial technology, in line with the specifications of the cable network. The access installations will be related to the Ericsson Raynet Video System RVS. Once the new cable TV network is in operation, Telebahia hopes to service more than 250,000 homes with more than 80 cable TV channels. Basic telephony services will also be offered, along with advanced features such as video-on-demand, Interactive Video, and home shopping channels. "This is the largest cable TV project ever initiated in Brazil and demonstrates the forerunning technological condition of Telebahia," commented Paulo Castelo Branco, director of Fixed Telecommunications with Ericsson Brazil. "Aside from becoming the first all digital switching network operator in Brazil, with the digitalization of more than 100,000 electromechanical lines, Telebahia will also become largest, single cable TV provider in Brazil," he claimed. (Sylvia Dennis/19950808/Press & Reader Contact: Paulo Castelo Branco, Ericsson Brazil, +55-11-681-1263) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 08/09/95 TELECOM Longest Fiber Optic Cable In World Planned (NEWS)(TELECOM)(LON)(00002) Longest Fiber Optic Cable In World Planned 08/09/95 LONDON, ENGLAND, 1995 AUG 9 (NB) -- FLAG Limited, the international telecoms consortium, has signed an agreement to build a 27,000 kilometers fiber optic submarine cable, which will be installed to link telecommunications carriers in Europe, the Middle East, and Asia. According to Joe Timpanaro, FLAG's chairman, the new cable will "greatly improve" the quality of communications in many areas of the world where most international telecoms traffic is currently routed across limited bandwidth satellite links. Using fiber optic links, he claims, will increase the accuracy, speed, security, and reliability to a much greater extent, as well as provide support for major advanced applications. FLAG is a consortium of several major companies from the US, Japan, Saudi Arabia, Hong Kong, and Thailand. The operation is worth more than $1.5 billion and will connect three continents on a route linking business centers and high-growth regions between the UK and Japan. More than 40 carriers around the world have decided to purchase access to the FLAG cable, including the 12 landing parties which will be also responsible for landing the cable in their countries. The system should be fully operational by September, 1997. "FLAG is one of the most expansive projects our industry has ever undertaken -- both in terms of its global reach and the capacity it will make available to telecommunications carriers on demand," Timpanaro explained. According to Timpanaro, the system will integrate state-of-the-art technology and system architecture "to carry traffic to and from 12 landing points across three oceans and two terrestrial crossings." Plans call for the system to use 326 highly advanced optical amplifiers. Work will start immediately on land crossings and land stations for cable systems and ships will begin to lay the cable in November this year. During that period, telecommunications companies in the 12 countries will control the construction work on the landing stations and facilities to connect their networks to. The landing points will be located in the UK, Spain, Italy, Egypt, the United Arab Emirates, India, Thailand, Malaysia, Hong Kong, China, Korea, and Japan. The system itself will be built by AT&T Submarine Systems Inc., together with support from KDD Submarine Cable Systems of Japan. More than 1,000 kilometers of the cable will be installed underground at two land crossing along the FLAG route, one in Egypt and one in Thailand (Sylvia Dennis/19950808/Press Contact: Richard Price, European Marketing Consultants, +44-181-879-3033) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 08/09/95 LEGAL ****More Big Guns Enter Microsoft-Justice Fray (NEWS)(LEGAL)(DEN)(00003) ****More Big Guns Enter Microsoft-Justice Fray 08/09/95 WASHINGTON, D.C., U.S.A., 1995 AUG 9 (NB) -- More big guns have entered the altercation between Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ: MSFT) and the US Department of Justice (DOJ), this time on the side of the software company. Going public with their concerns about a possible delay of Microsoft's new operating system and graphical user interface Windows 95 are at least four more companies. Top executives at Symantec Corp., Egghead Software Inc., CompUSA, and Corel Corp. took up their pens recently to let the government know they want Windows 95 to appear on retail shelves on August 24 as planned. If it doesn't, they, and numerous other companies, stand to lose millions of dollars in front-end costs and revenues. Greg Shaw, Microsoft corporate legal affairs spokesperson, told Newsbytes that Microsoft doesn't see the companies going public with their concerns as coming down on the side of Microsoft, so much as the companies' concern for their own businesses and the impact a delay would have if any action were taken by DOJ to block the shipment of Windows 95. Shaw declined to discuss Microsoft's contingency plans should the August 24 launch date be delayed, telling Newsbytes, "We are a responsible company and we will be prepared as the issues arise," Shaw told Newsbytes. The entry of the software and hardware makers and a major retail chain at Microsoft's side puts DOJ between some powerful forces. On the one hand are Microsoft and its new allies, while on the opposite side are three of the biggest online service providers -- CompuServe, America Online, and Prodigy, plus a few other Microsoft competitors. At issue is whether DOJ will file anti-trust charges against Microsoft because it included in Windows 95 software that will connect a Windows 95 user to Microsoft's own online service, the Microsoft Network (MSN). MSN is scheduled to launch simultaneously with Windows 95. Other online providers have to pay PC makers to include their connection software, while Microsoft will get free distribution to the millions of users of IBM-compatibles that already use Windows and will upgrade to Windows 95 or will buy PCs with Windows 95 installed in the future. Gordon Eubanks Jr., president and chief executive officer at Symantec, warned Assistant Attorney General Anne Bingaman of "the extraordinary market disruption that would follow a delay in the commercial release of Windows 95 and the products designed to run on it." Symantec is poised to launch Windows 95 versions of its popular utilities software Norton Utilities. Peter Janssen, vice president of merchandising and advertising at Egghead Software said the company has incurred "millions of dollars in front-end costs" including building up inventories preparing for the release of Windows 95. Dr. Michael Cowpland, Corel president and chief executive officer, told the DOJ that the financial results of the quarter ending the end of this month "are substantially dependent" on the timely shipment of Windows 95. Cowpland said any delay in shipping Windows 95 "will eliminate virtually all product revenue in this category (graphics applications) from the current quarter and substantially negatively impact the company's financial results for both the current quarter and the fiscal year." Cowpland said Corel plans to ship CorelDraw 6.0, its flagship product, as soon as Windows 95 ships. Cowpland said Corel also plans to ship other Windows 95-based products in September, October, and November. James Halpin, president and chief executive officer of CompUSA Inc., echoed the feelings of his counterparts at the other companies. "The launch of windows 95 will likely result in increased sales, employment opportunities and technological advancements across the computer industry for months, and possibly years, to come. Any prolonged delay in the launch of Windows 95 could have very negative effects on many participants in the computer industry," wrote the CompUSA boss. It's well known that government agencies usually move slowly, but Bingaman, DOJ's top anti-trust lawyer, had better decide soon whether to file against Microsoft or it will be too late, since the scheduled launch of the new combined operating system and graphical user interface is just over two weeks away. Microsoft said it plans to launch Windows 95 in major English- and French-speaking countries simultaneously with the US kickoff August 24. Those countries include Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, Britain, France, and the Benelux countries. Windows 95 is scheduled for release in Germany August 31, in Italy September 4, and in Austria, Denmark, Finland, Norway, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, and Switzerland on September 5. A Japanese-language version is set for shipment on November 25. (Jim Mallory/19950808/Press and public contact: Microsoft, 206-882-8080 or 800-426-9400) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 08/09/95 ONLINE Hollywood's Internet Provider Goes National (NEWS)(ONLINE)(SFO)(00004) Hollywood's Internet Provider Goes National 08/09/95 LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1995 AUG 9 (NB) -- EarthLink, an Internet provider (IP) for the southern California area, has grown in one year from a small company to its new status as a national Internet provider. Through a network agreement with UUNET, EarthLink is readying the national service, named TotalAccess USA, to be distributed to more than 150 US cities. #IMAGE 1 20 TWPCX \images\95080904.PCX Click here for photo Company officials say the agreement with UUNET means EarthLink almost overnight becomes the number three independent Internet provider behind Netcom and PSINet. Availability of local dial-up access across the US is expected to be ready by August 25. Features of the new system include 28.8 kilobits-per-second (Kbps) access through every city on the network and EarthLink's own Total Access Internet software package which facilitates signing-on and navigating the Net. For UUNET, the deal strengthens its strategy to leverage the UUNET distribution network. The company has 8,000 subscribers to its own Internet provision service, but its primary role is to serve as a wholesaler to high-quality resellers. Sky Dayton, EarthLink's president and chief executive officer, told Newsbytes, "When Mosaic first became available, I tried to set up my own computer to navigate the Net. It took about 80 hours to configure all the necessary pieces of software. Right then I realized most desktop consumers would need a way to get onto and navigate the Net which would be far easier. That has been the goal here at EarthLink since we began and continues to be our goal. We want to get to the most novice computer user as well as the advanced user and make the experience easy and fun." As the company expanded throughout southern California, EarthLink became known as the Hollywood provider. When asked if he thought EarthLink would be competing with the other two national IPs, Dayton said, "I do not see it as a competing environment. There are so many people who want to get onto the Internet and have the support and tools. From the very beginning of EarthLink, our biggest problem has been to assess the size of the market. Every time we think we have enough technical support and computer resources, the demand outstrips what we planned." Indicative of the unexpected demand is EarthLink personnel growth, from two people to more than 90 in a little more than one year. Total Access includes Netscape's Navigator and Eudora Lite. Rather than creating a proprietary browser, EarthLink has licensed the necessary pieces and put them into one package. For $19.95 per month, TotalAccess USA subscribers receive 15 hours of Internet time with a $1.95 per hour charge for additional time. Telephone and online support are free and EarthLink provides 100 kilobytes of personal World Wide Web space to each subscriber. An 800-number service is available to potential users who reside outside the UUNET local access numbers. The 800 service is more expensive. (Patrick McKenna/19950809/Press Contact: Rolland Going, The Terpin Group, 310-821-6100/EARTHLINK950809/PHOTO) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 08/09/95 ONLINE PSINet Intros New InterRamp Pricing (NEWS)(ONLINE)(MSP)(00005) PSINet Intros New InterRamp Pricing 08/09/95 HERNDON, VIRGINIA, U.S.A., 1995 AUG 9 (NB) -- Performance Systems International, Inc. (NASDAQ:PSIX) (PSINet) said it will no longer charge for Internet access for its InterRamp subscribers during off-peak hours. This means customers will get more than 400 hours of access to the worldwide network of computers for free. The change in pricing, which is effective immediately, affects InterRamp customers who are on PSINet's $29 for 29 hours package, along with new customers who sign up by December 31, 1995. PSINet is classifying "off-peak" ours as falling between 11pm and 8am Monday through Friday, and all day Saturday and Sunday. Subscribers will still be billed for 29 hours of usage, along with $1.50 per hour for each additional prime time hours of usage. The rates apply for customers accessing the InterRamp service with 14.4 kilobits-per-second (Kbps) and 28.8Kbps modems, along with 64Kbps ISDN (integrated services digital network) connections. John Neely, assistant director of InterRamp marketing at PSINet, told Newsbytes that increased competition in the Internet marketplace isn't a prime reason for the pricing move. "Market leadership, rather than competition within the marketplace, remains the driving force behind PSINet's new product development and pricing strategy," Neely said. "Our decision to create free off-peak hours for InterRamp users was driven by a desire to create additional value, flexibility, and functionality for these customers." InterRamp is PSINet's national high-speed Internet service is currently in 140 US cities, with a projected coverage of 225 cities by the end of this year. Access options range from high-speed modem dial-up, to ISDN connections for telecommuters, businesses that have local area networks (LANs), and those who need very high Internet access speeds. PSINet also offers dedicated high-speed circuits for corporate connections. (Bob Woods/19950808/Press Contacts: Brian Muys, PSINet, 703-904-4285, Internet e-mail muysb@psi.com; Ellen Sanders, Poppe Tyson, 201-539- 0300, Internet e-mail esanders@nj.poppe.com; Public Contacts: PSINet, 703-904-4100, Internet e-mail info@psi.com, Internet World Wide Web http://www.psi.net ) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 08/09/95 ONLINE CyberShop An "Upscale" Mall Web Site (NEWS)(ONLINE)(MSP)(00006) CyberShop An "Upscale" Mall Web Site 08/09/95 NEW YORK CITY, NEW YORK, U.S.A., 1995 AUG 9 (NB) -- What's being called the "first upscale Internet World Wide Web department store" is now open, out of the way of the maddening crowds, snooty salespeople, and parking lots. CyberShop features "name-brand upscale merchandise" in a "graphical, dynamic format." "You're talking about building a store, but without the bricks and mortar, the walls, the salespeople, and all of that stuff" Jeffrey Tauber, CyberShop president and founder, told Newsbytes. "But it still is a full-service retail store," he said. CyberShop differs from other online and Internet shopping areas because it was "created by experienced retailers," not computer experts, company officials said. In fact, Tauber is the former head of Avanti Linens. Tauber credits the creation and the "look" of the site to "computer top-guns" who don't know the meaning of limited bandwidth, he said. The Web site is best viewed with Netscape 1.1, Tauber said. When Newsbytes accessed the store, it was greeted with a slide show-like presentation, using graphic backgrounds formatted with Netscape tags. From there, surfers are free to choose from several departments, including silver, bedding, furniture, exercise equipment, outdoor equipment, computers and electronics, and other items. Each "department" is very graphical in nature, with detailed information on each item for sale. Tauber said a total of 10,000 are already on sale, with more to come. Besides being able to purchase online, shoppers can communicate via electronic-mail (e-mail) with CyberShop's customer service department, as well as CyberShop's buyers and suppliers of goods. Forums are also available in which retail representatives answer questions about products, along with giving customers the ability to talk in live chat sessions with company presidents. Other features include online gift registries for weddings, births, and birthdays, and a "CyberShop soap opera," featuring CyberShop manufacturers as characters in the story line. Shoppers can buy goods using Netscape's security in its browsers. CyberShop also subscribes to PGP (pretty good privacy) encryption for additional security. Credit card numbers can also be called in and faxed in. After the order is placed, credit card numbers are immediately authorized, and merchandise is shipped within one to five working days, officials said. Tauber said many enhancements to the site are in store for the future, including: RealAudio support, "So when you click on the espresso maker, you might hear the sound of cappuccino being made;" possible Internet Phone support for customer service; and other improvements. "When you go through the Internet, there's a hodgepodge of people selling everything from golf balls to cat food," Tauber said. "When we set out to do this, we knew there was a better way to sell. And the brands we have are the brands that the affluent want." CyberShop is located at the Web address http://cybershop.com . Current promotions include a $100 shopping spree sweepstakes for people who register with the store, and free shipping and handling on all Grand Opening purchases. (Bob Woods/19950808/Press Contacts: Walter Sperr or Nancy Trent, Trent & Company Inc., 212-966-0024, Internet e-mail trentco@ais.net; Public Contact: CyberShop, Internet World Wide Web http://cybershop.com ) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 08/09/95 TELECOM Hong Kong Telecoms Office Makes PCS Winners Denial (NEWS)(TELECOM)(HKG)(00007) Hong Kong Telecoms Office Makes PCS Winners Denial 08/09/95 CENTRAL, HONG KONG, 1995 AUG 9 (NB) -- Hong Kong's Office of the Telecommunications Authority (OFTA) has condemned as factually incorrect reports that have appeared in several Chinese newspapers naming the winners in the bidding for six PCS (personal communications services) licenses, being issued as part of the deregulation of the local telecommunications industry. The reports, which appeared in the Hong Kong Economic Times, Economic Journal and Oriental Daily News quoted sources as saying the six successful bidders were: Hong Kong Telecom CSL, Hutchison Communications, GSM, Pacific Link, New World, and China Resources. However, in an unusual and official statement, OFTA said: "These reports contain gross factual errors and are inconsistent." The statement also reaffirmed OFTA's intention to announce the license winners in late August. It went on to say: "The Authority does not intend to comment further until then and cautions anyone relying on speculative reports." (Nigel Armstrong and IT Daily/19950809) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 08/09/95 BUSINESS Datacraft Moves Into China (NEWS)(BUSINESS)(HKG)(00008) Datacraft Moves Into China 08/09/95 CENTRAL, HONG KONG, 1995 AUG 9 (NB) -- Datacraft Asia is moving into China's provinces to fuel its expansion on the mainland. This follows the winning of a US$2.5 million contract to design and implement a digital data network in Shaanxi Province in Northwest China. In order to service the contract, the company is also opening an office in the provincial capital, Xian. Although initially a support service center, the office will eventually evolve into a sales and marketing office to spearhead Datacraft's push into the northwest region. A company spokesman told I.T. Daily to expect more contract announcements from the provinces in the near future. The Xian office is Datacraft Asia's fourth office in China, after Guangzhou, Shanghai, and Beijing. (Nigel Armstrong and IT Daily/19950809) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 08/08/95 WINDOWS ****DOJ Decides Not To Decide In MS Antitrust Case (NEWS)(WINDOWS)(DEN)(00009) ****DOJ Decides Not To Decide In MS Antitrust Case 08/08/95 WASHINGTON, D.C., U.S.A., 1995 AUG 9 (NB) -- Yesterday was a big day at Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ: MSFT). It was the day the company, and its shareholders, learned that the US Department of Justice (DOJ) would not decide before August 24th if it would ask a federal judge to halt shipment of Microsoft's new operating system and graphical user interface, Windows 95. DOJ issued a short statement yesterday announcing it will not complete its investigation into possible antitrust activities by Microsoft before the August 24th launch date of Windows 95. DOJ is looking into complaints by companies such as America Online, CompuServe and Prodigy that the access to Microsoft's own online service, the Microsoft Network (MSN), built into Windows 95, gives the software company an unfair advantage. MSN is scheduled to open its electronic doors on August 24, and all Windows 95 users have to do to roam through its meeting places and forums is click on an MSN icon that will appear automatically in Windows 95. In fact, MSN Product Manager George Meng told Newsbytes that for about a year that will be the only way you can access MSN. It will take about that long for Microsoft to bring to market a Macintosh-based client for MSN, and current plans are that there never will be a client for Windows 3.1 users. Microsoft reacted to the government's announcement as a big company usually does -- it issued a short statement saying it is "pleased with the decision" and will move ahead for the August 24 launch. Financial analysts expect the government's announcement to provide a lift to high-tech stocks, including Microsoft's, now that the only roadblock to what may possibly be the biggest software launch in history has been removed. Following the DOJ announcement late Tuesday, shares in Microsoft rose and America Online stock fell in after-hours trading. Microsoft stock has been steadily creeping up as investors became more confident DOJ would not act before the Windows 95 kickoff date. Microsoft stock closed at 93-1/2 in regular trading yesterday, and was trading at 96-1/2 in after hours action. America Online closed at 57-5/8 in the regular session and fell to 55-7/8 in after hours trading. (Jim Mallory/19950809/Press and public contact: Microsoft, tel 206-882-8080 or 800-426-9400) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 08/09/95 GENERAL Japan Agrees To Discuss Software Scheme (NEWS)(GENERAL)(TYO)(00010) Japan Agrees To Discuss Software Scheme 08/09/95 TOKYO, JAPAN, 1995 AUG 9 (NB) -- Japan has agreed to discuss a controversial proposal that companies selling software in Japan voluntarily register for ISO-9000 quality certification. In a news release this week, the American National Standards Institute (ANSI) said representatives of the equivalent Japanese organization, the Japan Accreditation Board for Quality System Registration (JAB), agreed on July 28 the terms for an upcoming technical meeting in Hawaii on the subject. The agreement was signed by Mr. Dale J. Misczynski, corporate vice president and director of quality and standards for Motorola, Inc., who signed on behalf of ANSI, and Dr. Takashi Ohtsubo, executive director of the JAB. The two pledged to convene "a group of experts to discuss and resolve the current disagreement between the JAB and the US information technology and related industries concerning the Accreditation Program." Dr. Ohtsubo also said that the JAB would "delay launching the Accreditation Program until the current disagreement with the United States and other international information industry associations is resolved." Commenting on the upcoming technical meeting, ANSI Chairman Lawrence L. Wills, IBM director of standards, said, "The membership of ANSI is pleased to be the focal point of industry and government interests in this issue. We are hopeful that the disagreements will be resolved quickly and in a way that satisfies the business needs of US and Japanese industry." The meeting will bring together representatives of the two standards bodies and the Japan Industrial Standards Committee and has been provisionally scheduled for September 20 and 21 in Hawaii. The JAB has proposed a voluntary scheme under which foreign companies selling software in Japan would gain ISO-9000 quality registration. Concerns have been raised over several parts of the plan including worries that, even though it is initially voluntary, it will eventually become compulsory. There are also fears over the scope of the proposal which is thought to include all software whether it be shrink-wrapped Windows programs or code embedded in microprocessors inside cars, televisions or aircraft. A month ago a group of 21 US software company chiefs sent a letter of complaint to US Trade Representative Mickey Kantor over the plans. In 1994, US companies sold $2.7 billion worth of software to Japan, an increase of 11% on the previous year, and the group feels this trade is at risk. (Martyn Williams/19950809/Press contact : Marilyn Hernandez, ANSI, 212-642-4915; Ministry of International Trade and Industry, +81-3-3501-1511) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 08/09/95 GENERAL Japan Newsbriefs (NEWS)(GENERAL)(TYO)(00011) Japan Newsbriefs 08/09/95 TOKYO, JAPAN, 1995 AUG 9 (NB) -- In this roundup of news from Japan, electric companies charged, NEC joins Precision RISC Organization, new cabinet named, greater service area for PHS, Hitachi plans camera production for China, satellite launch planned. Electric Companies Charged Three major electric companies have been told to pay surcharges totaling 545 million yen ($6 million) in connection with bid rigging on waterworks contracts. Hitachi Electric and Fuji Electric Co., both heavy equipment makers, and Yokogawa Electric Corp. and Yamatake-Honeywell Co., both industrial instrument makers, and Shimadzu Corp., a precision instrument maker, were cited with bid rigging by the Fair Trade Commission. Between them, the companies rigged 9.48 billion yen ($104 million) worth of contracts on 80% of the nation's waterworks projects in a period spanning from 1989 to 1994. NEC Joins Precision RISC Organization Tokyo-based NEC Corporation has joined the Precision RISC Organization as a sponsor member, the highest membership level available. NEC is currently expanding its activities in the large scale Unix server market and in February signed an agreement with Hewlett-Packard to sell its servers in Japan. The organization was set up in 1992 to allow all members to benefit from each other's precision architecture RISC technology advancements. At the same time Mitsubishi Electric has increased its membership to the sponsor level. New Cabinet Named Japanese Prime Minister Tomiichi Murayama has named a new cabinet, made up of a coalition of the three major parties. New Posts and Telecommunications Minister is Issei Inoue of the Social Democrats and the new Science and Technology Agency director general is Yasuoki Urano of the Liberal Democratic Party. Greater Service Area For PHS NTT Personal Communications Network and DDI Pocket will begin placing base stations for NTT's new personal handyphone system (PHS) in underground shopping malls. The companies say fierce competition in the two-month-old PHS market is forcing them to offer wider and more reliable coverage to gain customers. PHS antennas have already been installed in some Coca-Cola vending machines in Tokyo, marked with a "Coke and Talk" sticker. Hitachi Plans Camera Production For China To better service a growing local market for its camcorders, Hitachi has announced it will begin manufacture of 8mm camcorders in Fujian, China, in the autumn of this year. Annual production of 5,000 units has been targeted, according to the Nikkei Shimbun newspaper. An associated company, Fujian Hitachi Television Co., is currently producing camcorders in the city at the rate of several hundred a year as a trial. Satellite Launch Planned Nippon Telegraph and Telephone has announced it will launch a satellite on August 29. The N-Star satellite will replace Sakura-CS3 and be launched on a European Ariane rocket from Kourou in French Guiana. The satellite will provide telecommunications links within Japan. (Martyn Williams/19950809) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 08/09/95 ONLINE Internet Phone Call Software Ad Campaign To Launch (NEWS)(ONLINE)(DEN)(00012) Internet Phone Call Software Ad Campaign To Launch 08/09/95 DALLAS, TEXAS, U.S.A., 1995 AUG 9 (NB) -- Camelot Corp. (NASDAQ: CAML) announced it has concluded a $600,000 private placement with Denver-based First Capital Financial Corp. and will use the proceeds to kick off a $1 million ad campaign to promote its Digiphone software program and its Mr. CD-ROM franchise stores concept. Digiphone is computer software that allows users of PCs equipped with speakers and a microphone to carry on a full duplex telephone conversation over the Internet. Both users must have Digiphone software. The advantages of such an arrangement are that there are no long distance charges connected with the call. Digiphone will have a suggested retail price of $149, and is expected to have a street price of about $99. Camelot Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Danny Wettreich told Newsbytes the Digiphone software is at the end of its beta test cycle and should go to manufacturing shortly. Wettreich declined to specify a shipment date but did say it should be within the next 90 days. First Capital paid $1.8375 each for 326,530 restricted common shares of Camelot and also got options for another 150,750 shares at $2 per share. Wettreich explained that restricted common shares, which aren't registered with the Securities and Exchange Commission, must be held for two years before they can be traded. First Capital paid for the shares with a Media Purchase Order (MPO), which can only be used to acquire media services over the next 12 months. Camelot said it will spend not less than $300,000 cash in addition to the MPO to buy print, billboard, radio and television advertising. Some of that advertising has already started to appear in trade publications, and the company said consumer advertising will commence in the next few weeks. Camelot said ads promoting Mr. CD-ROM franchises will appear initially in the Dallas area, where the company said it will open five corporate stores by the end of September. Wettreich told Newsbytes the company has filed the necessary franchising paperwork in numerous states and has already received several hundred inquiries. Wettreich said the Mr. CD-ROM stores, which will occupy 1,000 to 2,000 square feet, will stock about 1,500 individual computer software titles, all on CD-ROM. He said that number will increase to about 2,000 by year-end. "There are literally thousands of (CD-ROM software) titles out there chasing a limited amount of shelf space," Wettreich told Newsbytes. He said stores like Egghead and other software retailers only carry about 300 CD-ROM titles. (Jim Mallory/19950809/Press contact: Danny Wettreich, Camelot Corp., 214- 733-3005; Public contact: Camelot Corp., 214-733-3005) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 08/09/95 ONLINE Washington Online 1995 - Book (NEWS)(ONLINE)(TYO)(00013) Washington Online 1995 - Book 08/09/95 TOKYO, JAPAN, 1995 AUG 9 (NB) -- Whenever anyone runs through a list of the types of information available freely from the Internet, the many federal government databases is never far from the top of the list. Until now, making effective use of the databases has been difficult because of a multitude of different access methods, levels of service and support and types of data on offer. Each government department of agency that has gone online has generally done so independently meaning no common gateway to all the resources available exists. In his new book, "Washington Online 1995," Bruce Maxwell attempts to provide a comprehensive, clear and uniform access point to all government information accessible via the Internet. The recently published volume is the second of a two part series. The first book "Washington Online - How to Access the Government's Electronic Bulletin Boards" deals with access to dial-up information databases maintained by government departments. This volume, subtitled, "How to Access the Federal Government on the Internet," offers the reader a 350-page catalog of government and government-related databases connected to the Internet. Maxwell has collected the information for both books as an investigative journalist and author covering Washington and the Federal Government. The book is divided into seventeen major sections ranging from Access to Information and Agriculture, to Science, Technology and Transportation. Further sub-divisions help classify the available sources more and everything is included in a comprehensive index. Stylish layout gives each database its own page, meaning enough space is available for Maxwell to list not just the contents, which is done in detail, but also his own notes such as whether information appears out of date or his suggested short cuts to important pages. Alongside each listing is a comprehensive list of access possibilities from Telnet and Gopher through to the newer possibilities such as Web access. Any passwords, non standard connection ports or other important information is always listed. The listings show that any serious researcher will never get very far with a Web browser alone, as much of the information is now accessible that way. The far less fashionable gopher and telnet log-in options give access to a gold-mine of data. Washington Online 1995 is published by Congressional Quarterly Books at $19.95. The book's ISBN number is 1-56802-034-1. Copies can be ordered from the publishers at 1-800-638-1710 or 202-822-1475 or via fax to 202-887-6706. (Martyn Williams/19950808/Press contact: Elizabeth Ashley, Congessional Quarterly Inc., 202-822-1423, fax 202-822-6583, Internet email eashley@cqalert.com; Bruce Maxwell, Internet email bmaxwell@netcom.com) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 08/09/95 GENERAL Turkey - Firm Offers Smilies@Internet T-Shirts (NEWS)(GENERAL)(LON)(00014) Turkey - Firm Offers Smilies@Internet T-Shirts 08/09/95 ISTANBUL, TURKEY, 1995 AUG 9 (NB) -- The now ubiquitous online "smilie" characters, designed to express emotion or provide graphic shorthand for online communications, now grace the front of Hades Ltd.'s Smilies@Internet t-shirts. The garments, made in Turkey, feature 51 smilie icons and their descriptions. A few of the 51 smilie icons and their descriptions, which occupy 8 rows by 7 columns on a 28x28 cm area, are as follows: :-) Your basic smile :-( User is sad :-@ User is crying :-{} User wears lipstick :-X User's lips are sealed :-{) User has a moustache 8:-) User is wearing sunglasses B:-) Sunglasses on head :*) User is drunk :-Q User is a smoker :-o Uh oh! :-D User is laughing (at you!) The basic model is available with black letters on white material, in medium and large sizes, at a price of $US8.40 in Europe including delivery, according to Volkan Olgun of Hades. The company offers discounts for orders greater than ten T-Shirts. Send email inquiries to Internet e-mail olgunv@doruk.com.tr. (Steven Slatem, IntelliTech/19950720/Press & Reader Contact: Volkan Olgun, Hades Ltd., Istanbul, Turkey, tel +90 216 3477726, fax +90 216 3487490, Internet e-mail olgunv@doruk.com.tr) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 08/09/95 FEATURE CHIPS Feature - China Designs With Advanced ICs (FEATURE)(CHIPS)(HKG)(00015) Feature - China Designs With Advanced ICs 08/09/95 CENTRAL, HONG KONG, 1995 AUG 9 (NB) -- China's electronics industry is moving up the technology curve. As China becomes increasingly a site for manufacturing of advanced electronic systems, more and more foreign-invested and domestic companies are using state-of-the-art ICs to develop telecom and consumer products that are popular locally and in other emerging Asian markets. One current hot item is the video CD player. The video CD market in both China and Asia has grown rapidly as new digital-compression technology has enabled companies in China, originally capable of making only audio CDs, to now put video, audio and even movies on an audio CD-sized disk. Video CD also effectively leapfrogs past the older, larger and more expensive laser disk (LD) technology. "China is the biggest market for video CD systems, but they are also popular all over Asia," said Fai Yeung, China sales manager for Hong Kong-based Memec (Asia Pacific) Ltd, a high-technology components and systems distributor, part of the German Raab Karcher Group. "The manufacturing cost of a video CD in China is about 4 renminbi, so the market is really taking off. As a result, a lot of Chinese companies are making video CD players in big volumes. The cost of a video CD player in China is very reasonable at about US$100, unlike the older laser disk technology," Yeung said. Memec sells MPEG-1 decoders to manufacturers of video CD players in China. These are single chips, so manufacturers can use a very small board to convert an existing CD player design into a video CD player. The single chip, plus three more ICs, are used in the PCB for the system upgrade to video CD. "It's a very small package with very low power dissipation," Yeung said. The main products Memec sells in China are chips from Silicon Valley firms like Xilinx, Zilog and C-Cube Microsystems. C-Cube chips are selling very well in China's video CD player market, Yeung said. Memec is selling C-Cube's CL480 single chip for the video CD systems. It is capable of MPEG audio and video decoding, system demultiplexing, CD-ROM decoding, video-timing generation and the host interface all on one chip. The C-Cube chip has been in volume production since the beginning of this year. For Xilinx, Memec is selling FPGAs, EPLDs and hard-wired gate arrays in China. "We are selling FPGAs and EPLDs mainly to telecom customers who want higher integration in their systems," Yeung said. The telecom equipment includes PBXes, central office switches, optical fiber and microwave systems. In the past, Chinese telecom manufacturers used discrete components for the same type of systems but are switching to higher integration devices to reduce power dissipation and improve system reliability. "In the telecom area, Chinese companies are starting to make some high-end products, so Xilinx is doing quite well there," Yeung said. Xilog's best-selling chips in China are 8-bit microcontrollers for consumer electronics. "We have mask-ROM and one-time programmable (OTP) parts. With the OTP chips, customers can write a program to custom design the functions they want in a chip," Yeung said. "Our customers are using these chips in rice cookers, air conditioners, remote controls and almost any kind of electronic appliance you can imagine," he added. With business brisk in China, Memec is setting up three offices to improve technical support for customers. Memec's office in Shanghai opened in the second quarter of this year, and the company plans to open offices in Beijing and Shenzhen during the latter half of 1995. Initially, a total of nine Memec employees will be in China. "We have been selling Xilinx in China for more than five years and we have a big customer base, but we want to improve our service in China," said Yeung. The new offices will complement an existing network of distributors in China with Memec's design and technical support. "Our direct sales force will help customers with technical problems like training and design," he said. "In some cases, we will do the entire design of a system for a customer. By having more offices in China, we can provide more direct support." "For Xilinx, we are setting up a training and design center in Shanghai. Last year, we started a partnership with Tsinghua University in Beijing to set up a training center there. In August this year, Fudan University in Shanghai will be the location of our second training center in China, followed by the University of Electronic Technology and Science in Chengdu and Shenzhen University. This year, we will have four training centers in China," Yeung said. "The training centers will focus on three areas. They will train local engineers, they will train university under- and post-graduates and they will serve as open labs. Customers who lack R&D personnel or our development systems can use our labs to do their own designs. The development systems in the labs will be both PC and workstation-based. "Our focus is on getting design wins," Yeung said. "Once we do that, we can form long-term relationships with our customers." "China is a very important market for us because it is growing very fast," Yeung said. "Most of our suppliers are asking us to help open the China market. Our opening the new offices in China is a long-term investment," he added. "We had to spend two to three years before we became profitable, but we are not selling commodity ICs like a lot of other companies in China. We concentrate on high-end chips. We needed to spend three years to promote the video CD concept. Now we are really getting returns," Yeung said. A few of Memec's largest customers making video CD systems are together providing revenues in excess of $10 million annually, he added. Yeung estimated that at least 30 companies, both foreign invested and domestic, are making video CD systems in China. (Nigel Armstrong and IT Daily/19950803) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 08/09/95 LEGAL China - Raid on Computer Book Piracy (NEWS)(LEGAL)(PEK)(00016) China - Raid on Computer Book Piracy 08/09/95 BEIJING, CHINA, 1995 AUG 9 (NB) -- Beijing Copyright Bureau (BCB) recently cracked down on pirated computer books. Several have been charged with illegal printing and selling of a computer book called "Five Strike Chinese Input Method" by Wang Code Computer Company. With promotions from computer firms and the government, the Chinese are showing more and more interest in computers. Although only a few can afford to buy computers personally, many are reading computer books. Lured by the opportunities in the computer book market, some people started to print and sell computer books illegally. The crimes have drawn attention from publishing houses as well as government agencies. Although illegal printing of other types of books can also be found, fake copies of computer books can be easily be noticed since they do not have attached holographic anti-piracy labels. Newsbytes notes that in many Chinese bookstores, computer books are the only kind of books affixed with "holographic anti-piracy labels" on their covers. Based on a tip from an undisclosed source, Beijing Copyright Bureau (BCB) raided Beijing A'xing Computer Company and found 8800 illegal copies of the book "Five Strike Chinese Input Method," authorities say. Zhang Jianyu, Ping Fang and others were arrested at the site as they delivered illegal copies of books to the company, Beijing Copyright Bureau reports. According to Zhang's and Ping's confession, BCB found 68,000 more illegal copies of the book in a farmer's home in a village near Beijing. The total market value of these books is estimated to be about RMB344,400 (US$41,500). BCB further found that the pressing plates of the book were made by Beijing Tongxian Printing House, and these books were printed by Yongwang Printing House in Sanhe county of Hebei province. BCB obtained evidence that the book was illegally printed five times and the total number of illegal copies is estimated to be 160,000. The printing plates have been confiscated. Zhang and Ping have been detained for trial. (Chih-Ho Yu & Ning Huang/19950804) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 95 08/09/95 APPLE ****MacWorld - Apple Fights Back Against Windows (NEWS)(APPLE)(BOS)(00017) ****MacWorld - Apple Fights Back Against Windows 95 08/09/95 BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS, U.S.A., 1995 AUG 9 (NB) -- Apple Computer plans to produce "integrated solutions" for the target markets of consumers, higher education, K-12, and small and medium-sized businesses, and to raise its ad budget substantially to support the new marketing approach and fend off the forthcoming Windows 95, top company officials said yesterday at an Apple press conference in Boston. The proportion of Apple's resources that will be dedicated to advertising will be higher than any of its major competitors, maintained newly appointed Apple Senior VP of Worldwide Marketing and Customer Solutions Daniel Eilers, speaking at the press conference, which was attended by Newsbytes. Eilers was previously president of Apple's Claris Corporation subsidiary. In related news, also at MacWorld Boston, Claris launched a new Claris Satisfaction Promotion that is aimed at stimulating "new market trials" and at building awareness for its "customer satisfaction" approach. Claris's marketing program is closely integrated with Apple's, and in recent months, Claris has begun to participate strongly in marketing efforts for AppleSoft software products, said Natalie Lingo, Claris spokesperson, speaking with Newsbytes at a Claris press event yesterday. The new Claris Satisfaction Program incorporates a new Claris Satisfaction logo to provide a "consistent theme and identity" across Claris packaging and advertising campaigns, according to Lingo. Claris has also created a new trial software CD-ROM disk, called "Real Life Software," that is available at Claris's MacWorld booth, and will also be available at other major trade shows and through Claris ads, direct mail, and "reseller demo" days. Also at the Apple press conference, held earlier that day, Joseph Graziano, chief financial officer for Apple, said that Apple will be able to secure the components for increasing production of its Power Macintoshes 50 percent, year over year, beginning this year, if the company finds that "the demand is there." Graziano attributed earlier shortages of Power Macintoshes to an "underestimation" on Apple's part as to demand for the initial wave of Power Mac machines. Dr. David Nagel, Apple senior VP, characterized press reports of a decline in the numbers of Mac developers as "a myth." The target markets that Apple plans to pursue include consumers, higher education, K-12, and small to medium-sized businesses, said Barbara Cardillo, director of product marketing, Macintosh Desktop Systems, speaking with Newsbytes during the press event. These are all markets where Apple has traditionally been strong, Cardillo pointed out. On the consumer side, she said, Apple will emphasize "ease of use," with features like the Apple Internet Connectivity Kit announced at MacWorld, she reported. Apple's recently introduced DOS compatibility cards for Power Macs are aimed primarily at small to medium-sized businesses, according to Cardillo. The higher education market represents a "microcosm" of the Apple market spectrum, ranging from entry-level users all the way to scientific and engineering specialists who require very high-end hardware and software, she said. (Jacqueline Emigh/19950809/Reader and Press Contact: Apple Computer, 408-996-1010; Claris Corporation, 408-967-7000) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 08/09/95 APPLE ****MacWorld - Apple PowerMac Focus Moves To "Value-Add" (NEWS)(APPLE)(BOS)(00018) ****MacWorld - Apple PowerMac Focus Moves To "Value-Add" 08/09/95 BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS, U.S.A., 1995 AUG 9 (NB) -- With its first generation of Power Macintoshes, Apple Computer's primary concern was "compatibility," but starting with the new 9500, 8500, 7500, and 7200 models, Apple is "adding value" to meet the needs of newly identified target markets, maintained Gregg Zehr, director, hardware engineering, for Macintosh Desktop Systems, speaking with Newsbytes at an Apple press conference in Boston. Zehr told Newsbytes that Apple is "layering" the "added value" over the underlying Power Macintosh architecture by optimizing performance and features to suit Apple's newly identified target markets. The hardware engineering director gave Apple's newly unveiled AppleVision 1710AV "smart" monitor and the new speech technology software included in Apple's new Power Mac 7500 and 8500 models as two examples of how Apple is adding value. In a demo during the press conference, Newsbytes saw how the new monitor allows interactive software control over monitor settings and calibration. Other features include built-in stereo speakers on the front panel, and a directional microphone. The new monitor is designed to replace "virtually all" of Apple's previous 17-inch monitors, Rick MacEachern, product line manager for displays, told Newsbytes during the demo. For the future, Apple is considering extending the functionality of the 1710 AV, its first "smart" monitor, into its 14-, 15-, and 20- inch Apple monitor line-up, MacEachern added. (Jacqueline Emigh/19950809/Reader and Press Contact: Apple Computer, 408-996-1010) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 08/09/95 ONLINE Blockbuster Video Launches Web Site (NEWS)(ONLINE)(MSP)(00019) Blockbuster Video Launches Web Site 08/09/95 FORT LAUDERDALE, FLORIDA, U.S.A., 1995 AUG 9 (NB) -- The familiar Blockbuster Video blue awnings are going from the nation's Main Streets to the world of cyberspace, as the video mega-retailer launches a World Wide Web site on the Internet. In explaining the company's rationale of making the move to the Internet, Mike Caruso, company spokesperson, told Newsbytes that "Blockbuster wants to be wherever our customers are. Our customers are a very wide segment of the population -- anyone that's interested in film and home videos. Because ours is a product that lends itself to a visual and graphic use, it will be attractive to people who are on the Internet and have access to the World Wide Web." The "product" is an electronic version of the company's "News and Previews" monthly newsletter, which is available in paper form at more than 3,000 Blockbuster Video stores which blanket the country. At the Web site, users can click hot buttons that link to Cover Stories, Chartbuster, Family Videos, and Video Games. Synopses of the hottest new movies on video and video games are available, along with video clips of movies. A Hollywood Update hot button lets users catch up on the latest happenings in Tinsel Town. This month, hot ticket stars Val Kilmer, Laurence Fishbourne, and Andy Garcia are featured. Also, special hot buttons take users to interviews and profiles of such stars as Tom Hanks, Demi Moore, and Christian Bale. Caruso said for now, the Web site will more or less duplicate the print version of "News and Previews," although he said what's in cyberspace today is just a "starting point" for Blockbuster. He said new additions will focus on material that appeals to movie fans and people who follow celebrity news. The new Blockbuster Web site is at URL (uniform resource locator) http://www.pwr.com/Blockbuster/ . (Bob Woods/19950809/Press Contacts: Mike Caruso, Blockbuster, 305-832- 3199; Ann Kohut, Manning Selvage & Lee, 404-875-1444. Public Contact: Internet World Wide Web http://www.pwr.com/Blockbuster/ ) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 08/09/95 ONLINE ****MCI, News Corp. In Internet Joint Venture (NEWS)(ONLINE)(TOR)(00020) ****MCI, News Corp. In Internet Joint Venture 08/09/95 NEW YORK, NEW YORK, U.S.A., 1995 AUG 9 (NB) -- MCI Communications Corp. (NASDAQ:MCIC) and Rupert Murdoch's News Corp. (NYSE:NWS) have announced plans for a joint venture that will bring both companies' Internet services under one roof. The new service will begin operation before the end of the year, said spokesman John Houser of MCI. The joint venture will bring together MCI's Information Services/Entertainment Co., FYI On-line services, the company's "supersite" on the World Wide Web, and MCI Mail, with Delphi Internet Services Corp. and Kesmai Corp., both owned by News Corp. Kesmai develops multi-player online games. The operations will become a single company jointly owned by MCI and News, a spokeswoman for News Corp. told Newsbytes. Houser added that the partners are holding a contest to select a name for the new operation. Both partners said there will be no job losses as a result of the deal, adding that in fact they expect to hire more staff as the joint venture gets under way. Scott Kurnit, former president of MCI's Information Services/Entertainment Co., becomes president and chief executive of the joint venture, while Dr. Alan Baratz, former president and chief executive of Delphi Internet, will get a seat on the board of directors and become president of News Technology Ventures, where his job will include seeking out new technology-based media businesses for News Corp., officials said. Anthea Disney, who was editorial director of Murdoch's magazines and editor-in-chief of TV Guide magazine, becomes editor-in-chief for the new venture. MCI also said Vinton Cerf, its senior vice-president of data architecture and a man sometimes called the father of the Internet, will assist the joint venture. Besides bringing together their existing services -- a move that Houser claimed will produce new synergies and benefits for customers -- the companies plan to develop new programming. Houser said sports-related material and offerings aimed at children are among the possibilities. "We don't have any blinders on," he told Newsbytes. The new company is to develop specialized programming in cooperation with News Corp. media companies, including TV Guide, Fox Broadcasting, publisher HarperCollins, and the Twentieth Century Fox movie studios. MCI and News have each agreed to put $200 million into development of the joint operations, Houser said. (Grant Buckler/19950809/Press Contact: Mark Pettit or John Houser, MCI, 800-644-NEWS, Internet e-mail news@mcimail.com; Pamela Hamilton, News Corp., 212-462-5050) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 08/09/95 GOVT Air Force Reopens Desktop Contract (NEWS)(GOVT)(WAS)(00021) Air Force Reopens Desktop Contract 08/09/95 CHANTILLY, VIRGINIA, U.S.A., 1995 AUG 9 (NB) -- Just in time for Government Technology Services Inc. (Nasdaq:GTSI), the Air Force has reopened its Desktop IV contract for new orders, with an allocation of 100,000 desktop systems. When the Air Force shut down the contract for new orders after 300,000 shipments, GTSI's sales went into a nose dive and the government reseller saw two consecutive quarters of red ink on its books. "This will certainly kick start our sales," GTSI spokesman Carter Cromley told Newsbytes. "We are ready to go." The Air Force awarded Desktop IV in 1993 as a dual award to GTSI and another specialist in sales to Uncle Sam, Zenith Data Systems, over a three-year period. In less than two years, sales under the contract to Defense Department customers hit 300,000 systems, with GTSI capturing about half. The Air Force has released a request for proposal for a follow-on contract, Desktop V. Proposals are due next month. In anticipation of the contract reopening, GTSI beefed up its menu of systems by adding the IBM P350 Pentium 90. It includes 16 megabytes of RAM, a 256 kilobyte cache, PCI slots and an 850 megabyte hard drive. GTSI says the most popular configuration includes a 210-megabyte removable Syquest drive and a 17-inch high-resolution color monitor. GTSI says the price on its Pentium 90 is $2,430, some $162 less than the competitive system from Zenith. "Desktop IV has been characterized by the Air Force as 'the most successful Department of Defense PC contract ever' and offers the best value for the latest technologies, including Pentium, that are available to the government marketplace today," said GTSI's Alan Lawrence. (Kennedy Maize/19950809/Press Contact: Carter Cromley, 703-502-2035) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 08/09/95 CHIPS Microchip-Based Electric Transformer Early Warning System (NEWS)(CHIPS)(WAS)(00022) Microchip-Based Electric Transformer Early Warning System 08/09/95 SISTERS, OREGON, U.S.A., 1995 AUG 9 (NB) -- The Electric Power Research Institute in Palo Alto, Calif., and a tiny Oregon company has developed an instrument that gives early warning of transformer failure. Catastrophic transformer explosions are among the most frequent and costly equipment failures in the electric utility industry. Called the "transformer fault gas analyzer," the low-cost, real-time monitor detects four key gases that can indicate abnormal conditions in an operating transformer. Developed by Micromonitors of Sisters, Ore., with EPRI funding, the device uses semiconductor chips to detect low concentrations of carbon monoxide, hydrogen, acetylene and ethylene in transformer oil. These gases are produced when insulation in the transformer begins to deteriorate from corona, arcing, sparking and over-heating. In the past, analysis took place in a laboratory with oil samples removed from a transformer. With its continuous on-site monitoring of the gases, the analyzer also provides information that can be used to schedule maintenance and extend the transformer's life. Each device costs $7,500 and Micromonitors estimates that the analyzer will generally pay for itself in less than a year in reduced transformer explosions and failures. The first field prototype was delivered in 1993 and more than two dozen are now in utility service. Micromonitors is taking orders now for delivery next January. The next generation of the product will have an enhanced monitor and computer analysis system capable of automatically assessing a transformer's operating characteristics and maintenance needs. "With the enhanced system," Stephen Pyke, Micromonitors co-founder, told Newsbytes, "which we expect to commercialize in 1996, utilities will be able to develop short-term ratings that allow a transformer to be safely loaded to levels above its nominal rating, in response to stressful power system conditions." The current commercial product is designed for larger power transformers. According to EPRI, future versions will be suitable for the smaller, and more numerous, transformers. (Kennedy Maize/19950809/Press Contact: Christine Hopf-Lovette, EPRI, 415-855-2733; Reader Contact: Micromonitors, 503-549-1834) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 08/09/95 ONLINE First Chicago To Open America Online Site (NEWS)(ONLINE)(MSP)(00023) First Chicago To Open America Online Site 08/09/95 CHICAGO, ILLINOIS, U.S.A., 1995 AUG 9 (NB) -- Finding out about banking services that the First National Bank of Chicago (First Chicago) offers for customers both around the Windy City and across the nation just got easier, because the bank has opened an area in the Chicago Online (COL) section of America Online (AOL). First Chicago also said it is the first bank to be online with AOL. It's the COL area of AOL that attracted First Chicago to the "Big 3" online service, Tim Kemp, product manager at First Chicago, told Newsbytes. "It's a good site for customers in the Chicago area to seek out information about us," he said. But at the same time, potential customers around the US can get to the bank's site through AOL, Kemp said, which helps First Chicago's aim of acquiring a more national audience. To that end, the bank has information at the site regarding "FirstDirect," which gives people from around the nation the chance to open accounts, apply for loans, and other features, directly from their telephones. The area also features Chicago-related information, including automatic teller machine (ATM) locations, and details on accounts and loans. Kemp also pointed out that parts of the site contain "useful" consumer information, the kind of data he hopes "keeps people coming back" to the site. Those areas include "Weekly Trivia," featuring questions that are financial-related; and "This is Your Life," which deals with financial information people need to know about at various stages of one's life. Future plans for the site include the ability to check account balances, credit balances, and the like, Kemp said. Also, the bank said it has several forums planned that would feature question-and- answer sessions with featured "speakers." The bank also said it will "ride the wave of growing consumer interest in surfing the Internet" by opening a home page on the World Wide Web in less than two months. Also in First Chicago's future is a merger with NBD Bancorp, which is expected to be completed in early 1996. (Bob Woods/19950809/Press Contact: Lisabeth Weiner, First Chicago, 312- 732-4455. Public Contact: America Online Keyword: First Chicago) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 08/09/95 ONLINE ****Speculators Surround Netscape's Initial Public Offering (NEWS)(ONLINE)(SFO)(00024) ****Speculators Surround Netscape's Initial Public Offering 08/09/95 MOUNTAIN VIEW, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1995 AUG 9 (NB) -- Reflecting a tremendous demand for its initial public offering, shares for Netscape Communication were upgraded from an original offer of 3.5 million shares selling at $11 to 5 million shares selling at $28. Speculators are feasting this morning as the stock opened at $71, quickly went to $72.50 and is now selling at $74.50 (11:45am EST). Hambrecht & Quist and Morgan Stanley & Company are handling Netscape's public offering and notified their investors (mostly large institutions) of the initial public offering. Very few individual investors are expected to hold any of the $28 shares as the stock opened this morning. Today's financial news belongs to the computer industry. This monumental day for Netscape is complemented by an overnight jump of more than 4 points in shares of Microsoft as news of the Justice Department's announcement hit the streets yesterday. After speculation that last minute injunctions might halt or alter the plans to unveil Windows 95, investors breathed a sigh of relief as the Justice Department reported that its investigation of Microsoft will continue beyond the August 24 debut of Win 95, meaning Microsoft will be able to ship as promised. This means that in the forseeable future, Win 95 products and services also will not be hampered by an order to halt shipments of the new operating system. For Netscape, its first dazzle before the public is all the more amazing because the company has not earned a profit. Netscape began by giving away its Web browser, Navigator. In the following months, the company began to build Internet server, security and commerce software products as the basis for its revenues. "This really shows the extreme ignorance of Wall Street when it comes to computer stocks. This is a much tougher business than they think. The Internet is an open system and other companies will be offering Internet server products which I expect will have a lower price than Netscape products. This initial offering is surrounded by a lot of speculation and profit taking," said Mike Murphy, editor of the California Technology Stock Letter, commenting to Newsbytes. Murphy continued, "By the end of the day we will see where this ends. No one can really predict the outcome of this kind of speculation." As Newsbytes spoke to Murphy, Netscape shares were selling for $67. Netscape, Hambrecht & Quist, and Morgan Stanley & Co. are unable to comment under regulations of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). A twenty-five day (from the initial public offering) rule which prevents public comments from the companies is in effect. (Patrick McKenna/19950809/Press Contact: Rosanne Siino, Netscape, tel 415-254-1900) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 08/09/95 TELECOM TRW Gets Second Satellite Patent (NEWS)(TELECOM)(MSP)(00025) TRW Gets Second Satellite Patent 08/09/95 CLEVELAND, OHIO, U.S.A., 1995 AUG 9 (NB) -- TRW Inc. (NYSE:TRW) said it has been awarded another patent from the US Patent and Trademark Office for its Odyssey satellite-based worldwide cellular telephone system. The newest patent covers aspects of Odyssey that improve telephone service in areas that are in the "view" of each satellite. Jack Prichett, TRW spokesperson, confirmed to Newsbytes this patent will be the final one the company will seek for the Odyssey system. Previously, Newsbytes reported the company had been approved for a different one three weeks ago, dealing with medium Earth orbits (MEOs). That patent, along with today's, had been first awarded in April. But both were withdrawn on May 16 because the Patent Office said it needed to conduct a quality control review, and because a TRW competitor issued a challenge to the original patent. Bruce Gerding, TRW vice president and managing director for the company's Odyssey Services Organization, said the newest patent "strengthens" the company's claim that the Odyssey is unique and innovative. "It protects Odyssey's unique method for adjusting the pointing of spacecraft antennas. We call this ability 'directed coverage,' and it is an important feature in Odyssey's ability to offer the highest quality (cellular) telephone service." The features protected by the most recent patent include the adjustment of pointing the antenna on an orbiting satellite, and the controlling the communication of a multitude of satellites by determining the sequence of different focal directions for the antenna. The antennas concentrate on an assigned service region while that region is visible to the satellite, officials said. Gerding added that the scope of this patent isn't restricted to just MEO satellites. As previously reported by Newsbytes, similar patents to the two awarded in the US have also been applied for in France, Great Britain, Germany, Japan, South Korea, and Taiwan. (Bob Woods/19950809/Press Contact: Jack Prichett, TRW, 310-812-5227) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 08/09/95 CHIPS Siemens To Build Major UK Chip Plant (NEWS)(CHIPS)(LON)(00026) Siemens To Build Major UK Chip Plant 08/09/95 WALLSEND, TYNESIDE, ENGLAND, 1995 AUG 9 (NB) -- Siemens has announced that, after intense competition from other European Governments, it is building a UKP 1.1 billion microchip fabrication facility in Tyneside. Announcing the planned investment alongside Jurgen Gehrels, Siemens UK's chief executive, was Michael Heseltine, the popular deputy prime minister of Britain. According to Heseltine, although the government has given an incentive package to the German electronics giant to locate its 13th major facility in the UK, this was insubstantial when weighed against the cost if the facility and the 2,000 jobs it is expected to create. Although Heseltine refuses to be drawn on press inquiries about the project, sources suggest that both he and Prime Minister John Major were intimately involved in the negotiations with Siemens over the project. On the subject of incentives, Heseltine replied to journalist queries that he was not prepared to specify how much of government assistance is being given to Siemens, as this would create a precedent in cash terms, as well as set high levels when negotiating further projects of this type. Heseltine also dismissed suggestions that there may be an investigation into the British Government's handling of the affair by Karel van Miert's office in Brussels. Van Miert is the European Commission's anti-competition minister. Despite the blackout on the amount of money the British Government has contributed to the project, press sources in the UK are talking openly of an investment of around the UKP 200 million mark, although Heseltine has gone on record as describing that level of investment as "wild," and "way too high." According to Gehrels, meanwhile, Siemens is pleased to be investing further in the UK, although some press reports of a couple of weeks ago had suggested that Austria was the chosen candidate. Gehrels refused to be drawn on the matter, other than saying that "the commitment of Michael Heseltine and the Prime Minister played a very important role." Gehrels added that much has happened over the last month to influence Siemens about the project. He referred to the flexibility of the British workforce, after the UK opted out of the social chapter, an EC proposal for minimum wages and working conditions, despite the fact that Germany had signed the EC proposal. (Steve Gold/19950809/Press Contact: Paula Schmidt, Siemens Nixdorf Information Systems +44-1344-850881) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 08/09/95 BUSINESS Adobe Ventures Puts $2M Into Fractal Design (NEWS)(BUSINESS)(SFO)(00027) Adobe Ventures Puts $2M Into Fractal Design 08/09/95 APTOS, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1995 AUG 9 (NB) -- In June of 94, Adobe Systems and investment banking firm, Hambrecht & Quist, established Adobe Ventures L.P. to invest in companies whose products complement the Adobe line of graphic, design and communication software. In its ninth investment, the company has put $2 million into Fractal Design. Fractal says the additional capital will help the company extend its recognition and further the development of new products at a faster rate. Fractal's number one product, Painter, is often considered a companion product to Adobe's Photoshop. Part of Fractal's success is built on its strategy of developing Macintosh, Power Mac and Windows versions of its products. Besides Painter, the company also markets Dabbler, Poser, ColorStudio & Shapes and Fractal Design Sketcher. As a companion product to Photoshop, Painter and other Fractal products are often used by graphic artists to create art on a blank electronic canvas. Taking the art work to Photoshop, the artist is able to further edit and integrate the piece into a finished commercial advertisement. From a more technical view, Fractal's Painter supports the reading and writing of image data in Adobe Photoshop format which provides easy two-way conversion between Photoshop "layers" and Painter "floaters." Fred Mitchell, vice president of Adobe's business development, told Newsbytes, "We have been working and talking with Fractal for a long time and have a great relationship with them. We like their technology, their people and their creativity. This company has a bright future and we are pleased to be participating in it as an investor." Mitchell confirmed this purchase does not give Adobe Ventures a controlling interest in Fractal, but it is more an extension of Adobe Venture's strategy to build a firm investment position. (Patrick McKenna/19950809/Press Contact: Carol Sacks, Adobe Systems, tel 415-962-4989) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 95 08/09/95 WINDOWS Visio Product Bundle For Windows (NEWS)(WINDOWS)(DEN)(00028) Visio Product Bundle For Windows 95 08/09/95 SEATTLE, WASHINGTON, U.S.A., 1995 AUG 9 (NB) -- Visio Corp., a company best known for its diagramming program, has announced a multibrand product bundle it said includes four essential applications for Microsoft Windows 95 users as well as a book about the new operating system. #IMAGE 1 20 TWPCX \images\95080928.PCX Click here for photo Part of that bundle, which is dubbed "5-for-95" will be version 4.0 of the company's own Visio 4.0 diagramming software that lets users creat, edit and share organizational charts, flow charts, office layouts, timelines and block diagrams. Also included in "5-for-95" will be the Norton Navigator from Symantec Corp., a set of 32-bit file management tools and desktop enhancements for Windows 95 that the company said will make it easier and faster to manage files and get around the new desktop metaphor in Windows 95. That desktop will look a lot more like the old Macintosh desktop than does the current Windows graphical user interface. You also get Remote-It 2, a Vertisoft Systems product that provides expert online guides and automatic features to help users remove unneeded applications, files, drivers and fonts. Nearly all Windows-based software comes with an automatic installation mechanism but far fewer programs include a means of uninstalling the software should the user decide it's no longer needed. Before Windows became the prevalent user interface for IBM-compatible PCs, DOS users could usually delete all the files in a program's directory and sub-directories and eliminate a few lines in the autoexec and config files if they wanted to remove a program. Windows-based programs create various sub-directories, change files and store libraries in numerous locations, making it more difficult to clean up your hard disk if you remove a program. "5-for-95" also includes Upgrade Assistant for Windows 95, a feature of Remove-IT that enables users to prepare their systems for the installation of Windows 95. It also cleans up your system after the Windows 95 upgrade is completed. Once you get your Windows 95 upgrade installed you may want to relax, so Visio will include SimCity 2000, a Maxis game that lets you create and run a simulated city with underground water and transportation systems, elevated landscapes, and realistic sound. In addition to the software in "5-for-95" you also receive "Using Windows 95, " a book published by Que Corp. Visio said the book addresses the needs of both the casual and experienced user who want to get started quickly with Windows 95. The book contains tips, cautions, notes and troubleshooting questions and answers to aid the user in learning about managing fonts, using multimedia, accessing the Internet, managing networks and other information. Visio said "5-for-95" will ship on August 22, 1995 with general availability in retail outlets within two weeks after that date. It will have an estimated street price of $195. A Visio public relations spokesperson told Newsbytes the bundle has a retail value of about $495. The spokesperson said the stand-alone Visio 4.0 will ship August 18 for a simultaneous launch with Windows 95 and will have a street price of about $149. (Jim Mallory/19950809/Press contact: Megan Prentiss, Waggener Edstrom for Visio, 206-637-9097; Public contact: Visio, tel 800-248-4746, ext 93W/VISIO4-950809/PHOTO) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 08/09/95 TELECOM Ericsson's Next Generation Mobile Phone (NEWS)(TELECOM)(LON)(00029) Ericsson's Next Generation Mobile Phone 08/09/95 STOCKHOLM, SWEDEN, 1995 AUG 9 (NB) -- Forget analog cellular, forget digital cellular, forget call divert, and start thinking about Universal Personal Telecommunications or UPT for short. Swedish comms giant Ericsson has unveiled what it claims is the world's first complete UPT system in Norway. According to Ericsson, the UPT system will shortly be available on a global basis, and was developed in close collaboration with Telenor (formerly Norwegian Telecom), which is marketing the technology in Norway. "This development heralds a new era in personal communications. It goes a long way towards the ultimate goal of having phone numbers associated with people, rather than with network locations. We can offer phone subscribers complete mobility via whichever phone service they choose," explained Olav-Henrik Kjorstad, a spokesman for Telenor. UPT has been on the drawing board for several years from the world's telcos, Newsbytes notes. The idea is that one number can contact one person, no matter where they are, and no matter what communications technology they are using. The UPT technology has been on trial for around a year with Telenor, and the technology is now being offer to customers in Norway, before being offered on a global basis later this year. The Norwegian implementation offers a single personal UPT phone number for someone, no matter where in the world they are. All outgoing calls are charged to the UPT account number. To call a subscriber of UPT, you simply dial the UPT number instead of calling many places, where you think that person may be. According to Telenor, in the future the UPT numbers will also be able to support fax, data and video transmissions. All calls are routed through an Ericsson-supplied AXE switch in Norway. The UPT applications are based on Ericsson's AXE-based Intelligent Network platform, IN 2.0. Unlike many other follow-me systems, UPT mandates that, as the user "logs into" the network on a phone and tells the central switch that they can be contacted on a particular line, if someone calls a specific UPT number for them, the network intelligently routes call to that line. If, for some reason, that line cannot be reached -- perhaps it is busy -- then the call is referred back to the central switch for routing to an alternative line or, if all routes are exhausted, to voicemail. To prevent a call being diverted "around the houses" to reach its ultimate destination, all call routes drop back to their most logical path. For example, if a party in Boston calls a UPT subscriber and the call routes to San Francisco, and the line is busy, if the call were to be routed to a New York voicemail, the Boston exchange would be aware of this and drop the SF-NY route and route the call directly to New York. All this happens quickly and without any input by the caller. The trial of the UPT services in Norway involved 500 people in many different locations in the world. They were able to make outgoing calls, receive incoming ones, and still be charged for them as if using the home-based unit. "Ericsson has gained valuable experience during the trial. We now have the first UPT system ready to be sold world-wide to major telecom operators as well as to new operators, and the system will be continuously developed to meet future customer demands," said Paul Fjuk, Ericsson's product manager. (Sylvia Dennis/19950809/Press Contact: Cecilia Schon-Bostrom, Ericsson Business Area Public Telecommunications +46-8-719-0475) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 08/09/95 ONLINE Netcom Responds To Microsoft Network Rates (NEWS)(ONLINE)(SFO)(00030) Netcom Responds To Microsoft Network Rates 08/09/95 SAN JOSE, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1995 AUG 9 (NB) -- With the announcement from Microsoft offering three hours of its new online service for $4.95, Netcom (NASDAQ:NETC), a national Internet provider (IP), says the experience novice users have with Microsoft will lead to an interest in more traditional online experiences common to today's Internet users. Known as MSN (Microsoft Network), the new proprietary online service from Microsoft is expected to gain an almost immediate large base of subscribers as computer users purchase Windows 95. It is the issue of access to MSN which a number of analysts thought might delay or alter the debut of Win 95 through government actions. An announcement from the government this week has virtually assured Microsoft an unfettered delivery of its operating system on August 24. Early, the chief executive officers (CEO) of CompuServe, Prodigy and America Online penned a letter to Microsoft CEO Bill Gates, asking that he unbundle MSN from Win 95. Gates made no response to the letter as his public relations group continued to say Win 95 would be delivered on time. Netcom's take on MSN differs by suggesting novice users of MSN will soon learn the value of unmetered, flat rate pricing which offers complete access to Internet's Gopher capabilities, Telnet, File Transfer Protocol, e-mail, Winsock extensions and the World Wide Web. Netcom also says it is offering 28.8 kilobit per second access from more than 175 local access phone numbers which is becoming ever more popular with Internet users. John Zeisler, senior vice president of marketing at Netcom, told Newsbytes, "Microsoft will bring a lot of new customers to the fold. A lot of people have learned the hard way that these metered prices are a teaser. Three hours a month for $4.95 works out to be about 6 minutes a night. It takes longer than that to check my e-mail, not to mention exploring other features of the Internet. After the teaser comes the shock of that first Visa or MasterCard bill which for some users of online services has been as high as three or four hundred dollars." He continued, "We think a lot of these users will become knowledgeable and look for an affordable alternative." Netcom offers a number of flat-rate pricing plans which offer as much as 40 hours Internet access plus unlimited off-hour access without charges. (Patrick McKenna/19950809/Press Contact: Jeanie Slone, Netcom, tel 408-556-3211) (SUMMARY)(GENERAL)(MSP)(00031) Newsbytes Daily Summary 08/09/95 MINNEAPOLIS, MINNESOTA, U.S.A., 1995 AUG 9 (NB) -- These are capsules of all today's news stories: ======================================================================== ------------| N E W S B Y T E S D A I L Y S U M M A R Y |---------- ------------| Wednesday, August 9, 1995 |---------- ======================================================================== (c) Newsbytes News Network (Tm) Editor in Chief: Wendy Woods ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Newsbytes News Network's 1995 Update CD-ROM for Mac, DOS, and Windows is now available for $29.95 (includes s&h). Contains 1983-1995 news stories, more than 64,000 keyword searchable stories and 475 digitized images. For more information or to order, fax to 612-430-0441 or e-mail to 'administrator@newsbytes.com' -- MC, Visa, Amex accepted. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ CATEGORY HEADLINES (*** indicates today's top stories) STORY # ======================================================================== APPLE ****MacWorld - Apple Fights Back Against Windows 95....... 17 APPLE ****MacWorld - Apple PowerMac Focus Moves To "Value-Add... 18 BROADCAST Ericsson To Supply Largest Brazilian Cable TV Project...... 01 BUSINESS Datacraft Moves Into China................................. 08 BUSINESS Adobe Ventures Puts $2M Into Fractal Design................ 27 CHIPS Feature - China Designs With Advanced ICs.................. 15 CHIPS Microchip-Based Electric Transformer Early Warning System.. 22 CHIPS Siemens To Build Major UK Chip Plant....................... 26 GENERAL Japan Agrees To Discuss Software Scheme.................... 10 GENERAL Japan Newsbriefs........................................... 11 GENERAL Turkey - Firm Offers Smilies@Internet T-Shirts............. 14 GOVT Air Force Reopens Desktop Contract......................... 21 LEGAL ****More Big Guns Enter Microsoft-Justice Fray............ 03 LEGAL China - Raid on Computer Book Piracy....................... 16 ONLINE Hollywood's Internet Provider Goes National................ 04 ONLINE PSINet Intros New InterRamp Pricing........................ 05 ONLINE CyberShop An "Upscale" Mall Web Site....................... 06 ONLINE Internet Phone Call Software Ad Campaign To Launch......... 12 ONLINE Washington Online 1995 - Book.............................. 13 ONLINE Blockbuster Video Launches Web Site........................ 19 ONLINE ****MCI, News Corp. In Internet Joint Venture............. 20 ONLINE First Chicago To Open America Online Site.................. 23 ONLINE ****Speculators Surround Netscape's Initial Public Offerin 24 ONLINE Netcom Responds To Microsoft Network Rates................. 30 TELECOM Longest Fiber Optic Cable In World Planned................. 02 TELECOM Hong Kong Telecoms Office Makes PCS Winners Denial......... 07 TELECOM TRW Gets Second Satellite Patent........................... 25 TELECOM Ericsson's Next Generation Mobile Phone.................... 29 WINDOWS ****DOJ Decides Not To Decide In MS Antitrust Case........ 09 WINDOWS Visio Product Bundle For Windows 95........................ 28 ======================================================================== These are the headlines and first paragraphs of each story, in order: 1 -> Ericsson To Supply Largest Brazilian Cable TV Project -- Ericsson has announced it has received a major order from Telebahia, the Brazilian cable TV company. The order, which is worth $34 million to the Swedish communications firm, calls for the installation of specialized equipment for the network, which will be the largest of its type in Brazil. 2 -> Longest Fiber Optic Cable In World Planned -- FLAG Limited, the international telecoms consortium, has signed an agreement to build a 27,000 kilometers fiber optic submarine cable, which will be installed to link telecommunications carriers in Europe, the Middle East, and Asia. 3 -> ****More Big Guns Enter Microsoft-Justice Fray -- More big guns have entered the altercation between Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ: MSFT) and the US Department of Justice (DOJ), this time on the side of the software company. 4 -> Hollywood's Internet Provider Goes National -- EarthLink, an Internet provider (IP) for the southern California area, has grown in one year from a small company to its new status as a national Internet provider. Through a network agreement with UUNET, EarthLink is readying the national service, named TotalAccess USA, to be distributed to more than 150 US cities. 5 -> PSINet Intros New InterRamp Pricing -- Performance Systems International, Inc. (NASDAQ:PSIX) (PSINet) said it will no longer charge for Internet access for its InterRamp subscribers during off-peak hours. This means customers will get more than 400 hours of access to the worldwide network of computers for free. 6 -> CyberShop An "Upscale" Mall Web Site -- What's being called the "first upscale Internet World Wide Web department store" is now open, out of the way of the maddening crowds, snooty salespeople, and parking lots. CyberShop features "name-brand upscale merchandise" in a "graphical, dynamic format." 7 -> Hong Kong Telecoms Office Makes PCS Winners Denial -- Hong Kong's Office of the Telecommunications Authority (OFTA) has condemned as factually incorrect reports that have appeared in several Chinese newspapers naming the winners in the bidding for six PCS (personal communications services) licenses, being issued as part of the deregulation of the local telecommunications industry. 8 -> Datacraft Moves Into China -- Datacraft Asia is moving into China's provinces to fuel its expansion on the mainland. This follows the winning of a US$2.5 million contract to design and implement a digital data network in Shaanxi Province in Northwest China. 9 -> ****DOJ Decides Not To Decide In MS Antitrust Case -- Yesterday was a big day at Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ: MSFT). It was the day the company, and its shareholders, learned that the US Department of Justice (DOJ) would not decide before August 24th if it would ask a federal judge to halt shipment of Microsoft's new operating system and graphical user interface, Windows 95. 10 -> Japan Agrees To Discuss Software Scheme -- Japan has agreed to discuss a controversial proposal that companies selling software in Japan voluntarily register for ISO-9000 quality certification. 11 -> Japan Newsbriefs -- In this roundup of news from Japan, electric companies charged, NEC joins Precision RISC Organization, new cabinet named, greater service area for PHS, Hitachi plans camera production for China, satellite launch planned. 12 -> Internet Phone Call Software Ad Campaign To Launch -- Camelot Corp. (NASDAQ: CAML) announced it has concluded a $600,000 private placement with Denver-based First Capital Financial Corp. and will use the proceeds to kick off a $1 million ad campaign to promote its Digiphone software program and its Mr. CD-ROM franchise stores concept. 13 -> Washington Online 1995 - Book -- Whenever anyone runs through a list of the types of information available freely from the Internet, the many federal government databases is never far from the top of the list. 14 -> Turkey - Firm Offers Smilies@Internet T-Shirts -- The now ubiquitous online "smilie" characters, designed to express emotion or provide graphic shorthand for online communications, now grace the front of Hades Ltd.'s Smilies@Internet t-shirts. The garments, made in Turkey, feature 51 smilie icons and their descriptions. 15 -> Feature - China Designs With Advanced ICs -- China's electronics industry is moving up the technology curve. As China becomes increasingly a site for manufacturing of advanced electronic systems, more and more foreign-invested and domestic companies are using state-of-the-art ICs to develop telecom and consumer products that are popular locally and in other emerging Asian markets. 16 -> China - Raid on Computer Book Piracy -- Beijing Copyright Bureau (BCB) recently cracked down on pirated computer books. Several have been charged with illegal printing and selling of a computer book called "Five Strike Chinese Input Method" by Wang Code Computer Company. 17 -> ****MacWorld - Apple Fights Back Against Windows 95 -- Apple Computer plans to produce "integrated solutions" for the target markets of consumers, higher education, K-12, and small and medium-sized businesses, and to raise its ad budget substantially to support the new marketing approach and fend off the forthcoming Windows 95, top company officials said yesterday at an Apple press conference in Boston. 18 -> ****MacWorld - Apple PowerMac Focus Moves To "Value-Add -- With its first generation of Power Macintoshes, Apple Computer's primary concern was "compatibility," but starting with the new 9500, 8500, 7500, and 7200 models, Apple is "adding value" to meet the needs of newly identified target markets, maintained Gregg Zehr, director, hardware engineering, for Macintosh Desktop Systems, speaking with Newsbytes at an Apple press conference in Boston. 19 -> Blockbuster Video Launches Web Site -- The familiar Blockbuster Video blue awnings are going from the nation's Main Streets to the world of cyberspace, as the video mega-retailer launches a World Wide Web site on the Internet. 20 -> ****MCI, News Corp. In Internet Joint Venture -- MCI Communications Corp. (NASDAQ:MCIC) and Rupert Murdoch's News Corp. (NYSE:NWS) have announced plans for a joint venture that will bring both companies' Internet services under one roof. The new service will begin operation before the end of the year, said spokesman John Houser of MCI. 21 -> Air Force Reopens Desktop Contract -- Just in time for Government Technology Services Inc. (Nasdaq:GTSI), the Air Force has reopened its Desktop IV contract for new orders, with an allocation of 100,000 desktop systems. When the Air Force shut down the contract for new orders after 300,000 shipments, GTSI's sales went into a nose dive and the government reseller saw two consecutive quarters of red ink on its books. 22 -> Microchip-Based Electric Transformer Early Warning System -- The Electric Power Research Institute in Palo Alto, Calif., and a tiny Oregon company has developed an instrument that gives early warning of transformer failure. Catastrophic transformer explosions are among the most frequent and costly equipment failures in the electric utility industry. 23 -> First Chicago To Open America Online Site -- Finding out about banking services that the First National Bank of Chicago (First Chicago) offers for customers both around the Windy City and across the nation just got easier, because the bank has opened an area in the Chicago Online (COL) section of America Online (AOL). First Chicago also said it is the first bank to be online with AOL. 24 -> ****Speculators Surround Netscape's Initial Public Offering -- Reflecting a tremendous demand for its initial public offering, shares for Netscape Communication were upgraded from an original offer of 3.5 million shares selling at $11 to 5 million shares selling at $28. Speculators are feasting this morning as the stock opened at $71, quickly went to $72.50 and is now selling at $74.50 (11:45am EST). 25 -> TRW Gets Second Satellite Patent -- TRW Inc. (NYSE:TRW) said it has been awarded another patent from the US Patent and Trademark Office for its Odyssey satellite-based worldwide cellular telephone system. The newest patent covers aspects of Odyssey that improve telephone service in areas that are in the "view" of each satellite. 26 -> Siemens To Build Major UK Chip Plant -- Siemens has announced that, after intense competition from other European Governments, it is building a UKP 1.1 billion microchip fabrication facility in Tyneside. 27 -> Adobe Ventures Puts $2M Into Fractal Design -- In June of 94, Adobe Systems and investment banking firm, Hambrecht & Quist, established Adobe Ventures L.P. to invest in companies whose products complement the Adobe line of graphic, design and communication software. In its ninth investment, the company has put $2 million into Fractal Design. 28 -> Visio Product Bundle For Windows 95 -- Visio Corp., a company best known for its diagramming program, has announced a multibrand product bundle it said includes four essential applications for Microsoft Windows 95 users as well as a book about the new operating system. 29 -> Ericsson's Next Generation Mobile Phone -- Forget analog cellular, forget digital cellular, forget call divert, and start thinking about Universal Personal Telecommunications or UPT for short. Swedish comms giant Ericsson has unveiled what it claims is the world's first complete UPT system in Norway. 30 -> Netcom Responds To Microsoft Network Rates -- With the announcement from Microsoft offering three hours of its new online service for $4.95, Netcom (NASDAQ:NETC), a national Internet provider (IP), says the experience novice users have with Microsoft will lead to an interest in more traditional online experiences common to today's Internet users. (Wendy Woods/19950809) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 08/08/95 WINDOWS MCC Launches Hypermedia Authoring Tools Project (NEWS)(WINDOWS)(DEN)(00001) MCC Launches Hypermedia Authoring Tools Project 08/08/95 AUSTIN, TEXAS, U.S.A., 1995 AUG 8 (NB) -- The Microelectronics and Computer Technology Corporation (MCC) has launched a research project designed to speed the development and deployment of easy-to-use hypermedia authoring tools. MCC said Hughes Training Inc., Motorola, and GK Intelligent Systems are among the sponsors of the first phase of the Hypermedia Presentation Authoring and Composition Technologies project. HyMPACT (pronounced High Impact), as the project is known by the participants, is designed to develop a prototype set of hypermedia authoring tools for Windows NT. The project will address the specific application area of job training as its test environment. MCC said improving job training is a significant challenge currently faced by American corporations, organizations, and government agencies. MCC spokesperson Joyce Graham told Newsbytes the first phase of HyMPACT is expected to last through the end of 1995 and will develop the framework of the project. Phase II, which will actually develop the applications, is expected to take two to three years. According to Mark Breland, MCC project manager for HyMPACT, the development of easy-to-use tools will allow teachers and industrial trainers to create, navigate, or modify multimedia productions to communicate in a clear, powerful manner. HyMPACT was launched following an MCC study completed earlier this year that determined there is a gap in existing technology for interoperable, multi-domain authoring and composition tools for creating interactive hypermedia presentations. MCC defines hypermedia as the integration of text, audio and video (multimedia) with hypertext-style software links that let users easily navigate or interact with the multimedia presentation. MCC said the project will have five priority areas: authoring tools, composition/presentation models, intelligent assistance, multimedia data access, and delivery issues. The authoring tools are expected to provide users with the capability to easily bring together text, audio, and video in a multimedia presentation in much the same way desktop publishing software allows users to integrate text and graphics in a document. The composition/presentation models will provide various embedded theoretical models for composing and viewing hypermedia presentations. The models will be integrated into the authoring tools so that they are transparent to users but will provide a way for composition/presentation applications to infer the most effective way to interact with the user. MCC said the intelligent assistance will allow the applications to infer the most effective ways for individual users to interact with them. Embedded intelligence will provide both authors and users with intuitive paths to more effective information content creation and presentation. The multimedia data access will provide users with links to external databases. The HyMPACT developers are working with MCC's InfoSleuth project, which is seeking to provide intelligent agents to seek and retrieve user-requested information across distributed networks such as the Internet. (Jim Mallory/199508-7/Press contact: Joyce Graham, MCC, 512-338-3543; Public contact: MCC, 512-343-0978) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 08/08/95 TRENDS European Telecoms Report Shows High Costs (NEWS)(TRENDS)(LON)(00002) European Telecoms Report Shows High Costs 08/08/95 STEVENAGE, HERTFORDSHIRE, ENGLAND, 1995 AUG 8 (NB) -- The latest report from Tarifica, the bi-monthly telecoms tariff update from Omnicom PPI Limited, claims to show that, although the price of calling internationally from some European countries is falling steadily, those countries are still expensive. In the July Tarifica report, Deutsche Telekom is shown as cutting USA- bound call rates by 30 percent, down from DM1.97 to DM1.44 ($1.43 to $1.04). This is still ahead of British Telecom (BT) in the UK which claims to be cheaper than the rest of Europe. Margrit Sessions, director of Omnicom's Tarifica services, said that the report does not take into account many of the "simple call resellers" such as ACC or Worldcom in the UK. "The report covers the telecoms companies, who are obliged to offer service to all their subscribers," she told Newsbytes. According to the new Tarifa report, Deutsche Telekom's rate decrease masks the fact that the company is one of the few international carriers that does not offer an off-peak rate, where many operators offer a discounted rate of around 25 percent in the evening and at weekends. Sessions claims that rates are on a general downward trend at the moment, with several carriers having dropped their rates recently, including Austria (10 percent), France (13 percent), Ireland (20.5 percent), and Portugal (7.5 percent). Of the major European telcos, the Czech Republic is the most expensive, costing a hefty $1.93 per minute to call the US, compared with 54 pence from the UK to the US. The average cost across Europe is $1.21. (Steve Gold/19950807/Press & Reader Contact: Tarifica Call Costs, tel +44-1438-742424, fax +44-1438-355475) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 08/08/95 LEGAL UK - Novell Talks Tough On "Gray Market" Imports (NEWS)(LEGAL)(LON)(00003) UK - Novell Talks Tough On "Gray Market" Imports 08/08/95 BRACKNELL, BERKSHIRE, ENGLAND, 1995 AUG 8 (NB) -- Novell UK has announced it is prepared to take legal action against anyone importing its software from outside of the European Commission (EC) territories without its permission. The company has already take action in the High Court against CD Media Limited of Uxbridge, Middlesex, although this action looks like it may be "stayed" after the defendant agreed to cease distributing the US version of PerfectOffice 3.0, Novell's integrated office suite. Martin Smith, a spokesman for Novell, told Newsbytes that, under the European Commission's Software Directive of 1991, as well as Section 18 (3) of the Copyright, Designs & Patent Action in the UK, it is now illegal for anyone to import non-EC software into the EC, without express permission from the software house concerned. According to Smith, back in the late 1980s, when US-source gray market software prices were less than those in the UK and Europe, gray market software was viable for end-users because of its much lower costs. "These days, with most major companies like Novell going down the path of equal international software pricing and discounts for major dealer channels, there is no real reason for US software to be sold in Europe. What we're finding is that, where gray market software is sold cheaply, it tends to originate from pirated sources," he explained. Smith went on to say that, because most of the pirated software in the reseller channel is high quality counterfeit material, such gray market packages deprive the end user of support, as well as the software house of revenue for investment in the future. "This is no good to anyone. As a result, we're now enforcing our rights under the law. In the CD Media case, CD Media has agreed to hand over to Novell all copies of the package in their possession, along with a listing of the customers who have received the unlicensed product. The CD Media case follows on from similar litigation in the Czech Republic, Israel, the Netherlands, and Poland. Under the European Software Directive, which has, in the main, been implemented into local legislation by all of the member states, software publishers have the right to halt the distribution of products not previously put into circulation in the EC, by or with the consent of the publisher. Commenting on the case and Novell's "getting tough" policy with gray marketers, David Godwin, Novell UK's country manager, said that the company had been forced into taking action against gray importers "as we have found that the majority of cheap NetWare on offer from America and Asia is either counterfeit or has been tampered with in some way to increase its value. "Counterfeit products and gray market products do not contain a valid license and it is the ultimate customer who suffers," he said. "In addition, as the EC has recognized by enacting the Software Directive, importers of counterfeit and gray market products offer no added value and merely ride off the back of authorized resellers who invest vast resources to give a high quality support and service to their customers and who deserve our support," he explained. According to Godwin, the company intends to "vigorously pursue any company found to be importing unauthorized Novell products from outside of the EC," he said. (Steve Gold/19950807/Press Contact: Andrew Smith, A Plus, +44-1753- 790700; Internet e-mail asmith@aplus.co.uk; Reader Contact: Novell UK, tel +44-1344-724000, fax +44-1344-724001) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 08/08/95 BUSINESS Informix Unveils European Information Superstore (NEWS)(BUSINESS)(LON)(00004) Informix Unveils European Information Superstore 08/08/95 LONDON, ENGLAND, 1995 AUG 8 (NB) -- Informix, which is now billing itself as "the open distributed data management company," has formally opened its Information Superstore, a dedicated center for datawarehousing based at its Feltham, Middlesex headquarters. The idea is that the Superstore will provide an education base for large European corporations looking at using datawarehousing and will also audit current systems, as well as testing new datawarehousing applications in an online environment. Steve Waddington, a spokesman for the company, told Newsbytes that the SuperStore will allow major companies to visit the site to try out various datawarehousing facilities, alongside their existing applications, and "demo" the packages in a "real life" scenario, but outside of their office environments. "It's the first of its type in Europe and represents a major step for Informix," he explained, adding that the Superstore is also the first time a vendor has delivered a defined and usable datawarehousing service to the corporate market. Announcing the opening of the Superstore, Mike Harrison, the company's vice president for Northern Europe, said: "Informix is maintaining its lead in this market by being the first company to actually deliver on its strategy. Most vendors are simply announcing paper strategies or proprietary initiatives in the hope of making users believe they are credible in the market." "Datawarehousing is a method of gaining competitive advantage that happens to be enabled through an often complex combination of technologies. Corporations need to better understand what it is and how it works and need an opportunity to find out if it is appropriate for their company," he explained. "As such, there is great deal of education to be done so that corporations are properly able to make strategic business decisions and implement best-of-breed technologies. The Information Superstore is the first tangible information and demonstration resource to help them achieve this," he said. Informix claims it was the first RDBMS (relational database management system) vendor to announce an open systems datawarehousing strategy in July of last year. The company's strategy is claimed to be based on its partnerships with other key datawarehousing technology and systems integration suppliers and its parallel database technology. Both these areas have now been extended in the second part of the strategy -- the Information Superstore. Formal datawarehousing agreements have been signed with AT&T GIS, Hewlett Packard (HP), Sun Microsystems, and Pyramid for the provision of massively parallel processing (MPP) and symmetric multiprocessing (SMP) hardware, with SHL Systemhouse, Data Sciences, and other systems integrators for specialist systems integration advice on-site -- with Prism Technologies for warehouse management software, and with Information Advantage, Business Objects and MicroStrategy for data access software. The European Superstore facility is located at Informix' headquarters in Bedfont Lakes, Middlesex. The firm says that the hardware portfolio on offer is the "most advanced currently available" with MPP and SMP data servers, applications servers and multi-media systems from AT&T, HP, Pyramid, and Sun, initially. The Superstore will have an FDDI (fiber distributed data interchange) and TCP/IP (Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol) backbone for high bandwidth data delivery and a UnixWare network, in addition to a range of PC, Unix and Windows NT clients. Plans call for the services of the Superstore to cover three key applications areas aimed at business managers as well as information technology specialists: education, consultancy, and application testing. (Steve Gold/19950807/Press Contact: A Plus, +44-1753-790700; Reader Contact: Informix Software, +44-181-818-1000) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 08/08/95 HEALTH Managed Care Organizations To Use Physician's Online (NEWS)(HEALTH)(MSP)(00005) Managed Care Organizations To Use Physician's Online 08/08/95 TARRYTOWN, NEW YORK, U.S.A., 1995 AUG 8 (NB) -- Physicians' Online said that two of the nation's largest managed care organizations (MCOs) will use the company's electronic services to improve lines of communication with their affiliated physicians. The companies involved are Louisville, Kentucky-based Humana Inc., and Mid Atlantic Medical Services Inc. (MAMSI) of Rockville, Maryland. Each MCO will create their own Managed Care Center on Physicians' Online, Stacey Schoemann, account manager for managed care organizations, told Newsbytes. These areas will provide for two-way communications and information sharing between the MCOs and their physicians. Resources that will be made available through the center will include guidelines and formularies, disease management programs, provider directories, patient education programs, and newsletters. Doctors will also be able to interact online with their MCOs with surveys, electronic-mail, and question-and-answer sessions. Humana and MAMSI are working with Pfizer Inc. to support the development and implementation of each center. Physicians' Online staffers also support the MCOs throughout the process in general, Schoemann said, "to develop content, develop the technology to how to view it online, as well as the best way to market it to their physicians." The access to the MCO areas is secure, Schoemann said. Only physicians that the MCOs approve will receive the needed codes to access the online areas, she said. But in the case of Humana and MAMSI, all of their member physicians will have access to the appropriate areas, Schoemann added. As previously reported by Newsbytes, access to Physicians' Online is gained through proprietary software from either the Windows or Macintosh platforms. There is no charge for physicians to use the service, because costs are covered by sponsors. Databases and diagnostic tools available to Physicians' Online subscribers include MedLine, AIDSLine, CancerLit, Physicians GenRx Prescribing Decision Support Tools, and drug interaction programs. (Bob Woods/19950807/Press Contact: Joan Hogan Gillman, 914-332-6100, ext 216, Physicians' Online; Public Contact: Physicians' Online Member Services, 800-332-0009) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 08/08/95 BUSINESS Exabyte Expands European Manufacturing In Scotland (NEWS)(BUSINESS)(LON)(00006) Exabyte Expands European Manufacturing In Scotland 08/08/95 FALKIRK, SCOTLAND, 1995 AUG 8 (NB) -- Exabyte, the tape storage products company, has announced the expansion of manufacturing facility in Falkirk, Scotland. According to the company, the aim is to "get closer" to its international customer base. The spin-off for the UK, of course, is that more jobs, warehousing facilities, and manufacturing facilities are brought to the area. Exabyte has leased an extra 3,906 meters of building-space alongside its exiting 2,511 square-meter production facility in the Central Park area of Falkirk. Plans call for both areas to form a new expanded manufacturing facility. So, why co-locate the extra production facilities in Scotland rather than opt for a new site, elsewhere in the European Community (EC)? The company claims that the decision to expand rather than open a second European plant was taken because of the company's five years of experience in the area, good communications and transport facilities, and links with the rest of Europe. According to Peter Behrendt, the company's president, the skilled labor force, as well as high-tech resources in the area were also influential in the decision. The plant will work closely with the company's new pan-European call center in the Netherlands. "We are very committed to our growing European customer base and continue to expand our service and manufacturing operations to meet the increasing market demands there. Our goals with this expanded facility include shorter lead times for product shipments and enhanced service and support," he explained. The Falkirk project is supported by Locate in Scotland, the Scottish Enterprise/Scottish Office inward agency, working in partnership with Central Regional Council and Forth Valley Enterprise. "Obviously, Forth Valley Enterprise is delighted to see this expansion take place. In recent months, we have been exploring ways of helping incoming companies like Exabyte with this type of `second generation' development, which we see as a vital dimension in the whole field of inward investment," said Bill Morton, chief executive of Forth Valley Enterprise. (Sylvia Dennis/19950807/Press & Reader Contact: Susan Merriman, Exabyte US Operations, 303-417-7434) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 08/08/95 APPLE Apple Intros QuickDraw 3D For Graphics (NEWS)(APPLE)(LAX)(00007) Apple Intros QuickDraw 3D For Graphics 08/08/95 LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1995 AUG 8 (NB) -- Apple Computer Inc.(NASDAQ: AAPL)has announced that its QuickDraw 3D graphics software is now available. The software is included with all new Apple Power Macintosh 7500 and 8500 personal computers. QuickDraw 3D is also available to other Apple Macintosh users from online services and the World Wide Web, and through software applications that have the new software built in, such as Strata Inc.'s new version of StudioPro Blitz. According to Apple, QuickDraw 3D immediately becomes the highest volume shipping RISC (reduced instruction set computer)-based three-dimensional (3-D) technology. QuickDraw 3D delivers 3D-graphics capabilities and performance that previously were available only on large graphics workstations. With QuickDraw 3D on a Power Macintosh, users can create and manipulate 3D graphics, and drag-and-drop those graphics into documents and presentations. "With QuickDraw 3D, developers of both software applications and new media titles can more easily incorporate 3D into their products," said Satjiv Chahil, vice president of Apple's Entertainment and New Media Division. "QuickDraw 3D allows Apple to extend its lead as the premier authoring environment for new media. We also expect QuickDraw 3D to enable next-generation tools for high-end animation and special effects for both film and video." QuickDraw 3D supports a new cross-platform file format, says Apple. The new format, called 3DMF, makes it possible for 3D graphics to be moved from application to application, preserving geometric information, as well as information about textures, lighting, and shading. Users can move and share 3D geometric and appearance information among applications and through an entire production process. QuickDraw 3D requires a Power Macintosh computer running Macintosh System 7, Version 7.1.2 or later, a hard disk drive, and 16 megabytes (MB) of memory. QuickDraw 3D is included with Apple Power Macintosh 7500 and 8500 computers, and is available to other Macintosh users from online services such as eWorld, the Internet through Apple's home page at http://www.info.apple.com or the QuickDraw 3D home page at http://www.info.apple.com/qd3d . Developers interested in licensing QuickDraw 3D can call 512-919-2645 or send an electronic-mail to sw.license@applelink.apple.com. The licensing fee for redistribution of QuickDraw 3D with applications is $250. A QuickDraw 3D software developers kit (SDK) is available as part of the Mac OS software developers kit #4, for $299. With the Mac OS SDK, developers will receive QuickDraw 3D tools as well as a collection of technologies and related programming information which helps developers add support for Mac OS system extensions. Each quarter, Mac OS SDK subscribers automatically receive a CD-ROM disk with the most recent version of these system software extensions, programming interfaces and libraries, sample code, and technical documentation. Apple also announced the book "3D Graphics Programming with QuickDraw 3D" which has been published by Addison Wesley, and will be available in bookstores this month. This book includes a CD-ROM with the QuickDraw 3D software. (Richard Bowers/19950808/Press Contact: Mary Devincenzi, Apple Computer, 408-974-4562) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 08/08/95 LEGAL Italy - Govt Detains Man With Bomb-Making Data On Disk (NEWS)(LEGAL)(LON)(00008) Italy - Govt Detains Man With Bomb-Making Data On Disk 08/08/95 TRIESTE, ITALY, 1995 AUG 8 (NB) -- In an unusual legal ruling in Italy that could have important ramifications under European Community (EC) law, a Trieste judge has ruled that customs officials were operating correctly in handing a suspicious Moroccan over to the police on suspected terrorism charges, after the customs officers discovered instructions on how to make a bomb recorded on floppy disk on his person. Although the case sounds a routine "open and closed" case of terrorism, Newsbytes notes that a pipe bomb file has been doing the rounds of online services for around a decade now. The file has caused a stir several times in the US over the last few years, and is accessible via several sites on the Internet. To the best of Newsbytes' knowledge, no legal case has been successfully made on the basis of this file anywhere in the world. This assumes, of course, that it is the same file that the suspected Moroccan was carrying in his pocket on disk. According to the Italian police, the man is now being held pending a court appearance. Police claim that the man was traveling from Slovenia into Italy and claims to be conducting business in Italy. Police claim that the French passport he was traveling on was forged. However, Newsbytes notes that the quality of French/Moroccan passports is frequently thought to be "variable" and, consequently, such passports are often suspected by immigration officials to be forged. According to the Italian police, the files on disk were in Arabic and English. As a result of their findings, the man has been held for questioning, and a request for identification assistance has been lodged with Interpol, the international police computer network. The man, who has not been named, is quoted as saying that he received the disk from a man in Zagreb, the Capital of Croatia, and was on his way to pass the disk to another man in Milan. (Sylvia Dennis/19950807) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 08/08/95 ONLINE Spyglass Intros New Web Browser, Server (NEWS)(ONLINE)(MSP)(00009) Spyglass Intros New Web Browser, Server 08/08/95 NAPERVILLE, ILLINOIS, U.S.A., 1995 AUG 8 (NB) -- Spyglass Inc. (NASDAQ:SPYG) has formally announced a new version of its Enhanced Mosaic Internet World Wide Web graphical browser for the Windows and Macintosh platforms, along with a Web server for Windows NT and Unix platforms. Newsbytes was one of the first news organizations to report on the new Web browser a little over two weeks ago. At that time, the company was under an SEC (Securities and Exchange Commission) mandated quiet and couldn't comment further. This week, though, Spyglass officials are making a whirlwind tour of the country, presenting both the browser and the server. For the Web browser, Spyglass' partners should see the browser by the end of this month. The partners -- which are companies like Corel, FTP Software, Incontext, Oracle, and Microsoft -- then embed the browser into their products, as a part of Spyglass' business model. That model calls for Spyglass to license Enhanced Mosaic technology to third-party companies, who then add value to the browser by embedding it into other products. Those products are then sold to consumers. The browser itself, which Spyglass is dubbing version 2.1, offers improved graphic capabilities, easy and secure electronic payments, and performance. In the visual and graphical category, the new browser incorporates many proposed HTML (hypertext markup language) 3.0 extensions, including tables, backgrounds, centering and right aligned text and images, and colored text, Dan Johnson, Spyglass product manager, told Newsbytes. In fact, Johnson revealed to Newsbytes that there probably won't be a new 3.0 standard to replace current 2.0 standards. Instead he said new adoptions to the code will probably take place one at a time, starting with standards being set for graphical tables. Payments over the Internet will be made secure with a number of methods, including the Electronic Business Co-op's Electronic Wallet, the First Virtual Wallet, and Cybercash's CyberWallet. Johnson said using these methods ensures that transactions are "secure enough that it will be the same as buying with credit cards over the phone." He also said using this type of system is much easier than using a security scheme like S-HTTP (secure hypertext transfer protocol). Performance will be improved with enhancements like Smart Maps, which allow users to link to new documents via clickable images without relying on a server to intervene. Also, Enhanced Mosaic 2.1 will use disk caching to restore recently retrieved documents without opening an Internet connection. Other improvements include a "Keep Alive" feature that doesn't need to close connections within a Web page, and the ability to instantaneously display text and progressively display images. On the server side, Spyglass said its new product has already been licensed to Oracle and Performance Systems International (PSInet). The companies plan to ship products incorporating the new technology in a similar fashion as what Spyglass does with its Web browser. The new server is a high-performance HTTP server that takes advantage of single process/single thread architecture, Johnson said. "Essentially for every connection that's established, the server creates a copy of itself to manage that connection," he said. This process reduces operating system overhead, which allows the server to handle simultaneous hits faster and more efficiently than any other server, he said. Also reducing server operating overhead is an application development interface, which allows applications to be integrated directly into the server, which then also runs as a single process. This means that operations between the server and applications, like database queries and security operations, will be faster and smoother than with conventional CGI (common gateway interface) scripts. Johnson did say that CGI scripts will still run on the new server. Security is handled with a flexible security framework that allows security modules to be added when needed. The framework itself supports Basic and Digest user authentications. The server will run all kinds of Web sites, from ones that receive heavy usage to personal Web sites, officials said. (Bob Woods/19950807/Press Contacts: Randy Pitzer or Mike Knezovich, Spyglass, 708-515-1010, Internet e-mail rpitzer@spyglass.com; Public Contact: Spyglass, Internet World Wide Web http://www.spyglass.com , Internet e-mail mosaic@spyglass.com) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 08/08/95 CHIPS ****Toshiba Plans US Chip Plant With IBM (NEWS)(CHIPS)(TYO)(00010) ****Toshiba Plans US Chip Plant With IBM 08/08/95 TOKYO, JAPAN, 1995 AUG 8 (NB) -- Toshiba Corporation (TOKYO:6502) and IBM Corporation (NASDAQ:IBM) have announced in Tokyo that the two companies will be establishing a joint venture company to manufacture 64 megabit (Mb) DRAM chips in the United States. The new company is expected to be established before the end of this year with ownership being held jointly between IBM and Toshiba America Electronic Components Inc., a US subsidiary of Toshiba Corporation. The two companies will invest $1.2 billion over the next three years developing a vacant site they own in Manassas, Virginia. Until 1992, IBM had operated a plant on two adjacent sites manufacturing custom semiconductors. That plant closed in 1992 and one of the sites was sold to Loral. The moth-balled plant still stands on the other site. The new plant will feature state-of-the-art wafer fabrication equipment plus an advanced "clean room" for wafer production. The new facility will mean the creation of around 1,200 jobs for the area. When fully operational in late 1997, the plant will be producing 27,000 eight-inch wafers per month made with 0.35 micron lithography. Upon completion the product will be shipped to both IBM and Toshiba for final assembly and then on into each company's marketing and distribution channels. IBM Asia Pacific's Mac Jeffery told Newsbytes the majority of the chips are already spoken for, "We intend to consume most of them ourselves internally. A small amount may make their way onto the open market." Toshiba's Executive Vice President Masunobu Ohyama, said, "We are delighted to be further extending our partnership with leading manufacturers with world-class semiconductor technologies. I also believe the project can make a positive contribution to the progress in cooperation between the United States and Japan." Today's announcement is the second such by the two companies. They are partnering each other in a plant producing large size thin film transistor (TFT) liquid crystal displays (LCDs) in Himeji, Japan. Along with Siemens of Germany, the three have been working on production of advanced semiconductor memory devices and in June announced the development of a 256 megabit DRAM which works at nearly twice the speed of its nearest competitor. IBM and Siemens have also been manufacturing 16 megabit DRAM chips together. IBM Asia Pacific's Jeffery said Siemens wasn't a partner in the venture because the firm is not interested in producing such chips. "They had the option," he said. "About a year ago they announced they would not get into 64 megabit DRAM production but use the information learned (from the research) for other technologies." Worldwide demand for DRAM chips is strong and shows no signs of slowing over the coming years. According to Toshiba, the market will be $23 billion this year, rising by 70% to $39 billion next year. Earlier this week Mitsubishi Electric announced it is investing 100 billion yen in a 64 megabit production facility in Saijo, Ehime, Japan. Other companies are also making similar investments. Fujitsu recently announced a $1 billion expansion of its Gresham, Oregon, facility, and NEC Corporation is already making the devices in Kyushu, Japan and will begin production in the UK in October. The company has planned a third plant in Hiroshima, Japan, next year. (Martyn Williams/19950808/Press contact: Mac Jeffery, IBM Asia Pacific, +81-3-5572-2643; Masaki Mikura, Toshiba Corporation, tel +81-3-3457-2105, fax +81-3-3456-4776) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 08/08/95 ONLINE Internet Update (NEWS)(ONLINE)(TYO)(00011) Internet Update 08/08/95 TOKYO, JAPAN, 1995 AUG 8 (NB) -- In this update of new resources and services on the Internet: FujiFilm rebut Kodak, Solar energy products and information, Canadian multilingual TV service, Complete motor sports resource, New address for tennis information, Finnish virtual embassy, WebABLE debuts, and ora.com magazine online. FujiFilm Rebut Kodak FujiFilm has opened a home page on the World Wide Web. Alongside the usual company history, press releases and product catalog is one thing you won't normally find on a commercial Web site -- an attack at a rival. The company in question is Kodak which has been crying foul at FujiFilm's dominance of the Japanese market and petitioned the US government for an investigation. In response to Kodak's criticisms, the Japanese company wrote the rebuttal which is available for all to read on the Web. World Wide Web: http://www.fujifilm.co.jp/ Solar Energy Products And Information Siemens Solar Industries has established a presence on the Internet's World Wide Web with a new home page offering details of the company's range of solar energy and solar electric products. Visitors can read product literature, company news releases and jump to other Web sites offering information about solar power. World Wide Web: http://www.solarpv.com/solarpv Canadian Multilingual TV Service Canada's International Cable Network has expanded its multilingual television programming offerings by opening a home page on the Web. Through the I-Channel users can find out details of the channel's programs. The service also bills itself as a place to exchange ideas and opinions about international events and to gain access to worldwide cultural information. World Wide Web : http://www.i-channel.com/ Complete Motor Sports Resource The Indianapolis News and Indianapolis Tribune have jointly created a one stop motor sports news and information center on the Internet. SpeedNet is designed to provide complete auto-racing coverage on the Internet. World Wide Web: http://www.starnews.com/speednet/ New Address For Tennis Information Fresh from celebrating its first anniversary last week, The World Wide Web Tennis Server has moved house. The operators say its new address will be much easier for the estimated 100,000 visitors in 64 countries to remember. At the same time, the online Tennis magazine also welcomes David Higdon, senior writer for Tennis Magazine, as a columnist. World Wide Web: http://www.tennisserver.com/ Finnish Virtual Embassy Finland's government has opened a virtual embassy on the Internet. Users can obtain information covering subjects such as the language, culture, people, government, way of life, and more. There is also a daily update news area with bulletins covering the north European country. World Wide Web: http://www.mofile.fi/ WebABLE Debuts Acting as an information repository for people with all types of disabilities, WebABLE has begun operation on the Internet. In addition to serving people with disabilities, the site's intentions also include providing information to Internet service providers about how to better enable their sites for easy access by disabled people. The web pages are also intended for adaptive, assistive, and access technology researchers, users, and manufacturers. World Wide Web: http://www.webable.com/ ora.com Magazine Online O'Reilly Associates, well known publishers of Internet and networking books and handbooks, has placed its ora.com magazine on the Internet. The magazine features articles on subjects covered by O'Reilly books and selected passages from the books. Current articles include Computer Crime, A Brief History of Unix, PGP: The Privacy Wars, Clickable Image Maps, The Sendmail Story, and more. World Wide Web: http://www.ora.com/gnn/bus/ora/features/index.html (Martyn Williams/19950808) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 08/08/95 TELECOM Oftel Releases Pricing Clamps On British Telecom (NEWS)(TELECOM)(LON)(00012) Oftel Releases Pricing Clamps On British Telecom 08/08/95 LONDON, ENGLAND, 1995 AUG 8 (NB) -- Oftel, the British Government- appointed telecoms watch-dog, has announced the release of pricing controls on British Telecom's line rentals from next year onwards. To date, BT has been forbidden from raising its line rentals by more than two percent above the national rate of inflation in the UK. According to Don Cruikshank, the head of Oftel, this limitation was not in the interests of the public, since it did more harm than good. Under the new rules, BT has agreed to work with Oftel to ensure that the bills of the people who made fewest calls would not increase faster than the rate of inflation. Although some quarters of the telecoms industry have expressed worries about the changes, other sources are hinting strongly that the move will allow BT to offer increased line rentals in return for free local or even national calls, since the savings involved in not billing subscribers for small value local calls is now widely seen as logical. Under the new Oftel plan, there is the proposal to give customers the right to a "universal service" -- which would provide access to "affordable basic voice telephony (or its equivalent) for all those reasonably requesting it, regardless of where they live." This proposal is in line with current European Commission (EC) proposals for universal service, Newsbytes notes. Oftel's Cruikshank said that the changes are the result of a lengthy period of consultation, both with BT and other telecoms companies operating in the UK. "The constraint on increases in BT's line rental charges is, I think, harming customers' interest more than it is helping them. It has meant that BT has thought less imaginatively about meeting customers' needs," he explained. "Customers will be better off with it removed. BT will be more responsive and its competitors will be encouraged to invest faster and with greater confidence," he said. (Steve Gold/19950807/Press & Reader Contact: Oftel, tel +44-171-634-8700, fax +44-171-634-8943) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 08/08/95 TELECOM Competition Forces Belgium Telco To Cut Call Costs (NEWS)(TELECOM)(LON)(00013) Competition Forces Belgium Telco To Cut Call Costs 08/08/95 BRUSSELS, BELGIUM, 1995 AUG 8 (NB) -- The sheer pace of competition in the call resale market has meant that the cost of calling from even the most non-liberalized countries within the European Commission is falling like a stone. This perhaps explains why Belgacom has announced a whole raft of price cuts on its international tariffs, with price cuts of as much as 67 percent on some routes. Effective immediately, Belgacom will offer reduced rates on calls made from Belgium to 114 countries in Europe, Africa, Asia, and Latin America. According to company officials, the reductions will vary respectively depending on the country and area. The greatest reductions will be offered on connections to Alaska and Hawaii, with 30 and 67 percent discounts on the old rates, respectively. "We are determined to offer our customers competitive rates and a full range of high quality products and services. Belgacom consistently strives to provide the best combination of value, quality and service," explained Susan Mirbach, president of Belgacom's US operations. According to Mirbach, Belgacom has been reducing its prices dramatically since 1993 to provide lower cost calling facilities for its customers and confirm its competitiveness on the worlds' communications market. In 1994, Newsbytes notes, the price of calls to the US and Canada were reduced by 16.6 percent and charges for international ISDN (integrated services digital network) service were cut by 15 percent. Under this latest round of price cuts, calls from Belgium to Hong Kong will be reduced by 22 percent, from $2.41 per minute to $1.88. Connections to Kenya, Nigeria, the Philippines, and Venezuela will be reduced by 13.9 percent from $2.80 down to $ 2.41 per minute. One minute of calling Hawaii will cost $1.03 per minute (from $3.13), and Alaska $2.41 (from $3.41). Belgacom faces competition from three fronts, Newsbytes notes. First is the new breed of simple resale companies that operate leased lines from Belgium to the US and offers dial-in (at standard local/trunk rates) to an automated switchboard In Brussels, with the US-bound leg costing between 20 and 30 cents a minute. Second is the callback services, which, though technically illegal under Belgian telecoms law, work with callers dialing their own personal number in the US, letting the call ring once, and then hanging up. The exchange then calls them back as normal, offering a dial-tone to the Belgian party as soon as the call is answered. The call is then dialed to anywhere in the US or the world, at significant discount rates. More recently, a new third category of call competition has arisen. As call costs within the EC plummet, so the UK resale companies, which offer call rates as low as 16 cents a minute UK/US, can be dialed from elsewhere in the US, and charges billed to a credit or debit card. Although Belgacom is not saying anything about such competition, it is thought that these three categories of competitive services are causing a massive decrease in international call volumes as even smaller business and residential phone users in Belgium realize the call cost disparities involved. (Sylvia Dennis/19950807/Press & Reader Contact: Belgacom, tel +32-2-202-9736, fax +32-2-202-2417; Belgacom US Office, 203-221-5270) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 08/08/95 BUSINESS EMC Wins Singapore's Largest Disk Storage Sale (NEWS)(BUSINESS)(TYO)(00014) EMC Wins Singapore's Largest Disk Storage Sale 08/08/95 CENTRAL, HONG KONG, 1995 AUG 8 (NB) -- Mainframe and midrange storage systems firm EMC has secured the single largest DASD (direct access storage device) sale in Singapore's history, signing a US$2 million deal with Singapore Airlines. The contract covers the supply and installation of a cluster of EMC's Symmetrix integrated cache disk array systems. Singapore Airlines will use the Symmetrix units as the primary information storage platform for all its mission-critical reservations systems running in the specialized transaction processing facilities (TPF) operating system. The Symmetrix units will be installed at Singapore Airline's prime and disaster recovery sites. Rick Wojcik, EMC's general manager, Asia/Far East, attributed EMC's winning of the contract to having the best technology for the job, saying: "EMC will provide Singapore Airlines with a more robust, yet flexible storage solution. Because Symmetrix actually improves mainframe throughput, it speeds up customer service and internal processes, giving Singapore Airlines a competitive advantage." The Symmetrix integrated cache disk arrays are a family of high-end DASD units with capacity ranging from 272 gigabytes (GB) to over one terrabyte (1,088GB). Wojcik said the Symmetrix units also support a range of high-availability features, including: redundancy of key components; non-disruptive replacement (hot-swapping) of components; and features unique to EMC, such as dynamic sparing and error detection and correction for data on both cache and disk. According to Wojcik, the Symmetrix's advanced capabilities have allowed the DASD to become the de facto standard for airlines on a global basis. "Airlines need very high-performance and reliable mass storage for their transaction processing facilities. Since introducing the Symmetrix, EMC has taken over the airline market, because our DASD offers the highest levels of capacity, performance and reliability available," he said. (Nigel Armstrong and IT Daily/19950808) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 08/08/95 GENERAL India News Roundup (NEWS)(GENERAL)(DEL)(00015) India News Roundup 08/08/95 NEW DELHI, INDIA, 1995 AUG 8 (NB) -- In today's roundup of India news: SCSI Card Maker to Tap More Markets, Usha and Samsung Plan Semiconductor JV, HCL Comnet & Japan Radio Tie-up for Radio Trunking Market, Toolex Alpha Ups its Stake in India. SCSI Card Maker to Tap More Markets Infocom Digital Systems (P) Ltd., a Delhi-based firm, has entered the hard currency areas with its export of SCSI (small computer system interface) cards. According to the company's director, N.K. Tewary, the company has received export orders worth $2.5 million from Europe alone. The company has already established distribution centers in the UK, Holland, Germany and France to service these export orders. "The company plans to tap the US market soon," said Tewary. "Our SCSI cards are priced between high-end cards from the US and low-end cards from Taiwan. We ensure a high-end performance and after sales support. This has expanded our market potential," he pointed out. With the export market for SCSI cards brightening up, Infocom which had a turnover of R12 crore last year, hopes to become a 100-crore company in the coming three years. It has been marketing AST computers in India, and plans to tap R50 crore from the export market and the same amount from within the country as well. The company claims to have a 70 percent share of SCSI market in India. Usha, Samsung Plan Semiconductor JV Usha India Ltd., a flagship company of the Usha Group of industries will be setting up a R70 crore semiconductor project in alliance with the South Korea-based Samsung Electronic Corp. This new project will ensure backward integration into the manufacture of chips and wafers required in semiconductors. According to Y.K. Gauba, executive vice president, Usha India, out of the R70-crore investment in the project, financial institutions will bring in R30 crore. Samsung is also expected to pick up a stake in the backward-integration project. The Korean company already has a 100 percent buy-back arrangement with Usha for the next seven years. Usha India Ltd. is one of the largest semiconductor and rectifier manufacturers in Asia and has reported a turnover of R510 crore during the current financial year. Samsung already has an agreement with the Indian company for the manufacture of 600 million pieces of TO-92 transistors per annum for use in electric locomotives. HCL Comnet & Japan Radio Tie-up for Radio Trunking Market HCL Comnet Systems and Services Ltd., part of the R1,360 crore HCL Corp., has announced an alliance with Japan Radio Company Ltd. (JRC) and Okura & Company Ltd. to pursue the mobile trunking market in India. The alliance involves transfer of technology with no equity participation from the two Japanese companies, said Vineet Nayar, president HCL Comnet. Radio trunking services by the Indian company is expected to start in 22 different cities in India in the next six months. HCL Comnet is one of the largest VSAT (very small aperture terminal) and networking vendor in India. JRC is a US$ 1.4 billion radio company from Japan and its communications equipment is focused on personal and mobile radios for local communications, and compact VHF/UHF FM transceivers for personal or mobile base stations. Toolex Alpha Ups its Stake in India Toolex Alpha, a part of the Sweden-based Grimaldi Industries and one of the leading CD manufacturers in the country has decided to take over 51 percent equity stake in the Indian associate, World Digital Sound Ltd. (WDSL). At present Toolex holds a 15 percent equity. Toolex Alpha is a key supplier of compact disks and optical disks to major infotech companies and claims to have a strong presence in the Japanese and South Asian markets. The Swedish company sees its India operation as a major source to meet its global demands, especially in terms of cheaper manufacturing costs. WSDL is one of the first Indian companies to manufacture CDs in the country. (C.T. Mahabharat/19950808) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 08/08/95 BUSINESS CA & Sun Team On Enterprise Management (NEWS)(BUSINESS)(TOR)(00016) CA & Sun Team On Enterprise Management 08/08/95 NEW YORK, NEW YORK, U.S.A., 1995 AUG 8 (NB) -- Computer Associates International Inc. (NYSE:CA) and Sun Microsystems Inc. (NASDAQ:SUNW) have announced plans for an integrated network and systems management product. The as-yet-unnamed product will carry both CA's and Sun's brand names. The deal with Sun is reminiscent of one CA signed in March with Hewlett-Packard Co. (NYSE:HWP) to produce a management product called Unicenter for Openview. CA and Sun said their joint product will include CA's Unicenter and Sun's Solstice SunNet Manager, with CA's OpenIngres database software as its database repository. It will run on Sun's Solaris operating system on SPARC systems, personal computers built on Intel Corp.'s x86 processors, and systems based on PowerPC processors. Charles Wang, chairman and chief executive of Computer Associates, said during a New York press conference that both companies will sell and support the new product worldwide. Scott McNealy, Sun's chairman and chief executive, added that it will be available by the end of this year. Sun and CA are touting their new product as an integrated network and systems management package that will save customers the trouble of making assorted different products work together. "There's no one company or even small set of companies that can really solve the whole enterprise computing problem and really has a good view of the Internet and all the rest of it," McNealy said. Prices are to start at about $25,000 on SPARC systems. The IT Operations Services arm of Sun's service subsidiary, SunService, will help customers install the software and implement best practices and policies, officials said. Wang described the move as "the next step in the close relationship between CA and Sun." Both executives were coy about the possibility of further extending their cooperation in future, but left the impression that further deals might be in the offing. (Grant Buckler/19950808/Press Contact: Bob Gordon, Computer Associates, tel 516-342-2391, fax 516-342-5329; Craig Welch, 415-336-5456) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 08/08/95 APPLE ****MacWorld - DayStar Digital & Radius Intro Clones (NEWS)(APPLE)(BOS)(00017) ****MacWorld - DayStar Digital & Radius Intro Clones 08/08/95 BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS, U.S.A., 1995 AUG 8 (NB) -- DayStar Digital and Radius will both introduce new Macintosh clones at MacWorld Boston today, and Power Computing has plans for future enhancements to its "Mac compatibles," officials of the three companies said yesterday during a "Clone Shootout" at the MacWeek 200 Forum in Boston. DayStar Digital will debut the Genesis MP (multiprocessor) Media Station at MacWorld today, reported Andrew Lewis, president and chief executive officer (CEO) of DayStar, in his remarks at the forum, an event attended by Newsbytes. The four-processor machine will be the first multiprocessor model to come to market from a Macintosh licensee, according to Lewis. Scheduled to ship in October at suggested pricing of $14,999, the new "media station" will be equipped with 32 megabytes (MB) of random access memory (RAM), two gigabytes (GB) of hard drive storage, and a CD-ROM drive, in addition to the four 132 megahertz (MHz) processors. Also at MacWorld, Adobe and several other third-party vendors will be announcing applications for the Genesis MP, Lewis asserted. DayStar is dubbing its new computer a "media station" due to the product's anticipated use, Lewis added. Although the Genesis MP is not as strongly oriented to 3-D (three-dimensional) applications as an SGI workstation, DayStar's product is already just as capable for 2-D (two-dimensional) graphics and multimedia applications, and less costly, as well, the CEO contended. "And our expectation is that it will continue to pull away," he predicted. DayStar decided to forego the term "workstation" so as to avoid any connotations of Unix workstations, according to the DayStar chief. But Lewis also pointed out differences between the Genesis MP and Apple's PowerMacs. The Genesis machine contains more drive bays than the Apple 9500 PowerPC, and can receive a memory upgrade in only six steps, in comparison to more than 20 steps for the 9500, he maintained. But on the other hand, Apple's PowerMacs carry lower pricing, he acknowledged. DayStar does not expect its more costly clones to be found on every desktop, according to the DayStar chief. Radius CEO and President Chuck Berger, another speaker at the shootout, noted that Radius will announce a new Mac clone as well as lower pricing at a press conference on Tuesday, the opening day of MacWorld. Like DayStar, Radius is aiming its clones at "high-end publishing," Berger added. The Radius CEO also pointed to the need for partnering in the Apple licensee market, citing Radius' use of IBM as an OEM (original equipment manufacturer), as well as Radius' distribution arrangement with Ingram Micro. The combined revenues of Radius, DayStar, and Power Computing -- the only manufacturers to be licensed by Apple, so far -- equal only $400 million, he asserted. For Power Computing, the objective is to be the volume leader in the clone market, indicated Stephen Kahng, the company's president and CEO. Power Computing is "very cost competitive," offering "more for less," he remarked. Power Computing recently announced a price cut, Kahng told the audience. The company's future plans include moving to CHPP in 1996, and introducing StarGate for both the Nubus and PCI (Peripheral Component Interconnect), as well as "making multiprocessing more efficient," the company president said. (Jacqueline Emigh/19950808/Press Contact: Peter Himler or Steve Foley, Burson-Marsteller for MacWeek, 212-614-4082/5036) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 95 08/08/95 TRENDS MacWorld - "MacWeek 200" Survey Cites Clones, Windows (NEWS)(TRENDS)(BOS)(00018) MacWorld - "MacWeek 200" Survey Cites Clones, Windows 95 08/08/95 BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS, U.S.A., 1995 AUG 8 (NB) -- MacWeek's newly released survey of the "top 200" Mac users indicates that major market drivers include the emergence of the Power Macintosh, Mac "clones," and Microsoft's Windows 95, said Anita Malnig, MacWeek's director of editorial programming, during a presentation at the newly established MacWeek 200 Forum. MacWeek Forum 200, held the day before today's opening of MacWorld Boston, represents the first time that MacWeek is releasing its findings at a MacWorld show, Malnig noted during the event, which was attended by Newsbytes in Boston. The Power Mac was first unveiled only last April, Malnig recalled. But 92 percent of the organizations in MacWeek's "top 200" already have PowerMacs installed, about the same proportion as for Quadras (94 percent) and Mac IIs (93 percent). Similarly, she added, 90 percent of the "top 50" customers in the education market now have PowerMacs installed, precisely the same percentage that applies to both Quadras and Mac Iis in that market. In addition, 84 percent of MacWeek's "top 200" are planning to buy PowerMacs over the next 12 months, and the same can be said for 88 percent of the "top 50" schools, according to the editorial programming director. The PowerMac is currently the only platform able to run both Macintosh and Windows, and organizations seem strongly interested in these cross-platform capabilities, Malnig asserted. The University of North Carolina, which ranks number two in the education market, has found that its PowerMacs are used by faculty members ranging from math professors teaching Mathematica on the Mac, to an English professor who creates his own courseware for the PC platform, and computer science teachers who run C/C++ programs in both environments, she illustrated. In the Mac clone arena, though, there is not a clearcut consensus. The "top 50" schools are far more likely, at 64 percent, to be planning to buy clones within the next 12 months than the "top 200" organizations, at 46 percent, Malnig said. DayStar Digital, the clone maker with the lowest pricing, received the highest preference rating (84 percent) among the 50 schools participating in the MacWeek survey. Among the "top 500" organizations, on the other hand, only 46 percent said they are likely to purchase clones over the coming 12 months, according to the editorial director. Also in this group, she said, anywhere from 35 to 41 percent of users expected the clones to "add to" planned Apple Mac purchases, instead of "replacing" those purchases, indicating that Mac clones pose little hazard to Apple hardware, while presenting a strong growth opportunity for the Apple OS (operating system). The threat of Windows 95, however, should not be dismissed too lightly, she suggested. Even the Lawrence Livermore National Lab, the number one organization in the "top 500," plans to "keep its options open," citing concerns over declining ease-of-use in installing applications on the Mac, according to Malnig. (Jacqueline Emigh/19950808/Press Contact: Peter Himler or Steve Foley, Burson-Marsteller for MacWeek, 212-614-4082) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 08/08/95 APPLE MacWorld - Apple Plans Targeted Products, Partnering (NEWS)(APPLE)(BOS)(00019) MacWorld - Apple Plans Targeted Products, Partnering 08/08/95 BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS, U.S.A., 1995 AUG 8 (NB) -- Apple Computer is "refocusing" its product strategy in the direction of working with clone makers and other partners to create hardware and software targeted at specific markets, maintained Daniel Eilers, senior VP of Apple's senior VP or Worldwide Marketing and Customer Solutions, at the MacWeek 200 Forum in Boston. "We will not be trying to `do it all alone' any more," the Apple exec added during his talk at the MacWeek forum, an event attended by Newsbytes. "To service the needs of the enterprise, we need different products for different users," the Apple executive told the gathering of Macintosh customers, analysts and journalists. "We're going to find markets. We'll be doing a lot more partnering." Markets that Apple intends to aim for include high-end publishing, education, government, entertainment, and SOHO (small office/home office), among others, according to Eilers. The senior VP noted that Apple's newly established Worldwide Marketing and Customer Solutions arm is organized around this goal. "Each type of user has its own VP" within the new division, he noted. The VPs are responsible for operations and distribution of products for their respective markets. Apple's geographic sales units are responsible for gathering sales data for their regions, but they must submit this data to Worldwide Marketing and Customer Solutions, in addition to meeting sales objectives set by the management of the new division, according to Eilers. Eilers pointed to existing deals with Radius, DayStar Digital, and Power Computing for Macintosh clones -- as well as a recently reached agreement with Oracle around Power Objects -- as examples of the kinds of pacts that Apple would like to pursue in the future. (Jacqueline Emigh/19950708/Press Contact: Peter Himler or Steve Foley, Burson-Marsteller for MacWeek, 212-614-4082) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 08/08/95 ONLINE MacWorld - Apple Intros Internet Connection Kit (NEWS)(ONLINE)(BOS)(00020) MacWorld - Apple Intros Internet Connection Kit 08/08/95 BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS, U.S.A., 1995 AUG 8 (NB) -- In a series of press briefings the day before MacWorld Boston, and later at a "cyber press event" at the Cybersmith Cafe in Cambridge, Massachusetts, Apple introduced the Apple Internet Connection Kit (AICK), a bundle of Web connectivity software from the newly created CyberTech Products division. Also at the "Take a Walk on the Cyberside" event, which was attended by Newsbytes, third-party vendors showed separate products for the Web that included: SDU's FaceSpan interface designer and application builder; AstroByte's BeyondPress, a Quark extension for publishing from Quark to the Web; and ButlerLink/Web, a Web interface to Butler SQL (structured query language) database. During a pre-briefing for Newsbytes earlier that day in Boston, Mike Gallagher, product line manager for Internet products, said that Apple's new AICK incorporates the Apple Internet Dialer, Apple Guide for the Internet, and QuickTime VR (virtual reality) Player, plus the Netscape Navigator and Newswatch browsers, Adobe Acrobat, Claris Emailer Lite, Progressive Networks' RealAudio Player, Fetch FTP (File Transfer Protocol), and NCSA Telnet. In a related announcement, Apple and Netscape announced a deal under which Apple will distribute Netscape, and Netscape has agreed to incorporate both QuickTime and QuickTime VR into Navigator. Gallagher told Newsbytes that nearly 20 percent of all client computers on the Internet are now Macintoshes, and that the same also holds true for 20 percent of all Web servers. The Apple exec added that IPAK is aimed at easing the process of connecting to, and accessing, the Web. But still, the kit is targeted at users with somewhat "sophisticated" skills on the Mac, the product line manager acknowledged. Generally, beginning users would be better off to access the Internet through a button on Apple's Eworld commercial online service, or through the new "Eworld on the Web," he advised. Other current products from the new CyberTech division include the Personal Internet Solution Bundle, for grades K-12, and the Apple Internet Server Solution for the Web, according to Gallagher. In a demo for Newsbytes, Lance Hoffman, product manager for Internet products, showed how you can use Apple's Internet Dialer for point-and-click connectivity to any of four Internet connectivity services, chosen by Apple for their nationwide coverage. Users will be able to link up to any of these four services in under 30 minutes, he maintained. Users will also be able to employ the browser for access through other Internet services, by importing PPP (Point-to-Point Protocol) files from the outside services, Hoffman said. The new Apple Guide for the Internet lets the user find answers to questions by clicking down through several layers, according to Hoffman. The lite version of Claris Emailer that is included in the AICK provides the same capabilities as the full-fledged shrinkwrapped product, with one exception, he said. Unlike the full edition, which allows messages to be sent from and received on either the Internet or commercial online services, Claris Emailer Lite permits these functions to be performed on the Internet only. Also during the meeting, Doug McLean, director of CyberTech Products for Apple, told Newsbytes that the new Apple division intends to introduce another Internet product, Cyberdog, some time in 1996. Cyberdog, he revealed, will employ all of these "enabling technologies:" QuickTime, QuickTime VR, QuickTime Conferencing, AppleScript/AppleEvents, OpenDoc, Open Transport, and MacTCP (Transmission Control Protocol). At the "Cyberside" event later, Apple held additional demos of IPAK. Meanwhile, third-party vendors showed their Internet wares to press and analysts. Joanne Hogan, marketing manager for SDU, told Newsbytes that her company's FaceSpan product is based on AppleScript, saving time in Web page design by eliminating the need for programming language. ButlerLink/Web, another product on display, was created in FaceSpan, she contended. ButlerLink/Web lets end users query the Butler database directly from the Web, asserted Stephen Whiteside, manager of the Enterprise Solutions Group at EveryWare Development Corp. EveryWare is now developing another product that will use CGI (Common Gateway Interface) to provide the same functionality from any SQL database, the group manager told Newsbytes. When not being used for private functions like Apple's "Cyberside," the Cybersmith Cafe operates much like any other restaurant, except that customers can pay extra for using the cafe's computers to access the Web between bites. (Jacqueline Emigh/19950807/Reader Contact: Apple Computer, 408-996-1010; Press Contact: Susie Reeves, Eastwick Communications for Apple, 415-342-8880) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 08/08/95 NETWORK Wang VS Office Gets Microsoft Exchange Server Gateway (NEWS)(NETWORK)(DEN)(00021) Wang VS Office Gets Microsoft Exchange Server Gateway 08/08/95 REDMOND, WASHINGTON, U.S.A., 1995 AUG 8 (NB) -- Wang Laboratories Inc. (NASDAQ: WANG) and Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ: MSFT) said this week they will jointly develop and market a gateway product that will let the approximately 1.5 million Wang VS Office users communicate with users of Microsoft Exchange Server. Microsoft said the second beta release of Exchange Server for the Windows NT operating system version 3.51 and client support for the Windows 3.1, Windows for Workgroups, Windows 95, Windows NT Server, Windows NT Workstation, and MS-DOS operating systems is now available and will be tested by more than 200,000 users worldwide in the next few months. Wang's enterprise mail program VS Office includes directory services, electronic-mail and networked calendar scheduling. Microsoft Exchange Server is a corporate messaging platform that integrates e-mail, personal and group scheduling, electronic forms, and information sharing applications like customer tracking and document databases. As part of the agreement Wang said it will offer system design, implementation and support services for coexistence and transition to help Wang VS Office users work with Microsoft Exchange Server. This week's agreement is the latest in a broad strategic alliance reported by Newsbytes in April of this year. Microsoft said it will include the Microsoft NT operating system components of the gateway in conjunction with Microsoft Exchange Server. Wang will provide consulting services for design and integration, installation, support and training for Microsoft Exchange Server, and will sell both Microsoft Exchange Server and the VS components of the gateway. Wang will also include the gateway software as part of a new release of VS Office, which will include the Email Assessment Services utilizing Wang's suite of assessment tools. The tools measure mail traffic, routing and storage volumes through the VS network to support planning of mail servers and network requirements needed to co-exist with or transition to Microsoft Exchange Server. Microsoft Exchange Server also includes a Forms Designer for developing workgroup applications for Windows-based platforms; a Load Simulator, which allows administrators to determine hardware requirements by simulating their anticipated user of the messaging systems; and a Performance Optimizer, for fine-tuning software installation on the server. (Jim Mallory/19950808/Press contact: Ed Pignone, Wang Labs, 508-967-4912; Kari Day, Waggener Edstrom for Microsoft, 206-637-9097; Public contact: Microsoft, 206-882-8080 or 800-426-9400; Wang Labs, tel 508-459-9000, fax 508-967-6045) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 08/08/95 ONLINE America Online Launches Game Channel (NEWS)(ONLINE)(MSP)(00022) America Online Launches Game Channel 08/08/95 VIENNA, VIRGINIA, U.S.A., 1995 AUG 8 (NB) -- America Online Inc. (NASDAQ:AMER) is both broadening its interactive game options, and making it easier to find all of its games in cyberspace. The new "AOL Games Channel" will contain contests both old and new. "We didn't have most of the games we now have in the new area," Judy Tashbook, AOL spokesperson, told Newsbytes. An additional plus with the Games Channel is that the matches held there are truly interactive, she said. "It's not like the dinner theater murders that were the rage in the 1980's, and it's not another game of 'Clue.' It's really specific to interactive online services." One of the most exciting new areas on the Games Channel, in Tashbook's opinion, is the Boxer-Jam Productions site. There, Julann Griffin, the creator of TV's "Jeopardy!," is developing original online game shows. The first will be called "Strike A Match," a word association game for one to three players. The area will launch on AOL this fall, Tashbook said. Other games either recently launched or that will be launched soon include "Federation," by Interactive Broadcasting Ltd. The game is a multiplayer space fantasy role-playing adventure, that combines elements of space exploration and economics. Players try to build empires, score in politics, and climb the social ladder. A company called Yoyodyne Entertainment has introduced a knowledge game called "You're Not Smart Enough," with the grand prize being a Mazda Miata. Yoyodyne is also developing other games that use music, sound, and puzzles to challenge player's skills. Other new games include: "Inspector Forsooth's Sunday Mystery Nights," which challenges players sleuthing skills; and Nintendo's "Power Source Magazine Online" for action game fans. These new offerings join existing online games like "Neverwinter Nights," "RabbitJack's Casino," and NTN's "Countdown Trivia," which Newsbytes recently covered. AOL also said Lawrence Schick will head the Games Channel. Schick is a 16-year veteran in the interactive entertainment business, having designed or produced almost every kind of game. The Games Channel is at Keyword: Games, and will be an option on AOL's main menu in the fall. (Bob Woods/19950808/Press Contact: Judy Tashbook, America Online, 703-918-1452; Public Contact: America Online, 800-827-6364; Games Channel, Keyword: Games) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 08/08/95 TRENDS Project Maya, A Future View Of Virtual Actors (NEWS)(TRENDS)(SFO)(00023) Project Maya, A Future View Of Virtual Actors 08/08/95 LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1995 AUG 8 (NB) -- Alias/Wavefront, a developer of 2D (two-dimensional) and 3D (three-dimensional) professional graphics for video, has unveiled the first stage of Project Maya, designed to "lead the computer video graphics industry to a new level of everyday use of virtual actors, creatures, and environments." Calling Project Maya the next-generation software in which artists and directors may create and interact with a complete virtual studio environment, Alias/Wavefront says it uses conceptual design technology to bring the industry a new level of realism. Project Maya is also designed to provide artists with a more creative experience through its digital tools and decrease the time it takes to develop and deliver complex video graphics to directors. If you have not heard of Alias/Wavefront, most likely you have seen finished products produced with its tools. Clients using its tools or products designed by its tools include Sony, Sega, Nintendo, Industrial Light & Magic, Disney, Angel Studios, CAPCOM, AT&T, Ford, Kodak, and Timex. Rob Burgess, president of Alias/Wavefront, told Newsbytes, "Project Maya is the next-generation software initiative for the entire line of our products. In the next year, all of our products will be upgraded to Maya." Speaking of some of the features Maya offers, he said, "Today, computer graphics artists have to spend too much time with geometry rather than what they are really interested in. Take, for instance, a smile: until now an artist has had to work more with geometry than the idea of the smile itself. Now with Maya, we provide the higher level of abstraction than ever before. With this product, graphics become more compelling and real." He continued, "Maya also allows artists to build their own interface or creative environment with the tools they choose. It lets artists work with two hands instead of just one hand on the mouse. Combining the ability to create a custom environment for the artist with the power of these tools, a novice graphics artist will become an expert in a very short period of time." Accompanying the Project Maya preview are major releases of Alias Animator 7.0, Alias Studio Version 7.0, Auto Studio Version 7.0, Alias Designer Version 7.0, and a new computer-aided design package called ExploreVision. The company also says it plans to upgrade or enhance every product in its family of design tools by November. These high-end design tools are developed for use on Silicon Graphics (NYSE:SGI) computers. Known for their use in the creation of the latest video graphics in feature films, television programs, commercials and other uses, SGI systems have been the exclusive platform for Alias/Wavefront products. Burgess now says the company is ready to migrate the tools to other computer systems. The first debut of products created out of the Maya initiative are being shown at SIGGRAPH '95 today along with the company's new releases. A graphics artist's electronic drafting table, SmartDesk, highlights the company's display. (Patrick McKenna/19950808/Press Contact: Jennifer Rothert Piercey, Silicon Graphics, 415-390-2019) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 08/08/95 IBM IBM Names Head Of New Consumer Division (NEWS)(IBM)(TOR)(00024) IBM Names Head Of New Consumer Division 08/08/95 SOMERS, NEW YORK, U.S.A., 1995 AUG 8 (NB) -- IBM (NYSE:IBM) is moving ahead with plans for a new consumer division, first revealed by Chairman and Chief Executive Louis Gerstner in a recent meeting with investment analysts. The company has named James A. Firestone, 40, to head the division. The division is meant to be a single development, marketing, and distribution organization for IBM consumer products, including the firm's Aptiva line of home computers, multimedia software, and online services. Speaking to investment analysts at the end of July, Gerstner admitted that IBM has problems in the consumer market. "We've got to work on the perception that we have expensive products," he said. "We've got to improve the look and feel of our products. We need to learn to do much better at high-volume, low-margin manufacturing." IBM defines the consumer market as people buying information technology with their own money, Gerstner said. This market is growing fast, he said, "obviously being driven by the underlying and very basic long-term trend toward computer literacy." Like Gerstner and several other senior executives IBM has hired in the past few years, Firestone is a former employee of American Express. Most recently, though, he was president of Ameritech Consumer Services, a unit of the midwestern regional Bell operating company that delivers phone, data, and multimedia services to residential customers. Spokeswoman Allison Johnson of IBM said Firestone is due to start work at IBM in mid-September, and it is not yet known when the consumer division will be in full operation. The number of employees who will work in the division also "has yet to be worked out," she said. The consumer division will be based in Somers, also home of the IBM Personal Computer Co. Johnson said it is not certain whether some operations will be moved from other locations. (Grant Buckler/19950808/Press Contact: Allison Johnson, IBM, 914-766-3457) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 08/08/95 ONLINE CompuServe Announces Web Server, New E-Mail (NEWS)(ONLINE)(MSP)(00025) CompuServe Announces Web Server, New E-Mail 08/08/95 COLUMBUS, OHIO, U.S.A., 1995 AUG 8 (NB) -- CompuServe is moving forward with two separate Internet-related initiatives, the company announced. It is making available a beta version of its "Internet Office Web Server," and it improving its electronic-mail service. Company officials announced the new Web server at CompuServe's Internet Division in Seattle. It is described as the "first secure Web server" to provide support for both Secure-Hypertext Transfer Protocol (S-HTTP), and Secure Sockets Layer. It also includes hypertext markup language (HTML) authoring tools like "HoTMetal Pro" from Softquad, and search engines from Architect. The new server also has firewall support and caching, support for common gateway interface (CGI) scripts, and the ability for companies to host multiple home pages so each customer can have their own unique URL (uniform resource locator) page. The server will be available for SunOS 4.1.3, Solaris 2.X, HP-UX 9&10, and BSDI operating systems by the end of the third quarter of 1995. A Windows NT version will follow at the beginning of the fourth quarter of 1995. A non-secure edition of the server is available for free via the World Wide Web at http://www.spry.com . Copies are also available by calling 800-777-9638. CompuServe also announced it's enhancing its e-mail service on its online network, and also removing virtually all of its mail surcharges. As of September 10, there will be no surcharges on mail sent or received via CompuServe, the Internet, or a variety of other gateways. Also, all charges relating to the size of the message and the number of recipients have been dropped. Services like telex, fax, and post office mail will continue to be charged separately. The service will also start to supplement its widely-known numeric addresses with personal addresses that use names. "It seems like a natural progression to do," Jeff Shafer, CompuServe spokesperson, told Newsbytes. "The numbers served their purpose for the time, but this is now something we can take of using names," he said. "We would all probably prefer to be called by a name instead of a number." Current CompuServe members can register for personal addresses this month, with a full roll-out expected by November of this year. Other new features include: a Mail Manager, which greatly enhances CompuServe members' control of their e-mail; an automatic responding feature to incoming e-mail; and Multipurpose Internet Mail Extensions (MIME) support. Members can also be paged when they have e-mail waiting, if their paging service is hooked up to MobileComm, PageNet, PageMart, or SkyTel, officials said. (Bob Woods/19950808/Press Contact: Jeff Shafer, CompuServe, 614-538-4571 or 614-538-4553; Public Contact: CompuServe, 800-524- 3388, Internet e-mail usainfo@compuserve.com, Internet World Wide Web http://www.compuserve.com ) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 08/08/95 ONLINE ****Microsoft Reveals MSN Pricing (NEWS)(ONLINE)(DEN)(00026) ****Microsoft Reveals MSN Pricing 08/08/95 REDMOND, WASHINGTON, U.S.A., 1995 AUG 8 (NB) -- Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ: MSFT) said today it will charge $4.95 per month for basic access to its online service set for launch in just over two weeks, and will offer the online service at no charge for 30 days or 10 hours, which ever comes first, to the first 500,000 subscribers. Once that goal is reached subscriptions will be suspended temporarily. The software company announced a variety of pricing plans for Microsoft Network (MSN) access. US users can sign up for the Annual Plan, the Frequent User Monthly Plan and the Standard Monthly Plan. There will also be a special Charter Member Annual Plan to the first 500,000 MSN members. The Charter Member Annual Plan will cost $39.95 per year and includes three hours of usage per month. Each additional hour is $2.50. The Frequent User Monthly Plan is priced at $19.95 per month and gets you 20 hours of usage per month, with each additional hour priced at $2.00. The Standard Monthly Plan carries a $4.95 per month price tag and includes three hours of monthly usage with a $2.00 per hour charge once the basic three hours have been exceeded. George Meng, MSN product manager, told Newsbytes once the free 30 days or 10 hours has expires for the first half-million MSN subscribers they will automatically roll over to the standard monthly plan if they don't elect one of the other options or don't cancel. Meng said the only way you will be able to access MSN will be through the built-in hooks in Windows 95, Microsoft's new operating system and graphical user interface also set to launch on August 24. All Windows 95 users will have to do is click on the MSN icon to reach the service. However, the US Department of Justice is currently considering filing an anti-trust suit against Microsoft, based at least in part on complaints from competitors like CompuServe, America Online, and Prodigy. Those service providers have to pay to have their access software distributed, but Microsoft Windows 95 users will get it as part of the program. That is a formidable threat to existing services since millions of current Windows users are expected to upgrade to Windows 95 and most IBM-compatible PCs that ship after August 24 will offer Windows 95. Meng declined to comment on Microsoft's contingency plan in the event DOJ decides Microsoft is engaging in anti-competitive practices and can convince a judge to issue an order to delay shipment of Windows 95. So did Greg Shaw, corporate legal spokesperson for Microsoft. MSN subscribers will have full Internet access, including an e-mail account, access to the World Wide Web where available, and access to thousands of newsgroups and hundreds of special interest bulletin boards. MSN will also offer news services, multimedia reference information and a wide spectrum of content and services from independent content providers. Microsoft said MSN will be available in 52 countries, with access software available in 26 localized languages. Membership is priced in 18 currencies. Web access, pricing and plans available vary by country. The company said access time will be rounded to the nearest minute based on 30-second increments. In order works if you are online for two minutes 30 seconds, you will be charged for two minutes. If you are online for two minutes and 31 seconds your online time will be charged for three minutes. Meng told Newsbytes Microsoft plans a Macintosh client access software for MSN in about 12 months, and also a Windows NT client. However, Windows 3.1 uses will have to upgrade to Windows 95 or switch to Windows NT if they want to join MSN. (Jim Mallory/19950808/Press contact: June McLaren Peters, Waggener Edstrom for Microsoft, 206-637-9097; Public contact: Microsoft, 206-882-8080 or 800-426-9400) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 08/08/95 ONLINE An Internet Of 3-D & Virtual Reality (NEWS)(ONLINE)(SFO)(00027) An Internet Of 3-D & Virtual Reality 08/08/95 LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1995 AUG 8 (NB) -- It may not be that big yet, but a three-dimensional (3-D) Internet is already in development. DIVE Labs is demonstrating the ability to view 3-D objects with its Virtual Reality Modeling Language (VRML) Browser at SIGGRAPH. Peter Rothman, president of Dive, told Newsbytes, "3-D may not be really big on the Internet, but a lot of people are saying it is the next big 'killer application' for the Internet. There are already more than a couple hundred 3-D objects which can be viewed on the Net. No-one can really tell how large 3-D will grow, but the technology is already available and it (3-D) could happen in 24 months." Called the Amber Browser, Dive's VRML product may be added to any browser that supports helper applications. Rothman said the company has worked with Netscape's Navigator in developing the product. The software runs under Windows NT and supports head mounted displays and advanced graphics accelerators such as those incorporating the 3D Labs Glint chip. The browser will work with Windows 95. A beta version of Amber may is available free of charge from the Dive World Wide Web site (http://www.divelabs.com ) and will also be bundled with Dive's Amber GL virtual world development environment. Rothman says a multi-user, shared environment is just around the corner. Here users will meet on the same Web server and be able to communicate with one another. The integration of voice is under development, although no specific dates are projected for such a feature. As the software is enhanced, he said glove interfaces and other 3-D/VR formats will be supported. There are still a few drawbacks to a full 3-D or VR Internet. Rothman says there is a need to build better 3-D tools. "Right now, a lot of developers are chiseling objects out with hard-to-use tools. The process is slow and cumbersome." Another drawback is the cost of headsets or 3-D glasses. The Amber Browser supports Virtual I/O's "i-glasses" which cost as much as $700 to $800. A third concern is whether the industry really finds 3-D or VR to be an important and cost-worthy Internet element. The Amber Browser is being previewed at the Microsoft and Fujitsu booths as part of the SIGGRAPH show. Interested parties may also see a demonstration of the technology at Creativity 95 in San Francisco on August 14. (Patrick McKenna/19950808/Press Contact: Peter Rothman, Dive Labs, 408-469-1720) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 08/08/95 ONLINE WebFX Browser Add-On Views Web 3-D, Virtual Worlds (NEWS)(ONLINE)(MSP)(00028) WebFX Browser Add-On Views Web 3-D, Virtual Worlds 08/08/95 WOODSTOCK, NEW YORK, U.S.A., 1995 AUG 8 (NB) -- Paper Software Inc. is in a "good" bind, if there is such a thing. The same day it announced "WebFX," which is an add-on to existing Internet browsers that enables users to experience virtual reality and three- dimensional (3-D) effects on the World Wide Web, its Web site received so many hits that the company put out a call for "mirror" sites. "We're normally very quiet with our developments," Michael McCue, president of Paper Software, told Newsbytes. "We announced to the VRML (virtual reality modeling language) mailing list that the software was ready at the site. There was so much demand pent up for a Windows 3.1-compatible VRML viewer, there were 13,000 hits in that first day," he said. Now, mirror sites either are being, or have been, set up in diverse places like California and Poland. WebFX embeds itself within today's popular Web browsers, like Quarterdeck's Mosaic and Netscape, as a "helper" application, McCue said. When users click on a VRML script hotlink, a window opens, and the Internet surfer can then take advantage of the 3-D world they've just "walked" into. For example, McCue said a virtual reality model of San Francisco currently exists, where users can "walk" the streets of the West coast city. When they get to a building that has a Web site, they click on the building, and are taken directly to that site. A unique feature of WebFX, McCue said, is the fact it supports 3-D space in Internet Relay Chat (IRC) rooms. This allows chatters to assign themselves a picture or some kind of visual character, and interact in real-time with others who have rendered themselves in a similar graphical nature. WebFX also provides for advanced multitasking and background rendering, superior physics based navigation, and in-place VRML scene editing, officials said. Unsupported beta versions of WebFX 1.0 running on Quarterdeck's Mosaic are available for downloading from Paper Software's Web site at http://www.paperinc.com . The Netscape version is due out in a couple of weeks, which will probably result in another surge of hits to Paper Software's Web and mirror sites, McCue said. WebFX will ship in commercial form in September, at a price of $49.99. It will be free for educational and non-profit use, and for evaluation by commercial users. (Bob Woods/19950808/Press Contacts: Craig Grabiner or Erica Swerdlow, EBS Public Relations, 708-714-8600, Internet e-mail ebs@ebspr.com; Public Contact: Paper Software, Internet World Wide Web http://www.paperinc.com ) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 08/08/95 TELECOM Sweden's Ericsson To Supply Water Net To Libya (NEWS)(TELECOM)(LON)(00029) Sweden's Ericsson To Supply Water Net To Libya 08/08/95 STOCKHOLM, SWEDEN, 1995 AUG 8 (NB) -- Ericsson, the Swedish communications specialist, has signed a $100 million contract with the Dong Ah Consortium of South Korea. Terms of the contract call for the Swedish telecoms company to work with Dong Ah to supply and install a dedicated control and communications system for Phase II of the Great Man-Made River Project in Libya. Ericsson will be responsible for the design, supply and installation of the system into Libya's Permanent Control and Communication System (PCCS). This network includes process control, radio transmission, management control system, and telephone exchanges with related cabling. Plans call for all of the equipment to be designed and produced in Sweden and Norway. Shipment will begin in the last quarter of 1995 and all the installation and implantation works will be completed by 1999. The Great Man-Made River Project in Libya involves the concentration of up to two million cubic meters of underground water per day and transfer for distribution in the coastal plain around Tripoli. According to Bo Hildingsson, director of sales and marketing Ericsson Business Networks, the new contract confirms the company's position in the field of global communication specialists. The project is the largest of its type in the world, Newsbytes notes, with plans scheduled to take on more than 13,000 engineers, skilled technicians and laborers. The complete project will cost more than $9 billion. "This contract further strengthens Ericsson's position as a leading supplier in the growing market for total communications solutions for dedicated operators. The contract also confirms the excellent cooperation we have had with Dong Ah since 1978," Hildingsson said. (Sylvia Dennis/19950808/Press & Reader Contact: Thor Anderson, Ericsson, +46-8-422-0316) (SUMMARY)(GENERAL)(MSP)(00030) Newsbytes Daily Summary 08/08/95 MINNEAPOLIS, MINNESOTA, U.S.A., 1995 AUG 08 (NB) -- These are capsules of all today's news stories: ======================================================================== ------------| N E W S B Y T E S D A I L Y S U M M A R Y |---------- ------------| Tuesday, August 8, 1995 |---------- ======================================================================== (c) Newsbytes News Network (Tm) Editor in Chief: Wendy Woods ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Newsbytes News Network is a computer and telecom industry news wire and digitized picture service. Our news stream includes more than 30 daily first-hand reported US and international news stories about computing and telecommunications. For more information, please e-mail to 'administrator@newsbytes.com' ------------------------------------------------------------------------ CATEGORY HEADLINES (*** indicates today's top stories) STORY # ======================================================================== APPLE Apple Intros QuickDraw 3D For Graphics..................... 07 APPLE ****MacWorld - DayStar Digital & Radius Intro Clones...... 17 APPLE MacWorld - Apple Plans Targeted Products, Partnering....... 19 BUSINESS Informix Unveils European Information Superstore........... 04 BUSINESS Exabyte Expands European Manufacturing In Scotland......... 06 BUSINESS EMC Wins Singapore's Largest Disk Storage Sale............. 14 BUSINESS CA & Sun Team On Enterprise Management..................... 16 CHIPS ****Toshiba Plans US Chip Plant With IBM.................. 10 GENERAL India News Roundup......................................... 15 HEALTH Managed Care Organizations To Use Physician's Online....... 05 IBM IBM Names Head Of New Consumer Division.................... 24 LEGAL UK - Novell Talks Tough On "Gray Market" Imports........... 03 LEGAL Italy - Govt Detains Man With Bomb-Making Data On Disk..... 08 NETWORK Wang VS Office Gets Microsoft Exchange Server Gateway...... 21 ONLINE Spyglass Intros New Web Browser, Server.................... 09 ONLINE Internet Update............................................ 11 ONLINE MacWorld - Apple Intros Internet Connection Kit............ 20 ONLINE America Online Launches Game Channel....................... 22 ONLINE CompuServe Announces Web Server, New E-Mail................ 25 ONLINE ****Microsoft Reveals MSN Pricing......................... 26 ONLINE An Internet Of 3-D & Virtual Reality....................... 27 ONLINE WebFX Browser Add-On Views Web 3-D, Virtual Worlds......... 28 TELECOM Oftel Releases Pricing Clamps On British Telecom........... 12 TELECOM Competition Forces Belgium Telco To Cut Call Costs......... 13 TELECOM Sweden's Ericsson To Supply Water Net To Libya............. 29 TRENDS European Telecoms Report Shows High Costs.................. 02 TRENDS MacWorld - "MacWeek 200" Survey Cites Clones, Windows 95... 18 TRENDS Project Maya, A Future View Of Virtual Actors.............. 23 WINDOWS MCC Launches Hypermedia Authoring Tools Project............ 01 ======================================================================== These are the headlines and first paragraphs of each story, in order: 1 -> MCC Launches Hypermedia Authoring Tools Project -- The Microelectronics and Computer Technology Corporation (MCC) has launched a research project designed to speed the development and deployment of easy-to-use hypermedia authoring tools. 2 -> European Telecoms Report Shows High Costs -- The latest report from Tarifica, the bi-monthly telecoms tariff update from Omnicom PPI Limited, claims to show that, although the price of calling internationally from some European countries is falling steadily, those countries are still expensive. 3 -> UK - Novell Talks Tough On "Gray Market" Imports -- Novell UK has announced it is prepared to take legal action against anyone importing its software from outside of the European Commission (EC) territories without its permission. 4 -> Informix Unveils European Information Superstore -- Informix, which is now billing itself as "the open distributed data management company," has formally opened its Information Superstore, a dedicated center for datawarehousing based at its Feltham, Middlesex headquarters. 5 -> Managed Care Organizations To Use Physician's Online -- Physicians' Online said that two of the nation's largest managed care organizations (MCOs) will use the company's electronic services to improve lines of communication with their affiliated physicians. The companies involved are Louisville, Kentucky-based Humana Inc., and Mid Atlantic Medical Services Inc. (MAMSI) of Rockville, Maryland. 6 -> Exabyte Expands European Manufacturing In Scotland -- Exabyte, the tape storage products company, has announced the expansion of manufacturing facility in Falkirk, Scotland. According to the company, the aim is to "get closer" to its international customer base. 7 -> Apple Intros QuickDraw 3D For Graphics -- Apple Computer Inc.(NASDAQ: AAPL)has announced that its QuickDraw 3D graphics software is now available. The software is included with all new Apple Power Macintosh 7500 and 8500 personal computers. 8 -> Italy - Govt Detains Man With Bomb-Making Data On Disk -- In an unusual legal ruling in Italy that could have important ramifications under European Community (EC) law, a Trieste judge has ruled that customs officials were operating correctly in handing a suspicious Moroccan over to the police on suspected terrorism charges, after the customs officers discovered instructions on how to make a bomb recorded on floppy disk on his person. 9 -> Spyglass Intros New Web Browser, Server -- Spyglass Inc. (NASDAQ:SPYG) has formally announced a new version of its Enhanced Mosaic Internet World Wide Web graphical browser for the Windows and Macintosh platforms, along with a Web server for Windows NT and Unix platforms. 10 -> ****Toshiba Plans US Chip Plant With IBM -- Toshiba Corporation (TOKYO:6502) and IBM Corporation (NASDAQ:IBM) have announced in Tokyo that the two companies will be establishing a joint venture company to manufacture 64 megabit (Mb) DRAM chips in the United States. 11 -> Internet Update -- In this update of new resources and services on the Internet: FujiFilm rebut Kodak, Solar energy products and information, Canadian multilingual TV service, Complete motor sports resource, New address for tennis information, Finnish virtual embassy, WebABLE debuts, and ora.com magazine online. 12 -> Oftel Releases Pricing Clamps On British Telecom -- Oftel, the British Government- appointed telecoms watch-dog, has announced the release of pricing controls on British Telecom's line rentals from next year onwards. 13 -> Competition Forces Belgium Telco To Cut Call Costs -- The sheer pace of competition in the call resale market has meant that the cost of calling from even the most non-liberalized countries within the European Commission is falling like a stone. This perhaps explains why Belgacom has announced a whole raft of price cuts on its international tariffs, with price cuts of as much as 67 percent on some routes. 14 -> EMC Wins Singapore's Largest Disk Storage Sale -- Mainframe and midrange storage systems firm EMC has secured the single largest DASD (direct access storage device) sale in Singapore's history, signing a US$2 million deal with Singapore Airlines. 15 -> India News Roundup -- In today's roundup of India news: SCSI Card Maker to Tap More Markets, Usha and Samsung Plan Semiconductor JV, HCL Comnet & Japan Radio Tie-up for Radio Trunking Market, Toolex Alpha Ups its Stake in India. 16 -> CA & Sun Team On Enterprise Management -- Computer Associates International Inc. (NYSE:CA) and Sun Microsystems Inc. (NASDAQ:SUNW) have announced plans for an integrated network and systems management product. The as-yet-unnamed product will carry both CA's and Sun's brand names. 17 -> ****MacWorld - DayStar Digital & Radius Intro Clones -- DayStar Digital and Radius will both introduce new Macintosh clones at MacWorld Boston today, and Power Computing has plans for future enhancements to its "Mac compatibles," officials of the three companies said yesterday during a "Clone Shootout" at the MacWeek 200 Forum in Boston. 18 -> MacWorld - "MacWeek 200" Survey Cites Clones, Windows 95 -- MacWeek's newly released survey of the "top 200" Mac users indicates that major market drivers include the emergence of the Power Macintosh, Mac "clones," and Microsoft's Windows 95, said Anita Malnig, MacWeek's director of editorial programming, during a presentation at the newly established MacWeek 200 Forum. 19 -> MacWorld - Apple Plans Targeted Products, Partnering -- Apple Computer is "refocusing" its product strategy in the direction of working with clone makers and other partners to create hardware and software targeted at specific markets, maintained Daniel Eilers, senior VP of Apple's senior VP or Worldwide Marketing and Customer Solutions, at the MacWeek 200 Forum in Boston. 20 -> MacWorld - Apple Intros Internet Connection Kit -- In a series of press briefings the day before MacWorld Boston, and later at a "cyber press event" at the Cybersmith Cafe in Cambridge, Massachusetts, Apple introduced the Apple Internet Connection Kit (AICK), a bundle of Web connectivity software from the newly created CyberTech Products division. 21 -> Wang VS Office Gets Microsoft Exchange Server Gateway -- Wang Laboratories Inc. (NASDAQ: WANG) and Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ: MSFT) said this week they will jointly develop and market a gateway product that will let the approximately 1.5 million Wang VS Office users communicate with users of Microsoft Exchange Server. 22 -> America Online Launches Game Channel -- America Online Inc. (NASDAQ:AMER) is both broadening its interactive game options, and making it easier to find all of its games in cyberspace. The new "AOL Games Channel" will contain contests both old and new. 23 -> Project Maya, A Future View Of Virtual Actors -- Alias/Wavefront, a developer of 2D (two-dimensional) and 3D (three-dimensional) professional graphics for video, has unveiled the first stage of Project Maya, designed to "lead the computer video graphics industry to a new level of everyday use of virtual actors, creatures, and environments." 24 -> IBM Names Head Of New Consumer Division -- IBM (NYSE:IBM) is moving ahead with plans for a new consumer division, first revealed by Chairman and Chief Executive Louis Gerstner in a recent meeting with investment analysts. The company has named James A. Firestone, 40, to head the division. 25 -> CompuServe Announces Web Server, New E-Mail -- CompuServe is moving forward with two separate Internet-related initiatives, the company announced. It is making available a beta version of its "Internet Office Web Server," and it improving its electronic-mail service. 26 -> ****Microsoft Reveals MSN Pricing -- Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ: MSFT) said today it will charge $4.95 per month for basic access to its online service set for launch in just over two weeks, and will offer the online service at no charge for 30 days or 10 hours, which ever comes first, to the first 500,000 subscribers. Once that goal is reached subscriptions will be suspended temporarily. 27 -> An Internet Of 3-D & Virtual Reality -- It may not be that big yet, but a three-dimensional (3-D) Internet is already in development. DIVE Labs is demonstrating the ability to view 3-D objects with its Virtual Reality Modeling Language (VRML) Browser at SIGGRAPH. 28 -> WebFX Browser Add-On Views Web 3-D, Virtual Worlds -- Paper Software Inc. is in a "good" bind, if there is such a thing. The same day it announced "WebFX," which is an add-on to existing Internet browsers that enables users to experience virtual reality and three- dimensional (3-D) effects on the World Wide Web, its Web site received so many hits that the company put out a call for "mirror" sites. 29 -> Sweden's Ericsson To Supply Water Net To Libya -- Ericsson, the Swedish communications specialist, has signed a $100 million contract with the Dong Ah Consortium of South Korea. (Ian Stokell/19950808) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 08/07/95 ONLINE UK - Electronic Telegraph Details Web Users (NEWS)(ONLINE)(LON)(00001) UK - Electronic Telegraph Details Web Users 08/07/95 LONDON, ENGLAND, 1995 AUG 7 (NB) -- The Electronic Telegraph, the online version of the Daily and Sunday Telegraph, the London newspapers, has revealed the results of a demographic analysis of its readers. According to Hugo Drayton, the Electronic Telegraph's marketing manager, the analysis shows that some 35.3 percent of users are from the professional or managerial sector. The analysis, which was carried out earlier this summer by polling most of the 90,000 registered users of the Internet World Wide Web site, also shows that 35.9 percent are aged between 25 and 34, while 90.7 of users are male. Commenting on the results, Drayton said that they are very encouraging. "As well as being hailed as the world's best online newspaper, our reader profile is also becoming more professional -- this is of great interest for the Electronic Telegraph editorially, but also to potential advertisers," he said. The Telegraph has also conducted what it claims is the first ever qualitative research live on the Internet on users of the Electronic Telegraph. The research was carried out using "traditional" focus groups, online "cyberspace" groups -- using Internet Relay Chat (IRC) -- and telephone conference groups. The research shows that, as well as the 35.3 percent professional/managerial category of user, users fell into student (17.7 percent), information technology professionals (15.7 percent), and academic (14.8 percent) groups, as well as those who have their own business or who are self-employed (5.4 percent). As well as the 35.9 percent 25-34 age band, 23.3 percent were aged 35 to 44, while 18.5 percent were aged 16-24. Meanwhile, 13.7 percent fell into the 45-54 age category, while 4.4 percent were aged 55 or over, 1.7 percent were aged under 10, and 0.3 percent were aged 11-15. The remaining 2.2 percent of users were aged "unknown." The Electronic Telegraph, which is located at http://www.telegraph.co.uk, is now claimed to be the busiest Web site in Europe, with up to 10,000 individuals accessing 100,000 pages every day. (Steve Gold/19950804/Press Contact: Katie Hatfield, Daily Telegraph, +44-171-538-6256; Reader Contact: Electronic Telegraph, +44-181-371-1200) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 08/07/95 NETWORK France - RAD Supplies Eurostar With Token Ring Net (NEWS)(NETWORK)(LON)(00002) France - RAD Supplies Eurostar With Token Ring Net 08/07/95 PARIS, FRANCE, 1995 AUG 7 (NB) -- RAD Data Communications has signed a contract with SNCF, the French Railways group, to install its RADring Token Ring hub network system at the newly opened French Railways' booking offices at Waterloo Station in London, England. Waterloo Station is the UK end of the popular Eurostar "channel tunnel" trains that route to Paris, France and Brussels, Belgium. According to the RAD, an Israeli company, the installation was carried out by Catell Communications, a RAD systems integrator and services company. According to Alex Penner, technical director with French Railways, Catell designed and implemented the hub of the French Railways' Token Ring network and will also be responsible for its maintenance. Now that the network is in place, bookings on the Eurostar computer network, which is centered in Paris, France, can be easily be made, claims the company, despite the fact that booking terminals are in a different country. The RAD network ring will also be used to manage many different office operations, concentrating on the sale of tickets for customers wanting to travel to France via the "Chunnel." Penner explained that, as the new transport facility has become more and more popular, it has called for a more sophisticated ticketing system, capable of performing "quickly and efficiently." Various offices across England are connected to the French Railways net and effectively conclude many transactions in the big cities. "We recently opened an additional office at London Waterloo to cater for the increasingly popular Eurostar sales activity and as an additional site to our existing sales sites in Piccadilly, London, Manchester, and Glasgow. French Railways is investing considerable resources and finances in order to develop its highly successful rail and Motorail products into the UK market," he explained. The growing network not only distributes the tickets for Chunnel travel, but also supports all types of tickets sales for train travel to more than 5,000 destinations in Europe. Currently the network runs over three floors in Waterloo with 200 potential users connecting to 100 LAN (local area network) users in Piccadilly. The network is growing quickly and by the end of 1996 will cover two buildings. British and foreign business partners can also remotely connect to the network. "Our national tele-sales operation supports sales of, not only Eurostar, but also rail tickets to 5,000 continental destinations. With the growth in the business travel, the reliability of this service was therefore of the utmost importance. From the outset, we knew that we needed to find a reliable and flexible network system that could grow with us as our LAN traffic needs changed over the coming months. RAD offered the best solution to interwork with our existing LAN at the Piccadilly site with the RADring solution," Penner said. (Sylvia Dennis/19950804/Press Contact: Patrick Hudgell, RAD Communications, +44-1494-443315) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 08/07/95 TRENDS Germany - IT Is Not Advancing Fast Enough (NEWS)(TRENDS)(LON)(00003) Germany - IT Is Not Advancing Fast Enough 08/07/95 FRANKFURT, GERMANY, 1995 AUG 7 (NB) -- The normally quiet German Electronic Industry Association, the Zentralverband Elektronik und Elektronikindustrie, or the ZVEI, has issued a warning to German industrialists that Germany is not developing its native information technology (IT) industry as quickly as the rest of Europe. According to Joerg Harms, the head of the trade and industry association's IT division, the results of a recent survey among its members showed that German companies only had around 12 computers per 100 staff, compared to 22 in Switzerland, and a high 30 per 100 staff in the UK. "Germany today is in the lower to middle ranks when it comes to information technology distribution," he told journalists, adding that, as a minimum, schools should begin by introducing IT "across the board" and that there should be "an Internet link in every classroom." In a press conference to detail the results of the survey to the press, Ernst Stoeckl, the popular head of AEG, and the president of the ZVEI, said that substantial change in the understanding and promotion of IT in Germany is needed. "Information is a central factor of production which is becoming all the more important alongside the classical factors such as land, labor, and capital," he said. Interestingly, Mike Schwarzer, a senior IT spokesman for the ZVEI, said that, despite the lack of IT penetration into the social infrastructure of Germany, the country has one of highest densities of state-of-the-art telephone networks in Europe. Despite this, the high cost of phone calls in the country was a major dissuading factor in persuading Germany industry to embrace the world of datacomms. Nor are the results of the much-promised IT revolution going to be purely fiscal, the ZVEI said. Using IT correctly could save the country around 250 million liters of fuel a year by avoiding unnecessary journeys. (Sylvia Dennis/19950804/Press & Reader Contact: ZVEIk, tel +49-69-63020, fax +49-69-6302-317) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 00 08/07/95 TELECOM New Jersey Utility Spreads Telecom Test To 1, (NEWS)(TELECOM)(WAS)(00004) New Jersey Utility Spreads Telecom Test To 1,000 08/07/95 NEWARK, NEW JERSEY, U.S.A., 1995 AUG 7 (NB) -- Public Service Electric and Gas Co. has reached a deal with Garden State Cable to be the communications provider for the Newark-based utility's 1,000 customer trial of the AT&T Integrated Broadband Utility Solution. The AT&T product, developed with PSE&G, will provide two-way interactive customer communications and energy management. The utility did a 10-home, proof-of-concept of the technology in April. The cable provider will be responsible for providing the two-way hybrid fiber-coaxial cable network to support the system, as well as the cable connections of the customers to the network. Garden State will also house specialized data communications equipment at its facilities, as well as provide the data link to local PSE&G facilities. Al Morgan, a PSE&G consultant, told Newsbytes the utility services available in the system include remote metering, theft detection, load profiling, a test of real-time pricing, appliance cycling, and remote connection and disconnection. In its test of real-time pricing, Morgan said, "We are leaning toward an aggressive once-per-hour approach," he said. The level of entertainment and productivity offerings on the system, which will include conventional cable, and possibly access to the Internet, are up to Garden State. The customers selected for the trial will be a representative mix of residential, commercial, and industrial gas and electric customers in three communities. Garden State will make the connections in December and the test will start immediately after that. After completing the 1,000 customer trial, PSE&G says it plans to roll out the installation to 10,000 sites beginning in later 1996, with 500,000 sites by 2001. "In the future," said Robert Dougherty, overseeing the project for PSE&G, "customer expectations will increase, and interaction with their energy service provider will become a necessity. This system will be the foundation that will allow us to be more responsive to their needs." When PSE&G announced the new system in January, the utility said it would offer the technology to other utilities once it is perfected. According to Morgan, the target for the cost of the hardware in the system is less than $500 per customer. The costs are being borne 50-50 between PSE&G and AT&T. When expanded to a full commercial service, there will be no charge to customers. "The energy savings more than make up for the cost," said Morgan. (Kennedy Maize/19950804/Press Contact: Priscilla Suber Brown, 201-430-6021) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 08/07/95 GENERAL Microsoft Offers Help-Desk Sourcebook (NEWS)(GENERAL)(DEN)(00005) Microsoft Offers Help-Desk Sourcebook 08/07/95 REDMOND, WASHINGTON, U.S.A., 1995 AUG 7 (NB) -- When you have problems with your computer, you may turn to your company's help desk for assistance. But who do the help desk professionals ask when they need answers? The name Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ: MSFT) usually invokes images of word processing or spreadsheets, but the software company has now published a book that is intended to help support personnel set up an efficient help-desk operation and identify resources for that operation. Microsoft said the Microsoft Sourcebook (ISBN 1-55615-927-7) is a resource for corporate help-desk managers and support professionals. The 400-page $39.95 book, which is accompanied by a CD-ROM disk, includes topics like: creating and managing a help desk from mission statement to performance evaluations; re-engineering a more efficient help-desk; focusing on organizational structure, resource requirements and outsourcing; and optimizing the help-desk functions, including establishing the incident-handling process, problem-solving techniques and research technologies. In addition to offering advice on how to create or redesign your help-desk department, the book includes a directory of industry resources, including Microsoft, that provide support, services, training, and information for help-desks, and information on more than 100 corporate support software applications. There is also advice on: managing help-desk employees; measuring costs, demand, responsiveness, and productivity; how to classify incidents; recruiting and scheduling employees; and forming hardware and software vendor relationships. The book comes with the Sourcebook Toolkit, a CD-ROM that contains more than 25 templates, checklists, and sample reports that includes prototype problem tracing sheets, a fill-in-the-blanks type form that could be used in most help-desk environments. A Microsoft public relations representative told Newsbytes that "Part II, the Help Desk Directory" in particular is something that you might want to have at your fingertips for quick reference. That's the section that lists organizations and publications, Microsoft resources, and contains a short glossary of terms. The Microsoft spokesperson told Newsbytes the book also includes a listing of the various Microsoft for-fee support options that are available and their cost, and how to enroll in one of the company's support networks that are available in various countries. The book is published by Microsoft Press, the book division of the software company and the publishers of books ranging from self-paced tutorials for first-time computer users to technical references for professional programmers. Microsoft said it used Microsoft Word for Windows 6.0, the Microsoft Authoring Environment, Visio, Microsoft Draw, Excel and Publisher to prepare the book, which was delivered to the printer as electronic pre-press files, a technique common in the publishing industry. Microsoft maintains a toll-free number for ordering the Sourcebook and other Microsoft Press publications, or you can place an online order on CompuServe (type GO MSP). (Jim Mallory/19950804/Press contact: Jennifer Moede, Waggener Edstrom for Microsoft, 503-245-0905; Public contact: Microsoft, 800-6777377 to order) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 08/07/95 BUSINESS UK - Hyperion Software Partners With KPMG (NEWS)(BUSINESS)(LON)(00006) UK - Hyperion Software Partners With KPMG 08/07/95 LONDON, ENGLAND, 1995 AUG 7 (NB) -- KPMG Management Consulting has announced it is partnering with Hyperion Software (NASDAQ:HYSW). According to Mark Allatt, a spokesman for KPMG, the linkup allows the financial consultants to become more familiar with the products they recommend, as well as allowing them to install and maintain the packages for the client. "This improves the service to the client, as well as our general range of services," he told Newsbytes, adding that the partnership forms part of Hyperion Software's Enterprise Solutions Partners Program. According to KPMG, this worldwide program, which was introduced in September, 1994, is designed to improve knowledge of the company's "enterprise financial management solutions." The company claims that strong relationships with "Big Six" accounting firms and their consulting arms are a key component of the Enterprise Solutions Partners Program. Commenting on the linkup, David Parlby, KPMG Management Consulting's partner responsible for Business Modelling in the UK, said: "This agreement provides a great opportunity for synergy between KPMG Management Consulting's work in transforming the finance function in organizations and Hyperion Software's enabling capabilities." According to Parlby, Hyperion's vision of financial applications working together in an open, client-server environment is a natural fit for many companies. He claims that KPMG's role in Hyperion's Enterprise Solutions Partners Program will further enhance the ability of both organizations to provide large companies with a high quality approach to improving their financial management reporting. KPMG is one of the worlds largest firms of Accountants and Consultants with 1994 revenues of US$6.1 billion and 72,500 staff, including over 6,000 partners, in 136 countries. The firms international headquarters are in Amsterdam and it has offices in over 175 locations across Europe. In the UK, KPMG has around 9,000 staff in 38 locations. (Steve Gold/19950804/Press Contact: Andrew Smith, A Plus, +44-1753-790700, Internet e-mail asmith@aplus.co.uk; Reader Contact: KPMG Management Consulting, +44-171-311-1000) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 08/07/95 WINDOWS UK - Thompson's Budget "Real Basic" For Windows (NEWS)(WINDOWS)(LON)(00007) UK - Thompson's Budget "Real Basic" For Windows 08/07/95 UTTOEXETER, STAFFORDSHIRE, ENGLAND, 1995 AUG 7 (NB) -- The Thompson Partnership has announced the availability of Liberty Basic, a shareware package for Windows that, according to Steve Townsley, a spokesman for the company, goes back to the roots of Basic and provides a programming environment which owes as much to GWBasic as to Windows. As supplied, the package comes with an integrated editor and debugger. In addition, users have the ability to launch other Windows applications such as the notepad using a configurable window. Since Liberty Basic is a shareware package, it can be downloaded free of charge (except for normal online fees) from section 7 of the UK Shareware forum on CompuServe (GO UKSHARE), as well as from the Thompson Partnership's Web pages on http://www.ttp.co.uk , or via the company's bulletin board system (BBS) on +44-1889-568625. According to the company, unlike other "visual" languages, Liberty Basic takes a more traditional approach although it includes several extensions to the language to make graphical user interface (GUI) programming "straightforward." Language extensions include adding buttons and radio-buttons. Liberty Basic is claimed to support line numbers in the "old style" of Basic programming, or jumps to specific labels. A full language reference is included as a Windows help file. Registration for the package costs UKP24.90, and optional printed manual is available for UKP6.95. (Sylvia Dennis/19950804/Press & Reader Contact: Thompson Partnership, tel +44-1889-564601, fax +44-1889-563219, Internet e-mail steve@ttp.co.uk) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 08/07/95 TRENDS Meta Group/First Albany Team On Investors' Research (NEWS)(TRENDS)(BOS)(00008) Meta Group/First Albany Team On Investors' Research 08/07/95 ALBANY, NEW YORK, U.S.A., 1995 AUG 7 (NB) -- A new joint venture called First Albany-Meta Technology Research is aimed at providing information on "emerging technology trends" that combines the Meta Group's expertise in "customer-based" market research with First Albany's insights on the technology investment side, said Giles McNamee, First Albany's senior VP, in an interview with Newsbytes. Now operating out of the Meta Group's offices in Stamford, Connecticut, and Burlingame, California, the service is lending a different slant to First Albany's work with the investment community, while at the same time bringing additional clientele to Meta, according to McNamee. First Albany just completed the acquisition of five percent of the Meta Group's stock, the senior VP said. Even before the deal was sealed, the Albany, New York-based investment house was able to access Meta's research. "And we also have direct access to their clients, which represent about 1,000 of the `top 2,000' (corporations)," Newsbytes was told. Traditionally, market researchers talk to vendors, and base their assessments on what these companies tell them, according to the First Albany exec. "`How many boxes were shipped?'" he illustrated. "But Meta focuses on what technologies customers will actually use going forward. So we've been able to flip this over to, `What do the customers say? Do they like this product? Do they really need it?'" First Albany's interest in technology is nothing new, McNamee pointed out. The ten-year-old investment firm, which employs 650 people in 26 offices nationwide, has helped to underwrite a number of ventures, including Project Software, Map Info, and Natural Microsystems. Over the past two years, First Albany has managed or co-managed $650 million in equity new issues all told, and over $24 billion in debt issues, according to McNamee. "We also follow many of the major players, such as Cisco and Bay Networks." he maintained. Beyond that, First Albany itself is a very "active user," McNamee added. The investment house was an alpha tester for Wildfire, a recently introduced telephony-based speech recognition system. Other technologies tested by First Albany in-house include Lotus Notes and AT&T Notes. The newly created First Albany/Meta Group joint venture is now conducting a survey of the Meta Group's customer base, in search of emerging trends, McNamee revealed. What trends seem evident so far? "We're looking at trends like data warehousing, distributed systems management, and help-desk software," he replied. "The Meta Group did a (previous) study indicating that a year ago, only something like 20 percent of customers planned to implement data warehousing. But now, it's more like 80 percent. And these are big companies," Newsbytes was told. Meanwhile, the predictions that pundits made several years ago about the rise of the client-server architecture are finally coming true, according to McNamee. "They may have been early, but they were right. Client-server is now a reality," he noted. The surge of the client-server architecture has been accompanied by a need for software distribution over the network asset management, and other aspects of "distributed systems management," along with "internal and external" help-desk software, he contended. "Customers want to know who they can get call for help, internally and externally." In a related vein, remote computing is on the rise, as well, McNamee added. "Remote computing was once just for the `road warriors.' But that's not the situation any more," the senior VP told Newsbytes. (Jacqueline Emigh/19950803/Reader Contact: First Albany, 518-447-8500; Press Contact: Gwenn Gauthier or Geoff Spillane, Schwartz Communications for First Albany, 617-431-0770) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 08/07/95 GENERAL Japan Newsbriefs (NEWS)(GENERAL)(TYO)(00009) Japan Newsbriefs 08/07/95 TOKYO, JAPAN, 1995 AUG 7 (NB) -- In this roundup of news from Japan: Ericsson wins phone order, Mitsubishi announces chip plant location, CD-ROM phone books planned, Anti nuclear test signatures handed in, Cheaper calls planned by Recruit, Sharp recalls electronic organizer. Ericsson Wins Phone Order Ericsson has won a cellular phone order from Japan. Central Japan Digital Phone, the Nagoya-based regional affiliate of the Digital Phone Group, has placed an SEK655 million order for switching equipment, radio base stations, and radio base equipment. The order is part of an expansion plan for the network which has seen subscriber numbers rising at the rate of 10,000 per month. The network is based on Japan's PDC cellular telephone standard. Mitsubishi Announces Chip Plant Location Mitsubishi Electric has announced it will construct a plant to make 64 megabit (Mb) DRAM chips at its current plant in Saijo, Ehime prefecture. Production will initially begin in 1997 and, by the end of the 1998 financial year, the company hopes to be producing 20,000 eight-inch wafers per month. The chips will be made using state-of-the-art 0.3 micron (3 ten thousandths of a millimeter) wiring techniques that enable chips 40% smaller than average to be produced. CD-ROM Phone Books Planned Japan's Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications (MPT) has suggested that telephone directories on CD-ROM be introduced to replace the current paper books. The MPT will soon begin planning introduction of the new format a spokesman said. As has happened in other countries which have introduced such a format, the MPT will almost certainly receive opposition to the plan from privacy protection groups. Anti Nuclear Test Signatures Handed In Two University of Tokyo students who began collecting signatures on the Internet to protest the planned resumption of nuclear testing in the South Pacific handed a petition with 43,000 names in to the French Embassy in Tokyo on Friday. The students, led by Seishi Shimizu, established a page on the World Wide Web and a mailing list to collect the names, all opposed to the French plan. The petition will remain available until August 15th and can be found at http:/www.icepp.s.u-tokyo.ac.jp/shige . Cheaper Calls Planned By Recruit Recruit Co. says it will next month establish a cheaper way to call city to city in Japan. By linking the public telephone network with private lines, the company will charge 130 yen ($1.44) for a 3 minute daytime call between Tokyo and Osaka, 50 yen cheaper than NTT's 180 yen ($2.00) charge. Subscriptions to the new service will be 25,000 yen ($277) the Tokyo-based company said. Sharp Recalls Electronic Organizer Sharp Electronics says a batch of its PA-Z500 "Wiz" personal organizer contains defective software that wipes out the contents of the scheduler. The company says it will rewrite the software for the units. Affected units bear serial numbers from 53000018 through 53220008 and from 57000018 through 5706008, plus any that have serial numbers beginning with a five or six and ending with an eight. A special hot-line has been set up to handle inquires at Freedial 0120-606858. Sharp will rewrite the code at any of its service centers free of charge through August 31. (Martyn Williams/19950807) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 08/07/95 TRENDS Companies Hope For Common Digital Video Format (NEWS)(TRENDS)(TYO)(00010) Companies Hope For Common Digital Video Format 08/07/95 TOKYO, JAPAN, 1995 AUG 7 (NB) -- Victor Company of Japan (JVC) found itself unable to choose between the two competing digital video disk (DVD) standards, so it adopted both. A NEC division was able to choose a preferred format, but another part of the company still hasn't decided which system to back. Some observers are asking, if the electronics manufacturers can't decide which system is better, what hope is there for the average consumer? The question has been worrying heads of the major players in the battle enough for them to declare the preference of a single standard. The world's major electronics and media companies are currently, slowly, joining one or other, or both, of the sides in the format battle but they all wish there was a single format with no decision, or risk, to be made. In one corner is Multi-Media Compact Disc (MMCD), a system developed by Japan's Sony Corporation (TOKYO:6758) and Philips of the Netherlands (AMST:PHG). MMCD makes use of a single-sided disk and retains much of the compatibility with existing CD-ROM and music CDs. The format is enjoying support from many computer and computer hardware companies attracted by the compatibility. In the opposite corner is a heavyweight combination of Toshiba Corporation (TOKYO:6502) and Matsushita Electric (TOKYO:6752) championing their own Super Density disk (SD) format. SD disks are double-sided, so manage to hold a greater capacity than MMCD. Many major Japanese electronics companies have already expressed a preference for SD. Companies on each side of the systems battle are worried that consumer confusion will lead to delays in purchasing that will eventually fatally wound one or both of the systems. Some analysts contend that they have good reason to worry. A format battle between first-generation video disks took place several years ago when great things were predicted for the products. Only now, with a common standard, are sales growing, but still slowly and mostly in the karaoke CD market. A similar fight between Philips and Sony over digital audio, with Philips' DCC and Sony's Mini-Disc system, has resulted is poor sales for both products as consumers prefer to stick with analog compact cassettes. Speaking as Chairman of the Electronic Industry Association of Japan, Norio Ohga, who is also chairman of Sony, said recently that the existence of two standards is undesirable, a sentiment agreed by Toshiba. A spokesman for the company, Keisuke Ohmori, told Newsbytes, "A unified system would be ideal from the customer's viewpoint." The company isn't working towards a common system though, "We'd like them (Sony) to come to accept our standard rather than developing a combined system which would be very costly and not beneficial," Ohmori added. A Sony spokesman, agreeing with the chairman, told Newsbytes, "A single format is better." However, maintaining that Sony's is the better of the two, he added: "We believe MMCD is superior." The spokesman added that Toshiba is welcome to come over to the MMCD side. At JVC, which has adopted SD for all products except karaoke machines where MMCD and its compatibility are preferred, a spokesman said, "We do want the two systems to become one. That is the best for everybody." In trying to explain the company's unusual position as a supporter of both standards, he said, "Although we are in the SD group we do not say exactly we are a member of SD or MMCD. We want to decide our strategy." With both sides still maintaining each has the better system, a combined format seems a long way off. However, some observers contend that just a year ago, there was no talk whatsoever of compatibility between the sides. With first products scheduled for launch in mid-1996 the time for talking is running out, claim analysts. (Martyn Williams/19950807/Press contact : Sony Corporation, tel +81-3-5448-2200, fax +81-3-5448-3061; Toshiba Corporation, tel +81-3-3457-2105, fax +81-3-3456-4776, Victor Company of Japan, tel +81-45-450-1489, fax +81-45-450-1498) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 08/07/95 TRENDS Japanese Mathematician Breaks Pi Record (NEWS)(TRENDS)(TYO)(00011) Japanese Mathematician Breaks Pi Record 08/07/95 TOKYO, JAPAN, 1995 AUG 7 (NB) -- Computer scientists at the University of Tokyo have taken two supercomputers, mixed them together and come up with the world's biggest piece of Pi. Pi, the ratio of a circle's circumference to its diameter, is an irrational number, or one that goes on forever, and holds a special fascination with mathematicians and scientists. Previously Pi had been calculated to 2.2 billion decimal places at Colombia University in the United States. The new record smashes the old one taking accuracy to 3.22 billion decimal places. The feat was achieved by Yasumasa Kanada, an assistant professor at the university's computer center, and Daisuke Takahashi, a graduate student working in the computer lab. The two used a pair of supercomputers running on HITAC S-3800/480 central processing units. The program started running on June 16 at 22:41 and was completed on June 18 at 11:33, an elapsed time of 36 hours, 52 minutes, and 28 seconds. To complete the task, the computers needed 1888.5 megabytes (MB) of main memory and 26608MB of ES memory. To check the first result, a verification program was written and run over 53 hours from June 24. The main program calculated Pi to 3,221,225,472 places with the verification program confirming 3,221,225,466 of those digits, just six digits difference. The scientists took the results and felt confident enough to release Pi to 3,221,220,000 decimal place, a new record. Asked if he would be attempting to break the record again soon, Kanada told Newsbytes, "It depends on the occasion." Internet users with access to file transfer protocol (ftp) can download Pi and 1/Pi to 10 million decimal places with the larger, 3.2 billion digit number available by special request. Users should connect via ftp to www.cc.u-tokyo.ac.jp and see the information files for details of how the directories are arranged. Readers should note that attempting to connect using http will not work. (Martyn Williams/19950807/Press contact: Yasumasa Kanada, Computer Center, University of Tokyo, Bunkyo-ku, Yayoi 2-11-16, Tokyo, 113 Japan, fax +81-3-3814-7231, Internet e-mail kanada@pi.cc.u-tokyo.ac.jp) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 08/07/95 BROADCAST Korea Satellite Launch Not To Plan (NEWS)(BROADCAST)(TYO)(00012) Korea Satellite Launch Not To Plan 08/07/95 CAPE CANAVERAL, FLORIDA, USA, 1995 AUG 7 (NB) -- The launch of Korea's first satellite recently was notable for two reasons: Korea has now joined the list of nations with its own satellite in space and it was the first launch mishap for a Delta rocket, the industry's most reliable launcher, in 49 missions. Problems occurred several minutes into launch at the moment when the mighty Delta's nine external rocket boosters separated, but were not detected until 77 minutes into the mission when the satellite separated from the rocket. One of the boosters failed to unhook from the main rocket body when the other eight did creating extra drag and weight. The result of this is that the rocket couldn't get to the correct position to release the satellite and so, released it in a much lower orbit than was originally planned. After launch, a satellite is usually placed into an elliptical orbit, known as a geosynchronous transfer orbit, with a maximum height of 35,800 kilometers (km), the satellite's eventual permanent height. However, the mishap resulted in the high-point being some 6,100 km lower than planned. The satellite will now have to maneuver itself into the higher orbit, a procedure that will burn fuel intended to keep the satellite in its orbital position. Less fuel means that the satellite will loose its ability to stay in the same place in the sky sooner than the planned 10 year lifespan of the craft. Engineers will attempt to put the satellite back onto course, although McDonnell Douglas, the Delta rocket's makers, were confident the rescue plan would be successful. "It absolutely is a successful launch, you will have a satellite that will meet your needs. The lifetime of the satellite is what is in question," a spokeswoman said at a post launch press conference. The launch was carried live on South Korean television by the same channels that plan to use Koreasat 1 to begin direct-to-home broadcasting. National broadcaster KBS has already announced plans to begin two satellite channels once the craft is operational. Other uses for Koreasat 1 include telecommunications and data links across the country and also between Korea and Japan and China. A second satellite, Koreasat 2, is scheduled to be launched in December by the same type of rocket. The original launch of Koreasat 1 was planned for last Thursday but when Hurricane Erin approached the Florida coast the plans were postponed until Saturday. Lift off from Cape Canaveral Air Station was achieved at 0710 EDT (1110 UTC). (Martyn Williams/19950807/Press contact: Keith Takahashi or Evelyn Smith, McDonnell Douglas, 714-896-1302, or 714-896-1700) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 08/07/95 LEGAL Japanese PC Users Warned Over Counterfeit Mice (NEWS)(LEGAL)(TYO)(00013) Japanese PC Users Warned Over Counterfeit Mice 08/07/95 TOKYO, JAPAN, 1995 AUG 7 (NB) -- Microsoft has issued a warning to Japanese consumers to be careful when buying what appears to be a Microsoft Mice. The company has identified at least one case of counterfeit mice being sold in Japan. A computer user in the Western Japanese city of Kyoto apparently bought the device from a local Microsoft dealer, but found the driver software contained a virus which caused data loss on his computer. Upon examining the package, it was found that the box or instruction manual did not carry the word "Microsoft," although the driver disk and mouse did. There was also no warranty card inside the box. A spokeswoman for Microsoft Japan told Newsbytes the extent of the problem is unknown at present, "We have no idea how many are counterfeited" she said. "This is very unusual in Japan, probably the first time this has happened," the spokeswoman continued, referring to the pirating of any Microsoft product. The company's legal department is now investigating the matter and Microsoft could not be drawn on any more details, although reports printed in Japan's weekend press said the mice were imported into Japan by a Tokyo company which acquired them from the United States. The products have been on sale across Japan for around 3,000 yen ($33) to 4,000 yen ($44). The current recommended retail price of a Microsoft Mouse is 12,500 yen ($139) although a current summer campaign has reduced the price to 7,600 yen ($84). (Martyn Williams/19950807/Press contact: Miss Morita, Microsoft Japan, +81-3-5454-8013; Reader contact: Microsoft Japan, +81-3-5454-8000) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 08/07/95 BUSINESS Sun Opens Office In India (NEWS)(BUSINESS)(DEL)(00014) Sun Opens Office In India 08/07/95 BANGALORE, INDIA, 1995 AUG 7 (NB) -- Sun Microsystems Intercontinental Operations (SMIO) has announced the establishment of an office in Bangalore. Said Murray Heron, managing director for the Middle East, Mediterranean, Africa, and South Asia, "Sun perceives India as a growing market in information technology (IT). Opportunities available here will be used as a leverage for future investments." Anal Jain, president of Sun Microsystems India Operations, said that the Indian office will aim to improve the quality of technical, marketing, and training support to Wipro (the authorized distributor for Sun products in India) and strengthen relationships with "independent solution vendors and value-added resellers." Wipro Infotech Ltd., reportedly the second largest IT company in India, is also the distributor for Apple Computer Inc.'s range of products. In addition, it has a tie-up with Acer Computer International Pte Ltd. for its range of PCs. (C.T. Mahabharat/19950807) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 08/07/95 LEGAL Hong Kong Anti-Pirate Squad In Recruiting Drive (NEWS)(LEGAL)(HKG)(00015) Hong Kong Anti-Pirate Squad In Recruiting Drive 08/07/95 CENTRAL, HONG KONG, 1995 AUG 7 (NB) -- Hong Kong's Intellectual Property Bureau is in a hiring frenzy. The Customs and Excise unit, now 117 investigators strong, and fresh from scooping up over 18,000 pirated CD software packs recently, is in the midst of recruiting and training up to another 30 investigators, according to its top official. Bureau chief Ronny Tsang told I .T. Daily there will never be enough investigators to stamp out piracy because there are only "so many resources government can assign to one problem." But stiffer penalties should help -- although it is difficult to predict how they will dampen intellectual property infringement. As of May, each fake copy could now earn offenders a HK$25,000 (US$3,205) fine and two years in prison. "It's too soon to say what the deterrent effect (of the new laws) will be," Tsang said. "There haven't been any prosecutions yet." He said the bureau is faced with a constant round of new and cheaper technologies that act like a magnet for pirates and consumers alike. CD writers, prohibitively expensive only a few years ago, are now available for as little as HK$10,000 (US$1,282), and well within the budget of "down-market crooks," he said. Although Hong Kong's notorious Shamshuipo Golden Shopping Arcade tends to get the press when it comes to piracy stories, Tsang said his investigators keep their eyes on 20 different locations around the territory. But the Bureau never initiates a raid, he said. The law requires the copyright or patent holder to lodge a complaint before the bureau swings into action. On the whole, Tsang said, companies have been cooperative, blowing the whistle when opportunity knocks. "There are isolated companies which don't cooperate because of the amount of time investigations can take. Some companies would have to hire more people (to replace staff siphoned off to back up investigative work.)" And CDs have made that assignment more time-consuming than ever. Combing through the contents of a 1.44 megabyte (MB) disk is one thing, but "a 600MB CD-ROM is quite another," he said. "If you don't go over all the material, it's just touch-and-feel evidence and that's not admissible." Two days following the latest raid on Shamshuipo, I.T. Daily found most illegal CD-ROM vendors back in business. However, in a hurry to shift their goods before another crackdown, many were selling off pirate disks containing as much as 650MB of copyrighted programs for as little as HK$40 (US$5) each. (Nigel Armstrong and IT Daily/19950807) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 08/07/95 EDUCATION China - Int'l Education Cooperation In Tsinghua (NEWS)(EDUCATION)(PEK)(00016) China - Int'l Education Cooperation In Tsinghua 08/07/95 BEIJING, CHINA, 1995 AUG 7 (NB) -- As a leading engineering school in China, Tsinghua University has established many training and research centers in the computer/electronics field with the partnership of international companies. In the past several years, a number of famous international computer and electronics companies have entered Tsinghua to set up training and research centers. Those centers not only undertake educational tasks and research projects for the university, but also offer technical support for the clients of those companies involved. There are 12 brass plaques hanging beside the front gate of the building where the Department of Computer Science and Department of Electronic Engineering are located. Each plaque indicates a joint training or research program between Tsinghua and an international company. There are many more such plaques inside the building. The "Who is Who" list includes such names as Intel, IBM, Motorola, Siemens, SGS-Thomson, Compaq, and Samsung. Recently, Tsinghua and Motorola announced a new joint research project. The joint project by the university's Computer Integrated Manufacturing Systems-Engineering Research Center and Motorola Asia Manufacturing Research Center (AMRC) will develop and demonstrate an intelligent machine maintenance tool (IMMT). Software-based IMMT can be used to improve the quality and productivity of advanced electronics assembly machines. Up to six researchers at Tsinghua University will be involved in the project. China's first lab to conduct research on asynchronous transfer mode technology was also recently established by Tsinghua University in a partnership with StrataCom, a California-based company. In the lab, experts will build a test environment to study the technical issues related to deploying and maintaining a high-speed ATM network, which will be fully deployed and operated for three months. The lab also plans to look at integration with other services such as frame relay running over ATM. The joint projects and "centers" benefit both the university and the companies, Prof. Zhong, the vice chairman of the Department of Computer Science told Newsbytes. It gives the university chances to establish high-level labs and follow new technology development in the world, he said. The research results and the influence of these centers upon students certainly benefit the companies, he emphasized. (Chih-Ho Yu & Ning Huang/19950807/Reader Contact: Office of Science and Technology Research of Tsinghua University, tel 86-10-255-1905) (ADVISORY)(GENERAL)(MSP)(00017) NewsPix Images For Newsbytes Publishers 08/07/95 MINNEAPOLIS, MINNESOTA, U.S.A.,1995 AUG 7 (NB) -- These photos correspond to recent Newsbytes stories. They are online in the Newsbytes menu on America Online, NiftyServe, and the Newsbytes private bulletin board system in Minneapolis. JPEG (Joint Photographic Experts Group) files are larger in size, PICT files are designed as thumbnails for onscreen viewing. The photos are titled with name/year/month/day. PICT/thumbnail Pictures are black and white (gray scale). File message will indicate color if the JPEG image is color. Some of the "for use" images, may be PICT files. To distinguish these files from the thumbnail preview PICT images, the tag for the color "for use" image will have PICT, all caps. The thumbnail will remain noted as "pct." To become a licensed Newsbytes publisher, call Newsbytes at 612-430-1100 (US) or write to administrator@newsbytes.com on the Internet. Licensing applies to any medium. --------------------------- Week of AUGUST 7 - AUGUST 11,1995 --------------------------- - NEW THIS WEEK - YAHOO950728 - color / Yahoo To Develop Internet Service: Jerry Yang (left) & David Filo (right), founders and current developers for the YAHOO internet navigator. OFFICE950727 - color / Microsoft Donates $6 Million In Software To Settle Suit: shot of the software package. DVUE950731 - b&w / U.S. Robotics Adds LED Lights to PCMCIA Modems: product shot, with card plugged into laptop. POWRSHOP950731 - b&w / Adaptive Ships Photoshop Accelerators: product shot of the card. SONYCAM950802 - b&w / Japan Newsbriefs: product shot of the new Sony digital handycams with the digital videocassette between. DOONESBURY950731 - color / Trudeau's Doonesbury ScreenSaver: screenshot of Zonker and his tan-meter. TRAVAN950718 - color / 3M Predicts Travan Tape Drive To Exceed 15GB Capacity: shots of the two units, the 800 MB TR-2 (left) and the 1.6 GB TR-3 (right). EXPLORE950801 - color / Humongous Windows 95 Exploration Titles For Kids: screenshot from the new Let's Explore series. NEWSWEB950801 - color / Free Internet Press Release Service: screenshot of homepage, nice graphics. MUSIC080295 - color / The Music Shop Opens On The Internet: screen shot of the homepage. DELRINA950801 - b&w / Delrina Acquires Intel's Net SatisFAXtion: photo of Mark Skapinker, president of Delrina with the products floating over his head. --------------------------------------------------------------- - PARTIAL LISTING OF PREVIOUS ITEMS - DSP950725 - b&w / Paging Reminders To Take Medicine: pagers with phone in background. PHOENIX950706 - color / Phoenix Technologies Offers Telephony Suite Apps: interesting screenshot of virtual 'Phoenix Phone." MAGELLAN950713 - color / UK Firm Offers Low-Cost Handheld GPS Unit: the unit on neutral background. SDRAM950725 - color / TI Intros Faster Memory Chips: Picture of the Texas Instruments SDRAM in the Siemens Nixdorf Informationssysteme (SNI) AG mid-range server. ASK.ME950725 - color / Software Affiliates Intros Ask.Me For Windows 95: screen shot of the ASK.ME logo. NETVIEW950727 - color / More On IBM And Digital Joint Update To NetView: screenshot of 'a correlation rule to set a threshold' window. TAPIBAKE950728 - b&w / Microsoft, Intel, Pac Bell Hold TAPI "Bake-Off": shot of the AT&T Computer Telephone 8130, one of the contestants. LOGITECH950728 - color / Logitech Intros Color Digital Camera In US: the camera on neutral background. KNICKER950724 - color / LL Knickerbocker's "Cybertown" Web Site: very nice science fiction art work of Cybertown. TNG072495 - b&w / CA Announces Unicenter's "Next Generation": screen shot of the Unicenter/TNG 3-D visualization system that lets users travel through the network as if in a video game. SUPRFLOW950717 - b&w / SuperFlow Announces Dynamometer Software: very busy screenshot. Some moire from half-tone. ABCGRAPH950717 - color / Micrografx Intros Windows 95 Graphics Suite: software package. ULTRA64950711 - b&w / Nintendo Signs Baseball Star As Game Advisor: the Nintendo Ultra64 unit. HPCOLOR950711 - color / HP Intros New Line Of Color Inkjet Printers: the HP DeskJet 1600C. NEC950721 - color / NEC Intros Multimedia Notebooks: the NEC Versa 4000 along side an attache case for scale. LAWQUEST950719 - color / Bridgeway Releases Software For Corporate Law Depts: screenshot of folder covered desktop. DESIGNER950717 - color / Micrografx Previews Designer 6.0 For Windows 95: nice screenshot with graphic globe. (Newsbytes/19950807) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 08/07/95 APPLE MacWorld Boston To Open Tomorrow, 200 Product Rollouts (NEWS)(APPLE)(BOS)(00018) MacWorld Boston To Open Tomorrow, 200 Product Rollouts 08/07/95 BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS, U.S.A., 1995 AUG 7 (NB) -- MacWorld Boston '95 will open its doors tomorrow, with about 200 new products slated for rollout, pre-registration figures up 30 percent over 1994, and keynote speakers that are set to include Apple Senior VP Dr. David Nagel, HSC's Kai Krause, and "Passage to Vietnam" collaborators Rick Smolan and Joe Sparks. As in previous years, the East Coast edition of the 16 year-old trade show extravaganza will take place at both the World Trade Center and Bay Side Exposition Center in Boston. But this year, Apple will forego its traditional white tent at the World Trade in favor of an extra large space at the Bay Side building, said Gerry Berton, director of marketing for the Mitch Hall Associates show management firm, during a conference call with Newsbytes. Also at the '95 show, Apple will bring a new pavilion for Mac developers to Boston, debut an Internet product, display the new Power Mac 7200, 7500, and 8500 models, and take part in conference sessions on Apple's Copland operating system (OS), Microsoft's Windows 95, and "Power Mac vs. Power PC," according to spokespersons for Apple and its third-party partners. Other new attractions at the show in Boston will include the MacSciTech Resource Center, for engineers or scientists who work with computers, and UGWUMP (User Group Welcoming/Unwinding/Meeting Place), for all Mac users. MacWorld Boston '95 will kick off Tuesday, August 8 with three back-to-back keynotes. From 9:30 to 10:20 am, Apple's Nagel will talk about "The Promise of the Platform: Apple and the Macintosh Advantage." Nagel will explore the subject of innovation in the development community, as well as presenting a peek at "future innovations taking shape in Apple's research labs," according to Berton. Following Nagel will be Smolan and Sparks, in a co-delivered keynote at 10:30 am on "The Making of Digital Masterpieces: `Passage to Vietnam' and `Total Distortion.'" Outside of their collaborative work on those two CD-ROM classics, Smolan is the creator of the "From Alice to Ocean" title, while Sparks co-created "Spaceship Warlock." Moderating this session will be Mike Backes, co-founder of Rocket Science and co-screenwriter on "Jurassic Park," "Rising Sun," and "Congo." HSC's Krause will cap the morning of keynotes with "Beyond the Techno-Horizon." Krause is well known for bringing "surprise guests" into his lectures, Berton told Newsbytes. Past visitors have included Douglas Adams of "Hitchiker's Guide to the Universe," to cite one example. The show in Boston will also include about 75 sessions, in 12 "concurrent conferences": Design/Art/Prepress; Connectivity; Online-Internet; Multimedia; CD-ROM; Education; Small Office/Home Office (SOHO); Getting Started; Advanced User: Special Interest Groups (SIGs); Application Workshops; and "You Asked-For-It," a series offered in response to conference attendee requests. Several other offerings -- including the new Developer Central developer's pavilion, MacSciTech and UGWUMP -- will be open at no extra charge to exhibits-only as well as full conference attendees, according to Berton. Each day, Developer Central will feature technical sessions in two theaters. The Overview Theater will run 30-minute quick takes on technologies like Copland, Lotus Notes, QuickDraw GX, QuickDraw 3D, and Applecore tools and frameworks. The Seminar Theater, on the other hand, will present more in-depth, 75-minute tutorials on topics such as AppleScript, Macintosh client-server development, and multiprocessing on Mac-based OS. Developer Central will encompass 6,600 square feet of space, also at the Bayside, Berton reported. Companies with booths in the developer's pavilion will include Microsoft, Kaleida, Daystar Digital, Adobe, Powersoft, Motorola, Digitool, Jasik Designs, JYACC, Language Systems Corp., LightSource, Main Event Software, Metrowerks, Nisus Software, and Symantec, according to Apple spokespersons. The MacWorld show floor will be open Tuesday through Thursday from 10 am to 6 pm, and Friday from 10 am to 4 pm, at both the World Trade Center and Bay Side. Many of the third-party vendors that will be on hand at the expo have pre-released preliminary information about new product announcements, either today or over the past few weeks. Optima, for example, will unveil a new line of PCI (Peripheral Component Interconnect hard disk RAID (redundant array of inexpensive disks) for the Power Mac 9500 introduced in June. The company will also demo a desktop mounted CD with CD-R Access software, according to Optima officials. HSC plans to introduce two new imaging applications for Mac: KPT Power Photos 2, "The Elite Series," a set of royalty- free images that includes objects with built-in channels as well as "prepress ready" backgrounds; and Vector Effects, a series of 3-D (three-dimensional) effects like distortions, shatters, sketch, and "nionize" for Macromedia FreeHand and Adobe Illustrator users. Kaidan will debut the QuickPan Panoramic Swivel Attachment, for creating "panoramic QuickTime virtual reality (VR) scenes," plus CloseFlash, a ring flash attachment for Apple's QuickTake cameras. MacWorld Boston '95 attendees can also expect at least two announcements in the "Macintosh clone" area, as well as approximately 200 other product rollouts in categories ranging from the Newton and the Power Mac to games, development tools, mass storage, and display monitors, Newsbytes notes. The deadline for pre-registration admission discounts has passed, but you can still register for MacWorld at the full admission rate of $150 for all conference sessions and exhibits, or $40 for exhibits-only. Early Bird Registration is being held today from 11 am to 3 pm. Cash-only registration will be available at the door from August 8 to 11. (Jacqueline Emigh/19950807/Reader Contacts: Mitch Hall Associates, 617-361-2001; Apple Computer, 408-996-1010; Press Contacts: Lisa Downey or Tara Finney, Rourke & Company for Mitch Hall Associates, 617-267-0042; Diana Jines, Apple, 408-974-4531; Susie Reeves, Eastwick Communications for Apple, 415-342-8880; Kathy Krause, Stirling & Cohan, Inc. for Apple, 415-513-0979; Sylvia France, Strategic Business Communications for Apple, 415-525-9033) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 08/07/95 TRENDS Servantis Intros "Bank Street" Home Banking (NEWS)(TRENDS)(MSP)(00019) Servantis Intros "Bank Street" Home Banking 08/07/95 NORCROSS, GEORGIA, U.S.A., 1995 AUG 7 (NB) -- Servantis Systems said it is making available its "Bank Street" product, described as a "total solution" for banks and financial institutions as they look for home banking options. The suite of home banking services combines the company's new "BankAtHome" Windows and Macintosh-based software used by bank customers, proprietary bill payment software, and Servantis' 24 year history in the transaction processing service field, Eve McDowell, public relations manager for Servantis, told Newsbytes. "Now we can go to banks and offer them complete banking products," she added. All of the pieces came together recently for Servantis when the company acquired the majority of the assets of AMRESCO Services, a data processing service company, McDowell said. With Bank Street, institutions can provide their customers with 24-hour a day, 7-day a week home banking services including bill payment, funds transfer, statements on demand, interest status, up-to-the-minute account information, check copy requests, and electronic mail. McDowell also said the BankAtHome package can also export data directly to the major personal financial software (PFS) packages, including Quicken, so that reconciliation and other functions can be performed online and then transferred to the PFS program. Servantis counts NationsBank, Wells Fargo, Bank of America, Paine Webber, Anchor Savings Bank, Toronto Dominion, and Prudential among its Bank Street customers. USAA Federal Savings Bank is currently marketing Servantis' home banking software products as "USAA DirectBanking." Chevy Chase and Meridian Bank have also signed contracts for the BankAtHome product, Servantis officials said. McDowell said that although companies like Microsoft are getting into the home banking business, she feels her company has a distinct advantage over the up-and-comers. "We've been working with banks for over two decades. They (the banks) have been our customers, and this will help them compete like right now. They can come to us and start home banking tomorrow, if they want to. They don't have to invest in new technology if they don't want to." (Bob Woods/19950807/Press Contacts: Tom Cable, 404-840-1339, or Eve McDowell, 404-840-1544, both of Servantis; Public Contact: Servantis, 800-527-6405, Internet e-mail bankstreet@servantis.com) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 08/07/95 ONLINE Software Connects User To Internet Via Ad Home Pages (NEWS)(ONLINE)(DEN)(00020) Software Connects User To Internet Via Ad Home Pages 08/07/95 OVERLAND PARK, KANSAS, U.S.A., 1995 AUG 7 (NB) -- Imagine that every time a computer user logs onto the Internet the first thing they see is your ad. There's a new software package that offers just that. #IMAGE 1 20 TWPCX \images\95080720.PCX Click here for photo Interactive Media Works has announced sampleNET, an Internet browser that automatically connects the user to the Internet via an advertiser's home page. Not only does the software generate repeat visits but it measures consumer usage, page-by-page and site-by- site. SampleNET uses the popular Netscape World Wide Web browser. Borrowing the concept behind the currently popular pre-paid long distance phone calling cards, SampleNET gives the consumer a free, pre-determined amount of Internet access time in increments of 30 minutes and the disk is renewable for more time. Adrian Toader, Interactive Media Works president and a Sprint TeleMedia founder, said the company was founded to meet a need by advertisers to measure Web activity. IMW public relations representative, Les Luchter, told Newsbytes the disks, which cost the advertiser $5 to $9 per disk depending on volume, could be distributed just about anyway the advertiser could think of. "They could be in cereal boxes or the consumer might be asked to send in five boxtops from the advertiser's product to get the disk," said Luchter. He said advertisers also bear the cost of the toll-free phone number. The software is available in Windows and Macintosh versions. Once loaded, it connects the user via an 800 (toll-free) number and is tagged with a unique personal identification number (PIN) to identify the specific promotion involved on the IMW server and to line the consumer to the advertiser's home page. Once online users see a customized greeting page containing the advertiser's logo and tag line. They are asked to enter their name, address, age, and gender. Once that is done, they can be linked to up to three additional customized screens that might contain content like new product info, additional research questions or information on sweepstakes or sponsorships. The next connection is the advertiser's home page. When the pre-determined online time is about to expire, the advertiser can use another customized screen to offer the user additional time, perhaps in exchange for downloading a coupon or answering additional research questions. IMW maintains its own home page on the Web at imworks.com . The company doesn't have a sampleNET demo up online, but you can read information about its other services. Companies interested in possible sampleNET use can obtain a demo disk from the company. (Jim Mallory/19950807/Press contact: Les Luchter, Bender, Goldman & Helper for Interactive Media Works, 212-371-0798/IMWORKS950807/PHOTO) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 08/07/95 PC Datalight Intros Flash File System For PCMCIA (NEWS)(PC)(DEN)(00021) Datalight Intros Flash File System For PCMCIA 08/07/95 ARLINGTON, WASHINGTON, U.S.A., 1995 AUG 7 (NB) -- Datalight Inc., a company that specializes in embedded and mobile x86 systems software, has announced a new release of CardTrick, a software-based flash file system for use with PCMCIA (Personal Computer Memory Card International Association) memory cards and with resident flash array, an on-board flash memory. Flash memory is a type of non-volatile memory commonly used to supplement or replace hard disks in portable computers. Datalight said CardTrick version 2.5 can be loaded as a device driver or as a BIOS (basic input/output system) extension to allow booting the PC from flash memory and making the flash memory appear to the system as a hard drive. The company said new features added to CardTrick 2.5 include support for ATA devices so that large hard drives and ATA flash cards can be used automatically without the need for special configuration. ATA stands for AT-bus Architecture, a subset of the PCMCIA standard adopted in September, 1992, that allows PCMCIA cards from one manufacturer to be read in the PCMCIA slot of another manufacturer. You also get direct support for PCMCIA hardware to allow booting from a PCMCIA memory card without using Card and Socket Services. the new version also lets you use a single copy of the software to support both PCMCIA devices and resident flash array. That makes more memory available. OEMs (original equipment manufacturers) can take advantage of CardTrick's preconfigured OEM layers. There is an OEM layer for use with Card and Socket Services, and another that works directly with the Intel 365SL or compatible PCMCIA controller and socket hardware for use on embedded or handheld devices where only memory cards are used. Datalight said the CardTrick 2.5 software developer's kit will be available in late August. The cost is $495 and you get a certificate for the first 50 copies when the OEM license agreement is signed. Additional licenses cost from $10 per copy for less than 100 copies to $3 per copy for 10,000 copies. (Jim Mallory/19950807/Press contact: Tim Gillman, 360-435-8086; Public contact: Datalight, tel 360-435-8086 or 800-221-6630, fax 3620-435-0253) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 08/07/95 ONLINE AT&T/Lotus Launch AT&T Network Notes, Extend Pact (NEWS)(ONLINE)(BOS)(00022) AT&T/Lotus Launch AT&T Network Notes, Extend Pact 08/07/95 BASKING RIDGE, NEW JERSEY, U.S.A., 1995 AUG 7 (NB) -- In a teleconference today, AT&T and Lotus officials announced the commercial availability of AT&T Network Notes, nine new customers for the jointly developed Notes-based online service, and plans to extend the AT&T/Lotus relationship through "the end of the century." AT&T Network Notes, which was first announced last April, is designed to allow customers of Lotus Notes to link together their services over a WAN (wide area network), said Larry Moore, VP of the Lotus Interenterprise Communications Group, speaking during the teleconference, which was attended by Newsbytes. The new online service has become commercially available sooner than AT&T and Lotus anticipated, added Kathleen Early, VP of AT&T's Business Multimedia Group Service. Results of a jointly conducted beta test show the new service to provide "reliability, security, scalability, and ease of use," Early maintained. IBM's recent acquisition of Lotus will have no bearing on the relationship between AT&T and Lotus around AT&T Network Notes, according to Early. In fact, AT&T and Lotus will now extend their relationship through the year 2000 with products that will include Lotus's InterNotes Web Publisher, she reported. "Millions of surfers will be able to convert (Notes) documents into HTML (hypertext markup language," the AT&T VP asserted. As previously reported in Newsbytes, IBM announced plans last week to establish a worldwide network in conjunction with STET that will carry third-party content, as well as video applications now under development by STET, amd electronic-mail, Notes-based applications, and other services already running on the respective networks of IBM and STET. Early said today that initial pricing for AT&T's newly available AT&T Network Notes will range from $25 to $80 per user per month. This fee will include access charges as well as applications hosting, network and server use, administration, maintenance, 24- hour network surveillance, and "customer care," according to Early. Lotus's Moore told the journalists and analysts that early customers for AT&T Network Notes fall into three main categories. Some customers, such as Ingram Industries and Great Plains Software, are providing "secure business partner networks," he said. Other users are establishing "network-based businesses." This group includes GroupVision's EnviroNet, which will link landfills in Wisconsin with recycling companies; Immunet, a national non-profit AIDS information service; and ELF Technologies, which specializes in connecting corporate legal departments and insurance firms with outside lawyers. Other companies using AT&T for network-based businesses include Data Clearinghouse, which is providing a new service that automates payment processes for Fortune 1,000 corporations, and TitleLink, a company that has established a service for managing real estate closings. A third category of customers is outsourcing wide area communications for other companies, Moore reported. Examples include SandPoint Company LLC and McGladrey & Pullen LLP. David Duke, co-chairman of Ingram Micro, told the teleconference listeners that Ingram Micro will provide its service through a newly established entity called InGenious. Ingram Micro's new service, InfoWare IT (information technology), will use AT&T Network Notes to provide and promote "standardized" delivery of information on 40,000 products from 850 different vendors to Ingram computer resellers, Duke added. In a similar vein, Great Plains Software plans to use AT&T Network Notes to provide its business partners with online access to technical, sales, pricing, and marketing information, according to Moore. (Jacqueline Emigh/19950807/Press Contacts: Janet Stone, AT&T, 908- 234-7615; Suzanne Diaz, Lois Paul & Partners for Lotus, 617-860- 5602) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 08/07/95 LEGAL ****House OKs V-Chip, Nixes Internet Smut Crimes (NEWS)(LEGAL)(WAS)(00023) ****House OKs V-Chip, Nixes Internet Smut Crimes 08/07/95 WASHINGTON, D.C., 1995 AUG 7 (NB) -- In passing the telecommunications overhaul legislation last week by a 305-117 margin, the House also approved requiring television sets to have a computer chip embedded in them that would screen out violent and sexual programming at the command of parents. The approval of the so-called V-chip came on a 224-199 vote on an amendment sponsored by Rep. Ed Markey (D-Mass.). Markey succeeded by putting together a coalition that included 43 Republicans, surprising the Republican House leadership and the TV industry, both of which opposed the V-chip. When the House-Senate conference committee meet to resolve differences in the two measures, starting in September, it is very likely that the V-chip will emerge in the final legislation. The Senate earlier approved the V-chip amendment when it passed legislation in June. The two measures are very similar. On another issue, there may be a fight between the House and the Senate. That is the issue of pornography on the Internet. By a 420-4 vote, the House approved an amendment that specifically prohibits government censorship of the Internet. That's a far different position than the Senate took when it adopted an amendment to criminalize indecency on the Internet. The "Internet Freedom and Family Empowerment" amendment offered by Reps. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) and Christopher Cox (R-Calif.) directly conflicts with the legislation in the Senate bill sponsored by Sen. James Exon (D-Neb.). The Exon amendment, called the "Communications Decency Act," sets criminal penalties for online indecency, to be enforced by the Federal Communications Commission. But a separate amendment in the House, sponsored by Judiciary Committee Chairman Henry Hyde (R-Ill.), could undercut the Cox-Wyden amendment. The Hyde amendment, which also won House approved, would change federal obscenity laws to have the effect of criminalizing some online speech. Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.), the leading Senate opponent of the Exon amendment, said in a written statement that the Cox-Wyden amendment is "a positive step." But Leahy warned that it "does not resolve the issue of content regulation on the Internet." In an editorial this morning, the Washington Post said, "Regardless of what happens to the rest of the telecommunications bill, the conference committee should steer clear of Sen. Exon's clumsy approach to cyberporn and favor the House's light touch. The basic argument is simple: the Internet isn't a phone system or a broadcast medium but something vastly more flexible and intricate. Trying to saw it up into sectors and criminalize some of those sectors can only paralyzed its still galloping expansion." (Kennedy Maize/19950807) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 08/07/95 LEGAL Electronics Group Backs Export Law (NEWS)(LEGAL)(WAS)(00024) Electronics Group Backs Export Law 08/07/95 WASHINGTON, D.C., U.S.A., 1995 AUG 7 (NB) -- The American Electronics Association is backing legislation by Rep. Norman Mineta (D-Calif.) that would require annual executive branch review of government high technology export controls. Mineta introduced his bill on Friday and it was referred to the House International Relations Committee, AEA spokesman Greg Garcia told Newsbytes. The legislation, the "Technology Export Review Act of 1995," requires the Secretary of Commerce to annually review export controls on all technologies. This review must identify the objectives of the controls, the level of technology that would defeat these objectives, the economic impact of the controls and the level of technology that is widely available now, and will be available in the coming year in the International marketplace. "This legislation is particularly beneficial to computer and other information technologies like semiconductors that are seeing computing speed double every year, while the government regulations stay the same," said William Archey, president of AEA. Garcia said the Mineta legislation will likely become part of the pending Export Administration Act when the House returns from its August recess. During the recess, staff from the International Relations Committee and the National Security Committee are working to resolve differences on issues related to export controls. Last year, what was expected to be an easy rewrite of the export law blew up in the House over export controls. Defense-minded legislators were fearful of loosening controls, because they believed that it would arm enemies, including foreign terrorist groups. The Mineta legislation, says Garcia, "Codifies the way the administration reached the decision in 1993 to liberalize export controls and the way it is reviewing the same issue right now." In a related issue, AEA also praised a letter sent to President Clinton by a bi-partisan group of California members of the House urging him to "lift restrictions on US computer exports from the current limitation of 1,500 million theoretical operations per second (MTOPS) to a poor competitive level of 15,000 to 20,000 MTOPS." Such an action would effectively lift the export controls on supercomputers. "The Clinton administration made great strides in September of 1993 by liberalizing export controls on a wide range of computers," said Archey. "Now is the time for the administration to show the same resolve and leadership by dramatically increasing the current MTOP limitation." (Kennedy Maize/19950807/Press Contact: Greg Garcia, 202-682-4433) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD IBM (NEWS)(IBM)(TOR)(00025) IBM Questions Govt's Stand On Consent Decree 08/07/95 ARMONK, NEW YORK, U.S.A., 1995 AUG 7 (NB) -- IBM (NYSE:IBM) has accused the United States Justice Department of taking too wide-ranging an approach in its inquiry into ending restrictions imposed on the company 39 years ago after an antitrust lawsuit. IBM also wants the United States District Court in southern New York to divide the case into two segments so those restrictions on which IBM and the government agree can be lifted as soon as possible. Since 1956, IBM has been subject to a consent decree that was imposed after a four-year inquiry into IBM's alleged monopoly of the tabulating-machines market. Though tabulating machines disappeared years ago, the terms of that ruling have been understood to apply to computers as well. About a year ago, IBM began an effort to have the 1956 Consent Decree lifted, arguing that the market has changed substantially and the market power it once had is gone. The government has agreed that most of the restrictions can be removed, but is balking at removing certain terms that apply to IBM's AS/400 and System/390 products. In those areas -- midrange and mainframe computers -- IBM remains much stronger than it is in personal computers and other areas. In an August 2 brief to the court hearing this case, IBM argued that the way the government proposes to deal with these issues puts too much of a burden of proof on IBM. The brief, a copy of which Newsbytes has obtained, says the government is advocating "an entirely new standard for termination of a consent decree -- a standard under which it would be difficult to terminate any decree." The government is seeking a broad review of IBM's influence in a variety of markets. According to IBM, this amounts to a new antitrust inquiry and deals with issues already covered by the 1969 antitrust case against IBM. "The government had a chance to litigate every conceivable computer 'market' in its marathon 13- year antitrust case against IBM," IBM's brief maintains. "The government dropped that case in 1982 and it points to nothing that would suggest that the computer industry is today less competitive than it was 13 years ago." IBM argues that it should only be expected to show that the 1956 consent decree has served its purpose, that there have been substantial changes in the computer industry, and that the decree unfairly impedes IBM's ability to compete. IBM's arguments point to a recent antitrust case against software rival Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ:MSFT). After the government and Microsoft agreed on a settlement of that case, they successfully fought off a challenge to that settlement by the judge who was asked to approve it. In doing so, the government argued that a court asked to approve a consent decree can only deal with allegations raised in the original complaint. In addition to separating non-disputed portions of the decree from the disputed portions, so they can be settled quickly, IBM wants the court to reject the justice department's proposals for dealing with the disputed areas, adopting the more limited scope of inquiry proposed by IBM. IBM is also pointing to a government ruling that consent decrees should expire after 10 years, saying it should apply to the 39- year-old 1956 decree. The government, however, says that since that ruling was made after 1956, it does not apply to this case. IBM's over-all position is "pretty simple," company spokesman Tom Beermann told Newsbytes. "We believe that the entire 1956 consent decree ought to be lifted." (Grant Buckler/19950807/Press Contact: Tom Beermann, IBM, 914-765-4392; Rob Wilson, IBM, 914-765-6565) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD GENERAL (NEWS)(GENERAL)(TOR)(00026) Canadian Product Launch Update 08/07/95 KINGSTON, ONTARIO, CANADA, 1995 AUG 7 (NB) -- This regular feature, appearing on the first day Newsbytes publishes each week, provides further details for the Canadian market on announcements by international companies that Newsbytes has already covered. This week: Microsoft Project 4.0 for Apple's Macintosh and Power Macintosh. Microsoft Canada Inc., of Mississauga, Ontario, shipped Project Version 4.0 for Apple Computer Inc.'s Macintosh and Power Macintosh computers (Newsbytes, Aug. 1). The Canadian price of the software is approximately C$659, Microsoft said, while customers with previous versions can upgrade for C$219. (Grant Buckler/19950807/Press Contact: John Swinimer, Hill & Knowlton for Microsoft Canada, 905-568-0434 ext. 4255, Internet e-mail v-johnsw@microsoft.com; Public Contact: Microsoft Canada, 905-568-0434, fax 905-568-1527) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 08/07/95 PC ****New Computer Virus Attacks "Everything" (NEWS)(PC)(MSP)(00027) ****New Computer Virus Attacks "Everything" 08/07/95 BURLINGTON, MASSACHUSETTS, U.S.A., 1995 AUG 7 (NB) -- A new, hazardous computer virus is spreading, that takes control of disk operations from Microsoft MS-DOS or IBM PC-DOS based systems, the anti-virus research team at S&S Software International is reporting. The virus, dubbed "Dir.Byway," is described as a super-fast, polymorphic infector affecting desktops, notebooks, and even computer networks. Pat Bitton, S&S Software vice president of marketing, told Newsbytes the virus is a very "dangerous" one. Because it is polymorphic, it mutates with each attack, making it extremely hard to diagnose and kill. The virus operates as if it is a TSR (terminate and stay resident) program, infecting .COM and .EXE files when the home directory of an executable file is accessed, officials said. Infections are not confined to the default home directory either, but infects all executables in all directories of a search path. In addition, the access does not need to launch an application. Any kind of access triggers the virus, like looking at a simple directory listing. This ability to infect everything in its path makes Dir.Byway a "super-fast" infector, officials added. The virus creates a file called "CHKLIST . MS" (without quotes, but with spaces surrounding the period) in the root directory, and cross links all infected executable files, David Emm, customer service manager, told Newsbytes. This then replaces the normal DOS directory entries, making "CHKLIST . MS" the start-cluster for every infected file. If the user deletes the file, it reappears when any infected file is executed. Also, if the user boots from a clean DOS disk and runs "CHKDSK," the computer will report a large number of cross-linked files. If the user boots from the infected hard drive, the computer will report no errors. A listing of the root directory using the command "dir/ahs" (without quotes) will show the "CHKLIST . MS" file. Dir.Byway triggers if the current DOS date is set to the year 1996 or above, and the day of the month is equal to the month's number multiplied by two and two is added, like in 01-14-96 or 12-26-96. When triggered, the virus displays a string of text every three hours, on hours that are a multiple of three in military time -- for example, 09:00, 12:00, and 18:00. The text says: "Trabajeoms Todos Por Venezuela." S&S officials said this translates to "We are all working for Venezuela." On multimedia systems, this is accompanied by a song that resembles the country's national anthem. Emm said he is more worried about the spread of the virus for now than the triggering of it, because it is so dangerous. He told Newsbytes the virus has been detected in the United Kingdom and the United States. Bitton said the company's "Dr. Solomon's Anti-Virus Toolkit" will remove the virus from infected computers. New versions of the Toolkit for DOS, Windows, OS/2, and NetWare are slated to ship in late summer. S&S also plans Fall 1995 introductions of Toolkits for Macintosh, SCO Unix, Windows 95, and Windows NT server and workstations. (Bob Woods/19950807/Press Contacts: Steven J. Leon, Technopolis, 310-670-5606; Pat Bitton, S&S Software International, 617-273-7400) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 08/07/95 APPLE Apple Announces PCI Power Mac Apps (NEWS)(APPLE)(LAX)(00028) Apple Announces PCI Power Mac Apps 08/07/95 CUPERTINO, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1995 AUG 7 (NB) -- Apple Computer Inc.(NASDAQ: AAPL) has announced another wave of PCI (Peripheral Component Interconnect) applications from hardware developers. These announcements coincide with the additions of the Power Macintosh 7200, 7500 and 8500 to the PCI bus. The Power Macintosh 7200, 7500 and 8500 join the recently introduced Power Macintosh 9500, rounding out the mid-range and hi-end of the Macintosh family, and complete the product line's transition to the industry standard PCI bus. Previously standardized on NuBus, the Macintosh family of products is moving to PCI. Any PCI product which complies with the PCI 2.0 specification, with the addition of a software driver, can be used in the new Power Macintosh computers. The move from NuBus to PCI allow PC developers access to the Macintosh market. Adam Trunkey, senior product manager at Adaptec, one of the developers working with Apple, told Newsbytes, "The PCI-based architecture allows data transfer rates of up to 133 megabits-per- second. This is significantly faster than NuBus capabilities, and will expand Apples reach into the very large PC developer family. The new PCI bus architecture in the new Power Macs, with its tremendous data transfer rates, allows users to do things like digital video editing, media authoring, and image creation much faster than before." The move to the PCI expansion bus also opens development opportunities for both traditional PC and Macintosh developers. According to Apple, the firm is working with over 300 developers pursuing PCI products. Many of these developers have until now, developed exclusively for the PC platform. More than 70 developers have already announced PCI products for the new Power Macs. "The adoption of the PCI SCSI (small computer system interface) for the Power Mac family brings a new level of flexibility, power and features to typical Macintosh applications that require high performance input/output (I/O)," said John Hamm, vice president and general manager of Adaptec's Enterprise Computing Group. Developers who are making PCI related announcements with Apple include: ATI Technologies Inc., Data Translation, Distributed Processing Technology, Electronic Imaging Systems Inc., FWB Inc., Miro Computer Products Inc., National Instruments, Number Nine Visual Technology Corp., Rockwell Network Systems, Second Wave, Inc., and YARC Systems. (Richard Bowers/19950807/Press Contact: Amy Kavanaugh, Apple Computer, 408-974-5430) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 08/07/95 APPLE ****Apple Intros PCI Power Macs With Speech (NEWS)(APPLE)(SFO)(00029) ****Apple Intros PCI Power Macs With Speech 08/07/95 BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS, U.S.A., 1995 AUG 7 (NB) -- Apple Computer (NASDAQ:AAPL) has introduced three new Power Mac Systems, the 7200, 7500 and 8500, with PCI (Peripheral Component Interconnect)-bus technology. The 7500s and 8500s also offer Apple's Speech Technology, PlainTalk. Apple says the new systems are characterized by affordability, the ability to upgrade, included software and three PCI-bus expansion slots in each system. There are two 7200 systems, one powered by a 75 megahertz (MHz) and the other a 90MHz PowerPC 601 processor, and feature built-in Ethernet, 16-bit stereo sound and output, graphics acceleration, a 1.44 megabyte (MB) Apple SuperDrive floppy disk drive, eight megabytes (MB) of RAM, 500MB of hard disk storage and an internal quad-speed CD-ROM drive. The 75MHz systems are expected to have a street price between $1,699 and $1,749. The 90MHz model is an additional $200. The new 7500 system is powered by a PowerPC 601 processor and features video input, high resolution graphics, and CD-quality stereo. The system is shipped with 16MB of RAM, a built-in 1.44MB Apple SuperDrive floppy disk drive, either 500MB or one gigabyte (GB) of hard disk storage, an internal quad-speed CD-ROM drive, and a PlainTalk microphone. Apple says the 500MB model is expected to be priced from $2,699 to $2,799. The 1GB system will run an additional $300. For about $4,000 ($3,999 to $4,199 street) customers can move into the fastest of the new systems -- a Power Mac 8500 powered by a 120MHz PowerPC 604 processor. The Power Mac 8500/120 comes with 16MB of RAM, a built-in 1.4MB Apple SuperDrive floppy disk drive, an internal 1GB or 2GB hard disk drive and internal quad speed CD, and a PlainTalk microphone. The 2GB model is expected to be priced in the range of $4,499 - $4,699. The 8500/120 also features built-in video input and output capability of near-broadcast quality high-resolution video, CD-quality stereo sound, and supports the capture of quarter screen video in real-time. Apple uses a daughter board to carry the main processor and clock chip on the 7500/100 and 8500/120 models. This means future processor upgrades are "easily accomplished." The Power Mac 7200 may upgrade to the Power 7500 system through a logic board upgrade. All of the new models ship with Apple's latest operating system, System 7.5.2. These models all ship with Megaphone, a telephony software for faxing and phone answering. The 7500 and 8500 systems include PlainTalk 1.4 which provides voice commands to a wide number of applications. This voice technology also offers text-to-speech which means the computer is capable of reading a book or instructions through a sound card and speakers. Another feature included in the 8500 and 7500 systems is Apple Media Conference which allows users to communicate with voice, video and data from their individual desktops. These systems also ship with QuickDraw 3D, a three-dimensional graphics program. The inclusion of PCI-bus means Apple has included the popular expansion system used on other personal computers. Any PCI card which complies with the PCI 2.0 standard may be used in Power Mac with PCI-bus slots with only the addition of necessary software drivers. Apple says customers may see as much as triple the speed of similar cards based on NuBus systems. These new systems are Energy Star compliant and Mac users may participate in Apple's Exchange Program to upgrade to any one of them. (Patrick McKenna/19950807/Press Contact: Amy Kavanaugh, Apple Computer, 408-974-5430) (SUMMARY)(GENERAL)(MSP)(00030) Newsbytes Daily Summary 08/07/95 MINNEAPOLIS, MINNESOTA, U.S.A., 1995 AUG 7 (NB) -- These are capsules of all today's news stories: ======================================================================== ------------| N E W S B Y T E S D A I L Y S U M M A R Y |---------- ------------| Monday, August 7, 1995 |---------- ======================================================================== (c) Newsbytes News Network (Tm) Editor in Chief: Wendy Woods ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Newsbytes News Network's 1995 Update CD-ROM for Mac, DOS, and Windows is now available for $29.95 (includes s&h). Contains 1983-1995 news stories, more than 64,000 keyword searchable stories and 475 digitized images. For more information or to order, fax to 612-430-0441 or e-mail to 'administrator@newsbytes.com' -- MC, Visa, Amex accepted. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ CATEGORY HEADLINES (*** indicates today's top stories) STORY # ======================================================================== APPLE MacWorld Boston To Open Tomorrow, 200 Product Rollouts..... 18 APPLE Apple Announces PCI Power Mac Apps......................... 28 APPLE ****Apple Intros PCI Power Macs With Speech............... 29 BROADCAST Korea Satellite Launch Not To Plan......................... 12 BUSINESS UK - Hyperion Software Partners With KPMG.................. 06 BUSINESS Sun Opens Office In India.................................. 14 EDUCATION China - Int'l Education Cooperation In Tsinghua............ 16 GENERAL Microsoft Offers Help-Desk Sourcebook...................... 05 GENERAL Japan Newsbriefs........................................... 09 GENERAL NewsPix Images For Newsbytes Publishers.................... 17 IBM (Grant Buckler/19950807/Press Contact...................... 25 LEGAL Japanese PC Users Warned Over Counterfeit Mice............. 13 LEGAL Hong Kong Anti-Pirate Squad In Recruiting Drive............ 15 LEGAL ****House OKs V-Chip, Nixes Internet Smut Crimes.......... 23 LEGAL Electronics Group Backs Export Law......................... 24 NETWORK France - RAD Supplies Eurostar With Token Ring Net......... 02 ONLINE UK - Electronic Telegraph Details Web Users................ 01 ONLINE Software Connects User To Internet Via Ad Home Pages....... 20 ONLINE AT&T/Lotus Launch AT&T Network Notes, Extend Pact.......... 22 PC Datalight Intros Flash File System For PCMCIA.............. 21 PC ****New Computer Virus Attacks "Everything................ 27 TELECOM New Jersey Utility Spreads Telecom Test To 1,000........... 04 TRENDS Germany - IT Is Not Advancing Fast Enough.................. 03 TRENDS Meta Group/First Albany Team On Investors' Research........ 08 TRENDS Companies Hope For Common Digital Video Format............. 10 TRENDS Japanese Mathematician Breaks Pi Record.................... 11 TRENDS Servantis Intros "Bank Street" Home Banking................ 19 WINDOWS UK - Thompson's Budget "Real Basic" For Windows............ 07 ======================================================================== These are the headlines and first paragraphs of each story, in order: 1 -> UK - Electronic Telegraph Details Web Users -- The Electronic Telegraph, the online version of the Daily and Sunday Telegraph, the London newspapers, has revealed the results of a demographic analysis of its readers. 2 -> France - RAD Supplies Eurostar With Token Ring Net -- RAD Data Communications has signed a contract with SNCF, the French Railways group, to install its RADring Token Ring hub network system at the newly opened French Railways' booking offices at Waterloo Station in London, England. 3 -> Germany - IT Is Not Advancing Fast Enough -- The normally quiet German Electronic Industry Association, the Zentralverband Elektronik und Elektronikindustrie, or the ZVEI, has issued a warning to German industrialists that Germany is not developing its native information technology (IT) industry as quickly as the rest of Europe. 4 -> New Jersey Utility Spreads Telecom Test To 1,000 -- Public Service Electric and Gas Co. has reached a deal with Garden State Cable to be the communications provider for the Newark-based utility's 1,000 customer trial of the AT&T Integrated Broadband Utility Solution. 5 -> Microsoft Offers Help-Desk Sourcebook -- When you have problems with your computer, you may turn to your company's help desk for assistance. But who do the help desk professionals ask when they need answers? 6 -> UK - Hyperion Software Partners With KPMG -- KPMG Management Consulting has announced it is partnering with Hyperion Software (NASDAQ:HYSW). According to Mark Allatt, a spokesman for KPMG, the linkup allows the financial consultants to become more familiar with the products they recommend, as well as allowing them to install and maintain the packages for the client. 7 -> UK - Thompson's Budget "Real Basic" For Windows -- The Thompson Partnership has announced the availability of Liberty Basic, a shareware package for Windows that, according to Steve Townsley, a spokesman for the company, goes back to the roots of Basic and provides a programming environment which owes as much to GWBasic as to Windows. 8 -> Meta Group/First Albany Team On Investors' Research -- A new joint venture called First Albany-Meta Technology Research is aimed at providing information on "emerging technology trends" that combines the Meta Group's expertise in "customer-based" market research with First Albany's insights on the technology investment side, said Giles McNamee, First Albany's senior VP, in an interview with Newsbytes. 9 -> Japan Newsbriefs -- In this roundup of news from Japan: Ericsson wins phone order, Mitsubishi announces chip plant location, CD-ROM phone books planned, Anti nuclear test signatures handed in, Cheaper calls planned by Recruit, Sharp recalls electronic organizer. 10 -> Companies Hope For Common Digital Video Format -- Victor Company of Japan (JVC) found itself unable to choose between the two competing digital video disk (DVD) standards, so it adopted both. A NEC division was able to choose a preferred format, but another part of the company still hasn't decided which system to back. 11 -> Japanese Mathematician Breaks Pi Record -- Computer scientists at the University of Tokyo have taken two supercomputers, mixed them together and come up with the world's biggest piece of Pi. 12 -> Korea Satellite Launch Not To Plan -- The launch of Korea's first satellite recently was notable for two reasons: Korea has now joined the list of nations with its own satellite in space and it was the first launch mishap for a Delta rocket, the industry's most reliable launcher, in 49 missions. 13 -> Japanese PC Users Warned Over Counterfeit Mice -- Microsoft has issued a warning to Japanese consumers to be careful when buying what appears to be a Microsoft Mice. The company has identified at least one case of counterfeit mice being sold in Japan. 14 -> Sun Opens Office In India -- Sun Microsystems Intercontinental Operations (SMIO) has announced the establishment of an office in Bangalore. 15 -> Hong Kong Anti-Pirate Squad In Recruiting Drive -- Hong Kong's Intellectual Property Bureau is in a hiring frenzy. The Customs and Excise unit, now 117 investigators strong, and fresh from scooping up over 18,000 pirated CD software packs recently, is in the midst of recruiting and training up to another 30 investigators, according to its top official. 16 -> China - Int'l Education Cooperation In Tsinghua -- As a leading engineering school in China, Tsinghua University has established many training and research centers in the computer/electronics field with the partnership of international companies. 17 -> NewsPix Images For Newsbytes Publishers -- These photos correspond to recent Newsbytes stories. They are online in the Newsbytes menu on America Online, NiftyServe, and the Newsbytes private bulletin board system in Minneapolis. 18 -> MacWorld Boston To Open Tomorrow, 200 Product Rollouts -- MacWorld Boston '95 will open its doors tomorrow, with about 200 new products slated for rollout, pre-registration figures up 30 percent over 1994, and keynote speakers that are set to include Apple Senior VP Dr. David Nagel, HSC's Kai Krause, and "Passage to Vietnam" collaborators Rick Smolan and Joe Sparks. 19 -> Servantis Intros "Bank Street" Home Banking -- Servantis Systems said it is making available its "Bank Street" product, described as a "total solution" for banks and financial institutions as they look for home banking options. 20 -> Software Connects User To Internet Via Ad Home Pages -- Imagine that every time a computer user logs onto the Internet the first thing they see is your ad. There's a new software package that offers just that. 21 -> Datalight Intros Flash File System For PCMCIA -- Datalight Inc., a company that specializes in embedded and mobile x86 systems software, has announced a new release of CardTrick, a software-based flash file system for use with PCMCIA (Personal Computer Memory Card International Association) memory cards and with resident flash array, an on-board flash memory. 22 -> AT&T/Lotus Launch AT&T Network Notes, Extend Pact -- In a teleconference today, AT&T and Lotus officials announced the commercial availability of AT&T Network Notes, nine new customers for the jointly developed Notes-based online service, and plans to extend the AT&T/Lotus relationship through "the end of the century." 23 -> ****House OKs V-Chip, Nixes Internet Smut Crimes -- In passing the telecommunications overhaul legislation last week by a 305-117 margin, the House also approved requiring television sets to have a computer chip embedded in them that would screen out violent and sexual programming at the command of parents. 24 -> Electronics Group Backs Export Law -- The American Electronics Association is backing legislation by Rep. Norman Mineta (D-Calif.) that would require annual executive branch review of government high technology export controls. Mineta introduced his bill on Friday and it was referred to the House International Relations Committee, AEA spokesman Greg Garcia told Newsbytes. 25 -> (Grant Buckler/19950807/Press Contact -- This regular feature, appearing on the first day Newsbytes publishes each week, provides further details for the Canadian market on announcements by international companies that Newsbytes has already covered. This week: Microsoft Project 4.0 for Apple's Macintosh and Power Macintosh. Microsoft Canada Inc., of Mississauga, Ontario, shipped Project Version 4.0 for Apple Computer Inc.'s Macintosh and Power Macintosh computers (Newsbytes, Aug. 1). The Canadian price of the software is approximately C$659, Microsoft said, while customers with previous versions can upgrade for C$219. (Grant Buckler/19950807/Press Contact: John Swinimer, Hill & Knowlton for Microsoft Canada, 905-568-0434 ext. 4255, Internet e-mail v-johnsw@microsoft.com; Public Contact: Microsoft Canada, 905-568-0434, fax 905-568-1527) 27 -> ****New Computer Virus Attacks "Everything -- A new, hazardous computer virus is spreading, that takes control of disk operations from Microsoft MS-DOS or IBM PC-DOS based systems, the anti-virus research team at S&S Software International is reporting. The virus, dubbed "Dir.Byway," is described as a super-fast, polymorphic infector affecting desktops, notebooks, and even computer networks. 28 -> Apple Announces PCI Power Mac Apps -- Apple Computer Inc.(NASDAQ: AAPL) has announced another wave of PCI (Peripheral Component Interconnect) applications from hardware developers. These announcements coincide with the additions of the Power Macintosh 7200, 7500 and 8500 to the PCI bus. 29 -> ****Apple Intros PCI Power Macs With Speech -- Apple Computer (NASDAQ:AAPL) has introduced three new Power Mac Systems, the 7200, 7500 and 8500, with PCI (Peripheral Component Interconnect)-bus technology. The 7500s and 8500s also offer Apple's Speech Technology, PlainTalk. (Ian Stokell/19950807) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 08/04/95 GENERAL Mitch Hall Gets Nod For ComNet, Gives "Sneak Preview" (NEWS)(GENERAL)(BOS)(00001) Mitch Hall Gets Nod For ComNet, Gives "Sneak Preview" 08/04/95 DEDHAM, MASSACHUSETTS, U.S.A., 1995 AUG 4 (NB) -- ComNet, a trade show now under new management from Mitch Hall Associates, will add a stronger focus on the Web in '96, plus a heightened service orientation toward exhibitors and the press, while keeping "the best of the best" from past ComNet shows, maintained Gerry Berton, Mitch Hall Associates' director of marketing, in a conference call with Newsbytes. With ComNet added to its roster, Mitch Hall now manages all shows produced by IDG World Expo, a list that also includes MacWorld Boston, MacWorld San Francisco, SunWorld, the DV/CD-ROM Expo, SunWorld, and now, the new Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3), according to Berton. But in managing ComNet, a networking trade show and conference held annually in Washington, DC, Mitch Hall Associates will work closely with veteran ComNet organizers, Berton pointed out. Bill Leitch, co-founder of ComNet, will stay on as conference chairman and senior consultant. Hajar and Associates will continue to manage exhibitor sales and service. Charlie Greco, who will serve as ComNet show director, has a background in IT (information technology) some 20 years long. ComNet '96 will feature two sets of conference offerings concerning the Internet, and one of these will be geared to "doing business on the Web," Berton revealed. The conference collaborators are still putting the finishing touches on next year's program, the marketing manager told Newsbytes. But conference threads will deal with issues that include cable/loop access, ATM (asynchronous transfer mode), broadband networking, multimedia, LANs (local area networks), network management, wireless networking, and policy/regulation, along with the Internet. Also on the ComNet '96 agenda are keynotes by these four industry luminaries: Nicholas Negroponte, founder and director of the MIT Media Labs, and author of "Being Digital"; Prodigy CEO Edward Bennett; Richard Hart, host of The Discovery Channel's "Next Step," and Sir Iaia Wallace, chairman of BT (British Telecom). The success of this year's E3 show in Los Angeles helped to give Mitch Hall the nod for managing ComNet, Berton told Newsbytes. Exhibitors at the new consumer electronics show included the likes of Sega and Nintendo. "Consolidating all of IDG World Expo's shows under the same banner will lend efficiency to operations," contended Berton. Since January, he noted, Mitch Hall Associates' staff has grown from a couple of dozen employees to a total of 63, with more expertise added on both the operational and marketing sides. In traditional ComNet style, the '96 show will offer a series of two-day tutorials, Berton said. This year's two-day tutorials will cover topics that include ATM, Livenet, fiber optic technologies, enterprise network design, and "Evaluating Broadband Technologies for the Information Superhighway: Frame Relay, SMDS (Switched Multimegabit Data Service), and ATM." But to meet the needs of time-crunched attendees and members of the press, ComNet '96 will also provide some 27 shorter, one-day tutorials, in addition to these ten "Strategic Views on Global Structure": Electronic Commerce, Private/Public Infrastructure, Enabling Technologies, Users, Applications, Services, Systems Management, Engineering, Federal Topics, and the Inside Track. Mitch Hall Associates has retained Rourke & Company to handle media relations, Berton reported. Next year's networking show will also display a strong thrust toward stocking the press room with plenty of computers, modems, and related technology, the Mitch Hall exec told Newsbytes. Aside from the four keynoters, other speakers at ComNet '96 will include Mike Rogers, managing editor, Newsweek Interactive; Mary Alice Williams, corporate spokesperson, Nynex; Dr. Douglas Carl Engelbart, founding director, Bootstrap Institute; Francis Drubeck, president and CEO, Communication Network Architects Inc., Leonard P. McCarthy, Jr., VP, Multimedia and Emerging Opportunities, AT&T; Dick Green, president, Cable Labs TV Laboratories; and Dr. Eric Schmidt, CTO, Sun Microsystems. (Jacqueline Emigh/19950804/Reader Contact: Mitch Hall Associates, 617-361-9074; Press Contact: Lisa Downey or Tara Finney, Rourke & Company for Mitch Hall Associates, 617-267-0042) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 08/04/95 ONLINE CompuServe CEO Faces Users Online (NEWS)(ONLINE)(TYO)(00002) CompuServe CEO Faces Users Online 08/04/95 COLUMBUS, OHIO, USA, 1995 AUG 4 (NB) -- Less than a month into his new job, CompuServe's Chief Executive Officer Bob Massey entertained around 200 of the online service's users in an online conference Thursday evening. The event was organized, and hosted, by the Cable News Network. The conference allowed anyone to submit questions and moderator CNN correspondent Steve Young chose which ones to put to Massey and when. Predictably, some questions surrounded CompuServe's new pricing scheme announced just two days before the question and answer session. If the comments before the conference were anything to go by, "looking into Internet more seriously" and "gonna give Microsoft a look," there was a fair amount of dislike for the new scheme from the members attending. In contrast though, Massey said the opposite was true from online feedback already received. "The feedback from our customers has been mixed.... mostly extremely positive! Many of our members want to more fully explore the services, in particular the forums, and appreciate the lower incremental hourly fees." He added "The value proposition has improved for most of our members, and we expect the per member monthly invoice will actually DECREASE slightly, and members will be online MORE hours, receiving greater value for each dollar spent." A specific complaint came from members who make heavy use of basic services. Under the existing pricing, use of basic services is free but CompuServe's new pricing scheme will charge for use after five hours. Massey commented, "The new pricing structure will appeal to a very large, broad audience, encourage more exploration of the content, the 'Super Value' plan will enable the power user to very cost- effectively maximize the value online. We are also working on a guide to getting the most out of the new price structure." In response to a question on whether CompuServe would allow multiple e-mail addresses on a single account, such as America Online does, Massey revealed, "We've had numerous requests for this capability, and it is in our priority queue." Another related question was over mail aliases, allowing a word to represent a CompuServe account rather than the current string of numbers. Massey said "User aliases are coming along with additional e-mail capabilities .... in the VERY near future!!! Stay tuned .... we listen to our members and I know you will pleased with the new announcements." Questions regarding CompuServe's worldwide access network were also addressed when a user asked, "How soon can we expect 28.8 access?" Massey responded, "All 450 CS PoPs will have 28.8 access by May '96. The larger cities will have the service deployed first .... followed by the rest shortly thereafter." Access software for the service is also undergoing a redesign as WinCIM 2.0 is shortly entering beta testing as CompuServe announced three days ago as part of its new pricing announcement. Massey added that "We are also working on the Windows95 Internet only browser for release later this month." Two votes took place during the conference in which the almost 200 people attending were asked, first of all, whether they would be buying Windows 95. Of the 132 responses 87 people (65.91%) said they would be purchasing the new operating system whereas 45 people (34.09%) said they would not. The Windows 95 package is under fire from CompuServe and other online services because of Microsoft's bundling of access software for its own online network, MSN. In a second online vote, 133 revealed whether or not they intended to sign up to MSN. A larger number of people, 71 (53.38%) said they would not be signing up as those that would, 62 (46.62%). Despite his subscriber's reluctance to sign up to the new service, Massey said he would, explaining, "I sign up with all the players in this industry to explore the competition." (Martyn Williams/19950804) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 08/04/95 ONLINE Internet Update (NEWS)(ONLINE)(TYO)(00003) Internet Update 08/04/95 TOKYO, JAPAN, 1995 AUG 4 (NB) -- In this update of new resources and services on the Internet, Acer America online, Southeast US weather server, California geographical survey, government use of technology, war time propaganda posters, physics on video, non destructive testing data, business news from Asia. Acer America Online America's ninth largest computer maker, Acer America Corp., has established a home page on the Internet's World Wide Web. Visitors will find the latest news about the company and its products, all updated weekly. Users are also able to access an ftp site where the latest Acer drivers and system utilities can be downloaded. World Wide Web: http://www.acer.com/aac/ Southeast US Weather Server A new World Wide Web server has opened at The Southeast Regional Climate Center providing climatic information for the southeast of the United States. In addition to current data a range of historical information is also available, including a hurricane data archive, and the climate center's long-lead climate outlook forecast. World Wide Web : http://sercc.dnr.state.sc.us California Geographical Survey The California Geographical Survey has opened an Internet server on the Web. The Survey is a digital archive of geographical data, maps, and other information dealing with California and the United States. The server was established to serve programs at the University of California but that state said it believes everyone should be able to access the information. World Wide Web : http://geogdata.csun.edu/ Government Use Of Technology Government Technology is a monthly publication covering advances in the use of information technology by federal, state and local governments. Recent articles have included how to prevent break-ins on government computers, federal plans to begin a large information kiosk and the latest technology news. World Wide Web : http://www.govtech.net/ War Time Propaganda Posters The National Archives has inaugurated a new Exhibit Hall on the internet's World Wide Web. In the new hall Internet users will be able access selected items from the National Archives holdings. The first exhibit, "Powers of Persuasion," takes eleven posters from World War Two. Added to each are details of the artist and background to the poster. World Wide Web : http://www.nara.gov Physics On Video Thanks to a grant from AT&T, Purdue University's Physics Department has been working on integrating the use of digital video and QuickTime movies to aid in the understanding of introductory mechanics for Purdue's Introductory physics course. Some of the current work of the project has been placed onto the Web and demonstrates elastic collisions with air track cars, terminal velocity with falling coffee filters and two dimensional motion using bouncing tennis balls. World Wide Web : http://bohr.physics.purdue.edu/~phys152l/beta/digital_video.html Non Destructive Testing Data The New Zealand Non Destructive Testing Association's home page contains introductory information on the technique, used to evaluate the fitness for purpose of materials and structures. There are also details of the techniques available and other resources. World Wide Web : http://www.irl.cri.nz/~spedding/ndta/ndta0000.html Business News From Asia The Asia One Web site from Singapore Holdings has added articles from Singapore Business. The magazine carries monthly business articles on topics such as investing, money, media, marketing, retail, travel, property and current affairs of interest to businessmen and professionals. The Web site also allows access to current day business news from Singapore's Business Times newspaper. World Wide Web : http://www.asia1.com.sg/bt/pages/sinbiz.html (Martyn Williams/19950804) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 08/04/95 WINDOWS Delrina Outlines Windows 95 Plans (NEWS)(WINDOWS)(TOR)(00004) Delrina Outlines Windows 95 Plans 08/04/95 TORONTO, ONTARIO, CANADA, 1995 AUG 4 (NB) -- After Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ:MSFT) brings out Windows 95 late this month, Delrina Corp. (TSE:DC;NASDAQ:DENAF) will jump on the bandwagon with new communications software designed to take advantage of the new operating system and integrate communications functions. In a telephone press conference Thursday afternoon, Delrina discussed plans for CommSuite 95, a collection of data, facsimile, and voice communications software to be released 60 to 90 days after Windows 95's scheduled shipment date of August 24. CommSuite 95 will comprise new releases of Delrina's WinFax Pro facsimile software, WinComm Pro data communications software, and CyberJack browser for the World Wide Web, and TalkWorks, a voice- telephony option for WinFax Pro. Delrina is designating the new WinFax and WinComm releases with the version number 7.0, despite the fact that the current packages are labelled Version 4.0. The reason is that the company is reserving version numbers 5 and 6 for possible future releases of the software on Windows 3.1, said Mark Skapinker, president of Delrina. Skapinker said CommSuite will offer a common tool bar for all of its applications that will let users check all their messages, whether fax, voice, or electronic mail, in a single operation. Commenting on some people's belief that electronic mail will supplant fax, Skapinker said this idea is "as accurate as the people that said TV news would put newspapers out of business." Customers will also be able to install all of Delrina's new software in a single operation, Skapinker said. Any personal computer that can run Windows 95 will run the CommSuite applications, he added, though the TalkWorks software will require a voice-capable modem, of which only a handful are on the market today. One improvement in the new Windows 95 communications software will be easier modem configuration, thanks to Windows 95's support for Microsoft's Plug and Play specifications. "You simply install (a modem), Windows 95 detect it and CommSuite 95 automatically configures it for you," said Marc Camm, general manager of desktop communications at Delrina. The complete CommSuite 95 suite will sell for US$179, said Albert Behr, senior director of marketing for desktop communications at Delrina. WinComm Pro with CyberJack will list at US$129, as will WinFax Pro. The TalkWorks option will list at US$15.95. Behr said Delrina expects the street prices of the individual modules to be about US$99. Skapinker said Delrina has a version of CommSuite for IBM's OS/2 operating system in development, but "we have not focused very much on it." CommSuite 95 is expected to run on Microsoft's existing Windows NT operating system, he said. Delrina is in the process of being acquired by Symantec Corp. (NASDAQ:SYMC) of Cupertino, California. (Grant Buckler/19950804/Press Contact: Shelly Sofer, Delrina, 416-441-4702, fax 416-441-0333, Internet e-mail shellys@delrina.com; Public Contact: Delrina, 416-441-3676 or 408-363-2345/SKAPINKR950804/PHOTO) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 08/04/95 TELECOM Multimedia For Interactive Voice Systems (NEWS)(TELECOM)(DEN)(00005) Multimedia For Interactive Voice Systems 08/04/95 DALLAS, TEXAS, U.S.A., 1995 AUG 4 (NB) -- Intervoice Inc., has announced Mediaconnect, an optional multimedia connectivity product for interactive voice response systems. The company said MediaConnect is an application designed for virtually all interactive voice response applications. The company described MediaConnect as a voice, data, video and audio package that enables users to connect with remotely located databases and other information sources in a multimedia mode over standard telephone or ISDN lines. Intervoice spokesperson Nancy Mullins told Newsbytes applications for Mediaconnect include conducting bank transactions, participating in long distance learning situations and ordering online from retailers. Although MediaConnect is still in the beta testing phase, Intervoice has signed an agreement with ICS Learning Systems to license Mediaconnect for use by ICS students in a distance learning, interactive multimedia application. Mullins explained that can include lesson presentation that uses audio and video for teaching, as well as the ability for the student to respond to the questions. Skip Cave, Intervoice senior technical director of advanced development, explained that it's already possible to use a PC to perform tasks like checking your bank balance or looking at pictures of products you might want to order. What MediaConnect does is turn those tasks into a multimedia experience. "You can have your bank president speak your current bank balance, see a picture of that bank official and have music playing in the background," he explained for Newsbytes. Cave told Newsbytes Windows users can obtain the Mediaconnect user software by using the Windows terminal program to call the service provider and download the program. Cave said Windows 95 also offers some tools for MediaConnect which users had to obtain separately under Windows 3.1, including voice and sound drivers, so the software download no longer has to include those items. MediaConnect runs on OneVoice, Intervoice's multi-application call processing system that can access a server by phone, fax, screenphone or personal computer. Mullins said the product is expected to ship in January 1996. Mullins said the MediaConnect's host software is priced per port, and starts at about $30,000. She told Newsbytes the user software will be available at no cost from the application provider on disk as well as by downloading. Mullins said the user needs a PC equipped with a modem capable of at least 14.4K bit per second data transfer. (Jim Mallory/19950803/Press contact: Nancy Mullins, Springbok Technologies for Intervoice, 214-480-9458; Public contact: Intervoice, tel 214-669-3988, fax 214-907-1079) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 08/04/95 PC UK - PC Graphics Accelerator (NEWS)(PC)(LON)(00006) UK - PC Graphics Accelerator 08/04/95 BRACKNELL, BERKSHIRE, ENGLAND, 1995 AUG 4 (NB) -- ATI Technologies has announced the ATI 264CT9 chipset. According to the company, the new chipset forms the heart of a planned series of flagship Mach64 graphics accelerator cards for the PC that will ship from OEM (original equipment manufacturer) suppliers later this summer. According to Henry Quan, vice president of marketing with ATO, the new chipset offers a high degree of integration with low power consumption in a small footprint, a combination that makes it ideal for use in main board applications or as a separate add-in PCI (Peripheral Component Interconnect) graphics board. The 264CT9 is being aimed at the upscale Pentium class market, providing 43 million Winmark performance, which is faster than chipsets from other competitors by a minimum of 20 percent. "ATI continues to be a performance leader in the graphic industry. With this new controller, ATI moves from being just a mid to high-end vendor, to being a key supplier to the value priced, high volume component market," Quan said. According to ATI, the new chipset supports one to four megabytes (MB) of graphics memory and screen resolutions up to 1,280 x 1,024 pixels in 256 colors or a resolution up to 1,024 x 768 pixels in 24-bit true color with its 135 megahertz (MHz) DAC. ATI claims that, with the extensive driver support inclusive of many useful features, customers have the ability to easily address the needs of their target markets. ATI's supplied bundle of utilities support enhanced Windows functions such as virtual desktop control, color calibration, monitor adjustment and WinSwitch -- a feature which allows instant mode switching to change resolutions and colors without leaving Windows. The range of drivers available with the chipset supports OS/2, Windows 3.1, NT and 95, Unix, AutoCAD and Microstation as well as a Motion Video Acceleration driver. The ATI-264CT9 accelerator chipset also includes support for foreign languages. ATI's software drivers and documentation support 12 different languages, including French, German, Spanish and Japanese. (Sylvia Dennis/19950803/Press & Reader Contact: Hugh Chappell, Taxan Europe +44-1344-484646) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 08/04/95 PC UK - Logitech MouseWare 6.5 Technology (NEWS)(PC)(LON)(00007) UK - Logitech MouseWare 6.5 Technology 08/04/95 SLOUGH, BERKSHIRE, ENGLAND, 1995 AUG 4 (NB) -- Logitech has begun shipping MouseWare 6.5 for DOS and Windows with all its premium mice and trackballs. According to the company, MouseWare 6.5 answers user demands for an easy plug-and-play system to support more than one pointing device. The company cites the example of portable computer users who supplements their built-in trackball with an external mouse and want both devices to work interchangeably. Additionally, the company notes in its literature, as more family members use personal computers in the home, there is a need to accommodate personal choice in pointing devices by offering multiple device support. MouseWare 6.5 supports up to four devices on the PS/2, serial and bus connections. Users can add additional device support by means of a module with the ability to refresh all device connections after resuming operations from sleep mode. In addition, an Add Mouse feature allows users to hot-plug an additional mouse or re-detect a serial mouse without the need to reboot the system. According to the company, users often need to customize settings for different types of pointing devices. MouseWare 6.5 offers per-device settings stored and retrieved from a configuration file for many functions including button assignment, double-click speed, mouse speed, acceleration and Smart Move, a MouseWare feature that automatically moves the cursor to the next logical command within a given context. Additionally, MouseWare 6.5 helps users keep track of all pointing devices currently attached to a system by means of device-specific and generic icons. One interesting feature of MouseWare 6.5 is "cloaking" technology that has been licensed from Helix Software. When cloaking is activated, the DOS driver loads into extended memory, reducing the conventional memory required by the mouse from 25K (kilobyte) to just 1K. Announcing MouseWare 6.5, Martin Pickering, the company's general manager, said that, since the development of the earliest of its pointing devices Logitech has enhanced the hardware with the addition of powerful software. "The new features in MouseWare 6.5 represent an important step as we continue to meet the demands set by customers and today's operating systems," he said. (Steve Gold/19950803/Press Contact: Bogard Communications +44-1753- 654333; Internet Email: bogard@cix.compulink.co.uk; Reader Contact: Logitech +44-1344-894300) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 08/04/95 TELECOM UK - Mercury's National PCN Roll-Out (NEWS)(TELECOM)(LON)(00008) UK - Mercury's National PCN Roll-Out 08/04/95 LONDON, ENGLAND, 1995 AUG 4 (NB) -- Mercury One-2-One, one of two PCN (personal communications network) digital phone nets in the UK, has announced plans to dramatically speed up its plans for national coverage. Ever since launching almost two years ago, One-2-One has been perceived as a regional PCN operator, covering the London and South East areas of the UK. Originally, the service was planned to hit national coverage by the end of the decade, causing some quarters of the cellular phone industry to dismiss the service when compared to Hutchison Orange, its PCN competitor. This summer saw One-2-One launch in the West Midlands, centering around Birmingham. Under the plans announced this week, UKP 325 is to be invested over the next two years to roll out to national coverage by 1997. By the end of this year, One-2-One will be extended to South Coast of the UK, throughout the Midlands and up into the northwest region. "With One-2-One's service successfully established within two regions, we're now rapidly expanding the network to offer our best value brand of mobile phone service right across the country, reaching national coverage in a little over two years from now," explained Richard Goswell, the company's managing director. "Our plan has always been to extend our very big capacity network throughout the UK, with the ability to handle tens of millions of calls. That's the capacity needed to continue to offer the best value mobile phone service on the market and which has helped to achieve 19 percent market share within our coverage areas within two years of launch," he said. Goswell went on to say that, as coverage grows, the company will more effectively support customers with a standard need for mobile communications, in addition to the smaller business and consumer markets where One-2-One has already been a success. "In tandem, we will soon be launching a range of new services specifically designed with business users in mind," he explained. During 1996, plans call for One-2-One to expand its network in the South East, East Midlands, North West and West Riding of Yorkshire areas, with the service extending into Wales and along the East Coast into Scotland by the end of 1997. One-2-One is funding the network expansion by raising additional debt financed from customer revenues. By the end of 1997, the company will have invested UKP 895 million in the network and support services. There will be no need for extra equity, the company said, from its two main shareholders, Cable & Wireless and US West. Operational break- even is expected during the 1997/98 timeframe. Currently, One-2-One has 33 percent coverage of the UK's population. By the end of the year this will reach 40 percent, rising to 65 percent by the end of next year and 90 percent by the end of 1997. (Steve Gold/19950803/Press Contact: One-2-One Press Office +44-956- 700121; Reader Contact: toll-free -0500-500121) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 08/04/95 LEGAL Cellular Fraud Now A Felony In Washington State (NEWS)(LEGAL)(DEN)(00009) Cellular Fraud Now A Felony In Washington State 08/04/95 SEATTLE, WASHINGTON, U.S.A., 1995 AUG 4 (NB) -- Cellular crooks may want to avoid the state of Washington. State legislators passed a law recently that makes cellular fraud a felony, punishable by imprisonment and fines up to $25,000. Federal law provides penalties of up to 15 years in prison and a $250,000 fine. Legislators said they passed the law in an attempt to stop any theft of cellular services, either through the illegal manufacture of cellular phones, stealing phone and electronic serial numbers, or possessing an illegally altered cellular phone. Cellular fraud takes various forms. The Secret Service is the federal agency tasked with investigating cellular phone fraud, and Denver-based Secret Service agent Bill Bresnahan told Newsbytes one technique is to gain access to a phone, obtain the unique electronic serial number and leave the phone in place. The stolen number is then programmed into another phone. That is called "cloning." To help the Secret Service catch phone crooks, the Cellular Telecommunications Industry Association (CTIA) has given the federal agency about $50,000 worth of wireless test equipment to analyze "cloned" phones. CTIA will also provide training courses for agents who specialize in the new but growing crime. Other illegal techniques include using sophisticated scanners to grab the electronic serial numbers and phone numbers right off the airways as a nearby phone is in use. Those numbers are then programmed into another phone to make illegal calls. The cellular industry and law enforcement officials offer advice to cell phone users on how to protect their phones and numbers. They say you should always lock your phone or remove the handset and antenna when you leave your car somewhere, such as in a parking lot or at a garage. They also recommend you keep documents that contain serial and phone numbers in a safe place, and immediately report a stolen phone or one you think has been tampered with. You should also examine your monthly bill for unusual call activity, and you can ask your cellular service provider to block your number from making long distance calls if you don't need that particular service. Crooks often use stolen phones and stolen numbers to make long distance calls to numbers in the US and in foreign countries. Robert Johnson, vice president and general manager of AT&T Wireless Services' Washington State Cellular Division, estimates that wireless phone fraud costs the cellular industry up to $1 million per day. He said that while victims are not responsible for stolen equipment or phones and ESN (electronic serial number) numbers, the criminal activity does create an inconvenience because of the need to get a new cellular phone number. "This affects people's business cards and stationery, not to mention calling key contacts to let them know of the number change," said Johnson. Johnson has a message for the high-tech thieves. "We know you are there and we know what you are doing. We will catch you and prosecute you to the fullest extend of the law," said the AT&T executive. AT&T Wireless Services supported the legislation and has established a tollfree fraud hotline to report cellular fraud. (Jim Mallory/19950804/Press contact: Anita Lammert, AT&T, 206-389-5173; Public contact: AT&T fraud hotline, 800-328-1659) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 08/04/95 ONLINE CMP Says NetGuide Now, TechSearch Usage Explodes (NEWS)(ONLINE)(MSP)(00010) CMP Says NetGuide Now, TechSearch Usage Explodes 08/04/95 MANHASSET, NEW YORK, U.S.A., 1995 AUG 4 (NB) -- CMP Publications said two of its electronic communications vehicles have reached new heights this week. Its "NetGuide Now" electronic mail (e-mail) newsletter has gained 5,500 subscribers in a little over a month, and its "TechSearch" search engine had been used over one million times. The new e-mail newsletter has been growing at a rate of almost 19% a week, officials said. NetGuide Now is delivered to subscribers' mailboxes every Friday, and contains the latest news from cyberspace, hot new Internet World Wide Web sites, and a calendar of online events for the upcoming week. Also included is information on the latest installment of the cybersoap opera, "The Spot" (located at http://www.thespot.com ), officials said. Jessica Adelson, NetGuide's director of new media, told Newsbytes the main reason why the publication is taking off is "word of mouth." She said CMP hasn't done a lot of promoting of the newsletter yet, and at the same time, she's been getting e-mail from readers telling her that they're recommending NetGuide Now to other people. She also said a reason why it has increased in readership is because it has a real "personality. It's fun to read, and it's funny, so it can give you a laugh as well," she said. A recent example is a "Letter To Steve," referring to Steve Case, president of America Online (AOL). Usually, he writes a monthly "Letter From Steve" to his AOL subscribers. The main reason why readers get the newsletter for free is because of advertising. Dell Computer is NetGuide Now's charter advertiser, and CMP officials said Dell has already received nearly 700 requests for information based on the newsletter ads. To subscribe to NetGuide Now, users can send e-mail to netguidenow@cmp.com, with the word "subscribe" (without the quotes) in the body of the note. CMP's TechSearch feature, part of the company's TechWeb electronic publishing site, has been used more than one million times, officials said. This feature lets users search through more than a year's worth of CMP publications by subject, company name, product category, technology, or other key words. Some of the publisher's 16 magazine titles include Interactive Age, Windows Magazine, HomePC, and InformationWeek. Officials said users of TechSearch are comprised mainly of people who are buying computer products, and are looking for additional information before making any "buy" decisions. (Bob Woods/19950804/Press Contacts: Barbara Kerbel, 516-562-5218, or Catherine Jarrat Koatz, 516-562-7827, or e-mail cmppr@cmp.com, all of CMP Corporate Communications. Public Contact: Internet World Wide Web http://techweb.cmp.com ) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 08/04/95 BUSINESS Ramtron Resolves Financial Problems, 2Q Revenues Up (NEWS)(BUSINESS)(DEN)(00011) Ramtron Resolves Financial Problems, 2Q Revenues Up 08/04/95 COLORADO SPRINGS, COLORADO, U.S.A., 1995 AUG 4 (NB) -- Semiconductor maker Ramtron International Corp. (NASDAQ: RMTR) has solved its current financial problems and saved its listing on the NASDAQ exchange by reaching an agreement with its two largest shareholders to restructure the company's debt. It also reported a second quarter revenue increase of 36 percent and income of $0.02 per share. The company said it has reached the restructuring agreement with the National Electrical Benefit Fund (NEBF) and Oren Benton, a bankrupt Denver uranium trader. Benton and NEBF are Ramtron's two largest shareholders. The company said it has also reached an agreement with New York-based BEA Associates, a registered investment advisor, to make an equity investment in the company. Ramtron has a potentially bright future. The company developed the first non-volatile dynamic random access memory, called FRAM (ferroelectric random access memory). FRAM, unlike DRAM chips, retain their stored information when power is turned off. Initially intended for use in telephones, video cameras, postage meters and electronic identification devices, larger-capacity FRAM chips are expected to eventually be available for computers. Following approval of the agreement by the US District Court, Ramtron's shareholders equity is expected to total about $19 million compared to a shareholder's deficit of $5.6 million at the end of March. Ramtron said it will issue approximately 7.9 million shares of common stock and retire $24.3 million of its debt. The company also wants to convert an additional $2.7 million of Benton debt under the same terms. Outstanding warrants with the NEBF and Benton to purchase a total of 5.9 million common shares will be adjusted to an exercise price of $4.15 per share, with a new common five-year term. Additionally, warrants for 1.1 million shares of common stock will be issued to BEA under similar terms. The company said all employee options will also be adjusted to the new warrant exercise price of $4.15. Ramtron stock closed yesterday at 4.875. NEBF has agreed to provide a $12 million credit line for working capital, which will be secured by Ramtron assets. The final $4.5 million of the credit line is contingent upon certain performance criteria being met by Ramtron. An existing $3 million credit line established by the NEBF in March will be included in the new credit arrangements. All payment obligations under that credit facility will be deferred until June 30, 1998. L. David Sikes, Ramtron chairman and chief executive officer, said the company will be on firm financial ground as a result of the debt restructuring and credit line. "We can now focus our attention on capitalizing on the growing momentum surrounding our FRAM memory technology," said Sikes. The Ramtron chairman said the company also plans to manage carefully critical supply and working capital requirements in its EDRAM business and prepare for the increased supply of FRAM product when its alliance partners Hitachi and Rohm begin manufacturing prototypes at the end of this year. Ramtron joined forces with Hitachi in November 1992 to integrate Ramtron's FRAM technology with Hitachi's DRAM manufacturing process. In late 1994 Newsbytes reported an agreement between California-based Rainbow Technologies s(NASDAQ: RNBO) and Ramtron to develop a FRAM chip for use in a software protection device. Earlier this year Ramtron announced new FRAM chips designed to store configuration or calibration data for devices like video games, watt-hour meters, industrial flow meters, satellite receivers, modems and motor controls. The company said sales of FRAM memory products rose more than 25 percent during the second quarter to reach $339,000 during the period. Ramtron also reported sales of EDRAM products in the second quarter of $2.7 million. That's slightly less than the $2.9 million in EDRAM sales for the same period last year. (Jim Mallory/19950804/Press contact: Lee Brown, Ramtron, 719-481-7000; Public contact: Ramtron, 719-481-7000) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 08/04/95 UNIX HP's Smart Auto-RAID Backup Technology (NEWS)(UNIX)(LON)(00012) HP's Smart Auto-RAID Backup Technology 08/04/95 BRACKNELL, BERKSHIRE, ENGLAND, 1995 AUG 4 (NB) -- Hewlett-Packard (HP) has taken the wraps off two new storage systems -- XLS 5800 and the XLR 1200 Advanced Disk Array. The XLS 5800 is billed as a complete storage cabinet which offers a single solution for both on-line and back-up storage in Unix environments. The company claims it is an easy-to-use, highly flexible disk system that features redundant components and load-sharing power supplies in a state-of-the-art enclosure. It supports mixed capacity disks and mixed media, such as 8 GB digital audio tape (DAT) for on-line and back-up capability; 5.25-inch form- factor mechanisms, such as CD-ROM and a DAT AutoChanger; and disk, power supply and fan modules of the XLR 1200 advanced disk array. According to HP, the XLR 1200 is the first implementation of the company's AutoRAID (redundant array of independent disks) technology. Plans call for the drive systems to be ship world-wide by the end of the year through Original Equipment Manufacturers. The XLR 1200 is a complete unit that is billed as providing scalable storage of up to 24 gigabytes (GB) per unit. The disk array is targeted at current RAID users who are frustrated by the poor performance and complexity of traditional RAID, as well as for users of disk mirroring, which has a higher cost of ownership for fault- tolerant storage. According to HP, with AutoRAID technology, the XLR 1200 Advanced Disk Array automatically maximizes the disk utilization, provides substantial performance improvements, and is easier to configure and manage than traditional RAID and mirrored disk systems. The Advanced Disk Array system has been demonstrated successfully in a variety of Unix system-based computing environments, including HP, IBM and Sun. The company claims that IT (Information Technology) managers will find significant benefits from the new disk array, particularly applications such as database and on-line transaction processing. The new disk array will also be useful where mainframe downsizing, replicated remote-site operations and data warehousing are key IT environments, the company claimed. The Advanced Disk Array is a modular enclosure that supports 12 disks, two controllers, two power-supplies and three fan modules in stand- alone or rack-mountable configurations. All modules are front accessible and customer replaceable. The stand-alone XLR 1200 supports up to 12 1-inch low-profile or six 1.6-inch full-height disk modules, providing scalable storage capacity of up to 24GB. Six XLR 1200 rack-mount enclosures are supported per 1.6 metre EIA cabinet, providing support for up to 72 disks and a total storage capacity scalable up to 144 GB. This capacity will scale linearly as new, higher-capacity 3.5-inch disks are introduced. AutoRAID, which was introduced in March of this year, is a new storage technology that automates and simplifies many complex RAID configuration and management procedures. HP's AutoRAID technology also provides auto configuration, which makes it unnecessary for the administrator to understand RAID levels because there are no references or options to choose a RAID level during configuration. (Steve Gold/19950803/Press Contact: PA Consulting Group +44-171-730- 9000; Reader Contact: Hewlett-Packard +44-1344-369222) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 08/04/95 WINDOWS Quarterdeck's Win 95 Utilities (NEWS)(WINDOWS)(LAX)(00013) Quarterdeck's Win 95 Utilities 08/04/95 SANTA MONICA, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1995 AUG 4 (NB) -- Quarterdeck (NASDAQ: QDEK) unveiled four new utilities designed for Windows 95. Shipping in September, they include; CleanSweep for Windows 95, Quarterdeck MagnaRAM for Windows 95, Quarterdeck WinProbe for Windows 95, and QEMM (Quarterdeck Enhanced Memory Management) for Windows 95. Alex Eckelberry, Quarterdeck general manager of the utilities software business unit, told Newsbytes, "We have focused on speed, memory, hard disk space and system troubleshooting for Windows 95. By moving quickly, we hope to minimize problems users might encounter when moving to Windows 95." "CleanSweep for Windows 95 is a 32-bit full disk management clean- up system. It is designed to remove 16 or 32-bit programs while providing full archiving and backup capabilities. We believe this will be the first available 32-bit uninstaller for Windows 95. It should have a street price in the range of $39 to $49," said Eckelberry "Quarterdeck MagnaRAM for Windows 95, provides 32-bit memory compression routines. It will increase available Windows memory. It is not a doubler but it will have the same effect. If you have 8 megabytes, MagnaRAM can increase the memory to 16 megabytes. MagnaRAM should have a street price under $100," said Eckelberry "Quarterdeck WinProbe for Windows 95 is a diagnostic and troubleshooting utility that automatically advises the user. Simply put it finds problems and tells the user how to fix them. WinProbe should have a street price under $100," said Eckelberry "QEMM for Windows 95 adds another robust 32-bit memory compression for Windows 95 and includes the Windows 3.1 system resource management. QEMM for Windows 95 should have a street price of between $60 and $70," said Eckelberry The company will provide free upgrades for each of the new Windows 95 utilities for those who purchase the current versions after July 15, 1995. All of these utilities are already produced for Windows 3.1. According to Eckelberry. Windows 3.1 upgrades will be available for between $30 and $40. The Windows 95 versions of MagnaRAM and CleanSweep are expected to ship in September, and the Windows 95 versions of WinProbe and QEMM are expected to ship in the December. (Richard Bowers/19950803/Press Contact: Rolf Rudestam, Quarterdeck, 909-585-2012) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 08/04/95 ONLINE ****Execs Predict Wide Internet Use - Survey (NEWS)(ONLINE)(TOR)(00014) ****Execs Predict Wide Internet Use - Survey 08/04/95 SPRINGFIELD, MASSACHUSETTS, U.S.A., 1995 AUG 4 (NB) -- Executives of 48 companies in the Forbes 500 say they expect the Internet or other online services will be widely used to market products in the next 10 years, according to a recent survey by American International College's Bureau of Business Research. The survey said executives expect that 39 percent of a firm's annual sales will be through online systems, including the Internet, within the next 10 years. They also predicted that 67 percent of firms in their industries would offer customers price and product information through the Internet. They forecast that 66 percent of firms would let customers and prospects contact customer service and sales personnel through the Internet. And they said 65 percent would complete transactions through the Internet. The executives also said they expect 40 percent of firms in their industries to let customers design or customize the products they want online, and they forecast that 21 percent of annual advertising and promotion budgets would be spent on Internet- related activities. All of these percentage figures are means calculated from all responses to the survey. According to Clayton Hillyer, a marketing professor at American International College and co-author of the study, the Internet will help manage cross-functional teams made up of people in different organizations and locations and manage concurrent rather than sequential work processes by integrating different information and communications systems. He said this will help firms that use the net make products better and faster than their competitors. The survey found that firms that sell to businesses tended to predict a larger percentage of sales from online systems than those whose primary customers are consumers. The six-question survey was sent to all companies in the Forbes 500, Hillyer told Newsbytes. (Grant Buckler/19950803/Press Contact: Ira Smolowitz, American International College, 413-747-6369, fax 413-747-6243) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 08/04/95 ONLINE Doing More Business On The Internet - Book (NEWS)(ONLINE)(TYO)(00015) Doing More Business On The Internet - Book 08/04/95 TOKYO, JAPAN, 1995 AUG 4 (NB) -- When many businesses think of Internet connections, the obvious selling power, or perceived selling power of the network comes to mind. Mail order businesses may be jumping to get online and establish cyber-malls but as Mary Cronin's new edition of Doing More Business On The Internet shows, there are a hundred and one ways a company can benefit from an Internet connection. In the preface to the second edition the author notes that since the first edition less than a year ago over 20,000 companies have registered for Internet domain names and the amount of corporate home pages has risen from a few hundred to several thousand, such is the interest in the online world. The book takes around a hundred of the companies using the global network and finds out why they are connected and, more importantly, what they are gaining from it. Starting with the basics, the author explains what the Internet is and provides some historic background that will help the reader understand just what they are dealing with. This is supplemented by a guide to the network written for company managers. As the book progresses through subjects such as using the Internet to reach customers, start new businesses and establish World Wide Web presences, each topic is backed up with real world examples of company Internet usage. These company profiles show that Internet connectivity is not just desirable for organizations that wish to sell things to network users. Just about any company that uses computers stands to gain from Internet connection as a selection of profiles shows. Take Greenville Tool And Die for instance, far from trying to sell its metal stamped dies to "net surfers" and "cyber dudes," the Michigan based company discovered that by connecting to the Internet, it could speed up development time in its products by having online access to the authors of its commercially bought computer-aided design system. Suddenly, if the company experienced a problem with the software, gone were the days of sending disks in overnight mail and waiting for modifications or updates to come back. E-mail and file transfers allowed such a troubleshooting process to be shortened to hours, not days. Of course there are some people selling on the Internet and making a success of it. Cronin details McAfee Associates, the well-known anti-virus software producer, which has managed to attract 16,000 registered users for its software and an annual net revenue of $13.6 million, something which it says would have been difficult without the Internet. Not all attempts at marketing on the Internet are successful and an interview with Joe Andrieu on his experiences provides some valuable information on what to avoid when trying to sell products online. Throughout the book many examples are given of different ways that other companies are using the Internet and how they are benefiting. An interesting section on profiles of Postmasters, the people who run the Internet connections, gives insight into some of the thoughts of the Internet managers at major corporations such as Apple, IBM Research and AT&T Bell Labs. Doing More Business On The Internet is published by Van Nostrand Reinhold of New York. The book's ISBN number is 0-442-02047-3 available in paperback at $29.95. (Martyn Williams/19950802/Press contact : Teri Medd, Kallman Communications, 914-358-5153, fax 914-353-3453, Internet email : kallmancom@aol.com; Reader contact : Van Nostrand Reinhold, 1-800-842-3636) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 08/04/95 TRENDS Siemens Top In Datamation European Survey (NEWS)(TRENDS)(LON)(00016) Siemens Top In Datamation European Survey 08/04/95 BRACKNELL, BERKSHIRE, ENGLAND, 1995 AUG 4 (NB) -- Siemens Nixdorf Information Systems has taken pole position in a new report of the top earners among information technology companies, just out from Datamation. According to Paula Schmidt, a spokeswoman for the company, the report, which is carried out amongst 25 information technology companies in Europe, showed Siemens as holding top position, ahead of Bull and Olivetti, its main competitors in the IT arena. According to Schmidt, the results prove that Siemens Nixdorf is the largest IT company in Europe, posting 1994 revenues some 25 percent higher than those of Bull and Olivetti, and more than 44 percent higher than ICL, the Fujitsu-owned IT company based in the UK. The results of the Datamation annual report identify that the European IT market has grown by 4.5 percent over the last year, with the UK market leading the way with an impressive 12.3 percent growth, with Germany and France in joint second place. According to the report, Siemens Nixdorf was noted as number one supplier of mid-range systems, thanks to the recent acquisition of Pyramid Technology. This makes Siemens Nixdorf the world leader in medium-scale Unix systems, with the company holding an 11.6 percent market share in Europe. In the report's rankings for PCs and software, Siemens Nixdorf took third place. The company is billed as the fastest growing PC vendor in Europe. In 1993/94, company shipments went up by around 55 percent. This year's PC production is targeted for 600,000 units and, according to officials with the company, there are several joint ventures in operation, including a joint operation with Top Victory Electronics in China, and Escom AG of Germany, which will increase production of PCs. (Sylvia Dennis/19950802/Press Contact: Paula Schmidt, Siemens Nixdorf Information Systems +44-1344-850881) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 08/04/95 GOVT British Telecom, Australia Govt In Court (NEWS)(GOVT)(LON)(00017) British Telecom, Australia Govt In Court 08/04/95 SYDNEY, AUSTRALIA, 1995 AUG 4 (NB) -- A fierce row, which broke out earlier this week between British Telecom (BT) and the Australian Government of New South Wales over an alleged breach of contract, has ended up with BT taking the NSW Government and Telstra, the major Australian telco, to court over the affair. The matter may be viewed as nothing out of the ordinary in terms of the modern business market-place -- civil lawsuits of this type are the bread and butter of many commercial lawyers -- but the case is significant because the NSW Government was BT's first major contractual subscriber in Australia, and the public acrimony between the two parties has cast a shadow over BT's future plans for the country. BT is being viewed as scarcely endearing itself to Telstra, one of its competitors, by taking the Australian telco to court regarding actions on its own "home turf." The legal action follows BT's decision on Tuesday of this week to officially terminate its 10-year contract with the NSW Government to provide a data and voice comms network on the grounds that the state government had breached fundamental terms of its contract. Commenting on the affair, Robert Kaye, the managing director of BT Australia, said that the company warned the Government and Telstra several months ago about the problems. "We have done everything we could to avoid litigation. But we were left with no alternative when the Government broke off its discussions with us and, instead, implemented its own arrangements with Telstra," he said, adding that BT has been advised it has a strong case. As a result of the dispute, BT has put its proposed US$450 planned investment program for New South Wales on hold and warned that the whole program could be jeopardy. In its legal action, BT is claiming as-yet unspecified damages from the NSW Government for alleged breach and repudiation of contract, as well as alleged misrepresentation and misuse by Telstra of its market power to damage BT's interests. The BT contract dates back to 1992 when it contracted with the NSW Government to design, implement and managed a private voice and data comms network for the Government and its agencies. The network, which is almost complete, covers 150,000 staff and 1,300 sites. To date, the A$600 million contract still has two thirds of its time and money to go, but industry experts suggest that, if the case proceeds to the courts, then BT's future in New South Wales could be tarnished. Before the writs were issued this week, BT's Kaye was seemingly puzzled over the situation. "We cannot understand why a company which created 500 jobs here, has established its regional headquarters here (in Sydney) and has commenced industry development initiatives of approximately half a billion dollars, should have to accept the current situation from a Government which strives for investment in New South Wales," he said. Despite BT's vociferous approach to the disagreement, the NSW state Government has refused to comment publicly on the matter. Experts suggest that this approach will stand in the Government's favor, with BT being seen as the villain of the peace, "rocking the boat" over a what is being seen as a civil matter. (Steve Gold/19950804) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 08/04/95 TELECOM Canadian Firm to Supply Signalling Tools To VSNL (NEWS)(TELECOM)(DEL)(00018) Canadian Firm to Supply Signalling Tools To VSNL 08/04/95 NEW DELHI, INDIA, 1995 AUG 4 (NB) -- Sed System, Inc., a Canadian firm based in the Saskatchewan province, has signed a contract with an Indian company to supply access control and signalling equipment (ACSE) to India's Videsh Sanchar Nigam Ltd (VSNL). Said Dugald Buchnan, president, SED, "The contract with VSNL provides us with a 25 percent share in the fast growing market for Inmarsat digital ACSEs and positions us to participate in the numerous mobile ground communication systems that will be developed by the end of this century." He further added that there will be at least $1 billion spent on ground equipment over the next five years and his company was well-placed to ensure a role in this market for Canada. (C. T. Mahabharat/19950804) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 08/04/95 TELECOM China - Unicom's Ambitious Expansion Plan (NEWS)(TELECOM)(PEK)(00019) China - Unicom's Ambitious Expansion Plan 08/04/95 BEIJING, CHINA, 1995 AUG 4 (NB) -- China United Telecommunications Corp. (Unicom), China's second telecom carrier, has announced ambitious plans to compete in the country's lucrative telecom market. As a measure of economic reform, Unicom was formed in July 1994 as a joint-venture by the Ministry of Electronic Industry, Ministry of Railway, and a few other government agencies. The establishment of Unicom broke the monopoly of Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications (MPT) over the nationwide telecommunication operation. Now Unicom offers mobile telephone services in China's four largest cities: Beijing, Tianjin, Shanghai, and Guangzhou. Unicom has ambitions plans to compete in the fast-expanding telecom market. In the next five years, Unicom will invest billions of dollars in construction of its telecommunications networks, said Unicom's Chairman Zhao Weichen. The company plans to provide 30 percent of China's mobile phone services and 10 percent of long-distance and local telephone services in that period. Unicom is also seeking links with foreign companies and has signed 38 initial agreements with foreign telecom companies. The company's chairman said that Unicom will introduce foreign investors in the task of constructing telecommunications networks. Under some agreements, foreign companies could build networks and then transfer them to Unicom for operation, he said. The company has imported advanced equipment from the world's leading manufacturers including Siemens, Motorola, Ericsson, Nokia, AT&T and Northern Telecom. To promote the development of China's manufacturing industry, Unicom will cooperate with domestic companies to jointly produce telecommunications equipment. Unicom has invested US$84.3 million for the mobile communications systems in the four cities and is building networks in 16 provinces and cities with investment of US$722 million. Unicom now has 32 branches and plans to establish more to cover the whole country. It will also set up a subsidiary in Hong Kong. (Chih-Ho Yu & Ning Huang/19950804) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 08/04/95 BUSINESS China - Home Computer Sales Blitz (NEWS)(BUSINESS)(PEK)(00020) China - Home Computer Sales Blitz 08/04/95 BEIJING, CHINA, 1995 AUG 4 (NB) -- As the summer vacation for middle and elementary schools is underway, many computer firms are setting up special computer sales counters at department stores and providing free training to target home computer buyers. Although many Chinese families have talked about buying home computers for a while, they haven't actually turned their words into deeds. To encourage them to buy, computer companies are launching a variety of sales techniques, with the help of the government. Since July 13, when the summer vacation of middle and elementary schools began, Legend Computer Company launched a campaign in Beijing called "Learning First, Buying Next" to provide free computer training at several big department stores including at the largest department store in Beijing, Xidan, City & Country, and Landao department stores. Whether visitors buy a computer or not, they can get some basic training in computer operation. During the promotion period, discount prices and a better after-sales services plan are being offered to students. Many other computer companies -- Great Wall, AST, IBM, and Compaq -- are also providing lessons on home computer use along with presentations and demonstrations in department stores and computer shops. Free consultation is also available to help families choose home computers. Coining the slogan, "The Choice of Chinese to Enter the New Century," the State Education Commission, the Chinese-English Education Center, the Business Information Center of Ministry of Domestic Trade, and China Computer User Association also jointly launched a campaign to promote family computers. They are asking the public to nominate the Best Personal Computer Brand, Best Family Computer Software, and the Best Computer for After-Sales Services. Although experts note the home market for computers still needs time to grow, all computer companies are poised for explosive growth. As family income increases, computers are likely to become the next hot consumer product, with cars and houses still beyond the reach of most families. (Chih-Ho Yu & Ning Huang/19950730) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 08/04/95 TELECOM HK Telecom's Desktop Video Conferencing (NEWS)(TELECOM)(HKG)(00021) HK Telecom's Desktop Video Conferencing 08/04/95 CENTRAL, HONG KONG, 1995 AUG 4 (NB) -- Hong Kong Telecom is hoping to cash in on the growing interest in desktop video conferencing with the launch of a complete desktop video conferencing package aimed at corporate users. The OnSight system includes a desktop video conferencing system as well as user service and support from Hong Kong Telecom CSL and a high bandwidth ISDN (integrated services digital network) connection from Hong Kong Telecom. To increase the package's attractiveness to smaller companies, Telecom has made it available for rental as well as purchase. Norman Yuen, managing director of corporate development for Hong Kong Telecom described OnSight as being a cost effective concept in desktop video conferencing. Customers can choose from three different systems, each with a number of rental pricing schemes. The company is offering systems from either Intel or PictureTel in order to better meet individual customers' needs. PictureTel supplied much of the equipment for Telecom's existing dedicated video conferencing network, VideoNet, and will be offering two systems under OnSight, the PCS50 and PCS100. Telecom is also offering the ProShare Personal Conferencing Video System 200 from Intel. Purchase prices for the three systems range from HK$21,430 (US$2,747) to HK$50,470 (US$6,470), while monthly rentals cost between HK$585 (US$75) and HK$4,490 (US$575). Prices do not include monthly ISDN line rental charges, which add another HK$750 (US$96) to the cost. Hong Kong Telecom International also offers Choices, a package of discounts on standard international ISDN service usage. According to Yuen, Telecom has ISDN connections with over 100 countries worldwide, including all of Hong Kong's major trading partners. (Nigel Armstrong and IT Daily/19950803) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 08/04/95 BUSINESS D&B Drops Hong Kong Distributor, COL (NEWS)(BUSINESS)(HKG)(00022) D&B Drops Hong Kong Distributor, COL 08/04/95 CENTRAL, HONG KONG, 1995 AUG 4 (NB) -- Dun & Bradstreet Software -- a D&B Corp. unit forged out of the acquisition of McCormack & Dodge and MSA -- said it has dumped COL Ltd. as its Hong Kong distributor. DBS, which set up its Hong Kong office only months ago, said in a news release that the change would be "effective immediately." COL's Norris Hickerson said: "After we looked at it, we decided it would probably be more in [D&B's] interest and better for us if they took up marketing directly." The "it" in the equation is DBS' new SmartStream client-server-based series, aimed at recapturing a market that's shifted from mainframes to smaller platforms -- and to suppliers like SAP. "To be quite frank, there are very few people who would consider implementing a new application based on mainframe technology," Hickerson said. "We saw the last of major sales last year." He said he reckoned that DBS, thanks to the McCormack & Dodge and MSA acquisitions, had inherited three quarters of the big financial system sites locally. But the market DBS bought into is now dead. "It's a new game and everyone's trying to make a go of it." DBS has declined to comment, but smaller platforms mean leaner margins -- and fewer people, especially for companies in catch-up mode. In its press release, DBS said it would still recruit distributors while taking up direct sales, though they would not work in the "traditional vendor-distributor" model. Hickerson said he expected COL too would work with the company in some capacity. "We're still talking to them about that." COL will continue to provide maintenance for mainframes for the rest of the year but won't deal with DBS client-server products. DBS said it would branch out from financial services "to reach more vertical niche markets, such as manufacturing and distribution, human resources." (Nigel Armstrong and IT Daily/19950803) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 08/04/95 TELECOM ****House Halts All-Night Telecom Debate (NEWS)(TELECOM)(WAS)(00023) ****House Halts All-Night Telecom Debate 08/04/95 WASHINGTON, D.C., U.S.A., 1995 AUG 4 (NB) -- Facing cries of outrage from Democrats, House Republican leaders ended the all-night debate on telecommunications legislation (HR 1555) at 1:15 a.m. today and scheduled the debate to begin again at 8 a.m. At 8:50 this morning, the House, by a vote of 256-149, adopted a package of Republican leadership amendments, written by House Speaker Newt Gingrich (R-Ga.) at the behest of the regional Bell operating company following approval of the bill by the House Commerce Committee. Opponents of the Republican rewrite of the 1934 Communications Act accused the leadership of attempting to mug consumers in the dark of night. "After midnight, vampire-like, the communications bill rises each evening to be debated until dawn, when again we return to the regular order on the floor," said Rep. John Bryant (D-Texas). "These issues are too important to be debated when America is sound asleep." Yesterday afternoon, Vice President Al Gore repeated President Clinton's threat to veto the legislation, which Gore said is "abhorrent to the public interest and our national well-being." "It seems the House does not want the American people to see or hear what's in this legislation, and for good reason," said Gore, citing the late-night schedule. "This bill has been sold to the highest bidder in every telecommunications industry." But the chief sponsor of the legislation, Rep. Thomas Bliley (R-Va.), speaking on the MacNeil/Lehrer television show, blamed the Democrats. "The Democratic leadership insisted we do it in the middle of the night if we do it at all" before recess, he said. The House bill, which is generally similar to a Senate bill passed in June, would make major changes in the rules that govern the telecommunications business. It would remove regulation of cable television; allow cable companies to offer telephone services and telephone companies to offer cable services; allow local phone companies to offer long-distance service; and lift limits on the number of television and radio stations that any one company could own. One focus of administration objections to the bill is the lifting of ownership limits. In his statement, Gore said, "One person owning the majority of the media outlets in a community is a threat to the very system of democracy upon which our society is built," he said. But supporters defend the bill as fostering competition and innovation. "The American people will be amazed by the wide array of technological changes that will soon be available in their homes," said Rep. John Linder (R-Ga.). "The most extraordinary development has come in those nations that have put their trust in the power and potential of the marketplace." (Kennedy Maize/19950804) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 95 08/04/95 WINDOWS O'Reilly Claims First Web Server For Win (NEWS)(WINDOWS)(LAX)(00024) O'Reilly Claims First Web Server For Win 95 08/04/95 SEBASTOPOL, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1995 AUG 4 (NB) -- O'Reilly & Associates claims to have the only World Wide Web server available now for Windows 95. WebSite, a server for both Window NT and Windows 95, has been in testing since May. Robert Denny , creator of WebSite for O'Reilly & Associates told Newsbytes, "WebSite is a 32-bit server designed for Windows NT and Windows 95. It has been up and running on NT and in testing for Windows 95. We are not only the first out there, we have been in the trenches." "WebSite has been running on Windows 95 for months," said Gina Blaber, the WebSite product manager. "We've been shipping full- featured, Windows 95-ready software since May, and providing comprehensive tech support. To put it bluntly, WebSite is real and successful now, while other Web servers are still trying to get their first release to market." "WebSite not only comes with a 32-bit server, it also has an unique Web structure viewer and analyzer called WebView," says Denny. "WebView goes into the Web and builds a graphical display that shows the relationships between the documents. Where there are connections between documents WebView will show them like the branches in a tree." "In order to draw these branches between documents," Denny says, "WebView must identify the links. WebView must read every document linked. It must go in and read the HTML (HyperText Markup Language) even if those documents are located half-way around the world on the Internet." According to the company, Web publishers can publish with only SLIP or PPP account from their Internet providers. WebSite's graphical display manager for documents allows an administrator to run a complex Web site. With the access control features of WebSite, Webmasters can restrict access on all or part of their servers, the company says. Denny points out, "WebSite is being marketed for both the Internet and for LANs. WebSite works just as well on a LAN (local area network) as it does on the Internet, acting as a powerful and easy-to- use workgroup server. A single Website installation can serve multiple workgroups through multi-homing and remote administration features. With Windows NT and Windows 95 you can build an Internet on your LAN." To set up a WebSite server, Windows 95 users need a 386 or higher, VGA video display adapter, 3.5" disk drive,12 MB RAM (16 MB recommended), and 5 MB free disk space. (Richard Bowers/19950804/Press Contact: Ellen Elias, O'Reilly & Associates, 707-829-0515) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 08/04/95 BROADCAST ****Go-Video's New Duplicating VCR (NEWS)(BROADCAST)(MSP)(00025) ****Go-Video's New Duplicating VCR 08/04/95 SCOTTSDALE, ARIZONA, U.S.A., 1995 AUG 4 (NB) -- Go-Video Inc. (AMEX:VCR) said it is introducing a new line of videocassette recorders (VCRs) that is designed to copy videotapes in the same unit. The new Dual-Deck 4000 series consists of three models, and prices range from $599 to $899. These types of VCR tape decks have also generated controversy in the past, because it has been possible to duplicate copyrighted material off of original tape cassettes, such as video rental movies. The new series represents a substantial improvement over the company's 3000 series, officials said. All of the new models have Go-Video's exclusive "One-Touch Copy" system, as well as the ability to record at higher TV line resolutions. Other features include Automatic Multi-Scene Editing, which lets users edit out unwanted material like commercials, program credits, tape glitches, with a remote control. Also, Complete Program Record (CPR) automatically adjusts the tape speed so that a timed TV recording can fit onto one tape. This feature eliminates the missing of the ending of programs because the tape runs out. An additional feature is "Rapid Rewind/Fast Forward," which rewinds or fast-forwards a 120-minute VHS tape in under three minutes. The company said that's one of the fastest times a tape can be rewound or fast-forwarded with today's machines. And Skip Search lets users bypass portions of videos during playback by jumping forward in one and two-minute segments. The company said the new features of the 4000 make them ideal upgrades for building home theater systems. Go-Video cited recent industry statistics that show two-thirds of VCR purchases were upgrades to high-end models in 1994. This year high-end VCR sales are projected to lead the growth in the VCR segment of electronic sales, with a 20 percent increase, the company added. Of the three models, the high-end, hi-fi (high fidelity) stereo GV-4060 model with multi brand TV/VCR remote is available now, the basic GV- 4010 unit should be available in September, and the mid-line GV-4020 with hi-fi stereo at mid-line pricing is scheduled to be available in January 1996. (Bob Woods/19950804/Press Contact: Edward J. Brachocki, Go-Video, 602-998-3400) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 08/04/95 ONLINE America Online Offers Online Marketing Services (NEWS)(ONLINE)(MSP)(00026) America Online Offers Online Marketing Services 08/04/95 DALLAS, TEXAS, U.S.A., 1995 AUG 4 (NB) -- America Online Inc. (NASDAQ:AMER) (AOL) and The M/A/R/C Group (NASDAQ:MARC) announced they're joining forces to create online marketing programs and conduct online marketing research through a new company called Digital Marketing Services Inc. (DMS). AOL will own approximately 70 percent of DMS, while M/A/R/C will own about 30 percent. Through DMS, AOL and M/A/R/C will offer services like online content development, consumer research and promotions, data analysis, research validation, and fulfillment. DMS will offer two products. Digital Rewards is an incentive-type program similar to many airlines' frequent flyer programs. The program will tie in consumers' product purchases to earning free hours on AOL. The other product is called "Opinion Rewards," and will consist of three custom market research programs: Quick Focus, dealing with qualitative research, Online Topline, focusing on profiling research, and Net It Out, about diagnostic research. DMS president, Dennis E. Gonier, said companies involved in packaged goods, technology, personal services, consumer electronics. Airlines, hotels, and retail will benefit from the new jointly operated company. "A 'hot link gateway' to the Internet, and the opportunity for advertisers to integrate national promotions, are added advantages," Gonier said. The cost of DMS's services will depend on the scope of the assignment. For example, relationship marketing programs that include online content areas, direct marketing support, interactive support, and fulfillment services will run upwards of a half-million dollars per year, with a return on investment (ROI) of at least 30 percent. Fees for marketing research projects will start at $5,000 per project. (Bob Woods/19950804/Press Contacts: Judy Tashbook, America Online, 703-918-1452; Patty Sullivan, Susan Tull, or Bryan Curran, Edelman Worldwide, 214-520-3555, Internet e-mail edeldal@aol.com. Public Contact: America Online, 800-827-6364) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 08/04/95 APPLE Symantec Claims Cure For New Hypercard Virus (NEWS)(APPLE)(LAX)(00027) Symantec Claims Cure For New Hypercard Virus 08/04/95 CUPERTINO, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1995 AUG 4 (NB) -- Symantec Corporation (NASDAQ: SYMC) announced that Symantec AntiVirus for Macintosh (SAM) has been updated to recognize and protect against the recently discovered HC 9507 virus. The HC 9507 infects only HyperCard stacks, not system files or applications. According to Symantec, after the Home stack is infected, the virus spreads to other HyperCard stacks, as well as to randomly chosen stacks on the startup disk. The HC 9507 can infect any Apple or Macintosh-compatible computer system. The HC 9507 HyperCard virus goes into action depending on the day of the week and the time. While running HyperCard with infected stacks, the HC 9507 virus may cause the monitor screen to fade in and out, the word "pickle" may be typed automatically, or the workstation may shutdown or lockup. SAM versions 4.0 and 3.5 customers can immediately update against this new virus by downloading the updated virus definition file onto their system. Once updated, SAM Intercept and SAM Virus Clinic will detect and eliminate the virus from any infected HyperCard stacks. However, according to Symantec, a repaired stack may not run properly, in some cases, even after the virus is eliminated. Christiane Petite, a spokesperson for Symantec Corporation, told Newsbytes, "We found about the virus on Wednesday, July 26,1995. SAM detects the virus, then we have to update the definition files in SAM, and announce the virus and the SAM upgrade. "The detection of new viruses is a collective responsibility of the antivirus community. Viruses can be discovered either through the SAM detection devices or through the diligence of the antivirus community," says Petite. Owners of SAM 4.0 with access to a modem can use the Update Virus Definitions feature to update the SAM virus definition file automatically. The phone numbers for the SAM Virus Definitions Update Server are, in the United States, 503-334-4082; in Europe, +31-71-353299; in Australia, 02-817-2698; and in Southeast Asia, +61-2-817-2698. Phone numbers for areas not listed can be obtained from Symantec. Owners of SAM 4.0 and 3.5 can download the updated SAM Virus Definition File from the Symantec Bulletin board at 503-484-6699 (2400 baud) or 503-484-6669 (9600 baud), or from Symantec's FTP site at ftp.symantec.com/public/mac/sam/, and from CompuServe, America Online or Applelink. Users can also obtain detection and repair capabilities by ordering a disk with the updated Virus Definition file for $12.00 through Customer Service at 800-441-7234 in the US and Canada. Virus alert postcards with the new definition are being sent to all SAM 4.0 and 3.5 registered users. Symantec markets Symantec AntiVirus for Macintosh, an antivirus software package which Symantec claims can detect and eradicate all known Macintosh viruses. SAM version 4.0 is available for the suggested retail price of $99. (Richard Bowers/19950804/Press Contact: Christiane Petite, Symantec Corporation, 310-449-4141) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 08/04/95 WINDOWS Lotus Releases Newsstand Online Publishing Tools (NEWS)(WINDOWS)(BOS)(00028) Lotus Releases Newsstand Online Publishing Tools 08/04/95 CAMBRIDGE, MASSACHUSETTS, U.S.A., 1995 AUG 4 (NB) -- Lotus is targeting eight or nine vertical segments in the publishing industry, including accounting, for Lotus Notes:Newsstand, a newly available set of tools and services for publishing on the Lotus Notes Network (LNN) and other networks, said Jim Dougherty, director of Lotus's Advanced Technologies Group, in an interview with Newsbytes. The targeted publishing approach is aimed at giving LNN users "specialized" trade journals and other electronic publications that they are unlikely to find on other online services, Dougherty told Newsbytes. But LNN will also provide access to publications that are available elsewhere online, according to the group director. Lotus is providing Newsstand to all publishers free of charge, "so long as they are publishing on LNN," with the stipulation that Lotus will receive one-quarter of the subscription revenues received from LNN, Dougherty told Newsbytes. Publishers are also free to use the Newsstand tools to produce content for direct distribution to their customers, or for use on other Notes and non-Notes networks, under the proviso that they are also publishing on LNN, he added. "If they stop publishing to Newsstand, their licenses expire," he explained. For Notes end users, Newsstand offers the advantages of providing content in the Notes format and environment, easing the process of using the materials in Notes databases, while eliminating the need to learn new online systems, or convert information into other formats, said the Lotus exec. Lotus has used a survey of Notes users to select the target markets for Newsstand, Dougherty revealed. For each of these ten markets, Lotus is concentrating on 20 different publications, which have been ranked in order of their appeal to Notes users. Newsstand, he added, consists of three main components for publishers. Two of these components -- Editorial Workbench and Production Management -- are toolsets, while the third, Subscription Management, is a service offering. The new Editorial Workbench tools brings a set of Smartmasters for "very easily creating a publication in Notes, with all the abilities you need for graphics, and for linking graphics to stories," Dougherty asserted. Newsstand's Production Management tools "allow you to automate the process, by converting electronic data from another format," he maintained. So far, the Production Management tools support only two formats: RTF (Rich Tagged Format) and tagged ASCII. "All the publishers we've worked with so far support one of these two formats," Dougherty said. But nevertheless, Lotus plans to support additional formats in the future, Newsbytes was told. The third component of Newsstand, Subscription Management, will probably be supplied in two different ways, according to the Lotus exec. Publishers will be able to manage their subscriptions independently, if they wish, by having subscription orders sent directly to their own offices via Notes. But many publishers have asked Lotus for subscription assistance, according to Dougherty. As a result, Lotus will probably provide a centralized service, optionally available to publishers, which will "aggregate" and manage online subscription requests for multiple LNN publishers. Also in the future, Lotus will be "broadening Newsstand to a number of other networks" beyond LNN, Newsbytes was told. But it is "too early to tell" what those additional environments will be, said the Lotus group director. (Jacqueline Emigh/19950804/Reader Contact: Lotus, 617-577-8500; Press Contacts: Kathleen Haley or Suzanne Diaz, Lois Paul & Partners for Lotus, 617-862-4514) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 08/04/95 REVIEW PC Review of - Compaq Deskpro XL 566 Pentium Computer (REVIEW)(PC)(WAS)(00029) Review of - Compaq Deskpro XL 566 Pentium Computer 08/04/95 From: Compaq Computer Corp., 20555 State Hwy. 249, Houston, TX 77070-2698. 800-345-1518; 713-370-0670; direct sales 800-888-0194, or fax 713-378-1442. Price: $5,543 list with 8MB memory w/o QVISION monitor PUMA rating: 3.9 on a scale of 1=lowest to 4=highest Reviewed for Newsbytes by: John McCormick Summary: A 66 Megahertz (MHz) Pentium desktop computer with built-in network and SCSI ports - fast, but occasional boot up problems. ======= REVIEW ======= Compaq's 66 MHz Pentium system intended for business users came with a 4X CD-ROM as well as built-in SCSI and Ethernet ports, saving a lot of configuration hassle for those who need these. Of course it can be ordered without the network port. A fast 535 megabyte (MB) SCSI hard drive and 16 MB of memory made this a suitable candidate for low-end workstation tasks such as video production, CAD, and animation so I tested it with all three, using various video capture and special effects boards for digital video work, Drafix CAD for basic computer-aided design, and both Autodesk 3D Studio (vector) and Animator Pro (bit map) for creating business and broadcast grade animations. The only sour note with the system was an occasional problem where the system hung during boot up. This didn't get worse over the months of long-term testing and NEVER caused any data loss, so I would classify it as a mere occasional annoyance. The system never crashed during any long-duration torture runs where I attempted to overheat the Pentium and cause a failure. Despite the obviously adequate cooling, the Deskpro XL is very quiet, with little fan noise. The PCI QVision 2000 video, which is standard on XL Pentium systems, is quite fast and graphics production, even 3D rendering was very quick. I wasn't as happy with the QVISION 172 monitor -- it experienced a bit of "shake" when operated between two other SVGA systems, but liked the extensive front-panel controls for everything from contrast to image centering and a fix for those pesky sides of a monitor image where they are often bowed rather than straight. There were even convergence and separate RGB controls for a total of 16 separate monitor adjustments - all controlled by push buttons. The keyboard included a business audio speaker and microphone with a volume control as well as PS/2-type mouse port on the keyboard itself. Part of the business audio package is a version of Dragon Systems Voice Pilot speech recognition command package. This has been shown on TV as being extremely easy to use - just speak a command and the computer executes it. In the real world speech recognition is less accurate and I found the documentation inadequate when I tried to add new commands. The voice signal was easy to record, and a command was easy to link to the particular signals, but I had difficulty getting the command to actually do what I wanted when it came to opening new programs. That isn't a criticism of Compaq, their voice recognition works as well as any I have tested and it is easy to shut off. Connecting an external microphone would improve performance and there are connectors for both a second mike and external speaker very conveniently placed right on the keyboard. Perhaps the best voice application is in the Proof Reader which uses a pleasant voice to read back numbers and financial terms as you enter them in spreadsheets or other accounting software. Compaq also provides its own proprietary Tab Works Windows interface. Already being familiar with Windows, I quickly shut this off, but tested it enough to know that many novice users might find it very helpful. Test configuration: 66 MHz Pentium; 32-bit PCI local bus SCSI-2; 535 MB SCSI Hard Drive, 4X CD-ROM, graphics adapter 2MB PCI 1280x1024 Local bus accelerator; Business Audio; special keyboard; Novell Netware Client software; Ethernet port; 3 year warranty. Note, Don't go by the list price shown above - almost all PC prices are out of date by the time you read them - check with Compaq or a vendor to learn current price which is almost certainly lower. ============= PUMA RATINGS ============= PERFORMANCE: 4 Fast and reliable except for a minor boot problem. USEFULNESS: 4 Well equipped for most users, right out of the box. MANUAL: 3 The audio applications could have been better documented. AVAILABILITY: 4 Widely available. (John McCormick/19950725) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 08/04/95 REVIEW APPLE Review of - Deluxe Math Rabbit (REVIEW)(APPLE)(SFO)(00030) Review of - Deluxe Math Rabbit 08/04/95 Runs on: Macintosh or Windows PCs equipped with CD-ROMdrives From: The Learning Company; 6493 Kaiser Dr.; Fremont, CA 94555; 510-792-2101; 800-852-2255 Price: $49.00 PUMA rating: 4 Reviewed for NEWSBYTES by: Naor Wallach Summary: A game patterned after the Reader Rabbit series which concentrates on teaching early math and counting skills to very young children. Both Macintosh and Windows version are available on the CD-ROM with no difference between them. ======= REVIEW ======= Deluxe Math Rabbit is a program that uses many of the attributes that The Learning Company developed with their Reader Rabbit programs and transforms them to a math learning situation. The same cute bunny, the same story locations, the same ideas, and the same structure all contribute to a feeling of familiarity and comfort that is very important to the young learner. This is a program that is aimed at children between the ages of 4 to 7 which is the same age group as the Reader Rabbit series. The program comes on a single CD-ROM drive with both Macintosh and Windows versions available on the CD. Installation is a snap for both versions. The Macintosh version runs directly off the CD while the Windows version requires a very quick setup which is taken care of by the program. Both versions perform in exactly the same way and even look the same - which is a great advance on the Windows side of things! The structure of the program is familiar from the Reader Rabbit series. This time, it's Math Rabbit who leads you on the four different adventures. The overall program takes place at a circus. The young learner can partake any of four activities that take place in different parts of the circus. The initial screen is a selection screen where you can choose which activity you'd like as well as a fifth activity which allows you to redeem tickets that you may win for fun prizes. In each of the four activities, the sequence is the same. You are first allowed to select which of three different difficulty levels. As you successfully complete a task, you get prize tickets. On occasion, you will win a special prize ticket. When you are done with a game, you collect your prize tickets and can then choose to play this game again, or return to the main area to select another game. One minor nit is that you must return to the main area whenever you want to change the level. There is no apparent way to go from a specific activity to the level setting area and then enter the activity again. One must (apparently) go all the way back to the main area and walk through the process completely. When you are happy with the quantity of prize tickets that you have won you can go to the prize tent and redeem them. As you collect prizes, they will accumulate in a window underneath you. You can then select each one and have them play a small ditty for you. For instance, a bear will dance, or a clown will act goofy etc. The four games in the Circus of Numbers are: the Calliope Counting Game, the Tightrope Show, the Sea Lion Show, and the Balloon Matching Game. Each of the games is a different activity that helps the child master a particular skill. For instance, the Calliope Counting Game has the child count from one to seven by clicking on the different Calliope tubes according to Math Rabbit's instructions. When the child is done, the tubes play a little ditty and the child wins a prize ticket. The four levels in this game take the child from matching the shape of the number with the shape that Math Rabbit is asking for to the point where Math Rabbit tells you which number he wants and leaves the child to click on the Calliope tube the appropriate number of times. This is the Deluxe version of Math Rabbit for several reasons. Not only does it contain both Windows and Macintosh versions on the same CD (which is an advantage only to those people who have both kinds of computers), not only does it come on a CD-ROM for ease of installation and use, but it is also chock full of digitized voices and animations. The digitized voices, in particular, are not present in the non-deluxe version. The digitized voices add a whole new level of interest as Math Rabbit will explain the object of every game or talk to the child at various points using a consistent voice and tone. Given that large portions of the audience is in a stage where they do not read yet, this allows that set to still play and enjoy the game. I enjoyed the program although I found it rather repetitive at times. My testers were aged 3 to 10. As expected, this program held the interest of the younger set for a lot longer than the older set. The 7 and 10 year old testers that I had lost interest very quickly - primarily because they could do everything at the highest level and were then bored by the repetition necessary to get prize tickets. The 3 to 5 year old set enjoyed the repetition (which meant familiarity) and were still significantly challenged by the games. Except for the one situation described above, there were not technical glitches of any kind. ============= PUMA RATINGS ============= PERFORMANCE: 4 The program is very smooth. Animations and sounds are fun and coordinated so that they flow well with no problems. Slower CD-ROM drives may experience delays. USEFULNESS: 4 For the younger set this is a good introduction and reinforcement of early counting and math skills. MANUAL: 4 There really isn't one. Nor is it needed. AVAILABILITY: 4 Available from Mail Order and Software stores. The Learning Company's products are widely available and justly acclaimed. There is a toll free number for questions or problem reports. (Naor Wallach/19950629/Sharyn Fitzpatrick) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 08/04/95 NETWORK ****Cabletron Decides Not To Acquire Chipcom (NEWS)(NETWORK)(BOS)(00031) ****Cabletron Decides Not To Acquire Chipcom 08/04/95 ROCHESTER, NEW HAMPSHIRE, U.S.A., 1995 AUG 4 (NB) -- A week after making a surprise filing with the FCC to purchase Chipcom stock, Cabletron has changed courses, deciding "not to acquire Chipcom Corp.," and to instead "liquidate its (current) holdings of Chipcom common stock at a substantial profit," according to a statement issued today. Word that Cabletron had filed with the FCC came last Friday in another written statement, issued the day after 3Com and Chipcom had announced their intentions to merge at a press conference in Boston, which was attended by Newsbytes. Over the weekend, speculation mounted in the press and among industry observers over whether Cabletron actually planned to purchase Chipcom, or whether other motives might be involved. As previously reported in Newsbytes, in an interview on Friday, Cabletron President and CEO Bob Levine said that Cabletron had made the filing to obtain permission to buy more than the "less than $15 million" in Chipcom stock Cabletron had purchased over the past three weeks. "Within the next 30 days, we'll know if we can buy more (Chipcom) stock. At that point, we'll decide whether we want to do a complete takeover, acquire enough shares (to) vote against a merger, or just walk away," Levine told Newsbytes during the interview. Over the past few week, many industry observers have pointed to a closer product line and "cultural" synergies between 3Com and Chipcom than between Cabletron and Chipcom. Some have speculated that Cabletron might be trying to thwart the 3Com/Chipcom deal by driving up stock prices, while others have suggested that the FCC filing was motivated by the desire for more immediate financial gain. In the statement issued today, Cabletron said that after "evaluating its options internally with analysts," the company concluded that "a combined Chipcom/3Com entity would probably have a weakened competitive product position resulting from its disjointed focus on the high-end marketplace." Levine was quoted as follows: "We have decided that the best opportunity available to our company and shareholders is to pursue Chipcom and 3Com customers whom (sic) we believe will be disrupted by the merger of these two companies. It is our plan to launch an aggressive trade-up program allowing Chipcom/3Com customers to benefit from a singular technology approach common throughout all Cabletron products." The statement also said that Cabletron "intends to liquidate its holdings of Chipcom common stock at a substantial profit." At Newsbytes' press time, the Cabletron spokesperson in charge of commenting on the statement was reportedly in a meeting with Cabletron CEO Levine. (Jacqueline Emigh/19950804/Reader Contact: Press Contacts: David W. Hayward, 3Com 508-836-1773; Dan Foley, 3Com, 508-836-1768; John H. Ricciardone, Chipcom, 508-337-3364; Michael Deshaies, Cabletron, 603-337-1402) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 08/04/95 HEALTH ****Repetitive Injury Case Against Apple Dismissed (NEWS)(HEALTH)(SFO)(00032) ****Repetitive Injury Case Against Apple Dismissed 08/04/95 CUPERTINO, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1995 AUG 4 (NB) -- Another repetitive stress injury (RSI) case has been settled in favor of the computer industry. The most recent, a case filed against Apple Computer (NASDAQ:AAPL) by Carolyn Brust, was dismissed by the court before Apple presented a defense. Five days into the trial in which Brust claimed use of an Apple keyboard and mouse were the cause of her diagnosed RSI condition, Judge James L. Warren dismissed the case for lack of evidence. From his San Francisco Superior Court bench, Warren ruled there was no scientific basis which would allow the court to conclude her injuries were caused by use of an Apple computer. Pam Miracle, spokesperson for Apple, told Newsbytes, "We are pleased with the judge's decision. It continues to support the fact that there is no correlation between RSI and keyboard and mouse devices when properly used. This is good news for the entire computer industry." Newsbytes was able to speak to Carolyn Brust and learned she was disappointed with the outcome, but not shocked by the decision. "I am very pleased and proud of my counsel and our expert's testimony." Ms. Brust says she sustained her repetitive injury from her work on Apple computers as a graphics designer from 1988 to 1992. Continuing, she said, "My life has changed because of this injury. I am no longer able to work as a graphics designer and have had to retrain for a new career." Brust now works in computer sales and uses voice recognition technology to enhance her computer operations. According to Brust, the decision was based on the Frye ruling. "Apple made a motion that our expert testimony not be allowed based on the Frye case," said Brust. The Frye case is a ruling which dates back to 1923. An independent source, Jon Metcalf who is an associate of Jackson & Wallace in San Francisco, told Newsbytes, "The Frye test or ruling says the court held that with scientific evidence it must be shown that the underlying scientific principle is sufficiently established to have gained general acceptance in the particular field in which it belongs." "After hearing the expert testimony the judge said he would be making a guess since the scientific evidence was not there to support our expert testimony. He also said if there was a jury in this case he would not allow our expert's testimony," said Brust. In particular she referred to the use of the mouse device. "The problem is: how can one assemble tests which may take three or four years to assemble the required proof? People are getting hurt and I do not know what it is going to take to change the situation," she continued. In a final comment she said, "I have to get on with my life. I had hoped this case would bring attention to the injuries which are being caused by operating computers. These injuries can be prevented by proper use and exercises and the computer industry needs to incorporate the proper education for all users of its equipment." (Patrick McKenna/19950804/Press Contact: Betty Taylor, Apple Computer, tel 408-974-3983) (SUMMARY)(GENERAL)(MSP)(00033) Newsbytes Daily Summary 08/04/95 MINNEAPOLIS, MINNESOTA, U.S.A., 1995 AUG 4 (NB) -- These are capsules of all today's news stories: 1 -> Mitch Hall Gets Nod For ComNet, Gives "Sneak Preview" 08/04/95 ComNet, a trade show now under new management from Mitch Hall Associates, will add a stronger focus on the Web in '96, plus a heightened service orientation toward exhibitors and the press, while keeping "the best of the best" from past ComNet shows, maintained Gerry Berton, Mitch Hall Associates' director of marketing, in a conference call with Newsbytes. 2 -> CompuServe CEO Faces Users Online 08/04/95 Less than a month into his new job, CompuServe's Chief Executive Officer Bob Massey entertained around 200 of the online service's users in an online conference Thursday evening. The event was organized, and hosted, by the Cable News Network. 3 -> Internet Update 08/04/95 In this update of new resources and services on the Internet, Acer America online, Southeast US weather server, California geographical survey, government use of technology, war time propaganda posters, physics on video, non destructive testing data, business news from Asia. 4 -> Delrina Outlines Windows 95 Plans 08/04/95 After Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ:MSFT) brings out Windows 95 late this month, Delrina Corp. (TSE:DC;NASDAQ:DENAF) will jump on the bandwagon with new communications software designed to take advantage of the new operating system and integrate communications functions. 5 -> Multimedia For Interactive Voice Systems 08/04/95 Intervoice Inc., has announced Mediaconnect, an optional multimedia connectivity product for interactive voice response systems. The company said MediaConnect is an application designed for virtually all interactive voice response applications. 6 -> UK - PC Graphics Accelerator 08/04/95 ATI Technologies has announced the ATI 264CT9 chipset. According to the company, the new chipset forms the heart of a planned series of flagship Mach64 graphics accelerator cards for the PC that will ship from OEM (original equipment manufacturer) suppliers later this summer. 7 -> UK - Logitech MouseWare 6.5 Technology 08/04/95 Logitech has begun shipping MouseWare 6.5 for DOS and Windows with all its premium mice and trackballs. 8 -> UK - Mercury's National PCN Roll-Out 08/04/95 Mercury One-2-One, one of two PCN (personal communications network) digital phone nets in the UK, has announced plans to dramatically speed up its plans for national coverage. 9 -> Cellular Fraud Now A Felony In Washington State 08/04/95 Cellular crooks may want to avoid the state of Washington. State legislators passed a law recently that makes cellular fraud a felony, punishable by imprisonment and fines up to $25,000. 10 -> CMP Says NetGuide Now, TechSearch Usage Explodes 08/04/95 CMP Publications said two of its electronic communications vehicles have reached new heights this week. Its "NetGuide Now" electronic mail (e-mail) newsletter has gained 5,500 subscribers in a little over a month, and its "TechSearch" search engine had been used over one million times. 11 -> Ramtron Resolves Financial Problems, 2Q Revenues Up 08/04/95 Semiconductor maker Ramtron International Corp. (NASDAQ: RMTR) has solved its current financial problems and saved its listing on the NASDAQ exchange by reaching an agreement with its two largest shareholders to restructure the company's debt. It also reported a second quarter revenue increase of 36 percent and income of $0.02 per share. 12 -> HP's Smart Auto-RAID Backup Technology 08/04/95 Hewlett-Packard (HP) has taken the wraps off two new storage systems -- XLS 5800 and the XLR 1200 Advanced Disk Array. 13 -> Quarterdeck's Win 95 Utilities 08/04/95 Quarterdeck (NASDAQ: QDEK) unveiled four new utilities designed for Windows 95. Shipping in September, they include; CleanSweep for Windows 95, Quarterdeck MagnaRAM for Windows 95, Quarterdeck WinProbe for Windows 95, and QEMM (Quarterdeck Enhanced Memory Management) for Windows 95. 14 -> ****Execs Predict Wide Internet Use - Survey 08/04/95 Executives of 48 companies in the Forbes 500 say they expect the Internet or other online services will be widely used to market products in the next 10 years, according to a recent survey by American International College's Bureau of Business Research. 15 -> Doing More Business On The Internet - Book 08/04/95 When many businesses think of Internet connections, the obvious selling power, or perceived selling power of the network comes to mind. Mail order businesses may be jumping to get online and establish cyber-malls but as Mary Cronin's new edition of Doing More Business On The Internet shows, there are a hundred and one ways a company can benefit from an Internet connection. 16 -> Siemens Top In Datamation European Survey 08/04/95 Siemens Nixdorf Information Systems has taken pole position in a new report of the top earners among information technology companies, just out from Datamation. 17 -> British Telecom, Australia Govt In Court 08/04/95 A fierce row, which broke out earlier this week between British Telecom (BT) and the Australian Government of New South Wales over an alleged breach of contract, has ended up with BT taking the NSW Government and Telstra, the major Australian telco, to court over the affair. 18 -> Canadian Firm to Supply Signalling Tools To VSNL 08/04/95 Sed System, Inc., a Canadian firm based in the Saskatchewan province, has signed a contract with an Indian company to supply access control and signalling equipment (ACSE) to India's Videsh Sanchar Nigam Ltd (VSNL). 19 -> China - Unicom's Ambitious Expansion Plan 08/04/95 China United Telecommunications Corp. (Unicom), China's second telecom carrier, has announced ambitious plans to compete in the country's lucrative telecom market. 20 -> China - Home Computer Sales Blitz 08/04/95 As the summer vacation for middle and elementary schools is underway, many computer firms are setting up special computer sales counters at department stores and providing free training to target home computer buyers. 21 -> HK Telecom's Desktop Video Conferencing 08/04/95 Hong Kong Telecom is hoping to cash in on the growing interest in desktop video conferencing with the launch of a complete desktop video conferencing package aimed at corporate users. 22 -> D&B Drops Hong Kong Distributor, COL 08/04/95 Dun & Bradstreet Software -- a D&B Corp. unit forged out of the acquisition of McCormack & Dodge and MSA -- said it has dumped COL Ltd. as its Hong Kong distributor. 23 -> ****House Halts All-Night Telecom Debate 08/04/95 Facing cries of outrage from Democrats, House Republican leaders ended the all-night debate on telecommunications legislation (HR 1555) at 1:15 a.m. today and scheduled the debate to begin again at 8 a.m. 24 -> O'Reilly Claims First Web Server For Win 95 08/04/95 O'Reilly & Associates claims to have the only World Wide Web server available now for Windows 95. WebSite, a server for both Window NT and Windows 95, has been in testing since May. 25 -> ****Go-Video's New Duplicating VCR 08/04/95 Go-Video Inc. (AMEX:VCR) said it is introducing a new line of videocassette recorders (VCRs) that is designed to copy videotapes in the same unit. The new Dual-Deck 4000 series consists of three models, and prices range from $599 to $899. 26 -> America Online Offers Online Marketing Services 08/04/95 America Online Inc. (NASDAQ:AMER) (AOL) and The M/A/R/C Group (NASDAQ:MARC) announced they're joining forces to create online marketing programs and conduct online marketing research through a new company called Digital Marketing Services Inc. (DMS). AOL will own approximately 70 percent of DMS, while M/A/R/C will own about 30 percent. 27 -> Symantec Claims Cure For New Hypercard Virus 08/04/95 Symantec Corporation (NASDAQ: SYMC) announced that Symantec AntiVirus for Macintosh (SAM) has been updated to recognize and protect against the recently discovered HC 9507 virus. The HC 9507 infects only HyperCard stacks, not system files or applications. 28 -> Lotus Releases Newsstand Online Publishing Tools 08/04/95 Lotus is targeting eight or nine vertical segments in the publishing industry, including accounting, for Lotus Notes:Newsstand, a newly available set of tools and services for publishing on the Lotus Notes Network (LNN) and other networks, said Jim Dougherty, director of Lotus's Advanced Technologies Group, in an interview with Newsbytes. 29 -> Review of - Compaq Deskpro XL 566 Pentium Computer 08/04/95 77070-2698. 800-345-1518; 713-370-0670; direct sales 800-888-0194, or fax 713-378-1442. 30 -> Review of - Deluxe Math Rabbit 08/04/95 Mdrives 31 -> ****Cabletron Decides Not To Acquire Chipcom 08/04/95 A week after making a surprise filing with the FCC to purchase Chipcom stock, Cabletron has changed courses, deciding "not to acquire Chipcom Corp.," and to instead "liquidate its (current) holdings of Chipcom common stock at a substantial profit," according to a statement issued today. 32 -> ****Repetitive Injury Case Against Apple Dismissed 08/04/95 Another repetitive stress injury (RSI) case has been settled in favor of the computer industry. The most recent, a case filed against Apple Computer (NASDAQ:AAPL) by Carolyn Brust, was dismissed by the court before Apple presented a defense. (Wendy Woods/19950804) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 08/03/95 TELECOM ****Cell Phones Caused Accident, Says Lawsuit (NEWS)(TELECOM)(DEN)(00001) ****Cell Phones Caused Accident, Says Lawsuit 08/03/95 NEW YORK, NEW YORK, U.S.A., 1995 AUG 3 (NB) -- If a New York family wins their $35 million lawsuit against Motorola Inc. (NYSe: MOT) that alleges a cell phone caused a serious traffic accident, your next cell phone could have as many warning labels on it as ladders do today. According to United Press International, the suit alleges that the other motorist involved in the accident was using a Motorola cellular phone at the time of the collision. The family attorney told UPI Motorola should have provided safety instructions for the phone's installer and for the consumer. He also said the phones should be re-designed to prevent future tragedies. According to the UPI report, Rochelle and Ronald Silber and their 23-year old daughter Dana were driving on a Long Island, New York highway in October of 1993 when another car traveling in the opposite direction crossed over a double yellow line and crashed head-on into the family's car. The Silbers allege that the driver of the other car was reaching for a cellular phone. Ron Silber said his injuries forced him into early retirement. "Accidents like this happen regularly, accidents like this are waiting to happen every day, and the cellular phone industry is doing nothing," attorney William Groner told United Press International. Groner said a Rochester Institute of Technology study found that a cellular phone in a vehicle increases the risk of having an accident by 34 percent. Groner alleges that the Motorola phone involved in the crash comes with no installation guidelines and inadequate instructions for safe use and is not well designed. The lawsuit, which spokespersons for both Motorola and a cellular industry group said they believe is the first such suit ever filed, could well be a test case that goes all the way to the Supreme Court. In addition to Motorola, the suit also names the Magnadyne Corp., which manufactured the cellular phone holder, and the company that installed the phone. Motorola spokesperson Norman Sandler wouldn't discuss the possibility of warning labels on cellular phones. However Sandler said the user manuals for its phones caution users to drive safely while using their phone. One manual reviewed by Newsbytes admonished the user to drop the phone if necessary if a driving emergency arose. Mike Houghton, a spokesperson at the industry-sponsored Cellular Telecommunications Industry Association (CTIA), doesn't think there is a government-mandated warning label in the future of cell phones, but the organization publishes a fluorescent orange peel-off label of its own, which Houghton said can be affixed to the back of the phone or to the dash of your car to remind you to drive safely while phoning. CTIA sponsors several campaigns promoting safe driving while phoning. "We try to have a year-round campaign to educate our customers to know safety is their first responsibility when using a cellular phone and driving a car. One of those efforts is national Cellular Safety Week, which this year was in mid-May. During that period CTIA produces public safety spots for radio and television, and distributes materials cellular service providers can give to their customers. CTIA promotes hands-free and speaker-phones, saying they are the safest type to use when driving. The organization also suggests it's safer to have your passenger, if you have one, handle calls, to pull over and stop before placing or answering calls, or to let your voicemail pick up the call if you are in heavy traffic. Cell phone users aren't just calling their brokers or making restaurant reservations. CTIA points out that more than 500,000 calls are placed to 9-1-1 and other emergency phone numbers each month. "They are using them to report drunk drivers, to report disabled vehicles and medical emergencies," the industry spokesperson told Newsbytes. CTIA sponsors a series of annual Vita ("the Latin word for life," said Houghton) awards to people who have used their phones to save lives or to promote safety. Categories include "Highway Hero," an individual who reports a collision, a hit-and-run or other traffic-related emergency. The "Crimestopper" award recognizes the person who uses a wireless phone to stop or report a crime. The "Lifesaver" award goes to the person who saves a life through use of a wireless phone, and "Good Samaritan" recognizes the person who goes to extraordinary lengths to provide assistance through a cell phone. Topping the list is the "Grand Vita Award, given to the person or organization judged to have made the greatest contribution to safety through the use of wireless communications during the year. Cellular use is growing rapidly. The British news service Reuters recently quoted a report by MarketLine, an international research organization, that said mobile phone use will double in major industrial countries by the year 2000. Even though European and Asian cell phone use is growing, the survey said the US will retain its market lead, hooking up almost 58 million phones by the end of the century. There are currently an estimated 32.8 million US users talking as they walk, drive or sit by poolside. (Jim Mallory/19950802/Press contact: Norman Sandler, Motorola, 708-538-7146; Public contact: Mike Houghton, Cellular Telecommunications Industry Association, 202-785-0081) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 08/03/95 BROADCAST More Taking Sides In Digital Video War (NEWS)(BROADCAST)(TYO)(00002) More Taking Sides In Digital Video War 08/03/95 TOKYO, JAPAN, 1995 AUG 3 (NB) -- Celebrations were taking place at both camps in the digital video disk (DVD) war yesterday as two more companies announced their support, one for each system. In common with many other hard disk and CD-ROM drive manufacturers, Western Digital announced it will support the Multimedia Compact Disc (MMCD) system developed by Japan's Sony and Philips of the Netherlands. "We have reviewed the publicly available information on MMCD and believe that this format meets the PC industry's basic requirements," said John Burger, vice president of marketing for Western Digital's Personal Storage Group. He continued, "It is backward compatible with existing titles, it can accommodate good quality full-length motion pictures and can be easily adapted to today's media manufacturing infrastructure. Based on these attributes, Western Digital's Personal Storage Group is pleased to support the MMCD format." The announcement may have dulled the atmosphere at Toshiba Corporation, the Tokyo-based electronics giant that is heading development of the rival Super Density (SD) disc if it wasn't for a similar announcement of support from Matsushita-Kotobuki Electronics Industries. The company, which has a 40% share of the world's CD-ROM drive market, said it will manufacture drives for the SD format. Parent company Matsushita is heavily involved in the SD system, having been one of the co-developers. Among other major drive manufacturers around the world, the majority have decided to support the MMCD format while the SD system is attracting support from a wider range of general electronics companies. CD-ROM drive manufacturers are drawn to the MMCD system because of its backwards compatibility with current CD-ROMs, meaning that significant redesigns of existing drives are not needed. The success of a compatible system also means there will be no slowdown in sales of CD-ROMs so the company's drives will continue to sell well. Computer hardware companies supporting the MMCD format include Gateway 2000, Acer Peripherals, Alps Electric, Aztech Systems, Lion Optics, Mitsumi Electric, Ricoh, Teac, Wearnes Peripherals and NEC Home Electronics. In addition Nokia, Aiwa, Bang and Olufson, Grundig, Magnavox and Marantz have announced adoption of the format. The SD system currently enjoys the support of Hitachi, Matsushita Electric Industrial, MCA, Pioneer Electronics, Thomson Multimedia, Time Warner, Mitsubishi Electric, Victor Co. of Japan (JVC), Nippon Columbia, Toshiba-EMI, Pioneer LDC, Metro-Goldwyn- Mayer, Turner Home Entertainment, Zenith Electronics, Samsung Electronics, Toray and SKC. (Martyn Williams/19950803/Press contact : John Burger, Western Digital Corp., 714-932-5000; Marijke van Hooren, Philips Electronics, +31-40-734866; David Yaun, Sony Electronics, 201-930-7834; Toshiba America, 212-596-0600; Mitsubishi Electric Corp, +81-3-3218-2359) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 08/03/95 BUSINESS Toshiba To Sell Oracle Software In Japan (NEWS)(BUSINESS)(TYO)(00003) Toshiba To Sell Oracle Software In Japan 08/03/95 TOKYO, JAPAN, 1995 AUG 3 (NB) -- Toshiba Corporation (TOKYO:6502) has announced it has agreed with Oracle Corporation (NASDAQ:ORCL), the world's leading supplier of information management software, to sell its application systems in Japan. Toshiba hopes the deal will mean extra sales of 20 billion yen ($219 million) over the next three years. Under the arrangement Toshiba will localize and market Oracle's financial and production management control systems. The systems will be sold as software packages and pre-loaded onto Toshiba hardware as an all-in-one system. The Tokyo-based company said that the deal will allow them to more effectively compete for business from companies moving from supercomputer-based systems to client-server systems and networks. Currently, Oracle's number one sales channel in Japan is with NEC Corporation. The new deal with Toshiba will do nothing to stop the growing cooperation between Oracle and NEC, a spokesman for NEC told Newsbytes. The two companies announced in May that Oracle staff would come to NEC establishments in Japan to help with localization of the software products. Oracle announced last month that it had set up an NEC products division in the US company staffed by workers from both companies. (Martyn Williams/19950803/Press contact : Toshiba Corporation, +81-3-3457-2105; Oracle Corporation, 415-506-8081) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 08/03/95 WINDOWS Lotus Courseware For Desktop Applications (NEWS)(WINDOWS)(BOS)(00004) Lotus Courseware For Desktop Applications 08/03/95 CAMBRIDGE, MASSACHUSETTS, U.S.A., 1995 AUG 3 (NB) -- A new series of courseware for Lotus' desktop applications from PTS Learning Systems will provide the same high level of quality as the courseware Lotus Education produces for Lotus Notes, maintained Terri Purinton, marketing manager for Lotus Education, in an interview with Newsbytes. The new courseware from PTS, which represents the first desktop courseware to be certified by Lotus, is optionally available to all third-party Lotus training centers, including Desktop Training Centers as well as authorized Lotus Education Centers, according to Purinton. The Lotus marketing manager explained that while the Lotus Education Centers tend to focus on Notes training, particularly for large "enterprise" customers, the Desktop Training Centers emphasize SmartSuite and its constituent applications, which include Word Pro, 1-2-3, Organizer, Freelance Graphics, Approach, and ScreenCam. The new courseware from PTS is aimed at filling "somewhat of a gap" that previously existed between courseware for Notes and Lotus' desktop applications, Purinton told Newsbytes. The new courseware will help Lotus reach its goal of boosting sales of its desktop software, she predicted. Available immediately for current releases of SmartSuite titles, the courseware from PTS is offered in three formats: book, disk and a "library of titles" on disk, reported Purinton. The library option comes with a compiler tool that lets users customize the courseware by extracting the sections of greatest interest, and editing those sections, if desired, to meet their own needs. The customization option is "unique to the desktop curriculum," Newsbytes was told. PTS, a company based in King of Prussia, Pennsylvania, is "well known" in the courseware industry, according to the Lotus exec. Lotus' inhouse Lotus Education arm will continue to produce the courseware for Lotus Notes, which provides a curriculum that constitutes one of several requirements for the authorized Lotus Education Centers. Courseware for Lotus' upcoming desktop applications for Windows 95 will become available from PTS as soon as Lotus releases the Windows 95 applications, Purinton revealed. PTS is also in the process of developing courseware for Lotus Word Pro for Windows 3.1, a new word processing package that features "team computing" capabilities like TeamMail, Versioning, TeamReview, Multi Editor Revision Marking, and TeamConsolidate, according to Purinton. A stand-alone version of Word Pro for Windows 3.1 is slated to ship this summer for an estimated retail price (ERP) of $105. Word Pro is also included in SmartSuite 4.0 for Windows 3.1, a suite expected to be available in the third quarter. (Jacqueline Emigh/19950803/Reader Contact: Lotus Education, 800- 346-6409; PTS Learning Systems, 800-387-8878; Press Contact: Laura Beck, Lois Paul & Partners for Lotus, 617-862-4514) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 08/03/95 TELECOM AT&T GIS News Leaves HK Distributors Guessing (NEWS)(TELECOM)(HKG)(00005) AT&T GIS News Leaves HK Distributors Guessing 08/03/95 CENTRAL, HONG KONG, 1995 AUG 3 (NB) -- News that AT&T is restructuring its GIS computer unit, possibly to sell it, according to Bloomberg news service, came as a surprise to one of its Hong Kong distributors. "I heard they were going to lay people off," said Janson Li, marketing manager for local company United Arm Development Ltd. He said the current quarter was worse for GIS' Globalyst line than the last quarter. "But talking to friends [at other companies] I know July has been bad for everyone." Calls to GIS's Hong Kong-based regional marketing boss Shanthi Kumar went unanswered as did those to Peter Chan, product manager at Chevalier OA, GIS' local distributor. International Data Corp Asia research director, Piyush Singh, says he wouldn't be surprised if AT&T ended up selling off its troubled acquisition. "They've been reactive rather than proactive," Singh said. "The two things you have to watch are price points and distribution channels and I don't think they've done a very good job there. It's not one of the companies to watch -- it's not a force in any market." AT&T acquired NCR three years ago, after mothballing its own stillborn computer business. "They also sold off Unix," Singh said. The irony of a communications giant struggling in the world of PCs wasn't lost on him. "There's no question that communications and PCs are coming together. But it's a question of timing and acceptance." And focus, for that matter -- AT&T, he said, stayed focused on the area it knows best, despite its best efforts to understand computers. (Nigel Armstrong and IT Daily/19950803) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 08/03/95 APPLE Apple Upgrades QuickTake100 Digital Camera (NEWS)(APPLE)(LAX)(00006) Apple Upgrades QuickTake100 Digital Camera 08/03/95 CUPERTINO, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1995 AUG 3 (NB) -- Apple Computer, Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL) announced an upgrade for users of its original Apple QuickTake 100 digital camera. The upgrade provides these users with almost all of the features found in the QuickTake 150. In April of this year, Apple announced that it was replacing its QuickTake 100 digital camera with the QuickTake 150. Now Apple is announcing an upgrade to the QuickTake 100 which will include most of the enhancements found in the QuickTake 150. The upgrade includes Macintosh or Windows software, a close-up lens, and three AA lithium batteries. Upgraded cameras will double the storage capacity with 16 high-quality or 32 standard-quality images. Jayme Curtis, a spokesperson for Apple, told Newsbytes, "Better overall image quality is achieved with a new compression algorithm found in the QuickTake 150, and now added to the QuickTake 100. The algorithm increases the base resolution to 640 by 480 pixels for all images, compared to 320 by 240 pixels for standard resolution images found in the original QuickTake 100." "The only major QuickTake 150 advance not included in this upgrade is a coating on lens which was added to improve some lighting problems. Other than this it is a complete upgrade to the QuickTake 150," said Curtis. The new close-up lens allows close-ups from ten to fourteen inches, and includes flash diffusion and a range finder. The Macintosh upgrade includes Apple's PhotoFlash 2.0, an image editing application with support for PhotoShop plug-ins. The Windows upgrade includes QuickTake 1.5 software for accessing camera images, enhancing images for brightness and color, resizing, cropping, rotating and saving in Windows formats. Also included in the Windows software is PhotoNow! from PictureWorks, a TWAIN driver capable of acquiring images from the camera and capturing images while connected to the computer from within any TWAIN-compliant Windows application. Upgrades are available in the US and Canada for $199 plus tax. A new QuickTake 150 camera is sold for $739. This offer runs from August 2 through November 30, 1995. The price covers all costs of the upgrade, including shipping and handling. QuickTake 100 owners can upgrade their cameras by calling 1-800-399-5111. A prepaid shipping container will be sent to the customer. Customers then ship their QuickTake 100 cameras by Federal Express to the upgrade center. Cameras will be returned within two weeks. (Richard Bowers/19950800/Press Contact: Jayme Curtis of Apple Computer, 408-974-6296) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 08/03/95 TRENDS China - Technology Trade Rising Markedly (NEWS)(TRENDS)(PEK)(00007) China - Technology Trade Rising Markedly 08/03/95 BEIJING, CHINA, 1995 AUG 3 (NB) -- During the first half of this year, China's technology imports rose 39 percent over the same period last year while technology exports increased 136 percent, officials with Ministry of Foreign Trade and Economic Cooperation (MOFTEC) report. Based on incomplete figures, China signed 160 technology-import contracts, worth US$2.26 billion, during the first half of this year. Compared with the same period last year when 177 technology import contracts were signed involving US$1.62 billion, the number of import contracts decreased while the total value increased by 39 percent. Meanwhile, technology export contracts numbered 102, worth US$1.33 billion. It is a significant increase over the same period last year when there were 70 technology export contracts valued at US$564 million. Technology imports have partly benefited from strengthened government support, MOFTEC officials said. Imported technology mainly covers the sectors of telecommunications, electronics, energy, petrochemicals, machines, and aerospace. Government policy to encourage exports of high value-added products as well as the Chinese high-tech industry's rising interest in exporting such products have helped promote technology sales. Developing countries in South and Southeast Asia are the key market of Chinese technology exports. 90 percent of technology exports are in the fields of electronics and machinery. China's technology imports and exports this year will likely surpass last year considering the present growing trend, MOFTEC officials said. China's total technology trade last year reached US$5.7 billion which included US$4.1 billion in technology imports and US$1.6 billion in exports. MOFTEC officials also said that efforts will be made to increase technology imports in the coming years. The proportion of technology imports among the country's total imports is expected to reach 10 percent by year 2000. (Chih-Ho Yu & Ning Huang/19950730) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 08/03/95 LEGAL First Hong Kong Porn Charge Could Take "Weeks" (NEWS)(LEGAL)(HKG)(00008) First Hong Kong Porn Charge Could Take "Weeks" 08/03/95 CENTRAL, HONG KONG, 1995 AUG 3 (NB) -- Hong Kong's Commercial Crime Bureau said it could be weeks before a local student -- arrested July 24 for possession of obscene articles for purposes of publishing on the Internet -- will be charged with a specific offence. "This is a first in that it's the first time someone in Hong Kong has been arrested for spreading child pornography on the Internet," saod acting chief inspector Paul Bailey. Hong Kong Journalists' Association vice chairman, Kelvin Lau, says that the term "obscene article" was interpreted liberally in local courts. "The meaning conferred to it covers almost everything -- even telecommunication signals." Chris Sun, assistant secretary in the Recreation and Culture Branch, reiterated that although computers weren't an issue when the Obscene and Indecent Articles Ordinance was passed in 1987, it still covers material distributed in Hong Kong on the Internet. "The problem is enforcement." The 24-year-old Hong Kong resident remains free on police bail. The CCB worked with police agencies in the US, Canada, Britain, Germany and South Africa, sharing information and coordinating efforts so they would pounce in unison. Bailey declined to say what information the police agencies shared or how Internet activities in Hong Kong are monitored. "It wouldn't be wise of me to talk about the particular way this investigation was carried out." The acting chief inspector said police were now figuring out the nature and amount of pornography netted in the swoop so that specific charges could be laid. "We're not compelled to complete our investigation within any particular period of time but obviously we'd like to complete the investigation as soon as possible," he said. "We don't like having people on bail for extended periods of time." Asked how "extended periods of time" have translated in the past, Bailey said: "Cases vary. I think with this particular gentlemen we are talking about a matter of weeks rather than months." (Nigel Armstrong and IT Daily/19950803) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 08/03/95 TELECOM Global Telecoms - Int'l Alliances Lead The Way (NEWS)(TELECOM)(LON)(00009) Global Telecoms - Int'l Alliances Lead The Way 08/03/95 LONDON, ENGLAND, 1995 AUG 3 (NB) -- Ovum has published a report entitled "Ovum Profiles: the World's Major Telcos." According to Adrian May, one of the five authors of the report, the aim of the study was to look at how the formation of international alliances is reshaping the telecoms industry. According to May, the alliances are the telco's response to the demands from large corporate customers for uniform and integrated cross-border telecoms services, delivered by a single supplier. The main alliances outlined by the report are the AT&T/Unisource Worldpartners link-up, the BT-MCI alliance, the France Telecom/Deutsche Telekom/Sprint/Atlas/Phoenix alliance, and the Cable & Wireless federation. "The global resources of these alliances enabled them to offer seamless telecoms services to large corporate customers much more effectively and reliably than there has been seen in the industry up to now," May explained. "As these companies become established in the market-place, they will squeeze out many of the smaller national operators. We're beginning to see these smaller operators respond to this threat by teaming up with the alliance companies," he said. May told Newsbytes that he views the long term success of these alliances as questionable. He claims that the Cable & Wireless Federation is too dispersed and not strong enough to compete effectively in the global market, while the France Telecom/Deutsche Telecom/Sprint alliance could be handicapped by its long struggle to achieve regulatory approval. "Although things in the US are slightly different to here in Europe, there is an underlying need for international alliances," he told Newsbytes, adding that it will be interesting to see how many of the alliances succeed in the longer term. The report notes that AT&T, with 60 percent of the US market and strong partners in the key Asia Pacific and European markets, is very well placed in this respect. "Nonetheless, it will have to integrate its partners in the Worldpartners alliance a little more to offer true seamless services," the report notes. So where does this leave BT and MCI? According to the report, both the telcos have almost a year's lead over the competition, and so represent a real challenge to AT&T, but the BT/MCI alliance will need an Asia-Pacific partner if it is to be one of the globally dominant players. "Ovum Profiles: the World's Major Telcos," has just been published by Ovum and is priced at UKP 1,995 in Europe, A$4,795 in Australia and $3,695 in the US and the rest of the world. (Steve Gold/19950802/Press Contact: Jenny Morales, Ovum +44-171-312- 7258; Fax +44-171-255-1995; Internet Email jhb@ovum.mhs/compuserve.com; Reader Contact: Ovum +44-171-255-2670; Fax +44-171-2551995; Internet Email: info@ovum.mhs.compuserve.com) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 08/03/95 CHIPS Color Scanner Chip Design Kit (NEWS)(CHIPS)(LAX)(00010) Color Scanner Chip Design Kit 08/03/95 SAN JOSE, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1995 AUG 3 (NB) -- Exar Corporation (NASDAQ: Exar) announced the availability of the MP8830AB plug- and-play design kit for use on PCs. The kit comes complete with all the software are and hardware needed for engineers to evaluate Exar's digitizer subsystem. Exar Corporation designs, develops and markets analog and mixed- signal integrated circuits for the communications, consumer and computer markets. Its flagship product is the MP8830 chip which according to the company is the "guts" of most color scanners sold today. Raphael Horton, vice-president of marketing told Newsbytes, "The MP8830 is the guts of most scanners sold today. The leading color scanner sold in the world uses our chip. The chip has been available for one year, and we have been enormously successful in the color scanner market. Now with the introduction of this designer kit we would like to expose the MP8830 to design engineers in other areas, such as digital cameras, flatbed and sheetfed scanners and digital color copiers." "The MP8830 can handle a billion different colors by simultaneously converting red, blue, and green analog signals from arrays of photo sensors into separate ten bit channels of digital data. The MP8830 not only samples and digitizes all three channels simultaneously, but also digitally controls gain and offset adjustments on every channel. The MP8830 does this 1.25 million times a second, which translates into a two page-per-minute peak scanning rate at 600 dots-per-inch resolution," said Horton. Exar's MP8830AB design kit simply plugs into the serial port of a PC, allowing the engineer to evaluate the MP8830 application. "The MP8830AB design kit is a step beyond traditional application boards, in that it is a complete computer-peripheral data acquisition and analysis system," said John Sramek, Exar's data acquisition products marketing manager. "The kit allows an engineer to exercise the part and have the results displayed on the PC screen, as well as provides a reference layout. This makes it very easy to design with Exar's MP8830." "The MP8830AB design kit includes an assembled printed circuit board, an MP8830 product sample, MP8830AB software, data sheet and documentation. The kit provides all the necessary equipment to create timing waveforms, drive analog signals, store data, trigger, apply offset and gain correction, and analyze data," said Horton. Price per kit is $500, and kits are available immediately at 408-434-6400 ext. 3408. (Richard Bowers/19950802/Press Contact: Raphael Horton, Exar, 408-434-6400) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 08/03/95 BUSINESS Computervision To Market Indian Software (NEWS)(BUSINESS)(DEL)(00011) Computervision To Market Indian Software 08/03/95 NEW DELHI, INDIA, 1995 AUG 3 (NB) -- The Aeronautical Development Agency (ADA), building light combat aircraft (LCA), has signed a pact with the US-based Computervision Corp., to market an unique software called "Autolay" for designing fighter aircraft wings made of composite material. This deal is expected to bring in an estimated revenue of $50 million to ADA over a period of time. This is the first time an Indian CAD software in military applications has found an international market. The Autolay software was developed over a period of five years by various organizations involved in the LCA project. It is said to be the first integrated CAD software applicable for a variety of wing design jobs from fighters to turboprops to large jets. (C. T. Mahabharat/19950803) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 08/03/95 GENERAL China - Technology Newsbriefs (NEWS)(GENERAL)(PEK)(00012) China - Technology Newsbriefs 08/03/95 BEIJING, CHINA, 1995 AUG 3 (NB) -- In this roundup of news from China: NEC is targeting a 20-30 percent share of China's computer market by 2000, China sends a delegation to CA-World '95, Int'l Electronics Commodities Exhibition and Trade Center, the largest in South China is to open in Guangzhou, and Gansu Province uses foreign loans to fund telecom projects NEC Targeting 20-30 Percent Share of Chinese Computer Market Japan's NEC Corp. has targeted a 20 to 30 percent share of China's personal computer market by 2000. NEC recently established a joint venture in Shanghai with Changjiang Computer Union Corp., which will begin PC production in August. NEC expects the Chinese PC market to grow to 800,000 units in 1995 from 550,000 in 1994. Government Sends Delegation to CA-World '95 China sent a delegation of 14 professionals to CA-World '95, the largest business software conference ever assembled. The delegation looked for suitable technology to upgrade China's industrial and banking management software as well as systems software. The delegates represent Ministry of Electronics Industry, Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications, State Science Commission, and Shanghai City government. Electronics Commodities Exhibition/Trade Center International Electronics Commodities Exhibition and Trade Center, the largest in South China, will soon open in Guangzhou free trade zone of Guangdong province. The center will display the latest products: household electronics, computers and office automation equipment. An international telecommunications exhibition will be held at the Center from September 14 to 18, and more than 230 companies from 20 countries and regions, including the US, Germany, Japan, France, Sweden, Hong Kong, Macao, and Taiwan, will exhibit. Exhibited products will include digital transmission equipment, satellite telecom equipment, telephone, beeper machine assembly line gear, computer and office automation products. Gansu Province Uses Foreign Aid to Fund Telecom Projects Northwest China's province of Gansu have introduced overseas loans of about 100 million to fund nine major telecom projects since 1991, which have much improved its telecom infrastructure. Gansu used about US$2.83 million loaned by the Spanish government in 1992 to install a program controlled telephone exchange, terminals for its long distance lines and digital microwave equipment. (Chih-Ho Yu & Ning Huang/19950730) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 08/03/95 APPLE UK - Mac PCI Graphics Accelerator (NEWS)(APPLE)(LON)(00013) UK - Mac PCI Graphics Accelerator 08/03/95 BRACKNELL, BERKSHIRE, ENGLAND, 1995 AUG 3 (NB) -- ATI Technologies, the computer related graphic and video add-ins manufacturer, has unveiled a new graphics accelerator, the XCLAIM GA, to be used with Apple Computer's PCI (Peripheral Component Interconnect)-based systems. According to ATI, this is the first board designed specifically for Power Mac 9500 series of computers, and is available in 2 and 4 megabyte (MB) Video RAM (random access memory) versions. According to company officials, the 2MB version is designed for most acceleration applications, but there is a 2MB upgrade for the standard card, pushing VRAM memory to 4MB, if needed. The upgrade is a standard plug-in module. Gerd Queisser, vice president of European operations with ATI, explained that the XCLAIM GA is designed for the advanced needs of mainstream Power Mac users. When fitted, the card allows the full resolution of PCI and PowerPC applications to be used. "As promised, ATI is bringing affordable performance to the Power Mac market with a graphics accelerator board specifically designed for PCI-based Power Mac systems. Apple's choice of ATI's technology for the graphics accelerator in the Power Macintosh 9500 validates our market leadership," he said. ATI's supplied software drivers for the card are billed as supporting all QuickDraw acceleration calls, and a built-in mach64 graphics controller chip provides more speed for quicker performance as QuickDraw and its applications evolve. To drive the card, a software control allows access to features such as pan and zoom, and, thanks to the mach64 chipset, the card supports resolutions up to 1,600 x 1,200 pixels with a 75Hz (hertz) screen refresh rate. The UKP 329 2MB version of the card supports 16.7 million colors at 832 x 624 pixels, while the UKP 449 4MB version provides 16.7 million colors in 1,152 x 870 pixels resolution, at 75HZ refresh rate. As supplied, the XCLAIM GA comes with a monitor connectors for Apple Mac and VGA-type monitors and it is billed as fully compatible with the PCI Local Bus 2.0 specification. According to the company, graphic applications such as Adobe Photoshop, QuarkExpress and FrameMaker run up to eight times faster when the card is fitted. In the UK, the cards are available through Taxan. In other countries across Europe, other distributors are used. (Sylvia Dennis/19950801/Press & Reader Contact: Taxan UK +44-1344- 779000) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 08/03/95 TELECOM AT&T Puts TrueVoice On Int'l Calls (NEWS)(TELECOM)(MSP)(00014) AT&T Puts TrueVoice On Int'l Calls 08/03/95 NEW YORK CITY, NEW YORK, U.S.A., 1995 AUG 3 (NB) -- AT&T (NYSE:T) said today it will use a system similar to its "TrueVoice" to virtually eliminate noise in direct-dial international long distance calls. Called "TrueVoice Plus," the new technology will be available to AT&T customers who subscribe to the service, to calls destined for Mexico in September and other international call destinations in 1996. The company made the announcement during a news teleconference. The new speech technology uses an advanced algorithm on a digital signal processor (DSP), and integrated into the AT&T network, said John Davis of AT&T Bell Laboratories. The DSP chip "has the processing power equivalent to seven 486 personal computers" for each call, he said. This system works in real-time, in that the built-in intelligence learns about the characteristics of the noise and speech on the line at the beginning of an international phone call. After that, the AT&T algorhythm instructs a "smart" filter to remove the noise. The new real-time processing algorhythm makes international phone calls sound "closer and clearer" than any other system currently available, said Shaun Gilmore, AT&T's vice president of global markets and services. "It's comparable to the process used to transform scratchy old LP (long playing recordings) to CD sound quality," he said. Officials said the $3 monthly fee for TrueVoice Plus will be waived for customers who subscribe to the service, if they make one international phone call every three months. The service will be available pending Federal Communications Commission (FCC) tariff effectiveness. Dick Gundlach, AT&T spokesperson, told Newsbytes TrueVoice Plus will only help eliminate noise on the domestic side of the call. The person on the other side of the line won't notice any difference, he said. (Bob Woods/19950803/Press Contacts: Dick Gundlach, 201-564-3263 or 718-533-9020, or John Skalko, 908-221-8413, both of AT&T) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 08/03/95 GOVT ****Newt's Baby Bell Connections (NEWS)(GOVT)(WAS)(00015) ****Newt's Baby Bell Connections 08/03/95 WASHINGTON, D.C., U.S.A., 1995 AUG 3 (NB) -- His daughter is a manager for Atlanta-based BellSouth. His good friend is BellSouth Chairman John Clendenin. Who is he? House Speaker Newt Gingrich (R-Ga.). When HR 1555 emerged from the House Commerce Committee on a 38-5 vote in June, the long-distance companies were delighted. They and their key ally, Commerce Committee Chairman Thomas Bliley (R-Va.), had produced a bill that the long-distance firms believe set the proper competitive balance between them and the regional Bell operating companies, which have been pushing to get into the lucrative long-distance market. But they hadn't reckoned on the lobbying skills and personal relationships of the baby Bells. On July 13, Bliley read from a page of talking points outlining major changes in the committee-approved bill, many of them favorable to the Bells. Those changes would be made during floor debate, Bliley said, in a package of amendments that he would offer. Bliley's only explanation for the abrupt reversal of course on the legislation was to say, "The leadership has instructed me to change the bill." According to the Associated Press, Speaker Gingrich not only has personal connections to BellSouth, located near his Georgia congressional district, but is cozy with other local phone companies. The wire service says Gingrich spent the weekend of July 22 at the home of Phil Quigley, chairman of Pacific Telesis, raising campaign funds for California Republicans. Gingrich also invited Quigley to appear with him on his show on National Empowerment Television, a conservative cable offering. According to the Center for Responsive Politics, Gingrich received $26,250 in campaign contributions from the Bells in the 1994 election. He got $4,640 from the long-distance companies. Floor debate on the telecommunications reform bill began at 12:44 a.m. this morning and the House adjourned at 2:19 a.m., after taking no recorded votes. The debate promises to be harsh, as Democrats are furious about the way Gingrich is running the House. As debate opened early this morning, Rep. John Bryant (D-Texas) denounced the GOP for beginning debate at such an hour and the way the Gingrich-Bliley amendments were being handled. Bryant, a member of the Commerce Committee, said the work of the committee that had been carried out in public would be replaced with legislation written behind closed doors. "It's wrong," said Bryant. "It is not the right way to legislate." Right or wrong, it is likely that the House will approve the Bliley amendments sometime today and will finish the legislation before the House leaves for a month-long vacation on Friday. A bill to reform the 1934 Communications Act has already passed the Senate. When Congress gets back in full gear in September, a House-Senate conference committee will have to get together to work out differences in the two bills. At that point it is likely to see the fight over how quickly to open the $68 billion long-distance market to the Bells resume. (Kennedy Maize/19950803) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 08/03/95 TELECOM MCI Slashes Staff, Restructures (NEWS)(TELECOM)(WAS)(00016) MCI Slashes Staff, Restructures 08/03/95 WASHINGTON, D.C., U.S.A., 1995 AUG 3 (NB) -- MCI Communications (Nasdaq: MCIC), announcing a healthy 21 percent rise in earnings for the second quarter, yesterday also announced a restructuring that will slash some 2,500 to 3,000 jobs, about 6 percent of its workforce, the company told Newsbytes. Gerald Taylor, MCI president, said in a written statement, "With the financial strength MCI has achieved, this is the ideal time to shape the company for the future." Spokesman Mark Petite told Newsbytes, "We are coming off our best quarter ever, and figure that is the best time to make these sorts of changes, when we are strong." Under the new structure, MCI will consolidate its core communications business under MCI Telecommunications. MCI's new ventures and alliances, including its joint venture with Rupert Murdoch's News Corp., its joint venture with British Telecom, and its operations in Mexico, into a separate business unit. "This move allows the company to continue to expand its core business profitably while focusing independently on its ventures and alliances," said Taylor. MCI recorded that it earned $260 million (38 cents per share) for the second quarter, on revenue of $3.7 billion. For the second quarter last year, MCI earned $215 million (37 cents per share) on revenues of $3.3 billion. Job cuts in telecommunications will be the result of consolidating duplicate operations, according to Petit. Most of the cuts will involve employees in advertising, personnel, finance and merchandising. Large facilities in Chicago, Sacramento, and Sioux City, Iowa, will be hit hardest. MCI will make the cuts before the end of the year. The company will take a pre-tax charge against earnings of between $600 million and $800 million in the third quarter to reflect the costs of the layoffs. (Kennedy Maize/19950803/Press Contact: Mark Petit, 800-289-0073) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 08/03/95 TRENDS SPA Posts Monthly Software Hit Parade (NEWS)(TRENDS)(WAS)(00017) SPA Posts Monthly Software Hit Parade 08/03/95 WASHINGTON, D.C., U.S.A., 1995 AUG 3 (NB) -- Soaring out of the Myst comes MS Flight Simulator. The Software Publishers Association, working with market researcher NPD Group, has launched a detailed monthly report on retail software sales, called SofTrends. According to the June report, Microsoft's MS Flight Simulator has skyrocketed to the top of the hit parade for the Entertainment and CD-ROM lists in unit sales, passing the previously best-selling Myst from Broderbund. The SofTrends reports were compiled from information provided by over 7,500 stores. The retail point-of-sale reports are to be issued within four weeks of the close of the period. SPA is making comprehensive monthly sales data available exclusively to SofTrends subscribers, but lists of the top hits are made public. Other top sellers include The Lion King Storybook in the Home Education category; WordPerfect 6.1 Upgrade in the Business Productivity category; Broderbund's Print Shop Delux CD Ensemble in the Personal Productivity category; and Microsoft's Encarta in the Reference category. For information on subscribing to SofTrends, contact Ed Roth of NPD at 516-625-2294. (Kennedy Maize/19950803/Press Contact: Sally Lawrence, SPA, 202-452-1600, ext. 320) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 08/03/95 WINDOWS Dell Modem Adjusts To The Country It's In (NEWS)(WINDOWS)(DEN)(00018) Dell Modem Adjusts To The Country It's In 08/03/95 AUSTIN, TEXAS, U.S.A., 1995 AUG 3 (NB) -- Dell Computer Corp. (NASDAQ: DELL) has introduced a modem designed specifically for European travelers. The company said the new TransNational II Data/Fax Modem is bundled with Windows-based software that allows users traveling between European countries to easily and quickly reconfigure their modem for the telephone system of the country in which they are currently just by clicking on an icon representing that country's flag. The TransNational II, which Dell said has only been certified for use with its Latitude notebook PCs but is PCMCIA-compliant, has a suggested retail price of $399 and slides into one of the two PCMCIA (Personal Computer Memory Card International Association) slot in the Latitude PC. The V.34 modem can send and receive data and faxes at up to 28,800 bits per second and comes in a protective case and is accompanied by two setup disks and an installation guide. The new modem is Plug-and-Play ready, allowing Plug-and-Play capable PCs to automatically reconfigure the system for the modem without the user having to specify information like ports and drivers. Dell said the TransNational II is already certified for use in Canada, Denmark, Germany, the Netherlands, Sweden, United Kingdom and the US, and the company expects to add more countries to that list in the future. Dell earlier introduced two 28.8K modems designed for use in the US, with pricing beginning at $299 and also offers a domestic 14.4K modem priced at $199. Dell also announced this week it is taking orders for its Dimension desktop PCs with Microsoft Windows 95 factory installed. Dell officials said factory installation of the operating system saves the user 30-40 minutes per PC and reduces the likelihood of installation or configuration errors related to the overlay of other applications. Dell spokesperson Cathie Hargett told Newsbytes the Dimension PCs will get Windows 95 first because Dimension users have traditionally been the quickest to accept new products. Dimension PCs shipping on or after August 31 will get Windows 95 pre-installed, with other model lines having the new operating system installed "soon," said Hargett. The company said it will provide 30 days of free telephone support for Windows 95 when factory-installed on a Dell PC. It also offers several fee-based services to support Windows 95. You can elect a $29 per call via a 900 number of a toll-free number and a credit card charge, or a 90-day or one-year support contract, priced at $99 and $149 respectively. (Jim Mallory/19950803/Press contact: Dean Kline, Dell Computer, 512-728-4100; Public contact: Dell Computer, tel 512-338-4400 or fax 512-728-9357) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 08/03/95 LEGAL ****Secret Service Says Student Used PC To Print Money (NEWS)(LEGAL)(DEN)(00019) ****Secret Service Says Student Used PC To Print Money 08/03/95 LUBBOCK, TEXAS, U.S.A., 1995 AUG 3 (NB) -- PC graphics programs have come a long way since their inception, but not far enough to fool the Secret Service. That's what a Texas Tech student tried to do when he used his personal computer to print counterfeit money, according to Secret Service agents. "He really put his whole heart and soul into it," according to Lubbock, Texas Secret Service Resident Agent David Freriks. Freriks said the man is an engineering student at Texas Tech, but told agents he plans to change his major to computer science. The 20-year old student hasn't been identified by name since he hasn't been formally charged yet, according to Freriks. But officials apparently aren't concerned that he will flee. "At this point, he's more afraid of his dad than anything," said one agent. Freriks told Newsbytes the Pakistani national, who resides in affluent southwest Lubbock, scanned a real $50 bill into his PC, then printed the image to an Epson inkjet color printer. Agents said the money looked real at a distance but up close the designs were blurred, the coloration was faulty, and the paper was slick and didn't have a watermark strip. Freriks said agents are confident that all of the approximately $3,300 that was circulated has been recovered except for about $1,000 which he said he is sure will show up eventually, since the quality makes it easy for bank employees to spot. Freriks told Newsbytes the although the student hasn't been charged yet, members of the Hispanic community in Lubbock are upset because the other people charged in the case are Mexican nationals and their names have been published. He said the Lubbock newspaper is getting calls from Hispanics accusing the paper of being racist because it hasn't published the student's name. They think that is because he is Caucasian. Freriks said the man will be charged Tuesday, and his name will be released at that time. All participants have been, or will be, charged with the manufacturing, possession and distribution of counterfeit money, he said. If convicted, each man faces up to 15 years in prison on each charge. Freriks said each alleged counterfeiter will probably be charged with two counts of the offense. Including the Texas Tech student five suspects have already been identified and are expected to be indicted by a grand jury next week. Two others have already arrested. One is out on bond and the other is being held without bond. Investigators seized the home computer, printer and scanner from the student's home. They said they also found a suitcase containing almost $260,000 in fake $50 bills. (Jim Mallory/19950803/Press contact: U.S. Secret Service, tel 202-435-5708) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 08/03/95 BUSINESS France - Quantum Sells Off La Cie To Electronique (NEWS)(BUSINESS)(LON)(00020) France - Quantum Sells Off La Cie To Electronique 08/03/95 PARIS, FRANCE, 1995 AUG 3 (NB) -- Quantum Corporation has signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) to sell La Cie, its wholly owned subsidiary, to Eletronique d2, the largest "aftermarket" supplier of Apple Computer Macintosh storage products in Europe. According to Philippe Spruch, Electronique d2's president, the deal is expected to be completed within the next 60 days. Financial terms of the deal have not been disclosed. Spruch said that Electronique d2 has grown from a European company to a global corporation, with manufacturing, distribution and product development throughout Europe, Asia and North America. "With La Cie, our engineering and marketing in the SCSI (Small Computer System Interface) mass storage aftermarket will be unequalled," he explained. Over at Quantum, Ken Pelowski, the company's vice president of strategic planning and business development, said that the sale will position d2 "as the largest supplier of Mac aftermarket storage products in the world." "It is a perfect example of the whole being greater than the sum of the parts," he said. La Cie was founded in 1987 and acquired by Quantum in 1991. The company, which is based in Paris, specializes in product design. It has a licensing deal with Apple, whereby its has the exclusive rights to manufacture and distribute Apple external hard drive units. Electronique, meanwhile, was founded in Paris in 1989 and generated sales of around $80 million in financial year 1994/95. Today, the company has offices in nine European countries with 120 staff members employed around the world. The company specializes in memory and SCSI mass storage with a multi platform product range addressing Apple Mac, PC compatibles and workstations. Quantum Corporation's Internet Web page is on http://www.quantum.com . (Sylvia Dennis/19950803/Press Contact: Shandwick Communications +44- 171-835-1001; Reader Contact: Quantum Corporation +41-22-929-91) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 08/03/95 ONLINE ESPN Info To Go Wireless (NEWS)(ONLINE)(MSP)(00021) ESPN Info To Go Wireless 08/03/95 BOYNTON BEACH, FLORIDA, U.S.A., 1995 AUG 3 (NB) -- ESPN Enterprises and Motorola (NYSE:MOT) subsidiary EMBARC Communications services said they will team up to blitz the world with a wireless sports information service, called "ESPNET To Go." The service will deliver updated sports scores every five minutes, statistics, late-breaking sports news, and other ESPN content to a wireless receiver. ESPNET To Go covers a wide variety of sports, including Major League Baseball, NFL football, NBA basketball, NHL hockey, and NCAA football and basketball. Golf, boxing, auto racing, and other sports will also be covered. SportsTicker information will also be provided. ESPNET To Go is for people who are "on the go," Rob Tobias, ESPN spokesperson, told Newsbytes. Avid sports fans can get up off the couch and leave their TVs, and still be connected to the world of sports, he said. "It seemed to be a natural progression for us, because we have so many resources we pull information from," Tobias said. "This is a natural tool we can utilize. Whether you're out driving in the car or hiking, you're not far from this pocket-sized pager system." Wireless coverage will be provided via the EMBARC Wireless Broadcast Network (WBN), a network of satellite-linked transmitters providing radio coverage in 230 major metropolitan areas across the US and Canada. EMBARC will also resell the service to international radio paging carriers who can also offer the service on alphanumeric pagers. ESPNET To Go will be commercially available in a few weeks. The wireless receiver will cost $99. The service's pricing ranges between $11.99 and $14.99 a month, after a one-time $25 activation fee. (Bob Woods/19950803/Press Contacts: Rob Tobias, ESPN, 203-585-2240; Marianne Radwan, Hi-Tech Communications, 407-361-8150. Public Contact: ESPNET To Go, 800-WBN-ESPN) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 08/03/95 IBM ****IBM Teams With STET On Global Network, Content Service (NEWS)(IBM)(BOS)(00022) ****IBM Teams With STET On Global Network, Content Service 08/03/95 NEW YORK, NEW YORK, U.S.A., 1995 AUG 3 (NB) -- In a worldwide teleconference today, the IBM Global Network and STET, the $21 billion holding company that owns Telecom Italia, announced plans for a joint enterprise that will combine the backbone networks of the two companies, while providing "value-added" telecommunications and network services, including videoconferencing and interactive video, to businesses and consumers worldwide. Unlike other services that are springing up today, which come from either the telecommunications or "computing" worlds, the new joint venture from the "$64 billion plus" IBM and STET will bring together both elements, asserted John Whiteside, general manager of the IBM Global Network, speaking during the teleconference, which was attended by Newsbytes. Whiteside told journalists calling in from around the world that initial service offerings, which will begin as soon as the IBM/STET deal is finalized, will be oriented to the "business to business" market. These initial services, he reported, will revolve around network outsourcing and the delivery of "value-added" services such as electronic mail, Internet access, and electronic data interchange (EDI), services that IBM and STET are each delivering to their customers today. The initial services will also include Lotus Notes-based applications, he added. "After this, we are looking to other segments of the market," said STET CEO Ernesto Pascale, another speaker. Pascale told the journalists that STET's Stream division is now piloting interactive multimedia services that include video-on-demand, interactive TV, and home banking in Milan and Rome, Italy. STET plans to work with IBM to extend these multimedia services throughout Italy by the end of 1997, and ultimately, throughout the world, Pascale added. But the new IBM/STET alliance will also provide an "open architecture" for carrying content from third party providers, according to the two officials. Services stemming from the new alliance, which has yet to be named, will be provided on a subscription basis. "We are now talking with numerous players in both the telecommunications and industry technology arenas" as potential partners, Whiteside told the listeners. "We are certainly looking for partners who will bring strength to the local distributor model. We are also looking for global technology players and global telecommunications players. So I wouldn't rule out the possibility that players will join this alliance both at the local and potentially some at the global entity level," according to Whiteside. "We don't want to be (a) POTS (plain old telephone service) provider," Whiteside told the reporters. "We will be `content neutral,'" he added. Whiteside also noted that IBM envisions IBM business customers in vertical markets like insurance and health care will ultimately use the IBM/STET joint global network service for "communicating with customers." Pascale reported that STET, a company with 140,000 employees, is the first "mobile communications" company in Europe to reach 3 million subscribers. STET is also the second largest information provider in Europe, he maintained. STET plans to invest $2 to $3 billion in a cable TV infrastructure, now absent in Italy, over the next few years, according to the CEO. STET has been on the stock market for 60 years, and more than 50 percent of its stock is now in private hands, Pascale pointed out. The company plans to achieve full privatization "by the end of this year or beginning of next year," he said. (Jacqueline Emigh/19950803/Reader Contact: IBM, 9147651900; Press Contacts: Brian Ditzler, IBM, 2127897705 or 9146844002; Zenna Santiago or Staci Teich, Makovsky & Company for IBM, 2125089600; Isabella Tosato, STET, 3968589421) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 08/03/95 LEGAL Finnish Customer Takes AST To Court Over Notebook (NEWS)(LEGAL)(TOR)(00023) Finnish Customer Takes AST To Court Over Notebook 08/03/95 ESPOO, FINLAND, 1995 AUG 3 (NB) -- The proprietor of a small Finnish company said he is taking computer manufacturer AST Research Inc. to court over a series of problems with a notebook computer he bought from the firm in 1994. Jacob Matthan is claiming not only that the machine did not work as promised but that AST Finland Ltd. sold his returned computer to another customer while refusing to return his money. Matthan, whose company Findians Oy was formed to market Finnish- made software in India, claimed among other things that AST greatly exaggerated the battery life of its PowerExec ColorPlus notebook computer. He also reported problems with the computer's trackball pointing device and with getting its fax modem and Ethernet cards to function in the Personal Computer Memory Card Interface Association (PCMCIA, or PC Card) slots. He is also claiming that he returned the original computer to AST, which resold it but would not return his money. Matthan said AST has offered him replacement machines, but one had most of the same problems as the original and the other was a different model that did not meet his needs. Matthan told Newsbytes that court proceedings on the matter are to begin with an informal meeting in court August 25. Matthan, who has made his complaints public in postings on the Internet, said he was told the 33-megahertz PowerExec ColorPlus could run on batteries for six hours. However, when the machine arrived in India, where it was to be used for software demonstrations, it ran only about 2.2 hours on battery power. Matthan noted that he was shown a review of the computer in the December 21, 1993 edition of PC Magazine, as "proof" of its six- hour battery life. The review in question does indeed quote the manufacturer's rated battery life for the computer at six hours, though it also reports that the magazine's own tests put the computer's battery life at three hours. Most other machines covered in the comparative review -- though not all -- also ran shorter times on batteries in PC Magazine's tests than their manufacturers claimed. Matthan said that when he returned the computer to Data Raster, the AST dealer from which he bought it, it was returned after a few weeks with all problems supposedly fixed. However, he said, the problems persisted. After further complaints, Matthan said he received a replacement computer at the end of January, 1995. But he said the mouse problem persisted, and error messages continued to occur with the fax modem card. As for the battery life, he reported the second computer managed 3.22 hours. After being offered as a replacement another AST model, which he said did not meet his needs as it had only a dual-scan rather than a thin-film transistor (TFT) screen, Matthan said he filed suit against AST seeking damages, and returned all the equipment to Data Raster and asked for a refund. He said he was denied a refund until this summer, when AST offered to pay him for the returned computer with interest if he would withdraw his lawsuit. Matthan said he declined because he has now run up substantial legal fees and his company has lost "a large amount of business." Spokeswoman Gerry Lynne Baker at AST's world headquarters in Irvine, California, told Newsbytes the company cannot comment on a matter under litigation. (Grant Buckler/19950803/Press Contact: Jacob Matthan, Internet e- mail findians@netppl.fi; Gerry Lynne Baker, AST, 714-727-4141, fax 714-727-9355) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 08/03/95 BROADCAST Video News Roundup (NEWS)(BROADCAST)(MSP)(00024) Video News Roundup 08/03/95 MINNEAPOLIS, MINNESOTA, U.S.A., 1995 AUG 3 (NB) -- This is a look at the top stories this week in the world of video news reporting: Flat Screens Key To Home Theater Market, Avid Patent Suit, New Products, Sony Stops Destiny Marketing, Research, Panasonic's 27-inch Multiscan Monitor. Flat Screens Key To Home Theater Market Futuristic flat screens are in the process of becoming reality. In June, Newsbytes reported on Sony's plasma LCD screen. August's "TV Technology" headlined this development. The article notes "the development of lightweight, large screen wall displays has been long awaited and is considered key to expanding the home theatre market." They are also considered "key to consumer acceptance of large-screen high-definition television." Avid Patent Suit Avid Technology has filed a patent infringement suit against Data Translation Inc., developer of the popular Media 100 non-linear edit system. "Television Broadcast" quotes Data Translation President Alfred A. Molinari, "If we had used the methods [Avid] has on their patent, Media 100 would not be the best product on the market. Their patent talks about old and obsolete technology we don't use. As we go forward comparing the technology of Avid and Media 100, frankly they aren't going to compare very well. We think this is going to be a bit of fun." The editor of Television Broadcast, Michael Silbergleid notes that Avid's move is apparently fueled by competition as opposed to licensing issues. He writes "I can't imagine that the technology described in the patent will remain the exclusive technology of Avid. At the most, Avid will be forced to license the technology to others in the industry. The television industry has seen licensing agreements between competitors for years (credit to Ampex and RCA for a lot of that). Filing a patent infringement suit is more typical of the computer industry than the broadcast equipment industry." New Products In various new products listings "Computer Video" featured the Panasonic AG-456, an improved S-VHS camcorder. Also Cyberware announced the first 3D scanners (the WB2 and WB4) that can capture a human body in one pass. "Presentations" magazine features two PCs that can be adapted for presentation purposes. The Think-Pad 755CV has a snap-off panel that can be used as a LCD projection panel which can be used with an overhead projector. Features include a remote control with 22 special effects. Boxlight's Color Multibook can also work with projectors. It offers an optional multi-media adaptor, audio card, and SCSI 2 port. The user can then integrate CD-ROMs, VCRs, TVs and camcorders. Also featured is Panasonic's 27-inch multi-scan monitor. It supports NTSC, PAL, VGA, S-VGA, 8514A and Macintosh Quadras. The DataPro VI also has internal stereo speakers and selectable speaker out connectors. Sony Stops Destiny Marketing, Research Finally, even Sony can have a bad day. Videography reports that Sony has stopped research and marketing of the DES-500, known as the Destiny. The non-linear PC based system, a "multipurpose, real-time workstation placed too many demands upon the user interface, making it too complex." Sony will be concentrating instead on the DNE-300, a news system and the DLE-100. Both are expected to be available by year's end according to Videography. (Newsbytes Staff/19950802) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 08/03/95 ONLINE ****"Newsbytes Pacifica" Website Begins Service (NEWS)(ONLINE)(MSP)(00025) ****"Newsbytes Pacifica" Website Begins Service 08/03/95 TOKYO, JAPAN, 1995 AUG 3 (NB) -- Newsbytes News Network's first official World Wide Web server is in operation at http://www.islandtel.com/newsbytes/ . The site features Newsbytes' top stories on computing and telecom developments in the Asia-Pacifica region, Internet and World Wide Web news, and Japanese language Newsbytes. The service was developed by Island Telecommunications Corp., in cooperation with Newsbytes News Network. Island Telecom's president, John Keegan, says, "We've been working with Newsbytes for the past year producing a Newsbytes area on Niftyserve, one of Japan's largest online services. It seemed natural to extend our relationship in developing a Web service catering to professionals desirous of information about this expanding market." Newsbytes Pacifica is divided into eight content areas: Newsbytes Pacifica Headlines, Newsbytes Daily Summary, Japan Newsbriefs, Internet Update, Weekly Review, Newspix, "Web Cites," an index of Web sites cited in Newsbytes reports, and Japanese language Newsbytes. Japanese language Newsbytes is currently the most popular content area on Newsbytes Pacifica, according to Keegan. "We've drastically cut the time it takes us to produce a Japanese language report each day; the more timely the news is, the more valuable it is to our audience." Of particular note are the built-in hyperlinks to the next and previous stories at the top and bottom of each page. "Rather than require a reader to bounce back and forth to an index page to get to another story, the reader can smoothly flow through fifty or more documents just by following the [Next] link." "This is the beginning of a major new push to serve the Asian market with technology news, as well as our first official Newsbytes Website," said Editor in Chief and Founder of Newsbytes Wendy Woods. "We pioneered electronic technology news delivery in 1983 and have continued the momentum with our daily text-based service, now serving 182 publishers worldwide, our Newspix digitized news photo service, and subscription CD-ROMs. Once again we are on the cutting edge in this partnership with Island Telecommunications, with our Asia-oriented Web service." Newsbytes Pacifica is located at URL: http://www.islandtel.com/newsbytes/ . (Newsbytes Staff/19950803) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 08/03/95 WINDOWS Windows 95 Launch On Target, Says Microsoft (NEWS)(WINDOWS)(DEN)(00026) Windows 95 Launch On Target, Says Microsoft 08/03/95 REDMOND, WASHINGTON, U.S.A., 1995 AUG 3 (NB) -- That giant whooshing sound you may have heard coming from the Northwest part of the US wasn't a lost hurricane, it was the folks at Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ: MSFT) heaving a giant sigh of relief. They're relieved because despite the scope of the project, it appears that the rollout of Windows 95, set for just three weeks from today, will come about without any major glitches. The launch of the new software which combines an operating system and a user interface with a significantly new Windows look is the biggest product rollout in the company's history. But according to Doug Taylor, director of Microsoft's North American manufacturing operations, preparations are going far more smoothly for Windows 95 than for its predecessor. When Windows 3.1 launched in 1992 it gobbled up just about every blank floppy diskette in the country. But production managers have done a better job of planning for the Windows 95 launch, and have been stockpiling disks for months. It helped that the rollout date of Windows 95 was delayed several times. To meet expected demand for Windows 95, Microsoft has contracted with a dozen production facilities to augment the work at its own plants in Bothell, Washington and Puerto Rico. Those arrangements will let Microsoft turn out more than a million copies of Windows 95 each week. In fact, said Taylor, the Bothell plant is mostly being used to fill in the gaps. He said more than five million copies of Windows 95 are expected to be on retail shelves on the kickoff date. Windows 95 includes a number of new features, including a re-worked user interface that more closely resembles the Macintosh look, as well as Geoworks, a program for pre-Windows IBM-compatible PCs that also let the user click on icons to launch programs and files. One of the Windows 95 features that has both users and Microsoft officials guessing is the built-in ability to connect to the Microsoft Network (MSN), Microsoft's online subscription service also scheduled launch on August 24. Although Microsoft sent Windows 95 to manufacturing with that feature intact, the US Department of Justice's (DOJ) investigation of possible anti-competitive practices is still ponderously rolling along. DOJ might initiate a lawsuit that, if won, could force Microsoft to remove the MSN link from future shipments of Windows 95, although industry watchers believe the court wouldn't go any further than that. Such a ruling would undoubtedly impact on always nervous investors, causing Microsoft's stock price to fall. Attorney General Janet Reno said today DOJ hoped to decide "soon" if it would file anti-competitive charges against the software company. Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates, writing in his syndicated weekly newspaper column this week, said Japanese, Chinese and Korean versions of the new Windows software will ship in January 1996, although it will still be called Windows 95. Gates also said the company will release Windows 95 in seven European languages next month. Gates column addressed the ten most widely asked questions received over the Internet. (Jim Mallory/19950803/Press and public contact: Microsoft, tel 206-882-8080 or 800-426-9400) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 08/03/95 TELECOM Sweden's Ericsson Secures Guernsey Telecom GSM Contract (NEWS)(TELECOM)(LON)(00027) Sweden's Ericsson Secures Guernsey Telecom GSM Contract 08/03/95 STOCKHOLM, SWEDEN, 1995 AUG 3 (NB) -- Ericsson, the Swedish telecommunication specialist, has received an order from Guernsey Telecom for the supply of a GSM (Global System for Mobile Communications) network. According to Ericsson, while Guernsey currently has analog cellular coverage, it needs digital cellular coverage to allow local residents and businesspeople to make and receive calls when outside of the Channel Islands. GSM has the ability to support inter-network roaming on a near global basis. The order is worth almost $5 million to Ericsson and includes the supply and installation of base stations, GH337 mobile units, the GSM exchange and administration procedures. Guernsey Telecom will run the GSM network, handling billing to subscribers as well as to other networks, for onward charging to their customers. High quality GSM coverage is expected to be available across the Bailiwick of Guersney, including Guersney, Alderney, Sark and Herm. Although Ericsson is not saying how large the Guernsey GSM network will be, the company says it will more than satisfy the 60,000 residents of the island, plus a number of roaming GSM users. The service will be available to people on boats, will also be able to use the local network, while at sea, provided they are in Bailiwick waters. "We are delighted that Guersney, with its wide ranging demands in communication, has chosen Ericsson as its partner in this venture. GSM provides a secure and high quality communications environment for the people of Guersney, who will be joining the growing number of GSM users throughout the world," commented Rory Buckley, managing director of Ericsson's public systems division. Guersney Telecom has already completed roaming agreements and plans to offer two types of subscription services: Islander and Roamer. The first one will be useful for residents who want to make and receive calls in the Bailiwick area, while the second one is designed for connections wherever the GSM system is operational. "It's our aim to provide customers with quality and choice in the types of service that we offer. The Ericsson GSM system is allowing us to meet both of these criteria while fulfilling the highly varied communication requirements of the business and residential population," explained Ken Guille, Guersney Telecom's chief executive. (Sylvia Dennis/19950803/Press Contact: Paula Wagstaff, Ericsson +44- 1444-234-354) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 08/03/95 BUSINESS Media Vision Drops Multimedia Upgrade Business (NEWS)(BUSINESS)(SFO)(00028) Media Vision Drops Multimedia Upgrade Business 08/03/95 FREMONT, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1995 AUG 3 (NB) -- Media Vision, once known for its audio boards and multimedia upgrade kits, says it is ready to get out of the multimedia upgrade kit business. Still struggling from Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, the company also announced plans to lay off half of its 200 remaining employees while focusing its business on supplying audio chips to personal computer (PC) manufacturers. In the early 90s, Media Vision figured as one of the main players in the audio board market. Along with Creative Labs, Orchid, Cardinal and others, Media Vision did well as sound on the PC became a major upgrade product. The company also moved quickly into multimedia upgrade kits as CD-ROMs became a must on the desktop. A number of analysts predicted the temporary strength of the market and the need for these companies to diversify their offerings as audio became integrated into motherboards and CD-ROM drives became a standard offering from PC manufacturers. During its success, Media Vision was beset with problems at the executive level. The resignation of its then CEO, Ming Yee, was followed by a number of executive resignations and the addition of new top level staff as the company tried to recapture its earlier success. In a statement regarding its second quarter (ended 7/2/95) results, Media Vision reported a loss of $68 million due in part to a $56.3 million restructuring charge and sales totaling $16.1 million. In the same quarter last year, Media Vision registered $23.9 million in sales. The company says it is now looking for someone to take over the multimedia upgrade business while it begins to focus its attention on supplying audio chips to PC manufacturers. According to Media Vision, the investment firm, Hambrecht & Quist, has been retained to assist in the sale of the upgrade kit business. Media Vision suggests a company with access to lower manufacturing costs could take the kit business over and be successful. While discussions are going on with several parties, Media Vision states a completed deal is not assured. Speaking to Newsbytes, Cher Hoff, manager of shareholder relations at Media Vision, said, "We do not really have a lot more to say than what is in the press release. Because of our recent difficulties we are not able to establish large order relationships with manufacturers. There are other companies which would be in a better position to do so and still leverage the strength of the Media Vision name to package and distribute multimedia kits." (Patrick McKenna/19950803/Press Contact: Pat Donahue, Media Vision, tel 510-770-8600) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 08/03/95 TRENDS ****Siggraph '95 To Debut Virtual Reality Tools (NEWS)(TRENDS)(SFO)(00029) ****Siggraph '95 To Debut Virtual Reality Tools 08/03/95 MENLO PARK, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1995 AUG 3 (NB) -- Fakespace Music, a business unit of Fakespace, Inc., says it will introduce its Soundscapes Entertainment Project at Siggraph '95. The company will preview virtual reality (VR) environments which come to life with music. Mark Bolas, president of Fakespace, told Newsbytes, "When a person walks down the street listening to music through a headset, that experience is out of sync with passing cars and all of the movement around the person. Imagine how neat it would be to have the world in sync with the music. In virtual reality environments, there is a flatness and lack of movement in these simulated worlds which if animated could make them more real. What we have done is create tools which will allow a VR developer to create an environment which moves in relation to a particular piece of music." Bolas admits the development of products based on this technology is in an early stage, but the necessary tools to create these effects will be demonstrated at Siggraph's Interactive Entertainment Hall, a part of the overall show in Los Angeles. The VR industry is commonly divided into the popular immersed environment using headgear and desktop VR which one views from a standard monitor. Bolas says the immersed environment is the preferred method for truly experiencing the dynamic VR worlds which can be created through the tools developed by his Soundscapes Entertainment Project. From a commercial view, Bolas sees an entirely new type of music video which might be called "immersive music." In the not-too-distant future, you might listen to the latest hit song by wearing a VR headset and experiencing a world which is moving in relation to the hit song. The options are fairly extensive. Bolas suggested a classical music fan might sit on a hill and watch clouds, water and trees move to the sounds of Beethoven. Early use of this technology could be applied to kiosks in record stores. These kiosks would allow customers to immerse themselves into the VR environment. Bolas also said his new technology could be incorporated into home VR devices which are expected to become more popular in the coming months. Fakespace Music can be found at Booth E-15 for the 5-day show. The company is looking for partnership interest from large music/multimedia companies. (Patrick McKenna/19950803/Press Contact: Wendy Lewis, FS Communications, 415-691-1488) (SUMMARY)(GENERAL)(MSP)(00030) Newsbytes Daily Summary 08/03/95 MINNEAPOLIS, MINNESOTA, U.S.A., 1995 AUG 3 (NB) -- These are capsules of all today's news stories: ======================================================================== ------------| N E W S B Y T E S D A I L Y S U M M A R Y |---------- ------------| Thursday, August 3, 1995 |---------- ======================================================================== (c) Newsbytes News Network (Tm) Editor in Chief: Wendy Woods ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Newsbytes News Network's 1995 Update CD-ROM for Mac, DOS, and Windows is now available for $29.95 (includes s&h). Contains 1983-1995 news stories, more than 64,000 keyword searchable stories and 475 digitized images. For more information or to order, fax to 612-430-0441 or e-mail to 'administrator@newsbytes.com' -- MC, Visa, Amex accepted. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ CATEGORY HEADLINES (*** indicates today's top stories) STORY # ======================================================================== APPLE Apple Upgrades QuickTake100 Digital Camera................. 06 APPLE UK - Mac PCI Graphics Accelerator.......................... 13 BROADCAST More Taking Sides In Digital Video War..................... 02 BROADCAST Video News Roundup......................................... 24 BUSINESS Toshiba To Sell Oracle Software In Japan................... 03 BUSINESS Computervision To Market Indian Software................... 11 BUSINESS France - Quantum Sells Off La Cie To Electronique.......... 20 BUSINESS Media Vision Drops Multimedia Upgrade Business............. 28 CHIPS Color Scanner Chip Design Kit.............................. 10 GENERAL China - Technology Newsbriefs.............................. 12 GOVT ****Newt's Baby Bell Connections.......................... 15 IBM ****IBM Teams With STET On Global Network, Content Service 22 LEGAL First Hong Kong Porn Charge Could Take "Weeks.............. 08 LEGAL ****Secret Service Says Student Used PC To Print Money.... 19 LEGAL Finnish Customer Takes AST To Court Over Notebook.......... 23 ONLINE ESPN Info To Go Wireless................................... 21 ONLINE ****"Newsbytes Pacifica" Website Begins Service........... 25 TELECOM ****Cell Phones Caused Accident, Says Lawsuit............. 01 TELECOM AT&T GIS News Leaves HK Distributors Guessing.............. 05 TELECOM Global Telecoms - Int'l Alliances Lead The Way............. 09 TELECOM AT&T Puts TrueVoice On Int'l Calls......................... 14 TELECOM MCI Slashes Staff, Restructures............................ 16 TELECOM Sweden's Ericsson Secures Guernsey Telecom GSM Contract.... 27 TRENDS China - Technology Trade Rising Markedly................... 07 TRENDS SPA Posts Monthly Software Hit Parade...................... 17 TRENDS ****Siggraph '95 To Debut Virtual Reality Tools........... 29 WINDOWS Lotus Courseware For Desktop Applications.................. 04 WINDOWS Dell Modem Adjusts To The Country It's In.................. 18 WINDOWS Windows 95 Launch On Target, Says Microsoft................ 26 ======================================================================== These are the headlines and first paragraphs of each story, in order: 1 -> ****Cell Phones Caused Accident, Says Lawsuit -- If a New York family wins their $35 million lawsuit against Motorola Inc. (NYSe: MOT) that alleges a cell phone caused a serious traffic accident, your next cell phone could have as many warning labels on it as ladders do today. 2 -> More Taking Sides In Digital Video War -- Celebrations were taking place at both camps in the digital video disk (DVD) war yesterday as two more companies announced their support, one for each system. 3 -> Toshiba To Sell Oracle Software In Japan -- Toshiba Corporation (TOKYO:6502) has announced it has agreed with Oracle Corporation (NASDAQ:ORCL), the world's leading supplier of information management software, to sell its application systems in Japan. Toshiba hopes the deal will mean extra sales of 20 billion yen ($219 million) over the next three years. 4 -> Lotus Courseware For Desktop Applications -- A new series of courseware for Lotus' desktop applications from PTS Learning Systems will provide the same high level of quality as the courseware Lotus Education produces for Lotus Notes, maintained Terri Purinton, marketing manager for Lotus Education, in an interview with Newsbytes. 5 -> AT&T GIS News Leaves HK Distributors Guessing -- News that AT&T is restructuring its GIS computer unit, possibly to sell it, according to Bloomberg news service, came as a surprise to one of its Hong Kong distributors. 6 -> Apple Upgrades QuickTake100 Digital Camera -- Apple Computer, Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL) announced an upgrade for users of its original Apple QuickTake 100 digital camera. The upgrade provides these users with almost all of the features found in the QuickTake 150. 7 -> China - Technology Trade Rising Markedly -- During the first half of this year, China's technology imports rose 39 percent over the same period last year while technology exports increased 136 percent, officials with Ministry of Foreign Trade and Economic Cooperation (MOFTEC) report. 8 -> First Hong Kong Porn Charge Could Take "Weeks -- Hong Kong's Commercial Crime Bureau said it could be weeks before a local student 9 -> Global Telecoms - Int'l Alliances Lead The Way -- Ovum has published a report entitled "Ovum Profiles: the World's Major Telcos." According to Adrian May, one of the five authors of the report, the aim of the study was to look at how the formation of international alliances is reshaping the telecoms industry. 10 -> Color Scanner Chip Design Kit -- Exar Corporation (NASDAQ: Exar) announced the availability of the MP8830AB plug- and-play design kit for use on PCs. The kit comes complete with all the software are and hardware needed for engineers to evaluate Exar's digitizer subsystem. 11 -> Computervision To Market Indian Software -- The Aeronautical Development Agency (ADA), building light combat aircraft (LCA), has signed a pact with the US-based Computervision Corp., to market an unique software called "Autolay" for designing fighter aircraft wings made of composite material. This deal is expected to bring in an estimated revenue of $50 million to ADA over a period of time. 12 -> China - Technology Newsbriefs -- In this roundup of news from China: NEC is targeting a 20-30 percent share of China's computer market by 2000, China sends a delegation to CA-World '95, Int'l Electronics Commodities Exhibition and Trade Center, the largest in South China is to open in Guangzhou, and Gansu Province uses foreign loans to fund telecom projects 13 -> UK - Mac PCI Graphics Accelerator -- ATI Technologies, the computer related graphic and video add-ins manufacturer, has unveiled a new graphics accelerator, the XCLAIM GA, to be used with Apple Computer's PCI (Peripheral Component Interconnect)-based systems. 14 -> AT&T Puts TrueVoice On Int'l Calls -- AT&T (NYSE:T) said today it will use a system similar to its "TrueVoice" to virtually eliminate noise in direct-dial international long distance calls. Called "TrueVoice Plus," the new technology will be available to AT&T customers who subscribe to the service, to calls destined for Mexico in September and other international call destinations in 1996. 15 -> ****Newt's Baby Bell Connections -- His daughter is a manager for Atlanta-based BellSouth. His good friend is BellSouth Chairman John Clendenin. Who is he? House Speaker Newt Gingrich (R-Ga.). 16 -> MCI Slashes Staff, Restructures -- MCI Communications (Nasdaq: MCIC), announcing a healthy 21 percent rise in earnings for the second quarter, yesterday also announced a restructuring that will slash some 2,500 to 3,000 jobs, about 6 percent of its workforce, the company told Newsbytes. 17 -> SPA Posts Monthly Software Hit Parade -- Soaring out of the Myst comes MS Flight Simulator. The Software Publishers Association, working with market researcher NPD Group, has launched a detailed monthly report on retail software sales, called SofTrends. According to the June report, Microsoft's MS Flight Simulator has skyrocketed to the top of the hit parade for the Entertainment and CD-ROM lists in unit sales, passing the previously best-selling Myst from Broderbund. 18 -> Dell Modem Adjusts To The Country It's In -- Dell Computer Corp. (NASDAQ: DELL) has introduced a modem designed specifically for European travelers. The company said the new TransNational II Data/Fax Modem is bundled with Windows-based software that allows users traveling between European countries to easily and quickly reconfigure their modem for the telephone system of the country in which they are currently just by clicking on an icon representing that country's flag. 19 -> ****Secret Service Says Student Used PC To Print Money -- PC graphics programs have come a long way since their inception, but not far enough to fool the Secret Service. That's what a Texas Tech student tried to do when he used his personal computer to print counterfeit money, according to Secret Service agents. 20 -> France - Quantum Sells Off La Cie To Electronique -- Quantum Corporation has signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) to sell La Cie, its wholly owned subsidiary, to Eletronique d2, the largest "aftermarket" supplier of Apple Computer Macintosh storage products in Europe. 21 -> ESPN Info To Go Wireless -- ESPN Enterprises and Motorola (NYSE:MOT) subsidiary EMBARC Communications services said they will team up to blitz the world with a wireless sports information service, called "ESPNET To Go." The service will deliver updated sports scores every five minutes, statistics, late-breaking sports news, and other ESPN content to a wireless receiver. 22 -> ****IBM Teams With STET On Global Network, Content Service -- In a worldwide teleconference today, the IBM Global Network and STET, the $21 billion holding company that owns Telecom Italia, announced plans for a joint enterprise that will combine the backbone networks of the two companies, while providing "value-added" telecommunications and network services, including videoconferencing and interactive video, to businesses and consumers worldwide. 23 -> Finnish Customer Takes AST To Court Over Notebook -- The proprietor of a small Finnish company said he is taking computer manufacturer AST Research Inc. to court over a series of problems with a notebook computer he bought from the firm in 1994. Jacob Matthan is claiming not only that the machine did not work as promised but that AST Finland Ltd. sold his returned computer to another customer while refusing to return his money. 24 -> Video News Roundup -- This is a look at the top stories this week in the world of video news reporting: Flat Screens Key To Home Theater Market, Avid Patent Suit, New Products, Sony Stops Destiny Marketing, Research, Panasonic's 27-inch Multiscan Monitor. 25 -> ****"Newsbytes Pacifica" Website Begins Service -- Newsbytes News Network's first official World Wide Web server is in operation at http://www.islandtel.com/newsbytes/ . The site features Newsbytes' top stories on computing and telecom developments in the Asia-Pacifica region, Internet and World Wide Web news, and Japanese language Newsbytes. 26 -> Windows 95 Launch On Target, Says Microsoft -- That giant whooshing sound you may have heard coming from the Northwest part of the US wasn't a lost hurricane, it was the folks at Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ: MSFT) heaving a giant sigh of relief. They're relieved because despite the scope of the project, it appears that the rollout of Windows 95, set for just three weeks from today, will come about without any major glitches. 27 -> Sweden's Ericsson Secures Guernsey Telecom GSM Contract -- Ericsson, the Swedish telecommunication specialist, has received an order from Guernsey Telecom for the supply of a GSM (Global System for Mobile Communications) network. 28 -> Media Vision Drops Multimedia Upgrade Business -- Media Vision, once known for its audio boards and multimedia upgrade kits, says it is ready to get out of the multimedia upgrade kit business. Still struggling from Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, the company also announced plans to lay off half of its 200 remaining employees while focusing its business on supplying audio chips to personal computer (PC) manufacturers. 29 -> ****Siggraph '95 To Debut Virtual Reality Tools -- Fakespace Music, a business unit of Fakespace, Inc., says it will introduce its Soundscapes Entertainment Project at Siggraph '95. The company will preview virtual reality (VR) environments which come to life with music. (Wendy Woods/19950803) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 08/02/95 NETWORK ****Cabletron CEO Sees Many `Options' From Chipcom Filing (NEWS)(NETWORK)(BOS)(00001) ****Cabletron CEO Sees Many `Options' From Chipcom Filing 08/02/95 ROCHESTER, NEW HAMPSHIRE, U.S.A., 1995 AUG 2 (NB) -- "Within 30 days, we'll know if we can buy more (Chipcom) stock. At that point, we'll decide whether we want to do a complete takeover, acquire enough shares (to) vote against a merger, or just walk away," said Cabletron President and CEO Bob Levine, in an interview with Newsbytes about Cabletron's FCC petition to purchase Chipcom stock, filed the day after 3Com and Chipcom announced plans to merge. Levine told Newsbytes that Cabletron already owns just under $15 million in Chipcom stock, representing less than 3 percent of all Chipcom stock. Cabletron purchased its Chipcom shares over the past three weeks, he added. FCC approval will be required to "clear" Cabletron to exceed its current investment in Chipcom. Cabletron's filing with the FCC on Friday, the day after 3Com's "friendly" acquisition was unveiled in Boston, astounded the industry. Over the weekend, speculation mounted in the press over whether Cabletron actually plans to purchase Chipcom or whether other motives might be involved, with some observers suggesting that Cabletron might simply be trying to "thwart" the 3Com/Chip deal by driving up the price of Chipcom's stock. In the interview with Newsbytes late yesterday, Newsbytes asked Levine whether Cabletron has any interest in pushing up Chipcom's stock prices. "It's an option to acquire shares, and to make it more difficult for 3Com, or to vote against (the 3Com/Chipcom merger). But those simply are options, as is an all out acquisition," Levine responded. Cabletron, he said, "needs to get the clearance to buy (more) stock just so the decision is in our hands, and we're the ones deciding what's in the best interests of Cabletron." The Cabletron CEO acknowledged to Newsbytes that the product lines of Cabletron and Chipcom carry significant "overlaps," whereas the product lines of 3Com and Chipcom do not, an observation previously raised by industry analysts. The Cabletron and Chipcom product lines "completely overlap," Levine reported. "(But) ours are a lot more feature rich, and that's why we are approaching a $1 billion company and (Chipcom) is not. I don't want to be vain about it, but clearly, their products aren't at the level of a Cabletron or a Bay Networks. (But) certainly, their products are a lot higher end than Chipcom's," according to the Cabletron chief. "So we're not interested in (Chipcom's) products. We're only interested in their end user customer base, and potentially, what the IBM relationship could bring," he added. Levine also told Newsbytes that Cabletron could "manage" Chipcom's customer based with its current product line. "Then we could help them migrate to the next generation technology with our MMac Plus, which Chipcom doesn't have." Newsbytes asked Levine whether 3Com and Chipcom might be regarded as a "better match," another observation frequently raised over the past few days. "3Com does need someone like Chipcom," he replied. "3Com has no way to access the high-end customer. Their products are strictly for the small user, where network management, feature and functionality isn't that important. In that market, 3Com does very well." When asked, "How high a price would you expect the stock to go up to in order to quell 3Com's interest?" Levine responded that he did not know the answer to that question, but that Wall Street analysts would probably know. Spokespersons for both 3Com and Chipcom have told Newsbytes that their companies remain fully committed to 3Com's purchase of Chipcom, in spite of Cabletron's FCC filing. A 3Com spokesperson pointed out that the price of Chipcom fell 2- 7/8 points on Monday, to close at around $41 per share. On Friday, Chipcom's stock had soared 6-1/2 points, to close at almost $44 share. On Tuesday, Chipcom's stock fell another 2-1/4 points, to about $38.75. 3Com is offering the equivalent of $39.55 per share for Chipcom stock. Wall Street analysts have expressed mixed predictions about the outcome of Cabletron's FCC filing. Cabletron could be effective in "keeping trading above the 3Com offer price," said Noel P. Lindsay, an analyst at Hambrecht & Quist. "If they are successful in doing that, it could end up costing 3Com more money to buy (Chipcom). Or 3Com could walk away from the deal saying, `It was worth it at $40, but it's not worth it at $45 or $50.' But I have a suspicion that 3Com would either make no improvement in their offer, or maybe a slight improvement in their offer, and say, `Look, we have the only credible strategic offer on the table. Take it or leave it,'" Lindsay told Newsbytes. "If (3Com) did that, I have a feeling the (Chipcom) board of directors would feel compelled (to accept the 3Com offer)," the Wall Street analyst added. 3Com is a more "credible suitor" for Chipcom as a result of the "complementary" nature of the two companies' product lines, as well as "cultural" similarities, Lindsay maintained. (Jacqueline Emigh/19950802/Press Contacts: David W. Hayward, 3Com 508-836-1773; Dan Foley, 3Com, 508-836-1768; John H. Ricciardone, Chipcom, 508-337-3364; Michael Deshaies, Cabletron, 603-337-1402) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 08/02/95 IBM ****Gerstner Describes IBM Focus On 5 Customer Groups (NEWS)(IBM)(TOR)(00002) ****Gerstner Describes IBM Focus On 5 Customer Groups 08/02/95 NEW YORK, NEW YORK, U.S.A., 1995 AUG 2 (NB) -- IBM (NYSE:IBM) has identified five types of customers on whose differing needs it will try to focus, Chairman and Chief Executive Louis Gerstner told investment analysts at a briefing this week. Among the groups are consumers, for whom IBM plans to form a new worldwide division. In a meeting with analysts, a transcript of which Newsbytes has obtained, Gerstner defined IBM's five customer groups as large businesses and institutions, small and medium-sized businesses, consumers, the original equipment manufacturer (OEM) market, and distributors, resellers, and independent software developers. IBM's historic strength has been in the first area -- large businesses and institutions -- Gerstner said. "This is our turf. This is our stronghold." He went on to say that these large customers need integrated technology, which makes IBM's size an advantage. Gerstner noted that when he joined IBM two years ago, the investment community was urging him to "break IBM up into a bunch of little pieces and follow the model of the piece-part approach to the industry. And it would have been exactly the wrong thing to do at that time, because the industry's coming back our way." The second customer group, small and medium-sized businesses, represents half the enterprise computing market, Gerstner said -- 52 million businesses around the world spending $230 billion on information technology. He admitted that IBM has not paid enough attention to this segment in the past, and said it will try to correct that by naming a single executive to oversee worldwide strategy for small and medium-sized business. The company is also putting more emphasis on direct-response marketing. Gerstner said IBM defines the consumer market as people buying information technology with their own money. This market is growing fast, he said, "obviously being driven by the underlying and very basic long-term trend toward computer literacy." IBM has problems in this market, he admitted. "We've got to work on the perception that we have expensive products. We've got to improve the look and feel of our products. We need to learn to do much better at high-volume, low-margin manufacturing as we've learned in our PC business." IBM is in the process of setting up an integrated, worldwide consumer unit, into which it will move all related hardware, software, and services. The company is seeking a person to run this new division, which will also have its own marketing and development organization, Gerstner said. IBM's fourth customer group is OEMs, meaning other manufacturers to which the company supplies its technology for incorporation into their products. Gerstner said IBM's OEM business is growing faster than the market as a whole. He cited IBM Microelectronics as an example. The final customer group is made up of distributors, resellers, and independent software developers. Classifying these as customers is a change from past practice. "Historically, IBM has treated these important institutions as middlemen -- as conduits that we can use to distribute our products to the `real' customer," Gerstner said. "We now view these people as critical customers themselves. Our job is to help them succeed and make money." Gerstner said IBM is impressed by, and will learn from, the way recently acquired Lotus Development Corp. has done this. Gerstner said he has introduced to IBM the idea of tracking studies, in which a company tracks customer behavior and perception of the firm on a quarterly basis. While common in businesses where he has worked before, Gerstner told the analysts, tracking studies are rare in the computer industry. He said the results of IBM's studies show the company is making progress in changing its image. "We've seen marked improvements in perceptions of value, responsiveness, approachability, and creativity," he said. (Grant Buckler/19950802/Press Contact: Diane Travers, IBM, 914- 765-6446, fax 914-765-5099) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 08/02/95 GENERAL In Focus Cuts Projection Panel Prices, Adds Features (NEWS)(GENERAL)(DEN)(00003) In Focus Cuts Projection Panel Prices, Adds Features 08/02/95 WILSONVILLE, OREGON, U.S.A., 1995 AUG 2 (NB) -- In Focus Systems Inc. (NASDAQ: INFS) has lowered the price of some of its liquid crystal display (LCD) projection panels and at the same time has added features to the Smartview line. In Focus said it has reduced the price of the SmartView 3600, SmartView 2600 and PanelBook 450. The SmartView 3600 has been reduced $500 to $3,799, the SmartView 2600 was cut $400 to $2,399 and the PanelBook 450 was also reduced $500, now carrying a suggested retail price of $2,799. The active-matrix SmartView 3600 displays images from a Macintosh or IBM-compatible computer screen or other video source on an overhead projector for large group viewing. The Smartview 3600 has built-in support for NTSC, PAL and SECAM video and an internal speaker for playback of audio from the computer or video source. The other SmartView projection panel, the SmartView 2600, offers photographic color quality, color matching and saturation, and faster pixel response than traditional passive matrix LCDs, said In Focus. It also support projection of animation and digitized multimedia video created with Quicktime or Video for Windows. The 3600 is also getting a larger LCD, which the company said will increase the brightness of the images considerably, and both the 3600 and the 2600 are getting increased palettes which will offer more than 1.4 million colors. The PanelBook 450 is a six-pound projection panel that is equipped with Liteshow, a disk drive in a slide-out drawer that can capture to a 3.5-inch floppy disk up to 50 color images. The stored images can be projected in any order desired by the user, and special effects can be added. The PanelBook 450 has a remote control unit with a customizable button that can be programmed for the most commonly used command. The market for projection panels can be a lucrative one. According to Mark Reed, vice president of sales, marketing and service at In Focus Systems, a survey done earlier this year by Technical Horizons in Education reports that the nation's educators will buy $1 billion worth of multimedia and video equipment in 1995. (Jim Mallory/19950802/Press contact: Linda Holt, KVO for In Focus Systems, 503-221-2371; Public contact: In Focus Systems, tel 800-294-6400 or 503-685-8888, fax 503-685-8631) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 08/02/95 GENERAL Japan Newsbriefs (NEWS)(GENERAL)(TYO)(00004) Japan Newsbriefs 08/02/95 TOKYO, JAPAN, 1995 AUG 2 (NB) -- In this roundup of news from Japan, Fujitsu wins Middle East fiber contract; Sony invests in battery production; Matsushita announces digital camcorder; Fuji Xerox signs distribution deal with Interphase; Consumer electronics imports rise in June. #IMAGE 1 20 TWPCX \images\95080204.PCX Click here for photo Fujitsu Wins Middle East Fiber Contract Fujitsu has won a contract to supply a fiber optic cable that will link the Middle Eastern countries of Kuwait, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain. The order, worth $80 million, is for the Fiber Optic Gulf cable that will run 1,300 kms and be capable of carrying 60,000 telephone circuits. Sony Invests In Battery Production Sony is increasing production of lithium-ion batteries, the type that are use in notebook computers and cellular telephone, to cope with a continuing increase in demand. The Tokyo-based company is investing 3 billion yen ($34 million) in new production facilities for a plant just north of Tokyo in Tochigi prefecture. When the new capacity comes on line it will add 2 million lithium-ion batteries a month to Sony's output. Matsushita Announces Digital Camcorder As reported by Newsbytes last week, Matsushita has announced it will launch a digital camcorder aimed at the home market. The NV-DJ1 features a 3CCD picture tube, digital processing of video and audio, and will record onto SD home use digital video system cassettes, a new world standard for digital video cassettes. Sony announced its own digital Handycam, in two versions, last week. The Matsushita camera, which will sell under the Panasonic brand name, will make its Japanese debut later this year priced at 275,000 yen ($3,125). Fuji Xerox Signs Distribution Deal With Interphase Interphase have announced Fuji Xerox will distribute its range of computer networking products in Japan. Interphase say the Pacific Rim is one of the primary markets for growth in the next several years and views the new deal as important for the company. The areas market share for the company's ATM products is expected to double within three years. Consumer Electronics Imports Rise In June Imports of video cassette recorders, televisions and music CDs rose in June, the third consecutive monthly rise. On the year VCR imports were up 160% to 330,000 units while music compact discs jumped 89% to 7.55 million units. Imports from Singapore and Malaysia were particularly strong according to the Ministry of Finance. The import figures include products made overseas by Japanese companies. (Martyn Williams/19950802/SONYCAM950802/PHOTO) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 08/02/95 ONLINE AT&T, NTT, Sony Launching Multimedia System For Japan (NEWS)(ONLINE)(TYO)(00005) AT&T, NTT, Sony Launching Multimedia System For Japan 08/02/95 TOKYO, JAPAN, 1995 AUG 2 (NB) -- A group of three companies comprised of Nippon Telegraph and Telephone (TOKYO:9432), Sony Corporation (TOKYO:6758) and AT&T (NYSE:T) has announced it will begin a new Japanese multimedia system, NTT Future Agent Network (FAN), based on AT&T's PersonaLink Service (PLS) technology. The announcement comes after the conclusion of a successful test involving 250 "Multi-Media Experience Monitors." NTT FAN will be capitalized at 499 million yen of which NTT, provider of the network technology, will invest 219.6 million yen, or 46% of the total. Sony Corporation, contributing expertise in consumer electronics, will own 22% of the service with a 139.7 million yen investment. Finally, AT&T will take a similar stake to Sony's with an identical investment. The US telecommunications company is adding its experience in developing PersonaLink Services. An NTT spokesman told Newsbytes the new system will begin trial operations early next year with a test user base of around 5,000 people. Initially the system will be closely based on AT&T's PersonaLink Service in the US. The PersonaLink Service, which debuted last September, allows users to integrate their messaging and faxing through a single, intelligent, interface that also allows access to other services such as electronic shopping and the latest news and weather. AT&T claims one can accomplish complex tasks easily thanks to intelligent assistants -- small pieces of software that accompany one's data on tasks across the network. Complex tasks such as pre-sorting of messages, e-mailing people about a meeting, and collecting information on whether they can attend, are made easy because of the assistants. The service also integrates other communications such as pager services alerting the user when a new message comes in. The systems runs on Telescript software and access in Japan will be via devices running Magic Cap software, developed by California based General Magic (OTC:GMGC), a company established in 1990 by 15 companies to produce personal intelligent communication products and services. All three of the companies involved in the new Japanese system are founders of General Magic. Devices running the MagicCap system include Sony's Magic Link personal intelligent communicator. The hand-held device will allow full access to the NTT FAN service when it begins with additional access being offered later with the debut of MagicCap for Windows, a desktop PC based access package. NTT FAN test subscribers will be able to exchange electronic multimedia messages, including handwritten or typewritten text, drawings, animations and voice messages over ordinary telephone lines. They will also be able to send text and graphics messages by fax. While the system is under evaluation, more content will be added to decide what types of information are needed and commercially viable. Future enhancements will include news services, as in the US, entertainment listings, business listings and subscriber bulletin boards. Speaking about the trial, Junichiro Miyazu, senior executive vice president of NTT commented, "Today's agreement between our three companies is significant because it will help NTT understand the evolving communications networking needs in Japan." Lou Golm, president and CEO of AT&T Japan, said, "AT&T is delighted to join NTT and Sony in today's agreement, which offers the promise of a new and versatile multimedia messaging capability for people in Japan." (Martyn Williams/19950802/Press contacts : Fun Nishida, NTT Corp., +81-3-5200-9052; Teizo Hotta, AT&T Japan, +81-3-5561-3171; Sony Corporation, +81-3-5448-2200; Jane Anderson, General Magic, 408-774-4040) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 08/02/95 ONLINE Internet Update (NEWS)(ONLINE)(TYO)(00006) Internet Update 08/02/95 TOKYO, JAPAN, 1995 AUG 2 (NB) -- In this roundup of new services and resources on the Internet: Twin cities online, education news mailing list, IDB web service, Implications of biotechnology investigated, Business tips available, Eco-friendly business guide, Multimedia travel album, Remembering Nagasaki and Hiroshima. Twin Cities Online The Twin-Cities Online service is now available via the Internet offering a comprehensive, organized, and searchable listing of Minneapolis/St.Paul World Wide Web sites from local businesses and communities. The service also includes its own content which ranges from local events to weather information. World Wide Web : http://www.ipsinc.com/tconline/tc.html Education News Mailing List The US Department of Education has established a new mailing list to inform subscribers on education news and where they can find on the Internet details of new projects and ideas proposed by the department. The EDinfo list is read-only and should comprise around three messages a week. Email : listproc@inet.ed.gov Message Body : subscribe EDInfo IDB Web Service A few months ago Newsbytes reported on the new Web service of the Asian Development Bank in Manila, now the Inter-American Development Bank. Banco Interamericano de Desarrollo has started a similar service. Visitors can find information about the bank and what it does. World Wide Web : http://www.iadb.org/ Implications Of Biotechnology Investigated The legal, ethical and social implications of biotechnology are presented at the National Center for Genome Resources new Web server. The server offers visitors a reading list on such problems as well as a series of "scope notes" that provide overviews of the most important topics. World Wide Web : http://ncgr.org./ncgr/ncgr.html Business Tips Available American Business Information established an Internet presence last week with the opening of its new home page. The company offers marketing information and expertise to other companies and is making some of that available free on the Web site in the shape of its Five Minute Marketing Plan, the secrets of attracting new customers while keeping old ones. World Wide Web : http://www.abii.com/ Eco-Friendly Business Guide Global Futures Foundation is an environmental non-profit foundation and can now be found amongst the thousands of organizations on the Internet. Via its web page the foundation offers its suggestions on eco friendly business in "Industrial Ecology, A How-To-Manual, The Only 3 Things Business Needs to Do to Save the Earth." World Wide Web : http://www.quiknet.com/globalff/globalfu.html Multimedia Travel Album More than just another online guide to New York or Paris, Webcorp's online travel album features unusual photos from places like Uzbekestan, Nepal, the ice caves of Alaska and the cemeteries of New Orleans accompanied by brief audio clips from the photographer World Wide Web : http://www.webcorp.com/images/index.htm Remembering Nagasaki And Hiroshima As the fiftieth anniversary of the dropping of atomic bombs on the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki passes, there are several pages on the Web given over to the event fifty years ago and the event today. One such event is "Remembering Nagasaki" which runs at San Francisco's Exploratorium Museum throughout August. World Wide Web : http://www.exploratirum.edu/nagasaki The Nagasaki Network Operations Center has its own Web page dedicated to the anniversary. World Wide Web : http://www.nagasaki-noc.or.jp/na-bomb.html (Martyn Williams/19950802) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 08/02/95 TELECOM ****House To Move On Telecom (NEWS)(TELECOM)(WAS)(00007) ****House To Move On Telecom 08/02/95 WASHINGTON, DC, U.S.A. 1995 AUG 2 (NB) -- Floor debate on the House telecommunications legislation (HR 1555) begins this evening and, according to the Republican leadership, will conclude sometime tomorrow. The debate will proceed under a "modified open rule," meaning that only a series of amendments approved by the House Rules Committee will be in order. The decision to move ahead on the legislation is another defeat for the beleaguered long-distance industry, which had been hoping to use the August recess to lobby on the bill. The long-distance industry opposes provisions that will let the regional Bell operating companies into the long-distance market. The bill that emerged from the House Commerce Committee contained provisions that the long-distance providers opposed. But the leadership will present floor amendments, at the urging of House Speaker Newt Gingrich (R-Ga.), that are even more favorable to the Bells. Rep. Ed Markey (D-Mass.) will offer amendments to scale back a Republican plan to lift restrictions on national media ownership, one of the most controversial aspects of the GOP bill. But Markey is not expected to win. Markey also plans to offer an amendment to require television manufactures to include a programmable V-chip in new TV sets so parents can screen for sex and violence in television programming. The Republican leadership opposes Markey's plan and prefers a voluntary alternative. The Senate approved a V-chip proposal in its version of the legislation. The administration favors the V-chip approach. Rep. John Conyers (D-Mich.) will offer another administration-backed amendment to give the Justice Department a larger role in determining when the Bells and the long-distance carriers can fully compete. President Clinton on Monday threatened to veto the legislation if it passes the House in its present form and is adopted largely as written by a House-Senate conference committee. House Commerce Committee Chairman Thomas Bliley (R-Va.) called Clinton's veto threat "a chance to grab some headlines." Gary McBee, chairman of the Alliance for Competitive Communications, a group of the baby Bells, said of the veto threat, "Opposition to the bill is coming from a narrow range of interests asking for special treatment." Readers who wish to follow the floor action can call the Republican and Democratic cloakrooms for recorded updates on the daily action. Call 202-225-7430 for the GOP message and 202-225-7400 for the Democratic message. The Alliance for Competitive Communications has a World Wide Web site that will be following the debate, at http://bell.com . (Kennedy Maize/19950802) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 08/02/95 BROADCAST ****Networks Offer V-Chip Alternative (NEWS)(BROADCAST)(WAS)(00008) ****Networks Offer V-Chip Alternative 08/02/95 WASHINGTON, D.C., U.S.A., 1995 AUG 2 (NB) -- The TV networks yesterday unveiled their alternative to the V-chip as a mechanism for parents to screen what kids see on television. Instead of the mandatory V-chip, the four networks proposed a set-top box that parents could buy for about $50 to $100, which could be programmed by parents to screen out programs with violence or sexual content. The networks also offered to set up a $2 million fund to push development of the voluntary technology. The fund would be administered by the National Association of Broadcasters. The proposal by ABC, CBS, NBC and Fox is aimed at a move by Rep. Ed Markey (D-Mass.) to amend the House telecommunications bill to require the V-chip technology as a screening device. The Senate-passed bill has a V-chip requirement. The V-chip plan would require a rating system and encoding the signal with the rating. If the broadcast industry is unable to come up with a rating system, the federal government would impose one. The broadcasters opposed a rating system for fear that it would harm advertising revenues, by blocking ads from reaching the fullest market. They also charge that it would violate free speech rights. "We are putting our money where our mouth is," said Peter Lund of CBS, "accelerating the delivery into the marketplace of technology vastly superior to V-chip." The White House favors the V-chip, and has made its inclusion in the House legislation one of its conditions if the bill is to avoid a veto. In the House, Rep. Tom Coburn (R-Okla.) plans to offer an amendment to counter the Markey amendment. It would encourage the broadcast industry to develop the voluntary technology but would not require it. Even if the V-chip is required, it will take some time before it has much impact. The Electronics Industries Association estimates that it would take at least 11 years before existing sets are replaced by sets with the V-chip embedded in them. (Kennedy Maize/19950802/Press Contacts: Walf Wurfel, NAB, 202-429-5300; Mark Rosenker, EIA, 202-457-4980) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 08/02/95 ONLINE UK's Vodafone Plugs Into The Internet (NEWS)(ONLINE)(LON)(00009) UK's Vodafone Plugs Into The Internet 08/02/95 NEWBURY, BERKSHIRE, ENGLAND, 1995 AUG 2 (NB) -- Vodafone has opened its own Web pages on the Internet. According to the cellular phone and network services company, the URL (Uniform Resource Locator) of the Web site is http://www.vodafone.co.uk . The aim of the Web pages is to allow anyone interested in matters cellular to be able to access the pages across the Internet. The current library of information will be expanded to build up a full electronic encyclopaedia of information about the Vodafone group's structure, products and tariffs. According to Vodafone, this is the first time that a UK-based mobile communications company has introduced an official home page on the Internet. Announcing the opening of the Web site, Sir Gerald Whent, chief executive of Vodafone Group, said that the provision of clear and concise information to the outside world has always been important for the company, "especially in our annual report and product brochures." "The dramatic growth of the Internet gives us a new opportunity to provide information to a different market. The new home page is another "first" for the Vodafone Group and its introduction is consistent with our reputation as innovators within the field of mobile communications," he said. Also included on the Web site is information from the Vodata group, as well as Paknet, another member of the Vodafone group that offers radio-based packet switching services. Plans call for the company to expand the service to include information on other companies within the Vodafone group, including press releases on the group's activities. (Steve Gold/19950802/Press & Reader Contact: Vodafone +44-1635-33251; Fax +44-1635-45713) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 08/02/95 WINDOWS Psion Palmtop Windows Editing/Linking Package (NEWS)(WINDOWS)(LON)(00010) Psion Palmtop Windows Editing/Linking Package 08/02/95 LONDON, ENGLAND, 1995 AUG 2 (NB) -- Psion has announced PsiWin, a Windows file viewer and editing package for the Psion Series 3/3a palmtop computers. The idea behind the package, which is now being shipped with the companies' serial/parallel port converter unit for the palmtop computers, is that users of the Series 3 or 3a palmtop, which has a DOS/Windows environment in its own right, can "drag and drop" edit between a PC Windows "window" (on the desktop) and the "PC environment" of the palmtop. Announcing the package's development, David Potter, Psion's chairman, said that the application will have a major impact on current attitudes towards pocket computers. "For the first time, palmtop computing offers real PC connectivity. With PsiWin, we are tapping into a whole new user base who understand and need the advantage of computing on the move," he explained. What's interesting about PsiWin is that the package operates as transparently as LapLink for Windows, with both the local and the desktop PC having their own windows, and PsiWin treats the file tree on the desktop PC as if it were on the local machine, perhaps on a different hard disk. Using this approach simplifies the operation of the file environment, since it allows either machine to control the file environment of the other. On the desktop machine, for example, PsiWin emulates the Windows environment seen on the Series 3/3a palmtop machines, allowing users to make full use of the desktop PC's large screen and keyboard to input or maintain a contacts database. In addition, by using its integral TrueType printing utility, Psion claims that PsiWin allows users to use their preferred range of Windows TrueType fonts directly on their Series 3a. Transferring files between the Series 3/3a and the desktop PC is claimed to be extremely easy, as PsiWin automatically initiates the appropriate file translations automatically, provided the file format is "recognized" by the package. Recognized files include Word for Windows 2.0 and 6.0, Works for Windows 3.0, WordPerfect 5.1, 5.2 and 6.0 for DOS and Windows, Ami Pro and plain text. On the spreadsheet front, PsiWin is claimed to recognize Excel 4.0 and 5.0, Lotus 1-2-3 Wk3 and Wk1 file types, Quattro Pro for Windows and Works for Windows 3.0 to and from the Psion spreadsheet format. Existing users of the Psion Series 3/3a palmtops who also have an older serial/parallel port link system can upgrade to the new software for UKP 39-95. (Steve Gold/19950801/Press Contact: Anthony Garvey, Psion PR +44-171- 258-7248; Fax +44-171-258-7340; Reader Contact: Psion +44-171-262- 5580; Fax +44-171-258-7340) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 08/02/95 WINDOWS Windows 95-based Fax-on-Demand Product (NEWS)(WINDOWS)(DEN)(00011) Windows 95-based Fax-on-Demand Product 08/02/95 BEAVERTON, OREGON, U.S.A., 1995 AUG 2 (NB) -- Faxback Inc. has announced the release of its Clarity Series fax-on-demand products that include access to World Wide Web and Lotus Notes document sources. Clarity is the hardware-software engine for various fax-on-demand products. Fax-on-demand systems allow callers to request specific documents, which might be information on a company's products or services, and have the requested documents faxed to the requester's fax machine. Faxback said the Windows-based systems includes administrative tools like a real-time display of voice and fax port activity, and a voice program editor for creating custom voice menus that provide step-by-step instructions to callers. The company said the Clarity series includes an enhanced tool called FaxPrint for document conversion from Windows applications. A new application in the Clarity line is Web-Faxback, a system that provides real-time fax-on-demand access to the World Wide Web. Faxback spokesperson Ron Ares explained for Newsbytes that Web-Faxback is a gateway to the Internet that can make available information on a user's home page and faxes information from that Web site to the requester. Ares said what makes Web-Faxback unique is that every hypertext link on the page is numbered and is retrievable and can be faxed to someone wanting that information. Web-Faxback is based on a technology and marketing partnership with Universal Access Inc., a Santa Barbara, California company. Other Clarity-based products include FaxBack for Lotus Notes, FaxServer, InForms, and Fax Broadcast. All of the Clarity products include credit card charge, remote update of documents, and alpha character capture. Ares told Newsbytes the company is working on providing PDF (Portable Document Format) conversion, but couldn't provide an availability date. "it will be part of an upcoming Faxback release," he said. The Clarity series is based on a PC equipped with a 486DX microprocessor running at 66 megahertz. Standard four and eight line systems are available as well as high-volume rack-mounted configurations. Pricing starts at $9,950, and current Faxback users can call for upgrade pricing to the Clarity series. Faxback is a privately held company that was formed as an Intel Corp. spin-off in 1990. (Jim Mallory/19950801/Press contact: Ron Ares, Faxback, tel 503-690-6355; Public contact: Faxback,800-329-2225) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 08/02/95 ONLINE "Hecklers" Humor On AOL (NEWS)(ONLINE)(MSP)(00012) "Hecklers" Humor On AOL 08/02/95 VIENNA, VIRGINIA, U.S.A., 1995 AUG 2 (NB) -- Cracking jokes and doing things you can get away only in cyberspace is what the new "Hecklers Online" area on America Online (NASDAQ:AMER) (AOL) is all about. The area is described as an interactive comedy forum that lets AOL members satisfy their urge to heckle and make fun of just about anything. The appeal of this new area should be universal, because "everybody already does this," Mike Ragsdale, one of three long-time friends who started Hecklers Online, told Newsbytes. He said people like to heckle "mediocre" television, for example. "But when people are hidden behind the anonymity of a screen name, just like when a heckler is hidden behind a spotlight, you tend to loosen up a little bit and forget about the politically correct world we live in." "Hecklers Online is about having fun in cyberspace - period," Ragsdale said. "That could mean a multitude of different things, but heckling really introduces the interactive aspect of it." The whole idea for the area started during a "late night escapade online," Sean Michael, one of the Hecklers Online partners, told Newsbytes. He said his friends were looking for a place online just to hang out and have fun, but they weren't finding such an area. From that, the idea for Hecklers Online was born. The new area has more than 20 interactive areas. Some features include "Hecklers Screen Play," which lets AOL members talk back and react to the "low-brow" offerings on contemporary TV, while "Funny Bone" hosts interactive forums with comedians. Other hecklings can be in the form of posted jokes or articles. Additional features include chat rooms, bulletin boards, voting systems, and software libraries. Hecklers Online is a part of the AOL Greenhouse program, designed to assist "infopreneurs" in creating unique online content and interactive services for both AOL and the Internet. Their proposal was one of the first eight Greenhouse projects out of more than 1700 applicants. Both Ragsdale and Michael said the help they received from the program was tremendous. "The great thing about the Greenhouse is that one of these ideas actually came through," Michael said. "A bunch of guys were sitting around one night, and had a great idea, and finally it went somewhere. Often, those ideas are lost." "It's one of those things that makes you proud to be living in a society where heckling is not only not discouraged, but actually welcomed," Ragsdale added. The Macintosh version of Hecklers Online is already up and running, Ragsdale said. The Windows version should be up and running later today, he added. AOL users can access the area by using Keyword: Heckler. (Bob Woods/19950801/Press Contact: Kristi Szechenyi, Weber Group, 617-520-7086. Public Contact: America Online, 800-827-6364; Hecklers Online, Keyword: Heckler) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 08/02/95 NETWORK Xircom Updates Wireless LAN Product (NEWS)(NETWORK)(LAX)(00013) Xircom Updates Wireless LAN Product 08/02/95 THOUSAND OAKS, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1995 AUG 2 (NB) -- Xircom, Inc. (NASDAQ: XIRC) announced lower prices as well as the availability of second-generation software for the CreditCard Netwave Adapter and Netwave Access Point, the company's wireless local-area network (LAN) system. Xircom's new lower pricing for its CreditCard Netwave Adapter achieves, according to the company, an industry first with a street price of around $300 per adapter. Phil Bellanger, vice-president of wireless development for Xircom, told Newsbytes, "Our product, Netwave, is a radio device. It has a microwave radio that operates in the 2.4 gigahertz band. Through this device we can obtain data transfer rates of one megabit per second at each access point. With Netwave you can operate within the LAN just as you would with a direct wired connection." "It is a PC Card that supports wireless networking or, when used with Xircom's Netwave Access Point, offers wireless connections to a wired enterprise LAN," points out Bellanger. "The new second-generation software, Netwave Release 2.5, improves performance, and provides seamless roaming. The new upgrade has much improved balancing capabilities, which will pick the best access point with the LAN without the user having to do a thing," said Bellanger. Xircom's new suggested retail price for its Netwave CreditCard Adapter is $399, down from a suggested retail price of $599 for earlier versions. The software-only upgrade is available to current Netwave users free of charge. The company is also offering a Starter Kit (limit one per customer site), consisting of one Netwave Access Point and one adapter, for $799. "Wireless LAN solutions are gaining acceptance in vertical applications, but pricing has been a barrier to broad-scale adoption in the horizontal business market," said Belanger. "To help drive market development, we've seized the initiative and eliminated the price barrier. We believe that this new pricing will encourage network administrators to begin to more aggressively investigate and implement wireless LAN solutions for their notebook users," said Bellanger. According to the company, the typical range of Netwave, when used indoors, is 150 feet. To extend the Netwave coverage area, users install multiple access points. As a user's connection to an access point begins to degrade, the CreditCard Netwave Adapter automatically contacts other access points and determines which available access point provides the best connection. This process is completely transparent to users as they move throughout the building or campus freely while maintaining a connection to the network. According to the company, the new software includes a group of Windows-based utilities that provides wireless LAN users with real- time information about their Netwave environment. They include a Site Survey which assists users with the planning process when installing Netwave to ensure proper wireless coverage and placement of access points; a graphic display of the connection to the access points in real time; and CNW Properties which allows users to reconfigure a Netwave adapter "on-the-fly" without rebooting the laptop or exiting Windows. For example, Bellanger points out that in Novell NetWare environments, Xircom's CreditCard Netwave adapter maintains a connection for Netwave users whose laptops are in power-saving mode or who have wandered out of range of an access point. With Xircom's Netwave Connection Agent installed on a NetWare server, Netwave users can automatically reconnect to the network once they have reactivated their laptops or returned to the coverage area. Users do not need to reboot the computer to reconnect to the network. According to Bellanger, the adapter is the industry's only wireless LAN PC Card with an integrated antenna and no external circuitry. This design allows users to roam freely within the office without attaching an external device to their laptop to maintain a LAN connection. Xircom's Netwave wireless LAN scales easily. Overall system throughput can be increased by just adding access points. Xircom's CreditCard Netwave Adapter with Release 2.5 software and Netwave Access Point are available immediately. Suggested retail price for the Netwave Adapter and Access Point when purchased in single quantities is $399 and $1,499, respectively. Users can expect to see a street price in the $300 range for the CreditCard Netwave Adapter and in the $1,200 range for the Netwave Access point. The new Netwave Starter Kit, consisting of one access point and one adapter, is available through Dec. 31, 1995. The Starter Kit can be purchased direct from Xircom for $799 and is limited to one per customer site. For complete pricing information call Xircom at 800- 438-4526. (Richard Bowers/19950801/Press Contact: Daphne Page, Xircom, 805- 376-6929) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 08/02/95 ONLINE UK - The Music Shop Opens On The Internet (NEWS)(ONLINE)(LON)(00014) UK - The Music Shop Opens On The Internet 08/02/95 LONDON, ENGLAND, 1995 AUG 2 (NB) -- The Music Sales Group (MSG) has opened the Internet Music Shop, a catalog and information bank of various published music, available on several types of media, through the MSG's Word Wide Web pages. #IMAGE 1 20 TWPCX \images\95080214.PCX Click here for photo According to Charles Cohen of Band & Brown Communications, the company handling the Web site for MSG, the Web site is located on The Direct Connection's Internet server system and is an interesting avenue for MSG to go down. Cohen told Newsbytes that he does not see the Web pages as "just another publishing medium," as many in the publishing industry view the Internet. "Although we're just starting on the Internet with the Music Shop, the Internet has a massive potential for music publishing. MSG has been at the forefront of music publishing, using a variety of media for some time to publish on, including floppy disks and via the fax. Although it's currently a catalog and ordering medium, I think it has a major potential for the future," he said. According to Cohen, new customers fill out their name and address details on the Web pages and indicate how they want to pay, either by check or plastic card. In the case of plastic card payments, the Internet Music Shop staff then call the customer and request card details over the phone, for security purposes. "Security may be a problem on the Internet, but the problem may be more perceived, which is why we carry out credit card detail exchanges over the phone rather than the Internet," he explained. "In the future, we plan to allow customers to download their music data across the Internet, but at the moment, we either send out disks or paper music by mail. As Internet access speeds rise, we expect to be able to offer music data downloads across the Internet," he said. According to Cohen, the Internet Music Shop has been developed by The Music Sales Group, one of the world's largest publishers of sheet music and music books. The company's online catalogs contain over twenty thousand items, all of which can be ordered by e-mail or directly from the site. Features of the Internet Music Shop include: [] Hot in the Shop: the fifty best-selling Sheet Music collections, with catalogue details and cover shots for each. Hot in the Shop includes everyone from Phil Collins through the Beatles and back again to Thin Lizzy; [] Promusic Midi Heaven: For MIDI users, Promusic has constructed the ultimate Midi Heaven. You can search through their complete catalog of 1,300 titles, fill in the mail order form, and send it off to ProMusic. Unlike any other MIDI provider, ProMusic makes disks to order, instead of forcing you to buy tracks you don't want; [] Online Catalogues and Mail Order: a simple, automated word search through the complete Music Sales catalogue of around twenty thousand titles. According to MSG, users send in their orders by e-mail, and the company will contact them to confirm and ensure a secure transaction; [] The Sampler: every month, Music Sales will be giving their products away. At the moment, users can download free sheet music samples and MIDI files -- including La Bamba and House Of The Rising Sun; [] Music By Fax: Music Sales' sheet music by fax service, allowing users to purchase sheet music using an ordinary fax machine or fax modem. The Internet Music Shop contains the complete Music By Fax catalog of 2,000 titles and usage instructions. Chris Butler of Music Sales, the man behind the Internet Music Shop, explained that the company knows that there are many musicians out on the Net, and being able to order sheet music over the Internet is something they should be able to do. "Computers and electronic publishing will help, not hinder, the future growth of printed music, by making it easier to locate and distribute," he said. Plans call for the Internet Music Shop to be constantly updated with new titles, and the company will be introducing new features, samples and services all the time. "We plan to hold competitions and create an e-mail club for musicians," said Butler. The Internet Music Shop is on http://www.musicsales.co.uk . (Steve Gold/19950801/Press & Reader Contact: Band & Brown Communications +44-171-704-2010; Internet Email: communications@band- and-brown.co.uk/MUSIC080295/PHOTO) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 08/02/95 CORRECTION CHIPS Correction - AMD/Sony Win Japanese Govt Award (CORRECTION)(CHIPS)(TYO)(00015) Correction - AMD/Sony Win Japanese Govt Award 08/02/95 TOKYO, JAPAN, 1995 AUG 2 (NB) -- In the story of this title which ran on the Newsbytes wire service on July 20, 1995, we made reference to Advanced Micro Devices as being American Micro Devices, in the copy. Newsbytes apologizes for the typo. (Newsbytes Staff/19950802) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 08/02/95 CORRECTION ONLINE Correction - Women's Wire Web Site (CORRECTION)(ONLINE)(SFO)(00016) Correction - Women's Wire Web Site 08/02/95 SAN MATEO, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1995 AUG 2 (NB) -- The URL for the Women's Wire Web site was incorrectly listed in the story of this name, which ran on July 31, 1995 on the Newsbytes wire. The correct URL is http://www.women.com . Newsbytes apologizes for the error. (Newsbytes Staff/19950802) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 08/02/95 GENERAL TI Launches Internet Printer Promotion (NEWS)(GENERAL)(DEN)(00017) TI Launches Internet Printer Promotion 08/02/95 TEMPLE, TEXAS, U.S.A., 1995 AUG 2 (NB) -- Texas Instruments Inc. (NYSE: TXN) has announced a rebate program for its printers that will get users to look at the company's home page on the Internet. TI said it is offering a $100 rebate on selected printers purchased between August 1 and September 30, 1995. The rebate is available to purchasers of TI's microLaser Pro series 600 dot per inch printers. The Pro series includes the eight page per minute (ppm) microLaser Pro 600, the 12-ppm microLaser Pro E and the 12-ppm PowerPro network printer. You can also get a free toner cartridge, worth $49, for the 5-ppm microLaser 600. The PowerPro was introduced in August of last year to compete with Hewlett-Packard's LaserJet 4M Plus. The PowerPro uses a 25 megahertz (MHz) reduced instruction set computing (RISC) processor, has a 16 kilobyte cache, and comes with 67 built-in PostScript fonts, PCL5 emulation, AppleTalk and parallel ports and a 500-sheet paper tray. Its 6 megabytes (MB) of memory can be upgraded to as much as 22MB. The PowerPro has a street price of about $1,660. The Pro E was introduced in October 1994. It comes with 23 Level 2 PostScript fonts and uses a 20MHz RISC chip. It has a street price of about $1,400. TI introduced its microLaser 600 in November 1994. It features a straight-through paper path, which lets it print on thicker media than printers that require the media to turn. TI said the microLaser 600 prints its first page in about 22 seconds. Its 2MB of memory can be upgraded in 1,2,4 or 8MB increments using plug-n modules. The system comes with 23 PostScript outline fonts, PCL5 emulation with 14 fonts and a 250-sheet capacity paper tray. Options include a universal paper feeder that can handle various paper sizes and envelopes, and a legal-size paper tray. The street price of the microLaser 600 is about $900. Aubrey Brickhouse, TI's worldwide director of office solutions marketing, said the rebate is not available through print advertising, direct mail or other traditional media. "This is a unique promotion designed for a unique and powerful medium (the Internet)," said Brickhouse. To take advantage of the rebate offer, log onto TI's printer home page at the Internet Uniform Resource Locator (URL) http://www.ti.com/printer . The home page contains a claim form, which the user can print, fill out, then mail or fax to TI along with a copy of the sales receipt showing purchase of the eligible printer. (Jim Mallory/19950802/Press contact: Joe Zeitler, Texas Instruments, 817-774-6138; Public contact: Texas Instruments home page on the Internet, http://www.ti.com/printer ) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 08/02/95 BROADCAST ****Westinghouse Buys CBS Network (NEWS)(BROADCAST)(TOR)(00018) ****Westinghouse Buys CBS Network 08/02/95 NEW YORK, NEW YORK, U.S.A., 1995 AUG 2 (NB) -- Westinghouse Electric Corp. (NYSE:WX) has agreed to acquire CBS Inc. (NYSE:CBS), operator of the CBS television network and of radio and television stations and television production operations. Westinghouse is to pay $81 per share in cash, plus certain other payments depending on when the deal closes, making the total price about $5.4 billion. The deal closely follows the announcement that Walt Disney Co. will take over Capital Cities/ABC Inc., operator of the rival ABC network. Westinghouse, though better known to many people as a maker of home appliances, also owns five television stations and 18 radio stations in major cities across the country, and runs Group W Satellite Communications, which distributes programming to cable networks. Officials said the merger will result in an operation with the largest group of television stations -- 15 stations that together cover nearly a third of the United States, including seven of the country's top 10 markets. It will also have the largest group of radio stations in the US, with 39 stations including representation in all of the top 10 markets and four or more stations in each of the top five. Its holdings will also include CBS Entertainment Productions, claimed to be the most prolific in-house producer of television programs, and the broadcast industry's largest sales organization, officials said. The merger will bring the combined companies into conflict with existing limits on the ownership of television properties. The current rules prohibit one organization from owning stations that together reach more than 25 percent of the viewing public. However, officials said, legislation is already pending in Congress to raise that limit to at least 35 percent. "We don't anticipate any issues," Westinghouse spokesman Roy Morrow told Newsbytes. Morrow could not comment on the possibility of job losses at CBS or Westinghouse as a result of the merger. He said Westinghouse has recently completed a cost-reduction program that included layoffs, and added that "I'm sure we'll be reviewing needs" at CBS in the wake of the takeover. In addition to the $81 per share, CBS shareholders are to be paid interest on the basic price at the rate of six percent annually from August 31 until the deal closes, less any dividends which would otherwise be payable. (Grant Buckler/19950802/Press Contact: Roy Morrow, Westinghouse, 412-642-3005; Gil Schwartz, Westinghouse Broadcasting, 212-885- 2720; Tom Goodman, CBS, 212-975-8088) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 08/02/95 BUSINESS Taxan Europe Partners With ATI Technologies (NEWS)(BUSINESS)(LON)(00019) Taxan Europe Partners With ATI Technologies 08/02/95 BRACKNELL, BERKSHIRE, ENGLAND 1995 AUG 2 (NB) -- Taxan Europe, the monitor manufacturer, has teamed up with ATI Technologies, the graphical hardware company, to form a joint venture. According to Simon Greer, sales manager for ATI's Northern European operation, Taxan will be responsible for the import of ATI products to the retail and OEM (original equipment manufacture) channels. Both companies will direct the method of distribution and sales. According to Greer, ATI was looking for a good, established manufacturer with a good network of customers to do business with. Newsbytes notes that Taxan is a leading supplier of monitors for Apple, Compaq, IBM, Sun and most other computer systems. "We were looking for a combination of good performance, competitive pricing and the best route to market our products and these were the reasons to develop this relationship with Taxan. Taxan enables us to provide UK-based technical support and service to our customers," Greer explained. Taxan has been selling ATI boards under its own brand name for the past four years. Under the joint venture agreement, Taxan will supply the boards in retail packaging or in bulk sets for OEMs and system builders, as well as its Taxan branded boards. ATI, meanwhile, will continue to supply its existing OEM customers. "We believe that Taxan's ability to offer a concentrated and focused approach to the distribution task, combined with our expertise in research and development and bringing new products to market, is the right combination for our customers in the UK," commented Gerd Queisser, vice president of European operations at ATI. (Sylvia Dennis/19950802/Press & Reader Contact: Hugh Chappell, Taxan Europe +44-1344-484646) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 08/02/95 WINDOWS Electronic Maps For Human Services (NEWS)(WINDOWS)(DEN)(00020) Electronic Maps For Human Services 08/02/95 ENGLEWOOD, COLORADO, U.S.A., 1995 AUG 2 (NB) -- DataVision Systems Inc. has released MAPS (Metro Access Programs and Services), a Windows-based software application designed for use by human services agencies that refer clients to service providers. MAPS consists of a database and a mapping module that can bring together information about a diverse array of subjects, services and issues. That can include basic needs, homeless services, transportation, criminal justice/legal services, education, employment, health care and individual and family life services. The MAPS database is electronically linked with the mapping module and available county, metropolitan area or state maps, so the system can display which facility is closest to an individual's location. The software provides menus and pick lists of available services and service providers, and displays the location of the nearest facility along with information such as address, phone number and type of services offered. MAPS can search for information either by the name of a specific agency or by the broader type of service the client requires. It can also conduct county-wide or city-wide geographic searches, or an address search with a specified surrounding radius to find all the services within a specified distance of the client's home, for example. Once the PC user has entered the service type and the geography parameters, the system will search the database, draw a map centered on the area and list qualifying agencies or services in the vicinity. MAPS can also print a map and a report, allow a change in the search criteria, or start over. The company said most searches take less than 45 seconds. DataVision Systems spokesperson Laszlo Frohs told Newsbytes MAPS was developed using the Microsoft Access database system, and the database module and the mapping module are both available separately. Frohs said MAPS can be used anywhere in the country. "We have maps of the entire US," he stated. MAPS is network-capable, and the database has a suggested retail price of $1,195 for a single user or $2,868 for a three-user local area network (LAN) pack. The mapping module sells for $1,595 for the single user version or $3,828 for the 3-user pack. State maps for a single user are priced at $550 and $825 for the 3-user pack. County maps are $150 and $225 for single user and 3-pack systems respectively. You can also get a product called Streetbase 5 Geocoder which uses a unique database of street address segments for geocoding street addresses to their exact location on each block face. Streetbase 5 Geocoder can append US Census Block, Block Group or Census Tract codes to address records. Frohs told Newsbytes the mapping module can use dBase III Plus or dBase IV database files directly, and can import Microsoft Excel, Lotus 1-2-3 and ASCII text files. (Jim Mallory/19950801/Press contact: Laszlo Frohs, DataVision Systems, 303-761-5945; Public contact: DataVision, 303-761-5945) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 08/02/95 WINDOWS Diagramming Software For Windows (NEWS)(WINDOWS)(DEN)(00021) Diagramming Software For Windows 08/02/95 BELLEVUE, WASHINGTON, U.S.A., 1995 AUG 2 (NB) -- Softcraft Technologies is shipping a diagramming package for personal computers that can be used to create everything from process flow charts to family trees. According to the company, Diagram It is so easy to use that the diagrams can often be created without reference to the product manual. In addition to the usual diagramming tools and point-and-click toolbar, Diagram It includes multi-level "Hyper-Diagrams" which allow the user to link as many as 24,000 sub-diagrams to a single diagram. For example, if you wanted to create an organizational chart of a company with three divisions, you could descend into each sub-diagram to show the detail within each division. The toolbar extends across the top and down one side of the screen. With that many push buttons available, Softcraft has written the software so moving the cursor over a button causes a description of that button's function to be displayed. The software also lets you incorporate moving objects within diagrams for emphasis or to animate process flows.BMP and TIF bitmap graphics can be imported into a diagram, and exported out of any shape, object or diagram. You can turn the bitmaps off to save screen redraw time. When turned off, bitmap objects appear as image boxes. Text and objects can be placed at any angle, in one degree increments. A status box that is always on-screen shows the user what program function is active and linked to either mouse button. Diagram It version 1.0 has a suggested retail price of $69.95. To run the program you need DOS 3.1 or later, Windows 3.1 or later, an IBM-compatible PC equipped with at least a 286 microprocessor, 300 kilobytes of available memory, a Hercules, CGA, EGA or VGA video display, a mouse with at least two buttons, and a 720 kilobytes of 1.44 megabyte 3.5-inch floppy drive. (Jim Mallory/19950801/Press contact: Al Buckingham, Softcraft Technologies, tel 206-643-7929; Public contact: Softcraft Technologies, tel 206-643-7929, fax 206-746-4655/DIAGRAM950802/PHOTO) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 08/02/95 ONLINE Netcom Acquires Dallas-Based PICnet (NEWS)(ONLINE)(LAX)(00022) Netcom Acquires Dallas-Based PICnet 08/02/95 SAN JOSE, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1995 AUG 2 (NB) -- Netcom On-Line Communication Services, Inc. (NASDAQ: NETC) today announced the acquisition of Dallas-based Internet service provider, PICnet. The move will expand Netcom's product line to include World Wide Web Page creation services. Netcom On-Line Communication Services, Inc., provides nationwide Internet access over its own digital network. A public company since December, 1994, Netcom has experienced substantial growth in both its subscriber base and the number of POPs (point-of-presence). In December of 1993 Netcom had only 8,000 subscribers, today it claims over 168,500 subscribers. Curtis Kundred, a spokesman for Netcom, told Newsbytes, "By acquiring PICnet, Netcom will add additional Internet access points in the Dallas area. We already have two POPs in the Dallas area, and Netcom will add whatever access points and subscribers PICnet has developed." In addition to having a subscriber base in the Dallas area, PICnet has been providing a Web Page creation service. As part of Netcom, the PICnet team will provide complete Web services to select customers. This will include the creative concept, graphics creation, content development, and site hosting. "We are not going to provide Web Page creation to all customers, only a select group," said Kundred. David Garrison, president and chief executive officer for Netcom, said, "PICnet's expertise in helping companies develop their Internet presence from concept to full working Web Pages will round out Netcom's Business Services portfolio, providing significant added value to our customers." "We were looking to team up with an industry influencer, and Netcom's management has propelled the company to become a significant player in this evolving Internet market," commented Tom Heatherington, president of PICnet. "PICnet brings Netcom a highly experienced organization in developing what's becoming a required service, Web Pages, which should help Netcom as it continues enhancing its offerings for business users." This new Netcom organization will remain based in Dallas, and PICnet founder Tom Heatherington will report directly to Garrison, says Netcom. (Richard Bowers/19950802/Press Contact: Curtis Kundred, Netcom, 415-837-0734) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 08/02/95 TELECOM ****Vodafone Unveils Secure Analog Cellular Technology (NEWS)(TELECOM)(LON)(00023) ****Vodafone Unveils Secure Analog Cellular Technology 08/02/95 NEWBURY, BERKSHIRE, ENGLAND, 1995 AUG 2 (NB) -- Confirming a Newsbytes report earlier this year, Vodafone has officially unveiled its secure analog cellular network technology to the cellular industry. Known as TACS II (Total Access Communications System II), the technology, which will be phased in this fall, aims to prevent the problem of cellular cloning, the copying of chipset IDs from legitimate handsets by criminals. Two main systems aim to prevent cloning. The first is known as authentication, while the second is call tear down. Authentication works with the actual ESN (electronic serial number) of the mobile not being transmitted by the mobile (the ESN allows fraudsters to create a cloned phone, Newsbytes notes). Instead, a two stage algorithm encrypts the transmitted ESN each time the mobile originates a call. The algorithm is based on software known to the network and the phone, with a 16-digit PIN (personal identification number) advised to the phone user when first linked to the network. The PIN is keyed into the phone and acts as the basis of encrypting the ESN, which is effectively "changed" for each outgoing call. If fraudsters download this encrypted PIN "off the air," then Vodafone admits that a second call could be made on the network soon after, as the changed ESNs are valid for subsequent calls -- but only to the same destination number as that made by the legitimate phone. Furthermore, if such a call were to be made by the cloned phone, then if a call is in progress on the legitimate phone, the first call is closed down -- hence the term call tear down. This would effectively knock the legitimate phone off the network. The legitimate phone user would then attempt to redial the call, knocking the cloned phone off-line. The cycle is such that, even if a phone were to be cloned and used for that same number, only one call per ESN is permitted at any given time. If calls continually fail, then the legitimate phone user would be aware of the problem owing to the failed calls. Chris Gent, Vodafone's managing director, explaining the technology, said that, while it is not possible to clone a phone on the digital GSM (Global System for Mobile) communications network, cloning is a problem and has increased as the analog network has increased over the past few years. "In the past, our fraud prevention measures on analog have been aimed at stopping the fraudulent activity as soon as possible after the event, and our network software systems have been extremely successful in quickly identifying cloned or stolen phones," he said. According to Gent, such measures cause inconvenience to the subscriber, as the mobile is disconnected when a "clone" is spotted, and on occasions, s/he is issued with a new number. "The beauty of authentication is that it prevents the phone being actively cloned in the first place, giving peace of mind to the subscriber, and eliminating financial risk," he said. According to Vodafone, about a million existing Vodafone analog subscribers (out of 2.5 million) have phones that can benefit from TACS II technology. William Ostrom, a spokesman for Cellnet, told Newsbytes that he felt that Vodafone was implementing the security features "too little, too late," since it was unlikely that existing subscribers will be bothered to return their phones to upgrade the software to TACS II capabilities." Ostrom said that, since sales of analog phones are now slowing, the chances of a significant proportion of analog users employing TACS II in the UK is unlikely. Cellnet has not said yet whether it intends to employ TACS II on its analog network, but sources suggest that the network will not implement the technology. (Steve Gold/19950802/Press Contact: Mike Caldwell, Vodafone Press Office +44-1635-33251; Reader Contact: Vodafone +44-1635-33251; Fax +44-1635-45713) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 08/02/95 ONLINE Europe - Demon Working With Europe On Line (NEWS)(ONLINE)(LON)(00024) Europe - Demon Working With Europe On Line 08/02/95 LONDON, ENGLAND, 1995 AUG 2 (NB) -- Demon Internet Services, the pioneer of flat rate Internet dial-up services in the UK, has announced it is working with Europe On Line to develop services. Steve Kennedy, a spokesman for Demon, told Newsbytes that deal is with Europe On Line -- and not with Europe Online, the Bertlesmann/America Online joint venture scheduled for launch later this year in Europe. "Europe On Line will launch its own online services in the UK later this year, and is looking at possible launches of online services in France and Germany as well," he explained, adding that the name similarity with the Bartlesmann/America Online Europe Online operation is going to cause some confusion in the market when both services launch. "That's AOL's problem I gather, as Europe On Line was into the market first," he told Newsbytes. Kennedy admits that the deal between the two companies is still vaporware at the moment, as Europe On Line's plans for a UK-specific service have yet the be laid out. He told Newsbytes that the deal centers around Demon offering Europe On Line its Internet service provider facilities, as well as access to its UK dial-up network points. "We will concentrate on the Internet side of the business, while they will concentrate on the online services side. It's an interesting deal and one that has great potential," he said. According to Kennedy, Europe On Line is a supplier of pan-European mobile and data communications. The company's expertise in these areas, and their significant customer base, leads them a logical step forward to providing Internet access. Commenting on the deal with demon, Giancarlo Calderini, marketing director of Europe On Line, said that the company has been watching the phenomenal growth of the Internet with a keen interest. "Following intensive discussions with Demon, we feel they provide the perfect partner for Europe On Line. The company's knowledge of the market, along with its technology infrastructure, make it our number one choice," he said. (Steve Gold/19950802/Press Contact: Fiona Haggett, Foresight PR +44- 181-748-3550; Internet Email: pr@demon.net; Reader Contact: Demon Internet Svcs +44-181-371-1234; Internet Email: sales@demon.net; World Wide Web site: http://www.demon.net ) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 08/02/95 TELECOM UK - Hutchison Seven Line Super-Pager (NEWS)(TELECOM)(LON)(00025) UK - Hutchison Seven Line Super-Pager 08/02/95 HERTFORD, HERTFORDSHIRE, ENGLAND, 1995 AUG 2 (NB) -- Hutchison Telecom has unveiled what it claims is the most advanced radiopager on the market -- a seven line unit from Philips -- along with two new services for subscribers. According to the company, which recently secured its 50,000th subscriber for paging services, the pager, the Multi-line unit, will help make the company a leader in the "emerging wirefree e-mail alert market-place." The two services available for the new pager are a Lotus cc:Mail pager gateway and a Corporate Answering service. The pager gateway (accessible using a modem or X.25 packet switched address) allows cc:Mail users to send messages of up to 156 characters to the new pager. This could be used, Newsbytes notes, for headers from various mail messages to be sent to the pager. The user could then dial in using a modem to retrieve the messages, or, using a touch tone interfaced-PC, transmit the messages across the paging network to the pager itself. The Corporate Answering service allows all message pager users within one company to be contacted by calling a single number. The Hutchison operator then routes the call to the appropriate pager. Features of the Philips pager, which sells for UKP 119, include a memory for storing up to 99 messages, a personal database of 50 messages, a multiple travel clock/alarm, along with the usual tone, vibrate and visual only alerts. Anthony Vimal, product marketing manager for paging, with Hutchison Telecom, went on to say that the Corporate Answering Service is aimed at companies with multiple message pager users. The service removes the need for different paging numbers for different people, with the Hutchison operator making the required pager routing decisions. Vimal said that the paging services cost UKP 12-50 for the cc:Mail service per month, which includes up to 30 messages. Extra messages are charged on a per message scale. The Corporate Answering service, meanwhile, costs UKP 4 per month on top of normal paging charges. (Steve Gold/19950731/Press Contact: Paragon Communications +44-171- 734-6030; Reader Contact: Hutchison Telecom +44-1992-553318; fax +44- 1992-502615) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 600 08/02/95 PC HP's Improved OmniBook (NEWS)(PC)(LON)(00026) HP's Improved OmniBook 600 08/02/95 BRACKNELL, BERKSHIRE, ENGLAND, 1995 AUG 2 (NB) -- Hewlett-Packard has announced the OmniBook 600CT, an enhanced version of its mini notebook color PC. The machine has a large, active-matrix screen and improved battery performance, as well as integrated sound. According to HP, the new OmniBook maintains the original weight of just 3.8 pounds, features a 9.5-inch TFT (thin film transistor) active-matrix display, a lithium-ion battery and 16-bit Microsoft Windows sound. The memory on the machine is standard at 8 megabytes (MB), but can be increased to 64MB on board using slot-in modules. "HP set the standard for power and portability in the original OmniBook 600 notebook computer," explained Shaun Hobbs, marketing manager of HP's Mobile PCs. "The new OmniBook 600CT notebook PC is taking the family a step further, improving performance and functionality in the industry's smallest notebook design," he said. According to Hobbs, the OmniBook 600CT PC comes with an Intel 486DX4/75 processor, a rugged PCMCIA 260MB hard drive, 16-bit Microsoft Windows sound and a lightweight lithium-ion battery. HP claims that the large, active-matrix screen gives customers more vivid colors (256K internal resolution), better side viewing and a quicker refresh rate for full-motion video. UK pricing starts at UKP 2,750 and the machine is expected to ship on both sides of the Atlantic in the next few weeks. Existing OmniBook 600C users can upgrade to the lithium-ion battery package for UKP 95. According to HP, the battery provides up to 25 percent improvement in battery life over its predecessor. Features of the 600CT include: instant-on, which enables customers to return immediately to where they were when they turned the PC off; twin PCMCIA (Personal Computer Memory Card International Association) type II/III slots; serial, parallel, floppy-disk, SVGA-out and IRDA- compatible infrared ports; and an optional, enhanced port replicator with SCSI-2, PS/2 mouse and keyboard ports, for easy connection to an office network and other peripherals. (Sylvia Dennis/19950731/Press Contact: PA Consulting Group +44-171- 730-9000; Reader Contact: Hewlett-Packard +44-1344-369222) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 08/02/95 PC VisionTek's PCMCIA Line (NEWS)(PC)(MSP)(00027) VisionTek's PCMCIA Line 08/02/95 GURNEE, ILLINOIS, U.S.A., 1995 AUG 2 (NB) -- VisionTek, which bills itself as one of the largest manufacturer of computer upgrade and memory products, announced a new line of PCMCIA (Personal Computer Memory Card Industry Association) products that range from fax/modems to hard drives. "Our main reason for expanding this line is that the laptop segment of the market is the fastest-growing of the market," Cynthia Kater, VisionTek spokesperson, told Newsbytes. Before this "big push into the PCMCIA market," as she put it, VisionTek had marketed memory and just one modem model. The fax/modem line is expanding with 14.4Kbps (kilobits per second> and 28.8Kbps Type II models. The new modems include Cheyenne Communications BitWare data and fax communications software for Windows. Kater said estimated street pricing on the 14.4Kbps and 28.8Kbps is $115 and $270, respectively. Also in the new line is a PCMCIA Type I SCSI (Small Computer System Interface) card for an estimated $145 street price. The unit includes CorelSCSI for CD-ROM and hard drive users. VisionTek is also getting into the PCMCIA sound card business. It is offering a 16-bit stereo card that's powered by the Hurricane architecture from Turtle Beach. It includes the Microsoft Windows sound system, and Intel's V-Synth virtual synthesizer. Estimated street price is on the Type II card is $135. Other products include a Type II local area network (LAN) card, which is a 16-bit 10 Base-T and 10 Base-2 Ethernet card that supports Novell Netware, Windows for Workgroups, Microsoft LAN Manager, and IBM LAN Server, for $110; and Type III hard drives with capacities of 170MB and 260MB. Pricing isn't set yet for the 260MB drive, but the 170MB unit has an estimated street price of $370. All products are available immediately, except for the 260MB hard drive and the SCSI card, Kater said. Each card supports "hot swap" installation, where the computer does not have to be shut off to put in or switch cards. Also, customers will get a pre-paid phone card for 30 minutes of calls with the purchase of a PCMCIA fax/modem card, Kater said. Future products in the pipeline include a LAN/modem Type II card, Kater revealed. (Bob Woods/19950731/Press Contacts: Cynthia Kater, VisionTek, 708-360- 7129, Internet e-mail cynthia_kater@visiontek.com; Paul J. Krappman, Selz/Seabold Communications, 312-372-7090, Internet e-mail pkrappman@selz.com. Public Contact: VisionTek, 708-360-7500) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 08/02/95 LEGAL China - Anti-Porno Campaign (NEWS)(LEGAL)(PEK)(00028) China - Anti-Porno Campaign 08/02/95 BEIJING, CHINA, 1995 AUG 2 (NB) -- A special office under the Public Security Bureau of Henan Province has launched a crackdown on pornographic computer software and 67 firms and 80 individuals have been charged, newspaper Beijing Evening News reports. The Anti-Pornographic-Software Office (APSO) of Henan Province was established at the end of May to eliminate pornographic software trafficking. Firms acquire exorbitant and illegal profits as they make, copy, and sell pornographic software, the newspaper said. In less than two months, the staff of Henan APSO inspected computer companies in 17 cities/districts of the province and found many companies were doing "business" with pornographic software. In a raid, APSO officials seized 797 pornographic CD-ROMs and 2,773 floppy disks. To date, the office has punished 67 computer firms and 80 individuals for pornographic software sales. Henan APSO is also trying to control pornographic software exchange among computer users. To establish a "healthy computer application environment" in the province, the office plans to register all computer usage for security purposes, Beijing Evening News said. In Beijing, 12 police officers recently busted a gang for alleged trafficking in pirated CD-ROMs. The gang of four air-shipped thousands of pirated CD-ROMs from Shenzhen of Guangdong province, police report. Police seized 10,580 CD-ROMs and 1,300 were pornographic in nature, Beijing Youth Daily reported. (Chih-Ho & Ning Huang/19950728) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 08/02/95 BUSINESS Correction - Bill Gates Meets With President Clinton, (CORRECTION)(BUSINESS)(DEN)(00029) Correction - Bill Gates Meets With President Clinton, 08/02/95 REDMOND, WASHINGTON, U.S.A., 1995 AUG 2 (NB) -- This week Newsbytes reported that Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates had visited President Clinton and other government officials and elected representatives in Washington, DC earlier this month. The story stated that Gates visited there at this time last year just prior to the announcement that Microsoft and DOJ (Department of Justice) had reached a consent decree regarding DOJ's allegations of antitrust practices by Microsoft. Those allegations dealt with the way Microsoft charges PC makers to use its operating system software. Microsoft spokesperson Greg Shaw told Newsbytes Gates did visit the White House last year, but the visit was at least a month following the settlement with DOJ. Shaw said Gates' visit to the White House this week was brief, lasting about five minutes. He said Gates was in Washington after his visit at a Microsoft global sales meeting in Toronto, Canada and to attend a chief executives meeting in New York City. In the nation's capital Gates attended a roundtable hosted by the Secretary of the Treasury with groups of CEOs to discuss "various economic issues." Shaw said there was no discussion of the current controversy surrounding the inclusion of Microsoft Network (MSN) access in Windows 95, Microsoft's new operating system and user interface scheduled to launch August 24. He characterized the talks as "high level discussions of the future of information technology." (Jim Mallory/19950802/Press and public contact: Microsoft, 206-882-8080 or 800-426-9400) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 08/02/95 WINDOWS ****Digital Integrating Windows NT Into Enterprise Systems (NEWS)(WINDOWS)(SFO)(00030) ****Digital Integrating Windows NT Into Enterprise Systems 08/02/95 SAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1995 AUG 2 (NB) -- This morning, Microsoft's (NASDAQ:MSFT) chief executive officer (CEO), Bill Gates and Digital Equipment's (NYSE:DEC) CEO, Robert Palmer, held a joint press conference to announce the integration of Windows NT into Digital products for large scale enterprise computing environments. Neither Gates nor Palmer would put a dollar amount on the investment needed by the terms of the alliance. When asked if this was a $50 to $100 million deal, Gates replied, "I cannot really give you an exact number. I will, however, say I would not go up or down on that number." Funding from Microsoft is to go to Digital's support and systems integration business as it concentrates on Microsoft systems. In the next two years, Microsoft will train for Digital more than 1,500 new Microsoft Certified Systems Engineers, its highest level of certification. They will be added to an existing 800 Microsoft certified professionals at Digital. Gates said this will create the largest Microsoft support team in the world. The alliance means Microsoft is taking a giant step to bring the Windows operating system and applications to businesses using large scale computing systems distributed over client/server systems. Or as Gates said, "The plan is to make Windows-based solutions the next wave of enterprise computing." Both Microsoft BackOffice and Microsoft Office will become available for these users. Gates commented, "With this agreement, we will be able to bring a common interface and products to the enterprise environment. To do this we also need to develop the support and infrastructure enterprise customers expect and are accustomed. Digital is the perfect fit for this migration to take place." Along with creating a Microsoft applications for Digital Alpha-based systems, both companies will support the development of Unix-based applications designed for the NT environment. Palmer said, "No one company can carry the entire solution. Strategic relationships are crucial to creating a complete and full computing environment for our customers. They have been asking for Windows environment and we are responding." The alliance also calls for a Digital engineering group to work with Microsoft on Alpha-related service and product integration at Microsoft's Redmond headquarters. A cross-licensing patent agreement has been established and Microsoft has licensed Digital's clustering technology for inclusion into future products. Another part of the alliance calls for Digital to use Microsoft Exchange, now in final beta testing, as Digital's All-In-1 and MailWorks products are incorporated into Exchange Server. More than 5 million Digital mail customers will use the system. Palmer said Digital will soon release a line of Intel and Alpha-based systems optimized for Windows NT. Microsoft also said Digital will run the Launch Support Team of Windows 95 in the US. This program is designed to assist resellers in the migration of corporate customers to Win 95. Newsbytes also learned Digital will be one of a number of computer manufacturers ready to unveil computer systems with Win 95 on August 24. Gates told the audience, "There are only one or two companies with which we have not reached an agreement on bundling Win 95." (Patrick McKenna/19950802/Press Contact: Peggy Stabler, Waggener Edstrom, tel 206-637-9097) (SUMMARY)(GENERAL)(MSP)(00031) Newsbytes Daily Summary 08/02/95 MINNEAPOLIS, MINNESOTA, U.S.A., 1995 AUG 2 (NB) -- These are capsules of all today's news stories: ======================================================================== ------------| N E W S B Y T E S D A I L Y S U M M A R Y |---------- ------------| Wednesday, August 2, 1995 |---------- ======================================================================== (c) Newsbytes News Network (Tm) Editor in Chief: Wendy Woods ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Newsbytes News Network is a computer and telecom industry news wire and digitized picture service. Our news stream includes more than 30 daily first-hand reported US and international news stories about computing and telecommunications. For more information, please e-mail to 'administrator@newsbytes.com' ------------------------------------------------------------------------ CATEGORY HEADLINES (*** indicates today's top stories) STORY # ======================================================================== BROADCAST ****Networks Offer V-Chip Alternative..................... 08 BROADCAST ****Westinghouse Buys CBS Network......................... 18 BUSINESS Taxan Europe Partners With ATI Technologies................ 19 BUSINESS Correction - Bill Gates Meets With President Clinton....... 29 CHIPS Correction - AMD/Sony Win Japanese Govt Award.............. 15 GENERAL In Focus Cuts Projection Panel Prices, Adds Features....... 03 GENERAL Japan Newsbriefs........................................... 04 GENERAL TI Launches Internet Printer Promotion..................... 17 IBM ****Gerstner Describes IBM Focus On 5 Customer Groups..... 02 LEGAL China - Anti-Porno Campaign................................ 28 NETWORK ****Cabletron CEO Sees Many `Options' From Chipcom Filing. 01 NETWORK Xircom Updates Wireless LAN Product........................ 13 ONLINE AT&T, NTT, Sony Launching Multimedia System For Japan...... 05 ONLINE Internet Update............................................ 06 ONLINE UK's Vodafone Plugs Into The Internet...................... 09 ONLINE "Hecklers" Humor On AOL.................................... 12 ONLINE UK - The Music Shop Opens On The Internet.................. 14 ONLINE Correction - Women's Wire Web Site......................... 16 ONLINE Netcom Acquires Dallas-Based PICnet........................ 22 ONLINE Europe - Demon Working With Europe On Line................. 24 PC HP's Improved OmniBook 600................................. 26 PC VisionTek's PCMCIA Line.................................... 27 TELECOM ****House To Move On Telecom.............................. 07 TELECOM ****Vodafone Unveils Secure Analog Cellular Technology.... 23 TELECOM UK - Hutchison Seven Line Super-Pager...................... 25 WINDOWS Psion Palmtop Windows Editing/Linking Package.............. 10 WINDOWS Windows 95-based Fax-on-Demand Product..................... 11 WINDOWS Electronic Maps For Human Services......................... 20 WINDOWS Diagramming Software For Windows........................... 21 WINDOWS ****Digital Integrating Windows NT Into Enterprise Systems 30 ======================================================================== These are the headlines and first paragraphs of each story, in order: 1 -> ****Cabletron CEO Sees Many `Options' From Chipcom Filing -- "Within 30 days, we'll know if we can buy more (Chipcom) stock. At that point, we'll decide whether we want to do a complete takeover, acquire enough shares (to) vote against a merger, or just walk away," said Cabletron President and CEO Bob Levine, in an interview with Newsbytes about Cabletron's FCC petition to purchase Chipcom stock, filed the day after 3Com and Chipcom announced plans to merge. 2 -> ****Gerstner Describes IBM Focus On 5 Customer Groups -- IBM (NYSE:IBM) has identified five types of customers on whose differing needs it will try to focus, Chairman and Chief Executive Louis Gerstner told investment analysts at a briefing this week. Among the groups are consumers, for whom IBM plans to form a new worldwide division. 3 -> In Focus Cuts Projection Panel Prices, Adds Features -- In Focus Systems Inc. (NASDAQ: INFS) has lowered the price of some of its liquid crystal display (LCD) projection panels and at the same time has added features to the Smartview line. 4 -> Japan Newsbriefs -- In this roundup of news from Japan, Fujitsu wins Middle East fiber contract; Sony invests in battery production; Matsushita announces digital camcorder; Fuji Xerox signs distribution deal with Interphase; Consumer electronics imports rise in June. 5 -> AT&T, NTT, Sony Launching Multimedia System For Japan -- A group of three companies comprised of Nippon Telegraph and Telephone (TOKYO:9432), Sony Corporation (TOKYO:6758) and AT&T (NYSE:T) has announced it will begin a new Japanese multimedia system, NTT Future Agent Network (FAN), based on AT&T's PersonaLink Service (PLS) technology. The announcement comes after the conclusion of a successful test involving 250 "Multi-Media Experience Monitors." 6 -> Internet Update -- In this roundup of new services and resources on the Internet: Twin cities online, education news mailing list, IDB web service, Implications of biotechnology investigated, Business tips available, Eco-friendly business guide, Multimedia travel album, Remembering Nagasaki and Hiroshima. 7 -> ****House To Move On Telecom -- Floor debate on the House telecommunications legislation (HR 1555) begins this evening and, according to the Republican leadership, will conclude sometime tomorrow. 8 -> ****Networks Offer V-Chip Alternative -- The TV networks yesterday unveiled their alternative to the V-chip as a mechanism for parents to screen what kids see on television. Instead of the mandatory V-chip, the four networks proposed a set-top box that parents could buy for about $50 to $100, which could be programmed by parents to screen out programs with violence or sexual content. 9 -> UK's Vodafone Plugs Into The Internet -- Vodafone has opened its own Web pages on the Internet. According to the cellular phone and network services company, the URL (Uniform Resource Locator) of the Web site is http://www.vodafone.co.uk . 10 -> Psion Palmtop Windows Editing/Linking Package -- Psion has announced PsiWin, a Windows file viewer and editing package for the Psion Series 3/3a palmtop computers. The idea behind the package, which is now being shipped with the companies' serial/parallel port converter unit for the palmtop computers, is that users of the Series 3 or 3a palmtop, which has a DOS/Windows environment in its own right, can "drag and drop" edit between a PC Windows "window" (on the desktop) and the "PC environment" of the palmtop. 11 -> Windows 95-based Fax-on-Demand Product -- Faxback Inc. has announced the release of its Clarity Series fax-on-demand products that include access to World Wide Web and Lotus Notes document sources. Clarity is the hardware-software engine for various fax-on-demand products. 12 -> "Hecklers" Humor On AOL -- Cracking jokes and doing things you can get away only in cyberspace is what the new "Hecklers Online" area on America Online (NASDAQ:AMER) (AOL) is all about. The area is described as an interactive comedy forum that lets AOL members satisfy their urge to heckle and make fun of just about anything. 13 -> Xircom Updates Wireless LAN Product -- Xircom, Inc. (NASDAQ: XIRC) announced lower prices as well as the availability of second-generation software for the CreditCard Netwave Adapter and Netwave Access Point, the company's wireless local-area network (LAN) system. Xircom's new lower pricing for its CreditCard Netwave Adapter achieves, according to the company, an industry first with a street price of around $300 per adapter. 14 -> UK - The Music Shop Opens On The Internet -- The Music Sales Group (MSG) has opened the Internet Music Shop, a catalog and information bank of various published music, available on several types of media, through the MSG's Word Wide Web pages. 15 -> Correction - AMD/Sony Win Japanese Govt Award -- In the story of this title which ran on the Newsbytes wire service on July 20, 1995, we made reference to Advanced Micro Devices as being American Micro Devices, in the copy. Newsbytes apologizes for the typo. 16 -> Correction - Women's Wire Web Site -- The URL for the Women's Wire Web site was incorrectly listed in the story of this name, which ran on July 31, 1995 on the Newsbytes wire. The correct URL is http://www.women.com . Newsbytes apologizes for the error. 17 -> TI Launches Internet Printer Promotion -- Texas Instruments Inc. (NYSE: TXN) has announced a rebate program for its printers that will get users to look at the company's home page on the Internet. TI said it is offering a $100 rebate on selected printers purchased between August 1 and September 30, 1995. 18 -> ****Westinghouse Buys CBS Network -- Westinghouse Electric Corp. (NYSE:WX) has agreed to acquire CBS Inc. (NYSE:CBS), operator of the CBS television network and of radio and television stations and television production operations. Westinghouse is to pay $81 per share in cash, plus certain other payments depending on when the deal closes, making the total price about $5.4 billion. 19 -> Taxan Europe Partners With ATI Technologies -- Taxan Europe, the monitor manufacturer, has teamed up with ATI Technologies, the graphical hardware company, to form a joint venture. 20 -> Electronic Maps For Human Services -- DataVision Systems Inc. has released MAPS (Metro Access Programs and Services), a Windows-based software application designed for use by human services agencies that refer clients to service providers. 21 -> Diagramming Software For Windows -- Softcraft Technologies is shipping a diagramming package for personal computers that can be used to create everything from process flow charts to family trees. According to the company, Diagram It is so easy to use that the diagrams can often be created without reference to the product manual. 22 -> Netcom Acquires Dallas-Based PICnet -- Netcom On-Line Communication Services, Inc. (NASDAQ: NETC) today announced the acquisition of Dallas-based Internet service provider, PICnet. The move will expand Netcom's product line to include World Wide Web Page creation services. 23 -> ****Vodafone Unveils Secure Analog Cellular Technology -- Confirming a Newsbytes report earlier this year, Vodafone has officially unveiled its secure analog cellular network technology to the cellular industry. 24 -> Europe - Demon Working With Europe On Line -- Demon Internet Services, the pioneer of flat rate Internet dial-up services in the UK, has announced it is working with Europe On Line to develop services. Steve Kennedy, a spokesman for Demon, told Newsbytes that deal is with Europe On Line 25 -> UK - Hutchison Seven Line Super-Pager -- Hutchison Telecom has unveiled what it claims is the most advanced radiopager on the market 26 -> HP's Improved OmniBook 600 -- Hewlett-Packard has announced the OmniBook 600CT, an enhanced version of its mini notebook color PC. The machine has a large, active-matrix screen and improved battery performance, as well as integrated sound. 27 -> VisionTek's PCMCIA Line -- VisionTek, which bills itself as one of the largest manufacturer of computer upgrade and memory products, announced a new line of PCMCIA (Personal Computer Memory Card Industry Association) products that range from fax/modems to hard drives. 28 -> China - Anti-Porno Campaign -- A special office under the Public Security Bureau of Henan Province has launched a crackdown on pornographic computer software and 67 firms and 80 individuals have been charged, newspaper Beijing Evening News reports. 29 -> Correction - Bill Gates Meets With President Clinton -- This week Newsbytes reported that Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates had visited President Clinton and other government officials and elected representatives in Washington, DC earlier this month. 30 -> ****Digital Integrating Windows NT Into Enterprise Systems -- This morning, Microsoft's (NASDAQ:MSFT) chief executive officer (CEO), Bill Gates and Digital Equipment's (NYSE:DEC) CEO, Robert Palmer, held a joint press conference to announce the integration of Windows NT into Digital products for large scale enterprise computing environments. (Wendy Woods/19950802) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 08/01/95 GENERAL Gates Shuns "Lesser Nobility" In Canadian Capital (NEWS)(GENERAL)(TOR)(00001) Gates Shuns "Lesser Nobility" In Canadian Capital 08/01/95 OTTAWA, ONTARIO, CANADA, 1995 AUG 1 (NB) -- Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates made a rare visit to Ottawa, Canada's capital, last Friday. Ottawa received Gates like royalty, but some of the local high tech nobility you might have expected to see in the receiving line couldn't even get a ticket to the observation gallery. Corel chief executive officer (CEO), Michael Cowpland, and Newbridge Corp. chairman, Terry Matthews, were absent from the guest list. Instead, Gates chose to mingle with a hand-picked group of local high-tech executives and federal government information services (IS) managers -- among his biggest customers in this part of the world. Gates -- the world's richest person, worth more than $12.5 billion dollars -- arrived via a regular commercial airline flight and drove around all day in what the Microsoft publicity people refer to as "nondescript" rental cars. There were no "public" events on Gates' agenda at all. Gates' tight, six-hour itinerary included only two one-on-one meetings, one with the Bell Canada President John McLennan and the other with Canadian Prime Minister Jean Chretien, who hosted him for lunch on Parliament Hill. In the afternoon, Gates dropped in on the innovative Virtual Ventures summer Internet camp at Ottawa's Carleton University to confab with the kids. In answer to a request for career guidance from one camper, Gates said all of the kids in the program should consider going into programming. Of course, that answer was not entirely unexpected from someone who made his first million by licensing his Microsoft Disk Operating System (MS DOS) to IBM for its original IBM PC. The main reason for Gates' visit, at least on the surface, was to promote the soon-to-be-released Windows 95 operating system to Fortune 500 and big-government customers. Sources in the Prime Minister's Office said they also expected Gates to privately urge Chretien to standardize all Canadian government PCs on Microsoft software. Details of their meeting were not released. Emerging from the meeting, Gates would only say, "We compared notes on what it was like to golf with [U.S. President] Bill Clinton." There was also speculation that Gates wanted to personally test the waters in Ottawa regarding his plan to set up a US$10 billion network of 850 mini-satellites to bring wireless telephone and computer connectivity to all corners of the globe. To implement the service in Canada, Gates will need a Canadian partner and appropriate licences, which would have to be granted by the Canadian Radio, Television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC). Industry observers also note Gates will need Canadian government support in international hearings this fall on the allocation of satellite transmission frequencies and space in orbit for his proposed swarm of mini-moons. (Trevor Horsley/19950628) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 08/01/95 WINDOWS Symantec's Windows 95 Products (NEWS)(WINDOWS)(SFO)(00002) Symantec's Windows 95 Products 08/01/95 CUPERTINO, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1995 AUG 1 (NB) -- August belongs to Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT). For the next three weeks, the computer industry will be flooded with announcements about Win 95 software and hardware products. Early out of the gate is Symantec (NASDAQ:SYMC) with a complete offering of its desktop management and antivirus tools for the new operating system (OS). Today's announcement from Symantec unveils three products: Norton Utilities, Norton Navigator and Norton AntiVirus. All are designed to assist individual and corporate users with utilities for Win 95. Symantec says these new products will be ready from day-one of the arrival of Win 95. By the middle of November, these new utilities will be available in nine languages including German, English, French, Spanish, Dutch, Swedish, Norwegian, Danish and Italian, Symantec announced. Some time during the first calendar quarter of '96, Symantec plans to ship Japanese, Korean and Chinese versions of the products. The three new products are to enter the channel under a marketing plan called "Hit the Ground Running." Through the new plan, Symantec is emphasizing the role of its utilities as a necessary addition to Microsoft's new OS. Ellen Taylor, vice president of desktop utilities at Symantec, told Newsbytes, "All three of these products are specific and distinct. They do not offer overlapping utilities. Each one has specific enhancements to Win 95 which users will find extremely helpful." In its press release, Symantec states, " Windows 95 does not provide anti-virus protection, and because the file structure is changed from Windows 3.1, existing utility software will not operate in the Windows 95 computing environment. Consequently, users upgrading to Windows 95 should purchase new utility and ant-virus software in order to protect their computing investment and maximize convenience and productivity." Taylor also said, "I think the release of Windows 95 will be a milestone event in the history of this industry. It will offer home users and office users a significant increase in performance, speed, efficiency and connectivity. We are really excited to be a part of the release and we are proud to offer utilities which are valuable addition to this new operating system." Norton Utilities for Windows 95 is a 32-bit offering for disk analysis and repair. It provides users with a pre-installation tune-up for Win 95. Symantec says one of the main advantages of the this package is that it does not require the user to know when or how to use the utilities. Expect to see a street price of $119 ($129 for the CD version) and a trade-up price of $59. Norton Navigator offers users 32-bit file management tools and desktop enhancements for navigating the new system. Symantec says Navigator is a natural extension of Win 95 and will allow users to operate with more speed and convenience. The company says in some cases users will experience speed increases up to ten times the normal speed of operation. Navigator is expected to have a street price of $99 and a $39 trade-up is offered to registered users of Norton Desktop, PC Tools, Norton Commander and Tree. Another pre-installation to Win 95 product is Norton AntiVirus for Win 95. With a street price of $79 and a $29 trade-up for registered users of Norton AntiVirus, Norton Desktop for Windows, Central Point AntiVirus and PC Tools, this 32-bit utility detects and destroys viruses which can propagate from existing versions of Windows and known and unknown viruses specific to Win 95. Network versions are available with site licenses for Norton AntiVirus. Taylor also said, "The large number of users of our products is the greatest asset of this company. For that reason, we have set what we consider a very attractive price for registered users to trade up to the Windows 95 utilities. (Patrick McKenna/19950731/Press Contact: Ana Thorne, Symantec, tel 310-449-4140) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 08/01/95 TRENDS Logitech Creates A New Breed Of Mouse (NEWS)(TRENDS)(LON)(00003) Logitech Creates A New Breed Of Mouse 08/01/95 BRACKNELL, BERKSHIRE, ENGLAND, 1995 AUG 1 (NB) -- Logitech has announced what it claims is a major breakthrough in "pointing device" technology -- Marble Sensing. Jackie Seear, a spokeswoman for Logitech, told Newsbytes that Marble Sensing is the next stage along from the opto-mechanical mouse technology that the company pioneered back in 1983. The system uses a red mini-trackball that has a series of random black dots on its surface that are read more than 1,000 times a second by an optical sensor. "The system, apart from the trackball itself, has no moving parts, and is able to relearn new patterns on the surface of the ball, either as the ball wears, or if dirt builds up on the surface of the ball," she explained. According to Logitech, Marble Sensing Technology is the result of more than four years of research and development, and paves the way for the design of mice and trackballs containing no mechanical moving parts, thus eliminating problems related to irregular cursor movements caused by dust, dirt and continuous usage. Marble Sensing Technology will be seen in a number of laptop computers later this summer, Seear told Newsbytes. The first Logitech pointing products using the system will be shipped internationally in September of this year. "Compaq has already licensed the technology and will ship its range of laptops with Marble Sensing later this summer," she explained. In use, the tracker ball pattern is projected onto the Marble sensor by two small lenses inside the pointing device. This image is then analyzed more than 1,000 times per second by 93 independent cells connected together in a neural network. According to Logitech, each cell can detect a unitary motion by sharing information with its direct neighbors, in a manner that is similar to the functioning of the human eye. Movement information is then transmitted to a microprocessor that calculates the cursor movement on the x and y axis. Logitech claims that this collective computation creates a highly reliable system, even if parts of the sensor are obstructed because of dirt or damaged by a scratch, the redundant information and collective calculation will ensure perfect precision. Logitech's Marble Sensing Technology patent is the result of four years of extensive research and development, conducted as part of a Swiss federal program to promote new technology. Participants in the program included the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Lausanne, the Centre Suisse d'Electronique et de Microtechnique in Neuchbtel and the Federal Scientific Research Commission. According to Seear, the result seamlessly joins a set of major technology breakthroughs recently published in Switzerland. According to the company, when the first prototypes of the computer mouse were developed in 1963, they were completely mechanical. The ball moved small pivots, which were attached to rheostats. In addition to the separate power supply needed by the mouse, the innumerable small components and the low resolution, this type of mouse had several drawbacks: attrition and sluggish mechanical reactions. In 1983, Logitech revolutionized the computer mouse market with the use of opto-mechanical technology. From then on, mouse movements were no longer measured by means of mechanical resistance but were registered with the help of an opto-mechanical system. The ball sets two small pivots in motion which record vertical and horizontal movements. Each of the pivots is linked to a perforated disk, which turns in accordance with the movement of the mouse. The disks have narrow slits. Two photoelectric barrier units follow the motions and determine the exact changes in the position of the mouse. According to Logitech, this technology permits a higher degree of precision, is cheaper and is less prone to attrition than the former purely mechanical design. Unfortunately even opto-mechanical technology could not totally eliminate such drawbacks as wear and tear, sensitivity to dirt and dust particles. Although the opto- mechanical mouse is the most common mouse technology in general use, attrition and dirt still frequently cause the computer mouse to move imprecisely. This results in bad tracking, which is reflected by slow and jumpy cursor movements. Clients were demanding a design without mechanical components as early as 1988 when the first trackballs came onto the market. It wasn't until a project team consisting of members from the Polytechnic University of Lausanne (EPFL), the CSEM (Centre Suisse d Electronique et de Microtechnique) in Neuchatel, the commission for the promotion of Scientific Research (KWF) and Logitech researched the possibilities of a purely optoelectronic solution, whereby a sensor would register the movements of the mouse without coming into contact with the ball and without employing mechanical components. The principal of Marble sensing Technology is based on the optical measurement of movement, whereby a camera measures a shift of a picture and evaluates it. The entire evaluation takes place in the sensor which is essentially the heart of the system. (Steve Gold/19950731/Press Contact: Bogard Communications +44-1753- 654333; Logitech +44-1344-894300 Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 08/01/95 GENERAL Hertz to Use Satellite Locating System (NEWS)(GENERAL)(MSP)(00004) Hertz to Use Satellite Locating System 08/01/95 PARK RIDGE, NEW JERSEY, U.S.A., 1995 AUG 1 (NB) -- People who rent Hertz cars in nine US markets have the chance to always know where they're driving. Hertz is introducing its new "NeverLost" on-board navigation system in select cars in those locations. The company is installing the units in some mid-sized Ford Contours, full-sized Ford Tauruses, and luxury-class Lincoln Town Cars. Customers can get the NeverLost-equipped cars free of charge during a test period through September 30. Currently, equipped cars are available in Detroit, San Francisco, and Los Angeles. By mid-August Atlanta, Chicago, Miami, and New York City will have cars outfitted with NeverLost. Orlando and Washington D.C. will see NeverLost-equipped cars by the end of August. The cars are only available on a first-come, first-serve basis, officials said. NeverLost provides turn-by-turn driving instructions to virtually any location in each area via an in-car video screen, and computer- generated voice instructions. The units are manufactured by Rockwell International, with software provided by Zexel USA. The hardware and software use signals from a Global Positioning Satellite (GPS) to determine locations. "We're not determining whether the type of traveller to use this will be the leisure traveller or the business traveller," Lauren Garvey, Hertz spokesperson, told Newsbytes. She sees the system as helping people in both groups, especially when those travellers are in an area they've never visited before. Pricing has not yet been determined. But Garvey told Newsbytes that Avis offers a similar system for $5 a day, and Hertz's price will be competitive to that figure. Hertz officials say they expect the NeverLost program to take a similar route as in-car cellular phones did when they were introduced. The company equipped only some cars in the beginning of the program in 1988. Now, more than 15,000 autos are equipped nationwide. Hertz has more than 450,000 cars in its fleet worldwide, at 5,400 locations. (Bob Woods/19950731/Press Contact: Lauren Garvey, Hertz, 201-307-2448) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 08/01/95 ONLINE Kaplan Intros CD-ROM, Plans New Content For AOL, Web (NEWS)(ONLINE)(BOS)(00005) Kaplan Intros CD-ROM, Plans New Content For AOL, Web 08/01/95 BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS, U.S.A., 1995 AUG 1 (NB) -- Kaplan Interactive's new Campus 96, announced yesterday, will be followed by four more multimedia CD-ROM titles for college and grad school admissions seekers, plus new content for Kaplan's online services on both America Online (AOL) and the Web, and a new server for the Web site. Cynthia Hickman, Kaplan Interactive's director, in a briefing for Newsbytes in Boston, said On Campus 96, the first CD-ROM effort for the multimedia division of Kaplan Educational Centers, is meant to make it "fun" to search for and select a college, according to Hickman. Available immediately at an estimated street price of $49.95, the new five-volume CD-ROM set revolves around a 3-D (three- dimensional) GUI (graphical user interface) depicting a high school student's bedroom. Features include a searchable "electronic book" covering more than 1,700 four-year colleges and universities, plus more than three hours of video "campus tours," a set of campus maps, and a built-in application form, Hickman told Newsbytes. In September, she revealed, Kaplan will unveil the new RoadTrip series of test preparation materials on multimedia CD-ROM, to include one title each for the SAT, GRE, GMAT, and LSAT exams. Also under way are plans to implement a new "secure transaction" server for Kaplan's Web site, and to redesign the AOL edition of Kaplan Online, adding new third-party content that extends beyond exam preparation into areas like college admissions, financial aid, and study abroad, reported Hickman. The AOL edition of Kaplan Online (keyword: Kaplan), launched in August, 1994, now averages more than 27,000 "unique visitors" each month, according to the Kaplan exec. In addition, she maintained, AOL is experiencing a higher "conversion" rate to full-time subscribership from a "customized" starter kit that Kaplan Online is distributing than from AOL starter kit promotions in computer magazines. Kaplan's newly opened Web site has received more than 225,000 hits in its first four months, she pointed out. The home page -- which is accessible at http://www.kaplan.com -- recently ranked number 13 on a list of "the best of the best Web sites" by Interactive Age. "With the Web site, we went a little beyond college admissions in terms of content from the outset," Hickman asserted. Due to the large traffic volume, together with users' interests in more `multimedia-rich' content, and in purchasing materials from the site, Kaplan is now migrating its Web server from a Macintosh to a Sun server, she added. The Sun server will run Secure Netscape for "secure transactions." Upcoming content additions for Kaplan Interactive's Web site will include the CareerNet job listing and resume service, along with other third-party services, according to Hickman. Hickman explained that Kaplan decided to augment its online services with the multimedia CD-ROM titles when students at the company's nationwide chain of test preparation centers asked for materials that could be used at home to supplement the classroom test preparation experience. Campus 96, Kaplan's first title, offers over three times as much video as its two CD-ROM competitors from Lovejoy and Barron's, said the Kaplan director. Students access video "campus tours" by clicking on a "videotape" object on the GUI. The campus maps are accessed by clicking on a "map on the wall." Campus 96 uses the College Board database of 1,730 schools to supply facts on admissions, academics, student bodies, financial aid, activities, and campus life. Students can search for schools based on criteria such as major or career choice, competitiveness, state, region, school size, tuition, athletics, and distance from home. Kaplan's new product supplies electronic application forms for 150 schools, whereas Barron's does so for only 66 schools, and Lovejoy does not include this capability at all, she contended. Campus 96 is the only CD-ROM college guide on the market to offer maps, and also the only one to include multimedia "admissions advice from experts," financial planning tools, and "interactive information on majors and careers," she added. The five-volume disk set is organized according to region, Hickman told Newsbytes. Students can access all information on any of the 1,730 schools from any of the disks, with the exception of the video college tours and maps, which are only accessible from the disk for the region where the college is located. (Jacqueline Emigh/19950731/Reader Contact: Kaplan Interactive, 212- 752-1840; Press Contacts: Melissa Mack, Kaplan, 212-492-5849; Holly Zmetrovich, Copithorne & Bellows for Kaplan Interactive, 617-252- 0606) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 08/01/95 PDA Digital Voice Message Pad For Home Use (NEWS)(PDA)(LAX)(00006) Digital Voice Message Pad For Home Use 08/01/95 SHERMAN OAKS, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1995 AUG 1 (NB) -- The IQ. Voice MessagePad, designed for the home, features digital recording time of up to 1 minute 30 seconds. It has magnetic backing so it can be attached to most kitchen appliances, especially designed to fit on the refrigerator "bulletin board." Voice Powered Technology International, Inc. (NASDAQ: VPTI) has begun shipping the IQ Voice MessagePad to major retail accounts such as Circuit City Stores Inc., Radio Shack and Service Merchandise Co. The MessagePads will be available in over three thousand retail stores. Mark Frankel, vice-president of marketing, told Newsbytes, "The MessagePad will have a suggested retail price of $69.95, but should be available on sale for as low as $49. They will be in stores and on the shelves by September first." Frankel points out that the MessagPad has magnetic backing and is meant to find a place on the home refrigerator. " We have devoted time to making the MessagePad an attractive addition to the refrigerator bulletin board. It is a convenient six inch by eight-inch size with a bright color exterior." "Voice Powered Technology International, Inc., designs, develops and markets low-cost, portable voice recognition consumer electronics products. The MessagePad is our third major product line," said Frankel. We began with a VCR voice programmer," Frankel said, "which is now being marketed and sold by Magnavox. We then came out with the Voice Organizer. The Organizer functions as an electronic organizer without a keyboard. It is run by voice command. We expect to have shipped over 350,000 Organizers by the end of the year" Already the firm's first quarter 1995 results have been strong, with revenue of over $5.7 million compared to last year for the same quarter of $3.1 million, according to the company. Voice Powered Technology International, Inc. is located in Sherman Oaks, California. (Richard Bowers/19950731/Press Contact: Mitchell B. Rubin, Voice Powered Technology, 818-905-0950) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 08/01/95 TELECOM Optical Transmission Tech Displayed At NEC (NEWS)(TELECOM)(TYO)(00007) Optical Transmission Tech Displayed At NEC 08/01/95 MIYAZAKIDAI, JAPAN, 1995 AUG 1 (NB) -- The fields of data transmission and optical fiber technology were on prominent display at NEC's exhibition of new technology to celebrate the twentieth anniversary of the company's Central Research Laboratory in Miyazakidai near Tokyo. Moving large amounts of data around a city and between countries will be vital if future systems such as large scale video on demand networks are to succeed, and NEC has developed an optical fiber system that can carry up to 160 gigabits per second (Gb/s) in eight 20 Gb/s channels. The company has employed wavelength division multiplexing (WDM) to enable up to eight times the data flow along a single fiber. Such WDM technology has been researched since the early 1990s and NEC predicts that by 2010 such a system will be capable of carrying 1 terabit per second, or equivalent to an 100,000-channel digital video system with each channel running at 10Mb/s. Since the early 1990s the company has been researching the new technique which combines wavelength division multiplexing with the time division multiplexing technique that is used alone today. By combining the two techniques researchers were able to double transmission capacity within a few months of the start of research and data rates have continued to climb. NEC demonstrated to Newsbytes a configuration carrying 160 Gb/s although even greater data rates have been achieved already. A new plastic optical fiber is offering significant advantages over traditional glass fibers in short distance applications. The high speed plastic fiber is around the same cost as voice grade twisted pair copper cable, or around a third the cost of glass fiber, but offering all the advantages of optical communications. Range of the new fiber is, however, limited currently to around 100m although NEC notes this is still more than enough for most office environments. Another major advantage is specially developed HI-SPOT connectors cost around 5 cents compared to the $20 glass fiber connectors and are easy to make requiring no specialized equipment. NEC has developed an office LAN (local area network) based on a PC Bus controller that offers twelve 100MB ports, ten of which use the cheap HI-SPOT connectors with two others for conventional glass fibers. (Martyn Williams/19950731/Press contact : Mark Pearce, NEC Corporation, +81-3-3798-6511, fax +81-3-3457-7249, Internet email maku_10-22150@aladdin.nec.co.jp) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 08/01/95 TRENDS NEC Shows Future Products, Developments (NEWS)(TRENDS)(TYO)(00008) NEC Shows Future Products, Developments 08/01/95 MIYAZAKIDAI, JAPAN, 1995 AUG 1 (NB) -- As part of the celebrations for the twentieth anniversary of its Miyazakidai Laboratories in Kawasaki near Tokyo, NEC opened the doors of the research and development (R&D) center to foreign and Japanese journalists last week to show some of the products the center is creating now that will hopefully become commonplace in the 21st Century. Associate Vice President of NEC Dr. T. Ishiguro explained that the center was working on what he termed "day after tomorrow technology." The company's business group was involved in "today and tomorrow technology," he continued. The Miyazakidai Labs, NEC's Central Research Laboratories, is engaged in work covering systems, software and equipment and the exhibition of this work is divided into three parts covering, first, multimedia, information networks, and applications; second, human interface processing and displays and storage; and last, multimedia device technologies and environmental preservation technologies. The tour touched upon some exciting areas of research in products that are predicted to become commonplace in the future, such as video on demand and multimedia systems, and which are, as NEC showed, already working in the laboratory today. While much work around the world is going into creating systems to serve video on demand to the households of tomorrow, there is also an effort to transform not just what we see but how we see it. NEC's previously announced plasma display panel (PDP) was on show demonstrating a high visibility, wide viewing angle screen with a size of 40 inches, and a widescreen aspect ratio of 16:9. As Newsbytes reported late last month, the Tokyo-based company will begin manufacture of television sets using the new display in 1997. The screen uses the new PDP technology that features 840 x 480 color pixels (403,200 total pixels), each capable of showing one of 16.7 million colors, although Newsbytes notes that the development model we saw was not displaying particularly vibrant colors. NEC assured us that production models would feature even better pictures. NEC only entered the color PDP development race in 1989 but has reached a point in six years that is just behind some of the industry's longest researchers. The company plans to produce a 55-inch display with 2 million pixels around 1999. Such future displays will also offer enhancements in the fields of luminance and price as mass production brings production costs down. For notebook computer users, a constant reminder of how much power the system uses is demonstrated by too frequent needs to recharge the batteries. Around half of a notebook's total power consumption is due to the backlight on the LCD display. Researchers at NEC have developed a display that features a highly efficient reflective back plate that does away with the need for a backlight altogether if the system is used in a well-lit room such as an office. The brightness of the screen is said to be equivalent to what a reader would see when looking at a newspaper under the same light conditions, a contrast ratio of 5:1. Although the developers have only succeeded in making a mono TFT screen so far, a color version is already under research. (Martyn Williams/19950731/Press contact : Mark Pearce, NEC Corporation, +81-3-3798-6511, fax +81-3-3457-7249, Internet email maku_10-22150@aladdin.nec.co.jp) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 08/01/95 WINDOWS Collabra Ships Collabra 2.0, With Client-Server Option (NEWS)(WINDOWS)(BOS)(00009) Collabra Ships Collabra 2.0, With Client-Server Option 08/01/95 BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS, U.S.A., 1995 AUG 1 (NB) -- Collabra Share 2.0, a groupware update that starts shipping today, adds a new client-server option, remote access, "plug and play" directory integration with outside mail services, new tools for "information overload," and optional "information agents" for Internet Newsgroups, Internet replication, and Lotus Notes, said Steve Richard, product marketing manager, in a briefing for Newsbytes. Richard told Newsbytes that Collabra's release today of Collabra Share 2.0 will be followed in August by the shipment of Novell's Collabra Share 2.0 for Groupwise, a product that will integrate Collabra 2.0's group conferencing and mail capabilities with the group scheduling, task management, document management, and electronic messaging in Novell's Groupwise. Collabra Share 2.0 was originally slated to ship in June, and Collabra 2.0 for Groupwise in July, he noted. Collabra Share 2.0 gives users new options in a lot of areas, according to the Collabra product marketing manager. First, he said, users can choose between the original, file server model embodied in the workgroup edition, and a new client-server edition of Collabra. Second, the replication agent that came standard in Collabra 1.0 has been "unbundled," with Internet replication now added to the agent, he reported. In addition, optional agents are now available for accessing the more than 6,000 Internet Newsgroups, as well as Lotus Notes databases. Third, the Collabra update incorporates more than two dozen new tools for user customizable conferencing and mail management, filtering, and navigation, according to Richard. "Our first step was to `get the group conferencing going.' Now we're adding filtering. `Information overload' has been a problem with electronic mail for a while already, and today, it's impacting conferencing, too," he said. Richard explained that the new client-server edition of Collabra is targeted mainly at large networks running mission-critical and CPU (central processor unit)-intensive" applications. "It's great for companies that have already standardized on Windows NT," he added, pointing out that the server component operates on NT. The workgroup edition, with less stringent hardware and software requirements, is aimed at smaller companies, as well as at remote offices of large organizations. In the workgroup edition, the "raw database" continues to reside on the file server, with all processing performed on the client. The workgroup edition is "very easy to set up," and can be used in a variety of network operating environments, including Windows for Workgroups and Novell Netware. In the new client-Server edition, on the other hand, Collabra has added a new database front end that carries out functions like "posting new documents and constructing views." Both the database and the front end reside on a Windows NT server, for a "thinner" Windows client, greater throughput, and "a much more intelligent interaction," Richard said. The client-Server edition, which requires less bandwidth, also provides built-in remote access by modem over the phone lines, or over remote LAN (local area network) connections. Protocol support includes IPX, (Internet packet exchange) TCP/IP, (transmission control protocol/Internet protocol), and NetBeui, among other protocols. Collabra's remote access capability is also compatible with remote access software from other vendors, including Shiva, Microsoft RAS, and Novell Netware Connect, he noted. Collabra 2.0's new tools for conferencing and mail management, filtering and navigation are provided in both editions of the groupware. Tools specifically aimed at lowering "information overload" in group conferencing include Later, Ignore, Thread Summary, Hotlists, QuickViews, and QuickLinks, along with the ability to post submissions anonymously, and to add a moderator to a conference. "In the 1.0 product we had a tool called Info Navigator for surfing through unread postings," Richard maintained. "We've really expanded on that in 2.0, with even more capabilities for personalizing the product. You can now fast-forward through (postings), and mark items you want to go back to later. You can choose to ignore certain parts of a discussion, or even a whole category of a forum. And you can instantly create different views." Collabra's new QuickView feature lets you view only those documents that have been entered in reply to your posting, or that are by a particular author, according to the exec. You can also choose to view only the "newest, oldest, or largest" documents in a forum. Like Collabra Share 1.0, the new update allows integration with existing e-mail systems, including Groupwise and Microsoft Mail, according to Richard. But Collabra 2.0 also brings integration at the directory level, permitting the administrator to add new users by selecting from an e-mail address book, thereby eliminating the need for separate Collabra Share ID files. End users can access the directory integration features through a new set of Mail Hooks buttons that include Send Notification, Send Document, Reply Private, and Run Mail. Other new mail integration capabilities in 2.0 include single login and QuickLaunch, a new button in MS Mail that brings Collabra Share to the foreground when clicked. Also new in Collabra 2.0 are features that include a choice of "streamlined" or "advanced" toolbars; automatic replication; a spell checker; and the ability to compose new postings in a separate "smart composition window"; save a new document before posting it, and configure Collabra to "automatically scan for new postings on each launch," Richard told Newsbytes. (Jacqueline Emigh/19950731/Reader Contact: Collabra, 415-940-6400; Press Contacts: JoAnn Johnston, Stirling & Cohan for Collabra, 415- 513-0978; Bob Lisbonne, Collabra, 415-254-4415) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 08/01/95 GOVT GTSI Stuck In Red Ink (NEWS)(GOVT)(WAS)(00010) GTSI Stuck In Red Ink 08/01/95 CHANTILLY, VIRGINIA, U.S.A., 1995 AUG 1 (NB) -- Government Technology Services Inc., (Nasdaq: GTSI) has taken its second straight quarterly bath in red ink. The company that specializes in selling personal computers to the federal government recorded a net loss of $2.4 million (36 cents per share) for the second quarter of 1995. For the first six months of the year, GTSI reported a net loss of $4.7 million (71 cents per share). Last year, GTSI had a net profit of $1.2 million for the first six months. On the plus side, GTSI reported a slight increase in revenue for the second quarter, which reached $98 million, compared to $97.5 million for the second quarter of 1994. GTSI said the revenue increase was the result of sales from Falcon Microsystems, acquired a year ago, and a nearly three-fold increase in sales from the General Services Administration scheduled contracts. But that only offset a reduction in shipments under the Air Force Desktop IV contract, which reached its limit of 300,000 systems in April. GTSI says it expects orders to pick up on the Air Force contract as the end of the fiscal year approaches. The federal government fiscal year runs from October through September. "Historically, our first half is razor-thin, at best," GTSI spokesman Carter Cromley told Newsbytes. "Desktop IV will be reopened in a couple of weeks, and we will have Pentium machines on it, so money will start flowing. Our CEO has told investors that we expect to make money for the year, but it will depend on our second half." GTSI says the quarter loss was attributable to a decline in margins because of lower unit prices on the Air Force contract. Other contributing factors include higher employment costs, increased depreciation and amortization and interest expenses related to the Falcon acquisition, and lower vendor incentive funds. The continuing red ink left GTSI out of compliance with some financial covenants in its loan agreements and the company and its bankers are negotiating about a new line of credit. GTSI has been getting clobbered in the stock market. The shares have been in free fall since last August, when the share price hit $13.75 per share. Yesterday, the stock closed at $5.625, down .375. (Kennedy Maize/19950801/Press Contact: Carter Cromley, 703-502-2035) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 08/01/95 EDUCATION China - Network For College Enrollments (NEWS)(EDUCATION)(PEK)(00011) China - Network For College Enrollments 08/01/95 BEIJING, CHINA, 1995 AUG 1 (NB) -- The education network and e-mail will be used to assist the enrollment of 930,000 new college students for the first time this year, according to a source with the State Education Commission of China. A total of 2.53 million high school graduates have taken the three-day (July 7 to July 9) national college entrance examinations. This is about 20,000 more than last year. The nationwide college admission/enrollment is a heavy task for many colleges and local governments. The resumes, application forms, and examination scores of all applicants must be inspected and processed promptly, and decisions for enrollments must be made, all in a rather short window of time. The State Education Commission is planning to use its network and e-mail system to speed up the process this fall. The network covers 30 provinces, municipalities and autonomous regions in China, and local admission/enrollment process offices use e-mail to correspond with others on the network. By sending materials from applicants through e-mail, the administrators hope the admission/enrollment task will proceed more efficiently. Colleges and universities across the country will enroll 930,000 new students out of the 2.53 million applicants this summer, or about 37 percent. (Chih-Ho Yu & Ning Huang/19950801/Reader Contact: Bureau of High Education, the State Education Commission, tel +86-10 602-0758) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 08/01/95 EDUCATION Oracle Education Center For India (NEWS)(EDUCATION)(DEL)(00012) Oracle Education Center For India 08/01/95 NEW DELHI, INDIA, 1995 AUG 1 (NB) -- Software Giant Oracle Corp., will be setting up a global education center in New Delhi, the third of its kind in 27 Asia Pacific countries. The other two such centers are running in Singapore and Melbourne. The center will provide advanced level training and education services to Indian as well as foreign software professionals. Besides tapping the growing computer education market, Oracle India, the 100 percent subsidiary of the US-based Oracle Corp., has identified telecommunication, banking and finance, manufacturing, services and power as growth areas, now that the Indian government has liberalized all these sectors. (C. T. Mahabharat/19950801) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 08/01/95 BUSINESS China - Compaq Seeks To Keep #1 Spot (NEWS)(BUSINESS)(PEK)(00013) China - Compaq Seeks To Keep #1 Spot 08/01/95 BEIJING, CHINA, 1995 AUG 1 (NB) -- Compaq surpassed its rival AST last year to become the largest PC supplier in China with 22.7 percent of the market. The company is trying to maintain its number one position in China, as well as in the world. Compaq has taken a series of measures to maintain and even expand its market share in China. The company's vice president said that Compaq intends to increase its market share in China by five percent this year. During the first quarter, its sales in China grew 105 percent over the same period last year, and earning increased by 50 percent. Compaq has set up 36 maintenance centers around the country in the first half of the year and plans to bring the number to 50 before the end of the year. Compaq's joint venture in Shenzhen, formally put into operation early this year, will produce 100,000 PCs in 1995, which will be used to meet domestic demand and to export to other Asian countries. China will also become a major components supplier for Compaq. The company plans to purchase more than US$200 million worth of color monitors and other components from China this year. Compaq also joins many foreign companies which have aimed products at Chinese families. Compaq has put forward the "work at home" concept, stressing the computer's role as a work and entertainment partner. Its new home computer products with multimedia functions will be available in major department stores in Beijing, Shanghai, and Guangzhou in September. Compaq recently brought the Houston Ballet Troupe to China to promote its image. (Chih-Ho Yu & Ning Huang/19950801) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 08/01/95 BROADCAST Cheyenne Teams With Avid, Quantum On Video For Macintosh (NEWS)(BROADCAST)(BOS)(00014) Cheyenne Teams With Avid, Quantum On Video For Macintosh 08/01/95 ROSLYN HEIGHTS, NEW YORK, U.S.A., 1995 AUG 1 (NB) -- "We've been working diligently in the Macintosh environment for three years, and now, we've arrived," said Jim McNiel, executive VP of corporate development for Cheyenne, in an interview with Newsbytes about Avid's plans to bundle its professional level digital video editing systems with Cheyenne's Arcserve for Macintosh backup restore software and Quantum's DLT 4000 tape drives. In forging the deal with Avid, Roslyn Heights, New York-based Cheyenne competed and won out against Dansk, a vendor that has supplied backup and restore software for previous tape backup systems shipped by Avid, the Cheyenne executive VP told Newsbytes. "In the digital video editing environment, the ability to store and recall your images is everything. The size of the images is so huge that you can't store everything on disk. So the Avid system relies heavily on tape. Avid's requirement was for a product that could backup and restore fast enough to suit its customers' needs," McNiel maintained. Cheyenne's first product for Macintosh was an Arcserve agent released three years ago, he reported. "The agent allows (Arcserve) to recognize a device attached to a network, and to backup and restore to it." Next from Cheyenne came a stand-alone native Arcserve for Macintosh product. Cheyenne's third offering -- being shipped today in shrinkwrapped form, and now newly adapted for the Avid/Quantum bundle -- is a "full-blown client-server, enterprise-capable product." Noted McNiel: "What we did for (the bundling deal) was to perform some ease of use tweaks, as well as some performance tweaks for the DLT 4000, which is a very fast drive." Within the next 30 days or so, Cheyenne plans to offer the same enhancements for the shrinkwrapped edition of Arcserve for Macintosh through a maintenance release, he revealed. McNiel told Newsbytes that although the new backup system bundle will not be the first to ship from Avid, it will represent the "first significant push as a major product feature" by the Tewksbury, Massachusetts-based digital video vendor. Avid provides the "premier nonlinear editing system," he asserted. Quantum's DLT 4000 "represents a world of its own within the DLT category," with "the best throughput right now of any drive in the category," according to McNiel. Avid produces digital video capture, creation, editing, and distribution systems for users ranging from the entry-level to video professionals. The video pros use Avid's production and post production tools to record, log, edit, playback, master, distribute, and archive digital video for use in fields like broadcasting, advertising, and education. Right now, Cheyenne is supplying Avid with software for Macintosh only, but Cheyenne could also support Avid's systems on the SGI platform if the situation came up, McNiel said, in answer to a question raised by Newsbytes. "We're really pleased to be considered a viable provider of solutions for Macintosh. We plan to continue working really hard and delivering good products in the Macintosh environment," the executive VP added. Cheyenne provides backup, security, communications, and management software for environments that include Windows NT, OS/2, and NetWare, as well as Unix and the Mac. (Jacqueline Emigh/19950801/Reader Contact: Cheyenne, 516-484-5110; Avid, 508-640-6789; Quantum, 408-894-4000; Press Contacts: Robin Lutchansky, The Benjamin Group for Cheyenne, 408-559-6090; Denise S. Behringer, Cheyenne, 516-484-5110; Julie O'Brien, 508-640-6789; Christa Degnan, Schwartz Communications for Avid, 617-431-0770; Eileen Quinn Smith, Golin/Harris Technologies for Quantum, 415-904- 7000) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 08/01/95 NETWORK ****Delrina Acquires Intel's Net SatisFAXtion (NEWS)(NETWORK)(TOR)(00015) ****Delrina Acquires Intel's Net SatisFAXtion 08/01/95 TORONTO, ONTARIO, CANADA, 1995 AUG 1 (NB) -- Delrina Corp. (TSE:DC;NASDAQ:DENAF), soon to be part of Symantec Corp. of Cupertino, California, (NASDAQ:SYMC) has acquired the Net SatisFAXtion product line from Intel Corp. (NASDAQ:INTC). The companies said they will co-operate to develop integrated network fax and desktop management products. #IMAGE 1 20 TWPCX \images\95080115.PCX Click here for photo Intel launched Net SatisFAXtion in 1990. It is facsimile software that works on client/server systems using Novell Inc.'s NetWare local-area network (LAN) operating system. Net SatisFAXtion includes management applications and integration with Intel's LANDesk Management Suite. Mark Skapinker, president of Delrina, said in a telephone press conference that his company will continue development of Net SatisFAXtion and will tie it in with Delrina's own WinFax software. Skapinker also said Delrina will be "very much focused" on supporting existing Net SatisFAXtion users. Officials of Delrina and Intel would not discuss any financial terms of the deal. Linda Bonder, network business marketing manager at Intel, said no personnel will move from Intel to Delrina as part of the arrangement. She added that the two companies' engineering groups have worked closely together to prepare for the transition. Net SatisFAXtion shared the SatisFAXtion name with a line of fax and data modems that Intel previously sold. Intel sold that product line last November to PureData Ltd. of Markham, Ontario. Bonder said Intel is narrowing its focus to what it considers its core networking strategy. Dave Wilnering, product manager at Delrina, said Net SatisFAXtion will appeal to people who want the benefits of his company's WinFax software without having to put a fax card in every desktop personal computer. It will also attract businesses that want to reduce their fax costs, he said. Delrina described the move as the third in a recent series of investments in personal computer communications. Earlier this year Delrina acquired AudioFile, a Boston-based maker of PC voice and telephony products, and invested in Ex Machina, a New York- based company specializing in wireless messaging and paging software. Early in July, Symantec announced plans to acquire Delrina for US$415 million. That deal has just been approved by the United States' Federal Trade Commission. (Grant Buckler/19950801/Press Contact: Jo-Anne Chang, Delrina, 416-446-8328; Mary Hopkins, Intel, 503-264-7550, Internet e-mail Mary_Hopkins@ccm.jf.intel.com; Public Contact: Delrina, 416-441- 3676 or 408-363-2345, fax 416-441-0333 or 416-363-2340/DELRINA 950801/PHOTO) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 08/01/95 BUSINESS ****Symantec Cleared To Take Over Delrina (NEWS)(BUSINESS)(TOR)(00016) ****Symantec Cleared To Take Over Delrina 08/01/95 CUPERTINO, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1995 AUG 1 (NB) -- Symantec Corp. (NASDAQ:SYMC) has received approval from the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) for its takeover of Toronto-based Delrina Corp. (TSE:DC;NASDAQ:DENAF). The earlier-than-expected approval gives early termination of the Hart-Scott-Rodino Act waiting period. The US$415-million merger agreement will make the Toronto forms and fax software maker into a unit of Symantec. Mark Skapinker, president of Delrina, told Newsbytes that Delrina's software development and support operations will remain in Toronto, but finance and administrative functions will be consolidated into Symantec's California headquarters. This is expected to result in the immediate loss of 100 to 200 jobs at Delrina, which currently employs some 750 people worldwide. Skapinker, along with Chairman and Chief Executive Dennis Bennie and Chief Technology Officer Bert Amato, will remain in Toronto. All three will get senior management jobs with Symantec; Skapinker said their roles will remain essentially the same though their titles will change. Delrina said its fourth co- founder, Lou Ryan, will play an important role in integrating Delrina's worldwide sales organization with Symantec. The transaction is to be treated as a pooling of interests for accounting purposes in the United States. Delrina shareholders will exchange each of their common shares for 0.61 shares of a newly created class of Delrina stock. Each of these shares will be exchangeable at any time up to seven years after closing for one share of Symantec common stock. The reason for this arrangement has to do with the tax impact of the deal on Canadian shareholders, officials said. In a teleconference when the deal was announced, Gordon Eubanks, president and chief executive of Symantec, said the deal is meant to prepare Symantec for "the integration of the telephone and the computer over the next 12 months." Eubanks also said his company is interested in Delrina's forms management software, Delrina Forms. "This is a business (where) we see good growth over the next few years and an area that's synergistic with Symantec's efforts," Eubanks said. The takeover is still subject to other regulatory approvals, Canadian court approvals, and shareholder approvals. (Grant Buckler/19950801/Press Contact: Josef Zankowicz, Delrina, 416-441-4658; Michael Sweeny, Symantec, 408-446-7142; Public Contact: Symantec, 800-441-7234 or 503-334-6054) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 08/01/95 TELECOM ****Clinton Threatens Telecom Veto (NEWS)(TELECOM)(WAS)(00017) ****Clinton Threatens Telecom Veto 08/01/95 WASHINGTON, D.C., U.S.A., 1995 AUG 1 (NB) -- President Clinton yesterday threatened to veto the legislation House Republicans hope to bring to the floor this week, saying it would reduce competition. Unless the House bill is significantly changed, Clinton said in a written statement, "I will be compelled to veto it in the best interests of the public and our national economic well being." "Instead of promoting investment and competition," said the Clinton statement, the House Republican bill "promotes mergers and concentration of power. Instead of promoting open access and diversity of contact and viewpoints, it would allow fewer people to control greater numbers of television, radio and newspaper outlets in every community." The administration outlined eight areas where it wants changes made in the legislation. Among them is the provision that would allow a single company to own television stations that reach 50 percent of the nation. The administration also objects to provisions in the House bill that would permit regional Bell telephone companies to compete in the long-distance market before they face competition for local service. The White House also says it supports giving the Justice Department a role in determining when to let the baby Bells into long-distance. The administration also opposes letting phone companies and cable systems merge. Rep. Thomas Bliley (R-Va.), chairman of the House Commerce Committee, responded to the veto threat by saying, "if President Clinton were to follow through on his threat, he would be vetoing the single biggest job-creation bill of his presidency, one that will break of the monopolies in local telephone and cable service and unleash the competitive forces that will truly bring the United States into the information age." Bliley and other backers of the legislation hope to bring it to the floor this week. But that may prove very difficult. "I don't know how we're going to do that," said House Rules Committee Chairman Gerald Solomon (R-N.Y.). The Rules Committee schedules legislation for floor action and is giving priority to spending bills. The House is scheduled to begin a month-long vacation on Friday and backers of the Bliley bill don't want to give opponents, including the long-distance providers, an additional month to lobby legislators on the measure. (Kennedy Maize/19950801) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 08/01/95 ONLINE ****Major Overhaul, New Online Svc For Compuserve (NEWS)(ONLINE)(MSP)(00018) ****Major Overhaul, New Online Svc For Compuserve 08/01/95 KANSAS CITY, MISSOURI, U.S.A., 1995 AUG 1 (NB) -- CompuServe's (CIS) parent company H&R Block Inc (NYSE:HRB) said today the online service will go through a major overhaul that includes a simplified pricing structure, a new interface, and integrating Internet access into the main service. Another major part of today's announcement is that Block will launch a new consumer online service, targeted to novice consumers and users with special hobbies to enable quick access to areas of interest. Although the service doesn't have an official name yet, it is code named "Wow," Deborah Young, CIS spokesperson, told Newsbytes. Offerings on the new service will be more limited than under CIS, officials said, but members will be able to customize the service's features, and will have access to benefits like chat, electronic mail (e-mail), community groups, and online shopping. Pricing on the new service is expected to be lower than CIS, and is scheduled to be introduced later this year. All of these new plans and initiatives are in response to several factors, including growing competition in the commercial online service field, Young told Newsbytes. "Also, we consistently talk to our members and ask them what they want, in terms of pricing structure and actual software," she said. "They told us they want more for their online dollar, and for novice users, they want a streamlined service that is easier for them to use." Pricing on the main CIS service will be simplified greatly. The new structure employs a basic monthly fee of $9.95, which includes five hours of virtually unlimited access to almost all of CIS's services, including chat, forums, e-mail, and Internet access. Additional hours will be billed at $2.95 per hour. The five free hours in the basic fee do not apply to transaction-based services, like Disclosure, which provides access to financial and disclosure reports for publicly traded companies. But 90% of CIS's online services and 1000 forums will be available at no extra charge. In addition, a "power user" plan will be available to CIS subscribers. The plan charges $24.95 per month for 20 hours, with additional hours being billed at $1.95 an hours. The new pricing structure goes into effect September 10. CompuServe's "look" is also changing. In September, the service will release "CompuServe 2.0 for Windows," which will include an integrated Web browser for easy access. Currently CIS users have to exit the main service, and then re-dial in using proprietary Internet software. In the fall, CompuServe 3.0 hits the streets. That product promises a "completely redesigned interface with a new look and feel." It will have more colorful graphics, and will be easier to use, officials said. Other new aspects of the "new" CIS include improved customer service. The company's customer service department will be growing by about 50%, and its technological infrastructure is being updated. Children aren't being left out in the improvement plan. CIS will market "Internet in a Box for Kids," from Spry, in the fall. The new product will provide children with easy access to the Internet, including the World Wide Web. Parents will also have control over Internet sites that have inappropriate material with Internet in a Box for Kids. Young pointed out that CIS's new "Wow" service will also have similar parental control features. All of these plans will have an impact on Block's bottom line. The cost of carrying out the initiatives will total more than $70 million in fiscal 1996, and will reduce fiscal year 1996 profitability starting with Block's first quarter, which ended July 31, officials said. A one-time pretax benefit of about $30 million will partially offset the impact of those initiatives. However, officials said the improved CompuServe service should have a "significant positive impact" on revenues in fiscal 1997, and on earnings starting in fiscal 1998. (Bob Woods/19950801/Press Contacts: Ruth Pachman or Wendi Kopsick, CompuServe, 614-538-4306) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 08/01/95 APPLE Microsoft Ships Project for Power Mac (NEWS)(APPLE)(DEN)(00019) Microsoft Ships Project for Power Mac 08/01/95 REDMOND, WASHINGTON, U.S.A., 1995 AUG 1 (NB) -- Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ: MSFT) has started shipping Project version 4.0 for the Apple Computer Macintosh and Power Macintosh operating systems. The Intellisense technology already incorporated into other Microsoft products has been included in Project 4.0. Intellisense attempts to predict what the user wants to do and helps produce the desired result. Project 4.0 includes a GanttChartWizard to make it easier to create a professional looking Gantt Chart. The Wizard asks the user how he or she wants the chart to look, then applies the proper formatting, similar to the chart wizard in Microsoft's spreadsheet program, Excel. An interactive calendar view in Project 4.0 is designed to make it easier to understand a project timeline by using a standard wall calendar format, and a Report Gallery provides more than 20 professional reports at a click of the mouse. Objects can be placed on the user's Gantt chart using a collection of drawing tools that can create anything from arrows to text boxes. Project supports Object Linking and Embedding (OLE), so you can also include clip art or even Quicktime movies on the chart. The software takes advantage of Macintosh systems like Publish and Subscribe, QuickTime, Balloon Help. Microsoft has provided cross-platform functionality in Project 4.0 for the Macintosh that lets users share files with users of the Windows version of Project. "Cross platform design and identical file formats reduce training and support costs for companies that support both Macintosh and Windows operating systems," said Jon Reingold, general manager of the Microsoft Project business unit. Like Microsoft Excel version 5.0, Project 4.0 for Mac includes the Visual Basic programming language so users can build custom applications, and macros created in Project are transferable to Project 4.0 for Windows. Project 4.0 for Mac and Power Mac has an estimated selling price of $469 in the US and $659 in Canada. Licensed users of earlier versions of project can upgrade for about $149 US or $199 Canadian. To run Project 4.0 for Mac you need a Power Mac or at least a 68030-based Macintosh PC. Microsoft recommends a 68040 if you don't have a Power Mac. You also need System 7 or later, eight megabytes (MB) of memory, and at least 12MB of available hard disk space. For a full or custom installation, 14MB of disk space are required. (Jim Mallory/19950801/Press contact: Courtenay Miles, Waggener Edstrom for Microsoft, 503-245-0905; Public contact: Microsoft, tel 206-882-8080 or 800-426-9400) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 08/01/95 GENERAL ****Bill Gates Meets With President Clinton (NEWS)(GENERAL)(DEN)(00020) ****Bill Gates Meets With President Clinton 08/01/95 WASHINGTON, D.C., U.S.A., 1995 AUG 1 (NB) -- Bill Gates, Microsoft chairman, met privately last week with President Bill Clinton and other top White House officials, according to Interactive Week magazine. The magazine reported that Gates, whose company faces the possibility of an antitrust suit initiated by the US Department of Justice (DOJ) that could cost the software company millions of dollars if it loses, met with President Clinton, White House chief of staff Leon Panetta and Treasury Secretary Robert Rubin. Gates also reportedly met with House Speaker Newt Gingrich. Government officials played down the importance of Gates' White House visit, saying he was just one of several corporate CEOs (chief executive officers) participating in what was described as a "small, private lunch" with Secretary Rubin. A government spokesperson declined to identify the other luncheon participants. A White House spokesperson acknowledged that Gates met with Panetta, and briefly with President Clinton, but described the meetings as "nonsubstantive courtesy calls." A Gingrich spokesperson acknowledged the Gates meeting but declined to discuss what the two nationally known figures discussed. The Justice Department is looking into whether Microsoft's plan to bundle access to its new online service, Microsoft Network (MSN), is anti-competitive. Not surprisingly, competitors like America Online, Compuserve, and Prodigy claim it is, since those services usually have to pay PC makers to have their access software loaded on PCs. Microsoft claims that by including MSN access with its new operating system and graphical user interface Windows 95, it is simply offering the user additional value. Unless the court rules otherwise, Windows 95 users will be able to access MSN, which is a fee-based subscription service, by clicking on an icon in Windows 95 the same way applications like word processing and spreadsheets are launched. Both MSN and Windows 95 are scheduled to launch on August 24, 1995 and Gates may know something about the DOJ investigation that isn't yet public knowledge, since he sent Windows 95 to manufacturing recently despite the pending lawsuit that could halt shipment of Windows 95 if it includes MSN access. However, Interactive Week said industry watchers believe if DOJ wins an injunction the court would most likely tell Microsoft to cease shipment of Windows 95 with MSN access bundled, but wouldn't penalize PC makers, who would have to delay sales until they could re-load a sanitized version of Windows 95. A recall of shipped copies of Windows 95 is also not considered likely The White House visit is not a new experience for Gates, who visited there at this time last year just prior to the announcement that Microsoft and DOJ had reached a consent decree regarding DOJ's allegations of antitrust practices by Microsoft. Those allegations dealt with the way Microsoft charges PC makers to use its operating system software. EDITOR'S NOTE: See related story on Gates in Canada, this issue. (Jim Mallory/19950801) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 08/01/95 GENERAL 4.6 Gigabyte Optical Drive (NEWS)(GENERAL)(LAX)(00021) 4.6 Gigabyte Optical Drive 08/01/95 IRVINE, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1995 AUG 1 (NB) -- Pinnacle Micro Inc. (NASDAQ: PNCL) has introduced the Apex 4.6 gigabyte (GB) 5.25" rewritable optical drive for desktop computing. Pinnacle claims the unit offers the world's highest capacity on a single 5.25" disk, and performance equal to that of hard disk drives with a 6 MB (megabyte) per second data rate. The Apex will be offered as both an external drive and an internal 5.25" half-height drive. Since the Apex is the same size as a CD-ROM drive, it will fit into virtually any computer system or open bay. The Apex is slated to ship as early as September. Jennifer Nielsen, a spokesperson for Pinnacle told Newsbytes, "We have developed an optical drive that offers a lower cost per megabyte than an equivalent capacity hard drive. This drive, the Apex 4.6GB, leapfrogs the coming industry standard of 2.6 gigabyte magneto- optical (MO) capacities. We believe this is the world's highest capacity drive with performance equal to the best hard drive." Retail prices are expected to be at $1,695 complete for systems, and will include one 4.6 GB optical disk. Street prices are estimated at less than $1,500. Additional 4.6 GB optical disks will retail at $199, or $895 for a 5-pack. At a retail cost-per-megabyte of less than $.37, the Apex is priced lower than magnetic technology. OEM (original equipment manufacturers) pricing should be approximately $800, or $.17 per megabyte, down from $1.25 per megabyte for current optical drives, according to the company. OEM pricing for current hard disk drives of comparable capacity is approximately $.23 per megabyte (MB). "Until now optical drives had two drawbacks when compared to fixed hard drives: cost and performance," said Scott Blum, executive vice- president of Pinnacle. "Not only does the Apex eliminate these drawbacks, but it provides significant advantages such as unlimited capacity with removable media and laser technology for greater reliability over magnetic disk drives." The Apex utilizes a FAST SCSI-2 interface with a raw data rate of 6.0 MB per second, a synchronous sustained transfer rate of 4.5 MB per second, and a synchronous burst transfer rate up to 10 MB per second, according to company documents. Jamey Robbins, vice-president of Pinnacle's R&D facility, said: "This is the first drive since the CD-ROM to apply the advantages of optical technology in a cost-effective manner over magnetic technology." "Improvements in optical technology such as these are only the beginning," said Blum. "You've seen optical technology used in laser jet printers, CD-ROM products, and medical surgery, which have all improved upon a previous technology. Optical storage technology has tremendous potential for rapid advancement. We are just getting off the launch pad and we have a long and wide window of opportunity." "The Apex also features a jukebox interface connection," points out Nielsen, "that allows the Apex to be installed into existing jukeboxes. An optical jukebox carrying two Apex drives yields the same cost-per- megabyte as a tape backup system. With Apex, optical jukeboxes become cheaper than tape at $.04 per megabyte." Nielson continued, "Optical technology now offers several features to power-users such as high capacity on a single disk, removability for unlimited capacity, portability, security, and a guaranteed shelf life of 30 years." Pinnacle has established a manufacturing facility for its Apex product located in Colorado Springs, Colorado. The company estimates this new facility is capable of producing up to 40,000 units per month. Founded in 1987, Pinnacle Micro is headquartered in Irvine with offices in North America, Europe and the Pacific Rim. (Richard Bowers/19950801/Press Contact: Jennifer Nielsen, Pinnacle Micro, 800-553-7070) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 08/01/95 WINDOWS Utility Finds UK Postal Codes (NEWS)(WINDOWS)(LON)(00022) Utility Finds UK Postal Codes 08/01/95 HEMEL HEMPSTEAD, HERTFORDSHIRE, ENGLAND, 1995 AUG 1 (NB) -- Nildram Software has announced the release of Postcode, a DOS/Windows package that allows UK addresses to be looked up from their post code (similar to the ZIP code system seen in North America). Adrian Mardlin of the company told Newsbytes that the package ships in a DOS TSR (terminate & stay resident) version, as well as a Windows version that supports Windows DDE (Dynamic Data Exchange). The Windows version supports direct pasting into applications, plus programming interfaces for many popular languages, such as Visual BASIC (for DOS or Windows), Microsoft Access, Delphi, Paradox and others. Two versions of Postcode are available -- shareware is UKP 42-50 and "professional" is UKP 99 for the software, plus UKP 55 per year for the database itself. "The shareware version, because of licensing restrictions, only allows the town, county and dialling code to be searched from the post code," Mardlin explained to Newsbytes, adding that the main function of the shareware version is to allow people to sample the package. The shareware version is available for download on the company's BBS on +44-01442-891109 or via the World Wide Web on http://www.nildram.co.uk/nildram/postcode.html . FTP users can FTP to ftp://ftp.nildram.co.uk/pub/nildram/afdpost.zip . A Unix version of Postcode is also under development and is expected to be released later this year. Mardlin said that he does not expect the pricing to exceed the UKP 198 mark. "This will make the Unix version as competitive as the DOS/Windows version," he told Newsbytes. (Steve Gold/19950731/Press & Reader Contact: Nildram Software +44- 1442-891331; Fax +44-1442-890303; Internet Email: adrian@nildram.co.uk) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 08/01/95 GENERAL UK Electronic Commerce Show Details (NEWS)(GENERAL)(LON)(00023) UK Electronic Commerce Show Details 08/01/95 LONDON, ENGLAND, 1995 AUG 1 (NB) -- A prestigious line-up of respected industry figures and senior representatives of household name companies have combined forces in what organizers claim is a powerful seminar program for the first Electronic Commerce 95 event. Electronic Commerce 95, which is being billed as the first conference and exhibition of its type, will take place at The Barbican, London, between 31st October and 2nd November this year. According to Maggie Davies, a spokeswoman for the organizers, Touchstone Exhibitions, CCTA Director Roy Dibble will present his business vision for the next decade; CERN's Head of Logistics Mike Doran and Colin Bell, currently CEO of Aztec International and formerly with both AT&T and IBM, will be joined by speakers from major companies including British Shoe Corporation, Marks & Spencer and Nestle, Microsoft. 30 seminars have been arranged to run in parallel with the three-day exhibition, the aim of which is to showcase and present the range of opportunities that electronic commerce offers the European business community. According to Davies, strategic management issues will be tackled alongside financial, sales and marketing, purchasing, logistics, distribution, IT, communications and other related topics. An educational stream will provide novices with guidelines on using the Internet and World Wide Web, a hitchhiker's guide to e-mail and messaging, as well as an introduction to electronic commerce. Smaller companies' interests will be addressed at a clinic specifically for SMEs (small and medium enterprises) while a free advice center will operate throughout the three-day event. Davies explained that the broad appeal of the seminar program is supported by a flexible pricing structure which allows delegates to pay per session attended. One option for multi-discipline management teams is a Company Rover Ticket which enables one or more delegates from an organization to attend up to 10 sessions. Prices start at UKP 90 for a single session or UKP 70 for multiple sessions, while the Company Rover Ticket costs 495 UKP. The public sector is well represented with speakers from DSS (Department of Social Security), HMSO (Her Majesty's Stationery Office), the Inland Revenue and HM Customs & Excise looking at government policy and action. Plans call for payments over the Internet, automatic data capture, supply chain productivity, electronic cash and the integration of electronic commerce into the business to be tackled in the seminar program. Private sector speakers are drawn from: retailers Sainsbury, Somerfield and Tesco; manufacturers Bass, Guinness, Kraft Jacobs Suchard and McVities; packaging supplier Lawson Mardon; distribution specialists DHL and Wincanton Group; car rental giant EuroDollar; financial institutions APACS, Royal Bank of Scotland and Midland Bank; SMEs SJ Dixon and Tiffany Sharwoods Frozen Foods. IBM, ICL, Control Data and Microsoft will all address the issue of "Where does the Internet fit?" while the Law Commission and leading barristers will put electronic commerce in the dock. The exhibition, which is free to attend, meanwhile, focuses on business solutions, will feature the latest products and services for electronic commerce spanning the Internet, business process re- engineering (BPR), email, electronic data interchange (EDI), ISDN (Integrated Services Digital Network), multimedia, product coding, software, telecomms and value added network services (VANS). In addition to the free SME Clinic and Advice Center, a visitor theater, user group meetings and product demonstrations are all included. Electronic Commerce 95 is supported by the industry's leading associations and suppliers to provide the business community with the first European forum for electronic commerce. (Steve Gold/19950731/Press Contact: Maggie Davies +44-1344-301022; Internet Email: maggied@cix.compulink.co.uk; Reader Contact: Touchstone Exhibitions & Conferences +44-181-332-0044) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 08/01/95 APPLE UK - Insignia's PowerMac PC Emulator (NEWS)(APPLE)(LON)(00024) UK - Insignia's PowerMac PC Emulator 08/01/95 HIGH WYCOMBE, BUCKINGHAMSHIRE, ENGLAND, 1995 AUG 1 (NB) -- Insignia Solutions has unveiled SoftWindows 2.0 for Power Mac, a much improved PC DOS/Windows emulator for the Apple Computer PowerMac series. According to Insignia, this new emulator allows PowerMac users to run all DOS and Windows applications, even those that require Windows enhanced mode. The package is aimed at both business and home PowerMac users and has the ability to switch instantly between the "System" and "PC" environments seamlessly. "SoftWindows 2.0 marks a significant milestone for Mac users because, no matter which PowerMac they have, they can now run all PC applications on their machines," explained George Buchan, UK general manager and senior vice president of engineering with Insignia. According to Buchan, users can run the very latest PC multimedia software, "some of which may never be available in a Mac format." "SoftWindows takes the PC into the world of the Mac and, by incorporating new Mac features such as Apple Guide, means that it is easier to use than a normal PC," he said. According to Insignia, compatibility between different computing environments is now becoming increasingly important within the corporate environment where information sharing between employees is essential for an organization to compete effectively. SoftWindows 2.0 allows this to happen, the company claims, because of its support for Windows enhanced mode. This allows all Windows and DOS apps to run on the PowerMac machines, subject to memory requirements. So how does SoftWindows 2.0 allow the PowerMac to run Windows in enhanced mode? The company claims that, in earlier versions of the PC emulator, speed was the problem. This version allows the PowerMac to "boot up" Windows in enhanced mode, a task that requires 35 million processor transactions, compared with five million in standard mode. Insignia claims that it has achieved performance levels for SoftWindows 2.0 that are comparable to SoftWindows 1.0, while emulating the 80486 chipset. The emulator package can run at speeds of between that of a 33 megahertz (MHz) 386 and a 25 MHz 486 chipset- based PC, depending on the user's PowerMac system and configuration. The emulator's performance is based mainly on the host CPU (central processing unit) on which SoftWindows is running and can be increased with additional memory or a secondary cache card. Performance of the package is claimed to be scalable, so the faster the CPU on the PowerMac, the faster SoftWindows will run. In use, SoftWindows 2.0 supports the full Windows sound system, allowing the playback of sound from multimedia CD-ROM discs such as Microsoft's Encarta 95. It also supports sound annotation features seen in Word, Excel, 1-2-3 and Notes. UK pricing of the package has been set at UKP 329, with similar pricing through global distributors. Shipment is expected later this year. (Sylvia Dennis/19950731/Press Contact: Amanda Hassall, GBC +44-181- 332-7022; Internet Email: mandy@gbc.co.uk; Reader Contact: Insignia Solutions +44-1494-459426; Internet Email david.angwin@isltd.insignia.com). Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 08/01/95 WINDOWS Humongous Windows 95 Exploration Titles For Kids (NEWS)(WINDOWS)(DEN)(00025) Humongous Windows 95 Exploration Titles For Kids 08/01/95 SEATTLE, WASHINGTON, U.S.A., 1995 AUG 1 (NB) -- Humongous Entertainment has announced that two new "Lets Explore" series CD-ROM-based children's programs for Windows 95 are now in retail stores. Humongous is one of the first companies to announce availability of Windows 95-based software, although that trickle is expected to grow to a flood as the launch of Microsoft's new operating system/graphical user interface on August 24, 1995 approaches. #IMAGE 1 20 TWPCX \images\95080125.PCX Click here for photo The two 32-bit titles, "Let's Explore the Airport" and "Let's Explore the Farm," are the first CD-ROMs from Humongous' new Junior Field Trips product line that is co-published with Random House. The company said a third title, "Let's Explore the Jungle," is set for October release. Players using the Humongous titles can explore every part of the airport or farm, or just investigate the areas that interest them. Each title has more than 30 areas to explore, and 250 detailed explanations. An alphabetical index of information pages is hyperlinked to background information and illustrations. Hyperlinking lets the user jump to another picture or explanation that expands on the original subject. The jump is made by clicking on a highlighted word. Humongous uses hand-drawn original characters as guides through its various programs, and the user can call one of those characters, Buzzy the Knowledge Bug, to fly in and provide helpful information. When the user clicks on the "What is it?" icon and places the question-mark cursor over an item of interest, Buzzy flies in and says the word aloud. Click on the item and you are transported to an illustrated page of information about that item. Click on a blue speaker icon and Buzzy reads the text aloud. "Let's Explore the Airport" teaches children ages three through eight years to explore. In and around the airport kids see and hear cars drive by, fuel trucks service airplanes, people walk by and airplanes take off and land. In Let's Explore the Farm" users can dive into the pond, investigate the beaver lodge, explore a gopher hole, watch a beehive close up, and check out a vegetable garden and a harvester machine. You can also see and hear the farmer plow his field with a tractor and watch horses trot, pigs wallow in the mud and birds fly. If you click on the "Time to Play" icon you move to a games section that has games relating to the subject of the software (the airport or the farm). Both programs have Find It!, a trivia game and a coloring book as part of the five games. "Airport" also has Lost Luggage and What is It?, while Eggs Away and Spell It are included with "Let's Explore the Farm." Lost Luggage has players moving colored suitcases through a series of mazes and putting them in colored bins by using a series of conveyor belts. Eggs Away has the user trying to catch eggs as they are laid by chickens and fall towards the bottom of the screen. Spell It is a traditional hangman type game with players filling in blank spaces to spell a word. What is It? requires the player to match a picture on the left side of the screen with one of four words on the right. Buzzy reads the words, which lets pre-schoolers enjoy the program. In Find It! you must remember and find items around the airport or farm. Easy, medium and difficult levels are user-selectable. Game scores can be saved and printed, and the information pages and coloring pages can also be printed. To use the Junior Field Trips CD-ROMs, which have an estimated selling price of $29.95, you need at least a 386SX-based PC running at 33 megahertz or higher, four megabytes of memory, a Super VGA monitor, sound card and double-speed CD-ROM drive. To run Windows 95 Microsoft recommends eight megabytes of memory. Humongous Entertainment spokesperson John Uppendahl told Newsbytes the Junior Field Trips titles being announced bring to a total of six the number of Windows 95-based products the company has in retail stores. Uppendahl said the company will ship a CD-ROM version of "Freddi Fish and the Case of the Missing Kelp Seeds," with an estimated selling price of $39.95, later this year. Uppendahl said "Putt-Putt Saves the Zoo" at $39.95 is set to ship on August 10, 1995 for Windows 95 and Windows 3.1 on CD-ROM. (Jim Mallory/19950731/Press contact: John Uppendahl, Humongous Entertainment, tel 206-486-9258; Public contact: Humongous Entertainment, tel 206-486-9258 or fax 206-486-9494/EXPLORE950801/PHOTO) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 08/01/95 PC Diamond Multimedia Intros 28.8 Modem With Telephony (NEWS)(PC)(SFO)(00026) Diamond Multimedia Intros 28.8 Modem With Telephony 08/01/95 SAN JOSE, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1995 AUG 1 (NB) -- Telephony features as part of an internal modem have become increasingly popular for small offices and home users. Diamond Multimedia (NASDAQ:DIMD), a PC peripheral card manufacturer and marketer, says it is the first company to integrate telephone features into a 28.8 kilobit per second (Kbps) modem with TeleCommander 3500XL. Targeting the small office/home office (SOHO) marketplace, Diamond's new internal modem offers fax send/receive/forward, voice mail, data transfer, pager notification, fax-on-demand, call screening, call forwarding and other features. This new card also includes 16-bit, CD-quality audio (Sound Blaster Pro compatible) which means users may free an expansion slot by removing their sound board functions to the TeleCommander board. When questioned about installation conflicts with one card replacing two, Jeff Orr, Diamond's product manager for communications, told Newsbytes, "We have really made the installation too easy. The are no switches or jumpers to set and the installation software automatically removes old drivers and pieces of code which might be distributed throughout the system." Orr also confirmed this 28.8 Kbps modem is compliant with Microsoft's TAPI (Telephony Applications Programming Interface) which is a communications and telephony specification in Windows 95. While it may not seem important at this time, TAPI support will become a basic requirement for many new Win 95 communications products expected to hit the market in the next 12 months. TeleCommander 3500XL also includes Netcom's NetCruiser for Internet access and VocalTec's Internet Phone capability. The latter allows users to make phone calls though the Internet and avoid long distance charges. Currently, Internet Phone technology allows only half duplex conversations which means only one person may speak at a time. Full-duplex capability is expected in the next few months as a software upgrade. Full-duplex will allow users to speak simultaneously, the same as a standard phone call. Telephone messaging through the new card is handled by Thought Communication's Fax Talk Speakerphone and faxes are handled by Thought Communication's Fax Talk. Software for CompuServe, America Online and the Imagination Network is also shipped with TeleCommander 3500XL. This 28.8 Kbps telephony, sound board requires a 386/33 or faster processor, and open ISA Bus slot, Windows 3.1 or better, DOS 3.3 or better and 4 megabytes of memory. Estimated street price for the card is $329. (Patrick McKenna/19950728/Press Contact: Sara Faiola, Faiola Davis Public Relations, tel 213--933-4959; Public Information: Diamond Multimedia, tel 408-325-7000/DIAMOND950801/PHOTO) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 08/01/95 WINDOWS Edmark Ships Win 95 Version of Sammy's Science House (NEWS)(WINDOWS)(DEN)(00027) Edmark Ships Win 95 Version of Sammy's Science House 08/01/95 REDMOND, WASHINGTON, U.S.A., 1995 AUG 1 (NB) -- Edmark Corp. (NASDAQ: EDMK) has joined a small but rapidly growing number of software publishers shipping software optimized for Windows 95, Microsoft's new operating system and Macintosh-like user interface, before Windows 95 is generally available. Edmark has announced it is shipping the Windows 95 version of "Sammy's Science House." The program is designed to help children ages three to six years build early science skills, said the company. "Sammy's" uses features of Windows 95 like autoplay, a tool that automatically launched a program when its CD-ROM disk is inserted in a CD-ROM drive. The program also contains a feature Edmark calls Parents Video Presentation, which it said is specially designed to give parents helpful information and insights into the educational benefits of the program. In the presentation, Donna Stanger, Edmark vice president of product development and a former teacher for 20 years, discusses early learning and each of the activities in the software. "Sammy" is a friendly striped snake who acts as the user's guide to the program's five activities designed to teach skills like observation, classification,comparison and sequencing. The young users create machines and toys, explore weather conditions, create short films by arranging frames in order, sort pictures of plants, animals and minerals, and discover how nature and wildlife change from season to season. The program has two learning modes, Explore and Discover and Question and Answer. The company said the first is designed to promote creativity and inventiveness while the latter asks the child to answer a question or perform a task. "Sammy's Science House" is available on CD-ROM for both Macintosh and Windows-based PCs, with an estimated selling price of about $40. The Macintosh version requires a color Mac, System 7.0.1 or higher, a double-speed or better CD-ROM drive, four megabytes (MB) of memory, a 13-inch or larger color monitor, and a hard drive. Optional equipment includes Edmark's TouchWindows and a printer. Windows users need a PC using at least a 386DX 33 megahertz processor; Windows 3.1 running in the enhanced mode or Windows 95; a minimum of four megabytes of memory (Edmark recommends 8MB); A double speed or faster CD-ROM drive; Super VGA display, hard disk with at least 2MB of available space, a color monitor and a mouse. You also need a sound board. Edmark TouchWindows and a printer are optional. (Jim Mallory/19950731/Press contact: Amy Gutmann, Edmark, tel 206-556-8825; Public contact: Edmark, tel 206-556-8400 or fax 206-556-8998) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 08/01/95 BUSINESS ****Broderbund To Acquire The Learning Company (NEWS)(BUSINESS)(SFO)(00028) ****Broderbund To Acquire The Learning Company 08/01/95 NOVATO, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 199 AUG 1 (NB) -- Broderbund Software (NASDAQ:BROD) announced an agreement to merge with The Learning Company (NASDAQ:LRNG), a leader in the educational personal software market. The $440 million deal is expected to close by October following regulatory investigation and filings. The deal calls for holders of The Learning Company (TLC) common stock to receive .8125 shares of Broderbund common stock for each share of TLC stock. The transaction involves approximately 6.1 million shares of Broderbund stock based on a closing price of $72. Upon completion of the deal, TLC stockholders will control approximately 23% of the combined company. Speaking to Newsbytes, Eric Winkler, spokesperson for Broderbund, said, "The merger with The Learning Company fits perfectly into our expansion strategy. While we have introduced some educational titles, we are very pleased to be able to add a complete line of successful single subject educational titles. Broderbund has had several titles such as Myst and Carmen San Diego which have been very successful, but we do not want to be known as a company for just big hit titles." Broderbund is also known for The Print Shop, a popular graphics program for the creation of flyers, banners, announcements, letterhead and other documents. Winkler also said TLC's foreign language software opens new international doors for Broderbund. Popular TLC programs include Reader Rabbit, Student Writing Center and Learn to Speak, a foreign language series. As part of the merger, Bill Dinsmore will continue as president of TLC and become a member of the Broderbund board. TLC also released financial results for its fiscal year 1995. Net revenues for the year increased 38% to $53.2 million and net income was up 70% to $6.8 million over the previous fiscal year. During the 95 year, TLC introduced 67 products as compared to 44 releases in 1994. (Patrick McKenna/19950801/Press Contact: Eric Winkler, Broderbund, tel 415-382-4568) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 95 08/01/95 WINDOWS Lotus Updates SmartSuite/Windows, Plans For Windows (NEWS)(WINDOWS)(BOS)(00029) Lotus Updates SmartSuite/Windows, Plans For Windows 95 08/01/95 BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS, U.S.A., 1995 AUG 1 (NB) -- Lotus's newly unveiled SmartSuite 4.0 for Windows 3.1 brings new features for team computing that will be further expanded in Windows 95 editions of SmartSuite and NotesSuite, said Kathleen Hayner, SmartSuite marketing manager, in a conference call with Newsbytes. Lotus will announce the Windows 95 edition of SmartSuite shortly after the August 24 ship date of Microsoft's 32-bit operating environment, Hayner revealed. The Windows 95 version of NotesSuite will be introduced some time after Microsoft's shipment of Windows 95, she added. In conjunction with the introduction of SmartSuite 4.0 for Windows 3.1, Lotus announced NotesSuite 2.0 for Windows 3.1, a product that will combine SmartSuite 4.0, the latest version of Lotus Notes, and the NotesSuite Application Collection (NAC) 2.0. Both suites for Windows 3.1 are slated to ship in the third quarter. "I think it's significant that we're updating SmartSuite for Windows 3.1 with new team computing features. There will be a period of time where people will be evaluating Windows 95, and they will want these kinds of capabilities in Windows 3.1," Hayner told Newsbytes. Lotus's new Word Pro word processing package is the team computing "leader" in the Windows 3.1 suite, with capabilities that include TeamMail, Versioning, TeamReview, TeamConsolidate, and Multi Editor Revision Marking, according to the marketing manager. "What's unique is that we provide `true versioning," Hayner reported. "Not only can you design your review group through TeamReview -- selecting who will be able to edit a document, and how -- but you can also consolidate all the comments and review from everyone on your team." Lotus's new TeamMail "allows you to distribute a document to everyone in your group for their comments and `return comments,'" according to the marketing manager. Beyond that, Word Pro also includes a set of writing tools, such as a highlighter, that are "oriented toward this type of commenting," she added. Some of the team computing features in Word Pro, including TeamMail, will also appear in 1-2-3 Release 5 and Approach 3.0, two other applications that will be included in SmartSuite 4.0 for Windows 3.1, she said. SmartSuite 4.0 will incorporate three products that will be appearing in the Lotus suite for the first time: Word Pro, the Organizer 2.1 update, and ScreenCam 2.0, an enhanced edition of Lotus' tool for creating PC-based "movies" and presentations. Three other members of SmartSuite 4.0 -- 1-2-3 Release 5, Approach 3.0, and Freelance Graphics 2.1 -- were previously included in Lotus SmartSuite 3.0. But also in SmartSuite 4.0, Lotus has lowered its pricing to make the suite "more affordable" for new and existing users, she maintained. Lotus' estimated retail pricing (ERP) is $399 for SmartSuite 4.0 for Windows and $199 for upgrades. Lotus has actually begun its movement toward team computing prior to SmartSuite 4.0, she pointed out. Lotus 1-2-3, for example, already includes a version manager that "lets you keep more than one set of information in a cel, or a range of cels, at one time." The Lotus 1-2-3 version manager "allows many contributors to add their comments, and the comments to be reviewed all in one place," according to the Lotus exec. But users will see a lot more team computing in SmartSuite and NotesSuite for Windows 95, Hayner told Newsbytes. "We really have multi levels of team computing," she remarked. Meanwhile, NotesSuite 2.0 for Windows 3.1 will represent the first edition of SmartSuite to include NAC, a series of information and workflow applications in areas such as contact management, expense reporting, customer feedback, and workgroup document sharing, Newsbytes was told. The US version of NAC will include two new starter applications: Sales and Proposals, for creating and tracking sales proposals, and generating contracts; and Budget Planning, for electronically tracking budget and revenue forecast worksheets among workgroups of Lotus Notes and 1-2-3 users. Sales Proposals and Contracts uses Notes/FX to access 1-2-3 and Word Pro, while Approach is employed for creating reports, Hayner said. Lotus also announced that a stand-alone version of Organizer 2.1 for Windows 3.1 will ship in early August. The update will provide faster performance, the ability to reindex and compact user files to reduce hard drive storage requirements, and a new Quick Reference Card for quick look-up of PIM (personal information manager) and group scheduling tasks, according to Hayner. Organizer 2.1 also provides three new print layouts: Calendar Weekly 2-page, Calendar Daily Page, and a Notepad table of contents -- plus a Print Layout Guide that contains samples of each print layout, and gives tips for layout customization. Also new is "show- through" printing for three Calendar layouts. Enhancements for administrators include an expanded Administration Guide; integration of online help with the Administration Guide; and a new utilities menu option for changing or resetting user access levels, and compacting Organizer files. Organizer 2.1 will carry an ERP of $99. Upgrades will be free to users of SmartSuite 3.1. Upgrades will also be available to users of other Lotus products, at varying prices. (Jacqueline Emigh/19950801/Reader Contact: Lotus, 800-343-5414; Press Contact: Doug Broad, Lois Paul & Partners for Lotus, 617-862- 4514) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 08/01/95 ONLINE Free Internet Press Release Service (NEWS)(ONLINE)(LON)(00030) Free Internet Press Release Service 08/01/95 COVENTRY, WEST MIDLANDS, ENGLAND, 1995 AUG 1 (NB) -- M2 Communications has announced it has expanded its international press release distribution service with the launch of NewsWEB, a World Wide Web site that has press releases of all types available for all comers, without the need for pre-registration. #IMAGE 1 20 TWPCX \images\95080130.PCX Click here for photo Darren Ingram, managing director of the company, told Newsbytes that the service charges a modest fee for companies to display their press releases on the Web site, but end users -- the readers -- are not charged for access, which is not restricted to members of the press. "I see the service as enhancing our existing PressWire service, which is also on the Web site, but it is purely for press releases, rather than stories, as this product is distinct from our existing news wire services," he explained. According to Ingram, until 30 September of this year, companies can have their press material carried free-of-charge on NewsWEB and M2 PressWIRE, as well as take advantage of "a very low annual subscription fee" for unlimited usage. According to Ingram, many companies have tried to introduce a service like NewsWEB but failed because they have either required cumbersome pre-registration before access is given or the range of information resources carried is just too small to make the site a regular visit for busy Internetters. "The openness of NewsWEB provides a much greater reach to be achieved by supporting companies. NewsWEB is international in nature and covers a wide range of news disciplines' although there is an extremely strong presence from communications and computing-related companies," he said. "My aim with NewsWEB is that, if a busy Internetter has only six sites they visit per day, NewsWEB is one of those sites," he told Newsbytes, adding that he does not see the service as competing with other Web- accessible press release services such as the IPMG service for journalists. "NewsWEB builds on our very successful M2 PressWIRE service, which last week announced that it had carried 15,080 stories in the first seven months of 1995 -- ahead of its December 1995 target. Companies around the world are clamoring onto the Internet but forgetting that it is very easy to be lost. Journalists and possibly more importantly the end-users now demand access to rapidly-updated material. NewsWEB will deliver this and more," he explained. The annual subscription fee for basic NewsWEB press release distribution and carriage is UKP 500 for unlimited use -- material must be submitted by disk or electronic mail. Until 30 September the annual fee is reduced to 300. NewsWEB is located on http://www.m2.com/nw.html . (Steve Gold/19950801/Press & Reader Contact: +44-1203-717417; Fax: +44-1203-717418; Internet Email: di@m2.com/NEWSWEB080195/PHOTO) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 7 08/01/95 TELECOM Poland - 4 Cellular Operators Expected In ' (NEWS)(TELECOM)(LON)(00031) Poland - 4 Cellular Operators Expected In '97 08/01/95 WARSAW, POLAND, 1995 AUG 1 (NB) -- The Polish Government has announced plans to licence a further three cellular operators to compete with Centertel, the Polish Telecom-owned telcoms company. According to Andrezej Zielinski, the Polish Minister for Communications, two licences for GSM (Global System for Mobile communications), will be granted later this year, and a PCN (Personal Communications Network) licence is expected next year. Speaking with journalists, Zielinski said that it was time for the people of Poland to have access to the benefits of competition. He added that he expects at least some of the companies launching competing cellular services to be joint venture operations between Polish companies and foreign partners. "A new era in the Polish telecommunications is opening. New operators will guarantee that mobile telephones services become common," he said, adding that he hopes to see around a million cellphone users in Poland by the end of the decade. Zielinski went on to say that the two GSM licence tenders will be announced next month (September), and the successful bidders will be announced at the end of this year, with operations expected to start next summer. Interestingly, under current Polish legislation, any companies wanting to bid for the cellular licences must have at least some degree of shareholding in Poland. For all practical purposes, this means that the cellular companies that are successful will be joint ventures between Polish companies and foreign telcos such as AT&T, Deutsche Telekom or France Telecom. According to Zielinski, when viewing bids from such joint ventures, the Government will assess the bid on a lot more than the actual cash on the table. Zielinski said that the Ministry wants to see operators having existing experience in operating a cellular network. Interestingly, Newsbytes notes that Centertel, the cellular operator, is only partly owned by the Polish Government, notably to the tune of 51 percent. The remaining shares in the company are owned by Ameritech and France Telecom. Centertel has been something of a disappointment to subscribers, Newsbytes notes. Since its launch four years ago, the analog cellular network has 50,000 subscribers, who can only use their phones across 50 percent of the country. There is still some contention over whether Centertel will be allowed to bid for a GSM licence, despite that has been said by the Government before. Zielinski told journalists that the Government is keen to avoid a monopoly situation with Poland's cellular telephone networks. (Sylvia Dennis/19950801) (SUMMARY)(GENERAL)(MSP)(00032) Newsbytes Daily Summary 08/01/95 MINNEAPOLIS, MINNESOTA, U.S.A., 1995 AUG 1 (NB) -- These are capsules of all today's news stories: ======================================================================== ------------| N E W S B Y T E S D A I L Y S U M M A R Y |---------- ------------| Tuesday, August 1, 1995 |---------- ======================================================================== (c) Newsbytes News Network (Tm) Editor in Chief: Wendy Woods ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Newsbytes News Network is a computer and telecom industry news wire and digitized picture service. Our news stream includes more than 30 daily first-hand reported US and international news stories about computing and telecommunications. For more information, please e-mail to 'administrator@newsbytes.com' ------------------------------------------------------------------------ CATEGORY HEADLINES (*** indicates today's top stories) STORY # ======================================================================== APPLE Microsoft Ships Project for Power Mac...................... 19 APPLE UK - Insignia's PowerMac PC Emulator....................... 24 BROADCAST Cheyenne Teams With Avid, Quantum On Video For Macintosh... 14 BUSINESS China - Compaq Seeks To Keep #1 Spot....................... 13 BUSINESS ****Symantec Cleared To Take Over Delrina................. 16 BUSINESS ****Broderbund To Acquire The Learning Company............ 28 EDUCATION China - Network For College Enrollments.................... 11 EDUCATION Oracle Education Center For India.......................... 12 GENERAL Gates Shuns "Lesser Nobility" In Canadian Capital.......... 01 GENERAL Hertz to Use Satellite Locating System..................... 04 GENERAL ****Bill Gates Meets With President Clinton............... 20 GENERAL 4.6 Gigabyte Optical Drive................................. 21 GENERAL UK Electronic Commerce Show Details........................ 23 GOVT GTSI Stuck In Red Ink...................................... 10 NETWORK ****Delrina Acquires Intel's Net SatisFAXtion............. 15 ONLINE Kaplan Intros CD-ROM, Plans New Content For AOL, Web....... 05 ONLINE ****Major Overhaul, New Online Svc For Compuserve......... 18 ONLINE Free Internet Press Release Service........................ 30 PC Diamond Multimedia Intros 28.8 Modem With Telephony........ 26 PDA Digital Voice Message Pad For Home Use..................... 06 TELECOM Optical Transmission Tech Displayed At NEC................. 07 TELECOM ****Clinton Threatens Telecom Veto........................ 17 TELECOM Poland - 4 Cellular Operators Expected In '97.............. 31 TRENDS Logitech Creates A New Breed Of Mouse...................... 03 TRENDS NEC Shows Future Products, Developments.................... 08 WINDOWS Symantec's Windows 95 Products............................. 02 WINDOWS Collabra Ships Collabra 2.0, With Client-Server Option..... 09 WINDOWS Utility Finds UK Postal Codes.............................. 22 WINDOWS Humongous Windows 95 Exploration Titles For Kids........... 25 WINDOWS Edmark Ships Win 95 Version of Sammy's Science House....... 27 WINDOWS Lotus Updates SmartSuite/Windows, Plans For Windows 95..... 29 ======================================================================== These are the headlines and first paragraphs of each story, in order: 1 -> Gates Shuns "Lesser Nobility" In Canadian Capital -- Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates made a rare visit to Ottawa, Canada's capital, last Friday. Ottawa received Gates like royalty, but some of the local high tech nobility you might have expected to see in the receiving line couldn't even get a ticket to the observation gallery. 2 -> Symantec's Windows 95 Products -- August belongs to Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT). For the next three weeks, the computer industry will be flooded with announcements about Win 95 software and hardware products. Early out of the gate is Symantec (NASDAQ:SYMC) with a complete offering of its desktop management and antivirus tools for the new operating system (OS). 3 -> Logitech Creates A New Breed Of Mouse -- Logitech has announced what it claims is a major breakthrough in "pointing device" technology 4 -> Hertz to Use Satellite Locating System -- People who rent Hertz cars in nine US markets have the chance to always know where they're driving. Hertz is introducing its new "NeverLost" on-board navigation system in select cars in those locations. 5 -> Kaplan Intros CD-ROM, Plans New Content For AOL, Web -- Kaplan Interactive's new Campus 96, announced yesterday, will be followed by four more multimedia CD-ROM titles for college and grad school admissions seekers, plus new content for Kaplan's online services on both America Online (AOL) and the Web, and a new server for the Web site. 6 -> Digital Voice Message Pad For Home Use -- The IQ. Voice MessagePad, designed for the home, features digital recording time of up to 1 minute 30 seconds. It has magnetic backing so it can be attached to most kitchen appliances, especially designed to fit on the refrigerator "bulletin board." 7 -> Optical Transmission Tech Displayed At NEC -- The fields of data transmission and optical fiber technology were on prominent display at NEC's exhibition of new technology to celebrate the twentieth anniversary of the company's Central Research Laboratory in Miyazakidai near Tokyo. 8 -> NEC Shows Future Products, Developments -- As part of the celebrations for the twentieth anniversary of its Miyazakidai Laboratories in Kawasaki near Tokyo, NEC opened the doors of the research and development (R&D) center to foreign and Japanese journalists last week to show some of the products the center is creating now that will hopefully become commonplace in the 21st Century. 9 -> Collabra Ships Collabra 2.0, With Client-Server Option -- Collabra Share 2.0, a groupware update that starts shipping today, adds a new client-server option, remote access, "plug and play" directory integration with outside mail services, new tools for "information overload," and optional "information agents" for Internet Newsgroups, Internet replication, and Lotus Notes, said Steve Richard, product marketing manager, in a briefing for Newsbytes. 10 -> GTSI Stuck In Red Ink -- Government Technology Services Inc., (Nasdaq: GTSI) has taken its second straight quarterly bath in red ink. The company that specializes in selling personal computers to the federal government recorded a net loss of $2.4 million (36 cents per share) for the second quarter of 1995. 11 -> China - Network For College Enrollments -- The education network and e-mail will be used to assist the enrollment of 930,000 new college students for the first time this year, according to a source with the State Education Commission of China. 12 -> Oracle Education Center For India -- Software Giant Oracle Corp., will be setting up a global education center in New Delhi, the third of its kind in 27 Asia Pacific countries. 13 -> China - Compaq Seeks To Keep #1 Spot -- Compaq surpassed its rival AST last year to become the largest PC supplier in China with 22.7 percent of the market. The company is trying to maintain its number one position in China, as well as in the world. 14 -> Cheyenne Teams With Avid, Quantum On Video For Macintosh -- "We've been working diligently in the Macintosh environment for three years, and now, we've arrived," said Jim McNiel, executive VP of corporate development for Cheyenne, in an interview with Newsbytes about Avid's plans to bundle its professional level digital video editing systems with Cheyenne's Arcserve for Macintosh backup restore software and Quantum's DLT 4000 tape drives. 15 -> ****Delrina Acquires Intel's Net SatisFAXtion -- Delrina Corp. (TSE:DC;NASDAQ:DENAF), soon to be part of Symantec Corp. of Cupertino, California, (NASDAQ:SYMC) has acquired the Net SatisFAXtion product line from Intel Corp. (NASDAQ:INTC). The companies said they will co-operate to develop integrated network fax and desktop management products. 16 -> ****Symantec Cleared To Take Over Delrina -- Symantec Corp. (NASDAQ:SYMC) has received approval from the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) for its takeover of Toronto-based Delrina Corp. (TSE:DC;NASDAQ:DENAF). The earlier-than-expected approval gives early termination of the Hart-Scott-Rodino Act waiting period. 17 -> ****Clinton Threatens Telecom Veto -- President Clinton yesterday threatened to veto the legislation House Republicans hope to bring to the floor this week, saying it would reduce competition. 18 -> ****Major Overhaul, New Online Svc For Compuserve -- CompuServe's (CIS) parent company H&R Block Inc (NYSE:HRB) said today the online service will go through a major overhaul that includes a simplified pricing structure, a new interface, and integrating Internet access into the main service. Another major part of today's announcement is that Block will launch a new consumer online service, targeted to novice consumers and users with special hobbies to enable quick access to areas of interest. 19 -> Microsoft Ships Project for Power Mac -- Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ: MSFT) has started shipping Project version 4.0 for the Apple Computer Macintosh and Power Macintosh operating systems. The Intellisense technology already incorporated into other Microsoft products has been included in Project 4.0. Intellisense attempts to predict what the user wants to do and helps produce the desired result. 20 -> ****Bill Gates Meets With President Clinton -- Bill Gates, Microsoft chairman, met privately last week with President Bill Clinton and other top White House officials, according to Interactive Week magazine. 21 -> 4.6 Gigabyte Optical Drive -- Pinnacle Micro Inc. (NASDAQ: PNCL) has introduced the Apex 4.6 gigabyte (GB) 5.25" rewritable optical drive for desktop computing. Pinnacle claims the unit offers the world's highest capacity on a single 5.25" disk, and performance equal to that of hard disk drives with a 6 MB (megabyte) per second data rate. 22 -> Utility Finds UK Postal Codes -- Nildram Software has announced the release of Postcode, a DOS/Windows package that allows UK addresses to be looked up from their post code (similar to the ZIP code system seen in North America). 23 -> UK Electronic Commerce Show Details -- A prestigious line-up of respected industry figures and senior representatives of household name companies have combined forces in what organizers claim is a powerful seminar program for the first Electronic Commerce 95 event. Electronic Commerce 95, which is being billed as the first conference and exhibition of its type, will take place at The Barbican, London, between 31st October and 2nd November this year. 24 -> UK - Insignia's PowerMac PC Emulator -- Insignia Solutions has unveiled SoftWindows 2.0 for Power Mac, a much improved PC DOS/Windows emulator for the Apple Computer PowerMac series. 25 -> Humongous Windows 95 Exploration Titles For Kids -- Humongous Entertainment has announced that two new "Lets Explore" series CD-ROM-based children's programs for Windows 95 are now in retail stores. Humongous is one of the first companies to announce availability of Windows 95-based software, although that trickle is expected to grow to a flood as the launch of Microsoft's new operating system/graphical user interface on August 24, 1995 approaches. 26 -> Diamond Multimedia Intros 28.8 Modem With Telephony -- Telephony features as part of an internal modem have become increasingly popular for small offices and home users. Diamond Multimedia (NASDAQ:DIMD), a PC peripheral card manufacturer and marketer, says it is the first company to integrate telephone features into a 28.8 kilobit per second (Kbps) modem with TeleCommander 3500XL. 27 -> Edmark Ships Win 95 Version of Sammy's Science House -- Edmark Corp. (NASDAQ: EDMK) has joined a small but rapidly growing number of software publishers shipping software optimized for Windows 95, Microsoft's new operating system and Macintosh-like user interface, before Windows 95 is generally available. 28 -> ****Broderbund To Acquire The Learning Company -- Broderbund Software (NASDAQ:BROD) announced an agreement to merge with The Learning Company (NASDAQ:LRNG), a leader in the educational personal software market. The $440 million deal is expected to close by October following regulatory investigation and filings. 29 -> Lotus Updates SmartSuite/Windows, Plans For Windows 95 -- Lotus's newly unveiled SmartSuite 4.0 for Windows 3.1 brings new features for team computing that will be further expanded in Windows 95 editions of SmartSuite and NotesSuite, said Kathleen Hayner, SmartSuite marketing manager, in a conference call with Newsbytes. 30 -> Free Internet Press Release Service -- M2 Communications has announced it has expanded its international press release distribution service with the launch of NewsWEB, a World Wide Web site that has press releases of all types available for all comers, without the need for pre-registration. 31 -> Poland - 4 Cellular Operators Expected In '97 -- The Polish Government has announced plans to licence a further three cellular operators to compete with Centertel, the Polish Telecom-owned telcoms company. (Wendy Woods/19950801) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 07/19/95 GENERAL Softbank To Bring NetWorld+Interop To London/Sydney (NEWS)(GENERAL)(TYO)(00001) Softbank To Bring NetWorld+Interop To London/Sydney 07/19/95 TOKYO, JAPAN, 1995 JUL 19 (NB) -- Japan's Softbank Corporation (TOKYO:9984) is to bring its NetWorld+Interop computer show to London and Sydney next year. The show brings together the world of networking and interoperability hardware, software and transport technology products, services, and applications. The London exhibition will take place from October 30 to November 1 at the Earls Court 2 center, with the Sydney expo running from November 27 to 29 at the Sydney Exhibition and Conference Center, Darling Harbor. Explaining the reasoning behind the expansion, Michael D. Millikin, senior vice president of NetWorld+Interop explained, "The hyperspeed of the development of this market requires an ongoing, global arena in which network professionals can learn, touch and test the latest products and technologies. NetWorld+Interop attendees will be able to talk directly with technology experts and executives from leading companies and gain valuable hands-on experience with the newest products on our interactive show floor." Last year the NetWorld+Interop "World Tour" touched down in Las Vegas, Frankfurt, Tokyo, Atlanta, and Paris, making it the "global gathering place for the industry's best and brightest networking professionals," according to Softbank. Networld+Interop 95 Tokyo is currently being held through July 21 at Tokyo's Makuhari Messe. Alongside the exhibition NetWorld+Interop features a full schedule of conferences, tutorials, workshops, and demonstrations, making it the largest networking event in the annual calendar. More details of NetWorld+Interop can be obtained online via gopher and World Wide Web services. The Gopher server is programs.sbexpos.com , while users of the Web can find exhibition information at http://www.interop.com/ . Softbank is one of Japan's fastest growing companies, helped by an aggressive expansion program under chief Masayoshi Son. In February of this year the company bought the exhibition business of Massachusetts- based Interface Group, a purchase which included Comdex, the world's largest computer exhibition. Alongside the exhibition business, Softbank is also Japan's largest software distributor. The company's software division has recently entered into ventures with Microsoft Corporation. (Martyn Williams/19950719/Press contacts : Kathleen Burke, Softbank Expositions, 415-578-6963, Internet e-mail kburke@sbexpos.com ; London exhibitors information, David Conn, +44-181-849-6260; Sydney exhibitors information, Elena Cohen, 619-369-1242) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 07/19/95 ONLINE E-mailing Made Easy With Claris (NEWS)(ONLINE)(TYO)(00002) E-mailing Made Easy With Claris 07/19/95 SANTA CLARA, CALIFORNIA, USA, 1995 JUL 19 (NB) -- Apple Computer's (NASDAQ-NNM-AAPL) Claris subsidiary has announced the availability of Claris Emailer, an electronic-mail client that features ease-of-use combined with support for a range of Internet and online service e-mail systems. Despite the removal of many unnecessary configurations and options, the software still retains several powerful features, claims the company. One of those features is the ability to "easily send files though e-mail systems." In the past this has normally meant using third-party software to encode binary files into ASCII for transmission across the Internet and then to re-convert them into binary on the recipient's system. While Claris Emailer handles to job the same way, it takes all of the work out of the user's hands by encoding outgoing mail and decoding incoming mail automatically. Intelligence in the software will prepare files in the most suitable format for transmission according to the service to be used. The software supports several popular formats for file transfer and encoding including BinHex, UUEncode, and MIME. Multi system support also extends to the user's address book where it is possible to store addresses for as many systems as are used, and the ability to store more than one e-mail address for each entry. If the user regularly sends e-mail to a group of people that is catered for as well, enabling a single message to reach many people. The software was developed by Fog City Software Inc. and has been licensed worldwide by Claris. Fog City's President, Guy Kawasaki, remarked of the product "Claris Emailer is designed to be simple, powerful and effective, it gives individual Mac users the electronic messaging power they need to keep in touch with clients, colleagues, and friends." Ease of use extends all the way down to installation of the software, says Claris. A "simple," step-by-step, question-and-answer format is used for initial entry of account and user preference data. Support is also included for unattended collection and dispatch of e-mail. The software currently supports e-mail services offered by Internet service providers and America Online, CompuServe, eWorld, or RadioMail. Claris Emailer runs on any Macintosh with a 68020 (or greater) processor running Apple's System 7 operating system. The program requires a minimum of 1.5 megabytes (MB) of RAM, and 3MB of hard disk space. The software retails for $89 and Claris say should be available nationwide. (Martyn Williams/19950719/Press contact : Timberly McGee, Claris Corp., 408-987-7477; Reader contact: Claris Corp., 800-544-8554) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 07/19/95 ONLINE Time Magazine Comments On Cyberporn Controversy (NEWS)(ONLINE)(TYO)(00003) Time Magazine Comments On Cyberporn Controversy 07/19/95 TOKYO, JAPAN, 1995 JUL 19 (NB) -- A week ago Newsbytes reported on the storm of controversy surrounding a new study of pornography on the Internet. Now, Time magazine, the publication that made it a cover story, and thus well known, has itself chronicled the argument and revealed some interesting facts that never made it into the original story. In an article entitled "Firestorm On The Computer Nets" the magazine notes that it expected controversy, but not quite at the level that ensued. The survey was written by Martin Rimm, a student at Carnegie Mellon University, and is being published in full in the new Georgetown Law Journal. According to critics, the survey contained many errors and this week's Time article, while not explaining why they were not researched, at least reports them. As reported by Newsbytes, the survey was most fiercely criticized by Donna Hoffman and Thomas Novak, associate professors of management at Vanderbilt University, who replied to the survey with their own 9,000 word critique. Before publication, Hoffman reports she was denied a copy of the report to review and Time explains this was due to "exclusivity terms imposed by the Law Journal." In fact, no-one outside of the Law Journal, Time and ABC News, who featured it on TV, was able to review the survey before publication of the Time cover story. The center point of the survey was what is now known on the Internet as "the great 83.5% figure," reportedly the proportion of pornographic pictures transmitted across the Internet's newsgroup system. The figure is both the most damaging for the Internet and also the most misleading, according to many critics. Rimm included in his survey pictures available from adult bulletin boards and not just the publicly accessible areas of the Internet. Such bulletin boards are accessible via the Internet but require a credit card for payment and confirmation that the user is over 18. Critics liken this to traveling into a city's red light district and discovering there is sex there. Time reports that when asked about his personal history prior to publication, Rimm declined to give any details saying, "It would shift attention away from his findings." Acknowledging several damaging revelations on the Internet, the magazine notes "quite a bit of detail has emerged in the past three weeks." Elaborating on the details of Rimm's personal history, posted on the Internet during the debate over the survey, Time says "In 1981, as a 16-year-old junior at Atlantic City High School, he conducted a survey that purported to show that 64 percent of his school's students had illicitly gambled at the city's casinos," a survey that led to an increase in the state gambling age from 18 to 21. Time also says he was voted by classmates "most likely to become president" in 1981 and "most likely to overthrow the government" in 1982. More damagingly, Rimm was also discovered to have written a book entitled "The Pornographer's Handbook: How to Exploit Women, Dupe Men & Make Lots of Money." Extracts from this book have also been posted onto the Internet and appear to offer advise to people wishing to run the type of adult bulletin boards that Rimm's survey covered. The article continues, "Neither Carnegie Mellon nor the Georgetown Law Journal has officially backed away from the study" but does not state Time's position as regards the cover story that featured the survey as its centerpiece. While no admission of error has been made, perhaps the appearance of this week's article says enough, claim some observers. In closing, Times concludes that, "It would be a shame, however, if the damaging flaws in Rimm's study obscured the larger and more important debate about hard-core porn on the Internet." However, many fear the article has done too much damage already. The original cover story and this week's follow up are available via Time magazine's Internet service on the World Wide Web at http://www.pathfinder.com/ . (Martyn Williams/19950719) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 07/19/95 TRENDS ****AT&T Launches Plan 9 Operating System (NEWS)(TRENDS)(TOR)(00004) ****AT&T Launches Plan 9 Operating System 07/19/95 MURRAY HILL, NEW JERSEY, U.S.A., 1995 JUL 19 (NB) -- AT&T (NYSE:T) has announced a new distributed operating system, called Plan 9. The new system was developed by some of the same people who created the Unix operating system, and the terms on which AT&T is making it available are reminiscent of Unix, but the company stressed that Plan 9 is not Unix. Named for the cult science fiction movie Plan 9 From Outer Space, the Plan 9 operating system is designed to work well on networked computers. It has components for "terminals," or desktop systems, for file servers, and for central processing unit (CPU) servers. Plan 9 is designed to deal with multiprocessing systems as CPU servers. It supports four major hardware architectures: Intel Corp.'s x86 line (including the Pentium chip), MIPS Computer Systems Inc. processors, Sun Microsystems Inc. SPARC chips, and Motorola Inc.'s 68020 and 68040 processors. During simultaneous press conferences in Murray Hill and San Francisco, connected by a teleconference link, Rob Pike, one of the Plan 9 developers, said the new system is meant to combine some of the advantages of Unix with some of those of low-cost hardware. "We basically started by noticing some things that we liked and didn't like about Unix and liked and didn't like about workstations," Pike said. Pike stressed that while Plan 9 borrows some ideas from Unix, it is quite different and is not compatible with Unix. He went on to say that AT&T does not expect Plan 9 to compete with major commercial operating systems such as Unix and Microsoft Corp.'s Windows NT. "This is not the next Unix," Pike said. It appears in fact that the most promising commercial market for Plan 9 might be in embedded systems. During the press conference, AT&T researchers and officials repeatedly mentioned the possibility that Plan 9 might be built into consumer devices and other intelligent electronic devices, an area where no standard operating system predominates today. AT&T plans to make Plan 9 available for commercial licensing to other vendors for an initial fee of $200,000, plus per-copy fees that will amount to 20 percent of the resale price of commercial software or two percent of the selling price of hardware with Plan 9 built in, said Paul Fillinich, marketing manager for AT&T's Software Solutions operation. Single copies of Plan 9 will also be available for research and educational use, but Fillinich stressed that the company will not provide technical support. "We will replace the media should it fail," he said. For commercial licensees there may be some sort of support in the future. "We are contemplating this," Fillinich said. "However, we haven't decided what the offering will be." Publisher Harcourt Brace & Co. will distribute Plan 9 for AT&T. The full package, including a CD-ROM, four diskettes, and two manuals, will cost $350. The manuals are available on their own for $125. Apparently wishing to avoid a repeat of the way Unix splintered into many different versions, AT&T is specifying that while source code for Plan 9 will be made available to research and educational users, any changes they make will become AT&T's property so that they can be incorporated in the base code. "We want only one Plan 9," Fillinich said. "We think the industry wants only one Plan 9." The minimum hardware needed to run Plan 9 is an Intel 386 processor with eight megabytes (MB) of memory and 40MB of available hard disk space, said Phil Winterbottom, another of the Plan 9 developers. An optimal arrangement would include a dedicated file server and multiple desktop terminals, he added. Further information about Plan 9 is available on AT&T's Plan 9 home page on the World Wide Web, at http://plan9.att.com/plan9/index.html. (Grant Buckler/19950719/Press Contact: Donna Cunningham, AT&T, 802-482-3748, Internet e-mail donnac@attmail.com; Mike Maney, Poppe Tyson for AT&T, 201-539-0300, Internet e-mail mmaney@nj.poppe.com; Public Contact: AT&T, 908-577-2700, fax 908-577-2727, Internet World Wide Web http://plan9.att.com/plan9/index.html) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 07/19/95 TELECOM Long-Distance Does U-Turn On Telecom (NEWS)(TELECOM)(WAS)(00005) Long-Distance Does U-Turn On Telecom 07/19/95 WASHINGTON, D.C., U.S.A., 1995 JUL 19 (NB) -- Last week, long-distance companies were buying advertisements in major national newspapers supporting telecommunications reform legislation in the House. Today, they are opposing the legislation. The $70 billion a year industry said yesterday that they will try to block the legislation in the House. They say they are opposed to changes made in the bill last week at the urging of House Republican leaders, including Speaker Newt Gingrich (R-Ga.). The changes favor the seven regional Bell operating companies. The long-distance companies have found themselves out-lobbied by the baby Bells at every turn. So they say they will try to keep the legislation off the House floor this summer. "We would not want to see the bill, as we know it, come to the floor," said Marlin Fitzwater, former White House press secretary in the Bush administration. "We think it's time to take a stand and say this is bad legislation." Fitzwater now works for the long-distance carriers. The dispute between the Bells and the long-distance carriers centers on who will get access to what markets and when. Each industry wants instant access to the markets of the owner, and each wants to limit access to its own market. The long-distance carriers are trying to restore language dropped last week that would not let the Bells into long-distance until they faced competition and local phone markets that is "comparable in price, features and scope" to their own service. The long-distance carriers also want the Justice Department to review the entry of the Bells into long-distance markets on a case-by-case basis. A bill approved by the House Judiciary Committee contains those provisions, while a bill approved by the House Commerce Committee does not. So far, the two committees have not been able to reconcile their differences. (Kennedy Maize/19950719) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 07/19/95 LEGAL Legal Group Looks At Technology (NEWS)(LEGAL)(WAS)(00006) Legal Group Looks At Technology 07/19/95 WASHINGTON, D.C., U.S.A., 1995 JUL 19 (NB) -- The American Bar Association is taking a look at the impact of high technology on criminal investigation. Soon, says the lawyers trade group, walls will not be barriers to overhearing conversations or observing activity. Devices under development can scan a person from a distance for a concealed weapon. Criminal organizations may be able to hide transactions through sophisticated encryption. The ABA says little attention has been given to these developments and their impact on the balance between privacy and law enforcement. "Our homes and our persons -- once considered safe havens -- may no longer be protected by Fourth Amendment requirements," says Sheldon Krantz, chairman of the new task force on technology and law enforcement. "Technological advances for law enforcement are both desirable and inevitable," said Krantz, "but we need informed discussion of the appropriate restrictions that should be placed on their uses. Existing statutes, case law, and administrative regulations do not begin to address the problems created by the new technologies." The task force will analyze existing and potential standards on such matters as visual surveillance, wiretapping and surveillance of electronic communication, search and seizure of data in computer systems, and the use of encryption by criminal organizations. "The ABA has an existing standard on electronic surveillance," spokeswoman Diane Carr told Newsbytes. She said the task force will build on that and expand it into areas such as computer data and encryption. Krantz, former dean of the University of San Diego Law School and past chairman of the ABA's criminal justice section, said he expects to present recommendations in 18-24 months. "While it will be difficult to formulate standards in this area that properly balance privacy and law enforcement concerns, all task force members perceive a dangerous void in current national policies that needs to be filled," said Krantz. The task force is composed of representatives from federal and state law enforcement agencies, prosecutors, the criminal defense bar, the judiciary and privacy experts. (Kennedy Maize/19950719/Press Contact: Diane Carr, ABA, 202-662-1094) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 07/19/95 TRENDS Electronics Factory Sales Up 15% (NEWS)(TRENDS)(WAS)(00007) Electronics Factory Sales Up 15% 07/19/95 WASHINGTON, D.C., U.S.A., 1995 JUL 19 (NB) -- US factory sales of electronics equipment, components and related products hit $179.3 billion for the first half of 1995, up 15 percent over the $155.8 billion for the first half of 1994, according to the Electronic Industries Association. Telecommunications manufacturing led the growth parade, up 24 percent to $29 billion for the first half of the year. Electronic components grew 20 percent to $49 billion. There were no losers in the EIA preliminary sales data. Electromedical equipment was the slowest grower, with sales up 4.7 percent to $4.7 billion. Even defense communications, which might be sluggish following the end of the Cold War, put in an impressive performance, up 6.8 percent to $15 billion. Consumer electronics also put in a solid six month, growing 13.8 percent to $4.6 billion. "The US electronics industry is continuing its dynamic growth," said Peter McCloskey, EIA president, "and appears to be headed for another record-breaking year, both here and in our export markets." EIA's figures come from the US Department of Commerce and are compiled by the trade group that represents the electronics manufacturers. (Kennedy Maize/19950719/Press Contact: Mark Rosenker, 703-907-7790) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 07/19/95 ONLINE Internet Update (NEWS)(ONLINE)(TYO)(00008) Internet Update 07/19/95 TOKYO, JAPAN, 1995 JUL 19 (NB) -- In this roundup of new resources and services on the Internet: AAA Gallery exhibits; Access relay chat via the web; SIDS awareness; More sports online; Freenet mailing list; Become a Windows 95 expert; Try out HTMLed Pro free; Freeware image map editor; Hebrew software resources; The latest scores. AAA Gallery Exhibits The AAA Gallery is an online art gallery in the Netherlands that organizes exhibitions on the World Wide Web. Each exhibition is concluded with a short "real" exhibition in the former Museum of Contemporary Art in Utrecht, the Netherlands. Right now, the gallery is hosting the "Cows, love and more ..." exhibition. World Wide Web: http://www.nedpunt.nl/aaa Access Relay Chat Via The Web An experimental gateway between Internet Relay Chat and the World Wide Web is operating in Switzerland. There are currently links to the #Macadamia, #TrekMUSE, #drwho, #c, and #perl channels. Internet Relay Chat, or IRC for short, is an Internet wide system that allows users with the appropriate software and access to a server the ability to "chat" real time via the keyboard with other users. World Wide Web: http://e1.g26.ethz.ch:2323/ SIDS Awareness Sudden Infant Death Syndrome is the largest killer of babies between one month and one year old. A new home page on the Web now attempts to provide information about SIDS -- what is known about it and the latest thinking on how you can prevent it. The page is maintained by members of SIDS Network, a volunteer organization who can be e-mailed at sidsnet@aol.com . World Wide Web: http://www.eskimo.com/~pageless/home/sidsnet/ More Sports Online The World Rowing Championships take place from August 20 to 27 in Tampere, Finland. The contest is important because most of the participants in the Atlanta 1996 Olympics will be chosen on the results. The Digital Media Institute at Tampere University of Technology, in cooperation with the Finnish Rowing Association and the City of Tampere, is offering a Web information service for the championships. World Wide Web: http://dmiwww.cs.tut.fi/row95/ Freenet Mailing List A new mailing list has just begun dedicated to the discussion of creation, organization and management of public access non-profit networks, otherwise known as Freenets. Such networks offer a community local access to Internet services and online community information free of charge. Email: listserv@cespivm2.unlp.edu.ar Message Body: subscribe FREENET Become A Windows 95 Expert Just a month away from the biggest software launch the industry has ever seen and you can become a Windows 95 expert now. A new FAQ (frequently asked questions) list has been established by beta testers of the software covering areas such as installation, Internet support and access, the Microsoft Network online service, and links to other related Internet sites. The FAQ can be found on the World Wide Web or sent via e-mail. Email: rhubbard@mo.net Subject Line: FAQ win95 Request World Wide Web: http://www.primenet.com/~markd/ Try Out HTMLed Pro Free A time limited version of HTMLed Pro is available now. The software, which will be released next month, is a professional version of the Windows HTMLed software for authoring of World Wide Web pages. When released, the full version will cost $99.95, but Internet users can download a copy for evaluation now. World Wide Web: http://www.ist.ca/ Anonymous FTP: ftp://ftp.ist.ca/pub/HTMLedPro/ Freeware Image Map Editor Map THIS! is a freeware editor for image maps. Image maps are the clickable graphics on World Wide Web pages that take you to different documents depending on which area of the graphic you select. The software is native to Windows NT but will also run on Windows 95 or Windows 3.1 with Win32s support installed. Map THIS is a full WYSIWYG map editor with support for both the NCSA and CERN image map formats. World Wide Web: http://galadriel.ecaetc.ohio-state.edu/tc/mt Hebrew Software Resources If you are interested in or need software for the Hebrew language you can now find descriptions, screen shots, and even samples of such programs. The Web pages cover commercial, shareware and freeware software in areas such as word processing and education. The authors say there are also links to other associated sites. World Wide Web: http://www.execpc.com/~rtls/hebrew The Latest Scores Instant Score is now providing real-time Baseball scores for any professional game being played in the United States. The company says that the pages are continuously updated meaning no score is more than 30 seconds old. Users of Netscape 1.1 will benefit from an auto reload function which means the browser will continuously display the latest score with no need to revisit the page. World Wide Web: http://www.instantsports.com/baseball.html (Martyn Williams/19950719) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 07/19/95 GENERAL Japan Newsbriefs (NEWS)(GENERAL)(TYO)(00009) Japan Newsbriefs 07/19/95 TOKYO, JAPAN, 1995 JUL 19 (NB) -- In this roundup of news from Japan: Mitsubishi expands into home PC market; NEC signs agreement with Interphase; OKI plans new US chip company; Victor, Sony plan more overseas production; Matsushita to test flat tubes. Mitsubishi Expands Into Home PC Market Mitsubishi Electric is set to unveil a new range of computers targeted at the growing home and leisure market. Computers will include the Apricot Note SX, a high range notebook computer featuring a 10.4-inch color TFT (thin film transistor) display, double speed CD-ROM drive, stereo speakers and microphone. The whole system runs on a 90 megahertz (MHz) Pentium processor and will sell for 798,000 yen ($9,120). Mitsubishi will also be offering desktop computers as part of the new range. NEC Signs Agreement With Interphase NEC Corporation has signed an OEM (original equipment manufacturer) agreement with Interphase, a Dallas-based maker of ATM (asynchronous transfer mode) adapters. Under the agreement, Interphase will supply NEC with its full product range in Europe and Asia. The two companies are also working on a similar agreement that will allow NEC North America to use the products. The Interphase adapters will be used with NEC's line of ATM local area network products. OKI Plans New US Chip Company OKI Electric is reported to be planning to establish a new North American subsidiary company to develop and design semiconductors. The research focus of the company, which will be formed in September, will be chipsets for MPEG (Motion Picture Experts group) and communications applications. The new company will be directly controlled by OKI America Inc. Victor, Sony Plan More Overseas Production Both Victor Company and Sony Corporation have announced they will move more production of electronics goods overseas in an attempt to insulate themselves from the effect of the strong yen. Victor says it will produce 50% of all overseas sales in foreign countries. It is aiming for 30% of its goods sold in Japan to be foreign produced. Sony Corp. is discontinuing production of computer monitors in Fujisawa and moving it to a Malaysian factory. Sony's floppy disk and MO disk manufacturing will also be moved from a Tokyo factory to Malaysia. Matsushita To Test Flat Tubes Osaka-based Matsushita Electric will begin test production of a flat- faced cathode-ray tube for use in computer monitors next month. The new screen offers vastly improved color purity and uniform brightness across the entire screen. Test production is likely to begin next month with 16 inch models. Larger 20 inch models will follow next year. (Martyn Williams/19950719) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 95 07/19/95 NETWORK New Products Unveiled At Netasia (NEWS)(NETWORK)(HKG)(00010) New Products Unveiled At Netasia 95 07/19/95 CENTRAL, HONG KONG, 1995 JUL 19 (NB) -- Hong Kong's premier networking exhibition and seminar NetAsia 95, which took place at the beginning of July, saw more than 20 companies from Hong Kong and overseas displaying the latest network technology. "The show is ideal for corporate users who realize they have a tremendous amount of networking equipment in their organizations and want to find out more on how they can better utilize it," said Andrew Lai, managing director of Novell Hong Kong, whose company is the principle sponsor of the event. Several participants used the show to unveil new products. These included UB Networks, which unveiled the first ATM (asynchronous transfer mode) super switching hub, and Madge Asia's new Smart Ringswitch. Other participants included: 3Com, Lotus, Hewlett-Packard, Bay Networks, TrendMicro Devices, Banyan Systems, Cisco, Compaq, Symantec Corporation, Digi International, Digital Equipment Corporation, ALR Internatonal, Artogram System, LinkAGE Online, SiS International, Standard Microsystems Corporation, Apex Computronic, Cheflink Limited, HK Link, Asia Electronics, Automation, IPC, Laser Computer, and NetBand Technology. Alongside the exhibition was a series of seminars on networking-related topics such as ATM, the Internet, network management, and groupware. Speakers came from almost every participating vendor. Speaking at the opening ceremony, Lai pointed to new technology like NEST (Novell Embedded System Technology) as a sign of the growing importance of networking within the technology industry. NEST takes the client side of a network and embeds it in an intelligent device such as a photocopier, PABX (private automatic branch exchange) or even an air- conditioning unit to make it part of the network. This allows the information from its procedures to be disseminated across the network. (IT Daily/19950718) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 07/19/95 TELECOM Possible PCS Telecom Overcapacity In Hong Kong (NEWS)(TELECOM)(HKG)(00011) Possible PCS Telecom Overcapacity In Hong Kong 07/19/95 CENTRAL, HONG KONG, 1995 JUL 19 (NB) -- The six PCS (personal communication services) licenses to be awarded next month by the Hong Kong government are not going to be licenses to print money, warns Sau-Wing Lam, president and chief executive of Pacific Link Communications. Instead, he believes demand for cellular services will not match network capacity and, as a result, several operators will find it hard to make a profit. Lam said he expected two or three operators to dominate the market, while the rest barely survive. Pointing at current subscriber rates (which he estimates to be around 80% of capacity), Lam does not believe the extra 1.2 million capacity offered by PCS will be entirely taken up. "It is not unrealistic to believe that one out of three people in Hong Kong will have some kind of cellular device," he said. However, he personally believes there will only be about 25% penetration of cellular into the overall population. The most optimistic predictions put future cellular penetration at around 31%. "Basically, I don't think all six of these networks are going to make it," said Lam. "In five years time, you will see just a few key players." Although he would not speculate on which companies would survive, he did say Pacific Link intended to be one of the leaders. Lam said Pacific Link, one of 14 bidders for the six licenses, was confident of winning a license on the basis of its track record in establishing both cellular and CT2 networks in Hong Kong. He said the company expected to launch its PCS network nine months after receiving its license. Although this is longer than predictions made by other bidders, Lam said his company did not intend to launch until it could provide full coverage. Meanwhile, Pacific Link plans to continue investing in the expansion of its CT2 network, despite the belief that many CT2 subscribers will migrate to PCS when it becomes available. (IT Daily/19950718) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 07/19/95 GENERAL Hong Kong Jockeys Opt For DEC "Turbo" Betting Server (NEWS)(GENERAL)(HKG)(00012) Hong Kong Jockeys Opt For DEC "Turbo" Betting Server 07/19/95 CENTRAL, HONG KONG, 1995 JUL 19 (NB) -- The Royal Hong Kong Jockey Club will soon become the first organization in Asia to install the AlphaServer 8400 "turbo" system from DEC. The server will be at the heart of the club's HK$100 million (US$12.8 million) rewrite of its betting system. According to Robert Neely, the club's research and planning controller, the new system is based on the principals of being operatorless, ticketless, cashless, and wireless. The new system will take advantage of technologies like Smart Cards, self vending and handheld terminals in order to speed up customer service. The current betting system, which can handle 1,000 transactions per second, is reaching its limits, says Neely. The new AlphaServer will be capable of handling 3,000 transactions per second and, as a result, will speed up customer service with fewer delays, he said. The project is expected to be completed around the middle of 1997, with the initial effects of this part of the project being seen in mid-1996. (IT Daily/19950718) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 07/19/95 WINDOWS Bridgeway Releases Software For Corporate Law Depts (NEWS)(WINDOWS)(DEN)(00013) Bridgeway Releases Software For Corporate Law Depts 07/19/95 HOUSTON, TEXAS, U.S.A., 1995 JUL 19 (NB) -- Bridgeway Software has released LawQuest, a Windows-based software package designed to support corporate law department functions. The system has a document management software interface. #IMAGE 1 20 TWPCX \images\95071913.PCX Click here for photo Although LawQuest is ready to run out of the box, the company said it includes a customization utility that allows users to create templates for other types of litigation to suit the individual user's needs. Phil Neely, Lawquest product manager at Bridgeway, told Newsbytes the program is written in Foxpro. Although Bridgeway doesn't provide the source code to purchasers, the software contains an editing tool that allows users to change field names and lengths and add fields. LawQuest, which is being marketed only for corporate law departments, has an interface with Windows-based Secretariat, a corporate secretary database published by Bridgeway the said automates the routine tasks and complex documentation required to support the legal requirements of corporate reporting. Secretariat includes an electronic bulletin board for internal distribution of corporate information; a calendar for tracking reporting obligations and other deadlines; and a tool for scanning paper documents for document imaging purposes. It also includes: a tool called Insider 95 for automation of Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) Section 16 forms 3, 4, and 5; automatic generation of Canadian federal and provincial forms; and a global information-sharing system for corporate secretaries called WorldView. Secretariat has a suggested retail price of $9,000 to $22,000 depending on the number of servers and workstations on the corporate user's computer network. LawQuest provides online searching for needed information about pending cases, and monitors representation by external law firms. It analyzes cost-to-date versus budgeted amounts, and produces cost-summary sheets for billing review. It also has a time log feature that records the time each attorney spends on each matter. LawQuest has a docket events and calendar section that keeps track of scheduled events and alerts the user as those items come up. It also maintains a record of patents granted employees of the corporation. Product Manager Phil Neely told Newsbytes LawQuest provides multiple levels of security, which are customizable down to the individual field level. Access can be specified for a single individual or a group of users. Access rights to view or change information are based on a staff member's password and user identification. For standalone PCs, LawQuest Bridgeway recommends an IBM-compatible PC using a 486 microprocessor and equipped with 12 megabytes (MB) of memory, a Super VGA monitor, Microsoft Windows 3.1 or later, a mouse, and 60MB of available hard disk space just for the program files. Neely said the standalone edition is available only as a demonstration version, and sells for $7,000. Networked systems should have a 486-based server, Novell NetWare or compatible network operating system software, and 60MB of disk space. Neely said the network version sells for $20,000 per server plus $1,250 for each workstation on the network. (Jim Mallory/19950719/Press contact: Michelle Herskowitz for Bridgeway Software, 713-297-9595; Public contact: LawQuest, 713-661-0044/LAWQUEST950719/PHOTO) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 07/19/95 ONLINE Golf Digest & GolfWeb Team For Web Site (NEWS)(ONLINE)(MSP)(00014) Golf Digest & GolfWeb Team For Web Site 07/19/95 TRUMBALL, CONNECTICUT, U.S.A., 1995 JUL 19 (NB) -- Internet surfers who like to hit the links and little white balls can chip onto an improved World Wide Web site specializing in golf. That's because Golf Digest magazine and GolfWeb announced they are joining forces to enhance GolfWeb's already established site. To tee off the venture, Golf Digest's GolfWeb will provide complete online coverage of the British Open from the Old Course in St. Andrews, Scotland. "We think that we're very strong on content, and we're very strong with a brand that's an authority on golf," Robert Carney, director of special services for NYT Sports/Leisure Magazines, publisher of Golf Digest, told Newsbytes. "Technically, we're nowhere near as bright as people who are involved on the Internet. The people at GolfWeb have that expertise. They are former Sun Microsystems people. They really know what they're doing." Before Golf Digest's involvement, GolfWeb already had an array of features, including a library, an interactive database of 14,000 US golf courses, and the latest results and statistics from golf tours around the world. Golf Digest will bring features and articles, news from the weekly news magazine Golf World, access to Golf Digest Schools instructors, and the magazine's various rankings of golf courses around the US. New features coming to the site include an instruction area offering tips on the game, and reader-entered classifieds for anything golf- related. Those classified can be entered in various languages and searched via keywords. GolfWeb will also hotlink to Golf Digest's other Internet site, TravelConnect. This site, part of a joint venture with the New York Times and Advance Publications, lets travelers access information on golf courses close to their chosen travel sites. The address for the Golf Digest's GolfWeb site is http://www.golfweb.com . Carney said his company's Web offerings may not end after users putt out at the 18th hole. He said NYT Sports/Leisure Magazines is looking at other Web sites for the other sports magazines it has. Some of those titles include Sailing World, Snow Country, and Tennis Magazine. (Bob Woods/19950719/Press Contacts: Nora Bohan, Golf Digest, 203-371-2121; Judy Diaz, GolfWeb, 415-694-7991, Internet e-mail Judydiaz@aot.com ; Mark Lichenhein, GolfWeb-Europe, +44-0171-370-4132; Public Contact: Internet World Wide Web http://www.golfweb.com ) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 07/19/95 PC China - Tulip To Bundle ChineseStar With PCs (NEWS)(PC)(PEK)(00015) China - Tulip To Bundle ChineseStar With PCs 07/19/95 BEIJING, CHINA, 1995 JUL 19 (NB) -- Holland-based Tulip Computers has decided to join AST Research in pre-installing SunTendy's ChineseStar 2.0 on its computers sold in China. The move is considered something of a victory for SunTendy in the efforts to fend off strong competition from Microsoft's Chinese Windows. ChineseStar, developed by SunTendy, is a "shell" program for Microsoft Windows (English version). It provides a Chinese environment under Windows, and allows a user to type and edit Chinese characters in any documents created with the English Windows' Notepad, Paintbrush, and Write, as well as Microsoft Word, and other Windows applications. Because the expression of a Chinese character requires two-bytes, or the length of two English characters, there are some difficulties in editing or formatting Chinese documents with ChineseStar. Deleting an English character improperly will result in a series of "half-Chinese- characters," or a string of "junk" symbols. Microsoft's Chinese Windows also allows users to type and edit Chinese under Windows. However, ChineseStar (version 2.0) possesses many attractive features that are not available in Microsoft's Chinese Windows. ChineseStar includes an English-Chinese dictionary, a utility for new character creation, and various methods for Chinese keyboard inputs. Tulip Computers recently signed an agreement with SunTendy in Beijing to bundle ChineseStar 2.0 with all Tulip computers sold in China. Earlier this year, US-based AST Research decided to bundle its computers with ChineseStar software. AST claims that it has the largest share in China's computer market. (Chih-Ho Yu & Ning Huang/19950718) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 07/19/95 TRENDS New Survey Reveals Attitudes About Computers (NEWS)(TRENDS)(MSP)(00016) New Survey Reveals Attitudes About Computers 07/19/95 SOUTHFIELD, MICHIGAN, U.S.A., 1995 JUL 19 (NB) -- A new survey from Casey Communications/Shandwick shows computers are becoming an ever-increasing presence in US households. The study said almost half of all American households, 46 percent, now own a computer. More and more Americans are also able to surf the Internet. The survey showed that 16 percent of those asked subscribe to online computer services that have Internet access. When it came to the big question "Who owns computers?" the findings showed that: many more young men than women own them; college educated people are more likely to own computers; and Republican and partisan "Independents" own more computers than Democrats. In addition, computer ownership is higher among people who indicated they are pro-choice when it comes to abortion, and more computers are owned by Catholics and those who did not state a religious preference. When it comes to geography, residents of Western, Pacific, and Northeastern states own more computers than their other American counterparts. Among the 54 percent who said they don't currently own a computer, 17 percent said they were going to buy one within the next year, while another two percent said someone else in the household would buy one. Gerald Lundy of Casey Communications/Shandwick told Newsbytes that minorities and senior citizens are being overlooked when it comes to the marketing of computers, because "there are all kinds of socializing reasons why those markets have great potential, particularly if computer prices go down." One example of that is the "NetNoir" digital magazine just recently opened on America Online, which is targeted to the African/American audience. Speaking of online services, the survey showed news magazines taking the hardest hit when it came to people migrating from traditional information sources to cyberspace. Fifty-six percent of online users say they use news magazines less, 47 percent use radio and television less, 46 percent use business periodicals less, and 41 percent use daily newspapers less. In general, the demographic groups that "show the greatest interest" in online services are: Democrats, especially Democratic men; men in general, especially white men; people without children; and residents in Western and Northeastern states. As for the reasons why people subscribe to online services, 34 percent said to help with a home business, and 27 percent said for entertainment. Casey Communications/Shandwick conducted the survey in cooperation with EPIC-MRA, a national polling and research firm out of Lansing, Michigan. One thousand people participated in the nationwide survey. The margin of error is claimed to be plus or minus three percent. (Bob Woods/19950719/Press Contacts: Brendy Barr or Gerald Lundy, Casey Communications/Shandwick, 810-746-6070) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 07/19/95 ONLINE ZD Net/AT&T Interchange Available (NEWS)(ONLINE)(TOR)(00017) ZD Net/AT&T Interchange Available 07/19/95 CAMBRIDGE, MASSACHUSETTS, U.S.A., 1995 JUL 19 (NB) -- Ziff-Davis Interactive has announced that ZD Net/AT&T Interchange Edition, a new version of its online information service, is now available. The AT&T Interchange Edition joins a line of ZD Net services on commercial online services CompuServe, Prodigy, AppleLink, and eWorld, as well as the Internet. Previously known as Interchange Computing, the service was beta tested with some 20,000 users, Ziff-Davis spokeswoman Janice Brown told Newsbytes earlier. Ziff-Davis Interactive is offering membership in ZD Net/AT&T Interchange Edition, with five hours of access per month, for $5 per month through the end of this year. This Charter Member Offer also includes complimentary use of Digital Ink, the service just launched by the Washington Post through AT&T Interchange (Newsbytes, July 18). This offer is available to those who sign up by October 1, Ziff-Davis said. Ziff's online services provide access to content from Ziff publications, including PC Week and MacWeek, as well as Newsbytes, Ziff's Computer Library database of articles related to computers and information technology, and other services. The Companies Online area includes technical support and information from more than 100 software and hardware vendors, including IBM, Microsoft Corp., WordPerfect Corp., Lotus Development Corp., Dell Computer Corp., and Novell Inc. Until recently Ziff-Davis' online services have been known by the name Ziffnet, which is still being used on CompuServe until later this year, when that service will become ZD Net/CompuServe Edition. Brown said the change, announced this spring, was intended to give the online services a unified brand name across different platforms. AT&T acquired Interchange from Ziff-Davis in January. The company bills it as an enabling platform rather than an online service in the conventional sense, in that it lets information providers set up their own offerings the way they want. This spring Gartner Group, a computer-industry research firm, was the first Interchange customer to go live with a service it calls @vantage. (Grant Buckler/19950719/Press Contact: Janice Brown, Janice Brown & Associates for Ziff-Davis, 617-332-8066; Cara Washburn, Ziff- Davis Interactive, 617-252-5282; Public Contact: ZD Net/World Wide Web Edition, http://www.zdnet.com ) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 07/19/95 TRENDS US Robotics Offers 33,600 Bps Modem Speed (NEWS)(TRENDS)(SFO)(00018) US Robotics Offers 33,600 Bps Modem Speed 07/19/95 SKOKIE, ILLINOIS, U.S.A., 1995 JUL 19 (NB) -- US Robotics (NASDAQ:USRX) has introduced software which allows its Courier desktop modems and Total Control systems to boost data rates to 33,600 bits-per-second (bps). Built on the existing V.34 specification, the software enhancement takes advantage of digital signal processors (DSPs) used in US Robotics' 28,800 bps products. Lauri Lentz, spokesperson for the company, told Newsbytes, "It is really important to let people know this is not a proprietary standard. It is built on the V.34 specifications and we consider this an enhancement as opposed to calling it a new standard. We expect this software version to be very much like a similar version from the ITU (International Telecommunications Union) standards committee which is working on enhancements to the V.34 standard. At this time, the enhanced standard does not have its own name or brand. US Robotics says it did not want to create a name which would create confusion in the industry and will wait to see what ITU does concerning a classification of the enhancement. The company says a connection between two US Robotics products capable of running the new software should expect to see a 2,400 bps to 4,800 bps increase of existing speeds. This new software will also increase a modem's operation at lower speeds. For the time being, 33,600 bps connections are limited to two connecting US Robotics products listed above. As other manufacturers implement the enhanced V.34 standard, more high-speed connections will be possible. Broader acceptance and implementation should occur sometime later this year or early in 1996. US Robotics says its software enhancement is available now for Courier (28,800 bps) desktop modem users. This enhancement is free for owners of Courier "V.Everything" and V.Fast Class desktop modems which have flash ROM capabilities and also included in Courier modems currently being shipped. The enhancement for Total Control systems will come later this year. A number of analysts and experts have recently said standard telephone lines cannot handle data transmission rates higher than 28,800 bps. In response, Lentz said, "People have said all along that another increase in modem speed was not possible. It was said when modems transmitted at 2,400 bps, 9,600 bps, 14,400 bps, and at 28,800 bps. Technology, however, continues to move forward and find new means to enhance existing products and conditions." US Robotics says early use of the new specification is expected to occur with corporate communications, bulletin board systems, and power users. The software is available by FTP (File Transfer Protocol at: ftp.usr.com . (Patrick McKenna/19950719/Press Contact: Laurie Lentz, US Robotics, 708-982-5320/ROBOTICS950719/PHOTO) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 07/19/95 GENERAL Sybase Schedules ITV Developer Seminars (NEWS)(GENERAL)(LAX)(00019) Sybase Schedules ITV Developer Seminars 07/19/95 MOUNTAIN VIEW, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1995 JUL 19 (NB) -- Sybase Inc. (NASDAQ: SYBS) has announced a series of interactive television (ITV) developer seminars and workshops jointly sponsored by Hewlett Packard, PowerTV, Scientific-Atlanta, and Sybase. The September conference is the first program in the New Media Partners Developers College, which is expected to continue with other conferences over the next few years. The New Media Partners Developers College will consist of programs designed to enable production of applications for networked content delivery systems such as interactive television and the Internet. The first college will commence in September with a workshop to educate developers in building interactive TV applications. Bob Runge, director of product marketing for Sybase told Newsbytes, "It is difficult to move developers from the CD-ROM orientation to an interactive distributive delivery system. This is very complex and takes a major effort. This partnership along with the on-going training commitment should help this process. "The New Media Partners Developers College is intended to continue with future programs. We will soon be announcing the follow-ups to our September conference, with new programs stretching out into early 1996," said Runge. Runge also pointed out that the conference will be backed up by a fully integrated end-to-end interactive TV developers kit, consisting of HP's MediaStream Server video server, Scientific-Atlanta's Digital Home Communication Terminal (DHCT), the PowerTV operating system development environment, and the Sybase Intermedia software product family. "This conference offers developers a chance to get in on the ground floor of the ITV production industry and opens the door to developing content for interactive video service field trials," said Runge. "The goal of these colleges is to galvanize the content industry around the huge potential offered by ITV," said Russell Werner, vice president and general manager of Sybase's New Media Division. "Our tactical plan is to give developers the first server-to-set-top ITV environment that fully reproduces a real-world ITV system, coupled with the training they need to migrate to the world of ITV production. By partnering with leading suppliers of video servers, set-top boxes, cable modems, and video preparation software, we're creating a new paradigm for knowledge transfer in the digital media industry." "PowerTV continues to work closely with Sybase in supporting Sybase Interplay open-architecture on the PowerTV Operating System," said Michael Bloom, general manager of PowerTV Inc. "Both PowerTV and Sybase have committed to an open-systems framework for our products and we believe this emphasis is the most 'developer- friendly' for the ITV market. Our joint activities at the New Media Developers College with Scientific-Atlanta, Sybase, and HP should vividly illustrate ITV's potential and opportunities." According to the company, Sybase develops databases and tools for four major client/server market segments: new media, online transaction processing, data warehousing, and mass deployment. (Richard Bowers/19950719/Press Contact: Rebecca Michals, Blanc & Otus, 415-512-0500) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 07/19/95 BUSINESS Microsoft Singapore Consumer Drive (NEWS)(BUSINESS)(SFO)(00020) Microsoft Singapore Consumer Drive 07/19/95 SINGAPORE, 1995 JUL 19 (NB) -- Microsoft Singapore has unveiled a new retail merchandising strategy in a bid to consolidate its position in the consumer market. Three retail stores took part in the "Microsoft Centers" pilot recently and reported an increase in sales due to what Microsoft calls "impactful merchandising." Darren Lockie, marketing manager at Microsoft Singapore, said: "The Microsoft Centers are the result of our plans to put a greater focus on the retail sector because we recognize that strong, creative merchandising actually helps the customer." Microsoft display stands in the three stores were placed in prominent locations, with each product category clearly marked for the consumer to spot and choose from a range of Microsoft titles. A PC was placed in the display area for customers to try out the product. According to Bjorn Turmann, consumer products manager: "We wanted to create a program of permanent and semi-permanent fixtures and graphics that enhance the shopping experience, are visually appealing and, most importantly, make shopping easier for the customer." The Microsoft centers are expected to increase threefold by the end of the year, with locations throughout the island. (IT Daily/19950718) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 07/19/95 TELECOM World's Longest Fiber Optic Cable Deal Finalized (NEWS)(TELECOM)(HKG)(00021) World's Longest Fiber Optic Cable Deal Finalized 07/19/95 CENTRAL, HONG KONG, 1995 JUL 19 (NB) -- Flag Limited has finalized construction and finance agreements to build the world's longest fiber optic submarine cable, which will link telecommunications carriers in Europe, the Middle East and Asia using a record 27,000 kilometers of fiber. The FLAG (Fiber optic Link Around the Globe) cable system will take 27 months to build at a capitalized cost of US$1.5 billion. The system is scheduled to go into service on September 6, 1997. More than 40 carriers around the world have signed agreements to purchase capacity on the FLAG cable, including the 12 landing parties, which also have the responsibility for landing the cable in their countries. Thailand finalized the agreements to build FLAG on July 3. Landing points are located in Malaysia, China, Korea, Thailand, Hong Kong, India, Japan, United Arab Emirates, Egypt, UK, Spain, and Italy. In China, the cable system will be landed in Shanghai. This makes FLAG the first intercontinental submarine telecommunications cable to serve China. The cable is set to dramatically improve the quality of communications in areas it serves, many of which depend largely on satellite transmissions. (IT Daily/19950718) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 07/19/95 TRENDS Singapore Electronics Offers Investors "Value" (NEWS)(TRENDS)(HKG)(00022) Singapore Electronics Offers Investors "Value" 07/19/95 SINGAPORE, 1995 JUL 19 (NB) -- Singapore's electronics sector offers investors excellent value, according to a report issued by Salomon Brothers. According to analyst Winston Lim: "Despite the sector's significant underperformance over the last six to 12 months, tremendous value remains." The report, Singapore Electronics Update, blames fears over the plunge in the US dollar and its impact on US dollar-denominated revenues and yen-denominated costs as the main reason for the sector's poor performance. However, Lim has picked four of Singapore's electronics companies which he believes are likely to show strong returns over the next two months: Amtek Engineering, Clipsal Industries, Singapore Technology Industrial Corporation, and Venture Manufacturing. Venture is the main subcontractor for Compaq and Hewlett Packard in Asia and is able to produce 350 different products. As a result of this flexibility, Lim believes it is the most promising of the four companies. He predicts it will record average earnings growth of 27% over the next two years. However, not all of the city state's electronics firms are expected to do so well, Lim has recommended investors hold Azrech Systems, Creative Technology, and IPC Corporation. He also predicts that Goldron and WBL Corporation will underperform the market. (IT Daily/19950718) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 07/19/95 GENERAL Oracle Intros 9 New Applications (NEWS)(GENERAL)(SFO)(00023) Oracle Intros 9 New Applications 07/19/95 SAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1995 JUL 19 (NB) -- Well known for its database products, Oracle (NASDAQ:ORCL) is extending its client/server application software. Built to operate on top of the its database products, nine new applications were introduced as additions to Oracle Applications Release 10SC. Built on Oracle's SmartClient architecture, the applications include: Oracle Quality. Oracle Service, Oracle Sales and Marketing, Oracle Workflow, Oracle Sales Compensation, Oracle Applications Data Warehouse, Oracle Payroll, Oracle EDI Gateway, and Oracle Internet Commerce. The new applications are part of Oracle's value chain model which the company developed as a mirror of a business's operational process. In all, there are now thirty applications as part of the value chain model. Three of the nine applications -- Oracle Payroll, Oracle Sales Compensation, and Oracle Sales and Marketing -- are scheduled to ship in the next 90 days. The remaining six are to become available over a period of nine months. Pricing for the new applications vary considerably with a base fee for each application from $12,000 to $30,000 and user fees of $1,500 to $4,500 per named user. Oracle says the nine new applications provide their customers with important tools to improve business operations, customer relationships, and supplier and distributor communications and interactions. A spokesperson for Oracle told Newsbytes, "This is a very big announcement for Oracle. These applications deliver the necessary components to deliver a complete package for the value chain model. With these applications in process, we are able to confront SAP America, the leader in client/server business applications." Behind the new applications is Oracle's SmartClient architecture which features a graphical user interface incorporating documents, multimedia attachments, and full-motion video. Oracle says the new architecture's scalability and customizing capabilities allow users to meet changing business conditions at every level of operation. Citing the importance of electronic commerce, Oracle says its Oracle Internet Commerce and Oracle EDI Gateway applications will allow its customers to communicate "effectively and safely" over the Internet and provide built-in World Wide Web access. Oracle Internet Commerce links Web servers to other Oracle Applications and Oracle7 databases. (Patrick McKenna/19950719/Press Contact: Cecil Roach, Applied Communications, 415-375-8881; Internet World Wide Web http://www.oracle.com ) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 07/19/95 BUSINESS Lotus Sells ViP Licensing Rights To Revelation (NEWS)(BUSINESS)(BOS)(00024) Lotus Sells ViP Licensing Rights To Revelation 07/19/95 CAMBRIDGE, MASSACHUSETTS, U.S.A., 1995 JUL 19 (NB) -- Lotus Development Corp.'s newly announced sale of exclusive Notes ViP licensing rights to Revelation Technologies was in the works long before IBM's recent acquisition of Lotus, but contains some provisions that were prompted by IBM officials, said David Rome, general manager, companion and developer products for Lotus, in a conference call with Newsbytes. Under the deal, Revelation, which produces OpenInsight, a close ViP competitor, is only obligated to contain "full-scale" development of ViP through version 2.0, but at the present time, Revelation plans to support parallel development for the two products beyond a forthcoming version 2.0, added James Acquaviva, president and chief executive officer (CEO) of Revelation. Also today, Revelation released version 1.1 of ViP, a product that adds rich text support, enhanced Notes query performance, and the ViP 1.1 Bonus Pack, containing more than 15 new tools and sample applications, including an Infobox for setting object properties, a template for building tabbed dialog user interfaces, and a mailing label generator for Avery-style labels. Rome told Newsbytes that Revelation's acquisition of a perpetual license for Notes ViP -- now renamed ViP for Lotus Notes -- represents a "unique case," and that Lotus has no plans to sell either Hi-Test or any of its other products. Unlike other Lotus-produced development tools, which are focused on client-server, ViP is a "clean-screen, somewhat standalone" product, according to the Lotus exec. Selling the perpetual licensing rights for ViP to Revelation will free Lotus to focus more on Notes, while "giving ViP a great place to flourish," he asserted. From Reflection's perspective, ViP and OpenInsight will complement one another, while broadening Reflection's "market appeal," said Acquaviva. "OpenInsight is for team developers, building line of business applications. ViP is for individual developers creating workgroup and information retrieval applications," added the Revelation CEO. Revelation also produces the Report Designer development tool for Lotus Notes. Changes to the Lotus/Revelation deal that were suggested by IBM entitle Lotus to use the rich text object and some other "core components" of ViP in its other products, and call for Lotus and Revelation to "exchange information" about these core components, Rome reported. (Jacqueline Emigh/19950719/Reader Contacts: Lotus Development Corp., 617-577-8500; Revelation Technologies, 203-973-1000; Press Contacts: Victor Cruz, Lois Paul and Partners for Lotus, 617-862- 4514; Sarah Sherman, Neva Group for Revelation, 617-441-4000) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 5 07/19/97 IBM OS/2 Conference - 4 OS/2 Utilities For $99. (NEWS)(IBM)(BOS)(00025) OS/2 Conference - 4 OS/2 Utilities For $99.95 07/19/97 BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS, U.S.A., 1995 JUL 19 (NB) -- Development Technologies (DevTech)'s new DeskMan/2 Productivity Pack offers OS/2 management tools for only $99.95, plus a coupon for a free upgrade, officials maintained, during a press conference held at the OS/2 World Conference in Boston to introduce the utility kit. DevTech's "objective" in offering Deskman/2 is to give OS/2 users all the desktop tools they need in "one step," said Noel Bergman, president and chief technical officer, speaking at the press conference, which was attended by Newsbytes. Eileen Tognini, VP of sales and marketing, explained that the pack includes: DevTech's Deskman/2 version 1.51b installation, configuration and backup tool; WarpSpeed Computers' The Graham Utilities, Limited Edition; Proportional Software's DCF/2 Lite, for "on the fly" data compression; Sundial Systems Corp.'s Relish personal time manager; and BonAmi Software Corp.'s CPU (central processor unit) Monitor Plus for monitoring and graphically displaying CPU (central processing unit), disk, memory, and communications port activities, as well as for OS/2 program management. Gail Slobodian, product marketing manager for Microcentral, an OS/2 distributor, told journalists the DevTech's new utility pack is "very innovative," and predicted that it will be "good for the OS/2 community." Speaking with Newsbytes at the close of the press conference, Bergman maintained that each tool in the new productivity pack contains capabilities that are unavailable elsewhere. Bergman likened The Graham Utilities for OS/2 to The Norton Utilities for DOS, for example. The edition of The Graham Utilities that is included in the product bundle contains 15 of the 52 functions that are available in the "complete" version. DevTech's DeskMan/2 version 1.51b incorporates features like password protection of objects and Workplace Shell Audit Trail that were previously offered only in the corporate edition of the product, according to the company chief. Users who purchase the DeskMan/2 Productivity Pack are eligible for a free upgrade to DeskMan/2 version 2.0 when it becomes available, Bergman told Newsbytes. (Jacqueline Emigh/19950719/Reader Contact: Development Technologies, 803-790-2113; Press Contact: Cindy Golish or Jean Tutt, PR Unlimited Inc. for DevTech, 708-520-0950) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 07/19/95 ONLINE Microsoft Network Internet Connect Date Advanced (NEWS)(ONLINE)(DEN)(00026) Microsoft Network Internet Connect Date Advanced 07/19/95 REDMOND, WASHINGTON, U.S.A., 1995 JUL 19 (NB) -- Bill Gates, Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ: MSFT) chairman, told attendees at the Interactive Media Conference in Long Beach, California, this week that Microsoft Network (MSN) will deliver full access to the Internet about four months earlier than originally planned. Internet access via MSN was originally planned by the end of the year. MSN is scheduled to launch in late August in conjunction with the availability of the company's long-awaited new operating system and graphical user interface, Windows 95. Even though faced with opposition and possible legal action by the US Department of Justice, Microsoft decided this week to send Windows 95 to manufacturing with the MSN connection software intact. Online service competitors are upset because the communications software to give subscribers access to MSN is built into Windows 95, alleging that gives Microsoft an unfair advantage. Services like Compuserve, America Online, and Prodigy usually pay to have their communications software included with PCs. Gates said Microsoft will create a new area providing Internet users with access to a variety of the free and fee-based MSN services and content. The company has said in the past it plans to keep subscriber fees low and rely on fees from advertisers and service content providers to pay the cost of the network. Microsoft said it will sell advertising on MSN for $7,500 a month and up. Advertisers will need to make a 12-month commitment for a what Microsoft described as a "billboard-like icon." Clicking on that icon will take the user directly to the Internet home page of the advertiser. Microsoft said advertisers won't have to pay until MSN has at least 500,000 subscribers, but with a potential user base of 20 million current Windows users and the trend for users to upgrade to the latest version of Microsoft software, that may not take long. Gates said the advertising spots will be scattered throughout the online service, and will be sold mainly to marketers who don't otherwise provide content directly on the network. Microsoft said independent content providers get to keep between 70 and 95 percent of any revenue they generate from user contact on MSN. Microsoft will publish full rate cards by August 15. The company will also offer a hybrid arrangement under which companies that provide content directly to the network could pay $5,000 a month for a hypertext link. A user clicking on the hypertext would be sent to related pages on the Internet. Microsoft said that rate also won't go into effect until the half-million subscriber mark is reached. Gates also reiterated that Microsoft has no plans to get into the news business. He said the company will take news copy from wire services and repackage it for MSN. "In no sense do we have plans to do our own reporting or do our own news gathering. So we'll be working with some of the leaders in the field." The company will author material for MSN about its own products, such as Windows 95. (Jim Mallory/19950719/Press and public contact: Microsoft, 206-882-8080 or 800-426-9400) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 07/19/95 ONLINE ****Microsoft's "Blackbird" Authoring Tool In Beta (NEWS)(ONLINE)(DEN)(00027) ****Microsoft's "Blackbird" Authoring Tool In Beta 07/19/95 REDMOND, WASHINGTON, U.S.A., 1995 JUL 19 (NB) -- Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ: MSFT) officials told attendees at a developers conference in Long Beach, California, this week it has started beta testing of an online software authoring tool and said the product, being developed under the code name "Blackbird," is expected to ship by January, 1996. Microsoft officials handed out nearly 3,000 copies of the Blackbird beta version to software developers attending the Interactive Media Conference. Blackbird is designed for use by content providers to create multimedia sites on Microsoft's forthcoming online offering, Microsoft Network (MSN). MSN is scheduled to launch in late August in conjunction with the availability of the company's new operating system and graphical user interface, Windows 95. Windows 95 includes communications software to connect subscribers to MSN. Rich Barth, a group product manager for MSN, said in an interview with the British news service Reuters that a second version of Blackbird would be available later, which would allow content providers to create sites on the Internet as well as on MSN. Barth said other developer tools can be transparently integrated with Blackbird using object linking and embedding (OLE). Adobe Systems Inc., Caligari Corp., Intervista, and Macromedia Inc. have announced products incorporating Blackbird. Caligari Corp. said its 3D World Builder technology will be built into Blackbird, providing developers with an intuitive, interactive interface for manipulating and interacting with three-dimensional (3-D) environments. "We are going to take you places where you've never been. Explore new interactive vacation sites, museums, galleries and stores -- all in real-time and in 3-D from your desktop," said John Shewchuck, group program manager at Microsoft. Mountain View, California-based Caligari said developers using its 3-D World Builder will be able to transparently publish 3-D objects across the Internet and link objects to HTML (hypertext markup language) pages, video or other common media types on the World Wide Web. Caligari will demonstrate 3-D World Builder at the SIGGRAPH conference in Los Angeles next month. Macromedia Inc. (NASDAQ: MACR) demonstrated interactive multimedia created with its Macromedia Director and played back over MSN using the Macromedia Director Control for Blackbird. The company said it will ship a 32-bit version of Director after Windows 95 is available. The developer's conference was also a showcase for various third-party Windows 95-based authoring tools and new technologies, including Microsoft's Game software developer kit and 3-D rendering tools. Several MSN content providers showed their wares at the show, including causal apparel retailer Eddie Bauer, with its interactive merchandising application, and Swatch, a maker of stylish Swiss wristwatches. Swatch debuted its MSN advertising and promotional events area. A big attraction at the show was basketball superstar Shaquille O'Neal. O'Neal attended the Bill Gates keynote address and demonstrated his new online offering, ShaqWorld Online. It will feature sports and entertainment information and products on MSN. Bill Gates, Microsoft chairman and chief executive officer, told conference attendees Microsoft will also launch a new product this year aimed at children that would allow users to create their own 3-D multimedia movies. Gates demonstrated "3-D Moviemaker," which is scheduled to go on sale later this year with a street price of less than $40. The program allows users to record and play back their own animated films, choosing sets, characters, actions, props and camera angles. In the demonstration a character was shown running down a street, and the user was able to cut away to other camera angles, showing the scene from the rear, from the front and from overhead. Users can add music to movies created with 3-D Moviemaker, but dialog or narration is typed and appears in cartoon-style dialog balloons over the scene, rather than being spoken. Gates also demonstrated another children's product, "Toonerama," which creates cartoons-on-demand for interactive television. Gated did not reveal when Toonerama would ship nor discuss pricing. (Jim Mallory/19950719/Press contact: Microsoft, tel 206-882-8080, Caligari, Jill Ryan, McLean Public Relations, tel 415-513-8800; Public contact: Microsoft, 206-882-8080 or 80-426-9400, Caligari, tel 415-390-9600 or 800-351-7620) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 07/19/95 IBM ****OS/2 Conference - IBM Plans "Integrated Server" (NEWS)(IBM)(BOS)(00028) ****OS/2 Conference - IBM Plans "Integrated Server" 07/19/95 BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS, U.S.A., 1995 JUL 19 (NB) -- IBM's future plans for OS/2 Warp include an as-yet unannounced product, code named "integrated server," that will enter beta by the end of 1995. Plans also involve elements that include middleware, groupware, and three types of development tools, revealed John W. Thompson, general manager of IBM's Marketing and Solution Developer Program, in a keynote speech and a question and answer session with the press at the OS/2 World Conference in Boston. The new "integrated server" for OS/2 will integrate already existing middleware and groupware components, and will give users a "freedom of choice" among operating environments that is unavailable with Microsoft's Windows NT, Thompson told conference- goers during the keynote. IBM, he maintained, has long been producing cross-platform middleware products, pointing to the DB2 database as one example. Thompson also listed a series of OS/2 development tools that includes: a set of 700 cross-platform OS/2 and Windows 95 application programming interfaces (APIs), known as the Developer APIs (DAX); a forthcoming toolset for moving existing Windows 95 applications to OS/2; and object-oriented tools like VisualAge and OpenDoc. During the press briefing later, which was attended by Newsbytes, Thompson characterized Lotus Notes, one of the flagship products of IBM's newly acquired Lotus subsidiary, as incorporating elements of both middleware and groupware. IBM's upcoming "integrated server" will contain "no new components," aside from the "glue," or development code, for integrating its constituent parts, he reported. "The pieces are available now," he observed. IBM is referring to the product internally as the "integrated server," and has not yet established an official product name, Thompson added. Also during the press conference, John Soyring, division director, strategic relations, for IBM's Personal Software Products Division, told Newsbytes that IBM is still in the process of defining the roles that Lotus' backbone messaging server and other products and technologies from Lotus will play in IBM's roadmap for OS/2. In the keynote session at the three-day conference and expo in Boston, Thompson and David Barnes, also of IBM, presented a David Letterman-style countdown of the "Top Ten Reasons" why people should use OS/2 Warp instead of Windows 95. "To prove the journalists wrong" was one of the tongue-in-cheek reasons offered. Others included "IBM could use the money," and "I can walk and chew gum at the same time, and therefore I want an operating environment that does multitasking." The session also featured a demonstration by Barnes of several third-party applications running on OS/2 Warp and its recently announced PowerPC edition. In a demo of MSR Development Corp.'s Microlearn 0S/2 Game Pack Volume II, Barnes pointed out that MSR was able to re-use a considerable amount of code directly from the OS/2 shell. Slated for availability next month, the package consists of eight Arcade- style games, narrated by the Nordic characters Thor and Karin. At the press briefing afterward, Thompson said that the new PowerPC edition of OS/2 differs from the non-PowerPC version in two ways: by offering a microkernel architecture for easy portability of applications, and by operating on RISC (reduced instruction set computing)-based PowerPC hardware. The PowerPC edition of OS/2 Warp is now in beta to developers, Thompson reported. The product, which was originally scheduled to enter general beta this summer, will now go to general beta "at the end of this summer or the beginning of the fall," said another IBM official on hand at the press event. Also at the press conference, Thompson fended off sharp criticism from one analyst, who charged that IBM committed a "blunder" in not taking strong action to contradict reports, published in some major general interest and business publications, that IBM is "no longer committed to OS/2." Thompson acknowledged to the analyst that an official denial of the published reports might have been in order. But, he rejoindered, IBM is still "deeply committed" to OS/2, and is "investing heavily" in the operating environment. IBM, he contended, has been "shouting (this message) from the rooftops." A reporter then asked the IBM officials to describe IBM's current efforts behind OS/2 development. IBM's Howie Hunger outlined a series of programs that includes third-party application development through the National Software Testing Laboratory, a new program entitled Executive Call, and an upcoming campaign to encourage OS/2 developers toward online distribution of their applications. Another journalist asked about IBM's distribution plans for OS/2. Thompson responded that the distribution channels include retail stores, OEMs (original equipment manufacturers), VARs (value-added resellers), and sales to large accounts. Later this year, IBM will be beefing up its VAR program for OS/2, the general manager told the press. The OEM channel is also important, "if we're going to be selling OS/2 into the home," Thompson added. At the close of the press event, Soyring told Newsbytes that IBM's new DAX development tools are now in alpha, will enter beta later this summer, and will be released commercially by the end of the year. The DAX tools will let developers create applications for either Windows 95 or OS/2, meaning that many upcoming 32-bit applications will be appearing on both platforms, according to Soyring. Soyring also told Newsbytes that the second toolset, for Windows 95-to-OS/2 conversion, is scheduled for release by the end of 1995, as well. IBM has not yet named the conversion toolset, according to the division director. But in the long run, the object-oriented tools will be more important than either of the other two toolsets, Soyring asserted. (Jacqueline Emigh/19950719/Reader Contact: IBM, 914-765-1900; Lotus, 617-577-8500; MSR Development, 409-560-5970; Press Contacts: Brodeur & Partners for IBM, 617-622-2800; Lois Paul & Partners for Lotus, 617-862-4514; Xenia Moore, Cain Communications for MSR, 619- 274-5959) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 07/19/95 BUSINESS Sybase Opens Prague Joint Venture (NEWS)(BUSINESS)(LON)(00029) Sybase Opens Prague Joint Venture 07/19/95 PRAGUE, CZECH REPUBLIC, 1995 JUL 19 (NB) -- Sybase has launched a joint venture company, Sybase Solutions spol. s r.o., to provide training, technical support and product engineering services for both the Czech and Slovak republics. Direct sales and partner sales through resellers, integrators and software vendors will be supported, according to Dick Juppenlatz, deputy sales manager at Sybase Solutions in Prague. "In the next few months we'll be opening in Poland, Hungary, former Soviet Union and the former Yugoslavian states," Juppenlatz told Newsbytes. "In the Prague office we'll have approximately 35 people, with similar numbers for the other offices," continued Juppenlatz. These will all be hired locally. Sybase currently has 29 offices with 500 staff throughout Europe. In Central & Eastern Europe, the company now has offices in Prague, Moscow, St. Petersburg, Kiev, Warsaw, Budapest and Ljubiana planned. Sybase announced its new venture at the Atrium Hotel in Prague during a seminar which attracted some 200 local industry management and data processing personnel. The Sybase Solutions office is located in a newly restored villa near the Summer Royal Palace Belvedere next to the Ministry of Defense in Prague 6. The 1995 Czech and Slovak market has been estimated to be worth about $40 million for relational databases and related services, according to a report published by Frost & Sullivan. There are other, more optimistic reports that size the market at $80 million, Juppenlatz said. The total market for relational databases and related services in Central & Eastern Europe is something like $1 billion, according to the Frost & Sullivan report. "From the Sybase side, we're looking at approximately a 5% growth into the marketplace over the next year," said Juppenlatz. (Steven Slatem, IntelliTech/19950719/Press & Reader Contact: Dick Juppenlatz, Deputy Sales Manager, Sybase Solutions s.r.o., Czech Republic, tel +42 2 24310808 or +42 2 32563, fax +42 2 24315024 or +42 2 325628) (SUMMARY)(GENERAL)(MSP)(00030) Newsbytes Daily Summary 07/19/95 MINNEAPOLIS, MINNESOTA, U.S.A., 1995 JUL 19 (NB) -- These are capsules of all today's news stories: ======================================================================== ------------| N E W S B Y T E S D A I L Y S U M M A R Y |---------- ------------| Wednesday, July 19, 1995 |---------- ======================================================================== (c) Newsbytes News Network (Tm) Editor in Chief: Wendy Woods ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Newsbytes News Network is a computer and telecom industry news wire and digitized picture service. Our news stream includes more than 30 daily first-hand reported US and international news stories about computing and telecommunications. For more information, please e-mail to 'administrator@newsbytes.com' ------------------------------------------------------------------------ CATEGORY HEADLINES (*** indicates today's top stories) STORY # ======================================================================== BUSINESS Microsoft Singapore Consumer Drive......................... 20 BUSINESS Lotus Sells ViP Licensing Rights To Revelation............. 24 BUSINESS Sybase Opens Prague Joint Venture.......................... 29 GENERAL Softbank To Bring NetWorld+Interop To London/Sydney........ 01 GENERAL Japan Newsbriefs........................................... 09 GENERAL Hong Kong Jockeys Opt For DEC "Turbo" Betting Server....... 12 GENERAL Sybase Schedules ITV Developer Seminars.................... 19 GENERAL Oracle Intros 9 New Applications........................... 23 IBM OS/2 Conference - 4 OS/2 Utilities For $99.95.............. 25 IBM ****OS/2 Conference - IBM Plans "Integrated Server........ 28 LEGAL Legal Group Looks At Technology............................ 06 NETWORK New Products Unveiled At Netasia 95........................ 10 ONLINE E-mailing Made Easy With Claris............................ 02 ONLINE Time Magazine Comments On Cyberporn Controversy............ 03 ONLINE Internet Update............................................ 08 ONLINE Golf Digest & GolfWeb Team For Web Site.................... 14 ONLINE ZD Net/AT&T Interchange Available.......................... 17 ONLINE Microsoft Network Internet Connect Date Advanced........... 26 ONLINE ****Microsoft's "Blackbird" Authoring Tool In Beta........ 27 PC China - Tulip To Bundle ChineseStar With PCs............... 15 TELECOM Long-Distance Does U-Turn On Telecom....................... 05 TELECOM Possible PCS Telecom Overcapacity In Hong Kong............. 11 TELECOM World's Longest Fiber Optic Cable Deal Finalized........... 21 TRENDS ****AT&T Launches Plan 9 Operating System................. 04 TRENDS Electronics Factory Sales Up 15%........................... 07 TRENDS New Survey Reveals Attitudes About Computers............... 16 TRENDS US Robotics Offers 33,600 Bps Modem Speed.................. 18 TRENDS Singapore Electronics Offers Investors "Value.............. 22 WINDOWS Bridgeway Releases Software For Corporate Law Depts........ 13 ======================================================================== These are the headlines and first paragraphs of each story, in order: 1 -> Softbank To Bring NetWorld+Interop To London/Sydney -- Japan's Softbank Corporation (TOKYO:9984) is to bring its NetWorld+Interop computer show to London and Sydney next year. The show brings together the world of networking and interoperability hardware, software and transport technology products, services, and applications. 2 -> E-mailing Made Easy With Claris -- Apple Computer's (NASDAQ-NNM-AAPL) Claris subsidiary has announced the availability of Claris Emailer, an electronic-mail client that features ease-of-use combined with support for a range of Internet and online service e-mail systems. Despite the removal of many unnecessary configurations and options, the software still retains several powerful features, claims the company. 3 -> Time Magazine Comments On Cyberporn Controversy -- A week ago Newsbytes reported on the storm of controversy surrounding a new study of pornography on the Internet. Now, Time magazine, the publication that made it a cover story, and thus well known, has itself chronicled the argument and revealed some interesting facts that never made it into the original story. 4 -> ****AT&T Launches Plan 9 Operating System -- AT&T (NYSE:T) has announced a new distributed operating system, called Plan 9. The new system was developed by some of the same people who created the Unix operating system, and the terms on which AT&T is making it available are reminiscent of Unix, but the company stressed that Plan 9 is not Unix. 5 -> Long-Distance Does U-Turn On Telecom -- Last week, long-distance companies were buying advertisements in major national newspapers supporting telecommunications reform legislation in the House. Today, they are opposing the legislation. 6 -> Legal Group Looks At Technology -- The American Bar Association is taking a look at the impact of high technology on criminal investigation. 7 -> Electronics Factory Sales Up 15% -- US factory sales of electronics equipment, components and related products hit $179.3 billion for the first half of 1995, up 15 percent over the $155.8 billion for the first half of 1994, according to the Electronic Industries Association. 8 -> Internet Update -- In this roundup of new resources and services on the Internet: AAA Gallery exhibits; Access relay chat via the web; SIDS awareness; More sports online; Freenet mailing list; Become a Windows 95 expert; Try out HTMLed Pro free; Freeware image map editor; Hebrew software resources; The latest scores. 9 -> Japan Newsbriefs -- In this roundup of news from Japan: Mitsubishi expands into home PC market; NEC signs agreement with Interphase; OKI plans new US chip company; Victor, Sony plan more overseas production; Matsushita to test flat tubes. 10 -> New Products Unveiled At Netasia 95 -- Hong Kong's premier networking exhibition and seminar NetAsia 95, which took place at the beginning of July, saw more than 20 companies from Hong Kong and overseas displaying the latest network technology. 11 -> Possible PCS Telecom Overcapacity In Hong Kong -- The six PCS (personal communication services) licenses to be awarded next month by the Hong Kong government are not going to be licenses to print money, warns Sau-Wing Lam, president and chief executive of Pacific Link Communications. 12 -> Hong Kong Jockeys Opt For DEC "Turbo" Betting Server -- The Royal Hong Kong Jockey Club will soon become the first organization in Asia to install the AlphaServer 8400 "turbo" system from DEC. 13 -> Bridgeway Releases Software For Corporate Law Depts -- Bridgeway Software has released LawQuest, a Windows-based software package designed to support corporate law department functions. The system has a document management software interface. 14 -> Golf Digest & GolfWeb Team For Web Site -- Internet surfers who like to hit the links and little white balls can chip onto an improved World Wide Web site specializing in golf. That's because Golf Digest magazine and GolfWeb announced they are joining forces to enhance GolfWeb's already established site. 15 -> China - Tulip To Bundle ChineseStar With PCs -- Holland-based Tulip Computers has decided to join AST Research in pre-installing SunTendy's ChineseStar 2.0 on its computers sold in China. The move is considered something of a victory for SunTendy in the efforts to fend off strong competition from Microsoft's Chinese Windows. 16 -> New Survey Reveals Attitudes About Computers -- A new survey from Casey Communications/Shandwick shows computers are becoming an ever-increasing presence in US households. The study said almost half of all American households, 46 percent, now own a computer. 17 -> ZD Net/AT&T Interchange Available -- Ziff-Davis Interactive has announced that ZD Net/AT&T Interchange Edition, a new version of its online information service, is now available. The AT&T Interchange Edition joins a line of ZD Net services on commercial online services CompuServe, Prodigy, AppleLink, and eWorld, as well as the Internet. 18 -> US Robotics Offers 33,600 Bps Modem Speed -- US Robotics (NASDAQ:USRX) has introduced software which allows its Courier desktop modems and Total Control systems to boost data rates to 33,600 bits-per-second (bps). Built on the existing V.34 specification, the software enhancement takes advantage of digital signal processors (DSPs) used in US Robotics' 28,800 bps products. 19 -> Sybase Schedules ITV Developer Seminars -- Sybase Inc. (NASDAQ: SYBS) has announced a series of interactive television (ITV) developer seminars and workshops jointly sponsored by Hewlett Packard, PowerTV, Scientific-Atlanta, and Sybase. The September conference is the first program in the New Media Partners Developers College, which is expected to continue with other conferences over the next few years. 20 -> Microsoft Singapore Consumer Drive -- Microsoft Singapore has unveiled a new retail merchandising strategy in a bid to consolidate its position in the consumer market. Three retail stores took part in the "Microsoft Centers" pilot recently and reported an increase in sales due to what Microsoft calls "impactful merchandising." 21 -> World's Longest Fiber Optic Cable Deal Finalized -- Flag Limited has finalized construction and finance agreements to build the world's longest fiber optic submarine cable, which will link telecommunications carriers in Europe, the Middle East and Asia using a record 27,000 kilometers of fiber. 22 -> Singapore Electronics Offers Investors "Value -- Singapore's electronics sector offers investors excellent value, according to a report issued by Salomon Brothers. According to analyst Winston Lim: "Despite the sector's significant underperformance over the last six to 12 months, tremendous value remains." 23 -> Oracle Intros 9 New Applications -- Well known for its database products, Oracle (NASDAQ:ORCL) is extending its client/server application software. Built to operate on top of the its database products, nine new applications were introduced as additions to Oracle Applications Release 10SC. 24 -> Lotus Sells ViP Licensing Rights To Revelation -- Lotus Development Corp.'s newly announced sale of exclusive Notes ViP licensing rights to Revelation Technologies was in the works long before IBM's recent acquisition of Lotus, but contains some provisions that were prompted by IBM officials, said David Rome, general manager, companion and developer products for Lotus, in a conference call with Newsbytes. 25 -> OS/2 Conference - 4 OS/2 Utilities For $99.95 -- Development Technologies (DevTech)'s new DeskMan/2 Productivity Pack offers OS/2 management tools for only $99.95, plus a coupon for a free upgrade, officials maintained, during a press conference held at the OS/2 World Conference in Boston to introduce the utility kit. 26 -> Microsoft Network Internet Connect Date Advanced -- Bill Gates, Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ: MSFT) chairman, told attendees at the Interactive Media Conference in Long Beach, California, this week that Microsoft Network (MSN) will deliver full access to the Internet about four months earlier than originally planned. Internet access via MSN was originally planned by the end of the year. 27 -> ****Microsoft's "Blackbird" Authoring Tool In Beta -- Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ: MSFT) officials told attendees at a developers conference in Long Beach, California, this week it has started beta testing of an online software authoring tool and said the product, being developed under the code name "Blackbird," is expected to ship by January, 1996. 28 -> ****OS/2 Conference - IBM Plans "Integrated Server -- IBM's future plans for OS/2 Warp include an as-yet unannounced product, code named "integrated server," that will enter beta by the end of 1995. Plans also involve elements that include middleware, groupware, and three types of development tools, revealed John W. Thompson, general manager of IBM's Marketing and Solution Developer Program, in a keynote speech and a question and answer session with the press at the OS/2 World Conference in Boston. 29 -> Sybase Opens Prague Joint Venture -- Sybase has launched a joint venture company, Sybase Solutions spol. s r.o., to provide training, technical support and product engineering services for both the Czech and Slovak republics. (Ian Stokell/19950719) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 07/18/95 CHIPS Sony Offers Single-Chip Remote-Control (NEWS)(CHIPS)(SFO)(00001) Sony Offers Single-Chip Remote-Control 07/18/95 SAN JOSE, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1995 JUL 18 (NB) -- Sony's chip division, Sony Semiconductor Company of America, has announced two single-chip, remote control infrared receivers. These new receivers are characterized by their low price and wide application to remote control devices. Sony says potential applications include such products as cable television boxes, video cassette recorders, stereo audio equipment, garage door openers, elevator safety devices, dimmers, curtain openers, car door operators and most products using some form of infrared remote control. The horizontal SBX8020 and the upright SBX8025 sensors support frequencies from 36 kilohertz (KHz) to 40KHz and include a built-in photo diode. They require a 5-volt power supply and typically consume about 1.1 amps. The built-in photo diode and circuitry has internal electrostatic shielding which achieves low susceptibility to electromagnetic interference of 800 volts peak-to-peak per meter. Depending on existing light conditions of individual applications both sensors have a maximum range of six to eight meters. Regarding the price, Sony says sample quantities of both sensors are priced at $2.10 each. In production level quantities of 10,000 or more the price drops to $1.67. The sensors are available now and come as three-pin straight or L-lead frame packages. Speaking to Newsbytes, Manny Vara, spokesperson for Sony, said, "These new sensors have the most benefit to manufacturers as opposed to consumers of electronic products. Since the SBX8020 and 8025 are single ship solutions, manufacturers will now be able to create smaller remote devices. Previous remote control devices have required a chip- set (multiple chips used to perform a task or tasks). Besides the real- estate savings accomplished by using a single chip, manufacturers should also see a cost savings between the cost of a chip-set and a single chip." Vara said infrared sensor implementation is being expanded into many different products. As an example, he said automobile manufacturers are looking into the use of sensors mounted in front and in back of automobiles to sense obstacles and warn drivers of potential hazards. (Patrick McKenna/19950717/Press Contact: Manny Vara, Sony, 408-955-6572) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 07/18/95 ONLINE Time Warner Tests High Speed Online Access Via Cable (NEWS)(ONLINE)(MSP)(00002) Time Warner Tests High Speed Online Access Via Cable 07/18/95 NEW YORK CITY, NEW YORK, U.S.A., 1995 JUL 18 (NB) -- Time Warner (NYSE:TWX) Cable and Time Inc. have announced they have targeted the Elmira, New York market for a test of their new, high-speed online service for personal computers via cable TV wiring. This follows an announcement in May that the two companies intended to begin providing such services, which Newsbytes covered. "We've selected Elmira -- we're using Hewlett Packard and Zenith for the initial market trial," Michael Luftman, Time Warner Cable spokesperson, told Newsbytes. He said plans have been in motion for awhile now to bring the service to Elmira, which should begin next week. The initial charge will be $14.95, which will enable customers to receive a range of services including news from around the globe, shopping, sports, weather, and electronic-mail. For an additional $9.95 per month, customers will have full access to the Internet. Included in the basic monthly charge will be the cable modem rental, with the modems made by Zenith. By using both the special modem and the broadband capacity of Time Warner's fiber and coaxial network, users will be able to access information 100 times faster than through standard telephone lines, company officials said. The service will be available in 500 schools, homes, libraries, and government offices in Time Warner's Paragon Cable system. Luftman told Newsbytes that 100 of those modems will be given to schools and libraries. Hewlett Packard has been selected as the systems integrator for the project, which includes the design and development of the server complex, as well as providing operations, support planning, and training services. Other online services available to customers through the new cable modems will include access to Time's Pathfinder, and online services like CompuServe. In a separate announcement, America Online (AOL) said it will also be a part of the Elmira test. Advanced features users in the cable system will be able to enjoy will include real-time audio and video, and the ability to download files at speeds much higher than normally possible via phone lines. Elmira subscribers will pay the standard AOL subscription fees to access the service -- $9.95 for five hours, and $2.95 for each additional hour. These charges are above and beyond Time Warner Cable's normal charges. AOL has experience in other cable ventures. Its first trial got underway in December, 1994, with Viacom Cable in Castro Valley, California. (Bob Woods/19950718/Press Contacts: Michael Luftman, Time Warner Cable, 203-328-0613; Peter Costiglio, Time Inc., 212-522-0613; Judy Tashbook, America Online, 703-918-1452) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 07/18/95 ONLINE America Online Expands Parental Controls (NEWS)(ONLINE)(MSP)(00003) America Online Expands Parental Controls 07/18/95 VIENNA, VIRGINIA, U.S.A., 1995 JUL 18 (NB) -- America Online Inc. (NASDAQ:AMER) (AOL) said it plans to expand current parental controls already in place on the three million-plus subscription service. This will not only let parents choose which areas of AOL their children can access, but also allow them to have a say over Internet areas like the World Wide Web, through a new agreement with SurfWatch Software. "America Online wanted to take a proactive role in expanding those parental controls," Pam McGraw, AOL spokesperson, told Newsbytes. "Now that we offer Internet access, we're also offering tools for the Internet as well. We believe it's important to empower parents and give them the tools they need to then use for their kids while they're online and the Internet." All of this will be achieved by using current AOL technology, along with tools from SurfWatch. Come September, parents will be able to block all areas of AOL except for "Kids Only," an area specifically programmed for children. The Kids Only area includes kids chat, kids message boards, an encyclopedia, content from DC Comics and Disney, and even a Mighty Morphin Power Rangers area. Parents of teens can customize parental controls to select the specific areas and functions of the service they want blocked to their kids. Currently, features like chat, conferences, and instant messages can be blocked. In the future, Internet newsgroups can be locked out, as well as AOL and Internet software libraries, electronic mail, and message boards. AOL will also work with SurfWatch to provide parents with the tools to block unwanted and inappropriate material from the Internet's World Wide Web. Also, SurfWatch and AOL officials took their parental controls ware to Capitol Hill yesterday. Both companies demonstrated the blocking features of the AOL service and SurfWatch 1.0 for Windows. McGraw said the two companies "wanted to show that the private sectors can provide tools to make online services and the Internet safe. There's currently tools in place for parents to block out material available today, rather than having some type of governmental intervention which will take a long time to activate." SurfWatch also announced that Ventana Communications Group will distribute SurfWatch to the retail market. (Bob Woods/19950717/Press Contacts: Pam McGraw, 703-556-3746, Judy Tashbook, 703-918-1452, Margaret Ryan, 703-883-1625, all of America Online; Jay Friedland, SurfWatch Software, 415-948-9500, Internet e-mail jay@surfwatch.com. Public Contact: America Online, 800-827- 6364; SurfWatch Software, 415-948-9500, Internet World Wide Web http://www.surfwatch.com ) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 07/18/95 ONLINE Automatic Hypertext Web Anchoring Program (NEWS)(ONLINE)(MSP)(00004) Automatic Hypertext Web Anchoring Program 07/18/95 BLOOMINGTON, MINNESOTA, U.S.A., 1995 JUN 18 (NB) -- Iconovex Corp., said it is shipping "AnchorPage," described as a program which inserts hypertext tags into information on any Internet World Wide Web document database. "AnchorPage is geared for the Web site administrators and Web developers, and people who have to documents on (the Web) that are more than three to five pages in length," Robert Griggs, vice president of marketing for Iconovex, told Newsbytes. He said that many documents currently on the Web only have links to their titles, and AnchorPage links users to key phrases and concepts within those documents. All of this is done through a program called "Syntactics" that is within the AnchorPage program. Syntacitcs, which has been in development for 25 years, actually understands the subtleties of the English language. AnchorPage has the linguistic ability to analyze a text document, and determine key terms and phrases. The software allows for four different ways of presenting the material. It can be presented in a concept format, an abstract and phrase page, or a table of contents page. The entries within these formats are then hotlinkable via HTML (hypertext markup language) to the original text of the article. Griggs said with this software, the Web will go through a paradigm shift from an information-oriented medium to a content-driven medium. "This will let you get the right information, right away, every time," instead of sifting through details and facts the Internet user might not need, Griggs said. Currently, AnchorPage is available for a Windows 3.1 or Windows for Workgroups-based computer. Griggs said support for Windows 95, Windows NT, and Sun Solaris systems is on the way. Also, he said his company is studying the possibility of an OS/2 version of AnchorPage. Internauts can look at the end result of AnchorPage text at Iconovex's Web page, at http://www.iconovex.com . The beta version of AnchorPage won the Byte Magazine Best of Comdex award at Comdex/Spring in Atlanta earlier this year, Griggs said, in the category of "Best New Development Software." (Bob Woods/19950718/Press Contacts: Erica Swerdlow or Craig Grabiner, EBS Public Relations, 708-714-8600. Public Contact: Iconovex Co., 800-943-0292; Internet World Wide Web http://www.iconovex.com ) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 07/18/95 ONLINE Kenan Teams With Checkfree On Online Transactions (NEWS)(ONLINE)(BOS)(00005) Kenan Teams With Checkfree On Online Transactions 07/18/95 CAMBRIDGE, MASSACHUSETTS, U.S.A., 1995 JUL 18 (NB) -- Through a newly signed deal between Kenan Technologies and Checkfree, users of Delphi Internet, AT&T PersonaLink, and other online services yet to be announced will now be able to add debit cards and electronic funds transfer (EFT) to their list of payment options, said Kurt Silverman, director of development for Kenan's Arbor/BP "flexible billing" and customer care package, in an interview with Newsbytes. Under the pact, Kenan's Arbor/BP has been integrated with Checkfree's automated accounts receivable processing system, Silverman told Newsbytes. Users of Delphi and PersonaLink, two online services already deploying Arbor/BP, will be able to pay for their use of online services via debit card or EFT, as alternatives to the check and credit card payment options also supported by Arbor/BP, according to the development director. Kenan will also offer the new "integrated billing" option to other online service providers for electronic commerce, noted Silverman. Payment by debit card has long been popular in Europe, where debit cards are actually more prevalent than credit cards, and this method of payment is now starting to enter widespread use in the US, as well, the Kenan exec maintained. At growing numbers of filling stations, for example, US consumers can now pay for gasoline by swiping "ATM (automated teller machine) debit cards)" through a new type of card reader, he pointed out. Unlike credit cards, which provide for billing after purchase, debit cards allow "instant" payment through the authorized withdrawal of funds from the user's bank account, Newsbytes was told. Debit cards are so ubiquitous in the UK that, in order to permit use of Arbor/BP there, Kenan performed "special integration" of Arbor/BP with "a network in the UK that performs clearance of debit card transactions," he added. Checkfree, he contended, is the leading company in the US for debit card and EFT payment processing. Arbor/BP is designed to provide billing functions that include message processing, rating, discounting, bill production, remittance processing, collections, and journaling, in addition to accounts receivable, according to Silverman. "Customer care" functions of Kenan's software package include online account inquiry, customized bill formatting and distribution, customer provisioning, and invoice adjustments. In the credit card arena, Arbor/BP supports electronic transactions by MasterCard, Visa, American Express, and Discovery cards, the development director told Newsbytes. (Jacqueline Emigh/19950718/Reader Contact: Kenan Technologies, 617- 225-2224; Press Contacts: Eric Schnadig, Kenan, 202-488-3610; Craig Librett, Miller Communications for Kenan, 617-536-0470) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 07/18/95 TELECOM BBN Hark & AT&T To Pilot "Virtual Call Centers" (NEWS)(TELECOM)(BOS)(00006) BBN Hark & AT&T To Pilot "Virtual Call Centers" 07/18/95 CAMBRIDGE, MASSACHUSETTS, U.S.A., 1995 JUL 18 (NB) -- In a series of "virtual call centers" to be piloted under a newly inked agreement between BBN Hark Systems and AT&T, the term "virtual" carries connotations around the concepts of both "virtual operator" and "virtual networking," maintained Julie Donahue, chief executive officer (CEO) of BBN Hark, during a conference call with Newsbytes. Donahue told Newsbytes that BBN Hark, a BBN subsidiary that specializes in speech recognition technology, coined the phrase "virtual call center" to refer to a networked facility, available 24 hours a day, that will use speech-enabled, automated "operators" to answer callers' questions and respond to their requests. AT&T plans to pilot BBN Hark's speech recognition software in several "virtual call center" applications, according to Donahue. Examples of how the new technology might be used include catalog shopping, travel reservations, and auto rentals. "The call centers are `virtual' in two ways. Because they are network-based, they can be located `virtually anywhere,' beyond the limitations of space and time. But they also use `virtual operators," the CEO remarked. The easiest "sell" for the virtual call center is that companies and consumers will save money, according to Donahue. But, she contended, the new technology will also bring a number of other benefits, including reduced hold time, the ability to "connect the caller right away to the right person, place or thing," and the fact that callers "will no longer be limited to the touch-tone domain." Freedom from the need for touch-tone technology will be particularly appealing to users of car phones, Donahue predicted. Donahue added that the newly forged pact between AT&T and BBN Hark Systems and AT&T is being carried out "entirely outside" of two recent deals between BBN Planet, BBN's Internet access subsidiary. Last month, AT&T and BBN Planet unveiled plans to team up on a series of services for Internet access. Last week, the two companies announced that AT&T Ventures has purchased an $8 million equity position in BBN Planet. BBN Hark has several objectives in piloting virtual call center applications with BBN Planet, reported Donahue. "The two things we'll be working on with AT&T are to integrate our technology physically into our network, and to make use of BBN's knowledge of `human factors,'" Newsbytes was told. BBN has now put in "25 years of investment and research on the way the people interact with machines," she elaborated. BBN Hark Systems has previously deployed its speech recognition technology in applications that include credit card activation and stock quote transmission over the phone, plus a call center where the new technology is allowing employees previously "dedicated" to rotary dial customers to move on to "higher value-add tasks," according to Donahue. By focusing on telephone applications, she said, BBN Hark hopes to "establish a beach head" between itself and competitors, and then "leverage that lead" into other speech recognition application areas where BBN Hark is already involved, such as "dictation and command and control" from the desktop, and consumer electronics. In a deal with Time-Warner and other players, BBN is working on integrating speech recognition into consumer devices, Donahue explained. "Can you imagine if there were a consumer product that let you tell your VCR (videocassette recorder), `Tape Seinfeld'?" That's really the potential of speech," noted Barbara Marx, VP of marketing for BBN Hark, and also a participant in the conference call. "And at some point, you're going to be able to say, `Lights, go on,'" Donahue told Newsbytes. (Jacqueline Emigh/19950718/Reader Contact: BBN Hark Systems, 617- 873-4000; Ellen Fletcher or Brenda Nashawaty, Lois Paul & Partners for BBN Hark, 617-862-4514) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 07/18/95 ONLINE Open Market Allies With FTP On Windows NT Web Server (NEWS)(ONLINE)(BOS)(00007) Open Market Allies With FTP On Windows NT Web Server 07/18/95 ANDOVER, MASSACHUSETTS, U.S.A., 1995 JUL 18 (NB) -- A newly forged development and marketing deal around Open Market's WebServer, Secure WebServer, WebReporter, and upcoming electronic commerce products will join FTP Software's strengths in Windows-based Web access and corporate networking with Open Market's expertise in Unix-based Web technology, officials of the two companies asserted, in a series of interviews with Newsbytes. Robert Weinberger, VP of marketing for Open Market, told Newsbytes that the agreement calls for Open Market and FTP to collaborate on a Windows NT-based Web server that will be based on Open Market's existing product line-up, which is currently available in "several flavors of Unix." Jonathan Rodin, general manager of FTP's Internet Solutions Business Unit, noted that, also under the agreement, FTP will begin immediate shipment of Open Market's Unix-based WebServer, Secure WebServer, and WebReporter reporting tool. But these two activities represent only the "first steps" in a four-year agreement between the two Massachusetts-based Web specialists, Weinberger pointed out. Open Market sees the deal with FTP is a "ringing endorsement for our products," as well as a way to "gain presence in the world market." Unlike competing companies, which produce Web servers that are "based on freeware," Open Market "started from scratch" in developing its WebServer and Secure WebServer, according to Weinberger. The resulting products offer improvements in "performance, functionality, reporting, and access controls and security," he contended. Open Market's server software allows for over 1,000 simultaneous connections on a "low-end RISC (reduced instruction set computing) server," for example, according to Weinberger. "We also measure 50 percent faster on Webstone (performance) tests, and we've gone further than anybody else in allowing customers to specify and define user access," maintained the Open Market exec. Weinberger characterized Open Market's WebReporter as "the most extensive tool available for pulling information off of logs." This capability, he added, "is becoming extremely important, since businesses keep wanting more and more information about who is accessing various sites." Open Market is also developing new products for electronic commerce, Weinberger acknowledged. But he added that the details on these forthcoming offerings "have yet to be announced." FTP Software's Rodin told Newsbytes that, from FTP's perspective, the deal springs from a desire to offer "a complete line of product for online commerce and Unix." In 1986, FTP became the first vendor to offer TCP/IP (Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol) products for Internet access from PCs, according to Rodin. "We probably have more TCP/IP nodes (today) than anyone else," he asserted. The company's TCP/IP installed base totals 3 to 4 million nodes, he estimated. "We're also very much focused on the Fortune 1000. We have an extensive infrastructure for (corporate) support and training, very strong sales channels in the US and worldwide, and a lot of expertise in making our products work in heterogeneous networked environments," according to the FTP exec. Rodin added that Explore, FTP's current Windows-based Internet client for dial-up applications, incorporates a Mosaic Web browser, along with capabilities that include an Internet mail client, a Gopher client, and Telnet. At the end of July or the beginning of August, he revealed, FTP plans to release Explore 2.0, an update that will include a new "Launcher" front-end and will also incorporate some of the technologies obtained through FTP's recent acquisition of KeyWord Technologies. FTP's new Launcher is designed to let users "get launched on the Internet without facing a daunting screen full of icons," he said. Keyword technologies that will appear in Explore will allow viewing and protocol conversion of documents of various data types. Also this summer, FTP expects to introduce Explore Anywhere, a product that will add LAN (local area network) connectivity to the dial-up capabilities and enhancements in Explore 2.0, according to Rodin. Explore Anywhere will be aimed at "mobile users who are sometimes plugged in to a LAN." In follow-on releases of Explore and Explore Anywhere, which are slated for release later this year, FTP will add full support for Windows 95, intelligent agents, and further simplification of the user interface, Rodin told Newsbytes. FTP Software also produces OnNet, a family of Windows-based networking applications for workgroups and enterprise networks, according to the FTP exec. Open Market's Weinberger told Newsbytes that WebServer and Secure WebServer are designed, in particular, for "high demand, industrial strength" applications. In another recent deal, he noted, Open Market is teaming with Banc One Corp., one of the largest banks in the US, and RoweCom Inc., a service provider to libraries and research institutions, on a procurement system aimed at letting libraries order books from publishers, and transmit payment while still online. (Jacqueline Emigh/19950717/Reader Contacts: Open Market, 617-621- 9500; FTP Software, 508-685-4000; Press Contacts: Robert Weinberger, Open Market, 617-621-9500; Shirley Macbeth or Dana Harris, Schwartz Communications for Open Market; Jill LeBallister Dudka, FTP, 508-685-4000; Ellen Fletcher or Pete Bartolik, Lois Paul & Partners for FTP, 617-862-4514) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 07/18/95 GOVT New Japan Trade Dispute Brewing Over Handyphones (NEWS)(GOVT)(TYO)(00008) New Japan Trade Dispute Brewing Over Handyphones 07/18/95 TOKYO, JAPAN, 1995 JULY 18 (NB) -- The United States is reported to be ready to consider "appropriate action" unless progress is made in a dispute over acquisition of mobile telephone handsets, but Japanese trade officials say the phones are outside the scope of any agreements made and that there is no complaint to answer. The disagreement surrounds handsets for the new Personal Handyphone System, a cheaper but less versatile mobile phone system that was launched in Tokyo on July 1. Newsbytes reported the beginnings of the dispute in April, although a meeting in Tokyo last week and a scheduled meeting in San Francisco this Friday look like they will see the two sides arguing again. The US says that the Japanese telephone giant, Nippon Telegraph and Telephone (NTT), is violating a telecommunications procurement agreement by not purchasing a certain number of telephone handsets from overseas manufacturers. In Japan, NTT Personal Communications Network (NTT-PCN), the company running the PHS system, says that it is exempt from the agreement which only covers NTT. It insists it is a private company. Whilst NTT-PCN may be private, NTT and its NTT DoCoMo subsidiary own over half of the company and so, say US officials, the company is covered by the agreement. In April, Bill Morgan at the US Embassy in Tokyo told Newsbytes, "A sideletter covers it. If subsidiaries are exempt then the incentive to NTT whenever they wanted to procure anything would be to create a subsidiary. The idea was to sweep in all subsidiaries," a sentiment that still exists today. The San Francisco meeting this Friday is likely to see calls from American representatives for increased business with US companies on PHS equipment procurement. Any such calls will meet a muted response from the Japanese side. Officials have already said they will not discuss any numbers associated with the PHS system at the meeting. According to the Japanese government, foreign companies sold it seven percent of its total telecommunications purchases last year. The American Electronics Association say this is more like three percent because the Japanese government counts purchases from foreign-based subsidiaries of Japanese companies. (Martyn Williams/19950718/Press contact: Tim Smith, American Embassy Tokyo, +81-3-3224-5280; John Stern, American Electronics Association, +81-3-3237-7195; NTT Personal Communications, +81-3-5440-0568) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 07/18/95 PDA China - Chinese PDA With Handwriting-Recognition (NEWS)(PDA)(PEK)(00009) China - Chinese PDA With Handwriting-Recognition 07/18/95 BEIJING, CHINA, 1995 JUL 18 (NB) -- The State Education Commission recently held a news conference to announce that (mainland) China's first Chinese handwriting-recognition personal digital assistant (PDA) had been successfully developed and mass produced by Shenzhen Shangxia Technology Ltd. The research and development of the CPDA-863SA PDA was supported by China's "863" Plan, a national high tech program focusing on the commercialization of high-tech product developments. Shangxia has integrated such technologies as handwriting Chinese character recognition, a low-power-consumption liquid crystal display (LCD), data storage, and computer communications, into its CPDA. Avoiding the need to learn difficult Chinese inputting methods and keyboard typing, the user can use a pen to perform all operations to create and edit his/her phone number directories, appointment and meeting schedules, and business card boxes. Like other PDAs, the CPDA has includes a clock, a calendar/planner, a notebook, and a calculator, a sales manager at Shangxia Beijing Office told Newsbytes. All utilities can be manipulated by the pen, he added. Other features of the CPDA include Chinese-English and English-Chinese dictionaries, a business manager, a home finance bookkeeper, and a personal database, he said. The demand for the CPDA is reportedly strong. The office has received a "flood of orders," the sales manager told Newsbytes. The retail price of the CPDA is RMB3,980 (US$480). (Chih-Ho Yu & Ning Huang/19950718/Reader Contact: Shenzhen Shangxia Technology Ltd., tel +86-755 330-0551, fax +86-755 330-0552; Shangxia Beijing Office, tel +86-10 827-7272) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 07/18/95 BUSINESS Microsoft & Bay Networks In Alliance (NEWS)(BUSINESS)(DEN)(00010) Microsoft & Bay Networks In Alliance 07/18/95 REDMOND, WASHINGTON, U.S.A., 1995 JUL 18 (NB) -- Bay Networks Inc. (NASDAQ: BNET) stock took a jump of over $3 in advance of an announcement that the Billerica, Massachusetts-based company would enter into a joint development, support and marketing alliance with Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ: MSFT) to develop tools to extend networks to remote offices. The deal calls for Microsoft to embed Bay Networks' Routing Services into Microsoft's Windows NT Server. The two companies will also develop a routing application programming interface (API) and a Routing Table Manager model in Windows NT that will enable Bay and third parties to provide a wide range of routing protocols on Windows NT. A router is a device on a communications network that expedites message delivery by forwarding them to the correct destination over the most efficient available route. Gary Bowen, executive vice president of Bay Networks, said the agreement calls for the embedding of industry-standard protocols such as OSPF into Windows NT, rather than developing new proprietary technology. OSPF is an acronym for Open Shortest Path First, a protocol that lets users mix and match routers from different vendors. The Microsoft-Bay Networks relationship is not a new one, but rather an extension of one that has existed over the past two years, according to Paul Stanton, Microsoft Business Systems Division marketing manager. The Microsoft executive said the need for dialup services on a network is growing as professionals become more mobile. "There is tremendous growth in deployment of wide area networks (WANs) to remote offices in small businesses. These are the areas where we feel Windows NT's integrated communications services platform can bring value to customers." Microsoft said it will conduct an Open Process review of the routing API with interested parties this fall. Beta tests will be conducted in the first half of 1996. Bay Networks' Optivity network management application suite will enable users to manage the Bay Networks Routing Services embedded in Windows NT Servers from a single site located anywhere on the network. Microsoft said it will also provide management tools integrated in Windows NT Server. Bay Networks was formed through the 1994 merger of SynOptics Communications and Wellfleet Communications. The company reported revenues in excess of $1 billion in its most recent fiscal year. (Jim Mallory/19950718/Press contact: Chris Carleton, Bay Networks, 508-436-3706 or Erin Holland, Waggoner Edstrom for Microsoft, 503-245-0905) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 07/18/95 GENERAL Sun Microsystems Intros First Java Application (NEWS)(GENERAL)(LAX)(00011) Sun Microsystems Intros First Java Application 07/18/95 MOUNTAIN VIEW, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1995 JUL 18 (NB) -- Sun Microsystems Computer Co. and Market Vision Corp. have unveiled the first available "Java" application for the Internet. Developed using the new Java programming language announced in May by Sun Microsystems Inc. (NASDAQ-NNM-SUNW), Market Vision created a new stock and financial market data package. According to Market Vision, their new application, using Java, provides open access to any data feed. This means securities firms can obtain a broad range of market data using a graphical interface based on open network standards. The integration of HotJava with Market Vision took less than a month to put together. The Market Vision application allows traders to integrate market ticker information and datafeeds in real-time onto their desktop, and immediately recalculate portfolio values, manipulate data, and export the new information directly into historical charts and spreadsheets. Summary or fundamental quotes, time-sensitive price lists, corporate actions, price-earnings ratios, and dividends can be viewed and manipulated over a public network. Bulletin board messages can be delivered securely over networks with Market Vision's new application, according to the company. "HotJava is the next killer application of business network computing over any public and private Internet Protocol-based network," said William F. Adiletta, chief executive officer (CEO) with Market Vision. "It creates a new paradigm for accessing and manipulating market data, an event-oriented, standards-based Web navigator and application tool that operates independent of platform." "Using the Java language developers can create dynamic Web browsers or expand current Web browsers," George Paolini, a spokesperson for Sun Microsystems, told Newsbytes. "Using HotJava there is no such thing as installing software. Software transparently migrates across the network. It shows up when you need it. It gets there automatically." Continued Paolini, "The HotJava browser uses the Java language to expand the capabilities of current browsers by allowing the downloading of small software programs. Instead of simply reading pages, HotJava browser users execute computer applications on their screens, so they can interact in real-time." "Market Vision is a leading-edge developer and the first to demonstrate the potential of disseminating dynamic financial information over the Internet," said Jill Rubin, manager for financial services at Sun Microsystems. "Instead of simply reading pages, HotJava users are executing three-dimensional multimedia capabilities and computer applications in real-time on their screens. This is the future of Wall Street." According to Sun Microsystems, the company leads the world in the workstation-server Unix market in financial services, with 55 percent in trading systems, 41 percent in securities, and 25 percent in banking systems. (Richard Bowers/19950718/Press Contact: Jeremy Barnish, Sun Microsystems Computer Co., 415-786-8021) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 07/18/95 BUSINESS Microsoft Says Fiscal 1995 A Record Year (NEWS)(BUSINESS)(DEN)(00012) Microsoft Says Fiscal 1995 A Record Year 07/18/95 REDMOND, WASHINGTON, U.S.A., 1995 JUL 18 (NB) -- Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ: MSFT) said this week its 1995 fiscal year, which ended June 30, 1995, was a record year for the company with revenues of almost $6 billion. The software company said that was a 28 percent increase over the previous year. Net income for the year was $1.45 billion, and earnings per share (EPS) were $2.32. However, the company's stock settled off 1/2 in volatile after-hours trading then jumped 5-3/8 after traders learned the earnings included one-time charges. In the fourth quarter, Microsoft shares earned $0.63 compared with $0.56 per share in the comparable quarter last year. Quarterly net income was $397 million compared to $342 million in 1994. In the fourth quarter, Microsoft announced shipment of the Windows NT Workstation and Windows NT Server operating systems version 3.51. It also shipped SQL Server version 6.0, a distributed client/server database management system. The company incurred several one-time charges during the year, including a $0.05 per share charge in connection with the termination of its planned merger with Intuit Inc., the publisher of the popular personal finance program Quicken. The deal fell through after Microsoft decided it couldn't live with the delays caused by the objections to the merger from the US Department of Justice. Microsoft had planned to use Quicken as the base for the financial services to be offered on the Microsoft Network (MSN). MSN is scheduled to launch in late August of this year. That is about the same time the company's new operating system and graphical user interface Windows 95 will be available. Microsoft has built into Windows 95 communications software to allow Windows 95 users to connect to MSN if they are subscribers. Microsoft also incurred a $0.13 per share charge in the third quarter related to the patent litigation with Stac Electronics. The dispute centered on technology used to compress data. That charge was partially offset by a credit of $0.03 in the fourth period as a result of settling the dispute with Stac. Mike Brown, Microsoft chief financial officer, said this is the 20th year of growth in revenues and profits for Microsoft. What differentiated the 1995 fiscal year was the growth of research and development and other operating expenses, which grew faster than revenues. Brown said in order to maintain its competitiveness the company expects that investment trend to continue in the coming year. Microsoft invested $860 million in research and development in fiscal year 1995. It also spent $1.89 billion for sales and marketing, and $267 million for general and administrative costs, bringing total costs and expenses to $3.9 billion for the year. (Jim Mallory/19950718/Press contact: Pam Edstrom, Waggener Edstrom, 503-245-0905) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 07/18/95 ONLINE Juno Offers Free E-Mail With Advertising (NEWS)(ONLINE)(TOR)(00013) Juno Offers Free E-Mail With Advertising 07/18/95 NEW YORK, NEW YORK, U.S.A., 1995 JUL 18 (NB) -- Juno Online Services L.P., a new venture launched by investment bank D.E. Shaw & Co., has announced plans to offer free Internet electronic mail. The service will be supported by advertisers who will pay to have their messages appear on users' computer screens and to send marketing surveys to customers, and possibly also by optional services for which customers will pay. Charles Ardai, president of Juno Online Services, told Newsbytes the advertising on Juno's service may take several forms. A key one will be a panel in the upper right corner of the computer screen where advertising messages will appear. "The content of that panel will change independent of anything the user does," he said. When a user sees an interesting advertising message, he or she will be able to click on the panel to receive more information, Ardai said. Advertisers may also pay Juno to let them send electronic-mail messages to Juno's customers, requesting information for market research. Ardai added that Juno will ask its customers to fill out personal profiles that, in future, will allow advertisers to direct their messages to people most likely to be interested in them. For instance, an advertisement for diapers might only go to people with children, and advertisements for Broadway shows might reach customers in New York, but not California. This kind of targeting will not work until Juno builds up a sizable user base, Ardai noted. Juno customers will not have to arrange or pay for Internet access separately, Ardai said, and the company plans to provide access without the cost of a long-distance telephone call at least in major centers in the United States. Juno hopes to have national coverage "at least as broad and solid as any of the major online services," Ardai said. To use the service, customers will need software that Juno is now developing for computers running Microsoft Windows. This software is due to be released later this year. (Grant Buckler/19950717/Press Contact: Dana Rudolph, Juno Online Services, 212-478-0800, fax 212-478-0700, Internet e-mail info@juno.com ; Public Contact: Juno Online Services, 212-478-0800, Internet e-mail info@juno.com ) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 07/18/95 IBM Ambra's Days May Be Numbered In Canada (NEWS)(IBM)(TOR)(00014) Ambra's Days May Be Numbered In Canada 07/18/95 MARKHAM, ONTARIO, CANADA, 1995 JUL 18 (NB) -- Canada, the only country where IBM's (NYSE:IBM) Ambra computer line is still sold, may soon bid the ill-fated label goodbye as well. A source at IBM Canada Ltd. said the Ambra brand could well disappear some time in 1996, when IBM is expected to bring out new computers under its own name that will fill the same market niches. IBM launched the Ambra brand in Europe and Canada in mid-1992, aiming at customers who wanted low-priced PCs. It brought them to the United States in the fall of 1993, when it formed a subsidiary called Ambra Computer Corp. in Raleigh, North Carolina. Then the company reversed itself, withdrawing the brand in Europe in February, 1994, and closing down its Ambra subsidiary in the United States that summer. At the time the US subsidiary closed, with the loss of about 80 jobs, IBM spokesman Peter Thonis told Newsbytes that the Ambra products had become redundant because "we can meet that marketplace with IBM-branded products." At the same time, IBM Canada moved Ambra sales from a separate subsidiary created to handle them -- called Expercomp Computer Services -- into the parent firm. A senior IBM Canada official said recently that the Ambra products were kept on the market in Canada because they addressed certain market niches not covered by machines with the IBM nameplate. But he said the intention has always been to drop the Ambra line as soon as IBM-branded PCs are available to fill those gaps, and these are likely to appear some time in 1996. Ambras are made for IBM Canada by other manufacturers, at least one of which is Canadian. They use a large proportion of IBM-made parts, in some cases more than some computers that bear the IBM logo, the company official said. (Grant Buckler/19950718) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 07/18/95 GENERAL AmCoEx Index Of Used Computer Prices (NEWS)(GENERAL)(SFO)(00015) AmCoEx Index Of Used Computer Prices 07/18/95 SAN DIEGO, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1995 JUL 18 (NB) -- By John Hastings. "Just say no" to new operating systems. That is the advice given by many experts in the computer industry, because the second version is always cleaner than the first. Today's computer operating systems are incredibly complex. To expect the first version to work well is naive. When Windows 3.0 was introduced, most found it almost unusable. Version 3.1 then solved most of the large problems. When Apple's System 7 was first released, the problems ranged from irritating to catastrophic. System 7.1 smoothed the situation. System 7.5 introduced many new features and new bugs. System 7.5.1 resolved the bugs. Apple has always planned to offer its System 8 in a form that will run on any PowerPC computer. This will include new computers from IBM, Canon, and possibly Zenith. Because of the new operating system stigma, however, Apple is considering modifying its System 7.5 to run on these new machines. Many corporate users may be more willing to adopt a tried and true version more quickly. Because it is almost a year and a half late, many skeptics think Microsoft is rushing Windows 95 to market with numerous problems unresolved. Their advice is to wait for Windows 95 Version 1.1. They claim that "those who do not study history are destined to repeat it." John Hastings is the president of the American Computer Exchange. Since 1988, the American Computer Exchange has matched buyers and sellers of used microcomputers. For more information contact the American Computer Exchange at (800) 786-0717 or http://www.crl.com/~amcoex. The AmCoEx Index of Used Computer Prices The following prices are for July 17, 1995. Average Average Buyer's Seller's Machine Bid Ask Close Change($) IBM PS/2 Model 70 60MB $300 $550 $325 -25 IBM PS/1 486DX2/50 253MB 700 1150 750 -50 IBM PS/2 Model 90 160MB 850 1300 875 -25 IBM ThinkPad 350C 1400 1800 1600 -50 IBM ThinkPad 700 900 1500 975 .. IBM ThinkPad 720 1100 1800 1175 -50 AST 486SX/25 170MB 550 950 600 -25 AST 486DX/66 340MB 600 1000 775 -50 Dell 386/33, 100MB 400 850 450 -25 Dell 486DX/33 240MB 600 1050 650 -50 Gateway 386/25, 80MB 350 700 375 -25 Gateway 486/33 120MB 600 900 675 -25 Clone Notebook 386SX, 40 MB 400 900 500 .. Clone 386/33 80MB, VGA 350 700 375 -25 Clone 486/25 120MB, VGA 650 1200 700 .. Clone 486DX/33 240MB 550 1000 750 -50 Compaq LTE 286 40MB 250 675 275 -50 Compaq Contura 320 60MB 500 1000 550 -25 Compaq Contura 4/25 120MB 750 1200 800 +25 Compaq Deskpro 386/20e 100MB 350 700 375 .. Compaq Deskpro 486/33 120MB 650 1100 750 -50 Mac Classic II 80MB 350 800 375 -50 Mac IIsi 160MB 400 800 475 .. Macintosh IIcx 80MB 250 600 275 -25 Macintosh IIci 80MB 500 950 525 .. Macintosh IIfx 80MB 500 1000 600 -25 Mac Quadra 700 230MB 800 1400 975 .. Mac Quadra 800 500MB 1300 1800 1450 -75 PowerBook 140 40MB 600 950 750 +25 PowerBook 170 40MB 800 1350 875 .. PowerBook 180 80MB 1000 1750 1450 -50 LaserWriterPro 630 1100 1650 1275 .. Toshiba 1900 120M 550 950 650 -50 Toshiba 3200 SXC, 120MB 1700 2650 1850 .. Toshiba 3300SL 120MB 700 1100 800 .. Toshiba 5200 100MB 750 1050 775 -25 HP LaserJet II 350 850 450 .. HP LaserJet IIIP 250 650 350 -25 HP LaserJet III 500 900 550 -25 HP LaserJet IV 800 1200 975 .. (AMCOEX/19950718) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 07/18/95 ONLINE Washington Post Rolls Out Digital Ink (NEWS)(ONLINE)(WAS)(00016) Washington Post Rolls Out Digital Ink 07/18/95 WASHINGTON, D.C., U.S.A., 1995 JUL 18 (NB) -- After two years of development, the Washington Post has launched its new online edition, known as Digital Ink. Spokesman Frederick Singer told Newsbytes that the service, to be carried on the new AT&T Interchange Online Network, represents a "multi-million dollar investment" on the part of the newspaper. The online newspaper has its own editorial staff of 20 reporters and editors to enhance the copy from the daily newspaper. Digital Ink will include all of the stories from the newspaper, available by 1 am on the day of publication. In addition, the service will be continually updated with material from the Associated Press, Reuters, and the Sports Ticker. The online report will also include hypertext links to sources of information including the full text of speeches, the CIA World Factbook, State Department briefings, and discussion forums. Subscribers will be able to tailor what they read and set up a custom clipping service. They will also have electronic access to newspaper archives going back to 1986. According to Donald Brazeal, editor and publisher of Digital Ink, the service is designed to appeal to the 95 percent of American households that have not tried an information service. "We will help people navigate the confusing glut of information," he said. "Our aim is quality, not quantity." According to Singer, the Post chose the AT&T network at a time before the World Wide Web had sprung into prominence. "The Web was not that big a deal when we chose AT&T in March of 1994," he said. But the Post is aware of the importance of the Web, Singer said, and will offer access to the Web from within its online newspaper. Eventually, Singer predicted, there will be access from the Internet to Digital Ink. People who sign up for the service before October 1 will pay $5 per month for five hours of online usage. Beginning January 1, the monthly price will be $9.95. For usage beyond five hours, the service will cost $2.95 per hour. The service initially will run only on Windows-based computers with at least a 386 processor and eight megabytes of memory. A 9600 bits-per-second (bps) modem is also necessary, and the service will support a 14,400 bps modem. Singer said the service will add support for 28,800 bps modems soon. The Washington area is a good market for an online newspaper. More than 50 percent of adults in the area own a home computer, according to the newspaper. Nearly 60 percent of area residents subscribe to the Post, the highest penetration for any newspaper in a US metropolitan area. (Kennedy Maize/19950718/Press Contact: Fred Singer, 202-334-5310; Public Contact:1-800-510-5104) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 07/18/95 ONLINE Congressmen Examine Online Smut Filters (NEWS)(ONLINE)(WAS)(00017) Congressmen Examine Online Smut Filters 07/18/95 WASHINGTON, D.C., U.S.A., 1995 JUL 18 (NB) -- Software makers, online companies and digital liberties groups swept into Congress yesterday to demonstrate "smut filters" to make the online world "kid safe." In one demonstration, an attempt to reach an Internet sex shop that peddles sex toys and paraphernalia was blocked by software called WebTrack, created by Webster Network Strategies. Another demonstration showed off parental control mechanisms from America Online. "Access-control solutions that are mandated by a slow-moving government bureaucracy to address the Internet simply won't work," said Rep. Christopher Cox (R-Calif.). "Regulators just can't keep up with this fast-paced technology. We need solutions that include parents, teachers and the online industry as part of the equation." "It's now clear that with readily available software, America's parents can child-proof the family computer," said Rep. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.). Cox and Wyden are sponsoring a measure to encourage online service providers to make filtering and blocking technologies widely available. They hope to include their bill in the House telecommunications rewrite when it comes to the floor later this summer. Cox and Wyden began writing their bill when they saw the approach being taken in the Senate, where an amendment by Sen. James Exon (D-Neb.) would criminalize indecent content on the Internet. "The Senate bill is doomed to fail because their idea of a Federal Internet Police will make the Keystone Cops look like crack crime fighters," Wyden said. "Any kind of blocking device is an important step in the right direction," Exon said, "though I had heard precious little from the industry until I rang their bell. We may need these tools, but we also need more federal laws. I mean, if we paid for everyone to have a bulletproof vest, it does not mean we should repeal the murder laws." Yesterday's event was the creation of the Interactive Working Group, an alliance of some 80 online suppliers, computer firms and public interest groups. It was put together by Jerry Berman, executive director of the Center for democracy and Technology. The Interactive Services Association, the trade group for the online service providers, says it will launch a national Parental Empowerment Program to help educate parents about online issues. (Kennedy Maize/19950718/Press Contacts: Vincent Sollitto for Cox, 202-225-5611; Josh Kardon for Wyden, 202-225-4811) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 07/18/95 LEGAL ****Court Grants Injunctions In Counterfeit Cases (NEWS)(LEGAL)(WAS)(00018) ****Court Grants Injunctions In Counterfeit Cases 07/18/95 WASHINGTON, D.C., U.S.A., 1995 JUL 18 (NB) -- A federal court in California has granted preliminary injunctions in three lawsuits brought by the Software Publishers Association against five companies for allegedly distributing counterfeit software. SPA filed suit against the companies on May 30 and the Washington-based trade group is seeking permanent injunction against sales of the illegal products, plus damages, court costs, and attorneys fees. SPA brought suit against E.V. International, M&S Associates, MaxMedia Distributing, Softshoppe and Stylin Multimedia. SPA says it brought the suits based on reports that the firms were selling unauthorized copies of software products through organized trade shows. SPA says it hired private investigators to comb the trade shows and, in several case, the defendants' retail stores, to find and purchase suspect products. When they verified that the products were illegal copies, SPA sued. The programs involved include: "Doctors Book of Home Remedies" from Compton's NewMedia; "Falcon Gold" from Spectrum Holobyte; "Global Explorer" from DeLorme Publishing Co.; "Wrath of the Gods" from Luminaria; and id Software's Doom II. All the publishers are SPA members. According to SPA, each defendant faces damages of up to $100,000 per work infringed, plus costs and fees. Also, SPA is working to identify who supplied the distributors with the illegal software. "Counterfeit software is not a problem limited to the Far East," says Sandra Sellers, SPA's litigation chief. "It is available in our own backyard. SPA is committed to tracking down counterfeit software both at the source and at the retail level, even at the weekend trade shows at which much of these counterfeits were purchased." SPA notes that customers often can identify counterfeits by looking closely at the disks, documentation and packaging. If the designs, logos, or color is poorly reproduced, or out of place, if the documentation is missing or misaligned on the pages, or if either the disk or the documentation contain typographical errors, the product may be a fake. SPA says consumers should also be careful not to buy products marked "not for resale" or "not to be sold separately." (Kennedy Maize/19950718/Press Contact: Sandra Sellers, 202-452-1600 ext 311; SPA Internet World Wide Web http;//www.spa.org ) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 07/18/95 ONLINE ****American Express To Let Members Buy Over Internet (NEWS)(ONLINE)(MSP)(00019) ****American Express To Let Members Buy Over Internet 07/18/95 NEW YORK CITY, NEW YORK, U.S.A., 1995 JUL 18 (NB) -- American Express' (NYSE:AXP) Travel Related Services Company said it is establishing relationships with four technology companies for secure Internet credit card transactions using the American Express card and the Optima card. The four companies involved, CyberCash, First Virtual Holdings, Netscape Communications Corporation, and Open Market, have different ways of securing transactions over The Internet's World Wide Web. Gail Wasserman, American Express spokesperson, told Newsbytes the mix of The new partners is important. "We want our customers to use their American Express cards when and how they choose. So there are different players in The marketplace that met our criteria for security and quality." CyberCash is one of those players. The company's system uses strong encryption in a separate software package to scramble charge and credit card transaction so it can pass safely over The Internet. First Virtual Holdings Inc. uses a "VirtualPIN" number, and consumers make purchases electronically by supplying their VirtualPIN to merchants. Netscape Communication Corp. uses encryption built directly into its popular browser. A Netscape Commerce Server on The seller's end makes The transaction completely secure. The fourth company, Open Market, provides a Web server that supports all popular secure Web browsers using standard encryption systems. American Express' first entry onto The information superhighway involved The launch of ExpressNet on America Online, a venture which "exceeded our expectations," Wasserman said. Customers can check billing information, payment services, and travel services through ExpressNet. Wasserman said in The future, other companies may be brought into this new mix of secure Internet credit card transaction providers. "If there are other companies that would meet (our) requirements, we would work with them as well. But these are The companies we've decided to start with." (Bob Woods/19950718/Press Contacts: Gail Wasserman, 212-640-2675, or Marcos Rada, 212-640-2566, both for American Express Travel Related Services) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 07/18/95 TELECOM Japan - NTT Announces Fixed Rate Pricing Scheme (NEWS)(TELECOM)(TYO)(00020) Japan - NTT Announces Fixed Rate Pricing Scheme 07/18/95 TOKYO, JAPAN, 1995 JUL 18 (NB) -- Nippon Telegraph and Telephone (TOKYO:9432) has announced a new calling scheme that will result in reduced call charges to heavy overnight users of the telephone network. Under the optional scheme users will be offered the chance to make free telephone calls to two registered telephone numbers during NTT's night rate telephone period which begins at 11pm and continues until 8am. Several versions of the scheme will be introduced. The first scheme will cost 1,800 yen ($20.33) and allow subscribers to register local numbers. In October another version will begin covering calls made to a wider area at a monthly fee of 3,600 yen ($40.67). Currently, local rate night time calls cost 10 yen ($0.11) per four minutes. This means the first of the two schemes gives savings to people who call the two numbers in night rate time for more than 720 minutes a month. Principal beneficiaries of the new scheme will be computer users who use online services. High telephone costs in Japan are thought to be behind the relatively slow growth in such services compared to countries such as the United States where a higher percentage of the population own and use modems. (Martyn Williams/19950718/Press contact: NTT, +81-3-3509-3101) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 07/18/95 APPLE ****WordPerfect 3.5 For Mac Includes HTML Features (NEWS)(APPLE)(DEN)(00021) ****WordPerfect 3.5 For Mac Includes HTML Features 07/18/95 OREM, UTAH, U.S.A., 1995 JUL 18 (NB) -- Novell Inc. (NASDAQ: NOVL) has announced it will ship WordPerfect version 3.5 for the Macintosh next month. Novell said the software is the first word processor to provide Internet publishing and editing capabilities for Macintosh users. The software lets users create and edit hypertext markup language (HTML) documents and use the included Netscape Navigator Internet browser to navigate the World Wide Web. HTML is the language used to build Internet documents. WordPerfect 3.5 allows the user to create a document in WordPerfect then convert it to the HTML format. Users can also view any Internet document using the included Netscape Navigator browser. WordPerfect also includes Novell's Envoy browser, which enables the user to view any combination of graphics, video, and fonts. Novell said other features of WordPerfect 3.5 for the Macintosh include the ability to "speak" text contained in a document using MacinTalk, bookmarks, a make-it-fit feature, easier envelope creation, and more than 85 document templates. The user can select an entire document or a block of text and have it spoken by the appropriately equipped Macintosh PC. The Bookmarks feature lets users create "hot links" which link parts of a document to other places in the same document, or to specific locations in different documents. When the user clicks on the bookmark, the referenced location in the appropriate document is displayed. Bookmarks can also link to Internet Uniform Resource Locator (URL) addresses on the World Wide Web or to non-Internet documents. The Make It Fit feature fits text onto the user-specified number of pages by automatically adjusting the margins, font size, line height and spacing. The user can specify which attributes to adjust. There is also a new ruler interface, and the Easy Envelope function provides an on-screen picture of the envelope, making placement of information simple. Users can also merge files for bulk printing of envelopes. WordPerfect 3.5 for the Mac is available on diskette and CD-ROM. The CD-ROM version includes extras not included in the diskette version, such as: Envoy, the portable document publisher and viewer; Appware 1.2, a cross-application integration tool; and additional templates, macros and clip-art. The suggested retail price of WordPerfect 3.5 for the Macintosh for first time buyers is $189. That's a considerable reduction from the suggested retail price of the last release, which carried a $495 price sticker. Current users of any previous version for any platform and users of any competing word processor or Works or Mac suite product can upgrade for $89. (Jim Mallory/19950718/Press contact: Gina Trausch, Novell, 617-622-2839; Public contact: Novell, 800-451-5151) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 07/18/95 BUSINESS CA's Legent Offer Extended Again (NEWS)(BUSINESS)(TOR)(00022) CA's Legent Offer Extended Again 07/18/95 ISLANDIA, NEW YORK, U.S.A., 1995 JUL 18 (NB) -- Computer Associates International Inc. (NYSE:CA) has again extended its offer for all the shares of Legent Corp. (NASDAQ:LGNT), this time for only two extra days. Previously due to expire today, the offer was stretched out to Thursday, July 20, at midnight. The company said it was extending the offer to allow the United States Justice Department to complete an antitrust investigation of the takeover. Computer Associates announced May 25 that it would pay $47.95 per share for all outstanding shares of Legent's common stock, a price that is expected to put the total cost of the takeover in the area of $1.75 billion. Both companies are software manufacturers. In mid-June, CA announced that the United States Justice Department had asked it for further information on the proposed takeover, a request company spokesman Bob Gordon called a "procedural step." Though the company originally said it hoped the request would not delay the takeover, it has since extended the original deadline on its tender offer twice. The original deadline was July 6. The company said Monday that Legent shareholders have so far tendered about 17.18 million shares in response to the offer. Legent is reported to have between 36 and 37 million shares outstanding. In a teleconference with reporters and industry analysts to discuss the Legent purchase a few days after the initial announcement in May, Charles Wang, chairman and chief executive of Computer Associates, said Legent's technology is "all very complementary to CA's products." And Jerre Stead, chairman and chief executive of Legent, maintained that "CA and Legent don't compete." The buyout appears to be another step in CA's drive to reduce its reliance on its traditional mainframe software business and become a major supplier of client/server software and systems management tools. (Grant Buckler/19950718/Press Contact: Douglas Robinson, Computer Associates, 516-342-2745; Bob Gordon, Computer Associates, tel 516-342-2391, fax 516-342-5329; Kathleen Janson, Legent, 703-708-3890) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 07/18/95 GENERAL Computer Animation To Help Solve Jesse James' Death (NEWS)(GENERAL)(SFO)(00023) Computer Animation To Help Solve Jesse James' Death 07/18/95 LIBERTY, MISSOURI, U.S.A., 1995 JUL 18 (NB) -- After 113 years, the supposed grave of famous gunslinger, Jesse James, is being exhumed to determine whether the grave is really that of the outlaw and if so, how he died. Engineering Animation Inc. (EAI), which specializes in computer animation, plans to recreate a scenario to explain James' death. Major television networks have crowded their cameras around a small plot of excavated land in Kerney, Missouri, which is claimed to be the burial plot of Jesse James. With court approval, forensic scientist, James E. Starrs, intends to settle a controversy over whose remains are buried in the grave. Over the years, many people have claimed to be related to James, based on the notion that he did not die from gunshot wounds on April 3, 1882, as commonly reported. Some have claimed James staged the event and went on to father other children -- thus, the extended claims of people who say they are related to the gunslinger. On the opposite side, are the relatives who claim Jesse James was shot and killed in his home in St. Joseph, Missouri, on the above date and buried in the historical site. According to their claims, James left behind only two children. Once the remains have been exhumed, Starrs will conduct DNA tests to determine genetic relationship to the steady claims of familial ties. In addition to DNA evidence, Starrs retained EAI to employ its computer imaging technology to create a model of the body based on the exhumed remains. The model, especially the skull, will be compared to supposed photographs of Jesse James. The photograph comparison will not conclusively solve the controversy, but will add to the body of evidence surrounding the case. If sufficient evidence is exhumed, EAI says it will recreate the murder scene based on bullet trajectories determined through entry wounds. In an interview with Newsbytes, David Weinberg, national director of Litigation Services at Engineering Animation, said, "Our technology is being used here in a number of different ways. Along with comparing the modeled skull to the photographs and recreating a possible murder scene, we also intend to create an animation of the DNA process used to determine possible genetic ties." Continuing, he said, "The forensic team is using a DNA method different than what is commonly used in cases such as the O. J. Simpson trial. The evidence for this investigation will be based on a technique using DNA contained in mitochondria which is only passed through the maternal side of a family." EAI uses Silicon Graphics (SGI) workstations to develop the complex animated imagery contained in the recreations. Commercial software developed by EAI is used to create the scientific visualizations. EAI's visual recreations have been used in numerous legal cases to support expert witness testimony. On a broader scale, EAI's software, VisLab, is also deployed in areas such as engineering, education, and entertainment. Through Weinberg, Newsbytes learned each year that thousands of people visit the grave sight claiming to contain James. Not infrequently, visitors claim they are related to the well-known bandit. Weinberg says members from both sides of the genetic squabble are supportive of the investigation, each side hoping to sustain their claim. Should the evidence determine the remains are not those of Jesse James, the controversy of who is and who is not related to James will continue. To date, the exhumation has not found the complete remains contained in the historic site. (Patrick McKenna/19950718/Press Contact: Laura Scorpiniti Edens, EAI, 408-426-2855/EAI950718/PHOTO) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 07/18/95 TRENDS 3M Predicts Travan Tape Drive To Exceed 15GB Capacity (NEWS)(TRENDS)(DEN)(00024) 3M Predicts Travan Tape Drive To Exceed 15GB Capacity 07/18/95 ST. PAUL, MINNESOTA, U.S.A., 1995 JUL 18 (NB) -- 3M Corp. (NYSE: MMM) predicts the Travan 3.5-inch minicartridge tape system will be able to store 15 or more gigabytes (GB) of uncompressed data by 1997. #IMAGE 1 20 TWPCX \images\95071824.PCX Click here for photo Travan technology uses a unique drive/cartridge interface developed by 3M. Travan drives can accept conventional minicartridges, QIC-Wide and Travan cartridges. Travan uses a slightly wider 0.315-inch tape than the conventional quarter-inch-based systems. That will be possible, according to Michael Stevens, business development director at the 3M Data Storage Products Tape Technology Division, through the use of advanced media formulations, tracking density improvements, and high-speed computer interfaces. The Travan standard is already being supported by Colorado Memory Systems, Conner Peripherals, Sony, Iomega, Exabyte, Rexon/Wangtek, Pertec Memories, and AIWA. There are an estimated 11 million tape drives attached to personal computers, and Stevens estimates use of Travan technology will cause that number to increase significantly. He said part of that growth will be due to development of software which will support applications such as direct recording and playback of compute data, audio, video, and other multimedia files. The TR-1 Travan cartridge introduced by 3M in December, 1994, had a native storage capacity of 400 megabytes (MB), with a suggested retail price of $47.50. Milestones on the Travan development highway include a modified QIC-3010 minicartridge 3m has dubbed the TR-2 with a capacity of 800MB and a modified QIC-3020 called the TR-3 minicartridge with a 1.6GB capacity, both due this quarter. The TR-2 is expected to have a suggested retail price of $42.15, while the TR-3 will sell for about $43.75. The TR-2 will have a transfer rate of 125 kilobytes- per-second (KBps) and the TR-3 will move data at 250 KBps, according to 3M. A company spokesperson told Newsbytes a 4GB capacity Travan cartridge will be available later this year. Industry analyst firm Dataquest predicted recently that as many as 900,000 of the 1.3 million minicartridge drives shipping in 1995 will be Travan QIC-80 drives, with street prices falling to the $180 to $185 range by the end of the year. (Jim Mallory/19950718/Press contact: Brent Bauer, Fleishman-Hillard for 3M, 612-222-4885; Public contact: 3M, 800-888-1889 ext 33/TRAVAN950718/PHOTO) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 07/18/95 TELECOM Hong Kong - PCS Telecom Plans Forge Ahead (NEWS)(TELECOM)(HKG)(00025) Hong Kong - PCS Telecom Plans Forge Ahead 07/18/95 CENTRAL, HONG KONG, 1995 JUL 18 (NB) -- Despite the fact that PCS (personal communications services) licenses are not going to be issued in Hong Kong until August, New World Telephone and its consortium partner Total Access Communication (TAC) of Thailand have signed a technical cooperation agreement to cement their relationship, and both seem very confident of getting a substantial return on investment. The consortium, New World PCS, says it will invest HK$1 billion (US$128.2 million) in the establishment of a PCS network and expects to recruit over 150,000 users within the first year of operation. It says it will have its network up and running within six months of licenses being issued. Under the agreement, TAC (which already operates a PCS network in Thailand) will provide expert advice to New World PCS. It will also be establishing a roaming service between Thailand and Hong Kong. PCS is a form of cellular telephone, using a higher network with more bandwidth with promises of cheaper and lighter handsets. Albert Wong, New World PCS' director of business development, forecasts that Hong Kong will spend HK$600 million on PCS handsets in 1996 and HK$1 billion on PCS airtime. According to Peter Tsang, managing director of New World PCS, the company expects the operation to break-even in the fifth year, and will see a return on investment in seven to eight years. He said his company was confident of getting one of the yet-to-be-allocated licenses because it had a very high level of expertise. Most of this expertise would be coming from TAC, which currently operates the only PCS network in Asia. Tsang said: "I think we will be the leader in quality, and at the same time we will be very competitive. But we do not expect to be the cheapest." Meanwhile, other countries in the region, including Singapore and Malaysia, are also considering the establishment of PCS networks. TAC vice president and general manager Traian Stanescu said the company already had partners in those countries and hopes to expand roaming services there when networks were established. He added: "In Asia, things will be very much tied together as a region." (IT Daily/19950718) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 07/18/95 ONLINE Web Site For Hong Kong Film Company (NEWS)(ONLINE)(HKG)(00026) Web Site For Hong Kong Film Company 07/18/95 CENTRAL, HONG KONG, 1995 JUL 18 (NB) -- Hong Kong film distributor Mandarin Films Distribution, in partnership with Silicon Graphics and Internet provider Hong Kong Supernet, has established a home page on the World Wide Web to promote upcoming releases. Mandarin Movie World will include still pictures, as well as video and sound clips, of movies to be shown on the Mandarin cinema circuit in Hong Kong. The page is currently going through an initial phase with only one film being promoted, The Phantom Lover starring Leslie Cheung and Wu Chien Lien. However, it will soon be expanded to promote other Mandarin's releases. The page will be hosted by Hong Kong Supernet, which expects over 10,000 hits per day. Raymond Wong, managing director for Mandarin Films Distribution, said: "We can give audiences a real taste of coming films and allow them to interact with the features provided on our Mandarin Movie World." Mandarin Films Distribution, an associated company of Mandarin Films, has a circuit of over 25 cinemas in Hong Kong showing films made by associated companies as well as the work of local and overseas independent film makers. Mandarin Movie World can be found at http://www.mandarin.films.com.hk (IT Daily/19950718) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 07/18/95 BUSINESS Legend & Oracle In Hong Kong Distribution Deal (NEWS)(BUSINESS)(HKG)(00027) Legend & Oracle In Hong Kong Distribution Deal 07/18/95 CENTRAL, HONG KONG, 1995 JUL 18 (NB) -- In a move away from its traditional hardware focus, Hong Kong computer distributor and dealer Expert System, a subsidiary of Legend Holdings, has signed a deal to distribute and support Oracle products in Hong Kong. Under the agreement, which makes Expert the authorized distributor for the Workgroup/2000 product series, the two companies will also organize joint marketing activities such as advertising and public training seminars. Michael Ng, Legend's executive director said: "Our staff at Expert System have been working with Oracle for many years and they are already considered the most proficient Oracle Forms experts in Hong Kong. By formalizing a working agreement with Oracle, we can build on these skills and offer an even greater level of service to clients." The Workgroup 2000 series is a range of tools for building and deploying client/server systems. It includes desktop and workgroup versions of the Oracle-7 database, middleware, development tools and connectivity software. Wendy McKenzie, alliances director for Oracle Asia/Pacific, explained that the agreement was part of an ongoing trend for the company to establish alliances with companies who could help open new markets for Oracle through the "development of robust desktop applications" based on the Oracle platform. She said Expert's job was to recruit resellers, in the form of integration specialists and software developers. Expert was chosen, she said, because it had access to a different set of customers to Oracle. Meanwhile, Legend Holdings has announced profits for the year ending March 31 1995 of HK$86.1 million (US$11 million), an increase of 29.4% over the previous year. Turnover grew 53.1% to approximately HK$3.72 billion (US$477 million), up from HK$2.43 billion (US$311.5 million) in 1993/94. (IT Daily/19950718) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 07/18/95 ONLINE ****Netscape's Digital Envelope For Internet Transactions (NEWS)(ONLINE)(SFO)(00028) ****Netscape's Digital Envelope For Internet Transactions 07/18/95 MOUNTAIN VIEW, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1995 JUL 18 (NB) -- With the support of Intuit and MasterCard International, Netscape Communications has announced Secure Courier, an open, cross-platform digital envelope. The new protocol allows secure transfer of credit card, debit card and micro-transactions across the Internet. Secure Courier is another step in Netscape's strategy to develop a secure means of transferring financial transactions on the Net. In the first phase of a three phase program, Netscape announced the implementation of the SSL protocol to accept orders online with authorization and final closing of a transaction off-line. Transactions based on this protocol are already in service. The second phase focuses on secured payments form personal computers to banks. In this phase, Netscape will publish and license the Secure Courier protocol as part of establishing an infrastructure with increased security. This phase will be developed over the third calendar quarter of this year. A final phase, planned for the fourth quarter, will provide commercial software using Secure Courier protocol for consumers, merchants, and financial institutions. This third phase, will allow complete, secured transactions to be cleared over the Internet without off-line support. While the SSL protocol encrypts data passing between a client and server, Secure Courier offers additional security to insure the financial data remains encrypted, or as Netscape says, kept in a "secure digital envelope." This means the data remains encrypted, or in its envelope, even when it stops at a server. Through the Internet, data may pass through a number of servers on its way to a final destination. Protecting credit card and other financial data during its electronic journey is critical for the development of secure financial transactions on the Internet. Secure Courier is an open, cross-platform protocol, meaning it will operate in Macintosh, Windows, and Unix operating environments common to Internet traffic. Specifications for this new protocol are currently available from Netscape's World Wide Web site at http://home.netscape.com/newsref/std/credit.html . In a recent announcement from Visa and MasterCard, both companies said they will work together to develop a security specification. Secure Courier will observe whatever that specification may be. Jeff Treuhaft, one of Netscape's product managers, told Newsbytes, "We have worked closely with MasterCard in developing Secure Courier and will continue to work with members of the credit card industry in creating open and cross-platform specifications for the development of commercial software." Responding to questions about the difference between financial transactions conducted on the telephone or at a merchant's physical location and transaction conducted online, Treuhaft said, "The card association is responsible for quantifying the requirements to conduct commerce on the Internet. The reason there is so much concern about security is twofold: One, the Internet is new and many possible types of fraud must be dealt with; and second, credit card companies deal with a tremendous amount of fraud as they normally conduct business." He added: "As it establishes the means for electronic commerce, it's intention is to take this opportunity to create an even more secure transaction environment than currently exists for telephone and across the counter transactions. Their objective is to reduce risk and thus reduce the cost of doing credit card transactions." (Patrick McKenna/19950718/Press Contact: Rosanne Siino, Netscape, 415-528-2619) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 07/18/95 ONLINE Philippines - IBM Offers OS/2 Internet Connection (NEWS)(ONLINE)(TYO)(00029) Philippines - IBM Offers OS/2 Internet Connection 07/18/95 MANILA, PHILIPPINES, 1995 JUL 18 (NB) -- IBM Philippines has announced that, as of last month, IBM Internet Connection is available to local OS/2 Warp users. IBM Internet Connection allows users of OS/2 Warp to gain access to the Internet at "competitive rates," along with such corporate services as home page design, gopher and World Wide Web servers, and a number of other associated consulting services. In a press briefing, Ramon Yap Dimacali, president and managing director of IBM Philippines, described the move as a "formidable effort" on the company's part. The IBM Internet Connection is an off-shoot of IBM Global Network, which IBM claims, is the largest data network, and which it created to deliver interactive services to consumers and businesses. Ricky Banaag, manager for the IBM Global business, said, "We will work with individuals and businesses to enable them to take full advantage of the global opportunities offered by networking and the Internet." Dimacali likewise stressed that the IBM Internet Connection is the firm's way of getting the Philippines to become an active participant in "the global village," as the country has been lagging behind other Asean countries. IBM Internet Connection offerings include local dial-up access, up to 14.4 kilobits-per-second (Kbps) SLIP connectivity and six user IDs, online registration, and roaming address capability. For its hardware requirements, the software needs at least a 386SX PC and between six and eight megabytes (MB) of RAM. OS/2 Warp software is also required, which can be bought at P2,900 ($115) during the promotional period which ends in August. As for rates, IBM charges a US$90 one-time registration, then offers either a "Getting Started" Plan of $35 for eight hours per month and $3.50 per hour after that, or a "Compehensive Plan" for $70, which includes 20 hours per month and $3 per hour after that. When asked how IBM's rates compare with those of other Internet players, Dimacali said, "Our rates are very competitive." IBM has initially invested an estimated P15 million ($600,000) for the project, setting aside the cost of the trunking lines, and other infrastructures. The Philippines is the seventh country in the Asia Pacific Rim to offer IBM Internet Connection. Included in the list are Indonesia (which was the first), Japan, Hong Kong, Australia, New Zealand, and Singapore. Thailand is reportedly scheduled for the third quarter of the year. (Metropolitan Computer Times/19950620/Internet e-mail dilips@netcom.com) (SUMMARY)(GENERAL)(MSP)(00030) Newsbytes Daily Summary 07/18/95 MINNEAPOLIS, MINNESOTA, U.S.A., 1995 JUL 18 (NB) -- These are capsules of all today's news stories: ======================================================================== ------------| N E W S B Y T E S D A I L Y S U M M A R Y |---------- ------------| Tuesday, July 18, 1995 |---------- ======================================================================== (c) Newsbytes News Network (Tm) Editor in Chief: Wendy Woods ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Newsbytes News Network is a computer and telecom industry news wire and digitized picture service. Our news stream includes more than 30 daily first-hand reported US and international news stories about computing and telecommunications. For more information, please e-mail to 'administrator@newsbytes.com' ------------------------------------------------------------------------ CATEGORY HEADLINES (*** indicates today's top stories) STORY # ======================================================================== APPLE ****WordPerfect 3.5 For Mac Includes HTML Features........ 21 BUSINESS Microsoft & Bay Networks In Alliance....................... 10 BUSINESS Microsoft Says Fiscal 1995 A Record Year................... 12 BUSINESS CA's Legent Offer Extended Again........................... 22 BUSINESS Legend & Oracle In Hong Kong Distribution Deal............. 27 CHIPS Sony Offers Single-Chip Remote-Control..................... 01 GENERAL Sun Microsystems Intros First Java Application............. 11 GENERAL AmCoEx Index Of Used Computer Prices....................... 15 GENERAL Computer Animation To Help Solve Jesse James' Death........ 23 GOVT New Japan Trade Dispute Brewing Over Handyphones........... 08 IBM Ambra's Days May Be Numbered In Canada..................... 14 LEGAL ****Court Grants Injunctions In Counterfeit Cases......... 18 ONLINE Time Warner Tests High Speed Online Access Via Cable....... 02 ONLINE America Online Expands Parental Controls................... 03 ONLINE Automatic Hypertext Web Anchoring Program.................. 04 ONLINE Kenan Teams With Checkfree On Online Transactions.......... 05 ONLINE Open Market Allies With FTP On Windows NT Web Server....... 07 ONLINE Juno Offers Free E-Mail With Advertising................... 13 ONLINE Washington Post Rolls Out Digital Ink...................... 16 ONLINE Congressmen Examine Online Smut Filters.................... 17 ONLINE ****American Express To Let Members Buy Over Internet..... 19 ONLINE Web Site For Hong Kong Film Company........................ 26 ONLINE ****Netscape's Digital Envelope For Internet Transactions. 28 ONLINE Philippines - IBM Offers OS/2 Internet Connection.......... 29 PDA China - Chinese PDA With Handwriting-Recognition........... 09 TELECOM BBN Hark & AT&T To Pilot "Virtual Call Centers............. 06 TELECOM Japan - NTT Announces Fixed Rate Pricing Scheme............ 20 TELECOM Hong Kong - PCS Telecom Plans Forge Ahead.................. 25 TRENDS 3M Predicts Travan Tape Drive To Exceed 15GB Capacity...... 24 ======================================================================== These are the headlines and first paragraphs of each story, in order: 1 -> Sony Offers Single-Chip Remote-Control -- Sony's chip division, Sony Semiconductor Company of America, has announced two single-chip, remote control infrared receivers. These new receivers are characterized by their low price and wide application to remote control devices. 2 -> Time Warner Tests High Speed Online Access Via Cable -- Time Warner (NYSE:TWX) Cable and Time Inc. have announced they have targeted the Elmira, New York market for a test of their new, high-speed online service for personal computers via cable TV wiring. This follows an announcement in May that the two companies intended to begin providing such services, which Newsbytes covered. 3 -> America Online Expands Parental Controls -- America Online Inc. (NASDAQ:AMER) (AOL) said it plans to expand current parental controls already in place on the three million-plus subscription service. This will not only let parents choose which areas of AOL their children can access, but also allow them to have a say over Internet areas like the World Wide Web, through a new agreement with SurfWatch Software. 4 -> Automatic Hypertext Web Anchoring Program -- Iconovex Corp., said it is shipping "AnchorPage," described as a program which inserts hypertext tags into information on any Internet World Wide Web document database. 5 -> Kenan Teams With Checkfree On Online Transactions -- Through a newly signed deal between Kenan Technologies and Checkfree, users of Delphi Internet, AT&T PersonaLink, and other online services yet to be announced will now be able to add debit cards and electronic funds transfer (EFT) to their list of payment options, said Kurt Silverman, director of development for Kenan's Arbor/BP "flexible billing" and customer care package, in an interview with Newsbytes. 6 -> BBN Hark & AT&T To Pilot "Virtual Call Centers -- In a series of "virtual call centers" to be piloted under a newly inked agreement between BBN Hark Systems and AT&T, the term "virtual" carries connotations around the concepts of both "virtual operator" and "virtual networking," maintained Julie Donahue, chief executive officer (CEO) of BBN Hark, during a conference call with Newsbytes. 7 -> Open Market Allies With FTP On Windows NT Web Server -- A newly forged development and marketing deal around Open Market's WebServer, Secure WebServer, WebReporter, and upcoming electronic commerce products will join FTP Software's strengths in Windows-based Web access and corporate networking with Open Market's expertise in Unix-based Web technology, officials of the two companies asserted, in a series of interviews with Newsbytes. 8 -> New Japan Trade Dispute Brewing Over Handyphones -- The United States is reported to be ready to consider "appropriate action" unless progress is made in a dispute over acquisition of mobile telephone handsets, but Japanese trade officials say the phones are outside the scope of any agreements made and that there is no complaint to answer. 9 -> China - Chinese PDA With Handwriting-Recognition -- The State Education Commission recently held a news conference to announce that (mainland) China's first Chinese handwriting-recognition personal digital assistant (PDA) had been successfully developed and mass produced by Shenzhen Shangxia Technology Ltd. 10 -> Microsoft & Bay Networks In Alliance -- Bay Networks Inc. (NASDAQ: BNET) stock took a jump of over $3 in advance of an announcement that the Billerica, Massachusetts-based company would enter into a joint development, support and marketing alliance with Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ: MSFT) to develop tools to extend networks to remote offices. 11 -> Sun Microsystems Intros First Java Application -- Sun Microsystems Computer Co. and Market Vision Corp. have unveiled the first available "Java" application for the Internet. Developed using the new Java programming language announced in May by Sun Microsystems Inc. (NASDAQ-NNM-SUNW), Market Vision created a new stock and financial market data package. 12 -> Microsoft Says Fiscal 1995 A Record Year -- Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ: MSFT) said this week its 1995 fiscal year, which ended June 30, 1995, was a record year for the company with revenues of almost $6 billion. The software company said that was a 28 percent increase over the previous year. 13 -> Juno Offers Free E-Mail With Advertising -- Juno Online Services L.P., a new venture launched by investment bank D.E. Shaw & Co., has announced plans to offer free Internet electronic mail. The service will be supported by advertisers who will pay to have their messages appear on users' computer screens and to send marketing surveys to customers, and possibly also by optional services for which customers will pay. 14 -> Ambra's Days May Be Numbered In Canada -- Canada, the only country where IBM's (NYSE:IBM) Ambra computer line is still sold, may soon bid the ill-fated label goodbye as well. A source at IBM Canada Ltd. said the Ambra brand could well disappear some time in 1996, when IBM is expected to bring out new computers under its own name that will fill the same market niches. 15 -> AmCoEx Index Of Used Computer Prices -- By John Hastings. "Just say no" to new operating systems. That is the advice given by many experts in the computer industry, because the second version is always cleaner than the first. 16 -> Washington Post Rolls Out Digital Ink -- After two years of development, the Washington Post has launched its new online edition, known as Digital Ink. 17 -> Congressmen Examine Online Smut Filters -- Software makers, online companies and digital liberties groups swept into Congress yesterday to demonstrate "smut filters" to make the online world "kid safe." 18 -> ****Court Grants Injunctions In Counterfeit Cases -- A federal court in California has granted preliminary injunctions in three lawsuits brought by the Software Publishers Association against five companies for allegedly distributing counterfeit software. SPA filed suit against the companies on May 30 and the Washington-based trade group is seeking permanent injunction against sales of the illegal products, plus damages, court costs, and attorneys fees. 19 -> ****American Express To Let Members Buy Over Internet -- American Express' (NYSE:AXP) Travel Related Services Company said it is establishing relationships with four technology companies for secure Internet credit card transactions using the American Express card and the Optima card. 20 -> Japan - NTT Announces Fixed Rate Pricing Scheme -- Nippon Telegraph and Telephone (TOKYO:9432) has announced a new calling scheme that will result in reduced call charges to heavy overnight users of the telephone network. 21 -> ****WordPerfect 3.5 For Mac Includes HTML Features -- Novell Inc. (NASDAQ: NOVL) has announced it will ship WordPerfect version 3.5 for the Macintosh next month. 22 -> CA's Legent Offer Extended Again -- Computer Associates International Inc. (NYSE:CA) has again extended its offer for all the shares of Legent Corp. (NASDAQ:LGNT), this time for only two extra days. Previously due to expire today, the offer was stretched out to Thursday, July 20, at midnight. 23 -> Computer Animation To Help Solve Jesse James' Death -- After 113 years, the supposed grave of famous gunslinger, Jesse James, is being exhumed to determine whether the grave is really that of the outlaw and if so, how he died. Engineering Animation Inc. (EAI), which specializes in computer animation, plans to recreate a scenario to explain James' death. 24 -> 3M Predicts Travan Tape Drive To Exceed 15GB Capacity -- 3M Corp. (NYSE: MMM) predicts the Travan 3.5-inch minicartridge tape system will be able to store 15 or more gigabytes (GB) of uncompressed data by 1997. 25 -> Hong Kong - PCS Telecom Plans Forge Ahead -- Despite the fact that PCS (personal communications services) licenses are not going to be issued in Hong Kong until August, New World Telephone and its consortium partner Total Access Communication (TAC) of Thailand have signed a technical cooperation agreement to cement their relationship, and both seem very confident of getting a substantial return on investment. 26 -> Web Site For Hong Kong Film Company -- Hong Kong film distributor Mandarin Films Distribution, in partnership with Silicon Graphics and Internet provider Hong Kong Supernet, has established a home page on the World Wide Web to promote upcoming releases. 27 -> Legend & Oracle In Hong Kong Distribution Deal -- In a move away from its traditional hardware focus, Hong Kong computer distributor and dealer Expert System, a subsidiary of Legend Holdings, has signed a deal to distribute and support Oracle products in Hong Kong. 28 -> ****Netscape's Digital Envelope For Internet Transactions -- With the support of Intuit and MasterCard International, Netscape Communications has announced Secure Courier, an open, cross-platform digital envelope. The new protocol allows secure transfer of credit card, debit card and micro-transactions across the Internet. 29 -> Philippines - IBM Offers OS/2 Internet Connection -- IBM Philippines has announced that, as of last month, IBM Internet Connection is available to local OS/2 Warp users. (Ian Stokell/19950718) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 07/17/95 BUSINESS Iomega 2Qtr Sales Up 60%, Loses $1.9Mil (NEWS)(BUSINESS)(DEN)(00001) Iomega 2Qtr Sales Up 60%, Loses $1.9Mil 07/17/95 ROY, UTAH, U.S.A., 1995 JUL 17 (NB) -- As predicted, Iomega Corp. (NASDAQ: IOMG) lost almost $2 million in the second quarter, although sales for the period jumped 60 percent. The maker of removable media drives said the loss was due to high product introduction costs for its Zip drive and product development costs for its soon-to-be introduced Jaz one-gigabyte (GB) removable hard drive. Sales for the second quarter, which ended July 2, 1995, were $52.6 million compared with $32.9 million for the same quarter of 1994. The period ended July 2. The $0.10 per share loss for the quarter is comprised of a $2.5 million pre-tax loss offset by a tax benefit of $6 million. In the same period last year Iomega lost $2 million, or $0.01 per share after adjustment for a stock split. Iomega said strong sales of Ditto drives and tape and Zip drive and disk sales were partially offset by anticipated declines of Bernoulli product sales. Bernoulli drives use a removable 5.25-inch media to store data. For the first six months of 1995 sales were up 38 percent to $92.7, million compared to $67.4 million in the same period last year. For the first half, Iomega reported a net loss of $3.4 million, or $0.18 per share. That reflected a $4.3 million pre-tax loss including a $1.2 million non-cash accounting charge for foreign currency losses related to the weakening of the dollar against European currencies. Kim Edwards, Iomega president and chief executive officer, said the company expects the reduced profit margins experienced in the first and second quarter of 1995 are expected to continue, but is optimistic about the latter part of 1995. "We expect that margins will bottom out and start to increase prior to the fourth quarter. We expect to be profitable in the second half of 1995," said the Iomega executive. In a prepared statement, Edwards acknowledged that demand for the company's Zip drive continues to outstrip production capacity. An Iomega executive told Newsbytes recently that the company is in negotiations with a Japanese company to take up some of the production load. Prospective buyers of Zip drives are currently waiting 4-6 weeks to get one of the new low-end drives that use 3.5-inch removable storage media. The Zip drive, which can store up to 100 megabytes (MB) of data, had its public debut at the Fall 1995 Comdex trade show in Las Vegas, Nevada. The company said the 100MB disks have a street price as low as $19.95, while the 25MB Zip disk sells for as low as $9.95. The Zip drive has a street price of under $200. Jazz is a removable media drive capable of storing up to one megabyte of data on a single disk. The new offering is expected to ship by the end of the year. Iomega said it expects the street price to be under $500, and the 3.5-inch Jaz disks will have a street price under $99. (Jim Mallory/19950717/Press contact: Len Purkis, Iomega, 801-778-4175) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 07/17/95 BUSINESS ****Cray Computer Halts Investor Search, Will Liquidate (NEWS)(BUSINESS)(DEN)(00002) ****Cray Computer Halts Investor Search, Will Liquidate 07/17/95 COLORADO SPRINGS, COLORADO, U.S.A., 1995 JUL 17 (NB) -- Cray Computer Corp. (NASDAQ: CRAY), the company that hoped to use a revolutionary technology to produce the world's fastest supercomputer, has decided to call a halt to its search for investors and will liquidate its assets. As reported earlier this year by Newsbytes, Cray Computer, the creation of computer genius Seymour Cray, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy March 24 and issued a statement saying it would immediately lay off almost all of its more than 300 employees. Those same employees made their own statement by flying a white flag from the flagpole in front of Cray headquarters. In its bankruptcy petition filed in US Bankruptcy Court in Denver, Cray Computer listed assets of $22.8 million and liabilities of $18.7 million, including one secured debt of $12.7 million. Assets include a plant, manufacturing equipment and patents. Company officials are optimistic about repayment of creditors in full, although at least one analyst said he believes creditors will get less than 50 cents on the dollar. Shareholders are not expected to get anything. The stock sold at $0.22 before trading was halted on the NASDAQ exchange. Cray's bankruptcy filing followed similar actions by Thinking Machines Inc., and Kendall Square Research Corp. in the past 12 months. Both companies were based in Massachusetts. Founder Seymour Cray started Cray Research Inc. in 1972. The Eagan, Minnesota-based company currently claims about 75 percent of the world's supercomputer market. A much less expensive technology called massively parallel processing is becoming the successor to supercomputing. In 1981 Seymour Cray turned over management of Cray Research to John Rollwagen in order to work with Taiwanese computer expert Steven Chen. He formed Cray Computer in 1989. Seymour Cray's dream became a nightmare as Cray Computer spent about $300 million to develop a supercomputer that used gallium arsenide instead of silicon to speed up calculations, but was unable to sell a single machine. The beginning of the end was marked by failure to meet a significant milestone in the demonstration of the Cray-3 technology. That failure caused the company to lose the only customer ever to order a system, when Lawrence Livermore Laboratories switched to a Cray Research system. The company needed about $25 million in financing to bring it out of bankruptcy and allow it to finish development of the Cray-4 supercomputer. (Jim Mallory/19950717) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 07/17/95 ONLINE Internet Update (NEWS)(ONLINE)(TYO)(00003) Internet Update 07/17/95 TOKYO, JAPAN, 1995 JUL 17 (NB) -- In this roundup of new software and resources on the Internet: South African politics; More NASA information online; Legal library available; News on the Internet; Media online; Business on the Infobahn; The Web 100; and HTML 3.0 Browser. South African Politics The Constitutional Assembly of South Africa has debuted on the Internet. The country is drawing up a new constitution and encouraging all its citizens to participate in the process. The World Wide Web site contains all proposals submitted and a copy of the interim constitution of 1993. World Wide Web: http://www.constitution.org.za The majority party of South Africa's Government of National Unity, the ANC, is now also on the Internet. World Wide Web: http://www.anc.org.za More NASA Information Online The Space and Earth Science Programs Directorate (SESPD) at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, has released its home page on the World Wide Web. The pages give access to research in space and earth sciences and information surrounding small and moderate flight missions. World Wide Web: http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/sespd/ NASA's Ulysses Mission has also been given a home page. The mission is studying the regions of space above the sun's poles and analyzing magnetic fields, gases, energy, cosmic rays, and more. World Wide Web: http://ulysses.jpl.nasa.gov/ Legal Library Available Inter-Law has unveiled what it describes as "the most extensive private-sector collection of no charge legal resources on the net." The site allows access to a legal encyclopedia and dictionary, legal software, case information, jokes, court rules, and more. There are also transcripts of court cases including those from the trials of OJ Simpson, the Menedez Brothers, and cases surrounding the Oklahoma City Bombing. World Wide Web: http://www.inter-law.com/ News On The Internet INET-NEWS is a new mailing list targeted at people who want to find news on the Internet. The low volume list will post details of new news resources plus reviews of existing services available. Internet e-mail: listserv@nstn.ca Message Body : subscribe INET-NEWS Media Online Infosearch, a technical information provider for consumers and businesses, has a comprehensive hypertext directory of broadcasting related sites on the World Wide Web. Any company with activities related to broadcasting can also get Web pages linked into the guide. World Wide Web: http://www.xmission.com/~insearch/links.html The Discovery Channel has begun "Discovery Channel Online." The site contains original non-fiction stories written specifically for the Internet service and supported with pictures and daily updates. A different theme is promised each day. World Wide Web: http://www.discovery.com/ A Spanish language newspaper from Barcelona, El Periodico de Catalunya, has started offering a daily Internet service. The Web pages offer an electronic version of the newspaper. World Wide Web: http://www.elperiodico.es/ Italy's RAI Television has also opened a new Internet site with details of the broadcasting organization. Organizers say the Web site is just "another example of how RAI is staying on the cutting edge of modern technology." World Wide Web: http://www.nexttv.com/ Business On The Infobahn A new HTML (hypertext markup language) version of "Internet Business Guide" by Sam Sternberg is now available. The book is also accessible via Gopher for people with no Web access. World Wide Web: http://www.phoenix.ca/ibg Gopher: gopher.phoenix.ca under the "What's New" menu The Web 100 A new listing, complete with links, to the one hundred largest corporations on the Internet's World Wide Web. The index is updated monthly and allows users the ability to easily see how large companies are using the Internet. World Wide Web: http://fox.nstn.ca/~at_info/w100_intro.html HTML 3.0 Browser UdiWWW is a Windows 3.1 browser that supports HTML language up to level 3.0 and the Netscape extensions. Best of all, the software is freeware and available from the Internet. Users should note that it is German software so the menus are not in English! World Wide Web: http://www.uni-ulm.de/~richter/udiwww/index.htm The Tourbus Leaves Thursday The Internet Tourbus is a free, moderated mailing list aimed at all Internet users. Through the list, users will be taken on a tour of Internet "must see" sites on the World Wide Web. Focus will be on what's cool and hot on the Web and the tour begins on July 20. Internet e-mail: majordomo@colossus.net Message Bod : subscribe TOURBUS (Martyn Williams/19950717) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 07/17/95 TRENDS Fujitsu's Multimedia Information Service (NEWS)(TRENDS)(TYO)(00004) Fujitsu's Multimedia Information Service 07/17/95 TOKYO, JAPAN, 1995 JUL 17 (NB) -- A five-company consortium has announced it has begun trials of a new multimedia information service, called Media Tower. The new system utilizes NTT's B-ISDN (integrated services digital network) network to provide a business information-on-demand service. Computer and electronics company Fujitsu Limited is joined by: the Nihon Keizai Shimbun, a leading financial newspaper; Nikkei Business Publications, a magazine publisher; NHK Joho Network, the news TV branch of national broadcasters NHK; and JTB Media Creation, a travel industry news service from Japan Travel Bureau. Initially the service is being trialed for one year among the five companies that are providing the service, as part of a joint technology and multimedia experiment with Nippon Telegraph and Telephone. NTT is providing free access to its high-speed fiber network and a lot of technical assistance, according to Fujitsu. Fujitsu's computer and network technology is responsible for bringing together the newspaper, magazine, television, and online travel information in a system the company calls "Media Mixing." To use the service a customer must install video servers at its premises. This video server is connected to a Media Tower service center via 1.5 megabits-per-second (Mbps) or 64 kilobits-per-second (Kbps) N-ISDN lines, which later connect onto NTT's 150Mbps ATM (asynchronous transfer mode) switched fiber backbone. Users access the local video server via personal computers, equipped with MPEG (Motion Picture Experts Group) video cards, via a LAN (local area network). Fujitsu says that users can easily access any information on the service from desktop PCs. During its test, phase Media Tower is offering video news reports alongside related newspaper stories, new product information and catalogs, reports and photos from industry exhibitions and world travel information including maps, photos. and videos. As the system develops, Fujitsu's Mike Bierne told Newsbytes that more information providers will be recruited to join and there won't be any restrictions on who can join, "Even our biggest competitors can join the system, we aren't making any restrictions." The experimental Media Tower central server is at Fujitsu's Kawasaki Engineering Center in Kawasaki, south of Tokyo. Local video servers are already installed at Fujitsu's Tokyo headquarters and at the offices of the Nihon Business Publications. Initially around 60 to 100 minutes of video will be available per day. Fujitsu is already planning for the future, with possible applications being image-forwarding services, whereby subscribers can send video across the network to other subscribers. The service will receive its public debut at the NetWorld+Interop 95 show at Tokyo's Makuhari Messe, which is being held from July 19 to 21. (Martyn Williams/19950717/Press contact: Mike Bierne, Fujitsu Ltd, tel +81-3-3215-5236, fax +81-3-3213-4160, Internet e-mail mike@hq.fujitsu.co.jp ) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 07/17/95 NETWORK Racal-Airtech's Secure Remote LAN Access Software (NEWS)(NETWORK)(LON)(00005) Racal-Airtech's Secure Remote LAN Access Software 07/17/95 AYLESBURY, BUCKINGHAMSHIRE, ENGLAND, 1995 JUL 17 (NB) -- Racal- Airtech has unveiled X.Safe, a secure remote LAN (local area network) access system that is billed as providing personal authentication and privacy for data in transit over POTS (plain old telephone system), ISDN (integrated services digital network), or leased lines. According to company officials, the package is ideal for SOHO (small office/home office) users since it offers "firewall-like" facilities at a sensible SOHO price. X.Safe consists of Racal's Watchword II token used in conjunction with the appropriate X.Safe PC package and X.Port comms card. The X.Safe Remote package is needed for each remote PC, while the X.Safe Gateway application is needed for the central site. The Watchword II is a handheld device which is PIN-protected and generates a unique and one-time response to any string typed in on the keypad. Because new passwords are generated every session, no unauthorized access is claimed to be possible -- even with the aid of a datascope. A software equivalent of the Watchword II is maintained on the central site and loaded with the passkeys relevant to the remote site's Watchwords. The X.Port comms card plugs into a PC and operates as either a modem or an ISDN card. Thanks to the use of onboard data compression, data compression ratios of 4:1 across ISDN links are possible, the company claims. In ISDN mode, the card can use both ISDN B channels. Pricing on X.Safe will be announced when the system becomes available later this summer. (Steve Gold/19950714/Press & Reader Contact: Racal-Airtech, tel +44-1734-669969, fax +44-1734-262121) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 07/17/95 PC Europe - Xyratex Warns Of PC "Warranty Chaos" (NEWS)(PC)(LON)(00006) Europe - Xyratex Warns Of PC "Warranty Chaos" 07/17/95 HAVANT, HAMPSHIRE, ENGLAND, 1995 JUL 17 (NB) -- Xyratex, the disk drive company, which has recently diversified from OEM (original equipment manufacturing) into selling through dealer channels, has warned of impending "chaos" in warranty management. According to Bob Suttle, group sales and marketing manager with the company. the discrepancy between the two- and three-year warranties available on PCs and the three- to five-year warranties on disk drives within those systems, only adds to the price of the product to the consumer with no discernible advantage to the customer or anyone else in the supply chain. "Manufacturers, facing squeezed margins, are wasting resources on managing the two percent of products returned under their warranty terms, which often means shipping the product half way around the world," Suttle explained. Suttle claims that the smart manufacturers are, as a result, contracting out the local management of warranties at fixed costs -- and gaining the benefit of multi-vendor product coverage at the same time. Xyratex, which claims to be the largest European manufacturer of disk drives, is now offering services that include total warranty management, in-warranty repair and refurbishment, post-warranty repair, and data recovery for the full range of data storage products. The idea behind this move is that Xyratex will become a single source for warranty management for data storage products, a European business that it reckons is worth at least $60 million a year -- and to establish the firm as the premier European high-tech repair and refurbishment company. Initially, Xyratex is offering warranty management services to major manufacturers and users of storage products in Europe. According to the company, plans call for the service to be expanded worldwide at a later date. (Sylvia Dennis/19950714/Press Contact: Richard Bailey, +44-1705-443181; Reader Contact: Xyratex, tel +44-1705-486363, fax +44-1705-453611) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 07/17/95 TRENDS Most Firms Expanding Into European Logistics - Report (NEWS)(TRENDS)(LON)(00007) Most Firms Expanding Into European Logistics - Report 07/17/95 BIRMINGHAM, ENGLAND, 1995 JUL 17 (NB) -- Following the launch of toll-free advisory services for the logistics market by IBM's CGI applications software unit, the company claims that more than 80 percent of callers to the service are companies in the medium range with a turnover averaging UKP100 million, and which want to expand into Europe. Peter Woodward, commercial manager of the LS/400 integrated logistics service with CGI, said that he was pleased to see how many of the medium- to large-sized organizations called "the services." "Previous opinion had been that it was only the large multi-nationals who were investing in advanced logistics solutions. However, this confirms our strategy that information technology (IT) logistics support is becoming a `must have' for a far greater number of companies in what is certainly a much tougher market in the 90s," he said. The toll-free inquiry service was launched by CGI in April of this year in response to arguments about the existence of a pan-European logistics system. Calls made to the service came from companies already trading or starting to trade across European frontiers, and which needed a supporting logistics software system. According to CGI, the majority revealed that sophisticated logistics is now a key contributor to the bottom line (profits). The CGI service is open between 10am and 5pm Monday through Friday. (Sylvia Dennis/19950717/Press Contact: GBC, +44-181-332-7022; Internet e-mail caro@gbc.co.uk; Reader Contact: CGI, +44-1926-883831) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 07/17/95 UNIX X/Open Offers CDE Branding Scheme (NEWS)(UNIX)(LON)(00008) X/Open Offers CDE Branding Scheme 07/17/95 READING, BERKSHIRE, ENGLAND, 1995 JUL 17 (NB) -- X/Open Company, the independent international organization dedicated to open systems, has started a branding program for products that conform to the Common Desktop Environment (CDE) specifications. According to the organization, the CDE branding scheme, "for the first time," unites open systems workstations from many different vendors into a single coherent volume market that is attractive to all segments of the industry. Products that carry the brand will provide users, the organization claims, with a "common development environment" and a "common look and feel." Announcing the CDE scheme, Mike Lambert, X/Open's vice president, said that X/Open "has demonstrated its ability to bring the full value of open systems to the market in a timely manner. "This use of a 'fast track' process to build industry support around the results of a joint development activity, and the use of the Z/Open brand to guarantee that products continue to conform to the specifications, is a tremendous model for the future," he said. According to Lambert, the CDE contains the X Window system (v11.5) which consists of the X Windows system protocol, XLib API (Application Programming Interface), X Toolkit instrinsics, X Window system file formats and application conventions, the Motif Toolkit/API (v1.2), the XCDE calendaring and scheduling API, the XCDE services and applications, and the XCDE definitions and infrastructure. According to X/Open, products which are branded as conforming to the agreed CDE specifications are able to carry the CDE brand. vendors who are seeking to use the branding scheme are being invited to submit their applications to X/Open. The aim of the scheme is to promote open systems awareness, as well as allowing users of technology the chance to be sure that the branded products conforms to the X/Open specification, will continue to conform to the specification and, if there is any non-conformance, to be assured that the matter will be solver or rectified within an agreed time. The CDE specification is available from X/Open in CD-ROM format. There is also extensive information on the X/Open World Wide Web server at http:www.open.org . (Steve Gold/19950713/Press Contact: Words Etc, tel +44-171-938-4746, fax +44-171-938-3471; Reader Contact: Z/Open, tel +44-1734-508311, fax +44-1734-500110, Internet e-mail xopubs@xpen.org ) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 07/17/95 ONLINE America Online Adds "Countdown" Interactive Game (NEWS)(ONLINE)(MSP)(00009) America Online Adds "Countdown" Interactive Game 07/17/95 CARLSBAD, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1995 JUL 17 (NB) -- America Online (NASDAQ:AMER) subscribers can now "Countdown" their trivia knowledge while using the popular online network. NTN Communications (ASE:NTN) has brought its popular interactive Countdown trivia game, normally played in restaurants and bars, to AOL. The game will be played 96 times a day, with new games starting every 15 minutes. The players can see their own scores, as well as other user's scores. During each game, trivia questions are asked, and players have five choices for answers. While a clock counts down, clues are given. But as the clock winds down, the point totals also plummet. An added feature on AOL is the ability to chat with other people who are playing the game. Dan Purner, NTN executive producer, told Newsbytes that the chat feature is important because it gives a similar cultural interaction to being in a restaurant or bar, where Countdown started. "We tried to keep the same social interaction, so that when you're playing the trivia game, it's more about revolving topics and conversation pieces," Purner said. "We're providing 'social fodder' -- we're putting up questions that people will comment on and use in their conversations in the chat area." Also, people playing on AOL are competing against restaurant and bar patrons around the country who are testing their trivia mettle, Purner said. Purner said that even though his company's games are now on AOL, that doesn't mean people will stay away from bars and other gathering places to play NTN products. "We do feel very strongly, and there's a lot of evidence to point to the fact that we're not going to change their habits. People are going to go out to hospitality locations when they want to, and they'll stay home when they want to. This gives us the opportunity to provide them with the same opportunities to play wherever they choose to go." Future improvements to the AOL version of Countdown include upgraded graphics, and the additions of other popular NTN games, including "Spotlight," Purner said. In addition, NTN is expected to again offer the interactive football game "QB1," which debuted last year on AOL. Other games to be offered include those based on special events, like the Academy Awards broadcast, officials said. Purner said "Countdown" is also available on General Electric's GEnie service, and on the ImagiNation Network. On AOL, the game can be accessed via Keyword: NTN Trivia. (Bob Woods/19950713/Press Contact: Jenny Roelle or Karl Fields, Bender, Goldman & Harper, 310-473-4147; Public Contact: America Online, 800-827-6364; AOL Keyword: NTN Trivia) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 07/17/95 NETWORK Comdex/Canada - Pure Data Gets More SatisFAXtion (NEWS)(NETWORK)(TOR)(00010) Comdex/Canada - Pure Data Gets More SatisFAXtion 07/17/95 TORONTO, ONTARIO, CANADA, 1995 JUL 17 (NB) -- PureData Ltd. has extended the SatisFAXtion line of facsimile adapters that it acquired last year from Intel Corp., unveiling the SatisFAXtion 2000 and SatisFAXtion 4000 network fax adapters. At the Comdex/Canada trade show last week, the Markham, Ontario-based company showed off the new adapters along with earlier members of the SatisFAXtion line. In a demonstration at the company's Comdex/Canada booth, staff explained that the new models are multi-line adapters designed to be installed on a local area network and shared among multiple users. The SatisFAXtion 2000 is a two-channel and the SatisFAXtion 4000 a four-channel version. Both adapters let personal computer users attached to the network send faxes from their PCs and also receive faxes that are routed from the SatisFAXtion adapters to the appropriate desktop using a choice of T.30 sub-addressing, direct inward dial, distinctive ring, caller ID, or Dual-Tone Multi-Frequency (DTMF) routing. The cards also come with LocalFax, a connector that lets a stand- alone fax machine take advantage of the SatisFAXtion card's 14,400 bits-per-second transmission rate, and that automatically connects the stand-alone fax machine to the phone line if the network or server goes down, PureData said. According to PureData staff, the new cards also support "Plug and Play" installation and configuration. And one demonstrator pointed out that the cards are guaranteed to drop the phone line if a fax transmission fails, avoiding the risk of a huge phone bill if an unattended long-distance transmission goes wrong. The SatisFAXtion 2000 and 4000 are available now, PureData said. The 2000 is priced at C$2,049 or US$1,399, and the 4000 at C$3,249 or US$2,249. (Grant Buckler/19950714/Press Contact: Mike Morris, PureData, 905-731-6444 ext 448, Internet e-mail mike_morris@puredata.com ; Public Contact: PureData, 800-661-8210) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 07/17/95 GENERAL Comdex/Canada - CD-ROM Recorder, 6x Drive From DynaTek (NEWS)(GENERAL)(TOR)(00011) Comdex/Canada - CD-ROM Recorder, 6x Drive From DynaTek 07/17/95 TORONTO, ONTARIO, CANADA, 1995 JUL 17 (NB) -- DynaTek Automation Systems Inc., of Bedford, Nova Scotia, unveiled a new CD-ROM recording system and a six-speed (6x) CD-ROM drive at the Comdex/Canada trade show last week. DynaTek's CDM 400 CD-ROM recording system is a quadruple-speed (4x) CD-ROM recorder that comes with all the necessary software and cables to record CD-ROMs. The software is DynaTek's own DiscMaster, which uses a drag-and-drop interface and button-bar icons, the company said. Company spokesman Andrew Clarke also noted that once data is loaded, the unit can be disconnected from the host system while the CD is actually recorded, avoiding the possibility that an interruption on the host system could stop the flow of data to the CD-ROM and spoil the disk. Now shipping for Apple Macintosh computers and those that run Microsoft Windows, the CDM 400 joins the CDM 200, a dual-speed (2x) CD-ROM recorder that Dynatek just recently began shipping, Clarke said. The suggested retail price is C$4,995 or US$3,695, including blank media. The CDS656 is DynaTek's entry into the six-speed CD-ROM reader market, the next step beyond quad-speed machines. The company said the unit has a sustained data transfer rate of 900 kilobytes (KB), a 115 millisecond (ms) random seek time, and a 256KB buffer. It is said to ensure that multimedia titles play back smoothly, but Clarke noted that the extra speed is most noticeable when searching CD-ROMs that contain large amounts of text. Besides CD-ROM disks, the CDS656 can play audio compact disks and handle multisession PhotoCD disks. It has conventional audio controls on the front panel for playing audio disks. DynaTek offers the unit either in a standard case or in a 19-inch rack- mount enclosure meant for network rack-mount systems or musicians on the road, officials said. Adapters are available for Apple Macintosh, Microsoft Windows, IBM OS/2, and Unix systems. DynaTek offers CD-ROM software for the Macintosh and Power Macintosh. Due to ship in July, the CDS656 will have a list price of C$899 or US$699. (Grant Buckler/19950714/Press Contact: Andrew Clarke, DynaTek, tel 902-832-3000, fax 902-832-3010, Internet e-mail aclarke@raider.dynatek.ca ; Public Contact: DynaTek, 902-832-3000, Internet e-mail info@raider.dynatek.ca ) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 07/17/95 TRENDS Hitachi Europe Captures 45% Of German Disk Market (NEWS)(TRENDS)(LON)(00012) Hitachi Europe Captures 45% Of German Disk Market 07/17/95 MAIDENHEAD, BERKSHIRE, ENGLAND, 1995 JUL 17 (NB) -- Hitachi Europe has announced that its figures for 1995 to date show it has gained a significant and growing share of the German hard disk (HD) drive market. Peter Scatchard, Hitachi Europe's marketing manager, said that the latest figures of the German HD market show the company as having captured around 45 percent of the business available, as of May this year. "This consolidates our position starting from around 15 percent of the market in January (of this year)," he said, adding that the company appears to be on "something of a roll" this year. "With Germany the main player in European specified PCs, we've put considerable effort into establishing ourselves as a new, but highly significant, supplier of quality HDs in the portable computer marketplace in that country," he said. According to Scatchard, the results to date show that the company's decision to target the small format HD market was the right one, preparing the way forward as the market migrates from the 3.5-inch to the 2.5-inch form factor. "This process started in November, 1994, when we first launched into the 2.5-inch HD market-place. Now, only seven months later, we estimate we have gained around 10 percent of the overall 1995 year-to- date total European market in the segments our products address, with over 16 percent in May alone -- not bad for the new kids on the block," he said. Hitachi's 2.5-inch HDs range in capacity from 340 megabytes (MB) to 1.08 gigabytes (GB). The units are billed as "low profile" and "robust" with seek-times of 12.0 milliseconds and a mean-time-between-failure (MTBF) of 0.3 million hours. The drives will withstand shocks of up to 250 times the force of gravity (G) in no-operational mode, and 150G in operational mode, (Steve Gold/19950714/Press Contact: Smith & Jones Communications, tel +44-1491-410700, fax +44-1491-577057; Reader Contact: Hitachi Europe, tel +49-1628-585000, fax +44-1628-585490) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 07/17/95 WINDOWS SuperFlow Announces Dynamometer Software (NEWS)(WINDOWS)(DEN)(00013) SuperFlow Announces Dynamometer Software 07/17/95 COLORADO SPRINGS, COLORADO, U.S.A., 1995 JUL 17 (NB) -- SuperFlow Corp. has announced a Windows-based software package to collect information from the company's dynamometers, devices used to simulate engine load in applications like emission-testing and high performance race car tuning. #IMAGE 1 20 TWPCX \images\95071713.PCX Click here for photo Called WinDyn (pronounced Win-Dine), the software is designed for use with Superflow's SF-901, SF-742 and SF-601 dynamometers, and is scheduled to ship September 1. According to Todd Guller, SuperFlow director of marketing communications, WinDyn users can design their own screens on snap-to-grids, use any type of measurement units, and display real-time data in digital displays, panel meters, bar graphs and X-Y plots, or strip charts. You can superimpose grids on the bar graphs, X-Y graphs, and stripcharts. Major and minor grid divisions can be set to any resolution, displayed on the screen, and printed out in the test results. You can also add any number of screen activated digital push-buttons and status indicators. The program does come with pre-designed screens and layouts which can be easily modified, said Guller. WinDyn allows the user to establish up to 25 calculated channels in any combination for real-time data analysis as the test is run. You can also add an additional 25 channels for constants such as engine bore, stroke, displacement, fuel specific gravity and valve size. Any of that data can then be used in the user's calculated channel for direct determination of other calculable factors. Once the user designs a specific test for an engine type the test can be loaded by name. The company said each readout element can be set for one of three color changes. For example, you might want to use blue to indicate a temperature as lower than normal, green for an acceptable range, and red when it exceeds s pre-set limit. WinDyn can be run simultaneously under Windows while other applications such as Excel or MathCad are also loaded. You can then cut and paste from WinDyn to another application. You can also automatically load your data into Excel at the completion of any test. SuperFlow provides standard report formats and twelve pre-designed graphs for a variety of data presentations. You can customize those or design your own formats. Superflow offers several optional video displays. You can use a graphics overlay card to display partial-screen or full-screen video in full color at 30 frames-per-second. The video can be displayed on your computer monitor. The source can be either a video camera or a VHS tape player, and the company provides on-screen controls for both. One possible use of the video camera option is to record instructions or tutorials to train operators. they can watch the on-screen instruction instructions with sound while performing a test, using the split-screen capability. Data can also be spread over two monitors simultaneously. A video card that supports two monitors of the same size and resolution is required. Currently the states of Colorado and Wisconsin use Superflow equipment to test vehicles for compliance with the Clean Air Act. Superflow markets WinDyn as a part of a equipment package that includes the computer and the dynamometer, but Guller told Newsbytes users that already have the hardware portion of the package could upgrade to WinDyn to about $1,000. The company experts to bring that cost down in the future, said Guller. To use WinDyn you need at least a 66 megahertz (MHz) PC equipped with a 486 microprocessor, eight megabytes (MB) of memory, a 240MB hard drive, and a video card that supports 1024 by 768 color resolution. Superflow said it can provide a turnkey system. (Jim Mallory/19950714/Press and public contact: Todd Guller, tel 719-471-1746, fax 719-471-1490/SUPRFLOW950717/PHOTO) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 07/17/95 APPLE TI Offers Free Mac GX Printer Drivers (NEWS)(APPLE)(DEN)(00014) TI Offers Free Mac GX Printer Drivers 07/17/95 TEMPLE, TEXAS, U.S.A., 1995 JUL 17 (NB) -- Texas Instruments Inc. NYSE: TXN) has released Macintosh printer drivers for Microlaser 600 and Microlaser Pro series printers operating with QuickDraw GX. The drivers support automatic matching of paper size and paper source and allow the user to select a print resolution of 300 dots- per-inch (dpi) for draft printing or 600 dpi for sharp text and graphics. Selectable features of the drivers include set print time, start, stop, hold and resume of print queues and jobs. It also supports drag-and-drop of jobs between queues. TI also offers an optional network interface for EtherTalk compatibility. TI said the Microlaser GX drivers are compatible with after-market printing extensions such as Apple's "N-up Printing," which provides the capability to print multiple pages on a single page. The Microlaser 600 printer uses a RISC (reduced instruction set computing) microprocessor, has a 250-sheet paper capacity, built-in LocalTalk and parallel ports, and comes with two megabytes (MB) of memory which can be upgraded to 10MB using Adobe's Memory Booster technology. You also get Adobe Postscript Level 2 software and PCL-5 emulation. TI also offers a Pro M Network Interface option that supports EtherTalk and multi-protocol local area networks (LANs). The Microlaser Pro printers also have 600 dpi capability and use a RISC chip. They have upper and lower paper trays for a 500-sheet capacity, and include built-in LocalTalk and parallel ports. Three or six megabytes of memory can be upgraded to 19MB of 22MB and Postscript Level 2 software and PCL-5 emulation are included. You can get the new driver on America Online at the keyword "TI" and on the TI bulletin board system (BBS). The company said it will soon be available on the Internet at TI's World Wide Web site and on other online services. (Jim Mallory/19950714/Press contact: Joe Zeitler, TI, 817-774-6138; Public contact: TI BBS 817-774-6809, Internet World Wide Web http://www.ti.com ) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 95 07/17/95 WINDOWS Micrografx Previews Designer 6.0 For Windows (NEWS)(WINDOWS)(DEN)(00015) Micrografx Previews Designer 6.0 For Windows 95 07/17/95 RICHARDSON, TEXAS, U.S.A., 1995 JUL 17 (NB) -- Micrografx Inc. (NASDAQ: MGXI) is one of the software companies previewing a trickle of software for Windows 95 that is expected to become a flood during the next 30 days. #IMAGE 1 20 TWPCX \images\95071715.PCX Click here for photo Micrografx previewed version 6.0 of its Micrografx Designer illustration software for Windows 95 at Microsoft's booth during the recent PC Expo trade show held in New York City. Microsoft's soon-to-be-released combination operating system and graphical user interface, Windows 95, is set for release on August 24. In addition to be being optimized for Windows 95, Designer 6.0 is fully compliant with Microsoft Office for Windows 95, Microsoft's software suite of popular applications. Designer 6.0 will be directly accessible from the Microsoft Office Shortcut Bar. Users can create documents using Microsoft Word then embellish them by adding special graphics effects created in Designer. You might drag-and-drop a clip-art symbol from the Clipart Manager into Designer, change its color and dimension, then drag-and-drop it into Microsoft Powerpoint. The company said Designer works with engineering drawings created in programs like AutoCAD, and can import DXF and IGES formatted files, then add color to one of the layers to highlight a particular feature. Designer also supports OLE (object linking and embedding). The new version of Designer, which is scheduled to ship within 45 days after the launch of Windows 95, uses a three-ring binder metaphor for compiling and distributing documents. Office Binder allow users to collect, print and distribute collections of varied document types in a coordinated manner. Each section of the Binder can contain a different file type, and the Binder itself can easily be posted on a network so colleagues can contribute and edit different sections of the Binder at the same time. Darryl Worsham, Designer product manager, told Newsbytes Designer, as well as the other Micrografx products for Windows 95 that will be released later, are true 32-bit applications. "You will see performance, particularly in areas like file importing and manipulation of extremely large graphics files, to have an increase in performance of 2X to 3X," said Worsham. Worsham said pricing for Designer 6.0 hasn't been set yet but he expects the street price of the software to be about $299. System requirements include a 486-based PC equipped with at least eight megabytes (MB) of memory, a CD-ROM drive and VGA or higher video. (Jim Mallory/19950714/Press contact: Darryl Worsham, Micrografx, 214-994-6294; Public contact: Micrografx, 800-676-3110 or 214-234-1769/DESIGNER950717/PHOTO) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 07/17/95 ONLINE EDS Offers Internet Business Tools (NEWS)(ONLINE)(DEN)(00016) EDS Offers Internet Business Tools 07/17/95 PLANO, TEXAS, U.S.A., 1995 JUL 17 (NB) -- EDS (NYSE: GME) has introduced a set of Internet services for business customers on the World Wide Web. The company said the services were designed to make it easier for EDS clients to attract businesses on the Web. An EDS spokesperson told Newsbytes the company uses other developer's software to provide services like WebIT, is a Web-site creation tool, makes content available by facilitating content management, storage, computing, and connectivity. The Web home page can be monitored from the client site or from EDS. WebIntellect makes it possible to measure and analyze Web activity on the client company's home page. "It lets you see who has come into your home page, what kind of information they are looking for, and analyze the kind of response you are getting," said the EDS spokesperson. NetIT is an Internet infrastructure services package to provide secure Internet connectivity and application integration for individual business users. The company said it can build a firewall for NetIT users to keep outsiders from accessing their network. EDS can also connect users at your site, installing a server at the user's site or at the EDS site. The spokesperson was unable to cite specific costs of the various services, since pricing is based on the needs of each individual customer. EDS also offers Interactivities, a suite of interactive banking and financial services that includes electronic billing and payment and interactive banking and messaging. (Jim Mallory/19950714/Press contact: Jeff Anderson, EDS Public Relations, 214-605-0089; Public contact: Maxine Levy, EDS, 214-605-6206, Internet World Wide Web http://www.eds.com ) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 07/17/95 ONLINE ISA Conference - Publishers "Turn Words Into Bytes" (NEWS)(ONLINE)(BOS)(00017) ISA Conference - Publishers "Turn Words Into Bytes" 07/17/95 BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS, U.S.A., 1995 JUL 17 (NB) -- Online services are providing interactivity, searchability, and expanded space to publishers, but they also pose challenges in terms of content presentation, pricing, advertising, and the need for specialized personnel, said publishers of the online editions of Newsday, USA Today, the Nynex Yellow Pages, and Penthouse, during a session at the Interactive Services Association (ISA) Conference in Boston. "Even if you do nothing but offer the same information -- and I certainly wouldn't stop there -- you are offering something fundamentally different," summed up Frederick J. Tuccillo, director of electronic publishing for Newsday, and general manager of Newsday Direct. Changing patterns in newspaper readership constitute one of the key reasons why Newsday has added an online version, according to Tuccillo. Readership of daily newspapers has "taken a beating" over the past two decades, the general manager acknowledged. The steepest drop is among 18-to-21-year-olds, where the percentage of people who read newspapers has slipped from 71 percent to 67 percent, he asserted. Still, a readership figure of 67 percent in that demographic group "is not something that most advertisers would dismiss," noted the Newsday exec. But research also shows that today's young people tend to treat newspapers differently from the traditional approach, Tuccillo added. Eighteen-to-21-year-olds are now "reading selectively," looking at the articles that interest them, but "ignoring the rest." Even without special content, online publications change the nature of the reading experience by introducing "searchability," he continued. But the online edition of Newsday is, in fact, bringing new content, while at the same time "leveraging" existing sections of the paper like movie and theater reviews, and Newsday's popular "Subway" column, Tuccillo maintained. Newsday Direct has just added interactive crossword puzzles, and will soon unveil a new section aimed expressly at kids, he illustrated. Lorraine Chickowski, VP and general manager for USA Today Information Networks, told the ISA audience that, although USA Today has needed to make adjustments to its revenue model, online technology is allowing the addition of content ranging from crossword puzzles to college, minor league, and high school sports. The online version of USA Today was initially launched on Compuserve, and is now available on the World Wide Web, as well. But with pricing for commercial online services continuing to slide, USA Today has already adjusted its own access charges for this venue once, and is now looking at a second price adjustment, Chickowski reported. USA Today's new Web site can be accessed free of charge. The publishing executive added that the graphics from USA Today's print edition are "too big" for online use, requiring the production of special images for each electronic issue. Nynex originated its interactive Yellow Pages in text format on the Internet, before instituting a pair of graphical editions on Prodigy and the Web, pointed out Kathy Ives, Nynex's director of interactive services. With household incomes averaging $60,000, and backgrounds that typically include college degrees, Prodigy users are "very qualified" as potential buyers of the products and services sold by the 2.1 million businesses listed in the online directory, and the 2,200 businesses advertising so far, according to Ives. But Nynex's sales staff, she contended, is "challenged" by the fact that many businesses today still need to be "educated" about online services, before deciding to take out ads. On an upbeat note, though, Nynex has been pleasantly surprised by the effectiveness of online promotions in advertising its online services to end-users, Ives maintained. One recent promotion, for example, led to an "immediate" tripling in number of hits. In the future, Nynex plans to add "platform independence" and offline search capabilities -- including agents -- plus "transactional" and security services on the Web side, she revealed. "There are three things you need to do: define your publishing strategy, establish a Web site, and make lots of money," recommended Clifton Karnes, newly appointed director of product development for General Media's Internet and Online Services division. Karnes' first project in this capacity, Penthouse Interactive, is now generating more than 2,000 hits a day, said John Kelsey, moderator of the ISA conference session, which was entitled "Turning Words into Bytes." Karnes told the ISA crowd that, in setting their online strategies, publishers should first determine whether their ultimate goal is mainly to produce revenue, promote their companies, or "provide support for customers and staff." Publishers should also proceed along the lines of an "entertainment" model, in which "presentation is just as important as content," according to Karnes. Specialized personnel should be put in place to handle: hardware, software and bandwidth administration; HTML (hypertext markup language) programming; content development; and conversion of graphics, video, and other media from non-Web sources. Selection of hardware and server software should be based on expected "activity" levels, Karnes added. A "medium" load of 50,000 to 100,000 hits per day will require a minimum of an Intel 50 megahertz (MHz) 486 with 32 megabytes (MB) of RAM. A "heavy" load of 100,000 to 500,000 hits per day will require a 100 MHz Pentium with 64MB RAM, while a "super heavy" load above 500,000 hits calls for an SGI WebForce with 96MB RAM, according to the product development director. Publishers with large loads will also require either Netscape Communications Server or -- for added security -- Netscape Commerce Server, the audience was told. Both products are available for Unix and Windows NT. Publishers anticipating fewer hits can use an NCSA (National Center for Supercomputing Applications) or CERN (European Laboratory for Particle Physica) Web server for Unix, or EMWAC or WebSite for Windows NT, suggested the General Media exec. (Jacqueline Emigh/19950417/Reader and Press Contact: Interactive Services Association, 301-495-4955) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 07/17/95 ONLINE New Newsletter To Help Lawyers On Internet (NEWS)(ONLINE)(MSP)(00018) New Newsletter To Help Lawyers On Internet 07/17/95 PITTSBURGH, PENNSYLVANIA, U.S.A., 1995 JUL 17 (NB) -- Lawyers who might be interested in using the Internet for research and information, but don't quite know how to "surf the infobahn," have a new source to help them along the way. Legal Communications Ltd. (LCL) has launched "legal.online," billed as the first newsletter to provide a roadmap of the information superhighway. Jane Seagrave, president of LCL, spoke with Newsbytes from the floor of the annual meeting of the American Association of Law Libraries in Pittsburgh, where the newsletter was launched. "In talking to lawyers, it's clear that their need for information from a variety of traditional and non-traditional sources is growing," she said, and we're trying to provide a whole range of services to them." In addition to the newsletter, the company also publishes legal newspapers, books, and reference materials. The newsletter is edited by lawyer and journalist Robert J. Ambrogi, and "legal.online" is designed to be used by both Internet novices and lawyers who already use online services in their practices. Some article topics include how to use electronic-mail, what goes into putting a homepage on the World Wide Web, and where to find current court decisions. "There's an enormous amount of information both legal and non-legal on the Internet. While there's a certain percentage of lawyers who are comfortable with that, there's a whole segment of the legal population who are not familiar with how to access legal information, and who may not be using the Internet at this point," Seagrave said. She cited a recent American Bar Association survey on legal technology that showed only 10% of small-firm lawyers are connected to the Internet, even though 87% have access to a personal computer in their practice. Even with the abundance of information for lawyers on the Internet, Seagrave told Newsbytes she doesn't see popular search engine indices like Lexis going away any time soon. "It's unlikely the Internet will be replacing them. But there will probably be an increasing merging of those types of services. None of us know exactly what direction things are going to take, but we believe the Internet is a brave new world," she said. For a limited time, charter subscriptions to "legal.online" are available for $50 off the regular price, at $99. (Bob Woods/19950717/Press Contact: Ana Blanco, Legal Communications, Ltd., 215-557-2300; Public Contact: Legal Communications, 800-722- 7670; Internet e-mail lawline@ix.netcom.com ) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 07/17/95 GENERAL Comdex/Canada - Micro Design's CD-ROM, SCSI Products (NEWS)(GENERAL)(TOR)(00019) Comdex/Canada - Micro Design's CD-ROM, SCSI Products 07/17/95 TORONTO, ONTARIO, CANADA, 1995 JUL 17 (NB) -- Micro Design International Inc. launched new CD-ROM and small computer systems interface (SCSI) products at the recent Comdex/Canada trade show. They include a CD-ROM jukebox, rack-mount CD-ROM drives, and new versions of the company's SCSI Express storage-control software. Robert Cook, newly appointed head of Micro Design's Canadian operations, also took the opportunity to tout the Winter Park, Florida company's first Canadian office, opened in March. The company said its Plug-n-Play rack-mountable CD-ROMs are meant to address the growing problem of managing large numbers of CD-ROMs. Micro Design is offering racks with plexiglass front doors, able to hold 28 or 49 CD-ROM drives. The racks use tray-loadable quad-speed drives made by Toshiba. The 28-drive configuration includes a 42-inch rack, internal rack cabling, four CD-ROM rack kits of seven drives each, and a CD-ROM extender, for US$19,995. The 49-drive version has a 61-inch rack, seven CD-ROM rack kits, internal rack cabling, and CD-ROM extender, for US$32,995. For those with even more disks to worry about, Micro Design announced a CD-ROM jukebox, called the CD-Express Library. It holds 150 CD-ROM disks and can automatically load any of these disks into one of four quad-speed drives, Cook told Newsbytes. He said the jukebox is best suited to handling reference materials on CD-ROM, and is designed for attachment to Novell Inc. NetWare local area networks, making disks available to all users on the network. The CD-Express Library has a list price of US$19,995. The jukebox works with Micro Design's SCSI Express software, which the company wrote to manage access to CD-ROMs and other storage media. Micro Design announced SCSI Express 2.0, a new release of the software that lets NetWare deal with multiple CD- ROMs as if they were a single drive -- overcoming NetWare's limit of 64 volumes mounted at a time and the DOS operating system's limitation to the 26 letters of the alphabet to identify drives, Micro Design said. The new release, announced for NetWare and for Apple Computer Inc.'s Macintosh, also has a new graphical user interface, the company said. Micro Design also announced that SCSI Express is now available for Microsoft's Windows NT operating system. The list price for SCSI Express is US$3,995. (Grant Buckler/19950717/Press Contact: Robert Cook, Micro Design Canada, 905-666-1342, fax 905-666-7280; Shelly Smith, Micro Design, tel 800-228-0891 or 407-677-8333 ext 162, fax 407-677-8365, Internet e-mail ssmith@microdes.com ; Public Contact: Micro Design, 800-228-0891 or 407-677-8333) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 07/17/95 TELECOM Comdex/Canada - Bell Mobility Puts Spotlight On Data (NEWS)(TELECOM)(TOR)(00020) Comdex/Canada - Bell Mobility Puts Spotlight On Data 07/17/95 TORONTO, ONTARIO, CANADA, 1995 JUL 17 (NB) -- Bell Mobility, the mobile communications arm of Bell Canada, has formed a new unit to handle wireless data services and announced marketing agreements to offer electronic-mail notification on Apple Newton personal digital assistants (PDAs) and a hand-held fax machine. Bell Mobility Data Solutions is meant to bring together the company's data offerings over cellular telephones, pagers, and the Ardis wireless network. Rather than pushing individual networks separately, the group will be organized into units addressing specific industries, such as transportation, said Denis Martineau, director of marketing and business development, at a press conference. Officials said the group will work with a variety of other manufacturers. One of those manufacturers is Apple Canada Inc., with which Bell Mobility has signed a marketing agreement to offer electronic mail via a pager add-on for Apple's Newton MessagePad 120 PDA. Due to be commercially available late in the third quarter of this year, the service will transfer electronic mail from a central server to the user's Newton. Gary Bowman, product manager with Bell Mobility Data Solutions, told Newsbytes that while the pager network can only handle about 100 characters per message, Bell Mobility's service will use software that breaks an e-mail message into packets and sends it to the Newton, where the full message is reassembled. Bell Mobility also announced that it will distribute the newly announced FaxView 2000, a hand-held wireless fax machine from Reflection Technology Inc., of Waltham, Massachusetts. The nine- ounce unit has a display rather like a camera viewfinder that, when held up to the eye, lets the user see what appears to be a full-sized image of a fax. The unit is due to be available in September, spokeswoman Christine Scaplen of Reflection Technology told Newsbytes, and while the final price has not been set it will be no more than US$400, she said. Bell Mobility had been expected to announce at Comdex that it would resell in Canada the Envoy and Marco PDAs from Motorola Corp. Bowman said the company still hopes to offer both PDAs, but delayed the announcements until it is sure the products are available and lines of distribution are settled. (Grant Buckler/19950714/Press Contact: Sarah MacDonald, Bell Mobility, 905-828-8913; Susan Taylor, Apple Canada, 905-513-5511; Christine Scaplen, Reflection Technology, 617-890-5905 ext 256) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 07/17/95 LEGAL ****House Stalled On Telecoms Bill (NEWS)(LEGAL)(WAS)(00021) ****House Stalled On Telecoms Bill 07/17/95 WASHINGTON, D.C., U.S.A., 1995 JUL 17 (NB) --It looks increasingly unlikely for telecommunications legislation in the House of Representatives before the month-long August recess. After weeks of behind-the-scenes squabbling, House leaders have revealed a compromise bill that will set off a fierce lobbying campaign by long-distance carriers. The compromise would make it easier for regional Bell operating companies to compete for long-distance markets. But because working a deal took so long, there is little time left for the legislation as the House is giving spending bills priority on the floor. "We can lose momentum," says Rep. Michael Oxley (R-Ohio), a key member of the House Commerce Committee. Rep. Thomas Bliley (R-Va.) had hoped to bring the bill to a quick floor vote, but was forced to slow down in order to resolve the concerns of the baby Bells. At the same time, Speaker Newt Gingrich (R-Ga.) has been unable to resolve the dispute between Bliley's Commerce Committee and the House Judiciary Committee over the role of the Justice Department. The Judiciary bill has a strong role for Justice. Gingrich has told the two committees to get together and hash out a compromise by this week. Delaying the legislation until early September would give the long-distance companies an opportunity to lobby members while they are back in their home districts. Once the bill comes to the floor, there is likely to be a debate over the ways to use the legislation to curb television violence. The Senate adopted a Democratic proposal for a so-called violence chip or V-chip to block violent programming. Oxley, who voted against a similar proposal in committee, now says he supports the V-chip and predicted that the House bill will include the violence blocking technology. The V-chip is an issue that does not follow party lines. Sen. Larry Pressler (R-S.D.), chairman of the Senate Commerce Committee, for example, and Sen. Paul Simon (D-Ill.) both oppose the technology. "Censorship and mandates are not the answer," says Pressler. "We have to be careful about where we go in terms of government involvement," says Simon. "I don't want the V-chip to become a proxy that will allow the industry to shift responsibility to parents." (Kennedy Maize/19950717) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 07/17/95 ONLINE Mac New York Music Festival On Internet (NEWS)(ONLINE)(LAX)(00022) Mac New York Music Festival On Internet 07/17/95 NEW YORK, NEW YORK, U.S.A., 1995 JUL 17 (NB) -- Apple Computer Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL), sponsor of the New York Music Festival, is using the event to showcase the music, multimedia and Internet capabilities of its Apple Macintosh computers. The Festival, which attracts more than 350 bands to seventeen top New York night clubs, unveils Apple's virtual reality software, QuickTime VR. Apple will be broadcasting the event, which runs today through July 22, on the internet. It will include virtual reality scenes of the seventeen clubs participating in the Festival. These scenes will be available for Festival goers to interact with on Macintosh computers in each of the clubs. Shiela Meade, a spokesperson for the Macintosh New York Music Festival, told Newsbytes, "This is a major event for the New York music scene with major acts such as Todd Rungren, Laurie Anderson, Drum Muses, Green Apple Quick Step, and The Boredom. In addition hundreds of unsigned bands will get exposure. "Apple has put several computers in all of the seventeen clubs, and attendees can use them to go online. They can use the computers to see what is going on in other clubs in real time. Users can either use the computers for information or they can review bands, and their report will be sent to all the other clubs and on the internet," said Meade. Macintosh computers with World Wide Web access, and roving reporters armed with Apple Powerbook portable computers and Apple QuickTake digital cameras, will capture the activities at each of the seventeen clubs. Posting the stories and photos to the Macintosh New York Music Festival World Wide Web site enables fans to take "virtual tours" of the clubs and other places. Apple chose the Macintosh New York Music Festival to unveil its virtual reality software, QuickTime VR. QuickTime VR content, including virtual reality scenes of many of the seventeen clubs participating in the Festival, will be available for Festival goers to interact with on Macintosh computers in each of the clubs. Apple Computer will host a special reception, with Master of Ceremonies Laurie Anderson, for the press and analysts featuring a showcase of Internet-ready Macintosh Performa computers, and the latest in multimedia games and children's educational software. Special musical and entertainment guests will also be featured. The reception, called "Kids, Music & the Net," will be held Tuesday, July 18th between 11am to 2:30pm. Information about the Macintosh New York Music Festival is available on the internet at the Macintosh New York Festival site: http://quicktime.apple.com/nymusic/ . (Richard Bowers/19950717/Press Contact: Katy Boos, Big Sky Communications Inc., 408-974-4451; To attend "Kids, Music & the Net," call Gabriella Pacini, 415-354-4540, or Diane Edises, 415-354-4497.) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 07/17/95 EDUCATION "CampusMCI Internet" For Univs & Students (NEWS)(EDUCATION)(MSP)(00023) "CampusMCI Internet" For Univs & Students 07/17/95 WASHINGTON, D.C., 1995 JUL 17 (NB) -- MCI (NASDAQ:MCIC) is going back to school, or more specifically, bringing Internet service to colleges and universities. The initiative is called "CampusMCI Internet," and it lets institutions of higher learning provide "value-added" Internet services to their students, faculty, administrators, and alumni. MCI officials said CampusMCI Internet provides high access speeds, the reliability of MCI's network, and dedicated 24-hour customer service. The company also handles advanced billing and electronic- mail. MCI also provides equipment support, network design, Internet authentication, and access to campus services for campus administrators. Chris Patrick, product manager of CampusMCI Internet, told Newsbytes his service is truly "one-stop shopping" for people affiliated with universities. The service bills and supports customers as they make use of FTP (file transfer protocol) downloads and e-mail, browse the World Wide Web, and use other Internet resources. So far, MCI says its new service is scheduled for installation at colleges and universities in 13 states this fall. Some of the schools involved include The University of Kentucky and Sierra College in California. The service is designed to complement other CampusMCI services like the CampusMCI Card, and CampusMCI Kiosks, officials said. Patrick said that, even though many universities are already hooked into the Internet, he has had requests from customers to start up this service. "The schools developed the Internet, and offered services to the Internet on the campus. Now they've gone to this dial-up scenario. But its difficult to manage, and the demand is driving the need for this service completely through the roof." He said CampusMCI helps manage this new need. He also said features like billing and customer service are not usually found in a university environment, so this takes even more of the burden off the shoulders of the institutions in question. (Bob Woods/19950717/Press Contacts: Ed Bergstraesser or Kristen Barletta, MCI Business Markets, 800-644-NEWS) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 07/17/95 GENERAL Canadian Product Launch Update (NEWS)(GENERAL)(TOR)(00024) Canadian Product Launch Update 07/17/95 KINGSTON, ONTARIO, CANADA, 1995 JUL 17 (NB) -- This regular feature, appearing on the first day Newsbytes publishes each week, provides further details for the Canadian market on announcements by international companies that Newsbytes has already covered. This week: Compaq's new ProLinea 5120 and Deskpro 5120, Digital's AlphaStation 600 and reconfigured AlphaStation 200, and Microsoft's Coming Soon program for Windows 95 and its Office suite. Compaq Canada Inc., of Richmond Hill, Ontario, announced the ProLinea 5120 and Deskpro 5120 personal computers (Newsbytes, July 11), both based on the 120 megahertz (MHz) version of Intel's Pentium processor. Both available right away, the new models carry suggested list prices of C$4,199 for the ProLinea and C$4,549 for the Deskpro. Toronto-based Digital Equipment of Canada Ltd. launched the AlphaStation 600 workstations and a lower-priced version of the AlphaStation 200 (Newsbytes, July 14). Prices for complete AlphaStation 600 systems start at C$42,500 for a 5/266 system that runs the Windows NT operating system and will be available in the fourth quarter. A similar model equipped to run Digital Unix or OpenVMS starts at C$46,100 and is available now. The 5/300 model, with 64 megabytes (MB) of memory rather than 32 MB, is C$65,300 with Unix, OpenVMS, or NT, and will be available in the fourth quarter, DEC said. New AlphaStation 200 configurations start at C$7,300 for the Model 4/100. Digital also announced new graphics and multimedia options for the AlphaStation line. Microsoft Canada Inc., of Mississauga, Ontario, announced its Coming Soon program for Windows 95 and Microsoft Office 95 (Newsbytes, July 13). The program lets current customers pre- order the new release of Microsoft Office that will take advantage of Windows 95, starting July 15. Microsoft said the new Office will be available in Canada at the same time as Windows 95: August 24. The Canadian introductory price will be about C$689, while Office Professional Edition for Windows 95 will be approximately C$829. The introductory upgrade price for current users will be approximately C$349, or about C$489 for Professional edition, and both boxes will contain a C$55 rebate coupon, Microsoft said. Upgrading any one Office application will cost C$149, while upgrading to the Windows 95 release of Schedule+ will cost about C$109 once the user returns a C$30 rebate coupon. (Grant Buckler/19950717/Press Contact: John Challinor II, Compaq Canada, 416-229-8936; Ron Catcheside, Digital Canada, 416-218- 2115; Dave Carter, Microsoft Canada, 905-712-0333 ext. 7037; Public Contact: Compaq Canada, 416-733-7876, fax 416-229-8898; Microsoft Canada, 905-568-0434, fax 905-568-1527) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 07/17/95 WINDOWS ****Microsoft Releases Windows 95 To Manufacturing (NEWS)(WINDOWS)(DEN)(00025) ****Microsoft Releases Windows 95 To Manufacturing 07/17/95 REDMOND, WASHINGTON, U.S.A., 1995 JUL 17 (NB) -- Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ: MSFT) announced today it has released Windows 95 to manufacturing and the product will be on retail shelves on August 24. That announcement should put to rest the rumors that the new operating system and user interface software might not ship by late August. The move may also be seen as a clue to the software company's feeling about its dispute with the US Department of Justice (DOJ). DOJ is currently considering whether it will take any anti-trust action regarding Microsoft's inclusion in Windows 95 of software that will allow users to connect to The Microsoft Network (MSN), its online service also scheduled for launch in August. With the release of Windows 95 to manufacturing, Microsoft again said Windows 95 will be available in stores in North America on August 24. The company also said OEMs (original equipment manufacturers) will be able to offer Windows 95 pre-installed on their personal computers sold beginning August 24. There have been recent reports that some PC manufacturers would not have the Windows 95 code in hand early enough to have it installed on their PCs shipping on or after August 24. However, Gateway 2000 spokesperson Wendell Watson told Newsbytes that company will definitely ship its PCs with the software installed once Windows 95 becomes publicly available. "There's no question about it," Watson told Newsbytes. Compaq spokesperson Nora Hahn wasn't as optimistic. She told Newsbytes that once Compaq gets the Windows 95 code, which she hopes will be this week, it will conduct extensive compatibility testing with the various software applications it installs. Compaq has been working with the beta code of Windows 95 for about two years, but Hahn said compatibility testing "will start fresh." She said she hopes that testing can be completed in time to ship Compaq products with Windows 95 installed by August 24. Hahn said Compaq's Contura and Presario products, which are targeted at the retail market, will be the first to have Windows 95 installed exclusively. Compaq desktop systems and high-end portables targeted to the commercial market will have both Windows 95 and Windows 3.1 installed so those users will be able to choose which version to use. Hahn said that choice will be offered because many commercial users are still evaluating Windows 95. She also said there will be Compaq PCs in the distribution channel that will appear on retail shelves after August 24 with Windows 3.1 installed. "We won't have time to put in new product by August 24," said the Compaq spokesperson. To meet the expected demand for Windows 95, Microsoft has signed agreements with five production companies at 12 sites across the country. The company said those agreements will provide a total production capacity of more than one million units of Windows 95 each week. Microsoft has two manufacturing facilities, one in Bothell, Washington, and a second in Puerto Rico. Microsoft will officially launch Windows 95 with a limited-attendance customer event at its Redmond, Washington campus on August 24. The event will include other software and hardware companies that will demonstrate new products that runs with Windows 95. Microsoft said more than 150 Windows 95-specific products will be on display at product pavilions during the event. The event will also be downlinked via satellite to more than 40 cities across the US. Potential buyers who want to participate can attend local festivities or an Internet online launch event. Microsoft said it would release specific details about these activities in early August on its World Wide Web page at http://www/microsoft.com/windows . (Jim Mallory/19950717/Press contact: Patti Pierson, Waggener Edstrom for Microsoft, 503-245-0905) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 07/17/95 WINDOWS Micrografx Intros Windows 95 Graphics Suite (NEWS)(WINDOWS)(DEN)(00026) Micrografx Intros Windows 95 Graphics Suite 07/17/95 RICHARDSON, TEXAS, U.S.A., 1995 JUL 17 (NB) -- Micrografx Inc. (NASDAQ: MGXI) has announced it will release a suite of graphics software applications designed specifically for Microsoft Windows 95. Microsoft's new operating system and graphical user interface software is set for availability on August 24. #IMAGE 1 20 TWPCX \images\95071726.PCX Click here for photo Micrografx said its ABC Graphics Suite will integrate diagramming, flowcharting, clip-art management, painting, image editing, and drawing tools through an interface designed for Microsoft Office for Windows 95. Office for Windows 95 is a Microsoft multi-application software suite scheduled to ship about the same as Windows 95. The standard edition will include spreadsheet program Microsoft Excel 95, word processor Word 95, the PowerPoint presentation graphics program for Windows 95 and Schedule+ 95. The professional edition of Office will include all of the applications in the standard version plus the Microsoft Access 95 database. Since Access 95 won't be ready when Windows 95 ships, consumers will find a coupon in the Windows 95 box that can be redeemed for Access 95 when it is available. Microsoft said that should be about 60 days after Windows 95 ships. For first time, Office 95 the standard edition will sell for about $499, said Microsoft, and the pro edition should be available for about $599. Microsoft will offer upgrade pricing for current users. Elements of the ABC Graphics Suite include Micrografx Designer 6.0, ABC Flowcharter 6.0, Picture Publisher 6.0, and ABC Media Manager 6.0. The company said all components are written to the full Win32 API (applications programming interface) and provide performance improvement two to three times better in operations like file open, graphic importation and creation, and filter application. Win32 API also provides a significant improvement of other operations, including object linking and embedding (OLE) functions like drag-and-drop, in-place editing, and full 32-bit OLE automation. The graphics suite includes more than 20,000 pieces of clip-art, over 7,500 photos, more than 2,000 diagramming symbols, 250 fonts, and more than 50 file formats. Micrografx said ABC Graphics Suite will ship within 45 days of the release of Windows 95, with pricing being be announced in early August. A Micrografx spokesperson told Newsbytes the company is offering a preview CD-ROM version of Micrografx Picture Publisher for Windows 95 for $9.95. (Jim Mallory/19950717/Press contact: Grant Wickes, Micrografx, 214-994-6287; Public contact: Micrografx, 800-676-3110 or 214-234-1769/ABCGRAPH950717/PHOTO) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 07/17/95 BUSINESS LG Electronics To Buy Zenith Electronics (NEWS)(BUSINESS)(MSP)(00027) LG Electronics To Buy Zenith Electronics 07/17/95 GLENVIEW, ILLINOIS, U.S.A., 1995 JUL 17 (NB) -- Zenith Electronics Corp. (NYSE:ZE) will sell a controlling stake of the company to South Korea's LG Electronics (LGE), in a deal valued at more than $350 million. The deal spells the loss of independence for the electronics maker, dubbed the last US-owned television maker. In a news release, Zenith said LGE, formerly known as Goldstar, will acquire 16.5 million shares of newly-issued Zenith stock for $10 each, which is a full dollar above where the stock was trading on Wall Street at 12:35 EDT today. Also, LGE will buy more than 18 million shares from current Zenith shareholders in a tender offer. Already, LGE owns 1.45 million Zenith shares. But when all is said and done, LGE will own almost 60% of Zenith Electronics. Company officials also said they see a wider operating loss in the latest second quarter, compared with the first quarter. In May, Newsbytes reported on a Zenith cutback in its US salaried workforce by up to 10%, in part from a special voluntary retirement program. Zenith officials called the acquisition as "building upon" the more than 20-year relationship between the two companies, which began when LGE built radios for Zenith in the mid-70s. Al Moschner will continue as Zenith's president and chief executive officer. Part of the cash from the deal will support the expansion of Zenith's color picture tube plant in Melrose Park, Illinois, and support its growing Network Systems business. John Koo, president of LGE, said this transaction will create a leading global manufacturer and marketer of consumer electronics. "There are great opportunities for growing the Zenith brand around the world. And, with our combined manufacturing, sales, and marketing capabilities, Zenith and LGE expect that, together, we will become the largest consumer electronics manufacturer in North America." (Bob Woods/19950717/Press Contact: John Taylor, Zenith Electronics Corp., 708-391-8181; Investor Contact: Bill McNitt, 708-391-7713) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 07/17/95 ONLINE ISA Conference - "New Kids On the Online Block" (NEWS)(ONLINE)(BOS)(00028) ISA Conference - "New Kids On the Online Block" 07/17/95 BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS, U.S.A., 1995 JUL 17 (NB) -- Microsoft Network (MSN) is like a department store, while Apple's online services are similar to "specialty shops." AT&T Interchange is not an "online service," but an "enabling platform," whereas MCI Information Services and Netcom both avoid any "branded" approach, maintained top officials of these online offerings, in a session at the Interactive Services Association (ISA) Conference in Boston. The upcoming MSN is "on target to launch in August" with Windows 95, reported Russell Siegelman, Microsoft's general manager for online services. MSN is now in beta with 150 content providers and over 100,000 customers, and Microsoft expects to add "a couple of hundred more" content providers prior to commercial rollout, he told the audience. Siegelman also suggested that with the World Wide Web and commercial online services beginning to come together, a "new paradigm" is needed that "breaks the business" into three pieces: content, packaging, and Internet access. Online packaging is sometimes equated with a shopping mall, but to Microsoft, it is more like a department store, added the Microsoft exec. "We are going to provide Internet access, but we're also going to create this department store. We're going to sign up content providers, and hopefully attract customers to it. We're going to link the Web sites, and as part of that, we're going to unbundle our (Internet) access from our package. And some of our content will be in both HTML (hypertext markup language) and `value-added' formats," he continued. Microsoft's "department store" packaging will bring benefits to consumers and content providers alike, the general manager contended. "The consumer promise for that kind of model is, `I can find what I want. It looks good. It's presented in a cohesive way. And the whole package is delivered from a trusted name,'" he asserted. "Those are things that not easily deliverable in the `raw Internet' environment. But a packager can deliver (them)," he added. Responded Peter Friedman, general manager of Apple's eWorld: "Our strategy is not to be a department store at all, but to build a series of specialty shops." Today, noted Friedman, Apple runs three sets of services: eWorld Town Square, a year-old commercial online service with about 100,000 users; Applelink, a decade-old, "high-end commercial service for the Apple industry" that is now being migrated to eWorld; and an emerging set of Web-based services. Apple's Web services and eWorld Town Square are both aimed at providing a series of "targeted services for specific audiences." Apple's first services for the Web -- called eWorld on the Web -- include "a learning community targeted specifically for the K-12 market," for example, according to the Apple official. Friedman also told the audience that he agrees with predictions raised elsewhere at the conference concerning "a shakeout at the top in terms of quantity commodity access providers." Remarked the Apple general manager: "If we look at TV as a reference point, we have the three large networks, who strain in a commodity access market. And we have the individual cable stations, the most successful (of which) are very targeted. Nickelodeon has built a cult, or culture, around the children of this country. I suppose that they're a `distant fourth' to the `big three,' just as eWorld is a `distant fourth' to the `big three.' But I like that position. I'd rather be MTV than NBC." AT&T Interchange, on the other hand, is "an enabling platform on which other organizations are creating their own online information services," said Michael Kolowich, company president. Many of Interchange's content providers also provide "targeted" services of the kind Friedman described, the company chief maintained. "We are right now in the middle of a sequenced launch of our first four services. We have put into the market two regional and local information services," Kolowich added. These include an online edition of the Minneapolis Start-Tribune, along with a service built by Digital Inc. for Washington DC, Virginia, and Maryland. Two other Interchange services, from Ziff-Davis and the Gartner group, "deal with different aspects of a particular special interest content area: i.e., computing," according to Kolowich. Also in the works for Interchange are several other services from content providers, including "the first pan-European online information service, from Europe Online," he revealed. Interchange is offering the content providers "an absolutely state-of-the-art platform -- capable of dealing with multimedia documents, as well as multitasking on Windows 3.1 -- along with access to the AT&T network and AT&T's customer base of 85 million consumers and 9 million businesses, he added. But Scott Kurnit, president of MCI Information Services, criticized some of the other companies for taking a "proprietary" approach. "At MCI, we have planted ourselves in the center of the Internet, and we're working out from there," Kurnit said. "We hope that all our competitors abandon their closed, proprietary platforms, because the truth is that until the industry is wide open, it will not, in my opinion, reach its full potential." Agreeing with Kurnit was David Garrison, chairman and chief executive officer of Netcom, another Web service provider. Garrison characterized his own service as a "sports car" bringing users to the stores they choose. "Web sites will have to compete, and let the best ones win. Let people go to the stores they want. We shouldn't be in the position of choosing for them. We're facilitators," Garrison told the group. (Jacqueline Emigh/19950417/Reader and Press Contact: Interactive Services Association, 301-495-4955) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 07/17/95 PC Zenith Data Systems Adds To Notebook Line (NEWS)(PC)(MSP)(00029) Zenith Data Systems Adds To Notebook Line 07/17/95 BUFFALO GROVE, ILLINOIS, U.S.A., 1995 JUL 17 (NB) -- Zenith Data Systems (ZDS) has announced an addition to its notebook product line, dubbed the "Z-Star," to go after a larger segment of the portable PC notebook market. Also, the company said it is upgrading its popular "Z-Star EX" notebook computer. "We're trying to incorporate as many features into this product as we can, but at the same time try to get an end-user who is not as business-oriented, but more of a home user," Imtiaz Qureshi, an engineer at ZDS, told Newsbytes. "We're addressing a lot of features that you normally find in notebooks that are $700 to $800 more." Some of those features include a built-in AC adapter that eliminates the need for external cables and power "bricks" that can weigh two pounds or more. Also, the Z-Star lets users swap the 3.5-inch floppy drive with a NiCad battery. And users who don't want to completely close their Windows applications before they shut down their units can take advantage of the "save to disk" function, that lets them power back up in the exact same spot where they turned off their systems. If users run out of battery power, they can simply plug in standard alkaline batteries for an extra 45 minutes of operation to get through a computing crunch. Pricing for standard configurations range from $1,299 for a monochrome version, and $1,799 for a dual scan color unit. Both of these systems have 4MB of RAM and a 250MB hard drive. Meanwhile, the Z-Star EX now has a larger dual scan color display, a faster Intel 486DX2/75 processor, and larger capacity enhanced IDE (Integrated Drive Electronics) hard disk drives. Qureshi also told Newsbytes the notebook market is more competitive than ever. He said his company is now coming out with new products in a six-month cycle to keep up with competitors like Toshiba and NEC. (Bob Woods/19950717/Press Contact: Glynis Gibson, Gibson Communications, 312-868-9400 or 708-808-4276; Public Contact: Zenith Data Systems, 800-533-0331) (SUMMARY)(GENERAL)(MSP)(00030) Newsbytes Daily Summary 07/17/95 MINNEAPOLIS, MINNESOTA, U.S.A., 1995 JUL 17 (NB) -- These are capsules of all today's news stories: ======================================================================== ------------| N E W S B Y T E S D A I L Y S U M M A R Y |---------- ------------| Monday, July 17, 1995 |---------- ======================================================================== (c) Newsbytes News Network (Tm) Editor in Chief: Wendy Woods ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Newsbytes News Network is a computer and telecom industry news wire and digitized picture service. Our news stream includes more than 30 daily first-hand reported US and international news stories about computing and telecommunications. For more information, please e-mail to 'administrator@newsbytes.com' ------------------------------------------------------------------------ CATEGORY HEADLINES (*** indicates today's top stories) STORY # ======================================================================== APPLE TI Offers Free Mac GX Printer Drivers...................... 14 BUSINESS Iomega 2Qtr Sales Up 60%, Loses $1.9Mil.................... 01 BUSINESS ****Cray Computer Halts Investor Search, Will Liquidate... 02 BUSINESS LG Electronics To Buy Zenith Electronics................... 27 EDUCATION "CampusMCI Internet" For Univs & Students.................. 23 GENERAL Comdex/Canada - CD-ROM Recorder, 6x Drive From DynaTek..... 11 GENERAL Comdex/Canada - Micro Design's CD-ROM, SCSI Products....... 19 GENERAL Canadian Product Launch Update............................. 24 LEGAL ****House Stalled On Telecoms Bill........................ 21 NETWORK Racal-Airtech's Secure Remote LAN Access Software.......... 05 NETWORK Comdex/Canada - Pure Data Gets More SatisFAXtion........... 10 ONLINE Internet Update............................................ 03 ONLINE America Online Adds "Countdown" Interactive Game........... 09 ONLINE EDS Offers Internet Business Tools......................... 16 ONLINE ISA Conference - Publishers "Turn Words Into Bytes......... 17 ONLINE New Newsletter To Help Lawyers On Internet................. 18 ONLINE Mac New York Music Festival On Internet.................... 22 ONLINE ISA Conference - "New Kids On the Online Block............. 28 PC Europe - Xyratex Warns Of PC "Warranty Chaos............... 06 PC Zenith Data Systems Adds To Notebook Line.................. 29 TELECOM Comdex/Canada - Bell Mobility Puts Spotlight On Data....... 20 TRENDS Fujitsu's Multimedia Information Service................... 04 TRENDS Most Firms Expanding Into European Logistics - Report...... 07 TRENDS Hitachi Europe Captures 45% Of German Disk Market.......... 12 UNIX X/Open Offers CDE Branding Scheme.......................... 08 WINDOWS SuperFlow Announces Dynamometer Software................... 13 WINDOWS Micrografx Previews Designer 6.0 For Windows 95............ 15 WINDOWS ****Microsoft Releases Windows 95 To Manufacturing........ 25 WINDOWS Micrografx Intros Windows 95 Graphics Suite................ 26 ======================================================================== These are the headlines and first paragraphs of each story, in order: 1 -> Iomega 2Qtr Sales Up 60%, Loses $1.9Mil -- As predicted, Iomega Corp. (NASDAQ: IOMG) lost almost $2 million in the second quarter, although sales for the period jumped 60 percent. 2 -> ****Cray Computer Halts Investor Search, Will Liquidate -- Cray Computer Corp. (NASDAQ: CRAY), the company that hoped to use a revolutionary technology to produce the world's fastest supercomputer, has decided to call a halt to its search for investors and will liquidate its assets. 3 -> Internet Update -- In this roundup of new software and resources on the Internet: South African politics; More NASA information online; Legal library available; News on the Internet; Media online; Business on the Infobahn; The Web 100; and HTML 3.0 Browser. 4 -> Fujitsu's Multimedia Information Service -- A five-company consortium has announced it has begun trials of a new multimedia information service, called Media Tower. The new system utilizes NTT's B-ISDN (integrated services digital network) network to provide a business information-on-demand service. 5 -> Racal-Airtech's Secure Remote LAN Access Software -- Racal- Airtech has unveiled X.Safe, a secure remote LAN (local area network) access system that is billed as providing personal authentication and privacy for data in transit over POTS (plain old telephone system), ISDN (integrated services digital network), or leased lines. 6 -> Europe - Xyratex Warns Of PC "Warranty Chaos -- Xyratex, the disk drive company, which has recently diversified from OEM (original equipment manufacturing) into selling through dealer channels, has warned of impending "chaos" in warranty management. 7 -> Most Firms Expanding Into European Logistics - Report -- Following the launch of toll-free advisory services for the logistics market by IBM's CGI applications software unit, the company claims that more than 80 percent of callers to the service are companies in the medium range with a turnover averaging UKP100 million, and which want to expand into Europe. 8 -> X/Open Offers CDE Branding Scheme -- X/Open Company, the independent international organization dedicated to open systems, has started a branding program for products that conform to the Common Desktop Environment (CDE) specifications. 9 -> America Online Adds "Countdown" Interactive Game -- America Online (NASDAQ:AMER) subscribers can now "Countdown" their trivia knowledge while using the popular online network. NTN Communications (ASE:NTN) has brought its popular interactive Countdown trivia game, normally played in restaurants and bars, to AOL. 10 -> Comdex/Canada - Pure Data Gets More SatisFAXtion -- PureData Ltd. has extended the SatisFAXtion line of facsimile adapters that it acquired last year from Intel Corp., unveiling the SatisFAXtion 2000 and SatisFAXtion 4000 network fax adapters. 11 -> Comdex/Canada - CD-ROM Recorder, 6x Drive From DynaTek -- DynaTek Automation Systems Inc., of Bedford, Nova Scotia, unveiled a new CD-ROM recording system and a six-speed (6x) CD-ROM drive at the Comdex/Canada trade show last week. 12 -> Hitachi Europe Captures 45% Of German Disk Market -- Hitachi Europe has announced that its figures for 1995 to date show it has gained a significant and growing share of the German hard disk (HD) drive market. 13 -> SuperFlow Announces Dynamometer Software -- SuperFlow Corp. has announced a Windows-based software package to collect information from the company's dynamometers, devices used to simulate engine load in applications like emission-testing and high performance race car tuning. 14 -> TI Offers Free Mac GX Printer Drivers -- Texas Instruments Inc. NYSE: TXN) has released Macintosh printer drivers for Microlaser 600 and Microlaser Pro series printers operating with QuickDraw GX. 15 -> Micrografx Previews Designer 6.0 For Windows 95 -- Micrografx Inc. (NASDAQ: MGXI) is one of the software companies previewing a trickle of software for Windows 95 that is expected to become a flood during the next 30 days. 16 -> EDS Offers Internet Business Tools -- EDS (NYSE: GME) has introduced a set of Internet services for business customers on the World Wide Web. The company said the services were designed to make it easier for EDS clients to attract businesses on the Web. 17 -> ISA Conference - Publishers "Turn Words Into Bytes -- Online services are providing interactivity, searchability, and expanded space to publishers, but they also pose challenges in terms of content presentation, pricing, advertising, and the need for specialized personnel, said publishers of the online editions of Newsday, USA Today, the Nynex Yellow Pages, and Penthouse, during a session at the Interactive Services Association (ISA) Conference in Boston. 18 -> New Newsletter To Help Lawyers On Internet -- Lawyers who might be interested in using the Internet for research and information, but don't quite know how to "surf the infobahn," have a new source to help them along the way. Legal Communications Ltd. (LCL) has launched "legal.online," billed as the first newsletter to provide a roadmap of the information superhighway. 19 -> Comdex/Canada - Micro Design's CD-ROM, SCSI Products -- Micro Design International Inc. launched new CD-ROM and small computer systems interface (SCSI) products at the recent Comdex/Canada trade show. They include a CD-ROM jukebox, rack-mount CD-ROM drives, and new versions of the company's SCSI Express storage-control software. 20 -> Comdex/Canada - Bell Mobility Puts Spotlight On Data -- Bell Mobility, the mobile communications arm of Bell Canada, has formed a new unit to handle wireless data services and announced marketing agreements to offer electronic-mail notification on Apple Newton personal digital assistants (PDAs) and a hand-held fax machine. 21 -> ****House Stalled On Telecoms Bill --It looks increasingly unlikely for telecommunications legislation in the House of Representatives before the month-long August recess. 22 -> Mac New York Music Festival On Internet -- Apple Computer Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL), sponsor of the New York Music Festival, is using the event to showcase the music, multimedia and Internet capabilities of its Apple Macintosh computers. The Festival, which attracts more than 350 bands to seventeen top New York night clubs, unveils Apple's virtual reality software, QuickTime VR. 23 -> "CampusMCI Internet" For Univs & Students -- MCI (NASDAQ:MCIC) is going back to school, or more specifically, bringing Internet service to colleges and universities. The initiative is called "CampusMCI Internet," and it lets institutions of higher learning provide "value-added" Internet services to their students, faculty, administrators, and alumni. 24 -> Canadian Product Launch Update -- This regular feature, appearing on the first day Newsbytes publishes each week, provides further details for the Canadian market on announcements by international companies that Newsbytes has already covered. This week: Compaq's new ProLinea 5120 and Deskpro 5120, Digital's AlphaStation 600 and reconfigured AlphaStation 200, and Microsoft's Coming Soon program for Windows 95 and its Office suite. 25 -> ****Microsoft Releases Windows 95 To Manufacturing -- Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ: MSFT) announced today it has released Windows 95 to manufacturing and the product will be on retail shelves on August 24. That announcement should put to rest the rumors that the new operating system and user interface software might not ship by late August. 26 -> Micrografx Intros Windows 95 Graphics Suite -- Micrografx Inc. (NASDAQ: MGXI) has announced it will release a suite of graphics software applications designed specifically for Microsoft Windows 95. Microsoft's new operating system and graphical user interface software is set for availability on August 24. 27 -> LG Electronics To Buy Zenith Electronics -- Zenith Electronics Corp. (NYSE:ZE) will sell a controlling stake of the company to South Korea's LG Electronics (LGE), in a deal valued at more than $350 million. The deal spells the loss of independence for the electronics maker, dubbed the last US-owned television maker. 28 -> ISA Conference - "New Kids On the Online Block -- Microsoft Network (MSN) is like a department store, while Apple's online services are similar to "specialty shops." AT&T Interchange is not an "online service," but an "enabling platform," whereas MCI Information Services and Netcom both avoid any "branded" approach, maintained top officials of these online offerings, in a session at the Interactive Services Association (ISA) Conference in Boston. 29 -> Zenith Data Systems Adds To Notebook Line -- Zenith Data Systems (ZDS) has announced an addition to its notebook product line, dubbed the "Z-Star," to go after a larger segment of the portable PC notebook market. Also, the company said it is upgrading its popular "Z-Star EX" notebook computer. (Ian Stokell/19950717) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 07/12/95 ONLINE More Microsoft Network Providers Revealed (NEWS)(ONLINE)(DEN)(00001) More Microsoft Network Providers Revealed 07/12/95 REDMOND, WASHINGTON, U.S.A., 1995 JUL 12 (NB) -- Subscribers to Microsoft Network (MSN) will be able to get information about Scandinavian countries, read newspapers, listen to radio, learn what countries may be risky to travel to, and even check out prospective employees through the efforts on two newly announced service providers for Microsoft Corp.'s (NASDAQ: MSFT) online Microsoft Network. Modern Times Group MTG AB has announced an agreement with Microsoft to provide online content for MSN, which is scheduled to launch next month. Modern Times Group MTG AB was formed from Kinnevik TV & Media, a Stockholm, Sweden-based company. MTG will come online September 5, 1995 when MSN launches in Sweden. MTG said its services and information will be offered in several versions to serve each Scandinavian country. It will offer electronic shopping on TV-Shop Online, listen to P6 Radio in real-time, get information about different Scandinavian cities such as Stockholm, Copenhagen and Oslo, and read the news in the Metro, a daily Swedish newspaper. MTG has already developed online services for the Internet, including the virtual environment "Everyday Village," which a MTG spokesperson told Newsbytes will be further developed and made available on MSN. MTG said there are currently over one million users of Windows software in Scandinavia, making it the area of the world with the highest concentration of Windows software. Fred Giles, vice president of information services for the Pinkerton Services Group, a division of Pinkerton Security & Investigation Services, said its online offerings on MSN would include travel alerts about countries experiencing conditions like civil war or other unrest. Giles said Pinkerton's agents around the world provide daily updates to travel conditions worldwide and, according to Giles, will probably be more objective than the alerts issued by the US Department of State. That service will carry a surcharge said Giles. Giles said Pinkerton would also offer assessment tools for employers that include the Stanton survey, which he described as "a pre-employment integrity instrument," and the Stanton profile, which profiles a job applicant against established criteria for that type of job. "There are different characteristics one might want to see in a sales person as opposed to someone who may help stock the warehouse," said Giles. Pinkerton will also provide download-and-run files for various types of interviews. The employee takes the interview offline, then electronically-mails the answer file to Pinkerton. The company then returns the interview results to the employer. Giles said specific charges for the Pinkerton content on MSN haven't been finalized yet but he expects them to run $20 or less for any of the services mentioned. Pinkerton said its services will be included on the "Mainstream HR Resource Center," an online superstore targeted to employers, human resource professionals, and job seekers. Microsoft stock reached record levels this week, almost reaching the $100 mark. Analysts cite growing optimism about sales prospects for the forthcoming Windows 95 operating system that is scheduled for consumer availability on August 24. Microsoft is expected to report higher earnings for its fourth quarter and fiscal 1995. The quarter and fiscal year ended June 30, 1995, and analysts are predicting the software company will report earnings of about $0.61 per share for the quarter and $2.34 per share for the year. Microsoft shares earned $1.88 for the 1994 fiscal year. (Jim Mallory/19950711/Press contact: Tina Vennegaard, Bender, Goldman & Helper for MTG, 310-473-4147, Fred Giles, Pinkerton, 800-232-7465) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 07/12/95 BUSINESS Olivetti Denies Rumors Of PC Operations Spin-Off (NEWS)(BUSINESS)(LON)(00002) Olivetti Denies Rumors Of PC Operations Spin-Off 07/12/95 MILAN, ITALY, 1995 JUL 12 (NB) -- According to a variety of press sources, Olivetti is planning to turn itself into a holding company over the next six months. Although this will allow the company to set up separate business units for its various operational divisions, such as PCs, the company has denied that it plans to spin off the PC operations division. Analysts have surmised that spinning off the firm's PC operation into a separate entity, perhaps selling it to a third party, is Olivetti's intention. Olivetti, despite seeing its shares yo-yo over the past few days on the Italian Bourse, has denied any such plans, pointing to the fact that its management changes in that division are now almost complete. Selling its PC division might make sense in the short run, analysts suggest, as the company had debts approaching 1,500 billion lire at the end of 1994, with concurrent losses of 680 billion for the year as a whole. Detailed examination of the figures shows that, while the company's telecoms business is sound, its PC operation is losing money. As a result of this, the company claims that its decision to split the company in two, one concentrating on telecoms business, the other on computers, will make for easier accounting. Although officials with Olivetti have refused to comment further on the planned changes, this week's issue of Il Mondo, the Italian weekly newspaper, said that the two divisions will operate as separate accounting entities, making it easy to hive off one of the operations to a third party. According to the paper, Corrado Passera, Olivetti's managing director, will head up the PC operation. Passera is a popular figure in Italian information technology circles and his appointment is bound to appease at least some of Olivetti's critics. (Sylvia Dennis/19950711/Press & Reader Contact: Olivetti, +39-2-4836-2968) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 07/12/95 TELECOM Belgian Govt Shortlists Belgacom Equity Bids (NEWS)(TELECOM)(LON)(00003) Belgian Govt Shortlists Belgacom Equity Bids 07/12/95 BRUSSELS, BELGIUM, 1995 JUL 12 (NB) -- The race for a 25 percent stake in Belgacom, the state owned telecoms company of Belgium, is heating up, as the Government has just announced it has shortlisted three groups as possible bidders. According to the Belgian Government, the three groups shortlisted are Bell Atlantic/British Telecom, Koninkjke PTT/Swiss Telecom, and Ameritech. As previously reported by Newsbytes, the fourth bidder was Swiss Telecom. Officials with the Government said that Swiss Telecom failed to make it into the final bids process because it did not have "enough industrial synergies to consolidate Belgacom's future." Ameritech's bid, meanwhile, is already looking a little shaky as, according to the Government's Privatization Commission, the bid price from the company needs to be revised to meet the range set by the Commission. No details of the actual range requested have been released by the Government, however. Elio di Rupo, meanwhile, the Belgian Telecoms Minister, has revealed that the Commission still has not decided what percentage of Belgacom it plans to sell off. As reported previously, the Government has said it will sell off at least 25 percent of the shares in the company. "The three groups have each made several bids. All three have made bids for 49 percent, two have also made a bid for 25 percent and one has made a bid for a majority stake," di Rupo told journalists. He refused, however, to say which group had bid how much and for how many shares. The Commission will now consider the bids in greater detail, requesting more information from the groups as it does so. The formal bidding, while now closed, will go in stages until the end of the fall, and a decision on who gets what will be made in the fourth quarter of this year. As previously reported by Newsbytes, British Telecom (BT) is closely allied with Bell Atlantic on a joint bid for a stake in Belgacom. BT and Belgacom have been "bed partners" for some years on the international telecoms front, and BT has expressed an interest in taking an equity investment in the Belgian telco over the past few years. Belgacom is on target to privatize at least part of its operations later this year, in preparation for the January 1, 1998, open telecoms market date set by the European Commission (EC). Belgacom officials have discussed previously that the first stage of the privatization will involve a sell-off of 25 percent of the company. The second stage of privatization is expected to take place in 1997, when a further 24 percent of the company -- leaving the Government with a controlling 51 percent -- is expected to be sold off. (Steve Gold/19950711/Press & Reader Contact: Belgacom, tel +32-2-202-9736, fax +32-2-202-2417) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 07/12/95 LEGAL ****UK Sex Stalker "Could Be Computer Hacker" (NEWS)(LEGAL)(LON)(00004) ****UK Sex Stalker "Could Be Computer Hacker" 07/12/95 LIVERPOOL, MERSEYSIDE, ENGLAND, 1995 JUL 12 (NB) -- Police in Liverpool have revealed they are worried that a sex stalker posing as a doctor could have hacked his way into health service computers. According to Merseyside Police, a man, calling himself Dr. Jackson, has been targeting young women in the age range 15 to 25, and requesting that they urgently examine themselves for specific medical symptoms. Ordinarily, Police say they would treat the case as simply one of a pervert trying to get his kicks over the phone, and work with British Telecom's malicious call bureau to trace him. However, Police say that the man is also trying to arrange meetings with the women and, to back up his claim, makes reference to family medical histories which could only be gleaned from computer files held by the local Health Authority. Having this level of information about the women has made his request for a meeting sound plausible, officials say. According to Detective Constable Kelvin Pye, the officer leading the case, Police are working on the theory that the man either works in the health services sector or is a computer hacker, although the former is rated as unlikely, given the levels of protection given to medical records by health authorities. "This is a sinister case. We are treating is as very serious because people in general put their trust in those who purport to be doctors," he said. In one incident, a 15 year old girl arranged to meet "Dr. Jackson" after examining herself. When she turned up for the meeting, she ran away when "Dr. Jackson" asked her to get into his car. The incident, in Crosby, Merseyside, is being treated as an attempted abduction. According to Police, however, the girl's meeting with the man has allowed them to issue a description of the suspect. Police say he is aged between 40 and 45 with gray short, straight hair, and is well-spoken. During the attempted abduction, he wore a green body warmer, and plastic framed spectacles. (Steve Gold/19950711) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 07/12/95 ONLINE CompuServe Chooses Fulcrum SearchServer (NEWS)(ONLINE)(TOR)(00005) CompuServe Chooses Fulcrum SearchServer 07/12/95 OTTAWA, ONTARIO, CANADA, 1995 JUL 12 (NB) -- Software vendor Fulcrum Technologies Inc. (NASDAQ:FULCF) has received a second vote of confidence from the online world. The company said the CompuServe online information service has licensed its SearchServer software, which earlier this year Microsoft Corp. agreed to use on its upcoming Microsoft Network online service. Peter Eddison, vice-president of marketing at Fulcrum, would not disclose the exact financial terms of the CompuServe deal, but told Newsbytes it is worth more than $1 million initially. At least in the short term the CompuServe deal will be worth more to Fulcrum than the Microsoft one announced earlier, Eddison said, because CompuServe is "an established environment as opposed to a future-potential environment." The returns to Fulcrum are also more certain with the CompuServe deal because CompuServe has licensed the software for a fixed annual fee and the deal does not depend on how many information providers choose to use SearchServer, as the Microsoft deal does. SearchServer, Fulcrum's flagship product, is text search and retrieval software that is also used by a variety of large and medium-sized corporate customers. SearchServer provides standard Boolean and proximity searching along with advanced capabilities such as Intuitive Searching, which the vendor said lets users search for information in a natural and instinctive way. CompuServe plans to make it available on the CompuServe information service by the end of this year, Eddison said. Fulcrum had sales of about C$26 million in its last fiscal year and employs about 150 people, Eddison said. CompuServe claims more than three million users in 150 countries around the world. (Grant Buckler/19950711/Press Contact: Gillian Brouse, Fulcrum, 613-238-1761, Internet e-mail gillianb@fultech.com; Debra Young, CompuServe, 614-538-4553, Internet e-mail 70004.336@compuserve.com; Public Contact: Fulcrum, Internet World Wide Web http://www.fultech.com) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 07/12/95 WINDOWS Haventree Ships Nodemap For Windows (NEWS)(WINDOWS)(TOR)(00006) Haventree Ships Nodemap For Windows 07/12/95 KINGSTON, ONTARIO, CANADA, 1995 JUL 12 (NB) -- HavenTree Software Ltd. has begun shipping NodeMap for Windows, software which detects local area network (LAN) and wide area network (WAN) configurations and creates network diagrams. Nodemap creates a comprehensive diagram of a Novell Inc. NetWare LAN, including file servers, workstations, networks segments, bridges, and routers. It can be used to create a plan for a new network or modify an existing one, and will map an entire network or a selected part of one, according to the vendor. The new Windows version of Nodemap, available only for DOS up to now, takes advantage of Windows' graphical user interface and also adds some new features such as a choice of operational and executive views, the company's marketing coordinator, Marion Savage, told Newsbytes. Operational view shows all available network devices on a single diagram, while executive view presents an overview that lets users drill down to additional levels of detail. The software can be used to create new diagrams or update existing ones, and can customize the plans to exact specifications, according to Haventree. Information not captured by the software's automatic detection capabilities can be inserted manually using its editing and drawing functions. Nodemap can also link with third-party inventory programs such Landmark Research International Corp.'s SysInfo, Microsoft Diagnostics, and NetCensus from Tally Systems Corp., and it links NetWare Bindery information to corresponding file-server icons. HavenTree will continue selling the DOS version of Nodemap, Savage said. The company has no immediate plans to adapt the software to Apple's Macintosh, she added. The software has a list price of $499. First announced at last fall's Comdex trade show in Las Vegas, it was originally expected to ship in the first quarter. (Grant Buckler/19950711/Press Contact: Marion Savage, HavenTree Software, tel 613-544-6035, fax 613-544-9632; Public Contact: HavenTree Software, 613-544-6035) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 07/12/95 IBM More On IBM/AimTech Deal Around IconAuthor (NEWS)(IBM)(BOS)(00007) More On IBM/AimTech Deal Around IconAuthor 07/12/95 SOMERS, NEW YORK, U.S.A., 1995 JUL 12 (NB) -- Under a new joint development and marketing deal between IBM and AimTech, AimTech's IconAuthor multimedia development tool will be outfitted with a multimedia player for MicroWare's OS-9 multimedia player by early 1996, and with Web authoring, a new multimedia player for OS/2 Warp, and other enhancements by the end of 1995, officials said in a conference call with Newsbytes. "I expect (the enhancements) will be part of every version we have, but we're committing to offer (them) first on OS/2," said Andy Huffman, chief executive officer (CEO) of AimTech. The enhanced IconAuthor will be marketed by IBM's worldwide sales force, as well as by AimTech. For IBM, IconAuthor will join a "suite" of multimedia tools that already includes VisualAge and VisualScriptX, plus the Kaleida Media Player (KMP), according to David Marsh, manager of multimedia at IBM. Maintained Marsh: "IconAuthor helps us to complete our portfolio with a robust, easy-to-use tool for the business user and non- professional programmer." In addition to the OS-9 multimedia player for interactive TV applications due early next year, the enhancements will include a 32-bit player for OS/2, the ability to include HTML (hypertext markup language) pages and links in IconAuthor-created content, improved text handling, better color management, and integration with IBM's utilities and kiosk device drivers, Huffman said. AimTech also plans to add support for Windows 95 and Windows for Workgroups, he revealed. IconAuthor currently allows multimedia development and deployment in OS/2, Windows, Windows NT, IBM, AIX, and five other Unix environments. Beyond the announced agreement, IBM and AimTech are conducting "ongoing discussions" about the possibility of integrating IconAuthor with ScriptX as an alternative "metaphor," or front end, to VisualScriptX, said the two execs. "ScriptX (is) a technology that allows you to create applications. And when you start to create development environments around that technology, there's the ability to have differing metaphors and front ends for that environment. So VisualScriptX presents one metaphor, which is the `construction from parts' (also used in) VisualAge," Marsh elaborated. AimTech's Huffman characterized IconAuthor as "an authoring tool without a scripting language," and ScriptX as "a scripting language without an authoring tool." Observed Huffman: "Now, we have the opportunity to bring the two together. And we've been asked by some of our customers to allow them to have a scripting tool in (IconAuthor). Many of our customers appreciate not having to script at all. But some of the advanced ones want scripting languages." The AimTech CEO pointed out that the new joint development and marketing agreement gives IBM and AimTech "access to the source code and each other." The integration of ScriptX and IconAuthor "would be a natural for us to do at some point in the future," he added. Newsbytes then asked Huffman whether AimTech also plans to integrate IconAuthor with Sun's HotJava technology for the Web. "We are looking at HotJava as another potential scripting language to link to," affirmed the AimTech chief. "We're doing a bunch of other Internet work this year anyway, and Java is something we're looking at very closely." Under the newly forged deal with IBM, Web authoring capabilities to be added to IconAuthor will include "options to link across the Web, to include HTML parts in their object offering, to include Internet pages inside of a multimedia applications, and to update any content in real time across the Internet," Huffman said. The Web will not start to replace CD-ROM for the distribution of multimedia content until a few years from now, the CEO predicted. "There's too much content to go across the real tiny pipe of the Internet. What we'll see instead is that people will continue to distribute applications on CD-ROM or to hard disks," Newsbytes was told. Under this scenario, the Web will be used to update applications with "the latest information on training, or on corporate positioning," for example. Huffman told Newsbytes that AimTech brings three key strengths to the deal with IBM: "total cross-platform" portability; the ability to make quick modifications to content or structure of an application; and "ease of use." "When (some other vendors) say, `cross-platform,' what they really mean is `Windows and Mac.' And even when there are only those two, there's still a fair amount of translation that occurs," he remarked. In contrast, in version 6.0, the current release of IconAuthor, AimTech has adopted an architecture in which "the application is a set of files that moves intact (between platforms) without change." Applications can be authored and edited on any supported platform, he added. OS/2 has been supported since version 5.0 of the product. "We also split applications into content and structure. If you need to make changes to either the content or structure, you can do so without sending out hundreds of megabytes of data. That's not the case with some of the other tools that are competing with us, which are focused primarily on the game or entertainment market," according to Huffman. Noted IBM's Marsh: "(IconAuthor) fits in very nicely to complete the spectrum of IBM's authoring tools." KMP, another tool in the IBM suite, "allows you to play applications developed with ScriptX Technology," according to Marsh. KMP is currently available for Windows and the Mac, and is expected to ship for OS/2 in the third quarter, he added. VisualAge, on the other hand, "is very complete in client-server and networking aspects," and in "providing multimedia support for your line-of-business applications," the IBM exec told Newsbytes. (Jacqueline Emigh/19950711/Reader Contacts: IBM, 914-766-9155; AimTech, 800-289-2884; Press Contacts: Rick Bause, IBM Media Relations, 914-766-1750; Beth Kitchener, Brodeur & Partners for IBM, 617-622-2800; David Conti, AimTech, 603-883-0220; Mona Pohl or Tim McGuinness, The Weber Group for AimTech, 617-661-7900) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 07/12/95 ONLINE UK - Axent Unveils Secure E-mail Technology (NEWS)(ONLINE)(LON)(00008) UK - Axent Unveils Secure E-mail Technology 07/12/95 EPSOM, SURREY, ENGLAND, 1995 JUL 12 (NB) -- Axent Technologies has begun shipping OmniGuard/SecurExchange, a secure messaging environment that encrypts/decrypts messages and binary files "on the fly" for transmission over public and private networks. John Holland, Axent's international business manager, explained that electronic-mail as a communications vehicle is pervasive. "What many users don't realize is that, every time a message is sent, unless it is protected by something like OmniGuard/SecurExchange, the information runs the risk of interception," he said. According to Holland, the package provides a cost-effective way to add security to an existing e-mail environment, even across the Internet. "Since OmniGuard/SecurExchange runs with all the most popular e-mail systems, it is not necessary to change the existing e-mail infrastructure to use it," he said. OmniGuard/SecurExchange uses public/private key encryption technology from RSA Data Security. According to Axent, the software uses digital signatures to authenticate the source of the message, as well as encryption to keep prying eyes away. In use, the package is claimed to be "transparent" to uses and features an intuitive icon-based interface. According to Holland, it includes a complete certificate management system for the e-mail administrator, so eliminating the need for individual users to worry about certificates. The package is available immediately at UKP49 per PC, with a minimum order of 10 units. According to Axent, the package can be easily integrated with Microsoft Mail, Lotus cc:Mail, and a number of other e-mail packages for networks. (Steve Gold/19950712/Press Contact: Text 100, +44-181-242-4150; Reader Contact: Axent Technologies, +44-1372-729655) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 07/12/95 PC UK - Epson's LapCat Multifunctional PC System (NEWS)(PC)(LON)(00009) UK - Epson's LapCat Multifunctional PC System 07/12/95 HERTFORDSHIRE, ENGLAND, 1995 JUL 12 (NB) -- Epson has unveiled a multi-functional unit called the Lapcat. According to officials with Epson, the unit is designed to make scanning, filing, faxing, and photocopying available to every PC user on their desk. Pricing in at UKP299, the Lapcat is a four pages-per-minute (ppm) mono scanner and document management unit that plugs into a host PC. According to Epson, if a printer is attached, the unit becomes a personal copier, while with a fax modem, users can send faxes directly from their PC. The Lapcat can also cope with electronic-mail. The key the flexibility of the Lapcat is Xerox's Desktop Management Suite, a suite of packages that includes optical character recognition (OCR) facilities, with visual recall, a system whereby images are stored on disk and retrieved on demand. The Lapcat needs a PC running Windows to drive the Xerox suite and, the company claims, thanks to the inclusion of Epson's advanced Text Enhancement Technology (TET), text can be successfully extracted from a document, even when it is printed on a colored or patterned background. Announcing the launch of the Lapcat in the UK, Maria Florey, Epson's product manager, said that the device is aimed at all PC users who want to scan, fax, photocopy, e-mail, and document manage "effortlessly" from their PC workstation. "With an estimated street price of UKP299, the Lapcat is ideal for personal use or those working in large organizations who may be wasting time moving between and sharing bulky peripherals. It is equally vital and affordable for home office users where functionality, cost and space are also key issues," she said. The Lapcat has a footprint of 300 by 210 millimeters (mm) and stands 66mm above the desk. The unit itself, which weighs 2.9 kilograms, supports 256 levels of gray scale, incorporates what Epson describes as advanced error diffusion and dither technologies, and turns in 50 to 600 dots-per-inch (DPI) output. There is also a 50 to 200 percent zoom facility that can be scaled in one percent increments, as well as interpolation technology that Epson claims ensures that image quality is maintained while images are resized. (Steve Gold/19950712/Press Contact: Berkeley PR, +44-1734-303681; Epson, UK +44-1442-61144) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 07/12/95 NETWORK Novell UK & JAC Link NetWare To Pick Environments (NEWS)(NETWORK)(LON)(00010) Novell UK & JAC Link NetWare To Pick Environments 07/12/95 BRACKNELL, BERKSHIRE, ENGLAND, 1995 JUL 12 (NB) -- Novell UK and JAC, a software publishing house, have teamed up to offer software developers the chance to port Pick-based super-mini and mid-range multi-user applications so that they run as native programs on Novell's UnixWare 2 operating system. According to Clive Ketteridge, managing director JAC, version 1.9 of JAC's jBase, an application development and database independent management system, allows easy migration of Pick applications to UnixWare 2, which allows them to run as native compiled C code under Unix. "Customers have been demanding this environment to take advantage of UnixWare's price/performance. Unix accounts can be configured to look exactly as they do under Pick/Reality environments," he said. According to Ketteridge, an alternative is for developers to move to a normal Unix look or mixture of both. "We are providing Pick/Reality developers migrating to Unix with everything they require to feel at home, without compromising their ability to use any of the many sophisticated Unix tools available," he explained. Novell's Ray Penesar, the company's regional product manager, said that the introduction of jBase means that developers can now take the many thousands of Pick-based applications that exist and easily port them to UnixWare 2. "This not only preserves the huge existing investment in these mission-critical applications, but also allows them to migrate these applications from expensive mini/mainframes to run on industry- standard Intel-based hardware that provides the best price/performance ratios in the industry," he said. jBase for UnixWare is available directly from JAC and is distributors worldwide. Developers needing more information on the package are asked to contact Brendan Daly on +44-1442-235515 or electronic-mail to brendan@jac.co.uk or info@jac.co.ul. There is also information available for download on the JAC home page on the Internet's World Web at http://www.jac.com . (Sylvia Dennis/19950712/Press Contact: Andrew Smith, A Plus Group, +44-1753-790700, Internet e-mail asmith@aplus.co.uk; Reader Contact: Novell UK Ops, tel +44-1344-724000, fax +44-1344-724001) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 07/12/95 ONLINE UK - Quarterdeck's Own Brand Mosaic, Internet Apps (NEWS)(ONLINE)(LON)(00011) UK - Quarterdeck's Own Brand Mosaic, Internet Apps 07/12/95 CHELMSFORD, ESSEX, ENGLAND, 1995 JUL 12 (NB) -- Following hard on the heels of WebServer, the Internet publishing application for Windows unveiled earlier this week, Quarterdeck has announced an own brand edition of Mosaic, as well as InternetSuite, a suite of Internet applications. While the own brand version of Mosaic is a customized version of the popular Web browser from NetScape, InternetSuite is perhaps the most interesting. The suite consists of a group of five tools that the company claims provides businesses and individuals with the most simple and instantaneous Internet access "solution" on the market. The suite includes Quarterdeck Mosaic, as well as applications that simplify set-up and use of dial-up Internet connections. The company claims that the suite enables users to quickly establish an account with Europe's leading Internet service providers and, as reported recently by Newsbytes, includes details of over 200 points-of-presence (POPs), for more 73 providers in 16 European countries and South Africa. InternetSuite includes Mosaic, Message Center, QTERM (for Telnet), QFTP (File Transfer Protocol), and Location Manager. The package includes integrated Windows SLIP/PPP support for easy dial-up connections to the Internet. Announcing the global release of the packages, Emerick Woods, Quarterdeck's vice president and general manager of the company's Internet Products Group, said that the company had focused on making Quarterdeck InternetSuite "integrated and easy to set-up so users can instantly communicate with friends, co-workers and associates, gather information on hobbies or perform work-related research." According to Quarterdeck, the Message Center provides instant access and easy management of electronic-mail and newsgroup communications, both on- and off-line. QFTP facilitates the copying and transferring of files to, and from, computers across the Internet. QTERM (Telnet), meanwhile, is billed as making remote connections to host computers "extremely easy." According to Nick Spencer, a spokesman for Quarterdeck, InternetSuite will retail for below UKP100 including sales tax in Europe, with shipment due in a matter of weeks. The package is also being shipped in the US. (Steve Gold/199509712/Press Contact: Nick Spencer, tel +44-1344-873445, fax +44-1344-873446, Internet e-mail nspencer@cix.compulink.co.uk; Reader Contact: Quarterdeck UK, +44-1245-496699; Quarterdeck France: +33-1-4320-3846; Quarterdeck Germany: +49-211-5979-00; Internet e-mail info@qdeck.co.uk) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 07/12/95 WINDOWS UK - Macromedia Intros Freehand 5 For Windows (NEWS)(WINDOWS)(LON)(00012) UK - Macromedia Intros Freehand 5 For Windows 07/12/95 BRACKNELL, BERKSHIRE, ENGLAND, 1995 JUL 12 (NB) -- Macromedia, a multimedia and digital arts software firm, has unveiled FreeHand 5 for Windows, an extended and upgraded version of the popular graphic design program. According to Sue Thexton, head of the company's UK operation, the package is the first software in its range that offers 32-bit performance. Freehand 5 for Windows reportedly has "true" 32-bit capabilities and, as such, is billed as compatible with all Windows environments such as Windows 95, Windows NT, and Windows 3.1 or 3.11 running in Win32/s mode. Included in the package are more than 500 fonts and 10,000 clip-art images. According to Macromedia, this new Windows edition is almost an exact duplicate (apart from the underlying program code) as the Apple Mac version. Using the commonality user interface, approach makes for greater flexibility for designers working on two different operating systems when creating new graphics. In use, the company claims that designers can easily transfer their designs from one platform to another without any problem and extra devices. FreeHand 5 has its binary database set to be the same on any platform, even between different versions of FreeHand. "FreeHand 5 for Windows' 32-bit, cross-platform performance empowers digital artists to 'Author Once and Play Anywhere' by encouraging the seamless movement of illustrations, which have been designed on one platform or operating system on a particular computer, to any other platform or operating system on any other computer," Thexton explained. "As the computing environment in graphic design shops becomes more and more mixed, FreeHand 5's flexibility allows digital artists to put a premium on creativity, not platform compatibility," she said. According to Thexton, the new software includes many useful features such as expandable architecture, increased text capabilities, various special effects, bundled content and quick performance. Interactive drop-in tools are supported by the program's architecture. Text, meanwhile, is handled by a feature which enables to lay out a multi- page brochures and advertisements. Pricing on this new version of Freehand/Win will be announced when the package ships in Europe later this summer. (Sylvia Dennis/19950712/Press Contact: Louise Stewart-Muir, +44-171-223-4590, Internet e-mail 100610.3045@compuserve.com; Reader Contact: Macromedia UK, +44-1344-761111, Internet e-mail sue_thexton@macromedia.com) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 07/12/95 GENERAL France Telecom Chairman Disagrees, Resigns? (NEWS)(GENERAL)(LON)(00013) France Telecom Chairman Disagrees, Resigns? 07/12/95 PARIS, FRANCE, 1995 JUL 12 (NB) -- While the rest of the world debates France's allegedly heavy handed dealings with members of Greenpeace in the South Pacific, political life in the country itself continues as normal -- almost. The otherwise normally placid world of French telecoms is being turned upside down as Marcel Roulet, the chairman of France Telecom (FT) is reported to be at loggerheads with the Government over plans to change the company in the runup to the open telecoms market in 1998, as decreed by the European Commission (EC). Officially, FT isn't saying anything about the reported dustup, but the French press are reporting on the affair as if it were factual. Things have gotten so bad between Roulet and the Government, the papers say, that he is expected to resign this week. According to Le Soir and other French papers, Roulet is very eager for the Government to change telecoms legislation to allow FT to quickly float and allow cross investment, as is happening in other European countries. Francois Fillon, the French Telecom's Minister, meanwhile, is reported to be stalling such moves. The stalemate could cost the Government dearly, Liberation, another French daily claims, as Roulet is likely to resign and enter the private sector. The Government would lose a major asset, the media claims, leaving FT leaderless just two and half years from a completed liberated telecoms market. (Sylvia Dennis/19950712) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 07/12/95 TRENDS Hong Kong Firm Offers Entry-Level EDI (NEWS)(TRENDS)(HKG)(00014) Hong Kong Firm Offers Entry-Level EDI 07/12/95 CENTRAL, HONG KONG, 1995 JUL 12 (NB) -- The Hong Kong Article Numbering Association (HKANA) and IBM have introduced two bundled deals, saying they offer a "complete EDI (electronic data interchange) solution" based on the recently announced EZ*Trade EDI service. The two deals provide all the necessary computer equipment, software and EDI network services for current and prospective members of the HKANA to start using EDI. The packages include an IBM PC, a modem, end-user software and one year's traffic on the EZ*TRADE EDI service. The first package, priced at HK$17,874 (US$2,290), is aimed at companies without in-house system support. Under this deal, the PC will be pre-loaded with TRENDS (TRade-easy END-user software), an entry level software product for EZ*TRADE, which allows the processing of electronic purchase orders using EDI. The second package, priced at HK$27,685 (US3,550), is aimed at businesses with in-house system support, and includes the EZ*TRADE "cost-effective" software product. The software enables users to process purchase orders (PO), PO change requests, PO Response, dispatch advice, remittance advice and price/sales catalogues, via EDI. Both packages include the first year's EZ*TRADE traffic charge, based on approximately 100 purchase orders per month. Additional transactions will be charged at HK$0.72 (US 1 cent) per 100 characters. "These two special packages will allow Hong Kong businesses to start using EDI immediately," said Anna Lin, chief executive of the HKANA. "They offer everything that a business needs to improve trading and business productivity through the use of EDI." (Nigel Armstrong and IT Daily/19950712) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 07/12/95 BUSINESS AST Targets Hong Kong Home PC Market (NEWS)(BUSINESS)(HKG)(00015) AST Targets Hong Kong Home PC Market 07/12/95 CENTRAL, HONG KONG, 1995 JUL 12 (NB) -- AST is hoping to use non-traditional sales channels to help its new Advantage! Adventure range capture 20% of Hong Kong's home PC market, estimated at 40,000 to 50,000 units per year. AST's managing director for Asia, Lionel Cheng, told I.T. Daily at Advantage! Adventure's Hong Kong launch that the company is in the process of signing new sales partners such as electrical consumer goods chains and department stores. Cheng said the company had just signed one such agreement with Fortress and the high street electrical retailer would begin displaying the new computers this month. The Advantage! Adventure range is aimed specifically at the home market, which "is one of the fastest growing areas in Hong Kong," according to Cheng. The machines, which have already proved successful in the US, come with AST Works, a software product that sits on top of Windows and has been designed to aid the novice user. Also pre-installed is Microsoft Works, Microsoft Entertainment Pack, and Delrina's Winfax, as well as CD-ROMs for Microsoft Golf, Encarta, and Cinemania. Cheng said AST is working on a Windows 95 version of AST Works, to be released prior to the August 24 launch of the new Microsoft operating system. The Advantage! Adventure range has three models: the 4066d, a Presario-style all-in-one unit with a 486 DX2 processor, at HK$13,580 (US$1,740); the 6066d, a standard model with 486 DX2 processor, at HK$13,980 (US$1,792); and the top-of-the-range Pentium model, the 6075p, at HK$17,880 (US$2,292). Hong Kong is the first market for the machines in Asia. Cheng said launches are planned in Thailand, Singapore, Taiwan, and Korea for later this year. (Nigel Armstrong and IT Daily/19950712) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 07/12/95 GENERAL India - News Roundup (NEWS)(GENERAL)(DEL)(00016) India - News Roundup 07/12/95 NEW DELHI, INDIA, 1995 JUL 12 (NB) -- In today's roundup of India news: HP Ties Up With TCS For Software Services, Matsushita Plans Software Venture, Lotus To Distribute Its Software On CD-ROMs In India, Seagate Plans Hard Disk Drive Unit In India. HP Ties Up With TCS For Software Services Hewlett-Packard has entered into an alliance with India's leading software consultancy house, TCS, to provide custom software services to HP's worldwide customers and channel partners in select industry-solution segments. Target segments include financial services, telecommunications, and manufacturing. The center to be opened in Madras, now joins the already existinq 100 percent export- oriented HP software development center that was set up in 1989 to cater to HP's worldwide requirements. While HP is not an equity partner in the venture, it has invested a sizable amount in equipment and manpower, according to Mike Leavell, vice president and general manager, solutions integration group. Matsushita Plans Software Venture The Japanese electronics giant, Matsushita Electric Industrial Company (MEI), plans to make a major foray into India's booming computer software market by collaborating with a leading Indian software development company to meet the requirements of its subsidiary companies worldwide and also for exports, according to Hiroo Shinozuka, managing director, National Panasonic India Pvt. Ltd., the Indian subsidiary of Matsushita. He further added, "We are keen on the software project since it offers good prospects for growth in the world market on account of India's indigenous capabilities and also the low development cost when compared to similar packages developed elsewhere." Lotus To Distribute Its Software On CD-ROMs In India Lotus Development Corp. has granted exclusive rights to Padmini Polymers Ltd. through its authorized distributor in the country, ITC Ltd., to produce and market Lotus software brands on CD-ROMs in India, Sri Lanka, and Nepal. The tie-up envisages production of software on CD-ROM for the first time in India. The discussions between the two companies had begun before IBM took over Lotus. The R200 crore Padmini Polymers expects to sell about 25,000 software packages during 1995-96, which will enhance its turnover by another R50 crore. The proposed installed capacity is 57 lakh. Padmini Polymers Ltd. is currently engaged in manufacturing PET bottles and mineral water and is diversifying into compact disk manufacturing. The manufacturing facilities will be set up at Silvassa near Bombay. The company also has an arrangement with Sony Gulf FZE, Dubai, for the supply of CDU-50 E model of Sony CD drives which it will bundle free with the software as a promotional offer. Seagate Plans Hard Disk Drive Unit In India Seagate Technologies Inc., of the US has been talking to the Tamil Nadu (a southern state) Government in India to explore the possibility of locating a $50 million plant to manufacture hard disk drives and storage sub-system components. The state government, which has welcomed the proposal of more direct foreign investment, has agreed to provide 20 acres of land near Madras, the state capital, for the project. The project will be fully-owned carrying a 100 percent investment by the US company. Seagate already has manufacturing bases in Singapore, Malaysia, and Taiwan, and also plans to set up a plant in China. (C.T. Mahabharat/19950712) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 07/12/95 EDUCATION Philippines - Computer Science Distance Education (NEWS)(EDUCATION)(TYO)(00017) Philippines - Computer Science Distance Education 07/12/95 MANILA, PHILIPPINES, 1995 JUL 12 (NB) -- A diploma in computer science will be the first graduate degree to be offered via computer network by the University of the Philippines (UP) through its distance education program (DEP). Dr. Eliezer Albacea, director of the Institute of Computer Science at UP Los Banos, told Newsbytes that this course will be offered through the Internet on a trial basis in 1997. Results of the trial will then form the basis for a full-blown offering of the course and other courses to be offered through computer networks by the UP Open University, a soon-to-be-established autonomous unit that will have the same status as UP Diliman, UP Los Banos, UP Manila, UP Visayas, and UP Mindanao. Dr. Albacea said that the curriculum for the program has already been developed and is currently being tested on the first batch of students at UPLB who have decided to enroll in the resident student counterpart of this program. He said software to allow graduate students to study this course via computer is now under development and will consist of an integrated system with facilities for electronic-mail. A server will be installed at UP Los Banos from which graduate students sitting in front of their PC workstations at the pilot learning centers can download their lessons and test questions and then upload their exam answers. By 1998, graduate students in this distance learning course will be able to do their lessons and exams in front of PC workstations in five designated learning centers throughout the Philippines. Pilot learning centers will be at UP Diliman, UP Manila, UP Visayas Iloilo campus, and UP College Cebu. When the distance learning program becomes full blown in 1998, there will also be learning centers at: UP Los Banos; Palawan State University in Puerto Princesa City; Catanduanes State College in Virac; University of Eastern Philippines in Catarman, Samar; University of Southeastern Philippines in Tagum, Davao del Norte; Cagayan State University in Tugegarao; Sorsogon State College; UP College Baguio; UP Mindanao in Davao City; and two other still-to-be-named learning centers. The server will be Pentium-based, although PC workstations in the learning centers will consist of 486 DX2 66s. Dr. Albacea said that, while the DOS-based software for this course offering has already been developed, what is currently being developed is a Windows version. He explained that a Windows version is being developed because there are further plans to offer, via multimedia, all courses that can be studied though the Internet at the UP Open University. He said that an Internet access provider still has to be chosen and the one selected will be the provider who can give UP the most Internet services at the best price. Dr. Albacea added that, eventually, each UP autonomous unit will have its own server which will allow it to offer Open University distance learning courses through the Internet. He added that UP would also be willing to sell the distance learning software to other educational institutions for a "minimal price." (Metropolitan Computer Times/19950620/Internet e-mail dilips@netcom.com) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 07/12/95 GENERAL ****Comdex/Canada - IBM Exec Sees Opportunities (NEWS)(GENERAL)(TOR)(00018) ****Comdex/Canada - IBM Exec Sees Opportunities 07/12/95 TORONTO, ONTARIO, CANADA, 1995 JUL 12 (NB) -- Information technology is changing the way businesses work, and Canadian companies -- particularly in certain industries -- will have opportunities as a result. So said Khalil Barsoum, president and chief executive of IBM Canada Ltd., in the first-day keynote address at the Comdex/Canada trade show and conference. Barsoum also tried to allay the fears of those who think technology could make society impersonal, saying that people will continue to want human contact. Information technology is a key factor in eliminating intermediaries between manufacturer and customer, Barsoum said, and in letting businesses go after worldwide markets. "More and more we are seeing the manufacturer and the customer get closer to one another," he observed. He added that "Canadian companies no longer compete only with Canadian companies." This presents opportunities but also dangers, he noted. "Competition is going to come from the developing world -- from countries that could never challenge other countries before." Today's developing countries have an opportunity to skip over generations of technology and move directly to the latest in information systems, Barsoum said. For instance, he predicted that China will bypass checks and credit cards and move directly to microprocessor-based smart cards. Despite these new challenges, Barsoum maintained Canada has advantages that can help it compete in world markets. Among them are a good education system, a well developed banking and financial system, a multicultural and orderly society, and a manageable size of population. "There are many Canadian industries with a number of opportunities in other countries because they are regarded so highly," Barsoum said. As examples he cited health care, banking, and telecommunications. Barsoum pointed out that staff from IBM Canada will be in Atlanta to implement computer systems for the 1996 Olympics. IBM Canada developed these systems for the Calgary Winter Olympics and the recent Commonwealth Games in Victoria, British Columbia, he said. At a press conference following Barsoum's speech, Newsbytes asked about the prospects for the Canadian software industry. Canada has produced a number of successful software companies, but many are acquired by larger US firms when they reach a certain size. Barsoum said the Canadian software industry is thriving, and predicted that Canadian companies could also acquire foreign firms. But he added that "if you have a way of developing the intellectual capital, the talent, that is key, and it stays in the country." Barsoum was also asked about IBM Canada's plans for Lotus Development Canada Ltd., Canadian subsidiary of Lotus Development Corp., which parent company IBM acquired recently. He said details have not been hammered out. "We're only beginning to think about these questions," he told reporters at the press conference. At the close of his speech, Barsoum emphasized that people and "human nature" will determine how technology is used. Even though information technology will make it possible to communicate and shop electronically, "we will still want to walk our neighborhood streets, touching fabrics and getting advice from a salesperson we trust," he said. (Grant Buckler/19950712) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 07/12/95 GENERAL TeleGrafix Offers RIPaint 2.0 Beta Developer Kits (NEWS)(GENERAL)(LAX)(00019) TeleGrafix Offers RIPaint 2.0 Beta Developer Kits 07/12/95 HUNTINGTON BEACH, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1995 JUL 12 (NB) -- TeleGrafix Communications Inc. will offer developers worldwide the chance to use and test its next-generation RIPaint 2.0 online multimedia authoring software. Three hundred RIPaint 2.0 Beta Developer Kits will be made available on July 17 for a fee of $100 per kit, with a limit of one per organization. TeleGrafix produces a graphical user interface for computer bulletin board systems (BBSs), RIPscrip (Remote Imaging Protocol scripting language). Craig Erotsieck, head of technical support for TeleGrafix, told Newsbytes, "RIPscrip has an advantage over most other terminal products. We use an open standard that anyone and everyone can use. There is a version of our terminal software available for free, RipTerm Test Drive 2.0. "RIPaint is an online multimedia authoring software which enables rapid transmission of fully integrated graphics, text, digital sound and photos via ordinary telephone lines or the Internet. RIPaint 2.0 gives users 256 colors with Super VGA, while the previous version allowed only 16 colors and EGA resolution," said Erotsieck. According to TeleGrafix President Patrick Clawson, "RIPaint 2.0 makes it easy and fun with point-and-click simplicity to create online multimedia. With graphics quality exceeding SVGA limits and support for both TrueType and Adobe fonts, RIPaint 2.0 provides a environment for the creation and display of online images. The rapid transmission speed will lead to dramatic boosts in customer satisfaction with the performance of computer BBSs, electronic newspapers and Internet sites." Each RIPaint 2.0 beta developer must be registered owners of RIPaint 1.54., they must own or operate a computer online information system, they must have previous software beta developer experience, and they must complete and return a signed TeleGrafix Beta Developer and Non-Disclosure Agreement. TeleGrafix says that, if accepted, Beta Developers will receive a copy of the Beta RIPaint 2.0, plus access to all Beta patches on the TeleGrafix Vector Sector BBS, and a waiver of shipping charges for the final commercial release version of RIPaint 2.0. (Richard Bowers/19950712) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 07/12/95 GOVT Senate Committee Looks At TV Violence, V-chip (NEWS)(GOVT)(WAS)(00020) Senate Committee Looks At TV Violence, V-chip 07/12/95 WASHINGTON, D.C., U.S.A., 1995 JUL 12 (NB) -- Should government or the private sector control television violence? That's the issue under debate in the Senate Commerce Committee today. Sen. Ernest Hollings (D-S.C.) believes that the federal government should require broadcast and cable TV companies to show violent programs at times of day when children are not likely to be watching. He would have the Federal Communications Commission set the rules. On the other hand, Sen. Kent Conrad (D-N.D.) wants to put decisions about violent programming in the hands of the broadcasting industry and parents. Conrad is the author of the V-chip proposal in the Senate telecommunications bill, which would allow parents to screen out programs rated as violent by an industry panel. Those two concepts were scheduled to be under discussion at the Senate hearing. Hollings, ranking Democrat on the committee, wants to add his plan to the final telecommunications legislation. But committee Chairman Larry Pressler (R-S.D.) thinks industry, not government, is best equipped to shield children from violence. The Hollings approach got a boost recently when a federal appeals court upheld a ban on indecent broadcasts from 6 am to midnight as constitutional. The ban, written by Congress, was stayed by a lower court and never went into effect. Senate Majority Leader Bob Dole (R-Kansas), who has strongly criticized sex and violence in movies, opposes both the V-chip and the Hollings approach. Dole favors an entirely voluntary scheme. The television manufacturers have been working on technical standards for the V-chip. But they don't want the chips to be mandatory. "We certainly agree that parents should have a choice," says Matt McCoy, lobbyist for the Electronic Industries Association, trade group for the TV makers. "At the same time, we think consumers should have a choice." Even if the V-chip were to be mandatory in new television sets, it would be many years before the 200 million sets in service today were completely replaced. Some observers have also noted that if parents are able to program the V-chip, there's a high likelihood that kids will also quickly learn to program them. (Kennedy Maize/19950712/Press Contact: Mark Rosenker, EIA, 202-457-4980) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 07/12/95 GOVT Sybase To Demo Parental Control Technology (NEWS)(GOVT)(WAS)(00021) Sybase To Demo Parental Control Technology 07/12/95 WASHINGTON, D.C., U.S.A., 1995 JUL 12 (NB) -- Sybase is scheduled to demonstrate its software approach to giving parents control of what their kids watch on television to the Senate Commerce Committee today. The Sybase software, based on its Sybase Intermedia product, will allow parents to program controls into their interactive television system. Sybase has recently formed a business unit targeting products and services for new markets such as interactive TV, online services, and the Internet. The Sybase software, said Paul Dawes, business development manager, in a prepared statement, "allows parents to program their interactive televisions and computers to keep children from dealing violent or belt movies, for example. It also allows heads of households to control the amount of time their children spend watching TV or using online services. "We think it is important that so many companies are exploring different ways for consumers to control what they and their children view on TV and computer screens," Dawes said. "This is evidence that the market and our research and development labs are still looking for the best solution. In fact, there may not even be a single best solution, but rather different solutions for different households and different service providers." Dawes said Sybase does not favor government mandating an approach to screening. "Our company and our competitors are investing hundreds of millions of dollars to develop and test different interactive TV and online technologies," he said. "We are confident that Sybase technology is superior, and we also believe that competition in our industry will ensure that consumers get the best tools to meet their needs." As a result, said Dawes, "We believe that it would be a mistake for the federal government to anoint any particular technology at this time. Whether it be the V-chip or some other hardware option what looks appealing today may be obsolete tomorrow." (Kennedy Maize/19950712/Press Contact: Vallee Hubbard, Blanc & Octus, for Sybase, 415-512-0500) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 07/12/95 TRENDS Internet Files Swamp User's Storage - Study (NEWS)(TRENDS)(DEN)(00022) Internet Files Swamp User's Storage - Study 07/12/95 ST. PAUL, MINNESOTA, U.S.A., 1995 JUL 12 (NB) -- It's the electronic version of a gold mine, but where to put all the nuggets is the problem. According to a survey commissioned by 3M Data Storage Products, users are finding the Internet a treasure trove of databases, multimedia files and free software, but their computer systems are rapidly reaching a saturation point and soon won't have the capacity to store that wealth of information. Audio and graphics files are particularly storage-hungry with their multi-megabyte (MB) need for disk space. According to the 3M survey, conducted by Fleishman-Hillard Research, a Minneapolis-based independent public opinion and market research firm, one in five users surveyed is frustrated as they discover their current computer systems lack the capacity to store the files they want. Users said if they had the extra disk space they would download even more audio and graphics files. A few years ago, even the smallest audio or graphics files would have strained the capacity of the average PC with its 40MB of storage space. Now, PCs are increasingly shipping with gigabyte (GB)-size hard disks. According to the 3M survey, the average drive size currently is 760MB in businesses and 500MB for home users. Another answer is a removable media drive, such as the Zip drives recently introduced by Roy, Utah-based Iomega Corp. (NASDAQ: IOMG). Removable drives are similar in operation to floppy drives, but each cartridge stores much more data. More than three-quarters of the business users surveyed said they expect their Internet and online service usage to increase, while 61 percent of the home users had similar expectations. A whopping 90 percent of the business respondents said they download information, and 75 percent of those said they do so on a daily or a weekly basis. Thirty-five percent of the home users download files daily or weekly, and an additional 31 percent said they download files at least once a month. Even though they are bumping the storage barrier, users said they expect to download larger files a year from now. Nearly 20 percent of the business users and 11 percent of home computerists said they currently download files in the 5MB-10MB range and said they would download more files if they had the storage space. The survey said business users are more apt to download from the Internet, while home users feel more comfortable with commercial online services like CompuServe and America Online. Survey respondents said about two-thirds of the files downloaded today are less than 1MB in size. Another one-third are between 1MB and 5MB. The average size of the biggest business file downloaded was 80MB and 32MB was the top average file size for home users. The per-megabyte cost of storage is on a sharply downward curve. Dataquest analyst Phil Devin told Newsbytes a 40MB hard drive was sold in 1990 for about $300, or $7.50 per megabyte. Today you can buy a one gigabyte (about 1,000 MB) capacity drive for about $350, or $0.35 per megabyte. SCSI (small computer system interface) drives, with their higher performance, can provide storage at about $0.50 per megabyte. That downward trend is expected to continue. Devin said storage capacity on a single platter is increasing about 60 percent each year. "You'll be able to buy more storage for the same money next year," said the analyst. Brent Bauer, vice president at Fleishman-Hillard, told Newsbytes that changes are afoot in the storage arena, not only in the cost- per-megabyte of storage, but also in the functionality of storage technology. One of those changes is Travan, a 3M storage system that uses quarter-inch tape. Tape has traditionally been used for archival purposes, but Bauer said Travan will be able to accept a direct file transfer from the Internet or an online service. "You will be able to think of these big mini-cartridges, which will be 4GB in the fourth quarter of this year, as a huge diskette where you will have direct interchange between systems," said the Fleishman-Hillard executive. He told Newsbytes the Travan technology has already been licensed to eight other tape drive manufacturers. (Jim Mallory/19950712/Press contact: Gary Hornseth, Fleishman-Hillard for 3M, 612-736-2881) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 07/12/95 ONLINE Global Village Offers Small Business Internet Service (NEWS)(ONLINE)(LAX)(00023) Global Village Offers Small Business Internet Service 07/12/95 SUNNYVALE, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1995 JUL 12 (NB) -- Global Village Communication Inc. (NASDAQ:GVIL) has announced the new GlobalCenter Internet service package. The new service is designed to provide "easy access" to the Internet for small- to medium-sized businesses. Steven Eng, senior product marketing manager for Global Village, explained to Newsbytes, "This new service is designed for small- to medium-sized businesses with a local area network (LAN) infrastructure. With this service, anyone on the LAN can access the Internet without separate charges." He continued: "We include, as part of the service, all the components a business needs to get up and running on the Internet. This includes the router, software, configuration and the consultation needed to set-up the Internet connection. We don't sell the equipment, it is offered as part of the service," says Eng. With a one-time startup fee of $499, GlobalCenter Internet offers companies a base of Internet services, including 24-hour, 7-day dial- up access at 28,800 bits-per-second (bps) for an unlimited number of users, custom domain name registration, a Web browser, seamless integration with existing QuickMail electronic-mail software, Usenet news feeds, permanent addresses, and the lease of a lifetime- warrantied V.34 dial-up router. After the initial startup fee, a company has the choice of three customized access packages. The basic "Starter Service Plan" is $99 per month plus $3.95 per hour. The "Standard Service Plan" costs $199 per month with thirty-five hours of free access time and a $3.95 per hour charge thereafter. The third package, the "Unlimited Service Plan," charges a flat $349 per month with unlimited use. "We developed the GlobalCenter Internet service pricing model to make it truly easy and affordable for small- to medium-sized businesses to get up and running on the Internet," said Neil Selvin, president and chief executive officer (CEO) of Global Village. "We provide everything -- the service, router and software -- and combine that with flexible usage plans; successfully eliminating the hassle and expense normally associated with officewide Internet setup, said Selvin. "Normally, these types of companies would have had to contend with purchasing and installing equipment, learning complex Unix commands and then contracting with a separate provider to obtain Internet access and service." GlobalCenter Internet service subscriptions for Windows and Macintosh are currently available direct from Global Village and through a select network of resellers. Global Village plans an ISDN (integrated services digital network) service, as well as a service for Microsoft Mail. These should be available in the third calendar quarter of 1995. According to the company, existing customers may convert at any time to the new subscription plan. For those customers who do not want to make an immediate transition, Global Village will honor current access rates for one year beginning July 10. (Richard Bowers/19950712/Press Contact: Kim Uberti, The Bohle Co., 310-785-0515) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 07/12/95 GENERAL SEMICON/West 95 Opens In San Francisco (NEWS)(GENERAL)(SFO)(00024) SEMICON/West 95 Opens In San Francisco 07/12/95 SAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1995 JUL 12 (NB) -- Semiconductor Equipment & Materials International, a trade association and producer of SEMICON trade shows, has opened its annual trade show at the Moscone Center in San Francisco. Hot topics centered around dramatic growth of the semiconductor industry, resource acquisition problems, and the introduction of 300 millimeter (mm) wafer technology. Behind all of the desktop and notebook computers, the exciting software, and all the new cutting-edge hardware, are the companies at the heart of the computer revolution. The path from a shovel of sand to the latest Pentium processor is traveled everyday by these companies as they create silicon cylinders, slice them into wafers, process them and make the chips which run the world's computers. Reflecting the tremendous growth of the computer industry in recent years, the semiconductor industry has set record growth numbers. Speaking to Newsbytes, Chris Greenfield, spokesperson for the trade association, said, "In 1994, this industry, the semiconductor fabricators, the necessary equipment manufacturers, the materials suppliers and all of the related services, have grown at a 40% clip. That number is translated from $14.5 billion in semiconductors and $14.7 billion in materials and equipment. We project an even greater increase of 44% for 1995." Like other parts of the computer industry, the semiconductor industry was not prepared for dramatic growth, and basic resources such as silicon development plants and manufacturing capabilities are stretched to capacity. At capacity, they are not meeting the demand. Developing and fabricating silicon is a very expensive process and how to meet the demand is a big story at SEMICON. Some analysts suggest the lack of resources could keep prices form falling until the problem is corrected. At the same time, the semiconductor industry is moving forward with new technology. Today, Applied Materials will announce the ability to fabricate a 300mm wafer (about 12 inches). In the early years of developing silicon, a cylinder was 10mm in diameter. It grew to four inches, then five inches, up to today's standard of 200mm or eight inches. Three hundred millimeter wafers mean cheaper chips and lower prices for ever-faster computer systems on the desktop. The semiconductor industry is excited about 300mm wafer fabrication, but an investment of "$30 to $50 billion is needed to build the necessary manufacturing capabilities," said Greenfield. Two hundred millimeter wafers will continue to be the industry's main manufacturing technology. Greenfield said 300mm technology should impact the industry sometime in 1999. SEMICON/West expects as many as 55,000 attendees (a record number) and this year there are more than 1,200 exhibitors. Greenfield pointed out another sign of this industry's growth areas through the size of the show: "We are using every part of the Moscone Convention Center, the entire North and South Halls as well as the smaller halls between the two main halls and all of the conference rooms." Covering fabrication, handling, environmental safety, clean rooms, automated processes, robotics and all of the other necessary equipment, machinery, tools and services, SEMICON/West is the semiconductor industry showpiece. (Patrick McKenna/19950712/Press Contact: Chris Greenfield, 202-289-0440, Internet World Wide Web http://www.semi.org SEMI950712/PHOTO) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 07/12/95 BUSINESS ****Motorola Sales, Earnings Up (NEWS)(BUSINESS)(MSP)(00025) ****Motorola Sales, Earnings Up 07/12/95 SCHAUMBURG, ILLINOIS, U.S.A., 1995 JUL 12 (NB) -- One day after Motorola (NYSE:MOT) announced second quarter increases in sales and earnings that were more than analysts expected, the company's stock was scaling the Wall Street stock heap. The Chicago-area company posted a 31% increase in profits and a 26% jump in sales in the second quarter of this year. The dollar amounts involved work out to $6.9 billion in sales, and $481 million in earnings. Those numbers compare to $5.4 billion in sales in the second quarter of 1994, and $367 million in earnings from the same period last year. The stock closed yesterday at $70.50, opened this morning at $73.50, and traded as high as $75.50. At 12:00 EDT, the stock was up $3.75 from yesterday's close, at $74.25. If it continues this trend, the issue will set a 52-week high. The earnings and sales report was released yesterday, after Wall Street trading closed for the day. Today, Dow Jones put Motorola's stock in its "Hot Stocks" list for the day. A Motorola spokesperson told Newsbytes the company does not comment on its stock performance. Sales were very strong from the company's general systems sector, which showed a 39 percent increase to $2.9 billion dollars for the quarter. Also, orders rose 25 percent and operating profits were higher. Cellular telephone inventory returned to normal late in the quarter, after the company said it had a high number of phones in stock earlier this year, causing its stock to plunge. In its other divisions: semiconductor-product sales were up 22%; messaging, information, and media sector sales were up 24%; and government and space technology group sales were up 106%. Also, the number of orders the company took during the quarter were up. In the general systems sector orders rose 25%, 36% in semiconductors, and 42% in the messaging, information, and media sector. In a news teleconference, which Newsbytes attended, Motorola Vice President and Director of Investor Relations Ed Gams said that to keep the company growing rapidly, costs must come down and the products have to be more affordable. "We have expected to see pressure on our manufacturing margins. In anticipation of that, we've been working very hard to keep costs below gross margin, and under good control, so we can continue to deliver high profits to our stockholders," he said. Other numbers from the electronics manufacturer showed net margin on sales was seven percent in the second quarter, compared to 6.7 percent a year ago. Motorola makes pagers, cellular telephones, personal-communications devices, and semiconductors. The company is also involved in telecommunications networks, and automotive and space electronics. (Bob Woods/19950712/Press Contact: George Grinsrud, Motorola, 708-576-2346) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 07/12/95 LEGAL Judge Approves Hayes Reorganization, Firm To Merge (NEWS)(LEGAL)(DEN)(00026) Judge Approves Hayes Reorganization, Firm To Merge 07/12/95 ATLANTA, GEORGIA, U.S.A., 1995 JUL 12 (NB) -- Hayes Microcomputer Products Inc. took a giant step towards exiting from bankruptcy this week when a federal judge approved the company's plan for reorganization. The plan calls for creditors to be paid in full, plus interest. Almost lost in the news about the movement towards emerging from bankruptcy is the fact that a letter of intent has been signed under which Hayes will be acquired by another communications hardware company, Boca Research (NASDAQ: BOCI) in a deal valued at as much as $45 million, depending on what the attorneys determine as fair market value. A Boca spokesperson told Newsbytes that Hayes shareholders will receive 1.5 million shares of Boca common stock. Hayes is the company that set the standard for modem commands with its "AT" (Attention, modem) command set. The company filed for Chapter 11 protection in mid-November 1994. Chapter 11 is the form of bankruptcy that allows the filer to continue operation under current management or a trustee. Debts are frozen until a court approves a plan for settling the debts. When the company filed for Chapter 11 protection, Dennis Hayes, chief executive officer, said the action was caused by a short-term cash shortage brought on primarily by dramatic increases of demand. Hayes said the company had sales in excess of $250 million in fiscal 1994 and also reported all-time high sales and revenues. Judge Hugh Robinson approved the company's disclosure statement for its 100 percent plan of reorganization and a $45 million debtor in possession financial facility with General Electric Capital Corporation. The court also extended exclusivity through September 30, 1995, for Hayes to go forward with the plan. The ruling makes the Hayes plan the only reorganization plan which will be reviewed by the court. With the 100 percent ruling creditors are considered "unimpaired" and will not need to vote on the plan for it to be confirmed. The apparently successful reorganization of Hayes Microcomputer may be due at least in part by Dennis Hayes' decision to get outside help. Hayes hired a team from Arthur Anderson & Co. to help reorganize the modem company. Hayes executed a letter of intent to merge with Boca Research Inc. last week and will use the combined assets of the two companies to obtain the approximately $60 to $85 million needed to pay off the creditors in full and let the company emerge from Chapter 11 protection in the fall. With the approval of the debtor in possession financing Hayes will retire the approximately $23.6 million of secured debt from NationsBank. The additional funds provided by the GECC deal will provide funds to pay suppliers and keep Hayes operational. Hayes and Boca anticipate the merger closing in the next 90 days, subject to the usual "due diligence" actions, an execution of a purchase agreement, commitment for a debt financing for the merged company, and confirmation of the Hayes Plan of Reoganization by the Federal Bankruptcy Court. Boca spokesperson Gail Blackburn told Newsbytes the terms of the merger call for Dennis Hayes to have a seat on the new company's board of directors and the position of vice-chairman. His responsibilities will include intellectual property management, strategic planning and corporate communications. He also becomes the majority shareholder in the new organization. Boca president, chief executive officer and board member, Anthony Zalenski, will continue to hold those jobs. The agreement also calls for contingent payments based on future performance that could net Hayes stockholders as much as $20 million in cash. Boca will also assume Hayes' outstanding debt. Blackburn said there are still lots of details to work out, including the fate of Hayes employees and the name of the merged company. However, the deal does call for the name "Hayes" to be included in the new name, and the Boca name may not appear in the new name. Blackburn said the brand names "Hayes," "Practical Peripherals," and "Boca Research" will all continue. Hayes currently has about 1100 employees divided about equally between its Atlanta headquarters and its Thousand Oaks, California site. Corporate headquarters will be located in Boca Raton, Florida, at the current Boca Research site. (Jim Mallory/19950712/Press contact: Susan Merkel, Hayes Microcomputer Products, 404-840-6824, Gail Blackburn, Boca Research, 407-997-8621) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 07/12/95 BUSINESS ****Quantum Moves Offshore, Hundreds Face Layoffs (NEWS)(BUSINESS)(DEN)(00027) ****Quantum Moves Offshore, Hundreds Face Layoffs 07/12/95 COLORADO SPRINGS, COLORADO, U.S.A., 1995 JUL 12 (NB) -- Quantum Corp. (NASDAQ:QNTM) has announced it will close its computer disk drive manufacturing plant in Colorado Springs, Colorado, by mid-1996 and move the manufacture of its high-capacity drives to Penang, Malaysia. That could put hundreds of employees out of work, although the company said it will try to find jobs for as many of the 1,300 temporary and permanent employees as it can. The company said another 400 workers will remain employed in the Specialty Storage Products Group and others will be offered jobs elsewhere in the Quantum systems. Quantum spokesperson Catherine Hartsog Toor said the Malaysian plant was opened in 1994. The company said it needs to reduce its overhead costs for its US manufacturing locations. "All of our competitors are manufacturing in the Far East," said Hartsog Toor. The Malaysian deal is particularly appealing to Quantum due to the 10-year exemption from all taxes it received from the government. "It is purely a cost-effective decision," said the Quantum spokesperson. Labor costs are also less expensive, with Malaysian workers receiving about $2 per hour versus the starting wage of $7 per hour Colorado Springs workers receive. The company's Malaysian facility expanded from 200 employees less than a year ago to about 800 currently and company officials say that number will more than double by year-end. Quantum paid about $360 million for Digital Equipment Corp.'s Colorado Springs computer storage business about nine months ago. Quantum officials said employees will receive assistance in locating other jobs, and those that leave will receive up to one year of severance pay. Seagate Technology (NYSE: SEG) said this week it is making an investment of over $100 million in its media and substrate manufacturing operations in the US and Asia. The drive maker has already began construction of a new 163,000 square-foot, highly automated media manufacturing facility in Singapore that will include clean rooms, conveyors and an automated material handling system. (Jim Mallory/19950712/Press contact: Public contact: Quantum, 408-894-4000) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 07/12/95 PC DEC Intros PCI-Based RAID Array 230 For PC Networks (NEWS)(PC)(BOS)(00028) DEC Intros PCI-Based RAID Array 230 For PC Networks 07/12/95 MAYNARD, MASSACHUSETTS, U.S.A., 1995 JUL 12 (NB) -- Digital Equipment Corp.'s new RAID (redundant array of inexpensive disks) Array 230 offers the same features as the RAID Array 210, except that it brings a PCI (Peripheral Component Interconnect) bus, works with wide as well as narrow SCSI (small computer systems interface) drives, and adds optional battery back-up for cache, said Bruce Baird, PC networks marketing manager for the Storage Business Unit, in an interview with Newsbytes. Digital's latest storage subsystem for Windows NT- and Novell-based PC networks also incorporates support for CD-ROM as well as tape drives, an enhancement made to the RAID Array 210 since the initial introduction of the EISA (Extended Industry Standard Architecture)- based product, Baird told Newsbytes. The RAID Array 230 and 210 both provide the same "modularity, high availability, and redundancy" as other products in Digital's StorageWorks line-up, the Digital executive maintained. In addition, the new RAID Array 230 comes with the same GUI (graphical user interface)-based utilities for RAID configuration and management as the previously unveiled RAID Array 210, according to Baird. Also like the RAID Array 210, he said, the new PCI-based storage subsystem provides drivers for both Windows NT and Novell NetWare, supports RAID levels 0, 1, 0+1, and JBOD (just a bunch of disks), and ships standard with 4 megabytes (MB) of writeback cache (expandable to either 16MB or 32MB) for faster execution time. Tests by Digital have shown the new RAID Array 230's PCI bus to produce a 30 percent performance boost, Baird contended. Throughput on the RAID Array 230 has been clocked at up to 2,679 I/Os (input/output) per second, and bandwidth at up to 17.8 megabytes-per-second (MBps), according to the PC networks marketing manager. Digital is witnessing "very significant interest" among users in both the PCI bus and the Windows NT operating environment, Baird pointed out. "Hewlett-Packard, IBM, Digital, and ALR are all offering PCI buses on their (Intel-based) servers, and (Digital's StorageWorks) qualifies on all those servers," Newsbytes was told. "Interestingly, Compaq is not providing PCI on the high-end Compaq ProLiant," Baird remarked. But, he added, the Compaq ProSignia server supports both PCI and EISA. Digital has also noticed a large-scale migration to Windows NT, Baird asserted. Some users are moving to NT from NetWare-based PC networks, while others are downsizing directly to NT from "mission- critical" mainframe environments, he observed. By adding support for Wide SCSI disk drives, the new RAID Array 230 brings support for wide as well as narrow pedestals, according to Baird. The new, PCI-based storage subsystem also provides cabling for both wide and narrow SCSI drives, the Digital executive noted. Other features include: automatic, unattended rebuilds; hot spare/hot swap disk drive configurations; redundant power supplies and cooling fans; and "tag command queuing," a capability aimed at allowing each drive to "process multiple commands simultaneously." The new RAID Array 230 is priced starting at $6,935 for a configuration consisting of a StorageWorks PCI backplane hardware RAID controller, RAID configuration and management utilities software, redundant power suppliers, three 1.05 gigabyte (GB) disk drives, cabling, and an enclosure. Room is available in Digital's enclosures for additional disk drives. The RAID Array 230, which is now shipping, also comes with a five-year warranty on disks and a three-year controller and packaging warranty. (Jacqueline Emigh/19950712/Reader Contact: DEC StorageWorks, 800- STORWORK; Press Contacts: Laura S. Kirkley, DEC, 508-841-6781; Kristen Holmes, The Weber Group for DEC, 617-661-7900) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 07/12/95 TELECOM Octel Outlines Plans For Global Messaging Network (NEWS)(TELECOM)(SFO)(00029) Octel Outlines Plans For Global Messaging Network 07/12/95 MILPITAS, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1995 JUL 12 (NB) -- Octel Communications (NASDAQ:OCTL), announced its global messaging strategy to a standing-room-only gathering of its corporate clients. The first level of its strategy, OcteLink, is a networking service designed to link public and private voice messaging systems. Octel chairman, president and chief executive officer, Bob Cohn told the audience, "The voice-mail industry still has to define 'messaging' as an important business tool. Today, many people do not understand the difference between an answering machine and voice-mail messaging. Corporations such as Silicon Graphics and Hewlett-Packard attribute part of their success to messaging through voice-mail. Companies are now running more efficiently and productively through a communication network which delivers critical business information to one individual in a company or every individual in a company." Octel's overall objective is to simplify and expand voice messaging into one unified system so that voice, electronic-mail and fax communications are available on a global basis to individual mailboxes from any telephone location. Octel's OcteLink is the first step in reaching its goal of a unified, global messaging center. OcteLink is, according to Cohn, "the messaging post office which is capable of opening voice-mail between any private and public voice-mail system." Acting as a hub or post office, OcteLink will allow users in a private messaging network, such as Silicon Graphics, to reach another private messaging network, such as Hewlett-Packard, or a public voice-mail network operated by a local telephone company. OcteLink is based on Octel Network Services (ONS), a large, private telecommunications network. The company currently holds the largest share of voice-mail business in the world. It provides voice messaging equipment and service to corporations, telephone companies, and cellular firms. The newly announced service, OcteLink, is being unveiled in stages. The first stage allows existing Octel voice-mail networks to connect to one another so that voice messages may be sent across networks. Octel says it plans to make money by charging a fee for handling each message. While no exact fee was stated, company officials repeatedly said it would be similar to the cost of a postage stamp used to mail a standard letter. Octel acknowledged its competitors by saying the next stage of OcteLink will allow users of different voice-mail systems to send and receive communications. Along with its announcement of OcteLink, Octel also announced a unification of its servers under the name of Octel Overture, and new software release, VIS Release 1.0. A new scalable server, Octel Overture 250, was also introduced. Company officials stressed repeatedly their future view of messaging in which everyone will have a universal electronic mailbox which sends and receives faxes, e-mail, and voice-mail. They said today's announcement is the result of years of preparation and the result of the acquisitions of Compass Technology and Tigon Corporation and the merger with VMX. The company currently serves 35 customers in the Fortune 50 Industrial group. (Patrick McKenna/19957012/Press Contact: Stuart McFaul, Octel, 408-324-3245, Internet World Wide Web http://www.octel.com) (SUMMARY)(GENERAL)(MSP)(00030) Newsbytes Daily Summary 07/12/95 MINNEAPOLIS, MINNESOTA, U.S.A., 1995 JUL 12 (NB) -- These are capsules of all today's news stories: ======================================================================== ------------| N E W S B Y T E S D A I L Y S U M M A R Y |---------- ------------| Wednesday, July 12, 1995 |---------- ======================================================================== (c) Newsbytes News Network (Tm) Editor in Chief: Wendy Woods ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Newsbytes News Network is a computer and telecom industry news wire and digitized picture service. Our news stream includes more than 30 daily first-hand reported US and international news stories about computing and telecommunications. For more information, please e-mail to 'administrator@newsbytes.com' ------------------------------------------------------------------------ CATEGORY HEADLINES (*** indicates today's top stories) STORY # ======================================================================== BUSINESS Olivetti Denies Rumors Of PC Operations Spin-Off........... 02 BUSINESS AST Targets Hong Kong Home PC Market....................... 15 BUSINESS ****Motorola Sales, Earnings Up........................... 25 BUSINESS ****Quantum Moves Offshore, Hundreds Face Layoffs......... 27 EDUCATION Philippines - Computer Science Distance Education.......... 17 GENERAL France Telecom Chairman Disagrees, Resigns................. 13 GENERAL India - News Roundup....................................... 16 GENERAL ****Comdex/Canada - IBM Exec Sees Opportunities........... 18 GENERAL TeleGrafix Offers RIPaint 2.0 Beta Developer Kits.......... 19 GENERAL SEMICON/West 95 Opens In San Francisco..................... 24 GENERAL Newsbytes Daily Summary.................................... 30 GOVT Senate Committee Looks At TV Violence, V-chip.............. 20 GOVT Sybase To Demo Parental Control Technology................. 21 IBM More On IBM/AimTech Deal Around IconAuthor................. 07 LEGAL ****UK Sex Stalker "Could Be Computer Hacker.............. 04 LEGAL Judge Approves Hayes Reorganization, Firm To Merge......... 26 NETWORK Novell UK & JAC Link NetWare To Pick Environments.......... 10 ONLINE More Microsoft Network Providers Revealed.................. 01 ONLINE CompuServe Chooses Fulcrum SearchServer.................... 05 ONLINE UK - Axent Unveils Secure E-mail Technology................ 08 ONLINE UK - Quarterdeck's Own Brand Mosaic, Internet Apps......... 11 ONLINE Global Village Offers Small Business Internet Service...... 23 PC UK - Epson's LapCat Multifunctional PC System.............. 09 PC DEC Intros PCI-Based RAID Array 230 For PC Networks........ 28 TELECOM Belgian Govt Shortlists Belgacom Equity Bids............... 03 TELECOM Octel Outlines Plans For Global Messaging Network.......... 29 TRENDS Hong Kong Firm Offers Entry-Level EDI...................... 14 TRENDS Internet Files Swamp User's Storage - Study................ 22 WINDOWS Haventree Ships Nodemap For Windows........................ 06 WINDOWS UK - Macromedia Intros Freehand 5 For Windows.............. 12 ======================================================================== These are the headlines and first paragraphs of each story, in order: 1 -> More Microsoft Network Providers Revealed -- Subscribers to Microsoft Network (MSN) will be able to get information about Scandinavian countries, read newspapers, listen to radio, learn what countries may be risky to travel to, and even check out prospective employees through the efforts on two newly announced service providers for Microsoft Corp.'s (NASDAQ: MSFT) online Microsoft Network. 2 -> Olivetti Denies Rumors Of PC Operations Spin-Off -- According to a variety of press sources, Olivetti is planning to turn itself into a holding company over the next six months. Although this will allow the company to set up separate business units for its various operational divisions, such as PCs, the company has denied that it plans to spin off the PC operations division. 3 -> Belgian Govt Shortlists Belgacom Equity Bids -- The race for a 25 percent stake in Belgacom, the state owned telecoms company of Belgium, is heating up, as the Government has just announced it has shortlisted three groups as possible bidders. 4 -> ****UK Sex Stalker "Could Be Computer Hacker -- Police in Liverpool have revealed they are worried that a sex stalker posing as a doctor could have hacked his way into health service computers. 5 -> CompuServe Chooses Fulcrum SearchServer -- Software vendor Fulcrum Technologies Inc. (NASDAQ:FULCF) has received a second vote of confidence from the online world. The company said the CompuServe online information service has licensed its SearchServer software, which earlier this year Microsoft Corp. agreed to use on its upcoming Microsoft Network online service. 6 -> Haventree Ships Nodemap For Windows -- HavenTree Software Ltd. has begun shipping NodeMap for Windows, software which detects local area network (LAN) and wide area network (WAN) configurations and creates network diagrams. 7 -> More On IBM/AimTech Deal Around IconAuthor -- Under a new joint development and marketing deal between IBM and AimTech, AimTech's IconAuthor multimedia development tool will be outfitted with a multimedia player for MicroWare's OS-9 multimedia player by early 1996, and with Web authoring, a new multimedia player for OS/2 Warp, and other enhancements by the end of 1995, officials said in a conference call with Newsbytes. 8 -> UK - Axent Unveils Secure E-mail Technology -- Axent Technologies has begun shipping OmniGuard/SecurExchange, a secure messaging environment that encrypts/decrypts messages and binary files "on the fly" for transmission over public and private networks. 9 -> UK - Epson's LapCat Multifunctional PC System -- Epson has unveiled a multi-functional unit called the Lapcat. According to officials with Epson, the unit is designed to make scanning, filing, faxing, and photocopying available to every PC user on their desk. 10 -> Novell UK & JAC Link NetWare To Pick Environments -- Novell UK and JAC, a software publishing house, have teamed up to offer software developers the chance to port Pick-based super-mini and mid-range multi-user applications so that they run as native programs on Novell's UnixWare 2 operating system. 11 -> UK - Quarterdeck's Own Brand Mosaic, Internet Apps -- Following hard on the heels of WebServer, the Internet publishing application for Windows unveiled earlier this week, Quarterdeck has announced an own brand edition of Mosaic, as well as InternetSuite, a suite of Internet applications. 12 -> UK - Macromedia Intros Freehand 5 For Windows -- Macromedia, a multimedia and digital arts software firm, has unveiled FreeHand 5 for Windows, an extended and upgraded version of the popular graphic design program. According to Sue Thexton, head of the company's UK operation, the package is the first software in its range that offers 32-bit performance. 13 -> France Telecom Chairman Disagrees, Resigns -- While the rest of the world debates France's allegedly heavy handed dealings with members of Greenpeace in the South Pacific, political life in the country itself continues as normal 14 -> Hong Kong Firm Offers Entry-Level EDI -- The Hong Kong Article Numbering Association (HKANA) and IBM have introduced two bundled deals, saying they offer a "complete EDI (electronic data interchange) solution" based on the recently announced EZ*Trade EDI service. 15 -> AST Targets Hong Kong Home PC Market -- AST is hoping to use non-traditional sales channels to help its new Advantage! Adventure range capture 20% of Hong Kong's home PC market, estimated at 40,000 to 50,000 units per year. 16 -> India - News Roundup -- In today's roundup of India news: HP Ties Up With TCS For Software Services, Matsushita Plans Software Venture, Lotus To Distribute Its Software On CD-ROMs In India, Seagate Plans Hard Disk Drive Unit In India. 17 -> Philippines - Computer Science Distance Education -- A diploma in computer science will be the first graduate degree to be offered via computer network by the University of the Philippines (UP) through its distance education program (DEP). 18 -> ****Comdex/Canada - IBM Exec Sees Opportunities -- Information technology is changing the way businesses work, and Canadian companies 19 -> TeleGrafix Offers RIPaint 2.0 Beta Developer Kits -- TeleGrafix Communications Inc. will offer developers worldwide the chance to use and test its next-generation RIPaint 2.0 online multimedia authoring software. Three hundred RIPaint 2.0 Beta Developer Kits will be made available on July 17 for a fee of $100 per kit, with a limit of one per organization. 20 -> Senate Committee Looks At TV Violence, V-chip -- Should government or the private sector control television violence? That's the issue under debate in the Senate Commerce Committee today. 21 -> Sybase To Demo Parental Control Technology -- Sybase is scheduled to demonstrate its software approach to giving parents control of what their kids watch on television to the Senate Commerce Committee today. 22 -> Internet Files Swamp User's Storage - Study -- It's the electronic version of a gold mine, but where to put all the nuggets is the problem. According to a survey commissioned by 3M Data Storage Products, users are finding the Internet a treasure trove of databases, multimedia files and free software, but their computer systems are rapidly reaching a saturation point and soon won't have the capacity to store that wealth of information. 23 -> Global Village Offers Small Business Internet Service -- Global Village Communication Inc. (NASDAQ:GVIL) has announced the new GlobalCenter Internet service package. The new service is designed to provide "easy access" to the Internet for small- to medium-sized businesses. 24 -> SEMICON/West 95 Opens In San Francisco -- Semiconductor Equipment & Materials International, a trade association and producer of SEMICON trade shows, has opened its annual trade show at the Moscone Center in San Francisco. Hot topics centered around dramatic growth of the semiconductor industry, resource acquisition problems, and the introduction of 300 millimeter (mm) wafer technology. 25 -> ****Motorola Sales, Earnings Up -- One day after Motorola (NYSE:MOT) announced second quarter increases in sales and earnings that were more than analysts expected, the company's stock was scaling the Wall Street stock heap. The Chicago-area company posted a 31% increase in profits and a 26% jump in sales in the second quarter of this year. 26 -> Judge Approves Hayes Reorganization, Firm To Merge -- Hayes Microcomputer Products Inc. took a giant step towards exiting from bankruptcy this week when a federal judge approved the company's plan for reorganization. The plan calls for creditors to be paid in full, plus interest. 27 -> ****Quantum Moves Offshore, Hundreds Face Layoffs -- Quantum Corp. (NASDAQ:QNTM) has announced it will close its computer disk drive manufacturing plant in Colorado Springs, Colorado, by mid-1996 and move the manufacture of its high-capacity drives to Penang, Malaysia. 28 -> DEC Intros PCI-Based RAID Array 230 For PC Networks -- Digital Equipment Corp.'s new RAID (redundant array of inexpensive disks) Array 230 offers the same features as the RAID Array 210, except that it brings a PCI (Peripheral Component Interconnect) bus, works with wide as well as narrow SCSI (small computer systems interface) drives, and adds optional battery back-up for cache, said Bruce Baird, PC networks marketing manager for the Storage Business Unit, in an interview with Newsbytes. 29 -> Octel Outlines Plans For Global Messaging Network -- Octel Communications (NASDAQ:OCTL), announced its global messaging strategy to a standing-room-only gathering of its corporate clients. The first level of its strategy, OcteLink, is a networking service designed to link public and private voice messaging systems. (Ian Stokell/19950712) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 07/11/95 APPLE Europe - Farallon's PCI/Power Mac Fast Ethernet Cards (NEWS)(APPLE)(LON)(00001) Europe - Farallon's PCI/Power Mac Fast Ethernet Cards 07/11/95 LONDON, ENGLAND, 1995 JUL 11 (NB) -- Farallon Computing has unveiled its Fast Ethernet PCI (Peripheral Component Interconnect) card for the Apple Power Mac with PCI systems. Pricing on the card has been set at UKP210 for the UK market, with local equivalent pricing applying in Europe. According to Farallon, the Fast EtherTX-10/100 is part of a complete range of Fast Ethernet products that the company plans to bring out this year. Based on 3Com's Fast Ethernet parallel tasking chipset, the company says the cards will give current LocalTalk and Ethernet customers a "cost-effective and easy way to expand the capacity of their networks" to support the increased bandwidth of up to 100 megabits-per-second (Mbps). Chris National, Farallon's UK sales manager, claims that the card is designed for customers requiring higher bandwidth to support data- intensive network applications such as those used by engineering, graphics arts and publication workgroups, as well as publishing and pre-press graphics companies where users need to quickly share, transfer and print multi-megabyte color graphics files. "Our mission has always been to simplify leading-edge networking technologies and turn them into economic solutions for our customers," he said. In use, the PCI card is billed as "providing a seamless, cost-effective migration" from 10Base-T and LocalTalk networks to "protect user investments." The card includes a single auto-sensing 10/100 RJ45 port and can operate on either a 10Mbps 10Base-T or 100Mbps 100Base-TX network for flexibility. This, the company claims, allows users to purchase the card today to support existing 10Base-T networks and continue to use the same cards when they decide to upgrade to 100Base-TX. According to Farallon, users can simple unplug the connector from the 10Base-T hub and plug it into the 100Base-TX hub. (Sylvia Dennis/19950710/Press Contact: Strategic Alliance International, +44-1494-434434; Reader Contact: Farallon Computing, +44-181-758-7546, Internet World Wide Web http://www.farallon.com ) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 07/11/95 TELECOM Siemens Clinches Major Russian Telecoms Deal (NEWS)(TELECOM)(LON)(00002) Siemens Clinches Major Russian Telecoms Deal 07/11/95 ERLANGEN, GERMANY, 1995 JUL 11 (NB) -- Siemens says it has won a joint contract with Alcatel Belgium to supply telecoms equipment to Novosibirsk, Russia's third largest city. Terms of the deal calls for the two companies to work together and update or replace most of the telecoms exchange equipment in and around the city. Although no financial details of the deal have been made, around 400,000 lines servicing the city's 1.5 million citizens, along with outlying areas, are scheduled to be replaced over the next few years. The replacement of the aging exchange equipment will mean that the people of Novosibirsk will be able to connect to the Moscow central exchange network and have international, as well as national, direct dialing on demand. This situation contrasts with the current one where only city businesses have priority access to international circuits and, even then, have to constantly redial to get past the near-constant busy tone. This situation affected even Moscow until a few years ago, when most people waited until the late evening or night to be able to make self-dialed international phone calls. Plans call for Siemens and Alcatel to overlay a new trunk exchange network for the city, to support improved national and international calling routes, before replacing the aging exchanges themselves. In this way, a significant number of international circuits will become available to subscribers ahead of the time when their local exchange is replaced. (Sylvia Dennis/19950710/Press & Reader Contact: Siemens AG, +49-9131-742072) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 07/11/95 TRENDS EC's Bangemann Speaks Of Controlling Car Pollution (NEWS)(TRENDS)(LON)(00003) EC's Bangemann Speaks Of Controlling Car Pollution 07/11/95 BRUSSELS, BELGIUM, 1995 JUL 11 (NB) -- Last week saw the Car of the Future Conference taking place in Brussels. Invited to speak at the event was Martin Bangemann, the European Commission's (EC's) Minister for competition. According to Bangemann, the EC is extremely interested in the way in which motor vehicle technology progresses. In a prepared speech, he said that the Commission has set up a "Car of Tomorrow" task force, in which the EC hopes to advise and guide manufacturers on the best way to progress the car industry in the near and longer term future. "It is widely acknowledged that important progress has been made over the last 20 years in the environmental acceptability of motor vehicles, in particular at the level of the design and control of internal combustion engines and in clean up technologies aimed at reducing greenhouse gas and pollutant emissions," he said. According to Bangemann, research on these issues is now under way in industry, "with support from appropriate specific programs in the third and fourth Framework Programs." "At the same time, transport demand is continually increasing in Europe and major concerns are growing about the level of harmful emissions emanating from the vehicle sector," he said. "Faced with these problems it is necessary, therefore, to pursue the goal of vehicles with ultra low emissions extending to zero emission options. This objective should provide relief in the medium term to local urban pollution and, in the longer term, contribute to the global reduction of harmful emissions through increasing use of renewable energy sources. Therefore we have created a task force: `Car of tomorrow,'" he told attendees. According to Bangemann, serious steps must be taken to rapidly increase the coherence and effectiveness of research, demonstration and dissemination already initiated in Europe in the area of ultra low and/or zero emission vehicles, but which are dispersed and fragmented. "The EC action should help to catalyze at the European level, the various work and initiatives, thereby generating the critical mass necessary to accelerate the realization of prototypes of vehicles," he said. Bangemann then went on to talk about electric vehicles and other types of propulsion that conforms to EC anti-pollution standards, as well as other forces on the evolution of the motor vehicle. To this end, he proposed the setting up of a "round table" of interested industry representatives. The aim of this round table will, he said, "focus on all technological bottlenecks which limit the rapid realization of ultra low and/or zero emission vehicles." This focus will also be concerned with the promotion and usage of advanced propulsion systems, concentrating on battery and fuel technologies. Bangemann then went to comment on the recent trade talks between the US and Japan, with specific reference to cars and car parts. "We have closely followed the negotiations between the US and Japan on cars and car parts both in terms of the EU's economic interest in the matter and the impact of the agreements reached on the international trading system," he said. "The available information on the results of the negotiations, which were concluded last week, still appears incomplete and leaves me with some concerns regarding possible negative effects on European car and car parts manufacturers," he added. "The US Government has announced, for example, that, as a result of these negotiations, it expects exports of US cars and parts to the Japanese market to increase significantly. We are extremely preoccupied that such increase could be to the detriment of competitive European cars and car parts exports to Japan," he said. Bangemann went on to explain that, while EC legislation will not be brought into the equation, the EC will insist on being involved in a monitoring scheme and long term plans for the car industry in Europe. Although Bangemann did not comment further on the EC's wish to intercede in the way the car industry is managed in Europe, industry watchers concluded that this is the first indication that Bangemann and his colleagues want to control the car industry and its future development in Europe, with specific reference to noise and general pollution levels. (Sylvia Dennis/19950710/Press & Reader Contact: European Commission, +32-299-1111) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 07/11/95 ONLINE NewsPage Reaches 50,000 Registered Web Users (NEWS)(ONLINE)(MSP)(00004) NewsPage Reaches 50,000 Registered Web Users 07/11/95 BURLINGTON, MASSACHUSETTS, U.S.A., 1995 JUL 11 (NB) -- On the same day it announced passing the 50,000 registered user milestone, Individual Inc. also announced two pricing plans for its NewsPage World Wide Web-based news service. For the past few months, NewsPage had been offered for free during a trial period. Two plans are available for individual use, the company said. The "basic" service allows users to read the full-text of 40% of the stories available in NewsPage, which is typically limited to news releases. A flat fee of $2.95 per month applies for the basic service. A "premium" service is also available, which allows users to read all of the full-text versions of stories in NewsPage. Twenty percent of those stories will have additional pay-per-view charges associated with them, which generally range from a nickel to about $8, John Zahner, vice president of business development, told Newsbytes. Premium charges include a flat subscription fee of $6.95 per month, plus any pay-per-view charges. Company officials said the low rates will only be offered to the first 50,000 users. All single-user subscriptions will be billed to major credit cards, and can be securely processed online if the user has Netscape 1.0 or higher Web browsers. Internet surfers can also register via phone if they don't have a Netscape browser. Newsbytes is one of the more than 500 sources in the NewsPage service, which includes other newswires, newspapers, trade magazines, industry- specific newsletters, government sources, and financial information. Current sponsors include Digital Equipment Corporation, Sun Microsystems, America Online, 3Com, and QMS. Discounts are available to users, including a $2.95 decrease in the monthly service charge, if users choose to make their names available to receive marketing literature relevant to their information needs. "Everyone owns the rights to their name, and we're very concerned about security and privacy issues," Zahner said. "Each user of the service has the right to their own name. We can't do anything with it, unless we have the express permission from the user. We think that's worth something, and that they should get paid for it." Other discounts are available to corporations with multiple users, Zahner added. NewsPage can be found on the Web at http://www.newspage.com . Beyond surpassing 50,000 registered users, the company also said it receives 1.5 million hits a week, and was recently chosen by Interactive Age magazine as the 18th most heavily visited site on the Web. (Bob Woods/19950710/Press Contacts: Jay Campbell, Individual, 617-273-6000, Internet e-mail jay@individual.com; Beth Winkowski, WTM, 617-337-3633; Public Contact: NewsPage, Internet World Wide Web http://www.newspage.com ) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 07/11/95 TELECOM Telecom Italia's TMI Establishes Hong Kong Regional HQ (NEWS)(TELECOM)(HKG)(00005) Telecom Italia's TMI Establishes Hong Kong Regional HQ 07/11/95 CENTRAL, HONG KONG, 1995 JUL 11 (NB) -- Tele Media International (TMI), a wholly owned subsidiary of Italian telecommunications company Telecom Italia, has opened its Asia-Pacific headquarters in Hong Kong in order to provide outsourcing services to the region. The new office joins a network of regional head offices in London, New York and Buenos Aires. The four offices are linked to one another through high capacity digital trunks, which are further connected to over 70 branches and partners around the world. Hong Kong staff will coordinate operations at the company's regional branch offices in Sydney and Singapore, with an office in Bombay planned for later this year. TMI also has a business partner in Japan. Claudio Albanese, chairman of TMI, said the company is looking for partners around the region and hopes to sign partnership deals in Taiwan, Malaysia, the Philippines, and Indonesia by the end of the year. Services provided by TMI include videoconferencing, network services, data services and messaging services, including fax and telex messaging. Sergio Bartoletti, TMI's director for Asia Pacific said TMI had already spent several million US dollars in establishing its regional operations and would be spending another US$80 million by the end of 1996. Telecom Italia is the sixth largest telecoms operator in the world, with TMI as the overseas arm of the company. TMI will be targeting both local companies and Italian multinationals with a presence in the region. (Nigel Armstrong and IT Daily/19950711) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 07/11/95 BROADCAST Hong Kong Telecom Forms Video-On-Demand Alliance (NEWS)(BROADCAST)(HKG)(00006) Hong Kong Telecom Forms Video-On-Demand Alliance 07/11/95 CENTRAL, HONG KONG, 1995 JUL 11 (NB) -- Hong Kong Telecom's fledgling video-on-demand (VOD) service has received a boost with the announcement of an alliance with local film production house Fitto Mobile for interactive programming. The interactive format will allow viewers to choose not only plot lines, cast and how the story ends, but also more practically the language of the dialogue. "We are bringing together Hong Kong Telecom's state-of-the-art Interactive Multimedia Services (IMS) with Fitto Mobile's innovative entertainment concepts," said Dr. William Lo, Hong Kong Telecom's director of Multimedia services. The VOD service is currently available on a trial platform, with the full service scheduled to start at the beginning of July next year. Lo said the company was in the process of shortlisting equipment vendors for the supply of the final platform. A total of 15 consortia -- including IBM, Microsoft, and Digital Equipment Corp. -- submitted bids early this year and the final five shortlisted candidates will be announced shortly, says the company. The final decision will be made by the end of July, according to Lo, and a beta test version of the service will be available in April of next year, he said. The first film to be made under the Hong Kong Telecom/Fitto Mobile alliance was released last weekend. Entitled "Green Hat" in Cantonese, it was released simultaneously with an English-language version, "My Mistress, My Wife." The English version was made at the same time and using the same script as the Cantonese version, but in a different language and with a western cast. Lo said Hong Kong Telecom was also discussing with other studios and distributors the possibility of them providing material for the service (Nigel Armstrong and IT Daily/19950711) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 07/11/95 APPLE ClarisWorks 4 Makes Hong Kong Debut (NEWS)(APPLE)(HKG)(00007) ClarisWorks 4 Makes Hong Kong Debut 07/11/95 CENTRAL, HONG KONG, 1995 JUL 11 (NB) -- Claris in Hong Kong has launched ClarisWorks 4, the latest version of its best-selling integrated software package for the Macintosh platform. The new version is WorldScript-aware, allowing a document to include multiple scripts such as English, simplified Chinese, and traditional Chinese. "It is one of the few products that allows you to type in English and Chinese at the same time," said Nick McNaughton, Claris' business development manager for Asia. This multilingual ability will give the product added appeal in the Hong Kong marketplace, he added. The application also includes a HTML (hypertext markup language) translator, which the company says offers users an easy way to create documents for use in a World Wide Web home page. This is done by creating the document in ClarisWorks, assigning hypertext links with a footnote capability, then saving it in the HTML format. Pages can then be posted using a Web browser, such as Netscape. The new version also features added functionality to the word processing and database sections, as well as a variety of new "assistants." Not ignoring its cross-platform nature, Claris plans to launch the Windows version of ClarisWorks 4 within 60 days of Windows 95 shipping in late August. The Windows version is described as having a Windows 95 "look and feel," and also supports OLE (object linking and embedding) 2. Meanwhile, following Claris' merger with AppleSoft -- which was formally announced in April -- the company is looking at how to improve customer service on a country by country basis. Dominique Goupil, vice president for Asia/Pacific said that while Claris would be responsible for distributing software products, the company was in the process of integrating the Claris and AppleSoft teams in each country. (Nigel Armstrong and IT Daily/19950711) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 07/11/95 GENERAL UK - Groupe Bull Offers Customer "Service Desk" (NEWS)(GENERAL)(LON)(00008) UK - Groupe Bull Offers Customer "Service Desk" 07/11/95 BRENTFORD, MIDDLESEX, ENGLAND, 1995 JUL 11 (NB) -- Bull has taken the wraps off "Service Desk," a mixture of services which the company claims has been designed to help customers measure and manage both the initial and hidden costs of desktop computing. Mike Ball, Bull's director of customer services, explained that, as more organizations discover the real costs of desktop systems and the amount of support that users need, "it is clear that service desks are a necessary development. We're finding that our customers are looking for guidance on how to improve service quality to their end-users, increase efficiency, and better manage costs." Service Desk is billed as a modular service, and consists of component services drawn from seven main offerings: service management, help desk, order desk, life cycle management, training, networking, and consultancy. According to Ball, Service Desk has been on a pilot trial with a major finance house in London, where it has proven to be an "extremely successful solution to their needs." Alison Campbell, a spokeswoman for Bull, told Newsbytes that the Service Desk option allows companies to move the ongoing costs of running computers in their operation over to a regular -- and fixed -- payment system, rather like leasing for the hardware and software. Campbell went on to explain that the service is only available in the UK at present, but the progress of the service will be monitored for its success. (Steve Gold/19950711/Press Contact: Alison Campbell, Bull UK, +44-181-479-2751) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 07/11/95 GENERAL Australia - Pacific Computer Publication Relaunched (NEWS)(GENERAL)(SYD)(00009) Australia - Pacific Computer Publication Relaunched 07/11/95 SYDNEY, AUSTRALIA, 1995 JULY 11 (NB) -- Australia's oldest computer weekly publication, Pacific Computer Weekly, has undergone some changes over the past few weeks. This week it has emerged from its cocoon as a new publication, called Computer Week. It was launched in March, 1971, as Australian Computer Weekly (though published every two weeks). It became a true weekly in 1978, and has operated until now from Melbourne. Recently, control was transferred to APN Computing Group in Sydney, and Editor Susan Coleman left the publication to work as a columnist for rival ComputerWorld Australia. New boss Alan Power said the publication was designed to cover "corporate wide computing." APN already publishes Windows Sources in Australia, and is now taking editorial material from CMP's Information Week, Network Computing, and NetGuide for inclusion in Computer Week. The new-look publication is a definite change from its predecessor, with bold use of color and clean, business-like typography. Competitor ComputerWorld Australia has recently undergone a minor facelift, although in appearance it remains the most conservative of the three information technology weeklies. (Paul Zucker/19950711/Press Contact: Alan Power, Computer Week, tel +61-2936-8680, fax +61-2-955-8871) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 07/11/95 GENERAL China - Commercial Database Lists 2.3Mil Firms (NEWS)(GENERAL)(PEK)(00010) China - Commercial Database Lists 2.3Mil Firms 07/11/95 BEIJING, CHINA, 1995 JUL 11 (NB) -- Wanguo Enterprise Services has completed a comprehensive database covering more than 2.3 million enterprises in China. A resulting CD-ROM version is expected to become available soon. Covering all parts of China, the database contains the name, address, chief executive, phone numbers, and business type of more than 2.3 million enterprises in China. A company spokesperson told Newsbytes that the database is well-organized into 90 business and industry sectors. The whole database can be divided into sub-sections according to the business type or company location. A user can also sort or search for enterprises based on business name, capitalization, sales, or some keywords. The results can be printed via mailing labels or on envelopes directly, Newsbytes was told. To prepare the company database, Wanguo mailed out more than 1.2 million letters to enterprises all over the country and corrected more than 50,000 errors in the directory database. The whole database is currently on hard disks, although Wanguo is preparing to produce a CD version for sale, Ms. Zhang, a sales manager of Wanguo, told Newsbytes. "Usually, customers do not need the whole database. They may only want a directory database in a particular business sector," Zhang said. "We can provide users with sub-databases based on their requirements." She added, "For RMB19,000 (US$2,289), you can get a sub-database of 50,000 enterprises." Search software comes with the database. However, if a customer only needs a smaller sub-database, for example, of several thousand enterprises, the price is RMB0.1 (US$0.012) per item or enterprise. (Chih-Ho Yu & Ning Huang/19950711/Reader Contact: Beijing Wanguo Enterprise Services, tel +86-10-842-3535) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 07/11/95 BUSINESS UK's Dr. Solomon Names Canadian Virus Distributor (NEWS)(BUSINESS)(TOR)(00011) UK's Dr. Solomon Names Canadian Virus Distributor 07/11/95 OTTAWA, ONTARIO, CANADA, 1995 JUL 11 (NB) -- S&S International PLC of the UK has awarded Sensible Security Solutions Inc. (SSS) of Braeside, Ontario, exclusive rights to sell and support its award-winning Dr. Solomon's Anti-Virus Toolkit in Canada. SSS President Robert Vibert says three years of experience in Europe as a computer security consultant to banks, insurance companies, and corporations convinced him to go after the Canadian rights for Dr. Solomon's Toolkit when he arrived back in Canada. "We chose the best anti-virus product available when we started working in this area in Europe and we are very lucky to have obtained the representation for Canada." Vibert says. "Since we arrived, we've had many calls from users interested in the product because they heard about it from colleagues in Europe." Dr. Solomon's Anti-Virus Toolkit was developed in the UK by Dr. Alan Solomon, a noted anti-virus researcher and chairman of S&S International. Earlier this year, Newsbytes reported that S&S had set up new North American offices, in the Boston area and California, and a new North American virus research center, to launch and support Dr. Solomon's Toolkit in the US retail market. Billed by SSS as "the leading European anti-virus software, with nearly three million users worldwide," Dr. Solomon's Anti-Virus Toolkit is available in DOS, Windows, OS/2, and NetWare versions. A new North American edition of the Toolkit is scheduled to ship in August, with implementations for all four platforms, Vibert says. Although PC viruses don't get as much "front page" media coverage as they did a few years back, virus issues still represent a major and growing area of concern. According to Vibert, S&S's research team reportedly encounters between 150 and 200 new viruses each month which, "add to a total that topped 6,000 identified viruses in January, 1995 -- a 37 percent increase in one year." Vibert also notes that the number of polymorphic viruses is increasing sharply, citing a 10-fold increase between January, 1992, and January, 1995. However, "the good news is that OS/2-specific viruses are extremely rare, and anti-virus researchers at S&S International have yet to encounter a virus that breaks NetWare security." The new North American edition of Dr. Solomon's Anti-Virus Toolkit will be available in two configurations, one based on quarterly updates and the other on monthly updates. The Windows/DOS version will retail for (C)$175.00 with a one-year quarterly update subscription and (C)$305.00 with one-year monthly update subscription. Versions for other supported platforms will be available on a similar basis. (Trevor Horsley/1995/0705/ SSS Media Contact: Paula Marinho, tel 613-623-6966, fax 613-623-3992, Internet e-mail 100016.2432@compuserve.com) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 07/11/95 TELECOM TelSource Buys 27% Stake In Czech SPT Telecom (NEWS)(TELECOM)(LON)(00012) TelSource Buys 27% Stake In Czech SPT Telecom 07/11/95 PRAGUE, CZECH REPUBLIC, 1995 JUL 11 (NB) -- The Czech government has announced that a 27% stake in SPT Telecom will go to TelSource. The TelSource consortium, which consists of PTT Telecom Netherlands and Swiss Telecom, will pay $1.32 billion for 27% of SPT Telecom stock, representing the largest foreign investment to-date in the Czech Republic and all of central and eastern Europe. AT&T is also to support the alliance in provision of services that will be shared equally amongst the three at no charge to SPT Telecom. These services are valued at about $131 million. The TelSource consortium was chosen above four other competitors: STET of Italy; TeleDenmark of Denmark; the TelFar consortium (Bell Atlantic and France Telekom); and CeTel (Deutsche Telekom and Ameritech). The government's decision was "unambiguous and based on the quality of TelSource's proposal," prime minister Vaclav Klaus said in a prepared statement on Czech television. The Czech government decided that the huge modernization that Czech telecoms needs could not be accomplished without the assistance of a "strategic partner," even though many Czech shareholders were opposed to foreign controlling interests. The promise of developing the Czech Republic as a hub for international traffic is something that the candidate CeTel, which has a 30% stake in the Hungarian telco MATAV, could not so easily match, because of its commitment to deliver something similar in Hungary. TelSource presented the most attractive proposal, according to the Czech government. The proposal focused on meeting three major objectives: rapid infrastructure development with provision of over two million additional lines over the next five years and decrease of the waiting list from the current three years to the maximum of one year in 1998 and to 14 days by the year 2000; the provision of advanced customer-oriented billing and itemization services and new networking technologies such as ISDN (integrated services digital networks); the development of the Czech Republic as a hub for international traffic with the alliance of TelSource with Unisource and Uniworld. Swiss Telecom is operating the same systems as SPT Telecom, namely, equipment from Siemens and Alcatel, according to Louis Lampe, director of projects, PTT Telecom BV. Swiss Telecom also has experience in central and eastern Europe with its partnership for a local operator function in Hungary. PTT Telecom has a partnership in the Ukraine, according to Lampe. "We are committing to assist SPT to become a customer- and commercial-oriented company," said Lampe. "We have gone through a similar process in Switzerland and in the Netherlands, so I think that we will be able to shorten the learning cycle for SPT. "Extremely important is to get the Czech clients access to SPT Telecom on a worldwide network, which will be done through Unisource and Uniworld," Lampe continued. Unisource is a company founded by the Dutch PTT, Telia Sweden, Telefonica Spain, and Swiss Telecom. Uniworld is the joint venture formed in December, 1994, between Unisource (60%) and AT&T (40%), Newsbytes notes. Originally, Unisource had a strong focus on Europe, said Lampe. "With AT&T now -- and Uniworld -- we can say that we have a worldwide focus," he added. Lampe continued, saying that itemization is something that the Czech Republic desperately needs. In addition to studying the Czech government's documents, TelSource conducted its own market research. The official waiting list (from the Czech government) is something like 600,000 subscribers. "We found that the real need was 1.5 to 1.6 million," said Lampe. "One of the things we would like to do is to attract traffic from eastern Europe to SPT," continued Lampe. Unisource Carrier Services (UCS), a daughter company of Unisource, is selling capacity to operators, Newsbytes was informed. "What could be a strong benefit for SPT is to attract foreign traffic through its infrastructure to the Unisource European backbone at lower transfer rates than they pay today to East European operators," said Lampe. (Steven Slatem/19950711/Press & Reader Contact: Louis Lampe, PTT Telecom BV, tel +31-70-3432810, fax +31-70- 3432112) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 07/11/95 PC AT&T Launches Globalyst PC Range In India (NEWS)(PC)(DEL)(00013) AT&T Launches Globalyst PC Range In India 07/11/95 NEW DELHI, INDIA, 1995 JUL 11 (NB) -- Just a month after its introduction in the US, the Globalyst PCs from AT&T Global Information Solutions (GIS), have been launched in India. According to Krishna Tanuku, chief executive officer with AT&T GIS, India, the company will be focusing on financial, telecom and banking sectors, offering industry-specific solutions. "India is the second largest market in the Asia/China region and we are focused on making our information solutions and PC business a success here," Tanuku added. Unicorp Industries Ltd. and CMS Computers Ltd., have entered into a marketing and support agreement with AT&T India, for the distribution of this range of products. Unicorp is also the authorized distributor for Compaq products in the country. It also has a tie-up with Wellfleet Communications Inc., for the marketing of its range of routers. In addition, the company is the authorized systems integrator for Novell Inc. CMS Computers Ltd., is a leading systems provider in the information technology segment in the country. Some of its tie-ups include Acer Inc., AST Inc. for computers and servers, IBM Lexmark for its range of printers, and J.D. Edwards for business systems. (C.T. Mahabharat/19950711) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 07/11/95 BUSINESS India - Square D Gets $11Mil US Development Order (NEWS)(BUSINESS)(DEL)(00014) India - Square D Gets $11Mil US Development Order 07/11/95 NEW DELHI, INDIA, 1995 JUL 11 (NB) -- Square D Software Ltd., the Madras-based software company has won an order worth $11 million from the US firm Computer Vision Inc. This is the largest single offshore software development contract won by any single Indian software company. Square D Software won the contract for Electronic Data Management (EDM) of the software development program of the US firm and will support services for it on an offshore basis. The firm has put up a team of 30 software specialists to work on the project and will develop the software on a worldwide basis. The project will run over a period of three years and Computer Vision will market the product in seven different countries with a hot-line hook-up in India for support services. Square D Software has already set up a 100 percent subsidiary in the US called D Square Inc., with a capital base of $50,000. The company is also setting up Square D Software plc in the UK with a capital of UKP50,000, and another, Square D Singapore Pvt. Ltd., with an investment of S$50,000. Established in 1992 with an upfront investment of $14 million, the Madras-based Square D Software Ltd. is a software development center that operates in the niche markets of maintenance support, software reengineering, and application development. The company has technical expertise on a wide range of platforms such as IBM, DEC, HP, and Sun Systems. The company hopes to cash in on its key area of specialization -- computer-aided design and manufacturing, where it has a team of 70 specialists. (C.T. Mahabharat/19950711) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 07/11/95 APPLE Corel Gallery 2 For Mac Announced (NEWS)(APPLE)(TOR)(00015) Corel Gallery 2 For Mac Announced 07/11/95 OTTAWA, ONTARIO, CANADA, 1995 JUL 11 (NB) -- Corel Corp. (NASDAQ:COSFF) has announced Corel Gallery 2 for the Apple Macintosh. The updated clip-art manager has essentially the same features as the Corel Gallery 2 for Windows announced in February. Whereas the old Gallery came with 10,000 clip-art images, company spokeswoman Carrie Dopson told Newsbytes, the new release comes with 15,000. Gallery 2 also has 500 fonts, 75 sounds, 10 QuickTime movie, and includes QuickTime 2.0, Adobe Type Manager, and a font management utility, the company said. Corel Gallery can be used to manage clip-art albums, search by keyword or note, or export items to other graphics formats. The software makes it possible to preview CMX, JPG, PICT2, Photo- CD and other files, Corel said. It can import Windows bitmap, Windows metafile, PICT, Zsoft PCX, Targa, TIFF, MacPaint, Computer Graphics Metafile, Scitex CT, Amiga IFF, Lotus PIC, PixelPaint, and JPEG files. It can export Windows bitmap, Zsoft PCX, MacPaint, Photoshop 2.0 and 2.5, PICT, Scitex CT, Targa, TIFF, and Windows Metafile formats. The software, due to ship by July, will have a list price of C$129 or US$99. It requires a Motorola 68020 or later processor, or a Power Macintosh, and System 7.0 or later. It also requires Color QuickDraw, Quicktime 1.6.1 or later, a CD-ROM drive, and six megabytes (MB) of memory (8MB recommended) on a Macintosh or 8MB (16MB recommended) on a Power Mac. There should be about 10MB of hard disk space available to use the product, Corel said. Corel's flagship product, CorelDraw, is not yet available for the Macintosh, but during a press teleconference in late June Eid Eid, Corel's director of engineering, said the company has begun work on porting the software to the Mac. Corel plans to release its Macintosh product some time in the next nine months, Eid said. (Grant Buckler/19950711/Press Contact: Carrie Dopson, Corel, 613-728-0826 ext 1524; Public Contact: Corel, 613-728-0826) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 07/11/95 ONLINE UK - Barclays Offers Computer Banking (NEWS)(ONLINE)(LON)(00016) UK - Barclays Offers Computer Banking 07/11/95 LONDON, ENGLAND, 1995 JUL 11 (NB) -- Barclays Bank has announced plans to launch phase one of the UK's first mass market PC-based banking service for personal customers. According to the bank, the service will be modem-based and require the personal account customers to run a Windows application on their PCs and access a central number. The Windows-based software was developed jointly by Barclays and Visa. During phase one of the service, the information held on the system will be updated on a batch file basis, allowing customers access to their previous "close of business day" account data. A basic portfolio of services will be accessible online using the PC Banking service. These will include: bill payments; interim statements; balance inquiries; setting up and changing standing orders; and funds transfers. All data sent and received over the modem links will be encrypted using a proprietary algorithm jointly developed by Barclays and Visa. According to Barclays, there will also be a password system that requires the use of a series of PINs and passwords to access the software, and for individual transactions. To prevent fraud, even with the per-transaction PIN system, the bank is employing special checks whenever large or unusual transactions are carried out. The bank is not saying what these checks are likely to be, but sources suggest an additional password system and/or human interaction online to verify who is calling. These checks will be in addition, Newsbytes understands, to normal voice calling verification for major transactions. According to Barclays, the bank is looking at the phase one portfolio of services as flexible. The aim is that the bank will work with customers using the service to determine the additional services they would find useful. Announcing the bank's plans, Richard Reay-Smith, Barclays' personal sector director, said that the new PC banking service will be the first ever in the UK to be introduced as a mass market service for personal customers. "It underlines our commitment to using leading-edge technology to provide new and innovative services for our customers," he explained, adding that the bank does not regard PC banking as a standalone operational service. "We are fully committed to offering customers a range of delivery channels to enable them to bank with us in a way that best suits their personal needs. Our customers have the choice of using one or all of the delivery channels. This could include phone banking, a network of more than 2,000 branches, cash dispensers and, in the near future, PC banking," he said. It's still very early days on the PC banking project. Officials with Barclays said that advertisements will start appearing over the next few weeks, mostly in-branch, detailing a toll free number for customers to call for further information on the new service. (Steve Gold/19950711/Press Contact: Louise Footner, Barclays Bank, tel +44-171-699-2671, fax +44-171-699-2680) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 07/11/95 BUSINESS Advanced RISC Machines Opens German Office (NEWS)(BUSINESS)(LON)(00017) Advanced RISC Machines Opens German Office 07/11/95 MUNICH, GERMANY, 1995 JUL 11 (NB) -- Advanced RISC Machines (ARM) has announced the opening of a German office in Munich, Germany. According to officials with the RISC (reduced instruction set computing) developer and manufacturer, the aim of the new office is to assist in the expansion of the business expansion the company is experiencing in Central Europe, as well as allowing ARM to target systems design houses in the region. The new office will be run by Hans Carper, business development manager for Central Europe and will provide local sales and applications support for Germany, Austria, and Switzerland. Newsbytes notes that Germany is a core target for ARM and its semiconductor partners, with technical demands that map well against the ARM family of processors. German manufacturers are particularly strong in ASIC (application specific integrated circuits) and systems design especially for mobile communications, PDAs (personal digital assistants), consumer multimedia products and other cost- sensitive high volume applications requiring powerful processing at low cost. This is far from the first international expansion for ARM -- the company already has offices outside of the UK in the US and Japan. Nevertheless, the new Central European office is billed as reflecting ARM's continuing global acceptance as the volume RISC standard. Commenting on the announcement, Robin Saxby, president and chief executive officer (CEO) of ARM, said: "The new office reflects the growth of the ARM community, and global acceptance of the ARM family of processors for embedded applications. "Central Europe is a key market for us because of the established base of ASIC and systems design houses. With the establishment of a German office, we will enhance our local marketing and customer service activities ready to assault the market in tandem with our partners," he said. (Sylvia Dennis/19950711/Press Contact: Stephen Waddington, A-Plus, +44-1753-790700, Internet e-mail swaddington@cix.compulink.co.uk; ARM Europe, tel +49-89-6087-5545, fax +49-89-6087-5599) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 07/11/95 BUSINESS Sweden's Ericsson Cuts 300 California Jobs (NEWS)(BUSINESS)(LON)(00018) Sweden's Ericsson Cuts 300 California Jobs 07/11/95 STOCKHOLM, SWEDEN, 1995 JUL 11 (NB) -- Ericsson and Raychem Corporation have announced plans to relocate around 300 of the 700-plus positions at a fiber production facility in Menlo Park, California. According to Ericsson, both companies will consolidate and relocate some of the manufacturing capacity back to older Raychem plants in the US and Ericsson plants in Sweden. The 300 staff will be offered relocation positions elsewhere in the US or offered redundancy terms. This is the first time that Ericsson has laid off so many staff, Newsbytes notes. Over the last few years, the Swedish telecoms and electronics giant has been experiencing considerable growth. "The steps announced today reduce our operating costs and break-even point significantly, in part because we will now take advantage of lower cost Ericsson manufacturing capacity and integrate our administrative functions within those already in place in the US and Sweden," commented Stig Johansson, president of Ericsson Raynet. According to Johansson, the company's research and development efforts will continue "the development and refinement of our existing fiber access products for markets around the world. "Taken together, these moves further our earlier desire to move toward the optimum integration of the joint venture into Ericsson and will strengthen our access product lines world-wide," he said. (Sylvia Dennis/19950711/Press Contact: Kathy Egan, Ericsson US, 415-361-7855) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 07/11/95 ONLINE UK - Quarterdeck's Windows Web Publishing Application (NEWS)(ONLINE)(LON)(00019) UK - Quarterdeck's Windows Web Publishing Application 07/11/95 CHELMSFORD, ESSEX, ENGLAND, 1995 JUL 11 (NB) -- Quarterdeck has formally unveiled WebServer for Windows, a sub-$200 package (UKP130 in the UK) that is billed as being capable of allowing an 80486-based PC to be plugged into an Internet link -- using Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol (TCP/IP) and servicing up to 16 "Web sessions" at the same time. Actual shipment of the package is expected later this summer. Nick Spencer, a spokesman for Quarterdeck, told Newsbytes that WebServer represents a major step in Web publishing, since it avoids the need for Unix-based technology, which is frequently expensive. As previously reported by Newsbytes, WebServer for Windows is just part of a planned portfolio of Web authoring packages for different platforms that Quarterdeck is working on for release later this year. According to Quarterdeck, within large corporations, Quarterdeck WebServer for Windows is ideal for private internal applications, such as distributing human resource policies and procedures or marketing materials such as product fact sheets, catalogues, and electronic presentations. For smaller organizations and home offices, the WebServer is also an excellent method for reaching new customers via the Internet. So how fast does WebServer go? According to the company, up to 16 data channels can be supported across a modem, ISDN (integrated services digital network) or leased line link, serving up to 25,000 page requests an hour on a 33 megahertz (MHz) 80486-based system. It is even possible to run the server tasks in the background, Newsbytes notes, allowing for office PCs to be used for other purposes during the day, or for a section of a PC server's memory to be allocated to the Web service on a local area network. According to Quarterdeck, WebServer for Windows features an easy-to- use install and an interface that enables any user of Windows 3.x to quickly set-up and use a Web server. The product includes a full implementation of the HTTP 1.0 protocol with CGI 1.1 forms and image map support. Officials claim that the architecture of the 16-bit application is designed to support migration to future 32-bit versions planned for Windows 95 and Windows NT. (Steve Gold/199509711/Press Contact: Nick Spencer, tel +44-1344-873445, fax +44-1344-873446, Internet e-mail nspencer@cix.compulink.co.uk; Reader Contact: Quarterdeck UK, +44-1245-496699; Quarterdeck France: +33-1-4320-3846; Quarterdeck Germany: +49-211-5979-00; Internet e-mail info@qdeck.co.uk) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 07/11/95 GENERAL HP Intros New Line Of Color Inkjet Printers (NEWS)(GENERAL)(LAX)(00020) HP Intros New Line Of Color Inkjet Printers 07/11/95 PALO ALTO, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1995 JUL 11 (NB) -- Hewlett- Packard's new DeskJet 1600 color printer line will print color at a rate of up to four pages-per-minute (PPM), twice as fast as the previous 1200C model. The new system also offers improved "black-only" printing capabilities to go along with the new speed. #IMAGE 1 20 TWPCX \images\95071120.PCX Click here for photo Jeanette Braaten, a spokesperson for Hewlett-Packard (HP), told Newsbytes, "Previous HP color inkjet printers for the office were being used exclusively as color printers. Offices were using our printers as a second, color-only, printer. Black printing was done by another printer. This new line of color inkjet printers significantly improves its black-only printing capabilities." Continued Braaten, "Small and midsize workgroups, one to ten users, have been the target of this line. It is our hope that with better black-only printing offices will begin using the Hewlett Packard color inkjet printers as their only printer. By improving speed and print quality, we hope to expand the role currently played by our color inkjet printers in the office." Braaten points out that the black print head in the DeskJet 1600 has "true" 600 by 600 dots-per-inch (dpi) resolution compared to the previous 600 by 300 dpi. The new color inkjet has three times the number of nozzles as the previous model, increasing black ink placement. A newly formulated black ink, and an improved heating system that ensures a quick dry has also been added to the new inkjet line, according to Braaten. The DeskJet 1600 series is meant by HP to "complement" their color LaserJet printer, which is designed for higher volume, larger workgroups. The DeskJet 1600 series uses the same processor that is used in the LaserJet 4 Plus printer, the Intel 32-bit RISC (reduced instruction set computing) i80960KB. The new DeskJet's first page-out speed is rated at thirteen seconds for black printing, comparable to the LaserJet 4 Plus printer. The DeskJet 1600c printer, which is designed for Windows and DOS environments, is expected to sell for about $1,399. The DeskJet 1600CM printer is expected to sell for about $1,999, and is equipped with an HP JetDirect network print card, Adobe Systems Inc.'s PostScript Level 2 systems software product, and additional memory for Apple Computer Inc.'s Macintosh, as well as mixed network, environments. The new line of printers has been shipped to resellers and should be available for sale now, according to the company. (Richard Bowers/19950711/Press Contact: Iris Fouser, Hewlett Packard, 208-396-4959/HPCOLOR950711/PHOTO) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 07/11/95 GOVT ****Clinton Backs V-chip For Television (NEWS)(GOVT)(WAS)(00021) ****Clinton Backs V-chip For Television 07/11/95 NASHVILLE, TENNESSEE, U.S.A., 1995 JUL 11 (NB) -- "This is not censorship. This is parental responsibility," said President Clinton yesterday, endorsing putting a computer chip in televisions to let parents screen what their children can watch. Clinton told a Nashville conference on families and the media, sponsored by Vice President Al Gore and his wife, Tipper, "I see no alternative to solving this problem than to reduce the aggregate amount of violence to which these children are subject. And we're going to have to have some help from the media to get there." Clinton's explicit endorsement of the so-called V-chip is evidence the Democrats will not let Republicans claim the issue of violence in movies and TV. Earlier, Senate Majority Leader Bob Dole (R-Kan.), now leading the pack of Republicans for the GOP nomination to oppose Clinton next year, staked out his claim to the issue by attacking Hollywood. Dole attacked the movie industry for promoting "mindless violence and loveless sex." Sen. Kent Conrad (D-S.D.) won an amendment to the Senate telecommunications bill that would require television manufacturers to install a chip that would recognize a signal in the broadcast that identifies violent programming. Under the Conrad plan, the television industry must devise a voluntary system for rating. Failing that, the president would appoint a board to come up with the rating scheme. Clinton and Gore both say they are not trying to foster government censorship. "If we're going to change the American culture, we have to somehow change the media culture," said Clinton, "and we have to do it without finger-pointing. But we've got to be honest about it." While the broadcast networks have been skeptical about the V-chip, the cable broadcasters have been more open to the concept. Somewhat surprisingly, not all the digital libertarians are opposed to the V-chip. Esther Dyson, veteran computer guru and chairman of the Electronic Freedom Foundation, told Newsbytes the V-chip plan "is somewhat less objectionable" than the other elements of the Senate bill, particularly Sen. James Exon's (D-Neb.) anti-indecency provisions. "It's more than the V-chip," Dyson said. "We also need to provide multiple rating services, not just rely on one, so parents can pick the ratings approach that best fits their needs." Dyson was in Nashville for the Gore conference and the Clinton speech. Dyson said she viewed forcing people to buy sets with the V-chip embedded, which would probably add no more than $5 per set to the price tag, is a form of government funding for education. She said she is concerned that so many children "have no lives other than TV." (Kennedy Maize/19950711/Press Contact: Esther Dyson, 212-924-8800) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 07/11/95 GOVT FCC To Take Up Telecom Portability Policy (NEWS)(GOVT)(WAS)(00022) FCC To Take Up Telecom Portability Policy 07/11/95 WASHINGTON, D.C., U.S.A., 1995 JUL 11 (NB) -- The Federal Communications Commission is expected to unveil a proposal this week on promoting telephone number portability. The FCC, meeting on Thursday, will discuss technology that would allow local phone customers to keep their phone numbers, even if they switch carriers. Number portability is a key to allowing competition in local phone markets, and would be required in both the Senate-passed telecommunications reform bill and the measure pending in the House. Thursday's action is an attempt by the commission to get a head start in grappling with the issues raised by the likely passage of new legislation. Number portability is particularly important for businesses, which would like to get the fruits of a competitive environment, but don't want to confuse customers with new numbers to call. One approach to portability is to assign a new number privately and use call forwarding so customers can call the old number. But this uses two numbers, at a time when new phone numbers are at a premium. In the long range, advanced information networking technology is likely to be the answer to number portability. The commission is also scheduled to take action changing the way telephone numbers are distributed in North America. Under the current procedure, known as the North American Number Plan, Bellcore assigned new numbers and is paid for that task by the several regional Bell operating companies. But competitors, particularly the wireless industry, says the old system is outmoded and not well suited to a competitive marketplace and modern telecommunications technology that includes cell phones, pagers, modems, and fax machines. The wireless industry has estimated that 80,000 new numbers are assigned daily, and two-thirds are for wireless customers. Demand for additional phone numbers is skyrocketing so phenomenally that Bellcore recently had to change the way area codes are assigned. Ken Branson, a spokesman for Bellcore, told Newsbytes, "The area codes we had were supposed to last until the end of the century. We didn't quite make it." (Kennedy Maize/19950711/Press Contact: Audrey Spivack, FCC, 202-418-0500, Ken Branson, Bellcore, 800-521-CORE) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 07/11/95 TRENDS Smart Card Technology Gaining Acceptance - Study (NEWS)(TRENDS)(MSP)(00023) Smart Card Technology Gaining Acceptance - Study 07/11/95 TAMPA, FLORIDA, U.S.A., 1995 JUL 11 (NB) -- Forty percent of consumers would prefer to use "smart card" technology for everyday purchases, as opposed to using cash, The Smart Card Forum reports. In a recent study conducted by the forum, almost two-thirds of the respondents saw smart cards as a convenient option for carrying important personal information, like medical and insurance-related data. Smart card technology enables information to be stored on a microprocessor chip embedded in a card the size of normal credit and debit cards. The difference is that the microprocessor offers 80 times the storage capacity of magnetic stripe technology currently used in credit cards, along with greatly enhanced security, Smart Card Forum officials said. Such information could include insurance data, medical history, driver's license, and cash value capacity. "We wanted to try to figure out the sensitivity that people have to multi-application cards (like smart cards)," Bob Gilson, Smart Card Forum executive director, told Newsbytes. "What we tried to do is get some sort of consumer reaction to the whole idea of the cards, the types of information that can be stored on the cards, and in what combinations of information were consumers were responsive to having in the cards." Seventy percent of those surveyed cited concerns about lack of privacy, and whether others could "break the code" to access personal, financial, and medical information. Stolen cards, and the money that was stored on the card, was also a major concern of consumers. Also, forty percent of respondents raised some operational questions, including the acceptance of cards by retailers, and the speed at which the technology would be implemented. Consumers also indicated they wanted cards to be issued by banks, credit companies, telecommunication corporations, and other established organizations. Other consumer questions included whether cash needed to be downloaded only at banks, or if money could be put on the cards via home computers or other sources, and how information would be added, deleted, or downloaded. The study of 1,000 consumers was commissioned by the Smart Card Forum, which is an industry group of bankers, retailers, government agencies, and equipment makers that are working to establish standards for smart cards. (Bob Woods/19950711/Press Contact: Debra Montner, Kerr Kelly Thompson, 203-622-1723) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 07/11/95 TRENDS Virtual World Tech Exhibit Opens In San Jose (NEWS)(TRENDS)(LAX)(00024) Virtual World Tech Exhibit Opens In San Jose 07/11/95 SAN JOSE, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1995 JUL 11 (NB) -- The Tech Museum of Innovation has formally introduced its exhibit "Virtual World: Multimedia and the Internet." This exhibit was made possible with donated equipment and software from numerous Silicon Valley companies. Key elements of the six month exhibit include: a workstation with interactive three-dimensional (3-D) elastic art; a desktop videoconferencing exhibit; multiple Internet stations; a computer morphing station; an easy-to-use introduction to the World Wide Web exhibit; and an upcoming exhibit, called Live Link to Monterey Bay. Gloria Chun Hoo, communications director for the museum, told Newsbytes, "The Tech is adding new, donated workstations that offer visitors opportunities to explore the latest technology in multimedia and access to cyberspace, the electronic world of the Internet, and the World Wide Web." Hoo listed a number of firms as the principal sponsors: Apple Computer, which equipped the museum's Interactive Media Lab with eighteen Power Macintosh 5200's; Cirrus Logic Inc. with donations to pay for staff; Fore Systems Inc., which provided ATM (asynchronous transfer mode) switching equipment; IBM, which provided computers and support for The Tech Info Lounge; Pacific Bell which installed two years worth of free ATM lines, and Silicon Graphics Computer Systems, whose portfolio of work from its artist Stewart McSherry is featured in the exhibit. One exhibit, Live Link to Monterey Bay, will take visitors into the depths of the Monterey Sea Canyon by using ATM technology. Live undersea video images from deep in the Monterey submarine canyon, along with audio and video interpretation from the Monterey Bay Aquarium, will offer visitors a chance to participate in aquarium's popular programs. The exhibit will include live video broadcasts of unusual animals and environs deep in Monterey Bay. The images will be sent from a remote operated vehicle used by scientists at Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute. "This collaborative exhibit applies advances in communications technology to enhance information sharing and science education," said Peter Giles, president of The Tech Museum. "Much of the technology in 'Virtual World: Multimedia and the Internet' represents communications breakthroughs that are not readily available to the general public." The use of integrated services digital network (ISDN) is the focal point of another exhibit. Visitors have access to two separate channels on the same digital line to simultaneously share video and Internet computer screen images with another destination using like equipment. At another exhibit, a workstation will offer visitors a chance to interact with the work of California artist Stewart McSherry, a self- described "abstract expressionist," who creates "elastic" 3-D computer animations. Part of his exhibit, "Airplay," allows the visitor to interact with his artwork, by triggering events based on hand movements. Three separate stations will offer interactive laser disk viewing, including a special 3-D station with stereographic goggles that allow visitors to experience virtual reality sensations with theater-quality sound. The Tech will also have an exhibit showing the application of digital video compression and network transmission using a Pentium processor-based computer. The Tech Museum of Innovation, a private non-profit corporation, is is located at 145 W. San Carlos Street in downtown San Jose, California. Hours are 10 am to 5 pm, Tuesday through Sunday. Admission is $6 adults, and $4 for youths, students and seniors. Children and museum members are free. For general information and times for special shows, call 408-279-7150. (Richard Bowers/19950711) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 07/11/95 GENERAL Nintendo Signs Baseball Star As Game Advisor (NEWS)(GENERAL)(DEN)(00025) Nintendo Signs Baseball Star As Game Advisor 07/11/95 REDMOND, WASHINGTON, U.S.A., 1995 JUL 11 (NB) -- Nintendo of America Inc. said it has signed baseball player Ken Griffey Jr. to an exclusive multi-year deal to act as a corporate spokesperson and game development advisor. #IMAGE 1 20 TWPCX \images\95071125.PCX Click here for photo Nintendo said Griffey will help the company develop baseball games, one for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System (Super NES) and one for the 64-bit Nintendo Ultra 64. Ultra 64 is scheduled for showing at Nintendo's annual Video Game Exhibition in Makuhari, Japan November 24, and at the Consumer Electronics Show on January 5, 1996. Nintendo said Ultra is scheduled to ship in April, 1996. The Super NES baseball game is already in development by Nintendo and Rate Ltd., the same company that developed "Donkey Kong Country" and the arcade video game "Killer Instinct." The Ultra game is scheduled for release in late 1996 or early 1997, said Nintendo. Nintendo said Griffey has met with its designers, taken the Rare development team to Seattle Mariners baseball games and will travel to England this fall to replicate his actual hitting stroke, running stride and throwing motion using Rare's proprietary motion capture animation technology. "Realistic and fun - that's what we want in this game. Something you won't put down," said Griffey. Nintendo said the first new Nintendo/Griffey game is scheduled for release next spring at the start of the 1996 Major League Baseball season. Nintendo has executed a licensing agreement with Major League Baseball (MLB) that will allow it to include actual team stadiums, logos, colors, and uniform designs in its electronic baseball games. MLB officials are enthusiastic about the Nintendo relationship. "The expansion of our association with Nintendo will enhance the appeal of Major League Baseball to a young audience, which is our future fan base," said Don Gibson, senior vice president for business affairs for MLB properties. (Jim Mallory/19950711/Press contact: Eileen Tanner, Golin/Harris for Nintendo, tel 206-462-4220/ULTRA64950711/PHOTO) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 07/11/95 BROADCAST VideoServer's "Continuous Presence" Conferencing (NEWS)(BROADCAST)(BOS)(00026) VideoServer's "Continuous Presence" Conferencing 07/11/95 LEXINGTON, MASSACHUSETTS, U.S.A., 1995 JUL 11 (NB) -- VideoServer's upcoming Continuous Presence videoconferencing product will allow desktop conferencing participants to view up to four other sites simultaneously on their PC monitors "right out of the box," maintained Jack O'Neil, VP of marketing, at a meeting with Newsbytes. Slated to be available for customer evaluation in September, the new Continuous Presence is an add-in card to VideoServer's Multimedia Conference Server (MCS) for multipoint conferencing, O'Neil reported, during a recent briefing for Newsbytes at VideoServer headquarters in Lexington, Massachusetts. MCS and other existing multipoint conferencing servers already allow conferencing between three or more desktop users, O'Neil acknowledged. Continuous Presence, however, will be the first product available to let users view more than one other site at any given time, without costly systems integration work, according to the VP. Beta users will include the University of Washington, which will deploy Continuous Presence in a "distance learning" application involving student participants at both the main and branch campuses. The product will also prove useful for corporate "distance meetings," added the VideoServer exec. In a prepared demo, O'Neil showed Newsbytes how the product might be employed to let a team of marketing pros at five different sites plan a marketing campaign for a hypothetical car that "defies physics by never losing traction no matter how fast it's going around a curve." At the recent ITCA (International Telecommunications Association) show in Washington, DC, VideoServer presented a live demo of Continuous Presence, in which members of the audience played the roles of characters that included a professor, an attorney, and a "Bill Clinton-like" politician, according to O'Neil. VideoServer's MCS, a product that is already shipping, was the first videoconferencing server to comply with the H.320 videoconferencing standard, Newsbytes was told. MCS is sold to telephone companies, which supply videoconferencing to organizations, as well as direct to organizations, O'Neil added. Existing owners of MCS will be able to purchase Continuous Presence as an add-in video processor unit (VPU) card. Release 5.0 of MCS software will also be required. Alternatively, customers will be able to buy a new MCS pre-installed with a VPU and the necessary software. The forthcoming product will allow up to five participants to view up to four other sites simultaneously in quadrants of a PC monitor, O'Neil elaborated. The MCS and the new Continuous Presence Video Processor Unit models will work with any PC outfitted with an H.320-compliant desktop conferencing system, he maintained. CI (Computer Integration) Laboratories, PictureTel, IBM, and most other vendors in the desktop videoconferencing industry now support H.320, according to O'Neil. The standard is now being expanded with support for LANs (local area networks). Like other modules in MCS, the new VPU for Continuous Presence will operate from the MCS's control bus. Other modules in the system include a network management processor, two bridge processor cards, and network interface cards. MCS supports conference transfer rates ranging from 64 to 384 kilobits-per-second, and frame rates of 7.5 frames-per-second (fps) to the full-motion speed of 30 fps, according to O'Neil. Network interface cards currently available for the MCS include ISDN (integrated services digital network), switched 56, and fractional and full T1/E1. The VPU card for Continuous Presence will be priced at $23,500. In the future, VideoServer expects to add capabilities that will permit more than five users to share in a "simultaneous viewing" conference, and that will automatically switch the camera to whatever participant is speaking at a given time, the VP told Newsbytes. (Jacqueline Emigh/19950710/Reader Contact: VideoServer, 617-863- 2300; Press Contact: Nancy Kashanek, Schwartz Communications for VideoServer, 617-431-0770) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 07/11/95 TELECOM LCI To Acquire South Carolina Long Distance Teleco (NEWS)(TELECOM)(MSP)(00027) LCI To Acquire South Carolina Long Distance Teleco 07/11/95 MCLEAN, VIRGINIA, U.S.A., 1995 JUL 11 (NB) -- LCI International (NYSE:LCI) said it has reached a definitive agreement to acquire Corporate Telemanagement Group Inc. (CTG) for approximately $45 million in cash, along with 2.3 million shares of LCI common stock. In the process, LCI will assume about $24 million in debt from CTG. The Greenville, South Carolina-based CTG is a long distance provider that generated revenues of approximately $54 million in 1994. CTG officials said by the closing of this deal, it will generate revenue at an annual rate of $120 million. LCI, which is also a provider of long distance services, said CTG will be merged with the newly-formed LCI Telemanagement Corp. group, and will be operated as a separate division of LCI. LCI Chairman and Chief Executive Officer H. Brian Thompson said the acquisition is a strategic one for his company, in that "this allows LCI to become part of a one-stop solution, which presents powerful market opportunities for LCI's already burgeoning commercial business." CTG maintains operations in seven locations, including a network switching facility in Atlanta. LCI officials said that facility would likely be integrated into LCI's nationwide long distance network. The agreement also says the LCI common shares won't be initially registered with the Securities and Exchange Commission. LCI agreed to register such shares at the request of the holders between 13 and 19 months after the closing of the transaction in connection with an underwritten public offering of such shares. The transaction is expected to close before the end of the year, subject to approvals by CTG shareholders and regulatory authorities. Because of today's announcement, Dow Jones put LCI in its "Hot Stocks to Watch" list for today. On Wall Street at 12 PM EDT, LCI's stock was down $0.125 at $34.25. (Bob Woods/19950711/Press Contact: Gerry A. Simone, LCI International, 703-848-4401) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 07/11/95 PC Compaq Intros 120MHz Prolinea, Deskpro Systems (NEWS)(PC)(DEN)(00028) Compaq Intros 120MHz Prolinea, Deskpro Systems 07/11/95 HOUSTON, TEXAS, U.S.A., 1995 JUL 11 (NB) -- Compaq Computer Corp. (NYSE: CPQ) has announced new Prolinea and Deskpro models based on Intel Corp.'s 120 megahertz (MHz) Pentium microprocessor. Models of the new Prolinea 5120 and the Deskpro 5120 bring to 51 the number of Pentium-based Compaq desktop systems introduced in 1995. The Deskpro is one of the workhorses of Compaq's PCs and is approaching its fifth anniversary. The new 120MHz Pentium-based systems include 16 megabytes (MB) of RAM; a 256 kilobyte (KB) secondary cache; a one-gigabyte (GB) capacity IDE (Integrated Drive Electronics) hard drive; and TriFlex/PCI (Peripheral Component Interconnect), ISA (Industry Standard Architecture), and PCI local bus architectures. Compaq said the Deskpro series is specifically designed to lower costs associated with a networked environment. Deskpro systems come with "Intelligent Manageability," which includes asset management, fault management and security management, an integrated 32-bit PCI Ethernet network controller, pre-installed network drivers and a network setup utility. Intelligent Manageability is a combination of hardware, firmware and software that provides an inventory of hardware and software assets on the network, including serial numbers and version numbers. Fault management tracking can predict hard drive failures before they occur. The system also tracks the internal temperature of the system and can alert the user when pre-set limits are reached. In June, Newsbytes reported Compaq's introduction of 120MHz Deskpro XL PCs. In March, the company introduced the ProLinea 1500, a 120MHz-based network server. Compaq said it will introduce a variety of desktop and server products later this year that are based on the recently announced 133MHz Pentium chip. The estimated selling prices for the new 120MHz Prolinea and Deskpro models range from $2,599 to $3,599. (Jim Mallory/19950711/press contact: Mike Berman, Compaq, 713-374-0484; Public contact: Compaq, 800-345-1518) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 07/11/95 ONLINE ****Wall Street Journal Launches First Web Site (NEWS)(ONLINE)(MSP)(00029) ****Wall Street Journal Launches First Web Site 07/11/95 NEW YORK CITY, NEW YORK, U.S.A., 1995 JUL 11 (NB) -- The Wall Street Journal said it is launching the first step in what will eventually bring an interactive edition of the world-renowned newspaper to the Internet's World Wide Web by early 1996. The Journal's initial entry into cyberspace is called "Money & Investing Update," which the company calls the first online publication to offer continuously updated news and analysis of the world's markets. Content from Dow Jones, parent of the Wall Street Journal, is already available in other electronic formats, a company official told Newsbytes. "Part of our strategy is to be everywhere," said Neil F. Budde, editor of the Money & Investing Update. "We chose the Web because we thought it was the direction most people were headed in terms of access, and wide accessibility." He also said that with Netscape's new HTML (hypertext markup language) extensions, a "quality product" can be put up on the Web. The site will provide the Journal's "What's News" column of top stories in business and finance. It will be updated throughout the day and evening as news breaks, with full stories being made available behind each news item in the summary. The Update is produced by a new team of Journal staffers with Dow Jones, other newspapers, and interactive media. "We're not just pouring in newswires into the site," Budde said. "We're trying to treat it like a newspaper in the sense that editors cultivate and organize information based on some order of priority of what's important." He also said many hyperlinks will be available so, for example, a company name can be clicked on to find more information on that firm. Some of those features will be implemented in the near future, Budde added. Money & Investing Update is available to Internet surfers free of charge -- for now. In the fall, the Journal will begin charging for access. Budde said he is not sure how much the service will cost, but he did say charges will probably be based on a monthly subscription fee, with possible add-on charges for specific content. Eventually, subscribers will be able to access the Update and the full interactive edition through customized software through Dow Jones. The new Web site does not spell the death of Dow Jones' Personal Journal, an automated dial-in news retrieval service Newsbytes covered earlier this year. "Personal Journal is a very refined, discreet product," Budde said. "The Web is designed for more of depth of information. We believe there are places for both of these products in the world for people who have different reasons why they want Personal Journal over the Web site." The Journal's Web page can be found at http://update.wsj.com . (Bob Woods/19950711/Press Contact: Wendall Wood Collins, Wall Street Journal, 609-520-4685. Public Contact: Internet World Wide Web http://update.wsj.com ) (SUMMARY)(GENERAL)(MSP)(00030) Newsbytes Daily Summary 07/11/95 MINNEAPOLIS, MINNESOTA, U.S.A., 1995 JUL 11 (NB) -- These are capsules of all today's news stories: ======================================================================== ------------| N E W S B Y T E S D A I L Y S U M M A R Y |---------- ------------| Tuesday, July 11, 1995 |---------- ======================================================================== (c) Newsbytes News Network (Tm) Editor in Chief: Wendy Woods ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Newsbytes News Network is a computer and telecom industry news wire and digitized picture service. Our news stream includes more than 30 daily first-hand reported US and international news stories about computing and telecommunications. For more information, please e-mail to 'administrator@newsbytes.com' ------------------------------------------------------------------------ CATEGORY HEADLINES (*** indicates today's top stories) STORY # ======================================================================== APPLE Europe - Farallon's PCI/Power Mac Fast Ethernet Cards...... 01 APPLE ClarisWorks 4 Makes Hong Kong Debut........................ 07 APPLE Corel Gallery 2 For Mac Announced.......................... 15 BROADCAST Hong Kong Telecom Forms Video-On-Demand Alliance........... 06 BROADCAST VideoServer's "Continuous Presence" Conferencing........... 26 BUSINESS UK's Dr. Solomon Names Canadian Virus Distributor.......... 11 BUSINESS India - Square D Gets $11Mil US Development Order.......... 14 BUSINESS Advanced RISC Machines Opens German Office................. 17 BUSINESS Sweden's Ericsson Cuts 300 California Jobs................. 18 GENERAL UK - Groupe Bull Offers Customer "Service Desk............. 08 GENERAL Australia - Pacific Computer Publication Relaunched........ 09 GENERAL China - Commercial Database Lists 2.3Mil Firms............. 10 GENERAL HP Intros New Line Of Color Inkjet Printers................ 20 GENERAL Nintendo Signs Baseball Star As Game Advisor............... 25 GOVT ****Clinton Backs V-chip For Television................... 21 GOVT FCC To Take Up Telecom Portability Policy.................. 22 ONLINE NewsPage Reaches 50,000 Registered Web Users............... 04 ONLINE UK - Barclays Offers Computer Banking...................... 16 ONLINE UK - Quarterdeck's Windows Web Publishing Application...... 19 ONLINE ****Wall Street Journal Launches First Web Site........... 29 PC AT&T Launches Globalyst PC Range In India.................. 13 PC Compaq Intros 120MHz Prolinea, Deskpro Systems............. 28 TELECOM Siemens Clinches Major Russian Telecoms Deal............... 02 TELECOM Telecom Italia's TMI Establishes Hong Kong Regional HQ..... 05 TELECOM TelSource Buys 27% Stake In Czech SPT Telecom.............. 12 TELECOM LCI To Acquire South Carolina Long Distance Teleco......... 27 TRENDS EC's Bangemann Speaks Of Controlling Car Pollution......... 03 TRENDS Smart Card Technology Gaining Acceptance - Study........... 23 TRENDS Virtual World Tech Exhibit Opens In San Jose............... 24 ======================================================================== These are the headlines and first paragraphs of each story, in order: 1 -> Europe - Farallon's PCI/Power Mac Fast Ethernet Cards -- Farallon Computing has unveiled its Fast Ethernet PCI (Peripheral Component Interconnect) card for the Apple Power Mac with PCI systems. Pricing on the card has been set at UKP210 for the UK market, with local equivalent pricing applying in Europe. 2 -> Siemens Clinches Major Russian Telecoms Deal -- Siemens says it has won a joint contract with Alcatel Belgium to supply telecoms equipment to Novosibirsk, Russia's third largest city. 3 -> EC's Bangemann Speaks Of Controlling Car Pollution -- Last week saw the Car of the Future Conference taking place in Brussels. Invited to speak at the event was Martin Bangemann, the European Commission's (EC's) Minister for competition. 4 -> NewsPage Reaches 50,000 Registered Web Users -- On the same day it announced passing the 50,000 registered user milestone, Individual Inc. also announced two pricing plans for its NewsPage World Wide Web-based news service. For the past few months, NewsPage had been offered for free during a trial period. 5 -> Telecom Italia's TMI Establishes Hong Kong Regional HQ -- Tele Media International (TMI), a wholly owned subsidiary of Italian telecommunications company Telecom Italia, has opened its Asia-Pacific headquarters in Hong Kong in order to provide outsourcing services to the region. 6 -> Hong Kong Telecom Forms Video-On-Demand Alliance -- Hong Kong Telecom's fledgling video-on-demand (VOD) service has received a boost with the announcement of an alliance with local film production house Fitto Mobile for interactive programming. 7 -> ClarisWorks 4 Makes Hong Kong Debut -- Claris in Hong Kong has launched ClarisWorks 4, the latest version of its best-selling integrated software package for the Macintosh platform. The new version is WorldScript-aware, allowing a document to include multiple scripts such as English, simplified Chinese, and traditional Chinese. 8 -> UK - Groupe Bull Offers Customer "Service Desk -- Bull has taken the wraps off "Service Desk," a mixture of services which the company claims has been designed to help customers measure and manage both the initial and hidden costs of desktop computing. 9 -> Australia - Pacific Computer Publication Relaunched -- Australia's oldest computer weekly publication, Pacific Computer Weekly, has undergone some changes over the past few weeks. This week it has emerged from its cocoon as a new publication, called Computer Week. 10 -> China - Commercial Database Lists 2.3Mil Firms -- Wanguo Enterprise Services has completed a comprehensive database covering more than 2.3 million enterprises in China. A resulting CD-ROM version is expected to become available soon. 11 -> UK's Dr. Solomon Names Canadian Virus Distributor -- S&S International PLC of the UK has awarded Sensible Security Solutions Inc. (SSS) of Braeside, Ontario, exclusive rights to sell and support its award-winning Dr. Solomon's Anti-Virus Toolkit in Canada. 12 -> TelSource Buys 27% Stake In Czech SPT Telecom -- The Czech government has announced that a 27% stake in SPT Telecom will go to TelSource. 13 -> AT&T Launches Globalyst PC Range In India -- Just a month after its introduction in the US, the Globalyst PCs from AT&T Global Information Solutions (GIS), have been launched in India. 14 -> India - Square D Gets $11Mil US Development Order -- Square D Software Ltd., the Madras-based software company has won an order worth $11 million from the US firm Computer Vision Inc. This is the largest single offshore software development contract won by any single Indian software company. 15 -> Corel Gallery 2 For Mac Announced -- Corel Corp. (NASDAQ:COSFF) has announced Corel Gallery 2 for the Apple Macintosh. The updated clip-art manager has essentially the same features as the Corel Gallery 2 for Windows announced in February. 16 -> UK - Barclays Offers Computer Banking -- Barclays Bank has announced plans to launch phase one of the UK's first mass market PC-based banking service for personal customers. According to the bank, the service will be modem-based and require the personal account customers to run a Windows application on their PCs and access a central number. 17 -> Advanced RISC Machines Opens German Office -- Advanced RISC Machines (ARM) has announced the opening of a German office in Munich, Germany. According to officials with the RISC (reduced instruction set computing) developer and manufacturer, the aim of the new office is to assist in the expansion of the business expansion the company is experiencing in Central Europe, as well as allowing ARM to target systems design houses in the region. 18 -> Sweden's Ericsson Cuts 300 California Jobs -- Ericsson and Raychem Corporation have announced plans to relocate around 300 of the 700-plus positions at a fiber production facility in Menlo Park, California. 19 -> UK - Quarterdeck's Windows Web Publishing Application -- Quarterdeck has formally unveiled WebServer for Windows, a sub-$200 package (UKP130 in the UK) that is billed as being capable of allowing an 80486-based PC to be plugged into an Internet link 20 -> HP Intros New Line Of Color Inkjet Printers -- Hewlett- Packard's new DeskJet 1600 color printer line will print color at a rate of up to four pages-per-minute (PPM), twice as fast as the previous 1200C model. The new system also offers improved "black-only" printing capabilities to go along with the new speed. 21 -> ****Clinton Backs V-chip For Television -- "This is not censorship. This is parental responsibility," said President Clinton yesterday, endorsing putting a computer chip in televisions to let parents screen what their children can watch. 22 -> FCC To Take Up Telecom Portability Policy -- The Federal Communications Commission is expected to unveil a proposal this week on promoting telephone number portability. 23 -> Smart Card Technology Gaining Acceptance - Study -- Forty percent of consumers would prefer to use "smart card" technology for everyday purchases, as opposed to using cash, The Smart Card Forum reports. In a recent study conducted by the forum, almost two-thirds of the respondents saw smart cards as a convenient option for carrying important personal information, like medical and insurance-related data. 24 -> Virtual World Tech Exhibit Opens In San Jose -- The Tech Museum of Innovation has formally introduced its exhibit "Virtual World: Multimedia and the Internet." This exhibit was made possible with donated equipment and software from numerous Silicon Valley companies. 25 -> Nintendo Signs Baseball Star As Game Advisor -- Nintendo of America Inc. said it has signed baseball player Ken Griffey Jr. to an exclusive multi-year deal to act as a corporate spokesperson and game development advisor. 26 -> VideoServer's "Continuous Presence" Conferencing -- VideoServer's upcoming Continuous Presence videoconferencing product will allow desktop conferencing participants to view up to four other sites simultaneously on their PC monitors "right out of the box," maintained Jack O'Neil, VP of marketing, at a meeting with Newsbytes. 27 -> LCI To Acquire South Carolina Long Distance Teleco -- LCI International (NYSE:LCI) said it has reached a definitive agreement to acquire Corporate Telemanagement Group Inc. (CTG) for approximately $45 million in cash, along with 2.3 million shares of LCI common stock. 28 -> Compaq Intros 120MHz Prolinea, Deskpro Systems -- Compaq Computer Corp. (NYSE: CPQ) has announced new Prolinea and Deskpro models based on Intel Corp.'s 120 megahertz (MHz) Pentium microprocessor. 29 -> ****Wall Street Journal Launches First Web Site -- The Wall Street Journal said it is launching the first step in what will eventually bring an interactive edition of the world-renowned newspaper to the Internet's World Wide Web by early 1996. The Journal's initial entry into cyberspace is called "Money & Investing Update," which the company calls the first online publication to offer continuously updated news and analysis of the world's markets. (Ian Stokell/19950711) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 06/27/95 ONLINE Top Multimedia Official Calls Internet "CB Radio Of 90s" (NEWS)(ONLINE)(MSP)(00001) Top Multimedia Official Calls Internet "CB Radio Of 90s" 06/27/95 ATLANTA, GEORGIA, U.S.A., 1995 JUN 27 (NB) -- Not every major multimedia industry figure in the US believes in the long-term potential of the Internet as a communications and marketing vehicle. Count Stephen Weiswasser, president of Capital Cities- ABC Multimedia Group, a leader in the ranks of Internet skeptics. "I think the strongest case can be made for the proposition that the Internet will be the CB (Citizens Band) radio of the 90s," said Weiswasser to an audience of several hundred Internet- curious newspaper executives at the Newspaper Association of America Connections X new media conference in Atlanta Friday. Weiswasser's "CB radio" metaphor refers to the brief period during the late 1970s, when the communications devices, long popular among long-haul freight truckers on US highways, enjoyed brief flirtation by "regular" American motorists as a status symbol of hipness -- only to disappear from general usage within a year or two. "I don't believe the American people are going to spend a lot of time trying to find out what is there (on the Internet), or surfing through dozens and dozens of choices. The American consumer is not simply going to turn into the proactive kind of skimmer and surfer that is at the core of many people's models," Weiswasser added. Those not knowledgeable about Weiswasser's track record might be tempted to dismiss him as a cyberphobe, but this can't easily be done. At American Broadcasting Company, the largest US broadcast network and part of the Capital Cities corporate domain, Weiswasser is a senior official and ABC has a dedicated program information area on America Online as well as on the Internet itself. Stars of ABC-TV shows regularly come to the chat rooms of the online services where hundreds, if not thousands, of fans regularly line up at the queue. But Weiswasser thinks that in terms of sheer numbers, the ultimate potential for this type of marketing will be limited. "Even after Bill Gates finishes with (the rollout of the Microsoft Network as part of Windows 95), interactivity won't be in any more than 40 million homes," he said. "Even to reach those numbers, we are going to have to go from the early innovators and get those people who really look at media for what media really means -- a way for them to get something they want, need, and are interested in. American mass media has gotten where we've gotten by reason of being able to tell people how to find what they want, to show it to them, and to give it to them. I've never seen how the Internet is going to provide that for them." Weiswasser added that even if the 40 million threshold of wired homes is reached, it won't all be through one source but through several. He said this will create an extra burden on advertisers who wish to engage the network and an online service in an online promotional campaign. The difficulty will be having to work with a multiplicity of outlets to be sure we reach mass penetration," he said. (Russell Shaw/19950627) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 06/27/95 ONLINE Newspaper Industry Announces Web Site, Reflects On Changes (NEWS)(ONLINE)(MSP)(00002) Newspaper Industry Announces Web Site, Reflects On Changes 06/27/95 ATLANTA, GEORGIA, U.S.A., 1995 JUN 27 (NB) -- Kathleen Criner, outgoing senior vice-president of industry development for the Newspaper Association of America, used her speaking time at the group's Connections X new media conference here Friday to announce a new Web site (http://www.infi.net/naa ) and to reflect on changes she's seen in her 15 years with the group. She said, "There are currently about 85 (American) papers online, either with the Web or via a commercial online service. Our industry has moved ahead in the world of online services, so we thought our organization should, too." Criner said the Web site features association membership information and hyperlinks to 55 member papers that already have their own Web sites. After touting the virtues of the Web, Criner then turned to the morphing media landscape. "The giants of the 1980s have shrunk," she said. "Fifteen years ago, our computers were made by IBM, our phone service was through AT&T, and three broadcast networks served up our entertainment and TV news. Back then, Bill Gates was 25, Microsoft was just one more tiny competitor, cable television was a business hoping that real people would pay real money to watch television without commercials, and the Internet was still the Arpanet, a way for scientists to talk shop with each other." Criner added that in her view, the unpredictability of the last 15 years makes the future somewhat unchartable as well. "No one knows whether broadband cable, ISDN phone lines, wireless networks or souped-up direct satellites will become the dominant distribution mode, but knowing what these networks can do and who is controlling them is the first step you must take in assessing your newspaper's business and investment opportunities," she told the group. Criner pointed out that newspapers will not thrive if they remain static. "Technology leaders are developing new tools, authoring software, 'knowbots' with search and receive capabilities," she said. "These will have profound influence over the look and feel of new media products, and make it easier for consumers to create, find, and manipulate information. Today's new technical tools will challenge the traditional relationships between information suppliers, distributors, and end users. "That means, if we update a story only once a day (on a newspaper delivered online) we won't survive," she added. "Content is king and newspapers bring a great capability to that role, but dull and frumpy sites won't get accessed. That's why we're committed to helping newspapers develop the skills necessary for a new media strategy." (Russell Shaw/19950627/Newspaper Association of America, 1-703- 648-1000) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 06/27/95 TELECOM ****Former FCC Head Says Agency Will Disappear (NEWS)(TELECOM)(MSP)(00003) ****Former FCC Head Says Agency Will Disappear 06/27/95 ATLANTA, GEORGIA, U.S.A., 1995 JUN 27 (NB) -- Al Sikes, chairman of the Federal Communications Commission during the presidency of George Bush, told the Newspaper Association of America that in his view, the agency will cease to exist in its present form within five years. I don't think it's imminent, but five years from now, there will be a communications agency that will be the FCC's successor," said Sikes, now president of the Hearst New Media and Technology Group. "That agency will be much more ministerial than today's (FCC), much more involved in straightforward implementation than in resolving high policy questions." Sikes bases his opinion on the feeling that substantial telecommunications deregulation, now being considered by the US Congress, is inevitable. "(Senate Majority Leader Bob) Dole and (House Speaker Newt) Gingrich are quite interested in having a significantly different communications law than today," said Sikes. "I see the chances of passage as quite good, and I imagine the White House will sign the bill. What will then happen will be that you will add an accelerator to the velocity of competition. If you let telephone companies into cable and cable into telephony, it will speed up the development of an advanced infrastructure -- much along the line as occurred in the long-distance market." It is this projected free-market, free-for-all atmosphere that according to Sikes, will make the FCC as it is known today largely irrelevant. "We only need an FCC if there is high policy to deal with. If you are only policing the airwaves to make sure people are using their assigned spectrum, you don't need a Commission," he said. Sikes, whose parent company still publishes eight US dailies including the San Francisco Examiner and Houston Chronicle, then illustrated how this enhanced, mostly unregulated atmosphere competition will draw newspapers in, like it or not. "Every newspaper represented in this room will be online within 18 months," said Sikes to the representatives of more than 200 papers in attendance. "But there are things you need to do to make sure you are there when you need to be. If you are a computer phobe, overcome it. If you aren't online, start working on it on Monday. Listen to the market, shape and reshape your product. If you do that, your approach will be a good one." Sikes ended his prepared remarks on a mixed note of caution and encouragement. "Newspapers as we know them today will outlast the careers of the people in this room but a new medium is moving in quickly. If you don't capitalize on your opportunities, you will, at some point, see your business declining much more rapidly than it is today. "But as far as newspapers' future in new media," he added, "I am a raging bull. Who is a better anchor for a local information service? Who has more information resources? Who has more promotional power? Who do people want to talk back to, more than the local newspaper? Newspapers will thrive in this environment if we see ourselves as the anchor of an extraordinary information source. (Russell Shaw/19950627) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 06/27/95 ONLINE News Execs Say Internet Presence Imperative (NEWS)(ONLINE)(MSP)(00004) News Execs Say Internet Presence Imperative 06/27/95 ATLANTA, GEORGIA, U.S.A , 1995 JUN 27 (NB) -- Several high- level US newspaper executives in Atlanta last week for the Newspaper Association of America new media seminar believe that newspapers must establish an online presence or risk oblivion. "There is no longer a debate over whether our industry is going to do online, but about how we are going to do it. All the solutions are heavily weighted toward some electronic publishing components. There are no fence-sitters anymore, and as an industry, we are committed," said Frank Daniels III, vice president and executive editor of the Raleigh, North Carolina News & Observer and the chief corporate architect of Nando Net, one of the US newspaper industry's first Internet-distributed services. Daniels, whose family has owned the Raleigh newspapers for more than a century but is selling them to McClatchy Newspapers Inc., of Sacramento, Cal., noted that a year ago, many newspapers were debating whether to have an Internet presence, affiliate with an online service, establish a dial-up bulletin board, or do nothing at all and wait it out. But the "wait-it-outers" seem to have become a minority. "There has been a clarification of the muddiness that existed a year ago," added Robert Ingle, vice president of new media for Knight-Ridder Inc., Miami, Fl. "Some things are a lot clearer now than then. One is the absolute tidal wave onto the Internet from every direction, including the proprietary services." Ingle said that the "best-platform" debate between the personal computer and interactive television as a delivery mechanism for news and information has been resolved in favor of the PC. "This has led to some of the alliances we see happening," he said. Peter Winter, CEO of the New Century Network, heads one of those alliances -- a nine-newspaper confederation devoted to exploring and constructing online service offerings for its members. "You no longer need to construct a virtually proprietary dedicated channel. You can now construct an alliance of Web sites, focusing on content or becoming the gateway," he noted. Daniels added that in starting an online offering, any newspaper will need to go through a cultural retrofit as well as a technical one. "The challenge is not going to be technological. The challenge is organizational," he said. "We have to challenge the newsroom to want to talk back to readers, and the advertising department to go beyond taking space orders and develop online business relationships in their community." Ingle added that in effect, actions speak far louder than words. "You are not learning if you are not doing," he said. "The lessons you learn when you actually are publishing electronically cannot be replaced by anything else. You need to understand that these services break down three times a day and you'll need to call someone to come and fix them." One other sobering point was emphasized by several speakers. Few, if any newspaper-delivered electronic offerings make any money. "We're not nearly at the stage where we see two or three revenue streams or ways to turn this thing into a business," Ingle said. "Rather, its just trickles of revenue with six or eight or ten possibilities -- some of which haven't been tapped yet." Ingle mentioned one of these as digital cash, which is only now being seriously talked about and planned for. The uncertain revenue potential of electronic newspapers may be a valid reason for not putting all the corporate eggs in one basket. Another panelist said the best strategy is for new media expenses to be kept in check, and until the enterprise can stand on its own, to be subsidized by a profitable hard-copy newspaper at the center. "There are two parts to that ratio. You want your (expenses for) new media to stay small, and you want your core business to stay healthy. You have to figure out the best role for your traditional newspaper business, and then, how best to transform it," said Scott Whiteside, director of strategic development for newspapers and magazines at Times-Mirror Co., Los Angeles. (Russell Shaw/19950627) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 06/27/95 TELECOM Supreme Court To Review Video Dialtone (NEWS)(TELECOM)(WAS)(00005) Supreme Court To Review Video Dialtone 06/27/95 WASHINGTON, D.C., U.S.A., 1995 JUN 27 (NB) -- The Supreme Court yesterday agreed to rule on the constitutionality of a federal law that prohibits local telephone companies from competing against cable TV. But a decision in the case, expected next year, could be moot if Congress repeals the prohibition in the pending telecommunications reform legislation, which appears likely. The prohibition on local phone companies offering programming on phone lines, known as "video dialtone," was including in the Cable Communications Policy Act of 1984. A federal appeals court in Richmond, Va., last November ruled that the prohibition is unconstitutional, as it is a government restriction on free speech barred by the First Amendment. The regional Bell operating companies have been bringing and winning free speech suits against the restrictions in federal courts around the country. Congress put the ban in the 1984 law because it feared that the phone companies, with their local monopolies, would load the costs of offering video services onto captive phone customers who did not want the new service. The court agreed to hear the case, which saw a strange juxtaposition of interests arguing for and against review of the lower court decision. The Clinton administration, while formally appealing the decision from Richmond, was hoping the high court would duck the case. The administration asked the court to send the case back to the appeals court for a new look in light of Federal Communications Commission policy that routinely grants phone companies a waiver of the prohibition. In 1992, the FCC asked Congress to drop the video dialtone ban and replace it with regulatory protections, but Congress refused. Last year, the FCC let it be known it would grant liberal waivers. Bell Atlantic, which won in the appeals court and presumably had no interest in pushing the issue further, wanted the court to grant review, urging a "prompt and authoritative resolution." Bell Atlantic is confident the Supreme Court will uphold the lower court on the constitutional issue and has hired noted attorney Lawrence Tribe to represent the company before the court. The case is US v. Chesapeake & Potomac Telephone, No. 94-1893. In other action on Monday, the Supreme Court refused to review a First Amendment challenge to a federal law curbing use of pre-recorded or computer-generated messages in telemarketing. The 1991 Telephone Consumer Protection Act makes such calls illegal with "prior express consent" of the person being called. Kathryn Moser, who runs a chimney sweeping business in Oregon and is president of the National Association of Telecomputer Operators, a small trade group, told the court the automated devices generate 70 percent of her business. Moser sued in federal district court in Oregon to overturn the law on free speech grounds. But the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco overturned the lower court, saying the law was justified by the "significant interest in residential privacy." The Supreme Court let the appeals court decision stand without comment. The case is Moser v. FCC, No. 94-1833. (Kennedy Maize/19950627/Press Contact: Toni House, Supreme Court, 202-479-3211) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 06/27/95 LEGAL Microsoft, Justice Fire Suits At Each Other (NEWS)(LEGAL)(WAS)(00006) Microsoft, Justice Fire Suits At Each Other 06/27/95 WASHINGTON, D.C., U.S.A., 1995 JUN 27 (NB) -- Angry at Justice Department demands for production of documents on short notice, Microsoft last Friday asked a federal district court in New York to call off the feds. Angry at what it views as delaying tactics by Microsoft, Justice retaliated yesterday and filed its own suit, asking the court to order Microsoft to comply with its civil investigative demand, or CID, the equivalent of a subpoena. As a result of the skirmishing in court, the public now has a look at the 18-page CID, which indicates clearly that Justice is concerned about anti-competitive effects of bundling access to the Microsoft Network with the upcoming Windows 95 operating system. The CID consists of 33 multiple-part questions and 16 requests for documents. The CID asks Microsoft how it estimates the potential number of subscribers to the new network. It also asks for contracts the Redmond, Wash., software giant has made with other companies to provide content on the network, for contracts covering its technical details and advertising and pricing, and for Microsoft's strategic plans "concerning predictions as to the future of computers and computer technology." Microsoft says it received the CID June 21, with a deadline to respond by last Friday. According to Microsoft spokesman Greg Shaw, the company asked Justice for more time, but received no answer. So Microsoft asked Federal District Court Judge Robert Ward to call off the Justice Department dogs, saying the schedule was "obviously unreasonable." Justice's CID, said Microsoft in its filing, "is the latest salvo in what increasingly appears to be a campaign of harassment directed against Microsoft." Earlier, Justice gave CIDs to Microsoft's online competitors, Compuserve, Prodigy and America Online, asking for information about the Microsoft Network. Also earlier this year, Justice's worries about anti-competitive issues sunk Microsoft's acquisition of Intuit. Justice has become "a 'Microsoft complaints center' for Apple, AT&T, IBM and other large competitors," complains Microsoft in its filing. "Such companies are perfectly capable of fending for themselves." The government, in its filing, says it was willing to extend the deadline. Microsoft's suit, says the government, is a "tempest in a teapot." A hearing on the Microsoft petition is set for the week of July 24, but many observers expect the two warring parties to come up with a peace treaty before then. If Justice is going to try to derail the Microsoft Network, it wants to move quickly. The Windows 95 rollout is set for August 24, and analysts expect to see sales of some 30 million copies in the first four months. (Kennedy Maize/19950627/Press Contact: Greg Shaw, Microsoft, 206-882-8080) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 06/27/95 LEGAL CA Extends Deadline For Legent Offer (NEWS)(LEGAL)(TOR)(00007) CA Extends Deadline For Legent Offer 06/27/95 ISLANDIA, NEW YORK, U.S.A., 1995 JUN 27 (NB) -- Computer Associates International Inc. (NYSE:CA) has extended the deadline on its offer for shares of Legent Corp. (NASDAQ:LGNT) to July 11. The delay will give CA more time to respond to the United States Justice Department's request for more information on the merger. CA has pushed the deadline for tendering Legent shares in response to its $47.95-per-share offer back five days from July 6. That is not a long extension, but "we're putting it out there and we're going to try and do it," Douglas Robinson, CA's senior vice-president of investor relations, told Newsbytes. The Justice Department issued CA a second request for information on the takeover, worth something in the neighborhood of $1.75 billion, last week. Company spokesman Bob Gordon called the Justice Department move a "procedural step." However, it does suggest the takeover may be subjected to antitrust scrutiny. The Justice Department recently approved IBM's takeover of Lotus Development Corp. However, Microsoft's earlier plans to take over Intuit Corp. were dropped when antitrust concerns became an issue. Other than the deadline extension, Robinson said, there have been no changes in CA's offer for Legent. In a press conference shortly after the deal was announced, Charles Wang, chairman and chief executive of CA, said the deal "accelerates CA's move into the client/server marketplace." The buyout seems to reinforce an effort to reduce the company's reliance on its traditional mainframe software business. Analyst Peter Kastner of The Aberdeen Group, a Boston-based consulting firm, told Newsbytes he expects the deal to "work out very well for CA, which is rapidly emerging as a premier systems management company," (Grant Buckler/19950627/Press Contact: Douglas Robinson, Computer Associates, 516-342-2745; Bob Gordon, Computer Associates, 516-342-2391, fax 516-342-5329; Kathleen Janson, Legent, 703-708-3890) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 06/27/95 UNIX Data General To Use Intel Chips For Aviion (NEWS)(UNIX)(TOR)(00008) Data General To Use Intel Chips For Aviion 06/27/95 WESTBORO, MASSACHUSETTS, U.S.A., 1995 JUN 27 (NB) -- In what could be seen as a blow for Motorola Corp. (NYSE:MOT) and for the PowerPC microprocessor developed by Motorola, IBM (NYSE:IBM), and Apple Computer Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL), Data General Corp. (NYSE:DGN) has announced it will use Pentium processors from Intel Corp. (NASDAQ:INTC) in new models of its Aviion product line. Data General is not dropping the existing Aviion workstations and servers based on Motorola's 88000 reduced instruction set computing (RISC) processor, and will announce a new system with 32 88000 processors later this year, company spokesman Jim Dunlap told Newsbytes. The company is also planning to make it possible to connect eight 88000-based Aviion servers in a cluster. However, he said, "over time obviously the focus is going to be on the Intel platform." The company said it will ship its first servers based on Intel chips later this year. A key reason for the move is the popularity of Intel chips and consequent financial benefits, said Steve Aucoin, director of marketing for the company's Aviion business unit. "Commodity chip economics do seem to prevail in the long run," Aucoin told Newsbytes. Data General also considered the PowerPC chip, a RISC processor that would almost certainly be the future option Motorola would suggest for 88000 users. However, Aucoin said, the popularity of the Intel chips and the large amount of software and other complementary products available for them tipped the balance. "What that allows us to do is to buy more commodity building blocks from the company and then integrate it in new ways," he explained. Data General's plans include the use of Non-Uniform Memory Access (NUMA), an emerging concept which Aucoin described as combining some advantages of traditional shared-memory architectures with some benefits of massively parallel processing (MPP), in which each of many processors has its own dedicated memory. With NUMA, he said, individual processor boards each contain memory as in an MPP system, but all the memory is accessible to all processors. The system optimizes the use of "near" memory (that on the same board as the processor) and "far" memory. The first Aviion systems using NUMA technology are due to appear in 1996, Data General said. The company said it will offer Unix software for the new Intel- based servers that will allow existing applications to run on both Motorola- and Intel-based Aviion systems with a simple recompilation and in some cases other minor changes. Both types of systems will share the same storage systems, systems management tools, and networking products, company officials said. (Grant Buckler/19950627/Press Contact: Jim Dunlap, Data General, 508-898-6546, fax 508-898-4233; Public Contact: Data General, Internet World Wide Web http://www.dg.com ) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 06/27/95 WINDOWS Microsoft Mail Server 3. (NEWS)(WINDOWS)(DEN)(00009) Microsoft Mail Server 3.5 06/27/95 REDMOND, WASHINGTON, U.S.A., 1995 JUN 27 (NB) -- Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ: MSFT) has announced availability of Microsoft Mail Server version 3.5 for PC networks. The new release includes a new multitasking message transfer agent (MMTA) for the Windows NT Server network operating system, some additional utilities to improve mail management, and an electronic forms designer. Microsoft said the multitasking message transfer agent for Windows NT Server enhances remote administration of the messaging network and increases message throughput. Administrators can manage message transfer agent and directory synchronization processes remotely through the MMTA from any desktop with administrative privileges. MMTA also improves end users' access to the messaging network through Microsoft Mail Remote. Microsoft said users can send and receive electronic mail over a remote connection more efficiently and users with high- or low-speed modems can now access the same messaging server simultaneously. Microsoft said Mail Server 3.5 is fully compatible with the upcoming Microsoft Exchange client in the Windows 95 operating system scheduled for August 1995 availability, and can be used with Microsoft Mail Postoffices at no extra charge. The new utilities shipping with Mail Server 3.5 are designed to facilitate the management of directory synchronization and personal address books. PABCheck ensures the synchronization between a user's personal address book and the global address list, while MMFClean lets the administrator manage and maintain users' message files. PODiag performs diagnostics on the Postoffice database structure. Microsoft is also including the Microsoft Electronic Forms Designer, a graphical forms development tool that lets users and developers create customized electronic forms for routing and sharing information through the enterprise. The tool is based on the Microsoft Visual Basic programming system and includes drag and drop. Users can set control properties and create executable forms. Mail Server 3.5 supports Windows, DOS, Apple Macintosh, and IBM OS/2 systems. Microsoft said Mail Server 3.5 includes the Microsoft Mail Postoffice, the MS-DOS and Windows NT-based MMTAs, the Microsoft Electronic Forms Designer, an AT&T Mail gateway, client software for all supported platforms, and a license for a single Microsoft Mail Postoffice and 10 Microsoft Mail users. You can purchase additional Microsoft Mail client packages in five- and 20-user configurations for about $269 and $899 respectively. Microsoft Mail Server 3.5 sells for about $469, said Microsoft. The company does not publish suggested retail prices. You can get the Microsoft Mail Upgrade Server version 3.5 for upgrading from a previous version of Microsoft Mail, the Mail Client License in Microsoft Office, and the Workgroup Postoffice in Windows for Workgroups and the upcoming Microsoft Windows 95, for about $339. (Jim Mallory/19950627/Press contact: Peggy Stabler, Waggener Edstrom for Microsoft, 206-637-9097; Public contact: Microsoft, 206-882-8080 of 800-426-9400) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 06/27/95 BUSINESS Spyglass Announces Initial Public Offering (NEWS)(BUSINESS)(MSP)(00010) Spyglass Announces Initial Public Offering 06/27/95 NAPERVILLE, ILLINOIS, U.S.A., 1995 JUN 27 (NB) -- Spyglass Inc. announced it will offer 2 million shares of stock in an initial public offering (IPO). The IPO price is $17.00 per share, and the issue will trade on the NASDAQ stock exchange under the symbol "SPYG." Of the shares to be offered, 1,800,000 are being sold by the company, and 200,000 will be sold by certain stockholders of the company. Spyglass markets the Enhanced Mosaic graphical browser, which provides graphical point-and-click access to the Internet's World Wide Web. Dow Jones called the new issue a "Hot Stock to Watch." The news service also said the offering had been expected to be in the range of $15 to $16. Dow Jones also said net proceeds from the IPO will be used for working capital and general corporate purposes, and that delivery is scheduled for June 30. Spyglass officials told Newsbytes they could not comment any further on the IPO, and the only information that will be provided is in the preliminary prospectus and in a news release issued today. The IPO is being managed by Alex. Brown & Sons Inc. and Cowen & Company. Last Friday, Spyglass' main competition in the Web browser arena also made an IPO. Newsbytes reported that California-based Netscape Communications filed with the Securities Exchange Commission to offer 3.5 million shares of stock priced at around $13 a share. (Bob Woods/19950627/Press Contacts: Laura Cain or Randy Pitzer, Spyglass, Inc., 708-515-1010. Public Contact: Internet World Wide Web, http://www.spyglass.com ) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 06/27/95 BROADCAST GE Plans New European Satellite (NEWS)(BROADCAST)(TYO)(00011) GE Plans New European Satellite 06/27/95 STOCKHOLM, SWEDEN, 1995 JUN 27 (NB) -- General Electric's (NYSE:GE) GE Americom division, through GE Capital Satellites International, has announced a partnership with Stockholm-based Nordiska Satellitaktiebolaget (NSAB) that will create a new "hot spot" in the skies above Europe. Both companies will jointly develop the 5 degrees East satellite slot to make it become a center of Scandinavian and European television and radio programming. Currently two satellites, Sirius 1 and Tele-X, occupy the position, beaming a package of eight free and subscription channels to viewers in Sweden. The new deal will result in a new satellite, Sirius 2, replacing Sirius 1 which has already filled its capacity of six transponders. Sirius 2 will boast 32 transponders, half of which will be tightly focused on Scandinavia; the other sixteen are designed to put a strong signal across all of Europe. GE will manage the European services while NSAB are in charge of the sixteen Nordic transponders. Sirius 2 will, according to Valdemar Persson, NSAB chairman and president of Teracom, "give the Nordic and European public access to a greater variety of open and encrypted channels, both analog and digital." Currently the Astra series of four satellites operated out of Luxembourg rule the skies of Central Europe with a strong line up of 64 mostly English and German programs although the Eutelsat organization has recently begun competing. In the past Eutelsat, owned by state run PTTs in Europe, was happy with just a few channels on each of its satellites but now, after seeing the money being made by Luxembourg-based Societe Europeanne des Satellites (SES), is aggressively chasing contracts. Its most recent venture has been the establishment of a second European "hot position" at 13 degrees East where it has co-positioned the new Hot Bird 1 satellite with its Eutelsat II-F1 craft to currently provide a line-up of around 25 television stations, mostly free to air, unlike Astra's pay TV line-up. The new satellite venture hails General Electric's first foray into the competitive world of European broadcasting. In North America the company operates the Satcom, Spacenet, and GStar satellite fleets, mainstays of US cable television distribution. GE's NBC division is currently active in developing a European-wide business and entertainment service built on the success of NBC Super Channel, Europe's most widely seen TV channel, which was purchased 18 months ago by NBC. That service and a planned CNBC European channel are likely contenders for space on the new satellite. NSAB is a joint venture of Teracom Svensk Rundradio AB and Swedish Space Corporation (SSC). Teracom is Sweden's television and radio transmission network providers currently transmitting three national TV networks, four national radio networks and several regional radio services. SSC is a government-run corporation founded in 1972 to implement Sweden's national space policy. SSC owns and operates the Tele-X satellite currently positioned alongside Sirius 1. (Martyn Williams/19950627/Press contact: Paul Manuele, GE Americom, +1-609-987-4200) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 06/27/95 ONLINE Internet Update (NEWS)(ONLINE)(TYO)(00012) Internet Update 06/27/95 TOKYO, JAPAN, 1995 JUN 27 (NB) -- In this update of new services and resources on the Internet: Australian telecom watchdog online; the business Web server; Web authoring software; information about Colombia; update Finger information easily; IEEE expands net presence; Antique map museum; Business information and stock quotes; Bookshops on the Web; Japanese browsing made easy. Australian Telecom Watchdog Online The Australian Telecommunications Industry Ombudsman has joined the Internet. Currently the services offered extend to a page on the World Wide Web. The organization is a last resort stop for people with complaints about the Australian telecommunications industry. World Wide Web: http://www.sofcom.com.au/TIO/ The Business Webserver Nijenrode University, a dutch business school, is making available to the Internet community its index of business related Web sites. The server offers academic business resources in different areas of management and economics, and updated country-by-country information. World Wide Web: http://www.nijenrode.nl/nbr Web Authoring Software A new release of Web Wizard offers users the ability to specify a background color, bitmap or simple color-flipping animation. The new backgrounds can be displayed in new versions of Netscape's Navigator. A sample copy of the software, available for the Windows 3.1 or Windows NT and Windows 95 platforms, is now available. World Wide Web: http://www.halcyon.com/webwizard/ Information About Colombia A Web site at the University of Los Andes Institute of Higher Education in Colombia is now available. The pages include information about the university as well as information about Colombia itself. World Wide Web: http://www.uniandes.edu.co Update Finger Information Easily Finger Plan software allows users to easily update their "Finger" files. Some Internet Service Providers dynamically allocate IP numbers meaning that users get a different one each time they log on. This is normally no problem except when using two-way communication software where the other party needs to know your IP address. Finger Plan will connect with your service provider's host computer and update your file with your current IP address. The software runs under Windows 3.1. World Wide Web: http://www.lamplight.com/lamplight Anonymous FTP: ftp://ftp.lamplight.com/pub/lamplight IEEE Expands Net Presence The Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers has expanded its Web server. The site offers the full text of featured articles, new information and regular samples from the society's publications and conferences, and a broad range of information about technical committees, standards, student activities, and more. World Wide Web: http://www.computer.org/ Antique Map Museum The Heritage Map Museum of Lintz, Pennsylvania, is now on the Internet. The museum displays hundreds of 15th to 19th century antique maps in its buildings. On the Internet you get a chance to see some of the beautiful maps on display and find out more information about the museum. World Wide Web: http://www.carto.com Bookshops On The Web A bookstore in Paris is offering Internet users the chance to buy French books at the regular French retail price with nothing added. Also this week Blackwell, "The World's Finest Academic Bookseller," went online with a bookstore full of academic titles. Users can browse the full catalog and order online. World Wide Web: http://gplc.u-bourgogne.fr:8080/pdf/Welcome.html World Wide Web: http://www.blackwell.co.uk/bookshops/ Japanese Browsing Made Easy If you want to access pages on the Web written in Japanese but lack a suitable Web browser or Japanese operating system, a new, free, service will help out. Shodouka (Japanese for "calligrapher") is a "mediator" for the Web. With it you can access documents written in JIS or EUC. Shodouka then converts the files and displays the Japanese characters as small inline images. World Wide Web: http://csclub.uwaterloo.ca/u/kryee/shodouka.html (Martyn Williams/19950627) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 06/27/95 ONLINE Encyclopaedia Britannica, Time Warner Online Partners (NEWS)(ONLINE)(MSP)(00013) Encyclopaedia Britannica, Time Warner Online Partners 06/27/95 CHICAGO, ILLINOIS, U.S.A., 1995 JUN 27 (NB) -- Encyclopaedia Britannica will provide online content to Time Warner's Pathfinder Internet World Wide Web site, the companies announced. Encyclopaedia Britannica's content will be available for a free 60-day trial period. Britannica officials said this is the first time consumers will have access to the company's "Britannica Online," a service which has already been available to colleges and universities by site license since the fall of 1994. "These aren't traditional online services," Joseph J. Esposito, president of Encyclopaedia Britannica North America, told Newsbytes. "What you see in Web publishing is that it's a different editorial model, and a different business model. The key thing about Web publishing is that you don't have to pay a line charge (like online services)." He said this means the opportunity exists to build relationships with other Web publishers. Articles and topics in the Britannica Online site will be hotlinked to other Web sites, officials said. Future plans include linking articles in the Time Magazine section of Pathfinder to relevant Britannica content. For example, recent Time articles on DNA testing would be linked with Britannica Online's content on subjects like genetic engineering and genetic fingerprinting. "We chose Pathfinder because it is one of the largest, most successful sites out there," Esposito said. He also said other deals similar to the Time Warner agreement may "go forward." Esposito said once the 60 day trial period is up, customers will have to pay some sort of fee, although he couldn't disclose a figure. He said his company would more than likely use a subscription-based model that would be billed on a yearly basis. Pathfinder's URL (uniform resource locator) on the Web is http://www.pathfinder.com Britannica now publishes information in several forms, including Internet, CD-ROM, and the time-honored 32-volume printed set. (Bob Woods/19950627/Press Contacts: Pam Pesavento, 312-988-2513, or Cathy Gately, 312-988-2675, of Ogilvy Adams & Rinehart for Encyclopaedia Britannica. Public Contact: Internet World Wide Web, http://www.pathfinder.com ) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 06/27/95 TRENDS Sony, Fujitsu, NEC Develop Plasma LCD Screens (NEWS)(TRENDS)(TYO)(00014) Sony, Fujitsu, NEC Develop Plasma LCD Screens 06/27/95 TOKYO, JAPAN, 1995 JUN 27 (NB) -- NEC Corporation (TOKYO:6701) announced today that they will begin manufacture of Plasma Display Panels (PDP) next year. The announcement comes a day after a similar one from Sony Corporation (TOKYO:6758) and two weeks after Fujitsu Limited (TOKYO:6702) announced the same intentions. Sony displayed prototypes of its new Plasmatron television screens yesterday and will introduce them into the Japanese market next year. The screens use plasma-addressed liquid crystal (PALC) technology. Both Fujitsu and NEC are also planning to introduce television sets equipped with the new screens next year. The three companies are making much of the new screens which offer lighter weight and smaller size. Because the screens are developments of liquid crystal display (LCD) technology, the television sets they inhabit will be much thinner that those of today, just as LCD screens on laptop computers are thinner than desktop monitors. Fujitsu's 42-inch wide-screen display is just 3.2 cm thick and weighs 20kg, a fraction of the weight of today's cathode ray tubes which include a very thick, and heavy, glass tube. Sony explained the technology behind its new units, developed with Tektronix Inc., of the United States. "The display is an active matrix system that separately addresses (accesses) each pixel of the liquid crystal, allowing for a beautiful range of colors, high picture quality, high contrast, and smooth replay of moving images. The address method is based on PALC technology, which uses plasma as an electronic switch." Normally the plasma discharge phenomena, which results from passing voltage in a tube filled with low-pressure gas, is used as a light source, as in fluorescent lighting tubes, but in the new screens it is used as an electrical on/off switch. The light is provided by an independent back light. Sony says that the use of an independent back light creates a bright light source, resulting in a much brighter and better picture. Conventional LCD screens are difficult to manufacture is sizes above 20 inches, so the new technology not only allows for much larger screens but, through the use of the new technology, better pictures. Fujitsu is investing 60 billion yen in the new product which will begin appearing in stores next year. A new production line will be built at the company's existing factory in Miyazaki prefecture that will produce 20,000 screens a month initially. Sometime in 1997 output will be increased to 100,000 units a month. NEC says it plans to pump 10 billion yen into development of PDP televisions and computer monitors. Some of that will be needed to build a new plant in Japan to handle production. The displays will begin rolling off the production line next year at a rate of 10,000 per month but that figure will be increased to 150,000 units per month by the turn of the century. The public debut of the sets will coincide with the beginning of digital high definition (HDTV) broadcasts by state broadcasters NHK and will be promoted alongside the new transmissions. When contacted by Newsbytes, neither Fujitsu, NEC or Sony would comment on likely prices for the sets but the financial daily Nihon Keizai Shimbun suggested that the launch price of Fujitsu's unit would be around 1 to 2 million yen ($11,764 to $23,529) with volume production reducing prices to around 400,000 yen ($4,705) in a few years. Sales are expected to go well in Japan where wide screen television sets are already commonplace. (Martyn Williams/19950627/Press contact: NEC Corporation, +81-3-3798-6511, fax +81-3-3457-7249; Sony Corporate Communications, +81-3-5448-2200, fax +81-3-5448-3061; Fujitsu Ltd, +81-3-3215-5236, fax +81-3-3213-4160/PLASMA950627/PHOTO) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 06/27/95 ONLINE American Stock Exchange Goes Online (NEWS)(ONLINE)(TYO)(00015) American Stock Exchange Goes Online 06/27/95 NEW YORK, NEW YORK, U.S.A., 1995 JUN 27 (NB) -- The American Stock Exchange (AMEX) Monday became the first US equities exchange to begin an online service. The AMEX began a comprehensive World Wide Web service and revealed plans to begin similar services on America Online later this year. The America Online service was termed an "information alliance" by AMEX which will release more details of that service later in the year. The new Internet service though is available now. AMEX Chairman Richard F. Syron explained in a company statement the role of the new service. "Our goal is to provide an information link between our listed companies and the investing public. Technological innovation can help us do that and we intend to be a leader in its application." Arda Nazerian, director of media relations at the AMEX, expanded on the role the Web site has. "It has two primary goals, to provide a free, valuable service to the public about the capital markets, the auction market system, and the AMEX is particular, and second, to provide another visibility service to our over 800 listed companies." The AMEX spokeswoman continued there are two broad audiences that they anticipate serving with the new Web service. "Our broader audience would include individual investors and members of the public who are interested in learning accurate, interesting information about the capital markets. Another audience would include executives and decision-makers in both public and private companies, as well as investment professionals interested in learning more about hundreds of high-quality, growing companies." The AMEX home page joins other financial services already available on the Internet such as Chicago's Mercantile Exchange and information from the exchanges around the world including Italy, Canada and Croatia plus others. The AMEX home page is one of the few actually provided by the organization itself. In fact only two others, The Chicago Mercantile Exchange and the recently launched London International Financial Futures Exchange, provide information directly. The server offers access to closing stock prices of all issues traded on the market, and they are organized into simple alphabetical lists or listed by trading volume, price movements, and trading volume in particular classes of stock. The price and volume information and tables are added automatically each day from the exchange's existing computer systems. Integration between the Web site and the trading computers was made possible with the assistance of GNP Computers of New York, says AMEX. To complement the stock prices, there is also a database of all the companies trading on the AMEX and their ticker symbols. The exchange promises that company information will be added soon. The Options & Derivatives market is also covered with an introduction to derivative securities and details of the trades on the exchange. Information is added to the service continually under the supervision of a newly hired Web manager. "We will employ one full-time Web manager with primary responsibility for developing and maintaining the site. In addition, a number of staff members will contribute information and provide support, and regularly interact with the Web manager in continually upgrading the AMEX site," said Nazerian. The Web manager is also responsible for the technology behind the system. Nazerian told Newsbytes the system is running on Silicon Graphics' WebFORCE system with connection to the Internet via a T-1 line. The Internet is the only place these machines are connected. "For security purposes this is a stand-alone system, separate and apart from all other AMEX networks," she added. What you miss on the Web is the feeling of being there. You can get all of the information you want but you don't get to see what the exchange and all its parts really look like. A visit to the AMEX gallery will solve this problem. From there one can download pictures of everything from the trading floor to Wall Street and aerial shots of the building and area. To round off the site, a selection of links are offered to other financial-related World Wide Web sites. To access the American Stock Exchange point your Web browser at http://www.amex.com (Martyn Williams/19950627/Press contact: Arda Nazerian of American Stock Exchange, +1-212-306-1634, Internet email anazerian@amex.com) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 06/27/95 ONLINE Newspaper Assn. Head Urges New Electronic Strategy (NEWS)(ONLINE)(MSP)(00016) Newspaper Assn. Head Urges New Electronic Strategy 06/27/95 ATLANTA, GEORGIA, U.S.A., 1995 JUN 27 (NB) -- The chairman of the Newspaper Association of America (NAA) said a four-lane "Infobahn" strategy is needed in approaching the electronic future of the newspaper. Chairman Uzal Martz Jr. made the remarks to newspaper representatives at NEXPO 95, a show that officials call the world's largest annual newspaper exposition and conference. Martz said the Infobahn strategy is made up of four information "lanes" that newspapers must travel in the upcoming "information superhighway" era. Lane one is the existing ink on paper, lane two is basic audiotext services, lane three is enhanced audiotext, while lane four is online services. "For the newspaper industry, the threat and opportunity of the digital explosion is captured in the term 'new media,' everything from audiotext to movies on demand to computer delivery of the morning paper," Martz said. "I'm happy to report that more and more newspapers are seeing less threat and more opportunity in the change at hand." That statement is reflected in a recent NAA survey. The "1995 New Media Survey" of more than 650 newspapers shows more and more papers are entering the electronic age. Twelve percent, or 75, of the total newspapers surveyed have online services. By the end of this year, an additional 40 newspapers said they expect to have online ventures. Other electronic services provided by newspapers include voice personals (35% already have, 40% total will have by the end of the year), free-to-caller audiotext services (29% have, 37% total will have by the end of 1995), and fax-on-demand or fax subscription services (22% already have). Technologies with less implementation include classified mailbox services, CD-ROM archive services, and searchable classified services. But all of those technologies are gaining wider acceptance, according to the survey. Although the increase in electronic delivery has been strong, Martz doesn't think newspapers in paper form are dead. "Why all this investment if, according to our detractors, the digital explosion means that newspapers are a medium in irreversible decline? The answer, of course, is that we're not in decline. We're in change -- two very different things." (Bob Woods/19950626/Press Contact: Paul Luthringer, Newspaper Association of America, 404-222-5622; Internet e-mail naapress@attmail.com) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 06/27/95 ONLINE ****America Online Offers Link To Astronauts In Space (NEWS)(ONLINE)(SFO)(00017) ****America Online Offers Link To Astronauts In Space 06/27/95 VIENNA, VIRGINIA, U.S.A., 1995 JUN 27 (NB) -- America Online's (NASDAQ:AMER) members have the opportunity to rendezvous with US astronauts and Russian cosmonauts. The National Space Society forum on AOL is presenting photos, news updates, scientific project reports and electronic mail communications from the 100th US human space flight. Scheduled to dock in space with the Russian Space Station Mir, the US shuttle Atlantis is the subject of regular updates in the forum, providing status reports as they become available. The shuttle is slated for liftoff this afternoon, Tuesday, Eastern Daylight Time. To reach the forum go AOL Keyword: NSS The shuttle is expected to dock with the Russian Mir between Friday. A spokesperson for AOL told Newsbytes, "This is the first time people interested in the shuttle flights and space technology have been able to have more than traditional television and news coverage. Our area provides round-the-clock access to the latest news. AOL members will be able to view photographs, see the mission logbook, send e-mail to the astronauts and cosmonauts, learn about science projects and keep abreast of information from NASA." The National Space Society (NSS), a volunteer grassroots group of 25,000 members, will select e-mail messages which will be forwarded to the crew members and space station members through NASA. Answers will be posted in the forum. Information for the area comes primarily through the NSS Dial-A- Shuttle team and other support comes from NASA Internet sites, Ben Huset's Mirwatch, and the staff at Destination Florida. (Patrick McKenna/19950627/Press Contact: Judy Tashbook, AOL, tel 703-918-1452) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 06/27/95 UNIX Europe - Groupe Bull Systems & Software Division (NEWS)(UNIX)(LON)(00018) Europe - Groupe Bull Systems & Software Division 06/27/95 PARIS, FRANCE, 1995 JUN 27 (NB) -- Bull, the computer technology specialist, has opened a new division, drawing together elements of its existing Bull sales and marketing operations under the Estrella brand name. According to officials with Groupe Bull, the launch of Estrella will significantly strengthen company's position on the market and bring closer collaboration between Bull's partners and distribution channels. The new Estrella operation is being dedicated to the indirect sales channels, which includes dealers and distributors. According to Bull, Estrella is deployed by both the Open Systems and Software division and Zenith Data Systems, Groupe Bull's PC Division. "With these announcements, Bull Open System and Software division makes distributed computing open, reliable and secure across large organizations with leading edge open systems technology and software and decades of experience," explained Alain Couder, president of Bull's Open Systems and Software division. A brand new range of products will mark the launch of Estrella. New machines scheduled for release include symmetric multi- processing (SMP) systems with the new eight-way RISC (reduced instruction set computing) PowerPC-based Escala systems -- built on Bull's PowerScale Architecture and running the AIX operating system. A new range of Database Servers will be one of three key technology areas in the Open Systems and Software division. These will be closely followed by a new range of entry-level servers with Estrella systems, a new range of RISC PC servers and Data Warehousing with a new open distributed scalable system, the distributed data warehouse (DDW). Bull is also introducing four major programs in the Open Systems and Solutions area: Instant Power, Rose, L'Overture and Powerful Advantage. Instant Power is claimed to be designed for customers with the need for step-by-step open and distributed systems leveraging legacy information systems. Rose, meanwhile, is being recommended for Bull's business partners, systems integrators, ISVs (independent system vendors), and applications developers. L'Overture is for users of the older Unix and related mini- computer systems who need to evolve to open systems (Escala) with cost-effective terms and conditions. Last, but not least, Powerful Advantage will be a contribution for indirect channel partners who need specific technical and marketing support to provide customers with complete Escala and Estrella systems. (Sylvia Dennis/19950627/Press Contact: Alison Campbell, Bull Press office +44-181-479-2751) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 06/27/95 NETWORK Europe - Novell In Internet Deal (NEWS)(NETWORK)(LON)(00019) Europe - Novell In Internet Deal 06/27/95 AMSTERDAM, THE NETHERLANDS, 1995 JUN 27 (NB) -- Novell Europe has signed an agreement with EUnet, one of Europe's major Internet service providers, to offer business users one-stop access to the Internet. According to Novell, by combining EUnet and Novell technology in one product offering, users will no longer have to find separate suppliers for access software and Internet service. "From now on, gaining Internet access will be a simplified process that will not require specialist knowledge. The Novell/EUnet agreement means that business users can have easy Internet access right from their desktop," explained Darrell Jordan-Smith, director of European Telecommunications at Novell. "In simple terms, Novell provides the PC software to facilitate the full range of Internet services, including the ability to send and receive Internet electronic mail, and access the World Wide Web. EUnet will provide the Internet service and connectivity," he said. Wim Vink, EUnet's managing director, said that the partnership brings "internetworking in a box" closer to reality. "The needs of the business user are very different to those of the consumer; business people require an integrated solution, providing access to mission- critical information as quickly as possible," he said. "This agreement with Novell allows us to deliver on the needs of business users. Also, as a service provider, EUnet has the broadest coverage of Europe and beyond. We support dial-up, ISDN and leased- line connections making it easy for companies, whatever their size, to benefit from the opportunities the Internet presents," he added. According to Vink, the Novell/EUnet partnership will cover the full range of Internet connectivity from simple e-mail and remote access for individuals through to advanced networking functionality across a whole organization. Novell software will be offered in combination with a number of EUnet services to provide a one-stop- shop for full Internet access. Resellers can obtain these Novell products through the usual Novell distribution channel and local EUnet offices. Initially, Novell products offered will include the recently launched LAN WorkPlace 5, Novell's desktop TCP/IP (Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol) package which provides networked and remote Windows plus DOS users with concurrent access to the Internet. The agreement also covers Unix and NetWare network resources over TCP/IP, and NetWare MultiProtocol Router 3.0 (MPR), Novell's high- performance, software-based, local and wide area router. EUnet services offered will include EUnet Mail, a basic EUnet service providing an Internet "post office box." EUnet is also offering EUnet Traveller which combined with LAN WorkPlace 5, gives remote Internet access to individuals out on the road anywhere in Europe; and InterEUnet, which combined with NetWare MPR 3.0, is billed as offering a cost-effective way for European organizations to provide internetworked Internet access across all their remote offices. EUnet is Europe's main commercial Internet service provider, offering the full range of Internet Services, with current geographical coverage of over 30 countries. Headquartered in Amsterdam, the Netherlands, EUnet manages its own dedicated network infrastructure, and also offers full local support services in each country of operation. Outside of Europe, EUnet has developed an expanding network of national and regional service providers, with the aim of continually extending the services it offers to customers worldwide. (Sylvia Dennis/19950627/Press Contact: Vivienne Wilson, Novell UK +44- 1344-724460; Internet Email: vivienne_wilson@novell.com; Graham Wilson, EUnet +31-20-623-3803; Internet Email: media@eu.net) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 06/27/95 TELECOM AT&T Quizzes German Govt On Open Market Plans (NEWS)(TELECOM)(LON)(00020) AT&T Quizzes German Govt On Open Market Plans 06/27/95 MUNICH, GERMANY, 1995 JUN 27 (NB) -- In an act of clear frustration at the German Government's foot-dragging on opening up its telecoms market to meet the European Commission's (EC's) deadline of January 1, 1998, AT&T has called publicly for the German Government to "go public" on plans for telecoms liberalization. The call follows months of patient waiting on the part of AT&T which, although free to offer outbound international services to German companies, has been unable to plug directly into the Deutsche Telekom public switched telephone network (PSTN). As in other EC countries, AT&T is hoping that publication of the Government's game plan, specifically a timetable for the phased opening up of its network, will at least give AT&T a timetable. At the moment, in common with other foreign telcos, AT&T is just as much in the dark as any interested party. Given the need to invest and plan ahead for its network, AT&T claims it has a right to know how the Government plans to open up the market in just 18 months. At a press briefing held in Bonn by AT&T last week, senior officials with AT&T Deutschland were polite, but pointed out to local journalists -- perhaps hoping they might quiz the Government and Deutsche Telekom -- saying the German telecoms market is big enough for several players, all of whom will find it in their best long-term interest if plans for network expansion over the next few years are revealed for all to see. Dennis Kruse, head of AT&T Deutschland, said that the German telecoms market will only grow if the Government legislation allows it to grow, something that industry watchers say is unlikely to happen, based on the Government and Deutsche Telekon's current track record. Kruse told journalists that, while AT&T is interested in meeting the telecom needs of companies in Germany, it cannot assess whether the market will be viable post-1998, until the Government reveals the costs of interconnection with the Deutsche Telekom network. AT&T's main problem is that, the longer it has to leave pitching for business in Germany, the more likely it is that the "cream" of the telecom market will be skimmed off by other telcos, such as Sprint, which has been quietly mopping up on the data services front, as well as charge cards. At the Cebit Computer Faire in Germany in March of this year, several German telecoms vendors were offering branded versions of the Sprint calling card, while AT&T adopted a "soft" approach on its calling card marketing, perhaps not to upset the Government and Deutsche Telekom. Assuming AT&T's current PR exercise fails, the German Government has until December of this year to publish its plans, before submitting them for formal approval by the German Cabinet. Nevertheless, AT&T officials privately note that a six-month delay shaves one third off the time available to establish a network link with Deutsche Telekom. If the plans are published at the end of the year, then AT&T will only have a year to get its network infrastructure in place. Although technically possible, the logistics involved are complex and "plugging in" the AT&T net to Deutsche Telekom's could cost the US telco a large amount of money. (Sylvia Dennis/19950627/Press & Reader Contact: AT&T Deutschland +49- 89-5475-2110; Fax +49-89-5475-2100) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 06/27/95 TRENDS ****Compaq, Purespeech To Develop Speech Recognition (NEWS)(TRENDS)(DEN)(00021) ****Compaq, Purespeech To Develop Speech Recognition 06/27/95 HOUSTON, TEXAS, U.S.A., 1995 JUN 27 (NB) -- Compaq Computer Corp. (NYSE: CPQ) has announced it will work with PureSpeech Inc. to develop speaker-independent, continuous speech recognition for personal computers. Eckhard Pfeiffer, Compaq president and chief executive officer, said the technology will be implemented in Compaq systems "over the next few years." The Microsoft Press Computer Dictionary, Second Edition, defines a neural network as a type of artificial-intelligence system modeled after the neurons (nerve cells) in a biological nervous system and intended to simulate the way in which a brain processes information, learns and remembers. Compaq spokesperson Mike Berman told Newsbytes that Pfeiffer expects a fully integrated speech recognition system that could communicate over various communications media including phone lines to be incorporated in Compaq PCs by 1999. However, said Berman, bits and pieces of the technology could be implemented much sooner. Berman said the four-year projection was based on the time necessary to get the technology in production on a cost-effective basis. Berman said speech recognition technology has applications for home, small office and home office, and business users. "A lot of people in the home are looking for ways to make the PC easier to use. They want a product that is easy to use and will take away the intimidation factor," said Berman. Users could open and close files, send faxes and electronic mail, do online financial transactions like bill paying and funds transfer, make phone calls and connect to the Internet using speech recognition technology. Compaq has made an equity investment in PureSpeech, formerly Integrated Speech Solutions. The amount of the investment was not disclosed. Eckhard Pfeiffer told showgoers at last week's PC Expo in New York speech recognition will be a key differentiating feature of personal computers in the future. PureSpeech is no stranger to speech recognition. The privately held company specializes in developing advanced speech recognition products such as a high-end applications for banks that allow users to perform various transactions, such as funds transfers, over the telephone using voice commands. Limb told Newsbytes that that system incorporates artificial intelligence which allows it to ask questions of the bank customer until it has the necessary information to perform the desired transaction. PureSpeech spokesperson Amy Limb told Newsbytes what separates early speech recognition products from more sophisticated offerings is speaker-independence and continuous speech recognition. "Speaker-independent" means the product will recognize commands by any user, without the need to train the software to recognize the voice of a particular speaker. "Continuous speech recognition" means the user can talk in a conversational manner without having to pause between words. Limb declined to discuss what consumer products Compaq and Purespeech might introduce that would be of use to the home and small business user. She did acknowledge that the development deal with Compaq is a long-term one that could extend over several years before a product priced for the consumer would be available. The Cambridge, Massachusetts company was founded in 1992 and markets speech recognition products for the telephone, microphone and wireless inputs across multiple processing platforms. Ben Chigier, PureSpeech founder and president, was formerly a researcher at Carnegie Mellon University and at NYNEX Science and Technology. (Jim Mallory/19950626/Press contact: Mike Berman, Compaq, 713-374-0484 or Amy Limb, PureSpeech, 617-441-0000) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 06/27/95 GOVT China To Cool "High-Tech" Development Zone Fever (NEWS)(GOVT)(PEK)(00022) China To Cool "High-Tech" Development Zone Fever 06/27/95 BEIJING, CHINA, 1995 JUN 27 (NB) -- A new regulation on planning and management of high-tech development zones will be issued to control the overheated development zone constructions, China's state planning authorities say. Since 1984, thousands of "high-tech" development zones have been built across the country. To date, 122 national development zones have been approved by the central government and a large majority of the others were set up by local governments. Development zones have played a significant role in attracting foreign funding, management techniques, technologies, and have helped the local economy. However, in recent years, both the number and size of new zones have been larger than necessary, the state officials say. Most of them were built without careful feasibility studies and scientific planning, causing a vast waste of land and funds. The thousands of zones occupy almost 10,000 squares kilometers of land, an area larger than all the nation's cities combined. In some places, land set aside for the zones has been left unused as a result of a lack of construction funding. The "development zone fever" of the past few years must be brought under control, said Mr. Zou Shimeng, the director of the Urban Planning Department of the Ministry of Construction. Under the new regulation, plans for building development zones must be included in cities' overall construction plans. New development zones must get approval from urban planning departments to ensure that they conform to the City Planning Act with regard to the site, use of land, density, and height of the buildings. Urban Planning Departments can set up agencies in development zones to supervise their construction and management, according to the new regulation. (Chih-Ho Yu & Ning Huang/19950613) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 06/27/95 TRENDS China - Shortage Of High-Tech Talent (NEWS)(TRENDS)(PEK)(00023) China - Shortage Of High-Tech Talent 06/27/95 BEIJING, CHINA, 1995 JUN 27 (NB) -- Although many college graduates say it is difficult to find jobs, talents in certain fields, such as computers and telecommunications, are in great demand. According to the largest poll of manpower in China, there is still a shortage of white-collar workers in some areas including business management, computer programing, and telecommunications. Offering more than RMB2,000 (US$240) per month which is almost 3 to 4 times the average salary of a government employee, many companies still cannot obtain qualified software programmers. College students working part-time as software programmers usually make more money than their professors do. Lured by high salaries and good benefits offered by companies, few undergraduates in computer departments are applying for graduate studies than in recent years. Some colleges and universities are unable to find qualified Ph.D. candidates in the computer field. Based on figures released by the State Statistics Bureau, the current ten most-needed white-collar occupations in China are: 1) Sales business management, S/D (Supply/Demand) ratio is 1:10; 2) Telecommunications engineering, S/D = 12.4 percent; 3) Advertisement art design, S/D = 13.8 percent; 4) Public relation management, S/D = 21.5 percent; 5) Computer hardware/software engineering, S/D = 30.1 percent; 6) Civil engineering, S/D = 32.3 percent; 7) Business (high-level) management, S/D = 35.6 percent; 8) Secretaries/Office workers, S/D = 55 percent; 9) Mechanical engineering, S/D = 73.4 percent; 10) Bookkeeping/Accounting, S/D = 74 percent. (Chih-Ho Yu & Ning Huang/19950610) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 06/27/95 TELECOM China - $268 Million Deals Between Motorola and HTEP (NEWS)(TELECOM)(PEK)(00024) China - $268 Million Deals Between Motorola and HTEP 06/27/95 BEIJING, CHINA, 1995 JUN 27 (NB) -- Hangzhou Telecommunications Equipment Plant (HTEP) recently signed two import contracts with Motorola worth US$268 million, China Daily reports. HTEP, under the Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications, is China's largest state telecommunications enterprise. Its cellular phones and base station networks have a one-fifth share of the domestic market, the newspaper says. The recently signed contracts represent the largest amount of imports since the two sides began cooperating in 1990, according to the plant's general manager. About US$240 million will be spent on key components for telecommunications system base stations. Another US$28 million will be spent on GSM (global system for mobile communications) ground stations. The imported equipment will facilitate the exchange of mobile telephones and increase the number of mobile phone lines, the plant's general manager also said. HTEP is located in Hangzhou, the capital city of Zhejiang province on the east coast of China. HTEP currently has 2,200 employees. Sales in 1994 reached RMB1.55 billion US$186.7 million, China Daily says. (Chih-Ho Yu & Ning Huang/19950622/Reader contact: Hangzhou Telecommunications Equipment Plant, tel +86-571 512-9080) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 06/27/95 TELECOM Hong Kong Telecom Boss Happy To Face Deregulation (NEWS)(TELECOM)(HKG)(00025) Hong Kong Telecom Boss Happy To Face Deregulation 06/27/95 CENTRAL, HONG KONG, 1995 JUN 27 (NB) -- After announcing profits of HK$8.7 billion (US$1.1 billion) for the last fiscal year, Hong Kong Telecom (HKT) chief executive, Linus Cheung, has outlined some of the prospects ahead as the company faces the imminent deregulation of the telecommunications marketplace. "I am genuinely excited by the prospects which lie ahead," Cheung said at a press conference attended by Newsbytes. "The opportunities of a more liberalized marketplace and telecommunications infrastructure projects such as personal communication services (PCS) and cordless access services (CAS) are on a scale never before seen. The convergence of telecoms with other businesses such our interactive multimedia services will create business opportunities within Hong Kong, China and the region which otherwise would simply not exist." He added that HKT is actively looking at many business opportunities outside Hong Kong and cited recent success in bidding for the second mobile and paging license in Singapore and the opening of a second office in Canada. He also revealed that HKT has joined forces with a mainland partner, the Guangdong Post and Telecommunication Administration (GPTA), to bid for one of the six Hong Kong PCS licences to be granted in August. The company's technical and market trial of its video-on-demand pilot service had also shown favorable results, Cheung said, paving the way for Hong Kong to introduce this service and a series of other leading-edge interactive multimedia applications by mid-1996. (Mike Dunn/19950613) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 06/27/95 GOVT Hong Kong Airport Contract Goes To Hughes (NEWS)(GOVT)(HKG)(00026) Hong Kong Airport Contract Goes To Hughes 06/27/95 CENTRAL, HONG KONG, 1995 JUN 27 (NB) -- Three months late and at a fraction of its original estimated value, the fiercely contested Master Systems Integration (MSI) contract for the controversial new Hong Kong airport at Chek Lap Kok has been awarded to Hughes Asia Pacific (Hong Kong). The awarding of the contract, valued at HK$331 million (US$42.4 million), was announced by the Provisional Airport Authority (PAA) following a second submission of bids in April by the three contenders, Electronic Data Systems Hong Kong, the Dragon Consortium, led by ICL Hong Kong, and Hughes. The PAA did not reveal figures for the failed bids, but well-placed industry sources confirmed the Hughes bid as the lowest of the three, coming in at about half that of the Dragon bid, with EDS somewhere in between. Gordon Penfold, bid director for ICL said he believed the project went to the lowest bidder, but would not elaborate further. The Chek Lap Kok MSI project, one of the most ambitious and expensive information technology projects ever put out to tender, at one stage had a declared HK$800 million (US$102.5 million)-plus price tag, with an unconfirmed figure of a massive HK$1.4 billion (US$179.5 million) on the original Hughes bid. However, Hughes general manager, Bob McKirdy, refused to comment when asked about the alleged billion-dollar difference between his company's two bids. Now that the waiting is over, Hughes has a lot of work to catch up on. The MSI contract covers the detailed design development, manufacture, delivery, installation, testing, commissioning and training for the foundation systems. These include the information network, host local area network, airport operational database, fixed airport communications, building systems integration and the time-of-day clock. Under the terms of the contract, Hughes will provide interfaces for the integration of terminal building systems, including the passenger terminal building public address, telephone, trunked mobile radio, building management and data supervisory control and voice and data cabling systems; the automated people mover, baggage handling system and common user terminal equipment for airlines; the fire alarm system and general building management systems; meteorological information; and all the government departments involved in the airport. In a written statement, Douglas Oakervess, the PAA's project director, said the MSI will provide a seamless interface between airport users. "Rather than have level upon level of separate systems all trying to communicate with one another, it will supply a single coherent system that provides information to all airport users," he said. (Mike Dunn/19950615) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 06/27/95 NETWORK Novell Netware Client For Windows NT (NEWS)(NETWORK)(DEN)(00027) Novell Netware Client For Windows NT 06/27/95 OREM, UTAH, U.S.A., 1995 JUN 27 (NB) -- Novell Inc. (NASDAQ: NOVL) said it is now shipping Netware Client for Windows NT, a product that gives Windows NT users full integration with Netware, including Netware Directory Services (NDS). Novell said access to NDs offers Windows NT users a single network login, a single point of administration, and full browsing and management of the Netware directory environment through the new 32-bit graphical user interface of the Netware Administrator (NWAdmin) management tool. The 32-bit NWAdmin provides performance increases of up to 30 percent over the 16-bit version when doing tasks such as directory searches and files listings, according to Novell. Novell said the Netware Client for Windows NT allows users of Windows NT 3.5 and 3.51 to browse through the Netware directory and Netware file system; share files and Netware resources with DOS, windows 3.x, IBM's OS/2, Macintosh and Unix; print to Netware printers; and access Netware applications and services through their native Windows NT interface. Novell said the Netware client for DOS, Windows, OS/2, Macintosh, Unix and Netware Client 32 for Windows NT are all available now. Windows Client 32 for DOS and Windows 3 and Netware Client for Windows 95 is expected to ship in 90 days or less after Windows 95 is available. Netware Client for Mac OS is scheduled to ship in the third quarter of 1995. The Netware Client installs through the Windows NT Network Control Panel and self-configures. Users can choose from networking protocols like IPX/SPX (Internetwork Sequence Packet Exchange) or TCP/IP (Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol) to link with existing network environments during installation. The Netware Client for Windows NT uses the native Windows NT desktop interfaces to access network resources, and tasks like mapping network drives, capturing to network print queues, choosing a Netware directory tree and attaching to multiple servers and sending messages are done through the Windows NT File Manager. Netware Client for Windows NT is available at no cost except connect charges from the Clients directory on the Novell NetWire Compuserve forum and on Novell's World Wide Web site at the URL http://www.netware.com Novell said it will also include Netware Client for Windows NT in the next release of Netware 4. (Jim Mallory/19950626/Press contact: Kelly Hindley, Novell, 801-429-5870; Public contact: Novell, tel 800-638-9273 or at the Internet URL http://www.netware.com ). Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 06/27/95 GENERAL Shareware Award Winners (NEWS)(GENERAL)(MSP)(00028) Shareware Award Winners 06/27/95 SCOTTSDALE, ARIZONA, U.S.A., 1995 JUN 27 (NB) -- Both the Shareware Industry Awards Foundation (SAIF) and Ziff-Davis announced winners in ceremonies during the Shareware Industry Conference in Scottsdale, Arizona. Newsbytes first reported on the awards in May, when the nominees for the SAIF prizes were first introduced. Some of the titles were very recognizable, like the three dimensional game "Descent," which can be played via modem or even on the Internet. The following are many of the awards from the SAIF: Best New Product: WordExpress for Windows, MicroVision Development Inc. Best Action/arcade Game: Rise of the Triad, Apogee Software Ltd. Best Word Processing Application: WordExpress for Windows, MicroVision Development Inc. Best Entertainment Software: Soleau Games Collection, Soleau Software. Best Major Application: Telix for Windows, deltaComm Development Inc. Best Utility: Integrity Master, Stiller Research. Best Business And Finance: Money Smith, Brad Smith/Money Smith Systems. Best Educational Software: Billy Bear Let's Party, Loraine Wauer. Ziff-Davis Publishing also handed out a slew of awards. The overall winners from Ziff-Davis magazines are: PC Magazine Best Of Year Overall Award: CD-quick Cache, Circuit Systems. Computerlife Best Of Year Overall Award: Greatest Paper Airplanes, Kittyhawk Software. Computer Gaming World Best Of Year Overall Award: Heretic, Raven Software/ID Software. Ziff-Davis (ZD) officials said all of the winners and programs nominated for the 1995 Ziff-Davis Shareware Awards can be downloaded from ZD software libraries on ZiffNet on CompuServe. ZiffNet members should GO PBSAPPS and look in Library 23/ZD Shareware Awards. CompuServe members can join ZiffNet by typing GO ZIFFNET. In April, Eric Robichaud, SAIF director, Eric Robichaud, told Newsbytes the shareware industry is growing very quickly, because the "try before you buy" concept of shareware is becoming accepted by not only game publishers, but from business leaders like Microsoft as well. (Bob Woods/19950626/Press Contacts: Phil Hall, Open City Communications, 212-714-3575; Janice Brown, 617-332-8066, or Marcia Goff, 508-435-3068, both of Janice Brown and Associates) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 06/27/95 LEGAL Brooktrout Settles With Dialogic And Ibex On Fax Patents (NEWS)(LEGAL)(BOS)(00029) Brooktrout Settles With Dialogic And Ibex On Fax Patents 06/27/95 NEEDHAM, MASSACHUSETTS, U.S.A., 1995 JUN 27 (NB) -- Brooktrout has won patent disputes against Dialogic, GammaLink, and Ibex over their use of "two-call" fax-on-demand technology, while settling with Dialogic, the owner of GammaLink, over Brooktrout's use of "one-call" fax-on-demand, said Andrew O'Brien, Brooktrout's VP of marketing, in an interview with Newsbytes. In "one-call" fax-on-demand, the user must place a call from a fax machine, and the requested document is then faxed directly to that fax machine, O'Brien told Newsbytes. Conversely, in "two-call" fax-on-demand, the user can call from either a telephone or a fax machine, and can then use touchtone dialing to request the document to be sent to any fax machine, according to the Brooktrout VP. Under terms of the settlement, he added, Dialogic and GammaLink have both agreed to obtain licenses under Brooktrout's patents for two-call fax-on-demand, as well as for "direct-inward dialing (DID) telephone service with regard to computer-based facsimile." In turn, Brooktrout has agreed to treat Dialogic's and GammaLink's fax board customers "no less favorably than its own customers for the same use." At the same time, Brooktrout has agreed to obtain a license for a "one-call" fax-on-demand patent controlled by Dialogic. Further, Dialogic has agreed to treat Brooktrout's customers "no less favorably than its own and GammaLink's fax board customers for the same use," according to the Brooktrout exec. The terms of the deal between Brooktrout and Ibex are "somewhat different," in that "Ibex is a systems vendor," Newsbytes was told. "We (aren't disclosing) the detailed terms of the Ibex settlement. But basically, Ibex received a license for the (two-call) fax-on- demand patent," O'Brien reported. Unlike the settlement with Dialogic and GammaLink, the pact with Ibex does not cover DID technology, the VP added. "A part of the settlement that was not part of the settlement with Ibex involved the use of DID with facsimile systems," he noted. Dialogic and GammaLink, he maintained, produce "products which incorporate methods" that are covered by a patent held by Brooktrout on technology related to DID. Dialogic, GammaLink, Ibex were all named as parties, along with FaxBack, in the "original suit" filed by Brooktrout over the use of two-call fax-on-demand technologies, O'Brien said. As previously reported in Newsbytes, in April of this year, Brooktrout won a settlement with FaxBack, an IBM spin-off, over use of its two-call fax-on-demand. In addition, Brooktrout had previously licensed its fax-on-demand technology to AudioFax without court action. The newly reached agreements with Dialogic, GammaLink, and Ibex "resolve all of our outstanding (patent) disputes," O'Brien told Newsbytes. (Jacqueline Emigh/19950627/Reader Contact: Brooktrout Technology, 617-449-4100; Press Contact: Heather Magliozzi, Brooktrout, 617- 449-4100; Sharon Israel, FitzGerald Communications for Brooktrout, 617-494-9500) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 06/27/95 ONLINE AOL's NaviSoft Forms Strategic Relationships (NEWS)(ONLINE)(SFO)(00030) AOL's NaviSoft Forms Strategic Relationships 06/27/95 VIENNA, VIRGINIA, U.S.A., 1995 JUN 27 (NB) -- NaviSoft, America Online's (NASDAQ:AMER) Web developer and publishing software company, announced strategic relationships with Intel, Silicon Graphics, Digital Electronic Equipment, and Hewlett-Packard. These relationships focus on architecture compatibility and hardware/software bundling for World Wide Web (Web) servers. NaviSoft software is comprised of NaviPress, an authoring software, and NaviServer, a client/server software, combined for Web publishing. Remote authoring and management is featured in the combined products. AOL says its agreement with Intel means NaviSoft products will be tailored to take advantage of the latest advancements of Intel's (NASDAQ:INTC) PC architecture. As faster processors are developed and deployed in Intel-based Web servers, NaviSoft publishing products will be compatible and timely. NaviSoft's line is also becoming a member of Silicon Graphics' (NYSE:SGI) WebFORCE Software Partners program. As part of the program, NaviPress and NaviServer are to be bundled with other media tools and software for the Internet. SGI says the addition of remote authoring and management tools to the WebFORCE line offers added value and strength to the program. SGI's WebFORCE program is complete product line which presents a turnkey system for large corporations interested in Web development. Pricing begins at $10,995. The Digital Equipment Corporation (NYSE:DEC) agreement is a marketing arrangement in which the two companies are to work together marketing a hardware/software Web server line. AOL says the NaviSoft products incorporated into Digital's Alpha servers means the publishing tools will be available to a new level of customers committed to high performance computing. In a fourth announcement, NaviSoft said its Web publishing tools are to be made available with Hewlett-Packard's (NYSE:HWP) HP 9000 servers and workstations. The Unix-based systems provide yet another opportunity for AOL to demonstrate its commitment to open platform use of the NaviSoft publishing products. Speaking to Newsbytes, Lydia Dobbins, vice president and general manager at NaviSoft, said, "Our intention is to have a major impact with these products and place them in a critical level of corporate Web publishing. We may be a little late coming to the market but we are bringing powerful tools to the marketplace. The easiest part of the development and placing of these tools is allowing the representatives of these and other companies see and use them. They speak volumes for themselves." In forming these relationships, NaviSoft places itself in competition with Netscape's Web server software. Dobbins said the NaviSoft products may compete for the same customers, but NaviSoft products are distinctly different and have specific advantages. (Patrick McKenna/1995/Press Contact: Pam McGraw, AOL, tel 703- 556-3746) (SUMMARY)(GENERAL)(MSP)(00031) Newsbytes Daily Summary 06/27/95 MINNEAPOLIS, MINNESOTA, U.S.A., 1995 JUN 27 (NB) -- These are capsules of all today's news stories: ======================================================================== ------------| N E W S B Y T E S D A I L Y S U M M A R Y |---------- ------------| Tuesday, June 27, 1995 |---------- ======================================================================== (c) Newsbytes News Network (Tm) Editor in Chief: Wendy Woods ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Newsbytes News Network is a computer and telecom industry news wire and digitized picture service. Our news stream includes more than 30 daily first-hand reported US and international news stories about computing and telecommunications. For more information, please e-mail to 'administrator@newsbytes.com' ------------------------------------------------------------------------ CATEGORY HEADLINES (*** indicates today's top stories) STORY # ======================================================================== BROADCAST GE Plans New European Satellite............................ 11 BUSINESS Spyglass Announces Initial Public Offering................. 10 GENERAL Shareware Award Winners.................................... 28 GOVT China To Cool "High-Tech" Development Zone Fever........... 22 GOVT Hong Kong Airport Contract Goes To Hughes.................. 26 LEGAL Microsoft, Justice Fire Suits At Each Other................ 06 LEGAL CA Extends Deadline For Legent Offer....................... 07 LEGAL Brooktrout Settles With Dialogic And Ibex On Fax Patents... 29 NETWORK Europe - Novell In Internet Deal........................... 19 NETWORK Novell Netware Client For Windows NT....................... 27 ONLINE Top Multimedia Official Calls Internet "CB Radio Of 90s.... 01 ONLINE Newspaper Industry Announces Web Site, Reflects On Changes. 02 ONLINE News Execs Say Internet Presence Imperative................ 04 ONLINE Internet Update............................................ 12 ONLINE Encyclopaedia Britannica, Time Warner Online Partners...... 13 ONLINE American Stock Exchange Goes Online........................ 15 ONLINE Newspaper Assn. Head Urges New Electronic Strategy......... 16 ONLINE ****America Online Offers Link To Astronauts In Space..... 17 ONLINE AOL's NaviSoft Forms Strategic Relationships............... 30 TELECOM ****Former FCC Head Says Agency Will Disappear............ 00 TELECOM Supreme Court To Review Video Dialtone..................... 05 TELECOM AT&T Quizzes German Govt On Open Market Plans.............. 20 TELECOM China - $268 Million Deals Between Motorola and HTEP....... 24 TELECOM Hong Kong Telecom Boss Happy To Face Deregulation.......... 25 TRENDS Sony, Fujitsu, NEC Develop Plasma LCD Screens.............. 14 TRENDS ****Compaq, Purespeech To Develop Speech Recognition...... 21 UNIX Data General To Use Intel Chips For Aviion................. 08 UNIX Europe - Groupe Bull Systems & Software Division........... 18 WINDOWS Microsoft Mail Server 3.5.................................. 09 ======================================================================== These are the headlines and first paragraphs of each story, in order: 1 -> Top Multimedia Official Calls Internet "CB Radio Of 90s -- Not every major multimedia industry figure in the US believes in the long-term potential of the Internet as a communications and marketing vehicle. Count Stephen Weiswasser, president of Capital Cities- ABC Multimedia Group, a leader in the ranks of Internet skeptics. 2 -> Newspaper Industry Announces Web Site, Reflects On Changes -- Kathleen Criner, outgoing senior vice-president of industry development for the Newspaper Association of America, used her speaking time at the group's Connections X new media conference here Friday to announce a new Web site (http://www.infi.net/naa ) and to reflect on changes she's seen in her 15 years with the group. 0 -> ****Former FCC Head Says Agency Will Disappear -- Al Sikes, chairman of the Federal Communications Commission during the presidency of George Bush, told the Newspaper Association of America that in his view, the agency will cease to exist in its present form within five years. 4 -> News Execs Say Internet Presence Imperative -- Several high- level US newspaper executives in Atlanta last week for the Newspaper Association of America new media seminar believe that newspapers must establish an online presence or risk oblivion. 5 -> Supreme Court To Review Video Dialtone -- The Supreme Court yesterday agreed to rule on the constitutionality of a federal law that prohibits local telephone companies from competing against cable TV. But a decision in the case, expected next year, could be moot if Congress repeals the prohibition in the pending telecommunications reform legislation, which appears likely. 6 -> Microsoft, Justice Fire Suits At Each Other -- Angry at Justice Department demands for production of documents on short notice, Microsoft last Friday asked a federal district court in New York to call off the feds. Angry at what it views as delaying tactics by Microsoft, Justice retaliated yesterday and filed its own suit, asking the court to order Microsoft to comply with its civil investigative demand, or CID, the equivalent of a subpoena. 7 -> CA Extends Deadline For Legent Offer -- Computer Associates International Inc. (NYSE:CA) has extended the deadline on its offer for shares of Legent Corp. (NASDAQ:LGNT) to July 11. The delay will give CA more time to respond to the United States Justice Department's request for more information on the merger. 8 -> Data General To Use Intel Chips For Aviion -- In what could be seen as a blow for Motorola Corp. (NYSE:MOT) and for the PowerPC microprocessor developed by Motorola, IBM (NYSE:IBM), and Apple Computer Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL), Data General Corp. (NYSE:DGN) has announced it will use Pentium processors from Intel Corp. (NASDAQ:INTC) in new models of its Aviion product line. 9 -> Microsoft Mail Server 3.5 -- Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ: MSFT) has announced availability of Microsoft Mail Server version 3.5 for PC networks. The new release includes a new multitasking message transfer agent (MMTA) for the Windows NT Server network operating system, some additional utilities to improve mail management, and an electronic forms designer. 10 -> Spyglass Announces Initial Public Offering -- Spyglass Inc. announced it will offer 2 million shares of stock in an initial public offering (IPO). The IPO price is $17.00 per share, and the issue will trade on the NASDAQ stock exchange under the symbol "SPYG." 11 -> GE Plans New European Satellite -- General Electric's (NYSE:GE) GE Americom division, through GE Capital Satellites International, has announced a partnership with Stockholm-based Nordiska Satellitaktiebolaget (NSAB) that will create a new "hot spot" in the skies above Europe. 12 -> Internet Update -- In this update of new services and resources on the Internet: Australian telecom watchdog online; the business Web server; Web authoring software; information about Colombia; update Finger information easily; IEEE expands net presence; Antique map museum; Business information and stock quotes; Bookshops on the Web; Japanese browsing made easy. 13 -> Encyclopaedia Britannica, Time Warner Online Partners -- Encyclopaedia Britannica will provide online content to Time Warner's Pathfinder Internet World Wide Web site, the companies announced. Encyclopaedia Britannica's content will be available for a free 60-day trial period. 14 -> Sony, Fujitsu, NEC Develop Plasma LCD Screens -- NEC Corporation (TOKYO:6701) announced today that they will begin manufacture of Plasma Display Panels (PDP) next year. The announcement comes a day after a similar one from Sony Corporation (TOKYO:6758) and two weeks after Fujitsu Limited (TOKYO:6702) announced the same intentions. 15 -> American Stock Exchange Goes Online -- The American Stock Exchange (AMEX) Monday became the first US equities exchange to begin an online service. The AMEX began a comprehensive World Wide Web service and revealed plans to begin similar services on America Online later this year. 16 -> Newspaper Assn. Head Urges New Electronic Strategy -- The chairman of the Newspaper Association of America (NAA) said a four-lane "Infobahn" strategy is needed in approaching the electronic future of the newspaper. 17 -> ****America Online Offers Link To Astronauts In Space -- America Online's (NASDAQ:AMER) members have the opportunity to rendezvous with US astronauts and Russian cosmonauts. The National Space Society forum on AOL is presenting photos, news updates, scientific project reports and electronic mail communications from the 100th US human space flight. 18 -> Europe - Groupe Bull Systems & Software Division -- Bull, the computer technology specialist, has opened a new division, drawing together elements of its existing Bull sales and marketing operations under the Estrella brand name. 19 -> Europe - Novell In Internet Deal -- Novell Europe has signed an agreement with EUnet, one of Europe's major Internet service providers, to offer business users one-stop access to the Internet. 20 -> AT&T Quizzes German Govt On Open Market Plans -- In an act of clear frustration at the German Government's foot-dragging on opening up its telecoms market to meet the European Commission's (EC's) deadline of January 1, 1998, AT&T has called publicly for the German Government to "go public" on plans for telecoms liberalization. 21 -> ****Compaq, Purespeech To Develop Speech Recognition -- Compaq Computer Corp. (NYSE: CPQ) has announced it will work with PureSpeech Inc. to develop speaker-independent, continuous speech recognition for personal computers. Eckhard Pfeiffer, Compaq president and chief executive officer, said the technology will be implemented in Compaq systems "over the next few years." 22 -> China To Cool "High-Tech" Development Zone Fever -- A new regulation on planning and management of high-tech development zones will be issued to control the overheated development zone constructions, China's state planning authorities say. Since 1984, thousands of "high-tech" development zones have been built across the country. 24 -> China - $268 Million Deals Between Motorola and HTEP -- Hangzhou Telecommunications Equipment Plant (HTEP) recently signed two import contracts with Motorola worth US$268 million, China Daily reports. 25 -> Hong Kong Telecom Boss Happy To Face Deregulation -- After announcing profits of HK$8.7 billion (US$1.1 billion) for the last fiscal year, Hong Kong Telecom (HKT) chief executive, Linus Cheung, has outlined some of the prospects ahead as the company faces the imminent deregulation of the telecommunications marketplace. 26 -> Hong Kong Airport Contract Goes To Hughes -- Three months late and at a fraction of its original estimated value, the fiercely contested Master Systems Integration (MSI) contract for the controversial new Hong Kong airport at Chek Lap Kok has been awarded to Hughes Asia Pacific (Hong Kong). 27 -> Novell Netware Client For Windows NT -- Novell Inc. (NASDAQ: NOVL) said it is now shipping Netware Client for Windows NT, a product that gives Windows NT users full integration with Netware, including Netware Directory Services (NDS). 28 -> Shareware Award Winners -- Both the Shareware Industry Awards Foundation (SAIF) and Ziff-Davis announced winners in ceremonies during the Shareware Industry Conference in Scottsdale, Arizona. 29 -> Brooktrout Settles With Dialogic And Ibex On Fax Patents -- Brooktrout has won patent disputes against Dialogic, GammaLink, and Ibex over their use of "two-call" fax-on-demand technology, while settling with Dialogic, the owner of GammaLink, over Brooktrout's use of "one-call" fax-on-demand, said Andrew O'Brien, Brooktrout's VP of marketing, in an interview with Newsbytes. 30 -> AOL's NaviSoft Forms Strategic Relationships -- NaviSoft, America Online's (NASDAQ:AMER) Web developer and publishing software company, announced strategic relationships with Intel, Silicon Graphics, Digital Electronic Equipment, and Hewlett-Packard. These relationships focus on architecture compatibility and hardware/software bundling for World Wide Web (Web) servers. (Wendy Woods/19950627) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 06/01/95 TELECOM British Telecom Considers Belgium Acquisition (NEWS)(TELECOM)(LON)(00001) British Telecom Considers Belgium Acquisition 06/01/95 LONDON, ENGLAND, 1995 JUN 1 (NB) -- British Telecom (BT) has revealed it is talking to Bell Atlantic about making a joint bid for a stake in Belgacom, the Belgian state telecoms company. Although BT officials have refused to elaborate further on the discussions, the British press have suggested that a 25 percent stake in Belgacom is being talked about. Newsbytes notes that BT and Belgacom have been "bed partners" for some years on the international telecoms front, and BT has expressed an interest in taking an equity investment in the Belgian telco over the past few years. Belgacom, meanwhile, has always said that it is looking for a US partner to establish links with, presumably on the lucrative European/US transatlantic telecoms route. Belgacom is on target to privatize at least part of its operations later this year, in preparation for the January 1, 1998, open telecoms market date set by the European Commission (EC). Belgacom officials have discussed previously that the first stage of the privatization will involve a sell-off of 25 percent of the company. The second stage of privatization is expected to take place in 1997, when a further 24 percent of the company -- leaving the Government with a controlling 51 percent -- is expected to be sold off. The BT discussions with Belgacom appear to be the direct result of the recent appointment of John Goossens as chief executive officer (CEO) of the Belgian telecoms company. Just two weeks ago, Newsbytes reported that Goossens had reorganized its operations and was preparing the way to full privatization Goossens is quoted as welcoming the EC mandate. He claims that the reorganization started before he joined the company and is now being speeded up, to the extent that the complete management operation is now being streamlined in preparation for a similar reorganization among the workforce. Two weeks ago, Newsbytes quoted Goossens as confirming industry rumors that Belgacom is looking for a major foreign partner. He told reporters at that time that he is looking for a foreign partner to take a stake in the government controlled company by the end of this year. In response to a reporter's questions at a mid-May press conference, Goossens said that he expects to see a foreign investor take around a 25 percent stake in Belgacom, which would generate more than $8 billion for the Belgian government. When pressed, he said that around eight companies had been short-listed by the Belgian government as a possible partner. (Steve Gold/19950531/Press & Reader Contact: Belgacom, tel +32-2-202-9736, fax +32-2-202-2417) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 06/01/95 PC UK - TI Intros Pentium TravelMate 5000 Notebooks (NEWS)(PC)(LON)(00002) UK - TI Intros Pentium TravelMate 5000 Notebooks 06/01/95 SUNBURY-ON-THAMES, MIDDLESEX, ENGLAND, 1995 JUN 1 (NB) -- Texas Instruments has unveiled a Pentium-based range of TravelMate 5000 notebooks. #IMAGE 1 20 TWPCX \images\95060102.PCX Click here for photo According to company officials, prototypes of the machines were shown at the Cebit Computer Faire in March of this year and, according to a spokeswoman with the company's UK press office, pan- European shipment is expected next week. According to TI, the TravelMate 5000 is a fast Pentium-based notebook based around the 75 megahertz (MHz) version of the Pentium chipset, made faster by the inclusion of integrated PCI (Peripheral Component Interconnect) architecture which boosts I/O (input/output) performance levels. The machine itself has a small footprint -- the same as the other TravelMate 5000 series -- and tips the scales at 6.7 pounds. This weight includes two new lithium-ion battery packs, which come as standard, fitting alongside the single floppy drive on the machine. Two versions of the Pentium-based TravelMate 5000 series are initially available, one with a 10.4-inch active matrix color or 10.5-inch dual scan color display. John Clough, TI's Portable Peripherals Products (PPP) group deputy manager, said that the use of a PCI bus gave users the chance to use the full memory bandwidth available from the Pentium processor. "The TravelMate 5000 notebook is a generation ahead of other notebook products in being able to offer desktop PCI performance in a notebook form factor," he said, adding that every element of the machine has been optimized "for exceptional power, longer battery life, mobility and connectivity." Pricing on the TravelMate 5000 series has been set at UKP3,499 for the dual scan color display version and UKP3,999 for the 10.4- inch TFT (thin film transistor) color display version. The use of lithium-ion battery power on the machine is one of the first times that a notebook manufacturer has offered this facility as standard in the UK and European marketplace, Newsbytes notes. Using a two battery approach as standard allows the machine to run for up to six hours, the company claims, and, by hot-swapping the batteries, the machine can be run almost indefinitely. (Steve Gold/19950531/Press Contact: Pathway PR, +44-1442-874006; Reader Contact: Texas Instruments, tel +44-1932-780753, fax +44-1932-780126/PHOTO/TEXAS950601) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 06/01/95 PC UK - AST Bundles CommandCenter With PCs (NEWS)(PC)(LON)(00003) UK - AST Bundles CommandCenter With PCs 06/01/95 LONDON, ENGLAND, 1995 JUN 1 (NB) -- AST Europe has taken the wraps off CommandCenter, an advanced system management software utility that it claims offers the industry's highest level of system manageability, protection and optimization, using a suite of anti-virus and security software. According to Allan MacDonald, a spokesman for the company, the CommandCenter Package will come bundled with AST's new 100 megahertz (MHz) Pentium-based Premmia GX P/100 and Bravo MS P/100 series, which are expected to ship in Europe during the third quarter of this year, with prices starting from UKP1,445 upwards. Graham Hopper, AST's general manager for the UK and Ireland, explained that the software will add to the machines which, on their own, "set new standards in their respective markets." So what is CommandCenter? According to AST, the package has been developed to make PC users' tasks a more manageable one, which should in turn "help them to increase their personal productivity and to realize the full potential of their systems." The package itself consists of several modules, including: VirusShield, which is a customized version of the McAfee anti-virus package; SystemGuard, a six-layer security package that prevents unauthorized access to system data; and AssetPak, which allows users and system managers to access valuable configuration information on demand. According to AST officials, the CommandCenter package will be made available to existing end-users of the Bravo MS, Premmia MX, and Premmia GX series. The second release of the package, which is expected in the fall, will integrate advances in network management features for the desktop, as well as a series of networking "solutions." (Steve Gold/19950531/Press Contact: Profile PR, +44-181-995-1595, Internet e-mail allan_macdonald@profile.ccmail.compuserve.com; Reader Contact: AST Europe, +44-181-232-5000) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 06/01/95 TRENDS BCE, Nortel, IBM Near Top Of Canadian Sales Ranking (NEWS)(TRENDS)(TOR)(00004) BCE, Nortel, IBM Near Top Of Canadian Sales Ranking 06/01/95 TORONTO, ONTARIO, CANADA, 1995 JUN 1 (NB) -- The worldwide recovery of IBM (NYSE:IBM) is reflected in its Canadian subsidiary's move from 16th to 13th in Canadian Business magazine's ranking of Canadian companies by sales this year. But Northern Telecom Ltd. (TSE:NTL; NYSE:NT) of Mississauga, Ontario, topped IBM Canada Ltd. of nearby Markham, remaining in sixth place despite losing money in 1994, and helping propel its parent company, Montreal-based BCE Inc., (TSE, ME:B) to second in the magazine's rankings by 1994 sales. In a related ranking by over-all three-year growth, Ottawa software developer Corel Corp. (TSE:COS; NASDAQ:COSFF) ranked fourth, though its 1994 sales of C$224.7 million placed it 446th in the over-all ranking -- a jump of 50 notches from last year, when Corel edged onto the top 500 listing in 496th place. Canadian Business said Corel's sales have grown 499.6 percent in three years, and 65.9 percent in 1994. Also in the top 10 by three-year sales growth was Markham, Ontario-based Compaq Canada Inc., in ninth place. The Compaq Computer Corp. (NYSE:CPQ) subsidiary had 1994 sales of C$527 million, up 308.1 percent over three years. With 1994 sales of C$21,670.0 million, BCE trails General Motors of Canada Ltd., which reported sales of C$24,920.0 million in 1994, in the Top 500 list. Northern Telecom had 1994 sales of C$12,157.4 million, and IBM Canada's figure was C$8,449.0 million. Another BCE subsidiary, telephone carrier Bell Canada, is in 15th place -- down from 10th in 1993 -- with C$8,066.2 million in sales. Another regional telephone holding company, BC Telecom Inc., (TSE, ME:BCT) weighs in at 66th spot in the rankings with C$2,295.4 million in 1994 sales. Rogers Communications Inc. (TSE, ME:RCI) of Toronto, whose interests include a stake in long-distance phone company Unitel Communications Inc., is close behind in 70th spot with C$2,250.2 million. Like Northern Telecom, Rogers reported a net loss in 1994, due largely to losses at Unitel. One must look below the 100th spot to find the next information-technology company on the monthly magazine's annual ranking. It is Digital Equipment of Canada Ltd., Toronto-based subsidiary of Digital Equipment Corp. (NYSE:DEC), at 103rd spot with C$1,563.2 million in 1994 sales. The highest-ranked computer company on the list that is not a branch of a US-based multinational is SHL Systemhouse Ltd., ranked 140th with C$1,160.6 million in sales in 1994. (Grant Buckler/19950531) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 06/01/95 TRENDS Women & Online Communities - Study (NEWS)(TRENDS)(MSP)(00005) Women & Online Communities - Study 06/01/95 HOLLYWOOD, FLORIDA, U.S.A., 1995 JUN 1 (NB) -- When it comes to online shopping, women don't "shop until they drop," according to a new study. Interactive Publishing Alert's (IPA) 1995 Survey of Women Online charts that and other facts of women online. Rosalind Resnick of IPA told Newsbytes that the 1995 survey is a follow-up to a similar study conducted in 1994. The difference between the two surveys is that the current one polled more than 300 women from many of the major online services and the Internet, while the 1994 study polled far fewer women from only CompuServe. A follow-up survey was then conducted with 100 women. The study showed that communications ranks the highest with women when it came to their online agenda; 237 respondents said they go online to send electronic-mail (e-mail) with family and friends, and 214 said they liked to participate in special-interest bulletin boards. Shopping services took a big hit in the survey. Only 20 respondents said they go online to shop, bank, and make travel reservations. What's more, 64 percent of respondents in the follow-up survey said they never bought anything online. Resnick said this is a significant statistic, considering the fact that many companies are "betting the farm" on online shopping. "Right now, women are not interested in online shopping," she said. "If online businesses and publishers change their approach, they may be able to get a lot more women involved." One of those approaches is building "virtual communities" for women, Resnick said. Forty-one percent of the women in the follow-up survey indicated they would be "likely" or "very likely" to join a service or publication that offered women-only areas. "Women see shopping as more of a social experience," she said. Other survey results showed that women favor "get-tough" policies on "flaming," they usually go online at the suggestion of friends and co-workers, and that more than 50% of those surveyed were online a year or more. An executive summary of the study is available on the Web at URL (uniform resource locator) http://www/netcreations.com/ipa/. The full text of the survey can also be ordered through the site, as well as via e-mail. The electronic version of the survey is $495, while a hard copy of the study is $695. The study was sponsored by Apple Computer, which has its own eWorld online service. Resnick said Apple is also conducting a similar survey for its in-house purposes. (Bob Woods/19950531/Press Contact: Rosalind Resnick, Interactive Publishing Alert, 305-920-5326. Public Contact: Internet World Wide Web http://www.netcreations.com/ipa/) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 06/01/95 NETWORK Novell Ships Free NetWare/IP 2.1 For NetWare 4. (NEWS)(NETWORK)(DEN)(00006) Novell Ships Free NetWare/IP 2.1 For NetWare 4.1 06/01/95 OREM, UTAH, U.S.A., 1995 MAY JUN 1 (NB) -- Novell Inc. (NASDAQ:NOVL) has announced version 5 of LAN WorkPlace for MS Windows and DOS. The new version includes an Internet browser and news reader, a network mailer, remote dialer, and some print utilities. LAN WorkPlace 5 gives users on a local area network (LAN) as well as remote Windows and DOS users concurrent access to Internet, TCP/IP (Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol), Unix, and NetWare network resources. LAN WorkPlace WinSock-compliant applications include a drag-and-drop file transfer via File Transfer Protocol (FTP), drag-and-drop keyboard remapping, Network File System (NFS) file sharing, and dial-in from remote locations. You also get a Windows TN3270 terminal emulator. Version 5 of LAN WorkPlace has added Netscape Navigator, an Internet browser and news reader that lets the user retrieve information on the Internet's World Wide Web. There is also a Windows mailer that lets you send and receive messages and files over TCP/IP networks. The mailer supports the Simple Mail Transfer Protocol (SMTP) and the Post Office Protocol version 3 (POP3). An X-Server in LAN WorkPlace lets users run X Windows-based applications on remote hosts, and there is a Windows Line Printer Daemon and Line Printer Remote print drivers that let Windows and Unix systems share printers attached to either type of system. A daemon, pronounced "demon," is a background program that performs a utility function without being requested. Novell said it has also made the installation and configuration of the LAN WorkPlace components easier. A Windows dialer lets remote users dial in over standard phone lines using Point-to-Point Protocol (PPP) or Serial Line Internet Protocol (SLIP). LAN workPlace version 5 is shipping now and has a suggested retail price of $399 for a single user version. The 10-user pack is $1,995 and the 100-user cost is $12,995. Novell said the upgrade prices for the single user, 10-user, and 100-user versions are $100, $450, and $1,995, respectively. (Jim Mallory/19950601/Press contact: Rick Myllenbeck, Novell, 408-577-8206; Public contact: Novell, 800-451-5151) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 06/01/95 BUSINESS Cap Cities/ABC & Spectrum Holobyte In Game Venture (NEWS)(BUSINESS)(MSP)(00007) Cap Cities/ABC & Spectrum Holobyte In Game Venture 06/01/95 ALAMEDA, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1995 JUN 1 (NB) -- Capital Cities/ABC (NYSE:CCB) and Spectrum HoloByte (NASDAQ:SBYT) jointly announced the formation of a joint venture company to develop and produce interactive game software for computers and video game machines. The new games will carry the ABC Sports brand. The yet-to-be named joint venture company will be based close to Spectrum HoloByte's MicroProse division in Hunt Valley, Maryland. Each company will hold a 50 percent interest in the joint venture. Financial terms were not disclosed. Pat Vance, vice president of Capital Cities/ABC's multimedia group, called this announcement a "major push" by the company into the interactive arena. She told Newsbytes her company is already involved in a similar venture with Electronic Arts to produce kids software, along with information and reference products, called "Creative Wonders." "We believe there is a window of opportunity as game platforms transition. That's where we're focusing all of our energies -- towards the new game platforms and PC platforms. These games will have a TV look and feel," she said. Some of the TV elements will include graphics, different "angles" and selection of angles, well-known sports personalities, and other aspects that are beginning to show up in other sports-related games. The joint venture will produce games using not only the "ABC Sports" trademark, but the "Wide World of Sports" and "Monday Night Football" monikers as well. About five titles are expected to be developed in the first two years of operation, ranging from football to auto racing. "We expect to be a leader in the kids entertainment and educational software business with Electronic Arts, and we expect to be a leader with sports games with Spectrum HoloByte," Vance said. (Bob Woods/19950531/Press Contacts: Veronica Pollard, Capital Cities/ABC, 212-456-6171; Holly Hartz, Spectrum HoloByte, 510-814-6336) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 06/01/95 ONLINE Internet Update (NEWS)(ONLINE)(TYO)(00008) Internet Update 06/01/95 TOKYO, JAPAN, 1995 JUN 1 (NB) -- In this roundup of new services and resources on the Internet: Sakhalin earthquake information; One stop search shops; World population counter; SLIPless Web browser; Picture backgrounds for the Web; Virtual gallery exhibits; Hypertext Perl 5 manual; Mailing list to Web gateway. Sakhalin Earthquake Information The latest information on the earthquake that hit the Russian island of Sakhalin in English and Japanese is available on the World Wide Web: http://www.ntt.jp/WNN/English/Sakhalin/ One Stop Search Shops The Inquirer is a new search page on the World Wide Web. It doesn't search for anything, but simply provides a front-end to many of the publicly accessible search engines on the Web, from a single page. World Wide Web: http://www.mcs.net/~bratton/www/search.html. Another similar new service is the multiplex search form. The single home page combines query forms for multiple databases. World Wide Web: http://www.oimage.com/tools/search.html World Population Counter A simple idea, a World Wide Web page that reports the current population of the world when you access it. There are also details of how to include the counter on your home page. World Wide Web: http://sunsite.unc.edu/lunarbin/worldpop SLIPless Web Browser I-Comm is a World Wide Web browser for Windows users with a VAX shell account. It does not require a SLIP or PPP connection onto the Internet. The software also combines a telecoms program with the Web browser which supports the http, FTP and gopher protocols, saves pages to disk with images intact, and displays pages as they are received. Anonymous FTP: ftp://ftp.best.com/pub/icomm/VAX Anonymous FTP : ftp://ftp.netcom.com/pub/ic/icomm/VAX Picture Backgrounds For The Web Background Assistant from Brooklyn North Software will make it easy to include color backgrounds or even pictures as a back-drop for your World Wide Web pages when viewed with version 1.1 or Netscape's Navigator software. Background Assistant automatically creates the basic page outline ready to the text to be added. A demo version is now available for download. World Wide Web: http://fox.nstn.ca/~harawitz/whatsnew.html Anonymous FTP: ftp://ftp.cs.dal.ca/htmlasst/ Virtual Gallery Exhibits Three new exhibitions are now open at the Virtual Gallery of Daum Communications is Seoul, South Korea. The exhibits cover the work of Park KeonHi, Lim Seok-Je, and Koo Bonchang. World Wide Web: http://cezanne.daum.co.kr/gallery Hypertext Perl 5 Manual A manual to the Perl 5 language, a widely used scripting language is just available in hypertext form. The language is used extensively for scripts running on the World Wide Web so it seems natural that a manual should appear there. World Wide Web: http://rhine.ece.utexas.edu/~kschu/perlman.html (Martyn Williams/19950601) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 06/01/95 GENERAL Asia's Future In Multimedia Discussed At Tokyo Forum (NEWS)(GENERAL)(TYO)(00009) Asia's Future In Multimedia Discussed At Tokyo Forum 06/01/95 TOKYO, JAPAN, 1995 JUN 1 (NB) -- The role of Asia in the coming multimedia revolution has been the subject of discussion at a special two-day forum organized by NHK, Japan's state broadcaster, and The Yomiuri Shimbun newspaper. Attending the forum were representatives from several Asian governments and the EU. American Vice President Al Gore was also due to attend but that visit became a victim of the current state of relations between the US and Japan who are fighting over access to automobile markets. Starting the forum Tsuneo Watanabe, president of the Yomiuri Shimbun said: "Multimedia application and development makes us think that one day newspapers may disappear or television companies, especially local TV stations, may become outdated. There are such concerns felt by the people in Japan and even the employees in our company, but multimedia can be the means of a new industrial revolution." Watanabe went on to explain that far from causing the demise of newspapers, the new era may strengthen them, "(The revolution) will have to be supported by various other related technologies and it is possible to expand employment through multimedia. In mass media, including television and newspapers, we will also be able to see development thanks to multimedia. I would like to take this optimistic view." Former Prime Minister of Japan and Chairman of the Advanced Information Society Council Kiichi Miyazawa followed Watanabe with a special greeting from the forum's organizers. Miyazawa noted that, "It is no exaggeration to say that the history of mankind is the history of communication. That progress was brought about by invention of means of transportation such as railways, ocean liners, and aircraft, and advances in communication including development of postal and telephone services." He also emphasized the need for a global plan to pursue, rather than each country developing networks on their own, saying: "For multimedia technologies to take root in society we have to overcome various issues but we need to obtain consensus globally on the need for multimedia." he continued: "In the US the national information infrastructure initiative is being committed to nationally and in the last summit on a global basis the need of such infrastructure was discussed. In order to lead to the development of a global information infrastructure, all countries should coordinate their activities." Mikio Kawaguchi, president of NHK (Nippon Hoso Kyokai), wrote in a message to forum attendees: "I joined NHK when only radio broadcasting existed in Japan. The generation after me was labeled the "black and white" generation because they grew up with black and white television. Those who joined the broadcasting industry about 25 years ago are the so-called "color TV" generation. Those who have been in this industry for less than 10 years can be labeled the "Hi-Vision" (Hi-Vision is Japan's HDTV broadcasting system) generation, and those who started their career as television men and women this year can be called the "multimedia" generation." He continued, "Look at what the broadcasting industry has accomplished over the past 70 years. We have seen many changes ranging from radio to Hi-Vision and now we are witnessing the arrival of the multimedia age. In the multimedia society, we will face change on a scale never experienced by our predecessors." Replacing the planned thirty minute address by Vice President Gore was a one-page greeting read on his behalf by Mike Nelson, a special assistant to the office of the president, who was scheduled to attend in addition to Gore. In the greeting, Gore reaffirmed his vision of a global information infrastructure as given at last years ITU (international telecommunications union) conference in Buenos Aires. (Martyn Williams/19950531/Press contact : Forum secretariat, tel +81-3-3586-5051, fax +81-3-3586-5255) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 06/01/95 GENERAL Japan Newsbriefs (NEWS)(GENERAL)(TYO)(00010) Japan Newsbriefs 06/01/95 TOKYO, JAPAN, 1995 JUN 1 (NB) -- In this roundup of news from Japan: MPT to turn down NTT leased line plan; Fujitsu plans more overseas production; US way ahead of Japan in information technology; Oracle staff heading east; Adobe desktop publishing campaign; More screens from Sony; Network upgrade at Hitachi. MPT To Turn Down NTT Leased Line Plan The Nikkei Keizai newspaper has reported that the Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications will turn down an application from Nippon Telegraph and Telephone, NTT, to adjust the prices it charges users for its leased line service. The newspaper says that the MPT will ask NTT to resubmit an application after concern over proposed rises in short distance leased lines and protests from users. The plan has faced widespread opposition from NTT's competitors and largest customers including US information service Bloomberg. Fujitsu Plan More Overseas Production Fujitsu have announced it is to build two semiconductor production facilities, one in the United States and one in the United Kingdom. The US plant, for which construction is planned to begin in a year, will be built alongside the company's Gresham, Oregon facility. The UK site is alongside the existing Fujitsu factory in Durham. Construction of that site is due to begin within a year of the US start. Fujitsu is investing some 100 million yen in each plant. US Way Ahead Of Japan In Information Technology A report published by the Japan Information Processing Development Center claims that the United States is way ahead of Japan in many areas of information technology. The 1995 "Information White Paper" reports that there are 6.2 times more personal computer in the US than Japan, America has 32.9 times more Internet users, and 35 times more cable TV subscribers. The US leads Japan in software sales by 6.4 times, and database sales are also higher at 5.6 times. Oracle Staff Heading East Oracle is to send technical staff to NEC's software development division, the first time the US-based company has sent any staff to a Japanese manufacturer. The staff will assist in the localization of Oracle products and the porting of them to NEC systems. The project will also serve to strengthen relations with NEC, Oracle's biggest sales partner in Japan. Adobe Desktop Publishing Campaign Adobe Systems Japan will launch a desktop publishing campaign at the end of June aimed at getting more people using it's PageMaker 5.0J software. Key to the campaign is a special offer that bundles PageMaker 5.0J and Illustrator 4.0J together for half price. The 123,000 yen ($1,473) software offer will be available to the first 5,000 buyers. Adobe will also release a CD-ROM containing 35 postscript fonts. More Screens From Sony Sony is to boost production of computer displays in its North American plants in response to an increase in demand for the product. Its San Diego and Tijuana, Mexico, plants will increase output of 15- and 17-inch monitors used for computer workstations. An investment of $50 million has recently been made at the California plant, which will enable production to hit a million units per month from July. Network Upgrade At Hitachi Hitachi is to increase its internal network speed by a factor of eight from six megabits-per-second (Mbps) to 50Mbps. New ATM (asynchronous transfer mode) switches being installed at its Tokyo and Yokohama centers will facilitate the speed increase. (Martyn Williams/19950531) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 06/01/95 GENERAL ServiceTech '95 Show To Focus On Support "Innovations" (NEWS)(GENERAL)(BOS)(00011) ServiceTech '95 Show To Focus On Support "Innovations" 06/01/95 DANVERS, MASSACHUSETTS, U.S.A., 1995 JUN 1 (NB) -- ServiceTech '95, a conference and expo focusing on "innovations" in customer support technology, will take place June 18 to 21 in Danvers, Massachusetts. Highlights will be available on videotape for individuals and organizations unable to attend the show. The evening of Sunday, June 18, is dedicated to a "Getting Started Workshop" for those who are considering implementing a service and support organization or a help disk, consolidating multiple service groups, revamping an existing support organization, or upgrading their technology. Monday morning will feature a series of updates on various aspects of customer support, including problem resolution, call management, and telecommunications. The expo floor will be open on Tuesday and Wednesday, for display of a variety of customer support technologies, including artificial intelligence (AI) and expert systems, services management, call management, and telecommunications and wireless. Also included in the four-day event are: three keynotes by industry luminaries; workshops on internal help desks, external call centers, and field service; and conference tracks on business issues, enabling technologies, call management, online documentation, and systems integration. Ronnie G. Ward, VP and division officer for Compaq, is scheduled to deliver a keynote entitled "An Innovative Approach to Self Diagnosis." William D. Puso, VP of service support, Technology Service Solutions, will speak on "The Role of Technological Tools in Services/Support Delivery." Ronald Muns, president of The Muns Group and Chairman of Bendata Inc., will discuss "Key Support Trends in the USA and Around the World." The business issues conference track will include a roundtable on "Innovation in Services Technology: Using Research Data in the Services/Support Business," with panelists from Dataquest, Andersen Consulting, and Coopers & Lybrand. Other sample conference session offerings include: "Using Online Services for Support;" "Surfing for Support: Case Studies of Internet Use for Delivering Support Knowledge;" and "Two-Way Wireless Data: A New International Support Tool for Field Service." ServiceTech '95 is sponsored by AFSM International, in cooperation with ServiceWare. Videotapes covering eight hours of conference activities -- including Getting Started, the "annual updates," and the three keynotes -- are slated for shipment six weeks after the show, for a price of $195, plus a $12 shipping fee. (Jacqueline Emigh/19950531/Reader And Press Contact: 800-333-9786) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 06/01/95 ONLINE China - State Data Comms Bureau Promotes ChinaNet (NEWS)(ONLINE)(PEK)(00012) China - State Data Comms Bureau Promotes ChinaNet 06/01/95 BEIJING, CHINA, 1995 JUN 1 (NB) -- Engineers and technicians of the Data Communications Bureau under the Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications (MPT) exhibited ChinaNet services to the public at the National (Beijing) Library of China recently. The demonstration, using more than 20 Legend IBM compatible computers and several Sun workstations in the central hall of the library, attracted a lot of people. The visitors were allowed to operate the computers to access the network and try out such services as electronic-mail, telnet, FTP (File Transfer Protocol), Gopher, Archie, and WAIS (Wide Area Information Server). The World Wide Web attracted many visitors' attention. By showing the home page of "Whitehouse.gov" and some hypertext documents, a system operator surprised a number of onlookers. Hypertext links on ChinaNet services were also a main area of interest. At a counter near the exit, ChinaNet service application forms were distributed. A salesman told Newsbytes that the application form is for end-users only, and that those who are going to operate or provide information services through ChinaNet are required to get approval from the Business Administration Bureau of MPT. For dial-up users, the service fees consist of three parts: the data communication fee is RMB600 (US$72) per month with 40 free connection hours and RMB20 (US$2.5) for each extra hour; local or long-distance phone bills for connection -- in most places in China, charges for local calls are also calculated based on calling time -- for example, the local call charge in Beijing is RMB0.13 per three minutes at residential phones, and RMB0.20 per three minutes at public phones; the fee for data and information storage on the computer of MPT is RMB0.20 per kilobyte (KB) per month with the first KB free. The salesman also told Newsbytes this is a tentative fee schedule for the trial operation taking place between May 1 and December 31. (Chih-Ho Yu & Ning Huang/19950521/Reader Contact: Data Communications Bureau of Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications, +86-10 201-2994, or +86-10 205-3992) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 06/01/95 TELECOM China - Unicom Breaks MPT Telecom Monopoly (NEWS)(TELECOM)(TYO)(00013) China - Unicom Breaks MPT Telecom Monopoly 06/01/95 BEIJING, CHINA, 1995 JUN 1 (NB) -- In breaking the telecommunications monopoly of the Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications (MPT), China United Telecommunications Corp. (Unicom) is now able to provide telecom services in China. Telecom services of the second big telecom carrier will be first offered in China's four largest cities: Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, and Tianjin. Unicom has invested about RMB700 million (US$83.3 million) to introduce GSM (global system for mobile communications) systems for the four cities, from Siemens and Motorola. The network will cover 100,000 cellular phone subscribers. Besides mobile telecommunications services, Unicom will also provide local and long distance phone services in China. Laying its own urban telephone lines in the four cities, Unicom will start its telephone services by the end of this year. Public long distance telephone services will be provided through renovating the existing telecoms network in the power industry and railway departments. Unicom hopes to have 30 percent of China's mobile telecommunications market by the year 2000 and provide 10 percent of the country's long-distance and local telephone services. Unicom's telecom services will provide many Chinese residents with an alternative choice for their telecom service carrier. Although MPT and Unicom are both state-operated, competition between them may result in improvement of service quality, as well as less complaints about the long waiting list for telephone installation and unreasonable charges. (Chih-Ho Yu & Ning Huang/19950601) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 06/01/95 ONLINE Canadians Offered 2 Online Job Services (NEWS)(ONLINE)(TOR)(00014) Canadians Offered 2 Online Job Services 06/01/95 TORONTO, ONTARIO, CANADA, 1995 JUN 1 (NB) -- Two new online job-listing services have been announced in the Toronto area. One is aimed specifically at helping workers with disabilities, while the other is to serve a broader clientele. NetJobs Information Services, a Mississauga, Ontario-based unit of Sea Change Corp. of Toronto, started running job listings on the Internet's World Wide Web in the last week of May. Accessible at http://www.netjobs.com, the home page contains information on jobs across much of Canada, in the United States, and in other countries including Australia and Hong Kong. Newsbytes browsed through the NetJobs pages and found that many of the positions are computer-related, while most of the others are business and professional jobs. There are a fairly large number of Toronto-area positions listed. Richard Earle, vice-president of marketing at NetJobs, told Newsbytes an average of 500 to 1,000 people logged on to the service each day during its first week, with more than 2,000 "hits" on the best day. NetJobs is charging employers C$100 per listing. A listing is normally one job, but NetJobs also gives volume discounts for those that want to list multiple jobs, Earle said. Job-seekers who want to post their resumes will soon be able to do so for a fee of C$25 for a six-month posting. There is no charge to job-seekers who want to browse through the job listings, which include contact information for the employers. Employers can post job listings online without prior arrangement with NetJobs, Earle said. They are asked to select a method of payment, and can choose to be invoiced or to pay by credit card. Due to security concerns, NetJobs will telephone employers to get credit-card information for the time being, Earle said. The company hopes to put security software in place within a year so this can be done online as well. NetJobs also provides access to some UseNet news groups related to job-hunting. The Wide Area Employment Network, just announced by the Canadian Council on Rehabilitation and Work (CCRW) and the Coalition for Persons With Disabilities, is not on the Internet. Its organizers chose a separate online network because of concerns about confidentiality and ease of use, explained Pat Reiniger, national training coordinator at CCRW. "Human resources professionals aren't very technical," Reiniger told Newsbytes, so the service had to be simple and fast to use. The Wide Area Employment Network will contain resumes of people with disabilities, to which employers can refer. Employers will pay a fee -- not yet set -- to use the system, plus a fee for each person they hire from the listings. Those who post their resumes will not have to pay, Reiniger said. Because it is meant to help people with disabilities, the network will provide adaptive devices such as special keyboards and voice synthesizers. People with disabilities will also prepare the resume database. Several computer vendors are providing equipment and expertise. The network is to be running in the Peel-Halton-Dufferin area, near Toronto, by September of this year. Its backers hope to expand it from there to the rest of the greater Toronto area early in 1996, and say it may be extended to the rest of Canada late next year. The CCRW receives a small amount of core funding from the federal government and sustains itself with revenues from training and contract work for various levels of government, Reiniger said. The Wide Area Employment Network is meant to support itself eventually on employer fees and advertising revenues. (Grant Buckler/19950601/Press Contact: Pat Reiniger, Canadian Council on Rehabilitation and Work, 416-974-5575; Richard Earle, NetJobs Information Services, 905-542-9484 ext. 227 or 416-804-6911, Internet e-mail rearle@netjobs.com; Public Contact: Canadian Council on Rehabilitation and Work, 416-974-5575, fax 416-974-5577, TTY 416-974-2636; NetJobs Information Services, 905-542-9484 or 800-661-7274, fax 905-542-9479, Internet e-mail netjobs@seachange.com, Internet World Wide Web http://www.netjobs.com) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 06/01/95 GOVT Hundt Defends Against FCC Hunters (NEWS)(GOVT)(WAS)(00015) Hundt Defends Against FCC Hunters 06/01/95 WASHINGTON, D.C., U.S.A., 1995 JUN 1 (NB) -- The nation needs the Federal Communications Commission, said Reed Hundt, FCC chairman, defending his agency in the face of a think tank study arguing for dismantling the agency. "They're wrong on their number one factual assumption," Hundt told reporters about the report from the Progress & Freedom Foundation, a group affiliated with House Speaker Newt Gingrich. "When it comes to competition, we ain't seen much yet." The FCC yesterday released its first report on common carrier competition. The report finds that while competition has come to long-distance service, local telephone service and cable television markets are still dominated by monopoly providers. "It is absolutely wrong to say there is no public interest stake in the communications revolution and saying that the private sector can handle it all," said Hundt. As large companies push and pull for position in telecommunications markets, someone needs to be around to protect consumers, he said. The foundation report called for elimination of the FCC, replacing it with a small bureaucracy in the executive branch, state regulation and oversight by the courts. "The commission's history of obstructing competition and denying Americans access to new technology spans decades," said the report. Critics of the report have noted that George Keyworth, former science adviser to President Reagan and chairman of the foundation, is a member of the board of directors and interim chief executive of Eon Corp., which makes wireless equipment and has lobbied the FCC for less regulation. According to Common Cause, the government watchdog group, about a third of the foundation's funding comes from telecommunications and computer companies. The foundation apparently has Gingrich's ear. The speaker told Broadcasting & Cable magazine last week that he wants to "phase out the FCC in three to five years at most." But the legislation that is moving in the House to restructure telecommunications regulation actually gives the FCC new authority and doesn't contemplate closing the doors at the independent regulatory agency. The foundation report also came under fire from consumer interests. "It's like having a two-lane highway cross another two-lane highway, but you take away the stop signs. You take away the yield signs. It'll be an unsafe mess," said Bradley Stillman of the Consumer Federation of America. (Kennedy Maize/19950601/Press Contacts: Susan Lewis Sallet, FCC, 202-418-1500; Bradley Stillman, CFA, 202-387-6121) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 06/01/95 TELECOM FCC Retreats On ISDN Charge Plan (NEWS)(TELECOM)(WAS)(00016) FCC Retreats On ISDN Charge Plan 06/01/95 WASHINGTON, D.C., U.S.A., 1995 JUN 1 (NB) -- The Federal Communications Commission has backed away from a proposal that requires telephone companies to raise the price for ISDN (integrated services digital network) lines. The telephone companies had slammed the agency on the issue, saying it was forcing them to raise prices for the new digital telephone service when the phone companies wanted to lower rates. ISDN turns a regular copper phone wire into the equivalent of several wires -- either three lines in conventional ISDN or up to 24 lines in advanced ISDN. The commission's Common Carrier Bureau had decided to charge a "subscriber line charge" for each of the virtual phone lines created by the ISDN technology. So a business user would have to pay $6 per month for each of the 24 lines -- or $144 a month, on top of the regular telephone company charges. Residential customers would have to pay $3.50 per line. The FCC upheld the staff decision on the line charges last January. But last Tuesday, after heavy criticism from the industry and consumers, the agency announced a "suspension of its enforcement authority" on the line charges. The agency also issued a notice of proposed rulemaking on subscriber line charges to decide the issue formally. The agency said it wants to "avoid creating regulatory barriers to the development of beneficial new technologies, particularly when those services and technologies can facilitate access to the benefits of the national information infrastructure." The FCC introduced the subscriber line charge concept in 1983, anticipating the break up of the Bell system, and began applying them in 1984. The current charge is $6 for business users and $3.50 for residential customers. Revenues from the subscriber line charge have been used to make up for the loss of subsidies to local services that were coming from long-distance service. In its announcement on the ISDN charges, the commission expressed "concern about measures that could reduce (line charge) revenues, and potentially increase interstate toll rates." It also said it would be troubled by a policy that would reduce line charges for large business customers but not residential customers. Ironically, on the same day the FCC backed away from ISDN virtual line charges, Bell Atlantic, which provides local phone service to the Washington area, announced a major price cut for ISDN. The Philadelphia-based company said it would cut per-minute ISDN charges from five cents to two cents. The basic monthly charge for the service would remain at $40. With the new rates, said Bell Atlantic, the typical telecommuter could work from home with ISDN equipment for about $12 per week, plus the cost of ISDN-compliant equipment costing between $500 and $2,000. Bell Atlantic has about 110,000 ISDN lines in use by businesses and plans to target residential service by the end of the year, expecting interest in the Internet to boost use of the high-speed service. (Kennedy Maize/19950601/Press Contact: Susan Lewis Sallet, 202-418-1500) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 06/01/95 APPLE Apple Offers eWorld Education Features (NEWS)(APPLE)(LAX)(00017) Apple Offers eWorld Education Features 06/01/95 CUPERTINO, Ca., U.S.A., 1995 JUN 1 (NB) -- Apple Computer Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) is continuing its emphasis on the education market by offering two new online features for its eWorld online service. First, the company will offer special billing for teachers and schools, and second, give educators their own page on eWorld. Apple thinks the new billing service is significant, because it will allow teachers and schools to be billed for usage, rather than the current practice which requires a credit card. Apple believes this will allow much easier access to eWorld. The new online page -- "The eWorld on the Web Learning Community Page" -- provides educators, students, and parents with a way to get educational information. Users will be directed to information from Apple's Education division, learning institutions, educational publications, and museums. The home page is expected to be the first in a series of "eWorld on the Web" Internet destinations that will provide customers access to Internet information. Amy Bonetti, Apple's spokesperson for eWorld, told Newsbytes, "eWorld now has 90,000 subscribers ranking fourth among online services nationally. When Apple Link, Apple's in-house online service rolls into eWorld it will add another 60,000 subscribers." Bonetti claimed that this gives Apple a critical mass to provide a "full service" online system. Currently there are 275 publishers on eWorld, which was started in July, 1994. "Apple has tried to provide a safe environment for children and families, by constantly monitoring eWorld" said Bonetti, and this "fits nicely into the overall education market." She indicated that such monitoring is a conscious effort to distinguish eWorld from other online alternatives. As previously reported by Newsbytes, Apple claims that it has 59 percent of the installed base for education worldwide, and that represents between 22-24 percent of all revenue for Apple. "We're committed to extending Apple's leadership in education onto the information highway," said Peter Friedman, eWorld's general manager. "We aim to make it simple for educators to subscribe to, and use, our online service offerings that are especially designed for them." (Richard Bowers/19950601/Press Contact/ Amy Bonetti, Apple Computer Inc., 408-974-1333, Internet e-mail AmyBonetti@eWorld.com/) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 06/01/95 ONLINE 2Market Intros "Real Time" Shopping CD (NEWS)(ONLINE)(MSP)(00018) 2Market Intros "Real Time" Shopping CD 06/01/95 SAN MATEO, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1995 JUN 1 (NB) -- 2Market Inc. is introducing "2Market Live," a CD-ROM interactive shopping product that will bring with it real-time online capabilities. The 2Market Live product is updated regularly using an online connection via an America Online (AOL) host server. This is fundamentally different from the first 2Market CD-ROM, Michael Minigan, vice president of business development for 2Market, told Newsbytes. With that first edition the user could go into AOL from the CD, but they had to go through the normal AOL sign-on procedure. The new product "seamlessly" takes the shopper directly to a special area where new information can be downloaded to the user's computer. Other features the customer can use include: a "Product of the Week" area; event-based shopping, like for Father's Day and graduations; a video "guide" that directs customers to special promotions or offers; and easy ordering. Minigan said users can still log into the general AOL service via 2Market Live. A wide range of products are available via 2Market Live, Minigan said, including chocolates from Godiva, flowers from 800-Flowers, records, computer equipment and peripherals, items from the Spiegel catalog, and gifts from the Sharper Image. Minigan said he feels the fact that one million CD's will be shipped of this version of the program is a "significant milestone. "This is a significant leap not only for us, but for merchandisers, advertisers, and people who are looking at significant sized audience. The message is there's a critical mass forming behind some of these technologies," he said. he added that 2Market shipped less than 300,000 of the first version of the program. 2Market is a joint venture between Apple Computer and AOL. The new CD-ROM is available for both Apple Macintosh and Microsoft Windows- equipped computers through October, 1995. (Bob Woods/19950531/Press Contacts: Lisa Cort, 2Market, 415-525-4027, Internet e-mail lcort@aol.com; Judy Tarabini, Complete Communications, 510-855-9522, Internet e-mail jtarabini@aol.com. Public Contact: 2Market, 800-622-6600) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 06/01/95 ONLINE WebTrack Opens Web Marketing Site (NEWS)(ONLINE)(MSP)(00019) WebTrack Opens Web Marketing Site 06/01/95 NEW YORK CITY, NEW YORK, U.S.A., 1995 JUN 1 (NB) -- WebTrack said its Internet World Wide Web site is now open for people who are interested in leveraging the Internet as a marketing and publishing tool. "The main goal of the Web site is to serve as a resource for inter- advertising," Carisa Wangsness, marketing director for WebTrack, told Newsbytes. "Inter-advertising is the buying of Web links to promote a site, and using the Internet as a marketing tool." Because there are so many sites on the Web, Wangsness said WebTrack's site deciphers what the Internet can offer marketers who want to do business on the Web. She said the site can especially help beginners who might be overwhelmed with the Internet. WebTrack actively monitors more than 2,500 companies and 4,000 brands with media budgets over a half million dollars. Some of the features of the site include The Web Advertiser Database, which is a searchable database of World Wide Web sites by major advertisers, and information on the company's site auditing and analysis software, called "WebStat." Another feature is the WebTrack Ad Space Locator, which is a listing of Web sites that accept sponsorship and advertising revenue. In the near future, the Locator will include advertising rate cards, target audience descriptions, and content overviews. A hotlink list, a marketing directory, and WebTrack's marketing monitoring newsletter, called "InterAd Monthly," round out the site. James Kennedy, WebTrack's managing publisher, added that not all companies are taking advantage of the Web's interactive features. He said that just over 50% of the sites offer direct feedback opportunities, and under 25% use their presence to provide online product service or help. Also, 17% of those sites use the Web's multimedia capabilities for features like video and sound. WebTrack's site can be found at http://www.webtrack.com. (Bob Woods/19950531/Press Contact: Carisa Wangsness, WebTrack, 201-331-7922, Internet e-mail caw@WebTrack.com. Public Contact: Internet World Wide Web, http://www.webtrack.com) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 06/01/95 ONLINE Web To Generate $118 Million in Sales - Study (NEWS)(ONLINE)(MSP)(00020) Web To Generate $118 Million in Sales - Study 06/01/95 PETERBOROUGH, NEW HAMPSHIRE, U.S.A., 1995 JUN 1 (NB) -- The Internet's World Wide Web, long touted to be the next marketplace, will generate $118 million in sales from September, 1994, to August, 1995, ActivMedia Inc. said. That figure came from a study the company has conducted in the field of Internet marketing. The study also showed that even though Web sites had a mean life of just seven months, 21 percent of respondents reported sales of more than $10,000 for the preceding month, while three percent reported sales of more than $100,000. Jeanne Dietsch, vice president of ActivMedia, told Newsbytes her group wasn't sure what kind of results they would find when they started the survey. "Given what I had heard, we feared we were going to find no one was selling much of anything. So we were quite surprised." Dietsch said there are a lot of people who aren't selling much of anything in cyberspace, because "either they don't know what they're doing, their Web site is brand new, or they aren't trying very hard. There are people who are doing it right and making very nice money." She said as far as successful sites go, it doesn't matter too much how old or young a site is. Nor does it matter how big or small the company is, although she said "Mom and Pop" companies that consist of one or two people generally don't perform very well on the Internet, although some are successful. For this study, ActivMedia said its staff viewed 1,600 Web sites, obtained contact information, and requested that businesses participate in the study. Of that sample, 41% responded to ActivMedia. An executive summary of the report is available on the Web at http://www.activmedia.com. The report itself, which is $495, can be ordered via the company's Web site, or via electronic-mail at orders@activmedia.com. Dietsch, William Kennedy, Ph.D., and Anne Wujcik were the principals involved in writing the report. Dr. Kennedy used to be the senior editor of SunWorld and Advanced Systems magazines. Wujcik and Dietsch are long-time industry analysts who study emerging technologies, the company said. (Bob Woods/19950601/Press Contact: Jeanne Dietsch, ActivMedia, 603-924-9100; Internet e-mail jadietsch@activmedia.com. Public Contact: ActivMedia, 800-639-9481; Internet World Wide Web http://www.activmedia.com; Internet e-mail orders@activmedia.com or report_info@activmedia.com) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 06/01/95 TELECOM UK - British Telecom To Abolish Unit Charging System (NEWS)(TELECOM)(LON)(00021) UK - British Telecom To Abolish Unit Charging System 06/01/95 LONDON, ENGLAND, 1995 JUN 1 (NB) -- British Telecom has announced it will abolish its unit charging system from June 28. The telecoms giant first introduced unit charges in the late 1950s when self-dialed trunk calls were introduced. The current unit charge is 4.2 pence. Under the new charging system, which has been made possible with the computerization of the last of the 6,000 exchanges on BT's network in the UK, all calls made from standard phone lines will be charge on a per-second basis, and the net call charge rounded down to a tenth of a penny. In parallel with the switch to per-second billing, BT is cutting some rates. Although most other telecoms carriers in the UK have introduced per- second billing, BT has had to stick with its unit charges until its network was wholly digital. The move to per-second billing means that customer bills will drop by around five per cent, BT officials claim. Interestingly, BT claims it is the first major national telecoms operator anywhere in the world to change its entire network over to per-second pricing by abolishing unit charging. The minimum charge remains at 4.2 pence, the price of one telephone unit. Announcing the change, which had been expected this summer, Mike Hepher, BT's group managing director, said that simplified pricing has been the top of the list as far as customer requirements go. "We will make it easier for them to see how little calls really cost, before they make them and when they receive their bill," he said. Mercury Communications, which has had per-second billing since its services started in 1987, was less than complementary about BT's apparent laggardness in switching to per-second billing. "It's not before time," a spokesman said. The price cuts being made in parallel to per-second billing will massage BT's per-minute charges into rounded figures, Newsbytes notes. Daytime local calls made during a weekday will cost four pence a minute. Throughout Saturdays and Sundays local calls will cost just one pence a minute -- an average reduction of 22 percent -- subject to the 4.2 pence per minute (pre-value-added-tax) minimum charge. According to BT, most calls will either come down in price or cost the same. And while some calls of specific durations might cost slightly more, BT claims that call charges will come down by UKP310 million in total and the average call bill will come down by five percent. The figures involved are interesting, if not mind-numbing in their size. For instance, by opting to round its call charges down to the nearest tenth of a penny, BT claims that UKP10 million will be saved on UK phone bills a year. Residential customers, as an example, will save a total of about UKP168 million in a year, or an average of UKP8.40 for every customer -- BT claims that this is enough to pay for a 19 minute local call every weekend for a year. UK businesses will share the remaining savings -- UKP142 million in all, or about UKP22.75 for every business line. Hepher said that the per-second billing system will allow BT to offer a new range of pricing systems in the future, although he refused to be drawn on specifics. "BT will use the capabilities of the new technology to introduce even better pricing discount schemes, tailoring packages to meet the specific requirements of individual customers, and giving them greater choice and control over their bills," he said. BT claims that UK businesses make almost 200 million local calls each week, and residential customers almost 300 million. Last, but perhaps most significantly, BT is changing the name of its short-haul local calls -- known currently as `a' rate -- to regional calls. These are defined by BT as calls to places under 35 miles away, but outside the local calling area. Regional calls will come down by more than seven percent, to nine pence per minute in the daytime, and by more than two percent at evenings and night-times to just four pence per minute. BT claims that the latest cuts will mean that the telco has met its obligation to cut prices by around UKP400 million in the year to the end of July, 1995, as agreed with the Office of Telecommunications (Oftel). Furthermore, UKP200 million of call reductions are rolled into the 1995/96 year, which still, Newsbytes notes, leaves BT to reduce its prices by around UKP200 million in the next year. How BT will achieve this remains to be seen. Most telecoms experts agree that the likely scenario is for BT to fold the regional call zone (up to 35 miles distant) in with the local calling area, making call tariffs very simple -- i.e. local or national, peak or off-peak. This paves the way for the eventual phasing out of local and national call metering, which many experts view as cost-effective as the telecoms industry approaches the end of the century and the cost of offering domestic calls falls to zero. At this stage, experts claim, the cost of metering and billing details for domestic (i.e. inland) calls outweighs the income benefits. (Steve Gold/19950601/Press Contact: BT Corporate Newsroom, +171-356- 5369; Press Faxback service, +44-171-600-4597) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 06/01/95 ONLINE UK - Daily Telegraph Offers Internet Starter Kits (NEWS)(ONLINE)(LON)(00022) UK - Daily Telegraph Offers Internet Starter Kits 06/01/95 LONDON, ENGLAND, 1995 JUN 1 (NB) -- The Daily Telegraph, which was the first British paper to offer a World Wide Web site on the Internet at http://www.telegraph.co.uk/, has announced that a customized Internet package and subscription bundle will be offered to readers of the paper. #IMAGE 1 20 TWPCX \images\95060122.PCX Click here for photo The package will cost UKP25 upfront and UKP15 a month, allowing the paper's readers access to the Demon Internet service provider's national network of POPs (points-of-presence). Newsbytes questioned why the Telegraph is charging its subscribers UKP5 a month more than the standard UKP10 Demon subscription. "It's because our package supports POP3 (an advanced electronic-mail facility), a spokesman explained. "We had great difficulty in persuading Demon to offer this service, and the extra monthly subscription reflects the charge for this extra service," he said. The software package is a customized version of the Netscape Web browser, plus the Demon access software, POP3, and various other utilities. A user manual for the Electronic Telegraph Web service is also included in the deal. In parallel with the availability of the DT Web access service, the Electronic Telegraph service is to launch a new "Search Engine" facility on its Web pages that allows subscribers to the Web interactive and keyword searching of back issues of the Daily Telegraph. The password system on the Electronic Telegraph service is also being enhanced. Previously, users had to register their originating Internet details and the system allocated a PIN to access the service. Under the new system, users select a password themselves and are auto- registered to the service. The use of a password system suggests that the Telegraph may, at some stage in the future, introduce a charge for its online service. "At the moment, I can't see us charging for the service, nor can I see it happening in the future, even though we considered it in the early days," a spokesman told Newsbytes. "As we've been building up the Electronic Telegraph service in the UK, we've watched other papers and their Web sites very closely. When we saw that the San Jose Mercury was starting to charge in the US, we watched and saw that the paper had extreme difficulty in persuading its 200,000 Web users to pay for the service. I gather that the Mercury has only got 2,500 paying subscribers," he said. "With that in mind, I can't see us charging for Web access. That isn't a major issue for us, as we are a newspaper and, traditionally, our revenue streams have come from advertising and the price of the paper. With the Web site you can remove the high cost of distribution from the price of running the service, so the net cost is reduced considerably. In the case of the Web site, it's the advertising that pays for the cost of the service," he explained. The paper claims it is currently in the process of carry out "qualitative research" into the needs of the 90,000-plus users of the Web site, using online questionnaires, Internet Relay Chats (IRCs), and telephone conference groups. The paper has set up a series of user groups from its readers who are being asked to give their feedback on how the Web site should be developed. Initial findings from the user groups suggest that the bulk of Web users like the "pick and choose" element of online news and that around 85 percent of Web accesses are made from the workplace. According to the Telegraph, while the majority of users of the Electronic Telegraph service are male, interest is now being shown by women, which the paper says is encouraging. A recent fashion page in the Daily Telegraph, organized in association with the Cyberia Cafe in London -- and centering on the development of fashion on the information superhighway -- was "warmly received by women of all ages," a spokesman said. Such a large number of readers took up the paper's offer of a special Internet training workshop at the cafe in London that it was necessary to arrange additional dates to accommodate those who were interested. (Steve Gold/19950601/Press Contact: Daily Telegraph PR, +44-171-538-6966; Reader Contact: Electronic Telegraph, +44-181-371-1200/PHOTO/TELEGRAPH950601) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 06/01/96 BUSINESS FTP Software Opens Distribution Center In Europe (NEWS)(BUSINESS)(LON)(00023) FTP Software Opens Distribution Center In Europe 06/01/96 EINDHOVEN, NETHERLANDS, 1995 JUN 1 (NB) -- FTP Software, which claims to be the leading supplier of PC-based TCP/IP (Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol) software, has opened a distribution warehouse in Eindhoven, Netherlands. According to David Zirkle, the company's president, opening a warehouse in Europe was the next logical step for the US company. "We recently set up offices in the UK, France, and Germany, so this latest move compounds a clear commitment to our distribution channel and customers. We are now able to ship directly to our partners and selected customers, which means that we cut down the delay associated with double-handling," he explained. According to FTP Software Worldwide in Germany, customers in Europe can now expect delivery within 24 to 48 hours of placing an order. This is claimed to be 10 to 24 hours sooner than was possible under previous distribution systems. FTP claims that, for some of the company's US-owned partners, the availability of a warehouse in Europe means that shipments can be made direct to Eindhoven, reducing the shipment process by up to two weeks. The company claims that the warehouse facility will take care of receiving, selecting, packaging and shipping products, in addition to handling customs and sales tax documentation and processing. Interestingly, FTP claims that the warehouse will reduce shipping costs by between 25 and 35 percent. Plans call for these reductions to be passed on to the company's partners and customers. The company is also in the process of introducing electronic data interchange (EDI) facilities with its operations, and exchanges of information from FTP's headquarters in Massachusetts will be made two to three times a day, ensuring that orders and shipments are processed as quickly as possible. (Sylvia Dennis & Steve Gold/19950601/Press & Reader Contact: Vincent James, FTP Software Worldwide, +49-89-5904-7159, Internet e-mail vjames@ftp.com) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 06/01/95 GENERAL Open Software Foundation - 1st DCE For Mac (NEWS)(GENERAL)(BOS)(00024) Open Software Foundation - 1st DCE For Mac 06/01/95 BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS, U.S.A., 1995 JUN 1 (NB) -- At a press conference in Boston, the Open Software Foundation (OSF) unveiled the first Macintosh implementation of the Distributed Computing Environment (DCE), along with a series of presentations by DCE users in the military and large corporate markets. At the press event, which was attended by Newsbytes, users representing Schlumberger, General Motors/EDS, and Unix Pros, a systems integrator for the US Army, delivered talks on the utilization of DCE by these organizations to add "mainframe-quality" services and multivendor interoperability to client-server environments. For the last half-hour of the event, these users were joined by representatives of about a dozen other OSF customer organizations in answering questions about their experiences with DCE. Just after the press conference, journalists and analysts viewed demos of the new Mac implementation and other DCE tools and applications during a tour of the Solutions Showcase that is being held in conjunction with the current OSF Member Meeting in Boston. The new Mac implementation is being jointly produced by Gradient Technologies and the University of Michigan, noted Joe Maloney, OSF business area manager for DCE, at the start of the press event. The University of Michigan plans to begin testing the implementation this fall, but a date has yet to be set for release of the product, said Derek Brink, director of the DCE Business Group for Gradient, a company that also produces Windows implementation of DCE. The initial implementation at the University of Michigan will be based on System 7.5, with native support for PowerPC to be added in a future edition, according to the university's Ted Hanss. The two partners have now completed the remote procedural call (RPC) mechanism, noted David Zwicker, VP of marketing for Gradient, speaking with Newsbytes during the products showcase that followed. The implementation to be piloted this fall will encompass "all of DCE except for DFS (distributed file system)," he added. The partners wanted to develop an implementation for Macintosh due to the widespread use of the Mac on university campuses, as well as in environments such as aeronautical engineering and graphics design, and in "pockets" throughout many major corporations, he explained. Schlumberger is using DCE with a Motif graphical user interface (GUI) for an internal client-server electronic mail system that calls for communications among a wide variety of multivendor computers located all over the world, including HP, Sun, RS 6000, Fujitsu, VAX, and PDP 11, said Schlumberger's Tom Provost. "We now have the framework," he observed. The next step for Schlumberger, he added, is to produce a DCE-based system that is integrated across systems from Shell and other customers in the petroleum industry. The oil companies are interested in DCE as a result of its security features, said Provost. "We'll probably end up using a combination of public and private encryption, based on what people want," he revealed. Also in the future, Schlumberger would like to add the ability for unattended mail delivery to client PCs, according to Provost. General Motors, which is downsizing to client-server from a mainframe environment, is turning to DCE for much the same reasons -- "mainframe-style" security and administration services, as well as interoperability, uniform access, and the ability to "share applications and applications services," said Paul Frisch of General Motors/EDS. The auto maker has produced two DCE-based applications, including a distributed transaction facility (DTF). The applications are currently being used by 100 users at GM, but will ultimately be deployed among 1,000 to 1,500 users, according to Frisch. In choosing DCE for application involving remote communications with soldiers in the field, built-in security was one reason, but there were also others, according to Jay Thompson of Unix Pros. "Being vendor neutral is very important. We don't want to get locked into one vendor, in case that vendor gets bought out, is merged, or goes out of business," Thompson told the press. In addition, he maintained, DCE combines "stability" with the ability to deal with the "very dynamic environment" of US Army field units, in which users' Internet Protocol (IP) addresses can change often and unexpectedly. "DCE is just the right level. It doesn't get in your way," he explained. The mobile military application will undergo initial testing in February, and will then be deployed in a mock combat situation next fall, Thompson added. In the Q&A session that followed, DCE users were asked what versions of DCE they are employing. Users from JP Morgan and 3M Corp. both replied that they are using version 1.1. The user from JP Morgan explained that this is "due, in particular, to government regulatory requirements." The 3M representative responded that 3M is "in a holding pattern, waiting for the Hal tools" for DCE 1.2. The users were also asked whether they are experiencing "fat client problems" with version 1.1. The OSF's Maloney pointed out that the OSF is implementing DCE in Windows as a dynamic link library (DLL). The user from 3M said that the DCE 1.1 client is no "fatter" than the client component of any other software. A user from Barclays Bank then suggested that Windows 95 clients, in general, are going to be "fatter" than their Windows 3.1 counterparts. Aside from Gradient/University of Michigan, other exhibitors at the OSF's Solutions Showcase include Hewlett-Packard, IBM/British Columbia Telephone, Transarc/EDS, the US Defense Department's Hal, and the OSF Research Institute/Web demo participants. (Jacqueline Emigh/19950601/Reader Contact: Open Software Foundation, 617-621-8700; Press Contact: Jane Smeloff, OSF, 617-621-8997) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 06/01/95 GENERAL Open Software Foundation - Motif Update, DCE Certification (NEWS)(GENERAL)(BOS)(00025) Open Software Foundation - Motif Update, DCE Certification 06/01/95 BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS, U.S.A., 1995 JUN 1 (NB) -- At the Open Software Foundation (OSF) Member Meeting, the OSF has released OSF Motif version 1.2.5, announced the availability of free source code licenses for the Distributed Computing Environment (DCE) to universities and non-profit research groups, and awarded DCE certification to Digital, IBM, Hewlett-Packard, and Hitachi. OSF Motif 1.2.5 will bring full backward and binary compatibility between the OSF and Common Desktop Environment (CDE) versions of Motif 1.2, maintained Joe Maloney, OSF Business Manager for DCE, speaking at the three-day event in Boston. By making DCE source code available free of charge to universities and non-profit research groups, he predicted, the OSF will stimulate increased development around DCE. The "Big Ten" universities have all endorsed the OSF's measure, along with Carnegie Mellon University (CMU), Stanford, and the University of Massachusetts (UMass), according to the OSF official. Digital, IBM, HP and Hitachi are the first vendors to receive DCE certification, and others are in the process of being certified, Maloney told the audience. The new OSF certification program is intended to assure users of application, data, and platform interoperability across DCE implementations. Companies that achieve OSF certification are entitled to use the OSF DCE Certified seal on certified products and "related materials." To obtain certification, a company must take part in a multi-vendor testing environment known as the OSF Interoperability Festival (I- FEST), successfully complete the OSF DCE Validation Test Suite, and then submit test results and supporting documentation to the OSF. The OSF/Motif graphical user interface (GUI) now has over three million users, with "widespread deployment" in the Fortune 500, government, and education markets, according to Darrell Crow, OSF business area manager for user environments and desktop technologies, and another speaker at the event. Aside from OSF Motif 1.2.4, which was released earlier this quarter, OSF Motif 1.2.5 has been preceded by the release of: OSF 1.2.0 in the second quarter of 1992; 1.2.1 in the third quarter, 1992; 1.2.2 in the fourth quarter, 1992; 1.2.3 in the third quarter, 1993; and OSF Motif 2.0.0 in August, 1994. OSF Motif 2.0, which is aimed at "CDE convergence," adds new capabilities that include: new widgets and widget-writing functionality in C and C++; Virtual Screen Support; the Uniform Transfer Model, providing features like drag-and-drop and cut-and- paste; and improvements in workspace management. CDE/Motif PST, a version targeted at convergence with both CDE and the X/Open environment, is scheduled for general availability at the end of 1996, according to Crow. Beyond bringing compatibility with CDE Motif 1.2, the new OSF Motif 1.2.5 is designed to provide defect fixes to Motif 1.2.4 problems, according to Maloney. OSF Motif 1.2.5 has passed the Motif Validation Test Suite (VTS) on a number of configurations, which are "representative of the reference platforms for this release:" HP 9000/720 running HP-UX 9.01, R5 server; Intel 486 running OSF/1 1.2, MIT R5 server; and SPARCstation 2 running SunOS 4.1.2, R5 server. The new release has also been validated as "64-bit clean," using Digital Unix (DEC OSF/1) version 1.3 revision 111 running on Alpha as the test platform, according to Maloney. Digital, IBM, HP and Hitachi all won DCE certification for implementations consistent with DCE release 1.0.3. Digital achieved certification for its DCE for OpenVMS 1.3 products running on both Alpha and VAX. Digital now plans to submit its DCE products on Windows NT and Unix for OSF certification, said Sumner Blount, DCE alliances manager for Digital. The other implementations awarded DCE certification include: IBM DCE 1.3 running on RISC/6000 under AIX 3.2.5; HPDCE/9000 1.2 running on HP/9000 Series 700 and 900 under HP-UX 9.0; and Hitachi's DCE/Base- M 1.0 running on an Enterprise System Architecture-compatible system under HI-OSF/1-M 1.2. Maloney pointed out that the OSF will hold its next I-FEST from August 7 to 18 in Boston. Other upcoming OSF events include: the DCI DCE User and Developer Conference, August 21 to 23 in Boston; the DCE Technical Symposium, October 11 to 13 in Phoenix, Arizona; the DCE Conference, September 27 to 28 in Paris, France; a member update, September 29, also in Paris, and SuperSIG (special interest group), set for November in Boston. (Jacqueline Emigh/19950531/Reader Contact: Open Software Foundation, 617-621-8700; Press Contact: Jane Smeloff, OSF, 617-621-8997) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 06/01/95 ONLINE Canadian Cable Companies To Offer PC Access Service (NEWS)(ONLINE)(TOR)(00026) Canadian Cable Companies To Offer PC Access Service 06/01/95 HALIFAX, NOVA SCOTIA, CANADA, 1995 JUN 1 (NB) -- Three major Canadian cable-television companies have announced joint plans to offer computer access to the Internet and other online services via cable modems connected to their networks. Rogers Cablesystems, Ltd., Shaw Communications Inc. (TSE:SCL), and Le Groupe Videotron Ltee. (TSE,ME:VDO) announced their plans during the Canadian Cable Television Association's annual convention. Together, the three cable operators serve about 65 percent of all homes connected to cable, said David Masotti, vice-president of business development at Rogers Cablesystems in Toronto. He added that the initial partners hope to involve other Canadian cable-TV operators later. Canada has one of the world's highest cable- television penetration rates. The new service will let computer users turn to cable modems which, by taking advantage of the broadband cable network's greater bandwidth, can move data as much as 1,000 times as fast as today's fastest telephone modems. Several manufacturers already sell cable modems, but a key roadblock to their use has been the lack of support by cable-television operators. Rogers, Videotron, and Shaw hope to launch their service commercially early in 1996. "We would like to have a ubiquitous service launch, and that would certainly be our goal," Masotti told Newsbytes. However, the companies are not yet sure whether computer access can be offered in every area they serve at the outset. "It might not make sense to go out full force in every part of the country at the same time," Massotti said. The cost of the service remains up in the air at the moment as well. Masotti said only that there is likely to be a basic monthly subscription fee, which might well include Internet access up to a certain time limit, plus usage charges for other services. The cable companies said they plan to offer a "common `look and feel' for user interfaces and navigation systems to provide user- friendly access to a variety of information services." They are also planning local information services, which Masotti said might be compared to the community television stations that cable operators run. Rogers Cablesystems, a unit of Rogers Communications Inc. (TSE,ME:RCI) of Toronto, operates cable TV services, mainly in larger centers, in Ontario and British Columbia. Rogers also runs a high-speed access provider, Rogers Network Services, and a chain of video stores, and has a stake in long-distance telephone company Unitel Communications Inc. Shaw Communications, of Edmonton, Alberta, has cable systems in Ontario, Nova Scotia, and Western Canada, as well as other radio and television operations. Montreal-based Groupe Videotron's Canadian cable operations are concentrated in Quebec. It also has cable and other interests in the United Kingdom and the United States. The partnership will be based in Montreal. (Grant Buckler/19950601/Press Contact: Colin Watson, Rogers Cablesystems, 416-391-7200; Michael D'Avella, Shaw Communications, 403-468-1230; Guy Lacroix, Groupe Videotron, 514-985-8839) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 06/01/95 ONLINE ****Netscape Server Software Offered For Free Evaluation (NEWS)(ONLINE)(SFO)(00027) ****Netscape Server Software Offered For Free Evaluation 06/01/95 MOUNTAIN VIEW, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1995 JUN 1 -- Netscape Communications has announced it will offer its Communications Server and Commerce Server software on a "Test Drive" basis to individuals, organizations, and business. The free download of the server software allows users to work with the programs for 60 days. Speaking to Newsbytes, Rosanne Siino, director of communications at Netscape, said, "A number of people have called and right away want to know what happens after 60 days. Does the program delete itself? Will it explode and cause the loss of data? Of course not. When we decided to offer this program, we realized we could not allow that to happen." She continued, "To download the server software, users need to sign an agreement in which they acknowledge the software is only available for a sixty-day test period. When they continue to use the program after the test period, little messages, reminders, pop-up to remind them to register the software. As well, we send an electronic-mail message to let them know the test period is over." The Communications Server is a basic Internet server software package which allows users to easily set-up, configure, and maintain a designated Internet server. The Commerce Server offers the same basic Internet server software with additional security components necessary to conduct secure commerce online. Siino continued, "A lot of businesses are not sure whether they should be involved with the Internet or to what extent they should be involved. For a lot of businesses it is still an experimental proposition and a number of them have come to us and said they would like to test the waters. We feel our Server Test Drive program will allow them the opportunity to explore the opportunities on the Internet without making a financial commitment. We are sure this will inspire people to join in a very exciting and evolving electronic media." Netscape's server software is available for a number of Unix platforms including Digital OSF/1 Alpha, Hewlett-Packard's HP - UX, IBM's AIX operating systems, Silicon Graphics' IRIX, and Sun Microsystems' Sun Solaris and SunOS. A Windows NT version is expected to be available later this month. Netscape's Server Test Drive program is only available in the United States and technical support is available through the company's Web page. The Communication Server software is priced at $1,495 for the Unix version and the Windows NT version is $795. Netscape's Commerce Server software is priced at $5,000 for the Unix version and $2,295 for the Windows NT version. (Patrick McKenna/19950601/Press Contact: Rosanne Siino, Netscape, 415-528-2619, Internet World Wide Web http://home.netscape.com) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 06/01/95 BUSINESS More On DreamWorks & Silicon Graphics Alliance (NEWS)(BUSINESS)(SFO)(00028) More On DreamWorks & Silicon Graphics Alliance 06/01/95 MOUNTAIN VIEW, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A, 1995 JUN 1 (NB) -- Silicon Graphics and DreamWorks SKG yesterday announced a $50 million deal to develop the "Digital Studio of the 21st Century." With a signed agreement, both companies said they were already in search of a location to build the campus environment of the new studio. As reported yesterday by Newsbytes, the announcement was made at a press conference attended by two of DreamWorks founders -- Steven Spielberg, famous film director and producer, and Jeffrey Katzenberg, ex-Disney executive. They were joined by: Ed McCracken, chairman and chief executive at Silicon Graphics Inc. (SGI); Tom Jermoluk, president and chief operating officer at SGI; and Mike Ramsey, president of a SGI subsidiary called Silicon Studio. The announcement was made by an animated and excited Jermoluk who emphasized the importance of bringing together the "most creative people in world" with the most "technologically advanced people" in world. He said, "This is an alliance of creativity and opportunity and sends a message to the rest of the film industry about what will be required to stay at the top in the film business." He continued, "If you think technology is slowing down, I've got news for you. It is increasing faster than ever. Technology is a partner with content, but technology should be invisible. Content is king. It always has been and always will be. We have already entered this era. When you look at the work that was done on Jurassic Park and other Spielberg films, you begin to understand what this revolution is all about." The first feature animated films from the 21st Century Studio are expected to show in theaters within the next four years. Silicon Graphics also said the alliance, the coming together of all this talent, also pushes technology developments of the company's computers. SGI said one of the financial benefits of the alliance is the creation of new marketable products. Speaking of the new studio, Jeffrey Katzenberg told the audience, "Our goal it to develop what has never been seen before. He said Walt Disney was a pioneer and unique in his time and that no-one else until Spielberg has embraced the tools and technology in the same way. Addressing the audience, Spielberg said that, when people view the dinosaurs in Jurassic Park, they do not see technology. They see dinosaurs. This is the achievement of technology. These dinosaurs are so real, the viewer does not think about technology. Spielberg also said, "As films begin to cost $70 million to $100 million, companies have to look for ways to cut the costs and technology can do just that." Both companies were vague about the specific amount of investment from each party. They were also very relaxed about the role each company will assume in the development and operation of the new studio. Both did emphasize the studio would be an open environment which would welcome third party developers and creative talents from around the world. (Patrick McKenna/19956001/Press Contact: John Cristofano, SGI, 415-390-2646) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 06/01/95 APPLE ****Apple Petitions FCC For New Wireless Band (NEWS)(APPLE)(SFO)(00029) ****Apple Petitions FCC For New Wireless Band 06/01/95 CUPERTINO, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1995 JUN 1 -- Apple Computer Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) has filed a petition with the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) requesting an allocation of the radio spectrum for high-speed data communications. Called the "NII Band," the frequency would be free of airtime charges. The NII Band would allow companies, organizations, community groups and individuals to establish networks which would allow users to have wireless access to the Internet. This could be a especially helpful to remote communities which exist in areas without telephone service and other applications where remote access might be advantageous. Apple admits there are certain limitations to remote access to the Internet. Certain multimedia-packed Web sites may not be available, but many Internet features could be provided over a limited area. Apple says it applied for the ruling on the NII Band because of the success the company experienced establishing a frequency allocation for unlicensed personal data services (Data-PCS). The data frequency allows wireless devices to operate with a limited area such as a school campus. The Data-PCS frequency ruling allows users to establish and operate a wireless network without paying a service provider for installation or air- time. The NII Band would operate much the same way, but at faster speeds over a larger area -- approximately 10 to 15 kilometers. Using higher frequencies, the new band would have less interference with competing devices and provide more bandwidth for the transmission of larger data packets. Apple says the new band is designed to complement, as opposed to compete with, existing licensed services. Apple's petition stresses "fair access" to prevent proprietary domination of any part of the band. The petition also for permission to use HIPERLAN- compliant products as well as others on the NII Band. HIPERLAN standards are already in effect for European wireless networks operating at 5150-5300 megahertz (MHz) which is a portion of the frequency of the NII Band. If accepted, the HIPERLAN-compliant products provision would allow US manufacturers to produce wireless devices for the US and European markets. Speaking to Newsbytes, Jim Lovette, principal scientist on communication technology for Apple, said, "The petition requests an area of 5150 to 5300 MHz and 5725 to 5875 MHz to operate the NII Band. This new band will open access to the Internet for a lot of individuals and groups. It is just in its early stages, but many people are ready to develop the necessary devices and equipment necessary to create a wireless network for accessing the Net." (Patrick McKenna/19956001/Press Contact: Pam Miracle, Apple Computer, 408-974-0688) (SUMMARY)(GENERAL)(SFO)(00030) Newsbytes Daily Summary 06/01/95 PENN VALLEY, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1995 JUN 1 (NB) -- These are capsules of all today's news stories: 1 -> British Telecom Considers Belgium Acquisition 06/01/95 British Telecom (BT) has revealed it is talking to Bell Atlantic about making a joint bid for a stake in Belgacom, the Belgian state telecoms company. 2 -> UK - TI Intros Pentium TravelMate 5000 Notebooks 06/01/95 -THAMES, MIDDLESEX, ENGLAND, 1995 JUN 1 (NB) -- Texas Instruments has unveiled a Pentium-based range of TravelMate 5000 notebooks. 3 -> UK - AST Bundles CommandCenter With PCs 06/01/95 AST Europe has taken the wraps off CommandCenter, an advanced system management software utility that it claims offers the industry's highest level of system manageability, protection and optimization, using a suite of anti-virus and security software. 4 -> BCE, Nortel, IBM Near Top Of Canadian Sales Ranking 06/01/95 The worldwide recovery of IBM (NYSE:IBM) is reflected in its Canadian subsidiary's move from 16th to 13th in Canadian Business magazine's ranking of Canadian companies by sales this year. 5 -> Women & Online Communities - Study 06/01/95 When it comes to online shopping, women don't "shop until they drop," according to a new study. Interactive Publishing Alert's (IPA) 1995 Survey of Women Online charts that and other facts of women online. 6 -> Novell Ships Free NetWare/IP 2.1 For NetWare 4.1 06/01/95 Novell Inc. (NASDAQ:NOVL) has announced version 5 of LAN WorkPlace for MS Windows and DOS. The new version includes an Internet browser and news reader, a network mailer, remote dialer, and some print utilities. 7 -> Cap Cities/ABC & Spectrum Holobyte In Game Venture 06/01/95 Capital Cities/ABC (NYSE:CCB) and Spectrum HoloByte (NASDAQ:SBYT) jointly announced the formation of a joint venture company to develop and produce interactive game software for computers and video game machines. The new games will carry the ABC Sports brand. 8 -> Internet Update 06/01/95 In this roundup of new services and resources on the Internet: Sakhalin earthquake information; One stop search shops; World population counter; SLIPless Web browser; Picture backgrounds for the Web; Virtual gallery exhibits; Hypertext Perl 5 manual; Mailing list to Web gateway. 9 -> Asia's Future In Multimedia Discussed At Tokyo Forum 06/01/95 The role of Asia in the coming multimedia revolution has been the subject of discussion at a special two-day forum organized by NHK, Japan's state broadcaster, and The Yomiuri Shimbun newspaper. 10 -> Japan Newsbriefs 06/01/95 In this roundup of news from Japan: MPT to turn down NTT leased line plan; Fujitsu plans more overseas production; US way ahead of Japan in information technology; Oracle staff heading east; Adobe desktop publishing campaign; More screens from Sony; Network upgrade at Hitachi. 11 -> ServiceTech '95 Show To Focus On Support "Innovations" 06/01/95 ServiceTech '95, a conference and expo focusing on "innovations" in customer support technology, will take place June 18 to 21 in Danvers, Massachusetts. Highlights will be available on videotape for individuals and organizations unable to attend the show. 12 -> China - State Data Comms Bureau Promotes ChinaNet 06/01/95 Engineers and technicians of the Data Communications Bureau under the Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications (MPT) exhibited ChinaNet services to the public at the National (Beijing) Library of China recently. 13 -> China - Unicom Breaks MPT Telecom Monopoly 06/01/95 In breaking the telecommunications monopoly of the Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications (MPT), China United Telecommunications Corp. (Unicom) is now able to provide telecom services in China. 14 -> Canadians Offered 2 Online Job Services 06/01/95 Two new online job-listing services have been announced in the Toronto area. One is aimed specifically at helping workers with disabilities, while the other is to serve a broader clientele. 15 -> Hundt Defends Against FCC Hunters 06/01/95 The nation needs the Federal Communications Commission, said Reed Hundt, FCC chairman, defending his agency in the face of a think tank study arguing for dismantling the agency. 16 -> FCC Retreats On ISDN Charge Plan 06/01/95 The Federal Communications Commission has backed away from a proposal that requires telephone companies to raise the price for ISDN (integrated services digital network) lines. The telephone companies had slammed the agency on the issue, saying it was forcing them to raise prices for the new digital telephone service when the phone companies wanted to lower rates. 17 -> Apple Offers eWorld Education Features 06/01/95 Apple Computer Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) is continuing its emphasis on the education market by offering two new online features for its eWorld online service. First, the company will offer special billing for teachers and schools, and second, give educators their own page on eWorld. 18 -> 2Market Intros "Real Time" Shopping CD 06/01/95 2Market Inc. is introducing "2Market Live," a CD-ROM interactive shopping product that will bring with it real-time online capabilities. The 2Market Live product is updated regularly using an online connection via an America Online (AOL) host server. 19 -> WebTrack Opens Web Marketing Site 06/01/95 WebTrack said its Internet World Wide Web site is now open for people who are interested in leveraging the Internet as a marketing and publishing tool. 20 -> Web To Generate $118 Million in Sales - Study 06/01/95 The Internet's World Wide Web, long touted to be the next marketplace, will generate $118 million in sales from September, 1994, to August, 1995, ActivMedia Inc. said. That figure came from a study the company has conducted in the field of Internet marketing. 21 -> UK - British Telecom To Abolish Unit Charging System 06/01/95 British Telecom has announced it will abolish its unit charging system from June 28. The telecoms giant first introduced unit charges in the late 1950s when self-dialed trunk calls were introduced. 22 -> UK - Daily Telegraph Offers Internet Starter Kits 06/01/95 The Daily Telegraph, which was the first British paper to offer a World Wide Web site on the Internet at http://www.telegraph.co.uk/, has announced that a customized Internet package and subscription bundle will be offered to readers of the paper. 23 -> FTP Software Opens Distribution Center In Europe 06/01/96 FTP Software, which claims to be the leading supplier of PC-based TCP/IP (Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol) software, has opened a distribution warehouse in Eindhoven, Netherlands. 24 -> Open Software Foundation - 1st DCE For Mac 06/01/95 At a press conference in Boston, the Open Software Foundation (OSF) unveiled the first Macintosh implementation of the Distributed Computing Environment (DCE), along with a series of presentations by DCE users in the military and large corporate markets. 25 -> Open Software Foundation - Motif Update, DCE Certification 06/01/95 At the Open Software Foundation (OSF) Member Meeting, the OSF has released OSF Motif version 1.2.5, announced the availability of free source code licenses for the Distributed Computing Environment (DCE) to universities and non-profit research groups, and awarded DCE certification to Digital, IBM, Hewlett-Packard, and Hitachi. 26 -> Canadian Cable Companies To Offer PC Access Service 06/01/95 Three major Canadian cable-television companies have announced joint plans to offer computer access to the Internet and other online services via cable modems connected to their networks. Rogers Cablesystems, Ltd., Shaw Communications Inc. (TSE:SCL), and Le Groupe Videotron Ltee. (TSE,ME:VDO) announced their plans during the Canadian Cable Television Association's annual convention. 27 -> ****Netscape Server Software Offered For Free Evaluation 06/01/95 Netscape Communications has announced it will offer its Communications Server and Commerce Server software on a "Test Drive" basis to individuals, organizations, and business. The free download of the server software allows users to work with the programs for 60 days. 28 -> More On DreamWorks & Silicon Graphics Alliance 06/01/95 Silicon Graphics and DreamWorks SKG yesterday announced a $50 million deal to develop the "Digital Studio of the 21st Century." With a signed agreement, both companies said they were already in search of a location to build the campus environment of the new studio. 29 -> ****Apple Petitions FCC For New Wireless Band 06/01/95 Apple Computer Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) has filed a petition with the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) requesting an allocation of the radio spectrum for high-speed data communications. Called the "NII Band," the frequency would be free of airtime charges. (Ian Stokell/19950601) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 05/19/95 BUSINESS CA Confirms Record Results (NEWS)(BUSINESS)(TOR)(00001) CA Confirms Record Results 05/19/95 ISLANDIA, NEW YORK, U.S.A., 1995 MAY 19 (NB) -- Computer Associates International Inc. (NYSE:CA) has confirmed the record financial results that the software company tentatively announced at the beginning of May, and revealed some more details of how earnings broke down across product categories. As projected earlier, CA's final annual results show net income of $586.47 million, or $3.49 per share, on revenues of $2.623 billion, before a one-time pre-tax writeoff for purchased research and development connected with the acquisition of The Ask Group, Inc., last June. After that charge, net income was $431.9 million or $2.57 per share. That compares with net income of $401.26 million, or $2.34 per share, on revenue of $2.148 billion in fiscal 1994. In the fourth quarter, CA earned net income of $212.9 million, or $1.27 per share, on revenues of $801.99 million. This compared with net income of $158.79 million, or 93 cents per share, and revenues of $633.74 million in the fourth quarter of fiscal 1994. CA revealed unaudited results at the beginning of May, saying a rash of poor results reported by software firms had raised worries about its own performance among investors and it wanted to allay those fears as soon as possible. Further details now available from CA show that the company's business continues to move away from its original base in mainframe computing and toward smaller systems. Douglas Robinson, senior vice-president of investor relations, told Newsbytes that 72 percent of CA's revenues in fiscal 1995 came from mainframe software, 21 percent came from software for midrange computers, and seven percent came from personal computer software. In the year before, he said, mainframes accounted for about 80 percent of CA's software sales. Officials noted that revenues from midrange software more than doubled in the fourth quarter, which they said showed the success of CA's multi-platform client/server computing strategy, based on its CA90s software architecture. Geographically, there has been little change in CA's business mix; North America continues to account for about half of all sales. "We've been hovering around a 50-50 split in that for quite some time," Robinson said. (Grant Buckler/19950519/Press Contact: Douglas Robinson, Computer Associates, 516-342-2745; Bob Gordon, Computer Associates, 516- 342-2391, fax 516-342-5329; Public Contact: Computer Associates, 516-342-5224) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 05/19/95 LEGAL China - Former Employee Sues Employer For Software Piracy (NEWS)(LEGAL)(PEK)(00002) China - Former Employee Sues Employer For Software Piracy 05/19/95 BEIJING, CHINA, 1995 MAY 19 (NB) -- A Chinese software engineer has filed a lawsuit against his former foreign employer for software piracy. This is the first case of this kind in Beijing, China Daily reported. Mr. Zheng Zhongzhong, a former employee of China Universal Leasing Co. Ltd., sued the company and its German general manager, Gernot Kluss, seeking US$300,000 plus RMB100,000 (US$12,000) in compensation for infringing the copyright of two software applications he developed when he worked for the company. The Copyright Court of Beijing Intermediate People's Court has decided to hear the case, the newspaper said. Mr. Zheng's software, "Multi-Currency Financial Management System," and "Leasing Contract Management System," were created between 1986 to 1992 when he was an employee of the company. Without his agreement, says the plaintiff, Kluss took a notebook computer from him in January 1993 and refused to return it. The computer contained the source code of the programs, Zheng said. However, the company's attorney contends that the company should own the copyright because it provided all material and financial support for the development. The company has presented evidence on Zheng's assignment and its financial records of expenditures for the development. But Mr. Zheng stated in his complaint that he initiated the plan of developing such programs and devoted a great deal of spare time, personal materials, and collected references for the software development. Mr. Zheng also said his post in the company was assistant manager of the general manager's office which has nothing to do with software development. The case focuses on a controversial issue of how to define work created in the course of employment, with personal work, China Daily said. (Chih-Ho Yu & Ning Huang/19950516) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 05/19/95 TELECOM China - Private Pager Stations Sue State Station In Hubei (NEWS)(TELECOM)(PEK)(00003) China - Private Pager Stations Sue State Station In Hubei 05/19/95 BEIJING, CHINA, 1995 MAY 19 (NB) -- Twenty privately owned pager stations recently jointly filed a lawsuit against a state pager station for conducting unfair competition. Telecom in China is almost solely operated by the state and local government. The telecom market is not "open" for private companies except for the pager services. Pager services are a fast-growing industry in China. Government statistics shows that there are about 7.5 million pager subscribers. The number will jump to 12 million before the end of 1995. This is not a small number because the total telephone subscribers in China number only around 28.8 million. In order to have a share in the only "open" telecommunication market, competition among pager stations is very keen. To attract subscribers, the state-owned pager station "129" in Hubei province announced a new billing method -- the calling parties pay for the calls made to pager owners, not the owners themselves. Twenty private pager stations strongly oppose the new billing method. "This is not a fair competition because the (wire) telephone market is not open for private firms," they complained. This billing method changed the relationship between primary and second consumers, the 20 private station said in the file. They contend this approach will destroy conventional pricing rules and cause market disorder. However, the state pager station has responded that government regulations do not restrict state firms from joining the competition in pager services. In their complaint, the private pager stations ask the court to issue an injunction against "129" station to stop what they see as unfair competition and request an award of RMB 21.8 million for damages. The Higher People's Court of Hubei province has accepted the case. (Chih-Ho Yu & Ning Huang/19950515) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 05/19/95 GENERAL Japan Business Show '95 - Epson Launches New Machjets (NEWS)(GENERAL)(TYO)(00004) Japan Business Show '95 - Epson Launches New Machjets 05/19/95 TOKYO, JAPAN, 1995 MAY 19 (NB) -- Two new printers took center stage on Epson's stand at the Business Show '95 in Tokyo this week. The stand took the theme "Color Imaging Epson," a central plank of Epson's strategy to "stimulate the imagination and enhance intellectual creativity through the introduction of innovative information technology," as the company's introduction explained. The new printers, the MJ500C and MJ800C, are part of the Machjet Colorio range. Both, capable of taking up to A4 size paper, feature full color printing with the Colorio MJ500C printing at 360 dpi (dots per inch) and semi 720dpi while the Colorio MJ800C achieves true 720dpi resolution as well as the lower 360dpi also. Epson emphasized the printer's compatibility with all major Japanese computers systems including DOS/V, Toshiba's J-3100, NEC's PC-9800, Apple Computer Macintosh, Fujitsu's FM Towns and Epson's own PCs. Epson says an A4 color page on the Colorio MJ800C costs 18.2 yen ($0.20) with a monochrome page costing 3.2 yen ($0.04). A color page from the Colorio MJ500C is slightly cheaper at 17.5 yen ($0.20) and a monochrome page costs the same as the Colorio MJ800C. Epson tested the printing times for a full color graphic using two systems, the first a DX2 66MHz PC running Windows with 8MB or RAM and a 504 MB hard disk drive, the second a Macintosh PowerPC PPC601 at 60MHz with 32MB or RAM and a 500MB hard disk drive. For the Colorio MJ800C, in the unit's superfine mode, the Windows PC took 12.21 seconds compared to 8.30 seconds on the Macintosh. In fine mode a page took 7.23 seconds through Windows and 3.25 seconds on the Macintosh. The Colorio MJ500C is slightly slower with the same print in superfine taking 13.20 seconds on the Windows machine and 12.11 seconds on the Mac. In fine mode the page took 8.56 seconds via Windows and 6.53 seconds via the Macintosh. In an effort to make using and operating the printer easier there is also a CD-ROM available that takes the user through the functions of the printer on screen. It also shows how the driver software works, complete with a cartoon girl, whose hair is reminiscent of Sonic the hedgehog, who floats around the screen pointing at things and explaining what they do. The printers are being marketed as an integral part of Epson's Color Imaging system which includes the GT-6500 flat bed scanner and a multimedia PC. The Colorio MJ500C costs 49,800 yen ($574) and the Colorio MJ800C is 79,800 yen ($919). Epson's GT-6500 scanner is 79,800 yen ($919). (Martyn Williams/19950519/Press, public contact : Seiko-Epson Corp, 3-3-5 Owa, Suwa-shi, Nagano-ken, telephone +81-424-99-7133) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 05/19/95 GENERAL Japan Business Show '95 - Transmitter For Digital Camera (NEWS)(GENERAL)(TYO)(00005) Japan Business Show '95 - Transmitter For Digital Camera 05/19/95 TOKYO, JAPAN, 1995 MAY 19 (NB) -- The latest addition to Fuji Film's Digital Still Camera system will appeal to journalists and anyone interested in getting pictures to distant locations fast. Fuji's new HT-200 Handy Transmitter is a handheld unit featuring a two-line, sixteen-character LCD display and number keypad. The unit takes the Image Memory Cards which the Tokyo-based company's Digital Card Camera uses to store images. The transmitter is connected to the closest telephone, whether that be a cellular or pay phone, the user selects the frames to be transmitted, dials the number and presses start. Receiving at the other end of the telephone line is a computer with a modem and Fuji's Image Catcher software, which is available for Windows (IBM and PC-98) and Apple Computer Macintoshes. The data is transferred at a rate of 14,400 bps (bits per second). Fuji envisions applications including transmission of news pictures, photos of problems encountered by engineers on a site, and even images of cars and houses for sale. The HT-200 can also connect straight into a PC via an RS-232 link allowing pictures to be transferred without the need for a special Image Disk drive to be installed. The HT-200 Handy Transmitter costs 168,000 yen ($1,936) and joins a line-up of other devices that support the format including a special image viewer that takes disks and can display the pictures on screen. There is also an ISDN telephone that features a Image Disk reader built-in. (Martyn Williams/19950519/Press, Public Contact : Fuji Film, phone Freedial 0120-209302) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 05/19/95 GENERAL Japan Business Show '95 - Optical Disks From Mitsubishi Chemical (NEWS)(GENERAL)(TYO)(00006) Japan Business Show '95 - Optical Disks From Mitsubishi Chemical 05/19/95 TOKYO, JAPAN, 1995 MAY 19 (NB) -- Mitsubishi Chemical used the Business Show '95, taking place all this week in Tokyo, to introduce several new products and display their range of magneto-optical (MO) disks. Center stage in the exhibit was the MO Jukebox. The unit contains a number of platters each holding an MO (magneto- optical) disk in a disk cartridge. At the base of the unit is an MO drive. The MO Jukebox, just like a regular jukebox, automatically exchanges disks from the drive with others in the platter, removing the need to manually change disks. The MO Jukebox is available in six different sizes ranging from a 20-platter drive, which equals 26GB (giga bytes) of data storage, through 26, 52, 104 and 156-platter units to a monster 258-platter unit which holds enough disks to store 265GB of data. Support environments include Unix (SunOS4.1.X and Solaris 2.3), DOS/V (Netware 3.12J, Windows NT) and Macintosh (Kanji Talk 7.5, System 7.5). Prices for the units range from 1,380,000 yen ($15,907) for the MK20J to 10,600,000 yen ($122,190) for the MK256J. The PageBase Windows document storage system was also introduced as an application for the company's MO disks. PageBase removes the need to keep hard copies of all documents produced by storing copies onto MO disks. The system also acts as a document retrieval system allowing easy access to copies if needed. Mitsubishi Chemical estimate that a single 3.5-inch, 230MB MO disk will hold copies of 25,000 A4 pages. A 5.25-inch, 1.3GB MO disk holds around 150,000 copies of A4 sheets. (Martyn Williams/19950519/Press, public contact : Mitsubishi Kasei, 1-28-38 Shinakawa, Chuo-ku, Tokyo, phone +81-3-3553-6323, fax +81-3-3297-3136) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 05/19/95 TELECOM Japan Business Show '95 - NTT's Video Phones (NEWS)(TELECOM)(TYO)(00007) Japan Business Show '95 - NTT's Video Phones 05/19/95 TOKYO, JAPAN, 1995 MAY 19 (NB) -- Nippon Telegraph and Telephone has displayed several new video telephone systems as well as a prototype "mini VOD (video on demand)" system at this week's Business Show '95 in Tokyo. The PICSEND-R is a video telephone that works, like much of the technology on display, over ISDN (integrated services digital network) telephone lines. Two key features of the unit are the ability to display up to four separate pictures at once and the connectivity offered. The 5.6-inch color TFT (thin film transistor) monitor is capable of displaying one main picture or dividing the screen into four smaller areas, each displaying an independent picture. What is displayed on these screens is decided by the user, whether it be four other people, as part of a party call, a picture of the user from the PICSEND-R's built-in camera, or a signal sent into the telephone through one of the sockets on the back of the unit. The back of the telephone reveals, alongside the ISDN socket, two sets of video input and output plugs. NTT showed applications in which video cameras were supplying pictures while a TV set and video recorder were connected to the outputs of the phone. The wealth of connectors means the telephone can also interface with a speaker and microphone meaning the machine is capable of functioning as simply an interface to a telephone line with external cameras, displays and audio systems being used for the call. The PICSEND-R is currently classified as a strategic product by the Japanese government meaning it is also controlled by export restrictions. One unit costs 670,000 yen ($7,723) with a set of 3 costing 1,850,000 yen ($21,325). Debuting at the Tokyo show and causing a lot of interest was the FaceMate system, a computer-based video conferencing system that also interfaces with the company's ISDN service. The new system uses Apple's Quicktime Conferencing system built into three different Apple computers along with a video camera, microphone and ISDN adapter. The three computers, the PowerMac 7100AV, PowerMac 8100AV and the Quadra 840AV, will be fitted out with the equipment and supplied to NTT on an OEM basis and sold as the FM-A71. The company expects that the system, available from late next month, will retail for below one million yen ($11,527). From late summer a new version for Apple Macintosh computers will also become available. Future enhancements to the system will allow users to communicate across a LAN (local area network) with other system users. One such application for all this video telephone technology was demonstrated with a prototype version of NTT's "mini VOD" (video on demand) system. The system consisted of a central video server connected to customers homes either directly over ISDN lines or through a link into a business PBX to which PICSEND-R telephones are connected. Last week in Japan Newsbriefs, Newsbytes reported NTT's drive to get more customers signed up for its ISDN services and these applications are spearheading the drive. On prominent display was information about the INSnet 64 service, a 64kbps (kilobits per second) ISDN service which costs little more than a regular telephone connection. Only the monthly charge is slightly more expensive. (Martyn Williams/19950519/Press contact : NTT Corp, 1-1-6 Uchisaiwai-cho, Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo, phone +81-3-3509-5095, fax +81-3-3509-8211; Public contact : NTT, phone Freedial 0120-494933) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 05/19/95 ONLINE Japan Business Show '95 - NTT Show Communications Products (NEWS)(ONLINE)(TYO)(00008) Japan Business Show '95 - NTT Show Communications Products 05/19/95 TOKYO, JAPAN, 1995 MAY 19 (NB) -- Japan's biggest telephone company, Nippon Telegraph and Telephone (NTT), showed the integration of computers and communications at the country's premiere business technology show this week with mobile computing applications, internet connectivity and an innovative software tie up with Microsoft. NTT PC Communications division's Internet service, InfoSphere, was on show along with continuing efforts to get people onto ISDN services. The personal Internet connection service, EZSphere, is currently on special offer. Internet access software, InfoSphere guide books, an ISDN modem and connection cables are bundled together for 99,800 yen ($1,150), a 50% saving on the normal cost. The full range of InfoSphere services also includes direct connection and a dial-up LAN to ISDN service. For the executive on the move two new cellular modems were unveiled by NTT Mobile Communications. The modems connect with the NTT DoCoMo Digital and Digital Hyper range of telephones. A PCMCIA version is available for the Digital Hyper telephones and features 9,600bps (bits per second) data transfer and support of the V42, V42bis and MNP10 protocols. A second unit connects to both Digital and Digital Hyper telephones and has an RS-232 connection on it. Features are similar to those of the PCMCIA version except that the maximum data speed on a Digital series telephone is 2,400bps. Connection to a Digital Hyper means speeds up to 9,600bps are possible. While the PCMCIA version is tied to notebook computers, NTT see a wide range of applications for the RS-232 version such as desktop computers, personal digital assistants and digital photographic cameras. The PCMCIA version, the "Data/Fax Card 9600," retails for 58,000 yen ($668) and the RS-232 version, the "Data/Fax Adapter 9600," for 51,000 yen ($587). Making software purchases easier is the goal of NTT's new "MiTa KaTTa" system. "MiTa KaTTa" means "I wanted to see" in English. NTT Telemarketing's system will soon be available on CD-ROMs carrying demonstration versions of software. Once users have had the time to evaluate a piece of software on the disk they will be given the opportunity to buy the full version. If they decide they wish to do so, a simple on screen purchase form is filled in and MiTa KaTTa contacts a central server via modem and posts the information. In return the software gets an electronic key that will unlock the full version of the software, already stored in encrypted form on the disk. The new system was developed by NTT and Microsoft. Nearly 30 firms are reported to be considering using the new service which NTT subsidiary NTT Telemarketing hopes will achieve annual sales of 80 to 100 million yen ($922,190 to $1.15m). (Martyn Williams/19950519/Infosphere press, public contact : NTT PC Communications, phone +81-3-3432-4588, fax +81-3-3432-7791 / NTT DoCoMo modems press, public contact: NTT Mobile Communications, Shin-nikko Bldg, 2-10-1 Toranomon, Minato-ku, Tokyo, phone Freedial 0120-177360, fax +81-3-5563-7099 / miTa KaTTa press, public contact : NTT Telemarketing, phone Freedial 0120-138138, fax +81-3-5294-0145) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 05/19/95 PEN Japan Business Show '95 - Zaurus From Sharp (NEWS)(PEN)(TYO)(00009) Japan Business Show '95 - Zaurus From Sharp 05/19/95 TOKYO, JAPAN, 1995 MAY 19 (NB) -- Under the theme, "liquid crystal multimedia" Sharp unveiled a range of new systems centred around Zaurus, a new pen-based computer. Portability is the key feature of the unit which measures 160x95x17mm, or 160x125x19 with the fax modem attached. The 250g machine has most of the front taken up by a 239 x 168 pixel screen behind which a megabyte of memory resides. For connecting with the telecommunications system, adapters are available which allow the Zaurus to connect with NTT's Digital Hyper telephones or to conventional telephone jacks in buildings or on the side of public telephones. Printing is possible via an infrared link between the computer and a special Zaurus printer or to an infrared receiver connected to any standard printer. Software for the Zaurus includes fax software which allows the user to write a fax by hand and send it from the unit. Special programs are available for connection to the major Japanese online services NiftyServe, PC-Van and ASCIInet. Several dictionaries, including Japanese to English and English to Japanese, are also available as are telephone and address books, business card indexes, a calculator and event planner. The Zaurus can even communicate with Lotus cc:Mail via a computer running special software to control the Zaurus to cc:Mail interface. Similar software is available to enable data transfer between the computer and Microsoft Excel and Lotus 1-2-3 products. Taking the concept one stage further are two new photocopiers from Sharp, the AR-5030F and AR-5030FR. The copiers, which also function as fax machines, feature a infrared receiver window on the front panel which accepts data from the Zaurus, just as the printer does. The copier can them function as a printer or, through its fax system, a fax machine for the Zaurus. Zaurus is available in two models, the PI-5000 which sells for 82,000 yen ($945) and the PI-5000FX at 98,000 yen ($1130). The more expensive version features a fax modem. The CE-PR3 Zaurus printer costs 49,000 yen ($564). Sharp's Zaurus-compatible copiers are priced at 1,250,000 yen ($14,409) for the AR-5030F and 1,350,000 yen ($15,561) for the AR-5030FR. (Martyn Williams/19950519/Press, public contact : Sharp Corporation, 492 Minoshocho, Yamato-koriyama, Nara-ken, phone +81-7435-35521, fax +81-7435-35262) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 05/19/95 PC Japan Business Show '95 - New Toshiba Dynabooks (NEWS)(PC)(TYO)(00010) Japan Business Show '95 - New Toshiba Dynabooks 05/19/95 TOKYO, JAPAN, 1995 MAY 19 (NB) -- Toshiba, celebrating the sale of over 5 million Dynabook notebook PCs worldwide, has introduced a new range of models and accessories at this week's Business Show '95 in Tokyo. The star of the show was the new Dynabook GT-475 which was advertised under the "small but great" banner. The notebook computer features an Intel DX4 processor running at 75MHz. A standard 8MB (megabytes) of main memory is fitted which is expandable up to 32MB. Built into this multimedia notebook is the Sound Blaster Pro system as well as a speaker and microphone. A double speed CD-ROM drive is hidden along the right hand side of the computer while on the opposite side are 2 PC card slots, supporting JEIDA v4.1/PCMCIA v2.0.1 type III cards. The now familiar "accupoint" stick sits in the center of the keyboard. The display is 10.4-inch color screen available as either DSTN or TFT versions. A 3.5-inch floppy disk drive is available as an optional extra that will sit independent of the computer. The Dynabook GT475 with a DSTN screen costs 448,000 yen ($5,164) while the TFT screen version is 538,000 yen ($6,201). Toshiba has also introduced two models similar to those above but without the multimedia features such as CD-ROM drive and Sound Blaster system. Also unveiled was the Dynabook SS475, or "the super subnote PC" as Toshiba labelled it. This machine, aimed more at the business market, includes all those features of the new GT475 without the CD-ROM drive and sound system but with the addition of a floppy disk drive. A DSTN version of the SS475 costs 348,000 ($4,011) with the TFT screen version priced at 428,000 yen ($4,933). Prototypes of several new "Noteworthy" PC-Card devices were on show alongside the new range of computers. The Handy Scanner is a handheld scanner, capable of up to 400dpi (dots per inch) resolution. The TWAIN compatible scanner connects to the computer via a JEIDA 4.2/PCMCIA 2.1 type II card. A new 28,800bps (bits per second) fax modem was also on show as a prototype. The unit is a V.fast V34 modem and is also capable of supporting Group 3 fax and cellular communications. The model connects via a JEIDA 4.2/PCMCIA 2.1 type II slot. A PCMCIA type III hard drive prototype capable of holding 131MB (megabytes) of memory was also on show. The unit weighs 65g and has a 19msec access time with a data transfer rate of 4MB/sec. Also documented, but not on show, was a model capable of holding 262MB of data. Toshiba has also developed the WaveCom data transfer system. Small WaveCom adapters are fitted to the machines which establish a radio link, in the 2.4GHz band, with an access point that is connected onto the office's LAN allowing LAN access from a stand-alone notebook. It is also possible to access the server directly if it is within the 30 to 100m range of the units and fitted with the system. Maximum data transfer rate is given as 2Mbps. WaveCom units for notebooks cost 125,000 yen ($1,440) each and interface via a PC card. A base station equipped with an ISA card interface is available at 198,000 yen ($2,282). (Martyn Williams/19950519/Press contact : Toshiba Corporation, 1-1-1 Shibaura, Minato-ku, Tokyo, phone +81-3-3457-2345, fax +81-3-5444-9348; Public contact : Dynabook Techno Centre phone +81-3-3257-3100, fax +81-3-3252-6274) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 05/19/95 APPLE More On Line Of Games For Girls (NEWS)(APPLE)(SFO)(00011) More On Line Of Games For Girls 05/19/95 ALBUQUERQUE, NEW MEXICO, U.S.A., 1995 MAY 19 (NB) -- While multimedia developers compete to offer 12 to 16-year-old boys the latest and fastest violent games, Patricia Flanigan is turning 180 degrees to stand-up and say it is time for young girls to have multimedia titles developed expressly for them. Games for Her, a division of American Laser Games, intends to develop an entire line of multimedia software for teenage girls. #IMAGE 1 20 TWPCX \images\95051911.PCX Click here for photo "McKenzie & Company," the first title from Games for Her should be available this fall. To make sure she is covering all the bases, Patricia Flanigan, the visionary for Games for Her, says this new title will be available for IBM/compatibles, Apple Computer Macs, 3DO consoles, and the new Sony PlayStation. Speaking about the company's first title, Flanigan told Newsbytes, "This is a live-action social adventure at an all-American high school. Users choose a role to play and are confronted with moral and social dilemmas which affect their relationships with girlfriends, boyfriends, parents, teachers and work. We went to a group of girls and boys to learn exactly what they thought would offer real and compelling teenage experiences and responses." The McKenzie & Company story allows a girl to set herself into all sorts of situations surrounding honesty and relationships with oneself, friends, teachers and parents. It confronts a user with issues such as dating, cutting classes, advising friends, and spending too much money. Flanigan also told Newsbytes, "A lot of people focus on young people playing computer games. What they often do not realize is that these games have been an entry point for many boys to become familiar and comfortable with computer technology. Because of the market trends, developers have concentrated on that male market. What I want to do is develop an environment which lets young girls have the types of experiences they find rewarding and offer them the same opportunity to become comfortable with technology." She continued, "It is not important to judge whether the concentration on young boys is right or wrong. What is important is to move forward with a positive attitude and fix our focus on creating an experience which reflects the issues, feelings and thoughts important to teenage girls. Girls are more interested with emotions, sentiments, romance, relationships, responses and how one specifically interacts with others. It may not be easy to capture in the multimedia experience, but if we listen to what young girls want and not what the industry dictates, we will be successful." Games for Her plans to release its second title later this year and four new games are planned for 1996. The division also announced a joint venture with Daniel Weiss Associates, Inc., a producer of books for children and young adults. The venture will concentrate on building an online component to compliment Games for Her and help expand the CD-ROM titles for girls. Her Online should be available this summer. Negotiations with online providers are taking place at this time. (Patrick McKenna/19950518/Press Contact: Gail Rubin, Games for Her, tel 505-837-5406; Flanigan/HER950518/PHOTO) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 05/19/95 UNIX DEC Extends Fault Tolerant RAID To Sun, HP, AIX (NEWS)(UNIX)(BOS)(00012) DEC Extends Fault Tolerant RAID To Sun, HP, AIX 05/19/95 MAYNARD, MASSACHUSETTS, U.S.A., 1995 MAY 19 (NB) -- With an update to the RAID (redundant array of inexpensive disks) Array 410, Digital Equipment Corp.'s StorageWorks has extended support for fault-tolerant dual controller configurations and hardware-based RAID 1 to Solaris, HP-UX, and AIX, said Penny Scharfman, marketing manager for Sun environments, in an interview with Newsbytes. The StorageWorks RAID Array 410 now allows two controllers to be used with the same storage subsystem, permitting redundancy and automatic failover for fault tolerance, Scharfman told Newsbytes. "Controller-based RAID 1 adds another level of redundancy through disk mirroring," she explained. The newly enhanced RAID subsystem also adds Sun Solaris 2.4 support to the previously supported Solaris 2.2 and 2.3, Hewlett-Packard HP-UX, and IBM AIX, according to the StorageWorks exec. As in earlier editions of the 410, RAID levels 0, 0+1, 3 and 5 are supported in hardware, as well, Scharfman noted. In addition to supplying fault tolerance, the dual configuration support raises performance substantially by "splitting interaction with the devices," asserted Scharfman. The RAID Array 410 previously allowed for software-based RAID 1 through host-based shadowing, according to the marketing manager. The newly added controller-based RAID 1, however, eliminates the need for unnecessary CPU (central processor unit) overhead from I/O operations, she maintained. The updated RAID subsystem has been clocked at 4,700 I/Os per second on Sun workstations running Solaris, she continued. The StorageWorks subsystem exceeds the performance available from competing subsystems. Even before the new improvements, the RAID Array 410 had been selling briskly, Scharfman says. The subsystem is especially popular in high production environments, for "mission-critical transactions." The RAID Array 410 also provides up to 32 megabytes (MB) of read- and write-back cache per controller. Other features include a modular architecture, snap-in, hot-swap components, and a GUI (graphical user interface) for installation, maintenance and expansion. Scharfman added that the RAID Array HSZ-40, another subsystem from StorageWorks, can be configured to provide the same capabilities as the updated RAID Array 410, but for Digital's Alpha workstations. As previously reported in Newsbytes, the HSZ-40 has just been enhanced with support for controller-based RAID 1 in the new HSZ- 40-Bx controller, a replacement for the earlier HSZ-40-Ax. The StorageWorks RAID Array 410 for Solaris, HP-UX and AIX is available now. Pricing is $23,642 for a 12.9-gigabyte (GB) configuration, consisting of a six-channel SCSI (small computer systems interface) controller with 32 MB read- and write-back cache, RAID software, and a StorageWorks office expansion enclosure with dual fans and five power supplies. Dual-controller configurations of the new RAID subsystem start at $30,071. (Jacqueline Emigh/19950518/Reader Contact, 508-493-5111: Press Contacts: Laura S. Kirkley, Digital's StorageWorks, 508-841-6781; Heather McLellan or Kristen Holmes, The Weber Group for Digital's StorageWorks, 617-661-7900) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 05/19/95 APPLE Ex Machina Unveils Paging SDK, Delrina Takes Equity Stake (NEWS)(APPLE)(BOS)(00013) Ex Machina Unveils Paging SDK, Delrina Takes Equity Stake 05/19/95 NEW YORK, NEW YORK, U.S.A., 1995 MAY 19 (NB) -- The first licensee for Ex Machina's newly unveiled paging software developer's kit (SDK) will be Delrina, a company that has just purchased an equity position in Ex Machina, said David S. Rose, Ex Machina's chairman and chief executive officer (CEO), in a conference call with Newsbytes. The CEO told Newsbytes that the new SDK -- offered in "basic, more advanced, and high-level" editions -- will make it easier for corporate and commercial developers to integrate paging into PC applications than Ex Machina's previous Notify program. Apple Computer, for example, uses Notify for its messaging system, as does Adobe for the messaging component of Aldus Datebook, according to Rose. AST bundles Notify with all its desktop PCs in AST Works, and Hewlett-Packard bundles Notify with Open View, he added. "Now, with our new SDK, what we're doing is make our professional, top-level code available to corporate as well as commercial developers, so they can drop wireless messaging of all kinds -- one-way data, two-way receiving, the whole bit -- into their applications," he reported. Beyond applications for the SDK that Delrina is expected to announce in the future, applications by other developers will include groupware, for paging users concerning changes to their business calendars, for example, along with network management, for notification of system alerts, illustrated Rose. Corporate and commercial developers will also use the new kit to integrate paging into office systems for pager notification within "an entire plant or building," and into vertical applications like real estate, medicine, and dispatch, the Ex Machina chief predicted, during the conference call with Newsbytes in Boston. Ex Machina and Delrina are not disclosing the terms of their deal, according to Rose. But, he said, Warburg Pinkus -- Ex Machina's principal investor -- and now, Delrina, are the only two outside interests to hold stakes in Ex Machina. The remainder of the New York City-based company is employee-owned. Delrina, he noted, produces the WinFax and WinFax Pro PC fax packages, along with WinComm Pro for online communications; Communications Suite with Internet Messenger; CommSuite for Networks; and Perform and FormFlow forms software. Ex Machina's new SDKs will be known as SDK Notification, SDK Messaging, and SDK Data, Rose told Newsbytes. SDK Notification, the "basic-level" product, will provide the code needed for sending short messages to pagers or PCs equipped with PC card data receivers. SDK Messaging and SDK Data, on the other hand, will let developers create applications that permit users to receive as well as send and manage messages on PCs with PC card receivers. Both products will allow for transmission of longer messages, too. In addition, the "high-level" SDK Data will bring the ability to build applications that can run over existing wireless networks, along with upcoming Personal Communications Systems (PCS) networks based on the new Telocator Data Protocol (TDP). Rose explained that the initial release of the three paging SDKs will use Windows C++ dynamic link libraries (DLLs) with C wrappers, for integration with Windows-based programs through the use of "any Windows development tool." Ex Machina will also ship versions of the paging SDKs for Windows 95, within 90 days of Microsoft's shipment of the new operating environment, according to the company chief. In addition, the vendor is planning versions of the SDKs for the Mac, he revealed. Ex Machina's Notify program has also been available for both Windows and the Mac, Rose pointed out. Although Notify is employed even by end users, Ex Machina's new SDKs are even easier to use, he contended. Unlike Notify, the new SDKs do not require the use of scripting language, he continued. The Windows version of Notify uses dynamic data exchange (DDE), while the Mac version uses AppleScript. All three of Ex Machina's new SDKs will work with any shipping numeric or alphanumeric pager or PC card data receiver, and with any paging service, according to Rose. "PC card" is a recently introduced industry abbreviation for PCMCIA (Personal Computer Memory Card International Association) card. Shipping PC card data receivers include Socket's Page Card, Motorola's News Card, and Wireless Access' Card. Rose added that all three of Ex Machina's SDKs will also support Telocator Alphanumeric Protocol (TAP); Wireless Protocol Scripting; GSM Short Messaging, a European cellular standard; and Nextel's US variant of GSM. Other capabilities held in common by the three new paging kits include full communications settings controls, plus the ability to send group pages to unlimited numbers of recipients; report complete message status; maintain complete event logs; and produce editable address books for paging subscribers and services, he said. The basic-level SDK Notification kit provides code for sending message strings of up to 80 characters, according to Rose. SDK Messaging and SDK Data, on the other hand, will allow users to send and receive messages of unlimited length, he asserted. In a process transparent to the user, longer messages will be "truncated," or split, into smaller data chunks before transmission, and then reassembled on the other side, Rose maintained. SDK Messaging and SDK Data will also offer the option to incorporate "automatic modem configuration," a feature designed to automatically determine which pager carrier is being used and configure the modem accordingly. Other added capabilities include the ability to let users schedule messages and modify dialing and preference settings. The high-end SDK Data kit will also add data encryption and compression/decompression, along with TCP/IP (transmission control protocol/Internet protocol), for transmission of paging messages over the Internet and other wired networks, according to Rose. The product will use a proprietary private key encryption scheme, the CEO told Newsbytes. All three SDKs are scheduled for release in June. SDK Notification is priced at $195 a seat for both commercial and corporate developers, but commercial developers must also pay a commercial distribution fee. SDK Messaging and SDK Data will be sold to commercial developers on a royalty basis. For corporate developers, pricing is $1,495 per seat for SDK Messaging, and $3,995 per seat for SDK Data. (Jacqueline Emigh/19950519/Reader Contact: Ex Machina, 212-843- 0000; Press Contact: Joshua Weinberg, Technology Solutions for Ex Machina, 212-696-2000) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 05/19/95 ONLINE On Australia Set For Full-speed Launch (NEWS)(ONLINE)(SYD)(00014) On Australia Set For Full-speed Launch 05/19/95 SYDNEY, AUSTRALIA 1995 MAY 19 (NB) -- On Australia is the Australian front door to Microsoft's new global information system, Microsoft Network (MSN). Recent briefings for potential information providers have exceeded all expectations and the service is set for a good start, according to On Australia management. On Australia is a 50/50 joint venture created by Microsoft and Telstra, Australia's main telecommunications carrier. Marketing director Rod Cuthbert said in Sydney today, "The Microsoft Network allows Australian software developers to take their products into the global marketplace. This is a fantastic opportunity for not only the whole Australian IT industry, but for the country as a whole." Microsoft Network is a dial-up information service that is part of Windows '95, due in August. Connection is expected to be below US$5 per hour. Microsoft officials have said that On Australia is second only to the US implementation of Microsoft Network in its degree of readiness for the launch. Praxa is an Australian software development house. Telecommunications division manager Kim Collard said, "We believe MSN and On Australia will become an integral part of our business operations in future." The company will put full, but time-locked versions of its software products Sonar and Mailscan on the service. Users can download and use them for a limited period. They can also use an online order form to obtain a code which will remove the time-lock, turning the product into a normal, full copy. (Paul Zucker/19950519/Contact: On Australia tel. +61-2-934 9200 fax. +61-2-934 9250 Praxa tel. +61-3-690 3811) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 05/19/95 BUSINESS Mitel Sets Revenue Record (NEWS)(BUSINESS)(TOR)(00015) Mitel Sets Revenue Record 05/19/95 KANATA, ONTARIO, CANADA, 1995 MAY 19 (NB) -- Mitel Corp. (TSE,ME:MLT) has reported record revenues and a 54-percent growth in net income in fiscal 1995. The company's fourth-quarter results were better than expected and its prospects are good, one investment analyst said. In the year ended March 31, Mitel had net income of C$31.8 million, or 27 cents per share, on revenues of C$588.8 million. Net income was up 54 percent over fiscal 1994's C$20.7 million, or 16 cents per share. Revenues were up 19 percent from C$496.4 million. In the fourth quarter, net income was C$14.4 million, or 13 cents per share, on revenues of C$165.5 million. Net income was up 200 percent from C$4.8 million, or three cents per share, in the year-earlier quarter, while revenues were up 14 percent from C$145.2 million. Gross margin increased from 44 to 48 percent, company officials said. Mark Lawrence, an analyst who follows Mitel for Loewen Ondaatje McCutcheon & Co. Ltd. in Toronto, told Newsbytes the company's revenues were right on target and its fourth-quarter performance, including gross margin, was better than expected. Mitel officials attributed the better results to market-share gains and increased margins in the firm's North American private branch exchange (PBX) business, higher sales and margins in semiconductors, and lower income taxes. Lower operating earnings in the United Kingdom partly offset those gains, the company noted. Lawrence said Mitel's core PBX business is strong, though the company is likely to face some pressure from new competitive products and general weakness in the PBX market. Despite those concerns, he said he expects Mitel to continue increasing its share of the PBX market. In the past year, Lawrence said, the company has achieved some economies of scale and eliminated uneconomical businesses in Europe. For fiscal 1995, Mitel noted that gross margin rose from 45 to 46 percent, largely due to higher volumes and manufacturing efficiencies. The company increased its spending on research and development from C$34.2 million to C$41.9 million, which was about seven percent of revenue in both years. (Grant Buckler/19950519/Press Contact: Jean-Jacques Carrier, Mitel, 613-592-2122 ext. 1158; Rob Dietrich, Mitel, 613-592-2122 ext. 4070; Ian Chadsey, Mitel, 613-592-2122 ext. 4088) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 05/19/95 REVIEW GOVT Review - Congressional Quarterly's CD-ROM Politics In America (REVIEW)(GOVT)(WAS)(00016) Review - Congressional Quarterly's CD-ROM Politics In America 05/19/95 WASHINGTON, D.C., U.S.A., 1995 MAY 19 (NB) -- By Ken Maize. I've been addicted to the two major compendiums of American political information -- the Almanac of American Politics and Politics in America -- for many years. Each of the gargantuan books (the 1996 Politics in America comes in at over 1,500 pages) has its particular strengths. The senior product, National Journal's Almanac of America Politics, has always been strongest in its descriptions of the politics of the home districts of the members of Congress. As former House Speaker Tip O'Neill once commented, "All politics is local," so the local focus is useful in understanding how individual members of Congress behave. On the other hand, Congressional Quarterly's Politics in America has always been best in its mini-biographies of the members in Washington, as befits CQ's status as the premier chronicler of life on Capitol Hill. CQ's entry into the market has always been better written, in my judgment. But the distinctions between the two competing products have always been pretty thin. As a true politics junkie, I have always bought both books, and found them equally useful. But with the 1996 edition, CQ has given me a reason to prefer it The 1996 edition includes a CD-ROM. The $54.95 price tag for the latest edition of Politics in America also brings a CD-ROM that duplicates exactly the full 1,500-page book, with its member profiles, committee membership lists, campaign finance data, pronunciation guide, and list of close races in the 1994 elections. But its better than that. The CD-ROM is set up with the Adobe Acrobat reader to give an exact replica of the book page on screen, along with a very good electronic table of contents along the left of the screen, in the form of bookmarks. Clicking on the left-hand button displays the names of the members of Congress in state and district order. Double-clicking on any of the names brings up that member's bio. The software also includes a search tool that works, albeit slowly, to find any word or phrase, and can search forward and backward. Also, you can use a text tool to copy text and past it into a document, as in this clip from the profile of Rep. Sonny Bono (R-Calif.): "Those who make a living poking fun at the political class have been sharpening their pencils ever since it became clear that former pop singer-song-writer Sonny Bono might be headed for a congressional seat. But while Bono presents a tempting target, he is no thin-skinned politico. Bono made a show-biz career out of being the butt of other people's jokes, and his political persona is not that far removed from that of the earnest, good-natured, none-too-bright straight man for his former wife and singing partner Cher in the 1960s and 1970s." This is great stuff. It now sits on my CD-ROM every day, where I load it regularly and keep it resting in background. Whenever I need to look up something about a politician, or a congressional district, or committee membership, I just task switch to the Adobe reader and look it up in Politics in America. Is it perfect? No. I'd like a better search engine that includes Boolean queries, and maybe some multimedia stuff, such as a sound clip from each member. Bottom line, this product has become essential for this politics junkie. I literally have used it every day since I have had it, and hardly ever consult the doorstop of a book that accompanies it. I would be glad to have the CD-ROM without the book. The CQ CD-ROM runs on DOS, Windows or Apple Computer Mac platforms. For DOS, you need a 80386 or hotter processor, DOS 3.3 or higher, 4 MB of RAM, 5 MB of hard disk (and a CD-ROM drive, of course). For Windows, the same requirements and Windows 3.1 or greater. For Mac, a 68020 or better processor, System 7.0 or grater, and 2 MB of application RAM. The book and bundled CD-ROM are widely available in book stores. (Kennedy Maize/19950519) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 05/19/95 TELECOM Federal Court Dumps Cell Phone Cancer Suit (NEWS)(TELECOM)(WAS)(00017) Federal Court Dumps Cell Phone Cancer Suit 05/19/95 WASHINGTON, D.C., U.S.A., 1995 MAY 19 (NB) -- A federal court judge in Florida has dismissed a suit charging that use of a cellular phone caused a fatal brain tumor. US District Court Judge Ralph Nimmons threw out the suit filed by David Reynard against NEC Corp. and GTE Mobilnet of Tampa on the grounds of "junk science." Reynard, who charged that use of a cell phone caused his wife's brain cancer, originally brought the case in mid-1992 in Florida court, but it was moved to federal court because the defendants are not located solely in Florida. Reynard mounted a high profile public relations campaign over the case, including an appearance on the CNN Larry King Live show. As a result of Reynard's appearance with Larry King in January 1993, stocks of major companies in the cellular business, including Motorola and McCaw Cellular, fell like low-tech stones. In dismissing the case, Nimmons cited the Supreme Court's Daubert case, where the high court said that assertions such as Reynard's must be based on "sound science," and rejected the testimony of Reynard's expert witness, Dr. David Perimutter. "The affidavit contains no reference to any scientific or medical research by Dr. Perimutter independent of this litigation or any indication that he examined Susan Reynard or reviewed her medical records," said Nimmons. The court added, "Dr. Perimutter also makes no reference to any independent research regarding the use of the type of cellular telephone that Susan Reynard used or the use of any cellular telephone, or research regarding the type of radiation to which she was allegedly exposed." The judge also noted that the material Perimutter offered had been peer reviewed or published in a reputable scientific journal. The cellular phone industry was ecstatic at the result. "The court threw out the suit on the very specific grounds that it represented junk science, not supported by accepted scientific or medical research," said Thomas Wheeler, president of the Cellular Telecommunications Industry Association in Washington. "We've been saying the same thing ever since the suit was filed." In a related development, the American Physical Society last week put out a statement debunking the alleged link between cancer and electric and magnetic fields from electric power lines. It was a rare act for the generally circumspect scientific group. Concern over health effects of non-ionizing radiation, says the group, is diverting research funds that could be used for better purposes. "More serious environmental problems are neglected for lack of funding and public attention," says the APS statement. "The burden of cost placed on the American public is incommensurate with the risk, if any." So what is behind the epidemiological studies that show various links between EMF and cancer? "The evidence is getting weaker and weaker as this goes one," Robert Park, APS spokesman and physics professor at the University of Maryland, told Newsbytes. "And as you get more studies, they are becoming completely inconsistent with each other." (Kennedy Maize/19950519/Press Contacts: Mike Houghton, CTIA, 202-736-3207; Robert Park, APS, 202-662-8700 Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 05/19/95 TELECOM Belgium - Telecoms Market Restructuring Under Way (NEWS)(TELECOM)(LON)(00018) Belgium - Telecoms Market Restructuring Under Way 05/19/95 BRUSSELS, BELGIUM, 1995 MAY 19 (NB) -- John Goossens, the newly appointed CEO at Belgacom, has committed the company to reorganizing its operations and preparing the way to full privatization, Newsbytes has learned. After three months in post, Goossens has announced that he wants Belgacom to prepare for the January 1, 1998 open market date set by the European Commission (EC). As previously reported by Newsbytes, on that date, the EC has mandated that all member governments must have opened their respective telecoms markets up to free market operations, failing which penalties will be levied. Goossens, meanwhile, has welcomed the EC mandate, claiming that the organization started before he joined the company is now being speeded up, to the extent that the complete management operation is now being streamlined, in preparation for a similar reorganization among the workforce. Interestingly, Goossens has confirmed industry rumors that Belgacom is looking for a major foreign partner. He told reporters that he is looking for a foreign partner to take a stake in the government controlled company by the end of this year, although no percentage stakes have yet been discussed officially. Goossens has dismissed critics of the new order in European telecoms, who have said that the move to an open market will cost the telecoms company its market share. "When you've got a monopoly the only thing that can happen to you is to lose market share," he said, adding that the Belgian telecoms market-place is in need of shock therapy. Newsbytes last came across Goossens in his previous position with Alcatel-Alsthom, the French telecoms operation. He replaced Bessel Kok, the previous CEO of Belgacom earlier this year when, as reported by Newsbytes, Kok and his management board left under a cloud after the Government said their ideas were too old and steeped in history. In response to a reporter's questions at a press conference, Goossens said that he expects to see a foreign investor take around a 25 percent stake in Belgacom, which would generate more than $8 billion for the Belgian government. When pressed, he said that around eight companies had been short-listed by the Belgian government as a possible partner. (Steve Gold/19950519/Press & Reader Contact: Belgacom +32-2-202-9736; Fax +32-2-202-2417) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 05/19/95 BROADCAST Netherlands - Philips/US West Acquires Cable TV/Phone Company (NEWS)(BROADCAST)(LON)(00019) Netherlands - Philips/US West Acquires Cable TV/Phone Company 05/19/95 EINDHOVEN, THE NETHERLANDS, 1995 MAY 19 (NB) -- Philips Electronics has teamed up with US West and acquired KTA, the Amsterdam-based cable TV company. According to Philips, the deal is worth around 700 million guilders, although details of the exact cash sum paid to Amsterdam City Council, which owned the system, have not been revealed. According to Philips, while precise plans for the cable TV company, which offers a variety of cable TV programmes to much of Amsterdam, have not yet been worked out, it is almost certain that the company will start piggy-backing telephone services on the back of the cable TV feed. Interestingly, the Netherlands is one of the countries within the European Community (EC) that has dragged its heels on the telecoms liberalization market front. As reported previously by Newsbytes, the European Commission (EC) has started to become "very heavy" on its planned free market liberalization date of January 1, 1998. On this date, all EC member Governments must have opened up their telecoms markets to open competition, or face extreme penalties from the EC Government. Dutch telecoms industry watchers have acclaimed the deal as extremely timely for Philips and US West, noting the 1998 watershed date. Philips, meanwhile, has said that this likely to be the first of several telecoms deals into which the company will enter. Philips has admitted that the deal is unlikely to generate profits for the group for several years, however analysts have speculated that Philips is "dipping its toe" into the cable TV/telephony market very much for the longer term experience, rather than short term profits. (Sylvia Dennis/19950519/Press & Reader Contact: Philips Electronics +31-4078-1111; Toll-free - Netherlands Only - 68-680) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 05/19/95 ONLINE Correction - Computer Museum Auction On The Web (NEWS)(ONLINE)(BOS)(00020) Correction - Computer Museum Auction On The Web 05/19/95 BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS, U.S.A., 1995 MAY 19 (NB) -- Newsbytes would like to correct an inaccurate Web URL listed in the story "Computer Museum To Auction PCs, Memorabilia On Web," which ran on May 18, 1995. The correct URL to use for direct access to the museum's charity auction Web site is http.//www.onsale.com, not http.//www.onsale, as given in the article. Newsbytes regrets the error. As correctly stated in the article, though, users can also access the auction Web site through a hotlink from the Computer Museum's recently opened main Web site, at http.//www.net.org, and they can send requests for listings of auction items by e-mail to auction@pcm.org. As previously reported, the Computer Museum's first auction on the Web will be held around-the-clock from Monday, May 22 at 10 am through Friday, May 26 at 8 pm. The museum's Web auction site is open for preview now. The 250 items to be auctioned off next week will include new PCs, along with computer memorabilia and novelty items. Proceeds will benefit the museum's educational programs. (Jacqueline Emigh/19950519/Reader Contact: The Computer Museum, 617-426-2800; Press Contact: Gail Jennes, Computer Museum, 617-426- 2800) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 24 05/19/95 WINDOWS ****Microsoft Sets Windows 95 Launch Date At Aug (NEWS)(WINDOWS)(DEN)(00021) ****Microsoft Sets Windows 95 Launch Date At Aug 24 05/19/95 REDMOND, WASHINGTON, U.S.A., 1995 MAY 19 (NB) -- Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ: MSFT) has finally given the world a date to expect Windows 95 on retail shelves, presumably putting to rest skepticism about whether the oft-delayed new operating system really would launch in August 1995. The company said this week Windows 95 will be in retail stores by August 24, 1995. A Microsoft spokesperson contacted by Newsbytes said specific plans for the rollout of the latest operating system that is expected to sell millions of copies haven't been finalized yet. However, Microsoft has in the past spent lavishly on glitzy Hollywood-style product introductions that any movie producer would be proud of. Windows 95 is expected to have a look significantly different from the current version, Windows 3.1. The new 32-bit operating system, which does not require the user to have DOS loaded on their PC, has dropped the Program Manager-File Manager concept in favor of a single desktop look more closely resembling the Macintosh or OS/2 user interface. Connecting with other computers and services like the Internet and Microsoft's own online offering, The Microsoft Network (TMN) will be emphasized in Windows 95 via its built-in TAPI (Telephony Application Programming Interface). There will also be support for services like data conferencing, speech processing and an integrated inbox for electronic mail, voice mail and faxes. Windows 95 will also include Voiceview, a technology developed by Colorado-based Radish Communications and licensed to Microsoft. Voiceview allows the user to switch between voice and data communications during the same phone call. Look for Windows 95 to have a single port that will comply with the industry's new Plug and Play specification. Plug and Play lets the computer automatically recognize a connected device and load the correct driver. AutoPlay is another feature included in Windows 95. AutoPlay automatically installs and runs CD-ROM-based software or audio, if the application or audio is AutoPlay-enabled. All that is required is for the CD-ROM developer to include on the disk a special file with the necessary instructions. AutoPlay can be customized to perform various functions like launching Notepad and loading a "readme" file the first time a CD-ROM-based application is run. AutoPlay also allows music on CD-ROM disks to be played in the order specified by the user. Windows 95 will also come with fast game animation, better video performance, voice data compression, and support for MPEG (Motion Picture Experts Group) digital video. Microsoft hasn't forgotten that physically challenged people also use computers. Windows 95 has licensed technology it is making available to developers of applications for users with disabilities, including screen-magnification, voice-input and blind-access, and text-to-Braille. (Jim Mallory/19950519/Press and public contact: Microsoft, 206-882-8080) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 05/19/95 PC Compaq Reduces Presario Home PC Prices (NEWS)(PC)(DEN)(00022) Compaq Reduces Presario Home PC Prices 05/19/95 HOUSTON, TEXAS, U.S.A., 1995 MAY 19 (NB) -- Compaq Computer Corp. (NYSE: CPQ) said this week it has reduced the price of its most popular Presario PCs for the home market by up to 12 percent. The cuts apply to the Presario 500, 700 and 900 series. Compaq first introduced its Presario line of multimedia PCs for the home market in 1994. Some models are equipped with a built-in speaker phone, and some are cable ready so you can watch a television program on your monitor, either full-screen or in a window. Presarios come as all-in-one units, desktop systems and minitower models. Pricing does not include a monitor except for the all-in-one units. Eleven Presario models are affected, including most of the Pentium-based models. With the new prices in effect, Presario PCs now start at an estimated selling price of about $1,599. Presario buyers also get 20 software titles that cover online services, financial management, family "edutainment" (entertainment program designed to also educate the user), reference, productivity, presentation, home management and games. You also get Compaq's Tabworks user interface, which works with Microsoft Windows and takes the place of the Windows Program Manager. The all-in-one Presario 500 models include an integrated monitor, built-in stereo speakers, a full-duplex speakerphone and television capability. Under the new pricing schedule the 500 series now starts at $1,649 for a 486DX2 66 megahertz (MHz)-based system with a dual-speed CD-ROM drive and a 420MB hard drive, and top out at $1,799. If you combine one of the 700 or 900 series models with a Compaq Presario Multimedia Monitor you get built-in speakers and microphone as well a duplex speakerphone and stereo sound. Under the new price structure the 700 models range from $1,599 for a 486DX4 90MHz-based PC with a 535MB hard drive to $1,899. One can also get a model 900 using a 486DX4 chip and equipped with a 535MB hard drive for $1,699, with the top of the line Presario 90MHz Pentium-based CDS 982 priced at $2,199 with the TV-ready feature and a 725MB hard drive. (Jim Mallory/19950519/Press contact: Compaq, 7130374-0484; Public contact: Compaq, 713-374-1457/PRESARIO950519/PHOTO) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 05/19/95 ONLINE First Chicago Uses Internet for Upcoming Debt Issue (NEWS)(ONLINE)(MSP)(00023) First Chicago Uses Internet for Upcoming Debt Issue 05/19/95 CHICAGO, ILLINOIS, U.S.A., 1995 MAY 19 (NB) -- More proof that cyberspace is moving toward commerce. First Chicago Capital Markets Inc., today said it is using the Internet's World Wide Web to distribute information about an upcoming debt issue through the worldwide network of computers. First Chicago Capital Markets, which is a subsidiary of First Chicago Corporation (NYSE:FNB), is senior managing underwriter for the issue. The issue is an $83 million underwriting for the Indian Prairie School District in Naperville, a suburb west of Chicago. Officials said the deal should be priced May 22. The company claimed to be the first to use the Internet to distribute this kind of information. Thomas J. Campbell, senior managing director of First Chicago Capital Markets, said some issues regarding availability of information in the financial world are being addressed via the Internet. "The Internet is not an information service that the securities industry relies on, and it's not clear to me why it shouldn't be," he told Newsbytes. "This is one little step to making people aware this (the Internet) is one more source of information for financial information." When Newsbytes "surfed" to the site, located at URL (uniform resource locator) http://fccm.com/CUSD204_bonds.html, we found hotlinks to a summary of the bond issue, information on the Indian Prairie School District, and First Chicago's Bond Underwriting Group, among other links. We also found a message from the superintendent of the Indian Prairie School District Dr. Thomas G. Scullen, which said, "Welcome to the electronic age. Using the Internet to promote our bonds is a reflection of the technology that we are incorporating into our classrooms today. This is a true integration of the worlds of finance, technology, and education." Funds from the issue will be used to construct six new buildings and to add the latest technology to classrooms. Campbell said he sees both his company and the securities industry in general turning to the Internet in the future when it comes to information dissemination. "It certainly has the potential to be used more. How it shakes out, though, is anyone's guess. This is rightfully described as an experiment to see what sort of reaction we get." (Bob Woods/19950519/Press Contacts: Lisabeth Weiner, 312-732-4455; or Thomas Kelly, 312-732-7007; both of First Chicago. Public Contact: Internet World Wide Web, http://fccm.com/CUSD204_bonds.html) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 05/19/95 GENERAL Personnel Roundup (NEWS)(GENERAL)(SFO)(00024) Personnel Roundup 05/19/95 PENN VALLEY, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1995 MAY 19 (NB) -- This is a regular feature, summarizing personnel changes not covered elsewhere by Newsbytes: BIS Strategic Decisions, Midisoft Corp., MultiGen Corp., A+ Communications, General Electric, Novell Inc., Best Programs Inc., Cray Research Inc., Sony Electronic Publishing, AST Research, and NEC Technologies Inc. Richard C. Norton has been appointed vice president at BIS Strategic Decisions (617-982-9500). He will be responsible for the direction and management of BIS' Peripheral and Supplies Services, Workflow, Document and Imaging Systems Service, and will manage the research operation in BIS' Santa Clara, California office. Norton spent nine years at Dataquest Inc., most recently as vice president of Dataquest's Worldwide Document Management group. Larry Foster was elected to the board of directors of Midisoft Corp. (NASDAQ:MIDI - 206-391-3610), succeeding Mark R. McCulley who resigned as a director and as senior software engineer. Foster is president and chief executive officer (CEO) of Remote Input Solutions Inc., a Bellevue, Washington-based hardware development company preparing to market small hand-held data collection devices. Previously, he was founder and CEO of GenSoft Corp. Joe Fantuzzi has been appointed president and CEO of MultiGen Inc. (408-247-4326) Fantuzzi joins the company from Autodesk Inc., where he was vice president of the Multimedia Division. Before joining Autodesk in 1993, Fantuzzi was vice president of marketing for Macromedia Inc. from 1990. George W. Sullivan, president, chief operating officer (COO) and director, has elected to retire from A+ Communications (Nasdaq-NNM:ACOM - 615-385-4500), effective June 12, 1995. John F. Welch, chairman of General Electric (NYSE:GE - 203-373-3180) is recuperating well from "elective and successful" coronary artery bypass surgery. Welch, 59, will remain in the hospital for several days. He is expected to return to his office in three to four weeks. During the recuperation period, he will supervise company operations from home at a pace to be determined in consultation with his physicians. Sheldon J. Laube has been appointed executive vice president and chief technology officer at Novell Inc. (NASDAQ:NOVL - 408-577-8975), a new position reporting directly to Novell chairman and CEO Robert J. Frankenberg. Laube will lead the development of Novell's technology strategy across its product divisions. Laube comes to Novell from Price Waterhouse where he was director of information and technology. Novell also announced the departure of John C. Lewis, senior vice president, Novell Technical Services. Timothy A. Davenport, has been named to the newly created position of president and CEO of Best Programs Inc. (703-709-5200), a developer of business software. Previously at Lotus Development, Davenport headed the Notes Developer Tools group and was responsible for development and marketing of several products. J. Phillip Samper, former vice chairman of Eastman Kodak and president of Sun Microsystems Computer Corp., has been named chairman and CEO of Cray Research Inc., (NYSE:CYR - 612-683-7133). A Sun Microsystems board member since 1991, Samper was named president of Sun Microsystems Computer Corporation and corporate executive officer of Sun Microsystems Inc., in February 1994. Prior to that, he served as president and CEO of Kinder-Care Learning Centers Inc. Angelo M. Pezzani has been appointed to the position of executive vice president, Sony Electronic Publishing (310-449-2371). Pezzani will be responsible for coordinating strategic business management functions between the company's North American and European operations. Pezzani was vice president and legal counsel for Atari Inc. After receiving his A.B. and M.A. degrees at St. Louis University, with graduate studies at the University of Hawaii, Pezzani served five years with the United States Air Force. Pezzani returned to St. Louis University and received his J.D. degree. AST Research (714-727-7977) has appointed Chris Imler to lead the company's consumer product team as director of marketing, consumer products group. Most recently director of strategic business development at AST, Imler will take charge of the Advantage! line of multimedia home PCs, where he will lead product definition, marketing and consumer support programs. NEC Technologies Inc. (708-238-7721), announced that James R. Berrett, will retire in summer 1995, and appointed Jerry S. Benson Jr., currently senior vice president of NEC's peripheral businesses, as the new president and chief operating officer. Benson will report to Knejiro Nitta, who will remain chairman and CEO. (Ian Stokell/19950519) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 05/19/95 ONLINE Johnny Mnemonic Web Scavenger Hunt Is On (NEWS)(ONLINE)(MSP)(00025) Johnny Mnemonic Web Scavenger Hunt Is On 05/19/95 LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1995 MAY 19 (NB) -- The hero of cyberspace of the future is invading the Internet of the present, Sony New Technology officials said. That's because Sony has developed an online scavenger hunt, based on the upcoming TriStar Pictures flick "Johnny Mnemonic." Officials said since the film is based on William Gibson's cyberpunk tale of an electronic scavenger hunt, they decided to sponsor a real hunt in the very real cyberspace of today. Clues are hidden throughout Sony Online's World Wide Web site (at http://www.sony.com), and throughout the Internet. Other clues are hidden in FTP (file transfer protocol) sites, university online libraries, and shareware "dumping grounds." Also, the Johnny Mnemonic site features a database of state-of-the-art visual effects developed for the movie. The Johnny Mnemonic site is located at URL (uniform resource locator) http://www.mnemonic.sony.com. Henri Poole, president of Vivid Studios, the company that designed the Web site, said the site was designed to closely mirror the film. "Today, people hack all over the world and navigate the Internet. When we read the script, we thought we can create a game that allows people to do a lot of the things William Gibson talked about in the movie." Merchandising for the new film will be hot and heavy. Sony Imagesoft will release a "Johnny Mnemonic" CD-ROM, which promises to look and feel like a movie. Company officials said in the game, a player's choices determine if Johnny triumphs -- or suffers a fatal overload. The "Johnny Mnemonic" soundtrack features such artists as Bono and The Edge, Rollins Band, Helmet, and Stabbing Westward. Plus you can clothe and water yourself with a range of Johnny Mnemonic merchandise, including T-shirts, baseball caps, and mugs. Samantha Chapnick, marketing manager for Vivid, told Newsbytes the interaction among all of the different products and services behind the movie was deliberate. "It was designed to be a first-time thing for Sony, to get all of the different divisions to be pushing one thing at once." (Bob Woods/19950519/Press Contacts: Matt Rothman, Sony Online, 212- 833-6126; Dennis Higgins, TriStar Pictures, 310-280-7547; Kevin Horn, Sony Imagesoft, 310-449-2334; Kris Ferraro, Columbia Records, 310-449- 2500; Susan Bell Warner, Sony Signatures, 415-247-7491; Tom Atkin, Sony Pictures Imageworks, 310-280-2304; Vivid Studios, 415-512-7200. Public Contact: Internet World Wide Web, http://www.mnemonic.sony.com) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 05/19/95 WINDOWS Serial Killer CD-ROM Not For The Faint-Hearted (NEWS)(WINDOWS)(DEN)(00026) Serial Killer CD-ROM Not For The Faint-Hearted 05/19/95 REDMOND, WASHINGTON, U.S.A., 1995 MAY 19 (NB) -- Medio Multimedia Inc. has introduced a software program on CD-ROM that looks at the world of serial killers. #IMAGE 1 20 TWPCX \images\95051926.PCX Click here for photo The company said "Mind of a Killer" investigates the monsters of this age, exploring the causes, issues and current scientific and criminological theories surrounding serial homicide. Medio said "Mind of a Killer" features Robert Resler, an authority on the psychology of serial killers, a 20-year veteran of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), and the originator of the term "serial killer." In "Mind of a Killer" Resler offers his insight into the behavior of infamous serial killers like John Wayne Gacy Jr., Ted Bundy, Jeffrey Dahmer, Charles Manson, David Berkowitz (Son of Sam) and Jack the Ripper. The program comes with more than 250 photographs and over 50 minutes of video. The company said some of the video is footage from police files that has rarely been seen before. Serial killers seem to hold a fascination for the public. Movies like "Natural Born Killers," "Silence of the Lambs" and the recent HBO documentary "Citizen X" look at a phenomenon that most people don't understand. Asked by Newsbytes why the company Medio Multimedia decided to produce a program of this nature, a company spokesperson said a survey indicated serial killers were high on a list of subjects about which consumers might buy software. Parents should use discretion in letting children use "Mind of a Killer." "It's not for children," cautions the company. Medio said, "Mind of a Killer" uses case studies, psychological profiles, criminological and forensic analysis, three-dimensional animations, an interactive map of serial killer sites around the world and a library consisting of the complete text of three related books. The library comes with "Serial Murderers and Their Victims," "Encyclopedia of Twentieth Century Serial Killers: Hunting Humans," "Sexual Homicide Patterns and Motives" and excerpts from the FBI Handbook of Forensic Science. Users can search the maps by location, case name, killer type, victim type, motives and behaviors. A three-dimensional recreation of each crime scene allows amateur sleuths to construct a profile of a serial killer by examining the body, the evidence and other clues. Television news anchor Lewis Dodley narrates video documentaries of some of the famous cases. You can see and listen to interviews and confessions from killers and commentary by psychologists and law enforcement professionals as you try to learn what makes these sociopaths tick. In order to respect the sensitivities of users, Medio includes warning screens of upcoming graphic material that might be offensive or inappropriate for the user. At that point you can exit that section of the program or continue. The warning states that the title may be unsuitable for young children and sensitive audiences. "Mind of a Killer" has an estimated street price of $39.95. The first 3,500 copies of the program come bundled with the video of "The Silence of the Lambs" starring Anthony Hopkins and Jodie Foster. "Mind of a Killer" is produced by the same authors that came up with "JFK Assassination: A Visual Investigation," also marketed by Medio Multimedia. To run the program you need at least a 486SX microprocessor, four megabytes (MB) of hard disk space at a minimum of 4MB of memory (Medio recommends 8MB of memory), at least a dual-speed CD-ROM drive, Windows 3.1 or later, a mouse of other pointing device, and an audio board and speakers or headphones. (Jim Mallory/19950519/Press contact: Tamese Robinson, Kaufer Miller Communications for Medio Multimedia, 206-450-9965; Public contact: Medio Multimedia, tel 206-867-5500 or fax 206-885-4142/KILLER950519/PHOTO) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 05/19/95 ONLINE Wells Fargo Offers Internet Customer Services (NEWS)(ONLINE)(SFO)(00027) Wells Fargo Offers Internet Customer Services 05/19/95 SAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1995 MAY 19 (NB) -- Wells Fargo, the second largest bank in California, says it is the first bank in the US to offer customers Internet access to their checking, savings, line of credit and credit card information. Working with Netscape Communication, the bank plans to provide additional services as the standards and technology for secured financial transactions become available. #IMAGE 1 20 TWPCX \images\95051927.PCX Click here for photo Effective immediately customers of Wells Fargo may call the bank to arrange for a password to access their banking information on the World Wide Web (Web). Once they have the password, a computer, modem, Internet access and Netscape's Navigator, customers are capable of accessing personal account information. A number of other banks have opened Web sites, but Wells Fargo claims it is the first to offer current account information. Wells Fargo's Web announcement is an extension of banking by modem services the bank has offered since 1989. Personal computer (PC) access to Wells Fargo customer banking information has been available through Prodigy and direct lines to the bank. These services have involved additional monthly charges, but the new Web service is free to Wells Fargo customers. The bank says it will continue to support the Prodigy and direct access links which offer additional transactions not available on the Web site. Gailyn Johnson, senior vice president and manager of online financial services, told Newsbytes, "We opened our Web site this past December and have had a strong response from our customers and other Web users. Not counting the new account information component, we have more than 300 pages of information about the history of the bank, job openings, account information, press releases, photographs and other information." She continued, "From the comments section of our Web site, we learned customers thought the site was too slow and they wanted to get account information. Some of the Web users who are not Wells Fargo customers even said they would switch banks if we could offer them current account information over the Web. Naturally, we followed up with redesigning the site so that it runs five times faster and yesterday we opened the account information area. We are committed to trying new technology and alternatives to conventional banking." At this time, Wells Fargo account information over the Web is only available to personal accounts and business accounts which are identified by a social security number of a sole owner. Business and corporate accounts which are identified by a 915 taxpayer ID number cannot be accessed though the Web. Johnson did confirm the bank is working on the necessary security to access account info for these clients. Regarding Internet security, Johnson said, "Using Netscape's technology, we have developed a very secure means to protect account information. When customers call into get a password, they speak to a real person, but when they create their password no one can see it or access it. It is automatically stored in the computer so that no agent or anyone at the bank can obtain it. We also have a very strong firewall between the security server and our account information servers. A user's identification through a social security number and a password have to receive authentication before accessing account information." Johnson also said a customer has additional security once the account information is displayed so that anyone reading the screen is not able to see the account number or the social security number after it is entered. "If someone is looking over your shoulder or you are away from your computer, your account information is still protected. Someone could perhaps see an account has a certain balance, but that person would not be able to get the account number from the screen. Knowing the approved user has the account number, we have deleted the last three numbers of the account," said Johnson. (Patrick McKenna/19950518/Press Contact: Lorna Doubet, Wells Fargo, 415-396-3606; Password Information: Wells Fargo, tel 800-956- 4442; World Wide Web Address: http://www.wellsfargo.com/; FARGO950519/PHOTO) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 05/19/95 GENERAL Low-Cost Make-Your-Own Computer Checks (NEWS)(GENERAL)(DEN)(00028) Low-Cost Make-Your-Own Computer Checks 05/19/95 WOODINVILLE, WASHINGTON, U.S.A., 1995 MAY 19 (NB) -- A Washington company has made it less expensive to produce computer-printed checks for business and personal use. According to CompuChecks USA you can use its checks for about the same price as the ones you order through your bank and write out by hand or by using a typewriter. "Most people buy software applications like Quicken with every intention of using computer checks," according to CompuChecks USA spokesperson Easton Mathews. "Then they see the price - Quicken's product line starts at $45.95 for 250 checks - and they decide they can live with manual check writing." Mathews said although computer checks usually come in sets of 250 and offer a substantial price break for 500 checks, banks report that most checking account holders only draw about 150 checks per year. CompuChecks USA, with its smaller order quantities, targets that market. The customer does not have the option to select the check color, which is usually blue but depends on the paper stock currently being used. CompuChecks USA business-size checks start at $17 for the first set of 150. A company spokesperson told Newsbytes that's the cost for pinfeed checks for a dot matrix printer. If you order additional sets on the same order and for the same account the price can be as low as $12 for 150 checks. For laser and inkjet printers, various options in the form of number of checks per page and the number of vouchers per check will cost from $17.50 to $27.00 for 150 checks, with a discount for additional sets of 150 checks on the same order. The company also offers window envelopes, continuous form leaders and deposit slips. You can get CompuChecks in seven styles, with or without attached vouchers or stubs. They will work with laser, inkjet or dot matrix printers, said the company. CompuChecks will send samples of their checks for your perusal. (Jim Mallory/19950519/Press contact: Deborah Haeseler, CompuChecks, 510-932-1143; Public contact: CompuChecks USA, tel 206-625-8236 or fax 800-934-1915 or electronic mail on the Internet to quick.checks@reply.net) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 05/19/95 GENERAL Newsbytes Week In Review (NEWS)(GENERAL)(SFO)(00029) Newsbytes Week In Review 05/19/95 PENN VALLEY, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1995 MAY 19 (NB) -- This is a look at the top stories this week, listing with their category code: Ebola Virus Outbreak Tracked Via Internet, E3 - Ex-CIA/KGB Chiefs To Star In CD-ROM, Desktop MPEG For Under $200, Microsoft and NBC To Develop Multimedia Products, Chip Industry To Double By 1 998, CIA Official Warns Of "Information Warfare," IBM Intros OS/2 Warp Connect, Time Warner To Develop Cable Online Services, Diamond Ships Voice Modem With Internet Phone, Microsoft Sets Windows Launch Date. Ebola Virus Outbreak Tracked Via Internet (ONLINE) CAMBRIDGE, MASSACHUSETTS, U.S.A., 1995 MAY 15 -- When it comes to keeping tabs on the outbreak of the deadly Ebola virus in Zaire, doctors and scientists from around the world are keeping up with developments in the African country via the Internet. E3 - Ex-CIA/KGB Chiefs To Star In CD-ROM (TRENDS) LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1995 MAY 15 -- At the Electronic Entertainment Expo, Activision planned a small press conference to introduce its new CD-ROM game, The Great Game. Sitting at the press conference table as consultants and co-stars were former Director of the CIA William Colby and former KGB Major General Oleg Kalugin. Desktop MPEG For Under $200 (TRENDS) ENCINO, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1995 MAY 16 -- Many CD-ROM title developers say they will produce a Motion Picture Experts Group (MPEG) version of their games, but where do you get an affordable MPEG board? The technology, which allows a standard PC to run full-screen, full-motion video is now available for under $200 from Software Affiliates. Formed this past December, Software Affiliates is marketing Real Motion and Real Motion Lite MPEG boards and software for the Windows environment. Microsoft, NBC To Develop Multimedia Products (BUSINESS) REDMOND, WASHINGTON, U.S.A., 1995 MAY 16 -- Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ: MSFT) and the National Broadcasting Company (NYSE: GE) Television unit have formed an alliance to develop and market multimedia products. Chip Industry To Double By 1998 (TRENDS) SAN JOSE, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1995 MAY 16 -- The Semiconductor Industry Association has released a forecast stating the semiconductor industry will grow from its current $101.8 billion worldwide sales to more than $200 billion by 1998. This means double-digit growth for the next three years. CIA Official Warns Of "Information Warfare" (GOVT) WASHINGTON, D.C., U.S.A., 1995 MAY 18 -- The nation's interconnected computer networks are the most vulnerable in the world to attack from other countries, drug traffickers, organized crime, terrorist groups or even everyday computer hackers, according to the outgoing number two person in the Central Intelligence Agency. IBM Intros OS/2 Warp Connect (IBM) NEW YORK, NEW YORK, U.S.A., 1995 MAY 18 -- IBM (NYSE:IBM) has unveiled OS/2 Warp Connect, a version of its personal-computer operating system that comes with peer-to-peer networking built in. The new release is technologically about an even match for the upcoming Windows 95 from Microsoft, one industry consultant said, but IBM faces a tough battle for market acceptance. Time Warner To Develop Cable Online Services (ONLINE) NEW YORK CITY, NEW YORK, U.S.A., 1995 MAY 18 -- Time Warner Inc. (NYSE:TWX) said two of its divisions, Time Warner Cable and Time Inc., are developing a new online service to be delivered to personal computers via cable TV wires instead of telephone connections. Diamond Ships Voice Modem With Internet Phone (TRENDS) SAN JOSE, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A, 1995 MAY 18 -- Diamond Multimedia is shipping its TeleCommander 2500XL, an integrated voice/fax/data modem which is highlighted by VocalTec's Internet Phone audio-compression software. The new software allows a user to make phone calls via the Internet without long distance charges. Microsoft Sets Windows 95 Launch Date At Aug 24 (WINDOWS) REDMOND, WASHINGTON, U.S.A., 1995 MAY 19 -- Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ: MSFT) has finally given the world a date to expect Windows 95 on retail shelves, presumably putting to rest skepticism about whether the oft-delayed new operating system really would launch in August 1995. (Ian Stokell/19950519) (SUMMARY)(GENERAL)(MSP)(00030) Newsbytes Daily Summary 05/19/95 MINNEAPOLIS, MINNESOTA, U.S.A., 1995 MAR 19 (NB) -- These are capsules of all today's news stories: 1 -> CA Confirms Record Results 05/19/95 Computer Associates International Inc. (NYSE:CA) has confirmed the record financial results that the software company tentatively announced at the beginning of May, and revealed some more details of how earnings broke down across product categories. 2 -> China - Former Employee Sues Employer For Software Piracy 05/19/95 A Chinese software engineer has filed a lawsuit against his former foreign employer for software piracy. This is the first case of this kind in Beijing, China Daily reported. 3 -> China - Private Pager Stations Sue State Station In Hubei 05/19/95 Twenty privately owned pager stations recently jointly filed a lawsuit against a state pager station for conducting unfair competition. Telecom in China is almost solely operated by the state and local government. The telecom market is not "open" for private companies except for the pager services. 4 -> Japan Business Show '95 - Epson Launches New Machjets 05/19/95 Two new printers took center stage on Epson's stand at the Business Show '95 in Tokyo this week. The stand took the theme "Color Imaging Epson," a central plank of Epson's strategy to "stimulate the imagination and enhance intellectual creativity through the introduction of innovative information technology," as the company's introduction explained. 5 -> Japan Business Show '95 - Transmitter For Digital Camera 05/19/95 The latest addition to Fuji Film's Digital Still Camera system will appeal to journalists and anyone interested in getting pictures to distant locations fast. Fuji's new HT-200 Handy Transmitter is a handheld unit featuring a two-line, sixteen-character LCD display and number keypad. 6 -> Japan Business Show '95 - Optical Disks From Mitsubishi Chemical 05/19/95 Mitsubishi Chemical used the Business Show '95, taking place all this week in Tokyo, to introduce several new products and display their range of magneto-optical (MO) disks. Center stage in the exhibit was the MO Jukebox. 7 -> Japan Business Show '95 - NTT's Video Phones 05/19/95 Nippon Telegraph and Telephone has displayed several new video telephone systems as well as a prototype "mini VOD (video on demand)" system at this week's Business Show '95 in Tokyo. The PICSEND-R is a video telephone that works, like much of the technology on display, over ISDN (integrated services digital network) telephone lines. 8 -> Japan Business Show '95 - NTT Show Communications Products 05/19/95 Japan's biggest telephone company, Nippon Telegraph and Telephone (NTT), showed the integration of computers and communications at the country's premiere business technology show this week with mobile computing applications, internet connectivity and an innovative software tie up with Microsoft. NTT PC Communications division's Internet service, InfoSphere, was on show along with continuing efforts to get people onto ISDN services. 9 -> Japan Business Show '95 - Zaurus From Sharp 05/19/95 Under the theme, "liquid crystal multimedia" Sharp unveiled a range of new systems centred around Zaurus, a new pen-based computer. Portability is the key feature of the unit which measures 160x95x17mm, or 160x125x19 with the fax modem attached. 10 -> Japan Business Show '95 - New Toshiba Dynabooks 05/19/95 Toshiba, celebrating the sale of over 5 million Dynabook notebook PCs worldwide, has introduced a new range of models and accessories at this week's Business Show '95 in Tokyo. The star of the show was the new Dynabook GT-475 which was advertised under the "small but great" banner. 11 -> More On Line Of Games For Girls 05/19/95 While multimedia developers compete to offer 12 to 16-year-old boys the latest and fastest violent games, Patricia Flanigan is turning 180 degrees to stand-up and say it is time for young girls to have multimedia titles developed expressly for them. Games for Her, a division of American Laser Games, intends to develop an entire line of multimedia software for teenage girls. 12 -> DEC Extends Fault Tolerant RAID To Sun, HP, AIX 05/19/95 With an update to the RAID (redundant array of inexpensive disks) Array 410, Digital Equipment Corp.'s StorageWorks has extended support for fault-tolerant dual controller configurations and hardware-based RAID 1 to Solaris, HP-UX, and AIX, said Penny Scharfman, marketing manager for Sun environments, in an interview with Newsbytes. 13 -> Ex Machina Unveils Paging SDK, Delrina Takes Equity Stake 05/19/95 The first licensee for Ex Machina's newly unveiled paging software developer's kit (SDK) will be Delrina, a company that has just purchased an equity position in Ex Machina, said David S. Rose, Ex Machina's chairman and chief executive officer (CEO), in a conference call with Newsbytes. 14 -> On Australia Set For Full-speed Launch 05/19/95 On Australia is the Australian front door to Microsoft's new global information system, Microsoft Network (MSN). Recent briefings for potential information providers have exceeded all expectations and the service is set for a good start, according to On Australia management. 15 -> Mitel Sets Revenue Record 05/19/95 Mitel Corp. (TSE,ME:MLT) has reported record revenues and a 54-percent growth in net income in fiscal 1995. The company's fourth-quarter results were better than expected and its prospects are good, one investment analyst said. 16 -> Review - Congressional Quarterly's CD-ROM Politics In America 05/19/95 By Ken Maize. I've been addicted to the two major compendiums of American political information -- the Almanac of American Politics and Politics in America -- for many years. 17 -> Federal Court Dumps Cell Phone Cancer Suit 05/19/95 A federal court judge in Florida has dismissed a suit charging that use of a cellular phone caused a fatal brain tumor. US District Court Judge Ralph Nimmons threw out the suit filed by David Reynard against NEC Corp. and GTE Mobilnet of Tampa on the grounds of "junk science." 18 -> Belgium - Telecoms Market Restructuring Under Way 05/19/95 John Goossens, the newly appointed CEO at Belgacom, has committed the company to reorganizing its operations and preparing the way to full privatization, Newsbytes has learned. After three months in post, Goossens has announced that he wants Belgacom to prepare for the January 1, 1998 open market date set by the European Commission (EC). 19 -> Netherlands - Philips/US West Acquires Cable TV/Phone Company 05/19/95 Philips Electronics has teamed up with US West and acquired KTA, the Amsterdam-based cable TV company. According to Philips, the deal is worth around 700 million guilders, although details of the exact cash sum paid to Amsterdam City Council, which owned the system, have not been revealed. 20 -> Correction - Computer Museum Auction On The Web 05/19/95 Newsbytes would like to correct an inaccurate Web URL listed in the story "Computer Museum To Auction PCs, Memorabilia On Web," which ran on May 18, 1995. The correct URL to use for direct access to the museum's charity auction Web site is http.//www.onsale.com, not http.//www.onsale, as given in the article. Newsbytes regrets the error. 21 -> ****Microsoft Sets Windows 95 Launch Date At Aug 24 05/19/95 Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ: MSFT) has finally given the world a date to expect Windows 95 on retail shelves, presumably putting to rest skepticism about whether the oft-delayed new operating system really would launch in August 1995. 22 -> Compaq Reduces Presario Home PC Prices 05/19/95 Compaq Computer Corp. (NYSE: CPQ) said this week it has reduced the price of its most popular Presario PCs for the home market by up to 12 percent. The cuts apply to the Presario 500, 700 and 900 series. 23 -> First Chicago Uses Internet for Upcoming Debt Issue 05/19/95 More proof that cyberspace is moving toward commerce. First Chicago Capital Markets Inc., today said it is using the Internet's World Wide Web to distribute information about an upcoming debt issue through the worldwide network of computers. 24 -> Personnel Roundup 05/19/95 This is a regular feature, summarizing personnel changes not covered elsewhere by Newsbytes: BIS Strategic Decisions, Midisoft Corp., MultiGen Corp., A+ Communications, General Electric, Novell Inc., Best Programs Inc., Cray Research Inc., Sony Electronic Publishing, AST Research, and NEC Technologies Inc. 25 -> Johnny Mnemonic Web Scavenger Hunt Is On 05/19/95 The hero of cyberspace of the future is invading the Internet of the present, Sony New Technology officials said. That's because Sony has developed an online scavenger hunt, based on the upcoming TriStar Pictures flick "Johnny Mnemonic." 26 -> Serial Killer CD-ROM Not For The Faint-Hearted 05/19/95 Medio Multimedia Inc. has introduced a software program on CD-ROM that looks at the world of serial killers. 27 -> Wells Fargo Offers Internet Customer Services 05/19/95 Wells Fargo, the second largest bank in California, says it is the first bank in the US to offer customers Internet access to their checking, savings, line of credit and credit card information. Working with Netscape Communication, the bank plans to provide additional services as the standards and technology for secured financial transactions become available. 28 -> Low-Cost Make-Your-Own Computer Checks 05/19/95 A Washington company has made it less expensive to produce computer-printed checks for business and personal use. According to CompuChecks USA you can use its checks for about the same price as the ones you order through your bank and write out by hand or by using a typewriter. 29 -> Newsbytes Week In Review 05/19/95 This is a look at the top stories this week, listing with their category code: Ebola Virus Outbreak Tracked Via Internet, E3 - Ex-CIA/KGB Chiefs To Star In CD-ROM, Desktop MPEG For Under $200, Microsoft and NBC To Develop Multimedia Products, Chip Industry To Double By 1 998, CIA Official Warns Of "Information Warfare," IBM Intros OS/2 Warp Connect, Time Warner To Develop Cable Online Services, Diamond Ships Voice Modem With Internet Phone, Microsoft Sets Windows Launch Date. (Wendy Woods/19950519) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 05/05/95 BUSINESS Hungary - Philips Expands Partnership With Merloni (NEWS)(BUSINESS)(LON)(00001) Hungary - Philips Expands Partnership With Merloni 05/05/95 BUDAPEST, HUNGARY, 1995 MAY 5 (NB) -- Fresh from a resurgence in company profits at home in the Netherlands, Philips has revealed it is sinking a further $45 million in its joint venture company with Merloni in Hungary for the assembly of computers. Philips, which has already invested a similar amount in PC assembly in Szombathley in Hungary, says it wants to start assembling monitors at the facility, although extensive modernization will be needed before production can start. According to Dutch officials with Philips, the plant should be operational by the end of the year, with an annual output of a million monitors. Plans call for the production line to be progressively expanded and modernized so that as many as three million monitors will be rolling off the finishing line within the next three years. Most of the monitors will be sold into the former Eastern Bloc. Philips is also mulling the possibility that it could start IC (integrated circuit) production at the facility at some stage in the near future. The sudden interest in Hungary, Newsbytes notes, almost certainly stems for the Hungarian Government's unexpected decision late last year to grant Philips a five-year exemption from the new profits tax, which many businesses have criticized. (Sylvia Dennis/19950504) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 05/05/95 TELECOM British Govt Urges Software Firms To Consolidate (NEWS)(TELECOM)(LON)(00002) British Govt Urges Software Firms To Consolidate 05/05/95 LONDON, ENGLAND, 1995 MAY 5 (NB) -- The British Government, in the guise of the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI), has published a report for -- and about -- the telecoms software industry in the UK. According to Ian Taylor, the UK's Trade & Industry Minister, the report provides an analysis of the strengths and weaknesses of the UK industry and closely examines its structure, highlighting opportunities and threats facing UK-based companies. The report is entitled "Telecoms Software -- an Opportunity for the UK" and was written by the DTI's industrial advisors on telecoms. It urges companies to "grasp this opportunity by exploiting overseas the strengths which have been developed and proven in the competitive UK market." This report lays down a challenge to an increasingly important sector of the industry. "The Government has create the conditions in the UK for the largest, most dynamic and fastest growing telecoms market in Europe," Taylor said. According to Taylor, the UK is working with its European partners to establish a UK style market model across Europe -- and beyond. "It is now up to industry to respond by addressing the points raised in the report and exploiting overseas their UK successes. I'm particularly excited by the opportunities for our small software companies. This is one field where you don't have to be huge to have a world-beating product," he said. According to the report, the UK telecoms sector is worth around UKP 1.2 billion, and is growing at 30 percent a year. The industry now employs around 17,000 people and covers many elements of the IT (information technology) market-place. (Steve Gold/19950504/Press Contact: DTI Press Office +44-171-215-5691; Reader Contact: DTI +44-171-215-5000) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 05/05/95 HEALTH Program To Check Doctor's Diagnosis (NEWS)(HEALTH)(MSP)(00003) Program To Check Doctor's Diagnosis 05/05/95 MINNEAPOLIS, MINNESOTA, U.S.A., 1995 APR 24 (NB) -- The Institute for Healthcare Quality (IHQ) said it is debuting for "the first time" electronic guidelines to help healthcare professionals enhance their decision processes and manage behavioral health care episodes in real time. Company officials say the new behavioral health guideline software, which runs on Windows-based computers along with local area networks, is an "expert" system that helps the clinician by confirming diagnosis, recommending treatment options, and documenting decisions for future analysis. The program features more than 12 electronic guidelines to manage some of the most common and costly mental health illnesses including major depression, anxiety and mood disorders, psychotic syndromes, eating disorders, and various substance-related conditions. "This software package asks a series of questions that will allow you to confirm a behavioral health diagnosis, decide how severe it is, and then apply what the literature and the current best practices agree are the optimal treatments for the particular problem," Judd Swanson, research analyst for IHQ, told Newsbytes. He also said the software gives recommendations on the proper setting to treat these disorders, from drug therapy to outpatient treatment to a hospital stay. This program is not a "doctor's cookbook," as Swanson put it. "There's more variation in behavioral health treatment than in medical and surgical treatment. So the guidelines try to reduce variation and introduce more consistency in treatment." He said the goal of the guidelines is to identify a treatment match in about 75% of cases reviewed with the guidelines. But the guideline program does realize there are deviations, and a lot of latitude is given to the physician as far as diagnoses and treatments, he said. IHQ is a research subsidiary of Health Risk Management, Inc (NASDAQ: HRM) (HRM). Call 800-241-9611 for more information. The cost of the program varies from several thousand to hundreds of thousands of dollars, depending on factors such as number of networked workstations. (Bob Woods/19950424/Press Contact: Connie Carrino, Health Risk Management, 612-946-7554. Public Contact: Institute for Healthcare Quality, 800-241-9611) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 05/05/95 HEALTH Lockheed Martin Versus Breast Cancer (NEWS)(HEALTH)(MSP)(00004) Lockheed Martin Versus Breast Cancer 05/05/95 DENVER, COLORADO, U.S.A., 1995 MAY 5 (NB) -- A technology applied to the task of detecting camouflaged tanks and faults in the welds that hold a Titan missile together has found a new application: early detection of breast cancer. Lockheed Martin Astronautics has become a partner with Rose Health Care to apply advanced and high-speed processing of medical images to early detection. Breast cancer is the leading cause of death among women 35-54. Medical personnel diagnose over 182,000 women each year with cancer - over 46,000 will die. Just 20 years ago, we could expect one in 20 women to develop breast cancer in their lifetime. The situation has become even more alarming: now, it's one of every eight women. There is no cure, only difficult and chancy treatment. According to Jeffrey Levy M.D., mammography director at Rose Health Care Systems, the best defense is early detection and treatment. The Lockheed Martin team used an "optical processor," which depends on coherent light. Particles of light, or photons, don't interfere with each other, even when traveling in crossing patterns. As a result, optical processors typically pack key circuits into a more dense arrangement than possible on an electronic processor. Since photons are fast and less prone to heating up than electrons, optical processors operate at much higher speeds - and more efficiently. In theory, photon-based computing can support the complex calculations needed to detect either military targets or cancerous lesions from acquired imagery. The two companies formed MedDetect LLC and will apply the optical processor technology to automated medical image analysis. MedDetect will receive its initial seed funding from Rose and Lockheed Martin's Astronautics. "Additional private capital will be raised to fully develop the medical applications of the technology and conduct extensive clinical tests," said Ken Weil, VP, Biomedical business development and the Rose Project Manager. The new technology could benefit patients by reducing the time spent on visual pre-screening while minimizing human errors. In technical terms familiar to information technology specialists, optical processing will support a down select to those mammograms needing additional evaluation and free up time for scrutiny and treatment selection. MedDetect expects to be ready for clinical testing in 18 months. Radiologists will use the technology to screen mammograms (breast X-rays) for early detection of potentially cancerous breast lesions. "We are very excited about the potential of this technology which has already found breast cancer one year earlier than conventional methods in two cases," stated Rose's Dr. Jeffrey Levy. "Ultimately, we hope the technology will not only save lives, but will also reduce costs and encourage more women to have mammograms." MedDetect plans to eventually expand its detection applications to a variety of medical imagery problems (such as chest x-rays, pap smears and other cytological samples). This story is republished with permission from SentryCast(TM), an internal newsletter published by Sentry Systems, Inc., 10310 Main Street, Suite 357, Fairfax, VA 22030-2426 (tel 703-281-7696, fax 703-281-2009, e-mail sentrysys@attmail.com). (Dennis Gaughan/19950503/Press information: Evan McCollum, tel 303-977-5364, fax 303-971-4902. Public information: E. Michael Henry, Ph.D. at Lockheed Martin Astronautics, tel 303-977-7720, fax 303-971-1627) or Kenneth C. Weil, vice president, biomedical business development, Rose Health Care Systems 303-320-2594) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 05/05/95 REVIEW APPLE Review of - Battle Chess Enhanced CD-ROM (REVIEW)(APPLE)(SFO)(00005) Review of - Battle Chess Enhanced CD-ROM 05/05/95 Runs on: Macintosh, MS-DOS, and MPC machines From: Interplay Productions, 3710 S Susan Suite 100, Santa Ana, CA 92704 714-549-2411 Price: $59.95 PUMA rating: 3 on a scale of 1=lowest to 4=highest Reviewed for Newsbytes by: Naor Wallach Summary: A slightly expanded version of the original Battle Chess program. ======= REVIEW ======= Battle Chess came out for MS-DOS machines several years ago and was hailed, at the time, as a very interesting breakthrough. The game's combination of graphics, sounds, humor, battle sequences, and chess playing capabilities attracted many players and introduced many people to the game of chess. Although the game itself has not changed, and the original program was not a very strong opponent, the game was well received and liked. Now, Interplay has taken that basic game, added more sound effects, a large tutorial section, and packaged it on a CD-ROM. This new product is called Battle Chess Enhanced CD-ROM. In essence this is the exact same game as Battle Chess with the same characters and combat sequences. The game comes on a CD-ROM that is compatible with PCs running under DOS as well as Macintoshes. Game play is no different between the two platforms. What is new is the tutorial. In it, you can see the actual pieces moving around and talking to you, explaining their roles and functions in the game. The level of the game has not changed either. This game is still mostly suitable for those beginning to play chess and are not very strong players. Any reasonably proficient player should be able to beat this program even at a relatively high level. But, after all, the point of this program is to introduce chess in a more fun way that others. In this it succeeds admirably. The graphics are great. The sounds are superb. Listening to a Rook lumber across the board to wage a battle with another piece is simply amazing. The character battles and movements are choreographed in a very simple and repetitive way, but they are effective. After a while, the combat sequences become a bit of a bore (how many times can you watch the knight clutch his groin while falling to the floor before you get tired of it?) and there is no way to turn just one animation off without turning off all the rest. If you are just an occasional chess player and would like to acquire a new game for the fun of it, then I can highly recommend it. If you are looking to enter into a serious program of chess study, or you are a relatively accomplished chess player, then you will probably get bored with this game rather easily and quickly. ============= PUMA RATINGS ============= PERFORMANCE: 2 The animations and the sounds were sometimes misaligned. Piece movements and battle sequences were very slow at times and required frequent disk access. USEFULNESS: 3 Its not a very good opponent but it will keep you involved if you're at that level. MANUAL: 4 It's got all the information as well as a complete tutorial for the rules of the game. AVAILABILITY: 3 Available from mail order and software stores. No toll free number for support calls. (Naor Wallach/19950321) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 05/05/95 REVIEW APPLE Review of - Might and Magic III (REVIEW)(APPLE)(SFO)(00006) Review of - Might and Magic III 05/05/95 Runs on: Macintosh From: New World Computing, P.O. Box 4302, Hollywood, CA90078, 800-325-8898 or 818-999-0606 Price: $59.95 PUMA rating: 3.75 on a scale of 1=lowest to 4=highest Reviewed for Newsbytes by: Naor Wallach Summary: This is a very good role playing game. Guide a group of adventurers through the Isles of Terra, and restore the natural balance of nature. Gorgeous graphics and fun play combine to make this one of my favorite games. ======= REVIEW ======= Might and Magic III (MM3) is the third installment is a series of popular role playing adventure games from New World Computing. New World Computing has set the tone for advances in the genre with its very impressive MM2 and has gone even further in this game. The role playing game genre has one controlling a group of adventurers. Each of the different party members can have a different set of attributes and skills. One of your challenges is to create a group that is up to the task ahead. That is also one of the more frustrating and exhilarating parts of the genre. In MM3 you start out with a scroll that has a fragment of a story of a strange magician that wandered through the Isles of Terra before you. His name was Corak. Intrigued, you decide to form a party and try to find Corak and the meaning behind some of the events that are happening in the world around you. While engaged in this main quest, you are very likely to run into many other characters who would like you to assist them. It is normally a very good idea for you to accept the challenges and carry out the quests as they lead you to better experiences. You are also likely to find clues to your ultimate query as you pursue the goals of these quests. The game is packed with a 32-page journal which contains the fragment of the story of Corak intertwined with some of the folklore about the game's world. This is very important reading since it contains many clues as to how to best structure your party of adventurers and what skills they will ultimately need. The map that comes in the box is also extremely important. On it you will see the complete layout of the Isles of Terra. Every significant location in the world appears on this map. There are also clues strewn throughout the map as to what to expect in different parts of the world. These clues are not always obvious, and in many cases, they will not make sense until you have found some other clues within the program. I hung the map up next to my computer so that I could refer to it when playing and found that to be a very useful. The main window is broken into three main parts. The biggest is your view -- a three dimensional view of the world which only shows you what is in front of you. But New World Computing has done a good job of the motion sequences. As you move forward, things that are to your side come into focus and then slide by realistically. You can also see several steps ahead unless some natural obstacle is there (like walls, trees, or mountains). Along the bottom of the screen are depictions of the party members. Each of the six has their own "look." There are also two open spaces for characters that you can "hire." Some people have figured out how to make those extra two characters into regular party members. The explanation of how to do this is very technical and needs to be done very early in the game. Look for it on the Internet in the Macintosh game playing areas. As things happen to your characters, their screen image changes. The one that I found most hilarious happened to the male members of my party when they fell in love. Underneath each picture is a little jewel-like bar that tells you the physical well-being of your character. The best condition is a silver-gray. Then comes green, yellow and red. If your character has a blue bar, he or she is likely unconscious or dead. Along the right side of the screen is an area for an overhead view of the world. This is not a normal operation. One must find the appropriate magic to display this. It is very convenient to have this "Wizard eye" on at all times as it can display special areas like hidden sites and concealed passages that you would otherwise not find. The remainder of the area along the edge is taken up by nine icons. These are the action icons that allow you to control what happens in the game. You start out the game in one of the five towns. One of the nice advances in this game is that the program will keep mapping things for you. In previous iterations of this genre, I had to keep a pad of paper handy for simply mapping where the different things are. Needless to say, that was a pain. In this game, the computer tracks where you've been and will bring the maps to your attention when you ask. As you start exploring the first town (Fountainhead), you will very quickly discover that this is a world that is seriously out of balance. All kinds of strange creatures roam the streets and the fountains that are strewn throughout the town do not operate properly. As you clean up the city streets, you will begin gathering experience. Don't forget to find your way to the coliseum to gain in level! You will also find a bank, magic guild, store, inn, temple, tavern, and a couple of quests. When you succeed in your quests, you will gain hints as to what to do next. As is usual in this genre, this is a game that takes a lot of time to complete, but at no time was I completely bored. The game always managed to keep my interest. That's because of the exciting graphics and the game's increasing challenges. If you find yourself completely stuck, you can also order the hint book from New World Computing for $19.95. Another avenue to pursue is to seek hints from people who've already played the game. I was lucky to find such a group on the Internet who helped me out on two different occasions. The only negative part of the game for me was the sound quality. I have two problems with it. First, each monster has a distinctive sound when encountered close up. I found these sounds rather unappealing. The second problem was the lack of control over the volume of the sound. I had my Macintosh set for a comfortable level for my ears and on many occasion could not hear the game. This can be disturbing since sometimes you only get an audible clue to what's happening. Another slight nit I have concerns New World Computing. When MM2 was released, the company stated that you could save your characters and reuse them in MM3. Having played MM2 I was looking forward to getting my old characters to use again. However MM3 does not contain any mechanism for bringing them into the game! Apparently New World Computing has discovered that in the years that transpired between MM2 and MM3, technology shifted so much that it was impossible for them to meet their promise. Game play is smooth on the whole, the challenges are just difficult enough to be entertaining, there are no cute tricks intended to keep you from proceeding, and the game is fun! MM4 is about to be released for the Macintosh in the next few months and I cannot wait to play it! ============= PUMA RATINGS ============= PERFORMANCE: 3 The game plays well. The sound problems mentioned in the text are the reason for the lower score here. USEFULNESS: 4 This is a good role playing game. Should be in every RPG enthusiasts machine. MANUAL: 4 There really isn't much of one and it is not needed since the design of the interface is very intuitive once you get the feel of what the icons do. AVAILABILITY: 4 Available from mail order and software stores. New World Computing has a hint line that is a toll-free call. But try to figure it out for yourself first. (Naor Wallach/19941224) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 05/05/95 TRENDS China - 5-Year Electronics Investment Forecast (NEWS)(TRENDS)(PEK)(00007) China - 5-Year Electronics Investment Forecast 05/05/95 BEIJING, CHINA, 1995 MAY 5 (NB) -- The government plans to appropriate 600 billion RMB (US$71.4 billion) in the Ninth 5-year Planning Period (1996-2000) to develop China's electronics industry. The goal is to make the electronics industry one of pillars of the Chinese economy. The massive investment program will focus on computer-controlled (telephone) switching systems, electronic components, and finance-sector equipment, said Mr. Jingzhong Wang, vice director of the Planning Department under the Ministry of Electronics Industry. Domestic companies have developed two models of digital switching systems, the HJD-04 and EIM-601. The HJD-04 system and its production technology has been cited as one of China's ten greatest scientific/technical achievements of 1994 in the electronics/computer field. Two groups will be established for production of these models in order to meet market demand. It is estimated that total production will exceed 12 million (telephone) lines annually in the next five years. More focus will be given to computer applications in the business and financial sectors. POS (point-of-sale) machines, ATMs (automatic teller machines) and IC (integrated circuit) cards will also be developed and promoted, Wang said. These machines are the key components in the Golden Card Project. The main goal of the project is promote the use of bank/credit cards and reduce cash circulation in the country. The funds will also be used to boost the exports of electronics. The total export value of electronics was US$12.3 billion in 1994 and is estimated to reach US$25 billion by the year 2000. China is already the world largest exporter of radio receivers and audio cassette players/recorders, Mr. Wang said. (Chih-Ho Yu & Ning Huang/19950430) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 05/05/95 LEGAL China - Progress in Patent Protection (NEWS)(LEGAL)(PEK)(00008) China - Progress in Patent Protection 05/05/95 BEIJING, CHINA, 1995 MAY 5 (NB) -- Suzhou, a city on the east coast of China, has made significant progress in patent protection and has become a national model in the field, according a China Daily report. In 1988, Suzhou set up the first Enterprise Patent Specialists Association in China, and introduced patent offices to businesses in 1990. To date, 95 percent of 213 medium and large-size enterprises in Suzhou have full or part-time patent specialists. Thirty-four companies in the city are listed by Jiangsu province as models in patent protection. By the end of 1994, patent bureaus in Suzhou accepted 3,407 applications and approved 2,244 patents, China Daily says. Among small and medium-size cities in China, Suzhou city ranks first in terms of the number of the approved patents. The improved patent system also coincides with a boom in Suzhou's enterprises. Statistics show that implementation of 312 patents in 101 enterprises was echoed in an increase of production by 1.22 billion RMB (US$ 143.5 million). Pre-tax profits of 170 million RMB (US$ 20.2 million) were recorded, and resulted in foreign currency earnings of US$24.26 million. (Chih-Ho Yu & Ning Huang/19950425) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 05/05/95 TELECOM House Republicans Reveal Telecom Bill, GOP Schisms (NEWS)(TELECOM)(WAS)(00009) House Republicans Reveal Telecom Bill, GOP Schisms 05/05/95 WASHINGTON, D.C., U.S.A., 1995 MAY 5 (NB) -- House Republicans have unveiled their long-awaited version of telecommunications reform legislation, but at the same time cracks have appeared in the GOP unity on the issue, making it more difficult to get legislation passed this year. Under the House Commerce Committee bill, a product of months of closed-door negotiations among Republicans, Democrats, and the warring forces in the telecommunications industry, the seven Baby Bell local phone companies will be allowed to compete in the long-distance market if they show they face some competition in their local markets. That could mean the Bells could be in the long-distance business as soon as 18 months after passage. The bill is sponsored by Commerce Committee Chairman Thomas Bliley (R-Va.) and telecommunications subcommittee chief Jack Fields (R-Texas). The requirement in the House bill is a relatively low hurdle for the Bell operating companies. Most already face some competition from phone service bundlers such as MFS Communications, which offer businesses low-cost phone service. "You need to make sure than when the Bells are allowed to get into long distance that the market is open locally," said Bliley. But the long-distance carriers are not happy with the House approach. Former Republican Senate Majority Leader Howard Baker, now lobbying for the Competitive Long Distance Coalition, is calling for "airtight conditions" on competition in local markets, including a certification by antitrust experts at the Department of Justice that the Bells don't have market power. "For the Bell companies to be permitted to enter into competitive markets such as the long-distance markets," Baker told a Senate Judiciary subcommittee, "it is clear what must occur -- the Bell companies must cease to be monopolies. Only Congress can ensure that America gets it right, by enacting legislation that requires local competition first -- ending the Bell monopolies." That Baker was testifying before a Senate subcommittee reveals previously unknown rifts in the GOP on telecommunications reform and complicates the politics considerably. The Senate Commerce Committee earlier passed a sweeping telecom reform bill, and that was expected to be the vehicle that would go to the Senate floor for a vote. But the entry of the judiciary committee into the issue means that opponents of the Senate bill have an opportunity to create rival amendments from another committee. Similarly, in the House, Judiciary Committee Chairman Henry Hyde (R-Ill.) has introduced a rival bill to the Bliley-Fields measure. The Hyde bill would allow the Bells into long-distance service after six months. The Justice Department would review the entry and would be required to approved the request unless it could show "clean and convincing evidence" that the Baby Bell had market power to block competition. A group of consumer groups concerned about electric utility participation in telecommunications markets is also upset with both the House and Senate bills. The issue is whether some 10 holding companies covered by the 1935 Public Utility Holding Company Act should be allowed to compete for telecommunications business, as more than 200 unregistered companies are. The consumer groups fear the large, vertically integrated registered companies, the 800-pound gorillas of the electric industry, will abuse their power in the market, by putting electric customers at risks for foolish investments in telecommunications affiliates. The Senate Commerce Committee bill allows the holding companies into the act, but the House Commerce Committee bill does not. Clint Vince, a Washington lawyer representing the City Council of New Orleans, one of the members of the consumer coalition, told Newsbytes that the registered companies are expected to offer an amendment to the Bliley-Fields bill, which would be similar to what is in the Senate bill. The consumers feel the Senate language is too loose. "These holding companies are still monopolies," Vince said, "with tremendous market power, and a bad history when it comes to interaffiliate deals. If they are to enter the telecommunications arena, regulators should have access to books and records, audit authority and an no-nonsense prohibition against self-dealing." (Kennedy Maize/Press Contact: Clint Vince, 202-371-6047) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 05/05/95 LEGAL Privacy Group Warns Congress To Go Slow After Oklahoma City (NEWS)(LEGAL)(WAS)(00010) Privacy Group Warns Congress To Go Slow After Oklahoma City 05/05/95 WASHINGTON, D.C., U.S.A., 1995 MAY 5 (NB) -- Congress should keep a cool head in the wake of the tragedy in Oklahoma City, says the Electronic Privacy Information Center in a letter to Senate Orrin Hatch (R-Utah), chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee. The Clinton administration has been using the bombing to renew its request for encryption controls and other ways to prevent what it says is terrorist activity using the Internet for communications. EPIC, a Washington group pushing computer privacy, urged Congress to take "careful and deliberate consideration of any proposal that would alter current guidelines for government investigation and monitoring of domestic political activity or the collection and use of personal information." Current guidelines, based on modifications by the Reagan administration of rules of conduct approved in the Ford administration, "provide the FBI with ample authority to initiate investigations of organization and individuals similar to those alleged to have been involved in the Oklahoma City bombing," says EPIC's letter. EPIC also called for "careful consideration to any proposal for the modification of the wiretap statute or privacy statutes that would diminish the freedoms that all Americans currently enjoy....We urge you also to proceed cautiously in the area of electronic communications. Our country is in the process of developing the communication tools that will take us into the next century. While we share the president's belief that irresponsible speech should be opposed by responsible speech, we do not believe that enhanced surveillance of lawful activity by American citizens will serve the country well." In an interview, David Sobel, EPIC counsel, told Newsbytes that FBI Director Louis Freeh's fears of encrypted terrorist messages on the Internet is misplaced. "There is absolutely no evidence from Oklahoma or the earlier World Trade Center bombing that anyone was using the Internet to conspire," he said. Sobel noted that it is relatively easy to intercept Internet traffic and the FBI would know if anyone was using encryption technology in a suspicious manner, even if the government could not break the code. "They have never made that specific charge," he said. "It is only Freeh's fears, and there is no evidence they are based on reality." Sobel added that international drug cartels, which are considerably more technological sophisticated than US militia groups, appear not to be using encrypted Internet communications. "If the government wants to put controls on the key technology in recent terrorism outbreaks," Sobel joked, "they should put them on Ryder trucks," since the bombers of both the World Trade Center and the federal building in Oklahoma City used rented Ryder trucks to deliver their bombs. (Kennedy Maize/19950505/Press Contact: David Sobel, EPIC, 202-544-9240; Internet e-mail sobel@epic.org, World Wide Web http://epic.digicash.com/epic) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 05/05/95 GENERAL Polaroid Launches First Graphic Imaging Products (NEWS)(GENERAL)(DEN)(00011) Polaroid Launches First Graphic Imaging Products 05/05/95 CAMBRIDGE, MASSACHUSETTS, U.S.A., 1995 MAY 5 (NB) -- Polaroid Corp. (NYSE: PRD) has launched its new graphics imaging business by introducing its first two products targeted to the pre-press segment of the graphics arts market that includes service bureaus, color trade shops, in-house corporate printers and large-volume commercial printers. Showgoers at this week's DRUPA95 International Printing Fair in Dusseldorf, Germany will get the public's first look at the new products as Polaroid shows its Dry Tech Imagesetting System and its DryJet Color Proofing System. Dry Tech Imagesetting is a digital color separation film system that the company said produces high quality, stable and convenient separation films without using silver or wet chemical processing. The Dry Tech system was developed in partnership with Linotype-Hell AG of Germany. Linotype-Hell is making the hardware for the Dry Tech Imagesetting System and handling marketing, distribution and sales support. Polaroid is providing the laser optics system, the equipment that peels and laminates the color separation films, and the dry, silver-free film, called Dry Tech film. DryJet Color Proofing System is a dry inkjet proofer that produces high-quality proofs using actual printing ink pigments on a wide range of coated and uncoated papers. Both products are scheduled to ship in the fall. Dry Color Proofing combines eight multi-density CMYK (cyan-magenta-yellow-black, the primary colors used in printing to achieve other colors) pigmented inks to achieve subtle gradations in detail. Polaroid said the device prints at 600-dots-per-inch and claims the process creates an image so sharp that even the serifs (the short lines at the upper and lower ends of the strokes that form a character in a typeface) on two-point type (a point equals one-seventy-second of an inch) are clear. Polaroid said DryJet can print a proof in as few as six minutes. Polaroid also demonstrated several forthcoming technologies, including an instant lithographic plate, a direct digital color proofer and direct digital plates, or computer-to-plates. The instant lithographic printing plate is called Dry Tech Express. It is exposed in the conventional manner then put directly on the printing press where it completes its development during the first several revolutions of the press. Polaroid said the Dry Tech Express Plate is the first printing plate to develop instantly without normal chemical processing. Once exposed to an image under ultra-violet light, the plate develops right on the press as the printer prepares for the print run. Polaroid said Dry Tech Express is designed for press runs of fewer than 25,000 impressions. The Direct Digital Color Proofer gives printers a contract proof Polaroid said offers the fidelity of more expensive press proofs. It can deliver proofs with halftone or frequency-modulated screening. Direct Digital Plates enable printers to bypass intermediate steps and have images set directly from a computer screen to a printing plate. No shipping dates were announced for the three demonstrated products. Polaroid is entering the digital imaging field at a time when, according to MacAllister Booth, Polaroid chairman, president and chief executive officer, "The printing business is in the midst of a transition to digital technology." The company's entry into the field also puts it in head to head competition with another name well known in the imaging field, Eastman Kodak. Kodak has reorganized its digital imaging operation to stay abreast of technological advances as imaging moves from traditional film to digital methods of storing and printing pictures. Polaroid spokesperson Greg Venne told Newsbytes that while the company expects revenues from its digital imaging products to ramp up steeply, it will continue to produce instant film and cameras and anticipates a continuing modest rise in income from those product lines also. Polaroid was one of the earliest American companies to enter the Russian market, and Venne said sales in the former Soviet Union accounted for a double-digit percentage of Polaroid's total sales last year. Polaroid operates a production facility in Russia. (Jim Mallory/19950505/Press contact: Greg Venne, Polaroid, 617-386-3116; Public contact: Polaroid, 617-577-2000 or fax 617-577-2800) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 05/05/95 TELECOM Ericsson, Telia Buy Dual Standard Mobile Phones (NEWS)(TELECOM)(LON)(00012) Ericsson, Telia Buy Dual Standard Mobile Phones 05/05/95 STOCKHOLM, SWEDEN, 1995 MAY 5 (NB) -- Swedish Telecoms operator Telia has ordered the production of 5,000 units of the world's first dual- mode GSM/DECT telephone from Ericsson. Telia plans to market the phones to major customers on a trial basis. The trial aims to evaluate the new technology, its advantages and weaknesses. GSM stands for Global System for Mobile Communications and is a world digital standard in mobile telephony, operating in the 900 megahertz (MHz) waveband. DECT stands for Digital European Cordless Telephony, a European standard for home/office digital cordless phones. DECT is widely used on so-called cordless PABXs (Private Automatic Branch Exchanges). By having a "combi" or dual mode handset, office workers can have a GSM phone that works on a wireless basis in many places around the world, while hooking into the PABX when in the office, to take advantage of cordless links into the wireline phone service at lower calling rates The dual mode phones are still in their infancy, which is why Telia is effectively trialling the technology with its initial order. Previous dual mode phones have been quite bulky affairs, Newsbytes notes, but this phone, known provisionally as the GD337, is based on the GH337, a teeny GSM pocketphone which is proving extremely popular around the world. So far, the phone is in prototype form, but Ericsson officials say they expect to fulfill the Telia order at the end of this year, at which point the phone will be commercially available for other interested parties. (Sylvia Dennis/19950505/Press & Reader Contact: Ericsson +46-8-422- 1545) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 05/05/95 WINDOWS Europe - Upgrade Of File Converter "Word for Word" (NEWS)(WINDOWS)(LON)(00013) Europe - Upgrade Of File Converter "Word for Word" 05/05/95 BRACKNELL, BERKSHIRE, ENGLAND, 1995 MAY 5 (NB) -- Software Compatibility, the distributor of document conversion and file software, has announced a new version of its popular multi-platform file conversion software, Word for Word. According to the company, this new edition -- version 7.0 -- includes several new and upgraded text and bi-directional conversion formats. The package now covers text formats such as WordPerfect 6.1, Wiziword 3.0, Mass-11 PC 8.x and many more esoteric word processing packages. On the graphic formats front Word for Word now covers Interpress (XIF), Mass-11 Draw 6.2, SysDraw 7.0 (WiziWord) and WiziDraw 6.2. Available immediately, Word for Word 7.0 is available in DOS, Windows and Unix operating system flavors. On the PC, the package runs in stand-alone mode, but can also be integrated operationally with Microsoft Word 2.0 or 6.0, allowing WfW and MS-Word to appear as a single virtual program. In use in this mode, Word for Word 7.0 now has new features such as "open" and "save as." Over 150 additional export and import options are available in this mode. In general use, any document that needs to be converted to a Microsoft Word 6.0 (from, for example, a WordPerfect document), can simply be opened from Word directly, company officials explained. According to Software Compatibility, the document's format is quickly recognized and converted to the required one. Word for Word 7.0 supports over 150 different word processing, spreadsheet, graphic and compound document formats. All features during conversion are kept intact. "Since our initial shipment of Word for Word in 1986, we have continued to provide high-quality conversions between the latest versions of numerous text, graphics, spreadsheets, database and compound document applications," explained Ken Mueller, president of Mastersoft, the Arizona-based company that created Word for Word. According to Mueller, this latest release of Word for Word includes a wide variety of new features that aim to offer users transparent conversion and improved compatibility with current applications. UK/European pricing on the new version of Word for Word has been set at UKP 105 for the DOS and Windows versions, and UKP 350 for the Unix version (this price covers a single client/server system). Upgrades to earlier editions cost UKP 39 and UKP 99, respectively. (Sylvia Dennis/19950505/Press & Reader Contact: Tony Larks, Software Compatibility +44-1344 885224) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 05/05/95 WINDOWS Europe - HP Soups Up "Electronic Stationery" Service (NEWS)(WINDOWS)(LON)(00014) Europe - HP Soups Up "Electronic Stationery" Service 05/05/95 BRACKNELL, BERKSHIRE, ENGLAND, 1995 MAY 5 (NB) -- Hewlett-Packard (HP) is expanding is JetCAPs electronic stationery service with the addition of two new flash SIMM (single in-line memory module) units for its LaserJet 4 series of printers, as well as the LaserJet 5P and 5MP printers. The JetCAPs service is a European initiative by HP and aims to lower the cost of pre-printed stationery for major companies who plug in special SIMM units into their LaserJet printers to allow relatively complex and color (where required) stationery to be produced on the laser printers. According to spokeswoman Pamela Smith, these 2MB (megabyte) and 4MB modules form part of HP's developing JetCAPS service. "The JetCAPS service is a pan-European initiative," Smith told Newsbytes, adding that, if it is successful, the service will be offered in the US as well. Ian McRea, HP's European JetCAPs business development manager explained that more than $6 billion a year is spent worldwide on preprinted forms. "When added to the $94-120 billion spent to develop, store and distribute these forms it becomes obvious how wasteful and expensive pre-printed stationery is. HP's new flash SIMM modules, combined with our HP LaserJet printer technology, give organizations the ability to eliminate reliance on pre-printed stationery and update all their business forms at once, making big savings," he said. So how does the JetCAPs service work? According to HP, flash SIMM is a non-volatile, rewritable memory technology which allows standard forms, letters, company letterheads, logos, style guides and other regularly used fonts and macros to be downloaded and stored on an HP LaserJet printer. Once downloaded to the printer these fonts and macros will remain there, allowing documents to be printed on demand. Because flash SIMM is non-volatile its contents remain even after the printer has been switched off, keeping company templates available, without being downloaded again. According to McRae, the two new memory capacities introduced this week broaden HP's family of flash SIMM products to include 1, 2 and 4MB flash SIMM modules. The new modules feature a master/slave function allowing upgrades and additional flash SIMM memory to be added to the printer. In use, the modules are controlled via a Windows management software tool, which HP claims allows network managers to control flash technology easily and more effectively. The software provides password protection ensuring stored fonts, forms and letterheads can only be changed or used by those with the appropriate access codes. This, McRae claims, is a key security benefit for corporate customers who want to prevent tampering with corporate standard documentation, and to stop unauthorized use of restricted stationary or forms. The network controller can also be set up to offer departments a chosen groups of forms, and ensure that nominated printers hold the right stationery, using the intuitive classifying system which is built into the software. Bi-directional support means that the contents of each flash SIMM can be remotely read from a single, central point. As a result, comprehensive status information about the time, date of last revision, and size of each form in every flash SIMM is available to the network manager. This allows network administrators to manage stationary revisions, and selectively update individual forms or groups of forms automatically. (Steve Gold/19950505/Press Contact: PA Consulting +44-171-730-9800; Reader Contact: Ian McRae, HP JetCAPs division +44-1344-361-473 or HP Customer Information Svc +44-1344-369222) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 05/05/95 NETWORK UK - Proteon Secures Spanish Distribution For OpenRoute (NEWS)(NETWORK)(LON)(00015) UK - Proteon Secures Spanish Distribution For OpenRoute 05/05/95 NOTTINGHAM, ENGLAND, 1995 MAY 5 (NB) -- Proteon International has signed a deal with Teldat SA of Madrid, Spain, terms of which allow Teldat to distribute and support the networking company's OpenRoute technology in Spain and Portugal, Newsbytes has learned. Alan Swan, Proteon's managing director, told Newsbytes that the just- signed deal allows Teldat to incorporate the OpenRoute technology into its concentrator and switching products, so broadening the scope of the systems available to the Spanish marketplace. Although financial terms of the agreement have not been revealed, Swann told Newsbytes that deal could be a lucrative one as Teldat sells a significant proportion of its networking systems on a direct sales basis, direct (rather than dealer) sales being the norm in Spain. "Around 80 percent of Teldat's sales are done on this basis," he said, adding that Proteon is also discussing similar distribution and licensing deals with other European country suppliers. For Teldat, Antonia Garcia Marcos, the company's chairman, said that the deal "enables us to provide our customers with new levels of flexibility and control to drive their business, based on interoperable internetworking." The deal with Teldat is the fourth software licensing contract of its type that Proteon has signed in the past eight months. Other licensees include Digital, IBM, and Motorola's Information Systems group. In parallel with the linkup with Teldat, Proteon has announced the formation of a new OpenRoute business division. Swann explained to Newsbytes that the division has been set up in response to the interest from other vendors in the technology. OpenRoute is described as a highly portable internetworking software suite. "We are hoping that the technology will become a de facto standard as far as open networking is concerned," he said, adding that business division's charter is to expand and manage OpenRoute's software licensing business. "The internetworking market is undergoing a fundamental shift. This evolution is being driven by the rapidly increasing customer demand for integration of routing functionality across the broad range of systems and network devices, and a new market awareness that open, interoperable internetworking is essential to the successful migration to and the integration of ATM," he explained. (Steve Gold/19950505/Press Contact: Firefly +44-171-381-4505; Reader Contact: Proteon +44-115-950-6500; Teldat +34-14-807-6565) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 05/05/95 BROADCAST Mobile Data Conference Slated For London (NEWS)(BROADCAST)(LON)(00016) Mobile Data Conference Slated For London 05/05/95 LONDON, ENGLAND, 1995 MAY 5 (NB) -- After several months spent establishing itself, the Mobile Data Association (MDA) has "gone public" and is holding a conference at London Heathrow on June 15, with the express intention of attracting anyone interested in the mobile data technology market-place. Ron Balmforth, marketing officer with the MDA, told Newsbytes that the day-long conference is priced at a relatively modest UKP 150 and has a number of key speakers lined up, including Noel Leslie of Cognito, the wireless data company, who will talk about mobile data sales, services and telemetry; Gavin Lennox of Lotus, who will talk about horizontal applications; and several other players who will discuss the mobile data market in general. "At UKP 150 we obviously aim to make a small profit out of the event, but its not the big bucks that many conferences of this type are charged at. Conferences are not what the MDA was set up for -- we're about information exchange and getting the message across to the industry," he explained. As a sweetener for the conference, the MDA is offering anyone attending the event UKP 100 off the normal UKP 500 membership fee for affiliate company status of the MDA. The conference fee, meanwhile, includes lunch, refreshments and conference papers. "The theme of the conference -- horizontal and vertical applications, the merging markets -- will be of wide interest, so it was decided to open up the conference to non-member organizations which may have an interest in mobile data," Balmforth said. The conference, he added, will be of special interest to the supply side of the industry, "such as systems integrators and hardware/software suppliers, who may currently be formulating plans to include mobile data products and services in their portfolios." (Steve Gold/19950505/Press & Reader Contact: Mobile Data Association +44-1923-711386; Fax +44-1923-711412) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 05/05/95 BROADCAST Microsoft Refutes Portuguese Satellite Investment Stories (NEWS)(BROADCAST)(LON)(00017) Microsoft Refutes Portuguese Satellite Investment Stories 05/05/95 LISBON, PORTUGAL, 1995 MAY 5 (NB) -- Microsoft has distanced itself from reports in the European media that it is considering a proposal to invest around 200 billion escudos in a communications satellite venture. Reports in Diario Economico, a Portuguese newspaper, as well as on Reuters, had quoted Luis Mira Amaral, the Portuguese Industry Minister, as saying that Microsoft is studying a proposal to invest in Portugal for a satellite launch facility. Diario Economico said that officials with the National Institute of Engineering and Industrial Technology are studying the proposal, and that a probable site is in Beja in Southern Portugal. "The story is a misunderstanding between Microsoft and a journalist," commented Stuart Handley, a spokesman for Microsoft. According to Handley, an interview to discuss Bill Gates' recent personal investment in the US with Teledesic, the LEO (Low Earth Orbit) satellite communications consortium, was held and a misunderstanding as to what is happening occurred. "It's basically a case of someone putting two and two together and making 16," Handley told Newsbytes. "An investment of this size would obviously be big news, but I'm afraid it's really old news," he said. (Steve Gold/19950505/Press Contact: Stuart Handley, Text 100 for Microsoft +44-181-242-4200) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 05/05/95 GENERAL DOCS Open 2.5 Brings New Name, Platforms, Markets (NEWS)(GENERAL)(BOS)(00018) DOCS Open 2.5 Brings New Name, Platforms, Markets 05/05/95 BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS, U.S.A., 1995 MAY 5 (NB) -- DOCS Open 2.5, the first "enterprise" edition of PC DOCS' document management software, adds Mac and DOS clients, plus workflow, imaging, and other new features that are bringing the product into new vertical markets like finance, manufacturing, and healthcare, said Larry Bohn, executive VP and general manager, in a meeting with Newsbytes in Boston. Equipped with a Windows client only in its earlier incarnation as "PC DOCS Open," the newly renamed client-server software is expanding beyond a base that began with organizations such as law firms and government agencies, Bohn explained. DOCS Open 2.5 runs on servers that include Novell NetWare, Windows NT, and Unix, the VP added. In the finance market, customers for the "enterprise" edition include Bank of America, Morgan Stanley, Bear Stearns, and IMF, according to the executive VP. In the manufacturing sector, users include DuPont and Owens Corning, and in healthcare, Baxter and SunHealth Alliance. The product remains popular with its traditional customers as well, with an installed base that encompasses organizations such as the Skadden Arps law firm, the Department of Justice, the General Accounting Office, the Federal Trade Commission, Los Angeles Air Force Base, and in Canada, the Treasury Board, Bohn contended. DOCS Open 2.5 recently earned the highest average buyers' satisfaction score in a Computerworld roundup called "The ComputerWorld Guide to Document Management," according to the PC DOCS exec. Now PC DOCS is developing a new add-on product called DOCS Interchange for Microsoft Exchange, while at the same time working on expanding the company's distribution coverage into Europe, he noted. PC DOCS recently moved its world sales and marketing office from Tallahassee, Florida to Burlington, Massachusetts, and is currently "transitioning" its world headquarters from Tallahassee to Burlington, as well. European distributors have been added in Germany, Italy, Sweden and Norway. Aside from Microsoft, the company maintains partnerships with Sybase, Oracle, Lotus, Novell/WordPerfect, Wang, Action, Verity, Watermark, and Banyan. Bohn told Newsbytes that, in his company's conception, "documents" extend beyond traditional paper-based documents to include computer word processing, spreadsheet and CAD (computer-aided design) files; electronic messages and forms; and digital images of charts, photos, and other graphics. PC DOCS "Classic" was first introduced in 1989, and PC DOCS Open in 1993, he said. The new "enterprise" edition is designed to handle the growing volume of documents of all kinds, with capabilities such as an "open architecture" and "scalability across the enterprise," along with wide area network (WAN) searching, customization, integration, security, and mobile computing. Core enhancements in DOCS Open 2.5 include extended document names -- to 254 characters -- for compatibility with Windows 95 and Windows NT; a new "class system" for document profile management, allowing users to provide multiple "profiles," or attribute screens, for the same group of users; and availability of the product on CD-ROM, with license keys for "unlocking." Beyond the new Mac and DOS clients, the product also adds an optional DO-IT (DOCS Open Integration Technology) Toolkit, plus these optional modules; DOCS Interchange for Lotus Notes, for document replication and publishing through Notes; DOCRoute; for routing documents for approval and collaboration; DOCS Imaging; for scanning and optical character recognition (OCR); and DOCS Mobile. DOCS Imaging works with DOCS Open's core capabilities for managing, tracking, and controlling image files, according to Bohn. DOCS Mobile is aimed at automatically replicating all changes made to existing documents and newly created documents when a roving user reconnects to the network. Also in version 2.5, a new security agent has been added to the Windows NT server. Bohn reported that the agent takes advantage of NT's built-in C2-level security, a security mechanism widely used among government agencies. The agent permits customers to secure documents via the DOCS Open access control list, according to the executive VP. An Advanced Library Security feature, designed for users with "stringent" data security requirements, allows sites to authenticate each user via password to Oracle, Sybase, and NT SQL (structured query language)- based libraries. The new DOCS Interchange for Microsoft Exchange add-on that is now being created will automatically replicate selected documents or portions of document collections to Exchange users, Newsbytes was told. Both contents and document profiles will be copied to Exchange folders. The user will then be able to share the mail folder with anyone else on the network. DOCS Open 2.5 is available now. Pricing is $349 per workstation and $795 per server without SQL. With runtime versions of either Sybase, Oracle, or NT SQL Server, pricing is $449 per workstation and $1,495 per server. The DO-IT Toolkit is $2,995. DOCS Mobile, which comes with a single-user version of Watcom SQL database, is $50 per user. DOCS Interchange for Lotus Notes is $7,995. PC DOCS plans to ship DOCS Interchange for Exchange later this year, at about the same time that Microsoft releases Exchange. (Jacqueline Emigh/19950505/Reader Contact: PC DOCS, 904-942-3627 or 617-273-8380; Press Contacts: Beth Parker, PC DOCS, 904-942-3627; Maggie Galloway or Donna Raimondi, Rogers Communications for PC DOCS, 617-224-1100) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 05/05/95 NETWORK Proteon Founder Accuses Cisco Of Badmouthing His Company (NEWS)(NETWORK)(SYD)(00019) Proteon Founder Accuses Cisco Of Badmouthing His Company 05/05/95 SYDNEY, AUSTRALIA 1995 MAY 5 (NB) -- Proteon founder Howard Salwen today said reports of his company's demise couldn't be further from the truth. He spoke to Newsbytes in Sydney, on an Asian tour talking about Proteon's new image and direction. To hear our competitors you'd think we were in terrible trouble," he explained. "Cisco is putting out bad words about us, saying we're bankrupt, but the truth is we're cashed up and going strong. Back when Cisco was a lot smaller than us they told customers not to buy from us or we'd have the monopoly. Now they tell people not to buy from us because we're not as big as them." Cisco manufactures a wide range of networking hardware and software, supplying the core software code to manufacturers such as IBM, Motorola and Digital. "And there'll be more signing up soon. I like to call users of these products our 'virtual installed base,'" announced Salwen, who also happens to be chairman of Proteon's board of directors. Right now we have powerful software division. Cisco is a tremendous "me-too." We have signed with Motorola and IBM and there will be more showing up. "Our attitude isn't to force a particular product on the user, but rather to sell them what they want. Some competitors like 3-Com are only going to sell 100BaseT as their fast networking hardware despite its inappropriateness to multimedia. ATM (asynchronous transfer mode) is going to be very important from now on." (Paul Zucker/19950505) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 05/05/95 GENERAL Personnel Roundup (NEWS)(GENERAL)(SFO)(00020) Personnel Roundup 05/05/95 PENN VALLEY, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1995 MAY 5 (NB) -- This is a regular feature, summarizing personnel changes not covered elsewhere by Newsbytes: Kao Infosystems Co., CyberMind Interactive Inc., AT&T, Bell Atlantic Corp., American Software, Auspex Systems Inc., Tele-Communications Inc., Acclaim Entertainment Inc., MathSoft Inc., Dell Computer Corp., AT&T Global Information Solutions, Spectrum HoloByte Inc. Scott Brush has been appointed to the new post of operations manager of Kao Infosystems Company's (800-274-5520) Software Services Group located in Wilsonville, Oregon. Prior to his new position, Brush was plant manager of Kao's Rotterdam, Netherlands facility, the Kao European Distribution Center for the company's software services operations, which provides diskette replication, packaging, assembly, print, fulfillment and distribution to global software publishers. Mark Bernstein, 35, has been appointed chairman of the board of directors of CyberMind Interactive Inc. (415-693-0861). Bernstein's last post was with England-based Virtuality Entertainment Ltd. Bernstein began his career as an accountant with Ernst & Young, and previously acted as chief financial officer (CFO) for two other publicly-traded British companies. Cresencio (Cris) Arcos has been appointed AT&T's (305-229-5197) public affairs vice president for the Caribbean and Latin America region. He was formerly US Ambassador, senior deputy assistant secretary for International Narcotics and Crime at the US Department of State. Arcos will be based in Coral Gables, Fla. Keiko Takeuchi Harvey, 46, has been appointed to the position of vice president-network planning and engineering of Bell Atlantic Corp. (NYSE:BEL - 215-963-6306). In her new position, Harvey will be responsible for planning and engineering Bell Atlantic's telecommunications infrastructure, including its broadband full-service network. She also will be accountable for developing and administering capital planning for the network and the implementation of the network planning and engineering group's restructuring and consolidation effort. Joseph L. Wiley has resigned as vice president and CFO of American Software (NASDAQ-NNM:AMSWA - 404-264-5296) "in order to pursue other endeavors." Peter W. Pamplin, controller, has been appointed acting CFO. Bruce Nelson has been promoted to the newly created position of vice president of technology at Auspex Systems Inc. (NASDAQ:ASPX - 408-986-2288). He will be reporting directly to Larry Boucher, founder, president and chief executive officer (CEO) of Auspex. In his new role, the firm says Nelson will work equally with international and domestic customers to "better understand their requirements and keep them appraised of the company's and the industry's technology directions." Nelson joined Auspex in 1989, one year after its inception, as chief technologist where he was responsible for directing product strategy, benchmark methodology, and technology forecasting. John A. Lack, the architect behind MTV, Nickelodeon and The Movie Channel, has been appointed to the position of CEO for the recently formed joint venture between cable communications carrier, Tele-Communications Inc. (NASDAQ:TCOMA) and independent entertainment software publisher, Acclaim Entertainment Inc. (NASDAQ:AKLM). The new venture, owned 65 percent by Acclaim and 35 percent by TCI, is focused on developing and acquiring entertainment software for distribution through interactive electronic media and the promotion of a new standard network game platform to be incorporated into advanced set-top boxes. Chris Randles has been appointed vice president of marketing for MathSoft Inc. (617-577-1017). He will be responsible for marketing strategy and promotion for the company's expanding range of products and channels. Randles, who reports to MathSoft President and CEO Charles Digate, will drive MathSoft's expansion into distribution and retail channels and entry into new markets leveraging the company's technical calculation and authoring environments. L. Scott Flaig, senior vice president of corporate operations of Dell Computer Corp. (NASDAQ:DELL - 512-728-4100) resigned at the end of April to pursue "other interests." The company says it has "no immediate plans" to name a successor. The company said it has been evolving to a regional-operations management structure over the past two years; consequently, Flaig's previous responsibilities for manufacturing, procurement and logistics have been largely decentralized. In other AT&T news, Lars Nyberg, has been named chairman and CEO of its $8.5 billion-a-year computer business, AT&T Global Information Solutions, effective June 1. Nyberg, 43, currently is chairman and CEO of the Communications Systems division of Philips Electronics NV and a member of the Philips Group Management Committee. A native of Sweden, Nyberg succeeds Jerre L. Stead, who resigned from the company in January to join Legent Corp. William T. O'Shea has served as acting head of the unit while the company conducted a search for a successor to Stead. Christopher Deyo has been appointed vice president of marketing for the Spectrum HoloByte Division of interactive entertainment software publisher Spectrum HoloByte Inc. (NASDAQ:SBYT - 510-522- 3584). Deyo, 35, will oversee the product marketing function for the division to include setting strategic product marketing direction for advertising, packaging, consumer communications, and development. Prior to his appointment at Spectrum HoloByte, Deyo spent eight years with Kransco, most recently, as vice president of marketing. (Ian Stokell/19950505) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 05/05/95 DOS Japan - Quarterdeck Releases QEMM (NEWS)(DOS)(TYO)(00021) Japan - Quarterdeck Releases QEMM 05/05/95 TOKYO, JAPAN, 1995 MAY 05 (NB) -- Six months after releasing the latest version 7.5 of its QEMM memory manager software for PCs, Quarterdeck has announced the availability of a double byte enabled version for the Japanese market. Quarterdeck sees Japan as one of its future major markets and has established a distribution and technical support partnershup for QEMM 7.5J with Softbank, Japan's biggest software house. Gaston Bastiaens, Quarterdeck president and chief executive officer, said in a press release, "As the second largest software market in the world on a country basis, Japan offers a tremendous growth opportunity for Quarterdeck. That is why we are particularly pleased to launch QEMM 7.5 J in Japan in partnership with the well-respected and dominant Japanese software distributor, Softbank Corporation. We are confident that the technological expertise of Quarterdeck and the marketing savvy of Softbank will be a winning combination." Until now Japanese users were faced with the choice of either the English release of version 7.5 or QEMM 6.0J which has support for the Japanese kanji character set but lacks some of the new features now built into the latest versions of QEMM. The English version of QEMM 7.5 was introduced at Comdex last November and improved upon in previous releases by adding such functions as native Windows and DOS installation, configuration and reporting utilities, and the ability to accommodate and configure a wider variety of unusual system architectures, providing increased available memory to these systems. These functions are also available in the new QEMM 7.5J as is increased support for the IBM Thinkpad and Toshiba lines of portables, certain Compaq PCs and Stacker disk compression software. The new software is priced at 14,800 yen ($176) although an upgrade for customers using either the English or Japanese versions is available for 8,240 yen ($98). This compares with a $99 price tag on the latest English version and a $35 upgrade charge for that software from previous versions. (Martyn Williams/19950505/Press contact : Rolf Rudestam, Quarterdeck media relations +1-310-314-4215, Fax +1-310-314-4218, Internet email pr@qdeck.com; Public Contact : Softbank Corporation +1-813-5642-8151, Fax +1-813-5641-3435) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 05/05/95 ONLINE Year 2000 Page Launched On Web (NEWS)(ONLINE)(TOR)(00022) Year 2000 Page Launched On Web 05/05/95 TORONTO, ONTARIO, CANADA, 1995 MAY 5 (NB) -- A new Year 2000 Information Center on the World Wide Web focuses on the problems presented by computer programs that represent years with only two digits. At the end of the decade, many such programs are expected to fail when they encounter the year 2000 and represent it as 00. As an example of the problems this could cause, consider a program that calculates a person's age by subtracting his or her birth date from the current year. A person born in 1959 is currently 36 years old. Today, the program would subtract 59 from 95 and get 36 -- the right answer. But in five years, when the same person is 41, a program that uses a two-digit year field would subtract 59 from 00 and get -59. Peter de Jager, a Toronto-based speaker and writer who drew attention to the Year 2000 problem with his article Doomsday 2000 in Computerworld in 1993, is the organizer of the Web page. De Jager told Newsbytes that his goal is "to get every vendor who does anything in this area up there so that we become a central point of contact." Software vendors offering tools for dealing with the year problem, as well as consulting firms and others who can help deal with it, will be asked to advertise in the information center, de Jager said. Fees for the first year will range from $1,250 to $3,750 depending on the amount of information posted. Currently, the Web site includes a report from Bellevue, Wash.- based consulting firm Data Dimensions on dealing with the Year 2000 problem, as well as biographical information on de Jager. De Jager said he is talking to about 20 vendors at the moment who are interested in advertising. The site also includes a clock showing the time remaining until the year 2000. The Data Dimensions report points out that problems caused by two-digit date fields will show up before January 1, 2000. Many programs deal with future dates, and some could fail at any time. In fact, the report refers to one case of a seven-year data archival program that gave trouble two years ago when it was given a tape expiration date with 00 in the year field. De Jager, in cooperation with Internet access provider Tenagra Corp., has also set up an electronic mailing list for discussion of the Year 2000 problem. Anyone interested can subscribe by sending Internet e-mail to listmanager@hookup.net, with the text SUBSCRIBE YEAR2000 in the body of the message. (Grant Buckler/19950505/Press Contact: Peter de Jager, 905-792- 8706, Internet e-mail pdejager@hookup.net; Public Contact: Internet World Wide Web http://arganet.tenagra.com/year2000/) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 05/05/95 ONLINE ****AOL Experiences Gain, Loss; Puts New Stamps Online (NEWS)(ONLINE)(MSP)(00023) ****AOL Experiences Gain, Loss; Puts New Stamps Online 05/05/95 VIENNA, VIRGINIA, U.S.A., 1995 MAY 5 (NB) -- America Online (NASDAQ- NNM:AMER) reported another mixed bag of financial news from cyberspace. The company reported both its revenues and subscriber base went way up in its fiscal 1995 third quarter, which ended March 31, 1995, but it took a loss overall after "special costs." Revenues from the three-month period increased 236 percent to $106,414,000, as compared to fiscal 1994's third quarter $31,689,000. The current revenues were 44 percent higher than the $73,998,000 in revenues from the company's second fiscal 1995 quarter. AOL's net income from operations also rose sharply, before taking into account $7.9 million in special costs. The "special costs" include about $7.6 million of acquired Research and Development expenses, and about $300,000 in after-tax amortization costs. The charges include the remaining write-off relating to the acquisition of BookLink Technologies and NaviSoft, Inc. Overall, AOL's loss amounted to $2,817,000, or $0.08 per share in the most recent quarter. In February 1995, Newsbytes reported that AOL had also posted an overall loss in the second quarter of almost $39 million, mainly because of the acquisitions. Richard Hanlon, vice president of investor relations, told Newsbytes this is the last time the company will have to take a charge on those appropriations. In addition, the company said it signed up more than 1.6 million subscribers in the past year. At quarter's end, AOL had 2,313,000 subscribers. And earlier this week, Newsbytes reported the online service had passed the 2.5 million subscriber milestone. Overall, Hanlon said he was quite happy with the quarter's results. "We continue to demonstrate we have very strong momentum in our top-line subscriber growth," he said. He said subscribership had increased, despite the fact AOL didn't spend as much money in marketing the service. "There's a good benefit from word of mouth. That says the AOL community is doing a good job of marketing AOL." He also said revenue per member per month had increased. No one at AOL had expected that, because the company had cut the hourly rate last year. In addition, member life, or the amount of time users keep a continuous subscription to AOL, also went up to 39 months from 36 months during the quarter, Hanlon said. Both AOL and financial analysts are looking at this quarter as a "transition quarter," because of the service's migration away from third-party communication carriers like SprintNet to "AOLnet," which is AOL's own network, Hanlon said. He said AOL's communication costs on its own network are less than with SprintNet, and he hopes to move both current subscribers and new members to the new AOLnet once it's widely deployed around the US. He also predicted increased revenues from AOL's new World Wide Web browser, which he described as "three times faster than any other browser on the market, and integrated with AOL's offerings." Wall Street is not taking the news too well. At 12:30 EDT, AOL stock was down $1, at $47.25. AOL also made two content-related announcements, both revolving around the world of the Sunday funnies. The US Postal Service today unveiled 20 new stamps based on comic strips. AOL said this is the first time the Postal Service has unveiled stamps both online and in the "real world." The stamp designs can be viewed in the "Comic Strip Centennial" area of AOL, which is located at Keyword: Comic Strip. Also, AOL subscribers will have the chance to interact with some of their comic page favorites starting May 7. That's when Beetle Bailey and Mort Walker, "Beetle Bailey" creator, will be online from Bailey's "station" at Camp Swampy. They'll kick off the "Sunday Funnies LIVE," a series of what AOL describes as a year-long events with famous characters and their creators live from cyberspace. (Bob Woods/19950505/Press Contacts: Richard Hanlon, America Online, 703-448-8700; Amanda Hass, Newspaper Feature Council, 212-779-7511. Public Contact: America Online, 800-827-6364; Comic Strip Centennial area of AOL, Keyword: Comic Strip) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 05/05/95 PC Dell Cuts PC Prices, Adds Fee-Based Software Support (NEWS)(PC)(DEN)(00024) Dell Cuts PC Prices, Adds Fee-Based Software Support 05/05/95 AUSTIN, TEXAS, U.S.A., 1995 MAY 5 (NB) -- Dell Computer Corp. has reduced prices on its entire line of Dimension PCs by an average $125 to $150, saying it is passing on component cost savings to customers. The company also announced fee-based software telephone support for MS-DOS, Microsoft Windows and Microsoft Windows for Workgroups. Dell said price reductions vary depending on system configuration. As an example, the Dimension XPS 120c 120 megahertz (MHz) Pentium system with 16 megabytes (MB) of extended data output (EDO) memory, a 256 kilobyte (KB) pipeline burst cache, one gigabyte (GB) of hard disk space, a 15-inch color monitor, a 64-bit PCI (Peripheral Component Interconnect)bus, 1MB of video memory, and a quad-speed CD-ROM drive has been cut from $3,149 to $2,999. The price includes Microsoft Office 4.3 and Microsoft Bookshelf software. At the low end of the Dimension line you can get a 66MHz 486DX2-based PC with 8MB of memory, a 365MB hard drive, 15-inch monitor and 1MB of video memory for $1,299, down $150 from the previous $1,449. No applications are bundled with this system. Dell bundles MS-DOS, Windows and Windows for Workgroups with its PCs. The new pay-for-support program is effective immediately. Following the initial free 30-day startup period during which Dell offers free support, users will pay $29 for each support call. The cost will be charged to the user's credit card. Dell said it will provide similar support for Microsoft Windows 95 when that program ships later this year. Dell said customers paying for support to the operating system software packages will receive priority over other software support calls. The company said the program is cost-effective to the user since a customer only pays for what they need. The company offers 90-day and one-year support contracts for software applications after an initial 45-day period of free support. Dell said support for its hardware will continue at no charge. (Jim Mallory/19950505/Press contact: Jill Shanks, Dell Computer, 512-728-7344; Public contact: Dell, 800-289-3355) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 05/05/95 WINDOWS Microsoft Launches Windows 95 Preview Tour (NEWS)(WINDOWS)(DEN)(00025) Microsoft Launches Windows 95 Preview Tour 05/05/95 REDMOND, WASHINGTON, U.S.A., 1995 MAY 5 (NB) -- Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ: MSFT) has announced it will tour the country to show computer users Microsoft Windows 95. The tour kicks off in Minneapolis, Minnesota at Northrup Theater, 84 Church Street, on Monday, May 8, 1995. In chronological order following the Minneapolis kickoff the Windows 95 tour will visit Louisville, KY; New York City; Boston; Washington, DC; Dallas; Houston; Columbus, OH; Detroit; Seattle; Toronto; Sacramento; San Diego; Orange County, CA; Chicago; Vancouver, BC; Pasadena, CA; Oklahoma City; St Louis; Atlanta; Philadelphia; and San Francisco. The tour winds up July 24th in San Antonio, TX. Microsoft said seats are free but are on a first-come, first served basis. The company expects an estimated 50,000 people nationwide to view the features of the new operating system that is currently scheduled to ship in August. The two-hour show will demonstrate the new user interface, an easier installation routine, new applications software such as several new computer games and an Internet connection as well as the next generation of audio entertainment known as enhanced CDs. The event is being sponsored jointly by Compaq and NEC, and drawings for prizes at each site will include a laptop or multimedia computer from Compaq and NEC. You can also win a pre-release version of Windows 95. To obtain the time and location of the Windows 95 show in a city near you call 1-800-685-0951. Be prepared to write the information down. With the exception of Dallas, which starts at 8:00 pm, all shows start at 7:30 pm. If you received an invitation to the event from Microsoft, be prepared to RSVP by entering the number on the invitation on your touchtone phone keypad when prompted to do so. (Jim Mallory/19950505/Press contact: Patti Pierson, Waggener Edstrom for Microsoft, 503-245-0905; Public contact: Microsoft tour hotline, 800-685-0951) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 05/05/95 GENERAL Microsoft Chief Donates $10 Million In Name Of Mother (NEWS)(GENERAL)(DEN)(00026) Microsoft Chief Donates $10 Million In Name Of Mother 05/05/95 SEATTLE, WASHINGTON, U.S.A., 1995 MAY 5 (NB) -- Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ: MSFT) Chairman Bill Gates and his new wife Melinda have donated $10 million to the University of Washington in honor of Gates' late mother, Mary Gates. The university said the money will be used to establish the Mary Gates Endowment for Students, which will finance the education of outstanding undergraduate students. Mary Gates died in June of 1994. She was a 1950 graduate of the university and served on its board of regents from 1975 to 1993. "My mother championed the efforts of the university to enhance undergraduate education. Melinda and I are pleased to make this gift in her honor and in support of an objective that was very important to her," said Gates. The software executive is a Harvard dropout. The regents will reportedly be asked later this month to name a university building Mary Gates Hall. The building formerly housed the physics department but is scheduled for renovation and expansion, after which it will be a center for undergraduate education. This isn't the first time Gates has donated money to the University of Washington. In October 1991 Newsbytes reported he had made an individual donation of $12 million to the university's School of Medicine, with the money earmarked to create a new Department of Molecular Biotechnology. Gates said aside from the field of computers, he believes biotechnology will be responsible in coming years for some of the greatest achievements in science. In August 1992 Gates donated $6 million to Stanford University to help the school complete its new Information Sciences building. At the time the gift was the largest single donation the university had received in its drive to fund construction of the $26.1 million facility. A year earlier Gates donated $1 million to the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle. Mary Gates died of cancer on June 10, 1994 at the age of 64. Mrs. Gates was a community leader active in numerous civic and community organizations. She was named the 1994 recipient of the Municipal League of King County's CitIzen of the Year Award. At the time of the award League spokesperson Eileen Quigley described her as "one of the strongest people in this community for getting things done." Mrs. Gates also served on the board of directors of US West Inc., and Seattle television station KIRO-TV. She was the first female director of First Interstate Bank and the first woman to serve as president of King County's United Way. She was also a founder of Leadership Tomorrow, an organization that trains young people for future service in the Seattle area. (Jim Mallory/19950505/Press and public contact: Microsoft, 206-882-8080) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 05/05/95 TELECOM ****Intel-AT&T Plan High-Speed Network To Homes (NEWS)(TELECOM)(SFO)(00027) ****Intel-AT&T Plan High-Speed Network To Homes 05/05/95 SANTA CLARA, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1995 MAY 5 (NB) -- Two of high- technology's major trends -- home computing and the access of information online -- are at the heart of a new deal between AT&T Network Systems, Intel Corp., and Hybrid Networks Inc. The three companies say they have signed deals to develop high-speed data services to home PCs over broadband cable networks. Cable TV cabling is seen by many as having huge potential in the delivery of high-speed data services. AT&T and Intel are not the only companies working on such data delivery technology. Just this week, Newsbytes reported on Tele-Communications Inc., which said it will form a company to provide nationwide Internet access through cable TV wires at faster speeds than are obtained with normal telephone connections. Other companies, such Hewlett-Packard and General Instruments Corp., are also reportedly working on such technologies. Under terms of the deal, AT&T and Intel say they will team to offer a "package of network and customer premise elements to cable TV and local telephone companies," which in turn will create "a set of viable two-way, interactive PC services." What this means is that Intel will provide its CablePort adapter technology, which allows PCs to connect to broadband cable networks, while AT&T Network Systems will offer broadband networks and "end-to-end network integration," connecting networks to cabling systems. Hybrid Networks, meanwhile, will work with AT&T Network Systems to integrate its Point of Presence CyberMaster and CyberManager network elements into AT&T's consumer broadband network offering. One problem that needs to be addressed is the way cable TV handles data; virtually all traffic is currently one-way -- into the home. This will need to be changed so that people can retrieve data as easily as they can receive it. According to the companies, the new high-speed networks will let home PC users access a variety of services, including the Internet, multimedia and interactive content, long-distance learning, games, and electronic banking and shopping. The new networking technologies will deliver data online at speeds as much as 1,000 times faster than standard telephone modems, claim the companies. Said Avram Miller, Intel vice president for corporate business development, "The combination of high-performance PCs and high-speed communications is creating a brand new medium upon which a variety of new multimedia applications can be built." (Ian Stokell/19950505/Press Contact: Terry Romano, AT&T Network Systems, 617-574-3157; Tom Waldrop, Intel, 408-765-8478; Craig Strachman, Hybrid Networks, 408-725-3262) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 05/05/95 PDA Hewlett-Packard, AMD Developing PDAs (NEWS)(PDA)(SFO)(00028) Hewlett-Packard, AMD Developing PDAs 05/05/95 PALO ALTO, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1995 MAY 5 (NB) -- Hewlett- Packard (NYSE:HWP) and Advanced Micro Devices (NYSE:AMD) have announced a long-term arrangement for the development of hand-held computers. AMD, known for its competition with Intel, plans to develop advanced versions of its existing microprocessor technology for HP's hand-held computers. According to HP, Dataquest studies have shown HP to be the leading supplier of hand-held computers with a 27% share of the market. According to Dataquest, its hand-held computer study consisted of two parts. The first is applicable to Apple's Newton Message Pad and Tandy and Casio Zoomer products. These standard devices measure approximately 4" x 7" x 1". The second part of the study included expandable hand-held computers used as organizers which measure approximately 3" x 6" x .75". HP's market lead in the standard device category is followed by Fujitsu with 16%, Apple with 17% and all others with 42%. Concerning the announcement with AMD, HP is fairly tight-lipped, saying this announcement is strictly a technology alliance agreement. No specifics regarding a new product or a new generation of hand-held devices was forthcoming, but implications seem to indicate this agreement has been formed to develop the next generation of hand-held products. A spokesperson for the company told Newsbytes, "AMD demonstrated microprocessor products to HP which have led to this long-term agreement and which will allow HP to continue to be the leader in these products." (Patrick McKenna/19950505/Press Contact: Larry Sennett, HP, tel 408- 553-2916) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 05/06/95 ONLINE Lotus Ships Web Publisher, Explores Future Updates (NEWS)(ONLINE)(BOS)(00029) Lotus Ships Web Publisher, Explores Future Updates 05/06/95 CAMBRIDGE, MASSACHUSETTS, U.S.A., 1995 MAY 5 (NB) -- Lotus is giving serious consideration to the future addition of new forms interaction, search, and encryption capabilities to InterNotes Web Publisher, a new Internet publishing tool for Notes that started shipping this week, said Paul Haverstock, Lotus' director of development, in an interview with Newsbytes. "The issues of authoring, collaborating on documents, and managing and maintaining a server that people now face on the Web are exactly the kinds of reasons why Notes was designed," Haverstock told Newsbytes. The InterNotes Web Publisher converts Notes databases and documents into hypertext markup language (HTML), and also manages and updates changes to any HTTP Web server, according to the Lotus exec. "We intentionally designed Web Publisher not to publish to any particular HTTP server, so as to give people a choice," he revealed. Users can access the stored Notes documents via Web browsers like Netscape Navigator and Mosaic. Also this week, Lotus began shipping InterNotes News, a Notes server product aimed at letting Notes users take part in Usenet "newsgroups" on the Web directly from Notes. Both products were initially announced at Lotusphere. InterNotes News, which is available on both Windows NT and OS/2 servers, is designed to let users bring Usenet news articles into Notes discussion databases, where they can use Notes capabilities like full-text search, threaded views of discussions, and multiple indexed views. Users of InterNotes News can take part in UseNet News either through Simple Mail Transfer Protocol (SMTP) mail or by posting a response from Notes. Notes administrators can configure the tools to allow access only to specified newsgroups, so as to "screen out" any newsgroups deemed inappropriate to on-the-job use. The InterNotes Web Publisher is initially available on Windows NT only. An OS/2 edition, however, will be added by the end of the year, Haverstock said. Web Publisher produces HTML pages of Notes Views, which then automatically populate and manage changes to the HTTP Web server. The tools is made up on an administration database that controls which Notes databases will be converted into HTML, plus a Notes server add-on tool that performs the conversions, he told Newsbytes. "We're also shipping documentation as a Notes database online, and a `Web kit,' which is a Notes database with a bunch of examples of how to do things with Web Publisher," he reported. In its initial release, Web Publisher will not retain encryption of native Notes files and databases, he acknowledged. Some of the Web browsers that work with HTTP servers, such as Netscape, offer "consumer-oriented" encryption capabilities such as the ability to encrypt credit card numbers, he pointed out. But Lotus is working on its own, with customers, and with the World Wide Web Consortium around enhancements that could include new encryption, search, and forms interaction capabilities for the Web Publisher in the future, he said. "Notes is a more robust security model, with user authentication and server authentication. We actually have some prototypes up that would allow a user to switch from a Web client to a Notes client if that higher level of authentication is needed," he stated. Lotus also wants to support Notes' forms interaction and search capabilities in a future edition of Web Publisher, "two things that will map very well on to the Web," according to Haverstock. "We'd like to allow people using Web browsers to access Notes' search engine. We'd also like to support the publishing and submission of forms. For example, you'd publish a form as you would today in Notes. The Web Publisher would then publish that so that a Netscape or Mosaic user would see an HTML form. After being filled out and submitted by the user, the form would be composed into Notes," he explained. This facility could be "very powerful, he added, in "triggering all kinds of capabilities that are normal for Notes but not for the Web." For example, background macros or agents could be run that would "initiate a workflow process, or fire off e-mails," he illustrated. Notes' native encryption capabilities are one of the key reasons why Turning Point Information Systems, an Austin, Texas-based Internet service provider, is using Internet Web Publisher, said Mike Byrnes, company president. Up to now, he explained, Turning Point has used its Web server for two purposes. Internally, the server is used for "traditional Notes kinds of things." The second use is for the Web home pages that Turning Point builds and maintains for corporate customers. Turning Point has now started experimenting with the first edition of the Web Server, along with partners that include Price Waterhouse, Austin office; Alex Sheshunoff Management Services, a national bank management firm; and the local Notes users group, with representatives from IBM and other computer companies in the surrounding Austin area. The ability to publish encrypted Notes documents in HTML format would be especially useful in the banking industry, Byrnes told Newsbytes. The partners in Austin plan to work with the OS/2 edition of Web Publisher when that product becomes available, he added. "Electronic publishing will be the application that commercializes the Internet," predicted Linda Myers-Tierney, an analyst at International Data Corporation (IDC), Framingham, Massachusetts. "The fact that Lotus Notes has one million installed users, together with the advent of the InterNotes Publisher, will tremendously catalyze the industry's ability to publish through the Web," the IDC analyst told Newsbytes. (Jacqueline Emigh/19950505/Reader Contact: Lotus, 617-577-8500; Press Contacts: Victor Cruz or Jessica Horwitz, Lois Paul & Partners for Lotus, 617-862-4514) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 5 05/05/95 GENERAL Newsbytes Week In Review For May 1 - May (NEWS)(GENERAL)(SFO)(00030) Newsbytes Week In Review For May 1 - May 5 05/05/95 PENN VALLEY, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1995 MAY 5 (NB) -- This is a regular feature, reviewing major stories of the past week covered by Newsbytes, listing with their category code: CompuServe tops 3 million members; court orders Rockwell to deliver Hayes chips; one pc for every 3 people in US; Telecom Finland plans voice over Internet; America Online tops 2.5 million members; gag order issued in Microsoft-Justice Case; TCI to offer Internet Access via cable TV wiring; Intel-AT&T plan high-speed network to homes. CompuServe Tops 3 Million Members (ONLINE) COLUMBUS, OHIO, U.S.A., 1995 MAY 1 -- CompuServe has become the first online service to reach the three million mark of active online accounts. Some industry observers have said traditional online service companies would dwindle as Internet and World Wide Web (Web) access grew, but record numbers of users continue to choose one of the big three online services. Court Orders Rockwell To Deliver Hayes Chips (LEGAL) ATLANTA, GEORGIA, U.S.A., 1995 MAY 1 -- A Federal bankruptcy judge is compelling Rockwell International Corporation to deliver to Hayes Microcomputer Products all chips and chip sets required for modem production from April to July, 1995, Hayes officials said. One PC For Every 3 People In US (TRENDS) INCLINE VILLAGE, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1995 MAY 1 -- An industry fixture, "The Computer Industry Almanac," has released statistics showing the number of computers in the US now numbers one for every three citizens. The 1994 statistic shows 315 computers per thousand US population and projections for 1995 indicate that number will grow to 400 per thousand. Telecom Finland Plans Voice Over Internet (ONLINE) HELSINKI, FINLAND, 1995 MAY 3 -- Telecom Finland has revealed plans to transmit voice calls across the Internet. America Online Tops 2.5 Million Members (ONLINE) VIENNA, VIRGINIA, U.S.A., 1995 MAY 3 -- America Online Inc. (NASDAQ-NNM:AMER) said it had passed the 2.5 million subscriber mark. The service has more than tripled its member base in the past 12 months, company officials said. Gag Order Issued In Microsoft-Justice Case (LEGAL) WASHINGTON, D.C., U.S.A., 1995 MAY 3 -- Saying he doesn't want the case tried in the press, a federal judge has issued a gag order to government lawyers and Microsoft not to talk to reporters about the US Department of Justice's attempt to block Microsoft's (NASDAQ: MSFT) $2 billion acquisition of Intuit (NASDAQ: INTU). The judge also set a trial date for the case. TCI to Offer Internet Access Via Cable TV Wiring (ONLINE) NEW YORK CITY, NEW YORK, U.S.A., 1995 MAY 4 -- Tele- Communications Inc. (TCI) says it will form a company to provide nationwide Internet access through cable TV wires at faster speeds than are obtained with normal telephone connections. Intel-AT&T Plan High-Speed Network To Homes (TELECOM) SANTA CLARA, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1995 MAY 5 (NB) -- Two of high- technology's major trends -- home computing and the access of information online -- are at the heart of a new deal between AT&T Network Systems, Intel Corp., and Hybrid Networks Inc. The three companies say they have signed deals to develop high-speed data services to home PCs over broadband cable networks. (Ian Stokell/19950505) (SUMMARY)(GENERAL)(MSP)(00031) Newsbytes Daily Summary 05/05/95 MINNEAPOLIS, MINNESOTA, U.S.A., 1995 MAY 5 (NB) -- These are capsules of all today's news stories: 1 -> Hungary - Philips Expands Partnership With Merloni 05/05/95 Fresh from a resurgence in company profits at home in the Netherlands, Philips has revealed it is sinking a further $45 million in its joint venture company with Merloni in Hungary for the assembly of computers. 2 -> British Govt Urges Software Firms To Consolidate 05/05/95 The British Government, in the guise of the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI), has published a report for -- and about -- the telecoms software industry in the UK. According to Ian Taylor, the UK's Trade & Industry Minister, the report provides an analysis of the strengths and weaknesses of the UK industry and closely examines its structure, highlighting opportunities and threats facing UK-based companies. 3 -> Program To Check Doctor's Diagnosis 05/05/95 The Institute for Healthcare Quality (IHQ) said it is debuting for "the first time" electronic guidelines to help healthcare professionals enhance their decision processes and manage behavioral health care episodes in real time. 4 -> Lockheed Martin Versus Breast Cancer 05/05/95 A technology applied to the task of detecting camouflaged tanks and faults in the welds that hold a Titan missile together has found a new application: early detection of breast cancer. Lockheed Martin Astronautics has become a partner with Rose Health Care to apply advanced and high-speed processing of medical images to early detection. 5 -> Review of - Battle Chess Enhanced CD-ROM 05/05/95 Runs on: Macintosh, MS-DOS, and MPC machines 6 -> Review of - Might and Magic III 05/05/95 Runs on: Macintosh 7 -> China - 5-Year Electronics Investment Forecast 05/05/95 The government plans to appropriate 600 billion RMB (US$71.4 billion) in the Ninth 5-year Planning Period (1996-2000) to develop China's electronics industry. The goal is to make the electronics industry one of pillars of the Chinese economy. 8 -> China - Progress in Patent Protection 05/05/95 Suzhou, a city on the east coast of China, has made significant progress in patent protection and has become a national model in the field, according a China Daily report. 9 -> House Republicans Reveal Telecom Bill, GOP Schisms 05/05/95 House Republicans have unveiled their long-awaited version of telecommunications reform legislation, but at the same time cracks have appeared in the GOP unity on the issue, making it more difficult to get legislation passed this year. 10 -> Privacy Group Warns Congress To Go Slow After Oklahoma City 05/05/95 Congress should keep a cool head in the wake of the tragedy in Oklahoma City, says the Electronic Privacy Information Center in a letter to Senate Orrin Hatch (R-Utah), chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee. The Clinton administration has been using the bombing to renew its request for encryption controls and other ways to prevent what it says is terrorist activity using the Internet for communications. 11 -> Polaroid Launches First Graphic Imaging Products 05/05/95 Polaroid Corp. (NYSE: PRD) has launched its new graphics imaging business by introducing its first two products targeted to the pre-press segment of the graphics arts market that includes service bureaus, color trade shops, in-house corporate printers and large-volume commercial printers. 12 -> Ericsson, Telia Buy Dual Standard Mobile Phones 05/05/95 Swedish Telecoms operator Telia has ordered the production of 5,000 units of the world's first dual- mode GSM/DECT telephone from Ericsson. Telia plans to market the phones to major customers on a trial basis. The trial aims to evaluate the new technology, its advantages and weaknesses. 13 -> Europe - Upgrade Of File Converter "Word for Word" 05/05/95 Software Compatibility, the distributor of document conversion and file software, has announced a new version of its popular multi-platform file conversion software, Word for Word. 14 -> Europe - HP Soups Up "Electronic Stationery" Service 05/05/95 Hewlett-Packard (HP) is expanding is JetCAPs electronic stationery service with the addition of two new flash SIMM (single in-line memory module) units for its LaserJet 4 series of printers, as well as the LaserJet 5P and 5MP printers. The JetCAPs service is a European initiative by HP and aims to lower the cost of pre-printed stationery for major companies who plug in special SIMM units into their LaserJet printers to allow relatively complex and color (where required) stationery to be produced on the laser printers. 15 -> UK - Proteon Secures Spanish Distribution For OpenRoute 05/05/95 Proteon International has signed a deal with Teldat SA of Madrid, Spain, terms of which allow Teldat to distribute and support the networking company's OpenRoute technology in Spain and Portugal, Newsbytes has learned. 16 -> Mobile Data Conference Slated For London 05/05/95 After several months spent establishing itself, the Mobile Data Association (MDA) has "gone public" and is holding a conference at London Heathrow on June 15, with the express intention of attracting anyone interested in the mobile data technology market-place. 17 -> Microsoft Refutes Portuguese Satellite Investment Stories 05/05/95 Microsoft has distanced itself from reports in the European media that it is considering a proposal to invest around 200 billion escudos in a communications satellite venture. Reports in Diario Economico, a Portuguese newspaper, as well as on Reuters, had quoted Luis Mira Amaral, the Portuguese Industry Minister, as saying that Microsoft is studying a proposal to invest in Portugal for a satellite launch facility. 18 -> DOCS Open 2.5 Brings New Name, Platforms, Markets 05/05/95 DOCS Open 2.5, the first "enterprise" edition of PC DOCS' document management software, adds Mac and DOS clients, plus workflow, imaging, and other new features that are bringing the product into new vertical markets like finance, manufacturing, and healthcare, said Larry Bohn, executive VP and general manager, in a meeting with Newsbytes in Boston. 19 -> Proteon Founder Accuses Cisco Of Badmouthing His Company 05/05/95 Proteon founder Howard Salwen today said reports of his company's demise couldn't be further from the truth. He spoke to Newsbytes in Sydney, on an Asian tour talking about Proteon's new image and direction. 20 -> Personnel Roundup 05/05/95 This is a regular feature, summarizing personnel changes not covered elsewhere by Newsbytes: Kao Infosystems Co., CyberMind Interactive Inc., AT&T, Bell Atlantic Corp., American Software, Auspex Systems Inc., Tele-Communications Inc., Acclaim Entertainment Inc., MathSoft Inc., Dell Computer Corp., AT&T Global Information Solutions, Spectrum HoloByte Inc. 21 -> Japan - Quarterdeck Releases QEMM 05/05/95 Six months after releasing the latest version 7.5 of its QEMM memory manager software for PCs, Quarterdeck has announced the availability of a double byte enabled version for the Japanese market. 22 -> Year 2000 Page Launched On Web 05/05/95 A new Year 2000 Information Center on the World Wide Web focuses on the problems presented by computer programs that represent years with only two digits. At the end of the decade, many such programs are expected to fail when they encounter the year 2000 and represent it as 00. 23 -> ****AOL Experiences Gain, Loss; Puts New Stamps Online 05/05/95 America Online (NASDAQ- NNM:AMER) reported another mixed bag of financial news from cyberspace. The company reported both its revenues and subscriber base went way up in its fiscal 1995 third quarter, which ended March 31, 1995, but it took a loss overall after "special costs." 24 -> Dell Cuts PC Prices, Adds Fee-Based Software Support 05/05/95 Dell Computer Corp. has reduced prices on its entire line of Dimension PCs by an average $125 to $150, saying it is passing on component cost savings to customers. The company also announced fee-based software telephone support for MS-DOS, Microsoft Windows and Microsoft Windows for Workgroups. 25 -> Microsoft Launches Windows 95 Preview Tour 05/05/95 Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ: MSFT) has announced it will tour the country to show computer users Microsoft Windows 95. The tour kicks off in Minneapolis, Minnesota at Northrup Theater, 84 Church Street, on Monday, May 8, 1995. 26 -> Microsoft Chief Donates $10 Million In Name Of Mother 05/05/95 Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ: MSFT) Chairman Bill Gates and his new wife Melinda have donated $10 million to the University of Washington in honor of Gates' late mother, Mary Gates. The university said the money will be used to establish the Mary Gates Endowment for Students, which will finance the education of outstanding undergraduate students. 27 -> ****Intel-AT&T Plan High-Speed Network To Homes 05/05/95 Two of high- technology's major trends -- home computing and the access of information online -- are at the heart of a new deal between AT&T Network Systems, Intel Corp., and Hybrid Networks Inc. The three companies say they have signed deals to develop high-speed data services to home PCs over broadband cable networks. 28 -> Hewlett-Packard, AMD Developing PDAs 05/05/95 Hewlett- Packard (NYSE:HWP) and Advanced Micro Devices (NYSE:AMD) have announced a long-term arrangement for the development of hand-held computers. AMD, known for its competition with Intel, plans to develop advanced versions of its existing microprocessor technology for HP's hand-held computers. 29 -> Lotus Ships Web Publisher, Explores Future Updates 05/06/95 Lotus is giving serious consideration to the future addition of new forms interaction, search, and encryption capabilities to InterNotes Web Publisher, a new Internet publishing tool for Notes that started shipping this week, said Paul Haverstock, Lotus' director of development, in an interview with Newsbytes. 30 -> Newsbytes Week In Review For May 1 - May 5 05/05/95 This is a regular feature, reviewing major stories of the past week covered by Newsbytes, listing with their category code: CompuServe tops 3 million members; court orders Rockwell to deliver Hayes chips; one pc for every 3 people in US; Telecom Finland plans voice over Internet; America Online tops 2.5 million members; gag order issued in Microsoft-Justice Case; TCI to offer Internet Access via cable TV wiring; Intel-AT&T plan high-speed network to homes. (Wendy Woods/19950505) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 05/02/95 GENERAL Microsoft Ships Multimedia Wine Guide (NEWS)(GENERAL)(DEN)(00001) Microsoft Ships Multimedia Wine Guide 05/02/95 REDMOND, WASHINGTON, U.S.A., 1995 MAY 2 (NB) -- Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ: MSFT) is now shipping its Microsoft Wine Guide, an interactive multimedia guide to nearly 6,000 wines that also includes information about the world's most famous wine regions. Wine expert Oz Clarke, the wine correspondent for London's Daily Telegraph and the British Broadcasting Corporation, offers personal tips and insights about wines and the program comes with a wine reference Microsoft said will help both beginners and experts know more about wine. The program has a Wine Selector feature that assists the user in selecting the right wine for any meal or occasion. The Wine Selector makes its recommendations based on meal choice, region, grape variety or star rating. Once you have chosen your wine you can print the detail screen that includes tasting notes from renowned wine experts. You can also build a customized list of favorite wines. In Wine Tasting with Oz, users learn how to taste wine. There is also information about selecting the right glass and corkscrew, decanting, and opening sparkling wines. A section called All about Wine takes users on an interactive tour of a vineyard and a winery. The section has articles about the classic grape varieties, how to stock your own wine cellar, the different styles of wine, the language of wine labels, and how to match food with wine. The World Atlas of Wine explores the world's top wine regions and includes more than 50 scrolling maps. The program has a 2,000-entry encyclopedia and a 700 word glossary. Microsoft Wine Guide comes on CD-ROM for both the Macintosh and Windows platforms and has a street price of just under $40. To use the program Macintosh owners will need a system that supports a 256-color 13-inch, 640 by 480 or higher resolution monitor, System 7 or later operating system software, five megabytes (MB) of memory, 2MB of available hard disk space and a CD-ROM drive. Windows users need a multimedia PC running under Windows 3.1 or later. (Jim Mallory/19950501/Press contact: Michelle Dollarhide, Waggener Edstrom for Microsoft, 503-245-0905; Public contact: Microsoft, 206-882-8080 or 800-426-9400) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 05/02/95 PC TI Intros Personal Organizers That Dock With PC (NEWS)(PC)(DEN)(00002) TI Intros Personal Organizers That Dock With PC 05/02/95 DALLAS, TEXAS, U.S.A., 1995 MAY 2 (NB) -- Texas Instruments (NYSE:TXN) has announced two multi-language personal organizers and a docking station that allows either one to be connected to a personal computer so information can be exchanged. #IMAGE 1 20 TWPCX \images\95050202.PCX Click here for photo TI's PS-6800 comes with 128 kilobytes (KB) of storage capacity, while the PS0-6700 can hold up to 64KB of data. Each can display its function menus in English, French, German, Spanish, or Italian. The optional PS-6155 Connectivity Kit is a docking station with Windows software that lets the personal organizer user swap information with a Windows-based desktop computer. The PC can be used to backup up the PS-6X or you can import and export data between the systems through the PC's serial port. The PC can also be used to print schedules and address books. Both of the organizers can store reminders, addresses and notes, and come with a calculator and clock. Up to 24 characters can be displayed on each of the six lines of the display, and a contrast control is provided. A scan feature can find listings in the telephone directory or planning calendar, and up to four daily alarms can be set. Daily alarms can be set to carry over to the next day and the calendar is good through the year 2059. A software lock prevents access to information unless the password is entered. An adjustable automatic power-down mode conserves battery power, and you can check the world time in five cities across the globe from a single screen. Power for both organizers is provided by two lithium batteries which ship with the units. Each organizer weighs 0.3 pounds, while the docking station weighs 0.2 pounds. The organizers measure 5.2- inches long, 3.6-inches wide, and 0.6-inches high, and are hinged in the center to allow the display to fold over the keyboard for travel. The organizers and the docking station are scheduled to ship by the end of June, 1995. The PS-6700 is expected to carry a price tag of $79 or less, while the PS-6800 will sell for less than $100. The docking station has a suggested retail price of $75 in stores or you can order it directly from TI for $49.95. (Jim Mallory/19950501/Press contact: Kathy Truesdell, Texas Instruments, 214-917-6432; Public contact: Texas Instruments, tel 800-842-2737, fax 817-774-6074/PS6X950502/PHOTO) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 05/02/95 ONLINE Profound's Online Business "Intelligence Service" (NEWS)(ONLINE)(MSP)(00003) Profound's Online Business "Intelligence Service" 05/02/95 NEW YORK CITY, NEW YORK, U.S.A., 1995 MAY 2 (NB) -- Profound Inc. said it is making available its new Windows-based "online business intelligence service," called Profound. Daniel Wagner, founder and chief executive of Profound Inc., told Newsbytes the service is unique in that it is designed for people to "retrieve their data as quickly as possible." Two proprietary technologies, "InfoSort" and "CustomAlert," help in that goal, the company said. InfoSort instantly scans millions of documents by standardizing search terms with a common search language. A table of contents for each report that shows the exact location of the information is also generated by InfoSort, officials said. CustomAlert is an electronic agent that searches daily specific news, company, financial and broker information, market research, and other information according to predetermined search criteria. CustomAlert then signals the user when the information has been identified. The company said its new service is the first to "seamlessly integrate" Adobe's Acrobat technology into the user interface, so that research reports and documents downloaded through Profound can be viewed, sorted, and printed as exact replicas of their published originals. A few of the many information providers Profound accesses and sorts for its customers include the Associated Press, Dun and Bradstreet, Reuters, Disclosure, Standard and Poors, and Newsbytes News Network. Wagner likens the service to a department store, where information is arranged in a simple fashion for people to retrieve as quickly as possible. Wagner said the new service may fly in the face of conventional consumer online wisdom, which he said encourages people to stay online for as long as possible, "but certainly not for those professional users who are familiar with online services. They don't want to spend the time online. They want to get their data, and get on with their business." The service costs $19.95 per month, with online time priced at $6.95 an hour. But Wagner said since Profound is designed to have the user on and off in a short period of time, online time charges should be minimal. "We don't want people on for more than ten minutes per month. We want to provide a service that's quick, efficient, and lets you get on with your business." A free trial period is being made available to new customers, Wagner added. (Bob Woods/19950501/Press Contacts: Sharon Fenster or James Sciales, Dorf & Stanton, 212-420-8100 or 800-226-2121, Internet e-mail 76424.3371@compuserve.com; Public Contact: Profound Inc. 800-270-9896) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 05/02/95 TELECOM UK - Orange PCN Service Plans Expansion (NEWS)(TELECOM)(LON)(00004) UK - Orange PCN Service Plans Expansion 05/02/95 BRISTOL, AVON, ENGLAND, 1995 MAY 2 (NB) -- Orange, the Hutchison Whampoa-owned PCN (personal communications network) service, has outlined plans to increase its core network from 2,000 to 3,000 base stations over the next two years, taking its potential network capacity to around 10 million subscribers. Orange -- which celebrated its first anniversary on last week -- currently has around 1,500 installed base stations already providing coverage to a claimed 75 percent of the UK population. This is in addition to the on-going in-fill program aimed at improving city- center coverage nationwide, officials explained. According to Orange, the installation of the additional base stations for the next phase of the network roll out will increase in-building coverage, provide coverage beyond the 90 percent UK population license requirement and support the range of data services planned for launch by the end of June this year. The base stations, meanwhile, will be installed by existing network infrastructure supplier, Nokia, with a second vendor's equipment being introduced in early 1996. According to Colin Tucker, group technical and ops manager with Orange, this increased capacity will also avoid the threat of call congestion, a problem which is already being experienced regularly on other networks. "Despite the fact that GSM 900 predates PCN technology by several years in the market-place, Orange believes that PCN will win out over GSM (global system for mobile communications)," he said. According to Tucker, GSM only has a limited number of channels available in many countries, while PCN universally has a greater bandwidth available. "Coupled with the more effective usage of a given set of channels that PCN has over GSM 900, together with consequent greater in-building coverage levels, this suggests that PCN will become the mass market mobile telephony product within the next few years throughout the world," he claimed. "The sheer flexibility of PCN, as demonstrated by the variety of value added services we are introducing this year, ensures PCN's future in the marketplace," he said. In parallel with the network expansion plans, Orange has extended its free insurance on new handsets until October of this year. Between now and October, new purchasers of Orange handsets get a one year free "all-in" insurance policy that covers against all risks with a two hour replacement, while existing users -- even those who bought their phones a year ago -- will see their insurance extended free of charge to October. "With mobile theft running at the rate of one theft every minute of the day," explained Lisa Gernon, group director of marketing with Hutchison Telecom, "we have decided to extend this important value added service to our customers." According to Orange, only eight to ten percent of mobile phones are insured, but it is essential that mobile phones are insured separately and not included on household insurance. This is because the real cost of mobile phones in the UK is subsidized by the network operators and service providers. Orange claims that this means that, if the customer buys a phone at UKP49 and they are not insured, they could have to spend up to UKP300 on the full, unsubsidized, cost of a replacement phone. (Steve Gold/19950501/Press Contact: Paragon Communications, tel +44-171-734-6030, fax +44-171-437-6085) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 05/02/95 NETWORK Europe - Artisoft Intros Dedicated Server (NEWS)(NETWORK)(LON)(00005) Europe - Artisoft Intros Dedicated Server 05/02/95 AMSTERDAM, NETHERLANDS, 1995 MAY 2 (NB) -- Artisoft has begun shipping version 1.1 of its LANtastic Dedicated Server software (formerly known as CorStream). According to Artisoft, the LANtastic Dedicated Server is a high- performance server software package for LANtastic networks v5.0 and above, including the recently announced Power Suite. It combines the LANtastic system's ease-of-use with the 32-bit engine of Novell's NetWare 4 technology, according to the company. Officials with Artisoft said that the server software is targeted at growing small businesses that need the performance and expandability of a larger, more sophisticated network along with the affordability and ease of the LANtastic network. "We believe that Artisoft's new LANtastic Dedicated Server brings powerful client-server technology to the small business customer in an easy-to-use format," said Olivier Zitoun, Artisoft's vice president for sales and marketing in Europe. According to Zitoun, the package complements the company's range of "scaleable networking solutions and provides a clear growth path for LANtastic network customers." Zitoun went on to explain that the Dedicated Server system provides a migration path for existing LANtastic users with growing needs. The networking technology is billed as providing improved network response, enhanced network printer performance, increased data safety and an increased capacity for network growth. Specific features of the Dedicated Server system include several new features that offer increased ease of use, performance, and productivity, claims the company. Installation has been simplified, requiring only six disks or one CD-ROM, backed up with extensive documentation. According to Artisoft, the server software can be installed in as little as 30 minutes for those using the CD-ROM. Once the software is installed, all configuration and maintenance can be done from any computer in the network. New to the Dedicated Server software is Ethernet II and IPX (Internetwork Packet Exchange) packet routing. This feature facilitates data and file transfers in mixed LANtastic and NetWare networks. In use, it allows NetWare servers to share information with the new LANtastic Dedicated Server, particularly between branch or remote offices and main offices. The improved version of the server also supports Artisoft's Central Station II connectivity processor, allowing users to make better use of existing network resources. The Central Station II platform can be used as a print server, connecting up to five printers to the network. This enables users to position their PCs in safe or convenient locations and eliminates the need to dedicate a PC as a print server. In Europe, the Dedicated Server system is sold as drop-in server software for use within existing LANtastic networks, or as a network solution package including the server and the LANtastic v6.0 client software. Both offerings come in packages for five, 10, 25, 50, and 100 users. Pricing starts at UKP550 (or local country equivalent) for a five-user drop-in version, and UKP660 for a five-user network bundle. Also available in Europe are license-independent upgrade packages, which will add all the new features of the LANtastic Dedicated Server to existing CorStream v1.0 servers. Upgrade packages are being sold for a limited time at UKP219. After June 15, the price will rise to UKP369. (Steve Gold/19950501/Press Contact: Profile PR, +44-181-995-1595; Reader Contact: Hervi Cadoret, Artisoft Europe, +33-1-4688-0818) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 05/02/95 ONLINE Greeting Cards On The Internet (NEWS)(ONLINE)(MSP)(00006) Greeting Cards On The Internet 05/02/95 CLEVELAND, OHIO, U.S.A., 1995 MAY 2 (NB) -- American Greetings (NASDAQ:AGREA) claims it has made buying a card with the "perfect" verses easier, because it is partnering with PC Flowers & Gifts to offer the "CreateCard" service. The service will be offered through PC Flowers' Internet World Wide Web service. "The opportunity to offer greeting cards on the Internet was very interesting to us, because we had been doing some things already with technology," John D. Barker, American Greetings spokesperson, told Newsbytes. His company had already been in the interactive world with the original "CreataCard" kiosks in American Greetings stores, plus the company is partnered with Prodigy and MCI on other electronic ventures. "Getting an opportunity to market on the Internet is another way to offer consumers sentiment in a convenient area," he said. Consumers can use their computers and a modem to choose from seasonal greeting cards for events like Mother's Day, Father's Day, and graduation, via "CreataCard Online," American Greetings officials said. Also, everyday cards are available for birthdays and romantic occasions, for example. The company said the variety of cards ranges from humorous to romantic. Once the card is chosen, the user then personalizes it, enters the name and address of the recipient, and enters credit card information for payment. An SSL-enabled Web browser like Netscape Navigator must be used to ensure security, the company said. The cost is $3.99 per card, including tax and postage, officials said. The card itself is prepared at American Greeting's Cleveland headquarters, and mailed to the recipient. Barker said the Internet and online offerings are important to the company, especially when it comes to enticing younger people and men, who Barker said traditionally don't buy cards. Those users "are very high users of online services. So anything we can do to tap into that market is both good for the company and excellent to remind people of the sentiment of sending greeting cards," he said. (Bob Woods/19950501/Press Contacts: John D. Barker, American Greetings, 216-252-4864; William J. Tobin, PC Flowers & Gifts, 203-348-3910, Internet e-mail wtobin@ibm.net. Public Contact: PC Flowers & Gifts, Internet World Wide Web http://www.pcgifts.ibm.com) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 05/02/95 WINDOWS Isis SDK For Fault Tolerance For Windows 3.1/NT (NEWS)(WINDOWS)(BOS)(00007) Isis SDK For Fault Tolerance For Windows 3.1/NT 05/02/95 MARLBOROUGH, MASSACHUSETTS, U.S.A., 1995 MAY 2 (NB) -- Isis, a wholly owned subsidiary of Stratus Computer, has released a Windows/Windows NT port of the Isis Reliable Software Development Kit (SDK) for building reliability and fault tolerance into software applications. In a briefing for Newsbytes at Stratus' headquarters in Marlborough, Massachusetts, Isis executives told Newsbytes that the Reliable SDK provides the fault tolerance, load balancing, and parallel execution needed by mission-critical applications in software, at a time when distributed architectures have not yet "delivered on the promise" to supply those capabilities in hardware. The previously released Unix edition of the Reliable SDK is now being used at 100 customer sites, reported Pam Nezil, senior marketing analyst for Isis. Users of Isis software products include the World Bank, the New York Stock Exchange, Motorola, Southwestern Bell, Lehman Brothers, Compaq, Texas Instruments, General Electric, and Reuters. Like the Unix version of the product, the new Isis Reliable SDK 3.2 for Windows and Windows NT is a "messaging/middleware layer with an API (applications programming interface) and associated tools," she told Newsbytes. The product uses a feature called "active replication" to achieve fault tolerance, load balancing, and parallel execution in software, she explained. Isis was founded in 1988, out of academic research performed at Cornell University, according to Nezil. Stratus acquired the software firm in 1993. Also during the briefing at Stratus, Ashley Stephenson, VP of marketing for Isis, told Newsbytes that more and more businesses today are demanding fault tolerance and availability on distributed networks. Factors responsible for the increased demand include the rise of three-tiered applications and very large databases, along with the growth of object-oriented computing, Stephenson added. Nezil detailed for Newsbytes how the Isis Reliable SDK works. Developers create applications in the C, C++ or SmallTalk programming language, and then code the applications to the Isis Reliable API, she said. Isis-enabled application processes can then be replicated, or copied, on multiple servers, with Isis managing and synchronizing the replication, she contended. But unlike replicas created by other products, she maintained, the Isis replicas are "active," meaning that they are kept constantly up-to-date on all messages received. If a server goes down, Isis "transparently" re-routes client requests to an available server, where the active replicas are able to immediately take over request processing. Then, when the failed server goes up again, it is re-synchronized to become an active replica, according to Nezil. The product also uses load sharing processes to provide "multiple instances of a process," for parallel execution of a single or multiple tasks for increased throughput, faster response time, or the "scalability" that is required when adding greater processing power to the network, Newsbytes was told. Observed David Kelly, a senior analyst at Hurwitz Consulting: "Reliability has always been an issue on the Windows platform, making Windows sort of a problem area in mission-critical applications." The Isis Reliable SDK for Windows and Windows NT can be used as a "buffer" against Windows crashes, Kelly added. "If you're trying to do systems management on a Windows console, and Windows goes down, you can now be switched to a backup console," the analyst told Newsbytes. Sally Cusak, an analyst with the Standish Group, characterized Isis as providing "probably the most comprehensive" product line-up in the process technologies industry. "Isis is not trying to be all things to all people. The company is a niche player, but they play that niche very well," Cusak told Newsbytes. Aside from the Isis Reliable SDK, Isis produces: the Isis Reliable Message Distribution System, a "publish/subscribe" message delivery service; Isis Reliable for NFS (NetWare File System); a tool for replicating NFS units among multiple servers in case of server or network failure; and Isis for VisualWorks, a tool that combines active replication of processes with objects to create "object groups" designed to communicate and collaborate on distributed networks. The Isis Reliable SDK 3.2 for Windows and Windows NT is now available directly from Isis. Development seat licenses begin at $3,000 for Windows and $4,000 for Windows NT. Runtime licenses start at $400 for Windows and $800 for Windows NT. The product is also available on a variety of Unix platforms, including SunOS and Solaris, HP-UX, AIX, Digital Unix, VMS, and SGI. (Jacqueline Emigh/19950501/Reader Contact: Isis Distributed Systems Inc., 800-258-0990; Press Contact: Michael Dowding, Neva Group for Isis, 617-441-4000) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 05/02/95 TELECOM Hungary Legislates Against Telecom CallBack Firms (NEWS)(TELECOM)(LON)(00008) Hungary Legislates Against Telecom CallBack Firms 05/02/95 BUDAPEST, HUNGARY, 1995 MAY 2 (NB) -- The local courts in Hungary have ruled that international callback services -- telecoms services that by-pass Matav, the Hungarian state telecoms company -- are illegal, and are set to pass specific legislation outlawing their sale and use, Newsbytes has learned. Previously, while callback services have been deemed to be illegal in Hungary, as in most European countries, their use was tolerated by the Government, because the inbound call revenue compensated Matav for the outbound call revenue lost. Callback services operate with a local user dialing a US number, letting it ring once or twice and hanging up. The US service then dials the designated number back and offers a US dial tone. The problem for Matav is that US telecoms costs are significantly less than those in Eastern Europe, which has a lower calling rate and therefore higher infrastructure costs per call to offset. To date, Matav has been compensated by the handing over of funds -- typically half the call revenue -- by the US callback service under international agreements. The increasingly liberalized nature of telecoms in recent years, however, has meant that the old agreements have been swept away in favor of new deals that reduce the income for the telco concerned. There is also the problem that many US telcos have agreements in place with Hungarian companies with their own private networks with breakout points across the country. By dropping the US-originated calls directly to the private company, Matav is out of the loop as far as call revenue is concerned, despite the fact that the call progresses from the breakout point in Hungary on to the local called party. Now the Government seems to have had enough of losing revenue, as state legislators have issued a barring motion to take effect from May 28 in Budapest and Debrecen, two Hungarian cities. The ruling also bars local agents from reselling contracts in Hungary, a major activity in recent months as companies in the US hand over commissions to these agents to get them to sign up new customers. The legal move also bars the agency sale of telephone calling cards from companies such as Sprint, a company that has been very active in signing up new customers in Europe. According to the Hungarian Government, the local agencies have the right of appeal against the ruling, but the ruling -- known as the Hungarian Law of Concession -- is clearly stated, officials claim. Matav claims that customers in Hungary now have a real choice in international telecoms switching. The company has licensed no less than eight telecoms companies to begin operations within the next few weeks. These companies offer discounts on international calls, in return for commitments on the call volume front, routing their calls via Matav on a "bulk contract" basis. Matav officials are particularly aiming the new laws at agency companies such a Worldtel in Debrecen and Call-Back in Budapest, which they claim merely offer an illegal service, and not any "local telecoms service." Announcing the new crackdown on callback services, Karoly Lotz, the Minister of Transport, Communication and Water management, said that Matav now has an eight-year guarantee that all international calls from Hungary will be switched, either directly or on an agency basis, through the Matav exchanges. (Sylvia Dennis/19950501) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 05/02/95 TELECOM France Telecom Wins Security Firm Data Net Deal (NEWS)(TELECOM)(LON)(00009) France Telecom Wins Security Firm Data Net Deal 05/02/95 LONDON, ENGLAND, 1995 MAY 2 (NB) -- France Telecom (FT) has secured a major data network contract from Group 4 Security. The deal involves the outsourcing of the security company's private data network service to FT across the UK. Under the terms of the agreement, FT's Network Services division has undertaken to network Group 4's existing LANs (local area networks) and to provide integrated data comms services between the company's 34 sites dotted around the UK. According to Chris Elliott, director of finance with Group 4, the FTNS network replaces the existing network that has been installed over the last give years. Much of the network has become outdated, Elliott said, and is unsuitable for wide area LAN-to-LAN communications. "Due to the growth in our operational activities, our move towards separate operating companies, and the increased use of client/server based LANs to manage our business, we realized that our private network had become uneconomical and we should look for a new data network," Elliott explained, adding that, since outsourcing is an integral feature of the company's business operations for other companies, "We decided to solicit the services of an existing services provider who could work with our services team." Group 4's network links into the FTNS network using a "mesh topology" approach. This involves the creation of a virtual network model on the Group 4 computer network, with non-Group 4 elements of the "mesh" being fulfilled by leased lines (from FTNS) and dial-up links into the FTNS network. Jeremy Preston, a spokesman for FTNS' UK operations, told Newsbytes that the FTNS UK network operates as an extension of the French Transpac X.25 network. International calls are routed via France, while the FTNS network handles calls within the UK. "Business is split 60/40 in favor of international data traffic, so that means a significant volume of data traffic is handled within the UK, transferring data over to the British Telecom and Mercury PDNs (packet data networks) as required," he explained. The extension of the FTNS data network across the UK in recent years means that Transpac-originated calls can also terminate in the UK, handing over to the BT/Mercury domestic PDN as required. "This deal with Group 4 shows quite clearly that FTNS has now arrived in the real business world and has boosted our profile in the industry to a great extent. It marks a change for the company," he said. (Steve Gold/19950501/Press Contact: Bethan Lauder, +44-181-575-6949; Reader Contact: FTNS, tel +44-171-379-4747, fax +44-171-379-1404) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 05/02/95 WINDOWS Cognos Wins Major Dutch Tax Office Deal (NEWS)(WINDOWS)(LON)(00010) Cognos Wins Major Dutch Tax Office Deal 05/02/95 AMSTERDAM, NETHERLANDS, 1995 MAY 2 (NB) -- Cognos, the Canadian database services and software company, has secured its biggest ever contract with the Dutch Ministry of Finance. The deal, which is worth US$2.4 million over the next three years, beats the company's previous record of US$2.1 million. Cognos spokesman Paul Maher told Newsbytes that the deal with the Dutch Taxation Office involves every manager in every department of the 30,000 strong government agency using Cognos' Powerplay and Impromptu Windows-based Business Intelligence tools. "Cognos has done extremely well in the Netherlands and Scandinavia," Maher said, adding the company has concentrated its sales operations on a direct sales force, through which the bulk of IT (information technology) business is sold in the Netherlands. Under the Dutch Tax contract, Cognos will supply its Business Intelligence software that will interact with the agency's existing Sybase, dBase and other standard format databases. The Business Intelligence applications from Cognos will interrogate and analyze the data from the databases using SQL (structured query language) techniques. "The contract is massive, whichever way you look at it. It involves more than 10,000 units of software, and the logistics involved with selling and supporting that number of packages are impressive," Maher told Newsbytes. At Cognos' Ottowa, Canada headquarters, Ron Zambonini, the company's president, said that the deal is not just Cognos' largest order ever, but is the biggest ever in the Business Intelligence software marketplace. (Steve Gold/19950501/Press Contact: Insight, tel +44-1625-500800, fax +44-1625-500900, Internet e-mail pmaher@insightm.demon.co.uk; Reader Contact: Cognos, tel +44-1344-486668, fax +44-1344-485124) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 05/02/95 GENERAL New Name For GP Publications, Intros Net Magazine (NEWS)(GENERAL)(SFO)(00011) New Name For GP Publications, Intros Net Magazine 05/02/95 BURLINGAME, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1995 MAY 2 (NB) -- GP Publications, publisher of Game Players, CD-ROM Today, PC Gamer, and Next Generation magazines, is changing its name to Imagine Publishing, effective immediately. The company is also shipping the premier issue of its newest magazine, "The Net." The "GP" in GP Publishing stood for Game Players, title of its first magazine. With the current launch of its fifth magazine, the company decided it was time to change its name to Imagine Publishing. "The word 'imagine' reflects our innovative strategy to continually develop new ideas and integrate them into new media such as CD-ROM and the Internet," said Michael Tchong, evangelist and spokesperson for Imagine Publishing and The Net. The new magazine targets both novice and sophisticated Internet users with graphic step-by-step information about electronic-mail, File Transfer Protocol (FTP), Gopher, newsgroups, and the World Wide Web. According to Tchong, "There is a lot of media attention focused on the Internet and the Web, but it is important to realize that only 2% of computer users world wide are using the Internet. In spite of numbers such as 20 million to 25 million users on the Net, the number of real core users is somewhere from five million on the low end to seven-plus million on the high-end. This means a lot of education has to take place and we intend to be an integral part of that educational process." He continued: "We do not intend to be just another Internet magazine which promotes Internet access, content and issues. We want to give readers a very true picture of what life is like on the Net. That means the good and the bad. We will be asking questions of our readers to find out what types of things they are having trouble with. Things such as how much time it takes to download a file or Web site, why a user loses a connection in the middle of a task or why a user cannot find a site or file." The Net hits US newsstands today with 190,000 copies. The monthly magazine is priced at $3.95 for the premier issue and future issues will sell for $4.95 each or $24.95 per year. Imagine Publishing has signed Mark Frost, a senior editor at MacUser, as editor-in-chief. Minda Sandler, an editor for a number of healthcare publications, is the new managing editor, and Crystal Waters, The Net's new reviews editor, comes from Computer Life where she was online editor. (Patrick McKenna/19950501/Press Contact: Michael Tchong, Imagine Publishing, 415-696-1688) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 05/02/95 ONLINE AOL Offers Vietnam Wall (NEWS)(ONLINE)(SFO)(00012) AOL Offers Vietnam Wall 05/02/95 VIENNA VIRGINIA, U.S.A., 1995 MAY 2 (NB) -- Timed to coincide with the twentieth anniversary of the end of the Vietnam War, America Online (NASDAQ:AMER) has created a "virtual space" for the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Wall in Washington DC. The new cyber-addition offers a searchable database, photo gallery, the means to place messages at The Wall and other features, according to the company. The electronic version of The Wall is produced through the joint efforts of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund, Military City Online, and AOL. Military City Online, an area on AOL, is a division of the Army Times Publishing Company. In a press release from AOL, its president, Ted Leonis, is quoted as saying: "Although the Vietnam war at one time divided many Americans, the Vietnam Veterans Memorial has become a worldwide symbol of our country and the men and women who have died for it. We are honored to be the vehicle that will bring the history, the names, and the spirit of The Vietnam Veterans Memorial into the homes of millions." Lee Ewing, director of The Wall online project and a two-term veteran of the war, told Newsbytes, "Almost as soon as The Wall was online, we began to get the same types of reactions as those seen at the actual memorial in Washington DC. It is a moving experience and this online version conveys the power of The Wall. Working on it has been a balm for my own wounds and I consider it an honor and a privilege to have the opportunity to be part of this project." Ewing continued, "We have tried to include as much as possible for the launch of The Wall. The area includes photographs, maps, graphics, documentation, and a message board. One of the most impressive parts is the ability to search a database of the names on the wall. We offer a complete list of all the names and users may view a biographical report of the name of the soldier they have chosen." Ewing also said Military City Online has arranged for users to post electronic messages or simply a users name which will be placed at the foot of The Wall and become part of the archive of memorabilia, messages, letters, and poems left at the monument. This new AOL feature can be found online through Military City Online, a standard AOL area. AOL members should use the keyword "wall" or Military City Online to reach the online memorial. Military City Online is a popular area right now with the anniversary of the end of the War, the electronic version of The Wall, and a storm of responses to Robert McNamara's revealing memoirs. (Patrick McKenna/19950502/Press Contact: Margaret Ryan, AOL, 703-883-1625) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 05/02/95 PC Toshiba Notebooks Get Attachable Long-Life Battery (NEWS)(PC)(DEN)(00013) Toshiba Notebooks Get Attachable Long-Life Battery 05/02/95 SMYRNA, GEORGIA, U.S.A., 1995 MAY 2 (NB) -- AER Energy Resources Inc. (NASDAQ:AERN) has signed a deal with Toshiba America Information Systems Inc. to provide an attachable battery that can run Toshiba notebook computers up to five times as long as conventional batteries. #IMAGE 1 20 TWPCX \images\95050213.PCX Click here for photo AER said the AER Energy PowerPro zinc-air battery stores 150 watt-hours of energy and is designed to power several of Toshiba's current portable computer models for up to 15 continuous hours between charges. Toshiba said it will offer the long-run rechargeable battery as an option. It is recharged using the standard Toshiba AC adapter. The zinc-air battery weighs slightly more than four pounds, but since it replaces the factory installed power source it raises the total weight of the PC by about three pounds. The PowerPro is just one of several attachable batteries AER said it is developing for "plug and play" operation. The batteries attach through the standard battery connection in the PC. Toshiba models Satellite T1900 series, Satellite Pro T2400, the T4700C, T4800CT, and T4850CT all can accept the PowerPro. Once connected, the battery sits under the computer where it does not block access to other ports. An ergonomic hand rest is built into the battery case. AER said its rechargeable zinc-air battery is an "air breathing" battery that uses oxygen from air to support reactions that generate electricity. The company claims that gives it the highest energy density by weight of any portable computer battery technology currently on the market. In addition to long run-times between recharging, a major advantage of the zinc-air batteries is the lack of memory effect found in nickel-cadmium batteries. That allows the user to recharge any time it is convenient rather than having to wait until the battery is completely discharged. The Energy PowerPro is scheduled to ship in June and will have a suggested retail price of $399 for Toshiba PCs. AER said it will be sold by both Toshiba and AER as well as value-added resellers. AER spokesperson Judy Morris told Newsbytes the company has similar agreements for battery development with Hewlett Packard and Zenith. Morris said both batteries are scheduled to ship this summer, at a price comparable to the Toshiba-compatible battery. (Jim Mallory/19950502/Press contact: Frank Harris, AER Energy Resources, 404-431-2084; Public contact: AER Energy Resources, tel 404-433-2127, fax 404-433-2286/ZINCAIR950502/PHOTO) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 05/02/95 TELECOM Sweden - Ericsson's Low-Cost Modem (NEWS)(TELECOM)(LON)(00014) Sweden - Ericsson's Low-Cost Modem 05/02/95 STOCKHOLM, SWEDEN, 1995 MAY 2 (NB) -- Ericsson Business Networks has launched the V.34 DT modem, a modem package that the company says was designed for use with home office and remote work applications. As supplied in Europe, the modem comes with comms software that is capable of accessing a variety of online services, as well as the Internet. The package also supports the remote connection of company local area networks (LANs). According to Peter Walan of Ericsson, country pricing on the modem has yet to be confirmed, but pricing will be announced when the V.34 -- 28,800 bits-per-second (bps) -- modem ships later in this quarter. The V.34 modem comes with a full size data dictionary allowing the Lempel Ziv element of the V.42Bis error-correction and data compression system to work at the theoretical maximum of 115,200 bps on seven-bit data files. The modem features ten LEDs (light emitting diodes) and has a range of self-diagnostic functions that allows the modem to be installed to operate at optimum performance in both data and fax transmission and reception modes, according to the company. The fax element of the modem can work at speeds of up to 14,400 bps and works with the EIA TRE.29 Class 2 fax command set. This, the company claims, allows the modem to be used with most fax comms software. (Sylvia Dennis/19950502/Press & Reader Contact: Ericsson, +46-8-422-1545) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 05/02/95 IBM IBM Europe's Convertible ThinkPad Notebook (NEWS)(IBM)(LON)(00015) IBM Europe's Convertible ThinkPad Notebook 05/02/95 PORTSMOUTH, HAMPSHIRE, ENGLAND, 1995 MAY 2 (NB) -- IBM has unveiled an enhanced version of its ThinkPad notebook PC. Known as the 360PE, the machine comes with a fold-down display screen that converts the "clamshell" design notebook into a "tablet" computer for use as a pen-driven notebook. Internally, the 360PE sports a 50 megahertz (MHz) 80486SX2 processor, including a math coprocessor for spreadsheet and other numeric- intensive applications. Like the earlier standard 360P notebook in the ThinkPad range, the PE has a 9.5-inch dual-scan color display, integrated Trackpoint II pointing device and an untethered lightweight pen designed to drive the notebook using stylus techniques. Tipping the scales at 6.8 pounds, the machine is supplied into the European market with a range of pre-loaded applications such as PenDOS 2.2, PC DOS 6.3 (Big Blue's flavor of DOS), MS-Windows for Pen Computing, Lotus Organizer, and several other packages. Announcing the new machine, Frank Mellish IBM PC Company's mobiles brand manager for Europe, the Middle East and Africa, said that, in any industry where both form-based and general keyboard-based applications are necessities, "the 360PE will increase people's `on the go" performance. This ThinkPad model is especially well suited to sales force automation, and a variety of fields such as law enforcement, health care and insurance," he said. The ThinkPad comes with IBM's new international warranty, which allows full service facilities from IBM outlet worldwide for one year after purchase. Big Blue is also allowing users global access to its HelpWare 24 hour-a-day support lines, wherever in the world they are. UK pricing (local European equivalents apply) start at UKP2,570 for a version with 340 megabyte (MB) hard disk. A 540MB hard disk version of the machine is also available at UKP2,085. Shipment to European dealers of the new ThinkPad should be later this week, with a parallel launch/shipment expected in the US/Canada on the same timescale. (Steve Gold/19950502/Press Contact: Vince Smith, IBM Press Ops, +44-1256-344430; Reader Contact: IBM UK, tel +44-1705-561780, fax +44-1705-385081) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 05/02/95 BUSINESS ABC & Electronic Arts Name Joint Venture (NEWS)(BUSINESS)(SFO)(00016) ABC & Electronic Arts Name Joint Venture 05/02/95 SAN MATEO, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1995 MAY 2 (NB) -- Capitol Cities/ABC and Electronic Arts held a press conference this morning to announce their recent joint venture as Creative Wonders. The new company revealed a six-month plan which includes a variety of titles including new multimedia titles based on ABC programming content. ABC and Electronic Arts originally announced this joint venture last December. A spokesperson for the company told Newsbytes, "We wanted to choose a name which would represent the excitement of emotions, learning and entertainment which are fundamental to the mission of Creative Wonders." The new company is designed to produce CD-ROM titles in education, reference and children's entertainment. Programming from ABC to be used by Creative Wonders includes ABC News, ABC/Kane (non-fictional nature-oriented programming), ABC Children's Entertainment and other operating units within ABC. Three new titles will immediately be taken from ABC programs scheduled for this fall. They include "Bump in the Night," "Free Willy" and "Madeline and The Magnificent Puppet Show. Twenty-five Electronic Arts titles under the EA*Kids label will now become part of the Creative Wonders catalog. All of the titles under Creative Wonders control will be available through standard retail channels and ABC Online, an America Online area. Along with the ABC programming and Electronic Arts titles, Creative Wonders also announced a long-term relationship with the Children's Television Workshop for the creation of a series of Sesame Street titles. The first big splash for Creative Wonders is planned next week in Los Angeles at the Electronic Entertainment Expo. (Patrick McKenna/19950502/Press Contact: Jenny Roelle, Bender, Goldman & Helper, 310-473-4147) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 05/02/95 GENERAL Jetsoft Software Maximizes Scanned Image Quality (NEWS)(GENERAL)(DEN)(00017) Jetsoft Software Maximizes Scanned Image Quality 05/02/95 CINCINNATI, OHIO, U.S.A., 1995 MAY 2 (NB) -- Jetsoft Development Company has released Art-Scan Professional, a scanning software program the company claims maximizes the quality of scanned images using color-correction options and image enhancement tools. #IMAGE 1 20 TWPCX \images\95050217.PCX Click here for photo Art-Scan can be used to reproduce color or black-and-white photographs, text or line art at any resolution from 50 to 9,600 dots-per-inch depending on scanner make and model. The company said more than 100 scanners are supported, including Hewlett Packard, Microtek, Avec Color, Agfa, Epson, Envisions, Tamarack, Relisys, and UMAX. According to Jetsoft, Art-Scan Professional has special line-art enhancement capabilities that reproduce items like logos, graphs and diagrams at a much higher resolution than is possible with the scanner's engine. The company said that eliminates the "jaggies" and makes it possible to automatically convert line art to Postscript without the need for redrawing. Jaggies, also called aliasing, are the stairsteps that appear in diagonal lines and curves drawn at low resolution. Art-Scan Pro has a utility called Vector Line Art that lets the user scan directly into EPS (Encapsulated Postscript) or vector-based files. Jetsoft said that saves hours of time that otherwise would be spent scanning to huge bitmap files and then converting to Postscript. The resulting file can be opened in draw packages like Adobe Illustrator or Corel Draw or can be placed into page layout programs like Aldus Pagemaker or Quark XPress. The company says that, for color scans, the user makes all color adjustments in the scanner's hardware before doing the analog-to-digital conversion. Most scanning software, said Jetsoft, assumes your lightest color is white and your darkest color is black. Art-Scan Pro lets the user adjust the lightest and darkest areas of a scan to create a higher quality image with smoother transition between shades. Other features include Auto Scanning, a feature that automatically sharpens, resizes, calibrates and scales each image and also picks the best resolution for the user's printer. Batch Scanning lets you put multiple images on a flat-bed scanner and scan one at a time in different resolutions and modes. The program also offers Multiple Image Scanning, which lets the user scan several images in succession using the automatic document feeder that is available for some scanners. Image control allows rotation, zoom, descreen/dewave and removal of moire patterns from halftone images. Art-Scan Professional is available for Macintosh and Windows platforms and has a suggested retail price of $149.99. The Mac version works as a Photoshop plug-in and supports both 68K and PowerMac computers. (Jim Mallory/19950502/Press contact: Stacy Imyak, Jetsoft, 708-291-1616; Public contact: Jetsoft, 513-528-8668/ARTSCAN950502/PHOTO) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 05/02/95 TELECOM AT&T Adds Single-Line Screen Phone (NEWS)(TELECOM)(MSP)(00018) AT&T Adds Single-Line Screen Phone 05/02/95 PARSIPPANY, NEW JERSEY, U.S.A., 1995 MAY 2 (NB) -- AT&T (NYSE:T) said it is making available a new version of its popular two-line screen phone. Called the 880 Personal Information Center, the product is a single-line phone and is priced at $179.99. Brian Mackenzie, product manager for the phone, told Newsbytes the screen on the new model can show eight lines of text, with 24 characters on each line. It can store up to 200 names and associated personal information. What's more, he said, the names are automatically alphabetized in up to six different directories for easy access. Those six directories can let customers separate and sort contacts, by individual users, for example. All numbers can then be auto-dialed from the display. Mackenzie said the screen is very functional, and very big. "Several people have more than one number. It gives you plenty of room on the display with the eight lines to have a person's name, fax number, beeper numbers, cellular numbers." He also said other information can be input into each file, like birthdays. "Clearly, this product has many benefits for general residential and small business use, and for people who don't have two lines," Mackenzie said. He said the two-line version is more for the work-at-home and business use, although anyone can use it. Mackenzie said the 880 is a full featured phone, with speakerphone and Caller ID capabilities. Also, he said the user can program into the 880 calendar reminders, to remind customers of birthdays, anniversaries, holidays, and other events. Up to 50 reminders can be entered, and each reminder can be set for one-time use only, or to repeat daily, weekly, monthly, or yearly. The 880 is now available through AT&T's Phone Centers and select retail stores. (Bob Woods/19950502/Press Contacts: Angela Cowan Ryan, 201-581-4451, or David Bilke, 201-581-3938, both of AT&T Consumer Products. Public Contact: AT&T Consumer Products, 800-222-3111) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 05/02/95 GOVT FBI Renews Push For Encryption Controls (NEWS)(GOVT)(WAS)(00019) FBI Renews Push For Encryption Controls 05/02/95 WASHINGTON, D.C., U.S.A., 1995 MAY 2 (NB) -- The Federal Bureau of Investigation is using the Oklahoma City bombing as an example of why the nation needs controls on private encryption. Civil libertarians are countering that the FBI wants to subvert the free speech clause of the US Constitution. In testimony last week to the Senate Judiciary Committee, FBI Director Louis Freeh expressed concern about the ability of terrorist group members to communicate on the Internet, using encryption technology such as Pretty Good Privacy (PGP). "Encryption capabilities available to criminals and terrorists endanger the future usefulness of court-authorized wiretaps," Freeh told the committee. "This problem must be resolved." Freeh also said the FBI needs increased access to "common carrier records," meaning telephone and telecommunications service carriers, "for counterterrorism and counterintelligence investigations." Freeh appeared to win a convert in Sen. Edward Kennedy (D-Mass.), ranking minority member of the committee and usually considered a strong free speech defender. Kennedy held up what he called a "how to manual for the terrorist" that a staff member had downloaded from the Internet, and said, "We know the advantage of the information highway, but there's the darker side, too, we need to be concerned about." Noting that the Senate Commerce Committee has included a ban on pornography on the Internet in the pending telecommunications legislation, Kennedy said, "We ought to stop terrorism, too." Later, a spokesman for the Massachusetts liberal said he was only seeking to raise the issue for debate and remains committed to the First Amendment. But civil libertarians remain concerned that in the charged atmosphere of the aftermath of Oklahoma City, Congress could try to impose limits on the anarchic and free-spirited Internet. "In these times," wrote Denise Caruso, a member of the board of the Electronic Frontier Foundation, in the New York Times, "it is easy to demonize the big, powerful, invisible Internet -- to be outraged that it harbors pornographers and hackers and hate groups, and demand a means to monitor and control their conversations on the network so they might be stopped." Noting that most of the militia field manuals are available legally in survivalist bookstores, Caruso quoted Benjamin Franklin: "They who can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety." The Times editorialized, "Government is right to worry about keeping pace with electronic criminals. But citizens should not generally be forced to surrender privacy just to make law enforcement easier." (Kennedy Maize/19950502/Press Contacts: FBI press office, 202-324-3691; Drew Taubman, EFF, 202-861-7700) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 05/02/95 TRENDS BSA - 1994 Piracy Losses Hit $15 Billion (NEWS)(TRENDS)(WAS)(00020) BSA - 1994 Piracy Losses Hit $15 Billion 05/02/95 WASHINGTON, D.C., U.S.A., 1995 MAY 2 (NB) -- Worldwide computer software piracy continues to grow, says the Business Software Alliance. BSA's 1994 survey found that in the 54 countries surveyed in 1993, software piracy losses had grown from $12.8 billion to $14.9 billion. The software trade group added 23 new countries to its annual survey of losses to piracy. Adding those countries caused the total losses to climb to $15.2 billion. BSA's survey noted, "Losses in these 23 countries increased the worldwide total by $335 million, with about one-third of the additional losses stemming from software theft in Hungary." While losses are going up, overall piracy rates were down slightly in all regions expect the Middle East and Africa, where the piracy rate rose from 76 percent in 1993 to 79 percent in 1994. In the 12 countries of Asia, software piracy fell from 76 percent in 1993 to 67 percent in 1994. In the 19 countries of Europe, the piracy rate fell from 61 percent to 55 percent. Europe accounts for the largest share of global losses, or 39 percent, says BSA, or a total of some $6 billion. Total losses in the Asian region exceeded $4.3 billion, 29 percent of the total. The US and Switzerland shared the lowest piracy rates in 1994, 35 percent. But US dollar losses were the highest of any single country, at $2.8 billion. Three countries -- the US, Germany and Japan -- accounted for 43 percent of the global total of piracy. The award for cleaning up its act goes to Venezuela, where the piracy rate dropped 14 points from 85 percent in 1992 to 71 percent in 1994. BSA says that is "one of the largest decreases in the piracy level over three years." One of the richest countries in the world, Kuwait, is tied for the lead in the piracy rate at 99 percent, according to the BSA survey. Also in the 99 percent class are Indonesia and Nicaragua. In the 98 percent class are Ecuador, Oman, China, Thailand, and Vietnam. BSA's annual survey bases its estimates of dollar losses on software and hardware shipments to a particular country, using an equation that links applications per PC to legal software sales. (Kennedy Maize/19950502/Press Contact: Diane Smiroldo, BSA, 202-872-5500) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 05/02/95 WINDOWS VoiceView Talkshop Enhances Electronic Shopping (NEWS)(WINDOWS)(DEN)(00021) VoiceView Talkshop Enhances Electronic Shopping 05/02/95 BOULDER, COLORADO, U.S.A., 1995 MAY 2 (NB) -- Radish Communications Systems Inc. has introduced VoiceView TalkShop software, a Windows-based application the company said makes it easier to shop, play games, and transfer files electronically. Radish said users can access electronic services by clicking a few menu buttons and listening to audio descriptions or talking with a live customer representative. For example, you might view a picture of a product onscreen while the sales representative explains the features and benefits of that product and answers your questions. VoiceView is Radish's technology that allows data and voice communication over a single phone line. Users with Talkshop and a VoiceView-certified modem can shop, buy products and services and receive customer service and support. Last month Newsbytes reported that Boca Research was the first company to ship a VoiceView-certified modem. Boca said it will include Talkshop with its VoiceView-enabled modems at no extra cost. Diamond Multimedia, Creative Labs and Cardinal all said they will also include Talkshop with their VoiceView-certified modems, and Radish spokesperson Kevin Howard told Newsbytes another dozen modem makers will bundle Talkshop with their VoiceView products over the next 12 months. Talkshop had its public debut at last week's Spring Comdex show in Atlanta. Howard also said several companies will be showing VoiceView-enabled products and services at the Digital World trade show in Los Angeles in early June. Howard declined to identify the companies other than to describe them as "big national companies." Look for Radish to announce agreements within 60 days with at least two PC makers to ship VoiceView-enabled modems with their computers. Howard said Blockbuster Music will use VoiceView technology to sell CD's using Talkshop to preview the music over the phone. (Jim Mallory/19950502/Press contact: Kevin Howard, Radish Communications, 303-443-2237; Public contact: Radish Communications, tel 303-443-2237 or fax 303-443-1659) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 05/02/95 GENERAL New Unisys Kiosk Aimed At Govt Market (NEWS)(GENERAL)(TOR)(00022) New Unisys Kiosk Aimed At Govt Market 05/02/95 BLUE BELL, PENNSYLVANIA, U.S.A., 1995 MAY 2 (NB) -- Unisys Corp. (NYSE:UIS) is going after government customers with a new multimedia kiosk based on its personal workstation architecture. Among other things, the new MK9000 kiosk has features designed to make it more accessible to people with disabilities. #IMAGE 1 20 TWPCX \images\95050222.PCX Click here for photo The compact unit has a touch-screen color monitor that can display text, photographs, video, and still and animated graphics, as well as audio capabilities. Other devices such as magnetic card readers, CD-ROM drives, and printers can be added, Unisys said. To comply with the Americans With Disabilities Act, Unisys has built the unit with its top surface tilted 25 degrees from horizontal and the monitor tilted another three degrees, so that a person sitting in a wheelchair can use it, company spokeswoman Susan Beck told Newsbytes. All the kiosk's controls can be reached from a wheelchair, she added, and the corners of the cabinet are rounded to protect users from injury. According to the vendor, possible uses for the kiosks include voter registration, benefits administration, issuing driver's licenses, and job matching. Unisys has already installed more than 1,200 multimedia kiosks in Europe, officials said, for public-sector, financial, and other applications. Beck said Europe has a larger installed base of kiosks than North America at present and that base is expected to continue growing faster than that in North America. The fact that the new MK9000 kiosks is built around Unisys' personal workstation architecture makes it possible to build the kiosk into a client/server computing setup when desired, the company said. It also uses non-proprietary software and can run off-the-shelf Microsoft Windows applications. The company said the new kiosk is the central part of a program to promote kiosk use in government services. Unisys also will offer services such as custom application development, systems integration, installation, and product support. (Grant Buckler/19950502/Press Contact: Susan Beck, Unisys, 215-986-6036, Internet e-mail becks@po6.bb.unisys.com/KIOSK950502/PHOTO) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 05/02/95 PC DEC Adds Pentiums To Venturis Line (NEWS)(PC)(TOR)(00023) DEC Adds Pentiums To Venturis Line 05/02/95 MAYNARD, MASSACHUSETTS, U.S.A., 1995 MAY 2 (NB) -- Digital Equipment Corp. (NYSE:DEC) has added six new models to its Venturis personal-computer line, all based on Intel Corp. (NASDAQ:INTC) Pentium processors. Prices for the new models start at $1,899. The new Venturis computers are the latest step in a push toward Pentium processors for DEC, which added eight Pentium models to its Starion PC line and three to its Celebris line in mid-March, and launched a new Pentium-based Celebris XL line early in March. According to company spokeswoman Sandy McLaughlin, Pentium-based additions to Digital's HiNote notebook PC line can be expected in the near future as well. The Venturis line now includes a range of systems from 486-based PCs to 100-megahertz (MHz) Pentiums, McLaughlin told Newsbytes. The latest Venturis PCs meet Version 2.0 of the United States Environmental Protection Agency's Energy Star power-saving standards. Those requirements are to take effect officially this October. In line with the future guidelines, the new Venturis systems ship with power management settings enabled and a Windows-based user interface to let users customize their settings. The Pentium-based Venturis systems also have the Desktop Management Interface (DMI) implemented. DMI is a standard developed by the Desktop Management Task Force (DMTF) to make it possible to manage personal computers over a local-area network. Previous DEC PCs have been sold as "DMI-ready," McLaughlin explained. The new models include three full-sized and three small-enclosure models. The full-sized FP575, FP590, and FP5100 have list prices of $1,949, $2,299, and $2,549 respectively for basic configurations. The small-enclosure Venturis 575, 590, and 5100 start at $1,899, $2,249, and $2,499. All the new models are available now in the United States. They will be sold worldwide, McLaughlin said, but availability dates will vary. The new PCs provide a choice of 420 megabyte (MB), 845MB, and 1.2 gigabyte hard disk drives. (Grant Buckler/19950502/Press Contact: Sandy McLaughlin, Digital Equipment, 508-264-7981; Public Contact: Digital PCatalog, 800- 722-9332) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 05/02/95 ONLINE Lexis-Nexis Has Same-Day New York Times Stories (NEWS)(ONLINE)(TOR)(00024) Lexis-Nexis Has Same-Day New York Times Stories 05/02/95 DAYTON, OHIO, U.S.A., 1995 MAY 2 (NB) -- The Lexis-Nexis online information service has added the ability to read news stories from The New York Times online on the day of publication. Until now, news from the Times was available online only up to the previous day's edition. Stories from each day's edition of the Times, including domestic and international news, the arts, sports, entertainment, science, computers, travel, and other areas, will be online by about 5:00 a.m., Eastern time, on the day of publication, Lexis-Nexis spokesman Steve Edwards told Newsbytes. The New York Times Co. (AMEX:NYT.A) is providing the same-day news report through its NYT Business Information Services unit, which also provides the Times archival databases and index. The current day's news will be placed in separate file from archived news stories dating from 1980 to the previous day. The same-day file can be found in Lexis-Nexis' NEWS and TOPNWS libraries. On the day after publication, stories will move from this file to the archives, to be replaced by the current day's stories. There is no specific extra charge for using the same-day Times material, Edwards said, although customers on a transaction-based pricing plan will pay more if using the same-day file results in additional transactions. Lexis-Nexis, formerly Mead Data Central, is a division of Reed Elsevier Inc., which is owned equally by Reed International plc (NYSE:RUK) and Elsevier NV (NYSE:ENL). Reed-Elsevier, a $5 billion publishing and information firm, completed its takeover of Lexis-Nexis from Mead Corp. last December. (Grant Buckler/19950502/Press Contact: Steve Edwards, Lexis- Nexis, 513-865-1059, Internet e-mail stevee@lexis-nexis.com; William Adler, NYT Information Services, 212-499-3313, Internet e-mail adlernyt@aol.com) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 05/02/95 ONLINE New Software Lets "Anyone" Open Internet Stores (NEWS)(ONLINE)(MSP)(00025) New Software Lets "Anyone" Open Internet Stores 05/02/95 CANTON, NORTH CAROLINA, U.S.A., 1995 MAY 2 (NB) -- Primetime Communications Corp. said it is making available what it calls the "first" technology that allows any computer user to operate online "shopping malls" on the Internet and computer bulletin board systems (BBSs). The product, called Online Business Works/Shopping Mall, is very easy to navigate with a point-and-click user interface, Carl Farrington, president of Primetime Communications Corp., told Newsbytes. Shoppers can view photos of products before buying, with those pictures taking seven seconds or less to view. He said Shopping Mall product is also the first "mall" application to have an offline database manager, meaning his customers don't have to tie up phone lines to update inventory. He said the feature is "as easy to use as reading mail offline." Also, 250 predefinable store types are available, so any kind of merchant can be accommodated. Farrington said he saw "an absolute need" in the marketplace for this product. He said he has seen other malls online that were very expensive to produce, and he wanted to give companies that didn't have a lot of money the opportunity to look as good as the other sites. He also said his company intends to "revolutionize" the way business is done online by making electronic commerce easy, and highly visual. The Shopping Mall product is the first of several Primetime applications that use RIPscrip 2.0 online multimedia technology that was developed by TeleGrafix Communications. Officials said RIPscrip allows transmission of multimedia over both telephone lines and the Internet at the same time, with modem speed being the only limit on transmission time. Officials said the standard Online Business Works/Shopping Mall can operate on any 386 or higher stand-alone IBM-compatible PC without the need to run a BBS or Internet server. The company will release other modules soon, including Online Real Estate, Online Auto Sales, and Online Matchmakers. The products will be sold through major office supply retailers, software retailers, online services, and trade publications, the company said. (Bob Woods/19950502/Press Contact: Carl Farrington, Primeline Communications Corporation, 704-648-1298, Internet e-mail obwinfo@entrepid.com; Public Contact: Primeline Communications Corp., 704-648-1298) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 05/02/95 ONLINE Online Service For Environmental Info (NEWS)(ONLINE)(MSP)(00026) Online Service For Environmental Info 05/02/95 ATLANTA, GEORGIA, U.S.A., 1995 MAY 2 (NB) -- Environmental Dynamics, Inc. (EDI) has introduced Socrates Online, a service the company calls the "first" widely available commercial interactive business communication service. Socrates Online is primarily dedicated to project management, communication, and research for the environmental, legal, engineering, and construction industries. Dave Dahlstrom, EDI president and chief executive officer, told Newsbytes the new service is very niche-oriented, "unlike MCI Business or anyone else who's trying to be so broad-based, they don't know which way to turn." He said Socrates provides a fast, easy, secure, and effective method to communicate with large numbers of dispersed project members worldwide. With Socrates, Dahlstrom said those members don't have to deal with the time and expense of phones, mail, faxes, and overnight deliveries. Some of the features Socrates offers businesses include interactive electronic project management, which allows users expedite review and decision processes, and allows management control of all communications through secured project "conferences." It also offers advanced networking and strategic alliances, which links "needers of services with providers of services" through its professional and corporate resume services, Dahlstrom said. Other services include online information resources via the Internet and other publications and databases, document tracking and linking, and research capabilities. Socrates Online uses proprietary communications software that is described as "very user-friendly." It also allows users to take advantage of Socrates' other capabilities, including the uploading and downloading of photos, attached files, audio, and even video. Dahlstrom also pointed out that Socrates is a "green" product, and produces no paper. He said that's important at a time when companies are being pressured to become "green," with such measures as cutting down on paper usage. (Bob Woods/19950502/Press Contact: Dan Fell, Daniel+Douglas+Norcross, 615-752-3150. Public Contact: Environmental Dynamics, 404-642-7002) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 05/02/95 BUSINESS Gateway Offers Kiosk Touch-screen PC Ordering (NEWS)(BUSINESS)(DEN)(00027) Gateway Offers Kiosk Touch-screen PC Ordering 05/02/95 NORTH SIOUX CITY, SOUTH DAKOTA, U.S.A., 1995 MAY 2 (NB) - PC maker Gateway 2000 (NASDAQ: GATE) says it will be possible to order its desktop and portable personal computers through Price Quest, a touch- screen catalog kiosk located in Price Club and Costco warehouse stores. Customers using one of the kiosks to order a Gateway 2000 computer select a base computer then custom configure the unit to their needs by touching choices on the kiosk's screen. The company said the kiosks will feature the Gateway Pentium-based desktop PCs and Liberty and ColorBook portable systems. The agreement with Price Quest Inc. also makes Price Costco the only retailer in the US that can offer Gateway's Pentium 120 megahertz computers. The recently introduced system, designated the P5-120XL, starts at $3,999 equipped with 16 megabytes (MB) of EDO (extended data out) memory, a 256 kilobyte pipelined burst cache and a one gigabyte hard drive. Price Quest Inc. (NASDAQ:PREN) President Steve Velazquez told Newsbytes Price Costco stores also sell Compaq, AST and Packard Bell PCs, but Gateway 2000 systems are the only personal computers sold through the touch-screen kiosks. The kiosks also make it possible for customers to purchase jewelry, hardware, housewares and electronics products including computers. Velazquez said the kiosk prints an order confirmation for the purchaser and sends the order electronically to Gateway for shipment. He told Newsbytes that presently you pay for your Gateway computer at the cash register using cash, a check or a Discover card, but this summer the kiosks will be modified to accept credit cards at the point of sale. The Liberty is a 4.2-pound notebook PC with a 10.4-inch (measured diagonally) dual-scan color screen. The Liberty is equipped with infrared technology that allows it to exchange files with a similarly equipped desktop PC without the need for cables. The 5.7-pound ColorBook comes with a 10.3-inch screen, 1.5MB of video memory, and 16-bit stereo sound. (Jim Mallory/19950502/Press contact: Michele Gjerde, Gateway 2000, 605-232-2253 or Mark Livingston, Price Quest, 619-581-5255; Public contact: Gateway 2000, tel 605-232-2000 or 800-846-2000, fax 605-232-2023) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 05/02/95 ONLINE UK Politician Interviewed On Internet (NEWS)(ONLINE)(LON)(00028) UK Politician Interviewed On Internet 05/02/95 CAMBRIDGE, ENGLAND, 1995 MAY 2 (NB) -- If you get fed up of watching politicians on CNN, you can plug into the Internet and get controlled doses of politicians online. That's Peter Kruger's reasoning with his "Flames" discussion area. Kruger, manager of the Steinkrug Publications' service, has just posted the result of an online "interview" with Anne Campbell, Cambridge's Member of Parliament (MP) who Newsbytes notes, is widely acclaimed as Britain's most "wired" MP. Campbell, who sits on the Commons' Select Committee on Technology in the UK, has her own World Wide Web Page and holds her constituency surgery using the Internet. According to Kruger, if Labor wins the next General Election in the UK, thereby ousting the Conservatives, something that many analysts maintain is looking increasingly likely, then Campbell will have a strong influence over politics surrounding the development of the Internet, as well as the future telecoms infrastructure in the UK. In his role as sysop (system operator) to the Flames Web pages, Kruger put six questions to her in what he claims is the first "interview" of a British MP on the Internet. "The questions were quite penetrating. To be quite honest, I didn't think she would answer one of them, but she came back with the answers in double quick time," he said. Kruger told Newsbytes that the questions concentrated on the future development of the Internet and its use by politicians. Why, for example, Kruger asks, does Anne Campbell think that the Conservative Party are not online? Will there emerge an information "rich" and an information "poor" in our society? And has socialism a role in a "wired" world? The interview can be accessed on the Flames service, which is accessible at http://www.gold.net/flames/ Newsbytes can report that the item is of interest, if only from the perspective that it shows what a techno-savvy MP Campbell really is. (Steve Gold/19950502/Press & Reader Contact: Peter Kruger, Steinkrug Publications, tel +44-1223-208826, fax +44-1223- 208098, Internet e-mail flames@flames.cityscape.co.uk) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 05/02/95 BUSINESS Lotus To Restructure, Cut Expenses By 15% (NEWS)(BUSINESS)(BOS)(00029) Lotus To Restructure, Cut Expenses By 15% 05/02/95 BROOKLINE, MASSACHUSETTS, U.S.A., 1995 MAY 2 (NB) -- At the Lotus annual shareholders' meeting today, Lotus President and chief executive officer (CEO) Jim Manzi unveiled plans to restructure Lotus into four business operating units and to trim Lotus' budget by 15 percent, in the wake of the company's recent announcement of the first operating loss in company history. The new operating units, each to be held accountable for its own operations, will include the Desktop, Communications, Services, and Public Networks & Enterprise Computing units, Manzi said at the annual meeting, held at the Museum of Transportation in Brookline, Massachusetts, and attended by Newsbytes. Lotus is doing a good job of developing desktop productivity and communications technologies that meet the needs of corporate users, Manzi told the shareholders, journalists, and analysts at the meeting. "Now it's time to apply the same hard work to our financials," he added. Up to now, Lotus' profitable desktop productivity applications have been footing the research and development (R&D) expenses for Lotus' Notes and cc:Mail communications products, the company chief maintained. But Notes has added 750,000 new users over the past year alone, and cc:Mail's installed base now totals seven million users, according to Manzi. At this point, the desktop productivity applications must stop "acting as a bank" for communications, he added. Last week, Lotus announced a new Word Pro product based on its previous Ami Pro. The company will soon introduce other new desktop products, he noted. Like Word Pro, these products will be characterized by "innovation," as well as by features for "team computing." Later this year, Lotus will roll out two new communications products: Notes 4.0, along with a "refresher" cc:Mail product, according to Manzi. Lotus' new Services Business Group will consist of consulting, customer support, and education components, in addition to the Lotus Institute, he told the group. The new Public Networks & Enterprise Computing Business Group will be concerned with products for the Internet, and the new AT&T Network Notes will be an initial focus, he reported. In a Q&A session with reporters and analysts that followed, Manzi said that, through early June, Lotus will perform further study on how these changes will be implemented. No decisions have yet been reached as to who will head up the newly defined divisions. Lotus will reduce staffing at the top "director" level by about 15 percent, but is not planning any "sweeping" staff cuts at other levels of the company, he added. Just prior to the Q&A, Lotus staffers Bill Jones and Scott Elliot presented demos of Word Pro, a planned update to Lotus 1-2-3, and Notes 4.0. (Jacqueline Emigh/19950502/Reader Contact: Lotus, 617-577-8500; Press Contact: Lois Paul & Partners for Lotus, 617-862-4514) (SUMMARY)(GENERAL)(SFO)(00030) Newsbytes Daily Summary 05/02/95 PENN VALLEY, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1995 MAY 2 (NB) -- These are capsules of all today's news stories: 1 -> Microsoft Ships Multimedia Wine Guide 05/02/95 Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ: MSFT) is now shipping its Microsoft Wine Guide, an interactive multimedia guide to nearly 6,000 wines that also includes information about the world's most famous wine regions. 2 -> TI Intros Personal Organizers That Dock With PC 05/02/95 Texas Instruments (NYSE:TXN) has announced two multi-language personal organizers and a docking station that allows either one to be connected to a personal computer so information can be exchanged. 3 -> Profound's Online Business "Intelligence Service" 05/02/95 Profound Inc. said it is making available its new Windows-based "online business intelligence service," called Profound. 4 -> UK - Orange PCN Service Plans Expansion 05/02/95 Orange, the Hutchison Whampoa-owned PCN (personal communications network) service, has outlined plans to increase its core network from 2,000 to 3,000 base stations over the next two years, taking its potential network capacity to around 10 million subscribers. 5 -> Europe - Artisoft Intros Dedicated Server 05/02/95 Artisoft has begun shipping version 1.1 of its LANtastic Dedicated Server software (formerly known as CorStream). 6 -> Greeting Cards On The Internet 05/02/95 American Greetings (NASDAQ:AGREA) claims it has made buying a card with the "perfect" verses easier, because it is partnering with PC Flowers & Gifts to offer the "CreateCard" service. 7 -> Isis SDK For Fault Tolerance For Windows 3.1/NT 05/02/95 Isis, a wholly owned subsidiary of Stratus Computer, has released a Windows/Windows NT port of the Isis Reliable Software Development Kit (SDK) for building reliability and fault tolerance into software applications. 8 -> Hungary Legislates Against Telecom CallBack Firms 05/02/95 The local courts in Hungary have ruled that international callback services -- telecoms services that by-pass Matav, the Hungarian state telecoms company -- are illegal, and are set to pass specific legislation outlawing their sale and use, Newsbytes has learned. 9 -> France Telecom Wins Security Firm Data Net Deal 05/02/95 France Telecom (FT) has secured a major data network contract from Group 4 Security. The deal involves the outsourcing of the security company's private data network service to FT across the UK. 10 -> Cognos Wins Major Dutch Tax Office Deal 05/02/95 Cognos, the Canadian database services and software company, has secured its biggest ever contract with the Dutch Ministry of Finance. The deal, which is worth US$2.4 million over the next three years, beats the company's previous record of US$2.1 million. 11 -> New Name For GP Publications, Intros Net Magazine 05/02/95 GP Publications, publisher of Game Players, CD-ROM Today, PC Gamer, and Next Generation magazines, is changing its name to Imagine Publishing, effective immediately. The company is also shipping the premier issue of its newest magazine, "The Net." 12 -> AOL Offers Vietnam Wall 05/02/95 Timed to coincide with the twentieth anniversary of the end of the Vietnam War, America Online (NASDAQ:AMER) has created a "virtual space" for the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Wall in Washington DC. 13 -> Toshiba Notebooks Get Attachable Long-Life Battery 05/02/95 AER Energy Resources Inc. (NASDAQ:AERN) has signed a deal with Toshiba America Information Systems Inc. to provide an attachable battery that can run Toshiba notebook computers up to five times as long as conventional batteries. 14 -> Sweden - Ericsson's Low-Cost Modem 05/02/95 Ericsson Business Networks has launched the V.34 DT modem, a modem package that the company says was designed for use with home office and remote work applications. 15 -> IBM Europe's Convertible ThinkPad Notebook 05/02/95 IBM has unveiled an enhanced version of its ThinkPad notebook PC. Known as the 360PE, the machine comes with a fold-down display screen that converts the "clamshell" design notebook into a "tablet" computer for use as a pen-driven notebook. 16 -> ABC & Electronic Arts Name Joint Venture 05/02/95 Capitol Cities/ABC and Electronic Arts held a press conference this morning to announce their recent joint venture as Creative Wonders. The new company revealed a six-month plan which includes a variety of titles including new multimedia titles based on ABC programming content. 17 -> Jetsoft Software Maximizes Scanned Image Quality 05/02/95 Jetsoft Development Company has released Art-Scan Professional, a scanning software program the company claims maximizes the quality of scanned images using color-correction options and image enhancement tools. 18 -> AT&T Adds Single-Line Screen Phone 05/02/95 AT&T (NYSE:T) said it is making available a new version of its popular two-line screen phone. Called the 880 Personal Information Center, the product is a single-line phone and is priced at $179.99. 19 -> FBI Renews Push For Encryption Controls 05/02/95 The Federal Bureau of Investigation is using the Oklahoma City bombing as an example of why the nation needs controls on private encryption. Civil libertarians are countering that the FBI wants to subvert the free speech clause of the US Constitution. 20 -> BSA - 1994 Piracy Losses Hit $15 Billion 05/02/95 Worldwide computer software piracy continues to grow, says the Business Software Alliance. BSA's 1994 survey found that in the 54 countries surveyed in 1993, software piracy losses had grown from $12.8 billion to $14.9 billion. 21 -> VoiceView Talkshop Enhances Electronic Shopping 05/02/95 Radish Communications Systems Inc. has introduced VoiceView TalkShop software, a Windows-based application the company said makes it easier to shop, play games, and transfer files electronically. 22 -> New Unisys Kiosk Aimed At Govt Market 05/02/95 Unisys Corp. (NYSE:UIS) is going after government customers with a new multimedia kiosk based on its personal workstation architecture. Among other things, the new MK9000 kiosk has features designed to make it more accessible to people with disabilities. 23 -> DEC Adds Pentiums To Venturis Line 05/02/95 Digital Equipment Corp. (NYSE:DEC) has added six new models to its Venturis personal-computer line, all based on Intel Corp. (NASDAQ:INTC) Pentium processors. Prices for the new models start at $1,899. 24 -> Lexis-Nexis Has Same-Day New York Times Stories 05/02/95 The Lexis-Nexis online information service has added the ability to read news stories from The New York Times online on the day of publication. Until now, news from the Times was available online only up to the previous day's edition. 25 -> New Software Lets "Anyone" Open Internet Stores 05/02/95 Primetime Communications Corp. said it is making available what it calls the "first" technology that allows any computer user to operate online "shopping malls" on the Internet and computer bulletin board systems (BBSs). 26 -> Online Service For Environmental Info 05/02/95 Environmental Dynamics, Inc. (EDI) has introduced Socrates Online, a service the company calls the "first" widely available commercial interactive business communication service. Socrates Online is primarily dedicated to project management, communication, and research for the environmental, legal, engineering, and construction industries. 27 -> Gateway Offers Kiosk Touch-screen PC Ordering 05/02/95 C maker Gateway 2000 (NASDAQ: GATE) says it will be possible to order its desktop and portable personal computers through Price Quest, a touch- screen catalog kiosk located in Price Club and Costco warehouse stores. 28 -> UK Politician Interviewed On Internet 05/02/95 If you get fed up of watching politicians on CNN, you can plug into the Internet and get controlled doses of politicians online. That's Peter Kruger's reasoning with his "Flames" discussion area. 29 -> Lotus To Restructure, Cut Expenses By 15% 05/02/95 At the Lotus annual shareholders' meeting today, Lotus President and chief executive officer (CEO) Jim Manzi unveiled plans to restructure Lotus into four business operating units and to trim Lotus' budget by 15 percent, in the wake of the company's recent announcement of the first operating loss in company history. (Ian Stokell/19950502) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 12/14/95 ONLINE Internet Update (NEWS)(ONLINE)(TYO)(00001) Internet Update 12/14/95 TOKYO, JAPAN, 1995 DEC 14 (NB) -- In this roundup of new services and resources on the global Internet: The European directory; Rhone Poulenc debuts; NATO Web server; Nothing but coffee; China business news service; Sports events database; Treaty of Versailles; Doctor HTML; Smithsonian Institution libraries. The European Directory Based at the UK Shopping Center, the European directory offers a search engine of the European World Wide Web in addition to indexes of Web sites by subject and country. A page of recent updates allows quick access to new pages and services. World Wide Web: http://www.ukshops.co.uk:8000/thedoor.html Rhone Poulenc Debuts One of Europe's largest companies and the world's 7th-largest chemical and pharmaceutical group, Rhone Poulenc has opened a site on the World Wide Web. The server offers information about the company, its work, and latest news. World Wide Web: http://www.calvacom.fr/rhonepoulenc/ NATO Web Server For several years NATO, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, has been making information available on the Internet, chiefly by Gopher. The Web site is currently under development but already includes convenient pointers to existing information sources such as the Gopher server and the organization's Listserver mailing lists. World Wide Web: http://www.nato.int/ Nothing But Coffee Chelsea's Coffee, a downtown New York espresso bar, has established the Coffeelink Web server where Internet users can learn about the history of coffee, the numerous types of coffee, and all about the coffee industry. World Wide Web: http://www.coffeelink.com/AAC.htm/ China Business News Service The latest business news direct from the Xinhua news agency in China is now offered on the Internet by Attaina, a Canadian information company. The full service includes daily news, a searchable archive, stock market prices and industry news. World Wide Web: http://www.attaina.com/ Sports Events Database The International Sports Event Database carries listings of amateur open sports tournaments from all over North America and the World. Anyone holding an event can list it free of charge by using the online submission form. World Wide Web: http://www.avenuepark.com/tourney.html Treaty Of Versailles This represents another excellent resource added to the Internet. The complete 1919 Treaty of Versailles of 440 Articles can be viewed as a single 498 kilobyte text file, or by individual sections. Hyperlinked in are other Internet resources connected to the treaty such as maps, photos, and cartoons. World Wide Web: http://www.acusd.edu/History/text/versaillestreaty/vercontents.html Doctor HTML Doctor HTML will visit a Web page and report back on any errors or problems with the HTML (hypertext markup language) code and other areas such as the spelling, verification of the hyperlinks and examination the tables and forms. A must visit for all Webmasters and HTML authors. World Wide Web: http://imagiware.com/RxHTML.cgi Smithsonian Institution Libraries A home page from the Smithsonian Institution Libraries including links to branch library home pages, Telnet connections to the Smithsonian Research Information System, electronic publications, Institute exhibitions, and more. World Wide Web: http://www.sil.si.edu/ (Martyn Williams/19951214) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 12/14/95 BUSINESS Schlumberger & Serif Form Smart Card Joint Venture (NEWS)(BUSINESS)(LON)(00002) Schlumberger & Serif Form Smart Card Joint Venture 12/14/95 MONTROUGE CEDEX, FRANCE, 1995 DEC 14 (NB) -- Schlumberger Industries of France and Serif Cowells' division in the UK have formed a joint venture to meet what the companies call "the emerging smart card market." The joint venture company will be called Cowells Schlumberger and aims to offer comprehensive design and manufacturing services for all major smart card and magnetic stripe card application areas, as well as plain plastic cards. Schlumberger is perhaps best known as a chip/smart card supplier, while Cowells is a major supplier of bank card systems. According to Jean Paul Bize, vice president of electronic transactions, the alliance with Cowells will allow both companies to carve out new markets in Europe and in the UK especially. "Thanks to this alliance, Schlumberger gains an in-depth understanding of the market forces in the UK, plus a second manufacturing plant in Europe, to meet fast-growing demand. With the addition of Cowells' resources, our annual worldwide card manufacturing capacity now expands to 400 million," he explained. At UK-based Serif, meanwhile, Richard Harrison, the company's chairman, described the joint venture as an natural partnership, which will help both companies to expand their international business for magnetic stripe and plain cards. According to Schlumberger's Bize, the UK has perhaps the most potential for smart card sales in the West, with an expected 10 million smart cards expected to be in circulation within the next three years -- one for every fourth adult. According to Schlumberger, among the smart card market segments that are on the verge of exceptional growth are telecoms payment and subscriber ID cards, as well as bank transaction cards and loyalty schemes for retailers. The company also claims that the market for stored value card (SVC) smart cards is poised to take off exponentially. (Sylvia Dennis/19951213/Press Contact: Communique for Serif, tel +44- 1284-768935, fax +44-1284-701610; Bertrand Dussauge for Schlumberger, tel +33-1-4746-6247, fax +33-1-4746-6866; Reader Contact: Schlumberger, +44-1-4746-7020) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 12/14/95 LEGAL Polish Telecoms Company Fined By Govt (NEWS)(LEGAL)(LON)(00003) Polish Telecoms Company Fined By Govt 12/14/95 WARSAW, POLAND, 1995 DEC 14 (NB) -- In what many see as a "shot across the bows" of an errant telecom industry generally in Poland, the Ministry for Trade has imposed a 500,000 Zloty ($230,000) on Telekomunicja Polska, the former state-controlled telecoms company. According to the Ministry office, the fine has been imposed in respect of alleged obstruction of Lublin Telecom, a small private telecoms company operating in the City of Lublin region. Specifically, Telekomunicja Polska is alleged to have refused to connect Lublin Telecom's 20,000 subscribers to the Polska Telekom national network, so that subscribers could enjoy trunk calling at discounted rates. In a press conference held in Warsaw earlier this week, the Ministry's Anti-Monopoly officials said that the fine was being imposed to show that free market telecoms are at last coming to Poland. Currently, Newsbytes notes that Telekomunicja Polska has a state monopoly on trunk calls within Poland. The Lublin Telecom incident may mean that the Government will not renew the monopoly license when it expires at the end of next year. Since local telecoms licenses were allowed by the Polish Government in 1993, more than 50 companies have successfully applied for licenses to operate local services. However, for access to the national network, these telcos must apply to Telekomunicja Polska for interconnects. Ironically, the rates charged for trunk calls made during the business period are sufficiently high that some local telcos actually route their trunk calls outside of Poland to a foreign telco, typically in the Slovak Republic or Germany, and then calls are handed over to Polska Telekom, which gets around 50 percent of the foreign telco's call revenue for handling the call. Despite this, in many cases it is actually cheaper for the private telco to do this than hand the call directly to Polska Telekom, because of the high rates for such calls. (Sylvia Dennis/19951213) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 12/14/95 TELECOM UK - Ericsson's Mobile Phone Brand-Awareness Campaign (NEWS)(TELECOM)(LON)(00004) UK - Ericsson's Mobile Phone Brand-Awareness Campaign 12/14/95 BURGESS HILL, WEST SUSSEX, ENGLAND, 1995 DEC 14 (NB) -- Ericsson, the Swedish telco, says it has started a pan-European brand-awareness campaign for the company's mobile phone division that will cost several tens of millions of dollars, and at least UKP3 million ($5 million) in the UK alone over the next two months. "Although Ericsson already dominates the cellular communications industry with a 40 percent share of the world market, we need to build stronger brand awareness among UK consumers," explained Alex Rodrigues, UK marketing manager for Ericsson's mobile phone division. "The UK is the fastest growing European market for mobile phones -- more than 12 million subscribers are expected to be hooked up by the end of the century," he said. According to Rodrigues, the ads over the next eight weeks will move Ericsson into the top three as far as money spent on advertising for cellular phones is concerned. The campaign will focus on TV ads appearing on national and regional stations, supplemented with press advertising in national papers and specialist mobile phone publications. The emphasis of the ads, the company claims, is the motto "It's about time...power... performance...and control." (Steve Gold/19951213/Press Contact: Paula Wagstaff, +44-1444-234354; Reader Contact: Ericsson Mobile Terminals, +44-1483-305761) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 12/14/95 LEGAL ****UK Businessman Found Guilty In Credit Card Scam (NEWS)(LEGAL)(LON)(00005) ****UK Businessman Found Guilty In Credit Card Scam 12/14/95 LONDON, ENGLAND, 1995 DEC 14 (NB) -- A former mobile phone dealer who went to college to study computing has been found guilty of masterminding a "highly sophisticated" international fraud with "potentially limitless" possibilities. According to Police, Michael Boparan left senior British bank management fuming when their security systems were compromised after he recruited four insiders within National Westminster Bank's credit card center in Southend-on-Sea, Essex, to assist him in the fraud. Using data supplied by the insiders, the 30-year-old former mobile phone sales manager, was able to milk around UKP1.3 million from hundreds of accounts of corporate and individual card holders, allowing him to lead, what the prosecution described as, "a life of jet-setting luxury." According to the prosecution in the case, large bills were run in restaurants and hotels, while Boparan jetted first class to and from the US. Five figure sums were also spent on top hotel suites, prosecutors said. Boparan, of St. Johns Wood, North London, was convicted by Southwark Crown Court of conspiracy to defraud the High Street banks, other clearing banks, companies, corporations, and individuals, between August, 1994, and March, 1995. The case has been adjourned until January 8, 1996, when pre-sentence reports will have been prepared. Russell Jones, aged 27, of Southend-on-Sea in Essex, who recruited some of the bank insiders, was also found guilty of the same offense. He has been bailed and will be sentenced on a date to be announced. Mark Tomassi, prosecuting the case for the British Government, said that Boparan and Jones, and others "not before the court," were involved in "wholesale" defrauding of banks in Britain and America on a "massive scale." Tomassi went on to explained that the system "milked" National Westminster's highly confidential database at its Southend card center. "It was so effective the bank could hardly keep up with the level of fraud," he told the jury during the two month trial. "Had it not been stopped, the fraud was potentially limitless." In the scam, bank insiders were paid up to UKP100 a time to provide details of up to 600 accounts, with the highly restricted information then being encoded onto the magnetic stripes of garage and store loyalty points cards. Boparan then used the forged cards to finance his lavish lifestyle. Court officials said that Boparan and Jones' fraud was only discovered by accident when a police constable found an untaxed car outside Boparan's Regent's Park apartment. On investigation, large quantities of incriminating material was found in the vehicle and subsequently, in Boparan's apartment. These materials included a credit card imprinter, a large number of cards, and confidential bank print-outs. Commenting on the case, Detective Sergeant Richard Money, of Scotland Yard's check and credit card division, said: "Boparan was undoubtedly one of the most sophisticated, determined and eloquent fraudsters it could ever be your misfortune to come across." (Steve Gold/19951213) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 12/14/95 ONLINE UK Firm Offers Budget Offline Web Browser (NEWS)(ONLINE)(LON)(00006) UK Firm Offers Budget Offline Web Browser 12/14/95 TRING, HERTFORDSHIRE, ENGLAND, 1995 DEC 14 (NB) -- Nildram Software has unveiled Secret Agent, a World Wide Web browser companion program for Netscape, the popular Internet browser. According to Adrian Mardlin, a spokesperson for the company, Secret Agent supports offline reading and indexing facilities to what he claims has been, to date, an expensive and sometimes slow online activity. Using the package, "now users can zip through the Web pages they want to read safe in the knowledge that they can come back to them later, while off-line, and not hurting their phone bill," he said. The idea behind Secret Agent is that, after a heavy session of online Web browsing, you can close down your link to your service provider and revisit, offline, all the pages you accessed during your session, complete with inline images and working links between accessed pages. In use, the UKP24.95 package allows users to extract the graphic files with the help of a special summary index, created by Secret Agent, containing thumbnail size copies of the images, or users can examine the HTML (hypertext markup language) source of the more interesting Web pages. Secret Agent is billed as being fully compatible with Netscape versions 1.1, 1.2, and 2.0x. According to Mardlin, support for other Web browsers may be added at a future date, depending on demand. According to Mardlin, a shareware version of the package can be downloaded from http://www.nildram.co.uk . FTP (file transfer protocol) users can also link to Nildram's FTP site at ftp://ftp.nildram.co.uk/pub/ariel. (Steve Gold/19951213/Press & Reader Contact: Nildram Software, tel 01442-891331, fax +44-1442-890303, Internet e-mail sales@nildram.co.uk) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 12/14/95 PC Smartcard Provides Laptop, PC Security (NEWS)(PC)(DEN)(00007) Smartcard Provides Laptop, PC Security 12/14/95 DALLAS, TEXAS, U.S.A., 1995 DEC 14 (NB) -- If you need to provide exceptional security for the data on your laptop computer PC Security Inc., a subsidiary of United Kingdom-based PC Security Limited, has a product for your consideration, called Stoplock PCMCIA Smartcard. The Smartcard works with a smartcard reader installed in the PCMCIA (Personal Computer Memory Card International Association) slot of your laptop computer and with software called Stoplock. The company said the smartcard provides an extra layer of security on top of the software. It acts as an authentication check requiring the user to present a valid smartcard to the reader. As another level of security, the user also has to provide a genuine user ID and a password. Each smartcard has to be validated by the Card Administration System software which deals specifically with allocating those user IDs. PC Security spokesperson Dave Christensen, who said 1996 will be known as "the year of security," told Newsbytes that, even if the card reader is removed, the Stoplock software still protects the computer data. He said the software can be set so the PC won't boot from a floppy disk, and the boot settings are encrypted for additional protection. The reader is compatible with all Type II and Type III PCMCIA slots and supports most ISO 7816-complaint smartcards, according to PC Security. The company said the software's standard features include boot protection, secure screen blanking, an audit trail, device control, directory and file control, data encryption, and virus protection. Advanced features, which carry an additional cost of $32 each, include secure data transfer, multiple options for user profiles, and a secure client interface that enables the software to share secured information with computer systems protected by other types of security software. Christensen said the company already has agreements with several companies and is negotiating with others. You can even get an option to encrypt your e-mail and its attachments and another that recognizes a single sign-on for access to multiple programs protected with separate passwords and logons on other systems or networks. Kirsty Macfarlane, PC Security director of marketing, told Newsbytes that encryption is currently a major topic of discussion for most businesses. "We are taking part in that debate by contributing our comments to the US Interagency Working Group on Encryption and Telecommunications," said Macfarlane. The organization is developing recommendations on government encryption policies. The company periodically produces a digest of developments and trends within the data security sector which Christensen said is available to Newsbytes readers, although the information is sometimes somewhat technical. Stoplock PCMCIA Smartcard pricing starts up $495 for a single version user. Pricing is determined by what services you want, and such factors as the number of cards needed. (Jim Mallory/19951214/Press contact: Kirsty Macfarlane, PC Security, 214-387-5229; Public contact: PC Security, tel 214-387-5229, fax 214-387-5298/STOCKLOCK951214/PHOTO) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 12/14/95 WINDOWS Peachtree's Low-Cost First Accounting 2.0 For Windows (NEWS)(WINDOWS)(DEN)(00008) Peachtree's Low-Cost First Accounting 2.0 For Windows 12/14/95 NORCROSS, GEORGIA, U.S.A., 1995 DEC 14 (NB) -- Peachtree Software Inc., a subsidiary of Automated Data Processing (NYSE: ADP), has announced availability of Peachtree First Accounting - Release 2.0 for Windows. The software has a street price of about $49 and includes a general ledge, sales and receivables, accounts payable, inventory, payroll, job/project tracking, and reporting functions.. Peachtree First Accounting was first introduced in February, 1995. One major feature of the new version is a fully integrated payroll module which automatically calculates payroll and deducts federal, state and local taxes, Social Security, and even Medicare for employees. Other enhancements to the new version include 75 sample companies that provide the chart of accounts for a range of company types from contractors to drug stores. The sample companies act as a template that can be customized for your particular business. Peachtree said it had redesigned the company setup to use easy-to-follow menus, and more precise on-screen instructions. You also get more than 100 standard reports that also can be customized to meet the user's needs, and the program can now store up to nine Ship-To names and can print purchase orders. It can also import data from Quicken. Peachtree said the new version of First Accounting is compatible with both Windows 95 and Windows 3.1 and is designed for small businesses that are either just starting up or are ready to make the transition to an automated accounting system. Peachtree spokesperson Brad MacAfee told Newsbytes it is easy for a growing business to make the transition from First Accounting to the more full-featured Peachtree Accounting for Windows, version 3.5, which will automatically recognize your First Accounting database. Peachtree will even credit your $49 first Accounting purchase price towards the new software. Information about First Accounting and other Peachtree products is available on the company's home page on the World Wide Web at http://www.peach.com . (Jim Mallory/19951214/Press contact: Kelly Hopkins, Copithorne & Bellows, 770-392-8625; Public contact: Peachtree, 800-228-0068/FIRST951214/PHOTO) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 12/14/95 GENERAL China - Technology Newsbriefs (NEWS)(GENERAL)(PEK)(00009) China - Technology Newsbriefs 12/14/95 BEIJING, CHINA, 1995 DEC 14 (NB) -- In this news roundup from China, Intel's Pentium Pro gets a Chinese name; NEC brings computer network services to China; Information Expressway is developed in Liaoning province; and China Software Technology becomes general agent of IBM. Intel's Pentium Pro gets A Chinese Name Intel recently held a seminar in Guangzhou in the Guangdong province to give a Chinese name to its latest processor, the Pentium Pro, as an introduction into the Chinese market. Intel's Pentium already had a Chinese name, called "Ben Ten," meaning "gallop" in English. Intel gave the Chinese name "Gao Neng Ben Ten" to Pentium Pro, meaning "gallop with high capability." NEC Brings Computer Network Services To China Japan's NEC has signed an agreement with China's State Information Center to introduce the first nationwide personal computer network service in China. A main center will be established in Beijing, and sub- centers will be set up in Shanghai, Guangzhou, and nine other cities to help provide services. The operation is scheduled to begin next year. In the initial stage, the network will provide services, including Internet connection, to about 20,000 users -- mainly government organizations, large institutes, and companies. Information Expressway Developed In Liaoning Province Northeast China's Liaoning province has started building an information expressway linking 14 local cities using a Japanese government loan worth US$9 million. The province plans to build two information networks at the provincial and city levels, which are expected to start operation in 1998. The networks are to cover profiles of enterprises and products, commodity prices, the world economic situation, economic laws, investment projects, and macro-level economic analyses and forecasts. China Software Technology Corp. Becomes General Agent Of IBM IBM has signed a general agreement with China Software Technology Corp., making that company a general agent of IBM. The two parties are to cooperate on a number of projects involving development, applications, and the sale of OS/2 Warp. The cooperation will also involve technical training. (Chih-Ho Yu & Ning Huang/19951214) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 12/14/95 GENERAL Czech Republic - Plustek's Low-Price Document Scanner (NEWS)(GENERAL)(LON)(00010) Czech Republic - Plustek's Low-Price Document Scanner 12/14/95 PRAGUE, CZECH REPUBLIC, 1995 DEC 14 (NB) -- INEC s.r.o., a Czech modem manufacturer and computer peripherals reseller, has announced the immediate availability in the Czech Republic of the PageReader desktop document scanner from Plustek Inc. The sheet-feed scanner, which comes bundled with the Czech language capable Recognita OCR (optical character recognition) software, turns the desktop into a document communications center with transformation of any page up to size A4 into a fax, copy, scanned image, or word-processing document. The portable PageReader fits with ease in a briefcase and is great for lawyers and anyone that work alot with documents, said Vladimir Stuchly, technical and marketing director at INEC. It is the "first in this category" of portable A4-sized scanners and is available at "a very nice price." Similar scanners from other vendors with half the resolution sell for twice the price, Stuchly claimed. The scanner operates at six pages-per-minute (ppm) at 200 dots-per-inch (dpi) in black-and-white mode, features 400 dpi resolution (800 dpi interpolated), and supports grayscale, line art, and halftone scan modes. The PageReader is small with a footprint of 70 millimeters (mm) by 286mm, dimensions of 286mm by 70mm by 83mm dimensions, and it weighs less than one kilogram (kg). The scanner cooperates with any Windows-compatible fax software to fax scanned pages and can be used to copy documents to any Windows- compatible printer. The PageReader features Plustek's Touch-Free operation and PaperSense technology, which automatically executes the Action Manager, a program that enables selection from twelve actions, including copying, faxing, scanning, and OCR. The PageReader comes in two models, one for connection via the parallel port and the other via an IRQ (interrupt request)-free ISA (Industry Standard Architecture) interface card which provides smooth installation with avoidance of hardware conflicts. The price in the Czech Republic is 5,990 Kc (US$230). (Steven Slatem/19951214/Press Contact: INEC, tel +42-2-24225989, fax +42-2-24226014) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 12/14/95 WINDOWS Czech Republic - Leda's Electronic Translators (NEWS)(WINDOWS)(LON)(00011) Czech Republic - Leda's Electronic Translators 12/14/95 PRAGUE, CZECH REPUBLIC, 1995 DEC 14 (NB) -- Leda s.r.o. has announced that, this month, it will start shipping Windows versions of its Czech Lexical Database, consisting of electronic dictionaries and powerful software-enabled features for professional translators. The product ships with the customer's choice of the electronic versions of six print-published dictionaries and one encyclopedia. Value-added features include fast and intelligent searching system, ease of handling of retrieved data, spelling correction, memory and undo features, and the ability to create your own supplementary dictionary of words and terms which is linked into the search rules of the other dictionaries. There are a number of dictionary options. Czech-English Dictionary by Josef Fronek (35,000 entries and subentries, equivalent to the printed 1st edition from SPN, 1993. Requires six megabytes (MB) if installed on a hard disk. English-Czech Dictionary by Hais-Hodek. It is seen as the most comprehensive English-Czech dictionary, printed in 4 volumes: 280,000 English words and noun groups, 100,000 entries, 3,000 pages in book form, text corresponding to the 2nd edition published by Academia Printing House, 1992 and 1993. Requires 26MB if installed on a hard disk or available on CD-ROM. English-Czech/Czech-English Dictionary by Hais-Hodek. Considered the most comprehensive English-Czech dictionary with a bi-directional search: 280,000 English words and noun groups, 250,000 Czech words, and noun groups. Requires 45MB if installed on a hard disk or available on CD-ROM. English-Czech and Czech-English Dictionary of Computer Science, Data Processing and Telecommunications. It comprises 28,000 entries and corresponds with its printed version published in 1994. Requires 10MB if installed on a hard disk or available on CD-ROM. English-Czech Dictionary of Economics and Business -- 80,000 English terms and 100,000 Czech equivalents and translations. English-Czech Dictionary of Law -- 21,000 English terms and 26,000 Czech equivalents and translations. Czech Encyclopedia -- with 35,000 entries and 1,250 pages. The first Czech general-knowledge encyclopedia in print form. The electronic form is claimed to be rich in hypertext and fulltext features. Leda is preparing new multimedia software for encyclopedias and Czech language instruction, said Rudolf Cervenka, managing director at Leda. Regarding machine translation tools, Cervenka said that the firm is working on those, but that proper development of such tools requires a sufficiently sized market and that dictionaries in their current form are not suited to machine translation. He went on to explain that certain materials are better suited to machine translation than others. Systems requirements for the Czech Lexical Database are an IBM- compatible PC with at least a 80386 processor and 4MB of RAM, and Windows 3.1 or higher. A local area network version is also offered. Single end-user prices range up to 14,800 Kc (US$569) and LAN licenses are available. Reseller profit margins are typically 33%. Leda is offering 20% discounts to schools, educational institutions, and the healthcare sector. (Steven Slatem/19951214/Press Contact: Rudolf Cervenka, Leda, tel & fax +42-2-61219947) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 12/14/95 ONLINE PVT & Pipex To Offer Internet Access In Czech Republic (NEWS)(ONLINE)(LON)(00012) PVT & Pipex To Offer Internet Access In Czech Republic 12/14/95 BRNO, CZECH REPUBLIC, 1995 DEC 14 (NB) -- PVT a.s. has announced that it will start offering dial-up and dedicated leased line Internet connectivity throughout the Czech Republic in a partnership with the London-based Pipex, one of Europe's largest Internet providers. PVT, which built the X.25 network used for the coupon privatization of Czech firms in all major Czech cities, administers the RM System, an electronic securities exchange, and operates the Center of Securities database, and several other financial databases in the Czech Republic. In 1994, PVT upgraded the lines connecting the regional centers to the central node in Prague to 64 kilobits-per-second (Kbps) capacities and began a pilot project involving the installation of a two megabits-per-second (Mbps) optical lines. The company also installed six 64-bit Digital Equipment Alpha systems. A company spokesman said that a 64 Kbps leased line connection should cost about 50,000 Kc ($1,923) per month. PVT has a strong information service provider strategy and is expanding its business to encompass insurance, travel industry and further economic information services. Pipex (http://www.unipalm.pipex.com/ ), part of the Unipalm Group plc based in London, England, claims it is able to provide the highest Internet capacity to the US from Europe with a total bandwidth to 5.4Mbps. It reportedly has over 200 worldwide points of presence. Other Central & East European partners include iSYS in Hungary (http://www.isys.hu/ ), BankNet Kft. (http://www.banknet.net/ ) for very small aperture terminal services only, InterComp in Romania (http://www.vsat.ro/ ) -- VSAT, BankNet reseller, and UltraNet in Macedonia (http://ultra.ultra.com.mk/ ). (Steven Slatem /19951214) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 12/14/95 TELECOM Australia - Telstra Cuts ISDN Rates Slightly (NEWS)(TELECOM)(SYD)(00013) Australia - Telstra Cuts ISDN Rates Slightly 12/14/95 SYDNEY, AUSTRALIA 1995 DEC 14 (NB) -- Telstra has gestured towards its long-promised "affordable" ISDN (integrated services digital network) rates, announcing across-the-board line rental and call charge reductions for the digital service. Pending Austel approval, annual ISDN line rental will go down by just 12.7 percent from AUS$960 to around $839. Call charge rates will be reduced by "up to" 12.5 percent. The consensus among Internet service providers (ISPs) is that, although the cuts are welcome, they still do not put ISDN within the reach of average consumers, and will not greatly affect ISP operational costs. "It's well overdue, and hopefully the start of cooperation between Telstra and service providers in Australia," said AusNet's Peter Sertori. "Ultimately, rates will have to come down more than that if they're going to be anything near US levels, but it's a start and it's welcome." Magnadata's Luke Carruthers had a sharper response. "It's a very little decrease, isn't it? It's not going to affect our business one way or the other." According to Carruthers, the changes will move ISDN slightly closer to the SOHO (small office/home office) market, but will not touch general consumers. "What will really make a difference is when it becomes a consumer product," he says. Telstra spokesman Wayne Ferguson said that, if approved by Austel, the new ISDN reductions will take effect from February, 1996. Consumers can expect around 12.5 percent off ISDN peak-time charges which currently kick off with a flagfall of AUS17.5 cents for the first 120 seconds, and 7.5 cents for each 120-second period thereafter. Off-peak rates will also be reduced. The rates contrast with the USA's Pacific Bell ISDN fees: US$34.95 connection fee and $24.50 a month. Calls in business hours are 4 cents for the first minute, then 1 cent a minute, while off-peak calls are free. Ferguson says that further reductions will result from a series of market- tuned ISDN "packages" which Telstra plans to release in mid-1996. However, he could not specify the level of savings people could expect. (Dorothy Kennedy and Computer Daily News/19951214) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 12/14/95 LEGAL Minster Sues Tandy Over Sunday Work (NEWS)(LEGAL)(DEN)(00014) Minster Sues Tandy Over Sunday Work 12/14/95 BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS, U.S.A., 1995 DEC 14 (NB) -- A Massachusetts minister has filed what could become a $10 million claim against computer and electronics retailer Tandy Corp. (NYSE:TAN) because the company wanted him to work on Sunday. James Swasey alleges that the company violated the state's labor law, federal civil rights laws, and federal wiretapping statutes when it fired him from his job as a computer technician at a Computer City store in the Boston suburb of Saugus. He alleges he was fired because he refused to work on Sunday. The complaint, filed with the Massachusetts Commission Against Discrimination (MCAD) and the US Equal Employment Opportunity Commission last week, claims Swasey was fired in mid-June because he asked to be released from the duty of filling in at the service desk on an emergency basis on Sundays. Swasey was hired in January, 1995. Swasey's attorney claims his client was originally hired with the understanding that he wouldn't have to work on Sunday due to his ministerial duties. Attorney Randal Fritz said when Swasey filled out the Computer City employment application he checked the other six days of the week but left the "Sunday" box blank in the section of the application that asked what days he was available for work. Fritz said Swasey later agreed to work on the Sabbath temporarily until the company hired additional workers after several computer technicians left the company. Swasey was hired at about $9 an hour to configure personal computers sold at the Computer City store to the buyer's specifications. When the vacant positions were filled, Swasey went to his supervisor and asked to be relieved from his Sunday duties, said Fritz. The complaint also alleges that Tandy management secretly recorded an office conversation between Swasey and his supervisor in which Swasey again told his supervisor he could no longer work on Sunday. Fritz said the recording violated federal and state laws. Swasey lost an initial unemployment compensation hearing, but appealed that decision and won when he appeared before a judge in August. Tandy contested the payments on the ground that Swasey "engaged in misconduct against Tandy's interests" by backing out of his Sunday duties. Fritz declined to identify his client's religious affiliation except to say, "He is a Christian and is non-denominational." He said Swasey does not have a permanent congregation but fills in for other ministers and performs counseling and teen and prison ministries. Tandy has until mid-January to settle the complaint before a suit is filed in US District Court in Boston, according to Fritz. The attorney told Newsbytes his client is willing to settle with Tandy. When contacted by Newsbytes, a Tandy corporate spokesperson said she wasn't familiar with the case, but that it is company policy not to comment on legal matters. (Jim Mallory/19951214/Press contact: Randal Fritz, 508-740-3111 or Fran McGehee, Tandy, 817-390-3487) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 12/14/95 BROADCAST Ameritech Picks Michigan City For 2-Way Cable System (NEWS)(BROADCAST)(MSP)(00015) Ameritech Picks Michigan City For 2-Way Cable System 12/14/95 DETROIT, MICHIGAN, U.S.A., 1995 DEC 14 (NB) -- Ameritech (NYSE:AIT) has added another municipality to its growing cable infrastructure. The company announced that it has received its seventh cable TV franchise in the Detroit suburb of Southgate. With the Southgate City Council's unanimous vote, Ameritech will pump about $3.5 million into a two-way wide network. Construction on the network will begin in about three months, Ameritech officials said. As in the other communities where Ameritech is building cable TV networks, Ameritech will already have a competitor in Southgate in Comcast, Dave Onak, Ameritech spokesperson, told Newsbytes. But "community leaders are listening to what their residents want, and that's competition in cable TV," he said. Southgate Mayor Norma Wormlinger said that, with Ameritech coming in, her residents can choose a cable company like they do car dealers, basing decisions on product quality, customer service, and the price. "Creating competition will help ensure that we have access to the best cable services available anywhere," she said. In Southgate, like the other communities where Ameritech is at, the company will offer its "Americast" package of video programming, which will offer 80 to 90 channels of content, company officials said. Over the next few years Americast will expand to more than 300 channels, and include interactive video services like home shopping and games. The programming will be delivered via fiber optic lines, and will be separate from Ameritech's phone lines, officials said. Besides Southgate, Ameritech has received permission to build two-way cable networks in Columbus, Ohio, another suburban area of Detroit, and the south side of Chicago and some of the city's southern suburbs, all of which Newsbytes has reported on in the past. Previously, Dave Onak, Ameritech spokesperson, told Newsbytes that Ameritech is not only giving consumers a choice in cable TV providers, but that the regional Bell operating company (RBOC) is the first to offer television service under cable rules. This does not include RBOC's plan to offer so-called "video-dialtone" services, he said. Onak told Newsbytes the municipalities involved usually like Ameritech to work like a cable company because "they (the local governments) understand franchise agreements and they know how all of that works." He also said it is faster to build a cable TV network than to wait on final rulings on how to operate video dialtone. The company also said it is in discussions with more than 40 communities in the Chicago, Detroit, Milwaukee, Cleveland, and Columbus areas to build cable TV networks. (Bob Woods/19951214/Press Contact: Dave Onak, Ameritech, 312-526- 8095; Mayor Norma Wurmlinger, City of Southgate, 313-246-1305) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 12/14/95 ONLINE Ziff-Davis & Yahoo Team Up On Web Publishing (NEWS)(ONLINE)(TOR)(00016) Ziff-Davis & Yahoo Team Up On Web Publishing 12/14/95 NEW YORK, NEW YORK, U.S.A., 1995 DEC 14 (NB) -- Yahoo! Corp., operator of one of the most popular sites on the World Wide Web, and Ziff-Davis Publishing Co., one of the biggest computer-magazine publishers, have announced a deal that will see the two companies work together to deliver content online, on CD-ROM, and in print. As a result of the deal, Ziff-Davis's recently launched ZD Internet Life magazine will become Yahoo! Internet Life and will gain some new content provided by Yahoo!, said Greg Jarboe, a spokesman for Ziff-Davis. Internet Life will retain "the same mission that the magazine set out to accomplish" when it first hit the newsstands this fall, Jarboe said. The print version of the renamed publication will be on the stands in February and will be published quarterly. The printed Yahoo! Internet Life will come with a CD-ROM containing virtually everything in the printed magazine, plus the software needed to connect to the World Wide Web. Able to work with either Windows or Macintosh systems, the CD-ROM will provide access to the Web even if the computer on which it runs is not equipped with any Internet-access software, Jarboe said, although it will also offer subscribers the choice of using their own existing access software. Subscribers will also be able to order Internet access software through Yahoo! Internet Life, he said. The two companies also announced ZD/Yahoo! Computing on its ZD Net service on the Web. This will be a comprehensive online directory of resources on the Web, the companies said. Like Yahoo! Internet Life, it will carry advertising. ZD/Yahoo! Computing will be separate from the popular online guide that Yahoo! already operates on the Web, but both it and Yahoo! Internet Life will be linked with the main Yahoo! guide, which is at http://www.yahoo.com . The Yahoo! Internet Life Web site will be operating before the first issue of the renamed magazine appears in February, Jarboe said. It is located at http://www.zdil.com , and will be accessible using any Web browser, not just the software provided on the Internet Life CD-ROM. (Grant Buckler/19951214/Press Contact: Greg Jarboe, Ziff-Davis, 617-225-3500) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 800 12/14/95 LEGAL AT&T Wins Court Battle Over Inbound (NEWS)(LEGAL)(TOR)(00017) AT&T Wins Court Battle Over Inbound 800 12/14/95 BASKING RIDGE, NEW JERSEY, U.S.A., 1995 DEC 14 (NB) -- AT&T (NYSE:T) has emerged the victor in a court case brought against it by US WATS, Inc. (NASDAQ:USWI), a Bala Cynwyd, Pennsylvania, telecommunications reseller. US WATS had accused AT&T of illegally monopolizing inbound 800 toll-free telephone service and restraining trade to stop resellers competing against the long-distance giant. Charges were brought under the Antitrust Act and the Federal Communications Act. A jury in US District Court in Philadelphia not only found against US WATS in the original case, but upheld an AT&T counterclaim and awarded damages of $669,000 to AT&T. Stephen Parker, chairman of US WATS, told Newsbytes he was "disappointed and upset" at the verdict, but went on to say that his company does not expect the court defeat to derail its business plan for 1996. "We expect a record year, substantially increased revenues and margins," he said. As for the $669,000 in damages, "we have the resources to meet and pay that judgment," Parker said. US WATS has not decided whether to appeal the verdict, Parker added. For its part, AT&T issued a statement saying it was pleased with the verdict, and added that it hopes the conclusion "is not lost on others who have made similar baseless allegations." AT&T claimed that in the 11-week trial, US WATS was given full opportunity to present all the evidence believed to be favorable. Parker said his company's failure to change AT&T business practices through the courts will not hurt US WATS significantly because it has lessened its dependence on the market sector affected and no longer depends on AT&T as a carrier. US WATS had sought more than $200 million in damages from AT&T, along with the tripling of any antitrust damages. (Grant Buckler/19951214/Press Contact: Jim Byrnes, AT&T, 908-221-7876; Karen Way, AT&T, 908-221-6632; Stephen Parker, US WATS, 610-660-0100) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 12/14/95 BROADCAST ****Microsoft To Invest In New NBC Cable Channel (NEWS)(BROADCAST)(MSP)(00018) ****Microsoft To Invest In New NBC Cable Channel 12/14/95 NEW YORK CITY, NEW YORK, U.S.A., 1995 DEC 14 (NB) -- Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ:MSFT) and General Electric's (NYSE:GE) NBC said they are joining together to create a 24-hour news network that will exist both on cable TV and in cyberspace. Both Microsoft and NBC will invest $200 million each in the new network that will be called "MSNBC." Details of the joint venture were revealed during a news teleconference and satellite news conference, which Newsbytes attended. Microsoft will also invest $220 million to take a 50 percent stake in NBC's America's Talking cable network, where the news channel part of MSNBC will exist. The "MSNBC Cable" TV channel will begin operating in the middle of next year, officials said, giving it immediate distribution in about 20 million households. "MSNBC Online" will be delivered via the Internet's World Wide Web, and the current Microsoft Network (MSN), officials said at the news conference. In addition, cable operators will be able to distribute the interactive online service through high-speed cable modems as they become widely available over the next few years. The new venture is "one large step for electronic journalism," said Andrew Lack, president of NBC News. Each service will cross- promote the other, to let both viewers and cyber-surfers access a Web of interwoven news and information programs. Although Microsoft will be gaining access to NBC News content, "all of the news gathering will be done by NBC News. Microsoft will have no role in the editorial" decisions, said Robert Wright, president and chief executive officer of NBC. While NBC News will manage MSNBC Cable, both Microsoft and NBC will co-manage the interactive news service. Where will the money come from? Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates said besides subscription fees for MSN, he hopes to attract advertisers. But at an Asia Society dinner in Hong Kong last night, Gates said the network probably won't make any money for five to six years. But both companies decided to proceed with it anyway, he added. News reports have said negotiations between the two companies went into the evening last night. Other reports had stated Microsoft was going to make an investment in NBC in the billions of dollars. But Wright was quick to quash that rumor today, saying "There is no contemplated investment in NBC." NBC officials said they don't see any regulatory problems that might stand in the way of today's announced plan. Both Microsoft and NBC have Web sites with additional information on today's announcement, as well as the companies in general. NBC's is at http://www.nbc.com/ , while Microsoft is located at http://www.microsoft.com/ . (Bob Woods/19951214/Press Contact: Pam Snook, NBC, 212-664-7179) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 12/14/95 BROADCAST ****Pac Bell Retreats In Broadband Race (NEWS)(BROADCAST)(LAX)(00019) ****Pac Bell Retreats In Broadband Race 12/14/95 SAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1995 DEC 14 (NB) -- Just three months days ago, Pacific Bell announced a $16 billion program to install a broadband digital network with half the state of California wired by the year 2000. However, while the digital infrastructure is still in the plans, the time-frame has been extended, and the video aspects of it are in limbo. As Newsbytes reported in September, Pacific Bell's plans called for it to bring a fiber/coaxial cable hybrid (HFC) to one million homes by the end of 1996, and half the state by 2000. A spokesman for Pacific Bell was quoted as saying, "The service will provide the same offerings to customers as provided by cable companies -- about 70 channels of analog programming. In addition, we will add up to 300 digital channels. We plan to offer movies on demand, interactive games, home shopping, and complete telephony. Pacific Bell will have a full cable/telephony system in place before anyone else." Michael Fitzpatrick, president of Pacific Bell's Enterprise Group, said. "Pacific Telesis will provide high-speed data services in the next few months. This is going to be a full service network unlike anything you've ever seen." Three months days later, things have changed. Craig Watts, manager of corporate communications for Pacific Telesis Group, told Newsbytes, "The HFC project is still a go, but it might be slower than we originally thought. Our first implementation still will be in the Los Angeles area. Our plans are to go ahead with the construction of the HFC network in the Los Angeles, but at a slower pace than previously announced. "Pacific Bell had originally targeted one-million hookups by the end of 1996. We are pushing that back to 1997, and even though we will be hooked up, we won't be offering full video services over HFC until after the year 2000," said Watts. Pacific Bell is facing major competition to its base telephone business from cable television providers who are developing telephone over cable. Several cable companies have announced plans to implement telephone services in California, and Pacific Bell had announced that it would compete, in video, with its own HFC network. Pacific Bell now sees wireless television as a means of competing with the cable television competition. Recent purchases of three wireless systems (as reported December 8 by Newsbytes) that can reach seven million California homes might indicate a change from HFC hard wire to wireless as the method of choice for Pacific Bell. (Richard Bowers/19950905/Press Contact: Craig Watts, Pacific Telesis Group, 415-542-6980) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 12/14/95 LEGAL ****Online Liability Outlined By New York Court (NEWS)(LEGAL)(SFO)(00020) ****Online Liability Outlined By New York Court 12/14/95 NEW YORK, NEW YORK, U.S.A., 1995 DEC 14 (NB) -- Yesterday, a New York Supreme Court judge upheld an earlier ruling in the case of Stratton Oakmont versus Prodigy. Putting online services and content providers such as bulletin board systems (BBSs) in a "tough" position, Justice Stewart Ain ruled that what people write on forums must be controlled, or a provider may face legal responsibility for any libelous content. Early media coverage of the decision indicates the online industry could be in a difficult position and needs to reconsider the role of "online provider," or begin an appeal process to a higher court. Explaining the case, Brian Ek, spokesperson for Prodigy said, "This is not the outcome we wanted, but at the same time one has to consider all of the facts. In re-arguing our case, we were told by Ain that we needed to fulfill (certain) requirements. We needed to prove that the facts we presented were substantially different from facts in the earlier case, and we needed to (say) why they were not presented in the earlier case." According to Ek, Ain said Prodigy had met the first requirement, but did not fulfill the latter to his satisfaction. "This is the basis for his rejection of our appeal to re-argue," explained Ek. "Now our options are to petition the court to re-argue the case, consider an appeal or wait and watch the national Telecom bills in Congress and the Senate. "If one of the current versions of the Telecom bill passes and is signed by the President, this issue of content publisher and liability is moot. Both bills contain language which would release online providers from this type of liability issue. Right now we are trying to decided if one of the bills will pass before the end of the year," said Ek. "As it stands now, an online service can get off the hook by exercising no editorial control of content or exercise control and risk possible libelous actions," he said. "It is important that people understand this case is an in-process issue and the final outcome could be solved through congressional action or additional legal steps." Interestingly, Stratton Oakmont, which originally filed a libelous complaint against Prodigy, settled out of court with the online service months ago. For the time being, once an online service edits content, it becomes a publisher and, as such, is responsible for any libel committed. (Patrick McKenna/19951214/Press Contact: Carol Wallace, Prodigy, 914-448-2496) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 12/14/95 ONLINE Web Conference - IBM infoMarket Unveils 1996 Plans (NEWS)(ONLINE)(BOS)(00021) Web Conference - IBM infoMarket Unveils 1996 Plans 12/14/95 BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS, U.S.A., 1995 DEC 14 (NB) -- IBM's infoMarket has just added its first "NewsTicker" service as well as its first advertiser, and the new "integrated" Web-based information service is now forging ahead with plans. Those plans include "Cryptolopes," access from Mac and OS/2 Web browsers, and more content providers, NewsTicker services, and search methods for 1996, revealed Steve Isaacs, in a meeting with Newsbytes at the 4th International World Wide Web Conference in Boston. During a demo, Isaacs showed Newsbytes how infoMarket lets the user search the databases of single or multiple content providers, ranking the items found in terms of "relevance" to user-entered search terms. Now available on infoMarket are more than 20 content providers -- including Yahoo!, Open Market, Newsbytes, and Associated Press, for example -- along with a NewsTicker from Reuters NewMedia Inc., plus an online ad from a Washington State-based Internet service provider (ISP), according to Isaacs, who is marketing manager for infoMarket. The IBM exec demonstrated how, after typing in one or more search terms, you can request a search of any number of infoMarket's content provider databases, ranging from one to "all." A list of news stories, magazine articles, white papers, and other items meeting the search criteria then appears on the screen, ranked in terms of "proximity" of search terms and other aspects of "relevance." In addition, a NewsTicker of news headlines from Reuters NewMedia now scrolls continuously in a clickable "ticker format" at the bottom of the screen, allowing access at any time to the latest news of the day. Isaacs told Newsbytes that infoMarket is based on a "super search engine" that is equipped with "drones," or interfaces, to the search engines from vendors like Verity, Folio, and Fulcrum which are employed by infoMarket's content providers. Right now, he maintained, you can access content from all the infoMarket content providers over the Web free of charge, by using a Windows 3.1- or Windows 95-based browser to access the infoMarket Web site at http://www.infomkt.ibm.com . But at the end of the first quarter, infoMarket will start to package some of the content in "Cryptolopes." As previously reported in Newsbytes, the new Cryptolopes combine the concepts of "encryption" and "envelopes." Users will receive information from content providers in sealed containers that include an abstract of the information in the package, the size of the file, any coupons or other promotions associated with the information, and conditions for use and pricing, said John Crigler, VP and managing director of infoMarket, during an earlier meeting with Newsbytes at Internetworld in Boston. A content provider might charge one price for downloading an article, and a higher fee for printing the document, for example. After agreeing to the terms of the "Cryptolope," the user will obtain a "private key" to open the packet of information. Isaacs told Newsbytes at the 4th International World Wide Web Conference that, even after the Cryptolopes are introduced next year, infoMarket users will receive the same ranked list of "relevant" information after instituting a search. Some content still be available on infoMarket free of charge, as will the NewsTicker services, he added. But if the desired information is enclosed in a Cryptolope, a Cryptolope screen will appear once the request for information is made. Also in 1996, IBM plans to add more NewsTicker services, content providers, and advertisers to infoMarket, along with a new Boolean search method and the ability to access infoMarket with the use of Mac- and OS/2-based Web browsers, Isaacs reported. NewsTicker service providers that are now being lined up include publishers of sports, financial, and "industry-specific" news, Newsbytes was told. The initial advertisement on infoMarket comes from Erol's, noted Isaacs. The ad is hotlinked to the Web site of the Washington State-based ISP. Also in 1996, he divulged, users can expect to see pointers to infoMarket from other online service providers. Prodigy has already added a pointer of this kind, according to the IBM exec. Along with infoMarket, IBM has launched a set of "Plug-and-Publish" tool kits, Isaacs observed. The kits are targeted at content providers for the "wider Web," as well as at corporate developers and systems integrators interested in integrating internal databases with infoMarket for use over internal "IntraNets." As previously reported in Newsbytes, the infoMarket kits include the Client Toolkit, for customizing Web browsers and building "branded storefronts" for content providers; the Interface Toolkit, for creating interfaces to corporate databases and data warehouses; and the Services Toolkit, for adding language translation, protocol conversion, and data filter enhancements. Aside from Newsbytes, Associated Press, Yahoo!, and Open Market, other vendors on the list of initial content providers for infoMarket include American Business Information, Inc.; BRP Publications Inc.; Cambridge Scientific Abstracts; Comtex; Disclosure; I/B/E/S International; Iconovex Corp; Information Access Company; The McKinley Group. Also on the roster are Netscape; Personal Library Software; The Reference Press; Sedona; Simba Information Inc.; SRA International; States News Service; Verity; and West Publishing. (Jacqueline Emigh/19951214/Reader Contact: IBM, 914-765-1900; Press Contacts: Mike King, IBM, 914-766-1119; Robert Crooke, Reuters America Inc., 212-606-3587; Matt Van Ryn, Marlena Villafane, Donna Sokolsky, or Ellen Cooper, Technology Solutions for IBM, 212-696-2000) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 12/14/95 GOVT Electric Buyers & Sellers To Browse The Web (NEWS)(GOVT)(WAS)(00022) Electric Buyers & Sellers To Browse The Web 12/14/95 WASHINGTON, D.C., U.S.A., 1995 DEC 14 (NB) -- The nation's buyers, sellers, and transmitters of electricity will soon begin browsing the Internet's World Wide Web, under a proposed rule the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission issued yesterday. The commission adopted a proposed rule on "real-time information networks" that is designed to give all buyers and sellers of electricity access to utility monopoly transmission grids. A final rule is expected in the spring. The rule largely builds upon the work of two technical task forces FERC commissioned earlier this year to look at the issues of what information to put on electronic information networks to aid in open access to electric utility transmission systems, and how to make the information available. On the "how" side, the answer is the Internet and its graphical interface, the World Wide Web. All utilities with transmission capacity will be required to post a common set of data about that capacity on the Internet in consistent data formats with common transmission protocols. The utilities themselves will be required to rely on the RIN information in their own off-system sales, so that they have no information advantages in the market place. Buyers or sellers of energy will be able to log onto utility Web sites, or third-party sites that have been developed in the private sector to customize the basic utility data, to see information about available transmission capacity, prices, and other terms and conditions. They will also be able to hot link to other utility Web sites for comparison shopping, and download the data for in-house comparison shopping. At this point, FERC says it does not contemplate that the Web sites will offer energy sales information on top of the transmission information, but many of the third parties that are already springing up, such as Continental Power Exchange (CPEX), are offering energy sales as well as transmission data. Third-party information vendors such as CPEX were pushing FERC to adopt the Internet standard as an available, robust and secure set of communications protocols that does not require any player to reinvent communications wheels. The "how" task force, led by the Electric Power Research Institute, which had developed its own communications standards based on the Internet's TCP/IP (Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol) standard, agreed that the Internet was the best on-ramp to the information. The FERC-proposed rulemaking asks a series of questions for which it would like answers in the rulemaking proceeding. Among them are such as which Web browser is best, and there is dispute within the agency, FERC sources told Newsbytes, about whether to require a particular browser or let that up to the parties. There is also a group championing Netscape as the default browser and another group pushing for Sun Microsystems' Hot Java. The proposed rulemaking also asks whether the commission should extend its information requirements to non-public utilities that own or control transmission, such as the Bonneville Power Administration and the Tennessee Valley Authority, both owned and operated by the US government. The information rule, said Commissioner Donald Santa, "Begins to flesh out what functional unbundling means in the real world," because standards of conduct in the rulemaking will mean that utility marketers will have no more information than outsiders. Commissioner William Massey said that while the RIN rulemaking may "appear to be a minor issue, I disagree. Information is absolutely critical" to the new, open environment. (Kennedy Maize/19951214) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 12/14/95 LEGAL Panel Backs Private Internet Smut Control, Access For Schools (NEWS)(LEGAL)(WAS)(00023) Panel Backs Private Internet Smut Control, Access For Schools 12/14/95 WASHINGTON, D.C., U.S.A., 1995 DEC 14 (NB) -- A federal advisory panel of community, business, and education leaders yesterday said that the government "should not be in the business of regulating content on the information superhighway." The warning from the National Information Infrastructure Advisory Council, which gives advice to the Commerce Department, comes as Congress is about to put government censors in control of pornography online. In a letter to Commerce Secretary Ron Brown, the council said government "should defer to the use of privately provided filtering, reviewing and rating mechanisms, and parental supervision, as the best means of preventing access by minors to inappropriate materials." The panel also said that local communities should push their schools and libraries to get on the Internet by the turn of the century. The panel estimated it would cost about $11 billion to connect all public schools to the net, about 1.5 percent of the schools' total budgets. "We know its going to happen anyway in 15 to 20 years," said Edward McCracken, chief executive officer of Silicon Graphics Inc. and co-chairman of the advisory council. "What we decided was, why not try to do it earlier? The benefits to the country would be great." It is going to be up to local communities to push the school and library connections, said Carol Fukunaga, a panelist who is a state senator in Hawaii, because there is no federal money for such a project. Poor school districts and those in rural areas will face the toughest obstacles. Low-cost used equipment is a good way for poor schools to get started, said McCracken. "Even fairly low-powered computers can be fairly good Internet access points," he said. Other members of the council include: Delano Lewis, president of National Public Radio; Morton Bahr, president of the Communications Workers of America; John Cooke, president of the Disney Channel; LaDonna Harris, president of Americans for Indian Opportunity; Esther Dyson, chairman of the Electronic Frontier Foundation; and Bonnie Bracey, a teacher in Arlington, Va. (Kennedy Maize/19951214) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 12/14/95 TRENDS Foreign Share Of Japan Semiconductor Market Stays Over 20% (NEWS)(TRENDS)(WAS)(00024) Foreign Share Of Japan Semiconductor Market Stays Over 20% 12/14/95 TOKYO, JAPAN, 1995 DEC 14 (NB) -- The share of Japan's semiconductor market held by foreign suppliers in the third quarter of 1995 is holding steady at above 20 percent, according to the Electronic Industries Association of Japan. The 20 percent figure is the target under the US-Japan semiconductor agreement, which Japan wants to scrap and the US government wants to keep. The agreement, first put into place in 1986, expires on its own in July, unless it is reinstated. Under one formula in the agreement, the foreign share of the market in Japan is 26.2 percent. It is 27 percent under a second formula both parties use to judge market share. EIAJ's Keiya Toyonaga, senior vice president of Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., said that "as seen in the market share numbers released today, access by foreign semiconductors in the Japanese market continues to demonstrate progress." Toyonaga added, "So long as foreign semiconductor manufacturers continue to supply semiconductors that meet users' needs in Japan, foreign semiconductors will remain an established part of the Japanese market." The announcement marks the eighth consecutive quarter in which the foreign market share exceeded the 20 percent figure. Last month, the EIAJ announced that all the objectives of the semiconductor deal had been achieved and further governmental intervention in the semiconductor sector is unwarranted. But US Trade Representative Mickey Kantor said that the US believes the agreement is important in keeping the market open and the US will pursue a new agreement. Toyonaga said, "In order for Japan to keep up with rapidly developing digital technology, Japanese equipment manufacturers are purchasing qualified semiconductors from worldwide sources." Toyonaga added, "The Japanese semiconductor industry can be expected to continue to engage in cooperative activities based on commercial considerations. Given the competitive global conditions of today's market structure, semiconductor suppliers and users throughout the world must cooperate among themselves." (Kennedy Maize/19951214/Press Contact: Jerry Johnson, EIAJ, 202-434-8522) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 12/14/95 ONLINE Get On The Web Without A Computer (NEWS)(ONLINE)(SFO)(00025) Get On The Web Without A Computer 12/14/95 SAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1995 DEC 14 (NB) -- Set for introduction tomorrow is WebWho, an Internet tool which will allow anyone to open a World Wide Web site and maintain it, even if they don't have a computer. Scientific Research Management of San Jose, California, says users do not have to have an e-mail address or an Internet connection to participate. Newsbytes has learned WebWho will act as a Web directory for businesses and individuals. For approximately $100 a year, anyone can create a Web homepage with 150 words and two hyperlinks to other sites. Along with the Web page, users will be able to choose 20 words as keywords and catagory descriptions which will be used as the basis for searching the WebWho database. Additionally, users may change their descriptions, keywords, category listings and hyperlinks whenever and as often as they please. A spokesperson for the company told Newsbytes, "This service will allow people from around the world to get onto the Internet even if they do not have a computer. This announcement expands the Web to the rest of the world. A small business may not have a computer or access to the Internet and the Web, but WebWho will allow them to become a part of this dynamic technological revolution." The formal announcement tomorrow will provide details explaining how to contact the company and set-up a Web page without a computer. It appears the WebWho name is taken from the "Who's Who" concept and will compete indirectly with other search services such as Yahoo and InfoSeek. (Patrick McKenna/19951214) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 00 12/14/95 APPLE ***MacWeek Says Apple Plans To Layoff 800-2, (NEWS)(APPLE)(SFO)(00026) ***MacWeek Says Apple Plans To Layoff 800-2,000 12/14/95 SAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1995 DEC 14 (NB) -- Apple Computer Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) says MacWeek was speculating on rumors when it printed an article saying Apple's board of directors plans to layoff up to 2,000 employees in January. These words echo the sentiments of Mike Murphy, analyst and publisher of the California Technology Stock Letter, who, several weeks ago, told Newsbytes, "I would not be surprised if Apple began laying off employees after the first of the year. The company will not do anything like that before Christmas because they expect heavy sales through December and will need the staff. However, if they cannot turn things around quickly they could consider layoffs after January 1." Murphy made his remarks in relation to problems which have plagued the company throughout 1995. Apple has faced tough competition as computers based on Intel microprocessors continued to drop in price. Although Apple said it would not get into a price war for desktop computers, it has still had to offer its products at a low profit margin. Almost two weeks ago Apple announced cuts as high as 25% for certain Performa and PowerPC models. The company has also fought an inventory problem due to supply problems with important computer parts such as faster PowerPC microprocessors needed to operate its higher-end desktop models. Additionally, Michael Spindler, in response to questions about current regional sales, indicated Apple could be in for another difficult quarterly report, saying sales are not what they expect in the US, Japan, and Europe. The MacWeek report states Apple's newly formed group, Apple Americas, may be the hardest hit. The group is in charge of sales and marketing for the US, South America, and Canada. The article also states Apple may outsource telephone support services. Calls to Apple Computer were unreturned by Newsbytes deadline. (Patrick McKenna/19951214) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 12/14/95 ONLINE ****Netcom & Security First Bank Join For Internet Banking (NEWS)(ONLINE)(MSP)(00027) ****Netcom & Security First Bank Join For Internet Banking 12/14/95 SAN JOSE, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1995 DEC 14 (NB) -- Netcom On-Line Communication Services (NASDAQ:NETC) and Security First Network Bank, FSB have announced an industry alliance that officials from both companies said will help new and existing Netcom customers take advantage of banking via the Internet. As a part of the companies' initial offering, Netcom customers who open and use a Security First Network Bank account will receive a credit for Internet access equal to $60 for their first three or four months of service, officials said. The offer is available for a limited time. Netcom customers can access their Security First Network Bank accounts, pay bills online, write checks, use ATM (automatic teller machine) and debit cards, and manage their accounts from any modem-equipped PC, officials said. With Netcom's high-speed digital network, bank customers can access the bank at speeds up to 28.8 kilobits-per-second (Kbps) from more than 200 US metropolitan areas. The bank, calling itself the world's first Internet bank, provides its services via a software system called Virtual Bank Manager (VBM), from Five Paces Inc. Transactions using the software are secure, officials said, because it uses a secure operating system developed by SecureWare Inc. of Atlanta. The same system is used to protect data transmissions for the US military and various intelligence agencies. Security First officials said VBM is the only electronic banking system that uses the SecureWare technology. Netcom customers will use the software in conjunction with Netcom's NetCruiser Internet access software to link with the bank, Netcom's Don Hutchison told Newsbytes. James S. Mahan III, chief executive officer of Security First, said both companies together will provide "unparalleled access and banking service to anyone" with a computer and a modem. "The Netcom and Security First offer is an ideal way to capture the benefits of both the World Wide Web and online banking with the world's first Internet bank." For additional information, both companies maintain World Wide Web sites. Security First's is at http://www.sfnb.com/ , while Netcom's is located at http://www.netcom.com/ . (Bob Woods/19951214/Press Contacts: Jeannie Slone, Netcom, 408-556- 3211; Kim Humphurys, Security First Network Bank, 404-315-6296; Public Contact: Security First Network Bank, 800-SFNB-321) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 12/14/95 TRENDS Novell Increases Global Market Share With GroupWise (NEWS)(TRENDS)(LON)(00028) Novell Increases Global Market Share With GroupWise 12/14/95 BRACKNELL, BERKSHIRE, ENGLAND, 1995 DEC 14 (NB) -- Novell is claiming that GroupWise, its groupware messaging suite, is now the number one package of its type, a position that company officials say is at least partially due to the current delays with Microsoft Exchange. Allen Scott, Novell's EMEA (European Middle East & Africa) regional product manager for GroupWise, explained that IDC, the market research company's latest report, shows that Novell leads the groupware market with a worldwide installed base of 19.1 percent. According to Scott, in the UK market, resellers are reporting that GroupWise has done well since more customers are insisting on "reliable groupware solutions that can leverage the power of the network and meet their messaging needs today." Scott claims that Novell's integrated messaging system is being reinforced as the de facto groupware product as further delays to Microsoft Exchange help to fuel its sales growth. "Users do not have to wait to enjoy the benefits of increased productivity. The growth of GroupWise and its market share are evidence of its success. Microsoft Exchange has not started to ship and has yet to prove itself in the market place," he explained. According to Jon Summers, UK business manager at Barratt Edwards International, a Novell reseller, customers are wanting solutions that are tried and tested, rather than effectively beta test releases. John Garney, reseller Dataway's Novell business manager, meanwhile, said that GroupWise is a proven product, since it is well established and allows users to improve their productivity from the word go. "These factors are important to our customers and explain why GroupWise has sold so well," he said. According to Novell, more than two million copies of GroupWise have been sold since the release of version 4.1 in August, 1994, resulting in an installed base of over five million users worldwide. Novell also claims that the package is growing at an unprecedented 128 percent per annum. (Sylvia Dennis/19951214/Press Contact: Vivienne Wilson, Novell, +44-1344-724460, Internet e-mail vivienne_wilson@novell.co.uk; Reader Contact: Novell, tel +44-1344-724000, fax +44-1344-724419) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 12/14/95 ONLINE UK Banking Ombudsman Plugs Into The Web (NEWS)(ONLINE)(LON)(00029) UK Banking Ombudsman Plugs Into The Web 12/14/95 LONDON, ENGLAND, 1995 DEC 14 (NB) -- The Office of the Banking Ombudsman (OBO) has announced it has opened its own set of pages on the World Wide Web. According to OBO, however, the pages, which are located at http://www.intervid.co.uk/intervid/obo , are designed to be less of a showcase and more of a method for customers of UK bank and financial services organization to complain about allegedly bad advice and high charges. Nick Rosen, a spokesperson for the Intervid Internet service, which OBO is locating its Web pages on, told Newsbytes that the OBO service is designed to allow people to easily complain about their bank or financial institution. "Whether you think you were overcharged for an overdraft, short- changed by an ATM (automated teller machine) machine, or chiseled on a mortgage, you can e-mail the banking ombudsman," he explained. He added that all the major British banks and building societies are covered by the scheme. According to Rosen, the banks have agreed to be bound by the ombudsman's decision. Customers who do not accept the ombudsman's decision can still opt for legal action at a later stage. Newsbytes suggested that OBO might be effectively opening the floodgates to a lot of e-mail from disgruntled bank customers, who previously might have been put off complaining because they had to write a long letter. "That is why we have created an interactive menu system. People who access the complaints button on the Web site cannot send e-mail directly to OBO, but instead have to enter a few salient details of their complaint on a form. This has acted as a buffer for inappropriate correspondence with OBO," he said. Interestingly, Rosen told Newsbytes that the level of e-mails from the Web site has not been as great as was first anticipated, and, because of this, a potential problem of excessive e-mail may not occur. "I'm now considering putting a third button -- direct e-mail -- on the menu pages, as an experiment. If things get too much for the Ombudsman's office, we can change it around again," he said. Rosen went on to say that, since the Ombudman's office is rated on the number of complaints its receives, having a Web site is a significant boost for the Government-sponsored office, since it makes life a lot easier for the complainers to complain, and allows a rapid dialog to take place between OBO and the people. (Steve Gold/19951214/Press Contact: Nick Rosen,Intervid, tel +44-171- 828-8218, fax +44-171-233-6233, Internet e-mail nick@intervid.co.uk) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 12/14/95 TRENDS Computer Newspaper PC Ads Tracked By Instat (NEWS)(TRENDS)(LAX)(00030) Computer Newspaper PC Ads Tracked By Instat 12/14/95 SCOTTSDALE, ARIZONA, U.S.A., 1995 DEC 14 (NB) -- For the past few weeks, In-Stat Research, has been tracking the computer ads in the Sunday newspaper supplements to determine the kinds of PCs being offered to consumers during the Christmas season. The report does not include mail-order, the Internet, or direct factory offerings. Jim Beedle, a senior analyst at Instat, and author of the report, told Newsbytes, "Most PCs are still being bought at retail through superstores or computer electronics stores. Consumers seem to be willing to pay a little bit more to have the comfort of real people service and warranty on the products." According to In-Stat, the mainstream consumer PC advertised during the 1995 pre-Christmas season is a multimedia PC with a Pentium 100 megahertz (MHz) microprocessor, eight megabytes of memory, a 1.2 gigabyte (GB) hard drive, a quad-speed CD-ROM drive, a 14-inch monitor, and a 14.4 kilobits-per-second (Kbps) fax/modem. The report's first observation is that there are very few 486 microprocessor-based PCs being advertised. Entry-level machines are typically 75MHz Pentium-based, while mid-range computers include a Pentium running at either 90 MHz or 100MHz. The high-end computer will have either a 120MHz or 133MHz Pentium processor. The report says 8MB of RAM is offered for low- and mid-range PCs, while 16MB is offered with most high-end products. Hard drives are 850MB only in low-end machines, while mid-range machines have 1GB or 1.2GB storage. High-end PCs, meanwhile, have 1.6GB. Cache memory is hardly advertised. The amount of video memory is seldom advertised, and, when it is, the amount offered is 1MB. Fourteen-inch monitors are standard, with a few high-end PCs offering 15-inch monitors. Quad-speed CD-ROM drives, 16-bit sound cards, and speakers, are universal. Color inkjet printers, telephone answering systems, or MPEG (Motion Picture Experts Group) capability are the most frequent extras offered as incentives. "Windows 95 and a generous package of software programs are advertised with every PC -- low-end, mid-range, or high-end," said Beedle. 28.8 Kbps fax/modems are offered only with high-end machines, while 14.4 Kbps fax/modems are standard. Jim Beedle predicted for Newsbytes what might be in store for next Christmas. "It will look a lot like this year's system only bigger at somewhat higher prices. Next year's PC will still be multimedia, still with a Pentium, but with 150MHz (speed). Sixteen MB of RAM, and a 1.6GB hard drive will the standard. While I don't know exactly the nature of the modems that will be offered, one thing is certain, they will be faster. Another thing I have a great deal of comfort predicting is that there will be even more software included than this year." (Richard Bowers/19951214/Press Contact: John Cerelli, In-Stat, 602-483-4440) (SUMMARY)(GENERAL)(MSP)(00031) Newsbytes Daily Summary 12/14/95 MINNEAPOLIS, MINNESOTA, U.S.A., 1995 DEC 14 (NB) -- These are capsules of all today's news stories: ======================================================================== ------------| N E W S B Y T E S D A I L Y S U M M A R Y |---------- ------------| Thursday, December 14, 1995 |---------- ======================================================================== (c) Newsbytes News Network (Tm) Editor in Chief: Wendy Woods ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Newsbytes News Network's on the Web! Check out http://www.nbnn.com for free daily top stories from Newsbytes and its affiliate publications, and from PC Week, MacWeek, and other Ziff news magazines. A subscription gives you all the news, full-text, plus the most comprehensive database of past computer stories online. The keyword-searchable database dates from today back through 1983. Subscriptions are $24.95 for three months. Questions? Send to 'administrator@newsbytes.com' For Japanese Newsbytes and additional services, see the Newsbytes Pacifica Website at http://www.islandtel.com/newsbytes/ ------------------------------------------------------------------------ CATEGORY HEADLINES (*** indicates today's top stories) STORY # ======================================================================== APPLE ***MacWeek Says Apple Plans To Layoff 800-2,000............ 26 BROADCAST Ameritech Picks Michigan City For 2-Way Cable System....... 15 BROADCAST ****Microsoft To Invest In New NBC Cable Channel.......... 18 BROADCAST ****Pac Bell Retreats In Broadband Race................... 19 BUSINESS Schlumberger & Serif Form Smart Card Joint Venture......... 02 GENERAL China - Technology Newsbriefs.............................. 09 GENERAL Czech Republic - Plustek's Low-Price Document Scanner...... 10 GOVT Electric Buyers & Sellers To Browse The Web................ 22 LEGAL Polish Telecoms Company Fined By Govt...................... 03 LEGAL ****UK Businessman Found Guilty In Credit Card Scam....... 05 LEGAL Minster Sues Tandy Over Sunday Work........................ 14 LEGAL AT&T Wins Court Battle Over Inbound 800.................... 17 LEGAL ****Online Liability Outlined By New York Court........... 20 LEGAL Panel Backs Private Internet Smut Control, Access For Schoo 23 ONLINE Internet Update............................................ 01 ONLINE UK Firm Offers Budget Offline Web Browser.................. 06 ONLINE PVT & Pipex To Offer Internet Access In Czech Republic..... 12 ONLINE Ziff-Davis & Yahoo Team Up On Web Publishing............... 16 ONLINE Web Conference - IBM infoMarket Unveils 1996 Plans......... 21 ONLINE Get On The Web Without A Computer.......................... 25 ONLINE ****Netcom & Security First Bank Join For Internet Banking 27 ONLINE UK Banking Ombudsman Plugs Into The Web.................... 29 PC Smartcard Provides Laptop, PC Security..................... 07 TELECOM UK - Ericsson's Mobile Phone Brand-Awareness Campaign...... 04 TELECOM Australia - Telstra Cuts ISDN Rates Slightly............... 13 TRENDS Foreign Share Of Japan Semiconductor Market Stays Over 20%. 24 TRENDS Novell Increases Global Market Share With GroupWise........ 28 TRENDS Computer Newspaper PC Ads Tracked By Instat................ 30 WINDOWS Peachtree's Low-Cost First Accounting 2.0 For Windows...... 08 WINDOWS Czech Republic - Leda's Electronic Translators............. 11 ======================================================================== These are the headlines and first paragraphs of each story, in order: 1 -> Internet Update -- In this roundup of new services and resources on the global Internet: The European directory; Rhone Poulenc debuts; NATO Web server; Nothing but coffee; China business news service; Sports events database; Treaty of Versailles; Doctor HTML; Smithsonian Institution libraries. 2 -> Schlumberger & Serif Form Smart Card Joint Venture -- Schlumberger Industries of France and Serif Cowells' division in the UK have formed a joint venture to meet what the companies call "the emerging smart card market." 3 -> Polish Telecoms Company Fined By Govt -- In what many see as a "shot across the bows" of an errant telecom industry generally in Poland, the Ministry for Trade has imposed a 500,000 Zloty ($230,000) on Telekomunicja Polska, the former state-controlled telecoms company. 4 -> UK - Ericsson's Mobile Phone Brand-Awareness Campaign -- Ericsson, the Swedish telco, says it has started a pan-European brand-awareness campaign for the company's mobile phone division that will cost several tens of millions of dollars, and at least UKP3 million ($5 million) in the UK alone over the next two months. 5 -> ****UK Businessman Found Guilty In Credit Card Scam -- A former mobile phone dealer who went to college to study computing has been found guilty of masterminding a "highly sophisticated" international fraud with "potentially limitless" possibilities. 6 -> UK Firm Offers Budget Offline Web Browser -- Nildram Software has unveiled Secret Agent, a World Wide Web browser companion program for Netscape, the popular Internet browser. According to Adrian Mardlin, a spokesperson for the company, Secret Agent supports offline reading and indexing facilities to what he claims has been, to date, an expensive and sometimes slow online activity. 7 -> Smartcard Provides Laptop, PC Security -- If you need to provide exceptional security for the data on your laptop computer PC Security Inc., a subsidiary of United Kingdom-based PC Security Limited, has a product for your consideration, called Stoplock PCMCIA Smartcard. 8 -> Peachtree's Low-Cost First Accounting 2.0 For Windows -- Peachtree Software Inc., a subsidiary of Automated Data Processing (NYSE: ADP), has announced availability of Peachtree First Accounting - Release 2.0 for Windows. The software has a street price of about $49 and includes a general ledge, sales and receivables, accounts payable, inventory, payroll, job/project tracking, and reporting functions.. 9 -> China - Technology Newsbriefs -- In this news roundup from China, Intel's Pentium Pro gets a Chinese name; NEC brings computer network services to China; Information Expressway is developed in Liaoning province; and China Software Technology becomes general agent of IBM. 10 -> Czech Republic - Plustek's Low-Price Document Scanner -- INEC s.r.o., a Czech modem manufacturer and computer peripherals reseller, has announced the immediate availability in the Czech Republic of the PageReader desktop document scanner from Plustek Inc. The sheet-feed scanner, which comes bundled with the Czech language capable Recognita OCR (optical character recognition) software, turns the desktop into a document communications center with transformation of any page up to size A4 into a fax, copy, scanned image, or word-processing document. 11 -> Czech Republic - Leda's Electronic Translators -- Leda s.r.o. has announced that, this month, it will start shipping Windows versions of its Czech Lexical Database, consisting of electronic dictionaries and powerful software-enabled features for professional translators. The product ships with the customer's choice of the electronic versions of six print-published dictionaries and one encyclopedia. 12 -> PVT & Pipex To Offer Internet Access In Czech Republic -- PVT a.s. has announced that it will start offering dial-up and dedicated leased line Internet connectivity throughout the Czech Republic in a partnership with the London-based Pipex, one of Europe's largest Internet providers. 13 -> Australia - Telstra Cuts ISDN Rates Slightly -- Telstra has gestured towards its long-promised "affordable" ISDN (integrated services digital network) rates, announcing across-the-board line rental and call charge reductions for the digital service. Pending Austel approval, annual ISDN line rental will go down by just 12.7 percent from AUS$960 to around $839. 14 -> Minster Sues Tandy Over Sunday Work -- A Massachusetts minister has filed what could become a $10 million claim against computer and electronics retailer Tandy Corp. (NYSE:TAN) because the company wanted him to work on Sunday. 15 -> Ameritech Picks Michigan City For 2-Way Cable System -- Ameritech (NYSE:AIT) has added another municipality to its growing cable infrastructure. The company announced that it has received its seventh cable TV franchise in the Detroit suburb of Southgate. 16 -> Ziff-Davis & Yahoo Team Up On Web Publishing -- Yahoo! Corp., operator of one of the most popular sites on the World Wide Web, and Ziff-Davis Publishing Co., one of the biggest computer-magazine publishers, have announced a deal that will see the two companies work together to deliver content online, on CD-ROM, and in print. 17 -> AT&T Wins Court Battle Over Inbound 800 -- AT&T (NYSE:T) has emerged the victor in a court case brought against it by US WATS, Inc. (NASDAQ:USWI), a Bala Cynwyd, Pennsylvania, telecommunications reseller. 18 -> ****Microsoft To Invest In New NBC Cable Channel -- Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ:MSFT) and General Electric's (NYSE:GE) NBC said they are joining together to create a 24-hour news network that will exist both on cable TV and in cyberspace. Both Microsoft and NBC will invest $200 million each in the new network that will be called "MSNBC." 19 -> ****Pac Bell Retreats In Broadband Race -- Just three months days ago, Pacific Bell announced a $16 billion program to install a broadband digital network with half the state of California wired by the year 2000. However, while the digital infrastructure is still in the plans, the time-frame has been extended, and the video aspects of it are in limbo. 20 -> ****Online Liability Outlined By New York Court -- Yesterday, a New York Supreme Court judge upheld an earlier ruling in the case of Stratton Oakmont versus Prodigy. Putting online services and content providers such as bulletin board systems (BBSs) in a "tough" position, Justice Stewart Ain ruled that what people write on forums must be controlled, or a provider may face legal responsibility for any libelous content. 21 -> Web Conference - IBM infoMarket Unveils 1996 Plans -- IBM's infoMarket has just added its first "NewsTicker" service as well as its first advertiser, and the new "integrated" Web-based information service is now forging ahead with plans. Those plans include "Cryptolopes," access from Mac and OS/2 Web browsers, and more content providers, NewsTicker services, and search methods for 1996, revealed Steve Isaacs, in a meeting with Newsbytes at the 4th International World Wide Web Conference in Boston. 22 -> Electric Buyers & Sellers To Browse The Web -- The nation's buyers, sellers, and transmitters of electricity will soon begin browsing the Internet's World Wide Web, under a proposed rule the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission issued yesterday. 23 -> Panel Backs Private Internet Smut Control, Access For Schools -- A federal advisory panel of community, business, and education leaders yesterday said that the government "should not be in the business of regulating content on the information superhighway." 24 -> Foreign Share Of Japan Semiconductor Market Stays Over 20% -- The share of Japan's semiconductor market held by foreign suppliers in the third quarter of 1995 is holding steady at above 20 percent, according to the Electronic Industries Association of Japan. The 20 percent figure is the target under the US-Japan semiconductor agreement, which Japan wants to scrap and the US government wants to keep. 25 -> Get On The Web Without A Computer -- Set for introduction tomorrow is WebWho, an Internet tool which will allow anyone to open a World Wide Web site and maintain it, even if they don't have a computer. Scientific Research Management of San Jose, California, says users do not have to have an e-mail address or an Internet connection to participate. 26 -> ***MacWeek Says Apple Plans To Layoff 800-2,000 -- Apple Computer Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) says MacWeek was speculating on rumors when it printed an article saying Apple's board of directors plans to layoff up to 2,000 employees in January. 27 -> ****Netcom & Security First Bank Join For Internet Banking -- Netcom On-Line Communication Services (NASDAQ:NETC) and Security First Network Bank, FSB have announced an industry alliance that officials from both companies said will help new and existing Netcom customers take advantage of banking via the Internet. 28 -> Novell Increases Global Market Share With GroupWise -- Novell is claiming that GroupWise, its groupware messaging suite, is now the number one package of its type, a position that company officials say is at least partially due to the current delays with Microsoft Exchange. 29 -> UK Banking Ombudsman Plugs Into The Web -- The Office of the Banking Ombudsman (OBO) has announced it has opened its own set of pages on the World Wide Web. According to OBO, however, the pages, which are located at http://www.intervid.co.uk/intervid/obo , are designed to be less of a showcase and more of a method for customers of UK bank and financial services organization to complain about allegedly bad advice and high charges. 30 -> Computer Newspaper PC Ads Tracked By Instat -- For the past few weeks, In-Stat Research, has been tracking the computer ads in the Sunday newspaper supplements to determine the kinds of PCs being offered to consumers during the Christmas season. The report does not include mail-order, the Internet, or direct factory offerings. (Ian Stokell/19951214) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 12/13/95 ONLINE Congressional Quarterly On The Web (NEWS)(ONLINE)(WAS)(00001) Congressional Quarterly On The Web 12/13/95 WASHINGTON, D.C., U.S.A., 1995 DEC 13 (NB) -- Congressional Quarterly has launched a new World Wide Web site for political junkies, timed to coincide with the 1996 national elections. American Voter '96 (http://voter96.cqalert.com ) provides easy access to political and legislative information that can sometimes be hard to find. In operation for less than a week, the Web site has already been named "political site of the day" by Internet Publishing (http:// ross.clendon.com ). "CQ was founded 50 years ago to help make public opinion 'the only effective pressure group,'" says Neil Skene, CQ publisher. "CQ's American Voter '96 gives us the perfect opportunity to reach an audience for whom politics is not a vocation, but an avocation." The Web site is organized around a series of databases, represented on the home page by what appear to be political campaign buttons. Using the databases, visitors can create customized reports to see how their representatives voted recently or examine the voting record of any member of Congress. Users can also review the positions of congressional, gubernatorial and presidential candidates on a variety of issues. They can also match their own views on issues with those of any member of Congress. The site also has a hot list of other political sites on the Web, and a link to an area where users can buy CQ products, including books and the CQ Weekly Report. "Our aim is to make every computer user an expert on Congress, their own members and the challengers," David Rapp, CQ editor of new media, told Newsbytes. "More than that, it is to give them the tools to make informed choices." The site is free, and CQ will accept paid advertising on the site. CQ, a bipartisan news service covering Congress, is celebrating its 50th anniversary this year. (Kennedy Maize/19951212/Press Contact: David Rapp, 202-887-8535) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 12/13/95 APPLE Adobe Intros Mac Photo Editing Software (NEWS)(APPLE)(DEN)(00002) Adobe Intros Mac Photo Editing Software 12/13/95 SEATTLE, WASHINGTON, U.S.A., 1995 DEC 13 (NB) -- Adobe Systems Inc. (NASDAQ: ADBE) is poised to launch PhotoDeluxe, a software product that allows the user to "easily" modify, personalize, and enhance photographs. #IMAGE 1 20 TWPCX \images\95121223.PCX Click here for photo Adobe spokesperson Sonya Schaefer told Newsbytes PhotoDeluxe for the Macintosh platform is scheduled to ship by the opening of MacWorld in early January. The Windows version is expected to follow later in the first quarter of 1996. Both come on CD-ROM and carry an estimated street price of $89. PhotoDeluxe allows the user to work in a guided activity mode or on their own. In either mode, the user interface visually guides the user through each step of the photo modification and enhancement process. Graphical tabs represent each process in the activity and let the user click step-by-step through projects like: removing "red eye;" customizing a greeting card with photos, text and clip-art; creating a calendar with personal photos for each month; or removing dust and scratches from the electronic version of old photos. As users become more proficient, they can further enhance projects created in the Guided Activities mode in the On Your Own mode. Photos can be output to a variety of color or black-and-white printers, or sent to other computer users electronically using Adobe's Portable Document Format or the GIF format option. The program has a screensaver and slideshow option for using your photos, selection and editing tools for isolating areas of a photo for modification or enhancement, and a text tool that lets you add messages to a photo. Various special effects are available from Kai's Power Tools by MetaTools Inc., including page curls, glass lenses, and vortex tiling. Users can add up to six layers in one project, use retouching tools to vary the color balance, hue and saturation, or adjust the color intensity. You get over 500 templates, photos and clip-art images to practice with and use in your own projects. PhotoDeluxe includes support for any of the third party plug-in filters available for Adobe Photoshop. File format support includes Kodak's Digital Science Photo CD images and images from any TWAIN-compatible scanned input, plus PICT, TIFF, BMP, JPEG, and GIF. Also supported is Apple's QuickTake 150 and Kodak's Digital Science DC40 digital point-and-shoot cameras. Images captured with the cameras can be downloaded directly to a PC then viewed and browsed in thumbnail size before opening them in PhotoDeluxe. Kodak is including a mail-in coupon in each PhotoDeluxe box that lets the buyer get a 24-exposure roll of 35 millimeter (mm) color film processed and transferred to a Photo CD disk for $9.95. Users of Kodak PhotoEdge software, which has been discontinued by Kodak, can upgrade to Adobe PhotoDeluxe software for $39.99 with proof of purchase. The upgrade price is good through June 1996. (Jim Mallory/19951212/Press contact: Sonya Schaefer, Adobe Systems, 415-962-2630; Public contact: Adobe, 800-888-6293/DELUXE951212/PHOTO) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 12/13/95 TELECOM Pagenet To Test Two-Way Paging In Atlanta (NEWS)(TELECOM)(DEN)(00003) Pagenet To Test Two-Way Paging In Atlanta 12/13/95 DALLAS, TEXAS, U.S.A., 1995 DEC 13 (NB) -- Paging Network Inc. (NASDAQ: PAGE) has announced it will conduct a field trial of two-way messaging services on its Narrowband PCS (personal communication service) network in the Atlanta, Georgia market beginning in mid-1996. The company said the trials will test acknowledgment paging, message-back paging, and a variety of other two-way products and services as well as testing the network infrastructure. Pagenet said Motorola will supply the user devices and the network infrastructure equipment for the test. Acknowledgment paging is a PCS that lets the sender of a paging message receive confirmation that a message has been received error-free. Message-back paging is a service reported last month by Newsbytes that lets the paged party respond to text messages by selecting from various pre-programmed responses offered by the sender or from a list of pre-programmed responses. Pagenet said the field trials will use the same network infrastructure that will support the company's first announced narrowband PCS offering, called VoiceNow. VoiceNow is a portable, pocket-sized wireless answering machine scheduled to begin tests in the first quarter of 1996, slightly later than the late 1995 tests originally planned. Commercial rollout is expected in mid-1996. Those tests will be conducted in Dallas, San Francisco and New York. VoiceNow stores received voice messages on a digital chip, from where they can be rewound and replayed as desired. Newsbytes asked Pagenet spokesperson Scott Baradell what other services might eventually be available via the N-PCS radio spectrum the company won three licenses for in a nationwide Federal Communications Commission auction in July 1994. Baradell doesn't expect any totally different offerings, at least in the foreseeable future. Rather, he envisions value-added variations on the basic two-way messaging theme. "The field trials are a lab to test variations to see what works best. A service can always be better," said the Pagenet spokesperson. Baradell said the company expects to offer commercial two-way paging services by the end of 1996, probably in the Atlanta test market first. Asked about pricing, he said it will be "aggressive," but doesn't expect two-way messaging to be as inexpensive as one-way service, at least in the short term. Last month Pagenet named a new president and chief executive officer. Glenn Marschel, 49, took the reins of Pagenet on December 1. Marschel was previously the vice chairman and chief operating officer for First Financial Management Corporation's financial and health care businesses. For the 23 years prior to that he held various positions at Automated Data Processing Inc., most recently as president of the Employer Services Group. (Jim Mallory/19951212/Press contact: Scott Baradell, Pagenet, 214-985-6791) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 12/13/95 ONLINE ****Internet Update (NEWS)(ONLINE)(TYO)(00004) ****Internet Update 12/13/95 TOKYO, JAPAN, 1995 DEC 13 (NB) -- In this roundup of new services and resources on the global Internet: The London guide; PGP front-end software; Mexico Web guide; Snow's up; Cable TV links; Net squared library; Central New York's cybervillage; Copenhagen now; Pre press main street The London Guide Virtual London, a new CD-ROM guide to one of the world's most important cities, has an accompanying Web site. On the Internet you can submit your travel questions and problems to Dr. Travel as well as browse guides of upcoming events, check the gig guide, or jump to other London sites. World Wide Web: http://www.a-london-guide.co.uk/ PGP Front-End Software Pretty Good Privacy, the most widely used e-mail encryption and verification program on the Internet, has a reputation for being more difficult to use than most. Two front-end programs for Windows now make using PGP as easy as using the "clipboard." The page also offers a "best of" selection of links to PGP resources on the Internet. World Wide Web: http://netaccess.on.ca/ugali/crypt/ Mexico Web Guide From Art & Culture through Computers, the Internet, Education and Government to personal pages, this Web site indexes over 200 Mexican pages on the World Wide Web. You can also check the top 10 Web sites and additional lists such as recently updated links and the page of the week. In Spanish. World Wide Web: http://spin.com.mx/~portillor/mexico.html Snow's Up! The Geezer is an online global snow and surf report. Whether you are heading for the beaches or the pistes, you'll be able to find information here covering the resorts, equipment, and conditions, plus indulge in a little online shopping before you travel. World Wide Web: http://www.geezer.com/ Cable TV Links From the Cable Connect site, users can jump to a wide and varied selection of information about the cable television industry in the United States, including industry news, Usenet newsgroups, local cable networks, system operators and the programmers. World Wide Web: http://www.cableconnect.com/ Net Squared Library A bilingual, English and Spanish, index of the Internet divided into sections such as art & architecture, computers, education, government, healthcare, law, politics, science, technology, and social science. World Wide Web: http://www.commerce.com/net2/library/library.html Central New York's Cybervillage "Beautiful from beginning to end" is the first description you read of Central New York, an area "abundant in natural charms" the opening paragraph continues. The site is a virtual version of the real area created by the chamber of commerce and some local businesses. The site includes information on tourism, education, economic development, entertainment, the chamber of commerce, and more. World Wide Web: http://www.cybervillage.com/ Copenhagen Now! From the capital of Denmark, the Copenhagen Now Web server is offering an extensive online-guide to entertainment and travel in the city. The guide extends to over 1,000 restaurants, cafes, hotels, museums, theaters, and live-music venues. World Wide Web: http://copenhagen.now.dk/ Pre Press Main Street A focused Web site for anyone working in electronic pre-press. Here you'll find the latest industry news, links to evaluation software, support for popular pre-press programs, and much more. A $5,000 electronic art competition is also running. World Wide Web: http://www.prepress.pps.com/ (Martyn Williams/19951213) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 12/13/95 TRENDS Labels Meant To Match CD-ROM Software To Hardware (NEWS)(TRENDS)(TOR)(00005) Labels Meant To Match CD-ROM Software To Hardware 12/13/95 ANNAPOLIS, MARYLAND, U.S.A., 1995 DEC 13 (NB) -- The Interactive Multimedia Association (IMA) has announced a labeling plan meant to help CD-ROM buyers make sure the titles they buy will work with their computers. The IMA said it hopes its CD-Match program will reduce retail returns of multimedia titles, currently running at about 30 percent. The program will put standardized labels on CD-ROM software, indicating the hardware and software needed to run each disk. The label will list requirements under eight headings: operating system, CPU (central processing unit) type and speed, hard drive space, memory, graphics, CD-ROM speed, audio, and other needs. Since many PC owners may not be sure how their machines stack up on all those counts, the IMA also plans to provide free software that, when run on a PC, will provide a listing of its features in a format that corresponds to the CD-Match label. Ken Christie, the IMA's vice-president of marketing, told Newsbytes this software will also give PC owners a way to check that their new PCs have in fact been delivered with the advertised features. For that reason, and because of complications that would be associated with labeling hardware, the IMA does not foresee CD-Match labels appearing on hardware. Christie said the CD Match labeling system is ready to go and detailed specifications are available to software producers now. The IMA has posted details on its World Wide Web page at http://www.ima.org , including sample labels and the free computer-assessment software, which runs on a variety of platforms. The IMA plans to distribute the free software, which is based on Horizons Technology, Inc.'s LANauditor technology, through other channels as well. Because of the lead time to produce CD-ROM packages, Christie said, few CD-Match labels are likely to be visible on store shelves this holiday buying season. The IMA's goal is to get the program under way in lots of time for the 1996 holiday buying season, he said. (Grant Buckler/19951208/Press Contact: Ken Christie, Interactive Multimedia Association, 317-823-5073, Internet e-mail kchristie@ima.org) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 12/13/95 ONLINE Worlds Inc. & Diamond Multimedia To Deliver 3-D Chat (NEWS)(ONLINE)(SFO)(00006) Worlds Inc. & Diamond Multimedia To Deliver 3-D Chat 12/13/95 SAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1995 DEC 13 (NB) -- Diamond Multimedia and Worlds Inc., designer of three-dimensional (3-D) multi-user chat environments, has announced a bundling agreement where Diamond will include Worlds Chat with its line of multimedia and communications products. Highlighted as one of the hottest Internet applications, Worlds Chat allows Internet users to enter and travel through a virtual, animated 3-D world and talk through text with other World Chat participants from around the world. Worlds spokesperson, Rob Schmaltz, told Newsbytes, "The synergy between ourselves and Diamond is great. They are a leading multimedia company with modems, graphics boards, multimedia accelerators, 3-D technology, audio boards, and telephony systems. We feel this is the place for us to offer our Worlds Chat technology to a much larger audience." Worlds Chat debuted on the Internet this past spring as a means of displaying Worlds' technological capabilities. The company opened the area to anyone who could run a Winsock application. Within weeks word spread across the Internet and people were flocking to the site to explore the free, 3-D chat world. Entering Worlds Chat, a user picks a graphical image, called an avatar, which is the visual appearance one uses to travel around a large spacestation environment. Users can turn 360 degrees while viewing a panoramic scene, talk with other World Chat participants through text displays and explore interior hallways and rooms and exterior decks under the stars. While Diamond says the agreement calls for bundling current and future versions of Worlds Chat across its line of products, the Internet application should be a great attraction for potential consumers of its TeleCommander line of full communications cards which offer modem and telephony technology at 14.4 and 28.8 kilobits-per-second and with its new ISDN (integrated services digital network) modem hardware, NetCommander. Diamond also now owns the Supra line of modems to which it suggests Worlds Chat will bring added value. (Patrick McKenna/19951212/Press Contact: Lydia Trettis, Connors Communications, 212-807-7500) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 12/13/95 ONLINE Free Travel & Vacation Planning On The Web (NEWS)(ONLINE)(SFO)(00007) Free Travel & Vacation Planning On The Web 12/13/95 SAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1995 DEC 13 (NB) -- Preview Media, a producer of television travel programming, has opened Preview Vacations on the World Wide Web. Offering more than 500 pages of travel information, Preview Vacations is getting the cyber jump on Easy Sabre, the well-known online flight and hotel reservations system. #IMAGE 1 20 TWPCX \images\95121307.PCX Click here for photo Ron Pernick, spokesperson for Preview Vacations, told Newsbytes, "We are now the online travel agency for the Internet community. For business and personal use, this site is like having a premium service which airlines deliver to its best customers." Pernick also told Newsbytes the Web site is using new database technology which allows the service to provide a wide range of travel information as quickly as possible. Along with flight information, reservations, and ticket purchasing, Preview Vacations offers vacation packages, custom travel service through cyber agents, location photographs, QuickTime movies, audio clips, and Web links supporting additional vacation information. "Users can check the weather in Mexico, get information about shops in Paris, and check cruise packages for the Caribbean," said Pernick. Located at http://www.vacations.com , the site also allows users to send an electronic postcard. With this new Web site, Preview Vacations is taking a step towards Internet commerce with Netscape's built-in security features. Barrie Seidenberg, Preview Vacations' vice president, told Newsbytes, "Using our Web site, a person can check flight schedules, reserve flights, pay for the ticket with an approved credit card, and have it mailed without ever talking to anyone." Preview joins a select group of businesses who are ready to process financial transactions over the Internet. Secure transactions have been a weak link in the development of Internet commerce and recent security technology implementations by Netscape Communications has allowed companies to begin feel confident processing transactions. Through April, 1996, Preview Vacations will hold a monthly "I need a vacation!" contest. The monthly winner will receive $1,000 towards the purchase of a vacation package from Preview Vacations. "We know Easy Sabre plans to open a Web site early next year and it was important to us to be here first," commented Pernick. There are no membership or subscriber fees associated with Preview Vacations. Extensive hotel information will be added early next year. (Patrick McKenna/19951212/Press Contact: Ron Pernick, Preview Vacations, 415-439-1200 ext 227/VACATIONS951213/PHOTO) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 12/13/95 ONLINE MaxInfo Delivers Server Development Tools (NEWS)(ONLINE)(MSP)(00008) MaxInfo Delivers Server Development Tools 12/13/95 SAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1995 DEC 13 (NB) -- Maximum Information Inc. (MaxInfo) has released a new Internet World Wide Web server line for systems running Windows NT, Windows 95, and the most popular versions of Unix. With the new programs, the company said Web developers can now integrate C and C++ code directly into new and existing hypertext markup language (HTML) pages on their servers. With the new programs, called "WebC for Windows" and "WebC for Unix," Web developers can integrate dynamic Web pages and even Java technology from Sun Microsystems into their Web sites. By bringing together HTML, C++, and Java, a "new breed of capabilities and functionality" will be brought to the Internet, said Daniel Putterman, founder and chief executive officer of MaxInfo. Using the ability to generate dynamic information, the Web programmer can actually leverage browser capabilities, especially with more than 30 Web browsers currently on the market, officials said. While static content and a lack of development tools had been barriers to dynamic sites in the past, the WebC series allows Web servers to use the capabilities of the Web browser accessing the server to allow it to implement application functionality, officials said. The programmer's C++ compiler works with the WebC Integrated Development Environment and Compiler to generate interactive pages, which are managed by the WebC Application Manager and deployed on the Web server. Multiple applications can be written and multiple domains can be supported on the same Web server by using the Application Manager, officials said. Other features from the WebC line include a debugging environment, which the company calls a "first," a server independent application programming interface (API), and detailed tracking ability. Estimated retail price on WebC is $499 for either the Windows or Unix version, although the company is offering the NT version for $399 as a special introductory offer. WebC is available directly through MaxInfo and through authorized software resellers. MaxInfo maintains a Web site at http://www.maxinfo.com/ for a maximum amount of information about the company. (Bob Woods/19951212/Press Contact: Louise Stanley, Maximum Information, 415-981-5800, Internet e-mail press@maxinfo.com; Public Contact: Maximum Information, 415-981-5800) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 12/13/95 LEGAL Electricity Consumers Lobby Telecom Conference (NEWS)(LEGAL)(WAS)(00009) Electricity Consumers Lobby Telecom Conference 12/13/95 WASHINGTON, D.C., U.S.A., 1995 DEC 13 (NB) -- A group of large electricity consumers have asked House and Senate conferees involved in the telecommunications legislation to keep large energy holding companies out of the telecommunications business. Elcon, the Electricity Consumers Resource Council, and the Coalition for Customer Choice in Electricity, asked the conferees not to agree to section 205 in the Senate bill, S. 652, the Telecommunications Competition and Deregulation Act of 1995. That section would exempt registered utility holding companies under the Public Utility Holding Company Act (PUHCA) from the ban on getting into unrelated lines of business. "Captive electricity consumers are vulnerable to excessive costs from failed ventures into the telecommunications business and will not realize any benefits from electric utility successes," says the letter signed by John Anderson, Elcon executive director. Anderson writes, "The electric utility industry, with both federal and state regulations, is complex and therefore requires an orderly transition from monopolies to open competition. Issues should be considered comprehensively, not piecemeal." The House telecommunications bill has no similar provisions on PUHCA. Rep. Rick Boucher (D-Va.) had hoped to raise the issue in the conference committee, but Rep. John Dingell (D-Mich.), ranking Democrat on the House Commerce Committee, made sure Boucher would be unable to do that, by keeping him off the conference committee for consideration of the PUHCA issue. Rep. Dan Schaefer (R-Colo.), chairman of the Commerce Committee's energy subcommittee, has said he wants to take a comprehensive look at energy and electricity policy next year, including the telecommunications aspects of PUHCA. The registered holding companies argue that keeping them out of the telecommunications marketplace is unfair. Companies just as large as the PUHCA companies, but not covered by the 1935 law, are free to compete in the telecommunications business and many have plans to do so. Elcon represents the 28 largest users of electricity in Elcon the nation, including steel, autos, and chemicals. The Coalition for Customer Choice in Electricity is an ad hoc group of industrial energy users, formed last February to push for competition and retail access in electric markets. (Kennedy Maize/19951213/Press Contact: John Anderson, Elcon, 202-682-1390) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 12/13/95 GENERAL Hyperion Intros Software For Financial OLAP (NEWS)(GENERAL)(BOS)(00010) Hyperion Intros Software For Financial OLAP 12/13/95 BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS, U.S.A., 1995 DEC 13 (NB) -- Hyperion OLAP (online analytical processing), a new multidimensional financial analysis tool, will differ from competing products from companies like Comshare through faster performance as well as "financial intelligence," Hyperion Software officials maintained, during a press conference attended by Newsbytes in Boston. Hyperion's newest Windows-based financial software suite will get a performance edge through an OLAP engine licensed from Sinper Corp., said James A. Perkins, company president and CEO (chief executive officer), addressing journalists and analysts at hotel in Boston. During a demo, Trevor Walker, product manager, told the press conference attendees that Hyperion OLAP will let users "slice and dice" financial data across eight different dimension "categories," such as "region, customer, product, and product size." To depict how the data is multidimensionally "sliced and diced," the Hyperion exec used a "product profitability" analysis by a mythical soft drink firm as an example. Specifically, Walker presented a hypothetical situation in which the soda company first sees that its freight expenses in the "Western Region" are higher for "regular" cola than for diet cola. Through subsequent data drilling, the company goes on to discover that freight expenses are more costly for regular than diet cola regardless of region, that this is true for retail as well as wholesale sales, and that, in fact, freight expenses are higher for regular cola than for any other soda flavor, including "lemon and lime." The same kind of multidimensional analysis can also be done with competing products, Walker acknowledged. But, he added, Hyperion OLAP also comes with built-in "financial intelligence" for performing tasks that would otherwise require work by a "crew of custom programmers." Hyperion's new software "understands the underlying structure of the information," he contended. The software, for instance, recognizes the existence of "certain points where you can input data." Some other manifestations of this "intelligence" include the ability to instantly "reflect" any modifications to data across all program modules, and to use color highlighting to show whether or not a variance represents something beneficial. Local currency import and "local currency intelligence" are two additional examples. Hyperion's new financial analysis tool will work with both Microsoft Excel and Lotus 1-2-3 spreadsheets, according to Walker. Hyperion OLAP will support multivendor RDBMS (relational database management systems) through ODBC (Open Database Connectivity), plus flat file legacy data, noted Charles Cho, Hyperion's senior director. The product will also allow export/import with other external accounting and reporting applications. "You've just seen a preview of what's going to be a dynamite product in the marketplace," asserted Terence W. Rogers, executive VP, another speaker. "We've done this three times already, and we're about to accomplish it a fourth time." Previously known as IMRS, Stamford, Connecticut-based Hyperion Software also produces Hyperion Pillar for budgetary planning, along with two other financial software suites, Hyperion Enterprise and Hyperion Financials. During a Q&A session at the close of the press event, Perkins pointed out that Hyperion competes in several markets, with different rivals in each. Hyperion's main competitor in the financial OLAP market is Comshare, for example, whereas in the general financial software market, SAP, Hyperion, and Oracle and Peoplesoft are the leaders. OLAP tools are most effective when tailored to specific application areas, according to the CEO. Perkins also maintained that the Sinper OLAP engine used in Hyperion OLAP is "better" than Essbase, Comshare's OLAP engine. Robert W. Thompson, the founder of Hyperion, told the attendees that, in contrast to other OLAP engines, the Sinper engine performs consolidations without the need for time consuming batch processing. As previously reported in Newsbytes, Sinper uses a set of algorithms designed to permit consolidations be done from a smaller set of data points in ROM (read only memory), rather than from RAM (random access memory). Another speaker, Edward D. Black, director of Client-Server Solutions at the Aberdeen Group, told the press that Hyperion OLAP is well suited to financial analysis applications that are based on information residing in corporate data warehouses. The journalists and analysts in the audience posed questions ranging from packaging and pricing plans to whether Hyperion intends to add support for Microsoft's OLE (object-linking-and- embedding). Perkins responded that, in deciding which standards to support, Hyperion looks carefully at how much use the standards are getting in the industry. Although Hyperion is not yet supporting OLE, the new Hyperion OLAP does support ODBC, he observed. Hyperion, he reported, will package the new financial analysis tool on both a standalone basis, and bundled with the company's other offerings. All of Hyperion's products use a "common data access layer," described as an API (application programming interface) between the applications and "common tools" that include Hyperion's OnTrack, Retrieve, Analyst, Schedules, and Graphical Report Writer, with drivers for the tools. Speaking with Newsbytes at the close of the press conference, Black advised that ODBC will produce tight enough integration between Hyperion OLAP and outside RDBMS, particularly in light of the fact that the Hyperion software does not require transaction processing. Hyperion expects to ship the new financial analysis tool in the first quarter, according to Perkins. Hyperion OLAP will initially be targeted at Hyperion's current customers, who will pay about $30,000 for a ten-user package on a standalone basis. Pricing for the product will ultimately be raised to about $50,000, the Hyperion CEO told the press in Boston. (Jacqueline Emigh/19951213/Reader Contact: Hyperion Software, 203-321-3500; Press Contact: Judith Rothrock, Hyperion, 203-321-3608) (ADVISORY)(GENERAL)(MSP)(00011) NewsPix Update For Newsbytes Publishers 12/13/95 MINNEAPOLIS, MINNESOTA, U.S.A.,1995 DEC 13 (NB) -- This update will be posted each Wednesday and Friday to reflect the daily picture additions. The updates will in turn become part of the main NewsPix Bulletin issued on Monday. These photos correspond to recent Newsbytes stories. They are online in the Newsbytes menu on America Online, NiftyServe, the Newsbytes Pacifica Website at http://www.islandtel.com/newsbytes/ and the Newsbytes private bulletin board system in Minneapolis. To become a licensed Newsbytes publisher, call Newsbytes at 612-430-1100 (US) or write to wendy@newsbytes.com on the Internet. Licensing applies to any medium. --------------------------- DECEMBER 13, 1995 --------------------------- POWER951208 - color / AER's 12-hour Battery For HP OmniBook: The Powerslice LX with tray that slides out to support the Omnibook mouse. COMPCARD951207 - color / OKI Develops PC On A Card: the card with the OKI imprint visible. WTC951211 - color / Internet World Trade Center Opens On Web: main art banner from web site. (Newsbytes/19951213) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 12/13/95 CHIPS NEC Intros 8 Megabit Rambus DRAM (NEWS)(CHIPS)(LAX)(00012) NEC Intros 8 Megabit Rambus DRAM 12/13/95 MOUNTAIN VIEW, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1995 DEC 13 (NB) -- NEC Electronics Inc. has announced the availability of samples for their new eight- megabit (Mb) Rambus dynamic random access memory (RDRAM). The new RDRAM will be available in the marketplace by second quarter 1996. NEC manufactures a full line of dynamic memory devices that includes fast-page, extended data out (EDO), synchronous and synchronous graphics DRAMs, and RDRAM. Cecil Conkle a senior product manager for NEC, told Newsbytes, "RDRAM is the fastest dynamic memory device offered. As the first provider of an RDRAM at the 16Mb and 18Mb densities, NEC has applied its design and manufacturing expertise to deliver the 8Mb generation that offers the same high data transfer rate of 500 megabytes per second. Typically fast page DRAM and EDO DRAM operate at below 50 megabytes per second, and even synchronous DRAM only operates at around 100 megabytes per second." RDRAM is not a new product, but NEC has not offered an 8Mb product before. "The 16Mb RDRAM was our entry-level product. Some of our customers felt a need for a smaller RDRAM, especially for low-end graphic applications," points out Conkle. According to the company. a single 8Mb RDRAM can support 256 color, 1,024 by 768 displays, or up to 65,000 colors for 800 by 600 displays. Two RDRAMs provide one gigabyte per second bandwidth for true color, or three-dimensional (3-D) graphics on 1,280 by 1,024 displays. The 8Mb RDRAM is manufactured initially using a 0.45-micron CMOS (complimentary metal oxide semiconductor) process and organized as 1Mb by 8. The device is housed in a 72/36-pin super-small outline package (SSOP). The 8Mb RDRAM operates at 3.3 volts. The company plans to offer samples for $47 each, in small quantities. (Richard Bowers/19951212/Press Contact: Joany Winkler, NEC, 415-965-6495) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 12/13/95 ONLINE Ameritech's Court Computer Access (NEWS)(ONLINE)(MSP)(00013) Ameritech's Court Computer Access 12/13/95 CHICAGO, ILLINOIS, U.S.A., 1995 DEC 13 (NB) -- The terms "government" and "easy-to-use" don't usually exist side-by-side. But Ameritech (NYSE:AIT) is making access to government records in four Illinois counties outside of Chicago easier with its "CivicLink" service. With CivicLink, the public at-large will have remote, online access to the kind of information that is usually available only by visiting a county courthouse. The new system saves the general public time and effort in accessing records that, are available to them -- usually by law. These records include civil, criminal, and traffic court cases that are from both the present day and years gone by. The four Illinois counties involved in the project are DuPage, Kane, DeKalb, and Kendall, all of which are close to Chicago and Cook County. Rick Aspan, Ameritech spokesperson, told Newsbytes while both the Windy City and Cook County have not signed on with CivicLink, Ameritech is speaking with officials from both localities about possible service. Besides being easy to use, the CivicLink system allows for early morning, late evening, and Saturday searches when government offices are usually closed. Also, searches are more efficient because records are cross-referenced, officials said. Who pays for the service? Aspan said the people accessing CivicLink ante up for each search. "It's on a pay-per-use basis," he said. "A real estate agent, an attorney, a historian, or anyone who uses the record for their own use, would pay the freight." Searches usually cost $2 to $5 per completed transaction, and are set by each county, Aspan said. Ameritech also operates CivicLink in Marion County, Indiana, and is establishing services in Prince George's County in Maryland, and Los Angeles County, California. In the near future, Ameritech will work with Unisys to hook up CivicLink in four Canadian maritime provinces along the Atlantic coast, Aspan said. He added talks are underway with other counties in the US. (Bob Woods/19951213/Press Contact: Rick Aspan, Ameritech, 312-364- 3570; Internet e-mail rick.w.aspan@ameritech.com; Public Contact: Ameritech CivicLink, 800-307-1100) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 12/13/95 ONLINE DSVD Technology Patents Awarded To Multitech (NEWS)(ONLINE)(LON)(00014) DSVD Technology Patents Awarded To Multitech 12/13/95 ASCOT, BERKSHIRE, ENGLAND, 1995 DEC 13 (NB) -- MultiTech Systems has been awarded two patents for its DSVD (digital simultaneous voice & data) technology, as seen in its MultiModem PCS modems. According to Dilip Mistry, the company's UK managing director, however, MultiTech isn't looking for big money on the DSVD licensing front, but is rather hoping to create a de facto standard, while the International Telecoms Union (ITU) works towards ratification of the DSVD standard. Mistry told Newsbytes he will be surprised if the ITU ratifies the DSVD standard much before the end of 1996, something which will come as a shock to many modem industry watchers, since it was only recently that it was thought that the ITU was talking in terms of second quarter 1996 ratification. Despite this, Mistry claims that a number of modem manufacturers -- MultiTech included -- are developing their own DSVD-compatible modems, either proprietary or conforming to the DSP Truespeech 1 or II systems. "We already have a license fee system in place whereby modem manufacturers producing or planning to produce, a DSVD modem that conforms to our PCS system, will pay us a modest license fee," Mistry explained, adding that the DSVD market is still in an a very early stage. "There are many modem products on the market that promote `voice too,' however, in truth, their voice capability is limited to answerphone type connections and do not provide simultaneous voice and data," he said. DSVD, he went on to explain, is very different. "It's about voice and data, over the same line, at the same time. There are no switches for alternating data and voice transfers, and no changes necessary in communications software," he said. Mistry claims that MultiTech is shipping the industry's first DSVD modem in the UK and that the granting of the patent "can only strengthen our standing in the market, while at the same time help drive market availability and uptake of this new modem product type." Mistry claims that, while companies such as US Robotics have extended the V.34 speed specification from its original 28,800 bits-per-second (bps) level into the 30,000 bps bracket, any speed advantages will be less exciting than true DSVD technology. "The ability to mix voice and data over the same phone line will be of enormous appeal to modem users, far more so that faster modems, especially where the fast modem technology is proprietary," he explained. Mistry predicts that there will be a significant number of "DSVD type" modems released by different vendors in the New Year, but most of the modems will be incompatible with each other. By licensing its technology, Mistry said that Multitech is helping the market to adopt a de facto standard." (Steve Gold/19951213/Press Contact: Strategic Alliance International, +44-1494-434434; Reader Contact: MultiTech Computers, tel +44-1344- 891266, fax +44-1344-891215) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 12/13/95 TRENDS ****Novell Has 66% Of European Networking Mkt - Report (NEWS)(TRENDS)(LON)(00015) ****Novell Has 66% Of European Networking Mkt - Report 12/13/95 BRACKNELL, BERKSHIRE, 1995 DEC 13 (NB) -- According to figures just released by market research firm Dataquest, NetWare remains the dominant network operating system in Europe, accounting for around 66 percent of unit shipments in 1994. According to Dataquest, Novell's closest rival in the networking market place was IBM with 13 percent. The research also claims to show that NetWare continues to dominate the UK network operating systems market owning 67 percent of the market. Commenting on the results Alison Taylor, an industry analyst at Dataquest said: "Despite the fears in certain quarters with regard to Microsoft NT Server, Novell remains the European leader in the network operating system market with NetWare continuing to show strong growth." According to the report, revenue from NetWare continue to rise. In the first nine months of fiscal 1994/1995 (November 1, 1994 onwards), Novell saw a revenue increase of 26 percent for NetWare in Europe when compared with the same period a year earlier. New NetWare 4 business, meanwhile, which does not include upgrades, accounts for 74 percent of the growth in revenue. The research notes that NetWare's installed base is now 50 million users worldwide. "NetWare 4.1 now accounts for 50 percent of all NetWare sales and has surpassed sales of all previous versions of NetWare," explained Graeme Allan, market relations director, Novell Europe, Middle East and Africa. "Increasing numbers of users are recognizing the cost savings and gains in productivity that NetWare provides through NetWare Directory Services (NDS), which helps users collaborate and communicate more effectively, and NetWare Directory Services (NDS)," he said. He added that NDS is now the de facto world standard for distributed network directories, describing it as "a combination of yellow and white pages that enables network users to easily identify, access and connect with information resources and other people." (Sylvia Dennis/19951213/Press Contact: Vivienne Wilson, Novell, +44- 1344-724460, Internet e-mail vivienne_wilson@novell.co.uk; Reader Contact: Novell, tel +44-1344-724000, fax +44-1344-724419) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 12/13/95 TELECOM Motorola Offers Authentication-Ready Cellular Phones (NEWS)(TELECOM)(MSP)(00016) Motorola Offers Authentication-Ready Cellular Phones 12/13/95 LIBERTYVILLE, ILLINOIS, U.S.A., 1995 DEC 13 (NB) -- Motorola (NYSE:MOT) said it is the first to market with phones that thwart the increasingly common practice of "cloning," or duplicating, the codes from cellular phones. The cellular phone manufacturer said it is shipping new authentication-ready units that will help cut cellular telephone fraud. Company officials said it is not only shipping these phones now, but it has been offering the phones since August. Authentication-ready cellular phones "makes the phone fraud-proof," Suzette Steiger, corporate vice president and general manager, US Markets Division, Motorola Pan American Cellular Subscriber Group, told Newsbytes. "It gives the user the ability to have a phone that virtually cannot be cloned." The phone itself, which has improvements in both software and hardware, needs to be used on a cellular network that supports authentication to take advantage of any security features, Steiger said. Some US cellular carriers should have networks that are authentication-capable in the first quarter of 1996, with most networks being equipped for authentication by the end of 1996, she said. "But from a subscriber or an end-user, (using the phone) is transparent," Steiger said. It is also important to note that authentication-ready cellular phones will work on non-authenticating networks, Steiger said. However, the phone will be susceptible to cloning, she added. Steiger said the software and hardware improvements will be made to all of Motorola's portfolio of cellular phones. The authentication standard Motorola is using is an open standard that was developed in 1994, Pam Dillard, in charge of the software group that helped develop the new phones, told Newsbytes. Also, since the algorithm is the same for analog and digital phones, the standard can be used on either type of network, she said. Motorola is also licensing the technology so other cellular phone manufacturers can take advantage of the standard. Motorola is also working on a way to mark boxes of the new authenticating phones, so potential buyers can tell the difference between the new phones and the older ones, Steiger said. (Bob Woods/19951212/Press Contact: David A. Pinsky, Motorola, 708-523-2841) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 12/13/95 ONLINE Web Conference - IBM Intros iNet For Web Development (NEWS)(ONLINE)(BOS)(00017) Web Conference - IBM Intros iNet For Web Development 12/13/95 BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS, U.S.A., 1995 DEC 13 (NB) -- IBM's newly unveiled iNet Porting program is designed to encourage development of new Web applications for RS/6000 and AIX, as well as ports of existing applications, by providing free-of-charge access, both over the Web and "in person," to IBM hardware, software, and technical staff, said IBM's Tom Fornoff, in a meeting with Newsbytes at the 4th International World Wide Web Conference in Boston. Unix remains the most popular platform for Web application development, as opposed to Windows NT, with RS/6000 and Sun environments the top choices, asserted Fornoff, who is director of workstation marketing for IBM's RS/6000 Division. But the new iNet Porting program is being driven by the desire of IBM and over a dozen partners in the effort -- ranging alphabetically from BlueStone to Xing -- to see even more Web content for the RS/6000, the IBM exec told Newsbytes. Some of the application areas envisioned include multimedia authoring environments, Web servers, databases, "streaming media" tools, and industry-specific, SMP (symmetric multiprocessor), and "secure" applications, Fornoff illustrated. Developers can begin already to participate in the first phase of the program, by making arrangements to visit IBM's Solution Partnership Program in San Mateo, California, or by accessing the SPC home page on the Web and filling out a registration form for over-the-Web development assistance. Even before the program's official announcement this week in Boston, some developers had begun to come to San Mateo for help with creating or porting Web applications, Fornoff added, citing RAD Technologies Inc. as one example of a user in this category. RAD, which recently ported its RAD PowerMedia to the RS/6000, is also a partner in the new iNet Porting program, along with BlueStone, Illustra Information Technologies, Lotus, Netscape, Prodigy, Progressive Networks, Spyglass, VDOnet Corp., Verity, Worlds Inc., and other third-party vendors. The iNet Porting program will also permit online simultaneous support of about 20 developers, Fornoff pointed out. In the first quarter of next year, he reported, IBM will start to give developers the option of obtaining the use of a "dedicated Web server" at the SPC Center, either online or "in person" in San Mateo, over a one- or two-week period for developing or porting Web software in categories such as "vertical markets," SMP, and secure applications. Although the general requirements for accessing the iNet Porting facilities are not stringent, IBM will be selective about allowing developers the exclusive use of a server for this length of time, Fornoff added. Developers applying for the temporary use of a dedicated server will need to supply information in areas such as number of installations and overall company "track record." Meanwhile, IBM will be responding to the security needs of developers taking part in the iNet Porting program, he noted. "Well use our secure network gateway, in addition to the IBM Global Network (IGN)'s secure dial and secure IP (Internet Protocol)," the director of RS/6000 workstation marketing told Newsbytes. (Jacqueline Emigh/19951213/Reader Contact: IBM, 914-765-1900; Press Contacts: William O'Leary, IBM, 914-766-3642; Marlena Villafane, Technology Solutions for IBM, 212-696-2000) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 12/13/95 CHIPS Texas Instruments Starts $1Bil Thailand Chip Plant (NEWS)(CHIPS)(DEN)(00018) Texas Instruments Starts $1Bil Thailand Chip Plant 12/13/95 BANGKOK, THAILAND, 1995 DEC 13 (NB) -- Texas Instruments Inc. (NYSE:TXN) broke ground this week on a $1.2 billion semiconductor manufacturing facility the company said will manufacture advanced memory chips. The plant is a joint venture of TI and Bangkok-based entrepreneur Charn Uswachoke. Called Alpha-TI Semiconductor Company Limited, it will produce 16 megabit (Mb) and 64Mb dynamic random access memory (DRAM) chips that store data in devices like computers, fax machines, printers and copiers. TI said one 16Mb DRAM can store the equivalent of about 128 newspaper pages of information. Asked why TI chose to build the plant in a foreign country instead of boosting the economy of a US city, TI spokesperson Buddy Price told Newsbytes it was simply a matter of building close to the market. "Asia is by far the fastest growing semiconductor market," said Price. He said TI estimates the Thailand market alone will reach $2 billion by the year 2000. While some companies locate manufacturing or assembly factories outside the US to realize the benefits of cheap labor, Price said that's not the case with semiconductor manufacturing. "There is too much demand for people in this business, particularly in Thailand. We will have to recruit worldwide to staff that facility," Price told Newsbytes. As reported earlier by Newsbytes, TI is already building a chip manufacturing plant similar in size, staffing and investment in Richardson, Texas. Called TwinStar, the plant is a joint venture with Hitachi. TI said it will have a 26 percent ownership in the joint venture, with Uswachoke owning the remainder. The new company has a built-in customer, since TI has agreed to purchase all of the output. Alpha-TI will be located on a 40-acre site in the 4,000-acre AlphaTechnopolis industrial park about 25 miles southeast of Bangkok. TI said that will be Thailand's first high-technology industrial park and is expected to qualify as an import/export trade zone. The company said long range plans call for development of housing and retail establishments, a hospital and school, a research and development center and a technical university at the park. The first chips, which will use 0.5-micron and 0.35-micron process technology, are expected to come off the assembly line in the second quarter of 1997. One micron is one-millionth of a meter, or about one one-hundredth the diameter of a human hair, said TI. In the first phase of the project, with a budget of about $700 million, the joint venture will employ about 550 people and have a production capacity of about 10,000 eight-inch semiconductor wafers per month. The second phase will inject another $500 million into expansion of the facility. Uswachoke is no stranger to high-tech electronics or to TI. He is the chief executive officer of Alphatec Electronics, a Thai integrated circuit manufacturing and testing company that has done sub-contract work for TI Singapore's memory products assembly and testing operation. He was also involved in the development of the industrial park. (Jim Mallory/19951213/Press contact: Neil McGlone, Texas Instruments, 214-995-4961) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 00 12/13/95 TRENDS ****Citizen's Photo-Realistic Color Printer Under $ (NEWS)(TRENDS)(SFO)(00019) ****Citizen's Photo-Realistic Color Printer Under $600 12/13/95 SANTA MONICA, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1995 DEC 13 (NB) -- Citizen America is shipping Printiva 600C, claimed to be the first desktop printer to offer photo-realistic printing for under $1,000. Using a new technology, called the micro dry process, Printiva 600C offers the quality of dye sublimation color printing for as little as $0.80 per page at 90% density, says the company. Citizen is quick to say Printiva 600C is not an inkjet, desktop competitor. "This printer is designed for businesses which would normally use a professional color printer costing anywhere from $2,500 to $5,000, and print with a cost per page of several dollars," said Duane Yamashita, Citizen's product manager. "Now for the first time, professional color printing is available at a very attractive price. This means small businesses and even home users can have high quality color printing," he added. The Micro Dry process utilizes dry, pigment-based resin inks composed of ultra-fine powder that are heated and fused onto the paper. This means printed copy comes out of the printer completely dry, waterproof, and stain-resistant, says the company. Printiva 600C has four color tape cartridges which, when combined, can produce up to 16.7 million colors at 600 by 600 dots-per-inch (dpi). Monochrome resolution is 1,200 by 600 dpi. The 600C also offers metallic foil printing for custom items such as invitations and greeting cards. Optional cartridges of red, blue, and gold are available. A 100-page automatic feeder and flat paper path highlight the printer's two page-per-minute (ppm) output. Print stock can be plain paper, laser paper, letterhead, envelopes, post cards, and transparencies. Paper sizes include letter, legal A4, B5, and post card. At 14 pounds, the 600C measures 17-inches in width, 10-inches in depth, and 7.5-inches in height. Windows drivers are included. At this time, there is no Macintosh version of the printer. "It is important to present the Printiva 600C as a true color printer," continued Yamashita. "This is not a printer for everyday black and white printing. It has been developed to provide a wide audience of users a very high quality of color printing at a brand new price level." Printiva 600C has a suggested retail price of $599, but could sell at a street price as low as $529. (Patrick McKenna/19951213/Press Contact: Matt Roberts, Citizen, 310-453-0614/CITIZEN951213/PHOTO) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 12/13/95 WINDOWS Delrina Begins Shipments Of Cyberjack (NEWS)(WINDOWS)(TOR)(00020) Delrina Begins Shipments Of Cyberjack 12/13/95 TORONTO, ONTARIO, CANADA, 1995 DEC 13 (NB) -- The Delrina Group of Symantec Corp. (NASDAQ:SYMC) has begun shipping Cyberjack, its Internet access software for Microsoft's Windows 95 operating system. Delrina emphasized the way Cyberjack offers access to different Internet services, such as the World Wide Web, File Transfer Protocol (FTP), electronic-mail, and Usenet news groups, in a single package. While the programs used to connect to these different services are separate in Cyberjack, as they are in most collections of Internet software, company spokesman Shelly Sofer told Newsbytes that Cyberjack binds them together with a central facility called the Guidebook -- a catalog of Internet addresses such as e-mail addresses Web sites, and FTP sites. Cyberjack can parse references to Internet resources and connect to them automatically. For instance, Sofer said, if an incoming e-mail message contained a recommendation to look at a certain Web site, the recipient could simply click on the uniform resource locator (URL) address given in the message and Cyberjack would make the connection using its Web browser. Delrina said it is maintaining a Guidebook server on the Web, through which users can get access to Internet sites Delrina considers to be of interest. Access will work just as if the Guidebook entries on the server were located on the user's own machine, company officials said. Cyberjack also comes with "one-button" access to the Internet through Compuserve Inc.'s Internet division. Sofer said this means that new users who have not already signed up with an Internet provider can get access immediately through the Compuserve service. Users can also choose to use another Internet access provider with Cyberjack, he added. Delrina is only offering Cyberjack for Windows 95. Sofer said it is unlikely Delrina will do a version of the software for Windows 3.xx, but highly likely that there will be a Windows NT version some time in the foreseeable future. Cyberjack was actually developed on NT, he explained, although the shipping version will not work with NT because it has a Windows 95 installation and needs certain features that are not built into NT. "This product really takes advantage of things in the operating system that just don't exist in other operating systems," he said. One unusual feature in this package is automatic updates to the software itself via the Internet. A user can click a menu item in Cyberjack that will cause the software to check new features and updates posted by Delrina and download any new updates automatically. The stand-alone version of Cyberjack 7.0 comes with Delrina's WinComm Pro 7.0 general-purpose communications software. It requires at least a 486 processor, Windows 95, and eight megabytes of memory, Delrina said. The software is expected to sell for US$79 or C$129, but between now and the end of February, 1996, the company said it is offering dealer incentives that it expects will bring retail prices down to US$49 or C$69. (Grant Buckler/19951213/Press Contact: Shelly Sofer, Delrina, 416-441-4702; Josef Zankowicz, Delrina, 416-441-4658; Public Contact: Symantec, 800-441-7234 or 541-334-6054) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 12/13/95 TELECOM VideoServer's High-Capacity Conference Server (NEWS)(TELECOM)(TOR)(00021) VideoServer's High-Capacity Conference Server 12/13/95 LEXINGTON, MASSACHUSETTS, U.S.A., 1995 DEC 13 (NB) -- Aiming at large corporate users and videoconference service providers, VideoServer Inc. (NASDAQ:VSVR) has announced a new high-capacity videoconference server, the Model 2020. The new top of VideoServer's Series 2000 line of videoconference servers can run 16 simultaneous videoconferences at T1 speeds, which provide near-broadcast quality, and more at more commonly used lower speeds, Jack O'Neil, the company's vice-president of marketing, told Newsbytes. He said the unit supports reverse multiplexing to allow for conferences with as many as 32 sites at 384 or 336 kilobits-per-second by aggregating multiple Basic Rate Interface ISDN (integrated services digital network) lines. The server uses a dual-bus design. The Model 2020 supports both leased and switched connections, O'Neil said. "It's got some nice things for both environments." According to VideoServer, corporate videoconferencing users with more than three or four hours of videoconferencing between any two sites each day will spend less if they install leased T1 or E1 lines to connect those sites to a centrally located Model 2020. Meanwhile, videoconference service providers primarily need to support switched connections, and the 2020 can do this as well, O'Neil maintained. According to O'Neil, VideoServer typically sells three to four times as many of its videoconference servers for in-house use as it does to service providers. Many organizations choose to use service providers for their initial forays into videoconferencing, he said, but "then as they do more and more conferencing, the economics force them to go in-house with it." The new dual-bus Model 2020 is available now, worldwide, O'Neil said. The list price ranges from $85,000 to $250,000, depending on the configuration the customer chooses. Customers with older VideoServer models can get a dual-bus upgrade kit for as little as $300 depending on their hardware revision levels, the company said. (Grant Buckler/19951213/Press Contact: Jack O'Neil, VideoServer, 617-863-2300) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 12/13/95 BUSINESS AT&T & HP Join In Broadband Interactive Alliance (NEWS)(BUSINESS)(LAX)(00022) AT&T & HP Join In Broadband Interactive Alliance 12/13/95 PALO ALTO, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1995 DEC 13 (NB) -- AT&T Network Systems and Hewlett-Packard Company (HP) have signed a memorandum of understanding to cooperate in developing and marketing products in the upcoming broadband interactive market. Specifically mentioned are platforms for high-speed Internet access, wireless network broadband service delivery systems, and broadband enterprise networks. AT&T Network Systems is that part of AT&T spinning off as part of a separate systems and technology company in 1996. With this memorandum of understanding, AT&T Network Systems and HP hope to offer regional Bell operating companies, cable TV companies, and other communications and computing firms the technology to give their customers such services as Internet access, home shopping, telecommuting, interactive games, personal audio channels, virtual communities, distance learning, interactive advertising, and tele-medicine. Nancy Burgess, a marketing manager for HP, told Newsbytes, "This is not an announcement of a new relationship between two technology companies. AT&T and HP have had a strong working relationship for years. The news is that the two are joining efforts in broadband interactive networking. The companies agreed to work together on technology/product licensing, joint research and development, and joint marketing and sales." As part of their arrangement, AT&T Network Systems and HP intend to construct an architecture using a common network scheme to form worldwide-intelligent networks. "AT&T Network Systems and HP are coming together to change what networks are and what they can do," said Carly Fiorina, president of AT&T Network Systems North America. "AT&T Network Systems' expertise in building smart communications networks meshes with HP's strengths in computing, test and measurement, and client/server-based network environments. Both companies bring world-renowned technical and business skills to this relationship." Each company says that they will focus on its core competencies and produce overall "open systems solutions" that reach the market sooner, and also potentially address a broader market. "The two companies are building toward the network of the future using distributed intelligence," said Willem Roelandts, HP senior vice president and general manager of the Computer Systems Organization. "AT&T Network Systems and HP will build seamless, self-healing interoperable networks based on open standards and leading-edge measurement capabilities that are extremely flexible, and more affordable for customers and network operators." Under the memorandum of understanding, the two companies intend to cooperate in several strategic technology and product areas. The products include: creating a network software platform; developing applications for software platforms; developing technology and products for interactive television; and developing a joint offering for interactive broadband data networks that will contain network elements, computing systems, test instruments, cable television modems, and network management and software technologies. The companies also are co-developing operational support systems and business support systems, two software-based networking arenas in which both companies are major players. For example, AT&T Network Systems and HP are: jointly developing a software platform for AT&T Operation Systems Application; creating an operating system specifically for the cable TV market to manage broadband data services; building a measurement platform for operation systems; and providing and servicing customer care. "This agreement with HP allows us to more rapidly offer our customers the most innovative solutions and advanced software applications for the fast-growing multimedia and interactive services markets," said Henry Schacht, chief executive officer (CEO)-designate of the new systems and technology company. To launch this initiative, AT&T Network Systems and HP, along with Intel and Hybrid Networks, announced on November 29 the broadband link team, which will develop and promote an open specification for interoperable products and services. (Richard Bowers/19951213/Press Contact: Kristina Thorngate, HP, 408-447-6363) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 12/13/95 IBM IBM's MVS Gets XPG4 Branding From X/Open (NEWS)(IBM)(TOR)(00023) IBM's MVS Gets XPG4 Branding From X/Open 12/13/95 FISHKILL, NEW YORK, U.S.A., 1995 DEC 13 (NB) -- Anyone who doubted that the concept of open systems is taking over the computer world almost has to be convinced by the announcement this week that IBM's (NYSE:IBM) flagship mainframe operating system has received XPG4 branding from the X/Open Co. Ltd. MVS, the most significant of IBM's three proprietary mainframe operating systems, has for years seemed to be one of the very few proprietary software platforms able to withstand the onslaught of Unix. By pursuing -- and now winning -- XPG4 branding, IBM has acknowledged that even MVS had to change with the times. The XPG4 brand and X/Open are often associated with the Unix operating system, but this is an oversimplification. While many versions of Unix have the XPG4 brand, which signifies compliance with an extensive set of open systems specifications known as the Portability Guide, the brand can also be applied to other operating systems -- one example being Digital Equipment Corp.'s OpenVMS. X/Open also controls the rights to use the name Unix on an operating system. Jordan Chanofsky, a spokesman for IBM, told Newsbytes that the X/Open brand applies to the version of MVS now shipping, known as MVS OpenEdition. Next year, MVS OpenEdition will begin to be offered as part of a new package called OS/390, which Chanofsky said will incorporate an essentially unchanged MVS along with other systems software and utilities that IBM has sold separately in the past. Obtaining XPG4 branding required IBM to run a set of test suites provided by X/Open on more than half a million lines of MVS code, officials said, and the IBM operating system had to pass every aspect of the evaluation. Although further details were not available at Newsbytes' deadline today, Chanofsky said he knew of no plans to pursue XPG4 branding for other IBM operating systems, such as VM, VSE, and OS/400. (Grant Buckler/19951213/Press Contact: Marta Decker, IBM, 914-892-7358; Jordan Chanofsky, Technology Solutions for IBM, 212-696-2000 ext 211) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 12/13/95 ONLINE Compuserve Offers Web Servers For Windows NT & Unix (NEWS)(ONLINE)(MSP)(00024) Compuserve Offers Web Servers For Windows NT & Unix 12/13/95 SEATTLE, WASHINGTON, U.S.A., 1995 DEC 13 (NB) -- Compuserve's Internet Division said it is bringing to market one of the industry's "highest performing and best valued commerce and publishing World Wide Web servers" currently available. The "Spry SafetyWeb Server" is available for the Windows NT and various Unix platforms. Some of the features of the new server include the support of Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) transactions for secure Web purchases, the ability to support multiple Internet Protocol (IP) addresses through "Virtual Server," the "Architext Excite" search engine, and SoftQuad's HoTMetaL Pro HTML (hypertext markup language) authoring tool. Compuserve officials said the SafetyWeb server was written for Windows NT 3.51, which makes it one of the most stable servers on the market for processing large volumes of data. The server was recently awarded Microsoft's Backoffice certification, which means SafetyWeb is fully compliant to true Windows NT standards, Pat Boyle, product manager for Compuserve's Internet Division, told Newsbytes. Simplicity is the key to the server, Boyle said. "If you're not doing a lot of stuff, (Web servers) are simple things," he said. "When you get to more complicated things, they get very detail oriented. So anything you can do to make it simpler makes it good." Officials said one of the features that makes the server simple is a visual interface that, for example, makes the process easier of applying for a digital certificate for SSL security. SafetyWeb uses integrated Open Database Connectivity (ODBC) that lets developers query other ODBC compliant databases, like Access, Paradox, and Oracle. This also allows for the logging of accesses to the Web sites to an ODBC database, allowing easy access from other ODBC clients like Excel, Access, and Visual FoxPro, officials said. The server also allows for proxy server support that allows internal clients to bypass firewalls, along with improving caching performance. Also, Webmasters can administer their site remotely with a Windows NT or Windows 95 equipped computer using Remote Administration. This feature also allows them complete file security privileges. The Spry SafetyWeb server is priced at $700, during an introductory offer that runs until January 15, 1996. After that the server, which runs on Windows NT 3.51, along with Unix systems like Sun, Solaris, Hewlett Packard, Silicon Graphics, BSDI, and Linux, will return to its list price of $1,295. Spry Internet Office is also included in that price. A non-secure server, Spry Web Server, is available from the Web at http://server.spry.com for free until January 15, 1996, when it goes up to $495. (Bob Woods/19951213/Press Contact: Rebecca Gelinas, Compuserve Internet Division, 206-957-8598, Internet e-mail rebeccag@spry.com) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 12/13/95 TELECOM China - Telecom Hacker Problem (NEWS)(TELECOM)(PEK)(00025) China - Telecom Hacker Problem 12/13/95 BEIJING, CHINA, 1995 DEC 13 (NB) -- Chinese telecommunications has taken something of a public relations blow with the breaking of a code that allows for "free" calls from public phones in Beijing, and a network breakdown in Shanghai. Several weeks ago, a group of college students in Beijing discovered a method of decoding the "secret" code in order to use coin-operated public phones for "free" long distance calls. They promptly spread the method to the public, several newspapers reported. There were long lines at some coin-operated phone booths and people were waiting for their turn to make the "free" long-distance calls, the media said. By depositing only a 10-fen coin (10-fen is RMB0.1 and about US$0.012), they could call anywhere in China, said people in the line. Now, about 500 coin-operated public booths in Beijing have been closed to stop the "irregular" use of those phones. However, some quarters are criticizing the Beijing Phone Company for closing the public phone booths instead of correcting the problem. In Shanghai, an international network breakdown occurred recently. The breakdown started about 10am of December 6, as some callers found it impossible to call or fax to Hong Kong or Japan. The links were returned around noon after Shanghai Long-Distance Telephone Bureau technicians took corrective steps. Shanghai Long-Distance Bureau technicians, and their counterparts from switching systems manufacturers, including Ericsson, were summoned to the bureau to investigate the breakdown. Initial reports suggest there was something wrong with the long-distance switching systems, but the exact problem is unknown. Such a breakdown has never occurred before, according to an official with the phone bureau. (Chih-Ho Yu & Ning Huang/19951213) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 12/13/95 TELECOM China - Advanced Mobile Telecoms Technologies Needed (NEWS)(TELECOM)(PEK)(00026) China - Advanced Mobile Telecoms Technologies Needed 12/13/95 BEIJING, CHINA, 1995 DEC 13 (NB) -- China's mobile telecommunications has developed dramatically since 1990. However, the current capacity still cannot meet the demand of the country's economic development and Chinese enterprises should pay close attention to advanced technologies, said an official with the Ministry of Electronics Industry (MEI). More input will be injected into mobile telecommunications to develop key technologies and commercialize advanced products, said Lou Peide with the MEI, at a technology seminar co-organized by the Institute for International Research and the Chinese Institute of Electronics. China's mobile telecommunications, which have witnessed a dramatic development since 1990, is expected to continue its rapid growth in the Ninth Five-Year period (1996-2000). However, the sector's capacity cannot meet the demand of the country's present economic development. The government official called on Chinese enterprises to pay close attention to advanced technologies, such as digital cellular mobile technology and mobile satellite telecommunications technology. He said that China has sacrificed most parts of the market in the sector to foreign companies to obtain the latest manufacturing technology, but the result has not been satisfactory. Some manufacturing joint ventures have been set up, but their technical level is still basic because most of them are just assembling imported parts. Mass production and development has not taken place, Lou said. Currently, foreign companies occupy more than 90 percent of China's mobile telecommunications market. The number of mobile phone users has grown from 20,000 in 1990 to about three million today, and radio pager subscribers have jumped from 430,000 in 1990 to 24 million at present. (Chih-Ho Yu & Ning Huang/19951213) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 95 12/13/95 PC Zenith Data's Low-Cost Notebook For Windows (NEWS)(PC)(MSP)(00027) Zenith Data's Low-Cost Notebook For Windows 95 12/13/95 BUFFALO GROVE, ILLINOIS, U.S.A., 1995 DEC 13 (NB) -- Zenith Data Systems said it is introducing a notebook computer that combines a dual-scan color screen and the performance to run Windows 95 for around $1,600. The new addition to the Z-Star line runs on a 486 DX4/100 megahertz (MHz) processor, a 420 megabyte (MB) hard drive, and 4MB of RAM for $1,599. Other features of the Z-Star DX4/100 include a built-in AC adapter, a removable nickel metal hydride (NiMH), swappable floppy disk drive, a PC Card (Personal Computer Memory Card International Association) type III slot that can accept two type II cards, and a trackball-type pointing device. Buyers of the new system have a choice between Windows 3.11 and Windows 95 as their operating system. ZDS officials noted that consumers who want to run Windows 95 on the notebook should upgrade their RAM by 4MB, 8MB, or 16MB at the time of purchase. When asked why the computer doesn't have more RAM out of the box, Mike Wilson, senior director of portable products marketing, told Newsbytes different applications will need different amounts of RAM. "By starting with 4MB and offering upgrade options, we allow the user to select the RAM configuration that will be the right amount for their needs." The notebook uses industry-standard SIMM (single in-line memory module) add-ins, and has two slots for memory, one of which is filled with the starting 4MB. The new notebook, along with the entire Z-Star line, is targeted at the market segment that needs a "basic, high-quality notebook for a low price," said the company. Wilson said this includes people who are looking for a traveling notebook or a second computing device. The notebook is also targeted at students who need powerful computing at a low price, he added. The Z-Star DX4/100 is now available through ZDS authorized resellers and distributors, and ZDS' education and government channels. For more information, those with Internet World Wide Web access can surf to the company's homepage at http://www.zds.com/ . (Bob Woods/19951213/Press Contacts: Glynis Gibson, Zenith Data Systems, 312-868-9400 or 708-808-4276; Public Contact: Zenith Data Systems, 708-808-5000) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 12/13/95 BUSINESS Microsoft Acquires Flight Simulator Developer (NEWS)(BUSINESS)(DEN)(00028) Microsoft Acquires Flight Simulator Developer 12/13/95 REDMOND, WASHINGTON, U.S.A., 1995 DEC 13 (NB) -- Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ: MSFT) has acquired the company that developed the popular Flight Simulator game. Microsoft said this week it paid an undisclosed amount of cash for the Bruce Artwick Organization Ltd. (BAO), a privately held company that developed Flight Simulator, Flight Simulator Flight Shop, Tower, Space Simulator, and various scenery accessory packages for Flight Simulator, including Las Vegas Scenery, MS Caribbean, and MS Japan. The two companies aren't strangers. Microsoft and Bruce Artwick have had a business relationship centering around Flight Simulator for more than 15 years. Artwick will stay on as a consultant to Microsoft in the design and development of new titles, while the majority of BAO's 30 employees will relocate from their present site in Champaign, Illinois, to Microsoft's Redmond, Washington, campus. A Microsoft spokesperson told Newsbytes the acquisition of BAO gives Microsoft more control over development of simulation products. He said as Microsoft expands into different areas of the simulation category BAO's expertise in developing "sims" will enhance that process. "Microsoft is definitely committed to game titles in the future," said the spokesperson, although currently no specific games are in the development stage. "It's still in discussion," he told Newsbytes. Microsoft already has one Windows 95-compliant game in the market place, called "Fury3" (Fury cubed), which the spokesperson characterized as "a shoot-em-up game." It was developed in conjunction with Texas-based Terminal Reality and was released in September. Microsoft said the first title from the reorganization will be Microsoft Flight Simulator for the Windows 95 operating system. The acquisition is another move by Microsoft to get a firmer foothold in the entertainment software field as it moves from its strong applications and programming orientation to a broader base of products with greater appeal to the home user, and what it hopes will be, an even broader market share. Microsoft said Flight Simulator has sold more than three million units since it was introduced. (Jim Mallory/19951213/Press contact: Sue Barnes, Waggener Edstrom for Microsoft, 408-986-1140; Public contact: Microsoft, 206-882-8080 or 800-426-9400) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 12/13/95 NETWORKS Software Finds Network Files (NEWS)(NETWORKS)(DEN)(00029) Software Finds Network Files 12/13/95 CAMBRIDGE, MASSACHUSETTS, U.S.A., 1995 DEC 13 (NB) -- Having trouble finding files on your network? Maybe you should call On Technology Corp. (NASDAQ: ONTC) which has published On Location for Networks, a software tool that locates any files that contain a user-specified text string. #IMAGE 1 20 TWPCX \images\95121329.PCX Click here for photo The program works through the use of an indexing engine that can search Windows 95, Windows NT, Macintosh System 7.x or Windows 3.1 files on Appletalk, NetWare, or TCP/IP (Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol)-based networks. The company said On Location for Networks is a network-based application that the network administrator can assign to specific nodes on the net or it can run as a background application on a non-dedicated workstation. The indexes occupy three to five percent of the actual file size, and are automatically updated for network files or hard disk documents when the host computer is idle. The company said searches are as much as 200 times faster than methods that employ sequential searches through each document individually. The software recognizes network security provisions and won't identify files containing the specified text string unless the user has the proper access rights. An option allows individual users to maintain indexes for documents on their local hard drives, network drives, and dismounted storage media, including CD-ROM disks, Zip, Syquest, and Bernoulli cartridges. If the documents you are looking for are on a removable media, it's not necessary to mount that media to find the file, since On Location for Networks creates an index for each disk or data cartridge. The software offers multiple search options, including text strings and near-word searches. You can also include Boolean operators like "and," "or," and "not." There are also Word Proximity (find two or more words near each other) and Fuzzy Logic (search word roots so a search for "run" finds "runner" and "running") searches. The company said false matches are one percent or less. Each search produces a list of long filenames, extension type or file kind, file size, date the file was last modified, and a directory of archived media where the file is stored. A click on the file name opens the document in its corresponding application. The user can print or copy the search results list, and files can be moved, copied, renamed or deleted. On Location for Networks has three components: the Server Indexer creates indexes for files and text; the Viewer Client module, which is available in 10- and 50-user license packs, allows individual users to view and share indexes on the server; and the Indexer Client, which also comes in 10- and 50-user packs, provides the option to create indexes on the server for sharing files with other users and for indexing documents and text on local hard drives and removable media at the desktop. The Server Indexer has a $999 price tag, while the Viewer Client starts at $49 per user or $490 for a 10-user pack. Indexer clients start at $99 per user, or $990 for 10 users. The company offers a 30-day free trial program. Users of the company's standalone Macintosh product can covert to On Location for Networks by buying the Server Indexer for $299 or a combined Viewer/Indexer Client package for 10 users at $299. (Jim Mallory/19951213/Press contact: Lonna Mitchell, On Technology, 617-692-3138; Public contact: On Technology Corporation, tel 617-374-1400 or 800-767-6683, fax 617-374-1433/ONTECH951213/PHOTO) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 12/13/95 ONLINE ****Lotus Plans Notes Access By Web Browsers, Intros 4. (NEWS)(ONLINE)(BOS)(00030) ****Lotus Plans Notes Access By Web Browsers, Intros 4.0 12/13/95 CAMBRIDGE, MASSACHUSETTS, U.S.A., 1995 DEC 13 (NB) -- Over the coming year, Lotus will deliver a Notes server that can be accessed by Web browsers and Notes clients alike, revealed Lotus chiefs Mike Zisman and Jeff Papows, at a press conference attended by Newsbytes today in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Also at the press event, Zisman and Papows announced two versions of a server and three client editions for the "Web-enabled" Notes 4.0. With Notes 4.0, Lotus will begin to take on an "aggressive" pursuit of the market for Web-based "distributed publishing," said Zisman, who is Lotus's executive VP and CEO (chief executive officer). Then, in the June time frame, Lotus will add HTTP, HTML (hypertext markup language) and Java technology to the Notes server, bringing first-time access by Web browsers, according to Zisman. Also next year, Lotus plans to release a new set of "application frameworks for the Web," which will include frameworks for publishing, electronic commerce, service, and marketing, he told the reporters and analysts. The Notes 4.0 server, which will add the InterNotes Web Publisher for Notes-to-Web "distributed publishing," will be sold in both a single processor edition priced at $495 as well as in a new multi-processor edition, capable of supporting "1,000 simultaneous sessions," said Papows, who is executive VP and COO (chief operating officer) of Lotus. In Release 3.0, the Notes server has been priced at $275. InterNotes Publisher 2.0, however, has been separately priced at $2,500, Papows pointed out. Meanwhile, the Notes client, available in Notes 3.0 at $275 for the "full" Notes client at $155 in the slimmed-down Notes Desktop edition, will now add a third version, known as Notes Mail. The Notes 4.0 client incorporates the new Web Navigator browser, along with a simplified, cc:Mail-inspired user interface, Zisman told the press. Pricing in Notes 4.0 is $275 for the "full" Notes client, $69 for the Notes Desktop client, which contains all the capabilities of the full client except for a series of "custom applications" such as "workflow"; and %55 for the new Notes Mail, a product that includes all the functionality of Notes Desktop aside from application development capabilities. (Jacqueline Emigh/19951214/Reader Contact: Lotus, 617-577-8500; Press Contact: Lois Paul & Partners for Lotus, 617-862-4514) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 12/13/95 TRENDS ****1995 Hard Drive Market Shows Growth - Report (NEWS)(TRENDS)(SFO)(00031) ****1995 Hard Drive Market Shows Growth - Report 12/13/95 SAN JOSE, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1995 DEC 13 (NB) -- Dataquest, well-known high-tech market and research consulting company, says preliminary figures for the 1995 rigid disk drive market appear to be up 26% over 1994. Shipments for 1995 will exceed 86.6 million units as compared to 69.3 million units in 1994. The study additionally found disk industry executives are extremely confident that the trend will continue into the first quarter of 1996. Dataquest predicts 1996 could easily be the most profitable year in the history of the industry. Heading the list of unit shipments in 1995 is hard disk manufacturer Quantum with 22.3%. The leader would have been Seagate/Connor if their announced merger had been consummated during this year. The combined shipments of the two companies would dominate the market with 32.7% of shipped units. As separate entities, Seagate has 19.3% and Connor has 13.5% share, a second and fourth place finish, respectively. Western Digital comes in third with 14.2%, while IBM is fifth with 12.2%, Maxtor has 8.1%, and an "others" category accounts for 10.4%. The hard disk market has been dramatically affected the past two years by lower prices, and faster, larger capacity drives. While shipments are at an all-time high, the growth rate has slowly dropped from 33% in 1994 to a predicted 26% in 1995. Dataquest says shipments are expected to rise another 15% in 1996. Phil Devin, vice president and chief analyst at Dataquest, told Newsbytes, "I think this price erosion will flatten out in 1996 and balance the slowing growth rate. What pulls prices down is product competition and rapidly moving lifecycles. Technology is getting tougher to advance and I do not think we will see these significant speed and volume increases in the future. Once we get to two gigabytes on the desktop, one wonders how much more standard desktop users will need." Devin also said the Seagate/Connor merger should bring more stability to the market. "The combined company will operate under a conservative, common sense approach which will affect the rest of the industry. This influence should also contribute to a more steady market in 1996." For the average user, this means there will continue to be some good bargains on larger, faster hard disk drives commonly used in upgrading desktop systems, but the tumbling prices and fast, high storage capabilities phenomena appears to be slowing as the industry enters 1996. (Patrick McKenna/19951213/Press Contact: Tom McCall, Dataquest, 408-468-8312) (SUMMARY)(GENERAL)(MSP)(00032) Newsbytes Daily Summary 12/13/95 MINNEAPOLIS, MINNESOTA, U.S.A., 1995 DEC 13 (NB) -- These are capsules of all today's news stories: ======================================================================== ------------| N E W S B Y T E S D A I L Y S U M M A R Y |---------- ------------| Wednesday, December 13, 1995 |---------- ======================================================================== (c) Newsbytes News Network (Tm) Editor in Chief: Wendy Woods ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Newsbytes News Network's on the Web! Check out http://www.nbnn.com for free daily top stories from Newsbytes and its affiliate publications, and from PC Week, MacWeek, and other Ziff news magazines. A subscription gives you all the news, full-text, plus the most comprehensive database of past computer stories online. The keyword-searchable database dates from today back through 1983. Subscriptions are $24.95 for three months. Questions? Send to 'administrator@newsbytes.com' For Japanese Newsbytes and additional services, see the Newsbytes Pacifica Website at http://www.islandtel.com/newsbytes/ ------------------------------------------------------------------------ CATEGORY HEADLINES (*** indicates today's top stories) STORY # ======================================================================== APPLE Adobe Intros Mac Photo Editing Software.................... 02 BUSINESS AT&T & HP Join In Broadband Interactive Alliance........... 22 BUSINESS Microsoft Acquires Flight Simulator Developer.............. 28 CHIPS NEC Intros 8 Megabit Rambus DRAM........................... 12 CHIPS Texas Instruments Starts $1Bil Thailand Chip Plant......... 18 GENERAL Hyperion Intros Software For Financial OLAP................ 10 GENERAL NewsPix Update For Newsbytes Publishers.................... 11 IBM IBM's MVS Gets XPG4 Branding From X/Open................... 23 LEGAL Electricity Consumers Lobby Telecom Conference............. 09 NETWORKS Software Finds Network Files............................... 29 ONLINE Congressional Quarterly On The Web......................... 01 ONLINE ****Internet Update....................................... 04 ONLINE Worlds Inc. & Diamond Multimedia To Deliver 3-D Chat....... 06 ONLINE Free Travel & Vacation Planning On The Web................. 07 ONLINE MaxInfo Delivers Server Development Tools.................. 08 ONLINE Ameritech's Court Computer Access.......................... 13 ONLINE DSVD Technology Patents Awarded To Multitech............... 14 ONLINE Web Conference - IBM Intros iNet For Web Development....... 17 ONLINE Compuserve Offers Web Servers For Windows NT & Unix........ 24 ONLINE ****Lotus Plans Notes Access By Web Browsers, Intros 4.0.. 30 PC Zenith Data's Low-Cost Notebook For Windows 95............. 27 TELECOM Pagenet To Test Two-Way Paging In Atlanta.................. 03 TELECOM Motorola Offers Authentication-Ready Cellular Phones....... 16 TELECOM VideoServer's High-Capacity Conference Server.............. 21 TELECOM China - Telecom Hacker Problem............................. 25 TELECOM China - Advanced Mobile Telecoms Technologies Needed....... 26 TRENDS Labels Meant To Match CD-ROM Software To Hardware.......... 05 TRENDS ****Novell Has 66% Of European Networking Mkt - Report.... 15 TRENDS ****Citizen's Photo-Realistic Color Printer Under $600.... 19 TRENDS ****1995 Hard Drive Market Shows Growth - Report.......... 31 WINDOWS Delrina Begins Shipments Of Cyberjack...................... 20 ======================================================================== These are the headlines and first paragraphs of each story, in order: 1 -> Congressional Quarterly On The Web -- Congressional Quarterly has launched a new World Wide Web site for political junkies, timed to coincide with the 1996 national elections. American Voter '96 (http://voter96.cqalert.com ) provides easy access to political and legislative information that can sometimes be hard to find. 2 -> Adobe Intros Mac Photo Editing Software -- Adobe Systems Inc. (NASDAQ: ADBE) is poised to launch PhotoDeluxe, a software product that allows the user to "easily" modify, personalize, and enhance photographs. 3 -> Pagenet To Test Two-Way Paging In Atlanta -- Paging Network Inc. (NASDAQ: PAGE) has announced it will conduct a field trial of two-way messaging services on its Narrowband PCS (personal communication service) network in the Atlanta, Georgia market beginning in mid-1996. 4 -> ****Internet Update -- In this roundup of new services and resources on the global Internet: The London guide; PGP front-end software; Mexico Web guide; Snow's up; Cable TV links; Net squared library; Central New York's cybervillage; Copenhagen now; Pre press main street 5 -> Labels Meant To Match CD-ROM Software To Hardware -- The Interactive Multimedia Association (IMA) has announced a labeling plan meant to help CD-ROM buyers make sure the titles they buy will work with their computers. The IMA said it hopes its CD-Match program will reduce retail returns of multimedia titles, currently running at about 30 percent. 6 -> Worlds Inc. & Diamond Multimedia To Deliver 3-D Chat -- Diamond Multimedia and Worlds Inc., designer of three-dimensional (3-D) multi-user chat environments, has announced a bundling agreement where Diamond will include Worlds Chat with its line of multimedia and communications products. 7 -> Free Travel & Vacation Planning On The Web -- Preview Media, a producer of television travel programming, has opened Preview Vacations on the World Wide Web. Offering more than 500 pages of travel information, Preview Vacations is getting the cyber jump on Easy Sabre, the well-known online flight and hotel reservations system. 8 -> MaxInfo Delivers Server Development Tools -- Maximum Information Inc. (MaxInfo) has released a new Internet World Wide Web server line for systems running Windows NT, Windows 95, and the most popular versions of Unix. With the new programs, the company said Web developers can now integrate C and C++ code directly into new and existing hypertext markup language (HTML) pages on their servers. 9 -> Electricity Consumers Lobby Telecom Conference -- A group of large electricity consumers have asked House and Senate conferees involved in the telecommunications legislation to keep large energy holding companies out of the telecommunications business. 10 -> Hyperion Intros Software For Financial OLAP -- Hyperion OLAP (online analytical processing), a new multidimensional financial analysis tool, will differ from competing products from companies like Comshare through faster performance as well as "financial intelligence," Hyperion Software officials maintained, during a press conference attended by Newsbytes in Boston. 11 -> NewsPix Update For Newsbytes Publishers -- This update will be posted each Wednesday and Friday to reflect the daily picture additions. The updates will in turn become part of the main NewsPix Bulletin issued on Monday. 12 -> NEC Intros 8 Megabit Rambus DRAM -- NEC Electronics Inc. has announced the availability of samples for their new eight- megabit (Mb) Rambus dynamic random access memory (RDRAM). The new RDRAM will be available in the marketplace by second quarter 1996. 13 -> Ameritech's Court Computer Access -- The terms "government" and "easy-to-use" don't usually exist side-by-side. But Ameritech (NYSE:AIT) is making access to government records in four Illinois counties outside of Chicago easier with its "CivicLink" service. 14 -> DSVD Technology Patents Awarded To Multitech -- MultiTech Systems has been awarded two patents for its DSVD (digital simultaneous voice & data) technology, as seen in its MultiModem PCS modems. According to Dilip Mistry, the company's UK managing director, however, MultiTech isn't looking for big money on the DSVD licensing front, but is rather hoping to create a de facto standard, while the International Telecoms Union (ITU) works towards ratification of the DSVD standard. 15 -> ****Novell Has 66% Of European Networking Mkt - Report -- According to figures just released by market research firm Dataquest, NetWare remains the dominant network operating system in Europe, accounting for around 66 percent of unit shipments in 1994. 16 -> Motorola Offers Authentication-Ready Cellular Phones -- Motorola (NYSE:MOT) said it is the first to market with phones that thwart the increasingly common practice of "cloning," or duplicating, the codes from cellular phones. The cellular phone manufacturer said it is shipping new authentication-ready units that will help cut cellular telephone fraud. 17 -> Web Conference - IBM Intros iNet For Web Development -- IBM's newly unveiled iNet Porting program is designed to encourage development of new Web applications for RS/6000 and AIX, as well as ports of existing applications, by providing free-of-charge access, both over the Web and "in person," to IBM hardware, software, and technical staff, said IBM's Tom Fornoff, in a meeting with Newsbytes at the 4th International World Wide Web Conference in Boston. 18 -> Texas Instruments Starts $1Bil Thailand Chip Plant -- Texas Instruments Inc. (NYSE:TXN) broke ground this week on a $1.2 billion semiconductor manufacturing facility the company said will manufacture advanced memory chips. 19 -> ****Citizen's Photo-Realistic Color Printer Under $600 -- Citizen America is shipping Printiva 600C, claimed to be the first desktop printer to offer photo-realistic printing for under $1,000. Using a new technology, called the micro dry process, Printiva 600C offers the quality of dye sublimation color printing for as little as $0.80 per page at 90% density, says the company. 20 -> Delrina Begins Shipments Of Cyberjack -- The Delrina Group of Symantec Corp. (NASDAQ:SYMC) has begun shipping Cyberjack, its Internet access software for Microsoft's Windows 95 operating system. 21 -> VideoServer's High-Capacity Conference Server -- Aiming at large corporate users and videoconference service providers, VideoServer Inc. (NASDAQ:VSVR) has announced a new high-capacity videoconference server, the Model 2020. 22 -> AT&T & HP Join In Broadband Interactive Alliance -- AT&T Network Systems and Hewlett-Packard Company (HP) have signed a memorandum of understanding to cooperate in developing and marketing products in the upcoming broadband interactive market. Specifically mentioned are platforms for high-speed Internet access, wireless network broadband service delivery systems, and broadband enterprise networks. 23 -> IBM's MVS Gets XPG4 Branding From X/Open -- Anyone who doubted that the concept of open systems is taking over the computer world almost has to be convinced by the announcement this week that IBM's (NYSE:IBM) flagship mainframe operating system has received XPG4 branding from the X/Open Co. Ltd. 24 -> Compuserve Offers Web Servers For Windows NT & Unix -- Compuserve's Internet Division said it is bringing to market one of the industry's "highest performing and best valued commerce and publishing World Wide Web servers" currently available. The "Spry SafetyWeb Server" is available for the Windows NT and various Unix platforms. 25 -> China - Telecom Hacker Problem -- Chinese telecommunications has taken something of a public relations blow with the breaking of a code that allows for "free" calls from public phones in Beijing, and a network breakdown in Shanghai. 26 -> China - Advanced Mobile Telecoms Technologies Needed -- China's mobile telecommunications has developed dramatically since 1990. However, the current capacity still cannot meet the demand of the country's economic development and Chinese enterprises should pay close attention to advanced technologies, said an official with the Ministry of Electronics Industry (MEI). 27 -> Zenith Data's Low-Cost Notebook For Windows 95 -- Zenith Data Systems said it is introducing a notebook computer that combines a dual-scan color screen and the performance to run Windows 95 for around $1,600. 28 -> Microsoft Acquires Flight Simulator Developer -- Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ: MSFT) has acquired the company that developed the popular Flight Simulator game. 29 -> Software Finds Network Files -- Having trouble finding files on your network? Maybe you should call On Technology Corp. (NASDAQ: ONTC) which has published On Location for Networks, a software tool that locates any files that contain a user-specified text string. 30 -> ****Lotus Plans Notes Access By Web Browsers, Intros 4.0 -- Over the coming year, Lotus will deliver a Notes server that can be accessed by Web browsers and Notes clients alike, revealed Lotus chiefs Mike Zisman and Jeff Papows, at a press conference attended by Newsbytes today in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Also at the press event, Zisman and Papows announced two versions of a server and three client editions for the "Web-enabled" Notes 4.0. 31 -> ****1995 Hard Drive Market Shows Growth - Report -- Dataquest, well-known high-tech market and research consulting company, says preliminary figures for the 1995 rigid disk drive market appear to be up 26% over 1994. Shipments for 1995 will exceed 86.6 million units as compared to 69.3 million units in 1994. (Ian Stokell/19951213) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 12/11/95 TRENDS Int'l Surveillance - Free Online Report (NEWS)(TRENDS)(LON)(00001) Int'l Surveillance - Free Online Report 12/11/95 LONDON, ENGLAND, 1995 DEC 11 (NB) -- Privacy International, a not- for-profit personal privacy organization, has issued a free 150-page report in which it claims that there exists a massive international surveillance trade funded by the arms industry and led by the UK. According to Simon Davies, the director of Privacy International, "Big Brother Incorporate" aims to show the world exactly what goes in the world trade as regards surveillance. The report is billed as investigating what Davies calls "the global trade in repressive surveillance technologies," and is available for free download at http://www.privacy.org/pi/reports/big_bro/ . Davies told Newsbytes that the report shows how technology companies in Europe and North America provide the surveillance infrastructure for the secret police and military authorities in such countries as China, Indonesia, Nigeria, Angola, Rwanda, and Guatemala The report's primary concern is the flow of sophisticated computer- based technology from developed countries to developing countries -- and particularly to non-democratic regimes. The report claims to demonstrate how these companies have strengthened the lethal authority of the world's most dangerous regimes. The report lists the companies, their directors, products, and exports. In each case, source material is "meticulously cited." Privacy International is planning to publish the report in digital form on several other sites on the Internet to "ensure its accessibility" by interested parties anywhere in the world. According to Privacy International, surveillance technologies are defined as "technologies which can monitor, track and assess the movements, activities and communications of individuals." More than 80 British companies are involved, the report claims, making the UK the world leader in this field. Other countries, in order of significance, are the US, France, Israel, the Netherlands, and Germany. Big Brother Incorporated is billed as the first investigation ever conducted into this trade. Privacy International intends to update the report from time-to-time using trade fair documents and leaked information from whistleblowers. According to Privacy International, the surveillance trade is almost indistinguishable from the arms trade. More than 70 percent of companies manufacturing and exporting surveillance technology also export arms, chemical weapons, or military hardware. Surveillance is, the report claims, a crucial element for the maintenance of any non-democratic infrastructure, and is an important activity in the pursuit of intelligence and political control. "Many countries in transition to democracy also rely heavily on surveillance to satisfy the demands of police and military. The technology described in the report makes possible mass surveillance of populations. In the past, regimes relied on targeted surveillance," says the report. "Much of this technology is used to track the activities of dissidents, human rights activists, journalists, student leaders, minorities, trade union leaders, and political opponents. It is also useful for monitoring larger sectors of the population. With this technology, the financial transactions, communications activity, and geographic movements of millions of people can be captured, analyzed, and transmitted cheaply and efficiently," it adds. The report claims that Western surveillance technology is providing invaluable support to military and totalitarian authorities throughout the world. One British computer firm provided the technological infrastructure to establish the South African automated Passbook system, upon which much of the functioning of the Apartheid regime was based. Also, British surveillance cameras were used in Tianamen Square against the pro-democracy demonstrators, claims the report. In the 1980s, Privacy International asserts, an Israeli company developed and exported the technology for the computerized death list used by the Guatemalan police. Two British companies routinely provide the Chinese authorities with bugging equipment and telephone tapping devices. So who are Privacy International and why is the organization promulgating a free report? Is it unbiased, or does the organization have an ax to grind? Davies told Newsbytes that he set up the not-for-profit organization, without any government or external assistance in 1990, with the express aim of bringing together privacy experts, human rights advocates, and technology experts in more than 40 countries, and works toward the goal of "promoting privacy issues worldwide." The organization claims to act as an "impartial watchdog" on surveillance activities by governments and corporations. "Our main headquarters are in Washington in the US, which is where all e-mail, Internet traffic, and calls go. We are, however, scattered around the globe," Davies explained, adding that the organization is a "virtual" one, with people in several countries, all linked by the Internet. "We are allied to EPIC and other privacy related organizations, but, unlike the EFF (Electronic Frontier Foundation) we rely on our own actions to support the organization. We hold regular security and privacy issue-related conferences and issue publications. By publishing this report free on the Internet, though, we can ensure the widest possible audience," he said. (Steve Gold/19951208/Press & Reader Contact: David Banisar, Privacy International, tel 202-544-9240, fax 202-547-5482, Internet e-mail Banisar@privacy.org) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 12/11/95 BUSINESS Spain - Telefonica To Invest $900Mil In Mexican Telco (NEWS)(BUSINESS)(LON)(00002) Spain - Telefonica To Invest $900Mil In Mexican Telco 12/11/95 MADRID, SPAIN, 1995 DEC 11 (NB) -- Telefonica de Espania, the Spanish telecoms company, has announced plans to invest at least $900 million by the end of the decade in Unicom, a consortium of companies preparing toe build a new trunk and international phone network in Mexico. According to Telefonica, which has a 24.5 percent stake in Unicom, the other partners in the enterprise include Grupo Financiero Bancomer, GTE Corporation, and Valores Industriales. The aim is to first establish a grid of trunk lines based around fiber optic links and then plug this into member companies' international phone networks. When completed in about five years, the Unicom network will span more than 60 cities across Mexico and has already received the approval of the Ministry of Communications in Mexico. The project should have signed up almost 400 staff by the end of the year and, at its peak at the end of 1996 and early 1997, will have as many as 2,000 staff on its payroll. The announcement of the Mexican major investment plan comes just weeks after Telefonica de espania announced plans to integrate all of its international subsidiaries into a single network, to be known as the Pan-American Network. The aim of the consolidation, the company said in October of this year, was to save costs -- both for the carrier and to users. The plan announced in October maintains that connections between Telefonica's subsidiaries in Argentina, Chile, Columbia, Peru, Puerto Rico, Spain, and Venezuela would use the network, which was planned -- and is still on target -- to launch at the end of this year. Telefonica Internacional, which is 76.22 percent owned by Telefonica de Espana, will invest the $900 million into the Unicom project. The company is cash rich at the moment, having reported net profits for the six months to June 30, 1995, up by 15.6 percent to more than $500 million, on a turnover of $2,875 -- up 16.9 percent on the same period last year. (Sylvia Dennis/19951208/Press & Reader Contact: Telefonica de Espania, +34-1-584-4400) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 12/11/95 ONLINE UK - Computer Training On The Web (NEWS)(ONLINE)(LON)(00003) UK - Computer Training On The Web 12/11/95 NEW WINDSOR, BERKSHIRE, ENGLAND, 1995 DEC 11 (NB) -- Peritas, an IT (information technology) training organization, has opened a Web site at http://www.peritas.com , which it claims is the world's first global Web site for training services. According to Evelyn Ness, a spokesperson for Peritas, the Web site is called Peritas Online, and organizations worldwide will be able to access, electronically from their PCs, a wide range of "quality" training courses, products, and services provided by "Europe's leading IT training and commercial education consultancy." In addition to offering a comprehensive range of services and information, Peritas Online will, it is claimed, enable students worldwide to view training materials from their PC, take classes online from experts around the world, browse and book courses from the full Peritas portfolio, and communicate with other students around the world in online forums and user groups. Peritas claims it was one of the first suppliers to deliver Microsoft training courses via MOLI, the Microsoft Online Institute, part of the Microsoft Network. According to the IT training company, this announcement extends Peritas' online activities into the wider realms of the Internet, accessible via the increasing range of Internet- access and online service providers. Announcing the launch of the Web site, Paul Butler, director of Peritas Learning Technology said, "Peritas Online is a big step forward into the world of online communications and online business and will allow our existing customers -- plus thousands of Internet users across the world -- full access to our wide range of quality training products and services." Peritas Online services include Browsing Online -- where, by accessing the Web site, customers can browse through the Peritas Course Planning Guide for full details and specifications of all scheduled courses and CBT packages available. It also includes Learning Online -- where a large number of courses from the Peritas portfolio will be made available through Peritas Online. Web surfers will also be able to access the company's Digital Media portfolio including: Internet and Authorware training; Unix; Oracle; Software AG/Inceptor courses; programming skills; examination and accreditation workshops; and human resource development and management skills courses. According to Butler, the new Web site is not only inexpensive to access across the Internet, but is also convenient and easy to fit around other business and home commitments. Students, he claims, can learn and re-learn at a pace which is effective for them. However, according to Butler: "Until now people have had to choose between the flexibility of self-paced learning and the interaction and motivation that is inherent in classroom-based training. Our experience shows that when students have problems with course material they need to have somewhere to turn for help otherwise their energy and enthusiasm can be lost. Peritas Online will provide the best of both worlds -- flexibility and interaction," he said. (Sylvia Dennis/19951208/Press Contact: Leading Edge Communications, +44-171-454-9360, Internet e-mail leadingedge@cix.compulink.co.uk; Reader Contact: Peritas, +44-1753-868181) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 12/11/95 ONLINE UK - Southampton Institute's Internet MBA (NEWS)(ONLINE)(LON)(00004) UK - Southampton Institute's Internet MBA 12/11/95 SOUTHAMPTON, HAMPSHIRE, ENGLAND, 1995 DEC 11 (NB) -- It is now nine months since Southampton Institute started offering Master of Business Administration (MBA) degrees across the Internet, making it the first UK educational institution to offer this facility. According to spokesperson Bridgett Vane, the scheme has been a success, and last month saw the second intake of students signing up for the course. According to Vane, the interesting feature of the Internet MBA scheme is that the students "have taken to the scheme like a duck to water." Vane told Newsbytes that, although she was aware that US educational institutions have been offering MBAs remotely across the Internet for some time, this is still a new area for the Institute. "Many features of the US educational community are only now being adopted in by the UK community. We are about 18 months behind the US in this respect, but I like to think that we have taken the best aspects of the US schemes and combined them to create the UK scheme," she said, adding that, although the institute is not releasing numbers of students, it is happy with the sign-ups and results so far. According to Vane, as the Institute has been at the sharp end of the marketplace working to perfect the new technology, the whole process has been, and continues to be, a learning curve for the Institute, tutors and students alike. Many interesting developments have evolved from day-to-day usage of the Internet as a result. According to the Institute, the Internet is not seen as an add-on to existing learning methods. Instead, it forms the "core method of delivery for interaction." Almost all of the teaching and learning process is carried out through the medium, getting away from the "isolated learner" model of distance education. The Institute claims that students learn collaboratively in groups, with peer-to-peer learning being actively encouraged. According to Vane, while some of the MBA applicants are Internet- savvy, the majority are neither particularly computer-focused nor particularly young. Support systems are being developed to cater for their needs and allow access to all. A number of problematic issues have occurred -- for instance, some students suffer from "fear of publication," within the conferencing area, and are thus what Vane calls "lurkers," instead of active contributors to the working area. The Institute is putting strategies into place to overcome this particular problem, and the institute wants to create an online Internet cafe for students and teachers to hang out. Predicted enhancements to this facility include photos of tutors and students on the Internet. This will, Vane claims, reinforce relationships. "There can be no doubt that teaching using modern technology is here to stay. All places of learning will have to consider this if they are to satisfy the demand for flexible learning from students around the world," she explained. Further details of the Internet MBA can be found on Southampton Institute's Web site at http://www.cecomm.co.uk/sibs/sibs.html . (Steve Gold/19951208/Press Contact: Bridgett Vane, tel +44-1703-769985, fax +44-1703-767405; Reader Contact: MBA Administrator, Southampton Institute, tel +44-1703-319822, fax +44-1703-222259, Internet e-mail mba@solent.ac.uk) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 12/11/95 ONLINE TeleAdapt's Web Service For Mobile Users (NEWS)(ONLINE)(LON)(00005) TeleAdapt's Web Service For Mobile Users 12/11/95 LONDON, ENGLAND, 1995 DEC 11 (NB) -- Confirming plans announced at the Comdex Fall computer show last month, TeleAdapt has officially opened its online Web site at http://www/teleadapt.co.uk . Gordon Brown, TeleAdapt's managing director, told Newsbytes that the Web site is known as TeleAdapt Online and, although aimed at TeleAdapt customers, can be accessed by anyone. "We've been compiling data from several sources for some time now, and have sufficient information to be able to publish this on our Web site, as well as through our forum on Compuserve," he said. He added that, while he had been looking at charging for information, he felt it was better to offer this as a service for new and existing customers. According to Brown, TeleAdapt Online contains a wealth of information on phone systems in use around the world which may be encountered when taking a fax modem on the road. Problems occur since people assume that they and their PC plus modem combo can be taken "on the road" and plugged into the phone system anywhere in the world. As modem-savvy readers of Newsbytes will be aware, this isn't possible, and is the area where TeleAdapt has carved out a niche for itself as a supplier of portable modem and communications solutions, in the UK, US, and Australia. According to Brown, dealing with situations such as when the modem plug doesn't fit the wall socket, or there isn't even a wall socket, can be pre-empted by logging on to the TeleAdapt Online Web site. TeleAdapt Online includes sections on the problems that are likely to be encountered, how to prepare for a trip and what may be required to get connected to a hotel, or from a payphone. A regional section contains information on regional variations, with information on the different types of phone systems in use and the TeleAdapt products needed to get connected. Plans call for the database to be further segmented on a country-by- country basis. "Most traveling notebook computer users don't realize they have a problem connecting back to base until they get to their destination," explained Colin Corby, TeleAdapt's commercial director. He added, "By then, it's often too late. Through TeleAdapt's online Web pages, they can find out about the countries they're going to, what the problems may be and what they need to take with them." (Steve Gold/19951208/Press & Reader Contact: TeleAdapt UK, tel +44-181-421-4444, fax +44-181-421-5308, Internet e-mail 100111.2713@compuserve.com; TeleAdapt US, tel 408-370-5105, fax 408-370-5110, Internet e-mail 76263.706@compuserve.com) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 12/11/95 ONLINE America Online Opens HealthZone (NEWS)(ONLINE)(SFO)(00006) America Online Opens HealthZone 12/11/95 VIENNA, VIRGINIA, U.S.A., 1995 DEC 11 (NB) -- America Online (NASDAQ:AMER) has opened another of its AOL Greenhouse projects, this one called The HealthZone. A business unit of AOL, Greenhouse helps entrepreneurs develop AOL and Internet areas using the company's online production support, marketing expertise, and equity funding. AOL spokesperson Margaret Ryan told Newsbytes, "Our Greenhouse project is working really well. The HealthZone is another example of an independent entrepreneur being able to develop a bright, informative and entertaining area for our subscribers and being able to carry similar content onto the Web." Health issues have been getting a lot of attention at AOL in the past two months. "We have organized a number of health topics and services in our Health Area. In October we announced Health Channel and now we are adding HealthZone," continued Ryan. Newsbytes published a story earlier this week about a joint venture with Time and AOL which will deliver more information to meet the trend to bring medical and health information and issues to AOL members. AOL said services developed from the joint venture should become available during 1996. The HealthZone is the creation of Sarah Browne, who has ten years experience developing weight management and fitness and wellness programs for healthcare systems. Her HealthZone world is designed to combine nutrition, fitness and wellness in a comprehensive cyberpackage which is both informative and fun. To make the new areas easy to navigate, Browne presents an interface of "The Seven Planets of The HealthZone." The Nutrition Zone offers recipes, healthy eating habits, fad diet information, and the opportunity to consult with a Registered Dietitian. For the sport-minded enthusiast, The Clinic Zone offers the latest sports medicine tips and advice. A Fitness Zone offers personal trainers and sports psychology help. On the lighter side, there is the Zodiac Zone where the Zodiac daily horoscopes are used as the basis for recipes, weight loss, and working- out. The Buddy Zone allows users to chat with one another and a Shopping Zone lets users purchase health related projects and services. Rounding out The HealthZone, Browne created the Spa Zone where members may learn about meditation, organic gardening, and herbal treatments. Like many new online service areas, The Health Zone links to the Web where Browne created Nutribytes.com and Sweatnet.com. Nutribytes is not for the guilty-minded type. Here you can enter the food you have eaten for the day and get a nutritional analysis. After learning the news from Nutribytes, an Internet user can go to Sweatnet.com and find out how many calories are needed to burn-off a quarter-pounder with cheese. (Patrick McKenna/19951208/Press Contact:Judy Tashbook, AOL, 703-918-1452) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 12/11/95 GENERAL Asia Newsbriefs (NEWS)(GENERAL)(TYO)(00007) Asia Newsbriefs 12/11/95 TOKYO, JAPAN, 1995 DEC 11 (NB) -- In this roundup of news from across the Asian continent: South Korea - Windows 95 complaints lodged; China - Government details media landscape; Vietnam - Satellite communication terminals deal signed; South Korea - Free video conferencing offered South Korea - Windows 95 Complaints Lodged Korea PC Telecom, Dacom and Nowcom, South Korea's three largest online service and database companies, have complained to the Fair Trade Commission (FTC) about Microsoft's new Windows 95 operating system. The Korean version was launched recently and has attracted the complaints because of the inclusion of Microsoft Network (MSN) access software. The companies say Microsoft is taking unfair advantage of its dominant market position to attract customers to MSN. The three have also reportedly said they will pursue the matter through the courts should they fail to get a satisfactory resolution with the FTC. China - Government Details Media Landscape At the end of the five-year period from 1991 to 1995, China has substantially more radio and television than at the end of the period to 1990, said the Chinese government recently. The country now has 1,210 radio stations, 980 TV stations, and 1,200 cable TV networks. This network is supplemented by 2,334 radio transmission and relay stations, as well as 37,732 TV transmission and relay stations. A series of 8,900 broadcasting speakers are situated in towns and cities throughout the country, a minutely small number when compared to the estimated 500 million radios and radio cassette players and 250 million TV sets in the nation's homes and offices. The figures show 77.4% of the population can receive radio and or television. The government also said Radio China broadcasts 184.5 hours a day in 43 languages and dialects, making it the largest broadcaster in the world. Vietnam - Satellite Communication Terminals Deal Signed Japan's Mitsui Co. and Vietnam's Telstra Corporation have announced plans to supply 45 VSAT (very small aperture terminal) satellite communications terminals and a VSAT management system in a deal worth $2 million. A hub station will be built in Ho Chi Minh City and will control the network, which is expected to be complete by February, 1996. The VSAT terminals will enable large corporations or government establishments to set up data and communications links with other centers in the country or around the world via satellite dishes. South Korea - Free Videoconferencing Offered People living in South Korea with relatives on the Russian island of Sakhalin, off Japan's north coast, were offered a free video communications link with the island last weekend. Korea Telecom established a link between its downtown Seoul office and the Korea Education Center in Yuzhono-Sakhalin using its international ISDN (integrated services digital network) technology. For each of three days, the link was available for six hours daily. An estimated 36,000 South Koreans live on the island. (Martyn Williams/19951211) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 12/11/95 ONLINE Internet Update (NEWS)(ONLINE)(TYO)(00008) Internet Update 12/11/95 TOKYO, JAPAN, 1995 DEC 11 (NB) -- In this roundup of new services and resources on the global Internet: Le Grand Louvre online; FIFA on the Web; Indonesia connect index; Cult TV directory; The Premiership online; The CGI book sampler; Canadian news service; Kerry's restaurant guide; Corporate information bank. Le Grand Louvre Online The Louvre Art Gallery is one of the world's most famous museums and houses the Mona Lisa, Venus de Milo, and the Winged Victory of Samothrace. The home page seeks to offer Internet users a history of the museum and allow access to a special online exhibit with some of the most famous pieces of work available. World Wide Web: http://future.atlcom.net:80/~psmith/Louvre/ FIFA On The Web FIFA, the international football association, has opened a home page with details of its role at the head of the world's most popular sport. Leading the resources are details of the preliminary draw for the next World Cup and the latest FIFA/Coca Cola World Ranking. Sections have also been opened to Euro96, The European Championships and the African Cup of Nations in 1996. World Wide Web: http://www.fifa.com/ Indonesia Connect Index Anyone wanting or needing a quick link to information and resources about Indonesia should consult these pages. In addition to a directory of Indonesian businesses on the Internet and hotels and tourist resources in the country, career and real estate data are also offered. World Wide Web: http://www.indocon.com/ Cult TV Directory A selection of links to information about cult TV series organized into four main sections covering sci-fi, horror, police, and even cartoons. Links to local TV sources in Australia are also included. World Wide Web: http://www.ar.com.au/~jriddler/index.html The Premiership Online The UK's national football league championship, the FA-Carling Premiership, has its own Web site. Alongside the latest football results, there are links to information about the clubs and the chance to see championship merchandise. World Wide Web: http://www.fa-carling.com/ The CGI Book Sampler Programmers of World Wide Web pages will find the CGI book to be a useful resource. The printed version of the book will go on sale early next year although samples are available now on the Internet. World Wide Web: http://www.bearnet.com/cgibook/ Canadian News Service If you do business in or with Canada the CCN Newsnet service will be of interest. It provides users with instantaneous access to press releases from Canadian companies as they become available via e-mail or the Web. You can also gather company information or enter a competition to win $5,000. World Wide Web: http://www.cdn-news.com/ Kerry's Restaurant Guide Billed as "The Web's largest selection of top restaurant menus and photos," this Web site offers access to information about restaurants across the United States. New information is added daily. World Wide Web: http://www.kerrymenu.com/ Corporate Information Bank Daiwa Securities, one of Japan's largest share dealing and analysts companies has begun compiling information on Japan's corporate giants for the Internet. The Web site offers access to summaries of first-half financial reports of listed and OTC Japanese companies and updated company forecasts of fiscal year results. World Wide Web: http://www.dir.co.jp/cib/ (Martyn Williams/19951211) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 12/11/95 TELECOM Oftel Plans More British Telecom Pricing Freedom (NEWS)(TELECOM)(LON)(00009) Oftel Plans More British Telecom Pricing Freedom 12/11/95 LONDON, ENGLAND, 1995 DEC 11 (NB) -- Oftel, the British Government- appointed telecoms watchdog, has proposed a series of pricing changes that would give British Telecom (BT) greater commercial freedom" as the UK and European telecoms market moves towards the January 1, 1998, open market model, mandated by the European Commission (EC). The proposals modify the existing price cap on BT, which has a 90 percent share of the UK telecoms marketplace, to include a series of wholesale network price limits, designed to cap what BT charges other UK telcos for its network usage. Currently, Newsbytes notes, Oftel calculates more than 70 interconnect services which it imposes on BT to charge its competitors for interconnects and access. Under the proposals, Oftel's role would be eliminated and it would be up to BT to decide -- within its price cap limits -- what to charge the competition for access to its network and network usage. According to Oftel, the price for these services would be calculated on a similar basis to the existing retail formula price caps on general consumer telecom prices from BT. Commenting on Oftel's proposals, Peter McCarthy-Ward, BT's manager of commercial policy, said that the telco is happy to work with Oftel on the concept of a network price cap. "BT would argue (however) that it can live with either a retail or a network cap, and not both. Of the two, we would prefer a network cap and allow competition to determine retail prices," he explained. Don Cruikshank, Oftel's director general, said that the aim of the proposals is to move Oftel out of the decision-making loop as regards day-to-day involvement with regulatory matters. "The whole idea is to get me out of the management of BT's business," he said. He added that his inclination is that the industry needs as a small a basket of controlled prices as possible. Mercury Communications, one of the main telcos which could be affected by the changes in Oftel's price management system for BT, was skeptical about the idea of devolving Oftel functions to BT. According to a company spokesperson, Mercury "is perfectly prepared to pay interconnection charges that are based on the true costs to BT of making interconnection facilities available. "But the idea that a competitor should be obliged to contribute towards the 100s of millions of pounds that BT has spent on redundancy programs, its win-back and other publicity campaigns, its Chairman's salary, and other non-relevant costs through the mechanism of interconnect payments, simply beggars belief. These costs have nothing to do with interconnection," he explained. "Much worse than the delay in agreeing charges for 1995/96 is the fact that no settlement has been reached for the years 1992/93, 1993/94, and 1994/95. BT is trying to win similar concessions for these years. Uncertainty about the future is a fact of life -- it should not be about the past," he said. According to Mercury, it should be noted that BT is claiming that competitors should make similar contributions to subsidize the access deficit. "We reject the claim by BT that any of these costs can be attributed to this spurious concept, which should be abolished immediately," said the spokesperson. (Steve Gold/19951211/Press & Reader Contact: Oftel, tel +44-171-634- 8700, fax +44-171-634-8943; Mercury Communications, tel +44-171-528- 2214, fax +44-171-528-2577) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 12/11/95 ONLINE UK Motor Insurance On The Web (NEWS)(ONLINE)(LON)(00010) UK Motor Insurance On The Web 12/11/95 MANCHESTER, ENGLAND, 1995 DEC 11 (NB) -- Insurance Matters, an insurance brokerage in the North West of England, has opened its own interactive area on the World Wide Web. Located at http://www.dmatters/co.uk , the Web site is designed to offer interactive access to a variety of insurance services, with plans to offer real-time quotes for insurance on the site within the next six months. Nigel Taylor, a spokesperson for the company, told Newsbytes that the idea of using the Internet to interact with customers, offering them access to insurance details, on a 24 hours-a-day basis, came more than a year ago, when he realized that the cost of using EDI (electronic data interchange) services with the insurance companies was creeping up. "Using the Internet is a lot cheaper and easier for us. For the caller, it means local call access to insurance services from most locations in the UK," he explained. He added that, initially at least, Insurance Matters would relay the information from the user's Web session to the insurance company and then refer back with the most competitive quotes. "It's taken more than 12 months to develop," he said, adding that the company has searched the Internet and thinks it is the first to offer a range of motor insurance quotes on the Net. "There are some insurance companies on the Web already, but we are the only independent insurance broker on the Internet as far as we know," he told Newsbytes. He added that Internet users can already select the best motor insurance quote for them online, and the company will then confirm the details and the insurance over by post. Plans call for proposal forms and quotations to be routed via e-mail for immediate response and confirmation of cover. Insurance companies already available through the Insurance Matters Web site include Legal & General, AGF, Bishopsgate, and Deake. Other are planning to come online very shortly. (Steve Gold/19951211/Press Contact: David Tattersall, City Press Services PR, +44-161-832-7972, Internet e-mail 100705.1153@compuserve.com; Reader Contact: Insurance Matters, +44-1706-625478, Internet e-mail nigel@dmatters.demon.co.uk) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 12/11/95 ONLINE Unipalm Pipex Offers Outsourced Web Site Services (NEWS)(ONLINE)(LON)(00011) Unipalm Pipex Offers Outsourced Web Site Services 12/11/95 CAMBRIDGE, ENGLAND, 1995 DEC 11 (NB) -- Unipalm Pipex has announced the availability of its new FM (Facilities Management) Server service for companies who want to maintain their own Web server, but with the fastest possible connection speed for callers. "Many of our customers already publish their information through our WorldServer, but this means their pages must be submitted for our approval and entry. If they want to do their own thing, then our FM Server service allows them to lease their own box at our London Docklans site, with its high-speed and resilient access to the Internet," said Martin Temple, Unipalm Pipex's product manager. Temple told Newsbytes that one of the key advantages of the Docklands site is that it is co-located with Pipex's UK teleport into the Internet. That, he claims, gives a Web server at the FM Server facility access to a minimum speed link into the Internet of T2 speeds, which allows callers to an FM Server Web site "the fastest possible downloads of pages and files." According to Temple, while the server systems installed at the London Telehouse are configured by Unipalm's staff, and backups are regularly taken, it is up to the subscriber to the Web site what they want to do with their site on the Internet. The advantage is that customers can change and update the data on their Web site as and when they want to. "Many companies who now have Web pages are certainly Internet aware, but they do not necessarily have the expertise or the desire to maintain their own Web site. This is the first time that customer publishing on the Web have been offered the chance of having their own dedicated server, while effectively outsourcing all of the maintenance and management responsibilities," he said. Temple told Newsbytes that, while the FM Server service obviously costs more for the customer than running their own server, there is a considerable cost advantage of not having to pay for leased lines between the London Telehouse and the company. "The Telehouse is right on our main Internet connections, so there are cost savings to be had there," he explained. He added that prices for the service start from UKP14,500 for a SunSparc 5 systems, and up to UKP23,000 a year for the SunSparc 20. (Steve Gold/19951211/Press Contact: Amanda Hassall, GBC, +44-181-332- 7022, Internet e-mail mandy@gbc.co.uk; Reader Contact: Unipalm Pipex, +44-1223-250100) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 12/11/95 WINDOWS Add-On Software Cleans Up Faxed Images (NEWS)(WINDOWS)(DEN)(00012) Add-On Software Cleans Up Faxed Images 12/11/95 SAN ANTONIO, TEXAS, U.S.A., 1995 DEC 11 (NB) -- CFAX has introduced an add-on product for the popular Winfax Pro software that the company says has advanced management and security features, and also delivers "clean, clear" faxed documents without the dots, lines, and smears sometimes seen on faxed documents. The company said its new CFax Pro version 4.0 includes three utilities to help clean up electronically received fax files, remove common image flaws, restore the image to the appearance of the original document, and in some cases, even improve on the quality of the original. FaxFix filters common line noise-generated distortions like vertically squeezed text, lost lines, vertically smeared text, and random dots or horizontal black or white lines. The Cleaner utility removes spots and vertical lines, even ones present on the original document, according to CFAX. The company claims the utility is smart enough to know not to try to 'clean up" fine print. DeSkew straightens fax images so they are more legible. It can automatically determine the angle of skew, or the user can specify the angle to rotate or flip the image. Users who want to keep outgoing faxes secure can use CiPhax, a utility that coverts transmitted faxes into an unintelligible pattern of random lines. The image can be unscrambled at the receiving end with the correct code. CFax Pro's Traffic Statistics utility offers reports and graphs to let the user analyze fax-telephone use. It breaks down calls by time- of-day, duration of calls, percent of long distance and international calls, and transmission speed. The information can be further broken down by department or users with the Billing Code report. The company said the report's parameters and account codes are user-configurable. CFax Pro 4.0 works with Delrina's Winfax Lite 3, Winfax Pro 3, Winfax Lite 4, Winfax Pro 4 and Winfax for Networks 4 running under Microsoft Windows. You also need a fax modem. The software has a suggested retail price of $129 for the single-user version. A dual-license version is priced at $199. (Jim Mallory/19951211/Press contact: Alan Weinkrantz for CFAX, 210-820-3070; Public contact: CFAX, tel 210-366-8877, fax 210-820-3080/CFAX951211/PHOTO) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 12/11/95 GOVT Lotus Seals SmartSuite, cc:Mail Deal With Maine Govt (NEWS)(GOVT)(BOS)(00013) Lotus Seals SmartSuite, cc:Mail Deal With Maine Govt 12/11/95 AUGUSTA, MAINE, U.S.A., 1995 DEC 11 (NB) -- "When we came into office in January, we discovered one of the problems in state government was that computers didn't speak the same language," remarked Governor Angus King of Maine, at a State House press conference held in Augusta, Maine to announce Maine's plans to deploy Lotus SmartSuite and cc:Mail to 10,000 state employees over the next three years, and to serve as a beta site for products that will include Lotus Notes. The newly sealed deal with the State of Maine, valued at between $1.5 and $5 million, represents Lotus's first "enterprise-wide" contract in the state government arena, although Lotus software products have also deployed among state workers in Missouri, Texas, Virginia, and Oklahoma, said Kathy Wilson of Lotus's Government Division, during a follow-up interview with Newsbytes. Gov. King pointed out to the journalists at the press conference that his administration is making computerization of state government a "very high priority," so as to "facilitate our ability to communicate" and to thereby increase "productivity, efficiency, and customer service." "IBM and Lotus are really committed to (the government) market, and we're excited about a partnership with them that we hope (will) go beyond (being) a purchaser of their products -- that we will also become a partner with them in developing new products to enhance the productivity of governments across the country," the governor added, during the press conference in northern Maine, which was attended by Newsbytes via telephone hook-up. Maine's selection of Lotus SmartSuite and cc:Mail for use in state offices followed "a very extensive process involving representative all the state departments to analyze what was out there in the marketplace, and to receive proposals from major software vendors." SmartSuite will now become "the standard software package throughout state government," according to the Maine government leader. "Not only are we delighted with the product, but with the price," the governor asserted, predicting that the agreement with Lotus will save the state between $1.5 and $2 million in software costs over the next two years, including migration and training, in addition to "ongoing savings" of another $200,000 per year in upgrades and maintenance. The State of Maine plans to initially deploy 2,500 seats of SmartSuite, valued at between $400,000 and $500,000, on the Windows 3.1, Windows 95, and OS/2 platforms, and to later expand to 10,000 seats of Lotus cc:Mail and SmartSuite at a price of $1.5 million. Before signing on with Lotus for SmartSuite and cc:Mail, the state was using Microsoft Office and Microsoft Mail in about 45 percent of its installed base. Mike Zisman, executive VP and chief executive officer (CEO) of Lotus, and another speaker at the press conference, observed that, as a result of its availability on multiple operating systems, Lotus software can be used in "mixed environments" such as that of Maine's state government. Continued Gov. King: "(Lotus Notes) has been recommended to me by people in Maine as the software equivalent of the copy machine. Once you get started using it, you wonder how you ever got along without it. So we're also excited about the opportunity of integrating Notes into our computer capability here in Maine. We're going to start with a few departments, and see how it works. And then we'll take if from there." King characterized the new agreement with Lotus as "a major step forward to get us into the twentieth-first century to serve our public better." Elaborated the governor: "I have to say that when we began this process we did not know where it was going to lead, and there was no presumed outcome. But the feedback I've gotten on my e-mail from around state government, after some initial questions, has been very favorable. So I'm very excited about this relationship. I think it's going to be beneficial to the State of Maine, and to IBM/Lotus." Meanwhile, the Missouri State Highway Patrol and the Oklahoma Governor's Office are a couple of examples of state agencies that are now using Notes, said Lotus's Wilson. Implemented with consulting assistance from WordLink, a Lotus business partner, the application in Missouri is called the Violent Crimes Tracking and Management System. Implemented on an OS/2 server, two workstations at the highway patrol office, and three laptop PCs, the Notes-based police application replaces the mounds of paper produced during previous criminal investigations with a "consistent," computer-based method of developing, reading and accessing reports, according to Wilson. The Notes-based system in Oklahoma was donated by Workflow Designs, another Lotus business partner, and was initially used to coordinate rescue efforts during the Oklahoma City bombing crisis, according to Wilson. One Notes database was used for victim tracking, while another, a discussion database, was employed for communications between government agencies on contributions of goods and services. Other Lotus customers in the state government market include the Texas Safety Department and Virginia General Assembly's Division of Legislative Automated Systems, Wilson told Newsbytes. (Jacqueline Emigh/19951211/Reader Contact: Lotus, 617-577-8500; Press Contact: Laura Beck or Tom Morley, Lois Paul & Partners for Lotus, 617-862-4514) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 12/11/95 IBM IBM Virtual World Available As Free Download On Web (NEWS)(IBM)(BOS)(00014) IBM Virtual World Available As Free Download On Web 12/11/95 NEW YORK, NEW YORK, U.S.A., 1995 DEC 11 (NB) -- IBM Virtual World, newly available on the Web as a free downloadable demo, represents the kind of "collaborative" environment that will soon appear in software ranging from systems management to data warehousing, and that will also play a key role in electronic commerce on the Web, predicted IBM's Drew Clark, at a press conference attended by Newsbytes at DB Expo, and in a follow-up interview with Newsbytes. IBM's new three-dimensional (3-D) Virtual World belongs in the same general category of "groupware" front ends that Lotus has also "pioneered," contended Clark, who is IBM's Internet/Web Software Solutions, during an IBM press lunch attended by Newsbytes at the DB Expo trade show in New York City. "IBM is used to doing things like systems management and databases. But with Virtual World, IBM is entering the bold new area of `social computing' in a big way," elaborated the IBM manager, during an interview with Newsbytes later. "IBM Virtual World is also a critical piece of IBM's Internet strategy, because it represents a new kind of interface that we believe will be critical to the widespread adoption of electronic commerce. The bottom line is that Virtual World goes beyond the 2-D (two-dimensional) static (environment) into a place where you're working with and interacting with other people," Clark told Newsbytes. IBM will incorporate virtual reality (VR) into front ends for its own products, including offerings like systems management and data warehousing, the IBM exec revealed. Computer Associates, he noted, has just added a VR-oriented front end to its CA-Unicenter system, with the introduction of CA- Unicenter/ICE. Meanwhile, users can now begin to employ the IBM Virtual World concept for these and countless other kinds of applications, including "virtual showrooms," Clark asserted. Also during the interview with Newsbytes, Clark described IBM Virtual World as a "software experience," and drew an analogy between the new Web-based demo and "a concept car." "The demo is a way for users to download Virtual World, to see if it's something they might be interested in using. If so, we'd be delighted to `build them a world,'" he told Newsbytes. In Virtual World "showroom" applications, he added, companies will be able to utilize avatars for "greeting" their customers. "We'll give you a selection of avatars. And you can also create your own." IBM's new Virtual World actually consists of three sets of 3-D "locations," according to the executive. One of these, the Community Forum, is the "center for social computing," with VR chat rooms where people can meet and interact by industry, geographic areas, or user group. In another area of IBM Virtual World, drawn from the Los Angeles Public Library, you can search for a variety of old, rare documents in "The Historical Library," in addition to viewing digitized photos from the library's "Shades of LA" collection that show daily life in Los Angeles at the turn of the 20th century. In a third place, "The Solution Center," you can find out about 13 different kinds of products and services from IBM and Lotus, ranging from application development and database management to hardware and networking, moving to hyperlinked Web pages for more information, according to Clark. Dozens of companies have already expressed an interest purchasing IBM-produced custom Virtual Worlds, Clark maintained. "And we've closed some sales, too," he informed Newsbytes. You can download the new IBM Virtual World demo free of charge from the Web at http://www.software.ibm.com . (Jacqueline Emigh/19951211/Reader Contact: IBM, 914-765-1900; Press Contact: Beth Kitchener or Parna Sarkar-Basu, Brodeur & Partners for IBM, 617-622-2800) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 12/11/95 LEGAL Over The Top On Telecom Reform? (NEWS)(LEGAL)(WAS)(00015) Over The Top On Telecom Reform? 12/11/95 WASHINGTON, D.C., U.S.A., 1995 DEC 11 (NB) -- House and Senate conferees on telecommunications reform are hoping to finish their business this week and have a major overhaul of the nation's basic communications law on the President's desk by Christmas. But it's not going to be an easy task. "Time is growing short, and the issues are complex," said Rep. Ed Markey (D-Mass.), a key negotiator on the legislation to rewrite the 1994 Communications Act. In addition to reaching agreement among themselves, the conferees must get approval by both the House and the Senate before a bill can go to the White House for signature or veto. Sen. Larry Pressler (R-S.D.), chairman of the conference committee, has called for a meeting tomorrow to work out some of the more difficult issues, including cable regulation and media ownership rules. But Pressler has been unable to get the unwieldy committee to do very much over the past several weeks, as meeting after meeting was canceled. The major news of the conference last week was the 17-16 vote by the House conferees to adopt a controversial provision that would criminalize "indecent" content on the Internet. That vote has enraged the computer and software industries, which are mounting a last-ditch effort to limit the damage. "The online world is a vibrant opportunity for changing the way people learn and conduct business, but its promise will be nipped in the bud if censorship prevails on the Internet and the World Wide Web," said Ken Wasch, president of the Software Publishers Association. SPA and other Washington trade groups are working with Rep. Rick White (R-Wash.) and others on the losing side of the vote by the House conferees in an attempt to soften the damage. They are pushing for a definition of the term "indecent" that would be more in line with past court rulings on obscenity. The House supporters of a smut crackdown pointedly refused to define what they mean by "indecency." White and his supporters say they have the support of House Speaker Newt Gingrich (R-Ga.), but Gingrich has not said anything publicly on the issue recently. Nor does Gingrich carry the political clout he did months ago, before questions about his ethical conduct became front page news. If the Congress is able to deliver a bill to the president, it is not clear whether the White House will veto the measure. "That determination will come based on what is in the final package and, perhaps more important, how the president and his advisors see the political advantages of signing or vetoing it," a telecommunications lobbyist told Newsbytes. (Kennedy Maize/19951211/Press Contact: Mark Traphagen, SPA , 202-452-1600 ext 322, Internet e-mail mtraphagen@spa.org) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 12/11/95 GOVT Hatch Weighs In On Encryption Export (NEWS)(GOVT)(WAS)(00016) Hatch Weighs In On Encryption Export 12/11/95 WASHINGTON, D.C., U.S.A., 1995 DEC 11 (NB) -- Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) has weighed in against the Clinton administration on the volatile issue of export of software encryption technology. In a letter last month to Vice President Al Gore, obtained by Newsbytes, Hatch complains, "The National Institute of Standards and Technology, along with law enforcement and intelligence agencies, remain committed to divisive positions that, in my judgment, risk continuing market losses to our software sector and harm to our national security policy." Hatch notes, "NIST would limit the export of non-key escrow and key escrow encrypted products to 40- and 64-bit codes, respectively. The other agencies prefer pursuing the formulation of encryption export policy independently of the discussion on strong encryption capabilities. All parties seek congressional intervention. "The current situation defies agreement," writes Hatch, "or even the prospect of continued, meaningful talks. This can be changed only by bringing government and industry principals together, in your presence, to examine the facts critical and material to breaking the stalemate." The Business Software Alliance is hoping that Congress can deal with the encryption issue before the end of the year. But SPA's Diane Smiroldo acknowledged to Newsbytes that the clock is rapidly running down and action this year will be difficult. In a related development, the New York Times today reported a fundamental flaw in public-key encryption, the most powerful of modern encryption technologies for public network environments such as the Internet. The newspaper reported that Paul Kocher, a 22-year-old researcher, has demonstrated a way to crack the code by listening in to the process of unscrambling the message and tracking the time it takes to decode. Reporter John Markoff wrote, "The feat would be analogous to a burglar surreptitiously observing people in an office building as they punch in the security code of a door with a push-button combination lock. Even if the burglar could not see which buttons were being pushed, if he observed thousands of entries and timed each with a stopwatch, he might eventually be able to winnow down the possible number of combinations that could be entered within that precise time span." Netscape Communications is paying a $1,000 bounty for anyone finding security problems with its Internet software. Kotcher demonstrated his finding at the company's headquarters and James Barksdale, the chief executive officer, reached into his wallet and pulled out $1,000 in cash for Korcher, according to the Times. (Kennedy Maize/19951211/Press Contact: Diane Smiroldo, BSA, 202-872-5500) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 12/11/95 GENERAL Canadian Product Launch Update (NEWS)(GENERAL)(TOR)(00017) Canadian Product Launch Update 12/11/95 KINGSTON, ONTARIO, CANADA 1995 DEC 11 (NB) -- This regular feature, appearing on the first day Newsbytes publishes each week, provides further details for the Canadian market on announcements by international companies that Newsbytes has already covered. This week: Lotus cc:Mail for Macintosh Release 3. Lotus Development Canada Ltd. has announced Release 3 of its cc:Mail for Macintosh electronic-mail software (Newsbytes, Dec. 4). To be available for both PowerPC- and 68000-based Macintosh computers within 30 days, the new release has an estimated retail price of C$95 in Canada, and a 10-user workgroup license is expected to sell for C$475. Upgrades from previous versions are free for Lotus maintenance customers, while for others a media pack upgrade is expected to retail for C$55 and a 10-user workgroup license upgrade for C$125. (Grant Buckler/19951211/Press Contact: Marsha Connor, Lotus Canada, 416-364-8000) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 12/11/95 ONLINE ****GE Information Services Creates Internet Division (NEWS)(ONLINE)(TOR)(00018) ****GE Information Services Creates Internet Division 12/11/95 ROCKVILLE, MARYLAND, U.S.A., 1995 DEC 11 (NB) -- GE Information Services, the General Electric Co. unit that recently announced it would sell its Genie online service, has announced the creation of an Internet division. The new division will focus on electronic commerce and build on GE's presence in the electronic data interchange (EDI) market, a company spokesman told Newsbytes. Spokesman John Berry said users of EDI are showing considerable interest in the Internet, though he admitted that issues such as security still raise some concerns. GE will be addressing some of those issues with products and services to be launched in the next few months, he said. GE expects to launch the first Internet services from the new division in January. Berry would not be specific about what these will be, but said they will be related to electronic commerce. "Our focus at GE Information Services is business productivity solutions, which is a combination of electronic commerce and business consulting services," he said. Berry said GE believes there is a large market for electronic commerce services still untapped. "Less than five percent of the companies that can benefit from electronic commerce and EDI currently use it," he said. While GE expects a number of large corporations to be among the new division's customers, it will also be going after small- and medium-sized businesses, which Berry said can benefit from the Internet but for the most part are not taking advantage of it today. Few details are available regarding the new unit so far. Berry could not say how many people will work in the operation. Officials did say that GE Information Services currently delivers communications and electronic commerce services to more than 40,000 companies around the world. The company is a prominent supplier of EDI services. Berry said the Genie service, which GE recently announced it would sell, was a "niche" representing less than five percent of GE Information Services' revenues. The company's "bread and butter has always come from business-to-business electronic commerce," he said. GE Information Services has a presence on the World Wide Web at http://www.geis.com . (Grant Buckler/19951211/Press Contact: John Berry, GE Information Services, 301-340-4244) (ADVISORY)(GENERAL)(MSP)(00019) NewsPix Images For Newsbytes Publishers 12/11/95 MINNEAPOLIS, MINNESOTA, U.S.A., 1995 DEC 11 (NB) -- Photos are now posted as they arrive. This means quicker access to the story pictures. The bulletin will continue on Mondays, with updates Wednesdays and Fridays as needed. These photos correspond to recent Newsbytes stories. They are online in the Newsbytes menu on America Online, NiftyServe, and the Newsbytes private bulletin board system in Minneapolis. Some selections are also available from the Newsbytes Pacifica Website at http://www.islandtel.com/newsbytes/ JPEG (Joint Photographic Experts Group) files are larger in size, PICT files are designed as thumbnails for onscreen viewing. The photos are titled with name/year/month/day. PICT/thumbnail pictures are black and white (gray scale). File message will indicate color if the JPEG image is color. Some of the "for use" images, may be PICT files. To distinguish these files from the thumbnail preview PICT images, the tag for the color "for use" image will have PICT, all caps. The thumbnail will remain noted as "pct." To become a licensed Newsbytes publisher, call Newsbytes at 612-430-1100 (US) or write to wendy@newsbytes.com on the Internet. Licensing applies to any medium. --------------------------- Week of DECEMBER 11 - DECEMBER 15,1995 --------------------------- - NEW THIS WEEK - EARTHWEB951205 - color / WebInnovation - EarthWeb Shows Gamelan & Hot Web Sites: Gamelan logo. WEBINNOV951206 a, b, c - color / Web Frenzy in San Francisco: a) Marc Andreesson giving the keynote address, b) the SGI COSMO logo, c) view of exhibition floor at the San Francisco Hilton. WINK951204 - b&w / Japan Group Supports Interactive TV: various TVs and a PC with set top boxs and menus on screen. TEC951201 - color / Games Sales Predicted Strong For Holiday Season: catalogue cover from Edutainment company. CITIZEN951208 - b&w / Citizen To Offer World's Smallest Printer Under $200: Citizen's new PN50 b&w printer. --------------------------------------------------------------- - PARTIAL LISTING OF PREVIOUS ITEMS - GOTV951130 - color / US West Launches Interactive Cable TV: screenshot from GOtv, with the animated host Uncle Frank (resembles Albert Einstein). COURT951129 - color / Utah Public Kiosks - Touch A Screen, Go To Court!: screenshot from Infonorths Web site, NOT Utah specific. 6X86_951120 - color / Compaq Denies Plans for Under-$1500 PC In 1996: the Cyrix processors. JUNGLE951120 - color / Humongous Ships "Lets Explore the Jungle" : screenshot. A6_951122 - b&w / Fuji Intros More Printers: A6-size digital printer. SIRIUS951128 - color / Sirius Promises CD 10-Pack For Mac: artful look at product package. NUMERA951122 - color / Computer-Aided Design Software Under $600: screenshot. (no jpg file, large gif only) EZOFFICE951122 - color / Willowbrook's Multifunction Office Equip Is Different: hardware and software packaging. PHOTOPAD951120 - color / Polaroid Intros Photo Scanner For Home PCs: shot of the scanner and packaging. (Newsbytes/19951211) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 12/11/95 BUSINESS Compaq Invests In Home Automation Firm (NEWS)(BUSINESS)(DEN)(00020) Compaq Invests In Home Automation Firm 12/11/95 HOUSTON, TEXAS, U.S.A., 1995 DEC 11 (NB) -- Compaq Computer Corp. (NYSE: CPQ) could soon be in control of your home. In a move the firm said is designed to accelerate the convergence of home PCs and home automation technology, the computer company said it has made an equity investment in a company that provides components for systems that control lighting, security, and other devices in the home. Compaq declined to say how much it invested in Ocala, Florida-based Intellon Corp., a privately held firm that markets a spread spectrum carrier technology adopted by the Electronic Industries Association for its CEBus (Consumer Electronics Bus) Standard for in-home networks. According to Bob Stearns, vice president of technology and corporate development at Compaq, the timing of the partnership is significant because the personal computer is starting to emerge as a vehicle for entertainment as well as the communications gateway for the home, including the Internet and online services. Intellon spokesperson Kurt Kyvik told Newsbytes the possibilities for the user of the CEBus technology are nearly endless. Of particular importance, said Kyvik, is the control of electric appliances. With utility companies moving to higher rates for peak hour electricity usage CEBus-compliant water heaters can be automatically turned down or off and refrigerators can be told to defrost during peak hours. Other applications envisioned by Kyvik include wireless smoke detectors that, when smoke is detected, can check to see if anyone is home, call the fire department, and turn off appliances. Kyvik said there are already limited CEBus devices, mostly lighting products, available, but he expects it will be two to three years before a wide range of products are on retail shelves. Both Intellon and Compaq are board members of the CEBus Industry Council (CIC), a not-for-profit trade organization of companies that provide CEBus-compliant products and services. In addition to technical and marketing services, the council oversees conformance testing, provides a clearing-house for interoperability issues, develops marketing communications materials, and provides educational services. (Jim Mallory/19951211/Press contact: Compaq, Mike Berman, 713-514-0484; Kurt Kyvik, Intellon, 407-777-0313) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 12/11/95 TELECOM PageNet & Sprint Ink Paging Deal (NEWS)(TELECOM)(MSP)(00021) PageNet & Sprint Ink Paging Deal 12/11/95 DALLAS, TEXAS, U.S.A., 1995 DEC 11 (NB) -- As a result of an agreement signed between the Sprint Telecommunications Venture (STV) and PageNet (NASDAQ:PAGE), the Sprint Corp. (NASDAQ:FON) will lease pagers and offer paging service. Starting early next month, Sprint paging will be "available at an affordable leading rate with no activation fee and an unlimited number of pages per month," officials said. Specific pricing will be announced in January. Sprint will offer Motorola pagers to its customers. Initially, the service will be marketed to both its customer base and potential customers. "This is the first product in our product portfolio that we're offering to our customers," Bonavia said. "It is the first indication of a number of products we'll provide." Today's action comes from the STV-PageNet signing, which calls for STV to sell PageNet's local, regional, and nationwide digital and alphanumeric paging services, Mark Bonavia, Sprint spokesperson, told Newsbytes. PageNet said as a part of today's agreement, the STV may offer other PageNet products in the future. PageNet's digital transmission network covers more than 90 percent of the US population, called the country's most extensive network of this type. The company's 6.2 million-plus subscribers make PageNet the world's largest and fastest growing provider of paging services, officials added. "PageNet's geographical coverage, financial strength, and ability to handle the potentially large number of new customers, make this an attractive alliance," said Terry Yu, STV vice-president of product marketing. The Sprint Telecommunications Venture is made up of Sprint, Tele- Communications Inc. (TCI), Comcast Corporation, and Cox Communications. The venture will provide local telephone, long-distance, and wireless communications services to consumers and businesses. The consortium will also deliver cable services on a promotional basis, officials said. (Bob Woods/19951211/Press Contacts: Jenny Haynes, PageNet, 214-985-6749; Mark Bonavia, Sprint, 913-624-3552) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 12/11/95 BUSINESS ****NBC - Microsoft Deal Rumors Persist (NEWS)(BUSINESS)(DEN)(00022) ****NBC - Microsoft Deal Rumors Persist 12/11/95 REDMOND, WASHINGTON, U.S.A., 1995 DEC 11 (NB) -- Despite silence on the part of both companies, rumors of some sort of deal between NBC and Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ; MSFT) persist. Late last week Daily Variety, an entertainment industry trade paper, reported that Microsoft was in talks with the General Electric-owned television network to invest up to $4 billion to buy as much as 49 percent of the network. The paper cited "a source familiar with the talks." Now the Wall Street Journal says Microsoft is considering a $100 million investment in a proposed NBC 24-hour cable news channel to rival Ted Turner's CNN (Cable News Network). According to the Wall Street Journal, the $100 million Microsoft investment would buy a 50 percent stake in the news channel, although NBC would reportedly retain editorial control. NBC has already signed to be a service provider on the Microsoft Network online service. Last week, ABC said it will launch a 24-hour cable channel in 1997. Media magnate Rupert Murdoch, chairman of News Corp. Ltd., has also indicated an interest in starting an all-news network. According to the British news service Reuters, NBC might cancel its year-old America Talking cable network and use that slot on cable systems for the new venture. America Talking currently services about 20 million homes. When contacted by Newsbytes today, Microsoft spokesperson Mich Matthews would say only that "Microsoft talks to people all the time." Other than that observation, Matthews offered only a terse "no comment" when questioned about the possible relationship between the two companies. Reuters said NBC spokesperson, Judy Smith, said, "I am not going to comment on speculation." (Jim Mallory/19951211/Press contact: Microsoft, 206-882-8080) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 12/11/95 ONLINE Internet World Trade Center Opens On Web (NEWS)(ONLINE)(MSP)(00023) Internet World Trade Center Opens On Web 12/11/95 NEW YORK CITY, NEW YORK, U.S.A., 1995 DEC 11 (NB) -- The Internet World Trade Center (iWTC) has opened its doors on the World Wide Web. Described as the "virtual equivalent" of a skyscraping world trade tower, the new Web site features companies doing business on the Web, along with many other features. #IMAGE 1 20 TWPCX \images\95121123.PCX Click here for photo Even though the name "world trade center" might make it seem like only businesses can use the site, Steve Green, iWTC spokesperson, told Newsbytes anyone who has Web access can get something out of the site. One of the main features is immediate access to 20 major Web search engines, including WebCrawler, Lycos, Gopher, and Yahoo. Packages in the real world can also be searched, if they're being delivered by Federal Express, United Parcel Service, and DHS. The site is organized into different "floors," just like a real skyscraper, with different business segments occupying a floor or cluster of floors. Companies lease space in the iWTC by buying various sized units of online pages, from one-page "business cards" to 60-page areas. Some of the more complex areas can contain multimedia, forms, catalogs, and customer support capabilities. When Newsbytes surfed to the site, we found a "lobby" and a virtual newsstand. An "elevator" scenario took us to the "floors" where businesses are located. When we went all the way up to the "top" of the "building," we were able to look at and download views of New York City's skyline and harbor. We were also able to download a screensaver of some of those views. Some of the other features of the site include listings of investor services, and trade shows. Also, news and weather updates, a medical information facility, and an entertainment and gaming center are also offered. Green also said the center can perform secure online transactions, by using Netscape's technology. In short, "the only thing you can't do (at the iWTC) is get something to eat," Green said. The Internet World Trade Center is located on the World Wide Web at http://www.internetWTC.com/ . (Bob Woods/19951211/Press Contact: Mark Bruce, GHB Communications, 203- 321-1242, Internet e-mail 76166.3443@compuserve.com/WTC951211/PHOTO) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 12/11/95 ONLINE America Online's Planned Internet Access Enhancements (NEWS)(ONLINE)(MSP)(00024) America Online's Planned Internet Access Enhancements 12/11/95 VIENNA, VIRGINIA, U.S.A., 1995 DEC 11 (NB) -- America Online Inc. (NASDAQ:AMER) President Steve Case says the network will bring enhanced features to its Internet World Wide Web browser, although a specific time-table was not mentioned. In his monthly letter to AOL subscribers, Case said, "considerable work" is underway to augment its Internet features. In the future, the service will add features like hypertext markup language (HTML) 3.0 coding, Netscape extensions, and support for the Java language, to its browser. When implemented, these features will bring AOL's browser to the same level as Netscape's 2.0 browser with Java support, which is currently in beta testing, Newsbytes notes. Case said that although the service is off to a "good start" with its software designed for the Windows environment, its browser software for the Macintosh still has "a long way to go." But "providing (AOL members) with the best Web access is a top priority," he said. AOL processes more than 13 million hits to the Web daily, and delivers about two million pieces of e-mail to the Internet each day, Case said. Members also post more than 70,000 messages to Internet newsgroups, he said. Overall, Internet access now accounts for about 15 percent of AOL's usage, Case said. Case also said AOL is significantly expanding the editorial and design resources for the Web, so the service will be "far more than just an on-ramp," he said. Features in AOL's "Internet Connection" area have been expanded, and the service has a new Web site. More non-Internet content will also be created on AOL's network, Case said. AOL's technology has several advantages over the Web, especially for people who go into cyberspace at speeds of 2,400 or 9,600 bits-per- second (bps), he said. "The combination of AOL and the Internet gives you the best of both worlds," he said. America Online officials did not return phone calls by Newsbytes prior to the daily deadline for further comment on this story. (Bob Woods/19951211/Press Contact: Pam McGraw, America Online, 703-556-3746) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 12/11/95 ONLINE ****Duracell Web Advertising Takes New Approach (NEWS)(ONLINE)(TOR)(00025) ****Duracell Web Advertising Takes New Approach 12/11/95 NEW YORK, NEW YORK, U.S.A., 1995 DEC 11 (NB) -- Not satisfied with just creating its own site on the World Wide Web, the Duracell battery company has arranged to have its batteries "burst through" a handful of high-volume Web sites. According to SiteSpecific, Duracell's advertising agency for the Web, the program is meant to get more attention than a static banner on a Web page would. Spokeswoman Susan Boster of SiteSpecific told Newsbytes that the batteries are to appear on four heavily used Web sites initially. Those are the Yahoo and Webcrawler sites, which provide Web searching, America Online's GNN site, and the Internet Underground Music Archives (IUMA). If all goes well on those sites, Boster said, the plan is to bring the batteries to other sites as well. The batteries are due to appear on the four Web pages today. Newsbytes visited all four this morning but found no sign of the batteries yet. Boster said images of Duracell batteries will appear to be bursting through the Web page, and when a user clicks on the battery, the whole page will appear to rotate, revealing Duracell batteries that seem to be behind the page itself. The slogan used in conjunction with this will be "powered by Duracell." Boster said the gimmick will not interrupt people who are trying to use the Web pages where the batteries appear. Duracell has also set up its own conventional Web site, which includes an interactive animated game in which visitors are invited to pick from several toys which one they think is powered by Duracell batteries. Visitors can also download clips from past Duracell advertising campaigns. Boster told Newsbytes that technology companies are already using the Web quite extensively for advertising. Non-technology companies "have yet to be shown," she said. "Potentially it's going to be a great advertising medium." Duracell's own Web site is at http://www.duracell.com . (Grant Buckler/19951211/Press Contact: Susan Boster, SiteSpecific, 212-244-1508, Internet e-mail susanb@sitespecific.com) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 12/11/95 TRENDS Careless E-mail & Corporate Liability (NEWS)(TRENDS)(LAX)(00026) Careless E-mail & Corporate Liability 12/11/95 SAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1995 DEC 11 (NB) -- Most talk on e-mail security has concentrated on keeping unwanted people out of corporate networks. However, the Computer Security Institute's new report highlights the inherent dangers in the careless use of e-mail by insiders. Carelessness can expose organizations to such vulnerabilities as disclosure of trade secrets, character assassination, or violation of privacy. These and other problems can flow from careless use of e-mail by employees, says the report, and all could result in unnecessary risk of corporate liability. The Computer Security Institute's "Manager's Guide to E-mail Security" details the perils of e-mail usage and offers some protective measures. Speaking to Newsbytes, Richard Power, editor for Computer Security Institute, said, "American businesses need to become aware of the steps they must take to secure their e-mail systems and protect themselves from the new dangers this new communication medium brings." "Some of the very factors that make e-mail so attractive are also sources of new dangers. For example, the ease of use also makes it easy for deliberate or inadvertent disclosure of sensitive or confidential information to unauthorized parties such as competitors, reporters, or government regulators." The broadcast power of e-mail compounds potential corporate liability problems, says the report. Inadvertent, or misguided, release of harmful information through e-mail can reach thousands instantly. "One of the benefits of e-mail is the archiving of data which is readily available to employees. This should enhance productivity, but it also means that, unless precautions are taken, the archived data is also available for e-mail release. An employee might think twice about sending a photocopy of an internal memo, but not once about sending megabytes of information over e-mail," said Powers. The report emphasizes that employees should be educated about the dangers of e-mail, and they should be provided with examples of the legal implications of improper behavior. This educational process should be continual, and reinforced on a regular basis. "The CSI Manager's Guide to E-mail Security" is the fifth booklet in this series. Other topics covered include Internet security, telephone communications fraud, computer security awareness, and computer viruses. Electronic versions are available on the CSI home page at http://www.gocsi.com . Computer Security Institute claims to be the oldest international membership organization specifically serving the information security professional. Established in 1974, Computer Security Institute is located in San Francisco, California, and is a wholly owned subsidiary of Miller Freeman Publishing. Miller Freeman publishes over fifty trade magazines including Dr. Dobbs Journal, Unix Review, and LAN Magazine. Computer Security Institute publishes, along with random studies like the "Special Report on Information Warfare," a monthly newsletter, a semi-annual journal, an annual buyers guide, and a online bulletin board. (Richard Bowers/19951211/Press Contact: Patrice Rapalus, Computer Security Institute, 415-905-2310) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 12/11/95 ONLINE ****Survey - Internet Users Want Choices For News Media (NEWS)(ONLINE)(SFO)(00027) ****Survey - Internet Users Want Choices For News Media 12/11/95 CAMBRIDGE, MASSACHUSETTS, U.S.A., 1995 DEC 11 (NB) -- Big media conglomerates hurt the quality and free flow of information, so indicates the results of an Internet survey conducted by The Weber Group. The majority of survey respondents do not believe the Internet can counterbalance the problem. Using 135 qualified persons, the Weber survey, called the "Internet Early Adopter Index," found 82% looking to the Internet to provide individual control over when and how they receive news and information. Forty-six percent said real-time information is the most important advantage to using the Internet as a news source and 36% said having "more control over news" was the most important benefit. "This survey focuses on a small group of early adopters of the Internet and points out some of the problems associated with this new mass media. One thing we did learn is that people want individual control over when and how they receive their news. News conglomerates such as NBC, CBS, CNN, large newspaper publishing companies, and others, are bringing their formats and styles to the Internet and users question the value of a sensationalistic, entertaining type of news," said Larry Weber, president of the Weber Group. Fifty-three percent of those surveyed believe "big media" hurts the flow and quality of news. Only 47% say emerging news services, such as cable channels and the Internet, will act as a counter-balance to these standard news delivery systems. At the same time, a distrust of these conglomerates was highlighted, the survey found 50% of respondents said "information overload" is a significant barrier to using the Internet. Another 25% said the biggest barrier in the Internet is finding valuable news, while 23% said online services are too costly to use as an Internet source. Weber added, "This survey shows some of the problems the Internet is facing when it comes to news. People are saying they want a different, less sensationalistic form of news which will not be difficult to find. I think the challenge for large news conglomerates and smaller news providers is to learn what best suits the needs of a new consumer using a new form of mass media. This is a learning process for all of us." He continued, "I think the conglomerates will find this is a different world and calls for a delivery of news which may not be based on advertiser approval." Indicating these Internet growing pains, the survey found 75% of respondents giving US news media high marks when compared with the rest of the world. Thirty-one percent said the US news media is among the best in the world, while 44% said it was better than most. "People want reliable news and they want to find the news they want easily on the Internet. In some ways, they are asking for the best of what large conglomerates offer in a very customized and less sensationalistic manner," concluded Weber. More information on this survey is available from the Weber Web site at http://www.webergroup.com . (Patrick McKenna/19951211/Press Contact: Eric Eddy, The Weber Group, 617-661-7900) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 12/11/95 BROADCAST DEC Intros Video Servers For Ad Insertion, Pay-For-View (NEWS)(BROADCAST)(BOS)(00028) DEC Intros Video Servers For Ad Insertion, Pay-For-View 12/11/95 SHREWSBURY, MASSACHUSETTS, U.S.A., 1995 DEC 11 (NB) -- The five new models in Digital Equipment Corp.'s Mediaplex video server line-up offer the kind of "scalability" that will let cable providers move gradually from analog programming into digital interactive TV, starting out by paying as little as $8,000 per channel, asserted Digital's Roger Horine, during a conference call with Newsbytes. The new video servers include 24-channel and 40-channel ad insertion systems, in addition to six-, 12- and 24-channel "near video-on-demand" (NVOD) systems for applications such as pay-for- view, said Horine, who is marketing manager for Digital's Video and Interactive Information Services (VIIS). "Although there are a number of other players in digital ad insertion, with a `small d,' none provides the same opportunities for future expandability as Digital, with a `large D,'" the marketing manager told Newsbytes. Because all of Digital's video servers use the same underlying Mediaplex architecture, he suggested, a cable provider can begin "slowly," with a 24-channel Mediaplex ad insertion system priced at $8,000 per channel, and then migrate as desired to NVOD, and perhaps ultimately to "true" video-on-demand (VOD). Alternatively, providers can "grow" smaller Mediaplex ad insertion machines into larger ad insertion systems, Horine advised. As previously reported in Newsbytes, Digital recently completed the installation of a Mediaplex-based system, billed as one of the largest to use ad insertion technology to date, at Adlink in southern California. During an earlier interview with Newsbytes, Peter Martin, marketing manager for video advertising at VIIS, maintained that digital ad insertion allows faster production turnaround time and produces longer lasting output than the analog tape decks of the past, while also permitting advertisers to begin "customizing" their TV commercials to specific markets. Under the older analog ad insertion method, the "master tape" had to be manually copied multiple times, meaning that distribution of a TV commercial could take several days. In addition, analog equipment is subject to breakage, and analog tape to degradation, Martin maintained. In the Adlink application, members of a consortium that includes Cox Cable, Continental, Prime Sports Channel, and Comcast are using Digital's Mediaplex servers for the digital insertion of TV commercials at 57 head ends, Martin added, during another interview with Newsbytes last month. Each head end has 20 different channels, for a total of 1,140 channels, according to Martin. Also as previously reported in Newsbytes, Digital's Mediaplex servers are now being used by TMN Networks in Canada in an extensive NVOD pay-for-view application. Under NVOD programming, users can begin to view a requested movie anywhere from a few minutes to a couple of hours after making a request, said Frank Foley, Digital's business development manager for cable TV, during a briefing for Newsbytes carried out when the TMN Networks application was announced in May. Meanwhile, also as previously reported in Newsbytes, Digital's Mediaplex servers are being used in "true" VOD applications that include commercial implementations by Nynex and US West, as well as trials by US West, British Telecom (BT) subsidiary Westminster Cable in London, Telstra in Australia, Svenska of Sweden, and Norway's Telenor. Horine told Newsbytes that Digital's newly unveiled 24- and 40- channel Mediaplex models for digital ad insertion provide local storage of up to 300 30-second digital ads. The systems incorporate Digital's StorageWorks RAID (redundant array of inexpensive disks) subsystem, he added. Capabilities include the ability to keep inserting ads even in the event of disk failure; separate "hot-swap digital-to-analog decoders" for each channel, for high availability; and "automatic verification" of completed ads for customer billing purposes. The new Mediaplex servers for NVOD are priced from $150,000 to $200,000. The 12-channel model, for example, supplies up to 12 video streams at 8 megabits-per-second and stores up to 18 hours of encoded content, also at 8 Mbps. A separate digital encoding station is optionally available. Unlike most video servers, which still adhere to MPEG (Motion Picture Experts Group)-1 video compression, Digital's Mediaplex servers comply with MPEG-2 for higher resolution, according to the Digital marketing manager. (Jacqueline Emigh/19951211/Reader Contact: Digital Equipment Corp., 508-493-5111; Press Contact: The Weber Group for Digital, 617-661-7900) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 12/11/95 GOVT China - Patent Registration/Protection Emphasized (NEWS)(GOVT)(PEK)(00029) China - Patent Registration/Protection Emphasized 12/11/95 BEIJING, CHINA, 1995 DEC 11 (NB) -- Patent registration is becoming a key factor in China's transition period from the planned economy to a market economy, with more stress on economic development through technical renovation instead of capital intensification, said State Councilor Song Jian recently in Beijing. Song said that a universal decrease of tariff barriers and integration of international markets are driving more countries to focus on technological development, including patent protection. Enterprises should make a stronger showing in this field, he said. Last year, the Patent Office of China (POC) received 6,800 patent applications from enterprises. Statistics also show that during the first 10 months, patent applications by domestic enterprises rose by 59 percent compared with the same period last year. However, the figures are still small considering that there are 35 million enterprises in China, he said. China needs to strengthen its patent protection to narrow differences with developed countries, he said. Song also asked to improve the legal system. The improvement of laws and regulations is expected to better protect the interests of patent owners and curb patent infringements. According to statistics, by the end of October this year, the POC had handled 3,248 patent disputes and settled 88 percent of them. By the end of last year, people's courts received more than 3,000 patent-related cases and more than 80 percent were solved. To help make more patents economically beneficial, Song said that patent administration offices could take more feasibility studies about patent commercialization, improve the patent properties evaluation process, recommend prospective patents to related departments and enterprises, and publicize patent information regularly. Different government departments should work together to back up patent implementation of enterprises and research institutions, he added. He also suggested establishing more qualified intermediary service institutions and setting up a system to evaluate the economic benefits from patents. (Chih-Ho Yu & Ning Huang/19951211) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 12/11/95 TRENDS Big Demand For Entertainment Software This Christmas (NEWS)(TRENDS)(SFO)(00030) Big Demand For Entertainment Software This Christmas 12/11/95 LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1995 DEC 11 (NB) -- From a national survey conducted by E3, producers of the tradeshow of the same name, comes a hot holiday tip. Nine out of ten consumers who own a multimedia personal computer or video game system want entertainment software for Christmas. Perhaps more surprisingly, the survey discloses 41% of all Americans want to receive interactive entertainment titles as holiday presents. Doug Lowenstein, president of the Interactive Digital Software Association (IDSA), which organizes the tradeshow, said, "We used 1,035 consumers, half of whom were owners of interactive entertainment hardware and half who were not. The clear conclusion is that entertainment software for both video games and multimedia-capable computer systems is one of the top gift items this Christmas." Is money an issue when it comes to entertainment? The study found that 57% of consumers who plan to give one or more entertainment titles are prepared to spend between $50 and $199. A select 16% plan to spend more than $200. Categories topping the list include strategy games, action/adventure titles, children's edutainment, and sports. Following close behind were simulations, fantasy/role playing, and reference titles. The survey also shows entertainment software is available at a wider range of retail outlets. Twenty-six percent of respondents say they will make a purchase from a mass merchant such as a department store, a K-Mart or Target. Another 25% will frequent a consumer electronic store, while the remainder shop at: toy stores (14%); computer stores (12%); software specialty stores (9%); and book/video/record stores (5%). Closing out the retail picture, catalogs garnered 5% of the group. Not such good news for the online world: only 0.04% of the respondents said they would use an online outlet to fill their Christmas shopping needs. Lowenstein said this slow market for online shopping reflects people's desire to have a "hands-on experience" when making a Christmas gift purchase. Responding to last year's phenomenal sales of computer systems, the retail market is now offering entertainment software in more than 50,000 diverse retail outlets. Newsbytes notes no mention was made of the phenomenal return of software which plagues the same retail merchants. Many popular, sophisticated games require expensive, newer computer and game systems. An analyst speaking to Newsbytes said, "Buying entertainment software for someone requires a knowledge of what type of computer system a person has and what processor and how much memory it has. These are foreign concepts to many shoppers and cause a large percentage of returns." According to E3, estimated worldwide sales of interactive entertainment hardware and software are estimated to be $23 billion. Link Resources estimates total US sales for entertainment software will be about $4.3 billion for 1995. (Patrick McKenna/19951211/Press Contact: Karen Blondell, Neale-May & Partners, 201-783-8686) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 12/11/95 ONLINE ****IBM Unveils Details On VisualAge For The Web (NEWS)(ONLINE)(BOS)(00031) ****IBM Unveils Details On VisualAge For The Web 12/11/95 NEW YORK, NEW YORK, U.S.A., 1995 DEC 11 (NB) -- IBM's forthcoming special edition of VisualAge for the Web will provide "snap-in" components for end-user queries as well as for user-selectable database gateways for the Web, revealed Drew Clark, during an IBM press event, held in New York City and attended by Newsbytes, that also featured discussions by users as to their plans for deploying IBM's new gateway for accessing DB2 over the Web. At the press lunch, conducted during DB Expo, Clark announced shipment of IBM's first database gateway for the Web, DB2 World Wide Web Connection Version 1 for OS/2 and AIX, along with the availability of the new IBM Virtual World and a free download of a demo of the virtual reality (VR) environment over the Web. The IBM exec also told reporters that the upcoming Web edition of IBM's VisualAge object-oriented application development system, previewed at the show in New York City, will provide a component- based architecture with plug-ins for accessing a variety of legacy and relational database management systems (RDBMS) over the Web. Other plug-ins to be available for VisualAge for the World Wide Web will include "SQL (structured query language) tools" for RDBMS systems, Clark divulged. During a keynote speech earlier in the show proceedings, another speaker at the IBM press conference, Colin White, president of Database Associates, had shown a Lotus Screencom movie depicting his plans to use DB2 World Wide Web Connection for an upcoming data warehousing application. During the press conference, White explained that, from the perspective of a database specialist, the Web is a large-scale distribution medium for database applications. Peter Digovich, another user, reported that his company, Coretti Soft, plans to launch a service called Hotelview that will permit users to make hotel reservations over the Web. The service, he said, will exploit the processing power of the "huge installed base of PCs" by incorporating end user software on which "service-specific front-end software with visual decision support" is layered above a standard HTML (hypertext markup language)-compliant browser. The upcoming travel application will also make use of emerging security protocols for the Web, according to Digovich. The Corretti Soft official contended that DB2 was selected for the new application because it has shown itself to be "the one database" that works "reliably" over the Web. During a Q&A session, Digovich acknowledged that some large hotel chains already operate Web sites. But, he maintained, most of these sites are offering "static" home pages that require users to pick up the phone in order to make reservations. Corretti Soft will initially be targeted at "medium-sized" chains, he added. During a follow-up interview with Newsbytes later, Clark told Newsbytes that IBM's new VisualAge for the Web will provide an easy-to-use graphical development environment that will "automatically generate" the HTML and CGI (Common Gateway Interface) needed for building database applications accessible over the Web. The "legacy" database snap-in components, for transaction processing environments, will encapsulate legacy code such as Cobol as objects, according to Clark. The new edition of VisualAge will be "ideal for the IntraNet," he contended. "What's really driving the Internet right now is the desire for companies to use the Web for internal applications," Newsbytes was told. (Jacqueline Emigh/19951112/Reader Contact: IBM, 914-642-3000; Press Contact: Parna Sarkar-Basu, Brodeur & Partners for IBM, 617-622-2800) (SUMMARY)(GENERAL)(MSP)(00032) Newsbytes Daily Summary 12/11/95 MINNEAPOLIS, MINNESOTA, U.S.A., 1995 DEC 11 (NB) -- These are capsules of all today's news stories: ======================================================================== ------------| N E W S B Y T E S D A I L Y S U M M A R Y |---------- ------------| Monday, December 11, 1995 |---------- ======================================================================== (c) Newsbytes News Network (Tm) Editor in Chief: Wendy Woods ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Newsbytes News Network's on the Web! Check out http://www.nbnn.com for free daily top stories from Newsbytes and its affiliate publications, and from PC Week, MacWeek, and other Ziff news magazines. A subscription gives you all the news, full-text, plus the most comprehensive database of past computer stories online. The keyword-searchable database dates from today back through 1983. Subscriptions are $24.95 for three months. Questions? Send to 'administrator@newsbytes.com' For Japanese Newsbytes and additional services, see the Newsbytes Pacifica Website at http://www.islandtel.com/newsbytes/ ------------------------------------------------------------------------ CATEGORY HEADLINES (*** indicates today's top stories) STORY # ======================================================================== BROADCAST DEC Intros Video Servers For Ad Insertion, Pay-For-View.... 28 BUSINESS Spain - Telefonica To Invest $900Mil In Mexican Telco...... 02 BUSINESS Compaq Invests In Home Automation Firm..................... 20 BUSINESS ****NBC - Microsoft Deal Rumors Persist................... 22 GENERAL Asia Newsbriefs............................................ 07 GENERAL Canadian Product Launch Update............................. 17 GENERAL NewsPix Images For Newsbytes Publishers.................... 19 GOVT Lotus Seals SmartSuite, cc:Mail Deal With Maine Govt....... 13 GOVT Hatch Weighs In On Encryption Export....................... 16 GOVT China - Patent Registration/Protection Emphasized.......... 29 IBM IBM Virtual World Available As Free Download On Web........ 14 LEGAL Over The Top On Telecom Reform............................. 15 ONLINE UK - Computer Training On The Web.......................... 03 ONLINE UK - Southampton Institute's Internet MBA.................. 04 ONLINE TeleAdapt's Web Service For Mobile Users................... 05 ONLINE America Online Opens HealthZone............................ 06 ONLINE Internet Update............................................ 08 ONLINE UK Motor Insurance On The Web.............................. 10 ONLINE Unipalm Pipex Offers Outsourced Web Site Services.......... 11 ONLINE ****GE Information Services Creates Internet Division..... 18 ONLINE Internet World Trade Center Opens On Web................... 23 ONLINE America Online's Planned Internet Access Enhancements...... 24 ONLINE ****Duracell Web Advertising Takes New Approach........... 25 ONLINE ****Survey - Internet Users Want Choices For News Media... 27 ONLINE ****IBM Unveils Details On VisualAge For The Web.......... 31 TELECOM Oftel Plans More British Telecom Pricing Freedom........... 09 TELECOM PageNet & Sprint Ink Paging Deal........................... 21 TRENDS Int'l Surveillance - Free Online Report.................... 01 TRENDS Careless E-mail & Corporate Liability...................... 26 TRENDS Big Demand For Entertainment Software This Christmas....... 30 WINDOWS Add-On Software Cleans Up Faxed Images..................... 12 ======================================================================== These are the headlines and first paragraphs of each story, in order: 1 -> Int'l Surveillance - Free Online Report -- Privacy International, a not- for-profit personal privacy organization, has issued a free 150-page report in which it claims that there exists a massive international surveillance trade funded by the arms industry and led by the UK. 2 -> Spain - Telefonica To Invest $900Mil In Mexican Telco -- Telefonica de Espania, the Spanish telecoms company, has announced plans to invest at least $900 million by the end of the decade in Unicom, a consortium of companies preparing toe build a new trunk and international phone network in Mexico. 3 -> UK - Computer Training On The Web -- Peritas, an IT (information technology) training organization, has opened a Web site at http://www.peritas.com , which it claims is the world's first global Web site for training services. 4 -> UK - Southampton Institute's Internet MBA -- It is now nine months since Southampton Institute started offering Master of Business Administration (MBA) degrees across the Internet, making it the first UK educational institution to offer this facility. According to spokesperson Bridgett Vane, the scheme has been a success, and last month saw the second intake of students signing up for the course. 5 -> TeleAdapt's Web Service For Mobile Users -- Confirming plans announced at the Comdex Fall computer show last month, TeleAdapt has officially opened its online Web site at http://www/teleadapt.co.uk . Gordon Brown, TeleAdapt's managing director, told Newsbytes that the Web site is known as TeleAdapt Online and, although aimed at TeleAdapt customers, can be accessed by anyone. 6 -> America Online Opens HealthZone -- America Online (NASDAQ:AMER) has opened another of its AOL Greenhouse projects, this one called The HealthZone. A business unit of AOL, Greenhouse helps entrepreneurs develop AOL and Internet areas using the company's online production support, marketing expertise, and equity funding. 7 -> Asia Newsbriefs -- In this roundup of news from across the Asian continent: South Korea - Windows 95 complaints lodged; China - Government details media landscape; Vietnam - Satellite communication terminals deal signed; South Korea - Free video conferencing offered 8 -> Internet Update -- In this roundup of new services and resources on the global Internet: Le Grand Louvre online; FIFA on the Web; Indonesia connect index; Cult TV directory; The Premiership online; The CGI book sampler; Canadian news service; Kerry's restaurant guide; Corporate information bank. 9 -> Oftel Plans More British Telecom Pricing Freedom -- Oftel, the British Government- appointed telecoms watchdog, has proposed a series of pricing changes that would give British Telecom (BT) greater commercial freedom" as the UK and European telecoms market moves towards the January 1, 1998, open market model, mandated by the European Commission (EC). 10 -> UK Motor Insurance On The Web -- Insurance Matters, an insurance brokerage in the North West of England, has opened its own interactive area on the World Wide Web. 11 -> Unipalm Pipex Offers Outsourced Web Site Services -- Unipalm Pipex has announced the availability of its new FM (Facilities Management) Server service for companies who want to maintain their own Web server, but with the fastest possible connection speed for callers. 12 -> Add-On Software Cleans Up Faxed Images -- CFAX has introduced an add-on product for the popular Winfax Pro software that the company says has advanced management and security features, and also delivers "clean, clear" faxed documents without the dots, lines, and smears sometimes seen on faxed documents. 13 -> Lotus Seals SmartSuite, cc:Mail Deal With Maine Govt -- "When we came into office in January, we discovered one of the problems in state government was that computers didn't speak the same language," remarked Governor Angus King of Maine, at a State House press conference held in Augusta, Maine to announce Maine's plans to deploy Lotus SmartSuite and cc:Mail to 10,000 state employees over the next three years, and to serve as a beta site for products that will include Lotus Notes. 14 -> IBM Virtual World Available As Free Download On Web -- IBM Virtual World, newly available on the Web as a free downloadable demo, represents the kind of "collaborative" environment that will soon appear in software ranging from systems management to data warehousing, and that will also play a key role in electronic commerce on the Web, predicted IBM's Drew Clark, at a press conference attended by Newsbytes at DB Expo, and in a follow-up interview with Newsbytes. 15 -> Over The Top On Telecom Reform -- House and Senate conferees on telecommunications reform are hoping to finish their business this week and have a major overhaul of the nation's basic communications law on the President's desk by Christmas. 16 -> Hatch Weighs In On Encryption Export -- Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) has weighed in against the Clinton administration on the volatile issue of export of software encryption technology. In a letter last month to Vice President Al Gore, obtained by Newsbytes, Hatch complains, "The National Institute of Standards and Technology, along with law enforcement and intelligence agencies, remain committed to divisive positions that, in my judgment, risk continuing market losses to our software sector and harm to our national security policy." 17 -> Canadian Product Launch Update -- This regular feature, appearing on the first day Newsbytes publishes each week, provides further details for the Canadian market on announcements by international companies that Newsbytes has already covered. This week: Lotus cc:Mail for Macintosh Release 3. 18 -> ****GE Information Services Creates Internet Division -- GE Information Services, the General Electric Co. unit that recently announced it would sell its Genie online service, has announced the creation of an Internet division. The new division will focus on electronic commerce and build on GE's presence in the electronic data interchange (EDI) market, a company spokesman told Newsbytes. 19 -> NewsPix Images For Newsbytes Publishers -- Photos are now posted as they arrive. This means quicker access to the story pictures. The bulletin will continue on Mondays, with updates Wednesdays and Fridays as needed. 20 -> Compaq Invests In Home Automation Firm -- Compaq Computer Corp. (NYSE: CPQ) could soon be in control of your home. In a move the firm said is designed to accelerate the convergence of home PCs and home automation technology, the computer company said it has made an equity investment in a company that provides components for systems that control lighting, security, and other devices in the home. 21 -> PageNet & Sprint Ink Paging Deal -- As a result of an agreement signed between the Sprint Telecommunications Venture (STV) and PageNet (NASDAQ:PAGE), the Sprint Corp. (NASDAQ:FON) will lease pagers and offer paging service. 22 -> ****NBC - Microsoft Deal Rumors Persist -- Despite silence on the part of both companies, rumors of some sort of deal between NBC and Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ; MSFT) persist. 23 -> Internet World Trade Center Opens On Web -- The Internet World Trade Center (iWTC) has opened its doors on the World Wide Web. Described as the "virtual equivalent" of a skyscraping world trade tower, the new Web site features companies doing business on the Web, along with many other features. 24 -> America Online's Planned Internet Access Enhancements -- America Online Inc. (NASDAQ:AMER) President Steve Case says the network will bring enhanced features to its Internet World Wide Web browser, although a specific time-table was not mentioned. 25 -> ****Duracell Web Advertising Takes New Approach -- Not satisfied with just creating its own site on the World Wide Web, the Duracell battery company has arranged to have its batteries "burst through" a handful of high-volume Web sites. According to SiteSpecific, Duracell's advertising agency for the Web, the program is meant to get more attention than a static banner on a Web page would. 26 -> Careless E-mail & Corporate Liability -- Most talk on e-mail security has concentrated on keeping unwanted people out of corporate networks. However, the Computer Security Institute's new report highlights the inherent dangers in the careless use of e-mail by insiders. 27 -> ****Survey - Internet Users Want Choices For News Media -- Big media conglomerates hurt the quality and free flow of information, so indicates the results of an Internet survey conducted by The Weber Group. The majority of survey respondents do not believe the Internet can counterbalance the problem. 28 -> DEC Intros Video Servers For Ad Insertion, Pay-For-View -- The five new models in Digital Equipment Corp.'s Mediaplex video server line-up offer the kind of "scalability" that will let cable providers move gradually from analog programming into digital interactive TV, starting out by paying as little as $8,000 per channel, asserted Digital's Roger Horine, during a conference call with Newsbytes. 29 -> China - Patent Registration/Protection Emphasized -- Patent registration is becoming a key factor in China's transition period from the planned economy to a market economy, with more stress on economic development through technical renovation instead of capital intensification, said State Councilor Song Jian recently in Beijing. 30 -> Big Demand For Entertainment Software This Christmas -- From a national survey conducted by E3, producers of the tradeshow of the same name, comes a hot holiday tip. Nine out of ten consumers who own a multimedia personal computer or video game system want entertainment software for Christmas. 31 -> ****IBM Unveils Details On VisualAge For The Web -- IBM's forthcoming special edition of VisualAge for the Web will provide "snap-in" components for end-user queries as well as for user-selectable database gateways for the Web, revealed Drew Clark, during an IBM press event, held in New York City and attended by Newsbytes, that also featured discussions by users as to their plans for deploying IBM's new gateway for accessing DB2 over the Web. (Ian Stokell/19951211) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 11/28/95 NETWORK UK Firm Unveils Networked CD-ROM Technology (NEWS)(NETWORK)(LON)(00001) UK Firm Unveils Networked CD-ROM Technology 11/28/95 WINDSOR, BERKSHIRE, ENGLAND, 1995 NOV 28 (NB) -- KeyLan Distribution has announced CD-ROM Now!, a PC package that allows CD-ROM file servers to be created to allow CD-ROM disks to be shared "quickly and easily" across a network. According to the Windsor-based company, the software is a joint development between Novell and Microtest, the US software house. KeyLan has secured the UK distribution rights to the package. In use, CD-ROM Now! enhances NetWare 4.1 network servers to cope specifically with CD-ROM drive accesses. Up to 196 CD-ROM drives can be addressed by a single file server, from which networked users can access the drives concurrently. According to KeyLan, the software supports all popular SCSI (small computer system interface) adapters, as well as all 10 megabits-per- second (Mbps) and 100 Mbps network cards. Site licenses for the software are available for 50-user, 100-user, 250-user, 500-user networks, with pricing starting from UKP1,225. According to KeyLan, the networking product is one of the cheapest on the market. CD-ROM Now! is being bundled with DiscView Pro, an application that can be loaded and run on all networked workstations. According to KeyLan, the software presents the user with an easy-to-use graphical user interface for mapping CD-ROM volumes and configuring the CD-ROM Now! servers. Using the package, multiple CD-ROM drives can be mapped as sub- directories under a single DOS drive letters. A smart launch facility automatically engages the CD-ROM application, so that networked users need only click on an icon to run CD-ROM-based applications associated with the icon. (Steve Gold/19951127/Press & Reader Contact: KeyLan Distribution, tel +44-1753-790977, fax +44-1753-674664) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 11/28/95 ONLINE Dataware's NetAnswer Info Superserver (NEWS)(ONLINE)(TOR)(00002) Dataware's NetAnswer Info Superserver 11/28/95 OTTAWA, ONTARIO, CANADA, 1995 NOV 28 (NB) -- Dataware Technologies of Ottawa, Ontario, has announced the release of its new NetAnswer "information super server," described by the company as "a comprehensive, off-the-shelf Internet software and services offering." Dataware is also offering "server host" services based on its NetAnswer system for companies and organizations "not yet ready to maintain and establish their own Internet host." Dataware Chairman Kurt Meuller says NetAnswer was designed to meet the needs of the company's key customers -- commercial publishers, governments, corporations, educational institutions, and professional firms -- who are now beginning to explore the commercial potential of the Internet. "The explosive growth of the Internet has created significant new opportunities for these customers (both) to make and save money," Meuller said. Aimed at corporate and institutional users who wish to archive and distribute large volumes of data, NetAnswer is billed as a "turnkey solution," incorporating fully-integrated information management, query and retrieval capabilities. The system also includes extensive accounting and security features "for publishers planning to sell or monitor access to information in large databases." The system reportedly supports such sophisticated functions as multi-field and Boolean logic searches, thesaurus and concept searches, relevance ranking and user-customizable search display formats. Dataware claims NetAnswer can support hundreds of simultaneous users accessing 100 gigabytes (GB) or larger databases. The sophisticated accounting and metering functions provide a variety of subscription and fee-based service scenario options including pay-per-connect and pay-per-query. NetAnswer is reportedly "fully compatible" with "standard" browsers including Netscape's Navigator and Spyglass Extended Mosaic, and with all "standard" World Wide Web servers, including CERN, NCSA and Netscape's Communications Server, via the Common Gateway Interface (CGI). NetAnswer is also reportedly compatible with secure Web servers such as Netscape's Commerce Server and Open Market's Secure WebServer. Dataware says NetAnswer supports all current industry hypertext and file format standards, including: HTML (hypertext markup language) 2.0, 3.0, and extensions; CGI 1.1 and above; and images in GIF, JPG, and PDF formats. The system is available for multiple Unix platforms and there is also a version for Windows NT. NetAnswer prices start at (C)$20,000. The software, support services, and hosting services are all immediately available. Dataware has a World Wide Web site at http://www.dataware.com . (Trevor Horsley/19951127/Press Contact: Sarah Dehler, 613-225-2300 ext 248) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 11/28/95 ONLINE Chinese Flight Reservation System Joins With SABRE (NEWS)(ONLINE)(PEK)(00003) Chinese Flight Reservation System Joins With SABRE 11/28/95 BEIJING, CHINA, 1995 NOV 28 (NB) -- China's computer flight reservation system (CRS) will be linked up with SABRE, claimed to be the largest travel information system in the world, to provide access to American markets as well as those in other parts of the world, according to China Radio International. The agreement between Management Information System of the Civil Aviation Administration of China (MIS/CAAC) and SABRE Travel Information Network (STIN) of the United States was signed earlier this month in Beijing. The new system will be implemented this month. The agreement is part of China's efforts to improve its air ticketing system, according to a sales manager with MIS/CAAC. The reservation system is expected to provide ticket information for 24 Chinese airlines and 730 overseas airlines, as well as service to MIS/CAAC's 3,000 subscribers in China and SABRE's 30,000-plus subscribers in 74 countries. Computer reservation system services have spread around the world since the end of the 1980s, and the services have brought increased convenience to airlines, travelers, and travel agencies. SABRE's network not only covers 730 airlines, but also provides CRS services for 28,000 hotels, 57 car rental agencies, as well as cruise ships and travel services globally. "The agreement demonstrates our long-term commitment to growth in Asia and further strengthens our position as a truly global CRS," said Jeff Katz, STIN president. To further expand its business in Europe, MIS/CAAC plans to connect its CRS to European reservation systems next year, he said. (Chih-Ho Yu & Ning Huang/19951127) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 11/28/95 TELECOM Racal Installs Wireless Data Network In Bermuda (NEWS)(TELECOM)(LON)(00004) Racal Installs Wireless Data Network In Bermuda 11/28/95 BRACKNELL, BERKSHIRE, ENGLAND, 1995 NOV 28 (NB) -- Racal has announced that its Widanet radio data networking technology is being deployed into Bermuda, where it is being used for remote monitoring applications, including the control of limited power generation supplies. According to Racal, Widanet is ideal for Bermuda, which is made up of around 150 islands, since conventional hard-wired comms links were not an economic proposition for some of the more remote islands. The data service will allow the Bermuda authorities to improve efficiency and react more effectively to peaks in demand. Other plans for the Widanet service, which goes live early in the new year, include security monitoring for properties on outlying islands and even utility meter reading where it is not practical for utility staff visits. According to Racal, the service is also being considered for environmental applications, such as monitoring water levels along Bermuda's coastline and transmitting the data to a central research station. According to Geoff Mitchell, sales and marketing director of Racal Messenger, the division of Racal that handles the Widanet technology, the service offers a low start-up cost, with the potential to grow according to demand. The system supports short burst data transfer onto X.25-compatible networks using a small and highly compact subscriber unit that is highly transportable. "Many countries already have perfectly serviceable X.25 networks which are under-used because of unreliable or simply unavailable telephone access. A radio-based solution is a quick and easy way to permit large-scale access to the core network," he explained. According to Mitchell, radio links offer further benefits over phone circuits and dial-up modems. "Where their cable-bound counterparts need time to set up and close down calls, a radio system can work almost instantaneously. Widanet exploits this to the full effect as it provides a wireless data access layer specifically for fast connection to X.25 systems," he said. The subscriber modem on the Widanet service is known as a radio PAD (packet assembler disassembler) and is about the same size as a paperback book and has twin serial ports, each of which can have a specific network user address (NUA) allocated on a local country X.25 radio network. If the radio PAD moves between areas serviced by two different VHF/FM base stations, the unit will automatically re-register on the new base stations, although cellular phone-like call handoffs between mobiles are not normally supported by the network. So far, Racal claims that Widanet has been a sales success in areas of the world where conventional datacomms have not been viable. The system is already in operation in Russia and South Africa, and this major order from Bermuda pushes the revenue generated from the technology to UKP10 million, all of which has been generated in the last 18 months. (Sylvia Dennis/19951127/Press Contact: Clare Tipler, tel +44-1734- 668869, fax +44-1734-262121) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 11/28/95 WINDOWS CorelDraw, Photo-Paint Updates Available (NEWS)(WINDOWS)(TOR)(00005) CorelDraw, Photo-Paint Updates Available 11/28/95 OTTAWA, ONTARIO, CANADA, 1995 NOV 28 (NB) -- Corel Corp. has announced a number of maintenance updates for various versions of its flagship CorelDraw and Corel Photo-Paint illustration and bitmap editing software packages. A stand-alone version of Photo-Paint 6 (the latest version) has also been announced, to ship later this month. Corel says it has updated CorelDraw 5 to run "seamlessly" under Windows 95, following a barrage of problem reports from users earlier this fall. A single CD-ROM disk, which the company says contains fixes for many problems encountered under Windows 95, is available now, free of charge, to registered Draw 5 users. To order, call toll-free 1-800-772-6735. What is described as a "maintenance release" for CorelDraw 6 is also in preparation, scheduled for shipment by early December. The company says complete details of the bugs that this update fixes will be available closer to release time. Corel officials say all registered Draw 6 users will receive a notice in the mail when the maintenance release is ready to ship. This update is will also be available free of charge, from authorized Corel service and support providers and directly from Corel. Corel has also confirmed that a standalone version of Corel Photo-Paint 6 is slated to ship the end of this month. The Windows 95-only bitmap and photo editing package, previously available only as part of the CorelDraw 6 "master suite" bundle released last August, features "easy-to-use selection tools, movie file editing, natural media brush styles, 77 different filter effects, and fully-editable text features," according to the company. The package also offers a multiple document interface, enhanced masking and the ability to retain separate elements of a Paint file on separate "layers" for future adjustment or editing using a new proprietary Corel "intermediate" file format. The standalone version of Photo-Paint 6 carries a suggested retail price of (US)$289. Registered users of either the standalone Photo-Paint 5 Plus package or the bundled version that ships with Hewlett-Packard scanners can upgrade for just (US)$79. The upgrade is available exclusively through Corel authorized service and support centers. (Glenn Lisle/19951107/Press Contact: Margaret Burniston, Internet e-mail 72350.2237@compuserve.com; Public Contact: 800-772-6735) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 11/28/95 TRENDS Australia - Toys"R"Us Offers Multimedia PC Section (NEWS)(TRENDS)(SYD)(00006) Australia - Toys"R"Us Offers Multimedia PC Section 11/28/95 SYDNEY, AUSTRALIA, 1995 NOV 28 (NB) -- The Australian retail computer sales sector now has another, competing, chain of stores. This time it's the Toys"R"Us chain of 21 stores around Australia, each now sporting a "Multimedia PC" section. To start with it is Packard Bell, Acer, and IBM machines, and as Managing Director John Schryver explained to Newsbytes, Apple didn't represent a large enough slice of the potential market to be included. That market is the AUS$3,000-plus home multimedia market. All machines come with a quad-speed CD, at least eight megabytes (MB) of RAM and large hard disks. They also come with free delivery and up to 45 minutes of in-home set-up and hand-holding from Smack On Time, an Australia-wide technical support company that is already servicing a great number of the country's EFTPOS (electronic funds transfer point-of-sale) machines. The new Toys"R"Us multimedia section has a wide range of software, most of it with an educational bent, and most of it from Dataflow. But the packs aren't on the shelf -- buyers take a coupon from the shelf and exchange it for the real thing at the checkout. (Paul Zucker/19951123/Press & reader contact: Toys"R"Us, tel +61-2-794-8999, fax +61-2-794-8991) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 11/28/95 BUSINESS India - Birla Opens Software Development Center (NEWS)(BUSINESS)(DEL)(00007) India - Birla Opens Software Development Center 11/28/95 NEW DELHI, INDIA, 1995 NOV 28 (NB) -- Birla Horizons International Ltd. (BHI), the 50-50 joint venture between the C.K. Birla Group of companies and US-based Computer Horizons Corp., has inaugurated its offshore software development center (SDC) at Noida, near New Delhi. This 100 percent export-oriented unit (EOU) which employs over 300 software engineers is expected to export software worth $20 million annually to the US, UK, and several other countries. Speaking on the occasion, John Cassese, chairman and president of Computer Horizons Corp., said this was the first of the series of SDCs to be opened by BHI. BHI's scope of activities include marketing and support for software solutions, execution of short-term and long-term software contracts, and offshore, as well as onsite, software projects. Presently, the company's SDC at Noida is involved in developing customized products for three major clients -- US-based AT&T, Nynex/DPI, and the National Information Bureau (NIB) of the UK. BHI had recorded a turnover of R18.5 crore in 1994-95 and expects to improve it to R70 crore in 1995-1996. BHI has also launched "Signature 2000," a software tool developed to solve the "date problem" which software worldwide will face at the turn of the century. A total of US$80 billion is expected to be spent by various user companies to solve this problem, said Cassese, adding that CHC will be marketing the software tool in the US. BHI also plans to address markets in Australia, New Zealand, the middle East, and the Far East in the near future. (C. T. Mahabharat/19951128) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 11/28/95 TELECOM India - Cellular/Basic Telecom Service Caps Intro'd (NEWS)(TELECOM)(DEL)(00008) India - Cellular/Basic Telecom Service Caps Intro'd 11/28/95 NEW DELHI, INDIA, 1995 NOV 28 (NB) -- The Government has announced a cap of three circles on both basic and cellular telephone service licenses in categories "A" and "B." The cap will not be applicable to the less lucrative category "C" circles. While cellular mobile telephone services have begun in Bombay, Calcutta, Delhi, and Madras, this decision covers the award of licenses for cellular mobile telephones for the rest of the country. Some 32 companies had participated in the tenders for cellular mobile telephone services which were invited on January 16 this year -- all of them were found eligible and were shortlisted. The immediate result of this cap in cellular services will be that the Reliance-Nynex combine has emerged as a major benefactor as it has got an opportunity to choose from the seven circles where it is placed among the two-highest bidders. These circles are Assam, Bihar, Himachal Pradesh, Orissa, North East, Madhya Pradesh, and West Bengal. Birla Communications-AT&T combine is another major winner, as it is the highest bidder in Gujarat and Maharashtra, and the second highest bidder in Karnataka. John Legere, president of AT&T's services group, Asia Pacific, said, "We are pleased with the decision as it is a step closer towards the provision of cellular services to consumers. It also indicates the government's commitment to move forward on the telecom reform process." However, the main loser in this scenario is the BPL-US West combine, since it will have to accept Kerala and Tamil Nadu where it has emerged as the top contender and can choose only one among the three lucrative circles -- Gujarat, Maharashtra, and Andhra Pradesh -- where it is ranked second. Meanwhile, the Foreign Investment Promotion Board (FIPB) has approved telecom joint venture proposals for basic services and cellular phone services with an investment of R12,710 crore. While 14 joint ventures have been cleared for basic telecom services valued at R9,280 crore, another 19 collaborations for cellular services worth R3,430 crore were given a green light setting the stage for operation of private telecom services in India. In another development, the Union Cabinet has approved the setting up of a Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) as a statutory body through a "Presidential ordinance." Proponents claim the authority was needed to provide a "level playing field for ensuring fair competition and safeguarding the interest of the consumers in terms of quality, cost and access to service as envisaged in the National Telecom Policy, 1994." (C. T. Mahabharat/19951128) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 11/28/95 TELECOM India - Neil Armstrong Endorses Mobile Phones (NEWS)(TELECOM)(DEL)(00009) India - Neil Armstrong Endorses Mobile Phones 11/28/95 NEW DELHI, INDIA, 1995 NOV 28 (NB) -- "One small step for man, one giant step for mankind," Neil Armstrong said as he took man's first step on the moon. Now, 26 years after that historic moment, and in a reversal of roles, the BPL Group could well say: "A small step for Armstrong, but a giant step for BPL Mobile." The Group, which is currently the cellular mobile phone service provider in Bombay, scored a major coup by getting Armstrong to endorse its products. Earlier, it had got Amitabh Bachchan, a famous name in India, to endorse its wide-ranging products. Neil Armstrong cost the company only $10,000, which might look paltry compared to the whooping R10 crore it paid to Bachchan. The NASA astronaut is presently in Bombay to address a select gathering on space communication. He plans to speak, among other things, about his historic journey, developments in space technology and communications over the years. Video clippings of the historic July 20, 1969, landing will also be screened, and BPL, in order to cash in on the brand equity of Armstrong, is the sole sponsor of his visit. The astronaut's first visit to India is part of a series of talk shows sponsored by BPL Mobile. Other celebrities lined up include journalists Bob Woodward and Carl Berstein (of Watergate scandal fame) who are expected to visit in January. (C. T. Mahabharat/19951127) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 11/28/95 TELECOM Sweden's Telia Opens For Telecoms Business In UK (NEWS)(TELECOM)(LON)(00010) Sweden's Telia Opens For Telecoms Business In UK 11/28/95 LONDON, ENGLAND, 1995 NOV 28 (NB) -- Telia, Sweden's national telecom operator, has announced plans to use the computer reseller channel in the UK to market a range of telecoms services into the small- to medium- sized business marketplace. The move comes as the Swedish telco has opened its new offices in London, with the specific intention of making the UK a major market for its telecoms products and services. Effective immediately, Telia has secured a UK telecoms license to offer long distance and international telecomms services. According to Frank Smith, a spokesman for the company, the telco wants to carve out a significant slice of the UK telecoms market for itself over the coming year. "Telia is entering into a crowded marketplace, but the company sees itself as succeeding in the UK on the basis of a competitive price and a high quality service, something that the other carriers have failed to latch on to," he told Newsbytes. According to Smith, Telia's international telecoms services offer savings of up to 30 percent when compared to British Telecom's rates, and there are plans to follow this through with a number of value- added telecoms services such as voice-mail and promotional pre-paid phone cards. Scott Goodwin, another spokesman for Telia, explained that resellers will be able to generate around UKP250,000 of additional revenue each year by simply selling the low-cost telecoms service on its own. "The follow-up services are actually more significant in terms of creating competitive advantage for the customer and generating revenue for the reseller," he said. He added that resellers know they have to get out of low margin hardware and into high added value services. "Most computer resellers have avoided telecoms to date because they did not have the necessary expertise to deliver the services. With Telia they don't need to -- we will provide all the necessary training and once an order is signed, they can hand over to our project management team who look after installation. We also provide 24 hour a day, seven days a week service desks," he explained. Goodwin went on to say that, initially, Telia is looking for resellers with a turnover of around the UKP20 million mark, and is especially interested in those resellers operating in the small- to medium-sized business market. "The dealers we choose will have to share similar aims and values to ourselves with a long-term view of the market, based on service quality and strong customer focus," he said. He added that the company aims to provide an ability to break into a new area of medium- and long- term profit potential "which will enhance their existing product and service offerings." In preparation for its launch into the UK telecoms services market, Telia claims it has been carrying out extensive research into the UK market and especially the SME (small and medium sized enterprise) sector which it claims have been poorly served by the major telcos. Calls on Telia's new long distance and international service are routed across the British Telecom (BT) network as with most other ATCs (alternative telecom carriers) in the UK. Calls are handed on to Telia's switch in London, and either passed back to the UK network or forwarded on to Telia's network in Sweden for onward switching. According to Telia, there are no startup costs and no minimum duration. Telia claims that its own research has shown that around 10 percent of calls last less than the period of the BT minimum charge. The Telia service uses what the company describes as true per-second billing, where part-used seconds are rounded down to the nearest second. (Steve Gold/19951127/Press Contact: Frank Smith, The Edge Partnership, tel +44-1625-33251, fax +44-1625-511967; Internet e-mail fsmithj@cix.compulink.co.uk; Reader Contact: Telia International, tel +44-171-416-0306, fax +44-171-416-0307) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 11/28/95 GOVT European Commission Clears Seagate-Conner Merger (NEWS)(GOVT)(LON)(00011) European Commission Clears Seagate-Conner Merger 11/28/95 BRUSSELS, BELGIUM, 1995 NOV 28 (NB) -- The European Commission (EC) has announced it has formally approved a merger between Seagate Technology and Conner Peripherals, the two US disk drive manufacturers. Observers had previously predicted possible problems, as the both companies have held a good share of the European disk drive marketplace, something which could have upset the EC owing its monopolistic possibilities. In a prepared statement, the EC said that the deal was compatible with the aims of the European Community as a whole. "In the relevant tape drive and computer software segments, the parties' market shares are small and pose no threat to competition," the EC said in its statement. According to the EC, barriers to market entry on the disk drive market are relatively low and many of the existing players in the European hard drive market are planning major expansion of their production facilities. In this context the merger does not raise serious doubts as to its compatibility," the EC statement said. Even though both companies are American, Newsbytes notes that a merger between the two firms must be approved by the EC, if sales of the companies' products are to be allowed in Europe. (Sylvia Dennis/19951127/Press & Reader Contact: European Commission, +32-2-299-1111) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 11/28/95 LEGAL UK Cellular Nets Moving To Sponsor Anti-Fraud Legislation (NEWS)(LEGAL)(LON)(00012) UK Cellular Nets Moving To Sponsor Anti-Fraud Legislation 11/28/95 LONDON, ENGLAND, 1995 NOV 28 (NB) -- British mobile phone networks are preparing to sponsor a private member's Bill in Parliament that would specifically outlaw cloned phones, following what they claim is the British Government's sluggish reaction to their suggestions for legislation to fight fraud. "It's a case of whether we'll need a private bill, or will we have to wait another two or three years for the Government to change the law," explained Gary Bernstein, head of corporate security at Cellnet, one of the four cellular networks in the UK. Bernstein's comments come in the wake of last month's announcement by the Department of Trade & Industry that it is only "considering" possible changes to the law suggested by a high profile study group that included representatives of the four UK networks. According to Cellnet, a new law could impose a sentence of up to five years for cloning mobiles, as well as rechipping stolen phones for reconnection to the network. In a prepared statement, Ian Taylor, the British Science and Technology Minister, was guardedly positive about a possible change in the law, but experts have concluded that his response implied that a shortage of Parliamentary time could derail legislation. Bernstein, however, is upbeat on the prospects. "This is the change we've been fighting for the past three years," he said. According to Cellnet, during 1994, mobile phone fraud cost the British cellular industry and estimated UKP36 million. This year, the figure is expected to top the UKP100 million market, following a 75 percent growth in the number of subscribers over the year. Currently, there are an estimated five million handsets in use in the UK. The problem, however, is that each month around 12,000 mobiles are stolen, and around 4,000 ESNs (electronic serial numbers) and associated MINs (mobile identification numbers) are cloned in various ways. (Sylvia Dennis/19951127/Press & Reader Contact: Cellnet, +44-1753-504000; Vodafone, +44-1635-33251) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 11/28/95 GENERAL Asia Newsbriefs (NEWS)(GENERAL)(TYO)(00013) Asia Newsbriefs 11/28/95 TOKYO, JAPAN, 1995 NOV 28 (NB) -- In this roundup of news from across Asia: China - Matsushita to establish new JV; Malaysia - Sumikei to produce disk parts; China - Kyocera plans new plant; South Korea - First CDPD phone developed; China - Phone phreaks shut public phones; Malaysia - Gateway announce new plant; Vietnam - Matsushita to locally produce audio equipment. China - Matsushita To Establish New JV Matsushita Communication Industrial Co. is to produce business-use audiovisual equipment in China with parent Matsushita Electric Industrial Co. and local Suzhou Instrument Elements Factory. The three will form a new company, called Suzhou Matsushita Communication Industrial Co., in Suzhou, Jiangsu Province, which will be held 65% by Matsushita Communication Industrial Co., 25% by its parent, and 10% by the Chinese company. When production begins in May, 1996, the plant will turn out equipment intended for use in language education. Malaysia - Sumikei To Produce Disk Parts Sumikei Memory Disk, a unit of Japan's Sumitomo Light Metal Industries, says it will begin production of parts for computer disks in Malaysia from October next year. The company is establishing a subsidiary, called Sumikei Memory Disk (Malaysia) Sdn. Bhd., to handle production, which is expected to begin at one million units a month from next year. The company is making aluminum and nickel-phosphorous plated substrates for computer disk use. China - Kyocera Plans New Plant Kyocera of Japan, the world's largest manufacturer of ceramic semiconductor cases, says it is planning to establish a manufacturing and sales company for the products in Shanghai during December. The Shanghai Instrumentation and Electronics Holding Group Co. Ltd. will contribute 25% of the two billion yen ($19.6 million) needed to start the company with Kyoto-based Kyocera contributing the remainder. Shanghai Kyocera Electronics Co. Ltd. is expected to begin operations during 1996. South Korea - First CDPD Phone Developed Samsung and its American subsidiary have developed what they say is the world's first phone to make use of cellular digital packet data (CDPD). The system allows conventional telephone calls to be made at the same time as transmission or reception of data is taking place. Samsung say the new unit is compatible with all worldwide cellular technologies including TDMA and CDMA. The unit will go on sale next year at a price of around $500 to $700 and allow data transmission of 19,200 bits per second. China - Phone Phreaks Shut Public Phones The telecommunications authority has switched off a large number of payphones in Beijing after a scam came to light in which time unlimited long distance phone calls could be made for the price of a single local call. Most affected, according to reports, is the Haidian university district where hundreds of pay phones have been switched off until modifications can be made to stop the trick. Losses are estimated to be in the region of several tens of thousands of dollars. Malaysia - Gateway Announces New Plant US computer maker Gateway says it will establish a new production plant in Malacca, Malaysia. Many of the computers made at the plant will be shipped to other Asian countries and sold through Gateway's expanding direct marketing network. The plant, which will begin production next month, will have the second largest production capacity of all the company's plants which are located in North Sioux City, South Dakota, Hampton, Virginia, and Dublin, Ireland. Vietnam - Matsushita To Locally Produce Audio Equipment From the beginning of next year, Japan's Matsushita will move into the Vietnamese market. A local company will produce several models of radio cassette player under agreement with Matsushita at a rate of 30,000 a year, or around 10% of the total market. (Martyn Williams/19951128) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 11/28/95 ONLINE Internet Update - Euro Special (NEWS)(ONLINE)(TYO)(00014) Internet Update - Euro Special 11/28/95 TOKYO, JAPAN, 1995 NOV 28 (NB) -- In this roundup of new resources and services on the European part of the global Internet: What's happening in the world; Official Ferrari Web site; UK Office for Library and Information Networking home page; The electronic libraries program; Pictures of Norway; Frankfurt Airport; Disjunctive logic programming; British gallery of photographic expression; More links. What's Happening In The World From a user in Groningen, the Netherlands, this page offers links to the many cameras positioned around the world and connected to the network. You can look at a map of the world and jump to cameras from the map. There are also links to several other Web camera index pages. World Wide Web: http://www.noord.bart.nl/~mronde/ Official Ferrari Web Site From Italy, the world famous auto maker Ferrari has entered cyberspace with its own Web site. Users will find a company history, model list, details of the racing division and the club although only in Italian at present. The English menu promises translations will appear in November. Users with no graphics will have a lot of fun trying to figure out what goes on here, it's very graphics intensive! World Wide Web: http://www.ferrari.it/ferrari/ UK Office for Library and Information Networking Home Page The University of Bath, in England, has established a home page for the UK Office for Library and Information Networking. The organization seeks to raise awareness of networking and bibliographic management in the fields of higher education. World Wide Web: http://ukoln.bath.ac.uk/ The Electronic Libraries Program This is a subset of the pages above and is a comprehensive online resource for the Electronics Library Program. Pages of documents relate to how the delivery of information can be improved through the increased use of electronic library services. There are also links to the associated mailing list. World Wide Web: http://ukoln.bath.ac.uk/elib/ Pictures Of Norway The Green Arctic Norway is a presentation of the four northernmost counties of Norway, itself one of Europe's most northerly countries. The presentations take the form of text ad picture descriptions of the beautiful scenery in the Arctic. World Wide Web: http://www.neti.no/arktis/arctic.html Frankfurt Airport From where else but Frankfurt, Germany, this site is operated by the airport itself and currently offers access to flight schedules and information for travelers departing from the airport. In the future, real-time arrival and departure news plus details of flights via the airport are promised. World Wide Web: http://www.frankfurt-airport.de/ Disjunctive Logic Programming If you, like us, had little idea of disjunctive logic programming, maybe a few minutes spent here would educate you. The University of Koblenz-Landau in Germany has a selection of pages devoted to the subject and projects undertaken by its Artificial Intelligence Research Group. The authors note that links will be included to subjects like Logic Programming, Artificial Intelligence, Automated Reasoning, and Non-Monotonic Reasoning. World Wide Web: http://www.uni-koblenz.de/~arvind/dlp.html British Gallery Of Photographic Expression From Bournemouth on England's south coast, this is an online gallery that seeks to help you spend a few restful minutes enjoying photography. When you come here a message tells you to "Slow down and take your time." Work online now includes that of William Roscoe and Takeshi Moriya. World Wide Web: http://www.demon.co.uk/the-place/home.htm More Links The European Directory has just opened and promises "a potent search engine," with "sites as diverse as ScotRail timetables and Irrigation from Barcelona." A country or subject index is also available. World Wide Web: http://www.ukshops.co.uk:8000/thedoor.html (Martyn Williams/19951128) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 11/28/95 WINDOWS ****Bill Gates & Letterman Can't Close Windows (NEWS)(WINDOWS)(DEN)(00015) ****Bill Gates & Letterman Can't Close Windows 11/28/95 NEW YORK, NEW YORK, U.S.A., 1995 NOV 28 (NB) -- Bill Gates, chairman of Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ: MSFT) and talk show host David Letterman had trouble closing windows last night. Not Microsoft Windows 95, but the windows on Letterman's Late Show Quiz Machine. A smiling Gates, outfitted in a white lab coat and a yellow hard hat, played straight man to Letterman in a skit that fell flat after one of the three windows on the machine repeatedly failed to close when Gates pulled the appropriate lever. Actually, the 10-foot high machine was just a shell, operated by several Letterman staffers. The windows opened and closed on cue to display the answers to Letterman's jokes, but failed after displaying "Buy Windows 95." Gates presumably appeared on the Letterman show to plug his new book, called "The Road Ahead," but except for being mentioned when Letterman told his audience who his guests would be and holding up the book for a few seconds at the end of Gates' segment, the book got little mention. During the formal portion of Gates interview, Letterman, who claims not to have a computer and not to know why he should, asked Gates questions about the Internet, the new home Gates and his wife are building, and why the comedian doesn't have a computer. Respectively, the answers were "You can find people who have the same unusual interests you do," "It has 50,000 square feet and a trampoline room and will be finished in late 1996," and "You have too many assistants." Gates also told viewers about the high quality display screens that will be installed throughout the lakeside residence that can display art at the touch of a button. The world's richest person said he simply selects a topic and images related to that topic are displayed on the screens. The software mogul talked briefly about his early experiences with computers when he worked for his high school programming class schedules. "We had 80 percent boys and 20 percent girls (in the school) but all my classes had girls," said Gates. He also spoke of his vision of a computer in every home, and about artificial intelligence. Gates told Letterman it's questionable if a computer will ever be able to "think" in the same manner humans do. (Jim Mallory/19951128) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 11/28/95 WINDOWS Gradient Ships Windows 95 Implementation Of DCE (NEWS)(WINDOWS)(BOS)(00016) Gradient Ships Windows 95 Implementation Of DCE 11/28/95 MARLBORO, MASSACHUSETTS, U.S.A., 1995 NOV 28 (NB) -- After shipping the industry's first Windows 95 implementation of DCE (Distributed Computing Environment) this week, Gradient Technologies plans to release a remote configuration utility in the first half of 1996, and a developers' release of DCE for Macintosh by the end of this year, asserted Sumner Blount, product line manager for distributed computing, during a briefing for Newsbytes. Blount told Newsbytes that Gradient's new PC-DCE/32 for Windows 95, available this week, will allow developers to create applications that bring DCE "core services" such as distributed security, distributed naming, and distributed time service to the Windows 95 client environment. "It's a pretty easy way of writing or porting a distributed application," he maintained. Applications created with Gradient's PC-DCE/32 will be "fully interoperable" with applications built with Gradient's DCE products for Windows NT, and Windows 3.1, as well as with implementations of the OSF (Open Software Foundation)'s DCE from other vendors, according to the Gradient exec. DCE has now been implemented for MVS, AS/400, and VMS, in addition to Unix and desktop environments, he pointed out. PC-DCE/32 for Windows 95 consists of an Application Developer's Kit (ADK), plus a runtime kit, both for Windows 95 clients. "We don't support Windows 95 on the server side because we don't view Windows 95 as a server platform," reported the product line manager. The new product from Gradient uses "the straight DCE APIs (application programming interfaces) and protocols," including DCE RPCs (remote procedural calls), described by Blount as forming an "insulating layer" between DCE services and underlying threads. "The alternative is to use the RPCs from Microsoft," Newsbytes was told. But the DCE RPCs provide "greater interoperability" with other DCE-compliant products. In addition, he contended, some features of DCE have not yet been implemented in the Microsoft RPCs, such as "packet privacy" for encryption. "And this way, you're not at the whim of Microsoft. Even if there was an important bug (in the RPCs), we could get rid of (the bug) quickly." The RPCs permit individual procedures in a DCE application to operate on any computer in a network, including remote systems, according to Blount. DCE's Distributed Security Service supplies an independent security mechanism that "ensures the privacy and authentication of client-server transactions." DCE's Distributed Time Service synchronizes the system clocks on a network. The Distributed Naming Service allows for "logical" as opposed to "physical" addressing, meaning that developers do not need to change their programs when a user, a server, or a printer, for example, changes its physical location on a network. DCE's underlying threads are aimed at improving application performance by allowing the developer to create and control multiple threads of execution within a single process, to synchronize access to "global data" within an application, and to create applications that are capable of performing many actions at the same time (multitasking) and of handling many clients simultaneously. Chip Overstreet, director of marketing and business development for Open Horizon, a Gradient partner, told Newsbytes that Open Horizon has tested and certified Gradient's new PC-DCE/32 for Windows 95. "It's a stable product, and we are going to be certifying our own Connection product for it shortly," he added. "Gradient is providing enterprise-class services to the desktop. We're then taking things to the next step, allowing desktop applications to access these services transparently without programming," asserted Overstreet. Gradient's new PC-DCE/32 ADK for Windows 95, priced at $695, includes an IDL compiler; a UUID Generator for identifying DCE interfaces and objects; a Message Catalog Generator; runtime and link libraries, and sample programs. The ADK also provides support for long filenames, according to Blount. The new PC-DCE runtime for Windows 95, priced at $110 per copy, incorporates: a "lightweight client;" the DCE CDS (Cell Directory Service); DCE Security Service; DCE Distributed Time Service, with client and server support on both Windows 95 and Windows NT; Posix threads; client-side daemons (rpcd, sec_clientd, cdsadv, and dtsd); and support for TCP (Transmission Control Protocol), UDP (User Datagram Protocol); and IPX/SPX (Internet Packet Exchange/Sequenced Packet Exchange) transports. The ADK and runtime are both shipping immediately. (Jacqueline Emigh/19951128/Reader Contact: Gradient Technologies, 508-624-9600; Press Contacts: Dan Chmielewski or Martha Schaefer, Gradient, 508-624-9600) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 11/28/95 BUSINESS ****Cray Computer To Liquidate Assets (NEWS)(BUSINESS)(DEN)(00017) ****Cray Computer To Liquidate Assets 11/28/95 COLORADO SPRINGS, COLORADO, U.S.A., 1995 NOV 28 (NB) -- Cray Computer Corp. apparently will not rise from its own ashes to be reborn like the mythical Phoenix bird. Instead the supercomputer company will liquidate its assets in an effort to repay creditors, according to a plan filed in the US bankruptcy Court. Creditors and shareholders will have to approve the reorganization plan, which spells out how creditors will be paid. It's unlikely investors will get any money. The court will schedule a hearing, probably within the next 60 days. The dream of computer genius Seymour Cray turned to ashes when the company filed for protection from creditors under Chapter 11 of the bankruptcy code in late March. The company had hung on through several rounds of refinancing, much of which came from Seymour Cray himself. When funds ran out, the company was trying to attract foreign investors in its attempt to build a faster computer by using gallium arsenide instead of the more traditional silicon. There isn't a lot left to liquidate. The company held an auction of its manufacturing equipment, office furniture and equipment, computers and other assets last month, saying it expected to raise about $1.75 million. Remaining assets include intellectual property and a headquarters building on 60 acres that has already been leased by two local high-tech companies -- Quantum Corp. and M/A-Com Inc. Superstitious readers might think it is the property that is jinxed. Quantum Corp., which operates a data storage operation at the former Cray site, announced earlier this month it would close its disk drive manufacturing operations in Colorado Springs by the end of the year, then yesterday said it would close immediately. Employees are to be paid through the end of the year. In its Chapter 11 filing, Cray Computer listed assets of about $20 million and liabilities of $17.9 million. (Jim Mallory/19951125) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 11/28/95 GENERAL S&S Adds Anti-Virus Toolkit For Windows 95, Mac, Unix (NEWS)(GENERAL)(TOR)(00018) S&S Adds Anti-Virus Toolkit For Windows 95, Mac, Unix 11/28/95 BURLINGTON, MASSACHUSETTS, U.S.A., 1995 NOV 28 (NB) -- S&S Software International Inc. is adding versions of its Dr. Solomon's Anti-Virus Toolkit for Microsoft's Windows 95 and NT, Santa Cruz Operation Inc.'s SCO Unix, and Apple's Macintosh System 6.x and 7.x. S&S already supplied the toolkit for Windows 3.x, Novell Inc.'s NetWare local area network operating system, and IBM's OS/2. The new versions of the anti-virus software for Windows 95 and NT and SCO Unix are shipping now, S&S Vice-President of Marketing Pat Bitton told Newsbytes. The Macintosh version is due to ship next week. According to S&S, all seven editions of the toolkit automatically detect and repair damage caused by the cross-platform macro viruses that can infect Microsoft's Word for Windows. They also detect other viruses and prevent virus-infected programs from running. Like the existing Windows versions, the new Windows 95 and NT editions of Dr. Solomon's Anti-Virus Toolkit uses a virtual device driver called Winguard, which checks every file and disk in the background, including files being copied or downloaded. The Windows 95 and NT toolkits also include 32-bit implementations of S&S's Findvirus, a scanner that detects and repairs damage caused by more than 7,200 file, Master Boot Record, and boot-sector viruses, the company said. The Macintosh version of the toolkit also includes a version of Findvirus, along with the Virusguard init, which checks every file before access is permitted and all volumes as they are mounted. This version can also scan DOS diskettes, officials said. Findvirus is also part of the Unix version of the software. The Unix Toolkit scans for encrypted and polymorphic viruses as well as compressed and nested files, S&S said. Bitton said there are only a handful of viruses native to Unix, but DOS viruses can also infect Unix file systems. All versions come with a utility called Scheduler that runs Findvirus automatically. Users can also set the software up to run checks at regular intervals. The new Macintosh version of the toolkit has a suggested retail price of $99. A starter pack for NetWare, including one server and licenses for 10 workstations, is $995. The other versions list at $125. S&S Software is on the World Wide Web at http://www.drsolomon.com . (Grant Buckler/19951128/Press Contact: Pat Bitton, S&S Software, tel 617-273-7400, fax 617-273-7474; Public Contact: S&S Software, 800-701-9648; Internet e-mail info@us.drsolomon.com) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 11/28/95 APPLE Apple To Revolutionize Chinese Computing? (NEWS)(APPLE)(SFO)(00019) Apple To Revolutionize Chinese Computing? 11/28/95 CUPERTINO, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1995 NOV 28 (NB) -- After introductions in Beijing, Singapore, Hong Kong and Taipei, Apple Computer Inc.'s (NASDAQ:AAPL) Apple Chinese Dictation Kit is making its US debut today. Apple claims the kit allows Mandarin words and phrases to be converted into simple or traditional text five times faster than popular keyboard input methods. "Today's introduction heralds the start of a revolution for Chinese computing on the Macintosh platform," claimed Michael Spindler, Apple's president and chief executive officer. Looking to build on the number of Macintosh users in China, Spindler also said the dictation kit underlines Apple's intention to make Macintosh "the platform of choice." The Apple Chinese Dictation Kit compliments a standard US keyboard and mouse through dictation software and an Apple Dictation Microphone. Apple says this new speech recognition technology, combined with a $299 price tag, will open Macintosh computing to a wide audience of users who have had to work with complicated Chinese keyboard input methods or slower, less efficient Chinese speech recognition systems. The Kit should also open the door for more first-time computer users. It operates on any Power Macintosh computer using System 7.5 with four megabytes (MB) of free RAM, 27MB of hard disk space, and 16-bit sound capability. Most of the hard disk space is recovered after an initial training/user recognition phase. To operate the dictation system, a user "teaches" the computer to recognize his or her voice and phrasing in a training process which takes about three hours. The system creates voice models and files them under a user profile. Users may copy their profile to a 3.5-inch disk and install it on any Power Mac with the dictation system. Each dictation system can support multiple users. A vocabulary of more than 3,500 single characters and over 12,000 multi-character words are used for recognition. Combined, the single characters and multi-characters allow the system to recognize 350,000 phrases. Apple says this is more recognition than any system in any language. Other features of the Apple Chinese Dictation Kit include the capability to add custom phrases, the use of voice macros to represent long phrases, addresses and other information, and easy-to-use error correction. Apple says the kit will be available in the first quarter of 1996. (Patrick McKenna/19951128/Press Contact: Nancy Keith Kelly, Apple Computer, 408-974-2042) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 11/28/95 APPLE Sirius Promises CD 10-Pack For Mac (NEWS)(APPLE)(DEN)(00020) Sirius Promises CD 10-Pack For Mac 11/28/95 SCOTTSDALE, ARIZONA, U.S.A., 1995 NOV 28 (NB) -- Software publisher Sirius Publishing Inc. has announced it will release a Macintosh version of its CD-ROM multipack with the name "5-Feet 10-Pak." #IMAGE 1 20 TWPCX \images\95112820.PCX Click here for photo The collection is a compilation of 10 full-version software products on CD from various publishers. It gets its unusual name from its packaging, a five-foot-long vinyl strip. It is also available in a box. The package includes special discount coupons to encourage purchase of the publisher's various other titles. Sirius said the goal of the promotion is to acquaint users with the potential of CD-ROM and to boost overall consumer interest in multimedia products. New titles as well as those in the earlier, PC-based, versions will be included in the Mac edition, said Sirius. Buyers will get "Hell Cab" from Time Warner, a tour of history's most dangerous places conducted by a New York city cabby. The player's goal is to save his or her soul and return to New York alive, according to Sirius' promotional material. Sirius spokesperson Jim Matney told Newsbytes you also get "Prince Interactive" by Grafix Zone, an interactive journey into musician Prince's music. The disk includes five complete songs and four full-length videos by the rock/pop artist, who dropped his name several years ago and is now known by a symbol. "Dragon's Lair" by Readysoft is a quest-type game where the player attempts to rescue Princess Daphne from the clutches of the evil dragon, while "Mayo Clinic Family Health Book" from IVI moves to the real world to explain the human body and what might cause it to fail. Sirius said the medical reference contains contributions from hundreds of medical experts. Sirius makes its own contribution to the disk with "Siriusnet." The company calls the software "everything needed to surf the World Wide Web and explore the Internet." Siriusnet includes the Mosaic interface for the Web, e-mail, Usenet, Telnet, FTP (File Transfer Protocol), and a direct connection to the company's own network. If you don't know how to use the Internet, the software title "Internet Executive" by Learnkey comes on the disk. It's an interactive video that takes you through the basics of using the Web. IBM offers "Mad Dog McCree," an arcade-type game in which Mad Dog and his gang have kidnapped the mayor and his daughter. Players encounter a saloon full of outlaws, a bank robbery and gunfighters as they try to save the town. Or you can sample "Dracula Unleashed" by Viacom that puts you in the director's chair of an interactive horror movie in which the Count has the lead role. More practical is "2000 Fonts" by Fantazia, a collection of 2,000 unique TrueType and Type 1 fonts. If you choose "Battlechess Enhanced" by Interplay, you can add battle sound effects, three-dimensional animation, and stereo voices to a usually staid chess game. The company said the Mac 10-pak will ship December 8 with a retail price tag of $39.95. (Jim Mallory/19951128/Press contact: Jim Matney, Sirius Publishing, 602-951-3288; Public contact: Sirius Publishing, 800-247-0307 or 602-951-3288/SIRIUS951128/PHOTO) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 11/28/95 CHIPS ****Taiwan Firm To Build $1.2Bil Chip Plant In US (NEWS)(CHIPS)(LAX)(00021) ****Taiwan Firm To Build $1.2Bil Chip Plant In US 11/28/95 SAN JOSE, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1995 NOV 28 (NB) -- Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company Ltd.(TSMC) has announced plans to build its first United States foundry in a joint venture with Altera and several other long-standing customers. The new $1.2 billion US operation will break ground in mid-1996 at a location "yet to be determined," and is expected to be in production by the first half of 1998. A site selection team is currently evaluating a number of potential sites for the facility, which will have a capacity of 30,000 eight- inch diameter wafers per month. The new fab will initially produce devices with 0.35 micron design rules with the ability to migrate to 0.25 micron devices. Frank Dixon, senior analyst for Instat research's semiconductor forecasting, told Newsbytes, "TSMC is investing huge sums of money into fab manufacturing. For the last several months they have been selling capacity in advance and selling equity in the new plants. Both methods have raised considerable sums of money, with the advantage of locking up customers." For the project, TSMC has joined with Altera and several other partners to build the US fab plant. Under the terms of the "letter of intent," Altera will receive 16 percent equity ownership in the joint-venture company and up to 24 percent capacity in the wafer fab designed to produce 30,000 eight-inch wafers per month. Altera's investment in the joint venture will be $125 million spread over the next two years. The new fab will support the manufacturing requirements of TSMC's joint venture partners as well TSMC's base of foundry customers. TSMC President Don Brooks said, "We are continuing to be aggressive in addressing worldwide demand for semiconductor manufacturing capacity. The new US fab is part of our plan to invest heavily in meeting the needs of our customers." TSMC claims to be the world's largest and fastest growing dedicated semiconductor foundry, manufacturing more than one million six-inch wafers per year in 1995. According to the company, it has posted growth of 90% in 1993 and 50% in 1994. Currently, the company's six-inch fabs run at full capacity, putting out 100,000 wafers per month. Fab 3, which commenced eight-inch wafer output in October, will be in volume production for a variety of customers, ramping to full capacity of 30,000 eight-inch wafers per month in 1996. TSMC fabs are now located in Hsin Chu, Taiwan. Dixon points out that the country of Taiwan is where Korea was just three years ago, making a full sprint to become a world leader in semiconductor manufacturing. "They, like Korea, have begun in the wafer fab manufacturing. Now they are beginning to move in some of the commodity markets. For example, some forecasts have Taiwan with five to 10% of the DRAM market by the year 2000" (Richard Bowers/19951128/Press Contact: John Luke, TSMC, 408-437-8762) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 11/28/95 TELECOM Automotive Safety/Comms System Planned (NEWS)(TELECOM)(MSP)(00022) Automotive Safety/Comms System Planned 11/28/95 HOLLAND, MICHIGAN, U.S.A., 1995 NOV 28 (NB) -- SkyTel, a US provider of nationwide wireless messaging services, and Prince, a supplier of integrated automotive interior and electronic systems, said they will develop a two-way communications system that will provide safety, security, and navigation system. The new system, called "The AutoLink System," will be available in fleet vehicles like rental cars in mid-1996, and as a factory-installed option in cars in 1998, officials said. The new system includes automatic emergency response capability, theft deterrence, vehicle tracking and immobilization, two-way personal messaging, navigational guidance, and location-based information services, among other features, officials said. "The technology that really enables this to happen is the SkyTel two-way network," Mark Rodgers, SkyTel spokesperson, told Newsbytes. Other technologies, like cellular, have a lot of problems with call drops, roaming agreement problems, and other situations that don't lend themselves well to this kind of system, he said. "When you press that button, you've got to know that the information will get sent to the proper 911 number. You can't get a busy signal," Rodgers added. Besides using two-way wireless communications, the system will also use a differential global positioning system (GPS) receiver, which uses satellites to monitor a vehicle's exact location with the highest degree of accuracy available, officials said. When the AutoLink System is introduced as an original equipment feature, it will have a coverage area equivalent to that of cellular service, with guaranteed delivery, SkyTel added. Rodgers said he couldn't guess on a price for the factory-installed version of AutoLink. However, based on Prince's current customer base of automotive manufacturers, AutoLink could have a potential market of eight million new car buyers annually. A lot of new markets will be opened up with the implementation of AutoLink in car and truck fleets, he said. Motorola will supply the two-way paging and GPS hardware, SkyTel officials said. (Bob Woods/19951128/Press Contacts: Brendy Barr, Shandwick USA, 810-746-6070, for Prince; or Mark Rodgers, SkyTel, 601-944-7474) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 11/28/95 GENERAL Symbios Logics' Fiber Channel-Based RAID (NEWS)(GENERAL)(BOS)(00023) Symbios Logics' Fiber Channel-Based RAID 11/28/95 WICHITA, KANSAS, U.S.A., 1995 NOV 28 (NB) -- Symbios Logic's new Series 3 Fiber Channel RAID (redundant array of inexpensive disks) controller is the first RAID controller to bring "open connectivity" over fiber channel, as well as the first to provide a 100 megabytes-per-second (MB/sec) burst-mode data transfer rate, contended the company's Ron Engelbrecht, in an interview with Newsbytes. The new controller's 100 MB/sec burst-mode data transfer rate is four times faster than the speed provided by the fastest RAID controllers available until now, including the Sparcstorage Array, an earlier fiber-based controller developed by Sun Microsystems for Sun Sparcstations only, asserted Engelbrecht, who is managing director of OEM (original equipment manufacturer) RAID products for Symbios. Engelbrecht added that he expects the ultra high transfer speed of the Symbios product to be especially useful for storage of medical images, digitized video, CAD (computer-aided design) drawings, and other "very large files." As previously reported in Newsbytes, fiber channel is an emerging high bandwidth technology that many companies, including members of the Fiber Channel Association, see as suited to applications starting ranging from peripheral I/O (input/output) to enterprise-level data warehousing and high-speed network transport. "Fiber channel is clearly the emerging standard," Engelbrecht told Newsbytes. Although several other vendors are reportedly working on a fiber channel-based RAID device, Symbios is the first to announce a product in this category, he maintained. Aside from a high data transfer rate, other benefits of the Series 3 Fiber Channel RAID controller include a "reliable" data transfer range of up to 10 kilometers and support for clustered systems, according to the Symbios exec. The new controller is used with Symbios Logic's SYM 1062 PCI (Peripheral Component Interconnect)-fiber channel host bus adapter,along with a new host software driver. Also in the Series 3 family, Symbios offers SCSI (small computer systems interface) and Fast 20-based RAID controllers. The new product supports arbitrated loop as well as switched and point-to-point fiber channel topologies on the fiber channel host interface, together with Symbios' Series 3 RAID architecture, which provides RAID levels 0, 1, 3 and 5, according to Engelbrecht. On the drive side, the new fiber-based controller has five Fast 20 SCSI interfaces, and supplies up to 80 gigabytes (GB) storage capacity, Newsbytes was told. The product can also accommodate up to 128 megabytes (MB) cache memory. Other components include fan modules, power supplies, and battery backup support circuitry for the code memory. Analysts agreed that the new product from Symbios is the first fiber-based RAID device. "Everybody's been wondering when a product like this would arrive, and now, here it is," said Crawford del Prete, a senior analyst at International Data Corporation (IDC). "Symbios is taking a leadership role in the next generation of storage controllers. For users, this will provide an immediate increase in bandwidth from the host CPU (central processor unit) to the storage subsystem," the analyst told Newsbytes. Responded Farid Neema, president of Peripheral Concepts: "Symbios Logic is at the leading edge of a new trend in storage management. They have a lot of marketing ahead of them, but this is good technology." (Jacqueline Emigh/19951127/Reader Contact: Symbios Logic, 316-636-8000; Press Contact: Monica Pandolfi, Sterling Hager Inc. for Symbios, 617-636-1400) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 11/28/95 BROADCAST Avid Intros Media Composer Version 6 For Video Pros (NEWS)(BROADCAST)(BOS)(00024) Avid Intros Media Composer Version 6 For Video Pros 11/28/95 TEWKSBURY, MASSACHUSETTS, U.S.A., 1995 NOV 28 (NB) -- The newly unveiled version 6 update to Avid's Media Composer digital non-linear editing and finishing systems for video pros brings sweeping enhancements in the areas of editing, finishing tools, video and audio, maintained Tom Corn, product manager for Media Composer, in an interview with Newsbytes. As previously reported in Newsbytes, Avid is now organized into four divisions. The divisions are Desktop, Post-Production, Broadcast, and Audio, said Dana White, senior product manager for Avid's Real Impact desktop video software, during an earlier briefing for Newsbytes at Fall Comdex in Las Vegas. In another previous interview with Newsbytes, Steve Cobosco, director of product management for Avid's Post-Production Group (PPG), reported that Media Composer and Film Composer, originally used almost exclusively for 30-second TV commercials, were the first products ever to emerge from Avid. Corn told Newsbytes this week that one of the biggest changes in version 6 of Avid's products for post-production video is a greater flexibility in "finishing tools." Digital video pros today are producing for a variety of media, ranging from films and TV shows to video games, CD-ROMs, and the Internet, he elaborated. For CD-ROM and game video, Media Composer now supports "very high quality single-film images," according to the product manager. For video pieces to be shown in QuickTime, support has been incorporated for variable image sizes. Version 6 brings support for a dedicated full-screen video monitor, Also in the update, he added, Media Composer supports "true 16-by-nine," permitting video or film editing to be performed in widescreen aspect ratio for emerging media formats such as HDTV (high definition TV). In another enhancement in the editing arena, Media Composer now supports "mixable resolutions," meaning that video pros "can bring in footage of different resolutions, and then rough them out." Single-field resolutions can be mixed with other single- field resolutions. Conversely, double-field resolutions can be mixed with other double-field resolutions. And in still another improvement, known as Avid Multicamera, users can now edit on-the-fly between four different moving pictures, according to the Avid exec. Under this capability, four simultaneous streams of video are played back in the source monitor, while a fifth stream is played in the record monitor, all moving at sound speed. Avid Multicamera is aimed in particular at TV sitcoms, an industry that is seeing a growing trend toward keeping four cameras rolling on the set at once, he pointed out. Media Composer version 6 also brings the image quality available with Avid's products to a new level of "high-end resolution," with video compression ratios as low as 3:1, while adding "significant advances in signal quality," he informed Newsbytes. New AVRs (Avid Video Resolutions) for Media Composer's 900, 1000, 4000, and 8000 models include: AVR 75, a two-field online image resolution with frame sizes of roughly 210 gigabyte (GB)/frame, for complex footage and titles; AVR 70 and 71, a pair of two-field online resolutions designed for comparability with Avid's AVR 26 and 27; AVR 12, a two-field draft resolution that is "mixable" with Avid's new AVR 70, 71 and 75 online resolutions; and AVR 8s, a new high-end, single-field image resolution for CD-ROM and game production that is "visually comparable" to the two-field AVR 75, he said. Version 6 is also able to accommodate 720 pixel media -- 720 by 486 NTSC (North American Television Standards Committee), 720 by 576 PAL -- a new size that is one of the elements in the emerging CCIR 601 specification, continued Corn. "To my knowledge, there just isn't anyone else out there that is supporting 720 pixel yet," he said. Support is provided, as well, for component video input/output (Betacam SP, R-Y, B-Y, Y). The Avid update also adds "real-time EQ," for higher quality sound. This enhancement, from Avid's Audio Division, represents "the first fruits of many" that are expected to arise from Avid's purchase of Digidesign last December, Newsbytes was told. The new sound capability provides control of low-shelf as well as high-shelf audio EQ filters, with three selectable Frequency Turnover Points, in addition to a "sweepable parametric midrange." The EQ settings can be saved on a per-clip basis. The settings can also be saved and applied to additional clips, in much the same way as with video effects, according to the Avid product manager. (Jacqueline Emigh/19951128/Reader Contact: Avid, 508-640-6789; Press Contacts: Stacey Hurwitz, Avid, 508-640-3622; Kerry Bard or Deirdre O'Connell, Schwartz Communications for Avid, 617-431-0770) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 11/28/95 BUSINESS ****Ameritech Invests in Educational Software Firm (NEWS)(BUSINESS)(MSP)(00025) ****Ameritech Invests in Educational Software Firm 11/28/95 CHICAGO, ILLINOIS, U.S.A., 1995 NOV 28 (NB) -- A financial marriage between two unlikely parties is being held in the board rooms of Ameritech (NYSE:AIT) and KidSoft, LLC. The Chicago-based regional Bell operating company (RBOC) has announced it is making a $10 million equity investment in KidSoft, which distributes educational software for kids through retail and online channels. For its $10 million, Ameritech obtains rights to include KidSoft's online content and services, including rights to electronically distribute children's software, via any Ameritech future online and broadband service offerings, officials said. Already, KidSoft maintains an area on America Online (AOL) that acts as both an information source and a sales outlet for KidSoft products. The company also publishes KidSoft Select, a line of children's software distributed through major retail stores, and priced at $12.99. W. Patrick Campbell, Ameritech executive vice president of corporate strategy and business development, said the new agreement aligns closely with his company's interest in providing "tangible benefits to its customers through the marriage of compelling, useful information content and communications technology." "Ameritech has created an impressive strategy for bringing interactive technologies to the home, and KidSoft is proud to be part of that effort," said Rick Devine, president and chief executive officer at KidSoft. Newsbytes notes one of the ways Ameritech might distribute the KidSoft content is through its two-way cable TV systems it is either already building or intends to build in its five-state region. Some of the metropolitan areas where Ameritech two-way cable systems are either proposed or will become a reality in, include Columbus, Detroit, and Chicago. Ameritech will also be represented on KidSoft's board of directors, officials said. With this new deal, Ameritech will join with The Hearst Company as a strategic investor in KidSoft. Ameritech provides local phone and other services to customers in Illinois, Ohio, Indiana, Michigan, and Wisconsin. (Bob Woods/19951128/Press Contacts: Mike Brand, Ameritech, 312-750-5219; Maggie Young, KidSoft, 408-342-3406) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 11/28/95 IBM ****IBM To Form Internet Software Business Unit (NEWS)(IBM)(TOR)(00026) ****IBM To Form Internet Software Business Unit 11/28/95 NEW YORK, NEW YORK, U.S.A., 1995 NOV 28 (NB) -- IBM (NYSE:IBM) has plans to set up a new business unit that will develop software products for the Internet. Although details are sketchy, the new operation is expected to begin operation by the end of this year. IBM spokeswoman Judy Radlinsky told Newsbytes that the new unit will be a part of IBM's software business, and will report to John M. Thompson, worldwide head of IBM's software operations. The person who will head the Internet software operation has not yet been named, she said, nor has the location of its headquarters. The company has not said what revenues it expects from the unit, but Radlinsky said the new unit will start with about 100 employees. IBM has already begun moving into the Internet software business in several ways. For example, in October the company announced plans to bundle World Wide Web server software from Netscape Communications Corp., and its own Web server software, with RISC System/6000 workstations in special bundles designed to provide a complete package for customers looking to set up Web sites. The company also offers a Web browser and supports Internet access as part of its OS/2 Warp operating system. IBM also offers security and access products, including software for reading news, exchanging electronic-mail, and transferring files on the Internet, said Radlinsky. IBM is "very involved in the Internet from a development perspective," she said. Recently, subsidiary Lotus Development Corp. previewed InterNotes Web Navigator, a Web browser designed to work with its Notes workgroup development software. Radlinsky said it is not certain whether responsibility for existing IBM Internet-related products will move into the new business unit, and she noted that the company's policy up to now has been to keep Lotus autonomous. (Grant Buckler/19951128/Press Contact: Judy Radlinsky, IBM, 914-766-1697) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 11/28/95 BUSINESS ****Yahoo Sells 12% Of Company (NEWS)(BUSINESS)(LAX)(00027) ****Yahoo Sells 12% Of Company 11/28/95 MOUNTAIN VIEW, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1995 NOV 28 (NB) -- Yahoo, the popular World Wide Web guide, has sold a 12% equity stake to some of the big players in the communications and online industry. The sale represents both an infusion of capital, and the development of strategic alliances for Yahoo. Reuters New Media, Softbank, Ziff-Davis Publishing Company, The Capital Group Companies, and Open Text Corporation, have each taken an investment position in Yahoo. Started as a graduate school research project by two Stanford graduate students, David Filo and Jerry Yang, Yahoo has become one of the biggest online success stories. Since incorporating in April Yahoo has seen its readership quadruple from 200,000 people a day to over 800,000. Yahoo has also seen a rise in its international popularity, with 30% of its readers now coming from outside the United States. With that estimated 800,000 users a day, Yahoo! is one of the most frequently visited sites on the World Wide Web. Yahoo, with its Internet-wide, full-text search and browse capabilities, provides an easy way to navigate through the Internet. Yahoo can be found on the Internet's World Wide Web at http://www.yahoo.com . Jeffrey Mallet, VP Business Operations of Yahoo, told Newsbytes, "We see this move for Yahoo, not only as a method of raising capital, but the formation of partnerships that will form the direction we take as a company. Especially, we saw this transaction as a method of enhancing our international position, with Softbank in Japan, and Reuters in the United Kingdom. Ziff-Davis and The Capital Group Companies will help with content, and Open Text is already our development partner." Softbank is a Japanese distributor of computer, software, peripherals and systems, as well as Japan's largest publisher of computer-related magazines and books. Its United States subsidiaries and joint ventures include Softbank Comdex Inc. and Softbank Expositions and Conference Company Inc. In addition, the company recently signed a definitive agreement to purchase Ziff-Davis Publishing Company. Ziff-Davis Publishing Company is a leading publisher of computer magazines and computing content. Ziff-Davis' leading titles include PC Magazine, PC Week, PC Computing, and Computer Shopper. Ziff-Davis publishes 14 periodicals on computing. The Capital Group has holdings in major broadcast and media corporations, including Time-Warner, Disney, and TCI cable. Yahoo Inc. was originally set up with financing from the venture capital company, Sequoia Capital, which has backed such companies as Apple Computer and Electronic Arts. Sequoia Capital, as part of its venture capital investment, retained 25% of Yahoo. With this announced sale, outside ownership of Yahoo has risen to 37.5%. Yahoo did state that there were no other outside investors, and the original partners still retain a majority of the shares. (Richard Bowers/19951128/Press Contact: Jeffrey Mallet, Yahoo, 415-934-3233) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 11/28/95 BUSINESS Ericsson Spain Acquires Majority Stake In Indelec (NEWS)(BUSINESS)(LON)(00028) Ericsson Spain Acquires Majority Stake In Indelec 11/28/95 BILBAO, SPAIN, 1995 NOV 28 (NB) -- Ericsson's Spanish operation has acquired an extra 40 percent stake in Industria Electronica de Telecommunicaciones (Indelec). According to officials with Ericsson SA, the stake was obtained for an undisclosed sum of money from the Society for the Promotion of the Basque Industry (SPBI). The share acquisition pushes Ericsson's stake in Indelec to 90 percent and follows on from an initial stake of 30 percent taken two years ago, which followed an agreement with shareholders. At the time, Newsbytes notes, Ericsson took active control of the company's management and began investing for the future. Subsequently, a further investment -- taking the investment to 50 percent of the company -- was made last year, when SPT Telefonica sold its 20 percent stake in the company. Indelec is based in the northern industrial city of Bilbao in Spain and, according to Ericsson, is fast becoming a world competence center within the group for the production of terminals for radio in the local loop (RLL). Newsbytes notes that Indelec is an important supplier to Telefonica of RLL terminals for rural networks. Telefonica is widely regarded as something of a pioneer in using RLL technology. According to Antonio Cordon, Ericsson's information manager in Spain, Indelec's Bilbao plant is equipped with highly advanced equipment and manufacturing facilities. Plans call for production of RLL terminals to be ramped up to one million units plus in the next few years. Indelec also operates its own research and development (R&D) center in Bilbao, where RLL related products for all types of mobile phones -- GSM, AMPS. NMT 450 and 900, DCS 1900, and ETACS -- are developed. Plans call for Indelec's research and development operation, which currently employs 46 qualified engineers, to grow to employ more than 100 engineers over the next few years. (Sylvia Dennis/19951128/Press & Reader Contact: Ingemar Naeve, Ericsson Radio Operations, +34-1-339-2347) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 11/28/95 TELECOM Finland's Nokia Announces Next-Generation GSM Voice Codec (NEWS)(TELECOM)(LON)(00029) Finland's Nokia Announces Next-Generation GSM Voice Codec 11/28/95 ESPOO, FINLAND, 1995 NOV 28 (NB) -- Nokia has announced that the European Telecom Standards Institute (ETSI) has selected the enhanced full rate (EFR) voice codec developed by Nokia and the University of Sherbrooke in Canada as the standard codec for the PCN/GSM (personal communications network/global system for mobile communications) system. According to Lauri Kivinen, a spokeswoman for Nokia Mobile Phones, the EFR voice codex is a hardware implementation of a coding algorithm that supports the conversion of analog speech into a digital data stream that can be modulated for transmission over a digital radio channel. The EFR is billed as being compatible with the GSM 13,000 bits-per-second speech channel standard. Nokia also claims that the US market has chosen its EFR voice codec as the industry standard for PCS (personal communications system) 1900, the 1,900 megahertz version of the PCN system seen in Europe. According to Nokia, the move was initiated by the potential PCS 1900 operators to significantly improve the PCS voice quality found on existing PCS/PCN phones. Nokia claims that the new EFR voice codec system offers many advantages to GSM and PCN/PCS operators. This second-generation voice codec has comparable quality to landline voice telephony systems and will improve the quality of most digital mobile phone calls. Despite its technical advantages, Nokia claims that the new codec is fully compatible with existing GSM/PCN infrastructures, allowing for a rapid implementations in new handsets, at low costs for the consumer and the network. Most interestingly, the new voice codec is capable of working with music. Previous codecs, Newsbytes notes, were optimized to work with human speech, with the result that, when music is played through the system, the sampling rate remains stable, although the quality of the resultant audio channel is very poor. Because of this support for non- standard frequencies, the new codec is claimed to be very robust against excessive background noise. (Sylvia Dennis/19951128/Press Contact: Nokia Mobile Phones, tel +358-10-5051, fax +358-0-510-40782) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 11/28/95 ONLINE PC Quote To Offer Web-Based Quotation Services (NEWS)(ONLINE)(MSP)(00030) PC Quote To Offer Web-Based Quotation Services 11/28/95 CHICAGO, ILLINOIS, U.S.A., 1995 NOV 28 (NB) -- PC Quote Inc. (AMEX:PQT) is ramping onto the Internet with a variety of securities and market quotation services, company officials said. Already, Internet World Wide Web users can get a free taste of those services, through the company's beta test site. One of the new services, called "MarketSmart," is described by company officials as a Web-based "market site information site for non- professional investors." All of the new services will use both Web browsers and other applications, and will be targeted at both the general consumer and the investment professional. "With plans to dramatically expand our Internet presence, millions of online investors will have access to the same high-quality financial information previously available only to professional and institutional investors. Web surfers can access http://www.pcquote.com to sign up for the beta test. PC Quote officials said they are extending the beta test period through December, meaning the free access of many of the features will continue through that period. Already, more than 4,000 users have signed on to be beta testers since the program began November 3, PC Quote officials said. When Newsbytes accessed the PC Quote MarketSmart site, we were able to look up a variety of financial tidbits. The real-time Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA) was prominently displayed at the top of the introductory page. A QuoteWatch section allows users to access the delayed stock prices of up to five different companies. Company details like price-earnings ratios, stock yields, and dividend information can be looked up via MicroWatch. Also, "Market At A Glance" provided a broad base of information, including: active stocks on the New York Stock Exchange, the American Stock Exchange, and the OTC (over the counter) exchange; averages from companies like Standards and Poors, and Dow Jones; and the average from Japan's Nikkei exchange. Future MarketSmart features will include access to important stock indexes, statistics, and charts for stocks, mutual funds, futures, indexes, and cash markets. Also, industries like computers, communications, and retail will be able to be spotlighted. Some newsletters will also be uploaded to the site. Beta tests of other, unidentified Web services are planned to be launched next month, with all of the services to be formally introduced in January, 1996. Pricing has not been revealed yet for the services, buy Morgan said the new services will have increase the company's black ink in the revenues column. "We have been asked about the increased trading and price appreciation of our stock, and while we can't be certain, we think two contributing factors are the increased awareness of PC Quote as a key Internet player and our recent full listing on the American Stock Exchange," said Morgan. (Bob Woods/19951128/Press Contacts: Louis J. Morgan, PC Quote Inc., 312-913-2800; Maxine Goldstein, The Financial Relations Board, 312-266-7800) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 11/28/95 ONLINE Prodigy Building Virtual Mall On Internet (NEWS)(ONLINE)(SFO)(00031) Prodigy Building Virtual Mall On Internet 11/28/95 WHITE PLAINS, NEW YORK, U.S.A., 1995 NOV 28 (NB) -- Prodigy has announced a deal with BroadVision Inc., a Silicon Valley software developer, to build an Internet shopping mall called Virtual Mall on the Internet. The Mall will be available to Prodigy members in the first quarter of 1996 and later in the year to the entire Internet community. Prodigy members will be able to visit the Virtual Mall through a graphical representation of stores such as JC Penney, Lands End, Hammacher Schlemmer, Sears, Cheeseboard, Logos Online, PC Flowers, PC Gifts & Gourmet, OfficeMax, and others, or use highly personalized services built on a user-designed shopping profile. The profile system is the first implementation of BroadVision's One-to-One application system for marketing and selling. BroadVision is also introducing One-to-One Personal Sales Assistant which helps shoppers link their profiles to products and services, manage financial transactions, and develop a "shopper's history." The profiles also allow Prodigy and its participating retail partners to develop special sales, incentive programs, and electronic coupons. Prodigy spokesperson, Carol Wallace, told Newsbytes, "This (the mall and custom profiles) is another example of the advantages available through a system built on HTML (hypertext markup language). Because the entire system is built on HTML, our partners can introduce new concepts to electronic shopping such as a three-hour sale or a special of the day." BroadVision's application allows the retail partners to place and remove information in the shopping center without taking the store off-line. Prodigy also says it will use an undisclosed form of encryption to provide secure financial transactions from the buyer through the merchant to the appropriate financial institution. "We are extending the Prodigy Pledge to everyone who uses the Virtual Mall," said Wallace. "This is a 30-day money-back guarantee which applies to all purchases. It shows our commitment to the security of the system and our support for the products and services provided by the participating retailers," she continued. Backing the new Mall and its Internet presence, Ed Bennett, Prodigy's president and chief executive officer, commented, "Our excellent customer service and retail transaction record will carry the Prodigy brand to the Internet marketplace. Ultimately, the consumer is in the driver's seat and will determine how successful shopping on the Internet will be." (Patrick McKenna/19951128/Press Contact: Carol Wallace, Prodigy, 914-448-2496) (SUMMARY)(GENERAL)(MSP)(00032) Newsbytes Daily Summary 11/28/95 MINNEAPOLIS, MINNESOTA, U.S.A., 1995 NOV 28 (NB) -- These are capsules of all today's news stories: ======================================================================== ------------| N E W S B Y T E S D A I L Y S U M M A R Y |---------- ------------| Tuesday, November 28, 1995 |---------- ======================================================================== (c) Newsbytes News Network (Tm) Editor in Chief: Wendy Woods ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Newsbytes News Network's on the Web! Check out http://www.nbnn.com for free daily top stories from Newsbytes and its affiliate publications, and from PC Week, MacWeek, and other Ziff news magazines. A subscription gives you all the news, full-text, plus the most comprehensive database of past computer stories online. The keyword-searchable database dates from today back through 1983. Subscriptions are $24.95 for three months. Questions? Send to 'administrator@newsbytes.com' For Japanese Newsbytes and additional services, see the Newsbytes Pacifica Website at http://www.islandtel.com/newsbytes/ ------------------------------------------------------------------------ CATEGORY HEADLINES (*** indicates today's top stories) STORY # ======================================================================== APPLE Apple To Revolutionize Chinese Computing................... 19 APPLE Sirius Promises CD 10-Pack For Mac......................... 20 BROADCAST Avid Intros Media Composer Version 6 For Video Pros........ 24 BUSINESS India - Birla Opens Software Development Center............ 07 BUSINESS ****Cray Computer To Liquidate Assets..................... 17 BUSINESS ****Ameritech Invests in Educational Software Firm........ 25 BUSINESS ****Yahoo Sells 12% Of Company............................ 27 BUSINESS Ericsson Spain Acquires Majority Stake In Indelec.......... 28 CHIPS ****Taiwan Firm To Build $1.2Bil Chip Plant In US......... 21 GENERAL Asia Newsbriefs............................................ 13 GENERAL S&S Adds Anti-Virus Toolkit For Windows 95, Mac, Unix...... 18 GENERAL Symbios Logics' Fiber Channel-Based RAID................... 23 GOVT European Commission Clears Seagate-Conner Merger........... 11 IBM ****IBM To Form Internet Software Business Unit........... 26 LEGAL UK Cellular Nets Moving To Sponsor Anti-Fraud Legislation.. 12 NETWORK UK Firm Unveils Networked CD-ROM Technology................ 01 ONLINE Dataware's NetAnswer Info Superserver...................... 02 ONLINE Chinese Flight Reservation System Joins With SABRE......... 03 ONLINE Internet Update - Euro Special............................. 14 ONLINE PC Quote To Offer Web-Based Quotation Services............. 30 ONLINE Prodigy Building Virtual Mall On Internet.................. 31 TELECOM Racal Installs Wireless Data Network In Bermuda............ 04 TELECOM India - Cellular/Basic Telecom Service Caps Intro'd........ 08 TELECOM India - Neil Armstrong Endorses Mobile Phones.............. 09 TELECOM Sweden's Telia Opens For Telecoms Business In UK........... 10 TELECOM Automotive Safety/Comms System Planned..................... 22 TELECOM Finland's Nokia Announces Next-Generation GSM Voice Codec.. 29 TRENDS Australia - Toys"R"Us Offers Multimedia PC Section......... 06 WINDOWS CorelDraw, Photo-Paint Updates Available................... 05 WINDOWS ****Bill Gates & Letterman Can't Close Windows............ 15 WINDOWS Gradient Ships Windows 95 Implementation Of DCE............ 16 ======================================================================== These are the headlines and first paragraphs of each story, in order: 1 -> UK Firm Unveils Networked CD-ROM Technology -- KeyLan Distribution has announced CD-ROM Now!, a PC package that allows CD-ROM file servers to be created to allow CD-ROM disks to be shared "quickly and easily" across a network. 2 -> Dataware's NetAnswer Info Superserver -- Dataware Technologies of Ottawa, Ontario, has announced the release of its new NetAnswer "information super server," described by the company as "a comprehensive, off-the-shelf Internet software and services offering." 3 -> Chinese Flight Reservation System Joins With SABRE -- China's computer flight reservation system (CRS) will be linked up with SABRE, claimed to be the largest travel information system in the world, to provide access to American markets as well as those in other parts of the world, according to China Radio International. 4 -> Racal Installs Wireless Data Network In Bermuda -- Racal has announced that its Widanet radio data networking technology is being deployed into Bermuda, where it is being used for remote monitoring applications, including the control of limited power generation supplies. 5 -> CorelDraw, Photo-Paint Updates Available -- Corel Corp. has announced a number of maintenance updates for various versions of its flagship CorelDraw and Corel Photo-Paint illustration and bitmap editing software packages. A stand-alone version of Photo-Paint 6 (the latest version) has also been announced, to ship later this month. 6 -> Australia - Toys"R"Us Offers Multimedia PC Section -- The Australian retail computer sales sector now has another, competing, chain of stores. This time it's the Toys"R"Us chain of 21 stores around Australia, each now sporting a "Multimedia PC" section. 7 -> India - Birla Opens Software Development Center -- Birla Horizons International Ltd. (BHI), the 50-50 joint venture between the C.K. Birla Group of companies and US-based Computer Horizons Corp., has inaugurated its offshore software development center (SDC) at Noida, near New Delhi. 8 -> India - Cellular/Basic Telecom Service Caps Intro'd -- The Government has announced a cap of three circles on both basic and cellular telephone service licenses in categories "A" and "B." 9 -> India - Neil Armstrong Endorses Mobile Phones -- "One small step for man, one giant step for mankind," Neil Armstrong said as he took man's first step on the moon. Now, 26 years after that historic moment, and in a reversal of roles, the BPL Group could well say: "A small step for Armstrong, but a giant step for BPL Mobile." 10 -> Sweden's Telia Opens For Telecoms Business In UK -- Telia, Sweden's national telecom operator, has announced plans to use the computer reseller channel in the UK to market a range of telecoms services into the small- to medium- sized business marketplace. The move comes as the Swedish telco has opened its new offices in London, with the specific intention of making the UK a major market for its telecoms products and services. 11 -> European Commission Clears Seagate-Conner Merger -- The European Commission (EC) has announced it has formally approved a merger between Seagate Technology and Conner Peripherals, the two US disk drive manufacturers. Observers had previously predicted possible problems, as the both companies have held a good share of the European disk drive marketplace, something which could have upset the EC owing its monopolistic possibilities. 12 -> UK Cellular Nets Moving To Sponsor Anti-Fraud Legislation -- British mobile phone networks are preparing to sponsor a private member's Bill in Parliament that would specifically outlaw cloned phones, following what they claim is the British Government's sluggish reaction to their suggestions for legislation to fight fraud. 13 -> Asia Newsbriefs -- In this roundup of news from across Asia: China - Matsushita to establish new JV; Malaysia - Sumikei to produce disk parts; China - Kyocera plans new plant; South Korea - First CDPD phone developed; China - Phone phreaks shut public phones; Malaysia - Gateway announce new plant; Vietnam - Matsushita to locally produce audio equipment. 14 -> Internet Update - Euro Special -- In this roundup of new resources and services on the European part of the global Internet: What's happening in the world; Official Ferrari Web site; UK Office for Library and Information Networking home page; The electronic libraries program; Pictures of Norway; Frankfurt Airport; Disjunctive logic programming; British gallery of photographic expression; More links. 15 -> ****Bill Gates & Letterman Can't Close Windows -- Bill Gates, chairman of Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ: MSFT) and talk show host David Letterman had trouble closing windows last night. Not Microsoft Windows 95, but the windows on Letterman's Late Show Quiz Machine. A smiling Gates, outfitted in a white lab coat and a yellow hard hat, played straight man to Letterman in a skit that fell flat after one of the three windows on the machine repeatedly failed to close when Gates pulled the appropriate lever. 16 -> Gradient Ships Windows 95 Implementation Of DCE -- After shipping the industry's first Windows 95 implementation of DCE (Distributed Computing Environment) this week, Gradient Technologies plans to release a remote configuration utility in the first half of 1996, and a developers' release of DCE for Macintosh by the end of this year, asserted Sumner Blount, product line manager for distributed computing, during a briefing for Newsbytes. 17 -> ****Cray Computer To Liquidate Assets -- Cray Computer Corp. apparently will not rise from its own ashes to be reborn like the mythical Phoenix bird. Instead the supercomputer company will liquidate its assets in an effort to repay creditors, according to a plan filed in the US bankruptcy Court. 18 -> S&S Adds Anti-Virus Toolkit For Windows 95, Mac, Unix -- S&S Software International Inc. is adding versions of its Dr. Solomon's Anti-Virus Toolkit for Microsoft's Windows 95 and NT, Santa Cruz Operation Inc.'s SCO Unix, and Apple's Macintosh System 6.x and 7.x. S&S already supplied the toolkit for Windows 3.x, Novell Inc.'s NetWare local area network operating system, and IBM's OS/2. 19 -> Apple To Revolutionize Chinese Computing -- After introductions in Beijing, Singapore, Hong Kong and Taipei, Apple Computer Inc.'s (NASDAQ:AAPL) Apple Chinese Dictation Kit is making its US debut today. Apple claims the kit allows Mandarin words and phrases to be converted into simple or traditional text five times faster than popular keyboard input methods. 20 -> Sirius Promises CD 10-Pack For Mac -- Software publisher Sirius Publishing Inc. has announced it will release a Macintosh version of its CD-ROM multipack with the name "5-Feet 10-Pak." 21 -> ****Taiwan Firm To Build $1.2Bil Chip Plant In US -- Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company Ltd.(TSMC) has announced plans to build its first United States foundry in a joint venture with Altera and several other long-standing customers. The new $1.2 billion US operation will break ground in mid-1996 at a location "yet to be determined," and is expected to be in production by the first half of 1998. 22 -> Automotive Safety/Comms System Planned -- SkyTel, a US provider of nationwide wireless messaging services, and Prince, a supplier of integrated automotive interior and electronic systems, said they will develop a two-way communications system that will provide safety, security, and navigation system. The new system, called "The AutoLink System," will be available in fleet vehicles like rental cars in mid-1996, and as a factory-installed option in cars in 1998, officials said. 23 -> Symbios Logics' Fiber Channel-Based RAID -- Symbios Logic's new Series 3 Fiber Channel RAID (redundant array of inexpensive disks) controller is the first RAID controller to bring "open connectivity" over fiber channel, as well as the first to provide a 100 megabytes-per-second (MB/sec) burst-mode data transfer rate, contended the company's Ron Engelbrecht, in an interview with Newsbytes. 24 -> Avid Intros Media Composer Version 6 For Video Pros -- The newly unveiled version 6 update to Avid's Media Composer digital non-linear editing and finishing systems for video pros brings sweeping enhancements in the areas of editing, finishing tools, video and audio, maintained Tom Corn, product manager for Media Composer, in an interview with Newsbytes. 25 -> ****Ameritech Invests in Educational Software Firm -- A financial marriage between two unlikely parties is being held in the board rooms of Ameritech (NYSE:AIT) and KidSoft, LLC. The Chicago-based regional Bell operating company (RBOC) has announced it is making a $10 million equity investment in KidSoft, which distributes educational software for kids through retail and online channels. 26 -> ****IBM To Form Internet Software Business Unit -- IBM (NYSE:IBM) has plans to set up a new business unit that will develop software products for the Internet. Although details are sketchy, the new operation is expected to begin operation by the end of this year. 27 -> ****Yahoo Sells 12% Of Company -- Yahoo, the popular World Wide Web guide, has sold a 12% equity stake to some of the big players in the communications and online industry. The sale represents both an infusion of capital, and the development of strategic alliances for Yahoo. 28 -> Ericsson Spain Acquires Majority Stake In Indelec -- Ericsson's Spanish operation has acquired an extra 40 percent stake in Industria Electronica de Telecommunicaciones (Indelec). According to officials with Ericsson SA, the stake was obtained for an undisclosed sum of money from the Society for the Promotion of the Basque Industry (SPBI). 29 -> Finland's Nokia Announces Next-Generation GSM Voice Codec -- Nokia has announced that the European Telecom Standards Institute (ETSI) has selected the enhanced full rate (EFR) voice codec developed by Nokia and the University of Sherbrooke in Canada as the standard codec for the PCN/GSM (personal communications network/global system for mobile communications) system. 30 -> PC Quote To Offer Web-Based Quotation Services -- PC Quote Inc. (AMEX:PQT) is ramping onto the Internet with a variety of securities and market quotation services, company officials said. Already, Internet World Wide Web users can get a free taste of those services, through the company's beta test site. 31 -> Prodigy Building Virtual Mall On Internet -- Prodigy has announced a deal with BroadVision Inc., a Silicon Valley software developer, to build an Internet shopping mall called Virtual Mall on the Internet. The Mall will be available to Prodigy members in the first quarter of 1996 and later in the year to the entire Internet community. (Ian Stokell/19951128) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 11/21/95 TRENDS Better Privacy Through Standards (NEWS)(TRENDS)(MSP)(00001) Better Privacy Through Standards 11/21/95 SEATTLE, WASHINGTON, U.S.A., 1995 NOV 21 (NB) -- The convergence of information technologies promises to bring new services into our lives but it also will bring new threats to our privacy. Timothy D. Schoechle scopes out the stakes and stakeholders, the emerging threats to our privacy, and the limits of privacy for info-age consumers in a lengthy paper for the Aug. 1995 issue of Telecommunications Policy ("Privacy on the information superhighway: Will my house still be my castle?" pp. 435-452). A solution to privacy threats may lie in the standards process, he argues. He suggests that an international standards organization committee might establish privacy standards for telecommunications systems in much the same way other types of industrial standards have been established for safety and quality control. The advantage would be that the process is open to anyone who can afford to participate in the necessary meetings. Schoechle, a graduate student in telecommunications at the University of Colorado, and president of Cyberlynx Gateway Corp., can be reached via e-mail at timothy.schoechle@colorado.edu. This story is republished with permission from the November 1995 Cybernautics Digest, a monthly summary of reports about converging information technologies. (Contact: Terry Hansen, Cybernautics Digest, c/o KFH Publications Inc., 3530 Bagley Ave. N., Seattle, WA 98103; 206-547-4950; Fax: 206-547-5355; E-mail: cyber@cuix.pscu.com. U.S. rate: $24; $2 sample issue) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 11/21/95 TRENDS Daily Newspapers Worry About Microsoft (NEWS)(TRENDS)(MSP)(00002) Daily Newspapers Worry About Microsoft 11/21/95 SEATTLE, WASHINGTON, U.S.A., 1995 NOV 21 (NB) -- The Sept. 1995 issue of Quill offers an array of articles about the impact of converging information technologies on traditional newspapers. Consultant Nancy Hicks Maynard kicks off the issue with "Managing the future" (pp. 24-26). Not surprisingly, Maynard says things look grim for traditional newspapers which are losing their "natural monopolies" as cheap, digital technologies advance. She says the strange bedfellows who are forming strategic partnerships are often ignorant of how each other does business. Instead of watching these partnerships, she advises to look for "signposts" that will indicate which way the digital wind is going to blow. Such signposts include modem market penetration, killer apps, shifts in ad expenditures, changes in laws and regulations, key legal opinions, and intellectual-property law changes. David M. Cole and Christopher J. Feola step up to the plate next with "Paper partners" (pp. 31-33), an exploration of how and why former rivals are joining hands to face the uncertain future. The authors suggest newspapers regard Microsoft as the most clear and present danger. The company has some 1,500 software developers at work on Microsoft Network, a figure the newspaper industry can't begin to match. Thus, publishers are rushing into cyberspace, while banding together with former rivals, hoping that, somehow, they will learn how to make money along the way. Feola and James Brown take a still closer look at the Microsoft threat in "Gates hatches MSN" (pp. 34-36). It's obvious from this piece, written before the launch of Windows 95, that newspaper publishers were really spooked about the idea of competing with Gates, though not all observers were impressed by MSN. (And now that it's available, this view seems closer to reality.) Still, Microsoft can afford to pump money into it almost indefinitely. In any case, the picture that emerges from these articles is one of widespread fear and confusion -- and a lot of whistling in the descending darkness of cyberspace. This story is republished with permission from the November 1995 Cybernautics Digest, a monthly summary of reports about converging information technologies. (Contact: Terry Hansen, Cybernautics Digest, c/o KFH Publications Inc., 3530 Bagley Ave. N., Seattle, WA 98103; 206-547-4950; Fax: 206-547-5355; E-mail: cyber@cuix.pscu.com. U.S. rate: $24; $2 sample issue) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 11/21/95 GOVT Hong Kong Govt's Map Digitization In Chaos (NEWS)(GOVT)(HKG)(00003) Hong Kong Govt's Map Digitization In Chaos 11/21/95 CENTRAL, HONG KONG, 1995 NOV 21 (NB) -- In his annual report released recently, Hong Kong Director of Audit Dominic Chan reveals a catalog of stunning misadventures in the Department of Lands, replete with a bungled tender exercise that required repeating because the department didn't know what it wanted -- and staff lay-offs that were carried out on the assumption that posts would be made redundant by a computerized land information system that still, years later, is only partially implemented. The cuts, which the Finance Branch insisted on because they had been promised in the original Pollyanna estimates, ended up slowing efforts to deal with a growing work backlog. That job of digitizing maps and converting data then slowed to the point where it looked like the information entered into the department's database would be hopelessly outdated and virtually useless. According to the director of audit's riveting account, the idea of the government computerizing land records was originally proposed in 1981. By 1986, the Finance Branch completed its cost justification exercise. By 1987, the Legislative Council's finance committee approved the CLIS, or computerized land information system, project on the basis of a fixed charge of $30.3 million to secure the technology equipment and $91.2 million in recurrent costs from 1987 to 1996. With not even half the conversion work done this year -- three years past the scheduled completion date -- the department of lands secured approval to spend another nearly $30 million for what was being billed as "full implementation of CLIS." The conversion job was originally supposed to take 39 months. Conversion work that couldn't be outsourced for security reasons slipped into such a heap of chaos that security concerns were thrown aside -- and the work farmed out. "To date," Chan said, "the system is operational in only five of the Lands Department's 12 district survey offices. The Director of Lands expects to bring the system into full operation by August, 1996. By that time, the operation of the system will have been delayed 52 months." The CLIS, as first planned, was supposed to be fully implemented in 1992-93 budget year. By the time the system reached the first phase of implementation years later, the project had exploded into a mountain of 470 system menus routing operators to a whopping 750 separate applications programs. "The system was more complicated than it was originally envisaged," the auditor mildly observed. Jobs that were supposed to take days, took weeks instead. Jobs that were supposed to take weeks stretched over months and even years. Reporting and monitoring systems either collapsed, or failed to fire up. In 1982, the Special Committee on Land Supply recommended "top priority" be given to implementing the land information system because it would eliminate 110 jobs and generate as much as $10 million in revenue through the sale of computer-generated maps and books. This year's auditor's report looks at information technology (IT) operations in other areas of government, including the Housing Authority where a computer system bought to serve partly as a system development tool was found to have too little capacity for applications writers to use. In the Trademarks office, Chan found staff skills in such short supply that trademarks would go missing in the automated image bank. (Joel McCormick & I.T. Daily/19951121) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 11/21/95 TRENDS Cisco Ranks In Top Telecom Equipment Firms (NEWS)(TRENDS)(HKG)(00004) Cisco Ranks In Top Telecom Equipment Firms 11/21/95 CENTRAL, HONG KONG, 1995 NOV 21 (NB) -- A new Dataquest report shows that network equipment maker, Cisco, now ranks sixteenth in the world league table of telecommunications equipment vendors. France's Alcatel still holds the top spot. Dataquest also expects Cisco to appear in the top 10 by next year. The current result is reportedly the first time Cisco made it into the rankings -- and the achievement explains the company's latest move -- starting up a new business unit in Asia under Bing Liao, who becomes director of Telecommunications (Asia). Until the appointment, he was Cisco's general manager for Hong Kong and the Philippines. While Newsbytes understands that current revenues from telecoms in Asia are low, they do make up over 30% of Cisco's business globally. Some 15-20 million lines are forecast to be installed annually over the next five years in Asia -- three to four times the number being added in the US. The prospect of more competition has spurred many telecoms to roll out new value-added data services geared towards business users, including public frame relay, messaging, TCP/IP (Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol) connectivity, ATM (asynchronous transfer mode), multimedia, and virtual private networks. Dataquest says Cisco revenues in 1994 were US$1.97 billion. Cisco's entry to this exclusive club reveals a subtle shift in the industry, where lithe specialist companies are starting to outflank the traditional giants. From 1993 to 1994, the players with the biggest growth were Nokia, Motorola, Ericsson, and Cisco. While these players show wireless telecoms having a good time, it was Cisco, with 59%, which reported the biggest growth -- a reflection of the importance now attached to local area network internetworking in what used to be a voice-dominated industry. (Joel McCormick & I.T. Daily/19951121) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 11/21/95 BUSINESS Hong Kong - Novell Expands Sales Network (NEWS)(BUSINESS)(HKG)(00005) Hong Kong - Novell Expands Sales Network 11/21/95 CENTRAL, HONG KONG, 1995 NOV 21 (NB) -- Novell said it appointed four new Hong Kong companies to sell its GroupWare products. Accelerated activity on the network front is seen as especially vital in light of the company dropping out of the business applications business. Asian Electronics Limited, Dataland Technology, System-Pro Computers Limited, and Workgroup Solutions, were the named vendors. Asian Electronics sells network management support and design services for companies of all sizes. Dataland focuses on the light manufacturing sector. System-Pro, recently bought out by Jardine Office Systems, provides hardware and software support across all business sectors and runs courses in Novell NetWare. In part, it was System-Pro's training and systems service and support which fired Jardine's interest in the company. (Joel McCormick & I.T. Daily/19951121) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 11/21/95 EDUCATION Hong Kong - Datacraft Link Schools (NEWS)(EDUCATION)(HKG)(00006) Hong Kong - Datacraft Link Schools 11/21/95 CENTRAL, HONG KONG, 1995 NOV 21 (NB) -- Datacraft said it has completed a new backbone network for the Hong Kong Education Department. It links headquarters to the Information Technology Services Department (ITSD) over 27 remote offices through a leased line. As part of the US$2 million contract awarded by the government in March for a backbone network, it will connect to local area network servers being installed in over 1,300 schools in the territory. These will be able to dial up the education department and then exchange information over the servers located at the ITSD. Using Cisco routers, the system is designed to be fault-tolerant, officials said. (Joel McCormick & I.T. Daily/19951121) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 11/21/95 ONLINE Apple, Adobe & Borders Fund "Literary" Web Site (NEWS)(ONLINE)(SFO)(00007) Apple, Adobe & Borders Fund "Literary" Web Site 11/21/95 SAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1995 NOV 21 (NB) -- Calling itself a "Journalists' Dream Publication," a new World Wide Web magazine, called Salon, has been launched. Funded by Apple Computer Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL), Adobe L.P., and retail bookstore giant, Borders, Salon promises to deliver an "intelligent and entertaining discourse on politics, books, art, ideas and current events." David Talbot, former arts and features editor for the San Francisco Examiner, is heading the Web production as chief executive officer, with David Zweig as publisher and president. Howard Rheingold, often called "the father of the Internet," leads a staff of Salon headliners which also includes award-winning art director, Mignon Khargie and television critic Joyce Millman. Among its offerings, Salon says it plans a wide-range of interviews, features, editorials, and interactive reader areas which cover cultural, political, and literary issues. Salon's current model is based on free access to all material, but the publication is looking into advertising and various types of subscription-based models as the site evolves. Speaking to Newsbytes, David Zweig said, "When you look at the content of many Web publications, you find there is a lot of mediocrity. We want to extend the power of the printed word and bring an intelligent and engaging discourse to the Web. To accomplish that goal we have put together a great staff and the means to acquire additional great content in an ongoing basis." Salon's premiere edition includes: interviews with Amy Tan and John le Carre; commentary by Camille Paglia; a roundtable on America's strained race relations with authors Shelby Steele, Richard Rodriguez, Stanley Crouch, and Jim Sleeper; and an essay by fictionalist Armistead Maupin. Talbot and Zweig originated the Salon concept and took it to Apple Computer. Sufficiently impressed, Apple decided to back the project with start-up funds for a prototype. Adobe's investment group, Adobe L.P. then entered the picture with additional funding and Borders was brought in for additional marketing strength. "The only way to deliver great content from good writers is to have the funds to pay them. With the help of our partners, we have created a model which allows us to do that and this is the first step in distinguishing Salon from other Web publications. Now we will begin to establish Salon as a brand name which identifies with intelligent cultural content on current issues," summed Zweig. The premier edition is available now at http://www.salon1999.com . During its start-up phase, Salon will publish bi-weekly. Once the publication is in full stride, it will be published on a weekly basis with daily updates. (Patrick McKenna/19951120/Press Contact: Cynthia Joyce, Salon Internet, 415-247-1189) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 11/21/95 GENERAL Off-The-Shelf Customer Support Software (NEWS)(GENERAL)(LAX)(00008) Off-The-Shelf Customer Support Software 11/21/95 NOVATO, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1995 NOV 21 (NB) -- Inference Corp. (NASDAQ: INFR), a provider of client-server software for help-desk and corporate customer support divisions, has announced the formation of the new Inference Knowledge Publishing Division. The division will provide off-the-shelf content to corporate customer support help-desks for a variety of different products. Nobby Akiha, vice president at Inference, explained to Newsbytes, "Inference's existing CBR (case-based retrieval) product line arranges data through a series of questions and answers to structure the fastest and best response to a customers inquiry. Up until now, Inference has concentrated on providing the software, not the content. This new division will create and publish off-the-shelf support content for a variety of products." Inference's CBR products provide a common platform for the search and retrieval of unstructured information, enabling users a format that is standardized and quick to use. CBR provides complete authoring, automated testing and query tools along with a complete suite of templates for the customer service agent, help desk operator, or telemarketing representative. Inference has signed letters of intent with KnowledgeBroker and ServiceWare to license content developed by the two companies for technical support domains such as Windows 95, Novell NetWare, PC Diagnostics, and over 25 others. "The availability of high quality pre-packaged knowledge content will significantly enhance the success of help desks," said Pete Tierney, chairman, president and chief executive officer (CEO) of Inference Corporation. "With CBR emerging as the strategic platform for searching and retrieving knowledge in the front office, and a range of content offerings published and supported by Inference, our customers will be able to take advantage of dramatic improvements in return on their help-desk investment." Inference plans to begin shipping products from the new division in early 1996. The products will be "fully supported" by Inference technical support with regular updates also available from Inference. Jeff Pepper, president and CEO of ServiceWare, said, "Working closely together with Inference's new Knowledge Publishing Division, we can give help-desks the knowledge they need to improve first call resolution and reduce the average time to solve problems." (Richard Bowers/19951120/Press Contact: Nobby Akiha, Inference, 415-899-0100) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 11/21/95 ONLINE Marinex Launches Cyber Soap Opera (NEWS)(ONLINE)(MSP)(00009) Marinex Launches Cyber Soap Opera 11/21/95 NEW YORK CITY, NEW YORK, U.S.A., 1995 NOV 21 (NB) -- "Topical" issues like alien abduction, green card marriages, and amnesia, will be explored in a new Internet World Wide Web cyber soap-opera called "The East Village." Produced by Marinex Multimedia, the new Web site will include elements of film, television, and publishing, officials told Newsbytes. "Our style is what makes the site different," Charles Stuart Platkin, executive producer at Marinex, told Newsbytes. "Our writing, and the style we're representing, will be very different from what's out there right now" in the forms of other Web soap operas, and online soaps, he said. Platkin added he doesn't even look at any of the other soap opera sites, because, "I want to have my own creative vision." The cast of 17 actors will be an integral part of The East Village site, which will incorporate pictures of the characters in action in New York City's East Village area, along with other audio and visual material, into a serialized text narrative, officials said. The story line will focus on the character of Eve, described as slightly neurotic. She relates the experiences of her group of friends through diary entries. The experience will also be able to interact with the soap, officials said. When she hears a song on the radio, surfers can listen along. When she orders a drink at a bar, viewers can download the recipe. Platkin told Newsbytes he wants to draw in the 14-35 year-old crowd, and he eventually expects more than "a million viewers a week" to surf to the site. Marinex will begin previews in December with two episodes on the site, Platkin said. Full implementation will being in January, 1996, with two episodes going up on the site each week. Web users can view the cyber soap-opera for free, Platkin said. The site, along with the production costs for the soap, will be paid by both advertisers and by merchandising rights, he said. Platkin told Newsbytes future plans for The East Village include possible television or movie distribution. The East Village can not only be found in New York City, but on the Web as well, at http://www.theeastvillage.com/ . Marinex also publishes "Trouble & Attitude: The Multimedia Magazine for Men" on CD-ROM, and "The Biz: The Entertainment Cybernetwork" on the Web at http://www.bizmag.com/ . (Bob Woods/19951120/Press Contact: Katherine Keating, Marinex Multimedia, 212-334-6700) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 11/21/95 WINDOWS SPSS To Ship Windows 95 Statistical Software (NEWS)(WINDOWS)(MSP)(00010) SPSS To Ship Windows 95 Statistical Software 11/21/95 CHICAGO, ILLINOIS, U.S.A., 1995 NOV 21 (NB) -- SPSS Inc. (NASDAQ:SPSS) said it will ship a new Windows 95 version of its SPSS 7.0 statistical analysis product. A SPSS official told Newsbytes the new version takes "full advantage" of the 32-bit processing power Windows 95 offers software products. #IMAGE 1 20 TWPCX \images\95112110.PCX Click here for photo Using the 32-bit technology, the new Windows 95 product features all- new presentation capabilities that gives users full control over the appearance of tables of statistical results. Using a library of presentation-ready formats called "TableLooks," users can quickly create and then customize the tables, officials said. The software also uses "pivot tables," which reorganizes tables so users can look at results from different angles by dragging an icon, officials said. The tables "enhance users' analytical possibilities by giving them the ability to rotate or pivot through multidimensional views of their results," officials said. "With the pivot tables, you can do exploratory data analysis," Larry Mathias, SPSS spokesperson, told Newsbytes. The tables can also be moved to other applications or the Windows 95 desktop through OLE (object linking and embedding) 2.0 in-place editing and automation features. A Navigator function gives users a bird's eye view of all output from their analyses, without wading through multiple screens of output, SPSS officials said. The new version of software also uses general linear modeling (GLM) procedure "for more versatility in specifying analyses. Other features that take advantage of the Windows 95 environment include floating windows and toolbars, and context menus that include "What's This?" pop-up menu help. Statistical enhancements include the use of numerous probability plots, including Weibull, Gamma, and Lognormal, among others. SPSS officials said with SPSS 7.0, the company will have one of the first statistical products available for the new Windows 95 platform. For additional information, SPSS maintains an Internet World Wide Web presence at http://www.spss.com/ . (Bob Woods/19951120/Press Contact: Larry Mathias, SPSS Inc., 800-525-4980/SPSS951121/PHOTO) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 11/21/95 GENERAL Russian Fighter-Bomber Flight Simulator (NEWS)(GENERAL)(LAX)(00011) Russian Fighter-Bomber Flight Simulator 11/21/95 SUNNYVALE, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1995 NOV 21 (NB) -- Strategic Simulations Inc. (SSI), announced the release of "Su-27 Flanker: The Military Flight Simulator." The simulator features the Russian fighter-bomber Su-27, and was developed in Russia, by Russian aerospace professionals. "Su-27 Flanker" boasts the endorsement of Anatoly Kvotchur, Russia's Su-27 top test and demonstration pilot. He states: "This is the closest you will ever get without actually flying the Su-27. This is an accurate simulation." Equipped with a multi-tier Mission Editor, players can choose to create their own sorties with varying degrees of difficulty. It claims to be the first Windows 95 flight simulator, and it has actual in-flight cockpit video footage of Anatoly Kvotchur through the use of Intel Corp.'s Indeo Video Technology. Nick Grey, a British aviator, and managing director of the "Su-27 Flanker" project, said, "Simulation is an alternative to actual flight, but accurate simulation it must be. We seek to achieve this accuracy." Marion Clifford, international contract manager for SSI, told Newsbytes, "Flanker is certain to distinguish itself from other flight sims currently on the market by providing substance, content, and precision for the professional pilot as well as the flight sim enthusiast. While Flanker has many game characteristics, it is a hard-core flight simulator. When we tested it at a southern California airshow it was the pilots who were the most enthusiastic." "Strategic Simulation's breakthrough title shows you how creative software talent can utilize the power of high performance Pentium processor-based PCs to develop exciting applications," said Jean Yves Grall, manager for Intel's Developer Relations Group. "The application's use of Indeo Video Technology should make the title particularly attractive to PC gamers." Strategic Simulations was acquired by Mindscape in 1994. SSI develops for the leading entertainment systems, including IBM CD-ROM, 3DO, Sony PSX, Sega Saturn, and Macintosh. SSI has over one-hundred employees, and is headquartered in Sunnyvale, California. SSI claims over 150 different game titles beginning with "Computer Bismark" for the Amiga in 1980. (Richard Bowers/19951120/Press Contact: Marion Clifford, Strategic Simulations, 408-737-6800) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 11/21/95 GENERAL Asia Newsbriefs (NEWS)(GENERAL)(TYO)(00012) Asia Newsbriefs 11/21/95 TOKYO, JAPAN, 1995 NOV 21 (NB) -- In this roundup of news from across Asia: South Korea - New long distance provider tests; Singapore - New pager service opens; China - Siemens enters telephone handset market; South Korea - GPS data service to launch. South Korea - New Long Distance Provider Tests Dacom has begun to test its new nationwide long distance network in preparation for a consumer launch on January 1st, 1996. The new operator says almost all parts of the network are now in place and testing will continue in two phases until the end of the year. The operator is having to test call routing and interconnection with Korea Telecom's network and its own billing systems. The Ministry of Information and Communications recently awarded Dacom the "082" operator prefix which subscribers will dial ahead of long distance numbers to route calls across the new network. Dacom expects to offer charges around 10% lower than Korea Telecom, although negotiations over network access charges between the two are still continuing. Singapore - New Pager Service Opens Singapore Telecom will launch a new service for pager owners this week as it begins broadcasting information covering several topics to users. The new free service, called InfoPage, broadcasts information at certain times of day. Since October 5 this year, numeric pager owners have been able to receive weather information and the Straits Times Industrial Index on their units. The new service is aimed at owners of MessagePage which have alphanumeric capability enabling more types of information to be sent. Besides, weather and the STII, InfoPage subscribers will also receive local news headlines, TV highlights, and regular updates of the top three most active counters on the Stock Exchange of Singapore. The free trial ends in six months when the service will be available on subscription. China - Siemens Enters Telephone Handset Market Germany's Siemens is hoping to grab a 20% share of China's telephone market by 2005 after it opened a new DM10 million ($7 million) joint venture factory in Shanghai to produce the units, the company's 30th joint venture company in China. Siemens Shanghai Communications Terminals Ltd. is jointly owned by Siemens and Shanghai Audio and Video Electronics Co. and is producing two million telephones a year initially. The company said Chinese bought 20 million telephones last year and the number would continue to increase. South Korea - GPS Data Service To Launch Korea Telecom will next year launch a new data service that combines the capabilities of the GPS (global positioning satellite) system with those of its Mugunghwa satellite (Koreasat-1). In the system, GPS receivers onboard fleet vehicles will communicate the current position of the vehicle to a base station via Koreasat enabling a fleet control center to immediately know where all its vehicles are. Two-way communication will also be possible with the ability to send instructions to drivers concerning route diversions, new pickups or whatever the operator wishes. (Martyn Williams/19951121) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 11/21/95 TELECOM South Korea - Indecision Surrounds New Mobile Networks (NEWS)(TELECOM)(TYO)(00013) South Korea - Indecision Surrounds New Mobile Networks 11/21/95 SEOUL, SOUTH KOREA, 1995 NOV 21 (NB) -- When the South Korean government announced the country would adopt CDMA (Code Division Multiple Access) in favor of TDMA (Time Division Multiple Access) as the technical standard for new mobile communications networks, it was thought that months of indecision and uncertainty were over. However, recent moves by telecom operators and the government have shown the final picture is still far from certain. A month ago the Ministry of Information and Communications announced it had chosen CDMA as the basic standard for new personal communications services (PCS) services due to begin operating in 1998. Korea Telecom had favored TDMA, because of lower royalties that would have to be paid, but immediately said it would abide by the government's decision to use CDMA, a decision later changed when it said it would press ahead with a TDMA-based system. Just ten days after the initial announcement, and as Korea Telecom announced its change of heart announcement, Kyong Sang-hyon, Minister of Information and Communications, was quoted by the Korea Herald newspaper as saying, "The government will start with the CDMA technology to offer PCS voice communications service from 1998. In the next stage of the PCS system in which data, facsimile and other supplementary services are added to the voice service, however, the TDMA technology can also be selected as a second PCS standard." The possible reversal in plans is due to worries voiced by the telecom companies over the development of the CDMA system, which is still in laboratory tests worldwide. The Korean network would, if it came on stream on time, be the first commercial CDMA-based network in the world. The operators of the new network are also about as clear as the system it will use. Initially the government had planned to issue licenses to three operators, but not Korea Mobile Telecom or Shinsegi Telecom, which already hold cellular services licenses. "The government has decided to ban the two cellular operators from competing for the PCS license as it sees the new wireless technology as identical with the current mobile telecommunications service in terms of their technical concept," said Ministry officials in early August. A month later, in September, a Ministry official said, "The government's stance for now is to single out only one operator for the PCS services within this year, and the additional selection hinges on future circumstances." The operator is expected to be Korea PCS Corp., a joint venture company between Korea Mobile Telecom and a group of large communications and electronics companies. In the cellular arena, Shinsegi Telecom, which is setting up the country's second national cellular network, said it would set up a TDMA-based network as an initial offering because CDMA technology would not be ready, or reliable enough for its new, nationwide digital network to be launched next year. That prompted protests from both the Government and Samsung, which has received a contract to supply equipment for the network. The Ministry said the license for that network was awarded to Shinsegi on condition that it would provide a digital service and not an analog one while Samsung held a press demonstration of a CDMA digital cellular exchange system in protest at Shinsegi's doubts of the technology. On this matter the Ministry now seems to have made its mind up, saying there is no possibility that Shinsegi will be allowed to launch an analog cellular service, although as recent events have shown, this could all change in days, say industry watchers. (Martyn Williams/19951121) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 11/21/95 ONLINE ****Internet Update (NEWS)(ONLINE)(TYO)(00014) ****Internet Update 11/21/95 TOKYO, JAPAN, 1995 NOV 21 (NB) -- In this roundup of new resources and services on the global Internet: Crayola greeting cards competition; Sony Consumer Electronics Group; Australian science news; The Atlantic Monthly; Cleveland Public Library moves to the Web; American Heart Association; International treaties online; Russian news and magazines online; Race and ethnic studies institute; Latest Amiga news. Crayola Greeting Cards Competition The maker of Crayola -- Binney & Smith Inc. -- is to offer nine greeting cards on the Internet for users to send to each other this Christmas. The only problem is that the cards are not designed yet and that is where kids come in now. Crayola are inviting kids to send in cards, created with, not just crayons, but markers and pencils as well, by December 5th for a chance to become an Internet Christmas Card. World Wide Web: http://www.crayola.com/crayola/ Sony Consumer Electronics Group The Sony Electronics Consumer Products Group has launched a completely redesigned Web site highlighting its consumer products lineup. The new site features information on up to 700 individual Sony products, available in the United States. World Wide Web: http://cons3.sel.sony.com/SEL/consumer/index.html Australian and New Zealand Science News A monthly publication featuring news and commentary on scientific issues of public interest, including health/medicine, the environment, information technology, science policy, agriculture. SEARCH is the official scientific journal of the Australian and New Zealand Association for the Advancement of Science. World Wide Web: http://www.control.com.au/search The Atlantic Monthly Devoted to politics, society, the arts and culture since 1857, The Atlantic Monthly has come to the Internet. Visitors can find details about the magazine and sections such as the exchange, agora and table of contents. World Wide Web: http://www.theatlantic.com/ Cleveland Public Library Moves To The Web The Cleveland Public Library's Online Catalog has been a major Internet resource since 1990 when it began working on and developing a networked information system. Previously it has been accessed by telnet but the catalog is now moving to the World Wide Web, which will become the primary user access point. World Wide Web: http://www.cpl.org/ Telnet: telnet://library.cpl.org/ American Heart Association With over 400 pages of information, the American Heart Association now has a Web server with details of the organization and pointers to resources, information and services available on its own server and across the network. World Wide Web: http://www.amhrt.org/ International Treaties Online A new database of international treaties and agreements has been put online by CIESIN and its Socioeconomic Data and Applications Center (SEDAC) under the name of Policy Instruments Database (PIDB). Users can submit search requests via the World Wide Web and a telnet interface to find out which treaties are in force for a given country, which treaties had entered into force by a given date and what is the text of a given treaty. World Wide Web: http://sedac.ciesin.org/pidb/pidb-home.html Telnet: telnet://lynx@infoserver.ciesin.org/ Russian News And Magazines Online The Russian literature home page has had "all known addresses of papers and magazines in the Russian language" added to its listing. A Russian TrueType font is also available for download and can be used with software such as Netscape so you can browse the Russian newspapers. World Wide Web: http://iaiwww.uni-muenster.de/cgi-bin/simplex/lat/lit.html Race And Ethnic Studies Institute Texas A&M's Race and Ethnic Studies Institute is a research organization that conducts university-wide interdisciplinary research and symposia on major issues in race and ethnicity in the areas of education, economics, health, and the environment within the state and nation. World Wide Web: http://http.tamu.edu:8000/~mdm0953/resi/ Latest Amiga News Amiga Report Magazine is an online magazine that focuses on hardware and software reviews, tutorials, product announcements, and opinion pieces for Amiga computers made by Commodore and Amiga Technology. If you are an Amiga owner you'll join tens of thousands of others on the network that read this magazine every issue. World Wide Web: http://www.omnipresence.com/Amiga/News/AR/ (Martyn Williams/19951121) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 11/21/95 ONLINE Clickshare Joins Interactive Alliance Web Measuring (NEWS)(ONLINE)(MSP)(00015) Clickshare Joins Interactive Alliance Web Measuring 11/21/95 WILLIAMSTOWN, MASSACHUSETTS, U.S.A., 1995 NOV 21 (NB) -- The company that wants to see writers and artists paid for the content they produce on the Internet's World Wide Web is joining an advertising-industry consortium that's developing Internet audience-measurement standards. Newshare Corp. is now a part of the Interactive Alliance, said officials from both concerns. Next Century Media and Arbitron formed the Interactive Alliance earlier this year, official said. The group is working to assemble what's called "the most comprehensive and definitive ongoing database on worldwide interactive media use." Besides Newshare, other consortium members include Interse, MarketCast, and McCollum Spielman Worldwide. Newshare also announced its support for Internet guidelines, including those on privacy, developed by the Coalition for Advertising Supported Information and Entertainment (CASIE). The CASIE group seeks to define a standard for third-party verification of audience claims by Web publishers, while respecting the privacy of each audience member. "The Interactive Alliance has already brought together so much of the industry in acknowledging common principles, it will make our job easier to bring about publisher cooperation," said Bill Densmore, president of Newshare. "And the CASIE working group principles strike a laudable balance among marketing requirements for a user census, the consumer's need for ease-of-use, and democracy's need to assure personal privacy." Newshare's Clickshare system enables Internet publishers to cooperate in generating and sharing content revenues. Newsbytes profiled the Clickshare system when it was announced last September. At the time, Densmore told Newsbytes that Clickshare can be described as a "transaction clearing system," like a credit card network, which will pay not only writer royalties, but publishers' commissions as well. The revenues are generated by Internet users who download articles or art works, or by subscription. Each Web consumer chooses a most-trusted publisher to whom they'll identify themselves to. That publisher, along with the consumer, will determine how the user's name and demographic information will be used. The CASIE guidelines are laid out in a white paper, which is located on the Web at http://www.commercepark.com/AAAA/bc/casie/guide.html . A Newshare Web page regarding audience measurement can be found on the Web at http://www.newshare.com/News/audience.html . More information on the Clickshare payment system is available at http://www.clickshare.com/clickshare/ . (Bob Woods/19951120/Press Contacts: Felix Kramer, Kramer Communications, 212-866-4864, Internet e-mail felix@newshare.com; Thom Mocarsky, Arbitron NewMedia, 212-887-1314; Bill Harvey, Next Century Media, 914-255-2222 or 415-331-0389) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 11/21/95 BUSINESS ****Spielberg's DreamWorks Selects Oracle (NEWS)(BUSINESS)(LAX)(00016) ****Spielberg's DreamWorks Selects Oracle 11/21/95 REDWOOD SHORES, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1995 NOV 21 (NB) -- DreamWorks, the new studio founded by industry leaders Steven Spielberg, Jeffrey Katzenberg and David Geffen, has chosen Oracle's (NASDAQ: ORCL) client/server applications product as the systems backbone of its new entertainment venture. Dreamworks is considered the hottest commodity in the entertainment industry, and the competition for the deal included all the big names in the computer industry. Jay Larson, the area product manager for Oracle, told Newsbytes, "We have created a special marketing effort targeted to the southern California entertainment industry. This was a very competitive deal. Virtually every vendor was here bidding for the job. It is no secret that Dreamworks is the hottest game in town right now, and winning the right to start with a major studio from the ground floor means a lot." DreamWorks selected Oracle7 database software and a full suite of Oracle applications modules, including General Ledger, Project Accounting, Accounts Payable, Purchasing, Fixed Assets, and Accounts Receivable. DreamWorks will also use Oracle's online analytical processing (OLAP) tools and the Developer/2000 tool set to complement and customize its system. "Oracle stood out in several areas during our comparative evaluations," said Lynn Jacobs, head of information technology for DreamWorks. "Our principal criterion was functionality, and Oracle's fully integrated project accounting module and advanced OLAP functionality were key to meeting our requirements. Flexibility and scalability were also important considerations, as we anticipate rapid growth in our systems needs. And finally, we were impressed with Oracle's people and their technical support capabilities. We believe the Oracle product family will be able to keep pace with our needs as DreamWorks expands its business." "We are excited to have this visionary enterprise, the first major new studio to emerge in Hollywood for decades, endorse the full range of Oracle products, from database to applications to tools," said Ray Lane, Oracle's president of worldwide operations. "The entertainment industry is an important market for Oracle. Entertainment companies have unique business requirements, and we believe Oracle has both the accounting systems and analytical tools that deliver comprehensive solutions to our entertainment customers." The Oracle Applications product portfolio includes more than 30 integrated software modules that scale from workgroups to global enterprises and run on all major open hardware platforms, operating systems, and network protocols. (Richard Bowers/19951121/Press Contact: Jennifer Flynn, Oracle, 415-506-9935) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 11/21/95 BUSINESS ****IBM, Apple Shut Down Kaleida (NEWS)(BUSINESS)(TOR)(00017) ****IBM, Apple Shut Down Kaleida 11/21/95 MOUNTAIN VIEW, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1995 NOV 21 (NB) -- Kaleida Labs Inc., the multimedia joint venture that IBM (NYSE:IBM) and Apple Computer Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) set up with much fanfare four years ago, is being folded into Apple. The move has sparked speculation that Taligent Inc., another joint effort working on object-oriented technology, might meet the same fate. On Friday, IBM and Apple made the quietest possible announcement that Kaleida would close. They released a statement to a limited list of media outlets, ignoring widely distributed press release wires, on the last day of the huge Comdex/Fall trade show, when much of the computer industry and the trade press were en route home from the Las Vegas convention. Kaleida's core technologies, including the ScriptX multimedia programming language, are to be transferred to a development team at Apple's headquarters in Cupertino, California. Some of the joint venture's 79 employees will be offered jobs at Apple or IBM, officials said. Rick Bause, aspokesman for IBM, told Newsbytes that IBM will continue to work with Apple on multimedia technology. Both companies will have full licensing rights to the work Kaleida did. Apple, through its multimedia and developer support structure, is to continue supporting ScriptX customers. Bause refused to comment on reports that Taligent, which has developed an object-oriented development environment called CommonPoint for IBM's OS/2 operating system, the upcoming release of Apple's Macintosh OS known by the code-name Copland, and two versions of Unix, will also be shut down. "They've been very successful in delivering the CommonPoint object-oriented technology," Bause said. Reports have suggested that, with Kaleida absorbed into Apple, Taligent is likely to be folded into IBM. Kaleida and Taligent were born of an alliance between traditional rivals IBM and Apple in October, 1991. Taligent's efforts are based largely on earlier work by Apple on operating software code-named Pink, while Kaleida inherited multimedia technology from both companies. The same alliance, with chipmaker Motorola Corp. thrown in, brought forth the PowerPC reduced instruction set computing (RISC) processor architecture now being used in new Apple Macintosh computers and IBM RISC System/6000 workstations and servers, as well as some other systems. (Grant Buckler/19951121/Press Contact: Rick Bause, IBM, 914-766-1750, Internet e-mail rickb@vnet.ibm.com; Pam Miracle, Apple, 408-974-0688, Internet e-mail miracle.p@applelink.apple.com) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 11/21/95 TELECOM Illinois City Looks At Broadband Network (NEWS)(TELECOM)(WAS)(00018) Illinois City Looks At Broadband Network 11/21/95 BATAVIA, ILLINOIS, U.S.A., 1995 NOV 21 (NB) -- The Chicago suburb of Batavia, Illinois, is looking to build a piece of the information superhighway through its municipal electric utility. The city government has put out a request for proposals for a feasibility study of a municipally-owned broadband communications system. The broadband system would be used to link city buildings and existing communications and information systems and to monitor electric, water, and wastewater distribution facilities. Also, the city wants to look at the possibilities of offering cable television, telephone service, a city-wide network, and Internet access, much as the city of Glasgow, Kentucky, now offers. The RFP notes that Batavia residents currently get cable from Multimedia Inc. under a 15-year franchise that expires in January. The city is considering a short-term franchise extension while it ponders its options. The RFP says, "Batavia's public school system is a strong advocate of enhanced communication and has in place telephone and computer equipment they would like interconnected." Also, a civic group called the Batavia Future Direction Committee has been formed to "support development of enhanced communication system to be made ultimately available to all residents of our community for access to the Internet, library, local government at public schools, as well as a possible connection to Waubonsee Community College." One result of the new committee is a home page on the World Wide Web for Batavia at http:// www.mcs.net/~bhslrc/batavia.html , written by Martin Balewicz, a local high school student who moved to Batavia from Poland three years ago. The RFP says the city has been getting "feelers" from "several investor-owned utilities regarding our franchise agreements with current cable television and telephone utilities. We need to make some long range decisions on how we are going to prepare for this deregulated utility industry. We need to identify the alternatives that we have." The RFP notes that Batavia has been growing steadily, increasing from 7,500 residents in the early 1970s to its current 20,233 population. Estimates for the year 2005 anticipate a population up 26,000. The city also has access to considerable technical acumen, as it is the home of Fermi Lab, the world renowned high energy physics laboratory. (Kennedy Maize/19951121/Press Contact: Gary Larsen, 708-879-5240) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 11/21/95 TRENDS Utilities Put 3% Of Revenues Into Info Technology (NEWS)(TRENDS)(WAS)(00019) Utilities Put 3% Of Revenues Into Info Technology 11/21/95 ELLICOTT CITY, MARYLAND, U.S.A., 1995 NOV 21 (NB) -- Investor-owned electric utilities have an average investment of nearly three percent of revenues allocated to information systems and services, according to a study by the Newton-Evans Research Co. of Ellicott City, Md. That is a higher percentage than the company found for either gas or water utilities or public power agencies. The utilities, the study noted, "unlike most other industries or economic sectors, have two principal information services providers. In addition to the traditional management information systems organization running the computer centers providing day-to-day business information processing services, there are operational computer centers that operate the mission-critical, real-time supervisory control and monitoring systems used by electric, gas, and water utilities." Large utilities also tend to operate sophisticated, private multimedia communications networks for data and voice within their service areas, according to the study. About half of the information system managers polled in the study said their utility has considered commercializing one or more of its information technology resources or applications for use by other utilities or companies. For example, Public Service of Colorado is working with IBM to sell information systems to other utilities. The study found that investor-owned utilities tend to spend more for information technology than public systems. But some of the cost of public systems is often shared with other governmental agencies or departments, clouding comparison. IBM mainframe computers (3090 and ES9000 class machines) dominate the data centers for most mid-sized and larger utilities. The study found that about 45 percent of the utilities surveyed plan to replace their current systems over the 1995-1997. In systems using distributed computing, IBM and Hewlett-Packard are prominent. In technical systems such as electric utility SCADA systems, Digital Equipment is strong, with IBM and HP also in contention. Within the electric utility segment, about one-third of information technology budgets go to internal staffing, with computer hardware at 22 percent and software at 20 percent. Data communications expenses were running at 13 percent of the information budget and external services, primarily consultants, stood at about 10 percent. Chuck Newton, president of Newton-Evans, told Newsbytes that his firm surveyed 60 of the top utilities in the country for the study. The first volume of the four-volume study will be out in mid-December. "This is the first time we have done this kind of survey with management information systems people," Newton said. "We have worked extensively with engineering and operations people in the past." (Kennedy Maize/19951121/Press Contact: Chuck Newton, 800-222-2856) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 11/21/95 BROADCAST ****Ameritech Plans Cable TV Offerings In Chicago (NEWS)(BROADCAST)(MSP)(00020) ****Ameritech Plans Cable TV Offerings In Chicago 11/21/95 CHICAGO, ILLINOIS, U.S.A., 1995 NOV 21 (NB) -- Ameritech Inc. (NYSE:AIT) wants to bring cable service to residents in its own back yard. The suburban Chicago-based company has announced plans to offer cable service to 200,000 homes on the city's South Side by early 1997. Although Ameritech does not provide any cable service to its five-state Midwestern region, it does have franchise agreements in several Detroit suburbs, which Newsbytes has covered in the past, and in the Chicago suburb of Glendale Heights. The company is in discussions with a total of 30 communities regarding bringing cable competition to their areas, Ameritech said. The company is slated to begin offering cable TV to some Midwestern communities in early 1996. City of Chicago lawmakers still need to approve the plan, which would see a $50 million two-way video network built in Chicago's South Side. The new network will be made up of fiber optic cable, an Ameritech official said. In all of its cable TV initiatives, Ameritech New Media Enterprises, the Ameritech subsidiary handling the Baby Bell's cable operations, expects to create about 1,800 jobs across the Midwest as part of its plans to introduce competition in cable TV. About 200 installation, construction, and repair jobs would be created in Chicago, company officials said. Speaking of competition, the company's South Side move would bring it in direct competition with Tele-Communications Inc., the nation's largest cable TV operator. Representative Jerry Weller (R-11th District, Illinois) welcomed increased competition in the area, saying "competition is good for consumers." The package of video programming Ameritech will be bringing to the South Side will be called "Americast," which is being developed in a joint venture among Ameritech, Disney, BellSouth, General Telephone and Electric (GTE), and SBC Communications. The venture plans to offer between 80 and 90 channels of content. Future plans for Americast include adding "hundreds" of channels, and adding interactive video services like home shopping and games. (Bob Woods/19951121/Press Contacts: Lisa Kim, 312-220-2377, or Dave Onak, 312-526-8095, both of Ameritech) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 11/21/95 BUSINESS Dell Income Up 82% (NEWS)(BUSINESS)(DEN)(00021) Dell Income Up 82% 11/21/95 AUSTIN, TEXAS, U.S.A., 1995 NOV 21 (NB) -- Despite a higher-than- expected backlog of orders, Dell Computer Corp. (NASDAQ: DELL) has reported that net income for the third quarter jumped 82 percent over the same period last year and was 16 percent higher than the second quarter of this year. The third quarter was the seventh consecutive period of sequential income and revenue gains. The period ended October 29 with earnings per share of $0.75 following adjustment for a two-for-one stock split effective October 27, versus $0.47 in the same period last year. Income for the period was a record $75.4 million, with sales also setting a record of $1.4 billion, up 60 percent over the comparable quarter last year and 17 percent over the second quarter of this year. If sales remain strong for the fourth period, the company stands a good chance of continuing its string of increased sales quarters. Last year Dell reported sales of slightly over $1 billion for the fourth period. The quarter is traditionally strong for hardware and software makers since it includes the holiday gift-giving season. Last month, Michael Dell, the company's chief executive officer, said he believes the personal computer market will continue rapid growth over the next few years. Dell said that growth will be fueled by expansion in the notebook market and by replacement of existing computers. Dell re-entered the notebook computer market in 1994. Despite the jump in net income and sales, gross margin of just over 20 percent in the third quarter was stable compared to the year-ago same period. Dell said the most recent period is the tenth consecutive quarter for positive cash flow from operations. Inventory represented about five weeks of sales, up slightly from inventory levels in the second quarter of the current fiscal year. The company achieved the third quarter results despite a difficulty in obtaining components. A Dell spokesperson said the component shortages varied during the period but included high speed DRAM and SRAM (static RAM) chips, application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC), and flash memory chips. Dell said that sale of Pentium processor-based PCs rose to 82 percent of total system sales in the third quarter. Dell introduced its all-Pentium Dimension line earlier this year. About two-thirds of the company's sales are to the large corporate, government, and educational market. Notebook sales grew 26 percent over the second quarter of the current fiscal year, accounting for 16 percent of total system sales. That's only a one percent increase over the FY96 second quarter. Dell said sales of its Pentium processor-based Latitude XPi family of notebook computers more than doubled over the second quarter and represented more than half of all notebook system sales. (Jim Mallory/19951121/Press contact: Michele Moore, Dell, 512-728- 4100; Public contact: Dell, tel 512-338-4400, fax 512-728-9357) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 11/21/95 GENERAL Canadian Product Launch Update (NEWS)(GENERAL)(TOR)(00022) Canadian Product Launch Update 11/21/95 KINGSTON, ONTARIO, CANADA 1995 NOV 21 (NB) -- This regular feature normally appears on the first day Newsbytes publishes each week, but was delayed this week due to last week's Comdex/Fall trade show, and provides further details for the Canadian market on announcements by international companies that Newsbytes has already covered. This week: Microsoft Movie Maker and new Trinitron monitors from Sony. Microsoft Canada Inc., of Mississauga, Ontario, said its 3D Movie Maker software (Newsbytes, Oct. 3) will appear in Canadian retail outlets this week. The software is designed for making animated, three-dimensional movies on a personal computer. It is expected to sell in Canadian stores for about C$55. Sony of Canada Ltd., located in Toronto, announced new 15-, 17-, and 20- inch monitors in its Multiscan Trinitron line (Newsbytes, Nov. 15). The Multiscan 15sx 15-inch display, the Multiscan sfII line of 15-, 17-, and 20-inch displays, and the Multiscan seII 17- and 20-inch displays will be available in December, Sony Canada said. (Grant Buckler/19951121/Press Contact: George Kyriakis, Microsoft Canada, 905-568-0434, ext. 4094, fax 905-568-1527; Lloyd Klarke, Sony of Canada, 416-499-1414) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 11/21/95 ONLINE Mastercard Masters More Web Content In Time For Holidays (NEWS)(ONLINE)(MSP)(00023) Mastercard Masters More Web Content In Time For Holidays 11/21/95 PURCHASE, NEW YORK, U.S.A., 1995 NOV 21 (NB) -- Mastering the Internet's World Wide Web to find online information and savings has gotten easier, claimed Mastercard International officials, with the expansion of the company's Web site. Additions include content on MasterValues, a consumer-payment card promotion that provides savings on a "wide variety" of holiday gifts." "We think we have some specific programs and offers that are geared towards a single group," Michael O'Brien, Mastercard spokesperson, told Newsbytes, "and we want to be able to provide something that was directed towards them." The MasterValues area within the Web site lets Net surfers save on merchandise from more than 20 merchants online, including Capitol Records, 1-800-Flowers, and Lens express. The merchants are providing discounts and coupons on holiday gifts through December 24, 1995. Offers are available to both US cardholders and international cardholders using their Mastercards in the United States. Besides the 20 online vendors, 140 other merchants are participating in the regular program, which is not based in cyberspace, through the holiday season. MasterValues "is simply designed to give Mastercard cardholders added value and another reason to use their card in lieu of another payment method," O'Brien said. Other new areas of the Web site include "College Pointers," which helps students target information and savings around the US. Some of the features in College Pointers include "how-to" financial information on subjects like financial aid and managing money, career tips, "College MasterValues," and a win a free music CD contest. A new "Winners Circle" area is also open for sports enthusiasts. This area provides information about golf, soccer, and other sports pages on the Web. Users can also play in Mastercard's new "Hole-in-One" instant win contest. The Mastercard Pointers Web site is located at http://www.mastercard.com . The individual areas can be found at the Mastercard master site. (Bob Woods/19951121/Press Contacts: Dorea J. Smith, 914-249-1421, or Michael O'Brien, 914-249-1373, both of Mastercard International) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 11/21/95 BUSINESS Paul Allen Ups Share Of Telephony/Internet Firm (NEWS)(BUSINESS)(SFO)(00024) Paul Allen Ups Share Of Telephony/Internet Firm 11/21/95 ST. PETERSBURG, FLORIDA, U.S.A., 1995 NOV 21 (NB) -- Vulcan Ventures, the investment company of Paul Allen, has announced the acquisition of an additional 1,500,000 shares of Precision Systems. The $8,625,000 deal means the co-founder of Microsoft now holds 2,450,000 shares of the network communications software developer. The additional purchase brings Allen's position to an approximate 20% stake in the company's outstanding stock, and comes only seven months after an initial investment. Bert Kolde, a senior member of the Paul Allen Group and the company's representative on the Precision Systems board of directors, said in a press release, "We have seen a promising young technology company turn into an industry leader. Their strong vision for enhanced services, both in telephony and in cutting-edge areas like the Internet, promises to keep this a very exciting and progressive company." Precision Systems offers platform and applications software to large network systems developed and used by telephone companies and other corporations. As a hypothetical example of implementation of Precision Systems software, Kirsten Kern, head of corporate relations and financial public relations, told Newsbytes, "If a telephone company wanted to offer its customers voice-activated dialing, we would supply both the speech- recognition application and the platform software to run it on the network." Allen's interest in Precision Systems from an Internet point-of-view may be the reason for increasing his position in the company. Kern said, "Regarding our Internet activities, I have to say it is all subject to non-disclosure at this time." Speculation on the company's Internet developments would indicate a possible combination of Precision's telephony technology into high-end Internet-related products. Through Vulcan Ventures, Paul Allen holds investments in more than 25 high-tech companies. His investment strategy focuses on cutting- edge, future-looking companies which offer a significant contribution to multimedia and digital developments across networks and desktop computing environments. (Patrick McKenna/19951121/Press Contact: Kirsten Kern, Precision Systems, 813-572-9300) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 11/21/95 ONLINE Prodigy Claims Netcom Price Comparison Is "Deceptive" (NEWS)(ONLINE)(SFO)(00025) Prodigy Claims Netcom Price Comparison Is "Deceptive" 11/21/95 SAN JOSE, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1995 NOV 21 (NB) -- Prodigy claims Netcom, a well-known national Internet service provider (ISP), is using deceptive advertising by distributing a price comparison on the back of its software packaging. The statement in question compares the costs of being on the Internet with standard online services as compared to Netcom. Netcom's advertisement states all prices are based on pricing as of February 24, 1995. In response, Prodigy says the February date fails to account for an April, 1995, price reduction of its services. According to Netcom, the software package states accessing 20, 30, and 40 hours of Internet use on Prodigy costs $29.95, $44.70, and $74.20 per month, respectively. Prodigy's April price reduction cut the prices to $29.95, $29.95, and $59.45, respectively. "The $29.95 reflects our 30/30 program which offers 30 hours on the Internet for $30. The 40 hour price is based on the 30/30 plan plus $2.95 per hour for the next ten hours," said Prodigy spokesperson Mike Darcy. Netcom, on the other hand, charges $19.95 for 20, 30, or 40 hours of Internet access. "Basically, we offer 40 hours for $19.95 a month and free access outside of prime-use hours and on week-ends," said Netcom spokesperson, Jeannie Slone. Slone confirmed Netcom recently received a letter from Prodigy informing Netcom of the deceptive advertising claim. "We are looking into the matter at this time and cannot say anything until we have investigated further," said Slone. Netcom did say it does not think the Prodigy letter will have an adverse effect on Netcom's finances and operations, but "final determination of such effects cannot be determined until a later date." Darcy also confirmed Prodigy sent a "cease and desist" letter to Netcom. "We asked them to stop sending the diskette packaging which contains pricing which is not in accord with our present rates," stated Darcy. (Patrick McKenna/19951121/Press Contact: Mike Darcy, Prodigy, 914-448-8846; Jeannie Slone, Netcom, 408-983-5950) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 11/21/95 BUSINESS Altera Deal With Taiwan Semiconductor (NEWS)(BUSINESS)(LAX)(00026) Altera Deal With Taiwan Semiconductor 11/21/95 SAN JOSE, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1995 NOV 21 (NB) -- Altera Corporation (NASDAQ: ALTR) announced it has established a global wafer supply strategy by expanding its sourcing through agreements with Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Corporation (TSMC). These agreements include increased foundry wafer supply, advance deposit arrangements for future wafer purchases, and a proposed joint venture for a United States based wafer fab plant. The company has entered into agreements with TSMC for increasing wafer capacity through the year 2001. In exchange for TSMC's commitments, Altera has committed $123 million in cash and promissory notes to be paid during 1995, 1996, and 1997, as prepayment for wafers. The company believes that these agreements will provide approximately $1 billion of revenue capacity through TSMC's Taiwan-based fabrication facilities. Robert K. Beachler, director of strategic marketing for Altera, told Newsbytes "The TSMC partnership is a major factor in Altera's strategy to insure wafer capacity that will support growth beyond $2 billion in revenue by the year 2000. In 1994, our sales were $199 million. For the first three quarters in 1995, we exceeded $275 million. The TSMC deal gives us the capacity to grow annually at the 40 percent needed to make us a $2 billion company by the turn of the century." Altera has also entered into a letter of intent concerning the formation of a joint-venture company with TSMC and several other prospective partners to build a United States based wafer fab. Under the terms of the letter of intent, Altera will receive 16 percent equity ownership in the joint-venture company and up to 24 percent capacity in the wafer fab designed to produce thirty-thousand eight-inch wafers per month. Altera's investment in the joint venture will be $125 million spread over the next two years. The new plant is expected to initially produce wafers employing 0.35 micron technology and begin production by the first half of 1998. Altera's other wafer suppliers, Sharp Corporation of Japan and Cypress Semiconductor Texas Incorporated (CSTI) provide a base of advanced wafer supply through Sharp's 0.5 micron and CSTI's 0.6 micron technologies. Sharp has been a long-term supplier for the company. Altera has owned 17 percent of the equity in the CSTI plant located in Round Rock, Texas, since 1990. Rodney Smith, Altera's president stated, "Our global supply strategy provides geographically diversified sourcing from Taiwan, Japan, and the United States, thereby reducing sole source location risks and currency exposures. We believe that the arrangements we have made with TSMC will contribute substantial capacity that provides Altera with a strategic advantage in the marketplace. "These advantages are further strengthened because TSMC has chosen Altera as its only programmable logic partner for the new US capacity investment. TSMC's leading edge wafer manufacturing in both Taiwan and in the United States will accelerate our momentum towards becoming a multi-billion dollar company," said Smith. Donald W. Brooks, president of TSMC, said, "We wanted to expand the partnership with Altera because they are the fastest-growing programmable logic company in the marketplace today." Altera Corporation, founded in 1983, is a manufacturer of high- performance, high-density programmable logic devices and associated computer-aided engineering (CAE) logic development tools. Programmable logic devices are semiconductor chips that offer on-site programmability to customers. The chips are programmed with tools that run on personal computers or engineering workstations. TSMC claims to be the world's largest and fastest growing dedicated semiconductor foundry, manufacturing more than one million six-inch wafers in 1995. The company posted growth of 90 percent in 1993 and 50 percent in 1994. TSMC fab plants are located in Hsin Chu, Taiwan. (Richard Bowers/19951121/Press Contact: Robert K. Beachler, Altera, 408-894-7000) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 11/21/95 ONLINE Internet's 24-Hour Radio Station Signs With ASCAP (NEWS)(ONLINE)(SFO)(00027) Internet's 24-Hour Radio Station Signs With ASCAP 11/21/95 MINNEAPOLIS, MINNESOTA, U.S.A., 1995 NOV 21 (NB) -- Net.radio, an Internet-only radio network, and its co-venture partner, AudioNet of Dallas, Texas, have reached an agreement with the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers (ASCAP) which clears the way for playing music on the Internet. The agreement allows net.radio to play music clips while protecting copyrights of the music business and artistic communities. Net.radio, a privately-owned Nevada corporation based in Minneapolis, uses Progressive Networks' Real Audio to deliver, what it calls, the Internet's first, 24-hour-a-day, live Internet radio broadcast. Found at http:www.netradio.net , the company's Internet radio site is an evolving concept which its owners say will bring, not only radio broadcast to the Internet, but eventually full multimedia programming. Regarding the ASCAP agreement, Scot Combs, radio veteran and program director at net.radio, told Newsbytes, "We want to have a good working relationship with ASCAP from the very beginning, so we went to them to make an agreement which would cover this new world of broadcasting. It is important to us that music publishers and artists receive their 'just rewards' and our initiative shows the world the Internet community can regulate itself." Combs said he and Scott Bourne, another radio veteran, set-up their Internet radio site as a means to be involved with cutting-edge broadcast technology. "As soon as people learned what we were doing, we started getting calls from large and small companies who wanted us to help them streamline their audio data. We then began to expand our strategy to include such services." At the same time, net.radio continues to build its Web site. Besides music, the format focuses on Internet news and provides a concert database which users can search by genre, band, and location. Combs said the concert database has received more than 230,000 inquires. Typing in "Rolling Stones," he was able to quickly learn the band would be playing in India in April. "This Internet radio phenomena is just beginning to evolve. It is not at all like traditional radio broadcasts. It is interactive. It can offer additional databases such as our concert tour information. It can allow the user to choose the type of music from classical to jazz to country. We will even have an unsigned bands area," claimed Combs. He also said net.radio is working with new technologies which could not be publicized at this time. "We intend to be at the forefront of audio and video broadcasting on the Internet." (Patrick McKenna/19951121/Press Contact: Scot Combs, net.radio, 612-378-2211) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 11/21/95 IBM Lotus Aims At Novell With Team-Up, PerfectTime Promos (NEWS)(IBM)(BOS)(00028) Lotus Aims At Novell With Team-Up, PerfectTime Promos 11/21/95 CAMBRIDGE, MASSACHUSETTS, U.S.A., 1995 NOV 21 (NB) -- With Novell's decision to sell off WordPerfect and other products in its PerfectOffice suite, Lotus's SmartSuite 96 for Windows 95 set to ship next week, and two new promotions from Lotus now up and running, Lotus is well positioned to gain solid ground in the desktop suites market, contended Kathleen Hayner, SmartSuite marketing manager, in an interview with Newsbytes. Hayner told Newsbytes that Team-Up, a new promotion from Lotus not yet officially announced, is targeted at end-users as well as resellers. From now through "about January," she said, Lotus is including new "Team Up with Lotus and Win" scratch tickets in all packages of Lotus SmartSuite and standalone desktop applications. "One in 20 customers will win a T-shirt," Newsbytes was told. Other prizes to be given away by Lotus, all with a "sports theme," include sports bags and leather jackets, she elaborated. Also under "Team-Up," resellers will be able to win points that can be accumulated toward the same kinds of prizes that Lotus is offering to end users, according to the Lotus exec. Under Lotus's other initiative, called "PerfectTime for Lotus SmartSuite," Lotus is providing WordPerfect and Perfect Office users with a discount price of $199 on either SmartSuite 96 Edition for Windows 95 or SmartSuite 4.0 for Windows for Windows 3.1 through December 31, 1995. "PerfectTime for Lotus SmartSuite" is accompanied by a "risk-free" trial period, with "no questions asked" if the Lotus product is returned within 90 days, Newsbytes was told. The program also includes elements aimed at providing a "smooth transition from WordPerfect to WordPro," such as free download of "WordPerfect to Lotus Word Pro self-study introductory courseware" from the Lotus home page (http://www.lotus.com ), and a "dedicated support line" option focused on WordPerfect to Word Pro conversion, she reported. SmartSuite and WordPro represent "strong alternatives to both Microsoft and Novell" among Notes and non-Notes users alike, according to Hayner. Now that Novell is selling off PerfectOffice, there is "some uncertainty in the minds of users" about future support for WordPerfect and other products in that line-up, she asserted. Lotus's program to convert Novell users to Lotus groupware also includes an "aggressive campaign" of advertisements placed in the New York Times and other publications, Hayner noted. (Jacqueline Emigh/19951122/Reader Contact: Lotus, 800-343-5414; Press Contact: Laura Beck or Doug Broad, Lois Paul & Partners for Lotus, 617-862-4514) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 11/21/95 WINDOWS SystemSoft Intros Software For PCI, Windows 95 PC Cards (NEWS)(WINDOWS)(BOS)(00029) SystemSoft Intros Software For PCI, Windows 95 PC Cards 11/21/95 LAS VEGAS, NEVADA, U.S.A., 1995 NOV 21 (NB) -- SystemSoft promoted CardBus and "mobility," two of the three themes behind its trio of product introductions at Fall Comdex, by renting a van and marking the vehicle with a sign urging onlookers in Las Vegas to "get on the CardBus," noted Paul Sereiko, VP of marketing, in an meeting with Newsbytes. The new software products for PC Card management are CardSoft, MobilePro for Windows 95, and CardWizard Pro for Windows 95. Windows 95 was a third integrating theme, according to the SystemSoft exec, who met with Newsbytes in a huge suite of rooms, also rented by SystemSoft, on the first floor of the Las Vegas Convention Center. Also at Comdex, SystemSoft announced support for yet another "bus": the Universal Serial Bus (USB), an emerging technology aimed at extending Windows 95 "Plug-and-Play" to external devices such as printers, scanners, modems, and mice. Like the SystemSoft van, SystemSoft's suite at Comdex was also emblazoned with signs that called buses and "mobility" to mind. In this case, the signs were in the circle and hexagon shapes of traffic signs. Sereiko told Newsbytes that Natick, Massachusetts-based SystemSoft, which employs about 140 people worldwide, began to make a large investment in Comdex "real estate" last year, after deciding that the trade show in Las Vegas was an especially effective venue for reaching OEM (original equipment manufacturer) customers. During a demo of the three new products in the SystemSoft suite, Sereiko told Newsbytes that the new CardSoft/32 will provide software management for CardBus PC Cards, along with the more than 500 PC Cards supported by earlier versions of CardSoft. CardBus, he explained, is a 32-bit PC card interface, defined in the latest edition of the PCMCIA's (Personal Computer Memory Card International Association) PC Card Standard, that is designed to take advantage of the higher throughput available on PCs based on the PCI (Peripheral Component Interconnect) architecture. CardBus provides throughput of 132 megabytes per second (MB/sec), a rate eight times faster than the 8 MB/sec of current PC cards, according to Sereiko. The higher throughput will allow development of new PC Cards supporting ISDN (integrated services digital network), fast SCSI (small computer systems interface), FDDI (fiber distributed data interface), and other high-speed technologies, he predicted. SystemSoft is now working with OEMs to supply software this will ship with PCI-bus systems in the first quarter of 1996, Newsbytes was told. SystemSoft software is now used by fourteen of the top 15 notebook PC vendors, according to Sereiko. The new MobilePro, on the other hand, is aimed at providing new bios, "value-added" bios layers, and tools for managing "complex" Windows 95 features such as hot docking and Plug-and-Play. Sereiko showed Newsbytes Power Profiler, a new utility in MobilePro that is meant to let end users create customized "power management profiles" for various environments. The VP also demonstrated how, when used on systems enabled with SystemSoft's Smart Battery system, PowerProfile will tell the user how much battery life remains under each profile. Systems Profiler, another new utility in MobilePro, is designed to let users set system configuration and resource management options without leaving the Windows environment, he reported. SystemSoft's third new product, CardWizard Pro for Windows 95, rolls together CardSoft with CardWizard, an end user tool that uses an expert system to "automatically diagnose and resolve PC Card and computer systems configuration programs," as well as with CardWorks, a product previously available to OEMs only, for extending Windows 95 Plug-and-Play support to earlier PC Cards. The SystemSoft VP told Newsbytes that missing PC Card drivers, I/O (input/output) port resource conflicts, and improperly installed software are some of the kinds of problems that CardWizard Pro can resolve and fix. After the problem has been initially "resolved," the product will then automatically reconfigure the PC Card each time it is installed in the system, he contended. CardWizard Pro is slated to be available next month from SystemSoft and authorized resellers at an SRP (suggested retail price) of $69.95. (Jacqueline Emigh/199511120/Reader Contact: SystemSoft, 508-651- 0088; Press Contact: Jon Bornstein or Tim Hurley, Copithorne & Bellows for SystemSoft, 617-252-0606) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 11/21/95 GENERAL ****Bill Gates' First Book Hits Stores Friday (NEWS)(GENERAL)(DEN)(00030) ****Bill Gates' First Book Hits Stores Friday 11/21/95 REDMOND, WASHINGTON, U.S.A., 1995 NOV 21 (NB) -- Bill Gates -- software entrepreneur, textbook business success story, chairman of Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ: MSFT) and, as of Friday, an author, when more than 1.5 million copies of his first book go on sale in over 20 languages. Microsoft said "The Road Ahead" is an effort to initiate a wider public dialogue about how society should shape its future in an age of tremendous technological change. An excerpt of the book, which is being published in the US by Viking Penguin, appears in today's issue of Newsweek. The book focuses on the "information highway," as Gates describes how he believes the emerging global network of computers will give users access to information, services and products worldwide. Gates said that will "empower more people to participate more often in more things," including their children's education, the political process and even their own health care. Gates writes that the tools of the coming information age will include familiar devices like today's PCs, televisions and telephones as well as wallet-sized PCs used to read and send electronic-mail and faxes, store digital money securely, pinpoint a user's exact location anywhere on the globe or even monitor their own heart rate. That same wallet or a similar one may also replace airline boarding passes. Instead, you would just go to the airport and pass through the boarding gate as your wallet PC communicates to the airport's computers to verify that you have paid for your ticket. The wallet can also act as an electronic key to automatically open doors you are authorized to use. Gates also predicts another appliance might allow a person to listen to any song, anywhere, any time, or choose the camera angles and replays for televised sporting events. Still another might direct an injured or sick person to the nearest hospital and automatically register them electronically before they arrive. You will also be able to watch a movie that replaces the lead actor's face and voice with your own, writes Gates. The software executive writes that education is an area where implications of the information highway will be particularly profound, with millions of books available online, teachers using technology to customize curricula individually for students to match different learning speeds, and networks that allow teachers to share lessons and materials. Change is often accompanied by challenges, and Gates said increased telecommuting will produce socioeconomic transformations. With direct access to products and services, some commercial middlemen will be removed, some workers will have to be retrained, and access will have to be broad and equal. Offensive content, individual privacy, and security of transactions will also be among the issues to be dealt with. "I don't necessarily have all the answers," said Gates, "but the book is my way of getting us all to start thinking about the opportunities and challenges ahead. Society, and not just its technologists, must set the pace of change. In the end, I am optimistic that this dialogue will help drive societies, industries, and nations to begin thinking, talking, and strategizing about how to be prepared for the inevitable change to come." The $29.95 275-page hard-cover book comes with an interactive multimedia CD-ROM that Microsoft said contains the complete text of the book, hundreds of multimedia hyperlinks, video simulations of future technology, a World Wide Web browser and a special video interview with Gates that can also be played on an audio CD player. There is also an electronic tour of the new home Gates and his wife are building in Medina, Washington. Gates said proceeds from the book will fund a grant to encourage the user of technology in education. The fund will be administered through the National Foundation for Improvement of Education in the United States and comparable organizations in other parts of the world. Microsoft said the grant will support teachers worldwide who are incorporating computers into their classrooms. (Jim Mallory/19951121/Press contact: Julie Quattro, Waggener Edstrom for Microsoft, 206-637-9097; Public contact; Microsoft, 206-882-8080 or 800-426-9400) (SUMMARY)(GENERAL)(MSP)(00031) Newsbytes Daily Summary 11/21/95 MINNEAPOLIS, MINNESOTA, U.S.A., 1995 NOV 21 (NB) -- These are capsules of all today's news stories: ======================================================================== ------------| N E W S B Y T E S D A I L Y S U M M A R Y |---------- ------------| Tuesday, November 21, 1995 |---------- ======================================================================== (c) Newsbytes News Network (Tm) Editor in Chief: Wendy Woods ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Newsbytes News Network's on the Web! Check out http://www.nbnn.com for free daily top stories from Newsbytes and its affiliate publications, and from PC Week, MacWeek, and other Ziff news magazines. A subscription gives you all the news, full-text, plus the most comprehensive database of past computer stories online. The keyword-searchable database dates from today back through 1983. Subscriptions are $24.95 for three months. Questions? Send to 'administrator@newsbytes.com' For Japanese Newsbytes and additional services, see the Newsbytes Pacifica Website at http://www.islandtel.com/newsbytes/ ------------------------------------------------------------------------ CATEGORY HEADLINES (*** indicates today's top stories) STORY # ======================================================================== BROADCAST ****Ameritech Plans Cable TV Offerings In Chicago......... 20 BUSINESS Hong Kong - Novell Expands Sales Network................... 05 BUSINESS ****Spielberg's DreamWorks Selects Oracle................. 16 BUSINESS ****IBM, Apple Shut Down Kaleida.......................... 17 BUSINESS Dell Income Up 82%......................................... 21 BUSINESS Paul Allen Ups Share Of Telephony/Internet Firm............ 24 BUSINESS Altera Deal With Taiwan Semiconductor...................... 26 EDUCATION Hong Kong - Datacraft Link Schools......................... 06 GENERAL Off-The-Shelf Customer Support Software.................... 08 GENERAL Russian Fighter-Bomber Flight Simulator.................... 11 GENERAL Asia Newsbriefs............................................ 12 GENERAL Canadian Product Launch Update............................. 22 GENERAL ****Bill Gates' First Book Hits Stores Friday............. 30 GOVT Hong Kong Govt's Map Digitization In Chaos................. 03 IBM Lotus Aims At Novell With Team-Up, PerfectTime Promos...... 28 ONLINE Apple, Adobe & Borders Fund "Literary" Web Site............ 07 ONLINE Marinex Launches Cyber Soap Opera.......................... 09 ONLINE ****Internet Update....................................... 14 ONLINE Clickshare Joins Interactive Alliance Web Measuring........ 15 ONLINE Mastercard Masters More Web Content In Time For Holidays... 23 ONLINE Prodigy Claims Netcom Price Comparison Is "Deceptive....... 25 ONLINE Internet's 24-Hour Radio Station Signs With ASCAP.......... 27 TELECOM South Korea - Indecision Surrounds New Mobile Networks..... 13 TELECOM Illinois City Looks At Broadband Network................... 18 TRENDS Better Privacy Through Standards........................... 01 TRENDS Daily Newspapers Worry About Microsoft..................... 02 TRENDS Cisco Ranks In Top Telecom Equipment Firms................. 04 TRENDS Utilities Put 3% Of Revenues Into Info Technology.......... 19 WINDOWS SPSS To Ship Windows 95 Statistical Software............... 10 WINDOWS SystemSoft Intros Software For PCI, Windows 95 PC Cards.... 29 ======================================================================== These are the headlines and first paragraphs of each story, in order: 1 -> Better Privacy Through Standards -- The convergence of information technologies promises to bring new services into our lives but it also will bring new threats to our privacy. Timothy D. Schoechle scopes out the stakes and stakeholders, the emerging threats to our privacy, and the limits of privacy for info-age consumers in a lengthy paper for the Aug. 1995 issue of Telecommunications Policy ("Privacy on the information superhighway: Will my house still be my castle?" pp. 435-452). 2 -> Daily Newspapers Worry About Microsoft -- The Sept. 1995 issue of Quill offers an array of articles about the impact of converging information technologies on traditional newspapers. Consultant Nancy Hicks Maynard kicks off the issue with "Managing the future" (pp. 24-26). 3 -> Hong Kong Govt's Map Digitization In Chaos -- In his annual report released recently, Hong Kong Director of Audit Dominic Chan reveals a catalog of stunning misadventures in the Department of Lands, replete with a bungled tender exercise that required repeating because the department didn't know what it wanted 4 -> Cisco Ranks In Top Telecom Equipment Firms -- A new Dataquest report shows that network equipment maker, Cisco, now ranks sixteenth in the world league table of telecommunications equipment vendors. France's Alcatel still holds the top spot. 5 -> Hong Kong - Novell Expands Sales Network -- Novell said it appointed four new Hong Kong companies to sell its GroupWare products. Accelerated activity on the network front is seen as especially vital in light of the company dropping out of the business applications business. 6 -> Hong Kong - Datacraft Link Schools -- Datacraft said it has completed a new backbone network for the Hong Kong Education Department. It links headquarters to the Information Technology Services Department (ITSD) over 27 remote offices through a leased line. 7 -> Apple, Adobe & Borders Fund "Literary" Web Site -- Calling itself a "Journalists' Dream Publication," a new World Wide Web magazine, called Salon, has been launched. Funded by Apple Computer Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL), Adobe L.P., and retail bookstore giant, Borders, Salon promises to deliver an "intelligent and entertaining discourse on politics, books, art, ideas and current events." 8 -> Off-The-Shelf Customer Support Software -- Inference Corp. (NASDAQ: INFR), a provider of client-server software for help-desk and corporate customer support divisions, has announced the formation of the new Inference Knowledge Publishing Division. The division will provide off-the-shelf content to corporate customer support help-desks for a variety of different products. 9 -> Marinex Launches Cyber Soap Opera -- "Topical" issues like alien abduction, green card marriages, and amnesia, will be explored in a new Internet World Wide Web cyber soap-opera called "The East Village." Produced by Marinex Multimedia, the new Web site will include elements of film, television, and publishing, officials told Newsbytes. 10 -> SPSS To Ship Windows 95 Statistical Software -- SPSS Inc. (NASDAQ:SPSS) said it will ship a new Windows 95 version of its SPSS 7.0 statistical analysis product. A SPSS official told Newsbytes the new version takes "full advantage" of the 32-bit processing power Windows 95 offers software products. 11 -> Russian Fighter-Bomber Flight Simulator -- Strategic Simulations Inc. (SSI), announced the release of "Su-27 Flanker: The Military Flight Simulator." The simulator features the Russian fighter-bomber Su-27, and was developed in Russia, by Russian aerospace professionals. 12 -> Asia Newsbriefs -- In this roundup of news from across Asia: South Korea - New long distance provider tests; Singapore - New pager service opens; China - Siemens enters telephone handset market; South Korea - GPS data service to launch. 13 -> South Korea - Indecision Surrounds New Mobile Networks -- When the South Korean government announced the country would adopt CDMA (Code Division Multiple Access) in favor of TDMA (Time Division Multiple Access) as the technical standard for new mobile communications networks, it was thought that months of indecision and uncertainty were over. However, recent moves by telecom operators and the government have shown the final picture is still far from certain. 14 -> ****Internet Update -- In this roundup of new resources and services on the global Internet: Crayola greeting cards competition; Sony Consumer Electronics Group; Australian science news; The Atlantic Monthly; Cleveland Public Library moves to the Web; American Heart Association; International treaties online; Russian news and magazines online; Race and ethnic studies institute; Latest Amiga news. 15 -> Clickshare Joins Interactive Alliance Web Measuring -- The company that wants to see writers and artists paid for the content they produce on the Internet's World Wide Web is joining an advertising-industry consortium that's developing Internet audience-measurement standards. Newshare Corp. is now a part of the Interactive Alliance, said officials from both concerns. 16 -> ****Spielberg's DreamWorks Selects Oracle -- DreamWorks, the new studio founded by industry leaders Steven Spielberg, Jeffrey Katzenberg and David Geffen, has chosen Oracle's (NASDAQ: ORCL) client/server applications product as the systems backbone of its new entertainment venture. Dreamworks is considered the hottest commodity in the entertainment industry, and the competition for the deal included all the big names in the computer industry. 17 -> ****IBM, Apple Shut Down Kaleida -- Kaleida Labs Inc., the multimedia joint venture that IBM (NYSE:IBM) and Apple Computer Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) set up with much fanfare four years ago, is being folded into Apple. The move has sparked speculation that Taligent Inc., another joint effort working on object-oriented technology, might meet the same fate. 18 -> Illinois City Looks At Broadband Network -- The Chicago suburb of Batavia, Illinois, is looking to build a piece of the information superhighway through its municipal electric utility. The city government has put out a request for proposals for a feasibility study of a municipally-owned broadband communications system. 19 -> Utilities Put 3% Of Revenues Into Info Technology -- Investor-owned electric utilities have an average investment of nearly three percent of revenues allocated to information systems and services, according to a study by the Newton-Evans Research Co. of Ellicott City, Md. That is a higher percentage than the company found for either gas or water utilities or public power agencies. 20 -> ****Ameritech Plans Cable TV Offerings In Chicago -- Ameritech Inc. (NYSE:AIT) wants to bring cable service to residents in its own back yard. The suburban Chicago-based company has announced plans to offer cable service to 200,000 homes on the city's South Side by early 1997. 21 -> Dell Income Up 82% -- Despite a higher-than- expected backlog of orders, Dell Computer Corp. (NASDAQ: DELL) has reported that net income for the third quarter jumped 82 percent over the same period last year and was 16 percent higher than the second quarter of this year. 22 -> Canadian Product Launch Update -- This regular feature normally appears on the first day Newsbytes publishes each week, but was delayed this week due to last week's Comdex/Fall trade show, and provides further details for the Canadian market on announcements by international companies that Newsbytes has already covered. This week: Microsoft Movie Maker and new Trinitron monitors from Sony. 23 -> Mastercard Masters More Web Content In Time For Holidays -- Mastering the Internet's World Wide Web to find online information and savings has gotten easier, claimed Mastercard International officials, with the expansion of the company's Web site. Additions include content on MasterValues, a consumer-payment card promotion that provides savings on a "wide variety" of holiday gifts." 24 -> Paul Allen Ups Share Of Telephony/Internet Firm -- Vulcan Ventures, the investment company of Paul Allen, has announced the acquisition of an additional 1,500,000 shares of Precision Systems. The $8,625,000 deal means the co-founder of Microsoft now holds 2,450,000 shares of the network communications software developer. 25 -> Prodigy Claims Netcom Price Comparison Is "Deceptive -- Prodigy claims Netcom, a well-known national Internet service provider (ISP), is using deceptive advertising by distributing a price comparison on the back of its software packaging. The statement in question compares the costs of being on the Internet with standard online services as compared to Netcom. 26 -> Altera Deal With Taiwan Semiconductor -- Altera Corporation (NASDAQ: ALTR) announced it has established a global wafer supply strategy by expanding its sourcing through agreements with Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Corporation (TSMC). These agreements include increased foundry wafer supply, advance deposit arrangements for future wafer purchases, and a proposed joint venture for a United States based wafer fab plant. 27 -> Internet's 24-Hour Radio Station Signs With ASCAP -- Net.radio, an Internet-only radio network, and its co-venture partner, AudioNet of Dallas, Texas, have reached an agreement with the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers (ASCAP) which clears the way for playing music on the Internet. The agreement allows net.radio to play music clips while protecting copyrights of the music business and artistic communities. 28 -> Lotus Aims At Novell With Team-Up, PerfectTime Promos -- With Novell's decision to sell off WordPerfect and other products in its PerfectOffice suite, Lotus's SmartSuite 96 for Windows 95 set to ship next week, and two new promotions from Lotus now up and running, Lotus is well positioned to gain solid ground in the desktop suites market, contended Kathleen Hayner, SmartSuite marketing manager, in an interview with Newsbytes. 29 -> SystemSoft Intros Software For PCI, Windows 95 PC Cards -- SystemSoft promoted CardBus and "mobility," two of the three themes behind its trio of product introductions at Fall Comdex, by renting a van and marking the vehicle with a sign urging onlookers in Las Vegas to "get on the CardBus," noted Paul Sereiko, VP of marketing, in an meeting with Newsbytes. The new software products for PC Card management are CardSoft, MobilePro for Windows 95, and CardWizard Pro for Windows 95. 30 -> ****Bill Gates' First Book Hits Stores Friday. (Ian Stokell/19951121) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 11/16/95 TELECOM Comdex - TeleAdapt Looking For Telecom Widgets (NEWS)(TELECOM)(LON)(00001) Comdex - TeleAdapt Looking For Telecom Widgets 11/16/95 LAS VEGAS, NEVADA, U.S.A., 1995 NOV 16 (NB) -- Gordon Brown, president of TeleAdapt, the modem/connectivity specialist, is a Comdex veteran. Newsbytes took time out to discuss what he, and his UK company, gets out of Comdex and, perhaps more importantly, where his company is going. Regular readers of Newsbytes will know that TeleAdapt has offices in London, the US (Campbell, California) and Australia. The company specializes in selling telecom widgets, ranging from phone connector/adapters for modems and faxes for just about every country in the world. More recently, the company has branched out into offering communications products, such as acoustic modems and cellular data systems, available for traveling executives, often at short notice. "We'll get a call from a guy traveling, for example to Brazil, and wanting a telephone adapter on an overnight basis. We talk them through what they plan to do, and supply their needs. Often, we find they need a battery for their notebook, mainly because their existing battery is almost at the end of its life. Being able to 'FedEx' stuff like this to people really saves the day for them. That's what TeleAdapt is all about," Brown told Newsbytes. While TeleAdapt has been operation in the UK for several years, it's only in the last year or so that the company has become known in the US, thanks to the activities of Heather Hawes, the company's vice president. "A year ago it was Heather and an assistant working out of a 10 by 10 (foot) office. Now we have 10 staff and business in the US is booming," Brown explained, adding that, because of the size of the US and the constant traveling that many business people have to undertake means that the potential market in North America is massive. So massive, in fact, that Brown faces an interesting business dilemma -- that the US company could grow larger than its parent UK operation. "That's a nice position to be in," he said, adding that, while in previous years he had been an interested observer, this year's Comdex was proving useful since he and Hawes are on the lookout for interesting telecom widgets to contract to buy. "What a lot of people don't know about our business is that we're actually a telecoms hardware reseller. We also supply cellular phones, modems, and data cards. Hardware and software in the telecoms business are our trade," he explained. So where will TeleAdapt progress to in the future? Brown is confident about the prospects for the company and where he sees the market pushing into. Cellular data, especially now that digital phones are taking off around the world, are going to be a major seller, he predicts, along with ISDN (integrated services digital network) technology. "One of our most interesting potential new services is our hotel directory. We compile data on hotels around the world and what their telecoms facilities are like for the traveling modem user. That information is invaluable. We're already on the Web and Compuserve, where we maintain a forum, but we're looking at publishing the hotel and country comms information database online somewhere. That kind of information is unique and something that road warriors are really looking for," he told Newsbytes. (Steve Gold/19951115/Press & Reader Contact: TeleAdapt UK, tel +44-181-421-4444, fax +44-181-421-5308, Internet e-mail 100111.2713@compuserve.com; TeleAdapt US, tel 408-370-5105, fax 408-370-5110, Internet e-mail 76263.706@compuserve.com) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 11/16/95 BROADCAST Comdex - Bercos' Low-Cost Videoconferencing Technology (NEWS)(BROADCAST)(LON)(00002) Comdex - Bercos' Low-Cost Videoconferencing Technology 11/16/95 LAS VEGAS, NEVADA, U.S.A., 1995 NOV 16 (NB) -- Bercos, a Berlin-based company, is visiting Comdex Fall in Las Vegas this week with a specific goal -- to set up OEM (original equipment manufacturer) deals for its budget videoconferencing technology. According to Wilhelm Kirchner, managing director with the company, while Picturetel's videoconferencing system costs around the $2,500 mark when purchased through resellers, his firm's system, the Janus III software and an ISDN (integrated services digital network) card, sells for around half that amount. "We use VLSI (very large scale integration) components, and, since we produce them ourselves in Germany, we can keep costs down. Much of the processing is carried out in software, and we have deals with several companies in progress," he told Newsbytes. Which companies? Kirchner said that one deal just going through, which he couldn't talk about, was a major one. "I can't say this company's name," he said, fingering a Creative Labs business card, adding the deal is in its final stages to offer the system to the US market. So what does the MeDialog system offer users? On the hardware front, it's a highly populated full length PC card that plugs straight into a PC and, when running the Janus III software, supports DSVD (digital simultaneous voice and data) functionality across modem and ISDN links. Upcoming (next quarter) is a strap-on videoconferencing card that will add video to the mix. Newsbytes notes that, although the International Telecoms Union has not ratified the DSVD standard, several companies are developing DSVD technology systems with video facilities, since the H.120 video standard, working to four frames-per-second speeds, is also in the process of being ratified. The MeDialog Light system runs under Windows and also adds voice and fax mailbox services to the mix, along with support for most communications media, including PSTN (public switched telephone network), PDN (packet data network), and ISDN links. (Steve Gold/19951115/Press & Reader Contact: Bercos, tel +49-30-467-0880, fax +49-20-463-4002/BERCOS19951116/PHOTO) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 11/16/95 TRENDS Comdex - Digital Handheld Recorder Technology (NEWS)(TRENDS)(LON)(00003) Comdex - Digital Handheld Recorder Technology 11/16/95 LAS VEGAS, NEVADA, U.S.A., 1995 NOV 16 (NB) -- Syscom, a Philadelphia, Pennsylvania-based company, has unveiled a "revolutionary" product at Comdex Fall -- Total Recall, a 3.5-ounce handheld digital recorder that sells for between $149.95 and $299.95. According to Ari Naim, the company's chief executive officer (CEO), the digital recorder comes in four versions, with recording capabilities ranging from 11 to 47 minutes. The unit was designed to replace the ubiquitous personal memo recorders that people use in various locations. The main advantage with Total Recall is the ability to jump between segments of the recording, whereas with tape, the tape has to spool forwards and backwards. In use, the unit allows notes to be inserted in-between others -- "instant digital editing" is what the company calls the technology. The slight downside is that, unlike tapes, the Total Recall unit cannot download the recording for off-line storage. Company officials said that the possibility of downloading the data for storage on a PC is being looked at. There is, however, a connector to link the unit to a conventional tape recorder to allow edited "digital data files" to be downloaded to analog tape if required. The unit looks more like a VCR remote control, with a LCD (liquid crystal display) screen at the top of the unit, and an array of buttons, together with a microphone and speaker at the bottom left of the unit. The unit runs on two AAA batteries, plus an integral lithium battery for memory backup. Option accessories include stereo earphones, a carrying case, and various power adapters. Because Total Recall is all digital, the unit allows users to sub-divide recordings into three main categories in memory. Other features include a clock that supports multiple reminder alarms that play in the user's own voice, and full digital editing facilities. "Total Recall is an essential helpmate for executives, professionals, working parents and anyone else with a hectic workschedule. It's a reminder pad and filing cabinet all rolled into one," Naim explained. (Steve Gold/19951115/Press Contact: Allison Clark, 708-291-8421 ext 256; Reader Contact: tel 610-660-5770, fax 610-668-5404) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 11/16/95 SUPERCOMPUTER China - Chen Systems Shows Supercomputer Technology (NEWS)(SUPERCOMPUTER)(PEK)(00004) China - Chen Systems Shows Supercomputer Technology 11/16/95 BEIJING, CHINA, 1995 NOV 16 (NB) -- US-based Chen Systems will bring its mainframe and supercomputer technologies to the Chinese market, Dr. Steve S. Chen, the creator of Chen Systems and the chief architect of its CS-1000 superserver, announced recently in Beijing. Established in 1993, Chen Systems focuses on the research and development of enterprise-level servers. The Taiwanese computer expert, Dr. Chen, who formed Cray Computer in 1989, said that Chen's system CS-1000 is a symmetric multiprocessor structure with the capacity of supporting eight Pentium processors. Dr. Chen also said that the computation speed of his system will increase almost linearly with the number of the processors added to the system. Because CS-1000 supports two PCI (Peripheral Component Interconnect) bus systems, its I/O (input/output) capacity should be double that of other systems. The CS-1000/10 -- which comes with two processors, 64 megabytes (MB) of RAM, and a nine gigabyte (GB) hard drive -- was test-operated and evaluated at China's Xinhua News Agency, according to the Computer & Communications newspaper. Chen's system will set the standard for a new generation of high-performance data servers, Dr. Chen claimed. A network of its CS-1000 servers can be managed with "only a few people at the central site" and "without highly paid system administrators" at each remote site, he claimed. The CS-1000 series is also claimed to be very price-competitive. For example, the CS-1000/10 is priced at US$74,950. Instead of marketing only in the US during the first five to six years, Chen Systems will promote its servers simultaneously in more than 15 countries, including China. (Chih-Ho Yu & Ning Huang/19951116) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 11/16/95 BUSINESS Thailand Distributor To Open Regional Franchises (NEWS)(BUSINESS)(HKG)(00005) Thailand Distributor To Open Regional Franchises 11/16/95 BANGKOK, THAILAND, 1995 NOV 16 (NB) -- The Sahaviriya OA Group (SVOA) has announced plans to expand into Southeast Asia, China, and Indochina next year, and recently established a joint venture in Singapore. The group, which owns the SVOA OA Center license, aims to open franchise stores in Malaysia, China, and Indonesia next year. It is the leading distributor of a wide range of computers, peripherals and software, and its branded products include Apple, Acer, Epson, Hewlett Packard, Lotus, Novell, and Autodesk. OA Centers in Malaysia and China are expected to be finalized during the first half of next year, according to SVOA Financial Controller Kamol Rojsirikulchai. "SVOA is talking with a local computer company in Malaysia about opening an OA Center there. The deal is almost complete," he said. In China, SVOA will co-invest with a Singaporean partner which currently does business in China. Six OA Centeres are planned to be open by the end of next year, with the first store starting up by July. Kamol said China would be a main income generator for the group when the OA Centers are completed. The Indonesian center will be opened in the second half of next year, he said. Kamol explained that it was necessary for SVOA to expand business to other countries, but pointed out that the group will always seek to co-invest with local investors in each country so they could combine expertise. Following the establishment of a representative office in Vietnam last year, SVOA last month reported to the Stock Exchange of Thailand the formation a joint venture company in Singapore, called SVOA International. Singapore is a good product sourcer in a good location for connecting to other countries in Southeast Asia and Indochina, he said, adding that, currently, 80-90 percent of SVOA's products are imported from Singapore. However, he said, Singapore could not be counted on as a good sales point. On the distribution marketing side, the group is eyeing Indonesia, Malaysia, China, and Indochina. SVOA is not the first local information technology (IT) company seeking international joint ventures. At least three computer companies -- The Value Group, M Information Group, and Metro Systems -- have already established international marketing arms. The Value Group has offices in Singapore, Indonesia, and Malaysia. The Singapore office was opened four years ago, followed by Indonesia and Malaysia. All the branches aim to become marketing network and distribution channels for the group, which plans to have its own products soon. M Information Group, an IT subsidiary of Manager Group, has recently joined hands with two Singaporean research and development firms -- Information Technology Institute (ITI) and Scriptech -- to set up I Media, an electronic information publishing. Metro Systems' first overseas branch in Singapore was set up with the objective to cut costs on importing products as well as to seek out new products. (Tony Waltham and Post Database-Bangkok Post/19951116) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 11/16/95 GENERAL Math Trek "Total Math" Teaching Package (NEWS)(GENERAL)(TOR)(00006) Math Trek "Total Math" Teaching Package 11/16/95 OTTAWA, ONTARIO, CANADA, 1995 NOV 16 (NB) -- Math Trek, an intermediate school mathematics tutoring software package marketed around the world to educators and school boards, is now available in a "home" edition. The package is a product of the New Era Classroom Technology And Research (NECTAR) Foundation, an arm's-length marketing wing of the Carleton Roman Catholic Separate School Board (CRCSSB), a large suburban board in the Ottawa, Ontario, Canada area. Developed by working classroom teachers in cooperation with professional programmers, Math Trek has already been licensed by several Canadian provinces for use in all their schools and is also being aggressively marketed in the UK, Australia, and the US. NECTAR is self-funding, relying on corporate partnerships for up-front capitalization. But that hasn't been a major problem, Foundation representatives said, thanks in large part to NECTAR's symbiotic relationship with Unisys, a major manufacturer of computers for business and institutional use. "We developed it on their hardware," NECTAR Executive Director Vic D'Amico said. "They used our schools as demonstration sites for their products and they saw the mutual benefit of working with us. We've had an ongoing relationship with them for five years now. They funded Math Trek entirely, and they're funding our new project, Math Trek for grades 10, 11, and 12." There are six "units" in the Math Trek program -- Algebra, Fractions, Geometry, Graphing, Integers & Percent, and Whole Numbers & Decimals -- each containing lessons, practice applications, and tests. "You receive almost the complete math curriculum for grades 7, 8, and 9, as it is taught in the schools," D'Amico said. "You can learn in a very interactive way. You work with the computer -- it doesn't dictate to you." Students can work at their own pace, repeating lessons on any skill in a given module with different examples until they acquire the associated concept. They can then go on to explore the skills and concepts in practice sessions and, finally, take a test on the topic. If they review a topic and wish to re-test, the program randomly generates a new test "paper" covering the same skills and concepts with different questions. Students can record their impressions and make notes on their Math Trek sessions in a private electronic journal. There's also an ever-present icon that pops up an on-screen calculator to facilitate simple arithmetic. Math Trek records every detail of the student's activity within the program. Teachers, or parents, get password-controlled access to the resulting "log." They can generate and print out test results, performance graphs and student achievement records. In addition, supervising adults can selectively enable or restrict access to the calculator and journal in the various modules within each unit. The "home" package contains the software and a reference manual. The 700-page resource manual that comes with the "school" version of Math Trek, geared to classroom presentations, is not included. In addition, the number of users is restricted in the "home edition." On the other hand, the "home" version is only half the price of the school package. Math Trek program "units" can be purchased separately at C$49.95 each, or you can get all six for just C$249.95. System requirements for the program are modest -- purposely so, to ensure the widest possible potential user audience for the program. Math Trek will reportedly run on a 386 or better PC running Windows 3.x or Windows 95, with four megabytes (MB) RAM, VGA or better screen, and 10MB of hard drive space. Macintosh users will need a Mac LC III or better with 4MB RAM and System 7 or better, plus a similar amount of free hard drive space. (Maggie Toone/19951116/Press Contact: Vic D'Amico, 613-224-3031, fax 613-224-1946) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 11/16/95 GENERAL My Legal Assistant Canadian Legal Software (NEWS)(GENERAL)(TOR)(00007) My Legal Assistant Canadian Legal Software 11/16/95 OTTAWA, ONTARIO, CANADA, 1995 NOV 16 (NB) -- MLA Systems Inc. launched a new Canadian Business Edition of its popular My Legal Assistant legal software package. The application prompts the user to "fill in the blanks" and then automatically generates any of several dozen different commonly-used business forms and letters. MLA Systems bills the product as "legal software made for Canadians by Canadians." That's more than just a nationalistic exclamation. It's intended to help users differentiate this all-Canadian product from the many retail and shareware "legal documents" packages which originate in the US and are often based on US law. MLA also notes that the documents it produces have been "developed and tested for legal use in Canadian provinces and territories" but are not valid in Quebec, where the civil statutes are based on a different legal code. The program's manual states that the program is intended to be used in relatively simple circumstances, where the parameters of the transaction fit within the provisions of the software. The program can be used to help familiarize the user with a particular matter so they will be better informed when they go to retain a lawyer. Also, MLA says the documents can be used as a stop-gap until you can retain a lawyer. However, as the boot-up warning in the first screen of the program carefully cautions, "Remember: No software, no text book and no self-help manual can replace the training and experience of a lawyer who practices the particular area of law." MLA Canadian Business Edition, a Windows 3.x/95-compatible package, ships on just two 1.44 megabyte (MB) diskettes and comes with a 40-page manual which concentrates on walking the user through the creation of more than 50 different documents including: real estate offers, options and releases; business asset and share purchase agreements; partnership agreements; commercial lease documents; sales contracts; employment contracts and confidentiality agreements; powers of attorney; warranties; and trust declarations. The package also includes a handy glossary of legal terms and a proprietary word processor which can be used to customize and print the standard documents generated by the program. You can save your raw data (answers to the "fill in the blanks" exercise) separately from the documents you generate, so that both documents and "answer" files can be edited or updated separately, as required. The Business Edition is a companion package to the Canadian Personal Edition, released last year, which uses a similar approach to generate bills of sale, promissory notes, residential leases, loan schedules, powers of attorney, wills and domestic agreements for personal and family use. The Canadian Personal Edition sells for C$39.95. The Business Edition is expected to carry a street price of C$99.00. Both packages are available now, at major software retailers across Canada. To run either of the packages, MLA Systems recommends a PC running Windows 3.1 or later, 4MB or more of RAM, a VGA or better display, 3MB of hard drive space, and a mouse. (Trevor Horsley/19951116/Press Contact: MLA Media, Anne Ramsay, tel 613-834-5164, fax 613-834-0160) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 11/16/95 TRENDS Comdex - Virtual Reality Has Commercial Possibilities (NEWS)(TRENDS)(DEN)(00008) Comdex - Virtual Reality Has Commercial Possibilities 11/16/95 LAS VEGAS, NEVADA, U.S.A., 1995 NOV 16 (NB) -- What do Linden Rhoads, with a degree and experience in geophysics and a cellular telephony background, and virtual reality have in common? More than you think, in fact, 28-year old Rhoads is the president and co-founder of Virtual I-O Inc., a company that designs and markets virtual reality equipment. #IMAGE 1 20 TWPCX \images\95111608.PCX Click here for photo You can connect the eight-ounce virtual reality glasses to just about any video source. The company markets a TV version and also one for personal computers. The video version, which has an NTSC (North American Television Standards Committee) interface, has a suggested retail price of $599. The PC version sells for $799. Both have the same resolution and three-dimensional (3-D) effect, but the PC version has a head tracker -- a device that changes what the user sees to match the movements of his or her head. In addition to the PC and TV versions of I-Glasses, the company has also developed a higher-resolution VGA version which has commercial applications such as flight simulator training and some medical uses. In the VGA version, a text screen is available in either monocular or binocular vision that can carry text. For example, a doctor might have it display the patient's vital signs. The monocular VGA version carries a $2,600 price tag, while the binocular edition is priced at $3,500. Games for the virtual reality system have titles like Doom, Flight Unlimited, Magic Carpet, MechWarrior, Tank Commander, Witchaven, and Locus, and cost $40 to $75, according to the company's public relations representative. Some titles ship with the glasses. Rhoads told Newsbytes her background and the business she is in isn't as contradictory as it may seem. She says a well-rounded background of education and work gives her an advantage in running a business over people she referred to as "propeller heads." Rhoads appears to also be a world-class fund raiser. She has convinced Thomson-CSF Venturss, a subsidiary of Thomson SA Corp., to invest $6 million in Virtual I-O Inc., and both Tele-Communications Inc. and Planar Systems have put in another $13 million. Virtual I-O products are available in Computer City, Computer USA, and FA&O Schwartz toy stores, as well as other outlets. (Jim Mallory/19951116/Press contact: Virtual I-O, tel 206-382-7410, fax 206-382-8810/VIRTUAL051116/PHOTO) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 11/16/95 GENERAL Comdex - Fuji's Digital Camera, Color Printer (NEWS)(GENERAL)(DEN)(00009) Comdex - Fuji's Digital Camera, Color Printer 11/16/95 LAS VEGAS, NEVADA, U.S.A.,1995 NOV 16 (NB) -- While most people come to Fall Comdex, the computer industry's annual trade show, to see computers and new software applications, you can also see cameras and printers. #IMAGE 1 20 TWPCX \images\95111609.PCX Click here for photo For example, Fuji Photo Film USA Inc. is showing off its new portable hand-held digital camera and a new digital printer that prints to a new matte surface paper and is designed specifically for use by photographers. The $1,700 digital camera, which is scheduled to ship in the Spring, is called the Fujix DS-220. It features a tele/wide dual lens with infrared autofocus, NTSC (North American Television Standards Committee) video output for real-time image previewing and 24-bit 640 by 640 image capture size. Manny Almeida, Fuji Photo Film vice president of sales for electronic & applied imaging, showed Newsbytes how the camera works. One of the interesting features is the ability to detach the optional small two-inch preview monitor that sits on top of the digital camera and use the rangefinder-type viewer. Once the images are captured they can be viewed on a television monitor and can also be printed to a Fujix Digital Image Printer. The controls of the camera, which include the zoom controls and the image capture button, are conveniently located at the top left of the unit, which is powered by an off-the-shelf camcorder battery. Images are recorded on a high-speed PC Card, the new name for what used to be called PCMCIA (Personal Computer Memory Card International Association) cards -- credit-card size devices that slip into the PC Card slot in your laptop computer to provide various services like data storage, data/fax modem capability, or a network connection. Almeida said the standard PC card that comes with the system can store up to 40 images. An optional high-capacity card can accept 1,000 images, according to the Fuji executive. Fuji said the DS-220 can take continuous pictures at one frame-per- second and provides the film speed equivalent of ISO 120/240. It incorporates a Fujinon lens that is the equivalent of a 36 millimeter (mm) lens on a conventional 35mm camera for wide angle shots and the equivalent of a 72mm for capturing images from further away, has auto exposure and auto flash functions, and can focus as close as 18 inches. A pre-flash function to eliminate red-eye and auto-flash for low light conditions are built in. The camera can be used with either PCs or Macintosh computers. Images are stored in the JPEG (Joint Photographic Experts Group) format. You can connect Fuji's new Pictrography 3000 digital printer with its 48 megabyte (MB) frame memory that lets users download images as large as 48MB and then print the image at full letter size with a resolution of 400 dots-per-inch. The new matte surface paper Fuji is introducing at Comdex 95 is available in magazines holding a 102-footroll of 8.5-inch wide paper. Fuji said that is the equivalent of 110 letter-size sheets. Almeida didn't want to quote a price for the paper but instead said the cost to print an 8- by 10-inch print is $3.50 and a 5- by 7-inch print carrying a per-print cost of $1.25. The $28,600 Pictrography 3000, which is immediately available, uses thermal development and transfer technology that requires no chemicals or toner. Instead, it uses laser diode exposure the company said helps ensure accurate color reproduction. The final step is to give the paper a water bath from a container of distilled water contained within the printer case. Almeida said one gallon of water will process about 3,700 prints and each print takes two minutes to process. (Jim Mallory/19951116/Press contact: Pete Schuddekopf, Fuji Photo Film, 212-768-0550/FUJI951116/PHOTO) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 11/16/95 TRENDS ****Comdex - Novell's Future Of Networking (NEWS)(TRENDS)(DEN)(00010) ****Comdex - Novell's Future Of Networking 11/16/95 LAS VEGAS, NEVADA, U.S.A., 1995 NOV 16 (NB) -- Robert Frankenberg, the chairman and chief executive officer of Novell Inc. (NASDAQ: NOVL) brought the Bob and Dennis comedy hour to this desert city yesterday. The show opened late, closed early and poked fun at Microsoft boss Bill Gates, Comdex itself, various Internet products, and the city's police officers. Frankenberg spent the first quarter-hour interacting with sidekick Dennis Miller, the actor that co-starred in the recent movie "The Net" with Sandra Bullock. The two cracked jokes and participated in a multimedia demonstration of all the things that can be accomplished on a network, including monitoring burglar alarms, starting Frankenberg's car, sending a pager message, turning lights and coffee pots on and off, and exchanging e-mail with another Novell executive. Once the comedy act was over, Frankenberg took the podium to share Novell's vision of networking in the future, a concept called the Smart Global Network (SGN). SGN, said Frankenberg, will change people's lives by connecting them to each other and to the information they need, anytime and anyplace. He said it will add security, manageability, accessibility, and ease of use to the Internet, and integrate it with the three million installed private Novell NetWare-based networks. "Any device with minimal intelligence can become part of a network," said Frankenberg. The power grid provided by the nation's utility companies will also play an important part in the World Wide Web of the future. Frankenberg cited an example of plugging a printer into one electric outlet in your home or office and a personal computer into another outlet and the two will be able to communicate. Some key factors still to be fully developed, according to the Novell chief executive officer (CEO), are security, so businesses can exchange information, and standards, in order to create one gigantic homogeneous network. Frankenberg cited several key initiatives necessary for his vision to become a reality. Networks will have to become affordable to own and administer, easy to manage, easy to use, and capable of connecting people with each other and the information they need and the systems they rely on. Novell sees NetWare, with its NetWare Directory Services file, print, messaging, security, management, and multiprotocol routing services, as the tool for connecting computers and intelligent devices. To connect the world's networks Frankenberg envisions Novell's NetWare Connect Services, soon to be offered by AT&T, Deutsche Telecom, NTT, Telstra, Unisource, and other service providers throughout the world as the way to that goal. Standard developer interfaces, said Frankenberg, will enable developers to create cross-platform applications to exploit SGN. Novell's Net2000 will consist of a common set of APIs (application programming interfaces) to enable those cross-platform applications. Finally, Frankenberg said network access has to be extended beyond local area networks and PCs to connect intelligent devices of every kind from mainframe computers to microwave ovens. He said Novell has such a tool, called NEST, which is already being integrated into temperature control devices, fax machines, scanners, printers, and other devices. Jim Mallory/19951116/Press contact: Melanie King, Novell, 408-577-6842) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 11/16/95 GENERAL Comdex - Nakamichi's Multimedia Speaker System (NEWS)(GENERAL)(LON)(00011) Comdex - Nakamichi's Multimedia Speaker System 11/16/95 LAS VEGAS, NEVADA, U.S.A., 1995 NOV 16 (NB) -- Nakamichi, the Japanese manufacturer of high-end home audio and video systems, has announced its new product, the SP-3d, an audio speaker system designed for use with personal computers. According to officials with the company at the Comdex Fall computer show, where the system was launched, it will ship in January, 1996, with a $199 retail price tag. According to Nakamichi, the new SP-3d is based on patented Sound Retrieval System (SRS) three-dimensional (3-D) stereo technology. The design is based on "the elementary features of the human ear," and therefore provides a top quality, realistic 3-D sound image, claims the company. The speakers can be positioned in any way, without any particular set-up, and provide "clear, transparent sound." The system is billed as Sound Blaster-compatible and consists of three pieces: a pair of ultra-light, small speakers, which handle the medium to high frequency range; and the sub-woofer, which handles the low, bass frequencies. The system is self-powered, bi-amplified and can be driven by separate power amplifiers. Vibration-isolated circuits in them greatly reduce distortion and smooth the sound. Because of the compact size and angle adjustable design, this small system can be virtually placed on any surface and still "operate at its best," said the company. All the controls, such as volume, power, balance and the SRS switches, are located on the right speaker. Also a bypass switch, operating through many multimedia applications, can control balance and volume. According to Nakamichi, the subwoofer has a special isolation layer which protects the speaker sound from vibration. The subwoofer can be placed in the distance from the speakers or even hidden away, with unchanged quality of the sound, the company claims. Components used in the SP-3d are incorporated in the SRS circuit instead of the standard one-chip design. Thus, the company claims, results in a deeper, wider, and more dynamic sound stage. (Sylvia Dennis/19951116/Press & Reader Contact: Russ Ritchie, Nakamichi America Corporation, 310-538-8150 ext 255) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 11/16/95 TRENDS Comdex - Speech Products A Maturing Technology (NEWS)(TRENDS)(DEN)(00012) Comdex - Speech Products A Maturing Technology 11/16/95 LAS VEGAS, NEVADA, U.S.A., 1995 NOV 16 (NB) -- Dan Trajman and Bill Gates should get together. Trajman is the vice president of marketing and business development for Lernout & Hauspie Speech Products, a Woburn, Massachusetts-based company that produces speech recognition, speech compression and text-to-speech products. Gates, of course, is the billionaire chairman of Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ:MSFT), and those kinds of products play a key role in the vision of office computing of the future Gates' shared with a packed house at the Aladdin Theater for the Performing Arts Tuesday at this year's annual Fall computer trade show, Comdex Fall 95. Trajman told Newsbytes that speech compression and text-to-speech are relatively mature technologies. Speech compression is used in answering machines and the new Internet phones being offered by several companies. It is established and of good quality, said Trajman. He also called it the "stepson" of the industry, but said it will be a major element in the emerging videoconferencing technology. Text-to-speech has also earned a place in current technology. It's available in eight languages and is used for translation purposes and is available to read computer text to people with impaired vision. Trajman talked about text-to-speech being used to explain to workers or parents how to assemble products as in the traditional "insert tab A into slot B" rites that have frustrated many a parent on Christmas Eve as they sit with a complex toy spread out across the floor. He said that application is less than a year away from being a reality. It was primarily speech recognition that Gates talked about in his address, envisioning computer systems that took verbal direction to perform tasks like sending memos, recording and transcribing meetings, and coordinating meeting schedules. Trajman called it "the sexy stuff." While he is enthusiastic about Gates vision, he told Newsbytes the speech recognition applications the software mogul spoke of are five years in the future. Trajman told Newsbytes about other applications for speech recognition, such as language training that can give the student feedback about his or her accent and pronunciation. In Europe, said Trajman, a consortium comprised of Philips, Grundig, Texas Instruments, and his company, are preparing to market a radio next year that will provide a driver travel directions in the language of choice. He also predicts the day when radio stations in Europe will be received in a car or home in the language of the listener. The station will transmit in its chosen language and the radio will convert the speech into your language. Trajman told Newsbytes $150 million to $200 million will be paid out in speech product royalties alone in 1995, and the industry will reach $3 billion by the end of the decade. Lernout & Hauspie introduced several new technologies at this year's Comdex. It showed two automatic speech recognition products that it said improve the accuracy of previous products and are now Microsoft SAPI (Speech Application Program Interface)-compatible. One of the products is a speaker-independent, phoneme-based engine, designed to increase accuracy in the telecommunications industry, while the other is a software developer kit (SDK) for the computer multimedia market that features improved phonetic modeling for greater speech accuracy. The SDK supports Windows 95 and offers new language models for improved recognition accuracy, a spelling mode, and improved line adaptation to handle a variety of microphones. (Jim Mallory/19951116/Press contact: Renee Keel, Lernout & Hauspie Speech Products, 617-932-4118;Public contact: Lernout & Hauspie Speech Products, tel 617-932-4118, fax 617-932-9209) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 11/16/95 TELECOM Comdex - AT&T Trying To Build CDPD Momentum (NEWS)(TELECOM)(TOR)(00013) Comdex - AT&T Trying To Build CDPD Momentum 11/16/95 LAS VEGAS, NEVADA, U.S.A., 1995 NOV 16 (NB) -- Cellular digital packet data (CDPD) has been much discussed, but less widely used to date. At Comdex Fall, the AT&T (NYSE:T) Wireless Data Division, of Kirkland, Washington, showed ways in which the technology can be used and announced the latest addition to its CDPD services. Kendra Vander Meulen, vice-president and general manager of, what was until recently, the wireless data division of McCaw Cellular Communications Inc., told Newsbytes that four things will be needed if wireless data is to catch on: wireless data devices, distribution channels, applications, and networks. The network aspect most directly concerns AT&T, which Vander Meulen said now offers CDPD access to 65 percent of the population of the 100 largest markets it serves. With other carriers also doing well at rolling out CDPD, she claimed, by the end of this year 47 of the 100 largest markets in the United States will have access to CDPD. AT&T announced this week that it is now offering CDPD service in Pittsburgh, bringing to 14 the number of commercial markets in which the company is offering CDPD. Applications are also a key issue. CDPD sends data in short bursts, or packets, while traditional circuit-switched cellular establishes a connection between two points and maintains that connection until all the data has been transmitted. Vander Meulen said circuit-switched cellular is good for transmitting large files, but not suited to sending short bursts of data with large gaps in between. With CDPD, she said, there is no call setup and tear-down, and a device can register itself on the network at no cost so it is available whenever another device wants to send data to it. Also, she said, applications such as point-of-sale simply cannot afford the time lost in connecting a call each time there is data to be sent, so CDPD is the only practical approach. Vander Meulen said Microsoft and Oracle Corp. are among the companies that are starting to put support for CDPD into their applications. Microsoft Exchange, for instance, works with CDPD. "You're now starting to see the major players in the applications arena coming in behind CDPD," she said. As for devices, AT&T is showing several at its Comdex booth. One is a cellular telephone with a built-in text messaging capability using CDPD. The device can send and receive short text messages and download stock quotes to a tiny liquid-crystal display. Vander Meulen noted that CDPD also has a security advantage over circuit-switched cellular because transmissions are encrypted and authenticated. (Grant Buckler/19951115/Press Contact: Beth Bousley, AT&T Wireless Data, 206-803-4050 or 206-790-1602) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 11/16/95 TRENDS Comdex - Forte Has Further Plans For Virtual Reality (NEWS)(TRENDS)(TOR)(00014) Comdex - Forte Has Further Plans For Virtual Reality 11/16/95 LAS VEGAS, NEVADA, U.S.A., 1995 NOV 16 (NB) -- Forte Technologies Inc., of Rochester, New York, showed its VFX1 virtual reality headgear in the multimedia showcase area at Comdex Fall this week, and had people lining up to put on the helmets and shoot at mechanical robots in computer games. However, the company thinks its technology can be used in other ways as well. Bryan Del Rizzo, a spokesman for Forte, told Newsbytes that, while the headgear works with a fairly long list of games, the company also believes it can be used in medical applications, computer-aided design, and marketing applications such as walk-throughs of real estate. However, he admitted that for some applications, the resolutions of the headgear's dual liquid crystal displays -- one in front of each eye -- will have to get better. Forte is working on that, he said. Del Rizzo also said that, in the next year, Forte plans to add to the headgear other virtual-reality products, including a data glove, gun, and vest. Forte is currently shipping the VFX1, which it bills as the first virtual-reality headgear designed and priced for the consumer market rather than for specialized scientific and military applications. At a list price of $995, though, it will presumably appeal mainly to more affluent game-players. The headgear, which is now shipping, has a pair of 0.7-inch color liquid-crystal displays that mount in front of the wearer's eyes, stereo earphones, and a head-tracking system that feeds information back to the computer based on the user's head movements. A demonstrator at Forte's Comdex booth explained that the company can translate head movements into input codes that replace either mouse movements or keyboard actions for existing software. (Grant Buckler/19951115/Press Contact: Bryan Del Rizzo, Forte Technologies, 716-427-8595) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 11/16/95 GENERAL ****Comdex - Getting There Is Not Half The Fun (NEWS)(GENERAL)(TOR)(00015) ****Comdex - Getting There Is Not Half The Fun 11/16/95 LAS VEGAS, NEVADA, U.S.A., 1995 NOV 16 (NB) -- You know you're at Comdex when you walk out the door of the Las Vegas' McCarran Airport the day before the show opens and see a lineup of more than 100 people waiting for cabs. That is only the beginning. The largest trade show in North America was expected to draw more than 200,000 people this year. Even with the fleet of shuttle buses that show organizer Softbank Comdex lays on for the week, and Las Vegas' cab drivers working flat out, that crowd far overwhelms the city's transportation infrastructure. The arriving traveler begins to get the feel of it when he or she moves through that cab lineup at the airport in a surprisingly short time -- only to discover that the first lineup was really only a lineup to get into another lineup. The second lineup is the one that actually leads to the taxis. A cab driver the next morning snipes at "the stupid-ass county" over the fact that, with the continent's largest computer show in town, road improvements on Las Vegas Boulevard -- the Strip to most of us -- are going on uninterrupted this week. Could they not have put the work aside for a week and opened all lanes to traffic, he wonders. The same cab driver has a few sarcastic words about a forlorn-looking handful of Comdex-goers waiting outside one of the smaller hotels for a Comdex shuttle bus. They were there when he passed by the last time, he says, and there they still are. "Those guys may need to shave again before they get out of there," chuckles the cabbie. Nobody is chuckling in the shuttle-bus lineups behind the Aladdin Hotel after IBM Chairman Louis Gerstner finishes his keynote address that morning. A few thousand people descend on the loading area, and the buses can't keep up. It doesn't help that, despite announcements that all buses go to both the Las Vegas Convention Center and the Sands Expo and Convention Center, at least one bus driver tells passengers he is going only to the Las Vegas Convention Center. Another pulls into his position in the lineup where several buses are supposed to be loading simultaneously, and idles with his door closed while he waits for the bus in front of him to load. Eventually, irate would-be passengers call over a member of the transportation staff to explain the system to the confused driver. Meanwhile, Bear Stearns & Co. has a private limousine waiting, and one wag in the bus lineup suggests to his companion that they apply for a job with the investment firm. Getting a ride wherever you can is the name of the game for harried Comdex-goers, and there are more than a few entrepreneurs waiting to take advantage of that fact. A limousine driver prospects up and down a bus lineup behind the convention center, offering rides for five dollars. What appears to be a private car cruises alongside the shuttle lineup at the Flamingo Hilton hotel, soliciting passengers. Even within the two large convention centers, getting around is a challenge. Crowds jam the aisles, many of the visitors looking everywhere but where they are going and swinging briefcases or shopping bags full of product literature like deadly weapons. By the show's third day, the condition of one's feet becomes the principal topic of conversation. Still, convention- goers are occasionally led to consider that it may be worse -- at least one visitor was seen determinedly navigating the aisles of the Las Vegas Convention Center on crutches, his left foot in a cast from some pre-show mishap. And getting there was certainly not half the fun for Lawrence, Kansas-based Microtech Computers Inc., whose bare space in the Las Vegas Hilton exhibition area bore a sign on Monday explaining that the company's display had been delayed in shipment. Representatives were handing out literature, and the sign invited showgoers to come back later in the week to see the products. It's all part of the Comdex experience, some might say, and it just wouldn't be the same without the lineups and the sore feet. All the same, what was that about videoconferencing doing away with the need for face-to-face meetings? Is there any chance we can have that in place before next November? (Grant Buckler/19951115) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 11/16/95 TRENDS ****Comdex - Pentium Notebooks With CD-ROM Drives (NEWS)(TRENDS)(SFO)(00016) ****Comdex - Pentium Notebooks With CD-ROM Drives 11/16/95 LAS VEGAS, NEVADA, U.SA., 1995 NOV 16 (NB) -- Comdex attendees jammed Epson's booth to stare at a notebook showing Tom Cruise in the movie, "The Firm." Overnight, it seems there is a new standard in notebook computing and it is powerful and feature-rich. They said it would be to expensive and too heavy. Who would carry a notebook with a CD-ROM drive? The miniaturization of the desktop is moving faster than anyone expected. Epson, Canon, Sharp, and others, are showing notebooks under seven pounds which have a 4x-speed CD-ROM drive, the capability to play full-screen, full-motion video, and the power to drive multiple applications at the same time. Some of these notebooks are yet to be priced, but Canon is showing a model with a 586/100 Pentium-class processor, a 4x CD-ROM drive, more than 500 megabytes (MB) of storage, 8MB of RAM, full color, touch-pad, and PC Card slots for under $2,500. Motion Picture Experts Group (MPEG) technology is just an option for the time being, but most companies think the video technology will become a common feature soon. Power for these new multimedia notebooks comes from either an Intel Pentium or a 586 Pentium class processor. Canon says the only difference between the Pentium and the 586 is when you boot your computer, it shows you have a 586 processor. Demonstrating the processing power of a 75 megahertz Pentium-based notebook, an Epson exhibitor popped in and out of "The Firm" to open and operate other applications without a pause or a blink. All the while, Tom Cruise continued to be heard on the speakers as the movie played in the background of various applications. No-one is ready to say for sure the pointing device debate is over, but the touch-pad's popularity is growing rapidly. "This is by far our most requested and most popular pointing device," said a Canon spokesperson. Notebook manufacturers have struggled to find the right pointing device, going through clip-on devices, trackballs on the keyboard surface, trackballs on the front of the notebook, and the little rubber dot in the middle of the keyboard. The flat two-inch by two-inch pad with a button on each side is quickly becoming the "device of choice." When notebooks like the new Canon model are under $3,000, consumers can expect to get great buys on 486-based notebooks with standard features, say analysts. For potential customers who are always waiting another six months for better and newer technology before buying, there will be an 8x drive for notebooks sometime in 1996. For now, notebooks at Comdex are powerful multimedia computing devices. (Patrick McKenna/19951116/EPSON951116/PHOTO) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 11/16/95 ONLINE Comdex - Prodigy Emphasizes The Internet (NEWS)(ONLINE)(SFO)(00017) Comdex - Prodigy Emphasizes The Internet 11/16/95 LAS VEGAS, NEVADA, U.S.A., 1995 NOV 16 (NB) -- Prodigy, of White Plains, New York, opened Comdex with a statement from its chief executive officer (CEO), Ed Bennett, refusing to comment on rumors about the sale of the company. Meanwhile, the company continued displaying a completed HTML (hypertext markup language) integration of its services, and announced "strategic new relationships." "It seems we answer these questions about the sale of Prodigy every six weeks," said company spokesperson, Mike Darcy. "I think this one came from a Reuters news story stating Sears wants to sell its share of Prodigy. We really have no comment." Rumors about IBM and Sears, Prodigy's owners, not getting along are quite common and the story continues to surface in the media. Darcy continued, "We wouldn't know if it (Sears selling its interest) was happening. We are a separate company with our own president and CEO. This is a matter between IBM and Sears. They have been great partners for us. You would have to go to them to find out what they are doing, but if Sears is trying to sell its interest in Prodigy, Sears would not tell you." With the standard "no comment" behind them, Prodigy officials opened the show saying the company had completed integration of HTML, the text programming language of the Internet, into the online service. "This means we can integrate Internet content seamlessly into our service," claimed Darcy. He demonstrated the value of HTML integration with a section of the service called "Interest Groups." What, at one time would have been a forum within the service, is now a separate World Wide Web site. Darcy said this allows Prodigy to expand its service to include almost any type of interest area and leverage the power of the Internet "quickly and easily." As an example, he opened an area on motorcycles which links to a number of related Internet sites. Going back and forth between standard areas of Prodigy, such as e-mail, and the Web, seems completely automatic. "Now, we have the ability to add all sorts of additional service to our customers," continued Darcy. Darcy also demonstrated Prodigy's new File Libraries. "One of the complaints we have had is that we do not offer a collection of freeware and shareware. We have added File Libraries to our service and we have a fast and easy way for customers to find files. With other services you have to search through different areas and topics hoping you find the right place to look for a certain file. For example, a certain video driver might be listed under Windows, drivers, video, utilities, or some other category on other services. We offer on quick search which will look through the entire library." File Libraries currently has files from Bits and Bytes, PSEUDO, The Shareware Labs and ZD Shareware Showcase. Darcy says more libraries are planned in the future. Prodigy is also changing its membership ID system. By the end of the year, members will be able to choose an e-mail address other than the current number and letter combinations used to sign-on the service. This means Prodigy users will be able to use words in their e-mail address and sign-on name. "Changing to a system which uses words to identify our users has been the number one requested change members suggest," said Darcy. Further demonstrating the opportunities of an HTML-based online service, Prodigy announced relationships with Packard Bell, Ziff-Davis, CD-ROM Advisor, and the Houston Chronicle. Through each companies Web site, Prodigy members are offered privileged content not available to other Internet users of the Web. In the case of Packard Bell, Prodigy members will have exclusive access to shareware files and be able to participate in a special Chat Lecture Series about Packard Bell software, support and other important information. Prodigy is a new service. The old, animated interface is gone, the ads at the bottom of the screen are gone, and new and old areas have a clean and efficient look based on ease-of-use. At Comdex, the new Prodigy has a large bus for meeting its partners and the press. A reflection of its popular television commercial with Barry White taking people "wherever they want to go," this bus is not the old school bus. Sitting on the tradeshow floor is the same bus rock stars use to tour the country. Bon Jovi was the last to use this one. (Patrick McKenna/19951116/Press Contact: MIke Darcy, Prodigy, 914-448-8846) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 11/16/95 TRENDS Comdex - Vendors Make Noise About 3-D Audio (NEWS)(TRENDS)(TOR)(00018) Comdex - Vendors Make Noise About 3-D Audio 11/16/95 LAS VEGAS, NEVADA, U.S.A., 1995 NOV 16 (NB) -- The whole idea of three-dimensional (3-D) audio technology is to make sound seem to come from all around the listener, even though there are really just two or three speakers. But for anyone visiting the multimedia showcase area at Comdex Fall this week, the noise about 3-D audio really is coming from all directions. At least three rival groups are pushing their approaches to 3D audio at Comdex, while a miscellany of other vendors add their voices to the cacophony. It is far from clear whether one standard will eventually prevail, but it does seem that some form of 3D audio will become more and more common in computer applications, especially games. The granddaddy of 3-D sound technologies is QSound Labs Inc., and the Calgary-based company is at Comdex with its technology, which has been used in recordings by major artists and licensed to a number of major computer and consumer-electronics manufacturers. Nearby is rival SRS Labs Inc., which claims to have about 50 licensees for a 3-D audio technology originally developed at Hughes Aircraft Co. Greg Brown, industry sales manager at SRS, told Newsbytes the Sound Retrieval System (SRS) technology has been applied to a variety of products, including personal computer sound cards, television sets, and home audio speakers. Brown said SRS sees five major market areas for SRS: computer multimedia, video games, professional entertainment such as performances and cinema, car audio, and home audio. In the consumer audio area, SRS recently announced a licensing deal with Kenwood Corp., which makes home, car, and personal entertainment products. NEC, Boca Research, Media Vision, and Aztec are among the computer-related manufacturers using the technology, Brown said. New licensing continues; Brown said some deals were signed at Comdex. "It's really just the first phase," he said. Another contender in 3-D audio is Spatializer Audio Laboratories Inc., which is also sounding off at Comdex this year. The company said its partnership deals include Compaq Computer Corp., Everex, Samsung, Hitachi, Panasonic, and others. Jeff Rosen, Spatializer's marketing manager, told Newsbytes that his company's technology differs from QSound's because it does not require that the audio material be recorded using special equipment. Spatializer can work with existing stereo audio and create a 3-D effect, he said. How well this works depends on the quality of the stereo sound you start out with, he admitted, but in general, those games where sound is important have good stereo. Rosen also claimed that Spatializer sound avoids some problems that occur with the SRS system, which like Spatializer does not require that sound be specially recorded to be played back in 3-D. He claimed that, depending on the frequency, SRS may deliver little effect or create undesirable shifts in the location of sound. Like SRS, Spatializer is working with consumer audio products manufacturers. At the company's booth, a portable stereo unit, karioke machine, and videocassette recorder using the technology were on display. Altec Lansing Technologies Inc., of Milford, Pennsylvania, introduced at Comdex a system that combines wave-table technology with surround sound to produce multi-channel, 3-D sound. Lansing's system uses Dolby Pro-Logic circuitry, which lets a computer user "steer" sounds to a desired location, according to Tommy Freadman, vice-president of technology at Altec Lansing. In a Comdex press conference, Freadman maintained that Spatializer, SRS, and QSound, while they create the illusion of 3-D sound, do not allow for placing sounds where the operator wants them. Altec Lansing's Wave Cube software uses a graphical interface to let users move individual sound sources -- a piano, drums, a guitar, and so forth -- to whatever locations they like. Due to ship by the second quarter of 1996, the Wave Cube software will be usable with any computer game that runs on Windows 3.1 or Windows 95, Altec Lansing said. (Grant Buckler/19951115/Press Contact: Andrew Bergstein, Altec Lansing, 814-234-1230, fax 814-234-6887, Internet e-mail axb35@email.psu.edu; Jennifer Drescher, SRS Labs, 714-442-1070, fax 714-852-1099, Internet e-mail jenniferd@interramp.com; Fred Balch, Spatializer, 818-227-3370, Internet e-mail fred@spatializer.com; QSound Labs, 403-291-2492) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 11/16/95 GENERAL Comdex - And Now For Something Completely Different (NEWS)(GENERAL)(TOR)(00019) Comdex - And Now For Something Completely Different 11/16/95 LAS VEGAS, NEVADA, U.S.A., 1995 NOV 16 (NB) -- Wandering the aisles of Comdex Fall, visitors know they will see lots of multimedia products, client/server technology, smaller and lighter notebooks, and everything you can imagine for the Internet. But every once in a while, something shows up that you weren't quite expecting. #IMAGE 1 20 TWPCX \images\95111619.PCX Click here for photo For example, there's the No Hands Mouse, from Hunter Digital of Los Angeles. A substitute for the familiar mouse and for other pointing devices such as trackballs, this is a pair of foot pedals that let you point and click with your feet while your hands stay on the keyboard. It can be programmed to taste, according to spokeswoman Jo Hunt -- you can move the mouse by rocking one pedal with your left foot while you click the left mouse button with your right toe and the right mouse button with your right heel, or vice versa, or pretty much whatever you like. Hunter Digital claims the device avoids some medical problems that come with using a hand mouse. It will ship at the end of January for $120, Hunt said. Kantek Inc., of East Rockaway, New York, has another substitute for the hand mouse. It's called the Ring Mouse. On the market for about a year, it straps onto your index finger and uses ultrasound technology to move the cursor based on your hand movements. Buttons on the ring serve the same function as the mouse buttons. Strapping a mouse on your finger is one thing, but how about strapping a whole computer around your waist and mounting the display on your head? Rockwell International Corp. thinks this could be useful if you need to get at information stored in a computer while moving around or using your hands for other things. Rockwell's Trekker has a 486 processor, a 540 megabyte (MB) hard disk drive, two PCMCIA (Personal Computer memory Card International Association) slots, and other familiar computer features in a 48-ounce package. The display is a one-inch liquid crystal eyepiece mounted on a headband. Voice commands control the system. Robert Carpenter, who works in business development in Rockwell's Collins Avionics and Communications Division, said the idea is to replace paper manuals and let workers keep their hands free for chores such as repairing equipment. TView Inc., of Beaverton, Oregon, recently launched the Presenter TView, an adapter that feeds the video signal from a portable computer to an ordinary television set. The target market, of course, is people who make a lot of presentations on the road and don't want to carry around large-screen monitors or projectors. While those devices are unlikely to be available in many locations, TV sets are easier to find. Visioneer Inc., of Palo Alto, California, is showing a scanner for people with crowded desks. Visioneer's PaperPort Vx is 12 inches wide, two inches deep, and 3.75 inches high. It comes with software, including optical character recognition, and technology for focusing and sharpening cloudy images. (Grant Buckler/19951115/Press Contact: Jo Hunt, DeLyon-Hunt & Associates for Hunter Digital, 310-374-6893; Kantek, 800-536-3212; Jim Thebeau, Rockwell International, 319-395-5775; Visioneer, 800-787-7007, fax 415-493-0399/TREKKER951116/PHOTO) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 11/16/95 IBM ****Comdex - IBM Plans Notes Integration (NEWS)(IBM)(BOS)(00020) ****Comdex - IBM Plans Notes Integration 11/16/95 LAS VEGAS, NEVADA, U.S.A., 1995 NOV 16 (NB) -- IBM's upcoming plans for Lotus Notes include Notes integration with IBM's Office Vision office automation software, IMS "flat file" database, CICS transaction processor, and MQSeries cross-platform middleware, revealed Steven Mills, general manager for IBM Software Solutions, in a meeting with Newsbytes at Fall Comdex. "The next step will be Office Vision," Mills told Newsbytes, during an interview in an IBM hotel suite. Products integrating Notes with IBM's CICS transaction processor and IMS "flat file" database will be delivered next year, added the general manager. Many of the 10,000 current customers for IBM's Office Vision have been asking IBM for the kind of "collaborative work environment" and "full synchronization" that Notes provides, he said. In a related move, Notes will be integrated with IBM's MQSeries middleware for asynchronous messaging, according to Mills. In contrast to Notes' synchronous messaging, which requires a two- phase commit, the cross-platform MQSeries middleware is designed to be able to call an application and "leave a message," even when the application is in use. Asynchronous messaging is used in transaction processing, for example. Since IBM's acquisition of Lotus in June, dozens of IBM/Lotus transition teams have been working on ways to integrate the two vendors' product line-ups, Mills pointed out. The areas chosen for initial integration share the two characteristics of being high in customer demand, and relatively easy to accomplish, he added. As previously reported in Newsbytes, IBM and Lotus have recently announced plans to use Notes as a front end to IBM back office imaging software and new DB2 and CICS Internet gateways, as well as to use Lotus Approach as an alternative front end to the DB2 RDBMS (relational database management system). IBM is currently bundling Approach with the newly introduced DB2 for Windows NT. Also at Comdex, Lotus is unveiling InterNotes Web Navigator, a Notes-enabled browser that will be built into the forthcoming Notes 4.0 client. In an earlier meeting with Newsbytes at the show in Las Vegas, Tim Dempsey, director of Notes Product Marketing for Lotus, said that InterNotes Web Navigator represents the final announcement Lotus will issue concerning Notes 4.0 before product shipment later this quarter. Mills told Newsbytes at Comdex that the two companies are also "reworking" Lotus Organizer so as to provide expanded group scheduling capabilities. Other future intentions include continuing "technology transfer" between Notes and the Internet, and additional ports of IBM and Lotus products to new IBM and non-IBM operating environments, according to Mills. Until recently, application areas like decision support, transaction processing, and messaging have tended to be isolated from one another in technological "islands," the general manager observed. But now, these applications can be made to become "aware" of each other, and to work together "seamlessly" within a single "team" environment. Mills also spoke to the impacts on employees of the Lotus acquisition, the resignation of Jim Manzi as Lotus CEO (chief executive officer) and president, the appointment of Michael D. Zisman and Jeffrey Papows to share the office of the president at Lotus, and related transitions. "People are certainly managing a lot of change on the Lotus end," Mills acknowledged. Many Lotus employees are finding that "their tasks have changed." But, he asserted, "Even at this early stage, we're finding a lot of common ground between Lotus and IBM." (Jacqueline Emigh/19951115/Reader Contact: IBM, 914-765-1900; Parna Sarkar-Basu, Brodeur & Partners for IBM, 617-622-2833) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 11/16/95 ONLINE Internet Update (NEWS)(ONLINE)(TYO)(00021) Internet Update 11/16/95 TOKYO, JAPAN, 1995 NOV 16 (NB) -- In this roundup of new resources and services on the Internet: Government shutdown sweepstakes; HYFLEX project home page; Universal resources list; Wild West citizen's index; La Stampa online; New Winsock FAQ; Text to speech demo; Jung-hyun Shin's home page; Crossword competition. Government Shutdown Sweepstakes The author wrote, "Why should the politicians have all the fun? Now you can participate in the "trainwreck" from the comfort of your own computer!" So when will they all return to work? You can decide and enter a just-for-fun competition on the Internet. World Wide Web: http://www.glow.com/ HYFLEX Project Home Page The HYFLEX (Hypersonic Flight Experiment) is a joint project of the National Aerospace Laboratory of Japan (NAL) and the National Space Development Agency of Japan (NASDA). The first flight is scheduled for February, 1996, and will hopefully fly at speeds up to Mach 15 while gathering scientific data. The project has an official home page. World Wide Web: http://www.nal.go.jp/hyflex/ Universal Resources List While the Web is today's hot application, many Internet users have access to nothing more than e-mail. It's the most basic Internet function and one common to everyone. To help these users, a network of auto responders will accept e-mail messages and send back information from gopher, World Wide Web, archie, ftp sites and more, but finding them is often difficult. The AutoNet TourGuide is a bi-weekly newsletter that uncovers resources that are accessed by e-mail. To subscribe send an e-mail to the address below with the indicated text. Email: majordomo@mailback.com Message Body: subscribe autonet Wild West Citizen's Index If you need to check out the people of the Wild West, whether they were outlaws, good guys, Indians, or the military, this may be the place to go. The server offers an index to the people that made the West and the events they were part of. World Wide Web: http://www.cs.umu.se/~dphln/wildwest/index.html La Stampa Online Italy's La Stampa newspaper has launched a special Internet version especially for Italians abroad. The online edition carries the full text of the printed version and is posted to the World Wide Web at 4am UTC/GMT daily. Articles include contributions from exclusive writers such as Mikhail Gorbatchev. World Wide Web: http://www.lastampa.it/ New Winsock FAQ The frequently asked questions list from the alt.winsock news group has been updated. The comprehensive file should answer almost all questions and problems encountered when running any of the Windows Sockets programs used to establish PPP or SLIP connections to the network. The new version is available from the group, ftp sites, and the World Wide Web. Network News: news:alt.winsock FTP: ftp://rtfm.mit.edu/ World Wide Web: http://www.well.com/user/nac/alt-winsock-faq.html Text-To-Speech Demo If you have a sound card in your computer you can experience AT&T's latest research in the field of text-to-speech technology. On the project Web page users are able to enter any text and receive back a sound file of the text being spoken. You must have audio capability and a browser configured for audio. World Wide Web: http://www.research.att.com/cgi-bin/voices.form/ Jung-hyun Shin's Home Page We're assured that in Korea, Jung-hyun Shin is every bit as hot as the stars of the Billboard Hot 100 are in the US. This home page lets visitors hear some of the rock singer's music, learn about the movies he has been in, and see photos. World Wide Web: http://www.cyberkorea.co.kr/shin/ Crossword Competition Groiler has launched an international Crossword competition. Prizes will be given to the winners in January and full details, plus the competition, can be found on Groiler's Web site or by requesting details via e-mail. Email: webmaster@grolier.com World Wide Web: http://www.grolier.com/ (Martyn Williams/19951116) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 11/16/95 LEGAL ****UK Jails Virus Writer For 18 Months (NEWS)(LEGAL)(TYO)(00022) ****UK Jails Virus Writer For 18 Months 11/16/95 LONDON, ENGLAND, 1995 NOV 16 (NB) -- In the first case of its kind in the United Kingdom, a computer user that wrote and spread viruses has been jailed for 18 months. The author wrote, not just viruses, but also a virus masking program that meant many virus checkers could not detect and clean the infected files. Christopher Pile, a 26 year-old of Pike Road, Plymouth, Devon, in Britain's south west, went under the name of "Black Baron" and wrote two computer viruses, Pathogen and Queeg, named after expressions used in the British Sci-Fi comedy "Red Dwarf." What made these particularly dangerous was the addition of a third program which cloaked the two viruses, making them invisible to many virus checker programs. The cloaker software, named Smeg, also after a Red Dwarf expression, was attached to the viruses and distributed on its own so others could disguise their own creations. Upon activation, the Pathogen virus would display a message on a user's screen, again based on a line from the TV series, that read, "Smoke me a kipper. I'll be back for breakfast. Unfortunately some of your data won't." The Queeg virus was Pile's second creation and used a more advanced version of the Smeg cloaker software to disguise itself. Pile was said to have distributed the software to virus makers and hackers worldwide on bulletin boards and the Internet and to have attached the software to other programs that users would unwittingly download and run. One infected program was a virus checker. At Exeter Crown Court, Pile pleaded guilty to 11 offenses under the Computer Misuse Act of 1990. Specifically, five were of unauthorized access to computer systems to facilitate crime, five were of unauthorized modification of computer material, and one of inciting others to spread viruses. The offenses took place between 1993 and April, 1994. In court, Brian Lett, prosecuting, claimed one unnamed company had suffered half a million pounds worth of damage ($780,000) as a result of the acts of Pile. Upon sentencing, Judge Jeremy Griggs commented, "Those who seek to reap mindless havoc on one of the vital tools of our age cannot expect lenient treatment." He was then sentenced to 18 months in jail. (Martyn Williams/19951116) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 11/16/95 GENERAL Comdex - LG Electronics Intros Monitors, CD-ROM Drives (NEWS)(GENERAL)(MSP)(00023) Comdex - LG Electronics Intros Monitors, CD-ROM Drives 11/16/95 LAS VEGAS, NEVADA, U.S.A., 1995 NOV 16 (NB) -- LG Electronics (LGE), which bills itself as the world's largest manufacturer of monitors, said it is introducing a line of 15-inch and 17-inch monitors targeted for the consumer market. The new brand, called "Studioworks," will be marketed under the "Goldstar" name. At the top of the Goldstar lineup are three monitors that have sculpted cabinetry and controls by the noted industrial design firm Fitch Inc., LGE officials said. The controls and the cabinet are much more than aesthetic, Bennett W. Norell, a brand manager at LGE, told Newsbytes on the floor of Comdex Fall 95 in Las Vegas. "The vents in the sides of the cabinet help keep the inside of the case cool," he said. Also, a one-button and knob control on the three higher-end Studioworks monitors interface with digital on-screen controls to manage resolution changes, color temperature adjustments, color temperature operations, and geometry controls, he said. The two Studioworks monitors, the 78i and the 76i, both feature an Invar shadow mask on a flat, square tube. The maximum resolution is 1,600 by 1,280 on the 78i and 1,280 by 1,024 on the 76i. Both feature "true Plug and Play installation" when used with Windows 95. A 15-inch monitor, the 56i, was also unveiled. The 78i will be available next month at a price of $1180, while both the 76i and the 56i won't be ready for the showroom floor until April, 1996. The 76i will cost $980, and the 56i will set consumers back by $560. An optional audio speaker unit, designed to integrate into the sides of the two 17-inch monitors, was also designed by Fitch. Norell noted to Newsbytes that the speakers are designed to play to a room the size of a typical classroom. LGE also introduced a 6x CD-ROM drive for the retail market. The new drive, model GCD-R560B, has a data transfer rate of 900 kilobytes-per- second, which is 50 percent faster than today's quad-speed drives, LGE officials said. The drive's average data access time clocks in at 160 milliseconds (ms), and has 256 kilobytes of cache memory. The unit is scheduled to ship in January at a price of $300. Both the new monitor and CD-ROM offerings represent a push by LGE into the consumer market, Norell told Newsbytes. "The growth in the consumer channel has been significant," he said. "So we've changed our packaging to a retail packaging for both the CD-ROM and the monitor lines." He also said an increase in the warranty window for the Studioworks monitor line shows the company's increased interest in the consumer channel. LG Electronics also displayed high-speed cable modems and ISDN (integrated services digital network) modems from Zenith, in which LGE recently bought a majority of stock. Newsbytes previously reported on the acquisition, which saw LGE pump more than $350 million into the beleaguered US-based television manufacturer. Zenith officials said it would use the cash to support the expansion of Zenith's color picture tube plant in Melrose Park, Illinois, and support its growing Network Systems business. (Bob Woods/19951115/Press Contacts: Gerard Sandoval, Access Communications, 415-904-7070 ext 279) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 11/16/95 CHIPS Comdex - New Yamaha Chip Supports 2 ISDN Layers (NEWS)(CHIPS)(MSP)(00024) Comdex - New Yamaha Chip Supports 2 ISDN Layers 11/16/95 LAS VEGAS, NEVADA, U.S.A., 1995 NOV 16 (NB) -- Yamaha Systems Technology Inc. has introduced what it says is the first ISDN (integrated services digital network) basic rate interface controller that supports both Layer 1 (physical layer) and Layer 2 (LAP-D protocol) in a single chip. The San Jose, California-based company demonstrated the chip at Comdex Fall 95 in Las Vegas in the product's US launch. The new ISDN product, called the YM7405B, "will send the contents of a floppy disk over an ISDN line at warp speed," said Iraj Zaarinnaal, product manager at Yamaha Systems Technology. The YM7405B has a built-in analog driver and receiver, and support for the European market, officials said. The chip is fully compatible with other ISDN devices. A power-down mode allows for a stand-by mode and low-power operation. The chip's small form factor lets it be implemented into PCMCIA (Personal Computer Manufacturer Card International Association) cards, which Yamaha has already done in one of its PCMCIA cards. The YM7405B provides local area network (LAN)-to-LAN connections, along with remote access to LANs. Some of the practical applications for the new chip include telemedicine, picture phones, and digital phones. The new chip also includes the Layer 3 processor interface. Yamaha also introduced a development board for layer application development for the YM7405B. The board will ship with Telenetworks software, allowing the board to connect with all ISDN switch types in North America. Zarrinnaal told Newsbytes the board will help companies that develop high-speed Internet connections, videoconferencing, and remote LANs. He told Newsbytes that, since the Layer 2 is incorporated into the chip, the board was needed to prove the chip would work in the US market with the various ISDN switch types. In the realm of gaming, Yamaha introduced the YGV612 DRAM-based three-dimensional graphics controller, which incorporates texture mapping, Z buffering, and Gourand shading. With the chip installed in a graphics board, the chip allows games to run in 640 by 480 mode with 64 thousand colors, and high frame rates. (Bob Woods/19951115/Press Contacts: Joyce Lekas, The Lekas Group, 415-948-8907, Internet e-mail lekas@aol.com; Public Contact: Yamaha Systems Technology, 408-467-2300) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 11/16/95 TRENDS Comdex - MPEG And More MPEG (NEWS)(TRENDS)(SFO)(00025) Comdex - MPEG And More MPEG 11/16/95 LAS VEGAS, NEVADA, U.S.A., 1995 NOV 16 (NB) -- From desktop systems to small software companies, the trend is towards full-screen, full-motion video on computer monitors and notebook displays. After a long battle of the standards, Motion Picture Experts Group (MPEG) seems to have won. Following yesterday's Newsbytes story about Vision Interactive and the growing role of MPEG, today's Comdex news continues to feature the standard, its acceptance by original equipment manufacturers (OEMs), and the availability of developer tools. Personal Computer systems and notebook manufacturers are anxious to grab attendees attention with the latest MPEG encoded movie. Most of the MPEG video displayed here is supported by an MPEG board which fits in a standard expansion slot. In the past twelve months, the media has covered a software version of MPEG which means full-screen, full-motion video can be played on a 486-based or faster processor without an MPEG board. Paul Hodgson, marketing manager for OmniMedia, told Newsbytes, "The quality of SoftMPEG is not as good as MPEG running on a board, but we are finding a lot of consumers are happy to have the experience of full- screen, full-motion video by just playing the CD." Hodgson explained certain CD-ROM titles contain SoftMPEG software which means no additional changes need to be made to a user's system to see the full effects. OmniMedia, claiming to be the UK's first publicly traded multimedia company, announced two MPEG developer kits at Comdex. The first, Video CD Production Toolkit, is called an all-in-one MPEG developer production kit as a developer tool, multiplexer, mastering software, and burning tool. It uses the company's proprietary, patented MPEG decompression technology to give MPEG capabilities to non-MPC-3 machines. Describing the benefits of MPEG, Hodgson explained, "MPEG is bringing a revolution to the computer desktop. It is the end of little windows of video which are out of sync with the audio track. MPEG is a complete video and audio technology which can be incorporated into any software. Our Video CD kit allows developers to include features such as fast-forward, rewind, slow motion, and other VCR-like options." Foreseeing the need to introduce Internet content into MPEG CDs, OmniMedia also announced its Video CD Plus Toolkit. Expected sometime next spring, the Plus Toolkit will allow developers to create MPEG disks which display downloaded World Wide Web information in the same format as the title's interface. "This will give a smooth, seamless continuity between Web information and information on the disk," said Hodgson. The company says the two kits will cut developer costs significantly. Video CD Production Toolkit is a available for a single licensing fee of $7,820. The Plus Toolkit will be available for $11,850. (Patrick McKenna/19951116/Press Contact: Paul Carlstrom, Pat Meier Associates P.R., 415-937-5999) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 11/16/95 LEGAL Novell Australia Hit With Law Suit (NEWS)(LEGAL)(SYD)(00026) Novell Australia Hit With Law Suit 11/16/95 MELBOURNE, AUSTRALIA, 1995 NOV 16 (NB) -- Information Technology Solutions (Australia) Pty Ltd of South Yarra has lodged a writ in the Victorian State Supreme Court, seeking unspecified damages from Novell Inc., and its Australian subsidiary, Novell Pty Ltd. ITS claims Novell and its managing director (MD), Graeme Inchley, breached an agreement which gave ITS exclusive distribution of Novell's GroupWare network management software in Australia. Inchley said he had not seen the writ, but ITS had been a non-exclusive distributor for more than a year. Lawyers Meerkin and Apel announced the writ in a media release with the "shock-horror" header: "David takes on Goliath in the Supreme Court." Lawyer Shirley Hardy-Rix said she did not expect the case to come up before next year. Meanwhile, there was a period for "discovery." Novell Australia has denied any breach of its agreement with distributor Information Technology Solutions. The networking giant fired back the press-release announcement by ITS. MD Inchley said it took Novell by surprise. The first most executives, including Inchley, knew of it was when Newsbytes rang for a comment. ITS claimed Novell had breached an agreement to give it exclusive distribution of the Novell GroupWare range. "Novell emphatically denies there has been any breach of its agreement with ITS. There is absolutely no substance to ITS's claim," said Julian Quinn, Novell national sales director, in the company's response. Inchley added: "I am disappointed that ITS chose to announce its intentions to the media prior to serving a writ, or advising Novell they intended to do so. Our relationship with ITS has generally been good and we had expected ITS to continue as a parallel distributor in Australasia, given the excellent potential in the GroupWare market." (Computer Daily News/19951116) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 11/16/95 BUSINESS Australia - Cray To Make Networking Equipment For Export (NEWS)(BUSINESS)(SYD)(00027) Australia - Cray To Make Networking Equipment For Export 11/16/95 SYDNEY, AUSTRALIA, 1995 NOV 16 (NB) -- Australian computer products distributor, Anabelle Bits, is to manufacture stackable hubs, Ethernet cards, and other equipment for networking supplier Cray Communications, under an original equipment manufacturer (OEM) agreement. The deal will be worth around AUS$3 million to Anabelle Bits and will see the products exported to Asia-Pacific and European markets as well as sold in Australia. Local content will eventually exceed 90 percent, Product Manager Michael Salama told a press conference at Cray's Belrose HQ. Under the three-phase plan, local assembly of some products has already started. In the second phase, due for implementation by January, 1996, Anabelle Bits will surface-mount all equipment. Design and manufacture of metal casings, manuals, and packaging will all be done locally. The third phase, due by June, 1996, will include a move to local research and development of new products. With around 10,000 units of Cray equipment going into the Asia-Pacific, Salama sees a fair percentage of them -- maybe 3,000 to 4,000 -- coming from the Australian operation. Already he says he has an order from Korea for 500 units -- "sight unseen." Australian product is now "very competitive" in most of Asia, he says, and is preferred in many countries to Taiwanese or Korean equipment. Cray Communications has also announced a new marketing director for the Asia-Pacific region, based in Sydney. He is Gordon Vick, previously head of Cray's New Zealand marketing operation. (David Frith and Computer Daily News/19951116) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 11/16/95 PDA Thailand Launch For HP's Personal Organizer (NEWS)(PDA)(HKG)(00028) Thailand Launch For HP's Personal Organizer 11/16/95 BANGKOK, THAILAND, 1995 NOV 16 (NB) -- With a strong presence in the mobile computing market with the palmtop range of personal digital assistants (PDAs), Hewlett-Packard will launch its new handheld personal organizer, called the OmniGo 100, in mid-November. The OmniGo, which uses the GeoWorks graphical interface and has a US street price of $350 (8,750 baht), allows for handwriting recognition and extends HP's traditional line of palmtop PCs into the consumer market. The tentative launch date in Thailand is set for November 16, one month after the product made its debut in the United States. HP product marketing manager, Asia Pacific, Roy Breslwaski, said last month that the OmniGo was more a consumer product than the 200LX palmtop, which is more of a "PC companion." He added that it was the forerunner of a family of lower-cost organizers that would include fully integrated personal communicators and electronic wallets. He said that, in Thailand, negotiations were under way with a GSM (global system for mobile communications) network operator to provide communications capabilities next year. (Tony Waltham and Post Database-Bangkok Post/19951116) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 11/16/95 WINDOWS Comdex - Windows World Seeks 1996 Competition Entries (NEWS)(WINDOWS)(LON)(00029) Comdex - Windows World Seeks 1996 Competition Entries 11/16/95 LAS VEGAS, NEVADA, U.S.A., 1995 NOV 16 (NB) -- It may be Comdex Fall this week, but that hasn't stopped Windows World Open, a competition consortium operated by Computerworld, Microsoft, and Softbank/Comdex, from banging the drum to promote its 1996 competition. According to Pam Fricke, a spokeswoman for the company, Windows World Open is a competition designed to attract software developers to submit their most innovative custom applications running under Windows 3.1, Windows NT, Windows 95, or Windows For Workgroups, for judging next year. The software entries must be submitted by the end of February next year. Entries will be accepted in a variety of categories, including: Core Business Process Systems, Customer Service/Support Systems, Process Control Systems, Admin Systems, Workflow & Document Processing Systens, Mobile/Remote Worker Support Systems, and Business Intelligence Systems. After the entry closing date, the software will be evaluated by the Windows World Open judging panels. The three highest scoring entries in each category will go forward as finalists and will be invited to demo their applications at the Windows World Open Pavilion at Windows World which takes place in Chicago from June 3 to 6 next year. Further details of the competition can be found at the Windows World Open World Wide Web site at http://www.wwopen.com , or by calling the Windows World Open hotline on 1-800-829-4143. (Sylvia Dennis/19951116/Press & Reader Contact: Janet Church & Associates, 206-443-3329, Internet e-mail wwo@jcai.com) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 11/16/95 GENERAL Comdex - Consumer Versus Business Interests (NEWS)(GENERAL)(LON)(00030) Comdex - Consumer Versus Business Interests 11/16/95 LAS VEGAS, NEVADA, U.S.A., 1995 NOV 16 (NB) -- This year's Comdex Fall is different -- consumer issues are as much to the fore as the business side of the industry. Only a few years ago, Comdex was a business-specific show -- now it's supporting both sides of the coin. Despite this, when talking to various exhibitors and show goers, it's obvious that Comdex Fall still ranks as one of the most important computing shows in everyone's books, not least because of the high quality of the show goers. One Swedish gentlemen who shared a cab with Newsbytes earlier this week, remarked that the $100 admission price, plus careful criteria selection for free guests to the show, ensured that the "serious talkers" outnumbered the "lookers" -- the people who stagger around a show clutching vast quantities of informational material, but with little prospect of buying anything. "The show is very interesting this year, both from the perspective of what's happening in the business marketplace, and the changes taking place on the home front," explained Ruby Soong, chief editor of ARCO Publications, the publishers of Computrade and Multimedia, two Taiwanese publications. According to Soong, Comdex Fall is interesting because of the way it juxtaposes the business and consumer issues. Windows 95, she noted, is selling to consumer users more than business users, while many business users either remain with Windows 3.1 or have already migrated to Windows NT. But the key question as to whether Microsoft will make it with Windows 95 in the business marketplace has gone unanswered at this year's Comdex Fall. Most major corporations, Newsbytes notes, are shying away from Windows 95 for the time being, at least until the next iteration, for fear of possible bugs and other compatibility issues. Windows 3.1, despite all the hype, seems to be holding on to the consumer and business markets -- for the time being. (Steve Gold/19951115) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 11/16/95 ONLINE Comdex - Sports Simulations On The Internet Planned (NEWS)(ONLINE)(LON)(00031) Comdex - Sports Simulations On The Internet Planned 11/16/95 LAS VEGAS, NEVADA, U.S.A., 1995 NOV 16 (NB) -- Performance Systems International (PSINet) has announced plans to offer multi-player sports simulation games on the Internet. According to the Herndon, Virginia-based company, the plan is being made possible by a partnership with Borta, the Sterling, Virginia-based games developer. So what are the games players likely to see on the Internet service? According to staffers on the PSINet stand, the deal follows on from a series of links between the company and other companies announced at Internet World in Boston at the end of last month. Ron Borta, Borta's president, said that real-time interactive games via the Internet have been a priority for the company for the last two years. The plan calls for Borta to develop four sports strategy games that will be accessible on PSINet's Internet backbone in the US. Planned sports titles feature football, basketball, baseball, and hockey. Martin Schoffstall, technical officer with PSINet, explained that the alliances announced at Internet World late last month focused on three main areas: online, multiplayer, and interactive games; strategic product and service distribution; and media/content. The Borta deal covers the first area and, according to Schoffstall, interactive gaming is fast becoming one of the most popular services on the Internet. "We're preparing for the future by teaming with aggressive industry leaders like Borta. We're uniquely positioned to partner with the companies we are now partnering with because our infrastructure is rock solid," he claimed. The moves that PSINet is making are interesting for an Internet service provider. According to Schoffstall, however, the moves are noting but logical. "This is something we saw years ago as a critical element to a service provider's longevity," he said. Further details of PSINet's services can be found on the company's World Wide Web site, which is located at http://www.psi.net . (Steve Gold/19951116/Press Contact; Brian Muys, PSINet 703-904-4285; Reader Contact: PSINet, tel 703-904-4100, fax 703-904-4200, Internet e-mail info@psi.com) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 11/16/95 TELECOM Comdex - Supra Demos Plug & Play Modem Technology (NEWS)(TELECOM)(LON)(00032) Comdex - Supra Demos Plug & Play Modem Technology 11/16/95 LAS VEGAS, NEVADA, U.S.A., 1995 NOV 16 (NB) -- Supra, one of the longest-running modem producers in the US, unveiled a range of what it calls "affordable modems" at Comdex Fall. The modems support the Plug & Play system inherent to Windows 95, allowing users to hot-swap and connect the units as they wish. Jim Cutburth, vice president of marketing with the company, put it succinctly: "While Plug & Play is a revolutionary technology, the term itself has, unfortunately, become a catch-all phrase for anything that will take advantage of Windows 95. This makes it extremely confusing to the consumer, especially when buying peripherals like modems," he explained. Cutburth went on to say that, to ensure that users are getting true Plug & Play capabilities for hassle-free installation and operation, they should look closely for the official Windows 95 logo on the packaging. "Right now, Supra's Plug & Play fax modems are the only ones on the shelf that bear such a seal," he said. Three modems comprise the Plug & Play (PnP) series from Supra, including the 288 PnP, the Express 288i (internal) PnP, and the Express 144i (Internal) PnP, with prices ranging up to $219.95. The modems come with: Comit, Supra's own brand comms package; Faxtalk, the company's fax comms software; and a freebie sign-up kit to Compuserve. (Steve Gold/19951116/Press Contact: Ray Vincenzo, Imagio, 206-625-0252; Reader Contact: Supra, tel 360-604-1400, fax 360-604-1401) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 11/16/95 IBM IBM Opens For Business In Romania (NEWS)(IBM)(LON)(00033) IBM Opens For Business In Romania 11/16/95 BUCHAREST, ROMANIA, 1995 NOV 16 (NB) -- IBM has opened for business in Romania, despite worries about inefficient copyright legislation. Previously, the company sold its computers and software through entrepreneurial distribution channels in the country. According to Dan Roman, Big Blue's newly-appointed general manager of Romanian operations, the company was worried about the copyright issues, but IBM has decided to press ahead with establishing an operation in the country anyway. "Copyright issues have been a serious problem for us in the decision to establish a subsidiary in Romania," he explained, adding that Big Blue has been working closely with the Government of Romania in establishing a draft set of proposals for copyright legislation. Armed with the promise of a 1996 set of copyright legislation, IBM decided to open its office ahead of time. As in Poland, and the Czech Republic a few years ago, Romania's street markets are full of pirated software, much of it sourced from the Far East where, despite the activities of the Business Software Alliance (BSA), piracy is still rampant. Although no official figures exist, industry sources in Romania have suggested that as much as 95 percent of the software in use in the country may be pirated. (Sylvia Dennis/19951116) (SUMMARY)(GENERAL)(MSP)(00034) Newsbytes Daily Summary 11/16/95 MINNEAPOLIS, MINNESOTA, U.S.A., 1995 NOV 16 (NB) -- These are capsules of all today's news stories: ======================================================================== ------------| N E W S B Y T E S D A I L Y S U M M A R Y |---------- ------------| Thursday, November 16, 1995 |---------- ======================================================================== (c) Newsbytes News Network (Tm) Editor in Chief: Wendy Woods ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Newsbytes News Network's on the Web! Check out http://www.nbnn.com for free daily top stories from Newsbytes and its affiliate publications, and from PC Week, MacWeek, and other Ziff news magazines. A subscription gives you all the news, full-text, plus the most comprehensive database of past computer stories online. The keyword-searchable database dates from today back through 1983. Subscriptions are $24.95 for three months. Questions? Send to 'administrator@newsbytes.com' For Japanese Newsbytes and additional services, see the Newsbytes Pacifica Website at http://www.islandtel.com/newsbytes/ ------------------------------------------------------------------------ CATEGORY HEADLINES (*** indicates today's top stories) STORY # ======================================================================== BROADCAST Comdex - Bercos' Low-Cost Videoconferencing Technology..... 02 BUSINESS Thailand Distributor To Open Regional Franchises........... 05 BUSINESS Australia - Cray To Make Networking Equipment For Export... 27 CHIPS Comdex - New Yamaha Chip Supports 2 ISDN Layers............ 24 GENERAL Math Trek "Total Math" Teaching Package.................... 06 GENERAL My Legal Assistant Canadian Legal Software................. 07 GENERAL Comdex - Fuji's Digital Camera, Color Printer.............. 09 GENERAL Comdex - Nakamichi's Multimedia Speaker System............. 11 GENERAL ****Comdex - Getting There Is Not Half The Fun............ 15 GENERAL Comdex - And Now For Something Completely Different........ 19 GENERAL Comdex - LG Electronics Intros Monitors, CD-ROM Drives..... 23 GENERAL Comdex - Consumer Versus Business Interests................ 30 IBM ****Comdex - IBM Plans Notes Integration.................. 20 IBM IBM Opens For Business In Romania.......................... 33 LEGAL ****UK Jails Virus Writer For 18 Months................... 22 LEGAL Novell Australia Hit With Law Suit......................... 26 ONLINE Comdex - Prodigy Emphasizes The Internet................... 17 ONLINE Internet Update............................................ 21 ONLINE Comdex - Sports Simulations On The Internet Planned........ 31 PDA Thailand Launch For HP's Personal Organizer................ 28 SUPERCOMP China - Chen Systems Shows Supercomputer Technology........ 04 TELECOM Comdex - TeleAdapt Looking For Telecom Widgets............. 01 TELECOM Comdex - AT&T Trying To Build CDPD Momentum................ 13 TELECOM Comdex - Supra Demos Plug & Play Modem Technology.......... 32 TRENDS Comdex - Digital Handheld Recorder Technology.............. 03 TRENDS Comdex - Virtual Reality Has Commercial Possibilities...... 08 TRENDS ****Comdex - Novell's Future Of Networking................ 10 TRENDS Comdex - Speech Products A Maturing Technology............. 12 TRENDS Comdex - Forte Has Further Plans For Virtual Reality....... 14 TRENDS ****Comdex - Pentium Notebooks With CD-ROM Drives......... 16 TRENDS Comdex - Vendors Make Noise About 3-D Audio................ 18 WINDOWS Comdex - Windows World Seeks 1996 Competition Entries...... 29 ======================================================================== These are the headlines and first paragraphs of each story, in order: 1 -> Comdex - TeleAdapt Looking For Telecom Widgets -- Gordon Brown, president of TeleAdapt, the modem/connectivity specialist, is a Comdex veteran. Newsbytes took time out to discuss what he, and his UK company, gets out of Comdex and, perhaps more importantly, where his company is going. 2 -> Comdex - Bercos' Low-Cost Videoconferencing Technology -- Bercos, a Berlin-based company, is visiting Comdex Fall in Las Vegas this week with a specific goal 3 -> Comdex - Digital Handheld Recorder Technology -- Syscom, a Philadelphia, Pennsylvania-based company, has unveiled a "revolutionary" product at Comdex Fall 4 -> China - Chen Systems Shows Supercomputer Technology -- US-based Chen Systems will bring its mainframe and supercomputer technologies to the Chinese market, Dr. Steve S. Chen, the creator of Chen Systems and the chief architect of its CS-1000 superserver, announced recently in Beijing. 5 -> Thailand Distributor To Open Regional Franchises -- The Sahaviriya OA Group (SVOA) has announced plans to expand into Southeast Asia, China, and Indochina next year, and recently established a joint venture in Singapore. 6 -> Math Trek "Total Math" Teaching Package -- Math Trek, an intermediate school mathematics tutoring software package marketed around the world to educators and school boards, is now available in a "home" edition. 7 -> My Legal Assistant Canadian Legal Software -- MLA Systems Inc. launched a new Canadian Business Edition of its popular My Legal Assistant legal software package. The application prompts the user to "fill in the blanks" and then automatically generates any of several dozen different commonly-used business forms and letters. 8 -> Comdex - Virtual Reality Has Commercial Possibilities -- What do Linden Rhoads, with a degree and experience in geophysics and a cellular telephony background, and virtual reality have in common? More than you think, in fact, 28-year old Rhoads is the president and co-founder of Virtual I-O Inc., a company that designs and markets virtual reality equipment. 9 -> Comdex - Fuji's Digital Camera, Color Printer -- While most people come to Fall Comdex, the computer industry's annual trade show, to see computers and new software applications, you can also see cameras and printers. 10 -> ****Comdex - Novell's Future Of Networking -- Robert Frankenberg, the chairman and chief executive officer of Novell Inc. (NASDAQ: NOVL) brought the Bob and Dennis comedy hour to this desert city yesterday. The show opened late, closed early and poked fun at Microsoft boss Bill Gates, Comdex itself, various Internet products, and the city's police officers. 11 -> Comdex - Nakamichi's Multimedia Speaker System -- Nakamichi, the Japanese manufacturer of high-end home audio and video systems, has announced its new product, the SP-3d, an audio speaker system designed for use with personal computers. According to officials with the company at the Comdex Fall computer show, where the system was launched, it will ship in January, 1996, with a $199 retail price tag. 12 -> Comdex - Speech Products A Maturing Technology -- Dan Trajman and Bill Gates should get together. Trajman is the vice president of marketing and business development for Lernout & Hauspie Speech Products, a Woburn, Massachusetts-based company that produces speech recognition, speech compression and text-to-speech products. 13 -> Comdex - AT&T Trying To Build CDPD Momentum -- Cellular digital packet data (CDPD) has been much discussed, but less widely used to date. At Comdex Fall, the AT&T (NYSE:T) Wireless Data Division, of Kirkland, Washington, showed ways in which the technology can be used and announced the latest addition to its CDPD services. 14 -> Comdex - Forte Has Further Plans For Virtual Reality -- Forte Technologies Inc., of Rochester, New York, showed its VFX1 virtual reality headgear in the multimedia showcase area at Comdex Fall this week, and had people lining up to put on the helmets and shoot at mechanical robots in computer games. However, the company thinks its technology can be used in other ways as well. 15 -> ****Comdex - Getting There Is Not Half The Fun -- You know you're at Comdex when you walk out the door of the Las Vegas' McCarran Airport the day before the show opens and see a lineup of more than 100 people waiting for cabs. That is only the beginning. 16 -> ****Comdex - Pentium Notebooks With CD-ROM Drives -- Comdex attendees jammed Epson's booth to stare at a notebook showing Tom Cruise in the movie, "The Firm." Overnight, it seems there is a new standard in notebook computing and it is powerful and feature-rich. 17 -> Comdex - Prodigy Emphasizes The Internet -- Prodigy, of White Plains, New York, opened Comdex with a statement from its chief executive officer (CEO), Ed Bennett, refusing to comment on rumors about the sale of the company. Meanwhile, the company continued displaying a completed HTML (hypertext markup language) integration of its services, and announced "strategic new relationships." 18 -> Comdex - Vendors Make Noise About 3-D Audio -- The whole idea of three-dimensional (3-D) audio technology is to make sound seem to come from all around the listener, even though there are really just two or three speakers. But for anyone visiting the multimedia showcase area at Comdex Fall this week, the noise about 3-D audio really is coming from all directions. 19 -> Comdex - And Now For Something Completely Different -- Wandering the aisles of Comdex Fall, visitors know they will see lots of multimedia products, client/server technology, smaller and lighter notebooks, and everything you can imagine for the Internet. But every once in a while, something shows up that you weren't quite expecting. 20 -> ****Comdex - IBM Plans Notes Integration -- IBM's upcoming plans for Lotus Notes include Notes integration with IBM's Office Vision office automation software, IMS "flat file" database, CICS transaction processor, and MQSeries cross-platform middleware, revealed Steven Mills, general manager for IBM Software Solutions, in a meeting with Newsbytes at Fall Comdex. 21 -> Internet Update -- In this roundup of new resources and services on the Internet: Government shutdown sweepstakes; HYFLEX project home page; Universal resources list; Wild West citizen's index; La Stampa online; New Winsock FAQ; Text to speech demo; Jung-hyun Shin's home page; Crossword competition. 22 -> ****UK Jails Virus Writer For 18 Months -- In the first case of its kind in the United Kingdom, a computer user that wrote and spread viruses has been jailed for 18 months. The author wrote, not just viruses, but also a virus masking program that meant many virus checkers could not detect and clean the infected files. 23 -> Comdex - LG Electronics Intros Monitors, CD-ROM Drives -- LG Electronics (LGE), which bills itself as the world's largest manufacturer of monitors, said it is introducing a line of 15-inch and 17-inch monitors targeted for the consumer market. The new brand, called "Studioworks," will be marketed under the "Goldstar" name. 24 -> Comdex - New Yamaha Chip Supports 2 ISDN Layers -- Yamaha Systems Technology Inc. has introduced what it says is the first ISDN (integrated services digital network) basic rate interface controller that supports both Layer 1 (physical layer) and Layer 2 (LAP-D protocol) in a single chip. The San Jose, California-based company demonstrated the chip at Comdex Fall 95 in Las Vegas in the product's US launch. 26 -> Novell Australia Hit With Law Suit -- Information Technology Solutions (Australia) Pty Ltd of South Yarra has lodged a writ in the Victorian State Supreme Court, seeking unspecified damages from Novell Inc., and its Australian subsidiary, Novell Pty Ltd. 27 -> Australia - Cray To Make Networking Equipment For Export -- Australian computer products distributor, Anabelle Bits, is to manufacture stackable hubs, Ethernet cards, and other equipment for networking supplier Cray Communications, under an original equipment manufacturer (OEM) agreement. 28 -> Thailand Launch For HP's Personal Organizer -- With a strong presence in the mobile computing market with the palmtop range of personal digital assistants (PDAs), Hewlett-Packard will launch its new handheld personal organizer, called the OmniGo 100, in mid-November. 29 -> Comdex - Windows World Seeks 1996 Competition Entries -- It may be Comdex Fall this week, but that hasn't stopped Windows World Open, a competition consortium operated by Computerworld, Microsoft, and Softbank/Comdex, from banging the drum to promote its 1996 competition. 30 -> Comdex - Consumer Versus Business Interests -- This year's Comdex Fall is different 31 -> Comdex - Sports Simulations On The Internet Planned -- Performance Systems International (PSINet) has announced plans to offer multi-player sports simulation games on the Internet. According to the Herndon, Virginia-based company, the plan is being made possible by a partnership with Borta, the Sterling, Virginia-based games developer. 32 -> Comdex - Supra Demos Plug & Play Modem Technology -- Supra, one of the longest-running modem producers in the US, unveiled a range of what it calls "affordable modems" at Comdex Fall. The modems support the Plug & Play system inherent to Windows 95, allowing users to hot-swap and connect the units as they wish. 33 -> IBM Opens For Business In Romania -- IBM has opened for business in Romania, despite worries about inefficient copyright legislation. Previously, the company sold its computers and software through entrepreneurial distribution channels in the country. (Ian Stokell/19951116) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD (ADVISORY)(GENERAL)(MSP)(00001) NewsPix Update For Newsbytes Publishers 11/15/95 MINNEAPOLIS, MINNESOTA, U.S.A.,1995 NOV 15 (NB) -- This update will be posted each Wednesday and Friday to reflect the daily picture additions. The updates will in turn become part of the main NewsPix Bulletin issued on Monday. These photos correspond to recent Newsbytes stories. They are online in the Newsbytes menu on America Online, NiftyServe, the Newsbytes Pacifica Website at http://www.islandtel.com/newsbytes/ and the Newsbytes private bulletin board system in Minneapolis. To become a licensed Newsbytes publisher, call Newsbytes at 612-430-1100 (US) or write to wendy@newsbytes.com on the Internet. Licensing applies to any medium. --------------------------- NOVEMBER 15, 1995 --------------------------- AIDSDAY951114 - color / Don't Surf The Net - Safe The Net: Ribbon art by Annie Lennox (the Euryhtmics, etc) from the ribbon gallery from the UK Health Education Authority World AIDS Day Web Site. RACAL951107 - color / Racal's Low-Cost Audio Surveillance System: chart/diagram of system linkage.(No gif of this one.) CRYSTALS951106 - Out Of This World Research For Next-Generation Chips: THIS PICTURE NOT IN YET, EXPECTED LATE NOV 15. (Newsbytes/19951115) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 11/15/95 PC Comdex - Sharp Notebooks Offer 4Mbps Infrared Links (NEWS)(PC)(TOR)(00002) Comdex - Sharp Notebooks Offer 4Mbps Infrared Links 11/15/95 LAS VEGAS, NEVADA, U.S.A., 1995 NOV 15 (NB) -- Sharp Electronics Corp. is claiming a first with the 9000-series notebooks it is showing at Comdex/Fall this week. The portable units come with infrared communications links that run at four megabits-per-second (Mbps). Brian Greer, national marketing manager in the consumer business products group of Sharp's computer products division, told Newsbytes the new notebooks were the only ones on the Comdex show floor with support for the higher-speed Infrared Data Association (IrDA) link, successor to the 115 kilobits-per-second (Kbps) version of IrDA supported in some earlier Sharp notebooks as well as products from other vendors. However, the 9000 notebooks won't be available until February. At 4Mbps, Greer said, the infrared link becomes a practical way of connecting notebook computers to corporate local area networks (LANs) when in the office. Previously, it was mainly useful for printing short documents without hooking up printer cables and for exchanging limited amounts of data with desktop computers. Besides the infrared support, Sharp's three new 9000-series notebooks come with Pentium processors, removable CD-ROM drives, GlidePoint pointing devices, lithium-ion batteries, and MPEG (Motion Picture Experts Group) decoders. Sharp made a last-minute decision to offer the 9000 series in three configurations, rather than the two originally planned. Greer said the 9010 model has an 11.3-inch dual-scan color screen and eight megabytes (MB) of memory. The 9040 comes with an active-matrix screen, and its Pentium processor is faster at 120 megahertz (MHz). The 9070 has 16MB of memory and a one gigabyte (GB) drive instead of the 772MB version found in the other two models. Prices for the 9000 models haven't been set. Sharp also announced new 3000-series notebooks with 10.4-inch dual-scan screens, 115Kbps infrared communications, Windows 95, and 100MHz 5x86 processors from Cyrix Corp. The company said these models are aimed at price-conscious buyers interested in multimedia applications. List prices are $2,299 for the 3020 model, which is to be available this week, and $2,599 for the 3060, which is due to ship in about 15 days and includes stereo sound, a 14,400 bps modem, and some other differences. Along with its new notebooks, Sharp unveiled a small-footprint laser printer, the SX-9210. A company representative said this printer, due to ship in December, is aimed mainly at the small office/home office (SOHO) market. It prints four pages-per-minute (ppm) in black and white and uses Microsoft's Windows Printing System. The street price is expected to be about $450, he told Newsbytes. Also new at the Sharp booth were two models of the Wizard electronic organizers with backlit liquid crystal displays (LCDs). These will be available this month, said Sharon Doherty, a product marketing specialist with Sharp. They also incorporate numeric keypads and new money-tracking software that works like an electronic checkbook. Doherty said Sharp is working on software for exchanging data between a Wizard and a personal computer, which it expects will be available in the first quarter of 1996. With this software, she said, a user could, for example, transfer data from the Wizard's new money tracking function to personal finance software such as Intuit's Quicken on the PC. (Grant Buckler/19951113/Press Contact: Sharon Fenster, Dulcie Neiman, or Heidi Donato, Shandwick USA for Sharp, tel 212-420-8100 or 800-223-2121, fax 212-505-1397, Internet e-mail sfenster@shandwick.com) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 11/15/95 TRENDS Comdex - IBM Exec Looks At Notebook Future (NEWS)(TRENDS)(TOR)(00003) Comdex - IBM Exec Looks At Notebook Future 11/15/95 LAS VEGAS, NEVADA, U.S.A., 1995 NOV 15 (NB) -- Notebook computers will divide into two main categories, according to Per Larsen, director of worldwide brand management in IBM's (NYSE:IBM) Personal Computer Co. mobile computing operation. One will be the desktop replacement type, equipped with virtually all the features of a desktop PC, while the other will be highly portable, designed for basic functionality that is easy to carry around. As an example of the first type, Larsen pointed to IBM's ThinkPad 760, a full-featured notebook that recently was named best computer system of the year in PC Magazine's product awards -- not best notebook, but best computer system. As an example of the second type, he pointed to the ThinkPad 701, with its "butterfly" keyboard and small profile. Larsen, who reports to ThinkPad boss Joe Formicelli, said one of IBM's concerns is to avoid bringing out systems that fall into the gap between these two groups and meet neither set of demands well. So far, it appears, IBM has done well at avoiding that, and the ThinkPad has been one of PC Co.'s greatest successes. In fact, IBM's biggest problem with it has been keeping up with the demand. But Larsen maintained IBM has that problem licked. ThinkPad shortages were "a key thing for us to fix in 1995, and we absolutely have fixed it," he told Newsbytes. For those who want notebooks with longer battery life, Larsen did not have encouraging words to offer. Even with the advent of lithium ion battery technology, he said, the portable units are not running longer on a single charge, because added features such as CD-ROM drives and color screens are using up the additional power. Also, Larsen noted, lithium ion technology has been slow to spread throughout the notebook market because the batteries are in short supply -- a situation not helped by a recent fire at a Sony Corp. plant that produces them, though Larsen said that fire did not affect IBM's sources of supply. Beyond lithium ion will come lithium polymer batteries, which Larsen said will be interesting because lithium polymer can be molded into any shape. That will mean the shape of notebook computers themselves -- which is constrained by the batteries -- will be more flexible. He predicted units that are wedge-shaped, tapering down at the front, once lithium polymer batteries can be fitted into such a design. Display screens, meanwhile, can and will get bigger and gain higher resolutions. "We will go to XGA one day," Larsen forecast. The quality of display panels and keyboards are still the major deciding features in notebook purchases, he said. Infrared communications capability is an increasingly popular notebook feature, Larsen noted. IBM now has it throughout its notebook line. The company will soon upgrade its infrared support to four megabits-per- second (Mbps) throughput, from the current 1.5Mbps, he promised. Sharp Electronics Corp. showed notebooks at Comdex this week with 4Mbps infrared. (Grant Buckler/19951114) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 11/15/95 GENERAL Comdex - Softbank Plans Growth For Ziff-Davis (NEWS)(GENERAL)(TOR)(00004) Comdex - Softbank Plans Growth For Ziff-Davis 11/15/95 LAS VEGAS, NEVADA, U.S.A., 1995 NOV 15 (NB) -- Softbank Corp. has ambitious plans for Ziff-Davis Publishing, the computer-magazine publisher it acquired last week. Masayoshi Son, president and chief executive of Softbank, outlined his vision at a press conference held during Comdex/Fall -- one of the trade shows his company acquired six months ago from The Interface Group. Son said his firm, based in Japan, paid $2.1 billion for Ziff-Davis, the publisher of PC Magazine, Computer Shopper, PC Week, and other titles. He said Softbank was interested in the company because it saw ZD as a leader in computer-magazine publishing and in online publishing, and because of an existing relationship between the firms. Softbank is a licensee of Ziff-Davis titles in Japan. Son said his corporate plan is to focus on providing various types of infrastructure for the computer industry. Softbank is a major distribution company. Other types of infrastructure that fit into Son's plans include publishing through Ziff-Davis, trade shows through the Interface Group acquisition and the takeover of Ziff-Davis Expositions well before acquiring the publishing operation, network infrastructure through alliances with companies such as Novell Inc. and Cisco Systems Inc., and computer services. Softbank has chalked up rapid growth over the past year -- from fewer than 1,000 employees to about 6,000 and from $46 million to about $400 million in profit -- and Son wants to continue the same way. He spoke of boosting the company's portfolio of about 130 magazine titles to 1,000 by 2004, and increasing circulation from about nine million to 50 million. He also pointed to an approximate doubling in the number of trade shows run by Softbank's trade show operation since it acquired the business from Interface and Ziff-Davis. Eric Hippeau, chairman and chief executive of Ziff-Davis, added that in 1995 his company has "put more resources into new products than ever before in the history of Ziff-Davis." Responding to a concern a number of people have expressed about the same company that controls some of the industry's major trade shows and is a significant software distributor owning publications that are expected to provide objective commentary on the industry, Son also said Softbank believes in editorial integrity and will preserve it in the Ziff-Davis publications. (Grant Buckler/19951114/Press Contact: Suzanne Lonergan, Softbank Comdex, 617-433-1755) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 11/15/95 TRENDS Comdex - 3-D Faxing (NEWS)(TRENDS)(DEN)(00005) Comdex - 3-D Faxing 11/15/95 LAS VEGAS, NEVADA, U.S.A., 1995 NOV 15 (NB)-- Imagine being able to fax a document that includes text, graphics, and even motion video, and having it arrive with all its content and formatting intact. That's what 3D Fax 2.0 from Palo Alto, California-based InfoImaging Technologies, a 32-bit native Windows 95 version of 3D Fax, does. 3D Fax 2.0 is not standalone fax software. Instead, the company describes it as a "complimentary add-on" to the user's existing fax application. A InfoImaging spokesperson told Newsbytes the 3D Fax software encodes and transmits at up to 32 kilobytes (KB) of compressed data, which can include as much as 60 pages of text, on a single page. When the encoded page reaches its destination fax machine, a standard TWAIN-compliant or Hewlett Packard scanner can scan the image into the three-dimensional (3-D) software at the receiving end for reconstruction of the image. The page being scanned looks like someone had scribbled all over it with a black magic marker, but hidden in those "scribblings" is a complete file that can consist of text, images, or even motion video or color. No optical character recognition (OCR) software is necessary. The image can be sent so it arrives in four blocks to a page. That allows notebook users to scan the document into their PC with a handheld scanner. If you send the fax from one 3D Fax-equipped to another PC with the same software you don't even need a scanner, said the company. The Professional version of 3D Fax 2.0 has a suggested retail price of $199. The standard version -- which can't handle executable files, doesn't have password protection, and doesn't offer user-controllable picture compression ratio -- sells for $49. The Pro version transmits at speeds up to 110 kilobits (KB) per page when sending to a fax machine and 135KB per page when sending between two 3D Fax-equipped PCs. When you scan the faxed image into the receiving PC, the software not only decompresses the faxed image, but also recognizes what application created the original document. If that application is available on the receiving PC, it is automatically loaded and the decompressed document is opened. The InfoImaging spokesperson said any binary file, including executable files, can be transmitted between 3D Fax-equipped PCs. You can try a shareware version of 3D Fax by downloading it from the company's site on the World Wide Web. The Web address is http://www.infoimaging.com , or you can send e-mail to the company via the Internet at info@infoimaging.com . The company said it plans to release a Macintosh version of 3D Fax 2.0 in about three months. (Jim Mallory/19951115/Press contact: Sylvie Schmid, Interactive Public Relations for InfoImaging Technologies, 414-703-0400; Publc contact: InfoImaging Technologies, tel 415-960-0100 or 800-966-1140, fax 415-960-0200/3DFAX951115/PHOTO) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 11/15/95 BROADCAST Comdex - Videoconferencing Battles For Customers (NEWS)(BROADCAST)(MSP)(00006) Comdex - Videoconferencing Battles For Customers 11/15/95 LAS VEGAS, NEVADA, U.S.A., 1995 NOV 15 (NB) -- One of the main challenges facing the videoconferencing industry is convincing companies they need the technology, representatives from two companies heavily involved in the business, told Newsbytes at the Comdex Fall show in Las Vegas this week. One company that is both working with partners and going it alone in the videoconferencing market is AT&T (NYSE:T). At the Comdex Fall '95 show in Las Vegas, the telecommunications giant was demonstrating its WorldWorx Solutions line of interactive calling features. WorldWorx utilizes video, voice, and data exchange to enable videoconferencing among several sites. Stuart M. Parks, AT&T spokesperson, told Newsbytes that, when companies change the ways they do business, like when they look at implementing videoconferencing, they have issues. "This technology is a wonderful technology, but it doesn't fit every application. You have to make sure it fits the application and makes business sense. So helping corporations discover and re-engineer some processes with the technology as a better tool is one of the challenges we face," he said. Anthony Antonuccio, vice president of marketing for Waltham, Massachusetts' Vivo Software, might agree with Parks. In a separate interview with Newsbytes, conducted via videoconference between the Las Vegas Convention and the Sands Expo Center at Comdex, he said the biggest issue in videoconferencing is understanding the value of videoconferencing. "It's a perceived need by the buyer," he said. "Because it is a new market and a new industry, it's taking time for it to be deployed, for people to use it, and understand the benefits of videoconferencing." Antonuccio also sees the lack of ISDN (integrated services digital network) and the relatively high cost of videoconferencing as barriers to the wider acceptance of the technology. Regarding high price points, he said "pricing is coming down very rapidly. Prices are coming down about fifty percent every year," and that trend should continue, he said. Vivo Software demonstrated Vivo320, what the company calls the first H.320-compliant, software-based personal videoconferencing application. Vivo320 will communicate with all H.320-based videoconferencing systems, including room-based, roll-about, and desktop. It is open standards like H.320 that will help videoconferencing become more widely accepted, he said. "Any system that's proprietary doesn't stand a chance of surviving," he said. "It's like a telephone that has to talk to other telephones." AT&T's Parks said forming partnerships is important in the world of videoconferencing. "We try, but we cannot be all things to all people. So we need to concentrate in the areas where we have the best competencies. And then work with partners outside the company that have competencies in other areas, like Intel, Apple, Sun, IBM, and the like." He also said AT&T also partners with other divisions within AT&T to further the company's end. Both AT&T and Vivo host Internet World Wide Web sites for further information. AT&T's is located at http://www.att.com , while Vivo's is at http://www.vivo.com . (Bob Woods/19951114/Press Contact: Mary Campbell, Vivo Software, 617-899-8900, Internet e-mail campbell@vivo.com) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 11/15/95 APPLE Comdex - US Robotics Adds Mac Modems (NEWS)(APPLE)(MSP)(00007) Comdex - US Robotics Adds Mac Modems 11/15/95 LAS VEGAS, NEVADA, U.S.A., 1995 NOV 15 (NB) -- Chicago-area-based US Robotics Inc. (NASDAQ:USRX) announced at Comdex Fall '95 in Las Vegas that it intends to ship new Sportster fax/modems for computers that use the Macintosh operating system (OS). The new additions to the Sportster line are: the Sportster 28.8 Faxmodem, the Sportster Voice 28.8 Faxmodem with both speakerphone and personal voice-mail, and Sportster 28.8 PC Card (previously Personal Computer Memory Card International Association) with DataView. The Sportster 28.8 Faxmodem and the Sportster Voice 28.8 Faxmodem include a US Robotics enhancement that actually takes the modems up to a speed of 33.6 kilobits-per-second (Kbps), officials said. Both come with a Mac-to-modem cable. The Voice 28.8 includes a full-duplex speakerphone, CallerID capability, personal voice-mail, speed dial, a contact manager, call logging, and call screening. Tom Potts, US Robotics spokesperson, told Newsbytes his company is the first to bring voice products bundled with a modem to market for the Macintosh. The standard 28.8 Faxmodem carries a list price of $279, with availability in December. In January, 1996, the Voice modem is slated for release, carrying a list price of $329. All products, including the Sportster 28.8 PC Card, will include data/fax software and an Internet Connection Kit. The PC Card will be out in December, 1995, at a list price of $329. Potts told Newsbytes that, while the Macintosh market may not be as big as the PC market, it still is one the company feels important to go after. "If you look at the Macintosh, they are the second biggest computer manufacturer in the country," he said. "We're still looking at nine to ten percent of the market out there (comprised of Macintosh units), so that certainly is a significant market, and one we want to bring products to that will address their needs." US Robotics announced additional support for a market that seems to have much more support -- Windows 95. The company said its line of Sportster faxmodems designed for PCs are now certified as Windows 95- compatible. This means the company can now say its modems are Plug and Play with Windows 95 systems, and the units will automatically configure when used with Windows 95. (Bob Woods/19951114/Press Contact: Tom Potts, U.S. Robotics, 708-676-7113; Public Contact: US Robotics, 800-DIAL-USR) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 11/15/95 TELECOM Comdex - Megahertz Goes Wireless With PCMCIA (NEWS)(TELECOM)(MSP)(00008) Comdex - Megahertz Goes Wireless With PCMCIA 11/15/95 LAS VEGAS, NEVADA, U.S.A., 1995 NOV 15 (NB) -- Megahertz Inc. has announced at Comdex Fall '95 in Las Vegas its new Allpoints Wireless PC Card (previously Personal Computer Memory Card International Association) that connects to the RAM Mobile Data Network. With the card, Megahertz officials said users can send e-mail and faxes, and utilize other features without using a telephone line. "We feel we've broken three barriers that have made wireless previously inaccessible for people," Karleen Broadwater, press relations manager for Megahertz, told Newsbytes. "One, the Type II format factor is very important, because it can be used in a laptop, a personal digital assistant, or other computing devices," she said. The second barrier has to do with battery life, in that the unit uses a nine-volt battery that can be "trickle charged" directly from the notebook. Affordability is the third factor, she said, with a price of $499 and offers for wireless e-mail and fax services. An additional cost savings comes from the way usage is billed, officials said. Users are billed only for successfully transmitted messages, not connection time. Also, no roaming fees are charged, so users pay the same price whether they are at home or on the road. The RAM Mobile Data Network is available nationwide in more than 90 percent of the areas where business is conducted, Megahertz officials said. With a RAM presence here in Las Vegas, people at the US Robotics booth where Megahertz is located have been able to send e-mail and receive messages without having to go through the already-clogged phone lines. The unit is slated to be available in December, although it may take a while longer for customers to buy the wireless card. Broadwater told Newsbytes that pre-sales of the Allpoints PC Card have been heavy, and the units are already on back-order. Megahertz, which is owned by US Robotics, maintains an Internet World Wide Web site at http://www.megahertz.com for additional information. (Bob Woods/19951114/Press Contact: Karleen Broadwater, Megahertz, 801-320-7709, Internet e-mail kbroadwater@mhz.com; Public Contact: Megahertz, 800-LAPTOPS) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 11/15/95 HEALTH Comdex - Life Form Fitness Software Helps You Lose Weight (NEWS)(HEALTH)(MSP)(00009) Comdex - Life Form Fitness Software Helps You Lose Weight 11/15/95 LAS VEGAS, NEVADA, U.S.A., 1995 NOV 15 (NB) -- Fitnesoft Inc. of Orem, Utah, said its new Life Form Personal Fitness software is broadening its distribution channel, with new shipments starting today to Egghead Software stores. Life Form is a Windows-based product, described as a way for computer users to keep track of their personal health care. Speaking to Newsbytes from the floor of the Sands Expo Center at Comdex Fall '95 in Las Vegas, D. Clive Winn, president of Fitnesoft, agreed with a Newsbytes observation when we called the product a "contact manager for health management." He said another journalist called the program a "Quicken" for health. "With Quicken, people store all of their information about their accounts and their finances, and they can then print out charts about their finances. I think both analogies are correct - (the product) is about personal information management." Life Form keeps track of important aspects of one's eating habits, including calories consumed, protein, carbohydrates, sodium, and other nutrients. A database of more than 13,000 foods helps the user determine what is in their food. The user can add other foods or even recipes to the database. The program also helps people track exercise programs, and estimate the number of calories burned at work, at play, and at rest. If and when the person starts losing weight, Life Form keeps track of one's physical progress including: blood pressure; waist, chest, and hip measurements; and height and weight statistics. Aspects of our everyday lives that aren't normally tracked, including stress levels, sleep, physical and emotional well-being, headaches, and allergic reactions can be tracked with the program. In fact, Winn told Newsbytes of one woman who had allergic reactions, but she didn't know why. So Life Form tracked what she ate, when she ate it, and other factors. With the help of the program, she determined that she broke out in hives whenever she ate broccoli. After she stopped eating the vegetable, the hives went away. Life Form also keeps track of blood chemistry, like cholesterol levels and blood sugar levels, that are provided by the user, along with medical histories. Winn said the real advantage of the program comes from its graphing capabilities. He showed Newsbytes one example, where he tracked his own weight loss. The line graphic showed his actual weight loss compared to his personal goals for shedding pounds. The program contains other graphing capabilities, including the ability to look at a particular food's fat, carbohydrate, sodium, and vitamin content via a pie chart. More than one person can save information about themselves in the program. For those who are bashful about revealing aspects of their lives like weight and caloric intake, all records can be password protected. Winn said another important feature of the program is that it's non-judgmental, in that it "won't tell you what to do in your life, and it won't form judgments of you." Already, Life Form is carried nationwide by stores like CompUSA, Lowes, Electronic Botique, Software City, and Micro center. Barnes & Noble also carries Life Form in stores that have a Software Etc. inside of them, officials said. Life Form is also resold by Personal Fitness Systems, a personal fitness trainer company. Future plans for the company include a broader channel of distribution, along with pursuing OEM (original equipment manufacturer) licensing of the product. (Bob Woods/1995111/Press Contact: Deborah McAlister, Holland-McAlister Public Relations, 214-669-3456; Public Contact: Fitnesoft, 801-221-7777) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 11/15/95 BUSINESS Comdex - Show's Bookstore Cranking Out Titles (NEWS)(BUSINESS)(MSP)(00010) Comdex - Show's Bookstore Cranking Out Titles 11/15/95 LAS VEGAS, NEVADA, U.S.A., 1995 NOV 15 (NB) -- Before the Comdex Fall '95 show even opens for another day of browsing, the official bookstore inside the Las Vegas Convention Center is buzzing with activity. The store, run by DigitalGuru Bookshops of Brea, California, is doubling the sales figures it expected to see at the show, a DigitalGuru spokesperson told Newsbytes. The company has gone from selling 200 books from four tents outside of the convention center, to hawking more than 30,000 books in its official capacity as the "official" Comdex book store. A DigitalGuru spokesperson told Newsbytes his company beat out companies like Barnes and Noble, a nationwide book store chain, to gain the prestige space they enjoy this week at the huge computer show. Plus, the spokesperson said this is the first time Comdex has sponsored an official book shop. And many attendees are taking advantage of the store's extreme proximity to the main exhibit halls. Newsbytes noted many customers buying titles from categories across the board, including Internet, Windows 95, networking, advanced information systems (AIS), and various software programs. Steve Martinez, manager of the Comdex shop, told Newsbytes many of the books he's selling deal with the higher end of computing. "There are some 'Dummies'-type books going out, but they're mainly high-end stuff," he said. "We're hoping more of the higher-end books sell, because that's mainly the type of books we stock. This is a higher-end trade show, and those are the types of books we were expecting to sell." Rupin Kotecha, a buyer at DigitalGuru, told Newsbytes he hopes to sell out of many book titles during Comdex this week. One salesperson told Newsbytes he's seeing a lot of Internet books go out the DigitalGuru's front door. "You see a lot of people coming in and buying books on making their own home pages, HTML (hypertext markup language), VRML (virtual reality modeling language), Java technology, and the like," said David Jaeger. "The Internet is really hot this year. You'll also see a lot of people doing seminars, and then people will rush in after the speeches and buy books." One customer Newsbytes spoke to said he's been looking for information on Java technology for a while, and the DigitalGuru store was the first place he's seen any titles on the subject. Jaeger also said a vast majority of people shopping in the store are not impulse buyers. "People come here to specifically buy books. People aren't coming in and saying 'that's cool,' and then buying." He added that some attendees are making volume purchases for as much as $500 at a time. Another aspect of DigitalGuru's business that should pick up in upcoming months is the company's mail-order segment. Using information encoded in attendee's Comdex registration cards, a company salesperson was collecting names of people who wanted to be on DigitalGuru's mailing list with a card reader. She told Newsbytes she had no idea how many people she's registered, but that the number is probably very high. That's probably true, judging from the numbers of people Newsbytes has seen in the store at various times of the day. DigitalGuru Bookshops maintains an Internet World Wide Web site at http://www.digitalguru.com/ . The company also made a bit of news at Comdex, in announcing it will begin franchising operations next year. (Bob Woods/19951114/Press and Pubic Contact: DigitalGuru Bookstores, 800-800-1914 or 714-255-0665, Internet e-mail orders@digitalguru.com) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 11/15/95 BROADCAST Comdex - A Low-Cost Digital Camera (NEWS)(BROADCAST)(DEN)(00011) Comdex - A Low-Cost Digital Camera 11/15/95 LAS VEGAS, NEVADA, U.S.A.,1995 NOV 15 (NB) -- Tiny Brea, California is the home of StarDot Technologies, a company that came to play with the big companies in the Nevada desert this week. StarDot is showing off its WinCam.One, a low-cost digital camera the company said opens up a whole new world of desktop photography, at this year's annual Fall Comdex computer trade show. The current version of WinCam.One (WinCam dot one) looks a lot like an inexpensive instant photo camera. In fact, if it weren't for the cabling attached to the rear of the boxy-looking device, you might never guess it is a digital image capturing system. Vance Kozik, StarDot vice president of research and development, told Newsbytes the company has already decided it needs to re-engineer the case. So StarDot will offer the first 1,000 early models, labeled as development kits, at a reduced price of about $200 on a soon-to-be-launched home page on the World Wide Web. When the Web site goes online in early December the address will be http://wincam.com . The production model of WinCam.One is expected to carry a suggested retail price of $250 to $300. Asked about possible applications for WinCam.One, Kozik called it "more of a toy" than a tool for commercial uses. However, the camera can capture an image from a slide, making it possible to take photos on slide film with your conventional 35 millimeter (mm) camera then grab the image with WinCam.One using the included slide holder that positions the slide the correct distance from the digital camera. Images move from the digital camera to your Windows 3.1 or Windows 95-based personal computer through a special cable equipped with a 25-pin serial connector. Kozik said the company is likely to produce a Macintosh version at a later date. Image resolution as high as 640 by 480 is possible in 24-bit color. The lens is a focusable 8mm, which some photographers said is roughly equivalent to a 50mm lens attached to a 35mm camera and approximates the normal field of vision of most humans. The included software can preview the picture with a small three frames-per-second viewfinder. Once you have the image framed exactly as you want it, a click of the mouse grabs the full size image. The WinCam.One features auto-exposure and time-lapse video recording and you can download the images into your favorite TWAIN-compliant desktop publishing or paint software. Kozik said WinCam.One is great for surveillance applications. A Motion-Detect mode can snap an image any time someone enters the frame at up to 250 feet away, and a small tripod is included. Kozik told Newsbytes WinCam.One is also ideal for creating security badges and compares very favorably in price with existing ID badge systems. StarDot Technologies is a division of Color Dreams, a game designer company that Kozik claims has found a way to legally reverse engineer games for Nintendo and Sega systems. (Jim Mallory/19951115/Press and public contact: StarDot Technologies, tel 714-528-9719, fax 714-579-6641) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 11/15/95 TRENDS Multimedia Big At Comdex (NEWS)(TRENDS)(DEN)(00012) Multimedia Big At Comdex 11/15/95 LAS VEGAS, NEVADA, U.S.A.,1995 NOV 15 (NB) -- Multimedia is a big attraction at Comdex Fall 95, the huge computer trade show currently running in Las Vegas, Nevada, that has attracted an estimated 200,000 people. So many companies want to get in on the multimedia act that Comdex Fall 95 organizers devoted a large portion of the Sands Expo and Convention Center Comdex display area to companies willing to pay as much as $45 per square foot to show off their multimedia wares. For the uninitiated, multimedia is the term the computer industry has attached to any combination of text, graphics, animation, video, and sound. Some multimedia products use all those elements, while others use just a few of them. But at Comdex Fall 95 there are booths where you can look at CD-ROMs containing just about every imaginable topic from interactive tours of Egypt or Italy, an introduction to archeology, or interactive training on the subject of your choice. Dearborn Financial Publishing Co. has brought its books on topics like budgeting, personal financial planning and investing, homebuying and asset protection, and career planning to the CD-ROM by adding a sound video by the author that explains the book and can be invoked during the training to explain specific topics. You can also buy accessories for your multimedia programs, like jewel cases for storage, video capture boards, CD cleaner and audio boards. Foreign language lessons are available, as are an almanac and some very sophisticated non-linear video editing software with dramatic video transition tools like Star Media Systems (Naperville, Illinois) Video Action Pro with a street price of about $330. Need a video camera to make your own multimedia video? Then check Minneapolis-based VideoLabs for their $819 FlexCam S-video color desktop camera, video capture board, and editing software package. While there are a host of multimedia booths at Comdex, you can easily be struck with the impression that many of them are pretty much like their neighbors. And you would probably be right. After all, text is prepared using a word processor, and most users have one of those. Video and audio are captured using some type of camera and microphone, respectively, and the appropriate board. There are lots of graphics creation programs and animation editor software available, and editing software pulls it all together. (Jim Mallory/19951115) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 11/15/95 TRENDS ****Comdex - Gates Vision Of Office Computing (NEWS)(TRENDS)(DEN)(00013) ****Comdex - Gates Vision Of Office Computing 11/15/95 LAS VEGAS, NEVADA, U.S.A., 1995 NOV 15 (NB) -- Bill Gates, chairman of Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ: MSFT) celebrated the year of his 40th birthday and the 10th anniversary of his company yesterday by sharing his vision of office computing in the next century with an overflow crowd at the 7,200 seat Aladdin Theater for the Performing Arts in Las Vegas, Nevada. Gates joined IBM's Louis Gerstner and Novell's Robert Frankenberg as one of the keynote speakers at Comdex Fall 95, this year's huge gathering of computer junkies, the people who want to sell to them, and the journalists who write about it. While Microsoft didn't have a glitzy new product to introduce -- they rolled out Windows 95 in a separate show of its own at the Microsoft campus in Redmond, Washington in late August -- the multimedia presentation supporting Gates' remarks would have made a Hollywood movie producer proud. The theme of Gates' talk was set forth in the title and subtitle of a slick full-color brochure that was handed out at the talk. It's called "The Office of the Future, Moving Applications To The Next Level." That move mostly entails integrating more tightly and developing to an advanced degree technology that's already available. For example, the Microsoft boss sees the dividing line between applications like word processing, databases, spreadsheets and graphics disappearing. Instead, an integrated application will either do multiple functions or, in some cases, automatically invoke a third-party application to perform a special task. The Internet plays a significant part in Gates' vision, as does a concept called "intraneting," which some might recognize as networking. They will allow enterprise workers to share communications as well as easily and quickly obtain information relating to the current job, in a seamless manner. For instance, typing proper names in a proposal could prompt the application's Intelligent Assistant to offer to retrieve articles from the Internet that referred to those words. Voice recognition also plays a large part in the vision, albeit in a much more sophisticated form than is now available. You will be able to issue commands to your computer not only to perform tasks like "print" and "save," but also to check other people's schedules and make appointments, send data to other workers and a host of other tasks now handled with a mouse or on the keyboard. Gates envisions a voice/data modem that can carry out communications on a nearly instantaneous basis to make all this possible. If that seems like it belongs in a Star Trek show, think back just a few years to when the best we could do was a 300 bits-per-second modem that couldn't send and receive faxes. The new technology will also be able to easily handle handwritten communications across a wireless local network. The application of the future will also easily create several versions of the same file, such as one for printing and one for publishing on the Internet. When you retrieve a file a dialog box might ask you which version you want to see and change all versions as edits are done. Recording and transcription of meeting notes will also be automated. To make all this happen, Gates' laundry list includes faster processors, better three-dimensional graphics and motion video, and integrated communications using voice, pen and video input. Narrowband communications will continue to improve and mid-band ISDN (integrated services digital network) and cable modems will come into play as ISDN hardware costs and monthly charges come down. ISDN, said Gates, will be faster by a factor of five than narrow band, and the cable modems will use cable TV cabling to carry data at high speed. Broadband asynchronous transfer mode and simultaneous voice data technology will also speed communications. Gates said the technology of the future will enable exploration and creativity, allow users to focus on value-added tasks, improve decision making as more information is available at our fingertips, and perhaps most importantly from the user's perspective, allow us to work how and where we want. (Jim Mallory/19951115/Press contact: Microsoft, 206-882-8080/GATES951115/PHOTO) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 11/15/95 BROADCAST Video News Roundup (NEWS)(BROADCAST)(MSP)(00014) Video News Roundup 11/15/95 MINNEAPOLIS, MINNESOTA, U.S.A., 1995 NOV 15 (NB) -- This is a look at the top stories this week in the world of video news reporting: Miro intros MiroVideo DC20; LSI's satellite on a chip; focus groups help shape Avid's CamCutter; and in new products, AKG's Hanging Microphone and Prime Image's Multi-II Multiple Processing Unit. MiroVideo DC20 by Miro This new desktop video system is priced at $1,000, which compares to the more standard "low end" price of $5,000. Miro says the desktop system for Windows takes advantage of higher PCI (Peripheral Component Interconnect) throughput and bandwidth. Features include full-screen (640 x 480), full motion digital video capture, editing, playback and print-to-tape capabilities at full 60 field S-Video quality. The system also supports NTSC (North American Television Standards Committee), PAL, and SECAM standards. Video is edited and clips can be stored as motion JPEG (Joint Photographic Experts Group) files on the user's hard drive. The product is compatible with Microsoft Windows 95 and supports the plug and play hardware standard for automatic set-up of IRQ (interrupt request) and DMAs. The software bundle includes Adobe Premiere LE, Adobe's Photoshop LE, and Asymetrix(R) 3D F/X. The Apple version should be out in early 1996. LSI Puts A Satellite On A Chip LSI's new single chip receiver, the L64704, is the industry's first DBS solution to be fully compliant with the Digital Video Broadcast (DVB) consortium specifications. According to the report, this standard is being used by most major satellite operators. This includes Alphastar and Echostar (US), Canal Plus in Europe, Shinawatra in Thailand, STarTv in Asia and Galaxy in Australia. The chip receives digital signals from the satellite, and then corrects errors introduced during satellite transmission. "The development of the single chip satellite receiver represents the next logical step in our forward integration strategy in the TV set-top box market," said Peng Ang, vice president of LSI Logic's Consumer Products Group. Avid Uses Focus Groups To Focus CamCutter Design In October's Television and Broadcast News, further efforts by Avid to fine-tune the Avid CamCutter are reported. In a dramatic touch, the demonstration included a photographer tossing a disk pack at an editor, who after dropping it, proceeded to display the video on it. Working with Ikegami on the design, the unit still has the basic video camera look. But the control layout is still in transition. Other issues include the capabilities of a transitional unit (limited or full-featured) along with the problem of how much storage to give the unit. New Products Featured in TV Broadcast is the AKG Acoustic C947 hanging microphone. The new hanging hardware allows easier aiming, and the small dimensions make the unit practically invisible in concert applications. In Broadcast Engineering's October issue is the Prime Image Multi-II. The rack mounted unit can mix and match up to 10 processing streams. It can accommodate various combinations of time base correction, frame synchronizers, audio delays or standard converters. (Newsbytes Staff/19951107/Press Contact: Marsha Adams of Miro Computer Products, 415-855-0940, or Richard Cline or Jennifer Lyng of Neale-May & Partners, 415-328-5555; Monisa Patel, Public Relations, 408-433-7338, or Mark O'Brien, Technical, 408-433-7030, both of LSI Logic) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 11/15/95 BROADCAST Comdex - Radio SOHO Hits Airwaves (NEWS)(BROADCAST)(MSP)(00015) Comdex - Radio SOHO Hits Airwaves 11/15/95 LAS VEGAS, NEVADA, U.S.A., 1995 NOV 15 (NB) -- Covering Radio SOHO (Small Office-Home Office) at Comdex Fall '95, sponsored by SyQuest Technology, is one thing, but, as Newsbytes discovered, the great thing about radio talk shows is the ease with which anyone can become involved. Newsbytes was pleasantly surprised when, while interviewing Leo Laporte of radio's "On Computing," we were invited to go live on the air with just 15 seconds advance notice. That 15 seconds then turned into 15 minutes of speakeasy about the computing industry in general. Also on the air was a spokesman for SyQuest, who fielded questions from Newsbytes and Laporte about the future of hard drive technology. Topics such as removable drives, the future of drive and storage technology came up for discussion. According to SyQuest, while current removable drive cartridges allow for storage space up to 300 megabytes (MB), plans call for the company to release 600MB and even one gigabyte (GB)-plus cartridges within the next 12 months. SyQuest is also working on the premise that the industry will see 10GB removable drives by the end of the decade. The radio program at Comdex is unlike most others. As well as being broadcast to Comdex attendees, extracts, or even the whole show, will be digitized and made available for download across the Web. Plans call for other shows at Comdex Fall, including one by National Public Radio's (NPR) John Dvorak, will be recorded and aired over local and national radio programs at a later date. SyQuest is sponsoring the Radio SOHO project at Comdex Fall. An unusual association, Newsbytes noted. Newsbytes put the question to David Everett, SyQuest's executive vice president of sales and marketing, who explained that SOHO is something that the firm sees as very interesting to the company and its future marketplace. "Radio is a great medium, and it is reaching a lot of people in the the technology business," mainly because a lot of small offices and home offices usually have a radio playing softly in the background," he told Newsbytes. He added that he hopes make Radio SOHO an annual event, but that decision will be made after Comdex Fall, depending on the impact of the programs done in front of the live audience, as well as any Web and radio shows aired. (Bob Woods/19951113/Press Contacts: Michelle Mihalick, SyQuest Technology, 510-226-5358; Stave Astle or Amy Moran, White & Company, 415-274-8100) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 11/15/95 GENERAL Japan Newsbriefs (NEWS)(GENERAL)(TYO)(00016) Japan Newsbriefs 11/15/95 TOKYO, JAPAN, 1995 NOV 15 (NB) -- In this roundup of news from Japan: Jupiter Telecom connects city cable; NEC, Packard Bell form monitor alliance; Toshiba pulls plug on US cellular; Trade talks scheduled for summit; Oki announces DRAM production; Group confirms network plans; NEC plans car navigation system. Jupiter Telecom Connects City Cable Jupiter Telecom, a joint venture telecommunications company owned by Sumitomo Corporation and Tele-Communications Inc., has said it will inter-connect cable television networks in Fukuoka City, the largest city on the island of Kyushu in Western Japan. The new network will be used for cable telephony between subscribers of the various networks and as a basis for a centralized video-on-demand service. Other companies taking part include Mitsubishi Electric, Mitsubishi Corporation, and Kyushu Electric Power. Jupiter will also invest one billion yen ($10 million) in Cable Net 21, an existing cable operator in Fukuoka. NEC, Packard Bell Form Monitor Alliance Japan's NEC Corporation and Packard Bell, which NEC owns just under 20% of, will establish a joint venture with Taiwan's GVC Corporation, which already supplies monitors to Packard Bell. The new company will build monitors in Dongguan, Guangdong province and produce around 120,000 units a month with production scheduled to double from 1997. Toshiba Pulls Plug On US Cellular Toshiba Corporation is to pull out of the American cellular market. The Tokyo-based company is blaming appreciation caused by the high yen which has in turn cut profits. The US subsidiary, Toshiba America Consumer Products, is keen to point out it is only pulling out of the phone market and interests in all other sectors remain unchanged. Trade Talks Scheduled For Summit Japan and the United States will once again discuss trade between the two countries at the APEC (Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation) summit that begins in Osaka late this week. The agenda includes access to Japan's Personal Handyphone System (PHS) market. The US says the sector is covered by a quota agreement with Nippon Telegraph and Telephone (NTT). For its part, NTT says the PHS services are operated by a separate company, NTT Central Personal, and so fall outside the agreement. The US counters that the company is almost exclusively owned by NTT and its cellular subsidiary, NTT DoCoMo, and so should be included. Oki Announces DRAM Production Oki Electric says it will triple production of 16 megabit dynamic random access memory (DRAM) chips in 1997 from its current one million a month to three million a month. At the same time it will also begin production of 64 megabit DRAMs. The company will invest 42 billion yen ($420 million) over the two coming fiscal years in its Miyagi prefecture plant. Group Confirms Network Plans A group of five companies -- NTT, Sony, Yamaha, Victor Company (JVC), and Sega -- have confirmed reports that they are to set up a new multimedia communications network. Outlining plans, the group said the network, christened GR Homenet, will be accessed using games machines and fax machines rather than by personal computers. A million users are expected to join the service in its first year to access e-mail, music services, karaoke, and games. NEC Plans Car Navigation System NEC Corporation's Home Electronics group will begin producing car navigation (car-navi) systems. The company is already building the units and supplying them to Citizen on an OEM (original equipment manufacturing) basis but will begin selling own brand units shortly. Priced at around 120,000 yen ($1,200), the company hopes to sell 20,000 systems in its first year. (Martyn Williams/19951115) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 11/15/95 ONLINE Internet Update (NEWS)(ONLINE)(TYO)(00017) Internet Update 11/15/95 TOKYO, JAPAN, 1995 NOV 15 (NB) -- In this update of new resources and services on the global Internet: APEC summit online; Village Voice birthday celebrations; New on Usenet; Federal court database; Infoseek adds new database; NPR Seasonings; Netscape bookmark editor; News discussion mailing list; Calvin and Hobbes abstract resource. APEC Summit Online The Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation forum is holding a summit in Osaka beginning late this week. The event has an official site on the World Wide Web with full details of the event and access to information as the summit continues. World Wide Web: http://apec.tokio.co.jp/ Village Voice Birthday Celebrations America's premier alternative weekly newspaper, the Village Voice, is forty years old and its Web site is joining in the events. Visitors will find the best of the paper from the last forty years including articles written by Norman Mailer, Allen Ginsburg, Ed Koch, and many more. Also featured are video clips of interviews with people important to the newspaper and music that the paper helped make famous, from the 1950s to the 1990s. World Wide Web: http://www.villagevoice.com/ New On Usenet Several newsgroups have just come to the end of the Usenet voting procedure. Among groups passing were misc.consumers.frugal-living, soc.retirement, rec.autos.sport.rally, and the comp.music reorganization. Some groups failed, including misc.health.syndromes.tourette, sci.med.otolaryngology, and soc.culture.centralamerica. The rec.scuba groups posted mixed results. Usenet: news:misc.consumers.frugal-living Usenet: news:soc.retirement Usenet: news:rec.autos.sport.rally Federal Court Database From the Supreme Court down to the Eleventh Circuit, Emory University is now placing decisions of all circuits online. The database has just begun to be compiled and more information is added everyday. World Wide Web: http://www.law.emory.edu/FEDCTS/ Infoseek Adds New Database The Infoseek Database has added the CSA Biomedical Database to its search engine. It covers bioengineering, neurosciences, genetics, pharmaceuticals, and more. Infoseek is currently offering a one month free trial of the service. Users should enter *bio in the "referred by" box upon registration. World Wide Web: http://www.infoseek.com/ NPR Seasonings The "Seasonings" program on American National Public Radio has a Web site with information about the programs as well as photographs, audio clips, a recipe archive, and links to other interesting food and cultural sites on the Internet. World Wide Web: http://npr.org/programs/seasonings/ Netscape Bookmark Editor A new version of the Sextant editor for Netscape bookmark files has just become available. The software can be downloaded from SimTel, the Coast to Coast Software Repository. The program allows easy maintenance of lists and will launch pages directly into Netscape either online of off-line. Available from the primary ftp.coast.net site or all SimTel mirrors worldwide. Anonymous FTP: ftp://ftp.coast.net/SimTel/win3/internet/sextnt16.zip News Discussion Mailing List A new list is available for "news junkies." Anyone who can't get enough of the news and likes to talk about it can now join the DAWN-L list. The list is already popular with around 100 messages a day so make sure you mailbox can handle that number! Email: majordomo@teleport.com Message Body: subscribe dawn-l your@email.address Calvin And Hobbes Abstract Resource This is a great set of links and pages all of which carry a Calvin and Hobbes theme by way of inline images from the syndicated cartoon strip. Visitors can jump to search engines, computer resources, online magazines, cartoon and animation sites, film and television, and more. World Wide Web: http://www.york.ac.uk/~apb104/ (Martyn Williams/19951115) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 11/15/95 PC ****Comdex - Sony To Make PCs For US, Wall Panels For Japan (NEWS)(PC)(BOS)(00018) ****Comdex - Sony To Make PCs For US, Wall Panels For Japan 11/15/95 LAS VEGAS, NEVADA, U.S.A., 1995 NOV 15 (NB) -- Sony Electronics plans to work with Intel to introduce PCs and peripherals to the US next fall, and with Tektronix to develop new "Plasmatron" screens for large displays that are set for 1996 rollout in Japan, Sony officials revealed, in a series of press conferences at Comdex. Also at Comdex, Sony is showing new Multiscan Trinitron monitors, an update to its Magic Link personal communicator, new technologies for high density CD and digital integration, and new products in the wireless communications and mass storage arenas. The first official word of Sony's collaboration with Intel came from Sony President and COO (Chief Operating Officer) Carl Yankowski during a general press announcement on Sony's product introductions at Comdex, an event attended by Newsbytes in the Sony presentation booth at the Las Vegas Convention Center. While other attendees still milled about outside the booth, anxious for confirmation of an earlier press report published in the Wall Street Journal, Yankowski told journalists and other show-goers who had managed to secure seats inside that Sony and Intel have agreed to jointly produce "PC products" for the US market. Also at the Sony press conference, Yankowski outlined a roadmap that calls for Sony to meet industry "convergence" with an expanding set of products for "computers and communications," as well as for consumer electronics, Sony's original bailiwick, and to continue to manufacture an increasing proportion of its products in the US. Sony and Intel's upcoming PC products for the US market will include computers in addition to peripherals, said a Sony spokesperson, speaking with Newsbytes later. The first PCs from Sony and Intel will ship next fall, the spokesperson affirmed. Sony currently produces workstations for the Japanese market, Newsbytes was told. In the past, Sony has made PCs on an OEM (original equipment manufacturer) basis for both Dell and Apple, the spokesperson added. The Dell- and Apple-branded PCs were manufactured by Sony in the US, and sold into the US market. In a second Sony press conference at Comdex, attended by Newsbytes last night, Masatake Hayashi said that Sony will debut its first products based on Plasmatron screens during 1996 in the Japanese market. "After that, we're not sure yet," added Hayashi, who is manager of the FP development department in the Display Devices Development Division of the Sony Components Company in Kanagawa-ken, Japan. James E. Dalton, director of corporate development for Tektronix, told journalists and analysts at the event that Sony's new displays, code-named Plasmatron, will be based on PALC (plasma addressed liquid crystal) technology licensed by Sony from Tektronix. The two companies, he said, will work with Technical Visions Inc., a Beaverton, Oregon-based Tektronix subsidiary, to produce the new screens, which are targeted at use for wall panels and other 25- to 50-inch display products. Technical Visions President Thomas S. Buzak, formerly a technical manager at Tektronix, told the group that PALC produces resolution equivalent to the active matrix TFT (thin film transistor) LCD (liquid crystal display) technology that has risen to prominence in recent generations of color PC notebooks. In contrast to active matrix TFT, though, PALC permits "cost effective" manufacturing of big displays, he asserted. Unlike competing plasma technology, he added, the Plasmatron screens will use independent backlighting, meaning that displays will not "burn out" more quickly when brightness is intensified. "Essentially, we just place a light bulb behind the screen, and the light shines through." Also unlike other plasma technology, and the conventional LCD technology that currently holds 93 percent of the display marketplace, the Plasmatron technology will not result in diminished contrast under daylight or other high ambient lighting conditions, he asserted. Speaking with Newsbytes during a demo at the close of the press conference, Buzak said that, like active matrix TFT, the Plasmatron method is an active matrix system that separately addresses each pixel, But unlike active matrix TFT, the Plamatron monitors will not require a separate driver for each pixel of the liquid crystal, a problem that prevents the manufacture of large-sized active matrix TFT screens. In conventional plasma technology, the "plasma discharge phenomena," produced by passing voltage in a tube filled with low-pressure gas, is used as a light-emitting source, according to the Technical Visions chief. But with PALC, plasma is employed as an electrical "on/off switch." Buzak told Newsbytes that Tektronix holds the patent for PALC. Tektronix, he added, began to diversify into display development and manufacturing as an offshoot of its work in oscilloscope production. Also at Comdex, Sony has announced two additions to its Multiscan Trinitron product line-up, consisting of: 15-, 17-, and 20-inch models; the 6.7-ounce CM-RX 100 analog cellular phone; the new PIC-2000 model of Sony's Magic Link personal communicator; a 2.6GB magneto-optical (MO) drive with a disk rotation speed of 3600 rpm (revolutions per minute), billed as the fastest in that category; an MO jukebox; two new 4 millimeter (mm) tape products; and the new Metal QIC-WIDE data cartridge. Also on display in the Sony exhibition area, the largest ever for Sony at Comdex, Sony is showing prototypes for a high density CD for storing 9 gigabytes (GB) of data on a dual-layer disk; and Sony Digital Link, a new "high-speed plug-and-play" bus for peripheral connectivity. (Jacqueline Emigh/19951115/Reader Contact: Sony Electronics, 201-930-1000; Press Contacts: Rick Clancy, Sony, 201-930-6909; Brian Levine, Sony, 201-930-6443; Mack Araki, Sony, 201-930- 7664; Jennifer Sandretto or Barbara Hagin, Technology Solutions for Sony, 408-280-6000) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 11/15/95 ONLINE Comdex - Lotus Previews InterNotes Web Navigator (NEWS)(ONLINE)(BOS)(00019) Comdex - Lotus Previews InterNotes Web Navigator 11/15/95 LAS VEGAS, NEVADA, U.S.A., 1995 NOV 15 (NB) -- InterNotes Web Navigator, a new integrated Notes-enabled World Wide Web browser, constitutes the final announcement Lotus will make concerning Lotus Notes 4.0 before shipment of the major Notes update later this quarter, revealed Tim Dempsey, director of Notes Product Marketing, during a sneak preview of the browser for Newsbytes at Fall Comdex in Las Vegas. Where Lotus's already introduced server software, InterNotes Web Publisher, converts Notes information into HTML (hypertext markup language) for use on the Web, the new client software to Notes 4.0 will work the other way around, facilitating use of the Web for Notes users, maintained Scott Prather, product manager at Lotus, also during the meeting with Newsbytes. Users of Web Navigator will achieve "business productivity" through the ability to "sift, sort, search and save" information on the Internet, instead of simply "surfing the Net," quipped Steve Cappo of Lotus/IBM Internet Services, another meeting participant. In the demo of Web Navigator, the three execs showed Newsbytes capabilities aimed at letting end users build their own agents for Internet information retrieval; create their own hotlinks, as well as "Web tours" and public and private bookmarks; "rate" Web pages; "save" their favorite pages as Notes documents; and forward selected pages to other users. End users of Notes 4.0 will also be able to: search the Web via a new Verity engine; customize their Web workspaces by changing views, SmartIcons, and the windows layout; and browse the Internet even when disconnected through Notes synchronization, according to the Lotus officials. Meanwhile, companies will be able to make sure that end users are not wasting company time on non-business-related Web offerings by using Notes access controls to deny access to specified sites, Cappo contended. Companies will also be spared the expense of installing a TCP/IP (Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol) stack on each client, since InterNotes Web navigator will use the Notes 4.0 server, reported Prather. The product manager told Newsbytes that Notes users and in-house developers will be able to employ LotusScript for building "Internet scanning agents" that will come back from the Internet with new Web pages, as well as electronic mail alerts and summaries. "You might ask for information on the activities of your company's competitors, and then share this information with other users at your company," he illustrated. Through a new feature called URLOpen, users will be able to build automatic, icon-driven links between InterNotes Web Navigator and the Web, Prather said. In addition, the user can enter a gopher, FTP (File Transfer Protocol), UseNet, or other URL (uniform resource locator) or Internet protocol within a Notes document, and a link to that document will be automatically established. InterNotes Web Navigator will also come with built-in links to both the Yahoo and Lycos home pages, as well as to the SEC (Securities Exchange Commission), according to the Lotus product manager. Under another new capability, end users can "rate" the value of particular Web pages, with "5" representing the highest value, and "1" the lowest. InterNotes Web Navigator will then proceed to "average" the ratings of multiple users, if requested to do so. In addition, users can create their own "Web tours," or "histories," keeping track of the steps taken to reach a particular page on the Web, and then "saving the route" for use by themselves or other users, Newsbytes was told. Unlike other Web browsers, which allow "public" bookmarks only, the new InterNotes Web Navigator will also permit "private" bookmarks that are displayed only to the users themselves, or to selected colleagues. The Notes-enabled Web browser will also use digital signatures for encryption, with further security available through Internet firewalls for the server, according to Prather. Dempsey pointed out that Internet Web Navigator will run on any operating system (OS) or network operating system (NOS) supported by Notes, including Windows, OS/2, Macintosh, Unix, SPX, NetBios, AppleTalk, and Banyan Vines. InterNotes Web Navigator represents the last in a slate of Notes 4.0 announcements, issued since initial product introduction at Lotusphere last winter, that has also included integration with the cc:Mail user interface and enhancements to "usability," administration, and development capabilities, the director of Notes product marketing told Newsbytes. Prather divulged that, following the release of Notes 4.0, Lotus will enhance the Web browser with a series of end user applications. Lotus also plans further integration of InterNotes Web Navigator with IBM products, added Prather. IBM's cryptolopes, introduced two weeks ago at Internetworld for customized document security, is one area that is being explored, according to the Lotus exec. (Jacqueline Emigh/19951114/Reader Contact: Lotus Development Corp., 617-577-8500; Press Contacts: Peter A. Cohen, Lotus, 617- 693-1284; Victor Cruz or Diane Horak, Lois Paul & Partners for Lotus, 617-862-4514) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 11/15/95 ONLINE Comdex - AT&T Intros Easy Commerce For Small Business (NEWS)(ONLINE)(BOS)(00020) Comdex - AT&T Intros Easy Commerce For Small Business 11/15/95 LAS VEGAS, NEVADA, U.S.A., 1995 NOV 15 (NB) -- In a press conference at Fall Comdex, AT&T announced the establishment of the AT&T Easy Commerce Services Unit for small business users, along with the first offering from the new unit, a World Wide Web hosting service called AT&T Easy World Wide Web Services. At the start of the press conference, which was attended by Newsbytes at the Aladdin Hotel in Las Vegas, John C. Petrillo, president of the AT&T Business Communications Service, noted that EasyCommerce represents the latest in a series of new online services unveiled by AT&T over the past few months that has also included WorldNet and AT&T Personal Online Services. AT&T, Petrillo said, is positioning Easy Commerce as a "non- branded" service for small to mid-sized businesses, in contrast to WorldNet, a service aimed at large enterprise customers, and Personal Online Services, AT&T's new offering for consumers. As previously reported in Newsbytes, AT&T introduced Personal Online Services, together with an initial online content service focusing on health and fitness, in a press conference attended by Newsbytes two weeks ago at Internetworld Boston. AT&T recognizes that "no two (online) customers are alike," the company president told the press at Comdex in Las Vegas, together with customers who watched the proceedings via video link from other cities worldwide. As a result, each of the three general categories of online services will be capable of extensive customization to meet the "choices" of particular users, the company chief asserted. The AT&T online services will also adhere closely to online standards, according to Petrillo. In the online world, standardization is equivalent to the voice dialtone in assuring connectivity between any two users, he illustrated. Kathleen Earley, newly appointed VP of the EasyCommerce Services Unit, said that the point of Easy World Wide Web Services is to make it "easy" for smaller businesses to obtain and maintain a presence on the Web. EasyCommerce will also provide a series of optional services that will include disaster recovery, high bandwidth services, and home page design, according to Earley. The "non-branded" service will initially be marketed to AT&T "800" customers, she added. Also during the press conference at Comdex, AT&T announced a deal with Vermeer Technologies to distribute Vermeer's Front Page Web authoring software over the new AT&T Easy World Wide Web Services. The deal with Vermeer represents the first in a series of agreements that AT&T will forge with third-party vendors around EasyCommerce, Petrillo reported. Now in Phase I, EasyCommerce will begin trials later this year, according to the two AT&T officials. AT&T will begin to add links to other online services, such as AT&T Network Notes and "non-Internet" services, in Phase II. Phase III, the final stage in the AT&T roadmap, will bring the completion of integration with other online services, together with the addition of electronic commerce services, the journalists at Comdex were told. (Jacqueline Emigh/19951114/Press Contacts: Diane Nakamura, AT&T, 201-331-4061; Peter Dave, Vermeer, 415-882-0905) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 11/15/95 ONLINE Japan - Fujitsu Revamps Infoweb (NEWS)(ONLINE)(TYO)(00021) Japan - Fujitsu Revamps Infoweb 11/15/95 TOKYO, JAPAN, 1995 NOV 15 (NB) -- Fujitsu's Japanese Internet access company, Infoweb, has expanded the range of services available, while reducing the rates charged and increasing the access speeds, plus establishing links with the NiftyServe online network and regional Internet providers in Japan. Fujitsu say the changes are in response to the lowering prices of personal computers and increasing number of computer owners. The Tokyo- based company manufactures its own line of computers under the FMV name and new models of FMV Deskpower machines will now come pre-loaded with Internet access software. For existing computer owners or owners of other brand machines, Fujitsu will begin selling an Infoweb starter kit from December for 10,000 yen ($100). Several other service providers, including IIJ, already sell such kits in PC and book stores. Access to Infoweb is offered via the Fenics network, Fujitsu's nationwide packet network which is being upgraded for the future. Until recently the top access speed was just 9,600 bits-per-second (bps) and many local access points went no higher than 300 bps. Now many sites are offering 14,400 bps with 28,800 bps becoming available in many major cities. Fenics is also used to access the NiftyServe and Compuserve networks in Japan. At present, the service is available exclusively via the dial-up network said Mike Beirne, a Fujitsu spokesman, who told Newsbytes, "We don't plan to use a membership and password system for members, which would make Infoweb service available generally from anywhere on the Web." For users connecting at 28,800 bps the first two hours of each month are charged at 2,000 yen ($20) with each additional minute being charged at 10 yen ($0.10) per minute, a 50% on the previous per minute charge. ISDN (integrated services digital network) users will pay 2,000 yen for the initial two hours and then 20 yen per minutes for each additional minute. To attract more subscribers, the service is also launching a series of new services. The Info Village area will act as a "cyber meeting place" for people to get together, and subscribers will be able to create their own home pages on the World Wide Web under the "My Sweet Home Page" scheme which offers up to five megabytes (MB) of disk space per user and page make up templates. Completing the new functions, improved access to information will be available to Infoweb users via a tie up with Fujitsu's database company, G-Search, as Beirne explained, "The InfoNavigator service is only available to Infoweb members, they get things like online searching of the Nippon Patent Office database and a customized news clipping service." The link with G-Search gives Infoweb a big advantage over other services, according to the spokesman, "G-Search has almost every database in Japan and the many of the big ones worldwide, like Dow Jones for example. That's a big edge when it comes to marketing -- we already have the content." Under a new access scheme, all 1.2 million subscribers to online serve NiftyServe, which Fujitsu operates with Nissho Iwai, are also able to access Infoweb using nothing more than their existing NiftyServe ID numbers and passwords. This does not mean Infoweb will become the Internet offering from NiftyServe. Said Beirne, "Nifty already has ties to the Internet with e-mail and telnet, and they plan to use the Nifty Manager GUI (graphical user interface) software to improve their services, including Internet access." Regional Internet access providers are also being offered the chance to enter into agreements with Fujitsu that would allow access to their networks via the Fenics access points. This means companies can spread into a region more quickly or even begin offering nationwide access. Customers would pay the providers under the scheme and the providers would in turn pay Fujitsu. The new services and price schemes come at a time when the personal computer market is exploding in Japan and many major companies are establishing Internet services. The number of subscribers to online networks and Internet providers is also growing fast and e-mail addresses and URLs (uniform resource locators) are increasingly being seen in everything from magazine ads to news broadcasts. Readers can find the InfoVillage at http://village.infoweb.or.jp/ , and InfoNavigator at http://infonavi.infoweb.or.jp/ on the Internet's World Wide Web. (Martyn Williams/19951115/Press contact: Mike Beirne, Fujitsu Ltd., tel +81-3215-5236, fax +81-3-3216-9365, Internet e-mail mike@hq.fujitsu.co.jp; Reader contact: Infoweb, freedial 0120-735222, Internet e-mail info-staff@web.ad.co.jp, Internet World Wide Web http://www.web.ad.jp/Welcome-E.html ) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 11/15/95 IBM ****Comdex - IBM Changes PC Direct Role, Promises Faster Delivery (NEWS)(IBM)(TOR)(00022) ****Comdex - IBM Changes PC Direct Role, Promises Faster Delivery 11/15/95 LAS VEGAS, NEVADA, U.S.A., 1995 NOV 15 (NB) -- In an effort to improve the fortunes of its desktop personal computer business, IBM (NYSE:IBM) has announced moves to appease resellers and a promise to get new products to market faster. IBM said its PC Direct order line will stop filling orders from business customers directly. Instead, the company said, PC Direct will concentrate on generating leads, qualifying customers, and then turning the business over to IBM resellers. This will mean that business customers can call PC Direct with their orders, but they will end up having them filled by resellers. Home users, meanwhile, will still be able to buy PCS direct from IBM. Much the same policy will apply to IBM Direct, the Canadian counterpart of PC Direct, IBM Canada spokesman Kevin McKee told Newsbytes. "Today we often find ourselves in conflict with our channel partners in our mutual customer offices," said Bob Stephenson, senior vice-president and group executive of the IBM Personal Computer Co., in a press conference at Comdex. Stephenson said IBM will try to change that by linking its worldwide sales and service organization with key resellers. IBM wants to do more than "get out of the channel's way" as some other computer companies have put it, he said -- the company wants to work actively with resellers. IBM also pledged to get better at announcing products based on new technology quickly and then delivering them promptly. Stuart Cohen, director of worldwide marketing and brand management for commercial desktop systems, said in an interview with Newsbytes that the PC Co. expects, in the coming year, to announce PCs that incorporate major technology advances on the same day as the technology itself is announced. He said machines in IBM's PC 300 line will appear immediately with innovations such as new chip sets or processors, while those in the PC 700 line may come a little later because IBM's strategy with the PC 700 line is to build tightly integrated machines, which take more time to develop. Announcing machines is one thing, and delivering them is another. IBM has been plagued by its inability to meet customer orders for some systems on time, Stephenson admitted. "Our logistics systems have been broken," he said, "and we have impacted our dealers and customers as a result." Stephenson said IBM's goal in 1996 will be to deliver large-volume products in three to five days, while more highly customized offerings may take 10 to 12 days. The program aimed at doing this begins in Europe this month, he said, and in the United States in the first quarter of 1996. Stephenson said IBM currently has enough inventory to meet demand in the fourth quarter, but admitted that "the pace is picking up in the marketplace and I expect we'll probably see some supply constraints as we get close to Christmas." IBM has slipped out of the lead in personal computer shipments in recent quarters, according to more than one industry research firm. Asked about the challenge of regaining that lead, Cohen told Newsbytes the issues his company needs to address are primarily matters of distribution and time-to- market. Good technology is not enough if a vendor announces it later than its competition, Cohen said. If IBM does not have a product when potential customers start exploring a new technology, its chances of getting the eventual orders are reduced, he explained. Cohen also expanded on what his boss, IBM Chairman and Chief Executive Louis Gerstner, said in a Comdex keynote speech Monday about the industry's failure to make personal computers easy enough to use. He said new software such as IBM's OS/2 Warp and Microsoft's Windows 95 has helped somewhat, and part of the answer lies in such simple things as putting the power switch in the same place on every PC model. Access to diagnostics and making help available through media such as the Internet may also help, Cohen suggested. (Grant Buckler/19951115/Press Contact: Kristen Hedlund, Brodeur & Partners for IBM, 914-697-9711) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 11/15/95 WINDOWS Comdex - New Drawing Prgm Highlights Corel Announcements (NEWS)(WINDOWS)(TOR)(00023) Comdex - New Drawing Prgm Highlights Corel Announcements 11/15/95 LAS VEGAS, NEVADA, U.S.A., 1995 NOV 15 (NB) -- Corel Corp. (TSE:COS; NASDAQ:COSFF) demonstrated two new products and an upgrade at a breakfast gathering during the Comdex Fall show Tuesday. The one that clearly impressed the audience most was CorelXara, a relabelled version of the Xara Studio package Corel acquired from Xara Ltd. Of Hertfordshire, UK. Ottawa-based Corel said CorelXara is an object-oriented drawing program that combines capabilities of a vector-based drawing program with functions for working with bit-map graphics. It will ship in November, the company said. Demonstrating the software, Leah Hayman, product development manager at Corel, combined a bit-map of a desert and one of a cloudy sky, then used the software's transparency feature to blend the two until the result looked realistic. She added cloud shadows to the desert by manipulating a computer-generated fractal pattern, and then added other objects to applause, and a few "oohs" and "ahs" from the audience. One interesting feature of CorelXara is named "colors," allowing a user to define various colors in an object as shades of a basic color. When the user changes the base color, all the shades change too. This means that, for instance, a drawing of a red car can be changed quickly to one of a blue car, complete with highlights and shadows. CorelXara will run on Microsoft's Windows 95, Windows 3.x, and Windows NT. The list price is US$289. Corel also showed Corel Print House, a simple graphics program designed mainly for beginners who want to create business cards, greeting cards, letterheads, and the like. Print House relies heavily on software wizards that guide the user through creating documents. Available now, it has an introductory price of US$29.95, which is to rise at an unspecified date to US$99. During the breakfast session, the company also demonstrated CorelFlow 3, an upgrade of its business graphics and flowcharting program, due to ship in late November at a list price of US$199. Meanwhile, at its booth on the Comdex show floor, the company showed its recently launched videoconferencing software, CorelVideo, which lists at US$499 and is also due to ship in late November. Speaking at the breakfast session, Michael Cowpland, Corel's president and chief executive, said his company is focusing on four main product areas: graphics, multimedia, videoconferencing, and the Internet's World Wide Web. (Grant Buckler/19951115/Press Contact: Cindy Scott, Corel, 613-728-0826 ext 1326, Internet e-mail 659.6767@mcimail.com; Margaret Burniston, Corel, 613-728-826 ext 1177, Internet e-mail margaretb@corel.ca) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 11/15/95 LEGAL ****Apple/Carl Sagan Code-Name Suit Ends (NEWS)(LEGAL)(LAX)(00024) ****Apple/Carl Sagan Code-Name Suit Ends 11/15/95 CUPERTINO, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1995 NOV 15 (NB) -- Carl Sagan, the controversial astronomer, has announced the settlement of the litigation brought by him against Apple in the federal district court in Los Angeles. Sagan had objected to Apple's use of the internal code-name "Carl Sagan" during the development of Apple's Power Macintosh 7100 computer without his permission, and had also objected to references to the code-name and to his dispute with Apple in the computer and national press. Apple contended that its use of the internal code-name was not commercial and did not constitute an endorsement requiring Sagan's permission. The district court rendered judgment in favor of Apple and Sagan appealed its decision to the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals. Lynne Keast, a spokesperson for Apple Computer, told Newsbytes, "We are not commenting on the settlement, but it is our position that we can use any name for internal code-names as long as we do not use it publicly. The use of Sagan's name was internal and we did not mean to insult him. While the name was picked up by some press before the lawsuit, we did not intend to use it publicly. We prevailed at trial, and maintain our right to freely name internal codes." While the terms of the settlement were not disclosed, both Apple and Sagan stated that the resolution was amicable and that they were pleased to bring an end to the litigation. Paul D. Carmichael, Apple's director of Patents and Trademarks, stated that, "Dr. Sagan has made great contributions in many areas of higher learning and, in particular, has made complex subject matter interesting and understandable to a wide audience. Apple has always had great respect for Dr. Sagan, and it was never Apple's intention to cause Dr. Sagan or his family any embarrassment or concern." (Richard Bowers/19951115/Press Contact: Lynne Keast, Apple Computer, 408-974-5431) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 11/15/95 TRENDS Survey - Computers Wanted More Than Big Screen TVs (NEWS)(TRENDS)(LAX)(00025) Survey - Computers Wanted More Than Big Screen TVs 11/15/95 COSTA MESA, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1995 NOV 15 (NB) -- Just in time for the holidays, a Roper Starch Worldwide Inc. survey of 1,005 home computer users reveals that current computer owners want new computers more than any other single gift. Among items wished for Christmas, 35 percent want a new computer, while only 23 percent want a big screen TV. When looking at only computer-related items, nearly half of the current computer owners (46 percent) say they would like a new color printer. A slightly smaller proportion (42 percent) would like to buy either a new desktop personal computer or a new portable computer to replace, or in addition to, their current computer. The study found that nearly seven in 10 Americans with computers in their homes view their computer as an "essential" component of their lives, and 71 percent feel that having a home computer allows them to better balance work and family. Four out of 10 surveyed believe that having a home office is a status symbol. Among the respondents, 79 percent feel having a home computer is integral to being competitive in their careers and, 86 percent think it is vital for children to have access to a home computer. While at home, four in 10 of these Americans say that their family does a lot of things together on the computer. While 28 percent of parents say their children enjoy the computer more than television, an additional 18 percent say their children enjoy TV and computers equally. Other interesting poll numbers were: More than twice as many current computer owners would prefer a complete home office over a new dining room set when starting a new home (65 percent versus 32 percent). Nearly half (46 percent) of the respondents admit to talking to their computers -- women more so than men, 54 percent versus 38 percent. When attributing personality characteristics to their computers, 43 percent of those surveyed thought of their computer as being either male or female. Americans with computers believe Newt Gingrich (28 percent) is much more computer literate than either President Clinton (15 percent) or Bob Dole (12 percent) 71 percent of computer-owning Americans feel that having a home office allows them to better balance the demands of work and family Although 9 in 10 Americans working from home dress in comfortable clothing before sitting down to work, fewer than half of the home workers (41 percent) wear shoes "What emerges from this study is a dramatic picture of the home office and the computer as essential tools for balancing the growing demands of today's hectic lifestyle," said Kim Knepper, senior vice president of Roper Starch. "Americans view computers as a key ally in their struggle to maintain a sense of balance in their daily lives." The Home Computing Study, commissioned by Canon Computer Systems Inc., was conducted by Roper Starch Worldwide Inc. from late August through early September this year to determine home computing trends. A nationwide sample of 1,005 adults (18 years of age and older) who work on a computer in their home, were interviewed by telephone. The survey has a plus or minus margin of sampling error of three percentage points, according to the company. John Giurini, a spokesman for Canon, told Newsbytes, "Canon commissioned the survey to help determine the changing ways people are looking at computers -- from a few years ago as a feared intruder into the home, to what is becoming an essential and fun part of a person's daily home life." (Richard Bowers/19951115/Press Contact: John Giurini, 213-623-4200) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 11/15/95 TRENDS ****Comdex - 1996 Is The Year For MPEG? (NEWS)(TRENDS)(SFO)(00026) ****Comdex - 1996 Is The Year For MPEG? 11/15/95 LAS VEGAS, NEVADA, U.S.A., 1995 NOV 15 (NB) -- Motion Picture Experts Group (MPEG), a digital compression technology, has been slow to take-off in the US. Vision Interactive of Irvine, California unveiled its "Ultimate MPEG Video Upgrade Kit" at Comdex, saying 1996 is the year MPEG technology will enter mainstream, desktop computing. #IMAGE 1 20 TWPCX \images\95111526.PCX Click here for photo Less than a year ago, the computer community was debating a digital compression standard for video. The process of creating a digital file of a movie so a computer can show a full-screen, full-motion version of it involves the development of video images into computerized digital information and compressing that digital data into a manageable file size. To play a movie, a computer decompresses the data as the CD plays. Out of the competing standards, MPEG seems to be the winner. To play an MPEG title on CD, a computer at first needed an MPEG adapter board installed in an available expansion slot. Recently, a soft-MPEG has reached the market allowing MPEG titles to be played without the board. A general consensus is that the boards outperform the software product. MPEG's growing success is emphasized by the fact Comdex has an area devoted to MPEG products and titles. "We want to use this card to jump start MPEG use in the US," said Debbie Brajevish, vice president of marketing at Vision Interactive. "There has been a great void in which MPEG technology is available, but desktop users are not adopting the technology." She continued: "I think there are several reasons for this void. At first, many users and developers did not want to invest in video products until there was a clearly established standard. Secondly, once MPEG became widely accepted, there were not enough titles. Third, retailers were not educated carefully enough, which created a lack of confidence in placing MPEG products on retail shelves. Boards and MPEG CDs need to be placed together so that consumers know this is more than just a passing technology. MPEG allows a user to see true video displayed on the entire viewing surface of a monitor. It is what people always thought computers should do when they turned them on." Vision Interactive answers the problem with a MPEG upgrade kit which bundles the Ace Multimedia's Ace Movie Mater MPEG card with either an Orion MPEG Movie Pack or an ESPN MPEG Sports Pack. Expected retail price of the kit is $429. The Orion pack comes with ten titles, eight of which are full-motion video CDs of such famous movies as "Throw Momma From the Train" and "F/X." Two additional titles are interactive, called: "CIA: The Secret Files" and "The Crime Files." Vision Interactive's ESPN bundle includes 16 titles including Extreme Game Highlights and Sports Bloopers Awards. Eight of the 16 titles are interactive and cover sports such as volleyball, golf, and baseball. The company also plans to ship 26 separate MPEG titles in the coming months. More Orion favorites -- "Dirty Rotten Scoundrels" and "Woman in Red" -- are among the upcoming titles. The Ace Multimedia MPEG board provides 24-bit resolution and allows the display of more than 16 million possible colors. This MPEG board also plays other formats, including Karaoke-CD, CD-I (compact disk interactive) movies, DAT (digital audio tape) movies, and audio-only and video-only files. The card operates on DOS, Microsoft Windows 3.1, 3.11, and Windows 95. According to Vision Interactive, the half-length card and accompanying software can be installed in about 10 to 15 minutes. Unlike a lot of add-on cards, MPEG boards require "virtually no configuration." An MPEG title automatically looks for an MPEG device when it starts. If the card is installed, the display will be full-screen, full motion, says the company. "Along with placing our MPEG kit and bundle on retail shelves, we will be sending people into the retail channel to help educate the community. We are convinced 1996 is going to be a great year for MPEG on desktop computers," concluded Brajevich. (Patrick McKenna/19951115/Press Contact: Heather Gore, The Terpin Group, 310-821-6100/VISIONINTERACTIVE951115/PHOTO) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 11/15/95 HEALTH Telemedicine Demo At American Heart Assoc (NEWS)(HEALTH)(LAX)(00027) Telemedicine Demo At American Heart Assoc 11/15/95 ANAHEIM, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1995 NOV 15 (NB) -- AT&T (NYSE: T), Acuson Corporation (NYSE: ACN), GTE (NYSE: GTE), and Pacific Bell are teaming to conduct telemedicine demonstrations during the 68th Scientific Sessions of the American Heart Association (AHA) conference in Anaheim, California, this week. During the demonstrations, full- motion video and real-time ultrasound images captured during open-heart surgery at the University of California, Los Angeles Medical Center will be transmitted to the Anaheim Convention Center for viewing by conference attendees. The ultrasound images will be collected and sent to AT&T's EMMI Multimedia Interface by Acuson's V5M transesophageal transducer (TEE), a probe that is positioned in a patient's esophagus directly behind the heart. AT&T EMMI units connected to personal computers being used by physicians in the operating and exam rooms at UCLA will allow these images, along with full-motion video and stereo- quality audio from cameras and microphones, to be sent over a fiber-optic, wide area network at 155 megabits-per-second (Mbps) to the Anaheim Convention Center. Kevin Tribb, a spokesperson for Pac Bell, told Newsbytes, "Telemedicine is the fastest growing aspect of videoconferencing technology. It is being used throughout the country for distance diagnostics, distance consultations, and distance teaching. This demonstration is a perfect example of telemedicine's unique teaching role. Eventually, demonstrations like this one in Anahiem, can be shown all over the world at the same time." Other EMMI units at the Anaheim Convention Center will allow reception and transmission of audio, video and medical images to and from the wide area network. Cardiologists and other medical personnel attending the AHA conference will be able to watch open-heart surgical procedures and echocardiography exams on large video screens as they happen miles away at UCLA. Doctors in the operating and exam rooms at UCLA will be able to see, hear and interact with their counterparts on the AHA show floor. The fiber-optic, wide area network for the demonstrations is being provided by GTE and Pacific Bell. It uses the high-speed transmission technology, asynchronous transfer mode (ATM), coupled with a synchronous optical network (SONET) communications technology, to provide full-motion video and stereo-quality audio between UCLA and the Anaheim Convention Center. GTE is providing an ATM circuit from UCLA, where three EMMI units are connected to the network. ATM traffic originating and terminating at UCLA will be routed over GTE's ATM network, and handed off to Pacific Bell. The GTE ATM backbone network incorporates AT&T Network Systems' GlobeView 2000 Broadband Systems. Pacific Bell will receive the ATM multimedia traffic from GTE and transmit it to the Anaheim Convention Center over its ATM network. Simultaneously, video and audio originating in the Acuson booth at the convention center will be transmitted back to UCLA via the Pacific Bell ATM link. (Richard Bowers/19951115/Press Contact: Bill Jones, AT&T, 910-279-6511) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 11/15/95 TRENDS Comdex - Creative Technology's 3-D Blaster A Hit (NEWS)(TRENDS)(SFO)(00028) Comdex - Creative Technology's 3-D Blaster A Hit 11/15/95 LAS VEGAS, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1995 NOV 15 (NB) -- This year's Comdex does not have all the blockbuster announcements of last year's show, but one booth which is packing-in a standing room-only crowd belongs to Creative Technologies, the Sound Blaster giant. While Sound Blaster demonstrations still attract a lot of attention, the Comdex crowd is here to see 3D Blaster. Throughout the day, two to three hundred people anxiously listen and watch Creative's new three-dimensional (3-D) system for personal computers. As soon as the demonstration ends, people line-up to order the product. "This thing is selling so fast and people are so anxious to get really powerful 3-D on the desktop for a reasonable price," said a Creative spokesperson. Estimated street price for the necessary card and five immersive, 3-D games is $349. Newsbytes was able to speak with the father of sound for personal computers, the founder of Sound Blaster, Sim Wong Woo, known as Mr. Sim. His smiling face told most of the story. "I am so pleased with the reception we are getting here at Comdex," he said. "We are offering real 3-D, which is far better than what you see on set-top boxes such as Sega's, Nintendo's, and Sony's. People want to play these games on the PC and we have a solution built for the installed base of 486 machines. There may be other people still talking about other 3-D standards, but we have the de facto standard and we have a working, real product which we are shipping today." Sim has also received the support of game developers. More than 200 are officially registered as 3D Blaster developers and another 20 titles are almost ready to ship. Sim said the excitement surrounding 3D Blaster and the Comdex booth was greater than the early days of Sound Blaster. "I want to make 3D Blaster as common to the PC community as Sound Blaster," said Sim. "3-D is not easy to do," he explained. "We spend the equivalent of seven man years to test a game and that does not include writing the program itself. That is why other companies are not coming forth with a 3-D product. We have it now. We have the technology, the board and the games," claimed Sim. Looking into the future, Sim said a PCI (Peripheral Component Interconnect), Plug and Play version of 3D Blaster for Pentium-based machines will ship this Spring. He also plans to develop network play of the new titles and told Newsbytes, "This will be one of the hottest, upcoming gaming areas. It will change the way people play video games." Once the Comdex crowd finished with the 3-D demo, Creative offered a line- up of product demonstrations at various stations around the booth. Along with Sound Blaster and 3D Blaster, Creative displayed: Modem Blaster; Phone Blaster; a PC Card Modem Blaster; its videoconferencing product, ShareVision; a newly announced Blaster Gamepad; its CD-ROM drives; a premier of a new read/write CD-ROM drive called Blaster CD-R; and a prototype of a soon-to-be-produced ISDN (integrated services digital network) modem. (Patrick McKenna/19951115/Press Contact: Theresa Pulido, Creative Labs, 408-428-6600/CREATIVE951115/PHOTO) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 11/15/95 GOVT China - Siemens Wins Govt Network Contract (NEWS)(GOVT)(PEK)(00029) China - Siemens Wins Govt Network Contract 11/15/95 BEIJING, CHINA, 1995 NOV 15 (NB) -- Siemens Nixdorf Information Systems (SNI) has won a large project with the Tianjin Municipal Economic Information Center (TEIC), the biggest project among the 48 projects funded by the third batch of Japanese government loans. There are 48 projects for bidding, and all are funded by $200 million from the third batch of Japanese Government loans. The money will be used to build a national network linking the State Information Center and its subsidiaries, different ministries, labor, banking, and customs departments. Technological awareness in government agencies started in 1988, when the State Planning Commission and the State Information Center agreed to use part of the third batch of Japanese loans to aid China's economic information industry. SNI won the biggest package of the projects, designed for improving China's economic information network, and will supply US$6.6 million worth of SNI equipment to computerize the office network for TEIC. The Ministry of Personnel's Information Center will add another US$1.4 million worth of SNI network for automation. The establishment of computer links among China's economic information centers and personnel resources will help China set up an advanced professional administration network. Online services will provide officials with information on macro-economic calculations, the world economy, economic regulations, government investment, overseas loans, markets and prices, as well as enterprises and products. SNI is the computer company of Siemens AG, Europe's major information technology supplier. SNI's participation in China's computer market is part of its new strategy to shift business focus from Europe to China. "This represents the company's confidence in the growing Chinese market and it also shows that our investment promises have turned into reality," said the managing director of SNI China. According to the contract with TEIC, SNI will provide a Unix operating system, workstations, PCs, databases, networks, and software, for its customers throughout China. Bill Yang, senior executive manager of SNI China Northern, said that the SNI products being used in government office automation will increase efficiency and help improve and reform China's information industry. (Chih-Ho Yu & Ning Huang/19951105) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 11/15/95 TELECOM Comdex - CUE Network's Free Wireless Weather Advisories (NEWS)(TELECOM)(LON)(00030) Comdex - CUE Network's Free Wireless Weather Advisories 11/15/95 LAS VEGAS, NEVADA, U.S.A., 1995 NOV 15 (NB) -- CUE Network has announced that it plans to offer free emergency weather advisories across its US wireless packet data network. The idea behind the deal, obviously, is to promote the CUE system, but, according to company officials, the emergency aspect of the CUE service is something that many potential users are unaware of. According to the Irvine, California-based company, the idea is that emergency weather forecasts and weather warnings issued by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's (NOAA) National Weather Service will be broadcast across the CUE wireless network, which company officials claim reaches more than 95 percent of the population in North America. According to CUE, the weather service is the first in a series of innovative services to be made available on the Computer Radio Network, a newly-formed subsidiary of the company. Plans call for services such as business and general news, along with stock market information, to be broadcast on the CUE network. "CUE uses an FM radio sub-carrier system that is carried by almost 500 radio stations in the US. The beauty of the system is that it can be received anywhere normal FM radio transmissions are received, by a suitable receiver that plugs into a PC," explained a company spokesman at Comdex Fall, where the service was announced, "Receiver technology also can be embedded directly on the motherboard by PC manufacturers providing an integrated, turnkey solution for delivering all types of information to PC users without the need for a dial-up connection. The FM radio on your PC now becomes a personal messaging device," claimed Gordon Kaiser, chairman of CUE Network Corporation. (Sylvia Dennis/19951115/Press Contact: CPI 714-858-7358; Reader Contact: CUE, tel 800-858-8828, fax 714-883-9318) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 11/15/95 TRENDS Comdex - Minolta's Digital Desktop Publishing (NEWS)(TRENDS)(LON)(00031) Comdex - Minolta's Digital Desktop Publishing 11/15/95 LAS VEGAS, NEVADA, U.S.A., 1995 NOV 15 (NB) -- At Comdex Fall 95, taking place in Las Vegas, Minolta demonstrated three new desktop publishing products and how they can work together. According to the Osaka, Japan- based company, the RD-175 digital camera, the QuickScan 35 film scanner, and the CF 80 Plus digital color copier/printer/scanner provide "new, improved ways" to design and reproduce color images. The system can operate separately or together. The process begins with the camera taking a picture and then transporting it into the Adobe Photoshop photo editing software. Images received from the camera are combined with a graphic scanned from a 35 millimeter (mm) slide -- an operation completed by the QuickScan 35 film scanner. Then, any changes and other designs are introduced, combined together and printed out in full color by the CF 80 Plus digital color copier/scanner/printer machine. The system is a "cost-effective and time-saving solution" for graphic designers and publishers, claims the company. According to Glenn Magnell, vice president of Minolta's marketing and product planning division, from a development perspective, it makes sense for the company to create a suite of products designed for the desktop publishing market. "By combining our technologies and leveraging our expertise in imaging, we are creating an exciting marketing opportunity for Minolta. The Digital Studio is designed to demonstrate that we are a serious player in this rapidly expanding market. We are the number two supplier of laser printing engines worldwide and we are experts in color measurement systems," he claimed. In use, the digital camera RD-175 integrates Maxxum autofocusing single-lens reflex (SLR) camera system with "top-of-the-art digital imaging technology." It takes 40 lenses and various flashes and devices. Images are captured by three digital imaging sensors (CCDs) and stored on a 130 megabyte (MB) removable PCMCIA (Personal Computer Memory Card International Association) card. Up to 114 images can be stored on the card at any time. The RD-175 is compatible with Windows and Macintosh and costs $9,995. The QuickScan 35 Film Scanner is designed for small designers, as well as large advertising agencies and publishing houses. The machine scans color slides and negatives and performs a 2,820 dots-per-inch (dpi) scan in less than 40 seconds on a Power Mac 8100. The CF900 gives 11-inch by 17-inch color printing and zoom range of 25 to 600 percent. (Sylvia Dennis/19951115/Press & Reader Contact: Leo Derkowski, Marketing Communications Connections, 518-477-2575) (SUMMARY)(GENERAL)(MSP)(00032) Newsbytes Daily Summary 11/15/95 MINNEAPOLIS, MINNESOTA, U.S.A., 1995 NOV 15 (NB) -- These are capsules of all today's news stories: ======================================================================== ------------| N E W S B Y T E S D A I L Y S U M M A R Y |---------- ------------| Wednesday, November 15, 1995 |---------- ======================================================================== (c) Newsbytes News Network (Tm) Editor in Chief: Wendy Woods ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Newsbytes News Network's on the Web! Check out http://www.nbnn.com for free daily top stories from Newsbytes and its affiliate publications, and from PC Week, MacWeek, and other Ziff news magazines. A subscription gives you all the news, full-text, plus the most comprehensive database of past computer stories online. The keyword-searchable database dates from today back through 1983. Subscriptions are $24.95 for three months. Questions? Send to 'administrator@newsbytes.com' For Japanese Newsbytes and additional services, see the Newsbytes Pacifica Website at http://www.islandtel.com/newsbytes/ ------------------------------------------------------------------------ CATEGORY HEADLINES (*** indicates today's top stories) STORY # ======================================================================== APPLE Comdex - US Robotics Adds Mac Modems....................... 07 BROADCAST Comdex - Videoconferencing Battles For Customers........... 06 BROADCAST Comdex - A Low-Cost Digital Camera......................... 11 BROADCAST Video News Roundup......................................... 14 BROADCAST Comdex - Radio SOHO Hits Airwaves.......................... 15 BUSINESS Comdex - Show's Bookstore Cranking Out Titles.............. 10 GENERAL NewsPix Update For Newsbytes Publishers.................... 01 GENERAL Comdex - Softbank Plans Growth For Ziff-Davis.............. 04 GENERAL Japan Newsbriefs........................................... 16 GOVT China - Siemens Wins Govt Network Contract................. 29 HEALTH Comdex - Life Form Fitness Software Helps You Lose Weight.. 09 HEALTH Telemedicine Demo At American Heart Assoc.................. 27 IBM ****Comdex - IBM Changes PC Direct Role, Promises Faster D 22 LEGAL ****Apple/Carl Sagan Code-Name Suit Ends.................. 24 ONLINE Internet Update............................................ 17 ONLINE Comdex - Lotus Previews InterNotes Web Navigator........... 19 ONLINE Comdex - AT&T Intros Easy Commerce For Small Business...... 20 ONLINE Japan - Fujitsu Revamps Infoweb............................ 21 PC Comdex - Sharp Notebooks Offer 4Mbps Infrared Links........ 02 PC ****Comdex - Sony To Make PCs For US, Wall Panels For Japa 18 TELECOM Comdex - Megahertz Goes Wireless With PCMCIA............... 08 TELECOM Comdex - CUE Network's Free Wireless Weather Advisories.... 30 TRENDS Comdex - IBM Exec Looks At Notebook Future................. 03 TRENDS Comdex - 3-D Faxing........................................ 05 TRENDS Multimedia Big At Comdex................................... 12 TRENDS ****Comdex - Gates Vision Of Office Computing............. 13 TRENDS Survey - Computers Wanted More Than Big Screen TVs......... 25 TRENDS ****Comdex - 1996 Is The Year For MPEG.................... 26 TRENDS Comdex - Creative Technology's 3-D Blaster A Hit........... 28 TRENDS Comdex - Minolta's Digital Desktop Publishing.............. 31 WINDOWS Comdex - New Drawing Prgm Highlights Corel Announcements... 23 ======================================================================== These are the headlines and first paragraphs of each story, in order: 1 -> NewsPix Update For Newsbytes Publishers -- This update will be posted each Wednesday and Friday to reflect the daily picture additions. The updates will in turn become part of the main NewsPix Bulletin issued on Monday. 2 -> Comdex - Sharp Notebooks Offer 4Mbps Infrared Links -- Sharp Electronics Corp. is claiming a first with the 9000-series notebooks it is showing at Comdex/Fall this week. The portable units come with infrared communications links that run at four megabits-per-second (Mbps). 3 -> Comdex - IBM Exec Looks At Notebook Future -- Notebook computers will divide into two main categories, according to Per Larsen, director of worldwide brand management in IBM's (NYSE:IBM) Personal Computer Co. mobile computing operation. One will be the desktop replacement type, equipped with virtually all the features of a desktop PC, while the other will be highly portable, designed for basic functionality that is easy to carry around. 4 -> Comdex - Softbank Plans Growth For Ziff-Davis -- Softbank Corp. has ambitious plans for Ziff-Davis Publishing, the computer-magazine publisher it acquired last week. Masayoshi Son, president and chief executive of Softbank, outlined his vision at a press conference held during Comdex/Fall 5 -> Comdex - 3-D Faxing -- Imagine being able to fax a document that includes text, graphics, and even motion video, and having it arrive with all its content and formatting intact. That's what 3D Fax 2.0 from Palo Alto, California-based InfoImaging Technologies, a 32-bit native Windows 95 version of 3D Fax, does. 6 -> Comdex - Videoconferencing Battles For Customers -- One of the main challenges facing the videoconferencing industry is convincing companies they need the technology, representatives from two companies heavily involved in the business, told Newsbytes at the Comdex Fall show in Las Vegas this week. 7 -> Comdex - US Robotics Adds Mac Modems -- Chicago-area-based US Robotics Inc. (NASDAQ:USRX) announced at Comdex Fall '95 in Las Vegas that it intends to ship new Sportster fax/modems for computers that use the Macintosh operating system (OS). 8 -> Comdex - Megahertz Goes Wireless With PCMCIA -- Megahertz Inc. has announced at Comdex Fall '95 in Las Vegas its new Allpoints Wireless PC Card (previously Personal Computer Memory Card International Association) that connects to the RAM Mobile Data Network. With the card, Megahertz officials said users can send e-mail and faxes, and utilize other features without using a telephone line. 9 -> Comdex - Life Form Fitness Software Helps You Lose Weight -- Fitnesoft Inc. of Orem, Utah, said its new Life Form Personal Fitness software is broadening its distribution channel, with new shipments starting today to Egghead Software stores. Life Form is a Windows-based product, described as a way for computer users to keep track of their personal health care. 10 -> Comdex - Show's Bookstore Cranking Out Titles -- Before the Comdex Fall '95 show even opens for another day of browsing, the official bookstore inside the Las Vegas Convention Center is buzzing with activity. The store, run by DigitalGuru Bookshops of Brea, California, is doubling the sales figures it expected to see at the show, a DigitalGuru spokesperson told Newsbytes. 11 -> Comdex - A Low-Cost Digital Camera -- Tiny Brea, California is the home of StarDot Technologies, a company that came to play with the big companies in the Nevada desert this week. StarDot is showing off its WinCam.One, a low-cost digital camera the company said opens up a whole new world of desktop photography, at this year's annual Fall Comdex computer trade show. 12 -> Multimedia Big At Comdex -- Multimedia is a big attraction at Comdex Fall 95, the huge computer trade show currently running in Las Vegas, Nevada, that has attracted an estimated 200,000 people. 13 -> ****Comdex - Gates Vision Of Office Computing -- Bill Gates, chairman of Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ: MSFT) celebrated the year of his 40th birthday and the 10th anniversary of his company yesterday by sharing his vision of office computing in the next century with an overflow crowd at the 7,200 seat Aladdin Theater for the Performing Arts in Las Vegas, Nevada. 14 -> Video News Roundup -- This is a look at the top stories this week in the world of video news reporting: Miro intros MiroVideo DC20; LSI's satellite on a chip; focus groups help shape Avid's CamCutter; and in new products, AKG's Hanging Microphone and Prime Image's Multi-II Multiple Processing Unit. 15 -> Comdex - Radio SOHO Hits Airwaves -- Covering Radio SOHO (Small Office-Home Office) at Comdex Fall '95, sponsored by SyQuest Technology, is one thing, but, as Newsbytes discovered, the great thing about radio talk shows is the ease with which anyone can become involved. 16 -> Japan Newsbriefs -- In this roundup of news from Japan: Jupiter Telecom connects city cable; NEC, Packard Bell form monitor alliance; Toshiba pulls plug on US cellular; Trade talks scheduled for summit; Oki announces DRAM production; Group confirms network plans; NEC plans car navigation system. 17 -> Internet Update -- In this update of new resources and services on the global Internet: APEC summit online; Village Voice birthday celebrations; New on Usenet; Federal court database; Infoseek adds new database; NPR Seasonings; Netscape bookmark editor; News discussion mailing list; Calvin and Hobbes abstract resource. 18 -> ****Comdex - Sony To Make PCs For US, Wall Panels For Japan -- Sony Electronics plans to work with Intel to introduce PCs and peripherals to the US next fall, and with Tektronix to develop new "Plasmatron" screens for large displays that are set for 1996 rollout in Japan, Sony officials revealed, in a series of press conferences at Comdex. Also at Comdex, Sony is showing new Multiscan Trinitron monitors, an update to its Magic Link personal communicator, new technologies for high density CD and digital integration, and new products in the wireless communications and mass storage arenas. 19 -> Comdex - Lotus Previews InterNotes Web Navigator -- InterNotes Web Navigator, a new integrated Notes-enabled World Wide Web browser, constitutes the final announcement Lotus will make concerning Lotus Notes 4.0 before shipment of the major Notes update later this quarter, revealed Tim Dempsey, director of Notes Product Marketing, during a sneak preview of the browser for Newsbytes at Fall Comdex in Las Vegas. 20 -> Comdex - AT&T Intros Easy Commerce For Small Business -- In a press conference at Fall Comdex, AT&T announced the establishment of the AT&T Easy Commerce Services Unit for small business users, along with the first offering from the new unit, a World Wide Web hosting service called AT&T Easy World Wide Web Services. 21 -> Japan - Fujitsu Revamps Infoweb -- Fujitsu's Japanese Internet access company, Infoweb, has expanded the range of services available, while reducing the rates charged and increasing the access speeds, plus establishing links with the NiftyServe online network and regional Internet providers in Japan. 22 -> ****Comdex - IBM Changes PC Direct Role, Promises Faster Delivery -- In an effort to improve the fortunes of its desktop personal computer business, IBM (NYSE:IBM) has announced moves to appease resellers and a promise to get new products to market faster. 23 -> Comdex - New Drawing Prgm Highlights Corel Announcements -- Corel Corp. (TSE:COS; NASDAQ:COSFF) demonstrated two new products and an upgrade at a breakfast gathering during the Comdex Fall show Tuesday. The one that clearly impressed the audience most was CorelXara, a relabelled version of the Xara Studio package Corel acquired from Xara Ltd. Of Hertfordshire, UK. 24 -> ****Apple/Carl Sagan Code-Name Suit Ends -- Carl Sagan, the controversial astronomer, has announced the settlement of the litigation brought by him against Apple in the federal district court in Los Angeles. Sagan had objected to Apple's use of the internal code-name "Carl Sagan" during the development of Apple's Power Macintosh 7100 computer without his permission, and had also objected to references to the code-name and to his dispute with Apple in the computer and national press. 25 -> Survey - Computers Wanted More Than Big Screen TVs -- Just in time for the holidays, a Roper Starch Worldwide Inc. survey of 1,005 home computer users reveals that current computer owners want new computers more than any other single gift. Among items wished for Christmas, 35 percent want a new computer, while only 23 percent want a big screen TV. 26 -> ****Comdex - 1996 Is The Year For MPEG -- Motion Picture Experts Group (MPEG), a digital compression technology, has been slow to take-off in the US. Vision Interactive of Irvine, California unveiled its "Ultimate MPEG Video Upgrade Kit" at Comdex, saying 1996 is the year MPEG technology will enter mainstream, desktop computing. 27 -> Telemedicine Demo At American Heart Assoc -- AT&T (NYSE: T), Acuson Corporation (NYSE: ACN), GTE (NYSE: GTE), and Pacific Bell are teaming to conduct telemedicine demonstrations during the 68th Scientific Sessions of the American Heart Association (AHA) conference in Anaheim, California, this week. During the demonstrations, full- motion video and real-time ultrasound images captured during open-heart surgery at the University of California, Los Angeles Medical Center will be transmitted to the Anaheim Convention Center for viewing by conference attendees. 28 -> Comdex - Creative Technology's 3-D Blaster A Hit -- This year's Comdex does not have all the blockbuster announcements of last year's show, but one booth which is packing-in a standing room-only crowd belongs to Creative Technologies, the Sound Blaster giant. While Sound Blaster demonstrations still attract a lot of attention, the Comdex crowd is here to see 3D Blaster. 29 -> China - Siemens Wins Govt Network Contract -- Siemens Nixdorf Information Systems (SNI) has won a large project with the Tianjin Municipal Economic Information Center (TEIC), the biggest project among the 48 projects funded by the third batch of Japanese government loans. 30 -> Comdex - CUE Network's Free Wireless Weather Advisories -- CUE Network has announced that it plans to offer free emergency weather advisories across its US wireless packet data network. The idea behind the deal, obviously, is to promote the CUE system, but, according to company officials, the emergency aspect of the CUE service is something that many potential users are unaware of. 31 -> Comdex - Minolta's Digital Desktop Publishing -- At Comdex Fall 95, taking place in Las Vegas, Minolta demonstrated three new desktop publishing products and how they can work together. According to the Osaka, Japan- based company, the RD-175 digital camera, the QuickScan 35 film scanner, and the CF 80 Plus digital color copier/printer/scanner provide "new, improved ways" to design and reproduce color images. (Ian Stokell/19951115) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 11/14/95 GENERAL Writer's Edge Thesaurus Add-On (NEWS)(GENERAL)(SFO)(00001) Writer's Edge Thesaurus Add-On 11/14/95 IRVINE, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1995 NOV 14 (NB) -- IdealFisher Systems, a software developer, says Writer's Edge has 1,402 words related to "love." A word processing utility, Writer's Edge offers users synonyms, abstractions, homonyms, and other word alternatives to more than 1,500,000 words. "We say, 'Roll Over Roget's!' here at IdeaFisher. We think writers, whether they be young students or seasoned professionals, want a tool like Writer's Edge. Word processing users seldom use their built-in thesaurus. It just does not offer creative alternatives. Our reference system of the English language and American culture contains song and movie titles, pop culture, analogies, cliches, fictional characters, and historical and current events," said Marlee Fisher. The company's utility is currently shipping in versions for the Mac and for Windows. The program integrates into the tools menus of Microsoft Word for Windows, WordPerfect, and Ami Pro. For users of other word processors and text editors, Writer's Edge also operates as a standalone application and uses standard cut-and-paste techniques. Fisher said the interface is so easy to use even an elementary student could take advantage of the programs writing benefits. "Writer's Edge is a mega-thesaurus. Story Musgrave, the astronaut, uses it to write his poetry," continued Fisher. Writer's Edge can also replace phrases. For Windows users, the program requires Windows 3.1 or higher, a 386 or faster microprocessor, two megabytes (MB) of RAM, 5MB of hard disk space, and a pointing device. Mac users need a 68020 or faster processor running System 7 or later, 2MB RAM, 5MB of hard disk space, and a pointing device to run the program. Writer's Edge retails for $39.95 (suggested retail price) and is available at most software outlets. (Patrick McKenna/19951113/Press Contact: Marlee Fisher, IdeaFisher, 714-474-8111; Customer Information: IdeaFisher, 800-289-4332/IDEAFISHER951114/PHOTO) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 00 11/14/95 BROADCAST ShareVision Videoconferencing To Be Under $1, (NEWS)(BROADCAST)(LAX)(00002) ShareVision Videoconferencing To Be Under $1,000 11/14/95 LAS VEGAS, NEVADA U.S.A., 1995 NOV 14 (NB) -- Creative Technology Ltd. (NASDAQ: CREAF) says it will reduce the price of its ShareVision PC3000 desktop videoconferencing product to $999 beginning January 1, in North America. The suggested retail price for the PC3000 is now $1,499. ShareVision PC3000 is a desktop videoconferencing system that allows users to communicate via voice and video at up to 15 frames- per-second (fps) over a single regular phone line. The system features a high-speed fax/modem, a headset, application software, a one-third inch color video camera, a voice/data compression card, and a video capture and compression card. Recommended system requirements are 486 or above with 66 megahertz, six megabytes (MB) hard drive, Windows 3.1 or above, and VGA display. In addition to the PC3000 at $999, a version of the ShareVision PC3000 without the color video camera, for customers who wish to use their own cameras, camcorders, VCRs or other input devices, will be available for an estimated street price of $799. "The desktop videoconferencing market for the PC showed strong growth this past year," said Lung Yeh, vice president of ShareVision products for Creative Labs Inc., the US, subsidiary of Creative Technology Ltd. "Offering a price point under $1,000 will accelerate this growth, especially among small and home office professionals and virtually anyone who recognizes the value of face-to-face communication." Creative Technology Ltd. develops, manufactures and markets the Blaster family of sound, video, software telephony multimedia products for PCs. The company's Sound Blaster sound platform enables PCs to produce high-quality audio for entertainment, educational, and music. Creative Technology Ltd. was incorporated in 1983 and is based in Singapore. Creative Technology's United States subsidiaries include Creative Labs Inc., E-mu Systems Inc., Digicom Systems Inc. and ShareVision Technology Inc. (Richard Bowers/19951113/Press Contact: Theresa Pulido, Creative Labs, 408-428-6600) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 11/14/95 ONLINE Internet Update (NEWS)(ONLINE)(TYO)(00003) Internet Update 11/14/95 TOKYO, JAPAN, 1995 NOV 14 (NB) -- In this update of new resources and services on the global Internet: US News & World Report; NBC Pro Golf Tour; Yellow Pages Online; Online film clip library; Online image query system; The moan and groan page; Banque Nationale de Paris; Sinnissippi Valley Information Network US News & World Report Already available on Compuserve, US News & World Report has now launched an Internet home page with daily news, a digital version of the news weekly, special features, and extensive links to other resources on the Internet. World Wide Web: http://www.usnews.com/ NBC Pro Golf Tour The NBC Pro Golf Tour has an official home page with details of the tour, the tour magazine, television timing, an online golf shopping center, guide to courses, and links to other Internet golf related sites. World Wide Web: http://www.golf.com/ Yellow Pages Online Another online Yellow Pages server with the ability to search business listings by company name and product sector. In addition, a useful feature is the ability to search the database by product brand name. Over 18 million businesses are listed. World Wide Web: http://www.ypo.com/ Online Film Clip Library Bringing together over one hundred years of news clips from the Paramount and Pathe news libraries, footage.net offers a very sophisticated search engine to locate the clips. The resource can be used as an index of news footage or visitors can order copies. Users will also find an every growing database of clips, with more company libraries scheduled to be added, and the latest industry news. World Wide Web: http://www.footage.net/ Online Image Query System IBM's Government Systems division has created an online query system as part of its Data Access and Information Systems (DAIS). The company is making a database using the software available free to the public. The database allows users to query and browse the NASA Space Shuttle Earth Observation Images Database. World Wide Web: http://www.clearlake.ibm.com:8001/OLQS/ The Moan And Groan Page The page begins with the words, "Have you ever been just terribly disappointed in a computer product that you've purchased?" and continues, "I've been there, done that, and now I'm establishing the Web page... This page is dedicated to informing the public of the crappiest computer products on the market." The software brings together user comments to allow you to see what others think before buying software. World Wide Web: http://www.olemiss.edu/~dkirk/moan.html Banque Nationale de Paris Joining the growing list of banks that have launched Internet pages, the BNP (Banque Nationale de Paris) has established a presence on the Internet. The bank is one of the largest French banks and offers economic news in addition to product details and branch location listings. World Wide Web: http://www.calvacom.fr/BNP/ukindex.html Sinnissippi Valley Information Network This must be the first Telnet location we have published for several months! Sinnfree is the Sinnissippi Freenet and is Northern Illinois' Online Community Information Center. As with all freenets, e-mail and communications services are available alongside local news, weather, information, and links to Internet resources. Telnet: telnet://sinnfree.sinnfree.org/ Login: guest Password: Hit Return (Martyn Williams/19951114) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 11/14/95 PC Comdex - Zeniths Notebook With Large Color Display (NEWS)(PC)(MSP)(00004) Comdex - Zeniths Notebook With Large Color Display 11/14/95 LAS VEGAS, NEVADA, U.S.A., 1995 NOV 14 (NB) -- Zenith Data Systems (ZDS) says it has a "first" in its new Z-Note GT. The new Pentium notebook model has a display that is said to be as large as a typical 14-inch monitor. The active-color display on the Z-Note GT measures 12.1-inches, and SVGA resolution at 800 by 600. ZDS officials said the screen allows users to see more than 35 percent than what they would normally see on a conventional 10.4-inch display. The oversized screen uses 18-bit digital RGB (red-green-blue color) technology, and can display more than 262 thousand colors with high contrast and low reflection features. Both American and European standards of video can be displayed through the screen. The rest of the system, on display at Comdex Fall '95 in Las Vegas, includes a 90 megahertz (MHz) Pentium microprocessor, a 1.3 gigabyte (GB) hard drive, an internal MPEG (Motion Picture Experts Group) card, and two separate PCMCIA (Personal Computer Memory Card International Association) cards, which allow users to use both Type II and Type III peripheral cards. A quad-speed CD-ROM unit is also included. The quality from the display is impressive. When Newsbytes previewed the screen at Comdex, it was displaying the movie "Top Gun" at a speed that's very close to a typical television display. The quality of the image was somewhere between a television and a typical PC- based computer game. Reg Whatley, ZDS spokesperson, told Newsbytes that the new unit is designed for people who need high-speed, high-quality display information, including computer-aided design (CAD) professionals, engineers, and people who need to do presentations directly off their notebook units. "With having the quad-speed and the display, you're opening it up to more" than the "typical" PC user, he said. Whatley also said he didn't think his competitors had the same capabilities in their notebook models, especially the separate PCMCIA Type II and III bays, and the dual-standard video display. The new notebook is scheduled to be available through ZDS retailers in early 1996, at a cost of around $5700. Also at the ZDS display were the company's new line of Pentium Pro desktops and servers, which Newsbytes covered in September. With prices starting at around $4,200, the units, which come in both monoprocessor and multiprocessor configurations, also are not designed with the "normal" user in mind. "These units are going to be running imaging systems -- these will be running AutoCAD-type environments," said ZDS's Susan Krusee. "If you want a multimedia system or something to run Excel on, you want a typical Pentium system," she said. (Bob Woods/19951113/Press Contact: Glynis Gibson, Zenith Data Systems, 312-868-9400 or 708-808-4276) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 11/14/95 TRENDS ****Comdex - PowerPC CHRP Specification (NEWS)(TRENDS)(TOR)(00005) ****Comdex - PowerPC CHRP Specification 11/14/95 LAS VEGAS, NEVADA, U.S.A., 1995 NOV 14 (NB) -- In the midst of doubts about the PowerPC platform's ability to shake the Intel x86 architecture's dominance, partners IBM (NYSE:IBM), Apple Computer Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL), and Motorola Inc. (NYSE:MOT), have unveiled the much-anticipated PowerPC Microprocessor Common Hardware Reference Platform (CHRP) specification at Comdex/Fall. The three companies said the specification, now available to original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) defines a unified personal computer architecture that will run six operating systems: IBM's OS/2 and AIX, Apple's Mac OS, Microsoft Corp.'s Windows NT, Sun Microsystems Inc.'s Solaris, and Novell Inc.'s NetWare. PowerPC proponents claimed their architecture will make it possible to combine the benefits of the standard PC environment with those of the Macintosh. The CHRP specification outlines input/output interfaces, bus standards, and other system-level elements needed to build one unified architecture around the PowerPC chip. In announcing the CHRP spec, the partners made much of the problems Intel faces in adapting its venerable x86 architecture to new demands, such as 64-bit computing, while maintaining compatibility with older software. The message, in essence, was that it is time for a change. Joe Guglielmi, corporate vice-president and general manager of Motorola's computer group, also seized the occasion to stomp on rumors that the partners will drop the PowerPC 620 from their plans. "The PowerPC 620 remains solidly in our lineup," Guglielmi told an overcrowded briefing session Monday afternoon. "We have completed a review of the program and are committed to bringing it to market." The review to which Guglielmi referred was apparently one reason for rumors the 620 would be dropped. In a teleconference a few weeks ago, IBM officials admitted to industry analysts that the partners were taking a second look at the chip. Anthony Santelli, general manager of Power Personal Systems at IBM, said during the briefing that all of IBM's PowerServers, RS/6000 client workstations, and entry-level servers will be designed to the specification starting in the second half of 1996. In the first half of 1997, he added, IBM will begin moving the remainder of the RS/6000 line to the specification. David Nagel, senior vice-president of research and development at Apple, said his company plans to adapt its existing System 7.5 version of the Mac OS to the CHRP platform, and is designing its forthcoming Copland upgrade to the specification as well. In general, the partners said they and their OEMs will begin delivering systems based on the CHRP spec in the second half of 1996. Santelli also indicated that IBM does plan to license the Macintosh operating system, though not to build a Mac clone per se. He said IBM wants to offer its customers a computer that can run multiple operating systems including OS/2 and Macintosh. Neither Nagel nor Santelli would say when such a licensing deal might be completed. Asked about the PowerPC chip's chance of shaking Intel's Pentium hegemony, Nagel claimed that in the most recent quarter, PowerPC took market share away from Pentium. "You can turn a market around very quickly," he said. However, one editor of a chip-industry newsletter commented to Newsbytes before the briefing that the PowerPC is unlikely to have a big impact on the PC market. He added that he expected it to do well in the embedded microprocessor arena, however. (Grant Buckler/19951113/Press Contact: Laurence Clavere, Apple Computer, 408-974-8643; Janis Smith, IBM, 914-766-4841; Bill Wittman, Motorola, 602-438-3481) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 11/14/95 TRENDS ****Comdex - Gerstner Admits Industry Has To Change (NEWS)(TRENDS)(TOR)(00006) ****Comdex - Gerstner Admits Industry Has To Change 11/14/95 LAS VEGAS, NEVADA, U.S.A., 1995 NOV 14 (NB) -- Most computer users know it, but it's unusual to hear an industry executive admit it. The computer industry does a terrible job of listening to and serving its customers, and it has to change. Louis Gerstner, chairman and chief executive of IBM (NYSE:IBM), admitted that in his keynote address at Comdex Monday morning. "I was a customer of this company, I've also led consumer-oriented companies, and I can tell you we've got a lot to learn," he said. One major failing is ease-of-use, Gerstner said. Computer hardware and software simply is not easy enough to use. "Entire segments of our industry have been spun off from this failure," he said. Standards are another shortcoming. "Ours is the only major industry I can think of that refuses to deliver open industry standards. Would you buy a telephone that only dials certain area codes, or a television set that only gets odd-numbered stations?" Gerstner added that complying with standards need not mean computer companies cannot compete and differentiate themselves. But proprietary architectures are a losing strategy, he said, and IBM knows it better than anyone. "Having had a near-death experience, we know what we're talking about." Third, Gerstner said, the computer industry needs to give serious thought to the implications of its technology. There are serious questions about issues such as pornography and intellectual property theft on the Internet, for instance, and "governments are going to be increasingly concerned about the impact of our technology on the future of the nation-state." If the computer industry does not address these issues, Gerstner warned, it risks suffering the same fate as the nuclear power industry, which was once seen to have great promise but is now dormant -- not, Gerstner claimed, because of bad science, but because it did not address the widespread concerns about the impact of its technology. Along with these warnings, Gerstner also delivered the optimistic vision of the future expected of a Comdex keynoter. He said computing is entering a new phase -- that of network-centric computing -- in which the network, rather than the microprocessor or the mainframe as in the past phases, will be the basis of the information architecture. Through widespread, high-bandwidth networks, he predicted, users will be able to get at "more memory, more storage, more processing power than you would ever be able to justify in a personal computer or maybe even put in a personal computer," he said. Network-centric computing will let computer users share resources more efficiently, rather than putting large amounts of processing power, memory, and storage on every desktop where it may be sitting idle much of the time, Gerstner said. But he added that this new phase will not arrive overnight, and will never entirely supplant the personal computers of today. And what is in this for IBM? According to Gerstner, the company that dominated the mainframe-centric period of computing, but lost its footing when the microprocessor took the lead, hopes it can step back into the forefront in the new era he touted. Network-centric computing will call for a knowledge of complex network management, systems management, systems integration, and large server systems, Gerstner said. "Now let me think, what company knows how to do all that?" he asked rhetorically. But he also admitted that "an entirely new breed of competitor" will emerge as network-centric computing grows. Gerstner added the prediction that this growth will come first in business and large organizations rather than in the consumer market as some proponents say. He said technology is just an enabler for something more profound -- a new way for organizations to look at their businesses. (Grant Buckler/19951113) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 11/14/95 TRENDS Comdex - Motorola Intros Handwriting Recognition Products (NEWS)(TRENDS)(TOR)(00007) Comdex - Motorola Intros Handwriting Recognition Products 11/14/95 LAS VEGAS, NEVADA, U.S.A., 1995 NOV 14 (NB) -- Motorola Inc.'s Lexicus division has announced two handwriting-recognition products based on a new algorithm that seems to deliver more reliable handwriting recognition. One of the products works with English, the other with the Chinese language. Chinese handwriting recognition is a very promising market, according to Elton Sherwin, vice-president of marketing at the Lexicus division, because the huge number of characters used in Chinese makes keyboards very impractical. The system "has the potential to revolutionize the way people use PCs in Asia," he told Newsbytes. The system recognizes either traditional or simplified Chinese characters, with no training required, Sherwin said. Users can write in traditional characters and have the text displayed in the simplified character set or vice versa, he added. Sherwin said the accuracy of the Chinese system and of Motorola's new Longhand Professional English-language handwriting recognition system are due to an "algorithmic breakthrough." Newsbytes could not vouch for the accuracy of the Chinese system but did test out Longhand Professional and found it recognized a reporter's handwriting accurately, virtually all the time. The system works with true cursive writing or printing in discrete letters, and can even deal with a mixture of the two within a single word. Sherwin said Longhand Professional comes with a dictionary of 25,000 words, and users can build their own supplemental dictionaries. Different dictionaries can be associated with different fields in the same input form, he noted. Evaluation copies of Motorola's Chinese-language handwriting recognition system are to be available to personal computer makers in December. Beta copies of Longhand Professional are available to original equipment manufacturers now, the company said. (Grant Buckler/19951113/Press Contact: Wako Takayama, Motorola Lexicus Division, 415-462-6801, Internet e-mail wakot@lexicus.mot.com) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 11/14/95 ONLINE Comdex - Starfish's Web Group Scheduler, Organizer (NEWS)(ONLINE)(MSP)(00008) Comdex - Starfish's Web Group Scheduler, Organizer 11/14/95 LAS VEGAS, NEVADA, U.S.A., 1995 NOV 14 (NB) -- Starfish Software is going to be swimming with other big fish in the Internet pond, with agreements signed with Sun Microsystems and Netscape to produce an Internet World Wide Web scheduling product. Starfish also announced a new organizing program, called Dashboard 95 Web edition, for use with any 32-bit Web browser. The announcement is the first of more coming regarding the company's Sidekick organizer software, Philippe Kahn, Starfish chairman, told Newsbytes. The new scheduler, expected to be out in the first half of 1996, will contain Sun's Java technology so users can remotely set appointments and schedule meetings, using the Netscape browser, over the Internet. Kahn told Newsbytes he doesn't necessarily see the partnering with Sun and Netscape as a "moving up" in size and for his company. "We see this as a way to help our customers, and if it means more prestige for our company, that's fine," he said. Also, the company's new Dashboard 95 Web Edition allows users to organize the online sites they visit regularly with any 32-bit Web browser, including Microsoft Internet Explorer and Netscape Navigator version 2.0. The Web Edition uses icons to automate the bookmarking of Web sites. For people who already have bookmarks or favorite places in Netscape and Internet Explorer, respectively, the "WebOrganizer" in Dashboard 95 Web Edition will collect and organize those sites. In addition, Starfish will also introduce a Software Developers Kit, an application programming interface (API) that works with source code from C/C++ and Delphi. The kit will allow developers to create loadable modules that will work with the company's Dashboard utility, which allows for users to better organize their work area on their computer, company officials said. Additional information on the company can be obtained from Starfish's Web site at http://www.starfishsoftware.com/ . Also, the Software Developers Kit and a pre-release version of Dashboard 95 Web Edition can be downloaded from the Web site starting in December. The kit can also be obtained through Starfish sites on America Online, Compuserve, Microsoft Network, and ZDNet. (Bob Woods/19951114/Press Contact: Deb McAlister, Holland-McAlister, 214-669-3456) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 11/14/95 GENERAL Comdex - The Merchandising Of Comdex (NEWS)(GENERAL)(MSP)(00009) Comdex - The Merchandising Of Comdex 11/14/95 LAS VEGAS, NEVADA, U.S.A., 1995 NOV 14 (NB) -- Most everyone in the computer industry knows the name "Comdex" -- if they didn't, more than 200,000 people in the business wouldn't be taking over Las Vegas this week. But is the name "Comdex" itself worth anything? If you ask Greg Pilcher, he would answer with a resounding "yes." Pilcher is the sales director of Gloucester, Massachusetts-based Cyrk Inc., a company that makes things like T-shirts and sweatshirts for companies to put their names on and sell. His company is putting the Comdex name on the bodies of show attendees. Pilcher said business at the Comdex shops at the Las Vegas Convention Center (LVCC), the Sands Expo and Convention Center, and the Las Vegas Hilton exhibit hall is so brisk, the stores may have to shut down early. Pilcher told Newsbytes that sales from the first day alone are at one-half what they were for the entire week of Comdex last year. He is ordering in new shipments of polo shirts, mugs, outerwear, and other merchandise "all the time." Even though the shop is making, in Pilcher's words, "huge numbers," it may not be around to see the end of the show. The shops are blitzed all the time with people, Pilcher said. When Newsbytes visited the shop on several occasions, we always found it to be very busy. Long lines formed at the cash register, and at times the browsing was tough in the small shop. Pilcher said if he had more room and more cash registers, sales would be even higher. But many people, like a shopper who worked for the Boeing company, made their way through the shop. He told Newsbytes he had promised himself last year that he would buy a T-shirt or sweatshirt, and this year he was going to fulfill that promise. He also told Newsbytes that it seemed "natural" that Comdex should be promoting itself through merchandising. Chamonix Schwerin of Equitable Engineering said buying and wearing Comdex merchandise is important to her because it shows that she's gone to the shows and has learned the latest and the best technologies. She can then pass on that "image" to her clientele, which consists of medical, aviation, and non-profit organizations. Pilcher also said the Comdex Gift Shops speak for his company, since it manufacturers similar products for all kinds of companies. "We can take you through here and say 'Here's the T-shirts we do, here's the sweatshirts we do.' So it's a great promotional vehicle for us as well." (Bob Woods/19951113) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 11/14/95 CHIPS Comdex - ATI Aims 3D Rage Chip At Multimedia Market (NEWS)(CHIPS)(TOR)(00010) Comdex - ATI Aims 3D Rage Chip At Multimedia Market 11/14/95 LAS VEGAS, NEVADA, U.S.A., 1995 NOV 14 (NB) -- ATI Technologies Inc. (TSE:ATY) of Toronto claims that multimedia applications, including games, will benefit from a new three-dimensional (3-D) graphics accelerator chip called 3D Rage. The chip should start appearing in personal computers in the first quarter of 1996, according to Kevin Oerton, product manager for 3-D products at ATI. ATI said the 3D Rage accelerator combines rich 3-D features with all the features of the company's mach64 two-dimensional (2-D) graphics accelerators, plus full-screen, full-motion Motion Picture Experts Group (MPEG) video playback. Philip Eisler, group product manager for components at ATI, told Newsbytes the accelerator will let games manufacturers add more realistic effects such as textured graphics. He said demonstrations running at ATI's Comdex booth were an indication of what games will look like by next Christmas, though he added that the games of a year from now will probably look better than ATI's demonstrations because the demos used today's games software, which does not take full advantage of the accelerator's capabilities. Oerton told Newsbytes the 3D Rage accelerator will cost $48 in quantities of 10,000, and will be shipping in volume in the first quarter of 1996. Samples are available now, he added. Using this chip, he said, original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) should be able to deliver graphics accelerator boards in the $250 price range. ATI also showed a graphics accelerator chip designed for liquid-crystal screens. Company spokesman Dan Coyle said the 264LT chip comes with power-saving features and enables full-screen video playback. ATI expects to sell it to notebook manufacturers who will put it on the motherboards of their portable units, Eisler said, and notebooks using it are likely to be available in quantity in about a year. (Grant Buckler/19951113/Press Contact: Dan Coyle, ATI Technologies, 905-882-2611, Internet e-mail 73323.2724@compuserve.com) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 11/14/95 GENERAL Comdex - Generations Exhibit Summarizes Computing History (NEWS)(GENERAL)(TOR)(00011) Comdex - Generations Exhibit Summarizes Computing History 11/14/95 LAS VEGAS, NEVADA, U.S.A., 1995 NOV 14 (NB) -- For some, it's a reminder of early days in data processing, while, for others, it's a history lesson. At Comdex/Fall, the Boston Computer Museum, Intel Corp., and Data General Corp. are sponsoring an exhibit on the history of commercial computing. It starts with the IBM 1402, the 1960s-vintage mainframe that preceded the arrival of the 360 architecture. Looking at the aged machine loaded with punch cards, one visitor quipped: "I think they still have one of these in our data center." Next, inevitably, comes the 360 itself -- the beginning of the computer architecture that was to dominate mainframe computing for more than 25 years. It, and the following two machines in the display, show the evolution of hardware technology. The 360 used single transistors. Digital Equipment Corp.'s PDP-8 minicomputer used "flip-chips," red bubble-like packages that contained three transistors each. And the Nova minicomputer, from exhibit sponsor Data General Corp., used, what were for the time, a major step forward: integrated circuits. Then come DEC's VAX 11/780, a model of an early Cray supercomputer, and then the very early days of the desktop computing era. The machine visitors are probably least likely to have seen before is the Xerox Alto, a workstation that Xerox's Palo Alto Research Center developed, but Xerox never brought to market. It served as the prototype for the Xerox Star, which Xerox first showed to the public at another computer show, the 1981 National Computer Conference in Chicago.The Star was the first machine to use a mouse-and-icon interface, and it inspired Apple's ill-fated Lisa and more successful Macintosh. The desktop exhibit also includes the Altair 8800, which some say was the very first microcomputer, the original Radio Shack TRS-80 and Apple II, and an Osborne portable, with its tiny five-inch screen. The first IBM PC is there, of course, as is the original Compaq portable. Just as no car museum would be complete without an Edsel, any history of personal computing should include an IBM PC Jr., and there it was. This was the machine that was supposed to make IBM a major force in home computers the way the PC had made it a leader in business computing. As Louis Gerstner admitted in his Comdex keynote speech Monday morning, IBM told customers in its advertising about all the things they could do with the new system, but "customers -- lots of them -- told us what we could do with PC Jr." Next to the PC Jr. is another overhyped machine, the Data General One. When it was launched, Data General claimed the early laptop's display was a breakthrough in readability. Reporters covering the New York launch had a hard time seeing the difference between the DG One's muddy display and the muddy displays of other LCD (liquid crystal display) laptops that had come before. A DG staffer working at the Generations display told Newsbytes that, when the machine was new, his company made a point of always demonstrating it with a light directly overhead to make the screen look better. Sun 2 and Data General Aviion workstations round out the computer exhibits. Visitors can also see a series of Intel chips, from the early 4004 up to the Pentium. Missing from the succession are the 8086 -- used in a very few PCs including the early Compaqs -- and the 80186, which was largely passed over. The exhibit concludes with a word from its sponsors, showing Data General's Standard High Volume (SHV) multi-processor server based on Intel Pentium Pro chips. (Grant Buckler/19951114/Press Contact: Jim Dunlap, Data General, 508-898-6546) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 11/14/95 TRENDS NTT Claims Data Transmission Speed Record (NEWS)(TRENDS)(TYO)(00012) NTT Claims Data Transmission Speed Record 11/14/95 YOKOSUKA, KANAGAWA, JAPAN, 1995 NOV 14 (NB) -- Nippon Telegraph and Telephone (TSE:9432) has announced what it claims to be the world's fastest data transmission. The company sent 400 gigabits of data per second along a 100 kilometer (km) length of fiber optic cable at its Optical Network Systems Laboratory in Yokosuka, Kanagawa prefecture. The NTT experiment smashes the previous record of 2.5 gigabits per second and helps pave the way for super-fast computer and communications networks in the future. The domestic telecommunications giant says its next target is one terabit per second. A terabit is a trillion bits and around 70 million times faster than the 14,400 bits- per-second many users are used to using with computers. The speed record was possible because of the use of a new type of light generation, called Supercontinuum (SC) pulse generation. The researchers involved in the experiment described it as, "a promising method for producing wide band multi channel short optical pulses for large capacity optical time division multiplexed (TDM) and wave division multiplexed (WDM) transmission and networks." The group first achieved 100 gigabits-per-second over 40km of fiber and later 200 gigabits-per-second across 100km, before doubling the data rate to achieve the latest record. "We demonstrated for the first time 100 gigabits-per-second x 4ch repeaterless 100km transmission," the eight researchers said. The tests used a light wavelength range of 20nm. By combining both TDM and WDM technologies, the data rate available on a line is multiplied as more data can be squeezed down a single fiber optic cable on individual channels. (Martyn Williams/19951114) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 11/14/95 GENERAL Comdex Opens With A Different Feel (NEWS)(GENERAL)(DEN)(00013) Comdex Opens With A Different Feel 11/14/95 LAS VEGAS, NEVADA, U.S.A., 1995 NOV 14 (NB)-- Comdex, the annual computer industry rites of fall, opened yesterday and the show had a different flavor than it has in the past. Instead of word processing, spreadsheet, and database programs that have hogged the show floor in past years, this year it is network interface cards, uninterruptable power supplies, videoconferencing, and gigabyte-size data storage devices. Some of the big names in software, such as Microsoft, Lotus, Adobe, DacEasy, and Software Publishing Corp., are in attendance, but don't dominate this year's show as they did in the past. Microsoft introduced Windows 95 in late August at its own mini-Comdex, and Micrografx introduced its new ABC Graphics suite of diagramming, flowcharting, clip-art drawing, painting, and image editing tools prior to Comdex. PC makers also don't have a big presence at this year's Comdex. Dell Computer has a booth, but doesn't even list information about its products in the inch-thick Program & Exhibits Guide. Compaq doesn't participate in Comdex, and Texas Instruments is here but isn't unveiling any new products. Digital Equipment has a large presence at the show -- and perhaps the most visible booth staffers in their snow-white sweaters -- but is showcasing its servers and workstations for 32-bit and 64-bit computing and enterprise client/server software. The company is also showing off its new 1000, 2100, and 8200 Alpha-powered workstations. Gateway 2000 has a booth and is demonstrating its recently announced Pentium-based desktop and portable systems, and Hayes Microcomputer is showing off voice and integrated messaging technology and some advanced business capabilities that include remote configurations, security and CallerID in 230 kilobytes-per-second modems for desktop, mobile, and network applications. Comdex 95 is truly an international show, where the visitor is bombarded from every direction by a dozen different Asian and European languages as well as English. (Jim Mallory/19951113) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 11/14/95 WINDOWS Comdex 95 Features Microsoft Partners (NEWS)(WINDOWS)(DEN)(00014) Comdex 95 Features Microsoft Partners 11/14/95 LAS VEGAS, NEVADA, U.S.A., 1995 NOV 14 (NB)-- While Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ: MSFT) may not be showing off any never-before-released products, the software giant's partners were very much in evidence at Comdex 95, this year's Fall computer industry extravaganza. They probably should be called Windows Partners, because they develop products that run on Microsoft Windows -- Windows 95, Windows 3.1, and Windows NT. However, officially, they are known as Microsoft Partners, and they develop software, Plug and Play hardware, and specific answers to specific problems -- all Windows-based. Each vendor has about six feet of counter space and is rubbing elbows with other Windows Partners, sometimes literally, as they try to get the attention of showgoers over the constant multi-language babble that dominates the Partners "pavilion" -- a separate, high-ceilinged, overly-warm, poorly-lit temporary building on the grounds of the Las Vegas Convention Center. You can see: applications for three-dimensional (3-D) modeling and animation; memory upgrade components and PC card products for PCs, workstations, notebooks and laser printers; or software building blocks that can be inserted into an application to perform tasks like note-taking, calculating, organizing files or launching other applications, all based on object linking and embedding. American Power Conversion (Lake Mary, Florida) is here with PowerChute, a universal power supply product the company said "protects Windows and Windows NT users against all power and environmentally related failures." AT&T is demonstrating its LifeKeeperfor Windows NT, a product for NT servers that recognizes hardware component failures or applications faults and then initiates local recovery. If that is unsuccessful, or if there is a total system failure, LifeKeeper switches control of the application service to another Windows NT server. Bankers Trust Co. (New York City) is here with Capital Markets 101, a sort of electronic entry-level college course the company said "teaches financial professionals about the fundamentals of financial instruments and capital markets." While financial professionals probably already know the basics, the program could be helpful for people who want to exercise more control over their own financial investments. The program uses animation, text, equations, and hyperlinks to teach cash securities, foreign exchange, futures, swaps, and options. Each of the more than 200 topics has an associated set of exercises with step-by-step answers. Enterprise Systems Research Institute (Redlands, California) is demonstrating its geographic information system (GIS) software, including: BusinessMap, a new low-cost desktop mapping package for business; Data Automation Kit, a new package for the automation, conversion, and projection of vector data sets; and Spatial Database Engine, a new client/server geospatial data server based on the Oracle 7 database management system. Visitors can see: accounting packages from Great Plains and Hyperion; a low-cost two-dimensional precision drawing tool from Intergraph that lets users use existing AutoCAD and MicroStation files to create new design work without translating; and another Intergraph product that lets the user access files, applications, and resources on Unix systems. (Jim Mallory/19951114) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 11/14/95 GENERAL Comdex - A Filing Cabinet In Your PC (NEWS)(GENERAL)(DEN)(00015) Comdex - A Filing Cabinet In Your PC 11/14/95 LAS VEGAS, NEVADA, U.S.A.,1995 NOV 14 (NB) -- DocuMagix Inc., a San Jose, California-based company, has a product it says will put a file cabinet inside your personal computer. Not only that, but the software actually presents the front of a file cabinet, complete with labels, when you launch Papermaster. PaperMaster isn't a new idea -- the paperless office is an old idea that still seeks acceptance -- but DocuMagix thinks it has the better mousetrap, or in this case, the better paperless filing system, that will cause the world to beat a path to its door. There are certainly a lot of people beating a path to the company's Comdex booth in the Windows Partners pavilion. Papermaster users can create cabinets, drawers and folders with custom colors, icons and even long file names of up to 255 characters, thanks to Windows 95. You can copy and move entire drawers, folders, documents, or even pages in your virtual file cabinet using drag-and-drop. Papermaster supports color, grayscale and black and white documents and you can import and export images in most popular file formats. A feature called AutoCrop is used to eliminate excess blank space on scanned images, including business cards. Papermaster lets you protect individual drawers of documents with passwords, and documents or folder contents can be send to other people using e-mail or via fax. You can also rearrange multi-page documents with the click of a mouse using a feature DocuMagix calls "Virtual Stapling." The heart of the paperless office is the ability to scan printed documents into the system so they don't have to be re-keyed. Papermaster can scan paper forms and fill in the text in different fonts, sizes, and colors, while the original is saved in its entirety. Most document imaging systems require lots of expensive hardware, and the programs themselves are not exactly cheap, but Papermaster runs on most PCs, and a DocuMagix spokesperson told Newsbytes PaperMaster has a suggested retail price of $99. To use Papermaster you need a PC equipped with a 486 or better microprocessor, at least eight megabytes (MB) of system memory and an 8MB permanent swap file, a hard disk with 7MB of available space for the program software, Windows or Windows 95, a VGA or better display, and any TWAIN or ISIS scanner. The company recommends a sheet-fed or flatbed scanner. You need a fax modem and fax software to fax your electronic papers (Jim Mallory/19951113/Press and public contact: DocuMagix, tel 408-434-1138, fax 408-434-0915) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 11/14/95 TRENDS ****Comdex - $500 PCs Not Likely, Says Dell Chief (NEWS)(TRENDS)(DEN)(00016) ****Comdex - $500 PCs Not Likely, Says Dell Chief 11/14/95 LAS VEGAS, NEVADA, U.S.A., 1995 NOV 14 (NB) -- The $500 PCs that are currently being talked about as the possible computing tool of the future aren't likely to become a reality, according Michael Dell, Dell Computer Corp. (NASDAQ: DELL) chairman and chief executive officer. In an interview with Newsbytes at Comdex, Dell called the concept "going back to the future," a reference to the fact that similar machines, commonly known as "dumb terminals," were connected to mainframe computers in the early days of computing. Like the $500 PC being talked about today, the terminals stored no software and had very little memory capacity, relying instead on a communications link with the mainframe computer. The concept being bandied about currently envisions that the inexpensive PCs would link with more powerful computers, possibly over the Internet, download the application the user needs, such as a word processor, and perform the task at hand. That might be writing a business letter, updating a database, or performing spreadsheet calculations. When that task was complete, the portion of the application that had been downloaded to the local PC to handle input and display would be removed. The cost of such a machine could be well under $1,000 since it would not need a lot of memory nor a large-capacity hard drive for storage. However, Dell told Newsbytes that the low cost of the PC would be offset by online charges and the cost of using the applications software, which service providers would have to make available. Dell Computer Corp. rolled out its PowerEdge Web Server at this week's Fall Comdex trade show in Las Vegas. The company said the new server is designed to provide medium- to large-size companies with a hardware platform from which to launch and maintain a presence on the Internet "quickly and easily," and comes with the necessary software already installed. The PowerEdge servers start at under $6,500 and include an EL server that is powered by an Intel Pentium 133 megahertz (MHz) chip and is equipped with 32 megabytes (MB) of memory, a one gigabyte (GB) SCSI (small computer system interface) hard drive, 256 kilobyte (KB) cache, a network interface card, a 6X (denoting it operates at six times the speed of the first CD-ROM drives released) CD-ROM drive, and a three-year service and support program. You also get: the Microsoft Windows NT Server operating system software, version 3.51; Netscape's Internet communications server version 1.12 software to support your Web page and interaction with others over the Internet; and Hot Metal Light, a tool to prepare hypermedia documents and Web home pages. Hot MetalLight includes home page forms and online templates already marked up to simplify and speed the development of Web pages. Dell Computer said it may offer additional Internet tools in the future as they become available, such as Microsoft's secure Internet server, which is being developed under the code-name Gibralter. Dell is expected to make another product announcement within the next fews weeks. The company is keeping mum so far about the nature of that announcement, but Michael Dell told Newsbytes that, for the present, the company will continue to develop PCs and servers with additional storage and memory capacity. (Jim Mallory/19951114/Press contact: Libba Letton, Dell Computer, 512-728-7344; Public contact: Dell Computer, 800-289-3355) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 11/14/95 IBM Comdex - IBM Offers $99 & Shareware "Objects" On Web (NEWS)(IBM)(BOS)(00017) Comdex - IBM Offers $99 & Shareware "Objects" On Web 11/14/95 LAS VEGAS, NEVADA, U.S.A., 1995 NOV 14 (NB) -- Two new online services from IBM -- Club OpenDoc and the Reusable Software Component Market -- will each distribute software "objects" over the World Wide Web, in the first instance as "shareware," and in the other for $99 per component, said IBM's Valerie C. Olague, during a press briefing attended by Newsbytes at Fall Comdex in Las Vegas. In addition to rolling out the two new Web-based services for object-oriented (OO) software developers, IBM used the briefing to preview a few of the OpenDoc applications currently being created with IBM's OpenDoc toolkit for OS/2 Warp Version 3.0. Plans call for IBM to ship the toolkit in December, and to integrate an OpenDoc runtime, supporting applications like those being shown at Comdex, into the next edition of OS/2 Warp, slated for release in mid-1996, according to Olague, a staffer in Object Oriented Strategy and Implementation within the IBM Software Solutions Division. In an interview with Newsbytes during the informal press event, Olague said that IBM sees Club OpenDoc as a spot in cyberspace where developers can obtain the information needed for building OO applications, including feedback from users on pre- released components. In contrast, she noted, the new Reusable Software Component Market will serve as an "electronic store" for buying "finished" OpenDoc and SOM (System Object Model) parts from IBM and other vendors. The "electronic store" is owned and run by CyberSource Corp., operator of software.net, but it is sponsored by IBM. Both of the new services for developers are now online. The new Web-based "store" is currently selling SOM objects for capabilities that include scanning, database access, image formats, and audio, Olague reported. In December, the store will add parts developed with the new OpenDoc toolkit for OS/2 in spreadsheets, signature verification, voice recognition, and other areas, she revealed. Third-party vendors that have signed on to provide commercial software components over IBM's Reusable Software Component Market include: A&H Associates; Hatteras Software; IS International; Onspec Automation Solutions; Synergistic Software; Voice Pilot Technologies; Asset Inc.; Cirrus Technology; CrossLogic Corporation; Computer Innovations Inc.; and LPC Consulting Service. According to Olague. Apple Computer and Widgets Workshop are expected to join in as well. Olague added that IBM's new Club OpenDoc will initially provide news about: OpenDoc products and vendors; tutorials on OpenDoc features; and a forum for communicating with IBM, fellow developers, technology consultants, systems integrators, educators, contractors, and even potential employers/employees. Through an online "Want Ad" section, for example, developers will be able to look for jobs and "new teammates." In addition, IBM intends to monitor Internet forums like the OpenDoc news groups and CI Labs forums for information useful to OpenDoc developers. IBM will also encourage input from Club OpenDoc members on OpenDoc performance, capabilities, and marketing activities, Newsbytes was told. Hotlinks are being provided to related Web sites from IBM, CI Labs, Apple, Novell, and individual and company members of the club. Future additions to the Web-based club will include Chat OpenDoc, for online discussions with object technology experts, along with the OpenDoc Planetarium, home of the OpenDoc shareware "parts." Olague informed Newsbytes that the online Planetarium will provide downloadable OpenDoc and SOM demos, as well as beta components for evaluation by other users. The IBM exec also pointed out that IBM recently assumed responsibility from Novell for developing and marketing OpenDoc for Windows 95 and Windows NT. In addition, a pre-released version of OpenDoc for AIX is targeted for availability on the Developer Connection CD (DEVCON) later this month. An early release version of the OpenDoc for OS/2 toolkit has now gone out to more than 20,000 OS/2 developers, and over 50 ISVs (independent software vendors) are presently developing OpenDoc parts, according to the IBM exec. In a demo during the press briefing, Emily Vander Veer, also of IBM, showed Newsbytes an IBM-produced travel expense application that integrates spreadsheet, electronic signature, speech recognition, calendar, and document management components from the following third-party vendors: Athena Design, Peripheral Vision, Voice Pilot Technology, and Cirrus. Stephen B. Sutherland, president of TruSpectra, displayed a "resolution independent" layered imaging application, also created using IBM's OpenDoc toolkit for OS/2 Warp. The company president showed Newsbytes how the TruSpectra software lets the use first build and then bring together multiple copies of the same image, for unusual combinations of special effects like contrast and embossing. To spur participation in Club OpenDoc, IBM announced the new OpenDoc Developers Contest for "innovative and functional use" of OpenDoc. IBM intends to name the contest winner at ObjectWorld Boston next spring, according to Olague. IBM's new Club OpenDoc is located at http://www.software.ibm.Com/clubopendoc on the Web. You can access the Reusable Software Component Market at http://components.software.net . (Jacqueline Emigh/19951114/Reader Contact: IBM, 914-765-1900; Press Contacts: Keith Mary Rantas-Drew, IBM, 914-766-1211; Jennifer Surro, Brodeur & Partners for IBM, 617-622-2856) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 11/14/95 TELECOM Comdex - M-Tel's SkyTel Two-Way Paging A Hit (NEWS)(TELECOM)(LON)(00018) Comdex - M-Tel's SkyTel Two-Way Paging A Hit 11/14/95 LAS VEGAS, NEVADA, U.S.A., 1995 NOV 14 (NB) -- Launched in September of this year, M-Tel's Skytel two-way radiopager has caused something of a sensation at this year's Comdex, where the Jackson, Mississippi- based company has been hosting a booth on the main Hewlett-Packard stand. Why HP? Well, the Motorola Tango ("it takes two to tango" says M-Tel) pager is the same size as the conventional alpha-numeric paging devices from the likes of Philips, Sony and others, except that this unit has the ability to transmit messages back to the base station. It also offers features that e-mail service users take for granted -- auto-acknowledgment of messages, auto reply, and priority messages, for example. The pager comes with an adapter that allows the pager to become a PCMCIA (Personal Computer memory Card International Association) unit that slots neatly into the HP series of palmtops, interacting with the PC using supplied software. "The real beauty of this system is that it means that senders of messages can be sure that the message will get through," claimed Bill Paxton, a product manager for the company who, along with several hundred others, spent a frustrating hour in the lines for the "regular" shuttle buses from the Comdex Convention Center on Monday afternoon. Newsbytes took advantage of the dead time waiting for the bus to talk through various paging and cellular phone issues with Paxton, a genial technician who cheerfully admits to carrying five pagers and a three watt transportable cellphone while around the office. He toted a transportable phone at Comdex because he claims that the flip-phones that most people use are inadequate for less than solid reception. "See those flips? The aerials on them are put up by the users, but they're not needed -- they're fakes," he told Newsbytes. Paxton is in favor of the SkyTel service and not just because he works for the company. At a $500 buy-in for the pager, plus from $20 a month for regional access, through to $80 a month for national US access, callers can dial a 1-800 number and either key in a message or leave it with an operator. The message is then transmitted to the pager, provided it is within city areas of the US. The Skytel paging system is digital, using the GSM (global system for mobile communications) frequencies around the 900 megahertz (MHz) waveband. A pager can be up to 15 miles away from a base station, though Paxton claims that the saturation coverage of cities that M-tel is carrying out means that most users are rarely more than a few miles away. The Tango pager has a normal LCD (liquid crystal display) screen, but has an array of buttons around the lower half of the unit. This allows rudimentary access to a message editing system to allow on-the-move replies to incoming messages to be generated. For real message generation, though, you need to strap on a PCMCIA adapter that allows the device to be plugged into an HP palmtop. This turns the HP into a wireless messaging system. The Skytel system is not sufficiently interactive to support online services, but its messages can be up to 500 characters long, which Paxton claims is sufficient for most users. The real advantage is the cost -- at $80 a month for national US coverage, the rates compare very favorably with cellular. "We have sales guys that spend $1,500 easy a month using their cellphones. With Skytel, those costs can be reduced by allowing messages to be left for them and a response is nearly instant, once users realize that the system tracks the messages. It's a real useful facility," he told Newsbytes. (Steve Gold/19951114/Press & Reader Contact: M-Tel, 601-944-7000) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 11/14/95 TRENDS Comdex - Next Generation Plastic Card Transaction Processing (NEWS)(TRENDS)(LON)(00019) Comdex - Next Generation Plastic Card Transaction Processing 11/14/95 LAS VEGAS, NEVADA, U.S.A., 1995 NOV 14 (NB) -- Fraud is a major problem in the credit and debit card industry, but the problem with checking transactions online to date has been the relatively high capital cost of equipment to support EFTPOS (Electronic Funds Transfer at Point Of Sale) transactions. Now an Oakland, California-based company -- ICVerify -- claims it has the problem licked with its product of the same name, a Windows package that authorizes transactions online. According to company officials with the company at the Comdex Fall show, ICVerify runs happily under Windows 3.1, Windows 95, and single or multi-user networking systems. The software can be easily integrated with Internet host systems, the company claims, making it an ideal partner for Internet World Wide Web sites that allow purchases to be made with plastic. Steve Elefant, the company's chairman, claims that ICVerify is several steps beyond conventional EFTPOS technology because it is "sensibly priced" and "easy to install and use." By allowing retailers and merchants to use Windows-based PC platforms for their transaction processing, the cost of a processing system is greatly reduced. "Windows is becoming an increasingly popular environment in both traditional and non-traditional environments, where ease of use on the front-end and easy applications integration on the back is critical," he explained. He added that an increasing number of conventional EFTPOS transaction processing system users are migrating to Windows PC platforms because of the cost issues. So, how much? $599 will get you the native Windows application that is accessible via an icon on-screen. The page supports a nifty "screen grab" function that literally grabs a screenload of information from another application and intelligently searches for plastic card data, acting on the data as if it were entered at the keyboard. The $599 price tag is for a single workstation license, officials at the company's stand at Comdex explained. The network version costs just $100 more -- $699 for an unlimited user license on a network. These prices include a year's round-the-clock phone support. The main competition to ICVerify is the gray box system that Verifone supplies to the EFTPOS industry. ICVerify claims that its system is five times more powerful than the dedicated gray box system seen with Verifone. Up to eight users can access the software at the same time across a network, and batch processing is supported for recurring transactions. Up to 999 merchant numbers can be used on a single package system. (Steve Gold/19951114/Press Contact: Paula Larson, The Benjamin Group, 408-559-6090; Reader Contact: ICVerify, 510-553-7500) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 11/14/95 GENERAL Comdex - UFO Information Flys In On CD-ROM (NEWS)(GENERAL)(LON)(00020) Comdex - UFO Information Flys In On CD-ROM 11/14/95 LAS VEGAS, NEVADA, U.S.A., 1995 NOV 14 (NB) -- For those interested in studies on UFO phenomenon, Stanton Friedman, the well-known American Nuclear Physicist and UFO researcher, has brought a stack of information gathered on a single CD-ROM disk. According to Friedman, who is widely respected in scientific UFO circles, the material presented on the $39.95 disk should attract the attention of those interested in the subject from the scientific point of view. "UFOs...The real story" is a combination of rare photographs, previously classified documents, eyewitness reports, scientific speculations, and star systems/universe diagrams, all challenging the theory that the human civilization has never been, and at present is not visited by, extraterrestrials. Speaking with Newsbytes, Friedman explained that the disk gives the user flexibility to move freely through different departments and information categories. Any specific area can be accessed immediately. Long intergalactic travel can be done with the mouse and control panel appearing on the screen. Friedman told Newsbytes that "UFOs...The real story" answers many standard questions about UFOs such as: "Why would UFOs want to come visit the Earth?, and "How can they fly such long distances -- what kind of technology is needed to fly the speed of light?" According to Friedman, the program not only answers many questions for those interested in the UFO phenomenon, but also for many amateurs who are interested in astronomy and nuclear physics, but don't have a scientific education. Interesting and simple explanations to many scientific subjects is provided. Users can browse through the galaxy and explore the universe as well as many unexplained phenomenon taking place on the Earth. Extracts from UFO sightings are also on the CD-ROM, as well as interviews with witnesses of various incidents, including the famous Roswell Incident, which was even included in the script of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine recently. Stanton Friedman has spent 37 years on researching UFO phenomenon, and has appeared on many TV and radio programs, such as "Unsolved Mysteries," "Sightings," and "Nightline." Friedman commented to Newsbytes on the recently shown film "Aliens Autopsy: Fact or Fiction," which stirred the UFO research community around the world, especially in the UK where the program was shown on national TV. "I have been doing research on the Roswell Incident for most of my working years. I have not any conclusive facts to prove that the film is a fake, but in my opinion the film is unconvincing and many issues related to acquisition of the shown film are unclear and have changed over the time," Friedman told Newsbytes. He added that Kodak's test on the authenticity of the film has proved to be inconclusive as well. Unity Publishing with whom Friedman collaborated on production of "UFOs...The real story", has also published a series of CD-ROM disks, including "AskAbout Endangered Species," "AskAbout Dinosaurs," and "AskAbout the Internet," CD-ROM programs for children and adults. (Sylvia Dennis/19951114/Press & Reader Contact: Mike Stapenhurst, Unity Publishing, 506-450-9864) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 11/14/95 BUSINESS ****3M Restructures - 5,000 Jobs To Go (NEWS)(BUSINESS)(LAX)(00021) ****3M Restructures - 5,000 Jobs To Go 11/14/95 ST. PAUL, MINNESOTA, U.S.A., 1995 NOV 14 (NB) -- 3M (NYSE: MMM) has announced that it intends to spin off its data storage and imaging systems businesses as an independent, publicly owned company. 3M also said it will discontinue its audio and video tape business during the next 12 months. The new company will contain 3M's data storage and imaging systems businesses. 3M's data storage business includes removable media used to store and transmit computer information. Major product offerings include data cartridges, diskettes, and optical disks. In 1994, sales of these businesses totaled more than $2 billion. L.D. DeSimone, chairman and chief executive officer, said, "This is a growing market with sales in excess of $3.5 billion. In addition to leading technologies, 3M strengths in this market include close relationships with major hardware and drive manufacturers, a strong flow of new products, and the best distribution in the industry." The imaging systems business includes color proofing materials, as well as laser imagers for medical diagnostics. It also has a strong position in printing plates, conventional X-ray films, and private- label color films. "The data storage and imaging systems businesses serve markets that are fast-moving and in which technologies are converging," DeSimone said. "We are convinced that a swift, agile, stand-alone enterprise is the best way to maximize opportunities for success there. "When launched, the new company will have not only excellent people, technology and products, but also a streamlined organization and a lower cost structure. This will mean faster speed-to-market, increased customer responsiveness, and greater profitability," said DeSimone. Don Frenette, executive director of public relations, told Newsbytes, "Lawrence E. Eaton, executive vice president, Information, Imaging and Electronic Sector, will head the transition team that will create the new company. The new spin-off will be treated as an independent company starting now. A new name will be chosen soon, and the proper filings will be accomplished within two or three months." As part of the planned changes, 3M will also discontinue its audio and video tape business in a time-frame estimated at about one year. Sales of this business totaled about $650 million last year. "Despite strong efforts and many successes, including a leading market position, this business has not been able to achieve a satisfactory return on investment in recent years because of intense price competition," DeSimone said. "And we don't see the prospect for significant improvement. While this is a decision we are not happy to make, it is the right thing to do. I would like to thank the 3M people in this challenging business for their tremendous dedication and hard work." Frenette told Newsbytes that "3M expects to reduce approximately 5,000 positions. Of the 5,000, about 3,000 will be in the United States. If you look at growth, normal attrition, and incentives like early retirement, 3M expects a much smaller number of involuntary separations, perhaps 1,000 to 1,500 in the United States. The reductions will be concentrated in the audio and video products business and in some support functions." 3M will spin-off the new company and end the video tape business during 1996, with completion in second half of the year. 3M shareholders will receive shares in the new company at the time the plan is implemented. These shares will be in addition to the shares they now hold in 3M. The transaction is expected to be tax-free to shareholders and 3M. (Richard Bowers/19951114/Press Contact: Dan Gahlon, 3M, 612-733-8806) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 11/14/95 ONLINE ****Comdex - Netcom Readies For ISDN, Shows New Software (NEWS)(ONLINE)(SFO)(00022) ****Comdex - Netcom Readies For ISDN, Shows New Software 11/14/95 LAS VEGAS, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A, 1995 NOV 14 (NB) -- Netcom (NASDAQ:NETC), one of the fastest growing national Internet providers, opened Comdex with demonstrations of the latest version of its Netcruiser software and a sample of its soon-to-be-delivered ISDN (integrated services digital network) connectivity. Netcom foresees 1996 as the year when users will begin to make a major shift from 28.8 kilobits-per-second access. The buzz word for this Comdex is ISDN. Everyone has been talking about the high-speed technology for months and asking when Internet service providers will have an ISDN service ready for wide customer access. Netcom says it is ready to make a commitment to ISDN and will begin with a San Francisco Bay Area roll-out next month. Through 1996, Netcom says it will expand ISDN service across the country on a region-by-region basis. This follows a recent announcement by Netcom in which the company co-founded NetFX, a consortium of Internet providers, software developers, and hardware manufacturers dedicated to forming "open ISDN standards" which will insure the necessary component integration for a smooth transition to ISDN Internet access. In a second announcement, Netcom announced a new strategy. Netcruiser, Netcom's proprietary Internet software and interface, is getting an upgrade only a few months after its debut as version 2.0. The latest addition offers users a floating toolbar. Once installed, version 2.1 looks for a user's Winsock-compatible applications and places them on a floating toolbar. This means Netcom customers can switch seamlessly to another browser, news reader, or any type of Internet Winsock application, said the company. Previously, users had to minimize Netcruiser, find the Internet application they wished to use, and then open it. With this new version, users simple click an icon on the floating toolbar and the application opens. "This may seem quite simple and easy," said a Netcom spokesperson, "but what is really happening here is a fundamental change for Netcom. We are moving from being an Internet software package to an Internet software platform. We are saying, 'If you see an Internet application you want you to use, we want you to have it.' If you want Netscape's Navigator as your browser, we want to make it possible for you to have it and use it on Netcom. This is the beginning of a truly custom Internet experience where you decide what you want to do on the Internet and how you want to do it. Which browser or application a user chooses is important to us and we want to provide the connection and Internet platform for each Internet user to have their own experience." (Patrick McKenna/19951114/Press Contact: Jeannie Sloan, Netcom, 415-556-3211/NETCOM951114/PHOTO) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 11/14/95 ONLINE Don't Surf The Net - Safe The Net (NEWS)(ONLINE)(TYO)(00023) Don't Surf The Net - Safe The Net 11/14/95 LONDON, ENGLAND, 1995 NOV 14 (NB) -- The United Kingdom's Health Education Authority is encouraging Internet users to "safe the net" in the run up to World AIDS Day on December 1. The organization has created a World Wide Web site featuring AIDS awareness red ribbons designed by famous people and is offering them for use on home pages. #IMAGE 1 20 TWPCX \images\95111423.PCX Click here for photo "People are finding this a fun thing to do," said Sean Larkins of the Health Education Authority, who explained to Newsbytes the ideas and hopes behind the new Web site. The Web site is being used primarily to distribute information about AIDS, "We think it's a very important way to get info out to a very difficult audience." Larkins said that 25% of all AIDS cases in the UK are in men under 30 and the majority of Internet users fall into this category. "Young men are very difficult to get information to about health problems because they don't tend to talk to their friends and they don't have lifestyle magazines with problem pages, so they are a little bit more isolated. It's quite daunting if you don't know and want to get information." Larkins continued, "Traditionally we would have used a medium like newspapers, but research shows 25% of Internet users don't read a daily newspaper so traditional methods may pass them by." By using a Web site, he said, Internet users can consult that page from work or the privacy of their own homes and get answers to questions they may want to have answered. To add some fun to the subject, and to raise awareness of the issue, the Health Education Authority is making images of AIDS awareness red ribbons available to home page owners with the request they display a ribbon on their home pages in the run up to World AIDS Day. A selection of over 60 different ribbons are available with designs from famous people including singer Annie Lennox, actress Joanna Lumley, designer Paul Smith, and boxer Joe McGuigan. A red ribbon screen saver is also available for download. Even though the server is run by an organization that traditionally only targets the UK, the use of the Internet takes the campaign worldwide, said Larkins. "Many countries have no reliable or effective safe sex or AIDS information because of religious views or government policy. Now, most universities and health centers have Internet access, so people worldwide can access an unbiased source of information. We have no hidden agenda," he claimed. The site has already received thousands of visits more than was anticipated, "Its been very well taken up. We are putting a tracker on the site and have had 63,000 visitors as of the end of last week," said Larkins. The December 1 edition of The Guardian newspaper in the UK will be changed to feature a red ribbon and the Web site address. Also, an AIDS-awareness television program on LWT, a London TV station, will feature the site and display the address on screen. He added that it was initially planned to remain until the end of January but, given the response and number of visits, may become a permanent feature on the World Wide Web. Internet users with access to the World Wide Web can visit the Health Education Authority's World AIDS Day pages at http://www.wad.hea.org.uk/pages/home/ . (Martyn Williams/19951114/Press contact: Health Education Authority, +44-171-383-3833/AIDSDAY951114/PHOTO) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 95 11/14/95 WINDOWS ****Comdex - Showstoppers Exhibits Focus On Windows (NEWS)(WINDOWS)(MSP)(00024) ****Comdex - Showstoppers Exhibits Focus On Windows 95 11/14/95 LAS VEGAS, NEVADA, U.S.A., 1995 NOV 14 (NB) -- Barely three months old, Microsoft's Windows 95 seems to be making inroads into the computer software market. Exhibitors at the second annual Showstoppers press party, held at the same time as the Comdex Fall '95 show in Las Vegas, seem to confirm that, as the majority of them either introduced or demonstrated products that are designed to run under the new operating system (OS). The invitation-only party attracted "innovative computer hardware, software, and online services" from more than 20 companies, a press release claimed. But most of the companies showed software-related products, and most of those programs were Windows 95 related. One company taking advantage of, not only Windows 95, but many other operating systems, is S&S Software International. The firm announced it is shipping "Dr. Solomon's Anti-Virus Toolkit" for Windows 95 and Windows NT. Similar versions of the Toolkit for SCO Unix and Macintosh Systems 6.X and 7.X will ship by the end of this month, Pat Bitton, S&S Software vice president of marketing, told Newsbytes. The Toolkit is more famous in Europe than in the US, but the product is making inroads, a S&S Software engineer told Newsbytes, and the expansion of support for other operating systems should help the product's popularity in America. Not hurting the company's presence at the Showstoppers was the inventor of the Toolkit, Dr. Alan Solomon -- in his train engineer's outfit, and with his whistle that sounded like an old steam train. CyberMedia demonstrated its First Aid 95 for Windows 95 at Showstoppers. Company officials said the product is the only one designed to find software configuration problems and fix them automatically. What's more, First Aid 95 is designed for people who would rather let their computer fix itself. CyberMedia officials also said that, for a limited time, it will include a free copy of IDG Press' latest "Windows for Dummies" books. ImageFast 3.0 from Compusearch is one of the few products not related to Windows 95. Described as "newly developed, from the ground up," the program is an electronic document management system (EDMS). It gives the user "all of the tools necessary" to control all electronic information and documents on the desktop with both stand-alone and networked machines. One of the nicest features of the product is its search engine, Glenn Spring, marketing assistant for Compusearch, told Newsbytes. "What you can do is put index cards on each of your documents and have those formatted however you want to index your documents however you need to do that," he said. The program itself works with any structured query language (SQL) database management system (DBMS). One of the few companies not showing software was Full Circle Technologies Inc. The company says it will bring to market an 8-bit card designed to complement any traditional anti-virus software. The difference is, according to a Full Circle spokesperson, that the card helps detect boot-sector virus infections just as a computer is turned on or rebooted, preventing any damage before such a virus wreaks its havoc. The Full Circle representative said no anti-virus software can detect boot-sector viruses because the hard drive will "crash before the anti-virus software ever gets a chance to load," he said. Other companies demonstrating products at Showstoppers included Adrem, BytePro, Davidson, Genovation, Primeline online shopping services, and Tapedisk. (Bob Woods/19951113/Press Contacts: Steven J. Leon, Technopolis Communications Inc., 310-670-5606, Internet e-mail teknopolis@aol.com, for S&S Software; Suzy Jacoby, Phase Two Strategies, 415-772-8418, Internet e-mail suzy_jacoby@p2pr.com, for CyberMedia; Glenn Spring, Compusearch, 703-893-7200 ext 257, Internet e-mail gspring@compusearch.com; Andy Olson/TEAM International, 310-640-8725, for Full Circle Technologies) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 11/14/95 TRENDS Comdex - TEAC 6x CD-ROM Drive (NEWS)(TRENDS)(SFO)(00025) Comdex - TEAC 6x CD-ROM Drive 11/14/95 LAS VEGAS, NEVADA, U.S.A., 1995 NOV 14 (NB) -- TEAC America opened in Las Vegas with its true 6x CD-ROM drive, a new Travan tape storage drive, and a CD read/write drive. Calling most 6x speed drives "tweaked 4x drives," TEAC demonstrated the advantage of its internal processing power and gear technology. "We have the only true 6x-speed CD-ROM drive on the market," said Michael Nguyen, TEAC product manager. According to Nguyen, other 6x drives are "juiced-up" 8-bit units. "They may be able to attain the transfer and access rates, but they use a large percentage of a computer's main processing power. Our 6x drive is driven by an internal 16-bit Mitsubishi microprocessor and we have a gear mechanism which allows the head to move more freely. This means we use only 30% to 35% of the CPU (central processing unit) which frees the CPU for additional multitasking. Other 6x units can use up to 90% of the CPU," claimed Nguyen. Explaining the advantage of the gear mechanism, Nguyen told Newsbytes, "This new technology extends the life of the drive as much as twice that of other drives and by doing so, protects the users investment." Called the CD-56E, Teac's internal drive is selling on the street for about $249 and Nguyen says the price is heading for $199. This IDE (Integrated Drive Electronics) drive has a transfer rate of 900 megabytes per second and a fast seek time of 110 milliseconds with a 256 kilobyte buffer. An 8x drive is expected in the second quarter of next year and TEAC will also ship a SCSI (small computer system interface) version of the 6x. Following its 6x announcement, TEAC announced its Travan SuperTape 800 and 1600. "This is the first time a TR-2 type drive has been offered at TR-1 speed," said Nguyen. Using new head technology, TEAC says its Super Tape 800 kit will sell for $159 in the first quarter of 1996. "This is the same price as the popular TR-1 drives currently on the market," claimed Nguyen. TEAC also announced its plans to enter the 4x CD-R (recordable, read/write) drive with a high-speed SCSI-2 interface model. Nguyen says this drive will be under $1,000 and ship during the second calendar quarter of 1996. (Patrick McKenna/19951114/Press Contact: Rolly Going, The Terpin Group, 310-821-6100/TEAC951114/PHOTO) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 11/14/95 PC Comdex - Real Time MPEG On A PC Card (NEWS)(PC)(LON)(00026) Comdex - Real Time MPEG On A PC Card 11/14/95 LAS VEGAS, NEVADA, U.S.A., 1995 NOV 14 (NB) -- SAI Technologies, well known in European circles for its multimedia systems, unveiled its MPEG (Motion Picture Experts Group) type 1 card at the Comdex Fall computer show this week. According to the company, the sub-$5,000 Enigma card is around a third of the cost of "comparable systems." "We were one of the first companies to recognize the huge potential of multimedia and CD-ROM production for the professional and business user. Enigma is an easy to use, cost-effective solution for video capture, manipulation, editing, compression to MPEG 1 and decompression for playback that opens up multimedia production to companies who previously felt it was too expensive and difficult to implement," claimed Paraag Mehta, the company's technical director. The PC card is designed to be easy to use and supports Plug & Play technology found on Windows 95. The product is aimed at professionals in the broadcasting industry, as well as multimedia encoding houses. The card is billed as even capable of transmitting live video feeds across the Internet, thanks to the inclusion of special mathematical models employed in compression and decompression for low bit data rates. The heart of the card is a very fast RISC (reduced instruction set computing) video digital signal processor (DSP) that works at eight billion operations per second. This translates to a video data rate of four megabits per second (Mbps) and 30 frames-per-second video. Using these kinds of speeds allows the board to complete video standards conversions "on the fly," to/from/between for example, PAL, NTSC (North American Television Standards Committee), Secam, and S-VHS. In use, the Enigma card uses, what the company describes as, "very efficient motion estimation algorithms" with user defined search ranges of 16 pels in any direction, which a company official told Newsbytes allows the card to work with almost any video input or situation. In simple terms, this translates to allowing the board to cope with images that are difficult to encode, such as fast-moving action, with no pixellation on the screen. This is most regularly seen by TV viewers who are watching a program which is transcoded from another TV system, such as European TV programs on PBS in the US, and US programs on European TVs -- the transcoder starts to pixellate, or defocus the image in areas of the screen where the action is fast and furious. With Enigma, the company claims, this just doesn't happen. For the technical, the Enigma card decodes MPEG to composite PAL, NTSC, and real time x 2 scaling. Audio output from the card is claimed to be of CD quality (16-bits, 44,000 hertz) and is programmable for most types of audio -- PCM (pulse code modulation), adaptive dynamic PCM, and G.7, for example. Mehta claims that, as well as offering round-the-clock support across the Internet and on CompuServe, the company offers telephone support five days a week, as well as application-specific customization services to any users who has specialized video compression needs. The minimum system for Enigma to be installed is a 33 megahertz (MHz) 486-based system with eight megabytes (MB) of memory and a 200MB hard disk. (Steve Gold/19951114/Press Contact: Keith Mason, Harvard PR, tel +44-181-759-0005, fax +44-181-897-3242, Internet e-mail keith@harvard.mhs.compuserve.com; Reader Contact: SAI Technologies, +44-181-578-5668, Internet e-mail paraag@saitech.demon.co.uk) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 11/14/95 GENERAL Irish Trade Board Revealed At Comdex (NEWS)(GENERAL)(LON)(00027) Irish Trade Board Revealed At Comdex 11/14/95 LAS VEGAS, NEVADA, U.S.A., 1995 NOV 14 (NB) -- Las Vegas is around 6,000 miles away from home for the Irish companies clustering together under the Irish Trade Board banner at this year's Comdex. However, business is brisk, mainly because of a range of new products the board has on display. Nine companies make up the Irish contingent at this year's Comdex Fall, but most interest seems to focus on Raidtec, which produces what it claims are innovative RAID (redundant array of inexpensive disks) systems for network servers, minicomputers, and workstations. The firm, which has offices in Atlanta, Georgia, specializes in supplying fault- tolerant SCSI (small computer system interface) disk array drives and power supplies, with capacities ranging from one to 60 gigabytes (GB) supported by a single host controller. According to Sheila Thurmond of the company, Raidtec is the only developer of RAID systems to engineer a RAID system based on a true hardware approach. Central to the company's systems is a Raidtec universal array controller (RUAC) that is claimed to be unique in the marketplace, since it provides party "on the fly" calculation, and eliminates the "read modify write back" performance penalty that most RAID systems suffer from. Also on the Irish stand is IDOC, a company that specializes in software and hardware localization for country markets. The company, which has offices in Los Angeles, takes a software or hardware system and translates, localizes, and produces a product for foreign markets. Company officials on the stand told Newsbytes that current clients include HP, Lotus, Microsoft, Novell, Oracle, and Syquest "to name but a few." The trade board, meanwhile, claims to offer a "complete outsource program" for companies wanting to outsource their manufacturing facilities to Ireland. The board unveiled its Contract Europe service at Comdex Fall, a program that claims to offer a totally integrated single project management system for "virtual manufacturing." Neil Kelly, manager of engineering programs with the board's New York office explained that Contract Europe is an "ideal method" for companies to outsource the production elements of accessing the European market while maintaining cost-effectiveness and quality control. "This unique program combines all elements and activities in manufacturing and distribution. The program is particularly suited to companies seeking to build market presence in the European Union without constructing their own factories," he explained. (Sylvia Dennis/1995114/Press & Reader Contact: Irish Trade Board, tel 212-371-3600, fax 212-371-6398; Raidtec, tel 404-664-6066, fax 404-664-6166; IDOC, tel 310-446-4666, fax 310-446-4661) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 11/14/95 TELECOM Comdex - MaxTech Unveils Budget DSVD Modem (NEWS)(TELECOM)(LON)(00028) Comdex - MaxTech Unveils Budget DSVD Modem 11/14/95 LAS VEGAS, NEVADA, U.S.A., 1995 NOV 14 (NB) -- MaxTech, the US manufacturer of communications devices, has launched a three-in-one product at Comdex Fall, which combines modem, fax, and voice communication facilities. According to officials with the company, the $259 modem operates at all modem speeds to 28,800 bits-per-second (bps), and supports DSVD (digital simultaneous voice & data) technology, a system by which voice and data can be carried on a single modem carrier. According to the company, the benefits of the MaxTech DSVD modem are particularly useful for those users who work remotely with other co-workers. The MaxTech modem allows two people to transmit a presentation to one another, and at the same time allows both sides to change any part of it. During such operations, users are also able to talk to each other discussing the project on the speaker phone or with a handset and implement any additional changes. MaxTech XSVD modems include a free microphone/speaker, making communication "more comfortable" without an extra expense. According to the company, the quality of the sound on the MaxTech modem is not a compromise, as happens very often with built-in speaker phone products. Faxes can be send in both directions simultaneously. Each XSVD-2881 modem features a 14,400 bps Group III fax and special fax-on-demand functions that allow a caller to dial to the other computer and have selected documents instantly faxed back. Broadcast faxing allows users to send a document to as many destinations as desired with one stroke of a key. According to a spokesman for the company at Comdex Fall, DSVD technology is saving a lot of time, usually consumed by many separate operations done by separate faxes, modems, and telephones. "This is what people conferencing over the telephone wire demand -- being able to work on a project together at the same time, exchanging ideas as if they were next to each other. They are not interested in spending hours on operating different devices and money on buying them, they just want to quickly work together," he told Newsbytes. In use, the MaxTech Voice Fax modem answer the phone call, then transfer it to fax/voice-mail boxes and users can retrieve the information when convenient. A remote message retrieval facility with the password protection allows to easily access voice, data, and fax messages. According to Los Angeles-based company, the modem conferencing system can be very widely used by professional users as well as adults and children to play games and exchange ideas. (Sylvia Dennis/19951114/Press & Reader Contact: MaxTech, 310-921-1698) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 11/14/95 TELECOM ****Comdex - Netcom's John Zeisler Outlines ISDN (NEWS)(TELECOM)(SFO)(00029) ****Comdex - Netcom's John Zeisler Outlines ISDN 11/14/95 LAS VEGAS NEVADA, U.S.A., 1995 NOV 14 (NB) -- Internet and ISDN (integrated services digital network) connections are all the rage at Comdex. Netcom's senior vice president of marketing, John Zeisler, told Newsbytes some of the problems and some of the wonders of ISDN. Asked why the Internet had become such a hot item, Zeisler said, "I think there has been a dynamic shift in this industry. Everywhere you go you see 'Internet' on booths and products. It is integrated into products as if it were common practice. For a couple of years a lot of the large corporations were talking about the information superhighway -- about 500 channels and interactivity. Where is all that today? While people were learning the problems with all of that, this thing called the World Wide Web exploded onto the scene. And it came on its own autonomy. It exploded without large corporations overseeing and developing it. No-one ever expected this and now large and small corporations are integrating it into their business strategies, operations, and identities." He continued: "Now we are at a point where multimedia enters the picture. The Web is moving towards a multimedia-rich environment and we have to have the means to deliver it to Internet users. ISDN has been around for a long time and has a great advantage over other technologies in the sense it has been tested and is well-known. Right now, one of the biggest problems is how to bring that tested technology into computers at homes and businesses. Today, ISDN customers go through a lot of trouble trying to coordinate with the telephone company, hardware manufacturers, and service providers. We have to have common, open standards so we can deliver an integrated solution to customers. That is why we co-founded NetFX," said Zeisler. "If we, the companies behind ISDN service, do not make ISDN connectivity explicit, the large numbers of people who want to migrate from 28.8 to ISDN simply will not be able to make that move. We have to have a plug-and-play experience to offer users, and that is what Netcom is working towards," he said. Responding to questions about high-speed access through cable or fiber optics, Zeisler said, "In the future, there may be developed technologies which offer more bandwidth, but you have to understand how expensive it would be to implement these technologies into the standard desktop. The reason people accept ISDN is that it has been around for a long time and it is available now as a means to offer high-speed connectivity. " He also said we are beginning to see a drop in the price of ISDN modems. Newsbytes notes, some of these high-speed modems are under $300. Will it be here soon? It is already here, but it has been too expensive. Modems have cost more than $500 and ISDN service from local telephone companies range from about $25 to $75 per month plus installation, and an hourly charge. Netcom will begin its ISDN service in the San Francisco Bay Area next month and plans to extend it across the US during 1996. Zeisler indicated there was a lot more to learn about ISDN and the companies involved in its delivery should expect the coming year of growth to be a time of learning and shaping ISDN implementation and service. He also confirmed Netcom rates for ISDN service would be higher than the companies standard charges for 28.8 kilobits-per-second and lower access speeds. Exact pricing is yet to be determined. Preparing for high ISDN volume, Netcom will upgrade its existing backbone during 1996. The cost of moving the network to "ATM capacity" could not be disclosed. "We believe ISDN is the means by which people will connect to an Internet full of color, motion, animation, depth, video, audio, and three-dimensions. With the introduction of Sun's Java language and Macromedia's ShockWave, we are about to see this dynamic shift really explode into a new experience," concluded Zeisler. (Patrick McKenna/19951114/Press Contact: Jeannie Slone, Netcom, 415-556-3211) (SUMMARY)(GENERAL)(MSP)(00030) Newsbytes Daily Summary 11/14/95 MINNEAPOLIS, MINNESOTA, U.S.A., 1995 NOV 14 (NB) -- These are capsules of all today's news stories: ======================================================================== ------------| N E W S B Y T E S D A I L Y S U M M A R Y |---------- ------------| Tuesday, November 14, 1995 |---------- ======================================================================== (c) Newsbytes News Network (Tm) Editor in Chief: Wendy Woods ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Newsbytes News Network's on the Web! Check out http://www.nbnn.com for free daily top stories from Newsbytes and its affiliate publications, and from PC Week, MacWeek, and other Ziff news magazines. A subscription gives you all the news, full-text, plus the most comprehensive database of past computer stories online. The keyword-searchable database dates from today back through 1983. Subscriptions are $24.95 for three months. Questions? Send to 'administrator@newsbytes.com' For Japanese Newsbytes and additional services, see the Newsbytes Pacifica Website at http://www.islandtel.com/newsbytes/ ------------------------------------------------------------------------ CATEGORY HEADLINES (*** indicates today's top stories) STORY # ======================================================================== BROADCAST ShareVision Videoconferencing To Be Under $1,000........... 02 BUSINESS ****3M Restructures - 5,000 Jobs To Go.................... 21 CHIPS Comdex - ATI Aims 3D Rage Chip At Multimedia Market........ 10 GENERAL Writer's Edge Thesaurus Add-On............................. 01 GENERAL Comdex - The Merchandising Of Comdex....................... 09 GENERAL Comdex - Generations Exhibit Summarizes Computing History.. 11 GENERAL Comdex Opens With A Different Feel......................... 13 GENERAL Comdex - A Filing Cabinet In Your PC....................... 15 GENERAL Comdex - UFO Information Flys In On CD-ROM................. 20 GENERAL Irish Trade Board Revealed At Comdex....................... 27 IBM Comdex - IBM Offers $99 & Shareware "Objects" On Web....... 17 ONLINE Internet Update............................................ 03 ONLINE Comdex - Starfish's Web Group Scheduler, Organizer......... 08 ONLINE ****Comdex - Netcom Readies For ISDN, Shows New Software.. 22 ONLINE Don't Surf The Net - Safe The Net.......................... 23 PC Comdex - Zeniths Notebook With Large Color Display......... 04 PC Comdex - Real Time MPEG On A PC Card....................... 26 TELECOM Comdex - M-Tel's SkyTel Two-Way Paging A Hit............... 18 TELECOM Comdex - MaxTech Unveils Budget DSVD Modem................. 28 TELECOM ****Comdex - Netcom's John Zeisler Outlines ISDN.......... 29 TRENDS ****Comdex - PowerPC CHRP Specification................... 05 TRENDS ****Comdex - Gerstner Admits Industry Has To Change........ 06 TRENDS Comdex - Motorola Intros Handwriting Recognition Products.. 07 TRENDS NTT Claims Data Transmission Speed Record.................. 12 TRENDS ****Comdex - $500 PCs Not Likely, Says Dell Chief......... 16 TRENDS Comdex - Next Generation Plastic Card Transaction Processin 19 TRENDS Comdex - TEAC 6x CD-ROM Drive.............................. 25 WINDOWS Comdex 95 Features Microsoft Partners...................... 14 WINDOWS ****Comdex - Showstoppers Exhibits Focus On Windows 95.... 24 ======================================================================== These are the headlines and first paragraphs of each story, in order: 1 -> Writer's Edge Thesaurus Add-On -- IdealFisher Systems, a software developer, says Writer's Edge has 1,402 words related to "love." A word processing utility, Writer's Edge offers users synonyms, abstractions, homonyms, and other word alternatives to more than 1,500,000 words. 2 -> ShareVision Videoconferencing To Be Under $1,000 -- Creative Technology Ltd. (NASDAQ: CREAF) says it will reduce the price of its ShareVision PC3000 desktop videoconferencing product to $999 beginning January 1, in North America. The suggested retail price for the PC3000 is now $1,499. 3 -> Internet Update -- In this update of new resources and services on the global Internet: US News & World Report; NBC Pro Golf Tour; Yellow Pages Online; Online film clip library; Online image query system; The moan and groan page; Banque Nationale de Paris; Sinnissippi Valley Information Network 4 -> Comdex - Zeniths Notebook With Large Color Display -- Zenith Data Systems (ZDS) says it has a "first" in its new Z-Note GT. The new Pentium notebook model has a display that is said to be as large as a typical 14-inch monitor. 5 -> ****Comdex - PowerPC CHRP Specification -- In the midst of doubts about the PowerPC platform's ability to shake the Intel x86 architecture's dominance, partners IBM (NYSE:IBM), Apple Computer Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL), and Motorola Inc. (NYSE:MOT), have unveiled the much-anticipated PowerPC Microprocessor Common Hardware Reference Platform (CHRP) specification at Comdex/Fall. 6 -> ****Comdex - Gerstner Admits Industry Has To Change -- Most computer users know it, but it's unusual to hear an industry executive admit it. The computer industry does a terrible job of listening to and serving its customers, and it has to change. 7 -> Comdex - Motorola Intros Handwriting Recognition Products -- Motorola Inc.'s Lexicus division has announced two handwriting-recognition products based on a new algorithm that seems to deliver more reliable handwriting recognition. One of the products works with English, the other with the Chinese language. 8 -> Comdex - Starfish's Web Group Scheduler, Organizer -- Starfish Software is going to be swimming with other big fish in the Internet pond, with agreements signed with Sun Microsystems and Netscape to produce an Internet World Wide Web scheduling product. Starfish also announced a new organizing program, called Dashboard 95 Web edition, for use with any 32-bit Web browser. 9 -> Comdex - The Merchandising Of Comdex -- Most everyone in the computer industry knows the name "Comdex" 10 -> Comdex - ATI Aims 3D Rage Chip At Multimedia Market -- ATI Technologies Inc. (TSE:ATY) of Toronto claims that multimedia applications, including games, will benefit from a new three-dimensional (3-D) graphics accelerator chip called 3D Rage. The chip should start appearing in personal computers in the first quarter of 1996, according to Kevin Oerton, product manager for 3-D products at ATI. 11 -> Comdex - Generations Exhibit Summarizes Computing History -- For some, it's a reminder of early days in data processing, while, for others, it's a history lesson. At Comdex/Fall, the Boston Computer Museum, Intel Corp., and Data General Corp. are sponsoring an exhibit on the history of commercial computing. 12 -> NTT Claims Data Transmission Speed Record -- Nippon Telegraph and Telephone (TSE:9432) has announced what it claims to be the world's fastest data transmission. The company sent 400 gigabits of data per second along a 100 kilometer (km) length of fiber optic cable at its Optical Network Systems Laboratory in Yokosuka, Kanagawa prefecture. 13 -> Comdex Opens With A Different Feel -- Comdex, the annual computer industry rites of fall, opened yesterday and the show had a different flavor than it has in the past. Instead of word processing, spreadsheet, and database programs that have hogged the show floor in past years, this year it is network interface cards, uninterruptable power supplies, videoconferencing, and gigabyte-size data storage devices. 14 -> Comdex 95 Features Microsoft Partners -- While Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ: MSFT) may not be showing off any never-before-released products, the software giant's partners were very much in evidence at Comdex 95, this year's Fall computer industry extravaganza. 15 -> Comdex - A Filing Cabinet In Your PC -- DocuMagix Inc., a San Jose, California-based company, has a product it says will put a file cabinet inside your personal computer. Not only that, but the software actually presents the front of a file cabinet, complete with labels, when you launch Papermaster. 16 -> ****Comdex - $500 PCs Not Likely, Says Dell Chief -- The $500 PCs that are currently being talked about as the possible computing tool of the future aren't likely to become a reality, according Michael Dell, Dell Computer Corp. (NASDAQ: DELL) chairman and chief executive officer. 17 -> Comdex - IBM Offers $99 & Shareware "Objects" On Web -- Two new online services from IBM 18 -> Comdex - M-Tel's SkyTel Two-Way Paging A Hit -- Launched in September of this year, M-Tel's Skytel two-way radiopager has caused something of a sensation at this year's Comdex, where the Jackson, Mississippi- based company has been hosting a booth on the main Hewlett-Packard stand. 19 -> Comdex - Next Generation Plastic Card Transaction Processing -- Fraud is a major problem in the credit and debit card industry, but the problem with checking transactions online to date has been the relatively high capital cost of equipment to support EFTPOS (Electronic Funds Transfer at Point Of Sale) transactions. Now an Oakland, California-based company 20 -> Comdex - UFO Information Flys In On CD-ROM -- For those interested in studies on UFO phenomenon, Stanton Friedman, the well-known American Nuclear Physicist and UFO researcher, has brought a stack of information gathered on a single CD-ROM disk. According to Friedman, who is widely respected in scientific UFO circles, the material presented on the $39.95 disk should attract the attention of those interested in the subject from the scientific point of view. 21 -> ****3M Restructures - 5,000 Jobs To Go -- 3M (NYSE: MMM) has announced that it intends to spin off its data storage and imaging systems businesses as an independent, publicly owned company. 3M also said it will discontinue its audio and video tape business during the next 12 months. 22 -> ****Comdex - Netcom Readies For ISDN, Shows New Software -- Netcom (NASDAQ:NETC), one of the fastest growing national Internet providers, opened Comdex with demonstrations of the latest version of its Netcruiser software and a sample of its soon-to-be-delivered ISDN (integrated services digital network) connectivity. Netcom foresees 1996 as the year when users will begin to make a major shift from 28.8 kilobits-per-second access. 23 -> Don't Surf The Net - Safe The Net -- The United Kingdom's Health Education Authority is encouraging Internet users to "safe the net" in the run up to World AIDS Day on December 1. The organization has created a World Wide Web site featuring AIDS awareness red ribbons designed by famous people and is offering them for use on home pages. 24 -> ****Comdex - Showstoppers Exhibits Focus On Windows 95 -- Barely three months old, Microsoft's Windows 95 seems to be making inroads into the computer software market. Exhibitors at the second annual Showstoppers press party, held at the same time as the Comdex Fall '95 show in Las Vegas, seem to confirm that, as the majority of them either introduced or demonstrated products that are designed to run under the new operating system (OS). 25 -> Comdex - TEAC 6x CD-ROM Drive -- TEAC America opened in Las Vegas with its true 6x CD-ROM drive, a new Travan tape storage drive, and a CD read/write drive. Calling most 6x speed drives "tweaked 4x drives," TEAC demonstrated the advantage of its internal processing power and gear technology. 26 -> Comdex - Real Time MPEG On A PC Card -- SAI Technologies, well known in European circles for its multimedia systems, unveiled its MPEG (Motion Picture Experts Group) type 1 card at the Comdex Fall computer show this week. According to the company, the sub-$5,000 Enigma card is around a third of the cost of "comparable systems." 27 -> Irish Trade Board Revealed At Comdex -- Las Vegas is around 6,000 miles away from home for the Irish companies clustering together under the Irish Trade Board banner at this year's Comdex. However, business is brisk, mainly because of a range of new products the board has on display. 28 -> Comdex - MaxTech Unveils Budget DSVD Modem -- MaxTech, the US manufacturer of communications devices, has launched a three-in-one product at Comdex Fall, which combines modem, fax, and voice communication facilities. According to officials with the company, the $259 modem operates at all modem speeds to 28,800 bits-per-second (bps), and supports DSVD (digital simultaneous voice & data) technology, a system by which voice and data can be carried on a single modem carrier. 29 -> ****Comdex - Netcom's John Zeisler Outlines ISDN -- Internet and ISDN (integrated services digital network) connections are all the rage at Comdex. Netcom's senior vice president of marketing, John Zeisler, told Newsbytes some of the problems and some of the wonders of ISDN. (Ian Stokell/19951114) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 11/13/95 BUSINESS BSA Launches Counterfeit Software Fight (NEWS)(BUSINESS)(DEN)(00001) BSA Launches Counterfeit Software Fight 11/13/95 COMDEX - LAS VEGAS, NEVADA, U.S.A., 1995 NOV 13 (NB) -- The Business Software Alliance (BSA) rolled out its new campaign to fight the growing problem of counterfeit software at this year's fall computer industry trade show, Comdex 95. BSA estimates software theft costs the computer software industry more than $15.2 billion worldwide and $2.8 billion in the US alone last year. Much of those losses, according to the trade organization, are the result of piracy within the distribution channel. That can take many forms, said BSA. The organization alleges that some suppliers offer illegally copied goods at special low prices, while other "pirates" load software illegally on a PC's hard disk as part of a value-added sale. All of that is in violation of copyright agreements. Counterfeiting of goods, which include CD-ROMs, software diskettes and packaging, manuals, and holograms, are of particular concern to BSA officials because production methods have become so sophisticated that it is difficult even for experts to easily spot a counterfeit product. BSA told the British news service Reuters that pirated computer software is still flooding out of China despite Beijing's promise in its February accord with Washington to clamp down on intellectual property rights abuse. Robert Holleyman, president of BSA, said China is undoubtedly the world's biggest exporter of pirated software. "Even with the anti-piracy agreement in China earlier this year, we're still seeing waves of counterfeit CD-ROM production and shipments that are coming through Hong Kong and that are showing up throughout Asia and in Europe," said Holleyman. US Deputy Trade Representative Charlene Barshefsky was scheduled to raise China's lack of progress in protecting intellectual property rights during her current visit to Beijing. Washington had told the Chinese government it faced possible trade sanctions if actions were not taken to put a stop to software piracy, but that threat faded after the February accord. There is some indication that Chinese authorities are cracking down on the pirates. A recent Newsbytes story reported that the Intellectual Property Chamber of the Number 1 Beijing Intermediate People's Court had found a Chinese software retailer, Beijing Juren Computer Company, guilty of infringing on the intellectual property rights of BSA members. Juren, one of China's largest distributors of computer software according to the BSA, was found guilty of the illegal sale of software published by Autodesk, Microsoft, and Novell. Some of the evidence used against Juren was seized during court-ordered raids of the company's premises in June, 1994. The Juren decision was the third case in which intellectual property rights have been upheld by Chinese courts. Stephanie Mitchell, a BSA vice president, said the ruling was a substantial step forward in the fight against software piracy in China. BSA said it will have counterfeit software from around the world on display at its booth at Comdex 95. (Jim Mallory/19951110/Press contact: Kim Willard, BSA, 202-872-5500; Public contact: BSA, tel 202-872-5500, fax 202-872-5501) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 11/13/95 TELECOM Talk To The Phone, Not Just On It (NEWS)(TELECOM)(TOR)(00002) Talk To The Phone, Not Just On It 11/13/95 SASKATOON, SASKATCHEWAN, CANADA, 1995 NOV 13 (NB) -- There was a time in living memory when people in small towns like those scattered throughout the province of Saskatchewan might have picked up the phone, said to the operator, "give me Frank's Hardware," and been connected. A technology trial just announced will let some Saskatchewan phone subscribers do that again, but without the operator. Northern Telecom Ltd. (TSE,ME:NTL, NYSE:NT) has announced that Saskatchewan Telecommunications will conduct the first trial of voice- activated dialing using large-vocabulary speech recognition technology. SaskTel's VoiceConnect trial, using Northern Telecom's Network Applications Vehicle multimedia processing platform and Flexible Vocabulary Recognition technology developed by Bell-Northern Research, will let customers connect to participating businesses by speaking the name of the business. To use VoiceConnect, a caller will press *00 on a telephone keypad, wait for a voice prompt, and then say the name of the business he or she wants to reach. Lloyd Avram, a spokesman for Northern, told Newsbytes the technology is speaker-independent and will recognize business names of two or more words without requiring the speaker to leave a distinct pause between words. Avram said that, in laboratory tests, the system has recognized names correctly about 98 percent of the time. Northern Telecom is beginning to plan for wider use of its large- vocabulary speech-recognition technology. "The Stentor alliance is looking very, very closely at the SaskTel trial," he said, referring to the national Stentor group of regional telephone companies of which SaskTel is a member. Also, Northern is looking at potential customers in the United States, and might be ready to announce services there within a year or so, he said. (Grant Buckler/19951110/Press Contact: Peter Janecek, Northern Telecom, 905-566-3279, Internet e-mail peter.janecek@nt.com; Pierre Boisseau, Bell-Northern Research, 514-765-7994, Internet e-mail boisseau@bnr.ca) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 11/13/95 GENERAL Canadian Product Launch Update (NEWS)(GENERAL)(TOR)(00003) Canadian Product Launch Update 11/13/95 KINGSTON, ONTARIO, CANADA 1995 NOV 13 (NB) -- This regular feature, appearing on the first day Newsbytes publishes each week, provides further details for the Canadian market on announcements by international companies that Newsbytes has already covered. This week: IBM's ThinkPad 365 notebook computer and Sun Microsystems' NEO product family. IBM Canada Ltd. in Markham, Ontario, announced the ThinkPad 365 series, which becomes the new entry level of the company's notebook computer line (Newsbytes, Nov. 8). The notebooks, powered by IBM 486DX4 microprocessors, cost from C$3,049 to C$4,599 and are available immediately. Sun Microsystems of Canada Inc., also in Markham, Ontario, said the NEO product family (Newsbytes, Oct. 11) from SunSoft, a unit of parent company Sun Microsystems Inc., is now available. Solaris NEO 1.0, which includes NEOnet and NEOshare, starts at C$1,535, Sun Canada said. WorkShop NEO 1.0, including NEOworks, SPARCworks, and SPARC compilers, starts at C$18,590, with special introductory prices from C$9,290. The follow-on release of NEO is due to be available for beta testing in the fourth quarter of 1995, Sun said. (Grant Buckler/19951110/Press Contact: Kevin McKee, IBM Canada, 905-316-3902; Susan Stuart, Sun Canada, tel 905-415-7903, fax 905-477-9423) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 1996 11/13/95 ONLINE Philippines To Have 40,000 Internet Users By (NEWS)(ONLINE)(HKG)(00004) Philippines To Have 40,000 Internet Users By 1996 11/13/95 MANILA, PHILIPPINES, 1995 NOV 13 (NB) -- A study conducted by the University of Asia and Pacific (UAP) has projected that the Philippines will have 40,000 Internet users by 1996. During the Asean Press Symposium held at Bali, Indonesia recently, the country topped a press survey on the most Internet access in the Asean region with over 20 Internet service providers (ISP) spread all over Metro Manila, Cebu City, and Davao City. While Indonesia follows next with five ISPs, Thailand and Malaysia both have four, and Singapore ranks fifth with three. The Philippines also topped the fastest Internet access, with Infocom Technologies Inc. utilizing Sequel.Net's frame relay network which takes advantage of ATM (asynchronous transfer mode) technology, allowing Infocom to make use of its E1 fiber optic link that can transmit at speeds of 2.048 megabits-per-second. The country also came out as the only nation in the Asean region which has extended its Internet services to the provinces, thereby allowing users to connect without the expense of long distance calls. The Philippines' standing against its neighboring countries could be explained by its familiarity and command of the language used on the Internet. As the third largest English-speaking country in the world, today's 10,000 "Pinoy surfers" can easily coast on the net without difficulty, understanding the mode of communication largely used by "net surfers" the world over. Since long distance telecommunications is costly, the Filipinos consider the Internet a cheaper and more effective avenue for linking with others around the globe. Today's number of Internet service providers has grown significantly from only one, Mosaic Communications Philippines in early 1994, to 20 as of last month. The growing list of ISPs is composed of: Cybernet Live/Netspace (full Internet/online); Eiger Consulting (online); The E-Mail Company (full Internet/online); Epicene (full Internet); Extra Mile (online); G-NetGlobe Telecom (full Internet); IBM Philippines (full Internet); Industrial Research Foundation (full Internet); IPhil Communications (full Internet); MailStation Net (full Internet); Mosaic Communications (full Internet); Philippine Data Exchange (full Internet/online); Portal (full Internet/online); Sequel.Net (full Internet); S.O.H.O Connect (full Internet); Tridel. Net (full Internet); and Virtual Asia (online). Internet rates in the country range from $20 to $50 for 10 hours of connect time. (Kay Yeban & Metropolitan Computer Times/19951113/Internet e-mail dilips@netcom.com) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 11/13/95 APPLE Australian Macworld Expo In Expansionary Mode (NEWS)(APPLE)(SYD)(00005) Australian Macworld Expo In Expansionary Mode 11/13/95 SYDNEY, AUSTRALIA 1995 NOV 13 (NB) -- IDG, organizer of Australian Macworld Expo, which opened at Sydney's Darling Harbour, turned away would-be exhibitors and expected crowds of 17,500-20,000 for the three-day event. Apple Computer may be the subject of constant takeover rumors and recurring product delivery problems, but there seems no doubting the Mac's popularity or the unwavering faith of end-users. Macworld Expo was expecting almost half the numbers attracted by this year's four-day PC show at the same venue, which is far above what you might expect from a computer that has just over nine percent of the PC market. But, in fact, the Mac's share of the installed base, with some 450,000 users Australia-wide, is way ahead of any other brand, and statistics suggest Mac users are keener buyers of software and peripherals than Windows or DOS users. "Perhaps there's more life in this Mac market than some pundits would suggest," said Peter Davidson of Pedlar Marketing, which handles the marketing of Macworld for IDG. He said the show was around 10 percent bigger than last year's, and could have been bigger by 25 percent. With one hall overbooked, but not nearly enough numbers for a second hall, he turned away nine exhibitors in the week before the show. One noticeable absentee who would have been welcome was Microsoft. Next year, Davidson thinks he'll sell the second hall: IDG has already booked it. Some 40 percent of the space is already sold, Davidson said. Interestingly, a number of Intel platform resellers, including Clover Partners, have bought space at Macworld to go after the free-spending Mac users. "Increasingly it's just one big marketplace," said Davidson. Highlights of this year's expo included Macintosh clones from three vendors -- Daystar, Radius, and Power Computing -- the world preview of a new operating system for Apple's Newton MessagePad, and scads of super-fast accelerator cards for the latest PCI (Peripheral Component Interconnect)-based Power Macs. Also noticeable was a developing trend for US-based phone-order software and peripherals sellers to open up in Australia. A franchised version of Mac Warehouse has been operating in the country for some time and has taken expanded space at the show. The company has been joined by Mac Zone, a Washington-based outfit planning a major move into the Australian market. (David Frith and Computer Daily News/19951113) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 11/13/95 CHIPS Australia - New Chip Heads Sun Towards Ultra Rich Year (NEWS)(CHIPS)(SYD)(00006) Australia - New Chip Heads Sun Towards Ultra Rich Year 11/13/95 SYDNEY, AUSTRALIA 1995 NOV 13 (NB) -- Sun recently announced the Australian launch of its 64-bit UltraSparc chip, a new range of workstations, and a series of motherboards. Sun hopes the releases will propel it into the high end of the three- dimensional (3-D) workstation market, and give the company a presence in the hotly contested territory dominated by Hewlett Packard, Digital Equipment, and Silicon Graphics. Don Lowe, Sun Microsystems' Australasian marketing manager, said the new Ultra 1 and Ultra 2 workstations -- built around the UltraSparc chip -- will protect Sun's existing markets by offering customers extra 3-D functionality at a competitive price. "We're taking affordable 3-D graphics to a whole set of new users," he said. The Sun Ultra1 Creator 3D will cost AUS$52,000, said Lowe, and will ship in December. The entry-level Ultra 1 model 140 will cost AUS$30,600. Lowe expects to move about 2,000 Ultra 1 systems within six months of availability. On the basis of equal sales of each level system, total revenue from the new Ultra models should be around AUS$82.6 million. The Ultra1 Creator 3D is a 64 megabyte (MB) system with a two gigabyte (GB) hard disk. The Ultra 1 Model 140 is aimed at intensive desktop applications such as software development and financial analysis, and has 32MB of main memory and a 1GB hard disk. It is being put up against Hewlett Packard's 715/100XC. The Ultra 2 family will be available next year, said Lowe. The US launch of the Ultra systems has been accompanied by great excitement from Sun. "These new systems are two to four times faster than anything we have today at comparable price points," Ed Zander, president of Sun told Reuters. He added that, "And we'll be 30-60 percent faster than our competition at up to 50 percent lower prices." A press statement from the company claims that Ultra1 Creator outperforms Silicon Graphics' Power Indigo2 XZ by more than 200 percent in two- dimensional (2-D) graphics. Silicon Graphics has already fired back. "The myth that SGI machines are more expensive isn't true," Peter Wagner, SGI's interactive systems division product manager said, according to Reuters. "I don't think this changes the competitive landscape at all," Wagner added. Sun's new range of UltraSPARC microprocessors include 143MHz, 167MHz, 182MHz, and 200MHz versions. Besides MPEG-2 (MNotion Picture Experts Group type 2) decoding, the 200MHz version delivers 1.6GB bandwidth. Users working with high-end graphics and video on workstations and servers delivering and managing data over local and wide area networks are key markets for the 200MHz UltraSPARC. (Computer Daily News/19951113) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 11/13/95 BUSINESS HongKong Telecom Unveils New Multimedia Company (NEWS)(BUSINESS)(HKG)(00007) HongKong Telecom Unveils New Multimedia Company 11/13/95 CENTRAL, HONG KONG, 1995 NOV 13 (NB) --Without explaining months of delay, Hongkong Telecom has announced it has created a new multimedia company and selected the technology vendors that would make it a "going-concern." Among other things, Hongkong Telecom Interactive Multimedia Services (IMS) is supposed to mount a video-on-demand (VOD) service by July, making Telecom the world's first interactive service provider, proponents claim. The priority will be rolling out VOD, a payment service, and home shopping. These could be followed by home banking and TV-on-demand services. The announcements were made by William Lo, director of the new company, and Telecom chief executive Linus Cheung at Telecom Tower. Cheung said Telecom would spend some HK$10 billion on the IMS project over 10 years, two to three billion of that in the next three or four years. Newsbytes understands that over HK$500 million has already been spent researching the project. Cheung said no outside sources of investment would be sought, although both he and Lo declined to talk in specifics about pricing and initial take-up of the service. Saying the company was putting a lot of capital in a good business, Cheung interestingly told journalists attending the news conference that: "We can't tell you our expected costs and revenue." Indeed, project organizers admit that a whopping 60% of the initial cost of the IMS service is "variable" -- a condition that might apply to input/output access costs, which increase as new subscribers come on line. But industry sources, calling the 60% figure high, suggested fundamental technology and service provision costs are more or less fixed -- whether subscribership is 20 or 20,000. First to dip into this variable pile are Iwatani and Fujitsu, which had wining bids to supply ATM (asynchronous transfer mode) switching and access systems. Hewlett-Packard, as expected, gets to supply gateway technology and servers. US-based BroadVision provides billing software and Sybase took the prize for system software. NEC gets to do the set-top boxes. None of the "contracts" have been have signed. Unlike other test sites around the world -- which discovered costs per link were high and interest per link depressingly low -- Telecom maintains Hong Kong is different. According to Lo, 35,000 potential subscribers were polled and response was good. Of Telecom's pre-project 400 trial users, 90% said they would subscribe to such a service. IMS chief Lo said Telecom's results turned up nicer numbers for several reasons: high density housing; easy acceptance of new technology; and the fact that Hong Kong spends three times more on entertainment (6% of GDP) than does the US, where more entertainment is freely available. Technical issues still stand in the way of rapid subscriber pick-up. While Hong Kong has full fiber-to-the-curb cabling, the new system requires fiber-to-the-building cabling. Only then can compressed digital signals be passed through copper phone wires. Lo said it would take up to five years to provide fiber to 80% of households. "The rollout won't be available to everyone -- initially we'll be aiming it at the middle- income sector." (Joel McCormick & I.T. Daily/19951113) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 11/13/95 BUSINESS Hong Kong - AST Details Recovery Plan (NEWS)(BUSINESS)(HKG)(00008) Hong Kong - AST Details Recovery Plan 11/13/95 CENTRAL, HONG KONG, 1995 NOV 13 (NB) -- Bob McFarland, AST managing director for Asia and the Middle East, told Newsbytes that once the company gets the US market fixed, there's no doubt about the rest of the firm performing well. First quarter results showed a US$94 million loss, more than 140% up over the first quarter of the previous financial year. McFarland, noting an analysis indicating a wide divergence between costs and losses, said the discrepancy reflected bad calls in the US. "I'm busy with Asia, but I suspect most of that loss/cost issue was because of inventory numbers being sold at prices they shouldn't have been sold at." AST announced that North American sales fell by 42%. He said Dataquest's second quarter 1995 figures showed AST in fourth position in PC sales in Asia. "That puts us ahead of a lot of people," he said, adding that AST Asia/Middle East contributed roughly 17% of company sales in 1995. But he agreed AST had had problems getting new products out fast enough. "Whether its a lack of a component or a bad component that delays the launch doesn't matter -- every month it gets older, it degrades profitability, and that's something we shouldn't let happen." While AST, in its first quarter of 1996 report, said it intends to tackle this, company Chairman Safi Qureshey said the same thing in Hong Kong over a year ago. "I agree it should not have taken this long," McFarland said, explaining that the problem arose because of mis-deployment of people, a problem since resolved. He blamed US reverses on "lack of leadership." He added, "We were relying on parts of a sales channel which worked on the old AST model. The appointment of Jerry Devlin to head US operations should change that, he said. The regional boss said he had yet to meet new Chief Executive Officer Ian Diery. "He's got a good reputation and has his own perspective on Asia." McFarland said he and Qureshey went to Samsung HQ in Seoul just over two weeks ago to get approval for AST's turnaround plan, drawn up with the help of the Boston Group. "We had to sell Samsung on a plan that looked viable," McFarland said. Samsung is the largest AST shareholder with a 49.9% stake, a position that could rise to 60%. He admitted a cost-cutting exercise would be one part of it, something Samsung had insisted on. But he said Samsung would be instrumental in bringing costs down in other ways. AST buys DRAMs and monitors, among other things, from them. As components were two thirds of AST's costs, "good prices and delivery will make a huge difference to us," McFarland said. "In years past, we've done a miserable job on relationships with vendors -- even needing to know what we want and when," he said. "Solving that can turninto millions on the bottom line -- delivery, pricing, and terms." (Joel McCormick & I.T. Daily/19951113) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 11/13/95 BUSINESS China - Datacraft Wins Digital Networking Deal (NEWS)(BUSINESS)(HKG)(00009) China - Datacraft Wins Digital Networking Deal 11/13/95 CENTRAL, HONG KONG, 1995 NOV 13 (NB) -- Datacraft has won a US$2.7 million pilot contract with China's Gansu Post and Telecommunications Administration to supply newly developed digital networking technology. The system, developed with Network Equipment Technologies (NET) of the US, is aimed at giving business subscribers a unit capable of transmitting digital data at high speeds over existing telephone lines. The project will use technology specifically developed for Asia, according to Datacraft. Called intelligent network terminating units (INTUs), the equipment transmits data at rates of up to 128 kilobits-per-second across the province, using point-to-point or point-to-multipoint configurations. The new network is due to be up and running this month. While it will use analog telephone lines, 81 integrated digital network exchanges -- interconnected over E-1 circuitry -- will "translate" signals into high-speed digital transmissions. (Joel McCormick & I.T. Daily/19951113) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 11/13/95 PC Compaq Drops Some Contura Notebook Prices (NEWS)(PC)(DEN)(00010) Compaq Drops Some Contura Notebook Prices 11/13/95 HOUSTON, TEXAS, U.S.A., 1995 NOV 13 (NB) -- Compaq Computer Corp. (NYSE: CPQ) has announced price cuts of up to 17 percent for some models of its Contura line of notebook computers. The reductions, which affect the Contura 420 and 430 models, also includes reduced prices for eight megabyte (MB) memory modules and some modems. Under the new price structure Contura PCs start at a street price of under $2,200. Standard features of the Contura 420 and 430 include DX4 75 megahertz (MHz) and 100MHz chips, 10.4-inch color thin film transistor and color super twist nematic dual scan monitors, 32-bit local bus graphics and a connection for an external Super VGA monitor, a center-mounted optical trackball for cursor control, and two type II or one Type III PC Card slots. Hard drives with capacities from 420MB to 720MB are available. The 19-millimeter trackball uses light sensors to measure its movement. Compaq said that makes for more reliable pointing and reduces the need for cleaning. The PC Card, formerly known by the longer PCMCIA (Personal Computer Memory Card International Association) card appellation, provides expandability for a computer by accepting a card that can handle a network connection, additional memory, a data/fax modem, and other peripheral devices. The Contura 420 and 430 were introduced in June, 1995. The company said the Contura's will run for up to five hours on their nickel metal hydride battery. They also are "Plug and Play" capable, meaning the unit is meant to reconfigure itself to handle PCMCIA cards, printers, monitors, external keyboards, and other peripherals that are connected or disconnected while the PC is running. The units come with a pre-installed software bundle that includes Microsoft Works, Lotus Organizer, Quicken SE, Reuters Money Network, software for using the America Online, Compuserve and AT&T Global Services online subscription services, the Symantec Game Pack, the PGA Golf Tour game, and the Official Airline Guide (OAG) Flight disk. Compaq includes a set of Compaq utilities and online documentation, Microsoft Windows and TabWorks, Compaq's alternative to the Microsoft Windows Program Manager. Winfax fax send and receive software, and WinComm communications software for communicating with other computers, is included with models equipped with a modem. The company said the Contura's will run for up to five hours on the nickel metal hydride battery. They also are "Plug and Play" capable. Contura options include a docking station with complete port replication, a monitor stand, a charger for a spare battery, and an integrated Ethernet connection. Reduced prices are available on a 28,800 bits-per-second 288 PC Card modem and a SpeedPaq 192 (19,200 bps) modem. (Jim Mallory/19951110/Press contact: Nora Hahn, Compaq, 713-514-0484; Public contact: Compaq, 800-345-1518) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 11/13/95 GOVT Groups Right, Left, & Center Hit Clinton Export Plan (NEWS)(GOVT)(WAS)(00011) Groups Right, Left, & Center Hit Clinton Export Plan 11/13/95 WASHINGTON, D.C., U.S.A., 1995 NOV 13 (NB) --Opponents of the Clinton administration's proposal for export of encryption technology have mounted a lobbying campaign against the plan. A Washington digital liberties group, Center for Democracy and Technology, has orchestrated a letter to Vice President Al Gore from a number of business interests, protesting the plan. Also, the Business Software Alliance has written to Gore to express its opposition to the administration plan. Separately, a coalition of libertarian groups have written to House Speaker Newt Gingrich in opposition to the Administration plan, announced last August at a National Institute of Standards and Technology meeting. NIST recently posted some further details of the plan over the Internet, setting off the latest flurry of opposition. There was nothing new in the NIST posting, however. "It's the same, ill-advised approach offered last August," BSA's Diane Smiroldo told Newsbytes. The White House plan would permit export of software with encryption technology only if it employed key escrow technology and was limited to 40-bit key encryption. The CDT letter to Gore said that the administration plan "will not allow users to choose the encryption systems that best suit their security requirements. Government ceilings on key lengths will not provide an adequate level of security for many applications, particularly as advances in computing render current cryptography systems less secure. Competitive international users are steadily adopting stronger foreign encryption in their products and will be unlikely to embrace US restrictions." The letter, with 37 signatories, including public interest groups, trade groups and high-tech businesses, said the group will present its own plan in about six months. The plan, the letter said, "will form the basis for a more comprehensive, long-term approach to cryptography on the [global information infrastructure]." BSA's Robert Holleyman, in his letter to Gore, complained that the 40-bit key length restriction is "outdated" and "ignores the fact that the (digital encryption standard) algorithm with 56-bit key lengths is the current worldwide standard." He noted that "all proposed Internet Protocols addressing security call for an encryption standard at least at the DES level." Holleyman called on the administration to "immediately permit the export of generally available software programs employing the DES algorithm or other algorithms at comparable strengths, provided information about the program is submitted to the (National Security Agency) under a strict non-disclosure arrangement." Finally, a group with a libertarian and free market slant, called the Ad Hoc Taxpayer Coalition for Computer Privacy, wrote Gingrich, "Consumers aren't happy with these proposals, and neither is the business community nor civil libertarians. In fact, it's hard to find anyone supportive" other than the administration. "There is no consumer demand for encryption products that give the government easy access," the group said. "The administration has come forward with a typical big-government approach -- a government designed solution for a government problem. This completely overlooks the realities of a free market." The signatories include the Competitive Enterprise Institute, Citizens for a Sound Economy, Citizens Against a National Sales Tax/VAT, and the National Rifle Association. (Kennedy Maize/19951110/Press Contacts: Diane Smiroldo, BSA, 202-872-5500, Internet e-mail dianes@bsa.org) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 11/13/95 GENERAL ****Newsbytes Covers Comdex (NEWS)(GENERAL)(MSP)(00012) ****Newsbytes Covers Comdex 11/13/95 LAS VEGAS, NEVADA, U.S.A., 1995 NOV 13 (NB) -- Newsbytes News Network has assigned seven reporters to cover the Fall Comdex show in Las Vegas, which starts today. The reports will be filed throughout the week. Reporting from the show will be: Steve Gold, European bureau chief; Sylvia Dennis, European specialist; Patrick McKenna, West Coast bureau chief; Bob Woods, Chicago correspondent; Jim Mallory, Midwest bureau chief; Jacqueline Emigh, Boston bureau chief; and Grant Buckler, East Coast bureau chief. In past years, Newsbytes coverage of Comdex has won "Best Online Publication" honors from the Computer Press Association's annual journalism awards. This year, Newsbytes has the largest-ever team of reporters attending this record-breaking show. Their coverage will be supplemented by stories reported by nine other correspondents throughout the US, Europe, and Asia. The reports will appear on licensed online services, newsgroups, and at the Newsbytes US Website at http://www.nbnn.com with excerpts at the Newsbytes Pacifica Website at http://www.islandtel.com/newsbytes/ (Newsbytes Staff/19951113) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 11/13/95 GENERAL Asia Newsbriefs (NEWS)(GENERAL)(TYO)(00013) Asia Newsbriefs 11/13/95 TOKYO, JAPAN, 1995 NOV 13 (NB) -- In this roundup of news from around Asia: Daewoo develops digital video format; NEC wins Asia orders; Korea pager use hits 5 million; Sri Lanka plans massive network expansion; Singapore adds new GSM agreement; TV production stepped up. Daewoo Develops Digital Video Format In what could become a new standards war, shortly after sides came to agreement in the DVD (digital video disk) systems dispute, Korea's Daewoo has announced a new digital video cassette format. The system uses MPEG-2 (Motion Picture Experts Group type 2) digital compression to record the video signal on a tape which could be commercialized as soon as next month. The players are expected to also support existing VHS and S-VHS tapes. Japan's Victor Company (JVC), developer of the VHS system, announced it had developed a new digital format, D-VHS, earlier this year. NEC Wins Asia Orders Tokyo-based NEC Corporation has won contracts to develop telecoms infrastructure in Laos and Malaysia. In Laos, the company will build an international satellite communications ground station with Shimizu Corporation and Mitsui & Co., which will offer extra capacity on overseas telephone lines. The teleport will open in late 1996 and double the number of international links to the country. In Malaysia, NEC is working with Sumitomo Corporation to replace Telekom Malaysia's national telecom network with a fiber optic system over the next three years. Korea Pager Use Hits 5 Million Korea Telecom signed up its five millionth pager subscriber last Monday, November 6th. The milestone places the operator at the third largest in the world after Japan's NTT and America's Network Paging. After reaching three million last year, the rate of new subscribers has been growing fast in common with other mobile communications devices. The total number of subscriber in South Korea will reach 9.5 million by the end of the year, according to industry estimates. Sri Lanka Plans Massive Network Expansion Sri Lanka, a country with 180,000 telephone subscribers and 220,000 on the waiting list for telephones, will upgrade its telecommunications network, according to sources quoted by the Xinhua news agency. Growing use and need of telephones, as well as the desire to access computer networks and the Internet, will mean the country will need a million telephone lines by the end of the century, said analysts. Singapore Adds New GSM Agreement Subscribers to Singapore Telecoms MobileLink's GSM (global system for mobile communications) cellular telephone network can, from December, use their telephones in Taiwan due to a just-signed agreement between the operator and the Long Distance Telecommunications Administration (LDTA) of Taiwan. The new agreement adds Taiwan to a list of 17 other countries where MobileLink subscribers can make and receive telephone calls using their Singapore telephone number. TV Production Stepped Up Several major Japanese television manufacturers have announced plans to expand production at centers across Asia. Akai Electric is to begin making sets in Vietnam. The units, mainly for local consumption, will be produced at a factory belonging to associated company Singer Nikko in Ho Chi Minh at a rate of several thousand a month. Fujian Hitachi TV Set Co. Ltd, a joint venture between Chinese and Japanese companies, has agreed production of televisions by the company in Fujinan, China, should continue for another 20 years. The company has expanded its product line from television sets to all types of home appliances. Toshiba Corporation is considering a local joint venture in Vietnam, according to reports. The company wants to produce 100,000 television sets a year and is currently awaiting government approval from Hanoi. (Martyn Williams/19951113) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 11/13/95 GENERAL Japan Newsbriefs (NEWS)(GENERAL)(TYO)(00014) Japan Newsbriefs 11/13/95 TOKYO, JAPAN, 1995 NOV 13 (NB) -- In this roundup of news from Japan: NTT announces cellular rate cut; Hitachi, UCLA agree on DVD development; NEC, Namco form computer games alliance; PC-Video communications comes nearer; NEC plans memory mass production; Matsushita develops high capacity battery; Hitachi plans Video CD equipment; Hotel VOD trials planned. NTT Announces Cellular Rate Cut NTT DoCoMo said it will cut sign-up charges to its digital cellular telephone network as soon as approval is received from the Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications. In the future, new subscribers to the 800 megahertz (MHz) network will pay an initial charge of 6,000 yen ($60), 3,000 yen ($30) cheaper than the current charge. Fees for other networks will fall by between 22% and 36%. The company also said that subscribers will pay between 6% and 9% less for calls from next March. Hitachi, UCLA Agree On DVD Development UCLA and Hitachi have begun, what the two expect to be, a long-term research and development partnership with the signing of an agreement to jointly research potential applications of the emerging digital video disk (DVD) technology. The two said the research will focus on the capabilities offered by the large storage capacity of DVD for a variety of uses, including education and entertainment. The agreement lasts 2 years and is expected to benefit UCLA by at least $2 million. NEC, Namco Form Computer Games Alliance NEC and computer games maker Namco have formed a joint alliance to produce new software and hardware for Windows 95 games. Namco will work on development of new computer software and games, in particular three- dimensional (3-D) games. For its part, NEC will supply a recently developed graphics accelerator chipset, the 3-DCG, specifically designed for 3-D imaging, to other computer manufacturers. The chip was jointly developed with the UK's Videologic Group PLC and will begin shipping in March next year. PC-Video Communications Comes Nearer Communications between video recorders and personal computers has come a step nearer with the announcement of a new standard communications protocol by Victor Company (JVC). The JLIP standard is already supported by Hitachi, Matsushita, Mitsubishi, and Sharp and will allow video recorders to pass video images to computers, at 9,600 bits-per- second (bps), for editing and graphics manipulation. The computer could then print the images or send them to monitors. NEC Plans Memory Mass Production NEC Corporation has said it will begin mass producing four and 16 megabit (Mb) flash memory chips at its Yamaguchi prefecture facility. The lower capacity 4Mb versions will enter production in early 1996 with production of the 16Mb chips beginning in the summer. The chips will be produced at a rate of around half a million a month and see use in mobile telephones and portable computers and data devices. Matsushita Develops High Capacity Battery Matsushita Electric Industrial Co. and its subsidiary, Matsushita Battery Industrial Co., have developed a new, high capacity, nickel metal hydride battery. The new battery, named the Super 300, offers a capacity of 3,500 mAh, and will mean extra capacity for notebook computer users when the battery becomes available from next year. Matsushita is showing the unit for the first time at the Comdex show in Las Vegas this week. Hitachi Plans Video CD Equipment Hitachi will begin offering the capability to playback VideoCD disks in its home audio products from next year. The company is sourcing units from South Korea's LG Electronics and will offer products ranging from home entertainment systems to portable radio-CD-cassette players with the ability. Prices will be around 100,000 yen ($1,000) said the company. Hotel VOD Trials Planned Visitors to the new Imperial Hotel in Osaka will get a chance to sample video-on-demand (VOD) from next March. The hotel will begin offering a VOD system in which major operators, including Sumitomo, Matsushita, and Sony, are partnered in the hope of gaining knowledge of how VOD systems work. The hotel will pay around 60 million yen ($600,000) for the system which will make 20 channels available at costs of around 1,000 yen ($10) per program. The trial is just one of many planned for next year in Japan. (Martyn Williams/19951113) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 11/13/95 ONLINE Internet Update (NEWS)(ONLINE)(TYO)(00015) Internet Update 11/13/95 TOKYO, JAPAN, 1995 NOV 13 (NB) -- In this update of new resources and services on the global Internet: The virtual reference desk; Cincinnati Internet index; The latest news from Scotland; Netscape power pack links; Call up the operator; Internet address finder; New on usenet; AT&T travel guide; At the tone ... the latest time. The Virtual Reference Desk This site came to us as a recommendation with a string of places where the pages had previously been features and commended. After visiting the pages we can see why! The Virtual Reference Desk provides links to many reference materials and sources on the Internet with just the good stuff listed. World Wide Web: http://www.refdesk.com/ Cincinnati Internet Index A new Web index and online shopping mall in the city of Cincinnati is now available with entertainment, businesses, food, restaurants, job listings, ballet, opera, Web services, books, real-estate, and gifts. Services from AT&T's new multimedia vision to the Cincinnati Restaurant Guide are online. World Wide Web: http://www.cincinnati.com/ The Latest News From Scotland Two of Glasgow's newspapers have begun online services offering news, sports, local business, and features. The Electronic Herald, "Scotland's leading quality newspaper," and Evening News Online are sister papers and share the Web site in Scotland. Readers can also send feedback into the newspapers. World Wide Web: http://www.cims.co.uk/herald/ World Wide Web: http://www.cims.co.uk/eveningtimes/ Netscape Power Pack Links Under the "Netscape Power Pack My Butt" title, a Stanford University student has set up a page of links pointing to Internet sources that enable users to download all of the software in Netscape's Power Pack software package for free. The software is all freeware or shareware. World Wide Web: http://www-cs-students.stanford.edu/~friedman/power_pack.html Call Up The Operator A nice new Yellow and White Pages site with access to International and domestic telephone books including 800 and 900 number directories with the ability to reverse look-up a name from the number. World Wide Web: http://www.555-1212.com/ Internet Address Finder This is an e-mail version of the previous service. Users can search for users by name or by entering an e-mail address and finding out the name of the person. The majority of this data is gathered from Usenet postings, but each user is asked to register, thus adding more names to the service. IAF is a free and comprehensive white pages service. World Wide Web: http://www.iaf.net/ New On Usenet Five newsgroups have recently passed the Usenet voting procedures and should begin appearing on newsservers soon. Usenet: news://rec.collecting.postal-history Usenet: news://rec.games.computer.quake.announce Usenet: news://rec.games.computer.quake.editing Usenet: news://rec.games.computer.quake.misc Usenet: news://rec.travel.australia+nz AT&T Travel Guide This Web site was just announced at the World Travel Market in London and is, according to AT&T, a "major new travel resource on the Web." Sections include air, rail, sea and land travel, car rental, weather, currency, and health. World Wide Web: http://travelguide.ms.wwa.com/ At The Tone... The latest time, direct from the US Naval Observatory Master Clock, with listings for each of the major time zones in the United States and its territories. World Wide Web: http://tycho.usno.navy.mil/cgi-bin/timer.pl (Martyn Williams/19951113) (ADVISORY)(GENERAL)(MSP)(00016) NewsPix Images For Newsbytes Publishers 11/13/95 MINNEAPOLIS, MINNESOTA, U.S.A.,1995 NOV 13 (NB) -- Photos are now posted as they arrive. This means quicker access to the story pictures. The bulletin will continue on Mondays, with updates Wednesdays and Fridays as needed. These photos correspond to recent Newsbytes stories. They are online in the Newsbytes menu on America Online, NiftyServe, and the Newsbytes private bulletin board system in Minneapolis. Some selections are also available from the Newsbytes Pacifica Website at http://www.islandtel.com/newsbytes/ JPEG (Joint Photographic Experts Group) files are larger in size, PICT files are designed as thumbnails for onscreen viewing. The photos are titled with name/year/month/day. PICT/thumbnail pictures are black and white (gray scale). File message will indicate color if the JPEG image is color. Some of the "for use" images, may be PICT files. To distinguish these files from the thumbnail preview PICT images, the tag for the color "for use" image will have PICT, all caps. The thumbnail will remain noted as "pct." To become a licensed Newsbytes publisher, call Newsbytes at 612-430-1100 (US) or write to administrator@newsbytes.com on the Internet. Licensing applies to any medium. --------------------------- Week of NOVEMBER 13 - NOVEMBER 17,1995 --------------------------- - NEW THIS WEEK - ZINCAIR951109 - color / All-day Zinc Air Batteries Intro'd: shot of the battery next to PC. --------------------------------------------------------------- - PARTIAL LISTING OF PREVIOUS ITEMS - MINIDISC951108 - color / MiniDisk As Floppy Successor?: hand holds Sharp MiniDisc, with nice blue skys background. VIEWER951102 - color / Accent Software Intros Free Multi-Language Web Browser: screenshot. SBANK951108 - color / Softbank To Announce Ziff Purchase Tomorrow: screenshot of PCWeek/Softbank homepage. DRUGSTOR951108 - color / Pharmacist On A Disk: screenshot of the over-the-counter pain killer screen. POWERDSK951106 - color / Microhelp Intros Windows 95 Desktop Utility: the PowerDesk Toolbar. (There is no gif version) JPOSTA951106 - color / Internet Users Gather In Shock At Assassination: screenshot of Jerusalem Post homepage with news of the Rabin assassination. WALES19951101 - color / Wales Tourist Board Plugs Into The Web: homepage screenshot. WINTNG951103 - color / Microsoft Press Offers Windows 95 Interactive Training: bookcover. HOMEREC951102 - b&w / US West Puts Receptionist In Your Home: shot of the phone unit. AIRGO951027 - color / PC Card Combines Modem, Cellular Radio: card with antenna. POWER951027 - color / Fastest Mac Ever To Be Unveiled Monday: shots of the new Power Computing configuration. STEREOGRAPHIC951031 - color / 3-D Glasses By StereoGraphics: graphic of the accelerator chip and SimulEyes 3D glasses. PREMIERE951101 - color / Adobe Ships Premiere 4.2 Video Editor For Mac: screenshot of special processing window. DRAW4-951026 - color / Micrografx Shipping Windows Draw 4.0: screenshot of award art. KEYTRONIC951023 - color / Key Tronic Shipping More Windows Keyboards: shot of the KB101, with mottled lighting. CS-UTIL951024 - color / Coloradans Talk To Utility Firm Via The Internet: nice Web page graphics. WIN4-951025 - color / TI Intros MicroLaser Printer For SOHO Market: the printer on a reddish surface and black background. VIRTUS951026 - color / Virtus Ships 3-D Web Building Software: screenshot of a routing node. FASHION951026 - b&w / America Online & Cap Cities/ABC To Form Fashion Channel: basic ABC - Cap Cities Logo. RACOM951011 - color / Partnership Targets Billion Dollar Smart Card Market: shot of the smartcard and security box. OPTI-G951017 - color / Dell Intros New Optiplex Line, Server: picture of the Optiplex GX5100; corporate network ready pc. This is not one of the multimedia pcs mentioned in the article, but one of the others in the new line. ZNOTE951017 - color / Zenith Data System's New Pentium Desktops, Notebooks: the Z-Note GT. PLANET951016 - color / New Web Site Encourages Family Interneting: screenshot of homepage. CAERE951010 - b&w / Caere To Acquire ViewStar: photo of Dean Hovey, vice president of business development for Caere quoted in story. GPT-CHINA951010 - color / UK's GPT To Supply First Smart Card Phones To China: Asian businessman at phone. TELECOM*spx1,2,3 - b&w / three photos taken at Telcom: for general use. 1) opening entry, 2) main floor - horizontal format, 3) main floor - vertical format SUPERDECK951013 - b&w / Video News Roundup:New Products-Panasonic Model AF-DS550 SVHS VCR, dubbed the "superdeck." PCCARD951013 - color / Compaq To Support Third-Party PC Cards: shot of two of the cards, one with connection cable running off frame. T2-951004 - color / Thrustmaster Intros New Game Steering Console: shot of the unit on limbo white, steering wheel and pedals. (Newsbytes/19951113) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 11/13/95 PC Comdex - Ricoh Digital Camera For Stills/Video/Sound (NEWS)(PC)(BOS)(00017) Comdex - Ricoh Digital Camera For Stills/Video/Sound 11/13/95 LAS VEGAS, NEVADA, U.S.A., 1995 NOV 13 (NB) -- The new Ricoh RDC-1 digital camera, a pocket-sized device being introduced to the US market at Comdex today at a price of $1,800, is the first digital camera able to produce high resolution still shots along with full-motion video and audio, asserted Joseph Bollentini, senior VP of Ricoh's Consumer Products Group, in an interview with Newsbytes. "The RDC-1 has a broad market," the senior VP told Newsbytes. Ricoh's plans for the US are to target the new PC Card-based digital camera to consumers and businesses, the same two markets being pursued in Japan. But, he added, Ricoh expects to find "greater opportunities" for the new camera on both ends of the US market, due to a wider range of distribution channels. The RDC-1 is also the first "computer" product to emerge from Ricoh's Consumer Products Group, an organization that previously focused on consumer electronics only, according to the Ricoh exec. Ricoh, one of the six leading camera manufacturers in the world, has been producing cameras for the past 40 years, he maintained. But the new RDC-1 uses PC memory cards in place of traditional film and processing, Newsbytes was told. The user can transfer still images, video, and sound directly to a PC or Mac equipped with a PC Card slot. Still photos can be printed out on a "$500 color printer," transmitted to a service bureau for output on a higher end printer, or uploaded to an online BBS (bulletin board system). The pint-sized camera comes with software for converting data into multiple file formats, including TIFF (tagged image file format), AVL PCS, and WAV. Output is compatible with TWAIN and OLE (object linking and embedding), as well. The camera is outfitted with a special "text mode" setting for capturing sharp images for business cards and other text documents. The RDC-1 can also be connected directly to a TV set, or to an optional 2.5-inch LCD (liquid crystal display) monitor from Ricoh for playback of full-motion video, according to the Ricoh VP. With the under-$2,000 device, Ricoh is not the only vendor to have hit the market in recent months with a digital camera, Bollentini acknowledged. "But not even the $20,000 and $30,000 devices can record high resolution still shots, full-motion video, and sound," he told Newsbytes. In Japan, he continued, most PCs are still sold in camera stores. Retail stores dedicated to computer sales are still uncommon, and "computer superstores" are virtually non-existent. In addition, sales to businesses in Japan are "almost always direct." Ricoh expects to reach US consumers by working with retail VARs (value-added resellers) as well as through direct sales to large retailers, the Ricoh exec reported. Distributors will be used for sales to businesses. Measuring 5.25- by .75- by 2.75-inches, and weighing in at nine ounces even, the new RDC-1 incorporates a 410,000 pixel CCD (charged coupled device) for S-VHS quality resolution of 768 horizontal (h)-by-480 vertical (v), according to Bollentini. The camera also includes a synchronized sound-image processor, plus color image processors that compress and decompress 60 fields at 30 frames per second for full-motion video. The user can record either stills, continuous shooting, sound, stills with sound (10 seconds per still), or motion scenes with sound (five seconds per motion scene) on to a PC Card. Data can be played back or deleted at any time, the VP asserted. A 24 megabyte (MB) PC Card can hold up to 492 full-frame still images; four video scenes of five seconds each (4.8 MB/scene); or one hour 40 minutes of sound. The RDC-1 includes a 3X continuous zoom lens ranging from 7 millimeters (mm) to 21 mm, billed as equivalent to 50 mm to 150 mm on a 35 mm-format camera. Also provided is a credit card-sized remote control device for operating the RDC-1 from a distance. Other features include a shutter, a viewfinder, and frame-by-frame and forward-and- reverse slow-motion playback of motion scenes, Newsbytes was told. (Jacqueline Emigh/19951113/Reader Contact: Ricoh, 702-352-1600; Press Contact: Barbara Hagin or Jennifer Chu, Technology Solutions for Ricoh, 408-280-6000) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 11/13/95 TRENDS "DIS" Tools Prevent "Seat-of-the-Pants Software Devt" (NEWS)(TRENDS)(BOS)(00018) "DIS" Tools Prevent "Seat-of-the-Pants Software Devt" 11/13/95 BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS, U.S.A., 1995 NOV 13 (NB) -- Software development today is "unpredictable and hard to manage," leading to the need for a new class of tools called DIS (development information systems), maintained Judith S. Hurwitz and David A. Kelly of the Hurwitz Consulting Group, at a press conference sponsored by Software Emancipation Technology (SET) and attended by Newsbytes in Boston. Many companies are taking a "shotgun approach" to software development that "crushes productivity and re-usability," and that does not mesh with business goals, the analysts told a group of journalists and developers, who gathered for the event on Friday at a Boston hotel. Factors contributing to the problem include competitive pressures; the rise of complex languages like C++ and OLE (object linking and embedding); the "loss in knowledge" that results from high turnover among both "permanent" and contract programmers; and a reduction in typical product development cycles to six to 18 months, said Kelly, who is service director for the analyst firm. "Everything needs to be done yesterday," he pointed out. Company chief Judith S. Hurwitz cautioned that although new, object-oriented (00) development approaches are sometimes looked to as panaceas, object libraries and components can create as many complications as old, undocumented legacy code if improperly managed. Many developers today want to pursue the "resume power" of working on C++ language projects, Hurwitz advised. "But how do you know they know what they're doing?" she asked.. What is needed is a way to "manage software as a business asset," unifying the disparate OO and legacy code base with business objectives in an environment that can be shared by programmers and managers alike, Hurwitz told the group. New DIS products such as SET's Discover represent the best way to meet these requirements, according to the two consultants. Project managers, an alternative product category, can be useful on a short-term, "tactical" basis, but most project managers "fail to provide a unified, integrated view of the development process," contended Kelly. Most project management products "are incomplete, require high commitment, or lack the ability to track and improve the development process." And unlike DIS, project managers do not handle impact management or change propagation, he argued. The alternative approach of simply "hiring more people" can be just as fruitless, Kelly suggested. And "delaying new products until you catch up with changes" can quickly "drive you right into the ground." The DIS, continued Kelly, is "automatically built from the existing code base," thereby preventing the human errors that often result from retyping existing software code. "THE DIS identifies every element and relationship. It must be easy to maintain. It must be kept current. And it provides `consistent and predictable understanding,'" the analyst elaborated. Distributed, multi-user team development support is also important, according to Kelly. "And with offshore programmers becoming more common, (the DIS) must be able to handle geographic dispersion." Through impact analysis, DIS users are able to simulate the system-wide effects of proposed changes to software code, he reported. Rapid application development (RAD) is supported through change propagation. The DIS should also "create associations between code, software objects, and documentation," he asserted. Other characteristic capabilities include support for business re- engineering, and team access to projects, common code modules, and proposed changes. "Companies betting their business on a code base should put controls and formal management practices in place. Seat-of-the-pants development efforts are dead ends," the audience was told. Speaking with Newsbytes at the close of the press conference, Jim Rutherford, New England Account Manager for SET, said that SET's new Discover DIS is a "forward engineering tool" that emerged out of a previous "reverse engineering tool" known as Paraset. Thomas S. Axby, SET's VP of marketing, told Newsbytes that SET's Paraset was well suited for adaptation in this way due to the ability of the product to support an "enormous technology base." Discover supports business goals and objectives that are scalable from "day-to-day performance improvements, to specific projects, to management of software assets across the organization." The new system supports both two-tiered and three-tiered architectures, according to the SET VP. During the presentation by the Hurwitz analysts, Kelly predicted that DIS will be combined in the future with configuration management, problem tracking, quality assurance, and process management. SET's Discover runs on Sun OS (operating system), Solaris, and HP-UX, according to the SET officials. The new DIS supports: C and C++ languages; ANSI C/C++ and K&R C compilers; GNU gdb, Sun dbx, HP xdb, and HP dde debuggers; Emac and vi editors; FrameMaker; STE; and the following configuration management and version control systems: Atria ClearCase; CVS; RCS; SCCS; and Continuus. SET also produces five client application sets. Admin/SET is a software asset management tool. Reengineer/SET is for "system decomposition based on customized parameters, and automatic extraction of dead code." Doc/ST consists of Report/SW (software), for automatic generation of documentation; and DOC/SW, for "hard and soft associations between code objects and documentation objects." Develop/SET is made up of three components: for forward engineering by modifying software views; the Debug/SW debugger; and Program/SW, for "rapid comprehension (through query and visualization), access, navigation, impact analysis, and change propagation," according to the SET execs. (Jacqueline Emigh/19951113/Reader Contact: SET, 617-863-8900; Press Contact: Julie Redard or Pat Arcand, Copithorne & Bellows for SET, 617-252-0606) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 11/13/95 LEGAL ****Senator Pushes FBI On Mammoth Surveillance Request (NEWS)(LEGAL)(WAS)(00019) ****Senator Pushes FBI On Mammoth Surveillance Request 11/13/95 WASHINGTON, D.C., U.S.A., 1995 NOV 13 (NB) -- Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) has asked the FBI to justify its recent request for unprecedented wiretap authority under the new Communications Assistance for Law Enforcement Act, or CALEA, also known as the "digital telephony" law. The move drew support from digital libertarians that had been stunned by the FBI's October 16 notice in the Federal Register that law enforcement authorities might seek approval from courts for hundreds of thousands of taps. Currently, the bureau taps fewer than a thousand phones each year. In his letter to FBI Director Louis Freeh, Leahy said that the notice said its demand for wiretap authority was based "upon a historical baseline of electronic surveillance activity and an analysis of that activity. The Federal Register notice did not include publication of these two documents." Leahy asked the agency to provide him with the two documents and release them to the public. The move by Leahy won praise from the Center for Democracy and Technology, a group formed by former Electronic Frontier Foundation chief Jerry Berman. CDT said it "believes that Congress should not appropriate any funds to cover the costs of capacity modifications until the FBI justifies its need for the proposed surveillance capacity." Two elements of the 1994 digital telephony law were designed to act as a brake on the FBI's passion for wiretaps. Berman lobbied for the compromise, earning the enmity of many digital libertarians. CALEA requires the FBI to publish requests for surveillance capacity so that there can public oversight. Also, the law required that the government reimburse telecommunications carriers for any modifications to their systems necessary to accommodate the government requests. "These provisions," says CDT, "were specifically designed to ensure a public debate over the necessity and costs of law enforcement surveillance capacity." The group said it "will work closely with Senate Leahy and others to ensure that the FBI discloses the basis for its recent surveillance capacity request. Once the information is made available, we will work with Sen. Leahy and other interested members of Congress, public interest groups and the telecommunications industry to ensure that the FBI does not receive unnecessary surveillance capacity." (Kennedy Maize/19951113/Press Contact: Jerry Berman, CDT, 202-637-9800; Internet World Wide Web http://www.cdt.org ) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 11/13/95 LEGAL SPA To Take Piracy Mgt Course To Latin America (NEWS)(LEGAL)(WAS)(00020) SPA To Take Piracy Mgt Course To Latin America 11/13/95 WASHINGTON, D.C., U.S.A., 1995 NOV 13 (NB) -- The Software Publishers Association has picked up a Commerce Department grant to help develop the SPA certified software manager course for Latin America. SPA will offer the course, designed to help businesses prevent software piracy, in 27 cities in 17 countries in Latin America. The grant was part of a public-private partnership program aimed at innovative ways to boost US exports. SPA was one of nine recipients of the grants. The software manager course, already offered across North America, gives assistance to information systems managers, auditors and system administrators in setting up software auditing programs, educating employees about copyright law, and creating and implementing a company-wide software copying policy. SPA has already run its course successfully in England, Germany, France, Poland, and Israel. With help from the Commerce Department, SPA is launching the program in Mexico City, and Bogota, Colombia, this fall. The courses will spread to the rest of the region during 1996. As part of its anti-piracy campaign, SPA also distributes free educational material, posters, and free auditing software to help companies do the audits. The trade group also offer videos and the Software Management Guide for a small fee. Each is designed to help an organization comply with copyright law. SPA also has an anti-piracy hotline at 800-388-7478. The group has offices in Washington DC, and Paris. (Kennedy Maize/19951113/Press Contact, Sandra Sellers, 202-452-1600 ext 311) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 11/13/95 CHIPS Sierra Semiconductor Intros SDRAM (NEWS)(CHIPS)(LAX)(00021) Sierra Semiconductor Intros SDRAM 11/13/95 SAN JOSE, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1995 NOV 13 (NB) -- Sierra Semiconductor (NASDAQ:SERA) has announced its SuperScaler multimedia accelerator set of graphic's controllers designed to support SDRAM (synchronous dynamic random access memory). Sierra's SuperScaler 220 is available now, while the SuperScaler 340, a pin-compatible upgrade that will add three-dimensional (3-D) graphics acceleration and PCI (Peripheral Component Interconnect) bus mastering, will be available in early 1996. Sierra Semiconductor claims the SuperScaler line is one of the first sets of integrated graphics products to have SDRAM support. SDRAM provides the bandwidth required for high quality multimedia features, for example the need for scalable bandwidth to over 600 MB/second. The new products also support standard DRAM. Ken Lowe, director of marketing for Sierra Semiconductor, told Newsbytes, "The SuperScaler 220 features a 64-bit graphics engine, true-color video acceleration, PCI interface, and a high bandwidth SDRAM. As users push from graphics, to video, to 3-D, ever-increasing bandwidths are needed. SDRAM has a synchronous clocking scheme that effectively doubles the bandwidth of standard DRAM." Sierra Semiconductor says SDRAM will reduce the cost providing high-bandwidth video capabilities on the PC. DRAM or even VRAM (video RAM) requirements are nearly double the cost per PC, says Sierra. "The strength of the SuperScaler family is in its architecture," said Naresh Batra, vice president and general manager for multimedia products at Sierra. "First, it delivers the bandwidth value of SDRAM and can achieve, with only one megabyte (MB) of SDRAM, a level of full- motion video that is equal to, or better than, accelerators that need 2MB of standard DRAM. That's a big cost-savings in total systems cost." He continued: "Second, it is a family that is both software- and footprint-compatible and based on a single architecture, which will give you an easy migration to future upgrades. And third, the products in this line will maintain full video and scaling features as we migrate to 3-D accelerators." According to Jim Sogas, product marketing manager at Hitachi America, "Synchronous DRAMs are quickly finding their way into many applications and will be the next mainstream memory after EDO DRAMs. Sierra Semiconductor was very early in recognizing the cost/performance advantages and is a leading vendor of SDRAM-based graphics controllers." Sierra's TCV video acceleration is new technology supporting multiple video windows, as well as "true color" video in any graphics mode, continuous, 8-tap X and Y interpolated scaling, and support for all graphics resolutions. The SuperScaler 220 video accelerator samples will be available in November for sample quantities. In production quantities -- 10,000 pieces -- the product is priced at $25 each. (Richard Bowers/19951113/Press Contact: Gary W. Breeding, Sierra Semiconductor, 408-263-9300) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 11/13/95 TELECOM Racal Wireless Network Opens In Bermuda (NEWS)(TELECOM)(TYO)(00022) Racal Wireless Network Opens In Bermuda 11/13/95 BRACKNELL, BERKSHIRE, ENGLAND, 1995 NOV 13 (NB) -- When you have a need to connect computers and data terminals to the communications network but they are stationed in remote areas or places with under- developed telecommunications networks, one choice is to establish wireless links. Racal have just begun building one such system in Bermuda, and says it is attracting considerable interest from other countries. The new system is based on Racal's Widanet system and is similar to two other existing systems the Bracknell-based company has built in Moscow, currently being extended nationwide, and South Africa, and is due to be completed by early next year. Bermuda is made up of around 150 islands and so is a perfect place for such a wireless system, said the company. The system will be used for a wide variety of applications throughout the islands, including the control of limited power-generation supply. The utilities will be better able to respond to peaks in demand, said Racal, which added that, the companies could even extend it to take in meter readings and save in the cost of ferrying meter readers around all of the islands. The network is also being considered for environmental applications such as monitoring water levels along Bermuda's coastline and transmitting the data to a central research station. Use of the system can allow countries to better use their existing resources, said Geoff Mitchell, sales and marketing director of Racal Messenger, who said, "Many countries already have perfectly serviceable X.25 networks which are under-used because of unreliable or simply unavailable telephone access. A radio-based solution is a quick and easy way to permit large-scale access to the core network." Mitchell explained, "Radio links offer further benefits over telephone circuits and dial-up modems. Where their cable-bound counterparts need time to set up and close down calls, a radio system can work almost instantaneously. Widanet exploits this to the full effect as it provides a wireless data access layer specifically for fast connection to X.25 systems." To access the network, users need just connect a subscriber modem, called a Radio-PAD. This device is transportable and can communicate with any of the network's base stations. Access is controlled by unique serial numbers inside each unit which are checked by the network before traffic is passed. To allow for greater flexibility, the Radio-PAD has two connection ports allowing two devices access to the network simultaneously. Racal suggest this could include a PC and credit card terminal (EFTPOS terminal) in a shop. (Martyn Williams/19951113/Press contact: Clare Tipler, Racal Corporate Communications, +44-1734-669969/RACAL19951113/PHOTO) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 11/13/95 ONLINE UK's Oxford Univ Restricts X-Rated Internet Access (NEWS)(ONLINE)(TYO)(00023) UK's Oxford Univ Restricts X-Rated Internet Access 11/13/95 OXFORD, ENGLAND, 1995 NOV 13 (NB) -- Britain's top university has cut access to certain Internet discussion groups after finding students spent too much time downloading pornographic pictures and reading pornographic stories, according to a front page story in The London Times newspaper. The newspaper said the newly created multimedia.erotica newsgroup was the fourth most popular newsgroup amongst students and professors and featured video clips of various sexual scenes and situations. Only two academic groups featured among the 80 most popular newsgroups viewed by Oxford computer users. Nine of the 80 were related to sexual images and discussions. Oxford University is not the first place to take such a move. Last year Carnegie Mellon University and the University of Michigan were the most well publicized of many universities that removed offending newsgroups from their news servers. The CMU move was the first widely publicized action against the groups which are typically used to send pornographic images or sex-related messages and stories. At the time, Mike Godwin, staff counsel for the Electronic Frontier Foundation, the Washington-based civil liberties and policy group, criticized CMU. In the UK, where there is no written right to freedom of information, the response is likely to be much smaller with many people expected to support the move. Adam Shapiro, president of the Oxford University Student's Union told Newsbytes, "Freedom of speech is of concern but it's unlikely to manifest itself in quite the same way as the US. Most students would probably accept a balance should be drawn between the rights to free speech and the rights of people living in and around the university community. In order to preserve a free and tolerant atmosphere you must make judgments." He continued, "It's one of those issues where you can see both sides of the story. I think most people can understand that if a woman walks into the college computer room late at night and finds the rugby team ogling over a picture of a naked woman, it would be intimidating." Widespread concern over pornography on the Internet has led several companies to market software for home computers capable of blocking access to areas and sites that feature pornography. (Martyn Williams/19951113/Press contact: Oxford University, +44-1865-270001) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 11/13/95 ONLINE ****Personal Web Search Application Developed (NEWS)(ONLINE)(TYO)(00024) ****Personal Web Search Application Developed 11/13/95 BALTIMORE, MARYLAND, U.S.A., 1995 NOV 13 (NB) -- Remember that great World Wide Web page you visited just two weeks ago -- the one you can't remember the address of. You've probably tried to trace back your steps to the point when you jumped there, and you may even have tried to trawl through a directory called "cache" on your computer, looking at the hundreds of small HTML (hypertext markup language) files to get a clue as to where it is -- but don't worry, you may not need to in the future thanks to a University of Maryland Baltimore County student. Justin Sun, a junior computer science major, developed SWISS, the Searching Web Information using a Signature file Search program, to help in just such an occurrence. Sun and James Mayfield, an assistant professor of computer science at the University of Maryland Baltimore County and his faculty advisor, presented details of the system to the American Association for Artificial Intelligence '95 Fall Symposium, hosted by MIT at the weekend. Signature file searching involves creating files containing bit strings that represent contents of a document. A signature is a fixed length bit vector consisting of ones and zeroes. Word signatures are bit vectors that correspond to a given word. The system splits a document up into distinct words and an n-bit signature is generated for each word. Using a process called superimposed coding, the word signatures are combined into a single document signature. To locate documents containing certain words, the user enters a selection on query words to which each generates a word signature using the same method as the indexing program. The words are then OR'd together to create a query signature. The query signature is then used with the document signatures to determine which files contain the desired words. Sun said the system would never miss desired words, but may sometimes produce documents with none of the search terms. To counter this Sun and Mayfield are now working on a new system that makes use of n-gram signature files. N-grams are five-to-eight character blocks of text, spacing and even punctuation. "Because n-grams are independent of language and rely on character recognition, the retrieval process is faster and more accurate," said Mayfield. "Retrieval is usually measured as a combination of precision, percentage of retrieved documents you really want, and recall -- percentage of documents you wanted that actually were retrieved. SWISS has 100 percent recall, and we are hoping the precision will be high as well." Applications of the SWISS system could include e-mail filters that accept and process user requests in which the server, already knowing which files have been passed to the user before, uses the system to search through previously-seen files and downloading and mailing the desired files or World Wide Web pages. Other suggested applications include a personal cache and index of all Web pages seen by a user. A Web server could also user the system to accept queries and present desired pages from a base stored on the server. Sun used the signature file search method in preference to two other common search methods: linear searching, in which files are simply searched from the beginning to end, was rejected as too time-consuming; and inverted file searching, in which files are indexed and reference lists of words are drawn up in advance of searches, was rejected as it typically requires 50-300% storage space of the original files. (Martyn Williams/19951113/Press contact: John L. Fritz, Director of Media Relations, University of Maryland Baltimore County, tel 410-455-6596, fax 410-455-1096, Internet e-mail fritz@umbc.edu) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 11/13/95 GENERAL ****Softbank Debuts Its First Las Vegas Comdex (NEWS)(GENERAL)(SFO)(00025) ****Softbank Debuts Its First Las Vegas Comdex 11/13/95 LAS VEGAS, NEVADA, U.S.A., 1995 NOV 13 (NB) -- Expecting a record number of more than 205,000 attendees, Softbank is ready to show it will continue 17 years of Comdex tradition in Las Vegas. At Comdex, the computer industry presents itself to the world as 2,200 exhibitors spread out across the convention center, the Hilton, the Sands, and hotel suites throughout Las Vegas. Yesterday, the convention center was filled with crates, forklifts, tradespeople, ladders, sheets of plastic covering the carpet, and security guards everywhere. This morning the show opens in a media frenzy of radio, print, television, Internet, and online services coverage. Officially, this is Comdex/Fall '95 presented by Softbank/Comdex. The show opens today with a keynote address from IBM's chairman and chief executive officer (CEO), Lou Gerstner. Tomorrow, Bill Gates, chairman and CEO at Microsoft, delivers his industry observations in a keynote address. On Wednesday, Novell's chairman and CEO, Robert Frankenberg, offers his industry insights in a final keynote. Last year, Comdex was full of announcements about Windows 95, Power PCs, IBM's OS/2, and Microsoft Network. This year, such major unveilings and announcements are not expected. Many experts suggest communications technologies will lead this year's show. Internet and ISDN (integrated services digital network) technology should gather a lot of media and trade show attention this year. Softbank has created an ISDN Pavillion and an Internet Experience to highlight participating communications companies. An International Pavilion is making its first appearance. Exhibitors from around the world are displaying their wares in country-specific areas to help meet the expanding worldwide interest in this show. Softbank says 35,000 attendees from outside the US are expected. Is Motion Picture Experts Group (MPEG) the winner of the video compression standards battle? Twelve months ago, analysts and industry leaders debated and compared video compression standards. A year later, Softbank offers an MPEG Pavillion for developers of a myriad of video products. The big names at Comdex put on a show of who can look bigger and better and louder. With two-story exhibit structures, giant-screen video displays, monitors and keyboards stationed around the perimeter, giant banners and mostly smiling, friendly faces, they seem to measure success by who has the biggest and the best display. Among the hot announcements, feature-packed Pentium notebooks, large monitors, and Windows 95-anything will gather the crowds. Multimedia is big and hardware and software companies are showing their best titles. In addition, TEAC is showing its new, true six-speed CD-ROM drive. If you do not know how to get from the Sands to the Hilton, Compuserve has kiosks stationed around the show displaying its "Where do you want to go?" service. The company is also demonstrating a preview of its new user service, "WOW!" WorldsAway, a three-dimensional (3-D) chat environment and version 2.0.1 of its Information Manager are also showing. Comdex fall is always about crowds of people. Some are in a hurry, some are strolling in amazement, and some are lost -- but there is always a sea of human beings moving through aisles and walkways. After 5pm, the second show starts. Not having done enough to impress everyone during the day, companies put on parties. For a lot of attendees, getting on the right party list or being able to get past security into the right party, could be just as important as seeing the latest multimedia title. These events are not open to the public, but who you know and talk to can get you in the door. Tomorrow night, the famous Chili For Children Cookoff is being held at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. Sponsored by Micrographx, the annual event raises money for the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children. The media begins to leave on Thursday and by Friday, the people who manage the booths are more than ready to head home. (Patrick McKenna/19951113) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 11/13/95 TELECOM ****Comdex - Phone System Problems Once Again (NEWS)(TELECOM)(LON)(00026) ****Comdex - Phone System Problems Once Again 11/13/95 LAS VEGAS, NEVADA, U.S.A., 1995 NOV 13 (NB) -- It's another Comdex Fall -- and another telephone jam-up. Lines to Compuserve, America Online and other online services are constantly busy, but the real hassle is trying to get a long distance or international circuit line out of Las Vegas. By 9am, Monday morning, every alternate call out of the city is returning the busy tone. But the problems don't end there. Foreign journalists, especially those from the UK, are experiencing the results of telecoms liberalization. Calls to non-British Telecom (BT) numbers in the UK from Las Vegas are returning an invalid call message from many telecom carriers, when placing calls from hotel rooms or from the convention center. The reason is simple. While all US telcos have interconnect agreements with BT, they rarely have similar agreements with the smaller telcos in the UK, such as the cable phone companies. The result is that, when the US telco routes the call to say, VNU Business Publications in London, which is on +44-171-316-9000, since the London exchange is a non-BT one, the US telco's lookup tables show the 316 code in London as invalid, and reject the call before it reaches the UK. The solution is to route the call via one of the many long distance carriers using 1-800 numbers, and paying by calling card. This bureau also noticed a wide variety of new US long distance carriers offering pre-paid calling cards at the convention center in Las Vegas. Rates are as low as 25 cents per minute on calls to all US destinations and just $1.50 on calls to Europe - roughly 25 to 50 percent of what AT&T or MCI card customers are paying. This is small consolation to the British contingent of show goers, exhibitors and journalists at Comdex Fall in Las Vegas, who are baffled as to why their calls -- using the correct access, country and local numbers -- are being rejected. Not even the local operators seem able to help, as their lookup tables for UK numbers are BT- specific, so they declare that a valid non-BT number in the UK is invalid, as it's not on their lists. Not even a cellular phone will solve the problem, as most cellphones still route their calls through the local telco's switching system. Thus, even after you've paid your $5 to $6 a day rental charge for the phone, your calls to the UK could still fail -- assuming your rental company has ok-ed you for the $4 to $6 a minute call charges for calls to Europe, that is. (Steve Gold/19951113) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 11/13/95 TRENDS Comdex - Seagate Next-Generation Barracuda Drives (NEWS)(TRENDS)(LON)(00027) Comdex - Seagate Next-Generation Barracuda Drives 11/13/95 LAS VEGAS, NEVADA, 1995 NOV 13 (NB) -- Sitting on the plane into Las Vegas, Newsbytes was surprised to see a Seagate product manager get out a series of technical documents on a range of new products that Seagate is officially launching to its OEMs (original equipment manufacturers) at the show. The new products include the Barracuda 8 hard drive systems, as well as a new range of Ultra SCSI (small computer system interface) drives. The Barracuda 8 drives, which hum along at an impressive 7,200 revolutions per minute (RPM), have been referenced in the media before, but it seems that CDUs -- customer demonstration units -- are shipping during the current (fourth) quarter of the year to major OEM customers. The Seagate product manager, who declined to give his name, explained to Newsbytes that his company was fairly strong on who talks to journalists within the company. It came as something of a surprise then, when later into the flight, the same executive started reading through the technical specifications for the Barracuda 8 drives, which are scheduled to ship in volume during the second quarter next year. The Barracuda 8 range appears to build upon the advanced design specifications of the third generation of the Barracuda range launched in the summer of this year. That range pushed maximum capacity to 8.7 gigabytes (GB) and introduced magneto-resistive heads and "partial response, maximum likelihood" read channels. The Barracuda 8 range pushes average seek times to eight milliseconds, and is able to sustain data transfer rates of 3.5 megabits-per-second (Mbps), with burst rates of 16Mbps using Fast ATA2 interfaces. According to the design specifications, the drives also have 4.17 millisecond latencies and a 512 kilobyte cache for data buffering that can segment itself into up to 16 partitions. The most important aspect of Seagate's next-generation plans, it seems, center around a next-generation, and proprietary, Ultra SCSI technology which will allow higher speed, yet easy access, to disk drives. The Ultra SCSI technology will be incorporated in the Barracuda range of drives. Interestingly, our un-named Seagate executive said that this year's Comdex Fall represents something of a change for the drive company. The drive market, he said, is becoming exceptionally competitive, and it is becoming very difficult to compete in terms of price. Instead, Seagate's strategy is one of "pushing the technology envelope" and adding value to its drives, 75 percent of which sell through OEM agreements, with the remainder sold through conventional distribution channels. (Steve Gold/19951113/Press & Reader Contact: Seagate, 408-438-6550) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 11/13/95 TRENDS Comdex - SpeechSystems Shows PC Card Speech Recognition (NEWS)(TRENDS)(SFO)(00028) Comdex - SpeechSystems Shows PC Card Speech Recognition 11/13/95 LAS VEGAS, NEVADA, U.S.A., 1995 NOV 13 (NB) -- Two years ago, speech recognition technologies were at Comdex and seemed cumbersome and slow. But today, SpeechSystems unveils a PC Card-based speech recognition system for mobile computer users. A spokesperson for the company told Newsbytes, "Speech recognition on notebooks allows users to have hands-free data input and retrieval. For people working in the field or in close situations where you cannot have a desktop computer, this is a great advancement. For example, in the medical field, a surgeon can have a notebook set-up for retrieving information or recording data from the surgery. There are industrial, sales, dental, inventory, and many other applications." Called the Phonetic Engine 1000 (PE1000), the card is based on Texas Instruments DSP (digital signal processor) technology. The card is designed and built by DSP Solutions in Mountain View, California. The card serves as a single source for sound and CD-accurate speech recognition in real-time. It features two jacks: one for voice input and one for audio output. The system is Windows- and SoundBlaster-compatible. The new card is designed to work with SpeechSystems existing software tools and should be available before the end of the year. System requirements include a 486 (at least 33 megahertz) or faster processor with eight megabytes (MB) of memory and 20MB of hard disk space for VoiceMatch software. The card, a PCMCIA (Personal Computer memory Card International Association) Release 2.1 Type II format, also requires DOS 3.3 or higher and Windows 3.1 or 3.11. The card and operating software retails for $595. (Patrick McKenna/19951113/Press Contact: Marissa Verson, InterActive Public Relations, 415-703-0400) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 11/13/95 TRENDS Comdex - Toshiba Intros Multimedia Monitor (NEWS)(TRENDS)(SFO)(00029) Comdex - Toshiba Intros Multimedia Monitor 11/13/95 LAS VEGAS, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1995 NOV 13 (NB) -- Toshiba claims its new TIMM (Toshiba Integrated Multimedia Monitor) monitor combines "computer use, multimedia display and television viewing" into a single unit. Company officials claim TIMM is "perfect" for Comdex interest in videoconferencing and high-end multimedia games. TIMM has its own 181-channel tuner and a special picture tube with a direct VGA input of computer connections. Toshiba has an adapter to hook to MacII computers. Dot pitch for this monitor is reportedly 36% finer than that of a conventional television, which allows sharp detail of presentations and video. Toshiba says the ability to transmit more light that a conventional computer monitor allows uses to "experience a brighter, more focused display." The built-in stereo tuner provides "full reception" and Toshiba claims the monitor does not suffer from some of the problems users experience with computer add-on cards. TIMM has 500 lines of horizontal resolution and a FST Black picture tube. Closed-captioning is also another added feature. The 20-inch unit has built-in 10-watt audio and a sub bass system circuit for additional power. Steve Nickerson, Toshiba's vice president for color TV, VCR and DVD, told Newsbytes, "TIMM is a perfect example of the convergence which everyone is talking about. It is perfect for the computer desktop and places where space is a premium, such as college dorms and small offices. In the business setting, TIMM offers excellent display of multimedia presentations and videoconferencing." Toshiba says TIMM is priced at $999. (Patrick McKenna/19951113/Press Contact: Sara Trujillo, Dobbin/Boblia Associates, 212-388-1400/TIMM951113/PHOTO) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 11/13/95 ONLINE Genie For Sale (NEWS)(ONLINE)(MSP)(00030) Genie For Sale 11/13/95 ROCKVILLE, MARYLAND, U.S.A., 1995 NOV 13 (NB) -- GEnie has informed its information providers, content providers, and development managers, as well as all of its employees, that the online service is for sale. According to Horace Martin, VP, business development and sourcing and acting president, GEnie Online Services, GE Information Services is working with the investment banking firm of Allen & Company to "identify potential buyers for the company's GEnie online service." The report indicates that GEnie represents less than 5% of GEIS's $700M+ annual revenue, and is no longer a good mix with GEIS's strategy, therefore a company most likely in the consumer online business could be a likely buyer. (Newsbytes Staff/19951113) (SUMMARY)(GENERAL)(MSP)(00031) Newsbytes Daily Summary 11/13/95 MINNEAPOLIS, MINNESOTA, U.S.A., 1995 NOV 13 (NB) -- These are capsules of all today's news stories: ======================================================================== ------------| N E W S B Y T E S D A I L Y S U M M A R Y |---------- ------------| Monday, November 13, 1995 |---------- ======================================================================== (c) Newsbytes News Network (Tm) Editor in Chief: Wendy Woods ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Newsbytes News Network's on the Web! Check out http://www.nbnn.com for free daily top stories from Newsbytes and its affiliate publications, and from PC Week, MacWeek, and other Ziff news magazines. A subscription gives you all the news, full-text, plus the most comprehensive database of past computer stories online. The keyword-searchable database dates from today back through 1983. Subscriptions are $24.95 for three months. Questions? Send to 'administrator@newsbytes.com' For Japanese Newsbytes and additional services, see the Newsbytes Pacifica Website at http://www.islandtel.com/newsbytes/ ------------------------------------------------------------------------ CATEGORY HEADLINES (*** indicates today's top stories) STORY # ======================================================================== APPLE Australian Macworld Expo In Expansionary Mode.............. 05 BUSINESS BSA Launches Counterfeit Software Fight.................... 01 BUSINESS HongKong Telecom Unveils New Multimedia Company............ 07 BUSINESS Hong Kong - AST Details Recovery Plan...................... 08 BUSINESS China - Datacraft Wins Digital Networking Deal............. 09 CHIPS Australia - New Chip Heads Sun Towards Ultra Rich Year..... 06 CHIPS Sierra Semiconductor Intros SDRAM.......................... 21 GENERAL Canadian Product Launch Update............................. 03 GENERAL ****Newsbytes Covers Comdex............................... 12 GENERAL Asia Newsbriefs............................................ 13 GENERAL Japan Newsbriefs........................................... 14 GENERAL NewsPix Images For Newsbytes Publishers.................... 16 GENERAL ****Softbank Debuts Its First Las Vegas Comdex............ 25 GOVT Groups Right, Left, & Center Hit Clinton Export Plan....... 11 LEGAL ****Senator Pushes FBI On Mammoth Surveillance Request.... 19 LEGAL SPA To Take Piracy Mgt Course To Latin America............. 20 ONLINE Philippines To Have 40,000 Internet Users By 1996.......... 04 ONLINE Internet Update............................................ 15 ONLINE UK's Oxford Univ Restricts X-Rated Internet Access......... 23 ONLINE ****Personal Web Search Application Developed............. 24 ONLINE Genie For Sale............................................. 30 PC Compaq Drops Some Contura Notebook Prices.................. 10 PC Comdex - Ricoh Digital Camera For Stills/Video/Sound....... 17 TELECOM Talk To The Phone, Not Just On It.......................... 02 TELECOM Racal Wireless Network Opens In Bermuda.................... 22 TELECOM ****Comdex - Phone System Problems Once Again............. 26 TRENDS "DIS" Tools Prevent "Seat-of-the-Pants Software Devt....... 18 TRENDS Comdex - Seagate Next-Generation Barracuda Drives.......... 27 TRENDS Comdex - SpeechSystems Shows PC Card Speech Recognition.... 28 TRENDS Comdex - Toshiba Intros Multimedia Monitor................. 29 ======================================================================== These are the headlines and first paragraphs of each story, in order: 1 -> BSA Launches Counterfeit Software Fight -- The Business Software Alliance (BSA) rolled out its new campaign to fight the growing problem of counterfeit software at this year's fall computer industry trade show, Comdex 95. 2 -> Talk To The Phone, Not Just On It -- There was a time in living memory when people in small towns like those scattered throughout the province of Saskatchewan might have picked up the phone, said to the operator, "give me Frank's Hardware," and been connected. A technology trial just announced will let some Saskatchewan phone subscribers do that again, but without the operator. 3 -> Canadian Product Launch Update -- This regular feature, appearing on the first day Newsbytes publishes each week, provides further details for the Canadian market on announcements by international companies that Newsbytes has already covered. This week: IBM's ThinkPad 365 notebook computer and Sun Microsystems' NEO product family. 4 -> Philippines To Have 40,000 Internet Users By 1996 -- A study conducted by the University of Asia and Pacific (UAP) has projected that the Philippines will have 40,000 Internet users by 1996. 5 -> Australian Macworld Expo In Expansionary Mode -- IDG, organizer of Australian Macworld Expo, which opened at Sydney's Darling Harbour, turned away would-be exhibitors and expected crowds of 17,500-20,000 for the three-day event. 6 -> Australia - New Chip Heads Sun Towards Ultra Rich Year -- Sun recently announced the Australian launch of its 64-bit UltraSparc chip, a new range of workstations, and a series of motherboards. 7 -> HongKong Telecom Unveils New Multimedia Company --Without explaining months of delay, Hongkong Telecom has announced it has created a new multimedia company and selected the technology vendors that would make it a "going-concern." 8 -> Hong Kong - AST Details Recovery Plan -- Bob McFarland, AST managing director for Asia and the Middle East, told Newsbytes that once the company gets the US market fixed, there's no doubt about the rest of the firm performing well. 9 -> China - Datacraft Wins Digital Networking Deal -- Datacraft has won a US$2.7 million pilot contract with China's Gansu Post and Telecommunications Administration to supply newly developed digital networking technology. 10 -> Compaq Drops Some Contura Notebook Prices -- Compaq Computer Corp. (NYSE: CPQ) has announced price cuts of up to 17 percent for some models of its Contura line of notebook computers. 11 -> Groups Right, Left, & Center Hit Clinton Export Plan --Opponents of the Clinton administration's proposal for export of encryption technology have mounted a lobbying campaign against the plan. A Washington digital liberties group, Center for Democracy and Technology, has orchestrated a letter to Vice President Al Gore from a number of business interests, protesting the plan. 12 -> ****Newsbytes Covers Comdex -- Newsbytes News Network has assigned seven reporters to cover the Fall Comdex show in Las Vegas, which starts today. The reports will be filed throughout the week. 13 -> Asia Newsbriefs -- In this roundup of news from around Asia: Daewoo develops digital video format; NEC wins Asia orders; Korea pager use hits 5 million; Sri Lanka plans massive network expansion; Singapore adds new GSM agreement; TV production stepped up. 14 -> Japan Newsbriefs -- In this roundup of news from Japan: NTT announces cellular rate cut; Hitachi, UCLA agree on DVD development; NEC, Namco form computer games alliance; PC-Video communications comes nearer; NEC plans memory mass production; Matsushita develops high capacity battery; Hitachi plans Video CD equipment; Hotel VOD trials planned. 15 -> Internet Update -- In this update of new resources and services on the global Internet: The virtual reference desk; Cincinnati Internet index; The latest news from Scotland; Netscape power pack links; Call up the operator; Internet address finder; New on usenet; AT&T travel guide; At the tone ... the latest time. 16 -> NewsPix Images For Newsbytes Publishers -- Photos are now posted as they arrive. This means quicker access to the story pictures. The bulletin will continue on Mondays, with updates Wednesdays and Fridays as needed. 17 -> Comdex - Ricoh Digital Camera For Stills/Video/Sound -- The new Ricoh RDC-1 digital camera, a pocket-sized device being introduced to the US market at Comdex today at a price of $1,800, is the first digital camera able to produce high resolution still shots along with full-motion video and audio, asserted Joseph Bollentini, senior VP of Ricoh's Consumer Products Group, in an interview with Newsbytes. 18 -> "DIS" Tools Prevent "Seat-of-the-Pants Software Devt -- Software development today is "unpredictable and hard to manage," leading to the need for a new class of tools called DIS (development information systems), maintained Judith S. Hurwitz and David A. Kelly of the Hurwitz Consulting Group, at a press conference sponsored by Software Emancipation Technology (SET) and attended by Newsbytes in Boston. 19 -> ****Senator Pushes FBI On Mammoth Surveillance Request -- Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) has asked the FBI to justify its recent request for unprecedented wiretap authority under the new Communications Assistance for Law Enforcement Act, or CALEA, also known as the "digital telephony" law. 20 -> SPA To Take Piracy Mgt Course To Latin America -- The Software Publishers Association has picked up a Commerce Department grant to help develop the SPA certified software manager course for Latin America. SPA will offer the course, designed to help businesses prevent software piracy, in 27 cities in 17 countries in Latin America. 21 -> Sierra Semiconductor Intros SDRAM -- Sierra Semiconductor (NASDAQ:SERA) has announced its SuperScaler multimedia accelerator set of graphic's controllers designed to support SDRAM (synchronous dynamic random access memory). Sierra's SuperScaler 220 is available now, while the SuperScaler 340, a pin-compatible upgrade that will add three-dimensional (3-D) graphics acceleration and PCI (Peripheral Component Interconnect) bus mastering, will be available in early 1996. 22 -> Racal Wireless Network Opens In Bermuda -- When you have a need to connect computers and data terminals to the communications network but they are stationed in remote areas or places with under- developed telecommunications networks, one choice is to establish wireless links. Racal have just begun building one such system in Bermuda, and says it is attracting considerable interest from other countries. 23 -> UK's Oxford Univ Restricts X-Rated Internet Access -- Britain's top university has cut access to certain Internet discussion groups after finding students spent too much time downloading pornographic pictures and reading pornographic stories, according to a front page story in The London Times newspaper. 24 -> ****Personal Web Search Application Developed -- Remember that great World Wide Web page you visited just two weeks ago 25 -> ****Softbank Debuts Its First Las Vegas Comdex -- Expecting a record number of more than 205,000 attendees, Softbank is ready to show it will continue 17 years of Comdex tradition in Las Vegas. At Comdex, the computer industry presents itself to the world as 2,200 exhibitors spread out across the convention center, the Hilton, the Sands, and hotel suites throughout Las Vegas. 26 -> ****Comdex - Phone System Problems Once Again -- It's another Comdex Fall 27 -> Comdex - Seagate Next-Generation Barracuda Drives -- Sitting on the plane into Las Vegas, Newsbytes was surprised to see a Seagate product manager get out a series of technical documents on a range of new products that Seagate is officially launching to its OEMs (original equipment manufacturers) at the show. The new products include the Barracuda 8 hard drive systems, as well as a new range of Ultra SCSI (small computer system interface) drives. 28 -> Comdex - SpeechSystems Shows PC Card Speech Recognition -- Two years ago, speech recognition technologies were at Comdex and seemed cumbersome and slow. But today, SpeechSystems unveils a PC Card-based speech recognition system for mobile computer users. 29 -> Comdex - Toshiba Intros Multimedia Monitor -- Toshiba claims its new TIMM (Toshiba Integrated Multimedia Monitor) monitor combines "computer use, multimedia display and television viewing" into a single unit. Company officials claim TIMM is "perfect" for Comdex interest in videoconferencing and high-end multimedia games. 30 -> Genie For Sale -- GEnie has informed its information providers, content providers, and development managers, as well as all of its employees, that the online service is for sale. According to Horace Martin, VP, business development and sourcing and acting president, GEnie Online Services, GE Information Services is working with the investment banking firm of Allen & Company to "identify potential buyers for the company's GEnie online service." (Ian Stokell/19951113) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 11/06/95 ONLINE ****Internet Users Gather In Shock At Assassination (NEWS)(ONLINE)(TYO)(00001) ****Internet Users Gather In Shock At Assassination 11/06/95 TOKYO, JAPAN, 1995 NOV 6 (NB) -- At 2316 local Israeli time on Saturday a Reuter flash informed the world, "RABIN DEAD - SENIOR AIDE." The death of Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin, felled by an assassin's bullet on Saturday night, started a period of mourning that extended from the Middle Eastern country to the rest of the world and into cyberspace. #IMAGE 1 20 TWPCX \images\95110601.PCX Click here for photo Some messages initially appeared reporting the shooting but were quickly updated with news of the death, the first appearing just two minutes after the Reuter flash and before much of the world had heard the news via television or radio. Some of the most moving and heart-felt messages came from users in Israel. "It is almost midnight Israel time and I am still trying to get over the first shock of the shooting," wrote one user with another adding, "I, an Israeli citizen, bend my head with deep sorrow on the death of our leader, the Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin." Other messages came from around the world. A user from France, who described himself as, "Moroccan, Muslim and Arab." wrote, "Tonight I'm sad. Tonight I cried. I cried when I saw the news, the pictures of the peace rally with Peres & Rabin singing for Peace and heard the assassination. I feel tonight, like if I had lost a member of my family." An American wrote, "There are non-Jews with tears in their eyes today. I pray that soon there will be peace in Israel's future." Another summed up the feelings of many with the message, "I am so sorry to learn of the death of Prime Minister Rabin. I remember how we felt here in the US when President Kennedy was killed. All Israeli citizens are in my thoughts and prayers." CompuServe established a special section for condolences which had witnessed over 800 messages in the first 36 hours since the assassination. They included one from Norman Hogg MP, Chairman of the Labor Friends of Israel in Britain's Parliament, who wrote, "Mr Rabin was a great statesman. An outstanding general, he led his people in war and peace," and concluded with, "He will be mourned in the world community by all who seek peace in the Middle East." News services on the Internet quickly responded to the news. One of the first was the Jerusalem Post which rushed out a special edition with details of the shooting incident. Once the death of the prime minister was announced, the service took several hours to update its home page, perhaps an indication of the shock that gripped the country when the news was announced. On Usenet, the Shomron News Service, an independent news service reporting on the events surrounding the Middle East peace process, rushed out a special edition within 15 minutes of the announcement and followed with several throughout the night. (Martyn Williams/19951106/JPOSTA951106/PHOTO) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 11/06/95 CHIPS Out Of This World Research For Next-Generation Chips (NEWS)(CHIPS)(TYO)(00002) Out Of This World Research For Next-Generation Chips 11/06/95 GAINESVILLE, FLORIDA, U.S.A., 1995 NOV 6 (NB) -- Researchers from the United States, Germany, and Canada are looking to space in their development of the next generation of computer semiconductors. When the Space Shuttle lifts off next spring, NASA engineers and the researchers will be working together on a series of experiments on board the craft. #IMAGE 1 20 TWPCX \images\95110602.PCX Click here for photo A series of 12 experiments will be conducted aboard Spacehab, laboratory modules built by McDonnell Douglas Aerospace that fly in the shuttle cargo bay for research that has commercial applications. The experiments will center around the growing of crystals of two synthetic compounds to learn how they may be more easily produced on earth. Six of the tests will be undertaken by a team of researchers at the University of Florida (UoF) under the lead of Reza Abbaschian, chairman of UoF's materials science and engineering department, who spoke to Newsbytes. "The goal of the program is to improve the quality of the crystals grown, particularly to reduce line defects and improve homogeneity of the crystals," said Abbaschian. The team will investigate the growth of gallium arsenide and gallium antimonide crystals. Growing the crystals in space removes problems the researchers encounter when performing the same task on earth. "Current crystals have a large number of line defects, or dislocations, in the range of 10,000 dislocations per square centimeter. They also have problems with antisite defects, for example gallium sitting in the arsenide site and vise versa, as well as non-uniform distribution of dopants," explained the scientist. Gallium arsenide is a synthetic compound used as a semiconducting material. It is more expensive than the commonly used silicon, so it not typically used today. The other compound to be tested is gallium antimonide, which is used for infrared detectors, optical windows and other purposes. Despite the space research, the project is not aimed at the building of vast semiconductor factories in orbit to grow pure crystals. Abbaschian continued, "We are not planning to grow large scale crystals in space, but learn from our space experiments to improve the ground-based technologies." The group is using the data collected to further knowledge of the crystal growth process and apply the information to the process on earth to the point where the crystals become so good and so fast, the price differential does not matter anymore. In a previous series of experiments two years ago, researchers proved their technology by growing nearly perfect crystals of another compound. "We flew the first experiment using a model compound (BiIn) aboard STS-57 in the Spacehab-1. This flight was intended to prove the concept of liquid encapsulated melt zone (LEMZ) growth technique in space," said Abbaschian. "As far as we know, no other space experiment of this kind has ever been done in space. The (previous) flight was rather successful, as we were able to grow the compound and obtain better crystals. The technique was also found to be better than regular float zone technique since the liquid encapsulant improved the stability of the zone and dampened some of the G-jitters effects," he continued. "If you can make it cheaper and more reliable, then I don't see why it shouldn't replace silicon and the technology based on that," noted Abbaschian who added that a change will not take place overnight but will happen, "slowly." What is going to happen, he said, is that new and more demanding applications will use gallium arsenide. Looking ahead, Abbaschian said, "For the next flight we intend to grow GaAs and GaSb compounds." The Canadian team, under the leadership of John Marrone, senior project engineer with the Canadian Space Agency, will work on similar experiments surrounding semiconductors and optically sensitive materials that are used to convert laser or light messages. "This is what we're trying to achieve, to try to understand the true nature of these materials and hopefully interest some of the big manufacturers to try to reproduce those results on the ground," Marrone said. "That's how the silicon chips came about. The first ones were very bad, and they got better as the researchers knew what they should be looking for." A video link from the Spacehab capsules will enable the scientists on the ground to monitor the progress of the experiments while on the Shuttle and, through mission control at the Johnson Space Center, they will be able to instruct the astronauts to change the experiment parameters. Two of the crew members, mission specialist Marc Garneau and fellow astronaut Andrew Thomas, recently visited the University of Florida to receive a briefing on the projects and undertake training from the researchers. "This is an unique opportunity to look at something that's very important and will affect our lives in the future in a very important way," Garneau said. (Martyn Williams/19951103/Press contact : University of Florida News & Public Affairs, 904-392-0186, fax 904-392-3358, Internet e-mail newsdesk@desk.news.ufl.edu/CRYSTALS951106/PHOTO) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 11/06/95 ONLINE Internet Offers Some Help For Battered Women (NEWS)(ONLINE)(TOR)(00003) Internet Offers Some Help For Battered Women 11/06/95 KINGSTON, ONTARIO, CANADA, 1995 NOV 6 (NB) -- The Internet is justifiably famous for the diversity of information it makes available on almost any subject imaginable, and domestic violence against women is no exception. Yet although the net offers access to a good deal of information about the subject, it can provide only limited help to victims of such violence. Judging from Newsbytes' explorations, a battered woman is most likely to find help on the Internet if she lives in Larimer County, Colorado. The Crossroads Safehouse, a 12-bedroom shelter for abused women, the exact location of which is a secret, has a home page on the World Wide Web at http://www.fortnet.org/fortnet/organization/crossrd/crossrd.html . The site contains a fairly lengthy list of places to which an abused woman in that area can turn, including law-enforcement agencies and various support organizations, including the Crossroads Safehouse's own Domestic Abuse Response Team. The list includes telephone numbers. The safe house also runs various support groups for victims of abuse, and there is information about these on the Web as well. Students at Boston University can turn to Boston University's domestic violence site, at gopher://gopher.bu.edu:70/11/Things You Should Know/Safety Resources/Safety Issues/Domestic Violence (a Web browser will take you there too). There is information here about reporting an assault, facts about domestic abuse and dating violence, and related topics. However, it is designed strictly for students at Boston University. The Austin Center for Battered Women, in Austin, Texas, also has its own Web page. It contains information on the center's 24-hour hotline and on its emergency shelter for abused women and their children. Anyone who wants to help battered women in the Austin area can turn to this site to read job descriptions for volunteer positions that the center needs to fill, ranging from clerical helpers to people who will conduct therapeutic activities with children or accompany women to court. A section entitled, "A Few Women's Resource Links," has only one at the moment, to the Austin Rape Crisis Center's home page. The Austin Center for Battered Women home page is at http://clarksville.mc.utexas.edu/~rachel/AustinCBW.html . The SafetyNet Domestic Violence Resources page on the CyberGrrl WebStation has the telephone numbers of shelters for abused women in New York City. It also offers a link to help for batterers in the United Kingdom. There is a directory here of domestic violence projects and organizations, some statistics about domestic violence, and a posting board which, when Newsbytes visited, contained only one notice. SafetyNet is at http://www.cybergrrl.com/dv.html . A page headed, "Essential Information on Abuse, Assault, Rape & Domestic Violence," at http://www.mcs.net/~kathyw/abuse.html , offers a long list of links to information on the abuse of women and children. This page uses an interesting rating system for the documents it lists: a green ball beside a link means it is suitable for older pre-teen children, a yellow ball means adult supervision is recommended, and a red ball means the material isn't suitable for children. This page provides links to various research materials and other Web pages that deal with abuse in various forms. One small problem: Newsbytes found several of the links did not work. The National Organization for Women (NOW) has some statistics and news items about violence against women in the Issues section of its Web site at http://now.org . Toronto's Metro Action Committee on Public Violence Against Women and Children (METRAC) home page, at http://www.interlog.com/~metrac , contains information about a manual on sexual assault prevention and other resources such as videotapes, plus some links to other sites. WomensNet, part of the San Francisco-based IGC operation that also includes PeaceNet, EcoNet, LaborNet, and ConflictNet, has some relevant information at http://www.igc.apc.org/womensnet . So does Canada's Mennonite Central Committee, at http://www.linnet.ca/mcc/programs/crime/abuse.html . The Higher Education Center Against Violence and Abuse runs an Electronic Clearinghouse that is a good source of links to other sites dealing with abuse and domestic violence. Most of what it offers will interest those who want to study the problem, rather than victims seeking help. The clearinghouse is at http://www.umn.edu/mincava . Victims who want to take matters into their own hands may want to point their browsers to the Assault Prevention Information Network, at http://galaxy.einet.net/galaxy/Community/Safety/Assault-Prevention/apin/ APINindex.html . Sponsored by Personal Power Assault Prevention Training, which runs self-defence courses, this site focuses on self-defence and martial arts. UseNet news groups are often a way for people with common problems or interests to exchange information and support. The news groups have relatively little to offer abused women, but there are two news groups, confusingly named alt.abuse.recovery and alt.abuse-recovery. Neither is terribly active, but alt.abuse.recovery is the busier of the two. Postings deal with abuse of children as well as women, and as with most news groups the points of view vary widely -- some of the messages are insensitive to say the least. On the other hand, at least a few abuse victims are using the group as a way to share their feelings and contact others who have had similar experiences. (Grant Buckler/19951103) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 11/06/95 TELECOM France's PCN Service Readies For Operation (NEWS)(TELECOM)(LON)(00004) France's PCN Service Readies For Operation 11/06/95 PARIS, FRANCE, 1995 NOV 6 (NB) -- Bouygues Telecom, the French PCN (personal communications network) service, is on target to launch early in the new year, Newsbytes has learned. Metrica, the analysis systems company, has agreed to a "sizeable deal" with the French telco for installation of its performance monitoring system on the network. The contract between Metrica and the telco means that the data analysis company is supplying its systems to five of the world's PCN services. These range from TAC in Thailand to Orange in the UK. According to the company, discussions are under way with several other telcos. The Metrica NPR system to be installed at Bouygues Telecom will absorb statistics from the network -- typically every 15 minutes -- from switches and base controllers. This data can be stored for long periods, usually months or years, and the system software produces daily, weekly and monthly reports on a wide range of network operating parameters. According to Metrica, the reports can be accessed interactively in graphical and statistical formats. A newly developed module for the MPR system to be installed on the Bouygues Telecom network will activate alarms on the basis of detailed automatic analysis of network performance statistics. This will, Metrica claims, improve the operator's ability to monitor several operating parameters, including quality of service levels. The network system for the French PCN service is being installed by Metrica this month and, according to Yves Francois, Bougues Telecom's director of information technology (IT), the system is being installed very quickly to meet the operating deadlines. "We have had a lot of work to do together on scrutinizing relevant data sets, defining key performance indicators, and planning how the system will run when goes live. The way our team and Metrica's are working together to achieve this, gives me great confidence in the success of the project," he said. According to Mike Cole, Metrica's director of marketing, the Bouygues Telecom project is one of the fastest implementations of the company's MPR data collation and interaction systems. "At the same time as underlining our world leadership in PCN network reporting, it also demonstrates our pre-eminence in the European market for network reporting systems across a whole range of technologies, since it adds to recent wins with DCS 1800, GSM (Global System for Mobile communications), TACS (Total Access Communications System), cable and SDH (Synchronous Digital Hierarchy) operators in France, Austria, Germany, Italy and the UK," he explained. (Steve Gold/19951103/Press Contact: Dave Freedman +44-171-730-8222; Reader Contact: Metrica +44-181-332-7400; Fax +44-181-332-7403) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 11/06/95 GENERAL East Asia IT Study to Begin (NEWS)(GENERAL)(HKG)(00005) East Asia IT Study to Begin 11/06/95 CENTRAL, HONG KONG, 1995 NOV 6 (NB) -- This month a team of researchers from the University of California (Irvine) will be in Hong Kong, on another leg of their mammoth global study on IT (information technology) activities and their implications on local economies. On this round, researchers will focus on countries in East Asia, including Hong Kong, collecting more data to measure how different economies stack up in all matters IT. The project, backed by the US Government and the Sloan Foundation, is being managed by UCI's Center for Research on Information Technology and Organizations (CRITO). Kenneth Kraemer and Jason Dedrick will be conducting field interviews on the Hong Kong leg. Warned Kraemer in one recent article, said: "Hong Kong's role as China's link to the West will likely become less important as China gains experience in doing business with Western capitalists, making it more vital that Hong Kong develop other economic activities. "High-technology manufacturing and R&D have the potential to fill that role, but developing such industries will require a concerted effort by government and business. Given the restrictions on government initiatives and political uncertainty before 1997, that is unlikely to take place until the transition is complete. By then, it might be too late to catch up with Hong Kong's fast-moving competitors." The project analyzes the influence of environment (economic development, infrastructure, complementary industries, structure of industries and alliances) and technology policy (trade and tax and industry promotion on IT production and use). J.H. Lau, director of the government's Department of Information Technology Services, has been seconded as the project's expert on the territory. Hong Kong is just one part of a multi-country study covering East Asia. (I. T. Daily/19951106) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 11/06/95 ONLINE How to Make Cyberspace Your Capitalist Tool (NEWS)(ONLINE)(MSP)(00006) How to Make Cyberspace Your Capitalist Tool 11/06/95 SEATTLE, WASHINGTON, U.S.A., 1995 NOV 6 (NB) -- The Sept. 11, 1995, edition of Network World provides a thorough primer about marketing on the Internet with its special section "Capitalizing on the Internet." The lead feature story, "The Running Dogs of net.capitalism," provides hope to those who thought they were duped into thinking people could actually make money from the Internet. According to a recent report, $118 million was made over the last year from World Wide Web marketing, and 21 percent of all businesses on the Net raked in more than $10,000 during the same time period. The article does a fine job of hand-holding as it proffers advice to would-be Cyber Gatsbys. Tips include how to draw attention to your site, developing a Web marketing plan, and choosing strategic partners. The article includes some Internet resources for businesses going online. Dern can be reached at ddern@world.std.com or check out his Web site at: http://www.dern.com Another feature, "Piling up the Virtual Money," surveys the state of online financial transactions with a blow-by-blow of the latest innovations, including transactions on value-added networks, DigiCash, E-cash accounts and other up-and-comers (Mark Gibbs, pp. 17-22). The article provides a useful checklist of considerations before laying your business' money on the table to set up cyber transactions. In "Demolition Man," Paulina Borsook profiles Jim Griffin, the director of technology for Geffen Records (pp. 27-30). Griffin wakes up each day wondering "How can I destroy the company?"-- meaning he tries to figure out new ways to employ technology to change the way Geffen does business. Geffen was the first company in the music industry to set up its own Web site. The majority of the article describes how Griffin worked through the Geffen corporate structure to create its pioneering Web presence. Writer Borsook can be reached at: loris@well.com The final feature of the special section helps those on the other end of the Internet: users ("Hello -- Is there anyone out there?" Adam Gaffin, pp. 33-34). Now that the Internet has a site for just about anything, the only trick is finding what you want. Gaffin provides a rundown on some of the best resources for finding your way around the Internet, mostly large databases with high-powered search engines. Gaffin explains how to find and use such tried and true indices as Yahoo, Lycos, What's New, and several others. Gaffin can be reached at: agaffin@nww.com This story is republished with permission from the November 1995 Cybernautics Digest, a monthly summary of reports about converging information technologies. (Contact: Terry Hansen, Cybernautics Digest, c/o KFH Publications Inc., 3530 Bagley Ave. N., Seattle, WA 98103; 206-547-4950; Fax: 206-547-5355; E-mail: cyber@cuix.pscu.com. U.S. rate: $24; $2 sample issue) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 11/06/95 NETWORK 14-CD-ROM Tower for Networks (NEWS)(NETWORK)(LAX)(00007) 14-CD-ROM Tower for Networks 11/06/95 PHOENIX, ARIZONA, U.S.A., 1995 NOV 6 (NB) -- Microtest Inc., (NASDAQ: MTST) announced two DiscPort Tower models, one with 7 individual, 4-quad drives and another with 14 individual, 4-quad drives. The DiscPort Towers are CD-ROM towers that allow networks shared access to as many as 14 CD-ROMs. The DiscPort Towers include Microtest networking software that allows access to CD-ROMs as if they were hard drives. Both towers are fully Netware 3 and Netware 4 compatible, with full Netware Directory Services support for Netware 4.x. Johnna Bowley, a spokesperson for Microtest, told Newsbytes, "Microtest invented the shared CD format for networks. We created the system so that anyone on the network can access the shared CDs at the same time. We started with the 4-tower configuration, and the fully integrated 14-tower CD is the largest format available." All DiscPort Towers include the DiscView PRO graphical interface for managing the CD-ROMs. The DiscView PRO user interface is Windows based, and allows users to access CD-ROMs by pointing and clicking. Using DiscView PRO, the DiscPort Towers allow access CD-ROMs as NetWare subdirectories. DiscPort does not require Windows, although the company recommends one workstation running Windows so that you can use Microtest's software. The DiscPort Towers can't yet be managed by Macintosh users. However Macintosh users can access the CDs because they support Macintosh Namespaces. This does not mean that the system supports AppleTalk, it doesn't. Also the system will run OS/2 with Warp Connect. The 7-drive DiscPort Tower will be available early November through authorized Microtest distributors for $4,695. The 14-drive DiscPort Tower will be available in early December through the same distributors for $8,995. Call Microtest at 1-800-526-9675 for more information. (Richard Bowers/19951103/Press Contact: Johnna Bowley, Microtest, 602-952-6400) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 11/06/95 WINDOWS Intuit Renames Canadian Income Tax Software (NEWS)(WINDOWS)(TOR)(00008) Intuit Renames Canadian Income Tax Software 11/06/95 EDMONTON, ALBERTA, CANADA, 1995 NOV 6 (NB) -- Intuit Canada Ltd. has given a new name and some added features to income tax preparation software that it acquired about two years ago. To tie it in with Intuit's well-known Quicken financial management software, what was known as WinTax is now QuickTax. The tie-in with Quick tax is more than a similarity of names, Intuit said. Quick tax directly imports data from Quicken. The HeadStart version of QuickTax for Windows will import data from Quicken 4 for Windows, while the final version will also support Quicken 5 for Windows, the company said. Features added in the new release include Smart Tabs, which the company said makes it easier to move among several forms on the computer screen, and enhancements to the EasyStep system, an interview process that walks users through their tax forms. Mark Ryski, QuickTax product manager, told Newsbytes this feature incorporates some technology from Intuit's US tax program, TurboTax. Ryski said the Canadian QuickTax development team has "been drawing on the experience of our counterparts that developed TurboTax" and the interface of the Canadian program is evolving to look a little more like that of the American one. However, he added, most of the technology of the original Canadian product will be maintained. Other new features in this release include: SmartAudit, which double-checks all calculations and reviews the return for completeness; Deduction Finder, which scans the return for savings opportunities the user might have missed; and TaxAdvisor, which points out tax strategies and suggestions. Ryski said Intuit Canada chose the name QuickTax to capitalize on potential customers' recognition of the Quicken name. The company is not calling the Canadian product TurboTax after its US counterpart, he said, partly because consumers might get confused about which product is suitable for use in which country, and partly because Intuit has chosen to use the QuickTax name for tax software elsewhere outside the United States. Ryski also noted that Intuit Canada used the QuickTax name on its Macintosh tax software last year. The French-language version of the product will keep its current name: ImpotRapide (which translates roughly as QuickTax). All versions are expected to retail for about C$30, except QuickTax Deluxe for Windows, which is expected to be about C$40. They are to be available early in November. (Grant Buckler/19951103/Press Contact: Mark Ryski, Intuit Canada, 403-466-9996 ext. 319; Public Contact: Intuit Canada, 416-756-7747, fax 416-756-1685) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 11/06/95 BUSINESS Japan - Market Awaits Sony Results (NEWS)(BUSINESS)(TYO)(00009) Japan - Market Awaits Sony Results 11/06/95 TOKYO, JAPAN, 1995 NOV 6 (NB) -- The Tokyo Stock Market ended a short week (Friday was a public holiday) on the plus side with most high tech stocks following the trend that pushed the Nikkei 225 index up 691.61 to end the week at 18,028.80 points. The first section TOPIX closed at 1435.52, a rise of 47.09 points. The market moved ahead slowly with worries about the country's banking industry defining direction of stocks each day. The closure and indictment of Daiwa Bank of Friday did not affect the vacationing Tokyo market but will be felt Monday. The dollar's rise from around 100 yen to the 103 yen level on Thursday, caused by the banking worries, pushed the market up and wiped out many losses incurred in the preceding three days. On of the hardest hit issues of the week was Nippon Telegraph and Telephone (TSE:9432). NTT re-negotiated the fees it charges its competitors for use of its lines, announcing a fall of 18.6% early this week, something which analysts predict will cost the company at least 100 billion yen ($962 million). NTT shares ended Thursday at 819,000 yen, down 3.9% or 33,000 yen following a 24,000-yen drop in the previous week. Electronic games machine and software producer Namco (TSE:9752) announced a big jump in sales and profits for the first six months of the current fiscal year. Sales reached 41.44 billion yen ($398 million), up from 36.14 billion yen ($347 million) a year ago, with profits in the period to September 30th jumping 452% to 5 billion yen ($48 million). The company predicts full year parent company profits up 99% to reach 7.50 billion yen ($72 million). In the electronics sector, the market is awaiting Thursday's announcement by Sony Corporation (TSE:6758) of its half year financial figures. Sony stock has been driven down in the last two weeks following worries about performance of Sony given a relatively poor announcement by Matsushita (TSE:6752), Sony's biggest rival. The announcement of a survey showing the world semiconductor market is expanding by 24% annually helped push up semiconductor-related issues led by strong foreign interest in the stocks. Nikon, manufacturer of semiconductor production equipment, hit a year high of 1,500. Tokuyama (TSE:4043), a polysilicon maker and one of the sector's stars of the last few weeks, continued its climb skywards thanks to a Nihon Keizai Shimbun report that the polysilicon market will expand 25%, or 13,000 tons, this year. Closing the week at 773, the stock is just shy of its year high of 813 but well ahead of the year low of 390 yen. The company reports half year figures on November 14th. Kyocera (TSE:6971), the country's largest semiconductor package maker, rose 270 yen to 8,520 on the week. Among other electronics stocks, Toshiba Corporation (TSE:6502) ended at 765, up 32 yen; Sanyo Electric (TSE:6764) up 30 to 541 yen; NEC Corporation (TSE:6701) closed Thursday up 70 to 1,400 yen; Mitsubishi Electric (TSE:6503) ended at 778,up 33 yen; and Fujitsu (TSE:6702) ended the week up 50 to 1,240 yen. (Martyn Williams/19951106) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 11/06/95 ONLINE ****Internet Update - Israeli News Sources Special (NEWS)(ONLINE)(TYO)(00010) ****Internet Update - Israeli News Sources Special 11/06/95 TOKYO, JAPAN, 1995 NOV 6 (NB) -- In this special update, a listing of Internet resources and services offering the latest news from Israel following the assassination of Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin late on Saturday night. Jerusalem Post The online edition of the Jerusalem Post was one of the first Internet services to announce the attack on Rabin. Staff are obviously making extra efforts to keep the world up-to-date with developments and news. Due to the heavy load, users may experience slow response from this Web server. World Wide Web: http://www.jpost.co.il/ KOL Israel News If you have a computer and sound card with Real Audio or IWave software you can get the latest news in English from KOL Israel, the state radio station. World Wide Web: http://www.artificia.com/html/news.htm Israel Line This service is delivered by mailing list and offers the latest headline news from Israel compiled by the Consulate General of Israel in New York. A Web page has also been set up with the current edition and a back catalog of previous editions. Email : listserv@vm.tau.ac.il Message Body: subscribe israeline World Wide Web: http://gauss.technion.ac.il/israeline/ World Wide Web: http://gauss.technion.ac.il/israeline/latest.txt Internet Book Of Condolences A World Wide Web-based book of condolences has been set up, allowing users to join Israel in its mourning and send messages to the people. Visitors can also light a virtual candle. World Wide Web: http://www.netking.com/ Israeli Government Servers The national government recently established a Web server which includes some news resources, both from the government and external organizations. The government has also opened an e-mail address, homepage@israel.org, for anyone who wishes to send condolences to the nation. Government Home Page World Wide Web: http://www.israel.org/ Israel Information Service Gopher: gopher://israel-info.gov.il:70/11/new World Wide Web: http://www.israel.org/israel-info/Titles.cgi Selected Editorials From The Israeli Press World Wide Web: http://www.israel.org/israel-info/maildoc.cgi/new/opeds1 Government Briefings And Press Releases World Wide Web: http://www.israel.org/israel-info/maildoc.cgi/new/flashes1 Arutz 7 Radio This local AM and FM private broadcaster runs an Internet service that includes daily updated news although when we dropped by on Saturday night the most recent news was from Wednesday. World Wide Web: http://www.jer1.co.il/media/arutz7/news.htm Usenet / Network News Sources The following newsgroups are being used for discussion of the events that led up to Saturday, took place on the day, and happened afterwards. Some may not be available on all news-servers. News: news://soc.culture.israel News: news://clari.world.mideast.israel News: news://il.talk Foreign News Sources The following are just a small selection of non-Israeli news sources providing extensive online coverage of the latest news from Israel. CNN Online World Wide Web: http://www.cnn.com/WORLD/9511/rabin/index.html Reuter News World Wide Web: http://www.yahoo.com/headlines/special/rabin/ San Jose Mercury News - Mercury Center World Wide Web: http://www.sjmercury.com/ Time Magazine - Daily Edition World Wide Web: http://www.pathfinder.com/ Yahoo News Index The Yahoo internet index service has set up a special page of links to related pages. World Wide Web: http://www.yahoo.com/News/Current_Events/Yitzhak_Rabin_s_Death/ (Martyn Williams/19951106/JPOSTB951106/PHOTO) (ADVISORY)(GENERAL)(MSP)(00011) NewsPix Images For Newsbytes Publishers 11/06/95 MINNEAPOLIS, MINNESOTA, U.S.A.,1995 NOV 6 (NB) -- Starting October 30, photos will be posted as they arrive. This means quicker access to the story pictures. The bulletin will be updated Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays as needed. These photos correspond to recent Newsbytes stories. They are online in the Newsbytes menu on America Online, NiftyServe, and the Newsbytes private bulletin board system in Minneapolis. Some selections are also available from the Newsbytes Pacifica Website at http://www.islandtel.com/newsbytes/ JPEG (Joint Photographic Experts Group) files are larger in size, PICT files are designed as thumbnails for onscreen viewing. The photos are titled with name/year/month/day. PICT/thumbnail pictures are black and white (gray scale). File message will indicate color if the JPEG image is color. Some of the "for use" images, may be PICT files. To distinguish these files from the thumbnail preview PICT images, the tag for the color "for use" image will have PICT, all caps. The thumbnail will remain noted as "pct." To become a licensed Newsbytes publisher, call Newsbytes at 612-430-1100 (US) or write to wendy@newsbytes.com on the Internet. Licensing applies to any medium. --------------------------- Week of NOVEMBER 6 - NOVEMBER 10,1995 --------------------------- - NEW THIS WEEK - WINTNG951103 - color / Microsoft Press Offers Windows 95 Interactive Training: book cover. HOMEREC951102 - b&w / US West Puts Receptionist In Your Home: shot of the phone unit. --------------------------------------------------------------- - PARTIAL LISTING OF PREVIOUS ITEMS - AIRGO951027 - color / PC Card Combines Modem, Cellular Radio: card with antenna. POWER951027 - color / Fastest Mac Ever To Be Unveiled Monday: shots of the new Power Computing configuration. STEREOGRAPHIC951031 - color / 3-D Glasses By StereoGraphics: graphic of the accelerator chip and SimulEyes 3D glasses. PREMIERE951101 - color / Adobe Ships Premiere 4.2 Video Editor For Mac: screenshot of special processing window. DRAW4-951026 - color / Micrografx Shipping Windows Draw 4.0: screenshot of award art. KEYTRONIC951023 - color / Key Tronic Shipping More Windows Keyboards: shot of the KB101, with mottled lighting. CS-UTIL951024 - color / Coloradans Talk To Utility Firm Via The Internet: nice Web page graphics. WIN4-951025 - color / TI Intros MicroLaser Printer For SOHO Market: the printer on a reddish surface and black background. VIRTUS951026 - color / Virtus Ships 3-D Web Building Software: screenshot of a routing node. FASHION951026 - b&w / America Online & Cap Cities/ABC To Form Fashion Channel: basic ABC - Cap Cities Logo. RACOM951011 - color / Partnership Targets Billion Dollar Smart Card Market: shot of the smartcard and security box. OPTI-G951017 - color / Dell Intros New Optiplex Line, Server: picture of the Optiplex GX5100; corporate network ready pc. This is not one of the multimedia pcs mentioned in the article, but one of the others in the new line. ZNOTE951017 - color / Zenith Data System's New Pentium Desktops, Notebooks: the Z-Note GT. PLANET951016 - color / New Web Site Encourages Family Interneting: screenshot of home page. CAERE951010 - b&w / Caere To Acquire ViewStar: photo of Dean Hovey, vice president of business development for Caere quoted in story. GPT-CHINA951010 - color / UK's GPT To Supply First Smart Card Phones To China: Asian businessman at phone. TELECOM*spx1,2,3 - b&w / three photos taken at Telcom: for general use. 1) opening entry, 2) main floor - horizontal format, 3) main floor - vertical format SUPERDECK951013 - b&w / Video News Roundup:New Products-Panasonic Model AF-DS550 SVHS VCR, dubbed the 'superdeck.' PCCARD951013 - color / Compaq To Support Third-Party PC Cards: shot of two of the cards, one with connection cable running off frame. T2-951004 - color / Thrustmaster Intros New Game Steering Console: shot of the unit on limbo white, steering wheel and pedals. ABC-3D951005 - color / ABC Graphics Goes 3-D: screen shot of text illustrating the "Instant 3D." KODIAK951002 - color / Storagetek Intros New Product, Settles Old Lawsuit: the Kodiak 9890 Scalable Storage Facility. LAT-LX951004 - color / Dell Ships New Latitude Portables: unit with nice color Dell logo on screen. THINKPAD951003 - color / IBM Aims New ThinkPads At Desktop Market: shot of the 760CD unit, with flowers on screen and CD tray open. FUJITSU950914 - color / Fujitsu Develops New Display Panel: the large lcd panel with model. VCON950922 - color / VCON Intros Desktop Videoconferencing For LANs: woman at desk with desktop videoconferencing. DITOEASY950925 - color / Iomega's $150 800MB Tape Backup Drive: the unit on a tabletop with pen for scale. SKYTEL950926 - color / Microsoft/Skytel Offer 2-way Paging Via Microsoft Network: the unit on limbo tabletop. ZENOGRAPHICS950928 - color / Zenographics' SuperPrint 4.0 Speeds Win 95 Printing: shot of the software package. MACROMEDIA950928 - color / Macromedia Upgrades FreeHand For Macs: shot of the box. TRIMBLE950925 - color / Trimble Wins Japanese Anti-Earthquake Network Order: nice shot of surveyor and Golden Gate Bridge in SF. (Newsbytes/19951106) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 11/06/95 GENERAL Canadian Product Launch Update (NEWS)(GENERAL)(TOR)(00012) Canadian Product Launch Update 11/06/95 KINGSTON, ONTARIO, CANADA 1995 NOV 6 (NB) -- This regular feature, appearing on the first day Newsbytes publishes each week, p provides further details for the Canadian market on announcements by international companies that Newsbytes has already covered. This week: new Pentium Pro personal computers from Digital Equipment and IBM. Digital Equipment of Canada Ltd., in Toronto, announced the Celebris XL 6150, based on Intel's new Pentium Pro microprocessor (Newsbytes, Nov. 3). Available now in limited quantities, the new systems will be available in volume in December, DEC Canada said. Prices range from C$6,649 for a basic system to C$13,949 for a high-end configuration. It uses the initial 150-megahertz (MHz) version of the Pentium Pro chip. Markham, Ontario-based IBM Canada Ltd. introduced a new PC 300 model using the 150-MHz Pentium Pro (Newsbytes, Nov. 3). Due to be available through IBM Direct starting in December, the new model costs C$5,999 with 16 megabytes (MB) of memory and C$6,999 with 32 MB, IBM Canada said. (Grant Buckler/19951106/Press Contact: Steve Duncan, Digital Canada, 613-591-4683; Kevin McKee, IBM Canada, 905-316-3902; Public Contact: Digital Canada, 800-344-4825) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 11/06/95 WINDOWS Microhelp Intros Windows 95 Desktop Utility (NEWS)(WINDOWS)(DEN)(00013) Microhelp Intros Windows 95 Desktop Utility 11/06/95 ATLANTA, GEORGIA, U.S.A., 1995 NOV 6 (NB) -- MicroHelp Inc. has introduced a desktop enhancement utility for Windows 95 the company said provides users greater control over the file management and navigation functions of Microsoft's latest operating system and user interface. #IMAGE 1 20 TWPCX \images\95110613.PCX Click here for photo Kathy Howell, PowerDesk product manager, told Newsbytes that Windows 95 users will typically work with a certain number of applications on a regular basis and the Powerdesk toolbar is designed to allow the user much quicker access to those applications. Asked if Powerdesk's functions aren't similar to Windows 95's shortcuts, Howell said unlike Shortcuts, which can be hidden by open applications, the Powerdesk toolbar can always be on top of whatever application is active. If the user needs more desktop real estate, the Powerdesk "autohide" feature can be activated to conceal the toolbar. It reappears when the pointer is moved to the right or left edge of the screen. MicroHelp said PowerDesk gives you one-click access to any drive, makes access to file management commands like format, copy and move more accessible, and includes PKZip file compression for zipping and unzipping files. You also get access to a quick entry DOS command line without opening a DOS windows, and a Viewer Pane provides easy file viewing. You can put your most often used tools, applications, files and folders on PowerDesk's customizable Toolbar. Some PowerDesk Tools can also reside in the Windows 95 taskbar. You can place QuickLaunch, Start Menu, Print Manager and MultiView inside the Windows 95 taskbar to save space on your screen. QuickLaunch gives you one-click access to applications, files and folders. Start Menus lets you find files and folders quickly using multiple Start Menus, and MultiView lets you switch between full-screen views of open applications. Windows 3.1 performs that task with the Alt-Tab key combination. Print Manager lets you select printers and fax devices, while a PowerDesk feature called System Access provides one-click access to commonly used Windows 95 functions. The utility also has a system monitor that tracks CPU (central processor unit) usage and free resources, and a clock can be customized to display one or more analog or digital clocks. MicroHelp said it will release a software development kit (SDK) in December that will let third-party application developers create Windows 95 add-ons for specific products, tasks and environments. PowerDesk has a suggested retail price of $79.95 and is shipping immediately. (Jim Mallory/19951106/Press contact: Suzanne Stewart, Alexander Communications for MicroHelp, 404-897-2300; Public contact: MicroHelp, tel 800-777-3322 or 770-516-0899, fax 770-516-1099/POWERDSK951106/PHOTO) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 11/06/95 IBM IBM Gives Up On DMR, Amdahl Wins (NEWS)(IBM)(TOR)(00014) IBM Gives Up On DMR, Amdahl Wins 11/06/95 MONTREAL, QUEBEC, CANADA, 1995 NOV 6 (NB) -- Amdahl Corp. (AMEX:AMH) has emerged the winner from the three-way takeover battle for consulting firm DMR Group Inc. (TSE:DR). IBM Canada Ltd. has not renewed its offer for DMR shares, which expired today. IBM pulled out of the race for DMR after Amdahl last week raised its bid from C$8.25 to C$12.50 per share, topping IBM's C$11.00 price, which had been the highest bid. Earlier, BDM International Inc. (NASDAQ:BDMI) of McLean, Virginia, let its C$9.00-per-share offer expire. On Friday, DMR announced that its board of directors had unanimously voted to recommend Amdahl's offer to the company's shareholders, with principal shareholders Pierre Ducros and Serge Meilleur abstaining from the vote. DMR had earlier refused to recommend any of the three offers to its shareholders. Major shareholders, including Ducros and Meilleur, had irrevocably tendered their shares to Amdahl before the other two bidders entered the race. The success of Amdahl's takeover attempt now seems assured. The company said last week that it is extending its offer until November 15, and will pay the new, higher share price to those who had tendered their shares to Amdahl before the price was raised. With the increase in Amdahl's bid, the company said it will be paying about C$194 million for all shares of DMR. Amdahl has said it plans to roll its own Business Solutions Group into DMR, which it will operate as a separate subsidiary. Ducros, now president, chief executive, and general manager, is to remain as chief executive, while Michael Poehner, vice-president and general manager of Amdahl's Business Solutions Group, will take the title of president. Amdahl said the combination of DMR and the Business Solutions Group will give the company more than 3,100 employees worldwide focusing on consulting services and support for information technology in medium-sized and large organizations. DMR operates in North America, Europe, and the Asia-Pacific Region, and has annual revenues of some US$200 million. (Grant Buckler/19951106/Press Contact: William Stewart, Amdahl, 408-746-6076; Michel Gelinas, DMR Group, 514-877-3301; Mike Quinn, IBM Canada, 905-316-2255) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 11/06/95 TELECOM U.S. Robotics Intros 33.6Kbps Software, Speakerphone (NEWS)(TELECOM)(MSP)(00015) U.S. Robotics Intros 33.6Kbps Software, Speakerphone 11/06/95 SKOKIE, ILLINOIS, U.S.A., 1995 NOV 6 (NB) -- U.S. Robotics Inc. (NASDAQ:USRX) said it will offer new software for its Sportster line of 28.8Kbps (kilobits per second) modems that will boost the units to 33.6Kbps. The software gives the Sportsters two new speeds, 33.6Kbps and 31.2Kbps for the V.34 standard. What's more, the software is designed to work with the higher speed when the International Telecommunications Union (ITU) makes 33.6Kbps a part of the V.34 standard, Tom Potts, U.S. Robotics spokesperson, told Newsbytes. "In effect, once it's implemented, the top speed for V.34 will be 33.6 (Kbps)," he said. Potts also said the new software will also work with U.S. Robotics' line of Courier modems. All U.S. Robotics modems that ship in the next month or two will have the 33.6 capability already built-in, Potts added. Not all phone lines will support 33.6Kbps transmission speeds, U.S. Robotics officials said. But it will help those people who can't get 28.8Kbps out of their current modems. Potts said the new software should help bump up customers to the next highest speed level. A chip replacement containing the new 33.6 software will be available for owners of current V.34 Sportsters to upgrade their current modems to the higher speeds, for $24.95 through U.S. Robotics' customer support. U.S. Robotics also introduced a full-duplex, digital signal processor (DSP)-based conference speakerphone called "iWORKS conference." The full-duplex feature lets users at both ends of the line talk at the same time without being cut off, officials said. The unit also has automatic gain control which maintains sound quality while people move in a room, and auto-adapt which lets the unit adjust to the room environment after power-on. The iWORKS conference unit is available as a basic unit, as well as a kit that includes extension microphones for large conference tables. An optional adapter lets the unit hook up to a PBX digital telephone set. List price for the basic kit is $399. (Bob Woods/19951106/Press Contacts: Tom Potts, U.S. Robotics, 708-676- 7113. Public Contact: U.S. Robotics, 800-DIAL-USR) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 11/06/95 BROADCAST ****Live TV Coverage Of Fall COMDEX On The Web (NEWS)(BROADCAST)(BOS)(00016) ****Live TV Coverage Of Fall COMDEX On The Web 11/06/95 BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS, U.S.A., 1995 NOV 6 (NB) -- People who can't make it to Fall COMDEX next week will be able to see the industry extravaganza anyway, through round-the-clock, live TV coverage over the Web, said Greg Biggers, product manager for Xing Technology, speaking with Newsbytes at Internetworld Boston, where Softbank, Visitel, Xing, Array, and Best Internet Communications unveiled a new Web page jointly created for that purpose. The five partners' new, full-motion video and audio "netcast" of Visitel's TV coverage will start the morning of Monday, November 13 and will go on uninterrupted around-the-clock for 120 hours, according to Biggers, who told Newsbytes of the COMDEX Web consortium's plans in the Iworld press room. Until this year, COMDEX TV has been available only through closed-circuit cablecast within Las Vegas, Newsbytes was told. In conjunction with the rollout of worldwide access over the Web, COMDEX TV intends to introduce a new format this year that will feature continuous feeds from show venues, including the multiple exhibition halls at COMDEX, together with studio reports such as a one-hour daily news wrap-up. The news program will bring together studio anchors with on-site reporters covering COMDEX keynotes, new product announcements, and international business. The keynotes by Microsoft's Bill Gates, IBM's Lou Gerstner, and Novell's Bob Frankenberg will be broadcast live, and will then be rebroadcast in their entirety several times throughout the week. In addition, a program called "COMDEX After Hours," to be hosted by Kevin Wynn, will focus on evening events like the Chili Cookoff and Microsoft Geek Fest. Meanwhile, "COMDEX Today," to be hosted by the CMP Channel Group, will hone in on "hot technologies, and "The Inside Scoop" will deliver "hot gossip." There will also be a "Morning Update" airing from 6:30 to 11 am (PST) each day of the show. The COMDEX TV coverage is open to commercials from advertisers, as well, according to the Xing product manager. The Web component of the COMDEX coverage will integrate TV technology from Visitel with Xing's Streamworks live Internet media delivery system and video client software; Array's VideoFlow MPEG (Motion Picture Experts Group) video compression chip set; and Best Internet Communications' T3 Internet connection, billed as able to support 4,000 simultaneous viewers. Biggers told Newsbytes that Xing's Streamworks is the only video delivery system available today that is able to deliver video streams over the Web. Although the COMDEX coverage will now begin until next week, Web users can already visit the COMDEX TV Web page at http://www.comdextv.com for free downloads of the Xing Streamworks client software needed for the COMDEX netcast. (Jacqueline Emigh/Reader Contacts: Array Microsystems, 408-399- 1505, http.//www.array.com ; Xing Technologies, http.://www.xingtech.com ; Best Internet Communications, http://www.best.com ; Advertiser and Press Contact: Vianney DePompeis, Visitel, 800-253-3890; Press Contacts: Paul H.F. Vroomen, Array, 408-399-1505; Peggy Taylor, Xing, 805-473-1045; Robert Fasano, Best Internet, 415-964-BEST) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 11/06/95 ONLINE MecklerMedia Launches Web Developer Magazine (NEWS)(ONLINE)(BOS)(00017) MecklerMedia Launches Web Developer Magazine 11/06/95 BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS, U.S.A., 1995 NOV 6 (NB) -- "Web Developer is for the people who build the surfboards," said David Fiedler, editor-in-chief of MecklerMedia's latest magazine, at a press conference held aboard the anchored ship Discovery during MecklerMedia's Internetworld Boston '95. MecklerMedia has printed more than 65,000 copies of the initial issue of Web Developer, said Jeffrey Dearth, president and COO (chief operating officer) of MecklerMedia Corp.'s Magazine Division, the first speaker at the press event, which was attended by Newsbytes. Advertisers for the 64-page premiere edition include Digital Equipment Corp., Silicon Graphics, Quarterdeck, UUNet, Adobe, and Navisoft, noted Paul Bonington, publisher of Web Developer. Vendors in this category are "the toolmakers of the future," the publisher told the reporters and analysts, who accessed the Discovery by taking a short walk down the dock from Boston's World Trade Center, the main site for this fall's edition of the emerging Internet extravaganza. Editorial content from Web Developer and MecklerMedia's two other publications, WebWeek and Internetworld magazine, is also available on MecklerMedia's recently launched Iworld Web site, according to the MecklerMedia officials. Fiedler outlined the editorial positioning of the three MecklerMedia publications. "The way I see it, Internetworld (magazine) is for users, who want to read about products like Web browsers. Web Week is for business people, who want to read about mergers and acquisitions," the editor said. Web Developer, on the other hand, is targeted at an audience made up of content developers, WebMasters, programmers, network administrators, Internet security specialists, and other technical pros in the Web arena, Fiedler told the press attendees. The editorial content of the new magazine will include columns and product reviews, as well as articles focused on "technical tips and tricks," Fiedler added. During a Q&A session at the close of the press conference, the officials elaborated on MecklerMedia's new Iworld site on the Web. Iworld is replacing several previous Meckler Web sites with "a new look, a new attitude, and new energy," the journalists were told. The new site, which opened just prior to Internetworld Boston, is set to combine editorial content from the three magazines with information on Mecklermedia's international Internet trade shows, threaded conferencing, and downloadable Web technologies such as Java. For users with 28.8 megabit-per-second (Mbps) modems, audio and full-motion video content will be available. MecklerMedia's new Iworld site on the Web is accessible at http://www.iworld.com . The new Web Developer magazine is available by subscription for $21 per year, and on selected newsstands for $5.95 per issue. (Jacqueline Emigh/19951103/Reader Contact: 800-MECKLER; Press Contact: Tanya F. Mazarowski, Mecklermedia, 203-341-2842) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 95 11/06/95 WINDOWS Delrina Previews Cyberjack For Windows (NEWS)(WINDOWS)(BOS)(00018) Delrina Previews Cyberjack For Windows 95 11/06/95 BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS, U.S.A., 1995 NOV 6 (NB) -- Delrina's new Cyberjack for Windows 95 surpasses the capabilities of Windows 95's built-in browser, Internet Explorer, by adding support for Internet applications like FTP (file transfer protocol) and Telnet, maintained Tom Katsiroubes and Shelly Sofer, during a demo for Newsbytes at Internetworld. Cyberjack uses Microsoft Explorer, the Windows 95 equivalent of the Windows File Manager, along with features like Windows 95's Microsoft Exchange and TCP/IP (transmission control protocol/Internet protocol) stack, Katsiroubes acknowledged, as he displayed the new Windows 95 edition of Cyberjack to Newsbytes in the Delrina booth. "The (Microsoft Exchange) electronic mail in Windows 95 is great," he asserted. Cyberjack also supports OLE 2.0 meaning users can embed Web documents downloaded with Cyberjack into other OLE 2.0 applications, such as Microsoft Word, Katsiroubes contended. In contrast to Internet Explorer, Cyberjack lets users transfer files across the Internet with the use of FTP. The Delrina product consultant then showed Newsbytes a set of clickable applets for FTP; remote access via Telnet; a UseNet News reader; Gopher and Archer search capabilities; and IRC (Internet Relay Chat) for Internet chat sessions; in addition to a Web browser and Microsoft Exchange e-mail. Cyberjack is organized around the Cyberjack GuideBook, according to Katsiroubes. Users can launch each of the Internet applications individually from the Cyberjack folder; by clicking on either the toolbar or on a URL (Universal Resource Locator) object in a folder in the GuideBook; or by in-place activation through OLE 2.0 from within the tool itself. Newsbytes also saw how Cyberjack organizes Internet addresses as objects in file folders for categorizing and sorting. Cyberjack comes with 500 pre-loaded Web, FTP, Gopher, Newsgroup, and chat addresses, Newsbytes was told. To connect to any of these sites, the user clicks on the site name in the GuideBook. Cyberjack will ship in November, according to Sofer. The new Internet access package will be available as a stand-alone product with Delrina WinComm Pro 7.0, or as part of Delrina CommSuite 95. Delrina CommSuite will also include WinFax Pro 7.0, an integrated fax, paging and e-mail package; TalkWorks, for voice messaging and telephony; and WinComm Pro 7.0, for online data communications. Cyberjack 7.0 with WinComm Pro 7.0 will carry an SRP (suggested retail price) of $129 in US dollars, and $159 in Canadian dollars. (Jacqueline Emigh/19951106/Reader and Press Contact: Delrina, 408-363-2345; 416-441-3676) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 11/06/95 ONLINE Yahoo Adds Search Engine, News Stories, Ads (NEWS)(ONLINE)(BOS)(00019) Yahoo Adds Search Engine, News Stories, Ads 11/06/95 BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS, U.S.A., 1995 NOV 6 (NB) -- An enhanced user interface to the Yahoo directory service for the Web will integrate a full-text search engine from Open Text, advise Web users on "hot" and "cool" home pages, accept users' Web site recommendations, and add news headlines from Reuters New Media, revealed Yahoo's Jeff Mallett and Tim Brady, during a preview for Newsbytes at Internetworld. Also at the Internet expo in Boston, Yahoo announced that, following a three-month trial period for online advertising, all five members of the original group of Yahoo advertisers -- MCI, Mastercard, Internet Shopping Network, NECX, and Worlds Inc. -- have renewed their contracts, and that Yahoo has added ten more advertisers, too. Yahoo's ten new advertisers include AT&T, Nynex, Bell Atlantic, Individual Inc., American Express, Bank of America, Citibank, Samsung, Annheuser-Bush, and Honda, said Jeff Mallett, who recently joined Yahoo as VP of business operations from Novell, where he worked as VP and general manager of Novell's Consumer Division. Additionally, as previously reported in Newsbytes, Yahoo and America Online (AOL) unveiled a deal at Internetworld to include Yahoo in AOL's new Global Network Navigator (GNN) service for "advanced" Web users. The one-year-old Internet directory now catalogs more than 100,000 Web sites, is used by about 600,000 people per day, and allows searches of millions of Web documents, according to Brady, who is Yahoo's director of marketing. A pact to integrate Open Text's search engine into the Yahoo directory, and vice versa, was first announced in a teleconference attended by Newsbytes in September. Mallett and Brady informed Newsbytes at Internetworld that Yahoo's new GUI (graphical user interface) provides "seamless integration" between search and browse functions, allowing users to move smoothly between one navigational technique and the other. Users of Yahoo can also restrict searches to URLs (Uniform Resource Locators), titles, and/or comments, according to the pair of Yahoo execs. Search results are accompanied by their locations in Yahoo's hierarchical index. A "What's New" section lists "hot new sites" that been added to the Web directory over the previous week, together with their locations in the Yahoo directory, Newsbytes was told. Yahoo also tags each listing less than four days old with a "New" icon to help keep cyber surfers on top of the mounting wave of new Web sites. Meanwhile, a Yahoo page dubbed "What's Cool" lists Web sites that the Yahoo staff considers "cool," based on "presentation and content in their topic area." A Headlines page lets users browse hourly news summaries from Reuters New Media. Users can then retrieve complete articles by clicking on the summaries. Another area of the new Yahoo GUI, "What's Popular," highlights Yahoo's "50 most frequently visited categories of the week." By clicking on an "Add URL" button, users can recommend that their own favorite sites be added to the various categories in the Yahoo index. And for the especially adventuresome, a "Random Link" option randomly selects a site for you from the Yahoo database. Yahoo will then take you there, according to Mallett and Brady. Yahoo intends to add the new integrated Internet search engine to its Web site in mid-November. You can use the Yahoo Internet directory service by stopping at http:///www.yahoo.com . on the Web. (Jacqueline Emigh/199501013/Reader Contacts: Yahoo, 415-934-3230; Open Text, 519-888-7111; America Online, 703-448-8700; Press Contacts: Cynthia C. Lohr, Niehaus Ryan Haller for Yahoo, 415-827- 7069; Brenda Nichols or Derek Lane, Parker, Nichols & Company for Open Text, 508-369-2100; Kathy Johnson, AOL, 703-918-1948; Pam McGraw, AOL, 703-556-3746) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 11/06/95 BUSINESS ****SoftKey Play For Learning Company Turning Ugly (NEWS)(BUSINESS)(TOR)(00020) ****SoftKey Play For Learning Company Turning Ugly 11/06/95 CAMBRIDGE, MASSACHUSETTS, U.S.A., 1995 NOV 6 (NB) -- SoftKey International Inc. (NASDAQ:SKEY) has begun an attempt to oust directors of The Learning Co. (NASDAQ:LRNG), the Fremont, California, educational software firm it is seeking to acquire in a hostile takeover. SoftKey said it is soliciting proxies from Learning Co. shareholders not only to oppose a competing takeover offer by Broderbund Software (NASDAQ:BROD) but to remove directors who it alleges are "not acting to maximize value to (Learning Co.'s) stockholders" by continuing to favor the Broderbund offer. Learning Co., meanwhile, said it is postponing a special stockholder meeting that had been set for Nov. 9, at which shareholders were to be asked to approve the Broderbund takeover. The firm said reviewing SoftKey's offer with its legal and financial advisors, and will advise stockholders of its position "in due course." In the meantime, Learning Co. officials said they are continuing to ask shareholders not to tender their shares to the SoftKey offer. SoftKey is offering $65 per share for Learning Co., which it claimed is an $8.59-per-share premium over the value of the Broderbund stock shareholders would receive if the rival offer is accepted. Broderbund is reported to be offering about $440 million worth of its stock. SoftKey's play for Learning Co. comes right on the heels of its friendly takeover of Minnesota Educational Computing Corp., another maker of educational software. John Suske, a spokesman for SoftKey, said the company is aiming to increase its focus on the educational market for a number of reasons, upon which SoftKey officials would not elaborate. SoftKey sells a broad range of consumer software and is best known for its marketing tactics, which include the use of its own software display racks in a variety of different retail outlets. (Grant Buckler/19951106/Press Contact: Les Schmidt, Learning Co., 510-792-2101; John Suske, SoftKey, 617-494-5816) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 11/06/95 ONLINE GE Information Services Announces MSN EDI Link (NEWS)(ONLINE)(LON)(00021) GE Information Services Announces MSN EDI Link 11/06/95 SUNBURY-ON-THAMES, MIDDLESEX, ENGLAND, 1995 NOV 6 (NB) -- GE Information Services has announced it plans to be a premier electronic data interchange (EDI) provider on Microsoft Network (MSN), the recently launched Microsoft online service. "For years, small businesses have wanted the productivity gains that electronic commerce can drive, along with greater access to trading partners large and small. Together, Microsoft and GE Information Services are now able to make that dream a reality," proclaimed John Thorpe, GE Information Services' managing director. According to Thorpe, GE's EDI expertise, along with the accessibility of the MSN, will break down many of the barriers to EDI that have held back small businesses from introducing the technology to their everyday working environment. To use EDI on MSN, companies will establish electronic documents on the service itself that, when filled in -- either manually or automatically -- can be addressed to any user of the MSN online service. Subscribers to MSN can then collect the EDI documents from their MSN mailbox or, in the case of major users, the EDI documents can be relayed to the customer over X.25 or similar data links. Tony Bay, director of organization services for MSN, claims that the company's goal is to provide "a compelling and comprehensive business environment with EDI capabilities." "Adding GE Information Services' EDI functionality to MSN will be a very important small business service for our members. For example, a small business can use GE's electronic forms on MSN to reduce order processing cycle time, improve order accuracy and increase the number of orders processed with fewer resources," he explained. (Sylvia Dennis/19951105/Press Contact: DPA Public Relations +44-1483- 456666; Fax +44-1483-456555; Internet E-mail: dpapr@attmail.com; Reader Contact: GE Information Services +44-1932-776000; Fax +44-1932- 776050; Internet E-mail: johnj@geis.geis.com) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 11/06/95 GENERAL NatSemi, Energizer, Working On New Battery (NEWS)(GENERAL)(LON)(00022) NatSemi, Energizer, Working On New Battery 11/06/95 MUNICH, GERMANY, 1995 NOV 6 (NB) -- National Semiconductor Corporation and Energizer Power Systems, a division of the Everready Battery Company in the US, have announced an agreement to jointly develop a range of intelligent battery systems based on rechargeable nickel- based battery chemistries. According to Mark Levi, National's vice president of analog marketing, although both companies have worked closely since May, 1994 on specific charge control and fuel gauge designs, the new agreement extends the cooperative venture and will pave the way to integrating a wide range of battery chemistries from Energizer Power Systems with a series of new integrated circuits from National Semiconductor. "The demand for longer battery life and shorter charge cycles has taken on a new urgency due to the increased use of portable equipment in critical business applications. Although battery types and their behavior are changing rapidly to meet the needs of new portable product designs, the basic electronic solutions under joint development are adaptable across the board," Levi said. Mark Raunaugh, Energizer's vice president of marketing, said that accuracy, flexibility and ease of design are the key to intelligent battery system architectures for customers. "The ability to adapt to fast-moving markets with comprehensive intelligent packs is key to our success, and National has demonstrated that it can work with us to meet those deadlines," he said. No one is talking specifics on when the new battery technology will arrive to market, but National claims that the new systems, when they arrive, will encompass a variety of controls for intelligent battery power packs including charge control, fuel gauging and protection circuits. (Sylvia Dennis/19951106/Press Contact: Katja Schlendorf, National Semiconductor +49-81-4135-1443; Reader Contact: Hans-Birger Bengtsson +49-81-4135-1424) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 11/06/95 ONLINE Microsoft Network To Provide ISDN, More High-Speed Lines (NEWS)(ONLINE)(MSP)(00023) Microsoft Network To Provide ISDN, More High-Speed Lines 11/06/95 REDMOND, WASHINGTON, U.S.A., 1995 NOV 6 (NB) -- Microsoft Corp's (NASDAQ:MSFT) new Microsoft Network (MSN) online network is planning to bring ISDN (integrated services digital network) high-speed service to its MSN users, a top ranking Microsoft official said. The network is also planning more high-speed access numbers for traditional analog modems. In a monthly letter to MSN subscribers, Russ Siegelman, vice president of MSN, said that Windows 95 support software for ISDN will ship at the end of this year, and will be available through "Microsoft World Wide Web sites, MSN, and other Microsoft online sites at no charge," he said. He added that ISDN's impact will "be felt next year" on MSN. Siegelman said ISDN can provide speeds two to four times faster than those with traditional analog modems, and that "most experts agree that ISDN will be the most widely available means of fast connections to the Internet and commercial online services in the future." Speaking for Microsoft, Telle Zeiler of Waggener Edstrom, Microsoft's public relations firm, told Newsbytes that MSN won't charge more for single-channel ISDN access via the "B" channel. In addition most of MSN's high-speed access lines, which customers use to access the Internet, will also support ISDN "B" channel access, Zeiler said. Zeiler said she could not comment on when MSN would have full three- channel ISDN support and pricing for such access. She also said Microsoft is in talks with third-party companies regarding ISDN partnership ventures, but she could not reveal any company names. Other future enhancements for MSN users when it comes to accessing the network will come from the addition of high-speed access phone numbers. Zeiler said MSN currently has 108 high-speed TCP/IP (transfer control protocol/Internet protocol) access numbers. By the end of the year, between 130 and 150 access numbers will be in place across the US. These numbers are the same phone lines that will handle ISDN "B" channel traffic, she added. Worldwide, MSN will build out TCP/IP local number access in Europe and the Far East in the first quarter of next year, Zeiler said. (Bob Woods/19951106/Press Contacts: Telle Zeiler or Anne Marshall, Waggener Edstrom, 206-637-9097) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 11/06/95 TRENDS CD-ROM Game Cost $5 Million To Produce (NEWS)(TRENDS)(LAX)(00024) CD-ROM Game Cost $5 Million To Produce 11/06/95 IRVINE, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1995 NOV 6 (NB) -- Interplay Productions has created a complete multimedia studio in its $5 million production of the game Stonekeep. Scheduled to be released November 8th, Stonekeep is the most expensive CD-ROM ever created, Interplay claims. Julia Roether, a spokesperson for Interplay, told Newsbytes, "In order to produce Stonekeep, a fully contained state of the art sound studio had to be built. The studio is comprised of nine music studios that include three sound-effect design studios where Interplay's sound designers created the game's sound effects and musical score." According to Interplay, the state-of-the-art 3-D graphics studio houses over 30 high-end PCs, eight Silicon Graphics workstations and 2 DEC Alpha computers. The latest acquisition is a Silicon Graphics Challenge server that is loaded with 512 megabytes of RAM (random access memory) and 29 gigabytes of hard disk space. "We have assembled a state-of-the-art multimedia studio literally as a result of our production of Stonekeep," said Brian Fargo, chief executive officer of Interplay Productions. "Our music studio and 3-D art studio were created to facilitate the production of Stonekeep, but now serve to support all of our titles. It's amazing that the legacy of Stonekeep will go beyond just being one hit game." "When we set about to create our vision, we were just looking for a means to produce Stonekeep," said Michael Quarles, the game's producer. "I am proud that what we set about to do will have such a huge impact on Interplay and all of our subsequent software." Founded in 1983, Interplay, MacPlay (the company's Macintosh division), VR Sports (the company's sports division) and its affiliates release products for IBM and compatibles, CD-ROM and Macintosh as well as other console game platforms. In 1995, Interplay acquired Shiny Entertainment, makers of the video game Earthworm Jim. Other Interplay titles include Descent, Cyberia, Virtual Pool, Dungeon Master II: The Legend Of Skullkeep, Kingdom, The Far Reaches, Battle Chess and C2: Judgment Clay. (Richard Bowers/19951106/Press Contact: Julia Roether, Interplay, 714-553-6655) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 11/06/95 APPLE ****Apple Computers With Pentium Processors (NEWS)(APPLE)(SFO)(00025) ****Apple Computers With Pentium Processors 11/06/95 CUPERTINO, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1995 NOV 6 (NB) -- At COMDEX, Apple Computer (NASDAQ:AAPL) plans to demonstrate the cross-platform value of its Macintosh computers with PCI (Peripheral Connect Interface) boards powered by Pentium and Cyrix 586 processors. The prototype cards, called PC Compatibility Cards, allow Macs to run traditional Macintosh and Windows and DOS-based computer applications. When Apple introduced its Power Macintosh computer nineteen months ago, it claimed the new computer would run Windows applications through a software program. Software running software caused the Windows applications to run at a speed comparable to a 286 microprocessor which was considered much too slow. With the introduction of PCI-Bus technology, Macs are able to accept standard PCI cards in available expansion slots on the motherboard. This means DOS and Windows programs can be processed by a typical PC microprocessor. This new card is not Apple's first PC Compatibility Card. Currently, Mac users with PCI capabilities use a PCI board with 486DX2/66 power to process applications on Power Macs, MacLCs and the Mac Performa line. Apple says the most popular model for the cross- platform audience is the Power Mac 6100/66 computer and the majority of purchasers for the unit consist of first-time computer buyers and previous users of x86, Windows/DOS-based computers. Apple has chosen to demonstrate the prototype PC Compatibility Card with Intel's Pentium processor and the Cyrix 586 processor. Apple spokesperson Maureen O'Connell told Newsbytes, "We chose to use the two different processors to show our support for multiple vendors." O'Connell said the COMDEX demonstration is technical event and not a product announcement or debut. This means actual details such as price and processor speeds are not available at this time. The company is not saying when the high-speed card will be available. Referring to the 486/66 PC Compatibility Card, O'Connell suggested the new Pentium/586 card would work similarly. "Users simply use hot keys to transfer to the PC mode and programs." She also said setting up the card and hard disk to run a PC operating system and programs was very easy. Next week at COMDEX, Macintosh computers will be running Windows 95. (Patrick McKenna/19951106/Press Contact: Maureen O'Connell, Regis McKenna, tel 408-862-6689) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 11/06/95 BROADCAST MCI, Microsoft Work Together On Videoconferencing (NEWS)(BROADCAST)(MSP)(00026) MCI, Microsoft Work Together On Videoconferencing 11/06/95 CHICAGO, ILLINOIS, U.S.A., 1995 NOV 6 (NB) -- MCI Inc. (NASDAQ:MCIC) and Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ:MSFT) said they're teaming to provide direct access to networkMCI conferencing services in future versions of the Windows 95 operating systems. The new arrangement is called a "first" in the industry. Microsoft is working with MCI to develop and deliver "enhanced software allowing Windows users to register, reserve, and use networkMCI conferencing services for multipoint (more than two users) audio, video, and document conferences," officials said. With the new system, "you can register a conference without making a separate phone call," Ed Bergstraesser, MCI spokesperson, told Newsbytes. "You can do it right online, from your desktop," he said. The conferences, whether they are video-based, audio-based, document- based, or a combination, are conducted right at the user's desk, Bergstraesser added. The new Windows alliance means users will be able to register online with networkMCI conferencing and even set up a new account, select networkMCI Conferencing within Windows as their default service provider for multipoint conferences, confirm a conference via MCI, and convene the data portion or portions of a conference from Windows by establishing the data connection to the service, officials said. Bergstraesser said MCI will sell or lease what's needed to make a conference work for the user, including camera equipment for a videoconference. Philip D. Knell, president and general manager of networkMCI Conferencing, said "this agreement will benefit both users of telecommunications and personal computers by providing immediate access to the many services being offered by both technology leaders." A Microsoft official told Newsbytes current plans only call for Windows 95 support, although "there's no reason why" it could not be considered for future versions of Windows NT. (Bob Woods/19951106/Press Contacts: Ed Bergstraesser, MCI, 800-644- NEWS or 312-938-4958; Abbey Bernstein or Mary Brophy, Grant/Jacoby Inc., 312-664-2055) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 11/06/95 ONLINE ****Compuserve's Web Kit For Kids, Spryte Plans (NEWS)(ONLINE)(BOS)(00027) ****Compuserve's Web Kit For Kids, Spryte Plans 11/06/95 BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS, U.S.A., 1995 NOV 6 -- Compuserve's upcoming Internet service for consumers, code-named Spryte, will provide services for Web novices that will compete against those of America Online (AOL)'s flagship brand, maintained Rob Mayner, VP of product development, during a meeting with Newsbytes at Internetworld Boston that centered on Compuserve's new Internet in a Box for Kids. Also at the meeting, Kevin Britt, product manager, demonstrated Internet in a Box for Kids, explaining that the new package will combine a kids' "Web community" known as FreeZone, a customized edition of SurfWatch Internet blocking software" for parents, the Spry Mosaic browser, Spry Mail, and Internet access service. FreeZone includes the FreeZone Home Page Builder for children, he added. Slated to appear in retail stories on November 15, the first version of the "kit for kids" will run on Windows. Compuserve is also working on a Mac-based edition for release over the next few months. Also at the show in Boston, Compuserve unveiled pacts with Incontext and Quarterdeck to integrate Publishing Wizard, Compuserve's Web publishing tool for adult users, into both Incontext's and Quarterdeck's versions of the Incontext Spider page design product for the Web. Meanwhile, AOL unveiled plans to add a new Web service for "advanced users" to its existing Internet service. As previously reported, AOL will use the new Web service for high-end users as a launch pad for advanced features, including personal Web Page publishing, while continuing to "simplify" its flagship brand for consumers, said Steve Case, AOL's president and chief executive officer (CEO), at a press conference attended by Newsbytes. In a separate announcement during Internetworld, AOL debuted a new commercial online service for children. Compuserve's initial introductions of both Spryte and Internet in a Box for Kids came last month. Spryte, a service slated to be up-and-running by the end of the calendar year, will come with free Internet software that includes Spry Mosaic, Spry Mail and the Home Page Wizard, for personal Web page publishing. Spryte will also provide "value-added services" that will include Web searching as well as HotLand, a "What's New" directory service, together with other services in this category to be unveiled in the future, officials said at the time of the Spryte launch. The price structure for Spryte is designed to accommodate users' growth from "novices to power Internet experts." Users will start out by paying $4.95 per month for the first three hours of connect time, moving from there to the Silver Surf Club at $9.95 per month for the first seven hours and the Gold Internet Club at $19.95 for the first 20 hours. Additional hours will be charged at $1.95 per hour for all three pricing plans. In the meeting with Newsbytes at Iworld, Mayner reported that Compuserve is positioning Spryte as a Web-based service easy enough for Internet neophytes, while maintaining the Compuserve branded service in its current market slot. Britt pointed out that, like AOL's forthcoming GNN for "advanced users," Spryte will provide personal Web page publishing. During the demo of Internet in a Box for Kids, Britt showed Newsbytes how the new FreeZone for children is organized into interconnected areas called Center, Flash, Mind, World, and Market. Center, the "town square" within the kids' interface, lets children establish and keep up electronic mail and chat "pen pal" relationships, according to the product manager. Center also includes the Giggleplex "joke center," along with suggestions for projects that kinds can work on when not online. Flash, Freezone's electronic magazine, will feature a different theme each month, Britt added. Halloween is the theme for the first issue. Also provided are a comics section and a "Letters to the Editors" area. Some of the letters that come in from kids will be published in Flash, Newsbytes was told. The Mind section holds resources ranging from encyclopedias to "homework helper," a tool for finding information from the Internet to help out with schoolwork, according to Britt. The product manager also showed Newsbytes Freezone's Quiz Show trivia test, plus a special map designed to give kids a satellite view of any selected site on earth. Kids will be able to use the Market section to buy books, toys, games, software, and clothing, he continued. Electronic commerce transactions will revolve around a parentally designated "allowance" of spendable electronic cash. Mayner informed Newsbytes that the World section will provide hyperlinks to outside Web sites that have been approved by the child's parents. Kids will be kept from altering the parent's selections by password access controls, the VP noted. Britt added that, from mid-November through the end of the year, Compuserve will bundle its Internet In A Box product for adults with FilmWorks' EasyCam disposable camera and Gold Disk's Studio M Lite software for making multimedia greeting cards, and sending them over the Web. Through the new "Share the Holidays through the Internet" promotion, he said, users will be able to send the Easycams to Seattle Filmworks for digitizing and photo processing. The film lab will then make the finished photos available for downloading through the PhotoMail delivery service on its Web site. Users will also get their choice of prints or slides, plus a free roll of film, in the mail within seven to 10 days. The holiday Internet in a Box package will be priced at $69.95, or $30 below the regular retail price for the package. Pricing for film processing, slides and prints will start at $11.35. Also at Internetworld Boston, Prodigy unveiled plans to launch a series of new Web sites, starting with a finance site and perhaps to include a children's site, that will be kept "entirely separate" from the company's flagship Prodigy brand. Over and over again at Iworld, exhibitors and attendees told Newsbytes that the rollout of new Web-based services by the three major online service providers, together with throngs of visitors and a strong presence by big computer makers like IBM and DEC, seems to signify that "The Internet is finally here." (Jacqueline Emigh/19951106/Reader Contact: Compuserve, 206-447- 0300; Press Contacts: Rebecca Gelinas, Compuserve, 206-442-2598; Elizabeth Estes, Alexander Communications for Compuserve, 404-897-2300) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 11/06/95 ONLINE America Online's System Problems (NEWS)(ONLINE)(MSP)(00028) America Online's System Problems 11/06/95 VIENNA, VIRGINIA, U.S.A., 1995 NOV 6 (NB) -- America Online (AOL) (NASDAQ:AMER) has apologized to its members who have been experiencing a number of system glitches, from busy access numbers, to system sluggishness, to occasional disconnects. Officials added that AOL has "nearly four million members," which is up from 3.5 million reported just two months ago. In his monthly letter to the AOL community, Steve Case, AOL president, presented a status report on the service, saying it has experienced "more problems than usual," and that the extent of the problems subscribers have experienced depended on where they were calling from, when they were calling, and what they've been doing on AOL. He added some subscribers have not experienced any problems with the service, while others have "experienced fairly frequent problems." Case said "Overall, it's fair to say that we haven't been able to provide the level of consistent quality we aim for. I apologize to those of you who have been inconvenienced." Throughout his letter Case stressed the problems are being addressed, and that he's confident subscribers "will be seeing improved performance on AOL in the coming weeks." The most visible problem occurred about a month ago, when AOL went down for about three hours on a Friday night. Typically the problem users have experienced the most have centered around getting busy signals when trying to log into AOL, and unintended disconnects by AOL while customers are online. Case said AOL has been rapidly expanding its AOLnet network of local dial-up numbers to handle surging demand. He said AOLnet is now available in 162 cities, with 400 cities expected to be "up and running" on AOLnet by Spring of 1996. AOL's operations team is working on specific problem areas, like message boards, e-mail, the member directory, and delays in transmitting information from Internet World Wide Web pages, Case said. Another problem area being addressed deals with customer service. Case said AOL has hired several hundred new employees and adding a customer service site in Ogden, Utah. Also in the monthly letter, Case stressed to AOL members they should never give out password or billing information to anyone via Instant Messages or e-mail. He said individuals are passing themselves off as AOL employees in trying to get the information "in an official- sounding way." Case added that users should change their passwords frequently, and obvious words like a last name, a street address, or words found in a dictionary, should not be used. AOL officials did not make themselves available for further comment in regards to this story. (Bob Woods/19951106/Press Contact: Pam McGraw, America Online, 703- 556-3746. Public Contact: America Online, 800-827-6364) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 11/06/95 BUSINESS Philippines Attracts 6 US High-Tech Firms (NEWS)(BUSINESS)(TYO)(00029) Philippines Attracts 6 US High-Tech Firms 11/06/95 MANILA, PHILIPPINES, 1995 NOV 6 (NB) -- Philippine President Fidel V. Ramos' plan to establish a mini-Silicon Valley in the Philippines has attracted the attentions of six US electronics firms which intend to build manufacturing plants in the Philippines. The six firms are Cypress Semiconductor, 3Com Corporation, Read Rite, Seagate Technology, Solectron Corporation, and Asia Philippines Copper Clad Laminators, Inc. Cypress Semiconductor, a $750-million company producing integrated circuits, would be the first major American electronic parts company to build a manufacturing plant in the Philippines under the Ramos Administration. The Cypress factory, the first outside the US, worth $120 million, will be constructed at the Gateway Business Park in Cavite, about 40 miles from Manila. 3Com, according to Executive Vice President Doug Spreng, is "strongly" considering the country as a manufacturing and marketing base for the Asian market after looking at 10 other possible locations in Asia. The Asian base, Spreng informed President Ramos, will initially cost $60 million and will give jobs to 500 employees. Read Rite CEO Cyril Yansouni said his firm recently acquired ownership of Sunward Technology in the Philippines and will put up a head gimbal and head stack assembly plant in the country with an estimated investment of $20 million. Disk drive giant Seagate's vice president, Brendan Hegarty, informed the President that his company is finalizing a decision to locate its next Asian plant in the Philippines. Chief Executive Officer Koichi Nishimura of Solectron, Silicon Valley's major producer of customized printed circuit boards, says his firm will initially invest $50 million in either Clark or Subic in the Philippines for a semiconductor assembly plant. Clark Air Force Base and Subic Naval Base have been converted into free trade zones since the former US military sites were turned over to the Philippine government five years ago. The 6th firm, Asia-Philippines Copper Clad Laminators, Inc., informed President Ramos of their company's intention to put up a facility in the Philippines to manufacture copper clad laminates, the basic raw materials used in the manufacture of printed circuit boards. (Jun Malacaman and Metropolitan Computer Times/19951106/Internet e-mail dilips@netcom.com) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 11/06/95 LEGAL 20 Years Later - Crime May Be Solved On The Internet (NEWS)(LEGAL)(SFO)(00030) 20 Years Later - Crime May Be Solved On The Internet 11/06/95 NEW YORK, NEW YORK, U.S.A., 1995 NOV 6 (NB) -- Twenty years ago a bust of Mickey Mantle commemorating his 500th home run was stolen from Yankee Stadium. When ads for the bust recently appeared on the Internet, the Federal Bureau of Investigation set up a sting and now report they have nabbed the person attempting to sell the bust. This past August after the death of the Hall of Fame hero, two ads appeared on the Internet offering the bust as a highly valued piece of memorabilia, the FBI reports. The Internet ad stated that there was a one-of-a-kind piece found in Pennsylvania. Two days later in a second ad, the writer indicated he earlier held a position as guard at Yankee stadium. Responding to tips from Internet users, FBI agents and a private investigator worked together to contact Robert Pagan, who authorities say posted the ad. A private investigator first met with Pagani at Washington DC's National Airport and subsequently asked him to bring the bust to New York for authentication. An FBI agent, acting as an expert, joined the private investigator and Pagani at Old Homestead, a New York restaurant. After allegedly agreeing to a price of $27,500 admitting he knew the bust had been stolen, according to the FBI, Robert Pagani was booked for transporting in interstate commerce, goods valued in excess of $5,000. He has been released on bond. The bust was originally installed at Yankee Stadium in 1968 as a tribute to Mantle's 500th home run which he stroked out of the park on May 4, 1967. No one is sure exactly when the bust was stolen. Sometime during renovations in the mid-1970s the bust disappeared. Pagani was employed at the stadium from 1971 to 1979, authorities say. Speaking to the FBI, Newsbytes was told no further comment could be made while the case was before the court. (Patrick McKenna/19951101/Press Contact: Joseph Valiquette, FBI, tel 212-335-2700) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 11/06/95 ONLINE Sanwa Bank Sets Plan To Lead Internet Banking (NEWS)(ONLINE)(SFO)(00031) Sanwa Bank Sets Plan To Lead Internet Banking 11/06/95 LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1995 NOV 6 (NB) -- Sanwa Bank California has opened the first Web banking site which allows Internet users to open checking and savings accounts. The site also allows consumers to apply for a loan and deposits can be mailed, wired, placed in an automated teller machine or made at Sanwa branches. Sanwa spokesperson, Keith Karpe, told Newsbytes, "This is the first time Internet users are able to open an account and this new Web service allows us to round out a complete new program of banking services to meet the electronic and computer revolution." The new Web site compliments Sanwa's PC (personal computer) banking service. Using Quicken or Microsoft Money, Sanwa customers are able to enter a secure network for more extensive financial services detailed to specific accounts. Karpe said the company plans to offer PC banking through the Web at a later date when Internet security issues are more clearly resolved. For the time being, Sanwa also offers Internet users information about the bank's history, its ranking with Standard & Poor's and Moody's, copies of current press releases, branch locations and financial statements (quarterly and annually) of the bank's performance. Last week, Sanwa opened its 24-hour telephone banking center and a prototype bank branch of the future in Daly City, California. "We are committed to bringing our customers the latest technology available. The new prototype branch reflects the powerful changes taking place as a result of widespread computer use. We have reduced an 8,000 square foot, standard banking office into an 1,800 square foot space which offers a secure vestibule for automated teller machine (ATM) transactions. During banking hours customers will have access to the entire space which includes personal computers for our customers to use, telephones for banking and three standard teller windows." "It is our goal to combine automation with personal service," said Karpe. He explained some banks are slow to respond to the advantages of personal electronic banking technology while others seem to be ready to change their services to a completely electronic model. He also said the bank will be one of the most colorful and exciting presentations on the Web. "We want to take advantage of every opportunity to make our services foremost in customers minds," explained Karpe. Future developments for Sanwa's Web page include pages on commercial lending, agribusiness finance, trust and investment and international trade and finance. The new site can be found by pointing your browser to http://www.sanwa-bank-ca.com . Karpe said an account could be opened with as little as $100. (Patrick McKenna/19951106/Press Contact: Keith Karpe, Sanwa, tel 213-896-7291) (SUMMARY)(GENERAL)(MSP)(00032) Newsbytes Daily Summary 11/06/95 MINNEAPOLIS, MINNESOTA, U.S.A., 1995 NOV 6 (NB) -- These are capsules of all today's news stories: ======================================================================== ------------| N E W S B Y T E S D A I L Y S U M M A R Y |---------- ------------| Monday, November 6, 1995 |---------- ======================================================================== (c) Newsbytes News Network (Tm) Editor in Chief: Wendy Woods ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Newsbytes News Network's on the Web! Check out http://www.nbnn.com for free daily top stories from Newsbytes and its affiliate publications, and from PC Week, MacWeek, and other Ziff news magazines. A subscription gives you all the news, full-text, plus the most comprehensive database of past computer stories online. The keyword-searchable database dates from today back through 1983. Subscriptions are $24.95 for three months. Questions? Send to 'administrator@newsbytes.com' For Japanese Newsbytes and additional services, see the Newsbytes Pacifica Website at http://www.islandtel.com/newsbytes/ ------------------------------------------------------------------------ CATEGORY HEADLINES (*** indicates today's top stories) STORY # ======================================================================== APPLE ****Apple Computers With Pentium Processors............... 25 BROADCAST ****Live TV Coverage Of Fall COMDEX On The Web............ 16 BROADCAST MCI, Microsoft Work Together On Videoconferencing.......... 26 BUSINESS Japan - Market Awaits Sony Results......................... 09 BUSINESS ****SoftKey Play For Learning Company Turning Ugly........ 20 BUSINESS Philippines Attracts 6 US High-Tech Firms.................. 29 CHIPS Out Of This World Research For Next-Generation Chips....... 02 GENERAL East Asia IT Study to Begin................................ 05 GENERAL NewsPix Images For Newsbytes Publishers.................... 11 GENERAL Canadian Product Launch Update............................. 12 GENERAL NatSemi, Energizer, Working On New Battery................. 22 IBM IBM Gives Up On DMR, Amdahl Wins........................... 14 LEGAL 20 Years Later - Crime May Be Solved On The Internet....... 30 NETWORK 14-CD-ROM Tower for Networks............................... 07 ONLINE ****Internet Users Gather In Shock At Assassination....... 01 ONLINE Internet Offers Some Help For Battered Women............... 03 ONLINE How to Make Cyberspace Your Capitalist Tool................ 06 ONLINE ****Internet Update - Israeli News Sources Special........ 10 ONLINE MecklerMedia Launches Web Developer Magazine............... 17 ONLINE Yahoo Adds Search Engine, News Stories, Ads................ 19 ONLINE GE Information Services Announces MSN EDI Link............. 21 ONLINE Microsoft Network To Provide ISDN, More High-Speed Lines... 23 ONLINE ****Compuserve's Web Kit For Kids, Spryte Plans........... 27 ONLINE America Online's System Problems........................... 28 ONLINE Sanwa Bank Sets Plan To Lead Internet Banking.............. 31 TELECOM France's PCN Service Readies For Operation................. 04 TELECOM U.S. Robotics Intros 33.6Kbps Software, Speakerphone....... 15 TRENDS CD-ROM Game Cost $5 Million To Produce..................... 24 WINDOWS Intuit Renames Canadian Income Tax Software................ 08 WINDOWS Microhelp Intros Windows 95 Desktop Utility................ 13 WINDOWS Delrina Previews Cyberjack For Windows 95.................. 18 ======================================================================== These are the headlines and first paragraphs of each story, in order: 1 -> ****Internet Users Gather In Shock At Assassination -- At 2316 local Israeli time on Saturday a Reuter flash informed the world, "RABIN DEAD - SENIOR AIDE." The death of Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin, felled by an assassin's bullet on Saturday night, started a period of mourning that extended from the Middle Eastern country to the rest of the world and into cyberspace. 2 -> Out Of This World Research For Next-Generation Chips -- Researchers from the United States, Germany, and Canada are looking to space in their development of the next generation of computer semiconductors. When the Space Shuttle lifts off next spring, NASA engineers and the researchers will be working together on a series of experiments on board the craft. 3 -> Internet Offers Some Help For Battered Women -- The Internet is justifiably famous for the diversity of information it makes available on almost any subject imaginable, and domestic violence against women is no exception. Yet although the net offers access to a good deal of information about the subject, it can provide only limited help to victims of such violence. 4 -> France's PCN Service Readies For Operation -- Bouygues Telecom, the French PCN (personal communications network) service, is on target to launch early in the new year, Newsbytes has learned. Metrica, the analysis systems company, has agreed to a "sizeable deal" with the French telco for installation of its performance monitoring system on the network. 5 -> East Asia IT Study to Begin -- This month a team of researchers from the University of California (Irvine) will be in Hong Kong, on another leg of their mammoth global study on IT (information technology) activities and their implications on local economies. On this round, researchers will focus on countries in East Asia, including Hong Kong, collecting more data to measure how different economies stack up in all matters IT. 6 -> How to Make Cyberspace Your Capitalist Tool -- The Sept. 11, 1995, edition of Network World provides a thorough primer about marketing on the Internet with its special section "Capitalizing on the Internet." The lead feature story, "The Running Dogs of net.capitalism," provides hope to those who thought they were duped into thinking people could actually make money from the Internet. 7 -> 14-CD-ROM Tower for Networks -- Microtest Inc., (NASDAQ: MTST) announced two DiscPort Tower models, one with 7 individual, 4-quad drives and another with 14 individual, 4-quad drives. The DiscPort Towers are CD-ROM towers that allow networks shared access to as many as 14 CD-ROMs. 8 -> Intuit Renames Canadian Income Tax Software -- Intuit Canada Ltd. has given a new name and some added features to income tax preparation software that it acquired about two years ago. To tie it in with Intuit's well-known Quicken financial management software, what was known as WinTax is now QuickTax. 9 -> Japan - Market Awaits Sony Results -- The Tokyo Stock Market ended a short week (Friday was a public holiday) on the plus side with most high tech stocks following the trend that pushed the Nikkei 225 index up 691.61 to end the week at 18,028.80 points. The first section TOPIX closed at 1435.52, a rise of 47.09 points. 10 -> ****Internet Update - Israeli News Sources Special -- In this special update, a listing of Internet resources and services offering the latest news from Israel following the assassination of Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin late on Saturday night. 11 -> NewsPix Images For Newsbytes Publishers -- Starting October 30, photos will be posted as they arrive. This means quicker access to the story pictures. The bulletin will be updated Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays as needed. 12 -> Canadian Product Launch Update -- This regular feature, appearing on the first day Newsbytes publishes each week, p provides further details for the Canadian market on announcements by international companies that Newsbytes has already covered. This week: new Pentium Pro personal computers from Digital Equipment and IBM. 13 -> Microhelp Intros Windows 95 Desktop Utility -- MicroHelp Inc. has introduced a desktop enhancement utility for Windows 95 the company said provides users greater control over the file management and navigation functions of Microsoft's latest operating system and user interface. 14 -> IBM Gives Up On DMR, Amdahl Wins -- Amdahl Corp. (AMEX:AMH) has emerged the winner from the three-way takeover battle for consulting firm DMR Group Inc. (TSE:DR). IBM Canada Ltd. has not renewed its offer for DMR shares, which expired today. 15 -> U.S. Robotics Intros 33.6Kbps Software, Speakerphone -- U.S. Robotics Inc. (NASDAQ:USRX) said it will offer new software for its Sportster line of 28.8Kbps (kilobits per second) modems that will boost the units to 33.6Kbps. 16 -> ****Live TV Coverage Of Fall COMDEX On The Web -- People who can't make it to Fall COMDEX next week will be able to see the industry extravaganza anyway, through round-the-clock, live TV coverage over the Web, said Greg Biggers, product manager for Xing Technology, speaking with Newsbytes at Internetworld Boston, where Softbank, Visitel, Xing, Array, and Best Internet Communications unveiled a new Web page jointly created for that purpose. 17 -> MecklerMedia Launches Web Developer Magazine -- "Web Developer is for the people who build the surfboards," said David Fiedler, editor-in-chief of MecklerMedia's latest magazine, at a press conference held aboard the anchored ship Discovery during MecklerMedia's Internetworld Boston '95. 18 -> Delrina Previews Cyberjack For Windows 95 -- Delrina's new Cyberjack for Windows 95 surpasses the capabilities of Windows 95's built-in browser, Internet Explorer, by adding support for Internet applications like FTP (file transfer protocol) and Telnet, maintained Tom Katsiroubes and Shelly Sofer, during a demo for Newsbytes at Internetworld. 19 -> Yahoo Adds Search Engine, News Stories, Ads -- An enhanced user interface to the Yahoo directory service for the Web will integrate a full-text search engine from Open Text, advise Web users on "hot" and "cool" home pages, accept users' Web site recommendations, and add news headlines from Reuters New Media, revealed Yahoo's Jeff Mallett and Tim Brady, during a preview for Newsbytes at Internetworld. 20 -> ****SoftKey Play For Learning Company Turning Ugly -- SoftKey International Inc. (NASDAQ:SKEY) has begun an attempt to oust directors of The Learning Co. (NASDAQ:LRNG), the Fremont, California, educational software firm it is seeking to acquire in a hostile takeover. 21 -> GE Information Services Announces MSN EDI Link -- GE Information Services has announced it plans to be a premier electronic data interchange (EDI) provider on Microsoft Network (MSN), the recently launched Microsoft online service. 22 -> NatSemi, Energizer, Working On New Battery -- National Semiconductor Corporation and Energizer Power Systems, a division of the Everready Battery Company in the US, have announced an agreement to jointly develop a range of intelligent battery systems based on rechargeable nickel- based battery chemistries. 23 -> Microsoft Network To Provide ISDN, More High-Speed Lines -- Microsoft Corp's (NASDAQ:MSFT) new Microsoft Network (MSN) online network is planning to bring ISDN (integrated services digital network) high-speed service to its MSN users, a top ranking Microsoft official said. The network is also planning more high-speed access numbers for traditional analog modems. 24 -> CD-ROM Game Cost $5 Million To Produce -- Interplay Productions has created a complete multimedia studio in its $5 million production of the game Stonekeep. Scheduled to be released November 8th, Stonekeep is the most expensive CD-ROM ever created, Interplay claims. 25 -> ****Apple Computers With Pentium Processors -- At COMDEX, Apple Computer (NASDAQ:AAPL) plans to demonstrate the cross-platform value of its Macintosh computers with PCI (Peripheral Connect Interface) boards powered by Pentium and Cyrix 586 processors. The prototype cards, called PC Compatibility Cards, allow Macs to run traditional Macintosh and Windows and DOS-based computer applications. 26 -> MCI, Microsoft Work Together On Videoconferencing -- MCI Inc. (NASDAQ:MCIC) and Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ:MSFT) said they're teaming to provide direct access to networkMCI conferencing services in future versions of the Windows 95 operating systems. The new arrangement is called a "first" in the industry. 27 -> ****Compuserve's Web Kit For Kids, Spryte Plans -- Compuserve's upcoming Internet service for consumers, code-named Spryte, will provide services for Web novices that will compete against those of America Online (AOL)'s flagship brand, maintained Rob Mayner, VP of product development, during a meeting with Newsbytes at Internetworld Boston that centered on Compuserve's new Internet in a Box for Kids. 28 -> America Online's System Problems -- America Online (AOL) (NASDAQ:AMER) has apologized to its members who have been experiencing a number of system glitches, from busy access numbers, to system sluggishness, to occasional disconnects. Officials added that AOL has "nearly four million members," which is up from 3.5 million reported just two months ago. 29 -> Philippines Attracts 6 US High-Tech Firms -- Philippine President Fidel V. Ramos' plan to establish a mini-Silicon Valley in the Philippines has attracted the attentions of six US electronics firms which intend to build manufacturing plants in the Philippines. The six firms are Cypress Semiconductor, 3Com Corporation, Read Rite, Seagate Technology, Solectron Corporation, and Asia Philippines Copper Clad Laminators, Inc. 30 -> 20 Years Later - Crime May Be Solved On The Internet -- Twenty years ago a bust of Mickey Mantle commemorating his 500th home run was stolen from Yankee Stadium. When ads for the bust recently appeared on the Internet, the Federal Bureau of Investigation set up a sting and now report they have nabbed the person attempting to sell the bust. 31 -> Sanwa Bank Sets Plan To Lead Internet Banking -- Sanwa Bank California has opened the first Web banking site which allows Internet users to open checking and savings accounts. The site also allows consumers to apply for a loan and deposits can be mailed, wired, placed in an automated teller machine or made at Sanwa branches. (Wendy Woods/19951106) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 11/02/95 BROADCAST Chinese Govt Purchases Hughes Satellite (NEWS)(BROADCAST)(PEK)(00001) Chinese Govt Purchases Hughes Satellite 11/02/95 BEIJING, CHINA, 1995 NOV 2 (NB) -- The Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications (MPT) will purchase a HS-376 satellite from Hughes Space and Communications International and send it into space next July. The Hughes' satellite is to be delivered to China Satellite Telecommunications, a company under the control of the MPT. The satellite will be launched at Xichang Satellite Launch Center in Sichuan province using a China-made Long March 3 rocket. The satellite will have 24 active transponders to provide TV and other communications services to China and the South China Sea area. According to Michael Armstrong, chairman and chief executive officer (CEO) of Hughes Electronics Corporation, Hughes will also provide ground control equipment. However, the equipment will be installed in Beijing. The training of Chinese satellite controllers and analysts will also be provided. Armstrong said the satellite will be the first which his company is to deliver to MPT. Hughes was the first Western satellite manufacturer to have a satellite launched by a Chinese Long March rocket. The LM-3 lifted AsiaSat 1 satellite by Hughes into space in 1990. Last year, Hughes signed a memo of understanding with China Great Wall Industries on 10 Long March launch vehicles through the end of the decade, with a total value of more than US$600 million. Hughes will invest US$1 billion during the next 10 years in China's space, telecommunications, automobile, and wireless data network sectors. The company sees the potential for outstanding business opportunities in China through direct investments, joint ventures, and technology cooperation projects, said Armstrong. (Chih-Ho Yu & Ning Huang/19951030) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 11/02/95 TRENDS IBM Prepares For Year 2000 Date (NEWS)(TRENDS)(LON)(00002) IBM Prepares For Year 2000 Date 11/02/95 LONDON, ENGLAND, 1995 NOV 2 (NB) -- It might still be 1995, but IBM claims that data processing (DP) and management information systems (MIS) managers should be thinking about the year 2000 -- or, at least, the way in which their systems software will cope. According to Big Blue, for more than four decades, industry and businesses have written their computer programs and databases with dates represented by only a two digit year, for example, "95" versus "1995." Although this is a popular method, most applications tend to yield inaccurate results when the digits 00 are used, since they interpret this as the year 1900. The end result is that many packages cannot cope with what appears to be a date that is before the rest of the dates in use in the database. IBM claims that the potential for trouble is increased where users are using two digit date systems with their applications that make forecasts, projections, comparisons, or arithmetic operations. This is where IBM's consultancy and software facilities come in. Big Blue claims to have assembled an "unrivaled portfolio of software, tools and knowledge" on how to handle the millennium year change in a "great many situations." According to Peter De Jaeger, a consultant that IBM has recruited to assist in the Year 2000 service, the problem is large and complex. "The information technology (IT) industry has the skills and resources to take care of it -- providing we give ourselves the time to solve it," he explained, adding that IBM is right to encourage and advise businesses, "as well as vendors who support that business, to address this issue today." Carla Guide, director of System Software Structure with IBM, said that Big Blue is sharing what it has learned about the Year 2000 with its customers and computer users, to allow them to make the date transition as smooth as possible. "No matter how old or new their software is, customers and industry vendors will never know how much work is ahead of them -- unless they focus now," she explained. IBM is offering a 180-page document, entitled, "The Year 2000 And Two Digit Dates: A Guide For Planning And Introduction," for download on its World Wide Web pages at http://www.software.ibm.com . Customers can also obtain a printed copy of the document from their local IBM marketing representatives. The document is billed as a "no change resource" for anyone interested in tackling the Year 2000 problem ahead of time. Included in the guidance paper is a bibliography of other Year 2000 publications available throughout the industry. However, nothing is for free in total, and IBM is hoping that some of the readers of the document will opt to take up Big Blue's offer of fee-based consultancy services. Nevertheless, the document is worth downloading, as it is free and available on the Web, Newsbytes notes. (Steve Gold/19951101/Press Contact: Anne Keough, IBM Press Office, +44-171-202-5612, Internet e-mail anne_keough@uk.ibm.com; Reader Contact: IBM Corporate Communications, tel +44-171-202-3744, fax +44-171-202-3782) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 11/02/95 GOVT Australia - Apple Objects To Govt PC Buying Request (NEWS)(GOVT)(SYD)(00003) Australia - Apple Objects To Govt PC Buying Request 11/02/95 CANBERRA, AUSTRALIA, 1995 NOV 2 (NB) -- Australian Federal Department of Education, Employment and Training (DEET) officials have denied that they had been planning to squeeze Apple -- the most common computer platform in Australian schools -- from contracts for the Australian education network, EdNA. Vendors are already jostling for a lucrative series of contracts governing delivery, content, and reception for the network which will ultimately link every educational institution across the nation. A draft request for quotations (RFQ) for preferred personal computer suppliers for the network, issued by DEET in the middle of this month, said in part: "The draft RFQ is targeted to the supply of Intel-based personal computers and is being forwarded to selected companies registered under Purchasing Australia's PE60 contract." The Australian Financial Review reported recently that Apple Computer's Managing Director Steve Vamos was so alarmed by the Intel requirement that he took a trip to Canberra to sort it out. He is said to be "happy" with the outcome of his talks. DEET maintains it never intended to exclude Apple from the contract. "What we were trying to do was avoid having to write three separate RFQs," a DEET spokesperson said. The other non-Intel vendor is Acorn. "However, we also wanted to put price pressure on them. In effect, we're trying to make them be a bit more price-competitive," he added. A decision has yet to be made about whether or not the final cull will boil down to companies on the Federal Government's PE60 contract list. Non-PE60 companies are permitted to respond to the draft RFQ, but are being asked to describe how they can provide a similar level of customer protection. "It's a question of whether it's worth paying extra for the protection of PE60," said DEET's Simon Nix. Nix says he does not know whether the resulting short-list will be publicly available. A final RFQ should be ready in December. An EdNA infrastructure working party -- made up of industry, state, and territory representatives -- will meet shortly to reach a decision on the PE60 matter, he said. In other government purchasing news, the arcane process followed by Federal Government departments when purchasing Microsoft software and licenses is to be revamped for the Government's new PE64 contract, in the wake of widespread confusion during the life of the old PE54 contract. The current issue of PE Notes, quarterly newsletter of Purchasing Australia's IT section, reports customer difficulties with the old method such as payments being made to dealers rather than Purchasing Australia, and duplicate orders being compiled by Microsoft's distributors. Under PE54, customer payments are made to a Department of Administrative Services (DAS) trust account, and DAS pays Microsoft. The new procedure, to be sealed in a contract some time in the next month, will take Purchasing Australia out of the financial loop. "It is a different method of delivery altogether," said Purchasing Australia's Roger Webb, assistant general manager of the IT contracts branch. Finalization of the contract between Microsoft and Purchasing Australia will set Microsoft up for a presence on the PE64 endorsed supplier list. Apple, Fujitsu, IBM, Oracle, Kodak, and others have already secured spots. (Dorothy Kennedy and Computer Daily News/19951030) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 11/02/95 BUSINESS AT&T GIS Philippines To Exceed Profits (NEWS)(BUSINESS)(HKG)(00004) AT&T GIS Philippines To Exceed Profits 11/02/95 MANILA, PHILIPPINES, 1995 NOV 2 (NB) -- The New York decision by AT&T's board to divide the telecoms giant into three companies will not affect the operations of AT&T GIS Philippines. According to a statement by AT&T GIS (Philippines) President Mike Uy, "AT&T GIS Philippines will continue to remain profitable and, in fact, expects to exceed its targeted revenues by 20% this year." Uy gave the assurance that no employees are affected by planned job cuts in the country. Worldwide, the AT&T restructuring is estimated to remove $700 million in expenses, and affect approximately 8,500 jobs around the world. Quality Manager Julius Manalo, likewise confirmed that the 87-strong workforce remains intact and welcomed the change because now, "we can be more focused." Considering the Philippines' booming PC industry, AT&T GIS Philippines will continue to provide personal computers to customers through a new OEM (original equipment manufacturer) partnership and pursue existing PC business and services, said the company. Last month, AT&T GIS announced that it was dropping the manufacture and sale through retail channels of its Globalyst PC line. "We are too far away from the United States to be affected by the tension, if any," concluded Manalo. AT&T GIS recently introduced the new WorldMark brand of enterprise server systems, which the company claims offers a combination of affordability, scalability, and performance never before seen in the computer industry. (Kay Yeban and Metropolitan Computer Times/19951102) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 11/02/95 GOVT Thailand Govt Information Network Plan Announced (NEWS)(GOVT)(HKG)(00005) Thailand Govt Information Network Plan Announced 11/02/95 BANGKOK, THAILAND, 1995 NOV 2 (NB) -- Thailand's National Information Technology Committee (NITC) Subcommittee on IT (information technology) Utilization in the Public Sector has introduced plans for a Government Information Network (GINet) project. According to Senior Research Fellow of the Thailand Development Research Institute Foundation (TDRI) Dr. Sumeth Vongpanitlerd, GINet will be a long-distance transmission backbone for government agencies to use. He noted that the scope of GINet, in terms of services and technology support, will comprise network management, consultancy, protocol translation, standards, key management, emergency and disaster services, as well as "one-stop" services. Apart from a local and long-distance infrastructure, GINet must also plan for value-added services such as electronic-mail, bulletin board systems, videoconferencing, distance learning, security services, electronic data interchange (EDI), and electronic funds transfer (EFT), he said. The goals of GINet are to meet state agencies' long-distance communications needs "efficiently and cost-effectively," as well as to ensure connectivity, compatibility, maximum network performance, flexibility, and security, said the agency. (Tony Waltham and Post Database-Bangkok Post/19951031) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 11/02/95 GENERAL Thailand To Be Business Database Regional Center (NEWS)(GENERAL)(HKG)(00006) Thailand To Be Business Database Regional Center 11/02/95 BANGKOK, THAILAND, 1995 NOV 2 (NB) -- P.Y. Global Network Co. Ltd. has been appointed the regional franchisee for the Stryker Group's InfoBase service. Accessible through the Internet, the InfoBase database contains business and related information on most Asian countries. Thailand will be the regional center, which also covers southern China, Burma, and Indochina. The focus of InfoBase is businesses looking to trade with Asia and which need up-to-date information about the target countries and business opportunities. The subjects cover country profiles, which include economic and legal information, as well as company details and contact information. Subject to CAT approval, subscribers will be able to log in via the Internet and download the information specific to their needs. Prices are based on basic subscription rates, the number of countries for which information is required and online charges. P.Y. Global Network Co. Ltd., can be contacted by telephone at +662-652-1496-8, by fax at 652-1499, or by Internet electronic-mail at meadjr@mozart.inet.co.th. (Tony Waltham and Post Database-Bangkok Post/19951102) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 11/02/95 ONLINE Thailand - Internet Site For 18th Annual SEA Games (NEWS)(ONLINE)(HKG)(00007) Thailand - Internet Site For 18th Annual SEA Games 11/02/95 BANGKOK, THAILAND, 1995 NOV 2 (NB) -- Internet users will be able to access reports on the 18th Annual SEA Games to be held from December 9-17 in Chiang Mai, according to Finance Ministry Chief Information Officer Supachai Jongsiri, who oversees the computer system. He told Newsbytes that the ministry has teamed up with the National Electronics and Computer Center (NECTEC) to use ThaiSarn, the academic Internet, as a gateway. "Internet is a media for many viewers to access and get information on the games," he said. The information will be updated as new results are made known, by students from Payap University. The access address will be http//www.seagames.thai.net . According to Logic General Manager Trairatt Chaisamran, the information to be available on the Internet includes athletic resumes, SEA Games results, and information about Thailand. He told Newsbytes that Logic, a subsidiary of Control Data Group, and Sun, had teamed up to install the Internet service and to implement a computer system including Sun servers and workstations, and install software from Software City Co. The system will link each site of the SEA Games in Bangkok, Chiang Mai, Chon Buri, Pattaya, and Rayong, together via a Samart-supplied network, which includes VSATs (very small aperture terminals), as well as fiber optic and microwaves links to post real-time information to the general public. Seven suppliers are participating in the SEA games computer and communications system. They include Samart Cooperation, which will provide network and telecommunication equipment such as videoconferencing and multimedia touch screens. Sun Microsystems, PSP (Thailand), Yip In Tsoi Co, and Unisys will provide computer hardware and software. CDG group will provide hardware, software, and Internet resources, and Unitrio International Co will supply an uninterruptible power supply (UPS) system. (Tony Waltham and Post Database-Bangkok Post/19951102) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 11/02/95 TELECOM China - State Telecom Firms Target Market Share (NEWS)(TELECOM)(PEK)(00008) China - State Telecom Firms Target Market Share 11/02/95 BEIJING, CHINA, 1995 NOV 2 (NB) -- Eight state telecoms equipment manufacturers have been grouped into China's largest telephone exchange producer, China Great Dragon Telecommunications Group Co Ltd, to tackle foreign domination of the market. GDT (Great Dragon Telecommunications) expects more than 20 percent of the telephone exchange market share as a result. The eight state companies forming GDT are all producers of the advanced HJD04D digital exchange systems, said Wu Jiangxing, chairman of GDT. Grouping these firms will not only improve the country's competitiveness in the telecom industry, it will also pave the way for reform of the state enterprises' management system, Wu said. Wu criticized foreign telecom companies in China, saying many of them are carrying out sales in credit with the support of foreign government soft loans. Although the practice helped Chinese telecommunications services solve their cash shortage problems, it poses a threat to the survival of Chinese telecom equipment makers, he claimed. In order to compete for a share of the Chinese telecom market, domestic firms, including the eight state firms, used to fight each other by lowering their selling prices, causing a severe shortage of working capital, said Wu. Under the Ministries of Electronics Industry and Posts and Telecommunications, GDT will carry on the government's industrial policy to gradually takeover the telecom market now dominated by foreigners, he said. GDT plans to produce 3.5 million lines of digital exchange systems this year. After two years of development, its annual output is expected to reach six million lines. (Chih-Ho Yu & Ning Huang/19951030) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 11/02/95 TRENDS Toshiba Digital Video Disk To Launch In US First (NEWS)(TRENDS)(TYO)(00009) Toshiba Digital Video Disk To Launch In US First 11/02/95 TOKYO, JAPAN, 1995 NOV 2 (NB) -- Toshiba Corporation (TSE:6502) has announced it will break with tradition and launch its equipment for the DVD (digital video disk) format in the United States three months before Japan. The company also said it was spending several billions of yen to build manufacturing plants for the equipment in Japan and the Philippines. The company said the first DVD players, which will playback and record digital video data on a disk the size of a CD, will be priced between $600 and $700. The DVD-ROM drives, intended for use in computers, will cost around $250 to $300 and be launched several months after the home players. Typically, Japanese electronics manufacturers launch new formats or systems in the home market first and then follow with North American and European roll outs later, although Toshiba has chosen differently for this major product launch. "Initially, we are scheduled to start DVD in the United States and then the Japanese and European markets will follow," Makoto Yasuda, a Toshiba spokesman in Tokyo, told Newsbytes. "The current launch date is September 1996 in the US, and Japan and Europe by the end of 1996." he added. Asked why the company would not be launching such a major product in the home market first, Yasuda responded, "One reason is, in the US, there are many movies and companies that exist. They can provide good software for the us, first in the US. If we want to introduce it in Japan or Europe the movie software must be translated into the local language for each market. "Hollywood is the main reason" he confirmed. Several major American software providers are involved in readying movies and other software for the format including Sony Pictures, Time Warner, and MCA Corporation. The actual launch date of the system is heavily dependent on agreement of the technical standard. Several months ago two rival camps were each pushing their own formats and lining up for what looked like a damaging standards war in which the companies stood to loose millions of dollars. The two sides, led by a Toshiba/Matsushita/Sony/Philips alliance, agreed two months ago that both systems should be combined and engineers from each of the major consortium members are currently working out the technicalities of the format. Despite Toshiba's announcement, which precedes a press conference in Tokyo next Tuesday, other companies are undecided on launch times. A source at Matsushita (TSE:6752) told Newsbytes that the Osaka- based company would be releasing products in time for the Christmas 1996 sales period, but was undecided on which markets would see the equipment first. A spokesman for Sony Corporation (TSE:6758) said, "We are still having discussions. Contingent on those, we are aiming for some time next year. For the initial launch, we are thinking of Japan probably, everywhere else we are considering for later." From Eindhoven, the Netherlands, a Philips (AMST:PHG) spokeswoman confirmed the European electronics giant would be launching its first DVD player in 1996, but was undecided on which market would see it first. Toshiba will begin building the equipment at plants in Japan and the Philippines at the rate of 300,000 a month initially. The size of the investment in the new plants was not disclosed, although investment in the Philippines plant alone is estimated to be around 5 billion yen ($48.8 million). Sales estimates for the year 2000 place Toshiba as a market leader with a 20% slice of the market and sales worth around 700 billion yen ($6.83 billion). (Martyn Williams/19951102/Press contacts: Toshiba Corporation, tel +81-3-3457-2105, fax +81-3-3456-4776; Sony Corp., tel +81-3-5448- 2200, fax +81-3-5448-3061; Matsushita Electric, tel +81-3-3578-1237, fax +81-3-3437-2776; Philips Electronics, +31-40-734866) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 11/02/95 ONLINE Japan - Sega & Fujitsu In New Online Venture (NEWS)(ONLINE)(TYO)(00010) Japan - Sega & Fujitsu In New Online Venture 11/02/95 TOKYO, JAPAN, 1995 NOV 2 (NB) -- Sega Enterprises (TSE:7964) and Fujitsu Ltd. (TSE:6702) are together working on a new online system that will allows users of Sega's Saturn home games console to access Fujitsu's NiftyServe online service. The new service will mean around an additional two million people in Japan will soon have the ability to connect to NiftyServe. When the system launches in March next year, Sega Saturn owners will be able to purchase access software, available on a CD-ROM games disk, and an adapter that interconnects the games console with the telephone network to allow access to the NiftyServe, Japan's leading online service. The package offered to Saturn owners initially includes the ability to send and receive electronic-mail and enter the Fujitsu Habitat, a graphical online communication service on NiftyServe that uses the company's WorldsAway software. Habitat is a cyberspace service that allows users to represent themselves in the form of an animated character and interact with other subscribers in a visual environment, that consists of a virtual community with public spaces and shops. From the middle of next year, the services available will expand to include network-based entertainment services, including role playing games, online shopping services, and "edutainment" and other educational services. Offering Saturn users access to NiftyServe came with a unique challenge: Saturn units have no keyboard, just a joystick. "We have jointly developed the Japanese front-end graphics programs that run on the Saturn and can be controlled with a game pad only," said Mike Beirne, a spokesman for Fujitsu, speaking to Newsbytes in Tokyo. Most NiftyServe users access a text-based interface to the service and a new GUI (graphical user interface) had to be designed for Sega users to allow much more "point and click" access. In areas where text input is essential, users can call up an onscreen keyboard and enter text by pointing at the desired characters and entering them. An add-on keyboard is under development and will become available in the future. Shoichiro Irimaji, executive vice president of Sega told a news conference the two main goals in adding this ability to Sega Saturn units was to offer e-mail and access to games, edutainment, and online shopping, and to offer Internet access. Sega announced the hope to sell half a million access kits in just the first year, adding a large number of users to the online service. NiftyServe is Japan's number one online service with 1.2 million subscribers and is owned and operated by Fujitsu Ltd. with Nissho Iwai Corporation. NiftyServe also maintains close ties with Compuserve and offers access to the US online service through Fujitsu's Fenics access network in Japan. When the new service begins, Sega owners will be able to access Compuserve via an existing text-based gateway from the Japanese service. Fujitsu, WorldsAway, and Sega have made no announcements as to whether this system will be adapted and offered to North American and European users for Compuserve access. Asked about such a possibility, Fujitsu's Beirne responded, "All NiftyServe members have at least simple access to Compuserve with a "command line" text-only interface. That would be more difficult than adapting the CIS GUI-based navigation system to the Saturn. We had to struggle to adapt a text-based system to GUI, it would be easier to develop a GUI system for Compuserve." (Martyn Williams/19951102/Press contacts: Mike Beirne, Fujitsu Ltd., +81-3-3125-5236; Sega Enterprises, +81-3-5736-7037) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 11/02/95 ONLINE Internet Update (NEWS)(ONLINE)(TYO)(00011) Internet Update 11/02/95 TOKYO, JAPAN, 1995 NOV 2 (NB) -- In this update of new services and resources on the global Internet: New search engine - Inktomi, WAIS searches on FinanceNet, Classical music online, Chocolate!, News from Usenet, War of the Worlds, Health on the Internet, Need a job? Less than two months to go. New Search Engine - Inktomi The University of California, Berkeley, has a new search engine called Inktomi that uses parallel computing to offer "the fastest and most comprehensive engine now available to search the World Wide Web." The developers say it indexes more documents that Yahoo, Lycos, and Infoseek and is quicker than all but Infoseek which is just as fast. World Wide Web: http://inktomi.berkeley.edu/ WAIS Searches On FinanceNet FinanceNet has just completed installation of a Wide Area Information Service (WAIS) that now permits search capability for all documents, archived newsgroup messages, and World Wide Web resource sites available on FinanceNet Internet servers. The WAIS interface can be accessed via the group's gopher and Web servers. Gopher: gopher://gopher.financenet.gov/ World Wide Web: http://www.financenet.gov/wwwgen3.htm Classical Music Online To promote classical music on the net, conductor Joseph Rescigno has launched a Web site with sample sound files and links to other sites that contain music in classical forms. The service already provides links to servers in four continents where music can be downloaded and offers information of the digital audio formats users may encounter. World Wide Web: http://www.concertatore.com/concertatore/ Chocolate! One of Newsbytes' favorites, this mailing list will send you a compilation of chocolate recipes from around the net once a month. The majordomo server also holds an archive of past postings allowing you to look back to older recipes. E-mail: majordomo@apk.net Message body: subscribe CHOCO News From Usenet Two groups have recently passed the Usenet voting process and will soon begin appearing on many news servers. They are soc.genealogy.african and rec.music.artists.danny-elfman. On network news, the alt.wedding group has established a Web server for couples to announce wedding or anniversary information. There are also wedding related links and information. Usenet: news://soc.genealogy.african Usenet: news://rec.music.artists.danny-elfman World Wide Web: http://www.pacificnet.net/~jkdyson/aw/altwedding.html War Of The Worlds The world's best known radio play, Orson Welles' War Of The Worlds has come to the Internet. The play is being played across the network now in two audio formats and two versions. You can either listen to the full broadcast or choose to come in during the broadcast, as many did in 1938, and experience what caused nationwide panic. World Wide Web: http://waroftheworlds.com/ World Wide Web: http://radioclassics.com/ Health On The Internet This is a monthly newsletter aimed at health professionals on the Internet and specifically those that are interested in using the network for research, communication or simply to keep up-to-date with the latest developments. A sample copy of the first issue is available from the HealthWorks online Web site. World Wide Web: http://www.pavilion.co.uk/daccess/hw.html Need A Job? If you're looking to get or change a job, a new service, called Career Shop, will get your resume and other useful applicant information in front of thousands of employers nationwide for no charge. The site works for employers as well by providing a search engine to the resumes online. World Wide Web: http://www.tenkey.com/ Less Than Two Months To Go The stage is being set for a slug out between rival Web sites as to Santa's "real" home on the Internet. The latest is the just-announced SantaClaus.com site which offers a Web page for kids to access and offers two e-mail addresses for letters in both English and Spanish. E-mail: santa@santaclaus.com (English) E-mail: papanoel@santaclaus.com (Spanish) World Wide Web: http://www.santaclaus.com/ (Martyn Williams/19951102) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 11/02/95 ONLINE America Online Intros New Kids Business Area (NEWS)(ONLINE)(MSP)(00012) America Online Intros New Kids Business Area 11/02/95 VIENNA, VIRGINIA, U.S.A., 1995 NOV 2 (NB) -- Kids who are experiencing their first taste of entrepreneurship, whether it be from running a lemonade stand or a printing business, now have a place to congregate in cyberspace. America Online (NASDAQ:AMER) (AOL) is launching the "Kidz Biz Invention (KBI) Connection," described as a multimedia area that gives kids games and exercises to spark their business sense. "It's entertaining, but also educational," Joanne Roberts, co-founder of site producer Kidsites 3000, told Newsbytes. "Most sites are either one or the other. When kids come on, they see something that's visually engaging. Plus we're targeting kids who are interested in creating, inventing, and running a business." At the site, experts in a variety of fields, as well as other children who are starting businesses or inventing, are available to help young AOL members. Programs include: "Collaboration Nation," a national chat forum; "Fad Chance," a place to share fads and fad facts; and "Mind Your Dollars," where kids learn how to make money. Some of the adults helping these "inventors and entrepreneurs in training," as Roberts called her target audience, include Kiplinger's "Dr. Tightwad," also known as finance expert Janet Bodnar. Also, Mario Canedo and Marge Korzelius are "Twinspiration," assisting children in making their ideas into products and offering answers to everyday problems. Canedo and Korzelius are from The National Inventive Thinking Association. Roberts said the online environment is ideal for a forum like the KBI Connection, because it gives a "sense of community." Children and parents alike can access the KBI Connection area by typing Keyword: KidzBiz. Speaking of entrepreneurship, the KBI Connection is a part of the AOL Greenhouse, which supports "infopreneurs" in creating online and Internet-based content. The AOL Greenhouse is providing Kidsites 3000 with publishing tools, Internet publishing support, seed equity funding, marketing resources, online promotion, and access to AOL's 3.5 million-plus membership, officials said. (Bob Woods/19951101/Press Contacts: Anne Delaney, The Weber Group, 617-520-7056; Judy Tashbook, America Online, 703-918-1452; Public Contact: America Online, 800-827-6364) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 11/02/95 BROADCAST Video News Roundup (NEWS)(BROADCAST)(MSP)(00013) Video News Roundup 11/02/95 MINNEAPOLIS, MINNESOTA, U.S.A., 1995 NOV 2 (NB) -- This is a look at the top stories this week in the world of video news reporting: MPEG For Networks; Internet & Network Video; Broadcasting and Cable Runs 3 Digital Video Stories; Interactive TV Trials Increase Overseas; and in new products, Telemetrics Beta to MII Adaptor, Iomega's Jaz Drive with the ProMax Array. MPEG For Networks Stornet, based in Westchester, PA, has released the MPEG (Motion Picture Experts Group) Master. It will be a turnkey system capable of transmitting over T1 lines. Based on 32-bit video RISC (reduced instruction set computer) processors, MPEG Master encoding allows up to one hour of digital AV recordings on a single CD. StorNet says AV file reduction is from 30Mb per second to 105Kb per second. This enables more manageable transmission over local or wide area networks. Michael Phelan, Stornet president, noted that "video-on-demand is becoming popular in conventional applications, particularly in areas of customer support and training. MPEG Master's powerful editing and distribution capabilities eliminate the cost and time barriers traditionally associated with incorporating video into computer applications." Internet & Network Video VDOLive by VDOnet Corp., is demonstrated this week at the Internet World Conference in Boston. In press reports, Asaf Mohr, VDOnets president and chief executive officer (CEO), said "Until now, practical video communications on the Internet have not been possible. Typically, video on the Internet has been "store and forward," which means that it takes a long time to transmit and use video. At best, it has been "slide-ware," which is a series of individual, still images strung together to give a jerky impression of video." According to VDOnet, VDOLive has two key elements: a scaleable compression algorithm that compresses video enough to run over the small bandwidth inherent to the Internet, and allows the quality of the video to increase with the size and quality of the connection at the other end; and a communications protocol which maintains the integrity of the video as it travels through the Internet. VDOlive will allow real time video advertising, special interest video groups, and multimedia data bases. Broadcasting and Cable Runs 3 Digital Video Stories Broadcasting and Cable covers three digital video stories regarding Intel, CNN, and interactive TV. Intel is promoting the idea of "intercasting." Your enhanced PC gives you video on a portion of the screen, along with text and graphic information. NBC is the only major supporter at this point, but America Online, WGBH Interactive, Viacom, QVC, and others are interested. CNN Interactive, one of the interested parties, has also signed on with AT&T's online network. AT&T wanted what CNN had -- content. CNN plans to launch its CNN Financial Network in December and plans to fold its programming in the AT&T Business Network, an online venture. According to the story in Broadcasting and Cable, the deal was a major blow to Compuserve, which had been working closely with CNN the past few years. AT&T is expected to be going into business with other content providers in the weeks to come. Interactive TV Trials Increase Overseas And finally in Broadcasting and Cable, it seems that while interactive TV is still for the most part theory in the US, trials overseas are increasing. Digital Equipment Corporation has tests underway in Britain and Sweden and has announced tests in Norway. The Norwegian tests also involve Apple, Amati, and Italtel. Oracle and Microsoft are wrestling for software dominance in interactive television, according to the story. Microsoft will be starting tests soon in Japan and is in talks with China. Oracle's trial work with British Telecom is "one of the most advanced experiments underway." Current regulatory uncertainty in the US seems to be the major hindrance for US tests. New Products - Camera Adapters and Drives All the new products this week come from the pages of Millimeter Magazine, in the Hotware section. The Telemetric TM8615 sandwich Adapter allows MII recorders to dock with a Beta format camera. All interface functions remain transparent to the user. Zip Drive manufacturer Iomega has introduced Jaz, a one gigabyte removable drive unit. Actual hard disks are used to keep transfer speeds up. More importantly for video users is a Jaz array developed by ProMax Technology. The four-disk RAID (redundant array of inexpensive disks)-capable array is the size of a Webster's Collegiate Dictionary and allows real-time uncompressed video for Mac-based systems. (Newsbytes Staff/19951102/Press Contact: VDOnet, tel 408-654-8400, fax 408-654-9447, Internet e-mail info@vdolive.com; Stornet, tel 610-692-8400, Internet e-mail sales@stornet.com) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 11/02/95 TELECOM ****US West Puts Receptionist In Your Home (NEWS)(TELECOM)(DEN)(00014) ****US West Puts Receptionist In Your Home 11/02/95 OMAHA, NEBRASKA, U.S.A., 1995 NOV 2 (NB) -- Your telephone company wants to put a receptionist in your home - at least if your phone company is US West (NYSE: USW) and you live in the mid-West. #IMAGE 1 20 TWPCX \images\95110214.PCX Click here for photo US West said its Omaha, Nebraska customers will be among the first in the nation to try the Home Receptionist, a service the company calls "an all-in-one communications system." The Omaha rollout follows testing in the Grand Junction, Colorado area. The Home Receptionist uses a screen-based telephone to combine "Caller ID," "call waiting," and "voice messaging." The service can be customized to the needs of the user with several other calling features, like "call forwarding," "three-way calling," and "continuous redial." The screen in the new phone is slightly larger than current Caller ID device displays, measuring about three-inches by two-inches. The entire unit is about 12-inches wide and can stand up or lie flat. The screen displays the ID of a caller when the phone rings, just like a regular Caller ID device. The user then selects one of the available options to handle the call. You can put the initial caller on hold while you take the new call, send a pre-recorded message telling the new caller to "please hold," connect the callers for a three-way conversation, or send the new caller to voice messaging. Bob Bowles, project manager for US West's new business development unit, said the system was named the Home Receptionist because, while it was designed for busy households, it is ideal for the home-based business or a small business with just one phone line. "It operates just like a receptionist to help you manage your time and resources more effectively," said Bowles. US West spokesperson Roger Stuhmer told Newsbytes the "smart phone" uses a removable cartridge that is programmed to perform the various functions. US West chose the cartridge system in order to support future services that aren't currently offered. As new services become available, a new cartridge can be popped into the unit to add the new features. Home Receptionist users can build a personal call directory that can store up to 50 names and numbers that can be speed-dialed. The unit also has a "message waiting" light to indicate a caller has left a message, and incorporates a speaker-phone function. US West said the Home Receptionist has the capability to add "futuristic information services such as home banking and electronic bill paying as those options become available in markets where The Home Receptionist is offered. The Home Receptionist phone unit sells for $199 and the phone company will spread the cost over up to three months on your phone bill, said Stuhmer. The core services package, which includes Caller ID, call waiting and voice messaging, costs about $19 per month. Pricing for other services ranges from $1.50 to $5 per month. Omaha customers will get a 30-day free trial of the service during a 90-day introductory period and can also get free installation of most "custom calling" services. The company said it expects to roll out the Home Receptionist service in the majority of its top 20 markets in 1996. US West provides phone service in a 14-state area that stretches from the mid-West to the West coast. (Jim Mallory/19951102/Press contact: Roger Stuhmer, US West, 402-422-2999/HOMEREC951102/PHOTO) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 11/02/95 BROADCAST Internet By Satellite For Rural Canadians (NEWS)(BROADCAST)(TOR)(00015) Internet By Satellite For Rural Canadians 11/02/95 MISSISSAUGA, ONTARIO, CANADA, 1995 NOV 2 (NB) -- Canadian Satellite Communications Inc. (Cancom) said it will offer a turnkey package to businesses in small and remote communities that want to provide access to the Internet. Cancom will use its VSAT (very small aperture terminal) two-way satellite as well as its VANNE terrestrial network to provide the services. The company plans to provide its package to businesses in the communities, which might be local cable companies or independent entrepreneurs. Those businesses will in turn provide Internet access to people and companies in their areas, explained Peter Liska, director of technology at Cancom. Coming close on the heels of an announcement that Ameritech Corp. (NYSE:AIT) and online network services supplier Concentric Network Corp. will offer a turnkey package for would-be rural Internet access providers in the United States (Newsbytes, Oct. 30), the move seems to indicate that the Internet access industry is looking for new markets, and may reassure those who fear that people outside major centers could be left out of new online services. Like Ameritech and Concentric, Cancom is expecting the Internet access it provides in rural areas to cost about the same as access services in most major cities. Liska said typical access fees will be less than C$30 per month. Liska told Newsbytes that Cancom is aiming its package to small communities, generally with 10,000 to 30,000 people in a local telephone calling area. Cancom sees local cable TV companies as natural intermediaries because they are "well entrenched in the community," he says, but does not expect the local cable networks will be used for access initially. However, cable modems that offer far higher transmission speeds than those that work over phone lines have recently begun coming to market, and Liska said that, in time, cable companies might offer Internet access using their own local cable networks coupled with Cancom's system. Liska said the first community to be served by the Cancom service will be in central Ontario and the service will be operating before the end of this year. More locations are expected to come online soon after. "We're getting calls daily now," Liska said. (Grant Buckler/19951102/Press Contact: Patricia Dumas, Cancom, 613-232-4855 or 905-272-6603, fax 613-232-1177 or 905-272-6691, Internet e-mail pduma@inforamp.net) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 11/02/95 TRENDS TCI To Offer High-Speed Internet Access In California (NEWS)(TRENDS)(LAX)(00016) TCI To Offer High-Speed Internet Access In California 11/02/95 SUNNYVALE, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1995 NOV 2 (NB) -- @Home, a new joint venture between Tele-Communications Inc.(TCI) and venture capitalists Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers (KPCB), will provide high-speed data services over hybrid fiber coaxial (HFC) to homes, workplaces, and schools. The companies announced that Sunnyvale, California, will be the first area to be offered the service. The @Home services will offer high-speed, Internet access delivered via hybrid fiber coaxial technology to personal computers. HFC technology delivers both cable television signals and data over a combined fiber-optic and coaxial infrastructure. @Home is expected to debut in Sunnyvale by early 1996. Headquartered in Palo Alto, California, @Home is a joint venture between Tele-Communications Inc. and KPCB. KPCB says its venture capital partners have raised over $1 billion in capital and invested in companies whose total market value exceeds $43 billion. Tele-Communications Inc. (TCI) is one of the leading cable television companies in the US. Kelly Schwager, a spokesperson for @Home, told Newsbytes, "@Home services will be offered via a high-speed modem attached to the user's computer. The services are delivered at speeds of 10 million bits per second, an overwhelming improvement over current dial-up modems." "Using our high-speed capabilities, @Home will go a long way in alleviating the frustration of using the current dial-up methods to access the Internet and online services," said Will Hearst, chief executive officer of @Home. "New technologies are now being used to provide video, audio, and animation via the Internet. These technologies, coupled with @Home's high-speed backbone and the HFC infrastructure, are ideally suited to deliver multimedia services to our customers." In addition to global Internet access and custom content, @Home will have a multimedia homepage with local content from third parties, including news, information, and community interaction. @Home will also provide users with a customized browser being developed by Netscape Communications. According to Schwager, @Home is still creating the full content to be offered in Sunnyvale. @Home says it is not intended to be an exclusive agent for TCI, but does intend eventually to deliver high-speed data transmission content to all TCI cable outlets worldwide. (Richard Bowers/19951102/Press Contact: LaRae Marsik, TCI, 303-267-5277) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 11/02/95 TRENDS Mondex Smart Card Gets North American Launch (NEWS)(TRENDS)(TOR)(00017) Mondex Smart Card Gets North American Launch 11/02/95 GUELPH, ONTARIO, CANADA, 1995 NOV 2 (NB) -- Mondex, the smart-card cash substitute, has made its first move into North America with the announcement of plans for a pilot in Guelph, a city of about 100,000 people west of Toronto. Developed by Britain's NatWest Group, Mondex is based on a plastic card with an embedded chip. Electronic cash can be loaded to the card from a bank account and used to pay for goods and services via merchant terminals. Cash can be moved over telephone lines and through personal computers, officials said. The first community-wide trial of the system was launched in Swindon, England, in July, and Mondex's backers claim that more than 8,000 consumers and more than 750 merchants there are using it, processing upwards of 20,000 transactions per week. The Guelph trial, due to begin in the latter half of next year, is a joint effort of the Royal Bank of Canada and the Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce with Bell Canada. Rob McLeod, a spokesman for the Bank of Commerce, told Newsbytes that other financial institutions will be welcome to join in the Mondex effort if they wish. McLeod said Guelph was chosen for the trial partly because "it's about the right size," and also because it is close to the Canadian Mondex team's base in Toronto and has a broad base of retailers as well as a university. Also, he added, "it had very strong community support." Plans call for a major rollout of Mondex in 1997, McLeod said. In the meantime, other community pilots are expected in the United States, Asia, and Europe. (Grant Buckler/19951102/Press Contact: Dan Maceluch, Royal Bank of Canada, 416-974-5506; Rob McLeod, Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce, 416-980-3714; Perry Blocher, Bell Canada, 416-581-4397; David Creech, City of Guelph, 519-837-5602) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 11/02/95 ONLINE Accent Software Intros Free Multi-Language Web Browser (NEWS)(ONLINE)(DEN)(00018) Accent Software Intros Free Multi-Language Web Browser 11/02/95 EXTON, PENNSYLVANIA, U.S.A., 1995 NOV 2 (NB) -- Accent Software International Ltd. (NASDAQ: ACNTF) is offering a free Windows-based utility that lets you browse the World Wide Web in over 30 languages. #IMAGE 1 20 TWPCX \images\95110218.PCX Click here for photo Accent Software said the browser, called Accent Viewer, functions much like other browsers, supporting graphics and hypertext links. It also supports tables, columns, multiple windows, and different zoom modes. Viewer can support documents that include multiple languages, and pops up automatically when the user clicks to download multilingual text. Selecting the desired language is done by clicking on the flag of that country. You can download Accent viewer from the company's home page on the Web at http://www.accentsoft.com . The home page also contains a working model of Accent's multilingual word processor, a help desk for online technical support, and information on where to buy Accent's products. There is a menu of countries that lead the user to literature, travel destinations, and media outlets that are specific to the country you choose. You can also find language tutorials and a list of other Internet sites that cover that country. All the information on the home page is provided in French, German, Italian, Portuguese, and Spanish, as well as English. The company said Accent Viewer is compatible with all foreign language versions of Windows 3.1, and with Windows 95. Accent Software also publishes a Windows word processing program that can recognize up to 34 languages using five different alphabets. The Israel-based software development house was established in 1988. Accent has joined the Netscape Communications Corp. (NASDAQ: NSCP) development partner program, and users who download the free multilingual browser from Accent's Web home page will be able to plug that technology into Netscape's Navigator 2.0 software. That will allow users of Navigator 2.0 to browse the Web and view content in languages other than English. Navigator 2.0 will automatically display any of the more than 30 languages supported by Accent and display the content within the Netscape Navigator windows. Accent also publishes "Internet With An Accent," a multilingual software suite for Internet use that includes Accent Multilingual Browser, Accent HTML (hypertext markup language) Authoring Tool for multilingual content, Accent Multilingual electronic-mail add-on and Accent Multilingual e-mail reader. (Jim Mallory/19951102/Press contact: Alan Weinkrantz for Accent Software, 210-820-3070; Public contact: Accent Software, tel 800-535-5256, fax 800-535-5257/VIEWER951102/PHOTO) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 11/02/05 PC UK - Apricot Claims 1st Pentium Pro-Specific Systems (NEWS)(PC)(LON)(00019) UK - Apricot Claims 1st Pentium Pro-Specific Systems 11/02/05 BIRMINGHAM, WEST MIDLANDS, ENGLAND, 1995 NOV 2 (NB) -- Apricot has taken the wraps off a Pentium Pro range of machines, which it claims are the first UK developed and manufactured desktop computers and servers designed specifically for the new Intel Pentium Pro processor. According to Peter Pearson, Apricot's product marketing director, the machines have been designed to make full use of the power of the new chipset, which hums along at a minimum speed of 150 megahertz (MHz). Versions of the 150MHz chipset will be available from Intel from next month onwards, while the 180MHz and 200MHz versions will ship in January, Newsbytes notes. Apricot claims that, by including these processors as standard on the LS550 series, even the most power-hungry 32-bit applications will not hit performance barriers. "The performance of these new machines is stunning. When you combine the new Pentium Pro processor with a system specifically designed to exploit its potential, the combination for power users is unbeatable," Pearson said. Three models in the LS550 series are initially available from Apricot: the 6150, which comes with 16 megabytes (MB) of memory, a 1.2 gigabyte (GB) hard disk, and a quad-speed CD-ROM, for a UKP3,595 price tag; the 6180, a 180MHz chipset-based system with 32MB of memory and a 1.2GB hard disk for UKP4,495; and the 6200, a UKP5,495 system with 32MB of memory and a 2GB hard disk. All the machines feature Soundblaster Vibra 16 audio facilities, as well a triple combo Ethernet subsystem. In addition to the new workstations, Apricot plans to launch a range of server systems based on the Pentium Pro processor. These servers, which are expected to debut in the first half of 1996, will range from one to four 166MHz Pentium Pro processors and be known as the Shogun series. Further details of the new computers can be found on Apricot's World Wide Web server page, which is located at http://www.apricot.co.uk . (Steve Gold/19951102/Press Contact: Mark Hampton, Text 100, +44-181- 242-4180, Internet e-mail markh@text100.co.uk; Reader Contact: Apricot Computers, tel +44-121-717-7171, fax +44-121-717-0132) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 11/02/95 ONLINE UK Hayes Unveils Internet Bundles (NEWS)(ONLINE)(LON)(00020) UK Hayes Unveils Internet Bundles 11/02/95 FLEET, HAMPSHIRE, ENGLAND, 1995 NOV 2 (NB) -- Hayes Microcomputer Products has unveiled a series of Internet modem bundles, claiming that the current financial troubles in the US have not affected its operations at all. The new modem bundles, based around 14,400 and 28,800 bits-per-second (bps) units, come with free Internet software, plus free sign-up and subscription-time to one of two Internet services. Hayes is pitching the modem bundles at the Christmas gift marketplace. According to Jeremy Butt, director of sales and operations for Hayes' European region, Hayes is offering free hot-line support throughout the Christmas and New Year period, even through Christmas Day and Boxing Day, to ensure "stress-free surfing" of the Internet. "To reap the benefits from the Internet, it is necessary to use a reliable modem which can achieve the fastest possible speeds in order to minimize the telephone costs by going online. We have produced these Internet kits in answer to an increasing demand for a complete Internet package," he explained. According to Butt, Hayes has seen a tremendous demand for the company's Accura modems, on which the bundles are based, and the Internet bundles should achieve similar levels of sales. The Accura 144 kit sells for UKP129, while the Accura 288 kit sells for UKP249. The kits are bundled with starter kits from Servelan, the Internet service provider, and Compuserve, the online service. Hayes claims that Servelan's Interest-specific service is available on local call access to around 80 percent of the population, while Compuserve's online and Internet services are available across all of the UK. (Steve Gold/19951102/Press Contact: Lynn Webster-Scott, Hayes Microcomputer Products, tel +44-1252-775555, fax +44-1252-775522, Internet e-mail lwebsterscot@hayes.com; Reader Contact: Hayes Europe, +44-1252-775500, fax +44-1252-775511, bulletin board system +44-1252- 775599, Internet e-mail eurosales@hayes.com) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 11/02/95 TELECOM Saudi-Arabia Installs Digital Radio Network (NEWS)(TELECOM)(LON)(00021) Saudi-Arabia Installs Digital Radio Network 11/02/95 KINGDOM OF SAUDI-ARABIA, 1995 NOV 2 (NB) -- The Kingdom of Saudi- Arabia has contracted to buy a $7.8 million digital trunk radio comms system from Ericsson to enhance its communications network. Terms of the contract call for Ericsson to supply a four site Enhanced Digital Access Communications System (EDACS) with advanced digital voice facilities. According to Don Baker, Ericsson systems program manager, the system will use the company's Orion mobile radios for use in cars and on motorcycles. The system will also be enhanced with voice telephony network interconnect facilities. The contract also includes an extensive training program, for users at a facility in Saudi Arabia where a single site, multi-channel EDACS will be installed. "This customer is a sophisticated radio communications user and they wanted the latest technology that has been successfully tried and tested, but it is still evolving," Baker said, adding that this is the third major order for Ericsson from Saudi Arabia. "This third major order for our EDACS equipment clearly indicates the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia's commitment to acquiring the most advanced trunked radio communications technology available," he claimed. (Sylvia Dennis/19951102/Press Contact: Per Bengtsson, Ericsson Business Area Communications, +46-8-757-2159; Reader Contact: Ericsson Mobile Communications, +46-8-757-0135) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 11/02/95 GOVT UK's Ministry Of Defense Hit By Fraud (NEWS)(GOVT)(LON)(00022) UK's Ministry Of Defense Hit By Fraud 11/02/95 LONDON, ENGLAND, 1995 NOV 2 -- The Ministry of Defense (MoD) has revealed that more than UKP1 million was fraudulently obtained by "persons unknown" out of the Defense Industry in financial year 1994/95. According to officials with the Government agency, only UKP128,722 out of a total of UKP1,095,584 misappropriated has been recovered so far. The size of the frauds came as the result of a House of Commons written reply to an inquiry from a Member of Parliament. According to Defense Procurement Minister James Arbuthnot, the number of frauds committed by MoD staff has increased steadily from 45 in 1991-2 to 207 in financial year 1994-5. The amounts involved in the fraud have also risen, from UKP63,000 back in 1991/92, to UKP1,095,584 in 1994/95. This latest figure, Arbuthnot said, was almost twice that reported for financial year 1993/94. According to Arbuthnot, the MoD recovered more than a third of the losses -- UKP22,492 -- in financial year 1991/92, compared with under 12 percent of the losses in the latest financial year. Nor has the MoD a sparkling record when it comes to tackling the problem with staff. According to Arbuthnot, just 315 members of staff have been disciplined or sacked as a result of the frauds since 1990/91, when the frauds were first logged. The British Government is currently undertaking a major battle against fraud in its agencies, Newsbytes notes. The MoD appears to be hit more than most Government departments with frauds, suggesting that the agency may well be in need of an overhaul on its security policy. (Sylvia Dennis/19951102/Ministry of Defense, +44-171-218-9000) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 11/02/95 GOVT Off-The-Shelf Multimedia Can Meet Most US Army Needs (NEWS)(GOVT)(WAS)(00023) Off-The-Shelf Multimedia Can Meet Most US Army Needs 11/02/95 WASHINGTON, D.C., U.S.A., 1995 NOV 2 (NB) -- In most cases, commercial, off-the-shelf multimedia software and hardware can meet the Army's needs for future digital battlefields, concludes a study by the National Academy of Sciences' National Research Council. The council committee concluded that "industry develops multimedia technologies faster than the Army can in most cases." But the Army also has unique needs and development of particular battlefield multimedia technologies could give the Army a "competitive advantage" over potential adversaries. For that reason, says the council, the Army must also continue to invest in its own technologies. Future battlefields, notes the council, will "incorporate large digital networks carrying vast amounts of data for timely use by commanders and soldiers." A smaller, more agile army will depend upon continuous, accurate and current information. To the traditional "fog of war" will be added a "cloud of digital information." Data errors or lost connections could be disastrous. The Army asked the research group to study multimedia technologies that are emerging in the civilian sector or already exist that could meet the needs for battlefield command, control, communications, and intelligence. The council committee, under the chairmanship of Stewart Personick of Bell Communications Research, compared the Army's needs with commercial technologies to see whether the service could adopt the commercial technologies directly, modify them, or invest in its own technology development. The technologies that require direct Army investment, said the council, include those that allow people to communicate on the move, capture information through sensors, filter and interpret intention, permit simulation of the battlefield for training applications, and protect data gathering and data sharing. The research council committee said it expects that multimedia technologies will begin to transform the military battlefield by the turn of the century. The report, "Commercial Multimedia Technologies for Twenty-First Century Army Battlefields," is available from the National Academy Press in the bookstore section of NAS Online, which is part of America Online. The keyword is "NAS." (Kennedy Maize/19951102/Press Contact: Robert Love, 202-334-2000) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 11/02/95 TRENDS ****SPA - CD Software Sales Booming Worldwide (NEWS)(TRENDS)(WAS)(00024) ****SPA - CD Software Sales Booming Worldwide 11/02/95 WASHINGTON, D.C., U.S.A., 1995 NOV 2 (NB) -- Sales of CD software is skyrocketing, says the Software Publishers Association. Worldwide sales for the second quarter of 1995 hit $292 million, a 225 percent increase over the second quarter of 1994. For the first six months of 1995, sales were $530 million, up 209 percent. Unit sales for the second quarter were up 243 percent and up 178 percent for the first half. Windows dominates the CD landscape and increased its share of total sales to 71 percent. On the international market, the grip of Windows is even tighter -- 78 percent of international shipments, according to SPA. The international market is growing even faster than the domestic US market, says SPA. For the first half of 1995, 39 percent of total revenues and 25 percent of total units were sold outside North America, a sharp increase from the 22 percent of revenue and 13 percent of units for the first half of 1994. The business software category is showing the most muscle in 1995, in terms of revenue. Business applications on CD brought in $73 million in the second quarter, a 361 percent increase over the $16 million for the second quarter of 1994. For the first half, business revenues hit $121 million, up 594 percent over the $17 million in the first half of 1994. The incredible growth rate for business applications reflects the increasing migration of software products to CD format, as well as the generally higher price for business applications as compared to CD games and home products, the early market leaders. Where will the never-ending stream of triple-digit sales increases for CD software end? "Nobody knows," SPA researcher Anne Griffith told Newsbytes. "With hardware shipments growing 25 percent annually, and more and more applications on CD, the answer may be, never." Information for SPA's quarterly reports is based on aggregated sales data from companies that participate in the trade group's sales program. The firms report quarterly data to the accounting firm Ernst & Young, which prepares the final report for SPA. (Kennedy Maize/19951102/Press Contact: Anne Griffith, 202-452-1600 ext 360) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 11/02/95 TRENDS ****Apple's Global Market Share Grows (NEWS)(TRENDS)(LAX)(00025) ****Apple's Global Market Share Grows 11/02/95 CUPERTINO, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1995 NOV 2 (NB) -- According to Dataquest's preliminary results for the third calendar quarter of 1995, Apple Computer Inc.'s (NASDAQ: AAPL) worldwide market share rose to 9.0 percent from 7.4 percent over the second calendar quarter of 1995. Compaq, with a worldwide market share of 10.5 percent, still holds the lead. Speaking to Newsbytes, Lynne Keast, a spokesperson for Apple, said, "Dataquest cited growing United States sales and Apple's strengths in the education and consumer markets as factors contributing to the increase in market share. It also reported that sales of Apple's Macintosh Performa line have doubled year-over-year. We have actively pursued market share with aggressive pricing and the Performa shipments show the results." The market share growth is especially interesting because of Apple's well-publicized troubles with shipping its PowerMacs. The increase in market share was in spite of these problems. With a current reported $1 billion backlog, Apple's future market share should continue to improve, say analysts. According to Apple, this confirms other studies. QED Research, for example, recently announced that Apple gained four points of market share in the US K-12 education market, bringing it to 63% market share for the year. Previously, another study estimated that Apple will hold its position as the number one installed base in US homes in 1995. Apple recently reported record revenues and unit shipments for its fourth fiscal quarter. The company reported revenues of $3 billion and shipments exceeding 1.25 million units. "These findings illustrate the vitality of the Macintosh platform around the world," said Michael H. Spindler, president of Apple. "We experienced very strong demand for our products in the recently concluded quarter. Clearly, our strategic focus on key customer segments is increasing customer acceptance, and helping us achieve our desired goal of overall increased market share." (Richard Bowers/19951100/Press Contact: Lynne Keast, Apple, 408-974-5431) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 11/02/95 NETWORK ****Iworld - Novell Plans "NDS For The Internet" (NEWS)(NETWORK)(BOS)(00026) ****Iworld - Novell Plans "NDS For The Internet" 11/02/95 BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS, U.S.A., 1995 NOV 2 (NB) -- Novell's newly unveiled NetWare Web Server, a NetWare Loadable Module (NLM) aimed at supporting internal corporate "Webs" along with external Web sites, will add NetWare Directory Services (NDS) for the Internet and a pair of Internet security protocols next year, revealed Mark Griffiths, during a press conference attended by Newsbytes at Internetworld Boston. Although many people still think of the Web is terms of external publishing, "internal Webs," which are used for communications within a company, are becoming increasingly common, noted Griffiths, who is director of marketing for Novell's Internet Commerce Division. But at the same time, most Web servers today are based on Unix or Windows NT, technologies that many Novell local area network (LAN) administrators find "very different," he added. "Internet servers are typically produced by Unix people. Very few Internet weenies focus on NetWare," agreed another speaker at the press conference, Throop Wilder, president and chief executive officer (CEO) of American Internet Corp., Novell's partner on NetWare Web Server. NetWare Web Server, which includes embedded hypertext markup language (HTML), is meant to bring "the advantages of the Internet to NetWare," according to Novell's Griffiths. Vic Langford, VP and general manager of Novell's Internet Commerce Division, told the journalists and analysts that the new product offers "easy" installation and scripting to NetWare administrators, while also providing interoperability in mixed environments. Slated for general availability in December, the new NLM will ship on CD-ROM, for "ten-minute installation," and will also incorporate an easy-to-use graphical user interface (GUI), according to Langford. NetWare Web Server will support Perl as well as Basic scripting, for NetWare programmers who have not been trained in the Perl scripting language of the Unix world, the VP said. Novell's new product will also provide a remote Common Gateway Interface (CGI), for interoperability with databases running on multivendor hosts, Langford reported. The Web server uses NetWare's secure access controls and NDS authentication. Access controls can be implemented by specific IP address, network IP address, user groups, directory, or document, the reporters were told. Also included are integration with WordPerfect Internet Publisher, and support for SMP (Symmetrical Multiprocessing) NetWare and SFT (Simple File Transfer) NetWare. American Internet's Wilder listed several reasons why "NetWare is a great technology for the Internet." NetWare Web Server operates with "twice the Speed of Netscape" servers, he asserted. Like the Internet, NetWare is file-based, Wilder added. "File system performance is the key." NetWare supplies a "great directory," the company chief maintained. NetWare also gives users greater scaleability for expanded internal and external Web deployments in the future, when asynchronous transfer mode (ATM) will be used for communications between the Internet and internal Webs, he predicted. Also at Internetworld, American Internet introduced two Internet servers based on NetWare Web Server. American Internet's new SiteBuilder adds Netscape Internet Browser and "centralized IP (Internet Protocol) access" to eliminate the need for a Transmission Control Protocol/IP (TCP/IP) stack on the client workstation. SiteBuilder Plus is designed to bring "a complete professional page authoring tool that requires no programming or HTML experience" by bundling Bermeer's Front Page. AT&T's Peter Lohmann, who is beta testing Novell's product, attested to NetWare Web Server's ease of installation, configuration and management, even though he did not install and configure the product using the GUI. "We did install Web Server in 10 minutes," said Lohmann, a software engineer at AT&T Global Information Systems (GIS). "The log files were user ready," he declared. AT&T GIS is using Web Server for an internal Web, according to Lohmann. The software engineer also pointed to the benefits of two scripting languages, for users at AT&T GIS who are able to program in Basic only. During a Q&A session at the press conference, Griffiths informed reporters that NetWare's NDS is "extensible" to HTML. "You can put HTML into it, and go in and inquire," he elaborated. Griffiths told Newsbytes at the close of the press conference that Novell will release an update to NetWare Web Server in 1996 that extends NDS into HTML, and that also adds SSL and SHHP for Internet security. NetWare Web Server will also support Corsair-based client software for Unix- and Windows-based workstations now under development at Novell, he added. Wilder told Newsbytes that the GUI for NetWare Web Server and Site Builder had not been developed at the time Lohmann started testing the Novell product, but that the GUI has been completed by now. (Jacqueline Emigh/19951002/Reader Contacts: Novell, 800-453-1267; American Internet, 617-271-9200; Press Contacts: Rick Myllenbeck, Novell, 408-577-8206; Sheryl Schultz, SRS Associates for American Internet, 508-647-0044) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 11/02/95 TRENDS Internet Is A Major E-mail Growth Market - Report (NEWS)(TRENDS)(LON)(00027) Internet Is A Major E-mail Growth Market - Report 11/02/95 LONDON, ENGLAND, 1995 NOV 2 (NB) -- The market for electronic-mail is set to jump from ECU300 million ($400 million) in 1994 to around ECU2 billion by the end of the decade, according to a forecast in VANS Market Europe, the subscription information services from Ovum, a market research publication company. "Gateway access is expected to generate major growth. During 1996, revenue generated by gateway access will exceed revenues from single access for the first time and, by the end of the century, we expect that gateway access will account for 76 percent of total revenue. In 1994, it only accounted for 30 percent," explained Jolanda Goverts, editor of VANS Market Europe. According to Goverts, the Internet will be a major stimulation in growth terms for e-mail in the immediate future. According to the Ovum report, as a result of the growing popularity of e-mail on desktop computers, the increasing number of Internet users and its generally price competitive nature, the Internet is expected to account for 25 percent of total gateway access, compared with nine percent in 1994. Ovum claims that an annual growth rate of 90 percent for e-mail Internet gateway access is to be expected, a significantly higher projected growth rate for X.400 and proprietary gateway access, which are expected to grow, respectively, by 67 and 46 percent, in the coming years. These figures apply to the UK, but the European report claims to show that, during 1994, the top five e-mail companies generated 39 percent of the total market revenue. The largest share of the market was held by GEIS (General Electric Information Services) with 16.6 percent of the market, followed by BT with 8.3 percent, IBM with 5.7 percent, France Telecom with 4.2 percent, and Unisource with 4.2 percent. The UK, meanwhile, is still the largest market for e-mail, the report notes, accounting for 25 percent of the European market in total. In the UK, the report claims that BT is the market leader on e-mail, securing an estimated 20 percent, followed by GEIS with 13 percent. VANS Market Europe is a continuous service from Ovum which contains forecasts of eight different VANS markets in each of nine countries, profiles of the 50 leading players in Europe, and features on individual country markets. The service costs UKP1,995 in Europe, AUS$4,795 in Australia, or US$3,695 in the rest of the world. (Steve Gold/19951202/Press Contact: Julia Smart, Ovum, tel +44-171-312-7238, fax +44-171-255-1995, Internet e-mail jms@ovum.mhs.compuserve.com; Reader Contact: Ovum Limited, +44-171-255-2670, Internet e-mail info@mhs.ovum.compuserve.com) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 1995 11/02/95 TRENDS ****World Chip Market Up 44% By End Of (NEWS)(TRENDS)(SFO)(00028) ****World Chip Market Up 44% By End Of 1995 11/02/95 SAN JOSE, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1995 NOV 2 (NB) -- The latest study from the Semiconductor Industry Association (SIA) indicates worldwide semiconductor growth will close with $146.4 billion in sales, up 44%, by the end of the year. 1995 headlines four years of sales increases greater than 25%, and 1996 is projected to register another 26.4%, taking revenues to more than $185 billion. On the long-term outlook, the study forecasts uninterrupted growth through 1998 averaging 21.3% per year. By those numbers, sales of semiconductors will have grown from $77.3 billion in 1993 to $261.5 billion in 1998. An SIA spokesperson told Newsbytes, "Computer use of semiconductors continues to lead the market. The dramatic growth of computer sales this year plays an outstanding role in the semiconductor market." Heading the list of semiconductor products is MOS (metal oxide semiconductor) memory which provides random access memory (RAM) in computers. According to the study, global sales of MOS memory will quintuple from $21.2 billion in 1993 to $113 billion in 1998. MOS logic sales are also strong and are projected to grow from its 1993, $11.8 billion in sales to $31.9 billion in 1998. Combined microprocessor and MOS micro product growth is expected to reach $41.2 billion in 1996. The study also says America will remain the largest market for semiconductors, but the fastest growing market in 1996 will be the Asian- Pacific region minus Japan. Japan stands on its own as the second largest regional market with an expected growth of 17.8% in 1996 for a total of $47.7 billion in sales. The Asian-Pacific market will replace Europe as the number three regional market by the end of 1995. Ray Stata, chief executive officer at Analog Devices, said in a press statement, "Perhaps we are in fact entering the Golden Age of the electronics industry, where the products spawned by our industry are revolutionizing society and the way we live, work and play -- thus triggering a period of sustained high growth." From its 1994 research, SIA says the computer industry accounted for 48.7% of semiconductor sales, followed by consumer electronic products at 19.5%, industrial use at 16.8%, communication use with 14.8%, the auto industry with 5%, and government at 1.3%. (Patrick McKenna/19951102/Press Contact: Kevin Brett, SIA, 408-436-6600) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 11/02/95 APPLE Apple Changes To Geographic Strategy (NEWS)(APPLE)(SFO)(00029) Apple Changes To Geographic Strategy 11/02/95 CUPERTINO, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1995 NOV 2 (NB) -- Apple Computer Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) has announced an organizational change in its marketing and sales strategy. Beginning December, sales and marketing will run under The Americas, Europe, and Japan/Asia. With good news of increased market share for Apple computers, Apple's Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Michael Spindler, said in a statement, "Today's realignment is the latest in a series of steps Apple is taking to grow its leadership position in its key customer segments and geographic markets. We are pleased with the dramatic market share that we are experiencing as a result of our market segmentation strategy." John Buckley steps forward to run the Americas, Marco Landi is heading the Europe segment, and John Floisand takes over the Japan/Asia group. The former worldwide marketing and customers solutions organization reported to Apple's senior vice president, Dan Eilers. Once the transition to the new geographical groupings is complete, Eilers will leave the company. Spindler added, "Plans have been developed to increase Apple's market share with home, commercial, and education customers, where growth is high and Apple is strong. We believe the best way to implement these plans is through the geographies, which will allow swifter decision- making, better coordination of sales and marketing programs, and greater cost efficiencies for the company." Today's announcement follows a recent alignment of Apple Canada with the US division to form Apple North America. As the Americas division forms through the end of the year, it will include North America and Latin America. Additionally, Floisand, new leader of the Japan/Asia division, will be emphasizing the Japanese market which has been a traditional Mac stronghold. Analyst Tim Bajarin, told Newsbytes, "Apple had earlier moved to a centralized marketing and sales strategy. Both Spindler and Eilers have wanted to move marketing and sales to a regional model because it would allow the company to align its marketing efforts more closely to the needs of its customers." (Patrick McKenna/19951102/Press Contact: Betty Taylor, Apple Computer, 408-974-3983) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 11/02/95 ONLINE Iworld - Prodigy Plans Web Sites For Non-Members (NEWS)(ONLINE)(BOS)(00030) Iworld - Prodigy Plans Web Sites For Non-Members 11/02/95 BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS, U.S.A., 1995 NOV 2 (NB) -- A World Wide Web- based financial service, now in beta testing on Prodigy's AstroNet home page, will be spun off to a separate home page on December 8 as the first in a series of offerings to be available to non-Prodigy members, said Prodigy's Mike Darcy, in a meeting with Newsbytes at Internetworld. The forthcoming financial service will be available to any Web user for $4.95 per month, Darcy told Newsbytes. The Web-based service will not be hotlinked to Prodigy, so as to attract an entirely different audience, he added. Prodigy began with finance as a forte, so the choice of the financial arena to lead off the new set of content offerings came naturally, according to Darcy. In a demo, the Prodigy official showed Newsbytes some of the features of the forthcoming home page, which include updated news from PR Newswire, 15-minute delayed stock quotes, and financial news and reports, such as NYSE, Amex, NASDAQ, and indices for the futures, bonds, mutual funds, and world stock markets. The new financial service has not yet been named. "In the future, we would like to put banks and brokerages on this service, too," Newsbytes was told. Children's programming is one of the areas that Prodigy is considering for a separate Web page in the future, Darcy revealed. The separate Web pages will give third-party vendors "a great opportunity to market their products," he predicted. (Jacqueline Emigh/19951102/Reader Contact: Prodigy, 914-448-8800; Press Contact: Lydia Trettis, Connors Communications for Prodigy, 212-807-7500) (SUMMARY)(GENERAL)(MSP)(00031) Newsbytes Daily Summary 11/02/95 MINNEAPOLIS, MINNESOTA, U.S.A., 1995 NOV 2 (NB) -- These are capsules of all today's news stories: ======================================================================== ------------| N E W S B Y T E S D A I L Y S U M M A R Y |---------- ------------| Thursday, November 2, 1995 |---------- ======================================================================== (c) Newsbytes News Network (Tm) Editor in Chief: Wendy Woods ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Newsbytes News Network's on the Web! Check out http://www.nbnn.com for free daily top stories from Newsbytes and its affiliate publications, and from PC Week, MacWeek, and other Ziff news magazines. A subscription gives you all the news, full-text, plus the most comprehensive database of past computer stories online. The keyword-searchable database dates from today back through 1983. Subscriptions are $24.95 for three months. Questions? Send to 'administrator@newsbytes.com' For Japanese Newsbytes and additional services, see the Newsbytes Pacifica Website at http://www.islandtel.com/newsbytes/ ------------------------------------------------------------------------ CATEGORY HEADLINES (*** indicates today's top stories) STORY # ======================================================================== APPLE Apple Changes To Geographic Strategy....................... 29 BROADCAST Chinese Govt Purchases Hughes Satellite.................... 01 BROADCAST Video News Roundup......................................... 13 BROADCAST Internet By Satellite For Rural Canadians.................. 15 BUSINESS AT&T GIS Philippines To Exceed Profits..................... 04 GENERAL Thailand To Be Business Database Regional Center........... 06 GOVT Australia - Apple Objects To Govt PC Buying Request........ 03 GOVT Thailand Govt Information Network Plan Announced........... 05 GOVT UK's Ministry Of Defense Hit By Fraud...................... 22 GOVT Off-The-Shelf Multimedia Can Meet Most US Army Needs....... 23 NETWORK ****Iworld - Novell Plans "NDS For The Internet........... 26 ONLINE Thailand - Internet Site For 18th Annual SEA Games......... 07 ONLINE Japan - Sega & Fujitsu In New Online Venture............... 10 ONLINE Internet Update............................................ 11 ONLINE America Online Intros New Kids Business Area............... 12 ONLINE Accent Software Intros Free Multi-Language Web Browser..... 18 ONLINE UK Hayes Unveils Internet Bundles.......................... 20 ONLINE Iworld - Prodigy Plans Web Sites For Non-Members........... 30 PC UK - Apricot Claims 1st Pentium Pro-Specific Systems....... 19 TELECOM China - State Telecom Firms Target Market Share............ 08 TELECOM ****US West Puts Receptionist In Your Home................ 14 TELECOM Saudi-Arabia Installs Digital Radio Network................ 21 TRENDS IBM Prepares For Year 2000 Date............................ 02 TRENDS Toshiba Digital Video Disk To Launch In US First........... 09 TRENDS TCI To Offer High-Speed Internet Access In California...... 16 TRENDS Mondex Smart Card Gets North American Launch............... 17 TRENDS ****SPA - CD Software Sales Booming Worldwide............. 24 TRENDS ****Apple's Global Market Share Grows..................... 25 TRENDS Internet Is A Major E-mail Growth Market - Report.......... 27 TRENDS ****World Chip Market Up 44% By End Of 1995............... 28 ======================================================================== These are the headlines and first paragraphs of each story, in order: 1 -> Chinese Govt Purchases Hughes Satellite -- The Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications (MPT) will purchase a HS-376 satellite from Hughes Space and Communications International and send it into space next July. 2 -> IBM Prepares For Year 2000 Date -- It might still be 1995, but IBM claims that data processing (DP) and management information systems (MIS) managers should be thinking about the year 2000 3 -> Australia - Apple Objects To Govt PC Buying Request -- Australian Federal Department of Education, Employment and Training (DEET) officials have denied that they had been planning to squeeze Apple 4 -> AT&T GIS Philippines To Exceed Profits -- The New York decision by AT&T's board to divide the telecoms giant into three companies will not affect the operations of AT&T GIS Philippines. 5 -> Thailand Govt Information Network Plan Announced -- Thailand's National Information Technology Committee (NITC) Subcommittee on IT (information technology) Utilization in the Public Sector has introduced plans for a Government Information Network (GINet) project. 6 -> Thailand To Be Business Database Regional Center -- P.Y. Global Network Co. Ltd. has been appointed the regional franchisee for the Stryker Group's InfoBase service. 7 -> Thailand - Internet Site For 18th Annual SEA Games -- Internet users will be able to access reports on the 18th Annual SEA Games to be held from December 9-17 in Chiang Mai, according to Finance Ministry Chief Information Officer Supachai Jongsiri, who oversees the computer system. 8 -> China - State Telecom Firms Target Market Share -- Eight state telecoms equipment manufacturers have been grouped into China's largest telephone exchange producer, China Great Dragon Telecommunications Group Co Ltd, to tackle foreign domination of the market. GDT (Great Dragon Telecommunications) expects more than 20 percent of the telephone exchange market share as a result. 9 -> Toshiba Digital Video Disk To Launch In US First -- Toshiba Corporation (TSE:6502) has announced it will break with tradition and launch its equipment for the DVD (digital video disk) format in the United States three months before Japan. The company also said it was spending several billions of yen to build manufacturing plants for the equipment in Japan and the Philippines. 10 -> Japan - Sega & Fujitsu In New Online Venture -- Sega Enterprises (TSE:7964) and Fujitsu Ltd. (TSE:6702) are together working on a new online system that will allows users of Sega's Saturn home games console to access Fujitsu's NiftyServe online service. The new service will mean around an additional two million people in Japan will soon have the ability to connect to NiftyServe. 11 -> Internet Update -- In this update of new services and resources on the global Internet: New search engine - Inktomi, WAIS searches on FinanceNet, Classical music online, Chocolate!, News from Usenet, War of the Worlds, Health on the Internet, Need a job? Less than two months to go. 12 -> America Online Intros New Kids Business Area -- Kids who are experiencing their first taste of entrepreneurship, whether it be from running a lemonade stand or a printing business, now have a place to congregate in cyberspace. America Online (NASDAQ:AMER) (AOL) is launching the "Kidz Biz Invention (KBI) Connection," described as a multimedia area that gives kids games and exercises to spark their business sense. 13 -> Video News Roundup -- This is a look at the top stories this week in the world of video news reporting: MPEG For Networks; Internet & Network Video; Broadcasting and Cable Runs 3 Digital Video Stories; Interactive TV Trials Increase Overseas; and in new products, Telemetrics Beta to MII Adaptor, Iomega's Jaz Drive with the ProMax Array. 14 -> ****US West Puts Receptionist In Your Home -- Your telephone company wants to put a receptionist in your home - at least if your phone company is US West (NYSE: USW) and you live in the mid-West. 15 -> Internet By Satellite For Rural Canadians -- Canadian Satellite Communications Inc. (Cancom) said it will offer a turnkey package to businesses in small and remote communities that want to provide access to the Internet. Cancom will use its VSAT (very small aperture terminal) two-way satellite as well as its VANNE terrestrial network to provide the services. 16 -> TCI To Offer High-Speed Internet Access In California -- @Home, a new joint venture between Tele-Communications Inc.(TCI) and venture capitalists Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers (KPCB), will provide high-speed data services over hybrid fiber coaxial (HFC) to homes, workplaces, and schools. The companies announced that Sunnyvale, California, will be the first area to be offered the service. 17 -> Mondex Smart Card Gets North American Launch -- Mondex, the smart-card cash substitute, has made its first move into North America with the announcement of plans for a pilot in Guelph, a city of about 100,000 people west of Toronto. 18 -> Accent Software Intros Free Multi-Language Web Browser -- Accent Software International Ltd. (NASDAQ: ACNTF) is offering a free Windows-based utility that lets you browse the World Wide Web in over 30 languages. 19 -> UK - Apricot Claims 1st Pentium Pro-Specific Systems -- Apricot has taken the wraps off a Pentium Pro range of machines, which it claims are the first UK developed and manufactured desktop computers and servers designed specifically for the new Intel Pentium Pro processor. 20 -> UK Hayes Unveils Internet Bundles -- Hayes Microcomputer Products has unveiled a series of Internet modem bundles, claiming that the current financial troubles in the US have not affected its operations at all. The new modem bundles, based around 14,400 and 28,800 bits-per-second (bps) units, come with free Internet software, plus free sign-up and subscription-time to one of two Internet services. 21 -> Saudi-Arabia Installs Digital Radio Network -- The Kingdom of Saudi- Arabia has contracted to buy a $7.8 million digital trunk radio comms system from Ericsson to enhance its communications network. Terms of the contract call for Ericsson to supply a four site Enhanced Digital Access Communications System (EDACS) with advanced digital voice facilities. 22 -> UK's Ministry Of Defense Hit By Fraud -- The Ministry of Defense (MoD) has revealed that more than UKP1 million was fraudulently obtained by "persons unknown" out of the Defense Industry in financial year 1994/95. According to officials with the Government agency, only UKP128,722 out of a total of UKP1,095,584 misappropriated has been recovered so far. 23 -> Off-The-Shelf Multimedia Can Meet Most US Army Needs -- In most cases, commercial, off-the-shelf multimedia software and hardware can meet the Army's needs for future digital battlefields, concludes a study by the National Academy of Sciences' National Research Council. 24 -> ****SPA - CD Software Sales Booming Worldwide -- Sales of CD software is skyrocketing, says the Software Publishers Association. Worldwide sales for the second quarter of 1995 hit $292 million, a 225 percent increase over the second quarter of 1994. 25 -> ****Apple's Global Market Share Grows -- According to Dataquest's preliminary results for the third calendar quarter of 1995, Apple Computer Inc.'s (NASDAQ: AAPL) worldwide market share rose to 9.0 percent from 7.4 percent over the second calendar quarter of 1995. Compaq, with a worldwide market share of 10.5 percent, still holds the lead. 26 -> ****Iworld - Novell Plans "NDS For The Internet -- Novell's newly unveiled NetWare Web Server, a NetWare Loadable Module (NLM) aimed at supporting internal corporate "Webs" along with external Web sites, will add NetWare Directory Services (NDS) for the Internet and a pair of Internet security protocols next year, revealed Mark Griffiths, during a press conference attended by Newsbytes at Internetworld Boston. 27 -> Internet Is A Major E-mail Growth Market - Report -- The market for electronic-mail is set to jump from ECU300 million ($400 million) in 1994 to around ECU2 billion by the end of the decade, according to a forecast in VANS Market Europe, the subscription information services from Ovum, a market research publication company. 28 -> ****World Chip Market Up 44% By End Of 1995 -- The latest study from the Semiconductor Industry Association (SIA) indicates worldwide semiconductor growth will close with $146.4 billion in sales, up 44%, by the end of the year. 1995 headlines four years of sales increases greater than 25%, and 1996 is projected to register another 26.4%, taking revenues to more than $185 billion. 29 -> Apple Changes To Geographic Strategy -- Apple Computer Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) has announced an organizational change in its marketing and sales strategy. Beginning December, sales and marketing will run under The Americas, Europe, and Japan/Asia. 30 -> Iworld - Prodigy Plans Web Sites For Non-Members -- A World Wide Web- based financial service, now in beta testing on Prodigy's AstroNet home page, will be spun off to a separate home page on December 8 as the first in a series of offerings to be available to non-Prodigy members, said Prodigy's Mike Darcy, in a meeting with Newsbytes at Internetworld. (Ian Stokell/19951102) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 11/01/95 ONLINE ****Free CD-ROMs Offered To Newsbytes Web Site Members (NEWS)(ONLINE)(MSP)(00001) ****Free CD-ROMs Offered To Newsbytes Web Site Members 11/01/95 MINNEAPOLIS, MINNESOTA, U.S.A., 1995 NOV 1 (NB) -- For fast, no-nonsense reporting of the latest breaking computer, telecom, and interactive services news on the World Wide Web, look no further than http://www.nbnn.com . And now, a Newsbytes paid subscription also means a free Newsbytes CD-ROM featuring the past 12 years of Newsbytes reporting in a keyword-searchable format. A pioneering source of international, fast-breaking computer and telecom industry news, Newsbytes News Network is giving away free of charge to subscribers copies of its latest Newsbytes News Network CD-ROM archive disk -- the 1995 Newsbytes Update -- a $30 value. The disk runs on Macintosh, PCs, and Windows. The disk has more than 64,000 keyword-searchable news stories written by the Newsbytes staff since 1983. The 1995 Newsbytes Update disk is the newest and most comprehensive in the twice-yearly series of Newsbytes News Network archives and in addition to the text-based data, contains more than 400 digitized images of the products, people, and places making news. The CD-ROM compliments the up-to-the-minute reports available on the Newsbytes US Web site at http://www.nbnn.com . The site features 40 daily news stories covering developments in 21 categories of technology news reporting. Newsbytes now includes stock ticker quotes, electronic-mail addresses, phone and fax numbers with most news reports for fast, easy follow-up by readers. Also, a selection of reports from PC Week, MacWeek and other top Ziff-Davis publications are available at the Newsbytes US Web site. Newsbytes stories are first-hand reported by 19 daily reporters in San Francisco, Denver, Minneapolis/St. Paul, Washington, DC, Boston, Toronto, London, Tokyo, Hongkong, Sydney, Manila and New Delhi. Newsbytes reporters provide on-site coverage of dozens of trade shows each year, focusing on the latest marketing, legal, business, and product trends. Newsbytes provides daily coverage of the dynamic and complex computer and telecommunications industries to more than 180 online services, magazines, newspapers, newsletters, and fax and e-mail news delivery services worldwide. Newsbytes coverage has won the 1994 Dvorak Award for Technical Excellence this year and has received Best Online Publication awards five times from the Computer Press Association, the largest organization of professional computer journalists worldwide. Newsbytes is an independent, privately held news organization. The Newsbytes US Web site was developed in conjunction with Associated Information Services (AIS), a Minneapolis-based Web publishing firm. (Newsbytes Staff/19951101/Press Contacts: Associated Information Services, Stephen Laliberte, president, Associated Information Services, 17280 Uplander Street, Andover, MN 55304, tel 612-753-3994, fax 612-753-3995, Internet e-mail liberty@tccn.com ; Wendy Woods, Editor in Chief, Newsbytes News Network, 612-430-1100, or go directly to the Web site at http://www.nbnn.com ) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 11/01/95 TRENDS Dutch Smart Card Project Gets Under Way (NEWS)(TRENDS)(LON)(00002) Dutch Smart Card Project Gets Under Way 11/01/95 ARNHEM, NETHERLANDS, 1995 NOV 1 (NB) -- ChipKnip, a smart card payment system, has got under way in the Dutch city of Arnhem this week. According to early reports from retailers and members of the public, the project looks like being a success, as Interpay, the Dutch banking organization which organized the trial, has poured millions into making the project work. 3,000 citizens of Arnhem have been persuaded to collect their ChipKnip cards from their banks and post offices and are using the cards in place of cash for low- and medium-value transactions. Interpay says that it expects 20,000 to 30,000 people will use the card in the first phase of its launch, which will allow them to use the cards at more than 800 payment machines in shops, restaurants, hotels, and other facilities around the city. When the card starts to run low on e-cash (electronic cash), cardholders can reload their e-cash accounts with more cash from their conventional bank accounts at specially modified ATMs (automated teller machines). Like the British Telecom/NatWest/Midland Bank Mondex project in the UK, ChipKnip does not need a PIN (personal identification number) for cardholders to use the card. Since the card is designed to operate as an alternative to cash, the card can be used freely although, for security, it can be locked from misuse by using a PIN. Like cash, when the e-cash card is lost, users must sadly kiss goodbye to their money, unless the card turns up again. Not everything is sweetness and light with ChipKnip, however. Some Arnhem retailers are said to be discouraging cardholders from using the cards, owing to allegedly high per transaction costs. Vendex and Ahold, two Dutch retailers, have stated their opposition to the card, claiming that the banks are making too much profit on what would otherwise be a plain cash transaction. Vendex in particular has complained that, since ChipKnip is not compatible with existing credit/debit cards, stores must have two sets of transaction machinery, which all adds to the cost of processing what they claim is a more expensive (for them) alternative for cash. According to Wilhelm Stolwijk, Interpay's director, however, ChipKnip looks like being a success and, if the project takes off, it will be extended to other cities in the Netherlands, possibly gobbling up around 15 percent of otherwise cash transactions. This, he claims, would go a long way to reducing the cost of the five billion coins which are currently in circulation in the Netherlands. Interestingly, Stolwijk claims that ChipKnip differs from the current PIN-based debit card, Pin-Pas, which is issued by Dutch banks, in that it is designed to be an alternative to small- and medium-value cash transactions (i.e. up to $5), whereas Pin-Pas is designed to be an electronic checkbook. (Sylvia Dennis/19951031/Press Contact: Interpay Nederland, +31-10-207-0702) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 11/01/95 ONLINE Streams Launches Internet Media Placement Assessments (NEWS)(ONLINE)(MSP)(00003) Streams Launches Internet Media Placement Assessments 11/01/95 CHICAGO, ILLINOIS, U.S.A., 1995 NOV 1 (NB) -- Streams Online Media Development has announced a new Internet World Wide Web audience measurement service that reports where people have surfed from to get to a site connected to the service, called "Lilypad." The new system can tell if a Web user came from another Web site, a "bookmark" in their Web browser, a newsgroup, or even a local file on their hard drive. Most Web audience measurement programs measure what happens within a Web site, Dominic Tassone, general manager of Streams Online Media Development, told Newsbytes. "We're saying that (usage within a Web site) is very important. Instead, we felt there's a need for how effective Internet advertising is, and how effective is a link in, say HotWired, in getting people to your site," he said. With Lilypad reports, Internet marketers can negotiate better ad rates and evaluate their online advertising purchases, Streams officials said. "What Lilypad does for marketers is, instead of telling you what part of your Web site is popular with people from different parts of the country, it can tell you exactly how many visits from particular Web sites show up in your log. It also answers the question of how effective your ad is." Tassone said learning about the number of people who come from bookmarks within browsers can be beneficial. He said advertisers could sponsor a contest where if they come to a site via a bookmark, they could win a prize. Newsbytes was given an exclusive look at the Lilypad site, which is currently behind a password protected site. We were able to look up usage statistics from Streams' main site. Lilypad told us how many Web surfers came from other Web sites, along with the specific site they came from, along with visitors from newsgroups, hypertext markup language (HTML) files on hard drives, bookmarks, and direct access by directly typing in a uniform resource locator (URL), and "unknown" accesses. In addition, statistics could be compiled on a daily, weekly, monthly, quarterly, or yearly basis, and comprehensive data is also available. Plus, accesses from paid links or all links could also be looked up. Lilypad subscriptions are available at an introductory price of $695 per month, plus a one-time installation fee of $500, through December 31, 1995. Those interested can surf to Streams' Web site at http://streams.com , and use a special online registration form. The Lilypad software is designed to work on any Web server, Tassone added. (Bob Woods/19951031/Press Contacts: Dave Skwarczek or Dominic Tassone, Streams Online Media, 312-342-7747, Internet e-mail streams@streams.com) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 11/01/95 PC Quantum Publishes "Plug-And-Play For ATA" Specification (NEWS)(PC)(BOS)(00004) Quantum Publishes "Plug-And-Play For ATA" Specification 11/01/95 BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS, U.S.A., 1995 NOV 1 (NB) -- Although nine out of every ten PCs on the market today use ATA disk drives, SCSI (small computer systems interface) drives have received virtually all the attention in the area of simplified installation, contended Quantum's Dave Tang, during a discussion with Newsbytes at a meeting in Boston about a new "plug-and-play" specification that Quantum has published. "With the advent of Windows 95, plug-and-play has been well promoted and much talked about," Tang told Newsbytes. But still, there is no equivalent in the ATA market to the SCSI Plug-and- Play industry standard. As a result, unless you own a new, high-end SCSI machine, plug-and-play today is pretty much an empty promise, according to Quantum's director of strategic marketing. To address this problem, he said, Quantum has developed a detailed specification aimed at covering "all architectural layers" in providing a uniform ATA interface for makers of peripherals, as well as host adapters, operating systems, PCs, and BIOS (basic input/output systems). The new specification addresses hard disk drives as well as CD-ROM drives, tape drives, and all other PC devices, Tang told Newsbytes. Quantum plans to submit the specification to an industry standards committee. Copies of the new specification are available from Quantum. (Jacqueline Emigh/19951030/Reader Contact: Quantum, 408-324- 7431; Press Contact: Diane Schultz, Quantum, 408-324-7431) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 11/01/95 BROADCAST 1st Commercial Flights For Satellite Coms Technology (NEWS)(BROADCAST)(LON)(00005) 1st Commercial Flights For Satellite Coms Technology 11/01/95 LONDON, ENGLAND, 1995 NOV 1 (NB) -- Racal Avionics has announced that the first commercial flight by a narrow body aircraft offering satellite communication (satcom) telephone links for passengers took place during October between London Heathrow and Geneva airport. According to Racal, Swissair, the Swiss national airline, has selected the Racal/Honeywell satcom system to be installed on its European fleet of Airbus A321, A320, and A319 series of aircraft, as a result of the tests. The total cost of equipping the 29 aircraft is $13 million. The test system was installed on a Swissair Airbus A320 that entered service between London and Geneva on October 5. According to Racal, the aircraft will be used as a test flight for the passenger satcoms link, which improves greatly on existing VHF radiophone lines, since it is digital and routed by satellite for robust links back to the ground. According to Leo Gallagher, commercial director of Racal Avionics, the satcom link can be used anywhere in the world and is not limited to line of sight applications which VHF radio links have tended to cover. The full version of the Satcom service will enter service on Swissair flights in and around Europe early on next year. "Racal is now ideally placed to offer airlines the enabling technology for a complete package of value-added applications, including phone, fax and data transmissions, air traffic management (via automatic dependent surveillance), through to catalog shopping, flight and hotel reservations, car hire and access to financial data," he explained. Since the Satcom service is all digital, plans are in hand to allow users to plug their laptop computers straight into the transmitter on board the aircraft and pipe data down the link. This will allow access to online services and electronic-mail services, as well as gateway access to company networks, where available. Racal Avionics is working on developing gateway services for plane-based users to access online services much as America Online, Compuserve and Prodigy. Pricing on the Swissair/Satcom service will be announced when the service is formally unveiled early next year, but pricing is expected to be around $1.00 per minute for local country calls and $2.00 per minute for international calls. (Sylvia Dennis/19951031/Press Contact: Chris Talago, Racal Avionics, +44-1734-669969; Reader Contact: Racal Avionics, tel +44-1734-669969, fax +44-1734-262121) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 11/01/95 GENERAL Thailand - SAP To Localize R/3 Software (NEWS)(GENERAL)(HKG)(00006) Thailand - SAP To Localize R/3 Software 11/01/95 BANGKOK, THAILAND, 1995 NOV 1 (NB) -- Business re-engineering client-server software supplier SAP AG is converting its flagship R/3 software package into the Thai-language to conform with Thai accounting business practices and laws, a task that will take 15 months of work for a team of 20-30 developers and some 25-30 translators. However, this high investment -- equivalent to around 30 man-years -- reflects the company's major commitment to the Thai marketplace. The localization is expected to be completed by the middle of next year, according to SAP Asia President and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Lutz Kettner. Country Manager for SAP (Thailand) Pongsak Sutassananon told Newsbytes that the calculation of 30 man-years was based on the time and the number of developers. He added that translators were a very minor part of the task. SAP is working with Shinawatra Computer and Communications to develop the Thai version of R/3, reflecting a policy by the fifth-largest software company in the world to partner with a company in the localization of its complex business packages that can run to up to 17 million lines of code. German-based SAP AG leads in the business software arena and the company generated more than a billion dollars in revenue last year, and expects to do better this year, with 100 percent growth forecast for Asia. SAP, which stands for Systems, Applications and Products, hosted its Sapphire Asia '95 conference in Chiang Mai in mid-October, with some 800 executives attending the event. Pongsak said that once development of R/3 for Thailand was completed, which would be in the second quarter of next year, upwards of 20 firms in the country are expected to convert to a SAP system. By the end of this year, four major modules -- comprising finance and banking and assets management, cost center accounting, sales and distribution, and material management -- will be completed. The remaining three modules concerning production planning will be ready by the second quarter of next year, he added. (Tony Waltham and Post Database-Bangkok Post/19951031) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 11/01/95 GOVT Thailand Govt Deadline For New Accounting Software (NEWS)(GOVT)(HKG)(00007) Thailand Govt Deadline For New Accounting Software 11/01/95 BANGKOK, THAILAND, 1995 NOV 1 (NB) -- The Revenue Department has announced that it will fine companies 2,000 baht (US$80) next year if their accounting software does not follow the right specifications for accounting software systems. However, the Association of Thai Computer Industry (ATCI) President Manoo Ordeedolchest claims that it will be impossible for software developers to meet the deadline. Speaking at a recent seminar on "A Software Standard of the Revenue Department," Revenue Department Deputy Director General Prapai Arayarangslit said the announcement of the specifications made in September was aimed at providing a software standard, including four program specifications. The first model was for users who used computers for doing account reports. The second was for a company which had online subsystems. The third model was for a company that ran every subsystem on a computer platform, while the last one was similar to the third model, but had a user password, she said. The new standards will reduce the possibility of a company avoiding paying taxes, she explained. According to ATCI President Manoo, imposing the system just two months from now will be impossible. Companies will not be able to implement the changes, he said, especially companies that use old applications. Some Thai companies use software packages from abroad or have hired foreign programmers to write their accounting systems in the past, he said. They will lose money and time changing the existing system. Manoo said that it will be impossible for the 200 existing software houses to develop programs according to a software standard devised by the Revenue Department within the next two months. (Tony Waltham and Post Database-Bangkok Post/19951031) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 11/01/95 GOVT China - Component/Device Production Important (NEWS)(GOVT)(PEK)(00008) China - Component/Device Production Important 11/01/95 BEIJING, CHINA, 1995 NOV 1 (NB) -- The development of new components and devices will take priority in the electronics industry during China's Ninth Five Year Plan period (1996-2000), government officials said. New components and devices are defined as "small, multi-functional, non- polluting," with "bright prospects in the marketplace" and the ability to be mass produced, said officials with the Ministry of Electronics Industry (MEI). These components and devices include surface mount components and/or devices (SMCs), thick-film hybrid integrated circuits (HICs), sensors, optical-electronic devices, power electronic devices, and new types of batteries. In the next five years, the output value of these products will increase by 15 to 20 percent, matching the planned 20 percent growth in the whole electronics industry. In 2000, it is expected that RMB24 billion (US$2.86 billion) worth of SMCs will be produced, RMB80 to RMB100 million (US$9.5 to $12 million) worth of thick-film HICs, RMB1 to RMB1.1 billion (US$119 to $131 million) worth of sensors, RMB200 million (US$23 million) worth of optical electronic devices, and RMB100 million (US$12 million) worth of power-electronic devices, according to MEI's draft report. Attention will be paid to production scale, upgrading of products, and increasing market share for China's new components and devices, officials with MEI said. Having wasted investment repeatedly on scattered small enterprises, the ministry feels that component and device manufacturing needs to be increased in scale. Components and device manufacturers in China are far behind their foreign counterparts in terms of independent technology development and product quality, and some key materials and equipment have been imported for a long time, government officials said. According to MEI's report, this year's production is expected to include RMB55 billion (US$6.55 billion) worth of components and RMB25 to 30 billion (US$3 to $3.6 billion) worth of devices. In 2000, the output value of the basic electronics industry is expected to reach RMB170 billion (US$20.2 billion) with an export value of US$6.5 billion. (Chih-Ho Yu & Ning Huang/19951101) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 11/01/95 GENERAL HP Promotes Storage Products In Asia (NEWS)(GENERAL)(HKG)(00009) HP Promotes Storage Products In Asia 11/01/95 BANGKOK, THAILAND, 1995 NOV 1 (NB) -- Hewlett-Packard (HP) has announced an "HP SureStore" concept to boost sales volumes of hard disks, optical storage, and tape drive products in Asia. The company also launched a series of new products during the "New Products Information Road Show in Asia" that recently came to a Bangkok hotel. According to HP Sales and Marketing Manager, Information Storage Group, Asia Pacific Khoo Teng Liat, the SureStore concept will offer added value and support services to customers. He noted that service was most important for storage products. HP SureStore includes compatibility guarantees that products will work with OS/2, Windows 95, and Windows NT. It also provides an "end user readiness" kit for those who want to do their own installation. HP believes users want a "total solution" for their information storage, not simply buying a device, he said, adding that the concept would create customer confidence in HP storage and a preference for HP SureStore products. Liat claimed that HP was the sixth largest supplier in the storage market worldwide. During the New Products Information Road Show, HP announced the introduction of new deskjet and laserjet printers, scanners, as well as notebook and storage products. (Tony Waltham and Post Database-Bangkok Post/19951031) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 11/01/95 BUSINESS US West Shareholders Approve 2-Class Stock Plan (NEWS)(BUSINESS)(DEN)(00010) US West Shareholders Approve 2-Class Stock Plan 11/01/95 DENVER, COLORADO, U.S.A., 1995 NOV 1 (NB) -- US West shareholders have overwhelmingly approved the company's proposal to introduce two new classes of US West common stock. Under the plan, which got the nod from about 93 percent of US West shareholders, one class will track performance of the company's 14-state telecommunications business, while the other will track the performance of the multimedia, wireless, directory, and international businesses. Now that they have the necessary shareholder approval, company officials will start to redesignate current shares of common stock to represent US West Communications Group (NYSE: USW), the telecommunications part of the company, and will also issue one new share representing the US West Media Group (NYSE: UMG) for each of share of common stock currently held. The one-time tax-free stock distribution will be made to shareholders of record as of October 31, 1995. The new stocks will trade independently on the New York Stock Exchange today. In an early form of trading called "when-issued trading" Communications Group stock closed yesterday at $28-5/8, up 1/4, while Media Group stock closed at $18-1/2. The vote apparently wasn't hurt by US West's third quarter financial report for the period ending September 30. In a report released just three days before the vote, US West said revenues for the third quarter were $3 billion, a 7.2 percent increase compared with the same period last year. Earnings per share (EPS) were $0.67, down from the $0.70 EPS for the same period last year, while income was $314 million, a one percent decrease from last year. The third quarter results do not include a $34 million gain from sale of rural exchanges, expenses associated with the creation of the two-stock plan, and a loss of $9 million resulting from the early retirement of debt. The effects of acquisitions during 1994 are included. US West said that, under the new stock plan the Communications Group stock will track the telecommunications business and will continue paying dividends at the current rate. The new stock will track the company's cable, telephony, wireless and directory businesses and will not pay a dividend. (Jim Mallory/19951101/Press contact: Lois Leach, US West, 303-793-6355) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 11/01/95 GENERAL Japan Newsbriefs (NEWS)(GENERAL)(TYO)(00011) Japan Newsbriefs 11/01/95 TOKYO, JAPAN, 1995 NOV 1 (NB) -- In this roundup of news from Japan: Nintendo sells one billion games, Sony says 300,000 PlayStations sold, Apple Japan sales up, US dominates software imports, International telephone rates cut, NEC, Convex sign supercomputer sales deal. Nintendo Sells One Billion Games Nintendo has sold a billion video games worldwide since it began sales of the Famicon (NES) in Japan in 1983. Of the games, 50% were for the NES system, 23% for the handheld Gameboy, introduced in 1988 in Japan and 1989 in the US, and 27% for the Super Famicon (SNES) system introduced in 1990 in Japan and 1991 in the US. The two markets dominate sales over the last 12 years with Japan registering 44% of sales and the United States making up 42%. The remaining 14% were sold in the rest of the world. The fastest selling game of all time was last fall's Donkey Kong Country for the Super Famicon, which sold more than 2 million units in just five weeks in the United States alone. The largest selling single game was the original Super Mario Brothers cartridge for the Famicon which has sold more than 40 million copies over 12 years. Sony Says 300,000 PlayStations Sold Sony Corporation has sold 300,000 PlayStation game consoles since the launch in the United States on September 9th. At $299, Sony is looking to double this figure over the Christmas period. The unit is competing against other consoles, such as Sega's new Saturn system and Nintendo's yet to be launched Ultra system. The $90 million revenues the company has seen in the last two months place the system on target to become the company's most successful product launch since compact disk. In Japan, over a million PlayStations have been sold since launch earlier this year. Apple Japan Sales Up The Japanese unit of US computer giant Apple Computer announced its sales figures for the year to September. The company said it shipped 752,000 computers in the year, an increase of 45% on the previous year and slightly above estimates for the year of 700,000 units. Total sales jumped 42% to reach 185 million yen ($1.80 million). US Dominates Software Imports Underlining the dominance of United States software products on the world market, a survey by the American Electronics Association has shown 96% of all software imports into Japan in 1994 came from the United States. Around $2.61 billion of the estimated $37.2 billion Japanese software market comes from overseas. In contrast, Japan sent $1.46 billion worth of software to the US, almost all was games software. International Telephone Rates Cut Japan's two international new common carriers, ITJ and IDC, have applied to the Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications for rate cuts. IDC applied this morning and ITJ responded by saying it too would be reducing rates. The cuts follow an application earlier this month by KDD, the country's largest international telephone operator. The rates of the two smaller companies are typically identical to each other and slightly cheaper than KDD. Around 3.5 billion yen ($34 million) will be set aside by IDC for the cuts, which will enable it to reduce prices by around 7%. NEC, Convex Sign Supercomputer Sales Deal NEC Corporation has signed a sales and distribution deal with Convex. NEC will sell the Convex Exemplar SPP1200 scalable parallel processors in Japan with Convex marketing the NEC SX-4 series supercomputers in Europe. The two companies already have similar deals in other regions of the world. (Martyn Williams/19951101) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 11/01/95 TELECOM Ericsson Wins Japan Cellular Contract (NEWS)(TELECOM)(TYO)(00012) Ericsson Wins Japan Cellular Contract 11/01/95 TOKYO, JAPAN, 1995 NOV 1 (NB) -- Sweden's Ericsson (STOCKHOLM:ERICfb) has been awarded a contract for the establishment of a new cellular network on the northern island of Hokkaido from Digital Tu-Ka Hokkaido. Total value of the deal is put at 4 billion yen ($39 million) and follows a contract with associated Digital Tu-Ka Kyushu in which Ericsson will supply network infrastructure to the affiliate based on the most southern or Japan's four major islands. Under the terms of the deal, Ericsson will supply mobile switching centers, radio base stations, and operations support centers based on the Japanese PDC (personal digital communications) system. PDC is a digital standard developed in Japan for the 800 megahertz (MHz) and 1.5 gigahertz (GHz) bands. The new company is one of six established by Nissan Motor Company (TSE:7201) and Japan Telecom (TSE:9434), a unit of Japan Railways. Nissan Motor is the main shareholder in the Tu-Ka Cellular telephone group which operates the networks in the Tokyo, Tokai and Kansai regions, Japan's three most densely populated areas. Japan Telecom is the main shareholder in the Digital Phone group which runs competing networks in the same three areas as the Tu-Ka group. To cover all of Japan, the two companies came together to form regional networks that subscribers of both services could use. The joint ventures were necessary because of the large cost of covering less populated areas and the lower returns that would be received. Ericsson is already involved in the Japanese cellular telephone market and has won several contracts from the Digital Phone Group's Tokyo, Tokai, and Kansai companies, while Tu-Ka Cellular has gone to NEC and Motorola for the majority of its network infrastructure. Based on the relationship with Japan Telecom through its Digital Phone group, Ericsson Radio System AB's Director of Marketing & Business Development for Japan Hans Jarne, told Newsbytes the company remains optimistic for the future, "We already have one contract for Kyushu and now Hokkaido. We are hoping for more contracts, but it remains to be seen if we will get them." In each of the recently announced joint venture networks, Ericsson is facing stiff competition from NEC and Motorola for the deals in a country that represents Ericsson's second largest and fastest growing market for business area radio communications. (Martyn Williams/19951101/Press contact: Hans Jarne, Ericsson Radio Systems AB, +46-8-757-2923) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 11/01/95 CHIPS Mitsubishi Offers Next-Generation DRAM (NEWS)(CHIPS)(TYO)(00013) Mitsubishi Offers Next-Generation DRAM 11/01/95 TOKYO, JAPAN, 1995 NOV 1 (NB) -- Mitsubishi Electric Corporation and Mitsubishi Electronics America Inc. have announced availability of a second-generation DRAM (dynamic random access memory) chip that uses state-of-the-art technology to cram more components into a smaller space and consume less power than previously needed. By using 0.3 micron CMOS (complimentary metal oxide semiconductor) process technology, the entire chip can be squeezed onto a 135 millimeter (mm) squared die. The company has also achieved an operating current of 100mA by reducing the external voltage of 3.3V to 2.5V, making it the lowest operating current of any comparable chips. The new reduced die size reflects Mitsubishi's leadership in 64 megabit (Mb) DRAM design capability, said the company. The 64Mb DRAM will be available for sampling from November 15th at a price of 70,000 yen ($683) when the company begins manufacturing of 50,000 a month. Production of the chips is forecast to begin in a year from now, with full production scheduled to reach between two and three million chips a month in 1998. The chips are available in either fast page mode or EDO (extended data out) mode in each of the 16M by 4 or 8M by 8 configurations. Available access speeds are 50, 60 and 70 nanoseconds (ns). Such memory chips are set to become the standard inside personal computers and all types of data devices over the next few years as the 64Mb market takes over from 8Mb memory chips, the current standard, encouraged by memory hungry applications and higher demand put on computers by faster microprocessors. The world's chip makers are currently busy building and planning factories or production lines to manufacture the new devices. Mitsubishi recently announced a 100 billion yen investment in a new production line at its plant in Saijo, Ehime Prefecture. In the United States, Mitsubishi Materials Corp. is about to begin construction of a new plant to produce the chips. The engineering samples announced are being produced by the company's VLSI Research Institute in Itami, Hyogo Prefecture, the same center that produced the company's first such device. (Martyn Williams/19951101/Press contact: Mitsubishi Electric Corp., tel +81-3-3218-2359, fax +81-3-3218-2431) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 11/01/95 ONLINE Internet Update (NEWS)(ONLINE)(TYO)(00014) Internet Update 11/01/95 TOKYO, JAPAN, 1995 NOV 1 (NB) -- In this update of new resources and services on the global Internet: News from Philly, Finland president's home page, Travel data at your fingertips, Stock forecast charts, Linux on your laptop, Nothing but maths, Christian software news. News From Philly Two of Philadelphia's newspapers, The Philadelphia Inquirer and Philadelphia Daily News, begin publishing on the Internet today. Currently available sections include the jobs and entertainment listings and you can be sure they are up to date because the Web site is linked in real time to the in-house publishing system. World Wide Web: http://www.phillynews.com/ Finland President's Home Page Whilst Bill Clinton may have an electronic-mail address, the President of Finland has gone one better and established his own home page. We're not sure if the President actually learned HTML (hypertext markup language) and wrote the pages, but there are details of his work, thoughts, travels, speeches, interviews, and working environment. World Wide Web: http://www.tpk.fi/ Travel Data At Your Fingertips Two national tourist agencies have just debuted pages on the Internet. The Austrian National Tourist Office in the United States has established a server with country information, travel tips, and details of the people of Austria. World Wide Web: http://www.anto.com/ If it's the southern hemisphere you are interested in, maybe the New Zealand Tourism Database will tempt you to travel to the Pacific island nation. This server is particularly geared towards Internet users with details of services and travel agents that maintain network presences or accept inquiries and booking by e-mail. World Wide Web: http://www.gisnz.com/ Stock Forecast Charts Using computer analysis of share price data and other publicly available information, the Insider Information Web site tracks major US and non-US corporations and predicts future share price changes. Predicted changes, and the size of such changes, are online. World Wide Web: http://www.netgate.net:80/~forecast/ Linux On Your Laptop If you are considering installing Linux, a freeware 32-bit Unix-based operating system, on your laptop, then you'll need to drop by this page first. It offers full details of the information you'll need, hints and tips. World Wide Web: http://www.cs.utexas.edu/users/kharker/linux-laptop/ Nothing But Maths The Math-Net Links to the Mathematical World pages contain links to all types of mathematical resources on the network from Math Web to the Mathematical Museum. Provided by Zentrum fur Informationstechnik Berlin. World Wide Web: http://elib.zib-berlin.de:88/Math-Net/Links/math.html At the elementary school level, Donna Gifford's home page offers a page of interest to pre-service and practicing elementary math and science teachers with links to useful Internet services. World Wide Web: http://aruba.ccit.arizona.edu/~dgifford/ Christian Software News A new mailing list has been set up to keep users informed of new Christian-related software products as they become available. With a predicted volume of one to two e-mail messages a week, users can keep up to date with software products such as bible study, clip-art, desktop publishing, church management systems, edutainment, games, and miscellaneous items such as Christian screen savers. E-mail: serious@mindspring.com Message Body: subscribe CSN your_name (Martyn Williams/19951101) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 11/01/95 ONLINE Iworld - PSINet Teams With Content, Service Providers (NEWS)(ONLINE)(BOS)(00015) Iworld - PSINet Teams With Content, Service Providers 11/01/95 BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS, U.S.A., 1995 NOV 1 (NB) -- PSINet, a major Internet access provider, has forged "mutually advantageous" pacts with Spectrum Holobyte, VocalTec, Positive Response Television (PRTV), and five other online content and service providers. The announcement was made during a four-hour launch event in Boston designed to mirror PSINet's new online content on multiple levels of sight, sound, and interactivity. "Look around you, and what do you see? Entertainment, education, and games," said Nick Kromenacker, PSINet's director of marketing, in the midst of the event, attended by Newsbytes at Boston's Museum of Science as part of the extensive activities surrounding Internetworld Boston '95. The newly unveiled PSINet deals will give "higher bandwidth" to content providers, while drawing new audiences to PSINet, he added, during a meeting with Newsbytes. The interview was conducted in a demo area set up for the evening next to one of the museum's many huge, life-sized dinosaurs. Not very far away, some of the PSINet launch attendees watched a live rock band. The musicians were dressed up in orange-and-black outfits and sunglasses for their Halloween gig at the museum. Quite a few attendees danced. Other visitors viewed the PSINet content demos or physically browsed the science museum exhibits, simultaneously munching on sandwiches or desserts. Professional mimes circulated among the crowd, playing the roles of Halloween ghouls. Not much earlier in the evening, in a press briefing at the museum, Martin L. Schoffstall, PSINet's co-founder and chief technical officer, officially announced PSINet's pacts with Tripod, US Digital Corp., Oliver's North American Enterprises, IntelliComSolutions, Mpath Interactive, Spectrum Holobyte, VocalTec, and PRTV. Soon after that, actors depicting Dr. Frankenstein and Igor gave the announcements a second "blast-off" in an electrically charged ceremony conducted in the science museum's Van der Graaf generator room. Kromenacker told Newsbytes during the meeting at the museum that PSINet selected the new providers of Internet content and services with the help of feedback from a focus group. "We learned from them what people want," he remarked. Several of PSINet's new content offerings will be provided through Web sites on PSINet's network, according to the marketing director. Tripod's Web site, for example, was created by members of the "college and `twenty-something' generation," who have grown up with "computers in the classroom," for members of their own generation. Through PSINet's deal with Spectrum Holobyte, Spectrum's Microprose Software Studio subsidiary will release CivNet, the Internet version of the Civilization game, over InterRamp, giving PSINet a major point of entry into the online games market, said the PSINet exec. A new Web page from US Digital Corp., a telecommunications company specializing in real estate and mortgage banking, will bring a new market of individuals who are "relocating to elsewhere in the US," permitting them to find out about pricing and availability of real estate on an up-to-the-minute basis, he reported. Oliver North's home page will "combine the Web with radio," continued Kromenacker, explaining that PSINet will provide its InterRamp Internet service to North's radio listeners. The North American home page will also feature discussions of current events through "cyber call-ins," together with the "North Poll," an area for callers' votes on designated topics. Meanwhile, PRTV will produce a half-hour TV "infomercial" describing the Internet for TV viewers, and promoting a video instructional series to the uninitiated, Newsbytes was told. The instructional series will recommend NetShark, a software package from PSINet's InterCon subsidiary, as an Internet navigation tool. NetShark combines a Web browser with multimedia electronic mail. Through PSINet's partnership with VocalTec, he noted, VocalTec users will be able to phone each other over the Internet. VocalTec plans to bundle a PSINet's Instant InterRamp with a seven-day free trial offer into its Internet Phone software package. Via another partnership, Mpath Interactive will deploy its software for "improved network performance" over InterRamp, Kromenacker told Newsbytes. And through an agreement with IntellicomSolutions, PSINet expects to penetrate the systems integration market. Under the deal, IntelliCom will serve as a "point of contact" for systems integrators who are interested in ordering and supporting PSINet services for individual and corporate customers. Other participants in the pacts echoed Kromenacker's comments. In another meeting at the museum, Bo Peabody, Tripod's 24-year-old president and chief executive officer (CEO), told Newsbytes that the deal with PSINet provides his company with a "robust and solid Internet infrastructure." During a demo of Tripod for Newsbytes, another Tripod staffer contended that the new Web site gives twenty-somethings "tools for life that they don't get in school," with interactive, virtual reality-oriented areas on jobs, finances, and "what it would be like to move to another city," for instance. Newsbytes viewed a section of Tripod that revolves around photos of Grand Central Station, Times Square, and the New York Public Library, affording Web users the chance to interact with Avatars in a variety of scenarios about life and work in "the Big Apple." (Jacqueline Emigh/19951101/Reader Contact: PSINet, 703-904-4100; Press Contact: Mike Maney, Poppe Tyson for PSINet, 201-539-0300) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 11/01/95 LEGAL ****Software Police Raid California BBS (NEWS)(LEGAL)(DEN)(00016) ****Software Police Raid California BBS 11/01/95 PASADENA, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1995 NOV 1 (NB) -- Friday the 13th of October certainly was unlucky for the operator of a Pasadena, California-based bulletin board system (BBS). That was the day US Marshals, accompanied by representatives from the Business Software Alliance (BSA) and private investigators representing various software companies, raided his home where they said they found hundreds of illegal software programs available for downloading from the board. The investigators said they found copyrighted programs published by Autodesk, Lotus, Microsoft, Novell, and the Wordperfect Applications Group on the "Depeches Violation" BBS. Callers to the board could download software from two computers that investigators said had a total storage capacity of seven gigabytes. The board had five phone lines and five modems. All of the equipment was seized and removed from the site. Investigators did not identify the sysop by name, but said he is in his early twenties and ran the board from his home. The BSA said that's the typical profile of a pirate BBS sysop. BSA spokesperson Diane Smiroldo told Newsbytes phone records indicate the Depeches Violation sysop has regularly accessed other bulletin boards BSA describes as "illegal." A lawsuit against the operator is pending. Since its launch in 1988, BSA has filed more than 600 lawsuits worldwide against suspected copyright infringers. It also initiates audits of organizations suspected of using copied software and maintains more than 35 telephone hotlines around the world for callers to reports suspected incidents of unauthorized software copying or to get information about copyright matters. In the US the number is 800-688-2721. Penalties are severe if you're caught with pirated software. BSA officials told Newsbytes that potential damages on civil claims could reach up to $100,000 per willful copyright infringement. If charged under criminal statutes, penalties can go as high as $250,000 and as long as five years in prison, or both. While individuals may not see anything wrong with obtaining a free copy of a software program, BSA officials warn that such users face several problems. In addition to the act being illegal, you can't get technical support for pirated software and also could find your computer crippled by a destructive virus that arrived with the download or on the floppy disk containing the illegal software. The Pasadena raid is the third raid by BSA or its member companies over the past year as they step up pressure on bulletin boards that distribute software illegally. In addition to the company's whose software was found on the Depeches Violation BBS, BSA members also include Bentley Systems, Intergraph, The Santa Cruz Operation, and Symantec. (Jim Mallory/19951101/press contact: Diane Smiroldo, BSA, 202-872-5500; Public contact: BSA, tel 800-688-2721 or 202-872-5500, fax 202-872-5501, Internet e-mail software@bsa.org ) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 11/01/95 TELECOM Canada's CRTC Confirms Telephone Rate Rebalancing (NEWS)(TELECOM)(TOR)(00017) Canada's CRTC Confirms Telephone Rate Rebalancing 11/01/95 OTTAWA, ONTARIO, CANADA, 1995 NOV 1 (NB) -- The Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) has stood its ground on an earlier decision that will see monthly local telephone rates rise C$4 over the next two years, while long-distance rates fall. It has also substantially stood by its assessment of how telephone companies' costs break down between competitive long-distance service and monopoly local service. The CRTC re-affirmed its earlier decision to let companies that provide local telephone service raise their monthly charges by C$2 on January 1 of each of the next two years, with another increase expected at the beginning of 1998. The 1998 increase will come at the same time as Canadian telephone regulation switches from its present rate-of-return method, under which the phone companies are allowed a certain profit margin, to price caps. As the regional phone companies raise their local rates, they will be required to lower long-distance charges by an offsetting amount. In its new decision, the CRTC has specified that these reductions must be in basic long-distance rates, so that the largest possible number of telephone users will benefit. The CRTC was addressing concerns that low-income residential customers would pay increased local rates, but not benefit from the long-distance rate cuts because they tend to use long-distance service less than others. The CRTC looked at evidence presented by the competing long-distance carriers, Unitel Communications Inc. and Sprint Canada Inc., that said the regional telephone companies are overstating the cost of operating local service while understating long-distance costs. The regulators refused to reduce the contributions that the long-distance companies must pay to support local service, but did adjust the cost allocations somewhat. In a prepared statement, Unitel officials praised the decision, calling it a step toward true sustainable competition. The commission also said the costs of the Beacon Initiative, a nationwide program to build information highway infrastructure and services, should be borne by the regional telephone companies' shareholders and not passed on to subscribers. It also said the Manitoba Telephone System, a government-owned carrier, will be regulated on the same basis as other regionaltelephone companies. (Grant Buckler/19951101/Press Contact: Don Donovan, CRTC, 819-997-4818) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 11/01/95 BROADCAST Intel Donates Telecommuting Videoconf Equipment (NEWS)(BROADCAST)(LAX)(00018) Intel Donates Telecommuting Videoconf Equipment 11/01/95 LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1995 NOV 1 (NB) -- The Southern California Telecommuting Partnership (SCTP) has announced that Intel has donated 35 ProShare Personal Conferencing Video Systems to the partnership. The Intel ProShare Personal Conferencing Video System is a PC-based, desktop system that provides real-time video images of users in two locations. Established in the wake of the Northridge earthquake, the SCTP's program claims to be the largest telecommuting initiative of its kind in the nation. The consortium of public and private sector entities says it is committed to the economic development of Southern California through the promotion of telecommuting as a "cutting-edge business strategy." The SCTP is funded by local governments with some private donations and a grant from the United States Department of Commerce. When the Northridge earthquake hit, the City of Los Angeles and the surrounding counties created a partnership to encourage telecommuting as an emergency alternative to the damaged transportation infrastructure. Three years later, with transportation back to normal, the government program continues. Susan Herman of the City of Los Angeles Information Technology Agency and chairperson of the SCTP, told Newsbytes that a large part of the credit for the continuing program goes to Vice President Al Gore. "Al Gore heard about what we were doing, and he hoped that others around the nation would recognize the benefits of telecommuting," said Herman. At Gore's initiative, the federal government, through the much maligned Department of Commerce, granted $1.5 million to continue the program after the earthquake crisis was over. The SCTP has embarked on a $2 million public education, marketing, and training program to promote telecommuting throughout the five-county region. The Intel donation will go to telecenters, which provide a range of technology-based services to telecommuters who require a link to their regular offices and clients. Intel's 35 ProShare Personal Conferencing Video Systems will be distributed to telecenters located in Los Angeles, Simi Valley, Valencia, Highland, Ontario, Irvine, Moorpark, Ventura, Lancaster, Pomona, Anaheim, Irvine, and San Juan Capistrano. The telecenters are "remote" offices with telecommuting equipment set up. The idea is that people will go to the remote offices and telecommute from those locations. They can then telecommute to their main office or to any location set up to receive them. "Our goal is to demonstrate to Southland businesses the bottom-line benefits of telecommuting," said Jim Johnson, vice president of Intel Communications Group. "These systems can provide businesses and their employees with the ability to increase productivity, save time, and reduce travel costs." According Herman, the ProShare video systems will help telecenters expand their services to businesses and individual users. "We hope that other companies will follow Intel's lead by offering their own support of our marketing and public education efforts," Herman said. The SCTP's current public education campaign involves a telecommuting "sales" force. Training efforts will include the development of manuals, videos, and other materials, as well as expert on-site assistance for businesses that plan to implement telecommuting programs. (Richard Bowers/19951101/Press Contact: Todd Appleman, 310-274-8787) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 11/01/95 ONLINE Internet Update - Art Sites On The Web (NEWS)(ONLINE)(TYO)(00019) Internet Update - Art Sites On The Web 11/01/95 MINNEAPOLIS, MINNESOTA, U.S.A., 1995 NOV 1 (NB) -- These new art-related sites have appeared on the Internet recently: California Rockart Museum, Roland Lee Art Gallery, St. Petersburg Salvador Dali Museum, and Varo Registry Details Living Women Artists. California Rockart Museum This San Francisco-based museum holds music-related art from the 1960s up to the present. World Wide Web: http://www.san-fran.com/rockart/museum.html Roland Lee Art Gallery A selection of water color paintings and prints of the stunning south west American landscape is offered by this gallery's online service. World Wide Web: http://www.infowest.com/rolandlee/Gallery_.html St. Petersburg Salvador Dali Museum Not from Russia, but St. Petersburg, Florida, this museum offers visitors an examination and look at the works of the surrealist master. View over 100 high-resolution scans of Dali's best works of art. World Wide Web: http://webcoast.com/Dali Varo Registry Details Living Women Artists The Varo Registry is a collection of images by living women artists. Visitors to the server will find a catalog of around 70 images by six artists. In the near future, more works, by another six artists, are scheduled to be added to the service. World Wide Web: http://www.netdreams.com/registry/ (Martyn Williams/19951101) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 11/01/95 BUSINESS Spyglass Posts Record Results (NEWS)(BUSINESS)(MSP)(00020) Spyglass Posts Record Results 11/01/95 NAPERVILLE, ILLINOIS, U.S.A., 1995 NOV 1 (NB) -- On the heels of Spyglass' (NASDAQ:SPYG) strong financial results for both fiscal year 1995 and the fourth quarter of 1995, the company's stock on Wall Street spiraled upwards today. At 12 Noon EST, Spyglass was trading up $7.25, at $57.00. Spyglass' net revenue for the fiscal year was up 185 percent at $10.35 million, compared to the previous year's revenues at $3.63 million. Net income for the year was up 64 percent at $2.18 million, and net income per share was up 28 percent for the year to $.50 per share, compared to $.39 per share for fiscal 1994. Part of the $.50 came from the sale of the company's visualization tools business, to the tune of $.12 per share, Spyglass spokesperson Randy Pitzer told Newsbytes. But even when the $.12 is taken away, the income per share number is still above analysts' expectations, he said. In the fourth quarter, net revenue was up 61 percent compared to the same quarter last year, net income was up 126 percent, and net income per share was up 33 percent. "We are continuing our profitability that began seven quarters ago," said Douglas Colbeth, Spyglass president and chief executive officer. "Our results for the fiscal year 1995 send a message that our partner- based business model is very effective. In fact, we estimate, during the last quarter alone, our partners generated over $120 million worth of Internet-related revenues." Spyglass officials attributed the strong showing to more companies lining up to license Spyglass' Enhanced Mosaic Internet World Wide Web browser, and several new customers for the recently-introduced Spyglass Server, which runs Web sites. Some of the new Enhanced Mosaic licensees include Quarterdeck, Oracle, Datastorm, and the Vanguard Group. New server customers include Fujitsu, Luckman Interactive, WRQ, and TGV Software. Already, companies like Microlinks and Oracle license the Spyglass Server. The company also said it will expand its sales organizations on a global scale, doubling its sales force during the current quarter. The Far Eastern market will be serviced out of the company's San Francisco office, and Spyglass plans to open a European office, Pitzer said. Nearly a third of Spyglass' customers are based outside the US, officials said. (Bob Woods/19951101/Press Contact: Randy Pitzer, Spyglass, 708-505-1010) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 11/01/95 LEGAL ****Novell Files Piracy Suit Against Reseller (NEWS)(LEGAL)(DEN)(00021) ****Novell Files Piracy Suit Against Reseller 11/01/95 OREM, UTAH, U.S.A., 1995 NOV 1 (NB) -- Novell Inc. (NASDAQ: NOVL) has filed a civil action suit in the US District Court for the District of Massachusetts, charging software reseller Trident International Inc. with software piracy. In legal terms, the suit alleges infringement of trademark and trade dress as well as fraudulent abuse of Novell's upgrade license program by Nantick, Massachusetts-based Trident. Novell said it filed the suit after discovering, what it called, counterfeit versions of its Netware network operating system version 4.1 software were being sold into Europe and the Middle East from the US. Novell said a series of test purchases revealed that the illegal product was being supplied to Persona Group PLC, a software retailer in the United Kingdom, by Trident. Novell investigator David Lee told Newsbytes that, so far, the company hasn't seen any evidence to dispute Persona Group's claim that it was unaware it was distributing illegal software. Novell said a follow-up test purchase made in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) from Trident revealed that Novell's upgrade product had been re-labeled and placed in counterfeit packaging to give it the appearance of being an original product. Novell said Trident tampered with the product by affixing stick-on labels on the package to obscure the fact that the buyer was purchasing an upgrade instead of the complete version of the program. The purchase of illegal software isn't as good a deal financially as it sounds. "You will have paid retail price for an upgrade package, which would concern me if I was the end-user," said a Novell spokesperson. Novell said sellers of illegal software also hurt the legitimate retail channel reseller since a buyers' natural inclination is to buy at the cheapest price, not realizing they are buying pirated software. The attraction to the purchaser is usually the lower cost, but buyers need to be aware of the potential problems they face. When they purchase an upgrade product, represented as an original version of the software, they won't be able to get technical support. They also won't be eligible to upgrade the next time the software publisher ships an upgrade, said a Novell spokesperson. Novell spokesperson Ed Morin said it filed civil, rather than criminal, charges in this particular case because civil cases move through the justice system more quickly. Novell operates a vigorous anti-piracy program and maintains a telephone hotline for the reporting of illegal software use or to make inquiries about copyright protection of software and its proper use. You can call Novell on the toll-free number at 800-747-2837, or send the company electronic-mail via the Internet at pirates@novell.com. Novell participated in the closing of a bulletin board system (BBS) in New York about a week ago. The company charges that the BBS was illegally making pirated software available for download to users. (Jim Mallory/19951101/Press contact: Ron Barker, Novell, 801-429-7811) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 00 11/01/95 TRENDS First Recordable CD For Under $1, (NEWS)(TRENDS)(LAX)(00022) First Recordable CD For Under $1,000 11/01/95 IRVINE, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1995 NOV 1 (NB) -- Pinnacle Micro Inc. (NASDAQ: PNCL) has introduced a new recordable compact disk (CD-R) system priced below $1,000 that is slated to ship in full production in mid-November. The company has teamed up with software maker, Corel, and input/output (I/O) equipment manufacturer, Adaptec, to offer the low cost CD-R product. Pinnacle's new RCD 5020 will retail for $995, for the internal PC version, and $1,295, for the Macintosh and PC external versions. Pinnacle predicts street prices as low as $850 through national dealers, distributors, and retail superstores. Jennifer Blanchfield, a spokesperson for Pinnacle Micro, told Newsbytes, "This is the first recordable CD to be offered for under $1,000, and we expect it to be the only one under for some time to come. Pinnacle has the majority of the market in recordable CDs, and this announcement should maintain our position." The new RCD 5020 is a 2X recorder/player with a one megabyte (MB) cache buffer. The RCD 5020 PC includes a custom version of Corel's CD Creator 2 application software, which allows for Windows 3.11, Windows '95, and Windows NT compatibility in 32-bit mode. Corel's CD Creator Version 2 also supports features such as data recording, audio recording, audio editing, read digital audio, disk-at-once, track-at-once, photo CD viewing, and recording. The RCD 5020 also has a software connection to Microsoft Backup for archiving of data which includes a compression feature that can double the capacity of a single CD to 1.3 gigabytes (GB). RCD Archive is designed to allow Microsoft Backup to backup and restore from the Pinnacle Micro RCD 5020 Recordable CD system. RCD Archive also contains copy and move functions to make it possible to copy or move files from any hard disk to the RCD 5020 automatically or manually. Users will also receive two free blank compact disks, a free copy of the UP! multimedia CD with over 100 startup and motivation videos, the Best of Corel Stock Photos, and Corel Gallery Clip Art Images. "The CD-R market is exploding," said Scott Blum, executive vice president of Pinnacle. "And with the RCD 5020 priced at $995, we are expecting sales to continue growing rapidly." Blum predicts that CD-R systems will replace tape drives and CD-ROM players in the near future. "The combination of Corel CD Creator version 2 and Pinnacle's new RCD 5020 offers consumers an easy, affordable way to produce data and audio CDs, as well as customized jewelcase inserts," said Dr. Michael Cowpland, president and chief executive officer of Corel Corporation. "This bundle will help bring CD recording closer to home and business users who are interested in the areas of digital photography, data distribution, backup/archival, software development, music, or multimedia authoring." "We are pleased to be working with Pinnacle Micro," said S. Sundaresh, vice president and general manager of the Personal I/O business unit at Adaptec. "Their ability to bring quality optical products to market coupled with Adaptec's expertize in SCSI (small computer systems interface) technology and compatibility will result in greater benefits to the end user." (Richard Bowers/19951101/Press Contact: Jennifer Blanchfield, Pinnacle Micro, 800-553-7070) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 11/01/95 TELECOM Global 95 ISDN Project Spans 30 Countries (NEWS)(TELECOM)(LON)(00023) Global 95 ISDN Project Spans 30 Countries 11/01/95 LONDON, ENGLAND, 1995 NOV 1 (NB) -- One of the world's most ambitious multi-site demonstrations of technology, Global 95, is now less than a month away. The event, which takes place between November 28 and 30, will take place at multiple locations around the world, all linked by ISDN (integrated services digital network) circuits, and designed to show what can be done with ISDN technology. The European Global 95 events will take place in Luxemburg. There, P&T, the local telephone company, will show off its ISDN products and services at the Hotel Sofitel. In the UK, British Telecom will be sponsoring the "global village" event at the Telecom Manager's Association (TMA) exhibition in Brighton. Elsewhere in the UK, there will be a business sector-based exhibition at the G-Mex Center in Manchester and at the Queen Elizabeth II Conference Center in London. PTT Austria. meanwhile, will hold seminars and exhibitions at Graz and Bregenz in Austria, while PTT Netherlands will host two sites in Rotterdam, at the World Trade Center and in Utrecht, at the ISDN Integration Center. There will also be a Global 95 event taking place in Ireland during the duration of the global event. Ray Pritchard, director of communications with Global 95, claims that more than 120 organizations in 30 countries around the world are hosting Global 95-compliant events in the November 28-30 timeframe. Global 95 sponsors represent major carriers, manufacturers and telecommunications operators in North America, Europe, the Pacific Rim, Africa, and the Middle East. The project is being centrally operated by a joint venture between Western Connect of Northern Ireland and Bellcore of the US. The idea behind Global 95 is that, from many different locations in the world, participants will be linked by the facility of ISDN technology, and at the same time, ISDN shows and demonstrations will take place. The events will be presented by major ISDN equipment and service providers such as: Alcatel, AVM, Bellcore, Cisco Systems, IBM, Intel, KNX, MCI, Motorola, Olivetti, Racal Datacom, Siemens Nixdorf, Spider Systems, 3Com, and all European operators. These companies will reportedly demonstrate the benefits of ISDN in many different aspects of everyday activities, including entertainment. "Global 95 will be an exciting opportunity to see the latest developments in the 'information society.' It will also be an opportunity to see the vast potential and possibilities for the multimedia uses of ISDN in areas such as retailing, healthcare, banking, the media, teleworking, energy, education and government, and even music composition," he explained. (Sylvia Dennis/19951101/Press Contact: Global 95 Press Help Desk, US 617-232-3111; Reader Contact: Global 95 hotlines: for Europe, Asia and Africa, tel 800-922-ISDN; for North and South America, tel 201-829-4094) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 11/01/95 BUSINESS Siemens Nixdorf Opens UK Telecoms Operation (NEWS)(BUSINESS)(LON)(00024) Siemens Nixdorf Opens UK Telecoms Operation 11/01/95 BRACKNELL, BERKSHIRE, ENGLAND, 1995 NOV 1 (NB) -- Siemens Nixdorf Information Systems has set up a new telecoms business in the UK, known as Siemens Nixdorf Telecom. According to company officials, the new company will launch the company's Intelligent Network technology in the UK later this year. The Intelligent Network systems will also be launched in Europe, Newsbytes understands. According to Huw Hampson Jones, general manager of the new company, the news business will operate in four main areas: development of applications areas including smart cards, multimedia and enhanced service platforms; the development of intelligent networks, operating support systems and telephony management networks; the implementation of a range of smart customer care systems; and directory assistance. "The UK is the fourth largest telecoms market worldwide. To address this market, we will integrate the strengths of the Siemens Group, its sister company GPT and third party expertise," he explained, adding that plans call for the company to establish a UK-based international "research and development competence center" to develop value-added services for network operators. Andy Wise, a senior consultancy with Siemens Nixdorf, told Newsbytes that the company's new range of Intelligent Networks products will be unveiled towards the end of the year. "This new telecoms division will allow us to work with our partners, including GPT, to offer new products and support to customers, where previously we relied on dealers. Our plan is to sell through dealers, as well as on a direct sales basis," he said. Newsbytes notes that Siemens Nixdorf already supplies networking and telecoms equipment into the German marketplace. According to Wise, while the aim is not to exactly copy the model it has in Germany for company sales and support, the German model will be used as a basis for the UK market. (Steve Gold/19951101/Press Contact: Paula Schmidt, Siemens Nixdorf Information Systems, +44-1344-850881; Siemens Nixdorf, tel +44-1344-862222, fax +44-1344-950912) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 11/01/95 BUSINESS ****SoftKey Pushes Into Education Market (NEWS)(BUSINESS)(TOR)(00025) ****SoftKey Pushes Into Education Market 11/01/95 CAMBRIDGE, MASSACHUSETTS, U.S.A., 1995 NOV 1 (NB) -- SoftKey International Inc. (NASDAQ:SKEY;TSE:SSK) has launched a major push into the educational software market by agreeing to acquire Minnesota Educational Computing Corp. (NASDAQ:MECC) and launching a hostile takeover offer for The Learning Co. (NASDAQ:LRNG). SoftKey, best known for its extensive line of consumer software products, said it has signed a definitive merger agreement with MECC, under which SoftKey will exchange $40 worth of its own common stock for each outstanding share of MECC's common stock, provided SoftKey's stock trades at an average price between $35 and $45 for a 20-day period ending three days before the deal closes. There are fixed prices set for the exchange if SoftKey's stock price is outside that band. The total price would be about $370 million, officials said. Certain conditions, such as shareholder approvals, still have to be met. SoftKey also announced an offer of $65 per share for The Learning Co., to be paid in cash for the first 4.6 million shares and in stock for the remainder. In doing so, SoftKey is challenging an earlier offer by Broderbund Software Inc., which has agreed to buy Learning for about $440 million in stock. The Learning Co. said in a prepared statement that it is evaluating SoftKey's offer, and asked its shareholders not to make a decision on the offer until it has done so. Broderbund issued a statement saying it believes its own offer is in the best interests of both firms' shareholders. John Suske, a spokesman for SoftKey, told Newsbytes the company is embarking on a push into the education market for "quite a few reasons." At Newsbytes' deadline Wednesday, SoftKey executives still had not responded to requests for further comment. (Grant Buckler/19951101/Press Contact: John Suske, SoftKey, 617-494-5816; Donald Anderson, MECC, 612-569-1513; Les Schmidt, Learning Co., 510-792-2101; Eric Winkler, Broderbund, 415-382-4568) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 11/01/95 BUSINESS Amdahl Raises Offer For DMR Group (NEWS)(BUSINESS)(TOR)(00026) Amdahl Raises Offer For DMR Group 11/01/95 SUNNYVALE, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1995 NOV 1 (NB) -- Amdahl Corp. (AMEX:AMH) is moving closer to victory in its quest to take over Montreal-based consulting firm DMR Group Inc. (TSE:DR). Amdahl took up and paid for another 97,000 DMR shares, reached deposit agreements for some 2.9 million more, and raised its offer from C$8.25 to C$12.50 per share. Meanwhile, BDM International Inc., of McLean, Virginia, did not extend its offer for DMR shares on Monday. This made a three-way struggle for DMR into a two-way contest between Amdahl and IBM Canada Ltd. of Markham, Ontario. IBM had earlier topped the other bidders' offers by proposing to pay C$11 per share for DMR. On Wednesday, IBM Canada spokesman Mike Quinn told Newsbytes his firm has not yet decided whether to raise its bid in response to Amdahl's move. "Our offer doesn't expire until Monday, November 6," Quinn said, "so we will come out with a statement some time before then." Amdahl said that after obtaining about another three million Class A shares of DMR, it now has 54 percent of the Montreal firm's outstanding shares and 85 percent of the votes attached to all shares. Amdahl said its latest move meant IBM Canada cannot meet its stated goal of obtaining at least 70 percent of DMR shares. IBM had originally said it wanted at least 90 percent of the shares, but the company lowered that target last week. A court decision is still pending on the convertibility of Class A DMR shares into the Class B shares that carry most of the voting control. (Grant Buckler/19951101/Press Contact: William Stewart, Amdahl, 408-746-6076; Mike Quinn, IBM Canada, 905-316-2255) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 11/01/95 ONLINE Wales Tourist Board Plugs Into The Web (NEWS)(ONLINE)(LON)(00027) Wales Tourist Board Plugs Into The Web 11/01/95 NEWPORT, GWENT, WALES, 1995 NOV 1 (NB) -- The Wales Tourist Board (WTB) claims it has become the first tourist authority in the UK to offer a major site on the World Wide Web. According to Kim Colebrook, the WTB's information services manager, the site was designed and developed by Imaginet, a Web services company, and is unique in that "it includes video and sound clips." #IMAGE 1 20 TWPCX \images\95110127.PCX Click here for photo This means that users with multimedia Web browsers can download the clips and play them locally, allowing them to hear, for example, the correct pronunciation of the longest Welsh place name. The site also has hot lines to other sites of potential interest in the UK and the US, and will eventually support direct bookings of holidays in Wales. "Our interactive Web pages have been designed with stylish state-of- the-art graphics incorporating the WTB's established marketing livery and branding. We were impressed that Imaginet was able to complete this ambitious project in less than three months," Colebrook said. According to Colebrook, while the WTB will administer the Web site itself on a day-to-day basis, Imaginet is still supporting the board, and is keeping an eye out for useful and related Web sites to hot link into. This, he said, is essential, if users are to realize the full potential of the Internet. Imaginet is a specialist company that offers Web site design and development, thanks to its affiliation with Payne Taylor Design and Electronic Commerce. The WTB pages are maintained on Imaginet's Web servers, a Sun Sparc 20, which can support up to 250 concurrent users, and is based on the EUnet backbone. The site, which claims to offer the fastest international Internet links in the UK, is located at http://www.tourism.wales.gov.uk . (Sylvia Dennis/19951101/Press Contact: Maggie Davies, +44-1344-301022; Internet e-mail maggied@cix.compulink.co.uk; Reader Contact: Welsh Tourist Board, +44-1222-475252/WALES19951101/PHOTO) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 11/01/95 PC Zenith Data Systems Announces Pentium Pro Support (NEWS)(PC)(MSP)(00028) Zenith Data Systems Announces Pentium Pro Support 11/01/95 BUFFALO GROVE, ILLINOIS, U.S.A., 1995 NOV 1 (NB) -- On the same day Intel formally announced its new Pentium Pro microprocessor, Zenith Data Systems (ZDS) said its future Z-Station desktop computers will support Intel's latest offering. The new line of machines are expected to ship in late 1995 or early 1996, ZDS officials said. Because the Pentium Pro is designed for running 32-bit applications, the new Z-Station line will come pre-loaded with Microsoft Windows NT 3.51, officials said. Pricing is not currently available, but ZDS officials told Newsbytes the new computer line will fall in the "higher end" of system pricing. "As an OEM (original equipment manufacturer), I think its important to show our technical know-how to provide the latest solutions to our customers," Jeff Loebbaka, senior director of desktop product marketing for ZDS, told Newsbytes. "I think we're making a strong statement that we're there, we're on the leading edge, and we are working to provide those types of offerings and the latest technology to our customers." The new Z-Station product line will come with Pentium Pro processors running at 150 megahertz (MHz), 166MHz, 180MHz, or 200MHz, with PCI (Peripheral Component Interconnect) local bus expansion capability. The new configurations will also feature high capacity EIDE hard drives up to 2.1 gigabytes (GB) and support up to 128MB of RAM. The latest Z-Station configurations will only be available in a mini-tower case, officials said. Some of the options for the ZDS's Pentium Pro line include Diamond Multimedia Systems' Stealth64 Video 2201 multimedia accelerator, and others that will help users who need to run graphics-intensive applications, computer-aided design (CAD), engineering and software development, and advanced financial applications. Loebbaka said Pentium Pro desktops aren't meant for the mainstream market as of yet because of price points, and because the true 32-bit machines which run programs like Windows NT don't currently have a wide market. "I think (Pentium Pros) will have a role in a market like the Fortune 1000, where they're looking for high-end desktops or entry- level workstations type performance and Windows NT environments," he said. Over time, 32-bit technology will become more available and the price point will come down to make Pentium Pro-equipped machines more attractive to the mainstream market, Loebbaka said. This should happen in 1996, 1997, or 1998, he added. For additional consumer information, ZDS maintains an Internet World Wide Web site at http://www.zds.com/ . (Bob Woods/19951101/Press Contact: Glynis Gibson, Zenith Data Systems, 312-868-9400 or 708-808-4273; Public Contact: Zenith Data Systems, 800-533-0331) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 11/01/95 APPLE Adobe Ships Premiere 4.2 Video Editor For Mac (NEWS)(APPLE)(DEN)(00029) Adobe Ships Premiere 4.2 Video Editor For Mac 11/01/95 MOUNTAIN VIEW, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1995 NOV 1 (NB) -- Adobe Systems Inc. (NASDAQ: ADBE) is now shipping version 4.2 of Adobe Premiere for the Macintosh. The new release is an update to the video editing software. #IMAGE 1 20 TWPCX \images\95110129.PCX Click here for photo The new release incorporates Adobe's new CD-ROM Movie Maker Plug-in, adds QuickTime version 2.1 and Adobe Type Manager version 3.8.3 and improves performance of the software when run on a Power Macintosh computer equipped with Power Macintosh-native Sound Manager 3.1. Movie Maker lets users limit and smooth a movie's data rate for improved playback, crop and filter movies to resize and reduce noise, and build CD-ROM optimized movies in batches. You can also set keyframes at markers or edits to increase image quality and speed of interactivity, batch process a series of CD-ROM movies or projects, and troubleshoot movies with a new data rate analysis tool. Other features of the new release include: user-specifiable audio capture chunk size in .5, 1 or 2 seconds in the Movie Capture Recording Settings; a new command in the Edit Menu, Razor at Edit Line, that lets users add this function to a command palette; and new commands in the Clip Menu that lets users add Mark In and Mark Out to a command palette. A progress bar now displays while a project is loading, and the user can cancel opening a project by pressing Command-Period. The Deluxe CD-ROM version includes Specular LogoMotion,a three-dimensional logo software program for animating text and logos in QuickTime, PICS, and numbered PICT files. Adobe said it has also included sample files and documentation in the Adobe Portable Document Format (PDF). Adobe shipped Premiere version 4.0 for Windows in September of this year. Adobe spokesperson Patricia Pane said the company is working on a 32-bit Windows version of Premiere for Windows 95. While no ship date has been set, look for the Windows upgrade to be available in 1996, the company said. Adobe Premiere 4.2 for Macintosh has a suggested retail price of $795. Registered users of any 4.x version will automatically receive a free CD-ROM version of the new software, together with an offer to purchase the Deluxe CD-ROM for $29. Adobe said Specular LogoMotion is a $179 retail value. If you are a registered user of a version of Premier earlier than 4.0 you can upgrade to version 4.2 on Deluxe CD-ROM for $149. If you purchased version 4.0.1 for the Mac after September 18, 1995, you will also receive a free Deluxe CD-ROM upgrade that includes Specular LogoMotion. To run Adobe Premiere 4.2 for the Macintosh you need at least a 680x0-based Mac computer with four megabytes (MB) of memory available for the application or a Power Macintosh with 6MB of application memory, an 80MB hard drive and a CD-ROM drive, System 7.0 or later operating system and QuickTime 1.6.1 or greater. (Jim Mallory/19951101/Press contact: Patricia Pane, Adobe Systems, 415-962-2967; Public contact: Adobe, 800-833-6687.PREMIERE951101/PHOTO) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 11/01/95 PC FTP Software Unveils Auto Doc Conversion Utilities (NEWS)(PC)(LON)(00030) FTP Software Unveils Auto Doc Conversion Utilities 11/01/95 BRACKNELL, BERKSHIRE, ENGLAND, 1995 NOV 1 (NB) -- FTP Software has taken the wraps off a new version of its automatic document conversion software for mail-enabled client/server environments. According to the company, Keypak 3.2 is still unique in the marketplace since it provides network users with "transparent document conversion" and is "easily maintainable" by network administrators. Keypak 3.2 is claimed to integrate with most electronic-mail systems and gateways, allowing users of host computer and PC-based document processing systems to exchange fully editable documents while preserving the original formatting, and read or send documents without regard to the applications running on other systems. According to Vincent James, FTP Software's European marketing director, the package includes native support for Microsoft Word for Windows 95, making document conversion options available for Windows 95 users. "Coexistence of differing technologies is the rule for corporations today, even if their plans include conversion from legacy to client- server of personal computer networks," he explained. Keypak supports IBM mainframes, DEC VAX, multiple Unix implementations, DOS, and Windows. Pricing on the package, which is available worldwide from this month, depends on site licensing requirements. (Steve Gold/19951101/Press Contact: Lisa Cann, A Plus, +44-1753-790700, Internet e-mail lcann@plus.co.uk; Reader Contact: FTP Software, +44-1344392131) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 11/01/95 TELECOM Ericsson Secures Major Australian GSM Contract (NEWS)(TELECOM)(LON)(00031) Ericsson Secures Major Australian GSM Contract 11/01/95 STOCKHOLM, SWEDEN, 1995 NOV 1 (NB) -- Ericsson has received, what it claims is, a "significant" expansion order from Vodafone Australia for the supply and installation of switching and base station equipment to support the continue expansion of the Vodafone GSM (global system for mobile communications) digital phone network in Australia. The contract has an estimated value for AUS$120 million. According to Kjell Sorme, Ericsson Australia's managing director, the Swedish telco was first selected to supply hardware to Vodafone Australia back in 1993. This latest order, Newsbytes notes, means that Vodafone Australia has ordered around AUS$400 million worth of equipment from Ericsson. "These orders demonstrate the close working relationship that we have developed with Vodafone in a relatively short time in Australia," Sorme said, adding that the Swedish telco has been able to assist in Vodafone launching and maintaining its network "down under." According to Sorme, the Vodafone orders have had a significant effect on Ericsson Australia's manufacturing and research & development activities in Australasia. The company now has the largest manufacturing centers in the Asia-Pacific region, and is even exporting equipment to Asia as well as supporting Asian markets with repair and maintenance services. Ericsson also claims that it is currently sharing mobile research and development activities with universities in Australia with advanced technology centers, including Sydney University of Technology, Wollongong University, and the Victoria University of Technology. (Sylvia Dennis/19951101/Press Contact: Per Bengtsson, Ericsson Business Area Radio Communications, +46-8-757-2159; Reader Contact: Dave Colbeck, Ericsson Australia, +61-2-367-4800) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 11/01/95 IBM ****Iworld - IBM & Lotus' Web Products/Plans/Partners (NEWS)(IBM)(BOS)(00032) ****Iworld - IBM & Lotus' Web Products/Plans/Partners 11/01/95 BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS, U.S.A., 1995 NOV 1 (NB) -- IBM is currently developing a new encryption technology called "Cryptolopes" for Internet security, and is also collaborating with Lotus on a new Notes/World Wide Web server integration technology, code-named "Spike" and slated for release in 1996, IBM and Lotus officials revealed, during a press conference and series of meetings with Newsbytes at Internetworld Boston '95. Also at the Internetworld press conference, which was attended by Newsbytes, and in the series of briefing sessions, IBM unveiled: an upcoming MVS mainframe-based Internet server; WebConnection for OS/400; a Web-based content service known as Health Village; three "Plug-N-Publish" toolkits for IBM's infoMarket "superdistribution" platform; and pacts to publish content from 29 information and technology providers on infoMarket, including Newsbytes, Associated Press, and Kodak. IBM's new "Cryptolope" technology is designed to let content owners affiliated with InfoMarket control intellectual property rights over copyrighted information, as well as pricing and presentation of online materials, said John R. Patrick, VP of Internet applications for IBM, speaking at the press conference, which was attended by Newsbytes. Also during the press conference, Patrick disclosed that, beyond the upcoming Health Village, IBM expects to develop Web-based information services for about a dozen other vertical markets, including finance. IBM and Lotus' co-developed "Spike" technology will combine Lotus Notes and InterNotes with IBM's secure Internet servers and gateway software for linking IBM's DB2 databases to the Web, according to John Landry, chief technology officer for Lotus, another speaker at the press event. In an interview with Newsbytes after the press conference, Landry said that "Spike" will ship next year. IBM's Cryptolope combines the ideas of "encryption" and "envelopes," elaborated John Crigler, VP and managing director of InfoMarket, in a briefing session for Newsbytes. The Cryptolopes will allow publishers to send documents to users in a sealed container that can include information such as an abstract of the information in the package, the size of the file, its owner, any coupons or other promotions associated with the content, and conditions for use and pricing, Newsbytes was told. For example, a publisher might charge one price for downloading an article, and a higher fee for printing the document. Generally, the recipient will then purchase the package, although it will also be possible for the publisher to "pay" the user for reading the document, he added. The user will then "transparently" obtain a private key to open the document, and the key will only allow the content to be used in accordance with the agreed upon terms. Also during the briefing, IBM's Kathy Kincaid pointed out that IBM is well suited to Internet-based activities, due to the company's long experience with network security. In a related announcement at the show in Boston, IBM and about 20 other members of the Information Industry Association announced the formation of the Electronics Rights Management (ERM) Group. Some of the other members of the group, such as Folio Corp., are also developing new technologies similar in intent to IBM's Cryptolopes, noted IBM's Pamela Weedon, in an interview with Newsbytes. IBM's upcoming mainframe-based Internet Connection Server for MVS will be based on the System/390 Parallel Enterprise Server, reported George Walsh, program director for MVS systems, in another meeting at the show. The System/390's use of threaded transaction programming allows easy scalability from very small applications to "global Internet services," he contended. The System/390 also provides security, privacy and the ability to separate Web- from non-Web applications through a logical partitioning capability, according to Walsh. To prevent Internet vandals from interfering with "mission critical" data in other partitions of the secure mainframe server, the Web partition can be given read only access. During another meeting with Newsbytes, Michael A. Odierna, AS/400 Internet product consultant, said that the new WebConnection for OS/400 will integrate the AS/400 operating system with a Web HTTP Server that will equip IBM's AS/400 "business computers" for use as Internet servers. WebConnection will provide Web access to existing AS/400 DB2 files, he asserted. The product, he added, will also permit access to AS/400 applications through an HTML (hypertext markup language) driver, allowing applications developed natively on OS/400 to use OS/2 Warp's Web Explorer and other HTML-compliant browsers as clients. Customers will be able to monitor activities for numbers of hits. Crigler told Newsbytes that IBM's new Plug-and-Publish toolkits for infoMarket will include the Client Toolkit, for customizing Web browsers and building "branded storefronts" for publishers; the Interface Toolkit, for creating interfaces to corporate databases and data warehouses; and the Services Toolkits, for adding language translation, protocol conversion, and data filtering enhancements, and for customizing how InfoMarket search results appear on the user's desktop. The toolkits allow for so much customization that "the recipient of an InfoMarket document doesn't even need to know that it's an InfoMarket document," Crigler maintained. IBM is also developing a new capability for InfoMarket, called newsTicker, that will run information such as current news headlines across the screen, he revealed. (Jacqueline Emigh/19951101/Reader Contact: IBM, 914-765-1900; Press Contact: Technology Solutions for IBM, 212-696-2000) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 11/01/95 PC UK - Portable 6-Speed Notebook CD-ROM Drive (NEWS)(PC)(LON)(00033) UK - Portable 6-Speed Notebook CD-ROM Drive 11/01/95 NORTHOLT, MIDDLESEX, ENGLAND, 1995 NOV 1 (NB) -- MarkTech has unveiled, what it claims is, a unique product, the PC-CD6, a six-speed portable CD-ROM drive that plugs into a PC using a PCMCIA (Personal Computer Memory Card International Association) type II slot. According to Arie Gurshani, the founder of MarkTech, the drives were sourced from the Far East, where they are sold as four times speed drives. Because the drive is "recognized" by the host PC by its PCMCIA card link, however, the PC can suck data up at a steady 900 kilobytes per second (kbps), which equates to six times CD-ROM performance. "We are also looking at ways of increasing the drive's performance to push it to eight times speed, but without compromising the lifetime or performance of the driver overall," he told Newsbytes, adding that, despite its state-of-the-art performance, he held back from charging a premium price for the portable drive. "At UKP379, we think this is a reasonable product for the price. The drive is so fast that you can use it to view animation and full motion video at full speed," he explained, According to Gershuni, the PC-CD6 drive is ideally suited to Windows 95, thanks to Windows 95's high data acceptance speeds and its support for Plug & Play. "One interesting feature I've discovered in Windows 95 is the fact that you can't simply remove a hot-plugged driver from the computer. While Windows 95 will recognize the presence of the drive every time, thanks to Plug & Play, you have to click on the icon to tell the operating system that the device is being unplugged," he explained. The PC-CD6 drive is available in the UK immediately and has a claimed specification of 140 milliseconds (ms) average access time and a 128 kilobytes read buffer. (Steve Gold/19951101/Press & Reader Contact: MarkTech Systems, tel +44-181-841-6711, fax +44-181-841-7133) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 11/01/95 CHIPS ****Intel Unveils Pentium Pro (NEWS)(CHIPS)(SFO)(00034) ****Intel Unveils Pentium Pro 11/01/95 SAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1995 NOV 1 (NB) -- It is not available for general desktop use, but the sixth generation of Intel's (NASDAQ NNM:INTC) line of microprocessors -- the Pentium Pro -- was unveiled this morning. Early installations of the high-speed chip will be limited to network servers and high-end workstations. Dr. Andy Grove, Intel's president and chief executive officer, opened this morning's event saying, "This is a very special day. It is not everyday we introduce a new microprocessor -- it just seems like it." While the media expected to see the new processor demonstrated at a speed of 150 megahertz (MHz), they were surprised to learn all of the demonstrations were powered by a 200MHz Pentium Pro. The San Francisco introduction focused on high-performance workstation implementations of the new processor. Next week, Grove said the company would hold a New York event to announce server implementations. He said the New York event would show Pentium Pro applications in servers, multi-processor servers and scalable parallel processing servers. Today, the company revealed three Pentium Pro models, a 150/60MHz, a 180/60MHz, and a 200/66MHz model, all with 256 kilobytes (KB) of L2 cache. Pricing in units of 1,000 are $974, $1,075 and $1,325, respectively. In the first quarter of 1996, Intel will introduce a 166/66MHz, 512K L2 model for $1,682, followed by a 200/66MHz chip with 512KB of L2 cache, priced at $1,989, during the second quarter of 1996. Like its predecessor, the Pentium, the Pentium Pro is expected to have frequent versions, and analysts say it will eventually reach 266MHz. Intel expects to ship about 100,000 of the new processors by the end of the year and projects volume to increase to 3.5 million through 1996. By comparison, the current Pentium should reach 32 million shipped units by the end of 1996. Originally called the P6, Pentium Pro has 5.5 million transistors, or more than two million over its popular predecessor. It will be a while before it has an impact on the average desktop. A number of analysts and experts say it is primarily designed to run 32-bit applications and with the introduction of Windows 95 users are just beginning to see "true 32-bit applications." Grove said workstation and professional desktop environments for engineering and scientific work, visualization, and digital content creation, would be among the first to benefit from the power of Pentium Pro. He said the new processor will allow for the creation of a digital world on computers and, to create that world, the power of Pentium Pro would be used in creation, transmission, and playback of digital content. Use of Pentium Pro will enhance high-end graphics, animation and movies across computer screens for entertainment and business applications. Intel says this microprocessor went through the most extensive and sophisticated validation program in the history of the company. There were more than 300 validation platforms, 20-plus original equipment manufacturer beta sites, and more than 500 user test program sites. The long list of system providers participating in the delivery of Pentium Pro-based products include Hewlett-Packard, Zenith Data Systems, Packard Bell, Compaq, AT&T, Dell, Fujitsu, Gateway 2000, IBM, Hitachi, Micronics, and Acer. (Patrick McKenna/19951101) (SUMMARY)(GENERAL)(MSP)(00035) Newsbytes Daily Summary 11/01/95 MINNEAPOLIS, MINNESOTA, U.S.A., 1995 NOV 1 (NB) -- These are capsules of all today's news stories: ======================================================================== ------------| N E W S B Y T E S D A I L Y S U M M A R Y |---------- ------------| Wednesday, November 1, 1995 |---------- ======================================================================== (c) Newsbytes News Network (Tm) Editor in Chief: Wendy Woods ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Newsbytes News Network's on the Web! Check out http://www.nbnn.com for free daily top stories from Newsbytes and its affiliate publications, and from PC Week, MacWeek, and other Ziff news magazines. A subscription gives you all the news, full-text, plus the most comprehensive database of past computer stories online. The keyword-searchable database dates from today back through 1983. Subscriptions are $24.95 for three months. Questions? Send to 'administrator@newsbytes.com' For Japanese Newsbytes and additional services, see the Newsbytes Pacifica Website at http://www.islandtel.com/newsbytes/ ------------------------------------------------------------------------ CATEGORY HEADLINES (*** indicates today's top stories) STORY # ======================================================================== APPLE Adobe Ships Premiere 4.2 Video Editor For Mac.............. 29 BROADCAST 1st Commercial Flights For Satellite Coms Technology....... 05 BROADCAST Intel Donates Telecommuting Videoconf Equipment............ 18 BUSINESS US West Shareholders Approve 2-Class Stock Plan............ 10 BUSINESS Spyglass Posts Record Results.............................. 20 BUSINESS Siemens Nixdorf Opens UK Telecoms Operation................ 24 BUSINESS ****SoftKey Pushes Into Education Market.................. 25 BUSINESS Amdahl Raises Offer For DMR Group.......................... 26 CHIPS Mitsubishi Offers Next-Generation DRAM..................... 13 CHIPS ****Intel Unveils Pentium Pro............................. 34 GENERAL Thailand - SAP To Localize R/3 Software.................... 06 GENERAL HP Promotes Storage Products In Asia....................... 09 GENERAL Japan Newsbriefs........................................... 11 GOVT Thailand Govt Deadline For New Accounting Software......... 07 GOVT China - Component/Device Production Important.............. 08 IBM ****Iworld - IBM & Lotus' Web Products/Plans/Partners..... 32 LEGAL ****Software Police Raid California BBS................... 16 LEGAL ****Novell Files Piracy Suit Against Reseller............. 21 ONLINE ****Free CD-ROMs Offered To Newsbytes Web Site Members.... 01 ONLINE Streams Launches Internet Media Placement Assessments...... 03 ONLINE Internet Update............................................ 14 ONLINE Iworld - PSINet Teams With Content, Service Providers...... 15 ONLINE Internet Update - Art Sites On The Web..................... 19 ONLINE Wales Tourist Board Plugs Into The Web..................... 27 PC Quantum Publishes "Plug-And-Play For ATA" Specification.... 04 PC Zenith Data Systems Announces Pentium Pro Support.......... 28 PC FTP Software Unveils Auto Doc Conversion Utilities......... 30 PC UK - Portable 6-Speed Notebook CD-ROM Drive................ 33 TELECOM Ericsson Wins Japan Cellular Contract...................... 12 TELECOM Canada's CRTC Confirms Telephone Rate Rebalancing.......... 17 TELECOM Global 95 ISDN Project Spans 30 Countries.................. 23 TELECOM Ericsson Secures Major Australian GSM Contract............. 31 TRENDS Dutch Smart Card Project Gets Under Way.................... 02 TRENDS First Recordable CD For Under $1,000....................... 22 ======================================================================== These are the headlines and first paragraphs of each story, in order: 1 -> ****Free CD-ROMs Offered To Newsbytes Web Site Members -- For fast, no-nonsense reporting of the latest breaking computer, telecom, and interactive services news on the World Wide Web, look no further than http://www.nbnn.com . And now, a Newsbytes paid subscription also means a free Newsbytes CD-ROM featuring the past 12 years of Newsbytes reporting in a keyword-searchable format. 2 -> Dutch Smart Card Project Gets Under Way -- ChipKnip, a smart card payment system, has got under way in the Dutch city of Arnhem this week. According to early reports from retailers and members of the public, the project looks like being a success, as Interpay, the Dutch banking organization which organized the trial, has poured millions into making the project work. 3 -> Streams Launches Internet Media Placement Assessments -- Streams Online Media Development has announced a new Internet World Wide Web audience measurement service that reports where people have surfed from to get to a site connected to the service, called "Lilypad." The new system can tell if a Web user came from another Web site, a "bookmark" in their Web browser, a newsgroup, or even a local file on their hard drive. 4 -> Quantum Publishes "Plug-And-Play For ATA" Specification -- Although nine out of every ten PCs on the market today use ATA disk drives, SCSI (small computer systems interface) drives have received virtually all the attention in the area of simplified installation, contended Quantum's Dave Tang, during a discussion with Newsbytes at a meeting in Boston about a new "plug-and-play" specification that Quantum has published. 5 -> 1st Commercial Flights For Satellite Coms Technology -- Racal Avionics has announced that the first commercial flight by a narrow body aircraft offering satellite communication (satcom) telephone links for passengers took place during October between London Heathrow and Geneva airport. 6 -> Thailand - SAP To Localize R/3 Software -- Business re-engineering client-server software supplier SAP AG is converting its flagship R/3 software package into the Thai-language to conform with Thai accounting business practices and laws, a task that will take 15 months of work for a team of 20-30 developers and some 25-30 translators. 7 -> Thailand Govt Deadline For New Accounting Software -- The Revenue Department has announced that it will fine companies 2,000 baht (US$80) next year if their accounting software does not follow the right specifications for accounting software systems. 8 -> China - Component/Device Production Important -- The development of new components and devices will take priority in the electronics industry during China's Ninth Five Year Plan period (1996-2000), government officials said. 9 -> HP Promotes Storage Products In Asia -- Hewlett-Packard (HP) has announced an "HP SureStore" concept to boost sales volumes of hard disks, optical storage, and tape drive products in Asia. 10 -> US West Shareholders Approve 2-Class Stock Plan -- US West shareholders have overwhelmingly approved the company's proposal to introduce two new classes of US West common stock. 11 -> Japan Newsbriefs -- In this roundup of news from Japan: Nintendo sells one billion games, Sony says 300,000 PlayStations sold, Apple Japan sales up, US dominates software imports, International telephone rates cut, NEC, Convex sign supercomputer sales deal. 12 -> Ericsson Wins Japan Cellular Contract -- Sweden's Ericsson (STOCKHOLM:ERICfb) has been awarded a contract for the establishment of a new cellular network on the northern island of Hokkaido from Digital Tu-Ka Hokkaido. Total value of the deal is put at 4 billion yen ($39 million) and follows a contract with associated Digital Tu-Ka Kyushu in which Ericsson will supply network infrastructure to the affiliate based on the most southern or Japan's four major islands. 13 -> Mitsubishi Offers Next-Generation DRAM -- Mitsubishi Electric Corporation and Mitsubishi Electronics America Inc. have announced availability of a second-generation DRAM (dynamic random access memory) chip that uses state-of-the-art technology to cram more components into a smaller space and consume less power than previously needed. 14 -> Internet Update -- In this update of new resources and services on the global Internet: News from Philly, Finland president's home page, Travel data at your fingertips, Stock forecast charts, Linux on your laptop, Nothing but maths, Christian software news. 15 -> Iworld - PSINet Teams With Content, Service Providers -- PSINet, a major Internet access provider, has forged "mutually advantageous" pacts with Spectrum Holobyte, VocalTec, Positive Response Television (PRTV), and five other online content and service providers. The announcement was made during a four-hour launch event in Boston designed to mirror PSINet's new online content on multiple levels of sight, sound, and interactivity. 16 -> ****Software Police Raid California BBS -- Friday the 13th of October certainly was unlucky for the operator of a Pasadena, California-based bulletin board system (BBS). That was the day US Marshals, accompanied by representatives from the Business Software Alliance (BSA) and private investigators representing various software companies, raided his home where they said they found hundreds of illegal software programs available for downloading from the board. 17 -> Canada's CRTC Confirms Telephone Rate Rebalancing -- The Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) has stood its ground on an earlier decision that will see monthly local telephone rates rise C$4 over the next two years, while long-distance rates fall. It has also substantially stood by its assessment of how telephone companies' costs break down between competitive long-distance service and monopoly local service. 18 -> Intel Donates Telecommuting Videoconf Equipment -- The Southern California Telecommuting Partnership (SCTP) has announced that Intel has donated 35 ProShare Personal Conferencing Video Systems to the partnership. The Intel ProShare Personal Conferencing Video System is a PC-based, desktop system that provides real-time video images of users in two locations. 19 -> Internet Update - Art Sites On The Web -- These new art-related sites have appeared on the Internet recently: California Rockart Museum, Roland Lee Art Gallery, St. Petersburg Salvador Dali Museum, and Varo Registry Details Living Women Artists. 20 -> Spyglass Posts Record Results -- On the heels of Spyglass' (NASDAQ:SPYG) strong financial results for both fiscal year 1995 and the fourth quarter of 1995, the company's stock on Wall Street spiraled upwards today. At 12 Noon EST, Spyglass was trading up $7.25, at $57.00. 21 -> ****Novell Files Piracy Suit Against Reseller -- Novell Inc. (NASDAQ: NOVL) has filed a civil action suit in the US District Court for the District of Massachusetts, charging software reseller Trident International Inc. with software piracy. 22 -> First Recordable CD For Under $1,000 -- Pinnacle Micro Inc. (NASDAQ: PNCL) has introduced a new recordable compact disk (CD-R) system priced below $1,000 that is slated to ship in full production in mid-November. The company has teamed up with software maker, Corel, and input/output (I/O) equipment manufacturer, Adaptec, to offer the low cost CD-R product. 23 -> Global 95 ISDN Project Spans 30 Countries -- One of the world's most ambitious multi-site demonstrations of technology, Global 95, is now less than a month away. The event, which takes place between November 28 and 30, will take place at multiple locations around the world, all linked by ISDN (integrated services digital network) circuits, and designed to show what can be done with ISDN technology. 24 -> Siemens Nixdorf Opens UK Telecoms Operation -- Siemens Nixdorf Information Systems has set up a new telecoms business in the UK, known as Siemens Nixdorf Telecom. 25 -> ****SoftKey Pushes Into Education Market -- SoftKey International Inc. (NASDAQ:SKEY;TSE:SSK) has launched a major push into the educational software market by agreeing to acquire Minnesota Educational Computing Corp. (NASDAQ:MECC) and launching a hostile takeover offer for The Learning Co. (NASDAQ:LRNG). 26 -> Amdahl Raises Offer For DMR Group -- Amdahl Corp. (AMEX:AMH) is moving closer to victory in its quest to take over Montreal-based consulting firm DMR Group Inc. (TSE:DR). Amdahl took up and paid for another 97,000 DMR shares, reached deposit agreements for some 2.9 million more, and raised its offer from C$8.25 to C$12.50 per share. 27 -> Wales Tourist Board Plugs Into The Web -- The Wales Tourist Board (WTB) claims it has become the first tourist authority in the UK to offer a major site on the World Wide Web. According to Kim Colebrook, the WTB's information services manager, the site was designed and developed by Imaginet, a Web services company, and is unique in that "it includes video and sound clips." 28 -> Zenith Data Systems Announces Pentium Pro Support -- On the same day Intel formally announced its new Pentium Pro microprocessor, Zenith Data Systems (ZDS) said its future Z-Station desktop computers will support Intel's latest offering. The new line of machines are expected to ship in late 1995 or early 1996, ZDS officials said. 29 -> Adobe Ships Premiere 4.2 Video Editor For Mac -- Adobe Systems Inc. (NASDAQ: ADBE) is now shipping version 4.2 of Adobe Premiere for the Macintosh. The new release is an update to the video editing software. 30 -> FTP Software Unveils Auto Doc Conversion Utilities -- FTP Software has taken the wraps off a new version of its automatic document conversion software for mail-enabled client/server environments. According to the company, Keypak 3.2 is still unique in the marketplace since it provides network users with "transparent document conversion" and is "easily maintainable" by network administrators. 31 -> Ericsson Secures Major Australian GSM Contract -- Ericsson has received, what it claims is, a "significant" expansion order from Vodafone Australia for the supply and installation of switching and base station equipment to support the continue expansion of the Vodafone GSM (global system for mobile communications) digital phone network in Australia. The contract has an estimated value for AUS$120 million. 32 -> ****Iworld - IBM & Lotus' Web Products/Plans/Partners -- IBM is currently developing a new encryption technology called "Cryptolopes" for Internet security, and is also collaborating with Lotus on a new Notes/World Wide Web server integration technology, code-named "Spike" and slated for release in 1996, IBM and Lotus officials revealed, during a press conference and series of meetings with Newsbytes at Internetworld Boston '95. 33 -> UK - Portable 6-Speed Notebook CD-ROM Drive -- MarkTech has unveiled, what it claims is, a unique product, the PC-CD6, a six-speed portable CD-ROM drive that plugs into a PC using a PCMCIA (Personal Computer Memory Card International Association) type II slot. 34 -> ****Intel Unveils Pentium Pro -- It is not available for general desktop use, but the sixth generation of Intel's (NASDAQ NNM:INTC) line of microprocessors (Ian Stokell/19951101) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 10/31/95 ONLINE UK - Low-Cost LAN Internet E-mail Gateway (NEWS)(ONLINE)(LON)(00001) UK - Low-Cost LAN Internet E-mail Gateway 10/31/95 TRING, HERTFORDSHIRE, ENGLAND, 1995 OCT 31 (NB) -- Nildram On-Line has announced a new Internet electronic-mail and file exchange facility for LAN (local area network) users. Known as the Nildram Email Gateway, or Nilgate for short, the service aims to offer full Internet gateway services for companies who want to allow e-mail exchange with other LANs across the Internet, as well as with Internet users generally. The gateway software is a relatively simple Windows application that interfaces to Novell NetWare and other LAN software packages, and allows rapid connections across high-speed modem links, to Nildram's central server facility. Costs range from UKP120 per year for LANs of between one and five users, up to UKP480 for up to 400 users. The software suite for the service is based around Pegasus Email, a shareware/public domain suite of applications that Nildram is offering for UKP99 for the basic package, and up to UKP799 for the 200-user scenario. "We've watched many other companies offer LAN gateway facilities and software that takes a lot of installation. Obviously, we'd be happy to install the software on-site for the customer, but we think that Pegasus and the Nilgate applications can be installed quite easily by the user, and certainly within an hour," Adrian Mardlin, the company's managing director, told Newsbytes. "We believe that the Nildram e-mail gateway offers a refreshing and cost-effective alternative to the current market options. From as little as 20 pence per-user per-month (with no online charges) and less than two hours set-up time, the system administrator can provide a high quality e-mail service to all network users," he said. Mardlin added that he is so confident of the software and service, "that we are offering a free one-month trial of the system to any prospective customers." Nildram is offering a number of other services to enhance its Nilgate service. These include "callback," at UKP100 setup, and UKP120 a year subscription. Whenever an inbound e-mail item is received into a designated mailbox on the Nildram service, the server dials out to the customer's premises and then hangs up. Using this approach allows the customer to select which telecoms carrier they want to use, and how often they want to retrieve their mail. "There are other companies offering similar types of service like us, but they tend to charge more, especially in the software stakes. What we say is, try our software yourself, and see how it works out. If you hit problems installing it, we can come and assist," Mardlin told Newsbytes. Nildram plans to offer links into cc:Mail and Microsoft Mail systems in due course. "That is in the future. What we're offering now is the ability to link LANs into the Internet at very low costs," he told Newsbytes. Nildram maintains its own Web pages at http://www.nildram.co.uk . (Steve Gold/19951030/Press & Reader Contact: Nildram, tel +44-1442- 891331, fax +44-1442-890303, Internet e-mail sales@nildram.co.uk) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 10/31/95 TELECOM Motorola To Deploy Wireless Phone System In Zambia (NEWS)(TELECOM)(LON)(00002) Motorola To Deploy Wireless Phone System In Zambia 10/31/95 SWINDON, WILTSHIRE, ENGLAND, 1995 OCT 31 (NB) -- Motorola's International Cellular Infrastructure Division (MCID) has been awarded a $17 million contract to install a fixed wireless phone system for Zambia in Africa. According to the company, the system will use a derivative of the total access communication system (TACS) technology seen on analog cellphone nets in Europe. Newsbytes notes that is the first time that cellular technology has been adapted to provide widescale landline phone lines but with a cellular network infrastructure. The system is adapted for use on a fixed network and is capable of being patched or linked into a standard hard-wired phone switching office. The system is known as the wireless local loop (WiLL) system and, according to the company, can be expanded to provide fixed line service in remote locations very quickly indeed. The Zambian system will be jointly administered by Motorola and Zamtel, Zambia's local phone company. The first stage of the network, which should enter service at the end of this year, will provide landline circuits for around 2,000 subscribes in around Lusaka, the Zambia's capital city, as well as Ndola and the surrounding rural and urban areas known as the copper belt. "This contract solidifies Motorola's presence in Africa and provides a strong endorsement of our ability to deliver world class products and services," explained Pertti Johansson, Motorola ICID's general manager, who added that Zamtel's decision to deploy a WiLL system "demonstrates how our fixed wireless system can provide an excellent alternative to traditional land line telephone in both rural and urban environments." (Sylvia Dennis/19951030/Press Contact: Jack Seller, Motorola CIG, US Office 708-632-7248; Reader Contact: Motorola, tel +44-1793-541541, fax +44-1793-541227) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 10/31/95 TELECOM Racal To Build German Voice & Datacomms Network (NEWS)(TELECOM)(LON)(00003) Racal To Build German Voice & Datacomms Network 10/31/95 RHEINLAND-PFALTZ, GERMANY, 1995 OCT 31 (NB) -- Racal-Datacom, a video, voice and data communications specialist, has announced plans to join forces with Deutsche Telekom, the German telecoms company, to build the first high-speed voice, data, and image network for the State Region of Rheinland-Pfatz in Germany. According to Racal-Datacom, the project will be known as The Land and Datacommunications Network (LDKN), and also involves Ascom Timeplex. The purpose of the new network is to enable the government administration departments of all kinds to reduce the costs of their communications and data transfer facilities, as well as allowing them to function more efficiently. Using state-of-the-art telecommunications technology, the project will combine all the currently separate networks working for the Interior and Sports Ministry in the Rheinland-Pfaltz State Region. Plans call for computers from 37 tax offices, emergency services, the police, and the Regional Computing Center network, which combines 573 terminals and runs most of the state's and local government computer systems, to be integrated under a new infrastructure. Plans also call for the security features of the networks to be greatly enhanced to provide the highest levels of data transmission protection available, claims the company. According to Racal-Datacom, the benefits of the new network for the whole district of Rheinland-Pfatz will be "enormous." Emergency services will all be linked so that, in case of a major emergency, staff will be able to check the number of beds available in every hospital in the region to quickly accommodate patients. LDKN's users will also be able to get connected far more quickly on dial-up calls than before, avoiding the congestion of the public network. Details of citizens and their records can be shuttled across the network, reportedly making life easier for government staff and citizens alike. Racal will supply 97 managed ISDN (integrated services digital network) links, 870 managed modem links, a range of CMS 400 network management systems, and an X.25 gateway with the addition of Ascom's node processors. Plans call for a backbone network to connect node processors in Koblenz, Trier, Mainz, Ludwigshafen, and Kaiserslautern, making the LDKN network available to all government administration departments through a meshed network with a "100 percent level of redundancy." "Racal's involvement in this pioneering project by Deutsche Telecom clearly demonstrates that we have products, skill and expertise to supply, install and maintain complex network solutions," said Wolfgang Huber, director and general manager of Racal's operations in Germany. (Sylvia Dennis/19951030/Press Contact: Paula Wargen, Racal-Datacom Group, +44-1734-669969) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 10/31/95 LEGAL US Administration Threatens Telecom Veto (NEWS)(LEGAL)(WAS)(00004) US Administration Threatens Telecom Veto 10/31/95 WASHINGTON, D.C., U.S.A., 1995 OCT 31 (NB) -- President Clinton has landed himself squarely in the middle of the congressional debate over telecommunications legislation. In a letter to Sen. Ernest "Fritz" Hollings (D-S.C.), the president attacked four major elements in the bills that have passed the House and Senate and are now before a conference committee. The most surprising element of the president's letter was his opposition to allowing baby Bell phone companies to enter the long-distance business without Justice Department approval. The congressional leadership had hoped to downplay the battle between the Bells and the long-distance carriers, but Clinton has put it on the front burner. Clinton also said he opposed the plan in the bills to deregulate cable television rates, the provisions for telephone companies to buy heavily into cable, and the relaxation of media ownership restrictions. At the same time the president was making his views known, Joseph Stiglitz, the president's chief economic adviser, said he would recommend a veto unless the bill has restrictions on letting the Bells into the long-distance market. "I want to denounce the idea that telephone issues are not important," Stiglitz told the New York Times. "They are important -- so important that I would urge a veto unless they are fixed. In terms of long-term economic impact, this is where the action is." Stiglitz, chairman of the White House's Council of Economic Advisers, said he would recommend a veto even if the final bill fixes all of Clinton's problems with the measure except for the tussle over access to long-distance markets. The local phone business represents about $100 billion, while the long-distance business generates about $70 billion a year. Stiglitz says the administration would like to reinstate a provision that was in an early version of the House bill, which would keep the local phone companies out of the long-distance market until the long-distance companies are fully competitive in the local market. (Kennedy Maize/19951030) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 10/31/95 LEGAL Broadcasters Win In Senate Budget Bill (NEWS)(LEGAL)(WAS)(00005) Broadcasters Win In Senate Budget Bill 10/31/95 WASHINGTON, D.C., U.S.A., 1995 OCT 31 (NB) -- The nation's broadcasters last week pulled off a political coup in the Senate version of the massive budget reconciliation bill, now before a House-Senate conference committee. While the bill provides for auctions of the nation's broadcast spectrum, yielding an estimated $14 billion, it preserves a package of free licenses for broadcasters, a provision that could be worth as much as $70 billion. Earlier, to encourage developed of digital, high-definition TV, the Federal Communications Commission gave each holder of a television broadcast license a second license. Critics, both liberal and conservative, have charged that, instead of developing the new TV technology, the broadcasters will split their free frequencies into several signals of conventional TV. They would prefer to auction all of the spectrum. "Digital advanced television would never happen if there were auctions," says Lynn McReynolds of the National Association of Broadcasters. But Gigi Sohn of the Media Access Project, a liberal, consumer advocacy group, counters, "It's a give-away." Thomas Hazeltte, a media analyst at the America Enterprise Institute, agrees with Sohn. "This is not going to help consumers get enhanced services and greater innovation," he says, "because that entails opening up the spectrum." The Federal Communications Commission, in a letter to Sen. Joseph Lieberman (D-Conn.), estimated that the television channels being reserved for the broadcast industry would have a market value of between $10 billion and $70 billion. The FCC used as a surrogate the recent sale of New York City's WNYC for $208 million. Extrapolating from that figure, the value of the set aside licenses would be $37 million. Last week, Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) offered an amendment requiring a full auction and estimating revenues of $35 billion. The McCain Amendment lost, 25-64. (Kennedy Maize/19951030/Press Contacts: Lynn McReynolds, NAB, 202-429-5300; Gigi Sohn, Media Access Project, 202-232-4300) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 10/31/95 GENERAL Casio Intros Still Digital Camera With LCD Screen (NEWS)(GENERAL)(LON)(00006) Casio Intros Still Digital Camera With LCD Screen 10/31/95 LONDON, ENGLAND, 1995 OCT 31 (NB) -- Casio Electronics has unveiled the QV-10, a digital camera with a liquid crystal display (LCD) that allows users to frame the image on the screen, take the digital photos, and then review them at a later stage. Like other digital still cameras the QV-10 allows pictures to be uploaded onto a desktop PC to subsequently import into a suitable imaging package. According to Ian Groves, a spokesman for Canon, the camera is unique in the market and allows up to 96 digital images to be stored in a single photo shoot. Images can then be edited and incorporated into any kind of software. "The camera is ideal for applications that need images to be incorporated into documentation, such as building site plans. Because it has a color LCD screen, it's much easier to use," he told Newsbytes. Groves went on to say that, unlike other digital still cameras, the QV-10 stores the images in battery-backed memory, rather than using the two inch mini disks seen on other systems. These images can then be directly uploaded to a desktop PC. In use, images stored in memory can be scrolled through one by one, or automatically using the auto play facility. The user can view one, four, or nine images on a single screen. It is also possible to enlarge a specific portion of an image to twice its normal size, as well as monitoring and altering the effects of exposure settings on the backlit LCD screen. The screen on the camera can be rotated through 270 degrees, allowing pictures to be taken from any angle while keeping the internal display in an easy to view position, the company claims. The UKP680 camera measures 130 by 55 by 40 millimeters and tips the scales at 190 grams (excluding batteries). According to Groves, the images from the camera are every bit as good as from an equivalent, photo film camera, and are suitable for inclusion in most documentation. (Steve Gold/19951030/Press Contact: Infopress, tel +44-171-353-2320, fax +44-171-583-9437, Internet e-mail infopress@infopress.com; Reader Contact: Casio Electronics, tel +44-181-450-9131, fax +44-181-452- 7323/CANON19951031/PHOTO) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 10/31/95 GOVT Reflex Magnetics Secures Major Swiss Govt Contract (NEWS)(GOVT)(LON)(00007) Reflex Magnetics Secures Major Swiss Govt Contract 10/31/95 ZURICH, SWITZERLAND, 1995 OCT 31 (NB) -- Reflex Magnetics has announced the deployment of a massive installation of its Disknet security software into government sites throughout Switzerland. According to the anti-virus software company, the first phase of the roll-out is 5,000 units and is expected to be as much as 25,000 by the end of the year. The value of this initial stage of the deal is around the UKP100,000 mark. According Hans Senn, managing director of Se-Data Systems, Reflex's Swiss distributor, the Swiss Government chose Disknet after evaluating several products from other suppliers. "They found that Disknet offered them the highest degree of security. This first stage is just the beginning of a much larger deployment," he explained. According to Reflex, Disknet is a multi-layered security product providing large organizations with protection from computer viruses. The software integrates disk authorization, behavior blocking and static analysis techniques to prevent, rather than just detect, simple viral infection. The company claims that each layer of security works to provide users with a barrier to virus attack, combining to radically reduce the chance of a security breach. "The decision taken by the Swiss Government follows similar decisions made by UK Government departments such as the Department of Trade & Industry," explained Andy Campbell, Reflex's sales and marketing director, Reflex Magnetics. (Sylvia Dennis/19951030/Press Contact: Keene Communications, +44-171- 439-7227, Internet e-mail keene@cix.compulink.co.uk; Reader Contact: Reflex Magnetics, +44-171-372-6666) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 10/31/95 GOVT Europe OKs Rhone Poulnec/Engelhard Joint Venture (NEWS)(GOVT)(LON)(00008) Europe OKs Rhone Poulnec/Engelhard Joint Venture 10/31/95 BRUSSELS, BELGIUM, 1995 OCT 31 (NB) -- The European Commission (EC) has unexpectedly approved the plan of Rhone Poulnec Chimie (RPC) and Engelhard to create a joint venture called Cycleon. The joint venture will, Newsbytes notes, aim to collect and reprocess precious metals for use in the computer and allied industries. Precious metals are used extensively in the computer industry, notably in the plating of PCBs (printed circuit boards), as well as within the chips themselves. By using precious metals, most of which are inert, the chips can be fabricated to last a long time, even at the high temperatures seen today, and despite the (relative) vast amounts of electrical power passed through the circuits of the chip. Reprocessing will go a long way to keeping the price of precious metals, and computer chips generally, down. It will also mitigate against the possibility that, one day, the precious metals may start to run out. RPC is a subsidiary of the Rhone-Poulnec group and manufactures intermediary chemical products and specialized chemical products, as well as providing environmental protection services in many industrial markets. Engelhard, meanwhile, is a subsidiary of Engelhard Corporation in the US. The Engelhard group is a refiner of precious metals and a manufacturer of catalysts. It is also active in the markets for collecting and reprocessing precious metals from spent car catalysts. Under the joint venture, Cycleon will organize the collection and reprocessing of precious metals for reuse in the computer industry and other IT (information technology) applications. Previously, industry experts were concerned that the joint venture operation might be considered to be a misuse of a majority share of the market by the two companies. EC officials said, in making their announcement, that they do not see an increase in overall market share for the companies, but merely a redistribution. Nevertheless, industry watchers are interpreting the announcement as a sign that the EC may be coming down on the side of the deal on the basis that reprocessing precious metals may be beneficial to the environment, even if the overall effect on the market itself may be noticeable. EC officials dismiss suggested altruistic suggestions, however. They claim that, under current (i.e. pre-Cycleon) market conditions, Engelhard has the precious metals extracted from the spent catalysts by a sub-contractor. Cycleon, which will be using the extraction technology patented by RPC, will therefore be a new competitor in the marketplace. On this basis, the EC says it has cleared the joint venture proposals. (Sylvia Dennis/19951030/Press & Reader Contact: European Commission, +32-2-299-1111) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 10/31/95 GENERAL Japan Newsbriefs (NEWS)(GENERAL)(TYO)(00009) Japan Newsbriefs 10/31/95 TOKYO, JAPAN, 1995 OCT 31 (NB) -- In this roundup of news from Japan: Overseas purchases surge, Wireless spending up, NTT rate cut confirmed, JVC back into profit, 3-D home shopping next year, Packard Bell doubles sales targets, Sony targets Chinese cellular market. Overseas Purchases Surge Japan's big six electronics manufacturers -- Fujitsu, Hitachi, Matsushita Electric, Mitsubishi Electric, NEC, and Toshiba -- will together purchase 2.3 trillion yen ($22.6 billion) worth of materials, components and equipment from overseas this year, according to estimates by the Nihon Keizai Shimbun. The newspaper said in its Tuesday edition that this represents a 40% increase over the previous year. Wireless Spending Up On Monday, the Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications said, as of October 1st, companies involved in cellular telephony plan to spend 1,115.9 billion yen ($10.9 billion) in the current fiscal year. Explosion in use of cellular telephones and the building of the new nationwide PHS network has resulted in the 85% jump over last year, the government agency said, and it a 230 billion yen ($2.25 billion) increase on spending plans originally formulated at the beginning of the tax year. NTT Rate Cut Confirmed Nippon Telegraph and Telephone have confirmed reports from Friday that it has come to an agreement with the new common carriers (NCCs) over a cut in access charges the NCCs pay for use of NTTs network. The two sides have negotiated a 16% rate cut from 12.57 yen per three minutes to 10.46 yen per three minutes. The price cut will be back-dated to April, the beginning of the current fiscal year, and will result in a total of 50 billion yen in reduced charges to DDI, Japan Telecom, and Teleway Japan. Cuts in rates the companies charge domestic customers are now expected. JVC Back Into Profit Victor Company of Japan (JVC) announced a return to profits in the first six months of the current fiscal year. Strong sales in the electronics sector and cost-cutting resulted in the company reporting 2.52 billion yen ($24 million) in parent current profit. In the equivalent period last year, JVC recorded a loss of 1.96 billion yen ($19 million). Despite the encouraging results, the company says the market conditions remain difficult, but it expects a full-year profit of four billion yen. 3-D Home Shopping Next Year Mitsubishi and two partners will introduce a home shopping service that users three-dimensional (3-D) images to make the system more life- like, the Tokyo company said Monday. San Francisco based Worlds Inc. will work with Mitsubishi and affiliated US subsidiary, People World Co. Businesses will set up shops on the system and users will be able to "walk" along a high street and turn and walk into any shops that interest them. Data for the virtual city will be stored on a CD-ROM which will access basic data, such as availability and pricing, online via a modem link. Packard Bell Doubles Sales Targets The Japanese unit of US computer maker Packard Bell has doubled its sales target for the year, its first year in Japan. The company will now try to sell 120,000 computers through its sales channels already established with supermarket group Daiei and electronic store operator Kojima. A Japanese subsidiary will also be established before the end of the year as a way to better organize the strong sales experienced and expected in Japan. Packard Bell says it aims to capture a 10% share of the PC market by the end of the century. Sony Targets Chinese Cellular Market Sony Corporation is to establish a joint venture with three local partners in Beijing, China, to better target the local market for cellular telephones. In addition to handling local sales and distribution, the new company also aims to produce a million handsets a year by the end of 1997. The company, Beijing Suohong Electronics Co., will be based at the Beijing Tianzhu Airport Industry Development District and be majority-owned by Sony. (Martyn Williams/19951031) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 10/31/95 BROADCAST Japan's Newest Broadcaster Takes To The Air (NEWS)(BROADCAST)(TYO)(00010) Japan's Newest Broadcaster Takes To The Air 10/31/95 TOKYO, JAPAN, 1995 OCT 31 (NB) -- Japan's newest television station will take to the air on Wednesday from the country's most advanced studio complex, making use of totally digital technology. Tokyo Metropolitan Television (MXTV) begins broadcasting at 6pm on November 1st although many viewers in the capital will be unaware. The station is billing itself as "the first full digital television station in Japan" and will make extensive use of modern technology similar to that used by community TV stations such as New York 1 and London's Channel One cable broadcasters, but that is not just where the similarity ends. When MXTV begins broadcasting tomorrow, it will become the first broadcast community channel for the city and the only Tokyo station that does not have nationwide affiliates, meaning it can devote more time to local news. Through its Tokyo News broadcasts, MXTV says it will broadcast twelve hours of local news a day as part of its 24 hour format. The news will be made up of top stories plus many that do not make the local news such as stories from each of the cities districts and live broadcasts of local government sessions. Many of the items are hoped to come in from viewers as the station explained in its advertising, "Unlike the other TV stations, you are the source of information for MXTV. Information from your city or office are quite welcome. You are an MXTV regional correspondent." Modern digital technology means a single "video journalist" will be able to film a news event, report on it and edit it alone, freeing up more people to cover more events than conventional television channels. Under the "Focused on Tokyo all the way" theme, the channel promises arts, culture, lifestyle information, and entertainment. The use of computer systems and digital equipment extends all the way to viewers with the "MXTV Computer Station" -- an Internet service offering headline news and details of the channel on the global computer network. Internet users can access the TV station at http://www.mxtv.co.jp/ . Tokyo Metropolitan Television, JOMX-TV, is the sixth commercial broadcaster in the city and joins the key stations of Fuji Television, TV Asahi, TBS, and Nippon TV, plus independent station TV Tokyo and two channels from state broadcaster NHK. Until now, all the broadcasters have used the VHF band for broadcasting in the capital and JOMX on channel 14 requires a new antenna for many houses. Only 37% of homes in Tokyo are estimated to have the correct type of antenna, although many of those point in the wrong direction, towards Yokohama city for reception of TVK channel 42. Only the small number of people with an antenna for the "University of the air" program on channel 16 will be able to receive the new service by simply re-tuning. For help receiving MXTV, a freedial telephone service has been set up on 0120-651414. Viewers in parts of Kanagawa, Saitama, and Chiba prefectures that border with Tokyo will also be able to watch the channel said MXTV. (Martyn Williams/19951031) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 10/31/95 ONLINE Internet Update - Halloween Special (NEWS)(ONLINE)(TYO)(00011) Internet Update - Halloween Special 10/31/95 TOKYO, JAPAN, 1995 OCT 31 (NB) -- In this update of horrifying pages and ghoulish resources on the global Internet: Halloween haunt on the Web, Gint's House of Horror, Anne Rice online, The Nightmare Factory, Malkavian home page, Interactive vampire novel, Official Bloodlust homepage, The Vampire Duck page, Nothing but links. Halloween Haunt On The Web The world's largest Halloween party has arrived on the Internet. For the past 22 years Knott's Scary Farm (Knott's Berry Farm) in Buena Park, California, has hosted 700 monsters and this Web site contains some of the history of the event with photos, sounds, and movies. World Wide Web: http://lucky.biomol.uci.edu/ Gint's House Of Horror "Your first view of the decaying Gint House comes as you round the crest of a hill. Stark against the mountainside, the Victorian architecture seems at odds with the naked rock from which it springs," but where is the foul smell, that envelops the area, coming from? You have to find out. World Wide Web: http://www.dash.com/netro/fun/hol/hlw.html Anne Rice Online The author of the Vampire Chronicles, these pages offer an in-depth look at the work of Anne Rice, the woman herself, and her famous vampires -- the Children of Darkness. World Wide Web: http://ucunix.san.uc.edu/~elymt/AnneRice/AnneRice.html World Wide Web: http://www.maths.tcd.ie/pub/vampire/intro.html The Nightmare Factory The scariest house in Austin, Texas, opens its doors to visitors from the Internet with a chance to find out more, enter the monthly trivia contest and meet the people that run the house. World Wide Web: http://www.io.com/~nightime/ Malkavian Home Page When a vampire goes mad what does it become? The answer is a Malkavian. The Web pages are dedicated to these truly crazy characters with several definitions of what they are, pictures, creations of other network users, and links to related Internet resources. World Wide Web: http://www.nauticom.net/users/erehwon/ Interactive Vampire Novel "Vampires at No Dead Trees" is an online and interactive vampire novel. Visitors get the chance to enter the world of hyper existence and explore the novel with the ability to add your own pages should you wish. World Wide Web: http://www.acy.digex.net/~dobenson/NDT.html Official Bloodlust Homepage "When you bleed, they feed" is the official home page of the maverick vampire thriller, Bloodlust, which gained fame by becoming the only Australian made movie to ever be banned in the United Kingdom, something they seem quite proud of. Described as "The URL from Hell." World Wide Web: http://www.ozemail.com.au/~jswjon/ The Vampire Duck Page Today is a great day to take "The Vampire Vulnerability Test," "The Vampire Probability Test," or "The Human/Vampire Compatibility Test." You can also find out all about Vampires and link to Internet resources on all types of related subjects via this fun page. World Wide Web: http://www.cs.utk.edu/~ghenry/vampired.html Nothing But Links If the selection above has still not satisfied your wishes, try connecting to these index pages that contain more links to Halloween and horror related pages. World Wide Web: http://fox.nstn.ca/~tmonk/horror/horror.html World Wide Web: http://www.vampyre.wis.net/vampyre/links.html (Martyn Williams/19951031) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 10/31/95 ONLINE ****Iworld - AOL's GNN Web Service, "Best Of The Net" (NEWS)(ONLINE)(BOS)(00012) ****Iworld - AOL's GNN Web Service, "Best Of The Net" 10/31/95 BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS, U.S.A., 1995 OCT 31 (NB) -- America Online (AOL) plans to roll out "advanced features" like personal World Wide Web page publishing to Internet sophisticates with a new "Best of the Net" service called Global Network Navigator (GNN). At the same time, it plans to make Web access progressively "more simple" with its existing AOL brand, officials said, during the national press launch of GNN at Internetworld Boston '95. At the press conference, which was attended in Boston by Newsbytes, executives speaking "live" at Internetworld and by IIN videolink from AOL headquarters in Herndon, Virgina, explained that AOL will initially aim GNN at some 500,000 advanced Internet users. Some of the capabilities originating in GNN will eventually be rolled over into AOL's standard online service, predicted Steve Case, AOL's president and chief executive officer (CEO), addressing the reporters and analysts in Boston from Herndon. But essentially, the Web access features in the standard AOL offering will be geared to simplicity, so as to help convert the 90 percent of US households not yet using online services into Internet initiates, he added. In the new GNN "Best of the Net" offering, content revolves around the six "voices" of Personal Finance, Sports, Story Cafe, Education, Travel, and Web Review, according to the AOL execs. GNN subscribers will be able to publish their own "personal home pages." The service also provides GNN News, with services such as NCSA What's New and Reuters New Media, plus online reference tools that include: the Whole Internet Catalog (WIC); Select; Yahoo!; the WebCrawler search-and-retrieval service; and the Business Pages. Other content partners will include: the Sports Network; the Match.Com online matchmaking service; iVillage, the producer of Parent Soup; the Electronic Gourmet Guide; Hecklers Online; iGolf; and NetNoir Online. Case told reporters and analysts at the press conference that AOL will offer GNN on a free trial basis, with unlimited usage for the first 30 days. After the first month of use, the service is priced at $14.95 per month, a fee characterized by Case as considerably lower than the $19.95 per month typically charged by Internet providers. Over the past few years, he maintained, AOL has come from a "distant third" in the commercial online race to take the number one spot, with membership that is projected to soon reach four million. Speaking in Boston, Lyn Chitow, VP for Internet Services and GNN, said that AOL expects to see "some overlap" between users of GNN and the standard AOL brand, but that it is difficult to tell right now precisely how many people will be using both services at the same point in time. GNN will share the same 600 POPs (points of presence) as the standard AOL online offering, but the two services will use "different back ends," according to Chitow. AOL estimates that about 50 percent of its subscribers were prompted to join AOL by the Web access capability recently added to AOL's standard service offering, Chitow noted. During a demo at the Boston site, the press conference attendees viewed some of the initial features in GNN, including What's New and Travel. In the future, GNN will be integrated with Adobe's Acrobat, and distributed by Adobe, according to the AOL officials. AOL is also working with: First Floor Software to license Smart Bookmarks for monitoring and organizing Web page sites; Macromedia, for integration of Director Player technology into GNN; Progressive Networks, for integration of the ReadAudio player; and VocalTec, for licensing VocalTec, a technology for conducting voice calls over the Web. GNN will also be bundled with products from Compaq, Lotus, Gateway 2000, Asymetrix, Hayes, US Robotics, and Zoom, Chitow reported. Advertisers that have signed on to the service include: O'Reilly & Associates; Fossil Watches; Godiva Choclatier; Hammacher Schlemmer, Harry and David; Nolo Press; Thanksgiving Coffee; and Windham Hill Records. Other marketing partners include: AT&T cinet -- The Computer Network; Sony Magic Link; MGM/United Artists; American Airlines; Dealernet; and Joe Boxer. (Jacqueline Emigh/19951031/Reader Contact: America Online, 703-448-8700; Press Contacts: Kathy Johnson, AOL, 703-918-1948; Pam McGraw, AOL, 703-556-3746) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 10/31/95 ONLINE ****Iworld - AT&T's Personal Online Service, Oracle Deal (NEWS)(ONLINE)(BOS)(00013) ****Iworld - AT&T's Personal Online Service, Oracle Deal 10/31/95 BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS, U.S.A., 1995 OCT 31 (NB) -- In a press conference at Internetworld Boston '95, AT&T announced a new Personal Online Service for consumers, featuring a health and fitness service content service for the Internet as its first offering, along with Oracle WebSystem, a service that will combine World Wide Web connections from AT&T's WorldNet with Oracle-based Web servers. AT&T's new health and service content service will be based on the concept of "mass customization," said AT&T's John Petrillo, speaking at a press conference in Boston attended by Newsbytes. Over the next few months, AT&T expects to unveil several other services, in additional content areas, for the new Personal Online Service, Petrillo reported. The announcement of AT&T's Personal Online Service follows a series of related service introductions by AT&T that included WorldNet, WorldNet Managed Services, and content deals with CNN (Cable Network News) and Dow-Jones, he noted. AT&T's Carolyn Vandlerlip told reporters and analysts at the event in Boston that AT&T's Personal Online Service chose health care as its first content offering because this content area appeals to consumers for "financial and emotional" reasons, and also because the medical field changes so quickly. "There's always news," Vanderlip remarked. In addition, said Evslin, the Internet is already a well established method of obtaining medical information. Over 20 percent of cardiac, cancer, and diabetes patients use online services, a proportion about twice as large as the number of users among the general population, he pointed out. AT&T's new Personal Online Service will be "mass customized" as well as "localized," drawing on local experts such as doctors at community hospitals, for example, to provide some of the content, according to the AT&T officials. But the "anchor" of the new health and fitness content service is IVI, a company that owns digital publishing rights from the Mayo Clinic, Time-Life, and the Massachusetts Medical Society. Ronald G. Buck, chairman of IVI, told the journalists that IVI's deal with AT&T is "exclusive," and that the content provided by AT&T's new online health and fitness service will be "unique." The service will include content from the Mayo Clinic that will allow users to "drill down" through multiple levels of information for answers to specific questions on health and fitness, according to Buck. IVI is now the largest provider of medical information on CD-ROM, contended the IVI chairman. The company produces the Mayo Clinic Family Health series, recently released in its second edition, in addition to 14 other titles. Content offerings from AT&T's new Personal Online Service will probably be offered on WorldCom, as well as other AT&T networks, said Jack Grasso, VP of Communications for the Personal Online Service, speaking with Newsbytes at the close of the press conference. On Friday, AT&T announced that WorldNet dial-up Internet service is now undergoing trials in preparation for commercial rollout in the first quarter of next year, Grasso noted. In remarks at a second, Halloween-inspired press event attended by Newsbytes later in the day, Petrillo paid tribute to Oracle, as well as to BBN, Novell, CNN, Dow-Jones, IVI, Accordance, and other AT&T partners for Internet service delivery. The theatrically oriented event also featured Tom Evslin, AT&T's VP for Gateway Services, in the role of "Merlin the Magician." Under the newly announced deal between AT&T and Oracle, the two companies will jointly market the AT&T WorldNet Managed Internet Service with the Oracle WebServer and WebServer Option. AT&T and Oracle will also offer OEM (original equipment manufacturer) distribution of factory-installed Oracle WebServer and registration software for WorldNet to server hardware companies. (Jacqueline Emigh/19951031/Press Contacts: Henry Bassman, AT&T, 201-331-4143; Randy Lankford, AT&T, 408-452-3810; David Downing, Oracle, 415-506-4176; Carolyn Wilkins, Copithorne & Bellows, 617- 252-0606; Burghardt Tenderich, Applied Communications Corp., 415- 375-8881) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 10/31/95 GOVT China - Customs Automation System Planned (NEWS)(GOVT)(PEK)(00014) China - Customs Automation System Planned 10/31/95 BEIJING, CHINA, 1995 OCT 31 (NB) -- It is estimated that about RMB1.2 billion (US$143 million) will be used for the so-called Customs 2000, a five-year project which is designed to improve customs efficiency and administration. According to officials with the General Administration of Customs (GAC), the project will begin next year and mainly focus on developing computer networks, large data bases, and related application systems. It is expected to help achieve automatic customs clearance by the end of the century, said an official with the Science and Technology Department of GAC. Work on automatic customs entry started in the mid-1980s and 99 percent of China's customs declarations are now being done automatically. With the automatic system, the long lines waiting for declarations at customs have disappeared, a customs official said. It used to take at least a half hour for goods to go through customs formalities, but now they pass through in minutes, he said. However, more effort need to be made for the automation of other procedures such as tax collection and customs inspection, said officials with GAC. GAC plans to expand its internal network and purchase more computers to facilitate its network and application developments. GAC currently has about 7,000 computers which are shared by about 30,000 customs officials. GAC's networks will also be connected with the Ministry of Foreign Trade and Economic Cooperation, the State Administration of Taxation, the State Administration of Exchange Control, banks, and the State Statistics Bureau for information exchange, officials with GAC said. They will also be able to cooperate on import and export quotas and licenses, tax refunds, the settlement of exchanges, and statistics. In the next few years, the administration will exploit major application systems in such fields as administration of imported and exported goods, implementation of laws, automatic office work, statistics and analysis of external trade, and electronic data interchange (EDI) services. (Chih-Ho Yu & Ning Huang/19951028) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 10/31/95 GOVT China - Govt Promotes Electronic Data Interchange (NEWS)(GOVT)(PEK)(00015) China - Govt Promotes Electronic Data Interchange 10/31/95 BEIJING, CHINA, 1995 OCT 31 (NB) -- The Ministry of Foreign Trade and Economic Cooperation (MOFTEC) will expand its computer networks and further develop electronic data interchange (EDI) applications to increase trade efficiency, MOFTEC officials said. Recently, MOFTEC's technological achievements on EDI during the Eighth 5-year Plan period (1991-1995) passed government appraisal. The ministry has used EDI for the administration of import and export licenses, administration of air transport and ocean transport, and business for domestic foreign trade firms. Involving the electronic transfer of information from computer to computer using agreed standards, EDI could help increase the flow rate of information and goods, lower costs and reduce errors common in traditional paper-based trade, officials said. EDI has been used for customs procedures in Beijing, Guangzhou, Shenzhen, and the Weigaoqiao Bonded Zone of east Shanghai, and the practice will be promoted gradually across the country. The standardized information interchange will not only speed up many procedures, but also reduce illegal actions and corruption, analysts said. EDI can also help the ministry provide more information and advice to the central government and open trade-related information to the public, said officials with MOFTEC. In the future, the Ministry will attempt to promote the use of EDI with license and quota administration tasks, establish an EDI service center, draft EDI-related laws and regulations, construct a foreign trade telecommunications network, and connect the new network with customs and taxation agencies, shipping companies, and insurance institutes, they said. (Chih-Ho Yu & Ning Huang/19951028) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 10/31/95 GENERAL China - 150,000 Visit Largest Computer Expo (NEWS)(GENERAL)(PEK)(00016) China - 150,000 Visit Largest Computer Expo 10/31/95 BEIJING, CHINA, 1995 OCT 31 (NB) -- China's largest computer exhibition closed on October 14 in the Beijing International Exhibition Center. More than 190 domestic and foreign computer firms were displaying more than 3,000 computer products and related technology during the five-day event. Before the opening, more than 200,000 tickets were requested by companies and institutes all over the country, the exhibition organizer said. It is estimated that at least 150,000 people actually visited the exhibition. Lured by the huge Chinese computer market, almost all international computer/electronics giants -- such as Microsoft, IBM, Apple, Compaq, AT&T, Motorola, AST, NEC, Siemens, Nixdorf, Epson, and Maxell -- displayed their products and technologies at the exhibition. The widespread interest in this event is proving how attractive the Chinese market is, although it will take time to fully develop, said an official with the Ministry of Electronics Industry. Official figures show that, last year, at least 60 percent of PCs sold in China were foreign-made. This year, the figure may be reach 70 percent. Compared with international big names, most show booths of domestic firms were quite simple. One exception to that was the booth of Suntendy, the developer of Chinese Star -- a Chinese environment under Windows. The exhibit one of Suntendy's efforts to promote its "Chinese" Chinese software against "foreign" Chinese windows. For most Chinese visitors, the fair serves as a window on the latest developments in the computer/electronics fields. Beginning from 1993, this is the third China ComputerWorld Expo. However, with a new title added, the exhibition is called China ComputerWorld Expo'95 & Networking China '95. Experts from Tsinghua University integrated hardware and software from many different firms to form a network demo for the exhibition. Visitors were allowed to use the networked computers to send electronic-mail and to browse information on the Internet. (Chih-Ho Yu & Ning Huang/19951028) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 10/31/95 TRENDS 3-D Glasses By StereoGraphics (NEWS)(TRENDS)(LAX)(00017) 3-D Glasses By StereoGraphics 10/31/95 SAN RAFAEL, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1995 OCT 31 (NB) -- StereoGraphics Corporation, manufacturer of the scientific three-dimensional (3-D) glasses CrystalEyes, announced SimulEyes VR stereo-vision 3-D glasses for home multimedia PCs. The new glasses will allow the user to see in "stereo vision," an enhanced 3-D technology. #IMAGE 1 20 TWPCX \images\95103117.PCX Click here for photo Founded in 1980, StereoGraphics claims to have pioneered and developed the market for modern stereoscopic imaging equipment, and says it is the "world leader" in sales of electro-stereoscopic display systems. Speaking to Newsbytes, Michael Gjerstad a spokesman for StereoGraphics, claimed, "CrystalEyes, StereoGraphics' flagship product, has an installed base of over 20,000 users in scientific visualization, geographic information system/mapping, molecular modeling, CAD/CAM (computer-aided design/manufacturing), and commercial presentations. With the new SimulEyes VR, the company now offers low cost stereo-vision eyewear for the home PC game, multimedia, and 'edutainment' markets as well." SimulEyes VR uses StereoGraphics' LCD (liquid crystal display) shutter technology, claimed to be the standard in high-end workstation environments. The liquid crystal shutters in the glasses rapidly alternate in sync with left and right eye views on the computer monitor. The shutters ensure that the left eye sees only the left image, while the right eye sees only the right. This system emulates normal eyesight to restore depth perception. "Stereo vision, used for so long in the scientific community, is significantly superior to any traditional 3-D technology. 3-D on the PC today is merely a combination of shading and colors -- with stereo vision, you get actual depth perception," said Gjerstad. Hardware OEMs (original equipment manufacturers) will be able to ship SimulEyes VR compatible boards or computer systems for less than $100 additional estimated street price. First products will be Windows only, with other platforms to follow, said the company. "Now OEMs can add stereo-vision 3-D to their list of multimedia features without dramatically burdening their cost structure," said Don Flohr, StereoGraphics' OEM sales manager. "It's an outstanding opportunity for leading-edge hardware companies to differentiate their products from their competition. Previously, such a feature cost over $1,000 in hardware upgrades, but now stereo-vision is inexpensively positioned as a standard feature on today's hottest multimedia PCs." The SimulEyes VR OEM products consists of chipsets (stereo-vision sync chip and shutter driver chip) and stereo-vision glasses. OEMs can offer SimulEyes VR-compatible hardware with or without the glasses. The glasses are then sold either as a manufacturer's premium with the system, or are purchased by consumers as SimulEyes VR add-on products through local retailers. Concentrating on the game market in the beginning, SimulEyes VR will first be bundled with Interplay's game Descent. The bundled set will be available by the end of the year in "most retail outlets," said the company. Add-on glasses for SimulEyes VR compatible boards will ship in December for $99 ESP, and will be distributed through Ingram Micro. (Richard Bowers/19951031/Press Contact: Michael Gjerstad, StereoGraphics, 415-459-4500/STEREOGRAPHIC951031/PHOTO) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 10/31/95 ONLINE Drastic Price Cuts On Netscape Server Products (NEWS)(ONLINE)(SFO)(00018) Drastic Price Cuts On Netscape Server Products 10/31/95 MOUNTAIN VIEW, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1995 OCT 31 (NB) -- In a move designed to expand its presence in the growing Internet market, Netscape Communications (NASDAQ:NSCP) has announced price cuts on its Communications and Commerce Server products for Unix and Windows NT. The company also introduced the Netscape Server Bundle for Unix platforms. Price reductions apply to Netscape Commerce Server 1.12 for Unix, which is reduced from $5,000 to $2,995, and Commerce Server 1.12 for Windows NT, which is reduced to $1,295 from $2,995. For its Communications Server 1.12 for Unix, Netscape lowered the price from $1,495 to $1,295, while the NT version went from $795 to $495. All price cuts are effective immediately. Along with high Internet growth as a factor in the price cuts, Netscape cites added competition for the Internet business of large corporations and institutions, as companies like Microsoft and Oracle deliver its Internet server software products. Rosanne Siino, director of public relations at Netscape, told Newsbytes, "Now is the time for us to offer these cuts. If you saw our third quarter results, you know 37% of our revenues are derived from our server products and by taking an aggressive sales position, we be able to expand our products to many new customers." The newly announced Netscape Server Bundle for Unix platforms includes the Commerce Server, Proxy Server, and News Server for $4,995. Priced separately, the combined products would cost an additional $3,000. Siino said the new bundle meets the demand of customers who want a full suite of server software products to integrate internal networks and the Internet. Siino added, "A lot of people think of our tools as a means for companies to place a server on the Internet and they are right. But a huge market of companies are using our server software on their internal networks. Netscape's server products allow customers to integrate Internet access and improve internal communications at the same time." As an example, Netscape News Server allows a company to read all Usenet Newsgroups from the Internet and also allows a company to build its own custom, secure newsgroups to communicate within a division or throughout the company. This feature can be used to trace product development or shipping status. Proxy Server also facilitates network use of the Internet by caching frequently accessed pages. This means a company can get Internet information such as daily stockmarket information once, and have it available for future use on the network without having to access the Internet again. Proxy Server also provides security by allowing an administrator to specify what Internet information can be accessed. Netscape also announced an agreement with IBM to bundle and sell Netscape's Internet applications, server products and client products. Specific details of IBM's plans are not currently available. On a final note, Netscape says it completed an arrangement with Prodigy which allows the online service to offer its subscribers a choice of Netscape Navigator or Prodigy's proprietary browser to surf the Internet. (Patrick McKenna/199510/31/Press Contact: Rosanne Siino, Netscape, 415-528-2619) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 10/31/95 EDUCATION SPA's Education & Computers Study (NEWS)(EDUCATION)(MSP)(00019) SPA's Education & Computers Study 10/31/95 WASHINGTON, D.C., U.S.A., 1995 OCT 31 (NB) -- Almost one-quarter of all US kindergarten through 12th grade classes have integrated technology into the curriculum, the Software Publishers Association (SPA) reports. In a new study, called the "Education Market Report," the SPA said technology now touches about 10 million schoolchildren. The survey is based on responses from 42 different organizations of US and Canadian school districts, providing school administrators and technology program planners with information about trends in educational technology, SPA officials said. More than 5.5 million computers are installed in schools, the survey said. Also, the computer-to-student ratio is decreasing at approximately one computer for every nine students, meaning fewer students have to share computers. But of that 5.5 million number, the SPA said more than half are out-of-date and don't have the capability to access the Internet. This is happening at the same time as interest increases in networks, modems, and "surfing" the Internet, the study showed. At the same time, the survey showed schools are increasing their numbers of multimedia computers and computers with fast processors, while retiring old Apple II systems. More than $565 million was spent in the US on instructional software in the 1993-1994 school year, and almost $1 billion was shelled out for technology-based products, the survey said. But federal money that funds some of the technology-related purchases is expected to be cut by Congress, the SPA said, leaving the states and local schools to fill the void, if they can. The report also said that only moderate differences were noticed when comparing different demographics of school districts, like wealth, size, and discretionary funds, and the level of computer and technology ownership. In addition, nearly one-third of all students and teachers have computers at home. Sue Kamp, Ed.D., director of SPA's Education Section, told Newsbytes it is no surprise that there are still a lot of old computers out there that aren't capable of an Internet hook-up, but she's glad to see the trend of schools buying more up-to-date systems for Internet access, as well as for multimedia use. Kemp said certain roadblocks exist in getting technology into the classrooms. One of the main blocks is funding, she said, especially from the federal level. "What we're working on is opening up the definition of instructional material so that it includes technology as an instructional material (as opposed to having technology as a separate category), so that those funds can be used for purchasing, and software in particular." The Education Market Report is available for free to the press, and costs $125 for educational professionals only. All others are charged $250. Some of the SPA members who contributed to the report include CCA Counseling Inc., Education Turnkey Systems Inc., Educorp Consultants Corp., and Scholastic Inc. (Bob Woods/19951031/Press Contacts: Lori Singer, or Sue Kamp, of the Software Publishers Association, 202-452-1600) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 10/31/95 TRENDS IT Begins To Face Year 2000 PC Date Problem (NEWS)(TRENDS)(TOR)(00020) IT Begins To Face Year 2000 PC Date Problem 10/31/95 NEW YORK, NEW YORK, U.S.A., 1995 OCT 31 (NB) -- Many computer programs now in use allot only two digits for the year in dates, and on January 1, 2000, those programs are going to think it is 99 years earlier than it was the day before. The information technology business is just beginning to come to grips with this problem. This week, IBM (NYSE:IBM) announced what it plans to do to help its customers face the Year 2000 problem. The company said all of its own software will be upgraded to deal with four-digit dates properly by the end of 1996. But that is only the beginning, because many computer users have older programs that rely on two-digit dates and will still be in service at the end of the century. So IBM will also provide tools and services to help its customers find the problems and correct them before they cause disaster. The company will also publish a user guide, entitled "The Year 2000 and Two-Digit Dates: A Guide for Planning and Implementation." It will outline how IBM can help, and offer guidelines on correcting old software. "The toughest part of this whole process is planning for it," said Charles Lickel, vice-president of business plans and system architecture in IBM's System/390 division, in a teleconference with industry consultants. He added a warning that "It's very easy for customers to fall into the trap of putting quick bypasses in that will temporarily solve the problem." Such quick fixes could be "time bombs" in the longer term, he said. Steve Kagan, director of the United States Year 2000 Center of Competence at IBM's Integrated Systems Solutions Corp. subsidiary, said the problem is not five years away. "We see applications already beginning to fail that project into and after the year 2000," he said. The Gartner Group, a New York research firm, has forecast that 20 percent of computer applications now running in American businesses will fail in 1996 because of the two-digit date problem, and 90 percent will do so by 1999. The problem "affect most every program and platform that's in use today," said Carla Gude, director of system software structure in the IBM Software Group. However, information systems executives are just beginning to face up to the problem, according to a recent roll by Computer Horizons (NASDAQ:CHRZ), an information technology services company. At a recent seminar on the problem, Computer Horizons surveyed attendees and found that the majority have not yet begun seriously addressing the problem. Also, every executive at the seminar agreed the problem was larger than he or she had first expected, Computer Horizons said. (Grant Buckler/19951031/Press Contact: Marta Decker, IBM, 914-892-7358; Bill Reihl, Ruder-Finn for Computer Horizons, 212-593-6362) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 10/31/95 EDUCATION ****AT&T Commits $150 Mil To Put Schools On Internet (NEWS)(EDUCATION)(TOR)(00021) ****AT&T Commits $150 Mil To Put Schools On Internet 10/31/95 NEW YORK, NEW YORK, U.S.A., 1995 OCT 31 (NB) -- AT&T (NYSE:T) said it will shell out $150 million to help put every school in the United States on the Internet by the end of the decade. The AT&T Learning Network program will include free dial-up connections to the Internet, World Wide Web browser software, and free connect time, plus grants to schools for Internet-related projects. In a teleconference announcing the plan, AT&T Chairman Robert Allen talked about the importance of education and the need to make sure society does not become divided into information haves and have-nots. AT&T officials also admitted, though, that the services they are offering schools may create demand for other products and services, such as equipment to let individual classrooms take advantage of Internet access. Asked about the fact that many classrooms lack phone lines, Allen said, "It would be an unusual school administration that would not try to take advantage" of AT&T's offer "by providing whatever technology is required." Like many donations of computer equipment to the educational system in the past, the program will also help build interest in communication technology and create "brand awareness." Allen said every elementary and secondary school in the United States, whether public or private, will be eligible. AT&T said there are about 110,000 such schools across the country. Each school will get browser software and dial-up access to the Internet with 100 free hours of usage and discounts thereafter. AT&T also plans to select 100 schools to get free on-campus wireless service for two years, including an in-building wireless communications system and cellular phones for staff. The company will also offer schools free use of its soon-to-be-launched national voice-messaging service. "Teachers can leave parents a message even if they don't have answering machines," Allen said. "School districts can send messages to entire communities." For instance, he said, when a school is closed due to bad weather, a message could be broadcast to the home of every student, ensuring that parents know about the closure. AT&T will supply list-management software to schools to help them take advantage of this. The AT&T Foundation plans to spend $50 million over the next five years to support "effective use of technology" in education, through grants for professional development, teacher training, and projects that encourage family involvement in education, officials said. (Grant Buckler/19951031/Press Contact: Mark Trierweiler, AT&T, 312-230-5217; Public Contact: AT&T Learning Network, 800-809-1097, Internet e-mail learningnet@attmail.com) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 10/31/95 BUSINESS ****Hayes Bankruptcy Plan Would Keep Firm Independent (NEWS)(BUSINESS)(DEN)(00022) ****Hayes Bankruptcy Plan Would Keep Firm Independent 10/31/95 ATLANTA, GEORGIA, U.S.A., 1995 OCT 31 (NB) -- Dennis Hayes went to court yesterday and unveiled a reorganization plan that would bring his privately owned company out of bankruptcy protection, pay off creditors fully with interest, and keep the company out of the clutches of proposed buyers. The plan, if approved by the US Bankruptcy Court of the Northern District of Georgia, is good news for just about everyone except the financial suitors that had lined up with bouquets of money in hand. Hayes gets to keep control of the company he founded, albeit with some minority investors now sitting on his board, the creditors will get paid off 100 cents on the dollar, and the employees can breath a sigh of relief that the company will keep on producing products. The Hayes recapitalization plan is a combination of equity investments and new debt facilities. The equity participants, who together would hold 49 percent of the company, are Northern Telecom Limited, through its subsidiary Northern Telecom Inc., and ACMA Limited. Northern Telecom Limited is headquartered in Toronto, Canada, while ACMA's corporate flag flies over its Singapore headquarters. If the plan is approved, Dennis Hayes, chairman of the company, along with the Hayes Employee Stock Plan, will own 51 percent of the company. Hayes will continue as chairman and chief executive officer. Under the terms of the proposed reorganization plan, Hayes Microcomputer gets to name one more member of the corporate board of directors, in addition to Dennis Hayes' seat, while Northern Telecom and ACMA each get two seats on the board. Hayes Microcomputer has shown an operating profit ever since its Chapter 11 filing. The reorganization plan calls for 100% repayment of all valid creditor claims plus interest. The spokesperson said interest rates paid to creditors depend on factors such as contractual agreements or a rate set by the judge. At least two figures -- seven percent and the prime rate plus two percent -- have been proposed. The spokesperson told Newsbytes the two biggest creditors are chip maker Rockwell International, and sub-contract manufacturer Singatronics. The spokesperson said Singatronics was not one of the sub-contractors that contributed to Hayes' difficulties in the first place. Hayes Microcomputer Products Inc. sought protection under Chapter 11 of the federal bankruptcy law in November, 1994, after facing a cash-flow shortfall that prevented the company from paying its creditors. Ironically, the products it couldn't pay for were purchased to fill orders that the company couldn't deliver on because sub-contractors hired to turn out the products couldn't ramp up their production facilities fast enough to meet the demand. (Jim Mallory/19951031/Press contact: Andrew Dodd, Hayes Microcomputer, 770-840-9200) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 10/31/95 ONLINE Texas Instrument's Web Home Page, E-mail Newsletter (NEWS)(ONLINE)(DEN)(00023) Texas Instrument's Web Home Page, E-mail Newsletter 10/31/95 DALLAS, TEXAS, U.S.A., 1995 OCT 31 (NB) -- Texas Instruments Inc. (NYSE: TXN) has announced a World Wide Web home page that will be customized, not by the company, but by the user to show information about the TI product's they are particularly interested in. Users can also register to receive a weekly personalized electronic-mail newsletter covering the latest information on the customer's area of interest. The monthly newsletter service is available to anyone who logs on to TI's home page on the World Wide Web and clicks on the TI&ME button on the home page. TI&ME Internet Information Services, developed the dynamic home page for Texas Instruments. While the customized home page presents just the information the reader is interested in, it doesn't prohibit the user from browsing other areas on TI's home page. TI said the home page contains data sheets on over 1,000 products, applications, company news releases, and other product literature. TI products covered on the home page include computers, printers, and various chips. In addition to the customer home page, the company has announced two other online services, primarily aimed at engineers. You can log on to The Online DSP Lab for news about digital signal processing (DSP) information. TI spokesperson Buddy Price told Newsbytes the lab is designed to let engineers test drive the TI software tools used to develop applications using TI's DSP chips. DSPs are specialized, very high-speed microprocessors designed to execute mathematically intense computations almost instantly. The lab is at the Web address of http://www.dspnet.com , or you can reach it from TI's home page by clicking the appropriate icon. TI is also offering a DSP hotline service called DSPnet at the address http://www.ti.com/dsps , where customers can gain access to a database of technical files, including specifications, data sheets, design notes, and other information about DSP. The documents can be downloaded if desired. The hotline service, which Price said augments but doesn't replace the familiar toll-free support line engineers have been able to call to talk with TI support staffers. TI said there is no charge to access any of its new online offerings, or for the electronically delivered customized newsletter. (Jim Mallory/19951031/Press contact: Buddy Price, GTT Communications for Texas Instruments, 214-661-0495) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 10/31/95 TRENDS Casio Videophone Intro'd (NEWS)(TRENDS)(LAX)(00024) Casio Videophone Intro'd 10/31/95 ANAHEIM, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1995 OCT 31 (NB) -- Casio is set to introduce its new LT-70P Videophone, which will provide full-screen, high-resolution color images with simultaneous audio, over an analog phone line. This is an enhanced version of the Casio Videophone that has been available in Japan since April. The LT-70P features Casio Computer's Casio Talkvision Network, which not only has proprietary audio and video compression technology, but also a communication control operating system that allows two-way communications. The LT-70P offers face-to-face conversation and high-resolution video transmission, coupled with a multi-functional video display. Bennet Bayer, vice-president of advanced product division for Casio, told Newsbytes, "The LT-70P is the size of a cable converter box that weighs a little over four pounds. It has a built-in camera, with connections to a regular telephone and a television. Connect to another LT-70P and you have a high resolution video display, with audio and data transmission." The LT-70P's slide-show format displays a standard full-frame image every 3.5 seconds, or high-resolution every 30 seconds. Bayer points out that this product is for the "show and tell" market, not for high frames-per-second videoconferencing. "This is made for the business that needs high resolution images via remote locations with full audio," said Bayer. With the touch of a remote control, users can view a full display of a single image, a picture-in-picture display of one small image in the corner of the full-screen image, or a multiple screen that displays four images simultaneously. "The LT-70P makes tomorrow's business-to-business telecommunications technology a reality today," said Stephen Knuth, president of Casio Phonemate. "Because no additional facilities, special phone lines or equipment beyond a standard analog phone and television are required, the LT-70P makes it easy and affordable for business users to transmit video and audio information more efficiently than any other Videophone on the market." With an optional converter and a video capture board, users can connect the LT-70P to a personal computer. The unit also allows users to transmit images captured with a camcorder or digital camera. Images can be stored in the internalmemory or onto a VCR. Images can even be printed on an optional digital printer. Available in the first week of November, each unit will be priced at $1,899. (Richard Bowers/19951031/Press Contact: Gary Van Zandt, 310-224-4960) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 10/31/95 GENERAL ATI Focuses On Games, MPEG (NEWS)(GENERAL)(TOR)(00025) ATI Focuses On Games, MPEG 10/31/95 THORNHILL, ONTARIO, CANADA, 1995 OCT 31 (NB) -- ATI Technologies Inc. (TSE:ATY) is putting new emphasis on games with products based on the Motion Picture Experts Group (MPEG) video standard and a new multimedia product architecture. The company has also announced comfortable increases in revenue and net income for its most recent fiscal year. Andrew Schmied, product manager for PC graphics accelerators at ATI, told Newsbytes that the PC games market is growing, thanks in part to the recent launch of Microsoft's Windows 95 operating system. "We're definitely emphasizing games," he said. Evidence of that can be found in ATI's newly launched Arcade Rage, an accelerator kit for games running on Windows 95. The kit provides TV- quality video, enhanced Windows 95 utilities, and Direct Draw support for high-quality graphics. It also includes ATI's MPEG Sampler compact disk and games from other manufacturers. Arcade Rage includes the newly announced Video Xpression 64-bit multimedia accelerator, which the vendor said provides TV-quality video and Direct Draw support as well as two-dimensional graphics acceleration. The accelerator card can display 30 frames-per-second (fps) of MPEG or Indeo video on all Pentium-class systems. The unit is upgradeable, and a TV tuner option is available, ATI said. A hardware MPEG option makes it possible to display 30 fps of full-screen video while reducing the load on the computer's central processor, the company added. Arcade Rage is expected to retail for about $200. The Video Xpression card will list at $199, and the TV tuner and hardware MPEG options both at $129, ATI said. "MPEG video is really forming an important part of the entire multimedia offering," Schmied said. He predicted a lot of activity on the MPEG front in 1996, adding that besides consumer applications, there are uses for MPEG in business for purposes such as computer-based training. The Video Xpression card is ATI's first retail product based on its ATI-MM900 MPEG decoder chip, which works with the company's mach64 multimedia accelerators. Besides using this chip in its own products, ATI will be offering it to original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) starting in the first quarter of 1996, at $45 each in quantities of 10,000. ATI also announced a new multimedia accelerator, the ATI-264VT, which will be available to OEMs early in 1996 at $33 in quantities of 10,000. The two chips are ATI's first products supporting a new Enhanced Visual Architecture (EVA) on which Schmied said ATI will be building most of its future products. Schmied said ATI set out to make all of its products, and potentially some from other companies, compatible. The company will work with other manufacturers -- Schmied mentioned Microsoft and Intel -- to try to win their support for the architecture. ATI has also announced financial results for the year ended August 31. The company had net income of C$15.9 million, or 34 cents per share, on sales of C$359.7 million. This was up from a net loss of C$2.7 million, or six cents per share, on sales of C$232.3 million in fiscal 1994. (Grant Buckler/19951031/Press Contact: Dan Coyle, ATI, 905-882-2611, Internet e-mail 73323.2724@compuserve.com; Barbara Wilcox, ATI, 905-882-2600 ext 8306; Lance McIntosh, ATI, 905-882-2600 ext 8306) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 10/31/95 CHIPS ****Intel's Grove Hints At Pentium Pro Delivery (NEWS)(CHIPS)(SFO)(00026) ****Intel's Grove Hints At Pentium Pro Delivery 10/31/95 SAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1995 OCT 31 (NB) -- Intel Corp.'s (NASDAQ-NNM:INTC) chief executive officer (CEO), Dr. Andy Grove, opened Macromedia's user conference with a demonstration of the company's latest processor, Pentium Pro. A major announcement regarding availability and pricing is expected tomorrow at Internet World in Boston. Later in the day, Michael Spindler, Apple's CEO, addressed the Macromedia crowd of developers who invent and create some of the most popular multimedia and World Wide Web content. Spindler seemed casual and relaxed as he told the audience, "Apple brought you here and Apple technology will continue to give you the very best technology to allow you create the next generation of visual presentations." When he asked how many in the audience were using Apple computers, most of the audience clapped in reply. Earlier, to these same Apple users, Grove gave an impressive demonstration of the power of Pentium Pro and said the new processor is going to change the way developers work and the speed at which they produce. It may have been an audience of hardcore Mac users, but Grove's demonstration met with an impressive reception. Intel's booth on the trade show floor contained workstations powered by Pentium Pro processors which offered high-speed personal demonstrations of Macromedia's Director and Adobe's Photoshop. Crowds gathered around to witness Intel's call to a stronghold of traditional Macintosh users. Pentium Pro processors will first be available only for servers and high-performance workstations. Many early adopters of the technology are hoping tomorrow's announcement from Boston will also include a time-projection for a desktop configuration. (Patrick McKenna/19951031) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 10/31/95 ONLINE Novell Intros NetWare Web Server (NEWS)(ONLINE)(DEN)(00027) Novell Intros NetWare Web Server 10/31/95 OREM, UTAH, U.S.A., 1995 OCT 31 (NB) -- Novell Inc. (NASDAQ: NOVL) has announced NetWare Web Server, a software system for NetWare 4.1-based servers that gives NetWare users an "easy way" to let their customers and other interested parties access them through the Internet. NetWare Web Server supports symmetric multiprocessing (SMP) and is scaleable to meet the needs of the workgroup size using the server. SMP makes it possible for a computer to process numerous requests simultaneously. Novell said the server software installs out of the box on the NetWare 4.1 operating system without custom development or any knowledge of Unix. According to Novell, beta users were able to install and configure their Web server and create a Web home page in about 10 minutes. Customer access to companies via the Internet is rapidly becoming an important factor in doing business, according to Vic Langford, vice president and general manager of Novell's Internet Commerce Division. "Companies that set up Web servers are able to communicate more easily and effectively with customers, employees, resellers, partners, manufacturers, investors, and other individuals and to offer company information more efficiently than through traditional communication methods," said Langford. The NetWare Web Server software can take advantage of NetWare Directory Services in providing security through authentication of the user to directory services and access control to the data. It is also compatible with NetWare SFT III fault tolerant protection. NetWare Web Server users get the Wordperfect Internet Publisher, a tool to create their home page. Publisher lets the user create the home page as a text document, then automatically converts that document to the HTML (hypertext markup language) format that is standard for Web home pages. You also get Netscape Navigator, a World Wide Web browser. A Windows-based graphical user interface is provided for network administrator use. Novell said the core technology for the NetWare Web Server was provided by Bedford, Massachusetts-based American Internet Corp. The technology was licensed and "enhanced" by Novell. Novell said NetWare Web Server has a suggested retail price of $995 and is expected to ship in late December. Novell maintains its own home page on the Web at http://www.novell.com . (Jim Mallory/Press contact: Rick Myllenbeck, Novell, 408-577-8206; Public contact: Novell, 800-451-5151) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 10/31/95 ONLINE Web Site Measurement Info With I/Pro (NEWS)(ONLINE)(MSP)(00028) Web Site Measurement Info With I/Pro 10/31/95 SAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1995 OCT 31 (NB) -- BPA International, a circulation auditor for print publications, said it will work with Internet Profiles Corporation (I/Pro) to provide reporting of Web site measurement and demographic information. Specifically, BPA is auditing I/Pro's Web site usage verification processes, examining Web site log files, and ensuring that the Nielsen I/Pro I/Audit methodology is "consistent with BPA's interactive auditing standards," officials said. Nielsen I/Pro I/Audit reports are similar to those produced in the print and broadcast media, in that surveys can be cross compared, as Newsbytes has previously reported. Under the agreement, I/Pro will still issue I/Audit reports for its customers. "Working with I/Pro allows us to extend our expertise in independent verification for the emerging electronic publishing industry," said BPA International president and chief executive officer, Michael Marchesano. Also, I/Pro said it is inviting anyone in the industry to participate with it and BPA in developing "standardized Web measurement standards." The I/Pro system is already in line with the Coalition for Advertising Supported Information and Entertainment (CASIE), along with the Magazine Publishers of America (MPA) standards for Internet advertising measurement. The first I/Pro customers to participate in the testing are Yahoo! (located at http://www.yahoo.com ), and CMP Publication's TechWeb (at http://techweb.cmp.com ). For more information, Web surfers can access I/Pro's Web site at http://www.ipro.com . The BPA is the second circulation auditor to announce its intention to enter the Web tracking fray. Last month, Newsbytes reported that the Audit Bureau of Circulations (ABC) was scheduled to begin test audits of certain Web sites starting tomorrow. The ABC is working with Market Arts' WebTrack system to test audit The Atlantic Monthly's interactive edition, TimesFax, and the Wall Street Journal's advertising Web site "Adfinder.WSJ." Both ABC and WebTrack have Web sites: ABC's at http://www.accessabc.com , and WebTrack's is at http://www.webtrack.com . (Bob Woods/19951031/Press Contacts: Tina Lin, I/Pro, 415-975-5815, Internet e-mail tina@ipro.com; Deborah Claymon, Niehaus Ryan Haller Public Relations, 415-827-7065, Internet e-mail deborah@nrh.com) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 10/31/95 PC TeleAdapt Offers Battery Support To Mobile PC Users (NEWS)(PC)(LON)(00029) TeleAdapt Offers Battery Support To Mobile PC Users 10/31/95 LONDON, ENGLAND, 1995 OCT 31 (NB) -- TeleAdapt, the mobile computing and communications company with offices in the UK, US, and Australia, has announced it is offering a "panic" service for users of portable computers who find themselves in need of a new battery, when away from their home or office. The company is now stocking a wide range of batteries for portables from Compaq, Dell, IBM, Toshiba, and others, which can be sent to users using a variety of methods, depending on how quickly the user needs a new battery. According to TeleAdapt, the life of some batteries based on older technology, such as nickel metal hydride, can decrease with age and most tend to need replacing every two to three years. Nickel metal hydride batteries are billed as a better option and can last for up to 40 per cent longer before a recharge is needed. "Battery power is the single most important worry for notebook computer users, yet it's surprising how many don't carry a spare battery with them," explained Gordon Brown, TeleAdapt's managing director. "TeleAdapt is fast becoming the first call for notebook computer users who want to find out what they need to the when they take their portables abroad. These new products are a natural addition to our existing product range and will enable us to offer a more comprehensive service to concerned customers," he said. Pricing on batteries starts at UKP 49.99 and TeleAdapt's normal service in the UK offers three working days delivery. More rapid deliveries are available on request. (Steve Gold/19951031/Press Contact: Harvard PR, tel +44-181-421-4444, fax +44-181-421-5308, Internet e-mail 100111.2713@compuserve.com; Reader Contact: Europe TeleAdapt, +44-181-421-4444, Internet e-mail 100111.2713@compuserve.com; US tel 408-379-5105, fax 408-370- 4110, Internet e-mail 7263.706@compuserve.com; Australia, tel +61-2-966-1744l, fax +61-2-966-1077, Internet e-mail 100116.637@compuserve.com) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 10/31/95 TELECOM Mitsubishi's GSM Phone/Personal Organizer Combo (NEWS)(TELECOM)(LON)(00030) Mitsubishi's GSM Phone/Personal Organizer Combo 10/31/95 HATFIELD, HERTFORDSHIRE, ENGLAND, 1995 OCT 31 (NB) -- Although the BellSouth Simon mobile phone organizer/combo has reportedly failed to make an impact on the North American mobile comms market, Mitsubishi reckons it has got the formula right for Europe with a next-generation phone/organizer known as the MT-20. The unit looks like a standard GSM (global system for mobile communications) digital phone, but its large LCD (liquid crystal display) screen can handle a lot more info on display than most phones. According to Mitsubishi, the aim with the MT-20 was to create a feature-rich digital mobile phone with a number of personal organizer features added in. The phone has standard 12-digit keyboard (10 numbers, plus star and hash symbols). In place of the usual call send/send and similar keys, is a circular toggle plate switch that can be pressed to "go" in several directions at once, and four round buttons arrayed in a "star" formation around the toggle button. Using this approach allows the phone's keypad to switch between functions depending on what is displayed on the LCD screen. According to John Taylor, a spokesman for Mitsubishi, the phone is an excellent performer, and sells for UKP149, when attached to an airtime contract. "The replacement (i.e. unsubsidized) cost of the phone is UKP500, but the street price may fall once the phone starts selling in quantity in the high street," he told Newsbytes. The MT-20 has a flip-down cover that hides the numeric keypad from use when stowed away. Since the main toggle switch is available at all times, the phone is claimed to be capable of making outgoing calls using the toggle switch on its own, only requiring the user to flip open the mouthpiece when the call is answered. The MT-20 also has a voice memo facility for storing voice messages of up to 20 seconds. Incoming voice memos can be stored, and the phone can record short snatches of conversation when required. Up to 99 numbers can be stored in memory, and other data can be entered and reviewed in memory. The screen on the MT-20 is capable of showing six lines of information, with four lines of 12 characters forming the mainstay of the display. As supplied, the phone comes with a nickel metal-hydride battery that can power the phone for 80 hours talk time or 30 hours on standby. Charging time for the battery is just 90 minutes. One interesting feature is a partial phone SIM (subscriber identity module) lock. SIMs are smart cards that store the subscriber's ID and usually, a SIM can be configured to work with just one phone (or vice versa). The MT-20 can accept up to five different SIMs, and no others, making it useful for use as an office pool phone, Newsbytes notes. (Steve Gold/19951031/Press Contact: The PR Resource, tel +44-1843- 866607, fax +44-1843-603193; Reader Contact: Mitsubishi Electric UK, tel +44-1707-276100, fax +44-1707-278651, Internet e-mail sandra.matthews@meuk.co.uk/MITSU19951031/PHOTO) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 10/31/95 TELECOM Orbitel Unveils Radio Local Loop Technology (NEWS)(TELECOM)(LON)(00031) Orbitel Unveils Radio Local Loop Technology 10/31/95 BASINGSTOKE, HAMPSHIRE, ENGLAND, 1995 OCT 31 (NB) -- Orbitel has taken the wraps off Linktel, its radio in the local telecom loop system. According to Corinne Norris, a company spokeswoman, the radio loop allows the rapid deployment of pseudo-landline telecoms services in regions with poor or non-existent current landline telecoms to homes and offices. "The system is designed to offer conventional telecoms services rather than cellular, despite the fact that it uses similar technology to cellular to get the call from the local exchange to the subscriber," she told Newsbytes. She added that, when the system was previewed at the Telecom 95 show in Geneva in early October, it attracted great interest from both telcos and major companies. The idea behind Linktel is that the radio in the local loop (RLL) system replaces the copper wires between the exchange and the subscriber's premises. The system comprises the Radio Distribution Unit (RDU) which interfaces with the PSTN (public switched telecoms network) through a Radio Exchange (RE), which is a switch provided by Orbitel, and the Radio Subscriber Unit (RSU) which allows the customer to access the system. The RSU is a compact transceiver unit that can easily be installed and is suitable for use with standard telephones, faxes and modems. According to Orbitel, the Linktel technology has been designed to be completely transparent to both operators and subscribers, and supports PSTN speech quality. "Linktel is a digital network, but can support analog voice, modem and fax communications," explained Norris, adding that, although there are no plans to offer data across the links currently, this could be an added option at a later date. According to Orbitel, the beauty of the Linktel system is that it has a low level of capital investment needed, is economical to operate, and can be installed very quickly in areas that need rapid deployment of pseudo-landline telecoms services. Once an RDU has been installed in a location, anyone within the RDU's radio range can install an RSU and plug in their standard landline telephone(s). Each RDU has a radio range of around 3 kilometers (km) and RDU links can be chained together to provide radio cells covering wide areas, if required. Using a daisy chain approach means that whole tracts of countryside could be covered with all calls handled at a central office, where trunk and international lines terminate. (Steve Gold/19951031/Press & Reader Contact: Orbitel Mobile Communications, tel +44-1256-843468, fax +44-1256-843207) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 10/31/95 BUSINESS Bull Moves Into Desktop Publishing In UK (NEWS)(BUSINESS)(LON)(00032) Bull Moves Into Desktop Publishing In UK 10/31/95 BRENTFORD, MIDDLESEX, ENGLAND, 1995 OCT 31 (NB) -- Bull has acquired RAK Computer Services Limited, a desktop publishing (DTP) company operating in East Anglia. According to Mike Ball, Bull UK's director of customer services, the company will be renamed Bull Desktop Services (Eastern) and will offer DTP services to companies. The company currently employs 25 staff and will continued to be managed by Richard Webb, formerly the managing director of RAK Computer Services. Plans call for Bull to grow the turnover from its current UKP2 million to UKP20 million over the next five years. Ball explained that Bull is continually looking for new ways to improve its customer services business, and the acquisition of RAK is a logical one for the company. "This acquisition is one part of our strategy to grow desktop services. It brings together both local skills, while enjoying the economies of scale of a larger organization. In effect, this strategy is a well-proven business took taking the adage `think global, act local,' to its ultimate conclusion," he said. Commenting on the buyout, Richard Webb, the former managing director of RAK, said that he is looking forward to expanding the company's DTP services with Bull. "We will be able to continue to develop our specialization in the growing desktop market," he explained. So is the start of a major move by Bull into the DTP services sector? No-one at Bull is saying, but Michelle Carney, a spokeswoman for the company, told Newsbytes that this is the first DTP services company that Bull has either acquired or set up. (Steve Gold/19951031/Press Contact: Chris Wright, Text 100, +44-181- 242-4162, Internet e-mail chrisw@text100.co.uk; Reader Contact: Bull UK, tel +44-181-568-9191, fax +44-181-479-2599) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 10/31/95 TELECOM Battle Hots Up For Russia's Svyazinvest (NEWS)(TELECOM)(LON)(00033) Battle Hots Up For Russia's Svyazinvest 10/31/95 MOSCOW, RUSSIA, 1995 OCT 31 (NB) -- The Russian Government has revealed that competition for the initial sale of a 25 percent stake in AO Svyazinvest, the Russian state telecoms giant, is hotting up. Interested parties include Stet, the Italian telco, and a consortium of France Telecom, Deutsche Telekom, and US West meeting the expected $1.2 billion price tag. Russian Government officials said, however, that the two groups are still at an early stage in their business discussions, and no-one has bought a $2.5 million bond, which the Government says must be bought to register goodwill by the bidders. The deadline for formal bids is still set for November 1, shortly after which the Government plans to announce which organizations will go forward to a second stage of business. Critics have pointed out that, because of monies involved, no Russian companies are capable of bidding for the 25 percent share sale. As previously reported by Newsbytes, this first stage sell-off will be followed by a second sell-off next year, when a further 24 percent of the company will be offered to the public, both in Russia and abroad. The first stage of the deal alone was expected to generate around $770 million for the Russian Government, although this figure has now been revised upwards to $1.2 billion. Analysts have accused the Russian Government of rushing the privatization through too quickly. Government officials have dismissed such suggestions, claiming that the plan is in line with major potential investors the Government has discussed the plan with. Industry watchers have already suggested that the first stage of the deal may already be cut and dried. The deal is the biggest privatization of its kind in Russia, outside of the oil sector. Newsbytes notes that Svyazinvest has a 51 percent stake in around 85 telecom companies scattered around Russia, making it an incredible "catch" for any Western telco, who would almost certainly be able to secure the lion's share of international telecoms switching in Russia. According to the Russian Government, its Privatization Bureau is preparing the deal to be handled by a consortium of international merchant banks, including NM Rothschild, Barings, KPMG and others. Plans call for these banks to sell the shares in the company and develop an investment program. Newsbytes notes that Svyazinvest's charter capital exceeds R7,700 billion and has control of around 20 million of the 25.5 million phone lines currently installed in Russia. (Sylvia Dennis/19951031) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 10/31/95 TRENDS Australia - IT PR Firms Losing Ground To "Generalists" (NEWS)(TRENDS)(SYD)(00034) Australia - IT PR Firms Losing Ground To "Generalists" 10/31/95 SYDNEY, AUSTRALIA 1995 OCT 31 (NB) -- The market for specialist IT (information technology) public relations companies in Australia appears to be narrowing, as growing numbers of IT accounts are swallowed by consumer-oriented general-purpose agencies -- reflecting the trend to seeing the personal computer as a commodity. As examples of the trend, Apple has moved from specialist Communication Solutions to Holt PR, Microsoft from Macro to Burson Marsteller, Intel from Marketing Directions to Hill & Knowlton, Osborne Gateway 2000 to Hill & Knowlton, and Packard Bell to Bayvel. The ability to hype -- disdained by many of the specialist agencies -- is seen as a major attraction of the mass market operators. "Look at the job Burson Marsteller did for the launch of Windows 95. It's doubtful if any specialist agency could have created the gigantic audience awareness generated by BM," said one observer. The trend has accelerated in recent weeks with Hill & Knowlton's signing of the Intel account, previously handled by specialist agency Marketing Directions, and of Osborne Gateway. Many agencies had pitched for the Intel job, but it was the retail-oriented H&K that got the account. Said Intel's Marketing Comms Manager David Bass: "You're going to see Intel move into all kinds of new activities in the consumer world." "As IT becomes more prevalent, it's no longer a separate issue," says Recognition PR boss Steve Townsend, one of the leading specialists which recently lost the Lotus account after many years of service but gained Novell. Townsend professes not to be worried. "I don't see it as a problem. There'll be some accounts that move out of the specialist area. That's okay." CommSol's Mike Buchanan says it is too early to call the recent movements a "trend." Buchanan took the Apple account with him from Burson Marsteller in the early 1980s and held it for a decade before it was given to Holt PR -- an event many saw as seminal in IT's wooing of the consumer market in Australia. However, Buchanan believes that senior management changes propel most PR account switches. "I don't see it as being anything more than maybe a cyclical thing," he says. Buchanan points out that Compaq has been deep in the consumer market for two years, and is still "well and truly" on the CommSol books. (Computer Daily News/19951031) (SUMMARY)(GENERAL)(MSP)(00035) Newsbytes Daily Summary 10/31/95 MINNEAPOLIS, MINNESOTA, U.S.A., 1995 OCT 31 (NB) -- These are capsules of all today's news stories: ======================================================================== ------------| N E W S B Y T E S D A I L Y S U M M A R Y |---------- ------------| Wednesday, November 1, 1995 |---------- ======================================================================== (c) Newsbytes News Network (Tm) Editor in Chief: Wendy Woods ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Newsbytes News Network's on the Web! Check out http://www.nbnn.com for free daily top stories from Newsbytes and its affiliate publications, and from PC Week, MacWeek, and other Ziff news magazines. A subscription gives you all the news, full-text, plus the most comprehensive database of past computer stories online. The keyword-searchable database dates from today back through 1983. Subscriptions are $24.95 for three months. Questions? Send to 'administrator@newsbytes.com' For Japanese Newsbytes and additional services, see the Newsbytes Pacifica Website at http://www.islandtel.com/newsbytes/ ------------------------------------------------------------------------ CATEGORY HEADLINES (*** indicates today's top stories) STORY # ======================================================================== BROADCAST Japan's Newest Broadcaster Takes To The Air................ 10 BUSINESS ****Hayes Bankruptcy Plan Would Keep Firm Independent..... 22 BUSINESS Bull Moves Into Desktop Publishing In UK................... 32 CHIPS ****Intel's Grove Hints At Pentium Pro Delivery........... 26 EDUCATION SPA's Education & Computers Study.......................... 19 EDUCATION ****AT&T Commits $150 Mil To Put Schools On Internet...... 21 GENERAL Casio Intros Still Digital Camera With LCD Screen.......... 06 GENERAL Japan Newsbriefs........................................... 09 GENERAL China - 150,000 Visit Largest Computer Expo................ 16 GENERAL ATI Focuses On Games, MPEG................................. 25 GOVT Reflex Magnetics Secures Major Swiss Govt Contract......... 07 GOVT Europe OKs Rhone Poulnec/Engelhard Joint Venture........... 08 GOVT China - Customs Automation System Planned.................. 14 GOVT China - Govt Promotes Electronic Data Interchange.......... 15 LEGAL US Administration Threatens Telecom Veto................... 04 LEGAL Broadcasters Win In Senate Budget Bill..................... 05 ONLINE UK - Low-Cost LAN Internet E-mail Gateway.................. 01 ONLINE Internet Update - Halloween Special........................ 11 ONLINE ****Iworld - AOL's GNN Web Service, "Best Of The Net...... 12 ONLINE ****Iworld - AT&T's Personal Online Service, Oracle Deal.. 13 ONLINE Drastic Price Cuts On Netscape Server Products............. 18 ONLINE Texas Instrument's Web Home Page, E-mail Newsletter........ 23 PC TeleAdapt Offers Battery Support To Mobile PC Users........ 29 TELECOM Motorola To Deploy Wireless Phone System In Zambia......... 02 TELECOM Racal To Build German Voice & Datacomms Network............ 03 TELECOM Mitsubishi's GSM Phone/Personal Organizer Combo............ 30 TELECOM Orbitel Unveils Radio Local Loop Technology................ 31 TELECOM Battle Hots Up For Russia's Svyazinvest.................... 33 TRENDS 3-D Glasses By StereoGraphics.............................. 17 TRENDS IT Begins To Face Year 2000 PC Date Problem................ 20 TRENDS Casio Videophone Intro'd................................... 24 TRENDS Australia - IT PR Firms Losing Ground To "Generalists...... 34 ======================================================================== These are the headlines and first paragraphs of each story, in order: 1 -> UK - Low-Cost LAN Internet E-mail Gateway -- Nildram On-Line has announced a new Internet electronic-mail and file exchange facility for LAN (local area network) users. Known as the Nildram Email Gateway, or Nilgate for short, the service aims to offer full Internet gateway services for companies who want to allow e-mail exchange with other LANs across the Internet, as well as with Internet users generally. 2 -> Motorola To Deploy Wireless Phone System In Zambia -- Motorola's International Cellular Infrastructure Division (MCID) has been awarded a $17 million contract to install a fixed wireless phone system for Zambia in Africa. 3 -> Racal To Build German Voice & Datacomms Network -- Racal-Datacom, a video, voice and data communications specialist, has announced plans to join forces with Deutsche Telekom, the German telecoms company, to build the first high-speed voice, data, and image network for the State Region of Rheinland-Pfatz in Germany. 4 -> US Administration Threatens Telecom Veto -- President Clinton has landed himself squarely in the middle of the congressional debate over telecommunications legislation. In a letter to Sen. Ernest "Fritz" Hollings (D-S.C.), the president attacked four major elements in the bills that have passed the House and Senate and are now before a conference committee. 5 -> Broadcasters Win In Senate Budget Bill -- The nation's broadcasters last week pulled off a political coup in the Senate version of the massive budget reconciliation bill, now before a House-Senate conference committee. While the bill provides for auctions of the nation's broadcast spectrum, yielding an estimated $14 billion, it preserves a package of free licenses for broadcasters, a provision that could be worth as much as $70 billion. 6 -> Casio Intros Still Digital Camera With LCD Screen -- Casio Electronics has unveiled the QV-10, a digital camera with a liquid crystal display (LCD) that allows users to frame the image on the screen, take the digital photos, and then review them at a later stage. Like other digital still cameras the QV-10 allows pictures to be uploaded onto a desktop PC to subsequently import into a suitable imaging package. 7 -> Reflex Magnetics Secures Major Swiss Govt Contract -- Reflex Magnetics has announced the deployment of a massive installation of its Disknet security software into government sites throughout Switzerland. 8 -> Europe OKs Rhone Poulnec/Engelhard Joint Venture -- The European Commission (EC) has unexpectedly approved the plan of Rhone Poulnec Chimie (RPC) and Engelhard to create a joint venture called Cycleon. The joint venture will, Newsbytes notes, aim to collect and reprocess precious metals for use in the computer and allied industries. 9 -> Japan Newsbriefs -- In this roundup of news from Japan: Overseas purchases surge, Wireless spending up, NTT rate cut confirmed, JVC back into profit, 3-D home shopping next year, Packard Bell doubles sales targets, Sony targets Chinese cellular market. 10 -> Japan's Newest Broadcaster Takes To The Air -- Japan's newest television station will take to the air on Wednesday from the country's most advanced studio complex, making use of totally digital technology. Tokyo Metropolitan Television (MXTV) begins broadcasting at 6pm on November 1st although many viewers in the capital will be unaware. 11 -> Internet Update - Halloween Special -- In this update of horrifying pages and ghoulish resources on the global Internet: Halloween haunt on the Web, Gint's House of Horror, Anne Rice online, The Nightmare Factory, Malkavian home page, Interactive vampire novel, Official Bloodlust homepage, The Vampire Duck page, Nothing but links. 12 -> ****Iworld - AOL's GNN Web Service, "Best Of The Net -- America Online (AOL) plans to roll out "advanced features" like personal World Wide Web page publishing to Internet sophisticates with a new "Best of the Net" service called Global Network Navigator (GNN). At the same time, it plans to make Web access progressively "more simple" with its existing AOL brand, officials said, during the national press launch of GNN at Internetworld Boston '95. 13 -> ****Iworld - AT&T's Personal Online Service, Oracle Deal -- In a press conference at Internetworld Boston '95, AT&T announced a new Personal Online Service for consumers, featuring a health and fitness service content service for the Internet as its first offering, along with Oracle WebSystem, a service that will combine World Wide Web connections from AT&T's WorldNet with Oracle-based Web servers. 14 -> China - Customs Automation System Planned -- It is estimated that about RMB1.2 billion (US$143 million) will be used for the so-called Customs 2000, a five-year project which is designed to improve customs efficiency and administration. 15 -> China - Govt Promotes Electronic Data Interchange -- The Ministry of Foreign Trade and Economic Cooperation (MOFTEC) will expand its computer networks and further develop electronic data interchange (EDI) applications to increase trade efficiency, MOFTEC officials said. 16 -> China - 150,000 Visit Largest Computer Expo -- China's largest computer exhibition closed on October 14 in the Beijing International Exhibition Center. More than 190 domestic and foreign computer firms were displaying more than 3,000 computer products and related technology during the five-day event. 17 -> 3-D Glasses By StereoGraphics -- StereoGraphics Corporation, manufacturer of the scientific three-dimensional (3-D) glasses CrystalEyes, announced SimulEyes VR stereo-vision 3-D glasses for home multimedia PCs. The new glasses will allow the user to see in "stereo vision," an enhanced 3-D technology. 18 -> Drastic Price Cuts On Netscape Server Products -- In a move designed to expand its presence in the growing Internet market, Netscape Communications (NASDAQ:NSCP) has announced price cuts on its Communications and Commerce Server products for Unix and Windows NT. The company also introduced the Netscape Server Bundle for Unix platforms. 19 -> SPA's Education & Computers Study -- Almost one-quarter of all US kindergarten through 12th grade classes have integrated technology into the curriculum, the Software Publishers Association (SPA) reports. In a new study, called the "Education Market Report," the SPA said technology now touches about 10 million schoolchildren. 20 -> IT Begins To Face Year 2000 PC Date Problem -- Many computer programs now in use allot only two digits for the year in dates, and on January 1, 2000, those programs are going to think it is 99 years earlier than it was the day before. The information technology business is just beginning to come to grips with this problem. 21 -> ****AT&T Commits $150 Mil To Put Schools On Internet -- AT&T (NYSE:T) said it will shell out $150 million to help put every school in the United States on the Internet by the end of the decade. The AT&T Learning Network program will include free dial-up connections to the Internet, World Wide Web browser software, and free connect time, plus grants to schools for Internet-related projects. 22 -> ****Hayes Bankruptcy Plan Would Keep Firm Independent -- Dennis Hayes went to court yesterday and unveiled a reorganization plan that would bring his privately owned company out of bankruptcy protection, pay off creditors fully with interest, and keep the company out of the clutches of proposed buyers. 23 -> Texas Instrument's Web Home Page, E-mail Newsletter -- Texas Instruments Inc. (NYSE: TXN) has announced a World Wide Web home page that will be customized, not by the company, but by the user to show information about the TI product's they are particularly interested in. Users can also register to receive a weekly personalized electronic-mail newsletter covering the latest information on the customer's area of interest. 24 -> Casio Videophone Intro'd -- Casio is set to introduce its new LT-70P Videophone, which will provide full-screen, high-resolution color images with simultaneous audio, over an analog phone line. This is an enhanced version of the Casio Videophone that has been available in Japan since April. 25 -> ATI Focuses On Games, MPEG -- ATI Technologies Inc. (TSE:ATY) is putting new emphasis on games with products based on the Motion Picture Experts Group (MPEG) video standard and a new multimedia product architecture. The company has also announced comfortable increases in revenue and net income for its most recent fiscal year. 26 -> ****Intel's Grove Hints At Pentium Pro Delivery -- Intel Corp.'s (NASDAQ-NNM:INTC) chief executive officer (CEO), Dr. Andy Grove, opened Macromedia's user conference with a demonstration of the company's latest processor, Pentium Pro. A major announcement regarding availability and pricing is expected tomorrow at Internet World in Boston. 29 -> TeleAdapt Offers Battery Support To Mobile PC Users -- TeleAdapt, the mobile computing and communications company with offices in the UK, US, and Australia, has announced it is offering a "panic" service for users of portable computers who find themselves in need of a new battery, when away from their home or office. 30 -> Mitsubishi's GSM Phone/Personal Organizer Combo -- Although the BellSouth Simon mobile phone organizer/combo has reportedly failed to make an impact on the North American mobile comms market, Mitsubishi reckons it has got the formula right for Europe with a next-generation phone/organizer known as the MT-20. The unit looks like a standard GSM (global system for mobile communications) digital phone, but its large LCD (liquid crystal display) screen can handle a lot more info on display than most phones. 31 -> Orbitel Unveils Radio Local Loop Technology -- Orbitel has taken the wraps off Linktel, its radio in the local telecom loop system. According to Corinne Norris, a company spokeswoman, the radio loop allows the rapid deployment of pseudo-landline telecoms services in regions with poor or non-existent current landline telecoms to homes and offices. 32 -> Bull Moves Into Desktop Publishing In UK -- Bull has acquired RAK Computer Services Limited, a desktop publishing (DTP) company operating in East Anglia. According to Mike Ball, Bull UK's director of customer services, the company will be renamed Bull Desktop Services (Eastern) and will offer DTP services to companies. 33 -> Battle Hots Up For Russia's Svyazinvest -- The Russian Government has revealed that competition for the initial sale of a 25 percent stake in AO Svyazinvest, the Russian state telecoms giant, is hotting up. Interested parties include Stet, the Italian telco, and a consortium of France Telecom, Deutsche Telekom, and US West meeting the expected $1.2 billion price tag. 34 -> Australia - IT PR Firms Losing Ground To "Generalists -- The market for specialist IT (information technology) public relations companies in Australia appears to be narrowing, as growing numbers of IT accounts are swallowed by consumer-oriented general-purpose agencies (Ian Stokell/19951031) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 10/30/95 BUSINESS Tokyo Falls Despite Earnings Reports (NEWS)(BUSINESS)(TYO)(00001) Tokyo Falls Despite Earnings Reports 10/30/95 TOKYO, JAPAN, 1995 OCT 30 (NB) -- The Tokyo Stock Market ended the week on the down side. The Nikkei 225 Index closed Friday at 17337.19, a fall of 543.64 points on the week. A series of half year reports from Japan's main electronics companies, that showed improved results moving ahead faster than the sluggish Japanese economy, failed to force an upturn in the market which is heading down over continuing worries about the nation's banking industry and the financial state of some banks. The drops in many electronics stocks are attributed to profit taking in the market by many investors rather than disappointment in the results which, in the main, were in line with expectations. In the semiconductor sector heavy trading was registered most days with Tokuyama (TSE:4043), a poly-silicon manufacturer, leading the pack in trading volume. Other heavily traded shares included Nitto Chemical TSE:4002), Sumitomo Bakelite (TSE:4203), and Ishikawa Seisakusho (TSE:6208). Semiconductor package maker Kyocera Corp., (TSE:6971) ended the week at 8250 yen, a fall of 260 yen. Shares in Nippon Telegraph and Telephone (TSE:9432) dropped 240 yen on the week to 8520 yen on continuing speculation over the future of the company. Even if the government does not force a break-up of the massive operator, several new market opening moves will reduce prices and shave profits from the company. Elsewhere in the sector, international operator KDD (TSE:9431) lost 340 to close at 8250 yen. On the International section of the exchange, Canada's Northern Telecom (TSE:NTL) said it would delist its shares from the market on February 7th next year. In a statement, the company cited three reasons for the move: "First, the company has few Japanese shareholders. Second, since Nortel listed on the Tokyo Stock Exchange in 1986, both the number of Japanese shareholders and the trading volume in Nortel's common shares have declined. Third, consequently, the listing cost per shareholder at the exchange is high." Sony Corporation (TSE:6758) was a big loser this week with shares shedding 10% to end the week at 4750 yen from Monday's 5200 yen opening price. Traders are worrying about Sony's half year results, due this week, after its biggest competitor, Matsushita Electrical Industries (TSE:6752), reported lower sales. Matsushita announced a 10% jump in profits to 41.5 billion yen ($411 million) aided mainly by cost cutting. The high yen hit export sales, said the Osaka-based company, which predicts no increase in revenues for the full fiscal year. Matsushita closed Friday at 1420 yen, a fall of 100 yen on the week. Amongst companies reporting first half results this week, not already covered by Newsbytes, was Anritsu Corporation (TSE:6754), an electronics equipment maker in which NEC Corporation holds just over a quarter. Anritsu's current profit jumped 31% to 1.33 billion yen ($13 million). End of year profits are predicted to hit 3.10 billion yen ($31 million), up 18% from last year's 2.63 billion yen. Air conditioner to consumer electronics group, Matsushita Seiko (TSE:6587), saw profits fall 4.7% to 2.64 billion yen ($26 million) on slightly higher sales. SPC Electronics Corp (TSE:6818), which makes microwave equipment for NTT, said losses in the period would reach 618 million yen ($6.12 million), better than a 1.09 billion yen ($10.8 million) loss in the equivalent period last year. Software developers IX Software (TSE:9659) reported profits of 118 million yen ($1.17 million) in the period against an 18 million yen ($178,000) loss last year. Sales were up slightly to 2.85 billion yen ($28.2 million). Some of the nation's electrical retailers have also announced results. Dai-ichi Katei Denki (Daiichi Kaden) (TSE:8172) said profits have slipped 44% to 176 million yen ($1.74 million). The largest reseller of IBM computers, Japan Business Computer (TSE:9889) saw profits surge over 1,600% to 460 million yen ($4.55 million) on sales of 21.60 billion yen ($214 million), a small increase on the year. Other companies reporting first half results last week, already covered by Newsbytes, included Hitachi Ltd (TSE:6501) which announced pre-tax earnings jumped 28% from 43.04 billion yen ($426 million) to 54.91 billion yen ($544 million). Hiatchi shares lost just 10 yen to end at 1050. NEC Corporation (TSE:6701) said sales jumped 128.2 billion yen ($1.27 billion), or 9.2%, on the period to 1,517.8 billion yen ($15.01 billion), an increase of 9.2%, mainly due to strong sales of computer and communications products in Japan and higher worldwide demand for semiconductors. Stock dropped 80 yen on the week to close at 1330 on Friday. Mitsubishi Electric Corporation (TSE:6503) said pre-tax profits rose 38.5% to 37.43 billion yen ($371 million). Net profits climbed 31.7% to 18.85 billion yen ($187 million) with sales reaching 1,250 billion yen ($12.38 billion), a 7.6% increase on the period. Shares ended the week at 755, an overall drop of 20 yen. Sharp Corporation (TSE:6753) shares lost 80 yen to close at 1410 after the company reported pre-tax profits of 35.04 billion yen ($347 million) for the half, up 12% on the previous year. Sales in the period rose 3% to 633.81 billion yen ($6.28 billion) on a drop in export sales but improved domestic demand. Toshiba Corporation (TSE:6502) said it achieved a 31% increase in pre-tax profits for the first six months on the current financial year at 32.33 billion yen ($320 million). Shares closed at 733, down 20 yen on the week. (Martyn Williams/19951030) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 10/30/95 BROADCAST Satellite Fault Deprives Asia Of Japan TV (NEWS)(BROADCAST)(TYO)(00002) Satellite Fault Deprives Asia Of Japan TV 10/30/95 TOKYO, JAPAN, 1995 OCT 30 (NB) -- Thousands of satellite TV viewers across South Korea and China have lost access to Japanese television because of a satellite error. A positioning error caused Japan's primary DBS (direct broadcasting satellite) satellite to be taken out of service last week. "We have just had a minor accident," said NHK's Yasuo Ohnuki. "The position is changed a little because of miss controlling so we are now using a backup satellite." The backup satellite, BS-3N, is less powerful than BS-3A, the usual full-time satellite, and that is causing problems in fringe areas of the satellite's footprint. The satellite broadcasts four channels of television to several million homes in Japan equipped with satellite dishes. The channels include BS-1 and BS-2, both channels of Japan's state broadcaster NHK (Nippon Hoso Kyokai), private subscription movies service Wowow, and a channel broadcasting programming in the country's high definition format, Hi-Vision, which carries programming from NHK and the major commercial networks. While Japanese viewers have noticed no difference in reception, those in China and Korea have lost a lot of signal. In South Korea the problem is regional, with viewers in the southern cites of Chongju, Daejon, Taegu, Pusan, and Kwangju having noticed no difference, while viewers in the capital city of Seoul can no longer see the programming. A Newsbytes source in Seoul estimates tens of thousands of viewers normally watch the channels in that city with many more across the country. "The signals from channels BS-1 & BS-2 are extremely noisy around the clock," a viewer in Seoul told Newsbytes. The problems began on October 24th at 21:40 when viewers lost pictures from the satellite and none returned all evening. Due to failing batteries, the satellite regularly ceases broadcasting during the night to save energy. The next morning broadcasting resumed via the weaker backup satellite. Throughout the day, and subsequent days, satellite dealers in Seoul and parts of China were deluged with calls about the loss of signal. Satellite receiver manufacturers and local dealers in Japan are also being bombarded by calls suggesting equipment they have sold is faulty. NHK's regional bureaus in the country have also been flooded with viewers concerned that they may have lost the signal for good, and Ohnuki confirmed that NHK's Tokyo offices have received many calls from viewers in Korea and China inquiring about the loss of signal. Ohnuki cautiously added, "We knew we had many viewers in those countries, but the governments don't allow foreign satellite TV to be received so we also cannot say." The NHK satellite programs are popular because of the high amount of entertainment and English language news on the two channels. The BS-1 channel shows regular bulletins of CNN and ABC news throughout the day and a block of European and Asian news each morning and evening. Asked when the usual satellite will take over from the backup and resume full power broadcasting, the NHK spokesman estimated it would be in around a week. Once the BS-3A satellite is re-positioned the backup craft will resume its standby role, which sees it rarely used. The only exception is during times of national emergency and disaster when it is used during the night to provide continuous broadcasting that BS-3A could not do because of several failed batteries on board. (Martyn Williams/19951030/Press contact: NHK Tokyo, tel +81-3-3465-1760, fax +81-3-3469-8110; Reader contact: NHK Tokyo, tel +81-3-3465-1111, fax +81-3-3481-1576) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 10/30/95 WINDOWS Perfectworks Gets Text-To-Speech (NEWS)(WINDOWS)(DEN)(00003) Perfectworks Gets Text-To-Speech 10/30/95 OREM, UTAH, U.S.A., 1995 OCT 30 (NB) -- Novell Inc. (NASDAQ: NOVL) has announced it will use Lernout & Hauspie Speech Products' text-to-speech technology in its new children's software package for Windows 95, called PerfectWorks for Kids. PerfectWorks for Kids is a program for children ages four to 10 that provides direct access to America Online services. It also includes writing, drawing, painting, and talking text capabilities, which will use the L&H technology to allow the young users to hear what they have written as it is read aloud by the computer. Dan Rask, senior product manager at Novell's personal access division, said Novell selected the L&H technology for Perfectworks for Kids because it considered the voice quality very natural, "particularly the woman's voice, which is important to young children," said Rask. Novell said PerfectWorks for Kids' boxes will carry the L&H symbol to indicate that the software uses the speech technology. The software comes on CD-ROM and will have a suggested retail price of $49.95 when it ships in November. PerfectWorks for Kids is a scaled down version of PerfectWorks for Windows, which in turn is the renamed Wordperfect Works. The adult version includes word processing, drawing and painting, a database, spreadsheet and communications modules, and was Wordperfect's challenger to Microsoft Works. The new title came after Novell acquired Wordperfect. Novell spokesperson Blake Stowell cautioned that Perfectworks for Kids is not a front-end for sending faxes. You still need fax or electronic-mail software installed on your PC for that. What Perfectworks for Kids does if you do have that software is make it easier to send a file via fax or e-mail. Perfectworks for Kids includes an address book that the user can use to click on the addressee to send the document. Stowell told Newsbytes the word processor in Perfectworks was developed specifically for the younger user. For example, while it does use some of the features of the company's other word processing applications, it also uses larger icons on the toolbar at the top of the screen to make it easier for the kids to click on the desired function. The program includes the complete 250,000 word spelling checker from Wordperfect. The America Online connection is also customized for children. In addition to automating the logon so the kids don't have to remember their password, the program immediately jumps to the Kids Only section on AOL. Novell said AOL access provides children access to helpful research tools like the National Geographic World or Compton's Encyclopedia. Stowell told Newsbytes the drawing and painting tools in Perfectworks for Kids comes with more than 800 graphics, organized in 26 categories that include transportation, seasons, animals, foods, fancy letters, people, clothes, decorations, holidays, and monsters. The user can insert the graphics in a document, and the images can be sized, flipped, or reversed. Perfectworks for Kids provides multi-layer templates that let the user change parts of the activity without permanently altering the original template design. There are also visual effects like word balloons and magic words that appear when pictures are erased. Perfectworks for Kids supports color printing and incorporates a setup menu that lets the parents customize the program for the appropriate age and ability level. There is also an optional "Kid Mode" that locks the child out of the desktop or Program Manager, and keeps them from tampering with files on the hard drive. Perfectworks for Kids requires a 256-color video display, a 485-based PC, Windows 95 or Windows 3.1 running Win32s (it is included with Perfectworks for Kids), eight megabytes (MB) of memory, a double-speed or faster CD-ROM, a mouse, and sound card and speakers. As they grow older, Perfectworks for Kids users will be able to upgrade to Perfectworks for Windows 3.1 or Windows 95 for $34.95 plus shipping and handling, said Novell. Perfectworks includes a more powerful word processor, a spreadsheet, database, drawing, painting, and communications modules. Stowell told Newsbytes Perfectworks for Kids will ship in mid- to late-November and will carry a suggested retail price of $39. (Jim Mallory/19951027/Press contact: Alicia Smith, Lernout & Hauspie, 617-932-4118; Public contact: Lernout & Hauspie, tel 617-932-4118, fax 617-932-3209) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 10/30/95 BUSINESS Telecom Italia Opens For Business In The UK (NEWS)(BUSINESS)(LON)(00004) Telecom Italia Opens For Business In The UK 10/30/95 LONDON, ENGLAND, 1995 OCT 30 (NB) -- Telecom Italia, the Italian state telecoms company, has taken a 67 percent stake in Eurodatacom Limited (EDL), the agency that operates in the value-added telecoms sector in the UK. According to Massimo Trippetti, the company's director, the move signals that the Italian telco is moving into the UK market in a big way. According to Telecom Italia, the acquisition of a controlling stake in EDL represents the first step in the plan of commercial and network expansion in the UK which the Italian telco intends to carry out through Tele Media International (TMI), its international operation, in the future. TMI, Newsbytes notes, is wholly owned and controlled by Telecom Italia and works as an operative branch abroad, offering network services, as well as technical and commercial support, to Italian and foreign customers alike. EDL is now offering virtual private data network (VPDN) services to medium-sized companies over Optimum, the company's digital network, which has 45 nodes across the UK and Ireland. Plans also call for TMI to expand its commercial and network presence in the UK, as well as offering access to data services across the UK and Ireland, to both TMI's and Telecom Italia's customers. In addition, TMI claims that, thanks to its international network, EDL's customers will also be able to benefit immediately from the global network and services of the company. Plans call for TMI to have 74 nodes around the UK, offering IVPN (International Virtual Private Network) facilities, data services, networking and one-stop billing and outsourcing. (Sylvia Dennis/19951027/Press & Reader Contact: TMI Telemedia International, tel +44-171-333-8800, fax +44-171-333-2999) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 10/30/95 ONLINE Dutch Newswire Goes Live On Compuserve (NEWS)(ONLINE)(LON)(00005) Dutch Newswire Goes Live On Compuserve 10/30/95 AMSTERDAM, NETHERLANDS, 1995 OCT 30 (NB) -- Compuserve has announced that ANP (Alegemeen Nederlands Persbureau) will shortly be offering a Dutch language newswire service on its online service. The move, more than anything, illustrates the pan-European approach that Compuserve has taken in Europe over the last few years, Newsbytes notes. According to Roelf Sluman, Compuserve's manager for the Netherlands, the addition of the Dutch newswire service is just one facet of Compuserve's success in the country. He claims that, with more than 17,000 subscribers in the Netherlands, Compuserve is now the largest Internet service provider in the country. "Growth has been astounding. In the last three months alone, we have expended to more than 17,000 members in a 40 percent leap," he said, adding that the addition of ANP as an information provider is the kind of added value service that makes the online service so attractive to its customers. Rajendre Khargi, ANP's manager of news and information services, explained that the Compuserve version of ANP will provide around 50 news articles a day, covering topics such as domestic, foreign, economic, sport, weather, politics, and entertainment. "Over the years, ANP has become a successful news organization offering a range of diverse services. The company has placed emphasis on developing products in line with technological advancements, to provide fast, accurate and easy to use information for our customers," he said. "Now, ANP is bringing a new dimension to its portfolio with the introduction of a product for Internet users via Compuserve. This service will provide a comprehensive news coverage of the Netherlands in all areas of consumer interest, as well as keeping Compuserve subscribers up to date on major international news stories," he explained. Newsbytes notes that ANP was founded back in 1934 by members of the Association of Netherlands Newspaper Publishers. The newswire claims to be an impartial and independent news organization and, even today, is the online national wire service for all Dutch news media. (Steve Gold/19951026/Press Contact: Andy Smith, A-Plus, +44- 1753-790700, Internet e-mail asmith@aplus.co.uk; Reader Contact: CompuServe Nederlande, +31-6-022-5991) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 10/30/95 BROADCAST Philips' Digital Satellite Broadcasting Report (NEWS)(BROADCAST)(LON)(00006) Philips' Digital Satellite Broadcasting Report 10/30/95 STEVENAGE, CAMBRIDGESHIRE, ENGLAND, 1995 OCT 30 (NB) -- Everyone is talking about digital broadcasting via satellite, but who knows anything about it? Philips reckons it does and plans to release a 500-plus page report on the future of industry this coming January. According to the Dutch electronics giant, the report has been compiled in collaboration with Interspace Consulting, an independent European satellite communications consultancy. The aim of the report is to present a major multi-client business study of the future prospects of digital satellite television in Europe. Roger Stanyard, the author of the report and principal consultant with Interspace Consulting, claims that the report will present a bundle of intensive studies and analyses of the future actions and business development in the TV satellite industry planned by broadcasting companies and satellite operators. The projected growth of the market, along with new potential services, is forecasted and described in detail. In the report, Stanyard says that new competitive opportunities, which will rise in the near future, are taken apart and carefully studied, providing the reader with a forecast of their possible or hidden benefits and dangers. Units such as cable, digital terrestrial television, and broadband switching services are the key points. Stanyard claims that digital satellite technology is the future of communications and information exchange. "Digital satellite is the first major step in Europe towards rolling out Europe's information superhighways," he claimed, adding that the technology is likely to be followed by a second generation of digital satellite providing broadband switched services. "Wireless-based communications will play a major role in the information superhighways of the future," he said. The report will explore the existing generation of satellite systems and future Ka-band preparations. The European Commission policies and laws and other influences affecting the European satellite marketplace are identified. According to Philips, the study looks and analyzes various companies and services in different countries and the direction they are heading in, in the light of the technological changes constantly taking place. Now the bad news -- the study costs a hefty UKP12,500 per client. (Sylvia Dennis/199501027/Press & Reader Contact: Sandy Maclean, Philips Business Information, +44-1438-742424) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 95 10/30/95 WINDOWS UK - Multi-Format File Viewer For Windows (NEWS)(WINDOWS)(LON)(00007) UK - Multi-Format File Viewer For Windows 95 10/30/95 ASCOT, BERKSHIRE, ENGLAND, 1995 OCT 30 (NB) -- Software Compatibility has unveiled Quick View Plus for Windows 95 (QVPW32), a multi-format file viewer utility that interfaces directly with Windows 95. The UKP49 package overwrites the viewer component of Windows 95 source code, enabling QVP's execution via the right-hand mouse click of any application designed for Windows 95. Using this approach, Newsbytes notes, allows users to auto-execute the package from within Windows 95, no matter what application is being run. Software Compatibility claims that the package is unique in this respect. The Quick View facility seen in standard Windows 95 was co-developed by Software Compatibility and Microsoft and offers a first level in viewing capabilities with 28 supported file formats. Quick View Plus, when integrated with Windows 95, pushes the number of file formats viewable from within Windows 95 to more than 200, including files from word processing, spreadsheet, database, graphic, compressed DOS, Windows 3.1, Mac, and VMS platform applications. Using QVP32, users can modify the resultant file image by changing the fonts and their sizes. According to Tony Larks, sales and marketing manager with Software Compatibility, QVP32 will view almost any object in Windows 95 and integrate with any application designed for Windows 95, including Microsoft Exchange and Windows Explorer. In addition, users can view, copy and print files from electronic-mail, networks, bulletin board systems, online services, and the Internet. Larks claims that, since QVP32 is a native 32-bit application, users can view files in under 25 percent of the time it would take of a creator application. An example cited is a 288 kilobyte Winword file that would take eight seconds to open under its creator package, and 2.5 seconds using QVP32. (Steve Gold/19951027/Press & Reader Contact: Software Compatibility, tel +44-1344-885224, fax +44-1344-885238, Internet e-mail tony_larks@cityscape.co.uk) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 10/30/95 TELECOM UK - Octel Targets Hackers With SecureCall Add-On (NEWS)(TELECOM)(LON)(00008) UK - Octel Targets Hackers With SecureCall Add-On 10/30/95 FLEET, HAMPSHIRE, ENGLAND, 1995 OCT 30 (NB) -- Octel Communications has announced SecureCall, an application that it claims is the first voice processing package in Europe that uses advanced security features to reduce the risk of telecoms hacking for companies that have their own virtual private network (VPN). The idea behind SecureCall is that it interfaces with Octel's existing VPN software, requiring the user to enter a simple password -- to access an office voice mailbox for example -- of a synchronized smartcard to access the office LAN (local area network). According to George Kendall, general manager of Octel Europe, employees are increasingly starting to travel extensively or work from home. With long distance calls from hotels or using mobile phones costing five times or more the cost of the same call via the company VPN, it makes sense to allow these remote staff to access the company VPN and have the system call them back. "However, such networks are not completely secure and millions of pounds are lost each year by large organizations because highly organized hackers have obtained access to their networks," Kendall said, adding that the Octel SecureCall applications uses a variety of secure methods to protect a VPN against unauthorized access. The highest level of security comes from Octel's Smartcard security card, a self-contained system that generates a passcode based on an internal algorithm, a keypad entered PIN, and the time. The same passcode is generated on the VPN's computer and, if the passcode matches, the user is let in. Other options with SecureCall include call-barring, call-back, and call-logging. Call-barring prevents users from accessing expensive destinations such as mobile phone numbers or international calls. Call- back offers a remote callback option for callers to specified numbers, while call-logging allows the security staff to monitor usage for unusual events etc. Pricing of SecureCall depends on the company's existing installation, but Octel claims that its systems can be integrated with a company's existing systems. (Steve Gold/19951027/Press Contact: Annabel Abbs, Firefly Communications, +44-171-381-4505, Internet e-mail aabbs@firefly.co.uk; Reader Contact: Octel Communications, +44-1252-303000) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 10/30/95 TELECOM UK - KNX's Shrink-Wrapped ISDN Telecommuter System (NEWS)(TELECOM)(LON)(00009) UK - KNX's Shrink-Wrapped ISDN Telecommuter System 10/30/95 SKIPTON, NORTH YORKSHIRE, ENGLAND, 1995 OCT 30 (NB) -- KNX has announced an addition to its remote workstation products which it claims will address a dramatic upsurge in demand by corporate networks for remote connectivity. Selling for UKP1,095, the enhanced remote workstation will, the company claims, enable telecommuters (teleworkers) to maximize the use of ISDN (integrated services digital network) connections for both voice and data traffic. The KNX ISDN Kit for Teleworkers is based on the company's Remote Workstation Link (RWL) used in PC or NT environments. The company has added an analog telephone interface and power supply to the system, which allows phone to remain operable, even if power is cut to the teleworker's site. The KNX ISDN Teleworker Kit features Tollsaver software (a feature which ensures that the ISDN line is active only when data is being sent), spoofing (which reduces the amount of unnecessary traffic on a local area network), a high level of security (including Challenge response), encryption, and Caller Line Identification (CLI). Announcing the system, Frank Jauncey, KNX's sales director explained that teleworking needs a "Plug and Use" solution to enable a successful transition from working in a corporate environment -- "where there is usually several areas of support, particularly technical -- to working at a remote site often alone or in small specialized groups. "This is the most cost-effective and reliable ISDN solution for teleworking available today," he said, adding that the KNX ISDN Kit for Teleworkers will be demonstrated for the first time publicly at the TMA (Telecom Managers Association) conference and exhibition next month (November 27/29) in Brighton, England. (Steve Gold/19951026/Press Contact: Maggie Davies, tel +44-1344-301022 fax +44-1344-52662, Internet e-mail maggied@cix.compulink.co.uk; Reader Contact: KNX, +44-1756-702500, Internet e-mail sales@knx.co.uk) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 10/30/95 BUSINESS Europe - Data General Adapts Aviion Distribution Strategy (NEWS)(BUSINESS)(LON)(00010) Europe - Data General Adapts Aviion Distribution Strategy 10/30/95 BRENTFORD, MIDDLESEX, ENGLAND, 1995 OCT 30 (NB) -- Data General has announced that its distribution strategy in five European countries -- France, Germany, Italy, Spain, and the UK -- will be standardized, following a round of independent market research undertaken by Romtec, a computer market research company. According to Mike Maunder, Data General's marketing director, more than 200 value-added resellers (VARs) handling the DG Aviion series were consulted by Romtec, with the conclusion that resellers are looking for clearly defined markets to sell into, as well as prompt deliveries of hardware for onward shipment to customers. Using a common distribution strategy on a pan-European basis, DG claims, will ensure that these VAR needs are met. The company claims that it now has a commitment to delivery times of between one to three days, backed up by online ordering and information, as well as online technical support. The company is also committing itself to a fast turnaround time for spare parts. "The indirect channel is the future for DG. Within 12 months, we intend to increase the business conducted through resellers by more than 150 percent," said Maunder, adding that, to achieve this, the company is implementing "far reaching structural changes to ensure that we are the partner of choice. "The Romtec research has shown that VARs appear generally satisfied with companies such as Hewlett-Packard and Sun Microsystems as far as channel strategies are concerned, but has also highlighted major areas of concern. Through the Aviion alliance program, we are offering a VAR package that addresses all of the issues and a true partnership approach," he explained. The distribution changes come as DG has announced a range of Intel- based Aviion servers, Newsbytes notes. The new servers were unveiled at the annual meeting for the Data General Users' Group, held this week in Washington DC, and telecast to customer audiences around Europe. Announcing the new servers to a European audience, Jeremy Crook, DG's UK general manager, said that the new servers are based on Intel Pentium processors, and are ideally pitched at the commercial side of the marketplace. Of the new servers, the most important appears to be the AV2000 and AV3000, two low-cost servers that DG claims pushes the price right down as far as Aviion server technology is concerned. The desktop AV2000 is available in single and dual 100 megahertz (MHz) Pentium processor configurations, while the AV3000 is a tower system capable of supporting four 100MHz Pentium processors. (Steve Gold/19951025/Press Contact: Kate Webb, GBC, +44-181-332-7022, Internet e-mail kate@gbc.co.uk; Reader Contact: Data General, +44-181-758-6000) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 10/30/95 BUSINESS Michigan's Genix Group Goes To Europe (NEWS)(BUSINESS)(LON)(00011) Michigan's Genix Group Goes To Europe 10/30/95 LONDON, ENGLAND, 1995 OCT 30 (NB) -- The Genix Group, a $100 million group based in Dearborn, Michigan, has opened its first European office in London. According to the company, the aim of the London office is to develop business in the European outsourcing business, the market that the Dearborn office has concentrated on in the US. The London office will function as the European headquarters for Genix, and will be headed by Tony Nash, the man who established the Comshare UK office last year. Comshare was a company set up to handle Genix customers' business in Europe, Newsbytes notes. Nash explained that his mandate is to expand Genix' operations in Europe beyond Comshare's original aim of supporting the European outsourcing arrangements of its US customers. The company intends to compete fully in the European outsourcing business. "With the already strong support capability we have established for Comshare, we're ideally placed to expand our business. Initially, we will be aiming to provide similar support services for the European operations of other US Genix customers, together with developing a base of other European customers," he said. Genix currently has around 400 staff servicing more than 100 corporate customers. According to Doug Tayler, Genix' executive director of planning, the new UK office will become a cornerstone for the company's international development. Genix' London offices are located in Chelsea Manor Gardens, London. (Steve Gold/19951025/Press Contact: Tim Wickes, CH Business Development, +44-1372-743718; Reader Contact: Genix Group, tel +44-171-823-3797, fax +44-171-823-3797) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 10/30/95 BUSINESS FTP Software & Vermeer Team On Internet Publishing (NEWS)(BUSINESS)(LON)(00012) FTP Software & Vermeer Team On Internet Publishing 10/30/95 HAMBURG, GERMANY, 1995 OCT 30 (NB) -- FTP Software, an internetworking software company, has teamed up with Vermeer Technologies, a specialist in the World Wide Web publishing market, to develop what they claim is the industry's first client/server visual Web publishing tool for international markets. Under the terms of the contract, FTP will receive full rights to distribute Vermeer's new FrontPage package internationally. Both companies also plan to develop the software to allow more users to create and maintain Web facilities. According to John Mandie, Vermeer's chief executive officer (CEO), the alliance will allow both companies to deliver the software into new markets. "This agreement gives Vermeer's Web publishing software new sales channel reach," he said. Plans call for FrontPage package to ship by the end of this year in the European marketplace, with localized versions available for France, Germany, Spain, and the UK. According to FTP, FrontPage is aimed at designers and publishers who have little or no previous programming experience. These users will be able to publish information locally from a corporate LAN (local area network) or via servers on the Internet. The package supports authoring, scripting and Web site management on either Internet, LAN, or a PC. FrontPage operates smoothly in distributed, collaborative and multi-user environments. Pricing on FrontPage will be announced closer to shipment date. (Sylvia Dennis/19951026) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 10/30/95 ONLINE TenKey Offers Job Database Via Internet (NEWS)(ONLINE)(MSP)(00013) TenKey Offers Job Database Via Internet 10/30/95 ORLANDO, FLORIDA, U.S.A., 1995 OCT 30 (NB) -- The ability to find a job via the Internet's World Wide Web is becoming more commonplace with more companies offering employment listings and resume repositories. But TenKey officials claim they have a system that works better, because it lets potential applicants illustrate their strengths online. With the new "Career Shop" service, "applicants no longer have to worry about being passed over (for a job) for having the wrong color resume paper," said Jack Law, vice president of Career Services for TenKey. "We're enabling job seekers' skills to speak for themselves, and making it easy for employers to be objective and efficient in their search process." The Career Shop database not only contains resumes, but answers to "pre-interview" questions like "Describe your greatest strengths?" and "What are your career goals for the next five years?" among others. With this detailed information, job seekers can express their individuality and strengths in a way that doesn't necessarily show up in resumes, claims the company. Employers then use the database via search engine. They type in their search criteria, and receive a list of qualified candidates who match what they're looking for. The companies can then contact the applicant directly. In addition, the Career Shop site also acts as a "help wanted" database, with current job listings. Companies can also hyperlink their own Web sites to their employment listing in Career Shop. Job seekers do not pay for this service, TenKey officials said. Instead, employers pay a low yearly license for unlimited job postings and unlimited applicant searches. The site also provides job seekers with tips on writing an effective electronic resume, questions to prepare for during an interview, and a list of suggested questions to ask potential employers. The Career Shop Web site is located at http://www.tenkey.com/ . The service is also available for people who don't have Web access, but do have a modem. Free software to dial into Career Shop can be obtained by calling 800-639-2060. (Bob Woods/19951026/Press Contacts: Joe Coppola or Paul Jensen, Kratz and Company, 212-979-2700) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 10/30/95 BUSINESS Techway Acquisition Moves Protech Up Australian PC Ladder (NEWS)(BUSINESS)(SYD)(00014) Techway Acquisition Moves Protech Up Australian PC Ladder 10/30/95 SYDNEY, AUSTRALIA 1995 OCT 30 (NB) -- PC maker Protech Australia has acquired stock exchange-listed competitor Techway's PC business unit in a move that has been described as "a strategic alliance". The one-time rivals will now "jointly pursue enterprise networking ventures," according to a joint statement. As part of the deal, Protech will have the trademark rights to Techway's Endeavour II family of PC and notebooks, as well as the Sirius rack- mounted services. Protech also gets its hands on Techway's manufacturing operation which will move to Protech's facility in Adelaide, while the Techway plant in Sydney will close. Around 10-15 jobs will be eliminated, former Techway Managing Director David Ballantine said. The new company is to be called Protechway. He told Newsbytes the deal is a profit share arrangement whereby Techway will receive a percentage of the revenues generated by the new company and will retain its place on the stock exchange. Techway said last month that it was looking for a partner for its PC business which had been responsible for most of last year's $3 million loss. Ballantine said the move would combine Techway's WAN (wide area network) expertise with Protech's LAN (local area network) capabilities. "We were looking for a partner and this has turned out to be something much stronger." Ballantine said all Techway PC clients had agreed to shift their contracts to the new company. The clients include, the Defense Department, the New South Wales Treasury, and Foxtel. IDC analyst Bruce McCabe said Protech, which is positioned at number 25 in the Australian marketplace, is now set to jump a few rungs in the ladder. "Acquisition of the manufacturing facility, along with the leveraging of Techway's existing client base should help Protech take a larger slice of the PC market," said McCabe. Kit Craig, Techway's general manager for computers, is moving across to Protech to manage the Techway side of the business. (Kate Castellari and Computer Daily News/19951030) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 10/30/95 WINDOWS Magic School Bus Hits The Road Again (NEWS)(WINDOWS)(DEN)(00015) Magic School Bus Hits The Road Again 10/30/95 REDMOND, WASHINGTON, U.S.A., 1995 OCT 30 (NB) -- Microsoft's Magic School Bus has hit the road again, this time taking users on an interactive field trip called "The Magic School Bus Explores the Ocean." Led by the wacky science teacher Ms. Frizzle, kids ages 6 to 10 explore seven different ocean zones, perform science experiments, participate in various activities and try to find the sunken treasure. The seven zones the program explores are: the beach, the intertidal zone, hot air vents, the open ocean, the deep sea, a kelp forest, and a coral reef. Eventually the user's exploration leads to an animated Conservation Certificate award. To keep the program interesting, the location of the sunken treasure changes and the clues to help you find it are randomly generated, so the "field trip" is never the same. The Scholastic Productions CD-ROM-based multimedia "Magic School Bus" programs were created in conjunction with New York-based Music Pen Inc. using "studio-quality character voices" and three-dimensional video animation. In addition to having fun, the kids learn scientific facts, such as why the tides change and what makes coral reefs colorful, claims the company. Other topics include winds, waves, ocean habitats, and tide pools. The children can experiment with the speed of the wind and the slope of the ocean floor to create the perfect wave for a character called Liz the Lizard to surf. Or they can use a depth meter to discover how fish adapt to their underwater environment. The fun activities include building sand castles and turning everyday objects into exotic fish. The program includes multimedia reports on more than 20 different topics that incorporate video clips and animation. there are also games in each ocean zone that reinforce the key science and conservation concepts the kids learn. Winning a game gets the child a printed "fish card." The new Magic School Bus title joins two other programs released earlier, "The Magic School Bus Explores the Human Body" and "The Magic School Bus Explores the Solar System." Microsoft said the new program is immediately available with a street price of under $45. To drive the bus you need a multimedia PC powered by a 486SX 25 megahertz or better microprocessor, Windows 3.1 or Windows 95, four megabytes of memory (Microsoft recommends 8MB), 5MB of available hard disk space, a Super VGA 256-color display, a double-speed CD-ROM drive, an 8-bit sound card (Microsoft's recommendation is for a 16-bit card), headphones or speakers, and a mouse or comparable pointing device. (Jim Mallory/19951026/Press contact: Deborah Caldwell, Waggener Edstrom for Microsoft, 408-986-1140; Public contact: Microsoft, 206-882-8080 or 800-426-9400) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 10/30/95 GENERAL Microsoft & Home Office Computing Mag Sponsor Awards (NEWS)(GENERAL)(DEN)(00016) Microsoft & Home Office Computing Mag Sponsor Awards 10/30/95 REDMOND, WASHINGTON, U.S.A., 1995 OCT 30 (NB) -- Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ: MSFT) and Home Office Computing magazine have launched a search for small business owners whose creative ideas and computer- generated marketing materials are "changing the way America works." The nationwide search will last through December 15, 1995, to select six grand prize winners. Each winner will receive a Compaq Presario CDS 5528 multimedia computer, a Hewlett-Packard Deskjet 855C color inkjet printer, Microsoft Publisher software, and a one-year membership in the National Home Office Association. Winners will also receive an expenses-paid trip for two to New York in April, 1996, and tickets to the broadway musical show "How To Succeed In Business Without Really Trying." According to Microsoft, its research indicates that owners of small- and home-based businesses are "do it all" types who believe they can be "superstars" based on their creative ideas and marketing savvy. "We want to honor these 'do it all' individuals who think of exciting businesses and marketing directions, or who add special creative twists to traditional products and services," said Linda Mitchell, Microsoft Publisher product manager. Linda Mitchell, Home Office Computing editor-in-chief, believes the big companies can take a lesson in creativity from the contest winners. "We're finding that some of the most creative ideas and marketing initiatives are being generated by SOHOs (small office/home office), who we think could teach the Fortune 500 a thing or two." To enter the competition you must be at least 18 years of age and the owner of a small- or home-based business in the US employing 20 or less people. To enter just write up a narrative of 300 or fewer words describing the innovative idea behind the business and how the idea was marketed successfully by using computer-generated materials. Contest organizers said you also need to submit samples of the marketing samples and a statement of 50 words or less explaining how you plan to use desktop publishing to help build the business. Once you decide if you want to enter in the Product or the Service category, you can elect to enter as: a startup with less than one year in business; a growth business that's one to five years old; or a mature business that's survived successfully for more than five years. Entries should be sent to Microsoft Publisher/Home Office Computing "Most Innovative business Marketing Awards," P.O. Box 4210, Chestertown, MD 21690. Your entry has to be received by December 15, and is "void where prohibited by law." To get a copy of the official rules see the November issue of Home Office Computing magazine or contact the contest hotline at 800-866-5821. (Jim Mallory/19951026/Press contact: Dain Percifield, Edelman Public Relations, 212-704-4456; Public contact: Microsoft, 206-882-8080 or Home Office Computing, 800-288-7812 for subscriptions or 800-866-5821 for content info) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 10/30/95 ONLINE Better Business Bureau Complaints On The Web (NEWS)(ONLINE)(WAS)(00017) Better Business Bureau Complaints On The Web 10/30/95 ARLINGTON, VIRGINIA, U.S.A., 1995 OCT 30 (NB) -- Consumers can now file complaints against businesses and charities with the Better Business Bureau on the World Wide Web. As part of National Consumers Week (October 22-28), the Council of Better Business Bureaus (BBBs), the umbrella organization for the 138 local BBBs, has added complaint filing to its Web site at http://www.bbb.org/bbb/ . "Consumers can use the BBB online complaint form to obtain assistance quickly and easily in resolving disputes that arise in either the online marketplace or the more traditional marketplace," said Jim Bast, president of the council. "The complaint is automatically forwarded to appropriate BBB or CBBB staff who will help the consumer and the company reach a satisfactory settlement." Bast noted that the business community will also benefit from the online complaint technology. "Honest, ethical businesses prefer to learn about consumer concerns as quickly as possible," he said. On the non-profit side, donors can use the Web server to identify potential concerns or register complaints about the management, governance, finances, or fund-raising practices of charities. The council's philanthropic advisory service will forward the complaint to the non-profit organization and request appropriate action. Other upgrades to the BBB home page include immediate access to information about national charities, an expanded publications section with tips on how to make wise buying decisions, and the ability to search for information by topic and to locate the appropriate local office by zip code. "Our BBB Web server is helping lead the BBB system toward our goal of becoming the preeminent source of information relating to ethical business and advertising practices and to be a major provider of marketplace dispute resolution," said Bast. (Kennedy Maize/19951027/Press Contact: Holly Cherico, 703-241-9311, Internet e-mail bbb@bbb.org) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 10/30/95 GENERAL Fractal Intros Dabbler 2. (NEWS)(GENERAL)(SFO)(00018) Fractal Intros Dabbler 2.0 10/30/95 APTOS, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1995 OCT 30 (NB) -- Fractal Design, well-known developer of design, art, and drawing software, is shipping version 2.0 of Dabbler. Announced at Macworld in January, 1994, the latest version of the company's entry-level learning, painting, and drawing application is called, The Art Tutor Inside Your Computer. Fractal says Dabbler has been highly successful with adults and children and is used by novices, educators, hobbyists and designers who need a compact and easy to use drawing application. Dabbler is Fractal's top learning tool and a step-up from its KidPix and FineArtist programs. Based on Walter Foster's learning-to-draw books, Dabbler is a tutoring and learning tool built into a very strong drawing environment. The new version offers "Tutors" which are books that float over the interface and provide in-depth lessons using movies, sound, text, and graphics. One of the books is based on the work of Preston Blair, a famous Disney cartoonist. Tad Shelby, Fractal's product manager for Dabbler, told Newsbytes, "Version 2.0 of Dabbler is a major upgrade to the program and we think it will attract new users and we want our existing users to know they will receive extensive features when they upgrade." Dabbler 1.0 sold for a suggested retail price of $99. The new version which comes on two CD-ROMs, has a list price of $69, and Fractal thinks its street price will be $49 to $55. The upgrade is available to registered users of earlier versions of Dabbler for $29 and includes the complete CD-ROM set. Other features include flipbook animation, realistic natural-media tools, a digital lightbox for tracing, natural-media cloning, 100 professional stock photographs from PhotoDisc, 300 stencils, 120 paper textures, three image font libraries, and hundreds of graphics. Early in its development, Dabbler was designed for both Macintosh and Windows-based computers. The new CD-ROM set is a hybrid, which means the program can be installed on either platform from the same disks. Regardless of platform, users will need eight megabytes (MB) of RAM and Macintosh users need System 7.0 or higher. The disks contain both a Windows 3.x version and a Windows 95 version. Multimedia-capable computers are essential to this new version of Dabbler. Shelby also said, "Art is a leisure activity. Along with the education market, we have designed Dabbler to encourage people to open their creative talents and just enjoy themselves." (Patrick McKenna/1995/Press Contact: Ellen Ebner, McLean Public Relations, 415-513-8800) (ADVISORY)(GENERAL)(MSP)(00019) NewsPix Images For Newsbytes Publishers 10/30/95 MINNEAPOLIS, MINNESOTA, U.S.A.,1995 OCT 30 (NB) -- An announcement about Newspix Images and the News Pix Bulletin; starting October 30 Photos will be posted as they arrive! This means quicker access to the story pictures! The bulletin will be updated Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays as needed! These photos correspond to recent Newsbytes stories. They are online in the Newsbytes menu on America Online, NiftyServe, and the Newsbytes private bulletin board system in Minneapolis. JPEG (Joint Photographic Experts Group) files are larger in size, PICT files are designed as thumbnails for onscreen viewing. The photos are titled with name/year/month/day. PICT/thumbnail pictures are black and white (gray scale). File message will indicate color if the JPEG image is color. Some of the "for use" images, may be PICT files. To distinguish these files from the thumbnail preview PICT images, the tag for the color "for use" image will have PICT, all caps. The thumbnail will remain noted as "pct." To become a licensed Newsbytes publisher, call Newsbytes at 612-430-1100 (US) or write to administrator@newsbytes.com on the Internet. Licensing applies to any medium. --------------------------- Week of OCTOBER 30 - NOVEMBER 3,1995 --------------------------- - NEW THIS WEEK - KEYTRONIC951023 - color / Key Tronic Shipping More Windows Keyboards: shot of the KB101, with mottled lighting. CS-UTIL951024 - color / Coloradans Talk To Utility Firm Via The Internet: nice web page graphics. WIN4-951025 - color / TI Intros MicroLaser Printer For SOHO Market: the printer on a reddish surface and black background. VIRTUS951026 - color / Virtus Ships 3-D Web Building Software: screenshot of a routing node. FASHION951026 - b&w / America Online & Cap Cities/ABC To Form Fashion Channel: basic ABC - Cap Cities Logo. --------------------------------------------------------------- - PARTIAL LISTING OF PREVIOUS ITEMS - RACOM951011 - color / Partnership Targets Billion Dollar Smart Card Market: shot of the smartcard and security box. OPTI-G951017 - color / Dell Intros New Optiplex Line, Server: picture of the Optiplex GX5100; corporate network ready pc. This is not one of the multimedia pcs mentioned in the article, but one of the others in the new line. ZNOTE951017 - color / Zenith Data System's New Pentium Desktops, Notebooks: the Z-Note GT. PLANET951016 - color / New Web Site Encourages Family Interneting: screenshot of homepage. CAERE951010 - b&w / Caere To Acquire ViewStar: photo of Dean Hovey, vice president of business development for Caere quoted in story. GPT-CHINA951010 - color / UK's GPT To Supply First Smart Card Phones To China: Asian businessman at phone. TELECOM*spx1,2,3 - b&w / three photos taken at Telcom: for general use. 1) opening entry, 2) main floor - horizontal format, 3) main floor - vertical format. Images below. #IMAGE 1 20 TWPCX \images\TELECOM1.PCX Click here for photo #IMAGE 1 20 TWPCX \images\TELECOM2.PCX Click here for photo #IMAGE 1 20 TWPCX \images\TELECOM3.PCX Click here for photo SUPERDECK951013 - b&w / Video News Roundup:New Products-Panasonic Model AF-DS550 SVHS VCR, dubbed the 'superdeck.' PCCARD951013 - color / Compaq To Support Third-Party PC Cards: shot of two of the cards, one with connection cable running off frame. T2-951004 - color / Thrustmaster Intros New Game Steering Console: shot of the unit on limbo white, steering wheel and pedals. ABC-3D951005 - color / ABC Graphics Goes 3-D: screen shot of text illustrating the "Instant 3D." KODIAK951002 - color / Storagetek Intros New Product, Settles Old Lawsuit: the Kodiak 9890 Scalable Storage Facility. LAT-LX951004 - color / Dell Ships New Latitude Portables: unit with nice color Dell logo on screen. THINKPAD951003 - color / IBM Aims New ThinkPads At Desktop Market: shot of the 760CD unit, with flowers on screen and CD tray open. FUJITSU950914 - color / Fujitsu Develops New Display Panel: the large LCD panel with model. VCON950922 - color / VCON Intros Desktop Videoconferencing For LANs: woman at desk with desktop videoconferencing. DITOEASY950925 - color / Iomega's $150 800MB Tape Backup Drive: the unit on a tabletop with pen for scale. SKYTEL950926 - color / Microsoft/Skytel Offer 2-way Paging Via Microsoft Network: the unit on limbo tabletop. ZENOGRAPHICS950928 - color / Zenographics' SuperPrint 4.0 Speeds Win 95 Printing: shot of the software package. MACROMEDIA950928 - color / Macromedia Upgrades FreeHand For Macs: shot of the box. TRIMBLE950925 - color / Trimble Wins Japanese Anti-Earthquake Network Order: nice shot of surveyor and Golden Gate Bridge in SF. AMDAHL950915 - b&w / Amdahl To Acquire Canada's DMR Group: head shot of Amdahl's president and chief executive officer (CEO), Joseph Zemke. MS_BOB950919 - color / What Ever Happened To Microsoft Bob?: the Bob logo, smiley face with glasses. MS_PROJ950919 - color / Microsoft Project For Windows 95 To Ship Next Week: shot of package graphics. GAZETTEER950920 - color / Global Post Code & Demographic Info On The Web: screenshot of home page. D3SEA950922 - color / Video Update: photo of Panasonic D3 camcorder used by Scuba Diver for underwater photography. Actual shot of camera in action, diver is Capt. Steve Hogan, president of Sea Eagle Productions, Maui, Hawaai. (Newsbytes/19951030) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 10/30/95 WINDOWS Arlington Finally Ships Which & Why For Windows (NEWS)(WINDOWS)(TOR)(00020) Arlington Finally Ships Which & Why For Windows 10/30/95 MONTREAL, QUEBEC, CANADA, 1995 OCT 30 (NB) -- After delays of more than a year, Arlington Software Corp. said it is now shipping Which & Why for Windows, a decision-making software tool. Newsbytes reported last year that Arlington planned to launch the Windows version of Which & Why -- the company previously offered a DOS version -- at last fall's Comdex/Fall trade show in Las Vegas. In fact, Arlington President Don Lobley told Newsbytes, the company did display an alpha version of the software at Comdex last fall. At the time, he said, Arlington hoped to ship the software within three months. But, as often happens in the software industry, it took longer. Arlington held a press conference in Toronto last week to launch the software, and Lobley said it is actually shipping now. Which & Why is one of a class of decision-making tools that lets users specify the factors involved in a decision, rank several options according to how will they satisfy those criteria, and let the computer calculate which option is best. Such packages have been on the market for years. However, Arlington claimed that two things set Which & Why apart from its rivals. One difference is the way users specify the relative importance of different factors. Instead of requiring that each factor be assigned a "weight" from one to 10, Which & Why asks users to compare pairs of factors, deciding in each case which of two is more important. From that information it constructs an over-all weighting of the factors. Arlington believes this is easier for users than assigning numeric weights. The second distinctive feature of Which & Why is what the manufacturer calls the "matching index," which is another way of deciding which of a number of options best fits a user's priorities. The traditional approach, called a "weighted average," ranks the options by their average score on all decision criteria, giving more emphasis to the more important criteria. By this method, an option can score very high if it measures up well on a few important criteria, even though it may do very badly on other criteria. Arlington's matching index measures how well each option's strengths match the user's priorities. Which & Why allows the matching index and weighted average methods to be used together or separately, the company said. Bob Logan, Arlington's vice-president of sales, said at the press conference that his company is signing up distributors and resellers for the software, and will also sell it directly through a toll-free telephone number. The price will be C$349. Logan also said Arlington plans to release a 32-bit version of Which & Why for Windows in the second quarter of 1996, and is considering a "Lite" version aimed at the small office and home office (SOHO) market. (Grant Buckler/19951030/Press Contact: Don Lobley, Arlington Software, 514-954-3665; Public Contact: Arlington Software, 800-496-1303) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 10/30/95 ONLINE Compuserve To Bring Macromedia's Director Player Online (NEWS)(ONLINE)(MSP)(00021) Compuserve To Bring Macromedia's Director Player Online 10/30/95 COLUMBUS, OHIO, U.S.A., 1995 OCT 30 (NB) -- Compuserve said it will enable future customers to view multimedia clips online without having to download playback software and multimedia files. The service announced a new agreement with Macromedia to bring its "Director Player" technology to the online environment. Compuserve officials say it will be the first online service to provide such a feature to its users. The Director Player will first be implemented into its newest online service, code-named "Wow!" "You get access to multimedia, with much greater ease of use," Carrie Reber, Compuserve spokesperson, told Newsbytes. "In the past, you had to download a player. Then you had to download a file. Then you had to, offline, activate that file using the player software you've just downloaded. That's a complicated process for someone who's brand new to computers," she said. With the Director Player, Compuserve members will be able to experience multimedia, including sound, video, and animation, by clicking only one button, officials said. In addition, all of this is done while remaining online. "We've done the hard part for them," Reber said. This new technology would integrate multimedia use in the online environment in the future, Reber said. "Ultimately, say you're visiting a new area online for the first time. The screen might say 'Click Here for an Introduction.' The user would just click the button, and a movie would pop up" explaining what the area is about and how to use it, she said. The Director Player is an "ideal application" for Compuserve's Wow! service, because it is designed for the new computer user, Reber added. Reber said future plans for the Macromedia Director Player include bringing it to "other interfaces," including the main Compuserve online service. Compuserve officials said the company has already been using Macromedia Director for more than a year in its CompuserveCD and other CD-ROM products. The announcement was made today at Macromedia's International User Conference in San Francisco. (Bob Woods/19951030/Press Contacts: Jeff Shafer, 614-538-4632, or Carrie Reber, 614-538-4092, of Compuserve; Mary Leong, Macromedia, 415-252-2118; Public Contact: Macromedia, 800-326-2128, 415-252-2000) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 10/30/95 ONLINE Spyglass Licenses Web Security Tools To Checkfree (NEWS)(ONLINE)(MSP)(00022) Spyglass Licenses Web Security Tools To Checkfree 10/30/95 NAPERVILLE, ILLINOIS, U.S.A., 1995 OCT 30 (NB) -- Spyglass Inc. (NASDAQ:SPYG) said Checkfree Corp. (NASDAQ:CKFR) will be the first licensee of Secure Transaction Technology (STT), an open standard for Internet World Wide Web secure transactions. Terms of the agreement were not disclosed, but officials said Spyglass will deliver STT tool kits to Checkfree for use in all platforms early in the first quarter of 1996. Marc Miller, executive vice president of marketing at Spyglass, said Checkfree's support of STT is "a step towards making STT a viable solution for secure transactions over the Web." The STT standard will be used with the Checkfree Wallet, which allows consumers and merchants to conduct buying and selling over the Web using a model similar to a customer getting money out of a regular wallet. Checkfree officials said by using its Wallet, neither the purchasing paradigm nor the selling paradigm changes for consumers or merchants. Newsbytes first covered the STT standard when Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) and Visa International published the specifications of STT over the Internet. At the time, the two companies named Spyglass as the prime licensee of both STT and Private Communication Technology (PCT), which builds on the current Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) technology by incorporating additional authentication and other technologies. At the time, Andrew Parker, Spyglass director of business development, told Newsbytes that "electronic commerce will take a huge jump forward" with STT and PCT because "people will be able to know that the system is fully secure and approved by their bank," because of Visa's connection with the standard. He also said that, because both standards are open, developers will embrace the technology. Both Checkfree and Spyglass maintain Web sites for people seeking additional information. Checkfree's is at http://www.checkfree.com , while Spyglass's address is http://www.spyglass.com . In other news from Checkfree, the company announced it is bringing to market a new consumer bill delivery service. The all-electronic solution makes automatic the receiving and paying of bills, company officials said. The bills would be delivered via Internet electronic mail and will look similar to bills consumers receive via the post office. Consumers would then initiate a payment through Checkfree- capable software. Next year, Checkfree plans an enhanced version of the service that will allow customers to pay bills with a "touch of a button," provide a billing history by merchant, and display the merchant's full color logo. The service is undergoing testing with 2,000 consumers in Texas, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania. (Bob Woods/19951030/Press Contacts: Randy Pitzer, Spyglass, 708-505- 1010; Anne Magor, Access Public Relations, 415-094-7070) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 10/30/95 GENERAL Canadian Product Launch Update (NEWS)(GENERAL)(TOR)(00023) Canadian Product Launch Update 10/30/95 KINGSTON, ONTARIO, CANADA 1995 OCT 30 (NB) -- This regular feature, appearing on the first day Newsbytes publishes each week, provides further details for the Canadian market on announcements by international companies that Newsbytes has already covered. This week: Apple's Newton 2.0 personal digital assistant (PDA) operating system. Apple Canada Inc., of Markham, Ontario, joined its Cupertino, California- based parent company in announcing Newton 2.0 (Newsbytes, Oct. 23), an updated version of the operating system for its Newton PDA line. Apple Canada said Newton 2.0 is expected to be available first on the MessagePad 120 in December, at an estimated street price of C$999. An upgrade to Newton 2.0 will cost current MessagePad owners less than C$200, Apple Canada said. Information about Newton 2.0 is available on the World Wide Web at http://www.info.apple.com/newton , and Apple Canada has its own home page at http://www.apple.ca . (Grant Buckler/19951030/Press Contact: Linda Grant or Susan Taylor, Apple Canada, 905-477-5800, Internet e-mail s.taylor@eworld.com; Public Contact: Apple Canada, 800-263-3394 for faxed information, or 800-665-2775 ext 450) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 10/30/95 BROADCAST Compaq & Intel In Videoconference Alliance (NEWS)(BROADCAST)(LAX)(00024) Compaq & Intel In Videoconference Alliance 10/30/95 ANAHEIM, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1995 OCT 30 (NB) -- Compaq Computer Corporation (NYSE:CPQ) and Intel Corp., (NASDAQ:INTC) have announced an alliance to co-market integrated desktop conferencing products. Under the agreement, Compaq will offer its customers standards-based, real-time conferencing products based on Intel's ProShare Personal Conferencing technology. Intel's ProShare personal conferencing family includes interoperable data and video conferencing products, including the ProShare Video System 200 which enables Intel486 and Pentium processor-based PCs to conduct video and data conferences. Mike Shealy, vice president of emerging market group for Compaq, told Newsbytes, "This alliance is much more than just a marketing agreement. Intel and Compaq feel that we have a strategic alliance that will last for many years. "Co-presentations with Intel have already begun, and joint development teams are now being formed that will develop products. Compaq has chartered a team to work with Intel to develop a plan to incorporate ProShare technology in its offerings," said Shealy. The alliance is seen as developing collaboration products in three stages, first with data sharing, then adding voice, and finally adding video. Compaq envisions an alliance with a complete desktop conferencing product within the next couple of years. "Between Intel and Compaq, we have the capability to deliver all the elements of this package now. Today as a 'free' add-on it would cost over $2,000 per unit. The trick is to bring the price point per unit to under $400. The complexity of getting from $2,000 to $400 will take much more than a year to develop," said Shealy. The companies have outlined a plan to deliver "integrated conferencing solutions," beginning with the co-marketing of off-the-shelf products. All of Compaq's conferencing products will be interoperable and comply with international telecommunications standards and industry standard PC operating systems. "Any Compaq PC can become a personal conferencing PC," said John T. Rose, senior vice president, Desktop Division, Compaq Computer Corporation. "Our umbrella strategy is to incorporate these dynamic capabilities into every Compaq commercial desktop product. We believe ProShare technology is one that provides robust and innovative video and data conferencing capabilities for our customers." (Richard Bowers/19951030/Press Contact: Nora Hahn, Compaq Computer 713-514-0484) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 10/30/95 ONLINE ****Internetworld - Ziff-Davis, AOL, Others Rollout Products (NEWS)(ONLINE)(BOS)(00025) ****Internetworld - Ziff-Davis, AOL, Others Rollout Products 10/30/95 BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS, U.S.A., 1995 OCT 30 (NB) -- Dozens of new products and services are set to be launched into cyberspace at Internetworld Boston '95 this week, ranging from Ziff Davis Interactive's (ZDI) new ZD3D (three-dimensional) and America Online's GNN Internet Service to new World Wide Web servers, Internet security and hosting services, specialized Web sites for auto information and "radio music," and software tools for Web mastering, surfing, and content creation. Slated for announcement today, ZD3D, a new VR (virtual area) of the ZDI Web site, will include the Terminal Reality "interactive VR experience," together with a "hot news" section, and commentaries by Tony Parisi and Mark Peace, the creators of VRML (virtual reality markup language). Users will also be able to download the WorldView VRML browser from Intervista Software free of charge, according to a ZDI spokesperson. ZD3D's Terminal Reality is reportedly modeled around the metaphor of a "virtual airport." A central newsstand will dispense VR-related articles and columns from online editions of Ziff-Davis publications. Electronic ads will be posted on virtual "vehicles," ranging from rockets to buses, that "trans- port" users to other 3-D Web sites. A series of "departure gates" will lead visitors to the hotlinked sites, which will include: Microsoft's new "Halloween party" site; Intervista's new City Temple and Garden; "Virtual SOMA," for a fly-through of the "Multimedia Gulch" neighborhood of San Francisco; and a new site from Intel, also to be unveiled this week. Within the next six to nine months, ZDI expects to add VRML- based 3-D capabilities to ZD3D. These will include 3-D animation, 3-D sound, and 3-D chat, a capability that calls for communicating with Avatars at the "airport." You can access ZDI's Web site at http://www.zd.net.com . Also today at Internetworld, AOL will unveil GNN, the first new "branded service" to be added in AOL history. Other major online service providers will be on hand at the show, as well, including Compuserve, with Internet-Kids-in-a-Box. Clarinet e.News, a long established commercial news service on the Internet, will announce the addition of news photos, a doubling in content to 2,000 news stories per day, and the attainment of one million paid subscribers. Meanwhile, Purveyor Software will roll out Purveyor Encrypt WebServer, a new "secure Web server" with encryption. Minneapolis, Minnesota-based net.radio (http://www.netradio.net ) will debut a new Web site that "uses a technology called real-time audio to offer Net users an experience similar to listening to the radio." Automotive Information Center (http://www.autosite.com ) will launch AutoSite, a Web domain for information on automobiles. AutoSite includes an AutoSearch capability for locating cars that meet user-specified criteria for price, power, and safety equipment, a spokesperson said. Users can also "compare any two models on the market on a side-by-side basis." Other features include: 11 years of wholesale and retail book values; a "Window Sticker" tool for selecting available package options and building a price; a monthly-payment calculator; and an illustrated "repair guide encyclopedia." Also this week, Cambridge, Massachusetts-based BBN, the "founder of the Internet," will travel across the bridge to Boston to introduce the new BBN Planet Business Partners Program for BBN's Internet Advantage Connection Service for Internet access/integration and Web Advantage, a service that includes Web hosting by BBN, plus a variety of Web publishing services. Aimed at VARs (value-added resellers), systems integrators (SIs), new media companies, interactive ad agencies, and other Internet consultants, BBN's partners program will authorize members as sales agents for the BBN services. Also at Internetworld, BBN will announce a new "flexible" pricing program for Internet Advantage, along with the addition of Silicon Graphics and Netscape Communications Server support to Web Advantage. A company called Internet Security from Lexington, Massachusetts, will announce the inking of an agreement to license Bellcore's SysGuard software for centralized security management and PingWare for probing network vulnerabilities and recommending ways of correcting any identified security problems. Dataware will show its new NetAnswer information management, query, and search-and-retrieval system for distributing large volumes of text, data, and multimedia content over the Internet. The new off-the-shelf offering from Dataware combines services and software. Also for the WebMaster, WebTrack will show a new version of its WebTrack monitoring, filtering and management application for the Internet, with enhancements that include Usenet News, new graphical management report tools, and increased support for platforms such as AIX and Solaris. Ventana will give a sneak preview of a new data engine designed to "bridge the gap" between CD-ROM and the PC's TCP/IP (Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol) stack. Harlequin will demo WebMaker 2.0, a Framemaker to HTML (hypertext markup language) conversion tool developed in conjunction with CERN. Last, but certainly not least, is the category of software tools for existing and emerging Web surfers. Quarterdeck will show Quarterdeck Mosaic, a newly updated browser enhanced with support for Adobe System's Weblink, Netscape-Navigator-specific formatting and page layout, and Netscape's SSL (Secure Sockets Layer) security protocol. Qualcomm will preview an upcoming Windows 95 edition of Eudora Pro, its Internet-based electronic-mail application, at Internetworld. Qualcomm also plans to integrate Microsoft's MAPI (Messaging Application Programming Interface) into Eudora by the end of the year, reported a company spokesperson. (Jacqueline Emigh/19951030/Reader Contact: MecklerMedia, 800- MECKLER; Press Contact: Steven Schwartz, Schwartz Public Relations for MecklerMedia, 212-677-8700) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 10/30/95 WINDOWS Asymetrix InfoAssistant For Multidatabase DSS (NEWS)(WINDOWS)(BOS)(00026) Asymetrix InfoAssistant For Multidatabase DSS 10/30/95 BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS, U.S.A., 1995 OCT 30 (NB) -- InfoAssistant, a new end user DSS (decision support tool) for Windows 95, is the industry's first "browser" for multivendor databases, allowing "plain-English" access to ODBC (Open Database Connectivity)-compliant databases, plus dBase, Paradox and Interbase, asserted Bruce Linn, VP and general manager of the Database Division at Asymetrix, in a briefing for Newsbytes on a Boston press tour. Linn told Newsbytes that Asymetrix is targeting the new Windows 95-based software at sales managers, financial managers, and other business users who need quick answers from corporate databases so as to respond to business changes in a timely and effective way. Most corporate environments today contain multivendor databases, he added. But because it would be difficult and time consuming to teach non-technical users to access and query each of the multiple database systems, business staff must typically turn to corporate MIS (management information systems) for help with retrieving database information. "The problem is that MIS has a lot of other things to do, too," according to Linn. As a result, by the time the requested information comes back from MIS, it is all too often obsolete. InfoAssistant is aimed at eliminating these problems by letting users employ "simple English names" to view the database, generate SQL (structured query language) queries, and select desired information as they browse, Newsbytes was told. Users can look at and manipulate data through "presentation views" that includes graphs, reports, labels, and forms, as well as through "analysis views" such as tables, cross-tabs, and forms. When the user is connected to the data source, the views will reflect the most up-to-date "live" data. Users can also save views as local tables, for use when not online to the database, according to the Asymetrix exec. In addition to working with major RDBMS (relational database management systems) through a customer-supplied ODBC driver, InfoAssistant comes with the Borland Database Engine for "direct access" to Oracle, Sybase, Microsoft SQL Server, Dbase, Paradox, and Interbase. Users can also import spreadsheets and other data from Microsoft Excel, Lotus 1-2-3, Novell Quattro Pro, or text files, said Linn. Bellevue, Washington-based Asymetrix, he noted, was founded in 1985 by Paul Allen, previously a co-founder of Microsoft, to "build software that lets people work the way they want to." After producing a series of Windows-based tools for multimedia development and client-server applications, the company began to roll out a series of screensavers in 1993 through Asymetrix Entertainment, its entertainment division. Also in 1993, Asymetrix purchased ServerWare, a company that had developed a visual modeling tool for relational database developers. The developer's tool, InfoModeler, will now work as a companion product to the new InfoAssistant DSS tool for end users, Linn maintained. In January, 1995, he added, Asymetrix was reorganized so as to concentrate more closely on its "core businesses" of multimedia development and client-server tools. The same year, Jim Billmaier, previously VP and general manager of Sun Microsystems' Network Products Business, became president and CEO (chief executive officer) of Asymetrix. Asymetrix sold off its screensavers and the other products in its entertainment line. The Database Division of Asymetrix "focuses on ease of use," said Linn, who is chief of the division. The newly announced InfoAssistant competes against end user DSS software from Business Objects and Software AG, but provides "tighter integration" with development tools, he asserted. InfoAssistant, he contended, also provides the following capabilities that are absent from the competing products: "browser-based query; low set-up and maintenance; no training required; complete analysis and presentation toolkit; multiple query options; local database; and designed for Windows 95." How does InfoAssistant work? To begin with, the new DSS tool from Asymetrix uses a data dictionary created by InfoModeler, or extracts the dictionary from an existing database, Newsbytes was told. InfoAssistant then converts the database dictionary into "simple English facts," presenting it to the user as a "FactBase." Users can browse the FactBase through InfoAssistant's FactBrowser, he continued. Queries can be entered in either of two ways, Within FactBrowser, the user can ask for information by dragging objects representing data relationships onto a query window in an "outline view." InfoAssistant will then "automatically generate a SQL query, and send it to the database on behalf of the users." The results come back in a "simple table view." Alternatively, the user can run a pre-defined query created by a database administrator. A variety of tools can be used by the database administrator in constructing this query, including InfoAssistant, Interactive SQL, or Microsoft Query, according to Linn. InfoAssistant also supports Microsoft's OLE (object linking and embedding) 2.0 and MAPI (mail application programming interface), he informed Newsbytes. Users can include presentation and analysis views in other OLE 2.0 documents. Through MAPI, users can distribute queries and views over corporate electronic-mail. Also during the briefing for Newsbytes, Linn revealed that Asymetrix expects to introduce another new software product during the first quarter of next year. The upcoming product will be "very exciting to the Visual Basic market," the VP hinted. Aside from InfoModeler and the new InfoAssistant, other products currently produced by Asymetrix include: the ToolBook visual programming system; the Multimedia ToolBook series of multimedia authoring tool; the Asymetrix 3D (three-dimensional) F/X animation and rendering package; Asymetrix Digital Video Producer; and the MediaBlitz! and Compel multimedia presentation applications. (Jacqueline Emigh/19951030/Reader Contact: Asymetrix, 206-462- 0501; Press Contacts: Geoff Fitch, Asymetrix, 206-637-5874; Ann Bagley, 206-637-5859; Julia Scarisbrick or Billy James, GCI San Francisco for Asymetrix, 415-974-6200) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 10/30/95 GENERAL Sony Intros 6 Monitors For Business, Graphics, SOHO (NEWS)(GENERAL)(BOS)(00027) Sony Intros 6 Monitors For Business, Graphics, SOHO 10/30/95 BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS, U.S.A., 1995 OCT 30 (NB) -- Right now, 15-inch monitors are replacing 14-inch models on the entry-level side of the office spectrum, with 20-inch monitors, driven by success in the SOHO (small office/home office) market, moving in at the high end, contended Sony's Treg Tyler, during a visit with Newsbytes on a Boston press tour held to announce Sony's six new monitors for the business, graphics, and home markets. The six new monitors, the largest number ever to be unveiled by Sony at a single time, includes the new Multiscan sfII series of 15-, 17- and 20-inch monitors, plus new 17- and 20-inch sfII models for graphics pros, and the entry-level 15-inch Multiscan 15sx, said Tyler, who is marketing manager, Graphic Display Products, in Sony Electronics' Component and Computer Products Group. Beyond providing compatibility with Windows 95 Plug-and-Play, as well as Mac and other operating systems, the group of six monitors features two 20-inch displays -- the 20sfII, described by Tyler as first 20-inch display from Sony for business users, and the 20sfII, the first 20-inch monitor from the company to provide a 0.25 millimeter (mm) aperture grille pitch. Ironically, 20-inch monitors have caught on in the home market before the business world, in a reversal of the traditional trend, Tyler observed. SOHO users are employing 20-inch monitors for Web browsing and multimedia applications, Newsbytes was told. But, he noted, the six new monitors do not include a 14-inch model. With pricing coming down dramatically on smaller displays, it makes more sense for business and SOHO users to start out at the 15-inch level, the Sony exec maintained. The new Multiscan 15sx, in fact, carries a suggested retail price (SRP) of $499, the lowest SRP yet for a 15-inch monitor from Sony, Tyler added. Sony plans to sell the multifunction monitor through reseller and distribution channels first, before moving the products into retail stores. The entry-level Multiscan 15sx monitor provides resolutions of up to 1280 by 1024 at 60 megahertz (MHz) for IBM-compatible PCs and up to 1024 by 768 at 75MHz for Macs, according to Tyler. Horizontal scanning frequency is 31 to 65 kilohertz (KHz), and vertical scanning frequency is 50 to 120 hertz (Hz). Other features include an aperture grille pitch of 0.25mm for clear, bright images and front panel controls for brightness, contrast, and horizontal and vertical size. In the new Multiscan sfii series, the 15sfII is priced at $649, the 17sfII at $1,099, and the 20sfII at $2,299. The 15sfII and 17sfII each feature an on-screen control panel for brightness, contrast, color temperature, horizontal and vertical size and centering, and pincushion and geometric distortion correction. The control panel appears on-screen when the user pushes a control button on the bottom of the display, Tyler told Newsbytes. Resolution on the 15- and 17-inch monitors is 1280- by-1024 at 60Hz. The horizontal scan range is 31 to 65 KHz, and the vertical scan range is 50 to 120 Hz. The two monitors also provide a 0.25mm aperture grille pitch. The Multiscan 20sfII, Sony's new 20-inch monitor, has a 0.30mm aperture grille pitch, resolution of up to 1600 by 1200 at 60Hz, horizontal screen ranges of 30 to 85KHz, and vertical scan ranges of 48Hz to 150Hz. Like Sony's other new monitors, the members of the Multiscan sfII family are compatible with Windows 95 Plug-and-Play, according to Tyler. The sfII monitors also come with a MacView universal adapter for Mac connectivity, a tilt/swivel stand, and an AC power cord. The new Multiscan 17seII and Multiscan 20seII monitors for graphic design, imaging, engineering, and electronic publishing feature the on-screen controls of the 15sfII and 17sfII, plus a new anti-reflective film coating meant to minimize glare without reducing clarity and brightness. The monitors for graphics pros also comply with both MPRII and TCO '92 emissions standards. In addition, Sony will provide users of the new graphics monitors with bundled software, free of charge, upon request, Tyler reported. Packages include Sonnetech Colorific Color Profiles, for color matching, and Berkeley Systems After Dark Starter Edition with Ecologic Power Manager Software. The Multiscan 17seII is priced at $1,399. The Multiscan 20sfII for the business market will be delivered in December, and the Multiscan 20seII is slated for availability in the first quarter of 1996, according to Tyler. Most of the 15- and 17-inch monitors will ship in November, prior to Fall Comdex, he added. (Jacqueline Emigh/19951030/Reader Contact: Sony, 800-352-7669; Press Contacts: Jennifer Sandretto, Technology Solutions for Sony, 408-280-6000; Manny Vara, Sony, 408-955-5142) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 10/30/95 TRENDS Quantum Intros Sirocco 1.7GB & 2.55GB Hard Drives (NEWS)(TRENDS)(BOS)(00028) Quantum Intros Sirocco 1.7GB & 2.55GB Hard Drives 10/30/95 BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS, U.S.A., 1995 OCT 30 (NB) -- The "desktop standard" for hard drive capacity has already hit one gigabyte (GB), and looks likely to approach 2GB within another year or so, maintained Dave Tang, manager of strategic marketing at Quantum, during a discussion of Quantum's newly unveiled Sirocco 1.7GB and 2.55GB 3.5-inch hard drives at a meeting with Newsbytes on a Boston press tour. Quantum's strategic marketing director told Newsbytes that the two new "third-generation" drives are the first 35-inch disk drives from any vendor aside from IBM to combine MR (magnetoresistive heads) and PRML (partial response maximum likelihood), two technologies aimed at boosting storage capacity and raising performance through increased areal density. Not too long ago, desktop storage capacities were doubling on the order of once every two years, according to Tang. But now, with the rise of the Web and multimedia applications, the rate of growth is suddenly twice as rapid. Earlier this year, he noted, Quantum became the first third- party disk drive vendor to integrate MR heads with PRML in 2.5- inch disk drives for notebooks PCs. Now, the Sirocco family combines the two technologies in desktop drives in the 2GB arena. Even when used independently of one another, MR heads and PRML improve areal density, making it possible to fit more bits of data onto the surface of the disks, according to the Quantum exec. PRML also helps to raise internal data transfer rates. And when combined, the two emerging disk drive technologies act synergistically, he argued. Unlike traditional inductive heads, MR heads use separate read and write elements, he asserted. An inductive element is used for write operations, but an independent MR element is employed for read operations. Essentially, the reason for this is that inductive read heads experience difficulty in identify bit patterns when these patterns are made smaller by increasing the areal density. Some vendors, said Tang, have tried to overcome the limitations of inductive technology by "flying the head closer to the surface of the disk. "But this increases the risk of hard disk crashes." Vendors have managed to increase the strength of the read signal by causing the disk to spin faster, but this technique has the side effect of raising data frequencies, and inductive heads do not perform at very high frequencies. Another technique -- boosting the read signal by adding "turns," or coils of thin copper conductors, around the head -- improves the read process, but hinders the write process, he asserted. Like MR, he added, PRML also departs from tradition, using digital filtering techniques, digital processing and "maximum likelihood" data detection to determine the sequence of bits written on the disk. Before PRML, data was encoded as a stream of "symbols" so as to "separate the peaks" during read operations. But encoding requires more than one symbol per bit, producing a problem called ISI ("inter-symbol interference") that tends to increase with higher bit density. Although more sensitive to bit patterns than inductive technology, MR technology requires a reduction of the magnetic field to stay within the linear range of the head, Newsbytes was told. The higher bit densities allowed by PRML also benefit from reduced magnetic field. In addition, PRML's "more efficient" coding scheme makes it possible to write data at a slower clock speed, so it is easier for the read circuitry to handle. Quantum's new Sirocco drives combine MR heads and a "third- generation," single-chip PRML channel to deliver an internal data rate of nine megabytes-per-second (MB/sec), according to the Quantum exec. Tang added that the new two-disk Sirocco 1700 drive, for "mid- level" applications in homes and businesses, and the three-disk, high-end Sirocco 2550, each come with a choice of Fast ATA-2 or SCSI (small computer systems interface)-3 interfaces. The fast ATA-2 interface supports local bus AT programmed input/output (PIO) mode 4 and multiword DMA mode 2 data transfers at speeds of up to 16.6 MB/sec, with a rotational speed of 4,500 revolutions per minute (RPM), he Said. The SCSI-3 drives support data transfer rates of up to 10 MB/sec. Both drives come with built-in firmware for automatic self- configuration, eliminating the need for hardware jumpers. The fast ATA-2 drives incorporate AT Bus Cable Select. SCSI Plug- and-Play is used in the SCSI-3 drives. The Sirocco drives also feature double-burst ECC (error correct) on-the-fly, for correction of up to 48 bits of data without interrupting sequential and random data transfers, according to Tang. Also with the Sirocco family, Quantum has enhanced its ASIC (application-specific integrated circuit)-based AutoTransfer technology and its Multiple AutoRead and Multiple AutoWrite firmware, three technologies designed for speeding data transfer. Like Quantum's Fireball, Trailblazer, Empire II, and Atlas II drives, the new drives also support SMART (Self-Monitoring Analysis and Reporting Technology), a new standard for using hard drive monitoring technology for detecting impending device failures and alerting users. In a separate announcement today, Quantum and Symantec introduced Norton Smart Doctor for Windows 95, a GUI (graphical user interface) to SMART. Digital Equipment Corp., Acer, and NEC all plan to bundle the software on their systems. Tang told Newsbytes that evaluation units of the Sirocco drives will be available in February, and volume production units in March. Standard list pricing is $265 for the Sirocco 1700 and $395 for the Sirocco 2550. (Jacqueline Emigh/19951030/Reader Contact: Quantum, 408-894- 4000; Press Contact: Diana Schultz, Quantum, 408-324-7431) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 10/30/95 WINDOWS Norton Smart Doctor For Windows 95 Intro'd (NEWS)(WINDOWS)(BOS)(00029) Norton Smart Doctor For Windows 95 Intro'd 10/30/95 BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS, U.S.A., 1995 OCT 30 (NB) -- Quantum and Symantec's newly unveiled Norton Smart Doctor for Windows 95, an application for warning PC users of impending device failures, is one of more than 35 products now being developed by various vendors to support the four-month-old SMART (Self-Monitoring, Analysis and Reporting Technology) System industry standard for hardware devices, revealed Dave Tang, Quantum's manager of strategic marketing, in a briefing for Newsbytes on a Boston press tour. First announced in June, the SMART System calls for disk drive monitoring by the drive as well as the host computer, plus a graphical user interface (GUI) designed to alert the user when a device is about to fail, according to Tang. Norton Smart Doctor, the new user interface for the SMART System, will be bundled with PCs from major manufacturers, and has already been licensed by Acer, Digital Equipment Corp., and NEC for use in this way, he reported. By now, he maintained, Quantum has shipped more than 5 million SMART System-compliant hard drives, including drives in the Quantum Fireball, Trailblazer, Empire II and Atlas II families. Quantum's new Sirocco family of desktop drives, announced today, also supports SMART System. In addition, over two dozen vendors are supplying or developing SMART System-compliant products, in the categories of ATA and SCSI (small computer systems interface) host adapters, RAID (redundant array of inexpensive disks) controllers, system bios, network operating systems, and software for PC diagnostics, network management, backup, and RAID, said Tang. who provided Newsbytes with a previously unpublished list of these vendors. SMART System currently supports both ATA and SCSI interfaces, and is now being extended to support the emerging DMI (Desktop Management Interface), as well, according to the Quantum exec. The specification has been published by the disk drive industry's Small Form Factor Committee under document number SFF-8035. Under the standard, monitoring software resides on both the disk drive and the host computer. The disk drive software checks up on the internal performance of the heads, media, electronics module, motors, and bearings. Performance problems with the media can stem from scratches, defects, retries, ECC (error correction), and bad servo, for example. Problems with motors and bearings encompass motor failure, worn bearing, "no spin," and excessive runout, according to Tang. Meanwhile, the host software monitors the "overall reliability status" of the drive by analyzing the drive's internal performance level and comparing internal performance to predetermined thresholds. The monitoring software is meant to identify both "predictable failures," which are preceded by a gradual decline in performance, and "non-predictable failures," including failures that result from damage in handling or from shock, vibration, temperature, voltage, and other field conditions, Newsbytes was told. Also under the specification, "any drive that is SMART-compliant can communicate with any host that is also compliant," although "the specific parameters measured and the limits and analysis used may vary," In "advanced implementations," hosts can self-initiate load reduction, tape backup, and other actions to protect data on a drive. Tang told Newsbytes that Quantum is collaborating on the new Norton Smart Doctor for Windows 95 with the Peter Norton Group, the same division of Symantec that produces the Norton Utilities. At first, the application will provide "base level" functionality. But for the future, Quantum is working on extending the SMART System to other devices, such as tape, optical, and communications hardware, In addition to Norton Smart Doctor, Symantec is working on SMART System-compliant backup and network management software, according to the list supplied to Newsbytes by Tang. Aside from Symantec, other vendors that are developing SMART System diagnostic/utility software include: Adaptec; American Megatrends; ATTO Technology; Award Software International; Data Depot; Micro House International; Ontrack Computer Systems; QLogic Corp.; Quarterdeck; and TouchStone. Also on the roster of SMART software developers are :Arcada Software and Award Software (backup software); Adaptec and Bindview (network management software); Artisoft (network operating systems); and ATTO (RAID software). Phoenix Technologies, Award Software International, Microid Research, and American Megatrends are all producing system bios. Makers of ATA host adapters for SMART include American Megatrends, Arco Computer Products, Promise Technology, and Quick Technology. The following companies are making SCSI host adapters or RAID controllers supporting the new specification: Adaptec, Advanced Systems Product, American Megatrends, ATTO, BusLogic, DPT, and Quick Technology. (Jacqueline Emigh/19951030; Reader Contact: Quantum, 408-894- 4000; Press Contacts: Diana Schutz, Quantum, 408-324-7431; Ana Thorne, Symantec, 310-449-4140) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 10/30/95 LEGAL ****UK Man Fined For Possession Of Internet Porn (NEWS)(LEGAL)(LON)(00030) ****UK Man Fined For Possession Of Internet Porn 10/30/95 MANCHESTER, ENGLAND, 1995 OCT 30 (NB) -- A British man has become the first person in the UK to be charged with possession of computer pornography obtained across the Internet. The case, which resulted in a fine of UKP9,000 against Christopher Sharp late last week, was brought under the Criminal Justice Act. Sharp pleaded guilty to charges that he had possession of computer pornography that included pictures of children under the age of 16. Court officials alleged that he downloaded the paedophile images across the Internet and stored them on floppy disk at work to avoid them being seen by his teenage children. According to a spokesman for the West Midlands Police, the Police Authority that coordinated the case, Sharp was charged with possession of indecent photos, rather than a charge under the Protection of Children Act, 1978. "This is unusual, since the two other cases involving pornography of this type that we brought were under the Protection of Children Act," said the spokesman, adding that the charged relating to Indecent Photos were brought because Sharp had pleaded guilty. Police raided Sharp's house in Manchester in July of this year, following a series of raids on a US distributor, under Project Starburst, an international campaign against computer pornography. Sharp was found to have 52 floppy disks with indecent pictures on them, including pictures of adults having sex with children. Sharp subsequently pleaded guilty to two charges of possessing indecent photos of children under the age of 16, and was fined UKP4,500 on each charge, plus UKP35 costs. His computer equipment was confiscated "by the Crown." In court, Paul Taylor, Sharp's solicitor, said that Sharp was merely a computer enthusiast who had been intrigued by the Internet, particularly in relation to its possible use within his company, where he worked as a UKP35,000 a year management consultant. Taylor said that his client later developed a morbid interest in pornography he could access across the Internet. "He deeply regrets what went on. He has brought a great deal of shame and embarrassment on him and his family," Taylor said, adding that his wife had stood by him during the affair. Newsbytes notes that Sharp has since been sacked from his job over the affair. Commenting on the sentence, Peter Sommer, a Research Fellow at the Computer Security Research Center at the London School of Economics. and a widely regarded expert on computer security, said that he was surprised at the severity of the fine, plus the fact that Sharp pleaded guilty. "One is tempted to wonder what might have happened if he had not pleaded guilty and the Police had to prove the case against him," he told Newsbytes, adding that the case was unusual in that it did not involve Sharp passing the material on. (Steve Gold/19951030/Press Contact: West Midlands Constabulary Press Office, +44-1902-649004) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 10/30/95 TELECOM ****AT&T's Multimedia Strategy (NEWS)(TELECOM)(MSP)(00031) ****AT&T's Multimedia Strategy 10/30/95 NEW YORK CITY, NEW YORK, U.S.A., 1995 OCT 30 (NB) -- AT&T's (NYSE:T) business communications systems unit unveiled its new Multimedia Communications Exchange (MMCX), a new product officials said brings together familiar office telephone features to multimedia phone calls involving voice, data, image, and video, over private voice and data networks. The new product was unveiled at a news conference and demonstration this afternoon in New York City, which Newsbytes attended via teleconference. AT&T's Global Business Communications Systems (GBCS) subsidiary, which will be spun-off into an as-yet unnamed company in late 1996 as a part of the AT&T divestiture, is responsible for the MMCX Server. The MMCX Server, described by Patricia Russo, president of GBCS as a "breakthrough product," is designed to work over both local area networks (LANs) and wide area networks (WANs), officials said. "Through advanced multimedia communications, we can change the way organizations work, to enable them to rise to new levels of competition, responsiveness to their customers, and innovation, she said." The MMCX Server will include communications software for both workstation and client/server architectures, officials, developed by AT&T Bell Laboratories and GBCS, in consultation with a 12-member customer advisory council. The new product will support multimedia calling on switched Ethernet LANs, and on high-speed asynchronous transfer mode (ATM) networks. Already, McDonalds has used the MMCX Server to enable remote collaboration via simultaneous voice, data, image, and video communication. McDonalds also used the MMCX to share applications, including a computer aided design (CAD) package. The MMCX Server will be available in the first quarter of 1996, company officials said. The MMCX system and other forms of multimedia solutions for networks will be brought out under the family name of "BusinessWorks Solutions." To this end, GBCS has created a new integrated solutions organization with 650 staffers, which will provide the company's sales force with customer sales and service, conferencing and collaboration, and distributed and mobile work forces. In designing the new multimedia networks, GBCS will introduce multimedia communications hardware and software which will capitalize on the "best features" of voice and data networks, officials said. In addition to LAN-based systems like MMCX, GBCS said its "Definity Communications System" will evolve well beyond its "traditional role of providing voice call features and voice mail." GBCS also announced partners that will work with GBCS to deliver products for the MMCX Server. Those companies include Bay Networks, Cabletron, Cisco, 3Com, Hewlett Packard, Sun Microsystems, and InSoft. (Bob Woods/19951030/Press Contact: David Kitchen, for AT&T, 617-252- 0606; Glynnis Woolridge, 908-953-7526 or Dick Muldoon, 908-953-7510, both of AT&T) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 10/30/95 BUSINESS ****WordPerfect, QuattroPro, PerfectOffice For Sale (NEWS)(BUSINESS)(SFO)(00032) ****WordPerfect, QuattroPro, PerfectOffice For Sale 10/30/95 OREM, UTAH, U.S.A, 1995 OCT 30 (NB) -- Novell (NASDAQ:NOVL) says it is in discussions to sell its Business Applications Division which accounts for 16% of the company's recent revenues. Assuring users of WordPerfect, Quattro Pro and PerfectOffice, Novell promises the products will be sold with an agreement including extensive support of customer needs. Novell plans to complete a deal by the end of its first fiscal quarter, January, 1996. While the company admits discussions "with a buyer or buyers" are in progress, it would not identify any particulars. The potential sell does not involve Novell's GroupWise division of network products. The past nineteen months have been quite a journey for the network giant. In March, 1994, Novell said it would expand its base of network products with personal productivity software. It acquired WordPerfect, a leading word processor, through an exchange of 59 million common shares of stock, and paid Borland $145 million for Quattro Pro, a popular database program. Philipe Kahn, then chief executive officer at Borland, and others said the combined deal would make Novell the number one competitor of Microsoft as Quattro Pro and WordPerfect battled Microsoft Word and Excel. In the midst of the acquisitions, Robert Frankenberg left Hewlett- Packard to assume the president's chair at Novell and guide the company in its expanded role. By July, 1994, Novell announced a suite, called PerfectOffice, based on the acquisitions. WordPerfect also came out with a line of educational titles and products under the name of MainStreet. Two months later, Novell posted a $4 million loss for its fiscal third quarter primarily due to the acquisitions. Frankenberg also announced the company would layoff 1,750 employees as the company dealt with the acquisitions. Coming full circle, Novell now says its strategy is to focus on its networking software business and find a new home for its personal productivity line. Responding to the announcement, David Coursey, editor of PC Newsletter, told Newsbytes, "This (the selling of personal productivity software) is a major shift for Novell and I am sure a shock to the industry. I see this as a retrenching to its core products in order to compete with Microsoft." Additionally, the board of directors at Novell authorized a stock repurchase program in which approximately 37 million shares of outstanding common stock will be acquired through private transactions and the open market over the next 12 months. Repurchases will be funded from Novell's cash and short-term investments which currently total approximately $1.3 billion. (Patrick McKenna/19951030/Press Contact: Melanie King, Novell, 408-577-8975) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 10/30/95 ONLINE ****Alliance Aims To Take Internet On A Trip To The Country (NEWS)(ONLINE)(TOR)(00033) ****Alliance Aims To Take Internet On A Trip To The Country 10/30/95 BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS, U.S.A., 1995 OCT 30 (NB) -- Regional Bell operating company Ameritech Corp. (NYSE:AIT) and online network services supplier Concentric Network Corp. have announced an alliance aimed at making access to the Internet available in rural areas. The two companies said they will offer rural local exchange carriers a turnkey service allowing them to provide their customers with Internet connections. The service will include network design and maintenance, marketing support, and billing, the two companies said. Besides Internet access, rural customers will gain access to other online services that Concentric offers, including multi-player games, interactive entertainment, electronic mail, and the company's BBS Direct network of electronic bulletin board systems, officials said. Angie Ring, a spokeswoman for Ameritech, told Newsbytes that, while there are about 1,000 rural local exchange carriers across the United States, Ameritech sees a target market of about 100 carriers for this service. The service will be suited to carriers of certain sizes and with certain types of customers, she said, declining to be more specific. Ring said Ameritech and Concentric hope to offer rural access to the Internet at roughly the same cost that Internet users in major cities pay. The service will include the Netscape World Wide Web browser, which will set up to default to the local carrier's own Web page in each case, officials said. The companies expect local carriers' pages will include information about local events and other material of local interest. The alliance has signed up its first customer. State Long Distance, of Elkhorn, Wisconsin, began offering Internet access to 5,000 customers in southeastern Wisconsin on October 10, the companies said. (Grant Buckler/19951030/Press Contact: Angie Ring, Ameritech, 708-248-4443; Kristine Loosley, Concentric Network, 408-342-2808, Internet e-mail kloosley@concentric.net) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 10/30/95 GOVT EC Readies Car Safety Guidelines On Cellphone Usage (NEWS)(GOVT)(LON)(00034) EC Readies Car Safety Guidelines On Cellphone Usage 10/30/95 BRUSSELS, BELGIUM, 1995 OCT 30 (NB) -- The European Commission (EC) has announced it is working on a directive to car manufacturers to beef up their electronic interference protection systems on car electronics. The announcement comes after a year that has seen the media openly discuss the possibility of a mobile phone's RF (radio frequency) output interfering with an ABS (automatic braking system) on motor cars. Such discussions, Newsbytes notes, have taken place against the backdrop of anecdotal evidence that a mobile phone user has seen his/her airbag inflate when in the presence of an operational mobile phone. These reports, Newsbytes notes, have not panned out as genuine, when investigated. There have also been substantiated reports, however, of gasoline pumps in garages miscalculating the fuel being piped into a car. Most gas stations in Europe now have signs asking mobile phone users to switch off their mobiles while at the station. Margaret Oscar, deputy editor of What Mobile & Cellphone, a UK monthly magazine, told Newsbytes that she was surprised at the EC's intention to issue a directive on the issue. "I've not come across any proven instance of a mobile phone interfering with car's electrical system," she said. "I wouldn't be too surprised if a digital mobile phone were to cause some problems, though, as digital phones have been found to cause interference with computer monitors and hearing aids," she added. Other than a brief media note, EC officials are not commenting further to the press on the plans. In the Monday issue of The Times, however, reporter Kevin Eason, the paper's motoring editor, claims that British Government officials have been warned by the Police and engineers that "the increasing use of phones in cars is a threat to safety." According to The Times. the Department of Transport and the Department of Industry in the UK have set up a joint working group to study evidence that signals from mobile phones can effect the electronics of a modern car. The Times also asserts that the EC directive will mandate car makers to better protect their braking systems against electronic interference. According to the British Department of Transport, there is no specific evidence that mobile phones can cause accidents. Police in the UK, meanwhile, are treating the use of handheld portables in a car by the driver as an offense under the Road Traffic Act, since they claim that a driver cannot use a mobile phone and still remain in control of the vehicle. (Steve Gold/19951030/Press & Reader Contact: European Commission, +32-2-299-1111; What Mobile & Cellphone, +44-171-251-6688) (SUMMARY)(GENERAL)(MSP)(00035) Newsbytes Daily Summary 10/31/95 MINNEAPOLIS, MINNESOTA, U.S.A., 1995 OCT 31 (NB) -- These are capsules of all today's news stories: ======================================================================== ------------| N E W S B Y T E S D A I L Y S U M M A R Y |---------- ------------| Tuesday, October 31, 1995 |---------- ======================================================================== (c) Newsbytes News Network (Tm) Editor in Chief: Wendy Woods ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Newsbytes News Network's on the Web! Check out http://www.nbnn.com for free daily top stories from Newsbytes. and its affiliate publications, and from PC Week, MacWeek, and other Ziff news magazines. A subscription gives you all the news, full-text, plus the most comprehensive database of past computer stories online. The keyword-searchable database dates from today back through 1983. Subscriptions are $24.95 for three months. Questions? Send to 'administrator@newsbytes.com' For Japanese Newsbytes and additional services, see the Newsbytes Pacifica Website at http://www.islandtel.com/newsbytes/ ------------------------------------------------------------------------ CATEGORY HEADLINES (*** indicates today's top stories) STORY # ======================================================================== BROADCAST Satellite Fault Deprives Asia Of Japan TV.................. 02 BROADCAST Philips' Digital Satellite Broadcasting Report............. 06 BROADCAST Compaq & Intel In Videoconference Alliance................. 24 BUSINESS Tokyo Falls Despite Earnings Reports....................... 01 BUSINESS Telecom Italia Opens For Business In The UK................ 04 BUSINESS Europe - Data General Adapts Aviion Distribution Strategy.. 10 BUSINESS Michigan's Genix Group Goes To Europe...................... 11 BUSINESS FTP Software & Vermeer Team On Internet Publishing......... 12 BUSINESS Techway Acquisition Moves Protech Up Australian PC Ladder.. 14 BUSINESS ****WordPerfect, QuattroPro, PerfectOffice For Sale....... 32 GENERAL Microsoft & Home Office Computing Mag Sponsor Awards....... 16 GENERAL Fractal Intros Dabbler 2.0................................. 18 GENERAL NewsPix Images For Newsbytes Publishers.................... 19 GENERAL Canadian Product Launch Update............................. 23 GENERAL Sony Intros 6 Monitors For Business, Graphics, SOHO........ 27 GOVT EC Readies Car Safety Guidelines On Cellphone Usage........ 34 LEGAL ****UK Man Fined For Possession Of Internet Porn.......... 30 ONLINE Dutch Newswire Goes Live On Compuserve..................... 05 ONLINE TenKey Offers Job Database Via Internet.................... 13 ONLINE Better Business Bureau Complaints On The Web............... 17 ONLINE Compuserve To Bring Macromedia's Director Player Online.... 21 ONLINE Spyglass Licenses Web Security Tools To Checkfree.......... 22 ONLINE ****Internetworld - Ziff-Davis, AOL, Others Rollout Produc 25 ONLINE ****Alliance Aims To Take Internet On A Trip To The Countr 33 TELECOM UK - Octel Targets Hackers With SecureCall Add-On.......... 08 TELECOM UK - KNX's Shrink-Wrapped ISDN Telecommuter System......... 09 TELECOM ****AT&T's Multimedia Strategy............................ 31 TRENDS Quantum Intros Sirocco 1.7GB & 2.55GB Hard Drives.......... 28 WINDOWS Perfectworks Gets Text-To-Speech........................... 03 WINDOWS UK - Multi-Format File Viewer For Windows 95............... 07 WINDOWS Magic School Bus Hits The Road Again....................... 15 WINDOWS Arlington Finally Ships Which & Why For Windows............ 20 WINDOWS Asymetrix InfoAssistant For Multidatabase DSS.............. 26 WINDOWS Norton Smart Doctor For Windows 95 Intro'd................. 29 ======================================================================== These are the headlines and first paragraphs of each story, in order: 1 -> Tokyo Falls Despite Earnings Reports -- The Tokyo Stock Market ended the week on the down side. The Nikkei 225 Index closed Friday at 17337.19, a fall of 543.64 points on the week. 2 -> Satellite Fault Deprives Asia Of Japan TV -- Thousands of satellite TV viewers across South Korea and China have lost access to Japanese television because of a satellite error. A positioning error caused Japan's primary DBS (direct broadcasting satellite) satellite to be taken out of service last week. 3 -> Perfectworks Gets Text-To-Speech -- Novell Inc. (NASDAQ: NOVL) has announced it will use Lernout & Hauspie Speech Products' text-to-speech technology in its new children's software package for Windows 95, called PerfectWorks for Kids. 4 -> Telecom Italia Opens For Business In The UK -- Telecom Italia, the Italian state telecoms company, has taken a 67 percent stake in Eurodatacom Limited (EDL), the agency that operates in the value-added telecoms sector in the UK. According to Massimo Trippetti, the company's director, the move signals that the Italian telco is moving into the UK market in a big way. 5 -> Dutch Newswire Goes Live On Compuserve -- Compuserve has announced that ANP (Alegemeen Nederlands Persbureau) will shortly be offering a Dutch language newswire service on its online service. The move, more than anything, illustrates the pan-European approach that Compuserve has taken in Europe over the last few years, Newsbytes notes. 6 -> Philips' Digital Satellite Broadcasting Report -- Everyone is talking about digital broadcasting via satellite, but who knows anything about it? Philips reckons it does and plans to release a 500-plus page report on the future of industry this coming January. 7 -> UK - Multi-Format File Viewer For Windows 95 -- Software Compatibility has unveiled Quick View Plus for Windows 95 (QVPW32), a multi-format file viewer utility that interfaces directly with Windows 95. The UKP49 package overwrites the viewer component of Windows 95 source code, enabling QVP's execution via the right-hand mouse click of any application designed for Windows 95. 8 -> UK - Octel Targets Hackers With SecureCall Add-On -- Octel Communications has announced SecureCall, an application that it claims is the first voice processing package in Europe that uses advanced security features to reduce the risk of telecoms hacking for companies that have their own virtual private network (VPN). 9 -> UK - KNX's Shrink-Wrapped ISDN Telecommuter System -- KNX has announced an addition to its remote workstation products which it claims will address a dramatic upsurge in demand by corporate networks for remote connectivity. Selling for UKP1,095, the enhanced remote workstation will, the company claims, enable telecommuters (teleworkers) to maximize the use of ISDN (integrated services digital network) connections for both voice and data traffic. 10 -> Europe - Data General Adapts Aviion Distribution Strategy -- Data General has announced that its distribution strategy in five European countries 11 -> Michigan's Genix Group Goes To Europe -- The Genix Group, a $100 million group based in Dearborn, Michigan, has opened its first European office in London. According to the company, the aim of the London office is to develop business in the European outsourcing business, the market that the Dearborn office has concentrated on in the US. 12 -> FTP Software & Vermeer Team On Internet Publishing -- FTP Software, an internetworking software company, has teamed up with Vermeer Technologies, a specialist in the World Wide Web publishing market, to develop what they claim is the industry's first client/server visual Web publishing tool for international markets. 13 -> TenKey Offers Job Database Via Internet -- The ability to find a job via the Internet's World Wide Web is becoming more commonplace with more companies offering employment listings and resume repositories. But TenKey officials claim they have a system that works better, because it lets potential applicants illustrate their strengths online. 14 -> Techway Acquisition Moves Protech Up Australian PC Ladder -- PC maker Protech Australia has acquired stock exchange-listed competitor Techway's PC business unit in a move that has been described as "a strategic alliance". 15 -> Magic School Bus Hits The Road Again -- Microsoft's Magic School Bus has hit the road again, this time taking users on an interactive field trip called "The Magic School Bus Explores the Ocean." 16 -> Microsoft & Home Office Computing Mag Sponsor Awards -- Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ: MSFT) and Home Office Computing magazine have launched a search for small business owners whose creative ideas and computer- generated marketing materials are "changing the way America works." 17 -> Better Business Bureau Complaints On The Web -- Consumers can now file complaints against businesses and charities with the Better Business Bureau on the World Wide Web. As part of National Consumers Week (October 22-28), the Council of Better Business Bureaus (BBBs), the umbrella organization for the 138 local BBBs, has added complaint filing to its Web site at http://www.bbb.org/bbb/ . 18 -> Fractal Intros Dabbler 2.0 -- Fractal Design, well-known developer of design, art, and drawing software, is shipping version 2.0 of Dabbler. Announced at Macworld in January, 1994, the latest version of the company's entry-level learning, painting, and drawing application is called, The Art Tutor Inside Your Computer. 19 -> NewsPix Images For Newsbytes Publishers -- An announcement about Newspix Images and the News Pix Bulletin; starting October 30 Photos will be posted as they arrive! This means quicker access to the story pictures! The bulletin will be updated Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays as needed! 20 -> Arlington Finally Ships Which & Why For Windows -- After delays of more than a year, Arlington Software Corp. said it is now shipping Which & Why for Windows, a decision-making software tool. 21 -> Compuserve To Bring Macromedia's Director Player Online -- Compuserve said it will enable future customers to view multimedia clips online without having to download playback software and multimedia files. The service announced a new agreement with Macromedia to bring its "Director Player" technology to the online environment. 22 -> Spyglass Licenses Web Security Tools To Checkfree -- Spyglass Inc. (NASDAQ:SPYG) said Checkfree Corp. (NASDAQ:CKFR) will be the first licensee of Secure Transaction Technology (STT), an open standard for Internet World Wide Web secure transactions. Terms of the agreement were not disclosed, but officials said Spyglass will deliver STT tool kits to Checkfree for use in all platforms early in the first quarter of 1996. 23 -> Canadian Product Launch Update -- This regular feature, appearing on the first day Newsbytes publishes each week, provides further details for the Canadian market on announcements by international companies that Newsbytes has already covered. This week: Apple's Newton 2.0 personal digital assistant (PDA) operating system. 24 -> Compaq & Intel In Videoconference Alliance -- Compaq Computer Corporation (NYSE:CPQ) and Intel Corp., (NASDAQ:INTC) have announced an alliance to co-market integrated desktop conferencing products. Under the agreement, Compaq will offer its customers standards-based, real-time conferencing products based on Intel's ProShare Personal Conferencing technology. 25 -> ****Internetworld - Ziff-Davis, AOL, Others Rollout Products -- Dozens of new products and services are set to be launched into cyberspace at Internetworld Boston '95 this week, ranging from Ziff Davis Interactive's (ZDI) new ZD3D (three-dimensional) and America Online's GNN Internet Service to new World Wide Web servers, Internet security and hosting services, specialized Web sites for auto information and "radio music," and software tools for Web mastering, surfing, and content creation. 26 -> Asymetrix InfoAssistant For Multidatabase DSS -- InfoAssistant, a new end user DSS (decision support tool) for Windows 95, is the industry's first "browser" for multivendor databases, allowing "plain-English" access to ODBC (Open Database Connectivity)-compliant databases, plus dBase, Paradox and Interbase, asserted Bruce Linn, VP and general manager of the Database Division at Asymetrix, in a briefing for Newsbytes on a Boston press tour. 27 -> Sony Intros 6 Monitors For Business, Graphics, SOHO -- Right now, 15-inch monitors are replacing 14-inch models on the entry-level side of the office spectrum, with 20-inch monitors, driven by success in the SOHO (small office/home office) market, moving in at the high end, contended Sony's Treg Tyler, during a visit with Newsbytes on a Boston press tour held to announce Sony's six new monitors for the business, graphics, and home markets. 28 -> Quantum Intros Sirocco 1.7GB & 2.55GB Hard Drives -- The "desktop standard" for hard drive capacity has already hit one gigabyte (GB), and looks likely to approach 2GB within another year or so, maintained Dave Tang, manager of strategic marketing at Quantum, during a discussion of Quantum's newly unveiled Sirocco 1.7GB and 2.55GB 3.5-inch hard drives at a meeting with Newsbytes on a Boston press tour. 29 -> Norton Smart Doctor For Windows 95 Intro'd -- Quantum and Symantec's newly unveiled Norton Smart Doctor for Windows 95, an application for warning PC users of impending device failures, is one of more than 35 products now being developed by various vendors to support the four-month-old SMART (Self-Monitoring, Analysis and Reporting Technology) System industry standard for hardware devices, revealed Dave Tang, Quantum's manager of strategic marketing, in a briefing for Newsbytes on a Boston press tour. 30 -> ****UK Man Fined For Possession Of Internet Porn -- A British man has become the first person in the UK to be charged with possession of computer pornography obtained across the Internet. The case, which resulted in a fine of UKP9,000 against Christopher Sharp late last week, was brought under the Criminal Justice Act. 31 -> ****AT&T's Multimedia Strategy -- AT&T's (NYSE:T) business communications systems unit unveiled its new Multimedia Communications Exchange (MMCX), a new product officials said brings together familiar office telephone features to multimedia phone calls involving voice, data, image, and video, over private voice and data networks. 32 -> ****WordPerfect, QuattroPro, PerfectOffice For Sale -- Novell (NASDAQ:NOVL) says it is in discussions to sell its Business Applications Division which accounts for 16% of the company's recent revenues. Assuring users of WordPerfect, Quattro Pro and PerfectOffice, Novell promises the products will be sold with an agreement including extensive support of customer needs. 33 -> ****Alliance Aims To Take Internet On A Trip To The Country -- Regional Bell operating company Ameritech Corp. (NYSE:AIT) and online network services supplier Concentric Network Corp. have announced an alliance aimed at making access to the Internet available in rural areas. 34 -> EC Readies Car Safety Guidelines On Cellphone Usage -- The European Commission (EC) has announced it is working on a directive to car manufacturers to beef up their electronic interference protection systems on car electronics. The announcement comes after a year that has seen the media openly discuss the possibility of a mobile phone's RF (radio frequency) output interfering with an ABS (automatic braking system) on motor cars. (Ian Stokell/19951030) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 10/27/95 GENERAL Japan Newsbriefs (NEWS)(GENERAL)(TYO)(00001) Japan Newsbriefs 10/27/95 TOKYO, JAPAN, 1995 OCT 27 (NB) -- In this roundup of news from Japan: Japanese Windows95 release date set, Mitsubishi to offer corporate network connection, first CS data broadcasting service announced, Sony to establish online service, more cable shopping planned. Japanese Windows Release Date Set Microsoft Japan will release the localized version of Windows 95 on November 23, the company said on Thursday. The English version of the operating system has been on sale in Japan since soon after the US release but many computer users have been holding off buying the imported version because it cannot handle Japanese characters. Microsoft Japan will also launch its communications service, MSN, on the same date. Mitsubishi To Offer Corporate Network Connection Mitsubishi Electric Information Network Corp., a subsidiary of Mitsubishi Electric (TSE:6503), will begin offering Internet connections to businesses in Japan's three major cities of Tokyo, Nagoya and Osaka. Customers will be able to connect to the Mitsubishi service via leased lines. Connections onto the Internet will be provided to Mitsubishi by AT&T Jens, a joint venture Internet access set up by AT&T and several Japanese companies. Access will be expanded to Sapporo, Sendai, Hiroshima and Fukuoka in the new year. First CS Data Broadcasting Service Announced Zipang and Sky Communications Inc. (PCM Z-SKY), a subscription satellite radio operator, will begin a new data broadcasting service on December 15th. The new service is the first such to use CS (communication satellite) broadcasting. An existing service uses the country's BS (broadcasting satellite) system to distribute data. PCM Z-SKY will use unused audio broadcasting space to send a data stream at over 1-megabit-per-second to satellite users with a personal computer. Initially, it will be available free of charge and distribute games and magazines. Sony To Establish Online Service Sony Corporation is to begin providing an online and information service to Japanese consumers via the Internet with two if its associated companies. Sony Music Entertainment Inc., and Sony Finance International Inc., with the parent company will establish Sony Communications Network Corporation on November 1st and offer services and information on a wide range of subjects from music and entertainment to business and shopping from next year. The Tokyo-based company will also be talking with other information providers regarding cooperation and use of the service. Access to the service will be provided by NTT and Sony says it hopes to attract 100,000 customers by the end of 1996. More Cable Shopping Planned Major department store operator Mitsukoshi Ltd., will begin offering a home shopping service via cable television. Initially the service will be available as part of a planned video on demand service to customers of City TV Nakano Co., in Nakano, Tokyo, and CATV Yokosuka Inc., in Yokosuka, Kanagawa prefecture. (Martyn Williams/19951027) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 10/27/95 TELECOM NTT Reduces Network Access Charges - Report (NEWS)(TELECOM)(TYO)(00002) NTT Reduces Network Access Charges - Report 10/27/95 TOKYO, JAPAN, 1995 OCT 27 (NB) -- Nippon Telegraph and Telephone (TSE:9432) has reached agreement with its competitors, the New Common Carriers (NCC), over charges the companies pay for access to the NTT network, according to company sources quoted in reports relayed by the Knight Ridder Financial news service. The report today comes as a surprise after comments made Wednesday this week by Masashi Kojima, president of NTT, who said the two sides had come nearer an agreement but that the talks would take some time to complete. Currently, NTT competitors pay NTT 12.57 yen (12.39 US cents) per three minutes for use of the NTT network and the new agreement reduces this by 15% to 10.50 yen (10.34 US cents) per 3 minutes said the news agency. The NCCs, which include DDI Corporation (TSE:9433), Japan Telecom (TSE:9434) and Teleway Japan, have long been campaigning for such a reduction. The combined costs of these access charges amount to around 297 billion yen ($2.93 billion) a year in income to NTT and make up around 47% of the total annual income of all NCCs. The cuts could mean an extra 50 billion yen in profits for the three companies with DDI and Japan Telecom coming off better by adding 20 billion yen each. How much of this will be realized is unknown though as likely price cuts in telephone charges will reduce the benefit to company profits initially. The move is part of a continuing series of announcements and concessions by NTT, the world's largest telecommunications operator, which is fighting an investigation by the government which could end up with a compulsory break-up of the company if it is deemed too large to ensure fair competition. NTT recently announced an opening of its local call network to the NCCs. Currently, connection to the network is possible at only one point in each of Japan's sixty prefectures but the new system will allow the NCCs to route calls onto NTT, for connection to homes, at anywhere an NTT switch exists. This will also result in reduced call charges as calls make less use of NTT lines. (Martyn Williams/19951027) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 10/27/95 BROADCAST CorelVideo Makes Screen Debut (NEWS)(BROADCAST)(TOR)(00003) CorelVideo Makes Screen Debut 10/27/95 OTTAWA, ONTARIO, CANADA, 1995 OCT 27 (NB) -- Corel Corp. (TSE:COS;NASDAQ:COSFF) has launched its CorelVideo desktop videoconferencing system at the Telecon XV trade show in Anaheim, California. The hardware-and-software combination is part of an ambitious range of product announcements by Corel in recent months. CorelVideo includes software for Intel and compatible desktop PCS, plus interface cards for the Industry Standard Architecture (ISA) bus. CorelVideo can use Category 3 or Category 5 (Corel recommends the latter) unshielded twisted pair wiring. According to company spokeswoman Cindy Scott, many businesses have unused pairs of such wiring available. The system does not send its video signals over an existing local-area network (LAN). ISA cards supplied by Corel fit into a standard personal computer that serves as a switch to link desktop PCS. This PC must be at least a 66-megahertz (MHz) 486 and Corel recommends a 60-MHz Pentium processor. Each card can connect as many as 16 users, and Corel said that using a PC with five available slots, a single switch can support as many as 80 users. Corel also offers, as an option, the CorelCam video camera for use with the videoconferencing system. Using the system also requires either a video overlay card and speakers or a television set to serve as a display, Corel said. Using Category 5 wiring, workstations can be as much as 100 meters (300 feet) from the videoconferencing switch, Scott told Newsbytes. With Category 3 wiring, the maximum distance may be shorter. Despite widespread interest in desktop videoconferencing, a recent report from Cambridge, Massachusetts-based Forrester Research Inc., argued that videoconferencing over LANs will not catch on in the next few years because of inadequate LAN bandwidth, a lack of broad business applications, and hidden infrastructure costs. Forrester said upgrading existing LANs to handle video will be expensive. The suggested list price for CorelVideo is US$499 per video desktop, and the optional CorelCam is also US$499. Scott said the system will be available with software for Microsoft Windows 95 in November, and for Windows 3.1 and Apple Macintosh clients in the first quarter of 1996. (Grant Buckler/19951027/Press Contact: Cindy Scott, Corel, 613-728-0826 ext. 1326, Internet e-mail 6596767@mcimail.com) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 10/27/95 LEGAL Asian Piracy Crackdown Continues (NEWS)(LEGAL)(DEN)(00004) Asian Piracy Crackdown Continues 10/27/95 HONG KONG, 1995 OCT 27 (NB) -- Spurred on by recent government actions and court decisions, the Business Software Alliance (BSA) is is stepping up the pressure against software piracy with continued actions in Asia. In Hong Kong the BSA has requested the Inland Revenue Department, the colony's equivalent to the Internal Revenue Service in the US, to more closely investigate the shops in a Hong Kong shopping arcade for possible tax evasion and other offenses. The move comes on the heels of reports that the shops in Shamshuipo's Golden Shopping Arcade have virtually stopped the illegal sale of software produced by BSA members and some of the shops have closed as a result of the crackdown. However it appears that some of the illegal operations have simply shifted location to other arcades. BSA's new tactic to fight software piracy is to bring pressure to bear through government agencies. BSA said in a letter to the Commissioner of the Inland Revenue Department that many of the shops don't display their Business Registration Certificates. The letter was the second communication sent to a government organization by BSA about possible violations on the part of the arcade's shop owners. About two weeks ago the organization wrote to Governor Chris Patten outlining the potential violations to the law that appeared to be "business as usual" at what BSA calls "the software piracy blackspot." The letter called for the establishment of an inter-governmental task force to take action against the shops. According to Valerie Colbourn, vice president of the BSA, "The fact that these operators in the Golden Shopping Arcade are involved in the selling and distribution of millions of dollars worth of illegal software has been well reported." Colbourn said many people don't realize that the shop operators violate numerous other laws, including not reporting income, operating a business without displaying a license and violating fire prevention ordinances. In what may be a landmark decision against software piracy in China, the Intellectual Property Chamber of the Number 1 Beijing Intermediate People's Court has found a Chinese software retailer, Beijing Juren Computer Company, guilty of infringing on the intellectual property rights of BSA members. A decision regarding the amount of damages is expected next week. Juren, one of China's largest distributors of computer software according to the BSA, was found guilty of the illegal sale of software published by Autodesk, Microsoft, and Novell. Some of the evidence used against Juren was seized during court-ordered raids of the company's premises in June of 1994. "It is an important decision," Robert Holleyman, president of the BSA told Newsbytes. "But it is, at best, only incremental progress." The problem in China, according to Holleyman, "is almost exclusively enforcement. The laws in China since 1992 are reasonably good, but there hasn't been a will to enforce." The Chinese government, Holleyman noted, in its agreement with Washington in February, "made very, very specific commitments. But it has proceeded at a snail's pace." For example, Holleyman says 28 out of 29 CD knock-off factories that China agreed to close are still in business, flooding Hong Kong, Taiwan and other markets with illegal software. The technique of choice is to bundle scores and hundreds of programs on a single CD, which is sold for less than $20 US. "We have seen CDs with $20,000 in software on sale in these markets," says Holleyman. Holleyman said the US government is continuing to put pressure on China to enforce its commitments, while BSA is also turning up the heat. "BSA continues to file cases," he said, "and train police to identify illegal software. We have an office in Beijing to work specifically on title verification. We're doing everything we can." The Juren decision was the third case in which intellectual property rights have been upheld by Chinese courts. In June of this year BSA won a legal action against Gaoli Computer Company in which the company agreed to make a public apology, promised not to infringe on copyrights of the plaintiffs in the future, and agreed to pay substantial compensation and costs associated with the action. In September Beijing Lianying Computer Corp. settled with Novell on similar terms. BSA members include Autodesk, Lotus, Microsoft, Novell, The Santa Cruz Operation and Symantec. The organization estimates that 98 percent of the software sold in China is pirated and represents more than $350 million in losses to publishers. (Jim Mallory & Kennedy Maize/19951027/Press contact: Kim Willard, BSA, 202-872-5500; Public contact: BSA, 202-872-5500 or fax 202-872-5501) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 10/27/95 GOVT EC Casts Cloud Over Conner/Seagate Merger (NEWS)(GOVT)(LON)(00005) EC Casts Cloud Over Conner/Seagate Merger 10/27/95 BRUSSELS, BELGIUM, 1995 OCT 27 (NB) -- The European Commission (EC) has announced it is staging a preliminary investigation into Seagate's plans to take over Conner Peripherals using an exchange of shares. According to the EC, even though the companies concerned are headquartered in the US, their operations in Europe are large enough to fall under the jurisdiction of anti-monopoly legislation. The official term for what the EC is investigating is a concentration of facilities, which EC officials claim falls directly under the EC laws designed to ensure fair competition when mergers occur. The companies concerned, together with their competitors, now have 10 days to comment on the matter to the European Commission's headquarters in Brussels. The EC will then deliberate for four weeks on whether the merger could harm competition in the European marketplace. Newsbytes notes that, if the mandarins in Brussels have reason to believe that there is a "serious doubt" over the merger, then a full investigation, which lasts up to four months, can be launched. As previously reported by Newsbytes, Conner Peripherals and Seagate Technology have announced plans for a possible merger, a move that does not, Newsbytes notes, have industry observers or network managers worried because most expect the combined company to continue development of existing hardware and software products without disrupting end users. Both firms claim that they stand to gain from the merger because their product lines complement each other and would allow more efficient production of disk and tape drives. Some industry watchers have complained of the share swap deal, as Conner owns Arcada Software and Seagate owns Palindrome, companies which currently produce similar PC LAN backup systems. This could, critics say, result in some degree of product overlap. (Sylvia Dennis/19951027/Press & Reader Contact: European Commission +32-2-299-1111) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 10/27/95 EDITORIAL CHIPS Editorial - Semiconductors And Political Hay (EDITORIAL)(CHIPS)(WAS)(00006) Editorial - Semiconductors And Political Hay 10/27/95 WASHINGTON, D.C., U.S.A., 1995 OCT 27 (NB) -- By Kennedy Maize Watch for saber rattling over the nine-year-old semiconductor trade pact with Japan next year, timed to do President Bill Clinton's re-election campaign the maximum benefit. The trade pact, which fences off 20 percent of the lucrative Japanese market for chips from non-Japanese suppliers, expires next July, and already the US is making noises about how important it will be to renew the pact. Speaking at a press conference in England recently, US trade representative Mickey Kantor, a top Clinton campaign aide in the 1992 race, said, "The United States supports renewal and extension of the semiconductor agreement and I am sure in the future we will have discussions in that regard." The Japanese, not surprisingly, want an end to the agreement, signed in 1986 and renewed in 1991. Trade minister Ryutaro Hashimoto told the same press conference, "We believe the object of the semiconductor agreement has already been fulfilled. There is no need for the government-to-government arrangement. The market is already open." Japan has about a one-third share of the worldwide, $140 billion semiconductor market, meaning that two-thirds of the market is in the control of others -- such as Intel. That strikes me as a competitive market. The Japanese are correct, but that won't deter the Clinton crowd from making a lot of noise about the deal. You see, it's about politics, not trade. More specifically, it's about California, and its big stable of high-tech semiconductor companies. Clinton won the support of the high-tech crowd in his winning race three years ago, and he now needs them more than ever. Clinton cannot win another four years in the White House without winning California. It's that simple, and that's why Clinton has already visited California more than 20 times this year. Japan bashing also plays well in the Rust Belt, where the auto industry is a key industry. So it is in Clinton's and Kantor's political interest to make a fuss over the semiconductor deal, and to drag it out close to the November election. So when you hear the rhetoric over Japan and the semiconductor deal heat up next summer and continue into the fall, understand what you are hearing: reelection politics. (Kennedy Maize/19951025) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 10/27/95 TRENDS Does The Superhighway Jeopardize Privacy? (NEWS)(TRENDS)(WAS)(00007) Does The Superhighway Jeopardize Privacy? 10/27/95 WASHINGTON, D.C., U.S.A., 1995 OCT 27 (NB) -- The phenomenal growth of computer and telecommunications services poses a growing privacy threat, according to a report by the Clinton administration. "It will become increasingly difficult to apply existing privacy laws and regulations to communications services providers," says the "white paper" from the Commerce Department's National Telecommunications and Information Administration. According to the 28-page study, released by the White House at a National Consumers Week ceremony, existing privacy laws don't apply uniformly to telephone, video and other services, and the problem could get worse. "Concerns about safeguarding privacy will likely grow as the (information superhighway) becomes a pervasive, functioning reality." Today, notes the report, some privacy rules apply to local telephone companies, but not to cellular phones. Some cable TV systems have privacy regulations, but none apply to direct broadcast. The Internet is virtually unregulated. The report calls on telecommunications companies to voluntarily agree to notify consumers about how their personal data that becomes available will be used and get permission to use it. Otherwise, "government action will be needed to safeguard the legitimate privacy interests of American consumers," said the report. "People aren't aware that mouse clicks can be traced, packaged and sold," says Larry Irving, the top telecommunications official at Commerce, and major White House lobbyist on telecommunications issues in Congress. "What we're saying is, let industry develop these standards," says Irving. "If industry doesn't step up to the plate and protect consumers, at that point you've got to consider other alternatives." According to Irving, telecommunications companies have an incentive to voluntarily notify consumers because "people will pay for privacy." The public appears to be concerned about the issue. A 1993 Louis Harris poll found that 83 percent citing privacy as a concern. (Kennedy Maize/19951024/Press Contact: Paige Darden, NTIA, 202-482-1551) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 10/27/95 BUSINESS UUNET Booming And On The Hunt (NEWS)(BUSINESS)(WAS)(00008) UUNET Booming And On The Hunt 10/27/95 FAIRFAX, VIRGINIA, U.S.A., 1995 OCT 27 (NB) -- UUNET technologies has rung up record sales and profits for the quarter ended September 30, and is on the hunt for acquisitions. The Virginia-based Internet provider says it had revenues for the third quarter of $16.44 million, compared to $3.18 million in the third quarter of 1994. That's a phenomenal 417 percent increase. Revenues for the first nine months of 1995 were $33.39 million, compared to $8.30 million for the first nine months of 1995, a 302 percent hike. The company recorded a profit of $607,000 for the third quarter, or two cents per share. The company had a $2.16 million loss in the third quarter last year. "This breakthrough to profitability is a significant milestone for our company," John Sidgmore, UUNET president and chief executive officer, told Newsbytes. "Although there can be no assurances that this trend will continue, these results seem to support our belief that earnings will improve with scale in the Internet access business." UUNET says its Microsoft Network division accounted for about one-third of total revenues for the third quarter, well ahead of plan. Microsoft owns a significant piece of UUNET, which is providing the connection for Microsoft's online service. According to UUNET, new orders for the third quarter were ahead of expectations, with 486 new high-speed, dedicated Internet connections sold during the quarter, as compared to 119 sold in the third quarter of 1994. The revenue-per-connection also increased as customers bought higher bandwidth connections. Earlier this month, UUNET said it is acquiring Unipalm Group Plc, the largest Internet service provider in Europe, in a stock swap worth about $154 million. The acquisition is expected to close by November 30. "This acquisition will greatly accelerate our international expansion," said Sidgmore, "and is a major step towards building a worldwide network infrastructure." UUNET is also accelerating its network deployment. The company currently as 118 points of presence in service and plans an additional 112 POPs by the end of the year for a total of 230, up 80 over its initial plan for 150. (Kennedy Maize/19951026/Press Contact: Paul Jagemann, 703-206-5960, e-mail investor-relations@uu.net) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 10/27/94 TELECOM Telecom Conferees Hold Ceremonial Meeting (NEWS)(TELECOM)(WAS)(00009) Telecom Conferees Hold Ceremonial Meeting 10/27/94 WASHINGTON, D.C., U.S.A., 1995 OCT 27 (NB) -- A House-Senate telecommunications conference committee met Wednesday to begin work reconciling differences in the two versions of telecommunications reform. But the meeting was largely ceremonial, and no future meeting has been scheduled. "Don't look for any serious action until the budget issues are completed," a Senate staffer told Newsbytes. Both the House and the Senate have begun floor action on the massive budget reconciliation bill and hope to send something to the White House early next week. President Clinton is expected to veto the reconciliation bill and the Republican leaders in Congress do not appear to have the votes to override the veto. That means they will have to work out a compromise with the administration and that might take more time away from the telecom overhaul. At the pro forma session of the conference committee, lawmakers from both parties pledged their desire to move quickly. Most of the negotiating over the competing measures is expected to take place behind closed doors. Sen. Larry Pressler (R-S.D.), chairman of the Senate Commerce Committee and of the conference, said staff from both sides of the Capitol will meet frequently to work out the less contentious issues. But resolving the tough disputes will require face-to-face bargaining on the part of senators and members of the House. Two areas are likely to cause considerable controversy. One is the deregulation of cable television, which many Democrats believe goes too far in the bills that have passed the House and Senate. The other is the loosening of rules governing who may own media outlets and how many they may own. Another area of controversy is how the long-distance providers and the local telephone companies get access to each other's markets. The regional Bell companies largely won this dispute in floor action in both houses, but the long-distance companies are hoping to fight a rear guard action in conference. The conferees will also have to resolve differences between the Senate and the House over smut on the Internet. The Senate would criminalize obscene Internet content, while the House wants to encourage development of content filters that parents and others can use voluntarily. Finally, the measure has to withstand the scrutiny of the White House. The administration has threatened a veto over the cable deregulation and the media ownership rules. But the administration says it hopes compromises can be made. "The president wants a bill and we want a bill," Larry Irving, the top administration official lobbying the issue, was quoted as saying. (Kennedy Maize/19951026) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 10/27/95 ONLINE Time's Pathfinder Web Site To Start Charging Access Fees (NEWS)(ONLINE)(MSP)(00010) Time's Pathfinder Web Site To Start Charging Access Fees 10/27/95 SCOTTSDALE, ARIZONA, U.S.A., 1995 OCT 27 (NB) -- Pathfinder, the widely praised World Wide Web site run by media conglomerate Time Inc., will charge access fees for some of its services beginning next year. That's according to Bruce Judson, general manager of Time Inc., New Media, who spoke on the subject during the closing session of the Sixth Conference on Interactive Marketing on Wednesday. "We are moving to a new phase, which will mean charging for some aspects of the service," said Judson, who declined to elaborate which portions of Pathfinder would convert from free to paid access. Pathfinder features content and promotional areas drawn heavily from Time Inc., periodicals, such as Fortune, Sports Illustrated, Entertainment Weekly, Money, and of course, flagship Time Magazine. As the largest magazine Web site, Pathfinder has chosen a direction significantly different than other online magazine efforts, which have chosen to pursue partnerships with online services as opposed to trying to draw revenue from free-standing Web sites. Several Time Inc., titles have separate agreements with some of the major online services, but the Pathfinder Web site, http://www.pathfinder.com , is the only place where all of them are available in a single package. Judson said he has no regrets about that decision, and plans to stick with it for the foreseeable future. "The Web is the global electronic network. Since no one owns the Web, we can experiment and change the content daily if we want to. If we were only on a proprietary service, we'd only be accessible to those members. We think that open platforms account for our very strong popularity on the Web." Despite charging access fees, the primary revenue model for Pathfinder will continue to be advertising revenues charged to advertisers who buy space on home pages of magazines with content and readerships similar to the customer base of the product the advertiser is trying to sell. Some advertisers also do this on their own Web pages, prompting Judson to note that buying ad space on Pathfinder would also be a vehicle for companies to construct hot links from those ads to their own Web sites. "There is an ever increasing number of corporate sites that will be established. The Web is the world's greatest '800' (toll- free) number, but better, stronger, more information and more ability to provide prospects and customers with in-depth product information," he said. Judson added that in his view, commercial sites on the Web will soon be concentrating not only on brand image-building, but providing more effective and lower-cost customer service. His point -- a thorough corporate Web site's FAQ (frequently asked questions) area can be used to answer numerous product questions and conserve the number of service reps that would have to be hired to answer these questions. "The customer can get an instant, secured response to their questions without the associated personnel costs," he said. Based on his experience, Judson also believes that corporate Web sites will be used more for promotions. A ticket auction staged on Pathfinder's site by international air carrier Cathay Pacific was cited as one example of the synergy between brand marketers and marketing-oriented commercial Web sites like Pathfinder. "The Internet allows the building of intelligent, one-to-one customer relationships," he said. (Russell Shaw/19951027) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 10/27/95 TRENDS CD-ROMs Must Have Simple Packaging, Installation (NEWS)(TRENDS)(MSP)(00011) CD-ROMs Must Have Simple Packaging, Installation 10/27/95 SCOTTSDALE, ARIZONA, U.S.A., 1995 OCT 27 (NB) -- There is an increasing number of CD-ROMs produced by businesses for clients and sales prospects. These can contain important data in attractive formats, but too often, they are difficult to install, a leading developer of CD-ROMs for business-to-business applications says. "A marketing CD's message begins the moment it is dropped on your prospect's desk," said Kevin Oakes, president of Oakes Interactive, a prominent Newton, Mass.-based developer of multimedia products for the financial services and banking industries. Cumbersome packaging, hard-to-open wrapping, and imprecise signage can turn off a user or buyer of a CD-ROM right off the bat, Oakes believes. One critical piece of information, Oakes told a seminar at the Sixth Conference on Interactive Marketing here Wednesday, is easy to read data about how much storage and memory the package will need to run well. "Put minimum and recommended system requirements on the [CD] jacket, or on the CD in clear view," Oakes recommended. Oakes thinks that for ease of installation, flexibility is a critical point. In his view, too many CDs are constructed to automatically dump most of its utilities on the hard-drive upon installation, thereby taxing the overall storage capacity of the drive and risking potential wrath from customers. His recommendations to multimedia developers: in the early phases of installation, give the user clearly defined options to only put selected files on a hard drive. Some utilities that take up a lot of space might not be needed. "Try not to install fonts, and only install Video For Windows and Animation software at the user's options," said Oakes. Another useful tool, he said, would be for software to be included on the CD that would check the hard drive for available space before the installation procedure begins. As most users of multimedia computers know, another risk of CD installation on hard drives is that upon deployment, it may add to critical autoexec.bat and config.sys files. Infrequently but still far too often, the new codes the CD program adds to these mission-critical files can compromise their efficiency. "Leave those files alone," he said pointedly. CD-ROM programs should also contain an uninstaller, or at least have all files stored in one directory, Oakes counseled. When the installation process is spread out over several directories, uninstallation attempts can be cumbersome and lead to unintended deletions of similarly named files. (Russell Shaw/19951027) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 10/27/95 LEGAL ****Building A Web Site? Know The Law First (NEWS)(LEGAL)(MSP)(00012) ****Building A Web Site? Know The Law First 10/27/95 SCOTTSDALE, ARIZONA, U.S.A., 1995 OCT 27 (NB) -- There are numerous potential legal risks associated with marketing on the Internet that anyone thinking of doing so should be aware of, a leading new media attorney told the Sixth Conference on Interactive Marketing here Wednesday. "Some of the risks are well-defined, while others continue to evolve through experiences with the new media," said Linda Goldstein, partner with Hall Dickler Kent Friedman & Wood LLP, a New York-based law firm with a speciality in advising large corporations about new media and regulatory issues. In her presentation, Goldstein enumerated several factors she said all potential US-based marketers contemplating a Web presence should be aware of. Some of these were: Domain Names and e-Mail Addresses are Trademarks. She noted that Internet domain names and e-mail addresses are trademarks and should be registered as such. She added that domain-registering organizations do not have trademark registration authority, so it is important to follow both trademark registration and domain registration procedures. Bulletin Board Liability is Still Unresolved. Despite the recent settlement in a libel suit by investment bank Stratton Oakmont against Prodigy for a bulletin board posting, the law is still evolving. "Bulletin boards pose particular risks and are decidedly uncharted waters," she said. Talent Unions Can Be Aggressive. If, as a corporate Web site, you are "borrowing" video of a commercial to place in your site, be aware that the talent unions for the actors who appeared in the commercial may expect additional royalties or payments. Privacy and Publicity Rights Statutes Still Hold. Celebrities have legal protection for the right to control their names and likenesses, so it might not be a good idea to create a character on your site that looks too much like a well-known person. Differing Worldwide Promotion Laws May Require Disclaimers. The Internet, of course, is worldwide. "Care must be taken to comply with the laws of any jurisdiction where the online production can be accessed. This can be particularly problematic in promotions since they are so highly regulated -- and in some countries prohibited in one form or another," said Goldstein, who recommended that geographical restrictions be placed clearly on the site's home page. Contests Are Vulnerable to Hackers. Some online contests allow for multiple entries from the same person with each access. There's a problem with hackers who program their own computers to automatically call these sites continuously, 24 hours a day, and in effect, stuff the contest box. "This takes away valuable access time for others. As an alternative, you may want to limit entries to one per customer," she said. (Russell Shaw/19951027) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 10/27/95 APPLE ****Fastest Mac Ever To Be Unveiled Monday (NEWS)(APPLE)(SFO)(00013) ****Fastest Mac Ever To Be Unveiled Monday 10/27/95 FREMONT, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1995 OCT 27 (NB) -- On October 30, the world's fastest Macintosh computer will be announced with a line of new products. The surprise comes not from Apple Computer but from its licensee, Power Computing. #IMAGE 1 20 TWPCX \images\95102713.PCX Click here for photo Currently, Apple's Power Mac 9500 is powered by a 604/132 megahertz (MHz) Motorola reduced instruction set computing (RISC) processor and is the fastest Mac available. The 9500 with PCI-Bus was announced in June with a suggested retail price of $5,799. Apple also announced a 9500 powered by a 604/120MHz processor with a price tag of $4,999. Both models are shipped with 16MB of RAM and a quad-speed CD- ROM drive. Apple said the 120MHz model offered twice the performance of its next faster model, the Macintosh 8100/110 and was two times faster than Pentium 100MHz-based computers. If Power Computing, the first company to license the Macintosh operating system, is correct, its hot new Mac should attract the attention of the business community, especially graphic design businesses which continue to be a stronghold for Macintosh computers. Details of the configuration are being kept quiet until the announcement Monday, October 30. The pricing of Mac clones continues to be an issue with consumers. A number of analysts say clones have had little impact on Apple's sales because clone makers have not been able to create a sufficient price difference to attract traditional Apple customers in large numbers. With the fastest Mac, Power Computing is expanding its cloning strategy to one of Apple's strongest markets, but Power Computing will still face the pricing question. Monday's announcement will also emphasize the problem of processor availability which Apple continues to face. The Motorola RISC processor for high-end Macs continues to be in short supply and a contributing cause to Apple's current difficulties. (Patrick McKenna/19951027/POWER951027/PHOTO) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 10/27/95 GENERAL Personnel Roundup (NEWS)(GENERAL)(MSP)(00014) Personnel Roundup 10/27/95 MINNEAPOLIS, MINNESOTA, U.S.A., 1995 OCT 27 (NB) -- In this regular feature, summarizing personnel changes not covered elsewhere by Newsbytes: Oracle Corp., GE American Communications Inc., IBM PC Co., Novell Inc., Artisoft Inc., Syntellect Inc., RAM Mobile Data, Polaroid Corp., Sirius Systems Inc., Numerex Corp., Lotus Development Corp. Farzad Dibachi Farzad Dibachi has resigned as senior vice president of Oracle Corp.'s (Nasdaq: ORCL - 415-506-2700) New Media Division to pursue entrepreneurial interests. Oracle's Product Division Executive Vice President Dirk A. Kabcenell will manage the New Media Division in the interim. Yousef Javadi GE American Communications Inc. (609-987-4200), a GE Capital Services company, has appointed Yousef Javadi vice president, business development and quality programs. Javadi is responsible for identifying and developing new business ventures, as well as for directing the company's quality and customer satisfaction programs. Prior to joining GE Americom, he was director of Global Communications Services for MCI Telecommunications Corporation. He holds an MBA from the Harvard School of Business Administration, and both a BS and MS in Engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Bruce Claflin IBM PC Co. executive Bruce Claflin has reportedly resigned to accept a job with a rival PC maker. Robert Stephenson, IBM VP and group executive and head of the PC Co., will assume Claflin's responsibilities until a successor is named. Robert Ingols Robert Ingols has been named senior director, corporate public relations with Novell Inc. (Nasdaq: NOVL - 408-577-6842). Ingols will be responsible for developing Novell's corporate public relations strategy and directing its implementation within Corporate Marketing and across all product groups. Ingols will report directly to Christine Hughes, sr. vice president of corporate marketing for Novell. Before joining Novell, Ingols was director, media services for Wilson McHenry Company, a Silicon Valley-based public relations agency specializing in high technology and consumer business. Richard Nortz In other Novell news, Richard Nortz has also been appointed senior vice president of Novell Technical Services. He will be responsible for the company's global technical support operations. Nortz joins Novell after 4 years as senior vice president for Wang Laboratories Worldwide Customer Service Business and 18 years with Digital Equipment Corporation, where he was vice president of the 11,000 person US Customer Service Business. William C. Keiper, Joel J. Kocher, Gary E. Liebl Artisoft Inc. (Nasdaq: ASFT - 520-670-7160) has announced that William C. Keiper has been elected chairman of the board of directors of the company. He will continue as chief executive officer. Keiper, 44, has been with the company since January, 1993. Gary E. Liebl, 53, who had been serving as chairman, has been elected vice-chairman. Liebl, who is also chairman of the board of QLogic Corporation, has served on the Artisoft board of directors since 1991. Joel J. Kocher, 39, has been promoted to president of the company. Kocher will continue as chief operating officer. Kocher, who joined the company from Dell Computer Corporation in October 1994, has also been elected to the company's sixth-person board of directors. Thomas R. Mayer, Daniel D. Ross, Thomas M. Proud, W. Scott Coleman Syntellect Inc. (Nasdaq: SYNL - 602-789-2711), announced that Thomas R. Mayer, Syntellect's chairman and chief executive officer has tendered a letter of resignation effective immediately. The letter of resignation has been accepted by the company's board of directors. Daniel D. Ross, a member of Syntellect's board of directors, will assume the position of chairman of the board on an interim basis. An interim "Office of the President" has been created and has been jointly assumed, in addition to their current duties, by Thomas M. Proud, currently Syntellect's chief financial officer, and W. Scott Coleman, the company's vice president of product management. Douglas L. Roberts RAM Mobile Data (913-432-2600) has appointed of Douglas L. Roberts to senior vice president of sales, reporting to RAM president and chief executive officer (CEO) William Lenahan. Prior to joining RAM, Roberts was vice president/general manager of federal and international operations for Software AG of North America Inc., in Reston, Va. There, he was responsible for all software and service sales and deliveries to the US government market. Gary T. DiCamillo Gary T. DiCamillo has ben elected chairman and chief executive officer of Polaroid Corporation (NYSE: PRD - 617-386-3112), effective December 1, succeeding I. MacAllister Booth, 63, who will retire from the company. DiCamillo, 44, currently is group vice president of Black & Decker Corporation and president of its Power Tools and Accessories businesses. DiCamillo joined Black & Decker as vice president of marketing for its US Power Tools Division in 1986. In 1988, he was named president of the division. In early 1993, he was given the added responsibility for the entire North American Power Tool and Accessories businesses. Six months later, he was named group vice president of Black & Decker and president of the worldwide Power Tools and Accessories Group. Jon K. Hauck Jon K. Hauck has been appointed to vice president of sales, responsible for developing multiple sales channels for Sirius Systems Inc. (404-874-4562), a provider of business-to-business sales force automation systems. Hauck will build and manage Sirius Systems' field sales force. He also will direct the company's telesales division. Hauck will also grow Sirius Systems' strategic business partner program, which targets resellers of high-end sales methodologies for large organizations selling complex business-to-business solutions. Prior to joining Sirius Systems, Hauck was vice president of Sales and Marketing for SQL Financials International Inc., an Atlanta-based client/server financial software firm. Jose L. Mendez Numerex Corp. (Nasdaq: NMRX - 610-892-0316) has announced that Jose L. Mendez has joined the company as vice president of International sales. Mendez has 30 years of international sales and marketing experience and has spent the past nine years in various international sales and operational positions with Porta Systems Corp. John Landry Lotus Development Corp. (617-693-1284), a subsidiary of IBM Corp. (NYSE: IBM), announced that John Landry will remain with the company as a strategic technology consultant to IBM, and that Kc Branscomb, senior vice president of business development, has resigned. Landry, 47, will provide strategic consulting to Lotus and IBM on the Internet, the integration of Notes and Internet technologies, and on IBM's network-centric computing strategy in general. Landry will report to John M. Thompson, senior vice president and group executive of the IBM Software Group. Landry joined Lotus in November 1991 as a senior vice president and chief technology officer. Previously, he was executive vice president and chief technology officer for Dun & Bradstreet Software. Branscomb, 39, joined Lotus in October 1992 as senior vice president of business development. Previously, she was chief executive officer of IntelliCorp. Inc., a Mountain View, Calif-based developer of object oriented software. (Ian Stokell/19951027) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 10/27/95 WINDOWS Quarterdeck, Spyglass Partner for Web Technologies (NEWS)(WINDOWS)(MSP)(00015) Quarterdeck, Spyglass Partner for Web Technologies 10/27/95 NAPERVILLE, ILLINOIS, U.S.A., 1995 OCT 27 (NB) -- Spyglass Inc. (NASDAQ:SPYG) and Quarterdeck Corp. (NASDAQ:QDEK) will share technology whereby Quarterdeck will license all of Spyglass's World Wide Web client and server technology in turn for Spyglass licensing Quarterdeck technology for future Spyglass products. Development teams from both companies will work together on browser and server products. The agreement means both reduced time in bringing products to market, and the freeing of resources to work on other Internet- related projects, officials said. Dan Johnson of Spyglass told Newsbytes this agreement represents a "new level" of cooperation between his company and Quarterdeck. "They're very aggressive marketers, spending a lot of money on advertising and retail presence. But now they're switching over to all of our core technology, so they can concentrate on really adding value and special features to our product," he said. "They can really add higher feature they couldn't do before because they didn't have enough resources." "This allows us to get Spyglass-based technology out to a bigger audience," Johnson added. Already, Quarterdeck is taking advantage of its Spyglass licensing agreement, with the introduction of InternetSuite 2.0, an upgrade to its Internet application suite. InternetSuite will contain an enhanced version of Quarterdeck Mosaic, with technology licensed from Spyglass. The new version will include support Weblink from Adobe, along with Netscape Navigator-specific formatting code, including tables, text flow, layout functions, and Netscape's security protocol. The new InternetSuite, which is designed to work with Windows 3.1, will be available before the end of the year, at a price of $39.95. Users can download a trial version of the software for free from Quarterdeck's Web page at http://www.quarterdeck.com/ . Quarterdeck Mosaic will no longer be available as a separate, stand-alone product after InternetSuite is launched, officials said. In a separate announcement, Quarterdeck said it was allying itself with Infonautics Corporation to make Infonautics "Homework Helper" available to Internet users. Homework Helper, an online general reference library which searches through hundreds of text and image databases, is available only to Prodigy subscribers. The agreement said Quarterdeck will distribute the client software to access Homework Helper over the Internet, which will be included in Quarterdeck Mosaic, the company's Web browser. The client program will also be available in any product that Quarterdeck Mosaic is bundled in, like InternetSuite. (Bob Woods/19951027/Press Contacts: Randy Pitzer, Spyglass, 708-505- 1010; Ellen Spooren, Quarterdeck, 310-309-4261) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 10/27/95 PC DEC's New Starions Emphasize Multimedia, Internet (NEWS)(PC)(TOR)(00016) DEC's New Starions Emphasize Multimedia, Internet 10/27/95 MAYNARD, MASSACHUSETTS, U.S.A., 1995 OCT 27 (NB) -- Reinforcing the trend to strong multimedia features in home PCs, and with a nod to the Internet, Digital Equipment Corp. (NYSE:DEC) has launched three new models in its Starion line of home PCs. The company propaganda for DEC's new top-of-the-line Starion 2001 sounds almost as if it came from a stereo manufacturer. The company is touting a JBL subwoofer speaker said to provide vibrant bass tones in the audio produced by multimedia titles, games, and audio compact disks. Brian Mullins, brand manager for DEC's retail division, told Newsbytes the trend to new multimedia capabilities hitting the home market before the business market "will only accelerate." While there are a number of rationales for buying home PCs, including parents' concern about their children's computer-literacy, entertainment is a major driver, Mullins said. With its latest Starion update, DEC is also addressing growing consumer interest in the Internet. The Starion 917 comes with a 28,800-bit-per-second modem, which Mullins said is the main justification for DEC promoting the machine as ideal for exploring the Internet. The high-end 2001 model also has a 28,800-bps modem. Mullins admitted that much of the consumer market's interest in the Internet may be idle curiosity. "Primarily, frankly, because of the press, there's a tremendous amount of curiosity about the Internet," he said. Many customers may actually use the Internet very little or not at all, but the Starion 917 will give them the comfort of knowing they have the high-speed modem that will let them do so more effectively. Coincidentally, a survey of users of the popular Yahoo! World Wide Web site on the Internet, just published by the site operator and research firm Jupiter Communications, said 55 percent of respondents reached the Yahoo! site from home-based accounts. All three DEC Starion PCs use Intel Pentium processors. The 2001 uses a 133-megahertz (MHz) version of the chip, the 917 uses the 100-MHz version, and in the middle is a third model, the 932, with a 120-MHz processor. The 2001 comes with 16 megabytes (MB) of memory and a 1.6- gigabyte (GB) hard drive. The 932 has 16 MB of memory and a 1.2-GB hard drive, while the 917 has eight MB of memory and a 1.2-GB hard drive. DEC gave expected street prices as $3,099 for the Starion 2001, $2,599 for the 932, and $1,999 for the 917. The 2001 is to ship in November and the other two models are shipping now, DEC said. DEC said all Starion PCs are available with 15-inch or 17-inch Super VGA flat-screen monitors, with expected street prices of $399 and $749 respectively. With the holiday season coming up, Mullins said DEC expects strong demand for home PCs, driven in part by the launch in August of the Windows 95 operating system. However, he added, there are shortages of some components in the industry, so "we may see demand outstripping supply." Digital's PC business has a location on the Internet World Wide Web at http://www.pc.digital.com (Grant Buckler/19951027/Press Contact: Denise Ferbas, Digital Equipment, 508-264-7932; Public Contact: Digital Equipment, 800-216-8115) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 10/27/95 TRENDS ****Home Users Use Web More - Study (NEWS)(TRENDS)(MSP)(00017) ****Home Users Use Web More - Study 10/27/95 NEW YORK CITY, NEW YORK, U.S.A., 1995 OCT 27 (NB) -- More people surf the Internet's World Wide Web using home-based accounts, according to results from the upcoming "Yahoo/Jupiter Web User Survey." Fifty-five percent of respondents to the survey said they used home-based accounts to access the graphical part of the Internet. The report, a joint venture between Yahoo and Jupiter communications, also showed that the vast majority of respondents (85 percent) had some kind of Internet access from the home. In addition, Web users tend to be educated, with at least a college degree, and most make $35,000 to $49,999 annually in professional managerial careers. Also, forty-six percent of those surveyed had two or more computers in their household. "The large numbers of current users accessing from home validates the notion that the Web is truly a developing consumer medium," said Jupiter marketing director, Kurt Abrahamson. Newsbytes covered the initial announcement that Jupiter and Yahoo were compiling the survey last September. At the time, Adam Schoenfeld told Newsbytes the survey was intended to answer the "unanswered question of who is using the Web, what are they doing there now, and what will they want to do in the future." With the results in, Abrahamson said, "The World Wide Web will be a transactional platform and a vital advertising venue. The survey results back up the strength of the Web for all sorts of commercial ventures aimed at consumers." As far as how they're accessing the Web goes, fifty percent of respondents said they primarily access the Internet and/or Web from a dial-up connection with an Internet service provider (ISP). Forty percent use their employer's account or an educational institution's access, while just eight percent say they use an online service like Prodigy, America Online, or Compuserve. Yet the survey also said sixty percent of users surveyed have access to a commercial online service. When they're on the Internet in general, 35 percent of users said they're primarily surfing the Web, while 28 percent said using electronic mail (e-mail) is their main online activity. Traditional media is beginning to suffer because of the Internet, the study said, with 61 percent of respondents saying they're watching less TV to spend more time online. Internet publishers may want to think twice about charging for Web site access. Nearly 66 percent of survey participants said they were not willing to pay a monthly fee to enter Web sites. Of the one-third who would pay, slightly more than half said they would shell out $1 to $4 per month to access a particular Web site. Almost 30 percent of those surveyed said they've made a purchase online in the last six months, with two-thirds of those buying online shopping through individual Web sites. The survey also said the average user's online time per week averaged about 20 hours, and the average online session lasts slightly more than 75 minutes. More than 60,000 respondents took part in the survey, officials said. Many of the results were taken from a survey posted earlier this year at Yahoo's Web site. Jupiter Communications took those results, combined them with the company's own survey, and came up with the data released today. Schoenfeld said the Yahoo survey gives Jupiter a "very good snapshot" of the type of person who uses the Web. The executive-level report will be published November 1, and can be bought from Jupiter for $2,395. For more information, Jupiter maintains a Web presence at http://www.jup.com/ for public inquiries. Yahoo's Web address is http://www.yahoo.com/ . (Bob Woods/19951027/Press and Public Contact: Jupiter Communications, 212-780-6060) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 10/27/95 PC PC Card Combines Modem, Cellular Radio (NEWS)(PC)(DEN)(00018) PC Card Combines Modem, Cellular Radio 10/27/95 SALT LAKE CITY, UTAH, U.S.A., 1995 OCT 27 (NB) -- Airgo Communications Inc, a subsidiary of Dayna Communications Inc., has announced what it said is the first product to integrate a cellular phone and a data/fax modem in a single PC card. #IMAGE 1 20 TWPCX \images\95102718.PCX Click here for photo PC Card is the new, easier to remember name for the credit card-sized peripheral devices that used to be known as PCMCIA (Personal Computer Memory Card International Association). PC Cards can add a modem, additional storage, network interconnect and other functions to a computer equipped with one or more PC Card slots. Most new notebook-style PCs can accommodate one Type II or two Type III PC Cards. The Airgo Phone System combines a cellular radio, a 1.5-inch swivel antenna, an earphone jack and a 14,400 bit-per-second (bps) V.32 data/fax modem in a Type III PC Card so the user can carry on wireless voice communications and send and receive data and faxes from their laptop computer without being connected to a telephone line. The Phone System includes the PC Card, called the PhoneCard, the handset, which currently carries the name CardPhone, and a software application called PhoneBook that stores contact information and can download up to 100 names and phone numbers to the PhoneCard. The PhoneCard incorporates Radish Communications' Voiceview technology so users can send and receive data while carrying on a phone conversation over the same landline or cellular connection. PhoneCard options include a slimline 50-minute battery, a Jabra earphone which fits in the ear and picks up your voice through vibrations, and a leather carrying case. Cellular phone calls are accomplished using the companion Cardphone device, a portable cellular phone handset measuring about five inches long by 2 inches wide that includes a docking station for the PhoneCard when it's not installed in the PC Card slot of your computer. The CardPhone also has a LCD (liquid crystal display) to view the stored phone numbers. The display shows signal strength, roaming status, battery power and volume level. CardPhone runs on a 1000 mAH (milliamp hour) battery that Airgo said will provide 90 minutes of talk time and 22 hours of standby power. The battery can be charged while the CardPhone is in use by using the standard wall charger or an optional cigarette lighter adapter. Other features of Cardphone are security locking, PIN code security, emergency call override, three ringer volume selection and "any key" answer. You also get an antenna extension cable. Airgo said it will be partnering with cell phone carriers within the AMPS (Advanced Mobile Phone Service) cellular network, a wireless network that covers about 95 percent of the country's populated areas using analog cellular radio. The PhoneCard can e used in PC Card-enabled Apple Macintosh and IBM-compatible PCs and PDAs (personal digital assistants). Airgo spokesperson Suzanne Kimball told Newsbytes pricing hasn't been set yet but the system is expected to ship at under $1,000. PhoneCard and CardPhone are set to ship in the first quarter of 1996. (Jim Mallory/19951027/Press contact: Suzanne Kimball, Airgo, 801-567-1895/AIRGO951027/PHOTO) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 10/27/95 BUSINESS Claflin Jumps IBM Ship For DEC PC Post (NEWS)(BUSINESS)(TOR)(00019) Claflin Jumps IBM Ship For DEC PC Post 10/27/95 MAYNARD, MASSACHUSETTS, U.S.A., 1995 OCT 27 (NB) -- Bruce Claflin has left his post as worldwide general manager for product and brand management at the IBM (NYSE:IBM) Personal Computer Co. to take up a similar job at Digital Equipment Corp. (NYSE:DEC). On Friday morning, Digital announced Claflin's appointment as vice- president and general manager of its Personal Computer Business Unit. There was no immediate word from IBM on his replacement, though Information Week Interactive reported that Robert Stephenson, recently named vice-president and group executive in charge of the PC Co., would take over his job until a permanent successor is named. Stephenson's recent appointment to succeed Richard Thoman as head of the PC Co. was rumored to be the reason for Claflin's departure from IBM. In a teleconference with the press and industry analysts, Claflin denied this, calling Stephenson "a very talented executive" for whom he enjoyed working. As for the job vacated by Thoman in September, he said, "Frankly, I never expected that I was going to be a replacement there." Claflin also said an executive recruiter approached him about the DEC job in August. Claflin said he left IBM because "it was appropriate for me at this time in my life ... to try something new, and Digital came forward with a great opportunity." Pointing out that it was his first day on the job at DEC, Claflin was vague about his plans and priorities in the new position. He repeatedly referred to the importance of dealer channels in the company's strategy, as did Enrico Pesatori, vice-president and general manager of DEC's Computer Systems Division. Pesatori said DEC is aiming to enter the retail market worldwide -- currently its only presence there is in the United States -- and wants to build consumer recognition of its brand name. Claflin praised the company's PC strategy, noting that while DEC has internally developed technology such as its Alpha microprocessor, it does not neglect industry-standard products. He also said he believes DEC management is committed to the personal computer marketplace, and added that he hoped his own appointment would help confirm that. Digital is currently 11th in personal computer sales. Pesatori said he sees no reason the company cannot become one of the top five PC vendors, but he declined to say when he hopes to get there. Claflin, who is 44, has worked for IBM for 22 years in a variety of positions. He will take up his new duties at DEC in Massachusetts within a week or two, he said. (Grant Buckler/19951027/Press Contact: Judy Carlson, Digital Equipment, 508-264-7974) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 10/27/95 NETWORK Novell Teams With CompuServe On LAN/PDN Tech (NEWS)(NETWORK)(LON)(00020) Novell Teams With CompuServe On LAN/PDN Tech 10/27/95 BRACKNELL, BERKSHIRE, ENGLAND, 1995 OCT 27 (NB) -- Novell has enlisted the assistance of CompuServe in its ambitious global NetWare Connect Services (NCS) plan. According to Vivienne Wilson, a spokeswoman for Novell, plans call for subscribers to NCS to be able to access CompuServe on a transparent basis. NCS is Novell's LAN (local area network)/PDN (packet data network) interconnect initiative that, when it is opened in the next 12 months, will enabled LAN administrators to allow their users to gateway out of their network onto the NCD PDN, which will interconnect LANs on a switched global basis, as well as allow conventional PDN access to online services such as CompuServe. Wilson told Newsbytes that, although NCS is still in its formative stages, it is not designed to compete as an online service such as CompuServe, Microsoft Network and the like, but will be complementary, allowing NetWare users to transparently link into various services. Rob Manior, CompuServe's vice president for product marketing, said that NCS is unique in the standardized access and standardized directory services it offers subscribers to the online service. "NCS appeals to us for its security, ease of access, and penetration of all the world's markets. We're confident it will extend the reach of the online services that CompuServe is known for, particularly to the millions of NetWare users," he explained. Darrell Jordan-Smith, director of Novell's European Telecoms operations, said that the deal with CompuServe will allow NCS to offer seamless access to CompuServe. "NetWare administrators, Novell resellers, personal users, small businesses and special interest groups are only a few of the users who will benefit by the integration of the CompuServe Information Services and NCS," he said. It's still very early days for NCS, Newsbytes notes, but the prospect of being able to seamlessly access CompuServe across the NCS environment from the LAN-connected desktop is something that will give Novell an unique selling point with NCS. CompuServe's experience in the global PDN marketplace is something that Novell will need as it progresses towards the launch of NCS. (Steve Gold/19951026/Press Contact: Andy Smith, A Plus +44-1753- 790700; Internet Email: asmith@aplus.co.uk) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 10/27/95 TELECOM Motorola To Interconnect World's Largest Cellular Net In China (NEWS)(TELECOM)(LON)(00021) Motorola To Interconnect World's Largest Cellular Net In China 10/27/95 BEIJING, CHINA, 1995 OCT 27 (NB) -- Motorola's Northern Asia Cellular Infrastructure Division has signed an agreement with China's Directorate General of Telecoms (DGT), along with LM Ericsson, to interconnect the national cellular network in China. The internetworking project, the largest cellular network in the world, should be completed by the end of this year, ready for formal launch early next year. The Chinese national cellular network is essentially an amalgam of various analog and digital networks scattered across China. When the interconnecting network is in place, roaming between analog or digital networks will seamless, and give more than three million cellular phone users automatic roaming facilities. The interconnection network will span China's 26 mainland provinces, as well as the cities of Beijing, Shanghai and Tianjin. Motorola reports the interconnect is based around the US industry standard IS-41 (Cellular Radio Telecoms Intersystem Operations) Revision B, which permits subscribers on one vendor's cellular net to roam to another vendor's system, provided the same frequencies are used. Richard Sell, Novell's vice president and general manager for Motorola's Cellular Asian Division, said that the interconnect is based on an open standard, to allow other networks, as they come on to the market, to join the national net. "This significant inter-system networking project in China demonstrates the strong capabilities we have in implementing the IS-41 standard on a large scale, international basis, as well as building the largest cellular networks in the world," he explained. As part of the first phase of the roaming project, China's national C.25 packet data network (PDN) will serve as the system transport layer. During 1996, plans call for a private PDN to be used, working to the 24-bit C7 signalling system. (Sylvia Dennis/19951026) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 10/27/95 BUSINESS France - Bull Announces Profit Intentions (NEWS)(BUSINESS)(LON)(00022) France - Bull Announces Profit Intentions 10/27/95 PARIS, FRANCE, 1995 OCT 27 (NB) -- Cie des Machines Bull, the giant French computer and electronics company, has announced that it will still achieve its stated intention of making a profit this year, despite reporting a loss of FF 874 million during the first nine months of the year. Jean-Marie Descarpentries, Bull's CEO, making the promise to the French analysts earlier this week, admitted that Bull has not reported a profit for the last seven years. French analysts' reactions to Descarpentries' comments have been politely subdued, but three straight quarterly losses so far this year will need a major profits surge in the final quarter if his promises are to be realized, Newsbytes notes. Descarpentries, meanwhile, points to the fact that Bull's fortunes are highly seasonal, and that the fourth quarter is always the best for the company. Newsbytes notes that losses during the first three quarters of 1994 were offset to major extent by a profit of almost FF 760 million during the final quarter of the year. Jean Segonds, chief of corporate operations with Bull, backed the new CEO's comments, claiming that around a third of the company's income comes from its fourth quarter sales. This, he said, contrasts with the fact that most of the company's costs are fixed for each quarter year. Newsbytes notes that French reaction to Descarpentries' comments, though muted, suggests that the Paris Bourse is expecting Bull to turn a profit, but that the move into the black may not happen this year. Segonds said that Bull's order book for September -- which he claims is an indicator of the company's fourth quarter revenues and profits -- is around 20 percent higher than the same month last year. This could push profits beyond the FF 874 million for the fourth quarter needed to drag Bull into profit for the full year, he said. Earlier this month, Newsbytes reported that Bull has confirmed it is looking for another European partner to take a 17 percent stake in the company as part of the second stage of its privatization. Since Descarpentries will be privy to such a deal, Newsbytes surmises that the extra partner may well come on board some time during the fourth quarter of this year, bringing with it a sizable cash investment. When added to the balance sheet, this cash investment could be enough to push Bull into the black for the year -- something that most industry onlookers are keen to see. (Sylvia Dennis/19951025/Press & Reader Contact: Bull Information Systems +44-181-568-9191; Fax +44-181-479-2599) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 10/27/95 TRENDS ****Trillions At Stake In Mastercard Aim At Smartcard Market (NEWS)(TRENDS)(SYD)(00023) ****Trillions At Stake In Mastercard Aim At Smartcard Market 10/27/95 CANBERRA, AUSTRALIA, 1995 OCT 27 (NB) -- Mastercard is taking Australia, and the world, one step closer towards the cashless society with the launch of its smart card technology in Canberra next week. In a global first, Mastercard Cash, a rechargeable store value chip card, is set to be tested in Australia's capital city, Canberra. The first stage of the roll-out will begin with a merchant recruitment event on October 31 in Canberra. The nine-month consumer trial, which is being run in conjunction with banks, ANZ, Westpac, CBA and US giant Standard and Chartered, is scheduled to begin in the first quarter of 1996. Andre Sekulic, senior vice president of Mastercard International and GM of Australian and New Zealand operations, says he fully expects that the exchange value of the chip, applied to credit and debit cards, will eventually replace Australian cash and checks. Sekulic says there are three million credit cards and 4.5 million debit cards in Australia, and the total will increase to nine million in the next six months. The new cards which will be hybrids of strip and chips, giving greater security, will carry three functions including credit, debit and stored value for use at the "point of interaction" according to Trevor Whitworth, vice president chip card business at Mastercard International. He says the potential market for stored value cards was huge. "The market opportunity for stored value cards is about $2 trillion in annual volume with Asia Pacific having a sizeable piece of the market," he said. (Kate Castellari and Computer Daily News/19951026) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 10/27/95 BROADCAST Video News Roundup (NEWS)(BROADCAST)(MSP)(00024) Video News Roundup 10/27/95 MINNEAPOLIS, MINNESOTA, U.S.A., 1995 OCT 27 (NB) -- This is a look at the top stories this week in the world of video news reporting: CBS's Nonlinear Bake-Off Still Waffling, Oracle's Web TV To Debut In '96 and in new products: X-Ray stock footage, MPEG Test Disk and a Video Toaster Guide. Web TV Box From Oracle October 16th's Broadcasting and Cable reports that Oracle's "Web TV" will be introduced in the first half of 1996. An "inexpensive" multimedia computer terminal ($500) will enable access to Internet video. This video should be of broadcast quality. Other services will include e-mail, videoconferencing and satellite video capabilities. Nonlinear Bake-Off At CBS Also in Broadcasting and Cable is news of CBS's second nonlinear competition. Into its third week, Avid, Lightworks, D-Vision and ImMix all remain neck and neck in their race to win the CBS dollar. Don DeCesare, CBS News vice president, commented that despite different OS (operating system) platforms, the editors involved have yet to see any striking aspect that would put one unit over another, "Nothing that would say that this one's obviously going to fail and this one's obviously going to succeed." So far image quality has not been an issue. DeCesare hopes his editors keep an open mind. CBS News already is using the Avid Newscutter in its public affairs division and for its news magazines 60 Minutes and 48 hours. A number of CBS affiliates have bought ImMix Cubes. Because of Apple's current growing pains, DeCesare did voice some concern about committing to that platform. Editors also noted the basic issues of hard news editing still need addressing; the gear needs to work simpler, faster and with more backup. New Products October's Videography features a notice from the Film Bank Stock Footage Film and Video Library. Film Bank has just acquired a collection of motion picture x-ray footage from the University of Rochester, NY. You can see through a slithering snake, a woman applying lipstick, a man playing a trumpet along with people eating, drinking and digesting! AV Video's October Product Focus features an MPEG (Motion Picture Engineering Group) compression test disk. Produced by Hansen Media, the MPEG Benchmark Disc contains over 150 files, encoded at differing bit rates, for testing MPEG playback. Also in AV Video is a review of Making The Most of Your Toaster. The book not only includes basic workings and tips on the NewTek Video Toaster but covers the Video Flyer nonlinear system too. There is also a lot good general video production reference according to reviewer Matt Drabick. "Everyone who uses the Video Toaster should have a copy of this book," he concludes. (Newsbytes Staff/19951026) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 10/27/95 GENERAL China - Technology Newsbrief (NEWS)(GENERAL)(PEK)(00025) China - Technology Newsbrief 10/27/95 BEIJING, CHINA, 1995 OCT 27 (NB) -- In this news roundup from China, Founder's color desktop publishing system; China-Japan joint venture established to produce fax machines; Taiwan's Syscom Computer Engineering increases presence on the mainland; Microsoft helps SLWC to use Chinese on computers. Founder Displays Pentium-Based Desktop Publishing System Founder's color DTP (desktop Publishing) systems equipped with Intel's Pentium processor were recently displayed in Beijing at International Electronics Printing Exhibition which was held in World Trade Center. Peking University Founder Group Corp is the world largest supplier of Chinese language DTP systems. The high-speed processor of Intel Architecture Development Co Ltd helps Founder's system upgrade its performance. China-Japan Joint Venture Is Set To Produce Fax Machines Two Japanese companies and a Chinese company will set up a joint venture in China to produce fax machines and fax machine parts. The two Japanese firms are Mitsubishi Electronic Corp and Itochu Corp. Shangdong Hualing Electronics Co, with initial capital of $16 million, will produce 1.2 million thermal printer heads annually and 600,000 contact image sensors by 1997. Mitsubishi Electronic will hold a 26 percent share in the venture, and trading house Itochu will own 24 percent. The Chinese partner will hold the remaining 50 percent. Taiwan's Syscom Computer Engineering Expanding The Syscom Computer Engineering Company, the Taiwan-based system integration provider, opened a Beijing office recently and is planning to set up another office in Guangzhou later this year. The company has already set an office in Shenzhen. The company's business on the Chinese mainland will be concentrated on financial, securities, and transportation areas. Microsoft Helps SLWC To Use Chinese Language On Computers Microsoft recently signed a memo with the State Language Work Committee (SLWC) in Beijing to help SLWC in the research and development of Chinese language-related computer projects. Research will be carried out to promote the use of the Chinese language in computer fields, and Microsoft will provide the necessary technology to help SLWC achieve the goals. (Chih-Ho Yu & Ning Huang/19951027) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 10/27/95 TELECOM Glenayre Wins Major Thai Paging Operator Contract (NEWS)(TELECOM)(HKG)(00026) Glenayre Wins Major Thai Paging Operator Contract 10/27/95 BANGKOK, THAILAND, 1995 OCT 27 (NB) -- Shinawatra Paging has awarded the second phase of a major expansion plan to Glenayre Electronics Inc., of the US. Shinawatra Paging, marketing under the trade name Phonelink, is the fastest growing paging service in Thailand, according to a report from the company. "It is continuously improving its position in Thailand with over 50 percent of the market share," the report said. The total value of the 2-phase project is about US$12 million. This second phase expansion involves the implementation of close to 300 units of 325-watt 280MHz high performance radio paging transmitters. These newly released model GLT8521 transmitters are controlled by Glenayre's state-of-the-art C2000 transmitter control system. The C2000 control system uses a highly accurate time source for Global Position Satellite (GPS) system to ensure the proper functioning of high speed paging in multiple transmitter sites environment. Pagers operating in overlap zones from nearby transmitters will continue to receive clear signals because of the excellent simulcasting capability, thereby providing the highest quality of service to Phonelink subscribers. (Tony Waltham and Post Database-Bangkok Post/19951024) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 10/27/95 TELECOM Digital Making Big Internet Push (NEWS)(TELECOM)(HKG)(00027) Digital Making Big Internet Push 10/27/95 BANGKOK, THAILAND, 1995 OCT 27 (NB) -- With an increasingly competitive market for Internet connection packages, Digital is poised to take a leadership role, so says Vice President of Digital Internet Business Group, Rose Ann Giordano in an interview with Newsbytes. Digital plans to make the equation "Digital=Internet," she said. "Digital is a natural choice for customers with over 10 years of its own aggressive experience at internal Internet use and having networking as one of Digital's core competencies," explained Mrs Giordano. She outlined the Digital strategy as being based on servers, security and services. The 64-bit Alpha computer combined with the strength of 64-bit Unix is the basis for the Internet package and is able to handle the most demanding multimedia Internet services. A recent example was the Sports Illustrated WWW pages on the Internet which included video clips of the models from their very popular swimsuit edition. Sports Illustrated depended on the Alpha machine to handle the heavy traffic that was generated by users accessing the video clips. Digital is also well-placed to take advantage of the anticipated increase in Windows NT both on Alpha and Intel platforms. "We are the only major computer company to offer an NT- based Web server solution," she said. Security, a major consideration for any organization connecting to the Internet, is addressed by the Digital firewall system which offers tunneling, a technique whereby trusted external users can access the network through the firewall allowing the creation of virtual private networks extending over the Internet. Software such as the secure Netscape Web server and information publishing programs are just part of the service provided by the Digital Internet package. Digital is one of very few companies that can offer a worldwide service organization, she said. This approach has made Digital a popular choice for Internet Service Providers throughout the Asia Pacific region. In discussing Internet trends, Mrs Giordano noted the increased commercialization of the Internet where commercial sites now outnumbered academic and government sites. The commercial nature of the Internet is still developing. Some of the early commercial emphasis was on retail sales in shopping malls as the metaphor however these often failed to properly consider the demographics of the Internet. Mrs Giordano said that a better method for commercial utilization was the development of communities of interest. These can be commercial related such as bankers or recreational orientated such as skiers. Opportunities lie with providing value to these communities combined with the commercial information and products. A major and often overlooked benefit for companies using the Internet are cost savings. Digital itself saved over US$4 million by having its software updates available on the Internet. IBM saves money by having Internet access for product information and publications. Federal Express has Internet WWW pages which allow its customers to track the progress of their parcels. This saves the customers time and reduces the phone support expenses of FedEx. While emphasis is often on the external connections, organizations can make internal Internet usage to provide key benefits. Company information can be distributed and accessible by using internal WWW services. News groups and Internet mail can bring dramatic changes to organizations and the way they work. Workgroup Webforum is a Digital product which fits into this use, as well as for external connections, allowing workgroup services to be included on the Internet. Mrs Giordano believes that the Internet is a major paradigm shift in the computing world and that this will lead to a reordering of how business works. "Some businesses especially in the middleman role could be destroyed," she said. (Tony Waltham and Post Database-Bangkok Post/19951024) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 10/27/95 GENERAL 3DO/Matsushita Will Boost Video Game Market (NEWS)(GENERAL)(LAX)(00028) 3DO/Matsushita Will Boost Video Game Market 10/27/95 CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1995 OCT 27 (NB) -- DFC Intelligence predicts that the video game market will be dominated by four major systems: Nintendo Ultra 64, Sega Saturn, Sony PlayStation and 3DO/Matsushita. The report claims Matsushita's partnering with 3DO will give the game industry and 3DO a big shot in the arm. DFC makes these and other prediction in its update to "The US Market for Video Games and Interactive Electronic Entertainment," a report on the video game and computer entertainment software industries. The four-hundred page report contains predictions and forecasts for the next generation systems. David Cole, president of DFC Intelligence, told Newsbytes that the recent announcement that Matsushita was licensing 3DO's M2 technology, falls right in line with the report's predictions. "We have been saying all along that 3DO would be a strong player if they found the right partner. Several of our forecasts are based on the assumption that either Matsushita, or another hardware manufacturer invested in 3DO technology." Matsushita sold entertainment giant MCA to Seagrams this year and had said they were looking to invest some of the $5 billion sales price in multimedia opportunities. Matsushita will pay around $100 million to 3DO for its 64-bit game technology. According Cole, "The market will not pick up until these next generation hardware systems start to gain momentum." Unfortunately, it could take over a year for the new systems to gain momentum. Matsushita has announced late 1996 as the earliest it plans to offer 64-bit games. DFC Intelligence has forecasted that in 1995, software revenue will be down 14%, while the number of hardware units sold will be down 36%. Cole also claims that the 1995 holiday season is not looking that strong. "The 16-bit market has declined sharply in 1995 and nothing else has caught fire. The next generation systems are starting to look good, but still suffer from high price points and limited software availability." DFC sees the long term outlook for interactive entertainment promising. Consumer interest is at an all-time high and the industry demographics are expanding. According to Cole, the hype over multimedia, CD-ROM and the Internet is introducing an older crowd to interactive entertainment. "Interactive adults" could play a major role in the success of new game systems. Another potential growth area is entertainment software for PCs. The market for PC entertainment software was up 21% in 1994. DFC predicts that for the next three years, up to 25% of software revenue will come from the PC. "The problem with the PC game market is there are so many titles competing for limited consumer dollars." Cole states that "to really be successful game publishers must have a plan to release titles for console systems, as well as PCs." (Richard Bowers/19951027/Press Contact: David Cole, DFC Intelligence, 619-484-5145) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 10/27/95 BROADCAST Avid, SGI Team On Professional Video, See $5B Market (NEWS)(BROADCAST)(BOS)(00029) Avid, SGI Team On Professional Video, See $5B Market 10/27/95 TEWKSBURY, MASSACHUSETTS, U.S.A., 1995 OCT 27 (NB) -- Avid Media Server and Avid Media Spectrum are the first two components in a new collaborative initiative by Avid and Silicon Graphics for the professional video market, but the vendors will broaden their deal "considerably" with other new products in pursuit of a potential $5 billion in revenues, said Avid's D.J. Long, in a conference call with Newsbytes. The new initiative teams Avid and SGI on the development of products for high-end digital post-production, as well as on "uncompressed video editing solutions for the entire broadcast market, where there is a major move away from analog," noted Long, who is director of business development for Avid. Avid Media Server, a product announced during the first half of this year, has already entered commercial deployment at nine different TV networks and broadcast affiliates, including Providence Journal Broadcasting and sites in Japan and Eastern Europe, he added. Avid Media Server runs on SGI's Challenge SMP (symmetric multiprocessor) servers. Avid Media Spectrum, a software suite for high-end digital post-production, was initially introduced at the National Association of Broadcasters (NAB) show in April. The product is slated to be available in early 1996 for SGI's Onyx graphics supercomputers. Avid's existing MediaSuite Pro for SGI Indigo, another jointly developed product, is targeted at the "entry-level" video market, and is not a component of the new initiative, according to Long. Long told Newsbytes that the new Avid Media Server for SGI Challenge can be differentiated from other media servers on the market today by its focus on the professional broadcast TV market. The Avid exec described the company's media server as "the hub of the client-server environment" for digital video. The media server provides storage and distribution of video, as well as video editing and ad insertion, he reported. Components of the media server include Avid's new AvidNet networking software, along with Avid's previously introduced AdLink software for digital insertion of television commercials, and NewsCutter, a product characterized by Long as a "video editor focused on news." The forthcoming Avid Media Spectrum will be aimed at "D-1 quality, nonlinear editing" as well as "horizontally layered special effects and morphing" in the high-end post-production market, according to Long. The Media Spectrum suite will include Avid's new Maestro uncompressed editor, along with Avid's Elastic Reality and Parallax software for morphing and other special effects. Future products stemming from the deal will run on SGI's Irix implementation of Unix and on SGI's Challenge SMP servers, Onyx workstations, and Indigo Impact and Indy desktop workstations, according to the Avid business development director. Irix includes XFS, a file system designed to support the movement of multiple video and audio streams simultaneously across a network. The products will also conform to both OMF (Open Media Framework) Interchange, a multimedia file format first formulated by Avid, and Keystone, a software initiative for the entertainment market pioneered by SGI's Silicon Studio. Long told Newsbytes that Avid and SGI will announce more details on forthcoming product additions as the new offerings move into beta. (Jacqueline Emigh/19951027/Reader Contact: Avid Technology, 508-640-6789; Press Contacts: Julie O'Brien, Avid, 508-640-3071; Kerry Bard or Deirdre O'Connell, Schwartz Communications for Avid, 617-431-0770; Sandi Weir, Silicon Graphics Inc., 415-933-5255) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 10/27/95 TELECOM Unitel Seeks Changes In Canadian Telecom Rules (NEWS)(TELECOM)(TOR)(00030) Unitel Seeks Changes In Canadian Telecom Rules 10/27/95 TORONTO, ONTARIO, CANADA, 1995 OCT 27 (NB) -- The established regional telephone companies are allocating too large a portion of their costs to long distance, and there are problems with telecommunications regulators' split rate base and rate rebalancing positions, an official of Unitel Communications Inc., told reporters this week. Commenting on what Unitel wants from an impending Canadian Radio- television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) ruling on costing and pricing in the telecommunications industry, Janet Yale, Unitel's senior vice-president of regulatory, government, and law, pointed to discrepancies between the cost breakdowns given by Canada's regional telcos and the long-distance costs of AT&T, which provides long-distance service in the United States. Unitel believes C$330 million of Bell Canada's stated local-service costs should be re-allocated to long-distance service. Besides eliminating what Unitel maintains is a cross-subsidy from local to long-distance service, this would reduce the contribution Unitel must make to Bell to support local service. Similarly, Unitel said its benchmarking -- based on AT&T's costs -- indicated British Columbia Telephone Co. should allocate another C$36 million to long-distance costs and AGT Ltd. in Alberta should allocate another C$30 million. Bell, B.C. Telephone, and AGT are the largest of the regional phone companies that provide both local and long-distance service. Yale also called on the CRTC to speed up the shift from regulating local telephone service on a rate-of-return basis, in which the carriers are allowed a certain profit margin, to a price-cap arrangement. Yale said the rate-of- return arrangement gives the phone companies "a really good incentive" to mis-allocate costs. She also decried a telephone-company request for flexibility in re-allocating the money gained from a series of local rate increases mandated by the CRTC. The CRTC last year called for a series of three C$2-per-month increases in basic local rates, spaced one year apart, and told the phone companies to pass the money back to customers in dollar-for-dollar savings on long-distance charges. The telcos have asked for more flexibility in changing rates. Yale said allowing this would make it easy for the regional telcos to "target" certain customers. Yale also commented on the Beacon Initiative, the regional telcos' master plan for the so-called information highway. Unitel has suggested in the past that local telephone subscribers may end up paying for the program of building high-capacity backbones, developing information highway content and services, and the like. "Unitel is not very concerned with whether they go ahead or not," Yale said, "we just don't want to pay, directly or indirectly, for any of these investments." The CRTC is expected to make its rulings public within days. (Grant Buckler/19951027/Press Contact: Jason Rodham, Unitel, 416-345-2724) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 10/27/95 EDUCATION Newsweek Interactive Guide To Kids' Software (NEWS)(EDUCATION)(BOS)(00031) Newsweek Interactive Guide To Kids' Software 10/27/95 NEW YORK, NEW YORK, U.S.A., 1995 OCT 27 (NB) -- Regardless of why a PC first enters a home, that computer almost inevitably ends up being used by any kids who live in the household, said Michael Rogers, during an interview with Newsbytes about a new multimedia CD-ROM title from Newsweek called Parent's Guide to Children's Software 96. So with millions of families now purchasing their first PCs, "a tremendous need exists among parents to figure out what the children's software market is all about," according to Rogers, who is an associate editor at Newsweek as well as managing editor of Newsweek Interactive. Although parents today can "try before they buy" at retail stores ranging from Egghead to Walmart, most adults are simply too busy to "go into a store and browse through 50 titles," Rogers told Newsbytes. "There are also some very good books on children's software. But it's not until you sit down and look at the software that you really become educated," the editor added. As a result, Newsweek and the two other Washington Post subsidiaries that contributed to the project, Mammoth Micro Productions and the Broadband Division of Digital Ink, decided to exploit the capabilities of multimedia CD-ROM in reviewing the software. "We've developed a technology that allows us to `quote' directly from the software by capturing the `active screen,'" reported Rogers. The new title from Newsweek lets parents view animation directly from the kids' software, in addition to working with buttons and other on-screen features just like the child might do. Each children's software package is individually "graded," and the top 50 are given the Newsweek Editors' Choice Award. The disk also provides a special area with games and other activities "just for kids." Beyond providing a "service for parents," Newsweek wanted to learn more about the emerging "interactive consumer," Rogers acknowledged. The new CD-ROM title for parents and kids was created by a team of "digital journalists" who had previously worked together on several experimental CD-ROM projects. "We believe it's important today to have people on staff who really `know' multimedia," he observed. In rating the children's software, the digital reviewers were steered by guidelines concerning how well the products "make use of multimedia; encourage decision-making; give consistent feedback; provide multiple layers of sophistication; require interactivity; and allow for self-pace and exploration." The reviewers received input from a dozen five-to-11-year-olds, as well as from parent focus groups. "As a producer of new media, those kids are my audience. When they grow up, they're going to have totally different expectations about software than most of us do. There's the new notion of the 3-D (three-dimensional) environment -- as opposed to the page metaphor, which, quite frankly, is still very useful for most adults. These kids are Newsweek's future consumers, and we want them to have high standards," Newsbytes was told. The kids were asked to respond to the software on the basis of ease-of-use, "appealing graphics," whether or not they would like to use the software again, and "fun." The children's "captured video reactions" appear on the Newsweek title, as well. From working with the focus groups, Newsweek learned that parents' first concern is whether kids will like a software package well enough to actually use it, according to Rogers. "One question we often came across is, `Will my child get bored with this in five minutes?'" the managing editor said. "Beyond this is the question, `Is this software better for kids than Saturday afternoon TV?' We did not look at games, because we think kids do a pretty good job of picking games for themselves. We only looked at software that has educational value," he continued. Some so-called "educational software" is, in fact, "virtually content-free." Other software bores children by asking them for nothing more than "passive clicks on the screen," asserted Rogers. "But there are some very hopeful signs. Content, overall production values, and creativity of interface design have all gone up in 1995," the editor added. Priced at $29.95, Parent's Guide to Children's Software 96 is available immediately for both Windows and the Mac. The CD-ROM is bundled with more than $600 in discount coupons on children's software products. (Jacqueline Emigh/19951026/Reader Contact: Newsweek, 212-445-4000; Press Contacts: Mary Moslander, Newsweek, 415-693-0106; Wendy DeFeudis, Copithorne & Bellows for Newsweek, 617-252-0606) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 10/27/95 TRENDS Plenty Of Games Are Played In Hotel Rooms (NEWS)(TRENDS)(DEN)(00032) Plenty Of Games Are Played In Hotel Rooms 10/27/95 SIOUX FALLS, SOUTH DAKOTA, U.S.A., 1995 OCT 27 (NB) -- They may register in power suits, but they can't wait to get to their hotel room and play Nintendo. And being able to get their hands on that game controller is boosting hotel revenues, according to a survey conducted recently by the company that installs the video games. Lodgenet Entertainment Corp. (NASDAQ: LNET) introduced network-based Super Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) games to the North American lodging industry in 1993, and the company said the service is currently available in more than 135,000 guest rooms. Lodgenet spokesperson Ann Parker told Newsbytes there are always 10 games on the system. Some of the titles changing monthly while some of the "standard" games stay on the system for longer periods such as Super Mario titles. Lodgenet works with Nintendo to determine what the most popular games are so those can be put online. The hotel places a guide in the room that explains what titles are available and also contains specific instructions on how to play Nintendo. Parker told Newsbytes informal guest surveys and talks with hotel managers indicate that adult travelers often use the system. Parker said that's so they can keep up with their kids when they return home. It costs $5.95 per hour to play Nintendo, and the time can be spread across several play periods. Each time you re-enter the game an onscreen display shows how much time remains. Lodgenet said 95 percent of the hotels responding to a recent survey described the game service as a desirable amenity favored by guests. The entertainment company said it's even more significant that more than half of the survey respondents credit the video game service with increasing their occupancy. That's about twice the number of hotels and motels that credited the games with boosting occupancy in a 1993 survey, said Lodgenet. According to Tim Flynn, president and CEO of Lodgenet, said even a small increase in occupancy means substantially more money for the hotel. "Even a one percent increase in occupancy translates in $60,000 annually in additional revenue for the average sized hotel." In addition to Nintendo games, Lodgenet also offers movies on demand, video checkout, guest satisfaction surveys and interactive hotel directories, and satellite-delivered basic and premium cable television programming. (Jim Mallory/19951027/Press contact: Ann Parker, Lodgenet, 605-330-1330) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 10/27/95 APPLE SystemSoft To Assist Apple, Developers With PC Cards (NEWS)(APPLE)(BOS)(00033) SystemSoft To Assist Apple, Developers With PC Cards 10/27/95 NATICK, MASSACHUSETTS, U.S.A., 1995 OCT 27 (NB) -- SystemSoft, a major producer of PC Card software, plans to announce a new support program for Macintosh and Power Mac developers in early 1996, revealed Paul Sereiko, during an interview with Newsbytes today about SystemSoft's newly unveiled plans to port its DOS- and Windows-based software to the PowerBook environment. Also during the conference call, Sereiko told Newsbytes that, as a result of a newly announced deal with Toshiba, SystemSoft software is now shipping with hardware put out by 13 of the world's top makers of IBM-compatible PC notebooks. The relationship between Apple and SystemSoft actually began last spring, but was unannounced until now, according to Sereiko. Earlier this year, he said, SystemSoft provided Apple with informal consultation on compatibility issues between Macintosh and Power Mac and the PC Cards (previously known as PCMCIA) cards that are growing into widespread use on IBM-compatible PCs. Although most modem and ATA cards conforming to the current PC Card specification will run on PowerBooks, the same is not generally true for other kinds of PC Cards, such as LAN (local area network) and sound cards, he elaborated. Under a newly signed, multimillion dollar deal with Apple, he reported, SystemSoft will produce a PC Card software product for the 68K and native Power Mac environments that is based on SystemSoft's CardSoft product for DOS and Windows. Also under the agreement, SystemSoft will provide services in the areas of PC Card testing, product development design, and engineering support for current and future PowerBook systems that are aimed at improving PowerBook support for current and future PC Card specifications, according to Sereiko. Sereiko told Newsbytes that he expects the deal to spur development of PC Cards by Macintosh developers. SystemSoft's upcoming, but still unannounced, program for Mac developers will include "tools supporting compatibility," he noted. SystemSoft will develop the program and issue an announcement after Fall Comdex, according to the SystemSoft exec. SystemSoft's newly announced deal with Toshiba is "highly significant" in light of its "substantial size," Newsbytes was told. Toshiba is the world's leading maker of notebook PCs, according to Sereiko. Under the agreement, SystemSoft's CardWizard and CardSoft/16 software will ship immediately with Toshiba's new Tecra 700CT notebook. In addition, all owners of existing Toshiba notebooks can upgrade to SystemSoft's CardWizard configuration software for $29.95, or $40.00 off the suggested retail price (SRP) of $69.95. Toshiba "switched" to SystemSoft from PC Card software produced by Phoenix Technologies, Sereiko maintained. Texas Instruments also uses PC Card software from Phoenix, while IBM produces its own product. In related news, SystemSoft recently announced that HP's new OmniBook 5000 CTS 5/120 Pentium-based notebook will ship with SystemSoft's Plug and Play Bios, CardWizard and CardSoft software, and Maximizer power management software, which, together with Windows 95, will provide "complete plug and play." Also during the conference call, Sereiko pointed out that, due to the recent growth of SystemSoft, the company has moved to new headquarters at 2 Vision Drive in Natick, Massachusetts that are double the size of its previous headquarters at 313 Speen Street, Natick. Founded in 1990, SystemSoft now has 130 employees, with field offices in Taipei, Taiwan as well as in Santa Clara, California, and Oxnard, California, according to the SystemSoft exec. (Jacqueline Emigh/19951027/Reader Contact: SystemSoft, 508-651- 0088; Press Contacts: Alan Swahn, SystemSoft, 508-647-2920; Caroline De Graan, Tim Hurley, or Jon Bornstein, Copithorne & Bellows for SystemSoft, 617-252-0606) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 10/27/95 CHIPS ****Multimedia Chipset To Replace Sound/Video Cards (NEWS)(CHIPS)(SFO)(00034) ****Multimedia Chipset To Replace Sound/Video Cards 10/27/95 SAN DIEGO, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1995 OCT 27 (NB) -- Brooktree, a designer and marketer of integrated circuits, is expected to announce an expansion to its multimedia accelerator chipset, BtV, to support Microsoft's (NASDAQ:MSFT) DirectX Application Programming Interfaces (APIs). Incorporated into expansion boards and motherboards, the chipset is capable of replacing sound and video cards. The company will announce and demonstrate its BtV MediaStream multimedia accelerator chipset for Windows 95 at a special Halloween- theme event taking place at Microsoft headquarters in Redmond, Washington on Monday and Tuesday. Board manufacturers are aligning themselves with Brooktree to build multimedia boards which will offer wavetable sound and powerful video performance. The new boards are expected to be a highlight of the upcoming Comdex/Las Vegas tradeshow. While the boards can enhance standard computer use, early demonstrations will focus on high-performance gaming. The expanded chipset supports the following DirectX API's in Windows 95: DirectDraw for 2D graphics operations; DirectVideo for Video for Windows support; DirectSound for audio buffering and special sound effects; DirectInput for digital game port support and DirectPlay for multiplayer connectivity in support of teleconferencing and future online gaming applications. Additionally, the new chipset will support Microsoft's unreleased APIs for 3D effects and next-generation, multi-dimensional video. Brooktree told Newsbytes the new APIs should be released early next year. A spokesperson for Brooktree told Newsbytes, "When Windows 95 came out this summer, a lot of analysts said what the new operating system contained in terms of enabling future hardware and software developments was the biggest and most important element of Windows 95. The announcement from Brooktree is just that type of information. We are unlocking the power Windows 95 with the expansion of this chipset." (Patrick McKenna/19951027/Press Contact: Carolyn Fromm, The Benjamin Group, tel 714-753-0755/BROOKTREE951027/PHOTO) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 10/27/95 GENERAL Newsbytes Week In Review (NEWS)(GENERAL)(MSP)(00035) Newsbytes Week In Review 10/27/95 MINNEAPOLIS, MINNESOTA, U.S.A., 1995 OCT 27 (NB) -- This is a look at the top stories this week, listing with their category code: Targeted Daily News For "Rent" To Websites; Corel Faces Lawsuit Over Software Bugs; Siemens Takes 75% Stake In UK's Mercury Communications; AMD & NexGen Merge To Compete Against Intel; SafeSurf & Guardian Angels Patrol Internet; Innovations Make Net Usage Hard To Track; E-mail, Not Web, Is Killer App; Ad Exec Lukewarm On Multimedia Penetration Levels; IDG's McGovern Defines Online Publishing Success; Computer Crimes Greater Than Expected, Increasing; eWorld Exec - Online Services "Terminally Ill;" CD-ROM Better Marketing Vehicle Than Web?; Microsoft Fixes Windows 95 Security Problems; MCI Plans Home VideoPhone Over Normal Lines; Netscape Exceeds Wall Street Expectations; Online Execs - "Churn" Still A Problem; Apple Courts Associated Press; Sybase To Announce New Products Live On Internet; Access Compuserve Without A Computer Or Modem; AT&T Business Network Ready To Go; Fastest Mac Ever To Be Unveiled Monday; Home Users Use Web More - Study; Trillions At Stake In Mastercard Aim At Smartcard Market. Targeted Daily News For "Rent" To Websites (ONLINE) MINNEAPOLIS, MINNESOTA, U.S.A., 1995 OCT 23 (NB) -- Adding fast- breaking news content aimed at a Website's target audience is one way to increase "hits" on a site. That news content is now offered to Websites by Newsbytes News Network's "Top Stories" program which gives Websites a license to publish up to five daily technology stories from 21 categories. Corel Faces Lawsuit Over Software Bugs (LEGAL) OTTAWA, ONTARIO, CANADA, 1995 OCT 23 (NB) -- Corel Corp. (TSE:COS; NASDAQ:COSFF) is facing a lawsuit over problems that a Pennsylvania man claims to have had with the company's CorelDraw graphics software. A Philadelphia law firm is seeking to turn the case into a class-action lawsuit, while Corel maintains the action amounts to "ambulance-chasing." Siemens Takes 75% Stake In UK's Mercury Communications (BUSINESS) LONDON, ENGLAND, 1995 OCT 23 (NB) -- Germany's Siemens has taken a 75 percent stake in Mercury Communications, the subsidiary operation of Cable & Wireless in the UK. The deal will cost Siemens UKP80 million and, according to Juergen Gehrels, Siemens' chief executive officer (CEO), will lead to other involvements in telecoms services. AMD & NexGen Merge To Compete Against Intel (BUSINESS) SUNNYVALE, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1995 OCT 23 (NB) -- Long-time nemesis to Intel, Advanced Micro Devices (NYSE:AMD) has laid the groundwork to continue its pursuit of the giant chipmaker through a merger with NexGen (NSADAQ:NXGN). AMD fought a hard battle over 386 and 486 microprocessors, but has fallen behind as Intel's Pentium series became the dominant processor for the DOS and Windows operating systems. SafeSurf & Guardian Angels Patrol Internet (ONLINE) VAN NUYS, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1995 OCT 24 (NB) -- SafeSurf, claimed to be a "parents' online organization," has donated a site on the World Wide Web to CyberAngels, the Guardian Angels Internet chapter. The site will be used to provide information to both members and new volunteers concerning CyberAngel activities. Innovations Make Net Usage Hard To Track (ONLINE) SCOTTSDALE, ARIZONA, U.S.A., 1995 OCT 24 (NB) -- Webmasters who set up World Wide Web sites, and the companies who advertise on them, look to usage-measuring companies to track how many people are coming to their site. But the ever-increasing sophistication of Web browser programs is creating new challenges for accurate tracking. E-mail, Not Web, Is Killer App (ONLINE) SCOTTSDALE, ARIZONA, U.S.A., 1995 OCT 24 (NB) -- According to a leading provider of online game shows, it's a better idea to run game-like contests for advertisers on the Internet through electronic-mail than through the World Wide Web. Ad Exec Lukewarm On Multimedia Penetration Levels (TRENDS) SCOTTSDALE, ARIZONA, U.S.A., 1995 OCT 24 (NB) -- Joseph Serino, new media manager for Jordan, McGrath, Case & Taylor, a New York- based ad agency, predicts household penetration of CD-ROM users will only climb from seven to 25 percent in the next five years, while households using one or more online services will increase from today's eight percent to 18 percent in five years. IDG's McGovern Defines Online Publishing Success (TRENDS) NEW YORK CITY, NEW YORK, U.S.A., 1995 OCT 24 (NB) -- Proclaiming "The New Media is here, and the time to profit is now," Patrick McGovern, the man who founded International Data Group (IDG), gave his vision of online publishing success to an audience of magazine publishers at the Folio: Show conference in New York City. Computer Crimes Greater Than Expected, Increasing (LEGAL) EAST LANSING, MICHIGAN, U.S.A., 1995 OCT 25 (NB) -- Professor David Carter, faculty member of Michigan State University (MSU), says 98.6% of businesses in his nationwide survey have been victims of computer crime. More than 43.3% of the 200 survey respondents say they were victimized in excess of 25 times. eWorld Exec - Online Services "Terminally Ill" (ONLINE) SCOTTSDALE, ARIZONA, U.S.A., 1995 OCT 25 (NB) -- In what was the most contentious statement at the Sixth Conference on Interactive Marketing being held this week, Apple eWorld Worldwide Services Group Manager Richard Gingras sounded a figurative death knell for the closed-platform online industry. CD-ROM Better Marketing Vehicle Than Web? (TRENDS) SCOTTSDALE, ARIZONA, U.S.A., 1995 OCT 25 (NB) -- Among marketers, there's a widespread perception that, because it's far easier, cheaper and quicker to put up and update a World Wide Web site than it is to produce a CD-ROM, that the Web is the ideal marketing vehicle for corporations that want to get product information out to the public. Microsoft Fixes Windows 95 Security Problems (WINDOWS) REDMOND, WASHINGTON, U.S.A., 1995 OCT 25 (NB) -- Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ:MSFT) said it has located and fixed two problems with file and printer sharing in its Windows 95 operating system (OS) that could have caused security concerns with Windows 95 users. MCI Plans Home VideoPhone Over Normal Lines (BROADCAST) WASHINGTON, D.C., U.S.A, 1995 OCT 25 (NB) -- MCI Inc. (NASDAQ:MCIC), along with several other companies, is bringing videoconferencing to the home over standard telephone wiring. Called "MCI VideoPhone," the new system will be on the market by June, 1996, company officials said. Netscape Exceeds Wall Street Expectations (BUSINESS) MOUNTAIN VIEW, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1995 OCT 25 (NB) -- When Netscape Communications (NASDAQ:NSCP) went public with its dramatic opening day on the stock exchange, a number of analysts questioned how a company which had not made money could arouse so much attention. In its first quarter since the initial public offering, Netscape says revenues are up 75% and income increased from a loss of $1.6 million to a gain of $1.4 million. Online Execs - "Churn" Still A Problem (ONLINE) SCOTTSDALE, ARIZONA, U.S.A., 1995 OCT 25 (NB) -- Exact subscriber counts are not as important to an online service as the ability to keep them around and reduce cancellations, several online service executives stressed during a panel discussion at the Sixth Conference on Interactive Marketing Tuesday. Apple Courts Associated Press (APPLE) WASHINGTON, D.C., U.S.A., 1995 OCT 25 (NB) -- Three Apple Computer Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) executives are on their way back to California after meeting with Associated Press (AP) execs. Apple wants AP to create a Macintosh client software for the AP television newsroom computer system. Sybase To Announce New Products Live On Internet (ONLINE) EMERYVILLE, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1995 OCT 26 (NB) -- Database giant, Sybase (NASDAQ:SYBS) is teaming with Progressive Networks, the RealAudio voice of the Internet, to deliver a live audio broadcast to announce Sybase System 11. The hour-long, live Internet program will compliment a worldwide satellite telecast on Monday, October 30. Access Compuserve Without A Computer Or Modem (ONLINE) COLUMBUS, OHIO, U.S.A., 1995 OCT 26 (NB) -- CompuServe says its new CallingAll Card will allow members to access electronic-mail, stock quotes, the latest news and more, without a computer, a monitor, or a modem. Through collaboration with Premier Communications, CompuServe will issue a calling card which allows subscribers to access personal and select information from the online service. AT&T Business Network Ready To Go (ONLINE) CAMBRIDGE, MASSACHUSETTS, U.S.A., 1995 OCT 26 (NB) -- AT&T says its AT&T Business Network, an added extension of AT&T Interchange Online, for business professionals, will be available on Monday, October 30. The new service provides extensive business content based on the latest news and information from providers such as CNN, The Kiplinger Washington Editors, and others. Fastest Mac Ever To Be Unveiled Monday (APPLE) FREMONT, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1995 OCT 27 (NB) -- On October 30, the world's fastest Macintosh computer will be announced with a line of new products. The surprise comes not from Apple Computer but from its licensee, Power Computing. Home Users Use Web More - Study (TRENDS) NEW YORK CITY, NEW YORK, U.S.A., 1995 OCT 27 (NB) -- More people surf the Internet's World Wide Web using home-based accounts, according to results from the upcoming "Yahoo/Jupiter Web User Survey." Fifty-five percent of respondents to the survey said they used home-based accounts to access the graphical part of the Internet. Trillions At Stake In Mastercard Aim At Smartcard Market (TRENDS) CANBERRA, AUSTRALIA, 1995 OCT 27 (NB) -- Mastercard is taking Australia, and the world, one step closer towards the cashless society with the launch of its smart card technology in Canberra next week. In a global first, Mastercard Cash, a rechargeable store value chip card, is set to be tested in Australia's capital city, Canberra. (Ian Stokell/19951027) (SUMMARY)(GENERAL)(MSP)(00036) Newsbytes Daily Summary 10/27/95 MINNEAPOLIS, MINNESOTA, U.S.A., 1995 OCT 27 (NB) -- These are capsules of all today's news stories: ======================================================================== ------------| N E W S B Y T E S D A I L Y S U M M A R Y |---------- ------------| Friday, October 27, 1995 |---------- ======================================================================== (c) Newsbytes News Network (Tm) Editor in Chief: Wendy Woods ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Newsbytes News Network is on the Net! Check out http://www.nbnn.com for free daily top stories from Newsbytes and its affiliate publications, and from PC Week, MacWeek, and other Ziff news magazines. A subscription gives you all the news, full-text, plus the most comprehensive database of past computer stories online. The keyword-searchable database dates from today back through 1983. Subscriptions are $24.95 for three months. Questions? Send to 'administrator@newsbytes.com' For Japanese Newsbytes and additional services, see the Newsbytes Pacifica Website at http://www.islandtel.com/newsbytes/ ------------------------------------------------------------------------ CATEGORY HEADLINES (*** indicates today's top stories) STORY # ======================================================================== APPLE ****Fastest Mac Ever To Be Unveiled Monday................. 13 APPLE SystemSoft To Assist Apple, Developers With PC Cards....... 34 BROADCAST CorelVideo Makes Screen Debut.............................. 03 BROADCAST Video News Roundup......................................... 25 BROADCAST Avid, SGI Team On Professional Video, See $5B Market....... 30 BUSINESS UUNET Booming And On The Hunt.............................. 08 BUSINESS Claflin Jumps IBM Ship For DEC PC Post..................... 20 BUSINESS France - Bull Announces Profit Intentions.................. 23 CHIPS Editorial - Semiconductors And Political Hay............... 06 CHIPS ****Multimedia Chipset To Replace Sound/Video Cards....... 35 EDUCATION Newsweek Interactive Guide To Kids' Software............... 32 GENERAL Japan Newsbriefs........................................... 01 GENERAL Personnel Roundup.......................................... 14 GENERAL China - Technology Newsbrief............................... 26 GENERAL 3DO/Matsushita Will Boost Video Game Market................ 29 GENERAL Newsbytes Week In Review................................... 36 GOVT EC Casts Cloud Over Conner/Seagate Merger.................. 05 LEGAL Asian Piracy Crackdown Continues........................... 04 LEGAL ****Building A Web Site? Know The Law First............... 12 NETWORK Novell Teams With CompuServe On LAN/PDN Tech............... 21 ONLINE Time's Pathfinder Web Site To Start Charging Access Fees... 10 PC DEC's New Starions Emphasize Multimedia, Internet.......... 16 PC PC Card Combines Modem, Cellular Radio..................... 18 TELECOM NTT Reduces Network Access Charges - Report................ 02 TELECOM Telecom Conferees Hold Ceremonial Meeting.................. 09 TELECOM Motorola To Interconnect World's Largest Cellular Net In Ch 22 TELECOM Glenayre Wins Major Thai Paging Operator Contract.......... 27 TELECOM Digital Making Big Internet Push........................... 28 TELECOM Unitel Seeks Changes In Canadian Telecom Rules............. 31 TRENDS Does The Superhighway Jeopardize Privacy................... 07 TRENDS CD-ROMs Must Have Simple Packaging, Installation........... 11 TRENDS ****Home Users Use Web More - Study........................ 17 TRENDS ****Trillions At Stake In Mastercard Aim At Smartcard Marke 24 TRENDS Plenty Of Games Are Played In Hotel Rooms.................. 33 WINDOWS Quarterdeck, Spyglass Partner for Web Technologies......... 15 ======================================================================== These are the headlines and first paragraphs of each story, in order: 1 -> Japan Newsbriefs -- In this roundup of news from Japan: Japanese Windows95 release date set, Mitsubishi to offer corporate network connection, first CS data broadcasting service announced, Sony to establish online service, more cable shopping planned. 2 -> NTT Reduces Network Access Charges - Report -- Nippon Telegraph and Telephone (TSE:9432) has reached agreement with its competitors, the New Common Carriers (NCC), over charges the companies pay for access to the NTT network, according to company sources quoted in reports relayed by the Knight Ridder Financial news service. 3 -> CorelVideo Makes Screen Debut -- Corel Corp. (TSE:COS;NASDAQ:COSFF) has launched its CorelVideo desktop videoconferencing system at the Telecon XV trade show in Anaheim, California. The hardware-and-software combination is part of an ambitious range of product announcements by Corel in recent months. 4 -> Asian Piracy Crackdown Continues -- Spurred on by recent government actions and court decisions, the Business Software Alliance (BSA) is is stepping up the pressure against software piracy with continued actions in Asia. 5 -> EC Casts Cloud Over Conner/Seagate Merger -- The European Commission (EC) has announced it is staging a preliminary investigation into Seagate's plans to take over Conner Peripherals using an exchange of shares. According to the EC, even though the companies concerned are headquartered in the US, their operations in Europe are large enough to fall under the jurisdiction of anti-monopoly legislation. 6 -> Editorial - Semiconductors And Political Hay -- By Kennedy Maize Watch for saber rattling over the nine-year-old semiconductor trade pact with Japan next year, timed to do President Bill Clinton's re-election campaign the maximum benefit. The trade pact, which fences off 20 percent of the lucrative Japanese market for chips from non-Japanese suppliers, expires next July, and already the US is making noises about how important it will be to renew the pact. 7 -> Does The Superhighway Jeopardize Privacy -- The phenomenal growth of computer and telecommunications services poses a growing privacy threat, according to a report by the Clinton administration. 8 -> UUNET Booming And On The Hunt -- UUNET technologies has rung up record sales and profits for the quarter ended September 30, and is on the hunt for acquisitions. The Virginia-based Internet provider says it had revenues for the third quarter of $16.44 million, compared to $3.18 million in the third quarter of 1994. That's a phenomenal 417 percent increase. 9 -> Telecom Conferees Hold Ceremonial Meeting -- A House-Senate telecommunications conference committee met Wednesday to begin work reconciling differences in the two versions of telecommunications reform. But the meeting was largely ceremonial, and no future meeting has been scheduled. 10 -> Time's Pathfinder Web Site To Start Charging Access Fees -- Pathfinder, the widely praised World Wide Web site run by media conglomerate Time Inc., will charge access fees for some of its services beginning next year. 11 -> CD-ROMs Must Have Simple Packaging, Installation -- There is an increasing number of CD-ROMs produced by businesses for clients and sales prospects. These can contain important data in attractive formats, but too often, they are difficult to install, a leading developer of CD-ROMs for business-to-business applications says. 12 -> ****Building A Web Site? Know The Law First -- There are numerous potential legal risks associated with marketing on the Internet that anyone thinking of doing so should be aware of, a leading new media attorney told the Sixth Conference on Interactive Marketing here Wednesday. 13 -> ****Fastest Mac Ever To Be Unveiled Monday -- On October 30, the world's fastest Macintosh computer will be announced with a line of new products. The surprise comes not from Apple Computer but from its licensee, Power Computing. 14 -> Personnel Roundup -- In this regular feature, summarizing personnel changes not covered elsewhere by Newsbytes: Oracle Corp., GE American Communications Inc., IBM PC Co., Novell Inc., Artisoft Inc., Syntellect Inc., RAM Mobile Data, Polaroid Corp., Sirius Systems Inc., Numerex Corp., Lotus Development Corp. 15 -> Quarterdeck, Spyglass Partner for Web Technologies -- Spyglass Inc. (NASDAQ:SPYG) and Quarterdeck Corp. (NASDAQ:QDEK) will share technology whereby Quarterdeck will license all of Spyglass's World Wide Web client and server technology in turn for Spyglass licensing Quarterdeck technology for future Spyglass products. Development teams from both companies will work together on browser and server products. 16 -> DEC's New Starions Emphasize Multimedia, Internet -- Reinforcing the trend to strong multimedia features in home PCs, and with a nod to the Internet, Digital Equipment Corp. (NYSE:DEC) has launched three new models in its Starion line of home PCs. The company propaganda for DEC's new top-of-the-line Starion 2001 sounds almost as if it came from a stereo manufacturer. 17 -> ****Home Users Use Web More - Study -- More people surf the Internet's World Wide Web using home-based accounts, according to results from the upcoming "Yahoo/Jupiter Web User Survey." Fifty-five percent of respondents to the survey said they used home-based accounts to access the graphical part of the Internet. 18 -> PC Card Combines Modem, Cellular Radio -- Airgo Communications Inc, a subsidiary of Dayna Communications Inc., has announced what it said is the first product to integrate a cellular phone and a data/fax modem in a single PC card. 20 -> Claflin Jumps IBM Ship For DEC PC Post -- Bruce Claflin has left his post as worldwide general manager for product and brand management at the IBM (NYSE:IBM) Personal Computer Co. to take up a similar job at Digital Equipment Corp. (NYSE:DEC). 21 -> Novell Teams With CompuServe On LAN/PDN Tech -- Novell has enlisted the assistance of CompuServe in its ambitious global NetWare Connect Services (NCS) plan. According to Vivienne Wilson, a spokeswoman for Novell, plans call for subscribers to NCS to be able to access CompuServe on a transparent basis. 22 -> Motorola To Interconnect World's Largest Cellular Net In China -- Motorola's Northern Asia Cellular Infrastructure Division has signed an agreement with China's Directorate General of Telecoms (DGT), along with LM Ericsson, to interconnect the national cellular network in China. The internetworking project, the largest cellular network in the world, should be completed by the end of this year, ready for formal launch early next year. 23 -> France - Bull Announces Profit Intentions -- Cie des Machines Bull, the giant French computer and electronics company, has announced that it will still achieve its stated intention of making a profit this year, despite reporting a loss of FF 874 million during the first nine months of the year. 24 -> ****Trillions At Stake In Mastercard Aim At Smartcard Market -- Mastercard is taking Australia, and the world, one step closer towards the cashless society with the launch of its smart card technology in Canberra next week. In a global first, Mastercard Cash, a rechargeable store value chip card, is set to be tested in Australia's capital city, Canberra. 25 -> Video News Roundup -- This is a look at the top stories this week in the world of video news reporting: CBS's Nonlinear Bake-Off Still Waffling, Oracle's Web TV To Debut In '96 and in new products: X-Ray stock footage, MPEG Test Disk and a Video Toaster Guide. 26 -> China - Technology Newsbrief -- In this news roundup from China, Founder's color desktop publishing system; China-Japan joint venture established to produce fax machines; Taiwan's Syscom Computer Engineering increases presence on the mainland; Microsoft helps SLWC to use Chinese on computers. 27 -> Glenayre Wins Major Thai Paging Operator Contract -- Shinawatra Paging has awarded the second phase of a major expansion plan to Glenayre Electronics Inc., of the US. 28 -> Digital Making Big Internet Push -- With an increasingly competitive market for Internet connection packages, Digital is poised to take a leadership role, so says Vice President of Digital Internet Business Group, Rose Ann Giordano in an interview with Newsbytes. 29 -> 3DO/Matsushita Will Boost Video Game Market -- DFC Intelligence predicts that the video game market will be dominated by four major systems: Nintendo Ultra 64, Sega Saturn, Sony PlayStation and 3DO/Matsushita. The report claims Matsushita's partnering with 3DO will give the game industry and 3DO a big shot in the arm. 30 -> Avid, SGI Team On Professional Video, See $5B Market -- Avid Media Server and Avid Media Spectrum are the first two components in a new collaborative initiative by Avid and Silicon Graphics for the professional video market, but the vendors will broaden their deal "considerably" with other new products in pursuit of a potential $5 billion in revenues, said Avid's D.J. Long, in a conference call with Newsbytes. 31 -> Unitel Seeks Changes In Canadian Telecom Rules -- The established regional telephone companies are allocating too large a portion of their costs to long distance, and there are problems with telecommunications regulators' split rate base and rate rebalancing positions, an official of Unitel Communications Inc., told reporters this week. 32 -> Newsweek Interactive Guide To Kids' Software -- Regardless of why a PC first enters a home, that computer almost inevitably ends up being used by any kids who live in the household, said Michael Rogers, during an interview with Newsbytes about a new multimedia CD-ROM title from Newsweek called Parent's Guide to Children's Software 96. 33 -> Plenty Of Games Are Played In Hotel Rooms -- They may register in power suits, but they can't wait to get to their hotel room and play Nintendo. And being able to get their hands on that game controller is boosting hotel revenues, according to a survey conducted recently by the company that installs the video games. 34 -> SystemSoft To Assist Apple, Developers With PC Cards -- SystemSoft, a major producer of PC Card software, plans to announce a new support program for Macintosh and Power Mac developers in early 1996, revealed Paul Sereiko, during an interview with Newsbytes today about SystemSoft's newly unveiled plans to port its DOS- and Windows-based software to the PowerBook environment. 35 -> ****Multimedia Chipset To Replace Sound/Video Cards -- Brooktree, a designer and marketer of integrated circuits, is expected to announce an expansion to its multimedia accelerator chipset, BtV, to support Microsoft's (NASDAQ:MSFT) DirectX Application Programming Interfaces (APIs). Incorporated into expansion boards and motherboards, the chipset is capable of replacing sound and video cards. 36 -> Newsbytes Week In Review -- This is a look at the top stories this week, listing with their category code: Targeted Daily News For "Rent" To Websites; Corel Faces Lawsuit Over Software Bugs; Siemens Takes 75% Stake In UK's Mercury Communications; AMD & NexGen Merge To Compete Against Intel; SafeSurf & Guardian Angels Patrol Internet; Innovations Make Net Usage Hard To Track; E-mail, Not Web, Is Killer App; Ad Exec Lukewarm On Multimedia Penetration Levels; IDG's McGovern Defines Online Publishing Success; Computer Crimes Greater Than Expected, Increasing; eWorld Exec - Online Services "Terminally Ill;" CD-ROM Better Marketing Vehicle Than Web?; Microsoft Fixes Windows 95 Security Problems; MCI Plans Home VideoPhone Over Normal Lines; Netscape Exceeds Wall Street Expectations; Online Execs - "Churn" Still A Problem; Apple Courts Associated Press; Sybase To Announce New Products Live On Internet; Access Compuserve Without A Computer Or Modem; AT&T Business Network Ready To Go; Fastest Mac Ever To Be Unveiled Monday; Home Users Use Web More - Study; Trillions At Stake In Mastercard Aim At Smartcard Market. (Wendy Woods/19951027) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 10/06/95 GENERAL Storagetek Intros New Subsystem, Fast Iceberg Diskcopy (NEWS)(GENERAL)(DEN)(00001) Storagetek Intros New Subsystem, Fast Iceberg Diskcopy 10/06/95 DENVER, COLORADO, U.S.A., 1995 OCT 6 (NB) -- Storage Technology Corp. (NYSE: STK) has announced its next enhancement for its flagship Iceberg storage system. The company also announced attachment of its Timberline 9490 subsystem to an IBM AS/400. Storagetek said Snapshot Copy is the next major enhancement for the Iceberg 9200 Virtual Storage Facility. Snapshot Copy is a feature the company said will cut from hours to seconds the time required to provide a copy of disk volumes. No disk space is required to accommodate the copy. Traditional backup procedures, while essential, make data unavailable to users during the time the backup is being done. Storagetek said Snapshot copy provides a unique "point in time" copy of an entire disk volume within seconds without using the power of the host computer. Once the copy has been made, without using additional Iceberg disk space, the user can back up the data to tape without blocking user accessibility. Snapshot Copy also makes recovery from an application failure almost instantaneous, according to Storagetek. The company also anticipates that Snapshot Copy will allow customers to move data sets from one disk volume to another on an Iceberg system within seconds. No pricing or availability has been announced yet. Storagetek also announced attachment of its Timberline 9490 cartridge subsystem to an IBM AS/400. The 36-track Timberline tape subsystem was announced earlier this year. Timberline allows for simultaneous reads and writes with all controller transport units. Storagetek said this architecture virtually eliminates controller contention and dramatically reduces processing time, allowing timberline to handle increased batch/backup work loads. (Jim Mallory/19951006/Press contact: David Reid, Storagetek, 303-673-4815; Public contact: Storagetek, 303-673-5020) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 10/06/95 GENERAL Typhoon Sybil Blows Packard Bell Away (NEWS)(GENERAL)(HKG)(00002) Typhoon Sybil Blows Packard Bell Away 10/06/95 CENTRAL, HONG KONG, 1995 OCT 6 (NB) -- Blame Typhoon Sybil for blowing Packard Bell's official entry to the north Asian market off course. The typhoon, which closed down Hong Kong and neighboring Guangdong Province in southern China most of Tuesday, sent Packard Bell's air freight forwarder into a spin and the Asian launch of the company's latest pride and joy has had to be postponed for up to two weeks. Listed as the number one PC vendor in the US, the company was hoping to impress journalists with its new "Corner" multimedia personal computer. But exactly which corner of Kai Tak airport the new machines are in is still a mystery to the new entrant to Hong Kong's PC market. Lim Huat Seng, managing director for Asia Pacific, admitted the freight forwarder had lost his computers. "The typhoon has caused a few problems," he said, getting blunter with each breath. "Actually the shipment has gone missing and we're trying to track it down at the moment." As well as launch the new multimedia system, PB also planned to have an official splash for its new North Asia office. Now that has to wait until Lim can find out what Sybil did with his boxes. On top of his Sybil related problems, Lim confided that his planned Hong Kong splash venue -- Pacific Place -- had been overbooked. Jardine Office Systems has been selling PB PCs informally on the side but word is the firm is scouting for an official distributor and is currently negotiating with Jardines. " We're talking about a distributorship but nothing's been finalized yet," Lim said. (Nigel Armstrong & I.T. Daily/19951006) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 10/06/95 GOVT Unisys Wins Hong Kong Airport Contract (NEWS)(GOVT)(HKG)(00003) Unisys Wins Hong Kong Airport Contract 10/06/95 CENTRAL, HONG KONG, 1995 OCT 6 (NB) -- Unisys has won a HK$4 million contract to supply an air traffic control simulation system for Hong Kong's new airport. The system is designed to train operators on terminal radar approach and control tower operations at Chek Lap Kok. The contract brought together several suppliers: Loral Corp. (formerly Unisys Government Systems), software simulation supplier Wesson, and Silicon Graphics. According to the Civil Aviation Department, the equipment surpasses what has been used in training and allows trainees to experience realistic emergency situations. The control tower simulator creates a 360 degree view of the airfield on large screens. The images are generated by SGI Onyx graphics supercomputers using SGI's RealityEngine. Barco video projectors will throw up the graphics. All of the above is linked to workstations where students will play the role of air traffic controllers and interact with instructors and simulator pilots over full audio links. The software for both these systems is currently being developed by Loral and Wesson. (Nigel Armstrong & I.T. Daily/19951006) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 10/06/95 EDITORIAL PC Editorial - Time To Focus On Quality Rather Than Raw Power (EDITORIAL)(PC)(HKG)(00004) Editorial - Time To Focus On Quality Rather Than Raw Power 10/06/95 BANGKOK, THAILAND, 1995 OCT 6 (NB) -- By Tony Waltham. As personal computers increasingly become personal purchases when the owner becomes the buyer, over one third of homes in the United States have a PC now, is it not time to question the computer manufacturers' reckless obsession with speed? All PC makers are competing by offering faster CPUs, more memory and bigger hard drives, but let's ponder what effect this is having on the users, the customers themselves as well as on the new software that we are being offered. Today, when you buy a PC you get more processing power and storage capabilities on your desktop than a mainframe had in the 1970s. But, while these mainframes may still be in use -- indeed, the US Federal Aviation Agency's Air Traffic Control Network still uses computers with vacuum tubes in them -- your personal computer is likely to be an antique in less than five years. This preoccupation with speed is almost as if the industry is building racing cars instead of comfortable saloons, and when the modern PC is teamed up with off-the-shelf software, there are frequent "crashes" and a computer can be as temperamental as a Formula One car on the Monza circuit. Take the Pentium debacle recently: Intel was so preoccupied with speed that it knowingly shipped chips with the floating point error -- until end-users cried "foul" and the protests and news coverage led to the recall and subsequent replacement offer. Yes, computer processing power and hard disk storage capacity doubles every 18 months or so, but is the mere ability to offer better performance now really a good reason to build faster and faster machines that make their predecessors out of date in a couple of years? Let's take this in perspective. For the past 14 years, the advances in processing power and storage have largely been welcome: newer and faster PCs enabled spreadsheets to recalculate more faster, and graphical user interfaces to perform at acceptable speeds. Now, we have Windows 95 as the substitute for DOS and Windows 3.x, and a resource-hungry operating system it is too -- 8 megabytes and a 486 DX2 or DX4 is the preferred platform, while 16 megabytes and a Pentium is recommended by the analysts. But is Windows 95 bullet-proof in terms of stability? No, although it is supposed to suffer from fewer "general protection faults" (system crashes) than Windows and DOS. Are the applications robust? It is perhaps too early to say, many have yet to be introduced for Windows 95. More importantly, will they be well-developed applications, finely tuned to make the most of the computer's finite resources? In general, most likely not. Certainly if one takes most Windows 3.x applications as a guide, many of which are resource hungry, meaning that most take a large hunk of hard disk space, and -- from what programmers say -- are inefficiently coded. Microsoft Word 6 for Windows and WordPerfect for Windows 3.1 each require around 30 megabytes of your hard disk to install, and from observation, they sap the power of a 80486 CPU, delivering word processors that run more slowly on a 486 machine than WordStar 3.3 did on a PC-XT using DOS back in 1985. Software today is rushed out, often needing frequent revisions or patches to fix bugs that should never have been there in the first place. It is also an unfortunate by-product that, given the truly amazing advances in hardware capabilities, programs need no longer be tightly written or coded in a low-level language. In a sense, bloated software applications are part of the reason for this ongoing need for faster PCs. This is sort of a chicken and egg situation: To run the latest software, you need the latest hardware. And, by the way, most software suppliers do not stock or support "old versions" of their applications. However, the market is changing in a different way as well. When companies were buying most of the PCs sold for business use they did not focus so much attention on running the latest applications, merely on getting the job done. If an application had been developed in dBASE III Plus, why switch to Foxpro or Access? "If it ain't broke, don't fix it" is an apt saying, especially when a new system or a hardware and software upgrade costs money in lost productivity as well as in time for training of users and there are in-house development costs. But home users, who now in America account for more than half of PC sales, have a rather different perspective. They do want the latest and greatest software, and their PC purchase accounts for a substantial sum of money. This means that a PC purchase has definitely much more significant impact on the family budget than a television or other home appliances, but not as much as a car. Nevertheless, it is not a purchase that any family probably wants to have to make every three or four years. Given that we have reached an extremely high degree of power/performance with a Pentium-class machine, coupled with a gigabyte hard disk (1,000 megabytes), a 4x CD ROM drive, 16 megabytes of memory (RAM), a 28.8K bps V34 modem and super VGA graphics, might I suggest that it is time now to identify this, or a similar configuration, as a reference platform for a home or business multimedia PC. If this were the case, the software developers could focus on optimizing their applications for speed and performance, along with other features such as known interoperability and bug-free performance. Since the office market is diminishing in importance to PC vendors anyhow, might not a standard platform for development not in fact promote more PC sales, since the end-users or customers could be assured that their computer would be good for at least five years, while applications for this platform would be more robust. By designing for stability rather than speed, all would benefit, I believe -- with fewer frustrated callers hanging on the end of a help desk telephone call -- and better software which has the time to be developed, refined and optimized and emerge as a mature product. Such an initiative would have to come from the leaders in the industry -- Intel, Microsoft, Compaq, Lotus, Digital and IBM to name but a few. This is not to say that the development of faster PCs would or should stop: there is always a need for more speed in some areas, and there is plenty of scope for P6- and P7-based machines, along with RISC based computers for some business applications and so- called "power users". It is just that it is time to look at the quality and stability issues rather than at raw MIPs of processing power alone. (Tony Waltham and Post Database-Bangkok Post/19950922) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 10/06/95 ONLINE ****Lycos Spider Web Search Gets GUI Update, Backlinks, Ads (NEWS)(ONLINE)(BOS)(00005) ****Lycos Spider Web Search Gets GUI Update, Backlinks, Ads 10/06/95 WILMINGTON, MASSACHUSETTS, U.S.A., 1995 OCT 6 (NB) -- A newly updated interface to the Lycos Web site brings new features like "backlinking," a Spider-based "hot Web sites list," and support for Hot Java animation, plus a total of about 200 advertisers, to an Internet search and indexing service that now boasts at least nine times as many URLs (Universal Resource Locators) as Open Text, Yahoo!, or any other competitor, maintained Robert J. Davis, company chief, in an interview with Newsbytes. Davis told Newsbytes that Lycos started up in June as a commercial avenue for the Spider search engine first developed at Carnegie Mellon University. At this point, the free Web-based service is adding 700,000 to 750,OOO URLs each month, or "just about as many as any competing service indexes all together," he asserted. Lycos has indexed 8 million sites all together, a number representing "91 percent of the Web," said the company president and CEO (chief executive officer). The service is answering more than 26 million Internet-related user queries per month. The new GUI (graphical user interface) to Lycos, which went up this week, is meant to provide easier navigation and much faster searching to end users, while at the same time presenting some unusual benefits to advertisers and outside WebMasters. "This interface is really `slick." It shows the change from academia to the commercial market. It's also `the fastest thing on the Web,' standing head and shoulders above the rest," he contended. For end user searching and navigation, the updated GUI features a new search form, "results page," navigation and status bar, and help page, together with a Spider-produced "Lycos 250 section" and a "mini-map" of the Lycos site. The new search form lets users set "display options," along with search options and key word. "You can ask for detailed results or one-line summaries, for instance, or for `loose-matched' or ` very strongly matched' searches," he illustrated. The search form uses "simple little click boxes," he added. The results form, where results of the Lycos search are presented to the user, now offers enhancements like "keyword highlighting," in which the keyword search terms are highlighted in the full text or summary, for easier on-screen comprehension, Newsbytes was told. Users can also obtain information such as "the number of documents (on the Web) that match at least one search term." In addition, he said, users can now navigate the Lycos site in multiple ways: via the new navigation and status bar on the top of Lycos's home page, the new mini-map of the site, or a text-only navigation bar at the bottom of each Lycos page. The Spider-generated "hot Web sites" list is "something that absolutely nobody else has," Davis told Newsbytes. The Spider technology at the heart of Lycos indexes the Web on the basis of links, moving through the Web from one link to the next, and keeping track of the number of links to each site, he explained. The new "Lycos 250" displays an "objective list" of "hot sites" by using the number of links per site as the measure for Web "popularity." Lycos' new backlinking feature is also an "industry first," Davis asserted. The "backlinks" are aimed at letting a user who has navigated to Lycos from a linked site in order to conduct a search to return directly to the original site, just by clicking on an icon in Lycos. For understandable reasons, WebMasters are not always that eager for users to leave a Web site to go to another site, Davis pointed out. Lycos is making free software available to any WebMaster for building a Locos search box with backlink code. WebMasters can use any icon of their choice. The new GUI to Lycos also supports Hot Java animation, allowing advertisers to build animated online ads, according to the CEO. Lycos users will be able to access the animated ads with the use of any Hot Java or Netscape 2.x browser. The Lycos Web page first began to carry ads in September. The first slate of online advertisers included Microsoft, Internet Shopping Network, AT&T, The Computer Network (C/Net), Frontier Technologies Corp., and NECX Direct. Lycos offers a range of pricing packages to advertisers, Davis observed. "General" advertising packages are available starting at $12,000 for 500,000 "impressions," or viewings of an advertisement, per month. A Quick Start package provides 2,000 impressions per day for $1,500 per month. Lycos also offers "customized" packages supplying up to 20 million impressions. In addition, advertisers can buy "keyword search advertising," in which "purchased keywords" appear above the user's results page whenever a user search is conducted employing that keyword. Users can access the Lycos Web site free of charge at http://www.lycos.com . (Jacqueline Emigh/19951005/Reader Contact: Lycos Inc., 508-657- 5050; Press Contact: Pam Hamilton or Gwenn Gauthier, Collaborative Communications for Lycos, 617-621-1595) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 10/06/95 LEGAL Does HK Software Piracy Involve Government? (NEWS)(LEGAL)(HKG)(00006) Does HK Software Piracy Involve Government? 10/06/95 CENTRAL, HONG KONG, 1995 OCT 6 (NB) -- Following the Business Software Alliance's secret investigation of 22 retail outlets selling pirated software in Hong Kong's notorious Golden Shopping Arcade, questions are being asked about why government officials appear either unwilling or unable to stop the flourishing open trade. The BSA's current investigation led to it write to Hong Kong Governor Chris Patten asking for action. The BSA wants an inter-departmental task force to be set up to combat growing software counterfeiting and global distribution. "It's our insistence that government departments act together and take the burden of investigation away from us," fumed Valerie Colbourn, Hong Kong-based vice president of BSA. Not only is illegal pirated software being sold, according to Colbourn, but the law-breaking is linked to organized crime. The retailers, say sources, sell products throughout the region and receive them from China. Many of the shops are allegedly breaking other regulations ranging from tax laws, business registration requirements, fire regulations and customs and excise laws. "One has to ask the question and wonder why these outlets have been flourishing for so long, " snapped Colbourn when asked if she suspected corruption in government. But she refused to make any direct allegations of bribery. The BSA did not ask Chris Patten to send in the territories' feared corruption watchdog, the Independent Commission Against Corruption (ICAC). But the US-based software cops will be sharing their information with the Organized Crime Bureau, and Newsbytes' affiliate publication I.T. Daily has further learned the group seeks to extend its injunction against other suspect retail outlets around Hong Kong. Sources reported that today's hearing, in front of Justice Rogers, is only the beginning of a more concerted campaign against the pirates. The hearing gives those handed ex-parte injunctions the opportunity to defend themselves before the injunctions are made permanent. If they are not defended, anyone who has been handed an injunction granted by Judge Jerome could be charged with contempt of court if they're found selling illegal software again. The BSA said it intends to follow up this new civil action policy and get injunction orders for other distributors. We've been investigating other outlets and we intend to hit them pretty soon, too," said Colbourn. On the list are shops at 298 Hennessy Road, the Sino Centre and the Mongkok Computer Centre. "It's really frustrating since they're selling software and making no attempt to make it look like a legitimate product. It's illegal and we're having to bear the cost of civil action. But we'll stick with it," said Colbourn. (Nigel Armstrong & I.T. Daily/19951005) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 10/06/95 GENERAL Thailand Hosting Increasing Number Of Hard Disk Plants (NEWS)(GENERAL)(HKG)(00007) Thailand Hosting Increasing Number Of Hard Disk Plants 10/06/95 BANGKOK, THAILAND, 1995 OCT 6 (NB) -- With a planned 1,000 million baht investment, Asahi Komag (Thailand) will begin construction of a 15,000 square meter factory to produce hard disk components outside Bangkok on a 68-rai site on an industrial park in Prachin Buri province. The company is wholly owned by Asahi Komag Co Ltd, a joint venture between Asahi Glass Co in Japan, Thai Asahi Glass Public and Komag Inc in USA, and will produce plated, polished substrates for export to Japan where they will be incorporated into hard disk drives. This investment will be one of several major commitments in Thailand by the hard disk industry. Seagate Technology announced in August that it had begun construction of a 1,000 million baht hard disk component factory in Nakhon Ratchasima, Seagate's sixth plant in Thailand. Micropolis and Saha Union also both produce read/write head assemblies in Thailand. Seagate now has more than 27,000 employees in Thailand and is one of the largest private employers in the country. According to Asahi Komag President and CEO Toyohiko Ishikaki, the planned factory here is the company's third plant, with the others in the USA and Malaysia. Asahi Komag (Thailand) will have an initial capitalization of 300 million baht and expects to be officially registered by around the middle of this month. The factory should be completed in July next year and the first products will be manufactured in November next year at 304 Industrial Park Co. The factory expects to manufacture approximately 30-40 million pieces a year. Mr Ishikaki said the manufacture of thin-film sputtered disks was a complex, multi-step process that converted aluminum substrates into finished data storage media for use in computer hard disk drives, which will be finally assembled in Japan. Customers of the hard disks include Fujitsu, Hitachi, NEC and Panasonic. The factory expects to begin with 150 employees, and to increase this number to 260 when the plant reaches full production. Initial employees will be sent to Asahi Komag's Yonezawa factory in Japan for training assignments, he said. According to independent market research firm, International Data Corporation (IDC), demand for PCs is running at a 25 per cent higher growth rate than last year's industry predicted growth rate, thus resulting in an even greater demand for disk drives. IDC's statistics indicate that total disk drive industry shipments, which are expected to exceed 90 million units this year, will grow to more than 116 million units per year in 1996, and exceed 193 million units annually by the end of the decade. This factory reflects a strong trend for hard disk manufacturers to expand their manufacturing facilities in the region. In Singapore, two US hard disk manufacturers -- StorMedia and Western Digital -- announced late last week that they would set up plants there, while IBM recently opened its first plant in Singapore, set up at a cost of US$100 million. Asahi Komag will take advantage of the Board of Investment privileges, which it has now applied for, that are associated with the 304 Industrial Park in Prachin Buri, which is in BoI Zone 3. The parent company was established in 1987 and started production of thin-film media using sputtering process in 1988, now having five production lines in Yonezawa, where it produces over one million finished sputtered disk products each month. (Tony Waltham and Post Database-Bangkok Post/19951004) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 10/06/95 ONLINE Australia - Telstra Offering Lotus And Novell Network Services (NEWS)(ONLINE)(SYD)(00008) Australia - Telstra Offering Lotus And Novell Network Services 10/06/95 SYDNEY, AUSTRALIA 1995 OCT 6 (NB) -- Telstra, Australia's largest telecoms carrier, has cooked up deals with Lotus and Novell to incorporate new services into its mix. Lotus and Telstra announced that the Australian carrier will be the partner in Notes Public Networks carriers, which the IBM subsidiary is now rolling out. At Telecom '95 in Geneva, a joint announcement said 10 other telcos on four continents would also offer Lotus Notes on their data services network. Telstra Multimedia CEO Gerry Moriarty said the service would be a dial-in to test with 10 selected companies over the next few months and be generally available, tariffs are to come, late next year. The other partners are British Telecom, CompuServe, Deutsche Telekom, NTT (and NTT-Data), Telecom Italia, Telekom Malaysia, Unisource and US West. The notable exception, as Steve King, Lotus Asia Pacific Notes executive admitted, is Singapore Telecom. However, he said, new partners are being signed up. The other announcement was about Novell's global network. There are five telco partners in Novell's girdle around the world, its NetWare Connect Services: Telstra, AT&T, Deutsche Telekom, NTT and Unisource (a European consortium). Outside organizations, such as Cisco, are also backing the group. "This is one of the most significant technology announcements of the decade," Novell managing director, Graeme Inchley, said, describing the service as an "information dial tone" available at a plug in the wall. (John Stackhouse and Computer Daily News/19951005) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 10/06/95 ONLINE Australia - Compuserve Revamps Prices (NEWS)(ONLINE)(SYD)(00009) Australia - Compuserve Revamps Prices 10/06/95 SYDNEY, AUSTRALIA 1995 OCT 6 (NB) -- CompuServe Pacific has returned its Electronic Mall to the free-of-charges list, following a howl from members. The members found they were being charged just to wander the mall electronically, following a new pricing structure introduced on September 10. "CompuServe prides itself on listening to members," says manager Subra Venkat. "It was important to our members that using the Electronic Mall be just like roaming through a real mall. That means browsing, bargain-hunting and window shopping for free." CompuServe is also looking to a membership boost from a bundling deal with IBM. Big Blue's Aptiva home PCs in Australia will come with CompuServe connections and The Journalist software, a program claimed to search CompuServe news sources for members and assemble items into a personalized newspaper. (Computer Daily News/19951005) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 95 10/06/95 TELECOM Mercury One-2-One PCN Roaming Successful At Telecom (NEWS)(TELECOM)(LON)(00010) Mercury One-2-One PCN Roaming Successful At Telecom 95 10/06/95 GENEVA, SWITZERLAND, 1995 OCT 6 (NB) -- Mercury One-2-One has revealed that commercial tests of digital mobile roaming, which are taking place this week and next at the Telecom 95 telecoms show in Geneva, are a success. One-2-One is a PCN (Personal Communication Network) digital mobile network that operates at 1,800 megahertz (MHz) in the UK. Phones from the One-2-One net have successfully roamed on to the new Natel city PCN service which was recently launch in Geneva by Swiss Telecom. Telecom 95 is held every four years and is billed as the world's leading international telecoms exhibition and the forum at which all the latest technological services innovations are unveiled. Andrew Donovan, press office with One-2-One, told Newsbytes that, while the tests were a success, the company is not giving absolute priority to roaming. Instead, it is concentrating on rolling out its network across the UK. "I think you will find that, once people realize the costs of roaming calls, their interest in using their mobile phone abroad starts to wane. We're finding that people are more interesting in being able to use their One-2-One phone across the whole of the UK rather than while they're on holiday for a few weeks a year," he explained. Donovan went on to say that he expects that this is the reason why Orange's PCN service has not implemented roaming yet. He told Newsbytes that, while GSM (Global System for Mobile communications) nets are aimed at business people, PCN is designed for both consumers and business people. For that reason, he said, interest in roaming is less on PCN than on GSM. Technically, implementing roaming between PCN services is not any more difficult than with GSM, since PCN is actually the same system as GSM, except that it operates at 1,800 MHz in Europe and 1,900 MHz in the US, compared with the international standard of 900 MHz worldwide. PCN is now operating in the UK, Germany, Thailand, Malaysia and Switzerland, and, in its 1,900 MHz variant, in many cities in the US. The slightly bad news is that the US PCN systems are not compatible with those elsewhere in the world because of the difference in frequencies. According to Richard Goswell, One-2-One's managing director, the link with the Swiss Natel PCN service is interesting from a technical point. "This is one of the many roaming agreements we expect to develop as (PCN) services are launched around the world," he said. The current list of PCN services will be joined by Singapore by the end of this year and France early next year. In addition, the European Commission is actively promoting the deployment of PCN services in all its member states and the licensing of PCN services in Denmark, Finland, Italy, the Netherlands, Spain, Sweden and Norway is expected within the next two years. Several other countries, notably in Asia and Australia, are also considering PCN. Six PCN operators have so far declared their intention to offer services, under the Personal Communications System (PCS) banner, in the US. One-2-One has a new Web site at http://www.one2one.co.uk . (Steve Gold/19951006/Press Contact: One-2-One +44-956-700121; Fax +44- 956-700-122) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 10/06/95 WINDOWS Quarterdeck's Advanced Windows Memory Doubler (NEWS)(WINDOWS)(LON)(00011) Quarterdeck's Advanced Windows Memory Doubler 10/06/95 CHELMSFORD, ESSEX, ENGLAND, 1995 OCT 6 (NB) -- Quarterdeck has taken the wraps off Magnaram 2, a Windows 3.1 and Windows 95 memory multiplier. The product is unique in the market since, unlike other RAM doublers, it can work effectively with both iterations of the Windows GUI/operating system package. In addition, it can triple the available memory resources on a machine under certain conditions. According to Caroline Edney, Quarterdeck's director of marketing for Europe, the package combines safe data compression technology with a proprietary method for improving virtual memory speed. In use, Magnaram 2 uses a proprietary memory compression system to provide up to three more times memory available to Windows 3.1 or Windows 95 without any extra physical memory being added to the machine on which it is running. This is particularly important to Windows 95 since the new Windows operating system makes extensive and early use of virtual memory. "This is Quarterdeck's entry into the fast-growing RAM doubling software field. Unlike other products however, MagnaRAM 2 is specifically targeted at compression of memory as system resource optimization is unnecessary under Windows 95," Edney explained. According to Quarterdeck, when Magnaram 2 is running, a graphical statistics display indicates how the system's memory and performance is improved. The graphs display the amount of memory being used, the amount of memory currently available, the memory compression ratio, the number of times virtual memory was used or avoided, and the current configuration of memory. This level of technical information is important for technical users, Quarterdeck claims, since it gives users the ability to exactly configure the product to meet their system's memory demands. "The extra memory reported by Magnaram is real memory, allowing you to do more. The product is designed to alleviate Windows 95's hunger for virtual memory," Edney explained. Quarterdeck is pitching Magnaram 2 at under the price of the competition. In Europe, the package is available immediately at UKP 39-95. Users of version 1.0 of the package (for Windows 3.1) can upgrade for UKP 5-00. Nick Spencer, a spokesman for Quarterdeck, told Newsbytes that the European launch of Magnaram 2 is being paralleled by a similar launch in the US, where the package sells for $39.95. Existing US users of version 1.0 can upgrade for $4.95. System requirements for the package include a 80386-based PC or higher, two megabytes of hard disk space, four megabytes of RAM, and Windows 3.1x or Windows 95. Further details on Magnaram 2 can be found on Quarterdeck's Web site, which is at http://www.qdeck.co.uk . (Steve Gold/19951005/Press Contact: Nick Spencer +44-1344-873445; Fax +44-1344-873446) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 10/06/95 TELECOM US Robotics Pushes V.34 To 33,600 BPS Speeds (NEWS)(TELECOM)(LON)(00012) US Robotics Pushes V.34 To 33,600 BPS Speeds 10/06/95 WOKINGHAM, BERKSHIRE, ENGLAND, 1995 OCT 6 (NB) -- US Robotics has announced a software upgrade for its V.34 Courier range of desktop modems that pushes the 28,800 bits per second (bps) "limit" of V.34 to 33,600 bps. The new speed is known as V.34Plus, although this is a proprietary data speed that will only work with other V.34Plus-enabled modems, Newsbytes notes. "Pushing" the V.34 specification is not as revolutionary as it first sounds, Newsbytes notes. When the V.34 specification was proposed by Hayes and Rockwell in the early 1990s, the specification was expected to run at 26,400 bps. When the industry de-facto standard of V Fast Class (V.FC) was supported before the V.34 specification was ratified by the International Telecoms Union (ITU), since it pushed the technical envelope to 28,800 bps, the proposed V.34 specification was moved to 28,800 bps. Ironically, a few months before the V.34 specification was finally approved by the ITU, the ITU received proposals that the technical envelope be moved again, to 33,600 bps. Because the V.34 standard was so close to approval, the proposal was dropped. It now seems that US Robotics has implemented the technology on its modems, even though it is a proprietary standard. New versions of the V.34 Courier and Total Control modems from US Robotics will shortly include V.34Plus as standard. Existing users can upgrade their modems using a modem firmware upgrade that is available for download on US Robotics' BBSs in the US and UK. This new firmware can be downloaded to any Courier modem with flash ROM upgradability, Newsbytes notes. Announcing the V.34Plus upgrade, Steve Bradshaw, US Robotics' marketing manager admitted that it is a proprietary standard, "but based very closely on the work of the ITU committee on which US Robotics is represented." (Steve Gold/19951006/Press Contact: The Edge Partnership +44-1625- 511966; Reader Contact: US Robotics +44-1734-228200; Fax +44-1734- 695555) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 10/06/95 IBM ****IBM To Cut 1,100 From US Staff (NEWS)(IBM)(TOR)(00013) ****IBM To Cut 1,100 From US Staff 10/06/95 WHITE PLAINS, NEW YORK, U.S.A., 1995 OCT 6 (NB) -- About another 1,100 IBM (NYSE:IBM) employees will be losing their jobs over the next few months as IBM tries to drive down its sales, general, and administrative spending levels. Most of the cuts will be in sales and support operations, and all will be in the United States. Company spokesman John Reilly told Newsbytes that about 1,000 jobs are being cut from US sales and support as IBM consolidates operations. Roughly 60 more jobs are to disappear at a real-estate operation in Rochester, Minnesota, he said. Reilly said the exact number of jobs to be lost is approximate, as some of those affected may find jobs elsewhere in IBM, and some employees will have to decide whether to relocate. "There's a lot of decisions to be made," he said. According to Reilly, the cuts are part of an IBM drive to get sales, general, and administrative spending down to about 15 percent of revenues from about 18 percent today. IBM has already pushed this expense category down from 33 percent of revenues four years ago, but is trying to keep pace with competitors as they reduce their spending. Reilly described the moves as "what you have to do" to remain competitive. He also denied that customers will be affected by the cuts, saying most of those who will lose their jobs do not deal directly with customers. He said IBM's responsiveness to customer needs should not suffer because the intent of the changes is to consolidate and streamline sales and support operations. As part of the changes, IBM is consolidating its financial and planning staff from several locations to two, and will combine sales and support offices in various locations around the country. The cost of the cuts will be covered by an $8.9-billion restructuring charge that IBM took in July, 1993, Reilly said. (Grant Buckler/19951006/Press Contact: John Reilly, IBM, 914-642-5410) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 10/06/95 TELECOM UK/Germany Service Support On Mobile Telephony (NEWS)(TELECOM)(LON)(00014) UK/Germany Service Support On Mobile Telephony 10/06/95 STUTTGART, GERMANY, 1995 OCT 6 (NB) -- Debitel of Germany and Securicor of the UK, two independent cellular service providers, have signed a joint strategic service agreement for their respective GSM (Global System for Mobile communications) subscribers. The deal means that, while one provider's subscribers are roaming in the other service provider's country, they can turn to that service provider for help and support. By the end of the year, for example, a German subscriber travelling to the UK, can talk to Securicor in the UK, for support on his phone and/or account, with Securicor staff able to access the information on that subscriber on the Debitel computer system. The same will be true for subscribers to Securicor's GSM service when travelling in Germany. According to Dr Joachim Dreyer, general manager of Debitel, the deal covers around 800,000 subscribers between the two companies, a figure that is expected to top the million mark by the end of the year when the agreement kicks into operation. Dreyer claims that "international customers should expect the same level of service away from the UK as they do at home." "Network operators deliver the benefits of network roaming to customers and it is up to us to provide the value added services. With a local service presence, we can ensure that our customers' inquiries can be dealt with by local specialists on a range of subjects and not solely limited to queries on network coverage," he explained. Debitel already offers international hotline support for subscribers to its joint venture companies Debitel Nederland and Debitel France. Plans call for Securicor in the UK to shortly announce support for UK subscribers in the Netherlands and France, along with the German link. Dreyer says that the deal with Securicor is just a beginning. "We are already looking at further services to make it easier for our mobile customers when they are travelling abroad," he said. (Sylvia Dennis/19951006/Press & Reader Contact: Debitel +49-711-7217- 000; Fax +49-811-721-561) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 10/06/95 GOVT EC Instructs Italian Govt Over Omnitel License Fees (NEWS)(GOVT)(LON)(00015) EC Instructs Italian Govt Over Omnitel License Fees 10/06/95 BRUSSELS, BELGIUM, 1995 OCT 6 (NB) -- The European Commission (EC) has instructed Telecom Italia that it must now pay a Lire 750 billion license to the Italian Government, the same fee as was charged by the Government for Omnitel's operating license earlier this year. In April of this year, Telecom Italia was given the go-ahead to formally launch its GSM (global system for mobile communications) digital cellular service, following an acrimonious legal dispute with Omnitel Pronto, the second GSM licensee. The dispute between Telecom Italia, the state telecoms company, and Omnitel Pronto, a private consortium company headed up by Olivetti, flared up in April when the Italian Appeal Courts decided that Omnitel's request to stop Telecom Italia launching its GSM network -- made on the grounds that Omnitel could not launch its network until the third quarter of this year -- was invalid. Omnitel officials then referred the entire case to the EC, making a formal complaint over the Italian Government's dual standards policy, i.e. charging nothing for Telecom Italia's GSM license, yet charging Omnitel for the same privilege. Last month, Omnitel announced that its planned GSM digital cellular net would start test operations within the next few weeks, prior to a formal launch in December of this year. According to Francesco Caio, Omnitel's managing director, when the network begins operation before Christmas, subscribers will find that around 40 percent of Italy's population areas will be covered by the network. Roaming with foreign networks should also start within the same time frame, as roaming agreements with several other national GSM networks across Europe are now in place. Omnitel claims to have already spent 550 billion lire on its network, and will invest a further 300 billion on expansion within the next six months. (Sylvia Dennis/19951006/Press Contact: European Commission +32-2-299- 1111; Telecom Italia, +39-6-68461; Omnitel, +39-2-415-0618) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 10/06/95 TELECOM Infonet Teams With Swiss Telecom On New Network (NEWS)(TELECOM)(LON)(00016) Infonet Teams With Swiss Telecom On New Network 10/06/95 BRUSSELS, BELGIUM, 1995 OCT 6 (NB) -- Infonet and Swiss Telecom have formed a new joint venture company called Infonet Switzerland. Infonet has taken a 10 percent equity stake in the new company, with Swiss Telecom taking the remaining 90 percent. The new company will Be headquartered in Berne, Switzerland, and will sell and support Infonet's packet data network (PDN) services to Swiss companies, as well support Infonet's global subscribers in that country. Infonet offers international and national PDN services. Unlike industry majors in the US and the UK, such as Sprint and BT Tymnet, the company has dial-up ports in a great many more countries, allowing it to offer both dial-up and local PDN access to its network and to host computers around the world. Until the deal between CompuServe and SITA/Scitor earlier this year, CompuServe subscribers were able to access the online service from a large number of more remote countries around the world, many of which had no local country PTT PDN access. Even with access to the Scitor network, many subscribers to CompuServe can still access the online service cheaper via Infonet than via the Scitor network, Newsbytes notes. Infonet's main business is not in the online business, however, since most of its customers use the network for routing PDN calls international, terminating their own local country networks at the Infonet PDN head end in their own country. The PDN calls are then routed via Infonet to the destination country, where they are either linked directly to the host computer and/or its network, or outdial on to the destination country's PDN service to reach the required network user address (NUA). Plans call for Infonet Switzerland to maintain Infonet's comms facilities in Switzerland. Interestingly, while Infonet has dial-up ports in Berne and Geneva, it does not have national country coverage in Switzerland. This is despite the fact that Swiss Telecom took a five percent stake in Infonet when it formed in 1989. More recently, the telco has increased its stake in Infonet to 14.1 percent. According to Andre Kaeser, Swiss Telecom's director of international services, back in 1989, Swiss Telecom assigned a business unit to market Infonet's World Network in Switzerland and support local users. Legal changes governing the telecommunications environment in Switzerland have now made it possible to set up a private company for that purpose. "The result is a very entrepreneurial joint venture company that focuses all of its resources on serving those customers who require the global, end-to-end managed communication solutions that are Infonet's specialty," he explained. (Sylvia Dennis/19951006/Press & Reader Contact: Infonet Europe +32-2-646-5230; Fax +32--2640-9741) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 10/06/95 REVIEW GENERAL Review of "Trouble and Her Friends" (Book) (REVIEW)(GENERAL)(MSP)(00017) Review of "Trouble and Her Friends" (Book) 10/06/95 MINNEAPOLIS, MINNESOTA, U.S.A., 1995 OCT 6 (NB) -- By John McCormick. Remember the old story about the retired gunfighter who settled down quietly as a small town sheriff until a young punk looked him up and started causing trouble? If that was a horse opera, then "Trouble and Her Friends" by Melissa Scott is a Net opera in the same sense. Replace gunslinger with hacker, add a lost love, and mix in legal problems and you have Trouble! I think the book is great. I never cared much for westerns, but put the same basic story in cyberspace or outer space and I am hooked, especially when the author is knowledgeable AND a good story teller at the same time. Trouble is a less than demure retired hacker whose past comes back to haunt her when someone else takes her online alias name in vain on the Net. This causes a real fascist-type cop to come hunting for her, instead of the real trouble maker -- a hacker with a propensity for bragging and for leaving virus infections behind. In the tradition of a hundred movies and a thousand books, finding the perp before the cops find her is the only out she has. Chased by the minions of the law from her comfortable cover as a small commune's SYSCOP, Trouble eventually links up with a former lover who took the legit corporate road and together the two delve once more into their past underworld while they avoid cops in the real world and chase a troublesome hacker on the Net. There is some detective story here, along with a look at a possible future society, but the big draw is an intriguing look at how hackers may one day ride the net, immersed in the experience of cyberspace. Not a new concept certainly, but one very well done by a good writer. The small amount of cyber- and real world-sex included in this book would horrify only a true blue-nose, while the excitement of net surfing enhanced by direct brain interface should prove something between interesting and thrilling to most online users. My only slight criticism of this book is that the author places events further in the future than necessary -- I can see most of these actions (other than the brain implant) taking place today, or at latest within a few years -- not in the distant future. This book is a must read for those who enjoy a good adventure, or who want to get a flavor of what some hackers seem to be striving for in cyberspace. Of course the future will probably not resemble this book's idea in the least. SF isn't even intended as a "predictive" genre, but I bet that in 20 years people will still enjoy reading about Trouble the same way Heinlein and other space opera authors hold our interest despite the fact that we know space flight isn't anything like they wrote about. "Trouble and Her Friends," by Melissa Scott, TOR books, ISBN 0- 312-85733-0. (John McCormick/19951006) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 10/06/95 GENERAL Personnel Roundup (NEWS)(GENERAL)(MSP)(00018) Personnel Roundup 10/06/95 MINNEAPOLIS, MINNESOTA, U.S.A., 1995 OCT 6 (NB) -- This is a regular feature, summarizing personnel changes not covered elsewhere by Newsbytes: Broderbund Software Inc., PSINet Inc., Ameritech, Quark Inc., Silicon Graphics Inc., Virtual Open Network Environment Corp., Media Vision Technology Inc., VictorMaxx Technologies Inc. Scott Cook, chairman of the board of directors of Intuit, has been reappointed to the board of directors of Broderbund Software Inc. (NASDAQ:BROD - 415-382-4449). Prior to founding Intuit, Cook (42) was a consultant for Bain & Company and a brand manager for Proctor & Gamble. He holds a bachelor's degree in mathematics and economics from the University of Southern California and an MBA from Harvard. PSINet Inc. (Nasdaq: PSIX - 703-904-4285), has announced two key marketing management appointments fueled by the rapid growth of the company and the Internet services industry. Bruce M. Ley was named vice-president, corporate services, and Kurt D. Baumann was named vice-president, consumer services. Both will report to William L. Schrader, PSINet chairman, president, and chief executive officer. Ley is leaving the post of executive vice president for Rally's Hamburgers Inc., Louisville, Ky., where he served on the company's executive committee and designed, planned and executed its overall marketing activities from 1991 to the present. Baumann, formerly president and chief executive officer for InterCon Systems Corporation, Herndon, Va., will oversee PSINet's consumer Internet services, including Pipeline USA and Pipeline, NY. Ameritech (312-750-5219) says that Thomas E. Richards, currently a vice president of Network Operations for Bell Atlantic, has joined the company as president of its network services unit. Richards replaces Gary G. Drook, who is retiring effective October 15. Richards will head the unit responsible for managing and operating Ameritech's five-state communications network and for providing related technical and operations support. He will report to Timothy M. Connolly, senior vice president and head of Ameritech's Worldwide Network Systems sector. Quark Inc. (303-894-3204) has named Adriaan Roosen to the newly created position of director of European operations and has expanded its German office by moving into a new 45,000 square-foot headquarters facility near Stuttgart, Germany. A lawyer by training, Roosen has 17 years of experience in international business and government relations. Before joining Quark, he served as director for Northern Europe in the Global Software Services division of RR Donnelley & Sons Co. Silicon Graphics Inc. (NYSE:SGI - 415-390-2019) announced that its board of directors has nominated Robert A. Lutz, president and chief operating officer of Chrysler Corporation, for election to the Board. The election will take place Nov. 1 at Silicon Graphics' Annual Stockholders Meeting. Bob Rybicki, former vice president of customer support for Spyglass Inc., has joined Virtual Open Network Environment Corporation (301-838-8900) as vice president of business development. Rybicki, 50, will be responsible for expanding Vthe firm's business partnering opportunities. Before joining Spyglass in mid-1994, Rybicki held the position of vice president of North American Sales for Kubota Pacific, a subsidiary of Kubota Corp. Media Vision Technology Inc. (510-252-4582) says that G. Robert Brownell is stepping down from his post as chief executive officer, effective October 6. He will continue in his role as a member of the board of directors. Brownell joined the firm in March of 1994 as vice president of sales and took over as CEO in May of the same year. Kate Fagan has been named vice president - sales with VictorMaxx Technologies Inc. (Nasdaq: VMAX, VMAXW - 708-267-0007), a supplier of virtual reality products. Fagan, 51, will be responsible for expanding and managing VictorMaxx's in-house sales staff and the manufacturers' representatives that market the company's CyberMaxx virtual reality head-mounted displays in North America. Fagan reports to Richard H. Currie, president and chief executive officer. Prior to joining VictorMaxx, she managed a consulting practice for five years, specializing in distribution sales and marketing, channel marketing, retail sales and management, and sales and product training. (Ian Stokell/19951006) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 10/06/95 CHIPS ****Cyrix Says New Chip "First Real Challenger" to Pentium (NEWS)(CHIPS)(DEN)(00019) ****Cyrix Says New Chip "First Real Challenger" to Pentium 10/06/95 RICHARDSON, TEXAS, U.S.A., 1995 OCT 6 (NB) -- Cyrix Corp. (NASDAQ:CYRX) formally unveiled what it called "The first substantial real challenge to Intel performance leadership." That may be, but it's not the first time the upstart chip company, now seven years old, has challenged the bigger kid on the chip block. Cyrix was born as a company that designed coprocessor chips, and is credited with helping keep chip prices down. Now the company is positioning itself for a direct face-off with Intel Corp. with the introduction of its 6x86 microprocessor family, which was developed under the code name "M1." "Anytime you have competition, particularly at the high end, it tends to bring that value to the consumer all the more quickly," said Jim Chapman, Cyrix senior vice president of sales and marketing. Chapman said it's that competition that will bring faster and faster processors with more capability to market at very reasonable prices in 1996. Cyrix said the 6x86 attained a Winstone 95 performance rating of 217, which it said rivals published test results from the fastest Pentium 133 megahertz (MHz) chips. "No processor today runs Windows software faster than the 6x86," according to Steve Tobak, Cyrix vice president of corporate marketing. On the technical side the 6x86 is a sixth-generation superscalar, superpipelined processor that features register renaming, data dependency removal, multi-branch prediction, speculative execution and out-of-order completion capabilities. It has an 80-bit floating point unit and a 16-kilobyte primary cache. Cyrix said the chip's 296-pin grid array is compatible with the P54C socket widely used in 64-bit platforms with minor modifications. It uses a single 3.3-volt power supply and includes 5-volt tolerant input/output buffers. On-chip power management features are provided. Chapman told Newsbytes the company currently has seven to eight percent of the worldwide chip market. To grab a bigger market share Cyrix will need to convince top-tier PC makers like Compaq, Dell and Packard Bell to use its chips. So far it hasn't been able to do that, although it does number US companies AST and Epson and German PC builder Peacock among its customers. It's also gotten encouragement from Compaq. Chapman said as Cyrix ramps up production volume the company will be in a better position to attract larger OEMs (original equipment manufacturers). Michael Dell, chairman of Dell Computer Corp. told a trade expo audience earlier this week that chip supply is a challenge for all PC makers. The 100MHz Cyrix 6x86 processor is priced at $450 each in quantities of 1,000. It's being manufactured by IBM Microelectronics in Burlington, Vermont and supported by BIOS suppliers AMI, Award, Microid Research and Phoenix Technologies. Core logic suppliers Acer Labs, OPTi, Pico Power Technology, SiS, VIA Technologies, VLSI Technology as well as motherboard manufacturers Acer, Chicony, ECS, FIC and Micronics have also announced support. (Jim Mallory/19951006/Press contact: Michelle Moody, Cyrix, 214-968-8302/6X86-951006/PHOTO) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 10/06/95 REVIEW WINDOWS Review of - StudioMagic for Windows (REVIEW)(WINDOWS)(MSP)(00020) Review of - StudioMagic for Windows 10/06/95 MINNEAPOLIS, MINNESOTA, U.S.A., 1995 OCT 6 (NB) -- StudioMagic for Windows is a low-end but very capable video editing and special effects board and software package which does real-time editing from 3 video sources. The kit, which runs on a 486 or Pentium PC, is from Studio Magic Corp., 1690 Dell Avenue, Campbell, Calif 95008. 408-378-3838 or fax 408-378-3577, and is priced at $499.95 list. StudioMagic is basically a 1970s television editing studio, complete with fancy special effects which don't require really powerful graphics manipulation such as animation. Aimed at the low-end business multimedia production editor or high-end home video buff, StudioMagic is used to cut and paste video from VCRs, video cameras, broadcast, or digitized files, creating a final output. In addition, you can add WAV or CD-quality audio background or narration to your video, along with being able to provide a wide- range of titling and special effects, all without any need for massive computer memory or an extremely high-end processor because the video signals are merely passed through the board, not captured as digitized AVI or MOV files. This limits the sort of manipulation you can perform, but greatly reduces the burden on your system -- especially when you consider that a quarter- frame digitized video lasting 20 seconds means a file in the 10 megabyte size range for true digital editing. For most editing tasks you could even install this board in any 386-based system capable of running Windows -- a far cry from high-end digitizing video boards which hit a performance bottleneck even using slower Pentium-based systems. The only real fault I found with StudioMagic was the inability to capture a good still frame, and lack of audio output -- although SM can easily integrate audio into your video production, you need a separate audio board to produce the sounds. But you probably already have a good audio board in your system if you are moving up to full video editing anyway, so in a way this is a great economy feature - not sticking you with purchase of a probably unneeded audio capability. The editing interface is just like a studio, with 8 miniature video screens to show previews of graphics, overlays, special effects, and online sources. Overlays such as titles or other text are created right in SM's simple, but effective editor, then overlaid on a video screen or background color using one of several wipes or other effects. In an actual off-line editing session you preview composite or S- video inputs, select special effects, and cut or mix between inputs and any still or other images you have available on disc. WAV, CD, or MIDI audio files must be pre-recorded, but the control software provided by SM is quite simple to use and adequate for most home uses. Keyboard shortcuts for audio and video are easy to set, and since any production beyond the simplest is difficult to do in real time, you can record your cuts and overlays, as well as audio clip insertions at leisure, leaving SM to automate the whole final cut process. It is perfectly possible to use SM as Studio Control and control a two camera live production complete with pre-set overlays, just like a real TV studio, the major limit being that only one person can operate SM at a time -- unlike a real TV production where the director doesn't have to have three hands and four eyes. SM can certainly handle a more complex production than the director would be up to doing on a real-time basis. In performance, even on a fast PC, there were definite pauses during fades between different video images, but cuts (abrupt changes as opposed to fades) were nearly instantaneous. In conclusion, this is a great low-end video editing board and software which will work with any Windows PC and provide great video editing options for anyone needing less than broadcast- quality productions, or even serve as a way to make a rough-cut demo which can be used as a guide to a professional video editing service. A vast array of relatively simple special effects tends to obscure the fact that these aren't sophisticated digital effects which would require both a much more expensive video board and faster PC. The home video producer should seriously consider buying SM instead of one of the nearly as expensive switching and editing stand-alone machines which don't offer the automation capabilities of using a computer. (John McCormick/19951005) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 10/06/95 IBM ****IBM Plans Broad Server Announcements Tuesday (NEWS)(IBM)(TOR)(00021) ****IBM Plans Broad Server Announcements Tuesday 10/06/95 NEW YORK, NEW YORK, U.S.A., 1995 OCT 6 (NB) -- IBM (NYSE:IBM) will make a number of announcements on Tuesday, October 10, ranging across hardware lines from its personal computers to its System/390 mainframes and focusing on server capabilities. Besides new servers from IBM's PC Server and RISC System/6000 group, the announcements are to include the launch of a new version of the MVS mainframe operating system dubbed OS/390, and the announcement that some AS/400 systems IBM announced in the spring will be delivered with better-than-promised performance. In a conference call Thursday, IBM gave industry consultants details of what officials noted will be the company's second broad server announcement in six months. Jeff Mason, vice-president of worldwide marketing for the RS/6000 division, said the focus of the announcements will be on making IBM systems easier to use and providing "packaged solutions" for customers. Mason said IBM will be announcing next week the new RS/6000 Model E20, a mini-tower system built around a 100-megahertz (MHZ) PowerPC 604 microprocessor and aimed at the low end of the RS/6000 server market. The E20 will have eight expansion slots, including five Peripheral Component Interconnect (PCI), two Industry Standard Architecture (ISA), and one combination PCI/ISA slot. It will have eight bays for storage devices, a quad-speed CD-ROM drive, a one-gigabyte (GB) magnetic hard disk, and from 16 to 512 megabytes (MB) of memory. The base price of the system will be $9,995. IBM will also announce enhancements to its GXT 1000 graphics adapter that Mason said will improve the adapter's performance by 58 to 90%, and will supply an adapter to let the GST 1000 work with the PCI bus as well as IBM's own Micro Channel Architecture (MCA). The improved performance will be available to current users of the GXT 1000 by adding updated software. On the PC Server front, IBM is planning to add three new machines. The PC Server 310 is a low-priced mini-tower meant for small businesses and work groups. It will offer a combination of the PCI bus with either ISA or MCA and prices will start at about $3,260. The PC Server 320 will come with one or two 75-megahertz processors and a dual PCI and Extended ISA (EISA) bus, and will start at $4,250. The new 520, an addition to IBM's PC Server 500 line, which can provide as many as 22 bays for storage devices, will also be a multiprocessor, dual-bus system (PCI with either MCA or EISA). The 310 is to ship by the end of October, the 520 in November, and the 320 is already in resellers' warehouses, according to Angelica Horaitis, director of worldwide marketing for IBM's PC Server Group. Officials also said IBM's new AS/400 530 model will deliver substantially better performance than they promised when they announced the system in June. IBM also said it will increase the AS/400's support for data warehousing and open up the DB2 database software on the AS/400 with industry-standard interfaces. Also on Tuesday, IBM will be announcing OS/390, a new release of the MVS operating system for its System/390 mainframes. OS/390 will integrate about 30 separate pieces of IBM software, including client/server and local-area network support, in a single package which can be installed as a unit. Officials also said during the consultant teleconference that IBM plans to pursue XPG4 branding, indicating compliance with X/Open Ltd.'s portability guide, for the next release of OS/390. That next release will also deal with the problem of dates from the year 2000 onward, officials promised. Serious concerns have been raised in the industry about the fact that much older computer software allows only two digits for dates -- as in 95 for 1995 -- and will be confused by 21st-Century dates. (Grant Buckler/19951006) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 10/06/95 ONLINE Data General To Offer Raptor's Internet Security (NEWS)(ONLINE)(TOR)(00022) Data General To Offer Raptor's Internet Security 10/06/95 WALTHAM, MASSACHUSETTS, U.S.A., 1995 OCT 6 (NB) -- Talk to corporate information systems managers about the Internet, and one thorny question is sure to come up: security. Data General Corp. (NYSE:DGN) is interested in selling its hardware to those people for use as -- among other things -- Internet servers, so the company has good reason to offer them an answer to their concerns. It is setting out to do so through an agreement with Raptor Systems, Inc., the maker of Eagle network security products. Data General has become the second sizeable computer manufacturer to sign a marketing agreement with Raptor, following close on the heels of Hewlett-Packard Co., which announced a similar deal during the Networld+Interop trade show in late September, Raptor spokesman Michael Grandinetti told Newsbytes. Data General will use the Eagle technology in Internet firewall products which it will sell to customers who buy its Aviion servers. It will also offer implementation and support services to users of Eagle products on Aviion servers. In a recent survey by American International College's Bureau of Business Research, executives of 48 companies in the Forbes 500 said they expected the Internet or other online services to be widely used to market products in the next 10 years. The survey said the executives expected that 39 percent of a firm's annual sales will be through online systems, including the Internet, within the next 10 years. A July report from Forrester Research Inc., of Cambridge, Massachusetts, said that while most companies are focusing on firewall technologies to prevent unauthorized access to systems connected to the Internet, the greater challenge is ensuring safe transit over the net for information such as credit-card numbers, purchase orders, and documents. Forrester predicted that the Internet will be safe for general commerce by 1996, though the researchers qualified their prediction by pointing out that 100-percent security cannot be guaranteed on the Internet or elsewhere. Another study, by San Jose, California-based research firm Dataquest Inc., said this spring that fewer than 25 percent of Internet users are willing to make an online credit-card purchase. Grandinetti said Data General will begin selling the Eagle software immediately, worldwide. Data General is on the World Wide Web at http://www.dg.com . Raptor is at http://www.raptor.com . (Grant Buckler/19951006/Press Contact: Michael Grandinetti, Raptor Systems, 617-487-7700 ext. 146, Internet e-mail mike@raptor.com; Glen Zimmerman, Beaupre & Co., 603-436-6690) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 10/06/95 ONLINE McKinley Directory Changes Name To Magellan (NEWS)(ONLINE)(SFO)(00023) McKinley Directory Changes Name To Magellan 10/06/95 SAUSALITO, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1995 OCT 6 (NB) -- After becoming an overnight Internet success story, The McKinley Directory, a popular Internet search, review and navigation tool is now called Magellan. In an attempt to keep its World Wide Web (Web) site free to all Internet users, the directory's designers, The McKinley Group, is accepting targeted advertisements for its large database. Just fifty days after its Web debut, the directory recorded more than one million hits according to independent analysis by Internet Profile Corporation (I\PRO). In same period of time, Magellan expanded its listings to more than one million Internet resources including Telnet, Gopher, File Transfer Protocol (FTP), World Wide Web (Web) sites, mailing lists and newsgroups. The list of reviewed sites grew from 20,000 when the directory first debuted to 30,000. Isabel Maxwell, senior vice president of corporate affairs at The McKinley Group, told Newsbytes, "There are about 2.3 million indexable pages on the Internet. Our database includes approximately 1.2 million of those resources." Maxwell explained many of the remaining sites contained information which would seldom be called in a search. Describing the process of keeping content current and adding new material, Maxwell said, "We have a Web-crawler like, proprietary technology which filters Internet content and allows us to consistently alter the database. All of the sites we list are automatically 'pinged' once a week to make sure they are operational." "A lot of people talk about numbers, about the size of the database and about the number of hits. The numbers game is not important; quality is. Everything depends on the quality of the information a user is able to retrieve," continued Maxwell. Along with the name change, The McKinley Group added an enhanced user interface and easier navigational features. In order to acquaint the public with the service, company officials decided to offer the database free to the entire Internet community for sixty days. Demands to keep the service free have been excessive and a final model or strategy is still being formulated. The group is still undecided how long the directory will remain free to all users, but for the time being the full directory will continue to be available. "We have decided that some version of Magellan will always be available to all Internet users, but we are not sure of what form it will take. We remain committed to our licensing program and see an eventual lighter version or sample version for the wider Internet community," commented Maxwell When the company opened The McKinley Directory, now known as Magellan, it said it would make money by licensing the technology to Internet service providers (ISP) and, according to Maxwell, they have been successful with the licensing model. To further support development and maintenance costs, the group is building an advertising model to compliment its ISP licensing program. Advertisements will be tied to specifically targeted audiences. As an example, she used an outdoor sports equipment company: "When a user searches an outdoor sporting topic, a brief description of the company may appear as a banner with the retrieved information. The banner will contain an icon which allows the user to open the advertisement to get more information if he or she chooses to do so." (Patrick McKenna/19951006/Press Contact: Nicol Davis, Access Public Relations, tel 415-904-7070/MAGELLAN951006/PHOTO) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 10/06/95 GENERAL China - Technology Newbriefs (NEWS)(GENERAL)(PEK)(00024) China - Technology Newbriefs 10/06/95 BEIJING, CHINA, 1995 OCT 6 (NB) -- In this news roundup from China, an interbank ATM network has been built in Guangdong province, one out of 100 people in Shanghai is a mobile phone subscriber, Samsung of Korea is expanding its camcorder production in Tianjin to gain market share, and IBM has a US$25 million education strategic plan. Interbank ATM network Operational In Guangdong An interbank automatic teller machine network composed of 685 machines has been built jointly by banks in Guangdong province. Users of credit card and/or bank cards issued by any bank in the province can withdraw money or check account balances with a ATM in any city in Guangdong province. Shanghai Mobile Phone User Population Increase Rapidly There are now 130,000 mobile phone users in Shanghai, one per 100 people in the China's leading business city. To meet the increasing demand for mobile telecommunications, the city has built two mobile phone networks with equipment from Motorola and Ericsson. In Shanghai, there were only 17 mobile phone users in 1982, and the number soared to 10,000 in 1992, 70,000 in 1994, and 130,000 at present. Samsung Expanding in Tianjin for More Camcorder Production Samsung, the electronics giant of Republic of Korea, has launched a new manufacturing base for video recorders with its partner in Tianjin. The new base, covering 230,000 square feet in Tianjin Development Zone, represents a new move by Tianjin Samsung Electronics Corp. (TSEC) to seek a bigger share in China's camcorder market. TSEC is funded jointly by Samsung and Tianjin Telecommunications and Broadcasting Corp. IBM To Set Up Technical Education Centers in 20 Universities IBM Corporation is launching what is claimed is its "large-scale education strategic plan" covering 20 universities in China. In the next two years the firm plans to invest $25 million to set up technical centers in 20 universities chosen by the State Education Commission. It will provide software and machines to these centers and help develop long-term computer curricula in these universities. (Chih-Ho Yu & Ning Huang/19951005) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 10/06/95 TELECOM China - Optical Cable Project In Inner Mongolia (NEWS)(TELECOM)(PEK)(00025) China - Optical Cable Project In Inner Mongolia 10/06/95 BEIJING, CHINA, 1995 OCT 6 (NB) -- A 2,900-kilometer optical cable project has started in the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region to improve its poor telecommunications facilities and low transmission capacity. Making phone calls to many places in Inner Mongolia is frustrating -- one frequently encounters this recording: "The line is busy, please try again later." However, the situation will be improved when a 2,900- kilometer (about 1,800-mile) optical cable project is competed. The cable will starts from Halar in the east of the region and ends the Wulate Rear Banner in the west. The local government expects that construction will be competed before the end of this year. The project is designed to help improve the region's poor telecommunications facilities and low transmission capacity, said a government official. The Inner Mongolia branch of People's Construction Bank of China has put millions of dollars of hard cash loans into the telecommunications project. In June and July, the branch used two batches of discount loans totaling US$10 million from the Finnish and Israeli governments, said an official with the bank branch. The money was used to purchase optical cables and telecommunications equipment from the two countries for the optical cable telecommunications project in the Autonomous Region. The current telecommunications facilities are restraining the local economic development, government officials said. The project will enable a majority of the region's telecommunications to be digitized and will increase transmission capacity by 100 times. It is also expected to pave the way for an information network concerning science and technology, finance and market information exchanges. At the same time, the project should lay a solid basis for the region's future modernization of microwave communications, image transmission and satellite digital telecommunications, government officials said. (Chih-Ho Yu & Ning Huang/19951005) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 10/06/95 TRENDS ****Oracle's Larry Ellison Promises Web TV (NEWS)(TRENDS)(SFO)(00026) ****Oracle's Larry Ellison Promises Web TV 10/06/95 GENEVA, SWITZERLAND, 1995 OCT 6 (NB) -- Speaking at Geneva's Telecom 95, Larry Ellison, chairman and chief executive officer of database giant, Oracle Corp., said Web TV would be available by the first half of 1996. Video for the Internet does not mean movies-on-demand to Ellison who says early applications of Web TV will be found in corporate and educational markets. According to Ellison, Web TV will be delivered across high bandwidth lines, such as a cable system, and received through an Oracle set-top box. Content would be stored on a provider's server and completely controlled by the provider. The visionary CEO said the Oracle set-top box would cost about $500, but may not necessarily carry the Oracle name. Subscribers will access the service for about $30 per month in rental charges. "Movies-on-demand for interactive TV doesn't make sense either culturally, or economically. But this critical new technology of video- conferencing does, and so does news-on-demand, financial news. That's worth updating. Who would want the latest version of 'Gone with the Wind' that hasn't changed since 1939?" asked Ellison. Ellison said Oracle is currently speaking with a number of content providers so that they could offer their services to the Web TV concept. "Companies like Time Warner would make great suppliers of content. Rupert Murdoch's stuff would be good. So would Disney and news organizations. There'd be no risk; they would control their own servers," continued Ellison. In hopes of getting more specific information, Newsbytes contacted an Oracle spokesperson and learned company officials have a difficult time tracking their CEO's visions. "You have to realize Larry Ellison has a lot to say and it usually comes out in segments over a period of time as opposed to a carefully planned corporate strategy or business plan. Once you understand that, you will see his vision for the computer industry and the delivery on all types of electronic information is constantly evolving," said a company spokesperson. Another Ellison vision is the NC or network computer. Compared to the PC, the NC would be similar only by its monitor and keyboard. A relatively simple device, the NC which will cost about $500 has no software, no hard disk drive, CD-ROM drive nor disk drives. All content from the operating system to applications and live content will be network-driven and originated in each user session. Newsbytes covered Oracle's NC in yesterday's news. (Patrick McKenna/19951006/Press Contact: Berg Tenderich, Applied Communications, tel 415-375-8881) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 10/06/95 TRENDS Dell Chairman Optimistic About Industry Future (NEWS)(TRENDS)(DEN)(00027) Dell Chairman Optimistic About Industry Future 10/06/95 HOUSTON, TEXAS, U.S.A., 1995 OCT 6 (NB) -- The chairman of Dell Computer Corp. (NASDAQ: DELL) believes the personal computer market will continue it sharp growth over the next few years, spurred by expansion in the notebook computer market and the replacement of existing computers. Michael Dell said the replacement market is becoming increasingly important to computer sales as businesses come to realize how important the computer is to them. "A new factor is starting to show up in the growth of personal computers, which has been largely underestimated, and that is the replacement market," Dell told showgoers at the Strictly Business Computer Expo held recently in Houston. The show is a regional trade show for mostly small business executives and managers. Dell pointed out that analysts expect 56 million units to be shipped this year, with that number rising to 100 million by 1998. He declined to discuss his own company's earnings outlook for the year, but financial analysts have predicted revenues of $5 billion for the company. Dell reported revenues of $3.5 billion in 1994. Dell said companies are replacing their PCs every three to four years, making the replacement market a big factor in mature markets like the US and some parts of Europe. Dell said a significant number of older desktop systems will be replaced by portable systems as those units ability to connect to external monitors, keyboards and other peripherals becomes more widespread. Dell Computer is developing notebooks with large screens and comfortable keyboards but that weigh less than current models. "I would see the notebook percentage of the market growing quit a bit over the next few years. Long term we agree that notebooks and notebooks as desktop replacements will be a large market," said the Dell top executive. He said the user group that will replace their desktops with notebooks is potentially very large, particularly if the industry can bring down the cost of havcing a notebook act like a desktop. The company is adding two new production lines at its Austin, Texas plant and will soon begin production at a new plant in Malaysia to keep up with demand. Dell said his company has been considering alternate microprocessors to Intel's Pentium and recently announced Pentium Pro, but so far still believes those two chips are superior to others. "We see those other microprocessors as being further behind than they were a year ago," Mr. Dell told his audience. He said chip supply continues to be a chanlenge for all PC makers. "I'm pretty confident we'll sell every chip we can get," he stated. Dell spokesperson Dean Kline told Newsbytes the Dell customer base also affects any change to a system component. "Our customer base is predominantly business and the majority of those are major accounts," said Kline. He said large companies are very cautious about changing platforms, and consider not just the brand of the computer system but also the internal components such as network interface cards, hard drives and microprocessors. "They go through an additional evaluation process to validate new platforms, Kline told Newsbytes. "That causes a PC vendor to take very seriously the step of adding in a new component into the product line that requires our customers to do that evaluation." (Jim Mallory/19951006/Press contact: Dell Computer, 512-728-4100; Public contact: 512-338-4400) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 10/05/95 BROADCAST DEC Signs $1.5M Deal For Video Trial With Telenor (NEWS)(BROADCAST)(BOS)(00028) DEC Signs $1.5M Deal For Video Trial With Telenor 10/05/95 MAYNARD, MASSACHUSETTS, U.S.A., 1995 OCT 10 (NB) -- By signing a $1.5 million deal to take part in a newly unveiled interactive video trial with Telenor, the national telecommunications operator for Norway, Digital Equipment Corp. is now participating in some 20 them in Europe, said Roger Horine, marketing manager for Digital's Video and Interactive Information Services (VIIS), in an interview with Newsbytes. The trial in Norway is the first involving Digital to use ADSL (asymmetrical digital subscriber line), an emerging technology designed for sending broadcast TV signals over conventional twisted pair wiring, Horine told Newsbytes. Set to begin in January, the trial will utilize Digital's Mediaplex video server, in addition to "some content" produced at the Digital Media Studio in Tarrytown, New York, he added. Other partners in the interactive video test will include Italtel, an Italian-based phone company and telephone equipment supplier; Amati; and Apple Computer, which will provide set top boxes. In addition, Telenor is working with a variety of other companies to develop content, including the Norwegian Film Institute, NKS Distance Education, Polygram AS, SF (Svensk Filmindustri) Television, and TV2. The Digital marketing manager pointed out that content used in the test will include movies-on-demand, music videos-on-demand, and children's programming. The interactive video trial, which is the first to be conducted in Norway, will initially roll out services to homes, schools, and Telenor offices in Oslo, and will ultimately be expanded to reach about 200 subscribers by the middle of next year. Horine told Newsbytes that, also in Europe, Digital is taking part in the following trials: Svenska Kabel-TV in Sweden, Belgacom in Belgium, Westminster Cable in London, and an as yet unannounced trial with Deutsche Telecom in Germany that is scheduled to start late this year. As previously reported in Newsbytes, other video trials for Digital include tests by US West in Nebraska and Ameritech in the Northeast and Midwest regions of the US. Digital's Mediaplex servers are also being used commercially for the delivery of pay TV and near video-on-demand by TMN Networks in Canada, and for ad insertion on more than 1,000 cable TV channels served by Adlink in California. Horine noted that the ADSL technology being used in Norway calls for telephone equipment to be located relatively nearby users, since video can only be transmitted for relatively short distances, "typically less than a couple of miles," over twisted pair wiring. Digital's closest competitor in the video-on-demand market is Hewlett-Packard, he told Newsbytes. (Jacqueline Emigh/19951006/Reader Contact: Digital Equipment Corp., 508-493-5111; Press Contact: Amy Raabe, The Weber Group for DEC, 617-661-7900) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 10/06/95 BUSINESS ****Unisys To Form Three Distinct Businesses (NEWS)(BUSINESS)(MSP)(00029) ****Unisys To Form Three Distinct Businesses 10/06/95 BLUE BELL, PENNSYLVANIA, U.S.A., 1995 OCT 6 (NB) -- Unisys Corp. (NYSE:UIS) said it will restructure the company into three "distinct" businesses, along with dismantling its matrix management structure. The actions are being taken to allow the three separate businesses to compete better and to react more quickly to growth opportunities. Officials said jobs will probably be cut worldwide, although they wouldn't say how many workers would get a pink slip. Unisys also said it expects to take a "significant charge against earnings" in the fourth quarter of 1995. At least $400 million will be trimmed from the company's current cost structure by the end of 1996 through the job cuts, along with facility consolidations and administrative cost cuts. Because of today's actions, Moody's Investors Service has placed the company's long-term debt and preferred stock ratings and its financially supported subsidiaries under review for possible downgrade. Bob O'Leary, Unisys spokesperson, told Newsbytes the company doesn't comment on such matters. Under the plan, the three new businesses will be called "Computer Systems," "Global Support Services," and "Information Services," each with its own sales force. Computer Systems will focus on both hardware and software systems, while the other two are "services driven," according to company officials. The company's matrix management structure will be replaced by a "streamlined decision processes, accountability, and dedicated resources characteristic of stand-alone businesses, the company said. "The matrix management was, in many cases, having some overlap that prevented Unisys' individual operations from realizing their full potential," O'Leary told Newsbytes. O'Leary also said people shouldn't compare today's actions by Unisys to AT&T's (NYSE:T) split up, announced two weeks ago. "Our three companies will still be Unisys," he said. "We are not spinning off any of our businesses into separate companies. What we are doing is creating three integrated business units that are able to function as businesses, but they still are under the band of Unisys." On Wall Street, Unisys was up $0.50, at $8.375 at 2 PM EDT. Unisys maintains an Internet World Wide Web presence at URL (uniform resource locator) http://www.unisys.com . (Bob Woods/19951006/Press Contact: J. Peter Hynes, Unisys, 215-986- 6948, Internet e-mail hynespet@po7.bb.unisys.com) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 10/06/95 GENERAL Newsbytes Week In Review (NEWS)(GENERAL)(MSP)(00030) Newsbytes Week In Review 10/06/95 MINNEAPOLIS, MINNESOTA, U.S.A., 1995 OCT 6 (NB) -- This is a look at the top stories this week, listing with their category code: America Online Unexpectedly Goes Down, Farcast News Service On Magic Link, First Aid 95" Attacks 10,000 Windows 95, 3.1 Woes, Connectsoft Disconnects From Medio Purchase, Survey Counts 5.8 Million Internet Users, NBC Desktop Video To Intro Online Player, IBM Aims New ThinkPads At Desktop Market, Sybase Chosen For Mammoth Environmental Research Project, Apple Board Of Directors Back Spindler, Compuserve's Sub-$5 Per Month Internet Service, Oracle's Vision Of Networked Future, Distribution Key As Internetworking Firms Converge, Microsoft's "Harder Side" Better To Hit - Survey, Technology Executives Conservative About Future, Lycos Spider Web Search Gets GUI Update, Backlinks, Ads, Cyrix Says New Chip "First Real Challenger" to Pentium, IBM Plans Broad Server Announcements Tuesday, Oracle's Larry Ellison Promises Web TV, Unisys To Form Three Distinct Businesses. America Online Unexpectedly Goes Down (ONLINE) VIENNA, VIRGINIA, U.S.A., 1995 OCT 2 (NB) -- An America Online (NASDAQ:AMER) spokesperson has confirmed to Newsbytes that the service went down for about three and a half hours last Friday, October 30. AOL members who tried to log in during that time could not, and those already logged in eventually lost their connection. Farcast News Service On Magic Link (ONLINE) MENLO PARK, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1995 OCT 2 (NB) -- Sony New Technologies Inc. and Farcast Inc. have agreed to jointly develop a version of Farcast's electronic news service to be made available for the Sony Magic Link personal communicators. The news service will provide news and stock quotes to meet specific search criteria. First Aid 95" Attacks 10,000 Windows 95, 3.1 Woes (WINDOWS) BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS, U.S.A, 1995 OCT 2 (NB) -- CyberMedia's new First Aid 95 is the first product on the market to address and solve the software configuration problems that plague Windows 95 and Windows 3.1, maintained Srikanth Chari, VP of marketing, during a meeting with Newsbytes on a Boston press tour. Connectsoft Disconnects From Medio Purchase (BUSINESS) BELLEVUE, WASHINGTON, U.S.A., 1995 OCT 3 (NB) -- Connectsoft Inc., has announced it has terminated its agreement to purchase the assets of Medio Multimedia, Inc. A Connectsoft spokesperson told Newsbytes the deal was contingent on the fulfillment of various conditions and "a number of contingencies were not met on both sides by the September 29 deadline," but declined to reveal further details. Survey Counts 5.8 Million Internet Users (TRENDS) SEBASTOPOL, CALIFORNIA, USA, 1995 OCT 3 (NB) -- O'Reilly & Associates has released details of the first survey undertaken by its new Online Research Group. The survey found the size of the US Internet is currently 5.8 million people. NBC Desktop Video To Intro Online Player (ONLINE) NEW YORK CITY, NEW YORK, U.S.A., 1995 OCT 3 (NB) -- The National Broadcasting Company's (NBC) Desktop Video unit said it has developed a "low-bit" multimedia player which will allow users to access audio, text, and pictures on the Internet's World Wide Web. The user would be able to access these files at 14.4Kbps (kilobits per second), with no download time. IBM Aims New ThinkPads At Desktop Market (IBM) SOMERS, NEW YORK, U.S.A., 1995 OCT 3 (NB) -- IBM's (NYSE:IBM) new ThinkPad computers are notebooks, but IBM is hoping some customers will buy them instead of desktop machines. The firm is pitching the machines, equipped with larger screens and tiltable keyboards, as alternatives to traditional desktops. Sybase Chosen For Mammoth Environmental Research Project (TRENDS) WASHINGTON, D.C., U.S.A., 1995 0CT 3 (NB) -- Hughes Information Technology, Corp., the prime contractor for NASA's Earth Observing System Data and Information System (EOSDIS) project, has selected Sybase (NASDAQ:SYBS) as the core software provider. When this futuristic project is operational in 1998, database information will grow at a rate of one trillion bytes per day. Apple Board Of Directors Back Spindler (APPLE) CUPERTINO, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1995 OCT 4 (NB) -- Apple's board of directors have reportedly restated their "faith" in Michael Spindler, the company's chief executive officer. Meanwhile, the company's chief financial officer has resigned. Compuserve's Sub-$5 Per Month Internet Service (ONLINE) COLUMBUS, OHIO, U.S.A., 1995 OCT 4 (NB) -- The Internet Division of Compuserve has announced a new worldwide Internet service, called Spryte. With a $4.95 per month fee, three hours on the Internet, and an hourly charge of $1.95 for additional hours, Compuserve says it intends to open the Internet community to the "largest possible audience." Oracle's Vision Of Networked Future (TRENDS) GENEVA, SWITZERLAND, 1995 OCT 5 (NB) -- Larry Ellison, chairman and chief executive officer (CEO) of Oracle Corporation (NASDAQ:ORCL), has unveiled his company's view of the future information superhighway at the Telecom 95 expo in Geneva. Distribution Key As Internetworking Firms Converge (TRENDS) BOCA RATON, FLORIDA, U.S.A., 1995 OCT 5 (NB) -- Both local area networking (LAN) and wide area networking (WAN) companies are trying to broaden their product lines to address the internetworking market from end to end, says the co-author of a recent study. While the companies' strategies vary widely, distribution is a critical factor. Microsoft's "Harder Side" Better To Hit - Survey (TRENDS) BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS, U.S.A., 1995 OCT 5 (NB) -- Although 69 percent of PC users are "cautious" about Windows 95, Microsoft is still "strongly perceived as delivering good products," and vendors who want to take on the software giant should hit at Microsoft's "harder side," said Peter Moran, president of IDG's Marketing Services Division, during a presentation of IDG survey results in Boston. Technology Executives Conservative About Future (TRENDS) SCOTTSDALE, ARIZONA, U.S.A., 1995 OCT 5 (NB) -- It's a tough job, but someone has to do it, and several hundred top executives from leading technology companies traveled to the Arizona desert mecca of Scottsdale recently to decide important technology issues, in addition to their favorite ice cream flavor. IBM To Cut 1,100 From US Staff (IBM) WHITE PLAINS, NEW YORK, U.S.A., 1995 OCT 6 (NB) -- About another 1,100 IBM (NYSE:IBM) employees will be losing their jobs over the next few months as IBM tries to drive down its sales, general, and administrative spending levels. Most of the cuts will be in sales and support operations, and all will be in the United States. Lycos Spider Web Search Gets GUI Update, Backlinks, Ads (ONLINE) WILMINGTON, MASSACHUSETTS, U.S.A., 1995 OCT 6 (NB) -- A newly updated interface to the Lycos Web site brings new features like "backlinking," a Spider-based "hot Web sites list," and support for Hot Java animation, plus a total of about 200 advertisers, to an Internet search and indexing service that now boasts at least nine times as many URLs (Universal Resource Locators) as Open Text, Yahoo!, or any other competitor, maintained Robert J. Davis, company chief, in an interview with Newsbytes. Cyrix Says New Chip "First Real Challenger" to Pentium (CHIPS) RICHARDSON, TEXAS, U.S.A., 1995 OCT 6 (NB) -- Cyrix Corp. (NASDAQ:CYRX) formally unveiled what it called "The first substantial real challenge to Intel performance leadership." IBM Plans Broad Server Announcements Tuesday (IBM) NEW YORK, NEW YORK, U.S.A., 1995 OCT 6 (NB) -- IBM (NYSE:IBM) will make a number of announcements on Tuesday, October 10, ranging across hardware lines from its personal computers to its System/390 mainframes and focusing on server capabilities. Oracle's Larry Ellison Promises Web TV (TRENDS) GENEVA, SWITZERLAND, 1995 OCT 6 (NB) -- Speaking at Geneva's Telecom 95, Larry Ellison, chairman and chief executive officer of database giant, Oracle Corp., said Web TV would be available by the first half of 1996. Video for the Internet does not mean movies-on-demand to Ellison who says early applications of Web TV will be found in corporate and educational markets. Unisys To Form Three Distinct Businesses (BUSINESS) BLUE BELL, PENNSYLVANIA, U.S.A., 1995 OCT 6 (NB) -- Unisys Corp. (NYSE:UIS) said it will restructure the company into three "distinct" businesses, along with dismantling its matrix management structure. The actions are being taken to allow the three separate businesses to compete better and to react more quickly to growth opportunities. (Ian Stokell/19951006) (SUMMARY)(GENERAL)(MSP)(00031) Newsbytes Daily Summary 10/06/95 MINNEAPOLIS, MINNESOTA, U.S.A., 1995 OCT 6 (NB) -- These are capsules of all today's news stories: ======================================================================== ------------| N E W S B Y T E S D A I L Y S U M M A R Y |---------- ------------| Friday, October 6, 1995 |---------- ======================================================================== (c) Newsbytes News Network (Tm) Editor in Chief: Wendy Woods ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Newsbytes News Network's 1995 Update CD-ROM for Mac, DOS, and Windows is now available for $29.95 (includes s&h). Contains 1983-1995 news stories, more than 64,000 keyword searchable stories and 475 digitized images. For more information or to order, fax to 612-430-0441 or e-mail to 'administrator@newsbytes.com' -- MC, Visa, Amex accepted. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ CATEGORY HEADLINES (*** indicates today's top stories) STORY # ======================================================================== BROADCAST DEC Signs $1.5M Deal For Video Trial With Telenor.......... 28 BUSINESS ****Unisys To Form Three Distinct Businesses.............. 29 CHIPS ****Cyrix Says New Chip "First Real Challenger" to Pentium 19 GENERAL Storagetek Intros New Subsystem, Fast Iceberg Diskcopy..... 01 GENERAL Typhoon Sybil Blows Packard Bell Away...................... 02 GENERAL Thailand Hosting Increasing Number Of Hard Disk Plants..... 07 GENERAL Review of "Trouble and Her Friends" (Book.................. 17 GENERAL Personnel Roundup.......................................... 18 GENERAL China - Technology Newbriefs............................... 24 GENERAL Newsbytes Week In Review................................... 30 GOVT Unisys Wins Hong Kong Airport Contract..................... 03 GOVT EC Instructs Italian Govt Over Omnitel License Fees........ 15 IBM ****IBM To Cut 1,100 From US Staff........................ 13 IBM ****IBM Plans Broad Server Announcements Tuesday.......... 21 LEGAL Does HK Software Piracy Involve Government................. 06 ONLINE ****Lycos Spider Web Search Gets GUI Update, Backlinks, Ad 05 ONLINE Australia - Telstra Offering Lotus And Novell Network Servi 08 ONLINE Australia - Compuserve Revamps Prices...................... 09 ONLINE Data General To Offer Raptor's Internet Security........... 22 ONLINE McKinley Directory Changes Name To Magellan................ 23 PC Editorial - Time To Focus On Quality Rather Than Raw Power. 04 TELECOM Mercury One-2-One PCN Roaming Successful At Telecom 95..... 10 TELECOM US Robotics Pushes V.34 To 33,600 BPS Speeds............... 12 TELECOM UK/Germany Service Support On Mobile Telephony............. 14 TELECOM Infonet Teams With Swiss Telecom On New Network............ 16 TELECOM China - Optical Cable Project In Inner Mongolia............ 25 TRENDS ****Oracle's Larry Ellison Promises Web TV................ 26 TRENDS Dell Chairman Optimistic About Industry Future............. 27 WINDOWS Quarterdeck's Advanced Windows Memory Doubler.............. 11 WINDOWS Review of - StudioMagic for Windows........................ 20 ======================================================================== These are the headlines and first paragraphs of each story, in order: 1 -> Storagetek Intros New Subsystem, Fast Iceberg Diskcopy -- Storage Technology Corp. (NYSE: STK) has announced its next enhancement for its flagship Iceberg storage system. The company also announced attachment of its Timberline 9490 subsystem to an IBM AS/400. 2 -> Typhoon Sybil Blows Packard Bell Away -- Blame Typhoon Sybil for blowing Packard Bell's official entry to the north Asian market off course. The typhoon, which closed down Hong Kong and neighboring Guangdong Province in southern China most of Tuesday, sent Packard Bell's air freight forwarder into a spin and the Asian launch of the company's latest pride and joy has had to be postponed for up to two weeks. 3 -> Unisys Wins Hong Kong Airport Contract -- Unisys has won a HK$4 million contract to supply an air traffic control simulation system for Hong Kong's new airport. 4 -> Editorial - Time To Focus On Quality Rather Than Raw Power -- By Tony Waltham. As personal computers increasingly become personal purchases when the owner becomes the buyer, over one third of homes in the United States have a PC now, is it not time to question the computer manufacturers' reckless obsession with speed? 5 -> ****Lycos Spider Web Search Gets GUI Update, Backlinks, Ads -- A newly updated interface to the Lycos Web site brings new features like "backlinking," a Spider-based "hot Web sites list," and support for Hot Java animation, plus a total of about 200 advertisers, to an Internet search and indexing service that now boasts at least nine times as many URLs (Universal Resource Locators) as Open Text, Yahoo!, or any other competitor, maintained Robert J. Davis, company chief, in an interview with Newsbytes. 6 -> Does HK Software Piracy Involve Government -- Following the Business Software Alliance's secret investigation of 22 retail outlets selling pirated software in Hong Kong's notorious Golden Shopping Arcade, questions are being asked about why government officials appear either unwilling or unable to stop the flourishing open trade. 7 -> Thailand Hosting Increasing Number Of Hard Disk Plants -- With a planned 1,000 million baht investment, Asahi Komag (Thailand) will begin construction of a 15,000 square meter factory to produce hard disk components outside Bangkok on a 68-rai site on an industrial park in Prachin Buri province. 8 -> Australia - Telstra Offering Lotus And Novell Network Services -- Telstra, Australia's largest telecoms carrier, has cooked up deals with Lotus and Novell to incorporate new services into its mix. 9 -> Australia - Compuserve Revamps Prices -- CompuServe Pacific has returned its Electronic Mall to the free-of-charges list, following a howl from members. The members found they were being charged just to wander the mall electronically, following a new pricing structure introduced on September 10. 10 -> Mercury One-2-One PCN Roaming Successful At Telecom 95 -- Mercury One-2-One has revealed that commercial tests of digital mobile roaming, which are taking place this week and next at the Telecom 95 telecoms show in Geneva, are a success. 11 -> Quarterdeck's Advanced Windows Memory Doubler -- Quarterdeck has taken the wraps off Magnaram 2, a Windows 3.1 and Windows 95 memory multiplier. The product is unique in the market since, unlike other RAM doublers, it can work effectively with both iterations of the Windows GUI/operating system package. In addition, it can triple the available memory resources on a machine under certain conditions. 12 -> US Robotics Pushes V.34 To 33,600 BPS Speeds -- US Robotics has announced a software upgrade for its V.34 Courier range of desktop modems that pushes the 28,800 bits per second (bps) "limit" of V.34 to 33,600 bps. The new speed is known as V.34Plus, although this is a proprietary data speed that will only work with other V.34Plus-enabled modems, Newsbytes notes. 13 -> ****IBM To Cut 1,100 From US Staff -- About another 1,100 IBM (NYSE:IBM) employees will be losing their jobs over the next few months as IBM tries to drive down its sales, general, and administrative spending levels. Most of the cuts will be in sales and support operations, and all will be in the United States. 14 -> UK/Germany Service Support On Mobile Telephony -- Debitel of Germany and Securicor of the UK, two independent cellular service providers, have signed a joint strategic service agreement for their respective GSM (Global System for Mobile communications) subscribers. The deal means that, while one provider's subscribers are roaming in the other service provider's country, they can turn to that service provider for help and support. 15 -> EC Instructs Italian Govt Over Omnitel License Fees -- The European Commission (EC) has instructed Telecom Italia that it must now pay a Lire 750 billion license to the Italian Government, the same fee as was charged by the Government for Omnitel's operating license earlier this year. 16 -> Infonet Teams With Swiss Telecom On New Network -- Infonet and Swiss Telecom have formed a new joint venture company called Infonet Switzerland. Infonet has taken a 10 percent equity stake in the new company, with Swiss Telecom taking the remaining 90 percent. The new company will Be headquartered in Berne, Switzerland, and will sell and support Infonet's packet data network (PDN) services to Swiss companies, as well support Infonet's global subscribers in that country. 17 -> Review of "Trouble and Her Friends" (Book -- By John McCormick. Remember the old story about the retired gunfighter who settled down quietly as a small town sheriff until a young punk looked him up and started causing trouble? If that was a horse opera, then "Trouble and Her Friends" by Melissa Scott is a Net opera in the same sense. Replace gunslinger with hacker, add a lost love, and mix in legal problems and you have Trouble! 18 -> Personnel Roundup -- This is a regular feature, summarizing personnel changes not covered elsewhere by Newsbytes: Broderbund Software Inc., PSINet Inc., Ameritech, Quark Inc., Silicon Graphics Inc., Virtual Open Network Environment Corp., Media Vision Technology Inc., VictorMaxx Technologies Inc. 19 -> ****Cyrix Says New Chip "First Real Challenger" to Pentium -- Cyrix Corp. (NASDAQ:CYRX) formally unveiled what it called "The first substantial real challenge to Intel performance leadership." 20 -> Review of - StudioMagic for Windows -- StudioMagic for Windows is a low-end but very capable video editing and special effects board and software package which does real-time editing from 3 video sources. 21 -> ****IBM Plans Broad Server Announcements Tuesday -- IBM (NYSE:IBM) will make a number of announcements on Tuesday, October 10, ranging across hardware lines from its personal computers to its System/390 mainframes and focusing on server capabilities. 22 -> Data General To Offer Raptor's Internet Security -- Talk to corporate information systems managers about the Internet, and one thorny question is sure to come up: security. Data General Corp. (NYSE:DGN) is interested in selling its hardware to those people for use as 23 -> McKinley Directory Changes Name To Magellan -- After becoming an overnight Internet success story, The McKinley Directory, a popular Internet search, review and navigation tool is now called Magellan. In an attempt to keep its World Wide Web (Web) site free to all Internet users, the directory's designers, The McKinley Group, is accepting targeted advertisements for its large database. 24 -> China - Technology Newbriefs -- In this news roundup from China, an interbank ATM network has been built in Guangdong province, one out of 100 people in Shanghai is a mobile phone subscriber, Samsung of Korea is expanding its camcorder production in Tianjin to gain market share, and IBM has a US$25 million education strategic plan. 25 -> China - Optical Cable Project In Inner Mongolia -- A 2,900-kilometer optical cable project has started in the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region to improve its poor telecommunications facilities and low transmission capacity. 26 -> ****Oracle's Larry Ellison Promises Web TV -- Speaking at Geneva's Telecom 95, Larry Ellison, chairman and chief executive officer of database giant, Oracle Corp., said Web TV would be available by the first half of 1996. Video for the Internet does not mean movies-on-demand to Ellison who says early applications of Web TV will be found in corporate and educational markets. 27 -> Dell Chairman Optimistic About Industry Future -- The chairman of Dell Computer Corp. (NASDAQ: DELL) believes the personal computer market will continue it sharp growth over the next few years, spurred by expansion in the notebook computer market and the replacement of existing computers. 28 -> DEC Signs $1.5M Deal For Video Trial With Telenor -- By signing a $1.5 million deal to take part in a newly unveiled interactive video trial with Telenor, the national telecommunications operator for Norway, Digital Equipment Corp. is now participating in some 20 them in Europe, said Roger Horine, marketing manager for Digital's Video and Interactive Information Services (VIIS), in an interview with Newsbytes. 29 -> ****Unisys To Form Three Distinct Businesses -- Unisys Corp. (NYSE:UIS) said it will restructure the company into three "distinct" businesses, along with dismantling its matrix management structure. The actions are being taken to allow the three separate businesses to compete better and to react more quickly to growth opportunities. 30 -> Newsbytes Week In Review -- This is a look at the top stories this week, listing with their category code: America Online Unexpectedly Goes Down, Farcast News Service On Magic Link, First Aid 95" Attacks 10,000 Windows 95, 3.1 Woes, Connectsoft Disconnects From Medio Purchase, Survey Counts 5.8 Million Internet Users, NBC Desktop Video To Intro Online Player, IBM Aims New ThinkPads At Desktop Market, Sybase Chosen For Mammoth Environmental Research Project, Apple Board Of Directors Back Spindler, Compuserve's Sub-$5 Per Month Internet Service, Oracle's Vision Of Networked Future, Distribution Key As Internetworking Firms Converge, Microsoft's "Harder Side" Better To Hit - Survey, Technology Executives Conservative About Future, Lycos Spider Web Search Gets GUI Update, Backlinks, Ads, Cyrix Says New Chip "First Real Challenger" to Pentium, IBM Plans Broad Server Announcements Tuesday, Oracle's Larry Ellison Promises Web TV, Unisys To Form Three Distinct Businesses. (Wendy Woods/19951006) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 09/20/95 ONLINE UK - Demon Internet Services Plans National Access (NEWS)(ONLINE)(LON)(00001) UK - Demon Internet Services Plans National Access 09/20/95 LONDON, ENGLAND, 1995 SEP 20 (NB) -- Demon Internet Services (DIS) plans to be the first Internet service provider (SP) to offer national local call access to its Internet point of presence (PoP) network in the UK. Plans call for 100 percent local coverage to roll out at the end of October. Because of the changes to its network, DIS plans to phase out the terms tPoPs (traditional points of presence) and vPoPs (virtual points of presence), the two phrases that the company claims it originally coined. In their place will be ROMPs (regionally organized modem pools). To cover the UK, DIS will operate three main ROMPs, covering: Central England and Southern Scotland; Southern England and Northern Scotland; and London. Full details of the ROMPs and further information on UK local access numbers can be found on DIS's World Wide Web page at http://www.demon.net . (Steve Gold/19950918/Press Contact: Foresight PR, +44-181-371-3711; Internet e-mail pr@demon.net; Reader Contact: Demon Internet Svcs, +44-181-371-1234; Internet e-mail sales@demon.net) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 09/20/95 LEGAL Moscow Is Paradise For Computer Software Pirates (NEWS)(LEGAL)(LON)(00002) Moscow Is Paradise For Computer Software Pirates 09/20/95 MOSCOW, RUSSIA, 1995 SEP 20 (NB) -- There are few historical monuments which attract so much interest from tourists and locals alike as an inconspicuous park not far from Kutozovovy avenue in Moscow. Despite the fact that this place is practically on the edge of Moscow, more than 1,000 visitors frequent the location every weekend. That is because, in the park can be found an illegal market for compact disks, videocassettes, and computer software -- and everything at some of the lowest prices in the world. Windows 95, which Microsoft reportedly has yet to patent, can be purchased, in a Russian version, for only US$4. Russian pirate companies churn out billions of pirated CD disks each year. On the black market you can find, for just $4, everything from the soundtrack of the film Forrest Grump, to the CD version of Webster's expanded English dictionary. Currently there does not exist any law which would outlaw these pirates. If the government would start to give someone problems, they would have to answer to their own actions in the first place, said Alexej Novikov, of the computer company Berton. Observers claim that virtually all offices, schools, government offices, and even the Kremlin are equipped with text and graphics editors from the black market. Novikov has worked in the area already for more than 30 years. He remembers the beginnings of Russian electronics, when computers filled an entire production hall and had computing power of little more than a handheld calculator. By the time experts in the Soviet Union came to know what a computer was all about, there were already 1,000 programs in the West. This is why there came into being, within the structure of the KGB, a special computer division of industrial spies whose agents had the responsibility of deciphering foreign software. In this way, they created a real programming elite, claimed Novikov. After the fall of the Soviet Union, many of these elite programmers completely lost there work. Some argue that, the growth of inflation and the overall fall of the economy resulted in experts working for less and less pay. One way to exit from the crisis was to contract with a pirate company and receive good pay, sources claim. (Steven Slatem/19950920) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 09/20/95 TELECOM Harris Joint Venture For China Telecoms (NEWS)(TELECOM)(HKG)(00003) Harris Joint Venture For China Telecoms 09/20/95 CENTRAL, HONG KONG, 1995 SEP 20 (NB)-- US telecommunications specialist Harris Corp. has formed a joint venture with the Guangzhou Wire Communications Equipment Factory to provide telecommunications systems and services throughout China. The deal is the latest in a number of joint ventures and technology transfers that Harris has formed in the past decade to address China's fast-growing telecommunications market. The joint-venture company, Guangzhou Harris Telecommunications Ltd., will be based in Guangzhou and will employ about 320 staff providing research and development, manufacturing, sales, and support for digital telephone switches and other telecommunications systems and services. Sales and service offices have already been established in 13 Chinese cities and are expected to expand to 25 offices in 1995. The Guangzhou Wire Communications Equipment Factory is a major supplier of digital systems for public and private telecommunications networks in China. The country is the largest and fastest growing market for telecommunications systems in the world, according to recent government and industry surveys. With a population of more than 1.2 billion, China has plans to greatly expand its telecommunications services during the coming decade. "The Chinese market represents one of the strongest growth opportunities for Harris' communications products and services," said Matt Heidecker, vice president of China operations for the Harris Corp.'s Digital Telephone Systems Division. "This joint venture will greatly enhance our ability to develop and sell products and services specifically geared for this unique market." Harris has been providing a wide range of telephone, wireless, television, and radio broadcast products and services in China for more than 20 years. (Nigel Armstrong & I.T. Daily/19950920) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 09/20/95 ONLINE Wall Street Journal Web Site Adds Company Reports (NEWS)(ONLINE)(MSP)(00004) Wall Street Journal Web Site Adds Company Reports 09/20/95 NEW YORK CITY, NEW YORK, U.S.A., 1995 SEP 20 (NB) -- The interactive Internet World Wide Web publication from the Wall Street Journal is adding a new feature that will let Net surfers access background reports on almost any company in the news. The new section, called "Company Briefing Books," offers highly graphical compilations of financial data, stock charts, and recent news from more than 6,500 US and international companies, officials said. These reports offer Wall Street Journal and Dow Jones newswire content, as well as company performance data and background from other sources. The Briefing Books are split into five sections. The Company Background area includes an updated overview of each company's business and history. The Financial Overview includes a chart of quarterly earnings over a two-year period, and other data in graphical form. The Stock Performance section features the company's highs, lows, and closings on the stock market over a 200-day period, along with other stock data. The Company News and Press Releases sections cover happenings on each company from both independent news sources and from the company's perspective. Company Briefing Books can be accessed from the Journal's "Money & Investing Update" Web publication, which Newsbytes first reported on last July. The Web newspaper is updated throughout the day and evening as news breaks, with full stories behind each news item appearing in a summary. In an interview with Newsbytes at that time, Neil F. Budde, editor of Money & Investing Update, had hinted at a "Company Briefing Books" feature. In general, he said the Web newspaper would be more than a dumping site for news wire stories. "We're trying to treat it like a newspaper in the sense that editors cultivate and organize information based on some order of priority of what's important." News stories about companies in the Company Briefing Books area will now have direct hotlinks to the detailed reports provided in the new section of the Web site, officials said. Also, readers can ask for a Briefing Book on a company of their choice at any time by entering the concern's name or stock symbol. Like the "Money & Investing Update," the Company Briefing Books are on a free trial period. Officials said the Web offerings will continue to be free over the next few months, but nothing more specific was released. The Journal's Web page is at http://update.wsj.com . (Bob Woods/19950919/Press Contacts: Wendall Wood Collins, Wall Street Journal, 609-520-4685; Lisa Gilbert or Michael Bayer, Miller/Shandwick Technologies, 617-536-0470) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 09/20/95 TELECOM Sweden's Ericsson In $250Mil Philippines Telecom Deal (NEWS)(TELECOM)(LON)(00005) Sweden's Ericsson In $250Mil Philippines Telecom Deal 09/20/95 STOCKHOLM, SWEDEN, 1995 SEP 20 (NB) -- Ericsson has signed a contract with Smart Communications, the Filipino telecoms operator. Terms of the US$250 million contract call for the expansion of Smart's existing Cellular Mobile Telephone Network (CMTN) and the construction of a fixed network for the local exchange service areas. Ericsson will supply all the necessary equipment to build the new network and in the first stages of the contract, which is valued at US$180 million, the Swedish telco will provide 280,000 telephone lines, which Smart is committed to under its operating license from the Philippines National Telecommunications Commission (NTC). According to Orlando B. Vea, Smart's chief executive officer (CEO), in the second phase of the contract, which is valued at US $70 million, Ericsson will be responsible for the expansion of Smart's Cellular Mobile Telephone Network to around 300,000 subscribers. "The signing of these agreements again demonstrates Smart's commitment to accelerate the provision of telecommunications services in the Philippines," he said. Ericsson's AXE system will be the main platform for Smart's fixed and cellular networks. Smart will be able to take advantage of network- wide facilities such as intelligent networks, for example, ISDN (integrated services digital network), and Centrex facilities. According to Ericsson, the provision of an international gateway switching facility and DECT (Digital European Cordless Telephony) wireless telephony in the local loop trial system is also covered by the contract. On the equipment side of the deal, Ericsson will supply switching and transmission facilities, radio base stations, network management systems, billing and customers services and system support facilities. Most of Smart's cellular network is made of Ericsson's switches and radio base stations. The two companies have been collaborating since 1993, when Ericsson received its first contract from Smart Communications. In 1994, the Smart TACS (Total Access Cellular System) analog cellular network was launched in the Philippines and has connected more than 85,000 subscribers over the last year, making it the fastest growing cellular system in the Philippines. (Sylvia Dennis/19950919/Press Contact: Per Pedersen, Ericsson Telecommunications, +63-2-895-2902) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 09/20/95 ONLINE Global Post Code & Demographic Info On The Web (NEWS)(ONLINE)(LON)(00006) Global Post Code & Demographic Info On The Web 09/20/95 BUSHEY, HERTFORDSHIRE, 1995 SEP 20 (NB) -- ALLM Systems and Marketing, publisher of the Global Gazetteer, has plugged into the World Wide Web, opening up a home page at http://www.knowledge.co.uk/xxx/geodata . #IMAGE 1 20 TWPCX \images\95092006.PCX Click here for photo According to Alan Pritchard, who heads up the company, the Global Gazetteer is one of the "largest and most complete" files of international geographical data available. The Gazetteer contains geographical data in "machine readable form," which is available to customers of ALLM. "We see the Internet as very much a shop window for our products, and a means by which potential customers can view our services and download sample files," Pritchard told Newsbytes. He added that the Gazetteer now covers more than 900,000 international place names and 11,000 administrative areas around the globe. Data held on file includes geographic and statistical information, as well as ISO (International Standards Organization) codes, time differences, NUTS levels, phone dialing codes, postcodes details, population, latitude, longnitude, and preferred/non-preferred place names. The basic data set is available in three main formats: dBase (ASCII, delineated by commas); PICK T-Dump; and as plain ASCII. Data files cost UKP20 per 1,000 records, plus UKP10 per 1,000 fields for enriched data, and UKP50 per 1,000 Unicode fields. Depending on the size of the file, ALLM will send out the data on disk or by electronic-mail. "Some of the data files are big that using e-mail can be impractical, especially over the Internet, so for these files we tend to use disks to mail out the data to customers," Pritchard said. (Steve Gold/19950919/Press Contact: The Media Crystal, tel +44-1332-823781, fax +44-1332-823755, Internet e-mail smallsopp@cix.compulink.co.uk; Reader Contact: ALLM Systems and Marketing, tel +44-1923-230150, fax +44-1923-211148, Internet e-mail apritchard@cix.compulink.co.uk/GAZETTEER19950920/PHOTO) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 09/20/95 GENERAL UK - HP Intros Low Cost Laser Printer (NEWS)(GENERAL)(LON)(00007) UK - HP Intros Low Cost Laser Printer 09/20/95 BRACKNELL, BERKSHIRE, ENGLAND, 1995 SEP 20 (NB) -- Hewlett-Packard has unveiled the LaserJet 5L, a Plug and Play-compatible LaserJet printer for SOHO (small office/home office) users. The new printer succeeds the LaserJet 4L unit and is a slimmer, vertical design that takes up less space. According to HP, the UKP479 printer is also the first LaserJet to feature PrintSmart, a suite of technologies that "delivers better, faster and easier printing." The printer works at four pages-per- minute (ppm) in most conditions. Ralph Tuckwell, a spokesman for HP, told Newsbytes that the LaserJet 5L is not to be confused with the current crop of GDI lasers, where the bulk of the processing required to print a page is carried out on the host PC, usually under Windows. "The problem with these printers is that they require a lot of processing power on the host PC, and they take time to process the data. If you're looking for an economy printer, then chances are that you're using an 80286 or 386-based PC, which probably can't cope with GDI printer technology," he explained. "HP doesn't believe that the GDI printer technology is viable in the budget printer market, which is why the company hasn't produced such a printer for the market. The LaserJet 5 offers a budget price, but without resorting to such cost-cutting technology," he said. HP claims that the LaserJet 5L printer is the industry's easiest laser printer to install and use, with a setup time as quick as 15 minutes. The printer has a "simple one-button operation," features an onscreen print status monitor and help tutorial, and is Plug and Play ready for Windows 95. "HP resets the standard in personal laser printing with the introduction of the HP LaserJet 5L," commented Richard Hanscott, HP's personal printer marketing manager. According to Hanscott, the printer combines new technology and innovation for "better, faster, easier" 600 dots-per-inch (dpi) printing at what he claims is an "attractive price." The LaserJet 5L printer features 600 by 600 dpi printing with HP's resolution enhancement technology, which the company claims results in "smoother, sharper curves and greater clarity for text and graphics." The printer is also billed as offering "excellent print quality" on a wide variety of paper types and weights as well as on recycled paper. Users can choose from 26 TrueType scalable typefaces. By using the Enhanced LaserJet Printing System for Windows, HP claims that the first page will come off the printer in under 20 seconds. These speed enhancements, along with a faster processor and accelerated I/O (input/output) handling, are claimed to save individual users more time and money. The LaserJet 5L printer features 100-page input and output trays that accommodate a wide range of media such as postcards and envelopes. A single sheet feeder allows customers to print special media without removing other media from the input tray, while an alternative straight paper path ensures wrinkle-free printing of envelopes, labels, special stock, and transparencies, says the company. According to HP, customers also can stack up to 10 envelopes or sheets of custom media in the main paper tray. The printer has a 4,000 page monthly duty-cycle. (Steve Gold/19950919/Press Contact: Ralph Tuckwell, PA Consulting Group, +44-171-730-9000; Reader Contact: Hewlett-Packard, +44-1344- 369222) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 09/20/95 TELECOM MFS Communications Expands Into Switzerland (NEWS)(TELECOM)(LON)(00008) MFS Communications Expands Into Switzerland 09/20/95 ZURICH, SWITZERLAND, 1995 SEP 20 (NB) -- MFS Communications has announced the launch of its business telecoms services into the fifth European financial center -- Zurich, Switzerland. Plans call for MFS to offer Swiss companies international telecoms services (to and from Zurich) beginning next month. "Zurich is one of the largest and most important financial centers in Europe. Expansion to Zurich is another step towards completing our strategy of offering the same high quality services to our customers in all major European financial centers," explained Marc Destree, vice president of MFS International. Like many European countries, Switzerland is dragging its heels somewhat in allowing foreign telcos into the marketplace. Under European Commission (EC) rules, however, the country must open up its telecoms market by January 1, 1998. Before that date, however, the Swiss Government must allow private telcos, such as MFS, to set up operations in the country, to prepare the way for offering telecoms services. According to MFS, its Swiss operation will soon be in the position of offering customers a wide range of high quality, hi-tech telecoms services by voice, data, and video media. MFS officials note that the Swiss Government has been obliged to license telecoms service operators in Switzerland since July of this year. Presently, MFS provides service or is in the process of opening new centers, in London, Frankfurt, Paris, Stockholm, and 42 North American metropolitan areas. Within the next three years, the company plans to widen its services coverage to 90 cities, including 25 international financial centers. To strengthen its position in the Swiss telecoms market, MFS has signed an agreement with Telekurs, a Swiss banking industry service company. Under the terms of the deal, MFS will be responsible for the implementation of its system electronics in Telekurs facilities, while Telekurs will provide operational and customer service support. (Sylvia Dennis/19950919/Press & Reader Contact: MFS Communications Europe, +32-2-655-0211) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 09/20/95 ONLINE See Lake Michigan....On The Internet (NEWS)(ONLINE)(MSP)(00009) See Lake Michigan....On The Internet 09/20/95 CHICAGO, ILLINOIS, U.S.A., 1995 SEP 20 (NB) -- All kinds of sites can be seen on the Internet -- from the inside of various offices, to a fish's artificial home in an aquarium, to a shot of the "infamous" Hollywood and Vine corner in Los Angeles. Now, the Midwest enters cyberspace as views of Lake Michigan from Chicago can be seen on the Net's World Wide Web. The Habitat Company, a Chicago-based real estate development and management firm, and American Information Services (AIS) are providing the views of the lakefront as a part of a new Web information site featuring the Habitat Company. The view Net surfers see is from the 33rd floor of the Buckingham Building, which Habitat manages. The real-time image is updated 24 hours a day and features the newly-renovated Navy Pier, which now contains shops, restaurants, an IMAX theater, a Ferris wheel, and an indoor garden, among other features. Josh E. Schneider, AIS president, told Newsbytes the camera can also be swung around to capture other Windy City sites, including Meigs Field, Grant Park, the Ritter Planetarium, Shedd Aquarium, and other views of the lakefront. When Newsbytes surfed to the site, we saw the Navy Pier shot framed by a typically cloudy Chicago setting. Habitat and AIS have archived two other views at the site: a rainy day, and a night view. Already Schneider said he has received many electronic-mail messages from the Internet community, saying the site and the view are very "cool." Habitat's home page, which contains the real-time view of Lake Michigan, is on the Web at http://www.habitat.com . Besides the Navy Pier view, the Habitat site also contains information on apartments it manages in the downtown Chicago area. Future plans call for giving users the ability to cross-market any of 21 properties from any leasing office a prospective tenant walks into. (Bob Woods/19950918/Press Contact: Josh E. Schneider, American Information Systems, 312-255-8500, Internet e-mail jschneid@ais.net) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 09/20/95 TRENDS UK - Context Offers Retail Watch Update Services (NEWS)(TRENDS)(LON)(00010) UK - Context Offers Retail Watch Update Services 09/20/95 LONDON, ENGLAND, 1995 SEP 20 (NB) -- After ten years of concentrating its market research activities on the dealer side of the computer and information technology (IT) sales channels, Context is moving its services into the retail channel with a new Retail Watch service. Jeremy Davies, a director with Context, told Newsbytes that the Retail Watch service centers around two main elements, a weekly update service on events in the European side of the retail market, and a data service, which offers pricing details on the PC, printer, and peripherals marketplace. "The service covers the whole of Europe, and includes a typical pricing service where we select a PC, printer, and other peripherals, and offer typical selling price comparisons," he said. He added that pricing on the new service varies depending on what data is required, and what the customer plans to do with the data. "Pricing starts from UKP5,000 a year. We're setting up a new division within Context, as we predict that the retail side of the channel is going to be of major importance in the years to come," he said. According to Davies, Retail Watch was set up because the computer industry was having a tough job keeping up with all the changes in, what is fast becoming, a major force in the channels for PC and printer sales in Europe. "For vendors, having to get involved in retailing hasn't only meant coping with country differences...retail for many of them is a whole new mindset," he explained. According to Context, it has been forecast that the consumer and business retail channel will become the major outlet for PCs in Europe within the next four years. The company says that, fueling the interest, are surveys like the one published recently by the UK computer publication Computer Weekly in association with Kew Associates, which found that consumer spending on PCs in the UK jumped 40 percent to over UKP1 billion last year compared with a 21 percent rise in corporate spending over the same period. Context claims that the survey noted that corporate spending was down from a 30 percent increase the year before. The Context Retail Watch report tracks pricing and promotional activity from the IT market leaders in the consumer and business retail channel in six European countries. Each country report analyzes pricing for all the products sold in the retail outlets tracked. At the same time, the results of a store "walk-in" are analyzed with particular reference to any promotional activity, such as bundling deals and finance offers. Special attention is also paid to merchandising. The main elements of the Retail Watch service include a weekly analysis of news, products, pricing and promotional activity, a weekly pricing monitor of the major models and configurations on sale, details of regional promotions and a monthly in depth update on instore merchandising. (Steve Gold/1990919/Press Contact: Sukie Read, Communications Manager, +44-171-937-3595, Internet e-mail sread@context-ecis.co.uk; Reader Contact: Context, +44-171-937-3595, Internet e-mail jdavies@context- ecis.co.uk) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 1995 09/20/95 TRENDS IDC Sees Compaq Retaining PC Sales Lead In (NEWS)(TRENDS)(DEN)(00011) IDC Sees Compaq Retaining PC Sales Lead In 1995 09/20/95 HOUSTON, TEXAS, U.S.A., 1995 SEP 20 (NB) -- Compaq Computer Corp. (NYSE: CPQ) will apparently retain its leadership in personal computer shipments for 1995, but not by much, according to a report released by the International Data Corp. (IDC). The international research and analysis company made its predictions at its annual one-day PC Market Outlook conference. IDC forecasts that Compaq will hang on to its worldwide sales leadership by about two market share points over IBM and Apple Computer Inc. Those two companies are in a dead heat for second place. Compaq is also expected to retain its domestic sales lead, but will drop a point in market share in the US. IDC said Apple and Packard Bell are in a tight race for second place in domestic sales, with Packard Bell currently within a point of Apple and IBM in fourth place. Compaq has occupied the top sales spot each quarter since the beginning of 1994, and also captured the top spot for that entire year, with IBM ranked second, followed by Apple, NEC Corp., Packard Bell Electronics Inc., and Hewlett-Packard. IDC said the release of Windows 95, growth in the home and small business markets, growth in rebounding or expanding regional economies, demand for online access, new graphics and data compression technology, and network management tools for business, will continue to drive demand for PCs. Potential market inhibitors include higher costs for some memory devices, some component shortages and a potentially slowing national economy. (Jim Mallory/19950919/Press contact: Compaq, 713-374-0484) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 09/20/95 WINDOWS Microsoft Intros NetWare File & Print Services Utility (NEWS)(WINDOWS)(DEN)(00012) Microsoft Intros NetWare File & Print Services Utility 09/20/95 REDMOND, WASHINGTON, U.S.A., 1995 SEP 20 (NB) -- Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ: MSFT) has released to manufacturing File and Print Services for NetWare, version 3.51. The utility software for Windows NT Server version 3.51 lets Windows NT Server functions as a NetWare 3.12-compatible file and print server. A Microsoft public relations person told Newsbytes the utility will ship "next week, at the latest." Microsoft said the software gives users the capability to use desktop machines with NetWare client software installed to access file and print services as well as server applications on the same multi-purpose Windows NT Server-based machine. Users can also deploy the Windows NT Server Directory Service and obtain a single network logon without changing their NetWare client software. The Windows NT Server already includes the IPX (Internetwork Packet Exchange)-compatible transport stack, gateway service for NetWare, and migration tool for NetWare. Microsoft said its Directory Service Manager for NetWare is currently in beta testing. The combined utilities make it easier for customers to integrate Windows NT Server into NetWare-based networks and to move from NetWare to Windows NT Server without reconfiguring either the desktop or the network. That saves changing client software, user-account information, or logon scripts. File and Print Services for NetWare will be available as a standalone product. The company said the International English version of the software will ship simultaneously, with the European version scheduled to follow in mid-October. The program will have an estimated selling price of $99.95 per server license. Users will also need to purchase a Windows NT Server Client Access License for each client accessing Windows NT Server. That license will cost about $28.50 per client when purchased in quantities of 20. (Jim Mallory/19950919/Press contact: Kari Day, Waggener Edstrom for Microsoft, 206-637-9097; Public contact: Microsoft, 206-882-8080 or 800-426-9400) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 09/20/95 BROADCAST Thailand & Vietnam Plan Satellite Launches (NEWS)(BROADCAST)(TYO)(00013) Thailand & Vietnam Plan Satellite Launches 09/20/95 BANGKOK, THAILAND, 1995 SEP 20 (NB) -- Thailand and Vietnam have announced plans to launch their own satellites, joining other Asian nations with satellites already in orbit or planned. The Bankok Post reported Monday that the Thai military is planning to launch a communications and intelligence-gathering satellite. The newspaper reported the project will cost around 26 billion baht ($1.04 billion). To be named The Star of Siam, the satellite project has attracted the interest of an unnamed British company which is already talking to the Thai military about the project. The Defense ministry has set up a feasibility study into the ambitious plans. Defense Minister Chavalit Yonchaiyudh was quoted by Reuter as saying, "The military needs to have its own satellite for command, communications, and intelligence purposes." Following the Thai announcement, Vietnam's Information Publishing Center said in a statement published in the English language newspaper, Vietnam News, the country would launch its own satellite by the turn of the century. It said a consortium of French and American companies would build and launch the satellite at a cost of between $250 million to $300 million. Thailand and Vietnam will now join the list of Asian countries with satellite programs. Recently Singapore said it would build and launch a series of micro- satellites to be used for communications within the country. The country's National Technical University will build the system with the UK's Surrey Satellites in a $7 million program. Korea has just sent "Mugunghwa," or Koreasat-1, into orbit. After suffering initial problems which delivered it into a low orbit, the craft has now reached geo-stationary orbit and will begin operations shortly. A second satellite will be put into space by the end of the year. Malaysia, which currently has a ban on satellite television reception, will launch its own Measat-1 next year on a European Ariane rocket. Before the beginning of broadcasting, which will see a 20 channel package of television available, the country will lift the ban that prohibits private citizens from owning and operating satellite receivers. In the Philippines, the nation's telephone operators are each planning to launch satellites of their own. Aerospatiale is building a satellite for the state-backed Philippine Agila Satellite Inc. The Philippine Long Distance Telephone Co. is racing to beat Agila into space and has signed a contract with Space Systems/Loral. Countries already operating broadcasting satellites include Japan, China, Indonesia, and Hong Kong. Indonesia just announced that it would launch two new satellites, Palapa C1 and C2 in January and April of next year, to meet high demands on the regional communications system. Despite the proliferation of satellite projects throughout the region, many nations are relying on American, European, or Russia space technology to build the craft. Japan and China has built their own vehicles and the recent Singapore announcement will see a start to the space industry in that country. (Martyn Williams/19950920) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 09/20/95 TELECOM MCI Completes Nationwide Cellular Deal (NEWS)(TELECOM)(MSP)(00014) MCI Completes Nationwide Cellular Deal 09/20/95 WASHINGTON, D.C., U.S.A., 1995 SEP 20 (NB) -- MCI Communications Corp. (NASDAQ:MCIC) will complete its friendly takeover of Nationwide Cellular Service Inc. (NASDAQ:NCEL) today. Nationwide shareholders have already approved the deal, which runs around $190 million in cash, or $18.50 per share. Under the terms, Nationwide stockholders will get the $18.50 for each share they hold. Also today, Nationwide will distribute the previously declared dividend of the common stock of Cellular Technical Services Company Inc. (NASDAQ:CTSC) (CTS), which equates to .385 shares of CTS stock. Nationwide is the nation's largest cellular reseller, bringing in $213 million in revenue in 1994. The company provides wireless services to 300,000 customers in 10 major cities, including Chicago, New York City, Baltimore, Los Angeles, and Washington DC. With the Nationwide deal, and agreements with companies like GTE Mobilnet, BellSouth, and AT&T, MCI said it will have access to more than 75 percent of the US population in the top 100 business markets. Newsbytes first reported on the deal last May. At the time, MCI officials said the Nationwide acquisition was the "first step of (MCI's) strategy to provide national wireless services integrated with other MCI services for both consumer and business customers." This strategy is already paying dividends for MCI, with recent bundling announcements of cellular, long distance, paging, and other services for the company's business and consumer channels. MCI officials also said the company will begin to shy away from owning local transmission facilities with this deal. Instead, it will resell other companies cellular services under the MCI name, which MCI said is cheaper than building and maintaining local installations. Eventually MCI will sell Nationwide's services under the more-familiar MCI brand name. For now, though, the Nationwide name will remain in the marketplace. (Bob Woods/19950919/Press Contacts: Kevin Inda, MCI Communications, 202-887-2028; Joe Pititto, Nationwide Cellular Service, 516-887-0399) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 09/20/95 TRENDS SPA Reports Flat Software Sales In Western Europe (NEWS)(TRENDS)(TOR)(00015) SPA Reports Flat Software Sales In Western Europe 09/20/95 WASHINGTON, D.C., U.S.A., 1995 SEP 20 (NB) -- Personal computer applications software sales in Western Europe were up only slightly over a year ago in the second quarter, the Software Publishers' Association has reported. And sales of both DOS and Apple Macintosh applications were down. The figures released by the SPA are based on data from 38 US-based applications software vendors. Anne Griffith, a research analyst at the Washington-based software trade association, told Newsbytes the numbers do not include European-produced software and probably represent roughly 85 percent of the total sales of US-produced software in Western Europe. A few US-based producers do not participate in the study, and the SPA does not attempt to extrapolate its results to account for them, she said. However, Griffith said the growth rates given are probably quite close to those for the entire market. According to the SPA, Western European PC application sales by the participating vendors amounted to $423 million in the second quarter of 1995, up one percent from the second quarter of 1994. Sales of Windows applications were up six percent at $388 million. Sales of DOS applications were down 35 percent to $20 million, which is no surprise given Windows' continuing takeover of the DOS market. Perhaps more surprisingly, though, sales of applications software for Apple's Macintosh fell 28 percent year-over-year, to $13.5 million in the quarter. "I haven't got a good reason" for the drop in Macintosh application sales, Griffith said. "I'm just not certain exactly what's going on." For the first half of the year, Windows applications sales by the surveyed vendors were up nine percent to $852 million. DOS application sales fell 42 percent to $46.8 million, and Macintosh software sales were down 20 percent at $34.4 million, the SPA said. Over all, applications sales were up three percent year-over-year in the first half. According to the SPA, Windows packages now account for 91 percent of the sales of US-made applications software in Western Europe. Griffith said sales of OS/2 applications were up 39 percent in Western Europe in the second quarter and 15 percent in the first half. However, she cautioned that this large increase came on a far smaller total than for Windows. Griffith would not say what total OS/2 applications sales were in the quarter, saying the SPA wants to keep some of its data secret for its members. Based on the totals that were released and the statement that Windows application sales represented 91 percent of the total in the first half, it appears clear that OS/2 application sales added up to less than $4 million in the first half. The SPA collected data for six operating systems in all. The SPA said price pressures are keeping sales revenues down in Western Europe by reducing unit prices almost as fast as unit volumes rise. Unit sales have been growing by 40 to 50 percent per quarter, the software manufacturers' trade association said, but prices have been dropping sharply over the past year. (Grant Buckler/19950919/Press Contact: Anne Griffith, Software Publishers' Association, 202-452-1600 ext 360; Sally Lawrence, Software Publishers' Association, 202-452-1600 ext 320) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 09/20/95 ONLINE ****IBM Launches Internet Search Service (NEWS)(ONLINE)(TOR)(00016) ****IBM Launches Internet Search Service 09/20/95 FALLS CHURCH, VIRGINIA, U.S.A., 1995 SEP 20 (NB) -- Trying to solve what it described as one of the Internet's three big problems, IBM has launched infoMarket Search, an Internet search service. InfoMarket Search will let Internet users search multiple Internet sites, including World Wide Web sites, Usenet news groups, and other documents available on the Internet. Searching is free, and according to IBM it will probably remain so. The company hopes to make money from the service by getting a cut from information providers who sell information to users thanks to infoMarket Search. IBM announced agreements to provide access to the Yahoo! index of Web sites, the Open Text index of Web documents, and the McKinley database of Internet sites. IBM also said the content of more than 13,000 Usenet news groups will be searchable through its service. Several content providers have also signed up to make their information available through infoMarket Search. Newsbytes is one of these, along with: Disclosure Inc., which provides financial and management data on public companies around the world; Comtex, a distributor of press-release services and some news wires; Information Access Co., which produces more than 7,000 journals, magazines, newspapers, and other materials electronically; and Cambridge Scientific Abstracts, a publisher of scientific and technical information. Jeff Crigler, vice-president of IBM infoMarket, said one of the key problems IBM has found with the Internet is the difficulty of finding the information one wants. He described infoMarket Search as a "lighthouse in the information fog." The other two big problems, Crigler added, are how to pay for the information once you find it, and how intellectual property can be protected. IBM is also planning to address those issues in the future, he said. Internet users can try out infoMarket Search at http://www.infomkt.ibm.com. There is no charge to use the searching capability. "We think essentially that browsing the store should be free," Crigler said. IBM apparently hopes to keep it that way, though Crigler said at one point during the teleconference that searching "is free to users and it will continue to be free," but at another point that "we hope to continue making searching available for free forever or for as long as we can afford to do it." For the rest of this year, there will also be no charge for access to information that content providers offer through the service, Crigler said. Later there will be charges, and IBM will get a cut. Asked about the level of usage IBM would need to break even, Crigler would say only that it would be within the bounds of what would be expected on a large net site. (Grant Buckler/19950919/Press Contact: Mike King, IBM, 914-766-1119, Internet e-mail mikeking@vnet.ibm.com) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 09/20/95 GENERAL Japan Newsbriefs (NEWS)(GENERAL)(TYO)(00017) Japan Newsbriefs 09/20/95 TOKYO, JAPAN, 1995 SEP 20 (NB) -- In this roundup of news from Japan: MPT establishes auto telecoms panel, Apple picks Fujitsu for MO drive, KDD to cut rates to Asia, Japan and EU settle phone dispute, IBM supplies OEM displays, Matsushita's digital camera heads overseas. MPT Establishes Auto Telecoms Panel The Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications has set up a panel to look into the field of automobile communications. The panel will study future uses of devices such as cellular telephones and car navigation systems as well as future systems including the use of radar to detect obstacles in the road ahead and wireless based road toll systems. A report from the panel is due by next May. Apple Picks Fujitsu For MO Drive Fujitsu are to supply magneto-optical (MO) disk drives to Apple Computer for installation in the American company's Powerbook laptop computers. The company has optimized the drives for installation in Macintosh PowerBook 190 and 5300 Computers. Steve Andler, senior director of mobile systems product marketing at Apple explained, "With space at a premium in a notebook form factor, we selected the Fujitsu PowerBook DynaMO 230 to provide our mobile users with a single product that we expect to deliver the performance of a hard drive, the transportability of a floppy and infinite re-writability, which is greater functionality than CD-ROM can offer." MO drives are capable of storing up to 230 megabytes (MB) on 3.5-inch MO disks. Fujitsu recently announced it had developed new two gigabyte (GB) disks that retain compatibility with existing drives and will be available in around two years. KDD To Cut Rates To Asia The country's largest international telephone operator, KDD, will cut charges on some routes, particularly those to South Korea and Singapore, according to the Nikkan Kogyo Shimbun. The rate cuts will bring charges closer in line with those of other countries. Japan And EU Settle Phone Dispute The European Union and Japan have come to an agreement over what could have been a trade dispute concerning cellular telephones. European Commission Vice President Leon Brittan and Japanese Foreign Minister Yohei Kono both announced Monday that the two had settled the issue of whether a Japan-US trade agreement in 1992 favored US telephone manufacturer Motorola unfairly over European companies. IBM Supplies OEM Displays The Nikkan Kogyo Shimbun reported in weekend editions that IBM Japan will begin supplying color TFT (thin film transistor) LCD (liquid crystal display) displays to other manufacturers on an OEM (original equipment manufacturer) basis shortly. IBM Japan makes the units at a factory in Shiga prefecture that it operates jointly with Toshiba. The displays are hoped to become a major part of IBM Japan's business accounting for 15% of all sales, the newspaper said, and would begin being offered to other computer makers this year or early next year. Matsushita's Digital Camera Heads Overseas Following Sony's lead, Matsushita will begin selling a new all digital camcorder in the United States market. The NV-DJ1 appeared in Japan on September 1 and features an all digital path from the CCD video pickups to the tape which is a new, digital VHS format being used by both Matsushita and Sony. US sales will begin in October with European sales slated to begin next spring. (Martyn Williams/19950920) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 09/20/95 TELECOM New Jersey Utility Deploys Packet Cell Technology (NEWS)(TELECOM)(WAS)(00018) New Jersey Utility Deploys Packet Cell Technology 09/20/95 NEWARK, N.J., U.S.A., 1995 SEP 20 (NB) -- The wireless lane on the information superhighway is getting its largest test yet. Public Service Electric & Gas of Newark, N.J., is equipping more than 750 field service workers with pen-based computers that will communicate with cellular digital packet data (CDPD) technology over the Bell Atlantic Nynex Mobile cellular network. CDPD is a technology that transmits short bursts of packets of data over the cellular infrastructure, just as the Internet uses data packets over the telephone wires. The PSE&G deployment is the largest application of CDPD technology to date. PSE&G tested several wireless services for picking Bell Atlantic Nynex's CDPD. The utility says CDPD offers an open standard based on the Internet's TCP/IP (Transmission Control Protocol/ Internet Protocol) protocol and has inherent encryption. The field service workers in the utility's gas service business will use the computers to send and receive real-time information on repair requests and customer orders over the cellular network under the Air Bridge Packet name. "There will be significant cost savings in the time we're spending on paper processing," said Stan Kosierowski, PSE&G director of the gas service business. "We'll be able to better serve more customers because access to real-time information will reduce the number of recurring orders, provide better resource management and support our service guarantee commitments." Under the old system, service calls are transmitted by radio from one of two call centers to regional dispatchers and to field personnel who write down details repair calls and orders. Once a job is completed, a time sheet is filled out and the information called into a dispatcher, who manually enters it into the database. The call and dispatch centers cannot track customer calls. The new system will let field personnel directly receive real-time information on customer orders, repair requests and existing maintenance contracts and previous problems. Once a job is completed, the field service technician can enter details on the pen-based computer and send it back in real time to the appropriate databases. "For a relatively new technology, CDPD has proven itself a viable, industrial-strength service that has widespread potential," says Lonnie Lauer, Bell Atlantic Nynex Mobile vice president. "The technology is already working for law enforcement agencies, including the Bridgewater Police here in New Jersey and others along the Northeast Corridor." Lauer said that "utility companies throughout the region and across the nation will be watching this system." PSE&G is New Jersey's largest energy utility, serving 2.2 million customers, including 1.5 million gas customers. (Kennedy Maize/19950920/Press Contacts: Frank Centore, PSE&G, 201-430-5980; Lynette Viviani, Bell Atlantic Nynex Mobile, 201-283-9228) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 09/20/95 ONLINE ****President Clinton Live On America Online (NEWS)(ONLINE)(WAS)(00019) ****President Clinton Live On America Online 09/20/95 WASHINGTON, D.C., U.S.A., 1995 SEP 20 (NB) -- Have something you really want to say to President Bill Clinton? You'll be able to do that online, in real time, online, tomorrow, if you are quick or lucky enough, and a member of America Online. The President will be on the premiere of "Larry King Super Special" radio show, billed as a "radio town meeting" by producer Westwood One. Listeners can ask questions of the President via telephone, fax, and in a live auditorium session on AOL. In addition to posing zingers to Bill Clinton, AOL members can get news, photos and special information in an area dedicated to the event. The radio town meeting will be aired from the Westwood One studios in Los Angeles at 6:30 pm, EST. AOL members can access the event by using the keyword "Clinton Live." The auditorium event will take place in the "AOL Live" area. AOL says it will open the auditorium in advance. It says that in keeping with the town meeting theme, virtual seating in the auditorium is limited to 5,000. Westwood One is America's largest producer and distributor of radio programming and the parent of the Mutual Broadcasting System and NBC Radio Network. Among the radio personalities it distributes are Don Imus and Howard Stern. Westwood One programming airs on over 6,000 stations around the world. So Thursday, 6:30 pm on America Online is your chance to show those White House reporters just how to question the chief executive and commander-in-chief. (Kennedy Maize/19950920/Press Contacts: Margaret Ryan, AOL, 703-883-1625; Laurie Peters, Westwood One, 310-306-4125) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 09/20/95 TRENDS ****Losses For Phone & Cable Firms Predicted (NEWS)(TRENDS)(LAX)(00020) ****Losses For Phone & Cable Firms Predicted 09/20/95 SAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1995 SEP 20 (NB) -- Competing cable and phone companies vying in the new broadband multimedia marketplace are heading into a "bloody stalemate," says Mercer Management Consulting. In a study just published, Mercer projects revenue potential for consumer communication, information, and entertainment services to be in excess of $100 billion over the next ten to fifteen years, but this will fall far short of covering costs. P. William Bane, vice president of Mercer Management Consulting, told Newsbytes, "Europe and the United States have taken different paths toward a digitized communications network. Historically, the television network has been separate from the telephone network, and both were separate from any computer networks. With digitization all these networks merge. In Europe, they are planning one monopolistic regulated digitized network, in the United States we are trending toward deregulation and multiple competing networks." He said: "At the very least the competing cable and phone companies will be installing separate digitized networks to the home. We will be seeing at least two networks in every community, and this means for the next few years we are going to have broadband capacity that will exceed any concept of demand. When capacity grows faster than demand you end up with companies loosing money." "This is going to be bloody," said Bane, "because revenues will not match costs for a long time, and its a stalemate because both the cable and phone companies have no choice but to take this life-or- death plunge into the digitized network." Mercer predicts revenue growth for local consumer broadband communications, entertainment, and electronic services will be significant, but much less than the market's current expectations. Mercer sees growth from $60 billion today, to $100 billion by 2010. Entertainment holds the greatest future revenue growth potential ($20 billion), but incremental demand for entertainment depends upon the arrival of a broadband network capable of offering full video-on-demand and time-shifted TV, says the study. Electronic services offer the greatest near-in potential ($5 billion to $10 billion). In the short term, revenue can be enhanced with widespread access to ISDN (integrated services digital network) and cable modems. These interim technologies can profitably support new services in the years prior to deployment of full service networks, says Mercer. The report predicts that videophone has substantial revenue potential ($10 billion) if picture quality is improved, and equipment and monthly pricing levels are reduced to reasonable levels. Quality of service performance, broad service choice, and ease-of-use will be critical to unlocking demand. "Monopoly break-up combined with new technologies leads to capacity and fixed costs growing faster than demand, not a pretty picture from a financial point of view," said Bane. "The shortfall can only be covered by fostering growth through a combination of vision, innovation, and invention. This should include aggressive, software- intensive new product development, alliances, and opening up networks and content offerings to encourage market speculation." Mercer Management Consulting Inc. is headquartered in New York, and employs 1,000 people in 12 offices throughout the United States. The study was conducted with interviews of 850 randomly chosen United States consumers. In-depth interviews with industry executives also took place. (Richard Bowers/19950920/Press Contact: Howard Bailen, Mercer Management Consulting, 212-345-7506) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 09/20/95 ONLINE Vanguard Offers Online, Internet Education Programs (NEWS)(ONLINE)(MSP)(00021) Vanguard Offers Online, Internet Education Programs 09/20/95 VALLEY FORGE, PENNSYLVANIA, U.S.A., 1995 SEP 20 (NB) -- The Vanguard Group will begin offering educational materials in separate cyberspace channels for people who want to learn about mutual funds and retirement planning. The "Vanguard Online University" mutual fund area will be on America Online (AOL), while 401(k) retirement program information will use Internet World Wide Web technology. These two initiatives aren't the first forays into electronic-based information, John S. Woerth, communications manager for the Vanguard Group, told Newsbytes. He noted the group has been on AOL since the beginning of this year. "Vanguard is setting out to be a leader in online information about investing," he said. "We feel that cyberspace will be the next "800" number, and supplement our telephone and mail mediums in a cost-effective and more timely manner." On AOL, the Vanguard Online University will offer a six-week introductory course to help novice investors learn about the fundamentals of mutual fund investing. Topics will include "how-to" subjects like setting up an account, selecting funds, and tracking returns. Other classes will address different investment objectives, various investment strategies, and the nature of risk. The AOL classes will begin September 27, and run through November 1. Study materials are made available several days before each class. There is a "final exam" that will test students' knowledge in investing in mutual funds. On the retirement side, a new service called "Participant Online" will educate and give Vanguard 401(k) plan participants information on developing a financially sound retirement program. Investing, asset allocation, risk, and other investment-related topics are covered in this venture. Users can also obtain account balances and their current allocation mix through the system. Participant Online is based on Web technology, although it is not a site that everyone can access, Woerth told Newsbytes. The Vanguard customer will access the site using customized software from Spyglass Inc. (NASDAQ:SPYG) and Logical Design Solutions. Since the system is Web based, it uses hypertext markup language (HTML), which makes navigation easier through hyper links. Although Participant Online is best suited as a desktop application that participants access from their workplace PC's that are connected to a local area network (LAN) with Internet access, Vanguard said it plans to make dial-up access available for those who would access the system from a home computer. (Bob Woods/19950920/Press Contacts: Brian S. Magges, 610-669-6219, or John S. Woerth, 610-669-6224, both of the Vanguard Group) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 09/20/95 TRENDS Hal Computer Ships 64-bit SPARC Workstations (NEWS)(TRENDS)(LAX)(00022) Hal Computer Ships 64-bit SPARC Workstations 09/20/95 SAN JOSE, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1995 SEP 20 (NB) --HAL Computer Systems, a Fujitsu company, has introduced a new line of 64-bit Sun Microsystems' SPARC workstations. The company claims the HALstation 300 Series workstations will run existing 32-bit SPARC applications up to 3.3 times faster than any current system. Other manufacturers are already delivering SPARC workstations based on 64-bit hardware and 32-bit software, but HAL Computer Systems claims to be the only company delivering a 64-bit operating system. Speaking to Newsbytes, Clark Hoyle, director of workstation marketing, said, "We are announcing the world's first 62-bit SPARC workstation. These workstations are fully compatible with Sun Microsystems 32-bit SPARC operating system. Users can get all the performance and functional advantages of next-generation 64-bit systems without having to replace their enormous investments in existing software, networks, and peripherals. "HAL's new SPARC64/OS 2.4 operating system is based on, and compatible with, Sun's latest Solaris 2.4 operating system. Our tests indicate that the HALstation 300 Series workstation can run existing 32-bit Solaris applications up to three times as fast as any other workstation. The system is able to run existing Solaris-based applications software without modification, a capability we will back up with a full money back guarantee," said Hoyle. "A 64-bit chip is only half the story -- you need 64-bit system software to harness its power," said Scott Metcalf, president of HAL Computer Systems. "We're giving users the entire 64-bit system they need to solve their next-generation of larger, more complex problems." HAL also claims the new system architecture reduces long-term maintenance expenses, including configuring, servicing and upgrading. The workstation is built entirely with a new class of component, the customer replaceable units. They claim that, with nothing more than a single screwdriver, a user can strip, and rebuild a HALstation in less than 25 minutes, touching no more than nine screws in the process. The mid-range HALstation 330 with a 100 megahertz (MHz) CPU (central processing unit) is priced starting at $23,010 with a base configuration of two gigabyte (GB) disk storage, 64 megabyte (MB) RAM, four SBUS slots, keyboard, mouse, and a 17-inch color monitor. The high-end HALstation 350 with a 118MHz CPU is priced starting at $33,055 with a base configuration of 2GB disk storage, 64MB RAM, four SBUS slots, keyboard, mouse, and a 20-inch color monitor. The US master distributor for the Hal workstation is Ingram Micro. In Europe, ICL will distribute the HALstation 300 Series. Parent company Fujitsu Ltd. of Japan will distribute the workstations throughout Japan and the rest of Asia. (Richard Bowers/19950920/Press Contact: Carol Manning, HAL Computer Systems, 408-379-7000) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 9 09/20/95 TRENDS Sega Selling 32-bit Game Player For $ (NEWS)(TRENDS)(LAX)(00023) Sega Selling 32-bit Game Player For $99 09/20/95 REDWOOD CITY, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1995 SEP 20 (NB) -- Sega of America Inc. announced that the suggested retail price of the Genesis 32x, the arcade upgrade to the Genesis home entertainment system, has been reduced to $99. Previously priced at $149, the upgrade offers a middle ground between the 16-bit Genesis system and the $399 32-bit CD-ROM Sega Saturn system. Earl Mallit, marketing manager for Sega of America, told Newsbytes, "We are offering the 32x as an affordable 32-bit arcade system. If you can't afford $399 for a full 32-bit CD-ROM system, the cartridge based 32x will, for $300 less, still give a 32-bit arcade look." "We've been able to cost-reduce 32x, keeping it the most affordable system for 32-bit gaming on the market," said Chrissie Huneke Kremer, director of marketing. Sega tested the $99 price-point for Genesis 32x over the past four weeks. "Our early sales reports show that the $99 price point has resulted in an increase in Genesis 32x sales in our top markets," added Kremer. "And we expect to see a more significant increase as more of our fall titles roll out." One of the most popular fighting arcade hits ever, "Virtual Fighter" will make its way onto the 32X on October 10 with other titles coming soon. "'Kolibri,' a game where a high-flying hummingbird must save the planet from an evil asteroid's deadly emissions; 'Star Trek: Starfleet Academy,' the only Star Trek flight simulator on any Sega platform; and 'Spiderman: Web of Fire,' will be coming out exclusively on the Genesis 32x this fall," said Mallit. Sega of America, a subsidiary of Tokyo-based Sega Enterprises Ltd., is responsible for the development, marketing and distribution of Sega products in the Americas. Sega Enterprises is a $4 billion company with operations on five continents. (Richard Bowers/19950920/Press Contact: Terry Tang, Sega of America, 415-802-3218) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 09/20/95 UNIX Unix Expo - IBM To Ship DataJoiner (NEWS)(UNIX)(BOS)(00024) Unix Expo - IBM To Ship DataJoiner 09/20/95 NEW YORK, NEW YORK, U.S.A., 1995 SEP 20 (NB) -- IBM expects to ship its new DataJoiner "multi-database server" on September 29, said Jeffrey Jones, advisory programmer, Information Warehouse Strategic Planning, in a briefing session for Newsbytes at Unix Expo. DataJoiner will allow users of Windows, OS/2, AIX, DOS, Solaris, and HP-UX to access multivendor RDBMS (relational database management systems) as well as legacy flatfile databases without the need for individual gateways, Jones reported, speaking with Newsbytes in the IBM suite. The new server will eliminate the need for end users in large organizations to learn multiple database systems, easing database access and also lowering companies' training costs, according to the IBM exec. Aside from serving as a "common interface," DataJoiner will also provide an "ideal access point" for data warehousing, he maintained. Information Builders was the first vendor to come out with a product in the same general category, with its EDA/SQL, Jones told Newsbytes. Oracle and Sybase also produce "server-ish" products, he acknowledged. But Oracle's product "turns everything into Oracle," and Sybase's uses "proprietary SQL (structured query language)," he contended. In addition, he asserted, no other product offers the sophisticated "optimization" of DataJoiner, which considers factors like the number of rows per database table, the relative CPU (central processor unit) speed of each data source, relative I/O (input/output) speed, and relative network bandwidth in deciding which of the available data sources to use in actually answering a query. Also during the briefing session, Roger Johnson of L M Ericsson Data AB, Stockholm, Sweden, told Newsbytes that, during beta testing, DataJoiner spared users at Ericsson from needing to deal with multiple interfaces for the company's VSAM, DB2, Sybase, Oracle, and Informix databases. The RDBMS at Ericsson run on Unix servers from IBM, Sun, and Hewlett-Packard, Johnson added. Jones pointed out that DataJoiner represents one facet of a current move by IBM to provide multivendor services and support. Some DataJoiner customers are not even users of servers, workstations, and databases from IBM, Newsbytes was told. In other interviews with Newsbytes at Unix Expo, Donna Van Fleet, VP for AIX systems development, and Thomas G. Arthur, brand manager for RISC system/6000 workstations, made reference to similar multivendor strategies with regard to IBM's operating system and server/workstation support, respectively. DataJoiner currently supports the following databases: VSAM; IMS; Oracle; Sybase; DB2 for MVS; DB2 for VM&VSE; DB2 Parallel Edition; DB2 for HP-UX; DB2 for Solaris; DB2 for OS/2; and DB2 for OS/400. (Jacqueline Emigh/19950920/Reader Contact: IBM, 914-765-1900; Press Contacts: Margaret S. Bonilla, Brodeur & Partners for IBM, 617-622-2800; Marlena Villafane, Pam Preston or Rob Cronin, Technology Solutions for IBM, 212-696-2000) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 09/20/95 UNIX Unix Expo - Digital/Informix/KPMG In Data Deal (NEWS)(UNIX)(BOS)(00025) Unix Expo - Digital/Informix/KPMG In Data Deal 09/20/95 NEW YORK, NEW YORK, U.S.A., 1995 SEP 20 (NB) -- During a press and analysts' event at Unix Expo called "Digital at Planet Hollywood," officials of Digital Equipment Corp., Informix, and KPMG Peat Marwick announced a data warehousing initiative revolving around a new KPMG-operated data warehousing lab that will be used to test users' applications for a newly announced 64-bit very large database from Informix running on Digital's AlphaServer. At the event in New York City, which was attended by Newsbytes, Harry Copperman, VP and general manager, Systems Business Unit, told attendees that the agreement with Informix and KPMG represents one of a series of "partnerships and alliances" that Digital plans to forge this year to carry forward a strategic focus on areas that will include client-server, connectivity software, services, and components. "All in all, Digital expects a great year," Copperman remarked. Digital, he noted, recently announced its first profitable year in five years, and is now predicting six percent year-over-year growth. Copperman dubbed Digital a "leader" in industry directions that include performance, clustering, and SMP (symmetrical multiprocessing). With 95 percent of customers projected to ultimately be operating both Unix and Windows NT, the company will give weight to both environments, according to the Digital VP. "We have great technology together," maintained Steve Sommer, senior VP of marketing for Informix. The new 64-bit Informix Online Dynamic Server, which will initially be available on AlphaServer running Digital Unix, features "very large memory capabilities" that will provide "significant performance increases" in applications such as data warehousing, decision support systems (DSS), and OLTP (online transaction processing), according to Sommer. Digital and Oracle announced a 64-bit version of the Oracle database for AlphaServer last spring. The new 64-bit database from Informix is slated to provide capabilities for "I/O (input/output) efficiency and query optimization" that include: multithreading; parallel data query; database partitioning; asynchronous read-ahead, for index scanning of I/O performance; hash joins, for non-indexed joins of large tables; and row-level locking, for improved performance of OLTP and hybrid OLTP/DSS applications. KPMG's David Flaxman, another speaker, predicted that KPMG's new data warehousing lab, to be established at KPMG's Enabling Technology Facility in Radnor, Pennsylvania, will have a "large number" of users. "Informix and DEC will provide two of the most important components," added Flaxman, who is a partner in KPMG Enabling Technologies. In a related move, Digital, Informix, and KPMG have also initiated a "three-way cross-training program" for technical employees of the three companies, according to the execs. In an interview with Newsbytes during the event, Flaxman said that, although the new test facility will serve users from across industry segments, KPMG's interest in establishing the center was initially sparked by the many KPMG customers in the financial services market that are now moving into data warehousing. The center, he reported, will be based on KPMG's "Centributed Model," which exploits parallelism in two ways. In a single parallel database server, an individual SQL (structured query language) query can be "de-composed" by the server and dispatched for processing to multiple CPUs (central processing units) for faster querying, according to Flaxman. Each CPU works on a different part of the query, so that data is "effectively partitioned across disks." Parallelism also occurs in situations where the front-end query router passes queries to an SMP server. In this case, data is only partitioned across servers that share a high-speed private LAN (local area network) segment, such as ATM (asynchronous transfer mode) or FDDI (fiber distributed data interface). Queries that are not "logically related" are routed to different servers, meaning that they do not "compete for resources." (Jacqueline Emigh/19950920/Reader Contacts: Digital Equipment Corp., 508-493-5111; Informix, 415-926-6300; Press Contacts: Andy Pool, Digital, 508-264-6729; Jennifer Leclerc, Beaupre & Company for Digital, 603-436-6690; Holly Hunter, Cunningham Communications for Informix, 408-764-0791; Bill Durling or Patricia M. Williams, The Weber Group for KPMG Peat Marwick, 617-661-7900) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 09/20/95 UNIX ****Unix Expo - DEC Chief Urges Unix/NT Interoperability (NEWS)(UNIX)(BOS)(00026) ****Unix Expo - DEC Chief Urges Unix/NT Interoperability 09/20/95 NEW YORK, NEW YORK, U.S.A., 1995 SEP 20 (NB) -- With the move of Unix to 64-bit computing, Unix vendors should come together now to support interoperability across Unix platforms, as well as with Microsoft's Windows NT, urged Digital Equipment Corp.'s President, Chief Executive Officer (CEO) and Chairman Robert B. Palmer, during a keynote speech at Unix Expo in New York City. "Unix (still) dominates (Windows) NT in mission-critical applications," Palmer told the Unix Expo crowd. "But NT is coming on fast." The new 64-Bit Initiative, recently raised as an industry standard, gives Unix vendors what could be their final chance to meet the promises of cross-platform interoperability and application portability that have now existed for about 25 years, Palmer reported. "Unix is about making useful tools," he noted. Unix presently holds an edge with users in areas such as high availability and support for very large databases, according to the Digital chief, who aired videotaped interviews with officials from MCI, EDS and Oracle to back up this point. But vendors must also recognize that mixed environments of Unix and Windows NT are a reality today, and will continue to exist in the future, he contended. The 64-Bit Initiative, Palmer suggested, provides Unix vendors with an opportunity to leverage the current advantages of Unix, while eliminating some of the one-half billion dollars currently spent each year on companies' individual development of "different approaches to the same things." Digital's mix of Alpha- and Intel-based hardware supports Windows NT, in addition to OpenVMS and Digital Unix, previously known as DEC OSF (Open Software Foundation)/1. Also at Unix Expo this week, Digital is demonstrating Unix/Windows NT interoperability in a "special interest booth" (booth number 476). In booth 534, The company is showing products from Digital and third-party partners for PD/Unix connectivity, Digital Unix, system and storage management, and application development. Also at the show in New York City, Digital, Informix and KPMG Peat Marwick have announced a data warehousing initiative. Digital has unveiled the Digital Authentication Server, a system that uses Kerberos encryption, a master server, and slave servers for network security. In addition, Computer Associates has announced shipment of CA-Unicenter for Digital Unix running on Alpha. (Jacqueline Emigh/19950920/Reader and Press Contact: Digital Equipment Corp. 508-493-5111; Press Contacts: Andy Pool, 508-264-6729; Laura Desmarais, 603-436-6690; Dick Calandrella, 508-496-8626; Bob Price, 508-493-4297) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 09/20/95 PC Texas Instruments Launches Extensa Series In Europe (NEWS)(PC)(LON)(00027) Texas Instruments Launches Extensa Series In Europe 09/20/95 SUNBURY ON THAMES, MIDDLESEX, ENGLAND, 1995 SEP 20 (NB) -- Texas Instruments (TI) has announced the Extensa series of Pentium-based notebooks in Europe. At the same time, the company has launched the TravelMate 5100 into the UK market. According to TI, the Extensa range signals a move away from targeting high-end corporate users to focus on a wider market that includes small businesses and consumers. The Extensa range consists of three families of notebooks, ranging from the 450 series, based on DX4/75 processor technology, and pricing in at UKP1,299, through the Extensa 550, a 75 megahertz (MHz) Pentium- based notebook with PCI (Peripheral Component Interconnect) at a claimed 486-based notebook price-point, and up to the 550CD, a 75MHz Pentium color notebook that is billed as "offering multimedia performance, without sacrificing portability." Announcing the Extensa series, Walter Deppler, TI's European marketing manager for mobile computing, said that the machines will appeal to a much broader base of customers than TI's notebook offerings to date. John Klinker, TI's general manager for the UK and Nordic region, echoed Deppler's comments, claiming that the company has grown its sales in the UK by more than 90 percent over the last year or so. With the introduction of the Extensa range of notebooks, he claims that this growth pattern can be maintained over the next few years, despite the increasing price competition in the notebook business. The entry-level Extensa range is expected to ship in the UK and Europe immediately, while the higher machines, including the 550 Pentium systems, will ship from next month (October) onwards. According to officials with TI, the company's strategy behind the Extensa series is to offer desktop performance in a notebook system. Using this strategy, the company claims, allows the premium price of a notebook over a desktop system to be justified on the basis that the notebook will double up as a desktop machine while in the office. The Travelmate 5100, meanwhile, is launched into Europe following a claimed success in the US, thanks to the inclusion of a 90MHz Pentium chipset, PCI bus, and what is claimed to be the "industry's most advanced battery system." The intelligent battery system in the TravelMate 5100 is Lithium Ion- based which means, TI claims, that the battery life on the machine is one of the most impressive in the business. Despite the use of Pentium technology on the TravelMate 5100, the UKP3,399 (and pricing upwards) machine tips the scales at just 6.7 pounds. (Steve Gold/19950920/Press Contact: Nick Hewer, Michael Joyce, +44-171-836-6801; Reader Contact: Texas Instruments, +44-1784-212746) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 09/20/94 PC UK - Logitech Intros PageScan PC Color Scanning System (NEWS)(PC)(LON)(00028) UK - Logitech Intros PageScan PC Color Scanning System 09/20/94 BRACKNELL, BERKSHIRE, ENGLAND, 1995 SEP 20 (NB) -- Logitech has unveiled the PageScan Color, a full-page, boardless 24-bit color scanning system for PCs. The system will ship from October with an estimated street price (ESP) of UKP299. The unit comes with a motorized, detachable scanning head, a feature which Logitech claims enables users to scan bound or loose pages. The integrated software supplied with the unit can be activated from within any Windows application by simply inserting a page. Officials with Logitech claims that the unit works equally as well in color, greyscale or monochrome image scanning, and can be used for copying, faxing and filing purposes. The scanner has a degree of automated intelligence built in, a feature that Logitech claims allows the unit to determine the most appropriate settings and resolution for each task selected. The scanner supports Microsoft OLE (object linking and embedding) placement functions, as well as the placing of images among different Windows applications. "PageScan Color is the result of extensive customer studies," explained Martin Pickering, Logitech's general manager. "Again and again, we heard the request for a powerful, complete text and imaging solution that was simple to use -- with no need to open up the PC and install a board, no complex imaging technology or resolution formulas to understand. And, of course, with the price of color printers in today's market, they wanted color. To meet these needs, we combined our expertise in scanning hardware with that of industry leaders in image management, OCR and electronic filing," he said. Bundled with the scanner is a parallel port adapter that supports Enhanced Parallel Port (EPP) facilities. Using this approach, Logitech claims that the scanner can be used with any PC with a parallel printer port, and avoids the need for a dedicated interface board, yet still functions as well as more expensive units with such boards. (Steve Gold/19950920/Press Contact: Louise Smart, Bogard Communications, +44-1753-654333, Internet e-mail bogard@cix.compulink.co.uk; Reader Contact: Logitech, +44-1344-894300) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 09/20/95 ONLINE CompuServe Readies Internet Home Page Service (NEWS)(ONLINE)(LON)(00029) CompuServe Readies Internet Home Page Service 09/20/95 READING, BERKSHIRE, ENGLAND, SEP 20 (NB) -- CompuServe has announced it will soon be allowing subscribers to upload their own Web pages on to its server. In preparation for this, the online giant has announced a dual-application package called the Home Page Wizard and Publishing Wizard. According to CompuServe, the package is a unique authoring and submission utility that allows users to create, edit and test Web pages on their own PCs, prior to uploading them to a live Internet environment. In parallel with the launch of the new software and planned new subscriber Web service, CompuServe also plans to offer a mail-in picture digitizing service. This will allow subscribers to mail their paper pictures to a central point and have the images returned to them on disk. Judith Coley, a spokeswoman for CompuServe, told Newsbytes that plans are in hand to launch the CompuServe Home Page service to subscribers this coming November. "The Home Page Wizard software will be offered to subscribers free of charge on a free time download basis," Coley said, adding that the arrangements will be similar to those offered with CompuServe's NetLauncher Internet and Web access package. The aim of releasing Home Page Wizard is to allow subscribers access to Web page creation facilities, without all the usual hassle of designing and submitting a home page. Home Page Wizard will offer drag- and-drop editing, templates and hints to assist users in designing attractive, personalised home pages. It will also support hotlines that can jump to other sites on the Web. The Publishing Wizard, meanwhile, is an application that allows transmission and upload of one or more Web pages to CompuServe's Internet server system. This element of the package will create a subscribers personal Uniform Resource Locator which will be in the form of http://www.compuserve.com/home/. Plans call for CompuServe to offer a series of indexes for subscribers Web pages, based on name, subject matter and other topics. More information on the new Web services are available on CompuServe's home page, which is at http://www.compuserve.com . (Steve Gold/19950920/Press Contact: Judith Coley, CompuServe UK, +44-1734-525516, Internet e-mail jcoley@compuserve.cim; Reader Contact: CompuServe UK, +44-1734-525555) (SUMMARY)(GENERAL)(MSP)(00030) Newsbytes Daily Summary 09/20/95 MINNEAPOLIS, MINNESOTA, U.S.A., 1995 SEP 20 (NB) -- These are capsules of all today's news stories: ======================================================================== ------------| N E W S B Y T E S D A I L Y S U M M A R Y |---------- ------------| Wednesday, September 20, 1995 |---------- ======================================================================== (c) Newsbytes News Network (Tm) Editor in Chief: Wendy Woods ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Newsbytes News Network is a computer and telecom industry news wire and digitized picture service. Our news stream includes more than 30 daily first-hand reported US and international news stories about computing and telecommunications. For more information, please e-mail to 'administrator@newsbytes.com' ------------------------------------------------------------------------ CATEGORY HEADLINES (*** indicates today's top stories) STORY # ======================================================================== BROADCAST Thailand & Vietnam Plan Satellite Launches................. 13 GENERAL UK - HP Intros Low Cost Laser Printer...................... 07 GENERAL Japan Newsbriefs........................................... 17 LEGAL Moscow Is Paradise For Computer Software Pirates........... 02 ONLINE UK - Demon Internet Services Plans National Access......... 01 ONLINE Wall Street Journal Web Site Adds Company Reports.......... 04 ONLINE Global Post Code & Demographic Info On The Web............. 06 ONLINE See Lake Michigan....On The Internet....................... 09 ONLINE ****IBM Launches Internet Search Service.................. 16 ONLINE ****President Clinton Live On America Online.............. 19 ONLINE Vanguard Offers Online, Internet Education Programs........ 21 ONLINE CompuServe Readies Internet Home Page Service.............. 29 PC Texas Instruments Launches Extensa Series In Europe........ 27 PC UK - Logitech Intros PageScan PC Color Scanning System..... 28 TELECOM Harris Joint Venture For China Telecoms.................... 03 TELECOM Sweden's Ericsson In $250Mil Philippines Telecom Deal...... 05 TELECOM MFS Communications Expands Into Switzerland................ 08 TELECOM MCI Completes Nationwide Cellular Deal..................... 14 TELECOM New Jersey Utility Deploys Packet Cell Technology.......... 18 TRENDS UK - Context Offers Retail Watch Update Services........... 10 TRENDS IDC Sees Compaq Retaining PC Sales Lead In 1995............ 11 TRENDS SPA Reports Flat Software Sales In Western Europe.......... 15 TRENDS ****Losses For Phone & Cable Firms Predicted.............. 20 TRENDS Hal Computer Ships 64-bit SPARC Workstations............... 22 TRENDS Sega Selling 32-bit Game Player For $99.................... 23 UNIX Unix Expo - IBM To Ship DataJoiner......................... 24 UNIX Unix Expo - Digital/Informix/KPMG In Data Deal............. 25 UNIX ****Unix Expo - DEC Chief Urges Unix/NT Interoperability.. 26 WINDOWS Microsoft Intros NetWare File & Print Services Utility..... 12 ======================================================================== These are the headlines and first paragraphs of each story, in order: 1 -> UK - Demon Internet Services Plans National Access -- Demon Internet Services (DIS) plans to be the first Internet service provider (SP) to offer national local call access to its Internet point of presence (PoP) network in the UK. Plans call for 100 percent local coverage to roll out at the end of October. 2 -> Moscow Is Paradise For Computer Software Pirates -- There are few historical monuments which attract so much interest from tourists and locals alike as an inconspicuous park not far from Kutozovovy avenue in Moscow. Despite the fact that this place is practically on the edge of Moscow, more than 1,000 visitors frequent the location every weekend. 3 -> Harris Joint Venture For China Telecoms -- US telecommunications specialist Harris Corp. has formed a joint venture with the Guangzhou Wire Communications Equipment Factory to provide telecommunications systems and services throughout China. The deal is the latest in a number of joint ventures and technology transfers that Harris has formed in the past decade to address China's fast-growing telecommunications market. 4 -> Wall Street Journal Web Site Adds Company Reports -- The interactive Internet World Wide Web publication from the Wall Street Journal is adding a new feature that will let Net surfers access background reports on almost any company in the news. 5 -> Sweden's Ericsson In $250Mil Philippines Telecom Deal -- Ericsson has signed a contract with Smart Communications, the Filipino telecoms operator. Terms of the US$250 million contract call for the expansion of Smart's existing Cellular Mobile Telephone Network (CMTN) and the construction of a fixed network for the local exchange service areas. 6 -> Global Post Code & Demographic Info On The Web -- ALLM Systems and Marketing, publisher of the Global Gazetteer, has plugged into the World Wide Web, opening up a home page at http://www.knowledge.co.uk/xxx/geodata . 7 -> UK - HP Intros Low Cost Laser Printer -- Hewlett-Packard has unveiled the LaserJet 5L, a Plug and Play-compatible LaserJet printer for SOHO (small office/home office) users. The new printer succeeds the LaserJet 4L unit and is a slimmer, vertical design that takes up less space. 8 -> MFS Communications Expands Into Switzerland -- MFS Communications has announced the launch of its business telecoms services into the fifth European financial center 9 -> See Lake Michigan....On The Internet -- All kinds of sites can be seen on the Internet 10 -> UK - Context Offers Retail Watch Update Services -- After ten years of concentrating its market research activities on the dealer side of the computer and information technology (IT) sales channels, Context is moving its services into the retail channel with a new Retail Watch service. 11 -> IDC Sees Compaq Retaining PC Sales Lead In 1995 -- Compaq Computer Corp. (NYSE: CPQ) will apparently retain its leadership in personal computer shipments for 1995, but not by much, according to a report released by the International Data Corp. (IDC). 12 -> Microsoft Intros NetWare File & Print Services Utility -- Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ: MSFT) has released to manufacturing File and Print Services for NetWare, version 3.51. The utility software for Windows NT Server version 3.51 lets Windows NT Server functions as a NetWare 3.12-compatible file and print server. 13 -> Thailand & Vietnam Plan Satellite Launches -- Thailand and Vietnam have announced plans to launch their own satellites, joining other Asian nations with satellites already in orbit or planned. 14 -> MCI Completes Nationwide Cellular Deal -- MCI Communications Corp. (NASDAQ:MCIC) will complete its friendly takeover of Nationwide Cellular Service Inc. (NASDAQ:NCEL) today. Nationwide shareholders have already approved the deal, which runs around $190 million in cash, or $18.50 per share. 15 -> SPA Reports Flat Software Sales In Western Europe -- Personal computer applications software sales in Western Europe were up only slightly over a year ago in the second quarter, the Software Publishers' Association has reported. And sales of both DOS and Apple Macintosh applications were down. 16 -> ****IBM Launches Internet Search Service -- Trying to solve what it described as one of the Internet's three big problems, IBM has launched infoMarket Search, an Internet search service. 17 -> Japan Newsbriefs -- In this roundup of news from Japan: MPT establishes auto telecoms panel, Apple picks Fujitsu for MO drive, KDD to cut rates to Asia, Japan and EU settle phone dispute, IBM supplies OEM displays, Matsushita's digital camera heads overseas. 18 -> New Jersey Utility Deploys Packet Cell Technology -- The wireless lane on the information superhighway is getting its largest test yet. Public Service Electric & Gas of Newark, N.J., is equipping more than 750 field service workers with pen-based computers that will communicate with cellular digital packet data (CDPD) technology over the Bell Atlantic Nynex Mobile cellular network. 19 -> ****President Clinton Live On America Online -- Have something you really want to say to President Bill Clinton? You'll be able to do that online, in real time, online, tomorrow, if you are quick or lucky enough, and a member of America Online. 20 -> ****Losses For Phone & Cable Firms Predicted -- Competing cable and phone companies vying in the new broadband multimedia marketplace are heading into a "bloody stalemate," says Mercer Management Consulting. In a study just published, Mercer projects revenue potential for consumer communication, information, and entertainment services to be in excess of $100 billion over the next ten to fifteen years, but this will fall far short of covering costs. 21 -> Vanguard Offers Online, Internet Education Programs -- The Vanguard Group will begin offering educational materials in separate cyberspace channels for people who want to learn about mutual funds and retirement planning. The "Vanguard Online University" mutual fund area will be on America Online (AOL), while 401(k) retirement program information will use Internet World Wide Web technology. 22 -> Hal Computer Ships 64-bit SPARC Workstations --HAL Computer Systems, a Fujitsu company, has introduced a new line of 64-bit Sun Microsystems' SPARC workstations. The company claims the HALstation 300 Series workstations will run existing 32-bit SPARC applications up to 3.3 times faster than any current system. 23 -> Sega Selling 32-bit Game Player For $99 -- Sega of America Inc. announced that the suggested retail price of the Genesis 32x, the arcade upgrade to the Genesis home entertainment system, has been reduced to $99. Previously priced at $149, the upgrade offers a middle ground between the 16-bit Genesis system and the $399 32-bit CD-ROM Sega Saturn system. 24 -> Unix Expo - IBM To Ship DataJoiner -- IBM expects to ship its new DataJoiner "multi-database server" on September 29, said Jeffrey Jones, advisory programmer, Information Warehouse Strategic Planning, in a briefing session for Newsbytes at Unix Expo. 25 -> Unix Expo - Digital/Informix/KPMG In Data Deal -- During a press and analysts' event at Unix Expo called "Digital at Planet Hollywood," officials of Digital Equipment Corp., Informix, and KPMG Peat Marwick announced a data warehousing initiative revolving around a new KPMG-operated data warehousing lab that will be used to test users' applications for a newly announced 64-bit very large database from Informix running on Digital's AlphaServer. 26 -> ****Unix Expo - DEC Chief Urges Unix/NT Interoperability -- With the move of Unix to 64-bit computing, Unix vendors should come together now to support interoperability across Unix platforms, as well as with Microsoft's Windows NT, urged Digital Equipment Corp.'s President, Chief Executive Officer (CEO) and Chairman Robert B. Palmer, during a keynote speech at Unix Expo in New York City. 27 -> Texas Instruments Launches Extensa Series In Europe -- Texas Instruments (TI) has announced the Extensa series of Pentium-based notebooks in Europe. At the same time, the company has launched the TravelMate 5100 into the UK market. 28 -> UK - Logitech Intros PageScan PC Color Scanning System -- Logitech has unveiled the PageScan Color, a full-page, boardless 24-bit color scanning system for PCs. The system will ship from October with an estimated street price (ESP) of UKP299. 29 -> CompuServe Readies Internet Home Page Service -- CompuServe has announced it will soon be allowing subscribers to upload their own Web pages on to its server. In preparation for this, the online giant has announced a dual-application package called the Home Page Wizard and Publishing Wizard. (Ian Stokell/19950920) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 09/08/95 APPLE Apple Adds 500 Jobs At Colorado Plant (NEWS)(APPLE)(DEN)(00001) Apple Adds 500 Jobs At Colorado Plant 09/08/95 FOUNTAIN, COLORADO, U.S.A., 1995 SEP 8 (NB) -- While other electronics firms have been laying off sporadically in Colorado, officials at Apple Computer's (NASDAQ: AAPL) manufacturing plant at the foot of Pikes Peak hung out the "Help Wanted" sign this week, saying they want to hire about 500 employees by the beginning of the week. In the recent past a sign like that, or a similar announcement in the local newspaper, would have found thousands of hopefuls standing at the plant's front door the following morning. But Apple officials say they may even have to go out of town to find enough workers to staff a new production line that will build the company's Power Mac 7200, Power Mac 7500 and Powerbook 5300 PCs. Ideally the company would like to hire workers who have at least a high school education and some assembly experience, but that may be difficult even in this high-tech community. Employers are even having trouble finding workers for relatively unskilled jobs like flipping hamburgers, and are offering $5 to $7 an hour for jobs that usually pay minimum wage. The selection of Fountain, a small community near Colorado Springs, for the site of the Apple plant with its hundreds of jobs four years ago, was a feather in the cap of local economic development officials. Apple site manager Jim Bilodeau said the available labor pool at the time was one reason the PC maker chose the Fountain location. "Things have really changed over the last four years," he told the local newspaper. The new jobs are temporary and are expected to last six to nine months. Wages will be $6 to $8 per hour. The situation faced by Apple is a sign of the changing times in the Colorado Springs area, which is heavily reliant on the business generated by four nearby military bases. The community recently dodged the base closure bullet that threatened one of those sites, Fort Carson, and housing purchase and rental prices have skyrocketed in recent months. Both residential and commercial vacancy rates have dropped sharply, and local development officials say companies that once would have moved to Colorado Springs are now going to other communities because there aren't existing facilities that will accommodate their needs and builders are still reluctant to put up apartment and office buildings without signed tenants. (Jim Mallory/19950908/Press contact: Apple, 408-996-1010; Public contact: Adia Personnel Services for job info, 719-591-7000) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 09/08/95 GENERAL Japan Newsbriefs (NEWS)(GENERAL)(TYO)(00002) Japan Newsbriefs 09/08/95 TOKYO, JAPAN, 1995 SEP 8 (NB) -- In this roundup of news from Japan, DDI chairman reiterates NTT break-up call, Japan Telecom to cut leased line rates, Sony reaches CCD milestone, KDD revises profit figure, Japan to review US satellite reliance, Sony announces new televisions. DDI Chairman Reiterates NTT Break-Up Call DDI President Yusai Okuda has once again called for the break-up of Nippon Telegraph and Telephone, the country's major domestic telephone operator. At a government hearing which is considering the benefits or disadvantages of such a split, Okuda said, "NTT in the current Japanese telecommunications industry is the 'Gulliver' who is preventing fair competition." DDI is NTT's biggest competitor in the long distance call market. Okuda is reported to have called for a splitting up of NTT into several local call companies and one long distance operation, a plan thought to be favored by the panel. Japan Telecom To Cut Leased Line Rates Hot on the heels of a price cut in leased line rates by NTT, competitor Japan Telecom has said it is considering a similar cut. NTT recently cut long distance rates by up to 50% but raised local leased line charges. The cuts, if approved by the Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications, would become effective October 1st. The Nihon Kogyo Shimbun newspaper reported earlier this week that the company would cut rates by around 20% with charges for high-speed digital services dropping by 40%. Connections over distances less than 500km would fall from 314,000 yen ($3,178) to 165,900-176,100 yen ($1,679 to $1,782) a month, according to the daily. Sony Reaches CCD Milestone Sony Corporation's cumulative production of CCD (Charge Coupled Device) video pickups has reached 40 million. The devices were first introduced in the 1980s when Sony began installing them into hand-held video cameras because of the superior performance offered over conventional vacuum tubes. KDD Revises Profit Figure Japan's biggest international telephone operator KDD, Kokusai Denshin Denwa, says its unconsolidated pretax profits for the first half of the current fiscal year are expected to rise by 7%, down from the previously projected figure of 14%. Overall, KDD expects to announce a 10% increase in pretax profits at the end of the current financial year, March 31st 1996. Such an increase would put total pretax profits at 29 billion yen ($293 million). Japan To Review US Satellite Reliance Japan's growing reliance of the global positioning system (GPS) satellites operated by the US armed forces is to come under investigation by the Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications. Increasing use of car navigation systems, with sales expected to reach 500,000 units this year, and its use in professional applications such as land surveying, has led the MPT investigate whether Japan, alone or with neighbors, should consider launching its own network of satellites. The US government has promised civilian use until 2005 but has made no commitment for the period afterwards. Sony Announces New Televisions Sony Corporation, whose television products catalog is already almost exclusively widescreen television, has announced two new models to hit the market in October. The new sets feature the ability to display more than one television channel in split-screen mode. The sets will also include the capability to decode the new teletext system currently being introduced in Japan. While teletext has been a standard feature on almost all European models for several years, the system has only just been launched in Japan and most sets do not have the capability to display the information transmitted. Priced at 225,000 yen ($2,277) for the 28-inch model and 300,000 yen ($3,036) for the 32-inch model, Sony hopes to sell around 20,000 units a month. The TV also features the ability to display broadcasts transmitted in the EDTV-2 "wide clear vision" system. (Martyn Williams/19950708) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 09/08/95 APPLE Apple Japan Holds MediaKids Summer Camp (NEWS)(APPLE)(TYO)(00003) Apple Japan Holds MediaKids Summer Camp 09/08/95 TOKYO, JAPAN, 1995 SEP 8 (NB) -- Apple Japan's Media Kids project, soon to celebrate its first birthday, has held a three-day summer camp for some of the children involved in the MediaKids pan-Japanese multimedia communications network. #IMAGE 1 20 TWPCX \images\95090803.PCX Click here for photo In October last year the Tokyo-based division of Apple Computer began the MediaKids network, a nationwide communications experiment linking thirteen elementary and junior high schools. When it began, the network allowed exchange of e-mail, including graphics video and voice, and the ability to hold online conferences. In May of this year the system was upgraded and the children set about designing and editing digital school newspapers. Each school would then exchange the completed newspapers with the others on the network so participants could get a better idea of their colleagues across Japan. In addition to exchange of messages, the children were also asked to use the network to collaborate on projects, the first being the monitoring and comparison of the growth of a potato. In late August the first MediaKids summer camp was organized jointly by Apple Japan and International University of Japan's Global Communications Center. The event brought together representative students and teachers from the 13 participating schools in Ueda, Nagano prefecture. Throughout the event the emphasis was kept on high technology. When the students first met each other they were required to produce a presentation on themselves, a task accomplished on a bank of Macintosh computers. Pictures were included in the presentation shot with Apple's Quicktake 100 digital camera. On the second day, the children were encouraged to get outside and explore Ueda. In the afternoon they were asked to compile desktop presentations on the history, culture and industry of the town. To accomplish this, Apple supplied the children, who were divided into groups, with the more old-fashioned technology of a pen and paper pad for note-taking. Apple's Quicktake camera's were again used to capture images of the town for the presentation. The multimedia reports on Ueda compiled by the children can by found on the Internet's World Wide Web at location http://kids.glocom.ac.jp under the heading "MediaKids Camp in Ueda." After the event, Apple commented, "The Media Kids Camp in Ueda has enabled children, who electronically had exchanged with other children over the PC communications network, to deepen mutual friendship, while the camp will ensure better building of the MediaKids community, based on their shared experience that they worked together to complete their assignments." In addition to discovering just how the children were making use of the advanced technology made available, the camp also served as a meeting place for the teachers in the project who were able to exchange ideas on the future of education and the integration of information technology into the curriculum. Earlier this week the town also opened the Ueda Municipal Multimedia Information Center, nicknamed Media Land Ueda. (Martyn Williams/19950908/Press contact : Apple Computer, +1-408-974-2042/MEDIAKIDS950908/PHOTO) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 09/08/95 GOVT South Australia/IBM In Electronic Commerce Venture (NEWS)(GOVT)(SYD)(00004) South Australia/IBM In Electronic Commerce Venture 09/08/95 NEW YORK, NEW YORK 1995 SEP 8 (NB) -- South Australian (SA) state Premier Dean Brown yesterday chose New York City to launch a sweeping round of technology purchasing decisions and a multi-million dollar deal with the IBM and Lend Lease joint venture ISSC Australia. The agreement covers establishment of an Electronic Services Business (ESB) to support electronic marketing and sales of products from SA companies. According to IBM, ISSC's direct investment in the project will run to about $35 million, spread across two main areas -- a Center of Competence for Intelligent Cities at South Australia's Technology Park, which will resurrect the Multi Function Polis (MFP) concept as a test bed for new technologies and services, and establishment of electronic kiosks to support activities such as electronic exchange of legal documents and electronic payment of bills. It is understood that the kiosk services will also be available through home PCs. Brown said the existence of an electronic commerce and service delivery business in South Australia will allow the State to take front running in the Asia Pacific region. "This project is a major boost to our plan to develop a sustainable new industry for South Australia, based on our desire to transform the way governments, businesses and their customers communicate and interact," said the Premier. The agreement is the result of a tender won by ISSC. It is not yet clear how many jobs will be created as a result of the deal. Brown also announced a State Government contract for the supply and service of 8,000 PCs a year over the next two years. According to a statement issued by the Premier's Department, seven companies have been selected as suppliers in a deal worth $25-$30 million. The high per-computer cost (more than $3,000) is due to three-year warranties, delivery and on-site installation and pre-loaded software, the Premier's office says. Pre-loading of Windows 95 is yet to be negotiated. Desktop models will be supplied by Fujitsu, IBM/CPM&S, Lodin, Microbits and Protech. Notebook models will come from IBM/CPM&S, NEC and Toshiba. Apple is notably absent from the list, calling into question the fate of the 4,000-odd Apple Macintoshes in SA's government departments and schools. A spokesman for the Premier says Apple's computers in schools will remain, but those in administrative areas are likely to be phased out. All prices shown are Australian dollars and AUS$1=US$0.75 (Computer Daily News/19950908) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 09/08/95 TRENDS ****Fujitsu's 4GB Magneto-Optical Disks (NEWS)(TRENDS)(TYO)(00005) ****Fujitsu's 4GB Magneto-Optical Disks 09/08/95 TOKYO, JAPAN, 1995 SEP 8 (NB) -- Fujitsu Laboratories Ltd. has announced the development of magneto optical (MO) disks capable of holding ten times as much information as current MO disks while maintaining compatibility with existing MO drives. The new technology is seen as a major advance in MO technology. The announced disks have a capacity of 2GB for the single-sided versions and 4GB for the double-sided disks. Fujitsu Labs have achieved the capacity increase by changing the way data is read from the new disks and changing the disks themselves. From 1997, when the new disks are expected to be commercially available, MO users will be able to store over 2,500 times as much information as a conventional high-density floppy disk on a media package the same size. MO disks are currently available in sizes up to 230MB and are expected to become more common as they are installed as standard in new notebook and desktop personal computers. The existing installation base is predicted to pass the two million mark later this year. Attempts had been made previously to increase the capacity of the MO system but the need to replace current drives with new ones featuring a special initializing magnet was always seen as an undesirable and expensive option. The new system does away with the need to a special magnet and makes use of today's standard MO drives and allows the reading of data marks that are smaller than the semiconductor laser beam size. Current disks are limited to reading data marks as small as the laser beam size, effectively limiting the amount of data that can be stored on a disk. Fujitsu Labs has made use of magnetically induced super resolution (MSR) technology to overcome the problem in a two-step process. First, the laser beam irradiation causes temperature distribution in the magnetic recording layer. Second, by utilizing this temperature distribution, a mask area is formed in the reading beam which is insensitive for mark detection, creating a small aperture region to read data marks that are smaller than the beam size. Previously, the MSR method proposed made use of double masks which required the use of the expensive initializing magnets; such magnets required more power than could reasonably be supplied by a notebook computer. The new method does not need the magnet. In technical notes, Fujitsu Labs notes the new MSR method obtained a CNR of 47dB for a 0.33 micron mark length. The 0.33 micron length mark is five times the linear density of current 230MB disks. The new system also reduces crosstalk, erroneous readings caused by spill-over from adjacent tracks, meaning the grooves in the disks can also be used to record data, which also increases the capacity. The use of the grooves, which at present are only used for laser guidance, doubles capacity alone. The new disks are expected to be available in two years and will cost around 20% more than current 230MB disks. (Martyn Williams/19950908/Press contact : Mike Beirne, Fujitsu Ltd., +81-3-3215-5326, fax +81-3-3213-4160, Internet email mike@hq.fujitsu.co.jp) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 09/08/95 BROADCAST Singapore To Launch Satellite (NEWS)(BROADCAST)(TYO)(00006) Singapore To Launch Satellite 09/08/95 SINGAPORE, SEA, 1995 SEP 8 (NB) -- Singapore, fast gaining a reputation as the most wired Asian country, has signed a deal with Britain's Surrey University that will result in the launch of the country's own satellite, possibly by 1997. The new satellite, a so-called micro-satellite, will be used for mainly telecommunications and not for any broadcasting. It will orbit the earth at a different altitude than conventional communications satellites, which maintain an altitude of 36,000km to appear stationary in the sky when viewed from the earth. Micro-satellites typically use much lower orbits and are often known as low earth orbiting, or LEO, satellites. The new deal was announced late this week by Dr. Cham Tao Soon, president of the Nanyang Technological University (NTU) in Singapore, after the deal with the vice-chancellor and a team from Surrey University was concluded. Around $7 million will be required to design, build, and launch the satellite, a figure that compares favorably with the hundreds of millions of dollars needed to take a full-size communications satellite from the drawing board to geostationary orbit. Before the satellite is launched, NTU will have to build a ground station that will track and control the satellite in orbit. That will be accomplished when a S$250,000 ($180,000) construction project is completed by this December, according to NTU. The satellite will be the first of a possible four to be launched in a program that could lead to a Singapore-owned and built regional broadcasting satellite. As NTU explained, "The purpose of the collaboration is to gain the expertise and technology necessary to enable Singapore to develop its own satellite industry and to play a leading role in the provision of regional and international satellite services." Surrey University is famous in the mini and micro satellite world for its work in design and development of such craft. Over the past 14 years the University has worked with Japan, China, South Korea and Portugal on similar programs that have resulted in eleven satellites now in the skies. (Martyn Williams/19950908) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 09/08/95 BUSINESS Modatech Finds Money Through Private Placement (NEWS)(BUSINESS)(TOR)(00007) Modatech Finds Money Through Private Placement 09/08/95 VANCOUVER, BRITISH COLUMBIA, CANADA, 1995 SEP 8 (NB) -- Software maker Modatech Systems Inc. (TSE:MOD;NASDAQ:MODAF) has found relief for its cash-flow problems in a private stock placement with an investment firm in the United States. Modatech announced that it placed a convertible debenture worth C$2 million with an unnamed private investment concern in which two members of its board of directors have an interest. The company said the two board members will be providing C$1.6 million of the $2-million loan. As a result, the placement is considered a related-party transaction, Modatech officials said. In late August, Modatech revealed that it was facing what it described as a critical shortage of working capital. Kim Dudra, Modatech's manager of investor relations, told Newsbytes that sales of the new Maximizer Enterprise sales-management software, launched earlier this year, are steady. However, she said, Modatech is having trouble collecting its money quickly enough from large software distributors to keep up with the marketing costs for the new software. Modatech also said the selling cycle for Maximizer Enterprise has been longer than expected. Modatech also announced the appointment of Morgan Pridemore as its chairman. Pridemore was already a member of the company's board of directors. Also, Alnoor Kassam, a partner in the Vancouver-based Verus Group, was added to the board. Modatech said earlier that its financing plans might dilute its stock to an extent not permitted by the rules of the Toronto Stock Exchange, forcing it to delist. Currently, though, the stock is still trading on the Toronto exchange, as well as on the over-the-counter National Association of Securities Dealers Automated Quotation (NASDAQ) system in the United States. In August, Modatech also announced changes in its marketing strategy and the consolidation of sales staff, with some layoffs. The company, which employs about 60 people, sells the Maximizer contact-management software as well as Maximizer Enterprise. (Grant Buckler/19950908/Press Contact: Kim Dudra, Modatech Systems, 604-736-9666 ext. 117) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 09/08/95 SUPERCOMPUTER DOE Buys Massively Parallel Supercomputer From Intel (NEWS)(SUPERCOMPUTER)(WAS)(00008) DOE Buys Massively Parallel Supercomputer From Intel 09/08/95 WASHINGTON, D.C., U.S.A., 1995 SEP 8 (NB) -- The Energy Department has awarded Intel a $45 million contract for the world's most powerful supercomputer, to be used to simulate nuclear weapons tests. The massively parallel computer will use 9,000 Intel P6 processors to power the new supercomputer. The P6 is the successor to the Pentium processor and will be used in a wide variety of computers, including the next generation of desktop machines. The machine, to be located at Sandia National Laboratory in New Mexico, will have a peak performance of 1.8 trillion operations per second, or teraops, becoming the first machining to achieve teraops scale processing. The supercomputer will have 262 gigabytes of system memory. "Scalability was an important goal in designing the P6," said Andrew Grove, Intel president and chief executive officer, in a press statement. "It's exciting that we can create a system 10 times more powerful than the fastest supercomputer in the world today using the same chips we'll be putting into desktop PCs." Just how fast is the Intel machine? "This is the most powerful machine that exists," Intel spokeswoman Tami Casey told Newsbytes. "In the blink of an eye, it will perform 40 billion calculations." "President Clinton is committed to ending underground nuclear testing," said Victor Reis, assistant energy secretary. "Computer simulation will be a principal means of ensuring the safety, reliability and effectiveness of the US nuclear deterrent. We are embarking on a 10-year program to advance the state of high performance computing to meet national security objectives." According to Casey, the machine will be built at Intel's Beaverton, Oregon plant, with final testing at Sandia. The machine will be installed by the end of 1996. DOE said Intel was selected through a competitive procurement. The agency said there will be more deals of a similar nature through the "accelerated strategic computing initiative" to perform tests of the nuclear stockpile. More information about Intel and virtual weapons testing is available on the World Wide Web at http://www.SSD.intel.com (Kennedy Maize/19950908/Press Contact: Tami Casey, 408-765-8203) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 09/08/95 TRENDS ****Think Tank - Nation's R&D Leadership In Jeopardy (NEWS)(TRENDS)(WAS)(00009) ****Think Tank - Nation's R&D Leadership In Jeopardy 09/08/95 WASHINGTON, D.C., U.S.A., 1995 SEP 8 (NB) -- Cutting federal spending for research and development would be a "catastrophic blunder," says the Institute for the Future (IFTF), a think tank based in Menlo Park, Calif., which has completed a new comparative study on industrial R&D. "Our report should give everyone serious pause," says Ian Morrison, IFTF president. "It concludes that America's economic leadership and millions of jobs are in jeopardy -- US companies and the federal government no longer can invest in R&D as they once did." The report urges Congress to take specific steps to increase incentives for R&D spending. These include encouraging increases in long-term private R&D; maintaining federal support for basic research; reducing government-generated risk associated with innovation; protecting intellectual property; and supporting cooperative R&D between companies in the private sector. "Our IFTF study suggests that the government make the R&D tax credit permanent and substantial," says Morrison, "and lower the capital gains tax to encourage higher levels of private investment in long-term R&D. "It urges tort reform that establishes national standards for product liability and that reduces the risk of litigation for innovative firms which invest capital in R&D ventures. It advocates revisions in antitrust policies and laws that discourage cooperative ventures. And the report suggests that the government strictly enforce intellectual property rights in our rapidly developing world." The study finds that the US rate of R&D investment has declined in recent years, from three percent of gross domestic product to 2.6 percent. This represents $25 billion in real dollars. The study also finds that R&D spending rates up four of the "top eight" industries have declined over the last five years. Within the last year, six of the 10 largest US R&D-based firms cut real research spending. "This situation threatens the future of America's economic growth," said Morrison. (Kennedy Maize/19950908/Press Contact: Gregory Schmid, IFTF, 415-854-6322) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 09/08/95 HEALTH China - Mystery Ailment Diagnosed Via Internet (NEWS)(HEALTH)(PEK)(00010) China - Mystery Ailment Diagnosed Via Internet 09/08/95 BEIJING, CHINA, 1995 SEP 8 (NB) -- The rescue effort via the Internet for a 21-year-old female student of Tsinghua University suffering from poisoning by the heavy metal thallium has attracted wide publicity in China. On December 5, 1994, Zhu Ling, a student majoring in chemistry at Tsinghua University, complained of a stomach ache. Three days later, her hair began to fall out and within two more days she was completely bald. After she was hospitalized for a month she began to feel better, though the cause of the malady was still unknown. In March 1995, she felt dizzy and had severe pain in her legs, and consequently entered the Beijing's Xiehe Hospital. On March 15, her symptoms worsened. She began to develop facial paralysis, paralysis in the central muscle of her eyes and lost her ability to breath on her own. Doctors put her on a respirator. Unfamiliar with the disease, doctors at several hospitals could not determine the cause of the illness. Zhu's friends decided to make inquiries through Internet. On April 10, an "SOS" letter sent by Cai Quanqing and Bei Zhicheng of Beijing University was published by China News Digest (US Regional Edition, 50,000 circulation), a weekly Internet magazine operated by volunteer Chinese students and scholars in the United States. The letter described the symptoms, tests, and treatments for Zhu's condition. They said that doctors had performed tests for HIV, chemical drug intoxication, and even Lyme disease, but all were negative, except for Lyme disease. But doctors were still puzzled. "She remains in a vegetative state, sustained by life support," they wrote. The SOS letter appealed for help. "If anyone has heard of patients with similar symptoms -- or has any ideas as to what this illness could be, please contact Zhu Ling's friends at caiqq@mccux0.mech.pku.edu.cn." Responses started to come in within three hours, and within 10 days, Zhu's friends received more than 1,500 replies. Thirty percent of the replies indicated that a heavy metal called thallium could be the cause of her illness. Zhu's fellow students and her family insisted on a further examination to determine whether this metal was the poison. The examinations and tests taken at Beijing Labor Hygiene and Occupational Disease Research Institute confirmed this diagnosis. A professor with the institute said that one gram of thallium is enough to kill a person, and that Zhu's case is rare. "She certainly took more than one gram of the element," the professor said. Zhu is recovering from her ailment but still has not regained full consciousness -- she can breathe now on her own. The story has attracted wide media coverage in China. People are surprised at the speed and effectiveness of the Internet. Although the general public still does not know much about the Internet, they are now talking about it. (Chih-Ho Yu & Ning Huang/19950907) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 09/08/95 GENERAL Personnel Roundup (NEWS)(GENERAL)(SFO)(00011) Personnel Roundup 09/08/95 MINNEAPOLIS, MINNESOTA, U.S.A., 1995 SEP 8 (NB) -- This is a regular feature, summarizing personnel changes not covered elsewhere by Newsbytes: Computer Network Technology Corp., Sulcus Computer Corp., Dell Computer Corp., CommVision Corp., and Diebold Inc. Richard Helgeson has joined Computer Network Technology Corp. (Nasdaq-NNM: CMNT - 612-797-6110) as its new vice president of sales. Helgeson is charged with growing CNT's sales in North America. He was previously with Raptor Systems, Bay Networks, Storage Technology, and IBM. Jeffrey S. Ratner, chairman of the board for Sulcus Computer Corporation (AMEX: SUL - 412-836-2000), is relinquishing the title of chief executive officer, effective immediately. Joel Nagelmann, president, has and will continue to carry out most of these responsibilities. Thomas J. Meredith has been named senior vice president finance and information systems for Dell Computer Corp. (Nasdaq: DELL - 512-728-4100). Under his new title as senior vice president, Meredith will continue to serve as chief financial officer, while expanding his responsibility to include information systems. He continues to report to the office of the chief executive officer, comprised of Michael Dell, chairman and chief executive officer, and Mort Topfer, vice chairman. Prior to joining Dell in November 1992, Meredith was vice president and treasurer of Sun Microsystems Inc. Before that assignment, he was general manager of Amdahl Capital Corporation, a captive financing company, which he helped create for Amdahl's mainframe computer systems. CommVision Corp., (415-254-9370) has added three people to its executive management team. Michael Krieger, formerly of AST Research Inc. and Ziff-Davis, joins CommVision as vice president of Marketing; Roy Sardina, formerly of Sun Microsystems Inc., joins as vice president of Business Development and International Sales; and Jean Gastinel, formerly of Xerox Inc., joins the company as vice president of Engineering. Raymond Koontz, chairman emeritus of Diebold Inc. (NYSE:DBD - 216-490-3782), has died at age 83. The company says that his many achievements include drastically improving the company's finances in the late 1940s and establishing Diebold as the leader in the security industry. His top achievement, however, is Diebold's leadership in automated teller machines (ATMs). Koontz was the champion of Diebold's move into ATMs in the early 1970s. (Ian Stokell/19950908) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 09/08/95 BUSINESS Computer Learning Centers Posts Solid 2Q (NEWS)(BUSINESS)(WAS)(00012) Computer Learning Centers Posts Solid 2Q 09/08/95 FAIRFAX, VIRGINIA, U.S.A., 1995 SEP 8 (NB) -- Computer Learning Centers (Nasdaq: CLCX) says revenues for the second quarter ended July 31 were $10.7 million, an increased of 14.7 percent over the second quarter of last year. The recent earnings were the first announced for the company since it went public in June. "We are pleased with our second quarter results, which represent CLC's first quarter as a public company," said Reid Bechtle, president and chief executive officer. CLC showed 15 cents in earnings per share for the second quarter versus 8 cents per share for the second quarter of last year. The number of new students enrolling in career programs in the quarter was 1,549, up 11 percent over last year's second quarter. For the six months ended July 31, CLC revenue was $21.5 million, also a 14.7 percent increase over the first six months of last year. The number of students increased 17 percent to 4,390. "CLC's results for the first half of the year demonstrate the interest that exists for adults seeking technically oriented, career focused post-secondary education," said Bechtle. "In addition to a record number of new students enrolling in career programs and the number of students attending career programs, the company in July received federal financial aid eligibility for its newest campus in Lombard, Ill., and completed its $5 million working capital line of credit with its commercial bank." CLC's initial public offering saw the company's stock open at $7.5 per share and the stock was above $11 at the close of markets yesterday. CLC provides information and computer related education and training programs at eight centers in the US. The company designs programs and courses in areas such as client-server, databases, networking, and object-oriented programming. (Kennedy Maize/19950907/Press Contact: Charles Cosgrove, 703-359-9333) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 09/08/95 TELECOM Ericsson Secures Major Spanish Order (NEWS)(TELECOM)(LON)(00013) Ericsson Secures Major Spanish Order 09/08/95 MADRID, SPAIN, 1995 SEP 8 (NB) -- Ericsson Spain, the Spanish subsidiary of the Swedish telecoms company, has received a contract from Airtel for the supply of Digital Cross Connect equipment, which will be implemented in Spain's first private digital cellular network. According to Ingemar Naeve, managing director of Ericsson Spain, swift installation will mean that small provincial centers will be covered by the network, as well as the major cities. The Airtel GSM (Global System for Mobile communications) network should be operational by next month (October) in several areas of Spain. If all goes to plan, the network should service the seven largest cities in Spain, including Barcelona and Madrid, by the end of the year. To install the network in as short a time frame as possible, Ericsson Radio is working with Ericsson Radio Access and Tellabs International on the commissioning of the Airtel network. Commenting on the deal with Ericsson, John Samarron, Airtel's chief technical officer, said that the company selected the Ericsson DXX system "because it was competitive with its two closest rivals in terms of both features and functions, as well as in price." "We also knew that, as one of Ericsson's family of products, it could easily be integrated into Airtel's GSM network, which is also supplied by Ericsson," he explained. (Sylvia Dennis/19950907/Press Contact: Per Bengtsson, Ericsson Business Area Radio Communications +46-8-757-2159) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 09/08/95 ONLINE UK's First Basketball Web Site (NEWS)(ONLINE)(LON)(00014) UK's First Basketball Web Site 09/08/95 BRACKNELL, BERKSHIRE, ENGLAND, 1995 SEP 8 (NB) -- Oracle, in conjunction with I-Way, its Internet service provider, has sponsored the Web pages of the Thames Valley Tigers, one of the UK's premier basketball teams. The move means that the Oracle Web site now plays host to the basketball team's Web pages, making them the first basketball team to plug into the Internet. According Maggie Davies, a spokeswoman for Oracle, this is the chance for anyone interested in basketball and with access to the Web, to enjoy virtual information on basketball. The idea behind the sponsorship is that it follows Oracle's "enabling the information age" mission strategy. Oracle is providing the Web space on its Web site, while I-Way, the Internet service provider, is providing the club with Internet software and e-mail facilities, so that fans can mail questions electronically to club officials and the players themselves. A leading team in The Budweiser Premier League, the Thames Valley Tigers Basketball Club is based in Bracknell. Commenting on his team plugging into the Internet, club manager Joanna Sheldon said that basketball is a major sport in the US as well as in many European countries and its popularity in the UK is growing rapidly. "The sponsorship provided by both Oracle and I-Way enables us to provide information on The Tigers, globally, easily, 24 hours a day, to anyone who wants it -- such as the club's fans, sports writers or, indeed, players' friends and families tracking the team from all over the world. We are very grateful to Oracle and I-Way for their support," she said. The Tigers home page can be found at http://www.uk.oracle.com/tvtigers and, although email can be sent from a link on the home page, a separate e-mail address is also available -- tvtigers@i-way.co.uk -- for those fans who do not yet have access to the World-Wide Web. (Steve Gold/19950907/Press Contact: Joanna Sheldon, TV Basketball Club +44-1344-300185; Maggie Davies +44-1344-301022; Internet Email: maggied@cix.compulink.co.uk/BASKETBALL950908/PHOTO) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 09/08/95 ONLINE Context Moves World Wide Pages (NEWS)(ONLINE)(LON)(00015) Context Moves World Wide Pages 09/08/95 LONDON, ENGLAND, 1995 SEP 8 (NB) -- In a recent story detailing Context, the London-based market research company, and the opening of its services on the World Wide Web, the address given was http://www.context.co.uk . The Web address has now been changed to http://www.context-ecis.co.uk According to Sukie Read, a spokeswoman for the company, the original domain name was not available. Context apologizes to Newsbytes readers who may have been trying to access the original Web page address. The new address takes effect immediately. (Steve Gold/19950907/Press & Reader Contact: (Press & Reader Contact: Sukie Read, Context Communications Manager +44-171-937-3595; Internet Email: sread@context-ecis.co.uk) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 09/08/95 BUSINESS Random Access Shareholders To Vote of Buyout (NEWS)(BUSINESS)(DEN)(00016) Random Access Shareholders To Vote of Buyout 09/08/95 DENVER, COLORADO, U.S.A., 1995 SEP 8 (NB) -- Random Access Inc. (NASDAQ: RNDM) has called a special meeting of shareholders to vote on the proposed acquisition of the company by ENTEX Information Services Inc., a privately held company based in Rye Brook, New York. The meeting will be held at 9:00 a.m. Tuesday, September 19, 1995 at the company's offices at 8000 East Iliff in Denver. Rich Schineller, Entex manager of corporate communications, told Newsbytes if the deal is approved Random Access will be absorbed into the Entex operation, contrary to reports that the company would operate as a wholly owned subsidiary. He said Random Access shareholders would receive a cash payment of $3.25 per share of their common stock. That's slightly lower than originally anticipated, when Entex said in May it would pay $3.50 per share. Schineller said there would be few staffing changes, assuring employees that for the most part their jobs are not in jeopardy. In the instances where Random Access positions duplicate functions performed at ENTEX, Schineller said those employees would be offered other positions. The deal is subject to approval by at least two-thirds of the Random Access shareholders. With 6.76 million shares outstanding the acquisition has an approximate value of over $22 million. Random Access common shares closed at $3.06 on Thursday and $3.12 yesterday. Schineller told Newsbytes ENTEX Information Services is the largest supplier of PCs products and related services to Fortune 1000 companies. The company is a reseller and systems integrator of PCs built by IBM, Compaq, HP, Toshiba and other manufacturers. The company was formed in August 1993 with the management buyout of JWP Information Services. ENTEX said more than one-third of its 3,000 employees work on-site at customer locations. Random Access employs more than 600 people. ENTEX said the combined revenues of the two companies will approach $1.8 billion. ENTEX said Random Access Chairman Bruce Milliken, who owns 14 percent of the outstanding shares of the company has agreed to vote his shares in favor of the merger. Milliken will serve as a consultant to ENTEX and to current Random Access President and Chief executive Officer Richard Crawford Jr., who would join ENTEX in a senior management capacity. Random Access provides PC systems and services to large-volume customers in the western United States, including microcomputer hardware and software, local and wide-area networking systems, videoconferencing and telecommunications consulting, high-performance workstations, and service, training and support. (Jim Mallory/19950907/Press contact: Blair McNea, Random Access, 303-752-5192 or Rich Schineller, ENTEX, 914-935-3684) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 09/08/95 BUSINESS Hong Kong - 73% Jump In IPC Turnover (NEWS)(BUSINESS)(HKG)(00017) Hong Kong - 73% Jump In IPC Turnover 09/08/95 CENTRAL, HONG KONG, 1995 SEPT 8 (NB) -- It has been another period of growth for Singapore PC company IPC, with turnover registering a 73% surge to S$833 million for the six months ended June 30, 1995. Nearly half of it came from the Asia Pacific region, which accounted for S$408.17 million. Net earnings rose by 14% to S$35.42 million. The turnover and net earnings during the same period last year were S$481.5 million and S$31.6 million respectively. Announcing the half-yearly results in Singapore, Patrick Ngiam, chairman and CEO of the decade-old company, said: "The strong growth has been fuelled by our strategy to constantly carve a niche in worldwide markets, such as our timely entry into the Asia-Pacific region within the last two years." Besides the Asia-Pacific region, Europe and Latin America have also reported good sales with revenues of S$183.26 million and S$191.59 million respectively. The Middle East and South Africa contributed 6% of turnover with S$49.98 million sales. The company attributed the strong performance to the high growth achieved in its core product line comprising general purpose computers, consumer computing products, application specific products and multimedia products. The first half saw sale of 350,000 PCs as against 425,000 during the whole of 1994. According to Ngiam, the net earnings were kept low by losses incurred by IPC Australia and IPC Holdings in the US. As many as 28 of its 54 retail stores in Australia have been closed. The IPC chairman was optimistic that the operations in Australia would improve in the second half. He also said the problems faced by the company had now been resolved. For the financial year ended December 31, 1994, IPC posted record revenues of S$1.359 billion and net earnings of S$72.31 million, representing a rise of 135% and 35% respectively over that of 1993. (Nigel Armstrong & I.T. Daily/19950907) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 09/08/95 TELECOM Singapore - Philips To Open Radio R&D Facility (NEWS)(TELECOM)(HKG)(00018) Singapore - Philips To Open Radio R&D Facility 09/08/95 CENTRAL, HONG KONG, 1995 SEPT 8 (NB) -- Electronics giant Philips is to invest S$35 million in Singapore to set up two centers for research and development. The company is investing S$25 million over the next five years in a radio frequency center to develop personal communications transceivers for use in cordless phones and cellular systems. The RF centre will be a first for Philips worldwide and will be staffed by 26 engineers. Local engineers will be trained as part of the investment. The other S$10 million will be invested in a sound systems center to develop new technologies in sound acoustics, electronics and digital signal processing for use in notebook computers, monitors and add-on speakers. The center, which will have an initial staff of 19, will serve as Philips' world center for sound systems in multimedia and will also be responsible for marketing and product strategy. The two investments will be partially financed with help from Singapore's Science & Technology Board. (Nigel Armstrong & I.T. Daily/19950904) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 09/08/95 BROADCAST CFRA Ottawa World's First Full-Time Cybercaster (NEWS)(BROADCAST)(TOR)(00019) CFRA Ottawa World's First Full-Time Cybercaster 09/08/95 OTTAWA, ONTARIO, CANADA, 1995 SEP 8 (NB) -- Ottawa radio station CFRA, the region's only news-talk format station, claims it has become the world's first major broadcaster to offer its programming continuously, in real time, to a global audience via the Internet. "With the rapid convergence of media and new technologies, it's exciting for our organization to be positioned at the cutting edge of the broadcast industry," said CFRA station manager Mark Maheu. "It's clear that the Internet will be a big part of the future for radio and television, and we feel it's imperative to be innovative and visionary to remain competitive and successful." Mahew said anyone anywhere in the world with an Internet connection, a sound-enabled PC and at least a 14.4 Kbps modem can tune in to CFRA's programming 24 hours a day. "The implications for radio programming and advertising are profound," Maheu noted. CFRA's Internet broadcasting operation was made possible by the introduction of the new StreamWorks Internet server software from Xing technology of Arroyo Grand, California. The server package is designed to offer live and on-demand audio and video feeds via the Internet. "Listeners" must download the companion client software -- essentially a proprietary audio player -- to "receive" Streamworks "broadcasts." It's available from the Xing World Wide Web site at: http://www.xingtech.com/ "Currently, the sound is half way between telephone and AM radio quality," Maheu reported. "At this point, music delivery [at dial-in access speeds] is probably not practical, but the quality is certainly adequate for the transmission of CFRA's mainly 'voice-only' broadcasts. However, given the exponential growth of the Internet's capacity, rapid improvements in audio and video compression software and increasingly faster access being offered to Internet users, an explosion in audio and video broadcasting on the net is just around the corner." CFRA, 580 AM, and its sister station, KOOL FM 93.9, are owned and operated by CHUM Ltd., which describes itself as 'the world's largest private broadcaster,' controlling radio and television stations across Canada, The Bravo! and MuchMusic specialty cable television channels, the CHUM Satellite Business Music Network and the CHUM Satellite Radio Network. CFRA offers a mix of news, talk shows and live play-by-play sports coverage and is the originating station for several syndicated talk programs carried across Canada and the Northern US on the CHUM Satellite Network. Tune in to the CFRA World Wide Web site at: http://www.worldlink.ca/koolcfra/ (Trevor Horsley/19950901/ Media Contact: Mark Maheu 613-738-2372, E-mail: mmaheu@koolcfra.com) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 09/08/95 ONLINE Singapore Awards 3rd Internet License (NEWS)(ONLINE)(HKG)(00020) Singapore Awards 3rd Internet License 09/08/95 CENTRAL, HONG KONG, 1995 SEPT 8 (NB) -- Cyberway, a consortium comprising SPH Multimedia and ST Telecommunications, this week emerged the surprise winner of the third licence to provide public Internet access service in Singapore. This was announced by the minister for communication, Mah Bow Tan at the workshop, "Voyage thru Cyberspace" at the Singapore Polytechnic. A group led by heavyweights Times Publishing and AT&T was widely tipped to win the licence. But, according to the Telecommunication Authority of Singapore (TAS), its evaluation process placed emphasis on the pricing, range and quality of services, marketing strategy and the potential for growth as proposed by the six tenderers. This tilted the balance in favor of Cyberway. TAS said the group had the best proposal in terms of maximizing benefits for consumers. It has on-line activation time of less than 10 minutes, which TAS held as Cyberway's guaranteed quality of service standard. TAS also pointed out that the group offered the most comprehensive customer support services, including a 24-hour network operating center. Moreover, Cyberway put forward the most competitive pricing for a wide range of services catering to different users, according to TAS. Another factor that helped in its selection was its aggressive approach to proliferate the use of Internet. The other tenderers were CSA Holdings & IBM Singapore, T-Net Singapore (comprising Teledata, Deutsche Telekom and NTT International), Singapore Network Services and Gainford. The highest financial bid was by the Times-AT&T group and the lowest by Cyberway. The tenders were called for in June this year. SingNet is currently the only Internet provider in Singapore, with a second licensee, Pacific Internet, set to launch its services soon. Pacific Internet, part of the Sembawang group, is spearheaded by Philip Yeo, chairman of the Economic Development Board. It has promised to offer services at lower prices than SingNet, managed by Singapore Telecom. Cyberway is required to launch commercial services within a year. Its initial one-time licence fee of S$450,000 will also be imposed on SingNet and Pacific Internet. TAS clarified that the one-time fee did not form part of the evaluation criteria. (Nigel Armstrong & I.T. Daily/19950906) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 09/08/95 TELECOM UK - Mercury One-2-One In Major Revamp Of Tariffs (NEWS)(TELECOM)(LON)(00021) UK - Mercury One-2-One In Major Revamp Of Tariffs 09/08/95 LONDON, ENGLAND, 1995 SEP 8 (NB) -- Mercury One-2-One, one of the two PCN (personal communications network) digital phone nets in the UK, has caused something of a stir by completely revamping its tariff structure. The restructure tariff introduces per-second billing and divorces the phone purchase from the airtime agreement. Previously, as in the US and other UK mobile networks, One-2-One tied subscribers to their networks for a minimum period of time, typically 12 months, in return for a subsidy on the phone handset. This has had the effect of reducing the handset price to the customer. Alan Thompson, a spokesman for One-2-One, told Newsbytes that the subsidy system will continue. "Just because a subscriber buys an airtime agreement separately from the phone does not mean we are not offering a subsidy on the hardware. We can do this, because the phones will still be locked for use only on the Mercury network," he explained. The move to split the hardware purchase from the subscriber agreement is possible with One-2-One as, like other digital phone networks, the subscriber must slot in a smart card into the phone in order to identify him or herself to the network. According to Thompson, the idea is that companies can buy several subscriptions for several phones and use them on a "pick'n'mix" basis. "It also opens up the second hand phone market, since it allows subscribers to upgrade their handset and sell their old unit for use by other subscribers, who then use their existing One-2-One subscription or take out a new one," he told Newsbytes. Thompson warned that potential subscribers must still exercise caution when buying a second hand phone. "They should ask the seller to produce a bill with their name and address on it. In addition, they can also call us and check whether the handset is barred or not, for any reason. Barring means that the phone cannot be used on Orange or One-2-One, which makes it an expensive paperweight," he explained. In parallel with the hardware/network purchase split, One-2-One will offer three new tariffs on September 18. Existing tariffs for new customers are now in three bands -- bronze, silver and gold -- range from UKP 15 through UKP 25 and up to UKP 35 a month. Off-peak calls on all tariffs are 5 pence per minute for all inland calls, with free local calls at weekend. Peak rate calls are billed at 25 pence on bronze and 15 pence per minute on the other tariffs. The Gold tariff, at UKP 35 a month, seems to offer the best value for heavy phone users since it offers free voicemail services, calls between One-2-One mobiles for 5 pence a minute at all times, a reduced call rate home/office "home cell" facility, free phone insurance, choice of memorable number and several other features. Of all the changes, the per second billing will be most welcomed by new and old subscribers, Newsbytes notes. That means that, while both PCN services now offer per second billing, Cellnet and Vodafone, with their own analog and digital services, remain on 30 second "block" calling rates, subject to a 60 second call minimum. Both Cellnet and Vodafone told Newsbytes that they have no plans to alter their tariffs in this respect, or as a response to One-2-One's changes. Mike Caldwell, head of Vodafone's press relations, told Newsbytes that the company has found that per second billing is not an issue with customers. "What people are after is coverage and the ability to make and receive calls at all times. PCNs cannot offer this, as they don't have the coverage," he said. (Steve Gold/19950905/Press Contact: One-2-One Press Ops +44-956- 700121; Fax +44-956-700122; Reader Contact: One-2-One +44-181-214- 2121; Fax +44-181-905-2801) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 09/08/95 REVIEW ONLINE Review - "Creating Cool Web Pages With HTML" (REVIEW)(ONLINE)(TYO)(00022) Review - "Creating Cool Web Pages With HTML" 09/08/95 TOKYO, JAPAN, 1995 SEP 8 (NB) -- Anyone who browses the Internet's World Wide Web regularly will know that among the thousands of pages available, some stand out as well-designed and pleasant to look at, while others are plain and unattractive. Dave Taylor sets out to give readers a comprehensive understanding of the code used to write such pages in his new book, "Creating Cool Web Pages With HTML," and so allows them to write more attractive pages. The author has written many Web pages commercially, including the Internet Mall at MecklerWeb and is well-known as the author of the popular Elm mail system. Many people have self-taught themselves hypertext markup language (HTML) because of its simple structure and reliance on tags that define the formatting used. It is therefore no surprise that the book uses just 66 pages in teaching the language. A great deal less could probably be used, but Taylor adds many examples and images from real pages throughout to demonstrate what he is teaching and explaining. After the first seven chapters, which deal with the basic nuts and bolts of Web page design, the book moves onto what most readers really want to know, with a chapter titled "Jazzing Up Web Pages." It is from this section on that the author begins addressing the cosmetic side of Web page design rather than the more basic tasks of displaying information. Subjects cover centering of titles and alignment with graphics. The ability to make a "cool" Web page wouldn't be complete without an understanding of the so-called Netscape extensions, tags implemented in the Netscape Navigator browser that allow clever tricks and formatting to be accomplished but which aren't official HTML and not supported by other browsers. The book also provides coverage of things that are often forgotten when designing Web pages such as remembering that pages look different when viewed with each browser and the needs to add descriptions of images so people have an idea of what the graphic is when image loading is turned off. After the reader has arrived at the end of chapter ten they should be in a position to write their own Web pages. Once this is done and they are available to Internet users, the pages must be publicized and information on the most popular Web catalogs and search machines are provided with details of how to register Web pages. In the introduction, the author stated that advanced page designs, such as image maps and forms, were beyond the scope of the book and a primer is provided at the end of the book with pointers to Web pages containing more details. To round off the book a quick reference guide provides page authors with an easy way to look up commands and tags when writing Web pages. At the back of the book a disk is included which includes a copy of WinWeb and all the example Web pages from the book. Unfortunately the disk is not as well produced as the book. The choice of WinWeb seems to have been based on a commercial rather than logical choice. As the "looks best on Netscape Navigator" message on many Web pages indicates, the most attractive pages make use of tags only recognized by the Netscape software. WinWeb ignores these tags and even more basic functions such as displaying an "ISINDEX" dialog box for user input or allowing centered text. All this means some of the HTML taught in the book cannot be demonstrated using the accompanying software. In addition, the Web page files present on the disk appear not to have been checked on a Windows system as there are problems loading some of the graphics because of use of different cases in files names. This isn't just a problem with WinWeb either, we tried Netscape Navigator and Spry's Mosaic and all failed to load them until we modified the hypertext code. To sum up, the book is quite well written and provides a useful reference to the HTML language and tags. It fills a gap in what must be a growing market for hypertext reference and tutorial books. On the negative side, the disk certainly lets the package down but that shouldn't put you off buying the book. Creating Cool Web Pages With HTML is published by IDG Books and is priced at $19.99 in the US, GBP 18.99 in the UK. The book's ISBN number is 1-56884-454-9. (Martyn Williams/19950821/Press and reader contact : IDG Books USA, 800-434-3422, IDG Books Worldwide, +1-415-655-3021) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 09/08/95 TELECOM China - More Phone Lines For Beijing (NEWS)(TELECOM)(PEK)(00023) China - More Phone Lines For Beijing 09/08/95 BEIJING, CHINA, 1995 SEP 8 (NB) -- Beijing Telecommunications Administration (BTA) recently signed a contract with Beijing International Switching System Corp (BISC), a Sino-German joint venture, to buy a 400,000-line digital telephone switching system. This is the biggest single deal between BTA and BISC. The purchase will accelerate the modernization of the city's telecom network and satisfy the rising demand for phones from public and private sectors in the capital city, said Ni Yilin, the director of BTA. Part of the new switching system is expected to be in service early next year, the director said. To support the project, BISC will shorten its normal equipment delivery time from 8-10 months to one or two months, BISC's general manager Victor C Ku said at the contract signing ceremony. Service priorities from the new capacity will go to key universities and some rural areas in the capital. Ni said that under the BTA's 1995 plan, 650,000 lines will be added in the urban phone networks, and 26,000 lines for long distance networks for both international and domestic calls. Also in 1995, BTA expects that 500,000 telephone subscribers, 80,000 mobile phones and 5,500 public phones will be added to the city's phone networks, Director Ni said. By the end of 1994, the capacity of Beijing's telephone exchanges reached 3 million lines and more than 30 percent of the households in the urban areas have a telephone. (Chih-Ho Yu & Ning Huang/19950824) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 09/08/95 GENERAL China - Technology Newsbriefs (NEWS)(GENERAL)(PEK)(00024) China - Technology Newsbriefs 09/08/95 BEIJING, CHINA, 1995 SEP 8 (NB) -- In this news roundup from China, Shandong imports large-scale switchboards from Motorola, LG Electronics will transfer Zenith's technology to China, SSA sponsors seminar for business opportunities, 230,000 patent rights granted within past 10 years. Shandong Buys Large-Scale Switchboards From Motorola Shandong Province in east China will import state-of-the-art equipment from Motorola, according to a contract signed recently between Motorola and Shandong province. Motorola will provide Shandong with five large-scale switchboards linking 165,000 telephone lines, and the province will use the equipment to modernize its analog mobile telecommunications network, said an official with the provincial Administration Bureau of Posts and Telecommunications. LG Electronics To Transfer Zenith Technology To China South Korean firm LG Electronics Inc., recently said that its current merger with Zenith Electronics Corporation in the United States would be positive for the Chinese market. The company hopes to transfer technologies by Zenith to the Chinese market. LG Electronics has seven joint ventures in China. SSA Seminar On Business Planning And Control Systems System Software Associates Inc., (SSA) has sponsored a seminar on business planning and control systems (BPCS) in Beijing. The seminar, aiming to explore more business opportunities in China, attracted more than 30 overseas companies and some domestic factories. SSA, one of the largest manufacturing software producers, has secured about 100 clients in China for its BPCS products. It now owns China Co. Ltd and has offices in Shanghai, Tianjin, Guangzhou, Shenzhen, Xiamen, and Jinan. 230,000 Patent Rights Granted In 10 years China has authorized patent rights for around half of the 448,000 patent applications made over the past decade. About 230,000 applications have been granted patent rights by the China Patent Office (CPO) according to officials at the Third China Patented Techniques Fair which opened recently in Beijing. Nearly 2,000 patented techniques by 1,000 enterprises and research institutes from 30 provinces, municipalities and autonomous regions were on display. The fair, at Beijing Exhibition Hall, was hosted by CPO and the Ministry of Internal Trade. (Chih-Ho Yu & Ning Huang/19950824) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 09/08/95 BUSINESS HP India Becomes 100% Subsidiary (NEWS)(BUSINESS)(DEL)(00025) HP India Becomes 100% Subsidiary 09/08/95 NEW DELHI, INDIA, 1995 SEP 8 (NB) -- Blue Star Ltd., long time associate of the US-based Hewlett-Packard Company, and co-promoter of Hewlett-Packard India Ltd., has finally succumbed to its associate's pressure to forsake its 20 percent stake in favor of Hewlett-Packard, thus paving HP's way to form a 100 percent subsidiary in the country. The US company has offered to pay Rs 12 crore ($3.8 million) in the buyout deal. Blue Star's rights were jointly relinquished by its president and vice-chairman, Suneel Advani and the Hewlett-Packard India Ltd. president, Suresh Rajpal. An application has been sent to the FIPM (Foreign Investment Promotion Board) to permit Hewlett-Packard India to become a 100 percent subsidiary. Rajpal said, "Both the companies have arrived at an agreement based on a cordial mutual understanding." Blue Star Ltd. had, for the past year-and-a-half, been putting off HP's overtures, citing the low price offered by the MNC as one of the prime reasons. HP had earlier offered Rs 2.73 crore based on the principal investment with the accumulating commercial interest rate from the day the investment was made. Hewlett-Packard India's other partner, Shiv Nadar of HCL-HP, has reportedly given up his 15 percent equity stake on the same formula. Blue Star has been associated with Hewlett-Packard initially as distributor for the full range of HP products in India, and later a JV partner as well as a supplier of software services. As of now, HP will continue its relationship with Blue Star for its software development work in the US and at Bangalore. (C. T. Mahabharat/19950908) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 09/08/95 IBM IBM Assembling PCs In Singapore (NEWS)(IBM)(HKG)(00026) IBM Assembling PCs In Singapore 09/08/95 CENTRAL, HONG KONG, 1995 SEP 8 (NB) -- IBM has suddenly announced that it has started the assembly of personal computers in Singapore. The factory has been manufacturing since late May, not long after IBM started up a hard disk drive manufacturing facility, but Big Blue kept the site under wraps until now. Scott Paull, director of IBM personal computers for Asia Pacific manufacturing and distribution, said the company had invested about US$8 million to start a manufacturing line. He said IBM was using the manufacturing services of Burlington Express in the Singapore suburb of Senoko and would make up to 10 PC models. IBM has leased 30,000 sq ft of manufacturing space and has started assembly of two mass volume products, the PC300 and PC100 series of desktop PCs, for the Southeast Asian/South Asian markets. There is a staff of about 30. "We consider Singapore and the other Asean countries a significant and fast-growing PC market," Paull was quoted as saying. "By assembling PCs here, we are nearer to our customers in this area, and [this] enables us to provide products faster. It also puts us nearer to the local production and distribution facilities of our suppliers." These suppliers would include IBMs new facility in Kaki Bukit that makes high-capacity disk drives. That US$100 million plant started late last year, with another US$100 million to be sunk by end-1996. Staff strength will rise from 1,300 to more than 2,000 next year. Volume production started in April with the plant expected to churn out one million high-end hard disk drives this year and 2.5 million next year. (Nigel Armstrong & I.T. Daily/19950831) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 09/08/95 ONLINE Microsoft Network's On Australia Launched (NEWS)(ONLINE)(SYD)(00027) Microsoft Network's On Australia Launched 09/08/95 SYDNEY, AUSTRALIA 1995 SEP 8 (NB) -- On Australia, the Microsoft Network in Australia, is up and running, but not without detractors. Some journalists have pointed out the lack of real Australian content and some beta testers think they could have been given more thanks, and a better pricing deal. Australian users get an On Australia front end to the Microsoft Network. The problem, according to some journalists, is that this is about as far as the local content goes. Despite the "200-odd Australian content providers" that On Australia boss Gerry Davis says are ready to come online, most haven't yet. When Newsbytes looked in some of the supposedly Australian areas, the content was found to be thin on the ground. The local news consisted of three or four stories, and when we clicked on the "weather" we got a nice US weather map, but nothing Australian. Some Australian beta testers are upset at what they say is a lack of appreciation for their efforts and their patience in putting up with the system. All Australian beta testers received an e-mail from fellow tester Neil Christopher. It contained an online petition directed at the On Australia management. This is an edited extract: "We have very strong concerns about On Australia's proposed pricing arrangements. We would dearly love to support MSN further but will inevitably be unable to do so. The prices we have viewed are far more than the average beta-tester (and public) can be expected to pay. We are concerned that this sort of treatment from On Australia towards their Australian clients will be repeated in the future. We deserve and demand usage rights, discounts, and special offers equal to those afforded our US counterparts. As prospective future clients of MSN, we expect to be taken seriously. If On Australia do not have the jurisdiction or control over the issues we raise, we expect same to be forwarded to those who do. We are on the whole computer professionals and therefore are often asked for advice from the general public. As much as we like the MSN we cannot recommend the MSN under its present singular pricing structure." Another e-mail to all testers from beta tester John Potter contained the following observations: "While AUS$5 an hour is slightly steep, but more or less a reasonable price for the full MSN service in Australia, AUS$5 an hour is absolutely unreasonable price for the MSN startup service in Australia service. Full service should consist of: 28.8K dialup access, full Internet access, tools to minimize online time, adequate bandwidth within all sectors of the network, stable access, comprehensive range of forums that have actual content, a minimal (ideally nil) level of parochiality in terms of access to services, promotions, etc. What is on offer for American users ought to be on offer for every user and vice-versa. I exclude access charges since comms costs do vary. The startup service for Australian users is significantly less than the full service. If the value of the full service is $5 an hour, then there is no way in which the value of the startup service is $5 an hour." (Paul Zucker/19950901) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 09/08/95 GENERAL US Firms Donate Technology To Women's Conference (NEWS)(GENERAL)(PEK)(00028) US Firms Donate Technology To Women's Conference 09/08/95 BEIJING, CHINA, 1995 SEP 8 (NB) -- Supporting the United Nations' Fourth World Conference on Women, US firms AT&T and Hewlett-Packard are donating their equipment to Chinese organizations. US-based Sybase donated US$2 million worth software to Chinese education and research institutes. AT&T has recently donated 50 mobile phones to Beijing Telecommunications Administration (BTA) for support of the Fourth World Conference on Women now in Beijing. These phones facilitate calls between China and the United States during the conference and BTA is leasing services. These mobile phones will continue to be leased after the conference. China Hewlett-Packard (CHP) also donated nearly 100 of its most advanced computers and peripheries including laser printers, ink printers, scanners and plotters, to China's prestigious Beijing University as a way to strengthen the university's scientific research and office automation capabilities. It is the third contribution made by the company the university since 1985. To support the Fourth World Conference on Women, the two sides agreed that donated equipment would be used by the conference first and then returned to the university. US-based Sybase will donate US$2 million worth software to Chinese education and research institutes. After investing US$2 million to establish a software research center in Beijing, the US company recently signed an agreement with the State Science and Technology Commission (SSTC) to donate its advanced database software, Sybase System 10, to 100 education and/or research institutes under SSTC. The value of the donated software is estimated as US$2 million. The company will also donate software to institutes under the State Education Commission. (Chih-Ho Yu & Ning Huang/19950829) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 09/08/95 ONLINE ****News Corp./MCI Online Covers UN Women's Conference (NEWS)(ONLINE)(MSP)(00029) ****News Corp./MCI Online Covers UN Women's Conference 09/08/95 NEW YORK CITY, NEW YORK, U.S.A., 1995 SEP 8 (NB) -- The United Nations Fourth Annual World Conference on Women is in the spotlight of news organizations around the world. Now it is also in cyberspace, with the help of News Corp./MCI Online Ventures coverage. "The Long March: Women's Rights/Beijing 95" is a new Web site which is being put together by News Center, a digital newsroom sponsored by the joint venture. The new site provides continuously updated coverage of the conference with both on-site reports and commentary in the US, Nancy Morrisroe, spokesperson for News Corp./MCI Online Ventures, told Newsbytes. Besides reports from the scene, the Web site also has feature stories, essays, interviews, and photos of the happenings of the controversial conference in Beijing. Some of the people involved in the cite include Camille Paglia, Linda Wertheimer, Fran Lebowitz, Georgette Mosbacher, and Patricia Ireland. While the women are talking in China, people who visit the Web site are holding their own "virtual conference" with noted activists, including Susan Faludi, Morrisroe said. A Web surfer can read a comment in the conference, then reply to it or start their own message "thread" by simply clicking a button. "This site brings you more than just what's going on at the Women's Conference. You can participate too," Morrisroe said. Anthea Disney, editor in chief of News Corp./MCI Online Ventures, said the site brings Internet users more than the two-dimensional coverage being provided by radio, TV, and print publications. "Rather, we are fostering individual interaction through multidimensional, direct, real links between participants in Beijing, notable commentators, unsung heroines, and our subscribers as events actually unfold." The site also features hotlinks to other Web sites that are relevant to the conference. The News Corp./MCI Online Ventures site will continue to provide coverage from China until the conference ends September 15. The Long March site can be accessed through either http://www.delphi.com , or http://www.internetMCI.com . (Bob Woods/19950908/Press Contacts: Nancy Morrisroe, 212-462-5050, or Barbara McLeod, 800-644-NEWS, both of News Corp./MCI Online Ventures) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 09/08/95 GENERAL "Orbix+Isis" Brings Fault Tolerance To Object Apps (NEWS)(GENERAL)(BOS)(00030) "Orbix+Isis" Brings Fault Tolerance To Object Apps 09/08/95 MARLBORO, MASSACHUSETTS, U.S.A., 1995 SEP 8 (NB) -- Isis and Iona's jointly produced "Orbix+Isis" provides the first commercially available way of building fault tolerant, "mission-critical" distributed applications able to combine objects as well as non-object-oriented applications from different operating environments, agreed company officials, analysts, and a systems integrator, in a series of interviews with Newsbytes. Beta tested at sites ranging from Bellcore to Chemical Bank, the newly released Orbix+Isis integrates Iona's Orbix with "active replication" from Isis that brings support for fault tolerance, as well as for load balancing and parallel execution, maintained Pam Nezil, senior marketing analyst for Isis. In the business environment, the prospect of server failure is ever present, Nezil warned. "If you don't take fault tolerance into account when designing an application, you're bound to run into problems." Iona's Orbix, a CORBA (Common Object Request Broker Architecture)-compliant ORB (Object Request Broker), is aimed at permitting interoperability between objects from different environments, as well as with legacy code "wrapped in CORBA." Larry Sherman, director of marketing for Isis, told Newsbytes that the collaborative Orbix+Isis effort uses CORBA IDL (Interface Definition Language) as a "single logical interface" between the Orbix client and a set of templates. By using the templates, the C++ developer can employ Isis's active replication to create and synchronize "multiple identical replicas" of object groups -- known as "process groups" in Isis terminology -- on distributed network servers. If a server goes down, requests are rerouted to a different, available object group on another server, he said. Nezil pointed out that Iona is now integrating Orbix with Microsoft's OLE (object-linking-and-embedding). "You'll be able to write the client side of an application in Visual Basic, Power Builder, or any other Microsoft-compatible development environment." Annrai O'Toole, VP of development for Iona, told Newsbytes that Orbix now runs on 20 platforms. Aside from Windows 3.1 and Windows NT, the platforms include OS/2, Macintosh, 12 flavors of Unix, and three real-time operating systems: VxWorks, QNX and Lynx. Iona is currently on track with a CORBA 2.0 roadmap unveiled at a press conference in Boston in May, according to O'Toole. At the Iona press conference, which was attended by Newsbytes, Barry Morris, product manager, said that Iona will deploy CORBA 2.0-compliant IIOP (Interoperability Protocol), C++ Mapping, and COSS (Common Object Services Specification) Name Service in the third quarter of this year. Iona will add Ada mapping, the COSS Event Service, for event notification, and COSS Transaction Services in the fourth quarter of 1995, and SmallTalk mapping in the first quarter of 1996, Morris reported. "The integration of Isis with Orbix provides a very cost effective, fault tolerant method for managing and routing objects," said Richard Schreiber, president of ATB Associates, Wellesley Massachusetts. "Isis is the only commercial product in its category out there right now," the analyst told Newsbytes. Agreed Sally Cusack, an analyst for the Standish Group, Dennis, Massachusetts: "Orbix+Isis is so advanced that it's almost `ahead of its time.'" "This product will provide some of the underpinnings for what we believe to be the next generation of client-server application development: `message-based client 2.0 services,' which is essentially an object-focused architecture, enabled by messaging," observed Don DePalma, an analyst at Forrester Research, Boston. "The fact that the Isis hardening layer is wrapped around it means you'll be able to create applications that were previously little more than `will-o'-the-wisps' in people's imaginations," DePalma told Newsbytes. Robert Sturgis of the Technical Resource Connection informed Newsbytes that his Tampa, Florida-based systems design and integration firm is now beginning commercial deployment of several "mission-critical, very high bandwidth" customer applications built with Orbix+Isis, including an "international trading system" for a major investment bank. "These applications require object distribution. But for high performance, we also need asynchronous communications. Specifically, we want to use asynchronous events among the sites. But within the asynchronous environment, we must have synchronicity and guaranteed delivery of events. Orbix provides object distribution. Isis provides synchronicity and guaranteed delivery. Now the two are integrated as a common product," the technical director maintained. Prior to development of Orbix+Isis, the systems integration firm combined an internally developed messaging technology with outside messaging systems and ORBs. "But that presented a much more difficult integration," Newsbytes was told. Sturgis noted that CORBA 2.0 COSS Event Service, "soon to be released" by multiple vendors, also permits asynchronous messaging. In the initial implementations, though, uniformity "will not be guaranteed," he predicted. Orbix, he added, differs from other available ORBs because it permits integration of object technology with DCE (Distributing Computing Environment)-based transport, a "serious requirement" of some organizations, especially in manufacturing. The Technology Resource Connection is now in the final stages of modifying Iona's code to produce an inhouse technology called "Orbix+DCE," according to Sturgis. Technology Resource does not plan to license its new technology to any outside parties, he added. The commercial Orbix product uses a plug-in transport architecture, with existing plug-ins for TCP/IP (transmission control protocol/Internet protocol) and several other transports, plus the upcoming plug-in for CORBA 2.0's "neutral" IIOP transport. O'Toole told Newsbytes that Iona could easily create a DCE plug-in. Several customers have asked whether a DCE plug-in is possible, and Iona will produce the plug-in if customers express "serious interest" in a ready-to-use DCE module, the Iona VP noted. (Jacqueline Emigh/19950905/Press Contacts: Jane Hiscock, Neva Group for Isis Distributed Systems, 617-441-4000; Tom Golden, Iona Technologies Ltd, 353-1-6686522; in US, 800-672-4948; Reader Contacts: Isis, 800-258-0990; Iona Technologies Inc., 508-460-6868; Iona Technologies Ltd, 353-1-6686522; in US, 800-672-4948) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 09/08/95 TELECOM 3Com's 128Kbps ISDN Access, WAN Plans (NEWS)(TELECOM)(BOS)(00031) 3Com's 128Kbps ISDN Access, WAN Plans 09/08/95 SANTA CLARA, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1995 SEP 8 (NB) -- 3Com's new, MPPP (Multilink Point-to-Point Protocol)-enabled digital/analog modem, billed as the first modem to let home users access the Web and online services at 128 kilobits-per-second (Kbps), represents only one prong of a far-reaching company strategy for WANs (wide area networks), reported Reginald Best, VP of 3Com's Access Products Group, in an interview with Newsbytes. In homes and offices wired for BR-ISDN (basic rate - integrated services digital network), the newly enhanced 3Com Impact modem is able to use MPPP over two aggregated 64-Kbps ISDN (integrated services digital network) "B" channels to provide connectivity to the Web and corporate networks at speeds twice as high as other digital modems, and five times as high as the fastest analog modem, Best told Newsbytes. "And on top of that, we've implemented a dynamic bandwidth allocation feature which allows the user to automatically downshift to a `single B channel' connection of 64 Kbps, in order to place a voice call or send a fax while maintaining the online connection. Then, at the conclusion of that call, we transparently add the other 64 Kbps back in," said the 3Com exec. Major commercial online services do not yet support ISDN, "and probably won't, for another six to 12 months," the VP acknowledged. As a result, the company has also added an analog modem datapump to the 3Com Impact, he noted. "Users are telling us that even their analog connections are much cleaner with the new modem," he contended. Although some network bridges and routers now support MPPP, the 3Com Impact is the first modem to support the new IETF (Internet Engineering Task Force) protocol, according to Best, who previously headed up AccessWorks, a company acquired by 3Com in February. AccessWorks marketed the MPPP-enabled modem under the name "QuickAccess Remote." PPP, he maintained, was originally designed to be a "single B channel" service. MPPP, on the other hand, "allows you to aggregate any number of links together into a single, higher bandwidth session." In areas wired for PRI (primary rate interface)-ISDN, the newly enhanced 3Com Impact supports aggregations of 23 or 24 ISDN "B" channels, according to Best. MPPP also supports other physical media outside of ISDN, he added. In contrast, Motorola and US Robotics, 3Com's two closest competitors in the digital modem space, each support access of merely 56 or 64 Kbps, according to Best. Motorola's Bit Surfer provides PPP, but supports neither MPPP nor analog access, he contended. US Robotics' new digital modem doesn't provide PPP yet, supporting only "V.120-type connections," he continued. Best told Newsbytes that 3Com's recently unveiled plans to purchase Chipcom will bring a chassis-based local networking hub that will supplement the stackable hubs and other entries in 3Com's current LAN (local area network) internetworking product line-up. But over the past few years, he pointed out, 3Com has also spent about $350 million on acquisitions of several other companies, resulting in "a very wide range of WAN products, at both ends of the wire." Aside from AccessWorks, a company which focused on "taking ISDN desktop products to the Internet and online markets," 3Com's acquisitions in the WAN arena have included Centrum Communications, Sonix, and Primary Access, according to Best. Centrum has since become 3Com's Personal Office Division, a group that is now working on "remote LAN (local area network) products, specifically AccessBuilder," Newsbytes was told. 3Com's new Sonix organization is focusing on LAN internetworking products for medium-sized and small businesses, and on remote branch access. Meanwhile, the Apperture product from 3Com's new Primary Access business unit is targeted at the "very large-scale, high-end telco (telephone company), Internet access provider, or information service provider that wants to add analog modem or ISDN access to their services." The product is scalable from 24 or 48 simultaneous dialups, to several thousand simultaneous dialups, he said. "So we now have desktop products that can communicate with the Apperture device. We have LAN internetworking products which can communicate with our routers. A broad range of WAN products is a very, very important strategic objective for 3Com," he asserted. With the Chipcom acquisition now on its way to completion, Chipcom's current customers will also become "candidates" for 3Com's WAN technologies, according to Best. "And three to five years from now, we'd like to see one-third to one-half of all of 3Com's revenues coming from WAN products," the 3Com VP told Newsbytes. The 3Com Impact digital modem is list priced at $749 with both the Multilink PPP and analog options, and at $649 with MPPP only, but will be street-priced at about $500, he predicted. Without either of the new options, the digital modem continues to list for $600. (Jacqueline Emigh/19950905/Reader Contact: 3Com Corporation, 408- 764-5000; Press Contact: Jennifer Wade, 408-764-5137, or Valerie Bellofatto, 408-764-6194) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 09/08/95 ONLINE ****America Online Has 3.5 Mil Subscribers (NEWS)(ONLINE)(MSP)(00032) ****America Online Has 3.5 Mil Subscribers 09/08/95 VIENNA, VIRGINIA, U.S.A., 1995 SEP 8 (NB) -- America Online Inc. (NASDAQ:AMER) (AOL) said it now has more than 3.5 million members logging into its services. With that milestone, AOL claims to be the "largest and most popular online service in the world." AOL president and chief executive officer Steve Case attributed his service's success to the support of its current members. But he did say there's a "long road ahead" to make online services a new medium. In a news release, Case said AOL is working on improvements to make the service easier to use, "with an even broader range of consumer content, presented in an even more engaging content, with an even stronger underlying sense of community -- all at an affordable price," he said. Already, AOL receives content from companies like Time Warner, ABC, Knight-Ridder, Tribune, Hachette, IBM, and American Express. Newsbytes also maintains an area on AOL. In other AOL news, a new area is taking members on an interactive travel adventure through the US. In "Lost in America," five "twentysomethings" are traveling with notebook computers and digital cameras in hand "in search of the real America." Lost in America is the brainchild of three men in their twenties, who are all accomplished travelers, AOL officials said. The three are now sending five people, who were found in a nationwide talent search, to get lost in the US. "We wanted to challenge the truth about the American dream with the American reality by sending a diverse group of young travelers to explore what this country really has to offer," said Alexander Okuliar, president of Lost in America. Lost in America comes to AOL via its Greenhouse program, which is designed to support information entrepreneurs in the creation of online content for both AOL and the Internet. (Bob Woods/19950908/Press Contacts: Judy Tashbook, America Online, 703- 918-1452. Public Contact: America Online, 800-827-6364) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 09/08/95 CHIPS ****Foreign Access To Japan's Chip Market Slows (NEWS)(CHIPS)(SFO)(00033) ****Foreign Access To Japan's Chip Market Slows 09/08/95 SAN JOSE, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1995 SEP 8 (NB) -- The Semiconductor Industry Association (SIA) says the steady progress of foreign companies' access to the Japanese chip market has flattened over the first two quarters of 1995. New figures for the second calendar quarter indicate almost no growth over the first quarter for this year. At the end of 1994, semiconductor manufacturers outside of Japan made-up 22.4% of the Japanese chip market. Through strong efforts by SIA and the US government, foreign access to the market has increased impressively from an average 8.4% share in 1986 to a 22.4% share in 1994. The fourth quarter of 1994 saw the share grow to 23.7% The first two calendar quarters of 1995 have failed to meet that 23.7% quarter. Earlier this year, the first quarter share was 22.8% and the newly released second quarter results show almost the same share with 22.9%. Daryl Hatano, SIA's vice president of international trade and government affairs, told Newsbytes, "The first two quarters of this year are slightly higher than the first two quarters of last year, but it will take a strong third and fourth quarter to keep growth on a steady increase annually. These flat quarters for the beginning of 1995 do not necessarily signify a new trend, but we see it like a flashing yellow light of caution." US semiconductor companies hold approximately 17 to 18 of the 22.9 percentage points for the current quarter. SIA says it estimates the Japanese chip market for 1995 to be valued at $42 billion. That is approximately, $400 million for each percentage point and represents roughly $7 billion annually to US companies. Hatano also said, "When we first began to watch this market, we strongly responded to each quarter. Now that progress has been made, we are starting to take a longer view and not respond so intensely to the results of each quarter. At the same time, signs of slow growth should remind all of the concerned parties to remain vigilant in their efforts to promote foreign access to the Japanese chip market." (Patrick McKenna/19950908/Press Contact: Kevin Brett, SIA, tel 408- 246-2711) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 09/08/95 BUSINESS General Magic Reorganizes (NEWS)(BUSINESS)(SFO)(00034) General Magic Reorganizes 09/08/95 SUNNYVALE, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1995 SEP 8 (NB) -- General Magic (NASDAQ:GMGC), a developer of software communications products, announced a new internal structure by creating the Magic Cap division and the Telescript division. The company also created a new worldwide field operations division to manage systems integration, sales, support and customer engineering. The Magic Cap division is expected to develop platform and application software for a variety of communications devices, including personal intelligent communicators (PICs), Windows and Macintosh personal computers, mobile phones and screen-based phones. Personal intelligent communicators include Motorola's Envoy and Sony's Magic Link. The name was created to differentiate these devices which are defined as communicators as opposed to personal digital assistants (PDAs) and palmtop computing devices. Steve Schramm, previously vice president of engineering at General Magic, has received the nod to head the Magic Cap division. His title becomes vice president and general manager of the Magic Cap division. Lucia Hicks-Williams, who was the company's vice president of product marketing and strategic planning, is now heading the Telescript division as its vice president and general manager. Telescript will focus on developing network-based platforms and application software for public network operators, wireless networks, the Internet and corporate enterprise. General Magic is in the process of recruiting someone to fill a senior vice president position to oversee the two new divisions. Until that position is filled both of the new division general managers will report directly to Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Mark Porat. A spokesperson for General Magic told Newsbytes, "This is the first major internal structural change in our company's five-year history. The divisional structure allows us to focus our two platforms on their specific markets. This means we are shifting from a functional to a divisional business structure. Some companies do these changes frequently, but this is a major, long-term change for General Magic." (Patrick McKenna/1995/Press Contact: Viki Paige, General Magic, tel 408-774-4434) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 09/08/95 BROADCAST Interactive Group Picks Technology For Multi-Player Gaming (NEWS)(BROADCAST)(WAS)(00035) Interactive Group Picks Technology For Multi-Player Gaming 09/08/95 WASHINGTON, D.C., U.S.A., 1995 SEP 8 (NB) -- The National IVDS Network (NIN) today said it will work on developing a wireless communications network to the home for large multi-player games using metered technology from Wave Interactive Network or WIN. NIN is a consortium of Federal Communications Commission licensees developing interactive video and data services for deployment to 80 metropolitan areas. WIN, a subsidiary of Wave Systems Corp. (Nasdaq:WAVX) is able to give the consumer the choice of programming on a pay-per-use basis or on a rent-to-own basis, using a device called a Wave Meter. Peter Sprague, chief executive officer of Wave Systems and recently retired chairman of National Semiconductor, said the creation of WIN will provide NIN "with the lowest cost multimedia distribution channel." Jeff Craven, NIN secretary, said, "The alliance between WIN and NIN combines the content and billing functions which WIN has developed with NIN's nationwide IVDS network, providing customers with the lowest cost system for communication between multimedia computers. In addition, the WIN products help NIN provide a real-time connection into the home, initially with interactive gaming and chat, all without tying up a telephone line." Computer legend Nolan Bushnell, founder of Atari and a WIN director, said, "This architecture, which is the most significant development in network game play, will make it possible to connect millions of users without the need for a central processing facility. This provides the first low-cost, low-latency gaming network. The IVDS network will, for the first time, permit tournaments with more than 1 million simultaneous participants. In addition, the low-cost, real-time nature of the network will provide a platform for many new home applications." According to Sprague, Kao Infosystems, a subsidiary of Kao Corp., will provide WIN with logistical, management and manufacturing support to service over half a million subscribers by the end of 1996. (Kennedy Maize/19950907/Press Contact: Amelia Burkhart, Wave Systems, 413-243-1600) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 09/08/95 GENERAL Newsbytes Week In Review (NEWS)(GENERAL)(SFO)(00036) Newsbytes Week In Review 09/08/95 MINNEAPOLIS, MINNESOTA, U.S. A., 1995 SEP 8 (NB) -- This is a look at the top stories this week, listing with their category code: Fujitsu's 4GB Magneto-Optical Disks, Think Tank - Nation's R&D Leadership In Jeopardy, News Corp./MCI Online Covers UN Women's Conference, America Online Has 3.5 Mil Subscribers, Will Residential Broadband Ever Happen? - Study, Seattle Post Newspaper Rejects Compuserve Ad, Free Newsbytes CD-ROM To New E-Mail Subscribers, Bay Networks Buys Xylogics For $330 Million, Industry Slams Govt's Encryption Export Plan, Pac Bell's $16Bil Cable TV Plan For California, Windows 95 Support Lines Jammed, Nielsen & I/Pro Join In Web-Traffic Measurement, Motorola Intros PowerPC For Data Comms/Networking, MA-Based Outsourcer Buys IBM Plant In Spain, Symantec Offers Free Windows 95 Antivirus Pre-Scan. America Online Has 3.5 Mil Subscribers (ONLINE) VIENNA, VIRGINIA, U.S.A., 1995 SEP 8 (NB) -- America Online Inc. (NASDAQ:AMER) (AOL) said it now has more than 3.5 million members logging into its services. With that milestone, AOL claims to be the "largest and most popular online service in the world." News Corp./MCI Online Covers UN Women's Conference (ONLINE) NEW YORK CITY, NEW YORK, U.S.A., 1995 SEP 8 (NB) -- The United Nations Fourth Annual World Conference on Women is in the spotlight of news organizations around the world. Now it is also in cyberspace, with the help of News Corp./MCI Online Ventures coverage. Think Tank - Nation's R&D Leadership In Jeopardy (TRENDS) WASHINGTON, D.C., U.S.A., 1995 SEP 8 (NB) -- Cutting federal spending for research and development would be a "catastrophic blunder," says the Institute for the Future (IFTF), a think tank based in Menlo Park, Calif., which has completed a new comparative study on industrial R&D. Fujitsu's 4GB Magneto-Optical Disks (TRENDS) TOKYO, JAPAN, 1995 SEP 8 (NB) -- Fujitsu Laboratories Ltd. has announced the development of magneto optical (MO) disks capable of holding ten times as much information as current MO disks while maintaining compatibility with existing MO drives. The new technology is seen as a major advance in MO technology. Will Residential Broadband Ever Happen? - Study (TRENDS) NEW YORK CITY, NEW YORK, U.S.A., 1995 SEP 7 (NB) -- The residential broadband market is taking its time in getting off the ground, a new study released by Northern Business Information (NBI) said. The report looks at the market for network equipment for cable TV and telephone company voice and video networks, along with he market for asynchronous transfer mode (ATM) switches. Seattle Post Newspaper Rejects Compuserve Ad (GENERAL) COLUMBUS, OHIO, U.S.A., 1995 SEP 7 (NB) -- Yesterday, Compuserve ran a one-time advertisement for its online service in US newspapers, including The Wall Street Journal, New York Times, Washington Post, USA Toady, and several local newspapers. However, plans for the add to run in one local newspaper, the Seattle Post Intelligencer, were curtailed when the Seattle paper refused to run the ad which referred to Microsoft Network as "still under construction." Free Newsbytes CD-ROM To New E-Mail Subscribers (GENERAL) MINNEAPOLIS, MINNESOTA, U.S.A., 1995 SEP 6 (NB) -- Newsbytes Pacifica is now offering the Newsbytes 1995 Update CD-ROM, a $29.95 value, free to all new subscribers of the new Newsbytes E-Mail Subscription Service until September 30, 1995. Bay Networks Buys Xylogics For $330 Million (BUSINESS) BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS, U.S.A., 1995 SEP 6 (NB) -- Bay Networks' planned $330 million acquisition of Xylogics, announced today, will add remote access to a merged entity that already encompasses switching and hubbing from the former SynOptics, routing from the former Wellfleet, and LAN (local area network) connectivity from the recently purchased Centillion, said Bay Networks' top two officials, speaking in tandem today at the Computer Museum in Boston. Industry Slams Govt's Encryption Export Plan (GOVT) WASHINGTON, D.C., U.S.A., 1995 SEP 6 (NB) -- The Clinton administration's new proposal on export controls on encryption in software got a tongue lashing from the software industry today. The administration's announcement of a so-called liberalization "suggests that the government is pursuing a 'son of Clipper' strategy that could lead to the mandatory use of government designed key escrow encryption," said Robert Holleyman, president of the Business Software Alliance. Pac Bell's $16Bil Cable TV Plan For California (BROADCAST) SAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1995 SEP 5 (NB) --Pacific Bell is building an communications network that will provide state-of-the-art voice and data, with full cable television. Pacific Bell says it will bring a fiber/coaxial cable hybrid to one million homes by the end of 1996. Windows 95 Support Lines Jammed (WINDOWS) REDMOND, WASHINGTON, U.S.A., 1995 SEP 5 (NB) -- Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ: MSFT) said the high volume of callers seeking technical support for the company's new operating system, Windows 95, has led to long waits and busy signals for many callers. Nielsen & I/Pro Join In Web-Traffic Measurement (ONLINE) NEW YORK, NEW YORK, U.S.A., 1995 SEP 5 (NB) -- Nielsen Media Research and Internet Profiles Corp. (I/Pro) have announced a deal whereby Nielsen will put its name on I/Pro's measurement and evaluation services for the Internet's World Wide Web and take a small stake in the San Francisco, California-based company. Motorola Intros PowerPC For Data Comms/Networking (CHIPS) AUSTIN, TEXAS, U.S.A., 1995 SEP 5 (NB) -- Motorola Inc.'s (NYSE:MOT) Microprocessor and Memory Technologies Group has introduced its first PowerPC chip specifically designed for the internetworking and data communications markets. MA-Based Outsourcer Buys IBM Plant In Spain (IBM) CONCORD, MASSACHUSETTS, U.S.A., 1995 SEP 5 (NB) -- Manufacturers' Services Ltd., a Concord, Massachusetts-based start-up founded by former top officials of Sun Microsystems, has purchased IBM's manufacturing facility in Valencia, Spain, with backing from York City venture capitalists. The firm has also agreed to assume all IBM manufacturing and business relationships for the site in Spain. Symantec Offers Free Windows 95 Antivirus Pre-Scan (WINDOWS) CUPERTINO, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1995 SEP 5 (NB) -- In response to a report from Microsoft, Symantec is offering a free DOS antivirus scan utility on its bulletin board system (BBS), Compuserve, America Online, and Microsoft Network. Microsoft has found that its Windows 95 "Install Disk #2" can be corrupted during installation on machines infected with a boot sector virus. (Ian Stokell/19950908) (SUMMARY)(GENERAL)(MSP)(00037) Newsbytes Daily Summary 09/08/95 MINNEAPOLIS, MINNESOTA, U.S.A., 1995 SEP 8 (NB) -- These are capsules of all today's news stories: ======================================================================== ------------| N E W S B Y T E S D A I L Y S U M M A R Y |---------- ------------| Friday, September 8, 1995 |---------- ======================================================================== (c) Newsbytes News Network (Tm) Editor in Chief: Wendy Woods ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Newsbytes News Network's 1995 Update CD-ROM for Mac, DOS, and Windows is now available for $29.95 (includes s&h). Contains 1983-1995 news stories, more than 64,000 keyword searchable stories and 475 digitized images. For more information or to order, fax to 612-430-0441 or e-mail to 'administrator@newsbytes.com' -- MC, Visa, Amex accepted. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ CATEGORY HEADLINES (*** indicates today's top stories) STORY # ======================================================================== APPLE Apple Adds 500 Jobs At Colorado Plant...................... 01 APPLE Apple Japan Holds MediaKids Summer Camp.................... 03 BROADCAST Singapore To Launch Satellite.............................. 06 BROADCAST CFRA Ottawa World's First Full-Time Cybercaster............ 19 BROADCAST Interactive Group Picks Technology For Multi-Player Gaming. 35 BUSINESS Modatech Finds Money Through Private Placement............. 07 BUSINESS Computer Learning Centers Posts Solid 2Q................... 12 BUSINESS Random Access Shareholders To Vote of Buyout............... 16 BUSINESS Hong Kong - 73% Jump In IPC Turnover....................... 17 BUSINESS HP India Becomes 100% Subsidiary........................... 25 BUSINESS General Magic Reorganizes.................................. 34 CHIPS ****Foreign Access To Japan's Chip Market Slows........... 33 GENERAL Japan Newsbriefs........................................... 02 GENERAL Personnel Roundup.......................................... 11 GENERAL China - Technology Newsbriefs.............................. 24 GENERAL US Firms Donate Technology To Women's Conference........... 28 GENERAL "Orbix+Isis" Brings Fault Tolerance To Object Apps......... 30 GENERAL Newsbytes Week In Review................................... 36 GOVT South Australia/IBM In Electronic Commerce Venture......... 04 HEALTH China - Mystery Ailment Diagnosed Via Internet............. 10 IBM IBM Assembling PCs In Singapore............................ 26 ONLINE UK's First Basketball Web Site............................. 14 ONLINE Context Moves World Wide Pages............................. 15 ONLINE Singapore Awards 3rd Internet License...................... 20 ONLINE Review - "Creating Cool Web Pages With HTML................ 22 ONLINE Microsoft Network's On Australia Launched.................. 27 ONLINE ****News Corp./MCI Online Covers UN Women's Conference.... 29 ONLINE ****America Online Has 3.5 Mil Subscribers................ 32 SUPERCOMP DOE Buys Massively Parallel Supercomputer From Intel....... 08 TELECOM Ericsson Secures Major Spanish Order....................... 13 TELECOM Singapore - Philips To Open Radio R&D Facility............. 18 TELECOM UK - Mercury One-2-One In Major Revamp Of Tariffs.......... 21 TELECOM China - More Phone Lines For Beijing....................... 23 TELECOM 3Com's 128Kbps ISDN Access, WAN Plans...................... 31 TRENDS ****Fujitsu's 4GB Magneto-Optical Disks................... 05 TRENDS ****Think Tank - Nation's R&D Leadership In Jeopardy...... 09 ======================================================================== These are the headlines and first paragraphs of each story, in order: 1 -> Apple Adds 500 Jobs At Colorado Plant -- While other electronics firms have been laying off sporadically in Colorado, officials at Apple Computer's (NASDAQ: AAPL) manufacturing plant at the foot of Pikes Peak hung out the "Help Wanted" sign this week, saying they want to hire about 500 employees by the beginning of the week. 2 -> Japan Newsbriefs -- In this roundup of news from Japan, DDI chairman reiterates NTT break-up call, Japan Telecom to cut leased line rates, Sony reaches CCD milestone, KDD revises profit figure, Japan to review US satellite reliance, Sony announces new televisions. 3 -> Apple Japan Holds MediaKids Summer Camp -- Apple Japan's Media Kids project, soon to celebrate its first birthday, has held a three-day summer camp for some of the children involved in the MediaKids pan-Japanese multimedia communications network. 4 -> South Australia/IBM In Electronic Commerce Venture -- South Australian (SA) state Premier Dean Brown yesterday chose New York City to launch a sweeping round of technology purchasing decisions and a multi-million dollar deal with the IBM and Lend Lease joint venture ISSC Australia. The agreement covers establishment of an Electronic Services Business (ESB) to support electronic marketing and sales of products from SA companies. 5 -> ****Fujitsu's 4GB Magneto-Optical Disks -- Fujitsu Laboratories Ltd. has announced the development of magneto optical (MO) disks capable of holding ten times as much information as current MO disks while maintaining compatibility with existing MO drives. The new technology is seen as a major advance in MO technology. 6 -> Singapore To Launch Satellite -- Singapore, fast gaining a reputation as the most wired Asian country, has signed a deal with Britain's Surrey University that will result in the launch of the country's own satellite, possibly by 1997. 7 -> Modatech Finds Money Through Private Placement -- Software maker Modatech Systems Inc. (TSE:MOD;NASDAQ:MODAF) has found relief for its cash-flow problems in a private stock placement with an investment firm in the United States. 8 -> DOE Buys Massively Parallel Supercomputer From Intel -- The Energy Department has awarded Intel a $45 million contract for the world's most powerful supercomputer, to be used to simulate nuclear weapons tests. 9 -> ****Think Tank - Nation's R&D Leadership In Jeopardy -- Cutting federal spending for research and development would be a "catastrophic blunder," says the Institute for the Future (IFTF), a think tank based in Menlo Park, Calif., which has completed a new comparative study on industrial R&D. 10 -> China - Mystery Ailment Diagnosed Via Internet -- The rescue effort via the Internet for a 21-year-old female student of Tsinghua University suffering from poisoning by the heavy metal thallium has attracted wide publicity in China. 11 -> Personnel Roundup -- This is a regular feature, summarizing personnel changes not covered elsewhere by Newsbytes: Computer Network Technology Corp., Sulcus Computer Corp., Dell Computer Corp., CommVision Corp., and Diebold Inc. 12 -> Computer Learning Centers Posts Solid 2Q -- Computer Learning Centers (Nasdaq: CLCX) says revenues for the second quarter ended July 31 were $10.7 million, an increased of 14.7 percent over the second quarter of last year. The recent earnings were the first announced for the company since it went public in June. "We are pleased with our second quarter results, which represent CLC's first quarter as a public company," said Reid Bechtle, president and chief executive officer. 13 -> Ericsson Secures Major Spanish Order -- Ericsson Spain, the Spanish subsidiary of the Swedish telecoms company, has received a contract from Airtel for the supply of Digital Cross Connect equipment, which will be implemented in Spain's first private digital cellular network. 14 -> UK's First Basketball Web Site -- Oracle, in conjunction with I-Way, its Internet service provider, has sponsored the Web pages of the Thames Valley Tigers, one of the UK's premier basketball teams. The move means that the Oracle Web site now plays host to the basketball team's Web pages, making them the first basketball team to plug into the Internet. 15 -> Context Moves World Wide Pages -- In a recent story detailing Context, the London-based market research company, and the opening of its services on the World Wide Web, the address given was http://www.context.co.uk . The Web address has now been changed to http://www.context-ecis.co.uk 16 -> Random Access Shareholders To Vote of Buyout -- Random Access Inc. (NASDAQ: RNDM) has called a special meeting of shareholders to vote on the proposed acquisition of the company by ENTEX Information Services Inc., a privately held company based in Rye Brook, New York. 17 -> Hong Kong - 73% Jump In IPC Turnover -- It has been another period of growth for Singapore PC company IPC, with turnover registering a 73% surge to S$833 million for the six months ended June 30, 1995. 18 -> Singapore - Philips To Open Radio R&D Facility -- Electronics giant Philips is to invest S$35 million in Singapore to set up two centers for research and development. The company is investing S$25 million over the next five years in a radio frequency center to develop personal communications transceivers for use in cordless phones and cellular systems. 19 -> CFRA Ottawa World's First Full-Time Cybercaster -- Ottawa radio station CFRA, the region's only news-talk format station, claims it has become the world's first major broadcaster to offer its programming continuously, in real time, to a global audience via the Internet. 20 -> Singapore Awards 3rd Internet License -- Cyberway, a consortium comprising SPH Multimedia and ST Telecommunications, this week emerged the surprise winner of the third licence to provide public Internet access service in Singapore. 21 -> UK - Mercury One-2-One In Major Revamp Of Tariffs -- Mercury One-2-One, one of the two PCN (personal communications network) digital phone nets in the UK, has caused something of a stir by completely revamping its tariff structure. The restructure tariff introduces per-second billing and divorces the phone purchase from the airtime agreement. 22 -> Review - "Creating Cool Web Pages With HTML -- Anyone who browses the Internet's World Wide Web regularly will know that among the thousands of pages available, some stand out as well-designed and pleasant to look at, while others are plain and unattractive. Dave Taylor sets out to give readers a comprehensive understanding of the code used to write such pages in his new book, "Creating Cool Web Pages With HTML," and so allows them to write more attractive pages. 23 -> China - More Phone Lines For Beijing -- Beijing Telecommunications Administration (BTA) recently signed a contract with Beijing International Switching System Corp (BISC), a Sino-German joint venture, to buy a 400,000-line digital telephone switching system. 24 -> China - Technology Newsbriefs -- In this news roundup from China, Shandong imports large-scale switchboards from Motorola, LG Electronics will transfer Zenith's technology to China, SSA sponsors seminar for business opportunities, 230,000 patent rights granted within past 10 years. 25 -> HP India Becomes 100% Subsidiary -- Blue Star Ltd., long time associate of the US-based Hewlett-Packard Company, and co-promoter of Hewlett-Packard India Ltd., has finally succumbed to its associate's pressure to forsake its 20 percent stake in favor of Hewlett-Packard, thus paving HP's way to form a 100 percent subsidiary in the country. 26 -> IBM Assembling PCs In Singapore -- IBM has suddenly announced that it has started the assembly of personal computers in Singapore. The factory has been manufacturing since late May, not long after IBM started up a hard disk drive manufacturing facility, but Big Blue kept the site under wraps until now. 27 -> Microsoft Network's On Australia Launched -- On Australia, the Microsoft Network in Australia, is up and running, but not without detractors. Some journalists have pointed out the lack of real Australian content and some beta testers think they could have been given more thanks, and a better pricing deal. 28 -> US Firms Donate Technology To Women's Conference -- Supporting the United Nations' Fourth World Conference on Women, US firms AT&T and Hewlett-Packard are donating their equipment to Chinese organizations. US-based Sybase donated US$2 million worth software to Chinese education and research institutes. 29 -> ****News Corp./MCI Online Covers UN Women's Conference -- The United Nations Fourth Annual World Conference on Women is in the spotlight of news organizations around the world. Now it is also in cyberspace, with the help of News Corp./MCI Online Ventures coverage. 30 -> "Orbix+Isis" Brings Fault Tolerance To Object Apps -- Isis and Iona's jointly produced "Orbix+Isis" provides the first commercially available way of building fault tolerant, "mission-critical" distributed applications able to combine objects as well as non-object-oriented applications from different operating environments, agreed company officials, analysts, and a systems integrator, in a series of interviews with Newsbytes. 31 -> 3Com's 128Kbps ISDN Access, WAN Plans -- 3Com's new, MPPP (Multilink Point-to-Point Protocol)-enabled digital/analog modem, billed as the first modem to let home users access the Web and online services at 128 kilobits-per-second (Kbps), represents only one prong of a far-reaching company strategy for WANs (wide area networks), reported Reginald Best, VP of 3Com's Access Products Group, in an interview with Newsbytes. 32 -> ****America Online Has 3.5 Mil Subscribers -- America Online Inc. (NASDAQ:AMER) (AOL) said it now has more than 3.5 million members logging into its services. With that milestone, AOL claims to be the "largest and most popular online service in the world." 33 -> ****Foreign Access To Japan's Chip Market Slows -- The Semiconductor Industry Association (SIA) says the steady progress of foreign companies' access to the Japanese chip market has flattened over the first two quarters of 1995. New figures for the second calendar quarter indicate almost no growth over the first quarter for this year. 34 -> General Magic Reorganizes -- General Magic (NASDAQ:GMGC), a developer of software communications products, announced a new internal structure by creating the Magic Cap division and the Telescript division. The company also created a new worldwide field operations division to manage systems integration, sales, support and customer engineering. 35 -> Interactive Group Picks Technology For Multi-Player Gaming -- The National IVDS Network (NIN) today said it will work on developing a wireless communications network to the home for large multi-player games using metered technology from Wave Interactive Network or WIN. NIN is a consortium of Federal Communications Commission licensees developing interactive video and data services for deployment to 80 metropolitan areas. 36 -> Newsbytes Week In Review -- This is a look at the top stories this week, listing with their category code: Fujitsu's 4GB Magneto-Optical Disks, Think Tank - Nation's R&D Leadership In Jeopardy, News Corp./MCI Online Covers UN Women's Conference, America Online Has 3.5 Mil Subscribers, Will Residential Broadband Ever Happen? - Study, Seattle Post Newspaper Rejects Compuserve Ad, Free Newsbytes CD-ROM To New E-Mail Subscribers, Bay Networks Buys Xylogics For $330 Million, Industry Slams Govt's Encryption Export Plan, Pac Bell's $16Bil Cable TV Plan For California, Windows 95 Support Lines Jammed, Nielsen & I/Pro Join In Web-Traffic Measurement, Motorola Intros PowerPC For Data Comms/Networking, MA-Based Outsourcer Buys IBM Plant In Spain, Symantec Offers Free Windows 95 Antivirus Pre-Scan. (Wendy Woods/19950908) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 09/01/95 ONLINE ****Interactive Group Intervenes In Prodigy Libel Case (NEWS)(ONLINE)(WAS)(00001) ****Interactive Group Intervenes In Prodigy Libel Case 09/01/95 SILVER SPRING, MARYLAND, U.S.A., 1995 SEP 1 (NB) -- The Interactive Services Association has submitted a friend-of-the-court brief in a libel suit in New York court filed against the Prodigy commercial online service. The brief asks Judge Stuart Ain to reverse his May ruling that Prodigy is a "publisher" responsible for defamatory messages posted by others on Prodigy bulletin boards. Ain's decision, ISA Executive Director Robert Smith told Newsbytes, "sent shock waves through the online services industry. If not revised, the decision could choke the development of the online services industry and unconstitutionally limit subscribers' rights to use new communications technologies." The case involves a libel suit brought by the investment banking firm of Stratton Oakmont for $200 million. The court ruled that Prodigy was the legal publisher of remarks a member had made on Prodigy's Money Talk bulletin board against Stratton Oakmont. Ain said Prodigy should be treated as a publisher of the material because it has established member guidelines for what is acceptable online and has taken steps to limit obscene and offensive material. ISA argues that it is more like a library or a bookstore than a publisher. In its brief (available online from ISA's World Wide Web site at http://www.isa.net/isa ), ISA argues that it is being penalized for being a good corporate citizen. If Judge Ain's opinion were to hold, argues the trade group for the online service companies, "it would place online providers in an intolerable position. They either would have to abandon the basic subscriber guidelines and control that the court identified in imposing publisher obligations, or to investigate and evaluate the truth and accuracy of every message posted on their electronic bulletin boards prior to posting." "Even assuming that it were technically or economically feasible for online providers to undertake such obligations -- and it is not -- such a requirement would inhibit and clog the free flow of information among subscribers, frustrate the purpose of electronic bulletin boards and violate the First Amendment of the United States Constitution and the New York State Constitution." ISA notes that the House of Representatives, by a 420-4 vote on an amendment to the telecommunications act, said that online providers should not be 'treated as the publisher of speaker" with respect to material originated by third parties. During the debate, Rep. Christopher Cox (R-Calif.), one of the sponsors of the amendment, described Judge Ain's decision as "backward" and said it discourages "people like Prodigy, like Compuserve, like America Online, like the new Microsoft Network, to do everything possible to help control access to obscene or indecent material online." No resolution of the issue is likely before October. Stratton Oakmont has until September 12 to file papers opposing Prodigy's motion to reconsider the Ain ruling, and Prodigy has until October to reply to Stratton Oakmont. (Kennedy Maize/19950831/Press Contact: Robert Smith, 301-495-4955) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 09/01/95 BROADCAST Ericsson To Install Telecom Italia Broadband Network (NEWS)(BROADCAST)(LON)(00002) Ericsson To Install Telecom Italia Broadband Network 09/01/95 ROME, ITALY, 1995 SEP 1 (NB) -- Ericsson, the Swedish comms company, along with Marconi and Trator, has signed a $200 million contract with Telecom Italia. Terms of the contract call for the three companies to install and maintain a broadband network for the Italian telecommunications company. According to Antonio Cassese, a spokesman for Ericsson Telecomunicazioni, Ericsson's income will account for around 70 percent of the revenue stream resulting from the contract. Plans call for the new broadband network to form the foundation for Telecom Italian's new main information network. According to Ericsson, clients of Telecom Italia will be soon able to take advantage of technically advanced multimedia services of all kinds. Cassese said that broadband system technology has two main advantages for Telecom Italia customers. "First it forms part of a general plan of improvement and modernization of the central axis network in Italy, while second, Telecom Italia will have the ability to provide broadband services such as cable TV," he explained. According to Cassese, in the future, Telecom Italia will able to provide interactive multimedia services on its network. "The intention of Telecom Italia is to provide transport facilities for service providing companies offering various services to the general public. Telecom Italia," he said, adding that, for the moment at least, the company has no intentions to be a service provider in its own right. Plans call for the new Telecom Italian backbone to include fiber optic access technology, so making the network an extremely competitive transport for broadband services. The network will actually be based on a hybrid fiber optic and coaxial network architecture. The Italian subsidiary of Ericsson -- Ericsson Telecomunicazioni -- with assistance from its consortium collaborators, Marconi and Tratos, will be responsible for the complete system integration, network engineering, broadband transmission equipment, network and service management systems, cables and customer premises equipment and construction of the network itself. After the delivery of the network equipment by Ericsson Raynet -- the joint venture between Ericsson and Raychem Corporation --Ericsson will install all the equipment and cables in the cities of Rome, Palermo, Catania, Padoa, Genoa, Bergamo, Brescia, Florence and Venice. Ericsson Telecomunicazioni is one of the major European subsidiaries of Ericsson, with over $1 million sales in 1994 and six thousand employees. The company's headquarters is in Rome. (Sylvia Dennis/19950831/Press Contact: Antonio Cassese, Ericsson Italy +39-6-7258-3722; Roar Kristesen, Ericsson +46-8-719-8271) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 09/01/95 TELECOM First PCS Call Made In US Using Ericsson Tech (NEWS)(TELECOM)(LON)(00003) First PCS Call Made In US Using Ericsson Tech 09/01/95 STOCKHOLM, SWEDEN, 1995 SEP 1 (NB) -- Ericsson reports that its PCS (Personal Communication System) digital mobile technology is taking off, as a direct result of the first call made on its US PCS network. On July 26, Senate Commerce Committee Chairman Larry Pressler made the first US PCS call, talking to his mother using an Ericsson PCH 337 hand portable digital mobile, the world's smallest phone, over the APC network. Since then, Ericsson has signed a major contract with APC (American Personal Communications), terms of which call for PCS networks to go live in Washington, DC, Maryland, and Virginia later this year. The contract has been valued at $17 million. PCS operates at 1,900 megahertz (MHz), around twice the frequency of analog phones. Because of the high frequencies, base stations need to be sited closer together, but this allows lower power phones and more phones per square mile to be used. Like its GSM variant, PCS allows efficient use of the digital spectrum, as well as the ability to roam between networks and even countries. Speaking about Senator Pressler's call made in the US last month, Anders Torstensson, vice president and general manager with Ericsson's portable phone division, said that the company is very proud that the first PCS call made in the US was made on Ericsson kit using an Ericsson-supplied network. "We were able to prove that our Ericsson phone and PCS technologies worked well together. Based on our fantastic success in Europe, there was never any doubt," he enthused. The APC system will be the first PCS platform in the US. According to Wayne Schelle, chairman of APC, the benefits of PCS over analog are clear: "PCS calls are clear and secure, as well as being completely portable. Users don't need to make sure they're outside or by a window to make and receive calls -- PCS fulfills the promise of communications anywhere and anytime," he said. (Sylvia Dennis/19950831/Press Contact: Per Bengtsson, Ericsson Business Area Radio Communications +46-8-757-2159; Anne Schelle, APC 301-214-9218) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 95 09/01/95 WINDOWS Microsoft Money For Windows (NEWS)(WINDOWS)(DEN)(00004) Microsoft Money For Windows 95 09/01/95 REDMOND, WASHINGTON, U.S.A., 1995 SEP 1 (NB) -- Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ: MSFT) has introduced what it calls "a dramatically new version" of its personal finance software, Microsoft Money, for the Windows 95 operating system and handed out free copies of the program in the New York financial district to promote the product. Microsoft Money is a direct competitor to Intuit Corp.' s Quicken software. Microsoft had sought to acquire Quicken through a merger with Intuit but the deal died when the government intervened, concerned about possible anti-trust violations. However Microsoft had continued to develop Money and is now ready to launch the product. Analysts estimate Quicken users presently outnumber Money users eight-to-one. Programs like Money and Quicken help users balance their checkbooks, track bank accounts, manage finances, keep a budget, pay bills electronically and perform chores like checking bank account balances. Numerous US banks nationwide offer electronic banking services that use software like Quicken and Money. The company said Money for Windows 95 is scheduled to be available in retail stores by November 1, 1995 at a suggested retail price of $34.95, but you can download it for free from Microsoft's home page on the Internet or from the newly launched Microsoft Network online service. You can also get the product disks and a user's guide direct from Microsoft now for $9.95. Users can check their bank account, investment portfolio or loan account information all in a single account register. A payment calendar organizes bill paying into three steps where users can check boxes to select which bills to pay, and the software automatically displays the effect on the user's bank balance if the checked bills are paid. A Report and Chart Gallery produces "what do I owe" and "where the money goes" charts, and pointing and clicking on a payee or a category provides a summary of details including addresses, phone numbers, transaction history and a graphical overview. A Microsoft spokesperson told Newsbytes there will be a $10 rebate coupon in the Money for Windows 95 box that can be redeemed by existing users of Money or competitive products such as Quicken, or by Microsoft Works or Microsoft Excel users. Investment firm Smith Barney announced earlier this month it will offer its clients online access using Microsoft Money for Windows 95. (Jim Mallory/19950831/Press contact: Donna O'Neill, Waggener Edstrom for Microsoft, tel 206-637-9097/MONEY950901/PHOTO) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 09/01/95 BROADCAST ****US West Launches Multimedia Services Trial (NEWS)(BROADCAST)(DEN)(00005) ****US West Launches Multimedia Services Trial 09/01/95 OMAHA, NEBRASKA, U.S.A., 1995 SEP 1 (NB) -- US West effectively killed the recent rumor it was pulling out of the interactive TV test program it has poured millions of dollars into by announcing today it is kicking off what the company described as the nation's largest market trial of multimedia services delivered to the home. US West Communications said nearly 50,000 households in the Omaha area will be offered the trial service, which is being marketed under the name US West Telechoice. The service lets customerssubscribe to a competing set of television programming services delivered over a video dialtone (VDT) network by one of the seven regional Bell Operating Companies. US West recently completed what it described as a successful technical trial of its VDT network in the Omaha area. Sol Trujillo, president and chief executive officer of US West Communications, said the market trial being announced today is a significant step toward one day being able to provide the gateway an array of information, communications and entertainment services. "Our vision is that interactive networks will forever change the way people complete transactions, communicate and seek information." US West spokesperson Bob Kelley told Newsbytes households that subscribe to the market trial being launched today will be able to get analog-based basic and premium cable television programming that includes the most popular cable channels as well as services not previously available in the Omaha area. Those include TV Food Network, the Sega Channel, the History Channel, the Golf Channel, Home and Garden Television, Turner Classic Movies and Nostalgia Television. Also available will be six pay-per-view movies and special event channel as well as digital Music Express, a 40-channel, commercial-free digital music service. The company said all the TeleChoice video channels can be delivered directly to cable-ready television sets and VCRs without installing an additional cable box, since the signals are scrambled before they reach the home rather than in the cable box. Later in the market trial US West will add additional interactive services to the TeleChoice product line. US West said those services could include movies on demand, electronic "navigator" screens, home shopping, games, and eventually applications such as distance learning and tele-medicine. A trial group of "friendly users" is currently testing that service, Kelley said. IN April 1994 US West began construction of a hybrid fiber-to-the-curb/coaxial "passband" network to deliver analog and digital video signals on fiber optic cables to a 400-home node, then via coaxial cable into the individual homes. Voice and data travels over fiber to an eight-home optical interface and then into individual homes via copper wires. US West said because much of the network is fiber-based subscribers in the test market will enjoy improved television and telephone reception. Kelley told Newsbytes the cost to build the network is approximately $1,000 per home past, or home within the service area. Cost to the subscriber varies with the services selected. For $19.95 subscribers get the basic package which includes local network stations, PBS, and independent TV stations; the Home Shopping Network; C-SPAN and C-SPAN2 (US Congressional coverage); the Knowledge Channel, which includes Hispanic programming; and the TeleChoice Theater movie and event guide and previews. There is a $9.95 installation charge that covers up to three cable-ready TVS or VCRs in the same home during the same installation visit. For additional costs that vary with the service selected from $5.95 to $19.95, one can add sports, news, family, variety, movie, entertainment and HBO packs. (Jim Mallory/19950831/Press contact: Dave Banks, US West Communications, 303-896-2721) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 09/01/95 BUSINESS Europe - Securicor 3Net Acquires WISDM (NEWS)(BUSINESS)(LON)(00006) Europe - Securicor 3Net Acquires WISDM 09/01/95 BASINGSTOKE, ENGLAND, 1995 SEP 1 (NB) -- Securicor 3Net, the networking division of Securicor UK set up last October, has announced it has acquired WISDM Limited, the ISDN (Integrated Services Digital Network) company. WISDM, which was founded just three years ago, has grown to become a leading OEM (original equipment manufacturer) supplier of ISDN systems on a pan-European basis, Newsbytes notes. According to Victoria Chambers, a spokeswoman for Securicor 3Net, financial terms of the deal have not been made public, nor have plans on how WISDM's ISDN systems will be integrated with Securicor 3Net. "It's still very early days," she told Newsbytes, adding that, initially at least, WISDM's ISDN hardware will be sold through Securicor 3Net's sales channels. Commenting on the deal, Trevor Sokell, Securicor 3Net's managing director, said that, by adding WISDM's products, technologies and channels to those of the companies, "the combined operation will be able to offer a wide range of integrated connectivity solutions to a wider customer base." "Taken altogether, we now have probably the most comprehensive ISDN portfolio of any vendor, as well as the means to exploit this on a global basis. It's particularly pleasing that all this is owned and managed by a British company," he said. Despite only being set up in October of last year, Securicor 3Net is moving steadily down the acquisitions trail, Newsbytes notes. The company acquired Securicor Telesciences of Morrestown NJ last year, while this year the company acquired control of Network Dynamics of Australia and New Zealand, a developer or multiprotocol router technology. (Steve Gold/19950831/Press Contact: CH Business Development +44-1372- 843718; Fax +44-1372-844149; Reader Contact: Securicor 3Net +44-1256- 843311; Fax +44-1256-840429) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 09/01/95 TELECOM MCI's International Fax Service (NEWS)(TELECOM)(MSP)(00007) MCI's International Fax Service 09/01/95 ATLANTA, GEORGIA, U.S.A., 1995 SEP 1 (NB) -- MCI Inc. (NASDAQ:MCIC) is introducing an international fax service for US businesses that "eliminates the hassle" when it comes to faxing beyond America's borders. In announcing the new service, MCI quoted a study by the FaxLab group which said nearly 50 percent of international faxes do not go through on the first attempt. The FaxLab study attributed the problem to differences in international network transmission protocols and speeds, wide inconsistencies in foreign network quality, and other factors. MCI's new service, called OneFax, overcomes these problems by using a store-and-forward delivery system that lets MCI oversee the delivery of international faxes. The company said this allows business people to have a substantially improved standard of reliability in sending faxes. "Up to now, many businesses have a justified 'fear of faxing' overseas," said Brian Brewer, vice president of marketing for MCI Business Markets. "With MCI OneFax, we've moved international faxing off the slow boat and into the jet set, with a vastly improved rate of successful transmission." With OneFax, users dial a toll-free number to reach the OneFax platform. The platform then forwards the fax to its destination in any one of 230 countries. If the line is busy or the connection is broken, MCI will try to resend the fax. After eight unsuccessful re-tries, a non-delivery notice is sent to the user noting the specific reason why the fax could not be sent. If transmission is successful, a confirmation notice will be sent to the customer within two minutes of completion, MCI officials said. OneFax customers can also fax directly from their PC using networkMCI Business software or other PC-based fax software and modems, as long as they support the entry of additional dialing string and G3 fax protocols. MCI officials said OneFax is an option under all of MCI's premier business calling plans, including MCI Preferred, Vision, and Vnet services. One Fax also carries on the MCI tradition of showing all charges on one bill, along with detailing calls on each invoice. (Bob Woods/19950831/Press Contacts: Ed Bergstraesser, 312-938-4958, or C. David Sutton, 800-644-NEWS, both of MCI. Public Contact: MCI, 800- 937-6000) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 09/01/95 WINDOWS TrueSpeech Player Available Free On Internet (NEWS)(WINDOWS)(LAX)(00008) TrueSpeech Player Available Free On Internet 09/01/95 SANTA CLARA, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1995 SEP 1 (NB) -- DSP Group Inc. (NASDAQ:DSPG) announced a new Windows product, TrueSpeech Player, that is freely available on the Internet. The TrueSpeech Player enables TrueSpeech-encoded speech to be played in real-time over the Internet. Kurt Magdanz, director of business development at DSP, told Newsbytes, "The TrueSpeech Player utilizes the TrueSpeech compression technology bundled in Microsoft's Windows 95 and Windows NT. True Speech is a very high quality algorithm which compresses speech. TrueSpeech Player allows users to decompress TrueSpeech in real time." With the TrueSpeech compression algorithm, speech is communicated in real-time over standard telephone lines to computers capable of communicating at data rates of 14.4kbps (kilobits per second) or above, Newsbytes was told. Because the TrueSpeech Player converts compressed speech data in real-time, World Wide Web site visitors have access to high-quality speech over the Internet in real time, said Magdanz. "The TrueSpeech Player is our first step in enabling high-quality speech communication in real-time over the Internet," said Yuval Cohen, vice president of business development with the DSP Group. "World Wide Web site and content developers can immediately begin developing TrueSpeech Player-compatible content without paying fees." "Content developers who wish to create TrueSpeech Player-compatible speech content should visit our World Wide Web site for detailed instructions on how to use this new product," said Cohen. DSP Group is currently developing an advanced TrueSpeech Server software package which will offer content developers tools, interaction with the TrueSpeech Player to enable advanced features, live broadcasting capability and enhanced server control with diagnostics, said Magdanz. The TrueSpeech Player can be downloaded freely from DSP Group's World Wide Web site, http://www.dspg.com . DSP is headquartered in Santa Clara, California. (Richard Bowers/19950831/Press Contact: Kurt Magdanz, DSP, 408- 986-4300) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 09/01/95 BUSINESS Australia - Techway Charts New Course After AUS$3M Loss (NEWS)(BUSINESS)(SYD)(00009) Australia - Techway Charts New Course After AUS$3M Loss 09/01/95 SYDNEY, AUSTRALIA 1995 SEP 1 (NB) -- It's been a grueling year at Australian PC manufacturer Techway Ltd. With new managing director, David Ballantine, the company yesterday emerged from its Sydney bunker to seek once more the media light. Ex-Sun, ex-NEC, Ballantine presented a slimmer (about 10 percent smaller in headcount), reshaped new Techway which is chasing after the higher-margin service side of the business. Following a AUS$3 million loss in the year to June 30, shares in the listed group are lagging around 40c after peaking at more than AUS$1.15 about a year ago. The new Techway has a central sales organization servicing both its networks business backed by its Tangent division which provides professional services and education, and another division, customer services and support, which looks after maintenance services and facilities management. According to Ballantine and General Manager Kit Craig, the technically skilled sales team now looks at total needs of a corporate or government body rather than merely seeking PC sales. Outsourcing is in demand. "We'll make PCs while prices are still better than the cost of the components," Ballantine says. "But if the day comes when it isn't, we'll help our corporates buy from a vendor. Look upon our Penrith (Sydney) plant as a customization facility." The immediate glittering prize, Ballantine says, is commercial use of the Internet. Coming up is broadband, which will be big, Techway suggests. Techway has signed to distribute a switch from Broadband Technologies of the US, which can move the fiber system closer to customer homes so more bandwidth is available on the coaxial hook-up for TV on demand and interactive services. The need for changes in Techway becomes obvious from the company's report to the Australian Stock Exchange. Techway Ltd lost more than AUS$3 million in the financial year to June 30, the company reported. The report attributes AUS$2.22 million of the losses to operations and AUS$830,000 to abnormal items, including the cost of restructuring and the burden of excess space at its headquarters. MD David Ballantine told the ASX (Australian Stock Exchange), however, that the "sharper market focus for the company" would take it into profit this year. The report indicates the future of PC assembly at Penrith could be shakier than Ballantine expressed in the press briefing. "We have decided to explore a partnership arrangement for the assembly of our computers to avoid carrying high factory overheads and are seeking a partner for this purpose," the MD's report said. "However, the overheads will continue until a partnership is in place." (Computer Daily News/19950831) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 09/01/95 ONLINE On Australia Signs 'Em Up (NEWS)(ONLINE)(SYD)(00010) On Australia Signs 'Em Up 09/01/95 SYDNEY, AUSTRALIA 1995 SEP 1 (NB) -- On Australia, the joint venture set up by Microsoft and Telstra to market the Microsoft Network (MSN) in Australia, says it had signed up 4,860 paying members by last Monday -- Day Five since its simultaneous launch with Windows 95. The company claims to be on target to sign up 100,000 Australian members in its first 12 months, which would be about four times the current size of CompuServe. Despite published reports of only eight local content providers, marketing manager, Tim Pethick, says more than 30 providers have already gone live, with up to 10 more moving out of the network's staging area each day. Australian-made services up and running include Australian news (cobbled together in Seattle by Aussie journalist Tom Liddle); palmistry (AUS$69 a reading); gay business connections; a football forum; an education network; and cars-for-sale ads. Within a month, Pethick predicts there will be more than 70 Australian content providers. Access to the Internet at 28.8kbps will be available in Sydney, Melbourne and Canberra from December, extending to all capitals by April. "We have the potential to become the largest Internet access provider in Australia," says Pethick, eyeing the mid-term target of 500,000 users within three years. (Computer Daily News/19950831) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 09/01/95 TELECOM US West Offers Do-It-Yourself Cell Phone Activation (NEWS)(TELECOM)(DEN)(00011) US West Offers Do-It-Yourself Cell Phone Activation 09/01/95 DENVER, COLORADO, U.S.A., 1995 SEP 1 (NB) -- Lets see, a loaf of break, a quart of milk, a head of lettuce and a cellular phone. That's right, a cellular phone could be on your grocery store shopping list thanks to a new program from US West New Vector called "TalkAlong" that puts cellular phones on the shelves of grocery stores and other retail outlets. #IMAGE 1 20 TWPCX \images\95090111.PCX Click here for photo The US West program puts Nokia cellular phones and starter kits on the shelves of Albertson's grocery stores as well as PayLess Drug Stores, Gart Sports, Target stores and other retailers. Teresa Elder, US West Cellular area general manager for Colorado and Wyoming, said TalkAlong eliminates multiple price plans, annual service contracts and confusing equipment choices for cellular users. All the customer does is purchase a $29.95 TalkAlong kit that includes a Nokia phone, a battery with 95 minutes of talk time, a battery charger, a how-to guide and information about accessories that can be purchased separately. At the time of purchase the customer fills out a basic agreement that asks for their name, signature and a credit card number. To activate TalkAlong the user calls an 800 number listed in the kit. The call can be made anytime within the first 30 days following purchase. US West offers several coverage options. You can elect the $19.95 metro coverage which includes 15 minutes of airtime each month and charges $0.38 per minute after the first 15 minutes. Metro coverage provides coverage in major urban areas. There is also a $24.95 Wanderer option that US West said provides service throughout the US and Canada and includes 15 minutes of airtime. Additional air minutes are charged at the $0.38 per minute rate. Standard roaming rates apply when a customer uses their TalkAlong phone outside their home service area. If you cancel your TalkAlong service within the first year you have to return the phone to US West. If you cancel service after a year, you get to keep the phone at no additional cost. US West Cellular spokesperson Wendy Carver-Herbert told Newsbytes the TalkAlong program was test-marketed in the state of Washington in November 1994. Oregon was added in May 1995 and Colorado, Utah, Arizona and Utah program has just kicked off, with TalkAlong kits already on store shelves. Carver-Herbert said other regions of US West's service area are being evaluated for possible addition to the TalkAlong program. US West New Vector provides cellular service in 12 Midwestern, Western and Southwestern states under the US West Cellular brand name. (Jim Mallory/19950831/Press contact: Wendy Carver-Herbert, US WEst Cellular, 303-782-1820/TLKALONG950901/PHOTO) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 95 09/01/95 WINDOWS Micrografx Graphics Suite For Windows (NEWS)(WINDOWS)(DEN)(00012) Micrografx Graphics Suite For Windows 95 09/01/95 RICHARDSON, TEXAS, U.S.A., 1995 SEP 1 (NB) -- Micrografx Inc. (NASDAQ: MGXI) said its ABC Graphics Suite for Windows 95, a collection of integrated diagramming, flowcharting, clip-art management, painting, image editing, and drawing tools with an interface designed for Microsoft Office for Windows 95, will be on retail shelves by late September. The ABC Graphics Suite for Windows 95 and Microsoft Office for Windows 95 were two of the numerous software packages written for Microsoft's new operating system and graphical user interface, Windows 95, that was rolled out last week in one of the biggest and and most costly product introduction events of the century. Office for Windows 95 is a 32-bit version of the company's multi-application software suite. The standard edition of Office includes spreadsheet program Microsoft Excel 95, word processor Word 95, the PowerPoint presentation graphics program for Windows 95 and Schedule+ 95. The professional edition of Office will include all of the applications in the standard version plus the Microsoft Access 95 database, once that software ships. In the meantime buyers will get a voucher that can be exchanged for Access when it becomes available. Elements of the ABC Graphics Suite include Micrografx Designer 6.0, ABC Flowcharter 6.0, Picture Publisher 6.0, and ABC Media Manager 6.0. Media Manager is a newly developed tool that lets the user drag and drop clipart, photos and diagramming symbols into and out of the ABC Graphics Suite or any other Windows 95 application. Media Manager can manage more than 50 file formats, including TIFF, BMP, DXF and CorelDraw. The company said all components are written to the full Win32 API (applications programming interface) and improve performance by a factor of two to three times in operations like file open, graphic importation and creation, and filter application. Micrografx said the Win32 API also provides a significant improvement in other operations, including object linking and embedding (OLE) functions like drag-and-drop and in-place editing. The graphics suite includes more than 20,000 pieces of clip-art, over 7,500 photos, more than 2,000 diagramming symbols and 250 fonts. Ingo Hell, ABC Graphics product manager, told Newsbytes the software will have a suggested retail price of $300 for first time buyers. Current users of ABC Graphics Suite, users of competitive products like CorelDraw, Visio, Photoshop and other similar programs as well as Microsoft Office users can upgrade for $150. Micrografx operates a home page on the Internet at the URL http://www.micrografx.com where you can read more about the company's products. (Jim Mallory/19950831/Press contact: Grant Wickes, Micrografx, 214-994-6287; Public contact: Micrografx, tel 800-676-3110 or 214-234-1769/ABCGRAPH950901/PHOTO) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 09/01/95 PC Sampler CD-ROM Hits Indian Newsstands (NEWS)(PC)(DEL)(00013) Sampler CD-ROM Hits Indian Newsstands 09/01/95 NEW DELHI, INDIA, 1995 SEP 1 (NB) -- A software sampler CD-ROM was released with PC Quest, the Indian personal computing magazine, this month. 40,000 copies of the magazine with the disk have been dispatched to subscribers and newsstands across India. Among 500 MB of software on the PC Quest CD-ROM is the complete OS/2 Warp and the complete PC DOS 7.0. The disk contains the complete commercial packages, not limited or restricted in any way. IBM has offered the packages on a three-month trial license to Indian users, the first time this has been done by any company in the Indian subcontinent. Also on the disk is a single-user trial version of Lotus Notes, and an Indian CAD package, Virtual n'gineer for Windows. There are also over 20 demos from IBM, Microsoft and others, and over 200 MB of DOS, Windows and OS/2 shareware. In addition, there's a PC Quest database of 1,700 products, with a graphical front-end. The CD-ROM and its browsers and front-end software were designed by PCQ Labs using Borland Delphi for Windows. The CD-ROM was then replicated in Singapore, because, according to the PC Quest editor, it worked out "significantly cheaper" than replication in India. This was the first such CD-ROM in Asia, and the second in the AustraliAsia/Asia Pacific region (after a recent disk with an Australian magazine), according to PC Quest. The magazine virtually sold out on the newsstands on the first day, with copies often selling at an (illegal) markup of 300% or more. The cover price for the 180-page monthly is a little under US$1. The CD-ROM is free. PC Quest (est 1987, monthly) manages PCQ Labs, which performs its product reviews, and PCQ Online, a BBS with 3,400 members. It has a print run of 40,000 (ABC circulation: 34,000 for June) and claims to be the only Indian technology or trade publication whose circulation is ABC-audited. It is a division of Cyber Media which also publishes trade magazine Dataquest (est 1982), the telecom magazine Voice & Data (1994), and operates a market research unit called International Data Corp, India (1987). The CD-ROM accompanies PC Quest's 100th issue. (R Giridhar/19950901/Press & Reader Contact: PC Quest, Cyber Media email: news.cmil@axcess.net.in or +91-11-6413938, Fax 91-11-6469018) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 95 09/01/95 WINDOWS McAfee VirusScan For Windows (NEWS)(WINDOWS)(LON)(00014) McAfee VirusScan For Windows 95 09/01/95 SANTA CLARA, CA, U.S.A., 1995 SEP 1 (NB) -- McAfee Software has announced VirusScan for Windows 95, a native 32-bit anti-virus package for Windows 95. According to Scott Gordon, the company's anti-virus product manager, the package will ship globally in the next few days, through McAfee outlets, as well as through Saber Software, the company it acquired in May of this year. According to McAfee, VirusScan for Windows 95 has been approved by Microsoft to carry the Windows 95 logo, and is also certified by the National Computer Security Association. Gordon claims that the excitement and anticipated demand for Windows 95 clearly makes the new operating system a prime target for virus writers. "Windows 95 is specially susceptible to viruses because it does not include bundled anti-virus capabilities," he explained. According to Gordon, VirusScan's new 32-bit architecture offers superior virus detection, while its use of the Windows 95 Explorer interface "makes it appear an extension of the operating system and encourages regular use -- a key for virus protection." Fiona Dineen, a spokeswoman for the UK operation of McAfee, told Newsbytes that single user pricing of VirusScan for Windows 95 has yet to be confirmed. 10-user site licence pricing has been set at UKP 550, while a 100-user site licence costs UKP 2,856. As with the majority of other McAfee packages, the package comes with a one-year support and update package which entitles the user to regular updates to the anti-virus code, to take account of new viruses a they appear. As a bonus, site licences for 100-plus users get a two- year support and update package included free of charge. "Symantec has its own anti-virus package available for Windows 95, but the McAfee package is the only one that supports the Explorer interface of the operating system," she said, adding that the package is available through various online sources. Evaluation versions of VirusScan for Windows 95 are available at McAfee's Web site at http://www.mcafee.com , as well as via CompuServe (GO MCAFEE), America Online (MCAFEE), Microsoft Network (GO MCAFEE) and McAfee's BBS on 408-988-4004. According to the company, VirusScan includes full support for Windows 95 conventions, such as protected 32-bit operation, context menus, property pages, browsers and long file names. The package gives users the choice of performing virus scans at system startup, on demand, or on access. To allow for successful migration from Windows 3.1 to Windows 95, VirusScan for Windows 95 will include protection for Windows 3.1, although this is only for a limited time. The company claims that the package will intelligently install the correct components for both Windows 3.1 systems, as well as Windows 95 systems. This will, the company claims, not only protect current Windows 95 users, but also eases the transition and support costs for corporates and individual clients who will eventually migrate to Windows 95. (Steve Gold/19950830/Press Contact: MCC +44-1420-542598; Reader Contact - McAfee Europe +44-1344-304730; US 408-988-3832; Fax 408-988- 4004) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 09/01/95 NETWORK Novell's European NetWare Promotion (NEWS)(NETWORK)(LON)(00015) Novell's European NetWare Promotion 09/01/95 BRACKNELL, BERKSHIRE, ENGLAND, 1995 SEP 1 (NB) -- Novell has announced a major European promotional campaign aimed at persuading more network users to use NetWare additional software. European users buying a copy of NetWare 4.1 or 3.12 will receive a number of on-pack offers, including a "buy one, get one free" deal for Novell's LAN Workplace 5 for DOS and Windows, as well as a free trial copy of NetWare Connect 2. The offers will be available in any European buyer of NetWare 4.1 or 3.12 until the end of the year. The deal runs in parallel with a 20 percent discount offer on all upgrades to NetWare 4.1 and GroupWise 4.1 until the end of October. Announcing the promo, Ian Fraser, Novell's vice president for Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA), said that more than a million small businesses and department workgroups across Europe are already using NetWare to help run their businesses. "This is an opportune time for users currently without a network to join a very successful club -- a network is just as business beneficial for small numbers of users as it is for large numbers," he said. NetWare currently has around 60 percent of the West European networking market. Traditionally, the network operating system has been seen as suitable for users of medium to large networks, although Novell's foray into Personal NetWare these last few years has meant that a number of smaller networks have been plugged into NetWare. This has meant that NetWare has been perceived as a large network system, rather than suitable for a small LAN (local area network). According to Fraser, however, NetWare is for all sizes of networks. "NetWare offers significant value to organizations of all sizes. It has simple install and simple login, making it easy to set up a directory structure and for users to attach to a network directly," he explained. (Sylvia Dennis/19950830/Press Contact: Andrew Smith, A Plus Group +44- 1753-790700; Internet Email: asmith@aplus.co.uk; Reader Contact: Novell +44-1344-724000; Fax +44-1344-724001) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 09/01/95 BUSINESS Control Data Sells 5 Subsidiaries (NEWS)(BUSINESS)(MSP)(00016) Control Data Sells 5 Subsidiaries 09/01/95 ARDEN HILLS, MINNESOTA, U.S.A., 1995 SEP 1 (NB) -- Control Data (NASDAQ:CDAT) officials have confirmed to Newsbytes that the sale of five international subsidiaries to AmeriData Technologies Inc. has been completed. AmeriData has purchased Control Data's product integration and maintenance operations in Austria, Canada, Mexico, Norway, and the United Kingdom. Pat Kelly, Control Data spokesperson, told Newsbytes the terms of the deal aren't being disclosed because today's sale is part of an "ongoing transaction" between the two companies, and that today's announcement is a significant part of that transaction. He did say the final numbers will be released when the total transaction is completed, which should be sometime in the fourth quarter of this year. Control Data and AmeriData announced their intent last April to complete a sale of many of Control Data's international subsidiaries. About 700 Control Data employees will transfer to AmeriData as a part of today's deal. The two companies are also forming a cooperative marketing relationship. AmeriData provides product distribution, systems integration, networking, rental, and consulting services. Control Data is now focusing on electronic commerce, product data management, and computer-aided design systems. The ongoing sale of companies is a part of the focusing process, Kelly told Newsbytes. "We'll continue to operate around the world, even in countries where our operations have been sold," Kelly added. (Bob Woods/19950901/Press Contact: Pat Kelly, Control Data Systems, 612-482-4444, Internet e-mail Patrick.J.Kelly@cdc.com) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 09/01/95 TRENDS ****Mexican President Live On Desktop Video Feed (NEWS)(TRENDS)(TOR)(00017) ****Mexican President Live On Desktop Video Feed 09/01/95 NEW YORK, NEW YORK, U.S.A., 1995 SEP 1 (NB) -- Mexican President Ernesto Zedillo was scheduled to appear live not only on television but on personal computer screens this afternoon when he gave his country's first State of the Nation address. NBC Desktop Video relayed the speech to the desktops of subscribers to its NBC Professional service. At Newsbytes' deadline, Zedillo was due to speak to the Mexican Congress at 11 a.m. local time (1:00 p.m. Eastern time). NBC Professional was to feed the speech in Spanish, with simultaneous English translation, to subscribers' desktop PCS as it was given. Susan Becker, vice-president of sales at NBC Desktop Video, told Newsbytes the NBC Professional service uses T1 communications lines to feed video signals to subscribers' premises where they can be displayed on ordinary personal computer screens. The service provides a continuous, 24-hour-a-day news feed covering world events, she said. Its content includes key corporate and government news conferences and other events judged likely to affect financial markets. The bulk of subscribers are in the financial sector, company spokeswoman Deborah Thomas told Newsbytes. NBC launched the service in July, 1994, Thomas said. A current number of subscribers was not available at Newsbytes' deadline. NBC Desktop Video also operates the NBC Private Financial Network, which covers long-form financial presentations including more than 60 interviews with chief executives and corporate meetings each week and exclusive coverage of New York Society of Security Analysts presentations. The group also offers NBC Desktop Video on Demand, a multimedia tool for storing and retrieving the content of the two information services as well as content provided by the clients themselves. (Grant Buckler/19950901/Press Contact: Deborah Thomas, NBC Desktop Video, 212-664-3220) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 09/01/95 ONLINE Canadian National Internet Show Set For March (NEWS)(ONLINE)(TOR)(00018) Canadian National Internet Show Set For March 09/01/95 TORONTO, ONTARIO, CANADA, 1995 SEP 1 (NB) -- Organizers are talking big about the first Canadian National Internet Show, due to take place in Toronto March 28 to 31, 1996. Barry Clavir, show producer, told Newsbytes he expects the show to attract "tens of thousands of people." Clavir, whose trade-show experience includes organizing the three-year old CIO Summit in Toronto, said he expects the new Internet show to take up most of the available exhibit space at the Metropolitan Toronto Convention Centre. That would make it one of the biggest computer-related shows in Canada, though not as big as the summer COMDEX/Canada, which fills the Convention Centre and overflows into the adjacent SkyDome sports stadium. The four-day show is to include a series of seminars that organizers said will demystify and explore the Internet. Clavir hopes to line up some "very well known international people" as speakers, but no names are available so far. There will be a series of basic Internet workshops and activities, as well as special business seminars and workshops. Since the show will take place partly on a weekend, there will be special family passes for the weekend days. Clavir's marketing consultancy, Motivational Strategies, has set up Canadian National Internet Show Inc., to run the event. The company has offices in the Toronto area and a sales office in California, Clavir said. Sponsors of the show include Bell Canada, Digital Equipment of Canada Ltd., the Globe Information Services electronic publishing subsidiary of the Toronto newspaper The Globe and Mail, IBM, the federal Industry Canada department's SchoolNet project, the Information Technology Association of Canada (ITAC), the Royal Bank of Canada, and the local information-industry group Smart Toronto. (Grant Buckler/19950901/Press Contact: Ivana Raviele, Canadian National Internet Show, 905-602-8848; Christine Howard, Canadian National Internet Show, 310-301-0175; Janice Murray, Continental Communications for Canadian National Internet Show, 416-964-6444, fax 416-964-6611) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 09/01/95 ONLINE Belgium Plugs Into The Online World (NEWS)(ONLINE)(LON)(00019) Belgium Plugs Into The Online World 09/01/95 BRUSSELS, BELGIUM, 1995 SEP 1 (NB) -- Financieel Tijd (FT), the Belgian publishing house, has announced plans to launch an Internet operation spanning Belgium. As part of the development phase, the company has signed an agreement with Belgacom, the state telecoms company, for access to its national datacomms network. Although strictly at the drawing board stage, FT plans to offer a national online service that offers Internet facilities, including access to the World Wide Web, as well online business information. According to FT, the online service will be pitched at business modem users, rather than the consumer, and expand on the company's existing publications on the Internet. Although Belgium is at the heart of the European Community (EC), online communications are still very much in their infancy. According to an EC spokesman, who spoke to Newsbytes on condition of anonymity, "the problem is the rates that Belgacom charges." "One way or another, you end up paying Belgacom for your access, and, although rates have been cut recently, they're still very high. The cheapest Internet access you can get costs around $35 a month plus data traffic. That's high," he told Newsbytes. Against this backdrop, the FT deal with Belgacom could prove to bring low cost online services to the masses. "It's certainly an interesting deal and could bring low-cost Web access for Belgium," he added. (Sylvia Dennis/19950901/Press Contact: Financieel Tijd +32-2-218-0318) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 09/01/95 GOVT Russia - Govt Chooses Compaq Over Russian PC Maker (NEWS)(GOVT)(LON)(00020) Russia - Govt Chooses Compaq Over Russian PC Maker 09/01/95 MOSCOW, RUSSIA, 1995 SEP 1 (NB) -- Top managers of the Russian IBM PC assembler IVK have expressed their disappointment concerning the about-face taken by the head of the Federal Election Committee, Mr. Ryabov, to contract IVK for the delivery of PCs for installation in election precincts. The committee, which had initially planned to use both Compaq servers and 6,000 IVK PC workstations, has announced a contract solely with Compaq for delivery of all systems. "Unexplainable" was the response of Nikolai Dementyev, director of the press service for the major Russian PC computer assembler IVK. The procedures to select a supplier had been obeyed to the letter, he continued. The head contract company -- the research design institute Voskhod -- had run tests involving computers Compaq, Topaz, Stell, IVK, IBM and Acer with IVK taking the upper marks. Following that, the decision was taken to develop the network by installing 6,000 IVK local workstations to feed the initial data to 400 Compaq-made servers. IVK was about to place orders for computer components when it became known that the head of the Federal Election Committee, Mr. Ryabov, had altered the whole arrangement in favor of a single hardware supplier. The joint stock company IVK owns and operates the Kvant plant, claimed to be one of the five best computer assembling factories world-wide. It was built near Moscow in 1991 and features the best assembly lines and testing equipment produced by Daifuku (Japan) and Marconi (Italy) companies, Newsbytes was told. Annual production capacity amounts to 1 million PCs. Presently, it is operating at the 6% level, according to IVK Vice President Mr. Sizonenko. The company has contracts with Intel and IBM and is currently producing IBM 486 and Pentium PCs. The company is pursuing an aggressive marketing strategy keeping retail prices 15% -- 30% lower than those of brand name computers. (Vladimir Vetrov, IntelliTech/19950828/Press & Reader Contact: Mr. Grogory Sizonenko, Vice President, IVK, tel +7 095 2848326, fax +7 095 9711077, Internet e-mail root@aoivk.msk.su; Mr. Nikolai Dementyev, Director of the IVK Press Service, tel +7 095 2848326, e-mail: root@innprocom.msk.su) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 09/01/95 TELECOM Moscow Telecom Awards $25M Toll System (NEWS)(TELECOM)(LON)(00021) Moscow Telecom Awards $25M Toll System 09/01/95 BENESOV, CZECH REPUBLIC, 1995 SEP 1 (NB) -- Strom Telecom of Benesov, Czech Republic has been chosen by Moscow Telecom (MGTS) to provide a tariff and toll-ticketing system to serve all of Moscow, location of the world's largest analog telephone subscriber network with about 4 million subscribers. The contract, valued at over $25 million, follows the successful implementation of a pilot project valued at $2 million which is currently serving 250,000 subscribers in the Lenin district of Moscow. The new contract specifies delivery of Strom Telecom manufactured hardware, Strom Telecom developed software, and several thousand Intel 486-based systems to equip 14 districts in Moscow before the end of 1997. Strom Telecom is pursuing additional business in Russia which is home to some 22 million analog subscribers as well as in other countries such as Lithuania and Kazakhstan which could conceivably bring revenues of well over $100 million within the next few of years to the small Czech company. The basic product is a time-based tariff system for analog telephone exchanges, according to Miodrag Skrbic, general manager. Mirko Jelcic, software division manager at Strom Telecom. The system features devices which are connected to the telephone exchanges and networked Intel 486-based computers. These devices, which essentially consist of intelligent multiplexors and demultiplexors, provide all necessary toll- ticketing information for all telecom subscribers and for each telecom exchange that exists, said Skrbic. There are two types of these older generation exchanges in operation in Russia: step- by-step and crossbar. The systems operate under DOS, Windows for Workgroups, Windows NT, RAS (Remote Access Server) and TCP/IP. The Windows-based software was developed by Strom Telecom using C language and Visual Basic. The Russian ministry of telecommunications is trying to implement Strom Telecom's system as a standard throughout all of Russia, Newsbytes was told. Strom Telecom is preparing a tender at the moment for all of Lithuania which represents 750,000 subscribers. The prospective contract, financed by the EBRD (European Bank for Research and Development), has a value of about $7 to $10 million. Lithuania has some digital, but as in other CEE countries, it is about 95% analog. Next year there will also be a tender in Kazakhstan. In Russia, over 95% of the telephone subscribers lines are connected to analog exchanges, over 90% in the Czech Republic and over 60% yet in Germany, according to Skrbic. The major difference between Central European countries such as the Czech Republic and Russia is that Russia has not even had the mechanical counters that its Central European neighbors have had -- it has been completely void of any tariff. For subscribers on analog exchanges in the Czech Republic, pulses are generated for international calls -- up to 60 every three minutes. If it is a local call, there is just one pulse and thus a need for tariff. Strom Telecom's equipment will enable the mechanical counters to be completely removed in the Czech Republic where some 1.5 million telephone subscribers will continue to be served by analog exchanges until the end of this century, said Skrbic. The three founders of Strom Telecom, the two Skrbic brothers and Jelcic, started their private company seven years ago in Sarajevo, Bosnia/Hercegovina and had great success before the war which started in 1992, said Skrbic. When the war started, they moved to Germany and then on to the Czech Republic where they created a joint venture with electronics manufacturer Tesla Votice which now holds a 33% stake in Strom Telecom. Tesla Votice, which employs 500, is focused on hardware manufacturing, and Strom Telecom, which employs 40, 25 of which are engineers, is dedicated to development and marketing. (Steven Slatem, IntelliTech/19950828/Press & Reader Contact: Miodrag Skrbic, General Manager and Mirko Jelcic, Software Division Manager, both of Strom Telecom, tel +42 301 25831, fax +42 301 24849) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 09/01/95 WINDOWS Philippines - Windows 95 Launched (NEWS)(WINDOWS)(TYO)(00022) Philippines - Windows 95 Launched 09/01/95 MANILA, PHILIPPINES, 1995 SEP 1 (NB) -- Exactly a week after its launch in many international countries and the US, Microsoft's 32-bit operating system was launched yesterday in Manila. The place was a three-day exhibit and conference held at the Hotel Nikko Manila Garden in Makati, dubbed "Windows Expo 95." Technical managers from Microsoft Asia Pacific have arrived from Sydney, Australia to present technical sessions that will help users and developers ease up the migration towards Windows 95 and other 32-bit applications. The conferences are designed to help enterprises to integrate these new technologies with their existing networks and computing platforms. The line-up of conference speakers is spearheaded by Harvard and rowing stalwart Michael Hard who was recently named as country manager of Microsoft Philippines. Other speakers include Jeff Lum, regional director; Simon Fielding, technical marketing manager; and James Mah, technical marketing manager, all from the Asia Pacific Headquarters of Microsoft in Sydney. A senior systems engineer from Compaq Computer Asia Pte Ltd in Singapore, Chee See Kuen, will also speak during the conference. In spite of reported bugs, most of which have been "extracted" by Microsoft from the "golden" release, many Windows users, personal and corporate, are expected to embrace the new Windows 95 as soon as it rolls out. Windows 95 will run on Intel (or compatible) 80386DX or higher processors with a minimum of 4MB of memory (8MB recommended). A VGA-compatible video adapter is also required. Windows 95 is expected to use approximately 10-15 MB additional hard disk space as a typical upgrade from Windows 3.x or Windows for Workgroups 3.x, and MS-DOS. (Metropolitan Computer Times/19950829/Internet e-mail dilips@netcom.com) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 09/01/95 LEGAL Philippines - BSA Steps Up Anti-Piracy Campaign (NEWS)(LEGAL)(TYO)(00023) Philippines - BSA Steps Up Anti-Piracy Campaign 09/01/95 MANILA, PHILIPPINES, 1995 SEP 1 (NB) -- The Business Software Alliance (BSA) has warned Philippine corporations anew that police raids will be conducted on those suspected of using pirated software. BSA lawyer Christopher Austen, based in Hong Kong, promised the raids would be undertaken against retailers, distributors and users of illegal copies of computer programs and criminal charges would be filed against these corporations and their officers. The BSA lawyer told a local audience that BSA members' annual losses in the Philippines as a result of software piracy total $43 million. On other hand, annual losses to software pirates worldwide by BSA members amounted to around $15.2 billion yearly, he said. Austen, in the Philippines for the Windows '95 launch, contends that in the Philippines, 97 out of 100 software copies sold are pirated. Moreover, each pirated copy represents a loss of potential income to everyone in the country selling software, he suggested. Since software piracy is considered theft and should be dealt with as such, Austen said that legal action in the form of criminal, civil, and administrative charges would be taken against the suspects. Austen added that the BSA would lobby to increase to three years the prison terms meted on convicted software pirates. An increase in fines to P150,000 (around $6,000) would also be sought. Presently, software pirates and others found guilty of copyright violations can be sentenced to only one year in prison and payment of an indeterminate fine much lower than P150,000. Interviewed afterwards, Austen admitted to Newsbytes that it is possible crime syndicates might take over software piracy, as they have elsewhere. "Criminal syndicates have gone into software piracy, because of the potential profits," Austen said. BSA is composed of leading software publishers in the US such as Microsoft, Autodesk, and Novell. It was formed in 1988 to combat software piracy worldwide. (Metropolitan Computer Times/19950829/Internet e-mail dilips@netcom.com) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 09/01/95 GENERAL China - Technology Newsbriefs (NEWS)(GENERAL)(PEK)(00024) China - Technology Newsbriefs 09/01/95 BEIJING, CHINA, 1995 SEP 1 (NB) -- In this technology news roundup from China, Ameritech sets up a joint venture in Taiyuan, NEC's joint venture produces private phone switching systems in Benxi, Toshiba (China) Co Ltd. diversifies operations, and Mobile Hong Kong helps to build a computer center in Ningbo. Ameritech Sets Up Joint Venture In Taiyuan US-based Ameritech Corp. has set up a joint venture with China Communications System Co Ltd. (ChinaCom) to provide both cellular telephone systems and conventional landlines. The joint venture is located in Taiyuan, the capital of Shanxi province in central China. The initial project, to be completed by the middle of 1996, will provide equipment for the installation of a GSM cellular telephone system and a landline switching system. These systems will combine cellular, long distance, public, and private phone networks. NEC's Joint Venture Produces Private Phone Switching Systems A communications systems joint venture has been set up with Japanese firm NEC Corporation to produce and market digital private telephone switching systems. NEC will provide 40 percent of the US$4.2 million investment, while the remaining 60 percent will be covered by the Chinese partner -- Benxi Communications and Electrical Appliance Industry Corporation. The joint venture, Benxi NEC Communications Co., will make NEC's exchanges with a capacity ranging from 500 lines to 4,000 lines using Japanese technology. The new plant, in Benxi, Liaoning province, will open next month with a production capacity of 30,000 lines this year. However, the production capacity will reach 200,000 per year and the annual revenue will be US$64 million by 1999. Toshiba (China) Co Ltd. Diversifies Operations In China Toshiba Corp., which has four manufacturing enterprises in China, has established Toshiba (China) Co Ltd to supervise and support its diversified operations here. The Beijing-based new subsidiary has registered capital of US$30 million. Toshiba's Beijing Office expects the new company will raise funds for projects, expand existing operations, provide procurement inside and outside of China, balance exchange among operating companies, marketing products, advertise, and recruit and train employees. Mobile Hong Kong to Support Computer Center in Ningbo Mobile Corporation Hong Kong will give US$35,000 to Ningbo, the coastal city of Zhejiang Province in East China, to build a computer center. The center will be set up in Ningbo Middle School and it will be open to students and the general public. It is a part of the company's US$500,000 education fund. (Chih-Ho Yu & Ning Huang/19950824) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 09/01/95 IBM China - IBM's PC Market Share Now 30% (NEWS)(IBM)(PEK)(00025) China - IBM's PC Market Share Now 30% 09/01/95 BEIJING, CHINA, 1995 SEP 1 (NB) -- Lured by the huge potential of China, IBM's aggressive market strategy has now given it 30 percent of the PC market in China in the first half of this year compared with 25 percent last year. IBM's share increased to 30 percent of China's total personal computer sales in the first half of 1995, according to Wai Ming Ng, the newly appointed marketing manager of the personal computer division of IBM China Co Ltd's East China branch. The company aims to double its PC sales again this year. Previously, most of IBM's products were aimed at large business and large accounts. Recently, the company introduced a high-end 486DX/266 multimedia personal computer with built-in CD-ROM drive and fax modem card, pre-loaded OS/2 and Warp, and Internet access software. All the software will be in Chinese by the end of this year, Howell Ma, a product specialist, said. IBM also plans to lease more counters at major department stores and to set up specialty shops in Shanghai. Meanwhile, IBM hopes to shift its purchasing focus to China, particularly East China, and develop original equipment manufacturing partnerships with local computer companies. Roger Hou, manufacturing and development director of IBM Greater China, recently stated that IBM purchased $50 million worth of computer products from China last year, and the amount rose to $75 million in the first half of this year. (Chih-Ho Yu & Ning Huang/19950824) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 09/01/95 ONLINE Internet Connectivity For India (NEWS)(ONLINE)(DEL)(00026) Internet Connectivity For India 09/01/95 NEW DELHI, INDIA, 1995 SEP 1 (NB) -- India has finally been linked to the world's most talked about and versatile network, the Internet. An Internet access service was started by VSNL (Videsh Sanchar Nigem Ltd.) on August 15 (India's Independence Day), in association with the Department of Telecommunications (DOT) and Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Ltd.(MTNL). The connectivity has been provided by VSNL from India to MCI, USA using multiple 64 kbps high-speed links, which will later be upgraded to 2 mbps. For the purpose of providing access to the Internet, VSNL has set up a countrywide network covering the four metros, through speed datalinks. Subscribers can access the VSNL network by dialling in through a telephone line, leased lines, or using the I-net access. These services will be made available in Bangalore and Pune shortly. Users in other cities can avail the services through the I-net packet switched network of the DOT. Subscribers will now be able to use services such as the World Wide Web. Presently VSNL will offer three modes of access: dial-up access to the host computer set up by VSNL, through TCP/IP (transmission control protocol/Internet protocol) on a dial-up or leased basis to the VSNL, and through I-net. The basic tariffs and service have been fixed according to the type of access and use. VSNL also plans to enter the domestic value-added services through joint venture with Telstra (Amadeus) for providing VSAT services. (C. T. Mahabharat/19950901) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 09/01/95 TELECOM Datacraft Scores Malaysian Telecoms Contract (NEWS)(TELECOM)(HKG)(00027) Datacraft Scores Malaysian Telecoms Contract 09/01/95 CENTRAL, HONG KONG, 1995 SEP 1 (NB)-- Systems integration specialist Datacraft Asia, and Cellular Communications Network (Malaysia) Sdn Bhd (CELCOM) have signed a US$10 million deal to build a nationwide advanced data service in Malaysia. Datacraft's partners in the bid were Malaysia-based Superior Communications and US-based Network Equipment Technologies (NET). The three-way partnership formed to bid for the contract "created a very strong, feature-rich team," said Des Althorp, Datacraft Asia's managing director and CEO. "We are able to provide not only the equipment but also expertise, network management software and 24-hour support using our sophisticated Technical Assistance Centre in Singapore," he added. The system -- based on NET digital data networking devices already installed by Datacraft in China -- allows CELCOM to offer its business customers a country-wide communications service through a connection in each office. The system uses microwave, fiber optics and satellite transmission media separate from CELCOM's existing cellular network. CELCOM was a pioneer of cellular telephony in Malaysia. While its competitors are just now building their cellular networks, CELCOM has an established service and more than 600,000 subscribers. The company recently diversified into other communication services, including digital cellular and mobile data. The new network is integral to CELCOM's plan to launch Malaysia's first advanced data service, providing dedicated voice and data connections and other services such as frame relay, integrated services digital network (ISDN) and an integrated digital voice/data facility, according to CELCOM president, Rosli Man. "While appearing to be a private network, each customer is actually subscribing to a fully resilient, fail-safe network that will always be there when they want it. The system automatically reroutes itself on failure. The network, which uses a combination of microwave, fiber optics, and satellite transmission media to provide nation-wide coverage, is fully redundant so there is no single point of failure." NET's IDNX (Integrated Digital Network Exchange) family of digital data networking products is used by CELCOM to offer a diverse range of communication services through a single connection to the frame relay network. (Nigel Armstrong & I.T. Daily/19950831) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 09/01/95 BUSINESS Acer Goes Public in Singapore (NEWS)(BUSINESS)(HKG)(00028) Acer Goes Public in Singapore 09/01/95 CENTRAL, HONG KONG, 1995 SEP 1 (NB) -- Acer Computer International, the Singapore subsidiary of Taiwan's Acer Inc., has gone public with an initial offering of 42 million shares at US$1.40 each. The launch follows hard on the heels of a 67% jump in revenue to 402.8 million for the first of this year. The offering is the biggest initial public offering so far this year in the island republic. The offer is expected to raise US$54.8 million, mainly to finance regional expansion. The company is also launching a redesigned computer for the home market in two months. In addition, according to Acer president and chief executive officer William Lu, the company intends to boost its software and data communications businesses to at least US$100 million each by the turn of the century. Currently the software business is worth US$10 million per annum and data communications are worth US$15 million. (Nigel Armstrong & I.T. Daily/19950831) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 09/01/95 ONLINE Iconovex, Interleaf Join For Web Site Development (NEWS)(ONLINE)(MSP)(00029) Iconovex, Interleaf Join For Web Site Development 09/01/95 BLOOMINGTON, MINNESOTA, U.S.A., 1995 SEP 1 (NB) -- Two companies that use complementary technology to build corporate Internet World Wide Web servers are joining forces. The two companies are Iconovex Corp. (NASDAQ:INVX), a developer of automatic indexing software, and Interleaf Inc. (NASDAQ:LEAF), a document and publishing concern. Iconovex and Interleaf will use their technologies to help their clients build corporate Web sites and internal corporate Webs that Iconovex officials say will be "well organized, manageable, and easy to use." Newsbytes has covered developments at Iconovex since 1994. The company makes a fully automatic hypertext index software programming for Web pages called "AnchorPage." In June, Robert Griggs, Iconovex vice president of marketing, told Newsbytes AnchorPage contains within it a program that actually understands the subtleties of the English language. The program within a program, called "Syntactics," has the linguistic ability to analyze a text document and determine key terms and phrases. Hotlinks are then created in four separate formats, including a table of contents page. Interleaf's product, Cyberleaf 1.0 for Unix, is a software package that that automatically transforms documents created with popular word processing programs into hypertext markup language (HTML), the "language" of the World Wide Web. The program also provides a complete Web production environment including the ability for hyperlinking among various file types, and managing and updating multiple Web pages. By partnering, the two companies will provide turn-key publishing solutions for all Web servers, Iconovex officials said. "Our goal is to enable our customers to get the right information, in the right format, at the right time," said Interleaf director of business development, Bill Zoellick. "Web sites are an ideal way to do that, but only if they are a well structured publication, rather than just a collection of pages. The combination of these two products allows customers to achieve that goal." (Bob Woods/19950830/Press Contacts: Erica Swerdlow or Craig Grabiner, EBS Public Relations, 708-714-8600. Public Contacts: Interleaf, 800- 955-5323; Iconovex, 800-943-0292) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 09/01/95 GENERAL ****Sony Blasts Through The $2,000 CD-R Price Barrier (NEWS)(GENERAL)(LON)(00030) ****Sony Blasts Through The $2,000 CD-R Price Barrier 09/01/95 WEYBRIDGE, SURREY, ENGLAND, 1995 SEP 1 (NB) -- Sony has broken through the price barrier with a sub-UKP 1,350 CD-R (recordable) system for PC Windows and Apple Computer Macintosh-based systems. Included within the UKP 1,349 price tag is an internal CD-ROM unit that also records CD-R discs, which sell for around UKP 4/5 each. The supplied software makes the task of creating a CD-ROM disc very much easier, according to Sony. Richard Stockdill, a spokesman for Sony, told Newsbytes that the Spressa 920 system is significantly cheaper than Sony's previous CD-R offerings, which started from UKP 4,000 and ranged upwards. The difference, he said, is that technology these days is cheaper, plus that some of the audio indexing side (for the creation of music CDs) is missing from the Spressa system. Newsbytes asked Stockdill about the thorny problem of software and audio CD piracy -- at this sort of price point, the Spressa system opens the world of piracy to all sorts of users who previously would not have thought about it because of the cost of the hardware. Stockdill reluctantly agreed, but argued that the piracy problem is an industrywide, and that various protection systems are already in use in the software industry. The Spressa system, he claims, is more aimed at companies wanting to create their own CD-ROM discs. The Spressa 920 fits into a 5.25-inch drive bay on a PC or Apple Mac. The PC version is available immediately through dealers, while Apple Mac users will have to wait until November for their system to ship. An external version of the Spressa 920, the 9211, will ship later this month costing UKP 1,525. The Spressa 920 will be available for PC and, later this year, for Apple Mac users. The Windows version of the Spressa comes with a Disc Wizard package that is billed as a step-by-step CD creation application that allows users to "press" their first CD within one hour of setting the system up. Announcing the Spressa range, Neil Berville, Sony Computer Peripherals' sales and marketing manager, said that high performance, ease of use and low price of the Spressa 920, which is Sony's third generation CD-R technology system, will open up the market for CD-R applications. "The price and specialize capabilities of previous CD-R products limited their use to large industrial publishing operations. The compact size and large range of capabilities of the Spressa series makes it ideally suited to the desktop in corporate and small office environments," he explained. "This drive will be able to handle many tasks, including developing training applications, publications and databases for in-house distribution on CD-ROM, and archiving data from a computer's hard drive. In addition, the Spressa drives are excellent double-speed CD- ROM readers," he added. In addition to Corel CD Creator, which comes bundled with the Spressa series, a range of DOS, Windows, Mac and Unix applications are also bundled with the respective versions of the Spressa. According to Sony, the applications were written by Sony's Electronics Publishing Company (SEPC) and many other independent software houses, and cover a wide range from simple data backup to sophisticated CD publishing. As supplied through Sony retail channels, the Spressa 920 is supplied with Corel CD Creator, three blank CD-R discs, user manuals and all cabling. The Spressa 9211, the external unit, comes with the same software and cablings, but with one extra CD-R disc. (Steve Gold/19950901/Press Contact: Lesniak Jones Liddell +44-1628- 522222; Reader Contact: Sony Reader Response +44-181-760-0500) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 09/01/95 GENERAL Personnel Roundup (NEWS)(GENERAL)(SFO)(00031) Personnel Roundup 09/01/95 MINNEAPOLIS, MINNESOTA, U.S.A., 1995 SEP 1 (NB) -- This is a regular feature summarizing personnel changes not covered elsewhere by Newsbytes: Digital Equipment Corp., Turtle Beach Systems, Pyramid Technology, Microsoft Corp., US West Interactive Services Group, Maxtor Corp., Spectrum HoloByte Inc., Sun Microsystems Inc., Ameritech, Dell Computer Corp., Open Software Foundation. Robert Bismuth has been appointed vice president of Digital Equipment Corporation's (NYSE:DEC - 508-486-2024) Corporate Standards Group, reporting to William Strecker, vice president of the Advanced Technology Group and chief technology officer. The appointment is effective immediately. Bismuth, 41, is responsible for managing Digital's Consortia/Standards Activity Center (CSAC), Digital's Internal Standards and Information Systems (ISIS), and for negotiating key strategic alliances. Ezequiel "Zeke" Olazaba has joined Turtle Beach Systems (717-767-0200) as the new vice president of sales. As the head of Turtle Beach Sales, Olazaba will be responsible for the distribution, retail, and international sales worldwide. He will report directly to Marty Goldberg, president and chief executive officer (CEO) of Turtle Beach. Previously, Olazaba held the position of director of sales and marketing for Hyundai Electronics America in their PC and Monitor divisions. Pyramid Technology (408-428-9000) announced the promotion of Rich Hammons to vice president and chief technology officer. Hammons previously served as chief scientist responsible for Pyramid's Systems Technology Lab. He will continue to report to Raj Nathan, senior vice president of product technology. Pyramid also announced the promotion of Raymond Chiu to vice president of Asia sales. Chiu will continue to report directly to John Chen, CEO for Pyramid. Microsoft (Nasdaq: MSFT - 503-245-0905) announced the appointment of Richard Fade, 40, as vice president for the Desktop Applications Division (DAD). Fade, formerly vice president of Advanced Technology Sales, replaces Pete Higgins, who previously held this position. Fade will report to group vice presidents of the Applications and Content Group, Nathan Myhrvold and Pete Higgins. John O'Farrell has been named president of US West Interactive Services Group (303-784-2454) that will concentrate on interactive consumer services that can be accessed from an armchair, using a remote control, or with a keyboard and PC screen. O'Farrell has been vice president - Strategy for US West Media Group and US West Inc. He will continue to report to Chuck Lillis, president and CEO of US West Media Group. Rick R. Brantmeyer has been named senior vice president, sales and marketing of Maxtor Corp. (NASDAQ:MXTR - 408-432-4567), effective August 21. Brantmeyer, 48, joins Maxtor from Western Digital, where his most recent position was vice president of marketing. While at Western Digital, he also served as vice president, key account sales. Interactive software publisher Spectrum HoloByte Inc., (Nasdaq:SBYT -510-814-6336) announced that Stephen M. Race has been appointed CEO of the firm. He assumes the position from Gilman G. Louie, who was acting CEO and who remains founder and chairman of the board. Andreas "Andy" Bechtolsheim, vice president of technology and co-founder of Sun Microsystems Inc. has resigned to pursue a "new venture" in networking technology. Bechtolsheim, 39, was the architect of the original Sun workstation while a graduate student at Stanford University. He left in 1982 to co- found the company with Vinod Khosla, Scott McNealy, and Bill Joy. In other Microsoft news, Gordon Bell, former head of research and development at Digital Equipment Corp. and a computing pioneer, has joined the Microsoft Research Group. While at Digital, Bell led the development of the VAX minicomputer and was responsible for the design and development of various other minicomputers and mainframes. Meanwhile, Ameritech (312-750-5219) named Timothy M. Connolly senior vice president and head of its Worldwide Network Systems sector, effective September 5. The Ameritech Worldwide Network Systems sector includes the company's current cellular, new media enterprises and network units. The sector was recently created as part of Ameritech's ongoing strategic transformation. Connolly previously was an executive of Bell Atlantic Corp., where he was president of Sorbus, Inc., a unit that provided computer maintenance services in the United States and in international markets. Dell Computer Corp., (Nasdaq: DELL - 512-728-4100) has named former Compaq executive George E. Martin, Sr., vice president and general manager of Dell OptiPlex Desktop products, effective September 18. Martin will assume responsibility for product development and marketing of Dell's OptiPlex Desktop product line. He will report to Eric Harslem, senior vice president of the Dell Product Group. The Open Software Foundation (617-621-7246) has announced that David Tory has resigned as president and CEO of the organization, effective September 15. (Ian Stokell/19950901) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 09/01/95 TRENDS Intuit Continues To Light Up The Charts (NEWS)(TRENDS)(WAS)(00032) Intuit Continues To Light Up The Charts 09/01/95 RESTON, VIRGINIA, U.S.A., 1995 SEP 1 (NB) -- Intuit, which led in software sales in the personal productivity category for the first six months of 1995, carried that momentum into July, according to PC Data, a market research firm. Intuit's Quicken personal finance manager and checkbook program was in first place in the category for both the DOS-Windows platform and for the Macintosh. Quicken Deluxe grabbed second place in the DOS-Windows world, while Broderbund's Print Shop Deluxe was second with the Mac crowd. In reference software, Microsoft's Encarta continued in first place, where it was firmly located in the June software hit parade. For business software for the DOS and OS/2 world, Microsoft's upgrade to DOS 6.2 was the leader, followed by Quarterdeck's QEMM, both holding the same places they held in June. For Windows business software, Uninstaller from Microhelp continue in first place, while Ram Doubler from Connectix climbed from fifth place in June to second in the July report. For business software for the Mac, Ram Doubler holds down first place, as it did in June. But Claris Works Upgrade from Claris moved up to second from fourth. In home education software, Disney remains king in both Microsoft and Macintosh operating system worlds, with Lion King Storybook holding first place on both lists. Both second spots belong to Mindscape for its Mavis Beacon Teach Typing program. In the PC games category, Ultimate Doom Thy Flesh from GT Interactive has soared into first place after not appearing on the top 20 in June. It bumped Microsoft Flight Simulator from first to second. For Macintosh games, Dark Forces from LucasArts moved up from second in June to first in July, switching places with Broderbund's Myst. PC Data also keeps track of average prices. Overall, most prices are well under $75, with most home-oriented software under $50. The most expensive software appearing on any list -- by a factor of nearly three -- was Quark Xpress, at nine on the Macintosh business software list at an average price of $629. The next most costly was Microsoft's Office Upgrade in the Windows business category, at $249. The least expensive software on the list was a tied between Expert's 3-D Home Design at 13 on the personal productivity list for DOW-Windows, and Export's Clip Art, at 15 on the same list. The average price for both was $11. PC Data bases its list on units sold by 21 retail chains, representing over 5,000 stores. The company sells detailed reports based on its monthly data. (Kennedy Maize/19950901/Press Contact: Nicole Field, 703-435-1025) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 09/01/95 GOVT ****Piracy Enforcement Problems in China (NEWS)(GOVT)(WAS)(00033) ****Piracy Enforcement Problems in China 09/01/95 WASHINGTON, D.C., U.S.A., 1995 SEP 1 (NB) -- While China continues to talk about enforcing copyrights, on the ground piracy is still routine, reports the Journal of Commerce, citing US government officials. Several news agencies have reported that copies of the Windows 95 operating system are widely available in open air software markets in Beijing, weeks before the official versions will be available in China. The Business Software Alliance also says it is finding problems in China. US trade negotiators spent five days meeting with Chinese officials recently, the newspaper said, and concluded that China has failed to live up to promises it made last February. But the US officials said it was too soon to take action. A follow-up meeting is set for October. The Journal of Commerce reports that the 29 CD factories that had been knocking off copies of US products by the thousands have not shut down. The notorious plant in Shenzhen province was closed, but others have opened, including a factory owned and operated by the Ministry of State Security, an internal police force with a reputation for human rights violations. US officials say the number of pirated CD music titles has declined, but the factories have shifted to CD software production, which is being exported. "Large volumes are showing up in Hong Kong and Taiwan," an official said. BSA's Diane Smiroldo confirmed that to Newsbytes. She said Hong Kong customs officials are finding more copies of pirated CD-ROM computer software than ever before, coming from China. But US official say these kinds of enforcement woes are typical of trade agreements, particularly with the Chinese. The government, an official said, has "taken the necessary first step and gone after retail piracy. Wisely, they are not taking on the heavyweights of the system." (Kennedy Maize/19950901/Press Contact: Diane Smiroldo, 202-872-5500) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 09/01/95 ONLINE CompuServe Teams With Jerry Lewis Telethon (NEWS)(ONLINE)(SFO)(00034) CompuServe Teams With Jerry Lewis Telethon 09/01/95 COLUMBUS, OHIO, U.S.A., 1995 SEP 1 (NB) -- CompuServe is expanding its role in Jerry Lewis' Muscular Dystrophy Association (MDA) Telethon with greater internal network support, extended fund raising, and a live online component of the first three hours of the telethon. The company's MDA Forum has grown over the past year as patients, doctors and concerned families and friends share information and experiences. In his thirtieth year of hosting the MDA Labor Day Telethon, Jerry Lewis delivers his 21 1/2 hour live broadcast to more stations than ever before. Michelle Moran, spokesperson for CompuServe told Newsbytes, "it is difficult to realize what a mammoth production the telethon is and the kinds of problems confronting the organizers. With 182 local stations trying to time their local participation with a national event which may have a special guest running an extra five minutes or a last minute cancellation, station producers are consistently struggling to coordinate the local and national mix. If a superstar does not show at the last minute, it is impossible to call 182 stations and let them know about it." To alleviate this problem, "we are supplying all of the stations, the satellite services and the national headquarters with a closed CompuServe area. Through our online service, they will communicate programming changes and difficulties in seconds." Moving from its behind the scenes technical support, CompuServe has placed its Entertainment Drive Forum (GO EDRIVE on CompuServe) producers backstage interviewing various guests as they get ready to perform. Participants may include anchorman Ed McMahon; comedians, Rita Rudner, Elayne Boosler, Norm Crosby and Carrot Top; and well-known television personalities such as Kathleen Sullivan, Jerry Springer and Gordie Brown. While CompuServe provides entertainment and technical support for the telethon, it will also be busy raising donations from its members. The company will use its standard service, its World Wide Web site (http://www.compuserve.com/mda ) and its interactive CD connections to allow members to make donations to the telethon. This year, CompuServe hopes to double the $26,000 raised last year. Commenting on CompuServe's preparations Moran said, "Like other large companies which support Jerry Lewis and the telethon, CompuServe donates its staff, time and technical expertise. There has been a lot of negative media coverage about the online industry and I think it is important for the public to know about the abundance of positive events and services undertaken by this industry." The MDA Telethon will nationally from 9:00 pm on Sunday, Sept. 3 through Monday, Sept. 4, 6:30 pm. More than 80 million US and Canadian viewers are expected to watch the telethon. (Patrick McKenna/19950901/Press Contact: Michelle Moran, CompuServe, tel 614-538-3497) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 09/01/95 TELECOM MCI, Others File With FCC Opposing Sprint Alliance (NEWS)(TELECOM)(MSP)(00035) MCI, Others File With FCC Opposing Sprint Alliance 09/01/95 WASHINGTON, D.C., U.S.A., 1995 SEP 1 (NB) -- After the Federal Communications Commission put up for public comment a deal where France Telecom and Deutsche Telekom AG would buy 20 percent of Sprint (NYSE:FON), MCI (NASDAQ:MCIC) and BT North America have already filed objections regarding the deal. In a statement, MCI officials said that "the risk that Sprint's competitors will be seriously disadvantaged will continue for as long as France Telecom and Deutsche Telekom remain monopolies, government- owned, and not subject to regulation by an independent government entity." BT North America said the deal would lead to unfair discrimination against competitors and poorer service to customers. Sprint spokesperson Sue Kraus told Newsbytes AT&T had also filed a similar motion with the FCC, but Newsbytes was unable to confirm any AT&T involvement by the daily deadline. MCI asked the FCC to focus on what it called the "substantial risk to Sprint's competitors and the strong possibility that France Telecom and Deutsche Telekom will use their monopoly control to discriminate against those competitors." Sprint's deal with the foreign companies, commonly known as the "Sprint Alliance," should be held in check until France's and Germany's telecommunications markets are open to competition beginning in 1998, MCI officials said. Jim Lewis, MCI's senior vice president for regulatory affairs, said, "Allowing foreign monopolists preferential access to the US market, which is open to full competition, while they retain dominance in their home markets, will continue high prices for American consumers and at the same time place American businesses at a disadvantage in the global marketplace." Kraus responded that MCI's concerns about unfair competition don't apply, because the investment by France Telecom and Deutsche Telekom is a "passive one," and that both foreign companies aren't seeking any licenses in the US. Sprint will file a detailed response with the FCC concerning MCI's and other comments September 15. Kraus added the Sprint Alliance deal has already cleared two of the three regulatory hurdles in the US, with the FCC representing the finish line. MCI, the US's second-largest long distance carrier, is one of Sprint's prime competitors. It should be noted that British Telecom, which owns BT North America, bought 20 percent of MCI for $4.3 billion. Sprint is the third largest long distance company in the US. The largest US teleco, AT&T, has an alliance with a group of European phone companies. The Sprint Alliance agreement, first announced in June of 1994, calls for the two foreign telecommunications concerns to buy 20 percent of Sprint, at prices ranging from $47.25 to $51 per share. Up to $4.2 billion would change hands. A proposed spin-off of Sprint's cellular phone business, announced earlier this summer, would bring down the total price of the deal, Shaw added. It appears Sprint's stock on Wall Street hasn't felt any adverse effects from today's action by MCI and BT North America. At 12:30 EDT, Sprint shares were unchanged at $35.75. (Bob Woods/19950901/Press Contacts: MCI Corporate News Bureau, 800- 289-0073 or 202-887-3000; Sydney Shaw, Sprint, 202-828-7428) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 09/01/95 GENERAL Lotus Symposium - Notes Products From Lotus And ISVs (NEWS)(GENERAL)(BOS)(00036) Lotus Symposium - Notes Products From Lotus And ISVs 09/01/95 BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS, U.S.A., 1995 SEP 1 (NB) -- As Anil Cadre, VP of corporate marketing for Sun Microsystems, and one of three keynoters, promised during an opening speech, the product expo and conference sessions at this week's Lotus Symposium in Boston were packed with "specific solutions" from Lotus and third-party vendors, particularly for Notes. The dozens of products demonstrated in the Symposium's "Solutions Expo" ran the gamut from "intelligent agents" to Notes integration tools, and from customizable Notes-based news services to ATM (asynchronous transfer mode) technology. Meanwhile in the conference halls, attendees heard about products ranging from Notes 4.0, InterNotes, PhoneNotes and AT&T Notes, to third-party applications in categories like Sun server-based software, "team computing," higher education, imaging, multimedia, "competitive intelligence management," and products for "mobile knowledge workers." On the expo floor in Boston, Chuck Sullivan, president of P.S. Software, demonstrated two turnkey systems for Notes: P.S. Time, for group time and activity reporting, and P.S. Specs, for creating "structured" Notes-based documents containing "rich information types," and distributing the documents to local or remote users on Windows, Macintosh, OS/2, and Unix. Sullivan told Newsbytes that his company is now integrating P.S. Specs with Lotus' InterNotes, to allow conversion of the "electronic books" into HTML (hypertext markup language) for Web distribution, as well as with Adobe's Acrobat for crossplatform viewing in PDF. Sullivan added that, before heading up P.S. Software, he worked at Lotus during most of the 1980s as senior product manager for Lotus 1-2-3, and then at Channel Computing, the company that created Info Pump and Forest & Trees, two products subsequently bought by Trinzic. Meanwhile, Mitchell C. Liu, VP of marketing for Brainstorm, told Newsbytes that Brainstorm is currently "repackaging" all of its software to run on Windows 95, as well as to work with Lotus Notes 4.0, a product slated to ship at the end of this year. OfficeLink '95, a new edition of Brainstorm's Notes-based product for Microsoft Office, will be released at the end of 1995, according to Liu. OfficeLink is aimed at letting Word and Excel users store and organize information in Notes. VBLink 3.0, an update to Brainstorm's product for developing Visual Basic applications in Notes, is scheduled for delivery in the first quarter of 1996, in both VBX and OCX editions. DataLink 2.0 will be the next release of Brainstorm's tool for moving data between RDBMS (relational database management systems) and Notes. An OS/2 server edition is planned for September, and a Windows NT edition for November. On the other side of the hall, CleverSoft President Alexander Bakman was showing his company's CleverWatch agent-based application for monitoring and "taking action" on the tasks, gateways, API (application programming interfaces), and other processes of Notes servers. With Notes-based networks expanding in size and numbers, automatic monitoring is becoming increasingly important, Bakman told Newsbytes. "The idea that an employee should be constantly monitoring the server, and `taking action' if something goes wrong, just doesn't work," he contended. Bakman also revealed that CleverSoft is planning to port its OS/2-based product to Windows NT servers at some point in the future. Also at the expo, Gernot Scheichl of First Virtual Corp. (FVC) demonstrated Notes-based video applications running with FVC's ATM switch, MOS (media operating software), and media server. Scheichl told Newsbytes that the ATM switch is a "high bandwidth, low-cost alternative" to switched Ethernet. The product allows "end-to-end" bisynchronous transmission of video at up to 200 megabits-per-second (Mbps) over a fiber backbone, through a 100 Mbps channel, and at up to 50 Mbps over copper to the desktop, through a 25 Mbps channel, he maintained. In addition, unlike Ethernet, ATM gives video and other kinds of applications "only the bandwidth they need," according to the FVC rep. Also on the show floor at the Lotus Symposium, Dow Jones introduced CustomClips for Lotus Notes, a user-customizable "industry monitoring service." In another booth at the conference in Boston, Individual, Inc. demonstrated First! for Notes, the company's customizable news service. Compuserve showed its Notes-based Enterprise Connect and Enterprise Information Line for delivering "private replication and worldwide public information services, respectively," to business users of Notes over the Compuserve network. Lexis-Nexis displayed Lexis-Nexis Tracker, a daily list of articles on a "hot topic" of the user's choice, culled from more than 5,800 information sources. Lotus showed Notes, cc:Mail, Lotus Notes Desktop, Lotus Notes Express, Lotus NotesSuite, Lotus Phone Notes Mobile Mail, Lotus VideoNotes, Lotus Notes: Document Imaging (LN:DI), Lotus Notes HiTest Tools for Visual Basic, AT&T Network Notes, and Lotus Business Partner Connection, an annual subscription service designed to provide software, information, training and technical support to corporate and commercial developers. Other vendors exhibiting at the expo included Adobe, ALI Technologies, American Power Conversion, Big Sky, Cambridge Mobile Computing, Carthage International, CBT Systems USA Ltd., CGI Systems, Collaborative Systems, CompLink Limited, Desktop Data, and Easicle. Also on hand were Egghead Software, Entex Information Services, GrapeVine Technologies, GroupVision, HTR Inc., Information Builders, Legacy Technology, Mainstream Data, Merisel, OneSource, Percussion Software, Productivity Point International, Quality Decision Management, Quality Systems International, Trellis Network Services, and Trinzic. (Jacqueline Emigh/19950901/Reader Contacts: Lotus Development Company, 617-577-8500; Brainstorm Technologies, 617-621-0800; Press Contacts: Lois Paul & Partners for Lotus, 617-860-5714; Terri Slater, Slater PR & Marketing for Brainstorm, 508-359-5677; Reader and Press Contacts: Cleversoft, 207-883-3550; First Virtual Corp., 408-567-7200; P.S. Software, 800-771-1013) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 09/01/95 GENERAL Newsbytes Week In Review (NEWS)(GENERAL)(SFO)(00037) Newsbytes Week In Review 09/01/95 MINNEAPOLIS, MINNESOTA, U.S.A., 1995 SEP 1 (NB) -- This is a look at the top stories this week, listing with their category code: CD Software Sales Soar 186%, Apple Intros PowerPC PowerBooks, Stratus Cutting 500 Jobs As Margins Sag, Windows 95 Anticipation Hurts Delrina Results, One Million Windows 95 Sold In First 4 Days, UK - Global Internet "Games Online" Service, 1st World Wide Web "Webby" Awards Announced, More Libraries Are Providing Internet Access, Time Warner & Turner In Merger Talks, Microsoft Looks To Expand Japan Comms Network, Lotus Symposium - Notes Attracted IBM, Manzi Says, Ameritech To Link Michigan Students To Internet, Spyglass Enters European Market, Interactive Group Intervenes In Prodigy Libel Case, US West Launches Multimedia Services Trial, Mexican President Live On Desktop Video Feed, Sony Blasts Through The $2,000 CD-R Price Barrier. CD Software Sales Soar 186% (TRENDS) WASHINGTON, D.C., U.S.A., 1995 AUG 28 (NB) -- Sales of CD software hit $249.6 million for the first quarter of 1995, up 186 percent over the $87.3 million reported for the first quarter of 1994, according to the Software Publisher Association. Unit sales for the quarter were 6.86 million, a 125 percent increase. Apple Intros PowerPC PowerBooks (APPLE) CUPERTINO, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1995 AUG 28 (NB) -- Apple Computer Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) has announced two new PowerBook series, which include a full-sized notebook, the 5300, and a subnotebook, the 2300, both powered by PowerPC RISC (reduced instruction set computer) processors. A low priced model 190 PowerBook was also introduced. Stratus Cutting 500 Jobs As Margins Sag (BUSINESS) MARLBORO, MASSACHUSETTS, U.S.A., 1995 AUG 28 (NB) -- Stratus Computer Inc. (NYSE:SRA) said it is reducing its worldwide staff by about 500 people this year in a struggle against declining profit margins. The company will take a one-time charge of about $20 million against its third-quarter earnings to provide for the cuts. Windows 95 Anticipation Hurts Delrina Results (BUSINESS) TORONTO, ONTARIO, CANADA, 1995 AUG 29 (NB) -- Software maker Delrina Corp. (TSE:DC; NASDAQ:DENAF) suffered a fourth-quarter loss as customers waited for Microsoft's Windows 95 operating system and associated applications software. The weak quarter dragged down Delrina's earnings for the year ended June 30, though sales were up 31 percent for the year. One Million Windows 95 Sold In First 4 Days (WINDOWS) REDMOND, WASHINGTON, U.S.A., 1995 AUG 29 (NB) -- Late this morning, Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ:MSFT) announced that more than one million copies of Windows 95 have been sold in North America in the first four days of the new operating system's availability. The previous record for a million copies in record time was Microsoft's DOS version 6.0 which a took 40 days to reach the mark. UK - Global Internet "Games Online" Service (ONLINE) LEICESTER, ENGLAND, 1995 AUG 30 (NB) -- Entertainment Online (E-On) is a new company that has been formed by Mark Bernstein of Virtuality fame and Dr Hermann Hauser, of Acorn/Olivetti fame. The new company plans to offer a variety of PC-oriented games services for UKP5 a month across the Internet, when the E-On service starts this coming November. 1st World Wide Web "Webby" Awards Announced (ONLINE) HOLLYWOOD, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1995 AUG 30 (NB) -- Glenn Davis, the special projects coordinator for Infinet, who created the popular "Cool Site Of The Day" on the Internet, has inaugurated an award for the Cool Site Of The Year. Called the "Webby," the winner of the first annual award is -- The Spot -- with executive producer Russell Collins, producers Scott Zakarin and Troy Bolotkin More Libraries Are Providing Internet Access (ONLINE CHICAGO, ILLINOIS, U.S.A., 1995 AUG 30 (NB) -- The American Library Association (ALA) said almost a quarter of the libraries serving populations of 100,000 or more can connect their borrowers to the worldwide Internet. The survey was conducted as a part of the ALA's Public Library Data Service's "Statistical Report '95." Time Warner & Turner in Merger Talks (BUSINESS) NEW YORK CITY, NEW YORK, U.S.A., 1995 AUG 30 (NB) -- Time Warner Inc. (NYSE:TWX) and Turner Broadcasting Company (ASE:TBSA) have confirmed they are talking about merging the two companies. If talks are successful, the new company would be the world's largest media and entertainment company. Microsoft Looks To Expand Japan Comms Network (ONLINE) TOKYO, JAPAN, 1995 AUG 31 (NB) -- Microsoft is looking to expand its current network of access points in Japan ahead of the official launch of Windows 95 in the country, Newsbytes has learned. Lotus Symposium - Notes Attracted IBM, Manzi Says (GENERAL) BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS, U.S.A., 1995 AUG 31 (NB) -- "In early June, I was an employee of a Cambridge software company, a Notes user, and one of several million people who use an IBM Think Pad. But then, in the course of two short weeks, largely because of Notes, I rose like a meteor to become senior VP of IBM," quipped Jim Manzi, who is also CEO (chief executive officer) of Lotus, in a keynote at the Lotus Symposium in Boston, an occasion that marked the shipment of 10 million seats of Lotus Notes and cc:Mail. Ameritech To Link Michigan Students To Internet (EDUCATION) DETROIT, MICHIGAN, U.S.A., 1995 AUG 31 (NB) -- Ameritech (NYSE:AIT) said it is investing $10 million for the children of the state of Michigan, in the form of starting a new program to connect school kids to the worldwide Internet of computers. The company's "Education Avenue" program provides for discounted access rates for participating schools, and fund a resource center and online help desk for teachers and students. Spyglass Enters European Market (ONLINE) NAPERVILLE, ILLINOIS, U.S.A., 1995 AUG 31 (NB) -- Spyglass Inc. (NASDAQ:SPYG) has signed a licensing agreement that effectively puts the company into the European market. The company's newest licensee is Siemens Nixdorf Imformationsystems AG, of Paderborn, Germany. Interactive Group Intervenes In Prodigy Libel Case (ONLINE) SILVER SPRING, MARYLAND, U.S.A., 1995 SEP 1 (NB) -- The Interactive Services Association has submitted a friend-of-the-court brief in a libel suit in New York court filed against the Prodigy commercial online service. The brief asks Judge Stuart Ain to reverse his May ruling that Prodigy is a "publisher" responsible for defamatory messages posted by others on Prodigy bulletin boards. US West Launches Multimedia Services Trial (BROADCAST) OMAHA, NEBRASKA, U.S.A., 1995 SEP 1 (NB) -- US West effectively killed the recent rumor it was pulling out of the interactive TV test program it has poured millions of dollars into by announcing today it is kicking off what the company described as the nation's largest market trial of multimedia services delivered to the home. US West Communications said nearly 50,000 households in the Omaha area will be offered the trial service, which is being marketed under the name US West Telechoice. Mexican President Live On Desktop Video Feed (TRENDS) NEW YORK, NEW YORK, U.S.A., 1995 SEP 1 (NB) -- Mexican President Ernesto Zedillo was scheduled to appear live not only on television but on personal computer screens this afternoon when he gave his country's first State of the Nation address. NBC Desktop Video relayed the speech to the desktops of subscribers to its NBC Professional service. Sony Blasts Through The $2,000 CD-R Price Barrier (GENERAL) WEYBRIDGE, SURREY, ENGLAND, 1995 SEP 1 (NB) -- Sony has broken through the price barrier with a sub-UKP 1,350 CD-R (recordable) system for PC Windows and Apple Computer Macintosh-based systems. Included within the UKP 1,349 price tag is an internal CD-ROM unit that also records CD-R discs, which sell for around UKP 4/5 each. (Ian Stokell/19950901) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 09/01/95 GENERAL Phillipe Kahn Sells 55% of His Borland Stock (NEWS)(GENERAL)(SFO)(00038) Phillipe Kahn Sells 55% of His Borland Stock 09/01/95 SCOTTS VALLEY, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1995 SEP 1 (NB) -- Phillipe Kahn, the former chief executive officer at Borland International, has sold 55% of the his Borland stock. He emphasized the transaction was a simple process which should not be made into something more than taking money from the sale of the stock and investing it in his relatively new company, Starfish Software. Starfish confirmed Kahn as saying, "I said many months ago this if Starfish took off at a certain pace, I would sell my Borland shares to finance its growth. People shouldn't read anything into these actions." A Starfish spokesperson told Newsbytes, "Our growth has been dramatic and we are really pleased with the acceptance of our new versions of Sidekick and Dashboard. Combining our rapid growth with Windows 95 versions of both products is a significant step forward. Phillipe said if the company showed promise he would make a substantial investment of his own money to help the company reach its goals. That is really all this announcement is about. I have spoken to Phillipe and he said there is nothing that should be read into this regarding Borland." (Patrick McKenna/19950901) (SUMMARY)(GENERAL)(MSP)(00039) Newsbytes Daily Summary 09/01/95 MINNEAPOLIS, MINNESOTA, U.S.A., 1995 SEP 1 (NB) -- These are capsules of all today's news stories: ======================================================================== ------------| N E W S B Y T E S D A I L Y S U M M A R Y |---------- ------------| Friday, September 1, 1995 |---------- ======================================================================== (c) Newsbytes News Network (Tm) Editor in Chief: Wendy Woods ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Newsbytes News Network's 1995 Update CD-ROM for Mac, DOS, and Windows is now available for $29.95 (includes s&h). Contains 1983-1995 news stories, more than 64,000 keyword searchable stories and 475 digitized images. For more information or to order, fax to 612-430-0441 or e-mail to 'administrator@newsbytes.com' -- MC, Visa, Amex accepted. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ CATEGORY HEADLINES (*** indicates today's top stories) STORY # ======================================================================== BROADCAST Ericsson To Install Telecom Italia Broadband Network....... 02 BROADCAST ****US West Launches Multimedia Services Trial............ 05 BUSINESS Europe - Securicor 3Net Acquires WISDM..................... 06 BUSINESS Australia - Techway Charts New Course After AUS$3M Loss.... 09 BUSINESS Control Data Sells 5 Subsidiaries.......................... 16 BUSINESS Acer Goes Public in Singapore.............................. 28 GENERAL China - Technology Newsbriefs.............................. 24 GENERAL ****Sony Blasts Through The $2,000 CD-R Price Barrier..... 30 GENERAL Personnel Roundup.......................................... 31 GENERAL Lotus Symposium - Notes Products From Lotus And ISVs....... 36 GENERAL Newsbytes Week In Review................................... 37 GENERAL Phillipe Kahn Sells 55% of His Borland Stock............... 38 GOVT Russia - Govt Chooses Compaq Over Russian PC Maker......... 20 GOVT ****Piracy Enforcement Problems in China.................. 33 IBM China - IBM's PC Market Share Now 30%...................... 25 LEGAL Philippines - BSA Steps Up Anti-Piracy Campaign............ 23 NETWORK Novell's European NetWare Promotion........................ 15 ONLINE ****Interactive Group Intervenes In Prodigy Libel Case.... 01 ONLINE On Australia Signs 'Em Up.................................. 10 ONLINE Canadian National Internet Show Set For March.............. 18 ONLINE Belgium Plugs Into The Online World........................ 19 ONLINE Internet Connectivity For India............................ 26 ONLINE Iconovex, Interleaf Join For Web Site Development.......... 29 ONLINE CompuServe Teams With Jerry Lewis Telethon................. 34 PC Sampler CD-ROM Hits Indian Newsstands...................... 13 TELECOM First PCS Call Made In US Using Ericsson Tech.............. 03 TELECOM MCI's International Fax Service............................ 07 TELECOM US West Offers Do-It-Yourself Cell Phone Activation........ 11 TELECOM Moscow Telecom Awards $25M Toll System..................... 21 TELECOM Datacraft Scores Malaysian Telecoms Contract............... 27 TELECOM MCI, Others File With FCC Opposing Sprint Alliance......... 35 TRENDS ****Mexican President Live On Desktop Video Feed.......... 17 TRENDS Intuit Continues To Light Up The Charts.................... 32 WINDOWS Microsoft Money For Windows 95............................. 04 WINDOWS TrueSpeech Player Available Free On Internet............... 08 WINDOWS Micrografx Graphics Suite For Windows 95................... 12 WINDOWS McAfee VirusScan For Windows 95............................ 14 WINDOWS Philippines - Windows 95 Launched.......................... 22 ======================================================================== These are the headlines and first paragraphs of each story, in order: 1 -> ****Interactive Group Intervenes In Prodigy Libel Case -- The Interactive Services Association has submitted a friend-of-the-court brief in a libel suit in New York court filed against the Prodigy commercial online service. The brief asks Judge Stuart Ain to reverse his May ruling that Prodigy is a "publisher" responsible for defamatory messages posted by others on Prodigy bulletin boards. 2 -> Ericsson To Install Telecom Italia Broadband Network -- Ericsson, the Swedish comms company, along with Marconi and Trator, has signed a $200 million contract with Telecom Italia. Terms of the contract call for the three companies to install and maintain a broadband network for the Italian telecommunications company. 3 -> First PCS Call Made In US Using Ericsson Tech -- Ericsson reports that its PCS (Personal Communication System) digital mobile technology is taking off, as a direct result of the first call made on its US PCS network. On July 26, Senate Commerce Committee Chairman Larry Pressler made the first US PCS call, talking to his mother using an Ericsson PCH 337 hand portable digital mobile, the world's smallest phone, over the APC network. 4 -> Microsoft Money For Windows 95 -- Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ: MSFT) has introduced what it calls "a dramatically new version" of its personal finance software, Microsoft Money, for the Windows 95 operating system and handed out free copies of the program in the New York financial district to promote the product. 5 -> ****US West Launches Multimedia Services Trial -- US West effectively killed the recent rumor it was pulling out of the interactive TV test program it has poured millions of dollars into by announcing today it is kicking off what the company described as the nation's largest market trial of multimedia services delivered to the home. US West Communications said nearly 50,000 households in the Omaha area will be offered the trial service, which is being marketed under the name US West Telechoice. 6 -> Europe - Securicor 3Net Acquires WISDM -- Securicor 3Net, the networking division of Securicor UK set up last October, has announced it has acquired WISDM Limited, the ISDN (Integrated Services Digital Network) company. 7 -> MCI's International Fax Service -- MCI Inc. (NASDAQ:MCIC) is introducing an international fax service for US businesses that "eliminates the hassle" when it comes to faxing beyond America's borders. In announcing the new service, MCI quoted a study by the FaxLab group which said nearly 50 percent of international faxes do not go through on the first attempt. 8 -> TrueSpeech Player Available Free On Internet -- DSP Group Inc. (NASDAQ:DSPG) announced a new Windows product, TrueSpeech Player, that is freely available on the Internet. The TrueSpeech Player enables TrueSpeech-encoded speech to be played in real-time over the Internet. 9 -> Australia - Techway Charts New Course After AUS$3M Loss -- It's been a grueling year at Australian PC manufacturer Techway Ltd. With new managing director, David Ballantine, the company yesterday emerged from its Sydney bunker to seek once more the media light. Ex-Sun, ex-NEC, Ballantine presented a slimmer (about 10 percent smaller in headcount), reshaped new Techway which is chasing after the higher-margin service side of the business. 10 -> On Australia Signs 'Em Up -- On Australia, the joint venture set up by Microsoft and Telstra to market the Microsoft Network (MSN) in Australia, says it had signed up 4,860 paying members by last Monday 11 -> US West Offers Do-It-Yourself Cell Phone Activation -- Lets see, a loaf of break, a quart of milk, a head of lettuce and a cellular phone. That's right, a cellular phone could be on your grocery store shopping list thanks to a new program from US West New Vector called "TalkAlong" that puts cellular phones on the shelves of grocery stores and other retail outlets. 12 -> Micrografx Graphics Suite For Windows 95 -- Micrografx Inc. (NASDAQ: MGXI) said its ABC Graphics Suite for Windows 95, a collection of integrated diagramming, flowcharting, clip-art management, painting, image editing, and drawing tools with an interface designed for Microsoft Office for Windows 95, will be on retail shelves by late September. 13 -> Sampler CD-ROM Hits Indian Newsstands -- A software sampler CD-ROM was released with PC Quest, the Indian personal computing magazine, this month. 40,000 copies of the magazine with the disk have been dispatched to subscribers and newsstands across India. 14 -> McAfee VirusScan For Windows 95 -- McAfee Software has announced VirusScan for Windows 95, a native 32-bit anti-virus package for Windows 95. According to Scott Gordon, the company's anti-virus product manager, the package will ship globally in the next few days, through McAfee outlets, as well as through Saber Software, the company it acquired in May of this year. 15 -> Novell's European NetWare Promotion -- Novell has announced a major European promotional campaign aimed at persuading more network users to use NetWare additional software. European users buying a copy of NetWare 4.1 or 3.12 will receive a number of on-pack offers, including a "buy one, get one free" deal for Novell's LAN Workplace 5 for DOS and Windows, as well as a free trial copy of NetWare Connect 2. 16 -> Control Data Sells 5 Subsidiaries -- Control Data (NASDAQ:CDAT) officials have confirmed to Newsbytes that the sale of five international subsidiaries to AmeriData Technologies Inc. has been completed. AmeriData has purchased Control Data's product integration and maintenance operations in Austria, Canada, Mexico, Norway, and the United Kingdom. 17 -> ****Mexican President Live On Desktop Video Feed -- Mexican President Ernesto Zedillo was scheduled to appear live not only on television but on personal computer screens this afternoon when he gave his country's first State of the Nation address. NBC Desktop Video relayed the speech to the desktops of subscribers to its NBC Professional service. 18 -> Canadian National Internet Show Set For March -- Organizers are talking big about the first Canadian National Internet Show, due to take place in Toronto March 28 to 31, 1996. Barry Clavir, show producer, told Newsbytes he expects the show to attract "tens of thousands of people." 19 -> Belgium Plugs Into The Online World -- Financieel Tijd (FT), the Belgian publishing house, has announced plans to launch an Internet operation spanning Belgium. As part of the development phase, the company has signed an agreement with Belgacom, the state telecoms company, for access to its national datacomms network. Although strictly at the drawing board stage, FT plans to offer a national online service that offers Internet facilities, including access to the World Wide Web, as well online business information. 20 -> Russia - Govt Chooses Compaq Over Russian PC Maker -- Top managers of the Russian IBM PC assembler IVK have expressed their disappointment concerning the about-face taken by the head of the Federal Election Committee, Mr. Ryabov, to contract IVK for the delivery of PCs for installation in election precincts. The committee, which had initially planned to use both Compaq servers and 6,000 IVK PC workstations, has announced a contract solely with Compaq for delivery of all systems. 21 -> Moscow Telecom Awards $25M Toll System -- Strom Telecom of Benesov, Czech Republic has been chosen by Moscow Telecom (MGTS) to provide a tariff and toll-ticketing system to serve all of Moscow, location of the world's largest analog telephone subscriber network with about 4 million subscribers. 22 -> Philippines - Windows 95 Launched -- Exactly a week after its launch in many international countries and the US, Microsoft's 32-bit operating system was launched yesterday in Manila. 23 -> Philippines - BSA Steps Up Anti-Piracy Campaign -- The Business Software Alliance (BSA) has warned Philippine corporations anew that police raids will be conducted on those suspected of using pirated software. BSA lawyer Christopher Austen, based in Hong Kong, promised the raids would be undertaken against retailers, distributors and users of illegal copies of computer programs and criminal charges would be filed against these corporations and their officers. 24 -> China - Technology Newsbriefs -- In this technology news roundup from China, Ameritech sets up a joint venture in Taiyuan, NEC's joint venture produces private phone switching systems in Benxi, Toshiba (China) Co Ltd. diversifies operations, and Mobile Hong Kong helps to build a computer center in Ningbo. 25 -> China - IBM's PC Market Share Now 30% -- Lured by the huge potential of China, IBM's aggressive market strategy has now given it 30 percent of the PC market in China in the first half of this year compared with 25 percent last year. 26 -> Internet Connectivity For India -- India has finally been linked to the world's most talked about and versatile network, the Internet. An Internet access service was started by VSNL (Videsh Sanchar Nigem Ltd.) on August 15 (India's Independence Day), in association with the Department of Telecommunications (DOT) and Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Ltd.(MTNL). 27 -> Datacraft Scores Malaysian Telecoms Contract -- Systems integration specialist Datacraft Asia, and Cellular Communications Network (Malaysia) Sdn Bhd (CELCOM) have signed a US$10 million deal to build a nationwide advanced data service in Malaysia. 28 -> Acer Goes Public in Singapore -- Acer Computer International, the Singapore subsidiary of Taiwan's Acer Inc., has gone public with an initial offering of 42 million shares at US$1.40 each. The launch follows hard on the heels of a 67% jump in revenue to 402.8 million for the first of this year. 29 -> Iconovex, Interleaf Join For Web Site Development -- Two companies that use complementary technology to build corporate Internet World Wide Web servers are joining forces. The two companies are Iconovex Corp. (NASDAQ:INVX), a developer of automatic indexing software, and Interleaf Inc. (NASDAQ:LEAF), a document and publishing concern. 30 -> ****Sony Blasts Through The $2,000 CD-R Price Barrier -- Sony has broken through the price barrier with a sub-UKP 1,350 CD-R (recordable) system for PC Windows and Apple Computer Macintosh-based systems. Included within the UKP 1,349 price tag is an internal CD-ROM unit that also records CD-R discs, which sell for around UKP 4/5 each. 31 -> Personnel Roundup -- This is a regular feature summarizing personnel changes not covered elsewhere by Newsbytes: Digital Equipment Corp., Turtle Beach Systems, Pyramid Technology, Microsoft Corp., US West Interactive Services Group, Maxtor Corp., Spectrum HoloByte Inc., Sun Microsystems Inc., Ameritech, Dell Computer Corp., Open Software Foundation. 32 -> Intuit Continues To Light Up The Charts -- Intuit, which led in software sales in the personal productivity category for the first six months of 1995, carried that momentum into July, according to PC Data, a market research firm. 33 -> ****Piracy Enforcement Problems in China -- While China continues to talk about enforcing copyrights, on the ground piracy is still routine, reports the Journal of Commerce, citing US government officials. Several news agencies have reported that copies of the Windows 95 operating system are widely available in open air software markets in Beijing, weeks before the official versions will be available in China. 34 -> CompuServe Teams With Jerry Lewis Telethon -- CompuServe is expanding its role in Jerry Lewis' Muscular Dystrophy Association (MDA) Telethon with greater internal network support, extended fund raising, and a live online component of the first three hours of the telethon. The company's MDA Forum has grown over the past year as patients, doctors and concerned families and friends share information and experiences. 35 -> MCI, Others File With FCC Opposing Sprint Alliance -- After the Federal Communications Commission put up for public comment a deal where France Telecom and Deutsche Telekom AG would buy 20 percent of Sprint (NYSE:FON), MCI (NASDAQ:MCIC) and BT North America have already filed objections regarding the deal. 36 -> Lotus Symposium - Notes Products From Lotus And ISVs -- As Anil Cadre, VP of corporate marketing for Sun Microsystems, and one of three keynoters, promised during an opening speech, the product expo and conference sessions at this week's Lotus Symposium in Boston were packed with "specific solutions" from Lotus and third-party vendors, particularly for Notes. 37 -> Newsbytes Week In Review -- This is a look at the top stories this week, listing with their category code: CD Software Sales Soar 186%, Apple Intros PowerPC PowerBooks, Stratus Cutting 500 Jobs As Margins Sag, Windows 95 Anticipation Hurts Delrina Results, One Million Windows 95 Sold In First 4 Days, UK - Global Internet "Games Online" Service, 1st World Wide Web "Webby" Awards Announced, More Libraries Are Providing Internet Access, Time Warner & Turner In Merger Talks, Microsoft Looks To Expand Japan Comms Network, Lotus Symposium - Notes Attracted IBM, Manzi Says, Ameritech To Link Michigan Students To Internet, Spyglass Enters European Market, Interactive Group Intervenes In Prodigy Libel Case, US West Launches Multimedia Services Trial, Mexican President Live On Desktop Video Feed, Sony Blasts Through The $2,000 CD-R Price Barrier. 38 -> Phillipe Kahn Sells 55% of His Borland Stock --Phillipe Kahn, the former chief executive officer at Borland International, has sold 55% of the his Borland stock. He emphasized the transaction was a simple process which should not be made into something more than taking money from the sale of the stock and investing it in his relatively new company, Starfish Software. (Wendy Woods/19950901) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 08/17/95 TRENDS European Pentium Sales Climbing Steadily - Report (NEWS)(TRENDS)(LON)(00001) European Pentium Sales Climbing Steadily - Report 08/17/95 LONDON, ENGLAND, 1995 AUG 17 (NB) -- Sales of Pentium desktop PCs in the UK via the indirect (dealer and retail) channels grew from five percent to 29 percent by volume in the first half of 1995 according to figures just released by Context, the European computer research company. James Bates, senior PC analyst with the company, explained that 1995 is fast becoming the year that Pentium systems are turning into the entry-level machine for users. "This a trend that is set to continue with Intel's price cuts," he said, adding that "this has happened more rapidly than many expected, driven hard by the direct vendors pushing Pentium PCs at 80486-based prices early on." Jeremy Davies, a senior director with Context, told Newsbytes that the last round of price cuts, occasioned as a result of the much- publicized bug in the Pentium's math processor, coupled with Intel's highly aggressive pricing on Pentium chipsets, had caused demand for Pentium systems. "Intel has been pushing very hard to get contracts to manufacture system boards and similar for PC vendors, and that is forcing pricing down in the market. The result is that people are buying Pentium systems in preference to 486 systems," he said. "What we're seeing is the result of Intel's decision to try and all but phase out the 80486 chipset. Pentium is now the processor of choice for most people," he explained. Davies went on to say that he does not view Windows 95 as causing the surge in demand for Pentium systems. "It's too early to see Windows 95 affecting company decisions over which processor system to get. That will happen, but for the moment, it all comes down price," he told Newsbytes. According to Davies, the Context research revealed that Pentium PCs have also increased their percentage share of the total market by value, with a growth of 32 percent over the first six months of the year from 9 to 41 percent. (Steve Gold/19950816/Press Contact: Sukie Read, Context, +44-171-937-3595, Internet e-mail sread@context-ecis.co.uk; Reader Contact: Context, +44-171-937-3595) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 08/17/95 ONLINE Marketing On Microsoft Network - Book (NEWS)(ONLINE)(MSP)(00002) Marketing On Microsoft Network - Book 08/17/95 BERKELEY, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1995 AUG 17 (NB) -- The firm Successful Marketing Strategists said it will teach people how to market goods and services online in both paper and electronic form, via Ziff-Davis Publishing and the new Microsoft Network (MSN) online service. Craig Settles, Successful Marketing Strategists' senior strategist, told Newsbytes his company's new title "Cyber Marketing for Smart People" will be released both as a book and as a forum on MSN. The book will be available for sale in October through the MSN site. In addition, some of the chapters of the book will be previewed on MSN starting in September. People can also watch the book unfold in outline form on MSN, Settles said. The second part of the "Cyber Marketing" strategy goes to cyberspace, Settles said, for a good reason. "In the first three or four chapters of the book, it'll be obvious the book was written about nine months ago," he said. "In that time, a lot has changed in the online services. Even though fundamental tactics haven't changed, the specifics of how things work has changed." He said since there's no way to keep up with these changes in paper form, the online forum will keep people up to date on those changes. The MSN forum will also contain a planning guide that poses specific questions companies need to answer, along with specific steps firms should take to market successfully online, the company said. Users can experience these lessons through hotlinks provided to online areas either on MSN or the Internet. In addition, the firm will hold actual marketing seminars on MSN. Conducting conferences online will be a cost-savings for both the company and people who want to attend the seminars, because neither party has to pay travel and other expenses to meet in one site, Settles said. The seminars may be supplemented with limited personalized counseling, he added. Successful Marketing Strategists will also post some content from its Internet World Wide Web "Cyber Marketing Info Center" site, located at http://webhead.com/success . The book should be priced around $30, Settles said, while pricing on the seminars has yet to be determined. He added that much of the content on MSN will be available for free. (Bob Woods/19950816/Press Contact: Craig Settles, Successful Marketing Strategists, 510-644-3837, Internet e-mail craig@success.mhs.compuserve.com; Public Contact: Successful Marketing Strategists, Internet World Wide Web http://webhead.com/success ) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 08/17/95 TRENDS Gandalf Tops European Bridge Market (NEWS)(TRENDS)(LON)(00003) Gandalf Tops European Bridge Market 08/17/95 BRACKNELL, BERKSHIRE, ENGLAND, 1995 AUG 17 (NB) -- Gandalf has revealed that the latest set of figures from Dataquest, the market research company, show that it produced more remote access and local bridges than any other competitor in Europe during 1994. Paul Brandwood, international marketing director of Gandalf, explained that the company has achieved a remarkable growth of shipments in 1994, selling 9,804 bridges and even saturating the market to the tune of 19 percent, compared with a two percent market share in 1992. Other rivals, such as Sonix, came in second, while Digital Equipment, Retix, and Hewlett Packard came in third in the Dataquest survey. "These figures may come as a shock to our rivals, but not to us. Earlier this year, our own figures showed that we had doubled our share of the remote bridge market in both the UK and western Europe, and we sold over 1,000 bridges in March alone," Brandwood said. According to Brandwood, a few new releases in 1994 proportionally boosted sales of Gandalf's products. The company brought out products such as the XpressConnect LANLine 5240I intelligent bridge with integral ISDN (integrated services digital network) terminal adapter and the XpressConnect LANLine 5225I bridge with support for both leased line connections and backup/overflow via ISDN. The most successful new product launched in 1994 by Gandalf was the XpressConnect LANLine 5242I remote ISDN bridge, which allows remote offices to connect up to ten 10Base-T nodes to the head office and also features a voice channel. The 5242I's sales in 1995 are predicted to raise the figures further more. (Sylvia Dennis/19950816/Press & Reader Contact: Helen Woodcock, Gandalf, +44-1344-860272) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 08/17/95 GENERAL Electric Group Produces CD-I On Geothermal Heat Pumps (NEWS)(GENERAL)(WAS)(00004) Electric Group Produces CD-I On Geothermal Heat Pumps 08/17/95 WASHINGTON, D.C., U.S.A., 1995 AUG 17 (NB) -- The Electrification Council has produced a compact disk-interactive (CD-I) aimed at electric utility marketing of ground source heat pumps, which can reduce building energy bills by as much as 50 percent. Ground source, or geothermal, heat pumps use loops of piping buried underground to provide a constant heat source for an electric heat pump. While more expensive than conventional heat pumps, geothermal heat pumps use much less electricity, recovering their additional up-front cost through lower electric bills. "Heating and cooling from the earth is one of the hottest energy technologies available today," Susan Mitchell of TEC told Newsbytes, "capable of cutting buildings' energy bills by up to 50 percent. But how can you interest your customers to go geothermal?" The answer, she says, is the new CD-I. "You can bring yourself up to speed on geothermal technology, and then take your new knowledge into the field," says Mitchell. The council says the CD-I can be used for self-paced learning and research, one-on-one and group training, customer presentations, customer trouble-shooting, and helping customers select new equipment. Portions of the disk can be recorded onto video for customized group presentations. Each disk contains thousands of visual images, accompanied by hours of voice-over. The images -- video, photos and graphics -- include interviews with experts, diagrams, and photos of technology applications. Basic animation techniques make fluid "flow" through the geothermal piping loops. The CD-I includes full-screen, detailed illustrations of geothermal technology applications throughout the US and Canada. A transparent menu runs up the side of the screen, allowing the user to quickly and easily move to other areas of the disk without use of the mouse. The single unit price for the heat pump CD-I is $3,500. Members of TEC or the Geothermal Heat Pump Consortium can also get a free Sony CD-I player, worth $1,500 retail, with each CD-I purchased. TEC's other CD-I titles cover cooling systems, lighting, residential energy systems, and power quality. TEC was founded in 1951 to foster electrical technologies. Members include the 150 members of the Edison Electric Institute, equipment vendors, and other utilities. The organization is housed at the EEI offices in Washington. (Kennedy Maize/19950816/Press Contact: Susan Mitchell, 202-508-5901) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 08/17/95 ONLINE UK - CompuServe Offers UK Politics Forum (NEWS)(ONLINE)(LON)(00005) UK - CompuServe Offers UK Politics Forum 08/17/95 READING, BERKSHIRE, ENGLAND, 1995 AUG 17 (NB) -- CompuServe has opened a UK Politics Forum, aiming to allow the online service's UK members with a platform to express their ideas, views, and opinions. The forum is being managed by Steve Townsley, the popular co-sysop of the UK Computing forum and is open for business now. Plans call for various subjects to be discussed, including the British constitution, the economy, and the latest political gossip -- as well as online discussions with some of the UK's most influential politicians. Plans also call for the forum to cover future UK elections, encourage political interest groups to put forward their points of view, and be a focus for maintaining up-to-date files on British politics -- from Government to pressure groups. Interestingly, the UK Politics Forum will be taking advantage of CompuServe's Convention Center feature to conduct live interactive conferences with key political figures. The Convention Center draws heavily on the CB real-time chat conferencing service that CompuServe pioneered in the mid-1980s, but allows more than 2,000 users to simultaneously "meet" in the center and exchange views, listen to "speeches" and even to vote on any issues from the floor. Townsley summarizes the objective of the new forum as, "Political debate limited only by geography. Traditionally, political debate in Britain has involved watching TV journalists speaking to the nation. The UK Politics Forum will use the interactive nature of CompuServe to take the debate to members and hear their views." According to Townsley, non-UK members will be welcome in the forum. "Our non-British members will be able to improve their understanding of the British perspective through in-depth discussions they don't see on their local news broadcasts. The forum will not resolve every single issue, but should leave every member a little wiser," he said. (Steve Gold/19950815/Press Contact: Sara Mallinson, SMI Group, +44-181-563-2222, Internet e-mail smallins@smigroup.com; Reader Contact: CompuServe, +44-1734-525555) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 08/17/95 GENERAL UK Intellectual Property Rights Conference Set (NEWS)(GENERAL)(LON)(00006) UK Intellectual Property Rights Conference Set 08/17/95 MANCHESTER, ENGLAND, 1995 AUG 17 (NB) -- The Labour Telematics Center, working with the National Union of Journalists (NUJ) and the Manchester Telematics Training Partnership has announced a three-day conference which aims to discuss intellectual property rights (IPR), the information superhighway, and information creators. Gary Herman, a spokesman for the Labor Telematics Center, told Newsbytes that the event aims to discuss where the information creation industry stands as regards IPR. The cost of the conference has been set at UKP55, with a surcharge of UKP150 to include two night's accommodation and meals. "We've priced the event very low so as to attract as many people who are interested in IPR as possible," Herman explained, adding that the speaker list promises to make the event an interesting one. Speakers lined up for the event include: Alistair Kelman, an IT (information technology) lawyer; Euro MP (Member of Parliament) Carole Tongue; Jonathan Tasini (president, USA National Writers' Union); Jake Ecclestone (deputy general secretary of the NUJ); and Joost Kircz (Netherlands Journalist's Union). Plans call for the conference to host a series of workshops focusing on various IPR-relevant topics, including IPR history, IPR issues, and IPR actions. According to Herman, intellectual property rights are increasingly seen as a major issue in discussions about the development of the information society now being promoted by the European Commission, the US federal government, the UK government, and others. "New forms of publishing, reproduction and distribution of creative material are undermining old systems of legal protection for intellectual property, and the simultaneous convergence and globalization of the media demands a coordinated response from those who actually produce intellectual property in the first place," he explained. According to Herman, already, the first skirmishes have been fought in what promises to be a long war. Disputes over moral rights, the Uruguay Round of international trade talks, the European Commission's draft directive on the protection of databases, the Commission's directive on software copyright, and the demands by various publishers and broadcasters to obtain exclusive rights to intellectual property in perpetuity have been inconclusive, but have demonstrated the growing urgency of a new approach to IPR. Without it, the information society will simply fail, he claims. The conference aims to bring together organizations representing writers, journalists, broadcasters, photographers, designers, film- makers, musicians, actors, software developers, and others, in an attempt to define an approach that will work in their interests, and help make the information society a reality. The target audience for the conference is trade unionists in the media and related industries (including researchers, full-time officials, and ordinary members involved in the area), officers and managers from copyright agencies, and officials and researchers from national and international labor movement organizations with an "active interest." (Steve Gold/19950815/Press Contact: Gary Herman, +44-161-881-0672; Reader Contact: Telematics Center, tel +44-161-860-4364, fax +44-161- 862-9512, Internet e-mail labourtel-admin@mcr1.poptel.org.uk) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 08/17/95 TELECOM China - Telecoms Continues Fast Expansion (NEWS)(TELECOM)(PEK)(00007) China - Telecoms Continues Fast Expansion 08/17/95 BEIJING, CHINA, 1995 AUG 17 (NB) -- China's telecommunications capacity kept growing fast in the first half of this year, with a sharp increase in both subscribers and business over the same period of last year, the Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications (MPT) said. During the first half of this year, total sales generated by the telecom industry reached RMB43.88 billion (US$5.29 billion), an increase of 45 percent over the same period of last year. In comparison, many other state-operated and owned businesses only reported a 14 percent increase in the first half of this year. By the end of June, China's total phone lines had reached 70 million. Meanwhile, the country's telecommunications fixed assets hit RMB23.05 billion ($2.78 billion), an increase of 39.7 percent over the same period of last year. In the first half of this year, there were 7.61 million new telephone subscribers, of which 936,000 are new mobile phone subscribers. Residential phones accounted for 80 percent of new subscribers. Wireless pager users totaled 13.8 million, an increase of 3.5 million over the same period of last year. The country now has a total of 45.282 million phones and 3.76 percent nationwide phone coverage. Telephone coverage in nine cities has exceeded 30 percent, including Beijing Hangzhou, Fuzhou, Guangzhou, Haikou, Shenzhen, Zhuhai, Shantou, and Xiamen. (Chih-Ho Yu & Ning Huang/19950812/Reader Contact: The General Bureau of Telecommunications, Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications, tel +86-10-801-1235) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 08/17/95 GENERAL China - CompuChina'95 Computer Expo Report (NEWS)(GENERAL)(PEK)(00008) China - CompuChina'95 Computer Expo Report 08/17/95 BEIJING, CHINA, 1995 AUG 17 (NB) -- The Second China International Computer Exhibition, the only computer show continuously sponsored by the Ministry of Electronics Industry, was held in Beijing from August 2 to 6. About 200,000 people visited the exhibition. After the success of the First China International Computer Exhibition, which was held from August 9 to 13 of 1994, the second was also organized by China National Electronics Import & Export Corp., adding US-based IDG as an overseas coorganizer. In recent years, China's computer market has enjoyed a sharp growth. According to the exhibition organizer, sales this year are expected to reach RMB50 billion (US$6.02 billion) and will keep growing at an annual rate of 20 percent until 2000. Such a huge market drew many domestic as well as foreign companies to the five-day CompuChina '95. Foreign companies, including Compaq, AST, Tulip, Cisco, Fujitsu, and OKI, displayed their latest hardware, accessories, software applications, mass-storage devices, and data communications at the exhibition. The fair also included the ComNet Exposition and Conference, a computer networking and communications show. For companies that have already entered the market, the exhibition meant a chance to maintain contact with Chinese customers and find more buyers, the exhibition organizer said. For those planning to enter China, the expo was an opportunity to understand the market and find distributors and partners. According to the exhibition organizer, CompuChina'96, the third China International Computer Exhibition will be held in August, 1996, in Beijing. (Chih-Ho Yu & Ning Huang/19950814) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 08/17/95 BROADCAST Satellite Service Offers Pay-Per-Story News (NEWS)(BROADCAST)(TOR)(00009) Satellite Service Offers Pay-Per-Story News 08/17/95 RESTON, VIRGINIA, U.S.A., 1995 AUG 17 (NB) -- Newly formed Network News Corp. will deliver news from assorted wire services, including Newsbytes, to subscribers' personal computers via satellite. Customers will pay only for the news they choose to read. Network News, spun off from Wave Systems Corp. (NASDAQ:WAVX) of New York, will use Hughes Network Systems' DirecPC delivery system and its parent company's metering technology. It will also rely on information search and filtering software from Verity, Inc. Besides Newsbytes, news wires available through the service will include Knight-Ridder/Tribune Business News, the press-release wires PR Newswire and Business Wire, Federal News Service, US NewsWire, NewsNet, SportsTicker, ZDWire, Canada's Southam News Service, and others. The company said it hopes to add five to 10 more information providers by year-end, possibly including the Associated Press, with which discussions are in progress. Dan Prince, a spokesman for Network News, told Newsbytes that individual news stories and press releases will cost from $1 to $1.50. Subscribers will be able to buy stories two ways. They can specify that stories meeting certain criteria -- for example, stories that include the name of the subscriber's own company -- are "automatic buy" stories. These will be downloaded in their entirety to the subscriber. Subscribers can also indicate that they want to know about stories that meet certain criteria but prefer to review a menu of headlines and abstracts before choosing whether to buy the complete text. Once stories are purchased, Prince added, they can be distributed freely within the subscriber's own network. Network News officials said a number of organizations need access to selected information as quickly as possible, but have not been able to find economical ways of obtaining it as quickly as a broadcast service allows. In the past such organizations have relied on online databases and centralized filtering services, the company said. The software used at the customer's site runs on Microsoft's Windows NT operating system and uses Verity's Topic Agents software to filter the incoming news feed. The Network News service will be available across the United States initially, Prince said. It is due to become available October 15. There are no immediate plans to extend it to other countries, Prince added. (Grant Buckler/19950817/Press Contact: Dan Prince, R.C. Auletta & Co. for Network News, 212-355-0400) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 08/17/95 TELECOM China - Phone Service Improvement Promoted (NEWS)(TELECOM)(PEK)(00010) China - Phone Service Improvement Promoted 08/17/95 BEIJING, CHINA, 1995 AUG 17 (NB) -- To help telephone companies "improve service quality" and "safeguard consumers' rights," the China Quality Control Committee and the Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications have jointly organized a campaign and distributed copies of a questionnaire to 100,000 telephone subscribers in over 70 cities. In recent years, telephone systems have been expanding at an unprecedented pace in China. However, services are lagging behind, which is causing many complaints. For example, telephone service in Beijing is still lacking in customer satisfaction. The public has complained about, not only the long waiting period for installation, but also ambiguous regulations and bad line maintenance. Phone subscribers also complained that no phone directories were distributed, and they have to pay RMB120 (US$14.5) for purchasing a phone directory at some post offices. An unnamed Beijing resident told Newsbytes that after numerous calls to request the repairing of a phone line problem, two service personnel finally came and fixed it. However, they requested that he pay a fine of RMB3,000 (US$361) for the unauthorized connection of two phone sets to one line. After some "negotiation," they accepted RMB100 as a "gift" to close the case. A users' subcommittee of the China Quality Control Committee, in cooperation with the Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications, recently organized a campaign and distributed copies of a questionnaire to 100,000 telephone subscribers in 30 provincial capital cities and 42 other large- or medium-size cities. Chinese phone subscribers can indicate whether telecom workers provide bad service or request "gifts" for fixing or moving telephones. They can also complain if their phone calls are not clear, and give their opinions on phone tolls. The results of the survey will be made public in December, the Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications said. The move is aimed at "safeguarding the rights and interests" of phone subscribers and improving services, the Ministry said. (Chih-Ho Yu & Ning Huang/19950817) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 08/17/95 ONLINE Internet Update (NEWS)(ONLINE)(TYO)(00011) Internet Update 08/17/95 TOKYO, JAPAN, 1995 AUG 17 (NB) -- In this roundup of new services and resources on the Internet: Hurricane tracking online, MSN Web site preview, American sports overseas, Visit the page, win a phone, Balkan official news source, Slovakia news database adds search, NandO introduces sports SCORE. Hurricane Tracking Online The Space Science and Engineering Center is providing high resolution infra-red images of Hurricane Felix, updated every six hours. In addition, hourly water vapor images are available as well as single images or a movie loop. World Wide Web: http://www.ssec.wisc.edu/data/index.html#special As Hurricane Felix bears down on the US east coast, the Gulf Coast Internet Company has made available pictures and stories of Hurricane Erin's rampage through Pensacola and other nearby communities. The Internet provider lost its roof to the storm! World Wide Web: http://www.gulf.net/erin/ MSN Web Site Preview Microsoft's new MSN online service may not be launching until August 24th but World Wide Web users can get a preview of the service's Internet home page. Many of the areas are under construction but will become completed as the launch date nears. World Wide Web: http://www.home.msn.com American Sports Overseas The official Finnish national baseball server is now open to the public. Here you can find details of pesapallo, the Finnish name for baseball, at the international, national, youth, and recreational levels. The organizers claim the site is one of the largest sports databases in the country. World Wide Web: http://www.inet.fi/pesis/ The Western Australian American Football League has established its own Web server. Users will find details of the results, fixtures, premiership ladder and best goalkickers in the league. World Wide Web: http://alpha1.curtin.edu.au/~edare/wafl/wafl.htm Visit The Page, Win A Phone Nokia Asia are giving Internet users in the Asia-Pacific region the chance to win a top-of-the-range Nokia mobile telephone. The company's "Easier To Find" print ads has come to the Web with a competition where you must search for a person amongst a hundred others. If you find the person you can enter a monthly draw to win a phone. World Wide Web: http://www.nokia-asia.com/ Balkan Official News Source Eesti Ringvaade, a new daily news service from Estonia, is compiled from local news services such as BNS and ETA and issued by the press and information department of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Tallinn. The service is available via electronic-mail or a new Web server at the ministry in Estonia. Email: listserv@vm.ee with message "SUBSCRIBE ringvaade " World Wide Web: http://www.vm.ee/ Slovakia News Database Adds Search The Slovakia Document Store offers access to daily news updates from a variety of sources in Slovakia. The service is available by e-mail, gopher, ftp or Web. A new feature just added is a search engine, available through the Web site or a special e-mail search service. World Wide Web: http://www.eunet.sk/media/media.html Gopher: gopher://gopher.eunet.sk Anonymous FTP: ftp://ftp.eunet.sk/slovakia/media-digest Email: listserv@slovakia.eu.net with message "subscribe media" NandO Introduces Sports SCORE The latest attraction at NandO, the online newspaper, is sports section SCORE. The name stands for "specially configured online readers edition." With the new service you can design a sports page especially tailored to your particular interests. World Wide Web: http://www2.nando.net/SportServer/SCORE/ (Martyn Williams/19950817) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 08/17/95 BUSINESS Canada's Unitel Creates Committee To Handle Sale (NEWS)(BUSINESS)(TOR)(00012) Canada's Unitel Creates Committee To Handle Sale 08/17/95 TORONTO, ONTARIO, CANADA, 1995 AUG 17 (NB) -- Unitel Communications Inc., the money-losing Canadian long-distance telephone company, has set up a committee to review purchase offers for all or part of the company and oversee the sale. Unitel, which has been losing large amounts of money since entering the long-distance business, is looking for a buyer at least for the stake of its major shareholder, Canadian Pacific Ltd. (TSE, ME, VSE:CP) of Montreal, which has made clear that it wants out. The company's other two shareholders, Rogers Communications Inc. (TSE,ME:RCI) of Toronto and AT&T (NYSE:T) might also sell all or part of their interests. Three new members of the Unitel board will form the committee. They are: Charles Winograd, chairman and chief executive of Richardson Greenshields of Canada Ltd.; the Honorable Barbara McDougall, former Canadian Secretary of State for External Affairs; and Earl Joudrie, chairman of Algoma Steel Inc. and Gulf Canada Resources Ltd. Unitel also made changes to the boards of Unitel Communications Inc. and its holding company, Unitel Communications Holdings Inc. The three newly appointed committee members will also serve on both boards. Chairman William Fatt and Vice-Chairman George Harvey will remain on both boards. Other members of the two boards have resigned. Unitel spokeswoman Carleen Carroll said several parties have expressed interest in buying all or part of Unitel, and a few of these have moved into the "due diligence" stage of the process. "We're hoping that this matter will be resolved by the fall," she said. Canadian Pacific owns 48 percent of Unitel, Rogers owns 29.5 percent, and AT&T owns 22.5 percent. Rogers recently took a C$99- million charge against its second-quarter earnings to write off its investment in Unitel. (Grant Buckler/19950817/Press Contact: Carleen Carroll, Unitel, 416-345-2114) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 08/17/95 TELECOM Superconductor Prototype For Wireless Comms (NEWS)(TELECOM)(LAX)(00013) Superconductor Prototype For Wireless Comms 08/17/95 SANTA BARBARA, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1995 AUG 17 (NB) -- Superconductor Technologies Inc. (NASDAQ:SCON) has announced the delivery of a prototype high-temperature superconductor (HTS) filter unit to a leading cellular base station manufacturer. Radio frequency receiver filters are the key component in cellular systems to reduce interference. Joe Madden, applications manager of superconductor technologies, told Newsbytes, "Delivery of this unit signifies the completion of the initial development stage of a product designed to address the advanced system needs of a burgeoning cellular base station market. Radio frequency receiver filters are the key component in a cellular system that improves reception. "There are two types of superconductors. The first was made of very simple metals and operated at near absolute zero. The second is high-temperature superconductors (HTSs). HTS operates at a higher temperature, but still in a very cold state. Superconductor Technologies' HTS needs to be kept at -175 degrees centigrade," said Madden. The prototype subsystem consists of a HTS filter and Superconductor Technologies' proprietary cryogenic system. Said Madden, "Superconductors must be cooled in order to function properly. Superconductor Technologies' cryogenic system uses Stirling cycle coolers, which are quite small and are the most efficient miniature refrigerators known. The Stirling requires no liquids, maintenance or service through its operating life. "HTS technology offers two major advantages over conventional filters. First, HTS provides more filtering capacity, and, second it does it with smaller-sized units. Radio frequency receiver filters effectiveness is measured by resonator quality factors (Q). Conventional technology can approach 10,000 Qs, HTS is now in the range of 30,000 Qs, with lab results in the millions," said Madden. "Most analysts agree that between cellular and the new personal communications services (PCS), more than 65,000 additional base stations will be built in the next four years in the United States and another 80, 000 worldwide," said Daniel C. Hu, president and chief executive officer of Superconductor Technologies. "This will lead to a total available market of nearly $500 million in filters per year, and our company's proprietary thin-film HTS technology will be uniquely positioned to penetrate this market." (Richard Bowers/19950817/Press Contact: Jim Evans, Superconductor Technologies, 805-683-7646) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 08/17/95 GENERAL AmCoEx Index Of Used Computer Prices (NEWS)(GENERAL)(SFO)(00014) AmCoEx Index Of Used Computer Prices 08/17/95 SAN DIEGO, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1995 AUG 17 (NB) -- By John Hastings. At least one computer manufacturer is planning to equip new models of its computers with a pizza-sized satellite reception dish. The company feels they can market this computer and dish for less than $3,000. The dish will enable the user to download enough data to fill a CD-ROM, over 500 megabytes, in less than 12 minutes. This system could revolutionize the marketing of new software. The typical computer application with examples, tutorial, and manuals can fit on one CD-ROM. Satellite distribution opens the market to a worldwide audience. These types of systems are expected to be well-received in developing countries. Many countries desperately need the assistance these computers could provide in education and health care. The satellite download capability could provide assistance to people in the most remote areas of the world. The number of computer users around the world could increase by an order of magnitude. As more and more of these users become connected to the Internet, the global community will become smaller and better connected. Information will be more difficult for any government to control and democracies will flourish. One offshoot of this trend that many will laud and others will loathe will be the proliferation of English as the universal language. John Hastings is the president of the American Computer Exchange. Since 1988, the American Computer Exchange has matched buyers and sellers of used microcomputers. For more information contact the American Computer Exchange at (800) 786-0717 or http://www.crl.com/~amcoex. Index of Used Computer Prices The following prices are for August 14, 1995. Average Average Buyer's Seller's Machine Bid Ask Close Change($) IBM PS/2 Model 70 60MB $250 $500 $275 .. IBM PS/1 486DX2/50 253MB 700 1150 750 +25 IBM PS/2 Model 90 160MB 725 1100 750 -25 IBM ThinkPad 350C 1400 1800 1450 -50 IBM ThinkPad 700 900 1500 975 +50 IBM ThinkPad 720 1000 1500 1125 .. AST 486SX/25 170MB 450 850 525 -50 AST 486DX/66 340MB 600 1000 750 -25 Dell 386/33, 100MB 300 700 375 .. Dell 486DX/33 240MB 600 1050 650 -25 Gateway 386/25, 80MB 350 700 375 .. Gateway 486/33 120MB 500 700 650 +25 Clone Notebook 386SX, 40 MB 350 750 375 -50 Clone 386/33 80MB, VGA 300 600 325 .. Clone 486/25 120MB, VGA 650 1000 675 -50 Clone 486DX/33 240MB 550 1000 625 -25 Compaq LTE 286 40MB 250 675 275 .. Compaq Contura 320 60MB 500 1000 550 +25 Compaq Contura 4/25 120MB 750 1000 775 .. Compaq Deskpro 386/20e 100MB 350 700 375 .. Compaq Deskpro 486/33 120MB 650 1100 675 -25 Mac Classic II 80MB 350 800 400 +25 Mac IIsi 160MB 300 750 350 -50 Macintosh IIcx 80MB 200 500 250 -25 Macintosh IIci 80MB 400 850 550 +25 Macintosh IIfx 80MB 500 1000 550 .. Mac Quadra 700 230MB 700 1100 825 -50 Mac Quadra 800 500MB 900 1500 1225 -25 PowerBook 140 40MB 600 950 675 .. PowerBook 170 40MB 800 1350 950 +25 PowerBook 180 80MB 1000 1750 1325 -50 LaserWriterPro 630 1100 1650 1250 -50 Toshiba 1900 120M 550 950 625 .. Toshiba 3200 SXC, 120MB 1700 2650 1800 +50 Toshiba 3300SL 120MB 700 1100 750 +25 Toshiba 5200 100MB 750 1050 800 +25 HP LaserJet II 350 850 425 .. HP LaserJet IIIP 250 650 300 .. HP LaserJet III 500 900 550 .. HP LaserJet IV 800 1200 925 -50 (AMCOEX/19950817) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 08/17/95 BROADCAST Video News Roundup (NEWS)(BROADCAST)(MSP)(00015) Video News Roundup 08/17/95 MINNEAPOLIS, MINNESOTA, U.S.A., 1995 AUG 17 (NB) -- This is a look at the top stories this week in the world of video news reporting: Panasonic Consumer DigCam, Shadow Broadcast Using Panasonic TrafficCam, Lightworks' Hot Summer, Glasses Camera. #IMAGE 1 20 TWPCX \images\95081715.PCX Click here for photo Panasonic Intros Consumer Digital Camera & Traffic Cam Panasonic is introducing its version of a home digital camera. The Panasonic PV-DV1000 will have a cassette 1/12th the size of a standard VHS tape. The camera will deliver 500 lines of resolution and CD quality audio. The 60 minute tape can store up to 11 gigabytes of information. This is equal to 7,500 floppy disks. (Also see Newsbytes issue of August 2, 1995, regarding Sony's entry into home digital.) Shadow Broadcast Using Panasonic TrafficCam Shadow Broadcast Services of Rutherford NJ will be using the Panasonic TrafficCam in its private traffic TV network. Shadow Traffic provides traffic video and information for both government and commercial interests. Used in the tri-state area (New York, New Jersey, Connecticut), the TrafficCam will aid highway officials in monitoring traffic flow for control and safety. It transmits over standard dial-up telephone lines. The TrafficCam is weather-proofed with its own heater, fan, defroster, sun shield, and wiper unit. It can handle temperatures from -22 F to +113 degrees. Lightworks And Summer Movies Tektronix's latest acquisition, Lightworks, was used on a number of this summer's motion-pictures. According to Tektronix, Batman Forever, Nine Months, Waterworld, Die Hard With A Vengeance, Bad Boys, Congo, and Braveheart all used the non-linear Lightworks system. It was also reported that non-linear editing of major motion-pictures has increased in the last two years from 10 to 40 percent. The interface is reportedly film-editor-friendly with only 12 buttons and a lever. Glasses Cam An interesting ad for anyone involved in professional surveillance or hidden camera work for broadcast is in the current issue of GMV, the Government Video Magazine. Fletcher Chicago Inc., offers the Glasses Cam, "the ultimate undercover system!" As depicted in the ad photo, the camera unit can certainly pass for regular sunglasses. The ad says the lens is in the nosebridge and the microphone in the temple piece. It offers color with 350 lines, auto iris, and auto white balance along with the photo sensitive lens. The fax number for Fletcher Chicago is listed as 312-226-7281. (Newsbytes Staff/19950814/PANTRAFCAM950817/PHOTO) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 08/17/95 BROADCAST STB Intros New Video Card (NEWS)(BROADCAST)(DEN)(00016) STB Intros New Video Card 08/17/95 RICHARDSON, TEXAS, U.S.A., 1995 AUG 17 (NB) -- STB Systems Inc. (NASDAQ: STBI) has introduced a new PCI (Peripheral Component Interconnect) local bus video controller capable of full-motion and full-screen digital video playback. The company said the Powergraph 64 Video, an EDO (Extended Data Out) DRAM-based graphics controller, displays standard RGB (red-green-blue) graphics, video output from NTSC (North American Television Standards Committee)/PAL (respectively the US and European television standards) tuners or decompressed CD-ROM video on any standard Super VGA monitor. The Powergraph 64 Video is powered by the Trio64V+ chip from S3 Inc., which provides graphical user interface (GUI) acceleration, video scaling, signal mixing, RGB/YUV conversion, synchronization, and digital-to-analog converter (DAC) output to the display. In its fully populated two megabyte (MB) DRAM adapter configuration, the Powergraph 64 Video will support standard 64-bit graphics resolutions at refresh rates up to 160 hertz. The new controller is available in a 1MB upgradable version, and is compliant with all VESA (Video Electronic Standards Association) standards for power management and plug-and play, said STB. It will also support a daughter card option for MPEG (Motion Picture Experts Group)-1 audio/video hardware playback. STB includes accelerated graphics display drivers for Microsoft's Windows 3.11, Windows 95, Windows NT 3.5, and IBM's OS/2 Warp operating systems with each controller. Support is also available for AutoCAD drivers for releases 10 through 13, Autoshade with Renderman, and 3D Studio. The company said each card will be accompanied by STB Vision and STB Vision 95 utility tools. Vision provides localization and support of foreign languages including Spanish, German, French, Italian, and Japanese. The Powergraph 64 Video graphics controller has a suggested retail price of $229 in its fully populated 2MB configuration. The 1MB version carries a $189 price sticker. The cards are available directly from STB or through retailers CompUSA and Computer City. (Jim Mallory/19950817/Press contact: Katrina Krebs, STB Systems, 214-234-8750 ext 225; Public contact: STB, 214-234-8750) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 08/17/95 BROADCAST Optibase To Host October MPEG Development Seminar (NEWS)(BROADCAST)(DEN)(00017) Optibase To Host October MPEG Development Seminar 08/17/95 DALLAS, TEXAS, U.S.A., 1995 AUG 17 (NB) -- Optibase Inc. has announced it will host "the MPEG Development Series," an MPEG (Motion Picture Experts Group) application seminar, in six US cities beginning in mid-October. The company said the one-day seminars are designed to give videographers and interactive content developers practical training on how to incorporate MPEG video files into Video-CD and multimedia titles. MPEG is one of several available methods of compressing video to a format suited for data transmission and production. The first chip to encode and decode MPEG compressed video in real-time was introduced at the 1993 Spring Comdex show in Atlanta Georgia by Audio Digitalimaging. The market research firm Frost & Sullivan estimates that the data compression market will grow to six times its 1994 size by 1999. The technology is expected to accelerate because of its role in emerging applications such as videoconferencing, digital television, electronic identification systems, and other consumer products. Seminar co-sponsors include Digital Video Magazine, MacroMedia, CeQuadrat and JVC. The tour begins in New York City on October 16, moves to Miami on October 18, and is in Chicago October 20. It will be in Dallas October 23, Orange County, California on October 25, and Hollywood, California on October 26, 1995. Optibase spokesperson Mark Fears told Newsbytes his company will be discussing the beginnings of MPEG. "First we will talk about digital video to explain to people what that is," said Fears. The company's presentation will also explain the need for video compression, the different types of compression techniques available other than MPEG, and the different types of applications for MPEG compressed video. Phillips JVC will discuss burning CD-ROMs and video CDs, including formats. CeQuadrat will talk about how to author a video CD, the file format, and what is involved in that process. MacroMedia will discuss its Authorware, which can be used to create interactive training titles. Another company, still to be finalized, will discuss MPEG playback by the end user. Fears said much of the seminar will focus on video CD, computer- based training, and authoring. Also to be discussed will be broadcasting, delivery of video-on-demand, and "barker" channels. Barker channels display a short clip of movies that are available on a pay-per-view basis. The display appears when the user first turns on their television set, and is already in use in some metropolitan areas, such as Dallas, Texas. Seminar cost is $65 and includes entry to all sessions, a six-month subscription to Digital Video Magazine, free T-shirts, and sample Video-CDs and CD-ROMs. Lunch is also included. Optiplex manufactures and markets playback cards and encoding boards for personal computers. Currently the company markets its MPEG Lab Suite, a $17,995 encoder with pre-filtering. It also offers MPEG Lab Pro, a mid-range product priced at $1,995. The company lists information about its products on the World Wide Web at http://www.optibase.com . (Jim Mallory/19950817/Press contact: Mark Fears, Optibase, 214-774-3833; Public contact: Optibase, tel 214-774-3800, fax 214-239-1273, Internet World Wide Web http://www.optibase.com ; 800-451-5101 to register for the seminar) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 08/17/95 GENERAL PictureWorks Intros PhotoEnhancer Plus (NEWS)(GENERAL)(LAX)(00018) PictureWorks Intros PhotoEnhancer Plus 08/17/95 DANVILLE, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1995 AUG 17 (NB) -- PictureWorks Technology Inc., has announced PhotoEnhancer Plus, a new version of PhotoEnhancer. Available for Macintosh and Windows platforms, PhotoEnhancer Plus offers more editing tools, and built-in special effects, at the retail sales price of $129. Lee Cannon, president of PictureWorks, told Newsbytes, "PhotoEnhancer was created originally for the Apple, Kodak, and Logitech digital cameras. Scanners, pictures on CD-ROM, and electronic images from on-line services can now use PhotoEnhancer Plus' tools to enhance and manage pictures regardless of the original quality or source. Users can resize their image, correct color balance, and adjust sharpness or brightness to improve images. "Using a combination of sophisticated algorithms transparent to the user, PhotoEnhancer allows each individual to select the level of improvement to their original images that looks best to them," said Cannon. PhotoEnhancer Plus offers new editing tools, new filters, and new print optimization capabilities. New tools are text, pencil, eyedropper, paint brush, eraser, rubber stamp, clone brush, and smudge brush. PhotoEnhancer Plus also offers new built-in special effects, and filters such as antique, emboss, mosaic, quake, zig-zag, outline, and cartoon. "PhotoEnhancer Plus features Smartpix -- an innovative technology created by PictureWorks to provide custom built-in corrections for a wide range of conditions than can impact picture quality," said Cannon. "Smartpix uses a set of algorithms that can differentiate between pictures taken in fluorescent light and ones taken in bright outside daylight, for example. From a menu, users simply choose the Smartpix that best describes the characteristics of a certain picture." PhotoEnhancer Plus includes an integrated picture browser. According to the company, the browser lets users view and sort pictures directly from an input device such as a scanner or digital camera. PhotoEnhancer Plus provides direct access to the controls for digital cameras and scanners so users can make adjustments on screen or download and view pictures directly while in PhotoEnhancer Plus. (Richard Bowers/19950816/Press Contact: Lisa Wood, PictureWorks, Danville, 510-855-2012) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 08/17/95 GENERAL 3-D Becomes Major Strategy At Creative Labs (NEWS)(GENERAL)(SFO)(00019) 3-D Becomes Major Strategy At Creative Labs 08/17/95 SAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1995 AUG 17 (NB) -- Creative Labs (NASDAQ:CREAF), developer of Sound Blaster audio cards, says its 3D Blaster technology represents a new strategy for the company and a major leap forward for multimedia on the personal computer (PC). The new Blaster product is the first of a series of boards which will deliver three-dimensional (3-D) graphics to the PC with twice the performance found on a Sony Playstation, claims the company. #IMAGE 1 20 TWPCX \images\95081719.PCX Click here for photo Based on 3D Blaster True Technology, Creative's new 3-D board provides perspective correct texture mapping. The company says it delivers "compelling image quality" at high frame rates, eases rendering loads on a system's main processor, draws more polygons, and eliminates visual anomalies. The past three days, Creative has held a developers conference to begin the process of creating the necessary tools for software development and to encourage the development of software games. Early efforts from Creative will concentrate on PC games, but the company says other entertainment and educational applications may easily incorporate the new technology. The first boards are expected to be on the market for Christmas. Bundled with six games, the board will have an estimated street price of $349. Noting the majority of installed PCs are powered by 486 processors, Creative says its new 3-D card is aimed to protect and enhance the investment more than 20 million people have in 486-based home computers. The company also says 3D Blaster offers "dramatic performance enhancement" over Pentium-based machines. Creative's chairman and chief executive officer, W.H. Sim, told Newsbytes, "This technology (3D Blaster True Technology) is the next generation of computing. With 3D Blaster, we are able to offer a standard of graphics only found on a $15,000 workstation. What we are introducing today is a new standard for the PC, for multimedia and for gaming. We intend to make it as strong and well-known as our Sound Blaster technology." He continued: "The difference is we were a small Singapore company when we started our audio cards, whereas today, we are a billion dollar company with an average annual growth rate of 198.37%. With that growth we intend make 3D Blaster as important and popular as Sound Blaster -- except now we will have 100 times the commitment, momentum and impact." Sim's comments boldly claimed the PC would be the platform of the future for gaming. "PC gaming will surpass all set-top boxes. The personal computer will become the choice for entertainment," said Sim. He cited the cost of a new Sony Playstation to be $299 without a bundle of games and said the cost of some games could be as high as $99. "Our 3D Blaster offers twice the performance of Sony Playstation and is by far a better buy," said Sim Creative says users want perspective correct renderings, high interaction and control, total immersion, and "real-time experience." 3D Blaster provides 65,536 colors at 640 by 480 resolution. These are features of the first version of 3D Blaster. The first version is designed for a standard VL bus common to 486-based computers. In the first quarter of 96, Creative will introduce a PCI (Peripheral Component Interconnect) bus version. Through 1996 and 1997, Creative will enhance the card with Motion Picture Experts Group (MPEG) technology and with 3-D audio. On the drawing board is a 3D Blaster card with all of the above features plus a simultaneous data/voice modem for interactive multiple game play. To support all of its bold statements, Creative gave a brief demonstration of the first graphics developed for 3D Blaster. Its performance on a 486 computer appeared comparable to special effects for a feature film. 3D Blaster requires a 486/66 DX2-based computer using Windows 3.1 or higher with four megabytes of RAM. It supports Plug-and-Play and is Windows 95-ready. Among the more than 200 software developers supporting the new technology are the following companies who are developing the first bundled games for 3D Blaster: Mindscape, EA/Bullfrog, Papyrus, PF Magic, and Looking Glass. (Patrick McKenna/19950817/Press Contact: Lisa Kimura, Copithorne & Bellows, 415-284-5200/CREATIVE950817/PHOTO) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 08/17/95 ONLINE WebServer Software Available On DEC Platform (NEWS)(ONLINE)(LON)(00020) WebServer Software Available On DEC Platform 08/17/95 READING, BERKSHIRE, ENGLAND, 1995 AUG 17 (NB) -- Integralis has announced the release of its Purveyor WebServer host software for the OpenVMS computing platforms. According to Paul Mansfield, the company's sales manager, the package is the first to market for the VAX and Alpha AXP systems. "Obviously, because of the open nature of the OpenVMS environment, we expect there will be other packages released in the near future, but this package was developed specifically for the VMS environment, rather than being a simple C language code port as seen on many Unix ports from the PC platform," he told Newsbytes. Mansfield went on to explain that this package was developed in the US by Dave Cutler, who is credited as being the architect of the Windows NT operating system for Microsoft. "What I find fascinating about this is that Cutler was involved in the development of the VMS operating system all those years ago. Just as the initials IBM are one alphabetic character shifted from the initials HAL, the computer seen in 2001, so WNT is a one character shift from VMS. I'm sure that Cutler's involvement in the Windows NT (WNT) project had something to do with this name character shifts," he told Newsbytes. Pricing on the WebServer application for OpenVMS has been set at UKP975 in Europe, where Integralis has the exclusive distribution rights to the software. The package is being billed as allowing corporations to combine traditionally large amounts of information with a World Wide Web-based information delivery function, taking advantage of the inherently secure OpenVMS environment. Kevin Washburn, a director with Integralis, said that the package is significant, since it allows companies to develop a strong Internet presence for internal, as well as external, communications. "We have identified inter-departmental user benefits which will save organizations a fortune in publishing costs, with the Web operating as a platform for open groupware," he said. "Figures show the World Wide Web server market will reach $500 million in sales by 1997, and this announcement is proof of our commitment to the technology. Our servers vary in price, compatibility and functionality, to ensure that the Web can be used as a commercial tool in every company," he said. (Steve Gold/19950817/Press Contact: Lewis Communications, tel +44-171-831-4890, fax +44-171-831-4889, Internet e-mail lewiscom@cix.compulink.co.uk; Reader Contact: Integralis, tel +44-1734-306060, fax +44-1734-302143, Internet e-mail info@integralis.co.uk) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 08/17/95 LEGAL Software Pirate Trap In Singapore (NEWS)(LEGAL)(HKG)(00021) Software Pirate Trap In Singapore 08/17/95 CENTRAL, HONG KONG, 1995 AUG 17 (NB) -- Following the news of counterfeit NEC DRAMs being produced in Asia come reports that networking and database products are being faked as well. Victims of the racket this time are Novell and Oracle, with their respective NetWare and database software. According to a report in Singapore's Business Times, the exposure followed a trap purchase of pirated versions of NetWare 4.1 and Oracle 7 from a local store. The trap was laid by piracy watchdog the Business Software Alliance (BSA). BSA also managed to purchase a pirated version of IBM's OS/2 operating system. The products were being marketed at bargain-basement prices. While an original Novell NetWare could cost US$48,000 for a 1,000-user license, the pirated version was available for under S$30, the newspaper said. Novel's legal counsel for Asia Pacific, David Sigler, told the paper that corporate clients were being deceived into buying the fakes by unscrupulous resellers who disguise them as originals. Smaller clients are usually the ones falling for the scam as the resellers exploit their lack of awareness. While the pirated products are being sold in Singapore, they are believed to have been imported from Hong Kong or China. However, a BSA official said that disks were also being pirated in Singapore. Some CD-ROMs, he said, were loaded with as many as 30 software titles each. The losses accruing to software vendors, distributors and retailers in Singapore from piracy last year were pegged by the BSA at US$44 million, compared with $32 million in 1993. Despite the rising figures, BSA says it is making progress in Singapore. Over 100 local retailers recently signed a code of ethics with the BSA, declaring their determination not to sell counterfeit products. (Nigel Armstrong & I.T. Daily/19950817) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 08/17/95 BUSINESS Compaq's Asia Pacific Plan (NEWS)(BUSINESS)(HKG)(00022) Compaq's Asia Pacific Plan 08/17/95 CENTRAL, HONG KONG, 1995 AUG 17 (NB) -- The worlds leading PC supplier, Compaq, is strengthening its position in Asia. The company's managing director for Asia/Pacific, Lim Soon Hock, recently revealed a master plan designed to take the PC maker into and beyond the turn of the century, as part of an overall revamp of the company from "product-centric to customer-centric." This week, just a few days before the launch of Windows 95, the firm is to make a major announcement aimed, it says, at positioning the company as offering users the "best overall value in the industry." The move, Compaq says, will have implications for all players in the ASEAN market. Lim emphasized the company's commitment to increased services support at all levels as the major weapon against incumbent giants (IBM, Hewlett Packard, and Digital) and hungry newcomers like Packard Bell that are snapping at Compaq's market share. "Our willingness to invest has led to success in the past," Lim said, stressing the company would do the same with a new three-tiered systems support structure. He unveiled a model for the three tiers with a single high-end global systems support partner to be announced later in the year. The tough markets in Taiwan and Korea are seen as prime targets in the region, with Philip Leung, formerly with Advanced Micro Devices and briefly Quantum, recently being appointed to oversee the push. Meanwhile, further penetration into the burgeoning China market is being fueled by a number of new ventures. Compaq set up 36 maintenance centers around the country in the first half of the year and plans to bring the number to 50 before the end of 1995. A joint venture in Shenzhen, formally put into operation earlier this year, will produce 100,000 PCs in 1995, which will be used to meet domestic demand and to export to other Asian countries. China will also become a major components supplier for Compaq. The company plans to purchase more than US$200 million worth of color monitors and other components from China this year. Last year Compaq edged past rival AST to become the largest PC supplier in China, with 22.7% of the market, while maintaining its overall lead in the Asia/Pacific stakes. (Nigel Armstrong & I.T. Daily/19950817) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 08/17/95 ONLINE ****Ziff-Davis Adds Real Audio To Web Site (NEWS)(ONLINE)(SFO)(00023) ****Ziff-Davis Adds Real Audio To Web Site 08/17/95 CAMBRIDGE, MASSACHUSETTS, U.S.A., 1995 AUG 17 (NB) -- Starting today, Ziff-Davis is adding Real Audio from Progressive Networks to its computer information and news World Wide Web site, called ZD Net. The first audio files offer a welcome message and columnist, Charles Cooper, reading his column. Scot Finnie, executive editor of ZD Net/Web, told Newsbytes, "We think hot new technology like this is what readers of our magazines and our Web site are keen on. We do not have any hard numbers on its use or popularity, but we intend to be a leader in bringing new technology to the forefront." To make listening to the audio files easy, ZD Net hyperlinks to Progressive's page which offers the necessary audio player. Finnie says Progressive has made downloading and installing the free player a simple process. Once copied to a hard disk, the player may be opened through its self-extracting process. It automatically finds and installs on most Web browsers. A list of browsers is contained in the Web site. Finnie also told Newsbytes, "We have plans to expand audio in a number of different ways. The next addition will be Gina Smith's Dirt Column and some clips from her radio show, On Computing." Smith's Dirt Column offers inside info on "who is doing what among the movers and shakers of the computer industry." ZD Net is also looking into the possibility of offering audio of various interviews with important people in the computer industry. Progressive Networks, covered by Newsbytes in earlier stories, first introduced its Real Audio for the Internet earlier this year. CBS, National Public Radio, Hearst Magazines and a number of other companies have adopted this audio technology for the Internet. Real Audio server software is licensed and the client player is offered free to all users. Other than the software player, users need a standard personal computer including a sound board. Macintosh and Windows versions are both available. (Patrick McKenna/19950817/Press Contact: Janice Brown, Janice Brown & Associates, 617-332-8066; ZD Net Internet World Wide Web http://www.zdnet.com ) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 08/17/95 ONLINE ****Microsoft Intros Internet Win 95 Browser (NEWS)(ONLINE)(DEN)(00024) ****Microsoft Intros Internet Win 95 Browser 08/17/95 REDMOND, WASHINGTON, U.S.A., 1995 AUG 17 (NB) -- Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ: MSFT) has unveiled the Microsoft Internet Explorer, an Internet browser designed specifically for the Microsoft Windows 95 operating system. Microsoft said Explorer is the first Internet browser to ship with real-time audio capabilities. It will be available August 24, the same day Windows 95 and the Microsoft Network (MSN), the company's online service, are scheduled to launch. In January of this year Newsbytes reported that Microsoft had licensed the Mosaic browser software from Spyglass Inc. It is that technology that is the core of Explorer. "Microsoft took that technology and enhanced it for better ease-of-use and integration into Windows 95 and higher performance," said a Microsoft spokesperson at public relations firm Waggener Edstrom. Mosaic users should be comfortable with the look of Explorer. Even though there are some cosmetic changes so it more closely mirrors Windows 95, much of the differences are claimed to be transparent to the user, like tight integration with Windows 95 to take advantage of that program's shortcuts. "You can type in a Web page and access it immediately. Also, any recently accessed pages can appear on the recent document menu and can be accessed right off the Start button," a Microsoft spokesperson told Newsbytes. Explorer is part of the Microsoft Internet Jumpstart Kit, which provides users connection to the Internet from within Windows, regardless of which Internet access provider they choose. However, if MSN is the provider selected, Windows 95 offers one-button sign-up, the ability to be on the Internet and on MSN simultaneously with a single connection, and the ability to jump around on MSN by clicking the mouse. Microsoft said the Jumpstart Kit also includes setup wizards, helpers that make it easy to set up Internet access by clicking on a Windows 95 icon. An Internet tutorial and search engine is included with Explorer, which supports drag-and-drop of text and graphics. It also supports Windows Shortcuts, allowing users to launch their connectivity software, dial the service provider, open the Web browser, and navigate to the desired Web site at the click of a button. Explorer supports standard hypertext markup language (HTML) tags so users can read content on the Internet. Proxy server support allows protected access to the Internet through corporate "firewalls," devices designed to limit access in and out of corporate networks. Explorer ships with RealAudio Player, which allows users of multimedia PCs and voice-grade telephone lines to browse, select and play-back audio or audio-based multimedia content in real time. RealAudio Play was licensed to Microsoft by Progressive Networks Inc. The Internet Explorer is available as part of Microsoft Plus, the companion product for Windows 95 that includes 20 free hours of MSN access time if users sign up for the MSN frequent user monthly plan. You can also download Explorer from CompuServe, MSN, and Microsoft's World Wide Web home page. It is also expected to be pre-loaded by numerous PC makers along with Windows 95 on PCs shipped after August 24. (Jim Mallory/19950817/Press contact: Pam Kahl, Waggener Edstrom for Microsoft, 408-986-1140; Public contact: Microsoft, 206-882-8080 or 800-426-9400, Internet World Wide Web http://www.microsoft.com ) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 08/17/95 ONLINE Netscape's Partners Program (NEWS)(ONLINE)(SFO)(00025) Netscape's Partners Program 08/17/95 MOUNTAIN VIEW, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1995 AUG 17 (NB) -- After its dramatic initial public offering recently, Netscape Communications (NASDAQ:NSCP) is announcing the Netscape Development Partners Program to encourage and support companies developing products and services based on Netscape's technology. Among potential partners, Netscape invites commercial and enterprise developers, creative and design professionals, value-added resellers, integrators and consultants, to join the program. The Partners Program offers software, tools, and information that will allow developers to customize and extend existing Netscape client/server software. Companies applying for membership prior to October 1 will be enrolled free for the first year. A $495 annual membership fee will be charged after October 1. "Essentially, we have had a lot of third-party developers wanting to work more closely with us in the past year. Some of these people want to create custom applications for their enterprise environment and some what to develop commercial applications which support our Internet client/server products," said Netscape spokesperson Rosanne Siino. "By offering the program, we will be able to have an established channel for developers working with Netscape. There will be regular newsletters and updates on developer information," she added. As an example, Siino said a Wall Street company might want to develop a custom stock tracking program to tie into Netscape's Internet products, or a commercial software developer might have an idea about developing a means of tracking "hits" on an Internet server using Netscape products. The new program will offer an electronic newsletter with product and program announcements, online technical information, technical support, early access to development tools, and discounts on Netscape software. Netscape has opened a new area on its World Wide Web site for the Partners Program. Information and application can be found at http://www.netscape.com/comprod/development_partners . (Patrick McKenna/19950817/Press Contact: Roasnne Siino, Netscape, 415-528-2619) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 08/17/95 TRENDS ****IDC Predicts 20 Million Win 95 Users In 4 Months (NEWS)(TRENDS)(LAX)(00026) ****IDC Predicts 20 Million Win 95 Users In 4 Months 08/17/95 CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1995 AUG 17 (NB) -- International Data Corp. (IDC), a unit of International Data Group (IDG), predicts Microsoft will ship 20 million copies of Windows 95 in the first four months. IDC sees easy sailing for Microsoft in the home market, but tougher going with corporate customers. "Home users buy whatever is hot, so sales on new consumer PCs will be a slam dunk," said David Card, IDC's director of PC software research. "But corporate customers are going to be a tougher battle. Microsoft's most difficult job will be to transition the massive installed base of business customers." According to International Data Corp. (IDC), barring a major glich, two key issues will determine corporate sales of Windows 95 and related products: first, how quick Windows 95 is embraced by application software vendors; and second, how long it takes corporate clients to complete training and support programs for the transition. Mary Conti Loffredo, IDC's PC and consumer software research manager, told Newsbytes, "A recent IDC survey of 400 corporate buyers indicates that among those who plan to upgrade to Windows 95, 23 percent said they would upgrade to Windows 95-based applications in the near term. When asked how long it would take, the average response was 4.9 months. Thirty-four percent indicated they were not sure if they were going to upgrade, and 43 percent said they had no plans to upgrade. Vendors must demonstrate the benefits of Windows 95 applications in order to convince users that the upgrade is worthwhile." She added: "The survey also shows users expect Windows 95 to deliver improved performance, multitasking, and other 32-bit features. However, these benefits will primarily be realized by acquiring new applications software." IDC's research also indicates that customers are concerned about training and support issues. "Corporations are looking before they leap," said Kurt Johnson, manager of IDC's software services research. "They want to make sure their support and training infrastructure is in place first before moving to a new technology like Windows 95. This is a huge opportunity for service providers." The report, called "PC Operating Systems Market Review and Forecast, 1994-1999," also predicts that by the end of 1996, nearly 70 million PCs worldwide will be running Windows 95. IDC also forecasts that the installed base of Windows NT licenses will approach one million in 1995, but register single-digit market share through the decade. IDC has research centers in more than 40 countries and a staff of more than 300, and is the research and consulting arm of International Data Group. (Richard Bowers/19950817/Press Contact: David Card, IDC, 415-962- 6466; Reader Contact: Linda Rich, 508-935-4389) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 08/17/95 IBM IBM Plans Beta Test Of CommonPoint For OS/2 In Fall (NEWS)(IBM)(BOS)(00027) IBM Plans Beta Test Of CommonPoint For OS/2 In Fall 08/17/95 SOMERS, NEW YORK, U.S.A., 1995 AUG 17 (NB) -- "What we're really announcing is a `strategy of choice,'" maintained IBM's Skip McGaughey, in an interview with Newsbytes about plans for IBM's CommonPoint that include launching an initial beta test for the OS/2 edition this fall, developing new training programs during a subsequent market trial, and extending CommonPoint to AS/400. IBM's CommonPoint for AIX on RS-6000, the first implementation of Taligent's object-oriented (OO) application development environment, shipped in July, according to McGaughey, who is IBM's market manager for object-oriented application development tools. In September, he added, IBM will launch a technical trial of CommonPoint for "advanced C++ programmers and early adopters," to be followed by a worldwide market test, and ultimately, by final release. No dates have been set yet for the market test of the OS/2 edition, which will bring "much wider availability," or for the final release. IBM is not going to "just pick a date and ship a product," McGaughey told Newsbytes. Instead, IBM will test and fine-tune the "functionality and competitiveness" of the OS/2 edition during the technical trial, and will then employ the market test for creating service offerings that will help developers to improve their skills. "What (developers) keep telling us is that it's not just a question of code. They need to have the training and skills. During the market trial, we will figure out what service offerings they need, so as we end up the beta, we'll have a set of services in place," the market manager revealed. With its new set of CommonPoint announcements, IBM is officially adding AS/400 to the previously announced OS/2 and AIX editions, McGaughey noted. "By providing the same degree of functionality on multiple platforms, we're giving customers the ability to meet their needs," he contended. Aside from the three IBM platforms, CommonPoint will also be offered for HP-UX, Windows 95, Windows NT, and Apple's upcoming Copland, Taligent and IBM officials said during a teleconference attended by Newsbytes in July. McGaughey told Newsbytes this week that CommonPoint will also provide choices in terms of development languages. Professional developers will be able to use tools such as VisualAge for C++ and VisualAge for Smalltalk, together with the 100 reusable components in CommonPoint, to quickly build OO applications for end users, he asserted. Alternatively, business users will be able to create their own applications by using a scripting language for OpenDoc that is being developed through a strategic agreement with Apple, IBM's partner in Taligent, according to McGaughey. Taligent has provided "a very exciting opportunity to get some technology from Apple people, and some from IBM, to build this very strong application development system," McGaughey maintained. But although CommonPoint will allow a wide range of choices, the environment is built firmly on standards, complying with both CORBA (Common Object Request Broker Architecture) 2.0 and ANSI C++, according to the IBM exec. "In fact, we started the ANSI C++ standards committee. We are fundamentally and unequivocally committed to standards. If the standards change, we will change," Newsbytes was told. (Jacqueline Emigh/19950817/Reader Contact: IBM, 914-765-1900; Press Contact: Keith Mary Rantas-Drew, IBM, 914-766-1211; Chris Webber, Brodeur & Partners for IBM, 617-622-2834) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 08/17/95 IBM ****IBM Not Dumping Consumer OS/2 Warp (NEWS)(IBM)(HKG)(00028) ****IBM Not Dumping Consumer OS/2 Warp 08/17/95 CENTRAL, HONG KONG, 1995 AUG 17 (NB) -- IBM's Hong Kong/China unit has slammed the New York Times, accusing it of misinterpreting Chairman Lou Gertzner's recent comments to securities analysts on the future of OS/2. The strong suggestion in the reports, which Hong Kong spokesperson Florence Ma said ran in the New York Times and the Wall Street Journal, was that IBM was abandoning the consumer market and focusing its Warp marketing efforts on corporate accounts. "That's not the truth," Ma told I.T. Daily. "They misinterpreted what Lou said." However, she did say that companies, not individuals, were IBM's sales priority. "It is true we will be focusing more on corporate accounts." She said IBM was "fully committed" to OS/2 and not about to abandon its installed base of nine million users. Most of those, as Gerstner himself acknowledged, were corporate users. "We're coming out with a family (games) package in two weeks," Ma said, underscoring IBM's intention to stay in the consumer market. Ma said the CEO's remarks in a Q&A session after his speech were taken out of context. When he was asked about IBM's architecture strategy, Gertsner cited OS/2 as an important platform, particularly for "serious business applications." He said standalone users, i.e. consumers, were not IBM's primary target. In the Wall Street Journal Report, aired on Hong Kong's TVB television station, the Journal's technology reporter praised OS/2's Warp version but said users were running into installation problems. Also, in a report last month, BusinessWeek called Warp "vulnerable" in the face of Windows 95. "It has only 10% of the market and Windows has many of its features." If IBM were to abandon the consumer market, it would be doing so at an odd time. Consumers, as Gertsner himself acknowledged in his session last week, are starting to be a larger and larger part of the business occasion. "In 1993, consumers represented 18% of the US market," he said. "In the 1993 to 1998 period, they will represent 39% of the growth in the US market." In that time, he said, the market will have expanded as a compound annual growth rate of 17% -- from 1993's US$54 billion market to US$116 billion by 1998. Gertsner defined the market as taking in products ranging from PCs and peripherals to games and services. "And interestingly, most categories and growth rates are the same all over the world." He acknowledged one sticky area where consumers were concerned. He said market studies indicate the public perceived IBM as an expensive brand. "We need to learn to do much better at high-volume, low-margin manufacturing as we've learned in our PC business." (Nigel Armstrong & I.T. Daily/19950817) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 08/17/95 ONLINE Free Figleaf, WebTap, DynaWeb Software For Web (NEWS)(ONLINE)(BOS)(00029) Free Figleaf, WebTap, DynaWeb Software For Web 08/17/95 PROVIDENCE, RHODE ISLAND, U.S.A., 1995 AUG 17 (NB) -- Electronic Books Technologies (EBT) has introduced three new products for the Web: the Figleaf multi-format graphics viewer; the WebTap tool for "stress testing" Web servers; And DynaWeb 1.0. All three are being offered free of charge, said Kent Somers, director of marketing, in an interview with Newsbytes. Figleaf and WebTap, an applet to Sun's Hot Java, are both available now as free downloads off the Web, Somers told Newsbytes. DynaWeb, on the other hand, is an add-on to EBT's DynaText authoring program. Being supplied to DynaText users free of charge, the add-on is aimed at automatically converting the SGML (standard generalized markup language) pages in DynaText into the HTML (hypertext markup language) format used by most Web browsers. Figleaf stands for "figure leaf," according to Somers. "Graphics formats on the Web are pretty much limited to TIFF (tagged image file format), GIF (Graphical Interchange Format), and JPEG (Joint Photographic Experts Group). But there are also a lot of other graphics formats that are very popular within various industries," the VP maintained. "So we've created Figleaf, a graphics browser tool that works as a helper application with any (HTML-compliant) Web browser to display these graphics in their native format," Newsbytes was told. Two of the "most interesting" graphics formats to be supported by Figleaf are CGM (Computer Graphics Metafile), a vector graphics format, and the CCITT Group 4 raster format, according to Somers. Both of these formats are CALS specifications, and CGM is under serious consideration as a MIME standard for the Web, as well, he reported. Figleaf also allows native file format viewing of TIFF, GIF, and JPEG, along with the EPSF (Encapsulated Postscript Format), BMP (bitmap), and SR (Sun Raster) file formats, Somers said. The VP added that EBT first developed WebTap to "stress test" and statistically analyze its own DynaWeb server for large documents. The HotJava applet, though, can be used with other Web servers, too. "You can use WebTap to beat up the Web server, debug it, and tune for performance. That way, you can uncover any nasty little bottlenecks on the server, before it's actually sent out," he elaborated. Specifically, the Web developer can tell WebTap to "tap" a Web server for information such as response time, in bytes per second, or how long it takes to download a document, or to process a document request. The developer can then use this information to establish quantitative benchmarks for Web tuning, Somers said. Another feature, "continuous tapping," can be used to simulate "real live traffic" on the Web server in order to figure out how many "hits" to expect. DynaWeb 1.0, EBT's new SGML-to-HTML conversion tool, can be differentiated from other products in the category by its ease of use, as well as by its ability to handle large documents, "spanning multiple CD-ROMs," according to Somers. "All you have to do is install the server, and point to the Dynatext electronic book collection. The server takes care of all the rest," he contended. In addition, documents published to the Web retain all of their SGML-based Dynatext functionality, according to the EBT VP. This functionality includes a "dynamic table of contents, sophisticated searches across very large collections, and the ability to navigate to relevant topic areas very quickly," according to Somers. Added the EBT exec: "EBT's philosophy is, `Publish it once, and then send it out however you want, as many times as you want.'" Figleaf and WebTap are both available from the free download area of EBT's home page, at http.//www.ebt.com . Alternatively, WebTap is downloadable free of charge from the Sun home page (http.//java.sun.com , (select "The Latest Cool Applets"). (Jacqueline Emigh/19950817/Reader Contact: EBT, 401-421-9550; Press Contacts: Paul Lamoureux, EBT, 401-421-9551; Craig Librett, Miller Communications for EBT, 617-536-0470) (SUMMARY)(GENERAL)(MSP)(00030) Newsbytes Daily Summary 08/17/95 MINNEAPOLIS, MINNESOTA, U.S.A., 1995 AUG 17 (NB) -- These are capsules of all today's news stories: ======================================================================== ------------| N E W S B Y T E S D A I L Y S U M M A R Y |---------- ------------| Thursday, August 17, 1995 |---------- ======================================================================== (c) Newsbytes News Network (Tm) Editor in Chief: Wendy Woods ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Newsbytes News Network's 1995 Update CD-ROM for Mac, DOS, and Windows is now available for $29.95 (includes s&h). Contains 1983-1995 news stories, more than 64,000 keyword searchable stories and 475 digitized images. For more information or to order, fax to 612-430-0441 or e-mail to 'administrator@newsbytes.com' -- MC, Visa, Amex accepted. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ CATEGORY HEADLINES (*** indicates today's top stories) STORY # ======================================================================== BROADCAST Satellite Service Offers Pay-Per-Story News................ 09 BROADCAST Video News Roundup......................................... 15 BROADCAST STB Intros New Video Card.................................. 16 BROADCAST Optibase To Host October MPEG Development Seminar.......... 17 BUSINESS Canada's Unitel Creates Committee To Handle Sale........... 12 BUSINESS Compaq's Asia Pacific Plan................................. 22 GENERAL Electric Group Produces CD-I On Geothermal Heat Pumps...... 04 GENERAL UK Intellectual Property Rights Conference Set............. 06 GENERAL China - CompuChina'95 Computer Expo Report................. 08 GENERAL AmCoEx Index Of Used Computer Prices....................... 14 GENERAL PictureWorks Intros PhotoEnhancer Plus..................... 18 GENERAL 3-D Becomes Major Strategy At Creative Labs................ 19 IBM IBM Plans Beta Test Of CommonPoint For OS/2 In Fall........ 27 IBM ****IBM Not Dumping Consumer OS/2 Warp.................... 28 LEGAL Software Pirate Trap In Singapore.......................... 21 ONLINE Marketing On Microsoft Network - Book...................... 02 ONLINE UK - CompuServe Offers UK Politics Forum................... 05 ONLINE Internet Update............................................ 11 ONLINE WebServer Software Available On DEC Platform............... 20 ONLINE ****Ziff-Davis Adds Real Audio To Web Site................ 23 ONLINE ****Microsoft Intros Internet Win 95 Browser.............. 24 ONLINE Netscape's Partners Program................................ 25 ONLINE Free Figleaf, WebTap, DynaWeb Software For Web............. 29 TELECOM China - Telecoms Continues Fast Expansion.................. 07 TELECOM China - Phone Service Improvement Promoted................. 10 TELECOM Superconductor Prototype For Wireless Comms................ 13 TRENDS European Pentium Sales Climbing Steadily - Report.......... 01 TRENDS Gandalf Tops European Bridge Market........................ 03 TRENDS ****IDC Predicts 20 Million Win 95 Users In 4 Months...... 26 ======================================================================== These are the headlines and first paragraphs of each story, in order: 1 -> European Pentium Sales Climbing Steadily - Report -- Sales of Pentium desktop PCs in the UK via the indirect (dealer and retail) channels grew from five percent to 29 percent by volume in the first half of 1995 according to figures just released by Context, the European computer research company. 2 -> Marketing On Microsoft Network - Book -- The firm Successful Marketing Strategists said it will teach people how to market goods and services online in both paper and electronic form, via Ziff-Davis Publishing and the new Microsoft Network (MSN) online service. 3 -> Gandalf Tops European Bridge Market -- Gandalf has revealed that the latest set of figures from Dataquest, the market research company, show that it produced more remote access and local bridges than any other competitor in Europe during 1994. 4 -> Electric Group Produces CD-I On Geothermal Heat Pumps -- The Electrification Council has produced a compact disk-interactive (CD-I) aimed at electric utility marketing of ground source heat pumps, which can reduce building energy bills by as much as 50 percent. Ground source, or geothermal, heat pumps use loops of piping buried underground to provide a constant heat source for an electric heat pump. 5 -> UK - CompuServe Offers UK Politics Forum -- CompuServe has opened a UK Politics Forum, aiming to allow the online service's UK members with a platform to express their ideas, views, and opinions. 6 -> UK Intellectual Property Rights Conference Set -- The Labour Telematics Center, working with the National Union of Journalists (NUJ) and the Manchester Telematics Training Partnership has announced a three-day conference which aims to discuss intellectual property rights (IPR), the information superhighway, and information creators. 7 -> China - Telecoms Continues Fast Expansion -- China's telecommunications capacity kept growing fast in the first half of this year, with a sharp increase in both subscribers and business over the same period of last year, the Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications (MPT) said. 8 -> China - CompuChina'95 Computer Expo Report -- The Second China International Computer Exhibition, the only computer show continuously sponsored by the Ministry of Electronics Industry, was held in Beijing from August 2 to 6. About 200,000 people visited the exhibition. 9 -> Satellite Service Offers Pay-Per-Story News -- Newly formed Network News Corp. will deliver news from assorted wire services, including Newsbytes, to subscribers' personal computers via satellite. Customers will pay only for the news they choose to read. 10 -> China - Phone Service Improvement Promoted -- To help telephone companies "improve service quality" and "safeguard consumers' rights," the China Quality Control Committee and the Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications have jointly organized a campaign and distributed copies of a questionnaire to 100,000 telephone subscribers in over 70 cities. 11 -> Internet Update -- In this roundup of new services and resources on the Internet: Hurricane tracking online, MSN Web site preview, American sports overseas, Visit the page, win a phone, Balkan official news source, Slovakia news database adds search, NandO introduces sports SCORE. 12 -> Canada's Unitel Creates Committee To Handle Sale -- Unitel Communications Inc., the money-losing Canadian long-distance telephone company, has set up a committee to review purchase offers for all or part of the company and oversee the sale. 13 -> Superconductor Prototype For Wireless Comms -- Superconductor Technologies Inc. (NASDAQ:SCON) has announced the delivery of a prototype high-temperature superconductor (HTS) filter unit to a leading cellular base station manufacturer. Radio frequency receiver filters are the key component in cellular systems to reduce interference. 14 -> AmCoEx Index Of Used Computer Prices -- By John Hastings. At least one computer manufacturer is planning to equip new models of its computers with a pizza-sized satellite reception dish. The company feels they can market this computer and dish for less than $3,000. 15 -> Video News Roundup -- This is a look at the top stories this week in the world of video news reporting: Panasonic Consumer DigCam, Shadow Broadcast Using Panasonic TrafficCam, Lightworks' Hot Summer, Glasses Camera. 16 -> STB Intros New Video Card -- STB Systems Inc. (NASDAQ: STBI) has introduced a new PCI (Peripheral Component Interconnect) local bus video controller capable of full-motion and full-screen digital video playback. 17 -> Optibase To Host October MPEG Development Seminar -- Optibase Inc. has announced it will host "the MPEG Development Series," an MPEG (Motion Picture Experts Group) application seminar, in six US cities beginning in mid-October. 18 -> PictureWorks Intros PhotoEnhancer Plus -- PictureWorks Technology Inc., has announced PhotoEnhancer Plus, a new version of PhotoEnhancer. Available for Macintosh and Windows platforms, PhotoEnhancer Plus offers more editing tools, and built-in special effects, at the retail sales price of $129. 19 -> 3-D Becomes Major Strategy At Creative Labs -- Creative Labs (NASDAQ:CREAF), developer of Sound Blaster audio cards, says its 3D Blaster technology represents a new strategy for the company and a major leap forward for multimedia on the personal computer (PC). The new Blaster product is the first of a series of boards which will deliver three-dimensional (3-D) graphics to the PC with twice the performance found on a Sony Playstation, claims the company. 20 -> WebServer Software Available On DEC Platform -- Integralis has announced the release of its Purveyor WebServer host software for the OpenVMS computing platforms. According to Paul Mansfield, the company's sales manager, the package is the first to market for the VAX and Alpha AXP systems. 21 -> Software Pirate Trap In Singapore -- Following the news of counterfeit NEC DRAMs being produced in Asia come reports that networking and database products are being faked as well. Victims of the racket this time are Novell and Oracle, with their respective NetWare and database software. 22 -> Compaq's Asia Pacific Plan -- The worlds leading PC supplier, Compaq, is strengthening its position in Asia. The company's managing director for Asia/Pacific, Lim Soon Hock, recently revealed a master plan designed to take the PC maker into and beyond the turn of the century, as part of an overall revamp of the company from "product-centric to customer-centric." 23 -> ****Ziff-Davis Adds Real Audio To Web Site -- Starting today, Ziff-Davis is adding Real Audio from Progressive Networks to its computer information and news World Wide Web site, called ZD Net. The first audio files offer a welcome message and columnist, Charles Cooper, reading his column. 24 -> ****Microsoft Intros Internet Win 95 Browser -- Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ: MSFT) has unveiled the Microsoft Internet Explorer, an Internet browser designed specifically for the Microsoft Windows 95 operating system. 25 -> Netscape's Partners Program -- After its dramatic initial public offering recently, Netscape Communications (NASDAQ:NSCP) is announcing the Netscape Development Partners Program to encourage and support companies developing products and services based on Netscape's technology. Among potential partners, Netscape invites commercial and enterprise developers, creative and design professionals, value-added resellers, integrators and consultants, to join the program. 26 -> ****IDC Predicts 20 Million Win 95 Users In 4 Months -- International Data Corp. (IDC), a unit of International Data Group (IDG), predicts Microsoft will ship 20 million copies of Windows 95 in the first four months. IDC sees easy sailing for Microsoft in the home market, but tougher going with corporate customers. 27 -> IBM Plans Beta Test Of CommonPoint For OS/2 In Fall -- "What we're really announcing is a `strategy of choice,'" maintained IBM's Skip McGaughey, in an interview with Newsbytes about plans for IBM's CommonPoint that include launching an initial beta test for the OS/2 edition this fall, developing new training programs during a subsequent market trial, and extending CommonPoint to AS/400. 28 -> ****IBM Not Dumping Consumer OS/2 Warp -- IBM's Hong Kong/China unit has slammed the New York Times, accusing it of misinterpreting Chairman Lou Gertzner's recent comments to securities analysts on the future of OS/2. 29 -> Free Figleaf, WebTap, DynaWeb Software For Web -- Electronic Books Technologies (EBT) has introduced three new products for the Web: the Figleaf multi-format graphics viewer; the WebTap tool for "stress testing" Web servers; And DynaWeb 1.0. All three are being offered free of charge, said Kent Somers, director of marketing, in an interview with Newsbytes. (Ian Stokell/19950817) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 08/16/95 UNIX Common Unix Platform Sought (NEWS)(UNIX)(TYO)(00001) Common Unix Platform Sought 08/16/95 TOKYO, JAPAN, 1995 AUG 16 (NB) -- A group of almost sixty of the world's leading computer software and systems company have announced an agreement to work together toward establishing a common base for future 64-bit versions of the Unix operating system. The agreement will mean that while future implementations of the operating system will exist, they will handle jobs in much the same way as each other, meaning writing software for various versions of Unix will be much easier. By beginning to work now, several years before 64-bit microprocessors are in wide use, the group hopes to build a well-supported system and also counter Microsoft's plans to replace Unix throughout the corporate world with its own Windows NT operating system. In addition, the group has pledged to base the next-generation system on existing standards, meaning more backwards compatibility will be built-in. Support for popular architectures including the Intel architecture, PowerPC architecture, Silicon Graphics/MIPS RISC architecture, and the SPARC architecture, will be included. Unix is the predominant operating system on supercomputers, enterprise servers, workgroup servers, workstations and network systems. The operating system was first developed in 1969 and was licensed to many manufacturers and companies that developed their own versions. As a result, today there are many versions of the software, including a free version available via the Internet. Companies supporting the initiative read like a who's who of the computer world: Compaq, DEC, Fujitsu, Groupe Bull, Hitachi, Hewlett-Packard, ICL, IBM, Intel, Mitsubishi, Motorola, NEC, Novell, Oki, Olivetti, Oracle, SCO, Siemens-Nixdorf, Silicon Graphics, SunSoft, Texas Instruments and Unisys, plus others. (Martyn Williams/19950816) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 08/16/95 GENERAL Japan Newsbriefs (NEWS)(GENERAL)(TYO)(00002) Japan Newsbriefs 08/16/95 TOKYO, JAPAN, 1995 AUG 16 (NB) -- In this roundup of news from Japan: Sony develops multimedia operating system, NTT to enter World Partners test, KDD tests advanced ISDN, MapInfo heads east, Pioneer invests abroad Sony Develops Multimedia Operating System A Sony spokesman, confirming newspaper reports, has told Newsbytes the company has developed an operating system for interactive multimedia systems. APERTOS has been designed for transmitting graphics via ATM networks to subscriber boxes, according to a report in the Nikkei Sangyo Shimbun. The company has yet to release any formal information about the product but may display it at the upcoming Telecom '95 show in Geneva. IBM and Sun Microsystems are understood to have expressed support for the system, although no formal statement has been forthcoming from either company. NTT To Enter World Partners Test Japan's domestic communications giant NTT Corporation will next month begin trials of a virtual private network service with the World Partners group that includes AT&T and KDD. Japanese newspapers report the price of NTT's trial at around 100 million yen, a fee it must pay since it is not a member of the group. The company will decide at the end of the six-month trial whether to become a full-time member. KDD Tests Advanced ISDN International telecommunications company KDD and Korea Telecom will begin tests of advanced ISDN systems in November of this year. The experiments, centered on next-generation ATM technology, will last for one year. The two companies have already been working together on advanced real-time translation systems between the two countries' languages. MapInfo Heads East The world's leader in desktop mapping solutions, MapInfo, has announced a major expansion into the Asia Pacific region and the opening of offices in Japan, China, Hong Kong and Australia. In Japan the company already has over 100 customers and makes localized versions of its software available. The Troy, New York-based company says the region is just adopting mapping systems and will prove a major growth area in the future. Pioneer Invests Abroad Pioneer says it is setting up audiovisual production plants in China and Thailand. The factories will produce in-car audio in Thailand and compact disc players in China. The majority will be shipped throughout Asia and Latin America. Pioneer also says it can improve price competitiveness at home by importing some of the goods. (Martyn Williams/19950816) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 08/16/95 ONLINE More Data On Size Of The Internet (NEWS)(ONLINE)(WAS)(00003) More Data On Size Of The Internet 08/16/95 RESTON, VIRGINIA, U.S.A., 1995 AUG 16 (NB) -- Just how big is the Internet? Two of the Internet measurement experts are teaming up to try to answer that elusive question. Mark Lottor of Network Wizards has released his latest results for his domain survey that attempts to discover every announced host on the Internet by doing a complete search of the Domain Name System. The results are published on the World Wide Web at http://www.nw.com . Lottor's survey for the end of July found 6.642 million hosts with 120,000 domains, up from 4.852 million hosts on 71,000 domains in January 1995. In January 1993, Lottor found 1.313 million hosts and 21,000 domains. A "host" is a computer that is connected and directly reachable as part of the Internet via an unique address. It does not include computers that are part of other networks that are peripheral to the Internet such as online services, Bitnet, or Fidonet. What does Lottor conclude from the latest survey? "WWW is now by far the most popular host name," he says, adding, "Still...no one has any clue how many users there are." John Quarterman of Texas Internet Consulting in Austin, Texas, another leader in trying to estimate the size of the Internet, has looked in depth at the three-letter global domains, providing what the Internet Society says is "an entirely new perspective on how the Internet's .com, .net, .org, .edu, and .int global domains are now being used worldwide." His work is published at http://www.tic.com . Tony Rutkowski, executive director of the Internet Society, says some of the highlights of the Lottor and Quarterman work include: - A strong exponential growth rate, but slight decreased. At the average rate of increase over the past 14 quarters, the total predicted hosts by the end of the decade is 101 million. - There are .com domains in 54 countries, .net domains in 57 countries, .org domains in 27 countries, including most of the United Nations agencies, and .edu domains in 16 countries. - The global commercial domain .com continues not only to be the largest, but also the most rapidly growing domain. - Russian growth is strong at 68 percent for the first six months of 1995. - Germany and Japan appear to be growing at about 40 percent for the first six months and the US at 24 percent. (Kennedy Maize/19950816/Press Contact: Tony Rutkowski, 703-648-9888, WWW at http://www.isoc.org ) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 08/16/95 APPLE MacWorld - Macromedia's Extreme-CD For Mac/PC (NEWS)(APPLE)(BOS)(00004) MacWorld - Macromedia's Extreme-CD For Mac/PC 08/16/95 BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS, U.S.A., 1995 AUG 16 (NB) -- "If this doesn't get the industry to standardize on 3-D (three-dimensional), then I don't know what will!" exclaimed Marina Moreno of Macromedia, during a demo for Newsbytes of Macromedia's new crossplatform Extreme3-D modeling, animation, and post-production software for Mac, Windows 3.1, Power Mac, and Windows 95. Extreme 3-D is easy enough for a beginner to use, yet it also contains high-end features that are otherwise available only on Silicon Graphics (SGI) workstations, Moreno maintained during the briefing, held in Boston during MacWorld '95. Macromedia's new software package, which integrates and expands upon the previous MacroModel, is also the only product for Macs or PCs to include a "professional post-production tool," according to the 3-D sales manager. Extreme's post-production tool, Extreme FX, is aimed at letting users composite still frames and animation for user with non-linear editing products. On the other hand, users who are already familiar with Macromedia FreeHand can jump right into Extreme 3-D without much of a "learning curve," because the new offering contains the same drawing and illustration tools. For users who work in multivendor environments, or who share files with customers on different platforms, the multi-purpose 3-D product provides the same GUI (graphical user interface) and Macromedia Exchange Format (MXF) file format on each platform, according to Moreno. Files can be "exchanged transparently" between platforms. Extreme 3-D can also be integrated with other crossplatform applications from Macromedia, including Macromedia Freehand, the Macromedia Director animation and multimedia authoring tool, and the Macromedia Authorware authoring tool for "interactive information." During the demo, Moreno showed Newsbytes how users can import two- dimensional (2-D) images into Extreme-3D in file formats like PICT or Windows bitmap (BMP). You can then convert the 2-D "reference objects" into 3-D images through point-and-click spline-based modeling. "You get full 3-D images, not `2-and-a-half,'" she told Newsbytes. A variety of 3-D tools are also included, such as 3-D trim, point- level surface editing, and deformation. Moreno demonstrated how to deform, or distort, an object, with the use of taper, twist, bend, skew, and non-uniform scale tools. Other modeling and rendering tools include primitives, linking, orientation indicators, a layer browser, and interactive texture mapping. To reduce the amount of memory required for texture mapping, the product lets you create an "infinite number of materials" from a set of basic, material shaders, according to Moreno. Extreme 3-D also permits you to animate any "editable parameter," including geometry, light parameters, material parameters, and operations such as deformation, Newsbytes was told. Two methods of 3-D animation are provided: time-based and frame-based. Additional animation capabilities include preview with built-in shaded and wire-frame modes; data filtering, cut-and-paste, interactive keyframe manipulation, and "watch linking," a capabilities designed to let a light, a camera, or an object "track another object over time." Extreme 3-D's renderer supports visible spotlights, she reported. Users can also distribute rendering operations across multiple Macs, Power Macs and PCs in a networked environment for faster rendering. Support is provided for final image files up to 8k-by- 8k. Extreme 3-D's Extreme FX compositing tool supports MXF files, as well as still image file formats like PICT and BMP, sequenced still images, and QuickTime/AVI movies. Macromedia's new crossplatform 3- D tool is slated to ship this fall at a suggested retail price (SRP) of $695. (Jacqueline Emigh/19950815/Reader Contact: Macromedia, 415-252- 2000; Press Contact: Emily Fisher, Schwartz Communications for Macromedia, 617-431-0770) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 08/16/95 WINDOWS ****Over 280 PC Makers Poised For Windows 95 Launch (NEWS)(WINDOWS)(DEN)(00005) ****Over 280 PC Makers Poised For Windows 95 Launch 08/16/95 REDMOND, WASHINGTON, U.S.A., 1995 AUG 16 (NB) -- Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ: MSFT) said that over 280 major PC manufacturers around the world are ready to pre-install Microsoft Windows 95 on, or soon after, the new operating system and graphical user interface launches on August 24, and the software company said it will extend the hours of its no-charge support for the product. Included on the list of companies already on the Microsoft bandwagon are Acer, AT&T, Compaq, Dell, Digital, Gateway 2000, Hewlett-Packard, Micron Electronics, NEC, Packard Bell, Toshiba, and Zenith. Microsoft said those companies represent more than 80 percent of the PC market worldwide. Compaq, Gateway 2000, Dell, Packard Bell, and Digital finished 1994 in the top 10 PC sellers. One of those companies, Compaq, announced this week it has started a company-wide transition to Windows 95 on its own internal network. The 1994 sales leader said it plans to have 95 percent of its employees running Windows 95 by the end of this year and everyone on the new software by the first quarter of 1996. Compaq has more than 15,000 PC users and up to 17,000 PCs in offices throughout the world. Microsoft said PC makers installing Windows 95 should be ready to help their customers with any problems. The software company has been working with the manufacturers to help train their internal technical support, sales and marketing staffs for the rollout of Windows 95. The company also announced it will extend its hours of no-charge support for Windows 95 for the first few months following its release in order to be able to handle more customer calls. The company said the current no-charge support hours of 6am to 6pm Pacific Daylight Time Monday through Friday for Windows 95 will be extended to 5am through 8pm Monday through Friday and support technicians will also staff the phones on weekends during the hours 7am to 3pm. The extended hours schedule includes the Labor Day holiday weekend. Windows 95 will come with 90 days of no-charge support, although you do have to pay any long distance charges. Technical product information will also be available on the Internet and on Microsoft forums on online services. In what is expected to be a typical Microsoft product rollout, industry reporters, including Newsbytes, will attend a limited-attendance event at Microsoft's campus in Redmond, Washington on August 24, an occasion which will also be broadcast to Microsoft regional offices via satellite. PC users will also be able to participate by logging on to the Microsoft home page on the World Wide Web at http://www.windows.microsoft.com . (Jim Mallory/19950815/Press contact: Kelly Stremel, Waggener Edstrom for Microsoft, 503-245-0905; Public contact: Microsoft, 206-882-8080 or 800-426-9400) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 08/16/95 WINDOWS ****Windows 95 Marketing Hoopla Kicks Into High Gear (NEWS)(WINDOWS)(DEN)(00006) ****Windows 95 Marketing Hoopla Kicks Into High Gear 08/16/95 REDMOND, WASHINGTON, U.S.A., 1995 AUG 16 (NB) -- If you think Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ: MSFT) has been heavily promoting its new personal computer operating system and graphical user interface Windows 95, you ain't seen nothin' yet. With the Windows 95 launch set for next week, the software company said it's ready to kick into high gear next week with an ad campaign that is expected to cost $300 million. Added to that will be more Windows 95 advertising by PC makers, software publishers and hardware and software retailers that analysts say could push the total for Windows 95 advertising to half a billion dollars. It's probably a given that millions of computer users will rush out and buy Windows 95 because they want to have the latest and greatest that Microsoft - or any other software publisher - offers. The harder sell will be to the relatively inexperienced user who has a PC running Windows 3.1 and isn't sure if it's worth it to upgrade, and the business community, which may be the hardest market to crack, at least initially. According to a telephone poll of readers of the magazine Computer Life, a Ziff-Davis Publishing Company publication, 95 percent of their readers responding to the survey already know about Windows 95 and 57 percent consider themselves familiar with the new software. Even better, from Microsoft's perspective, seven out of ten of those aware of Windows 95 plan to adopt the new operating system, most within the first year. Acceptability in the workplace among the magazine's readers wasn't nearly as good. Only 10 percent of the survey respondents said they would adopt Windows 95 in the office before they install it on their home PC. Readers said that is because corporate information system managers need time to evaluate the new product. Computer Life subscribers also plan to upgrade much of their applications software once they make the move to Windows 95. Seventy-five percent of those responding to the survey said they will upgrade productivity programs, 66 percent said they will upgrade utilities and 57 percent will upgrade their games. The market for Windows 95 is huge. According to Link Resources, the installed base of PCs in households will grow to 66 million by 1998 from the estimated 40 million home users in 1994. Windows 95 promotions will take many forms in addition to the planned network television promos. Ads will appear on the QVC shopping channel, while in Australia a giant box bearing the Windows 95 logo will sail into Sydney Harbor aboard a barge as dancers perform in the streets and in the Philippines President Fidel Ramos will receive a ceremonial first copy of the software, according to the British news service Reuters. The formal launch will be held at Microsoft's Redmond, Washington campus next Thursday where Bill Gates, the company's chairman, will demonstrate Windows 95 for a crowd of journalists from around the world that is expected to number about 2,500. Dozens of other vendors will operate booths where launch attendees can view the latest hardware and software for Windows 95. Gates' speech will be broadcast via satellite to Microsoft regional offices across the globe and PC users can join in the festivities on Microsoft's home page on the World Wide Web where the winner of an electronic scavenger hunt on the Internet will get a new computer. (Jim Mallory/19950816/Press contact: Microsoft, 206-882-8080l; Public contact: Microsoft, 206-882-8080 or 800-426-9400, or the Microsoft Internet home page at the URL http://www.microsoft.com ) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 95 08/16/95 WINDOWS Update Makes PerfectOffice OK With Windows (NEWS)(WINDOWS)(DEN)(00007) Update Makes PerfectOffice OK With Windows 95 08/16/95 OREM, UTAH, U.S.A., 1995 AUG 16 (NB) -- Novell Inc. (NASDAQ:NOVL) has announced an update for PerfectOffice that makes the current version of its desktop applications suite of software compatible with Windows 95, Microsoft's new 32-bit operating system and graphical user interface set for release August 24. The update can be downloaded from various online sources and is also available on disk. A Novell spokesperson stressed the update fixes what she described as "minor annoyances" during an interview with Newsbytes. PerfectOffice includes: the word processor WordPerfect, which Novell acquired when it merged with WordPerfect Corp.; Quattro Pro, a spreadsheet program; Presentations, its graphic presentation software; the Internet browser Envoy; InfoCentral, a personal information manager; and a client license for GroupWise, the company's electronic messaging product. Novell said Microsoft also tested the complete version of GroupWise. "Our customers can be assured of the compatibility of our applications as they move to Windows 95, or work in a mixed environment with both Windows 3.1 and Windows 95," according to Mark Calkins, Novell vice president and general manager of business applications. Recently Microsoft published a list detailing compatibility issues between Windows 95 and various applications software currently on the market. Novell spokesperson Liz Tanner said most of the issues reported regarding Novell products had already been fixed when the list came out and Microsoft is currently making an updated list available. One of the compatibility issues is that when PerfectOffice and GroupWise are running, the user will see a network login prompt pop up that did not appear when running PerfectOffice with Windows 3.1. Novell said this and any other remaining compatibility issues are addressed by the update. Other compatibility problems enumerated by Novell for Newsbytes that are corrected by the update include the problem that had prohibited the network button and the File Open dialog to appear. A problem with the Coaches has also been fixed. You can download the update from Library 17 on Netwire, Novell's electronic support forum on CompuServe (GO WPFILES) and on the Internet at the ftp address ftp://ftp.wordperfect.com. You can also download the update from Novell's bulletin board system (BBS) or call Novell customer support to receive it on disk for a nominal cost. Tanner said Novell users can obtain that number from their documentation. She told Newsbytes users can also get the update on disk from Novell at no cost. Novell said the update works for the GroupWise client as well as stand-alone versions of WordPerfect 6.1 for Windows and Presentations 3.0 for Windows. The company said it will release a 32-bit version of PerfectOffice for Windows 95 by the end of 1995. (Jim Mallory/19950815/Press contact: Liz Tanner, Novell, 801-228-6160; Public contact: Novell BBS, 801-225-4414 by modem, or Novell customer service, 800-451-5151, Internet ftp ftp://ftp.wordperfect.com) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 08/16/95 GENERAL UK - HP Slashes Color Printer Prices (NEWS)(GENERAL)(LON)(00008) UK - HP Slashes Color Printer Prices 08/16/95 BRACKNELL, BERKSHIRE, ENGLAND, 1995 AUG 16 (NB) -- In a sudden move designed to increase market share, Hewlett-Packard has slashed UK pricing on its DeskJet, DeskWriter 660C and DeskJet 850C inkjet printers by up to 15 percent. The price cuts take effect immediately. According to HP, the DeskJet and DeskWriter 660C printers will be reduced to UKP 380, a reduction of six percent, while the DeskJet 850C printer will be reduced to UKP 458, a reduction of 15 percent. According to HP, the DeskJet 850C, introduced in March 1995, is the fastest personal DeskJet printer on the market. The DeskJet 850C features HP's Color Resolution Enhancement technology (C-REt) which is billed as producing multi-layer color resulting in near photographic output. HP claims that the DeskJet 850C is the company's first product to be made in part with recycled plastic, containing up to 25 percent recycled ABS plastic in their outer casings. The DeskJet 660C for PCs and DeskWriter 660C for Apple Macintosh support 600 x 600 dpi (dots per inch) resolution black print quality and sharp output using HP's Resolution Enhancement technology (REt) in normal mode. (Sylvia Dennis/19950815/Press Contact: PA Consulting +44-171-730-9000; Reader Contact: HP Customer Information +44-1344-369222) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 08/16/95 TELECOM Ericsson Secures Bulk Of Mercury One-2-One's UK Expansion (NEWS)(TELECOM)(LON)(00009) Ericsson Secures Bulk Of Mercury One-2-One's UK Expansion 08/16/95 STOCKHOLM, SWEDEN, 1995 AUG 16 (NB) -- Ericsson has revealed that it has secured most of the UKP 235 million deal to expand the Mercury One- 2-One PCN (Personal Communications Network) service across the UK by the end of 1997. As recently reported by Newsbytes, Mercury One-2-One dramatically announced plans to bring forward its national UK coverage planned date from 1999 to 1997. The company has planned to invest UKP 235 million in its expansion. According to seniors with Ericsson, coupled with work in hand that Ericsson already has with One-2-One for infill sites and the recent order by One-2-One for delivery of the Ericsson PH337 PCN phone, which will be launched by One-2-One next month, the company has around UKP 350 million worth of business with the mobile telecoms operator. Plans call for Ericsson to design and build the network, and progressively hand over complete operating regions to One-2-One, rather than open base stations progressively. This will, Ericsson claims, ensure that One-2-One reaches its national coverage planned figure by the end of 1997. As the prime contractor in the contract, Ericsson says it plans to be responsible for network design to handover of a complete working network, including site acquisition, civil works, switching, transmission and integration with the existing One-2-One network. Announcing the contract, Jan Edhall, managing director of Ericsson's cellular systems and special networks, said that it represents a particularly exciting challenge for Ericsson. "What is also very exciting is the fact that customers of One-2-One will be also the first to use our new Ericsson PH337 mobile phone, which is in the same style and has the same performance as our award winning GH337 digital (GSM) mobile phone," he said. (Sylvia Dennis/19950815/Press Contact: Paula Wagstaff, Ericsson +44- 1444-234354; Reader Contact: Ericsson +44-1483-305100) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 08/16/95 ONLINE MAID Shares Rocket From Microsoft Network Deal (NEWS)(ONLINE)(LON)(00010) MAID Shares Rocket From Microsoft Network Deal 08/16/95 LONDON, ENGLAND, 1995 AUG 16 (NB) -- Shares in MAID (Marketing Analysis Information Database), a London-based online services company that specializes in business information for the City of London, have rocketed from their normally placid 160 pence to a high of 228 pence, before falling back to a steady 220 pence. The share surge came after the business information service announced an IP (information provider) deal with Microsoft for its Microsoft Network (MSN) online service. Although MSN has "limited" its first year subscriber levels to half a million, the ability for MAID to publish on MSN, even within the first year limits, increases its potential audience several times over, Newsbytes notes. MAID itself is remaining calm about the share surge, but analysts are predicting that when the MAID service goes live on August 24 on MSN, the date when Windows 95 is officially launched world-wide, the share prices will edge upwards once the revenue potential is realized. During the year to December '94, MAID turned in a pre-tax profit of UKP 1.3 million on a turnover of UKP 8.9 million. Because of these impressive figures, analysts suggest that the company has a relatively high price/earnings ratio. In the very short term, MAID faces a potential revenue quandary, Newsbytes notes. The rates for its London City business are quite high, whereas MSN's rates are relatively low. Rates for the pay-as- you-go service on MSN have yet to be announced, but sources suggest that it may be cheaper to access MAID through MSN rather than contract directly with the company. Even with the major upswing in possible subscribers through MSN link, MAID could then face the problem of losing its high revenue subscribers to its MSN service, unless it offers added value through its direct contract business. (Steve Gold/19950815/Press Contact: MAID +44-171-930-6900; fAX +44- 171-930-6006) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 08/16/95 NETWORK Motorola Intros 28.8 PCMCIA Fax/Modem/Network Card (NEWS)(NETWORK)(MSP)(00011) Motorola Intros 28.8 PCMCIA Fax/Modem/Network Card 08/16/95 SCHAUMBURG, ILLINOIS, U.S.A., 1995 AUG 16 (NB) -- Motorola Inc.'s (NYSE:MOT) PCMCIA (Personal Computer Manufacturers Card International Association) Products Division is introducing a fax/modem PCMCIA card that runs at 28.8Kbps (kilobits per second), and can also act as a high-performance local area network (LAN) adapter. The new card is designed for notebook and desktop computers that have Type II PCMCIA slots. Tom Morrow, Motorola spokesperson, told Newsbytes his company is currently accepting orders on the card, called the Marquis. The product should ship August 24, he added, at a list price of $599. The card's LAN architecture maximizes speed and throughput by allowing the LAN adapter to overlap processing tasks, officials said. With this architecture, the PC card can have a frame of data in system memory, on the adapter, and on the cable, all at the same time. The company said the Marquis cards are up to 83 percent faster than competing cards in NetWare and LAN Manager environments, according to independent LANQuest Labs test benchmarks. The product can be used on 10Base-T Ethernet networks. The fax/modem part of the card carries with it simultaneous 28.8 V.34 performance, with V.42bis data compression, and error correction via V.42 and MNP 5 specifications. Each card comes with the cabling and software needed for the customer to hook up to a LAN or a phone line, officials said. The card's "intelligent installation engine," as Motorola calls it, automates configuration on network operating systems like Novell NetWare, Microsoft LAN Manager, and Artisoft LANtastic, among others. Morrow said the combination PCMCIA fax/modem/LAN card is a first for Motorola. He also said many companies are rushing to market the combo cards at the 28.8 speed, and that he believes Motorola is one of the first to cross the computer market's finish line with the Marquis. The Marquis comes from Motorola's new PCMCIA Products Division, charged with developing multi-function PCMCIA cards and special- purpose PCMCIA cards. (Bob Woods/19950812/Press Contact: Tom Morrow, Motorola, 708-576- 4495/MARQUIS950816/PHOTO) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 08/16/95 ONLINE Home & Garden TV Intros Integrated CD-ROM/Online Svc (NEWS)(ONLINE)(MSP)(00012) Home & Garden TV Intros Integrated CD-ROM/Online Svc 08/16/95 LOUISVILLE, KENTUCKY, U.S.A., 1995 AUG 16 (NB) -- Home & Garden Television (HGTV), a cable TV network, is stepping into the multimedia arena with what's called the first CD-ROM magazine and online service in the home and garden industry, called "LivingHome." The new hybrid service combines CD-ROM, Internet, and online service technology, Channing Dawson, vice president of new media at HGTV, told Newsbytes. The CD-ROM will contain multimedia-style editorial and interactive advertising from the cable TV network's 150-plus sponsors. The content will include video clips from HGTV, interactive "virtual reality" tours of real homes and gardens, software utilities, and coverage of home projects and products. With a "click" of a mouse, the reader can be taken to either HGTV's Internet World Wide Web site, or the LivingHome online service, which was developed by Novo MediaGroup. The Web site will contain hotlinks to home and garden-related information on the Internet, as well as links to the magazine's advertisers that have Web sites, Dawson said. The online service, which Dawson describes as a "premium" service, will actually be a "chat" area where discussions will occur with the network's hosts and experts. He said he also hopes to "simulcast" the chat sessions on the company's Web site. "We're looking for ways to make our video content interactive," Dawson told Newsbytes. He said it seemed teaming with Novo was the ideal way to bring HGTV's content to the interactive arena. HGTV is currently seen in 6.5 million cable TV homes nationwide, Dawson said, and he expects to have clearance in nearly 10 million homes by the end of the year. (Bob Woods/19950812/Press Contact: Carol D. Hicks, Home & Garden Television, 615-694-2700) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 08/16/95 BROADCAST UK - Digital TV Revolution Looming (NEWS)(BROADCAST)(LON)(00013) UK - Digital TV Revolution Looming 08/16/95 LONDON, ENGLAND, 1995 AUG 16 (NB) -- The British Government has moved from its stand-off non-interventionist policy on future broadcasting technology to take the initiative on digital broadcasting. Under a set of guideline proposals, the four main terrestrial channels in the UK -- BBC 1, BBC 2, ITV and Channel 4, along with the new Channel 5 -- will have guaranteed access to digital transmission frequencies. They will also be allowed to compete with other broadcasters, including Sky and British Telecom, for licences to run up to 15 completely new channels. Although UK TV viewers will need to buy set-top boxes costing around the UKP 200 mark, or upgrade to new digital TV, the Government says it expects viewers to make the move when the new channels become available in 1998, because of the massive increase in broadcasting channels. The new digital TV system uses the same frequencies as existing UHF TV, but up to six digital channels can be squeezed into the same bandwidth as an existing analog channel. Thus, the existing four channels will theoretically make room for 24 digital channels. Announcing the proposals, Virginia Bottomley, the Government's newly appointed Heritage Secretary, said that the introduction of digital broadcasting represents a significant opportunity for the viewer, as well as broadcasters. "It also presents an excellent opportunity for TV manufacturers and for new entrants into the entertainment business such telecoms companies," she told journalists. The proposals have been welcomed by the UK television and broadcasting industry. Bob Philis, the deputy director general of the BBC, said that the BBC "is already playing a leading role in digital broadcasting with the launch of the digital radio service next month. We hope that other parts of the industry will now respond to that lead," he said. Plans call for an amended set of proposals to be rushed through Parliament in the next session, with the aim of them passing into legislation by next summer. According to Bottomley, the digital broadcasting licences will be advertised for tender in 1997. So, does this mean the end for analog TV sets in the UK? The British Government says not, since it is committed to continuing analog broadcasts until well into the next century, certainly until the year 2010. Eventually, Newsbytes notes, major portions of the existing UHF spectrum will be vacated, allowing the Government to sell of the radio frequency "real estate" to mobile phone operators and the like. (Steve Gold/19950815) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 08/16/95 GENERAL China - Technology News Briefs (NEWS)(GENERAL)(PEK)(00014) China - Technology News Briefs 08/16/95 BEIJING, CHINA, 1995 AUG 16 (NB) -- In this roundup of news from China, 12 more large-scale satellite ground stations will be built, China Telecommunication Products Trading Center opens in Shanghai, Beijing's old "electronics town" Jiuxianqiao is to be renovated, CD-ROM on worldwide women's issues. Satellite Telecommunication Network To Be Expanded More large-scale domestic satellite ground stations will be built in 12 provincial capitals this year. Those capital cities are Jinan, Nanjing, Hangzhou, Changsha, Nanchang, Zhengzhou, Xining, Yinchuan, Guiyang, Changchun, Taiyuan, and Hefei. The country's satellite telecommunications network already covers the 18 provincial capitals and five cities. China Telecommunication Products Trading Center China Telecommunication Products Trading Center, the first of its kind in China, opened recently in the Pudong Waigaoqiao Bonded Zone, Shanghai. The market was launched by Shanghai Dongfang Telecommunications Industrial Trading Co Ltd, which is a joint venture of all the country's local post and telecommunications administrative bureaus and some enterprises directly under the Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications. The market will consist of five major centers. Renovation on Jiuxianqiao "Electronics Town" in Beijing A series of projects have been started to completely renovate the "electronics town" at Jiuxianqiao in the Chaoyang District of Beijing. The town, covering an area of 10 square kilometers in northeast Beijing, boasts dozes of large state enterprises and scientific research organizations, with a total of 44,000 employees. According to a plan approved by the municipal government in March 1994, the state-owned enterprises in the town will be converted into China-foreign ventures, joint-stock ventures, or conglomerates in five years. CD-ROM on Worldwide Women's Movement 1,000 copies of a CD-ROM disk on the worldwide women's movement will be donated to the UN Fourth World Conference on Women to be held in Beijing in September. The CD-ROM title was developed by Beijing Zhongruan Lanbao Electronic Media Systems and a company officer said that the CD-ROM disks donated by the company will provide the conference participants and people interested in the conference with easy access to the history of women worldwide. (Chih-Ho Yu & Ning Huang/19950807) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 08/16/95 TELECOM China - AT&T Moves In (NEWS)(TELECOM)(PEK)(00015) China - AT&T Moves In 08/16/95 BEIJING, CHINA, 1995 AUG 16 (NB) -- By transferring advanced technologies such as switching systems and integrated circuits to China, and promoting long-distance phone services, AT&T is strengthening its presence in China. When a visitor lands at Beijing International Airport, the first commercial advertising they see may be a printed card saying "AT&T Welcomes You To China." The card gives instructions on how to use AT&T phone services in China and provides a toll-free phone number to contact AT&T in more than 20 Chinese cities. AT&T's English speaking operators are also ready to help customers. In addition to its phone services, AT&T is also promoting its technologies in China. AT&T has signed a contract to transfer technologies for processing and design of integrated circuits to Huajing Electronics Corp Group, an affiliate of China's Ministry of Electronics Industry. According to the contract, AT&T will also train Huajing's engineers. Huajing's manufacturing line, capable of a monthly production capacity of 10,000 wafers, is expected to be in operation in two years. The products from the joint venture will be sold to its subsidiaries, other multinational companies in China, and Chinese electronics enterprises. AT&T is also setting up its largest joint venture outside the United States. With five Chinese partners, AT&T Qingdao Telecommunications Systems Ltd., will design, develop, market, and produce AT&T's advanced switching systems. The joint venture will produce 1 million lines of switching systems upon completion. Partners in the $100 million manufacturing operation are Hisense Electronic Corporation of Qingdao Electronics Instrumentation Industry Company, Shangdong Posts and Telecommunications Administrations Bureau, China International Trust and Investment Corporation, and China Electronics Corporation. (Chih-Ho Yu & Ning Huang/19950810) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 08/16/95 IBM OS/2 Warp Server Nears Beta Testing (NEWS)(IBM)(TOR)(00016) OS/2 Warp Server Nears Beta Testing 08/16/95 AUSTIN, TEXAS, U.S.A., 1995 AUG 16 (NB) -- IBM (NYSE:IBM) said it is about to begin beta testing OS/2 Warp Server, its next local- area network (LAN) operating system. Testing will begin around Sept. 1, company spokesman Joe Stunkard told Newsbytes. Stunkard said OS/2 Warp Server will be fully compatible with IBM LAN Server, the company's existing LAN operating system, including earlier versions. However, it will add assorted new features. Among the highlights, Stunkard said, will be new systems management features. "Systems management is probably the number-one area that we've addressed," he commented, saying that while competitive products have systems management features as add-ons, IBM's will be integrated into OS/2 Warp Server. IBM is also integrating remote-access capabilities for remote offices and mobile users into the new products. Other additions include network backup and advanced printing capabilities, Stunkard said. IBM said OS/2 Warp Server inherits from LAN Server a drag-and- drop administration model, and comes with tight security, a high- performance file system, and a migration utility meant to make it easy to move users from Novell Inc.'s NetWare LAN operating system. It comes with the same 32-bit, pre-emptive multitasking capabilities as the OS/2 Warp operating system, and with IBM's Internet Access Kit and WebExplorer. OS/2 Warp Server has a selective installation process so customers can choose the parts they need to install, and Stunkard said it can be installed in about 300 megabytes (MB) of disk space. The product is expected to complement OS/2 Warp Connect, a recently launched version of OS/2 Warp designed for use on network client PCs. OS/2 Warp Server is expected to be generally available in the first quarter of 1996, IBM said. (Grant Buckler/19950816/Press Contact: Joe Stunkard, IBM, 800- 354-0978 or 512-823-3186) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 08/16/95 LEGAL SPA Sues Five Canadian Retailers Over Rentals (NEWS)(LEGAL)(TOR)(00017) SPA Sues Five Canadian Retailers Over Rentals 08/16/95 WASHINGTON, D.C., U.S.A., 1995 AUG 16 (NB) -- The Software Publishers' Association (SPA), an industry association with an interest in software copyright issues, has filed lawsuits against five Canadian retailers, alleging they rented software without the required authorization. On behalf of six of its member companies, the SPA filed suits against Crazy Irving of Montreal, SoftWarehouse, Jumbo Software and Jumbo Software Guelph in southwestern Ontario, and Gametronics in Calgary, the SPA said. The organization is seeking a permanent injunction, profits earned from renting their members' software, and punitive damages. The amount of damages has not been specified, said Sandra Sellers, director of litigation with the SPA. Sellers told Newsbytes that software rentals are a serious copyright issue. The practice involves renting commercial software to a customer for a few days at a low price. Software vendors' concern is that during that time the customer can copy the software to his or her PC, thus obtaining a permanent copy at far below the usual price. The Canadian Copyright Act of 1993 allows rentals only with the prior permission of the software vendor, which the SPA said the five retailers named in this case had not obtained. "People seem to be totally ignoring" the permission requirement, Sellers observed. Sellers said this is the first time the SPA has been involved in a case against a Canadian retailer, though the organization has conducted audits and other actions against corporate software users in Canada. SPA officials said the suits resulted from an investigation that grew out of reports to the association's anti-piracy hotline. The hotline, at 800-388-7478, accepts calls from the United States and Canada reporting software copyright violations and asking for information and materials on the subject. The six SPA members whose software was allegedly rented without permission are Broderbund Software, Living Books, Papyrus Design Group, Delrina Corp., Intuit Inc., and LucasArts Entertainment Co. (Grant Buckler/19950816/Press Contact: Sandra Sellers, Software Publishers' Association, 202-452-1600 ext. 311; Public Contact: Software Publishers' Association anti-piracy hotline, 800-388- 7478, Internet e-mail piracy@spa.org) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 08/16/95 ONLINE ART 2.0 Creates Faster Web Graphics (NEWS)(ONLINE)(LAX)(00018) ART 2.0 Creates Faster Web Graphics 08/16/95 NEWPORT BEACH, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1995 AUG 16 (NB) -- Faster Web graphics is what Johnson-Grace Co.'s ART 2.0 creates. An enhanced version of its high-speed multimedia publishing technology, Grace's ART 2.0 has new compression algorithms which increase the speed of graphical content published on the Internet and online services. The product is for the Macintosh and Windows. Chris Grace, Co-CEO of Johnson-Grace, told Newsbytes, "A set of compression algorithms tend to work well for photographs or graphics but not for both. ART 1.0 compression algorithms worked well for photographs. ART 2.0 incorporates new compression algorithms which increase the speed of graphical content. No one can handle both photo and graphic compression as well as we do with ART 2.0." "Johnson-Grace's new algorithms allow publishers to compress graphic images at higher ratios than other compressed file formats. This ensures that all image publishing needs are met with the smallest achievable files and quickest possible speed," said Grace. "Also with ART 2.0, we built in a fuzzy logic engine that automatically applies the optimal algorithm. ART 2.0 operates with two families of algorithms, one for photos and one for graphics. With the fuzzy logic engine these algorithms are integrated into Johnson- Grace's authoring program, ART Press, which enables publishers to compress any image with a single mouse click. Publishers therefore need only one format, ART, for all types of graphics, from simple line drawings and computer-generated artwork to high quality photos," said Grace. One unique feature of ART 2.0, according to the company, is that it allows publishers to create a "transparent-color" image. This is a popular feature for Web publishers who want to make a logo, banner, button or other picture appear embedded on a page. A transparent- color ART image is created by assigning a color in the image that will be "see-through." When the image is displayed by the browser or other viewer, the transparent color will assume the color of the background of the browser. First introduced with AOL's (America On Line) client software in October 1994, ART is a multimedia publishing format currently used in several Web browsers and online services, including eWorld. According to the company more than 400 online publishers on AOL and eWorld, including Business Week, Capital Cities/ABC, New York Times and 800 Flowers, use ART. "ART's high-speed publishing technology addresses a critical need to speed-up the transfer of images over narrowband telephone lines," said Grace. "As more users experience content delivered at ART- speed, we expect ART to become the de facto image standard for the Internet and online industry." ART technology utilizes Johnson-Grace developed compression algorithms and includes technology invented by Dr. Irving Reed, co- inventor of the industry standard Reed-Solomon error correcting codes which are used in audio CDs, CD-ROMs and other digital equipment. Founded in 1992, Johnson-Grace Company is a privately held firm which develops multimedia software for the Internet and online services, as well as authoring tools for interactive publishers and end users. ART Press, an authoring tool for Macintosh and Windows environments based on Johnson-Grace's ART compression technology, is available to commercial publishers on a free trial basis for the remainder of 1995 and can be downloaded from the company's Web site at http://www.jgc.com . (Richard Bowers/199508015/Press Contact: Genevieve Haldeman, The Bohle Company, 310-785-0515) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 08/16/95 BROADCAST Six Cities Get Interactive TV Tests (NEWS)(BROADCAST)(MSP)(00019) Six Cities Get Interactive TV Tests 08/16/95 COLUMBIA, MARYLAND, U.S.A., 1995 AUG 16 (NB) -- The firm Welcome To The Future (WTF) said its been contracted by two different companies to provide hardware, software, and network services in wireless interactive television tests in six cities. WTF officials said it will test services in the Columbus, Ohio and Indianapolis, Indiana markets with Dispatch Interactive Television (DITV). Interactive TV is also coming to the Lexington, Kentucky; Fayetteville, North Carolina; Grand Forks, North Dakota; and Fargo, North Dakota areas in conjunction with the Interactive Communications Group, Inc., WTF said. After the testing, which will begin later this year, a gradual roll-out of the system will begin about six months after the tests, officials said. The wireless real-time interactive response system WTF will provide is called "Heat," which stands for Home Entertainment Advanced Technology. The system uses the Interactive Video and Data Services (IVDS) broadcast spectrum, which was authorized by the FCC last year. Brandon Calder, WTV chairman and chief executive officer, told Newsbytes his company had been involved in the wired cable world before companies which had successful bids during the IVDS auction came to WTV wanting a technology for the new spectrum. "The new system basically delivers the outbound information to the subscribers via the vertical blanking interval (VBI) of the television signal," Calder said. The system then physically codes the TV or cable signal to the set-top box. The user's remote control then lets the customer "point-and-click" at the TV screen and interact with the services provided. A set-top box completes access to the interactive television network. Some of those services will include news and information services, home shopping, home banking, and ticket purchases for airline flights, theater, and movies. Calder also said the system allows for Internet and World Wide Web access, with the informational screens doubling as a Web browser. WTF is working with online services to provide access to them down the road. The set-top box will also have a port for a printer, along with two PCMCIA (Personal Computer Manufacturer Card International Association) Type II slots for hard drives or modems, Calder said. (Bob Woods/19950816/Press Contacts: David Imre, IMRE & Associates, 410-821-8220; Brandon Calder, Welcome To The Future, 410-964-9590) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 08/16/95 ONLINE UK-Specific Web Index Site Launched (NEWS)(ONLINE)(LON)(00020) UK-Specific Web Index Site Launched 08/16/95 LONDON, ENGLAND, 1995 AUG 16 (NB) -- Systematic Marketing, a London- based database and direct marketing company, has opened up a Web site that offers the first UK-specific index for Web sites. Andy Zienkiewicz, one of the partners in the company, told Newsbytes that Systematic Marketing has been in operation for five years now and numbers the Economist Group, as well as WH Smith's DIY chain, Do-It- All, as their clients. "We see the Internet as the ultimate direct marketing tool," he explained, adding that the Web is an ideal facility for this, since users can browse the pages on demand, but without any sales pressure. "In that respect it's an amazing facility," he said, adding that, although the Web site -- which is on http://www.ukindex.co.uk -- has not yet been promoted and is only launched today, they are clocking around 8,000 accesses per week. According to Zienkiewicz, the UK Index Web site has three main objectives: to provide a complete index of Websites about and of particular interest to the UK; to give users a simple, easy to use, search mechanism; and to provide a 'headline' site for companies who want their Web pages strongly associated with the UK. UK Index is billed as a list of sites about the UK and of interest to the UK. "Although the Internet is a global phenomenon, there is a considerable amount which is regionally based and people want to be able to access this easily," explained. According to Zienkiewicz, the Index is searchable by checking categories as well as using free text. Entries in the Index are free and there are on-line forms for submitting URL's (Uniform Resource Locators) and amending those already present -- although they request that only topline pages are submitted. "We have been concerned when looking at other indexes that search results can often be dominated by a single site and also a considerable amount of irrelevant connections. We have put considerable effort into the development of the search engine to try to minimize this and we see this as continually dynamic development," explained Russell Weetch, Zienkiewicz's partner in the agency. "Also we found that many users new to the net found other systems confusing," he said. Also on the UK Index site is a political and economic summary provided by the Economist Intelligence Unit, a "Beginners Guide to the Internet," as well as a "Quick Reference Page," pointing to sites such as UK Weather, Government and Travel Advice from the Foreign Office and BBC news summaries. Users can also subscribe to the UK Index mailing list that goes live in September, and which is based on the same categories as the Index, allowing people to receive regular, automatic updates on what has been added to the Index in the categories they are interested in. "We have been surprised by the access to date," said Zienkiewicz, adding that, "since we went into live testing at the beginning of August we have already processed nearly 10,000 searches and this is growing at 63 percent a week. We currently have well over 1,500 sites indexed." The Web site is free of charge to use. According to Zienkiewicz, the service will stay that way, but the company is looking for sponsors for the site, with sponsorships available for various parts of the site, such as the home page and search categories. By sponsoring a category companies get their message and logo at the top of any search results, Systematic Marketing claims. (Steve Gold/19950816/Press Contact: Andy Zienkiewicz, Systematic Marketing +44-171-436-8866; Internet Email: press@ukindex.co.uk) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 08/16/95 TELECOM Ameritech Invests in Chinese Telecom (NEWS)(TELECOM)(MSP)(00021) Ameritech Invests in Chinese Telecom 08/16/95 CHICAGO, ILLINOIS, U.S.A., 1995 AUG 16 (NB) -- Ameritech Corp. (NYSE:AIT) will enter what it sees as a lucrative market in China via a joint venture with China Communications System Company Ltd. (Chinacom), to assist that country in developing its telecommunication sector. The venture is not only Ameritech's first into China, but is also Chinacom's first with a US communications company. The new partnership will provide funding, advanced communications technology, and management consulting, to help China to achieve its telecommunications development goals. The pact will run for 25 years, Ameritech officials said. The first project under the joint venture will be to build and operate a digital cellular telephone network in the capital of Shanxi province, Taiyuan. That projects first phase will see the installation of 10,000 cellular lines by mid-1996, with 30,000 lines to be built in all. Walter Catlow, president of international business development and operations for Ameritech, told a news teleconference that the company will initially own 80 percent of the joint venture, while Chinacom will hold 20 percent. The percentages will shift over the next seven years, with Ameritech holding a 49/51 percent split with Chinacom. This deal adds to Ameritech's growing portfolio of overseas investments. Besides China, the company holds interests in telecom companies in New Zealand, Hungary, Poland, Norway, and Germany, among other countries. Catlow told Newsbytes that Regional Bell Operating Companies (RBOCs) like Ameritech are expanding their regions worldwide because of the tremendous growth opportunities. "These countries are growing in general because (telecommunication) penetration is lower in those countries than in the US," he said. China, in particular, is "growing about the size of a US RBOC every 12 to 18 months," he said. "When you think about 15 to 17 million lines growing, you just want to participate in that growth, even though it's a very difficult thing to do compared to just staying home," he added. Ameritech opened a Beijing office in April. Chinacom is a communications systems and engineering company under China's Ministry of Electronics Industry, investing and constructing telecommunications networks. China Unicom, an authorized carrier in China, will operate the new network. (Bob Woods/19950812/Press Contacts: George Stenitzer, Ameritech, 312-609-6166; Wilson Wang, Chinacom, 011-8601-501-5285) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 08/16/95 BUSINESS Germany - GVD Leasing Turns In Record Figures (NEWS)(BUSINESS)(LON)(00022) Germany - GVD Leasing Turns In Record Figures 08/16/95 SALZKOTTEN, GERMANY, 1995 AUG 16 (NB) -- GVD Leasing, part of the Siemens Group, has revealed it produced record sales and profits figures during 1994, and is continuing the trend in the first six months of 1995, when it generated new business worth DM 532 million. According to Dr Ulrich Kleine-Brockhoff, a spokesman for the company, GVD's success is due to positive action on the sales front by its parent, Siemens. Most of GVD's income involves the financing of leases for computer hardware supplied by Siemens Nixdorf Informationssysteme (SNI). During 1995, Kleine-Brockhoff claims that new business for the company could bring in around DM 1.2 billion of extra revenue. During 1994, GVD recorded a slight drop in new orders to DM 1.149 billion from DM 1.17 billion a year earlier. Turnover, meanwhile, was up 16.8 percent from DM 1.039 to DM 1.214 billion, while the leasing portfolio at acquisition prices increased from DM 3.292 in 1993 to DM 3.414 billion in 1994, an increase of 3.7 percent. Ordinary operating profit, meanwhile, rose from DM 13.5 to DM19.9 million, when comparing 1993 to 1994. GVD claims it is expanding its international operation. After setting up GVD Finans AB in Sweden a few years ago, the company claims it has representation in nine countries. European turnover rose from DM 1.171 billion in 1993 to DM 1.380 billion last year. (Sylvia Dennis/19950816/Press & Reader Contact: GVD Leasing +49-5258- 9890; Fax +49-5258-989105) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 08/16/95 TRENDS ****Industry's First Web Site "Virus" Appears (NEWS)(TRENDS)(LON)(00023) ****Industry's First Web Site "Virus" Appears 08/16/95 SHEFFIELD, SOUTH YORKSHIRE, ENGLAND, 1995 AUG 16 (NB) -- What happens when someone tells you that a Web site has a virus planted within the HTML (Hypertext Mark-up Language) of its main page? The answer, as this bureau found out, is to use an old laptop, equipped with Mosaic, to access the site. Fortunately the Web page -- located on the US Winternet server (http://www.winternet.com/~drow/click.html ) -- is benign and nothing more than a hoax. When accessed, the Web site throws up a message claiming that, by accessing the page, the caller has infected his/her system. In fact, the page in question is quite benign, with the HTML data -- the programming language inherent in Web site pages - merely transmitting a few bytes of dummy data across the Internet. Newsbytes notes that, while it is possible to transmit a section of program code using a Web site, that code could only be an image file or a text file, and not executable. Peter Sommer, a security expert with the Computer Research Center with the London School of Economics, told Newsbytes that the site, though bizarre, is quite benign and is an interesting hoax. "Theoretically, it might be possible to transmit a virus or Trojan [horse] in an encrypted form, such as an MS-Word .doc file that would execute as a macro, but this is highly specific and would require the recipient to have MS-Word in macro mode," he said. "Other options would be to send down a piece of code, perhaps as a GIF (Graphics Interchange Format) file, that would interact with a user's Web browser, but there are several Web browsers on the market, and even then, it's only going to work with one version," he explained. William Poel, editor of InfoHighway, the monthly Internet newsletter, expressed surprise that anyone would think of using a Web site as a launch pad for a virus. He too, said that a virus would be extremely difficult to propagate across a Web page for the same reasons as Sommer outlined. "The Winternet site is well known in Internet circles for its unusual content," he told Newsbytes. Paul Robinson, editor of Secure Computing, the monthly IT (information technology) magazine, whose September issue reveals the Web site, told Newsbytes that he was surprised that this type of hoax had not been carried out before. "It's quite strange, but plausible," he remarked, adding that he was considering issuing an alert to his subscribers about the affair. (Steve Gold/19950816/Press Contact: Secure Computing +44-1792-324000; Fax +44-1792-324001; Peter Sommer, Internet Email: hcorn@cix.compulink.co.uk; William Poel, Internet Email: wpoel@cix.compulink.co.uk/HOAX950816/PHOTO) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 08/16/95 ONLINE ****Will Prodigy Get Heave-Ho by Sears? (NEWS)(ONLINE)(MSP)(00024) ****Will Prodigy Get Heave-Ho by Sears? 08/16/95 WHITE PLAINS, NEW YORK, U.S.A., 1995 AUG 16 (NB) -- Sears, Roebuck & Company is reportedly considering selling its stake in the Prodigy online service, the third of the "Big Three" trio of online services, Cable News Network (CNN) is reporting. According to CNN, Sears is studying the service, and would make a a decision on whether to sell its 50 percent stake in Prodigy when the study is finished. IBM owns the other half of Prodigy, which has about 1.7 million subscribers. By contrast, both of the other Big Three services, America Online (AOL) and CompuServe, have more than three million members each. Newsbytes contacted Sears headquarters in Chicago, only to be referred to Prodigy's headquarters in White Plains, New York. A spokesperson there wasn't available for comment. In other Prodigy news, users of the service now have the choice of whether or not they want to receive electronic mail (e-mail) from commercial sources. Prodigy officials said the online network is the only one that does not rent, sell, barter, or give away its mailing lists for use by outside parties. Prodigy members have the choice of turning off commercial mail by entering "Opt Out" (without quotes) in Prodigy's Go To window, which was formerly called the Jump window. New subscribers to the service have the choice to opt out of receiving commercial e-mail when they register, officials added. Occasionally, Prodigy sends commercial e-mail to members over its service. But these messages are on behalf of advertisers who buy space on the service. That e-mail is clearly marked as being commercial, officials said, so members can immediately delete the message if they wish. (Bob Woods/19950816/Press Contacts: Sears, 312-875-3000; Brian Ek, Prodigy, 914-448-8811, Internet e-mail ek@prodigy.com) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 08/16/95 ONLINE More On AT&T Web Services For Consumers, Businesses (NEWS)(ONLINE)(BOS)(00025) More On AT&T Web Services For Consumers, Businesses 08/16/95 BASKING RIDGE, NEW JERSEY, U.S.A., 1995 AUG 16 (NB) -- A far reaching new set of Web services for consumers and businesses, targeted at achieving "critical mass" behind the Internet, will include dial-up access for individual home and business users, network-based access and Web site hosting for businesses, and extensive packaged content from third-party providers, AT&T officials said in a teleconference. #IMAGE 1 20 TWPCX \images\95081625.PCX Click here for photo AT&T aims to make the Internet "as easy to use and as widely available as the telephone" for consumers, as well as for businesses of all sizes, reported John Petrillo, president of AT&T Business Services, during the teleconference, which was attended by Newsbytes. "We want to create a snowball effect," the company president added. But, he acknowledged, there is "work to be done," and AT&T "won't do it alone." Consumers need tools for navigating the Web, and for finding relevant services, while businesses need help in "putting up storefronts," according to Petrillo. The new Internet access services will be collectively known as AT&T WorldNet Services. Another new offering being introduced by AT&T, Hosting & Transaction Services, will assist businesses with "Web site creation and management," while also providing them with billing, transaction, and security services, the AT&T exec told the journalists. A third service will "collect and aggregate" content and entertainment, in addition to "matching" content to users' interests, according to Petrillo. "We plan to create a platform that will meet the diverse needs of consumers, professionals, and businesses," he remarked. In providing the new Web services, AT&T is working with partners in the areas of content, billing and transactions, and Web access, Petrillo noted. Also during the teleconference, Tom Evslin, VP for gateway services, said that AT&T's dial-in Web services will enter the trial phase within the next 60 days. The trial phase will be followed by a series of regional rollouts, culminating in nationwide rollout, he added. Network access to the Web, another component of the new WorldNet, will include a set of previously unveiled "managed connectivity" services being offered to businesses by AT&T in conjunction with partner BBN Planet, Evslin said. Nationwide rollout of these LAN (local area network)-based services will take place on September 1, as previously planned, he maintained. The intent behind AT&T's new services is "the Internet for everyone," according to Evslin. But although 25 percent of US homes are now equipped with PCs and modems, only 6 percent of homes are currently using online services, he observed. To help ease the Web experience, AT&T and its partners will provide "navigational aids, so a new user isn't just dumped into cyberspace," Evslin told the listeners. Netscape will supply a "specially configured," AT&T-branded edition of its browser for WorldNet users. In addition, WorldNet will support "other popular browsers," the VP noted. Extensive help services for the Web service will be available through AT&T Customer Care, both "on the phone and online," according to Evslin. In addition, Verity Inc., will provide its Topics search-and- retrieval engine for use with WorldNet. "We'll probably be the first to offer their search agent technology as part of our (online) service. People will be able to fill out a profile and know that, within our network 24 hours a day, their agents will be looking for information that is relevant to them," Evslin asserted. AT&T has also made an arrangement with McKinley Inc., to provide "the top guide to the Internet, which rates sites and gives users a preview -- so that they can find interesting sites, and not just every site that has a key word in it." Harley Hahn will give WorldNet users "exclusive guided tours" of the Web organized by themes and special interest areas, with a new tour every month. "These are the sites mentioned in the famous Osborne Internet Yellow pages." In addition, WorldNet will incorporate Adobe Acrobat capabilities for viewing, navigating, and printing text and images from the Web, Evslin said. AT&T has not yet worked out the specifics of its pricing plan, according to Petrillo. But the company envisions a mixture of subscriber-based and pay-for-view models, he reported. In addition, many of the Web sites hosted under AT&T's new Hosting & Transaction Service will generate revenues through advertisements on the Web, Evslin pointed out. On a technical level, security issues related to conducting transactions over the Internet are "close to solved," the VP contended. "The more important story is the consumer perception that the Internet isn't safe." AT&T does not intend to try to explain RSA encryption to consumers, Evslin said. The issue will be addressed instead by using AT&T's long-standing reputation for reliability to "stand by" Web-based transaction services, the AT&T exec told the journalists. Meanwhile, existing AT&T services are also receiving Web capabilities, according to the officials. For instance, AT&T is working with Novell to allow business customers of AT&T NetWare Connect to use AT&T WorldNet Services as a "common Internet access vehicle." Users of AT&T Easylink and AT&T PersonaLink can now exchange messages over the Internet, and AT&T Interchange Online Network is slated to start offering "integrated Web browsing" in September, with full access to Internet resources to follow by the end of this year. (Jacqueline Emigh/19950816/Reader Contacts: For Consumers, AT&T, 800-336-TRUE; For Businesses, AT&T, 800-309-3349; Press Contacts: Mike Miller, AT&T, 201-331-4141; Mike Granierei, AT&T, 908-221- 7611/IBMLIBRARY950816) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 7 08/16/95 ONLINE ****Online Industry To Reach $3.3 Billion By ' (NEWS)(ONLINE)(LAX)(00026) ****Online Industry To Reach $3.3 Billion By '97 08/16/95 SAN JOSE, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1995 AUG 16 (NB) -- Dataquest, a unit of Dun & Bradstreet, announced that online services will grow from the current $2.7 billion to $3.3 billion in 1997. The growth in subscribers will grow at a much faster rate but income per user will decline dramatically. Dataquest points out that this growth will come in spite of the expanding use of the Internet. The Internet and online services are both jointly expanding. As was reported yesterday in Newsbytes, estimates are that the number of computers directly connected to the Internet worldwide is 6.6 million and growing. Rick Spence, an analyst at Dataquest told Newsbytes, "The online marketplace is going to change, exactly how we might not know. We believe it is not going to matter where you get in, but that you are going to pay for services. Access to the traditional online services will probably evolve through the Internet itself." Dataquest puts online service revenue in 1994 at $2.4 billion, projected to end the current year at $2.7 billion, and reach $3.3 billion by 1997. This would represents an increase of 37.5 percent over three years. Dataquest puts online service subscribers in 1994 as 12.5 million, projected to end the current year at 15.7 million and reach 25.1 million by 1997. This would represent an increase of 108 percent over three years. While subscribers will double over the next three years, revenue will only increase by a third. Dataquest points out that annual revenue per subscription currently averages $172 and is expected to decline to $132 in 1997. Existing online services not only face the Internet attack, but new online services are making their was into the marketplace, including the giant entry of Microsoft Network. Spence points out that Dataquest is predicting a subscription range for the Microsoft Network of between five-hundred thousand and one million. "Microsoft Network could skew all the numbers because of the unknown nature of its impact. We are taking a middle ground, but the potential range is huge." (Richard Bowers/19950816/Press Contact: Rick Spence, Dataquest, 408-437-8000) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 08/16/95 IBM IBM, Worlds Extend Virtual Reality Markup Language (NEWS)(IBM)(BOS)(00027) IBM, Worlds Extend Virtual Reality Markup Language 08/16/95 ARMONK, NEW YORK, U.S.A., 1995 AUG 16 (NB) -- IBM and Worlds Inc. are working together on VRML+ (Virtual Reality Markup Language+) -- a new Web protocol for "bringing 3-D (dimensional) alive" with avatars -- and will start to distribute a free VRML+ browser later this year, said Willie Chiu, multimedia director, IBM Software Solutions Division, in an interview with Newsbytes. The new extension to VRML is aimed at providing developers with a standard way of defining 3-D avatars, and of allowing the avatars to "communicate" and interact in cyberspace, Chiu told Newsbytes. Existing Web-based 3-D multimedia products from IBM and Worlds, Inc., are both written in VRML, the current industry standard, according to the IBM multimedia director. Meanwhile, though, the two companies began distributing the protocols for an "enhanced VRML" over the Web to members of a "VRML distribution list" about 10 days ago. IBM and Worlds also plan to make a prototype VRML+ browser available for free download by the public during the fourth quarter, he added. "We've been receiving comments on our proposal for a VRML extension from a number of technical people in the industry," Newsbytes was told. At a recent "birds of a feather" meeting just before Siggraph, he added, about 500 technical experts discussed the emerging specification, including members of the committee that has developed the spec. The current VRML specification was originated by Silicon Graphics, and is now being adhered to by about 30 different companies, including IBM and Worlds Inc., according to Chiu. Unlike HTML (Hypertext Markup Language), which is a 2-D interface, VRML allows 3-D viewing, he pointed out. "There are now a number of browsers available for VRML." The new "+" extension, however, will allow "a lot more services to be available" in the 3-D space, he asserted. VRML+ is backwardly compatible with VRML, so that a VRML+ browser could be used with a VRML-based Web page, said Chiu. The IBM exec added that he sees now reason why VRML would not be "forwardly compatible" with VRML+. At Siggraph, IBM and Worlds Inc. showcased VRML+ through a live demo in which Steve Mills, general manager, IBM Software Solutions Division, joined the Los Angeles audience from his keynote address at Web World in Chicago. The IBM general manager was represented in the demo through a 3-D avatar. The demo also featured three "virtual worlds": a "Virtual Branch Office," a New Products Gallery, and the IBM Digital Library. The upcoming VRML+ browser from IBM and Worlds will be offered for OS/2 Warp, Power Mac, Windows 95, and Windows NT, according to Chiu. In addition, VRML+ servers will be available for IBM RISC System/6000, SGI Challenge and Indigo, Lunix, Sun Solaris, and Windows NT. (Jacqueline Emigh/19950815/Reader Contact: IBM, 914-765-1900; Press Contact: Beth Kitchener, Brodeur & Partners for IBM, 617-622-2848) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 08/16/95 PC Compaq's New Pentium PCs, Cuts Prices (NEWS)(PC)(DEN)(00028) Compaq's New Pentium PCs, Cuts Prices 08/16/95 HOUSTON, TEXAS, U.S.A., 1995 AUG 16 (NB) -- Compaq Computer Corporation (NYSE: CPQ) has introduced nine new desktop PCs based on Intel's 133 megahertz (MHz) Pentium microprocessor and cut the price of other PCs by as much as 25 percent. The company also announced the minimum size hard drive it will install in products designed for commercial use will be 630 megabytes (MB). The new 133MHz PCs will be available in the ProLinea, Deskpro and Deskpro XL models. Compaq said nine new systems with 16MB of memory and equipped with one-gigabyte (GB) hard drives will be available in volume by the end of September. The ProLinea will get two new models as will the Deskpro XL family, while the DeskPro line will expand by five additions. Compaq said it was raising the minimum size of hard disks installed in its PCs to make it easier for users to accommodate the new operating systems and applications that are becoming available. Under the new pricing schedule being announced, you can buy a 75MHz Pentium-based ProLinea with 8MB of memory, a 256 kilobyte (KB) cache and a 630MB hard drive for $1,599, or a Deskpro XL with a 90MHz Pentium chip, 16MB of memory, a 256KB cache, a 32-bit network interconnect card, a 1GB hard drive and covered by a three-year warranty for $3,199. Buyers of Compaq's Presario desktop line also benefit from the reductions. A Presario CDS 744 has been reduced $200 while a 100MHz Pentium- based Presario CDS 992 was reduced $600. A Presario CDS 974 using a 75MHz Pentium chip and equipped with a 725MB hard drive has been reduced from $2,100 to $1,799. Compaq Deskpro models are equipped with Intelligent Manageability, a feature the company introduced in March of this year. IM is a combination of hardware, firmware and software that provides an inventory of hardware and software assets, fault-management designed to minimize user downtime, and security management to protect data from unauthorized access. Part of IM is Asset Control, which automatically tracks serial numbers, hardware, firmware and software driver version updates, and makes that information available at a designated PC or remotely over the network through third-party management applications. With the shipment of Windows 95 this month, remote will be possible through Compaq's Insight Manager. Fault management features include attempting to predict hard drive failures before they occur, a technology Compaq calls "Intellisafe." The system also tracks the internal temperature of critical components and alerts the user when system component failure is imminent because of the higher temperatures. IM also include a feature called "Rapid Recovery" which automatically makes a tape backup of data when hard drive failure is indicated. (Jim Mallory/19950816/Press contact: Compaq, tel 713-374-0484; Public contact: Compaq, tel 800-345-1518 or at the Internet URL http://www.compaq.com ) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 08/16/95 GENERAL Toshiba Exec To Compaq; DEC Exec Joins Microsoft (NEWS)(GENERAL)(DEN)(00029) Toshiba Exec To Compaq; DEC Exec Joins Microsoft 08/16/95 HOUSTON, TEXAS, U.S.A., 1995 AUG 16 (NB) -- Compaq Computer Corp. (NYSE: CPQ) has tapped a former Toshiba executive to lead the company's portable PC business, while a former Digital Equipment Corporation head of research and development will join the Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ: MSFT) research group. Compaq called the appointment of Michael J. Winkler as senior vice president and general manager of its portables division "a major step in its drive to reassert its leadership in the portable PC marketplace." Winkler will report directly to Eckhard Pfeiffer, Compaq president and chief executive officer. Winkler, 50, was with Toshiba from 1991 to 1995 and had responsibility for the company's portable computer and accessories business in the US and Latin America. He also spent time with Xerox Corporation where he was vice president and general manager of several of that company's product and business groups. Hugh Barnes will continue to lead the portables division at Compaq until Winkler comes on board in November. Barnes will then move to a new job in corporate technology. A Compaq spokesperson was unable to provide information regarding the specifics of Barnes' new job by Newsbytes' deadline. Before moving to the portable division job Barnes headed up the company's peripherals division. Joining Microsoft's research group is Gordon Bell, a former head of R&D at Digital Equipment Corp. While at DEC Bell led the development of the VAX minicomputer and was responsible for the design and development of various other minicomputers and mainframes. He has also served as the assistant director for computing at the National Science Foundation. He has authored numerous books and papers and is a member of the National Academy of Engineering and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and received the National Medal of Technology in 1991. Nathan Nyhrvold, Microsoft group vice president of the applications and content division, called Bell "a truly legendary pioneer in this industry and a mentor to many of our top people." Microsoft said Bell's responsibilities will include "exploring the use of video and high-speed networks to expand and facilitate human-human interactions and to reduce physical travel." A spokesperson at public relations firm Waggener Edstrom told Newsbytes that means he will be working on telecommuting projects, but was unable to provide any other information. Bell will also continue his work on scalable computing. Microsoft said he will contribute to products not only in the applications and content group but also to projects in the developer and business systems divisions. (Jim Mallory/19950816/Press contact: Compaq, tel 713-374-0484 or Katherine Rooks, Waggener Edstrom for Microsoft, 206-637-9097) (SUMMARY)(GENERAL)(MSP)(00030) Newsbytes Daily Summary 08/16/95 MINNEAPOLIS, MINNESOTA, U.S.A., 1995 AUG 16 (NB) -- These are capsules of all today's news stories: ======================================================================== ------------| N E W S B Y T E S D A I L Y S U M M A R Y |---------- ------------| Wednesday, August 16, 1995 |---------- ======================================================================== (c) Newsbytes News Network (Tm) Editor in Chief: Wendy Woods ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Newsbytes News Network's 1995 Update CD-ROM for Mac, DOS, and Windows is now available for $29.95 (includes s&h). Contains 1983-1995 news stories, more than 64,000 keyword searchable stories and 475 digitized images. For more information or to order, fax to 612-430-0441 or e-mail to 'administrator@newsbytes.com' -- MC, Visa, Amex accepted. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ CATEGORY HEADLINES (*** indicates today's top stories) STORY # ======================================================================== APPLE MacWorld - Macromedia's Extreme-CD For Mac/PC.............. 04 BROADCAST UK - Digital TV Revolution Looming......................... 13 BROADCAST Six Cities Get Interactive TV Tests........................ 19 BUSINESS Germany - GVD Leasing Turns In Record Figures.............. 22 GENERAL Japan Newsbriefs........................................... 02 GENERAL UK - HP Slashes Color Printer Prices....................... 08 GENERAL China - Technology News Briefs............................. 14 GENERAL Toshiba Exec To Compaq; DEC Exec Joins Microsoft........... 29 IBM OS/2 Warp Server Nears Beta Testing........................ 16 IBM IBM, Worlds Extend Virtual Reality Markup Language......... 27 LEGAL SPA Sues Five Canadian Retailers Over Rentals.............. 17 NETWORK Motorola Intros 28.8 PCMCIA Fax/Modem/Network Card......... 11 ONLINE More Data On Size Of The Internet.......................... 03 ONLINE MAID Shares Rocket From Microsoft Network Deal............. 10 ONLINE Home & Garden TV Intros Integrated CD-ROM/Online Svc....... 12 ONLINE ART 2.0 Creates Faster Web Graphics........................ 18 ONLINE UK-Specific Web Index Site Launched........................ 20 ONLINE ****Will Prodigy Get Heave-Ho by Sears.................... 24 ONLINE More On AT&T Web Services For Consumers, Businesses........ 25 ONLINE ****Online Industry To Reach $3.3 Billion By '97.......... 26 PC Compaq's New Pentium PCs, Cuts Prices...................... 28 TELECOM Ericsson Secures Bulk Of Mercury One-2-One's UK Expansion.. 09 TELECOM China - AT&T Moves In...................................... 15 TELECOM Ameritech Invests in Chinese Telecom....................... 21 TRENDS ****Industry's First Web Site "Virus" Appears............. 23 UNIX Common Unix Platform Sought................................ 01 WINDOWS ****Over 280 PC Makers Poised For Windows 95 Launch....... 05 WINDOWS ****Windows 95 Marketing Hoopla Kicks Into High Gear...... 06 WINDOWS Update Makes PerfectOffice OK With Windows 95.............. 07 ======================================================================== These are the headlines and first paragraphs of each story, in order: 1 -> Common Unix Platform Sought -- A group of almost sixty of the world's leading computer software and systems company have announced an agreement to work together toward establishing a common base for future 64-bit versions of the Unix operating system. 2 -> Japan Newsbriefs -- In this roundup of news from Japan: Sony develops multimedia operating system, NTT to enter World Partners test, KDD tests advanced ISDN, MapInfo heads east, Pioneer invests abroad 3 -> More Data On Size Of The Internet -- Just how big is the Internet? Two of the Internet measurement experts are teaming up to try to answer that elusive question. Mark Lottor of Network Wizards has released his latest results for his domain survey that attempts to discover every announced host on the Internet by doing a complete search of the Domain Name System. The results are published on the World Wide Web at http://www.nw.com . 4 -> MacWorld - Macromedia's Extreme-CD For Mac/PC -- "If this doesn't get the industry to standardize on 3-D (three-dimensional), then I don't know what will!" exclaimed Marina Moreno of Macromedia, during a demo for Newsbytes of Macromedia's new crossplatform Extreme3-D modeling, animation, and post-production software for Mac, Windows 3.1, Power Mac, and Windows 95. 5 -> ****Over 280 PC Makers Poised For Windows 95 Launch -- Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ: MSFT) said that over 280 major PC manufacturers around the world are ready to pre-install Microsoft Windows 95 on, or soon after, the new operating system and graphical user interface launches on August 24, and the software company said it will extend the hours of its no-charge support for the product. 6 -> ****Windows 95 Marketing Hoopla Kicks Into High Gear -- If you think Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ: MSFT) has been heavily promoting its new personal computer operating system and graphical user interface Windows 95, you ain't seen nothin' yet. With the Windows 95 launch set for next week, the software company said it's ready to kick into high gear next week with an ad campaign that is expected to cost $300 million. 7 -> Update Makes PerfectOffice OK With Windows 95 -- Novell Inc. (NASDAQ:NOVL) has announced an update for PerfectOffice that makes the current version of its desktop applications suite of software compatible with Windows 95, Microsoft's new 32-bit operating system and graphical user interface set for release August 24. The update can be downloaded from various online sources and is also available on disk. 8 -> UK - HP Slashes Color Printer Prices -- In a sudden move designed to increase market share, Hewlett-Packard has slashed UK pricing on its DeskJet, DeskWriter 660C and DeskJet 850C inkjet printers by up to 15 percent. The price cuts take effect immediately. 9 -> Ericsson Secures Bulk Of Mercury One-2-One's UK Expansion -- Ericsson has revealed that it has secured most of the UKP 235 million deal to expand the Mercury One- 2-One PCN (Personal Communications Network) service across the UK by the end of 1997. 10 -> MAID Shares Rocket From Microsoft Network Deal -- Shares in MAID (Marketing Analysis Information Database), a London-based online services company that specializes in business information for the City of London, have rocketed from their normally placid 160 pence to a high of 228 pence, before falling back to a steady 220 pence. The share surge came after the business information service announced an IP (information provider) deal with Microsoft for its Microsoft Network (MSN) online service. 11 -> Motorola Intros 28.8 PCMCIA Fax/Modem/Network Card -- Motorola Inc.'s (NYSE:MOT) PCMCIA (Personal Computer Manufacturers Card International Association) Products Division is introducing a fax/modem PCMCIA card that runs at 28.8Kbps (kilobits per second), and can also act as a high-performance local area network (LAN) adapter. The new card is designed for notebook and desktop computers that have Type II PCMCIA slots. 12 -> Home & Garden TV Intros Integrated CD-ROM/Online Svc -- Home & Garden Television (HGTV), a cable TV network, is stepping into the multimedia arena with what's called the first CD-ROM magazine and online service in the home and garden industry, called "LivingHome." 13 -> UK - Digital TV Revolution Looming -- The British Government has moved from its stand-off non-interventionist policy on future broadcasting technology to take the initiative on digital broadcasting. 14 -> China - Technology News Briefs -- In this roundup of news from China, 12 more large-scale satellite ground stations will be built, China Telecommunication Products Trading Center opens in Shanghai, Beijing's old "electronics town" Jiuxianqiao is to be renovated, CD-ROM on worldwide women's issues. 15 -> China - AT&T Moves In -- By transferring advanced technologies such as switching systems and integrated circuits to China, and promoting long-distance phone services, AT&T is strengthening its presence in China. 16 -> OS/2 Warp Server Nears Beta Testing -- IBM (NYSE:IBM) said it is about to begin beta testing OS/2 Warp Server, its next local- area network (LAN) operating system. Testing will begin around Sept. 1, company spokesman Joe Stunkard told Newsbytes. 17 -> SPA Sues Five Canadian Retailers Over Rentals -- The Software Publishers' Association (SPA), an industry association with an interest in software copyright issues, has filed lawsuits against five Canadian retailers, alleging they rented software without the required authorization. 18 -> ART 2.0 Creates Faster Web Graphics -- Faster Web graphics is what Johnson-Grace Co.'s ART 2.0 creates. An enhanced version of its high-speed multimedia publishing technology, Grace's ART 2.0 has new compression algorithms which increase the speed of graphical content published on the Internet and online services. The product is for the Macintosh and Windows. 19 -> Six Cities Get Interactive TV Tests -- The firm Welcome To The Future (WTF) said its been contracted by two different companies to provide hardware, software, and network services in wireless interactive television tests in six cities. 20 -> UK-Specific Web Index Site Launched -- Systematic Marketing, a London- based database and direct marketing company, has opened up a Web site that offers the first UK-specific index for Web sites. 21 -> Ameritech Invests in Chinese Telecom -- Ameritech Corp. (NYSE:AIT) will enter what it sees as a lucrative market in China via a joint venture with China Communications System Company Ltd. (Chinacom), to assist that country in developing its telecommunication sector. 22 -> Germany - GVD Leasing Turns In Record Figures -- GVD Leasing, part of the Siemens Group, has revealed it produced record sales and profits figures during 1994, and is continuing the trend in the first six months of 1995, when it generated new business worth DM 532 million. 23 -> ****Industry's First Web Site "Virus" Appears -- What happens when someone tells you that a Web site has a virus planted within the HTML (Hypertext Mark-up Language) of its main page? The answer, as this bureau found out, is to use an old laptop, equipped with Mosaic, to access the site. Fortunately the Web page 24 -> ****Will Prodigy Get Heave-Ho by Sears -- Sears, Roebuck & Company is reportedly considering selling its stake in the Prodigy online service, the third of the "Big Three" trio of online services, Cable News Network (CNN) is reporting. 25 -> More On AT&T Web Services For Consumers, Businesses -- A far reaching new set of Web services for consumers and businesses, targeted at achieving "critical mass" behind the Internet, will include dial-up access for individual home and business users, network-based access and Web site hosting for businesses, and extensive packaged content from third-party providers, AT&T officials said in a teleconference. 26 -> ****Online Industry To Reach $3.3 Billion By '97 -- Dataquest, a unit of Dun & Bradstreet, announced that online services will grow from the current $2.7 billion to $3.3 billion in 1997. The growth in subscribers will grow at a much faster rate but income per user will decline dramatically. 27 -> IBM, Worlds Extend Virtual Reality Markup Language -- IBM and Worlds Inc. are working together on VRML+ (Virtual Reality Markup Language+) 28 -> Compaq's New Pentium PCs, Cuts Prices -- Compaq Computer Corporation (NYSE: CPQ) has introduced nine new desktop PCs based on Intel's 133 megahertz (MHz) Pentium microprocessor and cut the price of other PCs by as much as 25 percent. The company also announced the minimum size hard drive it will install in products designed for commercial use will be 630 megabytes (MB). 29 -> Toshiba Exec To Compaq; DEC Exec Joins Microsoft -- Compaq Computer Corp. (NYSE: CPQ) has tapped a former Toshiba executive to lead the company's portable PC business, while a former Digital Equipment Corporation head of research and development will join the Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ: MSFT) research group. (Wendy Woods/19950816) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 08/14/95 TRENDS Info Superhighway Is History In The Making - Report (NEWS)(TRENDS)(LON)(00001) Info Superhighway Is History In The Making - Report 08/14/95 LONDON, ENGLAND, 1995 AUG 14 (NB) -- Ovum has released "Applications for the Superhighway: Market Drivers," a new report which lead author John Moroney claims covers most aspects of the development of, and the future growth of, the information superhighway. Moroney told Newsbytes that the report, which took nine months to collate, predicts how the info superhighway will develop up to, and beyond, the end of the decade. "The report is a new area for Ovum and the intention is to look at the report in a year or so's time, then decide whether it's still valid, and, if appropriate, issue a revised report," he said. According to Moroney, "Humanity has always hankered after rapid access to information because of the power it affords -- I see the superhighway as part of a historical trend." Moroney said that Ovum sees the superhighway as developing in a series of three waves through into the next century. In the first stages, the report claims, suppliers will drive development. The rewards, the report notes, may be slow to achieve, but the suppliers should be prepared to take a medium term view on profits. Ovum forecasts that revenues from superhighway applications will top the $185 billion mark by the year 2005, with both business and residential users coming to rely on the info superhighway for their information and entertainment. The report defines the superhighway as "a mechanism for providing access to electronic information and content held on network servers." According to Ovum, the superhighway has four key features: it supports two-way communications; it offers more than just simple voice telephony; it is interactive and provides real-time, cooperative communications; and it supports electronic screen-based applications. The report claims that the info superhighway will allow services to be interconnected using the phone network, as well as telecoms infrastructures that have yet to be constructed. There are three waves of development. Wave one (now): This will be driven by a dramatic increase in computing power and the associated reductions in costs. The Internet has developed in wave one, providing cheap access to basic levels of communication. The Internet demonstrates the potential of the superhighway, but in its present form, the report notes its future is limited. Wave two (1995 to 1997): In the second wave, suppliers will build on wave one and provide added functionality, using ISDN (integrated services digital network) technology. ISDN, the report notes, will give users a wider choice of still images and low quality moving images. Set up times will speed up and costs will fall. Wave three (2000 and onwards): By the third wave, suppliers will be offering broadband capacity at the 1.5 megabits-per-second and above speeds needed to provide broadcast quality moving pictures and high speed network interconnects, the report predicts. The new bandwidth capacities will require additional equipment, both in terms of the local loop and in terminal equipment. Broadband capacity for business customers will be in both directions, but residential customers will only need broadband to the home, the report suggests. "Applications for the Superhighway: Market Drivers," is available immediately, price UKP1,495 in Europe and $2,775 in the US. (Steve Gold/19950811/Press Contact: Jennie Morales, PR at OVum, +44-171-312-7258, Internet e-mail: jhb@ovum.mhs.compuserve.com; Reader Contact: Ovum, tel +44-171-255-2670, fax +44-171-255-1995, Internet e-mail info@ovum.mhs.compuserve.com) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 08/14/95 APPLE Miramar's Windows 95-To-Mac Connectivity Package (NEWS)(APPLE)(DEN)(00002) Miramar's Windows 95-To-Mac Connectivity Package 08/14/95 REDMOND, WASHINGTON, U.S.A., 1995 AUG 14 (NB) -- Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ: MSFT) says privately held Miramar Systems Inc. is offering a software product that allows Windows 95-based PCs to talk to Macintosh PCs on a network. The software, called MacLAN Connect 5.5, will be available in September. Microsoft previously had announced third-party software products that enable Windows 95 to support Banyan Vines and Banyan Enterprise Network Services servers, Digital's Pathworks and client software for Unix-based Network File System servers from FTP Software Inc. Windows has built-in support for Windows NT and Novell's NetWare servers. Neal Rabin, president of Santa Barbara, California-based Miramar, said the new version of MacLAN eliminates incompatibility problems for organizations running multiple platforms on the network. He said benefits include faster network performance, greater system reliability and built-in systems management features. MacLAN Connect 5.5 doesn't yet support all the features of Windows 95, although it does let Mac workstations on the network talk to Windows 95-based workstations. Microsoft said a version of Personal MacLAN, which will have full integration with Windows 95, including support for long file names and integration with the Windows 95 control panel, is expected to be completed by early 1996. A Microsoft public relations representative told Newsbytes MacLAN 5.5 has a suggested retail price of $199 per PC on the network. Users who bought their MacLAN 5.0 before August 1, 1995, can upgrade for $59 through October 31, 1995. The upgrade will cost $99 after that date. If you bought MacLAN after August 1 your upgrade will be free. (Jim Mallory/19950811/Press contact; Kathy Gill, Waggener Edstrom for Microsoft, 503-245-0905; Public contact: Microsoft, tel 206-882-8080 or 800-426-9400; Melissa Rabin, S&S Public Relations for Miramar, 708-291-1616/MACLAN950814/PHOTO) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 1995 08/14/95 TRENDS China - 7.61 Million Phones Installed So Far In (NEWS)(TRENDS)(PEK)(00003) China - 7.61 Million Phones Installed So Far In 1995 08/14/95 BEIJING, CHINA, 1995 AUG 14 (NB) -- According to the latest statistics released by the Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications (MPT), China had 7.61 million new telephone subscribers in the first half of this year. During the period of January to June, China's Postal and Telecom sector has maintained rapid growth. The sector's traffic volume showed an increase of 45 percent over the same period of last year. The largest group of the 7.61 million new subscribers is from Guangdong province, where more than 831,00 new telephones were installed from January to June. The second largest came from Jiangsu province with 719,000 new phone subscribers. Shangdong province was third with 534,600 new phones. Already at the apex of China's telecommunications industry, Guangdong province established China's first asynchronous transfer mode platform application network recently. Developed and supplied by AT&T Network Systems, the platform is an advanced transmission and switching technology that supports voice, data, and video traffic. Also in Guangdong, the first 2.5 gigabyte-per-second SDH trunk line, which can handle more than 30,000 simultaneous calls on a pair of fiber-optic cables, started operation between Hong Kong and the province at the end of last year. Contrary to the quick growth in these prosperous urban areas, the telecom industry in inland provinces and regions lags far behind. During the first half of this year, Tibet had the smallest number of new phone installations, with just 3,120. Qinghai province was second from the bottom of the list with 16,490 new phones installed. (Chih-Ho Yu & Ning Huang/19950814) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 08/14/95 TRENDS China - EDI Promoted To Boost Foreign Trade (NEWS)(TRENDS)(PEK)(00004) China - EDI Promoted To Boost Foreign Trade 08/14/95 BEIJING, CHINA, 1995 AUG 14 (NB) -- To boost foreign trade, China plans to invest heavily in developing accompanying network, computers, and software to bolster the use of electronic data interchange (EDI), the Ministry of Foreign Trade and Economic Cooperation (MOFTEC) said recently. The MOFTEC recently said that it plans to promote EDI systems. However, the ministry also said the plan would include establishing standards, a service center, networks, and regulations governing EDI. Officials with MOFTEC claim EDI can lower costs, increase communication speed, and reduce errors common in traditional paper-based information flows. Chinese enterprises have reportedly been complaining in recent years that documents were being delayed at the customs of foreign countries, because customs put EDI users as a priority for clearance. Some even lost business opportunities because potential foreign partners preferred to deal with enterprises which had EDI systems. As EDI becomes an increasingly widely-adopted tool in world trade, it has become a crucial element that affects a country's foreign trade, Liu Hu, a MOFTEC director general said. To break trade barriers and integrate China's trade throughout the world, China has put the more widespread use of EDI into its agenda for the 1996-2000 period, Liu added. Foreign telecommunications and computer enterprises such as AT&T, IBM, and HP have shown their interest in EDI in China. MOFTEC now plans to build a nationwide EDI service center. The center will provide networks, information consulting services, and exploitation of software and hardware. In the southern city of Guangzhou, a regional EDI service center has already been established. China began to introduce EDI in 1990, and since then, 22 national standards for EDI have been drafted. New standards concerning foreign trade based on international standards will be drafted, the State Bureau of Technical Supervision said. In October, China will implement six national standards for foreign trade documents. They will cover commercial invoices, packing lists, shipping documents, certificates of origin for exports, and import and export licenses, the bureau said. (Chih-Ho Yu & Ning Huang/19950814) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 08/14/95 TELECOM Ericsson Wins Major Korean Telecom Contract (NEWS)(TELECOM)(LON)(00005) Ericsson Wins Major Korean Telecom Contract 08/14/95 STOCKHOLM, SWEDEN, 1995 AUG 14 (NB) -- Ericsson has secured a second major contract with Korea Electric Power Corporation (KEPCO), terms of which call for the Swedish telecoms company to add a further eight sites to KEPCO's four site multi-trunked network. The KEPCO network uses Enhanced Digital Access Communications System (EDACS) technology to allow its operatives and staff at offices to keep in touch. Using this private digital mobile voice and data communications system, Ericsson officials claim, is much better than using disparate technology, since the EDACS network can be tied into KEPCO's existing PABX (private automatic branch exchange) network. "This system will demonstrate EDACS's unique capability to be used for wide area dispatch radio communications, phone interconnects, and improved data handling," explained Craig Szczutkowski, vice president of international operations with Ericsson, who added that the second phase of the contract will show how easy it is to expand an existing EDACS system. Ericsson is working with Samsung on the installation of the EDACS network for KEPCO. Samsung is a native company of Korea, and gives the company a high degree of local knowledge, officials with Ericsson said. By the end of this year, KEPCO plans to achieve EDACS coverage to the whole of the Seoul area. Next year the network will be rolled out across Korea, with the eventual aim of installing a national network that includes Kyungnam and Cheonnam. (Sylvia Dennis/19950811/Press & Reader Contact: Steffan Svensson, Ericsson Mobile Communications, +46-8-757-0761) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 08/14/95 TELECOM Boeing Signs Up For SITA's AeroNet Services (NEWS)(TELECOM)(LON)(00006) Boeing Signs Up For SITA's AeroNet Services 08/14/95 LONDON, ENGLAND, 1995 AUG 14 (NB) -- Boeing has signed on the dotted line to become the first user of AeroNet, the SITA Group's new global network service for "secure and reliable" voice and data communications. Announcing the deal, Craig Savio, director general of Boeing's Commercial Airplane Group's Technical Data Procession operations, said that Aeronet forms part of the company's key communications strategy. "We are pioneering the use of online aerospace industry applications, and REDARS (Reference Engineering Data Automated Retrieval System) will be the first of many," he said. According to Savio, Boeing plans to use AeroNet for its REDARS application, offering airline customers fast access to the latest Boeing aircraft engineering drawings and parts list needed for aircraft maintenance and repairs. Boeing claims that, by making its digital drawings immediately available to customers, it is the first airframe manufacturer to allow direct access to such a service, so eliminating the need to produce, distribute and update thousands of drawings held on microfilm and framed in aperture cards. According to Boeing's Savio, it is critical to the company's business that the large amounts of information used in its applications are made available globally and cost-effectively. Plans call for Boeing to make extensive use of the SITA global voice and data communications network to offer these services to the company's customers. Aeronet was designed as the result of close cooperation with key aerospace companies, through the SITA Aerospace Focus Committee, of which Being is a founder member, along with Airbus Industrie, Rolls- Royce, Pratt & Whitney, and General Electric. SITA's Aeronet service is based on a TCP/IP (Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol) system, which the company claims offers a high level of security, end-to-end management, navigation, and flexibility. The service also allows access to SITA's managed data network services, the SITAMail Messaging Services and electronic data exchange (EDI) services. The Aeronet service is available in more than 500 cities in 100 countries. The service also allows access to the Internet and the World Wide Web using a secure gateway, SITA officials said. (Sylvia Dennis/19950811/Press Contact: Richard Hewitt, Profile PR, +44-181-995-1595, Internet e-mail richard_hewitt@profile.compuserve.com; Reader Contact: SITA, +44-181-730-1322) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 08/14/95 LEGAL Redesigning The US Dollar (NEWS)(LEGAL)(SFO)(00007) Redesigning The US Dollar 08/14/95 SEATTLE, WASHINGTON, U.S.A., 1995 AUG 14 (NB) -- Digital color reproduction systems are gradually making accurate counterfeiting possible for almost anyone. The US government is responding with a range of new anti-counterfeit measures, some of which already have been introduced, while others soon will be. In "Protecting the Greenback" (Scientific American, July 1995, pp. 40-46), Robert E. Schafrik and Sara E. Church trace the history of the US counterfeit-money problem since colonial times and speculate about which measures the government will employ when radically redesigned bills are introduced starting next year. (The new bills were still being tested as the article was being written, the authors explain.) The battle is not over, however. "Given the pace of graphics and printing technology advances in recent years," they write, "it is unlikely that the new notes will suffice for six decades, as did the previous ones (albeit with a few well-chosen modifications). To supplement the deterrent value of the new notes, law enforcement -- especially international cooperation -- will have to expand as the use of the hard-to-trace printing technology spreads worldwide. Manufacturers of advanced reprographic equipment can help by making their equipment less suitable for counterfeiting." This story is republished with permission from the August 1995 Cybernautics Digest, a monthly summary of reports about converging information technologies. (Contact: Terry Hansen, Cybernautics Digest, c/o KFH Publications Inc., 3530 Bagley Ave. N., Seattle, WA 98103; 206-547-4950; Fax: 206-547-5355; E-mail: cyber@cuix.pscu.com. U.S. rate: $24; $2 sample issue) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 08/14/95 CHIPS Fujitsu Considers New UK Chip Plant (NEWS)(CHIPS)(TYO)(00008) Fujitsu Considers New UK Chip Plant 08/14/95 TOKYO, JAPAN, 1995 AUG 14 (NB) -- Fujitsu (TOKYO:6702) is considering building a new semiconductor manufacturing plant in the UK, a Fujitsu spokesman confirmed to Newsbytes. Speculation over the new site first appeared in a weekend edition of Japan's widely read financial newspaper, Nikkei Keizai Shimbun. Fujitsu's Mike Bierne was careful to confirm the report, "It's the Nikkei's prediction" he said, but did add, "We are considering investing to build up capacity in County Durham. Since we just made a billion dollar investment in the United States and we are investing in Japan, the UK would be a natural place for the new plant." The newspaper reported the new plant would require an investment of around 100 billion yen ($1.07 billion). However, Bierne would not confirm the figure. Sources close to Fujitsu confirmed that the newspaper figure was broadly correct and that a similar amount was recently committed to a new semiconductor plant in the Gresham, Oregon. If built, the plant is anticipated to begin turning out 16 megabit DRAM chips in 1997 and be situated alongside Fujitsu's current County Durham site in the north of England. The existing facility has been producing four megabit DRAMs for the past four years. The plant is expected to eventually shift production to 64 megabit DRAM chips, for which strong worldwide demand is already anticipated. (Martyn Williams/19950814/Press contact: Mike Beirne, Fujitsu Ltd., tel +81-3-3215-5236, fax +81-3-3213-4160, Internet e-mail mike@hq.fujitsu.co.jp) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 08/14/95 TELECOM Fujitsu & NEC Outline Telecom Show Exhibits (NEWS)(TELECOM)(TYO)(00009) Fujitsu & NEC Outline Telecom Show Exhibits 08/14/95 TOKYO, JAPAN, 1995 AUG 14 (NB) -- Two of Japan's major electronics companies have outlined the technology they will be showing at the upcoming Telecom Show '95 in Geneva. The show, taking place from October 3 to 11, is sponsored by the International Telecommunications Union (ITU) and takes place once every four years. Fujitsu's (TOKYO:6702) stand will bring together the company's telecommunications technologies under the stand title, "Fujitsu and multimedia: We've seen the future and it's here!" Highlights of show include a demonstration of the world's largest capacity asynchronous transfer mode (ATM) switch, the Fetex-150, which is currently in use as part of North Carolina's information highway. A new, scaleable, version of the switch will be unveiled that is available in increments from 20 gigabits-per-second (Gbps) up to 160 Gbps. Other building blocks for the future global information infrastructure such as an MPEG-2 (Motion Picture Experts Group type 2)-based high-speed large-capacity video server for video-on-demand services. Software and systems on show include groupware applications, image processing, and video clippings services. Giving visitors a glimpse at the house of the future, home networking services will be on show. Fujitsu say "cyberspace communications services, Internet access, online virtual reality PC games, edutainment, and other multimedia CD-ROM content" will be exhibited. Among the hardware components that will make up multimedia systems, Fujitsu's new large size plasma display and magneto optical (MO) drives will be shown. NEC Corporation (TOKYO:6701) says it will be designing its stand around the theme of "C&C: Bringing the Global Village to Life". The highpoint of the NEC pavilion, says the company, will be the "Global College," an online interactive education system that will support the linking of remote classes to one another across the world. John Nathan, professor of University of California at Santa Barbara, and science journalist Howard Rheingold will demonstrate the system. Based on the same technology, NEC's Mermaid videoconferencing and multimedia system will be on display. The system, shown to Newsbytes last month in Tokyo, allows users in different locations to collaborate on projects by allowing videoconferencing and the exchange of graphic images and text, all in real time. Tadshiro Sekimoto, chairman of the Tokyo based company, will chair a keynote session, to be held on October 3, at the expo. More information about the show can be found on the Internet's World Wide Web at address http://www.itu.ch/ . (Martyn Williams/19950814/Press contact: Mike Beirne, Fujitsu Ltd., tel +81-3-3215-5236, fax +81-3-3213-4160, Internet e-mail mike@hq.fujitsu.co.jp; Mark Pearce, NEC Corporation, tel +81-3-3798-6511, fax +81-3-3457-7249, Internet e-mail maku_10-22150@aladdin.nec.co.jp) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 08/14/95 GENERAL Japan Newsbriefs (NEWS)(GENERAL)(TYO)(00010) Japan Newsbriefs 08/14/95 TOKYO, JAPAN, 1995 AUG 14 (NB) -- In this roundup of news from Japan: Kyocera looks to two million Karaoke fans, Interactive cable network planned, Hitachi looks to more widescreen sales, Teac to build CD players in China, CS subscriptions reach 100,000, and KDD plans fewer staff. Kyocera Looks To Two Million Karaoke Fans A new Karaoke-on-demand service operated by Kyocera Corporation and game-maker Taito hopes to attract a million users in its first two years, the parent company said. Kyocera hopes that many of Japan's millions of Karaoke fans will buy the set-top box needed to receive the service on a TV set, in favor of visiting a bar or "Karaoke-box." The unit connects into the telephone line and will make over 10,000 songs available on a pay-per-play basis to anyone that buys to unit, at 64,500 yen ($690), and pays the 1,500 yen ($16) monthly membership fee. The new system hopes to offer real-time news, sports, and weather information, and more in the future. Interactive Cable Network Planned A group of companies is planning to conduct tests of an interactive cable TV station in 1996. The group, led by security firm Secom, will launch a service providing 30 television channels and a range of services such as interactive educational, housing security and medical services to households in Musashino and Mitaka, Tokyo. Total investment is expected to reach around three billion yen ($32 million) with Secom partnering with Mitsui and Tomen, two trading houses, IBM Japan and Fujitsu. Hitachi Looks To More Widescreen Sales Hitachi Electric says it will ship around 600,000 widescreen television sets in fiscal 1996. Demand is being led by the launch of EDTV-2, a second-generation version of EDTV, also known as "clear vision," which supports widescreen broadcasting. Some "wide clear vision" programs are already being broadcast and the number will increase as the TV networks support the system more. Teac To Build CD Players In China Teac Corporation is to move all production of its compact disk players and other audio products to China from Taiwan, according to sources quoted in the Nikkei Shimbun newspaper. The Tokyo-based company is moving the production to make the units more cost-competitive. Many of the estimated two billion yen ($22 million) sales will be to consumers in the United States and Japan. CS Subscriptions Reach 100,000 Japan's direct-to-home satellite broadcasters have finally passed the 100,000 subscriber mark, three years and four months since broadcasts began. Two competing systems broadcast a total of eleven, encrypted pay cable TV channels to direct-to-home viewers, a system dubbed CS-TV. In contrast, the DBS service, also known as BS-TV, delivers a total of three channels, one of which is an encrypted pay TV service, and has several million viewers. KDD Plans Fewer Staff International telecommunications company KDD will reduce its work force from a current total of 4,200 to 3,000 by 2001. This will be accomplished by eliminating positions as staff leave, early retirement, and transfer of some jobs to affiliated companies. (Martyn Williams/19950814) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 08/14/95 PC Australian Job-Seekers Get PC-Based Kiosks (NEWS)(PC)(SYD)(00011) Australian Job-Seekers Get PC-Based Kiosks 08/14/95 SYDNEY, AUSTRALIA, 1995 AUG 14 (NB) -- The Australian Commonwealth Employment Service (CES) is to install more than 2,000 data kiosks around the country, providing information to job seekers. Although the machines will be provided by IBM, they will not run OS/2, nor even the new Windows '95, but will use Windows for Workgroups 3.11, because this operating system is the only one that has been approved for use. The touch-screen kiosks will be placed in CES offices around the country following a trial of 20 machines in the Island state of Tasmania. CES offices have traditionally used cards on pin-boards to show the jobs available, but they will now be placed on a national database. It is expected that the data will also be available online, via services such as Microsoft Network. The next implementation of the services is expected to be a skills profile which will allow job seekers to be presented with jobs that suit them, after they log-in with their personal identification number (PIN). There is also a possibility that the kiosks will be able to access other government data such as social services, and kiosks may be placed in other public areas such as libraries. The installation is to be completed by April, 1996. (Paul Zucker/19950811) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 08/14/95 GENERAL Canadian Product Launch Update (NEWS)(GENERAL)(TOR)(00012) Canadian Product Launch Update 08/14/95 KINGSTON, ONTARIO, CANADA, 1995 AUG 14 (NB) -- This regular feature, appearing on the first day Newsbytes publishes each week, provides further details for the Canadian market on announcements by international companies that Newsbytes has already covered. This week: Apple's latest Power Macintosh systems and its 1710AV color monitor. Apple Canada Inc., of Markham, Ontario, announced the Power Macintosh 7200, 7500, and 8500 systems (Newsbytes, Aug. 7). All use the PowerPC processor and the Peripheral Component Interconnect (PCI) bus. Apple Canada gave estimated street prices of C$3,299 for the 7200/75 with eight megabytes (MB) of memory and a 500MB hard disk, C$3,599 for a similarly configured 7200/90, C$4,399 for a 7200/90 with 16MB of memory and a one gigabyte hard disk, C$5,899 for a 7500/100 with 16MB and a 1GB disk, and C$8,299 for a Power Macintosh 8500/120 with 16MB and a 2GB disk. Apple Canada also announced the AppleVision 1710AV (Newsbytes, Aug. 9), a 17-inch color monitor with a maximum resolution of 1,280 by 1,024. It also comes with built-in stereo speakers and a microphone. Available now in Canada, the 1710AV is expected to have a street price of C$1,699, Apple Canada said. (Grant Buckler/19950814/Press Contact: Linda Grant or Susan Taylor, Apple Canada, 905-477-5800, Internet e-mail s.taylor@eworld.com; Public Contact: Apple Canada, 905-477-5800, Internet World Wide Web http://www.apple.com ) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 08/14/95 WINDOWS Parsons Readies Announcements 4.0 For Windows (NEWS)(WINDOWS)(DEN)(00013) Parsons Readies Announcements 4.0 For Windows 08/14/95 HIAWATHA, IOWA, U.S.A., 1995 AUG 14 (NB) -- Parsons Technology Inc. a division of Intuit Inc. (NASDAQ: INTU), will ship Announcements 4.0 for Windows next month. Announcements is a software package that lets users create items such as greeting cards, posters, banners, letterhead, envelopes, postcards, gift certificates, calendars, brochures, and business cards. Parsons said the program, which is compatible with Windows 95, includes more than 200 graphics and over 100 professionally designed document templates. The user can stretch, shrink, flip and move graphics and text, placing them anywhere in the document. Parsons aid cards can be personalized by merging them with a name file to make it easier to send out customized cards at holidays. Border shapes can be placed on cards, and the user can position and size objects with the Zoom, Ruler and Guidelines design tools provided in Announcements 4.0. Once created, design elements can be cut, copied and pasted through the Windows clipboard. There is also a preview mode so you can see your creation before it's printed. An Undo feature lets you erase your last step and Reload restores the last version you saved. There is also a spelling checker. Announcements 4.0 can import text from a text file so you don't have to retype information, and support for OLE (object linking and embedding) lets you insert text and graphics from other OLE-compliant applications. New document types include one-fold cards, tall banners, cut-n-fold envelopes, 1-up, 2-up, 3-up, and 4-up certificates, vertical business cards, 4-up postcards, sizable calendars, and mailers. The CD-ROM version of Announcements is AutoPlay-capable. AutoPlay is a feature that automatically installs or runs a program when you insert the CD-ROM disk in the drive. Parsons has included on-screen rulers for accurate alignment. Graphics and text can be snapped into place using a user-definable grid, and objects can be duplicated to create effects like shadowing. There are also drawing tools to create shapes, which can then be filled with color, hatched or have gradients of color applied. A clip-art catalog can be printed. Announcements 4.0 for Windows is available on floppy disk or CD-ROM and will have a suggested list price of $49. To run the program you need an IBM-compatible PC equipped with four megabytes (MB) of memory, a mouse, Windows 3.1, Windows 95 or Windows NT, and 10MB of available hard disk. space. The CD-ROM version requires a CD-ROM drive. (Jim Mallory/19950814/Press contact: Alex Taylor, Parsons Technology, 319-395-9626; Public contact: Parsons Technology, tel 800-223-6925, fax 319-393-1002) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 08/14/95 APPLE MacWorld - RAID Storage For PCI, NuBus (NEWS)(APPLE)(BOS)(00014) MacWorld - RAID Storage For PCI, NuBus 08/14/95 BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS, U.S.A., 1995 AUG 14 (NB) -- FWB's SledgeHammerFT is the first fault tolerant RAID (redundant array of inexpensive disks) subsystem to ship for the Mac, maintained FWB's James C. Nelson, Jr., in a meeting with Newsbytes at MacWorld which also covered the upcoming SledgeHammerVS RAID array for video/graphics pros and HSM (hierarchical storage management) Toolkit. FWB is offering all three products for both NuBus- and PCI (Peripheral Component Interconnect)-based Macs and Power Macs. HSM Toolkit, which is slated for release October 1, will represent another Macintosh industry "first," according to Nelson, who is FWB's marketing communications manager. FWB's new software package is aimed at letting individual end-users extend the capacity of a hard drive or a RAID subsystem through automatic migration of old or infrequently used files to less costly media like optical, removable or Winchester drives. Primary and secondary storage can reside either locally or anywhere on the network. "A lot of users like to run this off a network server," Nelson noted. In a demo at MacWorld's FWB booth, Nelson showed Newsbytes how the new HSM software lets the user set thresholds, dates and times for file migration and demigration. When the amount of data on a disk reaches a user-specified "high-water" mark, the system will automatically migrate data off the drive until it reaches a "low-water" mark, also determined by the user, he pointed out. You can also "anchor" any file to keep it close to hand in case you need it, the FWB exec told Newsbytes. And you can flag files for manual on-the-fly migration to quickly clear up desktop clutter and disk overload. Migrated files are stored in HFS format. Additional capabilities include Appleshare network compatibility, optional compression, and a pop-up activity indicator. HSM Toolkit can be used with any Finder mountable storage, according to Nelson. In another demo, Nelson showed Newsbytes the SledgeHammerFT, a Mac-based RAID subsystem made up of six Wide SCSI (small computer systems interface)-2 drives. Four of the drives are used for RAID storage, and the fifth is a parity drive, while the sixth drive is dedicated to use as an online "auto-swap spare," he reported. Data and parity information is striped across all drives in the array. If any drive in the RAID array goes down, the auto-swap drive then "automatically engages," meaning that data and parity information can be immediately reconstructed on the spare drive without any human intervention, Newsbytes was told. The SledgeHammer also supports hot swapping for any drive failure in which human intervention is required. Nelson added that the new fault tolerant RAID array can be used with either of two adapter cards from FWB: the Fast & Wide SCSI-3 PCI SCI JackHammer, for PCI-based Power Macs, or the SCSI-2 JackHammer accelerator card for NuBus-based Macs and Power Macs. MicroNet has also announced a fault tolerant RAID array for PCI- based Mac machines, Nelson acknowledged. "But ours in the only product in this category that is shipping," he maintained. FWB's SledgeHammer FWB supports RAID O (data striping), RAID 1 (disk mirroring), RAID 1 (disk mirroring), and RAID 5 (complete striped parity), he continued. The Wide SCSI-2 drives used in the array are available in eight gigabyte (GB) and 16GB capacities. Each drive provides one megabyte (MB) of standard on-board cache, burst data transfer rates of up to 20 megabytes-per-second (MBps), and an average seek time of up to 8.5 milliseconds (ms). Through data striping, the average seek time of the SledgeHammerFT is accelerated to up to 2.25 ms, according to Nelson. The subsystem is available in rackmount, able-top, and tower configurations. FWB's upcoming SledgeHammerVS RAID subsystem, on the other hand, is aimed at supplying maximum storage capacity, throughput, and compression for Mac-based digital video and color publishing applications. Targeted for release in the fourth quarter, the VS subsystem will be delivered in PCI and NuBus versions, and rackmount and desktop configurations, Nelson revealed. The subsystem will include seven Wide SCSI-2 hard disk drives with FWB's internal hammerDAT 8000 DAT drive (digital audio tape) drive for 8GB system backup, a 120-meter DAT tape cassette and cleaning kit, and FWB's RAID Toolkit and Retrospect tape backup software. Other features of SledgeHammerVS will include 4:1 video compression, QuickTime 2.0 and AppleShare compatibility, and MatrixRAID, a technology from FWB meant to let the user configure any combination of volumes set for RAID 0 (data striping), RAID 1 (mirroring), or data spanning for use on the same array, according to the FWB manager. Also at MacWorld Boston, FWB announced "full compatibility" of all its hardware and software mass storage products with all PCI-based Apple Power Macintoshes -- including the new 7200, 7500, 8500, and 9500 systems -- in addition to all existing NuBus-based Power Macs, and all 68K-based Macs with or without NuBus, from the Mac Plus to current models. Unlike some manufacturers' PCI cards, FWB's PCI JackHammer uses the "short" PCI card form factor, according to Nelson. PCI cards that are not based on the "short" form factor cannot be used in the 7200 or 7500 Power Mac. In other announcements at the show in Boston, FWB unveiled the hammerDLT 15G, an internal 15GB SCSI-2 tape drive that is immediately available, and the hammerDLT 100G, a 100GB tape drive with an autoloader that is due to ship in September. (Jacqueline Emigh/19950811/Reader Contact: FWB, 415-325-4FWB; Press Contact: Angelo Meneguzzi, FWB, 415-833-4610) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 95 08/14/95 APPLE MacWorld - Claris Software For Power Mac, Windows (NEWS)(APPLE)(BOS)(00015) MacWorld - Claris Software For Power Mac, Windows 95 08/14/95 BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS, U.S.A., 1995 AUG 14 (NB) -- ClarisWorks 4.0 for Mac/Power Mac, a product newly equipped with a World Wide Web document translator, has started shipping. Another software update, ClarisImpact 2.0 for Mac/Power Mac and Windows 3.1/Windows 95, is ready for release this week, officials reported, during a press event at MacWorld Boston. During the event, which was attended by Newsbytes, Claris staffers demonstrated ClarisWorks, ClarisImpact, Claris Emailer, FileMaker Pro, ClarisDraw, Amazing Animation, and other products from Claris, including "Real-Life Software," a new trial software CD-ROM disk that is a key element in Claris' new promotional campaign. Visitors were greeted by a jovial and hospitable personification of "Claris." The Medievally clad character was nearly as tall as the cavernous ceilings of the penthouse suite where the event took place, thanks to a pair of stilts. The press event also marked the launch of the Claris Satisfaction Promotion, a promotional campaign that will revolve around free giveaways of the new Real-Life Software CD at major trade shows and through direct mail, ads, and "reseller demo days," in addition to a new Claris Satisfaction logo that will be used across Claris' packaging, advertising, and corporate communications avenues. Claris' new trial disk was developed by Lightspeed Interactive, a company that also has a Madonna CD on its list of credits. The Claris CD contains demos of applications like a home budgeter, a sales lead tracking program, and a school calendar, plus a custom musical score and animation, according to Natalie Lingo, a company spokesperson. Also included is a free home inventory system from FileMaker Pro that can be used without buying any products from Claris. Users viewing the CD are offered a $10 rebate on any Claris product. The Mac/PowerMac version of ClarisWorks 4.0 has just started shipping, Lingo told Newsbytes. Slated for Windows 95 availability this fall, the product adds an HTML (hypertext markup language) translator for creating and reading Web documents within ClarisWorks, along with over 100 other new features. During one of several product demos for Newsbytes, Chris Nalls, product line manager for ClarisImpact, reported that ClarisImpact 2.0 for Mac/Power Mac and Windows 3.1/Windows 95 has just been certified, and will be ready for release the week of August 14. ClarisWorks and ClarisImpact are running neck-and-neck for the top spot in the Japanese market, where each of the two Claris products outsells Microsoft Works, Nalls maintained. ClarisWorks and ClarisImpact both permit end-users to create business presentations, the product line manager pointed out. In addition, each product is built around a cross-platform code base designed for file transfer across Mac and Windows environments without data translation. ClarisImpact, however, is strongly oriented to quick production of charts, timelines, calendars, and other business graphics, whereas ClarisWorks is an "all-in-one program for business, education and home" with a heavier emphasis on word processing and database reporting, he told Newsbytes. The new version of ClarisImpact offers new capabilities for automatically creating graphics from spreadsheets and databases, new "families of styles", and more than 50 added transition effects, according to Nalls. On the Windows side, ClarisImpact 2.0 is a 32-bit "Windows-95 ready" application. For Mac users, version 2.0 employs the "smart install" to load either the Power Mac or 68K edition. In another demo, Newsbytes saw a number of the new features in ClarisWorks 4.0, including: FastReport, for automated search, sorting, and reporting of frequently used data; and ExpressStyle, which is aimed at extending ClarisWorks' "instant formatting" model beyond text paragraphs to encompass graphics, outlines and tables. ClarisWorks 4.0 also adds support for the Apple Language Kits, which will allow users to integrate 2-byte character sets such as Japanese, Chinese and Korean into their documents, Newsbytes was told. Other new capabilities include 500 clip-art images, ReadyArt Libraries for storing and organizing clip-art, word processing features like mail-merge preview and left-and-right-facing pages, and new ClarisWorks Assistants for Mail Label, Home Finance, and Certificate, bringing the total of ClarisWorks Assistants to 11. Unlike ClarisWorks, ClarisImpact does not yet support the use of multiple character sets within the same document, according to Nalls. But Claris offers the business presentation graphics program for Japanese and a variety of other languages, along with English. During the demo of ClarisImpact, Nalls illustrated how the presentation graphics package can be used to quickly create "connected diagrams" like organizational charts, flow charts, and computer diagrams, in addition to project time lines, calendars, and freeform graphics. Newsbytes also saw DataDraw, ClarisImpact's new feature for quickly creating graphics from tab or comma separated data, such as databases and spreadsheets. To support this process, ClarisImpact 2.0 will come with DataDraw templates for FileMaker Pro and Microsoft Excel, Nalls noted. Also at the press event, Newsbytes viewed the "full" version of Emailer, Claris' new program for automating the process of sending, receiving, replying to, forwarding, and storing electronic mail and attached files. Unlike the "lite" version included in Apple's newly unveiled Apple Internet Connectivity Kit (AICK), which supports mail transmission over the Web only, the shrink-wrapped package also lets users send messages directly over commercial online services like CompuServe, America Online, and eWorld, according to an employee of Fog City Software. Fog City was the original developer of Emailer, a product since licensed by Claris for worldwide distribution, and now shipping. Guy Kawasaki, who previously left a position at Apple to head up Fog City, recently returned to Apple, where he is currently an Apple Fellow. (Jacqueline Emigh/19950814/Reader Contact: Claris Software, 408- 987-7000: Press Contact: Natalie Lingo, Greg Cornielson, Timberly McGee, Steve Ruddock, or Ines Anderson, Claris, 408-987-7000; Wendy Barbour, Wilson McHenry Company for Claris, 408-638-3400; Mary Lindsay, Lindsay Public Relations for Claris, 408-984-7242) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 08/14/95 APPLE MacWorld - Apple Newton Gets Web Access From PocketCall (NEWS)(APPLE)(BOS)(00016) MacWorld - Apple Newton Gets Web Access From PocketCall 08/14/95 BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS, U.S.A., 1995 AUG 14 (NB) -- Upon shipment next month, PocketCall 2.0 will give Newton users text-based connectivity to the Web, out-of-pocket access to legacy systems, and pre-written scripts for online services that include CompuServe, Delphi, MCIMail, and Netcom, said Ex Machina's Scott Samios, in a meeting with Newsbytes at MacWorld Boston '95. Also at the Mac extravaganza in Boston, Ex Machina demonstrated Reach Me! (also known as the "Wireless Business Card"), a software tool for sending messages directly to a pager from a user's Mac or Windows keyboard. Samios told Newsbytes that Ex Machina first introduced PocketCall 1.0 at the initial Newton launch at MacWorld Boston '93, and Reach Me! at the PCS (personal communication system) '94 show in Seattle. The upcoming version 2.0 of the PocketCall communications software will access the Web through a dial-up shell account, he reported. The software will come with a Netcom Web shell account -- with no start-up fee and one month of free access -- along with the connection script for Netcom dial-in and basic feature access. In addition to text-based Web surfing and navigation through the Lynx protocol, Netcom shell accounts provide access to Internet Mail, News, Telnet, and FTP (File Transfer Protocol), Samios said. The new PocketCall scripts for Netcom and other online services are designed to automate procedures for log on and log off, collecting and sending electronic-mail, and browsing special interest group (SIG) forums from the Newton, according to the Ex Machina official. PocketCall 2.0 will also offer terminal emulation for VT100, VT52 and ANSI, to let users access legacy corporate information and electronic-mail systems like IBM Profs, Unix mail, DEC All-In-One, news readers, mail editing programs, and custom applications, he added. Users will be able to enter information either by handwriting on the MessagePad's Screen or by typing on a pop-up keypad, Samios noted. Turning to the subject of Reach Me!, Samios said that the new "Wireless Business Card" operates with services provided by local, regional, and nationwide paging carriers to let Mac and PC users create their own messages for delivery to paging subscribers. To illustrate how Reach Me! works, Samios typed in a message on a Macintosh machine in the Ex Machina booth, which was then instantly received on the alphanumeric pager of a colleague standing nearby. The "Wireless Business Card" is better than the traditional method of phoning in messages for delivery by paging services, because paging carriers typically abbreviate these messages for delivery to pagers, he maintained. Paging subscribers can buy Ex Machina's Reach Me! from paging carriers in packs of 10 or 50 customized diskettes at prices as low as $2.99 per diskette, Samios added. The subscribers typically give away the software to key customers and sales prospects. Provided in an "attractive dispenser," the diskettes come pre-programmed with the subscriber's name, page number, and other information needed for sending full-text pager messages, Newsbytes was told. (Jacqueline Emigh/19950814/Press Contact: Joshua Weinberg, Technology Solutions for Ex Machina, 212-696-2000) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 08/14/95 BUSINESS Radio Shack Gets New Image (NEWS)(BUSINESS)(DEN)(00017) Radio Shack Gets New Image 08/14/95 FORT WORTH, TEXAS, U.S.A., 1995 AUG 14 (NB) -- "You've got questions; We've got the answer" is a central theme of a campaign by Radio Shack to reposition the electronics retailer as a service- oriented retailer. A new logo, alliances with several major manufacturers and service providers, and some new services are also part of that same campaign. #IMAGE 1 20 TWPCX \images\95081417.PCX Click here for photo John Roach, chairman and chief executive officer of Tandy Corp., and Leonard Roberts, president of Radio Shack, were in New York recently to launch the electronics retailer's new image. Roberts characterized the changes as "a major break with tradition." He said some of the changes include a program to revitalize store signage, in-store environment, and layout and product packaging. The most visible sign of the changes will be Radio Shack's new logo. In place of the old two-word "Radio Shack" in red lettering, the new image puts the company's name in black and adds a capital letter "R" in a circle above and to the left of the wording. The term "RadioShack" also becomes a single word in the new look. Roberts said the new logo will be phased into store signage over the next three to four years, and the updated packaging designs will show up next summer. A RadioShack spokesperson told Newsbytes the new logo will begin appearing in advertising and on the company's new catalog almost immediately. The changes in packaging will take longer because of the longer lead time needed to make those changes. Photos of the new packaging and sample ads show that RadioShack products will arrive in boxes and on blister cards that are less cluttered, reducing the graphics on the front of the container in most cases to a picture of the product, its name, and a couple of lines of descriptive copy. That same, cleaner, image will be carried through in RadioShack's advertising. One of the new services to be offered by RadioShack stores is RadioShack Unlimited, a catalog kiosk from which customers can order a selection of products that ranges from phonograph needles and audio cartridges to satellite TV accessories. The kiosk includes lighted signage that promotes "what's new" and a fax machine that lets customers get warranty and service option information about products listed in the showcase via fax while they wait. The company said most items in the catalogs can be delivered within five days. RadioShack is also testing an electronic version of the RadioShack Unlimited reference guide that, if the tests are successful, could be introduced in 1997. The company spokesperson said once the program is launched, consumers would be able to call up product information on a screen from a CD-ROM at the store kiosk instead of having to browse through a paper catalog. Like their paper counterparts, the CD-ROM-based catalogs would be updated regularly. Strategic alliances between RadioShack and other companies will bring to the company's stores products like the IBM line of Aptiva desktop and ThinkPad notebook computers. RadioShack will also provide both warranty and out-of-warranty repair on IBM products, even if the product wasn't purchased at a RadioShack store. IBM and RadioShack will mount a national ad campaign this fall to promote IBM computer products. You will also be able to get cellular phone activation at more than 4,500 of the company-owned retail outlets, even if the customer lives outside the store's cellular service area, through a partnership with Intercarrier Service Bureau of GTE Telecommunication Services. That service will be available this fall, said a company spokesperson. RadioShack will also arrange for installation of ADT Security Systems home security equipment and around-the-clock monitoring service beginning in 1996. No estimate of the cost to re-sign the stores was available. (Jim Mallory/19950814/Press contact: Tony Margoulis, RadioShack, 817-390-3300; Public contact; RadioShack, tel 817-390-3300, fax 817-878-6508/RADSHACK950814/PHOTO) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 08/14/95 APPLE MacWorld - Xerox's Regal 5790 Color Copier/Printer (NEWS)(APPLE)(BOS)(00018) MacWorld - Xerox's Regal 5790 Color Copier/Printer 08/14/95 BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS, U.S.A., 1995 AUG 14 (NB) -- "Within any black-and-white image is a color image struggling to get out," said Mark Hill, VP and general manager of the Color Solutions Business Team at Xerox, during a press conference at MacWorld Boston where Xerox unveiled the new Xerox Regal 5790 Color Copier/Printer System for corporate offices, prepress, and quick print shops. Also at the press conference, which was attended by Newsbytes, David T. Erwin, a Xerox corporate VP, presented the findings of a survey on the role "spot color" can play in raising reading retention rates. At a meeting with Newsbytes later at the show, Hill said that color copying and printing have traditionally been constrained by costs. But now, price performance is approaching a "crossover point" at which the use of spot color will become widespread in the business environment, he predicted. Meanwhile, the quality of color output continues to rise, Hill added. The VP proceeded to give Newsbytes a side-by-side comparison of an original full-color document and a copy produced on the new Xerox Regal 5790 Color Copier/Printer System. The original and the copy looked virtually identical. Before being announced at MacWorld Boston under the Xerox Regal 5790 name, the new copier/printer was introduced earlier this year in Japan as the Fuji Xerox Acolor Copier/Printer. The product has since become Japan's best-selling copier, according to the two Xerox officials. Erwin told journalists at the press conference in Boston that the new copier/printer is able to product first copies or prints in 18 seconds for color or 7.9 seconds for black-and-white, operating 50 percent faster than Xerox's previous Majestik Color Series Copier/Printer. The new device from Xerox can also "reliably support" volumes of up to 30,000 pages per month, meaning fewer interruptions to printing and copying output, and greater productivity as a result, according to Erwin. The Regal can also be used as a printer/copier for networked Macs, PCs, and Unix workstations, through connectivity to front-end controllers that include the Splash Power Series from Radius and the Fiery XJ Color Servers from Electronics for Imaging (EFI), as well as print servers from ColorAge, ColorBus, Image Technologies, Warp Speed, Infographix, LaserMaster, and UFO Systems, according to the officials. As previously reported in Newsbytes, EFI's new Fiery XJ 170, XJ 300, and XJ 250 represent the first color servers to be based on the Fiery XJ architecture, which was announced in March. At Seybold Boston '95, Michael Maciag, EFI's director of marketing, told Newsbytes that the entry-level Fiery XJ 170 provides four times the speed of its Fiery brand predecessor for $16,995, or half the cost. At MacWorld Boston, Xerox officials said that the new Regal Copier/Printer uses a "closed-loop" calibration system designed to automatically make color adjustments as pages are output. Users can choose color matching and calibration capabilities to suit third-party print servers, pointed out Erwin, who is also VP of strategy and integration for Xerox's Office Documents Product Division. Hill told Newsbytes that the Regal also produces Pantone-licensed colors for accuracy and precision in color rendering applications. Another new technology used in the Regal, known as HIEST (Highlight Image Enhancement Screen Technology), is designed to stagger the dot patterns of lighter colors for more accurate representation of subtle shades, while also widening the spaces between dots in the lighter colors to prevent the "toner fusing" that can produce blurred copy. HIEST (pronounced "highest") is particularly useful for reproduction of "spot," or highlight colors, according to Erwin. The Regal outputs at speeds of 9 pages-per-minute (ppm) for color and 36 ppm for black-and-white. The printer/copier outputs on to media ranging from 90-pound index and 60-pound coated stock and transfer paper, in sheet sizes of 8.5- by 11-inches and 11- by 17-inches. End users can select between any of six pre-set "color quality" variations -- lively, sharp, background erase, cool, soft, and normal -- and between any of four "marker edit" selections: warm, vivid, business, and calm. Total capacity for the Regal is 800 sheets. Three paper trays contain up to 250 sheets apiece, and a bypass tray holds another 50 sheets. Other capabilities include duplex copy support and auto- switching between paper trays. Several additional features are optionally available, such as: a 35 millimeter (mm) film projector for copying slides and transparencies; a 50-sheet automatic document feeder for multi-page documents; a 20-bin sorter; and an off-line edit pad. The Regal comes in two editions: "non-edit," which is priced at $44,500, and "edit," priced at $47,500, according to the Xerox exec. The "edit" version provides added capabilities for manipulating areas of a document by adding spot color, deleting areas, and merging images. (Jacqueline Emigh/19950814/Reader Contact: Xerox, 716-423-5090; Press Contact: Carol Vitagliano, Xerox, 617-556-3493, Xerox Rochester Public Relations Offices, 716-5230, 716-427-4080) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 08/14/95 GENERAL MacWorld - Sony "True Color" Monitor For Mac/PC (NEWS)(GENERAL)(BOS)(00019) MacWorld - Sony "True Color" Monitor For Mac/PC 08/14/95 BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS, U.S.A., 1995 AUG 14 (NB) -- A new, 20-inch "true color reference monitor" from Sony provides "beam current feedback" (BCF), digital uniformity compensation (DUC), and other new technologies for matching on-screen images to color output in Mac and PC graphics and multimedia applications, maintained Treg Tyler, marketing manager, Graphic Display Products, during a demo for Newsbytes at MacWorld Boston. As color printing comes down in price and makes stronger inroads on the desktop, users are looking for greater accuracy, consistency, and ease of use for in-house color reproduction applications, Tyler told Newsbytes. One of the new technologies used in Sony's new MultiscanTC Trinitron Color Graphics Display is designed to eliminate the need for time-consuming warm-up and calibration between monitor and printer, according to the Sony marketing manager. The technology, BCF, accurately reproduces colors "from the moment the display is turned on," Tyler added. BCF is aimed at measuring the consistency of phosphors to make sure that white and black levels are "constant and stable." DUC, another new technology in the MultiscanTC, uses a nine-inch by nine-inch grid to strive to provide the same color and brightness across the screen, from the center to the edges. Tyler showed Newsbytes how the RGB (red-green-blue) sensor on the MultiscanTC "advises" the user on which of the 81 boxes, or points, on the grid will provide the best color and brightness. It is then able, with the user's "permission," to adjust the other 80 points to the same color and brightness levels. The monitor, which provides a "viewable image area" of 19.1 inches, also employs color temperature controls that can preset temperatures of 3000, 5000, and 9300 degrees Kelvin, and then make color adjustments in 100-degree steps, Tyler reported. The MultiscanTC makes these adjustments when changes occur in the temperature of the environment, Newsbytes was told. "This can happen, for example, if the air conditioning is turned off overnight," he illustrated. The electronics needed for these new technologies are housed in the rear of the MultiScanTC, providing the monitor with a streamlined look, Tyler told Newsbytes. Sony is also offering optional, Apple ColorSync 1.0-compatible TCware software that creates a display device profile for the new MultiscanTC, permitting the device to be configured into an Apple Color Management System. Sony's new TCware software also allows the user to control MultiscanTC's operations from a remote Mac or PC, he pointed out. The new MultiscanTC complies with Energy Star, TCO 92, and MPRII safety regulations, as well as with the VESA DPMS-compliant power management system for automatically decreasing power consumption when the device is not in use. Like other Sony Trinitron monitors, the MultiscanTC uses Digital Multiscan technology for "automatic distortion correction" across a continuous range of scanning frequencies. The monitor also utilizes Sony's proprietary Super Fine Pitch technology to deliver pictures at resolutions of up to 1152 by 870 on a Mac and up to 1280 by 1024 on a PC, according to the Sony exec. The MultiScanTC provides a horizontal scanning frequency of 31.5 to 85 kilohertz (KHz) and a vertical scanning frequency of 50 to 150 hertz (Hz). The new 20-inch color monitor is available immediately, at a suggested list price of $3,950. (Jacqueline Emigh/19950814/Reader Contact: Sony, 800-352-7669; Press Contact: Manny Vara, Sony, 408-955-5142; Jennifer Sandretto, Technology Solutions for Sony, 415-617-4514) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 08/14/95 APPLE MacWorld - Sony Intros Desktop Video Camera (NEWS)(APPLE)(BOS)(00020) MacWorld - Sony Intros Desktop Video Camera 08/14/95 BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS, U.S.A., 1995 AUG 14 (NB) -- Sony's new PC Cam, a miniature video camera-and-microphone combo priced at $499, is designed to provide "flexibility" for desktop applications ranging from videoconferencing on Apple's new 8500 and 7500 PowerMacs to "close-up still shots," asserted Neal Manowitz, associate marketing manager, Personal Video, for Sony, during an interview with Newsbytes at MacWorld. Manowitz told Newsbytes that the PC Cam offers "regular" video and audio as well as S-video outputs, permitting full-motion or still frame video and sound captured with the camera to be used on any computer or presentation system with "standard A/V (audiovisual) inputs." Unlike most other desktop cameras, the PC Cam provides a "bendable arm," according to the Sony exec. Aside from the 10-inch arm, other features for flexibility include a rotating CCD (charged coupled device) camera head for taking pictures from different angles, plus manual focus and iris control, added Manowitz, who showed Newsbytes how these capabilities work during a demo of QuickTime Conferencing in the Sony booth at Boston's World Trade Center. The PC Cam's manual focus offers settings for under one-half of an inch -- for scientific imaging applications, for instance -- to infinity, Newsbytes was told. The manual iris control is meant to allow image capture under a variety of lighting conditions. The PC Cam uses a 270,000, one-quarter of an inch CCD and an in-base monaural microphone, Manowitz noted. The new compact desktop camera is slated to be available in September from systems integrators, as well as at computer superstores and consumer electronics shops. (Jacqueline Emigh/19940811/Reader Contact: Sony; Press Contacts: David Yaun, Sony, 201-930-7834; Press Contact: Bruce Bowman, Technology Solutions for Sony, 212-696-2000) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 08/14/95 WINDOWS CorelDraw 6 Formally Launched (NEWS)(WINDOWS)(TOR)(00021) CorelDraw 6 Formally Launched 08/14/95 OTTAWA, ONTARIO, CANADA, 1995 AUG 14 (NB) -- Corel Corp. (TSE:COS;NASDAQ:COSFF) has officially launched CorelDraw 6, the new release of its flagship graphics software. The announcement contained few surprises, since Corel has talked publicly about the new software for several months. The major additions in the new release are Corel Dream 3D, a modeling and rendering application based on the RayDream Designer software from the company of the same name, and Corel Motion 3D, a three-dimensional (3-D) animation application. Corel Presents, a business and multimedia presentation application, brings together features previously found in the Corel Show, Corel Move, and Corel Chart components of the graphics suite. At the same time, Corel has removed Corel Ventura, its desktop publishing software, from the CorelDraw package and will sell it separately. CorelDraw 6 is also designed to work with Microsoft's Windows 95 operating system, which is due to be launched August 24. Corel delayed releasing the software because of the timing of the Windows 95 launch; Corel normally updates CorelDraw once a year, in the spring. The new release is built on a 32-bit architecture, and supports Windows 95 features such as the new system's use of the right mouse button and electronic-mail and fax enabling. Multitasking is improved and the software supports automated installation and uninstall, Corel officials said. The developers have also added an assortment of new features to each of the existing applications. The price of CorelDraw 6 is US$695, as announced earlier. One item on Corel's price list has changed, though. Instead of charging users of all previous versions US$425 to upgrade to the new release -- a steep upgrade price by most standards -- Corel has decided to charge CorelDraw 5 users only US$249, while the higher price remains in place for those with older versions. Company spokeswoman Julie Galla acknowledged the change was made in response to customer feedback. CorelDraw 6 needs at least a 486 processor, and Corel recommends a 66 megahertz 486DX2 or better. It requires eight megabytes (MB) of memory (16MB recommended), a CD-ROM drive (double-speed recommended), a mouse or tablet, a VGA display (Corel recommends 800-by-600 resolution and 256 colors), and Windows 95. The English version of the software is due to begin shipping in late August, Corel said. Versions in other languages will follow. (Grant Buckler/19950814/Press Contact: Julie Galla, Corel, 613-728-0826 ext 1672; Public Contact: Corel, tel 613-728-8200, fax 613-761-9176, Internet World Wide Web http://www.corel.ca /CDRAW6950814/PHOTO) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 08/14/95 PC Zenith Drops Pricing, Intros New PCs (NEWS)(PC)(MSP)(00022) Zenith Drops Pricing, Intros New PCs 08/14/95 BUFFALO GROVE, ILLINOIS, U.S.A., 1995 AUG 14 (NB) -- Zenith Data Systems Inc. (ZDS) said it is bringing to market a new line of "value-priced" personal computers, along with dropping the price and increasing the hard drive storage of its high-end PC series. ZDS is introducing the "Z-Station VP" series, described as a desktop computer line configured for "optimum price/performance value today, with an eye to the future," officials said. The market to be targeted with this new line includes "institutional Fortune 1000 market, K-12 (kindergarten through 12th grade) education, higher education, and state and local government," Jeff Loebbaka, senior director of desktop product marketing at ZDS, told Newsbytes. "We're responding to what we see as a need out there for real value, and value/price performance products and offerings," Loebbaka said, "so we're responding to that with very aggressive, robust products." The new line includes, among other features, PCI (Peripheral Component Interconnect) local bus, 64-bit video graphics, and a choice of three different cabinets. The Z-Station VP is tested and certified to run the new Windows 95 operating system from Microsoft, and will be available with Windows 95 when the platform ships next week. Prices range from a basic 486DX2/66 system at $1,280 to a Pentium 90 in a mini-tower cabinet and a 1.2 gigabyte (GB) hard drive at $2,212. Loebbaka said even though the industry has moved toward making Intel's Pentium processor the new standard, there still is a market for the earlier-generation 486 chips. "We also recognize we have customers who do buy at price-points, and are looking for value offerings running from sub-$1,000 to $1,100 and $1,200," he said. "In order to meet those needs, we have to go with 486's." ZDS also said it is dropping its prices on the high-end Z-Station GT series from 2.5 to 20 percent. The company also said four out of five fixed configurations of the model line will also ship with either 540MB or 850MB hard drives, instead of the original 425MB hard drives. The boost in hard drive size, along with the price drop, is to maintain the strong introductory sales momentum of the Z-Station GT series, officials said. The line was introduced in May. (Bob Woods/19950811/Press Contact: Glynis Gibson, Zenith Data Systems, 312-868-9400 or 708-808-4276; Public Contact: Zenith Data Systems, 800-533-0331, Internet World Wide Web http://www.zds.com /ZSTNVP950814/PHOTO) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 08/14/95 GENERAL Macromedia Intros 2 Training CD-ROMs (NEWS)(GENERAL)(LAX)(00023) Macromedia Intros 2 Training CD-ROMs 08/14/95 SAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1995 AUG 14 (NB) -- Macromedia Inc., (NASDAQ: MACR) has announced its first two titles, Director Basics and Lingo Essentials, in the Learn It All series of "personal interactive training products." The two CD-ROMs offer instructor-led courses through the basics and the intricacies of Macromedia's Director authoring software and Lingo's scripting language. Director Basics is designed to serve as both an introduction to the Director authoring software for beginners and a reference for more advanced users. Lingo Essentials takes a student through the basics of programming with Lingo, Macromedia's scripting language. Emily Fisher, a spokesperson for Macromedia, told Newsbytes, "Macromedia has been providing multimedia authoring tools for computer-based learning for years. For example, American Airlines has been using Macromedia's Authorware Professional since 1990 to develop computer-based learning in its massive Learning Center in Dallas, Texas." "The Learn It All series is Macromedia's attempt to use its expertise to create multimedia training for its own products. These titles represent the first in a series that will complement our traditional training programs," said Fisher. "Both CD-ROMs use animated digital movies of instructors explaining and demonstrating Director software tools. The titles are accompanied by a step-by-step lesson guide and a training version of Director, enabling users to develop an understanding of the software without ever having to buy it," said Fisher. "Everyone learns differently, and because this is interactive multimedia, users can now jump back and forth to lessons of interest, progress at their own pace, or jump out and practice whenever they need," said Bob Whitney, training manager at Macromedia. "What excites me most is that this is going to enable a whole universe of new people to enter into multimedia production for the first time." According to the company, Director Basics and Lingo Essentials will teach users how to create basic animation, import sounds and movies, and manage digital video. They will also teach how to add "branching" and "looping" features, and control animation with Lingo scripts. Director Basics and Lingo Essentials will be available on the Macintosh and Windows platforms at the US suggested price of $99.95 per volume, or $149.95 for both volumes. (Richard Bowers/19950814/Press Contact: Mary Leong, Macromedia, 415-252-2118; Reader Contact: 800-266-2647) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 08/14/95 BUSINESS ****Motorola To Cut Wireless Unit Staff (NEWS)(BUSINESS)(MSP)(00024) ****Motorola To Cut Wireless Unit Staff 08/14/95 SCHAUMBURG, ILLINOIS, U.S.A., 1995 AUG 14 (NB) -- A Motorola Corp. (NYSE:MOT) official has confirmed to Newsbytes that the company is cutting its wireless data group staff level. The Wall Street Journal reported about 180 employees, or approximately 20% of the staff, is being let go. Mil Ovan, director of marketing for the wireless data group, could not confirm those numbers to Newsbytes, because he said it is company policy not to reveal that kind of information. The group makes and sells portable communications and information products, using personal digital assistants, or PDA's. Motorola sells the "Marco" and "Envoy," both of which work with wireless communications systems. Ovan said a number of people affected by the cutback have already found other positions in the company, due to the "pervasive" presence Motorola has in Illinois. A majority of the cuts hit the staff in Illinois, where Motorola is headquartered. "The fundamental behind this realignment of our businesses and reduction in workforce is the recognition of where we're at in this stage of the marketplace," Ovan told Newsbytes. "It's like where we were at with cellular and paging (in the beginning of those products' life cycle), where we had made investments in 'new-to-the-world' products, where customers were unfamiliar with their capabilities." He said the company is at the point where it has to educate the public about wireless portable communication products, much like the same process cellular phones and pagers went through. Ovan said he thinks the products will find a place in the market. He revealed the company is rolling out advertising to support its wireless products. In addition, Ovan said having more wireless service providers, like Ardis, will help the products "create demand." Motorola's wireless products are used to retrieve electronic messages, receive stock updates, and receive other data like sports scores. The units usually sell for more than $1,000, the Journal reported. (Bob Woods/19950814/Press Contact: Cheryl Buck-Ruff, Motorola, 708-576-7150) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 08/14/95 GENERAL ASP Announces New Shareware Author Standards (NEWS)(GENERAL)(MSP)(00025) ASP Announces New Shareware Author Standards 08/14/95 MUSKEGON, MICHIGAN, U.S.A., 1995 AUG 14 (NB) -- The Association of Shareware Professionals (ASP) said it has enacted new standards for its members to encourage the registration of shareware programs by consumers. The new standards have been approved by more than 85 percent of voting ASP members, the association said. Those members include software authors, publishers, vendors, and online distributors of shareware products. The standards cover both authors and the software they write. Under the new ASP standards, shareware authors can use "reasonable measures" to assist users in understanding license requirements, including time or usage limits, scaling down features, increasing the number and duration of registration "reminder" screens, and the disabling of the program after a set time period. In all of these cases, users must be notified on screen well in advance of these limitations taking effect. Also, those "reasonable measures" must let users access the features customary or reasonable for that type of product for an "adequate" period of time or number of uses. Shareware users will also benefit from the new guidelines, the ASP said, especially in the area of technical support. ASP-compliant software must offer the paid registered user a minimum of three months support without incurring extra charges. Other benefits to users include the including of instructions on how to safely uninstall the shareware product, and product features including registration enhancement to be fully documented. Other provisions of the new guidelines call for programs that are "conscientiously" tested by the author, and that all ASP author and publisher members need to market and distribute at least one ASP-compliant product. "The influx of new computer users coming online means ASP has to better explain what shareware is, highlight quality control and customer support, and inform consumers about their responsibility to pay for products," said George Campbell, chairman of ASP's board of directors. Products that are sold via the "shareware" concept let consumers "try before they buy." The ASP's primary goals are to promote the use of shareware as a marketing method for computer software, and to assist its members with marketing information and distribution. (Bob Woods/19950814/Press Contacts: George Campbell, 805-528-1759, or Richard Harper, 616-832-3328, both of the Association of Shareware Professionals) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 08/14/95 ONLINE UUNET To Host Internet Road Show (NEWS)(ONLINE)(WAS)(00026) UUNET To Host Internet Road Show 08/14/95 FAIRFAX, VIRGINIA, U.S.A., 1995 AUG 14 (NB) -- Internet provider UUNET Technologies will be hosting a series of free seminars around the country in September on conducting business on the Internet. Titled "How to Use the Internet as a Competitive Tool," the UUNET seminar will feature Joel Maloff, Internet analyst and author of the new book, "Re-engineering Business Through the Internet." He will focus on commercial strategies for the Internet, including: customer and supplier communications; collaborative development of new products; interactive marketing through the World Wide Web; customer support strategies; and electronic data interchange. The seminar will also cover how to get connected to the Internet, and how to secure a network and its data through various hardware and software products. UUNET, one of the leading full-service Internet providers, says businesses are turning to the Internet for better communication with clients, prospects, distributors, other business partners and within their own enterprises. Some estimates now put the number of people connected to the Internet at 50 million, with a growth rate of 10 percent per month. The schedule begins September 7 in Washington, followed by Miami on September 11, Atlanta on September 12, Chicago on September 13, Dallas on September 14, Los Angeles on September 15, San Francisco on September 18, Seattle on September 19, New York on October 2, and ending in Boston on October 3. UUNET, the first commercial Internet provider, has points of presence around the country as well as an Internet fiber backbone. It will be providing network service for the new Microsoft Network, and Microsoft owns a substantial portion of the company. (Kennedy Maize/19950814/Press Contact: Chris Faust of G.S. Schwartz for UUNET, 212-725-4500; Reader Contact: 800-265-2321) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 08/14/95 GOVT Lobbying Picks Up On Encryption Policy (NEWS)(GOVT)(WAS)(00027) Lobbying Picks Up On Encryption Policy 08/14/95 WASHINGTON, D.C., U.S.A., 1995 AUG 14 (NB) -- A year after the Clinton administration convened its Key Escrow Alternatives Working Group to find alternatives to its failed Clipper chip encryption scheme, the computer industry is pushing to get the organization off dead center. Last week a group of hardware makers sent Vice President Al Gore a letter urging administration actions to liberalize export controls on equipment with imbedded encryption technology. Gore has been the "point man" for the administration on exports and encryption. Early last year, faced with solid industry opposition to the FBI-sponsored Clipper chip proposal, Gore wrote a letter to then-Rep. Maria Cantwell proposing to work with industry. The working group was a follow-up to the Cantwell letter. The software industry quickly followed the hardware folk, with a letter to Gore on the letterhead of the Business Software Alliance and signed by Bill Gates of Microsoft, Jim Manzi of Lotus and IBM, Keith Bentley of Bentley Systems, Robert Frankenburg of Novell, Mark Hoffman of Sybase, Carol Bartz of Autodesk, and Alok Mohan of the Santa Cruz Operation. "More than a year has gone by since your letter to Rep. Cantwell," says the BSA letter. "Our companies are still not able to export software with encryption strengths readily available in programs and products from other sources. We also do not know any more about what we need to do to develop software using key escrow encryption which can be exported and which is internationally salable. "The widespread availability of programs employing (data encryption standard) or its equivalent from foreign vendors, the Internet and domestic sources (transferred abroad via public telephone line and computer modem) continues to put us at a competitive disadvantage," said the letter. "We believe the time for further study is over. We ask for immediate action to liberalize export controls to permit the inclusion of DES-level encryption in generally available software programs so that in the short run we can at least maintain our international position." Under current government restrictions, many software products sold in the US cannot be exported unless the encryption is removed. This restriction, for example, prevents export of the popular Lotus Notes program. Under the original Clipper plan, the government would have held the two parts of the encryption key, which would have been available to law enforcement agencies with a warrant. FBI Director Louis Freeh has been a strong advocate of this approach. After the bombing in Oklahoma City, the FBI circulated a program in Congress that would have banned domestic use of encryption except for those systems that had a government backdoor. In another attempt to get the Clinton administration moving on the issue, the Software Publishers Association and the American Electronics Association are holding a joint meeting on cryptography policy in Washington this Thursday. "We're looking for ways to move the ball forward," says Ken Wasch, SPA executive director. "Stalemate on this issue impedes competitiveness." (Kennedy Maize/19950814/Press Contacts: Diane Smiroldo, BSA, 202-872-5500; Doug Miller, SPA, 202-452-1600 ext 342; Greg Garcia, AEA, 202-682-4433) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 08/14/95 TELECOM ****Ericsson, AT&T Test Digital Phone Technology In US (NEWS)(TELECOM)(LON)(00028) ****Ericsson, AT&T Test Digital Phone Technology In US 08/14/95 STOCKHOLM, SWEDEN, 1995 AUG 14 (NB) -- McCaw Cellular, now a wholly owned subsidiary of AT&T, has begun testing PCS (personal communications system) digital phone systems in two US markets: Chicago, Illinois, and Atlanta, Georgia. The Chicago tests are being carried in conjunction with AT&T equipment, while the Atlanta tests are being carried out in conjunction with Sweden's Ericsson. According to McCaw, the tests will initially include a limited number of PCS base stations, a switch, and will focus on technology verification. Following the tests, and continued system development, McCaw plans to move towards launching a commercial service. Bob Ratcliffe, a spokesman for McCaw, told Newsbytes that it is still very early days with PCS technology, which makes it difficult to say whether PCS will win out over competing digital cellular technology in the North American marketplace. "What we're seeing is the result of the FCC's decision to sell the PCS licenses to the highest bidder, rather than take a lottery approach. The result is that PCS will be aiming to cover 40 percent of the US in coverage terms," he said, adding that this is the same 40 percent that analog networks already cover. "What we're looking at doing is to release a dual modem mobile phone that will be able to use both PCS and existing analog networks," he continued, adding that, once the tests have been completed, McCaw expects to place orders work up to $450 million with both AT&T and Ericsson, rather than one manufacturer. "Some press reports have suggested that these orders have been placed. They have not, but will be placed once the tests are complete," he told Newsbytes. McCaw is taking the same multi-vendor approach that it has taken in the past with its analog networks, Newsbytes notes. Plans call for the company to allow AT&T's Network Services Division and Ericsson to share in the delivery of the $450 million network. According to McCaw, the percentage share of the equipment purchases between the two equipment vendors will be determined in future contract negotiations between the two companies. Commenting on the tests, Nicholas Kauser, McCaw's chief technology officer, said that the company is now off and running with two strong strategic partners "to expand our network and service offerings for customers. "We will integrate cellular and PCS licenses into the nation's most powerful and far reaching wireless service. The digital platform our companies build together will allow us to continue to fulfill our promise to deliver a tool that significantly improves people's quality of life," he explained. What's interesting about McCaw's strategy is that the company is rolling out an 800 megahertz (MHz) Digital AMPS (American Mobile Phone System) alongside a planned 1,900 MHz PCS network. According to McCaw's Ratcliffe, running two digital networks alongside each other may not be the best strategy in the long run. "I'm not sure that it will work," he told Newsbytes, adding that the twin digital network situation is a direct result of the FCC's strategy in selling licenses to the highest bidders. "This means we have a number of operators, many competing for the same market," he explained. Ericsson, meanwhile, is firmly in favor of digital cellular, and in particular, PCS technology. The Swedish telco points out that digital cellular has up to six times the capacity of current analog systems, resulting in a need for fewer base stations. This means, the company claims, reduced costs for the carrier, which can be passed along to the customers in rate reductions. (Steve Gold/19950814/Press & Reader Contact: Per Bengtsson, Ericsson Business Area Radio Communications, +46-8-757-2159; Bob Ratcliffe, McCaw Cellular Communications, 206-828-8685) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 08/14/95 APPLE ****Apple Plans To Overcome Supply Shortage By Spring (NEWS)(APPLE)(BOS)(00029) ****Apple Plans To Overcome Supply Shortage By Spring 08/14/95 BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS, U.S.A., 1995 AUG 14 (NB) -- Demand for Apple's computers still exceeds supply, but Apple expects to overcome the shortfall by next spring, according to Apple Chief Financial Officer (CFO) Joseph Graziano. During a press conference at MacWorld Boston that was attended by Newsbytes, Graziano acknowledged the shortfall, and attributed the problem to an "underestimation" of the demand for Apple computers. Because Apple's estimates were too low, Apple did not order enough components to meet the actual demand, he maintained. On Friday, three days after Graziano's remarks at MacWorld, the Wall Street Journal published a report saying that a survey of the CompuUSA retail chain and a variety of other retailers and corporate resellers had found shortages of nearly all of Apple's newest models. Also according to the Journal, dealers predicted that Apple would lose out on significant sales during the back-to-school season, and might miss out on holiday season revenues, as well. Speaking with Newsbytes today, an Apple spokesperson who was also present at the Apple press conference corroborated Graziano's statement that Apple dealers will face a supply shortage through next spring, and noted that the computer shortfall amounted to one million computers on June 30, the end of Apple's most recent quarter. But, she added, Apple expects to gain market share against its competitors through next spring, despite the shortage. The spokesperson contradicted the Journal's report that the shortage was most widely felt among PowerPC-based Performa and Powerbook models, saying that it was being experienced "across the line." She agreed, however, with the Journal's contention that, although other computer makers have also underestimated demand at times, Apple's situation is made more difficult by the fact that Apple has traditionally used custom components. As a result, Apple has been gradually reducing the degree of component customization required by its computer models, she told Newsbytes. The shortages felt by Apple dealers were even larger last year, before Apple adopted this new plan, she contended. Also today, the Apple spokesperson corroborated a statement made by Howard F. Lee, Apple's senior VP for desktop, Powerbook and imaging, in an interview with Newsbytes during this year's PC Expo in New York City. As Lee told Newsbytes in New York City, the addition of Motorola as a "second foundry" is making it easier for Apple to meet demand for its PowerPC machines by allowing production of more PowerPC processors, she said. IBM was the only company to produce the PowerPC 601 processor, but Motorola came on board with the rollout of the 603 and 604 chips, Lee noted in June. Apple is now using "multiple sources" for all its components, the Apple spokesperson told Newsbytes. (Jacqueline Emigh/19950814/Reader Contact: Apple Computer, 408-996-1010; Press Contact: Lynn Lawlor, Apple, 408-974-5431) (SUMMARY)(GENERAL)(MSP)(00030) Newsbytes Daily Summary 08/14/95 MINNEAPOLIS, MINNESOTA, U.S.A., 1995 AUG 14 (NB) -- These are capsules of all today's news stories: ======================================================================== ------------| N E W S B Y T E S D A I L Y S U M M A R Y |---------- ------------| Monday, August 14, 1995 |---------- ======================================================================== (c) Newsbytes News Network (Tm) Editor in Chief: Wendy Woods ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Newsbytes News Network's 1995 Update CD-ROM for Mac, DOS, and Windows is now available for $29.95 (includes s&h). Contains 1983-1995 news stories, more than 64,000 keyword searchable stories and 475 digitized images. For more information or to order, fax to 612-430-0441 or e-mail to 'administrator@newsbytes.com' -- MC, Visa, Amex accepted. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ CATEGORY HEADLINES (*** indicates today's top stories) STORY # ======================================================================== APPLE Miramar's Windows 95-To-Mac Connectivity Package........... 02 APPLE MacWorld - RAID Storage For PCI, NuBus..................... 14 APPLE MacWorld - Claris Software For Power Mac, Windows 95....... 15 APPLE MacWorld - Apple Newton Gets Web Access From PocketCall.... 16 APPLE MacWorld - Xerox's Regal 5790 Color Copier/Printer......... 18 APPLE MacWorld - Sony Intros Desktop Video Camera................ 20 APPLE ****Apple Plans To Overcome Supply Shortage By Spring..... 29 BUSINESS Radio Shack Gets New Image................................. 17 BUSINESS ****Motorola To Cut Wireless Unit Staff................... 24 CHIPS Fujitsu Considers New UK Chip Plant........................ 08 GENERAL Japan Newsbriefs........................................... 10 GENERAL Canadian Product Launch Update............................. 12 GENERAL MacWorld - Sony "True Color" Monitor For Mac/PC............ 19 GENERAL Macromedia Intros 2 Training CD-ROMs....................... 23 GENERAL ASP Announces New Shareware Author Standards............... 25 GOVT Lobbying Picks Up On Encryption Policy..................... 27 LEGAL Redesigning The US Dollar.................................. 07 ONLINE UUNET To Host Internet Road Show........................... 26 PC Australian Job-Seekers Get PC-Based Kiosks................. 11 PC Zenith Drops Pricing, Intros New PCs....................... 22 TELECOM Ericsson Wins Major Korean Telecom Contract................ 05 TELECOM Boeing Signs Up For SITA's AeroNet Services................ 06 TELECOM Fujitsu & NEC Outline Telecom Show Exhibits................ 09 TELECOM ****Ericsson, AT&T Test Digital Phone Technology In US.... 28 TRENDS Info Superhighway Is History In The Making - Report........ 01 TRENDS China - 7.61 Million Phones Installed So Far In 1995....... 03 TRENDS China - EDI Promoted To Boost Foreign Trade................ 04 WINDOWS Parsons Readies Announcements 4.0 For Windows.............. 13 WINDOWS CorelDraw 6 Formally Launched.............................. 21 ======================================================================== These are the headlines and first paragraphs of each story, in order: 1 -> Info Superhighway Is History In The Making - Report -- Ovum has released "Applications for the Superhighway: Market Drivers," a new report which lead author John Moroney claims covers most aspects of the development of, and the future growth of, the information superhighway. 2 -> Miramar's Windows 95-To-Mac Connectivity Package -- Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ: MSFT) says privately held Miramar Systems Inc. is offering a software product that allows Windows 95-based PCs to talk to Macintosh PCs on a network. The software, called MacLAN Connect 5.5, will be available in September. 3 -> China - 7.61 Million Phones Installed So Far In 1995 -- According to the latest statistics released by the Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications (MPT), China had 7.61 million new telephone subscribers in the first half of this year. 4 -> China - EDI Promoted To Boost Foreign Trade -- To boost foreign trade, China plans to invest heavily in developing accompanying network, computers, and software to bolster the use of electronic data interchange (EDI), the Ministry of Foreign Trade and Economic Cooperation (MOFTEC) said recently. 5 -> Ericsson Wins Major Korean Telecom Contract -- Ericsson has secured a second major contract with Korea Electric Power Corporation (KEPCO), terms of which call for the Swedish telecoms company to add a further eight sites to KEPCO's four site multi-trunked network. 6 -> Boeing Signs Up For SITA's AeroNet Services -- Boeing has signed on the dotted line to become the first user of AeroNet, the SITA Group's new global network service for "secure and reliable" voice and data communications. 7 -> Redesigning The US Dollar -- Digital color reproduction systems are gradually making accurate counterfeiting possible for almost anyone. The US government is responding with a range of new anti-counterfeit measures, some of which already have been introduced, while others soon will be. 8 -> Fujitsu Considers New UK Chip Plant -- Fujitsu (TOKYO:6702) is considering building a new semiconductor manufacturing plant in the UK, a Fujitsu spokesman confirmed to Newsbytes. Speculation over the new site first appeared in a weekend edition of Japan's widely read financial newspaper, Nikkei Keizai Shimbun. 9 -> Fujitsu & NEC Outline Telecom Show Exhibits -- Two of Japan's major electronics companies have outlined the technology they will be showing at the upcoming Telecom Show '95 in Geneva. The show, taking place from October 3 to 11, is sponsored by the International Telecommunications Union (ITU) and takes place once every four years. 10 -> Japan Newsbriefs -- In this roundup of news from Japan: Kyocera looks to two million Karaoke fans, Interactive cable network planned, Hitachi looks to more widescreen sales, Teac to build CD players in China, CS subscriptions reach 100,000, and KDD plans fewer staff. 11 -> Australian Job-Seekers Get PC-Based Kiosks -- The Australian Commonwealth Employment Service (CES) is to install more than 2,000 data kiosks around the country, providing information to job seekers. Although the machines will be provided by IBM, they will not run OS/2, nor even the new Windows '95, but will use Windows for Workgroups 3.11, because this operating system is the only one that has been approved for use. 12 -> Canadian Product Launch Update -- This regular feature, appearing on the first day Newsbytes publishes each week, provides further details for the Canadian market on announcements by international companies that Newsbytes has already covered. This week: Apple's latest Power Macintosh systems and its 1710AV color monitor. 13 -> Parsons Readies Announcements 4.0 For Windows -- Parsons Technology Inc. a division of Intuit Inc. (NASDAQ: INTU), will ship Announcements 4.0 for Windows next month. Announcements is a software package that lets users create items such as greeting cards, posters, banners, letterhead, envelopes, postcards, gift certificates, calendars, brochures, and business cards. 14 -> MacWorld - RAID Storage For PCI, NuBus -- FWB's SledgeHammerFT is the first fault tolerant RAID (redundant array of inexpensive disks) subsystem to ship for the Mac, maintained FWB's James C. Nelson, Jr., in a meeting with Newsbytes at MacWorld which also covered the upcoming SledgeHammerVS RAID array for video/graphics pros and HSM (hierarchical storage management) Toolkit. FWB is offering all three products for both NuBus- and PCI (Peripheral Component Interconnect)-based Macs and Power Macs. 15 -> MacWorld - Claris Software For Power Mac, Windows 95 -- ClarisWorks 4.0 for Mac/Power Mac, a product newly equipped with a World Wide Web document translator, has started shipping. Another software update, ClarisImpact 2.0 for Mac/Power Mac and Windows 3.1/Windows 95, is ready for release this week, officials reported, during a press event at MacWorld Boston. 16 -> MacWorld - Apple Newton Gets Web Access From PocketCall -- Upon shipment next month, PocketCall 2.0 will give Newton users text-based connectivity to the Web, out-of-pocket access to legacy systems, and pre-written scripts for online services that include CompuServe, Delphi, MCIMail, and Netcom, said Ex Machina's Scott Samios, in a meeting with Newsbytes at MacWorld Boston '95. 17 -> Radio Shack Gets New Image -- "You've got questions; We've got the answer" is a central theme of a campaign by Radio Shack to reposition the electronics retailer as a service- oriented retailer. A new logo, alliances with several major manufacturers and service providers, and some new services are also part of that same campaign. 18 -> MacWorld - Xerox's Regal 5790 Color Copier/Printer -- "Within any black-and-white image is a color image struggling to get out," said Mark Hill, VP and general manager of the Color Solutions Business Team at Xerox, during a press conference at MacWorld Boston where Xerox unveiled the new Xerox Regal 5790 Color Copier/Printer System for corporate offices, prepress, and quick print shops. 19 -> MacWorld - Sony "True Color" Monitor For Mac/PC -- A new, 20-inch "true color reference monitor" from Sony provides "beam current feedback" (BCF), digital uniformity compensation (DUC), and other new technologies for matching on-screen images to color output in Mac and PC graphics and multimedia applications, maintained Treg Tyler, marketing manager, Graphic Display Products, during a demo for Newsbytes at MacWorld Boston. 20 -> MacWorld - Sony Intros Desktop Video Camera -- Sony's new PC Cam, a miniature video camera-and-microphone combo priced at $499, is designed to provide "flexibility" for desktop applications ranging from videoconferencing on Apple's new 8500 and 7500 PowerMacs to "close-up still shots," asserted Neal Manowitz, associate marketing manager, Personal Video, for Sony, during an interview with Newsbytes at MacWorld. 21 -> CorelDraw 6 Formally Launched -- Corel Corp. (TSE:COS;NASDAQ:COSFF) has officially launched CorelDraw 6, the new release of its flagship graphics software. The announcement contained few surprises, since Corel has talked publicly about the new software for several months. 22 -> Zenith Drops Pricing, Intros New PCs -- Zenith Data Systems Inc. (ZDS) said it is bringing to market a new line of "value-priced" personal computers, along with dropping the price and increasing the hard drive storage of its high-end PC series. 23 -> Macromedia Intros 2 Training CD-ROMs -- Macromedia Inc., (NASDAQ: MACR) has announced its first two titles, Director Basics and Lingo Essentials, in the Learn It All series of "personal interactive training products." The two CD-ROMs offer instructor-led courses through the basics and the intricacies of Macromedia's Director authoring software and Lingo's scripting language. 24 -> ****Motorola To Cut Wireless Unit Staff -- A Motorola Corp. (NYSE:MOT) official has confirmed to Newsbytes that the company is cutting its wireless data group staff level. The Wall Street Journal reported about 180 employees, or approximately 20% of the staff, is being let go. 25 -> ASP Announces New Shareware Author Standards -- The Association of Shareware Professionals (ASP) said it has enacted new standards for its members to encourage the registration of shareware programs by consumers. 26 -> UUNET To Host Internet Road Show -- Internet provider UUNET Technologies will be hosting a series of free seminars around the country in September on conducting business on the Internet. 27 -> Lobbying Picks Up On Encryption Policy -- A year after the Clinton administration convened its Key Escrow Alternatives Working Group to find alternatives to its failed Clipper chip encryption scheme, the computer industry is pushing to get the organization off dead center. 28 -> ****Ericsson, AT&T Test Digital Phone Technology In US -- McCaw Cellular, now a wholly owned subsidiary of AT&T, has begun testing PCS (personal communications system) digital phone systems in two US markets: Chicago, Illinois, and Atlanta, Georgia. 29 -> ****Apple Plans To Overcome Supply Shortage By Spring -- Demand for Apple's computers still exceeds supply, but Apple expects to overcome the shortfall by next spring, according to Apple Chief Financial Officer (CFO) Joseph Graziano. (Ian Stokell/19950814) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 08/11/95 GOVT European Commission Adopts Privacy Directive (NEWS)(GOVT)(LON)(00001) European Commission Adopts Privacy Directive 08/11/95 BRUSSELS, BELGIUM, 1995 AUG 11 (NB) -- The European Commission is now well on its way towards affording a high level of protection to personal data held on computer systems, following the formal adoption of a Directive on the protection of personal data, Newsbytes has learned. "I am pleased that this important measure, which will ensure a high level of protection for the privacy of individuals in all Member States, has been adopted with a very wide measure of agreement within the Council and European Parliament," said EC Single Market Commissioner Mario Monti, announcing the measure. According to Monti, the Directive will also help to ensure the free flow of information society services in the "Single Market" by "fostering consumer confidence and minimizing differences between member states' rules." "Moreover, the text agreed includes special provisions for journalists, which reconcile the right to privacy with freedom of expression," he said, adding that the member states must transpose the Directive within three years (i.e., write it into their own legislation), "but I sincerely hope that they will take the necessary measures without waiting for the deadline to expire so as to encourage the investment required for the information society to become a reality." Monti claims that the Directive will establish a "clear and stable" regulatory framework necessary to guarantee free movement of personal data, while leaving individual EU countries room for maneuver in the way the Directive is implemented. According to the Directive, free movement of data is particularly important for all services with a large customer base and depending on processing personal data, such as distance selling and financial services. In practice, however, banks and insurance companies process large quantities of personal data on such highly sensitive issues as credit ratings and credit-worthiness. If each member state had its own set of rules on data protection, for example, on how data subjects could verify the information held on them, cross-border provision of services, notably over the information superhighways, would be virtually impossible and this extremely valuable new market opportunity would be lost, the EC claims. According to the EC, the Directive aims to narrow divergences between national data protection laws to the extent necessary to remove obstacles to the free movement of personal data within the EU. As a result, any person whose data is processed in the EC will be afforded an equivalent level of protection of his rights, in particular his right to privacy, irrespective of the member state where the processing is carried out. The EC claims that, until now, differences between national data protection laws have resulted in obstacles to transfers of personal data between EC member states, even when these countries have ratified the 1981 Council of Europe Convention on personal data protection. This has been a particular problem, the EC notes, for multinational companies wishing to transfer data concerning their employees between their operations in different member states. According to the Commission, such obstacles to data transfers could seriously impede the future growth of information society services. The Directive establishes the principle of "fairness," so that a collection of data should be as transparent as possible, giving individuals the option of whether they provide the information or not. The Directive requires all data processing to have a proper legal basis. The legal grounds defined in the Directive are: consent, contract, legal obligation, vital interest of the data subject, and the balance between the legitimate interests of the people controlling the data and the people on whom data is held (i.e., data subjects). This balance gives member states room for maneuver in their implementation and application of the Directive, the Commission claims. (Steve Gold/19950810/Press & Reader Contact: European Commission, +32-299-1111) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 08/11/95 TELECOM Sweden's Ericsson Signs PCS Washington Deal (NEWS)(TELECOM)(LON)(00002) Sweden's Ericsson Signs PCS Washington Deal 08/11/95 STOCKHOLM, SWEDEN, 1995 AUG 11 (NB) -- Ericsson is teaming up with DCR Communications Inc., the Washington-based PCS (personal communications system) company, for the development of a PCS 1900 (1,900 megahertz) digital mobile phone system, along with its network equipment, installation, and services. Ericsson claims that DCR is planning to bid for mobile phone licenses in 50 projected markets in the US at the coming Federal Communications Commission's "Designated Entity" auction for PCS licenses. If the company is successful, it will mean a lot of business for both Ericsson and DCR over several years. The value of prospective contracts can be as high as $750 million, Ericsson claims. Ericsson's part in the arrangement will be to supply mobile switching centers, base station controllers and base stations, implant and test the system, and prepare it for the FCC "Designated Entity" auction. After the auction, DCR plans a quick expansion to offer a full range of network and management services to its national customer base and license holding subsidiaries. "Our agreement with Ericsson signifies our confidence that GSM (global system mobile communications)-based PCS 1900 is the technology of choice, capable of supporting our business objectives. Ericsson has the proven technology, experience and resources necessary to help us succeed in PCS," commented Daniel Riker, chairman of DCR. (Sylvia Dennis/19950810/Press Contact: Kathy Egan, Ericsson US, 212-685-4030) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 08/11/95 GENERAL UK - Panasonic Intros Hybrid Optical Drive (NEWS)(GENERAL)(LON)(00003) UK - Panasonic Intros Hybrid Optical Drive 08/11/95 BRACKNELL, BERKSHIRE, ENGLAND, 1995 AUG 11 (NB) -- Panasonic Industrial Europe (PIE) has launched its first combined rewriteable optical drive/quad speed (4x) CD-ROM drive. Known as the PD (Permanent Drive) system, the LF-1004B unit is claimed to be particularly useful for businesses operating in the desktop publishing, education, administration, and small business fields. The PD system is based on the Panasonic's phase-change optical disk technology. A new type tray loading mechanism supports both optical cartridges and ordinary CD-ROMs. The optical disk capacity is greatly extended in comparison to the standard 1.4 megabyte (MB) floppy disk. There is no need to compress data and all operations with data can be done quickly and easily, company officials explained. According to the company, the PD system is particularly appropriate to those companies who need near on-line data storage, such as those involved in education, creative design, and medical administration. The drive could also be useful in those trades where large graphics and text files need to be shared and manipulated alongside the running processor which demands multimedia CD software. These include CAD/CAM (computer-aided design/manufacturing), entry-level document image processing, and creative markets such as in advertising and graphic arts. "We are already seeing tremendous demand for the product and with its combination of advanced functionality and low price it already looks like becoming the standard choice for everyone from the individual user looking for upgrade, to large corporations seeking to improve data storage and access on its PCs," said Richard Todd, operations manager for Panasonic UK's Computer Peripherals Division. Todd also revealed that Panasonic is in negotiations with several major OEMs (original equipment manufacturers). "By the end of the year, we expect to see the drive incorporated in some market-leading industry-standard PCs," he said. The software to drive the PD system is already shipping at UKP650. The optical drive can store up to 650 megabytes on a single optical disk, approximately the same capacity as seen on a standard CD-ROM disk. Each optical disc is priced at UKP39. (Sylvia Dennis/19950810/Press & Reader Contact: Richard Todd, Panasonic UK, +44-1344-853913) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 08/11/95 TRENDS Study - 54% Of Windows Users Ready To Upgrade (NEWS)(TRENDS)(SFO)(00004) Study - 54% Of Windows Users Ready To Upgrade 08/11/95 SAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1995 AUG 11 (NB) -- A poll conducted by c/net, the computer network, found 54% of users currently operating with Microsoft Windows are planning to upgrade to Windows 95 within the first 30 days of availability. In a five-day survey, 1,500 members of c/net's online Internet component responded to the company's forum where polling customarily takes place. Becoming well known for its cable television show on computer trends, products and news, c/net has also had rapid acceptance of a complementary World Wide Web site. The polling area queried: "Do you plan to upgrade to Windows 95 in the first month of its availability?" Ninety-eight percent of those who said "yes" are currently using a version of Windows. Of the 46% who said they would not upgrade in that period of time, 21% were not currently using any version of Windows. A posting area which went with the question drew strong responses from the "buy now" side to the "wait-and-see" side. A spokesperson for c/net said, "The majority of the comments have been either 'wait-and- see' or more negative. On August 19, our show will be almost entirely devoted to Windows 95 and compatible products. At that time we will give our own opinion of the new operating system." This past week-end's show had John C. Dvorak passing judgment on Windows 95. He often ends an episode with his assessment of various software and hardware products. Windows 95 received a favorable "Buy It" rating from the well-known computer industry figure. Clearly, the membership of c/net's Web site contains many who would be classified as early adopters of new technology. C/net makes no claims concerning any projections of general acceptance or rejection of Windows 95. (Patrick McKenna/19950810/Press Contact: Stacy O'Connell, c/net, 415-295-7800; Internet World Wide Web http://www.cnet.com/ ) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 08/11/95 ONLINE "Best Of Ireland" Book Excerpts Available On Web (NEWS)(ONLINE)(LON)(00005) "Best Of Ireland" Book Excerpts Available On Web 08/11/95 DUBLIN, IRELAND, 1995 AUG 11 (NB) -- Richard Barry, the author of the forthcoming book, "The Best of Ireland," has published sample information from his book on the World Wide Web. According to Barry, the Web site is a lot more than simply a shop window for the book, as several elements are constantly being updated and are designed to act as a taster for when the book is published later this summer. "Pricing on the book has yet to be decided, but it will be around the $10 mark," Barry told Newsbytes, adding that he sees great possibilities with the Web services. Barry went on to explained that Best of Ireland Web site aims to provide a comprehensive database of tourist information on Ireland. The book is being published by Discover Travel Guides and Web readers will have a chance to order the book through the Web site. The book represents two years of research into tourism resources in both parts of Ireland (North and South). According to Barry, while the book was designed with the needs of international tourist and business travelers in mind, it is also an ideal planning aid for Irish holidaymakers and a source of weekend excursion ideas for everyone. Because of the electronic nature of the Web site, the Best of Ireland Web pages are multi-lingual, published in four languages initially -- English, French, German, and Italian. The pages cover around 178 communities across Ireland. Plans call for further language options to be added over the next twelve months. According to Barry, he has identified the most attractive tourist sights -- spectacular scenery, heritage centers, public parks and gardens, museums, art galleries, public buildings, castles, monastic settlements, and islands around Ireland -- and these are presented complete with easy-to-follow directions using route numbers which can be followed on the road sign-posting system. Sights are star- rated on a scale of one to four to assist itinerary planning. The Web site also provides a selective listing of over 500 hotels, guest houses, self-catering accommodation, and holiday hostels, which Barry claims covers the full price spectrum from five-star deluxe castle hotels and manor houses, to inexpensive student accommodations, as well as camping and recreational vehicle parks. Interesting restaurants, cafes, pubs, and night clubs are listed for each area. Although Barry is the author of the book, he confesses to be very interested in the publishing opportunities the Web service offers. The Web site is at http://www.iol.ie/~discover/welcome.htm , although Barry said that some areas are still under construction. (Steve Gold/19950810/Press & Reader Contact: Richard Barry, Internet e-mail rbarry@iol.ie) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 08/11/95 TRENDS Romanian Bank Issues Country's 1st Visa Card (NEWS)(TRENDS)(LON)(00006) Romanian Bank Issues Country's 1st Visa Card 08/11/95 BUCHAREST, ROMANIA, 1995 AUG 11 (NB) -- Bancorex, the Romanian foreign investment and trade bank, has become the first bank in the country to issue Visa cards to its business customers. The move is a major one, both for Romania and the rest of the former Soviet Bloc, as this is the first time a local bank in the region has started issuing Visa credit cards, even to business customers. According to Bancorex officials, the bank is investing around $300,000 in its program with the express aim of seeding the business community with the idea that plastic money cards can be used at home in Romania, as well as abroad. The bank is also signing up merchants to accept the card in and around Bucharest, the country's capital. Business customers will need to be "well-heeled" to have a Visa card, Newsbytes notes, as the bank is operating the card program along the same lines as secured credit cards in the US, with the bank holding a $5,000 interest-bearing deposit as security on a $5,000 credit line. According to Bancorex's executive director, plans are in hand to develop a Visa debit card program for both business and high-ranking personal customers. In the meantime, the bank is hoping to sign as many as 1,000 business accounts up to the Visa card program. In the event that customers do not qualify for credit card facilities, the bank plans to issue business customers with Visa debit cards, tied to their revolving deposit accounts. Using this approach involves minimal risk for Bancorex, since all automated teller machines (ATMs) on the Visa network in the world are online. Unless funds are available in the Bancorex account, the ATM will not dispense cash. (Sylvia Dennis/19950810/Press Contact: Visa International 415-432-2039) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 08/11/95 ONLINE Free Speech & Democracy In Cyberspace (NEWS)(ONLINE)(SFO)(00007) Free Speech & Democracy In Cyberspace 08/11/95 SEATTLE, WASHINGTON, U.S.A., 1995 AUG 11 (NB) -- The privatization of cyberspace is resulting in the suppression of free speech and the US government needs to step in to protect our First Amendment rights, argues Andrew L. Shapiro (alshapiro@aol.com) in "Street Corners In Cyberspace" (The Nation, July 3, 1995, pp. 10-14). Shapiro says the online world is evolving due to commercial pressures into "Cyberbia" where discourse is free from the unpopular views needed in a deliberative democratic society. An alternative model is "Cyberkeley" where people are exposed to alternative views they don't necessarily want to hear. "...just as the state protects citizens from unfair market conditions, it also has a role to play when the marketplace of ideas fails and there is outright domination of some views," Shapiro writes. "This is the same reason our government gives -- and should give more, as European governments do -- grants to marginal artists, postal subsidies to small magazines of opinion and free use of cable channels to community organizations." To overcome the creeping homogenization of opinion in cyberspace, Shapiro proposes the creation of special public forums and gateways through regulation or financial incentives. The relationship between democracy and electronic communication is examined by The Economist in "e-lectioneering" (June 17, 1995, pp. 21-23). The article cites examples of how electronic-mail, online databases, and computer-assisted opinion polling have been used to disseminate government data and mount efficient lobbying campaigns. This story is republished with permission from the August 1995 Cybernautics Digest, a monthly summary of reports about converging information technologies. (Contact: Terry Hansen, Cybernautics Digest, c/o KFH Publications Inc., 3530 Bagley Ave. N., Seattle, WA 98103; 206-547-4950; Fax: 206-547-5355; E-mail: cyber@cuix.pscu.com. U.S. rate: $24; $2 sample issue) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 08/11/95 GOVT China - Science & Technology A Priority (NEWS)(GOVT)(PEK)(00008) China - Science & Technology A Priority 08/11/95 BEIJING, CHINA, 1995 AUG 11 (NB) -- China has increased expenditure on science and technology a great deal, said Chinese President Jiang Zemin, at a gathering of young Chinese scientists. At the same time, the government also called for overseas Chinese scientists to either return or conduct research visits. China's development will mainly rely on science and technology and education, President Jiang Zemin said recently at an academic meeting attended by more than 1,000 young scientists and scholars from around the country and overseas. More importance has been attached to science and technology. Based on the latest official statistics, expenditure for science and technology has been increased significantly. In 1994, Beijing spent RMB10.24 billion (about US$1.23 billion) on science and technology. That figure was followed by Shanghai, Jiangsu, and Sichun with science and technology expenditure of RMB8.99 billion (US$1,08 billion), RMB7.52 billion (US$906 million), and RMB5.26 billion (US$634 million), respectively. However, there was sharp disparity between different areas. Nine of 30 provinces, municipalities, and autonomous regions, accounted for 70.4 percent of the expenditure, with the eastern part of the country accounting for 64.1 percent of the national science input. The proportion of the less-developed central and western areas were 18.8 percent and 17.1 percent, respectively. Most research funds were from research institutions and medium to large industrial enterprises. The science expenditure of the enterprises in Jiangsu Province totaled RMB4.9 billion, ranking first in the country. Shanghai was second with RMB4.07 billion, followed by Shangdong, Sichuan, and Liaoning, all exceeding RMB2 billion. Meanwhile, the government has paid attention to attracting overseas Chinese scientists. The State Education Commission (SEC) says it will construct an "information network" for overseas Chinese scholars, the deputy director of the Foreign Affair Department of the SEC said recently. SEC will also set up an office to guide investment from returned scholars and provide them with "relevant information," the official added. Xu Songtao, vice-minister of Personnel, said returning scholars can choose jobs from around the country at any time on their own. The ministry has set up various short-term, work practice units for returning scholars to cater to their interests and specialties. (Chih-Ho Yu & Ning Huang/19950811) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 08/11/95 TRENDS China - Electronics Industry Keeps Growing (NEWS)(TRENDS)(PEK)(00009) China - Electronics Industry Keeps Growing 08/11/95 BEIJING, CHINA, 1995 AUG 11 (NB) -- At a total production valued at RMB106.6 billion (US$12.8 billion), the electronics industry witnessed a 26.7 percent growth in the first half of this year, compared with the same period last year, the Ministry of Electronics Industry (MEI) said. Rapid growth can be attributed to strong demand from capital improvement projects, an MEI official said. The electronics industry has benefited from the increased investments in information processing, corporate modernization, and the construction of key state projects. In the previous years, the industry's growth was mainly stimulated by the demand for consumer electronics, resulting from the rapid improvement of living standards. Typical products in this sector are color TVs, video cassette recorders, and stereo systems. However, the consumer electronics sector grew by only 13.9 percent in the first half of this year, while the electronic components sector enjoyed an increase of 31.1 percent. In this period, a total of 15 million color TVs were sold. At the end of June, 3.33 million TVs (including 2.3 million color TVs) were in stock. The ministry attributed the unsold inventory to the early arrival of the "slack sales season" and an increase in smuggling. China's efforts to build the information highway under the so-called "Three Golden Projects" has helped boost the demand for capital electronic products. Exports of electronics products showed a 46.8 percent increase to a total value of US$719 million, the ministry said. Tape recorders and radios, and color TV tubes were the main exported items. Electronic imports increased 22.2 percent to US$5.51 billion. Switchboards and semiconductors were the biggest items since telecommunications and computer products are among the fastest growing sectors in China. (Chih-Ho Yu & Ning Huang/19950811/Reader Contact: Ministry of Electronics Industry, 86-10 821-2233) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 08/11/95 ONLINE "Real-Time" Web Debate At "Feed" E-Zine (NEWS)(ONLINE)(MSP)(00010) "Real-Time" Web Debate At "Feed" E-Zine 08/11/95 NEW YORK CITY, NEW YORK, U.S.A., 1995 AUG 11 (NB) -- Internet World Wide Web surfers will be able to drop in and listen to "conversations" taking place between "critical thinkers in the Internet world," at the "Feed" electronic magazine (e-zine). The virtual roundtable will begin next week, in the publication's "Dialog" section. The new feature uses Web technology to create an interactive conversation not only among participants, but with readers of the e-zine as well. The roundtable will display staggered "real-time" electronic-mail (e-mail) from everyone who participates -- readers and panelists alike. The e-mail can also contain hypertext links to other Web sites, to support any points made in the discussion. The postings will begin August 14, for a 10-day period. This month's Dialog is called "Virtual Communities," and participants are Stacy Horn, the founder of ECHO, the New York City based "electronic salon;" syndicated writer Howard Rheingold; author Mark Slouka; and William Mitchell, technology writer and professor at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). "This is a way to get people together that you can't do in any other media," Stefanie Syman, a Feed editor and moderator of this month's Dialog, told Newsbytes. "On the one hand, you can get people together for roundtables, tape the whole thing, transcribe it, and put it on the Web. But having a dialog on Feed is somewhere between a face-to-face dialog in real-time, and an extended exchange of 'Letters to the Editor.' This gives us an exchange that's thoughtful and timely." Syman said that while the interchange of ideas will begin with a leading question, there won't be any real agenda or format to Dialog's dialog. She said it's hard to tell where things will go in the conversation, and that's what will make it interesting. Feed has already hosted one Dialog on the cultural consequences of electronic text. Participants were Voyager president Bob Stein, hypertext fiction author Michael Joyce, author Carolyn Guyer, and "anti-technology" editor Sven Birkerts. Web surfers can find Feed at http://www.emedia.net/feed . (Bob Woods/19950810/Press Contacts: Michael Kaminer or Shelley Bates, Michael Kaminer Public Relations, 212-627-8098; Public Contact: Feed, Internet World Wide Web http://www.emedia.net/feed ) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 08/11/95 WINDOWS Weather Channel To Intro "Everything Weather" CD-ROM (NEWS)(WINDOWS)(MSP)(00011) Weather Channel To Intro "Everything Weather" CD-ROM 08/11/95 ATLANTA, GEORGIA, U.S.A., 1995 AUG 11 (NB) -- Since The Weather Channel seems to cover all aspects of our outdoor conditions, it seems natural the cable network is coming out with a new CD-ROM offering called "Everything Weather." #IMAGE 1 20 TWPCX \images\95081111.PCX Click here for photo The new CD-ROM, which will be released for the Windows platform, is the first multimedia program from The Weather Channel. Wendy Stahl, vice president of The Weather Channel Enterprises, told Newsbytes that positive results from consumer research was one of the driving forces behind bringing out the CD-ROM. She also said with the multimedia sector growing, the company felt it was important to come out with a CD-ROM product. "Everything Weather" includes climate data for more than 700 cities, 40 video clips of weather events, 250 photographs, and 95 articles. Of course, the program also contains those ever-present weather maps. From that data, the program takes users through interactive experiences with hurricanes, tornadoes, lightning, clouds, and winter storms. A daily planner, which doubles as a weather journal, offers daily weather facts and photos. Users can even enter the coordinates of a whirling hurricane, and compare its location to the path of other hurricanes from this century. Stahl said data that is used to both predict and show the effects of weather are easy to present in a digital, CD-ROM format. "The activities, resources, graphics, and tracking are appropriate for multimedia, and that multimedia is a better medium for many of these applications than anything else we could think of," she said. Weather Channel officials said a Macintosh version of "Everything Weather" will be released later this year. Both programs will be distributed by the Bureau of Electronic Publishing, and will be for sale in computer, software, and book stores around the country. Earlier this year Newsbytes reported on The Weather Channel's first foray into cyberspace, when it started a CompuServe presence (at GO: TWCForum) last Groundhog Day. The area includes a program guide, electronic messaging, archived weather reports, and other weather related information. Since then, the cable network has established an Internet World Wide Web site at http://www.weather.com/weather . (Bob Woods/19950811/Press Contact: Liz Savery, Roher Public Relations, 212-986-6668; Public Contact: The Weather Channel, Internet World Wide Web http://www.weather.com/weather , CompuServe type GO: TWCForum/WEAC081195/PHOTO) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD TELECOM (NEWS)(TELECOM)(TOR)(00012) Sprint Canada To Take Over Failed STN 08/11/95 TORONTO, ONTARIO, CANADA, 1995 AUG 11 (NB) -- Sprint Canada Inc. has agreed to purchase STN Inc., a Canadian long-distance telephone company that does business as Smart Talk Network. Sprint also has court approval to take over the firm, which went into receivership in early July. Sprint, one of Canada's two major alternative long-distance carriers, will pay C$19 million in cash for substantially all of STN's assets, officials said, including accounts receivable. The company said it will work with KPMG Peat Marwick Thorne, which is handling STN's receivership, to maintain service to STN customers until that can be transferred to Sprint. Sprint Canada is a wholly owned subsidiary of Call-Net Enterprises Inc. (TSE:CN;ME:CN.B;NASDAQ:CNEBF), which in turn is 25 percent owned by Sprint Communications Co. of Kansas City, Missouri. STN was the second Canadian long-distance reseller to collapse this year. TelRoute Communications Inc. became insolvent earlier, and its customers were taken over by Fonorola Inc. Meanwhile, Unitel Communications Inc., the company that filed the original application to compete with established telephone companies in the long-distance business, has been losing C$300 million per year and its largest shareholder is looking to sell out. Call-Net itself lost C$55.36 million on net revenues of C$176.29 million in 1994. Company officials blamed the loss on the cost of rapid expansion and said they hope to return to profitability in 1997 with revenues approaching C$1 billion per year. No comment on the future of STN employees' jobs was available by Newsbytes' deadline today. Sprint Canada employs about 900 people. (Grant Buckler/19950810/Press Contact: David Parkes, Sprint Canada, 416-496-4986; Eileen Tobey, ETC Communications for Sprint Canada, 416-465-4242) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 08/11/95 BROADCAST Video News Roundup (NEWS)(BROADCAST)(MSP)(00013) Video News Roundup 08/11/95 MINNEAPOLIS, MINNESOTA, U.S.A., 1995 AUG 11 (NB) -- This is a look at the top stories this week in the world of video news reporting: SIGGRAPH this week in LA, Web TV, Panasonic to Portland, and new product roundup. SIGGRAPH Issues The July/August issue of "Computer Video" and "AV Video" preview the 22nd annual SIGGRAPH convention (Special Interest Group on Computer Graphics and Interactive Techniques) in Los Angeles August 9-11. Over 25,000 are expected to attend. The big question for Computer Video is how Silicon Graphics' acquisition of three- dimensional (3-D) software powerhouses Alias and Wavefront in June will affect their show presence. Due to SEC regulations, communications were forbidden before the deal was struck. That put all show preparations on hold. Computer Video wonders if the new entity will have a name or new products on hand. AV Video reports that more graphics applications are migrating to Windows NT. "What true multitasking will mean for 3-D animators is that they will be able to perform the various facets of 3-D design -- modeling, materials creation, key-framing, and rendering -- simultaneously." Full Motion Video On The Web The July 31 issue of "Interactive Age" reports the August release of server software that "will enable the delivery of live, real-time audio and video over the World Wide Web." Xing Technology Corp., of Arroyo Grand, California, is also expected to shortly announce a distribution and marketing deal with Silicon Graphics. According to Interactive Age, officials at both companies declined comment. Xing's StreamWorks works with existing Web servers and browsers. It's based on server technology Xing developed for NBC Desktop Video and Reuters Financial Television. The private networks deliver full-motion video feeds. Panasonic Gear To Trailblazers & PBS Panasonic leads Chris McConnell's "Cutting Edge" column in "Broadcasting and Cable." Panasonic Broadcast & Television Systems Co., is supplying gear to the Portland Trailblazers. The multi-million dollar deal covers both broadcast and post. Among the gear are D-5 VTRs (video tape recorders) and digital cameras. Panasonic is also going to KLRU-TV (PBS) Austin. The four AJ-D350 D-3 VTRs will be used to post the popular PBS music series "Austin City Limits." Other Product News "Video Systems" new products roundup features a new touch-screen monitor. The Mac 'n Touch AV-14 by MicroTouch Systems combines the ClearTek 2000 Smart Touch Screen and ADB/SMT controller. Stereo speakers are built in. It also reports that Panasonic and Tektronix will be promoting a disk-based spot playback system. The system will be a hybrid of Tektronix's Profile disk-based AV storage system and the Panasonic's MARC and Smart-Cart systems. In the "AV Video" Product Focus section comes a report that Midiman is offering a video support unit. The Midiman Syncman is a VITC (Vertical Interval Time Code), LTC (Longitudinal Time Code), MTC (Midi Time Code) reader/writer/ translator. It works with consumer gear and supports both Windows and Macintosh. (Newsbytes Staff/19950811) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 08/11/95 GENERAL Australian PC World Gets CD Add-On (NEWS)(GENERAL)(SYD)(00014) Australian PC World Gets CD Add-On 08/11/95 SYDNEY, AUSTRALIA, 1995 AUG 11 (NB) -- One of Australia's leading PC publications is to get a quarterly CD-ROM, starting with the September issue. Australian PC World, published by IDG, is the first Australian information technology (IT) publication to be issued with a regular CD. Multimedia publisher Webster Publishing will oversee the technical production of the disks, with PC World preparing the editorial content. Each disk will contain a year of the major magazine sections such as the Help Screen, Multimedia World, and Reviews. There will also be software reviews with animated segments, product demos, and video clips. The Editor of Australian PC World CD-ROMs, Monique Haylen, told Newsbytes that the disks will give PC World "an edge" in the competitive Australian marketplace. "We're especially excited about being able to provide in-depth equipment reviews from our test lab, using the power of multimedia to help users decide which product suits them best. And with twelve months of reviews on each disk, they'll be able to compare much of what is available on the market." The disks will be available with magazine subscriptions, or separately. A search menu will allow users to scan the hundreds of tips, tutorials, hints, and other articles on the disks. (Paul Zucker/19950811/Press Contact: Monique Haylen, Australian PC World CD-ROM, tel +61-2-439 5133, fax +61-2-439 5512) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 08/11/95 GENERAL Australia Database For Computer Suppliers, Resellers (NEWS)(GENERAL)(SYD)(00015) Australia Database For Computer Suppliers, Resellers 08/11/95 SYDNEY, AUSTRALIA, 1995 AUG 11 (NB) -- Inform Australian IT Database is a list of over 14,000 contacts in the Australian information technology (IT) industry. The publishers said it is designed to be used as a marketing tool, targeting all levels of the industry. Inform Business Development told Newsbytes it has spent a year of telephone canvassing to obtain data on more than 5,000 organizations including computer resellers, retailers, systems integrators, consultants, developers, distributors, vendors, and manufacturers in Australia. The publisher said it will be "vital for assisting companies in marketing their products and services to the reseller channel, and all other organizations.". The database lists hardware and software sold, services provided, vertical markets covered, annual turnover and number of employees. Inform also offers services such as telemarketing, list rental and direct-mail. The introductory price is AUS$4995 (around US$3700). The Australian computer reseller market is also served by an IDG publication called Reseller Magazine. It is available on a controlled circulation basis (subscribers must show that they are bona fide dealers or other channel members). It has a circulation of around 6,000 copies per month, with a 50 percent ad/editorial ratio. Reseller carries display advertising and inserts aimed directly at the reseller channel, and the mailing list is also available for rent. (Paul Zucker/19950811/Public Contact: Inform Business Development, tel +61-2-264-9811, fax +61-2-267-2094; Australian Reseller Magazine, tel +61-2-652-2772, fax +61-2-652-2771) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 08/11/95 TRENDS Fargo Ships $399 Photo-Quality Digital Printer (NEWS)(TRENDS)(DEN)(00016) Fargo Ships $399 Photo-Quality Digital Printer 08/11/95 EDEN PRAIRIE, MINNESOTA, U.S.A., 1995 AUG 11 (NB) -- Fargo Electronics Inc. has introduced a digital color printer the company said can produce copies as good as photographs developed at a photo lab. #IMAGE 1 20 TWPCX \images\95081116.PCX Click here for photo "With PhotoFun! users can now produce snapshots from their PC that can be framed or put in a photo album right next to pictures developed at a photo lab," according to Mark Strobel, Fargo vice president of sales and marketing. PhotoFun! can print two two-inch by three-inch or two three-inch by three-inch images on a single sheet. Maximum output size is four-inches by six-inches. Strobel said there is a need for an inexpensive, photo-quality digital color printer, since it is becoming increasingly common for retail film processors to offer consumers their images on a floppy disk as well as in the form of prints. The World Wide Web also has thousands of high resolution images that can be downloaded. PhotoFun! can also print color photo postcards. The company has developed a special heavier-weight postcard stock that is preprinted like the front of a postcard on the non-image side. Users can print the photos, adding text if desired, on the image side of the card stock, add postage, an address and a message, and drop the card in the mail. You can also get an optional FotoMug Kit that allows you to transfer PhotoFun! images to the surface of a coffee mug. The kit has an estimated street price of $29.95. The company said the transferred images are permanent and dishwasher-safe. The company said it expects the street price of the PhotoFun!! printer to be about $399. The system is compatible with both Macintosh- and Windows-based graphics software. Fargo also markets its Primera wax thermal printer that the company said can print photo-quality prints on photo receptor paper or on overhead transparency film when equipped with an upgrade kit that adds dye sublimation and thermal transfer technology to the printer. However, a Fargo spokesperson claimed to Newsbytes that the PhotoFun!! output is so good you cannot tell it from an actual photo print made from a negative. (Jim Mallory/19950811/Press contact: Patrick Fitzgerald, Parallax Technology Group, 312-645-4835; Public contact: Fargo Electronics, tel 612-941-9470, fax 612-941-7836/FOTOFUN950811/PHOTO) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 08/11/95 GOVT GSA Consolidates Procurement Schedules (NEWS)(GOVT)(WAS)(00017) GSA Consolidates Procurement Schedules 08/11/95 WASHINGTON, D.C., U.S.A., 1995 AUG 11 (NB) -- The General Services Administration is merging its $5 billion Multiple Award Schedule (MAS) program for personal computers and software into the regular Federal Supply Service as a way to streamline procurement. Roger Johnson, GSA administrator, said the move continues procurement reforms in the Clinton Administration and "creates a single face to industry and government customers who depend on GSA for supplies, equipment, and services necessary to conduct business worldwide." Johnson said the merger will "also bring a consistent application of MAS policies and procedures for GSA's full range of acquisitions, including office products, furniture, tools, paints and chemicals, personal computers, software, and peripherals." The 53 employees of the MAS staff that were part of GSA's Information Technology Service will join the FSS, which already contracts for highly sophisticated technical products and services such as high-speed copiers and oscilloscopes. Johnson said combining the procurement activities for information technology schedules with those of FSS will enable GSA to expect development of electronic commerce, one of the administration's goals. Johnson indicated that online shopping on the Internet is just around the corner for GSA customers, through an electronic shopping mall, called GSA Advantage. FSS Commissioner Frank Pugliese will assume responsibility for the new, unified organization. The two organizations are to be consolidated by October 1. "Customers and industry representatives will be kept fully informed during this transition period," said Johnson, "emphasizing the opportunities in the streamlined organization and GSA's commitment to delivering the best possible service to federal agencies." (Kennedy Maize/19950811/Press Contact: Anne Marshall, 202-501-1231) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 08/11/95 GOVT Simulation Consortium Gets New Members (NEWS)(GOVT)(WAS)(00018) Simulation Consortium Gets New Members 08/11/95 WASHINGTON, D.C., U.S.A., 1995 AUG 11 (NB) -- The Office of the Secretary of Defense (OSD) has joined the Training & Simulation Technology Consortium, based in Orlando, Fla. The consortium fosters commercialization of technology-based instructional material using advanced, computer-based technology including simulation, virtual reality, and multimedia. The OSD will work with the consortium on issues related to modeling, simulation, and training. "I strongly believe that what the consortium have as a management and technology transfer construct is exactly what is required if we are to obtain the cooperation and long-term focus of what value modeling and simulation can provide to military readiness," said James O'Bryon, deputy OSD direct for operation, test and evaluation. The consortium has also picked up other new members, including Science Applications International Corp. (SAIC), the Canadian Consulate General in Atlanta, Ga., IRIS, and Seminole Community College. SAIC's ASSET group is a software technology and systems development organization with a staff of more than 250 professionals and headquarters in Orlando. SAIC provides engineering services to federal and state governments, as well as commercial and international customers, including a concentration on simulation-based training devices. The Canadian Consulate General is the official representative of the Canadian government in the southeast US. "The Canadian consulate is interested in fostering cooperation between US and Canadian firms in the simulation and training industry," said Bradford Kelly, vice consul. IRIS is an industry leader in interactive audience response systems. The IRIS system gives the audience the ability to interact with people making presentations and become part of the proceedings, using a handset with high-speed microprocessors and software to collect, tabulate and display real-time responses. The consortium uses IRIS software as part of its interactive technology workshops. Seminole Community College in Florida has been using simulations and graphics in many educational areas on the campus and in the local community. "I view training and simulation as a natural extension of our already successful computer-aided design and three-dimensional (3-D) animation programs," said David Taylor, chairman of the engineering technology department. (Kennedy Maize/19950811/Press Contact: Michael Walter, 407-384-6111) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 08/11/95 GENERAL Int'l Electronic Commerce Conference Planned (NEWS)(GENERAL)(DEN)(00019) Int'l Electronic Commerce Conference Planned 08/11/95 AUSTIN, TEXAS, U.S.A., 1995 AUG 11 (NB) -- The National Science Foundation (NSF) will be one of the sponsors of an international conference on electronic commerce set to convene at the end of October. Joining NSF in sponsoring the two-day event that kicks off at the University of Texas at Austin's IC2 Institute are the RGK Foundation, the IC2 Institute, the William E. Simon Graduate School of Business Administration at the University of Rochester, the Center for Information Systems Management and College and Graduate School of Business, and the University of Texas at Austin. Organizers said the conference is aimed at stimulating research into the field of electronic commerce. "We expect electronic commerce to obsolete much of the accumulated research in business," said University of Texas faculty member Dr. Andrew Whinston in the call for participation released this week. Whinston is one of the speakers. Whinston said electronic commerce via the Internet, or the next generation network infrastructure commonly known as the "information superhighway," will change business institutions, operations and products and services as we know them today, just as the telephone, TV, fax, electronic-mail and EDI (electronic data interchange) changed the way businesses and consumers communicate. Whinston will team with Dale Stahl, another University of Texas instructor, to lead a conference session on "Pricing Internet Services." Other speakers and their topics include: Dr. Clifford Neumann, speaking on NetCash and NetCheque, forms of electronic payment; Dr. Arthur Keller, Stanford University, who will talk about smart catalogs and virtual catalogs; Dr. Jean-Philippe Favreau, ECAT, on the topic "The government of the future - National Institute of Standards and Technology"; and Dave Croker, Brandenburg Consulting, about Internet EDI. Massachusetts Institute of Technology's Dr. Preston McaFee will talk about the FCC spread spectrum auctions using game theory, while Smoot Carl Mitchell and John Quarterman of Matrix Organization will speak on the changing dynamics of Internet service providers. There will also be: a session on hypermarketing presented by Dr. Donna Hoffman from Vanderbilt University; a talk about URI, URN and URLs and their implications for the digital libraries by Larry Masinter from the Xerox Palo Alto Research Center; and Dan Connolly from W3 Organization will discuss the evolution of HTML (hypertext markup language) and its implications for the future of the World Wide Web. NSF's Dr Su Shing Chen will talk about the NSF and electronic commerce, while Dr. Jan Stallert from the University of Texas at Austin will discuss supply-chain management and electronic commerce. Whinston said the conference will bring together experts from academia and business in order to identify and develop a set of critical issues for research in the area of electronic commerce. For registration information contact RGK Foundation in Austin. The $300 registration fee covers the conference, a banquet on Monday evening, breakfast and lunch on Monday and Tuesday, coffee breaks, conference materials and scheduled ground transportation between the conference site and the hotel. (Jim Mallory/19950811/Press contact: Ravi Kalakota, University of Texas at Austin, 512-471-7962, Internet e-mail kalakota@uts.cc.utexas.edu; Public contact: RGK Foundation, tel 512-474-9298, fax 512-474-6389 for registration information) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 08/11/95 BUSINESS America Online's Earnings Soar (NEWS)(BUSINESS)(MSP)(00020) America Online's Earnings Soar 08/11/95 VIENNA, VIRGINIA, U.S.A., 1995 AUG 11 (NB) -- America Online Inc.'s (NASDAQ:AMER) (AOL) fiscal fourth quarter of 1995 saw its net income spike upward by more than six-fold, while adding nearly 700,000 subscribers in that period. During the quarter, which ended June 30, AOL's profit rose to $6.2 million, or 13 cents a share. That number included merger expenses of a little under $500,000, or a penny a share. Revenue tripled to almost $152 million for the quarter, while net income was at $6.2 million. The company did lose some cash in operating losses due to some recent mergers, to the tune of $4.4 million. Without those losses, AOL said its net earnings would have risen to $7.4 million, or 16 cents per share, in the latest quarter. For the fiscal year overall, AOL reported a loss of $33.6 million, or 99 cents a share. But revenues climbed 240 percent to $394.3 million, the company reported. That seems to be what AOL has experienced most of this year. Newsbytes has been following AOL's results for the 1995 calendar year. They have shown revenue and subscriber base going up in both of the company's second and third quarters, while losing money overall due to acquisition costs and research and development costs. AOL officials said the service continues to grow at a "rapid" pace, even though the summer months, when some of the fourth quarter fell, are "slow" for the company. Average hourly use of the service grew to 6.5 hours, more than a 30 percent increase. Anticipated member life and lifetime value of membership also increased to 41 months and about $715 respectively. Wall Street seems to be having mixed feelings about yesterday's report. Analysts had expected AOL's operating results to not be as good as they ended up being. Yesterday, the stock bounced back from a deficit to close up $5.25 a share at $65.25. But as of 12:10 EST today, investors seemed to be having second thoughts, as AOL's issues were down $1.125 at $64.125. (Bob Woods/19950811/Press Contacts: Richard Hanlon, 703-917-1271, or Pam McGraw, 703-556-3746, both of America Online) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 08/11/95 WINDOWS Metz Ships Phone Mgt, Security Software (NEWS)(WINDOWS)(DEN)(00021) Metz Ships Phone Mgt, Security Software 08/11/95 BELLEVUE, WASHINGTON, U.S.A., 1995 AUG 11 (NB) -- Metz Software has announced availability of a new version of its Metz Phones for Windows, as well as a new security add-on module called Metz Phones Administrator. The company said the Metz Phones 5.6 upgrade contains the new Borland database engine. The software gives workgroup participants access to central databases of common telephone and address information. Multiple users can access the same database simultaneously. Metz said the application can handle an unlimited number of phone numbers, with separate address listings for each record. The user can import and export data between Phones for Windows 5.6 and other databases through a variety of formats. A Metz public relations representative told Newsbytes those formats include CRD, (Microsoft's card file), Sumphgony, Excel, Quattro, Lotus 1-2-3, the Metz dialer format, and tab and comma delimited files. Phones for Windows lets the user design their own mailing labels or use a library of standard Avery label templates. Phones for Windows supports dynamic data exchange (DDE) for access to the stored data from a word processor for use in a mail merge or a report. The company said the Phones for Windows program can be minimized while running in order to free the majority of its resources but keep the address information easily accessible while large applications are running. Controllable user access includes feature and field level control. Access rights are defined by file (any database file used by Metz Phones), group (any number of users with similar interests or need on a network), and user level, with additional rights differing from the group. The company said Metz Phones 5.6 is Microsoft Office 95 compatible and uses similar commands, menus and toolbars. Tooltips, the little yellow buttons that explain what a toolbar icon does when the cursor is placed on that icon, are also built into Phones for Windows. Metz Phones Administrator is an add-on product for network servers that allows the network administrator to define specific user and group access rights and file permissions. Metz Phones for Windows 5.6 requires Microsoft Windows 3.1 or later, a personal computer with at least a 386 microprocessor, and any network software that is compatible with Novell NetWare, Banyan Vines, IBM PC LAN, 3Com 3+ Share, DEC Pathworks, Microsoft LAN Manager, Microsoft NT Advanced Server, or Windows for Workgroups. It is also compatible with Windows 95. Metz Phone Administrator requires Metz Phones 5.6 or later. Metz Phones 5.6 has a suggested retail price of $89. Registered users can upgrade for the cost of shipping and handling. Metz Phones Administrator is priced at $495 per server. You can download a full- featured version of Metz Phones from the Metz forum on CompuServe (type GO METZ), America Online (keyword METZ) and from the Metz bulletin board. The demo will run for 45 days. (Jim Mallory/19950811/Press contact: Ann Revell-Pechar, Metz, 206-462-4525; Public contact: Metz, tel 800-447-1712 or 206-641-4525, fax, 206-644-6026, Metz BBS at 206-644- 3663) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 08/11/95 TRENDS Semiconductor Book-To-Bill Ratio Sets All-Time Record (NEWS)(TRENDS)(LAX)(00022) Semiconductor Book-To-Bill Ratio Sets All-Time Record 08/11/95 SAN JOSE, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1995 AUG 11 (NB) -- According to Price Waterhouse's World Semiconductor Trade Statistics (WSTS), the 1.22 seasonally adjusted book-to-bill ratio set a new record, exceeding the 1.20 mark in May. A book-to-bill ratio indicates that for every $100 worth of products shipped (billed), manufacturers received $122 of new orders (bookings). The ratio is computed by a three-month moving average, and seasonally adjusted. A ratio over 1.00 indicates that orders are higher than products that have been shipped, and is considered "bullish" for the semiconductor industry. Dan Hutchinson, president of VLSI Research Inc., told Newsbytes, "The WSTS book-to-bill ratio is the semiconductor industry bellwether stat. The positive trend in the book-to-bill ratio drives a lot of investment into the industry." Record bookings rose to $4.46 billion in July, up 3.0 percent from the $4.33 billion in June. The July 1995 figure is 52.7 percent higher than July 1994 bookings. July billings also reached a new all-time high, climbing to $3.67 billion, representing a 0.4 percent increase over the $3.66 billion recorded in June. The July 1995 billings mark is 35.8 percent higher than the July 1994 total. WSTS projects that the $33.5 billion (end of 1994) North America market will grow 34.0 percent to $44.9 billion this year, and to $74.9 billion by the end of 1998. WSTS also predicted that the $101.8 billion global semiconductor market (end of 1994) will increase 39.7 percent to $142.3 billion by the conclusion of 1995. The global market will reached $233 billion in 1998. The predictions for 1998 indicate a continuation of the North American increases in worldwide market share. WSTS show current North American market share to be 31.5 percent of world sales, growing to 32.1 percent by 1998. The previous twelve months ratio has tracked: July 1994 - 1.08; August 1994 - 1.08; September 1994 - 1.08; October 1994 - 1.04; November 1994 - 1.05; December 1994 - 1.07; January 1995 - 1.12; February 1995 - 1.11; March 1995 - 1.15; April 1995 - 1.17; May 1995 - 1.20; June 1995 - 1.18 (Revised); July 1995 - 1.22 (Preliminary). VLSI Research Inc., in their newsletter "The Industry Pulse", listed the top ten semiconductor companies, at year end 1994, in order; Intel, NEC, Toshiba, Motorola, Hitachi, IBM, Samsung, Texas instruments, Fijitsu, and Mitsubishi. Hutchinson points out that Samsung is by far the fastest growing and accurately represents the exploding Korean industry. (Richard Bowers/19950811/Press Contact: Kevin Brett, SIA, 408-246-2711) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 08/11/95 GENERAL Newsbytes Week In Review (NEWS)(GENERAL)(SFO)(00023) Newsbytes Week In Review 08/11/95 PENN VALLEY, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1995 AUG 11 (NB) -- This is a look at the top stories this week, listing with their category code: Toshiba Plans US Chip Plant With IBM; MacWorld - DayStar Digital & Radius Intro Clones; Microsoft Reveals MSN Pricing; More Big Guns Enter Microsoft-Justice Fray; DOJ Decides Not To Decide In MS Antitrust Case; MacWorld - Apple Fights Back Against Windows 95; MacWorld - Apple PowerMac Focus Moves To "Value-Add"; MCI, News Corp. In Internet Joint Venture; Speculators Surround Netscape's Initial Public Offering; Grateful Dead Fans Mourn In Cyberspace; Radio On Internet, Net Access For Radio Listeners; MacWorld - Radius Cuts Clone Prices, Weighs MP; and MacWorld - Apple's Upcoming Copland Revealed. Toshiba Plans US Chip Plant With IBM (CHIPS) TOKYO, JAPAN, 1995 AUG 8 (NB) -- Toshiba Corporation (TOKYO:6502) and IBM Corporation (NASDAQ:IBM) have announced in Tokyo that the two companies will be establishing a joint venture company to manufacture 64 megabit (Mb) DRAM chips in the United States. MacWorld - DayStar Digital & Radius Intro Clones (APPLE) BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS, U.S.A., 1995 AUG 8 (NB) -- DayStar Digital and Radius will both introduce new Macintosh clones at MacWorld Boston today, and Power Computing has plans for future enhancements to its "Mac compatibles," officials of the three companies said yesterday during a "Clone Shootout" at the MacWeek 200 Forum in Boston. Microsoft Reveals MSN Pricing (ONLINE) REDMOND, WASHINGTON, U.S.A., 1995 AUG 8 (NB) -- Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ: MSFT) said today it will charge $4.95 per month for basic access to its online service set for launch in just over two weeks, and will offer the online service at no charge for 30 days or 10 hours, which ever comes first, to the first 500,000 subscribers. Once that goal is reached subscriptions will be suspended temporarily. More Big Guns Enter Microsoft-Justice Fray (LEGAL) WASHINGTON, D.C., U.S.A., 1995 AUG 9 (NB) -- More big guns have entered the altercation between Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ: MSFT) and the US Department of Justice (DOJ), this time on the side of the software company. Going public with their concerns about a possible delay of Microsoft's new operating system and graphical user interface Windows 95 are at least four more companies: Symantec Corp., Egghead Software Inc., CompUSA, and Corel Corp. DOJ Decides Not To Decide In MS Antitrust Case (WINDOWS) WASHINGTON, D.C., U.S.A., 1995 AUG 9 (NB) -- Yesterday was a big day at Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ: MSFT). It was the day the company, and its shareholders, learned that the US Department of Justice (DOJ) would not decide before August 24th if it would ask a federal judge to halt shipment of Microsoft's new operating system and graphical user interface, Windows 95. MacWorld - Apple Fights Back Against Windows 95 (APPLE) BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS, U.S.A., 1995 AUG 9 (NB) -- Apple Computer plans to produce "integrated solutions" for the target markets of consumers, higher education, K-12, and small and medium-sized businesses, and to raise its ad budget substantially to support the new marketing approach and fend off the forthcoming Windows 95, top company officials said yesterday at an Apple press conference in Boston. MacWorld - Apple PowerMac Focus Moves To "Value-Add" (APPLE) BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS, U.S.A., 1995 AUG 9 (NB) -- With its first generation of Power Macintoshes, Apple Computer's primary concern was "compatibility," but starting with the new 9500, 8500, 7500, and 7200 models, Apple is "adding value" to meet the needs of newly identified target markets, maintained Gregg Zehr, director, hardware engineering, for Macintosh Desktop Systems, speaking with Newsbytes at an Apple press conference in Boston. MCI, News Corp. In Internet Joint Venture (ONLINE) NEW YORK, NEW YORK, U.S.A., 1995 AUG 9 (NB) -- MCI Communications Corp. (NASDAQ:MCIC) and Rupert Murdoch's News Corp. (NYSE:NWS) have announced plans for a joint venture that will bring both companies' Internet services under one roof. The new service will begin operation before the end of the year, said spokesman John Houser of MCI. Speculators Surround Netscape's Initial Public Offering (ONLINE) MOUNTAIN VIEW, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1995 AUG 9 (NB) -- Reflecting a tremendous demand for its initial public offering, shares for Netscape Communication were upgraded from an original offer of 3.5 million shares selling at $11 to 5 million shares selling at $28. Speculators are feasting this morning as the stock opened at $71, quickly went to $72.50 and is now selling at $74.50 (11:45am EST). Grateful Dead Fans Mourn In Cyberspace (ONLINE) SAN FRANCISCO, U.S.A., 1995 AUG 10 (NB) -- The man who's band began in the counterculture of the 1960's was remembered after his death in the new society of the 1990's -- cyberspace. Jerry Garcia, lead singer and guitarist of the Grateful Dead, died yesterday at a drug treatment center in California at age 53. Radio On Internet, Net Access For Radio Listeners (ONLINE) FAIRFAX, VIRGINIA, U.S.A., 1995 AUG 10 (NB) -- A Washington-area firm that owns and operates 21 radio stations will begin offering live audio on the Internet's World Wide Web later this month. At the same time, the company, EZ Communications, is offering Internet access to radio listeners. MacWorld - Radius Cuts Clone Prices, Weighs MP (APPLE) BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS, U.S.A., 1995 AUG 11 (NB) -- Radius is weighing possible enhancements to its Mac OS (operating system)-based computers that include multiprocessing (MP), faster processors, and PCI (Peripheral Component Interconnect), said Andrew Eisner, in a briefing for Newsbytes at MacWorld, where Radius is announcing reduced computer pricing, a new 21-inch Pressview monitor, and updated software for its VideoVision Studio video card. MacWorld - Apple's Upcoming Copland Revealed (APPLE) BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS, U.S.A., 1995 AUG 11 (NB) -- What's in store from Apple's avidly awaited 32-bit Copland operating environment? A few of the new features that users can expect to see include: pop- up folders, an "improved Find," QuickTime conferencing, and support for application access by multiple users with different "personalities," revealed Vito Salvaggio, product line manager for Copland, in an Apple press conference called "The Mac Outlook" at MacWorld Boston. (Wendy Woods/19950811) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 08/11/95 TRENDS CSSA Report Reveals UK Computing Trends (NEWS)(TRENDS)(LON)(00024) CSSA Report Reveals UK Computing Trends 08/11/95 LONDON, ENGLAND, 1995 AUG 11 (NB) -- The Computing Services & Software Association's (CSSA's) latest annual member survey claims to show that the revenue of CSSA member companies has risen by 16.5 percent during 1994. Other facts that emerged from the annual report show that staff numbers grew by 5.8 percent to a high of 86,931, while average revenue per employee of CSSA members rose to UKP82,242. According to Rob Wirzyncz, a spokesman for the CSSA, overseas sales represented an additional UKP1 billion in revenue, while information technology (IT) outsourcing represented at least 15 percent of the total sales of CSSA members. "Membership of the CSSA is based on the criteria that the computing- relevant company must have been trading successfully for at least two years and can produce accounts to the association," he told Newsbytes, adding that, during the year to July, 1995, the CSSA added 95 new members, pushing membership to 445 companies. Interestingly enough, the CSSA seems to carving out a name for itself in the UK IT industry, Newsbytes notes. Latest figures show that the company now represents around 75 percent by revenue of the total computing services and business software marketplace in the UK. According to the annual survey by the CSSA, the two most important trends in computing services at the moment are the move from in-house computing to IT outsourcing, and the move from custom-built software to "packaged solutions." These trends, the CSSA predicts, will undoubtedly continue into the foreseeable future because they are not just the result of pressure for decreasing costs at a time of economic recession. According to the CSSA, the massive growth in outsourcing is a result of many factors, such as the downsizing of mainframes, the move to client-server technologies, the rapid depreciation of hardware, the high cost of employing experts in the latest software tools and, the increasing difficulty of keeping up with the rate of change in IT. (Steve Gold/19950811/Press & Reader Contact: CSSA, tel +44-171-405-2171, fax +44-171-404-4119) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 08/11/95 APPLE ****MacWorld - Radius Cuts Clone Prices, Weighs MP (NEWS)(APPLE)(BOS)(00025) ****MacWorld - Radius Cuts Clone Prices, Weighs MP 08/11/95 BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS, U.S.A., 1995 AUG 11 (NB) -- Radius is weighing possible enhancements to its Mac OS (operating system)-based computers that include multiprocessing (MP), faster processors, and PCI (Peripheral Component Interconnect), said Andrew Eisner, in a briefing for Newsbytes at MacWorld, where Radius is announcing reduced computer pricing, a new 21-inch Pressview monitor, and updated software for its VideoVision Studio video card. Radius's new computer pricing is $3,500 for a Radius 81/110 configured with a 730 megabyte (MB) hard drive, $3,800 for an 81/100 with a two gigabyte (GB) hard drive, and $10,000 for a Radius System 100, reported Eisner, who is director of product communications for Radius. Initially unveiled at the end of July, the Radius 81/100 is Radius's second Power Mac clone. The base system includes a 100 megahertz (MHz) PowerPC 601 processor, System 7.5.1, three NuBus expansion slots, 16MB dynamic random access memory (DRAM), a four- speed CD-ROM drive, built-in Ethernet, eWorld, the FWB Hard Disk Toolkit, the FWB CD-ROM Toolkit, an extended keyboard, and a mouse. The System 100, first announced at Seybold Boston 1995, is targeted at high-end graphics and multimedia applications. As previously reported in Newsbytes, special features include built-in custom ASICs (application specific integrated circuits) for QuickDraw acceleration, DSP (digital signal processor) chips for Photoshop acceleration, resolution switch, "virtual desktop," and hardware pan and zoom. Bundled software for the System 100 includes Radius Dynamic Desktop, ColorComposer, and PhotoEngine. "We used to only have things that plug into the (Macintosh) box. But now we have the box, as well," Eisner informed Newsbytes this week. Aside from Radius, other vendors licensed by Apple to produce computers based on the Mac OS include Power Computing and DayStar Digital. Also as previously reported in Newsbytes, DayStar Digital has introduced the Genesis MP multiprocessor Mac clone at MacWorld Boston. DayStar's product is slated to ship in October. Eisner told Newsbytes that in making its own decisions as to multiprocessing, Radius is concerned over bottleneck issues related to level 2 caching in the current NuBus architecture of Apple's Power Macintosh. But multiprocessing will be a relatively simple matter if PCI is ultimately adopted in place of NuBus, predicted Eisner. "It wouldn't be a big deal to put four (processor cards) in the PCI bus," he noted. For users who like to do "one-stop shopping," the new Radius 81/110 and System 100 are configurable with the company's VideoVision Studio and Telecast "professional level" video cards, Thunder and PrecisionColor graphics cards, Radius Edit digital video editing software, PressView, MultiView, and PrecisionView displays, and other Radius hardware and software products, Newsbytes was told. Also at MacWorld Boston, Radius is debuting the PressView 21 SR Color Reference Display System monitor. Like the 17-inch PressView monitor that Radius rolled out at Seybold Boston, the new 21-inch display is intended to give prepress professionals a monitor that can be set to any white point, without loss of dynamic range or brightness. The PressView 21's cabinet, bezel and hood are made of achromatic gray plastics, in an effort to make color perception "unaffected by the frame in which it is viewed," according to Eisner. Other features include the Radius ProSense tristimulus colorimeter for precise color management, plus a "Stealth Coat," designed to be worn by the user, which is made of a special black material to keep the users' clothing from being reflected in the display's glass. The 21-inch display comes with: Radius ColorMatch tables for Adobe Photoshop; PressView software for controlling display characteristics such as white point, gamma, intensity, size, and convergence; and ColorSentry, a software application aimed at providing password control over calibration settings. The PressView 21 carries a suggested list price of $3,999. Radius has also released an update to the software for VideoVision Studio and Telecast. The version 2.5.1 software is meant to let users of the 81/100 or System 100 simultaneously capture video and 16-bit, 44.1 kilohertz (KHz) stereo sound. The added functionality is included in a complete four-disk set of 2.5.1 software that is available from Radius for $25. Software and read only memory (ROM) upgrades can be purchased from Radius for $75. Version 2.5.1 software is also available for download from the Radius software libraries on America Online, CompuServe, Applelink, eWorld, and the Internet (ftp.radius.com), as well as through the Radius Online BBS (408-541-6190). Also at MacWorld, Radius has announced compatibility between its Splash Power Servers and the new Xerox Regal 5790 Color Copier/Printer System. (Jacqueline Emigh/19950811/Reader Contact: Radius, 408-541-6100; Press Contact: Morgan Littlefield, A&R Partners for Radius, 415-363-0982) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 08/11/95 PC UK - Portable Add-Ons Intros PCMCIA Ethernet Modem (NEWS)(PC)(LON)(00026) UK - Portable Add-Ons Intros PCMCIA Ethernet Modem 08/11/95 GUILDFORD, SURREY, ENGLAND, 1995 AUG 11 (NB) -- Portable Add-Ons, the UK's self-styled "mobile solutions company," has unveiled the Trumpcard. Nothing to with Donald and Ivana, this PCMCIA (Personal Computer Memory Card International Association) card device occupies a type II PCMCIA slot and combines 16-bit Ethernet facilities with a choice of 14,400 or 28,800 bits-per-second (bps) data/fax modem features. Chaz Brooks, the company's marketing manager, claims that both features of the card are functionally independent, and either or both features can be used at once. This simultaneous facility is an important one, Newsbytes notes, as it allows data to be transmitted between a LAN (local area network) and a remote site using the modem. This feature, Brooks told Newsbytes, is particularly useful for sub- notebook systems, where only a single PCMCIA slot is available. There are also other considerations, he said, such savings on power consumption, as well as cost savings. The 16-bit Ethernet section of the card is available in 10Base2 (thin) or 10Base2/10Base T (twisted pair) versions. An adapter is supplied, so that a notebook can be connected just like any other network-ready PC. Pricing on the card starts at UKP399 for a 10BaseT Ethernet with 14,400 bps modem and ranges up to UKP589 for a 10Base/210BaseT Ethernet and 28,800 bps modem. "For many notebook users, the Trumpcard will prove to be an ace card," Brooks explained, adding that the modem and network features are the most popular PCMCIA features at the moment. (Steve Gold/19950811/Press & Reader Contact: Portable Add-Ons, tel +55-1483-440777, fax +44-1483-452304/PORTABLE950811/PHOTO) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 08/11/95 TRENDS Summer Blockbusters Use Tektronix Digital Editing (NEWS)(TRENDS)(LAX)(00027) Summer Blockbusters Use Tektronix Digital Editing 08/11/95 HOLLYWOOD, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1995 AUG 11 (NB) -- Tektronix's (NYSE: TEK) most recent acquisition, Lightworks, has provided the editing systems for five of the ten, top grossing summer films. Films such as Waterworld, Batman Forever, Nine Months, Congo, Die Hard With A Vengeance, Bad Boys, and Braveheart were all edited using digital film technology from Lightworks. According to Tektronix, the number of films cut digitally has grown over the last two years from 10 to over 40 percent of all films made. Lightworks, which emerged on the Hollywood scene less than three years ago, currently claims work in 70 percent of the films cut digitally. In June of this year, Lightworks was acquired by Tektronix Inc. and incorporated as part of Tektronix's Video and Networking Division. Tektronix' Video and Networking Division is a developer of video production, storage, and transmission systems. "Through its collaborative efforts with Lightworks, Tektronix is aggressively targeting the feature film industry with the technology, diversity of talent and entrepreneurial spirit required to take the industry by storm," said Lucie Fjeldstad head of the Video and Networking Division. "Editors can now be even more creative in spite of the time and budget constraints of most recent motion-picture schedules. "Editors can learn the system in less than an hour because the control console has only 12 buttons and a lever," said Fjeldstad. "Film-makers have come to prefer editing on Lightworks because it adapts to the way a film maker works and the system is ideal for editors who shy away from keyboard and mouse driven controllers." Digital film editing has several advantages. Digital systems can store images on 250 gigabyte (GB) hard drives, replacing more than a million feet of film. Editors are able to access information instantaneously, share multiple versions, and edit much faster than with film. Jennifer Jones, a spokesperson for Tektronix told Newsbytes, "The Lightworks editing system was developed by Paul Bamborough, a London filmmaker. Lightworks products have been used in more than 200 films since March, 1993, and this year the design received an Oscar from the Motion Picture Academy for revolutionary technology in the film industry." Tektronix is headquartered in Wilsonville, Oregon, and has operations in 23 countries outside the United States. Founded in 1946, the company had revenues of $1.5 billion in fiscal 1995. (Richard Bowers/19950811/Press Contact: Wendy Moro, Windham/Lang Group, 415-563-4545 ext 4) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 08/11/95 APPLE ****MacWorld - Apple's Upcoming Copland Revealed (NEWS)(APPLE)(BOS)(00028) ****MacWorld - Apple's Upcoming Copland Revealed 08/11/95 BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS, U.S.A., 1995 AUG 11 (NB) -- What's in store from Apple's avidly awaited 32-bit Copland operating environment? A few of the new features that users can expect to see include: pop- up folders, an "improved Find," QuickTime conferencing, and support for application access by multiple users with different "personalities," revealed Vito Salvaggio, product line manager for Copland, in an Apple press conference called "The Mac Outlook" at MacWorld Boston. "We've had nested folders for quite a while. With (Microsoft's) Windows 95, Windows is just getting to them now," Salvaggio said at the press conference, which was attended by Newsbytes. The new pop-up folders in Apple's upcoming rival Copland (OS) are aimed at "uncluttering the screen," according to Salvaggio. "You click once, and it opens. The idea is to get in and out," the Apple exec told journalists at the event. Also in Copland's graphical user interface (GUI), users will be able to "just hover a document over an icon, and it will open," Salvaggio reported. Apple's Michael Mace opened the press briefing by enumerating the "advantages" of Copland. These include "plug-and-play, power, ease-of-use, and compatibility," according to Mace. Mace also cautioned journalists that Copland and Windows 95 should not be compared on a nose-to-nose basis. Apple "ships the whole box," he pointed out. In comparison, Microsoft is providing the operating environment only. Also during the press conference, Apple Fellow Guy Kawasaki, another speaker, asserted that Apple is making a firm commitment to forming stronger relationships with software developers. Copland will be based on the OpenDoc object-oriented development environment, as well as Unicode coding, said Gina Clark, product line manager for OpenDoc. Through Unicode, developers will be able to support the use of multiple languages -- including languages using non-Roman alphabets -- within the same file. Copland developers can also look forward to improved input, search, and scripting capabilities, along with "new and unique development tools," the product line manager maintained. Aside from the new folders, Copland will bring a new, "persistent" Find that will let end-users "save their Finds," according to Salvaggio. The new Find, to be accessed through a new dialog box, will "search all disks to see if there is anything" meeting the search criteria. The Find will also give you a table with ratings on matters like, "how close (two search words) are together," Salvaggio said. Copland's new "multiple personality" feature will allow the administrator to assign different access rights and user interfaces for the same application, Salvaggio continued. The application can then be simultaneously accessed by these different "personalities." To illustrate, Salvaggio gave the example of an "advanced user" named Linda, an intermediate user called Bart, and a novice user, Homer. Linda decides to give Bart some, but not all, of the same access rights that she has herself. She restricts Bart's access to control panels, for example. Homer, on the other hand, "doesn't understand" yet. So Jane gives Homer "two or three clickable buttons" that he can use for "accessing just those components that he needs." Copland will also offer improved graphics, multimedia, and communications capabilities, according to the Apple execs. Support will be included for QuickTime Conferencing, as well as for QuickDraw 3-D (three-dimensional), QuickDraw VR (virtual reality), and Open Transport. (Jacqueline Emigh/19950811/Reader and Press Contact: Apple Computer, 408-996-1010) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 08/11/95 TRENDS Printrak's Fingerprinting Tool To Fight Crime (NEWS)(TRENDS)(SFO)(00029) Printrak's Fingerprinting Tool To Fight Crime 08/11/95 ANAHEIM, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A. 1995 AUG 11 (NB) -- Printrak International, a developer of biometric imaging technology, has announced Live-Scan 2000 as the first "real-time fingerprinting and identification system" for law enforcement officials. Instead of using ink, and then waiting hours for identification, Live-Scan 2000 creates a high-resolution electronic set of fingerprints and communicates with a central database in minutes. Until now, most processing of suspects has taken hours, sometimes days as law enforcement officials create ink prints and manually feed them and mug shots into an electronic device for identification. Dan Driscoll, director of marketing at Printrak, told Newsbytes, "Now, with Live-Scan 2000, a suspect may be identified in seconds. Using this system, fingerprints, mug shots, and text can be transmitted to a central system, be compared to existing files and added to the database in seconds. This is the biggest benefit to law enforcement. It means our law enforcement officials have more time on the street and less time in the office." A year ago, Newsbytes covered a technology announcement from Texas Instruments. The company introduced new digital signal processing (DSP) technology which could increase processing speed up to 100% and named it MVP. Incorporating MVP processors, Printrak's Live-Scan 2000 is an example of technology advances coming to market in "real products." For quantity orders, Live-Scan 2000 units are priced in the area of $50,000. Single unit orders are priced closer to $60,000. The cost may seem high, but Driscoll says the money a police department saves by reducing booking time from hours to minutes means the unit will rapidly pay for itself. By the end of the year, Printrak says it will have shipped more than 200 of the new "booking stations." In addition to those orders, the company also says the State of Louisiana announced a contract with the company. The $10.3 million agreement includes 84 live-scan units. (Patrick McKenna/19950811/Press Contact: Paula Bordigon, Lages & Associates, 714-453-8080) (SUMMARY)(GENERAL)(MSP)(00030) Newsbytes Daily Summary 08/11/95 MINNEAPOLIS, MINNESOTA, U.S.A., 1995 AUG 11 (NB) -- These are capsules of all today's news stories: ======================================================================== ------------| N E W S B Y T E S D A I L Y S U M M A R Y |---------- ------------| Friday, August 11, 1995 |---------- ======================================================================== (c) Newsbytes News Network (Tm) Editor in Chief: Wendy Woods ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Newsbytes News Network is a computer and telecom industry news wire and digitized picture service. Our news stream includes more than 30 daily first-hand reported US and international news stories about computing and telecommunications. For more information, please e-mail to 'administrator@newsbytes.com' ------------------------------------------------------------------------ CATEGORY HEADLINES (*** indicates today's top stories) STORY # ======================================================================== APPLE ****MacWorld - Radius Cuts Clone Prices, Weighs MP........ 25 APPLE ****MacWorld - Apple's Upcoming Copland Revealed.......... 28 BROADCAST Video News Roundup......................................... 13 BUSINESS America Online's Earnings Soar............................. 20 GENERAL UK - Panasonic Intros Hybrid Optical Drive................. 03 GENERAL Australian PC World Gets CD Add-On......................... 14 GENERAL Australia Database For Computer Suppliers, Resellers....... 15 GENERAL Int'l Electronic Commerce Conference Planned............... 19 GENERAL Newsbytes Week In Review................................... 23 GOVT European Commission Adopts Privacy Directive............... 01 GOVT China - Science & Technology A Priority.................... 08 GOVT GSA Consolidates Procurement Schedules..................... 17 GOVT Simulation Consortium Gets New Members..................... 18 ONLINE "Best Of Ireland" Book Excerpts Available On Web........... 05 ONLINE Free Speech & Democracy In Cyberspace...................... 07 ONLINE "Real-Time" Web Debate At "Feed" E-Zine.................... 10 PC UK - Portable Add-Ons Intros PCMCIA Ethernet Modem......... 26 TELECOM Sweden's Ericsson Signs PCS Washington Deal................ 02 TELECOM Sprint Canada To Take Over Failed STN...................... 12 TRENDS Study - 54% Of Windows Users Ready To Upgrade.............. 04 TRENDS Romanian Bank Issues Country's 1st Visa Card............... 06 TRENDS China - Electronics Industry Keeps Growing................. 09 TRENDS Fargo Ships $399 Photo-Quality Digital Printer............. 16 TRENDS Semiconductor Book-To-Bill Ratio Sets All-Time Record...... 22 TRENDS CSSA Report Reveals UK Computing Trends.................... 24 TRENDS Summer Blockbusters Use Tektronix Digital Editing.......... 27 TRENDS Printrak's Fingerprinting Tool To Fight Crime.............. 29 WINDOWS Weather Channel To Intro "Everything Weather" CD-ROM....... 11 WINDOWS Metz Ships Phone Mgt, Security Software.................... 21 ======================================================================== These are the headlines and first paragraphs of each story, in order: 1 -> European Commission Adopts Privacy Directive -- The European Commission is now well on its way towards affording a high level of protection to personal data held on computer systems, following the formal adoption of a Directive on the protection of personal data, Newsbytes has learned. 2 -> Sweden's Ericsson Signs PCS Washington Deal -- Ericsson is teaming up with DCR Communications Inc., the Washington-based PCS (personal communications system) company, for the development of a PCS 1900 (1,900 megahertz) digital mobile phone system, along with its network equipment, installation, and services. 3 -> UK - Panasonic Intros Hybrid Optical Drive -- Panasonic Industrial Europe (PIE) has launched its first combined rewriteable optical drive/quad speed (4x) CD-ROM drive. Known as the PD (Permanent Drive) system, the LF-1004B unit is claimed to be particularly useful for businesses operating in the desktop publishing, education, administration, and small business fields. 4 -> Study - 54% Of Windows Users Ready To Upgrade -- A poll conducted by c/net, the computer network, found 54% of users currently operating with Microsoft Windows are planning to upgrade to Windows 95 within the first 30 days of availability. In a five-day survey, 1,500 members of c/net's online Internet component responded to the company's forum where polling customarily takes place. 5 -> "Best Of Ireland" Book Excerpts Available On Web -- Richard Barry, the author of the forthcoming book, "The Best of Ireland," has published sample information from his book on the World Wide Web. 6 -> Romanian Bank Issues Country's 1st Visa Card -- Bancorex, the Romanian foreign investment and trade bank, has become the first bank in the country to issue Visa cards to its business customers. The move is a major one, both for Romania and the rest of the former Soviet Bloc, as this is the first time a local bank in the region has started issuing Visa credit cards, even to business customers. 7 -> Free Speech & Democracy In Cyberspace -- The privatization of cyberspace is resulting in the suppression of free speech and the US government needs to step in to protect our First Amendment rights, argues Andrew L. Shapiro (alshapiro@aol.com) in "Street Corners In Cyberspace" (The Nation, July 3, 1995, pp. 10-14). 8 -> China - Science & Technology A Priority -- China has increased expenditure on science and technology a great deal, said Chinese President Jiang Zemin, at a gathering of young Chinese scientists. At the same time, the government also called for overseas Chinese scientists to either return or conduct research visits. 9 -> China - Electronics Industry Keeps Growing -- At a total production valued at RMB106.6 billion (US$12.8 billion), the electronics industry witnessed a 26.7 percent growth in the first half of this year, compared with the same period last year, the Ministry of Electronics Industry (MEI) said. 10 -> "Real-Time" Web Debate At "Feed" E-Zine -- Internet World Wide Web surfers will be able to drop in and listen to "conversations" taking place between "critical thinkers in the Internet world," at the "Feed" electronic magazine (e-zine). The virtual roundtable will begin next week, in the publication's "Dialog" section. 11 -> Weather Channel To Intro "Everything Weather" CD-ROM -- Since The Weather Channel seems to cover all aspects of our outdoor conditions, it seems natural the cable network is coming out with a new CD-ROM offering called "Everything Weather." 12 -> Sprint Canada To Take Over Failed STN -- Sprint Canada Inc. has agreed to purchase STN Inc., a Canadian long-distance telephone company that does business as Smart Talk Network. Sprint also has court approval to take over the firm, which went into receivership in early July. 13 -> Video News Roundup -- This is a look at the top stories this week in the world of video news reporting: SIGGRAPH this week in LA, Web TV, Panasonic to Portland, and new product roundup. 14 -> Australian PC World Gets CD Add-On -- One of Australia's leading PC publications is to get a quarterly CD-ROM, starting with the September issue. Australian PC World, published by IDG, is the first Australian information technology (IT) publication to be issued with a regular CD. 15 -> Australia Database For Computer Suppliers, Resellers -- Inform Australian IT Database is a list of over 14,000 contacts in the Australian information technology (IT) industry. The publishers said it is designed to be used as a marketing tool, targeting all levels of the industry. 16 -> Fargo Ships $399 Photo-Quality Digital Printer -- Fargo Electronics Inc. has introduced a digital color printer the company said can produce copies as good as photographs developed at a photo lab. 17 -> GSA Consolidates Procurement Schedules -- The General Services Administration is merging its $5 billion Multiple Award Schedule (MAS) program for personal computers and software into the regular Federal Supply Service as a way to streamline procurement. 18 -> Simulation Consortium Gets New Members -- The Office of the Secretary of Defense (OSD) has joined the Training & Simulation Technology Consortium, based in Orlando, Fla. The consortium fosters commercialization of technology-based instructional material using advanced, computer-based technology including simulation, virtual reality, and multimedia. 19 -> Int'l Electronic Commerce Conference Planned -- The National Science Foundation (NSF) will be one of the sponsors of an international conference on electronic commerce set to convene at the end of October. 20 -> America Online's Earnings Soar -- America Online Inc.'s (NASDAQ:AMER) (AOL) fiscal fourth quarter of 1995 saw its net income spike upward by more than six-fold, while adding nearly 700,000 subscribers in that period. 21 -> Metz Ships Phone Mgt, Security Software -- Metz Software has announced availability of a new version of its Metz Phones for Windows, as well as a new security add-on module called Metz Phones Administrator. 22 -> Semiconductor Book-To-Bill Ratio Sets All-Time Record -- According to Price Waterhouse's World Semiconductor Trade Statistics (WSTS), the 1.22 seasonally adjusted book-to-bill ratio set a new record, exceeding the 1.20 mark in May. A book-to-bill ratio indicates that for every $100 worth of products shipped (billed), manufacturers received $122 of new orders (bookings). 23 -> Newsbytes Week In Review -- This is a look at the top stories this week, listing with their category code: Toshiba Plans US Chip Plant With IBM; MacWorld - DayStar Digital & Radius Intro Clones; Microsoft Reveals MSN Pricing; More Big Guns Enter Microsoft-Justice Fray; DOJ Decides Not To Decide In MS Antitrust Case; MacWorld - Apple Fights Back Against Windows 95; MacWorld - Apple PowerMac Focus Moves To "Value-Add"; MCI, News Corp. In Internet Joint Venture; Speculators Surround Netscape's Initial Public Offering; Grateful Dead Fans Mourn In Cyberspace; Radio On Internet, Net Access For Radio Listeners; MacWorld - Radius Cuts Clone Prices, Weighs MP; and MacWorld - Apple's Upcoming Copland Revealed. 24 -> CSSA Report Reveals UK Computing Trends -- The Computing Services & Software Association's (CSSA's) latest annual member survey claims to show that the revenue of CSSA member companies has risen by 16.5 percent during 1994. Other facts that emerged from the annual report show that staff numbers grew by 5.8 percent to a high of 86,931, while average revenue per employee of CSSA members rose to UKP82,242. 25 -> ****MacWorld - Radius Cuts Clone Prices, Weighs MP -- Radius is weighing possible enhancements to its Mac OS (operating system)-based computers that include multiprocessing (MP), faster processors, and PCI (Peripheral Component Interconnect), said Andrew Eisner, in a briefing for Newsbytes at MacWorld, where Radius is announcing reduced computer pricing, a new 21-inch Pressview monitor, and updated software for its VideoVision Studio video card. 26 -> UK - Portable Add-Ons Intros PCMCIA Ethernet Modem -- Portable Add-Ons, the UK's self-styled "mobile solutions company," has unveiled the Trumpcard. Nothing to with Donald and Ivana, this PCMCIA (Personal Computer Memory Card International Association) card device occupies a type II PCMCIA slot and combines 16-bit Ethernet facilities with a choice of 14,400 or 28,800 bits-per-second (bps) data/fax modem features. 27 -> Summer Blockbusters Use Tektronix Digital Editing -- Tektronix's (NYSE: TEK) most recent acquisition, Lightworks, has provided the editing systems for five of the ten, top grossing summer films. Films such as Waterworld, Batman Forever, Nine Months, Congo, Die Hard With A Vengeance, Bad Boys, and Braveheart were all edited using digital film technology from Lightworks. 28 -> ****MacWorld - Apple's Upcoming Copland Revealed -- What's in store from Apple's avidly awaited 32-bit Copland operating environment? A few of the new features that users can expect to see include: pop- up folders, an "improved Find," QuickTime conferencing, and support for application access by multiple users with different "personalities," revealed Vito Salvaggio, product line manager for Copland, in an Apple press conference called "The Mac Outlook" at MacWorld Boston. 29 -> Printrak's Fingerprinting Tool To Fight Crime -- Printrak International, a developer of biometric imaging technology, has announced Live-Scan 2000 as the first "real-time fingerprinting and identification system" for law enforcement officials. Instead of using ink, and then waiting hours for identification, Live-Scan 2000 creates a high-resolution electronic set of fingerprints and communicates with a central database in minutes. (Ian Stokell/19950811) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 07/31/95 TRENDS NEC Speech, Face Recognition Advances (NEWS)(TRENDS)(TYO)(00001) NEC Speech, Face Recognition Advances 07/31/95 MIYAZAKIDAI, JAPAN, 1995 JUL 31 (NB) -- As part of a exhibition to celebrate the twentieth anniversary of NEC's Central Research Laboratory at Miyazakidai near Tokyo, NEC has demonstrated new advances the company has made in the fields of speech and face recognition. A system designed to connect travel agents to an airline information and booking computer using a speech interface was shown in operation. The new system runs on a standard PC requiring no special hardware other than a standard microphone and sound card, for the voice input, and a modem, to connect to the airline computer. All of the speech recognition work is done in software, making the system an easy addition to many computers. The interface represented advances in speaker independent speech recognition whereby the computer does not need to be trained to recognize an operator's voice beforehand. It also features recognition of a flexible vocabulary based on more advanced demi-syllable matching techniques. Currently the system is programmed to respond to instructions associated with booking of a flight in the Japanese language. Newsbytes discovered that statements such as "From Haneda to Fukuoka (airports) the day after tomorrow around lunchtime" were easily and correctly understood, even given the added challenge of non-Japanese giving the instructions. The language used was also flexible with phrases such as "around lunchtime" being just as readily accepted as "around twelve." NEC began pioneering work in speech recognition as early as 1958 and continued along the same lines until 1987 when it began development of the demi-syllable recognition technique, research that was refined for five years before the development of systems such as that on display could be realized. In the future development is focused on a simultaneous spoken dialog interface. Alongside the new advances in speech recognition another new recognition system was on display, the technology of face recognition has been advanced, says NEC, by a technique that offers significantly more accuracy. On a database of 700 faces, the system hit a 95% first-time success rate. The new method pinpoints 35 facial features and measures a total of 30 distances between the points to come up with a unique facial signature. Because of the new technique, the system can be used in a variety of locations as lighting on the face is not as important as in previously developed systems. NEC says the new system is paving the way for large database access control systems such as those required for building access or even bank auto teller machines. The challenges facing the development team now, a member told Newsbytes, was refining the system so that it would recognize a face from a picture taken at almost any angle. Researchers found that when the database of images included a diverse range of faces, such as those of many cultures or nations, the system registered a much higher accuracy rate on a large database as one that contained many people of the same race. Such a system would be more immediately successful in a country with a diverse range of peoples, such as the United States, than a country with a much lesser mix of people, such as Japan, a spokesman told Newsbytes. (Martyn Williams/19950731/Press contact : Mark Pearce, NEC Corporation, +81-3-3798-6511, fax +81-3-3457-7249, Internet email maku_10-22150@aladdin.nec.co.jp) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 07/31/95 BROADCAST NEC's Video Hypertext System (NEWS)(BROADCAST)(TYO)(00002) NEC's Video Hypertext System 07/31/95 MIYAZAKIDAI, JAPAN, 1995 JUL 31 (NB) -- NEC Corporation has demonstrated to Newsbytes a new "video hypermedia system" that will bring the point and click capabilities of hypertext to full motion video. Most people are familiar with hypertext applications such as the point and click functions presented in World Wide Web pages on the Internet. But this has, until now, been limited mainly to text. It is possible to do the same thing with an image map, a graphical image with pre-defined hot spots that take users to other documents or images, but that is as far as the system has developed. Under the name "Himotoki," NEC has developed a similar system that enables users to point and click, or use a touchscreen in the demonstration we saw, on a full motion video image. A sample application shown was a database/encyclopedia on fish of the oceans. Users could navigate through a series of screens to find a creature they were interested in, then start a video of the fish swimming in the sea. The video featured a number of moving hot spots, meaning that at any time if another fish swam into the picture it could be selected and information about it displayed. Himotoki-based CD-ROMs will become available later this year for personal computers running the Windows NT operating system. Typical applications will include multimedia CD-ROMs such as that seen in the demonstration at NEC's Central Research Laboratory. The Tokyo-based company says Himotoki has been under development since the 1980s when a system similar to today's World Wide Web documents was developed. The system was refined to include support for moving images and video in the first half of this decade, said NEC. Currently the system will support a large scale, stand-alone database such as a CD-ROM but it is hoped that Himotoki will be available on a network as a large scale distributed database sometime in the next three years. When the technology reaches that stage, applications will be extended to include video on demand (VOD), and interactive TV applications such a news on demand and online shopping. (Martyn Williams/19950731/Press contact : Mark Pearce, NEC Corporation, +81-3-3798-6511, fax +81-3-3457-7249, Internet email maku_10-22150@aladdin.nec.co.jp) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 07/31/95 BROADCAST Video Technology Advances At NEC (NEWS)(BROADCAST)(TYO)(00003) Video Technology Advances At NEC 07/31/95 MIYAZAKIDAI, JAPAN, 1995 JUL 31 (NB) -- Any exhibition of future technology would not be complete without the much touted video on demand (VOD) systems that are predicted to become a part of all our lives in the next twenty years. At the open day celebrating twenty years of research at NEC's Miyazakidai Central Research Center near Tokyo, it was no different with a selection of VOD and multimedia video systems on display. One system that is already in use is ATM Mermaid, a "VOD-integrated multimedia collaboration system." Essentially, Mermaid allows a group of people, whether they are around an office, city, country or even the world, to communicate via desktop PC videoconferencing with each other. At the same time the users can send each other video, project plans, documents, in fact anything that can be sent be computer. The group can then work together on a project. The service is currently in use twice a month by Japanese Consuls in Tokyo, The United Nations, Washington DC, Paris, London, Seoul and Beijing, when they use the system for meetings. All connections are established across 1.5Mbps ISDN telephone lines. In the future the system will be expanded to run at greater data rates across wireless LANs and networks based on the PHS (Personal Handyphone system) system. The adoption of PHS and wireless technology will take the system mobile sometime around the turn of the century. Video on demand on a greater scale, such as a cable TV network, requires different technology altogether, and NEC is developing a VOD system for such a large scale public network. The system is capable of sending MPEG-2 standard video at 6Mbps to set-top decoders in receiving homes. NEC sees such as system as eventually bringing together the broadcast, computer and telephony applications into a multimedia on demand system it has christened "Telepresence." This is hoped to be achieved some time early in the next century as the final stage of research that began in 1980. Encoding the video on such a system and on planned satellite broadcasting services will be done by MPEG-2, the emerging world digital television standard. To complement the systems on display, the company has developed an MPEG-2 CODEC (coder-decoder) that handles all the required functions in one box. To increase flexibility of the unit all the functions are fully controllable via software. Inputs to the unit can come from services such as digital television and VoD servers while receivers such as cable TV set-top boxes, multimedia PCs and workstations would be connected via an ATM network to the system. NEC is proud of its involvement in digital video since the original MPEG-1 system was standardized some years ago. For the future the research labs have set their target on developing a system for coding of stereo video signals and the compaction of such a system onto a single LSI encoder and decoder chip and 1 board codec. (Martyn Williams/19950731/Press contact : Mark Pearce, NEC Corporation, +81-3-3798-6511, fax +81-3-3457-7249, Internet email maku_10-22150@aladdin.nec.co.jp) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 07/31/95 TELECOM Australia - Telstra Launches Public Frame Relay Service (NEWS)(TELECOM)(SYD)(00004) Australia - Telstra Launches Public Frame Relay Service 07/31/95 SYDNEY, AUSTRALIA 1995 JUL 31 (NB) -- Telstra's frame relay service will go nationwide on September 1, offering an alternative to ISDN and dial-up data connections. Unlike these other forms of connection where the user pays for connect time, frame relay users pay only for their negotiated information rate, allowing them to enjoy high-density burst mode, depending on system loading. Telstra said that most frame relay users will have more than four sites to take advantage of the cost structure. The technology allows users to mix traffic types, including network data, voice and video. The system will be expanded to ATM in December and customers will then be able to choose between the two as appropriate. (Paul Zucker/19950728) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 07/31/95 APPLE Adaptive Ships Photoshop Accelerators (NEWS)(APPLE)(DEN)(00005) Adaptive Ships Photoshop Accelerators 07/31/95 BEAVERTON, OREGON, U.S.A., 1995 JUL 31 (NB) -- Adaptive Solutions (NASDAQ: ADSO) has started shipping its new PowerShop NuBus and PCI accelerator boards for Adobe Photoshop. Last month the company announced shipment of its Powershop PCI accelerator board for use with Apple Computer's new PowerMac 9500. #IMAGE 1 20 TWPCX \images\95073105.PCX Click here for photo A company spokesperson told Newsbytes that Powershop accelerates Photoshop functions by as much as 1,000 percent over the fastest Macintosh systems. Adaptive said PowerShop is the first plug-and-play application for CNAPS, a parallel microprocessor. Plug-and-Play technology, which most PC makers are adapting, allows the PC to recognize Plug-and-Play-capable devices such as accelerator cards, modems or printers and automatically adjust to use that device. PowerShop puts 64 processors on one standard NuBus or PCI card, all working in parallel on imaging processing tasks. Adaptive said PowerShop can perform up to five billion operations per second. Powershop boards have an advanced bus interface that uses a high-performance chip to utilize the entire NuBus or PCI transfer rate, as well as a dedicated processor for data management. It also uses independent banks of memory, each with an independent path to the NuBus or PCI, the parallel processors and the input/output (I/O) transfer chip. The company said that enables one bank of memory to receive part of the image, another bank to be used to execute the particular function such as unsharp mask on another part of the image, or to be used for the resulting image to be queued for output. The result, said Adaptive, is overlapping operations taking place simultaneously. Earlier this year Adaptive entered into a technology and marketing relationship with Eastman Kodak Company to optimize digital image acquisition time when downloading images from Kodak's DCS 460 and 465 digital cameras to a PC. DCS cameras can store up to 28 images on a PCMCIA (Personal Computer Memory Card International Association) Type III card, and Adaptive said it will soon be able to cut the downloading time from as much as 70 minutes on an unaccelerated system to as little as 10 minutes using PowerShop. Adaptive said the street price of PowerShop is about $3,000. To use PowerShop you need a 68040 or higher Macintosh PC, System 7.1 or higher software, enough memory to operate Adobe Photoshop, and Photoshop 3.0 or later. Adaptive provides any software upgrades at no cost during the three year period following product purchase. (Jim Mallory/19950731/Press contact: Lindy Holt, KVO for Adaptive Solutions, tel 503-221-2371; Public contact: Adaptive Solutions, tel 503-690-1236 or 800-482-6277, fax 503-690-1249/POWRSHOP950731/PHOTO) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 07/31/95 DOS Boxer Releases ASCII Editing Software Update (NEWS)(DOS)(MSP)(00006) Boxer Releases ASCII Editing Software Update 07/31/95 PETERBOROUGH, NEW HAMPSHIRE, U.S.A., 1995 JUL 31 (NB) -- Boxer Software is introducing a new version of its ASCII text editors, designed for the DOS, extended DOS, and OS/2 2.x and Warp platforms. The new version 7.0 release contains more than 80 new features and options compared to the older versions of the program. What's more, many of the changes were spurred by customer suggestions. The three versions, while having the same interface, work on different platforms. Boxer/DOS uses the conventional 640K (kilobyte) memory for editing, which is suitable for most files. For longer files, Boxer/TKO is a protected mode DOS editor that can handle big files because it uses DOS extender technology. OS/2 2.x and Warp users can use Boxer OS/2, which runs full-screen or windowed on IBM's operating system. "Initially, I thought my market was going to be entirely programmers," David Hamel, Boxer creator, told Newsbytes. "I learned along the way that while a lot of programmers do use it, I pick up a lot of power users, and I also pull people over from word processing programmers." Hamel acknowledged his program wouldn't stand up well to a Windows based word processor, like Microsoft's Word or Novell's WordPerfect. But, he said a lot of people are overwhelmed with Windows-based word processors, and "there is a market out there for people who want something straight-forward." He also said programmers don't want to go over to a second word processor, when a text editor like Boxer works fine for them. Newsbytes had the opportunity for an exclusive "sneak preview" before the official announcement of the new software comes tomorrow. Although we only had the chance to take advantage of the basic DOS program, we saw the software had easy-to-use menus, a colorful interface, mouse support, and a handy quick reference card. The user reference manual was simple to read and easy to follow. In fact, the program caught some extra characters in some HTML (hypertext markup language) files, that weren't showing up in Microsoft's Windows Write program and WordPerfect 6.1. Those extra characters were playing havoc with some HTML files that were uploaded to a Web site on the Internet's World Wide Web. Boxer/DOS is priced at $50, while Boxer OS/2 and Boxer/TKO are each priced at $89, and come with Boxer/DOS. Last year, the Boxer Text Editors won the Best Major Application category at the Shareware Industry Awards. (Bob Woods/19950731/Press Contact: Phil Hall, Open City Communications, 212-714-3575. Public Contact: Boxer Software, 800-982-6937, 603-924- 6602, Internet e-mail 70242.2126@compuserve.com) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 07/31/95 GENERAL Japan Newsbriefs (NEWS)(GENERAL)(TYO)(00007) Japan Newsbriefs 07/31/95 TOKYO, JAPAN, 1995 JUL 31 (NB) -- This is a roundup of news from Japan: Akai sides with Toshiba in DVD war; Pioneer to shift cable box manufacturing overseas; NEC to sell emergency system; new Tu-Ka phone company announced; NTT gets rate change approvals. Akai Sides With Toshiba In DVD War Akai Electric Co. has announced support for the digital video disk standard being developed by a consortium headed by Toshiba Corp. The choice, over a competing system developed by Sony and Philips, was because of the system's greater storage capability and better picture quality. Last week's announcement of support by Sega and the Akai announcement now brings the number of companies backing the Toshiba led system to 24. Akai is owned by Hong Kong based Semi-Tech group. Pioneer To Shift Cable Box Manufacturing Overseas Pioneer Electronics will move manufacturing of cable set-top boxes to Malaysia this year. The units, made mostly for the US cable industry, are currently manufactured at Pioneer's plant in Shizuoka, central Japan. From October the Malaysian plant will begin making 30,000 units a month with all production transferred by year's end. The move is due to the strong yen which is making Japanese-made products more expensive overseas. NEC To Sell Emergency System NEC Corporation has signed a deal to sell in Japan an emergency management software system developed by EIS Software of the United States. The EIS/InfoBook software offers a crisis management system including communications and situation update information. According to the company, the system is already installed in 30 nations worldwide and across the US. The country's disaster management system was heavily criticized in the wake of January's Hanshin earthquake. NEC projects sales of 15 billion yen ($170 million) on a system cost of 37 million yen ($402,000) in the first three years. New Tu-Ka Phone Company Announced A consortium headed by Japan Telecom and Nissan has announced it will set up a sixth Tu-Ka cellular telephone company. The new venture, Digital TU-KA Hokuriku Co Ltd., will be based in Kanazawa City, Ishikawa Prefecture, north of Tokyo, and bring the Tu-Ka cellular network to a currently unserved part of the country. The new system scheduled to begin operations in two years time. A final Tu-Ka company will be set up by September to take coverage nationwide. Several foreign companies, including GTE, Cable and Wireless and British Telecom, own small shares in the companies. NTT Gets Rate Change Approvals Nippon Telegraph and Telephone has been given approval by the Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications (MPT) to change rates charged to its leased line customers. The rate changes include a 26% cut on long distance routes but a controversial 5% rise in local routes. That rise has been the subject of several official complaints to the MPT from NTT's competitors and heavy users such as Bloomberg and Reuters. At the same time the government department also approved a plan to offer a monthly fixed rate phone charge for nighttime calls. (Martyn Williams/19950731) (ADVISORY)(GENERAL)(MSP)(00008) NewsPix Images For Newsbytes Publishers 07/31/95 MINNEAPOLIS, MINNESOTA, U.S.A.,1995 JUL 31 (NB) -- These photos correspond to recent Newsbytes stories. They are online in the Newsbytes menu on America Online NiftyServe, and the Newsbytes private bulletin board system in Minneapolis. JPEG files are larger in size, PICT files are designed as thumbnails for onscreen viewing. The photos are titled with name/year/month/day. PICT/thumbnail pictures are black and white (gray scale). File message will indicate color if the JPEG image is color. Some of the 'for use' images, may be PICT files. To distinguish these files from the thumbnail preview PICT images, the tag for the color 'for use' image will have PICT, all caps. The thumbnail will remain noted as 'pct.' To become a licensed Newsbytes publisher, call Newsbytes at 612-430-1100 (U.S.) or write to administrator@newsbytes.com on the Internet. Licensing applies to any medium. --------------------------- Week of JULY 31 - AUGUST 4,1995 --------------------------- - NEW THIS WEEK - DSP950725 - b&w / Paging Reminders To Take Medicine: pagers with phone in background. PHOENIX950706 - color / Phoenix Technologies Offers Telephony Suite Apps: interesting screenshot of virtual 'Phoenix Phone." MAGELLAN950713 - color / UK Firm Offers Low-Cost Handheld GPS Unit: the unit on neutral background. SDRAM950725 - color / TI Intros Faster Memory Chips: picture of the Texas Instruments SDRAM in the Siemens Nixdorf Informationssysteme (SNI) AG mid-range server. ASK.ME950725 - color / Software Affiliates Intros Ask.Me For Windows 95: screen shot of the ASK.ME logo. NETVIEW950727 - color / More On IBM And Digital Joint Update To NetView: screenshot of 'a correlation rule to set a threshold' window. TAPIBAKE950728 - b&w / Microsoft, Intel, Pac Bell Hold TAPI "Bake-Off": shot of the AT&T Computer Telephone 8130, one of the contestants. LOGITECH950728 - color / Logitech Intros Color Digital Camera In US: the camera on neutral background. KNICKER950724 - color / LL Knickerbocker's "Cybertown" Web Site: very nice science fiction art work of Cybertown. TNG072495 - b&w / CA Announces Unicenter's "Next Generation": screen shot of the Unicenter/TNG 3-D visualization system that lets users travel through the network as if in a video game. --------------------------------------------------------------- - PARTIAL LISTING OF PREVIOUS ITEMS - SUPRFLOW950717 - b&w / SuperFlow Announces Dynamometer Software: very busy screenshot. Some moire from half-tone. ABCGRAPH950717 - color / Micrografx Intros Windows 95 Graphics Suite: software package. ULTRA64950711 - b&w / Nintendo Signs Baseball Star As Game Advisor: the Nintendo Ultra64 unit. HPCOLOR950711 - color / HP Intros New Line Of Color Inkjet Printers: the HP DeskJet 1600C. NEC950721 - color / NEC Intros Multimedia Notebooks: the NEC Versa 4000 along side an attache case for scale. LAWQUEST950719 - color / Bridgeway Releases Software For Corporate Law Depts: screenshot of folder covered desktop. DESIGNER950717 - color / Micrografx Previews Designer 6.0 For Windows 95: nice screenshto with graphic globe. ZDS-PTL950619 - color / Zenith & PictureTel In Videoconferencing Deal: pix of the Z Station GT VC. NECPC950629 - color / NEC PC-9800 Shipments Reach 10 Million: pix of the CanBe multimedia configuration. PENTAX950621 - b&w / Pentax Intros Another PocketJet Printer: pix of the PocketJet with pen for scale. SCHEDULE950622 - color / More On Microsoft Schedule+ In Windows: screenshot of the customview window. SOUTHUNI950706 - color / UK College Gets Award For MBAs On Internet: screenshot of homepage. SWA950630 - color / Handheld Computers To Speed Airline Check-in: skycap with wireless computer and passenger checking in. (Newsbytes/199507031) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 07/31/95 GENERAL Lotus Launches AVM Global Seminar Series For Developers (NEWS)(GENERAL)(BOS)(00009) Lotus Launches AVM Global Seminar Series For Developers 07/31/95 CAMBRIDGE, MASSACHUSETTS, U.S.A., 1995 JUL 31 (NB) -- Lotus' new Accelerated Value Method (AVM) worldwide seminar series is aimed at providing developers with methods specifically geared to application development for Notes and other "client-server, distributed environments," said Cindy Hilyard, marketing manager for Lotus Consulting, in an interview with Newsbytes. Lotus's AVM, which "entered beta at Lotusphere and `went Gold' in June," is now being offered to independent software developers (ISVs) as well as inhouse corporate developers in North America, Europe, Australia, Hong Kong, and Singapore, according to Hilyard. "Notes is often bought by business units, because it is so intuitive. But it's really a systems product, and it requires systems level planning, maintaining, and scalability," the marketing manager told Newsbytes. Lotus's AVM approach is designed to combine the best methodologies for client-server applications, while "always explicitly mapping (application development) to business values," she added. "Someone might say, `I've got a template. How about modifying it for sales automation? We can add a new logo, and other new features and functionality,'" Hilyard said. In this example, the developer would be taking advantage of today's rapid prototyping capabilities, acknowledged the Lotus marketing manager. "But what needs to be asked is, `What are the business goals, and are they realistic?'" If the goals are to "improve the margin of the consultant, and reduce costs," for instance, the developer should then look at questions like, "By when, and by how much?" The AVM seminars are exercise-based. They include, for example, "a realistic case study of a consulting company." Lotus is providing the seminars as five "consulting modules": Process Innovation, Collaborative Development, Enterprise Deployment, Transformation Management, and Engagement Methods, Hilyard said. Ralph F. Clark, director of worldwide client-server services for IBM, told Newsbytes that he has personally participated in the Process Innovation module, as well as a one-hour overview of the AVM program. IBM's client-server group has "a mission to pull together the various parts of IBM's client-server software to better address the needs of customers in client-server environments," Clark explained. The IBM effort calls for an "integration of hardware, software, and services," he reported. "AVM is a self-contained method for addressing the particular needs of groupware implementations, primarily Lotus Notes. I found it to bring a set of easy-to-understand tools for helping to implement client-service applications, from business strategy to enterprise development," added the IBM exec. Hilyard told Newsbytes that one key tenet of the AVM program, the "value frame," is designed to teach developers to "manage change" and "minimize risk" by delivering projects in "small, time-bounded cycles." In a related vein, AVM also instructs developers in "iterative prototyping," an approach that is based on the expectation that business needs will change as users become accustomed to new technology. This orientation stands in marked contrast to older methodologies, in which developers can find themselves "locked into" a set of requirements from the beginning of a project, according to Hilyard. But Hilyard also pointed out that AVM follows an "open systems approach" that can be easily applied to other client-server environments in addition to Notes. Attendees are also encouraged to integrate AVM with other methods that they consider to be "of value." Lotus views the seminars as "very much a collaborative effort," added the Lotus exec. Sometimes, developers from two or more competing companies take part in the same seminar. But in the seminar setting, they are all "competing on the same team," she observed. "We're also learning from the business community. We believe that, by passing on the lessons learned, we can build a much bigger pie." (Jacqueline Emigh/19950729/Reader Contact: Lotus Development Company, 617-577-8500; Press Contact: John Mohrbacher, Lois Paul & Partners for Lotus, 617-860-5709) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 07/31/95 BUSINESS DEC Moves More Catalog Sales To PCs Compleat (NEWS)(BUSINESS)(BOS)(00010) DEC Moves More Catalog Sales To PCs Compleat 07/31/95 MAYNARD, MASSACHUSETTS, U.S.A., 1995 JUL 31 (NB) -- Digital Equipment Corp.'s newly unveiled alliance with PCs Compleat for US catalog sales of its printers, terminals and supplies stems directly from a similar deal for Digital PCs, and is expected to generate "crossover sales" between the two product groups, Newsbytes has learned from officials of the two companies. In an interview with Newsbytes, Jack Littmann-Quinn, president and CEO of PCs Compleat, said that PCs Compleat took over direct US catalog and telephone sales of products from Digital's PC Business Unit in June. Products from Digital's Component and Peripheral (C&P) Business joined the PCs at the catalog operation this month, according to a Digital spokesperson. The deal between Digital's C&P and PCs Compleat reflects a strategy on C&P's part to move 70 percent of its sales into indirect channels, he told Newsbytes. Other indirect sales of the printers, video terminals, and supplies are being handled through two-tier distribution. Direct sales of these and other products are conducted by Digital's Accounts Business Unit, which focuses on Digital's large corporate accounts, the spokesperson added. Digital Equipment Corp. has been moving aggressively toward indirect channel distribution and other forms of "partnering" over the past year. Robert E. Palmer, Digital's president, chairman, and CEO, underscored these directions in a speech at the Massachusetts Software Council (MSC)'s Spring Membership Meeting in May. "We are trying to anticipate demand, and we're relying our partners to (help) provide what people need," Palmer said at the MSC meeting, an event attended by Newsbytes. Digital's C&P is credited with sales of nearly $1 billion for 1994, an increase of 49 percent over 1993. In addition to printers, terminals, and supplies, the unit produces multiclient desktop devices, multimedia PC products for the retail market, and systems for OEMs (original equipment manufacturers) and embedded applications. Meanwhile, PCs Compleat is interested in expanding its new relationship with Digital even further to include other types of products, perhaps in areas such as storage and networking, according to Littmann-Quinn. Littmann-Quinn told Newsbytes that, before the Digital PCs and newly added printers, terminals and supplies came to PCs Compleat, there was "very little overlap" in terms of customer base, since catalog sales for the two sets of products were being carried out by two separate business units at Digital. "We think there's a very strong likelihood that customers who are buying Digital printers from us will also buy Digital PCs from us," Littmann-Quinn asserted. The cross-directional sales will work the other way around, too, he added. Littmann-Quinn also predicted that Digital's deal with PCs Compleat will add new market segments to the large corporations being dealt with directly by the Accounts Business Unit. "We specialize in selling to small to medium-sized businesses," Newsbytes was told. The Digital deal represents the first pact of this kind for PCs Compleat, according to Littmann-Quinn. The deal should not be characterized as "outsourcing," because PCs Compleat has made "big investments upfront" in "inventory, new space, and staff" to carry it through, he advised. Littmann-Quinn declined to give a specific dollar figure. But, he said, the catalog sales company has leased a building from Digital in Merrimac, New Hampshire to augment its own existing facilities in Marlboro, Massachusetts. Also under the deal, PCs Compleat has also created a "vertical market catalog" for Digital, with an "expanded database" of 220,000 users. "What we're doing, essentially, is to add the Digital product mix to our existing services mix," Littman-Quinn told Newsbytes. "What we're trying to do (in the deal with C&P) is to establish demand for volume that's even greater than what we can currently handle. It might sound like a cliche, but this is truly a `win-win' situation." PCs Compleat will receive calls for Digital products on an "800" Digital sales number, while technical support and service will continue to be provided by Digital through the Digital C&P toll- free hotline. (Jacqueline Emigh/19950729/Reader Contact: Digital, 508-493-5111; Press Contact: Alan Csiky, Digital, 508-264-6501) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 07/31/95 WINDOWS Microsoft Money To Be Downloadable On MSN (NEWS)(WINDOWS)(DEN)(00011) Microsoft Money To Be Downloadable On MSN 07/31/95 REDMOND, WASHINGTON, U.S.A., 1995 JUL 31 (NB) -- Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ: MSFT) has announced it will make Microsoft Money for Windows 95 available for downloading at no cost on the Microsoft Network (MSN) beginning August 24. That is the date both Windows 95, the software company's new operating system and graphical user interface, and MSN are set to launch. Microsoft said the new version of its personal finance software is updated and "dramatically different." The company said it hopes to attract the 70 percent of households that own computers but do not currently user personal finance software. Microsoft hopes one of the biggest attractions to those millions of home PC owners will be Money's online home-banking services. If you aren't among the first to subscribe to MSN, you will also be able to download a copy of Money for Windows 95 from Microsoft's World Wide Web page beginning August 24. A subscription fee is required to access MSN, but the Web page is free of access charges if you have access to the Internet. MSN will also provide Internet access to its subscribers. If you prefer to get Money for Windows 95 on disk you can get the product disks and a users guide directly from Microsoft for under $10. Microsoft said it will promote the offer in a variety of ways, including newspaper and radio ads and direct marketing. Microsoft hopes early Windows 95 users will grab a free copy of Money and tell all their friends about the product. Marketing experts say word of mouth advertising is the most effective, and certainly the least expensive. Microsoft said it developed Money for Windows 95 in part by visiting consumer households that use a PC but don't have personal finance software. The Money screens have prominent buttons that take users to other financial activities, and also include feedback like a chart of last month's expenses or a reminder that it's time to pay bills or balance bank statements. Only one window is open at any time, and Money offers Go To and Back buttons. The company said the software avoids the use of accounting jargon. The program includes a payment calendar that walks the user through the process of determining what bills are due, how much money is available to cover those bills, and writing the checks. Recurring payments can be set up to avoid repetitive entries, and online bill paying is available. That service has a status feature that lets the user track the status of any payment. Online bill payment requires the participation of your financial institution, and recent Newsbytes stories have reported banks in various parts of the country that have announced they will offer that service once Windows 95 launches. Institutions that have jumped on the Money bandwagon so far include the Bank of Boston, Centura Bank, Chase Manhattan Bank, Chemical Bank, Compass Bank, CoreStates Bank, First Interstate Bank, First National Bank of Chicago, Home Banking/Home Savings of America, M&T Bank, Marquette Bank, Michigan National Bank, Sanwa Bank of California, Texas Commerce Bank, Union Bank, US Bank and Wells Fargo Bank. Other online services offered include getting account balances, statement information, funds transfer and communicating with your bank. Features in Money for Windows 95 that Microsoft said are for advanced users include the Investment Portfolio, which includes online fee-based quotes that are expected to be available for less than $3 per month; Report and Chart Gallery, for a visual depiction of your finances; Planning Wizards, for assistance with retirement planning, arranging a mortgage or setting up a savings plan; and TXF the ability to export tax-related information in a format usable by many of the popular income tax preparation packages on the market. After its online rollout, Money for Windows 95 is scheduled to be in retail outlets by November 1, 1995 and is expected to sell for about $35. Microsoft said Money for Windows 95 requires PC using a 386Xx or higher microprocessor (the company recommends a 486-based system); Windows 95 with at least four megabytes (MB) of memory (the recommendation is 8MB) or Windows NT with 12MB of memory; 8MB of available hard disk space; a 3.5-inch high-density floppy drive or a CD-ROM drive; a VGA or better video adapter and monitor (Super VGA is recommended); and a mouse or compatible pointing device. For access to MSN, doing online banking or receiving online financial quotes you also need a modem of 2400 bits per second or faster. (Jim Mallory/19950731/Press contact: Gaby Adam, Waggener Edstrom for Microsoft, 206-637-9097; Public contact; Microsoft, tel 206-882-8080 or 800-426-9400) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 07/31/95 ONLINE Compuserve Pacific Reduces Rates (NEWS)(ONLINE)(SYD)(00012) Compuserve Pacific Reduces Rates 07/31/95 SYDNEY, AUSTRALIA 1995 JUL 31 (NB) -- Compuserve Pacific has introduced a free period for new members and a lower rate structure. Despite this the rates are still around twice those expected from Microsoft Network. New members will be given a month of free basic services. This is a trial over the next three months and may then be made permanent. Basic service (off peak) rates are now 13 cents a minute ($7.80 per hour). This is around US$5.70 per hour, while Microsoft Network is expected to be around US$3.70 per hour in Australia. Peak rates are AUS20c per minute and extended services are AUS31c per minute. Internet access via Compuserve is a flat AUS 16c per minute at all hours. The first three hours a month are at AUS$10c per minute. There is also a club rate of AUS10c per minute for longer periods. (Paul Zucker/19950728) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 07/31/95 ONLINE Women's Wire Web Site (NEWS)(ONLINE)(SFO)(00013) Women's Wire Web Site 07/31/95 SAN MATEO, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1995 JUL 31 (NB) -- Following a recent announcement of its presence on CompuServe, Women's Wire is ready to open its World Wide Web site. Calling its site an interactive electronic magazine for women, Women's Wire plans to open the electronic doors on August 1. Women's Wire began as an online service out of the San Francisco Bay Area in 1994. In the past year, under the direction of Marleen McDaniel, the company changed its strategy of building a separate online service to one of strategic partnerships. With the addition of venture capital, new servers have been acquired and T-1 lines installed to provide high speed, high volume traffic. Along with the recent CompuServe alliance, Women's Wire also formed an agreement with Microsoft to be the women's content provider for Microsoft Network (MSN). McDaniel told Newsbytes, "The Web site is a natural expansion of our service and content. It provides an opportunity for millions of women around the world to access information which focuses on women's interests." Describing some of the content, McDaniel spoke of an area called "Question Authority." It contains the wit and wisdom of nine interactive columnists heading sections such as "The Biz Shrink" for business advice, "Arachnid" for technical help on the Web, "Cash Flo" for financial advice, "Bod Squad" for health information, and others. While Women's Wire concentrates on the information needs of women, it has always welcomed men users and a small percentage of members of its online service are men. In fact, one of the nine columns under Question Authority is "E-Male." Here women may ask the male columnist questions regarding men. Topics on the Web site include banking, careers, interactive media, haute couture, health, men, money management, astrology and other subjects. When asked about subscriptions to some of the content on the new Web site, McDaniel told Newsbytes, "I think subscriptions are a deterrent on the Web at this time. In the coming months, we will pursue advertisers rather than subscriptions." (Patrick McKenna/19950728/Press Contact: Marleen McDaniel, Women's Wire, tel 415-378-6511; World Wide Web URL: http://women.com /WOMEN950731/PHOTO) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 07/31/95 WINDOWS Trudeau's Doonesbury ScreenSaver (NEWS)(WINDOWS)(SFO)(00014) Trudeau's Doonesbury ScreenSaver 07/31/95 NOVATO, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A, 1995 JUL 31 (NB) -- Listed as a screensaver with social agenda, the Doonesbury Screen Saver by Mindscape is the first of three Doonesbury multimedia products developed from the famous cartoon strip. Screensavers may not be necessary to prevent monitor burn-in anymore, but Mindscape says this 10-module package prevents computer user burn-out. #IMAGE 1 20 TWPCX \images\95073114.PCX Click here for photo Mindscape says the three product series, called Doonesbury Toonscapes, also includes "Doonesbury Flashbacks: 25 Years of Serious Fun," which is a multimedia archive of all of Trudeau's work, and "The Doonesbury Election Game: Campaign '96" which applies Doonesbury wit to a simulated election with the real election frontrunners. This year, the comic strip enters its 25th birthday and Mindscape says the Flashback package will feature all 10,000 comic strips from Watergate to Whitewater. A complete cross-searching capability allows users to access strips and characters by time, dialogue, subject, setting, characters and more. The $34.95 Windows screensaver is already shipping and should be on the shelves of most computer software outlets. In describing a scene from the screensaver, Nancy Van Natta told Newsbytes, "In one scene, California Peace Officer B.D. appears on your screen and begins shooting holes through your spreadsheet or word processing document. Gary Trudeau has worked closely with our staff to oversee and guide the development of these products. In a sense, the staff as become a sort of alter-ego or part of Trudeau." For Doonesbury fans who are not ready for the gun shooting B.D., there is another scene where they can hangout with Zonker and watch the grass grow or look for Mr. Butts, Jay, Brewski, and Dum Dum. Van Natta said Mindscape has developed great audio and graphic effects for the screensaver. Trudeau has announced his plans to donate all of his proceeds from Toonscapes to charitable causes such as Asia Watch and the Coalition for the Homeless. The screensaver requires 486/25 processor or better, Windows 3.1 or higher, 8 megabytes (MB) of memory, 10MB of hard disk space and a pointing device. An audio board is recommended. (Patrick McKenna/19950728/Press Contact: Nancy Van Natta, Mindscape, tel 415-897-9900/DOONESBURY950731/PHOTO) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 07/31/95 GENERAL U.S. Robotics Adds LED Lights to PCMCIA Modems (NEWS)(GENERAL)(MSP)(00015) U.S. Robotics Adds LED Lights to PCMCIA Modems 07/31/95 SKOKIE, ILLINOIS, U.S.A., 1995 JUL 31 (NB) -- U.S. Robotics (NASDAQ:USRX) said it is adding modem status lights to its line of Sportster 28.8 PCMCIA (Personal Computer Memory Card Industry Association) modems, designed mainly for notebook computers. #IMAGE 1 20 TWPCX \images\95073115.PCX Click here for photo The new unit, called the DataVue, is the first design that allows PCMCIA users to view the status of their data and fax connections using the same LED (light emitting diode) system that external desktop modems use. Tom Potts, U.S. Robotics spokesperson, told Newsbytes the DataVue is a "cool little bell and whistle," that "in time, it will be worth its weight in gold." Potts said the unit itself is very lightweight, which is a concern for some notebook users. The lights are actually a part of the "dongle," or the device that connects the PCMCIA card to a standard telephone line. DataVue uses four LEDs that allow to user to constantly monitor the power, send, receive, and online functions during a data of fax transfer. Being able to monitor data transmissions can be important for computer users, Potts said. Although software products are available to monitor communications, Potts said it doesn't matter whether the observing is done via hardware or software. "It's just a matter of whether you want to go through whatever's necessary to get the software to do it. In this case, you don't have to worry - it's automatic." U.S. Robotics said the DataVue will be bundled with its Sportster 28.8 PCMCIA modem very soon, at a price of $399. The DataVue will also be available as a stand-alone item for other Sportster 28.8 PCMCIA modems for around $20. But Potts added the modem lights aren't compatible with older versions of the company's PCMCIA modems. (Bob Woods/19950728/Press Contact: Tom Potts, U.S. Robotics, 708-676-7113. Investor Relations: C. David Hall, 708-982-5162/ DVUE950731/PHOTO) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 07/31/95 UNIX Sun Workstation 125MHz Upgrade (NEWS)(UNIX)(DEN)(00016) Sun Workstation 125MHz Upgrade 07/31/95 AUSTIN, TEXAS, U.S.A., 1995 JUL 31 (NB) -- Ross Technology Inc., a subsidiary of Fujitsu Ltd., has announced a 125 megahertz (MHz) upgrade for Sun workstations and servers, utilizing up to four hyperSPARC processors. The upgrade is available nearly six months ahead of schedule. The company said the upgrade improves the performance and multiprocessing of SPARCstation 10, SPARCstation 20 and SPARCserver 630/670/690 machines. The 125MHz hyperSPARC chips are the first based on 0.4 micron triple layer metal CMOS processor technology and multi-die packaging, and use 3.3 volt logic levels to improve thermal characteristics and facilitate higher clock frequencies. Ross said the chips are currently in use by Sun Microsystems, Fujitsu, PFU, ICL, Axil, Auspex and other OEMs. Ross's "Upgradable Upgrade" program initially offered a 90MHz upgrade which could be exchanged for a 110MHz upgrade in the third quarter of 95 and would culminate in a 125MHz upgrade in January 1996. However the company said it has been able to accelerate that schedule, providing the 125MHz upgrade immediately. The company said the 125MHz hyperSPARC delivers SPECint92 of 133 and SPECfp92 of 154. The figures on the 110MHz microSPARC-II are 75 and 65, and the 75MHz superSPARC delivers 126 and 121. Ross said a 175MHz MIPS chip provides 130 and 100, and the 166MHz Alpha chip offers 108 and 135. According to Ross, in a four-processor configuration and using an off-the-shelf compiler, the performance of the 125MHz hyperSPARC is 9,539 SPECint92 and 9,726 SPECfp92. The company said the pricing of the 125MHz upgrade is based on a trade-in of the existing machine's CPU. A single processor module is priced at $6,158, while a dual processor module will cost $12,394. The four-processor module is priced at $23,549. With the introduction of the new chip the 90MHz products now sell for $3,468, $6,648 and $12,632 for single, dual and quad versions respectively. The company is also offering free installation of all 90MHz products. Ross also offers a 110MHz processor with one megabyte (MB) of on-board cache that's designed for use with data-dependent applications like SPICE, Oracle, Sybase or seismic modeling that are cache-sensitive. A single module is priced at $8,672, while the duals sell for $19,115 and the four processor model carries a list price of $36,320. All hyperSPARC upgrades are SPARC SCD compliant, compatible with existing Solaris software, supported by SunSoft and backed by a two year warranty. Product information is available on the company's home page on the World Wide Web. (Jim Mallory/19950728/Press contact: Matt Gutierrez, Ross Technology, 512-892-7802; Public contact: Ross Technology, tel 512-919-5207, fax 512-919-5200, e-mail on the Internet to ross_info@ross.com or the company's Internet URL at http://www.ross.com ) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 07/31/95 TRENDS Canadian IT Industry Grew 10.8% In 1994 - IDC (NEWS)(TRENDS)(TOR)(00017) Canadian IT Industry Grew 10.8% In 1994 - IDC 07/31/95 TORONTO, ONTARIO, CANADA, 1995 JUL 31 (NB) -- The Canadian information technology industry turned in a respectable 10.8- percent growth in 1994, according to International Data Corp. (Canada) Ltd. of Toronto. This was a large improvement over 1993, when the growth rate IDC reported was only 1.5 percent. Two companies -- a reseller and an outsourcing supplier -- pushed their way into the list of Canada's top 10 information technology companies by revenue. GE Capital Technology Services, which acquired fellow reseller Crowntek, went from twelfth to sixth in revenues with a 134.4-percent growth rate. EDS Canada, subsidiary of Electronic Data Systems Inc., moved up from eleventh to tenth. AT&T Global Information Solutions and Unisys Canada Inc. were elbowed out of the top 10, to twelfth and seventeenth respectively. There are no surprises at the top of the list, with IBM Canada Ltd., Northern Telecom Ltd., and Digital Equipment Corp. remaining in the first three positions. SHL Systemhouse Inc. slipped past Hewlett-Packard (Canada) Ltd. into fourth place. As the progress of EDS and Systemhouse suggests, the software and services segment remained healthy, growing at 10.5 percent in 1994 to C$7,219 million. IDC is forecasting nearly the same growth, at 10.1 percent, in 1995. Within that category, though, processing services grew only 1.1 percent, while professional services showed 11.1-percent growth and the packaged software segment was the strongest, growing 14.2 percent. The biggest winner was the single-user systems segment of the hardware market, which grew 21.8 percent to C$3,559 million. Small-scale systems showed more modest five-percent growth, reaching $675 million. Emphasis on client/server computing helped this segment, in which IDC includes servers. Other hardware segments fell. Mainframe revenues dropped 10 percent to C$540 million, and the medium-scale market declined 4.2 percent. The Canadian information technology industry's total revenue reached $13,408 million in 1994, IDC Canada said. (Grant Buckler/19950728/Press Contact: Debbie Currey or Michelle Shannon, IDC Canada, 416-369-0033, fax 416-369-0419) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 07/31/95 GOVT China - No More Special Economic Zones (NEWS)(GOVT)(PEK)(00018) China - No More Special Economic Zones 07/31/95 BEIJING, CHINA, 1995 JUL 31 (NB) -- China will not set up any new special economic zones in Central or Western China, following years of such activity to encourage investment. No additional preferential policies will be granted to existing special economic zones, either, according to the director of the State Council's Special Economic Zones Office. China's central government has set up special economic zones in the past in Shenzhen, Zhuhai, Shangtou, Xiaman, Hainan, and Shanghai's Pudong, the State Council official said. The central government is working on other methods of attracting foreign investment. Highly preferential policies have promoted economic development in the special zones in the past few years. Local officials from these zones now expect there will be no additional preferential tax treatment from the central government. Press reports indicate that China plans to adopt more standard economic incentives for investment while applying consistent treatment and taxation, all in hopes of joining the World Trade Organization eventually. (Chih-Ho Yu & Ning Huang/19950722) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 07/31/95 TELECOM China - Bids Open On Telecom Projects (NEWS)(TELECOM)(PEK)(00019) China - Bids Open On Telecom Projects 07/31/95 BEIJING, CHINA, 1995 JUL 31 (NB) -- The International Tendering Company (ITC) of China National Instruments Import & Export Corp. (CNIEC) is inviting bids from member countries of the Asian Development Bank (ADB) for the supply of optical fiber cables, optical fiber digital transmission equipment and measuring instrument. The notice, posted in China Daily, says that China has received a loan from Asian Development Bank (ADB) to be used for optical fiber cable backbone lines from Shijiazhuang to Tianjin and from Jinan to Yinchuan. Shijiazhuang is the capital of Hebei province. Tianjin, a city directly administered under the central government, is about 300 miles from Shijiazhuang. Jinan and Yinchuan are the capitals of Shangdong province and Ningxia Autonomous Region, respectively. The distance between Jinan and Yinchuan is around 1,000 miles. (Chih-Ho Yu & Ning Huang/19950720/Reader Contact: International Tendering Company, tel +86-10 831-3388 ext. 10535, fax +86-10 831-7359) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 07/31/95 BUSINESS Intel Seeks Ties With Indian Software Developers (NEWS)(BUSINESS)(DEL)(00020) Intel Seeks Ties With Indian Software Developers 07/31/95 NEW DELHI, INDIA, 1995 JUL 31 (NB) -- Semiconductor giant Intel Corp. has announced plans to work closely with software developers in India as part of a marketing development exercise. According to Atul Vijaykar, country manager for Intel's Indian operations, the company is already working out the details and is already working closely with the Indian hardware industry by supplying them with its products, as well as joint promotional efforts. Intel will also be repositioning its Pentium microprocessor for mainstream desktop computers. The Pentiums have largely been used as file servers and their success with the desktop market has been very limited, with the 486 still holding fort in the Indian market. Said Rob Eckelmann, vice president Asia-Pacific, "Our strategy is to cannabilize our previous generation of microprocessors as fast as possible." He added that the P6 would start shipping from the next quarter and Intel was looking at opportunities in India, in both software and manufacturing. (C. T. Mahabharat/19950731) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 07/31/95 TELECOM New Pacific Fiber Begins Partial Operations (NEWS)(TELECOM)(TYO)(00021) New Pacific Fiber Begins Partial Operations 07/31/95 TOKYO, JAPAN, 1995 JUL 31 (NB) -- A new fiber optic cable that will eventually loop the Pacific, touching down in four countries, has begun partial operation. By the end of next year the new TPC5-Cable Network (TPC5-CN) will run in a loop from the United States to Guam, onto Hawaii, then Japan, before connecting back to the US mainland. Currently the portions between the US and Guam and Hawaii and Japan are operational, having begun use last week. The new cable is capable of supporting 60,480 basic circuits which, once multiplexing systems have been employed, equals a total of 241,920 simultaneous voice conversations. The cable is being built by a consortium of 60 international telecommunications companies including America's MCI whose Alan Garratt told Newsbytes the new fiber will supplement rather than replace existing capacity. "It will add significant capacity to these routes and the capacity will be of the highest quality, exactly what the coming expansion of SMDS, frame relay and ATM services need. Its "self-healing capability because of its loop construction and the spare fiber for restoration may prove important, although I hope they are never necessary." The cable physically consists of two fiber optic pairs, one service pair and one restoration pair, which will provide the restoration referred to by Garratt. Currently most telecommunications in the Pacific region travel across cables, as Garratt explained. "There are many existing cables, HAW 4 and HAW 5 from the U.S. to Hawaii; PacRim East and West, connected by TASMAN-2 between New Zealand and Australia, the GPT, HJK and many others. When using satellite, carriers try very hard not to have a double hop, up to one satellite, down and up to another. It is deadly for data services and it doesn't work all that well for voice. Because of the capacity of the new cables versus the much lower capacity of satellites, most traffic, when possible, goes via cable." Cable circuits such as the new TPC5-CN offer a much better quality path than satellites and are much better suited for data communications. The third link in the loop, between Hawaii and Guam, is scheduled to enter service on New Years Eve this year with the final link, from the US to Japan, entering service one year later on 31st December 1996. Other investors in the TPC5-CN are AT&T, British Telecom, Japan's ITJ, IDC and KDD, South Korea's Korea Telecom and DACOM, France Telecom, China's DGT, Taiwan's ITDC, Deutsche Telekom, Embratel of Brazil, TELMEX of Mexico and Canada's Teleglobe. (Martyn Williams/19950731/Press contact : Alan Garratt, MCI International, 914-934-6484, Internet email 3577174@mcimail.com) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 07/31/95 BROADCAST ****Disney, Capital Cities/ABC to Merge (NEWS)(BROADCAST)(MSP)(00022) ****Disney, Capital Cities/ABC to Merge 07/31/95 NEW YORK CITY, NEW YORK, U.S.A., 1995 JUL 31 (NB) -- In what's been regarded as a powerhouse deal, The Walt Disney Company (NYSE:DIS) and Capital Cities/ABC (NYSE:CCB) have agreed to merge, a deal valued at $19 billion. Under the agreement, Capital Cities/ABC stockholders can get one share of Disney stock and $65 in cash for each share of Capital Cities/ABC stock. With current stock market prices, Disney's total cash outlay will be $19 billion, officials said. Each company's board of directors have already approved the merger. With the merger, Capital Cities/ABC will become a subsidiary of Disney, with Michael Eisner still at the helm of Disney. Thomas S. Murphy, chairman and chief executive officer of Capital Cities/ABC, will step down when the merger is finalized and join Disney's board of directors. Robert Iger will keep his job as president of Capital Cities/ABC. "This transaction is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to create an outstanding entertainment and media company," Eisner said. Both companies are widely diversified in the entertainment business. Disney owns motion picture and television production companies, The Disney Channel cable TV service, character licensing, and its world- famous string of amusement parks, among other businesses. Capital Cities/ABC owns the ABC television network, which reaches just about every household in the US. It also owns and operates eight television stations in mostly major markets, and plans to buy two more in Flint, Michigan and Toledo, Ohio in August. The company also owns 21 radio stations and radio networks, a publishing group, and a multimedia group involved in new and emerging media technologies. Capital Cities/ABC also is in cable TV, owning 80% of ESPN, Inc., 50% of Lifetime Television, and 37.5% of A&E Television Network. The deal must still be approved by governmental regulators and shareholders of both companies, officials said. If all goes well, the merger should be completed by early 1996. Officials from both companies said they didn't expect any staff reductions, because their businesses don't compete with each other. On Wall Street Capital Cities/ABC's stock is skyrocketing, and Disney's is also on the rise. At 12 Noon EDT, Cap Cities was up $20.875 at $117, while Disney was up $1.375 at $58.75. (Bob Woods/19950731/Press Contacts: Patricia J. Matson, 212-456-7325, Julie Hoover, 212-456-6641, both of Capital Cities/ABC; John Dreyer, 818-560-5300, Tom Deegan, 818-560-1572, both of The Walt Disney Company) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 07/31/95 ONLINE ****BBN, AT&T To Launch 1st Phase Web Rollout (NEWS)(ONLINE)(BOS)(00023) ****BBN, AT&T To Launch 1st Phase Web Rollout 07/31/95 CAMBRIDGE, MASSACHUSETTS, U.S.A., 1995 JUL 31 (NB) -- Five weeks after unveiling initial plans to team up on corporate Internet connectivity and security, BBN Planet and AT&T are ready to roll out the Internet Advantage, Web Advantage, and Internet Site Patrol service offerings in some US cities tomorrow, and nationwide by September 1, revealed Jeff Mayersohn, BBN's senior VP, in an interview with Newsbytes. "The most important step was to begin training the AT&T sales force in these (Web) services. The next step is to sell," reported Mayersohn, the BBN official who is directly responsible for BBN's relationship with AT&T. The AT&T sales force is about 12,000 members strong, with roughly 1,000 of these salespeople specializing in data services, Mayersohn told Newsbytes. BBN has just finished training 150 of the AT&T data service sales specialists in the Internet Advantage and Web Advantage connectivity services, as well as in the Internet Site Patrol security service, according to Mayersohn. The Cambridge, Massachusetts-based Internet service provider intends to train the remaining 850 AT&T data service specialists prior to the September 1 nationwide launch date, and all 12,000 AT&T salespeople by the end of this year, he added. Web Advantage and Internet Site Patrol are both branded services from BBN, the executive explained. Internet Advantage, a new branded service from AT&T, will combine Web Advantage with content from AT&T and third-party providers. Some sales of the corporate Web services have started already, Newsbytes was told. "There's a pent-up demand in the customer base," Mayersohn maintained. Most of the initial customers are ordering services beyond "simple connectivity," the senior VP said. Examples of "value-added services" that customers want include customized, Web-based financial services and marketing communications systems. So far, the custom systems integration work is being done by BBN, through new "Project Services Groups" that have been springing up in various cities. "But this will vary from proposal to proposal," Mayersohn pointed out. "I don't want to rule out that AT&T will also be performing custom systems integration. They certainly have lots of people who are competent for that job," he noted. (Jacqueline Emigh/19950731/Reader Contact: BBN Planet, 617-873- 2000; Press Contact: Brenda A. Nichols, Parker, Nichols & Company for BBN, 508-369-2108) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 07/31/95 TELECOM AT&T Broadens Cellular, Paging Services (NEWS)(TELECOM)(MSP)(00024) AT&T Broadens Cellular, Paging Services 07/31/95 NEW YORK CITY, NEW YORK, U.S.A., 1995 JUL 31 (NB) -- AT&T (NYSE:T) said it will begin offering cellular and paging services to its long distance sales channel, bringing in 90 million people as potential customers for the wireless technologies. "This announcement means we'll be bringing them the benefits of wireless communications, which is the fastest-growing segment of the telecommunications industry," Mike Pruyn, AT&T spokesperson, told Newsbytes. He said the wireless segment is growing by about 40% a year. The jointly marketed cellular and paging services will be initially offered September 18 in areas where the balloting process to choose a long-distance has been or will be completed, and where AT&T Wireless Services are operated. Other areas will be gradually rolled out after that date. The services announced today include a consumer package that features a phone, 30 free minutes of air time, and free evening and weekend air time for three months, for $29.99 per month. The phone will be priced at $1 in most markets, and service activation fees will vary from market to market. Customers can save more when they have selected AT&T as their long distance carrier. A business package will include a choice of cellular phone models, and a travel pack that includes a spare battery, charger, and a battery saver. Pricing will vary depending on location and calling volumes. Additional savings will be offered to businesses that have AT&T as their long distance carrier. Paging services will be available August 28. For $12.95 a month customers will get a local numeric pager, and the first month of service for free. The consumer market will receive unlimited local messages for no charge, while business will get 200 free messages a month, with additional messages costing 15 cents each. "A lot of people think these kinds of services are priced way out of their range," Pruyn said. "We hope to change that image (with this program)." All of this is happening less than a year after AT&T acquired McCaw Cellular Communications for $11.5 billion. Through the recent purchase of Personal Communications Service (PCS) licenses, AT&T is poised to serve about 80 percent of the US population in 21 of the top 25 market areas within five years. Company officials said today's announcement is just the first step in services that AT&T and McCaw plan to offer. Others include an AT&T portable cellular phone with three months of free evening and weekend air time for customers, and a pager that comes with unlimited local messaging and the first month of service free. (Bob Woods/19950731/Press Contacts: Mike Pruyn, AT&T Consumer, 908- 221-7961; Doug Idleman, AT&T Business, 908-221-3950; Jane O'Donaghue, McCaw Cellular, 201-294-2404. Public Contacts: AT&T Consumer Customers, 800-336-TRUE; AT&T Business Customers, 800-222-0400) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 07/31/95 GENERAL Canadian Product Launch Update (NEWS)(GENERAL)(TOR)(00025) Canadian Product Launch Update 07/31/95 KINGSTON, ONTARIO, CANADA, 1995 JUL 31 (NB) -- This regular feature, appearing on the first day Newsbytes publishes each week, provides further details for the Canadian market on announcements by international companies that Newsbytes has already covered. This week: the CiscoWorks Blue internetwork management program, new RS/6000 systems and storage technology from IBM, NEC's Versa 4000 notebook, and Radius' 81/110 Macintosh compatible. Cisco Systems Canada Ltd., of Toronto, announced the CiscoWorks Blue internetwork management program (Newsbytes, July 25). The program is to be implemented as a series of new capabilities, starting in September with Native Service Point support, to be available as part of the IBM Base option of the Cisco Internetwork Operating System (IOS). The mainframe component can be ordered separately for C$1,270.90. CiscoWorks Blue Maps will cost C$7,092.90 an the initial applications -- for Advanced Peer- to-Peer Networking (APPN) and Remote Source-Route Bridging (RSRB) -- are to be available in the fourth quarter of this year. Others will be incorporated as they become available, Cisco said. Applications for Systems Network Architecture (SNA) control and correlation and response-time reporting are due in the first quarter of 1996, the company added. IBM Canada Ltd., of Markham, Ontario, announced two new RISC System/6000 servers and its first Serial Storage Architecture (SSA) disk subsystem (Newsbytes, July 25). The new RS/6000 Model 391 is to be available in Canada August 11, and will cost C$82,260 with 64 megabytes (MB) of memory and a 2.2-gigabyte (GB) disk. The Model R21 is to be available on the same date, and will sell for C$92,270 with 128 MB of memory and a 1.1-GB disk. The new IBM 7133 Serial Storage Architecture Disk Subsystem will range in price from about C$25,000 to about C$104,000, depending on configuration. NEC Technologies Canada, in Mississauga, Ontario, announced the Versa 4000 line of notebook computers (Newsbytes, July 21). Canadian prices are: C$4,995 for the Versa 4000D with 10.4-inch double super-twist nematic (DSTN) screen, 75-MHz Pentium processor, 540-MB hard disk and eight MB of memory; C$5,449 for the same unit with CD-ROM drive; C$5,995 for the Versa 4000C with a 10.1-inch thin-film transistor (TFT) color screen, 75-MHz Pentium, 540-MB hard drive, and eight MB of memory; C$6,995 for a 4000C with 10.1-inch TFT screen, 90-MHz Pentium, 810-MB hard disk, eight MB of memory, and a CD-ROM drive; and C$7,295 for the Versa 4050H with a 10.4-inch TFT screen with 800-by-600 resolution, 90-MHz Pentium, 810-MB hard disk, and eight MB of memory. Toronto-based Radius Inc. Canada unveiled the Radius 81/110, an addition to the company's line of computers running the Macintosh operating system (Newsbytes, July 26). The 81/110 is to be available in August with a Canadian list price of C$7,999. (Grant Buckler/19950731/Press Contact: Robert Lloyd, Cisco Canada, 416-217-8000, fax 416-217-8099; Maureen Rourke, IBM Canada, 905-316-4425, Internet mrourke@vnet.ibm.com; Cathy Cowan or Jan Gillespie, Continental PIR Communications for NEC Canada, 416-598-8988; Maire Kushner, Radius Canada, 416-777-9900, fax 416-777-9911; Public Contact: Cisco Canada, 416-217-8000; IBM, Internet World Wide Web http://www.ibm.com ; NEC Canada, 905-795- 3600, Radius Canada, 416-777-9900) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 07/31/95 BROADCAST Sanyo Expands Video Plant In Tijuana (NEWS)(BROADCAST)(LAX)(00026) Sanyo Expands Video Plant In Tijuana 07/31/95 SAN DIEGO, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1995 JUL 31 (NB) -- Sanyo Electric Co., the $20 billion global electronics company, announced a ninth manufacturing facility, in Tijuana, Mexico. The latest plant will have 110,000 square feet and employ three hundred people. Sanyo Video Components Corporation (SVC), the North American television component manufacturing arm of Sanyo Electric Co., Ltd., opened its newest manufacturing facility in Tijuana, Mexico, just across the border from its San Diego-based headquarters. The plant is the second of a two-factory, $25-million expansion that has tripled Sanyo's production capacity for audio-video parts and added 220,000 square feet of production space. Micheal Cabot, a spokesman for Sanyo told Newsbytes, "The new facility can produce 3 million flyback transformers and 2.5 million tuners annually. The first plant, opened in July 1993, produces roughly 6 million deflection yokes a year. The new facility will bring to over 1,300 the people employed at the two plants. "We have been manufacturing in Tijuana since 1983, and today have nine separate manufacturing facilities. We manufacture, batteries, television components, refrigerators, televisions, small appliances (vacuum cleaners and juicers), and just recently laptop computers. Our major manufacturing commitment in North America is in Tijuana," says Cabot. "This new plant will build television components that will be shipped to our television manufacturing plant just two miles away. The television manufacturing facility produces 2.5 million televisions a year. We also have a television manufacturing plant in Arkansas," pointed out Cabot "The Mexican government," Cabot explained, "has always treated Japanese companies well and have encouraged them to set up in Mexico. We have our infrastructure for manufacturing established in the Tijuana-San Diego area. Sanyo has invested a tremendous amount of capital, and our supply lines are all in place, and we intend to continue this commitment to the area for years to come." Mamoru Konno, president of SVC said, "SVC's new plant will help us meet the ever-increasing demands of our customers with a steady supply of quality components. Our goal is to become the primary North American source of the television components we manufacture." Sanyo Video Components Corporation was established in 1988 to produce deflection yokes and flyback transformers for Sanyo, Fisher and other manufacturer's televisions. The company imports and sells a complete line of video components. (Richard Bowers/19950731/Press Contact: Jorge Ortega, Sanyo Video Components, 619-661-6322) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 07/31/95 BROADCAST Nortel, Antec Announce Joint Broadband Venture (NEWS)(BROADCAST)(TOR)(00027) Nortel, Antec Announce Joint Broadband Venture 07/31/95 MISSISSAUGA, ONTARIO, CANADA, 1995 JUL 31 (NB) -- Northern Telecom Ltd. (TSE:NTL;NYSE:NT) and Antec Corp. of Rolling Meadows, Illinois, said they signed a letter of intent covering three new interrelated business relationships. The companies will set up two joint ventures and related sales and marketing arrangements aimed at selling broadband communications products. Antec and Nortel plan to form a systems integration firm that will offer integration services to the cable television and telephone industries dealing with hybrid fiber coaxial (HFC) networks. As telephone and cable-TV firms cross over into each other's territories and begin offering new services, they are expected to build networks with optical fiber backbones and coaxial cable carrying the signals the last short distance into homes. A second joint venture will focus on development of Northern's Integrated Digital Access technology and Antec's Digital Video. Both product lines are aimed principally at the cable-television market, Northern spokesman Peter Janecek told Newsbytes. Nortel and Antec also said they will work together to sell Northern's Cornerstone Voice and Data product line, which Janecek described as a high-end product family that Northern plans to supplement with set-top boxes and other new media products. Antec is expected to be the main sales channel for the cable industry, while Northern will focus on the telephone industry. The companies said they still have to reach definitive agreements on these plans and obtain regulatory approvals. Names have not been chosen for the two joint-venture companies, Janecek said, and the firms are not prepared to discuss plans for hiring new staff. Antec has previously done contract design work for Northern on the Cornerstone product line, Janecek said. Antec specializes in designing and engineering broadband networks and producing fiber and coaxial products. (Grant Buckler/19950731/Press Contact: Peter Janecek, Northern Telecom, 905-566-3279, Internet e-mail peter.janecek@nt.com; Pat Sturmon, Antec, 708-439-4444) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 07/31/95 GOVT ****FCC Puts PCS Auction On Hold (NEWS)(GOVT)(WAS)(00028) ****FCC Puts PCS Auction On Hold 07/31/95 WASHINGTON, D.C., U.S.A., 1997 JUL 31 (NB) -- For the second time in four months, the Federal Communications Commission has put plans to auction 493 wireless communications licenses to small businesses on hold. This time, the delay is indefinite. The FCC action last Friday followed a court decision that the auction the agency had planned to hold August 29 would have harmed one of the potential bidders, Omnipoint Corp., based in New York. At issue was the FCC rule allowing firms owned by women or minorities to have up to 49 percent outside ownership. When the US Supreme Court recently narrowed the rules for minority set-aside programs, the FCC changed its rules to allow up to 49 percent outside ownership for all bidders for what are known as the "C block" of licenses for personal communications services. Omnipoint sued, arguing that the FCC rule change did not give it enough time to expand its outside support so that it could compete for licenses more effectively. The Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit agreed. "We plan to pursue every possible avenue to get this auction back on track," said Reed Hundt, FCC chairman, in a written statement. Omnipoint already owns a PCS license for the New York-New Jersey area, which it received for free for being a "pioneer" in the field of wireless communication. The FCC has been having a terrible time getting the C block licenses sold. It originally planned to sell the licenses with special discounts to small businesses owned by women or minorities. But the commission had to change its plans when the appeals court ordered the auction put on hold until it could review a complaint by a rural telephone company. Then in June, the Supreme Court, in a Colorado construction set-aside decision, once again forced the FCC to change its rules. This time, the commission decided to give all small-business bidders the special subsidies aimed originally at minorities and women. Earlier this year, the commission raised some $8 billion in sales of PCS licenses for the 99 largest markets. Those auctions were dominated by the major players such as long-distance carriers and the regional Bell operating companies. (Kennedy Maize/Press Contact:Susan Lewis Sallet, 202-418-0500) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 07/31/95 ONLINE New Internet Address Policy (NEWS)(ONLINE)(WAS)(00029) New Internet Address Policy 07/31/95 HERNDON, VIRGINIA, U.S.A., 1995 JUL 31 (NB) -- InterNIC, which manages the Internet name registry, has established a new way to deal with disputes over domain names, and better protect the owners of registered trademarks. Under prior policy, it was possible to snap up well-known domain names, even if someone else owned the trademark. InterNIC has moved to protect itself in trademark disputes. New domain names will continue to be assigned on a first-come, first-served basis. But those applying for names must affirm on the registration form that they have a legal right to the name they want, including whether the name is a trademark. If there is a dispute over the domain name and the current domain holder has no proof of legal ownership, in the form of a trademark, InterNIC will suspend the address while the dispute is being adjudicated. If there are dueling trademarks, the domain owner must agree to protect InterNIC from the costs of defending lawsuits. InterNIC says that Internet users need not have a trademark in order to get a domain name, but InterNIC says it is not capable of adjudicating trademark disputes. In the past, the hunt for a domain name was a free-for-all with the first person to get a name usually guaranteed to keep it, regardless of trademark issues. For example, a writer for Wired magazine won the domain name ronald@mcdonalds.com. McDonald's Corp. challenged the assignment and lost in arbitration. Its domain is mcd.com. InterNIC is a division of Network Solutions Inc., and manages the name registry through a grant from the National Science Foundation. According to InterNIC, there are about 77,000 registered domain names. The company says it is processing some 600 new name requests daily. (Kennedy Maize/19950731/Press Contact: David Graves, 703-742-0400) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 07/31/95 TELECOM Sweden - Ericsson Deal With General Datacomm (NEWS)(TELECOM)(LON)(00030) Sweden - Ericsson Deal With General Datacomm 07/31/95 STOCKHOLM, SWEDEN, 1995 JUL 31 (NB) -- Ericsson has signed a collaboration and supply agreement with General Datacomm (GDC). Terms of the agreement call for Ericsson and its associates to sell GDC's Apex family of asynchronous transfer mode (ATM) switches around the world as part of a "total business communication solution." Ross Belson, president and chief operating officer of General DataComm said that the initial value of the deal between the two companies is around $15 million. Plans call for Ericsson to offer a complete set of own-brand systems such as public ATM switching systems with sourced products to provide a wide range of network solutions including SDH (Synchronous Digital Hierarchy) transmission, network servers and access network products. According to Ericsson, its switches have found many customers in Europe and in other parts of the world thanks to the switch's sophisticated management features and multi interfaces. In Poland and Sweden alone, Ericsson claims to have installed more than 60 nodes of Apex equipment already -- the company said that it expects to play a leading role in implementing ATM-based networks around the world. General Datacomm's Belson said that, "as evidenced by today's announcement, our Apex ATM switches continue to be recognized as the solution of choice by leading telecommunications providers and private end users world-wide." "By continuing to secure important contracts such as this, General DataComm is ensuring its global presence as the leading provider of ATM solutions," he told journalists. (Sylvia Dennis/19950731/Press Contact: Ragnar Erkander, Product Marketing Manager, Ericsson Wide Area Networks Division +46-8-422- 0484) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 07/31/95 UNIX Silicon Graphics - New CPU, New Pricing (NEWS)(UNIX)(SFO)(00031) Silicon Graphics - New CPU, New Pricing 07/31/95 MOUNTAIN VIEW, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1995 JUL 31 (NB) -- Following the introduction of its new Indigo Impact line of workstations, Silicon Graphics (NYSE:SGI) promises a more aggressive strategy with the announcement of a new processor and price reductions as high as 22% for selected workstations and servers. According to SGI, the new processor, the 250 megahertz (MHz) MIPS RISC R4400, is the fastest mainstream MIPS RISC (reduced instruction set computing) processor on the market. In September, configurations of and upgrades for the new processor are planned for SGI's Indigo2 workstations, its Onyx graphics supercomputers, and Challenge servers. SGI workstations are known for high-end, power users such as computer-aided design professionals, virtual reality creators, post-film production design and special effects specialists and others developing entertainment and database visualization products. The special effects of some feature films are created on SGI workstations. Steven Spielberg's recent film, Casper, had portions created on a SGI computer. Challenge configurations with the new processor begin at $88,000 for a two-CPU (Central Processing Unit) Challenge L server. On the Onyx line, 250 MHz systems start at $179,000 for a two-CPU system with RealityEngine Graphics and the Indigo2 250 MHz systems with XZ graphics start at $31,000. Indigo2 250 MHz systems with Impact graphics begin at $40,000. The announced price reductions also involve processor upgrades on certain models. A $13,995 200 MHz Indy system replaces the 175 MHz Indy system which started at $15,995. Prior to this announcement 200 MHz R4400 were only available at a $26,000 price point. SGI also upgraded the Indigo2 product line by replacing the 133 MHz R4400 processor with a 175 MHz processor without a price increase. Additionally, Power Indigo2 XZ systems using the R8000 processor are now $40,000, a reduction of 13%. For customers looking for a World Wide Web server, the Challenge S server has been reduced 20%, bringing the price to $9,900. A 200 MHz Challenge S server with 64 megabytes (MB) of memory and a 2 gigabyte (GB) hard disk has been added to the line and starts at $15,900. The 22% reduction, the company's greatest price cut in this announcement, is for the Challenge DM system. This system is offered as a powerful Web server or product data management database system at $34,900. (Patrick McKenna/19950731/Press Contact: Eileen Caetano, SGI, tel 415-390-2036) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 07/31/95 NETWORK ****Cabletron Seeks Chipcom Stock After 3Com/Chipcom Pact (NEWS)(NETWORK)(BOS)(00032) ****Cabletron Seeks Chipcom Stock After 3Com/Chipcom Pact 07/31/95 ROCHESTER, NEW HAMPSHIRE, U.S.A., 1995 JUL 31 (NB) -- One day after 3Com Corp. announced plans to acquire rival hub-maker Chipcom, Cabletron, another major player in the hub/switching/router market, asked the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) for permission to acquire 50 percent or more of Chipcom's stock, a move that has since been drawing considerable industry speculation over Cabletron's intentions. Cabletron issued its FTC filing on Friday, the day after 3Com and Chipcom unveiled their intentions for the $775 million, friendly acquisition at a press conference in Boston. Late Friday afternoon, Chipcom put out a written statement about the Cabletron action, in which Chipcom President and CEO Rob Held was quoted as saying, "We do not know what Cabletron's intentions are, and we remain fully committed to our previously announced merger with 3Com Corp." Over the weekend, speculation mounted in the press and among industry observers, including 3Com and Chipcom officials, over whether Cabletron actually plans to purchase Chipcom, or whether other motives might be involved, with some observers suggesting that Cabletron might simply be trying to thwart the 3Com/Chipcom merger by driving up the price of Chipcom's stock. Late Monday morning, a Cabletron spokesperson told Newsbytes that Cabletron officials were in meetings about the FCC filing, and that they expected to issue a written statement "within the next few hours." Gregory P. Cline, program director, Network Integration and Management, for the Business Research Group (BRG), Newton, Massachusetts, informed Newsbytes he had been told by Cabletron officials that Cabletron was meeting with financial and legal advisors about the financial feasibility of a Chipcom acquisition. At mid-day on Monday, a Chipcom spokesperson told Newsbytes that the company still could not comment beyond its statement on Friday, because Chipcom officials still were not certain about Chipcom's intentions. Also at mid-day today, 3Com issued a statement to the press. "We concur with Chipcom's statement, and we plan to move full speed ahead with the announced acquisition," a 3Com spokesperson told Newsbytes. Chipcom stock rose 6-5/8 points Friday, to close at 43-7/8 points. 3Com is offering about $40 per share for Chipcom. BRG's Cline told Newsbytes that, in his opinion, an acquisition of Chipcom by 3Com would probably lead to fewer staff layoffs than a purchase of Chipcom by Cabletron, because there are fewer product line "overlaps" between 3Com and Chipcom. At the press conference in Boston where the planned 3Com/Chipcom deal was unveiled on Thursday, officials of the two companies said that layoffs resulting from the deal would be limited to corporate jobs, and that, based on the results of previous acquisitions by 3Com, the total job count for 3Com and Chipcom might ultimately be higher after the merger. As previously reported in Newsbytes, 3Com President and CEO Eric Benhamou said at the press conference that 3Com would close Chipcom's David Systems site in California, but that staff from David Systems would be moved to a nearby 3Com facility, in the same town of Santa Clara. In announcing the planned deal, Benhamou and Chipcom's Held pointed to "synergies" between 3Com and Chipcom in products, distribution, geography, and "culture." If the 3Com/Chipcom deal goes through, the combined company will own a 19 percent share of the worldwide hub market, as well as the number two slot in the intelligent hub market. Although both vendors also produce a variety of other networking products, but Chipcom is positioned more at the "enterprise" level, and 3Com more in the "workgroup" space, company officials told Newsbytes at the press conference. By Newsbytes' press time today, Cabletron had not yet issued a statement concerning its FCC filing for permission to purchase Chipcom stock. (Jacqueline Emigh/19950731/Press Contacts: David W. Hayward, 3Com, 508-836-1773; Dan Foley, 3Com, 508-836-1768; John H. Ricciardone, Chipcom, 508-624-6840; Darren Orzechowski, Cabletron, 603-337-3364) (SUMMARY)(GENERAL)(MSP)(00033) Newsbytes Daily Summary 07/31/95 MINNEAPOLIS, MINNESOTA, U.S.A., 1995 JUL 31 (NB) -- These are capsules of all today's news stories: ======================================================================== ------------| N E W S B Y T E S D A I L Y S U M M A R Y |---------- ------------| Monday, July 31, 1995 |---------- ======================================================================== (c) Newsbytes News Network (Tm) Editor in Chief: Wendy Woods ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Newsbytes News Network is a computer and telecom industry news wire and digitized picture service. Our news stream includes more than 30 daily first-hand reported US and international news stories about computing and telecommunications. For more information, please e-mail to 'administrator@newsbytes.com' ------------------------------------------------------------------------ CATEGORY HEADLINES (*** indicates today's top stories) STORY # ======================================================================== APPLE Adaptive Ships Photoshop Accelerators...................... 05 BROADCAST NEC's Video Hypertext System............................... 02 BROADCAST Video Technology Advances At NEC........................... 03 BROADCAST ****Disney, Capital Cities/ABC to Merge................... 22 BROADCAST Sanyo Expands Video Plant In Tijuana....................... 26 BROADCAST Nortel, Antec Announce Joint Broadband Venture............. 27 BUSINESS DEC Moves More Catalog Sales To PCs Compleat............... 10 BUSINESS Intel Seeks Ties With Indian Software Developers........... 20 DOS Boxer Releases ASCII Editing Software Update............... 06 GENERAL Japan Newsbriefs........................................... 07 GENERAL NewsPix Images For Newsbytes Publishers.................... 08 GENERAL Lotus Launches AVM Global Seminar Series For Developers.... 09 GENERAL U.S. Robotics Adds LED Lights to PCMCIA Modems............. 15 GENERAL Canadian Product Launch Update............................. 25 GOVT China - No More Special Economic Zones..................... 18 GOVT ****FCC Puts PCS Auction On Hold.......................... 28 NETWORK Cabletron Seeks Chipcom Stock After 3Com/Chipcom Pact.......32 ONLINE Compuserve Pacific Reduces Rates........................... 12 ONLINE Women's Wire Web Site...................................... 13 ONLINE ****BBN, AT&T To Launch 1st Phase Web Rollout............. 23 ONLINE New Internet Address Policy................................ 29 TELECOM Australia - Telstra Launches Public Frame Relay Service.... 04 TELECOM China - Bids Open On Telecom Projects...................... 19 TELECOM New Pacific Fiber Begins Partial Operations................ 21 TELECOM AT&T Broadens Cellular, Paging Services.................... 24 TELECOM Sweden - Ericsson Deal With General Datacomm............... 30 TRENDS NEC Speech, Face Recognition Advances...................... 01 TRENDS Canadian IT Industry Grew 10.8% In 1994 - IDC.............. 17 UNIX Sun Workstation 125MHz Upgrade............................. 16 UNIX Silicon Graphics - New CPU, New Pricing.................... 31 WINDOWS Microsoft Money To Be Downloadable On MSN.................. 11 WINDOWS Trudeau's Doonesbury ScreenSaver........................... 14 ======================================================================== These are the headlines and first paragraphs of each story, in order: 1 -> NEC Speech, Face Recognition Advances -- As part of a exhibition to celebrate the twentieth anniversary of NEC's Central Research Laboratory at Miyazakidai near Tokyo, NEC has demonstrated new advances the company has made in the fields of speech and face recognition. A system designed to connect travel agents to an airline information and booking computer using a speech interface was shown in operation. 2 -> NEC's Video Hypertext System -- NEC Corporation has demonstrated to Newsbytes a new "video hypermedia system" that will bring the point and click capabilities of hypertext to full motion video. 3 -> Video Technology Advances At NEC -- Any exhibition of future technology would not be complete without the much touted video on demand (VOD) systems that are predicted to become a part of all our lives in the next twenty years. At the open day celebrating twenty years of research at NEC's Miyazakidai Central Research Center near Tokyo, it was no different with a selection of VOD and multimedia video systems on display. 4 -> Australia - Telstra Launches Public Frame Relay Service -- Telstra's frame relay service will go nationwide on September 1, offering an alternative to ISDN and dial-up data connections. 5 -> Adaptive Ships Photoshop Accelerators -- Adaptive Solutions (NASDAQ: ADSO) has started shipping its new PowerShop NuBus and PCI accelerator boards for Adobe Photoshop. Last month the company announced shipment of its Powershop PCI accelerator board for use with Apple Computer's new PowerMac 9500. 6 -> Boxer Releases ASCII Editing Software Update -- Boxer Software is introducing a new version of its ASCII text editors, designed for the DOS, extended DOS, and OS/2 2.x and Warp platforms. 7 -> Japan Newsbriefs -- This is a roundup of news from Japan: Akai sides with Toshiba in DVD war; Pioneer to shift cable box manufacturing overseas; NEC to sell emergency system; new Tu-Ka phone company announced; NTT gets rate change approvals. 8 -> NewsPix Images For Newsbytes Publishers -- These photos correspond to recent Newsbytes stories. They are online in the Newsbytes menu on America Online NiftyServe, and the Newsbytes private bulletin board system in Minneapolis. JPEG files are larger in size, PICT files are designed as thumbnails for onscreen viewing. 9 -> Lotus Launches AVM Global Seminar Series For Developers -- Lotus' new Accelerated Value Method (AVM) worldwide seminar series is aimed at providing developers with methods specifically geared to application development for Notes and other "client-server, distributed environments," said Cindy Hilyard, marketing manager for Lotus Consulting, in an interview with Newsbytes. 10 -> DEC Moves More Catalog Sales To PCs Compleat -- Digital Equipment Corp.'s newly unveiled alliance with PCs Compleat for US catalog sales of its printers, terminals and supplies stems directly from a similar deal for Digital PCs, and is expected to generate "crossover sales" between the two product groups, Newsbytes has learned from officials of the two companies. 11 -> Microsoft Money To Be Downloadable On MSN -- Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ: MSFT) has announced it will make Microsoft Money for Windows 95 available for downloading at no cost on the Microsoft Network (MSN) beginning August 24. That is the date both Windows 95, the software company's new operating system and graphical user interface, and MSN are set to launch. 12 -> Compuserve Pacific Reduces Rates -- Compuserve Pacific has introduced a free period for new members and a lower rate structure. Despite this the rates are still around twice those expected from Microsoft Network. 13 -> Women's Wire Web Site -- Following a recent announcement of its presence on CompuServe, Women's Wire is ready to open its World Wide Web site. Calling its site an interactive electronic magazine for women, Women's Wire plans to open the electronic doors on August 1. 14 -> Trudeau's Doonesbury ScreenSaver -- Listed as a screensaver with social agenda, the Doonesbury Screen Saver by Mindscape is the first of three Doonesbury multimedia products developed from the famous cartoon strip. Screensavers may not be necessary to prevent monitor burn-in anymore, but Mindscape says this 10-module package prevents computer user burn-out. 15 -> U.S. Robotics Adds LED Lights to PCMCIA Modems -- U.S. Robotics (NASDAQ:USRX) said it is adding modem status lights to its line of Sportster 28.8 PCMCIA (Personal Computer Memory Card Industry Association) modems, designed mainly for notebook computers. 16 -> Sun Workstation 125MHz Upgrade -- Ross Technology Inc., a subsidiary of Fujitsu Ltd., has announced a 125 megahertz (MHz) upgrade for Sun workstations and servers, utilizing up to four hyperSPARC processors. The upgrade is available nearly six months ahead of schedule. 17 -> Canadian IT Industry Grew 10.8% In 1994 - IDC -- The Canadian information technology industry turned in a respectable 10.8- percent growth in 1994, according to International Data Corp. (Canada) Ltd. of Toronto. This was a large improvement over 1993, when the growth rate IDC reported was only 1.5 percent. 18 -> China - No More Special Economic Zones -- China will not set up any new special economic zones in Central or Western China, following years of such activity to encourage investment. 19 -> China - Bids Open On Telecom Projects -- The International Tendering Company (ITC) of China National Instruments Import & Export Corp. (CNIEC) is inviting bids from member countries of the Asian Development Bank (ADB) for the supply of optical fiber cables, optical fiber digital transmission equipment and measuring instrument. 20 -> Intel Seeks Ties With Indian Software Developers -- Semiconductor giant Intel Corp. has announced plans to work closely with software developers in India as part of a marketing development exercise. 21 -> New Pacific Fiber Begins Partial Operations -- A new fiber optic cable that will eventually loop the Pacific, touching down in four countries, has begun partial operation. 22 -> ****Disney, Capital Cities/ABC to Merge -- In what's been regarded as a powerhouse deal, The Walt Disney Company (NYSE:DIS) and Capital Cities/ABC (NYSE:CCB) have agreed to merge, a deal valued at $19 billion. 23 -> ****BBN, AT&T To Launch 1st Phase Web Rollout -- Five weeks after unveiling initial plans to team up on corporate Internet connectivity and security, BBN Planet and AT&T are ready to roll out the Internet Advantage, Web Advantage, and Internet Site Patrol service offerings in some US cities tomorrow, and nationwide by September 1, revealed Jeff Mayersohn, BBN's senior VP, in an interview with Newsbytes. 24 -> AT&T Broadens Cellular, Paging Services -- AT&T (NYSE:T) said it will begin offering cellular and paging services to its long distance sales channel, bringing in 90 million people as potential customers for the wireless technologies. 25 -> Canadian Product Launch Update -- This regular feature, appearing on the first day Newsbytes publishes each week, provides further details for the Canadian market on announcements by international companies that Newsbytes has already covered. This week: the CiscoWorks Blue internetwork management program, new RS/6000 systems and storage technology from IBM, NEC's Versa 4000 notebook, and Radius' 81/110 Macintosh compatible. 26 -> Sanyo Expands Video Plant In Tijuana -- Sanyo Electric Co., the $20 billion global electronics company, announced a ninth manufacturing facility, in Tijuana, Mexico. The latest plant will have 110,000 square feet and employ three hundred people. 27 -> Nortel, Antec Announce Joint Broadband Venture -- Northern Telecom Ltd. (TSE:NTL;NYSE:NT) and Antec Corp. of Rolling Meadows, Illinois, said they signed a letter of intent covering three new interrelated business relationships. The companies will set up two joint ventures and related sales and marketing arrangements aimed at selling broadband communications products. 28 -> ****FCC Puts PCS Auction On Hold -- For the second time in four months, the Federal Communications Commission has put plans to auction 493 wireless communications licenses to small businesses on hold. This time, the delay is indefinite. 29 -> New Internet Address Policy -- InterNIC, which manages the Internet name registry, has established a new way to deal with disputes over domain names, and better protect the owners of registered trademarks. 30 -> Sweden - Ericsson Deal With General Datacomm -- Ericsson has signed a collaboration and supply agreement with General Datacomm (GDC). Terms of the agreement call for Ericsson and its associates to sell GDC's Apex family of asynchronous transfer mode (ATM) switches around the world as part of a "total business communication solution." 31 -> Silicon Graphics - New CPU, New Pricing -- Following the introduction of its new Indigo Impact line of workstations, Silicon Graphics (NYSE:SGI) promises a more aggressive strategy with the announcement of a new processor and price reductions as high as 22% for selected workstations and servers. 32 -> Cabletron Seeks Chipcom Stock After 3Com/Chipcom Pact -- One day after 3Com Corp. announced plans to acquire rival hub-maker Chipcom, Cabletron, another major player in the hub/switching/router market, asked the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) for permission to acquire 50 percent or more of Chipcom's stock, a move that has since been drawing considerable industry speculation over Cabletron's intentions. (Wendy Woods/19950731) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 07/28/95 GENERAL ****Newsbytes 1995 Update CD-ROM Shipping (NEWS)(GENERAL)(MSP)(00001) ****Newsbytes 1995 Update CD-ROM Shipping 07/28/95 MINNEAPOLIS, MINNESOTA, U.S.A., 1995 JUL 28 (NB) -- The latest edition of Newsbytes' complete archives is read to ship today. The Newsbytes 1995 Update CD-ROM for Mac, Windows, and DOS contains all Newsbytes news stories written from May, 1983 through May, 1995 -- 13 years worth of high-tech history. The 1995 Update Disk is $24.95 plus $5 shipping and handling. The Newsbytes 1995 Update CD-ROM contains more than 64,000 news stories, written by the 19-member Newsbytes reporting team and contributing publications. Coverage includes the computer, telecom, interactive, and online services markets, worldwide. These concise wire reports span the last 13 years and comprise a complete reference on the companies, people, and products that have shaped the global information infrastructure. The Newsbytes 1995 Update CD-ROM, published by Wayzata Technology, offers keyword searching of stories, as well as more than 475 publication-quality digitized images in JPEG format, illustrating the news stories. The digitized graphics and photographs are from the Newsbytes Newspix photo service, which is used by publishers worldwide. A Textware search engine enables Newsbytes CD-ROM disks to be keyword searched for stories in which individual words or text strings appear, or Boolean searched ("Microsoft" plus "OS/2" but not "OSF"). This makes it a valuable tool for researchers and libraries. Newsbytes CD-ROMs are "hybrids" -- they run on the Apple Computer Macintosh, the Windows platform, and DOS PCs -- so any one disk can interchangeably run on all these platforms. "The Newsbytes CD-ROM series has a following of thousands of industry professionals, educators, and those interested in the high-tech arena, because it's low in cost, has the most extensive compilation of news reporting on these industries for the past 13 years, and it's fast," said Newsbytes Editor in Chief and founder, Wendy Woods. "It's an even better value than before, with over 13 years of computer industry news and over 400 color photos. A tremendous resource from a numerously acclaimed news source," says Mark Englehardt, CEO of Wayzata Technology, Inc., which produces the disk. The Newsbytes 1995 Update CD-ROM is priced at $24.95 (plus $5.00 shipping and handling) for first-time buyers of a Newsbytes CD-ROM, and $19.95 (plus $4.50 shipping and handling) to all owners of any previous Newsbytes CD-ROM. Previous owners of a Newsbytes disk must send a photocopy of any previous edition's cover art to qualify. Newsbytes, a pioneering electronic publication offering both text and images, has provided daily coverage of the dynamic and complex computer and telecommunications industries since 1983. More than 180 media outlets, including print publications, online services, and database companies, are licensed to publish Newsbytes wire material. The wire service reports, on average, 30 stories each day, filed by 19 correspondents worldwide. All reporting is first-hand, original, and objective. News is gathered from independent sources, trade shows, and interviews with top industry professionals. Headquartered in Minneapolis, Newsbytes News Network has bureaus in San Francisco, Denver, Washington DC, Boston, Los Angeles, Toronto, London, Tokyo, Hongkong, Sydney, Beijing, Manila, and New Delhi. Newsbytes can be read daily on Genie, America Online, Applelink, eWorld, Bix, Delphi, Ziffnet, Dialog and Newsnet. Newsbytes is also distributed to Internet sites by Clarinet Communications of San Jose, California, by FM subcarrier to customer sites by Desktop Data, and distributed by fax and e-mail by Individual, Inc. and other information services. Newsbytes coverage has won Best Online Publication awards five times from the Computer Press Association, the largest organization of professional computer journalists worldwide Newsbytes is an independent, privately held news organization. Those interested in ordering the CD-ROM should send a check or money order, or their Visa, American Express, or Mastercard number, with expiration date, to CD-ROM Offer, Newsbytes News Network, Carriage House, 406 West Olive St., Stillwater, MN 55082 or fax to 612-430-0441. Electronic mail orders are also accepted, and should be sent to administrator@newsbytes.com (Internet). Include shipping address. (Newsbytes Staff/19950727) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 07/28/97 TRENDS Info Nets Key To Electric Restructuring (NEWS)(TRENDS)(WAS)(00002) Info Nets Key To Electric Restructuring 07/28/97 WASHINGTON, D.C., U.S.A., 1995 JUL 28 (NB) -- As the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission moves to restructure the electric utility industry into the competitive model that government has adopted for telecommunications, airlines, and natural gas, online access to information is becoming a key issue. "Information about access to transmission networks is very important to the success of our initiatives" to open up the monopoly electric utility networks to others, said FERC Chair Betsy Moler yesterday at a technical meeting on real-time information networks (RINs). "RINs," said Commissioner Vicky Bailey, "are what will make this competitive vision actually happen." Creating RINs to serve the needs of the new open-access regime for electric transmission could be far easier than many in the industry and the FERC have believed. One of the questions that has been occupying the time of the industry and its regulators has already been solved. That is, "How will the systems operate?" What's left is the perhaps easier question, "What information will they carry?" But the answer to that question may be simple: follow the model of the Internet and the World Wide Web. That was the message from speakers at the first day of FERC's technical conference, part of the agency's groundbreaking effort to open transmission line access and create a fully competitive wholesale power market. John Stojka of Continental Power Exchange told the commission that it need not devote much attention to the "how" of information network. That labor has already been accomplished and there are several data communications protocols, including the Internet's TCP/IP protocols, developed by the Defense Department in the 1960s and 1970s, that are more than adequate to the task. The commission should focus on telling the industry "what" to provide -- in terms of data, common nomenclature, and other elements of a common application program interface. What FERC should not do, said CPX's Stojka, is mandate the RINs applications, functions or who should develop them. And it should rely on existing, public domain protocols such as TCP/IP and let the free market take care of offering RINs services. CPX is an existing information provider that offers transmission scheduling services for some 40 players including conventional investor-owned utilities, municipal utilities, cooperatives, and one federal power marketing administration. The utility industry itself has developed a communications protocol that would serve the needs of the RINs, said Gerry Cauley of the Electric Power Research Institute, the research arm of the electric utility industry. Originally developed to link control centers, it is called ICCP, for inter-control center communications protocol. Basically an interconnected group of existing international communications standards, ICCP also supports TCP/IP. "There is nothing new here," Cauley said. Using it, he said, "diverse RINs would be able to exchange information without functional limits." ICCP is currently in testing in the Electric Reliability Council of Texas. When it comes to developing the RINs themselves, said Cauley, RINs application development can be a competitive business and ICCP is vendor neutral. The key to understanding the RINs, said Paul Sorenson of American Electric Power, a multi-state electric holding company based in Columbus, Ohio, is to "view the network as separate from the applications that run on it." He advocated a judicious selection of communications protocol standards that allow use of off-the-shelf software in a distributed client/server network environment. "There is no question that information will play a central role in how well open access works in the future," Kurt Conger, director of policy at the American Public Power Association, told Newsbytes. "And it is also clear that the "how" question has been largely answered by the engineers who designed the Internet and the World Wide Web. The protocols are there, they work very well. We need to concentrate on what is on the RINs, not how they will operate at a technical level." But it wasn't entirely clear that the FERC staff understood what it was hearing on the issue of communications protocols, client/server software, program interfaces and the like. This is an agency where WordPerfect 5.1 running on DOS is state-of-the-art and one of the few agencies in Washington without a home page on the World Wide Web. During the morning presentations, there were more than a few "my eyes glaze over" looks from the FERC staff as the blizzard of cyberspace acronyms swirled through the conference room. But FERC economist Steve Henderson, serving as master of ceremonies for the morning session, seemed to understand when he asked, after hearing the comments that the technical questions were largely answered, "Do you mean, if we require it, they will come?" Stojka, Cauley and Sorenson all nodded, "Yes." (Kennedy Maize/19950728) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 07/28/95 FEATURE ONLINE Spyglass President - Interview (FEATURE)(ONLINE)(MSP)(00003) Spyglass President - Interview 07/28/95 NAPERVILLE, ILLINOIS, U.S.A., 1995 JUL 28 (NB) -- Douglas Colbeth says he's doing "great," thank you very much. Who could blame him, as the value of his company's stock more than doubled after an initial public offering (IPO) just one month ago, as third quarter numbers were very strong, and with a new product debuting in a few weeks? Colbeth, president and chief executive officer of Spyglass Inc., (NASDAQ:SPYG) spoke with Newsbytes at the company's west suburban Chicago headquarters in one of his first interviews after a Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) mandated "quiet period" following the IPO. Spyglass develop and markets a commercial version of the University of Illinois' "NCSA (National Center for Supercomputing Applications) Mosaic," an Internet World Wide Web graphical browser. "We're very pleased with the IPO, we're very encouraged by the market acceptance of Spyglass. And while we don't watch the stock prices like other companies do, we're obviously pleased with how everything's going -- pre-IPO, IPO, and post IPO," he said. In reference to the skyrocketing path his stock has taken after the IPO was made June 27, Colbeth said he's not too surprised about the heights to which the issue has soared. "We felt it would be favorably received. We believed Wall Street appreciated our business model, has an interest in the Internet, and the fact the Internet provides a lot of opportunities for other companies besides Spyglass," he said. Colbeth said Spyglass' business model is what sets apart his company from others, including Netscape. He likened the model as being similar to the company that developed the spell checker now found in many software programs. Rather than making a go at marketing the spell checker themselves, the firm licensed the technology to other companies. Those companies then in turn not only put spell checkers in their software, but they handled the marketing, customer support, and distribution channels. The companies also added value to the spell check programs by adding software like word processors or spreadsheets to them. This "licensing embedding" scheme is now being used with Spyglass' business partners, including AT&T, IBM, Microsoft, and Oracle. With licensing, comes software standards. Colbeth said Spyglass programs Enhanced Mosaic in such a way that other companies can easily add features to it, similar to having an open standard for software or hardware. This is how value is added to Enhanced Mosaic, he said. On the other hand, Netscape's browser is designed to be a stand-alone, end-user product. "We build browser technologies for people like Microsoft, who take our browser technology, incorporate it with their operating system and their new Microsoft Network (MSN). They then add tremendous value to our browser," Colbeth said. At that point, Microsoft is competing with Netscape, and not Spyglass, he said. It's all a part of a strategy to make potential competitors friends, Colbeth added. Colbeth does give credit to Netscape, though, for building an awareness of the Web. With that awareness comes additional exposure for Spyglass as well, he added. Spyglass will ship a new version of Enhanced Mosaic to its business partners next month. Also, a Spyglass Server will be introduced, which will manage and control access to information at individual Web sites. The server should be available by the end of the summer. In the future, Colbeth said he'd like to see the Web work on other protocols besides TCP/IP (transfer control protocol/Internet protocol). In fact, he said the paradigm of the Web extends to more than just the Internet, because similar principles regarding features like graphical browsers also work on local area networks (LANs) and wide area networks (WANs). (Bob Woods/19950727/Press Contacts: Randy Pitzer, Spyglass, 708-505-1010; Jenifer Evans, Marcy Nonyek and Associates, 312-263-2135) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 07/28/95 WINDOWS ****Microsoft, Intel, Pac Bell Hold TAPI "Bake-Off" (NEWS)(WINDOWS)(SFO)(00004) ****Microsoft, Intel, Pac Bell Hold TAPI "Bake-Off" 07/28/95 SOUTH SAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1995 JUL 28 (NB) -- Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT), Intel (NASDAQ:INTC) and Pacific Bell just completed a four-day "bake-off" where 45 different companies tested telephony products based on Windows Telephony Applications Programming Interface (TAPI). A press conference from the event highlighted the benefits of the TAPI specification in Windows 95. #IMAGE 1 20 TWPCX \images\95072804.PCX Click here for photo Charles Fitzgerald, product manager, Personal Systems Division at Microsoft, told the assembled press, "The PC has moved from a device which merely handles information through applications such as word processors, spreadsheets, databases and graphics, to being a communications platform. One element which has remained on the desktop with the PC is the telephone. Now with the inclusion of the TAPI specification in Windows 95, telephony will become an integrated part of the PC." He said TAPI will revolutionize not only the desktop but the client/server environment. Just as the phone sat beside the desktop computer, telephone systems have sat beside the servers. Calling the separation of voice and data an artificial division, Fitzgerald said the computer will become the principal communications device for the home and the office. "It will not be long before every PC will have a built-in speaker phone," he said. TAPI will soon be introduced into Windows NT and there is a TAPI add-on for Windows 3.1 and 3.11. Microsoft defines TAPI as a specification to bridge the gap between the telephone and computer by helping the PC to understand how telephone networks work and to let programmers exploit network capabilities within normal Windows-based applications. TAPI was introduced in 1993. Fitzgerald says TAPI works well because it is tightly integrated with the operating system, it supports multiple applications, it is independent of specific telephone networks, and it has connection model independence. It may be used with a cellular network, any phone, a PBX network, an ISDN line or an analog line. Fitzgerald says new communications applications will provide visual call control, smart answering machines, call screening and forwarding, voice commands at the desktop and from remote locations, message integration of telephone, e-mail and fax messages, and video conferencing. On the network side all of these features will be available plus custom phone systems tailored for specific business such as a law office, a retailer or a hospital. TAPI is used in communications applications contained in Windows 95. The new operating system includes a Phone Dialer, Dial-up Networking, Microsoft Fax and HyperTerminal. Microsoft Network also uses TAPI. The companies at the "bake-off" did not win prizes or first place ribbons. It was a time to test their applications and learn from one another. Participating companies included Fujitsu, National Semiconductor, InterCom, NEC, Toshiba, SoftTalk, Northern Telecom, AT&T Algorhythms and many others. (Patrick McKenna/19950728/Press Contact: Delona Lang, Pembroke Resources, tel 503-224-9890/TAPIBAKE950728/PHOTO) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 07/28/95 BUSINESS ****Gateway To Acquire Osborne, Expands Tech Support (NEWS)(BUSINESS)(DEN)(00005) ****Gateway To Acquire Osborne, Expands Tech Support 07/28/95 NORTH SIOUX CITY, SOUTH DAKOTA, U.S.A., 1995 JUL 28 (NB) -- Gateway 2000 (NASDAQ: GATE) has announced it will acquire the business of Osborne Computer Corp., an Australian computer company, to get a foothold in a market a company spokesperson said has strong growth potential. Gateway has also expanded its technical support with the introduction of a program it calls Gateway Gold. According to industry intelligence, Gateway is reported to have kept out of the Australian market for years because it believed Osborne was a very similar operation. Gateway said it will acquire Osborne in a deal that also involves Micronics Computers Inc., and gives Gateway an 80 percent stake in Osborne. The company hasn't disclosed the financial details of the acquisition, and Jim Wharton, Gateway director of investor relations, told Newsbytes it probably won't. Creditors will get just 5-10 percent of the money owed, and customers will get the machines they paid for. The creditors were due to meet today (Friday Sydney time) to discuss an offer to give them just 5 to 10 cents in the dollar. Meanwhile Gateway had been holding secret meetings with Osborne's administrator and just half an hour before the meeting they struck a deal which is expected to be signed on Monday, Newsbytes has learned. Wharton explained why Micronics got a piece of Osborne, instead of Gateway acquiring the entire company. He said Micronics is one of Osborne's major creditors and becoming one of the owners is a way for Micronics to hopefully get its money. Wharton said no significant changes in the employee base at Osborne are contemplated. Australian law has specific requirements regarding employees at a company that seeks voluntary administration, and Wharton said Gateway will comply with those requirements. Asked if changes in top management were contemplated, he said that issue hasn't been resolved yet. Gateway 2000 international VP Bob Spears said the new company will continue to use the Osborne name for at least six months, during which time it will honor all outstanding orders which have been paid for. (Osborne was a direct-sale only company, and had accepted hundreds of pre-paid orders without delivering.) It is believed that former Osborne director John Linton will be sued to recover a $1.5M loan made to him by the company. Industry analyst firm International Data Corporation reported Osborne's unit sales at 67,000 in 1993 and 86,000 in 1994. When asked why a growing company like Osborne, with a strong foothold in a market like Australia and the Pacific Rim, needed to seek voluntary administration, Wharton said the company appears to have management problems but declined to elaborate. Osborne employs about 400 people throughout Australia, according to Wharton. Corporate headquarters is in Sydney. In June of this year Osborne announced it was entering a voluntary administration, the Australian equivalent of a Chapter 11 reorganization in the US. In other gateway news, Gateway's new support program, Gateway Gold, provides 24-hour toll-free technical phone support, a three-year parts warranty, one year of next business-day on-site service, express parts delivery, expanded onsite hours, and lifetime support of all software sold by Gateway. In addition to those standard features Gateway Gold offers some options, including Gateway Gold Premium and Gateway Gold A La Carte. The first lets customers upgrade from the standard one-year onsite service to three years of onsite service, while the A La Carte option includes various onsite services like setup of the PC and component installation. Gateway spokesperson Michelle Gjerde told Newsbytes Premium Gold will carry a $99 price tag. The pricing for A La Carte hasn't been set yet, she said. Gateway Gold will be included with all of the company's desktop systems beginning in August. The company said it would announce a new support program for its portable systems next month. Ted Waitt, Gateway president, is optimistic about the future of the rapidly growing company, despite a parts crunch in the first half of the year. Waitt said the company has acquired additional providers of the 4X CD-ROM drives it installs in its systems. "That should help us both to work down the backlog and be ready for the additional business that should be created by the demand for Windows 95." Microsoft's new operating system is scheduled for availability on store shelves on August 24, and industry watchers expect that will spur PC sales. Wharton declined to reveal what Gateway's backlog was in the first and second quarters, but did say the backlog was strictly due to difficulty in obtaining the CD-ROM drives. He told Newsbytes most of that problem has been resolved with the addition of more vendors and described the current backlog situation as "normal." (Paul Zucker and Jim Mallory/19950728/Press contact: Michelle Gjerde, Gateway 2000, tel 605-232-2253; Public contact: Gateway 2000, tel 605-232-2000 or 800-523-2000) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 07/28/95 WINDOWS Osprey Turns PC Into Telephone Receptionist (NEWS)(WINDOWS)(SFO)(00006) Osprey Turns PC Into Telephone Receptionist 07/28/95 SOUTH SAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1995 JUL 28 (NB) -- Microsoft's TAPI "bake-off" featured new telephony technology from the home PC to corporate networks. One of the many hot products was Voice Processing Corp's Osprey, a voice recognition-based telephone system for personal computers (PCs). Osprey is a phone answering and message management system based on voice recognition. Osprey is a good example of the value of the TAPI (Telephone Application Programming Interface) specification in Windows 95. Microsoft said TAPI would bring communications to a new level soon. Osprey will soon be bundled with a PC from one of the popular manufacturers, but the arrangement is still confidential, Newsbytes was told. In a demonstration of Osprey, Elizabeth M. Cholawsky, Ph.D., vice president of Voice Processing's Speech Applications Business Unit, called her computer, told the computer who she was, and asked if there were any messages. The computer responded asking what messages she wanted: a complete list of all messages, messages from a specific person, or recent messages. Cholawsky asked if there were any messages from Bill Gates. The computer said, "There are two messages from Bill Gates." Cholawsky asked for the second message. She then announced a message for the computer to deliver to Bill Gates if he calls again. Osprey asks a caller whom the caller wishes to speak and who is calling. A complete call is handled without using the keyboard or a telephone touch pad. Predelivered instructions allows Osprey to determine if Bill Gates' phone call should be put directly through to the owner, announced, forwarded or sent to voice mail. Osprey can even be given an order to ignore commands if the caller indicates a call is urgent and needs to go through immediately. Osprey even keeps a log of calls which contains time, date and the name of the person calling. This system requires a 486 DX 66 processor, Windows 3.1 or higher, 8 megabytes (MB) of memory, 50MB of hard disk storage, a standard telephone line, a TAPI compliant Fax/Data/Voice modem which supports routing of telephone audio signals through a Windows wave device, and a standard phone. No date has been set for Osprey to appear on the shelves of retail software outlets, but do not expect it until after the rollout bundling Osprey in a PC system. Cholawsky did say the company plans to release an under-$200 version. (Patrick McKenna/19950728/Press Contact: Elizabeth Cholawsky, Voice Processing, tel 617-494-0100/OSPREY950728/PHOTO) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 07/28/95 ONLINE Internet Update (NEWS)(ONLINE)(TYO)(00007) Internet Update 07/28/95 TOKYO, JAPAN, 1995 JUL 28 (NB) -- In this update of new resources and service on the Internet: fiber optic information, Australian ocean research, World Wide Web hotel guide, Israel Internet index, bar code technology information, family surfboard, mailing list commands summary, new Cyberphone available; university art gallery exhibits. Fiber Optic Information The Corning Fiber Optic Information Center features optical fiber literature plus details of associated components, technical and application support all supplemented by real-world examples and case histories of fiber optic use. Back issues of the company's magazine, GuideLines are also available. World Wide Web: http://usa.net/corning-fiber/ Australian Ocean Research The Australian Institute of Marine Science has gone onto the Internet. At its site users will find details of the oceanography activities undertaken. The institute is a world class research center in the field of coral reefs and mangroves. World Wide Web: http://ibm590.aims.gov.au/ World Wide Web Hotel Guide With 2,800 hotels already indexed, this site could become the first stop for holiday planning on the Internet. Alongside hotels, Internet Marketing Services has also listed bed and breakfast accommodation and youth hostels. Hotels with home pages can get themselves listed free of charge. World Wide Web: http://www.digimark.net/dundas/hotels/ Israel Internet Index The (almost) Complete Guide to the World Wide Web in Israel is a series of pages linking to just about all known Internet Web sites in Israel. Links include official government information, personal home pages, museums, Jewish religious resources and more. World Wide Web: http://gauss.technion.ac.il/~nyh/israel Bar Code Technology Information Altek has brought together information about bar-code and auto-ID technology into one Internet resource. Lee Allen of Altek Instruments has many years experience designing barcode and other decoders and is using the Altek Pages to pass on some of his accumulated knowledge and experience. Some of the information appearing here is hard to come by and some has not been published previously. World Wide Web: http://www.hello.co.uk/altek/index.html Family Surfboard A valuable new resource for parents and children using the Web, the Family Surfboard acts as an information resource for parents and an activity center for kids. The site includes a list of kid-appropriate Web sites, as well as family-oriented computing activities, reviews of new multimedia software, and downloadable demos of selected top-rated titles. There are also links to documents covering topics such as kids and computers, education, and general parenting. World Wide Web: http://www.sjbennett.com/users/sjb/surf.html Mailing List Commands Summary If you are confused by the differing instructions you need to send to mail servers, whether they be listserv, majordomo, listproc, mailbase or mailserv, an online summary of all the commands is now available. The guide includes all the essential commands needed to use each server and is available by email or on the Web. Email : listserv@ubvm.cc.buffalo.edu Message Body : GET MAILSER CMD NETTRAIN F=MAIL World Wide Web: http://lawlib.slu.edu/training/mailser.htm New Cyberphone Available A new version of the Cyberphone software for computers running Solaris 2.x (SunOS 5.x) is now available. The software allows two users running the system to establish voice communications across the Internet at no charge other than Internet access charges. The new version, 2.0, features a graphical user interface and quick installation. World Wide Web: http://magenta.com/cyberphone Anonymous FTP: ftp://magenta.com/pub/cyberphone University Art Gallery Exhibits The art gallery of the University of Maryland has just gone online. World Wide Web users can find details of exhibitions past, present and future plus a selection of images from the shows. There is also a section with some of the gallery's permanent collection available to view. World Wide Web : http://www.inform.umd.edu/EdRes/Colleges/ARHU/ArtGal/.WWW/aghome.htm (Martyn Williams/19950728) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 07/28/95 GENERAL Logitech Intros Color Digital Camera In US (NEWS)(GENERAL)(SFO)(00008) Logitech Intros Color Digital Camera In US 07/28/95 FREMONT, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1995 JUL 28 (NB) -- Logitech has announced its FotoMan Pixtura Color Camera for US retail markets. The retail model features storage for as many as 150 standard images and proprietary software for downloading, viewing, editing and enhancing. #IMAGE 1 20 TWPCX \images\95072808.PCX Click here for photo Logitech spokesperson Dave Pelton told Newsbytes the first FotoMan came out in 1991. It was a black and white digital camera. "With a base of digital camera users, we ran a survey to see who would buy a camera and what features they desired the most. We found people wanted a color camera and they expected to have at least 36 images in a camera. We also learned the market for such a camera would be corporate and small companies such as insurance agencies, banks and other companies which need to process images quickly and within a digital format," Pelton told Newsbytes. Pelton continued, "At this time there is not a strong market of home computer users which will support a color digital camera. With that information in hand, we developed a camera with the capacity to store 48 high resolution images (768x512 pixels) and as many as 150 low resolution images. In our studies, the features of color and high storage were more important than price, so we concentrated on delivering the desired features while trying to keep the camera under $1,000." Pelton says other features requested by the survey group included standard camera features such as the ability to attach a special filter or lens, an f stop and built-in flash. "We have included all of these along with a software package which meets the needs of our users. Customers who use a digital camera for field work, ID cards, desktop publishing, e-mail, and presentations are usually not people who have the time to work with a professional editing package such as Photoshop," said Pelton. PictureWorks, which ships with the camera, allows users to have multiple views of a picture before and after editing or one-button enhancing. The software also allows users to directly download Pixtura images to any TWAIN-complaint application such as WordPerfect, PageMaker, PhotoShop, and CorelDraw. Pixtura also features Photo CD compatibility, fixed focus lens with a range of four feet to infinity, automatic exposure, a self timer, a standard tripod mount, and a cable for RS-232 serial port connection. FotoMan Pixtura requires a 486/25 microprocessor or higher, 8 megabytes (MB) of memory, an open RS-232 serial port, Windows 3.1 or higher and DOS 3.3 or higher and a 3.5-inch floppy disk drive. Street price for the camera is expected to be about $949. (Patrick McKenna/19950728/Press Contact: Betty Skov, Logitech, tel 510-713-4463/LOGITECH950728/PHOTO) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 07/28/95 ONLINE Songline Studios Previews First Product -- Web Review (NEWS)(ONLINE)(LAX)(00009) Songline Studios Previews First Product -- Web Review 07/28/95 SEBASTOPOL, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1995 JUL 28 (NB) -- Internet pioneer Dale Dougherty, developer of the Global Network Navigator (GNN) and co-founder of publisher O'Reilly & Associates, says Songline Studios, his new venture, will be an Internet studio that will create a series of on-line publications for the Internet. Dougherty, chief executive officer for Songline Studios, explained to Newsbytes that despite its name, the project has little or nothing to do with music. "Songline Studios derives its name from the Australian aboriginal concept of using songs to guide people through unknown territories. These oral maps or "songlines" depict events at successive sites along a walking trail that winds through a region. We are using the name to indicate our desire to tell complete stories on the Internet," said Dougherty. "Our mission is to create original content for the World Wide Web. We have put together team of writers, producers, Internet programmers and multimedia experts who will develop stories online. Several members of the group were part of the original GNN design and editorial staff. We intend to produce a broad range of original content combining writing and audio and visual production techniques with developments in multimedia and Web technologies," said Dougherty. "Currently, the Net is characterized by the breadth of its offerings and not by the depth of any particular work," said Dougherty. "Users are not just looking for information online, but are searching for rewarding online experiences. We are developing creative properties that have depth and richness. Comprehensive guides to the Web, virtual exhibitions, and conferences are just some of the types of projects Songline is pursuing." Songline is an affiliate of O'Reilly & Associates and has funding from America Online. It is now previewing its first product, Web Review, an Internet-based publication that takes a look at the people, information and technologies involved with the Web. "We want to tell the story behind the Web sites, but as its name implies, the heart of each issue will be reviews," said Dougherty. "Web Review is planned to carry twenty new articles a week, covering issues within the Internet. There are many interesting people who are doing creative work on the Internet. We want to tell stories about them, that will make people stop and spend some time with us." Web Review is scheduled for full release on AOL's (American Online) GNN Internet service in September. A preview issue can be seen at http://gnn.com/wr (Richard Bowers/19950728/Press Contact: Dale Dougherty, Songline Studios 707-829-0515) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 07/28/95 CHIPS TI Says Chip Market Could Reach $300 Billion (NEWS)(CHIPS)(DEN)(00010) TI Says Chip Market Could Reach $300 Billion 07/28/95 DALLAS, TEXAS, U.S.A., 1995 JUL 28 (NB) -- A Texas Instruments Inc. (NYSE: TXN) economist said this week the worldwide semiconductor market may more than double in the next five years and could reach annual sales of more than $300 billion. That's the prediction of Vladi Catto, corporate staff vice president and chief economist of the chipmaking company that also produces personal computers. Catto told participants at the annual Robertson Stephens & Company Semiconductor Conference in San Jose this week that the market is experiencing an unprecedented tenth consecutive year of growth and said the outlook is for that trend to continue until at least the year 2000. Catto said the market has grown an average of 15 percent annually for the past 15 years. "If that growth continues, the market will reach about $275 billion over the next five years. However, if the market were to grow at 20 percent annually - which is very much within the realm of possibility - it will grow to well over $300 billion," said the economist. Catto said there are several major factors influencing the industry's growth. He said cell phones, which phone maker Nokia predicts will soon be in the hands of 40 percent of all consumers, are growing at about 20 percent a year and doubling the market every four years. Increased sales of personal computers and fax machines will also contribute to the predicted growth. Catto said the cell phone market growth is fueled in emerging markets by the development of wireless telecommunications systems. In China there is currently a trend to develop a totally wireless system, doing away with the need to install telephone lines nationwide. Emerging markets in China and Eastern Europe also figure in Catto's growth equation. PC makers are already scrambling to establish a market in Greater China, and Catto says those parts of the world's market have the potential to match today's $150 billion worldwide market. Much of that growth is attributed to the rapid increase in the use of telecommunications and computer equipment in those parts of the world. Catto said computerization of the workplace in other parts of the world can also be a major growth factor. He said the US currently has about 57 personal computers per 100 workers, while in Europe the figure is only 23 PCs per 100 workers, Japan reports 16 per 100 works and there are only four PCs per 100 workers in the Asia-Pacific region. "If the countries in these areas want to remain competitive, they will have to take advantage of the productivity of the computer. Since 40 to 50 percent of the value of a personal computer is represented by semiconductor devices, this trend will continue to raise demand for semiconductors," stated Catto. (Jim Mallory/19950728/Press contact: Cathy Sang, Texas Instruments, tel 214-995-9897) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 07/28/95 WINDOWS Microsoft Ships Beta Game Developers Kit (NEWS)(WINDOWS)(DEN)(00011) Microsoft Ships Beta Game Developers Kit 07/28/95 REDMOND, WASHINGTON, U.S.A., 1995 JUL 28 (NB) -- Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ: MSFT) has announced the availability of the second beta version of its Windows 95 Game Software Developers Kit (SDK), which includes new device drivers from eight major third-party hardware vendors. Microsoft said it has included support for games in Windows 95, the latest version of its operating system and graphical user interface scheduled for availability August 24. Most games currently available run under DOS on IBM-compatible systems, since Windows 3.1 doesn't provide the necessary support. Microsoft said game software developers using the SDK can expect a significant performance increase, such as doubling of frame rates, on a broad range of display, audio and input devices. The company said the final release of the Windows 95 Game SDK is set for September, a target date that if met will let developers have Windows 95-based games in stores in time for the 1995 holiday season. Microsoft said more than 1,200 game developers got the initial version of the games SDK in April. The latest beta adds drivers from Aztech Labs, Chips and Technologies, Cirrus Logic, ESS Technology, MediaVision, S3, Tseng Labs and Western Digital Corp.'s, Multimedia Products Unit. Drivers were already included from ATI Technologies and Creative labs. That covers all the display and audio devices supported in the retail package for Windows 95. The SDK lets developers write to a standard set of APIs (application programming interfaces). Microsoft said Windows 95-based games will result in lower support costs because Windows 95 will make installing and configuring games and game peripherals easier. Microsoft said the Windows 95 Game SDK contains tools, sample code, documentation and a subsystem with new game APIs that include DirectDraw, for hardware-accelerated display graphics; Directsound, for high-fidelity low latency sound effects; DirectPlay, for multiplayer connectivity; and DirectInput, for digital joystick control. In recent months Microsoft has made several moves to provide high quality multimedia and games support to Windows users. The company acquired RenderMorphics Ltd., the developer of the Reality Lab 3-D realtime rendering library. Microsoft also licensed software-based MPEG (Motion Picture Experts Group) playback technology from Mediamatics. (Jim Mallory/19950728/Press contact: Phil Missimore, Waggener Edstrom for Microsoft, tel 408-986-1140; Public contact: Microsoft, tel 206-882-8080 or 800-426-9400) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 07/28/95 TELECOM ****New AT&T Video Compression For Copper Phone Lines (NEWS)(TELECOM)(MSP)(00012) ****New AT&T Video Compression For Copper Phone Lines 07/28/95 LARGO, FLORIDA, U.S.A., 1995 JUL 28 (NB) -- The ability to surf the Internet at virtually blazing speeds, the ability to talk on the phone while using the same line to watch a live TV event, and the ability to download high-definition multimedia files to a PC -- all at the same time -- is now possible via copper phone lines that already circle the world, AT&T's (NYSE:T) Paradyne unit is saying. "This will be the hottest trend in the entire telecommunications and data communications industry," Garrick Case, AT&T Paradyne spokesperson, told Newsbytes. "The impact of this announcement is that it will accelerate the realization of the 'global village' concept. Futurists of the past had visions where everyone would be linked up people-to-people and people-to-information. It's possible now." What's more, all of this can happen without having to re-wire the world with fiber optics, a process that would take decades, he said. AT&T's new GlobeSpan transmission technology will allow phone companies to provide Multimedia Telephone Communications (MTC) at speeds of over 6Mbps (megabits per second). Current T1 networking lines clip along at speeds of 1.544Mbps, while many people connect to the Internet at 28.8Kbps (kilobits per second), 14.4Kbps, or slower. Garrick Case, AT&T Paradyne spokesperson, told Newsbytes this new technology isn't years away, like other broadband technologies that have been recently announced. "The phone companies could offer the high-speed data application services in a hurry," he said. "Many companies, including our RBOCs (Regional Bell Operating Companies), are accelerating their efforts in getting their ADSL (asymmetric digital subscriber line) networks in place." He also said the end-user equipment is available to make this system a reality. The ADSL technology is what is needed to make all of this work, Case said. Data, like full-motion video, phone calls, multimedia files, and the like, would come into the subscriber's house or business via normal phone lines. The data would go into an ADSL modem that's similar to a cable TV set-top box in both configuration and the fact it would be leased from telephone companies or other GlobeSpan providers. From there, the data would go to a PC or even a television. GlobeSpan is an extension of applications previously supported by AT&T Paradyne's VideoSpan technologies. The GlobeSpan transceiver is based on a new "Starlet" digital VLSI (very large scale integrated circuit). GlobeSpan combines Starlet with a previously announced "Slade" analog chip to form a highly integrated and powerful DSL (digital subscriber line) chip. With this, GlobeSpan allows the concurrent transmission of both standard analog voice signals and high- speed digital signals over the existing copper phone lines. GlobeSpan also supports ADSL and symmetric, high-bit-rate digital subscriber line (HDSL) applications. Revenue streams from the new service could be huge, too. In quoting data from TeleChoice of Verona, New Jersey, AT&T officials said revenue could top $350 billion worldwide by the turn of the century. (Bob Woods/19950728/Press Contact: Garrick Case, AT&T Paradyne, 813-530-8221) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 07/28/95 BUSINESS CA-Legent Deal Gets Go-Ahead (NEWS)(BUSINESS)(TOR)(00013) CA-Legent Deal Gets Go-Ahead 07/28/95 ISLANDIA, NEW YORK, U.S.A., 1995 JUL 28 (NB) -- Computer Associates International Inc. (NYSE:CA) has been given the green light by the United States Department of Justice for its purchase of Legent Corp. (NASDAQ:LGNT). CA also made a final extension to its tender offer for Legent shares, to midnight on Monday, July 31. Both companies are software vendors. The justice department told CA it could proceed with the Legent buyout if it offers non-exclusive licenses for four of Legent's systems management products to a party or parties acceptable to the antitrust regulators. The licensee or licensees would be able to sell those products, which run on IBM mainframes equipped with the VSE operating system, in competition with Computer Associates. The products affected by the agreement are the Epic/VSE tape and disk management software, the Alert/VSE and Alert/CICS security products, the FAQS/PCS scheduler, and the FAQS/ASO console automation software. CA is only required to issue one license for each of these products. The same licensees will be able to sell the Legent products overseas as well as in the US, Kumar said. Existing users of the four products will be able to choose whether to continue receiving maintenance and support from CA, company officials said. The licensee will be able to enhance the products independently, said Sanjay Kumar, president and chief operating officer of CA, in a press conference this morning. "It sets up a competitor in these markets to CA/Legent." Kumar called the decision "a very satisfactory conclusion to a long process." CA said Friday morning that about 17.6 million shares had been tendered and not withdrawn in response to its $47.95-per-share offer. The agreement will become final upon court order at the end of a statutory 60-day waiting period, CA said. For Computer Associates, the buyout seems to be another step toward reducing the company's reliance on its traditional mainframe software business and turning it into a major supplier of client/server software and systems management tools. "Legent has some terrific technology which we just don't have," Kumar said. As examples he mentioned trouble ticketing, agent management, help desks, and software distribution. The acquisition will also help round out CA's line of mainframe software, he added. (Grant Buckler/19950728/Press Contact: Douglas Robinson, Computer Associates, 516-342-2745; Bob Gordon, Computer Associates, 516-342-2391, fax 516-342-5329; Kathleen Janson, Legent, 703-708-3890) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 07/28/95 ONLINE Yahoo To Develop Internet Service (NEWS)(ONLINE)(SFO)(00014) Yahoo To Develop Internet Service 07/28/95 MOUNTAIN VIEW, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A, 1995 JUL 28 (NB) -- Yahoo plans to enhance its Internet navigation and directory site with a more sophisticated look and business plan. In little more than one year, Yahoo has changed from a university project to one of the most popular World Wide Web (Web) sites. #IMAGE 1 20 TWPCX \images\95072814.PCX Click here for photo Two Stanford graduate students, David Filo and Jerry Yang, decided the Internet desperately needed an efficient directory, search and navigation tool. Their university project, now know as Yahoo, became a Web site and is visited by more the 300,000 users a day. Filo and Yang, along with a senior management team, are taking Yahoo to a more fully developed, more complete navigational guide. With incorporation and other business matters settled, the company is demonstrating the first step of its evolution into an online business. On July 31, its Web site will debut a new graphic interface, faster navigational features, news updates from Reuters New Media, and advertisements from five sponsors. The charter sponsors are Internet Shopping Network, Mastercard, MCI, NECX and Worlds, Inc. All have agreed to a three-month trial advertising program. For Web surfers who are unable to wait for the July 31 debut, Yahoo has a beta version of the site at: http://beta.yahoo.com . The new company says many more changes and new developments are planned for the site, but promises to remain true to the Internet community as a grass-roots guide to the Internet. Yahoo's director of marketing, Tim Brady, told Newsbytes, "We put ourselves into the shoes of a user and asked whether we would want subscriptions or advertising. Without a doubt the answer was advertising. While advertising on the Internet is still unmeasured in its effectiveness, we think it is the avenue which will allow Web sites to turn into effective businesses. We will work closely with our sponsors to make ads as interesting as possible. We are committed to keeping the site free for users." Looking towards future developments, Brady said Yahoo will consider its own newsgroups or posting areas along with a chat feature. He also said the Yahoo search and directory capabilities would become even more efficient as smart agent technology and broader bandwidth access are integrated into Yahoo's technology. (Patrick McKenna/19950728/Press Contact: Marian Sly, Niehaus Rayan, Haller Public Relations, tel 415-827-7069; World Wide Web URL: http://www.yahoo.com /YAHOO950728/PHOTO) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 07/28/95 TELECOM Bell Canada Compromises On Local Metered Service (NEWS)(TELECOM)(TOR)(00015) Bell Canada Compromises On Local Metered Service 07/28/95 OTTAWA, ONTARIO, CANADA, 1995 JUL 28 (NB) -- Bell Canada has bowed to pressure from business customers and announced that it will build a flat-rate option into its proposal for usage-based local business telephone rates. Bell, which earlier applied to federal regulators to start charging its business customers for local phone service according to how much they use it, is submitting a revised proposal to the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) that would let business customers choose to continue paying a flat rate instead. Bernard Courtois, the company's group vice-president for law and regulatory matters, told Newsbytes that comments from customers prompted the change. Most business customers believe that they would pay more under usage-based pricing, he said, though he added that in Bell's opinion, many customers are mistaken about the effect the proposal would have on them. "Most customers think they make more of these calls than they do." Courtois said he expects that when customers actually compare their bills under usage-sensitive and flat-rate options, many will find that usage-sensitive rates are better for them. "I think that the usage-sensitive option will be attractive to a lot of customers," he said. However, he also acknowledged that the usage-sensitive option will become less attractive than it otherwise would have been with the addition of the flat-rate option. Since heavy phone users will opt for flat-rate billing, Bell will have to set its usage-based rates higher than they otherwise would have been, he said. The revised rate proposal has not been completed yet, Courtois said. He said changes to Bell's original proposal will be complex, as the company will have to tinker with every aspect of the structure to keep the proposal revenue-neutral. Bell's proposal, which the company calls TelecomLink and hopes to put into effect July 1, 1997, would involve a time-based usage charge for outgoing local calls. The local charge would not apply to long-distance or incoming calls. Calls to the Bell operator, the 411 directory-assistance service, the 611 repair service, the 911 emergency service, and Bell business offices would be exempt, as would calls within a corporate customer's own phone system. Courtois noted that Bell has always said it would offer residential subscribers a flat-rate option if it introduces usage-based billing for home phones. He said the decision to offer businesses a flat-rate option should reassure residential users who may have doubted that. (Grant Buckler/19950728/Press Contact: Marg Eades, Bell Canada, 613-781-2456; Linda Gervais, Bell Canada, 613-781-3724; Public Contact: Bell Canada, Internet World Wide Web http://www.bell.ca ) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 07/28/95 NETWORK ****3Com To Buy Chipcom For $775M, Expand Pact With IBM (NEWS)(NETWORK)(BOS)(00016) ****3Com To Buy Chipcom For $775M, Expand Pact With IBM 07/28/95 BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS, U.S.A., 1995 JUL 28 (NB) -- 3Com's newly unveiled, $775 million acquisition of Chipcom, the tenth buyout by 3Com in the past three years, will create one of the largest players in the worldwide hub industry, and is based on both market and "cultural" synergies, the CEOs of the two diversified networking companies told journalists and analysts, at a joint 3Com/Chipcom press conference in Boston. In 3Com's latest acquisition, which is expected to become final in 90 to 100 days, the Santa Clara, California-based vendor is offering Chipcom shareholders the "equivalent" of $40 per share of common stock for Southborough, Massachusetts-based Chipcom, said Eric Benhamou, president and CEO of Chipcom, speaking at the press conference, which was attended by Newsbytes. Dubbing the 3Com/Chipcom deal a "clean, simple agreement," Benhamou pointed to complementary attributes in the areas of products, distribution, geography, and "culture." When the deal is complete, the combined companies will own a 19 percent share of the worldwide hub market, as well as the number two slot in the intelligent hub market, reported the 3Com chief. 3Com produces single-function chassis hubs, and is already the top seller in stackable hubs, according to Benhamou. But Chipcom is "one of the premiere vendors in multi-format chassis hubs," he contended. The 3Com CEO cited Chipcom's "IBM's strong relationship with Chipcom" as another key factor in prompting 3Com to buy Chipcom. Benhamou announced that 3Com has signed a memo of understanding with IBM's Networking Hardware Division to establish a range of "reciprocal remarketing and OEM (original equipment manufacturer) agreements." The 3Com/IBM pact will build on an existing reseller and OEM (original equipment manufacturer) relationship between Chipcom and IBM -- as well as a recent deal allowing IBM to resell 3Com products for the IBM PowerPC Series -- to permit 3Com to expand the range of IBM products it carries. The deal with IBM will present "major opportunities" to 3Com, Behanou added, citing Fast Ethernet and ATM (asynchronous transfer mode) 125 as two examples. Also during the press event, Chipcom president and CEO Rob Held hailed the acquisition of Chipcom as a "strong, bold move" on 3Com's part, and voiced his agreement with Benhamou that the two vendors constitute the right fit. "They tend to be in places where we're not, and we tend to be in places where they're not," Held told the press. "We see the world in exactly the same way." When the merger is finalized, Chipcom will become a division and "profit center" within 3Com, said Bob Finocchio, executive VP, Network Systems Operations, for 3Com. Chipcom's products will keep their current tradenames, but will now be prefaced by "3Com" instead of "Chipcom," Benhamou explained. Chipcom's Online and Oncore multifunction switching systems will be known as 3Com Online and 3Com Oncore. Chipcom also produces the Ondemand family of network management products. 3Com's product line includes Ethernet and FDDI (fiber distributed data interface) switching; Ethernet and Token Ring LANs; remote access; and ISDN (integrated services digital networks) internetworking products. Benhamou acknowledged that the acquisition will cause some layoffs in the corporate arena, due to consolidation of similar functions. "There will not be two annual reports," he pointed out. But the CEO added that he does not foresee layoffs in non-corporate areas of the company. 3Com will close Chipcom's David Systems site in Santa Clara, but staff from David Systems will be moved to the nearby 3Com facility, according to Benhamou. The 3Com president also noted that, during a recent walk through a Chipcom site, the Chipcom site "felt like a 3Com building" to him. In other areas of synergy, 3Com distributes its products through the two-tier channel and direct sales, whereas Chipcom targets its products at "high-end VARs (value-added resellers)," according to the officials. Held pointed out that 3Com and Chipcom are only "miles away" from each other at locations in California and Massachusetts, as well as in Israel. NiceCom, an ATM vendor previously purchased by 3Com, is located in Israel, and so is Chipcom's network management facility. During a Q&A session, one journalist asked the officials to "rationalize" their plans to continue reselling ATM products from Cisco while expanding on their ATM relationship with IBM and continuing to sell both the 3Com and Chipcom ATM product lines. Benhamou responded that ATM refers to a number of technologies that are not identical, "even though they all start out with the letters ATM." "3Com does not have ATM 125. IBM does," Benhamou remarked. 3Com also "has ATM for LANs (local area network), through NiceCom," according to the 3Com president. But "3Com does not have ATM" on the WAN (wide area network) side. Wireless technology is another area where 3Com's relationship with IBM might be expanded, suggested Janice Roberts, VP, Central Marketing, speaking with Newsbytes at the close of the press conference. Also during the press event, Virginia Brooks, manager, Network Access Technologies, for the Aberdeen Group, Boston, Massachusetts, called the acquisition a "good move" for both companies. "Chipcom has what 3Com needs, and 3Com has what Chipcom needs," the analyst told Newsbytes. Gregory P. Cline, program director, Network Integration and Management, for the Business Research Group (BRG), Newton, Massachusetts, predicted that the 3Com/Chipcom merger will have a "significant impact" on Cabletron. In addition, by creating a set of "soup to nuts" offerings at 3Com, the acquisition will affect "full-service providers" such as Hewlett-Packard, Cline told Newsbytes. (Jacqueline Emigh/19950728/Reader Contacts: 3Com, 408-764-5000; Chipcom, 508-460-8900; Press Contacts: David W. Hayward, 3Com, 508- 836-1773; Dan Foley, 3Com, 508-836-1768; John H. Ricciardone, Chipcom, 508-624-6840) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 07/28/95 TRENDS Countries With The Most Computers (NEWS)(TRENDS)(LAX)(00017) Countries With The Most Computers 07/28/95 GLENBROOK, NEVADA, U.S.A., 1995 JUL 28 (NB) -- The Computer Industry Almanac lists the countries with the most computers at year-end 1994. The United States is the clear leader with nearly six times as many computers as Japan and seven times as many computers as Germany. Even when compared to all of Europe, the United States has nearly twice as many computers in use. Twenty-two countries have over one million computers in use. Two more countries may surpass the million mark in 1995: Norway and Austria. Worldwide there is a total of 208 million computers compared to 173 million a year ago. Egil Juliussen, editor of Computer Industry Almanac, told Newsbytes, "We have been putting together this survey for over seven years now. We basically try to collect all the data we can from sources around the world. The data for the United States is readily available, but for most of the world collecting data is like putting together a big puzzle. If we are wrong we usually hear about it." United States also leads in computers per capita with 319 computers per thousand people. Australia, Canada and Norway are next with 225, 220 and 218 computers per thousand people. Japan has 117 and Germany 151 computers per thousand people. Worldwide there are 37 computers per thousand people. Juliussen pointed out that another measure besides the number of computers is an estimate of the MIPS (millions of instructions per second) per thousand people. Using MIPS per thousand, the United States has an even bigger lead, and some countries down in the rankings with the number of computers go up considerably. For example, Russia and Taiwan have roughly the same number of computers, but Taiwan has 995 MIPS per thousand, while Russia has only 127 MIPS per thousand. The Computer Industry Almanac is an annual reference book about the computer industry, filled with rankings and awards for companies, people and products. One chapter has the salary and wealth rankings of top computer people and average salaries of computer occupations. There are computer market forecast summaries, and reviews of the expected advances in technology and product capabilities. The Computer Industry Almanac is also available on CD-ROM and on Apple's online service, eWorld. The 1994-95 edition is the latest version and the 1995-96 edition will be available before Christmas. The Computer Industry Almanac costs between $50 to $60 depending on the medium used. (Richard Bowers/19950727/Press Contact: Egil Juliussen, Computer Industry Almanac, 702-749-5053) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 07/28/95 WINDOWS Novell E-Mail Help For Windows NT Client Problems (NEWS)(WINDOWS)(DEN)(00018) Novell E-Mail Help For Windows NT Client Problems 07/28/95 OREM, UTAH, U.S.A., 1995 JUL 28 (NB) -- Novell Inc. (NASDAQ: NOVL) has expanded its customer support options for its Netware Client for Windows NT software by offering direct Internet electronic mail access to its technical and marketing resources. The free Netware Client for Windows NT started shipping late last month and gives NT users access to Netware Directory Services and the Netware Administrator (NWAdmin) management tool 32-bit graphical user interface. Novel said the 32-bit version of NWAdmin increased performance up to 30 percent over the 16-bit version when doing tasks such as directory searches and files listings. The Internet hotline can be reached at the Internet mail address ntclient@novell.com. Novell is offering the e-mail support only until September 15, 1995, although an extension of the support period apparently hasn't been ruled out. A Novell spokesperson told Newsbytes there have been "quite a few problems with configuration of the client," but denied that more than the usual number of problems are being received. The Netware Client installs through the Windows NT Network Control Panel and is self-configuring. Users can choose from networking protocols like IPX/SPX (Internetwork Sequence Packet Exchange) or TCP/IP (Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol) to link with existing network environments during installation. Last week Novell issued a software patch for the NT Client that fixes a problem users were experiencing with getting full access to all Netware 3.11 files through the file manager. The company said the software patch for the Netware Client for Windows NT is a 145-kilobyte self-extracting file that can be downloaded from Novell's FTP (File Transfer Protocol) server on the Internet and the Netware forum on Compuserve. Version 3.5 of the client software is located in the Client Shell Drivers library of the NOVLIB forum. It's also available on Novell's World Wide Web site on the Internet at the Uniform Resource Locator (URL) http://www.novell.com . (Jim Mallory/19950727/Press contact: Kelly Hindley, Novell, 801-429-5870; Reader contact: Novell, tel 800-638-9273 or at the Internet URL http://www.novell.com ) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 07/28/95 PC Sigma Designs Shipping 10 MPEG Titles (NEWS)(PC)(LAX)(00019) Sigma Designs Shipping 10 MPEG Titles 07/28/95 FREMONT, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1995 JUL 28 (NB) -- Sigma Designs, Inc. (NASDAQ:SIGM), announced that it is shipping ten new REALmagic MPEG (Moving Picture Experts Group) CD-ROM titles. These include the adventure "Silent Steel," and "The Face of Life," a history of Life magazine. Silent Steel is written by Hollywood screenwriter Chuck Pfarrer, whose movie credits include "Navy Seals" and "Darkman." Silent Steel features over three-hundred minutes of full-screen, full-motion video with a branching storyline leading to multiple outcomes. Filmed on location in North Carolina on an actual submarine, and produced on a professional sound stage, Silent Steel features trained actors as well as real Navy personnel. Location shooting and background scenes were filmed on-board ships at Patriot's Point, the world's largest maritime museum, the aircraft carrier USS Yorktown, submarine USS Clamagore, destroyer USS Laffey and the Coast Guard cutter Ingham. Packard Bell has announced that it will bundle Silent Steel with its PCs for the fourth quarter buying season. The Face of Life features 37 years of sights, sounds and stories, a collection of Life Magazine covers and images. The Face of Life has over thirty minutes of historical film footage, popular songs from each year, and over four-thousand photographs. Beverley Bird, a spokesperson for Sigma told Newsbytes, "Sigma has been evangelizing MPEG standards for a number of years, and now MPEG is becoming the standard for the CD-ROM industry. MPEG allows full motion playback, unlike the 'stop and go' products that are commonplace. Based on the MPEG-1 standard for compression, REALmagic cards play back up to seventy four minutes of interactive, full-screen, 30 frames-per-second video combined with CD-quality audio from a single CD-ROM." Bird added, "Sigma was the first to have a board with play-back MPEG, then we developed a decoder, and we are now the major producer of MPEG CD-ROM titles. With these ten new titles, Sigma has released over fifty MPEG titles." Other CD-ROM titles released include: Return to Cyber City, a sequel to the all-animation mega hit from the original laser disc arcade classic Space Ace; the follow up to Dragon's Lair, with all the animation and sound of the arcade game; The Masters, golf history of the Masters Tournament; In the Company of Whales, from the Discovery Channel, a full-screen video of whale behavior; Black & Blue rock hits; Black Sabbath rock hits; Blue Oyster Cult rock hits; Dizzy Gillespie, the last recording of the musical artist's work from a 1980 Concert; Sleeping Beauty; and an interactive storybook of the children's classic Aladdin. "Sigma is the leading publisher of interactive MPEG titles, at a time when the entire PC industry is developing an MPEG strategy to catch up with the new MPC-3 (Multimedia PC level 3) requirement for MPEG-1 video, recently published by the Software Publishers Association," said Mike Nelson, president of the Sigma Designs software business unit. "We are seeing a lot of interest in these titles to support the MPEG technology which is being added to PCs." These titles are available now from Sigma Designs at suggested retail prices ranging from $29.95 to $69.95. They can be seen on major retailers shelves and in Sigma's new, retail kiosks. They can also be purchased through Sigma Designs' REALmagic Software Catalog by calling 800-494-8848. (Richard Bowers/19950726/Press Contact: Beverley Bird, Sigma Designs, 510-770-2673) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 07/28/95 GENERAL Personnel Roundup (NEWS)(GENERAL)(SFO)(00020) Personnel Roundup 07/28/95 PENN VALLEY, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1995 JUL 28 (NB) -- This is a regular feature, summarizing personnel changes not covered elsewhere by Newsbytes: Information Access Co., Technology Theft Prevention Foundation, NETCOM On-Line Communication Services Inc., SoftNet Systems Inc., DENTSPLY International Inc., Digital Equipment Corp., Silicon Graphics Inc., Microsoft Corp., Cray Research Inc. Information Access Company's (415-378-5249) Medford-based Information Access Center named Burt Totaro as vice president and general manager of the Information Access Center. Also Bill Doctor was promoted to vice president and chief operating officer. Jim R. Freeman, Special Agent in Charge at FBI headquarters in San Francisco, has been elected to the Technology Theft Prevention Foundation (201-386-1776), a recently formed consortium of law enforcement, electronics and insurance industry officials dedicated to fighting the rapidly growing problem of high-tech crime. NETCOM On-Line Communication Services Inc. (Nasdaq: NETC - 408-556-3211) announced the appointment of John Zeisler as senior vice president of marketing. Zeisler was the former head of Pensoft Corp. and co-founder of Claris Corp. Martin A. Koehler has been elected vice president-finance and chief financial officer of SoftNet Systems Inc. (AMEX:SOF - 718-386-7631). Koehler, 32, was an Experience Manager with Arthur Andersen L.L.P., working with middle market companies in their Enterprise Group. John J. McDonough, vice chairman of DENTSPLY International Inc., has been elected chairman of the board of directors of SoftNet Systems, Inc. (AMEX: SOF - 718-386-7631). McDonough was elected to SoftNet's Board in April, 1995. McDonough will replace Peter R. Harvey. Harold D. Copperman, has been appointed vice president and general manager of Digital Equipment Corp.'s (NYSE: DEC - 508-467-7095) Systems Business Unit (SBU). Pesatori has been the acting vice president and general manager of the SBU since it was created a year ago. Silicon Graphics Inc. (NYSE: SGI - 415-390-1516) announced that it has named Gary Lauer executive vice president of worldwide field operations for Silicon Graphics and president of the company's World Trade Corporation. Formerly senior vice president of Silicon Graphics' North American Field Operations, Lauer will report to Tom Jermoluk, president and chief operating officer of Silicon Graphics. Butler Lampson, a widely respected expert in the area of computer systems and network security, has joined Microsoft Corp.'s (Nasdaq: MSFT - 206-637-9097) research group. Lampson received a Ph.D. in EECS from the University of California at Berkeley and an honorary Sc.D. from the Eidgenoessische Techniche Hochschule, Zurich. Patrick C. Tullo, former chief information officer (CIO) of GE Capital Corporation's Commercial Real Estate Financing & Services division, has been named CIO of Cray Research Inc. (NYSE: CYR - 612-683-7133). In his new position, Tullo will have primary responsibility for Cray's information systems (IS) strategy, policies, planning and implementation to meet present and future companywide business needs. He will directly manage the company's communication and computing systems provider groups. (Ian Stokell/19950727) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 07/28/95 TELECOM Star Paging Expanding In China (NEWS)(TELECOM)(HKG)(00021) Star Paging Expanding In China 07/28/95 CENTRAL, HONG KONG, 1995 JUL 28 (NB) -- As part of an expansion of its presence in China, Star Digitel, a wholly owned subsidiary of Hong Kong firm Star Paging, has signed an agreement with Northern Telecom (Asia) for digital and analog cellular telephone systems worth HK$185 million (US$23.7 million). Star Digitel, in partnership with China Electronic Systems Equipment Engineering Co. (CESEC), already operates networks covering several cities in China, including Shenzhen, Lungshou, Chengdu, Guangzhou and Dungguan. Networks in Shantou, Weizhou, Kumming, Jinan and Qingdao are scheduled for completion at the end of this year. The Northern Telecom equipment will be used for further expansion, with around five new networks planned for next year. These new networks will use TDMA (Time Division Access) technology. The company's current networks use AMPS technology which, says Nelson Wong, chairman of Star Paging, has already been very well received in China. (Nigel Armstrong and IT Daily/19950725) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 07/28/95 TELECOM Hong Kong Telecom Considers Internet Services (NEWS)(TELECOM)(HKG)(00022) Hong Kong Telecom Considers Internet Services 07/28/95 CENTRAL, HONG KONG, 1995 JUL 28 (NB) -- Having been repeatedly knocked back in its attempts to buy into the Internet service provider (ISP) business, Hong Kong Telecom is considering the establishment of its own ISP. A decision could be made within the next two weeks. Telecom has reportedly been trying for some time to acquire a stake in local ISP Hong Kong Supernet, only to have its advances rejected. As a result, the company has now begun looking at the possibility of entering the field with its own service. Due to regulatory requirements, the setting up of an ISP would have to be through a subsidiary company such as Hong Kong Telecom CSL. CSL managing director, Ian Stone, confirmed the company was considering the move. He says no decision had been made but that it is an obvious one to consider. However, Stone also said acquiring a stake in Supernet continues to be an option. To underline Telecom's interest in the ISP business, Stone said the Internet is a reality and the only way to be involved is to be part of the business. He said that a decision on the subject would be finalized in a couple of weeks. (Nigel Armstrong and IT Daily/19950725) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 07/28/95 APPLE SPSS Stats Software For Power Mac (NEWS)(APPLE)(DEN)(00023) SPSS Stats Software For Power Mac 07/28/95 CHICAGO, ILLINOIS, U.S.A., 1995 JUL 28 (NB) -- SPSS Inc. (NASDAQ: SPSS) has announced a Power Macintosh version of its statistical software package, SPSS 6.1, that the company said can run some tasks nearly five times faster than the version written for 68000-based Macintoshes. According to the company, an analysis of variance with a data set of 10,000 cases used to take nearly 30 seconds on a standard Macintosh. The same analysis on a Power Mac using the new software version takes only five seconds, said SPSS. SPSS spokesperson Larry Mathias told Newsbytes the base module for version 6.1 for the Power Mac, with five optional modules, will ship by mid-August. Two of those modules, SPSS Categories and SPSS Trends, are being offered for the first time with a Macintosh-style interface. Categories is used by survey researchers, marketers and other users who analyze categorical data, measure preferences, define products or set prices. It can perform conjoint analysis and optimal scaling, including correspondence analysis. Trends is used by marketers, planners and others who analyze time series data. SPSS said this module can improve forecasting with complete time-series analyses techniques including multiple curve-fitting and smoothing models and methods for estimating autoregressive functions. Mathias explained that the other add-on modules are Professional Statistics, Advanced Statistics and Tables. He said Professional Statistics measures similarities and differences in data and provides techniques to do data classification or identify underlying dimensions. Advanced Statistics provides uni-variable and multi-variable techniques, and Tables offers presentation-ready tabular reports. While it may seem that advanced analysis of statistics is an arcane subject suitable only for science labs and academia, Mathias said that is no longer the case. "Ten years ago statistical software was found only on mainframe computers used by academia, government and Fortune 500 companies with the necessary resources. With the proliferation of personal computers for the desktop and easy to use software, small and mid-sized companies are now moving down into that area. They now have access to the same kind of data that only their brethren with the deep pockets had before." Mathias said more than 50 percent of SPSS's customer base is now commercial and business users, many of them mid- and small-size businesses. He said that's because statistical software can analyze data more accurately and in more detail than is possible using a spreadsheet application. The base module will have a suggested retail price of $695, and the add-on modules are priced at $395 to $495. SPSS said it will offer a special introductory price for the base module of $495 until September 30, as well as a $100 discount per add-on module. Users who have upgraded to version 6.1 for 68000-series PCs can upgrade to the Power Mac version for $39. Users of SPSs version 4.0 for the Mac can upgrade for $199 for the base module and an additional $99 for each add-on. The company has placed a $298 cost cap on any upgrade. It also offers bundle pricing (the base module plus optional modules) at what it said are significant savings. To use SPSS 6.1 for the Power Macintosh you need a Power Mac equipped with at least 12 megabytes (MB) RAM if using virtual memory or 16MB without using virtual memory; a hard disk with 19MB of storage space for the base module and one to three megabytes for each add-on module; the System 7.1.2 or higher operating system, a floppy drive, and optionally a color display. (Jim Mallory/19950727/Press contact: Larry Mathias, SPSS, 800-525-4980; Public contact: SPSS, 312-329-2400) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 07/28/95 GENERAL China - Pentium Preferred Over PowerPC (NEWS)(GENERAL)(PEK)(00024) China - Pentium Preferred Over PowerPC 07/28/95 BEIJING, CHINA, 1995 JUL 28 (NB) -- Based on a survey conducted during an exhibition in Beijing, 62.25% preferred Pentium-based computing and 37.75% prefer the PowerPC, Computer Market Guide of China Infoworld reports. The survey was conducted during the first "Three Golden Projects" Exhibition in April 17 to 21 in Beijing. Some 3841 questionnaires were distributed and about 3800 (99 percent) of them were filled out. Answering the question, "Which do you prefer: Pentium or PowerPC?" respondents offered these answers, based on different user categories: User Category Pentium PowerPC State Enterprise - 70.78% preferred Pentium while 29.22% preferred PowerPC; Collective Enterprise 58.97% Pentium to 41.03% PowerPC; State Agency 55.16% Pentium, 44.84% PowerPC; Joint Venture 52.44% Pentium, 47.56% PowerPC; Others 56.52% to 43.48%. At the beginning of this year, observers predicted that PowerPC would not threaten Pentium's position within two years, Computer Market Guide says. However, the current figure indicates that more than one third of the users are interested in the PowerPC. In the same survey, users were also asked to name their favorite network operating systems (more than one system could be named). Some 68.56 percent said Windows NT, 31.00 percent said NetWare, 25.33 percent said SCO Unix, 23.80 percent said UnixWare, and 28.17 percent said OS/2. Currently NetWare has the largest market share, according to Computer Market Guide. It is possible that Windows NT will replace the leading position of NetWare in the future, the newspaper predicts. (Chih-Ho Yu & Ning Huang/19950715/Reader Contact: Computer Market Guide, China Infoworld, tel +86-10 821-9829) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 07/28/95 TELECOM China - 8-Digit Phone Numbers For Shanghai, Beijing (NEWS)(TELECOM)(PEK)(00025) China - 8-Digit Phone Numbers For Shanghai, Beijing 07/28/95 BEIJING, CHINA, 1995 JUL 28 (NB) -- Phone numbers in Shanghai will be upgraded to 8 digits in the second half of this year, and Beijing will be China's second city to have eight-digit telephone numbers from the beginning of next year. According to sources from Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications (MPT), the phone number upgrade indicates the establishment of modern telecommunications systems in China's big cities. The MPT source said that it had already approved a plan to increase telephone number digits from 7 to 8 in the most populous metropolis, Shanghai, in the second half of this year. However, the effective date for the change and the upgrade rules were not released. The tenfold phone number increase means that Shanghai telecommunications authorities will be able to assign phone numbers to local subscribers more easily over the next few years. Shanghai's total phone exchange capacity which now stands at 2.2 million lines will increase by one million lines this year. Beijing has an ambitious telecommunication development scheme. By the year 2000 the total phone exchange capacity will reach 7 million lines, while urban phone coverage will go up 55 percent. By the end of last year, the capital's phone switch capacity had reached 3 million lines while its average urban phone coverage was 28 percent. The city's suburban phone coverage rate was 18 percent. Phone numbers in Hong Kong were upgraded to eight digits earlier this year. (Chih-Ho Yu & Ning Huang/19950712/Reader Contact: The General Telecommunications Bureau of Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications, tel +86-10 601-1235) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 07/28/95 TELECOM India - Motorola To Develop Wireless Phone System (NEWS)(TELECOM)(DEL)(00026) India - Motorola To Develop Wireless Phone System 07/28/95 NEW DELHI, INDIA, 1995 JUL 28 (NB) -- The Centre for Development of Telematics (C-DOT), the government-funded telecom switch manufacturer, has signed an agreement with Motorola India's cellular infrastructure group to develop a switched wireless phone system. Launched simultaneously in Chicago and Bangalore on the 27th of this month, this new fixed wireless phone system has the Motorola base station and is connected to C-DOT's Max (main automatic exchange) and Rax (rural automatic exchange) system. This will not only enhance radio capability on the nearly 3.5 million lines installed in the Indian network, but also offers a quick and inexpensive alternative to the new service providers who will be entering the recently opened Indian telecommunications market, according to B.D. Pradhan, executive director, C-DOT. C-DOT has installed 16,000 Rax exchanges connected to the DOT (Department of Telecommunications) lines. The fixed wireless loop system will be available in India by year-end and initially will be marketed on a non-exclusive basis. (C. T. Mahabharat/19950728) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 07/28/95 NETWORK Quarterdeck Plans To Acquire Internetware (NEWS)(NETWORK)(LAX)(00027) Quarterdeck Plans To Acquire Internetware 07/28/95 SANTA MONICA, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1995 JUL 28 (NB) -- Quarterdeck Corp. (NASDAQ: QDEK) today announced it plans to acquire Internetware Inc., a developer of server-based Internet software for Novell NetWare network operating systems. Internetware's main product, IWare Connect, will add new technology to Quarterdeck's Internet line. Under the terms of the agreement Quarterdeck will acquire the assets and technology licenses of Internetware for 440,000 shares of Quarterdeck common stock. At current stock prices, this put the transaction value in excess of $6.5 million. Emerick Woods, vice-president of Internet Solutions at Quarterdeck told Newsbytes, "Internetware is only a year old, and only shipped its first product in April, 1995. It is a new company with negligible current revenues." Internetware Inc., based in Sunnyvale, Calif., was formed in 1994 to develop products for connecting LANs (local area networks) to the Internet. Their IWare series has recently begun shipping, with distribution primarily through value-added resellers and through Internet access providers. Quarterdeck, with more than 30 thousand reseller distributors worldwide, will provide its distribution to market IWare. Quarterdeck expects to begin shipping version 1.1 of IWare Internet in September. Quarterdeck has software products in three strategic business areas: utilities, remote computing and the Internet. Woods explains, "IWare Connect offers a very simple and safe package for LAN applications. Normally companies with network file servers installed, to connect to the Internet, have to install a TCP/IP (Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol) on every workstation. With IWare Connect software, a company or group need only install one TCP/IP on the server. The workstations will not have to install TCP/IP." "IWare Connect is an Internet access software for NetWare LANs and includes an NLM (Netware Loadable Module) that runs on top of Novell's existing server TCP/IP," said Woods. Woods points out that having only one TCP/IP in your organization protects your workstations from unwanted intrusion over the Internet. " Because IWare Connect requires only one IP address for the entire network, it creates a security firewall. It also prevents users from accidentally turning their workstations into Internet servers, thereby adding an additional level of security." Internetware Chief Executive Officer Paul Singh added, "Integration of Quarterdeck's products with IWare will offer a one-stop solution to NetWare customers seeking Internet access solutions. We will continue to enhance and support our open platform policy of using Novell's TCP/IP stack on the server and working with all Winsock- compatible third-party Internet applications." Another advantage, according to Quarterdeck, is that IWare Connect, with its Windows-based server configuration tool, lets a NetWare administrator allow or deny access to users and groups based on time of day and incoming and outgoing applications such as e-mail. This could give more control and accountability. (Richard Bowers/19950728/Press Contact: Mike Brewer, Brodeur & Partners, 617-622-2800) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 07/28/95 ONLINE Virtual Amsterdam On A Sun SPARCserver (NEWS)(ONLINE)(LAX)(00028) Virtual Amsterdam On A Sun SPARCserver 07/28/95 MOUNTAIN VIEW, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1995 JUL 28 (NB) -- Amsterdam's cyberspace vision, De Digitale Stad (The Digital City), is one of Europe's largest Web sites. Sun Microsystems Computer Company announced today that The Digital City selected the SPARCserver 1000 system to serve the virtual city. "On average, we have 5,000 visitors a day who spend an average of a half an hour in the City," said Joost Flint, system manager of the City. "We chose Sun's SPARCserver 1000 system as a platform because we feel that Sun could supply us with the capacity to grow further. In addition, we felt that Sun's Internet expertise, as well as its partnerships and cutting-edge technologies such as HotJava Web browser, offer us a lot of great opportunities for the future." George Paolini, a spokesperson for Sun Microsystems, told Newsbytes, "We think Sun's leadership in the Internet technologies is why the people at De Digitale Stad came to us. Especially the breakneck speed that our Java operating system has taken off. The potential universality of Java gives Sun tremendous presence in the Internet community." The Digital City of Amsterdam, which began in January of 1994, originally offered its users access to governmental and public information in text-only format. But because the City wanted to expand the interaction between its citizens and the government it needed a new interface. There are 18 thousand inhabitants -- individuals who are registered with City e-mail addresses -- to date. The Digital City hosts about 120,000 more visitors each month. They visit to download minutes from governmental meetings, receive cultural announcements, learn news about Amsterdam or the Internet, post messages, or simply to visit one of the city's "cafes" and mingle. The City is constructed around squares, all with their own theme. These squares serve as a place where people with similar interests can meet and interact in real time. It has direct links to the Dutch Parliament, creating a channel of communication between civilians and elected officials. To visit Digitale Stad Amsterdam type http://www.dds.nl . (Richard Bowers/19950728/Press Contact: Brigitte Mouchet, Sun Microsystems 415-786-8181) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 07/28/95 NETWORK DEC Responds To 3Com/Chipcom Merger, IBM Deal (NEWS)(NETWORK)(BOS)(00029) DEC Responds To 3Com/Chipcom Merger, IBM Deal 07/28/95 MAYNARD, MASSACHUSETTS, U.S.A., 1995 JUL 28 (NB) -- 3Com's newly announced, $775 million acquisition of Chipcom will create a "window of opportunity" for Digital Equipment Corp. and other competitors in the networking industry, contended John Burnham, director of strategic communications for Digital's Network Product Business, in an interview today with Newsbytes. The 3Com/Chipcom deal, together with the merger of Synoptics and Wellfleet a year ago to form Bay Networks, also confirms predictions made by Digital several years back about the convergence of hubs, routers and switches, and "verifies" Digital's current enVISN networking strategy, according to Burnham. 3Com's purchase of Chipcom will give Digital and other competitors "a period of time to provide a wedge in the marketplace," the Digital exec told Newsbytes. "If Ford decided to purchase Chevrolet, I'll bet you a Pontiac sales person would call me the next day and say, `We didn't have to do that,'" Burnham illustrated. "Any time (an acquisition) happens, questions come up in customers' minds. And where there are questions, there are opportunities," he continued. "In the Digital Network Product Business, we have our own hubs, routers, switches, and adapters, and the software to manage them. And we didn't have to merge or acquire to get those technologies," he asserted. Burnham credited 3Com with producing a "brilliant record" in the acquisitions arena so far. But, he argued, none of 3Com's previous purchases have been of the same "magnitude" as the Chipcom pact. 3Com's acquisition of Chipcom, which is expected to become final in 90 to 100 days, will represent Chipcom's tenth acquisition over the past three years. Some of 3Com's previous purchases have included the Israeli-based ATM (asynchronous transfer mode) company NiceCom; AccessWorks Communications, a specialist in ISDN (Integrated Services Digital Network); Sonix Communications, a UK-based ISDN internetworking company; Centrum Communications, producer of the AccessBuilder line of remote access servers; and Primary Access Corp., another vendor in the remote access industry. Burnham told Newsbytes that he has doubts over whether 3Com's new, $775 million merger can be "seamless," given its size and scope. "And what's the benefit to the end user?" the executive asked. Chipcom will gain from the 3Com deal through the infusion of 3Com's financial resources and marketing channels, he suggested. Chipcom sells to high-end VARs (value-added resellers), and previously had a strong entree into corporate accounts through an "army of fighter pilots" at IBM that was overseen by Ellen Hancock, a former high level networking exec at IBM, according to Burnham. But when IBM recently "let Hancock go," sales of Chipcom products into corporate accounts dwindled, Burnham maintained. At a press conference in Boston attended by Newsbytes, 3Com unveiled its plans to acquire Chipcom, and also announced that it has signed a memo of understanding with the Networking Hardware Division of IBM to establish a range of remarketing and OEM (original equipment manufacturer) agreements. The IBM/3Com deal includes an agreement to carry out existing obligations between IBM and Chipcom -- as well as a recently forged pact to resell 3Com products for the IBM PowerPC Series --and also permits 3Com to expand the range of IBM products it currently carries under an OEM agreement, according to Eric Benhamou, 3Com's president and CEO. Burnham told Newsbytes this morning that, in his view, Chipcom previously "made a mistake" in relying on a single source -- in this instance, IBM -- for "60 to 70 percent of its revenues." (Jacqueline Emigh/19950728/Reader Contact: Digital Equipment Corp., 508-493-5111; Press Contacts: Tara Finney, Rourke & Company for Digital, 617-267-4002; Susan Ursch, Digital, 508-486-5198) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 07/28/95 GENERAL Newsbytes Week In Review (NEWS)(GENERAL)(SFO)(00030) Newsbytes Week In Review 07/28/95 PENN VALLEY, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1995 JUL 28 (NB) -- This is a look at the top stories this week, listing with their category code: Senate Holds Internet Porn Hearing, Gannett & Multimedia Inc. To Merge; AOL & Hachette Filipacchi In Online Deal; Creative Technology's Co-Founder Quits; House Targets Sematech Spending; Paramount's New Unit For TV Programming Online; Viacom To Spin-Off Cable Systems For $2.25Bil; Radius Intros New Mac OS-Based Clone; OSF Opens Software Web Mall For Java; AOL, Bertelsmann Online Finalize Management Team; Microsoft Donates $6 Million In Software To Settle Suit; Sprint To Spin Off Cellular Business; NY Supreme Court To Hear Prodigy Libel Appeal; Newsbytes 1995 Update CD-ROM Shipping; Microsoft, Intel, Pac Bell Hold TAPI "Bake-Off;" Gateway To Acquire Osborne, Expands Tech Support; New AT&T Video Compression For Copper Phone Lines; 3Com To Buy Chipcom For $775M, Expand Pact With IBM. Senate Holds Internet Porn Hearing (GOVT) WASHINGTON, D.C., U.S.A., 1995 JUL 24 -- In earlier days, the Senate usually held hearings before passing legislation. Not so in the 104th Congress. The Senate Judiciary Committee has begun hearings on pornography on the Internet, many weeks after the Senate approved legislation making indecency on the Internet a crime. Gannett & Multimedia Inc. To Merge (BUSINESS) ARLINGTON, VIRGINIA, U.S.A., 1995 JUL 24 -- Media conglomerate Gannett Co. Inc. (NYSE:GCI) said it will acquire Multimedia Inc. (NASDAQ:MMEDC), a publisher and broadcaster with syndicated talk shows like Donahue and Rush Limbaugh, in a merger agreement worth more than $1.7 billion dollars. AOL & Hachette Filipacchi In Online Deal (ONLINE) VIENNA, VIRGINIA, U.S.A., 1995 JUL 25 -- America Online Inc. (NASDAQ:AMER) (AOL) and Hachette Filipacchi have signed a pact that not only extends Hachette Filipacchi's exclusive agreement with AOL, but, according to the companies, will "enhance the relationship" as well. Creative Technology's Co-Founder Quits (GENERAL) CENTRAL, HONG KONG, 1995 JUL 26 -- Ng Kai Wa, a co-founder of Singapore's Creative Technology Ltd., maker of the popular Sound Blaster line of add-on boards, has quit the company he helped turn into one of the world's most successful makers of sound cards. House Targets Sematech Spending (GOVT) WASHINGTON, D.C., U.S.A., 1995 JUL 26 -- The House Appropriations Committee yesterday approved a spending bill that eliminates funding for Sematech, the public-private partnership that conducts semiconductor manufacturing research. The Clinton administration had proposed funding Sematech at $90 million for fiscal year 1996. Paramount's New Unit For TV Programming Online (BROADCAST) LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1995 JUL 26 -- Star Trek and shampoo may be the next big online announcement. The Paramount Television Group has announced Paramount Digital Entertainment (PDE), a new division developed to create online programming and further tools and technology for interactive television. Viacom To Spin-Off Cable Systems For $2.25Bil (BROADCAST) NEW YORK CITY, NEW YORK, U.S.A., 1995 JUL 26 -- Viacom Inc. (AMEX:VIA, VIAB) will spin off its local cable television systems, which will allow them to be purchased by cable giant Tele- Communications Inc. (TCI) in a deal valued at $2.25 billion. Radius Intros New Mac OS-Based Clone (APPLE) SAN JOSE, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1995 JUL 26 -- Radius Inc. (NASDAQ:RDUS) has introduced the Radius 81/110 Macintosh OS-based computer, a Mac clone. The company claims that it offers all of the power and performance of a Power Macintosh 8100 at a lower cost. OSF Opens Software Web Mall For Java (ONLINE) CAMBRIDGE, MASSACHUSETTS, U.S.A., 1995 JUL 26 (NB) -- In a teleconference today, the Open Software Foundation (OSF) unveiled plans to open an Open Software Mall on the Web on July 31, and to start distributing software there this fall that will include Java Ports technology for the Web, DCE (Distributed Computing Environment) Web, and Microkernel Unification Specification, a new technology for building cross-platform applications. AOL, Bertelsmann Online Finalize Management Team (ONLINE) VIENNA, VIRGINIA, U.S.A., 1995 JUL 27 (NB) -- America Online Inc. (NASDAQ:AMER) (AOL) and Bertelsmann, AG announced they are one step closer to starting an online service in three European countries, with the selection of a management team. Microsoft Donates $6 Million In Software To Settle Suit (LEGAL) REDMOND, WASHINGTON, U.S.A., 1995 JUL 27 (NB) -- Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ: MSFT) has agreed to equip one classroom in each of California's more than 1,000 school districts with a copy of its word processing, spreadsheet, or Access database computer software. A Microsoft spokesperson told Newsbytes the software at current street value would total about $6 million, although at the academic pricing Microsoft offers educational institutions, it would only be about $1 million. Sprint To Spin Off Cellular Business (TELECOM) KANSAS CITY, MISSOURI, U.S.A., 1995 JUL 27 (NB) -- Sprint Inc. (NYSE:FON) said it will spin off its cellular unit to its shareholders. The company is following through on a June announcement that stated it was considering various options for its cellular unit, including a spin-off. NY Supreme Court To Hear Prodigy Libel Appeal (LEGAL) WHITE PLAINS, NEW YORK, U.S.A., 1995 JUL 27 (NB) -- This past May, Stratton-Oakmont, an investment banking firm, won a case against Prodigy concerning information posted to a financial bulletin board on the online service. Today, Prodigy announced the New York Supreme Court has agreed to hear a reargument from Prodigy in hopes of appealing the decision. Newsbytes 1995 Update CD-ROM Shipping (GENERAL) MINNEAPOLIS, MINNESOTA, U.S.A., 1995 JUL 28 (NB) -- The latest edition of Newsbytes' complete archives is read to ship today. The Newsbytes 1995 Update CD-ROM for Mac, Windows, and DOS contains all Newsbytes news stories written from May, 1983 through May, 1995 -- 13 years worth of high-tech history. The 1995 Update Disk is $24.95 plus $5 shipping and handling. Microsoft, Intel, Pac Bell Hold TAPI "Bake-Off" (WINDOWS) SOUTH SAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1995 JUL 28 (NB) -- Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT), Intel (NASDAQ:INTC) and Pacific Bell just completed a four-day "bake-off" where 45 different companies tested telephony products based on Windows Telephony Applications Programming Interface (TAPI). A press conference from the event highlighted the benefits of the TAPI specification in Windows 95. Gateway To Acquire Osborne, Expands Tech Support (BUSINESS) NORTH SIOUX CITY, SOUTH DAKOTA, U.S.A., 1995 JUL 28 (NB) -- Gateway 2000 (NASDAQ: GATE) has announced it will acquire the business of Osborne Computer Corp., an Australian computer company, to get a foothold in a market a company spokesperson said has strong growth potential. Gateway has also expanded its technical support with the introduction of a program it calls Gateway Gold. New AT&T Video Compression For Copper Phone Lines (TELECOM) LARGO, FLORIDA, U.S.A., 1995 JUL 28 (NB) -- The ability to surf the Internet at virtually blazing speeds, the ability to talk on the phone while using the same line to watch a live TV event, and the ability to download high-definition multimedia files to a PC -- all at the same time -- is now possible via copper phone lines that already circle the world, AT&T's (NYSE:T) Paradyne unit is saying. 3Com To Buy Chipcom For $775M, Expand Pact With IBM (NETWORK) BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS, U.S.A., 1995 JUL 28 (NB) -- 3Com's newly unveiled, $775 million acquisition of Chipcom, the tenth buyout by 3Com in the past three years, will create one of the largest players in the worldwide hub industry, and is based on both market and "cultural" synergies, the CEOs of the two diversified networking companies told journalists and analysts, at a joint 3Com/Chipcom press conference in Boston. (Ian Stokell/19960728) (SUMMARY)(GENERAL)(MSP)(00031) Newsbytes Daily Summary 07/28/95 MINNEAPOLIS, MINNESOTA, U.S.A., 1995 JUL 28 (NB) -- These are capsules of all today's news stories: ======================================================================== ------------| N E W S B Y T E S D A I L Y S U M M A R Y |---------- ------------| Friday, July 28, 1995 |---------- ======================================================================== (c) Newsbytes News Network (Tm) Editor in Chief: Wendy Woods ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Newsbytes News Network is a computer and telecom industry news wire and digitized picture service, publishing since 1983. There are 30+ daily first-hand reported US and international news stories about computing and telecommunications. For more information, please e-mail to 'administrator@newsbytes.com' -- See new CD-ROM offer below! ------------------------------------------------------------------------ CATEGORY HEADLINES (*** indicates today's top stories) STORY # ======================================================================== APPLE SPSS Stats Software For Power Mac.......................... 23 BUSINESS ****Gateway To Acquire Osborne, Expands Tech Support...... 05 BUSINESS CA-Legent Deal Gets Go-Ahead............................... 13 CHIPS TI Says Chip Market Could Reach $300 Billion............... 10 GENERAL ****Newsbytes 1995 Update CD-ROM Shipping................. 01 GENERAL Logitech Intros Color Digital Camera In US................. 08 GENERAL Personnel Roundup.......................................... 20 GENERAL China - Pentium Preferred Over PowerPC..................... 24 GENERAL Newsbytes Week In Review................................... 30 NETWORK ****3Com To Buy Chipcom For $775M, Expand Pact With IBM... 16 NETWORK Quarterdeck Plans To Acquire Internetware.................. 27 NETWORK DEC Responds To 3Com/Chipcom Merger, IBM Deal.............. 29 ONLINE Spyglass President - Interview............................. 03 ONLINE Internet Update............................................ 07 ONLINE Songline Studios Previews First Product -- Web Review...... 09 ONLINE Yahoo To Develop Internet Service.......................... 14 ONLINE Virtual Amsterdam On A Sun SPARCserver..................... 28 PC Sigma Designs Shipping 10 MPEG Titles...................... 19 TELECOM ****New AT&T Video Compression For Copper Phone Lines..... 12 TELECOM Bell Canada Compromises On Local Metered Service........... 15 TELECOM Star Paging Expanding In China............................. 21 TELECOM Hong Kong Telecom Considers Internet Services.............. 22 TELECOM China - 8-Digit Phone Numbers For Shanghai, Beijing........ 25 TELECOM India - Motorola To Develop Wireless Phone System.......... 26 TRENDS Info Nets Key To Electric Restructuring.................... 02 TRENDS Countries With The Most Computers.......................... 17 WINDOWS ****Microsoft, Intel, Pac Bell Hold TAPI "Bake-Off........ 04 WINDOWS Osprey Turns PC Into Telephone Receptionist................ 06 WINDOWS Microsoft Ships Beta Game Developers Kit................... 11 WINDOWS Novell E-Mail Help For Windows NT Client Problems.......... 18 ======================================================================== These are the headlines and first paragraphs of each story, in order: 1 -> ****Newsbytes 1995 Update CD-ROM Shipping -- The latest edition of Newsbytes' complete archives is read to ship today. The Newsbytes 1995 Update CD-ROM for Mac, Windows, and DOS contains all Newsbytes news stories written from May, 1983 through May, 1995 2 -> Info Nets Key To Electric Restructuring -- As the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission moves to restructure the electric utility industry into the competitive model that government has adopted for telecommunications, airlines, and natural gas, online access to information is becoming a key issue. 3 -> Spyglass President - Interview -- Douglas Colbeth says he's doing "great," thank you very much. Who could blame him, as the value of his company's stock more than doubled after an initial public offering (IPO) just one month ago, as third quarter numbers were very strong, and with a new product debuting in a few weeks? 4 -> ****Microsoft, Intel, Pac Bell Hold TAPI "Bake-Off -- Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT), Intel (NASDAQ:INTC) and Pacific Bell just completed a four-day "bake-off" where 45 different companies tested telephony products based on Windows Telephony Applications Programming Interface (TAPI). A press conference from the event highlighted the benefits of the TAPI specification in Windows 95. 5 -> ****Gateway To Acquire Osborne, Expands Tech Support -- Gateway 2000 (NASDAQ: GATE) has announced it will acquire the business of Osborne Computer Corp., an Australian computer company, to get a foothold in a market a company spokesperson said has strong growth potential. Gateway has also expanded its technical support with the introduction of a program it calls Gateway Gold. 6 -> Osprey Turns PC Into Telephone Receptionist -- Microsoft's TAPI "bake-off" featured new telephony technology from the home PC to corporate networks. One of the many hot products was Voice Processing Corp's Osprey, a voice recognition-based telephone system for personal computers (PCs). 7 -> Internet Update -- In this update of new resources and service on the Internet: fiber optic information, Australian ocean research, World Wide Web hotel guide, Israel Internet index, bar code technology information, family surfboard, mailing list commands summary, new Cyberphone available; university art gallery exhibits. 8 -> Logitech Intros Color Digital Camera In US -- Logitech has announced its FotoMan Pixtura Color Camera for US retail markets. The retail model features storage for as many as 150 standard images and proprietary software for downloading, viewing, editing and enhancing. 9 -> Songline Studios Previews First Product -- Web Review -- Web Review 07/28/95 SEBASTOPOL, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1995 JUL 28 (NB) 10 -> TI Says Chip Market Could Reach $300 Billion -- A Texas Instruments Inc. (NYSE: TXN) economist said this week the worldwide semiconductor market may more than double in the next five years and could reach annual sales of more than $300 billion. 11 -> Microsoft Ships Beta Game Developers Kit -- Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ: MSFT) has announced the availability of the second beta version of its Windows 95 Game Software Developers Kit (SDK), which includes new device drivers from eight major third-party hardware vendors. 12 -> ****New AT&T Video Compression For Copper Phone Lines -- The ability to surf the Internet at virtually blazing speeds, the ability to talk on the phone while using the same line to watch a live TV event, and the ability to download high-definition multimedia files to a PC 13 -> CA-Legent Deal Gets Go-Ahead -- Computer Associates International Inc. (NYSE:CA) has been given the green light by the United States Department of Justice for its purchase of Legent Corp. (NASDAQ:LGNT). CA also made a final extension to its tender offer for Legent shares, to midnight on Monday, July 31. 14 -> Yahoo To Develop Internet Service -- Yahoo plans to enhance its Internet navigation and directory site with a more sophisticated look and business plan. In little more than one year, Yahoo has changed from a university project to one of the most popular World Wide Web (Web) sites. 15 -> Bell Canada Compromises On Local Metered Service -- Bell Canada has bowed to pressure from business customers and announced that it will build a flat-rate option into its proposal for usage-based local business telephone rates. 16 -> ****3Com To Buy Chipcom For $775M, Expand Pact With IBM -- 3Com's newly unveiled, $775 million acquisition of Chipcom, the tenth buyout by 3Com in the past three years, will create one of the largest players in the worldwide hub industry, and is based on both market and "cultural" synergies, the CEOs of the two diversified networking companies told journalists and analysts, at a joint 3Com/Chipcom press conference in Boston. 17 -> Countries With The Most Computers -- The Computer Industry Almanac lists the countries with the most computers at year-end 1994. The United States is the clear leader with nearly six times as many computers as Japan and seven times as many computers as Germany. 18 -> Novell E-Mail Help For Windows NT Client Problems -- Novell Inc. (NASDAQ: NOVL) has expanded its customer support options for its Netware Client for Windows NT software by offering direct Internet electronic mail access to its technical and marketing resources. 19 -> Sigma Designs Shipping 10 MPEG Titles -- Sigma Designs, Inc. (NASDAQ:SIGM), announced that it is shipping ten new REALmagic MPEG (Moving Picture Experts Group) CD-ROM titles. These include the adventure "Silent Steel," and "The Face of Life," a history of Life magazine. 20 -> Personnel Roundup -- This is a regular feature, summarizing personnel changes not covered elsewhere by Newsbytes: Information Access Co., Technology Theft Prevention Foundation, NETCOM On-Line Communication Services Inc., SoftNet Systems Inc., DENTSPLY International Inc., Digital Equipment Corp., Silicon Graphics Inc., Microsoft Corp., Cray Research Inc. 21 -> Star Paging Expanding In China -- As part of an expansion of its presence in China, Star Digitel, a wholly owned subsidiary of Hong Kong firm Star Paging, has signed an agreement with Northern Telecom (Asia) for digital and analog cellular telephone systems worth HK$185 million (US$23.7 million). 22 -> Hong Kong Telecom Considers Internet Services -- Having been repeatedly knocked back in its attempts to buy into the Internet service provider (ISP) business, Hong Kong Telecom is considering the establishment of its own ISP. A decision could be made within the next two weeks. 23 -> SPSS Stats Software For Power Mac -- SPSS Inc. (NASDAQ: SPSS) has announced a Power Macintosh version of its statistical software package, SPSS 6.1, that the company said can run some tasks nearly five times faster than the version written for 68000-based Macintoshes. 24 -> China - Pentium Preferred Over PowerPC -- Based on a survey conducted during an exhibition in Beijing, 62.25% preferred Pentium-based computing and 37.75% prefer the PowerPC, Computer Market Guide of China Infoworld reports. 25 -> China - 8-Digit Phone Numbers For Shanghai, Beijing -- Phone numbers in Shanghai will be upgraded to 8 digits in the second half of this year, and Beijing will be China's second city to have eight-digit telephone numbers from the beginning of next year. 26 -> India - Motorola To Develop Wireless Phone System -- The Centre for Development of Telematics (C-DOT), the government-funded telecom switch manufacturer, has signed an agreement with Motorola India's cellular infrastructure group to develop a switched wireless phone system. 27 -> Quarterdeck Plans To Acquire Internetware -- Quarterdeck Corp. (NASDAQ: QDEK) today announced it plans to acquire Internetware Inc., a developer of server-based Internet software for Novell NetWare network operating systems. Internetware's main product, IWare Connect, will add new technology to Quarterdeck's Internet line. 28 -> Virtual Amsterdam On A Sun SPARCserver -- Amsterdam's cyberspace vision, De Digitale Stad (The Digital City), is one of Europe's largest Web sites. Sun Microsystems Computer Company announced today that The Digital City selected the SPARCserver 1000 system to serve the virtual city. 29 -> DEC Responds To 3Com/Chipcom Merger, IBM Deal -- 3Com's newly announced, $775 million acquisition of Chipcom will create a "window of opportunity" for Digital Equipment Corp. and other competitors in the networking industry, contended John Burnham, director of strategic communications for Digital's Network Product Business, in an interview today with Newsbytes. 30 -> Newsbytes Week In Review -- This is a look at the top stories this week, listing with their category code: Senate Holds Internet Porn Hearing, Gannett & Multimedia Inc. To Merge; AOL & Hachette Filipacchi In Online Deal; Creative Technology's Co-Founder Quits; House Targets Sematech Spending; Paramount's New Unit For TV Programming Online; Viacom To Spin-Off Cable Systems For $2.25Bil; Radius Intros New Mac OS-Based Clone; OSF Opens Software Web Mall For Java; AOL, Bertelsmann Online Finalize Management Team; Microsoft Donates $6 Million In Software To Settle Suit; Sprint To Spin Off Cellular Business; NY Supreme Court To Hear Prodigy Libel Appeal; Newsbytes 1995 Update CD-ROM Shipping; Microsoft, Intel, Pac Bell Hold TAPI "Bake-Off;" Gateway To Acquire Osborne, Expands Tech Support; New AT&T Video Compression For Copper Phone Lines; 3Com To Buy Chipcom For $775M, Expand Pact With IBM. (Wendy Woods/19950728) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 07/27/95 UNIX More On OSF Open Software Mall For Web Technologies (NEWS)(UNIX)(BOS)(00001) More On OSF Open Software Mall For Web Technologies 07/27/95 CAMBRIDGE, MASSACHUSETTS, U.S.A., 1995 JUL 27 (NB) -- The OSF (Open Software Foundation)'s new Open Software Mall on the Web will deliver Java, DCE (Distributed Computing Environment) Web, Unification Microkernel, and other new technologies in a "low-cost" way similar to the distribution model for Mosaic and CERN's Web server, said Dr. Ira Goldstein, the OSF's chief scientist and executive VP, in a teleconference. Users will be able to browse, download, evaluate, comment on, and distribute the beta software for "noncommercial purposes," all free of charge, Goldstein explained during the teleconference, which was attended by Newsbytes. "The only restriction is that the (software) cannot be resold, or bundled with another product offering," the OSF exec told the journalists and analysts. In exchange for providing the Web software free of charge, the OSF and participating vendors will receive needed feedback, in the form of comments, to help assess the "appeal" of the technology to end users, developers, and vendors, according to Goldstein. If a technology becomes "productized," it will then become available for commercial distribution through payment of a licensing fee. Goldstein estimated that commercial licenses for "productized" OSF technologies will cost about $25,000. The new Web mall will open on Monday, July 31, he noted. Initial services will include an explanation of the software mall, plus the opportunity to make comments. The first software offerings are slated to be posted to the Web site in September, he added. The mall will be laid out in a series of "plazas" -- such as the ATO (Advanced Technology Offering) Plaza, for example -- with "shops" within the plazas for individual technologies. ATOs are technologies developed to "a sufficient degree of maturity" for user exploration, but without the costs of "full productization," according to the OSF exec. A typical ATO project will cost $300,000 to $600,000, and will carry a three- to nine-month development cycle. Java, DCE Web, and Unification Kernel -- the initial technologies to be beta tested over the Web site -- are all ATOs, Goldstein contended. Sun's Java is aimed at allowing secure, portable Web distribution of "static information" as well as "active information" such as animation and "smart data," according to the chief scientist. The OSF's Java Evaluation and Porting ATO is focused on two main activities: porting Java and HotJava to Unix-based platforms such as HP/UX, AT&T SVR4, and Novell's UnixWare, and analyzing the Java language for security and compilation, distributing computing, and Java's "approach to objects." "HP, AT&T, and Sun constitute the quorum" for the OSF's Java ATO project, Goldstein said. Novell is also participating in Java ATO, he added. DCE Web is designed to allow Web servers and clients at DCE sites to use DCE for authentication, encryption, access control, and naming. DCE's name service is intended to make it easier to find documents in "dynamic environments" where servers and documents change and move about. The DCE Web ATO will produce an interface module that will permit Web browsers to interface with Web servers through DCE, "without any alterations to source code," according to Goldstein. Although the technology will also work with commercial servers, "multi- threaded (Web) servers will yield better performance." Participants in the OSF's DCE Web ATO include Hitachi, HP and AT&T, Goldstein told the teleconference listeners. The OSF's Microkernel Unification Offering -- being sponsored with Hitachi, HP and IBM -- is a technology for building crossplatform applications by writing directly to a standard, common microkernel API (application programming interface). The offering includes a specification, in addition to conformance and performance test suites to make sure that microkernel implementations comply with the common API. IBM plans to produce a product that complies with the specification, which is now available in draft form, according to Goldstein. Digital Equipment Corp. might also be participating in the Microkernel Unification ATO, the chief scientist reported, adding that he hopes to have an answer on this from Digital within a week or so. Vendors now have "all these various microkernels," Goldstein pointed out. "But we will eventually converge on (a) published spec," he predicted. When enough companies are conforming to the same specification, he maintained, database vendors, for example, will be able to write to a single API for all operating environments, without having to "break through the kernel interface," go inside the microkernel, and deal with different debugging issues each time around. Accessible from a pointer at http://www.org.com , the Open Software Mall on the Web will also offer OSF PSTs (Pre-Structured Technologies), along with software from universities and other research collaborators, and eventually, outside "open systems" efforts that are "germane to core OSF technology," Goldstein said. In PSTs, collaborating vendor sponsors "are making the commitment to go all the way to product," said Peter Shaw, VP of marketing and communications, also during the teleconference. "They're making a bet about where the technology will be," elaborated the OSF VP. Some ATOs will eventually become PSTs, and others will turn into development activities within individual sponsor companies, according to the OSF officials. Shaw reported that current OSF PSTs include DCE 1.2, which is now "well under way," and Motif/CDE (Common Desktop Environment). In addition, four potential PSTs are "being actively pursued," he asserted. "We expect to have some announcements on these later this week." The OSF's Open Software Mall will also provide Web links to "relevant products, services, education and consulting available from the community," Goldstein said. (Jacqueline Emigh/Reader Contact: Open Software Foundation, 617- 621-8700; Press Contact: Jane Smeloff, OSF, 617-621-8997) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 07/27/95 GENERAL Software Publishers Launch "Codies" Award Campaign (NEWS)(GENERAL)(WAS)(00002) Software Publishers Launch "Codies" Award Campaign 07/27/95 WASHINGTON, D.C., U.S.A., 1995 JUL 27 (NB) -- For the second year in a row, the Software Publishers Association will be rolling out a promotional campaign in retail outlets based on SPA's annual Excellence in Software awards, named "Codies." The campaign, to be launched August 1, will have promotional material on Codie winners in over 2,100 participating outlets. The aim of the campaign, SPA's Mandy Braun Strum told Newsbytes, is to help educate software sales people about quality software and to turn the Codies into the digital equivalent of Hollywood's Oscars. "The concept of changing the Codie from an insider award to a consumer-oriented award is something we want to continue," she said. The 1995 Codie campaign includes "take one" awards brochures, counter cards describing the winning products in each category, and signs. SPA is also taking out some full-page ads as part of the campaign. Strum said SPA also expected to get a boost out of the enthusiasm building around the launch of Windows 95 on August 24. Sales representatives at participating retailers will also be participating in a sales contest for selling Codie winners, which is funded by the participating software companies. Prizes include T-shirts, sunglasses, mouse pads and, for the top sales pro, a computer. The Codie award winners are also making their software available for free to the sales people so they can familiarize themselves with what really top-notch software can do. A recent survey for SPA found that 48 percent of all decisions on which software to buy came at the point of sale. The survey also found that 88 percent of first-time computer buyers expect to buy CD-ROM entertainment and education software in the next six months. Among the retailers that will be participating in the Codie promotion are Sam's Club, Egghead, Electronics Boutique, Computer City, Micro Center, ELEK-TEK, Ballard Computer, Best Buy, Sears and Incredible Universe. (Kennedy Maize/199590727/Press Contacts: Sally Lawrence, SPA, 202-452-1600, ext 320; Mandy Braun Strum, SPA, 202-452-1600, ext. 313. WWW: http://www.spa.org ) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 07/27/95 ONLINE CBS To Establish America Online Presence (NEWS)(ONLINE)(MSP)(00003) CBS To Establish America Online Presence 07/27/95 VIENNA, VIRGINIA, U.S.A., 1995 JUL 27 (NB) -- CBS will increase its reach in cyberspace by more than three million people, by establishing a "major presence" on America Online (NASDAQ:AMER) (AOL), beginning this fall. "We're going with America Online because it gives us an opportunity to extend our presence in the interactive world," Jim Byrne, CBS spokesperson, told Newsbytes. "America Online is obviously a very popular and fast-growing service," especially with its three million plus members, he said. "A characterization of AOL is that we always have a portfolio of choices for our members," Judy Tashbook, America Online spokesperson, told Newsbytes. "Just as each (broadcast or cable) network has a broad array of content within it, each network is also very distinctive from each other. So it's wonderful for us to have CBS, and the content they're bringing." Some of those broadcast or cable choices include NBC, ABC, CourtTv, E! Entertainment Television, MTV, The Cartoon Network, C-SPAN, Lifetime, and The Learning Channel. A total of 14 networks provide content to AOL, Tashbook said. The content in the new "CBS on AOL" area will offer informational and interactive features that will spin off of the "eye web's" programming. Some of those shows include "The Late Late Show with Tom Snyder," and "The Late Show with David Letterman." Regarding the content from the Letterman show, Tashbook said "this won't be reconstituted Letterman from the Internet. This will be from the source - CBS." Other features will include bulletin boards, a photo gallery, chat rooms and sessions, and other features. The site will also be open to sponsorships for "entertainment-themed interactive programs," as one official put it. In addition, AOL will provide a pointer to CBS's Internet World Wide Web site, called "CBS Eye on the Web," for those members who have the new AOL Web browser. Internet users can surf to the site at http://www.cbs.com . Even though it is opening the AOL site, Byrne told Newsbytes CBS will continue its relationship with the Prodigy online service. He also said he had "nothing to announce" regarding any involvement with the upcoming Microsoft Network (MSN). (Bob Woods/19950726/Press Contacts: Judy Tashbook, America Online, 703-918-1452; Jim Byrne, CBS, 212-975-1900. Public Contact: America Online, 800-827-6364; CBS, Internet World Wide Web http://www.cbs.com ) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 07/27/95 ONLINE Mortage-Maker Goes Online (NEWS)(ONLINE)(MSP)(00004) Mortage-Maker Goes Online 07/27/95 COLUMBUS, OHIO, U.S.A., 1995 JUL 27 (NB) -- Gathering information on, and applying for mortgages will move from the bank lobby to cyberspace. American Finance and Investment, Inc. (AFI) and CompuServe Inc.'s Network Services Division said they'll develop Mortgages Made Simple, On-Line. "This is a terrific opportunity for us and consumers," Jack Rodgers, AFI president, told Newsbytes. "This represents an opportunity for us to deliver a product by a new delivery system. For consumers, it represents an opportunity in a more efficient manner, and save time. We thought it plain made sense." The new service, which combines the elements of software and online access, will allow customers to conduct virtually all aspects of residential mortgage finance from their personal computer. Prospective borrowers can conduct some research on debt, analyze loan programs, and do mortgage computations. All of this can be done without going online, Rodgers said. Customers go online when they transmit mortgage applications to AFI. Loan application status, interest rates, and other data that fluctuates daily can be accessed via the online connection. The online connectivity portion of the program will be provided via CompuServe's global network, but the service will be separate from the network's subscription service. This means users don't need a CompuServe account to access Mortgages Made Simple, On-Line. Rodgers acknowledged a significant part of the "human factor" is taken out of the mortgage equation using this system, but he said that's actually an advantage. "It makes the process more efficient. In the human element are mistakes and competing objectives. So the delivery of information to consumers will be consistent, reliable, and unbiased," he said. He also said because the consumer is educated through Mortgages Made Simple, On-Line, time is saved in the application process. Ultimately, this results in reduced mortgage rates, he said. Operators are available for additional help, Rodgers added. The release of the Windows-based program is set for October 15, 1995. Interested consumers can order the software directly from the company, or download the program from the Internet. In addition AFI is looking into other delivery channels, including through retail stores and via infomercials. There will be a slight cost if consumers acquire the program from those sources, Rodgers said. Future applications call for offering credit cards, home equity loans, and auto loans through the new service. AFI also announced it has signed a letter of intent to sell all outstanding shares it has to WSFS Financial Corp. (Bob Woods/19950726/Press Contacts: Jack Rodgers, AFI, 703-352-0192 ext. 121; Andy Boyer, CompuServe Network Services, 614-798-3351) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 07/27/95 ONLINE ****American Express Launches AOL Flight Booking (NEWS)(ONLINE)(MSP)(00005) ****American Express Launches AOL Flight Booking 07/27/95 VIENNA, VIRGINIA, U.S.A., 1995 JUL 27 (NB) -- Booking flights via America Online (NASDAQ:AMER) (AOL) is now a reality for American Express (NYSE:AXP) members, officials from the credit card company announced today. Express Reservations, from the American Express Travel Related Services (TRS) Company, Inc., is now available through the company's ExpressNet site on AOL. The new addition to the service was announced during a news teleconference, which Newsbytes attended. "This combination of high-tech, high-touch service allows us to forge a closer relationship with our customers," said David Bauman, vice president and general manager of interactive services at TRS. "One of the major benefits of Express Reservations is that it's very easy to use." Using menus, the cardmember can enter the desired itinerary, along with any restrictions or special instructions. Within a few minutes, Express Reservations will send a message with the available flights that match the customer's preferences. From there, the cardmember can then book the flight, or with any travel agency using the Saabre computer reservations system. Customers who book through American Express will receive their tickets via overnight delivery. Bauman said he's pleased with the growth ExpressNet has had on AOL since it was introduced earlier this year, although he wouldn't disclose how many people are currently enrolled in the service. Cardmembers can check their accounts, pay their American Express bills, apply for the cards, enroll in programs like Membership Miles, and take advantage of special offers. Travelers can also look up information from several databases, including Travel & Leisure Magazine, Frommer's Online Travel Service, Fodor's Worldview, and American Express Travel Guides. Future enhancements to Express Reservations will include the ability to book hotel rooms and reserve rental cars, Bauman said. (Bob Woods/19950726/Press Contacts: Gail Wasserman, 212-640-2675, or Emily Porter, 212-640-4761, both of American Express; Judy Tashbook, America Online, 703-917-1452. Public Contact: America Online, 800-AXP-1234) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 07/27/95 BUSINESS Microsoft Expands China Operation (NEWS)(BUSINESS)(DEN)(00006) Microsoft Expands China Operation 07/27/95 REDMOND, WASHINGTON, U.S.A., 1995 JUL 27 (NB) -- Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ: MSFT) has announced its revised Greater China organization, including the appointment of a regional director for the area, several new sales offices in the region, and a consulting service in Beijing. The company has named Bryan Nelson to the position of regional director of Greater China, which includes the People's Republic of China, Hong Kong, and Taiwan. Nelson, who joined Microsoft in 1988 as marketing director for Microsoft Limited in the United Kingdom, will be based on Hong Kong and assumes his new job August 1. He will report to Vice President of the Far East Charles Stevens. The Far East is rapidly becoming a hotbed of activity for a number of hardware and software companies. Microsoft estimates the number of PCs sold in the region will exceed 1.6 million in 1995. Microsoft formed its Far East Region in 1991. Currently Compaq Computer assembles PCs there, Apple Computer started shipping Power Macs to China in June of 1994, and Novell has distributors in the region. Earlier this year Symantec said it was entering the market. As part of the Greater China effort, Microsoft will open sales offices in Shanghai and Guangzhou, and Microsoft Consulting Services (MCS) will begin operations in Beijing. A Microsoft spokesperson told Newsbytes the MCS provides licensing, consulting and training services directly and in partnership with third-party providers. The company will also continue to expand its Chinese Product Development Center in Beijing. The center was opened in January of this year and employs software engineers, testers and educators from Microsoft and its Chinese development partners to develop Chinese versions of Windows 95 and the Windows NT operating system, the Microsoft Office 95 software suite of applications, and Visual FoxPro. (Jim Mallory/19950726/Press contact: Andrea Cook, Microsoft, 206-936-4436; Public contact: Microsoft, 206-882-8080 or 800-426-9400) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 07/27/95 TELECOM China - Phone-Line Stealing Rampant (NEWS)(TELECOM)(PEK)(00007) China - Phone-Line Stealing Rampant 07/27/95 BEIJING, CHINA, 1995 JUL 27 (NB) -- As China's telephone systems quickly develop, telephone calling fraud has become a serious problem, many of China's newspapers are reporting. Beijing Telephone Bureau reports that the financial damage caused by phone-line theft has reached RMB2.3 million (US$277,000) in a period of seven months. China's telephone system will consist of more than 14 million lines by the end of this year, bringing the nation's total phone line installation to 62.87 million connections to homes, institutions, and offices. Since the old telephone infrastructure in many areas was not designed to handle large numbers of phone lines, many of China's provinces sport bowls of overhead noodles. Phone lines are hung from telephone poles, electric power poles, street-light poles, and outside buildings. One can hardly tell where the hundreds of lines come from or go to. Taking advantage of the disordered networking, phone line "thieves" can easily connect their phones to lines and make calls. In Guangdong, the monthly phone bill of one elderly resident suddenly increased to RMB6,000 (US$725), according to one report. During 20 days, 184 long distance calls were made by a phone-line thief. According to Beijing Telephone Bureau, from August 1994 to March 1995, more than 1,100 phone-line stealing cases were reported and about 3,600 customers had suspicious phone calls listed on their bills. The bureau also estimated that RMB2.3 million (US$277,000) is the amount of loss caused by phone calling fraud during that period. (Chih-Ho Yu & Ning Huang/19950711) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 07/27/95 BUSINESS China - Founder Is Unisys Distributor (NEWS)(BUSINESS)(PEK)(00008) China - Founder Is Unisys Distributor 07/27/95 BEIJING, CHINA, 1995 JUL 27 (NB) -- Beida (Beijing University) Founder Group recently was chosen to be the general distributor for Unisys personal computer products in China. Chinese word processing and publishing systems are Founder's key products. However, the company's role in China's other computer sectors is weak in comparison. Extensive cooperation with foreign computer producers has been part of the plan designed to enable Founder to strengthen its position in computer businesses, a Founder executive said. US-based Unisys offers computer hardware and PC-based systems for the public sector, transportation, finance, and communications industries. Through the new partnership, Founder expects to gain expertise in the finance and banking sectors. Founder has been a computer vendor and PC-based developer since 1990. Since last year, the firm has also been involved in financial information system integration. Unisys has a strong client base in system integration for the banking and finance sectors, the Founder executive said. Founder's involvement in China's public sector is quite strong. The company's products have been used throughout China by many news agencies, publishers, public security agencies, justice, and other government institutions. Last year, Founder's computer business turnover was RMB 1.6 billion (US$193 million) which made it thirteenth among the top 100 enterprises in China, according to the Ministry of Electronics Industry. Sales for the first 5 months of this year were up 30 percent from the same period of last year, the company reported. Founder is also cooperating with Hewlett-Packard to develop drafting instruments. In addition, Founder is in a partnership with Digital Equipment and Canon. Founder has more than 30 branches throughout China and one office in Hong Kong. (Chih-Ho Yu & Ning Huang/19950710/Reader Contact: Beida Founder Group, tel +86-10 254-1657) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 07/27/95 BUSINESS Samsung Plans $600M India Investment (NEWS)(BUSINESS)(DEL)(00009) Samsung Plans $600M India Investment 07/27/95 NEW DELHI, INDIA, 1995 JUL 27 (NB) -- The Korea-based Samsung Corp. plans to invest around $600 million over the next five years in India. Executive vice president, Yu Jin Kim, says that the thrust of its India investment strategy will be electronics, communications and information technology. He further added that the prospects of increasing trade with India are very bright given the government's open market policies. Samsung is preparing to enter the pager market in India this year along with Korea Mobile Telecommunications System and Seoul Mobile Telecommunications System. Kim, while appreciating the efforts of the Indian government to introduce an open market economy, pointed out that the entrance barriers and administrative procedures to foreign investment are still a major deterrent. (C. T. Mahabharat/19950727) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 95 07/27/95 WINDOWS Hong Kong - September Date For Windows (NEWS)(WINDOWS)(HKG)(00010) Hong Kong - September Date For Windows 95 07/27/95 CENTRAL, HONG KONG, 1995 JUL 27 (NB) -- Microsoft Hong Kong has confirmed local availability of Windows 95 in early September. In order to help meet the expected high demand for the new operating system, the company has established two programs for registered users of Microsoft products in the territory, which should mean they get the product before it hits local retail stores. Microsoft Club members can use the Windows 95 Pre-Order Program to get free delivery of products. Club members simply have to contact the Authorized Upgrade Center after August 1 to reserve their copies. Microsoft said it is confident of meeting retail demand for Windows 95 and said that all its retailers had placed their orders and no supply problems were expected. Meanwhile, locally based PC company executives are busily gearing themselves up for the eventual arrival of PCs with Windows 95 pre-installed. However, there is some confusion as to when this might happen. At least two vendors, IBM and Hewlett-Packard, are unsure of when the computers would be appearing on local shelves. For most vendors, the machines will be coming from the US. As a result local offices have to coordinate their schedules with head offices' planned roll-out of Windows 95-installed PCs. And this may be delayed, following fears in the US that vendors will not have time to test for compatibility problems with other software bundled on the machines before pre-installed PCs are due to ship. One such company is market leader Compaq, which is in the process of discussing with Microsoft the bundling of programs for the Windows 95 system. It hopes to be able to announce further details early next month. Compaq's Hong Kong office says it is fully prepared for the launch and says the first PCs with Windows 95 pre-installed are due to appear in the territory's stores in October. However, the company will also offer a bundled package comprising the Windows 95 disks along with the PC as soon as Windows 95 is launched in Hong Kong. A faster roll-out of PCs with Windows 95 pre-installed is expected from AST, which claims to have the products ready to ship as soon as the new operating system is available locally. As a result, AST expects to have the systems in Hong Kong by mid September. At the same time the company has produced a Windows 95 version of its AST Works operating system and will also be offering upgrades to existing users. (Nigel Armstrong and IT Daily/19950725) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 07/27/95 TELECOM Hong Kong Telecom Cuts Prices (NEWS)(TELECOM)(HKG)(00011) Hong Kong Telecom Cuts Prices 07/27/95 CENTRAL, HONG KONG, 1995 JUL 27 (NB) -- In reaction to increasing competition in the international calls market, Hong Kong Telecom has slashed 21% off the cost of calls to North America. The cuts come in the light of new competition from recently licensed local fixed network service providers New T&T and New World Telecom. As a result of the cuts, from August 1 calls to Canada will cost HK$6.70 (85.9 US cents) per minute, a cut of up to 15%, while calls to the US will cost HK$6.80 (87.1 US cents) a minute, a cut of up to 21%. The rates will apply at all times. New T&T responded by saying it was a "pretty feeble effort" on the part of Hong Kong Telecom to cut rates on North American calls, where it faces competition, but not to China, where it faces none. (Nigel Armstrong and IT Daily/19950725) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 07/27/95 GENERAL Cirrus Logic Licenses Compression Technologies (NEWS)(GENERAL)(LAX)(00012) Cirrus Logic Licenses Compression Technologies 07/27/95 SANTA CLARA, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1995 JUL 27 (NB) -- Cirrus Logic Inc. (NASDAQ: CRUS) announced the licensing of the TrueSpeech compression technologies from DSP Group, Inc. (NASDAQ: DSPG). Cirrus Logic will incorporate TrueSpeech compression to expand its digital voice capability. TrueSpeech reduces the size of digital voice information while maintaining voice quality. By compressing digital voice data, this technology enables speech to be efficiently stored, played or transmitted through computer networks or over standard phone lines. Yuval Cohen, vice president for business development at DSP Group, Inc., told Newsbytes, "True Speech is licensed to most modem manufacturers. Our compression technology is seen as the most effective way to get into the Digital Simultaneous Voice and Data (DSVD) market. DSVD allows users to simultaneously communicate voice and data over a standard telephone line during a single connection. Without such compression two telephone lines are needed to transmit both voice and data at the same time." According to Cohen, "One of the speech compression software products licensed by Cirrus Logic is the 8.5 kilo bit-per-second version of TrueSpeech with 15:1 compression. This version is designed for personal computer applications, and is very effective for Digital Simultaneous Voice and Data." Recent announcements of TrueSpeech-based DSVD products have come from such companies as AT&T, Multi-Tech, Sierra and US Robotics, says DSP Group, Inc. For applications in which higher compression is required, DSP Group offers an advanced version of TrueSpeech operates at 6.3, 5.3 and 4.8k bits-per-second (20-, 24-, and 27-to-1 compression). This version of TrueSpeech has application in computer/telephony integration, teleconferencing, voice mail, wireless communications, games, and education applications, as well as in cable on-line services. Headquartered in Fremont, Calif., Cirrus Logic Inc. is a manufacturer of advanced integrated circuits for the desktop and portable computing, telecommunications, and consumer electronics markets. DSP Group, Inc., develops and markets digital signal processor (DSP) and digital speech products. Headquartered in Santa Clara, California, DSP Group's speech and telephony processors are designed for digital telephone answering devices, consumer telephones, digital recorders, laptops, personal computers and computer telephony equipment. (Richard Bowers/19950727/Press Contact: Yuval Cohen, DSP Group, Inc., 408-986-4300) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 07/27/95 TELECOM Canada To Review Teleglobe Monopoly (NEWS)(TELECOM)(TOR)(00013) Canada To Review Teleglobe Monopoly 07/27/95 OTTAWA, ONTARIO, CANADA, 1995 JUL 27 (NB) -- The Canadian government plans to review the monopoly on overseas telecommunications to and from Canada currently held by Teleglobe Canada, Inc. A public notice from the government's Industry Canada department indicates it is leaning toward opening the field to competition. The review comes as no surprise. Teleglobe, formed as a Crown corporation in 1950, was sold to the private sector in 1987. The terms of that sale, to Montreal-based Memotec Data Inc., which has since renamed itself Teleglobe Inc., promised that Teleglobe's monopoly would continue at least until March of 1992. In 1992, the government renewed the monopoly for another five years, but said it would review the situation this year. It now appears that Teleglobe is unlikely to keep its position as the sole operator of satellite and undersea links out of Canada. "One of this Government's objectives," says Industry Canada's notice of the review, "is the transition to a truly competitive telecommunications market in Canada." The notice also notes past moves toward competition in international telecommunications: in 1991 the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) gave Teleglobe permission to resell private- line services, and 1993 it freed the company to wholesale its services under a gateway access tariff. The notice invites comment on viable alternatives to the present single-carrier model, and on the basic notion of competition in international telecommunications. It also asks whether, if competition is introduced, certain services should continue to be provided on a monopoly basis. One of the government's concerns is the international competitiveness of Canada's telecommunications industry. The notice raises the specter of Canadian telecom users routing their intercontinental traffic through the United States. A stated objective of Canada's Telecommunications Act is to promote the use of Canadian facilities, but the government suggests there may be more flexible alternatives to its present policy of specifying exactly how traffic is to be routed. The brief also hints at a relaxation of ownership restrictions on Teleglobe Canada, which currently include a rule that Canadian telecommunications carriers and their parent companies cannot hold more than a third of Teleglobe Inc.'s voting shares, and foreign carriers cannot own voting shares at all. The government suggests that these restrictions might be removed, leaving only the rule that non-residents cannot control more than 20 percent of the company's voting shares. This last provision applies to all Canadian carriers. Interested parties have until October 27 of this year to comment on the issue, after which there will be a chance for comments on the initial submissions, with a deadline of December 11, Industry Canada said. (Grant Buckler/19950727/Press Contact: Michael Helm, Industry Canada, 613-998-4241; Public Contact: Industry Canada, 613-947- 7466, Internet World Wide Web http://info.ic.gc.ca ) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 07/27/95 GENERAL Japan Newsbriefs (NEWS)(GENERAL)(TYO)(00014) Japan Newsbriefs 07/27/95 TOKYO, JAPAN, 1995 JUL 27 (NB) -- In this roundup of news from Japan: Mitsubishi expand R&D overseas, TI Japan to increase production, mobile telephone subscriptions hit 5 million, Osaka US Consulate Online, heat causes problems for power companies; new electronic dictionary. Mitsubishi Expands R&D Overseas Two days after NEC Corporation announced an expansion of research and development (R&D) activities overseas, Mitsubishi Electric Corp. announced new R&D centers in the US, UK and France later this year. The US site will be in Boston and established on 1 August. The company will research high definition television while in the UK research into digital television will be followed at a new center in London. The second of the new European centers will be in Rennes, France where the Tokyo-based company will develop mobile telecommunications technology. The European centers will begin operations in September. TI Japan To Increase Production At a time when many Japanese companies are moving production overseas, the Japanese subsidiary of America's Texas Instruments has announced it will increase semiconductor production. The plans were revealed by a Texas newspaper and later published in Japan by the leading economic daily Nihon Keizai Shimbun which said the company will invest 50 billion yen ($568 million) in expanding integrated circuit production and 100 billion yen ($1,136) in memory chips. The Japanese plan is part of a broad expansion planned by the parent company at US, European and Southeast Asian plants. Mobile Telephone Subscriptions Hit 5 Million Just four months after the number of mobile telephone users in Japan passed 4 million, the number reached 5 million at the end of June. At the end of June, 5.43 million people in Japan were using the portable telephones, a figure totalled before the PHS system debuted in Tokyo on July 1st. The new PHS system, being cheaper than cellular phones, is bringing a rush of new subscribers onto the competing networks. The July figure will almost certainly see an increase on the 424,000 new subscribers in June. Osaka US Consulate Online The American Consulate in Osaka has today launched a World Wide Web service. The page is accessible through the Senri Internet Home Page and provides information for US citizens living in the Kansai region, links to other US government sites, and information for Japanese citizens wishing to apply for US visas. It is hoped that other embassies of English-speaking nations will join the area soon. World Wide Web: http://www.senri.or.jp/ Heat Causes Problems For Power Companies The current heat wave in Japan that has signalled the end of the rainy season is causing headaches for controllers at power companies across the country. As temperatures soared into the high thirties for the fourth day and the nation turned on its air conditioners, officials at TEPCO, the Tokyo Electric Power Company, said it was experiencing a surge in demand not seen since last year's record highs that hit forty degrees Celsius in the capital. TEPCO is producing electricity at capacity and is currently airing TV commercials for its "peak cut" campaign, asking consumers to switch down appliances, particularly air conditioning units, between one and four in the afternoon. New Electronic Dictionary Late in August, Seiko Instruments is to introduce a new English/Japanese electronic dictionary. The TR-7500 model includes the complete English to Japanese and Japanese to English dictionary published, in conventional paper form, by Kenkyusha. Seiko say the unit is smaller and lighter than previous models. It measures 12.6cm long, 10.5cm wide and 2.1cm high and weighs just 225g. The unit will cost 35,000 yen ($397). (Martyn Williams/19950727) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 07/27/95 ONLINE Internet Innovators Honored (NEWS)(ONLINE)(TYO)(00015) Internet Innovators Honored 07/27/95 LONDON, ENGLAND, 1995 JUL 27 (NB) -- The London-based Institute for Social Inventions has announced its Social Innovations Awards for this year and recognized several services running on the Internet. The nonprofit charity makes the awards every year for ideas or projects designed to improve the quality of life. The main Social Innovations Award for 1995 has been awarded to the New Civilization Network, an Internet-based service run by Flemming Funch in California. The overall theme of the Web site is "to make the world a better place" and Funch provides Web space free of charge to many non-profit groups at its Web site. The address is http://newciv.org/worldtrans/newcivnet.html . Funch told Newsbytes, "I not only feel very honored about this award, but also I take this as a validation that we are on the right track. A message from the universe, so to say, that it might be viable to work on idealistic endeavors." Explaining what the New Civilization Network is and seeks to be, Funch said, "The New Civilization Network is a global network of people visualizing a better world and working on building it. A world of increased quality of life, freedom, fun and inspiration for all. A world where the needs of all of humanity are met." He continued, "In more practical terms, it is an experiment in networking. Nobody's particularly in charge of it, and it is defined in rather loose, but in very positive terms. It is a group of mailing lists for various sub-groups and teams, and it is a Web site. Mostly it is about taking a really big view and working on what we would like to have in a new, better world. Not just academic discussion, the idea is rather to do something and then share it and coordinate it with others." The second award given to an Internet service, the Creativity Social Innovations Award 1995, was to "The Bank of New Ideas," a new Internet Web area launched by ex-Muscovite Mikhail N. Epstein of Emory University, Atlanta, USA. Speaking to Newsbytes, Epstein explained what the site was all about, "The idea behind the 'Intelnet' is to intellectualize the Internet, to reveal its potential for the developing of human mind and interdisciplinary cooperation in the humanities." The idea for the Internet Web pages grew out of an off-line project that Epstein in which was involved, "We organized the Bank of New Ideas and the interdisciplinary association 'Image and Thought' in Moscow, Russia, as early as 1986, and even from 1982 developed ideas for interdisciplinary thinking and communication in the framework of the Club of Essayists. These groups were a kind of pre-electronic Intelnet," he explained. On the award, he commented, "Of course, I am very proud to receive an award from such a prestigious institution as The Institute for Social Inventions in London. For me, it was quite an unexpected honor, because my site exists on the Internet for a very short period, only from late June 1995." Intelnet can be found on the World Wide Web at http://userwww.service.emory.edu/~russmne/intelnet.html . The associated Natural Death Center also announced awards which included Internet services. The main International Award 1995 for the most imaginative project that will improve the quality of dying was awarded to the Internet Garden of Remembrance. The garden is run by the DeathNET Internet site and is an imaginative way for a family member or friend to be immortalized in cyberspace, with their obituary kept online and available to be read by anyone in the world with access to a computer and modem, for as many years as wanted. The commemoration of the person can be in multimedia form, including excerpts from home videos, letters, diaries or favorite music. The Internet address is http.//www.islandnet.com/~deathnet/garden.html . The Institute of Social Inventions can be found on the Internet's World Wide Web at http://newciv.org/worldtrans/isi.html . (Martyn Williams/19950727/Press contact : Merlyn Albery, Institute for Social Inventions, +44-181-208-2853, fax +44-181-452-6434, Internet email rhino@bbcnc.org.uk; Mikhail Epstein, Intelnet, Internet email russmne@unix.cc.emory.edu; Flemming A. Funch, New Civilization Network, Internet email ffunch@newciv.org) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 07/27/95 BUSINESS Fujitsu Announces Major US Expansion (NEWS)(BUSINESS)(TYO)(00016) Fujitsu Announces Major US Expansion 07/27/95 TOKYO, JAPAN, 1995 JUL 27 (NB) -- An American subsidiary of Tokyo- based electronics giant Fujitsu has announced it is to go ahead with a $1 billion expansion of its Oregon manufacturing plant, creating 450 extra jobs for the area. The new plant will add extra capacity to the company's silicon wafer manufacturing business. The project was officially announced this week after the local city council approved a $23.3 million tax break for the company. The site for the expansion, Multnomah County, Oregon, is currently home to Fujitsu Microelectronics Inc.'s (FMI) Gresham Manufacturing Division. The expansion will enlarge the 225,000-square-foot plant by 545,000 square feet in a two-phase development and investment plan which begins in the autumn of this year and will be completed by the end of fiscal 1998. Currently the plant employs 530 people and an extra 450 jobs will be provided once the plant is completed and fully operational. Jun Nakano, general manager and vice president of FMI, commented, "The decision to expand our facility in Gresham is another major milestone for us since we began operations in 1988. Gresham is an example of Fujitsu's strong commitment to the community, to local manufacturing in a worldwide network, and to the US marketplace." The expansion will see the building of a new wafer fabrication facility which will process wafers in its sub-class-1 "super-clean" clean room with less than one particle per cubic foot of air. The new plant will manufacture 8-inch wafers using 0.32-micron technology, according to FMI. Such wafers are used in the production of dynamic random access memory (DRAM) chips. The plant will initially produce 16-megabit DRAM chips but have the ability to switch to production of the greater capacity 64-megabit DRAM chips when the market dictates. There is currently a worldwide shortage of memory chips, key components of many computers and today's new multimedia technologies, which is forecast to get worse before new plants such as the FMI Oregon facility come online. Currently the existing plant is operating at full capacity 24 hours-a-day, seven days-a-week. FMI wants to make the plant a welcomed member of the local community and the extra creation of jobs furthers this desire. Nakano continued, "I believe that GMD is an integral part of the local community. We will work closely with the community in areas such as education and training to bring a skilled labor force to the industry and the community." The plant is involved in charity activities in the local area and contributes computer equipment and training to local schools, among other activities. (Martyn Williams/19950727/Press contact : Emi Igarashi, Fujitsu Microelectronics Inc., 408-922-9104) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 07/27/95 PC Intel Making Desktop PCs For Toshiba (NEWS)(PC)(TYO)(00017) Intel Making Desktop PCs For Toshiba 07/27/95 TOKYO, JAPAN, 1995 JUL 27 (NB) -- Intel Corporation is making desktop PCs for Toshiba Corporation which are being sold in Japan under the Toshiba brand name, a Toshiba spokesman confirmed to Newsbytes. The machines, introduced in May of this year, are part of a drive by Toshiba to expand its desktop PC business. Toshiba sells desktop computers in Japan but has a small market share, last year selling just 38,000 computers. This year the company hopes to sell over ten times that figure, 400,000 units, of which around one third, or 120,000, are projected to be the Intel-built machines. "It leaked from somewhere," said Toshiba's Keisuke Ohmori, explaining to Newsbytes that the news was not actually released. "There are similar deals and this type of thing is usual in the industry," he continued. Ohmori couldn't be drawn into any details of the deal between the two companies, citing corporate confidentiality, but did note the two companies work closely together. "We have a good relationship with Intel, we exchange information. Recently we announced the world's first sub-notebook computer featuring a low voltage Pentium." All of Toshiba's desktop range uses Intel Pentium processors. Intel is producing a series of Pentium-based machines running at between 75 and 120MHz that were first launched in May of this year such as the PV-3000 5120 series machine. Around the world Toshiba enjoys the largest market share of the notebook computer sector, at 18%, but only sells its desktops in Japan. Ohmori said the company may expand its desktop range overseas but this would be a carefully considered move, "In the future we must study the feasibility of expanding our range using desktop computers but the US market is very competitive, especially with computers from Taiwan and US makers buying computers from Taiwan." (Martyn Williams/19950727/Press contact : Keisuke Ohmori, Toshiba Corporation, +81-3-3457-2105, fax +81-3-3456-4776) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 07/27/95 BROADCAST Rivals Announce Digital Camcorder Products (NEWS)(BROADCAST)(TYO)(00018) Rivals Announce Digital Camcorder Products 07/27/95 TOKYO, JAPAN, 1995 JUL 27 (NB) -- Japan's two biggest consumer electronics companies, Sony Corporation and Matsushita Electric, have announced they will this year begin selling camcorders based on a new digital video cassette format. The new cameras use the DV system, a consumer use digital SD specification, that was agreed on in April 1994 at the HD Digital VCR Conference as the next generation video cassette technology by a group of 55 major consumer electronics makers in Japan and overseas including Philips of the Netherlands, and France's Thomson. Digital camcorders differ from previous "digital" camcorders in that they are entirely digital all the way through, from image capture to tape recording. The new Sony models will be additions to Sony's Handycam range under the Digital Handycam name. Two units will be introduced in Japan from 10 September and overseas later in the year, headed by the DCR-VX1000 priced at 350,000 yen ($3,977). A cheaper model is available, the DCR-VX700, at 235,000 yen ($2,670), although Sony says the VX1000 will offer a superior picture, the best of any camcorder on the market. Both feature a 12-bit PCM (Pulse Code Modulation) digital stereo sound system. High quality recording is achieved by a 500-line resolution digital component recording system which separately lays down luminance and color signals in an area three times the size of conventional VHS tape. The high resolution means pictures will look as good as those from broadcast television and around twice the resolution of standard VHS tape. Sony say the quality makes the units suitable for everyone from consumers at home to professional video journalists. The new VX1000 camera weighs 1.4 kg and measures 110 mm high, 144 mm wide and 329 mm thick. This is slightly heavier and larger than the VX700 model. Sony production predictions call for 36,000 of the VX1000 and 72,000 of the VX700 to be sold in the first year of availability. Speaking to Newsbytes, a Sony spokesman in Tokyo said the current Japanese market for all camcorders stands at around 1.4 million units a year of which Sony has a 40% market share. Video cassettes for the new system are available in two lengths, a 30- minute tape costs 1,800 yen ($20.45) with a 60-minute tape priced at 2,200 yen ($25.00). An unique feature of the tapes is a 4kbit chip used to record data for the cassette memory function, an option under which information such as recording date and time is recorded, allowing easy location of events on the tape. Osaka-based Matsushita Electric, Sony's biggest competitor in the consumer electronics field, says it will also be announcing a new digital camcorder next week although no details are available at present. The Matsushita unit will sell worldwide before the end of the year. The two companies presently market camcorders based on different video tape standards. In 1985 Sony announced industry agreement for its Video 8 system but most companies never manufactured camcorders using the system. Chief rival Matsushita invented the VHS-C format based on its widely used VHS system. The VHS-C system uses cassettes that are basically cut down VHS tapes. The main advantage of the system is that, with the use of a cheap adapter, the tapes will play in a regular video cassette recorder. (Martyn Williams/19950727/Press contact : Gene Huh, Sony Corporation, +81-3-5448-2200, fax +81-3-5448-3061; Matsushita Electric Corp, +81-3-3578-1237; Reader Contact : Sony Corporation Tokyo Customer Service Center, +81-3-5448-3311/SONYCAM950727/PHOTO) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 07/27/95 ONLINE ****AOL, Bertelsmann Online Finalize Management Team (NEWS)(ONLINE)(MSP)(00019) ****AOL, Bertelsmann Online Finalize Management Team 07/27/95 VIENNA, VIRGINIA, U.S.A., 1995 JUL 27 (NB) -- America Online Inc. (NASDAQ:AMER) (AOL) and Bertelsmann, AG announced they are one step closer to starting an online service in three European countries, with the selection of a management team. Services should be online in the United Kingdom, France, and Germany later this year, AOL spokesperson Judy Tashbook told Newsbytes. Each country will have content provided in its native language, and will focus on the culture of the country, she added. As previously covered in Newsbytes, the new online venture will have the look and feel similar to the current AOL service. The pricing structure will also mirror that of its American cyberspace cousin. The new management team is a mix of people promoted from within AOL, along with some new blood. All are also from varied backgrounds, including television, new media, and the print world. Tashbook said their different experiences are important because "the online service is a combination of new media and traditional media. All of these people have good experience in these areas." Each country's service will have its own managing director. Jonathan Bulkeley will get the nod in the UK, Bertrand Le Ficher will be the company's man in France, and Jan Henric Buettner and Andreas von Blottnitz will together head efforts in Germany. All will be responsible for the development, creation, and marketing of the interactive service in each respective country. Bulkeley most recently held the title of vice president of business development at AOL. His responsibility was developing new revenue streams, primarily through advertising and transactions. Before that, he was responsible for the development and production of all AOL media partnerships. Mark Minkin will be succeeding Bulkeley at AOL. He was senior vice president for new media services at Redgate Communications, which is owned by AOL. Le Ficher's background includes working for Antenne de France 2, and the marketing of the "Super Channel, which is one of the largest pan- European cable and satellite networks. Buettner and Blottnitz used to consult Bertelsmann as it planned online services in Germany. In addition, Dr. Urlich Neuert was named chief financial officer of the venture. He was most recently vice president for business development at BMG Entertainment in New York, which is a business unit of Bertelsmann, AG. (Bob Woods/19950727/Press Contacts: Judy Tashbook, America Online, 703-918-1452. Public Contact: America Online, 800-827-6364) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 07/27/95 TELECOM Unitel Gets More Funding, Loan Extension (NEWS)(TELECOM)(TOR)(00020) Unitel Gets More Funding, Loan Extension 07/27/95 TORONTO, ONTARIO, CANADA, 1995 JUL 27 (NB) -- Unitel Communications Inc., the struggling national long-distance carrier, finally has some good news. The company said it has obtained $45 million in additional funding from a loan syndicate, and has been able to extend existing loans until year-end, by which time the company expects to have found the buyer it is seeking. Carleen Carroll, a spokeswoman for Unitel, told Newsbytes that several investors have expressed interest in buying the company or a stake in it. Unitel's largest shareholder, Canadian Pacific Ltd. (TSE,ME,VSE:CP), has made clear that it wants to sell its 48-percent share of the company. Earlier this year it appeared that Rogers Communications Inc. (TSE,ME:RCI), Unitel's second- largest shareholder, might buy CP's interest, but Rogers backed away from the purchase in the spring, leaving Unitel's future in doubt. The company's banks have repeatedly extended the deadline on C$650-million worth of loans. Carroll said the loans have now been extended until the end of the year or "essentially until the company is sold." Though there are "not a large number" of bidders for the money- losing carrier, according to Carroll, Unitel officials said they are confident they will soon find a buyer. The Globe and Mail, a Toronto newspaper, reported today that Sprint Canada, the other principal national long-distance company, is among those interested. Carroll said she could not identify any of the interested parties. New York investment bank J.P. Morgan & Co. is conducting the search for investors. Company officials said earlier this year that Unitel has been losing more than C$300 million per year. Unitel's third major shareholder is AT&T Co. (NYSE:T). Rogers Communications owns 29.5 percent of the company and AT&T holds 22.5 percent. (Grant Buckler/19950727/Press Contact: Carleen Carroll, Unitel, 416-345-2114) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 07/27/95 UNIX More On IBM And Digital Joint Update To NetView (NEWS)(UNIX)(BOS)(00021) More On IBM And Digital Joint Update To NetView 07/27/95 MAYNARD, MASSACHUSETTS, U.S.A., 1995 JUL 27 (NB) -- IBM and Digital's jointly developed update to NetView, which features a new client-server architecture and compliance with SNMP (Simple Network Management Protocol) 2, brings a three-fold performance boost, along with better security, simplified operations, investment protection, and increased productivity, Digital and IBM officials maintained, during a conference call with Newsbytes. #IMAGE 1 20 TWPCX \images\95072721.PCX Click here for photo The partnership between IBM and Digital around the network management system dates back to fall, 1993, and has now brought two new versions of NetView for AIX, three new versions for Digital Unix, and a soon to be announced edition for Windows NT, said Lynn Wilczak, director of SystemView strategy and plans for IBM. Digital and IBM have been collaborating closely over a T1 link in the joint production of IBM's new SystemView for AIX, version 4, and Digital's Polycenter Manager on NetView for Digital Unix, as well as the upcoming Windows NT product, reported Dennis Bledrzybski, Polycenter marketing manager for Digital. In addition to AIX, Digital Unix, and Windows NT, the NetView server operates on OS/2, MVS, Sun and UnixWare, the NetView client operates on Apple, NCR, and almost any other client, according to Wilczak. Wilczak added that she expects the changes to NetView will also be ported to other platforms. Faye Allen, director of marketing for Digital's Network Integration Software Group, told Newsbytes that the NetView Association has now become the largest vendor support program in the industry, with the addition of Windows NT and OS/2 platforms last fall, and further growth since then. With 270 vendors and over 200 shipping applications, the NetView Association is now larger than comparable organizations for either Hewlett-Packard OpenView or SunNet Manager, according to Allen. Wilczak told Newsbytes that, in the new client-server editions of NetView for AIX and Digital Unix, all processing has been moved to the client, for greater performance and scalability, distributed management, and cost reduction. The new versions of NetView can support up to 30 clients, in contrast to competing products, which support only "a single LAN (local area network) segment," or 12 to 15 clients, she contended. NetView now offers a choice between Remote Client Support (RCS) and NetWare File Server (NFS), in contrast to other offerings, which are limited to NFS, according to the director of SystemView strategy and plans. Also in the new versions of NetView, she added, the need for the X protocol has been removed. The new versions, she added, will also comply with the emerging SNMP 2 network management standard. Initial support for SNMP 2 will include the use of GetBulk to transfer more information, plus a new multivendor manager-to-manager communications feature, according to Wilczak. By the end of this year, she said, Digital and IBM expect to add compliance with additional SNMP 2 specifications: the WinSNMP version 1.1 API (application programming interface), the SNMP 2 protocol stack, and MIB (management information base) loader and browser applications for managing SNMP 2 security and trap processing capabilities. "Further (SNMP 2) enhancements are still uncertain," Newsbytes was told. The next releases of NetView -- which are slated to ship July 28 from IBM, and September 1 from Digital -- will also include authentication services and other security features that "nobody else has," according to Wilczak. Until now, she pointed out, network management has not been an area noted for its security capabilities. For login authentication, however, NetView will now provide "standard security APIs," she reported. In addition, administrators will now be able to customize users' menu bars, tool palettes, and context menus to allow access only to designated areas. The update will also bring the option to maintain a security audit trail, permitting the administrator to see whether any unauthorized activity has taken place. Another new feature, Wilczak said, is a distributed policy manager for defining policies. The new versions will also bring an "event correlation" capability that uses a graphical rules editor to let the administrator analyze and diagnose events, and solve problems through "appropriate action routines," ranging from dynamic event display to map status display designated to individual events, according to Wilczak. Administrators can be notified of alarms by paging, electronic mail, or "invoking a separate application," she continued. Allen told Newsbytes that, also in the new versions, the object collection facility has been enhanced to ease operator queries. This facility allows the administrator to group network devices such as file managers, printers and routers based on "collection rules," and to then make changes to the whole group via a single command, according to the Digital exec. "You can ask to see all the routers on the router backbone, for example. It will then go out and collect all the routers," she explained. The groups can be based on characteristics like network address ranges, as well as type of device. If a new device is added to the network that meets the characteristics of one of the groups, it is automatically added to that group, she said. Allen added that the new editions also bring a new graphical user interface (GUI) with a zoom feature, color-coded event cards (red/green/yellow), and enhancements for viewing stacks and menus. Also during the teleconference, Biedrzybski told Newsbytes that Digital's Polycenter Manager on NetView, version 4, will be "tightly integrated" with Polycenter DECnet Manager for Digital Unix, version 2.1, a new client-server edition of that product. (Jacqueline Emigh/19950727/Reader Contacts: IBM, 914-765-1900; Digital, 508-493-5111; Press Contacts: Chuck Malkiel, Digital, 508- 264-6740; Melinda Painter, IBM, 919-543-9627/NETVIEW950727/PHOTO) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 07/27/95 BUSINESS Adaptec to Acquire Incat Systems (NEWS)(BUSINESS)(LAX)(00022) Adaptec to Acquire Incat Systems 07/27/95 MILPITAS, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1995 JUL 27 (NB) -- Adaptec announced that it has agreed to acquire Incat Systems Software, Inc. of Campbell, California for 385,078 shares of Adaptec common stock. Incat Systems, a privately held company founded in 1983, develops and markets software for recordable CD peripherals (CD-R). The transaction value for Adaptec's acquisition of Incat was over $16 million. Speaking to Newsbytes, Bruce Frymire, vice president of product marketing, said, "We did not purchase Incat for its current revenue stream. Our interest is in the long term potential of Incat's CD-R software. We consider CD-R to be one of the fastest growing markets in computer peripherals." "CD-R technology permits full capacity permanent recording of data on CDs. The CD-R can perform all the functions of existing CD-ROMs as well as recording data for backup, data interchange, and personal CD mastering," said Frymire. "A lot of analysts believe that CD-R will completely replace the CD-ROM in the next three to five years. Today, there is a significant price differential between the CD-R and the CD-ROM, but with increased technological improvements, the price of CD-R will continuously drop. "There are three legs to the CD-R stool," said Frymire, "hardware, software and connectivity. Adaptec is one of the world leaders in connectivity applications, and we believe Incat's software advances will give us two of the three legs in the CD-R marketplace." According to F. Grant Saviers, Adaptec chief executive officer, "We are delighted to announce our agreement to acquire Incat Systems, the leading software provider for this fast growing market. Fabrizio Caffarelli, founder of Incat, was one of the first to see CD-R as the logical successor to CD-ROM. The combined resources of Incat and Adaptec will mean consumers will enjoy the exciting application of CD-R sooner." Caffarelli, Incat Systems' president, said: "During the past two years, Incat's core software engine has allowed us to achieve close working relationships with virtually all the current and soon-to-be announced CD-R drive manufacturers. Adaptec leads the development of I/O (input/output) connectivity for CD-R. This will be a logical combination that could ultimately serve the broadest possible group of customers." Caffarelli announced that he plans to serve Adaptec as vice-president of strategic development. Adaptec, Inc. was founded in 1981, and is headquartered in Milpitas, California. Adaptec employs approximately 1,800 people. (Richard Bowers/19950727/Press Contact: Bruce Frymire, Adaptec 408-957-4893) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 07/27/95 LEGAL ****Microsoft Donates $6 Million In Software To Settle Suit (NEWS)(LEGAL)(DEN)(00023) ****Microsoft Donates $6 Million In Software To Settle Suit 07/27/95 REDMOND, WASHINGTON, U.S.A., 1995 JUL 27 (NB) -- Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ: MSFT) has agreed to equip one classroom in each of California's more than 1,000 school districts with a copy of its word processing, spreadsheet, or Access database computer software. A Microsoft spokesperson told Newsbytes the software at current street value would total about $6 million, although at the academic pricing Microsoft offers educational institutions, it would only be about $1 million. #IMAGE 1 20 TWPCX \images\95072723.PCX Click here for photo The agreement settles a complaint filed by the Marin (California) county district attorney that accused Microsoft of making "untrue and misleading advertisements." Microsoft did not admit any wrongdoing in agreeing to the settlement, which was reached following two years of negotiations. The complaint alleged that Microsoft Office software comes in a box that depicts four software programs but that the box only contained three applications. Microsoft Office is a collection of software that includes Microsoft Word for word processing; Excel for spreadsheets; PowerPoint for graphics; and a license to use Microsoft Mail to send and receive electronic mail. The suit alleged that the box contained only Word, Excel and PowerPoint but depicts Microsoft Mail, although all the purchaser gets is a license to use Mail. Microsoft spokesperson Erin Carney told Newsbytes Microsoft also agreed to pay a $175,000 civil penalty and will pay Marin County $90,000 to cover the county's legal fees and investigative costs. Carney stressed that the complaint referred to previous packaging of Office. The packaging has since been revised and Carney said the Marin county DA told Microsoft the packaging now conforms to California's laws relating to product packaging. Carney said the company settled only to avoid a technical dispute and to end the case. "We feel we caused no actual injury to consumers," Carney said. (Jim Mallory/19950727/Press and public contact: Microsoft, 206-882-8080 or 800-426-9400/OFFICE950727/PHOTO) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 07/27/95 BUSINESS AT&T To Buy Part of Philips Comms Systems (NEWS)(BUSINESS)(MSP)(00024) AT&T To Buy Part of Philips Comms Systems 07/27/95 MORRISTOWN, NEW JERSEY, U.S.A., 1995 JUL 27 (NB) -- AT&T (NYSE:T) Network Systems said it intends to buy part of the public network assets held by Philips Electronics of the Netherlands (NYSE:PHG), for an undisclosed price. The deal relates to four Philips units, dealing with cellular, managed transport networks, microwave, and data transmission. Specifically the businesses under consideration include the corresponding activities of Philips Kommunikations Industrie (PKI) of Nurmeberg, Germany; and of Telecommunications Radioelectriques et Telephoniques (TRT) of Paris, France. Both are subsidiaries of Philips. Paul Provost, AT&T Network Systems spokesperson, said this deal is a "win-win" situation for both companies. "It's a real nice fit for us, and Philips can get out of public networks and into private networks." He said the deal will fold into AT&T's wireless products and transmission products. For wireless systems, AT&T said it is the only supplier that can offer customers worldwide virtually any type of wireless system they need, because AT&T now has access to all current industry standards. Those standards include Global System for Mobile Communication (GSM), and Digital European Cordless Telecommunications (DECT), both European standards that the Philips deal brings to the table. The incorporation of Philips's Synchronous Digital Hierarchy (SDH) transmissions systems will be a good fit with AT&T's existing SDH products, Provost said. He also said Philips' strong presence in the European market will be an asset to AT&T, as it builds its global business platforms. The companies said a final purchase agreement will be reached within the next several months, and it must be approved by both companies' boards of directors. (Bob Woods/19950727/Press Contacts: Jennifer Samuel of AT&T Network Systems - Netherlands, +31-35-87-2305; Paul Provost of AT&T Network Systems - US, 201-606-2826; or Cor Vreven of Philips Electronics - Netherlands, +31-40-75-7005) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 07/27/95 TELECOM ****Sprint To Spin Off Cellular Business (NEWS)(TELECOM)(MSP)(00025) ****Sprint To Spin Off Cellular Business 07/27/95 KANSAS CITY, MISSOURI, U.S.A., 1995 JUL 27 (NB) -- Sprint Inc. (NYSE:FON) said it will spin off its cellular unit to its shareholders. The company is following through on a June announcement that stated it was considering various options for its cellular unit, including a spin-off. Analysts have put a price tag on the deal that varies from $2.4 billion to more than $4.5 billion. Sprint spokesperson Steve Dykes told Newsbytes the company itself won't put a dollar figure on the spin-off until it looks at exchange rates. An official amount should come later this year, he said. The spin-off itself should be completed in the second quarter of 1996. Sprint's brand name won't be used after the spin-off is done. The spin-off will bring Sprint in line with Federal Communications Commission (FCC) requirements regarding Sprint's cellular operations that overlapped with and markets that have wireless personal communications service (PCS) through a joint venture in which Sprint is involved. The venture, called the Sprint Communications Venture, includes Sprint, Tele-Communications Inc. (TCI), Comcast, and Cox Communications. The overlap was not a concern for most of Sprint's cellular business. But Dykes told Newsbytes it gave the company a chance to look at its business strategies when it came to both cellular and PCS. "We decided on the spin-off for several reasons, including shareholder value. Our shareholders will still be able to participate in cellular as well as PCS." The PCS network will reach a potential 180 million customers, Dykes said, while the cellular customer's base is 20 million. "The board decided that it's simply prudent for shareholder value and future opportunity to go with the PCS option." As previously reported by Newsbytes, Sprint cellular had operating revenues of $823 million in the latest 12-month period ending June 30, 1995, up 43% from the previous year. Operating income increased 129%, and operating cash flow went up 61%. When it came to its subscriber base, Sprint's numbers nearly doubled. (Bob Woods/19950727/Press Contacts: Steve Dykes, 202-828-7435, Internet e-mail steve.r.dykes@sprinta1.sprint.com, or Bill White, 913-681-9099, e-mail bill.k.white@aprinta1.sprint.com) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 07/27/95 APPLE Apple Adopts Oracle Client/Server Development Tools (NEWS)(APPLE)(SFO)(00026) Apple Adopts Oracle Client/Server Development Tools 07/27/95 CUPERTINO, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1995 JUL 27 (NB) -- Apple Computer (NASDAQ:AAPL) announced the inclusion of Oracle's (NASDAC:ORCL) Oracle Power Objects client/server development tool to its own suite of application development tools. Oracle Power Objects is designed for the development of applications running in either the Macintosh or Windows environment. Apple says Oracle plans a version of the tools for the OS/2 platform in 30 to 60 days. The OS/2 version rounds out a set of tools which will allow developers to use drag-and-drop programming technology for creating applications easily for all three environments. Apple spokesperson, Keith Toleman, told Newsbytes, "We have heard a strong interest from the business market for client/server, cross- platform tools. Thirty-five percent of Apple's revenues are derived from the business market and this announcement highlights our commitment to that group." These object-oriented tools are being added to Apple's own suite of tools for application development and fit into Apple's overall strategy of an open, cross-platform environment. Each version of Apple's operating system is designed to include additional steps toward a true, open operating environment. The latest version of Apple's operating system, System 7.5, introduced some of the early components of the open system. The next and soon to be released system, Copland, includes open, cross-platform computing based on component software and a final system, Gershwin, is planned as the true cross-platform environment, Newsbytes was told. No dates are available for the delivery of Gershwin, but a major operating system could easily take 18 to 30 months. Copland is scheduled for release next year. By using Oracle's object-oriented tools, developers are not required to have extensive training and experience with relational databases and SQL programming language. With graphical representations of application components, developers are able to drag-and-drop objects to build an application as opposed to programming line-by-line of code. Oracle Power Objects use Oracle Basic scripting language which is compatible with Basic syntax used in Microsoft's Visual Basic. Oracle says developers with experience in MS Visual Basic will find their skills transport easily to Oracle Power Objects. Under Oracle Power Objects for Macintosh, Apple will offer a stand-alone edition for either Mac or Windows-based computers which allows developers to create client/server applications without the need to connect to host-based data. A client/server edition for either a Mac or Windows-based computer offers the additional capability to connect to most relational databases. (Patrick McKenna/19950727/Press Contact: Keith Toleman, tel 408- 974-4104) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 07/27/95 TELECOM AT&T Offer Multiple Person Video Conferencing (NEWS)(TELECOM)(SFO)(00027) AT&T Offer Multiple Person Video Conferencing 07/27/95 SAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1995 JUL 27 (NB) -- Claiming to offer the world's first multiple person video conferencing with document sharing on a single call, AT&T (NASDAQ:T) announced WorldWorx Personal Conferencing Service. This new network system for personal computers supports products from Intel, IBM, Apple Computer, Sun Microsystems and others. Demonstrating WorldWorx for the first time yesterday, the company set up an interactive, real-time call between AT&T offices in San Francisco, New York and the Enterprise Computing trade show in Chicago. Company officials say the addition of document/data sharing completes the system for its already existing voice and video conferencing technology. Ernie DeNigris, vice president of AT&T WorldWorx Network Services, told the assembled press in New York and San Francisco, "What we are showing you today is the business call of the future, except for the fact that it is available and can be ordered today. More than one million video conferences have already taken place and now with document sharing the business community has a tool which can save money and increase productivity." He said the video conferencing call today saved AT&T $3,000 which is the estimated travel and lodging cost for the same three people to meet in New York. Company officials stressed repeatedly the openness of the this system. It is hardware-independent based on compliance with H.320 and T.120 standards. The interface for WorldWorx is delivered by AT&T's Vistium Personal Video Software, which debuted in a new version 2.0 yesterday. Responding to critical questions about corporate security, AT&T said customers' conversations and data are protected by a number of steps. The first is that each video conferencing call is set up by one party who notifies AT&T of the parties involved. At an assigned time, an operator calls the parties to connect them to the conference. Each party also has an identification code and a pre-registered "business card" which completes the necessary steps of identification. WorldWorx is a subscription-based service with several pricing plans. An Entry-Level Plan simply calls for a $5.00 per month fee and a $1.30 per minute charge. There are also plans which offer a time limit of calls for a fixed fee and a plan for corporate and group rates. At this time, the on-screen window changes automatically to the person speaking. Future enhancements will allow users to view multiple windows showing more conference participants simultaneously. (Patrick McKenna/19950727/Press Contact: Kevin Compton, AT&T, tel 408-452-3966; Internet Address: kcompton@attmail.com/ATT950727/PHOTO) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 1 07/27/95 NETWORK Microsoft Ships SNA Server 2. (NEWS)(NETWORK)(DEN)(00028) Microsoft Ships SNA Server 2.11 07/27/95 REDMOND, WASHINGTON, U.S.A., 1995 JUL 27 (NB) -- Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ: MSFT) has announced availability of an upgrade to its SNA Server software. SNA Server connects local area networks (LANs) of personal computers with SNA (Systems Network Architecture) networks and runs on the Microsoft Windows NT Server operating system. SNA is a design philosophy that separates network communications into five layers, each performing a task such as data-link control, path control, transmission control, data flow control and function management. Microsoft said SNA Server version 2.11 includes support for the PowerPC platform, and support for TN/3270 clients. It also includes ODBC/DRDA drivers for access to IBM DB2 relational data, SNA Remote Access Service for connecting Windows NT-based LANs across SNA networks, and support for IBM's CA/400 product. An ENHAPPC application programming interface (API) supports compatibility with more APPC applications. You also get support for 16-bit SNA applications on Windows NT and drivers for IBM and Andrew twinaxial adapters, drivers for Barr Systems and Bus-Tech channel adapters. SNA Server 2.11 supports measuring response times between a 3270 emulator and the mainframe without the need to run NetView on the host. That saves the cost of a NetView license, said Microsoft. The Response Time Monitor support also provides immediate, dynamic, graphical charting of response times in the integrated Windows NT Performance Monitor. The update also provides support for subdomains that allows customers to deploy SNA Servers at branch locations while establishing a single Windows NT domain to cover the enterprise, for administrative efficiency. You also get automated, secure logon for all clients, including the Windows 95 operating system, which is scheduled to ship in late August. Microsoft said that support enables users to log on once, rather than having to log on to Windows NT separately before host access via SNA Server is granted. Microsoft said SMNA Server 2.11 can establish a 3270 or 5250 session in less time than was previously possible. SNA Server 2.11 carries a price tag of slightly over $400 for each server license and about $65 for each client license. There are also volume discounts that can lower those costs. Users of SNA Server 2.0 or 2.1 can upgrade for about $400 for each server, unless you purchased the software after June 1, 1995. Those users can upgrade at no cost, said Microsoft. (Jim Mallory/19950727/Press contact: Laurie Smith DeJong, Waggener Edstrom for Microsoft, 503-245-0905; Public contact: Microsoft, 206-882-8080 or 800-426-9400) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 07/27/95 LEGAL ****NY Supreme Court To Hear Prodigy Libel Appeal (NEWS)(LEGAL)(SFO)(00029) ****NY Supreme Court To Hear Prodigy Libel Appeal 07/27/95 WHITE PLAINS, NEW YORK, U.S.A., 1995 JUL 27 (NB) -- This past May, Stratton-Oakmont, an investment banking firm, won a case against Prodigy concerning information posted to a financial bulletin board on the online service. Today, Prodigy announced the New York Supreme Court has agreed to hear a reargument from Prodigy in hopes of appealing the decision. Prodigy's argument is based on new discovery of Stratton-Oakmont, its present and former officers and directors. Part of the discovery concerns an SEC penalty levied against the investment banking firm to pay $500,000, plus $2,000,000 of compensation to investors who lost money because of the firm's conduct. Prodigy says it has also changed counsel to a firm which is known for its First Amendment rights cases and expertise. Heading the case for Prodigy is now Martin Garbus of Frankfurt, Garbus, Klein & Selz. A decision on Prodigy's motion is expected by October of this year. Online services and observers have closely followed the case with concern about a possible precedent which would hold online providers responsible to the content posted on and through its service. Prodigy is receiving support for its case from several online advocacy groups such as the Interactive Services Association, The Authors Guild, and the Electronic Frontier Foundation. Brian Ek, vice president of public affairs for Prodigy, told Newsbytes, "We are taking the offensive in this case. We have strong support throughout the industry and we are committed to having our position vindicated for ourselves and the online industry." (Patrick McKenna/19950727/Press Contact: Brian Ek, tel 914-448-8811) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 07/27/95 BUSINESS Hayes Posts Profit For Third Quarter (NEWS)(BUSINESS)(DEN)(00030) Hayes Posts Profit For Third Quarter 07/27/95 ATLANTA, GEORGIA, U.S.A., 1995 JUL 27 (NB) -- Hayes Microcomputer Products Inc. announced this week it has posted operating profits of $100,000 on sales of $58.4 million during the third quarter of fiscal year 1995. That makes three consecutive quarters that the company, currently under Chapter 11 reorganization, has posted a profit. In a prepared statement Dennis Hayes, president and chief executive officer of Hayes Microcomputer Products, said the company continues to experience record demand for both the Hayes and Practical Peripherals brand products. Hayes pointed out that the profit was realized despite component supply problems early in the quarter and the extraordinary costs associated with the Chapter 11 reorganization. The company said the reorganization costs average about $600,000 monthly. It was those supply problems that forced Hayes into bankruptcy reorganization and still aren't completely resolved. The company reported that shortages of modem chips and chip sets reduced the company's revenues by about $10 million during the third quarter. A out-of-court settlement with chip supplier Rockwell International should ensure a continuing supply of chips and availability of Hayes and PP modems, said the company. Earlier this month a federal judge approved the company's plan for reorganization. The plan calls for creditors to be paid in full plus interest. Hayes officials estimate the company could emerge from Chapter 11 as early as September or October of this year. Judge Hugh Robinson approved the company's disclosure statement for its 100 percent plan of reorganization and a $45 million debtor in possession financial facility with General Electric Capital Corporation. The court also extended exclusivity through September 30, 1995 for Hayes to go forward with the plan. The ruling makes the Hayes plan the only reorganization plan which will be reviewed by the court. With the 100 percent ruling creditors are considered "unimpaired" and will not need to vote on the plan for it to be confirmed. The apparently successful reorganization of Hayes Microcomputer may be due at least in part by Dennis Hayes' decision to get outside help. Hayes hired a team from Arthur Anderson & Co. to help reorganize the modem company. Hayes has signed a letter of intent under which it will be acquired by another communications hardware company, Boca Research (NASDAQ: BOCI) in a deal valued at as much as $45 million, depending on what the attorneys determine as fair market value. A Boca spokesperson told Newsbytes Hayes shareholders will receive 1.5 million shares of Boca common stock. The company said bookings for Hayes and Practical Peripherals brand products remains at record levels and reached more than $74 million during the third quarter. The company said that is a 30 percent increase in year-to-date total shipments of units and better than 11 percent growth over the same period last year. (Jim Mallory/19950712/Press contact: Susan Merkel, Hayes Microcomputer Products, 404-840-6824, Gail Blackburn, Boca Research, 407-997-8621) (SUMMARY)(GENERAL)(MSP)(00031) Newsbytes Daily Summary 07/27/95 MINNEAPOLIS, MINNESOTA, U.S.A., 1995 JUL 27 (NB) -- These are capsules of all today's news stories: ======================================================================== ------------| N E W S B Y T E S D A I L Y S U M M A R Y |---------- ------------| Thursday, July 27, 1995 |---------- ======================================================================== (c) Newsbytes News Network (Tm) Editor in Chief: Wendy Woods ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Newsbytes News Network is a computer and telecom industry news wire and digitized picture service. Our news stream includes more than 30 daily first-hand reported US and international news stories about computing and telecommunications. For more information, please e-mail to 'administrator@newsbytes.com' ------------------------------------------------------------------------ CATEGORY HEADLINES (*** indicates today's top stories) STORY # ======================================================================== APPLE Apple Adopts Oracle Client/Server Development Tools........ 26 BROADCAST Rivals Announce Digital Camcorder Products................. 18 BUSINESS Microsoft Expands China Operation.......................... 06 BUSINESS China - Founder Is Unisys Distributor...................... 08 BUSINESS Samsung Plans $600M India Investment....................... 09 BUSINESS Fujitsu Announces Major US Expansion....................... 16 BUSINESS Adaptec to Acquire Incat Systems........................... 22 BUSINESS AT&T To Buy Part of Philips Comms Systems.................. 24 BUSINESS Hayes Posts Profit For Third Quarter....................... 30 GENERAL Software Publishers Launch "Codies" Award Campaign......... 02 GENERAL Cirrus Logic Licenses Compression Technologies............. 12 GENERAL Japan Newsbriefs........................................... 14 LEGAL ****Microsoft Donates $6 Million In Software To Settle Sui 23 LEGAL ****NY Supreme Court To Hear Prodigy Libel Appeal......... 29 NETWORK Microsoft Ships SNA Server 2.11............................ 28 ONLINE CBS To Establish America Online Presence................... 03 ONLINE Mortage-Maker Goes Online.................................. 04 ONLINE ****American Express Launches AOL Flight Booking.......... 05 ONLINE Internet Innovators Honored................................ 15 ONLINE ****AOL, Bertelsmann Online Finalize Management Team...... 19 PC Intel Making Desktop PCs For Toshiba....................... 17 TELECOM China - Phone-Line Stealing Rampant........................ 07 TELECOM Hong Kong Telecom Cuts Prices.............................. 11 TELECOM Canada To Review Teleglobe Monopoly........................ 13 TELECOM Unitel Gets More Funding, Loan Extension.................. 20 TELECOM ****Sprint To Spin Off Cellular Business.................. 25 TELECOM AT&T Offer Multiple Person Video Conferencing.............. 27 UNIX More On OSF Open Software Mall For Web Technologies........ 01 UNIX More On IBM And Digital Joint Update To NetView............ 21 WINDOWS Hong Kong - September Date For Windows 95.................. 10 ======================================================================== These are the headlines and first paragraphs of each story, in order: 1 -> More On OSF Open Software Mall For Web Technologies -- The OSF (Open Software Foundation)'s new Open Software Mall on the Web will deliver Java, DCE (Distributed Computing Environment) Web, Unification Microkernel, and other new technologies in a "low-cost" way similar to the distribution model for Mosaic and CERN's Web server, said Dr. Ira Goldstein, the OSF's chief scientist and executive VP, in a teleconference. 2 -> Software Publishers Launch "Codies" Award Campaign -- For the second year in a row, the Software Publishers Association will be rolling out a promotional campaign in retail outlets based on SPA's annual Excellence in Software awards, named "Codies." The campaign, to be launched August 1, will have promotional material on Codie winners in over 2,100 participating outlets. 3 -> CBS To Establish America Online Presence -- CBS will increase its reach in cyberspace by more than three million people, by establishing a "major presence" on America Online (NASDAQ:AMER) (AOL), beginning this fall. 4 -> Mortage-Maker Goes Online -- Gathering information on, and applying for mortgages will move from the bank lobby to cyberspace. American Finance and Investment, Inc. (AFI) and CompuServe Inc.'s Network Services Division said they'll develop Mortgages Made Simple, On-Line. 5 -> ****American Express Launches AOL Flight Booking -- Booking flights via America Online (NASDAQ:AMER) (AOL) is now a reality for American Express (NYSE:AXP) members, officials from the credit card company announced today. Express Reservations, from the American Express Travel Related Services (TRS) Company, Inc., is now available through the company's ExpressNet site on AOL. 6 -> Microsoft Expands China Operation -- Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ: MSFT) has announced its revised Greater China organization, including the appointment of a regional director for the area, several new sales offices in the region, and a consulting service in Beijing. 7 -> China - Phone-Line Stealing Rampant -- As China's telephone systems quickly develop, telephone calling fraud has become a serious problem, many of China's newspapers are reporting. Beijing Telephone Bureau reports that the financial damage caused by phone-line theft has reached RMB2.3 million (US$277,000) in a period of seven months. 8 -> China - Founder Is Unisys Distributor -- Beida (Beijing University) Founder Group recently was chosen to be the general distributor for Unisys personal computer products in China. 9 -> Samsung Plans $600M India Investment -- The Korea-based Samsung Corp. plans to invest around $600 million over the next five years in India. 10 -> Hong Kong - September Date For Windows 95 -- Microsoft Hong Kong has confirmed local availability of Windows 95 in early September. 11 -> Hong Kong Telecom Cuts Prices -- In reaction to increasing competition in the international calls market, Hong Kong Telecom has slashed 21% off the cost of calls to North America. The cuts come in the light of new competition from recently licensed local fixed network service providers New T&T and New World Telecom. 12 -> Cirrus Logic Licenses Compression Technologies -- Cirrus Logic Inc. (NASDAQ: CRUS) announced the licensing of the TrueSpeech compression technologies from DSP Group, Inc. (NASDAQ: DSPG). Cirrus Logic will incorporate TrueSpeech compression to expand its digital voice capability. 13 -> Canada To Review Teleglobe Monopoly -- The Canadian government plans to review the monopoly on overseas telecommunications to and from Canada currently held by Teleglobe Canada, Inc. A public notice from the government's Industry Canada department indicates it is leaning toward opening the field to competition. 14 -> Japan Newsbriefs -- In this roundup of news from Japan: Mitsubishi expand R&D overseas, TI Japan to increase production, mobile telephone subscriptions hit 5 million, Osaka US Consulate Online, heat causes problems for power companies; new electronic dictionary. 15 -> Internet Innovators Honored -- The London-based Institute for Social Inventions has announced its Social Innovations Awards for this year and recognized several services running on the Internet. The nonprofit charity makes the awards every year for ideas or projects designed to improve the quality of life. 16 -> Fujitsu Announces Major US Expansion -- An American subsidiary of Tokyo- based electronics giant Fujitsu has announced it is to go ahead with a $1 billion expansion of its Oregon manufacturing plant, creating 450 extra jobs for the area. The new plant will add extra capacity to the company's silicon wafer manufacturing business. 17 -> Intel Making Desktop PCs For Toshiba -- Intel Corporation is making desktop PCs for Toshiba Corporation which are being sold in Japan under the Toshiba brand name, a Toshiba spokesman confirmed to Newsbytes. The machines, introduced in May of this year, are part of a drive by Toshiba to expand its desktop PC business. 18 -> Rivals Announce Digital Camcorder Products -- Japan's two biggest consumer electronics companies, Sony Corporation and Matsushita Electric, have announced they will this year begin selling camcorders based on a new digital video cassette format. 19 -> ****AOL, Bertelsmann Online Finalize Management Team -- America Online Inc. (NASDAQ:AMER) (AOL) and Bertelsmann, AG announced they are one step closer to starting an online service in three European countries, with the selection of a management team. 20 -> Unitel Gets More Funding, Loan Extension -- Unitel Communications Inc., the struggling national long-distance carrier, finally has some good news. The company said it has obtained $45 million in additional funding from a loan syndicate, and has been able to extend existing loans until year-end, by which time the company expects to have found the buyer it is seeking. 21 -> More On IBM And Digital Joint Update To NetView -- IBM and Digital's jointly developed update to NetView, which features a new client-server architecture and compliance with SNMP (Simple Network Management Protocol) 2, brings a three-fold performance boost, along with better security, simplified operations, investment protection, and increased productivity, Digital and IBM officials maintained, during a conference call with Newsbytes. 22 -> Adaptec to Acquire Incat Systems -- Adaptec announced that it has agreed to acquire Incat Systems Software, Inc. of Campbell, California for 385,078 shares of Adaptec common stock. Incat Systems, a privately held company founded in 1983, develops and markets software for recordable CD peripherals (CD-R). 23 -> ****Microsoft Donates $6 Million In Software To Settle Suit -- Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ: MSFT) has agreed to equip one classroom in each of California's more than 1,000 school districts with a copy of its word processing, spreadsheet, or Access database computer software. A Microsoft spokesperson told Newsbytes the software at current street value would total about $6 million, although at the academic pricing Microsoft offers educational institutions, it would only be about $1 million. 24 -> AT&T To Buy Part of Philips Comms Systems -- AT&T (NYSE:T) Network Systems said it intends to buy part of the public network assets held by Philips Electronics of the Netherlands (NYSE:PHG), for an undisclosed price. The deal relates to four Philips units, dealing with cellular, managed transport networks, microwave, and data transmission. 25 -> ****Sprint To Spin Off Cellular Business -- Sprint Inc. (NYSE:FON) said it will spin off its cellular unit to its shareholders. The company is following through on a June announcement that stated it was considering various options for its cellular unit, including a spin-off. 26 -> Apple Adopts Oracle Client/Server Development Tools -- Apple Computer (NASDAQ:AAPL) announced the inclusion of Oracle's (NASDAC:ORCL) Oracle Power Objects client/server development tool to its own suite of application development tools. 27 -> AT&T Offer Multiple Person Video Conferencing -- Claiming to offer the world's first multiple person video conferencing with document sharing on a single call, AT&T (NASDAQ:T) announced WorldWorx Personal Conferencing Service. This new network system for personal computers supports products from Intel, IBM, Apple Computer, Sun Microsystems and others. 28 -> Microsoft Ships SNA Server 2.11 -- Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ: MSFT) has announced availability of an upgrade to its SNA Server software. SNA Server connects local area networks (LANs) of personal computers with SNA (Systems Network Architecture) networks and runs on the Microsoft Windows NT Server operating system. 29 -> ****NY Supreme Court To Hear Prodigy Libel Appeal -- This past May, Stratton-Oakmont, an investment banking firm, won a case against Prodigy concerning information posted to a financial bulletin board on the online service. Today, Prodigy announced the New York Supreme Court has agreed to hear a reargument from Prodigy in hopes of appealing the decision. 30 -> Hayes Posts Profit For Third Quarter -- Hayes Microcomputer Products Inc. announced this week it has posted operating profits of $100,000 on sales of $58.4 million during the third quarter of fiscal year 1995. That makes three consecutive quarters that the company, currently under Chapter 11 reorganization, has posted a profit. (Wendy Woods/19950727) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 07/26/95 APPLE Apple Wants Bigger Market Share In India (NEWS)(APPLE)(DEL)(00001) Apple Wants Bigger Market Share In India 07/26/95 NEW DELHI, INDIA, 1995 JUL 26 (NB) -- "Apple Computer International will be substantially increasing its presence in India, and an investment plan running into tens of millions of dollars has been prepared for the country," claimed Apple's Graham Brown, managing director for India, while inaugurating the Mac Academy, a training franchise of MacVersity for Macintosh platforms. Brown said that MacVarsity provides an opportunity to learn vocations based on the Mac platform and added that it will play a vital role in increasing the Mac's market share substantially in India. He mainly attributed Apple's poor marketing as the cause of the low market share of Macintosh in the region and added that Apple will focus on exploiting new areas of business in publishing, education, and the home in order to increase its base in India in the coming years. Apple's future plans include setting up a research and development facility in Hyderabad and a software development center in Bangalore. At present, Apple is developing a Devnagari script, under its plan to develop an entire kit based on Indian languages. Apple, which has a tradition of establishing training institutions worldwide, is also likely to start academies similar to the MacVarsity, which is not affiliated to any industry. The company has also sent an Indian proposal for the International Grants Program of the US government, the details of which "are confidential," said Brown. The Mac Academy offers a series of courses specifically prepared to help the student attain a high level of professionalism in the chosen field of specialization. The courses include specialized packages in designing, publishing, multimedia, and film editing, based on QuarkXpress, Photoshop, Illustrator, and Videoshop. The Academy is a division of Madras-based PC India, the largest Wipro dealer in South India. PC India is one of the first members of the Wipro Infotech's Maxima group to resell the Apple Macintosh range of computers. (C.T. Mahabharat/19950726) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 07/26/95 BUSINESS India - Tandem Targets Bank Automation (NEWS)(BUSINESS)(DEL)(00002) India - Tandem Targets Bank Automation 07/26/95 NEW DELHI, INDIA, 1995 JUL 26 (NB) -- Tandem Computers Inc., has picked up a 15 percent stake in India Switch Company, a consortium of four, to bid for contracts involving banking automation throughout India. The other three companies are: HMA Data Systems Pvt. Ltd., Financial Software and Systems (FSS) Ltd., and Applied Communications Inc. HMA Data Systems and FSS together have a 55 percent stake, while ACI will have the rest. The consortium had recently clinched a R10 crore Indian Banks Association (IBA) contract to set up an ATM network in Bombay. Thirty-six banks will be participating in the shared payment network system, which includes 19 public sector, nine foreign, and four cooperative banks. The member banks will issue a common card to their ATM account holders. According to Rajan Bhavnani, country manager for Tandem, the banks will be paying 82 paise per transaction to the consortium and an annual fee of R24,000. The consortium will be using the Tandem Himalaya series machine as the host computer for the service. BASE 24-ATM System. The application software will be supplied by ACI, while HMA and FSS will do the systems integration. HMA will also be supplying the ATM boxes, while Motorola India will do the telecom networking. (C.T. Mahabharat/19950726) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 07/26/95 ONLINE Award For Hong Kong Lily Wong Web Page (NEWS)(ONLINE)(HKG)(00003) Award For Hong Kong Lily Wong Web Page 07/26/95 CENTRAL, HONG KONG, 1995 JUL 26 (NB) -- Just a few short weeks after seeing his long-running World of Lily Wong cartoon strip axed by the South China Morning Post, Hong Kong cartoonist Larry Feign has won an award for his World of Lily Wong World Wide Web page. The page, accessed through the Web site of Hong Kong Internet provider Asia On-Line, was voted one of the top pages on the Internet in a poll conducted by Point Survey, a US-based independent listings group. It is believed that this is the first time an Asian page has received such a distinction -- said to be the online equivalent of a five star rating for a hotel or restaurant. Feign told I.T. Daily the award had come as a surprise to him, and he thought it was significant that people on the other side of the world were seeing his work and enjoyed it enough to vote for it. The page also lists extracts of Feign's books and how to order them. Also on the page is a glossary of typical Hong Kong expressions like "gweilo." "Its kind of ironic," said Feign. "If I was still with the Post, they would be putting the award on their front page. As it is, I doubt they will even mention it." Feign said he sees the Web as a place of great opportunities for marketing his books. He hoped somebody would soon figure out how to make money on the Internet, so he could be at the forefront of that movement. Larry Feign's World of Lily Wong can be found at http://www.asiaonline.net/ (IT Daily/19950726) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 07/26/95 GENERAL Australia - Novell Resellers Can Be Trainers Too (NEWS)(GENERAL)(SYD)(00004) Australia - Novell Resellers Can Be Trainers Too 07/26/95 SYDNEY, AUSTRALIA, 1995 JUL 26 (NB) -- The sleepy vacation town of Terrigal recently played host to the Australian stage of Novell's second annual Edge conference. Held exclusively for Novell Education's authorized training channel and select industry partners and participants, this is the first time Edge has been taken to a worldwide level. Edge is the chance for Novell's training channel to get together and get details of the company's latest training measures. It is this channel which Novell believes is playing a vital role in the realization of Robert Frankenberg's vision of one billion Novell users by the year 2000. Pervasive computing is just one of the messages being pushed by Novell and diversity in applications for its products are a key factor in this. In order to ensure the pervasiveness of its products, Novell has been steadily increasing its training channel and relying on it to educate users and potential users about Novell products. The concept is simple: the more people familiar and at ease with a product or technology, the more they are likely to implement and integrate it. In a conference where each of speakers seemed to trying to better the others with the quality of jokes, the prize has to go AT&T's Rohan Champion. In an attempt to explain just why IBM is purchasing Lotus, Champion said, "All Lou Gerstner did was say to his secretary, 'take notes.' So she promptly went out and spent $3.5 billion." At Edge, Newsbytes took the opportunity to speak to Martin Bean, director of worldwide marketing, Novell Education. Bean has had a fairly meteoric career with Novell. In less than two years he has gone from being the education and training manager in Australia to his current position. Newsbytes asked him how much cooperation exists between Novell's training and reseller channels. "While both channels run very different businesses, it's not all that uncommon to find some resellers functioning as both," he said. "In many cases, these are resellers who've seen that the explosion in the services sector represents lucrative opportunities. In fact, any reseller wanting to be in business in five years time, must look at services." For many resellers without Novell training authorization, establishing a relationship with an organization functioning as both a reseller and trainer, represents the potential for losing clients. According to Bean though, there are a large number of training specific companies which, in partnership with a reseller, are able to add value to the reseller's existing services. "One of the avenues open to resellers," said Bean, "is to approach their distributor. In some cases the distributor is also a Novell Authorized Education Center and this means the reseller can obtain both product and training for customers from a single source -- without the threat of losing them to a competitor." There is little doubt that a combination of forces between both channels would be in Novell's best interests. "Sure, both channels working together is a great thing, but we're not going to force these sorts of partnerships on either of our channels. If we tried to do that, all we'd succeed in doing is setting off alarm bells. "What we'd rather do is sit down with resellers and organize, at their request, meetings between them and members of our training channel. In doing this, we're ensuring the reseller still maintains control of the situation, but at least sees the benefits of working with Novell authorized educators." Novell Education has introduced End User courseware which it claims is designed to fit the diverse learning needs of the large end-user applications market. In order to "fit the diverse learning needs," the courseware has been designed as modular blocks consisting of one introduction module and multiple add-on modules and tasks. According to Novell, training with the task-based modules allows instructors to build courses around the training needs of specific audiences, such as a word processing pool, a group of executive offices, or administrative assistants. The courseware encompasses tasks performed in PerfectOffice, WordPerfect, Quattro Pro, Presentations, Paradox, Envoy, InfoCentral, GroupWise, Informs, and SoftSolutions. Courseware and instructor-led training is available through Novell Authorized Education Centers, Novell Education Academic Partners, and Novell Application Training Providers. It will also be made available to resellers through distributors. In what may not be a popular move though, Novell is also making the products available to interested end-users on a direct-from-vendor basis. (Keir Wells/19950726) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 07/26/95 NETWORK Microsoft Tests Windows 95 For NetWare NDS Support (NEWS)(NETWORK)(DEN)(00005) Microsoft Tests Windows 95 For NetWare NDS Support 07/26/95 REDMOND, WASHINGTON, U.S.A., 1995 JUL 26 (NB) -- Microsoft corp. (NASDAQ: MSFT) has announced it is beta testing enhanced Windows 95 client software for Novell NetWare that incorporates support for the Novell NetWare Directory Services (NDS). Client software resides on the user's PC or workstation and is the interface with shared files and applications that reside on a server. The company said the Microsoft Client for NetWare Directory Services is a superset of the network support built into Windows 95, Microsoft's new operating system/graphical user interface set for launch late next month. Microsoft said the client software provides users with login and browsing support for NDS and to connect to resources on NetWare 2.x, 3.x, and 4.x servers using bindery services. Login scripts for NetWare 3.x and 4.x are included. The Microsoft Client for NDS is implemented as a Windows 95 32-bit network client. Graphical NDS tree browsing support is integrated into the Network Neighborhood, and the software also supports features of Windows 95 that include long file names, drag-and-drop file manipulation, and point and print. NetWare utilities like Netadmin and NLIST are also supported. The client software will include password management that supports single-login name and password to access all network resources as well as password-enabled Windows 95-based applications. It will also support Plug and Play, the technology that lets a PC recognize Plug and Play-enabled peripherals like fax cards, modems and printers and automatically adjust to use those devices. The company said the final version of the client software is scheduled to be available within 60 to 90 days after Windows 95 ships and will be available online for download from the Microsoft Network, the software company's online service scheduled for a late August launch. You will also be able to download it from the Microsoft FTP (file transfer protocol) server and in the Microsoft forum on CompuServe. (Jim Mallory/19950726/Press contact: Kathy Gill, Waggener Edstrom for Microsoft, 503-245-0905; Public contact; Microsoft, 206-882-8080 or 800-426-9400) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 07/26/95 TELECOM US West Offers Electronic Meeting Service (NEWS)(TELECOM)(DEN)(00006) US West Offers Electronic Meeting Service 07/26/95 COLORADO SPRINGS, COLORADO, U.S.A., 1995 JUL 26 (NB) -- US West Communications has launched a new service that allows users in different locations to view and work on electronic documents simultaneously using their personal computers. However, it you want to discuss the document as you make changes, you will still need a second phone line. US West has introduced ElectronicMeeting Service, an offering of its Small Business Group, that lets PC users make real-time changes simultaneously to a diagram, document, or proposal. For example, an architect and a building contractor could alter the designs of a housing plan without having to be together at the same location. "Telecommuters or remote employees can work jointly on presentations with their corporate colleagues, and lawyers can collaborate on briefs with clients in other physical locations," explained Andrew Berlinberg, senior product developer at US West's Small Business Group. All you need to use the ElectronicMeeting Service is US West's Liveshare Plus software, which is produced by PictureTel Corporation. The software works over standard telephone lines, and both users must have Liveshare Plus installed to use the ElectronicMeeting Service. LiveShare carries a one-time charge of $249 for each site, but until October 1, US West is offering two copies of LiveShare for the single copy price. Initially the service is available in the Rocky Mountain region, but a spokesperson said it could be expanded to the remainder of the company's service area if it is successful there. Another Rocky Mountain company, Colorado Springs, Colorado-based Interactive Image Solutions Inc. (IIS), offers a similar product. Called Imagine, the Microsoft Windows-based system uses an image capture device such as an ordinary camcorder, CAD (computer-aided design) program, or scanner, a video expansion card, modem, and Imagine software. Once the image has been captured it can then be transmitted to another similarly equipped PC anywhere in the world that can be reached via a telephone line. After the phone link between the two computers is established, a few mouse clicks sends the image. Once the sending and receiving PCs are displaying the still video image, users can communicate in real-time using an interactive arrow, add text, or make freehand annotations directly on the image with a mouse. The annotations appear on both screens simultaneously. IIS told Newsbytes one of the applications for Imagine is to resolve quality control problems. For example, if a manufacturer discovers a hairline defect in a product. Instead of an engineer flying to a distant plant, or the part being returned to the designer, Imagine could have the factory representative and the engineer examining the defect together in a matter of minutes, according to the company. Imagine can not only transmit the images, it can also print a hard copy to a color or laser printer, or fax it. Images are stored in a JPEG (Joint Photographic Experts Group)-format compressed file, and can be exported to other file formats for use in word processing or database programs for documentation purposes. PCs using US West's LiveShare Plus software must have Windows 3.1 or Windows 95 installed and also need at least eight megabytes of system memory. (Jim Mallory/19950726/Press contact: Abel Chavez, 719-636-4596; Public contact: US West Small Business Group, 800-246-5226) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 07/26/95 ONLINE ChronicIllNet Web Site For Illness Info (NEWS)(ONLINE)(MSP)(00007) ChronicIllNet Web Site For Illness Info 07/26/95 BERKELEY, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1995 JUL 26 (NB) -- A new Internet World Wide Web site is now open for anyone who has interest in chronic illnesses like AIDS, cancer, Persian Gulf War Syndrome, and autoimmune diseases. Dubbed "ChronicIllNet," the site is sponsored by Calypte Biomedical. "It turns out there's a world of information out there, and only about half of that is being accessed by researchers out there," Dr. Howard Urnovitz, founder and chief science officer of Calypte, told Newsbytes. "In response to all of the questions I get about where this information exists, we decided to put it on a World Wide Web site." At the site, each area features one disease. Recent abstracts on groundbreaking research are in each disease area, along with a "research bulletin board" to help researchers find study participants and patients find particular studies, a calendar of related conferences and seminars, and news articles on breaking therapeutic and diagnostic developments. Urnovitz said the need for a site like this is readily apparent because as medicine gets sophisticated, the understanding of different areas of the medical field is important. "(The Web site) is a powerful tool for taking someone who's been trained in one discipline, and then allow them access to other fields with a technology that takes just minutes to click on," he said. Another unique feature of the Web site is that it is designed for a wide-ranging audience, including lay people, patients, researchers, and doctors. Urnovitz said the site provides reprints of newspaper articles that break down complicated topics into easy-to-understand language. Yet, he said, there are a number of sophisticated people who want to get more technical with these subjects. "To do that we highlight key words in an article, that when they're clicked on, it takes you into an area that has other published reports and scientific reports on that word." The ChronicIllNet Web site can be found at http://www.calypte.com . (Bob Woods/19950725/Press Contacts: Leslie Lanier or David King, 202-383-9700, for Calypte Biomedical; Public Contact: Internet World Wide Web http://www.calypte.com ) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 07/26/95 GENERAL China - 10 Million "BASIC Language" Books Printed (NEWS)(GENERAL)(PEK)(00008) China - 10 Million "BASIC Language" Books Printed 07/26/95 BEIJING, CHINA, 1995 JUL 26 (NB) -- Ten millions copies of a computer programming book, "BASIC Language," by Tan Haoqiang, a professor of Tsinghua University, have been printed and reprinted between 1985 and 1995. "BASIC Language" is a popular science book designed to teach readers how to write computer programs with the BASIC language. Since it was first published in 1985, the book has been used, not only by schools and colleges as a textbook for BASIC language programming, but also by thousands of computer self-learners. Well-organized program examples and exercises are the key to the book's success. The author, Professor Tan Haoqiang of Tsinghua University, uses simple language to explain the principles and key skills in the BASIC programs. Flow charts are also provided for some complicated programs and the reader can compare their output results with the sample output given in the book in order to check their programming skills. The huge publication count of the book is an indication of the popularity of computer skill learning in China, Tan said. People have realized computer and programming skills are important for almost all sectors in the society, he added. (Chih-Ho Yu & Ning Huang/19950726) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 07/26/95 TRENDS China - Chinese Operating System Market Report (NEWS)(TRENDS)(PEK)(00009) China - Chinese Operating System Market Report 07/26/95 BEIJING, CHINA, 1995 JUL 26 (NB) -- Domestic Chinese DOS and Chinese Windows will continue to dominate the country's operating system market, according to Electronic Product World. The magazine also predicts that 120,000 units of Chinese DOS and 104,000 units of Chinese Windows will be sold in 1995. It is estimated that 1.76 million PCs in China are currently using various Chinese DOS versions, 760,000 PCs are using different Chinese Windows programs, 60,000 PCs are using Chinese Unix, and 30,000 are using Chinese OS/2, the magazine says. However, there are estimated to be about 150,000 PCs with no Chinese environments installed. The most popular Chinese DOS programs are SPDOD by Beida (Beijing University) Founder Group, UCDOS by Beijing Hope Group, and CCDOS by the No.6 Research Institute of Ministry of Electronics Industry. The "big three" command market shares of 34, 23, and 18 percent, respectively. Microsoft's Chinese Windows and Beijing SunTendy's ChineseStar are the two dominate Chinese Windows environments. Their market shares are estimated at 56 and 43 percent, respectively. ChineseStar is actually a "shell" program for the English version of Microsoft Windows. It provides a Chinese environment under Windows, and allows a user to type and edit Chinese characters in any Windows application programs. Based on the most current statistics, the magazine says, 200,000 units of Chinese DOS were sold in 1994. Among them, the leading names were UCDOS (47 percent), SPDOS (24 percent), and XiaoJun Chinese DOS (6 percent). A total of 100,000 units of Chinese Windows were sold last year. Among those, 51 percent were Microsoft's Chinese Windows 3.1, and 46 percent were ChineseStar 2.0. The magazine Electronic Product World also predicts that 120,000 units of Chinese DOS and 104,000 units of Chinese Windows will be sold in 1995. For Chinese DOS, the leading three will be UCDOS, SPDOS, and Chinese Dragon, the magazine says. For Chinese Windows, the first three will be Microsoft's Chinese Windows, ChineseStar, and RichWin by Stone Rich Sight. It is possible that RichWin's share in 1995 will be 18 percent, the magazine says. (Chih-Ho Yu & Ning Huang/19950726) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 07/26/95 BUSINESS China - Tulip Enters PC Market (NEWS)(BUSINESS)(PEK)(00010) China - Tulip Enters PC Market 07/26/95 BEIJING, CHINA, 1995 JUL 26 (NB) -- Holland-based Tulip Computers has begun a campaign to establish itself in China's computer market. As a late comer, Tulip recently began its campaign with a news conference in Beijing, followed by whole-page ads in newspapers. Despite many US companies having entered the Chinese market earlier, Tulip is confident that it has the right strategy to be competitive in China. "By offering very advanced technology at a very competitive price, we think we will be able to make a successful entry into the market," company President Franz Hetsenauer said in the news conference. After 16 years of operating in Europe, Tulip decided to go to Asia just last year, treating China as the center of its expansion. Earlier this year, the company launched its representative offices in Beijing and Shanghai. It is planning to open more offices in other cities. Recently Tulip signed an agreement with Beijing SunTendy Software to bundle its products with SunTendy's ChineseStar 2.0. The software will be pre-installed on Tulip computers sold in China. Analysts said Tulip's cooperation with its Chinese partner will pave the way for its entry into the Chinese market in which many foreign companies have already gained footholds. (Chih-Ho Yu & Ning Huang/19950716/Reader Contact: Tulip Beijing Office, tel +86-10 845-5726, fax +86-10 845-5729, Tulip Shanghai Office, tel +86-10 270-8472, fax +86-10 219-0073) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 07/26/95 GENERAL ****Creative Technology's Co-Founder Quits (NEWS)(GENERAL)(TYO)(00011) ****Creative Technology's Co-Founder Quits 07/26/95 CENTRAL, HONG KONG, 1995 JUL 26 (NB) -- Ng Kai Wa, a co-founder of Singapore's Creative Technology Ltd., maker of the popular Sound Blaster line of add-on boards, has quit the company he helped turn into one of the world's most successful makers of sound cards. Creative said Ng left "to pursue other interests," that his departure was amicable, and that he will continue to serve as a director and vice chairman of the board. The Straits Times newspaper quoted Ng as saying he hoped to start his own company and have greater freedom in research and development. The Straits Times also quoted one securities analyst as being concerned about the effect of Ng's departure on the company's stock performance. Creative's 1994 annual report listed Ng as the company's third-largest shareholder, with 14 million shares, or 16.1% of the company. The big question, said the analyst, was what Ng planned to do with his substantial stake in Creative. The analyst also raised a long-term concern, saying: "As chief technical officer in charge of R&D, how much valuable information is he taking away? This news is definitely more negative than positive." Chairman Sim Wong Hoo has reportedly taken on Ng's responsibilities in the technical direction and R&D fields. Sim launched Creative in 1981 and later described Ng and President Chay Kwong Soon as co-founders. All were in their 20s at the time. A former employee said Sim dreamed up new products, Ng built them, and Chay made sure they got manufactured. "The US$7,150 startup grew into a billion-dollar high-tech enterprise with 3,500 employees, major operations in California's Silicon Valley and the first listing by a Singapore company on Nasdaq, the secondary securities market in the United States," said the Associated Press news service. (Nigel Armstrong and IT Daily/19950726) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 07/26/95 APPLE One-Day Fair To Replace MacWorld/Expo Toronto (NEWS)(APPLE)(TOR)(00012) One-Day Fair To Replace MacWorld/Expo Toronto 07/26/95 TORONTO, ONTARIO, CANADA, 1995 JUL 26 (NB) -- After Mitch Hall Associates called off its MacWorld/Expo Toronto show, originally to take place this September, the Consortium of Canadian User Groups decided to put on its own one-day Macintosh show in its place. MacFair Toronto will take place at the Westin Harbour Castle hotel in downtown Toronto on Saturday, Sept. 9. Despite the weekend date, Zack Bajin, president of the Consortium of Canadian User Groups, told Newsbytes the show is meant to appeal to a mixture of Macintosh users including business people and professionals such as graphic designers as well as hobbyists and home users. The Consortium of Canadian User Groups had previously agreed to organize a three-day convention in conjunction with MacWorld/Expo Toronto, Bajin said. When Mitch Hall, a US-based trade-show organizer, dropped the Toronto show in February, the user organization decided to fill the gap. Mitch Hall Associates has supported MacFair Toronto "in every respect," Bajin said. MacFair is being held alongside the North American User Group Symposium and Workshops (NAUGSAW), which runs Sept. 8 to 10 at the same hotel. Apple Computer Inc. is to exhibit at the show, as are the first companies into the Macintosh clone market, Radius Corp. and Power Computing Corp. The keynote speaker will be Bob LeVitus, director of evangelism at Power Computing, speaking on the topic "Why Licensing Is Good For The Macintosh (And Why Power Computing Is Good For You)." Apple is also slated to give a presentation on new technologies. Organizers said they expect more than 100 vendors and upwards of 5,000 visitors at the one-day event. Admission will be C$10, Bajin said. User Group Connection, a California company that provides services to North American user groups and vendors, is managing and promoting MacFair Toronto. (Grant Buckler/19950726/Press Contact: Zack Bajin, Consortium of Canadian User Groups, 416-944-4461, Internet e-mail zackb@eworld.com) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 07/26/95 ONLINE Prodigy Begins New Look, Ships One Millionth Browser (NEWS)(ONLINE)(SFO)(00013) Prodigy Begins New Look, Ships One Millionth Browser 07/26/95 WHITE PLAINS, NEW YORK, U.S.A., 1995 JUL 26 (NB) -- The bright graphical ads automatically displayed on Prodigy's interface are gone. This week the online service begins a change to a new look and readies to ship its one millionth World Wide Web browser. In early May, Newsbytes ran a story, "New CEO, New Interface," announcing a drastic change for the look of Prodigy's online presentation. Then, new chief executive officer, Ed Bennett, decided to incorporate Prodigy's P2 technology into the main interface. Original plans called for P2 to be offered as an optional interface. With the incorporation of P2, it was decided all members would make a transition to the new look. Prodigy says changes will begin this week, but an official announcement is not expected until next Monday when the company has completed final testing. The service has often been criticized for bright, graphical advertisements which automatically appear at the bottom of a user's screen. Today those ads are gone and replaced with an option to read only the ads user's choose. The second big change in the interface is that users may option not to receive commercial mail. As well as the ads at the bottom of the screen, Prodigy members have received junk mail automatically. These electronic-mail direct advertisements are now an option. Brian Ek, vice president of public affairs at Prodigy, told Newsbytes, "We have gone through a checklist of why people have been dissatisfied with our service and changed the three most mentioned complaints. We have changed the advertising, the interface, and the junk mail. Most importantly, we have integrated the Internet and the World Wide Web into Prodigy content." Outlining the Web integration, Ek said Prodigy content is now written in HTML (hypertext markup language). "This means we are able to offer a service which is completely integrated into the Web. If a member is in a Prodigy area, that area can be hyperlinked to the Web, so the member does not have to open the Web browser. With all of our content programmed in HTML, we have created an open field between our service and the Web." HTML programming of Prodigy content also means advertisers may include hyperlinks in their ads which will take a reader directly to the advertisers Web site for more information. Prodigy also announced it will soon ship its one millionth Web browser. Ek commented, "This is a testimony to the popularity of the World Wide Web and to the interest Prodigy members have expressed in the Web. Of the members capable of accessing the Web through Prodigy, more than 90% have chosen to do so." These interface and programming changes are taking place for Prodigy members accessing the service through Windows-based computers. Responding to Macintosh-based users, Ek said, "We hear you and we are working on these same changes. Before the end of the year Mac users will have the new interface and the browser." Prodigy members will see a new sign-on screen as they enter the service. Upgrading to the new look may be chosen from the highlight screen which appears after logging onto the service. (Patrick McKenna/19950726/Press Contact: Carol Wallace, Prodigy, tel 914-448-2496/PRODIGY950726/PHOTO) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 07/26/95 GOVT ****House Targets Sematech Spending (NEWS)(GOVT)(WAS)(00014) ****House Targets Sematech Spending 07/26/95 WASHINGTON, D.C., U.S.A., 1995 JUL 26 (NB) -- The House Appropriations Committee yesterday approved a spending bill that eliminates funding for Sematech, the public-private partnership that conducts semiconductor manufacturing research. The Clinton administration had proposed funding Sematech at $90 million for fiscal year 1996. Sematech is moving toward operations without federal funding but has been counting on the $90 million in the coming year. The Texas-based organization says it will require no federal funds for 1997. The federal government created Sematech in 1987 as Japanese chip makers appeared ready to take over the world semiconductor market. Since then, the US semiconductor makers have won back a substantial share of the market. The Appropriations Committee report said, "By all accounts (Sematech) has achieved its goals." Therefore, the committee concluded, there is no need for further funding. The attack on Sematech came as part of a wider assault by House Republicans against technology spending programs in the executive branch. For example, the committee would eliminate the Commerce Department's Advanced Technology Program that offers matching funds for "pre-commercialization" technology programs in businesses. The White House asked for $491 million for the program. The Telecommunications and Information Infrastructure Assistance Program, administered by the National Telecommunications and Information Administration, would get $40 million for helping groups propose ways to expand the information superhighway. The administration had requested $100 million. The House committee also slashed the technology transfer programs at the Energy Department's national laboratories, providing $25 million. The administration requested $249.4 million. But the cuts are unlikely to hold in the Senate. Yesterday, for example, the Senate Appropriations energy spending panel voted to restore $229.4 million for the technology transfer programs at the DOE labs. Sen. Pete Domenici (R-N.M.), chairman of the Senate energy spending subcommittee, is a fan of the multi-billion dollar labs and two of them -- Sandia and Los Alamos -- are in his home state. (Kennedy Maize/19950726) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 07/26/95 GOVT Senator Pushes Reforms In Govt Computer Purchasing (NEWS)(GOVT)(WAS)(00015) Senator Pushes Reforms In Govt Computer Purchasing 07/26/95 WASHINGTON, D.C., U.S.A., 1995 JUL 26 (NB) -- Sen. William Cohen (R-Me.), chairman of an oversight subcommittee of the Senate Governmental Affairs Committee, is pushing for quick passage of his legislation to reform the way the federal government buys computer systems. "I intend to see this legislation is brought up and considered this session," the Maine moderate Republican said at a hearing this week. Cohen heads the oversight of government management subcommittee. Cohen will have bipartisan backing for his legislation, including the Clinton administration. The White House's Office of Management and Budget endorsed the Cohen legislation at the hearing. The legislation also won support from the General Accounting Office, the congressional watchdog agency. Cohen introduced the bill in June and it was referred to his subcommittee. He estimates the bill will save the taxpayers some $175 million through the year 2000 by eliminating some of the red tape that faces federal agencies when they try to upgrade major computer systems, such as those that have plagued the Federal Aviation Administration as it has tried to upgrade the air traffic control system. Cohen also says his legislation will cut the average time it takes for the government to buy computer systems from four years to 18 months. The Cohen bill would also stop the practice of awarding legal costs to those who successfully protest a government award but do not allow the government to recover costs when its wins the case. "We do not believe the government is served by the current one-sided arrangement," said Steven Kelman, procurement administrator at OMB. The Cohen bill would also force those who protest contract awards to use the same forums as those used by all other contractors. Cohen is a popular legislator who is known for his attention to trying to make government run more efficiently. He is also a poet and the author of eight books, including three murder mysteries. (Kennedy Maize/19950726/Press Contact: Kathy Guest, Cohen's office, 202-224-2523) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 07/26/95 GENERAL NEC Plans New US/European Research Centers (NEWS)(GENERAL)(TYO)(00016) NEC Plans New US/European Research Centers 07/26/95 TOKYO, JAPAN, 1995 JUL 26 (NB) -- NEC Corporation has announced an expansion of its international research and development activities with the establishment of two new research and development centers in Germany and the United States. Both centers will focus on R&D in multimedia technologies. The announcements were made at a press conference at NEC's Kawasaki Central Research and Development Center which is this year celebrating its twentieth anniversary. The new United States site will be established in San Jose, California, on August 1 and initially employ ten people, with an additional ten to be added in the future, all involved in multimedia software research. The California facility joins NEC's existing R&D center in Princeton, New Jersey, which is involved in multimedia architecture, VLSI (very large scale integration) CAD (computer-aided design) and performance analysis systems. In Germany, a new center will be established in the city of Berlin and further research in multimedia communications technology. From September this year the center will employ five people. NEC also have an R&D center in Bonn which is involved in parallel computing work. Responding to a reporter's question, Dr. T. Ishiguro, NEC's associate senior vice president said that placing the centers overseas instead of Japan showed the company's globalization philosophy. "We want to keep the most excellent technologies and these should be for the most advanced markets. In this case we must go overseas. Each market has its own characteristics, so to develop the most excellent technologies for the most advanced markets we have to be in each market." He added, "We can get the world top class researchers in each location, this is one benefit of our globalization. NEC's vision is spreading to the world so our activities should be worldwide. Our one objective of globalization is to have open windows to the world." Both new centers will be part of the respective national research and development divisions of NEC Computers and Communications (C&C). The C&C group has seven R&D centers in Japan and a further three in the US and Europe. By placing one center in Europe NEC says it will be able to develop multimedia communications technology focused on the unique features and requirements of the European market. (Martyn Williams/19950726/Press contact: Mark Pearce, NEC Corporation, tel +81-3-3798-6511, fax +81-3-3457-7249, Internet E-mail maku_10-22150@aladdin.nec.co.jp) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 07/26/95 TELECOM Two US Firms Buy Into Japanese Cellular Company (NEWS)(TELECOM)(TYO)(00017) Two US Firms Buy Into Japanese Cellular Company 07/26/95 TOKYO, JAPAN, 1995 JUL 26 (NB) -- Two US telecommunications companies have bought into the newly announced TU-KA Hokkaido Co Ltd. The company is the fifth regional TU-KA cellular telephone company and will take the group's mobile telephone service to the northern island of Hokkaido. Both GTE Corp. and Air Touch Communications have taken a 4.5% stake in the company. Majority stakes of 23.0% are held by Nissan Motor Co. and Japan Telecom, a company owned by JR (Japan Railways). Other investors include Hitachi and Hokkaido Railway Co. with 5.5%, and Nippon Steel Corp. and Toyota Motor Corp. with shareholdings of 5.0% each. Other foreign investors include Cable and Wireless and BT International with 2.5% each. TU-KA Hokkaido will soon start work on a digital 1.5 gigahertz (GHz) mobile telephone network to cover the island and compete with Nippon Telegraph and Telephone's DoCoMo cellular telephone network and the recently launched PHS wireless telephone service which debuted July 1 in Tokyo and Hokkaido. The network is expected to be completed in 1997. The company was announced last month in Tokyo and will be officially formed July 28. TU-KA Hokkaido joins TU-KA Tokyo, TU-KA Cellular Tokai, Digital TU-KA Tohoku, and TU-KA Phone Kansai in providing coverage across most of Japan. The group will set up two further companies within the next two months to cover the whole country. Investors and equity stakes in each of the companies is broadly similar to that of the new Hokkaido company. (Martyn Williams/19950726) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 07/26/95 GENERAL Japan Newsbriefs (NEWS)(GENERAL)(TYO)(00018) Japan Newsbriefs 07/26/95 TOKYO, JAPAN, 1995 JUL 26 (NB) -- In this roundup of news from Japan: Kyocera, IBM settle differences; Mecklermedia to sell Tokyo exhibition space; Toshiba America appoints new execs; Matsushita tries new way to lower prices; and Dell signs distribution deal with Fuji Logitech. Kyocera, IBM Settle Differences IBM has dropped a patent infringement lawsuit against Kyocera Corporation, Japan's largest manufacturer of semiconductor ceramics. IBM had previously filed for software infringement in a Tokyo court asking for damages of about 18.7 billion yen ($211 million). The US company alleged Kyocera infringed its BIOS (basic input/output) software routines several years ago when it made computers. The two reached an out of court settlement. Neither side would comment on the size of the settlement. Mecklermedia To Sell Tokyo Exhibition Space Mecklermedia has signed an agreement to sell Internet-related exhibition space at the upcoming World PC Expo being held this September in Tokyo. The agreement with show organizers Nikkei Business Publications means Mecklermedia will handle all bookings for the Internet World Pavilion, expected to be one of the busiest areas of the show. Toshiba America Appoints New Execs Toshiba America Information Systems Inc. has announced the appointments of Shunki Yatsunami as TAIS president, and Hisatsugu Nonaka as senior vice president for the Computer Systems Group. The new appointments are being made to replace Atsutoshi Nishida who is returning to Japan to become director of Toshiba's personal computer business. The US company makes a broad range of products including fax machines, computers, copiers, telephones, and hard disk drives. Matsushita Tries New Way To Lower Prices Faced with competition from cheapening imports, Matsushita Electric is offering retailers the chance to buy goods at a 10% to 15% discount on normal wholesale prices, provided they undertake to keep the goods, even if they remain unsold. The Osaka-based company says it will benefit because it is producing goods it knows it will sell and stores will benefit from greater profit. Initially the scheme will cover electric fans, but will be extended in the future to some low-end televisions and air conditioners. Dell Signs Distribution Deal With Fuji Logitech Dell Japan, in a move aimed at becoming more responsive to the needs of the Japanese marketplace, has signed a distribution agreement with Fuji Logitech KK. The deal means the online order processing systems will soon be linked together thus improving shipping time, according to Dell. (Martyn Williams/19950726) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 07/26/95 CHIPS National Semi Intros Multifunction I/O Chip (NEWS)(CHIPS)(LAX)(00019) National Semi Intros Multifunction I/O Chip 07/26/95 SANTA CLARA, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1995 JUL 26 (NB) -- National Semiconductor (NYSE:NSM) has announced its second-generation standard multifunction input/output (I/O) interface chip. National InfoMover PCM16C02 is claimed to be fully compliant with the recently announced PC Card Multifunction Specification from the PCMCIA (Personal Computer Memory Card International Association) Standards Committee. A multifunction interface enables any two functions to be designed into one PC card and operate concurrently. Some examples of these functions are networking, pager, multimedia, flash memory, sound, and fax/modems. The National InfoMover PCM16C02 is the second release in a series of PCMCIA interface products from the company. The device is targeted at general multifunction applications, but can also operate in single-function design. Patty Sgambellone, strategic marketing manager for National Semiconducter, told Newsbytes, "Both of our I/O interfaces -- InfoMover PCM16C00 and InfoMover PCM16C02 -- are standard off- the-shelf interface products. These products allow card designers to put multifunctions on a card. The first version -- InfoMover PCM16C00 -- was a specialized product, primarily for local area network (LAN) applications." Added Sgambellone, "The new product -- the InfoMover PCM16C02 -- is a more generalized I/O interface. The three main changes are that, the interface logic supports Nan/Technology, the new chip has DMA (direct memory access) support, and a 100-pin thin quad flat pack (TQFP)." The company predicts that there will be approximately 19 million portable and desktop personal computers with PC Card slots by 1996. Today's portable PCs incorporate one or two Type II PC Card slots, limiting the user to two PC Card functions per system. Multifunction cards will expand capability to four functions, allowing for better utilization of the card slots and giving users the flexibility to customize their systems. "PC card developers and manufacturers are striving to implement new functions and combinations of functions onto their cards, as well as expand into new markets," said Bill Hall, director of PCMCIA Products at National Semiconductor. "The InfoMover PCM16C02 allows them to shorten development time and improve time-to-market by focusing their resources on the proprietary areas of their products and not the PC card interface design." According to National, the company has been working with the PCMCIA Standards Organization to define and develop standards for both single-function and multifunction PC card interfaces and CardBus technologies. The firm is developing standard cardside and hostside PC Card and CardBus interface silicon products. The National InfoMover PCM16C02VJG is available priced at $9.65 in one-thousand unit quantities. (Richard Bowers/19950725/Press Contact: Cheryl Patstone, National Semiconductor, 408-721-2879) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 07/26/95 ONLINE Firm Allows Patent Searches On Internet (NEWS)(ONLINE)(TOR)(00020) Firm Allows Patent Searches On Internet 07/26/95 EAST HAVEN, CONNECTICUT, U.S.A., 1995 JUL 26 (NB) -- MicroPatent, a supplier of patent information on CD-ROM, has launched a new service that lets those curious about recent inventions search United States patents on the Internet's World Wide Web. MicroPatent's new Patent Server, at http://www.micropat.com , can search the last two weeks' worth of patents issued by the US Patent Office using full-text searching with capabilities such as Boolean search terms and proximity and adjacency searching, said Peter Tracy, president of MicroPatent. Patents older than two weeks are available on the server as well, but can only be located by patent classification or the actual patent number, a spokesman for the firm explained. Tracy told Newsbytes that to use the server, an Internet user needs to log on to MicroPatent's Web site and provide a name and electronic-mail address. MicroPatent will e-mail back a security code allowing the customer to register to use the service. Once registered, the customer can view and search lists of patents at no charge. MicroPatent only charges for copies of the actual patent documents, at the rate of $1 for the first page and 25 cents for each additional page, Tracy said. MicroPatent can deliver the patent documents as digital images instantly online, Tracy added. MicroPatent is currently supplying software for Microsoft Windows that will let its customers view and print the patent documents locally. A Macintosh version of the software is planned "before the end of the year for sure, and we hope earlier," Tracy said. For now, MicroPatent is sending its customers monthly bills by e-mail. Once ways of paying for services over the Internet have proven themselves reliable, the company will probably adopt one of those, Tracy said. In the meantime, heavy users can use a credit card to supply the company with a deposit account to avoid the paperwork of paying monthly bills, he added. MicroPatent's main business is supplying CD-ROMs containing patent information from the US Patent Office, the European Patent Office, and the World Intellectual Properties Organization. These are updated monthly. The Web service is intended to provide immediate access that have not yet made it onto the CD-ROM, and to offer an easy way of retrieving a copy of a specific patent, the spokesman said. (Grant Buckler/19950726/Press Contact: Peter Tracy, MicroPatent, 203-466-5055; Gary Baker or Jody Cahn, Technology Solutions for MicroPatent, 212-696-2000, Internet e-mail gbaker@tsipr.com; Public Contact: MicroPatent, 800-648-6787 or 203-466-5055, fax 203-466-5054, Internet World Wide Web http://www.micropat.com ) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 07/26/95 BUSINESS Canadian Internet Access Providers To Merge (NEWS)(BUSINESS)(TOR)(00021) Canadian Internet Access Providers To Merge 07/26/95 OTTAWA, ONTARIO, CANADA, 1995 JUL 26 (NB) -- Two Canadian Internet access providers have announced plans for a merger that they claim will create the country's largest Internet company. NSTN Inc., of Dartmouth, Nova Scotia, and Ottawa-based i*internet have signed letters of intent for the deal, a spokesman for NSTN told Newsbytes. NSTN has numerous points of presence in Nova Scotia and some elsewhere in Eastern Canada and Ontario, while i*internet is strong in Ontario and has a significant presence in the western provinces, officials said. Together, they said, the merged company will have more than 30 points of presence across the country, with access via frame relay to 300 other nodes. The companies will be merged under a single name, the spokesman said. The head office is to be in Ottawa, with a major operations center in Dartmouth handling telephone sales, customer service, help desk, billing, and network consulting for the eastern region. Customers' custom Internet domain names will not be affected by the merger, the spokesman said. However, individual electronic-mail customers may have their addresses changed eventually as the two companies replace their existing domain names with that of the merged firm. The companies intend to do this in a way that will "minimize disruption to existing customers," he added. Besides dedicated and dial-up Internet connections, the new company is to provide professional services and network consulting, will design and host web pages, and plans forays into the emerging area of electronic commerce. The merged company has not yet been named. NSTN and i*internet hope to complete the merger by the beginning of August. (Grant Buckler/19950726/Press Contact: David Webster, NSTN, 902-481-6786, Internet e-mail webster@nstn.ca; Rainer Paduch, i*internet, 613-780-2200, Internet e-mail rainerp@fonorola.net) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 07/26/95 ONLINE Public Relations Service On The Internet (NEWS)(ONLINE)(MSP)(00022) Public Relations Service On The Internet 07/26/95 MORRIS PLAINS, NEW JERSEY, U.S.A., 1995 JUL 26 (NB) -- Poppe Tyson Public Relations said it will formally bring its services to cyberspace, with its new "Cyber PR" service, described as a turnkey package of online promotion and conventional media relations services. "Poppe Tyson has been at the forefront among advertising agencies in putting clients on the Net," Steve Goodman, Poppe Tyson partner and director of public relations, told Newsbytes. "As we began working more with clients on the Net, they determined that just making home pages wasn't enough. They also needed to generate traffic on their site." So Poppe Tyson started to promote these sites, and in effect, to bring public relations (PR) to cyberspace. Goodman said the service consists of four parts. The first part entails promoting sites through media that people are reading on the Web, "as well as the media that the people who you want to attract to your Web site are reading," he said. Taking advantage of Internet directory listings, like Yahoo, is the second part of the Cyber PR service. Mentioning the firm's clients in forums like newsgroups and chat sessions is the third aspect of the service, to "attract people to the (client's) site who may not know about it," Goodman said. The fourth part of the service has Poppe Tyson seeking out relevant or related Web sites, and negotiating cross-listings back to the client company's site. Some of the company's clients include Valvoline, Silicon Graphics, Hewlett Packard, and Intel. As far as the future of promotion of Web sites goes, Goodman said his vision is unclear on the subject. "There may be consolidation in (Web listing directories). There may be a streamlining in the way pages are linked together conceptually. A whole lot is going to happen with the Net that may make our service more relevant or less relevant," he said. Poppe Tyson has its own Web page, at http://www.poppe.com . Goodman said more information on the Cyber PR service will be on the site in a few days. (Bob Woods/19950726/Press Contact: Ellen Sanders, Poppe Tyson, 201-539-0300; Public Contact: Poppe Tyson, Internet World Wide Web http://www.poppe.com ) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 07/26/95 ONLINE Internet Law Symposium 95 Features George Gilder (NEWS)(ONLINE)(SFO)(00023) Internet Law Symposium 95 Features George Gilder 07/26/95 SEATTLE, WASHINGTON, U.S.A., 1995 JUL 26 (NB) -- Recent US Congressional hearings on the telecommunications bill have highlighted the lack of law in the Internet. The Discovery Institute, a Seattle think-tank, has announced the International Internet Law Symposium 95 to address laws in the electronic world. Featured speaker for the symposium is George Gilder, technology author and contributing editor to Forbes ASAP magazine. He was also a co-author with Esther Dyson and Alvin Toffler in the production of "Magna Carta for the Knowledge Age." This title is frequently cited by US House Speaker Newt Gingrich. The Discovery Institute says this symposium it designed to attract an international audience of lawyers, para-professionals, and policy makers. Continuing Legal Education (CLE) credits are available to applicable, individual situations. CLE approval is still pending in some states. Backing the Discovery Institute are the Perkins Coie Seattle law office and the Internet Group, a consulting group out of the Northwest area. The two day event is scheduled for October 30-31 at the Westin Hotel in Seattle. This event is co-sponsored by Microsoft. Lecture and panel topics include: "Will Governments Get a Grip on the Net?," "Who Owns What? Intellectual Property on the Internet," "Civil Liberties Lost or Gained on Cyberspace," "Net Law Lawsuits, and Liability," "Virtual Law and Virtual Lawyers on the Net," and "International Trade Law on a Border-Free Net." The Discovery Institute says there will also be a novelty segment called, "Playtime with Dr. Internet." Robert C. Cumbow, an associate at Perkins Coie, told Newsbytes, "This conference was actually developed long before the current controversy taking place in Washington DC. There have been a lot of seminars about the Internet for Lawyers, but most concentrate on how to get on the Internet and how to use it. We think the legal community needs information on how to advise their clients about Internet issues and problems and that is what this symposium proposes to accomplish." He continued, "Business activity on the Internet is increasing daily and there are a number of legal issues which arise at the same time. In some areas existing laws are applicable and in other areas there are issues which need legal definition." Cumbow mentioned security, encryption and signatures as issues the legal community needs to address. (Patrick McKenna/19950726/Press Contact: Bruce Chapman, Discovery Institute, 206-287-3144) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 07/26/95 ONLINE Control Data & AIMS To Bring "Malaysia On Line" (NEWS)(ONLINE)(MSP)(00024) Control Data & AIMS To Bring "Malaysia On Line" 07/26/95 ARDEN HILLS, MINNESOTA, U.S.A., 1995 JUL 26 (NB) -- Control Data Systems Inc. (NASDAQ:CDAT) said it is teaming up with Applied Information Management Services (AIMS) to bring Internet and other related communications services to Malaysia. Control Data will provide software, technical support, and operations support for "Malaysia On Line," a new services by AIMS, which will offer Internet access, electronic-mail exchange, directory access, and other related-services. Other services to be offered include document conversion, e-mail-to-fax transfer, bulletin board services, database services, household services, and managed network services. The service will be based on Control Data's "Mail*Hub" integration solution, officials said. It provides X.400 and Simple Mail Transfer Protocol (SMTP)-based messaging, including gateways to local area networks (LANs) and legacy mailers, and "comprehensive" X.500 directory services. Abraham Levine, Control Data's director of telecommunications marketing, told Newsbytes there is a real need for these types of services in Malaysia. "Hundreds of companies are calling to sign up for the service practically sight-unseen," Levine said. Malaysia On Line is targeted at large industrial companies based in the region, and will become operational October 1. Levine said many companies will access the system via dial-up, although some of the larger companies may either start or move up to 56 kilobits-per- second (Kbps) or T1 direct lines. Malaysia is the catalyst to bring other Asian countries into the Internet world, Levine said. "The Malaysia story can be repeated in a number of different countries, because all of Asia is experiencing growth. And not just a growth in business, but a growth in sophistication. They didn't have any systems before, so as they're establishing this technologies, they're going modern right from the start." (Bob Woods/19950726/Press Contact: Pat Kelly, Control Data Systems, 612-482-4444, Internet e-mail patrick.j.kelly@cdc.com; Public Contact: Internet World Wide Web http://www.cdc.com ) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 07/26/95 BROADCAST ****Paramount's New Unit For TV Programming Online (NEWS)(BROADCAST)(SFO)(00025) ****Paramount's New Unit For TV Programming Online 07/26/95 LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1995 JUL 26 (NB) -- Star Trek and shampoo may be the next big online announcement. Today, The Paramount Television Group announced Paramount Digital Entertainment (PDE), a new division developed to create online programming and further tools and technology for interactive television. Behind Paramount's new division is its parent company, cable giant Viacom. Early statements from a company spokesperson indicate the new division is open to both telephone and cable delivery of content. Viacom's obvious investment in existing cable lines may indicate this announcement is a strategic part of Viacom's overall plan to win the "is the information superhighway gong to be delivered by high speed telephone lines or by cable lines" controversy. PDE has already inked an agreement with Bristol-Myers Squibb, the health and beauty products giant. Part of the online delivery of information and entertainment will contain product advertising. The advertising will surround Paramount properties such as Star Trek and Entertainment Tonight. The new division admits full-motion, full-screen delivery of entertainment and information online is not widely available through standard access rates used by most online members. Interactive television, still in its infancy, also has limited use. Paramount says it is critical for the company to be active and involved in the developmental stages of both products and technically both can be produced today with high-end technology. The company says the capability for online services to produce full-motion, full-screen to a wide audience is not so far away. Nor, says the company, is some form of interactive television. Newsbytes notes a number of online companies have begun testing integrated services digital network (ISDN) lines capable of providing the necessary bandwidth to delivery full video. Cable modems are also beginning to appear in the market. Currently, they use a telephone line to complete the bi-directional signal necessary for interactive processing. (Patrick McKenna/19950726/Press Contact: Paramount Studios, 213-956-5000) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 07/26/95 ONLINE I/Pro To Audit Web Sites (NEWS)(ONLINE)(MSP)(00026) I/Pro To Audit Web Sites 07/26/95 SAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1995 JUL 26 (NB) -- Internet Profiles Corporation (I/Pro) said it will begin providing independent audits of Internet World Wide Web site usage, using reports that are standard and easy to use. Called "I/Audit," the company claims this is the first service to audit Web sites. Tina Lin, I/Pro spokesperson, told Newsbytes the difference between I/Audit and I/Count is that I/Count is a Web measurement system, while I/Audit "is a report that we're independently preparing for them, based on information we're getting from them. But we're doing all of the analysis, and we're preparing all of the numbers." I/Audit measures statistics like user-sessions per month, average user-session length, most frequently requested files accessed, and user-sessions by state, country, and organization. People like advertisers will be helped in two ways, Lin said. First, she said information that I/Audit reports on is hard to find, and the reports help answer questions about validity of data. Lin also said the I/Audit reports are helpful because one format is used for many different companies, making comparisons among Web sites more easier than looking at data that might be dissimilar. "This is a standard report that media buyers, advertising agencies, and potential advertisers can be comfortable with." I/Audit pricing is based on frequency, officials said. A one-time report is $5,000, quarterly reports run $3,000 each, and monthly reports are $1,500 each. In addition, I/Audit customers will get a 25 percent discount on I/Count services. I/Audit is available now. I/Pro officials said they have already signed up companies like CMP Publications, Individual Inc., Internet Shopping Network, Yahoo! Corp., and Netscape Communications Corp. Lin added that anyone with Web access can surf to the company's home page to see an example of an I/Audit report. I/Pro's Web address is http://www.ipro.com . (Bob Woods/19950726/Press Contacts: Tina Lin, I/Pro, 415-975-5815, Internet e-mail tina@ipro.com; Calisa Cole, Cole Communications, 415-324-3152, Internet e-mail calisa@aol.com; Public Contact: I/Pro, 415-975-5800, Internet World Wide Web http://www.ipro.com ) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 07/26/95 BROADCAST ****Viacom To Spin-Off Cable Systems For $2.25Bil (NEWS)(BROADCAST)(MSP)(00027) ****Viacom To Spin-Off Cable Systems For $2.25Bil 07/26/95 NEW YORK CITY, NEW YORK, U.S.A., 1995 JUL 26 (NB) -- Viacom Inc. (AMEX:VIA, VIAB) will spin off its local cable television systems, which will allow them to be purchased by cable giant Tele- Communications Inc. (TCI) in a deal valued at $2.25 billion. Viacom, which owns the Music Television (MTV) network and Paramount Studios, among other media concerns, is selling the cable companies to "unlock the value of non-core assets reduce its debt by $1.7 billion," a company news release stated. Part of the debt acquired the past few years includes the purchases of Paramount Communications and video retailer Blockbuster Entertainment Corp. The transaction places the value of the cable systems at more than $2.25 billion. The systems serve close to 1.2 million subscribers in: the San Francisco Bay area; the Puget Sound region; Salem, Oregon; Nashville, Tennessee; and Dayton, Ohio. TCI already has close to 14 million cable subscribers. The deal will have two stages. A "dutch auction" exchange offer will be made to Viacom shareholders in the first stage of the spin-off. The offer will give shareholders the opportunity to continue to own the company by exchanging shares of current Viacom Class A and Class B common stock for shares of preferred stock of the new cable company. The dividend-paying convertible stock, worth $550 million, can be exchanged in five years for cash or TCI common shares. TCI will then buy all of the common shares of stock in the new cable venture for $350 million immediately after the spin-off. It will also assume the $1.7 billion of Viacom's debt. "This is a dramatic step forward in reducing our debt and insuring that Viacom and its shareholders receive the maximum value for assets which no longer fit our long-term growth plans," said Frank J. Biondi Jr., Viacom president. Wall Street seems to have cooled to the spin-off. Yesterday, both of Viacom's stocks, along with TCI's stock, were up. As of 12:45 EDT today, all three issues were down by either $0.25 or $0.125. A Viacom spokesperson was unavailable for comment by Newsbytes deadline. (Bob Woods/19950725/Press Contact: Carl Folta, Viacom Inc., 212-258-6352) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 07/26/95 APPLE ****Radius Intros New Mac OS-Based Clone (NEWS)(APPLE)(LAX)(00028) ****Radius Intros New Mac OS-Based Clone 07/26/95 SAN JOSE, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1995 JUL 26 (NB) -- Radius Inc. (NASDAQ:RDUS) has introduced the Radius 81/110 Macintosh OS-based computer, a Mac clone. The company claims that it offers all of the power and performance of a Power Macintosh 8100 at a lower cost. The Radius 81/110 is Radius' second Mac OS-based system. Laura VandenDries, director of marketing for Radius told Newsbytes, "It offers a base system without pre-configured hardware. This open configuration platform is a departure from Radius' first Mac OS-based computer -- the Radius System 100 -- which was fully configured. "The Radius 100 was configured specifically for the pre-press and high-end desktop publishing market. It came with a graphics card and PhotoShop installed," added VandenDries. "Radius has more than nine years experience in developing displays, graphics boards, digital video boards, and printers designed for Apple Macintosh computers. Now, with Mac OS-compatible computers as part of its product line, Radius customers can conduct one-stop shopping. With the open configuration users can pick and chose the add-on Radius products they need," concluded VandenDries. "We will continue to evolve our systems strategy and offerings to reach an increasingly broad base of customers who will use our computers as is, or add peripherals to create customized solutions to suit their needs," said Chuck Berger, chairman and chief executive officer of Radius. He added: "Our recently announced partnerships with IBM and Ingram give us high-volume manufacturing capability and widespread distribution and support for our growing computer business. Radius stands out as the only Mac OS-compatible manufacturer that can offer full hardware solutions for the publishing and digital video customer." The Radius 81/110 base configuration consists of: a 110 megahertz (MHz) PowerPC 601 processor, a two gigabyte (GB) hard drive, 16 megabyte (MB) of DRAM, built-in Ethernet, a quad-speed CD-ROM, three NuBus expansion slots, an extended keyboard, a mouse, System 7.5.1, a hard disk toolkit, a CD-ROM toolkit, and eWorld online software. The Radius 81/110 will have an estimated street price under $4,800 and will be available in August. (Richard Bowers/19950725/Press Contact: Dina Toothman, Radius Inc., 408-541-5290) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 07/26/95 ONLINE ****OSF Opens Software Web Mall For Java (NEWS)(ONLINE)(BOS)(00029) ****OSF Opens Software Web Mall For Java 07/26/95 CAMBRIDGE, MASSACHUSETTS, U.S.A., 1995 JUL 26 (NB) -- In a teleconference today, the Open Software Foundation (OSF) unveiled plans to open an Open Software Mall on the Web on July 31, and to start distributing software there this fall that will include Java Ports technology for the Web, DCE (Distributed Computing Environment) Web, and Microkernel Unification Specification, a new technology for building cross-platform applications. At the teleconference, which was attended by Newsbytes, Dr. Ira Goldstein, chief scientist and executive VP, said that the OSF sees the Open Software Mall as a place for users to access and help to beta test new technologies like Java Ports, DCE Web, and Microkernel Unification -- being sponsored by the OSF in conjunction with major vendors -- as well as software from universities and other research collaborators, and eventually, outside "open systems" efforts that are "germane to core OSF technology." Java Ports, a series of ports of Sun's Java technology for the Web, is being produced by the OSF with Sun, Hewlett-Packard, and Novell, Goldstein told the journalists and analysts. The technology will be available on the Open Software Mall in September, he added. DCE Web, an application designed to provide the Web with DCE mechanism for encryption, access control, and naming, is a collaborative project from the OSF, Hitachi, HP and AT&T. DCE Web is "consistent with HTTP and secure HTTP," but able to provide additional services to DCE sites, according to Goldstein. Microkernel Unification -- from the OSF, Hitachi, HP and IBM -- is a technology for building cross-platform databases and other applications by writing directly to a standard, common microkernel application programming interface (API). IBM plans to produce a product that is "mostly compliant" with the new specification in the product's first release, and "completely compliant" in its second release, Goldstein noted. Digital Equipment Corp. might also be participating in the Microkernel Unification specification project, Goldstein reported, adding that he expects to have an answer on this from Digital within a week. From the OSF's Open Software Mall, users will be able to browse, download, and comment on software executables and software, documentation plans, design documentation, specifications, and commentary in hypertext format, according to Goldstein. The Web mall will also provide Web links to "relevant products, services, education and consulting available from the community," he told the teleconference participants. Java, DCE Web, and Microkernel Unification will each have their own Web stores on the Open Software Mall's ATO (Advanced Technology Offering) Plaza. ATOs are software technology projects, which may or may not lead to productization, where participants seek to minimize risk by obtaining feedback from users, noted the OSF's Peter Shaw. ATO development costs typically range from $300,000 to $600,000. For ATO technologies that become productized, licensing rights are estimated at $25,000 per licensee. The OSF also sponsors other vendor efforts, known as PSTs, in which vendors are closer to "productization" of their work, and development costs tend to be higher, said Shaw. Current PSTs include DCE 1.2 and Motif/CDE (Common Development Environment). In addition, four potential PSTs are "being actively pursued," Shaw maintained. "We expect to have some announcements on these later this week," he added. The PSTs will also be given their own area on the Open Software Mall, to be known as PST Plaza. Aside from the stores for Java, DCE Web, and Microkernel Unification, the ATO Plaza will also include "Web pages for a potpourri of (other) ATOs," according to Goldstein. Additional areas of the Open Software Mall will include "Research Plaza," the Motif/CD Store, and areas for tools, training, and consulting. The mall will officially open next Monday, Goldstein said. Initial offerings will include an explanation of its goals and activities, and the opportunity for user commentary. The mall will be accessible from a pointer at http://www.org.com . (Jacqueline Emigh/19950726/Reader Contact: Open Software Foundation, 617-621-8700; Press Contact: Jane Smeloff, OSF, 617-621-8997) (SUMMARY)(GENERAL)(MSP)(00030) Newsbytes Daily Summary 07/26/95 MINNEAPOLIS, MINNESOTA, U.S.A., 1995 JUL 26 (NB) -- These are capsules of all today's news stories: ======================================================================== ------------| N E W S B Y T E S D A I L Y S U M M A R Y |---------- ------------| Wednesday, July 26, 1995 |---------- ======================================================================== (c) Newsbytes News Network (Tm) Editor in Chief: Wendy Woods ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Newsbytes News Network is a computer and telecom industry news wire and digitized picture service. Our news stream includes more than 30 daily first-hand reported US and international news stories about computing and telecommunications. For more information, please e-mail to 'administrator@newsbytes.com' ------------------------------------------------------------------------ CATEGORY HEADLINES (*** indicates today's top stories) STORY # ======================================================================== APPLE Apple Wants Bigger Market Share In India................... 01 APPLE One-Day Fair To Replace MacWorld/Expo Toronto.............. 12 APPLE ****Radius Intros New Mac OS-Based Clone.................. 28 BROADCAST ****Paramount's New Unit For TV Programming Online........ 25 BROADCAST ****Viacom To Spin-Off Cable Systems For $2.25Bil......... 27 BUSINESS India - Tandem Targets Bank Automation..................... 02 BUSINESS China - Tulip Enters PC Market............................. 10 BUSINESS Canadian Internet Access Providers To Merge................ 21 CHIPS National Semi Intros Multifunction I/O Chip................ 19 GENERAL Australia - Novell Resellers Can Be Trainers Too........... 04 GENERAL China - 10 Million "BASIC Language" Books Printed.......... 08 GENERAL ****Creative Technology's Co-Founder Quits................ 11 GENERAL NEC Plans New US/European Research Centers................. 16 GENERAL Japan Newsbriefs........................................... 18 GOVT ****House Targets Sematech Spending....................... 14 GOVT Senator Pushes Reforms In Govt Computer Purchasing......... 15 NETWORK Microsoft Tests Windows 95 For NetWare NDS Support......... 05 ONLINE Award For Hong Kong Lily Wong Web Page..................... 03 ONLINE ChronicIllNet Web Site For Illness Info.................... 07 ONLINE Prodigy Begins New Look, Ships One Millionth Browser....... 13 ONLINE Firm Allows Patent Searches On Internet.................... 20 ONLINE Public Relations Service On The Internet................... 22 ONLINE Internet Law Symposium 95 Features George Gilder........... 23 ONLINE Control Data & AIMS To Bring "Malaysia On Line............. 24 ONLINE I/Pro To Audit Web Sites................................... 26 ONLINE ****OSF Opens Software Web Mall For Java.................. 29 TELECOM US West Offers Electronic Meeting Service.................. 06 TELECOM Two US Firms Buy Into Japanese Cellular Company............ 17 TRENDS China - Chinese Operating System Market Report............. 09 ======================================================================== These are the headlines and first paragraphs of each story, in order: 1 -> Apple Wants Bigger Market Share In India -- "Apple Computer International will be substantially increasing its presence in India, and an investment plan running into tens of millions of dollars has been prepared for the country," claimed Apple's Graham Brown, managing director for India, while inaugurating the Mac Academy, a training franchise of MacVersity for Macintosh platforms. 2 -> India - Tandem Targets Bank Automation -- Tandem Computers Inc., has picked up a 15 percent stake in India Switch Company, a consortium of four, to bid for contracts involving banking automation throughout India. 3 -> Award For Hong Kong Lily Wong Web Page -- Just a few short weeks after seeing his long-running World of Lily Wong cartoon strip axed by the South China Morning Post, Hong Kong cartoonist Larry Feign has won an award for his World of Lily Wong World Wide Web page. 4 -> Australia - Novell Resellers Can Be Trainers Too -- The sleepy vacation town of Terrigal recently played host to the Australian stage of Novell's second annual Edge conference. Held exclusively for Novell Education's authorized training channel and select industry partners and participants, this is the first time Edge has been taken to a worldwide level. 5 -> Microsoft Tests Windows 95 For NetWare NDS Support -- Microsoft corp. (NASDAQ: MSFT) has announced it is beta testing enhanced Windows 95 client software for Novell NetWare that incorporates support for the Novell NetWare Directory Services (NDS). 6 -> US West Offers Electronic Meeting Service -- US West Communications has launched a new service that allows users in different locations to view and work on electronic documents simultaneously using their personal computers. However, it you want to discuss the document as you make changes, you will still need a second phone line. 7 -> ChronicIllNet Web Site For Illness Info -- A new Internet World Wide Web site is now open for anyone who has interest in chronic illnesses like AIDS, cancer, Persian Gulf War Syndrome, and autoimmune diseases. Dubbed "ChronicIllNet," the site is sponsored by Calypte Biomedical. 8 -> China - 10 Million "BASIC Language" Books Printed -- Ten millions copies of a computer programming book, "BASIC Language," by Tan Haoqiang, a professor of Tsinghua University, have been printed and reprinted between 1985 and 1995. 9 -> China - Chinese Operating System Market Report -- Domestic Chinese DOS and Chinese Windows will continue to dominate the country's operating system market, according to Electronic Product World. The magazine also predicts that 120,000 units of Chinese DOS and 104,000 units of Chinese Windows will be sold in 1995. 10 -> China - Tulip Enters PC Market -- Holland-based Tulip Computers has begun a campaign to establish itself in China's computer market. As a late comer, Tulip recently began its campaign with a news conference in Beijing, followed by whole-page ads in newspapers. 11 -> ****Creative Technology's Co-Founder Quits -- Ng Kai Wa, a co-founder of Singapore's Creative Technology Ltd., maker of the popular Sound Blaster line of add-on boards, has quit the company he helped turn into one of the world's most successful makers of sound cards. 12 -> One-Day Fair To Replace MacWorld/Expo Toronto -- After Mitch Hall Associates called off its MacWorld/Expo Toronto show, originally to take place this September, the Consortium of Canadian User Groups decided to put on its own one-day Macintosh show in its place. 13 -> Prodigy Begins New Look, Ships One Millionth Browser -- The bright graphical ads automatically displayed on Prodigy's interface are gone. This week the online service begins a change to a new look and readies to ship its one millionth World Wide Web browser. 14 -> ****House Targets Sematech Spending -- The House Appropriations Committee yesterday approved a spending bill that eliminates funding for Sematech, the public-private partnership that conducts semiconductor manufacturing research. The Clinton administration had proposed funding Sematech at $90 million for fiscal year 1996. 15 -> Senator Pushes Reforms In Govt Computer Purchasing -- Sen. William Cohen (R-Me.), chairman of an oversight subcommittee of the Senate Governmental Affairs Committee, is pushing for quick passage of his legislation to reform the way the federal government buys computer systems. 16 -> NEC Plans New US/European Research Centers -- NEC Corporation has announced an expansion of its international research and development activities with the establishment of two new research and development centers in Germany and the United States. Both centers will focus on R&D in multimedia technologies. 17 -> Two US Firms Buy Into Japanese Cellular Company -- Two US telecommunications companies have bought into the newly announced TU-KA Hokkaido Co Ltd. The company is the fifth regional TU-KA cellular telephone company and will take the group's mobile telephone service to the northern island of Hokkaido. 18 -> Japan Newsbriefs -- In this roundup of news from Japan: Kyocera, IBM settle differences; Mecklermedia to sell Tokyo exhibition space; Toshiba America appoints new execs; Matsushita tries new way to lower prices; and Dell signs distribution deal with Fuji Logitech. 19 -> National Semi Intros Multifunction I/O Chip -- National Semiconductor (NYSE:NSM) has announced its second-generation standard multifunction input/output (I/O) interface chip. National InfoMover PCM16C02 is claimed to be fully compliant with the recently announced PC Card Multifunction Specification from the PCMCIA (Personal Computer Memory Card International Association) Standards Committee. 20 -> Firm Allows Patent Searches On Internet -- MicroPatent, a supplier of patent information on CD-ROM, has launched a new service that lets those curious about recent inventions search United States patents on the Internet's World Wide Web. 21 -> Canadian Internet Access Providers To Merge -- Two Canadian Internet access providers have announced plans for a merger that they claim will create the country's largest Internet company. NSTN Inc., of Dartmouth, Nova Scotia, and Ottawa-based i*internet have signed letters of intent for the deal, a spokesman for NSTN told Newsbytes. 22 -> Public Relations Service On The Internet -- Poppe Tyson Public Relations said it will formally bring its services to cyberspace, with its new "Cyber PR" service, described as a turnkey package of online promotion and conventional media relations services. 23 -> Internet Law Symposium 95 Features George Gilder -- Recent US Congressional hearings on the telecommunications bill have highlighted the lack of law in the Internet. The Discovery Institute, a Seattle think-tank, has announced the International Internet Law Symposium 95 to address laws in the electronic world. 24 -> Control Data & AIMS To Bring "Malaysia On Line -- Control Data Systems Inc. (NASDAQ:CDAT) said it is teaming up with Applied Information Management Services (AIMS) to bring Internet and other related communications services to Malaysia. 25 -> ****Paramount's New Unit For TV Programming Online -- Star Trek and shampoo may be the next big online announcement. Today, The Paramount Television Group announced Paramount Digital Entertainment (PDE), a new division developed to create online programming and further tools and technology for interactive television. 26 -> I/Pro To Audit Web Sites -- Internet Profiles Corporation (I/Pro) said it will begin providing independent audits of Internet World Wide Web site usage, using reports that are standard and easy to use. Called "I/Audit," the company claims this is the first service to audit Web sites. 27 -> ****Viacom To Spin-Off Cable Systems For $2.25Bil -- Viacom Inc. (AMEX:VIA, VIAB) will spin off its local cable television systems, which will allow them to be purchased by cable giant Tele- Communications Inc. (TCI) in a deal valued at $2.25 billion. 28 -> ****Radius Intros New Mac OS-Based Clone -- Radius Inc. (NASDAQ:RDUS) has introduced the Radius 81/110 Macintosh OS-based computer, a Mac clone. The company claims that it offers all of the power and performance of a Power Macintosh 8100 at a lower cost. 29 -> ****OSF Opens Software Web Mall For Java -- In a teleconference today, the Open Software Foundation (OSF) unveiled plans to open an Open Software Mall on the Web on July 31, and to start distributing software there this fall that will include Java Ports technology for the Web, DCE (Distributed Computing Environment) Web, and Microkernel Unification Specification, a new technology for building cross-platform applications. (Ian Stokell/19950726) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 07/25/95 HEALTH Paging Reminders To Take Medicine (NEWS)(HEALTH)(MSP)(00001) Paging Reminders To Take Medicine 07/25/95 SOUTHFIELD, MICHIGAN, U.S.A., 1995 JUL 25 (NB) -- Wireless technology is coming to the aid of people who, for various reasons, need to be reminded to take medication. MediTrac has announced "DosePage," which uses an alphanumeric pager to remind users about their prescription medications. #IMAGE 1 20 TWPCX \images\95072501.PCX Click here for photo Melanie Schaengold, MediTrac vice president of sales and marketing, told Newsbytes that non-compliance with prescribed treatments is a "huge problem." She said of the almost two million prescriptions written per year, about 50% aren't taken properly. This results in 125,000 premature deaths, and costs society $100 billion in lost wages and more hospital admittances. She said people tend to forget to take prescriptions when they are busy or under stress, such as in a work situation. Also, she said people tend to forget to refill prescriptions. This is where DosePage comes in. A central computer sends radio wave messages to patients when dosages are scheduled. Patients receive their dosage information, along with specific health care instructions, via a liquid crystal display (LCD) readout on any pager, Schaengold said. "In doing our initial research, we were surprised (that no-one else was providing this service)," Schaengold said. "What we've developed is, what we hope is, a proactive approach to medication compliance." Schaengold said DosePage will be marketed and made available to: health care givers, like doctors; managed care organizations, such as health maintenance organizations (HMOs); and directly to patients. Already, managed care provider Kaiser Permanente, along with drug companies like Glaxo Welcome and Rhone-Poulenc Rorer are working with MediTrac on clinical trials of the system. Future plans for MediTrac include a two-way communications system that allows patients to confirm prescription-compliance at the push of a button. This would allows health care providers to track their patient's progress with their pharmaceutical intake, while patients still get the DosePage reminder. Schaengold said the price for service is $30 a month, and pagers can be either purchased or leased from the company for those people who don't already own units. (Bob Woods/19950725/Press Contact: Richard Davidson, MediTrac, 810-357-0930. Public Contact: MediTrac, 810-357-0930/DSP950725/PHOTO) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 07/25/95 GENERAL EZ-Trade Gets Hong Kong Govt Grant (NEWS)(GENERAL)(HKG)(00002) EZ-Trade Gets Hong Kong Govt Grant 07/25/95 CENTRAL, HONG KONG, 1995 JUL 25 (NB) -- The Hong Kong Article Numbering Association (HKANA) has been awarded a HK$3 million (US$385,000) grant from the government for EZ-Trade, its electronic data interchange (EDI) project. The grant was awarded on advice from the Industry & Technology Development council and comes from the Industrial Support Fund, which was set up to enhance the overall industrial and technological development and competitiveness of Hong Kong's manufacturing industries. (Nigel Armstrong and IT Daily/19950725) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 07/25/95 TELECOM New T&T Offers "One2One" Calling Card In Hong Kong (NEWS)(TELECOM)(HKG)(00003) New T&T Offers "One2One" Calling Card In Hong Kong 07/25/95 CENTRAL, HONG KONG, 1995 JUL 25 (NB) -- New T&T, one of three new Hong Kong fixed network service providers to start operations since the deregulation of the local telecoms monopoly on July 1, has launched its first service, an international calling card. Application forms for the "One2One" international card became available on July 17 and the company claims users will be able to use it to call a number of countries not currently covered by Hong Kong Telecom. These include several small islands in the Pacific Ocean. Using the card, customers can reach over 120 countries around the world. Charges are billed monthly, through customers' Visa or Mastercard accounts. The New T&T One2One card is also claimed to offer some of the most competitive long distance charges in Hong Kong. This is partly due to the introduction of an economy rate in addition to the normal peak and bonus rates. The economy rate runs from 7pm to midnight, at which point the even lower bonus rate begins. New T&T also said that customers who spend more than HK$850 (US$109) per month on their card will receive a further five percent discount on bills. "Since the award of our telecommunication license on July 1, we have been eager to show customers true profit from bringing competition to the telecommunications industry," said Leslie Harris, president of New T&T. (Nigel Armstrong and IT Daily/19950725) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 07/25/95 BUSINESS Hong Kong - Midi Systems Signs Mega Dynamic (NEWS)(BUSINESS)(HKG)(00004) Hong Kong - Midi Systems Signs Mega Dynamic 07/25/95 CENTRAL, HONG KONG. 1995 JUL 25 (NB) -- Hong Kong company Mega Dynamic International (MDI) has been awarded the exclusive dealership for Hong Kong and Asia for the Midi Systems Ltd.'s desktop filing system. UK company Midi Systems developed the system, which incorporates the Easifile document imaging system. Launched a year ago, the product has already generated interest from over 30 countries, including Sri Lanka and Taiwan, said the company. MDI's Directors Martyn Willies and Graham Sargent are confident of selling over 100 units in their first year, mostly to the region's financial and insurance sectors. (Nigel Armstrong and IT Daily/19950725) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 07/25/95 APPLE KinderCare Installs 4,000 Macs In Child Care Centers (NEWS)(APPLE)(LAX)(00005) KinderCare Installs 4,000 Macs In Child Care Centers 07/25/95 CUPERTINO, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1995 JUL 25 (NB) -- KinderCare has instituted something called the "MacPlay To Learn" program, claiming it affirms its "commitment to technology education." With the recent purchase and installation of 4,000 Mac Performa computers, KinderCare will now provide computer instruction for children in nearly half of its 1,138 child care centers nationwide. As part of the MacPlay to Learn program, Macintosh Performa systems are located in each classroom and children of different age groups spend time on them. "Preschool children learn best on a discovery basis," Dr. Marcy Guddemi, vice president for Education and Research for KinderCare told Newsbytes. "Computers provide them with the self-directed, hands-on approach that they need to learn. We want to integrate the use of computers into the classroom. Computers should be as much a part of early child's educational experience as blocks, housekeeping, or crayons." KinderCare's MacPlay to Learn program has been designed to encourage children to "learn through play." Recognizing that computers aid the literacy development of preschool-age children, Dr. Guddemi believes that children at that age learn by reading, listening, speaking, watching, creating, and interacting. "The Macintosh Performa is so easy to use that our three-year-olds feel comfortable with them right away. Since there's not a learning curve to master, children lose no time at the computer doing what comes natural to them -- learning through play," explains Dr. Sandra Scarr, chairman of the board and chief executive officer of KinderCare. "We found that as children are having fun with some of the best learning software available, they are also being challenged to develop at their own pace. The time they spend at the computer actually helps them develop the skills necessary to begin school, giving them a head start on their formal education." Another important component of the MacPlay to Learn program, according to Dr. Guddemi, is to get families involved in their child's use of computers at the child care facility as well as at home. Many centers offer parents workshops to demonstrate the effectiveness of computers as learning tools for children. "KinderCare's MacPlay to Learn program ties in perfectly with our ongoing efforts to extend learning beyond the traditional classroom setting," said Keith Fox, vice president of Apple's Worldwide Home Marketing Group. "At Apple, we believe that children of all ages have the opportunity to learn anytime, anyplace, and anywhere, if they are equipped with the best tools. Whether a child's first computer experience takes place in one of KinderCare's facilities, or at home with their family, computers are the proven learning tools of our time." KinderCare Learning Centers Inc. , is the largest provider of proprietary child care in the United States for children between the ages of six-weeks and 12-years-old. The company operates 1,138 child care centers in 38 states and the United Kingdom, with an enrollment of approximately 125,000 full-time and part-time children, and employs over 24,000 people. The company was founded in 1969 and is headquartered in Montgomery, Alabama. (Richard Bowers/19950725) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 07/25/95 GENERAL Claris Ships FileMaker Pro Server Starter Pack (NEWS)(GENERAL)(LAX)(00006) Claris Ships FileMaker Pro Server Starter Pack 07/25/95 SANTA CLARA, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1995 JUL 25 (NB) -- Claris Corp. has begun shipments of the FileMaker Pro Server Starter Pack database management system software. The new option includes up to five FileMaker Pro 2.1 Macintosh or Windows licenses, plus the FileMaker Pro Server 2.1 software. Kevin J. Mallon, public relations manager for Claris, told Newsbytes, "The Starter Pack provides five complete licenses to FileMaker Pro 2.1. Last March, we shipped FileMaker Pro Server 2.1, which provided only one FileMaker Pro 2.1 update for existing Macintosh and Windows users. This five license configuration is designed as a small group starter package." "Customers may still order the single license version of FileMaker Pro Server," said Mallon, which has a suggested retail price of $1,499. "The new FileMaker Pro Server Starter Pack with five Macintosh/Windows licenses is offered at a suggested retail price of $1,799. The savings for the small office group is substantial," he said. "Capable of hosting database files for up to one-hundred FileMaker Pro Macintosh and Windows users simultaneously, regardless of which popular network they may be using, the Server Starter Pack can expand along with companies and workgroups as staffing increases," said Mallon. FileMaker Pro Server Starter Pack is fully compatible with FileMaker Pro 2.0 and 2.1 for Macintosh and Windows applications. No reconfiguration of existing FileMaker Pro database files is required. Setup of the Server software takes just minutes, says the company. According to Claris, the FileMaker Pro Server Starter Pack includes the Server version disks, FileMaker Pro 2.1 for Macintosh and Windows, FileMaker Pro Toolbox, and one set of Macintosh manuals with a coupon to exchange the documents for Windows manuals. FileMaker Pro Server will require a Macintosh II or higher System 7.0 or higher with at least four megabytes (MB) of RAM. A Power Macintosh or Quadra A/V with 8MB RAM is recommended. (Richard Bowers/19950725/Press Contact: Kevin J. Mallon, Claris, 408-987-7227) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 07/25/95 IBM IBM Adds 2 RS/6000 Servers (NEWS)(IBM)(TOR)(00007) IBM Adds 2 RS/6000 Servers 07/25/95 TORONTO, ONTARIO, CANADA, 1995 JUL 25 (NB) -- IBM (NYSE:IBM) has added two new models to its RS/6000 line of workstations and servers. Meant mainly to be used as servers for scientific and technical applications, both new systems are built on the Power2 reduced instruction set computing (RISC) processor. The RS/6000 Model 591 is a desk-side system, while the RS/6000 Model R21 is a rack-mount unit that IBM said will be the most powerful uniprocessor rack-mount system it offers. Together, the new RS/6000s "provide a refresh to the existing uniprocessor server line," said Daylon Cranford, product line manager for worldwide marketing in the RS/6000 division of IBM. Cranford told Newsbytes that with large memory and storage capacity and 256-bit memory access, the new models provide better performance than comparable previous systems. The Model 591, he said, offers about 18 percent better performance than the Model 590, which IBM will continue to sell. Its price, $57,500, is the same amount IBM was charging for the 590 before a recent price cut. The Power2 processor used in both new models is "a bit of a new spin on the chip," Cranford said. It uses 0.7-micron technology, rather than the 0.5-micron technology used in previous versions, and it runs at 77 megahertz (MHz). Asked about the future of the Power2 chip, given that IBM and partners Apple Computer Inc. and Motorola Inc. are pushing the related PowerPC as a would-be industry standard, Cranford said it is "still kind of in the thought process." While "we are not believers in the fact that the Power2 architecture is dead," he said, the Power2 and PowerPC designs may converge in the future. Both new servers can be set up with as much as two gigabytes (GB) of memory. The Model 591 comes with 64 megabytes (MB) as standard equipment, and its initial 2GB of internal disk storage is expandable to 27GB in six bays. The Model 591 also has eight Micro Channel Architecture (MCA) expansion slots, one of which is occupied by a small computer systems interface 2 (SCSI-2) Fast and Wide disk controller. The Model R21 ships with 128MB of memory and a 1.1GB disk drive. IBM also announced a set of subroutines called the Mathematical Acceleration Sub-System (MASS), which Cranford said are designed to improve the performance of technical applications on RS/6000 systems running IBM's AIX variant of the Unix operating system. These are available free on the Internet's World Wide Web at http://www.austin.ibm.com/tech/MASS , he said. Some are usable on all RS/6000 systems while others are specific to those built on Power2 chips. IBM's Storage Systems Division, meanwhile, announced the 7133 storage subsystem, which is based on the fledgling Serial Storage Architecture (SSA) standard. According to IBM, the 7133 can transfer data about two and a half times as fast as a SCSI-based subsystem at around half the cost. IBM is also extending key management software products, including NetView/6000, Systems Monitor, and Distributed SMIT, to the AIX 4.1 operating system. The two new RS/6000 models are both due to ship in mid-August, at $57,500 for the Model 591 with 64MB of memory and 2.2GB disk drive, and $64,500 for the Model R21 with 128MB of memory and 1.1GB disk drive. (Grant Buckler/19950725/Press Contact: Ed Trapasso, IBM, 914-766- 3621, Internet e-mail trapasso@vnet.ibm.com; Carol Keslar, IBM Storage Systems, 408-256-9451; Melinda Painter, IBM Networking Software, 919-543-9627) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 07/25/95 BUSINESS Unisys & Wang Announce Imaging Cooperation (NEWS)(BUSINESS)(TOR)(00008) Unisys & Wang Announce Imaging Cooperation 07/25/95 BLUE BELL, PENNSYLVANIA, U.S.A., 1995 JUL 25 (NB) -- Unisys Corp. (NYSE:UIS) and Wang Laboratories Inc. (NASDAQ:WANG) have announced a strategic relationship building on Unisys' previous arrangement with Sigma Imaging Systems Inc. of New York, which Wang recently acquired. Wang, of Lowell, Massachusetts, said last week that it will pay about $20 million for Sigma, a maker of modular imaging systems, and will integrate the company into its software business. Unisys and Sigma had worked together for some time on development and marketing. Oliver Picher, a spokesman for Unisys, said his company has been selling imaging software that Sigma developed for Microsoft's Windows NT and IBM's OS/2 operating systems, and has provided feedback to Sigma on the products. While Wang and Unisys plan to expand the existing relationship, Picher said he could not provide details. "We've had some preliminary discussions," he said. Spokesman Ed Pignone of Wang told Newsbytes his company plans to continue the full Sigma product line. Wang recently announced an alliance with Microsoft, under which the companies are working together on workflow automation software for client/server computing environments. Wang said Sigma's product line will help it get immediate benefit from the revenue opportunities presented by its alliance with Microsoft. Unisys said its relationship with Wang, in turn, will allow it to build on the results of the Wang-Microsoft alliance as Wang incorporates them into its Windows NT imaging product line. Officials said Wang imaging technology is to be incorporated into future releases of Microsoft's Windows NT and the upcoming Windows 95. Unisys offers its InfoImage Folder image-processing software for Windows NT, OS/2, and Unix. (Grant Buckler/19950725/Press Contact: Oliver Picher, Unisys, 215-986-5367, Internet e-mail picherol@po7.bb.unisys.com; Ed Pignone, Wang, 508-967-4912) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 07/25/95 NETWORK High Speed Internet Router Intro'd (NEWS)(NETWORK)(DEN)(00009) High Speed Internet Router Intro'd 07/25/95 BOULDER, COLORADO, U.S.A., 1995 JUL 25 (NB) -- Compatible Systems has introduced a TCP/IP (Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol) router the company claims can provide high speed Internet access over leased, switched, or ISDN (integrated services digital network) lines. Compatible Systems spokesperson Sally Smith at SSSMith & Associates told Newsbytes the company is a "bootstrap startup" that is growing slowly but steadily, and is successful without having ever had to seek venture capital. The company's new RISC (reduced instruction set computing) Router 2800i allows users to connect to Internet service providers at up to T1 (1.544 megabits-per-second) and E1 (2.048 Mbps) rates. The system provides one Ethernet port with autoswitching connectors for thick, thin, and 10BaseT networks. Four WAN (wide area network) ports offer various configuration options. The two high speed WAN ports feature V.35 connectors and handle synchronous traffic up to T1 or E1 speeds, while the other two provide synchronous and asynchronous communications at speeds up to 128 kilobytes-per-second (KBps). One of the secondary ports can be configured as a "failover" port to be used in the event of a high-speed line failure. The additional ports also allow the user to extend their high-speed Internet connection to remote offices. All four WAN ports support the PPP (Point-to-Point Protocol) and frame relay wide-area protocols, are independently configurable and support dial-on-demand and dedicated operational modes. All Compatible Systems routers, including the 2800i, include RouterView, a graphical management application for Windows and Macintosh. Telnet and SNMP (Simple Network Management Protocol) management support is also included. Access list security is standard. The company said the RISC Router 2800i has a suggested retail price of $2,195. (Jim Mallory/19950725/Press contact: Sally Smith, SSSMith & Associates for Compatible Systems, 513-897-0654; Public contact: Compatible Systems, 303-444-9532 or 800-356-0283) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 07/25/95 CHIPS TI Intros Faster Memory Chips (NEWS)(CHIPS)(DEN)(00010) TI Intros Faster Memory Chips 07/25/95 HOUSTON, TEXAS, U.S.A., 1995 JUL 25 (NB) -- Texas Instruments Inc. (NYSE: TXN) has introduced a new class of memory chip it claims will "greatly speed computer operations." #IMAGE 1 20 TWPCX \images\95072510.PCX Click here for photo "Currently there is a gap between CPU (central processing unit) and DRAM speed performance which either complicates the system design or slows the system operation," explained Bob England, senior vice president, TI Semiconductor Group. England said that by synchronizing to the CPU, SDRAMs (synchronous dynamic random access memories) optimize performance by offering as much as four times the memory performance of standard DRAMs. TI spokesperson Kenneth Kracmer told Newsbytes that as PC microprocessors get faster, standard DRAM isn't going to be (fast) enough. Kracmer said the new 16-megabit SDRAM chips automatically synchronize themselves to the timing of the CPU used in computers to maximize performance. Kracmer said that is better than the technology used by EDO and burst EDO memory, which send gets information from the microprocessor in bursts. Another advantage of SDRAM is that the new chips will be nearly identical in cost to DRAMs, said Kracmer. TI said the new memory chips are suitable for use in workstations and personal computers, digital set-top boxes, videoconferencing equipment, hard drives, data transmission, and communications equipment. Kracmer said bi-four and bi-eight chips are already available and bi-16 chips will be available for sampling in the fourth quarter of 1995. Siemens Nixdorf Informationssysteme (SNI) AG is using TI's SDRAM in its new line of mid-range servers, which function as storage devices on networks. George Mueller, SNI engineering development manager, said SNI's next generation of high-performance workgroup and departmental servers will rely on SDRAMs to provide access to more than one gigabyte (GB) of main memory. SNI said it also has plans to develop PC SNA (Systems Network Architecture) mainframe systems using TI's SDRAM. (Jim Mallory/19950725/Press contact: Kenneth Kracmer, Temerlin McClain for Texas Instruments, 214-830-2213/SDRAM950725/PHOTO) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 07/25/95 ONLINE NewsPage To Take Bids For Web Site Ads (NEWS)(ONLINE)(MSP)(00011) NewsPage To Take Bids For Web Site Ads 07/25/95 BURLINGTON, MASSACHUSETTS, U.S.A., 1995 JUL 25 (NB) -- When it comes to buying advertising space at Individual Inc.'s NewsPage Internet World Wide Web site, the company is letting the market decide the rates for specific pages through a "Dutch Auction." With the new system, potential electronic advertisers will place bids to buy ads in various areas of NewsPage, which is located on the Web at http://www.newspage.com . The "Dutch Auction" aspect of the system lets the highest bidder win, but they only pay the amount of the second highest bid. "We have over a thousand different positions across 19 different industries available for sponsorship," John Zahner, Individual Inc. spokesperson, told Newsbytes. "Just the thought of trying to fairly price them was staggering in our minds. "The Web is growing so rapidly. We're finding the usage of our site is growing by five or ten percent per week. It would be very difficult to set ad rates in the traditional sense. That's why we adopted the auction approach," Zahner said. The auction becomes more competitive because each topic within NewsPage only has one position available for sponsorship. To submit a bid, an advertiser needs to request a NewsPage Auction Kit that contains the necessary information to place a bid. Included in the kit is demographic and usage information gathered by I/Pro. The kits are currently available on hard copy, electronic-mail, and fax. Starting September 1, they will be available directly from the NewsPage site. The auctions are held monthly, with bids for September currently being taken. September's auction will close August 21. The closing date for successive months will be on the 18th of each month. Initial advertisers, before the auction system was in place, included Sun Microsystems, Silicon Graphics, 3Com, Knight-Ridder, and Sybase. (Bob Woods/19950725/Press Contacts: John Zahner, Individual, 617-273-6000 ext 402; Beth Winkowsi, WTM, 617-337-3633; Public Contact: Individual, http://www.newspage.com ) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 07/25/95 GOVT Government Data On CD-ROM (NEWS)(GOVT)(WAS)(00012) Government Data On CD-ROM 07/25/95 WASHINGTON, D.C., U.S.A., 1995 JUL 25 (NB) -- Like other publishers, the federal government is publishing more and more information on CD-ROM. To help the CD user, the National Technical Information Service has produced a free catalog that offers descriptions of CD titles in its collection. Contributing agencies include the departments of Agriculture, Defense, Labor, Health and Human Services, and Commerce, NTIS's parent agency. Also represented are the EPA, NASA, the Drug Enforcement Administration, the National Institute of Standards and Technology, and the National Center for Health Statistics. Some of the more popular titles on CD-ROM include: the National Trade Databank and National Economic, Social & Environmental Databank, which combine to provide business and economic information about the US and other countries; the Environmental Code of Federal Regulations, Records of Decision, and CD-ROMs with hazardous waste site data; Health Care Financing Administration regulations and manuals; and National Exposure Registry - Trichloroethylene, which is survey data for people exposed to this common chemical. The catalog, "CD-ROMs and Optical Disks Available from NTIS," is available by calling 703-487-4650, or faxing to 703-321-8547. Ask for PR-888KWR. Thousands of NTIS products are also available through the FedWorld online bulletin board system (BBS) at 703-321-3339. Use ANSI emulation and set the modem to no parity, eight data bits, and one stop bit, with full duplex. By Internet, Telnet to fedworld.gov. For file transfer protocol (ftp) services, connect to ftp.fedworld.gov. World Wide Web access is at http:// www.fedworld.gov. NTIS is an agency inside the Department of Commerce which distributes government information. Costs are not borne by taxpayers, but are covered through charges for services. (Kennedy Maize/19950725/Press Contact: Renee Edwards, NTIS, 703-487-4778) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 07/25/95 TRENDS ****Survey Details Phone & PC Ownership (NEWS)(TRENDS)(WAS)(00013) ****Survey Details Phone & PC Ownership 07/25/95 WASHINGTON, D.C., U.S.A., 1995 JUL 25 (NB) -- "If you're a rural or urban person of color, you are less likely to have a telephone or a computer," Larry Irving, chief of the National Telecommunications and Information Administration told state regulators today as he unveiled a new study of access to technology. "It all seems obvious," said Irving, "but these assumptions have never been quantified before to this extent. Now that we know the magnitude of the problem, we can decide what to do about it." The NTIA study found that inner-city households in the Northeast have the lowest percentage of telephone subscribers, while rural poor are least likely to own computer. Black households in inner-cities own the fewest number of computers among all racial groups, followed by inner-city Hispanics. NTIA asked the Census Bureau to add questions on ownership of computers and modems to its traditional survey on telephone use. Federal law has a goal of "universal service" for telephones, but the nation has never actually achieved that. Census surveyed 54,000 households nationwide last November. The responses were grouped by income, age, race, education, and region. According to the study, 79.8 percent of inner-city households with incomes of less than $10,000 have phone service. By comparison, 81.6 percent of rural households have telephone service. Native American households in rural areas have the lowest level of telephone service in the racial breakdown -- 75.5 percent. Rural blacks have the lowest rate of computer ownership -- 6.4 percent. Among rural whites, 95.4 percent have phone service and 24.6 percent own computers. By race, Asians have the highest computer ownership rate at 36 percent, while blacks have the lowest -- 9.5 percent. About 28 percent of white households have computers and 12 percent of Hispanic households. According to the study, people over the age of 55 are least likely to own a computer, followed by households headed by people younger than 25. (Kennedy Maize/19950725/Press Contact: Paige Darden, NTIA, 202-482-1551, Internet World Wide Web http://www.ntia.doc.gov ) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 07/25/95 NETWORK Cisco's CiscoWorks Blue For Network Mgt (NEWS)(NETWORK)(BOS)(00014) Cisco's CiscoWorks Blue For Network Mgt 07/25/95 BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS, U.S.A., 1995 JUL 25 (NB) -- With mixed architectures of SNA (Systems Network Architecture) mainframe and Unix-based network router traffic on the rise, Cisco's new CiscoWorks Blue program will give network administrators needed visibility into these complex IBM "internetworks" from both the SNA and Unix sides, maintained Nick Francis, director of product marketing for Cisco's IBM Programs, in a meeting with Newsbytes. The first release in the CiscoWorks Blue program, to be issued in September, will provide support for IBM's Native Service Point, allowing administrators to view and control Cisco routers from mainframe terminals via IBM's host NetView, Francis told Newsbytes, during a stop in Boston on an East Coast press tour. Previously, he added, the router traffic was "invisible" from the mainframe side, and could only be managed from a Unix-based SNMP (Simple Network Management Protocol) manager such as IBM's NetView for AIX or Hewlett-Packard's OpenView. Following delivery of Native Service Point support, future components of Cisco's internetwork management program will add the ability to administer SNA devices together with routers from Unix-based workstations through a new set of CiscoWorks Blue management applications, Francis reported. The new CiscoWorks applications for SNMP management stations will provide mapping, SNA control/correlation, a response time reporter, a configuration tool, and design/simulation. The upcoming mainframe support for IBM's Native Service Point is designed to prevent the need among users of host NetView to buy special equipment dedicated to router management, according to Francis. The administrator will be able to manage Cisco routers from the same mainframe terminal as SNA devices such as controllers and front-end processors, Newsbytes was told. The Cisco routers, which will appear to the mainframe terminal operator as PU (physical unit) 2 devices, will send alerts directly to host NetView. Specific router management capabilities will include the ability to obtain router status, monitor traffic on specified interfaces, and invoke commands such as run commands or debug commands for troubleshooting. Then, starting in the fourth quarter of 1995, Cisco will deliver the CiscoWorks Blue Maps, the first of the new CiscoWorks Blue applications for managing SNA together with router traffic from the Unix side, he continued. By viewing SNA and IP (Internet Protocol) resources on the same logical map, the SNMP administrator will be able to determine, for example, whether an IP internetworking issue is to blame for an SNA problem, according to the Cisco exec. The CiscoWorks Blue Maps will make use of a new set of SNA-related MIB (management information base) variables from Cisco, noted Francis. Cisco will provide a series of maps for viewing specific paths or region of the networks. In addition, CiscoWorks will be able to interrogate the SNA MIBs to provide information to Cisco's CiscoView, an application that presents physical views of Cisco devices. The US list price of $4,995 for the logical maps will initially include APPN (advanced peer-to-peer network) and RSRB (remote source-route bridging) mapping applications, with others to be added as they become available. In the first quarter of 1996, Cisco will deliver another CiscoWorks Blue tool that will operate on top of the logical maps, mapping SNA PUs as well as LUs (logical units) to router ports, and displaying these connections, Francis reported. During the first half of 1996, Cisco also plans to release CiscoWorks Blue tools for response time reporting, configuration, and design/simulation, he added. The new "SNA control/correlation" application will be based on EView Open technology from NetTech. The response time reporting tool will use configurable router-based agents to "examine every link" in the internetwork for sources of congestion, according to the product marketing manager. The new products for configuration and design/simulation represent an adaptation of the Netsys Toolkit -- licensed by Cisco from Netsys in January, 1995 -- to the NetView for AIX platform. The new configuration tool will be able to check configurations over "the entire internetwork," and to highlight any discrepancies, Francis told Newsbytes. The forthcoming design/configuration tool will model the internetwork for functionality such as capacity and utilization, and will also predict service levels. Francis also told Newsbytes that, from Cisco's perspective, decisions over whether to use a centralized or distributed approach to routing and switching, as well as about emerging technologies like ATM (asynchronous transfer mode), should be based on individual customer needs. Some users who are interested in purchasing ATM for videoconferencing, for example, may be unaware of the videoconferencing options now available for 10 megabit-per-second (Mbps) LANs (local area networks), he suggested. Analysts applauded Cisco's new CiscoWorks Blue internetwork management program for its depth and practicality. "(Cisco's program) provides an impressive level of depth when it comes to managing routers from an SNA environment," observed Jill Huntington-Lee, principal, Brandywine Network Associates (Cinnaminson, New Jersey). "The program is rather unusual. With most third-party devices, if there's a problem going on, you can't get the rich information needed to understand why," Huntington-Lee told Newsbytes. Tim Wilson, senior consultant for dec.ci.sis (Centerville, Virginia), told Newsbytes that Cisco's move to support IBM's Native Service Point is "a huge step forward in extending the life of (host) NetView, and for making it possible to manage very large networks." Added Smith: "(Cisco's) Unix approach can also be quite helpful, especially if you're primarily a router shop. Until now, if you've been encapsulating SNA data over the router network, you've basically had a blind spot, because everything has looked like a TCP/IP (Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol) packet." (Jacqueline Emigh/19950724/Reader Contact: Cisco Systems, 408-526-4000; Press Contact: Adam Stein, Cisco, 408-526-4952) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 07/25/95 TELECOM Zap-It Wireless Comms Service For Notebooks (NEWS)(TELECOM)(MSP)(00015) Zap-It Wireless Comms Service For Notebooks 07/25/95 WOODBRIDGE, NEW JERSEY, U.S.A., 1995 JUL 25 (NB) -- Sending electronic-mail, faxes, and pages inexpensively "is now a reality," according to DTS Wireless. The company has introduced Zap-It, a wireless communications package for DOS- and Windows- based computers, along with HP palmtop systems. Zap-It works with IBM-compatible notebooks running a 386 processor or higher. A compatible wireless modem, like the new IBM Wireless Modem for Mobitex, the Ericsson Mobidem, or Motorola's InfoTAC, is also required, which DTS Wireless can also sell directly to the customer. "We're targeting two market segments," Neil Lewis, director of marketing for DTS Wireless, told Newsbytes. "One is existing wireless customers that have wireless applications like sales mobilization." He said the small business market is the second segment the company is targeting. Lewis said the big selling point of Zap-It is the price. After the $34.95 activation fee, customers pay $9.95 per month, with additional per-message charges. With Zap-It, customers can send 1,000 character e-mail messages for 39 cents apiece, compose and send faxes anywhere in the US for 99 cents per fax page, and send pre-stored faxes for 49 cents per page. Also, text-to-voice phone calls can be sent anywhere in the US for 99 cents, messages can be sent to alphanumeric pagers for 39 cents per message, and messages can be received via the Zap-It 24-hour toll-free message center for 79 cents per message. Zap-It uses RAM Mobile Data's nationwide two-way wireless data communications service, which covers 92% of the urban business population. That includes 7.700 towns, major airports, and major transportation corridors, Lewis said. Zap-It is available directly from the company. It is also bundled in a 30-day free trial with the IBM Wireless Modem from Mobitex, along with GoldMine Wireless Solutions from Mobile Office Solutions Technology Inc. Both offers are valid through March 31, 1996, and are limited to $50 in usage charges. Many new features will be added to Zap-It throughout this year, next year, and the years to come, Lewis added. (Bob Woods/19950725/Press Contact: Fritz Lyon, Hammond Farrell Inc., 212-995-5680, Internet e-mail flyon@dts.net; Public Contact: DTS Wireless, 800-967-0943) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 07/25/95 WINDOWS Midisoft Ships Music Mentor 2.0, Financial Execs Resign (NEWS)(WINDOWS)(DEN)(00016) Midisoft Ships Music Mentor 2.0, Financial Execs Resign 07/25/95 ISSAQUAH, WASHINGTON, U.S.A., 1995 JUL 25 (NB) -- Midisoft Corp. (NASDAQ: MIDI) has released version 2.0 of its music fundamentals and history program, called Music Mentor. But the company sounded a sour note when it restated its earnings data for all of 1994 and the first quarter of 1995, and both its chief financial officer and controller resigned. Music Mentor uses a notation-based MIDI (musical instrument digital interface) sequencer and lets the user record and edit music. The new release has added a music-printing function. The program also teaches about the works of famous composers using text, graphics and sound. A feature called Mentor Personal Studio lets users create, rehearse and print original music, as well as explore and modify music from composers included in the software. The tutorial section teaches the user about reading music notation as well as the basic fundamentals of music, using the works and styles of composers from 13 centuries. The user-musician learns how to identify pitches and notes, key signatures and their components, measuring musical time, and time signatures. A Melody section covers components of melody and scales, as well as the rhythmic and harmonic elements of melody. The Rhythm section covers meter, syncopation and time signatures, and the Harmony section teaches the types of chords and their progressions, intervals, the four types of triads, and seventh chords. A timbre section discusses the difference between tones of the same pitch and how sound is produced by sound waves, while the Texture section explains the role of melody and accompaniment to the overall context of a musical piece. The Form section describes the formal structures composers use when creating music, from binary to sonata to fugue, as well as how the melodic, harmonic and rhythmic elements fit. You can record music from any MIDI instrument, use a mouse to select notes to position on the musical staff, or alter pieces from the tutorial. To use Music Mentor 2.0 you need a PC running at least a 386 microprocessor, one high-density floppy drive, Windows 3.x or Windows 95, four megabytes (MB) of memory, a hard drive with at least 7MB of available space, a Windows-compatible sound card or a MIDI interface and MIDI instrument, a mouse, speakers, and a VGA or better graphics display. Music Mentor 2.0 has a suggested retail price of $99.95, and the company said the street price is between $59 and $79. The product first shipped in 1992. On the business front, Midisoft restated its earnings data for 1994 and the first quarter of 1995, citing a shifting of customer credits. The company said 1994 net income now stands at $117,000, or $0.03 per share. Previously Midisoft had reported net income of $536,000, or $0.14 per share. First quarter income has been restated from $223,000, or $0.05 per share, to $309,000, or $0.07 per share. Midisoft said the major component of the restatement consists of shifting credits granted to customers for product returns which had been recorded in the first and second quarters of fiscal 1995 to the fourth quarter of fiscal 1994, according to a statement released by the company. Following the restatement action, Midisoft Chief Financial Officer (CFO) Calvin Dyer and Controller Alan Lewis resigned, and have already left the company. Craig Bohman, former CFO at Jay Jacobs, a 257-store retail apparel company, has replaced Dyer on an interim basis, and will be supported by Price Waterhouse staff. "We believe that the financial control issues that led to the restatements have been identified and we have taken immediate and expeditious action to correct them," said Raymond Bily, Midisoft chairman and chief executive officer. When interviewed by Newsbytes, Bily would not confirm that the two executives were asked to resign. However, he told Newsbytes the board of directors "did lose confidence in their ability to institute and implement a system of financial controls." Midisoft also publishes Midisoft Studio for Windows, a creative environment for music editing. The Personal studio feature in Music Mentor is a subset of Studio. The company also publishes MIDI Kit, which includes MIDI Connection, which allows the user to plug a connector into the back of any sound board or Multimedia PC system and connect a musical keyboard. Presentation Partner is a $149.95 CD-ROM-based product that automates the creation of multimedia presentations and allows the user to create presentations using PowerPoint, Harvard Graphics, or Lotus Freelance. Owners of those presentation packages can purchase Presentation Partner for $99.95, Bily told Newsbytes. (Jim Mallory/19950725/Press contact: Shannon Yost, Midisoft, 206-391-3610; Public contact: Midisoft, 206-391-3610) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 07/25/95 ONLINE ****AOL & Hachette Filipacchi In Online Deal (NEWS)(ONLINE)(MSP)(00017) ****AOL & Hachette Filipacchi In Online Deal 07/25/95 VIENNA, VIRGINIA, U.S.A., 1995 JUL 25 (NB) -- America Online Inc. (NASDAQ:AMER) (AOL) and Hachette Filipacchi have signed a pact that not only extends Hachette Filipacchi's exclusive agreement with AOL, but, according to the companies, will "enhance the relationship" as well. "Hachette's contract was coming up for renewal, and they decided to renew with us, as well as adding all of their (magazines) with us, and deal with us on an exclusive basis," Ted Leonsis, president of America Online Services Co., told Newsbytes. Current Hachette Filipacchi magazine titles on AOL include Car and Driver, Road & Track, Elle, Woman's Day, Home, Flying, Popular Photography, and Stereo Review. Up until now, Leonsis said the Hachette publications have been "good performers, in the top 15 percent. They've done a great job in starting to open up new revenue streams via advertising." Before 1995 is out, Hachette plans to bring more of its content into cyberspace, Leonsis said. Hachette will also work with AOL to develop new media. Some of the Hachette titles that will be debuting on AOL include Metropolitan Home, Mirabella, Family Life, Car and Driver's Buyer's Guide to New Cars, and Road & Track's car buyer's and truck buyer's guides. In addition, content from the Woman's Day Special Interest Publications will appear in a separate "Woman's Day Online" area, featuring topics on home renovations and fitness/ health. Leonsis also said the new pact will produce more CD-ROM-to-online ventures, like this year's "Car & Driver's '95 Buyers Guide," which has been on retail shelves since last May. "Our members liked it, they liked it, and the advertisers liked it. So we're going to do more of them," Leonsis said. Today's deal will also see Hachette getting into broadband delivery of services, Leonsis said. "We're participating in some trials together with our cable media partners. They'll do some interactive video stuff with us with their Car & Driver and Women's Day areas," he said. (Bob Woods/19950725/Press Contacts: Judy Tashbook, America Online, 703-918-1452; Francie Coulter, Hachette Filipacchi New Media, 212-767-6732. Public Contact: America Online, 800-827-6364) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 07/25/95 APPLE Apple Holds Design Showcase For Univ Students (NEWS)(APPLE)(SFO)(00018) Apple Holds Design Showcase For Univ Students 07/25/95 CUPERTINO, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1995 JUL 25 (NB) -- Apple Computer Inc., (NASDAQ:AAPL) is holding the premiere event for its Apple Design Project. Now, in its fourth year, the Project encourages university students to "create computer designs for the future." This years assignment was to design a computer system which would better integrate what goes on in the "real," or physical world, with what goes on inside the computer, or the electronic world. Among this year's projects are a small device which helps people locate hard-to-find objects such as misplaced glasses, and a small book-shaped, wireless computer which helps Alzheimer's patients through auditory and visual memory exercises. Apple says employees from Apple's Advanced Technology Group work with the different universities to promote projects which stress interdisciplinary efforts. The idea is to involve a university's different departments such as computer science, industrial design, psychology, business, visual design, and interaction design. Student teams from each school work throughout the academic calendar to design and create their projects. Judging the submissions are industry experts from Apple, the Royal College of Art in London, Xerox PARCH, MetaDesign in San Francisco, and the Dublin Group from Chicago. Criteria considered in assessment include "originality," "practicality," "degree of completion," "concept," and "design." Newsbytes interviewed a design team from the University of Technology at Sydney, Australia. Speaking for the five person team, Annette Boyden said, "Our project, called Phoenix, is a firefighting support system which is designed to enhance on-site performance." Continued Boyden, "With this system, which features communication and strategic information, a person at the fire truck is able to monitor the fire, location of individual firefighters, their airtank capacity and other critical data. As well, a user may access information such as a building's layout or hazardous materials and how to handle them." The team began working on the project this past February and each member contributes somewhere between 12 to 15 hours a week. The Australian team and others have been in California since last Friday, preparing its project, getting acquainted with other teams, and participating in the "spirit of cooperation and communication" fostered by Apple through the project. (Patrick McKenna/19950725/Press Contact: Stacey Byrnes, Apple, 408-974-6076) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 07/25/95 EDUCATION DEC Signs Vietnam Schools Deal (NEWS)(EDUCATION)(HKG)(00019) DEC Signs Vietnam Schools Deal 07/25/95 CENTRAL, HONG KONG, 1995 JUL 25 (NB) -- Vietnam's Ministry for Education & Training (MOET) has signed a deal with Digital Equipment Corporation (NYSE:DEC) to provide computer equipment to secondary schools in all of Vietnam's 53 provinces. MOET has budgeted 20 billion dong (approximately US$1.8 million) for the project. Michael Davis, Digital's general manager, PC Business in Hanoi said: "There was heavy competition for this contract, as all computer vendors realize the importance of the education market in the industry's development in the country." Digital has also pledged to donate over 100 titles of educational software to all the schools. Digital was previously chosen by MOET in 1994 as one of four vendors to provide information technology equipment to universities. Hanoi Polytechnic University, the largest technical school in the country, also choose Digital to provide all its information technology (IT) equipment. (IT Daily/19950725) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 07/25/95 APPLE Hong Kong - Apple Intros Performa PCs (NEWS)(APPLE)(HKG)(00020) Hong Kong - Apple Intros Performa PCs 07/25/95 CENTRAL, HONG KONG, 1995 JUL 25 (NB) -- Apple has joined the rush of computer manufactures bringing out models aimed at the Asian novice and home market with its new Macintosh Performa. The family of three models comes with free software and CD-ROM titles aimed at what the company calls "home learning." Also being introduced is AppleAssist, a free hot-line for Performa customers in certain countries. Hong Kong users also get access to the AppleClub, a user club offering product information, user tips, promotion discounts, and invitations to special events. The Macintosh Performa machines range in price from US$1,498 to US$1,899. (Nigel Armstrong and IT Daily/19950725) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 07/25/95 BUSINESS Conner To Build Disk Media Plant In Singapore (NEWS)(BUSINESS)(HKG)(00021) Conner To Build Disk Media Plant In Singapore 07/25/95 CENTRAL, HONG KONG, 1995 JUL 25 (NB) -- Conner Peripherals is to build a new disk media manufacturing facility in Singapore. The expansion will increase Conner's capacity to produce the industry's most advanced, magnetically coated, thin film 95 millimeter (mm) (3.5-inch) and 65mm (2.5-inch) disks for storing computer data on hard drives, says the company. Disk media is a key technology that allows the hard drive industry to maintain its record of increasing disk drive capacity 60% a year. CDD Singapore, a new, wholly-owned subsidiary of Conner Peripherals Pte. Ltd., represents an initial capital investment of approximately US$44 million and is scheduled to begin production at a renovated 133,000 square-foot facility during the first half of 1996, according to the company. The manufacturing operation in the proposed plant will initially create more than 200 new jobs. The plant will begin with one production line, but can be expanded to three lines as needed to support internal requirements and potential external demand, the company said. "CDD has become one of the leaders in disk media technology and cost and the Singapore expansion will allow us to exploit our competitive advantage in disk media manufacturing," said Finis Conner, chairman and chief executive officer (CEO). "While current production fulfills more than 90% of our internal requirements, the new Singapore plant will position Conner to increase our presence as a key media supplier for the rest of the industry," Conner said. "This represents a significant incremental business opportunity for Conner as we exploit our technology advantage." The Singapore operation continues Conner's expansion of manufacturing capacity for disk media. Last year Conner tripled production at its Milpitas, California, facility which now employs 700 people and can produce more than 25 million high density disks a year. According to research firm International Data Corp., worldwide disk drive unit shipments will grow at a rate of 21% over the next five years, with average capacities accelerating from the current 400 megabytes to more than four gigabytes. (Nigel Armstrong and IT Daily/19950725) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 07/25/95 ONLINE Canada Opens Missing Children's Web Site (NEWS)(ONLINE)(TOR)(00022) Canada Opens Missing Children's Web Site 07/25/95 OTTAWA, ONTARIO, CANADA, 1995 JUL 25 (NB) -- The Royal Canadian Mounted Police, in cooperation with Ottawa-based World Wide Web site developer Market Access Communications Inc., has officially opened the first nationwide Web site dedicated to locating missing children and preventing missing child incidents. Market Access managing partner, Duane Yeager, told media representatives and dignitaries gathered for the official ribbon-cutting ceremony, "Child CyberSEARCH Canada provides an opportunity for all missing child agencies to benefit from the information highway." The Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) recognizes six non-profit agencies in Canada dedicated to the location and prevention of missing children: Victims of Violence, Missing Children Society of Canada, National Missing Children's Locate Centre, Operation Go Home, Missing Children's Network of Canada, the RCMP's own Missing Children's Registry, and Child Find Canada. Market Access, along with CS Coop, an Ottawa government employees' credit union, has underwritten and developed Web sites for the first five of those agencies and the RCMP registry, and established a direct link to Child Find's own Web site. The central resource, which Child CyberSEARCH Canada will make available to the estimated three million Canadians using the Internet, is detailed information, including photographs, on all RCMP missing children cases. International missing children cases being looked into by the RCMP will also be hosted at the site. All of Canada's more than 1,400 police forces have been made aware of the new site and have been invited to participate, either by providing related literature or supplying information on missing child cases within their jurisdictions. Yeager says one of the main advantages of the Web site approach in this application is the immediacy of the information provided. "The information can be updated and made available to police and the public as quickly as it's received," he noted. Foremost among the support resources available at the new site are the RCMP's own official tips on street-proofing your kids. In addition, the Child CyberSEARCH Canada site offers links to other "child-safe" Web sites. "Child CyberSEARCH Canada is a great place for parents to start introducing their kids to the Internet," Yeager said. "As a service to our audience, we are providing over 30 links to child-safe sites throughout the Internet, from the Ontario Science Centre to Juggling to the Electronic Zoo. We will continue to increase the number of links as we screen more sites around the world." (Trevor Horsley/19950725/Press contact: Duane Yeager, 613-733-0048, Child CyberSEARCH Canada Internet World Wide Web http://www.maracomm.com/ccsc/ ) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 07/25/95 IBM IBM Expands On SystemView For AIX Plans (NEWS)(IBM)(TOR)(00023) IBM Expands On SystemView For AIX Plans 07/25/95 RESEARCH PARK, NORTH CAROLINA, U.S.A., 1995 JUL 25 (NB) -- IBM (NYSE:IBM) has announced some new features for its SystemView for AIX systems management product, and revealed details of a program meant to help other companies integrate their products with SystemView. IBM said its changes to SystemView for AIX simplify systems management tasks, including network and configuration management. Bob Smith, director of SystemView marketing, told Newsbytes that the moves to make managers' jobs easier include: event correlation that groups related events together; an object collection facility that can group similar network nodes and manage them as one; an agent policy manager that groups network agents; and enhanced backup and recovery capabilities. "We are really simplifying the job of the network operations staff," he claimed. Another focus of the announcements is scalability, said Smith. The key point here is a client/server capability in NetView, the network-management component of SystemView. "What it does is offload a lot of the processing that used to be done on the server," Smith said. NetView can now support as many as 30 clients per server, a feature that Gale Meyer, manager of technology relations, said will give customers more flexibility in how they manage their networks. IBM said other changes address customers' growing concerns about security. Gerry Young, a SystemView consultant at IBM, told Newsbytes that companies want more control of which systems- management operators can do what, and are also worried about a growing threat of invasion from outside the organization. NetView for AIX will also soon include support for Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP) Version 2, through an application program interface (API) to be available later this year. Smith said SystemView's distributed management abilities are being beefed up with the addition of the System-Level Manager to its Systems Monitor for AIX. This component provides local systems-level management for crucial nodes, he said. IBM said it has chosen the name SystemView Advance Team for the vendor program it promised in its May SystemView for AIX announcement. The group currently has 12 founding members, IBM said. Membership is open to companies that develop applications, agents, or services for SystemView, with membership options ranging in cost from $495 to $995. Benefits to members include product and sales and marketing information, technical support, listings in a product directory, and referrals for their products, IBM said. IBM has invited all 270 current members of its NetView Association, on which the SystemView Advance Team is modelled, to join the new group. The company is also extending invitations to other makers of system and network management products, Donna Bowie-Conway, program manager for the SystemView Advance Team, told Newsbytes. SystemView for AIX's new network management features are part of NetView for AIX Version 4.1. Due to be available by the end of July, the Version 4.1 server costs $15,000 and the client $500, while upgrades from Version 3 cost $1,000. The new Systems-Level Manager in Systems Monitor for AIX Version 2.2 is $300 and is to be available by month-end. The new Distributed Systems Management Interface Tool, Version 2.2 Server, is to be available at the end of September for $5,000, and the client for $300. It is also available now as a stand-alone product, IBM said. (Grant Buckler/19950725/Press Contact: Melinda Painter, IBM, 919-543-9627/SYSTEM950725/PHOTO) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 07/25/95 TRENDS China - Survey On Computer Trade Shows (NEWS)(TRENDS)(PEK)(00024) China - Survey On Computer Trade Shows 07/25/95 BEIJING, CHINA, 1995 JUL 25 (NB) -- Besides local-level computer exhibitions, there will be more than 69 "international" or "national" computer tradeshows throughout China in 1995. However, according to the Market Research Department of China Infoworld, while many computer firms are complaining about too many tradeshows, most exhibition visitors don't think that is the case. Based on a survey conducted at the Beijing Computer Trade Fair, 2.4 percent of surveyed visitors said that there are "not enough" trade shows, 23.5 percent think "not too many," 48.2 percent said "quite many," and only 15.5 percent said "too many." Meanwhile, 10.4 percent did not answer the question, the newspaper said. While computer firms complain that it would be too expensive to show up at all big exhibitions, 52.9 percent of the surveyed visitors believe "the more the better." Only 2.6 percent of surveyed visitors suggested "reducing the number of computer exhibitions." In answer to a question as to which is the main information source for people to know computer firms and their products, 54 percent of those surveyed said it was exhibitions, and 32.8 percent said commercial advertisements. In 1995, Beijing will hold 21 "international" or "national" computer trade shows, with Shanghai holding five shows, Guangzhou five shows, and Tianjin four shows. The other 34 exhibitions are to be in another 27 cities. In 1994 there were 46 national-level computer exhibitions in China. It is interesting to note that 79 percent of the surveyed visitors could not write down the name of the most impressive exhibition. Based on answers from the remainder of those surveyed, the first five most impressive exhibitions were the Beijing Computer Trade Fair (where the survey was conducted), the 1995 Software Trade Fair, the 1995 "Three Golden Projects" Exhibition, the 1995 Computer and Office Automation show, and the 1995 Multimedia Exhibition, all in Beijing. (Chih-Ho Yu & Ning Huang/19950722) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 07/25/95 GENERAL Intuit Intros QuickBooks Pro Small Business Acct Prgm (NEWS)(GENERAL)(LAX)(00025) Intuit Intros QuickBooks Pro Small Business Acct Prgm 07/25/95 MENLO PARK, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1995 JUL 25 (NB) -- Intuit Inc. (NASDAQ: INTU) has introduced QuickBooks Pro for Windows and Macintosh. It is designed as a small business accounting product that integrates time tracking, estimating and job costing with accounting and payroll. Jenifer Pursell of Intuit's Product Management Group told Newsbytes that, "QuickBooks Pro addresses the needs of the eight million small businesses that are project-, job-, or time-based." Most of those businesses use manual or general purpose software systems, including spreadsheets, word processors, and even post-it notes, to do time-tracking, and estimating. Since these systems are not integrated with their accounting program, users waste time and money reentering information and not getting the reports they need. "QuickBooks Pro adds a series of set reports that aid the businessman in time-tracking, estimating, and job costing. These were not available on QuickBook," said Pursell. "The era of one-size-fits-all accounting software is rapidly coming to a close, " said Scott Cook, chairman and co-founder of Intuit. "QuickBooks Pro is a breakthrough for 40% of all small business. These businesses, like subcontractors, graphic designers, consultants and accountants to name a few, need to track time, prepare estimates or perform job cost analyses for customers, projects, and jobs. "QuickBooks Pro integrates all of these functions with accounting and payroll so consumers only have to input information once and their data flows seamlessly from one activity to the next. They can then generate reports that show profitability by employee, project, activity, and more." According to the company, users can take advantage of time-tracking by entering the time they spend on projects, jobs and specific activities once, and all the appropriate accounting and payroll records are updated automatically. Users assign time to particular jobs and customers, and later bill those hours back to the customer with a few simple mouseclicks. When they pay their employees, all the time information appears in the employee's paycheck preview. When it is time to bill the customer, users can generate an invoice from the estimate with a mouse click, and all the information is automatically filled out. Customers can edit the invoice by removing or adding any items, and the original estimate is not affected by any changes they make to the invoice. Eleven project and job costing reports show users which products, services and employees generate the most or least profit. QuickBooks Pro also has the same features of QuickBooks. Users can do invoicing, bill paying, check printing, accounts receivable, accounts payable, payroll, financial reports and graphs, inventory tracking, purchase orders, tax record keeping, audit trail, bank balance tracking and reconciliation, cash management, budgeting, tracking customer, and vendor information. QuickBooks Pro for Windows and Macintosh will be available in early August, at the suggested retail price of $189. QuickBooks and Quicken users will get a $50 rebate. QuickBooks Pro for Windows requires an IBM compatible 386 (or higher) PC, four megabytes (MB) RAM, a hard drive with 15MB free space, Windows 3.1, and a VGA or higher resolution monitor. Users of Quicken and users of all previous versions of QuickBooks for DOS and Windows can import their files directly into QuickBooks Pro for Windows during start-up. QuickBooks Pro for Macintosh requires Macintosh System 7.0 or higher with a 68020 processor or faster, at least 6MB of RAM, and a hard drive with 15MB free disk space. Monitor requirements are resolution of 640 by 400 or better, including PowerBook displays, 12-inch or larger black and white monitors, and 14-inch or larger color monitors. (Richard Bowers/19950725/Press Contact: LeAnn Buck, Intuit, 408-833-5125) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 07/25/95 TELECOM AT&T Says India Is Biggest Asian Opportunity (NEWS)(TELECOM)(DEL)(00026) AT&T Says India Is Biggest Asian Opportunity 07/25/95 NEW DELHI, INDIA, 1995 JUL 25 (NB) -- Telecommunications giant, AT&T Corp., says India is its biggest Asian opportunity as the nation opens a decades-old state monopoly to satisfy a growing appetite for telephones. Said John Legere, Asia-Pacific president, "We see Asia-Pacific as the fastest growing market from the point-of-view of size, pace of growth of economies, and the pace of growth of telephony in general." He further added that China and India stood out, but AT&T found India more attractive. According to him, the major difference between the two countries is the aggressive steps India has taken to accelerate the growth of telecommunications, including the use of foreign providers, which makes it the biggest opportunity in Asia. AT&T joined India's Aditya Birla Group and the Philippine Long Distance Company (PLDT) to float Birla Telecom, which bid for licenses to wire up four lucrative high-growth zones. While AT&T holds 39 percent and PLDT 10 percent, the Birla Group holds 51 percent to meet regulatory requirements that say an Indian partner must hold a majority. (C.T. Mahabharat/19950725) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 95 07/25/95 WINDOWS Software Affiliates Intros Ask.Me For Windows (NEWS)(WINDOWS)(SFO)(00027) Software Affiliates Intros Ask.Me For Windows 95 07/25/95 ENCINO, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1995 JUL 25 (NB) -- Software Affiliates, a marketing and distribution company, has announced shipment of Ask.Me For Windows 95. Based on intelligent agent software, the program has been tailored to answer questions from a variety of users, ranging from those with no Windows experience to those with advanced experience. #IMAGE 1 20 TWPCX \images\95072527.PCX Click here for photo The popular Ask.Me line from Software Affiliates includes help programs for Microsoft Office, Lotus Smart Suite, Microsoft Works, and individual programs from these suites. Working with KnowledgeBroker, a service bureau, Software Affiliates bases its Ask.Me line on millions of tech support questions and smart software which allows users to phrase questions "in their own natural fashion." Bob Edenzen, president of Software Affiliates, told Newsbytes, "KnowledgeBroker has been a beta site for Windows 95 and offered tech support for beta testers of the new operating system. This gives us the ability to create the first help files based on real experience with the program from many different users." He continued, "General computer users are just now becoming aware of the advantage of smart software. Instead of trying to figure out how to ask the correct question to search a database of information, a user simply asks the question as if they were talking to a tech support representative. For example, if a user does not use a particular icon and wants to delete it, the person simply types in the question: 'How do I delete this icon?' There is no need to guess about whether to type 'icon' or 'delete' and hope you find the right term to engage the correct search." Ask.Me For Windows 95 also provides information for Windows 3.1 and 3.11, so that users may access information regarding the "older" Windows versions or the new Windows 95. The program also offers users the additional features of a "Help Hunter" and a "System Viewer." Help Hunter searches and finds the help files of Windows-based programs, so users may easily refer to help files of a specific program while working with Ask.Me. System Viewer allows users to automatically view system configuration elements such as memory, storage, video, and other data and files. Potential buyers can expect to see Ask.Me For Windows 95 in most major retail software outlets. This $18 (estimated street price) program is being featured at Egghead, Babbage's, CompUSA, Computer City, Electronics Boutique, Wal-Mart, Elek-Tek, Software Etc., Office Max, Price/Costco, and Nebraska Furniture Mart. Ask.Me will also be featured through ads in "American Way," the flight magazine of American Airlines. Edenzen says the standard version offers "critical information" for the new operating system to business users as well as home users. "One of the real benefits of using this program is the time and money saved by not having to contact tech support representatives. For a small company, its employees can answer their own questions and reduce the load on their own tech support staff." (Patrick McKenna/19950725/Press Contact: Pat Meier, Pat Meier Associates P.R., 415-957-5999/ASK.ME950725/PHOTO) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 07/25/95 PC Epson's Notebook PC Card Compatibility Guarantee (NEWS)(PC)(SFO)(00028) Epson's Notebook PC Card Compatibility Guarantee 07/25/95 TORRRANCE, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1995 JUL 25 (NB) -- Known best for its printers, computers, scanners, notebooks, and PC Cards, Epson has now announced a "100% compatibility or your money-back guarantee" on all of its PC Cards. Citing earlier compatibility problems all manufacturers had with these credit card-sized notebook options, Epson says it wants to emphasize the progress it has made in solving the compatibility issues. The compatibility guarantee from Epson covers all of its cards offered through retail channels. Originally known as PCMCIA (Personal Computer Memory Card International Association), these cards are now more commonly called PC Cards. Manufacturers are almost entirely adopting the latter term. Epson says the older term is still common among some retailers and users, but hopefully the shift has been made away from the awkward PCMCIA term. Bob Porooshani, Epson's technical marketing manager for the OEM (original equipment manufacturing) division, told Newsbytes, "One of the number one problems with PC Cards when they first came out was compatibility. There were a lot of difficulties and the corporate market, which contains the strongest segment of users, found the problem to be a major concern. The industry is now beyond the problem and we want to make sure customers know all of our cards are completely compatible and we back that up by offering a 100% money-back guarantee." He added: "What we are really fighting here is a reputation or image which resulted from early problems in the industry. We feel it is important to communicate to existing and potential users that the problem no longer exists." Part of the "fix" involves Epson's Card Wizard Pro, a PC Card and Socket Services software which solves many configuration problems. Epson says all if its cards are covered, and a new labeling program is in progress. A "Compatibility Guarantee" logo is being displayed on all new packaging. Rather than having to send cards back to Epson, customers may deal directly with the retail outlet where the purchase was made. The company has an 800 number printed on each card's label. (Patrick McKenna/19950725/Press Contact: Cynthia Lempert, Walt &Sommerhauser, 408-496-0900; Public Information: Epson, 800-289-3776 ext 3000/EPSON950725/PHOTO) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 07/25/95 NETWORK IBM And DEC Update NetView For AIX, Digital Unix (NEWS)(NETWORK)(BOS)(00029) IBM And DEC Update NetView For AIX, Digital Unix 07/25/95 MAYNARD, MASSACHUSETTS, U.S.A., 1995 JUL 25 (NB) -- IBM and Digital's jointly developed new version of NetView, announced today, adds a new client-server architecture, distributed security, event correlation, an object collection facility, and support for SNMP (Simple Network Management Protocol) 2, Digital and IBM officials said, in a conference call with Newsbytes. The third enhancement of NetView to be unveiled since Digital and IBM began to collaborate on the network management technology in fall, 1993, the update will be implemented in a soon to be unveiled product for Windows NT, as well as in IBM's SystemView for AIX, Version 4, and in Digital's Polycenter Manager on NetView for Digital Unix, Version 4, said Lynn Wilczak, director of SystemView strategy and plans for IBM. The IBM implementation of NetView is slated to ship on July 28, and the Digital implementation on September 1. Digital's Polycenter Manager on NetView, version 4, will be "tightly integrated" with Polycenter DECnet Manager for Digital Unix, version 2.1, a new client-server edition, said Dennis Biedrzybski, Polycenter marketing manager. This product is also scheduled for release on September 1. Aside from AIX and Digital Unix, the NetView server also operates on OS/2, MVS, Sun, and UnixWare, reported Wilczak. The NetView client operates on Apple, NCR, and "virtually all" other platforms, she noted. Wilczak told Newsbytes that she expects the changes to NetView will also be ported to other platforms. In the new client-server editions for AIX and Digital Unix, all processing is moved to the client for tripled performance, according to Wilczak. The new version also adds login authentification, access control, an audit trail function, and initial support for SNMP Version 2 capabilities that include the use of GetBulk to transfer more information, and a new multivendor manager-to-manager communications feature. Faye Allen, director of marketing for Digital's Network Integration Software Group, told Newsbytes that other new features in NetView include event correlation for problem resolution; a new object collection facility for streamlining user queries; and a new graphical user interface with a zoom feature, color-coded event cards, and enhancements for viewing stacks and menus. (Jacqueline Emigh/19950725/Reader Contact: IBM, 914-765-1900; Digital, 508-493-5111; Press Contacts: Chuck Malkiel, Digital, 508- 264-6740; Melinda Painter, IBM, 919-543-9627) (SUMMARY)(GENERAL)(MSP)(00030) Newsbytes Daily Summary 07/25/95 MINNEAPOLIS, MINNESOTA, U.S.A., 1995 JUL 25 (NB) -- These are capsules of all today's news stories: ======================================================================== ------------| N E W S B Y T E S D A I L Y S U M M A R Y |---------- ------------| Tuesday, July 25, 1995 |---------- ======================================================================== (c) Newsbytes News Network (Tm) Editor in Chief: Wendy Woods ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Newsbytes News Network is a computer and telecom industry news wire and digitized picture service. Our news stream includes more than 30 daily first-hand reported US and international news stories about computing and telecommunications. For more information, please e-mail to 'administrator@newsbytes.com' ------------------------------------------------------------------------ CATEGORY HEADLINES (*** indicates today's top stories) STORY # ======================================================================== APPLE KinderCare Installs 4,000 Macs In Child Care Centers....... 05 APPLE Apple Holds Design Showcase For Univ Students.............. 18 APPLE Hong Kong - Apple Intros Performa PCs...................... 20 BUSINESS Hong Kong - Midi Systems Signs Mega Dynamic................ 04 BUSINESS Unisys & Wang Announce Imaging Cooperation................. 08 BUSINESS Conner To Build Disk Media Plant In Singapore.............. 21 CHIPS TI Intros Faster Memory Chips.............................. 10 EDUCATION DEC Signs Vietnam Schools Deal............................. 19 GENERAL EZ-Trade Gets Hong Kong Govt Grant......................... 02 GENERAL Claris Ships FileMaker Pro Server Starter Pack............. 06 GENERAL Intuit Intros QuickBooks Pro Small Business Acct Prgm...... 25 GOVT Government Data On CD-ROM.................................. 12 HEALTH Paging Reminders To Take Medicine.......................... 01 IBM IBM Adds 2 RS/6000 Servers................................. 07 IBM IBM Expands On SystemView For AIX Plans.................... 23 NETWORK High Speed Internet Router Intro'd......................... 09 NETWORK Cisco's CiscoWorks Blue For Network Mgt.................... 14 NETWORK IBM And DEC Update NetView For AIX, Digital Unix........... 29 ONLINE NewsPage To Take Bids For Web Site Ads..................... 11 ONLINE ****AOL & Hachette Filipacchi In Online Deal.............. 17 ONLINE Canada Opens Missing Children's Web Site................... 22 PC Epson's Notebook PC Card Compatibility Guarantee........... 28 TELECOM New T&T Offers "One2One" Calling Card In Hong Kong......... 03 TELECOM Zap-It Wireless Comms Service For Notebooks................ 15 TELECOM AT&T Says India Is Biggest Asian Opportunity............... 26 TRENDS ****Survey Details Phone & PC Ownership................... 13 TRENDS China - Survey On Computer Trade Shows..................... 24 WINDOWS Midisoft Ships Music Mentor 2.0, Financial Execs Resign.... 16 WINDOWS Software Affiliates Intros Ask.Me For Windows 95........... 27 ======================================================================== These are the headlines and first paragraphs of each story, in order: 1 -> Paging Reminders To Take Medicine -- Wireless technology is coming to the aid of people who, for various reasons, need to be reminded to take medication. MediTrac has announced "DosePage," which uses an alphanumeric pager to remind users about their prescription medications. 2 -> EZ-Trade Gets Hong Kong Govt Grant -- The Hong Kong Article Numbering Association (HKANA) has been awarded a HK$3 million (US$385,000) grant from the government for EZ-Trade, its electronic data interchange (EDI) project. 3 -> New T&T Offers "One2One" Calling Card In Hong Kong -- New T&T, one of three new Hong Kong fixed network service providers to start operations since the deregulation of the local telecoms monopoly on July 1, has launched its first service, an international calling card. 4 -> Hong Kong - Midi Systems Signs Mega Dynamic -- Hong Kong company Mega Dynamic International (MDI) has been awarded the exclusive dealership for Hong Kong and Asia for the Midi Systems Ltd.'s desktop filing system. 5 -> KinderCare Installs 4,000 Macs In Child Care Centers -- KinderCare has instituted something called the "MacPlay To Learn" program, claiming it affirms its "commitment to technology education." With the recent purchase and installation of 4,000 Mac Performa computers, KinderCare will now provide computer instruction for children in nearly half of its 1,138 child care centers nationwide. 6 -> Claris Ships FileMaker Pro Server Starter Pack -- Claris Corp. has begun shipments of the FileMaker Pro Server Starter Pack database management system software. The new option includes up to five FileMaker Pro 2.1 Macintosh or Windows licenses, plus the FileMaker Pro Server 2.1 software. 7 -> IBM Adds 2 RS/6000 Servers -- IBM (NYSE:IBM) has added two new models to its RS/6000 line of workstations and servers. Meant mainly to be used as servers for scientific and technical applications, both new systems are built on the Power2 reduced instruction set computing (RISC) processor. 8 -> Unisys & Wang Announce Imaging Cooperation -- Unisys Corp. (NYSE:UIS) and Wang Laboratories Inc. (NASDAQ:WANG) have announced a strategic relationship building on Unisys' previous arrangement with Sigma Imaging Systems Inc. of New York, which Wang recently acquired. 9 -> High Speed Internet Router Intro'd -- Compatible Systems has introduced a TCP/IP (Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol) router the company claims can provide high speed Internet access over leased, switched, or ISDN (integrated services digital network) lines. 10 -> TI Intros Faster Memory Chips -- Texas Instruments Inc. (NYSE: TXN) has introduced a new class of memory chip it claims will "greatly speed computer operations." 11 -> NewsPage To Take Bids For Web Site Ads -- When it comes to buying advertising space at Individual Inc.'s NewsPage Internet World Wide Web site, the company is letting the market decide the rates for specific pages through a "Dutch Auction." 12 -> Government Data On CD-ROM -- Like other publishers, the federal government is publishing more and more information on CD-ROM. To help the CD user, the National Technical Information Service has produced a free catalog that offers descriptions of CD titles in its collection. 13 -> ****Survey Details Phone & PC Ownership -- "If you're a rural or urban person of color, you are less likely to have a telephone or a computer," Larry Irving, chief of the National Telecommunications and Information Administration told state regulators today as he unveiled a new study of access to technology. 14 -> Cisco's CiscoWorks Blue For Network Mgt -- With mixed architectures of SNA (Systems Network Architecture) mainframe and Unix-based network router traffic on the rise, Cisco's new CiscoWorks Blue program will give network administrators needed visibility into these complex IBM "internetworks" from both the SNA and Unix sides, maintained Nick Francis, director of product marketing for Cisco's IBM Programs, in a meeting with Newsbytes. 15 -> Zap-It Wireless Comms Service For Notebooks -- Sending electronic-mail, faxes, and pages inexpensively "is now a reality," according to DTS Wireless. The company has introduced Zap-It, a wireless communications package for DOS- and Windows- based computers, along with HP palmtop systems. 16 -> Midisoft Ships Music Mentor 2.0, Financial Execs Resign -- Midisoft Corp. (NASDAQ: MIDI) has released version 2.0 of its music fundamentals and history program, called Music Mentor. But the company sounded a sour note when it restated its earnings data for all of 1994 and the first quarter of 1995, and both its chief financial officer and controller resigned. 17 -> ****AOL & Hachette Filipacchi In Online Deal -- America Online Inc. (NASDAQ:AMER) (AOL) and Hachette Filipacchi have signed a pact that not only extends Hachette Filipacchi's exclusive agreement with AOL, but, according to the companies, will "enhance the relationship" as well. 18 -> Apple Holds Design Showcase For Univ Students -- Apple Computer Inc., (NASDAQ:AAPL) is holding the premiere event for its Apple Design Project. Now, in its fourth year, the Project encourages university students to "create computer designs for the future." 19 -> DEC Signs Vietnam Schools Deal -- Vietnam's Ministry for Education & Training (MOET) has signed a deal with Digital Equipment Corporation (NYSE:DEC) to provide computer equipment to secondary schools in all of Vietnam's 53 provinces. 20 -> Hong Kong - Apple Intros Performa PCs -- Apple has joined the rush of computer manufactures bringing out models aimed at the Asian novice and home market with its new Macintosh Performa. 21 -> Conner To Build Disk Media Plant In Singapore -- Conner Peripherals is to build a new disk media manufacturing facility in Singapore. The expansion will increase Conner's capacity to produce the industry's most advanced, magnetically coated, thin film 95 millimeter (mm) (3.5-inch) and 65mm (2.5-inch) disks for storing computer data on hard drives, says the company. 22 -> Canada Opens Missing Children's Web Site -- The Royal Canadian Mounted Police, in cooperation with Ottawa-based World Wide Web site developer Market Access Communications Inc., has officially opened the first nationwide Web site dedicated to locating missing children and preventing missing child incidents. 23 -> IBM Expands On SystemView For AIX Plans -- IBM (NYSE:IBM) has announced some new features for its SystemView for AIX systems management product, and revealed details of a program meant to help other companies integrate their products with SystemView. 24 -> China - Survey On Computer Trade Shows -- Besides local-level computer exhibitions, there will be more than 69 "international" or "national" computer tradeshows throughout China in 1995. 25 -> Intuit Intros QuickBooks Pro Small Business Acct Prgm -- Intuit Inc. (NASDAQ: INTU) has introduced QuickBooks Pro for Windows and Macintosh. It is designed as a small business accounting product that integrates time tracking, estimating and job costing with accounting and payroll. 26 -> AT&T Says India Is Biggest Asian Opportunity -- Telecommunications giant, AT&T Corp., says India is its biggest Asian opportunity as the nation opens a decades-old state monopoly to satisfy a growing appetite for telephones. 27 -> Software Affiliates Intros Ask.Me For Windows 95 -- Software Affiliates, a marketing and distribution company, has announced shipment of Ask.Me For Windows 95. Based on intelligent agent software, the program has been tailored to answer questions from a variety of users, ranging from those with no Windows experience to those with advanced experience. 28 -> Epson's Notebook PC Card Compatibility Guarantee -- Known best for its printers, computers, scanners, notebooks, and PC Cards, Epson has now announced a "100% compatibility or your money-back guarantee" on all of its PC Cards. 29 -> IBM And DEC Update NetView For AIX, Digital Unix -- IBM and Digital's jointly developed new version of NetView, announced today, adds a new client-server architecture, distributed security, event correlation, an object collection facility, and support for SNMP (Simple Network Management Protocol) 2, Digital and IBM officials said, in a conference call with Newsbytes. (Ian Stokell/19950725) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 07/24/95 HEALTH Telemedicine Helps Texas Prison Inmates (NEWS)(HEALTH)(LAX)(00001) Telemedicine Helps Texas Prison Inmates 07/24/95 SAN JOSE, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1995 JUL 24 (NB) -- Compression Labs Inc. (CLI) (NASDAQ: CLIX) has announced that its videoconferencing systems have been chosen for the largest telemedicine project in the United States. Over 2,500 prisoners from Texas prisons will be treated using telemedicine in 1995. The use of an integrated computer supplied by AT&T Global Information Solutions, and Radiance videoconferencing systems provided by CLI, along with specially designed medical peripherals and cameras, enables physicians in one location to use two-way interactive technology to examine inmates at distant sites. This saves time and transportation costs and avoids dangerous security issues to examining physicians. The University of Texas Medical Branch (UTMB) at Galveston operates the only tertiary care prison hospital in the state. Prisoners from all over Texas are referred to UTMB hospitals and clinics in Galveston. As Texas' prison population has grown, the number of prison referrals to UTMB has increased dramatically, rising from 125 per week in 1983 to as many as 750 per week in 1995. "This telemedicine project should save Texas taxpayers money in transportation and security expenses," said Dr. Thomas C. Tinstman, director of medical informatics at UTMB. "Each day hundreds of prisoners are transported to local hospitals in Texas. UTMB's telemedicine project is keeping up to 250 prison inmates off of Texas highways each month. "Because we are dealing with a large number of patients, we are continuously looking at ways to be more efficient," Tinstman said. "Our current goal is to provide telemedicine health care services to 100 inmate patients each week." The UTMB equipment consists of an integrated computer and a CLI videoconferencing system with four cameras for close-up viewing of patients. Instruments attached to the cameras allow physicians to look into the patient's ears, eyes, and throat, as well as listen to his or her heart. The venture involves medical specialists in Galveston who are successfully diagnosing and treating illnesses of Texas prison inmates using telemedicine units at four different prison sites. Physicians in seventeen different specialty areas are now using telemedicine to examine approximately forty to sixty inmates each week. Melissa Baten Caswell, manager of market programs at CLI, told Newsbytes, "According to industry surveys, the UTMB project is by far the largest telemedicine project ever put together anywhere. UTMB will do more telemedicine consults in 1995 than were done in the entire world in 1994. "A separate study on telemedicine projects identified that, among the 26 projects underway in the US, 11 projects deployed CLI videoconferencing systems. The UTMB project alone makes CLI the major provider in telemedicine in the world today," said Caswell. According to CLI, the Radiance videoconferencing system provides video transmission speeds up to two megabits-per-second, with thirty frames-per-second and 480 lines of resolution. (Richard Bowers/19950721/Press Contact: Mia Bradway, Compression Labs, 408-428-6735) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 07/24/95 TRENDS Smart & Friendly's 7-Disk Quad-Speed CD Jukebox (NEWS)(TRENDS)(LAX)(00002) Smart & Friendly's 7-Disk Quad-Speed CD Jukebox 07/24/95 VAN NUYS, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1995 JUL 24 (NB) -- Smart and Friendly, has announced the immediate availability of its new CDJ 7004 seven- disk quad-speed (4x) jukebox. The new jukebox can changes disks in as little as 2.5 seconds for Mac and PC users. Perry Solomon, chief executive officer (CEO) of Smart and Friendly, told Newsbytes, "We are a value-added manufacturer of CD technologies. Our main product line is advanced CD-ROM recording technology. The more sophisticated the recording of CD-ROM becomes, the greater need for multi-disk capability. "The more demanding the play-back requirements are, the greater need for faster and more flexible products. The CDJ 7004 seven-disk 4x jukebox, for example, has 'mail slot' capabilities. This allows an auto parts supplier with a CD catalog to change one disk at a time, instead of having to change the entire CD package," said Solomon. "Our new 4x 7-disc jukebox makes fast access to multiple CDs an affordable reality," continued Solomon. "With some of the hottest new games coming out on as many as 7 CDs, jukeboxes are becoming a necessity. The CDJ 7004 gives you access to nearly five gigabytes (GB) of data at quad-speed." The CDJ 7004 is priced at $469, with the dual-speed unit at $349. According to the company, they both support CD-ROM, CD-DA, CD-ROM XA, and Photo CD (multisession) disks. The CDJ 7004 has push-button loading, eliminating the need for magazines or disk caddies. The unit automatically selects the desired disk without requiring the user to know the slot number of each disk. The front panel sports controls for audio CDs and a stereo headphone jack. It includes drivers for both Mac and DOS/Windows platforms. (Richard Bowers/19950721/Press Contact: Laura Ness, High Technology Distributing, 408-338-1416) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 07/24/95 TELECOM Telecom Venture To Offer CDMA Wireless Service (NEWS)(TELECOM)(MSP)(00003) Telecom Venture To Offer CDMA Wireless Service 07/24/95 KANSAS CITY, MISSOURI, U.S.A., 1995 JUL 24 (NB) -- An alliance of four telecommunications companies has announced it will start negotiating with vendors of code division multiple access (CDMA) to deploy that technology over the venture's nationwide wireless communications network. The four companies in the Sprint Telecommunications Venture, as the alliance is called, are Sprint (NYSE:FON), Tele-Communications Inc. (NASDAQ:TCOMA) (TCI), Cox Communications (NYSE:COX), and Comcast Corp. (NASDAQ:CMCSA). CDMA technology uses a lower power signal that is spread across a wide bandwidth, a Sprint spokesperson told Newsbytes. Using CDMA, cellular phone conversations are coded and decoded digitally on the sender's and receiver's end, respectively. CDMA requires fewer cell sites, deters fraud, increases network design flexibility, and allows advanced features and services to be added easily. Audio quality also improves through the use of CDMA. Mark Bonavia, Sprint spokesperson, told Newsbytes he could not say which CDMA vendor companies are involved in the negotiation, how much the contracts would be worth, or how many CDMA sellers are involved in the talks. However, officials did say final agreements will be reached with more than one vendor over the next several weeks. "If these negotiations do not result in favorable agreements," Ronald T. LeMay, chief executive officer (CEO) of the venture said, "then the venture will explore other alternatives." Last March, the four companies put up $4.4 billion in the new venture, Bonavia said. Out of that $4.4 billion, "$2.1 billion was earmarked for the PCS (personal communication services) wireless licenses which we won in the Federal Communications Commission's auction earlier this year." He said the rest of the money will go towards the build-out of the network. The venture has the rights to offer wireless services in 29 markets, through the PCS auction. A key step in the network's development is the selection of a technology. In addition, because of a test conducted by Cox, CDMA is reportedly more compatible with cable infrastructure. (Bob Woods/19950721/Press Contacts: Mark Bonavia, 913-624-3552, or Steve Dykes, 202-828-7435, both of Sprint) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 07/24/95 PC Gateway Offers Lithium-Ion Battery For Notebooks (NEWS)(PC)(DEN)(00004) Gateway Offers Lithium-Ion Battery For Notebooks 07/24/95 NORTH SIOUX CITY, SOUTH DAKOTA, U.S.A., 1995 JUL 24 (NB) -- Gateway 2000 (NASDAQ: GATE) said it will equip its Liberty DX4-100 notebook PCs with lithium ion batteries and will make the battery available as an optional upgrade for all other Liberty models, including those previously purchased. In addition to enhanced battery time, the new batteries are also lighter and bring the weight of the Liberty DX4-100 down to 4.1 pounds. The company said the lithium ion battery will run the PC for as much as 40 percent longer than will a nickel cadmium battery. Lithium ion batteries are just one of several power supply choices currently available to portable computer users. Once available only with nickel cadmium (NiCad) batteries, portable users now have the option of nickel metal hydride, lithium ion, and on a limited basis, zinc air, with each offering its own set of advantages. Smyrna, Georgia-based AER Energy is one of the companies developing battery technology, and AER spokesperson Frank Harris talked with Newsbytes about the various power technologies available. Harris said nickel metal hydride batteries (NiMH) provide about twice the power (which equates to run-time) as NiCad, and lithium ion, which Harris said is the most expensive, increases run-time by very little over NiMH. However, NiMH weighs about one-quarter of a pound less. "Lithium ion will be the dominant technology over the next four to five years because of its weight saving," Harris told Newsbytes. According to data furnished to Newsbytes by AER Energy, a Ni-Cad battery costs about $1 per watt-hour, while the Ni-MH source costs approximately $1.50 per watt-hour. Lithium ion batteries are the most expensive at about $2 per watt-hour, with Zinc-air weighing in at slightly more than fifty cents per watt hour when produced in volume. Zinc air, still an emerging technology, can run your PC for as long as 20 hours, but is currently only available for Toshiba PCs, with a version for Hewlett-Packard portables available in the near future. Harris said it will be two to three years before zinc air batteries are commonly available. The basic Liberty DX4-100 is powered by a DX4 microprocessor with a clock speed of 100 megahertz (MHz) and equipped with eight megabytes (MB) of system memory, a 340MB capacity hard disk, a 256 kilobyte (KB) cache, a 14,400 bits-per-second data/fax modem, an external floppy drive, and an infrared receptor. The Liberty DX4-100, priced at $2,999, ships with the Microsoft Works software suite installed and Gateway said all Liberty purchasers are eligible to receive a free upgrade to Microsoft Windows 95 when that product ships. Additional memory, higher-capacity hard drives, and additional software suites are also available. Gateway said Liberty users will automatically get the upgrade diskette or CD-ROM at no cost. Bob Burnett, director of portable products at Gateway, said all Liberty models support both nickel metal hydride or lithium ion batteries, and buyers can specify which power source best meets their needs. In a test conducted by a trade magazine last month, a Gateway Liberty portable ran for six hours and 47 minutes with a nickel metal hydride battery, and Gateway said the new lithium ion source can extend that time by as much as 41 percent. The Liberty battery can be charged in while the PC is in use or when it is turned off, or by plugging the AC cube directly into the battery. The PC and the battery are equipped with a visible "gas gauge" to show approximately how much battery life remains before charging is required. The upgrade cost to change your Liberty PC battery from nickel metal hydride to lithium ion is $150. (Jim Mallory/19950721/Press contact: Steve Sturgeon, Gateway 2000, 605-232-2582 or Frank Harris, AER Energy, 404-431-2084; Public contact: Gateway 2000, 605-232-2000 or 800-523-2000; AER Energy, tel 404-433-2127, fax 404-433-2286) (ADVISORY)(GENERAL)(MSP)(00005) NewsPix Images For Newsbytes Publishers 07/24/95 MINNEAPOLIS, MINNESOTA, U.S.A., 1995 JUL 24 (NB) -- These photos correspond to recent Newsbytes stories. They are online in the Newsbytes menu on GEnie, America Online, eWorld, NiftyServe, and the Newsbytes private bulletin board system in Minneapolis. JPEG files are larger in size, PICT files are designed as thumbnails for onscreen viewing. The photos are titled with name/year/month/day. PICT/thumbnail pictures are black and white (gray scale). File message will indicate color if the JPEG image is color. Some of the "for use" images, may be PICT files. To distinguish these files from the thumbnail preview PICT images, the tag for the color "for use" image will have PICT, all caps. The thumbnail will remain noted as "pct." To become a licensed Newsbytes publisher, call Newsbytes at 612-430-1100 (US) or write to administrator@newsbytes.com on the Internet. Licensing applies to any medium. --------------------------- Week of JULY 24 - JULY 28,1995 --------------------------- - NEW THIS WEEK - SUPRFLOW950717 - b&w / SuperFlow Announces Dynamometer Software: very busy screenshot. Some moire from half-tone. ABCGRAPH950717 - color / Micrografx Intros Windows 95 Graphics Suite: software package. ULTRA64950711 - b&w / Nintendo Signs Baseball Star As Game Advisor: the Nintendo Ultra64 unit. HPCOLOR950711 - color / HP Intros New Line Of Color Inkjet Printers: the HP DeskJet 1600C. NEC950721 - color / NEC Intros Multimedia Notebooks: the NEC Versa 4000 along side an attache case for scale. LAWQUEST950719 - color / Bridgeway Releases Software For Corporate Law Depts: screenshot of folder covered desktop. DESIGNER950717 - color / Micrografx Previews Designer 6.0 For Windows 95: nice screenshot with graphic globe. --------------------------------------------------------------- - PARTIAL LISTING OF PREVIOUS ITEMS - ZDS-PTL950619 - color / Zenith & PictureTel In Videoconferencing Deal: pix of the Z Station GT VC. NECPC950629 - color / NEC PC-9800 Shipments Reach 10 Million: pix of the CanBe multimedia configuration. PENTAX950621 - b&w / Pentax Intros Another PocketJet Printer: pix of the PocketJet with pen for scale. SCHEDULE950622 - color / More On Microsoft Schedule+ In Windows: screenshot of the customview window. SOUTHUNI950706 - color / UK College Gets Award For MBAs On Internet: screenshot of homepage. SWA950630 - color / Handheld Computers To Speed Airline Check-in: skycap with wireless computer and passenger checking in. POWERPRO950629 - color / AER Ships All-Day Zinc-Air Battery: the battery under a Toshiba PC (see NewsPix ZINCAIR950502). TATUNG950630 - color / Tatung Offers 133MHz Pentium PCs: shot of the UNIQ 5210 configuration. COMPUSERVE950629 - color / 12 Year-Old Flyer To Keep In Touch Via CompuServe: pix of Vanessa Pereira, the twelve year-old girl from Los Angeles. POTTER950626 - b&w / Cognos Chairman Michael Potter Resigns: head & shoulders of Potter. ATT1772950628 - b&w / AT&T Intros New Digital Answering System for SOHO: the 1772 unit. PLASMA950627 - color / Sony, Fujitsu, NEC Develop Plasma LCD Screens: wide screen unit in living room with couple viewing. TELEPORT950629 - color / IBM, Teleport To Offer Teleconferencing Rental Suites: business meeting in action. (Newsbytes/199507024) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 07/24/95 UNIX Novell's GroupWise 4.1 Available (NEWS)(UNIX)(DEN)(00006) Novell's GroupWise 4.1 Available 07/24/95 OREM, UTAH, U.S.A., 1995 JUL 24 (NB) -- Novell Inc. (NASDAQ: NOVL) has announced availability of Groupwise 4.1, the company's electronic messaging system, for seven different character versions of Unix. Groupwise allows users to share information across a broad mix of computer platforms and operating systems throughout an enterprise. Novell said the market share of Groupwise has doubled over the past ten months. Users can share electronic-mail (e-mail), personal calendars and group scheduling, voice-mail, faxes, Internet messages, task management and information access. According to Steven Adams, senior director of marketing at the Novell Groupware Division, one of the advantages of Groupware is that no matter what operating system the user has -- Windows, DOS, Unix or Macintosh -- the functionality and look-and-feel are identical. Adams said that cross-platform support reduces training and administration costs. It also makes it easier for users who use more than one platform during the work day. Groupwise became available for seven Motif Unix systems in August, 1994. Now it is available for: System V, Release 4 for Novell's UnixWare and AT&T GIS systems; Sun Microsystems SunOS 4.1.3 and Solaris; Hewlett Packard HP-UX; IBM AIX; Data General DG-UX; and Santa Cruz Operation's SCO Unix. In March of this year Novell shipped the Groupwise Gateway for Lotus Notes for OS/2. Users can send Notes users any Groupwise message type and can receive Lotus Notes memos and phone messages from Notes users. The gateway automatically converts the Groupwise message types to the Notes format and vice versa. Features common to both systems are preserved during the translation process. Novell said a five-user Client/Administration package of Groupwise 4.1 has a suggested retail price of $695. A special upgrade price, in effect until October 1, 1995, lets current users upgrade to version 4.1 for $195 for the five-user package. Effective November 1 the price goes up to $245 for the upgrade. (Jim Mallory/19950724/Press contact: Brian Chapman, Novell, 801-228-5126 Public contact: Novell, 800-861-2507) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 07/24/95 GENERAL Japan Newsbriefs (NEWS)(GENERAL)(TYO)(00007) Japan Newsbriefs 07/24/95 TOKYO, JAPAN, 1995 JUL 24 (NB) -- In this roundup of news from Japan: Consumers give movies-on-demand thumbs down; World PC Expo planned; Matsushita increases TV exports to Russia; Superbird launcher chosen; Toray open Internet home page. Consumers Give Movies-On-Demand Thumbs Down The Nikkei Shimbun financial newspaper has reported that consumers taking part in a test of a new interactive cable television network have been choosing video games more than movies-on-demand. The trial in Kyoto, in which an optical fiber network has linked 246 homes, has found consumers play the online games 59 times a month on average. In contrast the consumers only selected an average of 5.4 movies a month from the 300 on offer. Cable telephone and 31 cable TV channels are also part of the new network. World PC Expo Planned The first "World PC Expo 95" for Japan is being planned for September 27, 28, and 29 at the Makuhari Messe in Tokyo. The show will bring together over 130 companies from the "high-tech US players to their up-and-coming Taiwanese counterparts" according to the organizers. The show will be the largest of its kind in Asia and feature special Internet and PC performance areas. Admission will be 1,000 yen ($11.30). Matsushita Increases TV Exports To Russia Matsushita will increase the number of television sets exported to Russia from 20,000 in 1994 to 50,000 units this year. The majority of the sets are made at factories in England and Malaysia and will help Matsushita attain its goal of a 10% market share, up from its current 5% share. Superbird Launcher Chosen Space Communications Corp. (SCC) of Japan has chosen a Lockheed Martin Marietta Atlas IIAS rocket to launch Superbird-C, a communications satellite, in 1997. Superbird-C will join two previous versions still in orbit and provide telecommunications services for the government and commercial sectors. SCC is a joint venture of Mitsubishi Corp., Mitsubishi Electric Corp., Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, and 25 other Mitsubishi companies. Toray Opens Internet Home Page A US unit of Japan's Toray Industries -- Toray Optical Storage Solutions Inc. -- has opened a home page on the Internet. The page allows customers to access the very latest information on the company's line of Phasewrite phase change rewritable (PCR) media and Phasewriter optical drive products. World Wide Web: http://www.toray.com/ (Martyn Williams/19950724) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 07/24/95 BROADCAST Hughes Wins Huge Telephone Satellite Order (NEWS)(BROADCAST)(TYO)(00008) Hughes Wins Huge Telephone Satellite Order 07/24/95 LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA, USA, 1995 JUL 23 (NB) -- Hughes Electronics Corp. has won a $1.3 billion order to provide twelve satellites for the new Inmarsat-P global satellite telephone service. The first of the twelve satellites will be launched in 1998 with telephone service beginning operation after six satellites have been launched in 1999. Full service will be possible from 2000 when all craft have been launched. Underlining the size and importance of the order to the company, Steven D. Dorfman, president of Hughes Telecommunications and Space Co., the unit of Hughes Electronics responsible for the program noted: "This will be the largest commercial satellite contract in the history of Hughes. It will bring our backlog to a record $4.3 billion and 41 satellites." Hughes has a long history in mobile satellite communications having built the first generation of mobile communications satellites, the Marisat system, which is still operational after 29 years in orbit. The craft that will form the backbone of the Inmarsat-P system will be Hughes highly popular HS-601 satellite. The order brings the number of HS-601 ordered to 56, making it the world's most popular satellite, according to the company. Current users of the platform include America's Direc-TV service and Europe's Astra television satellite system. For Inmarsat-P work the satellite will carry transponders operating in the C-band and S-band which support 4,500 simultaneous telephone calls. A sophisticated onboard digital channelizer and beamformer will route the signals and control frequencies to ensure that calls are sent to the desired handheld receiving units. The satellites will have a life span of 12 years and operate in an intermediate earth orbit at a height of 10,400 kilometers above the earth. To cover the globe, ten satellites are needed. The extra two will serve as in-orbit spares to provide immediate coverage should any other satellite fail. Inmarsat-P is backed by a consortium of 39 international telecommunications companies which, together, already serve 10 million mobile telephone customers, according to Hughes. The new service will compete with similar services planned by Loral, TRW, and Motorola which are all planning launches soon. Satellite mobile telephones will have the advantage of working just about anywhere on the planet, as long as the satellite is visible, and not just restricted to urban areas as current phones are. (Martyn Williams/19950724/Press contact : Emery Wilson, Hughes Electronics Corp., 310-364-6363) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 07/24/95 GENERAL Iomega Chief Reaffirms Importance Of Japanese Relations (NEWS)(GENERAL)(TYO)(00009) Iomega Chief Reaffirms Importance Of Japanese Relations 07/24/95 TOKYO, JAPAN, 1995 JUL 24 (NB) -- The president and chief executive officer (CEO) of Iomega Corp. (NASDAQ: IOMG) has emphasized the importance of relationships between Iomega and its Japanese partners that will lay the groundwork for a successful future in Japan. Speaking in Tokyo, Kim Edwards said: "We aim to set the new standard in computer storage, and strategic Japanese partnerships are critical in achieving this goal, Japan's strengths in manufacturing and marketing of computers, storage systems, and media pose significant opportunity for Iomega and its Japanese partners." Iomega manufactures the Zip drive and disks, a system that offers a portable data storage platform capable of holding between 70 and 100 times the data that a conventional floppy disk can. The US company is working with a number of major Japanese electronics manufacturers on production of the drive which is set to debut in August. In the United States the drives sell for as low at $200 and disks for around $15, but no price has been announced for Japan yet. The Japanese drives will be produced by Seiko-Epson who will also produce units for the US market. Current partners include Seiko-Epson, Fuji Photo Film, manufacturer of the magnetic film used in the disks, and Memorex Telex, Iomega's principle distributor in Japan. Other current Japanese distributors of Iomega products include AIWA, Marubeni Electronics, Landmark Technologies, and Open Technologies. Iomega is also working to establish distribution relationships with Seiko-Epson, Fuji Photo Film, Hitachi Maxell, and Logitec for Zip products. Speaking last month when the company announced its deal with Seiko-Epson, Tony Radman, Iomega senior vice president of strategic business development commented on the Zip drives, saying: "Based on the widespread demand we've experienced and the orders we've received to date, we truly believe Zip has the potential to become an industry standard for affordable removable storage." Stock in the company has been soaring ever since the Zip drive was announced and companies such as Power Computing announced it would include the drive its range of Macintosh clones. In the future, Edwards hopes the strategic partnerships formed now will work in favor of the company when it begins commercial sales of the Jaz drive, a removable data storage system with a maximum capacity of one gigabyte (GB). Competition to the Zip drive is already coming from the established magneto-optical (MO) drive. Forecast sales of MO drives for the current year are 7.6 million units, according to the Magnetic-Media Industry Association of Japan (MMIAJ). MO disks are made by over 40 companies and demand for the format is expected to grow. Presently the drive is finding its biggest market in Japan, but the MMIAJ predicts the US will account for almost one half of total world demand by the end of the century. (Martyn Williams/19950724/Press contact: Cory Maloy, Iomega Corp., 801-778-3712; Reader contact: Iomega Corp., 801-778-1000) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 07/24/95 ONLINE Internet Update (NEWS)(ONLINE)(TYO)(00010) Internet Update 07/24/95 TOKYO, JAPAN, 1995 JUL 24 (NB) -- In this roundup of new resources and services on the Internet: Asia One offers fresh news daily; Multimedia law files available via ftp; Fed Ex expands Internet support; Utah business directory; Central European news resource; Missing children Web site; Nightflight takes flight; High Tech Talk online; I-View HTML viewer; Jumbo offers 16,000 shareware programs. Asia One Offers Fresh News Daily Asia One, a World Wide Web site operated by Singapore Press Holdings Ltd., is offering daily news and commentary from a selection of the group's newspapers and magazines, including The Business Times newspaper in Singapore. World Wide Web: http://www.asia1.com.sg/ Multimedia Law Files Available Via FTP The WWW Multimedia Law server of Oikoumene Consulting is a one-stop resource for online content producers, publishers, and distributors, but has been accessible via the Web only. The majority of Internet users do not have this facility, so Oikoumene Consulting has placed all the documents and reports onto a file transfer protocol (ftp) server as well. Anonymous FTP: ftp://ftp.batnet.com/companies/oikoumene/ftp/ World Wide Web: http://www.batnet.com/oikoumene/ Fed Ex Expands Internet Support Last month Newsbytes reported on a new software package from Federal Express that allows for real-time package tracking by interrogating the parcel carrier's computer across the Internet. Now FedEx has announced the availability of a Macintosh client in addition to the Windows software already released. World Wide Web: http://www.fedex.com/ Utah Business Directory The Infosearch BizList is a guide to the Internet connected business of Utah. The state includes such companies as Word Perfect/Novell and Iomega plus many smaller companies with web presence. Also included are links to tourism resources in the state and the home page of the 2002 Winter Olympics which will take place in Salt Lake City. World Wide Web : http://www.xmission.com/~insearch/bizlist.html Central European News Resource Central Europe Today (CET) offers a free English language news briefing every business day. The service covers the important political, business and economic news, as well as daily feature stories and interviews with politicians and businessmen in the region. CET is delivered direct by e-mail and archived via the Web or gopher. E-mail: cet-online-request@eunet.cz Message Body: SUBSCRIBE Gopher: gopher://gopher.eunet.cz:70/11/Journals/cet-online/ World Wide Web: http://www.eunet.cz/ Missing Children Web Site Child Find Canada Online / En Direct is the official Internet site of Child Find Canada. The Web server contains details of children missing in Canada with pictures and any other important details to enable them to be found. The Internet services and Web server are provided as a public service by DISCscribe Ltd., Sun Microsystems of Canada Inc., Industry Canada, and SchoolNet. World Wide Web: http://www.discribe.ca/ Nightflight Takes Flight The Village Voice and the L.A. Weekly, the two largest "alternative" weekly newspapers in the United States have opened the Nightflight World Wide Web service with details of both New York and Los Angeles "after dark." Late night restaurants, clubs, games, parties, shopping and driving are all covered. World Wide Web: http://www.echonyc.com/~voice High Tech Talk Online High Tech Talk, a national computer and technology segment distributed to all 214 NBC television stations on the NBC Newschannel and the CNBC Cable Network, is now on-line. Presenter and "computer guru" Mike Wendland files his weekly scripts and updates a list of suggested Web sites to visit under High Tech Habitats. World Wide Web: http://www.rust.net/WDIV/htt.html I-View HTML Viewer I-View is a full feature hypertext markup language (HTML) viewer and editor for Web page authors. Not only does the software offer the ability to write and edit pages, but you can also use it to test and check image maps off-line. An evaluation copy of I-View is available from the Internet. Anonymous FTP: ftp://ftp.best.com/pub/icomm/iview106.zip Jumbo Offers 16,000 Shareware Programs The Jumbo site is offering links to over 16,000 shareware programs available on the Internet. Everything is indexed under six major subjects and then divided down further, enabling users to easily find software to perform a desired task. Once you've found a likely sounding piece of software you can view a description as well. World Wide Web: http://www.jumbo.com/ (Martyn Williams/19950724) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 07/24/95 TRENDS A PC In Every Room Of Info Highway Houses? (NEWS)(TRENDS)(DEN)(00011) A PC In Every Room Of Info Highway Houses? 07/24/95 HOUSTON, TEXAS, U.S.A., 1995 JUL 24 (NB) -- Henry IV allegedly said he wanted every peasant in the realm to have a chicken in his pot every Sunday. Now, more than 300 years later, some experts predict there may be a personal computer in just about every room in your home, and as a result have built an "Information Highway House" to demonstrate how families can integrate computers and other technologies into their homes using those PCs. According to Jim Tucker, vice president of Compaq Computer Corp.'s (NYSE: CPQ) Consumer Business Unit, "The Information Highway House is not a house of the future, but a house of today, since it features innovative technologies that are affordable, easy to use and currently available." Eckhard Pfeiffer, Compaq president and chief executive officer, told attendees at this year's PC Expo recently that multiple PCs in the home are becoming as common as multiple phones or TVs, and many experts agree that by the end of 1995 PCs will be in nearly 40 percent of US homes, serving as the "central information appliance of our time." Compaq is the company selected to install networked PCs and servers in the demonstration house located in the Madera del Presidio residential development in Corte Madera, California, near San Francisco. The home was built by HCV Pacific Partners/Pacific Investors VI and opens for public viewing July 21. Technical planning and design was provided by Computer Life Magazine and Ziff-Davis Labs. The Information Highway House integrates five Compaq computers. There is a Presario multimedia PC in each of the two children's bedrooms, a Prosignia VS server in the combination office/den, and two notebook computers for use in the kitchen and family room and on the outdoor deck. All are networked so the family members can share applications software, drives, modems, and printers. According to the company, computers in the home mean multimedia entertainment, completing homework electronically, balancing the family checkbook, electronic bill paying, keeping a budget, storing recipes, writing letters, and tracking CD-ROMs, videotapes and even the user's stamp or coin collection. But the industry is poised to offer a multitude of other services, including a PC with a huge wall-mounted flat screen for movie showing and sports event watching, and hundreds of television channels for educational or entertainment viewing. You can already answer your phone or have callers leave voice-mail on your PC, keep your appointment schedule, hold meetings with colleagues or friends across town or around the world, look up references in an electronic encyclopedia, send and receive faxes and electronic-mail around the globe, or view a weather map. (Jim Mallory/19950721/Press contact: Brian Temple, Compaq Computer, 713-374-0484; Public contact: Compaq, 800-345-1518) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 07/24/95 TRENDS Book Details Product Design Cultural Taboos (NEWS)(TRENDS)(LAX)(00012) Book Details Product Design Cultural Taboos 07/24/95 SANTA CLARA, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1995 JUL 24 (NB) -- Tony Fernandes, in his book "Global Interface Design," discusses how cultures, language, and taboos influence product design, and how companies can avoid serious product-design pitfalls. Fernandes is Claris Corp.'s chief interface expert. Fernandez told Newsbytes, "Although language is seen as the most common problem between countries and cultures, a truly globalized product considers the language, format, characters and punctuation as well as cultural perceptions, taboos, and symbolism, and how they affect the product. This care should begin during the designing phase of the product." Fernandes and his design team at Claris have played a key role in creating Claris' software. "Claris has always been sensitive to the problems inherent in global marketing," said Fernandes. "Their sensitivity to cultural differences is a major design consideration in all of Claris' products. "Lack of understanding about our world can determine whether a product will succeed in the global marketplace or fail miserably," Fernandes explained. "With this new book, I hope to help broaden the thinking of designers and promote global visibility early in the process of product development." In Global Interface Design, Fernandes outlines some of the most common problems found with product names. He explains the potential for disaster when English words are translated in other languages and vice versa. For example, serious miscommunication would occur if the brand of toilet paper in Sweden named "Krapp" or the Japanese canned drink company and its product, "Pocari Sweat," were marketed in the United States with the same name. Global Interface Design describes how cultural differences can be found in the displays commonly seen in software. The symbols are derived from the human hand. However, as Fernandes points out, some hand gestures and positions can sometimes represent obscenities in countries other than the United States. The book further explains that although numbers seem to be universal, in other parts of the world, they can also represent and convey other meanings. In Japan and other Pacific countries, the numbers 4 and 9 symbolize death and suffering, respectively. In the book Fernandes explains how a software company marketed a program which included one of those numbers in the product name and the resulting problems. "Considering major issues such as language translations and cultural taboos in the planning stages of a product's development cycle is imperative if we are to move closer in creating a universal society," said Fernandes. "And from a business perspective, globalization is critical for products to be effectively competitive in today's world." Fernandes noted that with the global emergence and popularity of the Worldwide Web, businesses must be more sensitive to culture and nationality. Some American software has not reflected the differences among people worldwide and has suffered because of this. Prior to joining Claris Corporation, Fernandes was a senior designer at Lotus Corp. Prior to Lotus, he worked with ControlSoft, a company focused on the creation of personal digital assistant (PDA) technology. Fernandes is a graduate of the University of Massachusetts with two degrees in engineering with an emphasis on design. Global Interface Design is available for a suggested retail price of $39.95 by calling AP Professional at 800-3131-APP. (Richard Bowers/19950724/Press Contact: Steve Ruddock, Claris Corp., 408-987-7202 Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 07/24/95 GENERAL Canadian Product Launch Update (NEWS)(GENERAL)(TOR)(00013) Canadian Product Launch Update 07/24/95 KINGSTON, ONTARIO, CANADA, 1995 JUL 24 (NB) -- This regular feature, appearing on the first day Newsbytes publishes each week, provides further details for the Canadian market on announcements by international companies that Newsbytes has already covered. This week: Apple adds World Wide Web access to eWorld, Microsoft announces Money for Windows 95, and Oracle launches its SmartClient architecture with nine new applications. Apple Canada Inc., of Markham, Ontario, said its eWorld online service now offers access to the Internet's World Wide Web (Newsbytes, July 14). The access software for eWorld, which is pre-installed on all Apple computers sold in Canada, now includes a Web browser licensed from Intercon Systems Corp. Microsoft Canada Inc., of Mississauga, Ontario, announced Microsoft Money for the upcoming Windows 95 operating system (Newsbytes, July 21). The software is due to be available in stores in November for about C$50. From August 24, when Windows 95 is due to be launched, until Oct. 31, Money will be available for downloading from The Microsoft Network and from Microsoft's World Wide Web page. Product disks and a user's guide will be available directly from Microsoft for about C$15. Mississauga, Ontario-based Oracle Corp. Canada announced nine new client/server applications built on its newly launched SmartClient architecture (Newsbytes, July 19). The company said Oracle Payroll, Oracle Sales Compensation, and Oracle Sales and Marketing will be shipping in Canada within the next 90 days. The other six new applications -- Quality, Service, Workflow, Applications Data Warehouse, EDI Gateway, and Internet Commerce -- are to be available over the next nine months. (Grant Buckler/19950724/Press Contact: Linda Grant or Susan Taylor, Apple Canada, 905-477-5800, Internet e-mail s.taylor@eworld.com; Vicki Thomson, Microsoft Canada, 905-568- 0434 ext. 4140, fax 905-568-1527; Dorothy Loeffen, Oracle Canada, 905-890-8100; Public Contact: Apple Canada, 905-477-5800; Microsoft Canada, 905-568-0434; Oracle Canada, 905-890-8100, Internet World Wide Web http://www.oracle.com) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 07/24/95 LEGAL Compaq/Packard Bell Head Towards Trial Date (NEWS)(LEGAL)(DEN)(00014) Compaq/Packard Bell Head Towards Trial Date 07/24/95 HOUSTON, TEXAS, U.S.A., 1995 JUL 24 (NB) -- At the request of Compaq Computer Corp. (NYSE: CPQ) a federal judge has canceled a September preliminary injunction hearing in a lawsuit filed by Compaq against Packard Bell Electronics Inc. (NASDAQ: PBEL) in a step that brings the two electronic giants one step closer to a trial that could decide whether a used part can be considered a new part. US District Court Judge Roderick McKelvie canceled the hearing following a telephone conference with both companies, and set a July 31 date for a motion by Packard Bell for a postponement of the November 27 trial date. The two companies have reportedly held settlement conferences with a US Magistrate judge in Delaware. In its April, 1995, lawsuit, Compaq alleged Packard Bell installs what Compaq said are used parts in PCs being sold by Packard Bell as new. Compaq had sought a preliminary injunction to stop Packard Bell from continuing that alleged practice until a trial could be held. Earlier this month Packard Bell reached a preliminary settlement in a series of class action lawsuits that were apparently touched off by the Compaq allegations. Packard Bell agreed to provide a six-month extended warranty to class action participants who submit a completed registration card or letter to the Claims Administrator before October 2, 1995. To get repairs under the extended warranty coverage, you have to pay a $25 fee and take the PC to a Packard Bell Service Center, a requirement which will no doubt annoy users used to onsite service and expecting to get repairs made at no additional cost after they purchased extended warranty coverage or are still covered by the Packard Bell original warranty. No payment is required until repairs are required. If your Packard Bell warranty has expired, the six month extension will be effective on October 3, 1995, or three business days following the entry of a final judgment on the settlement, which ever is later. If you still have original or extended warranty coverage, the six month period begins on the expiration of that coverage. In addition to providing extended coverage for its PCs, the settlement also calls for Packard Bell to establish a fund of up to $1 million to reimburse owners for a portion of the cost of repairs they may have paid for or will pay for prior to the commencement of the extended service program. However, you can only collect 25 percent of each repair bill or $50 for each repair, whichever is less. If the total of the submitted claims exceeds $1 million, the reimbursements will be pro-rated so Packard Bell will only be responsible for a total of $1 million. Repair claim forms must be postmarked no later than October 31, 1995. Newsbytes spoke with Compaq Outside Counsel William Coston about the settlement terms. The attorney called the settlement "important progress," and said, "In the broad view, Compaq is pleased that Packard Bell has recognized consumers are entitled to some remedy and that some kind of disclosure to consumers about the presence of used parts is necessary." The settlement calls for Packard Bell to let buyers know for the next two years if their PCs contain used parts. Unless the settlement is modified, it appears the company could stop telling buyers the PC they purchase contains used components, once the two-year period expires. Coston said despite the settlement, consumers are still entitled to the answers to some questions. "Is it appropriate that lawyers representing the class action get nearly $4 million, but consumers who paid a new price for a product with used parts get no cash relief?" asks Compaq's attorney. Coston is also concerned about the need to pay for the extended service coverage. "Why would they have to pay $25 to take advantage of the extended warranty at least as it concerns hardware repair, instead of getting that service for free?" he asked. He also wonders why the disclosure about the use of used parts in machines sold as new comes after the product was purchased, rather than before. The extended warranty forms were printed in several publications nationally, and asks for: the serial number of the Packard Bell PC; the original date of purchase; the name of any extended service providers, if applicable; and the expiration date of any extended warranty coverage. In addition to your name, address and day and evening phone numbers, the registration form or letter should include a statement that the information contained is "true and correct," and should be signed and dated. Registration forms and letters should be mailed to Gilardi & Co., P.O. Box 808011, Petaluma, California, 94975-8011. Costen told Newsbytes that Compaq considers any part used for more than 100 days as used and for about two years PCs containing those components have been clearly labeled as refurbished. "When Compaq sells a machine as new, that machine doesn't have any used parts in it," said the attorney. (Jim Mallory/19950724/Press contact: Yvonne Donaldson, Compaq, 713-374-0484; Public contact: Gilardi & Co., P.O. Box 808011, Petaluma, California, 94975-8011) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 07/24/95 TRENDS Summertime Electronics Safety Recommendations (NEWS)(TRENDS)(MSP)(00015) Summertime Electronics Safety Recommendations 07/24/95 NORTHBROOK, ILLINOIS, U.S.A., 1995 JUL 24 (NB) -- With the warm temperatures and sun of summer comes lightning and thunderstorms that can damage sensitive electronic equipment like computers, fax machines, and the like, said Underwriters Laboratories (UL). The company is recommending measures to protect electronics in the home environment. "If you talk to people in electronics and computer stores, you'll find horror stories about how during lightning storms customers have had damaged televisions or computers," Teresa Hrones, UL spokesperson, told Newsbytes. "Any time you live in an area that experiences strong lightning storms, you're going to find some electronic equipment is going to be affected." An average lightning strike carries up to 24,000 amperes (amps) of current, the company said, while a typical home is wired to draw up to 200 amps. Even an indirect, nearby lightning strike can be enough to knock out electronics by entering the home via electrical lines, or even by puncturing the protective insulation of individual wires. To combat this, UL recommends consumers use surge arresters that the company certifies. Surge arresters divert energy to the earth. Another way to beat power spikes are with surge suppressers, UL said. However, surge suppressers are not lightning protection devices for whole homes. They can be attached to equipment to protect from voltage surges caused by occurrences like a utility pole downed by a car or storm. Surges can also come from inside the home, from equipment like furnaces or exercise equipment. A way to beat lightning strikes is with a lightning protection system, such as lightning rods. These are connected by heavy cables to provide a path for the lightning to travel safely to the ground. UL recommends that both the lightning protection system and the people installing it are both UL certified. UL officials said complete lightning protection is available only when all three elements of a lightning protection system, surge arresters, and surge suppressers, are present. (Bob Woods/19950724/Press Contacts: Underwriters Laboratories, 708-272-8800, Teresa Hrones ext 43436) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 95 07/24/95 ONLINE Process Intros Web Servers For NT/Windows (NEWS)(ONLINE)(BOS)(00016) Process Intros Web Servers For NT/Windows 95 07/24/95 FRAMINGHAM, MASSACHUSETTS, U.S.A., 1995 JUL 24 (NB) -- Following today's announcements of new World Wide Web servers for Windows NT, Windows 95, and OpenVMS -- priced, respectively, at $495, $295, and $1,995 -- Process Software will produce an "entry-level" Web product, plus encryption features for the NT server, by the end of 1995, officials revealed, during a briefing for Newsbytes. Also today, Process unveiled a new Purveyor Partners Program for value-added resellers (VARs), "Internet presence providers," and other partners in the indirect channel. The announcements are aimed at helping Process to meet its goal of "100 percent sales" of its Web products through the indirect channel by October, noted Chris McIntosh, senior product manager, during the interview with Newsbytes. "We are making that commitment to our partners. We do not want to be in channel conflict with them," McIntosh told Newsbytes. McIntosh reported that the new Purveyor WebServer for Windows NT 1.1 is priced 75 percent lower than its predecessor, while adding "virtual server" support, database integration, a new application programming interface (API), Visual Basic support, remote management, and other features targeted at VARs and Internet presence providers, or organizations that "host" Web sites for other companies on their own premises. Purveyor DeskTop WebServer for Windows 95, priced even lower at $295, is designed to provide the same features as Purveyor WebServer for Windows NT 1.0, in a version for Microsoft's upcoming Windows 95, he said. Meanwhile, he maintained, the new Purveyor WebServer for OpenVMS, geared to systems integrators for large networks, is the first "fully supported" commercial Web server for VAX and Alpha AXP/OpenVMS systems. "We started shipping Purveyor WebServer for Windows NT in March, whereas some of our competitors are only now coming out with 1.0 Web servers for NT. So we've gotten a good head start. Now, we are maintaining our leadership position," asserted McIntosh. Process Software, a player in the TCP/IP (Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol) internetworking market for the past decade, has also developed "a very solid customer base, and a strong customer support infrastructure," he added. The company's customers include KPMG Peat Marwick and Tyson Foods. Process Software is also pursuing a sales approach diametrically opposed to most of the companies in the Web server market, the senior product manager told Newsbytes. By aiming its products at VARs and Internet presence providers, Process is encouraging the creation of specialized, "value-add" Web applications for markets ranging from human resources and corporate training to EIS (executive information systems) and distance learning, according to McIntosh. "We're now recruiting vertically focused resellers, network integrators, and large corporate account resellers. That's a key part of our strategy that differentiates us from most of our competitors, who say, `Here's a good product. Now it's up to you to figure out how to buy it,'" contended the Process exec. Also during the briefing, Newsbytes learned that the new Purveyor Partners Program was created by Lee Levitt, manager of market development at Process, to target four different groups within the indirect channel for certification, training, support, and joint market development. Levitt, who was previously director of channels distribution research for IDC, said that the offering includes: Purveyor Authorized Partner Program, for smaller VARs and network integrators; the Purveyor Premier Partner Program, for large VARs and integrators; the Purveyor Internet Presence Provider Program; and the Purveyor Web Consultant Program, for technical consultants involved in information technology (IT) outsourcing. Another component of the partners program, the WebExcellence certification program, is designed to assure consistent quality among software applications created for Purveyor WebServers, according to Levitt. "In talking with customers and analysts, we've identified a tremendous opportunity to develop the Web server into (a platform) for `open groupware,' where companies will publish information for internal use on a group wide basis. We're seeing companies move from `calendar-driven scheduling' to `needs-driven publishing,'" Levitt added. "Much of the information is already in electronic format. It's very easily converted into HTML (hypertext markup language), where it can be accessed by anyone who needs it. Once accessed, it's current. And the costs of distribution are dramatically lowered," the Process exec told Newsbytes. McIntosh explained that the "virtual server" support added in Process Software's new Purveyor Webserver for Windows NT 1.1 will allow Internet presence providers that are hosting multiple organizations on the same server to provide a "unique, configurable" IP address for each organization. Levitt pointed out that the new remote management capabilities will permit presence providers hosting multiple servers to eliminate "sneakernet." Administrators will be able to manage "any Web server, anywhere, from their laptops," he noted. On the application development side, said McIntosh, new capabilities include Visual Basic support, a new API for integration with new and existing back-end applications, and support for Microsoft's SQL (structured query language) Server as well as ODBC (Open Database Connectivity) for integration with other RDBMs (relational database management systems). Other new capabilities in release 1.1 for NT include search engine support, a new "hotlink viewer," and an enhanced log viewer application and report generator, according to the senior product manager. Process Software plans to release the three new Web servers in September, and the new encryption capabilities for the Windows NT server within this calendar year, Macintosh told Newsbytes. The new "entry-level" Web product will be announced this fall, added Levitt. (Jacqueline Emigh/19950724/Reader Contact: Process Software, 508-879-6994; Press Contact: Todd Defren or Gail Smart, Sterling Hager Inc. for Process Software, 617-259-1400) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 07/24/95 WINDOWS SystemSoft "Complements" Windows 95 PCMCIA (NEWS)(WINDOWS)(BOS)(00017) SystemSoft "Complements" Windows 95 PCMCIA 07/24/95 NATICK, MASSACHUSETTS, U.S.A., 1995 JUL 24 (NB) -- SystemSoft's CardWorks software will "complement" the PCMCIA support in Windows 95 by adding operability with a new generation of PC Cards, expected to be abundant at Fall Comdex, that will bring multi-function, multi-voltage, and DMA (direct memory access) capabilities, maintained Susan Zaney, marketing manager, at a meeting with Newsbytes. Zaney told Newsbytes that SystemSoft licensed PCMCIA (Personal Computer Memory Card International Association) software based on the PCMCIA 2.1 specification to Microsoft several years ago, and that Microsoft has since added Plug and Play capabilities to this software for inclusion with the Windows 95 operating environment. But unlike Microsoft's Windows 95 Plug and Play, SystemSoft's CardWorks software for Windows 95 will introduce support for the PC Card Standard, also known as PCMCIA 3.0, which was passed in April by the PCMCIA Committee, Zaney added, during the demo for Newsbytes at SystemSoft headquarters in Natick, Massachusetts. The new PC Card Standard, she contended, adds operability with multi-function cards -- which are capable of "doubling," for example, as a network interface card (NIC) and a modem -- as well as with new multi-voltage cards capable that will run at either 3.3, 5.0 or 12 volts, and with new DMA cards. CardWorks, a product slated to ship to OEMs (original equipment manufacturers) upon the delivery of Windows 95, will also be "easier to use" than Microsoft's Plug and Play, she asserted. Also in contrast to Plug and Play, CardWorks will include built-in support for another upcoming set of PC Cards, expected to emerge further into the future, that will comply with the PCMCIA Committee's 32-bit CardBus specification, according to Zaney. CardWorks will use a new technology from SystemSoft called DuoDriver to provide support for PC Card Standard-compliant cards offering the new capabilities, together with older cards based on PCMCIA 2.1 or 2.0, she added. Microsoft has also announced plans to include support for the new PC Card and CardBus specifications in Windows 95, acknowledged the SystemSoft exec. "The only question is when," noted Zaney. But, she reported, most new PCs that are pre-installed with Windows 95 will also ship with SystemSoft's CardWorks. Users will be able to employ either Windows 95 Plug and Play or CardWorks for automatic installation and configuration of cards based on PCMCIA 2.1 or 2.0 in Windows 95, although CardWorks will initially be required for cards complying with the newer PC Card Standard, according to the marketing manager. "It's not Microsoft's position to be number one in PCMCIA. But (this) is SystemSoft's position," Newsbytes was told. This summer, SystemSoft is also starting OEM shipments of CardSoft 16, software for supporting multi-function, multi-voltage, and DMA PC Cards in DOS and Windows 3.1, Zaney pointed out. The new update to SystemSoft's CardSoft also expands compatibility to more than 400 PC Cards, brings new power management capabilities, and provides a "small memory footprint," employing 20K of DOS memory using DOS extenders, she added. Also, end users can employ SystemSoft's new shrink-wrapped CardWizard application with CardSoft 16 to resolve installation and configuration problems by "displaying logical slots instead of physical ones," Newsbytes was told. CardSoft 16 also supplies "the widest socket services support for ISA/PCI (Industry Standard Architecture/Peripheral Component Interconnect) controllers," providing operability with controllers from Databook, AMD, IBM, Intel, AMD, Cirrus Logic, Texas Instruments, Omega Micro, Picoh Power, UMC, VLSI, and Vadem, according to Zaney. SystemSoft's OEM customers include Acer, Apple, AST, Compaq, Dell, Gateway 2,000, Hewlett-Packard, IBM, Intel, Microsoft, and NEC. (Jacqueline Emigh/19950721/Reader Contact: SystemSoft, 508-651- 0088; Press Contact: Jon Bornstein or Tim Hurley, Copithorne & Bellows for SystemSoft, 508-647-2920) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 07/24/95 PC Databook Teams With Fujitsu, SystemSoft On PCMCIA (NEWS)(PC)(BOS)(00018) Databook Teams With Fujitsu, SystemSoft On PCMCIA 07/24/95 DANVERS, MASSACHUSETTS, U.S.A., 1995 JUL 24 (NB) -- To boost its share of the PC Card interface controller and desktop adapter markets, Databook has forged deals with Fujitsu, SystemSoft, and Chips and Technologies, while moving its headquarters to suburban Boston and setting up a "Silicon Valley-style" profit-sharing plan, said officials of Databook's new management team, in a series of interviews with Newsbytes. Databook's strategy revolves around partnering, compliance with PCMCIA (Personal Computer Memory Card International Association) standards for interoperability, and attracting and retaining engineering talent, reported Jeffrey H. Grammer, Databook's newly appointed president and chief executive officer (CEO), and Patrick Chiumiento, the company's new VP of sales and marketing. The move from Ithaca, New York to Danvers, Massachusetts, is meant to bring Databook closer to partners, customers, and the Boston area engineering "talent pool," while the new profit-sharing plan is designed as an employee incentive, Chiumiento maintained, during a meeting with Newsbytes at an Open House for Databook's new headquarters in Massachusetts. Also at the Open House, which featured musical entertainment from Databook's own Dey Street Blues Band, Databook unveiled plans to use Fujitsu's CG/CE46 0.65 for its PC Card applications, and SystemSoft announced that it will supply card and socket services software for 32-bit CardBus controllers now under development at Databook. The PCMCIA Committee's new 32-bit CardBus specification is aimed at supporting applications like multimedia that require 32-bit PCI (Peripheral Component Interconnect) bandwidth, and at permitting PC Card "hot-swapping." SystemSoft is already providing card and socket services software for Databook's current product line-up for 16-bit PC Cards, according to Grammer. Meanwhile, at a time when silicon is in short supply throughout the world, the alliance with Fujitsu will guarantee Databook two million units in capacity over the coming year, he contended. Also since the new CEO and VP took the helm at Databook in March, Databook has teamed with San Jose, California-based Chips and Technologies on PC components complying with the new ZV (Zoom Video) port specification. The ZV port specification is intended to allow the use of "complete" MPEG (Motion Picture Experts Group) decoders in PC Card format, for enhanced multimedia and videoconferencing functionality on notebook PCs. Chips and Technologies, a former employer of both Grammer and Chiumiento, produces CRT (cathode ray tube)/flat panel controllers for companies that include Digital, NEC, Hewlett-Packard, Toshiba and Panasonic. Grammer told Newsbytes that Chips and Technologies will integrate both video and ZV-port capabilities into a new generation of CRT/flat panel controllers, while Databook will "put the hooks into our new CardBus chip to tie directly to the (Chips and Technologies) controller." Databook is also "putting a lot of the buffers between (Chips and Technologies') LCD (liquid crystal display) controller and the PCMCIA controller into our own silicon," Grammer said. The upcoming components from Chips and Technologies and Databook will be Windows 95-compatible, Chiumiento noted. Five-year-old Databook currently holds "major market share" in the PC Card interface controller market, and is also the number one seller of PC Card desktop adapters for adding PC Card capabilities to existing machines, according to Grammer and Chiumiento. Databook faces a bright future in both its markets, Chiumiento predicted. Under new guidelines, the US Department of Defense is requiring all PCs at all its installations to be PCMCIA-enabled, he elaborated. Databook is providing these and other government sites with a PC Card adapter that contains two Type II PC Card slots, according to the Databook VP. The two Massachusetts natives were both recruited by the venture capitalist firms that own Databook. Chiumiento, a native of Woburn, Massachusetts, first met Grammer, who is originally from Reading, Massachusetts, at Chips and Technologies, when Chiumiento was an area sales manager for Chips in Massachusetts. Chiumiento had previously worked for NEC, first in Natick, Massachusetts and then in Mountain View, California. He later left Chips and Technologies to become a Massachusetts-based area sales manager for IBM Microelectronics. From 1985 to 1991, Grammer held a series of managerial positions out of Chips' headquarters in San Jose. Grammer then launched Summit Systems, a systems integration joint venture based in the former USSR, taking an estimated 60 trips to Russia to find a suitable site for a service center there. Grammer told Newsbytes that, before settling on a site in Minsk, he endured experiences in Russia that included "industrial disasters," harrowing train rides to Siberia, and the fall of communism in Lithuania. But the service center in Minsk has since evolved into a $10 million operation with 115 employees, he noted. Grammer added that, after receiving the offer from Databook, the two managers decided to move Databook's headquarters, on the basis that the location in Ithaca "was off the main path." The choice of a new location was a toss-up between the Route 128 Belt in Massachusetts and the Silicon Valley. But the new management team ultimately opted for Massachusetts, in part because of a tendency for Bay State employees to "stay longer with companies," according to the company chief. The two execs have exported at least one Silicon Valley tradition to Massachusetts, introducing a "very generous stock option plan" for all Databook employees, Grammer pointed out. And although many of Databook's employees have accompanied the company to Massachusetts, others are being allowed to "telecommute" from Ithaca, Chiumiento explained. (Jacqueline Emigh/19950721/Reader Contact: Databook, 508-762-9779; Press Contact: Veronica Fergot or Lisa Downey, Rourke & Company for Databook, 617-267-0042) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 07/24/95 GOVT ****Senate Holds Internet Porn Hearing (NEWS)(GOVT)(WAS)(00019) ****Senate Holds Internet Porn Hearing 07/24/95 WASHINGTON, D.C., U.S.A., 1995 JUL 24 (NB) -- In earlier days, the Senate usually held hearings before passing legislation. Not so in the 104th Congress. The Senate Judiciary Committee today began hearings on pornography on the Internet, many weeks after the Senate approved legislation making indecency on the Internet a crime. With 10 witnesses scheduled, the hearing was expected to last all day. But the researcher whose undergraduate paper at Carnegie-Mellon University, concluding that "pornography permeates the digital landscape" and set off a firestorm of controversy, has been removed from the witness list. Marty Rimm's paper on smut on the Net was the basis of a Time magazine cover article, "Cyberporn," that enraged the online world and resulted in days of online flaming of Rimm, Time, and the Time correspondent who wrote the magazine article. The research concluded that child pornography, beastiality and other illegal material was rampant on the Internet, particularly on newsgroups. Critics charge that the study makes unsupported claims and is based on commercial adult bulletin boards that are not available to children. The study came in the wake of the Senate's adoption of the legislation by Sen. James Exon (D-Neb.) criminalizing "indecent" conduct on the Internet and other online services. Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.), an opponent of the Exon legislation, plans to introduce a competing study of children and computer pornography by the Interactive Working Group, a coalition of online services, information providers and public interest groups, put together by digital libertarian Jerry Berman of the Center for Democracy and Technology. The Interactive Working Group is pushing use of technology that allows parents to block smut before children can see it. The House last week held a hearing looking at smut filters and other software approaches toward controlling Internet porn. Sen. Charles Grassley (R-Iowa) called the full committee hearing to discuss his pending legislation to criminalize knowing transmission of sexually explicit material to minors, legislation rendered moot by the Exon bill. Grassley had urged committee members to read the controversial study. But when Carnegie-Mellon announced it was investigating whether Rimm had violated ethical and academic guidelines in the study, Grassley yanked Rimm's name from the witness list. (Kennedy Maize/19950724/Press Contact: Grassley office, 202-224-3744) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 07/24/95 TELECOM House Telecom Compromise (NEWS)(TELECOM)(WAS)(00020) House Telecom Compromise 07/24/95 WASHINGTON, D.C., U.S.A., 1995 JUL 24 (NB) -- House telecommunications legislation could come to the floor before the August 4 summer recess begins, thanks to a Republican leadership compromise on the role of the Justice Department. But even with the compromise in hand, scheduling the important telecom bill will be chancy because House Speaker Newt Gingrich (R-Ga.) wants to finish action on a number of appropriations bills before going home for the summer. The key to breaking the logjam in the House was an agreement between Commerce Committee Chairman Thomas Bliley (R-Va.) and Judiciary Committee Chairman Henry Hyde (R-Ill.). Hyde's committee had approved a bill giving Justice an active role in determining if local telephone companies can enter the long-distance market. But Hyde agreed not to push his bill on the floor. Instead, the determination will go to the Federal Communications Commission, which may consult with antitrust experts at Justice. The Senate also rejected a role for Justice when it passed telecom legislation recently. Regional Bell phone companies have been kept out of the lucrative long-distance market since the 1984 breakup of the Bell Monopoly. The Justice Department and the federal courts have monitored the activities of the baby Bells. The Clinton administration and consumer groups favor a continued role for the antitrust regulators at Justice, as do the long-distance companies. The Bell companies and the Republican leadership argue that Justice review is regulatory overkill. The long-distance providers are mounting a major lobbying campaign against the House bill. They have purchased radio and television time for advertisements against the Bliley bill. While the White House has been working against the Bliley bill, the administration has not threatened to veto the legislation. (Kennedy Maize/19950724) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 07/24/95 GENERAL CA Announces Unicenter's "Next Generation" (NEWS)(GENERAL)(TOR)(00021) CA Announces Unicenter's "Next Generation" 07/24/95 ISLANDIA, NEW YORK, U.S.A., 1995 JUL 24 (NB) -- Computer Associates International Inc. (NYSE:CA) has announced CA- Unicenter/The Next Generation, a new version of its systems management software with a new user interface and the ability to view networks and systems from a business process perspective. #IMAGE 1 20 TWPCX \images\95072421.PCX Click here for photo Due to be generally available late next year, Unicenter/TNG will use three-dimensional (3-D) animation and visual clues such as a red light to indicate a problem at a particular site. The graphical interface will require that the Unicenter console run under Microsoft's Windows NT operating system on a Pentium-based computer with graphics acceleration hardware. While the user interface is the most visible change in the software, Yogesh Gupta, senior vice-president at CA, said the company's customers are more excited about business process views, which will let them look at their systems in terms of the way their businesses work rather than in terms of the physical hardware. "It's a very different approach to management of information technology (IT) resources," Gupta told Newsbytes. According to CA, views can be based on a particular business function or role. For example, an administrator responsible for technology related to payroll processing might define a view that only includes resources related to payroll. Unicenter/TNG has a 3-D visualization system that lets users travel through the network as if in a movie or video game. The system starts with a worldwide or nationwide view of the network, and users can then "fly" around the network, seeing cities, buildings, and the equipment inside. A light hovering next to each pieces of equipment, database, or software application shows its status. Views extend to the inside of computers, where hardware and software components such as the processor chip, disk drives, network adapter, databases and so forth are shown individually. A software development kit for Unicenter/TNG will be available in the first quarter of 1996, Gupta said, and the software will be generally available in the third quarter of next year. It is not known what parts of existing Unicenter software will need to be replaced or upgraded. CA will stop selling the existing Unicenter software when Unicenter/TNG becomes generally available, Gupta said, but will continue supporting it. Gupta said the Windows NT workstation needed to run the Unicenter/TNG console is a low-end Pentium with graphics acceleration hardware, and currently costs about $20,000 total. However, the price of the graphics acceleration technology is expected to drop from around $15,000 now to less than $7,000 by year-end, he said, so by the time Unicenter/TNG is widely available the console hardware should cost less than $10,000. (Grant Buckler/19950724/Press Contact: Bob Gordon, Computer Associates, tel 516-342-2391, fax 516-342-5329; Public Contact: Computer Associates, 516-342-5224/TNG072495/PHOTO) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 07/24/95 NETWORK Newbridge Offers Ethernet Switch With ATM (NEWS)(NETWORK)(TOR)(00022) Newbridge Offers Ethernet Switch With ATM 07/24/95 HERNDON, VIRGINIA, U.S.A., 1995 JUL 24 (NB) -- Newbridge Networks Corp. (TSE:NNC; NYSE:NN) said it recently began shipping its Vivid Yellow Ridge Ethernet Switch, which has asynchronous transfer mode (ATM) capability built in. Newbridge said the Yellow Ridge switch can be used as a straight Ethernet switch, or as part of an ATM local area network (LAN) emulation network. Customers can use it for Ethernet switches today, company spokeswoman Kit Goldfarb told Newsbytes, and be equipped to tie those networks together with ATM backbones in the future. The switch has already been installed in user sites around the world over the past month, Goldfarb said. The unit is a non-blocking switch with 12 Ethernet ports and one ATM port. It can be managed using Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP), Newbridge officials said. The company claimed throughput of about 180,000 packets per second. Besides currently supporting both Ethernet switching and LAN emulation, the switch will support Multi-Protocol Over ATM (MPOA), an emerging standard for network-layer routing over ATM networks, as it becomes available, said Newbridge. In recent months a number of networking equipment vendors have announced products or strategies to help their customers move from currently popular networking technologies toward ATM, which is expected to play a growing role in local and wide area networking in the next few years. Newbridge claimed it is the only vendor now offering a stand-alone Ethernet switch that makes it possible to migrate to ATM with no hardware or software upgrades. The Vivid Yellow Ridge Ethernet Switch will sell for about $12,800, Goldfarb said, a price that works out to less than $1,000 per port. Newbridge's Vivid product line is an assortment of ATM switches, network interface cards, edge switches, route servers, and network management tools. (Grant Buckler/19950724/Press Contact: Kit Goldfarb, Newbridge Networks, 703-318-5791, Internet e-mail kit_goldfarb@qmail.newbridge.com; Public Contact: Newbridge Networks, 613-591-3600) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 07/24/95 WINDOWS Free Manual Helps Establish Help Desk (NEWS)(WINDOWS)(DEN)(00023) Free Manual Helps Establish Help Desk 07/24/95 HOUSTON, TEXAS, U.S.A., 1995 JUL 24 (NB) -- Want to set up a help desk to assist in-house or customer users of your product, but don't know how to go about it? A Houston, Texas company is offering a free tool to help you. Monarch Bay Software Inc. is offering a free 35-page manual the company said teaches management information system (MIS) managers, company owners, and support personnel how to set up and maintain a "cost-effective, efficient" help desk. Called the "Monarch Bay Help Desk Handbook," it can be downloaded at no cost except connect charges from CompuServe or you can order the printed manual from Monarch Bay for $10. Since Monarch Bay doesn't have a support forum on CompuServe, interested parties should send electronic-mail to the company to request the manual, which will be returned to you via CompuServe in a self-extracting file called Helpbook.exe. It is worth the price, according to Sally Phillips, president of Monarch Bay. "An efficiently-run single-person help desk department saves an average of $240,000 in lost productivity for a typical company,' said the Monarch Bay leader. "A two-person department can save nearly half a million dollars a year when operated correctly," adds Phillips. A Monarch Bay spokesperson explained that the estimate is based on the assumption that a technician can solve problems five times faster than a non-technical person, and can save that amount of money even if they are only busy half the time. That method of operation for setting up and running an efficient help desk department is the meat of Monarch Bay's new manual. It explains how to make an "informed decision" on setting up a help desk, how to find the right personnel for the job, how to choose the correct hardware and software and even how to use advanced statistical reporting to root out problematic hardware and software. The advice in Monarch Bay's manual isn't hypothetical. The company publishes HelpTrac, a Windows-based help desk software package for streamlining help desk operations. Phillips acknowledges that HelpTrac is mentioned in the manual. "But it's not at all what the manual is about," she said. "Our product, HelpTrac, is just one piece of the puzzle." HelpTrack has a suggested retail price of $3,995, putting it in the midrange of help desk software, according to the company spokesperson. The software works with most popular network operating systems, including Novell NetWare and LANtastic. Phillips said the manual was developed through problem-solving conversations with the company's users and is a compilation resulting from hundreds of hours of conversations with Monarch Bay's clients. (Jim Mallory/19950724/Press contact: Mike Adams, Arial Marketing Communications for Monarch Bay Software, 503-690-7413; Public contact: Monarch Bay Software, 800-450-6250, CompuServe e-mail 74040,1123) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 07/24/95 TRENDS Siemens Rolm Improves Desktop Telephony (NEWS)(TRENDS)(LAX)(00024) Siemens Rolm Improves Desktop Telephony 07/24/95 SANTA CLARA, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1995 JUL 24 (NB) -- Siemens Rolm has announced ComManager Pro, claimed to be the first "complete desktop" computer-telephony integration (CTI) package priced at less than $300. ComManager Pro bundles a TAPI (telephony application programming interface) driver, ComManager client software, and connecting hardware, to provide voice/data communications. Derek van Bronkhorst, a spokesman for Rolm, told Newsbytes, "ComManager Pro is a packaged approach to ComManager. ComManager is software that allows a user to turn his computer into a telephone. For example, with it you can manage your telephone information, you can capture phone numbers and dial directly from the screen. It also allows you to access telephone features such as conference calling with step-by-step screen procedures. "ComManager Pro is the complete package needed to install a desktop phone system. Snap in the module to the back of the phone, connect to the computer, load the software, and you are up an running. All for under $300, where the ComManager software itself was priced at over $250," said van Bronkhorst. "This is not about our plans for the future, said Siemens Rolm Senior Vice President of Marketing Richard H. Mattern Jr. "We are making a fully-featured, open, integrated CTI desktop available today for less than the cost of a programmable display phone. ComManager Pro delivers the best value for information workers -- more telephony functionality, plus the efficiency of integrated applications and the reliability of the digital Rolmphone, all in one affordable package." According to the company, ComManager -- a Windows-based software program that uses pull-down menus and point-and-click action -- is the only program available from a major PBX (private branch exchange) supplier that gives users visible access to all the features of their telephone and voice messaging systems. The fully programmable telephone with its "soft keys" makes it easy to use the special features that facilitate call routing and enable collection of call statistics. ComManager provides both TAPI and dynamic data exchange (DDE) capabilities to integrate voice functions with any Windows application on the desktop. All Siemens Rolm switch features are user-accessible through the Siemens Rolm TAPI driver and ComManager. The modular telephones used with ComManager Pro are fitted with a CTI data communications option (DCO) snap-in module that interfaces between the PC and the user's telephone. This module requires no additional desktop space, according to the company. Available for use with the Siemens Rolm 9751 models 30 and 80, the basic ComManager Pro has a suggested retail price of $299. It includes ComManager, the Siemens Rolm desktop software, the Siemens Rolm TAPI driver, an Easy-Add snap-in DCO module for Rolmphone 600 telephones, a power supply, and a RS232 cable to link the telephone and PC. Customers requiring Rolmphone series phones can purchase the Rolmphone 612 for just $165, completely outfitting a CTI station for just $464, claims the company. (Richard Bowers/19950724/Press Contact: Karron Esmonde, Siemens Rolm Communications Inc. 408-492-6979) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 07/24/95 WINDOWS Novell Ships Free Quattro Pro Update (NEWS)(WINDOWS)(DEN)(00025) Novell Ships Free Quattro Pro Update 07/24/95 OREM, UTAH, U.S.A., 1995 JUL 24 (NB) -- Novell Inc. (NASDAQ: NOVL) has announced the availability of a free update to Quattro Pro that helps Lotus 1-2-3 spreadsheet users transit to Quattro Pro with Lotus menus and keystroke macro compatibility. The new release, designated version 6.0.2, also converts Microsoft Excel 5.0 files and styles so Quattro Pro users can share files with Excel users, and fixes some OS/2 bugs. Quattro Pro is Novell's spreadsheet answer to Microsoft's Excel and Lotus 1-2-3. Dorothy Wise, Novell director of marketing and development for Quattro Pro, said the upgrade lets Lotus users switch to Quattro Pro without learning new menu or macros commands. Joe Hage, Quattro Pro product manager, told Newsbytes the update can interpret Lotus 1-2-3 macros and run them in Quattro without changing their form. There is also a feature Novell calls "Translation Assistant" that Hage said actually converts the Lotus 1-2-3 macro code to run in Quattro Pro. You also get a block Navigator that lets users navigate named ranges with a mouse click. Hage said the navigator takes the form of a small hand on the property band that, when clicked on, displays the names of all blocks that the user has named. Clicking on the appropriate block name moves the user to that block. Hage explained the new multi-currency formatting capability for Newsbytes. He said it lets users display multiple currencies on a single page of the spreadsheet. For example, one block could display amounts in English pounds, another in Korean won and a third in French francs. In all there are 40 possible currency formats possible in Quattro once the update is installed. Registered users of Quattro Pro 6.0 and PerfectOffice 3.0 can order the new update for $10 plus shipping and handling by calling Novell on their toll free number. You can also download the upgrade from Novell's bulletin board system, from the Quattro Pro forum on CompuServe (GO QPRO) or from the Novell home page on the Internet. (Jim Mallory/19950724/Press contact: Chuck Kaufman, Brodeur & Partners for Novell, 617-622-2831; Public contact: Novell, 800-526-5198 to order the upgrade, 801-221-5197 via modem to download the upgrade from the Novell BBS, Internet World Wide Web http://www.novell.com ) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 07/24/95 BUSINESS ****Gannett & Multimedia Inc. To Merge (NEWS)(BUSINESS)(MSP)(00026) ****Gannett & Multimedia Inc. To Merge 07/24/95 ARLINGTON, VIRGINIA, U.S.A., 1995 JUL 24 (NB) -- Media conglomerate Gannett Co. Inc. (NYSE:GCI) said it will acquire Multimedia Inc. (NASDAQ:MMEDC), a publisher and broadcaster with syndicated talk shows like Donahue and Rush Limbaugh, in a merger agreement worth more than $1.7 billion dollars. Under the agreement, Gannett will pay Multimedia shareholders $45.25 for each share of their stock. Gannett will also either retire or assume Multimedia's debt. The boards of directors of both companies unanimously approved the merger yesterday. Gannett, already the nation's largest newspaper publisher, will pick up even more papers in this deal. The company will also be getting into the cable business with this merger. Its television stations will reach 14 percent of the US market, when combined with Multimedia's properties. Gannett also publishes USA Today, owns 11 radio stations, and is the largest outdoor advertising company in the US. Multimedia publishes 11 daily and 49 non-daily newspapers, operates five television stations and two radio stations, and serves more than 450,000 cable TV subscribers. Multimedia Entertainment produces first-run TV programming, including Limbaugh's and Donahue's talkfests, The Jerry Springer Show, and Sally Jessy Raphael daytime talker. The company also owns a security alarm service. Multimedia recorded operating revenues of $630.6 million and operating income of $189.4 million in 1994, while Gannett's operating revenues topped $3.8 billion and operating income totaled $812.8 million. The deal is expected to be closed as soon as the stamp of approval comes from both Multimedia shareholders and government regulators. Wall Street's reaction to the merger seems to be lukewarm, at best. At 12:00 EDT, Gannett's stock is down $0.50 at $53.25, while Multimedia is up only $0.50, at $42.25. (Bob Woods/19950724/Press Contacts: Mimi Feller, 703-284-6046, or Shiela Gibbons, 703-284-6048, both of Gannett; Robert J. Hamby, Multimedia, 803-298-4245) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 07/24/95 ONLINE Striking Detroit News Workers Produce Web Paper (NEWS)(ONLINE)(MSP)(00027) Striking Detroit News Workers Produce Web Paper 07/24/95 DETROIT, MICHIGAN, U.S.A., 1995 JUL 24 (NB) -- Striking newspaper journalists in Detroit are taking their writing talents to cyberspace. Reporters and photographers from the Detroit News and the Detroit Free Press are publishing an electronic newspaper called "The Detroit Journal." The paper, which can be found on the Internet's World Wide Web at http://www.rust.net/~workers/strike.html , is being called "Motown's fresh alternative for news, features, sports, business, and opinion not available from the strike-bound dailies." The strike began on July 13. No new talks are scheduled in the labor dispute. Besides newsroom workers from the Detroit Newspaper guild, the strike includes maintenance workers, various production trade workers, press operators, truck drivers, and circulation personnel. Gary Graff, co-coordinator of the Journal, and music critic for the Free Press, said the "publishing" of this Web paper returns to the Detroit market two independent voices in the editorial arena. With the strike, the News and the Free Press are currently publishing only one edition per day. Usually, both papers publish separately on weekdays. On weekends and holidays, they publish as one edition, via a joint operating agreement (JOA). "We feel that right now, we are chasing readers away from the paper, which we think is the right strategy," Graff said. "What we've heard is that we miss such-and-such a writer or a feature. We can now provide that to them, in a way that if and when the strike ends and we go back to the Free Press and the News, they will follow us." The Journal features an editorial, daily news, and entertainment. It also features columnists from the News and the Free Press, like Mitch Albom, George Cantor, and Hugh McDiarmid. Future editions will contain hotlinks to sites that have sports scores, horoscopes, and other content normally found in newspapers, Graff said. Nancy Malitz, who is in charge of the Detroit News' interactive electronic news, told Newsbytes the News is also on the Web, at http://www.detnews.com . The site brings to cyberspace content of the News, along with strike related comments, both pro and con, she said. "I think what their site and our site both show is that the whole issue of how the newspaper will be delivered in the future is up in the air," she told Newsbytes. "It's pretty clear to me that a lot of people are going to want to get their paper this way (on the Internet). That demands a certain kind of technological change, that is partly what the strike is all about." She said because of alternate delivery routes such as this, jobs might be "recast entirely," in her words, and this is one of the issues are far apart about in negotiations. "There a lot of exciting possibilities for publishing on the Web," Graff said. "We as print journalists can be updating stories regularly. There's an immediacy to the Web that we don't really have in the standard newspaper environment." Officials from the Detroit Free Press were not able to contact Newsbytes by Newsbytes' daily deadline. The Free Press has a gopher site on the Internet, along with a presence on CompuServe. (Bob Woods/19950724/Press Contacts: Gary Graff, Detroit Newspaper Guild, 810-212-9720; Detroit Newspaper Guild Headquarters, 313-963-4255; Detroit Free Press, 313-222-6600; Detroit News, 313-222-6400; Public Contacts: Detroit Journal, Internet World Wide Web http://www.rust.net/~workers/strike.html ; Detroit News, Internet World Wide Web http://www.detnews.com ) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 07/24/95 GENERAL Graphix Zone Offers CD-ROM Store For Europe (NEWS)(GENERAL)(LAX)(00028) Graphix Zone Offers CD-ROM Store For Europe 07/24/95 IRVINE, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1995 JUL 24 (NB) -- Graphix Zone Inc. (NASDAQ:GZON), a multimedia producer of CD-ROM music titles, has developed a specialized multimedia "store in a CD-ROM" for sale in Europe. Contracted by European giant Matra- Hachette, Graphix Zone's CD-ROM, Explor Us, will be sold in kiosks throughout France. The project was produced for Paris, France-based Software Direct, a subsidiary of Matra-Hachette. Software Direct sought out Graphix Zone to produce a CD-ROM based on the concept of a "virtual store," where shoppers can purchase software products that could then be installed immediately onto their computer. The French are used to buying software at newsstand kiosks, which also function as mini-mart convenience stores. Angela Abers, executive vice president for Graphix Zone, told Newsbytes, "Hachette owns over 2,000 prime-location newsstand kiosks throughout France which are "branded" with a standardized appearance and merchandise mix. These kiosks are mostly located in mass transit facilities and are like our airport shops. Software Direct has a highly visible CD-ROM rack for the Explor Us CD-ROMs in every Hachette kiosk. "Since there are no USA-style software superstores in France," said Abers, "finding a wide selection of current software titles is very difficult for French consumers. Explor Us solves this problem by creating a new software sales opportunity in the Hachette kiosks." Two CD-ROMs will be available, each retailing for 49 French francs ($11) and each containing fifty to sixty titles. The first "store" specializes in games and education software, while the second sells business- and culture-related software. Both CD-ROMs will be updated regularly to change the product offering mix. According to Graphix Zone, Explor Us will be distributed in France initially before a potential roll out to major cities in other European countries. Once inside Explor Us, users find themselves inside a large, well- stocked software store, where they are given an electronic shopping cart. The cart uses a message screen to provide directions, complete with a map button that shows the shopper their store location. To navigate, shoppers point-and-click on the store area they would like to explore and are immediately transported there. Explor Us automatically compares system requirements of a potential software purchase to the actual hardware and software configuration of the customer's computer. System requirements such as extended memory and sound card bit depth are verified without any user involvement. When the order form is completed, the shopper either uses their modem for automated order processing, or calls a toll-free phone number and gives an operator credit card information. The operator then gives the buyer a special code to unlock the product, which is already on the CD-ROM, although in encrypted form. Once the special code is entered, the software is immediately unlocked on the CD-ROM as well as installed on the customer's computer. Founded in 1989, Graphix Zone develops and markets interactive multimedia products and services. Earlier this year the company released its second music title, called "Bob Dylan: Highway 61 Interactive," which has sold over 50,000 copies. Released in July, 1994, the company's Prince Interactive CD-ROM has sold over 75,000 units, and according to the company, is currently the world record holder in interactive music CD-ROM sales. (Richard Bowers/19950724/Press Contact: Tila Pacheco, Graphix Zone, 714-833-3838) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 07/24/95 ONLINE LL Knickerbocker's "Cybertown" Web Site (NEWS)(ONLINE)(SFO)(00029) LL Knickerbocker's "Cybertown" Web Site 07/24/95 RANCHO SANTA MARGARITA, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1995 JUL 24 (NB) -- LL Knickerbocker (NASDAQ:KNIC), a marketer of celebrity endorsed products, has teamed with Multimedia Magic to produce an Internet "virtual city" called Cybertown. From a World Wide Web site, the electronic city offers shopping and entertainment. #IMAGE 1 20 TWPCX \images\95072429.PCX Click here for photo In its first thirty days on the Web, Cybertown has received more than 250,000 hits (people accessing the Web site) and its highly graphical interface and layout as made it the Spider Pick of the Week, MacMillan Publishing Web Site of the Week, Dayton Site of the Day & Internet Showcase, Kaleidoscope Pick of the Week, and Seeress Vision of the Web, according to the company. Louis Knickerbocker, founder of LL Knickerbocker, says the goal of Cybertown is to be a place where people want to go based on a community which is "fun, entertaining, and educational." The marketing, promotional and business sides are developed by Knickerbocker, while the creative and computer side is developed through Multimedia Magic. Even though Cybertown is still in development, the site offers tours and information about its layout and offerings. Its mall is expected to be up and running within the next two weeks and 59 companies are planning to open storefronts in Cybertown. A spokesperson for Knickerbocker, told Newsbytes, "There has been a lot of talk about companies which have developed Web sites and no-one shows up to access the area, or few return. To be successful, Web sites have to offer users variety, value, and entertainment, much like any shopping center or shopping district. Our concept involves the development of an entire city where users may shop, visit a library, view videos, and generally have the experience of a full community." Cybertown has its own television station, CyberBroadcasting, which is designed to be an area to view entertainment and shopping specials. The company says, as technology increases, CyberBroadcasting will offer more video features. The company spokesperson also said, "We are building Cybertown for the average person. We want them to experience an Web site in which they are comfortable. The concept of Cybertown is also very effective for small companies. Rather than be one of thousands of Web sites which are difficult to find, a company may have its site within Cybertown, where people already come to shop and browse." Knickerbocker is also looking into creating separate shopping centers for geographic areas. For example, if a shopping center or a cities shopping district wants to create an electronic version, Cybertown is able and willing to develop additional electronic centers. (Patrick McKenna/19950724/Press Contact: Louis Knickerbocker, L.L. Knickerbocker, tel 714-858-366; Internet World Wide Web http://www.cybertown.com/cybertown /KNICKER950724/PHOTO) (SUMMARY)(GENERAL)(MSP)(00030) Newsbytes Daily Summary 07/24/95 MINNEAPOLIS, MINNESOTA, U.S.A., 1995 JUL 24 (NB) -- These are capsules of all today's news stories: ======================================================================== ------------| N E W S B Y T E S D A I L Y S U M M A R Y |---------- ------------| Monday, July 24, 1995 |---------- ======================================================================== (c) Newsbytes News Network (Tm) Editor in Chief: Wendy Woods ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Newsbytes News Network is a computer and telecom industry news wire and digitized picture service. Our news stream includes more than 30 daily first-hand reported US and international news stories about computing and telecommunications. For more information, please e-mail to 'administrator@newsbytes.com' ------------------------------------------------------------------------ CATEGORY HEADLINES (*** indicates today's top stories) STORY # ======================================================================== BROADCAST Hughes Wins Huge Telephone Satellite Order................. 08 BUSINESS ****Gannett & Multimedia Inc. To Merge...................... 26 GENERAL NewsPix Images For Newsbytes Publishers...................... 05 GENERAL Japan Newsbriefs............................................. 07 GENERAL Iomega Chief Reaffirms Importance Of Japanese Relations...... 09 GENERAL Canadian Product Launch Update............................... 13 GENERAL CA Announces Unicenter's "Next Generation.................... 21 GENERAL Graphix Zone Offers CD-ROM Store For Europe.................. 28 GOVT ****Senate Holds Internet Porn Hearing.......................... 19 HEALTH Telemedicine Helps Texas Prison Inmates....................... 01 LEGAL Compaq/Packard Bell Head Towards Trial Date.................... 14 NETWORK Newbridge Offers Ethernet Switch With ATM.................... 22 ONLINE Internet Update............................................... 10 ONLINE Process Intros Web Servers For NT/Windows 95.................. 16 ONLINE Striking Detroit News Workers Produce Web Paper............... 27 ONLINE LL Knickerbocker's "Cybertown" Web Site....................... 29 PC Gateway Offers Lithium-Ion Battery For Notebooks.................. 04 PC Databook Teams With Fujitsu, SystemSoft On PCMCIA................. 18 TELECOM Telecom Venture To Offer CDMA Wireless Service............... 03 TELECOM House Telecom Compromise..................................... 20 TRENDS Smart & Friendly's 7-Disk Quad-Speed CD Jukebox............... 02 TRENDS A PC In Every Room Of Info Highway Houses..................... 11 TRENDS Book Details Product Design Cultural Taboos................... 12 TRENDS Summertime Electronics Safety Recommendations................. 15 TRENDS Siemens Rolm Improves Desktop Telephony....................... 24 UNIX Novell's GroupWise 4.1 Available................................ 06 WINDOWS SystemSoft "Complements" Windows 95 PCMCIA................... 17 WINDOWS Free Manual Helps Establish Help Desk........................ 23 WINDOWS Novell Ships Free Quattro Pro Update......................... 25 ======================================================================== These are the headlines and first paragraphs of each story, in order: 1 -> Telemedicine Helps Texas Prison Inmates -- Compression Labs Inc. (CLI) (NASDAQ: CLIX) has announced that its videoconferencing systems have been chosen for the largest telemedicine project in the United States. Over 2,500 prisoners from Texas prisons will be treated using telemedicine in 1995. 2 -> Smart & Friendly's 7-Disk Quad-Speed CD Jukebox -- Smart and Friendly, has announced the immediate availability of its new CDJ 7004 seven- disk quad-speed (4x) jukebox. The new jukebox can changes disks in as little as 2.5 seconds for Mac and PC users. 3 -> Telecom Venture To Offer CDMA Wireless Service -- An alliance of four telecommunications companies has announced it will start negotiating with vendors of code division multiple access (CDMA) to deploy that technology over the venture's nationwide wireless communications network. 4 -> Gateway Offers Lithium-Ion Battery For Notebooks -- Gateway 2000 (NASDAQ: GATE) said it will equip its Liberty DX4-100 notebook PCs with lithium ion batteries and will make the battery available as an optional upgrade for all other Liberty models, including those previously purchased. In addition to enhanced battery time, the new batteries are also lighter and bring the weight of the Liberty DX4-100 down to 4.1 pounds. 5 -> NewsPix Images For Newsbytes Publishers -- These photos correspond to recent Newsbytes stories. They are online in the Newsbytes menu on GEnie, America Online, eWorld, NiftyServe, and the Newsbytes private bulletin board system in Minneapolis. 6 -> Novell's GroupWise 4.1 Available -- Novell Inc. (NASDAQ: NOVL) has announced availability of Groupwise 4.1, the company's electronic messaging system, for seven different character versions of Unix. 7 -> Japan Newsbriefs -- In this roundup of news from Japan: Consumers give movies-on-demand thumbs down; World PC Expo planned; Matsushita increases TV exports to Russia; Superbird launcher chosen; Toray open Internet home page. 8 -> Hughes Wins Huge Telephone Satellite Order -- Hughes Electronics Corp. has won a $1.3 billion order to provide twelve satellites for the new Inmarsat-P global satellite telephone service. 9 -> Iomega Chief Reaffirms Importance Of Japanese Relations -- The president and chief executive officer (CEO) of Iomega Corp. (NASDAQ: IOMG) has emphasized the importance of relationships between Iomega and its Japanese partners that will lay the groundwork for a successful future in Japan. 10 -> Internet Update -- In this roundup of new resources and services on the Internet: Asia One offers fresh news daily; Multimedia law files available via ftp; Fed Ex expands Internet support; Utah business directory; Central European news resource; Missing children Web site; Nightflight takes flight; High Tech Talk online; I-View HTML viewer; Jumbo offers 16,000 shareware programs. 11 -> A PC In Every Room Of Info Highway Houses -- Henry IV allegedly said he wanted every peasant in the realm to have a chicken in his pot every Sunday. Now, more than 300 years later, some experts predict there may be a personal computer in just about every room in your home, and as a result have built an "Information Highway House" to demonstrate how families can integrate computers and other technologies into their homes using those PCs. 12 -> Book Details Product Design Cultural Taboos -- Tony Fernandes, in his book "Global Interface Design," discusses how cultures, language, and taboos influence product design, and how companies can avoid serious product-design pitfalls. Fernandes is Claris Corp.'s chief interface expert. 13 -> Canadian Product Launch Update -- This regular feature, appearing on the first day Newsbytes publishes each week, provides further details for the Canadian market on announcements by international companies that Newsbytes has already covered. This week: Apple adds World Wide Web access to eWorld, Microsoft announces Money for Windows 95, and Oracle launches its SmartClient architecture with nine new applications. 14 -> Compaq/Packard Bell Head Towards Trial Date -- At the request of Compaq Computer Corp. (NYSE: CPQ) a federal judge has canceled a September preliminary injunction hearing in a lawsuit filed by Compaq against Packard Bell Electronics Inc. (NASDAQ: PBEL) in a step that brings the two electronic giants one step closer to a trial that could decide whether a used part can be considered a new part. 15 -> Summertime Electronics Safety Recommendations -- With the warm temperatures and sun of summer comes lightning and thunderstorms that can damage sensitive electronic equipment like computers, fax machines, and the like, said Underwriters Laboratories (UL). The company is recommending measures to protect electronics in the home environment. 16 -> Process Intros Web Servers For NT/Windows 95 -- Following today's announcements of new World Wide Web servers for Windows NT, Windows 95, and OpenVMS 17 -> SystemSoft "Complements" Windows 95 PCMCIA -- SystemSoft's CardWorks software will "complement" the PCMCIA support in Windows 95 by adding operability with a new generation of PC Cards, expected to be abundant at Fall Comdex, that will bring multi-function, multi-voltage, and DMA (direct memory access) capabilities, maintained Susan Zaney, marketing manager, at a meeting with Newsbytes. 18 -> Databook Teams With Fujitsu, SystemSoft On PCMCIA -- To boost its share of the PC Card interface controller and desktop adapter markets, Databook has forged deals with Fujitsu, SystemSoft, and Chips and Technologies, while moving its headquarters to suburban Boston and setting up a "Silicon Valley-style" profit-sharing plan, said officials of Databook's new management team, in a series of interviews with Newsbytes. 19 -> ****Senate Holds Internet Porn Hearing -- In earlier days, the Senate usually held hearings before passing legislation. Not so in the 104th Congress. 20 -> House Telecom Compromise -- House telecommunications legislation could come to the floor before the August 4 summer recess begins, thanks to a Republican leadership compromise on the role of the Justice Department. 21 -> CA Announces Unicenter's "Next Generation -- Computer Associates International Inc. (NYSE:CA) has announced CA- Unicenter/The Next Generation, a new version of its systems management software with a new user interface and the ability to view networks and systems from a business process perspective. 22 -> Newbridge Offers Ethernet Switch With ATM -- Newbridge Networks Corp. (TSE:NNC; NYSE:NN) said it recently began shipping its Vivid Yellow Ridge Ethernet Switch, which has asynchronous transfer mode (ATM) capability built in. 23 -> Free Manual Helps Establish Help Desk -- Want to set up a help desk to assist in-house or customer users of your product, but don't know how to go about it? A Houston, Texas company is offering a free tool to help you. 24 -> Siemens Rolm Improves Desktop Telephony -- Siemens Rolm has announced ComManager Pro, claimed to be the first "complete desktop" computer-telephony integration (CTI) package priced at less than $300. ComManager Pro bundles a TAPI (telephony application programming interface) driver, ComManager client software, and connecting hardware, to provide voice/data communications. 25 -> Novell Ships Free Quattro Pro Update -- Novell Inc. (NASDAQ: NOVL) has announced the availability of a free update to Quattro Pro that helps Lotus 1-2-3 spreadsheet users transit to Quattro Pro with Lotus menus and keystroke macro compatibility. The new release, designated version 6.0.2, also converts Microsoft Excel 5.0 files and styles so Quattro Pro users can share files with Excel users, and fixes some OS/2 bugs. 26 -> ****Gannett & Multimedia Inc. To Merge -- Media conglomerate Gannett Co. Inc. (NYSE:GCI) said it will acquire Multimedia Inc. (NASDAQ:MMEDC), a publisher and broadcaster with syndicated talk shows like Donahue and Rush Limbaugh, in a merger agreement worth more than $1.7 billion dollars. 27 -> Striking Detroit News Workers Produce Web Paper -- Striking newspaper journalists in Detroit are taking their writing talents to cyberspace. Reporters and photographers from the Detroit News and the Detroit Free Press are publishing an electronic newspaper called "The Detroit Journal." 28 -> Graphix Zone Offers CD-ROM Store For Europe -- Graphix Zone Inc. (NASDAQ:GZON), a multimedia producer of CD-ROM music titles, has developed a specialized multimedia "store in a CD-ROM" for sale in Europe. Contracted by European giant Matra- Hachette, Graphix Zone's CD-ROM, Explor Us, will be sold in kiosks throughout France. 29 -> LL Knickerbocker's "Cybertown" Web Site -- LL Knickerbocker (NASDAQ:KNIC), a marketer of celebrity endorsed products, has teamed with Multimedia Magic to produce an Internet "virtual city" called Cybertown. From a World Wide Web site, the electronic city offers shopping and entertainment. (Ian Stokell/19950724) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 07/21/95 PC Impulse Intros Reply 450 Notebooks (NEWS)(PC)(TOR)(00001) Impulse Intros Reply 450 Notebooks 07/21/95 MISSISSAUGA, ONTARIO, CANADA, 1995 JUL 21 (NB) -- Impulse Computer Corp. has launched the Reply 450 series of notebook computers. Like other Impulse products, the new notebooks will be sold only in Canada. Impulse said the Reply 450 line is designed to appeal to a low- priced market, with estimated street prices starting at about C$2,700 for a unit with a 66 megahertz (MHz) Intel 486DX2 processor, a 10.3-inch, passive-matrix color screen, four megabytes (MB) of memory, and a 340MB hard disk, a spokeswoman for the company told Newsbytes. The series includes models with 75MHz and 100MHz 486DX4 processors and offering a choice of color displays or a monochrome display, the company said. Memory can be expanded to as much as 20MB. The systems use a nickel-metal-hydride battery said to provide three hours of battery life, and weigh 6.2 pounds including the battery and the hard disk drive. The display, processor, disk drive, and memory are modular and thus can be upgraded easily, Impulse said. A docking station is available as an option. Each Reply 450 unit comes with a CentrePoint trackball, two Type II or one Type III hot-swappable PC Card slots, and built-in power-management features. Bundled software includes DOS, Microsoft Windows, OAG FlightDisk (for travel scheduling), and a starter kit for the CompuServe online information service. The notebooks also come with a Tracker security label, which identifies the owner if the notebook is lost or stolen, and password protection. The limited warranty lasts three years, and the Reply 450 models are available now. (Grant Buckler/19950720/Press Contact: Sheryl Steinberg, The Cohen Group for Impulse Computer, 905-886-8086; Public Contact: Impulse Computer, 800-668-1111 or 905-858-3000, fax 905-858-9090) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 07/21/95 TRENDS Adaptec Offers Wireless I/O Products (NEWS)(TRENDS)(LAX)(00002) Adaptec Offers Wireless I/O Products 07/21/95 MILPITAS, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1995 JUL 21 (NB) -- Adaptec (NASDAQ: ADPT) is shipping its AIRport infrared (IR) adapters that allow file transfers without the need for cables or floppy disks, a technology which appeals to mobile professionals who need "simple variable connections," said the company. Matt Cusan, marketing manager for Adaptec, told Newsbytes, "Infrared ports are becoming standard on most notebook computers as a means to communicate between computers and many other popular consumer peripherals. Adaptec's first two IR products, the AIRport 1000 and AIRport 2000, are the first IR designed kits to comply with the Infrared Data Association (IRDA) specifications. "IRDA specification were set last year, with several changes made in March, 1995. IBM announced the first IRDA-compliant notebooks in November, 1994, with HP LaserJet with infrared shipping March, 1995," said Cusan. He added that Adaptec has tested the AIRport 1000 and AIRport 2000 adapters with a "wide range" of notebook and desktop PCs. The AIRport products have data transfer rates of up to 115 kilobits-per-second (Kbps), eight times faster than 14.4 Kbps modems. They have transmission ranges of up to two meters, depending on power options. Given the limits of low-cost computer notebooks with their limited battery and heat problems, "the sweet spot for components is in the zero to one meter transmission range," said Cusan. Adaptec's AIRport products are sold in three retail kit packages: AIRport 1000, AIRport 2000, and AIRport 2500. According to the company, the AIRport 1000 kit includes an IR adapter to upgrade a notebook that does not already have an IR port built-in. It snaps directly onto the serial port to provide an IR link to desktop systems, printers, and other IR-equipped devices. AIRport 1000 has a suggested retail prices of $89. The AIRport 2000 kit includes an IR port adapter for a desktop PC. It connects to the desktop's serial port and has three power options: serial port, AC adapter, or battery. The AIRport adapter has a dual position design which allows it to stand up or lie flat. AIRport 2000 has a suggested retail price of $119. The AIRport 2500 kit bundles the two adapters, allowing users to upgrade both their desktop and portable PCs. AIRport 2500 has a suggested retail prices of $189. (Richard Bowers/19950720/Press Contact: Eric Brown, Adaptec, 408-957-6645) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 07/21/95 CHIPS Taiwan's Chip Industry Attracts Outsiders (NEWS)(CHIPS)(TYO)(00003) Taiwan's Chip Industry Attracts Outsiders 07/21/95 TAIPEI, TAIWAN, 1995 JUL 21 (NB) -- The lure of big profits in Taiwan's semiconductor arena has drawn in companies from outside the electronics industry, as well as Japanese chip makers, which are hard-pressed for investment cash. Nan Ya Plastics, a member of the Formosa Plastics Group, is building a $700 million wafer fabrication plant with Japan's Oki Electric Industry Co. to make DRAMs. It is the second Taiwanese venture for Oki, which last year reached an agreement with Taiwan's Mosel-Vitelic Inc. to supply DRAMs. The Japanese company will provide the technology, the Taiwanese company the bulk of the money. Analysts contend that the strong Japanese yen is sending its manufacturers abroad, and the Japanese want to get close to the Taiwanese PC makers, which imported $7 billion worth of semiconductors last year. (Terry Silveria/19950719) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 07/21/95 CHIPS UK Firm To Design Own DRAMs (NEWS)(CHIPS)(LON)(00004) UK Firm To Design Own DRAMs 07/21/95 NEWCASTLE, ENGLAND, 1995 JUL 21 (NB) -- A UK start-up is planning to design and make its own 16 megabit (Mb) DRAMs to support its memory modules, and is taking on industry giants over patents. Newcastle-based memory module maker Syntag is planning to put additional logic on a 16Mb DRAM to link devices in a single in-line memory module (SIMM) and so do away with controlling ASICs (application specific integrated circuits). This will allow a SIMM to have memory on both sides and will also cut the cost. The company will soon be increasing its production of SIMMs at Cramlington, Newcastle, tenfold to 10,000 per month. Through its good relations with memory producers (to get access to partial devices), analysts expect Syntag to approach one of these companies in return for some form of licensing deal -- most likely in the next two to three years. (Terry Silveria/19950719) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 07/21/95 ONLINE PSI Extends Internet Services To South Korea (NEWS)(ONLINE)(TYO)(00005) PSI Extends Internet Services To South Korea 07/21/95 SEOUL, SOUTH KOREA, 1995 JUL 21 (NB) -- American Internet access provider Performance Systems International (PSI)(NASDAQ: PSIX) has announced it will set up a new company in South Korea that will extend access services offered by PSI to that country. When operational, the network will offer access points in Seoul, Pusan, Inchon, Daejon, and other major cities in the country. PSI claims that, when the network is complete early next year, it will be one of the most technologically advanced networks in the Asia-Pacific region. The new company is being formed with Hansol Group, a local company, and will be a subsidiary of the Asian firm. Between them, the two companies are investing $20 million in the new venture, with the majority coming from Hansol. PSI announced a month ago that it was extending its previously North American-only service to Europe with the acquisition of EUnet GB for $4 million. Details of prices or services on offer are yet to be announced, but it will likely mirror the US and European services, which offer mostly company-targeted Internet connection services. The Herndon, Virginia-based corporation said, "South Korea is the home of many multinational manufacturing and trading firms and we look forward to serving a high-quality customer base with our network." PSI is one of the driving forces behind the Internet operating its own backbone across the United States. It recently announced sharply increased operating revenues for the second quarter of 1995 at $7.7 million, up from $3.3 million in the first quarter. As of June 30, PSINet had 4,700 organizational and 29,500 individual subscribers. (Martyn Williams/19950721/Press contact : Brian Muys, PSINet, 703-904-4285, Internet e-mail muysb@psi.com ) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 07/21/95 TRENDS Sega Joins Toshiba Digital Video Disk Consortium (NEWS)(TRENDS)(TYO)(00006) Sega Joins Toshiba Digital Video Disk Consortium 07/21/95 TOKYO, JAPAN, 1995 JUL 21 (NB) -- Sega Enterprises Ltd. (TOKYO:7964), one of Japan's top computer games makers, has announced it will support the "digital video disk" standard under development by a consortium of companies lead by Toshiba (TOKYO:6502). The announcement means Sega will develop games equipment and machines based on the Toshiba DVD standard, known as Super Density or SD-disk, rather than a rival format, "multimedia compact disk" (MMCD), being developed by Sony and Philips. One of the main reasons behind the choice is thought to be the friends and enemies Sega has already made in the games machine market. The Tokyo-based company is currently engaged in a battle with, among others, Sony, whose PlayStation machine is fighting for a slice of the market once dominated by Sega and Nintendo. Sega's Saturn, the machine fighting Sony's PlayStation, was also developed in association with Hitachi Ltd. which has already announced support of the Toshiba system. Sega also cited the superior data storage of Toshiba's system, which offers disks that can hold up to 18 gigabytes (GB) of data, compared with a maximum storage capacity of 7.4GB offered by the MMCD system. The disks being championed by both sides are the same in size and shape as a regular compact disk, but offer a vastly improved data storage capacity. Applications for the new disks include music and video, data storage, and future multimedia software and applications. The Toshiba-led SD system currently count endorsements from Hitachi, Matsushita Electric Industrial, MCA, Pioneer Electronics, Thomson Multimedia, Time Warner, Mitsubishi Electric, Victor Co. of Japan (JVC), Nippon Columbia, Toshiba-EMI, Pioneer LDC, Metro-Goldwyn- Mayer, Turner Home Entertainment, Zenith Electronics, Samsung Electronics, Toray, and SKC. The MMCD system jointly developed by Sony and Dutch consumer electronics giant Philips, who jointly developed the music CD format, has received support from Nokia, Aiwa, Bang and Olufson, Grundig, Magnavox and Marantz, Mitsumi, Gateway 2000, TEAC and Ricoh. Recently, NEC Home Electronics announced they would also support the system. (Martyn Williams/19950721) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 07/21/95 BUSINESS Fujitsu & ICL Form Singapore Joint Venture (NEWS)(BUSINESS)(TYO)(00007) Fujitsu & ICL Form Singapore Joint Venture 07/21/95 TOKYO, JAPAN, 1995 JUL 21 (NB) -- Fujitsu and its British subsidiary ICL have joined to form a new joint venture company in Asia. The new company, Fujitsu ICL Trading Asia (FITA), will try to achieve a top five ranking in the region's market share of PCs within two years. FITA is 60% owned by Tokyo-based Fujitsu, with the remaining stake being held by ICL. As a base for the company, Singapore was chosen with branch offices to be located in Malaysia, Hong Kong, China, Thailand, the Philippines, and Indonesia. Initially, the company's activities will focus on sales of personal computers and entry-level servers produced by ICL, but which have been badged as "Fujitsu ICL" since early 1995. The new company draws on staff of the two parents to make up its board. Ian Leach, former vice president of ICL, is the new chief executive. Koshiro Kirazato, head of Fujitsu's international operations, explained the reason for setting up the new company, saying, "Both companies have a good image and reputation in this region, but we believe that by combining our resources and management experience we will achieve improved benefits for both our customers and the group, and also increased market share." As FITA grows and becomes more successful in the region, both parent companies will use its distribution system to enable them to reach more customers for their computer products. Said Ian Leach, "As the distribution channel develops, we envisage that other group products, like Fujitsu PCs and software, will be added to the portfolio. The joint venture should also generate more opportunities for the group's systems integration and services companies." The new company will absorb the operation of ICL Volume Products Asia, which has been working in the region since January, 1995, principally in Singapore, Malaysia, and Hong Kong. The new company runs along similar lines to those in other parts of the world. In the Pacific, the two created Fujitsu Australia Ltd. in 1992 to service customers in Australia, New Zealand, Fiji, and Papua New Guinea. Meanwhile, in North America, they simultaneously created Fujitsu ICL Inc. to cover North America and the Caribbean. (Martyn Williams/19950721/Press contact : Yuri Momomoto, Fujitsu, +81-3-3215-5236; John Cheetham, ICL, +44-171-788-7272) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 07/21/95 BROADCAST Compression Labs Wins Chinese Digital TV Order (NEWS)(BROADCAST)(TYO)(00008) Compression Labs Wins Chinese Digital TV Order 07/21/95 SAN JOSE, CALIFORNIA, USA, 1995 JUL 21 (NB) -- Compression Labs Inc. (CLI) (NASDAQ:CLIX) has won a $1.8 million contract to supply digital television encoders and decoders to Jilin Provincial Broadcasting and Television Bureau in China. The encoders and decoders will be the basis for a new digital transmission system for broadcasting the bureau's three television channels via microwave to cable headends in the province. The system will use CLI's encoders and decoders based on the MPEG-2 (Motion Picture Experts Group type 2) standard, an emerging worldwide standard for digital television. Under the terms of the agreement, CLI will supply and install 13 Magnitude real-time MPEG-2 video/audio encoders and 101 Magnitude real-time MPEG-2 Professional Integrated receiver/decoders. Upon installation, the Jilin system will be the first MPEG-2 video terrestrial microwave network to be implemented anywhere in the world. Zhang Boren, director of the Jilin Provincial Broadcasting and Television Bureau, said the MPEG-2 compliance was one of the most important factors in choosing the CLI equipment. He added: "This is the first time China has upgraded a microwave broadcasting system of a province. The complete digital microwave system will connect counties, cities, towns, and private networks for large enterprises, as well as cable television systems in the Jilin Province. It is important that we use the best technology for digital transmission." The encoders take in conventional analog television signals, digitize them, and then compress the digital signal, enabling several signals to be broadcast in the same space as one conventional analog signal, thus making more effective use of the available broadcast band. In the Jilin installation, the three digital channels will be broadcast at eight megabits-per-second (Mbps) from the Changchun television center in the province's capital to ten provincial television stations and 91 cable headends. In all, over three million people will benefit from the increased quality that the digital transmissions will bring. The establishment of the new digital transmission system is being jointly planned by Jilin Provincial Broadcasting in a partnership with Bell South and the Ji-Tong Communications Company. The Magnitude range of products includes modular video and audio encoders and a choice of decoders for the delivery of entertainment and information services over telephone, cable, and satellite networks. The decoder chosen by Jilin is an 8Mbps-capable unit that complies with the ITU-T standard for microwave transmission systems. (Martyn Williams/19950721/Press contact: Joyce Strand, Compression Labs Inc., 408-922-4610) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 07/21/95 ONLINE "The Biz" Web Magazine Covers Entertainment (NEWS)(ONLINE)(MSP)(00009) "The Biz" Web Magazine Covers Entertainment 07/21/95 NEW YORK CITY, NEW YORK, U.S.A., 1995 JUL 21 (NB) -- A new Internet World Wide Web publication dedicated to talking with the movers, the shakers, the dealmakers, and other behind-the-scenes celebrities in the entertainment business, will begin in early August. "The Biz: The Digizine for the Entertainment Industry" will be published by Marinex Multimedia Corp. "We're interested in the insiders' view on the (entertainment) business, and their opinions where the business is going," Jonathan Braun, co-publisher of The Biz, told Newsbytes. "We actually took some steps to launch this as a paper publication, a slick, glossy, monthly publication. But we backed away from that as we became more involved with multimedia." He said paper might have worked years ago, but not in today's world. The magazine will contain news from the film, television, music, multimedia, and publishing fields. But it won't focus on the stars, Braun said. Braun said some of the people interviewed for the premier issue of The Biz include Motion Picture of America Association (MPAA) President Jack Valenti, Federal Communications Commission (FCC) Chairman Reed Hundt, Billboard Magazine Publisher Howard Lander, ICM Artists Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Jeff Berg, and HotWired President Andrew Anker. The targeted readership is a bit hazy, Braun said. "It's like the early days of television, where you don't know exactly what your audience is," he said. Eventually, the publication will be positioned for people who are both in the entertainment industry, as well as those who follow the industry. In addition to the interviews, The Biz will contain features like weekly columns and opinionated articles from those "in the know" in the entertainment industry. A staff of full-time reporters and other writers will contribute material to the new venture. Braun also said "stringers" will provide news from around the world, including Paris and London. The world of independent films will also be covered by a specially-dedicated columnist, he added. The Biz: The Digizine for the Entertainment Industry is located on the Web at http://www.bizmag.com . Marinex Multimedia is the same company that publishes "Trouble & Attitude," a bi-monthly CD-ROM magazine that Newsbytes has previously covered. In the future, Marinex will develop a second Web-based magazine called "The Lounge," described as a "pop culture publication" consisting of weekly columns, and sound and still photo files ranging from music to TV to serialized mysteries. The Lounge is scheduled to blast off into cyberspace in early September. (Bob Woods/19950720/Press Contact: Merrill Freund, Marinex Multimedia, 212-334-6700; Public Contact: The Biz, Internet World Wide Web http://www.bizmag.com ) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 07/21/95 CHIPS Custom Chipmaker AMI Moves Into Germany (NEWS)(CHIPS)(LON)(00010) Custom Chipmaker AMI Moves Into Germany 07/21/95 DRESDEN, GERMANY, 1995 JUL 21 (NB) -- American Microsystems Inc. (AMI), which claims to be the world's first company to be founded specifically to make custom chips, opened its European headquarters in Dresden, Germany, recently. The HQ will have 17 engineers, including a team working on mask-programmable versions of the microcontroller peripherals of wafer scale integration (WSI). AMI's UK design center, sited in Bentley, Surrey, is a joint collaboration with AMI's UK distributor Sabre Advanced Microelectronics. It is being equipped with Intergraph CAD (computer-aided design) systems. At Bentley, customers can reportedly finalize designs before sending them to Dresden for layout. A full digital design service including FPGA (field programmable gate array) conversions is available. Mixed signal and analog designs are primarily handled by Dresden. (Terry Silveria/19950719) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 07/21/95 BUSINESS Korea's LG To Enter German CD-ROM Drive Market (NEWS)(BUSINESS)(LON)(00011) Korea's LG To Enter German CD-ROM Drive Market 07/21/95 SEOUL, KOREA, 1995 JUL 21 (NB) -- LG Electronics, which exported 600,000 double- and quadruple-speed CD-ROM drives to Olivetti of Italy early this year, plans to concentrate on sales in Germany. Its local corporation, LGEDG has supplied a small volume of double-speed CD-ROM drives since early this year, but plans to supply 60,000 CD-ROM drives per month from this month. LGEDG reportedly signed contracts with local companies and is negotiating on supplying volume. The annual CD-ROM drive market in Germany is over two million and LG hopes to supply 500,000, said an official of the company. He commented that the advance has significance in that LG will be exporting its own brand name in the European Union market. (Terry Silveria/19950719) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 07/21/95 GOVT Ex-KGB Considers Relcom Telecom Bid (NEWS)(GOVT)(LON)(00012) Ex-KGB Considers Relcom Telecom Bid 07/21/95 MOSCOW, RUSSIA, 1995 JUL 21 (NB) -- The former KGB department in charge of monitoring Russia's telecommunications is considering purchasing a 50 percent stake in Relcom, one of the country's biggest computer networks. The Federal Agency for Governmental Communications and Information, or FAPSI, has expressed an interest in buying an entire one billion ruble ($196,000) share issue, which will double the company's charter capital, but a final decision is yet to be made. Relcom is a nationwide commercial computer network with 80 nodes throughout Russia. The company already cooperates with FAPSI in providing telecommunications services for several governmental bodies, including the Central Bank and the Defense Ministry. Relcom's annual shareholders meeting decided to increase the company's charter capital to two billion rubles from 200 million rubles. The money will be raised through the additional share issue of one billion rubles and increasing the face value of existing shares. The method of selling the new share issue has not yet been formalized. (Terry Silveria/19950719) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 07/21/95 TELECOM Motorola Sees Gold In Mexico (NEWS)(TELECOM)(SFO)(00013) Motorola Sees Gold In Mexico 07/21/95 MEXICO CITY, MEXICO, 1995 JUL 21 (NB) -- Motorola says that the cellular phone market in Mexico is practically unexploited and that Motorola has only a .62% penetration in the business niche. Motorola sees great opportunity in cellular phones, as well as the wireless telephone market in general. In its cellular operations in Mexico in 1994, Motorola had revenues of roughly $34 million, while in the wireless area as a whole, the company had revenues of $100 million. The Mexican telecommunications market is estimated to be worth $12 billion, and since 40% of that is based on wireless technology, there is potential growth for more than $20 billion over the next five years in that area. Meanwhile, because of the intense use of semiconductors in the information technology, telecommunications, and electronics industries, Motorola de Mexico had a 28% rise in sales during the first quarter of 1995. Sales rose to $6 million in the first quarter in Mexico and the Caribbean. The company expects to sell $175 million from its Mexican production, the majority of which will be exported. In 1994, Motorola sales from its semiconductor plant in Guadalajara were roughly $166 million -- 95% of which came from exports. (Terry Silveria/19950720) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 07/21/95 TELECOM Investments Bring Telecoms To Russia (NEWS)(TELECOM)(LON)(00014) Investments Bring Telecoms To Russia 07/21/95 MOSCOW, RUSSIA, 1995 JUL 21 (NB) -- Philips Communications is installing a three-ring synchronous digital hierarchy (SDH) network in Russia, linking Moscow to Kaliningrad. It allows 155 megabits-per-second (Mbps) and 622 Mbps data and voice transmission, and Moscow Telecommunication Corporation Comcor, which has licenses for cable TV and data networks, has access to the network. Ericsson is also investing in Russia, and is installing analog mobile telephone equipment in Moscow, Kaliningrad, Vladivostok, Smolensk, and Jekaterinburg. In Moscow, Racal Messenger equipment is being used to develop a secure radio data network for Central Telegraph, a Russian telecoms provider. Philips Communications SDH network will initially be used to test SDH technology before being connected to the international telecoms infrastructure. The Radiotel network will be used to create data links for point-of-sale terminals, the banking industry, and the upcoming Moscow Lottery. (Terry Silveria/19950720) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 07/21/95 PC NEC Intros Multimedia Notebooks (NEWS)(PC)(LAX)(00015) NEC Intros Multimedia Notebooks 07/21/95 MOUNTAIN VIEW, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1995 JUL 21 (NB) -- NEC Technologies Inc. has introduced the NEC Versa 4000 Series of color multimedia notebook computers for corporate and small office users. Using up to a 90 megahertz (MHz) Intel Pentium processor, the multimedia notebooks are designed to "give the user a personal and flexible system," according to the company. #IMAGE 1 20 TWPCX \images\95072115.PCX Click here for photo Christine Hirshland, a spokesperson for NEC Technologies, told Newsbytes, "This series of notebooks offers a true multimedia product. It offers everything needed to take a show on the road. It has a CD-ROM drive, two internal stereo speakers, Sound Blaster Pro- compatible sound, and full-motion playback. The series includes either a 90MHz or 75MHz Intel Pentium processor. "The NEC Versa 4000 has been designed to adapt to the user's needs and allow growth as their needs grow. Both the hard disk drive and memory are easy to upgrade, and the PC card slots give users access to an array of options," said Hirshland. According to the company, front-loading slots let users customize on an ad hoc basis simply by swapping their choice of modules: CD-ROM drive (if not included), floppy drive, second battery, or second hard drive. Front- and back-mounted infrared ports are also included to support printing and file transfer without cables or disks. A long-life lithium ion battery, user-removable and upgradable hard drive and memory, and a 10-inch color display, including high-resolution 800 by 600 TFT (thin film transistors) are standard, says the company. "The NEC Versa 4000 notebook is the ideal mobile computing solution because it offers true flexibility," said Bob Levin, director of product marketing for NEC's portable Systems Group. "It offers the processing power to handle demanding jobs and with its modular design this notebook can be configured, upgraded, and expanded to meet end-users' everchanging requirements." Suggested retail prices for the Versa 4000 notebooks range from $3,499 for a color model with a 75MHz Pentium processor, 540 megabyte (MB) hard drive, and 8MB of RAM, to $5,099 for a high resolution 800 by 600 color model with a 90MHz Pentium processor, 810MB hard drive, and 8MB RAM. (Richard Bowers/19950721/Press Contact: Celeste Martino Sa, NEC Technologies, 415-528-5306/NEC950721/PHOTO) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 07/21/95 APPLE Apple Australia Institute Trains Resellers (NEWS)(APPLE)(SYD)(00016) Apple Australia Institute Trains Resellers 07/21/95 SYDNEY, AUSTRALIA, 1995 JUL 21 (NB) -- Apple Australia has formed a training institute, offering a range of sales and technology training courses for computer resellers. A company spokesperson told Newsbytes that reseller involvement had "exceeded all expectations." Apple Australia's National Training Manager Dr Tom Schwarz said the power of technology was of little value if it wasn't supported in the reseller channel with a "motivated, focused, and well-trained" reseller team. "My number one focus has been channel training and addressing key areas of staff development with the focus firmly on resellers' needs." The institute holds between 30 and 35 courses a month, catering for around 200 people in total. It has a formal training schedule, but can also conduct tailored courses when there is demand. The curriculum has been adapted from earlier Apple technology programs after extensive surveys of the needs of reseller management, said the company. Courses use hands-on, presentations, role-playing, and lectures. Most lecturers are not Apple employees, but are already working externally in the information technology and training industries. They, in turn, are trained by Apple in its "stringent quality requirements and assurances" before being allowed to run courses. Individual courses range from half-day to two-days in length. They include: Apple Orientation; Essential Apple Selling Skills; Sales Pipeline; Competitive Selling Skills; Management Coaching; Enterprise Apple Selling; and Winning Tender and RFP (Request For Proposal) Responses. Dr Schwarz said the emphasis was on the value of people in any sales organization. "They are your most expensive resource and if you can make them more productive and efficient it can only benefit your business." (Paul Zucker/19950721) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 07/21/95 BUSINESS "Infotainment" Retail Strategy For Hong Kong (NEWS)(BUSINESS)(HKG)(00017) "Infotainment" Retail Strategy For Hong Kong 07/21/95 CENTRAL, HONG KONG, 1995 JUL 21 (NB) -- In an effort to promote the use of PCs and multimedia equipment in the home, Jardine Office Systems (JOS) MicroTech Distribution has launched the "Infotainment Concept," a retail strategy aimed at making home entertainment and information products more accessible to the public. The strategy involves establishing sales points in non-traditional outlets such as bookstores, department stores and consumer electronics stores. Steve Lo, chief executive of JOS Technology Group, said that, by making products more accessible to the Hong Kong public, his company hopes to "harness the growing demand for quality home entertainment and information products." As evidence of this demand, Lo said some 90 percent of Hong Kong households do not own any form of electronic media products other than television and radio sets. The company is working with several hardware and software vendors to promote the new strategy. Its business partners are Canon, Compaq, Corel, IBM, Longman, Microsoft, Sino United Electric Publishing, Philips, and Oxford University Press. According to Joseph Koc, marketing operation manager for JOS MicroTech, the company hopes to target those people who feel "uncomfortable" going into a computer mall or specialist store. As well as offering PC-based multimedia through the Infotainment Concept, JOS also hopes to promote CD-I (compact-disk interactive) players and software from Philips which allow users to play interactive computer programs on a television set. As yet, no retails stores have signed up as partners, but Koc said he expects the first ones to be announced in around six months time. (IT Daily/19950721) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 07/21/95 GENERAL China - Silicon Graphics' Petroleum Seismic App (NEWS)(GENERAL)(HKG)(00018) China - Silicon Graphics' Petroleum Seismic App 07/21/95 CENTRAL, HONG KONG, 1995 JUL 21 (NB) -- Silicon Graphics, in cooperation with Chinese mainland software developers, has launched a new parallel processing version of Grisys, an advanced seismic processing application for use in oil and gas exploration. The company spent eight months working with its Chinese partners -- one attached to Beijing's Academia Sinica and the other a unit of China National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC) -- to develop the application which, according to officials, is going to mean vast improvements for the petroleum industry in China. Grisys was originally developed for proprietary platforms by Beijing Global Software Corporation, a unit of CNPC. The system uses data from a controlled explosion to develop a three-dimensional (3-D) model of the earth's crust. By harnessing the power of Silicon Graphics' supercomputers, this complex process can be carried out more rapidly, assisting China in the development of its oil and gas resources, said Steven Szeto, managing director of Silicon Graphics China/Hong Kong. The new project involved porting Grisys to Silicon Graphics' Irix operating system and adapting the software for parallel processing to be run on the company's symmetric multiprocessing Power Challenge family of supercomputers. (IT Daily/19950721) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 07/21/95 TELECOM China - Phone System Expands In Guangdong Province (NEWS)(TELECOM)(PEK)(00019) China - Phone System Expands In Guangdong Province 07/21/95 BEIJING, CHINA, 1995 JUL 21 (NB) -- Although users in other provinces still use six-digit, and even five-digit, phone numbers, the telephone network in South China's Guangdong province has been upgraded to support seven-digit numbers. In addition, the capital city of Guangzhou will upgrade to an eight-digit system at the beginning of 1996. The expansion of the telephone system is a sign of a fast growing economy, an official with Guangdong Posts and Telecommunications Administration said. Over the past 10 years, Guangdong's telephone network has evolved from the five-digit system before 1985. In the 1980s, there were only 240,000 telephone lines in the province, and complaints about difficult telecommunications were very common. The province's advanced telecom equipment has contributed to the fast telephone network expansion, the official said. In 1994, Guangdong opened China's fastest telecommunications system, linking the mainland and Hong Kong at 2.5 gigabytes of information per second -- equivalent to more than 30,000 simultaneous calls on a pair of fiber-optic cables. In 1987, the country's first analog mobile phone and pager station was installed in Guangzhou. In 1994, Guangdong started to use China's first digital mobile phone network. Now, Guangdong has the country's largest and most-advanced public telephone system. Its telephone switching capacity has surpassed eight million, with more than five million users. Mobile phone capacity has reached one million, with 600,000 users. Guangdong makes 350 million domestic long distance calls a month, accounting for 14 percent of China's total long distance calls. Furthermore, Guangdong tops other provinces in making international calls, with the majority of calls going to Hong Kong. Guangzhou, the capital city of Guangdong province, has a capacity of 1.5 million lines. The number of users has now reached one million, making up 12 percent of the country's total phone users. In Guangdong, 10 percent of households have telephones. Following Beijing and Shanghai, Guangzhou will be the third city to have eight-digit phone numbers. (Chih-Ho Yu & Ning Huang/19950721) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 07/21/95 APPLE ****Apple Stock Drops With Third Quarter Report (NEWS)(APPLE)(SFO)(00020) ****Apple Stock Drops With Third Quarter Report 07/21/95 CUPERTINO, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1995 JUL 21 (NB) -- After a revision of a restructuring charge adjustment, third quarter results from Apple Computer, Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) showed a 25% drop in profit. While the company remained confident with a 20% rise in sales, Wall Street responded with a 3 3/16 drop from 47.06 to 43.87 a share (9:30am PDT, 7/21). Reasons for the results center around an inventory shortage and the unknown impact next month of Microsoft's Windows 95 which will be pre-installed on many IBM/clone personal computers (PCs). Apple says it would like to have performed better, but is pleased with its overall performance. When Power Macs debuted in March 1994, Apple said its goal was to ship 1 million units in the first year. It met that goal and now with an additional quarter of shipments, it says the overall total of Power Macs and Power Mac upgrades is more than 2 million. Revenues for this quarter were $2.57 billion, up 20% over the same quarter last year and unit shipments increased by approximately 20%. Part of Apple's confidence also lies in the fact that without the revision, net income rose 67% from $59.5 million in the third quarter of '94 to $99.2 million in this recent third quarter. Yesterday, Apple's stock rose $1.56 1/4 early in the day. When news of the report surfaced the stock dropped back the same amount to $47.06 1/4. Mike Murphy, publisher of The California Technology Stock Letter, told Newsbytes, "This was not a great quarter for Apple and has to be a disappointment and I think their performance is affected by the impending arrival of Windows 95 which may be causing a softness in the market. Certainly, one expects a lot of Windows users and fist time computer buyers to be waiting to make a computer purchase until Windows 95 is out, but I expect there may be a lot of Mac users who have not moved to the Power Mac systems, waiting to see if they should move over to the Windows system. Only time will tell, what choice they will make." Murphy continued, "No one is sure what is going on at Apple. Sometimes they seem very committed to this very competitive hardware systems battle and at other times it seems they consider retreating from that battle. They have certainly spread their products and services well beyond the desktop hardware environment and with licensing their operating system, Apple could allow other manufacturers to continue the intense hardware competition." To the surprise of some observers, this third quarter report states income improvement was caused partially by higher gross margins as a percentage of net sales. "Gross margins improved to 28.3% of net sales, in the third quarter of fiscal 1995 from 26.7% of net sales in the same period a year ago. The improvement in gross margins was due primarily to the introduction and sale of new higher margin products, including new Power Macintosh computers, as well as the impact of changes in currency exchange rates," states the report. This seems to conflict with the company's claim to reduce premium pricing strategies. Looking to the future, Apple says it has strengthened its inventories and the recent release of new products allows the company renewed confidence. Along with the fastest Power Mac, the 9500, with the new 604 PowerPC processor, Apple introduced new PowerPC Performa models with Motion Picture Experts Group (MPEG) technology and a new cross-platform, color inkjet printer. In response to the drop in its stock, an Apple spokesperson told Newsbytes, the company never comments on stock market fluctuations. (Patrick McKenna/19950721/Press Contact: Bill Slakey, Apple, tel 408-974-3488) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 07/21/95 WINDOWS Lotus Intros Notes Reporter For Windows 1. (NEWS)(WINDOWS)(BOS)(00021) Lotus Intros Notes Reporter For Windows 1.0 07/21/95 CAMBRIDGE, MASSACHUSETTS, U.S.A., 1995 JUL 21 (NB) -- Lotus' newly rolled out Notes Reporter for Windows 1.0 is aimed at business users, and with IBM's worldwide sales force behind it, the new $59 report writer should help to land Notes on a lot more desktops, maintained Paul Santinelli Jr., product manager, during an interview with Newsbytes. Unlike some other Windows-based report writers, such as Crystal Reports or Report Smith, the new tool from Lotus is designed specifically for Notes, Santinelli told Newsbytes. And although some application development environments for Notes also contain report writers, by and large, these tools tend to be targeted at programmers, he added. "But you don't need to be a Rhodes scholar to use Notes Reporter for Windows," according to the product manager. The new tool from Lotus will be useful "in just about any Notes environment where the organization needs to analyze, track, and report data," he contended. Due to Notes Reporter's ease of use, companies will no longer need to take up programmers' time with generating reports from Notes databases, thereby experiencing a "cost benefit," he asserted. Notes Reporter can access Notes data from files on either a local drive or on a Notes server, Santinelli said. The tool is based on a new technology called Notes Normalizer that is modeled after a relational database management system (RDMS), according to the Lotus exec. Notes Normalizer copies information stored in Notes' multi-value fields into a separate database which is joined to the original data. Users can then generate reports without changing the original database, he added. PowerKey technology is employed for accessing the Notes databases. Notes Reporter 1.0 also uses the Lotus "common chart engine" for analyzing and presenting information in a graphical way, according to Santinelli. In addition, unlike banded report writers, Notes Reporter provides "full WYSIWYG" (what-you-see-is-what-you-get) graphics, Newsbytes was told. Users can create dynamic crosstabs by dragging-and-dropping fields, Santinelli continued. Additional ease-of-use features include built-in assistants, SmartMaster stylesheets with predefined layouts, and cut-and-paste graphics. Images can be imported into Notes Reporter in a variety of formats, including TIFF (tagged image file format), TARGA, and Windows BMP (bitmap). Santinelli told Newsbytes that Lotus began planning Notes Reporter long before Lotus' recent acquisition by IBM. The report writer emerged out of Lotus' Approach database group in California, he pointed out. "But we're very excited that the IBM sales force will be marketing Notes Reporter. I know from experience that IBM salespeople really understand the products they're selling, as well as their customers' wants and needs," he asserted. For the future, Lotus is considering porting the tool to other environments, including Windows 95 and OS/2, but no decision has yet been made on additional platforms, the product manager added. (Jacqueline Emigh/19950421/Reader Contact: Lotus Development Corp., 617-577-8500; Press Contact: Paul Santinelli Jr., Lotus, 415-335- 2245; Patty Waddington, Lotus, 415-335-2250) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 07/21/95 LEGAL ****Justice Drops Microsoft Subpoena (NEWS)(LEGAL)(DEN)(00022) ****Justice Drops Microsoft Subpoena 07/21/95 WASHINGTON, D.C., U.S.A., 1995 JUL 21 (NB) -- The US Department of Justice (DOJ) today withdrew its subpoena for additional information from Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ: MSFT) about the software company's soon-to-launch online service Microsoft Network (MSN) and said it will decide whether to bring an antitrust cased based on the evidence it already has. Last month Microsoft filed a lawsuit to quash the subpoena, which had asked for a wide range of internal documents. Microsoft branded the subpoena "a campaign of harassment" and said it has been subjected to "a series of burdensome document demands" in connect with the government's investigation. A hearing had been set for Monday on the Microsoft request. DOJ has been looking into Microsoft's plan to include the communications software necessary to access MSN as an integral part of Windows 95, the company's new operating system and graphical user interface that could end up on the majority of the estimated 80 million personal computers currently running Windows 3.1. Windows 95 and MSN are set for launch August 24, 1995. DOJ is concerned that the plan to combine the access software with Windows 95 may violate anti-trust laws. Meanwhile, as reported earlier this week by Newsbytes, Microsoft online competitors America Online, Compuserve and Prodigy announced they had sent a letter to DOJ calling Microsoft's plans "anti-competitive," and said they are cooperating with the DOJ investigation. Top DOJ anti-trust lawyer and Assistant Attorney General Anne Bingaman said today the government has learned definitively two days ago that Microsoft has sent Windows 95 to manufacturing. Newsbytes reported that development on July 17. Bingaman said that has forced the government to make a decision as to whether or not to bring an antitrust case based on evidence it already has. Bingaman said the government would have to decide before the August 24 launch date for Windows 95, but offered no other details. (Jim Mallory/19950721) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 07/21/95 BUSINESS Many Credit Unions Could Offer Home Banking (NEWS)(BUSINESS)(MSP)(00023) Many Credit Unions Could Offer Home Banking 07/21/95 MADISON, WISCONSIN, U.S.A., 1995 JUL 21 (NB) -- CUNA Mutual Group and CFI ProServices Inc (NASDAQ:PROI) have begun negotiating a joint venture agreement that, if it goes through, would bring banking home to members of more than 12,000 credit unions nationwide. "This will enable credit union customers to perform more than a dozen banking transactions, including account inquiry, fund transfers, bill payment, and data export to personal financial management software," said CUNA Mutual spokesperson Peter Patau. All of this will work with software provided to customers by CFI ProServices. Already, CFI's Personal Branch home banking software has been licensed by more than 70 financial institutions, including about 30 credit unions. Patau said it was the involvement of these credit unions that piqued CUNA Mutual's interest in the Personal Branch system. The software provides direct communication between the institution and consumers, instead of bypassing the institution by using switched processing networks that other home banking products use, officials said. Patau also said much of the software's code resides in the credit union's computers, and not in the customer's home unit. Many of credit unions around the country have expressed an interest in the home banking services field, Patau said. He also said a some credit unions are showing interest in other electronic communications technologies, including establishing sites on the Internet's World Wide Web. "So the whole question of electronic distribution services is a pretty hot one. The whole industry is experiment with what's going to be the best way, and the most practical way of delivering products electronically," he said. Besides Personal Branch, the joint venture would include all of CFI's leading and operations products available to CUNA Mutual's 12,000-plus credit unions the CUNA Mutual has business with around the country. CUNA Mutual vice president of lending and technology services Terri Klubertanz said her company will be exploring relationships with other providers of home banking services, but she recognized what she called CFI's "extraordinary expertise" in home banking, and the company's "successful strategy of offering products that are compatible with a wide range of existing and emerging technologies." (Bob Woods/19950721/Press Contacts: Del Dockter or Larry Blanchard, CUNA Mutual Insurance Group, 608-231-7354) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 07/21/95 WINDOWS ****25% Of Users Expected To Upgrade To Win 95 In 1st Yr (NEWS)(WINDOWS)(DEN)(00024) ****25% Of Users Expected To Upgrade To Win 95 In 1st Yr 07/21/95 REDMOND, WASHINGTON, U.S.A., 1995 JUL 21 (NB) -- In its annual meeting with financial analysts at its college-like headquarters campus this week, Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ: MSFT) said it expects less than 30 percent of current Windows users to upgrade to Windows 95 in the first year the new operating system and graphical user interface is available. While that may seem like a small percentage, the sales potential is one just about any company would be happy to achieve. Since there are at least an estimated 80 million eligible Windows users worldwide, that could mean 20 million or more upgrade packages at $90 per user, or revenues of $1.8 billion for Microsoft in the next 12 months alone. Not included in that figure is the licensing of Windows 95 to companies that build PCs and pre-install the operating system before the unit ships to the consumer or the retailer, which could account for billions of dollars more for Microsoft. Many PC makers pay Microsoft a fee for each copy of Windows it installs, although other contract arrangements are available. In addition to the launch of Windows 95, Microsoft will also introduce two other major software upgrades in August 1995, Microsoft Office, a collection of five productivity programs, and Microsoft Money, the company's personal finance program. Microsoft Office, Standard Edition, will include spreadsheet program Microsoft Excel 95, word processor Word 95, the PowerPoint presentation graphics program for Windows 95 and Schedule+ 95. The professional edition of Office will include all of the applications in the standard version plus the Microsoft Access 95 database. Microsoft Money for Windows 95 is a product that almost didn't see the light of day. Microsoft attempted to acquire Intuit, a company that publishes the personal finance application Quicken, for $2 billion earlier this year. Microsoft was expected to use Quicken, with its bill paying and checkbook balancing features, as the base for the financial services expected to be available on Microsoft Network (MSN), the company's online subscription service also scheduled for launch in August. Microsoft had announced it would divest itself of Money, giving it to Novell Corp. But the U.S. Department of Justice objected to the Microsoft-Intuit merger, and Microsoft, which had wisely continued to develop an upgrade for Money, was ready with a new version of the software. On the retail shelves and in mail order catalogs, Money has never been able to compete with Quicken, which currently claims about 70 percent of the market. However, Microsoft said it will virtually give away the new version of Money. A Microsoft spokesperson told Newsbytes Money will have a suggested retail price of $34.95 effective November 1, but Microsoft will distribute it at no cost over MSN and on its World Wide Web page at the URL http://www.microsoft.com , or you can order it through the mail on disk for $9.95. The offer is good through October 31, said Microsoft. Microsoft already has commitments from more than a dozen U.S. banks to offer Money to their customers later this year. Microsoft executives also told analysts the company would spend about $100 million in the current fiscal year on MSN, and doesn't expect revenues from subscribers, advertisers and service providers to match that. Bob Herbold, Microsoft chief financial officer (CFO), also revealed that the company will spend as much as $200 million on brand advertising, versus the $100 million spent for that purpose in the fiscal year that just ended. That expenditure included a massive television ad campaign. The Microsoft CFO did not reveal any specifics of the planned ad campaign. The software company also expects its staffing to increase. Currently it employs more than 17,000 people, and Herbold said the company would grow by another 2,600 workers. That's about the same increase Microsoft experienced in the fiscal year that ended July 1, 1995. (Jim Mallory/19950721/Press and public contact: Microsoft, tel 206-882-8080) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 7/21/95 GENERAL Smart and Friendly Ships 7 Disc Quad-Speed CD Jukebox (NEWS)(GENERAL)(LAX)(00025) Smart and Friendly Ships 7 Disc Quad-Speed CD Jukebox 7/21/95 VAN NUYS, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1995 JUL 21 (NB) -- Smart and Friendly announced the immediate availability of its new CDJ 7004 seven-disc quad-speed jukebox. The new jukebox can change discs in as little as 2.5 seconds for Mac and PC users. Perry Solomon, CEO of Smart and Friendly told Newsbytes, "We are a value added manufacturer of CD technologies. Our main product line is advanced CD-ROM recording technology. The more sophisticated the recording of CD-ROM becomes, the greater the need for multi-disc capability." "The more demanding the play-back requirements are, the greater need for faster and more flexible products. The CDJ 7004 seven-disc quad-speed jukebox, for example, has 'mail slot' capabilities. This allows an auto parts supplier with a CD catalog to change one disc at a time instead of having to change the entire CD package," said Solomon. "Our new quad-speed 7-disc jukebox makes fast access to multiple CDs an affordable reality," said Solomon. "With some of the hottest new games coming out on as many as 7 CDs, jukeboxes are becoming a necessity. The CDJ 7004 gives you access to nearly 5 gigabytes of data at quad-speed. To date, we think this is by far the most cost-effective way to achieve multidisc access on a Mac or PC." The CDJ 7004 priced at $469, the dual-speed unit is at $349. According to Smart and Friendly they both support CD-ROM, CD-DA, CD-ROM XA and Photo CD (multisession) discs. The CDJ 7004 has push-button loading, eliminating the need for magazines or disc caddies. The unit automatically selects the desired disc without requiring the user to know the slot number of each disc. The front panel sports controls for audio CDs and a stereo headphone jack. It includes drivers for both Mac and DOS/Windows platforms. Smart and Friendly, headquartered in Van Nuys, CA, was founded in 1982 as a manufacturer of computer peripherals and multimedia products. With an emphasis on CD-ROM technology, optical storage and multimedia, the company's product line includes CD-ROM drives, CD-Recorders, CD-ROM jukeboxes, CD-ROM network towers. Smart and Friendly is a brand name and division of High Technology Distributing, Van Nuys, CA. (Richard Bowers/19950721/Press Contact: Laura Ness, High Technology Distributing 408/338-1416) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 07/21/95 TRENDS A PC In Every Room Of Information Highway Houses? (NEWS)(TRENDS)(DEN)(00026) A PC In Every Room Of Information Highway Houses? 07/21/95 HOUSTON, TEXAS, U.S.A., 1995 JUL 21 (NB) -- Henri IV allegedly said he wanted every peasant in the realm to have a chicken in his pot every Sunday. Now, more than 300 years later, experts predict there may be a personal computer in just about every room in your home, and have built an "Information Highway House" to demonstrate how families can integrate computers and other technologies into their homes using those PCs. According to Jim Tucker, vice president of Compaq Computer Corp.'s (NYSE: CPQ) Consumer Business Unit, "The Information Highway House is not a house of the future, but a house of today, since it features innovative technologies that are affordable, easy to use and currently available." Eckhard Pfeiffer, Compaq president and chief executive officer, told attendees at this year's PC Expo recently that multiple PCs in the home are becoming as common as multiple phones or TVs, and many experts agree that by the end of 1995 PCs will be in nearly 40 percent of U.S. homes, serving as the central information appliance of our time. Compaq is the company selected to install networked PCs and servers in the demonstration house located in the Madera del Presidio residential development in Corte Madera, California near San Francisco. The home was built by HCV Pacific Partners/Pacific Investors VI and opens for public viewing July 21. Technical planning and design was provided by Computer Life Magazine and Ziff-Davis Labs. The Information Highway House integrates five Compaq computers. There is a Presario multimedia PC in each of the two children's bedrooms, a Prosignia VS server in the combination office/den, and two notebook computers for use in the kitchen and family room and on the outdoor deck. All are networked so the family members can share applications software, drives, modems and printers. Today computers in the home mean multimedia entertainment, completing homework electronically, balancing the family checkbook, electronic bill paying, keeping a budget, storing recipes, writing letters and tracking CD-ROMs, videotapes and the user's stamp or coin collection. But the industry is poised to offer a multitude of other services, including a PC with a huge wall-mounted flat screen for movie showing and sports event watching, and hundreds of television channels for educational or entertainment viewing. You can already answer your phone or have callers leave voice mail on your PC, keep your appointment schedule, hold meetings with colleagues or friends across town or around the world, look up references in an electronic encyclopedia, send and receive faxes and electronic mail around the globe, or view a weather map. (Jim Mallory/19950721/Press contact: Brian Temple, Compaq Computer, 713-374-0484; Public contact: Compaq, 800-345-1518) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 7/21/95 HEALTH Compression Labs Telemedicine Helps Texas Prison Inmates (NEWS)(HEALTH)(LAX)(00027) Compression Labs Telemedicine Helps Texas Prison Inmates 7/21/95 SAN JOSE, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1995 JUL 21 (NB) -- Compression Labs, Incorporated (CLI) (NASDAQ: CLIX) announced that its videoconferencing systems have been chosen for the largest telemedicine project in the United States. Over 2,500 prisoners from Texas prisons will be treated via telemedicine in 1995. The use of an integrated computer supplied by AT&T Global Information Solutions, and Radiance videoconferencing systems provided by CLI, along with specially designed medical peripherals and cameras, enables physicians in one location to use two-way interactive technology to examine inmates at distant sites. This saves time and transportation costs and avoids dangerous security issues to examining physicians. The University of Texas Medical Branch (UTMB) at Galveston operates the only tertiary care prison hospital in the state. Prisoners from all over Texas are referred to UTMB Hospitals and Clinics in Galveston. As Texas's prison population has grown, the number of prison referrals to UTMB has increased dramatically, rising from 125 per week in 1983 to as many as 750 per week in 1995. "This telemedicine project should save Texas taxpayers money in transportation and security expenses," said Dr. Thomas C. Tinstman, director of Medical Informatics at UTMB. "Each day hundreds of prisoners are transported to local hospitals in Texas. UTMB's telemedicine project is keeping up to 250 prison inmates off of Texas highways each month." "Because we are dealing with a large number of patients, we are continuously looking at ways to be more efficient," Tinstman said. "Our current goal is to provide telemedicine health care services to 100 inmate patients each week." The UTMB equipment consists of an integrated computer and a CLI video conferencing system with four cameras for closeup viewing of patients. Instruments attached to the cameras allow physicians to look into the patient's ear, eye and throat, as well as listen to his or her heart. The venture involves medical specialists in Galveston who are successfully diagnosing and treating illnesses of Texas prison inmates using telemedicine units at four different prison sites. Physicians in seventeen different specialty areas are now using telemedicine to examine approximately forty to sixty inmates each week. Melissa Baten Caswell, manager of market programs at CLI told Newsbytes, "According to industry surveys the UTMB project is by far the largest telemedicine project ever put together anywhere. UTMB will do more telemedicine consults in 1995 than were done in the entire world in 1994." "A separate study on telemedicine projects identified that among the 26 projects underway in the U.S., 11 projects deployed CLI videoconferencing systems. The UTMB project alone makes CLI the major provider in telemedicine in the world today," says Caswell. According to CLI, their Radiance videoconferencing system provides video transmission speeds up to 2 megabits per second, with thirty frames per second and four-hundred eighty lines of resolution. (Richard Bowers/19950721/Press Contact: Mia Bradway, Compression Labs, 408-428-6735) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 07/21/95 TELECOM Telecom Venture to Offer Wireless Service (NEWS)(TELECOM)(MSP)(00028) Telecom Venture to Offer Wireless Service 07/21/95 KANSAS CITY, MISSOURI, U.S.A., 1995 JUL 21 (NB) -- An alliance of four telecommunications companies announced it will start negotiating with vendors of Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA) to deploy that technology over the venture's nationwide wireless communications network. The four companies in the Sprint Telecommunications Venture, as the alliance is called, are Sprint (NYSE:FON), Tele-Communications Inc. (NASDAQ:TCOMA) (TCI), Cox Communications (NYSE:COX) and Comcast Corporation (NASDAQ:CMCSA). CDMA technology uses a lower power signal that is spread across a wide bandwidth, a Sprint spokesperson told Newsbytes. Using CDMA, cellular phone conversations are coded and decoded digitally on the sender's and receiver's end, respectively. CDMA requires fewer cell sites, deters fraud, increases network design flexibility, and allows advanced features and services to be added easily. Audio quality also improves through the use of CDMA. Mark Bonavia, Sprint spokesperson, told Newsbytes he could not say which CDMA vendor companies are involved in the negotiation, how much the contracts would be worth, or how many CDMA sellers are involved in the talks. But officials did say final agreements will be reached with more than one vendor over the next several weeks. "If these negotiations do not result in favorable agreements," Ronald T. LeMay, chief executive officer of the venture said, "then the venture will explore other alternatives." Last March, the four companies put up $4.4 billion in the new venture, Bonavia said. Out of that $4.4 billion, "$2.1 billion was earmarked for the PCS (personal communications system) wireless licenses which we won in the (Federal Communications Commission's) auction earlier this year." He said the rest of the money will go towards the build-out of the network. The venture has the rights to offer wireless services in 29 markets, through the PCS auction. A key step in the network's development is the selection of a technology, which was achieved with today's CDMA announcement. Also, because of a test conducted by Cox, CDMA has been proven to be more compatible with cable infrastructure. (Bob Woods/19950721/Press Contacts: Mark Bonavia, 913-624-3552, or Steve Dykes, 202-828-7435, both of Sprint) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 07/21/95 ONLINE Bertelsmann, AOL Begin European Online Test (NEWS)(ONLINE)(WAS)(00029) Bertelsmann, AOL Begin European Online Test 07/21/95 BONN, GERMANY, 1995 JUL 21 (NB) -- The European online venture between Bertelsmann AG and America Online has begun test service in Germany, Reuters reported yesterday. Bertelsmann officials confirmed that the field test was underway in Hamburg and Guetersloh under the title "OneWorld." Bertelsmann provided no additional details, according to the wire service. AOL and Bertelsmann announced in March that they would launch online services in Germany, France and the United Kingdom this year. Bertelsmann is a privately held German company specializing in book and magazine publishing, music, television, radio and record and book club marketing. Each company has a half interest in the joint venture and Bertelsmann in March committed to put some $100 million into the venture. As part of the deal, Bertelsmann acquired five percent of AOL and a seat on the AOL board. Bertelsmann paid AOL $50 million for its five percent stake in the booming online company. Bertelsmann has been advertising the new service with a page on the World Wide Web, according to Reuters, looking for volunteers to test the service and posting job openings for the service. When announcing the deal, Steve Case, AOL president and chief executive officer, said, "After looking at a number of potential partners for this venture, we chose Bertelsmann because it is the second largest media company in the world, their expertise in music and book club membership acquisition, its opening platform which includes outside content and the commitment and interest of all the personnel at Bertelsmann." (Kennedy Maize/19950721) (SUMMARY)(GENERAL)(MSP)(00030) Newsbytes Daily Summary 07/21/95 MINNEAPOLIS, MINNESOTA, U.S.A., 1995 JUL 21 (NB) -- These are capsules of all today's news stories: ======================================================================== ------------| N E W S B Y T E S D A I L Y S U M M A R Y |---------- ------------| Friday, July 21, 1995 |---------- ======================================================================== (c) Newsbytes News Network (Tm) Editor in Chief: Wendy Woods ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Newsbytes News Network is a computer and telecom industry news wire and digitized picture service. Our news stream includes more than 30 daily first-hand reported US and international news stories about computing and telecommunications. For more information, please e-mail to 'administrator@newsbytes.com' ------------------------------------------------------------------------ CATEGORY HEADLINES (*** indicates today's top stories) STORY # ======================================================================== APPLE Apple Australia Institute Trains Resellers................. 16 APPLE ****Apple Stock Drops With Third Quarter Report........... 20 BROADCAST Compression Labs Wins Chinese Digital TV Order............. 08 BUSINESS Fujitsu & ICL Form Singapore Joint Venture................. 07 BUSINESS Korea's LG To Enter German CD-ROM Drive Market............. 11 BUSINESS "Infotainment" Retail Strategy For Hong Kong............... 17 BUSINESS Many Credit Unions Could Offer Home Banking................ 23 CHIPS Taiwan's Chip Industry Attracts Outsiders.................. 03 CHIPS UK Firm To Design Own DRAMs................................ 04 CHIPS Custom Chipmaker AMI Moves Into Germany.................... 10 GENERAL China - Silicon Graphics' Petroleum Seismic App............ 18 GENERAL Smart and Friendly Ships 7 Disc Quad-Speed CD Jukebox...... 25 GOVT Ex-KGB Considers Relcom Telecom Bid........................ 12 HEALTH Compression Labs Telemedicine Helps Texas Prison Inmates... 27 LEGAL Justice Drops Microsoft Subpoena........................... 22 ONLINE PSI Extends Internet Services To South Korea............... 05 ONLINE "The Biz" Web Magazine Covers Entertainment................ 09 ONLINE Bertelsmann, AOL Begin European Online Test................ 29 PC Impulse Intros Reply 450 Notebooks......................... 01 TELECOM Motorola Sees Gold In Mexico............................... 13 TELECOM Investments Bring Telecoms To Russia....................... 14 TELECOM China - Phone System Expands In Guangdong Province......... 19 TELECOM Telecom Venture to Offer Wireless Service.................. 28 TRENDS Adaptec Offers Wireless I/O Products....................... 02 TRENDS Sega Joins Toshiba Digital Video Disk Consortium........... 06 TRENDS A PC In Every Room Of Information Highway Houses........... 26 WINDOWS Lotus Intros Notes Reporter For Windows 1.0................ 21 WINDOWS 25% Of Users Expected To Upgrade To Win 95 In 1st Yr....... 24 ======================================================================== These are the headlines and first paragraphs of each story, in order: 1 -> Impulse Intros Reply 450 Notebooks -- Impulse Computer Corp. has launched the Reply 450 series of notebook computers. Like other Impulse products, the new notebooks will be sold only in Canada. 2 -> Adaptec Offers Wireless I/O Products -- Adaptec (NASDAQ: ADPT) is shipping its AIRport infrared (IR) adapters that allow file transfers without the need for cables or floppy disks, a technology which appeals to mobile professionals who need "simple variable connections," said the company. 3 -> Taiwan's Chip Industry Attracts Outsiders -- The lure of big profits in Taiwan's semiconductor arena has drawn in companies from outside the electronics industry, as well as Japanese chip makers, which are hard-pressed for investment cash. 4 -> UK Firm To Design Own DRAMs -- A UK start-up is planning to design and make its own 16 megabit (Mb) DRAMs to support its memory modules, and is taking on industry giants over patents. 5 -> PSI Extends Internet Services To South Korea -- American Internet access provider Performance Systems International (PSI)(NASDAQ: PSIX) has announced it will set up a new company in South Korea that will extend access services offered by PSI to that country. 6 -> Sega Joins Toshiba Digital Video Disk Consortium -- Sega Enterprises Ltd. (TOKYO:7964), one of Japan's top computer games makers, has announced it will support the "digital video disk" standard under development by a consortium of companies lead by Toshiba (TOKYO:6502). 7 -> Fujitsu & ICL Form Singapore Joint Venture -- Fujitsu and its British subsidiary ICL have joined to form a new joint venture company in Asia. The new company, Fujitsu ICL Trading Asia (FITA), will try to achieve a top five ranking in the region's market share of PCs within two years. 8 -> Compression Labs Wins Chinese Digital TV Order -- Compression Labs Inc. (CLI) (NASDAQ:CLIX) has won a $1.8 million contract to supply digital television encoders and decoders to Jilin Provincial Broadcasting and Television Bureau in China. 9 -> "The Biz" Web Magazine Covers Entertainment -- A new Internet World Wide Web publication dedicated to talking with the movers, the shakers, the dealmakers, and other behind-the-scenes celebrities in the entertainment business, will begin in early August. "The Biz: The Digizine for the Entertainment Industry" will be published by Marinex Multimedia Corp. 10 -> Custom Chipmaker AMI Moves Into Germany -- American Microsystems Inc. (AMI), which claims to be the world's first company to be founded specifically to make custom chips, opened its European headquarters in Dresden, Germany, recently. 11 -> Korea's LG To Enter German CD-ROM Drive Market -- LG Electronics, which exported 600,000 double- and quadruple-speed CD-ROM drives to Olivetti of Italy early this year, plans to concentrate on sales in Germany. 12 -> Ex-KGB Considers Relcom Telecom Bid -- The former KGB department in charge of monitoring Russia's telecommunications is considering purchasing a 50 percent stake in Relcom, one of the country's biggest computer networks. 13 -> Motorola Sees Gold In Mexico -- Motorola says that the cellular phone market in Mexico is practically unexploited and that Motorola has only a .62% penetration in the business niche. 14 -> Investments Bring Telecoms To Russia -- Philips Communications is installing a three-ring synchronous digital hierarchy (SDH) network in Russia, linking Moscow to Kaliningrad. 16 -> Apple Australia Institute Trains Resellers -- Apple Australia has formed a training institute, offering a range of sales and technology training courses for computer resellers. A company spokesperson told Newsbytes that reseller involvement had "exceeded all expectations." 17 -> "Infotainment" Retail Strategy For Hong Kong -- In an effort to promote the use of PCs and multimedia equipment in the home, Jardine Office Systems (JOS) MicroTech Distribution has launched the "Infotainment Concept," a retail strategy aimed at making home entertainment and information products more accessible to the public. 18 -> China - Silicon Graphics' Petroleum Seismic App -- Silicon Graphics, in cooperation with Chinese mainland software developers, has launched a new parallel processing version of Grisys, an advanced seismic processing application for use in oil and gas exploration. 19 -> China - Phone System Expands In Guangdong Province -- Although users in other provinces still use six-digit, and even five-digit, phone numbers, the telephone network in South China's Guangdong province has been upgraded to support seven-digit numbers. In addition, the capital city of Guangzhou will upgrade to an eight-digit system at the beginning of 1996. 20 -> ****Apple Stock Drops With Third Quarter Report -- After a revision of a restructuring charge adjustment, third quarter results from Apple Computer, Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) showed a 25% drop in profit. While the company remained confident with a 20% rise in sales, Wall Street responded with a 3 3/16 drop from 47.06 to 43.87 a share (9:30am PDT, 7/21). 21 -> Lotus Intros Notes Reporter For Windows 1.0 -- Lotus' newly rolled out Notes Reporter for Windows 1.0 is aimed at business users, and with IBM's worldwide sales force behind it, the new $59 report writer should help to land Notes on a lot more desktops, maintained Paul Santinelli Jr., product manager, during an interview with Newsbytes. 22 -> Justice Drops Microsoft Subpoena -- The US Department of Justice (DOJ) today withdrew its subpoena for additional information from Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ: MSFT) about the software company's soon-to-launch online service Microsoft Network (MSN) and said it will decide whether to bring an antitrust cased based on the evidence it already has. 23 -> Many Credit Unions Could Offer Home Banking -- CUNA Mutual Group and CFI ProServices Inc (NASDAQ:PROI) have begun negotiating a joint venture agreement that, if it goes through, would bring banking home to members of more than 12,000 credit unions nationwide. 24 -> 25% Of Users Expected To Upgrade To Win 95 In 1st Yr -- In its annual meeting with financial analysts at its college-like headquarters campus this week, Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ: MSFT) said it expects less than 30 percent of current Windows users to upgrade to Windows 95 in the first year the new operating system and graphical user interface is available. 25 -> Smart and Friendly Ships 7 Disc Quad-Speed CD Jukebox -- Smart and Friendly announced the immediate availability of its new CDJ 7004 seven-disc quad-speed jukebox. The new jukebox can change discs in as little as 2.5 seconds for Mac and PC users. 26 -> A PC In Every Room Of Information Highway Houses -- Henri IV allegedly said he wanted every peasant in the realm to have a chicken in his pot every Sunday. Now, more than 300 years later, experts predict there may be a personal computer in just about every room in your home, and have built an "Information Highway House" to demonstrate how families can integrate computers and other technologies into their homes using those PCs. 27 -> Compression Labs Telemedicine Helps Texas Prison Inmates -- Compression Labs, Incorporated (CLI) (NASDAQ: CLIX) announced that its videoconferencing systems have been chosen for the largest telemedicine project in the United States. Over 2,500 prisoners from Texas prisons will be treated via telemedicine in 1995. 28 -> Telecom Venture to Offer Wireless Service -- An alliance of four telecommunications companies announced it will start negotiating with vendors of Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA) to deploy that technology over the venture's nationwide wireless communications network. The four companies in the Sprint Telecommunications Venture, as the alliance is called, are Sprint (NYSE:FON), Tele-Communications Inc. (NASDAQ:TCOMA) (TCI), Cox Communications (NYSE:COX) and Comcast Corporation (NASDAQ:CMCSA). 29 -> Bertelsmann, AOL Begin European Online Test -- The European online venture between Bertelsmann AG and America Online has begun test service in Germany, Reuters reported yesterday. Bertelsmann officials confirmed that the field test was underway in Hamburg and Guetersloh under the title "OneWorld." (Ian Stokell/19950721) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 07/20/95 ONLINE Spyglass to Ship New Mosaic Web Browser (NEWS)(ONLINE)(MSP)(00001) Spyglass to Ship New Mosaic Web Browser 07/20/95 NAPERVILLE, ILLINOIS, U.S.A., 1995 JUL 20 (NB) -- Spyglass Inc. (NASDAQ:SPYG) announced it is expecting to ship a new version of its "Enhanced Mosaic" graphical World Wide Web browser before the end of September 1995. The company also reported financial results for its third quarter ended June 30. The company revealed the plans for the new version of its Web browser in a news release issued yesterday. Randy Pitzer, Spyglass spokesperson, told Newsbytes he couldn't reveal any details on the browser yet, because the company is in a Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) "quiet period" following the company's initial public offering (IPO) of stock. But he said more details on the new version of Enhanced Mosaic will be coming very soon. In the financial arena, Spyglass revenues were at $2.8 million, net income was $365,000, and net income per share was $.09. Company officials said reasons for the strong performance include a growing number of new customers, and market acceptance of Spyglass' Enhanced Mosaic version 2.0. Spyglass' stockholders have also been buoyed lately by the performance of the company's prices on Wall Street. The stock started on June 27 at $17, when the IPO was initially made. Lately, the issue has traded at a price as high as $40, and it closed yesterday at $39.25. Again, Pitzer said no one in the company could make a comment on the financial numbers or stock performance beyond comments made in the news release, because of the SEC-enforced "quiet period." All of this news comes after a Monday announcement that Oracle will license Enhanced Mosaic and Spyglass Server technology from Spyglass. This announcement fits into the company's partner-based business model, officials said. Spyglass had 36 licensing partners as of June 30, including PSI, Microsoft, AT&T, NEC, Digital Equipment Corp., and Nippon Telegraph and Telephone. All 36 companies have similar agreements to the one between Oracle and Spyglass. (Bob Woods/19950719/Press Contact: Randy Pitzer, Spyglass, 708-505- 1010. Public Contact: Spyglass, 708-505-1010; Internet e-mail mosaic@spyglass.com; Internet World Wide Web http://www.spyglass.com ) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 07/20/95 BROADCAST Ameritech Plans Two-Way Cable System for Columbus (NEWS)(BROADCAST)(MSP)(00002) Ameritech Plans Two-Way Cable System for Columbus 07/20/95 COLUMBUS, OHIO, U.S.A., 1995 JUL 20 (NB) -- Ameritech Inc. (NYSE:AIT) said it has applied for construction permits to begin building a two-way video network to deliver cable TV services in the city of Columbus, Ohio. City officials also announced they're in the process of negotiating a cable franchise agreement with Ameritech. If all goes well, Ameritech said Columbus will be the first urban area in the nation to have true cable competition. Currently, Time Warner Entertainment and Coaxial Communications serve the city, which is the state's capital and the largest city in the state. Ameritech New Media Enterprises, Ameritech's new cable TV subsidiary, will begin construction of the new system in the next few weeks, with services to begin in early 1996, depending on when the franchise agreement is finalized. Initially, Ameritech said it will offer the standard assortment of regular channels, premium channels, pay per view options, and other features cable TV operators regularly provide. Over time, interactive services like home shopping and games will be added, depending on consumer demand, David Kandel, Ameritech spokesperson, told Newsbytes. The system also has the capability of carrying online services and Internet access, but those will only be added if customers demand it, he added. Incidentally, Columbus is the same city in which the "Qube" interactive TV system was tested in the late 70s. Last month, Newsbytes reported on Ameritech's first cable TV franchise agreement with the Plymouth Township (MI) board of trustees in Wayne County, Michigan -- the same county where Detroit is located. Kandel said the company is calling the Columbus situation the first "urban area in the nation" because it will serve the entire city, while the Plymouth Township deal covers only a small portion of the Detroit metro area. But the services planned for Plymouth Township will be the same as in Columbus, he added. Kandel also said Ameritech is negotiating with 25 to 30 different communities in Ameritech's Great Lakes service region to provide similar cable services to those areas. But he added Columbus is the largest city to have this opportunity. (Bob Woods/19950719/Press Contacts: David Kandel, Ameritech, 614-223- 6226; David Robinson, City of Columbus, 614-645-6593) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 07/20/95 TELECOM Japan's NTT Plans Emergency Network (NEWS)(TELECOM)(TYO)(00003) Japan's NTT Plans Emergency Network 07/20/95 TOKYO, JAPAN, 1995 JUL 20 (NB) -- Japan's Nippon Telegraph and Telephone (TOKYO:9432) is planning to build a special nationwide telecommunications system for use in times of disaster such as earthquakes. The telephone company hopes to have the full system operating by the end of the century. NTT President Masashi Kojima announced the plans in Tokyo yesterday and outlined the company's vision of such a system. Kojima explained NTT would be developing several different services that will allow for easier communications during disaster. To allow for families with cut telephone services to communicate with others a nationwide voicemail service is to be developed. Making the existing network more resilient to disaster is also a plan of NTT which will be developing a complex satellite communications network and building more underground telephone circuits. Most telephone lines in Japan travel above ground and are more likely to be cut during earthquakes when the poles to which they are attached sway violently or fall. The new plan was brought on by NTT's experiences after the Hanshin earthquake in January of this year which cut over half a million telephone lines in the port city of Kobe and also made calling in and out of the area difficult. NTT is still carrying out repairs on damages caused by that earthquake. To enable the construction of the new systems NTT is investing over 75 billion yen ($857 million) over the next four financial years. (Martyn Williams/19950720/Press contact : Nippon Telegraph and Telephone, +81-3-3509-3101) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 07/20/95 CHIPS AMD/Sony Win Japanese Govt Award (NEWS)(CHIPS)(TYO)(00004) AMD/Sony Win Japanese Govt Award 07/20/95 TOKYO, JAPAN, 1995 JUL 20 (NB) -- American Micro Devices and Sony Corporation have won this year's MITI Minister's Award. The award is presented by the Ministry of International Trade and Industry (MITI) and is designed to encourage use of foreign semiconductors by Japanese companies. AMD won the award for its CT2 PhoX digital cordless baseband controller (Am79C410), a single-chip system for digital cordless telephones that use the CT2 standard. The new AMD chip replaces five previous devices and offers lower power consumption, greater portability, lower cost and superior sound quality. Development on the chip was begun in 1992 and completed two years later after cooperation and collaboration by engineers from the American and Japanese companies. "Collaboration among everyone involved in this project made it possible for AMD to complete this rather hard product designing activity and for Sony to finish an aggressive product," commented Kazuo Sakai, president of AMD Japan. "We will try our best to support our customers and hope to keep winning this type of rewarding design-in." The chip is currently used in Sony's DCT range of CT-2 cordless telephones a company spokesman told Newsbytes today. The telephones are designed for domestic use and each base station can support a number of handsets. (Martyn Williams/19950720/Press contact : Tom Kehoe, American Micro Devices, 512-602-6882; Sony Corporation, +81-3-5448-2200; Reader contact: AMD, 800-222-9323 or 408-749-5703) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 07/20/95 CHIPS Samsung Chip Plant For Suzhou, China (NEWS)(CHIPS)(HKG)(00005) Samsung Chip Plant For Suzhou, China 07/20/95 CENTRAL, HONG KONG, 1995 JUL 20 (NB) -- Korean electronics giant Samsung has begun construction of a new semiconductor assembly plant in Suzhou, China. The plant, located in the Singapore-Suzhou Industrial Park, will be the first overseas plant solely owned by Samsung. Construction is expected to finish by June next year, with the first phase of the project costing US$100 million. Expected to be fully operational by July 1996, the plant will initially produce transistors and integrated circuits (ICs) for immediate use. ICs for storage will be added later. Initial monthly production volume will be 20 million pieces. The plant will be linked with the Shuiyuan and Qixing electronics bases in Korea. The Singapore-Suzhou Industrial Park project was launched by Samsung and the Keppel group of Singapore in November 1994. The Chinese government is providing the land use certificate for the project, while Singapore is responsible for the infrastructure construction. (Nigel Armstrong and IT Daily/19950718) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 07/20/95 TELECOM HK Telecom Shortlists Final Telecom Bids -- Apple Out (NEWS)(TELECOM)(HKG)(00006) HK Telecom Shortlists Final Telecom Bids -- Apple Out 07/20/95 CENTRAL, HONG KONG. 1995 JUL 20 (NB) -- Moving a tiny step closer to deciding who will build its interactive multimedia service (IMS), Hong Kong Telecom Monday narrowed its shortlist to five consortia: AT&T, IBM, Iwatani International Corp., NEC and NPB Partners. IMS, which promises to offer video-on-demand (VOD), home shopping, banking, educational and other services, is supposed to be under test by next April and fully operational by next July. Under each consortium umbrella huddles a stellar cast. Digital Equipment pairs its server and gateway technology with NEC's ATM switch. Hewlett-Packard does the same in Itawani's bid -- and also figures as the server component in NPB's bid. Itawai uses Fujitsu for its ATM switch; NPB uses Alcatel. AT&T combines its switch with Silicon Graphics' servers. Both companies are partnered in Time Warner's much-trumpeted, and troubled, US public video-on-demand test case, the "Orlando Project." IBM stands out for making a grab for the most components in any one bid: ATM switch, access network, gateways, servers and support systems. Of eight supply categories, it refrains from bidding on just two -- set-tops (Stellar-One and Philips) and software (Sybase). Though both companies survived this round in other proposals, yesterday's announcement eliminated Digital's back-up bid for servers paired with Alcatel network equipment. This failed bid was a sad footnote for the grandmother of multimedia, Apple Computer, in its only attempt to get in on the local VOD action as a possible set-top supplier. The big contenders in software, or middleware, are Sybase and Oracle. Both were part of two bids each -- Oracle with the NEC and NPB proposals and Sybase with IBM's and Iwatani's. Monday's announcement, which was supposed to be made last week, came while Telecom's multimedia bosses are on the road visiting US demonstration sites -- an indication that time is getting short for launching VOD in less than 12 months. Multimedia director, William Lo, was said to be "somewhere in the US." Judy Inn, a new member of the unit, was just touching down in Florida, home of the Orlando Project. In a prepared statement, Lo described each of the bids as a "complete and viable solution, capable of meeting our schedule for deployment in mid 1996." He reiterated that a final winner would be chosen before the end of the month. (Nigel Armstrong and IT Daily/19950718) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 07/20/95 EDITORIAL GOVT ****Editorial - Hubris And The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EDITORIAL)(GOVT)(WAS)(00007) ****Editorial - Hubris And The Electronic Frontier Foundation 07/20/95 WASHINGTON, D.C., U.S.A., 1995 JUL 20 (NB) -- By Kennedy Maize There is one word that describes the departure of the Electronic Frontier Foundation from Washington. Hubris. My dictionary defines hubris as "overweening pride or self-confidence." That fits precisely. When Lotus founder Mitch Kapor formed the most visible and well-financed of the digital liberties groups, he came from a world where he was king and could make things happen with a snap of a finger. He arrived in Washington with a fanfare in 1992, believing it was easy to become a master of the political universe. After two years in Washington, Kapor said the environment was "corrupting" because the organization had to compromise its high-minded positions in the face of political reality. EFF left town with its tail between its legs. Kapor is wrong. Washington isn't corrupting, its political. Politics, goes the adage, is the art of compromise. It's easy to sit in Cambridge or San Francisco and know that you are right. It's tough to sit in a Washington congressional office, figure out how to translate your ideas into law, and get what you can and give what you must. It's even harder when you have decided to try to mobilize a grassroots network of near-fanatics to support your cause, and then you have to take positions that are less than Ivory Soap pure. It isn't a corrupting environment. Esther Dyson, who has replaced Kapor as EFF chairman, had it more nearly right. Washington, she told me, "was a detour." Lobbying, it turns out, was something EFF neither liked nor, with the exception of former chief lobbyist Jerry Berman, was "very good at," said Dyson. The savvy Berman became the fall guy for the EFFanatics when he agreed to compromises in the digital telephony bill last fall. His critics saw any compromise as tainted, but Berman was simply acting realistically. Berman clearly saw that what he could get for his side in the bill was all that he could get. Fortunately, he took the compromise, because the fall elections produced a 104th Congress dominated by freshman Republicans with more devotion to the 2nd amendment to the Constitution than the 1st. But Berman's willingness to compromise outraged the grass roots types who would rather be politically correct than politically powerful. So EFF forced Berman to walk the plank. But in the end, it was EFF that lost, and the organization is out of Washington and finished as an organization that can have significant influence on the interface between politics and the wired world. (Kennedy Maize/19950720) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 07/20/95 GENERAL Australia - Osborne Staff Have No Confidence In Boss (NEWS)(GENERAL)(SYD)(00008) Australia - Osborne Staff Have No Confidence In Boss 07/20/95 SYDNEY, AUSTRALIA 1995 JUL 20 (NB) -- Last week Australian PC Week published an interview with the CEO of Australian PC manufacturer Osborne, John Linton. This week it published two letters from employees saying that Linton was wrong in blaming others for the company's woes, and that they had no confidence in him. The company is currently awaiting an arrangement which will let it continue trading in a leaner form. It is producing around 200 PCs a day, though none of these are to go to the thousand or so people who paid up front for a machine but never received it. Receiver John Starr explained on a business TV program that Linton had been dismissed from the company as a result of misrepresenting the situation and because he was responsible for Osborne's poor fortunes recently. In the interview published in PC Week (conducted via fax) Linton said he had appointed five managers last year and it was these people who had made bad business decisions and brought the company to an untenable position. Letters of reply from Osborne staffers in this week's issue of PC Week say that when the new managers were appointed, sales and profitability went up but that Linton himself took back certain controls and made decisions that caused the company to go downhill. These included offering a $50 rebate for every day that a computer was late being delivered. It is also reported that he ordered systems be sold below cost. The staff voted "no confidence" in Linton on more than one occasion after the problems became public knowledge, they say. Some management staffers who have left the company have hinted that they will take legal action against Linton if he makes one more accusation against them. (Paul Zucker/19950719) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 07/20/95 BUSINESS HK Loses AST Factory Jobs (NEWS)(BUSINESS)(HKG)(00009) HK Loses AST Factory Jobs 07/20/95 CENTRAL, HONG KONG, 1995 JUL 20 (NB) -- AST has laid off 285 staff at its factory in Kwai Chung, Hong Kong, where motherboards and PCBs for desktop and server PCs are made. The staff, all shop floor workers, were laid off as part of a cost-cutting exercise following the opening of a new factory in Dongguan, China last year. The sackings were made on the basis of job area and seniority. The Dongguan factory will continue to support the Hong Kong factory, which has retained 1,200 staff. AST said all the staff laid off were operational staff and did not include any managers or supervisors. Meanwhile, 30 office staff have already been transferred to Dongguan. (IT Daily/19950718) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 07/20/95 TRENDS Asian High-tech Theme Parks Plan (NEWS)(TRENDS)(HKG)(00010) Asian High-tech Theme Parks Plan 07/20/95 CENTRAL, HONG KONG, 1995 JUL 20 (NB) -- Hong Kong-listed Grande Group has entered into a joint venture with Sega of Japan and SAFE Enterprises, the travel and leisure subsidiary of Singapore Technologies Industrial Corporation (STIC), to develop a S$50 million high technology amusement theme park in Singapore. Called E-Zone, the theme park will be housed in the East Coast Recreation Centre and will feature numerous high technology games, including the latest large-scale virtual reality rides from Sega. Similar parks are planned in Macau, Guangzhou, Vancouver and possibly Hong Kong. The park will be housed in a 45,000-square-foot air-conditioned area of the East Coast Recreation Centre and will be the first of its kind in the Asian region outside of Japan. As well as the virtual reality rides, it will also feature Mad Bazooka, a kind of armed bumper cars. The company plans to redevelop the center around the theme park, with restaurants, retail shops, a cineplex, discos and pubs. Construction of the Singapore plant is due to start next month, with the first phase expected to open at the end of this year. The other planned parks are expected to start appearing in the second half of next year. (IT Daily/19950720) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 07/20/95 LEGAL BSA Turns To Shanghai CD-ROM Pirates (NEWS)(LEGAL)(HKG)(00011) BSA Turns To Shanghai CD-ROM Pirates 07/20/95 CENTRAL, HONG KONG, 1995 JUL 20 (NB) -- The Business Software Alliance (BSA) has scored its first anti-piracy victory in Shanghai, with the seizure of several hundred illegal CD-ROMs in joint raids with the Shanghai Municipal Administration for Industry and Commerce (AIC). The raids against four computer retail outlets in Shanghai netted a recordable CD-ROM drive, more than 400 hundred illegal CD-ROMs, 1,400 floppy disks and four hard drives. The actions at locations in the city's Pu Tuo district are believed to be the first of their kind outside of Beijing and Guangdong province. The raids came after 20 AIC officers in Shanghai and 45 in Beijing undertook BSA-organized training courses covering basic computer literacy and raid procedures, including methods to identify differences between genuine and fake software. The courses were organized to help China fulfill the training and education obligations of the Sino-US Agreement on Intellectual Property Rights Protection. "We are pleased that the Chinese authorities have extended the fight against software piracy from Beijing and Guangdong province to Shanghai, China's most populous city, and perhaps the country's most important commercial center," said Valerie Colbourn, vice president of the BSA. "It is also encouraging that the raids were carried out on the initiative of the Shanghai AIC," she said. Said Colbourn: "We expect the authorities in Shanghai to continue to take aggressive action against the resellers of pirated software as well as the pirates themselves, as sustained enforcement activity is necessary to reduce the damaging effect of software piracy in Shanghai. At the same time, we hope that the authorities in China will soon move against all forms of software piracy elsewhere in the country, in particular the production sources of pirated products." Among the targets raided was a computer training school offering hands-on training with pirated versions of Microsoft Windows 3.1 and MS-DOS operating systems as well as Microsoft's FoxPro database management program and Novell's WordPerfect word processor. In addition to the illegal CD-ROMs, a large quantity of business records were taken and actions will be filed against the raided targets, the BSA said. (IT Daily/19950720) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 07/20/95 GENERAL China - News Briefs (NEWS)(GENERAL)(PEK)(00012) China - News Briefs 07/20/95 BEIJING, CHINA, 1995 JUL 20 (NB) -- In this roundup of news from China: major European telecommunication companies hold seminar in Beijing to push for Digital European Cordless Telecommunication standards; the quality of Chinese products keep improving; NEC will transfer advanced microchip technology; Sharp Electronics of Japan holds Multimedia Technology Exchange and Exhibition in Beijing, Alcatel Alsthom of France is building an experimental network for Beijing Telecommunication Administration. Major European Companies Hold Seminar for Digital Cordless Telecom A seminar was recently held in Beijing to introduce Digital European Cordless Telecommunication (DECT), an advanced cordless standard. The seminar was organized by Ericsson, Siemens, Philips, Alcatel, and Nokia. Experts said that DECT systems are used in 25 countries. Sales of DECT handsets worldwide are estimated at 1.5 million this year and 3 million next year. Chinese officials and experts attended the seminar. Overall Quality of Chinese Products Improving Based on a recent inspection, the government body for quality control said that the quality of Chinese products showed a marked increase in the second quarter. An average 77.7 percent of products inspected met quality standards, an 11.8% increase from 65.9% in the first quarterly inspection. However, all inspected cordless phones made by domestic enterprises or joint ventures failed to meet standards. No details of the phone inspection were released. NEC to Transfer Advanced Microchip Technology NEC Corp. will transfer advanced microchip technology to China, enabling its joint venture to produce four megabit dynamic random access memory (DRAM) chips. The joint venture will use the technology to start mass production of eight-bit microcontroller units for electrical appliances next year, with NEC investing more than 10 billion Japanese yen (US$117 million). China's microchip market estimated at about US$2 billion at present, will expand to about US$7 billion by 1998 to exceed the microchip market of South Korea. Sharp of Japan Holds Multimedia Technology Exhibition in Beijing Sharp Electronics of Japan held a Multimedia Technology Exchange and Exhibition recently in Beijing. The event was cosponsored by the Ministry of Electronics Industry of China. Exhibition included liquid crystal technology, video and audio products, telecommunications, automatic office equipment, and electronic components. Through this event, the company intends to further penetrate into China's electronics industry and collect the latest feedback from the vast Chinese market. Alcatel of France To Install Multimedia Network in Beijing Alcatel Alsthom of France, a leading international telecommunications company, will build an experimental network this month under an agreement with the Beijing Telecommunication Administration. The network will enable the administration to provide audio-visual, multimedia and high speed data transmission services for enterprises, institutions, research institutes, and institutes of higher learning. (Chih-Ho Yu & Ning Huang/19950716) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 07/20/95 ONLINE CompuServe Brings Internet Software To Japan (NEWS)(ONLINE)(TYO)(00013) CompuServe Brings Internet Software To Japan 07/20/95 TOKYO, JAPAN, 1995 JUL 20 (NB) -- CompuServe's Internet Division has announced it will begin sales of localized versions of its Internet software packages in Japan. The products will be sold across the country thanks to a new distribution agreement with Trans Cosmos Incorporated (TCI). Products covered by the new agreement, Internet In A Box, Mosaic In A Box, Internet Office and Internet Office Server, will be available nationwide from September 1995. "The Internet market in Japan is booming," said Bo Wandell, vice president of sales at CompuServe Seattle. "Currently, the localized version of Internet Office is the number one communication package sold in Japan. Providing a localized version for our other products, along with instant Internet access, will dramatically increase our penetration into that market." The software couples with CompuServe's Japanese network to provide instant Internet access. CompuServe has its own node in Tokyo and is accessible nationwide through Fujitsu's Fenics packet network. Both CIS and Fenics access points allow access to the CompuServe Information Service and the PPP Internet services. The Internet market in Japan is exploding currently with new service providers appearing all the time, encouraged by growing exposure to the Internet in magazines, television and in newspapers. The Internet is even the focus of a current IBM Japan television commercial. Commenting on the expanding market Jun Kobayashi, executive vice president at TCI, said, "The Japanese market offers the single largest growth potential for Internet products, The long-term relationship between CompuServe and TCI will give the Japanese market localized, leading-edge products both now and in the future. The unique combination of American and Japanese skills in this partnership will make CompuServe the product leader." (Martyn Williams/19950720/Press contact : Rebecca Gelinas, CompuServe Internet Division, +1-206-442-2598, Internet email rebeccag@spry.com; Richard Novotny, Trans Cosmos Inc., +1-206-869-8834, Internet email richardn@transcosmos.com; Reader contact : CompuServe Seattle, Internet email info@spry.com, Internet World Wide Web http://www.spry.com/ ) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 07/20/95 GENERAL Japan Newsbriefs (NEWS)(GENERAL)(TYO)(00014) Japan Newsbriefs 07/20/95 TOKYO, JAPAN, 1995 JUL 20 (NB) -- In this roundup of news from Japan: Windows 95-J release date undecided; Sanyo to increase flash memory production; Japan's virtual election; Sony plans for the future; VCR shipments rise. Windows 95-J Release Date Undecided Microsoft may be sure about the August 24th shipping date for Windows 95 but in Japan there is still no date for the localized Japanese version. Newsbytes reported in March that company representatives at the Windows Show 95 in London said the Japanese version of the new operating system would be released within a month of the American launch. Today, Microsoft Japan told Newsbytes that no release date has been decided and it could not even confirm a 1995 launch. The current Windows 3.1J software suffered a very late launch in Japan and as a result is only now gaining popularity. Sanyo To Increase Flash Memory Production Osaka-based Sanyo Electric has announced it will increase production of computer flash memory chips. The company is more than doubling its production by the end of this year to meet unexpectedly high demand. Currently Sanyo produces a million chips a month, a figure that will rise to 2.5 million from the end of the year. High demand for the 1 and 4 megabit semiconductors is expected to continue, especially as use of PHS portable telephones grow. Japan's Virtual Election Japanese citizens living overseas are unable to vote in the upcoming July 23rd Upper House Election but can now post a symbolic vote through the Internet. The experiment is being conducted by TV Tokyo Channel 12 and while there are no mechanisms in place to stop multiple voting, the TV station is relying on Japanese honesty to obtain a fair result. The home page address is http://www.inter.co.jp/tv-tokyo/ . Sony Plans For The Future Sony Corporation is shaping up for the future with new management guidelines and new positions on the board. Determined to keep its place as Japan's top consumer electronics manufacturer Sony has created two new positions on its board of directors. The chief technological officer is Minoru Morio and the chief financial officer is Tamotsu Iba. VCR Shipments Rise Domestic shipments of video cassette recorders in Japan reached 5.5 million last year, an increase of 7.8% on the previous year and the first rise in six years. Leading the sales rankings was Matsushita Electric with a 17.0% market share, Sony was second with 12.4% of the market and Victor Company (JVC) came in a close third at 12.3%. The rise in sales is attributed to cheaper machines from the Japanese manufacturers made possible by increased production overseas. (Martyn Williams/19950720) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 07/20/95 IBM ****Justice Appears Ready To Lift IBM Restrictions (NEWS)(IBM)(TOR)(00015) ****Justice Appears Ready To Lift IBM Restrictions 07/20/95 WASHINGTON, D.C., U.S.A., 1995 JUL 20 (NB) -- IBM (NYSE:IBM) seems to have scored a major victory in its year-old campaign to remove restrictions imposed under antitrust law nearly 40 years ago. The US Justice Department has filed a brief in US District Court in New York indicating that it is ready to lift most restrictions imposed by the 1956 consent decree that arose out of antitrust investigation of the company. IBM was investigated in the 1950s over allegations that it had used illegal methods to capture a 90-percent share of the market for tabulating machines. The resulting consent decree places a number of limits on the way IBM does business, including strict curbs on its activity in the computer services market, where it is required to operate a separate business unit that must pay the parent company full price for any IBM equipment it uses. Last June, IBM applied to the Justice Department to have those restrictions lifted. Now the department has filed a brief -- still subject to public comment -- that indicates it is prepared to lift most of the consent decree's provisions, with the possible exception of those that apply to IBM's System/390 mainframes and AS/400 midrange computers. Rob Wilson, a spokesman for IBM, said the company cannot comment on the Justice Department's latest move since it has not yet read the brief. He told Newsbytes that the brief is the latest development in the legal process that began with last June's application by IBM. Wilson also stressed that since the brief is still subject to public comment, IBM cannot be sure that it has won the relief it was seeking. Though the consent decree was handed down when computers were rare and IBM's business depended mainly on tabulating machines, it has always been considered to apply to computers. IBM and the government have debated whether the company's software products are also covered. Over the years since IBM was investigated for possible antitrust violations -- another case was dropped in the early 1980s -- the company's dominance of the computer industry has dwindled. Recently IBM has been elbowed out of the number-one spot in personal computer sales, though it remains strong other computing markets. The company's recent acquisition of personal computer software maker Lotus Development got Justice Department approval with little apparent difficulty. (Grant Buckler/19950720/Press Contact: Rob Wilson, IBM, 914-765- 6565) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 07/20/95 APPLE New Pagemaker Creates Web Pages & More (NEWS)(APPLE)(DEN)(00016) New Pagemaker Creates Web Pages & More 07/20/95 SEATTLE, WASHINGTON, U.S.A., 1995 JUL 20 (NB) -- Adobe Systems Inc. (NASDAQ: ADBE) commemorated the 10th anniversary of the launch of Pagemaker by announcing a major upgrade the company said includes more than 50 new or enhanced features. Pagemaker 6.0 will be the first major upgrade to the page composition software since the September 1994 merger between Aldus Corporation and Adobe Systems. The new upgrades are for Windows and Macintosh. Included in the new version is the ability to create publications in Adobe's Portable Document format (PDF) and to author Hypertext Markup Language (HTML) documents for electronic publishing on the World Wide Web. Many of the new features enhance Pagemaker's color publishing capabilities. The new software includes the Kodak Precision Color Management System (CMS), complete Photo CD support with auto-sharpening capabilities, RGB (red-green-blue) to CMYK (cyan-magenta-yellow-black) TIFF conversion, and expanded Pantone color libraries, including the Pantone Hexachrome libraries. Adobe said CMS helps Pagemaker users ensure accurate and consistent color from scanning to on-screen manipulation, while the auto-sharpening and color management of imported Kodak Photo CD images streamlines the workflow. The Pantone libraries allow the user to specify inks such as metallics, fluorescents, and pastels directly in Pagemaker. Adobe said support for the Pantone Hexachrome libraries makes it possible to use more than the four standard process colors. Version 6 also includes new page layout features. You get multiple master pages, grouping and ungrouping, a new Table Editor, position locking and unlocking of elements, polygon drawing, a zoom tool, the ability to mask text and graphics, automatic alignment and distribution of objects, user-definable grids, improved automatic kerning, and the ability to move selected elements forward or backward. The new printing features in the upgrade include integrated automatic color trapping with sophisticated trapping controls, such as the ability to specify trap width, trapping thresholds, black attributes and the ability to auto-overprint black text, lines and fills. A Print Fit view displays the relationship between the page and paper or film to ensure a proper fit, while reader's spreads allow for printing of two-page spreads. There is also an option to designate objects as nonprinting. Adobe said it has added some new compatibility with other Adobe products. Pagemaker users will be able to apply Adobe Photoshop special effects from Adobe Photoshop plug-ins to images directly in Pagemaker. You also get hot links to Adobe Photoshop, the ability to save publications in Pagemaker 5.0 format, and OLE (Object Linking and Embedding) client support. A Create Adobe PDF plug-in enables Pagemaker documents to be saved in the PDF format complete with automatic hypertext links, bookmarks, and article threads. The HTML Author plug-in lets users convert Pagemaker Publications into HTML format for distribution on the Web. Adobe said the Windows version, Pagemaker 6.0, is a 32-bit program that is compatible with, and takes advantage of the features in Windows 95, the new operating system and graphical user interface due from Microsoft in late August. Version 6 will ship with Win32s dynamic linking libraries (DLLs) to enable users of the 16-bit Windows 3.1 to use the new features. Pagemaker 6.0 ships on floppy disks and a CD-ROM. The CD-ROM includes technical information and additional software which includes the Adobe Acrobat Distiller and Reader, Kodak Photo CD images, Straight Talk technical white papers, and a multimedia presentation of new features. A second CD-ROM includes the Adobe Type Manager and Adobe Type On Call 2.0 with 220 free fonts that can be unlocked when you register the Type On Call CD. To use Pagemaker 6.0, Power Macintosh users need 16 megabytes (MB) of memory, with 10MB of that available to Pagemaker; Apple's System Software 7.1.2 or later; and 20MB of available hard disk space. Macintosh users need at least a 68030 microprocessor; System 7.1 or later; 16MB of memory, with 8MB available to Pagemaker; and 20MB of available hard disk space. Windows 95 users will need an Intel-compatible 486 chip; 12MB of memory, with 8MB available to Pagemaker; 24MB of available hard disk space; a VGA or better display and a mouse of other pointing device. Windows 3.1 users need 16MB of memory, with 10MB available to Pagemaker; DOS 5.0 or later; Windows 3.1 or later running in enhanced mode; 24MB of drive space; a VGA or higher display and a mouse. Adobe said Pagemaker 6.0 for the Macintosh and Power Macintosh platforms is scheduled to be released by the end of the summer. The Windows version will follow in the fall. The suggested retail price of Pagemaker 6.0 is $895, with an upgrade by registered users of any earlier version available for $149. If you bought version 5.0 after June 17, 1995 the upgrade will be free. (Jim Mallory/19950720/Press contact: Peter Card, Adobe, 206-628-2368; Public contact: Adobe, tel 800-422-3623 or 206-622-5500) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 07/20/95 IBM OS/2 Conference - Vendors Unveil Applications (NEWS)(IBM)(BOS)(00017) OS/2 Conference - Vendors Unveil Applications 07/20/95 BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS, U.S.A., 1995 JUL 20 (NB) -- At the OS/2 World Conference and Exhibition in Boston this week, vendors have unveiled OS/2 applications that include the TelePredictor network- based "predictive dialer," the CleverManage desktop and application management system for networks, and the American Heritage Dictionary and Roget's Thesaurus, plus updates to Compuware's RemoteControl/2 (RC/2) and Dr. Solomon's Anti-Virus Toolkit. Also at the show, IBM announced that OS/2 Warp scored number one among all operating systems in the "overall satisfaction," likehood of being recommended, BBS support, built-in help, and tutorials categories of PC Magazine's annual reader survey. Designed to allow telephone dialing from the PC, CanadianLynx's new TelePredicter features an "adaptive call pacing algorithm," plus real-time statistical displays, on-screen scripting, and advanced reporting capabilities, according to CanadianLynx officials. CleverSoft's new CleverManage product for managing OS/2- and Windows-based machines on large, distributed networks is aimed at configuration management, software distribution, troubleshooting, application metering/monitoring, network scheduling, and "automatic problem correction." The product provides alert notifications through electronic mail, Simple Network Management (SNMP), and paging. Dux Software's new American Heritage Dictionary and Roget's Thesaurus Deluxe Edition is being offered for OS/2 as well as Unix. The product is intended to "work within all applications," including word processors, spreadsheets, databases, and e-mail. The new version 2.0 update to Compuware's RC/2 adds new event management, "group operations," and security control capabilities. The group operations feature is designed to let the administrator organize any number of nodes into a group, and work with it as a single entity. Then, whenever a new node comes online with attributes that match a group, RC/2 will automatically register the node as a new group member, company officials said. The enhanced edition of Dr. Solomon's Anti-Virus Toolkit for OS/2 adds a new 32-bit Presentation Manager user interface, installer, and memory-resident anti-virus scanner, along with "advanced heuristic analysis" for detecting, decrypting, and destroying viruses. (Jacqueline Emigh/19950720/Reader Contact: IBM, 914-765-1900; Press Contact: Brodeur & Partners for IBM, 617-622-2800) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 07/20/95 ONLINE August Space Mission Comes To The Internet (NEWS)(ONLINE)(DEN)(00018) August Space Mission Comes To The Internet 07/20/95 HOUSTON, TEXAS, U.S.A., 1995 JUL 20 (NB) -- Cliff Kurtzman calls them Internauts, and if you are one you will be able to access photographs and real-time updates of a space mission scheduled for launch next month. The term Internaut refers to people who are interested in space and what astronauts are doing, but get their thrills vicariously by following a mission on the Internet instead of from the command module or mission control. For the University of Houston's Wake Shield Facility (WSF) launch, Internauts will be able to submit electronic mail questions to the WSF scientists, designers, ground controllers and shuttle crew. Web site visitors will also be able to register for a drawing to receive mission pins and a mission patch that will have flown on the shuttle during the mission. You will also be able to provide feedback on your opinion of research being conducted in space. Dr. Kurtzman is president and chief executive officer of Tenagra Corporation, a company that specializes in Internet application development and the co-creator of the Wake Shield information center. He said the challenge was to create a Web site that encourages the public to feel they are a part of a real space mission. "We wanted to get the public involved. We also wanted to provide a resource of technical information for those that are interested in extensively exploring the scientific and engineering aspects of the flight," said the Tenagra executive. There will be no commercial advertising on the Web site. Kurtzman told Newsbytes that people who access the WSF Web site following the launch will also be able to view video clips and hear sound bites of communication between the astronauts and controllers on the ground, and review extensive information about the science being conducted during the flight. He said the information will be easily comprehensible to a high school graduate. The site already contains more than 70 pages of information, including animation of space launches and recoveries. WSF launches August 5, two days later than the originally planned date, from the Kennedy Space Center aboard the Space Shuttle Endeavor. It is a scientific experiment designed, built and managed by the Space Vacuum Epitaxy Center (SVEC), a NASA Center for the Commercial Development of Space based at the University of Houston; and Space Industries Inc. of League City, Texas. WSF designers hope to use the pure vacuum of space to develop new materials that they say could some day lead to applications such as faster electronic components used in computers. The August launch will be the second flight for WSF. Dr. Alex Ignatiev, director of the University of Houston space Vacuum Epitaxy Center, said the WSFT information center was created to provide a forum for the public to learn about a space mission and gain insight into the space operations process. If you happen to be in the Houston area you can also tour the center's laboratories. SVEC was established in 1986 by the University of Houston and NASA as a center for the commercial development of space to unite industry, academia, and government in the campaign for space commercialization. SVEC creates advanced thin film materials and devices for commercial application through vacuum growth technologies using terrestrial and space vacuum environments. Twelve corporate members, six universities and four government laboratories participate in SVEC. You can reach the WSF information center on the World Wide Web at the Uniform Resource Locator (URL) http://www.svec.uh.ed./ . (Jim Mallory/19950720/Press contact: Cliff Kurtzman, Tenagra Corporation, 713-335-1072; Public contact: Internet URL http://www.svec.uh.ed./ ) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 07/20/95 ONLINE ****CompuServe, AOL, Prodigy Send Letter To Bill Gates (NEWS)(ONLINE)(SFO)(00019) ****CompuServe, AOL, Prodigy Send Letter To Bill Gates 07/20/95 WHITE PLAINS, NEW YORK, U.S.A., 1995 JUL 20 (NB) -- Bob Massey, new chief executive officer (CEO) at CompuServe, Steve Case, America Online's CEO, and Edward Bennett, Prodigy's CEO, have penned and signed a letter to Microsoft CEO Bill Gates which urges him to unbundle Microsoft Network (MSN) from Windows 95. The letter begins with "Dear Bill" and reminds Gates that the three CEOs have previously expressed their serious concerns about the bundling issue in the past. The letter reads: "Now, at this late hour, we urge you one more time to reconsider" and closes with: "Do the right thing for the industry and the interests of millions of consumers. Unbundle Microsoft Network from Windows 95." This unprecedented level of cooperation between the three largest online services in the world contains no threat of legal action. It does emphasize the loss of consumer choice and lack of competition developed by bundling MSN with Windows 95. In the media it often appears the issue at stake is merely the bundling of MSN with Windows 95. Microsoft has told Newsbytes MSN is not bundled with Windows 95, but an option to subscribe to Windows 95 is part of MSN. Clarifying the issue, Brian Ek, vice president of public affairs at Prodigy, told Newsbytes, "For customers who purchase Windows 95, MSN is presented as a subscribable option. The problem we are addressing is that computer manufacturers such as Gateway, Dell, Compaq and all the others, are required to load MSN as part of the agreement to sell a system with Windows 95 installed. It is with this matter that we disagree." Ek continued, "In the past we have had to pay to have our products bundled with computer systems. Now, these manufacturers have no choice in the matter. We consider this an unfair advantage." Citing a problem with both the shrink-wrapped version and the pre-installed version, Ek told Newsbytes the MSN icon is prominently displayed as a user works with the new operating system. Online programs such as Prodigy, AOL and CompuServe, on the other hand, are "buried four levels deep" in MSN. When a user installs one of these three programs on existing Windows, a program group is crated and the necessary icons are readily displayed. Ek says this does not occur with Windows 95. Suggesting two different solutions, Ek said, "We think MSN should be unbundled from Windows 95 or equal offerings of our services be provided, so that consumers can make their own decision." The letter continues: "You (Bill) have publicly stated your goal of making Windows an open architecture and giving all developers access to it on a non-discriminatory basis. However, this goal will be undermined if you bundle MSN -- and only MSN -- with Windows 95. The dominant operating system will then no longer be a neutral mechanism giving consumers equal access to whatever applications they choose. It will become an exclusionary marketing and distribution tool for Microsoft's products." Towards the end, Case, Bennett and Massey write: "Bill, you, more than anyone would understand the power that comes with controlling the operating system market. With dominant position comes added responsibilities. Primary among those is the need to safeguard the spirit of competition and innovation that has caused explosive growth in our industry, and have been central to your own success and prosperity." Ek also told Newsbytes, "Up until now there has been a very pronounced and effective distance between the operating system and applications. That pristine condition is being changed dramatically. When MSN, an application is being automatically included, we believe it reduces choice. Windows is like the dialtone of the computer industry. Is it right that every time you pick-up the phone you have one service from one provider pushed in your direction and all of the others made difficult to find?" Does this letter hint at possible last minute legal action to prevent the delivery of Windows 95 with MSN? No one is saying. While the letter is firm and direct, it contains no reference to further action on the part of the online services. (Patrick McKenna/19950720/Press Contact: Brian Ek, Prodigy, tel 914-448-2496) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 07/20/95 BUSINESS SoftKey To Acquire Future Vision (NEWS)(BUSINESS)(TOR)(00020) SoftKey To Acquire Future Vision 07/20/95 CAMBRIDGE, MASSACHUSETTS, U.S.A., 1995 JUL 20 (NB) -- SoftKey International Inc. (NASDAQ:SKEY;TSE:SSK) has announced a deal that would see it take over multimedia software firm Future Vision Holding Inc., of New York, for about 1.1 million shares of SoftKey common stock. With SoftKey stock trading at $32.625 this morning, the transaction has a value of some $36 million. Scott Murray, chief financial officer at SoftKey, told Newsbytes that his company was attracted to a multimedia development studio that Future Vision operates in Israel. "The costs are lower there," he said, and Israel has plenty of multimedia development talent. Murray added that SoftKey was also interested in Future Vision's portfolio of existing products -- he cited the Infopedia multimedia encyclopedia as one example -- and in its strong original equipment manufacturer (OEM) business. OEM work involves producing products for other companies to sell under their own names, possibly after adding to them. The deal is subject to review by the United States Justice Department under antitrust legislation, which could take 30 to 60 days, Murray said. SoftKey plans to consolidate Future Vision's New York operations into its own headquarters in Cambridge. Murray said this will result in some Future Vision employees losing their jobs, but the numbers are not yet known. The company also said it has not determined the cost of the merger and subsequent reorganization. Future Vision publishes more than 40 retail multimedia titles and more than 70 OEM titles. Besides Infopedia, they include: Martial Arts Explorer; Leonardo, the Inventor; the Heinemann Children's Encyclopedia; the Me and My World Picture Dictionary; and various language-education titles. Officials said the privately held company had revenues of about $11 million in its most recent fiscal year. SoftKey publishes a long list of consumer software products, including multimedia titles. SoftKey International was created in early 1994 through the three-way merger of SoftKey Software Products Inc. of Toronto, WordStar International Inc. of Novato, California, and Spinnaker Software Corp. of Cambridge. (Grant Buckler/19950720/Press Contact: Scott Murray, SoftKey, 617-494-5861) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 07/20/95 LEGAL ****Novell Files Patent Infringement Suits (NEWS)(LEGAL)(DEN)(00021) ****Novell Files Patent Infringement Suits 07/20/95 OREM, UTAH, U.S.A., 1995 JUL 20 (NB) -- Novell Inc. (NASDAQ: NOVL) has filed various charges against two companies that include trademark and copyright infringement, fraudulent abuse of Novell's upgrade licensing program, and unfair competition. Charged in separate lawsuits are Network Trade Center (NTC) of Sandy, Utah and KIS Technology, of Gaithersberg, Maryland. Both companies are software distributors. NTC is charged with copyright and trademark infringement, unfair competition, interference with existing economic relations, unjust enrichment, and other related causes of action. Novell alleges that NTC acquired upgrade products through misrepresentation and in turn sold the products to what Novell described as "misinformed end users." Novell said NTC's repeated violation of Novell upgrade policies brought complaints from numerous end users and resellers who said they are victims of the illegal practices. Novell spokesperson Edward Morin, manager of Novell's anti-piracy program, told Newsbytes NTC was acquiring old versions of Novell, and in some cases other companies', network software, then getting an upgrade to the most recent version of the product. NTC would then sell the upgrade to an unsuspecting end user, said Morin. The buyer would have problems registering the software and would also run into trouble when they tried to get the next upgrade to the product. KIS Technology is charged with infringement of trademark and tradedress and fraudulent abuse of Novell's Upgrade License program. Novell said it discovered in March and April of this year that what it called counterfeit versions of its Netware network operating system software were being sold from the Netherlands and other locations into Eastern Europe, including Poland and the Czech Republic. A Dutch court authorized a raid in the Netherlands by Novell and a court appointed bailiff to search De La Mar Management and Services B.V., a Dutch software distributor. Novell said investigators seized Novell upgrade product during the raid that had been re-labeled and placed in counterfeit packaging to give the appearance of Novell original product. Novell said documentation seized indicated that the allegedly counterfeit product had been obtained by De La Mar from KIS Technology. Morin told Newsbytes no specific damages have been requested yet. According to David Bradford, Novell senior vice president and general counsel, it is common to produce improved versions, or "upgrades" to software. Novell sells upgrade licenses to original licensees of earlier versions of Novell software, and in some cases to users of competitive software at what the company described as "greatly reduced pricing." Bradford said Novell intends to stamp out the abuse of Novell's Netware Upgrade Program, and called the lawsuits an important part of that effort. Novell maintains a hotline for the reporting of suspected illegal Novell software. (Jim Mallory/19950720/Press contact: Rebecca Faulkner, Novell, 801-429-7997; Public contact to report illegal Novell software: 800-747-2837) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 07/20/95 BUSINESS Wang Acquires Sigma Imaging For $20 Million (NEWS)(BUSINESS)(TOR)(00022) Wang Acquires Sigma Imaging For $20 Million 07/20/95 BILLERICA, MASSACHUSETTS, U.S.A., 1995 JUL 20 (NB) -- Attempting to bolster the imaging business on which it has built most of its hopes for renewed success, Wang Laboratories Inc. (NASDAQ:WANG) has announced it will acquire Sigma Imaging Systems Inc, a maker of imaging and work-flow automation software. Wang will pay about $20 million for the privately held company, in the form of $15 million in cash and about $5 million worth of Wang common stock. Sigma, based in New York, will be folded into Wang's software business. However, Wang spokesman Ed Pignone told Newsbytes, none of Sigma's staff will lose their jobs and the company's present management will get new positions at Wang. Sigma's president and co-founder, William Stratigos, and its vice-president and co-founder, Mordechai Beizer, will become vice-presidents in Wang's Windows NT production systems development center. Wang also plans to continue all of Sigma's product line, which is designed to complement Microsoft Corp.'s BackOffice suite of server applications for the Windows NT operating system. "They have a superb product line," Pignone said. Wang recently announced an alliance with Microsoft, under which the companies are working together on work-flow automation software for client/server computing environments. Wang said the Sigma product line will help it get immediate benefit from the revenue opportunities that alliance opens up. Sigma sells modular systems designed to grow from small departmental installations to large environments that process as many as 500,000 pages a day, officials said. International Data Corp., a Framingham, Massachusetts, computer- industry research firm, called the purchase a signal that Wang is serious about the imaging and work-flow automation market. IDC said Windows NT is becoming more popular because it currently offers better performance for the price than Unix, and as a result a growing number of customers are choosing it for applications such as imaging and work-flow on NT. IDC said Sigma's products are among the best imaging and work-flow offerings for NT. (Grant Buckler/19950720/Press Contact: Frank Ryan, 508-967-7038; Ed Pignone, Wang, 508-967-4912; Dara Queen, IDC, 508-872-8200) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 07/20/95 ONLINE Internet Survey Finds 1/3 Of Users Women (NEWS)(ONLINE)(SFO)(00023) Internet Survey Finds 1/3 Of Users Women 07/20/95 SEBASTOPOL, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1995 JUL 20 (NB) -- O'Reilly & Associates, well known computer and Internet book publisher, released preliminary findings of a survey of the Internet. Early results indicate one-third of Internet users are women. Titled, "Defining The Internet Opportunity 1994-1995," the survey was devised by O'Reilly as a more statistically accurate survey than what has previously been used to estimate the Internet population. The first phase of the survey involved 2,000 subscribers to GNN (Global Network Navigator) Online Magazine. Working with Trish Information Services out of Hayward, California, O'Reilly says the second and third phases were based on random digit dialing to locate Internet users. Random digit dialing means the company called phone numbers randomly until they found Internet users willing to be interviewed. Phase Two of the survey involves 1,000 Internet users who access the Internet through an Internet service provider or through work. Phase three, conducted simultaneously, focuses on users who access the Internet through an online service such as CompuServe, Prodigy or America Online. O'Reilly says the first phase was completed in December, 1994. Results from that phase led O'Reilly to create phase two and three. Florence Kanuk, the survey's manager at O'Reilly, told Newsbytes, "There are three preliminary results which are already significant. The first is that women represent 34% of Internet users. Second, most Internet users work in corporations with 1,000 or more employees and, third, 52% of Internet users have less than $50,000 annual household income. We consider these three findings different from commonly assumed ideas. People tend to think fewer women are on the Internet, a large percentage of users connect to the Internet independent of work and Internet users have a higher household income." O'Reilly has contracted to produce this survey and conclusive details will be given first to the sponsors of this survey. Kanuk says phase two and three are 80% complete and final results are expected this September. Unable to comment specifically about any results concerning an overall population count, O'Reilly hints previous suggestions of 20 to 30 million Internet users could be inaccurate. With the final results, O'Reilly plans to present a more statistically accurate figure of the true size of the Internet. (Patrick McKenna/19950720/Press Contact: Florence Kanuk, O'Reilly & Associates, tel 707-829-0515) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 07/20/95 BROADCAST TRW Gets Patent For Odyssey Satellite System (NEWS)(BROADCAST)(MSP)(00024) TRW Gets Patent For Odyssey Satellite System 07/20/95 CLEVELAND, OHIO, U.S.A., 1995 JUL 20 (NB) -- TRW Inc. (NYSE:TRW) said it has been issued a patent for its Odyssey satellite-based worldwide cellular telephone system by the US Patent and Trademark Office. This new patent (number 5,415,367) is broader than the two that TRW had been granted last April, which Newsbytes reported on when the other patents were awarded. The two awarded in April were withdrawn on May 16, because the Patent office said it needed to conduct a quality control review. A second patent is still pending, company officials said. The new patent describes Odyssey as "a method of providing medium- Earth-orbit satellite-based communications between low-power handsets having an omni-directional antenna and a gateway station through a satellite forming part of a satellite constellation." The patent includes launching satellite into orbit at heights between 5,600 nautical miles and 10,000 nautical miles, and overlapping a portion of a coverage region of a departing satellite with part of an arriving satellite's region to "hand off" calls between satellites. The company said those and other features will allow for coverage around the world with only a dozen satellites and eight ground stations. Previously TRW spokesperson Jack Prichett told Newsbytes that TRW's concept of MEO (medium Earth orbits) sets his company's plans apart from competitors like Motorola's Iridium and the Loral/Qualcomm Globalstar systems. "The advantage of being higher (than Iridium or Globalstar) is that the satellite 'sees' more of the Earth's surface as it passes over. Low Earth orbiting satellites (like Iridium and Globalstar) see a very small portion. By seeing more, it means you can use fewer satellites." But Bruce Gerding, TRW vice president and managing director of the company's Odyssey Services Organization, said all of this doesn't mean the company is patenting orbits. "Odyssey uses a particular orbit configuration to optimize the telecommunications performance in the overall system." Prichett told Newsbytes today that some confusion arose when Inmarsat-P Affiliate, a competitor that plans to use a similar MEO approach to satellites, said TRW was patenting actual Earth orbits. Prichett said the patent applies to the Odyssey system as a whole, of which the orbital configuration is a part of the system. The second patent applies to MEO spacecraft design, such as a method of directing antennas to achieve uninterrupted coverage on Earth, officials said. As previously reported by Newsbytes, patents have also been applied for in France, Great Britain, Germany, Japan, South Korea, and Taiwan. TRW was licensed by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) last January to build and operate Odyssey. The company plans to build Odyssey in conjunction with Teleglobe, Inc., a Canadian telecommunications firm. (Bob Woods/19950719/Press Contact: Jack Prichett, TRW, 310-812-5227) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 07/20/95 TELECOM Sprint's Record Results (NEWS)(TELECOM)(MSP)(00025) Sprint's Record Results 07/20/95 KANSAS CITY, MISSOURI, U.S.A., 1995 JUL 20 (NB) -- Sprint (NYSE:FON) reported record quarterly revenues and operating income for its second quarter 1995. Earnings rose 11.6 percent to $246 million, or 70 cents a share, while revenues increased 6.8 percent to $3.37 billion. Those numbers compare to second quarter 1994 income of $220 million, or 63 cents per share, and revenues of $3.15 billion last year. "Our record second quarter was the result of an across the board effort," said William T. Esrey, Sprint's chairman and chief officer. "Each operating unit had increased revenue, grew operating income, and generated higher operating cash flow." Arthur Krause, Sprint executive vice president and chief financial officer, said the company's revenue growth was lower, but "long distance operating margins moved up to a record 9.6 percent, as an improved revenue mix, lower access unit costs, and control expenses benefitted the bottom line. Our objective remains to continue improving margins while growing revenues at above market rates of growth." Other results include a 10,7 percent increase in operating income to $506 million from $457 million a year ago, and a rise in operating cash flow to $893 million, an increase of 8.4 percent. Cellular revenues is where Sprint picked up the most cash. The company said it experienced a 35.7 percent gain in cellular sales and a 63.4 percent increase in operating income. The number of cellular customers increased 53 percent over the last 12 months, the company said. "Expansion of our own retail sales efforts, along with strong retail locations and agents, has enabled our cellular unit to continue this remarkable string," Esrey said. Long distance revenues increased 4.5 percent to $1.77 billion, while minutes of use went up 5.7 percent. Local telephone revenues showed similar growth rates. They went up 7.8 percent to $272 million, while access lines increased by 4.8 percent to nearly 6.6 million. Esrey also said the company also was succeeding when it came to international expansion. Detusche Telekom and France Telecom has agreed to buy 20 percent of Sprint, and will create a worldwide telecommunications partnership. (Bob Woods/19950718/Press Contacts: Bill White, 913-624-2226, or Steve Dykes, 202-828-7435, both of Sprint) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 07/20/95 REVIEW PC Review of - Personal Scribe 1000 CD-Recorder (REVIEW)(PC)(WAS)(00026) Review of - Personal Scribe 1000 CD-Recorder 07/20/95 WASHINGTON, D.C. U.S.A., 1995 JUL 20 (NB) -- Review of Personal Scribe 1000 CD-Recorder. Runs on: 486 or Pentium PC. From: Meridian Data, Inc. 5616 Scotts Valley Drive, Scotts Valley, CA 95066. 408-438-3100 Price: $6,000 (Lower priced bundles available) PUMA rating: 3.5 on a scale of 1=lowest to 4=highest Reviewed for Newsbytes by: John McCormick Summary: The Personal Scribe 1000 is a high-end 4X CD-Recordable drive bundled with CD-ROM authoring software and capable of publishing CD-ROM, Photo-CD, AND CD audio discs using a 486 PC. ======= REVIEW ======= A few years ago a stand-alone CD-ROM publishing system was the size of a large car and cost millions of dollars, making it suitable only for use by companies or government agencies dealing with confidential data which couldn't be sent to a service bureau. Today any individual or small business can go into the CD-ROM publishing business for a total investment under $2,000 for the CD-Recorder (CD-R) and software. I was unable to obtain one of the inexpensive systems for testing, but they work similarly to this high-end bundle. This specific package included a very fast CD-R drive which is capable of creating a full CD-ROM in one-quarter of the disc's final audio capacity equivalent - thus, a full 63 minute (550 megabyte) data or audio disc could take as little as 16 minutes to create. Although the Meridian-supplied hardware, which includes a dedicated SCSI or Small Computer Systems Interface, is certainly capable of such performance, most PCs just aren't up to full 4X recording because they can't sustain that data transfer rate, leading to a disc ruining buffer underflow condition where the drive keeps recording but the data stops for an instant. Since CD-R discs usually are made in a single-session pass, when a buffer underflow occurs you just have to toss a $10 blank. Fortunately, Meridian supplies software which not only efficiently manages data, it also warns you in advance if your system is incapable of transferring selected data at the required speed, allowing you to easily select 2X or even real-time (63 min.) recording speeds. Tests on a Zeos International Pantera (66 megahertz Pentium) system with 16 MB of memory and a fast IDE hard drive, showed the system barely capable of sustaining a full 4X recording session for my particular 520 MB data set so I selected 2X recording speed and created several CD-ROMs with no trouble. Transfer capabilities depends somewhat on data type and the way it is organized, also whether you first create an image of the CD-ROM or, as I did, just have the software copy a disc directory to CD-ROM (I specified C:\ as the directory, creating a mirror image of my hard drive), doing all the processing on-the-fly. Installing and using this system was remarkably easy. Inserting the dedicated SCSI board caused it to install itself using on- board software during power-up. The MD CD-ROM Personal SCRIBE authoring software was almost as easy to install and use. Less expensive drives and authoring software are less forgiving and more difficult to install, but as of today, any user capable of deciphering the complexities of installing a modem, communications software, and actually getting online, is capable of installing a CD-R drive and making their own CD-ROM compatible discs. Tip - CHKDSK/F or DISCSCAN, and DEFRAG your disk just prior to firing up the CD-ROM authoring software. This cleans up your file structure, making the data you are trying to copy easier for your hard drive to transfer, thus improving system performance, but then you should clean up your disk this way at least once a week anyway. By the way, the least expensive source of blank CD-R discs I have found is DisketteConnection, Oklahoma City, OK (800-654-4058, 405-789-0971, or fax 405-495-4598) which sells single quantities of high-quality blanks for $8.50 each. At that price anyone with data to sell or archive should consider CD-R as a viable alternative to publishing on floppy disk or recording critical files to fragile tape backup systems. CD-R discs aren't the same as the mass-produced CD-ROM discs because they are one-time recordable like the now rarely seen WORM or Write Once Read Many optical discs, but once recorded, CD-R discs play in standard CD-ROM drives (or CD-Audio drives if you recorded music.) ATTN MUSICIANS - In addition to creating standard CD-ROM and Photo-CDs, Personal Scribe can also be used to publish standard audio CDs using your PCM or WAV files. This means that small groups and composers can publish demo CDs for less than $10 each! What a neat way to stand out from all those thousands of audio demo tapes every record company executive gets in the mail! ============= PUMA RATINGS ============= PERFORMANCE: 4 Top notch software bundled with the highest quality hardware. USEFULNESS: 4 Created a full backup of my hard drive containing thousands of magazine articles, Newsbytes stories, and 6 books, freeing up almost my entire hard drive. MANUAL: 4 Remarkably simple for the complex task this software performs. AVAILABILITY: 2 Contact Meridian Data directly. (John McCormick/19950721) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 07/20/95 IBM ****IBM Elaborates On OS/2 Activities (NEWS)(IBM)(BOS)(00027) ****IBM Elaborates On OS/2 Activities 07/20/95 BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS, U.S.A., 1995 JUL 20 (NB) -- IBM will deliver the PowerPC edition of OS/2 Warp in the fourth quarter of 1995, and the company's support for OS/2 ranges from letters sent out over online services to new programs for spurring OS/2 application development by third-party developers, said IBM officials, during the second of two press briefings at the OS/2 World Conference in Boston. After entering general beta this summer, the PowerPC version of OS/2 Warp will be released commercially during the fourth quarter, noted John Soyring, division director, strategic relations, for IBM's Personal Software Products (PSP) Division, speaking with Newsbytes during the informal breakfast meeting with the press. Both press briefings were attended by Newsbytes. Also at the second briefing, Soyring elaborated on IBM's response to assertions made by some publications that IBM is "no longer committed to" OS/2, and Howie Hunger, software management director, IBM United States, detailed IBM's new Executive Call program for encouraging OS/2 application development. Soyring told Newsbytes that he had personally written a letter contradicting statements about IBM's commitment to OS/2 which were made in articles that were run by the New York Times and Wall Street Journal. Soyring also asserted that he had distributed his letter over online services immediately after the NY Times and Wall Street Journal articles appeared in print. Because of IBM's size and scope, issues of this kind are generally dealt with primarily by the IBM divisions that are directly concerned, Soyring maintained. But, he added, IBM President and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Louis V. Gerstner has also written and distributed letters underscoring IBM's commitment to OS/2, including a letter mailed out with IBM's annual report, and another letter distributed to attendees at the OS/2 World Conference in Boston. The letter from Gerstner that was distributed at the conference in Boston reads, in part, as follows: "We are proud of OS/2 and its progress. While the world waits for Microsoft to deliver its 32-bit desktop offering, you and I know that IBM has `been there, done that.' In fact, we're well beyond that point, helping you make critical transitions to open, client/server computing and object- oriented programming." Gerstner continued in the letter: "We know that you have to deliver timely solutions, whether they're for a small business, a large corporation or the retail channel. We know you count on IBM to give you the technology to help you deliver those solutions -- technology that is advanced and reliable. Technology like OS/2. I want you to know we will never waver in our commitment to provide you open, standards-based software that is technologically superior and battle-tested." Also at the breakfast briefing, Hunger told Newsbytes that IBM is expanding its support for OS/2 application development through the Executive Call Program. Through Executive Call, top officials from divisions throughout IBM have contacted hundreds of small developers to urge them to develop applications for OS/2, Hunger explained. Developers contacted through Executive Call are eligible for free technical assistance and training classes from IBM, as are other OS/2 developers, according to the IBM exec. IBM is offering the free training classes at training centers in suburban Boston and in San Mateo, California, added Hunger. About 20 different training classes are available, on topics that include DOS and Windows development as well as OS/2. Through another new program, IBM will work with systems integrators and value-added resellers (VARs) to encourage application development in this market segment, as well as application distribution through "the electronic channel," he noted. Also at the briefing, Soyring told Newsbytes that, so far, OS/2 has been targeted mainly at high-end corporate applications, particularly in traditional IBM strongholds such as banking and finance. But, he said, IBM is now beginning to expand OS/2's focus toward the consumer market, with new "ease-of-use" features such as the drag-and-drop capabilities in OS/2 Warp Connect. IBM is also working with the retail and OEM (original equipment manufacturer) markets on OS/2, the IBM officials maintained. IBM and Blue Orchard, an "OS/2-only" distributor, are now rolling out a program called OS/2 Warpware to retail stores and customers in 20 major retail markets, according to Hunger. Unisys recently announced that OS/2 will be pre-installed on Unisys PCs, Soyring pointed out. "Ironically, OS/2 is able to run Windows 3.1 in native mode, whereas Windows NT can only run (Windows 3.1) in emulated mode," Soyring added. IBM licensed the code for Windows from Microsoft several years ago, and then "figured out a way of running (Windows) natively on OS/2," he asserted. In contrast, Microsoft is using a Windows 3.1 emulation product with Windows NT that Microsoft "purchased from a third-party developer," the IBM division director told Newsbytes. (Jacqueline Emigh/19950720/Reader Contact: IBM, 914-765-1900; Press Contact: Brodeur & Partners for IBM, 617-622-2800) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 07/20/95 LEGAL ****Electronic Scam Charges Filed Against Six (NEWS)(LEGAL)(DEN)(00028) ****Electronic Scam Charges Filed Against Six 07/20/95 ST PAUL, MINNESOTA, U.S.A., 1995 JUL 20 (NB) -- The electronic version of the aluminum siding salesman who takes your money but doesn't deliver the product or sells a defective product has apparently arrived in Minnesota, and probably in your state too. At least that's what the Minnesota Attorney General, Hubert Humphrey III says. Minnesota's top law enforcement official has filed lawsuits charging six separate companies and individuals with operating scams and illegal business activities on the Internet and on the nation's computer online services. The suits allege that the defendants' actions violate the Minnesota Consumer Fraud Act, the False Advertising Statute and the Deceptive Trade Practices Act by offering plans that include the peddling of a substance older citizens still call "snake oil," which the seller alleges will help individuals suffering from cancer, AIDS and other diseases. Other charges include illegal sports bet making and a credit repair scheme which the state said advises consumers to violate state and federal laws. Humphrey calls the schemes "classic consumer fraud," and said they offer computer users nothing more than the opportunity to lose their money, break the law, "and in some cases, break their heart." Humphrey said the cases were filed as a result of a review conducted by his office of services available online by investigators who roamed the Internet and online services. Humphrey said the lawsuits being filed are just the tip of the iceberg. "There are many, many more potential cases that involve some type of consumer fraud or illegal activity. Far more than we can pursue," he said. Humphrey said part of the reason criminals and what he called "scam artists" are attracted to online fraud is the ability for them to be anonymous and difficult to trace. "Cyberspace is exciting, it's full of opportunities, but it's important that computer users use caution when it comes to offerings or business ventures made available through computer online services," he said. Humphrey is the author of proposed legislation, approved last month by the National Association of Attorneys General, which calls for the establishment of a working group of attorneys general to develop enforcement criteria and other strategies to combat illegal activities online. Named in the Minnesota suits are Carolyn McClendon, who is alleged to have made deceptive claims on Compuserve about the health benefits of taking a substance containing the element germanium. The state alleges that McClendon's online ads falsely imply that persons with AIDs, cancer and other diseases may benefit from taking germanium. The Food and Drug Administration bans the import of the element, citing possible irreversible kidney damage. In the State versus Susan Dean, who does business as Dean's Executive Publishers Inc., and Dean's Executive Publishing, the defendant is alleged to offer to sell a $15 information packet describing how consumers can send First Class letters through the US mail using two-cent stamps. Minnesota says it's illegal to intentionally underpay postage and violators can be prosecuted for mail fraud. Excel International Services Inc., doing business as Excel Credit Services; Bonnie J. Burke; and Lisa D. Smidt, also known as Lisa Smith, are alleged to offer America Online subscribers a way to clean up their credit files for up to $395 (couples pay $495). That advice allegedly includes telling people to obtain an Employer Identification Number from the Internal Revenue Service and using that number instead of a Social Security number when applying for credit. Officials say the advice may violate several federal and state laws pertaining to false statements on loan and credit applications. In the State versus International Network and Frederick Homan, the defendants are alleged to operate an illegal pyramid scheme via America Online which requires participants to send money to other participants. The plan claims if you send over $18,000 you will get back almost $158,000. Participants are also required to pay a $50 fee to International Network. The State versus Granite Gate Resorts Inc., dba On Ramp Internet Computer Services; and Kerry Rogers alleges illegal sports bookmaking service via the Internet in which consumers use their credit cards to bet on various events. Officials said this type of bookmaking operations violates federal law. The final case involves National Consumer Credit, dba NCC Co. It allegedly falsely represents through advertisements on America Online that consumers can earn $600 to $800 per week locating people owed refunds by a government agency. NCC also allegedly offers to repair poor credit histories, and charges $69 for advice on how to do so. Officials said the method may violate state and federal laws. As consumer activity on the Internet has grown, numerous organizations and officials have expressed concern over the opportunity for illegal activities. The worldwide electronic information network's content is not policed, since there is no single group which oversees its operation. Online subscription services like America Online, Compuserve, Prodigy and GEnie say they attempt to watch for illegal activity. America Online (AOL) spokesperson Pam McGraw told Newsbytes each of AOL's 3 million subscriber agrees to the conditions of its Terms of Service that specifies that any activity which is illegal offline is also illegal online, and is cause for termination of the account. The same warning is in AOL's classified ad section, where individuals are permitted to post notices promoting the sale of products and services. McGraw said AOL also uses online individuals, some of whom are volunteers and some are AOL staffers, to police activity in forums and chat rooms. She told Newsbytes it's a matter of common sense. "If someone gave you a really great tip on a stock tip, are you going to go out and buy that stock or are you going to do some research first? We always try to emphasize to our member community that just because you are getting advice online, it may or may not be accurate. Just like you would check out advice you get in any other scenario, you should also check out advice you get in the online community." Compuserve spokesperson Jan Bowers told Newsbytes advertising in forums is a violation of the service agreement. She was unable to find a member listing for McClendon, but pointed out that a member directory listing is voluntary. "Compuserve has always worked closely with law enforcement agencies in matters such as this," said Bowers. However she said the account wouldn't necessarily be terminated immediately. "That might happen eventually if we found out there was indeed that illegal activity." McGraw was unable to say if the specific AOL users charged in the Minnesota cases had been terminated, citing privacy issues. An attorney in the Minnesota Attorney General's office told Newsbytes the state filed the suits even though some of the parties being charged don't reside in Minnesota. She told Newsbytes that is because the advertising medium used reaches into the state. She also told Newsbytes that under Minnesota law an advertiser or publisher can be liable if they know that something fraudulent is being advertised. The state attorney said state law provides for a maximum fine of up to $25,000 per violation. However the state may find it difficult to determine how many violations occurred in the case of information distributed over an electronic network. (Jim Mallory/19950720/Press contact: Joe Loveland, Minnesota Office of the Attorney General, 612-296-2069 or Pam McGraw, America Online, 703-556-3746; Public contact: Call your local Consumer Protection Office or your state Attorney General) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 07/20/95 TRENDS ****Home Virtual Reality Too Expensive For Hasbro (NEWS)(TRENDS)(MSP)(00029) ****Home Virtual Reality Too Expensive For Hasbro 07/20/95 PAWTUCKET, RHODE ISLAND, U.S.A., 1995 JUL 20 (NB) -- Hasbro Inc. (ASE:HAS) said it's quitting plans to bring a mass-market virtual reality (VR) game system to the homes of America, because it would be too expensive for most consumers. Hasbro chairman and chief executive officer Alan G. Hassenfeld made the announcement through a news release yesterday. He said the company began developing the system in 1992. "We have created that system but at a price which would be simply too expensive to mass- market," he said. Press reports suggest the system would have a $300 price tag. The abandonment will also affect the company's bottom line. Hassenfeld said about $31 million of the VR development will be included in expenses for the company's second quarter 1995, which will be formally announced Monday, the company said. The rest of the investment has already been subtracted from previous quarters, the company said. Hassenfeld did say that without the action taken on the VR product, he anticipated the company's second quarter results will exceed those of a year ago in the revenue and net earnings departments. For the second quarter of 1994, revenues were at more than $444 million, and net earnings were above $1 million. All of this didn't appear to sit well with Wall Street. When the announcement was made yesterday, the company's stock fell $0.50 to $30.25. But the drop was on the same day the Dow Jones Industrial Average plummeted nearly 134 points before closing off 57 points from Tuesday's close. A sell-off of technology stocks was primarily to blame for yesterday's downward spiral. At 12:00 EDT today, Hasbro's stock was at $30.375 up $0.125. All is not a total loss, Hassenfeld said. He revealed that technology developed from the now-abandoned system will be put to good use. "We believe that there are many other applications for the proprietary technology we have developed and we intend to actively exploit that technology in various areas, including education, training, and other commercial applications." He also said the company will continue other endeavors in the electronic gaming field. Those products include a CD- ROM version of the popular board game "Monopoly," which can utilize the Internet for head-to-head play, and "Playskool's Funware for Preschoolers." (Bob Woods/19950720/Press Contact: John T. O'Neill, Hasbro Inc., 401-431-8500) (SUMMARY)(GENERAL)(MSP)(00030) Newsbytes Daily Summary 07/20/95 MINNEAPOLIS, MINNESOTA, U.S.A., 1995 JUL 20 (NB) -- These are capsules of all today's news stories: ======================================================================== ------------| N E W S B Y T E S D A I L Y S U M M A R Y |---------- ------------| Thursday, July 20, 1995 |---------- ======================================================================== (c) Newsbytes News Network (Tm) Editor in Chief: Wendy Woods ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Newsbytes News Network is a computer and telecom industry news wire and digitized picture service. Our news stream includes more than 30 daily first-hand reported US and international news stories about computing and telecommunications. For more information, please e-mail to 'administrator@newsbytes.com' ------------------------------------------------------------------------ CATEGORY HEADLINES (*** indicates today's top stories) STORY # ======================================================================== APPLE New Pagemaker Creates Web Pages & More..................... 16 BROADCAST Ameritech Plans Two-Way Cable System for Columbus.......... 02 BROADCAST TRW Gets Patent For Odyssey Satellite System............... 24 BUSINESS HK Loses AST Factory Jobs.................................. 09 BUSINESS SoftKey To Acquire Future Vision........................... 20 BUSINESS Wang Acquires Sigma Imaging For $20 Million................ 22 CHIPS AMD/Sony Win Japanese Govt Award........................... 04 CHIPS Samsung Chip Plant For Suzhou, China....................... 05 GENERAL Australia - Osborne Staff Have No Confidence In Boss....... 08 GENERAL China - News Briefs........................................ 12 GENERAL Japan Newsbriefs........................................... 14 GOVT ****Editorial - Hubris And The Electronic Frontier Foundati 07 IBM ****Justice Appears Ready To Lift IBM Restrictions......... 15 IBM OS/2 Conference - Vendors Unveil Applications.............. 17 IBM ****IBM Elaborates On OS/2 Activities...................... 27 LEGAL BSA Turns To Shanghai CD-ROM Pirates....................... 11 LEGAL ****Novell Files Patent Infringement Suits................. 21 LEGAL ****Electronic Scam Charges Filed Against Six.............. 28 ONLINE Spyglass to Ship New Mosaic Web Browser.................... 01 ONLINE CompuServe Brings Internet Software To Japan............... 13 ONLINE August Space Mission Comes To The Internet................. 18 ONLINE ****CompuServe, AOL, Prodigy Send Letter To Bill Gates..... 19 ONLINE Internet Survey Finds 1/3 Of Users Women................... 23 PC Review of - Personal Scribe 1000 CD-Recorder............... 26 TELECOM Japan's NTT Plans Emergency Network........................ 03 TELECOM HK Telecom Shortlists Final Telecom Bids -- Apple Out...... 06 TELECOM Sprint's Record Results.................................... 25 TRENDS Asian High-tech Theme Parks Plan........................... 10 TRENDS ****Home Virtual Reality Too Expensive For Hasbro.......... 29 ======================================================================== These are the headlines and first paragraphs of each story, in order: 1 -> Spyglass to Ship New Mosaic Web Browser -- Spyglass Inc. (NASDAQ:SPYG) announced it is expecting to ship a new version of its "Enhanced Mosaic" graphical World Wide Web browser before the end of September 1995. The company also reported financial results for its third quarter ended June 30. 2 -> Ameritech Plans Two-Way Cable System for Columbus -- Ameritech Inc. (NYSE:AIT) said it has applied for construction permits to begin building a two-way video network to deliver cable TV services in the city of Columbus, Ohio. City officials also announced they're in the process of negotiating a cable franchise agreement with Ameritech. 3 -> Japan's NTT Plans Emergency Network -- Japan's Nippon Telegraph and Telephone (TOKYO:9432) is planning to build a special nationwide telecommunications system for use in times of disaster such as earthquakes. The telephone company hopes to have the full system operating by the end of the century. 4 -> AMD/Sony Win Japanese Govt Award -- American Micro Devices and Sony Corporation have won this year's MITI Minister's Award. The award is presented by the Ministry of International Trade and Industry (MITI) and is designed to encourage use of foreign semiconductors by Japanese companies. 5 -> Samsung Chip Plant For Suzhou, China -- Korean electronics giant Samsung has begun construction of a new semiconductor assembly plant in Suzhou, China. 6 -> HK Telecom Shortlists Final Telecom Bids -- Apple Out -- Apple Out 07/20/95 CENTRAL, HONG KONG. 1995 JUL 20 (NB) 7 -> ****Editorial - Hubris And The Electronic Frontier Foundation -- By Kennedy Maize There is one word that describes the departure of the Electronic Frontier Foundation from Washington. Hubris. 8 -> Australia - Osborne Staff Have No Confidence In Boss -- Last week Australian PC Week published an interview with the CEO of Australian PC manufacturer Osborne, John Linton. This week it published two letters from employees saying that Linton was wrong in blaming others for the company's woes, and that they had no confidence in him. 9 -> HK Loses AST Factory Jobs -- AST has laid off 285 staff at its factory in Kwai Chung, Hong Kong, where motherboards and PCBs for desktop and server PCs are made. 10 -> Asian High-tech Theme Parks Plan -- Hong Kong-listed Grande Group has entered into a joint venture with Sega of Japan and SAFE Enterprises, the travel and leisure subsidiary of Singapore Technologies Industrial Corporation (STIC), to develop a S$50 million high technology amusement theme park in Singapore. 11 -> BSA Turns To Shanghai CD-ROM Pirates -- The Business Software Alliance (BSA) has scored its first anti-piracy victory in Shanghai, with the seizure of several hundred illegal CD-ROMs in joint raids with the Shanghai Municipal Administration for Industry and Commerce (AIC). 12 -> China - News Briefs -- In this roundup of news from China: major European telecommunication companies hold seminar in Beijing to push for Digital European Cordless Telecommunication standards; the quality of Chinese products keep improving; NEC will transfer advanced microchip technology; Sharp Electronics of Japan holds Multimedia Technology Exchange and Exhibition in Beijing, Alcatel Alsthom of France is building an experimental network for Beijing Telecommunication Administration. 13 -> CompuServe Brings Internet Software To Japan -- CompuServe's Internet Division has announced it will begin sales of localized versions of its Internet software packages in Japan. The products will be sold across the country thanks to a new distribution agreement with Trans Cosmos Incorporated (TCI). 14 -> Japan Newsbriefs -- In this roundup of news from Japan: Windows 95-J release date undecided; Sanyo to increase flash memory production; Japan's virtual election; Sony plans for the future; VCR shipments rise. 15 -> ****Justice Appears Ready To Lift IBM Restrictions -- IBM (NYSE:IBM) seems to have scored a major victory in its year-old campaign to remove restrictions imposed under antitrust law nearly 40 years ago. The US Justice Department has filed a brief in US District Court in New York indicating that it is ready to lift most restrictions imposed by the 1956 consent decree that arose out of antitrust investigation of the company. 16 -> New Pagemaker Creates Web Pages & More -- Adobe Systems Inc. (NASDAQ: ADBE) commemorated the 10th anniversary of the launch of Pagemaker by announcing a major upgrade the company said includes more than 50 new or enhanced features. Pagemaker 6.0 will be the first major upgrade to the page composition software since the September 1994 merger between Aldus Corporation and Adobe Systems. The new upgrades are for Windows and Macintosh. 17 -> OS/2 Conference - Vendors Unveil Applications -- At the OS/2 World Conference and Exhibition in Boston this week, vendors have unveiled OS/2 applications that include the TelePredictor network- based "predictive dialer," the CleverManage desktop and application management system for networks, and the American Heritage Dictionary and Roget's Thesaurus, plus updates to Compuware's RemoteControl/2 (RC/2) and Dr. Solomon's Anti-Virus Toolkit. 18 -> August Space Mission Comes To The Internet -- Cliff Kurtzman calls them Internauts, and if you are one you will be able to access photographs and real-time updates of a space mission scheduled for launch next month. 19 -> ****CompuServe, AOL, Prodigy Send Letter To Bill Gates -- Bob Massey, new chief executive officer (CEO) at CompuServe, Steve Case, America Online's CEO, and Edward Bennett, Prodigy's CEO, have penned and signed a letter to Microsoft CEO Bill Gates which urges him to unbundle Microsoft Network (MSN) from Windows 95. 20 -> SoftKey To Acquire Future Vision -- SoftKey International Inc. (NASDAQ:SKEY;TSE:SSK) has announced a deal that would see it take over multimedia software firm Future Vision Holding Inc., of New York, for about 1.1 million shares of SoftKey common stock. With SoftKey stock trading at $32.625 this morning, the transaction has a value of some $36 million. 21 -> ****Novell Files Patent Infringement Suits -- Novell Inc. (NASDAQ: NOVL) has filed various charges against two companies that include trademark and copyright infringement, fraudulent abuse of Novell's upgrade licensing program, and unfair competition. Charged in separate lawsuits are Network Trade Center (NTC) of Sandy, Utah and KIS Technology, of Gaithersberg, Maryland. 22 -> Wang Acquires Sigma Imaging For $20 Million -- Attempting to bolster the imaging business on which it has built most of its hopes for renewed success, Wang Laboratories Inc. (NASDAQ:WANG) has announced it will acquire Sigma Imaging Systems Inc, a maker of imaging and work-flow automation software. 23 -> Internet Survey Finds 1/3 Of Users Women -- O'Reilly & Associates, well known computer and Internet book publisher, released preliminary findings of a survey of the Internet. Early results indicate one-third of Internet users are women. 24 -> TRW Gets Patent For Odyssey Satellite System -- TRW Inc. (NYSE:TRW) said it has been issued a patent for its Odyssey satellite-based worldwide cellular telephone system by the US Patent and Trademark Office. 25 -> Sprint's Record Results -- Sprint (NYSE:FON) reported record quarterly revenues and operating income for its second quarter 1995. Earnings rose 11.6 percent to $246 million, or 70 cents a share, while revenues increased 6.8 percent to $3.37 billion. 26 -> Review of - Personal Scribe 1000 CD-Recorder -- Review of Personal Scribe 1000 CD-Recorder. Runs on: 486 or Pentium PC. 27 -> ****IBM Elaborates On OS/2 Activities -- IBM will deliver the PowerPC edition of OS/2 Warp in the fourth quarter of 1995, and the company's support for OS/2 ranges from letters sent out over online services to new programs for spurring OS/2 application development by third-party developers, said IBM officials, during the second of two press briefings at the OS/2 World Conference in Boston. 28 -> ****Electronic Scam Charges Filed Against Six -- The electronic version of the aluminum siding salesman who takes your money but doesn't deliver the product or sells a defective product has apparently arrived in Minnesota, and probably in your state too. At least that's what the Minnesota Attorney General, Hubert Humphrey III says. 29 -> ****Home Virtual Reality Too Expensive For Hasbro -- Hasbro Inc. (ASE:HAS) said it's quitting plans to bring a mass-market virtual reality (VR) game system to the homes of America, because it would be too expensive for most consumers. (Wendy Woods/19950720) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 07/14/95 GENERAL Japan Newsbriefs (NEWS)(GENERAL)(TYO)(00001) Japan Newsbriefs 07/14/95 TOKYO, JAPAN, 1995 JUL 14 (NB) -- In this roundup of news from Japan: joint semiconductor plant mulled; Sanyo Electric profits up; Akai president resigns; MITI to release CD-ROM; Fujitsu's Teleparc available. Joint Semiconductor Plant Mulled Several major Japanese computer and electronics companies are considering joint production of next generation silicon wafers. The possible tie up will focus on production and development of 12-inch diameter silicon wafers, according to an NEC spokesman, quoted by Japanese newspapers. Currently the world standard size for such wafers is 8-inch diameter although larger wafers will make production of next generation computer chips both cheaper and easier. Other companies reported to be considering the possible venture include Sony, Toshiba, Fujitsu and Hitachi. Sanyo Electric Profits Up Profits for the six months to 31st May 1995 at Sanyo Electric reveal a strong increase in net profits on increased sales. Sales for the period were 823 billion yen ($9.41 billion) against 767 billion yen ($8.77 billion) for the corresponding period a year before. Net profits were up 376% from 1.44 billion yen ($16.5 million) to 6.86 billion yen ($78.4 million). The increased sales prompted the Tokyo- based consumer electronics company to predict increased net profits for the year to 30th November to rise 32.5% from 11.33 billion yen ($129 million) to 15.00 billion yen ($171 million). Akai President Resigns Koji Taneda has resigned as president of Akai Electric Co. Ltd., the company announced. Replacing Taneda is James Ting, president of Semi-Tech (Global) Co Ltd., Akai's parent company. Semi-Tech acquired a stake in Akai this year and the resignation coincides with transfer of control to Semi Tech. Akai recently acquired a Hong Kong electronics producer and announced it would move production outside of Japan. MITI To Release CD-ROM Japan's Ministry of Trade and Industry (MITI) has announced it will release a CD-ROM version of its annual white paper this year. The new format follows a growing trend among Japanese government departments to release information in such a form. The CD-ROM may also include up to 400 charts and will be principally aimed at users outside of MITI who need access to the information. The ministry says the CD will retail for less than 1,000 yen ($11.43). Fujitsu's Teleparc Available Fujitsu's new Teleparc magazine, featured by Newsbytes last month, is now available on the Internet. Teleparc is initially free and will move to a subscription basis in six months. The magazine will focus on pop culture and entertainment from Asia, especially the streets of Tokyo, and is aimed at 20 and 30-year-olds. Published in both English and Japanese, Teleparc can now be found on the Internet's World Wide Web at http://teleparc.infoweb.or.jp/ . (Martyn Williams/19950714) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 07/14/95 BROADCAST China To Launch Digital Pay TV Service (NEWS)(BROADCAST)(TYO)(00002) China To Launch Digital Pay TV Service 07/14/95 BEIJING, CHINA, 1995 JUL 14 (NB) -- China Central Television (CCTV) has signed a contract for the supply of digital television decoder boxes that will allow the national broadcaster to begin a series of cable pay TV channels. CCTV has ordered 1,500 Digicipher decoders from General Instrument. Three decoders will be distributed to each of 500 cable TV network operators in the country for reception and decryption of three new digital pay TV channels. The channels will be broadcast on a single transponder of the ChinaSat 5 satellite for domestic distribution. Digicipher will also be employed on a transponder on the yet-to-be-launched Asiasat 2 satellite which will be used to further strengthen CCTV's domestic and international distribution. China is often viewed as the greatest untapped television audience in the world and selection of Digicipher technology by the national broadcaster was a source of great pride for General Instrument President and Chief Operating Officer Richard S. Friedland, who said in a statement, "CCTV's selection of GI as its technology partner to address the largest developing market in the world is a milestone for GI and a strong endorsement of our digital system and the advanced security we are able to provide for our customers." "General Instrument has demonstrated leadership in digital compression and access control and encryption technology," said Vice Minister Yang Weiguang, president of the Ministry of Radio and TV, controllers of CCTV. China has around 1,100 cable television networks, half of them privately owned, according to a recent report by the official Xinhua news agency. The networks reach around 30 million people currently with the figure rising to 100 million families by 2005. (Martyn Williams/19950714/Press contact : Karen Kane, General Instrument, +1-312-541-5011) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 07/14/95 ONLINE Fujitsu's Multimedia Info Service (NEWS)(ONLINE)(TYO)(00003) Fujitsu's Multimedia Info Service 07/14/95 TOKYO, JAPAN, 1995 JUL 14 (NB) -- A five company consortium have announced they have begun trials of a new multimedia information service called Media Tower. The new system utilizes NTT's B-ISDN network to provide a business information-on-demand service. Computer and electronics company Fujitsu Limited is joined by the Nihon Keizai Shimbun, a leading financial newspaper, Nikkei Business Publications, a magazine publisher, NHK Joho Network, the news TV branch of national broadcasters NHK, and JTB Media Creation, a travel industry news service from Japan Travel Bureau. Initially the service is being tested for one year among the five companies that are providing the service as part of a joint technology and multimedia experiment with Nippon Telegraph and Telephone. NTT is providing free access to its high speed fiber network and technical assistance, according to Fujitsu. Fujitsu's computer and network technology is responsible for bringing together the newspaper, magazine, television and online travel information in a system the company calls "Media Mixing." To use the service a customer must install video servers at its premises. This video server is connected to a Media Tower service center via 1.5 Mbps or 64 Kbps N-ISDN lines which later connect onto NTT's 150Mbps ATM switched fiber backbone. Users access the local video server via personal computers, equipped with MPEG video cards, via a LAN (local area network). Fujitsu says that users can easily access any information on the service from desktop PCs. During its test phase, Media Tower is offering video news reports alongside related newspaper stories, new product information and catalogs, reports and photos from industry exhibitions and world travel information including maps, photos and videos. As the system develops, Fujitsu's Mike Bierne told Newsbytes, more information providers will be recruited to join and there won't be any restrictions on who can join. "Even our biggest competitors can join the system, we aren't making any restrictions." The experimental Media Tower central server is at Fujitsu's Kawasaki Engineering Center in Kawasaki, south of Tokyo. Local video servers are already installed at Fujitsu's Tokyo headquarters and at the offices of the Nihon Business Publications. Initially around 60 to 100 minutes of video will be available per day. Fujitsu is already planning for the future -- possible applications are an image forwarding services whereby subscribers can send video across the network to other subscribers. The service will receive its public debut at the NetWorld+Interop 95 show at Tokyo's Makuhari Messe, which is being held from July 19th to 21st. (Martyn Williams/19950713/Press contact : Mike Bierne, Fujitsu Ltd, +81-3-3215-5236, fax +81-3-3213-4160, Internet email : mike@hq.fujitsu.co.jp) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 5 07/14/95 ONLINE ****Online Services To Reach 11M Users In ' (NEWS)(ONLINE)(BOS)(00004) ****Online Services To Reach 11M Users In '95 07/14/95 BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS, U.S.A., 1995 JUL 14 (NB) -- With Microsoft Network expected to arrive in August, the number of subscribers to consumer-oriented online services soared to a record high of more than 8.5 million by the end of June, and that number could hit 11 million by the end of 1995, said officials of Business Research Publications, during a press conference at the Interactive Services Association (ISA) Conference in Boston. On the whole, the online services experienced a 64 percent increase in subscribership over June of 1994, with the "big six" services -- Compuserve, America Online, Prodigy, Delphi, eWorld and Genie -- enjoying much of the growth, maintained Rod Kuckro, editor of the market research firm's Information & Interactive Services Report (IISR), speaking at the press conference, which was attended by Newsbytes. Kuckro attributed a large part of the past year's sales surge to a flurry of promotional activities over the past three months, aimed at signing up customers prior to Microsoft Network's anticipated launch date of August 24. From the end of March to the end of June alone, more than 1.25 million memberships were added to the ranks of consumer-oriented online services, the industry newsletter editor told the journalists. New memberships in Microsoft Network will account for much of an anticipated further rise to over 11 million online service customers by the close of 1995, said Gary Arlen, senior editor of IISR, another speaker at the press event. Still, all but four of the "big six" providers experienced double- digit growth from March to June of 1995, even before Microsoft Network's upcoming debut, according to the two officials. IISR data shows that, at the end of June, the tallies stood at 3.2 million subscribers for Compuserve, 3 million subscribers for America Online (AOL), 1.6 million for Prodigy, 140,000 for Delphi, 90,000 for Eworld, and 75,000 for Genie. These figures represent increased subscriberships of 19 percent, 50 percent, 23 percent, and 13 percent, respectively, for Compuserve, AOL, Prodigy, and eWorld from March to June. Subscriberships to Delphi and Genie showed no change over the three-month period. Many regional Internet access providers are also adding new customers, and although their focus is still primarily on business users, IISR has noticed a trend toward greater emphasis on consumers among these services, according to Arlen. But the market for consumer-oriented online services will continue, despite the growth of the Web, asserted Arlen. Many consumers are still "daunted by the Web," Arlen added. For these individuals, using a commercial service when venturing online can be like buying a "$9.95 travel book" when planning a trip to a country overseas, he illustrated. Commercial online services are able to give consumers "just what they need," without being overwhelming, he said. Kuckro and Arlen, however, also predicted growing consolidation in the industry, to the point where the "big six" commercial online service providers will be transformed into the "big three." The three service providers that do not make it into the "big six" will probably survive as "niche" services, joining the ranks of dozens of other online services already in this category, according to the IISR officials. The IISR data incorporates "paying subscribers" only, thereby excluding free, one-month trial memberships, Arlen noted. As a general rule, users of commercial online services show "little brand loyalty," with the exception of long-time Compuserve users, Kuckro contended. (Jacqueline Emigh/19950714/Reader and Press Contacts: Business Research Publications, 202-842-3022; Interactive Services Association, 301-495-4955) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 07/14/95 ONLINE ISA Conference - Prodigy, AOL, 9 Others Win Awards (NEWS)(ONLINE)(BOS)(00005) ISA Conference - Prodigy, AOL, 9 Others Win Awards 07/14/95 BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS, U.S.A., 1995 JUL 14 (NB) -- Prodigy, America Online (AOL), Northern Telecom, Visa Interactive, MCI, CBS, Fox, PC Financial Network (PCFN), BFD Productions Networks/WLUP-FM, Northern Telecom, and a top Nynex official were all named winners in the Interactive Services Association (ISA)'s 1995 awards competition, during a ceremony at the 10th annual ISA Conference in Boston. Prodigy is a winner in a pair of categories. Prodigy Services Company received the ISA's Outstanding Achievement Award, presented to "recognize an organization for its pioneering efforts, leadership, persistence, and outstanding accomplishments over the years." In addition, the Prodigy World Wide Web Browser was given the ISA's prize for "Online and Internet Innovation." In making this award, ISA judges noted that Prodigy has become the largest dial-up Internet access provider, with 700,000 subscribers now using its browser. Prodigy's success on the Web was attributed to "using the least- cost route." Prodigy "placed its bets early and used a tiny development staff," the judges added. AOL will take home the prize for "Online and Internet Design" for its new Multimedia Software. The judges described AOL's new GUI (graphical user interface) as "crisp, colorful, and easy to navigate." Since introducing the new software to its online service, AOL has added one million new subscribers in less than one month, according to the officials. PCFN got the ISA's nod for "Online and Internet Best Application." Initially unveiled on Prodigy in 1990, PCFN is now considered the largest online brokerage service. The judges praised the service as "an excellent example of how the online medium can add great value to a function that is traditionally telephone-based." Fox, CBS, BFD/WLUP-FM, and Visa Interactive all earned prizes for other "killer apps." Fox's Melrose Place Interactive Radio Game, which was produced by Interactive Marketing Inc., was honored in the category of "Interactive Marketing: Best Online Business-to- Consumer Application." Dubbed by the judges a "unique, localized approach," Fox's promotion offered radio listeners a chance to win a trip to a Melrose Place party by calling a local number to answer multiple- choice trivia questions about the primetime soap opera. The callers' answers triggered pre-recorded response from the Melrose Place actors. Installments of Melrose Place aired after the Fox promotion reportedly received the highest ratings ever for the TV series. The promotion was also credited with allowing Fox "to collect accurate and immediate feedback about the effect of each radio station's participation." CBS was recognized for CBS Marketing Interactive on Prodigy, a service introduced in February, 1994, as well as for CBS Eye on the Net, a Web version launched a year later. The Prodigy edition has generated more than 4.5 million "hits," permitting the service to sell "substantial amounts of advertising," according to the ISA officials. The CBS Web site is regarded as the first "full-time presence on the Web" by a TV network. The two services from CBS shared this year's ISA award for "Interactive Marketing: Best Online Business- to-Consumer application." BFD and WLUP-FM ("The Loop" Radio) teamed on The Loop Phone Shopping Network, winner of the ISA award for "Interactive Telephone Best Application." The service, which uses AT&T Vari-a- Bill, is designed to let callers dial a 900 number, listen to music samples from CDs, and buy the CDs -- as well as T-shirts, hats, and videos -- on the same phone call, with all charges appearing one the caller's phone bill, instead of a credit card bill. This year's award for "Screen Telephone Best Application" went to Visa Interactive for its Remote Banking Application on PhonePlus, an application that has now been deployed in more than 50,000 homes across the US. The judges commended Visa for the "pioneering" approach of using an ATM (automated teller machine)-like interface that is designed with consumer "ease-of-use" in mind. Also in the screen phone arena, Northern Telecom's Nortel PowerTouch 350 Screen Telephone took applause from the judges for its "breakthrough" design. The new phone, winner of the ISA's "Screen Telephone Innovation" award, features a backlit screen, as well as a modular design aimed at gradual upgradability to "new functionality and applications." The prize for "Interactive Telephone Design" went to Nickelodeon's Slime Time Sweepstakes, produced by Interactive Marketing Inc. In the sweepstakes, kids were asked to call a 900 number to enter. Fifteen entrants, chosen at random, were then given video phones for use in playing games "live on the air." The ISA judges reported that the videophone design "made it easy for the kids to use, worked within the current technology, and was extremely attractive to kids." In another aspect of telephony, MCI received the "Interactive Telephone Innovation" award for its 1-900-GET-INFO service. This service provides long-distance information for 75 cents, plus an offer to connect the call. Referring to the 900 service "an easy way to find a number and place a call," the judges pointed to the offering as exemplifying MCI's "commitment to the pay-per-call industry." Also at the ceremony, Kingsley "King" Nelson, VP of interactive services for Nynex, received the ISA's Distinguished Service Award, in recognition of his contributions to both the ISA and the interactive services industry. Nelson previously served as product manager for 976 services and as head of new product development for Nynex, before moving to his current position, in which he is responsible for new business development and for Nynex's move into interactive video. (Jacqueline Emigh/19950714/Reader and Press Contact: Interactive Services Association, 301-495-4955) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 07/14/95 EDITORIAL GENERAL Editorial - More Than Your Average Gee-Gaw (EDITORIAL)(GENERAL)(SFO)(00006) Editorial - More Than Your Average Gee-Gaw 07/14/95 SAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1995 JUL 14 (NB) -- By Patrick McKenna. Computer journalists have cupboards full of coffee cups, T-shirts, and other novelty items from computer firms designed to impress upon them a slogan or product. So you can imagine my surprise when I received a document instead of a gee-gaw this time, telling me I had adopted and protected one acre of rain forest in Costa Rica, courtesy of Silicon Graphics. Today, I want to tip my hat and say, "Way to go, Silicon Graphics." This week, Silicon Graphics (SGI) introduced two powerful computers under the Indigo2 Impact name. Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Ed McCracken presented an impressive display of High Impact and Maximum Impact, the two models of the new series. They were introduced as a "non-linear" system, because they are not, according to SGI, just another step up from the Indigo2 Extreme. The Impact line provides as much as 100 times the complex visualizing power of the Extreme. At the end of the presentation, reporters and analysts were handed a 10 x 12-inch gray envelope. No coffee cup, no T-shirt? Inside the envelope, was a framed certificate from The Nature Conservancy. Under a photograph of a tropical forest scene, it reads: "The Nature Conservancy . . . gratefully recognizes (reporter's name) for adopting and protecting one acre of rain forest in the Talamanca-Caribbean Biological Corridor, Costs Rica." Yes, hard core types can say this is still just a business promotion, but I like the idea. This gesture by Silicon Graphics shows the computer industry contributing to an important issue outside of its own interest. I spoke with Silicon Graphics spokesperson Carl Furry who said SGI wanted to do something different, something "non-linear." "The credit for this idea has to go to the entire team who put the presentation together. It is not just one person's idea. We thought it would work well and fit into the concept that the Impact line is a dramatic step forward, not just an incremental improvement." He said SGI purchased 100 certificates from The Nature Conservancy and handed out 65 to the various analysts and reporters. Somewhere in Costa Rica there are 100 acres of rain forest being protected. I like that idea and as SGI officials said: "Today, we are making an impact in more ways than one." The Nature Conservancy's Adopt An Acre Program is open to the public. For more information call 1-800-84-ADOPT. (Patrick McKenna/19950714/Press Contact: Susan Austin, Silicon Graphics, tel 415-390-3233) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 07/14/95 WINDOWS Comdex/Canada - Intergraph's Jupiter Debuts (NEWS)(WINDOWS)(TOR)(00007) Comdex/Canada - Intergraph's Jupiter Debuts 07/14/95 TORONTO, ONTARIO, CANADA, 1995 JUL 14 (NB) -- At the Comdex/Canada trade show, Intergraph Corp. showed off the first fruits of its new Jupiter technology, which it described as an architecture for graphics applications. Building largely on Microsoft's Object Linking and Embedding (OLE) specifications, Jupiter makes it possible for graphics modules to work together, explained Kevin Johnstone, an applications engineer with Intergraph Canada Ltd. of Calgary. He said Intergraph's Jupiter products -- the first of which was demonstrated at the show and will be available this fall -- will be able to cooperate among themselves and with other vendors' graphics products, such as the AutoCAD computer-aided design software from Autodesk Inc. For instance, Intergraph said, a valve and a meter drawn in different design packages could be dropped into Intergraph's new technical sketching package, where a pipe could be added to connect them. By allowing separate packages to interact, Johnstone said, Jupiter aims to let customers choose just the functions they need and mix and match components from different vendors. "In our opinion that's the way the whole industry is moving." Microsoft's OLE 4 specification, available to all software vendors, is a key to Intergraph's plans, but the company may build in compatibility with some key applications that lack OLE 4 support as well, Johnstone told Newsbytes. The first Jupiter product is Imagineer Technical, a sketching package for Windows that Johnstone said will be available in early October. A mechanical design package is expected at about the same time. Imagineer was on display at Comdex/Canada. Intergraph also showed at Comdex its new TD and TDZ lines of personal workstations, based on Intel Corp.'s Pentium processor, and four software suites: Architectural Office, Mapping Office, Civil Engineering Office, and Design and Engineering Office. (Grant Buckler/19950713/Press Contact: Gail Robinson, Intergraph Canada, 403-569-5864, fax 403-569-5801; Public Contact: Intergraph Canada, 800-461-5297, Internet World Wide Web http://www.ingr.com/visual/visual.shtml ) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 07/14/95 UNIX DEC Aims At Magic Price Points With AlphaStations (NEWS)(UNIX)(TOR)(00008) DEC Aims At Magic Price Points With AlphaStations 07/14/95 MAYNARD, MASSACHUSETTS, U.S.A., 1995 JUL 14 (NB) -- Digital Equipment Corp. (NYSE:DEC) has unveiled a new top-of-the-line AlphaStation workstation and done over an entry-level model, shooting for two price points the company sees as hot buttons for some of its customers. Digital claimed its new AlphaStation 600 line gives it a performance lead in the workstation market that should last a year or more. At the same time, the most basic version of the new 600 will list at $29,300, bringing it in under the $30,000 mark. The entry-level AlphaStation 200, meanwhile, has been redesigned and the most basic configuration marked down from $5,495 to $4,995, so that it scrapes in under the $5,000 mark. Other AlphaStation 200 models now cost $10,900 and $14,100. "In some accounts, there's a requirement to hit a magic price point," said Charlie Mascari, a multimedia product planner in DEC's graphics and multimedia product group. For the AlphaStation 600, price is not the whole story. DEC is touting the machine's performance as well. Macscari told Newsbytes the 600 is more than 60 percent faster than rival Hewlett-Packard Co.'s HP 735-125 system, and 150 percent faster than Sun Microsystems Inc.'s SPARCstation 2061. Added Don Bradley, a Digital spokesman: "We feel that this is literally a year's lead." While the 600 starts at less than $30,000 for a basic configuration designed to run Microsoft's Windows NT operating system, more powerful versions set up for Unix or Digital's OpenVMS operating system cost from $31,800 to about $45,000. Admitting that Unix is the operating system of choice in the high-end scientific and technical market the 600 is meant to address, Mascari said he doubts the entry-level configuration will be the highest volume version of the machine. Another features of the AlphaStation 600 is a 64-bit implementation of the Peripheral Component Interconnect (PCI) bus, which DEC is claiming as a first. As for the AlphaStation 200, Mascari stressed that the slimmed-down new version is "not a diskless system. This is not a dysfunctional system. This is a functional system out of the box." Digital has tightened up the Unix operating system that runs on the machine so that it needs only 24 megabytes (MB) of memory instead of 32, he explained, making it possible to offer the lower-priced machine. The two models of the AlphaStation 600 -- the 5/300 and the 5/266 -- both use DEC's Alpha 21164 reduced instruction set computing (RISC) processor, billed as the first to handle more than one billion instructions per second. Some versions are available now, while others will be available in the fourth quarter of this year. DEC also announced the availability of new graphics adapters from Evans and Sutherland, and a line of multimedia enhancements for the AlphaStation line. (Grant Buckler/19950714/Press Contact: Ed Canty, Digital, 508-264- 6672; Sarah Miller, Digital, 508-264-6673; Patrick Ward, Digital, 508-264-6696; Donald Bradley, Digital, 508-264-6678; Karen Quatromoni, Digital, 508-493-5848) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 07/14/95 LEGAL English Law On Computer Evidence To Be Reformed (NEWS)(LEGAL)(LON)(00009) English Law On Computer Evidence To Be Reformed 07/14/95 LONDON, ENGLAND, 1995 JUL 14 (NB) -- The English Law Commission, the body that oversees the reform and renewal of the law, has recommended a simplification of the way in which evidence from a computer should be handled in criminal cases. The rules under which evidence can be admitted (i.e. put before a jury for consideration) have always attracted far less public attention than the substantiative laws about "computer crime," Newsbytes notes, yet computer crime prosecutions, just like all other prosecutions, require the existence of reliable and believable evidence. The rules cover any sort of crime: theft, Companies Act offenses, tax breaches, even blackmail, as well as the computer-specific charges of the Computer Misuse Act which addresses unauthorized access (hacking) and unauthorized data modification (logic bombs and viruses). Evidence extracted from computers -- disk files, data files caught in transmission, core dumps, screen captures, logs, audit trails, and the conclusions of artificial intelligence programs -- have always created difficulty for juries because such evidence is not immediately viewable in its native format and because it is so easily changed invisibly. Since the mid 1960s English Law has sought to protect juries by making an assumption that computer evidence is inherently unreliable unless it is accompanied by a certificate of normal working issued by someone who normally uses the computer. This provision was included in the Civil Evidence Act of 1968 and, in a slightly less stringent form, in section 69 of the Police and Criminal Evidence Act, 1984. The difficulty has been that defense lawyers have sometimes tried to produce complex technical defenses around the validity of Section 69 certificates without looking at the substance of the charge. In one case which ended up in the UK's highest court, the House of Lords, a woman had been charged with shoplifting some meat from a branch of Marks and Spencers market; she claimed she had purchased the meat at another branch. A store detective went through the till rolls (computer evidence) and established the shoplifter was lying. The store detective issued a Section 69 certificate and the shoplifter's lawyer suggested that the store detective was not qualified to issue the certificate. The House of Lords, on the facts, disagreed. The English Law Commission has recommended that Section 69 be repealed and that in future, computer evidence be regarded as reliable unless there is an obvious contrary indication. This follows a similar recommendation in regard to Civil Law. It may be some time before the new procedures come into effect. The Law Commission's report is at this stage simply a Consultative Paper with comments required by October 31 of this year. A final report would then appear 18 to 24 months later. Newsbytes notes there is also the question of finding Parliamentary time for a topic of great interest to some lawyers and computer dependent companies but one with relatively small opportunities for glory for sponsoring politicians. The Law Commission Consultation Paper No 138: "Evidence in Criminal Proceedings: Hearsay and Related Topics" is published by HMSO (Her Majesty's Stationery Office) at UKP 19.95. (Peter Sommer/19950713/Press & Reader Contact: English Law Commission ++44-171-453-1232) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 07/14/95 TRENDS UK - 37% Of SOHO PC Users Read Computer Mags (NEWS)(TRENDS)(LON)(00010) UK - 37% Of SOHO PC Users Read Computer Mags 07/14/95 LONDON, ENGLAND, 1995 JUL 14 (NB) -- The results from the 1995 Banner Computing Readership Survey (BCRS), which Banner clams is the only independent computer survey for the IT (information technology) industry in the UK, claims to show a number of interesting facts about the SOHO (small office, home office) market in the UK. According to Banner, "with the escalating SOHO mania, a week does not pass without a SOHO news item, supplement of launch of yet another SOHO computing title." The BCRS has previously only measured readership and purchasing habits of computer specifiers in large organizations, but has now been expanded to include the SOHO market. According to Louise Stuart-Muir, a spokeswoman for Banner, the SOHO survey covers operations of between 1 and 50 employees, and encompasses vast quantities of statistics, including what equipment companies have installed, what their proposed purchases in the next 12 months are, which exhibitions they attend and other information. The report showed that, out of the total number of small businesses within the UK, less than half owned a computer. Of those that do own PCs, 20 percent use Amstrad, 20 percent use IBM, nine percent use Olivetti, and nine percent use Apple Computer. The most popular portables, meanwhile, are Toshiba with seven percent, Compaq with four percent and Apple with three percent. The type of hardware being used within the SOHO market suggests that small businesses find it difficult to keep abreast of rapidly changing technology -- they miss out on new ways of working, spend more than necessary and make costly errors because they are inadequately informed. Considering the vast number of SOHO-focused computer titles, Banner claims it is alarming to learn that small businesses actually invest very little money buying new or updating existing, computers. As many as 65 percent of small businesses have an annual computer budget of less than UKP 5,000; 14 percent have a budget of between UKP 5,000 and UKP 9,999, and six percent spend between UKP 10,000 and UKP 14,999. 63 percent of small businesses still use dot matrix printers, while the criteria for buying software and hardware appears to be quite arbitrary for small business people, 12 percent of whom purchase from PC superstores with little specialist knowledge or backup. When looking for advice, 30 percent rely on recommendations from colleagues or associates, 21 percent turn to computer dealers, and 17 percent seek guidance from specialist magazines. "Considering that most current Internet users are academics and techno-nerds," the report says, "it is not surprising to discover that a mere six percent of the SOHO market are currently using the Internet, although 18 percent expect to be online within the next 12 months. "What is more alarming to learn is that 83 percent of current Internet users do not expect to be using the Internet within the next 12 months," the report notes. The BCRS is published annually by marketing communications company Banner & Co., and claims to research and measure both the readership and purchasing habits of computer specifics in large organizations and within the SOHO market. According to Banner, the report is geared to the needs of marketeers and has been awarded the seal of approval by the Institute of Practioners in Advertising, which goes to surveys recognized for a specific technical standard, and are considered to be particularly relevant to the market. (Sylvia Dennis/19950713/Press Contact: Stewart-Muir PR +44-171-223- 4590; Internet Email 100610.3045@compuserve.com; Reader Contact: Banner & Co _44-171-351-4488; Internet Email: research_group@bannerco.com) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 07/14/95 GOVT China - Rail Tickets Computerized (NEWS)(GOVT)(PEK)(00011) China - Rail Tickets Computerized 07/14/95 BEIJING, CHINA, 1995 JUL 14 (NB) -- Beijing Railway Station will begin using computers to sell tickets for the train from Beijing to Qinhuangdao in Hebei province starting tomorrow, the culmination of a 20-year dream of China's Ministry of Railway. The whole railway system in China is operated and managed by one single government agency, the Ministry of Railway. The use of computers for railway ticket sales was proposed in 1975, Mr. Yu Lihua, Ministry of Railway's computer network chief engineer said. The system, consisting of German-made computers and Chinese-developed software, went into trial use on May 15 for Beijing-Tianjin passenger trains. A total of 230,000 tickets were sold through the system at Beijing Railway Station by the end of June. Regular railway tickets in China are made from 1/32-inch-thick cardboard with a size of 1 inch x 2 inches. Ticket sellers must sort and stamp manually all of these small cardboard pieces for numerous railway routes at thousands of different prices. For example, there are 148 different ticket prices for the Beijing-Shanghai route alone. When there is a change of the name of a station or the price of tickets, all existing tickets must be destroyed and replaced with new ones. It usually takes about three months to print a new set of tickets, a source said. In September, computerized ticket sales system will be used for trains from Beijing to Guangzhou in Guangdong province, the ministry source said. Computer ticket sales systems will also be installed in other major train stations, but no time frame for such installations was given. (Chih-Ho Yu & Ning Huang/19950709/Reader Contact: Ministry of Railway, tel +86-10 326-9327) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 07/14/95 LEGAL China - Compaq Aims At Computer Smuggling (NEWS)(LEGAL)(PEK)(00012) China - Compaq Aims At Computer Smuggling 07/14/95 BEIJING, CHINA, 1995 JUL 14 (NB) -- Compaq Computer Corp. has applauded the Chinese government's campaign against computer smuggling. Recently, the General Administration of Customs (GAC) and Ministry of Electronics Industry (MEI) signed a memorandum of understanding agreeing to launch a joint effort against computer smuggling. Compaq is the first foreign computer company to respond to the joint action. T.C. Hsi, Compaq's managing director responsible for the China market, recently urged customers to buy Compaq computers through normal channels, adding that this will ensure customers will receive all services provided by the company. Buyers of legitimate Compaq computers will be offered registration cards and provided with customer support. Compaq has become one of the main targets of computer smuggling, Hsi said. A campaign against smuggling will benefit the computer firm, its customers, and the computer and electronics industry of China, he added. Computer smuggling has been rampant in recent years, according to a source with the Computer Department of MEI, who adds that of the 718,000 computers sold in China last year, about 60 percent were imported through "informal" channels, including smuggling. Because customs departments found computer smuggling difficult to detect, they have sought cooperation with the computer industry. Under the memorandum of understanding between GAC and MEI, MEI will provide GAC with information of industry policies, market supply, market demand, and prices. The Ministry will also provide clues about likely smuggling routes. (Chih-Ho Yu & Ning Huang/19950709) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 07/14/95 ONLINE "The Net" Magazine Opens New Web Site (NEWS)(ONLINE)(SFO)(00013) "The Net" Magazine Opens New Web Site 07/14/95 BURLINGAME, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1995 JUL 14 (NB) -- The Net, a new hip and irreverent computer magazine, announced The Nest, calling it an equally fun and informative World Wide Web site. With the first three issues of the graphically bright and striking magazine under its belt, the staff is taking the same approach to its Web site. Editor-in-chief Mark Frost says The Net is a serious magazine about the Internet and the online services, but at the same time sassy and filled with bold graphics. The Nest is designed to compliment and work hand-in-hand with The Net. Published by Imagine Publishing (previously GP Publishing), The Net is one of a family of magazines which include CD-ROM Today, Next Generation, Game Players and PC Gamer from Imagine. While it may be hip and neon, it is serious enough to have one of its premier articles on the Internet republished by the US Mint as a training aid. Frost says The Nest is a tool for beginners and advanced Internet users. In it is a directory of 750 hyperlinked Web sites, called the Blue Pages, where each site is given a brief description. There is also an archive of the magazine's features accompanied by the same bold graphics from The Net and a CyberGalleria displaying the cyber-art of Richard Downs and the magazine's contributing artists. Speaking to Newsbytes, Frost said, "The addition of the Web site is part of a three-pronged approach to bring our readers a full experience with our content. While The Nest does not offer the high resolution display of the magazine, it does offer our readers a more immediate, interactive experience. We are rounding out our strategy with a CD-ROM which will include dynamic files which are too long and time consuming for users to download online, especially those users accessing the Net with slower modems." The CD is expected to ship with the November issue of the magazine. Somewhere in The Nest, users will run into "WebRat and his porcine and simian pals," says Frost. What they do specifically on The Nest is not known, but the release states WebRat and his friends "contribute to the entropy of the universe by deliberately subverting the laws of reason and sanity. WebRat lives in the sewers below The Nest, chewing through cables and pipes and generally making a mess of things. WebRat lives to divert you from the real world." The Nest is scheduled to open on Saturday, July 15. (Patrick McKenna/19950713/Press Contact: Mark Frost, The Net, tel 415-696-1688; World Wide Web Address: http://www.thenet-usa.com / THENET950713/PHOTO) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 07/14/95 TELECOM ****Justice OKs Sprint Eurodeal (NEWS)(TELECOM)(WAS)(00014) ****Justice OKs Sprint Eurodeal 07/14/95 WASHINGTON, D.C., U.S.A., 1995 JUL 14 (NB) -- The antitrust division of the US Justice Department has given a green light to a bid by the French and German telephone companies to buy 20 percent of Sprint, the third largest US long-distance carrier. The approval of the $4.2 billion deal among Sprint, France Telecom and Deutsche Telekom sets the stage for global competition among large telecommunications alliances. The Sprint alliance will market its services under the brand name Phoenix. Earlier, British Telecom bought 20 percent of MCI for $4.3 billion. Those two companies are marketing services to multinational corporations in a joint venture name Concert. AT&T has an alliance with a group of European phone companies called Unisource. AT&T had lobbied against the Sprint alliance, arguing that the French and German phone monopolies were blocking new competitors inside their borders. To address that issue, Justice put restrictions on Sprint and its partners until competition opens in France and Germany. AT&T was cautious in responding to the approval. "We have long been on record with concerns that this venture would be anti-competitive if it allows the Sprint venture to provide service in the United States on terms that were not available to US firms seeking to compete in France and Germany," said an AT&T statement. The company said it would review the decree against that criterion. Under the consent decree, the Phoenix venture will not be allowed to buy services on a preferential basis from the French or German phone companies. Justice approval comes in the form of a consent decree which must be approved in federal court. The deal must also be approved by the Federal Communications Commission and the European Commission. "The consent decree is both fair and reasonable and is entirely consistent with the planned operational arrangements of the global venture," said J. Richard Devlin, a Sprint executive vice president, in a written statement. "It will allow the venture to be a strong, aggressive competitor in international telecommunications with the assurance for the Department of Justice that competition will be fair," said Devlin. Sprint and its European partners announced their deal a year ago. Sprint officials said yesterday that the consent decree lets them get immediately into offering multinationals a package of telephone and data services worldwide. (Kennedy Maize/19950714/Press Contact: Sydney Shaw, Sprint, 202-828-7428) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 07/14/95 TELECOM ****FCC Divides Spectrum (NEWS)(TELECOM)(WAS)(00015) ****FCC Divides Spectrum 07/14/95 WASHINGTON, D.C., U.S.A., 1995 JUL 14 (NB) -- The Federal Communications Commission yesterday proposed to split a portion of the upper part of the radio spectrum, settling a dispute between two different technologies competing for the spectrum. The proposed rules would authorize both satellite communications technologies and a wireless cable technology called local multipoint distribution service, or LMDS, to use the 28 GHz band. The satellite technology is being developed by Teledesic Corp., which includes investments by cellular phone pioneer Craig McCaw and Microsoft. It would launch some 800 satellites to orbit the Earth allowing people to send and receive voice, video and data around the world, something like a wireless Internet. Other satellite system under development, including Motorola's Iridium project, would not use the same piece of the spectrum as Teledesic requires. The competitor of the 28 GHz band, LMDS, delivers high quality video using a window-mounted, six-inch disk. Invented by Bernard Bossard, the system uses frequency modulation, or FM, rather than the amplitude modulation, or AM, used by cable and traditional TV broadcast. The technology can also deliver local phone and high speed data services. CellularVision, a small New Jersey company, has a pilot LMDS project underway in the Brighton Beach section of Brooklyn, NY. The FCC said CellularVision will get a pioneer license for the entire New York metropolitan area, although it may have to pay market value for the license. The FCC says it will issue licenses for LMDS nationwide, with auctions for the licenses next year. "We are pleased by the FCC's unanimous commitment today to LMDS," said Shant Hovanian, chief executive officer of CellularVision, in a written statement. "By proposing a regulatory framework to allow (CellularVision) and LMDS companies to use the 28 GHz band, the FCC has reaffirmed its commitment to the nationwide deployment of LMDS, and its position of promoting fair competition in the cable television and telephone industries." (Kennedy Maize/19950714/Press Contacts: Stacey Reuben Mesa, FCC, 202-418-0654; Shant Hovanian, CellularVision, 212-751-0900) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 07/14/95 ONLINE ISA Conference - Hottest Products In Cyberspace (NEWS)(ONLINE)(BOS)(00016) ISA Conference - Hottest Products In Cyberspace 07/14/95 BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS, U.S.A., 1995 JUL 14 (NB) -- What are the hottest new products in cyberspace today? During a plenary panel at the Interactive Services Association (ISA) Conference now going on in Boston, a panel of industry experts spotlit technologies ranging from electronic mail and the Netscape browser to Sun's HotJava, RSA encryption, wireless communications, and "multimedia content." In the opinion of Forrester Research, electronic mail is the "killer application" of today, said Mary Modahl, managing director, people and technology strategies, for the Boston-based market research firm. The New York Times' Peter Lewis, on the other hand, told the overflowing crowd that he finds HotJava Web technology, the Virtual Reality Markup Language (VRML), and electronic commerce applications to be some of the products that are "very cool." Harvey Poppel, managing director for Broadview Associates, enumerated a list that included wireless communications, multimedia content from Broderbund, and RSA encryption, along with a lot of electronic commerce technologies. Esther Dyson, another panelist, focused largely on the social and economic changes that online services are bringing. Soon, predicted Dyson, everyone will in society will "think they can be a reporter or publisher," although that will not really be true. Dyson also suggested that, at this point, it would make more sense for online services to "rent" rather than "buy" content. Forrester's Modahl advised the audience that declining prices are helping to popularize electronic mail, and that the new "killer app" is also playing a key role in boosting participation in online services. The upcoming Microsoft Network will serve as another big driver for online offerings, by supplying simple "one-button connectivity," according to the analyst. America Online (AOL), Prodigy, and Compuserve will continue to be major players in online services, predicted Modahl. But in the future, Web "browser guys" -- most notably, Netscape -- will come to dwarf any of the commercial online services in terms of numbers of users, she reported. In addition, she projected, we can now expect to see most online content move from commercial service to the Web, "with the exception of business-to-business content." Lewis, a reporter for the NY Times, characterized Netscape as "the new Visicalc." The acceptance of Netscape browsing has been exceptionally quick, Lewis noted. Only a year ago, he pointed out, Mosaic was the browser on everyone's lips. Lewis added that VRML, another one of his "picks," is a featured technology in a new interactive multimedia network that Stephen Spielberg's Starlight Foundation is producing for hospitalized kids. But, cautioned Lewis, it will still take "several years" for virtual reality (VR) to arrive at perfection. Electronic commerce applications, in the reporter's words, are "very, very cool." Broadview Associates' Poppel described the Internet as the latest on a list of "paradigm changes" that also includes the printing press, the mainframe, and the PC. Lotus, RSA, Open Market, CyberCash, CheckFree, and Summa Design are a few of the most important players in the electronic commerce industry now being born from the Web, according to the managing director. During a Q&A at the close of the session, Dyson, who is president of Edventure, elaborated on her suggestion that online service providers are better off "renting" content. In long-term deals, content providers are required to supply online providers with a steady stream of content, she asserted. In turn, online providers that have pre-purchased this content need to continue to "keep (the content providers) happy," she added. "Renting" this content, instead of buying it, would give online service providers more flexibility in terms of both content and their relationships with content providers, reasoned Dyson. (Jacqueline Emigh/19950714/Reader and Press Contact: Interactive Services Association, 301-495-4955) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 07/14/95 WINDOWS Comdex/Canada - BusinessVision 2000 Accounting Previewed (NEWS)(WINDOWS)(TOR)(00017) Comdex/Canada - BusinessVision 2000 Accounting Previewed 07/14/95 TORONTO, ONTARIO, CANADA, 1995 JUL 14 (NB) -- BusinessVision Management Systems Inc., offered a preview at the Comdex/Canada trade show this week of its BusinessVision 2000 for Windows accounting software. The Mississauga, Ontario company plans to release the package, its first offering for Microsoft Windows, this fall. According to BusinessVision, the new release will have two especially interesting features. Concurrency is the ability to run any module in either DOS or Windows, and is meant to make it easier for BusinessVision customers to make the move from DOS to Windows. Real-time computing ensures that up-to-the-minute information is instantly available. The new software will have 18 modules, and Rick Notman, director of reseller training, told Newsbytes this initial release is meant to be the top-of-the-line entry in what will probably become a selection of entry-level, mid-range, and high-end versions of the Windows software. BusinessVision will probably remove some modules that certain businesses would not need -- such as bill of materials -- and offer the slimmed-down versions at lower prices, he said. The initial release of BusinessVision 2000 for Windows will have a list price of C$3,995 for a single user, Notman said, or C$4,995 with support for multiple users over a local-area network (LAN). The company said BusinessVision 2000 will also come with customizable browse features, so that users can decide for themselves what information they want to see when browsing. The search capabilities will make it possible to search for data in any one or more of the 18 modules. Multi-threading will allow multiple modules to be uses at the same time. Finally, the company said the online help built into BusinessVision 2000 will not only help users use the program but offer advice on running their businesses. (Grant Buckler/19950714/Press Contact: Julian Aston or Kevin Hollis, BusinessVision, 905-629-3233; Mark Wessel, Novus Communications for BusinessVision, 905-564-3011; Public Contact: BusinessVision, 905-629-3233, fax 905-629-3208) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 07/14/95 TELECOM Germany - Martin Dawes' Profits Breakthrough (NEWS)(TELECOM)(LON)(00018) Germany - Martin Dawes' Profits Breakthrough 07/14/95 HAMBURG, GERMANY, 1885 JUL 14 (NB) -- Martin Dawes Germany, the German cellular comms company, has announced it has hit profitability for the first time. According to the German partner of Martin Dawes UK, an operating profit of DM 4.5 million ($3.2 million) was generated in the first five months of this year, as compared with a loss of DM 80 million during the whole of 1994. According to Bob Givens, general manager of Martin Dawes Germany, the breakthrough into profitability represents a major step for the company, given the highly competitive nature of the German mobile comms market-place. Martin Dawes (Germany) merged with Proficom Kommunikationsdeinste and Axion Mobil funkdienste in July of last year to form the new Martin Dawes Germany. Headed up by Givens, the aim of the merger was to bring the company back into profit, which appears to have happened with the relaunch of the company under the Cellway brand name. "I'm delighted that we have been able to turn the company around so quickly. Germany is one of the toughest markets in Europe, and with the privatization of Deutsche Telekom on the horizon, competitive pressures can only intensify," said Givens. According to Givens, the launch of the Cellway brand was key to the strategy and "I am delighted with the response we have had so far." According to Martin Dawes Germany, one of the reasons for the move back to the black in the competitive German mobile phone market was a decision to concentrate on key accounts in the auto and computer reseller markets. The company has been working with car manufacturers such as General Motors (Open and Vauxhall), Porsche, BMW and Nissan. This, the company claims, has allowed cellular phones to be sold to professional mobile communications technology users who have a high airtime usage. One interesting byproduct of pitching hard for high value customers, the company claims, is that losses on bad debts have decreased dramatically. "The only way for a service provider to guarantee healthy growth and financial success is to develop a high quality, loyal customer base," Givens explained. (Sylvia Dennis/19950714/Press Contact: Ina Hilbiber, Kaltwasser PR +49-911-364646) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 07/14/95 TELECOM Ericsson, Telia Plan Changes For Ellemtel (NEWS)(TELECOM)(LON)(00019) Ericsson, Telia Plan Changes For Ellemtel 07/14/95 STOCKHOLM, SWEDEN, 1995 JUL 14 (NB) -- Ericsson and Telia have signed a letter of intent, signifying that they plan to make significant changes to the business direction of joint venture Ellemtel Utvecklings. Ellemtel's activities will change from the current development of basic systems to developing services and management support systems. Ellemtel has around 800 staff and is a development company jointly owned by Ericsson and Telia. The design, according to Ericsson, is to further strengthen the two companies' roles as supplier (Ericsson) and network operator (Telia), respectively. According to Ericsson, the co-operation within Ellemtel has been very successful, with basic development of the AXE system have been a central task for several years. The change of direction for Ellemtel means that Ericsson will assume full responsibility for the development of broadband systems, a task which is currently carried out at Ellemtel. Ericsson's intention is to continue with Ellemtel's current activities as a separate development company, with existing employees. (Sylvia Dennis/19950714/Press Contact: Hakan Jansson, Telefonaktiebolaget Ericsson +46-1-8-719-7990; Ingmar Jonsson, Telia Network Services Division +46-=8-713-3190) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 07/14/95 TRENDS World's Smallest AM Radio (NEWS)(TRENDS)(LAX)(00020) World's Smallest AM Radio 07/14/95 CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1995 JUL 14 (NB) -- American Technology Corp. (OTC: ATCO), has manufactured and shipped its new miniature AM ear radio, AM Sounds. The company claims the one-half ounce AM radio is the smallest in the world. "The entire radio and speaker fits in your ear," David Hahn, marketing manager for American Technology told Newsbytes. "There are no hanging parts that need to be put on your belt. The entire radio is one inch high, one-quarter inch thick and one-half inch wide. It fits into one ear, leaving the other free." "It receives the entire AM range and tunes with your finger. The radio has 2 antennas with a remarkable range. With a button cell battery it can last over one-hundred hours of continuous listening," said Hahn. "AM Sounds, The World's Smallest AM Radio, follows our successful FM Sounds which was the world's smallest FM radio. Our new product is even smaller. We have sold over 250 thousand FM radios, and with the expansion of the AM talk and sports radio, we have been anxious to get into that market," said Hahn. "The first shipment of AM Sounds was made to Sharper Image, a leading national retailer with 85 stores as well as catalog distribution. Sharper Image, which already has marketed the FM Sounds, will now market both in a dual display," said Hahn. Robert Putnam, president of American Technology, stated that the launch of this patented product culminates nine months of intensive development. Hahn also pointed out that American Technology designs, tools, builds and ships from its San Diego plant. Both radios are made in the USA, he said. AM Sounds' suggested retail price is $29.95. (Richard Bowers/19950714/Press Contact: Robert Putnam,American Technology, 619-679-2114 ) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 07/14/95 TRENDS ****Intuit In Online Pacts with 19 Companies (NEWS)(TRENDS)(MSP)(00021) ****Intuit In Online Pacts with 19 Companies 07/14/95 NEW YORK CITY, NEW YORK, U.S.A., 1995 JUL 14 (NB) -- Intuit Inc. (NASDAQ:INTU) announced it is teaming with 19 banks and financial services companies to let computer users bank and perform other financial tasks online with a new version of Intuit's "Quicken" product. The announcement was made in a news teleconference today held in both New York City and San Francisco, which Newsbytes attended. Details on pricing, availability, and specifics on how the system will work will be available when the next version of Quicken is announced, officials said. The services should be up and running by fall, and the cost should be less than previous online banking services, especially because using "silicon and software," as one Intuit official put it, will allow costs to drop down the road. The service itself should be easier to use, officials added. Intuit said today's announcement reflects a number of "firsts," including the first endorsement of a single system for online banking by many large financial institutions, the first to link financial institutions to millions of customers already using financial software, and the first system designed for users on all leading operating systems, which are Windows 3.1, Windows 95, and Macintosh. An Intuit official told the news conference the new system will help customers keep records, because "when a financial institution downloads its transactions to Quicken, Quicken then updates the records. Basically you get updated records without doing a lot of typing." He said this feature essentially eliminates one of the reasons people have not used financial software, it virtually eliminates the typing in of data. The efforts announced today are intended to allow Quicken users to link to these institutions: American Express, Bank of Boston, Centura Bank, Chemical Bank, The Chase Manhattan Bank, Compass Bank, CoreStates Bank, First National Bank of Chicago (which just announced plans to merge with NBD Bancorp in Detroit), First Interstate Bank, Home Savings of America, M&T Bank, Marquette Banks, Michigan National Bank, Sanwa Bank California, Smith Barney, Texas Commerce Bank, Union Bank, US Bank and Wells Fargo Bank. The banks serve customers in 36 states, representing 90 percent of the US population, while American Express and Smith Barney serve customers nationwide. The group includes two of the top five credit and debit card issuers, two of the three largest New York banks, and five of the top six California banks. Many of the financial institutions will be the first in their respective markets to offer online banking to customers. Today's news seems to be helping Intuit's stock on Wall Street. At 12:30 PM ET, Intuit's stock was up $3.75 at $86.75. (Bob Woods/19950714/Press Contacts: Sheryl Ross, Intuit, 415-329-3569; Bob McCarson, CLS & Associates, 202-289-5900; Julie McHenry or Lerry Wilson, Wilson McHenry Co., 415-638-3400) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 07/14/95 ONLINE "Nielsen-like" Service Monitors Internet Surfers (NEWS)(ONLINE)(MSP)(00022) "Nielsen-like" Service Monitors Internet Surfers 07/14/95 PORT WASHINGTON, NEW YORK, U.S.A., 1995 JUL 14 (NB) -- The NPD Group, a marketing research firm, is introducing "PC-Meter," which company officials liken to a Nielsen-style audience measurement system. Instead of quantifying the numbers of people visiting Internet World Wide Web sites or online services, the system measures activity at the PC in the household. PC-Meter was developed by NPD's own in-house research and development team. The software passively sits in the background of a Windows-based computer and monitors user activity. Currently, NPD has 500 households in the program. Steve Coffey, vice president and general manager of the new service, told Newsbytes his system is different from services like WebTrack and I/Pro because his service measures at the household level, instead of at a Web site or online service. "The advantage of using a sample of households is that you have a complete demographic profile of the household. You can track the household going from one Web site to another, regardless of whether the Web site is participating in the service." He also said the same principle applies to online services when people jump from service to service. To get demographic profiles, users would log into the PC-Meter software, which only resides in the users' computer. This means PC-Meter would be able to distinguish between a 13-year-old girl and a 45-year-old man, Coffey said. Besides cyberspace usage, PC-Meter also measures which software applications are being used by day of the week, time of day, and demographics. The meter also gathers information about new software installations which will enable publishers to track sales to consumers by demographics, region, and time. The types of customers who would buy data gathered from the PC-Meter system would include software publishers, online services and their content producers, and advertisers and their agencies, Coffey said. Initial reports from PC-Meter will be available in early August, he added. Coffey said he is looking for more households to participate in the program. There's no cost to the individual user, and Coffey said there will probably be some kind of compensation offered to the households, similar to what A.C. Nielsen does with its audience participants. (Bob Woods/19950713/Press Contacts: Leslie Singer, 516-625-2302, or Steve Coffey, 516-625-4297, both of the NPD Group) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 07/14/95 GENERAL Personnel Roundup (NEWS)(GENERAL)(SFO)(00023) Personnel Roundup 07/14/95 PENN VALLEY, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1995 JUL 14 (NB) -- This is a regular feature, summarizing personnel changes not covered elsewhere by Newsbytes: Adaptec, Cray Research Inc., Harris Corp., Apple Computer Inc., Silicon Graphics Inc., MCI, IES Industries Inc., ANS and America Online Inc. Grant Saviers, Adaptec's (415-962-9550) current president has been appointed chief executive officer (CEO) as John Adler steps down from that position. Adler will still maintain his role as chairman of the board. Karl M. Freund, former senior marketing executive for Hewlett-Packard's Workstation Systems Division, has been named to the newly created position of vice president of marketing at Cray Research Inc. (NYSE:CYR - 612-683-7133). In his new role, Freund will be responsible for directing Cray Research's companywide marketing effort, including the long-range marketing strategy, market identification and product requirements, competitive analysis and positioning, strategic relationships with vendors and industry organizations, and effective collaboration with the company's sales leadership. In other Cray Research news, the company announced the retirement of Andrew Scott, 67, one of Cray Research's founders and a long-time board member. Prior to joining Cray he was chairman of the Andrew Scott Ltd. law firm. Scott began his law career with Doherty, Rumble & Butler and was a partner in that firm for 25 years. P. Coffin, former president and CEO of Lucas Aerospace, Communications and Electronics Inc. (407-727-9126), has been named vice president- general manager of the Controls Division of Harris Corporation. Coffin, 52, joined Lucas Aerospace, Communications and Electronics as president and CEO in 1988. Prior to joining Lucas, he was with EPSCO Inc. for 15 years. Dr. Donald A. Norman has been named vice president of Apple Computer Inc.'s (NASDAQ-NNM:AAPL - 408-974-0688) Advanced Technology Group, reporting to David Nagel, senior vice president, Worldwide Research and Development. The Advanced Technology Group is responsible for managing advanced technology and research, and works closely with Apple's Worldwide Marketing and Customer Solutions Groups to ensure that future technologies and research meet user needs. Norman became an Apple Fellow in 1993, when he joined the company as Apple's "User Experience Architect." Dr. Rick LeFaivre, formerly vice president of Apple Computer's Advanced Technology Group, has joined Silicon Graphics Inc. (NYSE: SGI - 415-390-2968) as vice president of engineering for its Network Systems Division. LeFaivre, who will report to Dr. Ross Bott, vice president and general manager of Silicon Graphics' Network Systems Division, is responsible for Silicon Graphics' technologies in such areas as operating systems, networking software, file systems, databases, high availability and data visualization for the Challenge server file, media and database platforms. James E. Hoffman, chief information officer (CIO), is leaving MCI to become executive vice president, Customer Service and Energy Delivery for IES Industries Inc. Hoffman formerly served as senior vice president of several MCI organizations during his five years with the company. Prior to joining MCI, he was executive vice president of Corporate Information Services for Telecom*USA before the company merged with MCI. D.J. Crane has been named president and CEO of ANS, the data networking subsidiary of America Online Inc. (Nasdaq-NNM:AMER - 703-556-3746). ANS designs, develops and operates high performance wide area data networks for business, research, education and government organizations. Crane most recently served as president, Healthcare Information Management for GE Information Services. (Ian Stokell/19950714) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 07/14/95 BUSINESS Motorola, Egghead to Sell Modems At Retail (NEWS)(BUSINESS)(MSP)(00024) Motorola, Egghead to Sell Modems At Retail 07/14/95 HUNTSVILLE, ALABAMA, U.S.A., 1995 JUL 14 (NB) -- Motorola's (NYSE:MOT) Transmission Products group announced it is partnering with Egghead Software to have the retailer market Motorola's modem and ISDN (integrated services digital network) communication products. Jay Berryhill, vice president of US retail distribution for the Transmission Products group, told Newsbytes that Egghead is the fifth largest computer retailer that currently sells software and peripherals, and is moving into hardware. "The key with Egghead is these guys have really put a lot of emphasis on maintaining and servicing their customer base well," Berryhill said. "These people are getting online and using the Internet." He also said Egghead is going to be a key player when Windows 95 hits the street later this year, and he feels Egghead can deliver new technologies to the retail market, like ISDN modems. The company said it was the first to bring an ISDN modem to the retail showrooms of the US, with the BitSURFR terminal adapter. Berryhill said selling ISDN modems at the retail level is a good move for Motorola, considering the RBOCs (regional Bell operating companies) are offering more ISDN service to its customers, mainly targeted to the telecommuting and SOHO (small office/home office) markets. Already, Motorola has positioned its products with several major US retailers, including CompUSA, Office Depot, Frys, and Staples. These outlets cover 40 states with more than 170 stores, Motorola officials said. Motorola said it's been successful in developing its retail channels with desktop and PCMCIA (Personal Computer Manufacturer Card Industry Association) products. The company's desktop modems placed in the top ten for shelf space in the first quarter of 1995 (the same quarter when they entered the market), and its PCMCIA modems are second in shelf space. (Bob Woods/19950714/Press Contacts: Stan Vernon, Motorola, 508-261- 4756; Rob Anderson or Todd Michael Riegler, Geltzer & Company, Inc., 212-575-1976) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 07/14/95 APPLE Apple Intros New Performa Models With MPEG (NEWS)(APPLE)(SFO)(00025) Apple Intros New Performa Models With MPEG 07/14/95 CUPERTINO, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1995 JUL 14 (NB) -- Apple Computer, Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) has introduced Power PC-based Performas as complete systems including Internet access, four speed CD-ROM drives and Motion Picture Experts Group (MPEG) technology. Targeting home buyers and the small office home office (SOHO) market, the Performa 5200CD series and the 6200CD series are complete systems in one box and "aggressively priced." Michael Spindler, Apple's chief executive officer, says with this announcement the company is moving RISC (reduced instruction set computing) to mainstream price points; the argument that Macs cost too much is less of an issue, he stressed. Apple intends to provide the latest and hottest technology with these new Performas. According to Apple, the ready-to-run systems include the desktop cased-computer, monitor, keyboard, mouse, modem, CD-ROM drive, MacOS 7.5, pre-installed applications and a bundle of education and entertainment CD titles. Internet access is provided through the company's online service, eWorld. The new series will ship next month to compete with the August 23 unveiling of Windows 95. Apple's MPEG Media system, available for $299 as an option, user installable card which provides full motion, full screen video. The new card works with Macintosh Performa Systems, 630, 5200, and 6200. Apple's multimedia tools and products such as Apple Video System, Video/TV System, and Presentation System may all be used on the 5200 and 6200 Performas. The Macintosh Performa 5200CD comes with a 15-inch Multiple Scan Display, internal four speed CD-ROM drive, built-in speakers and a tilt and swivel base. It is powered by a 75 MHz, PowerPC 603 processor, comes with 8 megabytes (MB) of RAM, either an 800MB or 1 gigabyte (GB) hard disk and an internal 14.4 kilobit per second (Kbps) modem. Apple expects the price to range from $1,999 to $2,299. The Macintosh Performa 6200CD is also powered by the 75 MHz Power PC 603 processor, but comes with a standard 1 GB hard disk and either 8MB or 16MB of RAM. Both systems are upgradable to 64MB of RAM. The 6200 also comes with Apple Multiple Scan display, a four speed CD-ROM drive and a 14.4 Kbps modem (both internal). It is expected to sell from $2,299 to $2,999. Extending its Performa attack, Apple also introduced the Macintosh Performa 631CD, 6116CD and the 640CD DOS Compatible. The 631CD and the 6116CD are priced for the new users who are more price conscious than power conscious. The 631 is powered by a 68LC040 processor running at 66/33MHz and comes with a 14-inch display, 8MB of RAM, a 500MB hard drive, a 2x CD-ROM drive and a 14.4 Kbps modem with prices starting at $1,599. This unit may be upgraded with an optional PowerPC board at a later date. Using a Power PC processor, but having a 2x CD-ROM drive, the 6116CD comes with 8MB of RAM, a 14-inch display, a 700MB hard disk and a 14.4 Kbps modem. Expected price for this model is $1,899 to $1,949. Rounding out the Performa line-up, it the 640CD DOS Compatible. This unit runs Macintosh applications through a 66/33 MHz 68LC040 processor or Windows applications through a 66MHz 486 DX2 processor. For customers who need to work in a multi-operating system environment, this system offers an unique approach. Its 12MB of RAM are dedicated with 4MB set aside for Windows and 8MB sectored for Macintosh applications. With a 15-inch display, 500MB of storage, a 2x CD-ROM drive and a 14.4 Kbps modem, this system is expected to sell from $2,299 to $2,349. More information is available from Apple's World Wide Web site: http://www.apple.com/ . (Patrick McKenna/19950714/Press Contact: Betty Taylor, Apple, tel 408-974-3983) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 07/14/95 WINDOWS Israel - Multilingual Web Authoring Package (NEWS)(WINDOWS)(LON)(00026) Israel - Multilingual Web Authoring Package 07/14/95 JERUSALEM, ISRAEL, 1995 JUL 14 (NB) -- Accent Software International (ASI) has unveiled a Web authoring package and associated Internet software that it claims can work in more than 35 different languages. According to Bob Rosenschein, the company's president and co-founder, due its largely US origin, most Internet services, software and content are English. Previous attempts to address multilingual needs have used partial solutions similar to those which have traditionally characterized the software industry -- create a system in English and retrofit other languages. Using this approach, Accent claims, restricts accessibility to specific language versions of Windows, requires the purchase of language-specific software and operating systems, and precludes the use of multiple languages in a single document. Accent's suite, which is due to ship this fall, will allow Web pages and Internet email to be accessed, authored, published and distributed in more than 35 different languages under any language version of Windows. The suite will include four multilingual applications -- a browser add-on, an e-mail add-on, an e-mail reader and HTML (Hypertext Markup Language) authoring capabilities. "The whole infrastructure of the Net is built primarily for English," explained Rosenschein, who added that the aim of the new suite "will be to give Internet users choices they have never had before, to communicate in whatever language they wish." The browser add-in will allow Web pages to be viewed in more than 35 languages. According to Rosenschein, by providing additional links, creators of Web sites can program options allowing users to view sites in the language of their choice. The browser will automatically activate when a user clicks on a link to a Web page in a different language. The browser will be compatible with all existing browsers. The multilingual mail add-on is equally interesting, since it allows multiple languages to be used in the same document -- even languages like Arabic, which reads right to left. The package will work in tandem with existing e-mail software such as cc:Mail, MS-Mail, GroupWise, thanks to the use of MAPI (Mail Application Programming Interface) technology. The user will be able to create a document in a foreign language with Accent's word processor and send that document seamlessly from a command in the file menu. The Access Web authoring package works in an extended version of HTML (Hyper Text Markup Language) known as HT(ML)2 -- the ML stands for multilingual. It allows the creation of Web pages in non-Latin and bi- directional alphabets, including the ability to mix multiple alphabets in the same document. "While the Internet is being hailed as a global communications medium, there is still a fundamental element missing," explained Rosenschein. "And that is the ability to send and receive information in any language, or even multiple alphabets, anywhere in the world. Access is delivering its multilingual technology in a new dimensions whose market is only limited to the growth and adaptation of the Internet," he said. The Accent Internet suite will be released globally this fall and pricing of the packages will be announced closer to the shipment date, Newsbytes understands. (Steve Gold/19950714/Press Contact: Sue Rizzello, The Rowland Company +44-171-436-4060; Internet Email: susanr@rowland.mhs.compuserve.com; Reader Contact: Accent Technology +44-1923-208435; Fax +44-1923- 208409; Internet Email 74774.264@compuserve.com) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 07/14/95 NETWORK Palindrome's Integrated Backup, Archiving and HSM (NEWS)(NETWORK)(LON)(00027) Palindrome's Integrated Backup, Archiving and HSM 07/14/95 BRACKNELL, BERKSHIRE, ENGLAND, 1995 JUL 14 (NB) -- Palindrome Corporation has taken the wraps of Storage Manager 4.0 for network administrators, systems integrators and network consultants. According to the company, the package offers the most reliable backup and storage management software for NetWare 3.x and 4.x servers. "Storage Manager brings two revolutionary enhancements to the creation of high availability networks," explained David Harris-Evans, Palindrome Europe's managing director. "First, it establishes a new bar for price, performance and value. Second, its high degree of integration improves data accessibility significantly, while simplifying network administration. Until now, customers looking for the next step beyond backup have had few choices -- with its comprehensive capabilities, Storage Manager provides a step-by-step implementation path from backup to archiving to HSM (Hierarchical Storage Management) as customer needs evolve," he said. According to Harris-Evans, Storage Manager 4.0 integrates the backup facilities of Backup Director 4.0, the auto-archiving and media management services of Network Archivist, and the flexibility of its rules-based Hierarchical Storage Manager (HSM) into a single package. UK pricing on Storage Manager 4.0 has been set at UKP 695 for single server networks of up to 25 users. An unlimited single server/user licence of UKP 1,395, while a multi-server version costs UKP 2,595. Own country pricing applies to the package's pricing across Europe. Registered users of Storage Manager's predecessor, Network Archivist, can upgrade for UKP 395, and special "competitive upgrade" deals from competing packages start from UKP 395. (Steve Gold/19950714/Press Contact: Strategic Relations +44-1494- 434434; Reader Contact: Palindrome Europe +44-1344-360888; Fax +44- 1344-360910) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 07/14/95 ONLINE World Wide Web Goes Live On eWorld (NEWS)(ONLINE)(SFO)(00028) World Wide Web Goes Live On eWorld 07/14/95 CUPERTINO, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1995 JUL 14 (NB) -- Apple Computer (NASDAQ:AAPL) unveiled a new version of its online service, eWorld, last month with the promise of World Wide Web (Web) access in the next 60 days. Today Web access became a reality there. Apple says it efforts to bring the Internet to eWorld users concentrate on making the Internet easy to access, easy to understand and easy to navigate. From a screen titled, "Internet On Ramp," users may click on an icon to open an instructive Internet Resource Center, Newsgroups, File Transfer Protocol (FTP), Internet mailing lists or the Web. The Resource Center is an all-around clearing house and gathering place for users wanting to learn beginner basics or more advanced users who need more detailed information. Internet/Web users of all levels of experience will be able to discuss and trade stories in this area. Responding to the recent political and media attention about the existence of content inappropriate for children on the Internet, eWorld republished the "Child Safety on the Information Highway" pamphlet and provides guidelines for parents concerned about these issues. eWorld's Web browser is licensed from Intercon Systems Corporation. "Rather than being dumped on the Internet or Web, we have developed Web City. In Web City users may find an easy introduction to the Web and we think this is important for new users and users who are concerned about the content of certain Web sites," said Amy Bonetti, eWorld spokesperson. More experienced users may use the browser to surf the entire Web. (Patrick McKenna/19950714/Press Contact: Susan Marino, Apple, tel 408-974-8028) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 07/14/95 GENERAL Newsbytes Week In Review (NEWS)(GENERAL)(SFO)(00029) Newsbytes Week In Review 07/14/95 PENN VALLEY, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1995 JUL 14 (NB) -- This is a look at the top stories this week, listing with their category code: US Industry Fights Japan On Standards, IBM & AimTech Team On IconAuthor Multimedia Tool, Clinton Backs V-chip For Television, Wall Street Journal Launches First Web Site, UK Sex Stalker "Could Be Computer Hacker," Comdex/Canada - IBM Exec Sees Opportunities, Motorola Sales Earnings Up, Quantum Moves Offshore Hundreds Face Layoffs, Comdex/Canada - PowerPC Hinges On Windows NT, Michael Jackson Live & Online With Prodigy, Online Services To Reach 11M Users In '95, Justice OKs Sprint Eurodeal, FCC Divides Spectrum, Intuit In Online Pacts with 19 Companies. US Industry Fights Japan On Standards (GOVT) WASHINGTON, D.C., U.S.A., 1995 JUL 10 -- The US computer industry is mounting an assault on a Japanese software voluntary "quality assurance" program, claiming it could serve as a non-tariff trade barrier. In a letter to US Trade Representative Mickey Kantor, six Washington computer trade groups say the Japanese proposal is "based on the ISO 9000, an international quality standard, but goes beyond the international norm." IBM & AimTech Team On IconAuthor Multimedia Tool (IBM) SOMERS, NEW YORK, U.S.A., 1995 JUL 10 -- A new edition of AimTech's IconAuthor multimedia development tool, to be jointly developed and marketed, will add World Wide Web authoring and multimedia players for OS/2 Warp and MicroWare's OS-9 interactive TV system, and will "complement" IBM's existing VisualAge and VisualScriptX products, officials said today in a conference call with Newsbytes. Clinton Backs V-chip For Television (CHIPS) NASHVILLE, TENNESSEE, U.S.A., 1995 JUL 11 -- "This is not censorship. This is parental responsibility," said President Clinton, who was endorsing putting a computer chip in televisions to let parents screen what their children can watch. Wall Street Journal Launches First Web Site (ONLINE) NEW YORK CITY, NEW YORK, U.S.A., 1995 JUL 11 -- The Wall Street Journal said it is launching the first step in what will eventually bring an interactive edition of the world-renowned newspaper to the Internet's World Wide Web by early 1996. The Journal's initial entry into cyberspace is called "Money & Investing Update," which the company calls the first online publication to offer continuously updated news and analysis of the world's markets. UK Sex Stalker "Could Be Computer Hacker" (LEGAL) LIVERPOOL, MERSEYSIDE, ENGLAND, 1995 JUL 12 -- Police in Liverpool have revealed they are worried that a sex stalker posing as a doctor could have hacked his way into health service computers. According to Merseyside Police, a man, calling himself Dr. Jackson, has been targeting young women in the age range 15 to 25, and requesting that they urgently examine themselves for specific medical symptoms. Comdex/Canada - IBM Exec Sees Opportunities (GENERAL) TORONTO, ONTARIO, CANADA, 1995 JUL 12 -- Information technology is changing the way businesses work, and Canadian companies -- particularly in certain industries -- will have opportunities as a result. So said Khalil Barsoum, president and chief executive of IBM Canada Ltd., in the first-day keynote address at the Comdex/Canada trade show and conference. Motorola Sales, Earnings Up (BUSINESS) SCHAUMBURG, ILLINOIS, U.S.A., 1995 JUL 12 -- One day after Motorola (NYSE:MOT) announced second quarter increases in sales and earnings that were more than analysts expected, the company's stock was scaling the Wall Street stock heap. The Chicago-area company posted a 31% increase in profits and a 26% jump in sales in the second quarter of this year. Quantum Moves Offshore, Hundreds Face Layoffs (BUSINESS) COLORADO SPRINGS, COLORADO, U.S.A., 1995 JUL 12 -- Quantum Corp. (NASDAQ:QNTM) has announced it will close its computer disk drive manufacturing plant in Colorado Springs, Colorado, by mid-1996 and move the manufacture of its high-capacity drives to Penang, Malaysia. That could put hundreds of employees out of work, although the company said it will try to find jobs for as many of the 1,300 temporary and permanent employees as it can. Comdex/Canada - PowerPC Hinges On Windows NT (CHIPS) TORONTO, ONTARIO, CANADA, 1995 JUL 13 -- Microsoft's (NASDAQ:MSFT) Windows NT operating system is now commercially available on Motorola Corp.'s (NYSE:MOT) PowerPC microprocessors, and the company hopes that will be a key to the chip's growing acceptance on the desktop. Michael Jackson Live & Online With Prodigy (ONLINE) WHITE PLAINS, NEW YORK, U.S.A., 1995 JUL 13 -- Rock star, Michael Jackson, is scheduled to appear in Prodigy's chat auditorium on August 3. For the event, Prodigy is creating a chat area for more than 5,000 of its members. Online Services To Reach 11M Users In '95 (ONLINE) BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS, U.S.A., 1995 JUL 14 (NB) -- With Microsoft Network expected to arrive in August, the number of subscribers to consumer-oriented online services soared to a record high of more than 8.5 million by the end of June, and that number could hit 11 million by the end of 1995, said officials of Business Research Publications, during a press conference at the Interactive Services Association (ISA) Conference in Boston. Justice OKs Sprint Eurodeal (TELECOM) WASHINGTON, D.C., U.S.A., 1995 JUL 14 (NB) -- The antitrust division of the US Justice Department has given a green light to a bid by the French and German telephone companies to buy 20 percent of Sprint, the third largest US long-distance carrier. The approval of the $4.2 billion deal among Sprint, France Telecom and Deutsche Telekom sets the stage for global competition among large telecommunications alliances. The Sprint alliance will market its services under the brand name Phoenix. FCC Divides Spectrum (TELECOM) WASHINGTON, D.C., U.S.A., 1995 JUL 14 (NB) -- The Federal Communications Commission yesterday proposed to split a portion of the upper part of the radio spectrum, settling a dispute between two different technologies competing for the spectrum. The proposed rules would authorize both satellite communications technologies and a wireless cable technology called local multipoint distribution service, or LMDS, to use the 28 GHz band. Intuit In Online Pacts with 19 Companies (TRENDS) NEW YORK CITY, NEW YORK, U.S.A., 1995 JUL 14 (NB) -- Intuit Inc. (NASDAQ:INTU) announced it is teaming with 19 banks and financial services companies to let computer users bank and perform other financial tasks online with a new version of Intuit's "Quicken" product (Ian Stokell/19950714) (SUMMARY)(GENERAL)(MSP)(00030) Newsbytes Daily Summary 07/14/95 MINNEAPOLIS, MINNESOTA, U.S.A., 1995 JUL 14 (NB) -- These are capsules of all today's news stories: ======================================================================== ------------| N E W S B Y T E S D A I L Y S U M M A R Y |---------- ------------| Friday, July 14, 1995 |---------- ======================================================================== (c) Newsbytes News Network (Tm) Editor in Chief: Wendy Woods ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Newsbytes News Network is a computer and telecom industry news wire and digitized picture service. Our news stream includes more than 30 daily first-hand reported US and international news stories about computing and telecommunications. For more information, please e-mail to 'administrator@newsbytes.com' ------------------------------------------------------------------------ CATEGORY HEADLINES (*** indicates today's top stories) STORY # ======================================================================== APPLE Apple Intros New Performa Models With MPEG................. 25 BROADCAST China To Launch Digital Pay TV Service..................... 02 BUSINESS Motorola, Egghead to Sell Modems At Retail................. 24 GENERAL Japan Newsbriefs........................................... 01 GENERAL Editorial - More Than Your Average Gee-Gaw................. 06 GENERAL Personnel Roundup.......................................... 23 GENERAL Newsbytes Week In Review................................... 29 GOVT China - Rail Tickets Computerized.......................... 11 LEGAL English Law On Computer Evidence To Be Reformed............ 09 LEGAL China - Compaq Aims At Computer Smuggling.................. 12 ONLINE Fujitsu's Multimedia Info Service.......................... 03 ONLINE ****Online Services To Reach 11M Users In '95............. 04 ONLINE ISA Conference - Prodigy, AOL, 9 Others Win Awards......... 05 ONLINE "The Net" Magazine Opens New Web Site...................... 13 ONLINE ISA Conference - Hottest Products In Cyberspace............ 16 ONLINE "Nielsen-like" Service Monitors Internet Surfers........... 22 ONLINE World Wide Web Goes Live On eWorld......................... 28 TELECOM ****Justice OKs Sprint Eurodeal........................... 14 TELECOM ****FCC Divides Spectrum.................................. 15 TELECOM Germany - Martin Dawes' Profits Breakthrough............... 18 TELECOM Ericsson, Telia Plan Changes For Ellemtel.................. 19 TRENDS UK - 37% Of SOHO PC Users Read Computer Mags............... 10 TRENDS World's Smallest AM Radio.................................. 20 TRENDS ****Intuit In Online Pacts with 19 Companies.............. 21 WINDOWS Comdex/Canada - Intergraph's Jupiter Debuts................ 07 WINDOWS Comdex/Canada - BusinessVision 2000 Accounting Previewed... 17 WINDOWS Israel - Multilingual Web Authoring Package................ 26 ======================================================================== These are the headlines and first paragraphs of each story, in order: 1 -> Japan Newsbriefs -- In this roundup of news from Japan: joint semiconductor plant mulled; Sanyo Electric profits up; Akai president resigns; MITI to release CD-ROM; Fujitsu's Teleparc available. 2 -> China To Launch Digital Pay TV Service -- China Central Television (CCTV) has signed a contract for the supply of digital television decoder boxes that will allow the national broadcaster to begin a series of cable pay TV channels. CCTV has ordered 1,500 Digicipher decoders from General Instrument. 3 -> Fujitsu's Multimedia Info Service -- A five company consortium have announced they have begun trials of a new multimedia information service called Media Tower. The new system utilizes NTT's B-ISDN network to provide a business information-on-demand service. 4 -> ****Online Services To Reach 11M Users In '95 -- With Microsoft Network expected to arrive in August, the number of subscribers to consumer-oriented online services soared to a record high of more than 8.5 million by the end of June, and that number could hit 11 million by the end of 1995, said officials of Business Research Publications, during a press conference at the Interactive Services Association (ISA) Conference in Boston. 5 -> ISA Conference - Prodigy, AOL, 9 Others Win Awards -- Prodigy, America Online (AOL), Northern Telecom, Visa Interactive, MCI, CBS, Fox, PC Financial Network (PCFN), BFD Productions Networks/WLUP-FM, Northern Telecom, and a top Nynex official were all named winners in the Interactive Services Association (ISA)'s 1995 awards competition, during a ceremony at the 10th annual ISA Conference in Boston. 6 -> Editorial - More Than Your Average Gee-Gaw -- By Patrick McKenna. Computer journalists have cupboards full of coffee cups, T-shirts, and other novelty items from computer firms designed to impress upon them a slogan or product. So you can imagine my surprise when I received a document instead of a gee-gaw this time, telling me I had adopted and protected one acre of rain forest in Costa Rica, courtesy of Silicon Graphics. 7 -> Comdex/Canada - Intergraph's Jupiter Debuts -- At the Comdex/Canada trade show, Intergraph Corp. showed off the first fruits of its new Jupiter technology, which it described as an architecture for graphics applications. Building largely on Microsoft's Object Linking and Embedding (OLE) specifications, Jupiter makes it possible for graphics modules to work together, explained Kevin Johnstone, an applications engineer with Intergraph Canada Ltd. of Calgary. 9 -> English Law On Computer Evidence To Be Reformed -- The English Law Commission, the body that oversees the reform and renewal of the law, has recommended a simplification of the way in which evidence from a computer should be handled in criminal cases. 10 -> UK - 37% Of SOHO PC Users Read Computer Mags -- The results from the 1995 Banner Computing Readership Survey (BCRS), which Banner clams is the only independent computer survey for the IT (information technology) industry in the UK, claims to show a number of interesting facts about the SOHO (small office, home office) market in the UK. 11 -> China - Rail Tickets Computerized -- Beijing Railway Station will begin using computers to sell tickets for the train from Beijing to Qinhuangdao in Hebei province starting tomorrow, the culmination of a 20-year dream of China's Ministry of Railway. 12 -> China - Compaq Aims At Computer Smuggling -- Compaq Computer Corp. has applauded the Chinese government's campaign against computer smuggling. 13 -> "The Net" Magazine Opens New Web Site -- The Net, a new hip and irreverent computer magazine, announced The Nest, calling it an equally fun and informative World Wide Web site. With the first three issues of the graphically bright and striking magazine under its belt, the staff is taking the same approach to its Web site. 14 -> ****Justice OKs Sprint Eurodeal -- The antitrust division of the US Justice Department has given a green light to a bid by the French and German telephone companies to buy 20 percent of Sprint, the third largest US long-distance carrier. The approval of the $4.2 billion deal among Sprint, France Telecom and Deutsche Telekom sets the stage for global competition among large telecommunications alliances. The Sprint alliance will market its services under the brand name Phoenix. 15 -> ****FCC Divides Spectrum -- The Federal Communications Commission yesterday proposed to split a portion of the upper part of the radio spectrum, settling a dispute between two different technologies competing for the spectrum. The proposed rules would authorize both satellite communications technologies and a wireless cable technology called local multipoint distribution service, or LMDS, to use the 28 GHz band. 16 -> ISA Conference - Hottest Products In Cyberspace -- What are the hottest new products in cyberspace today? During a plenary panel at the Interactive Services Association (ISA) Conference now going on in Boston, a panel of industry experts spotlit technologies ranging from electronic mail and the Netscape browser to Sun's HotJava, RSA encryption, wireless communications, and "multimedia content." 17 -> Comdex/Canada - BusinessVision 2000 Accounting Previewed -- BusinessVision Management Systems Inc., offered a preview at the Comdex/Canada trade show this week of its BusinessVision 2000 for Windows accounting software. The Mississauga, Ontario company plans to release the package, its first offering for Microsoft Windows, this fall. 18 -> Germany - Martin Dawes' Profits Breakthrough -- Martin Dawes Germany, the German cellular comms company, has announced it has hit profitability for the first time. 19 -> Ericsson, Telia Plan Changes For Ellemtel -- Ericsson and Telia have signed a letter of intent, signifying that they plan to make significant changes to the business direction of joint venture Ellemtel Utvecklings. Ellemtel's activities will change from the current development of basic systems to developing services and management support systems. 20 -> World's Smallest AM Radio -- American Technology Corp. (OTC: ATCO), has manufactured and shipped its new miniature AM ear radio, AM Sounds. The company claims the one-half ounce AM radio is the smallest in the world. 21 -> ****Intuit In Online Pacts with 19 Companies -- Intuit Inc. (NASDAQ:INTU) announced it is teaming with 19 banks and financial services companies to let computer users bank and perform other financial tasks online with a new version of Intuit's "Quicken" product. 22 -> "Nielsen-like" Service Monitors Internet Surfers -- The NPD Group, a marketing research firm, is introducing "PC-Meter," which company officials liken to a Nielsen-style audience measurement system. Instead of quantifying the numbers of people visiting Internet World Wide Web sites or online services, the system measures activity at the PC in the household. 23 -> Personnel Roundup -- This is a regular feature, summarizing personnel changes not covered elsewhere by Newsbytes: Adaptec, Cray Research Inc., Harris Corp., Apple Computer Inc., Silicon Graphics Inc., MCI, IES Industries Inc., ANS and America Online Inc. 24 -> Motorola, Egghead to Sell Modems At Retail -- Motorola's (NYSE:MOT) Transmission Products group announced it is partnering with Egghead Software to have the retailer market Motorola's modem and ISDN (integrated services digital network) communication products. 25 -> Apple Intros New Performa Models With MPEG -- Apple Computer, Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) has introduced Power PC-based Performas as complete systems including Internet access, four speed CD-ROM drives and Motion Picture Experts Group (MPEG) technology. 26 -> Israel - Multilingual Web Authoring Package -- Accent Software International (ASI) has unveiled a Web authoring package and associated Internet software that it claims can work in more than 35 different languages. 28 -> World Wide Web Goes Live On eWorld -- Apple Computer (NASDAQ:AAPL) unveiled a new version of its online service, eWorld, last month with the promise of World Wide Web (Web) access in the next 60 days. Today Web access became a reality there. 29 -> Newsbytes Week In Review -- This is a look at the top stories this week, listing with their category code: US Industry Fights Japan On Standards, IBM & AimTech Team On IconAuthor Multimedia Tool, Clinton Backs V-chip For Television, Wall Street Journal Launches First Web Site, UK Sex Stalker "Could Be Computer Hacker," Comdex/Canada - IBM Exec Sees Opportunities, Motorola Sales Earnings Up, Quantum Moves Offshore Hundreds Face Layoffs, Comdex/Canada - PowerPC Hinges On Windows NT, Michael Jackson Live & Online With Prodigy, Online Services To Reach 11M Users In '95, Justice OKs Sprint Eurodeal, FCC Divides Spectrum, Intuit In Online Pacts with 19 Companies. (Wendy Woods/19950714) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 07/13/95 GENERAL Adobe Ships Persuasion On CD-ROM (NEWS)(GENERAL)(DEN)(00001) Adobe Ships Persuasion On CD-ROM 07/13/95 SEATTLE, WASHINGTON, U.S.A., 1995 JUL 13 (NB) -- Adobe Systems Inc. (NASDAQ: ADBE) has announced the availability of its graphics presentation program, Adobe Persuasion version 3.0.2, on CD-ROM for the Macintosh, Power Macintosh, and Windows platforms. Persuasion allows the user to create and manage slide shows, overheads, and desktop computer-based presentations. The company said that, although the functionality and version number remain the same as the diskette version of Persuasion, CD-ROM users get a CD Bonus Pack and the Type On Call software. The diskette and CD-ROM versions of Persuasion 3.0.2 both ship in the same box, allowing users to select their installation method. Persuasion includes textures, clip-art and sample images, and the included Adobe Type Twister lets the user modify and rotate text by applying special effects, shapes, styles, and colors. The CD-ROM version also includes Adobe Type On Call version 4.0, a locked CD-ROM that contains 2,000 typefaces for the Mac and Windows platforms. It includes Adobe Type Manager, the Adobe Acrobat Reader and the Adobe Postscript driver. Other Persuasion tools include sophisticated color models, the ability to simultaneously manage both color and grayscale elements within a single presentation, and precision editing tools. Multimedia and onscreen presentations can include a number of transition effects and sound synchronized with animated text and graphics. Persuasion can create speaker notes and audience handouts as the user creates a presentation. The speaker notes view provides a thumbnail of the appropriate slide with an area for entering text. Available chart types include: absolute, stacked, bi-polar, dual axis, bar, pyramid, scatter, sphere, ribbon, area, surface, radar, high-low, spectral, histogram, bubble, and open-close. In addition to using the included clip-art, the user can also import and modify images. When users register their Type On Call CD they can unlock 220 free Adobe Type 1 typefaces and will get a 35 percent discount off the suggested retail price of every subsequent Type On Call purchase. Users can also unlock additional individual typefaces for $25 each. Persuasion on CD-ROM includes electronic documentation in the Portable Document Format (PDF), autotemplates, stock photos, buttons, backgrounds, and demonstration versions of other Adobe software. Macintosh users have access to QuickTime movies and sounds, and Video for Windows animated clips are included in the Windows version. Adobe Persuasion Version 3.0.2 has a suggested retail price of $395. Registered users of earlier versions of Persuasion for the Macintosh or for Windows can upgrade for $129. If you purchased Persuasion version 3.0, you can upgrade for $35. (Jim Mallory/19950712/Press contact: Theresa Bruno, Adobe Systems, 206-233-7315; Public contact: Adobe Systems, 800-521-1976 to upgrade or for product info) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 07/13/95 ONLINE PSINet Puts PR Newswire Content On Internet (NEWS)(ONLINE)(MSP)(00002) PSINet Puts PR Newswire Content On Internet 07/13/95 HERNDON, VIRGINIA, U.S.A., 1995 JUL 13 (NB) -- Performance Systems International Inc. (NASDAQ:PSIX) (PSINet) said it will utilize content from PR Newswire to provide a continuous news feed on PSIWeb's home page. PSINet said PSIWeb is the company's Internet World Wide Web "hosting service" for organizations seeking a presence on the global network of computers. PR Newswire's content on the PSINet page will be in two separate areas, connected by hyperlinks, company officials said. The first link, which is currently operational, will consist of a continuous news feed that is updated every five minutes. The feed will feature press releases from a wide spectrum of companies on a variety of topics, Marty Schoffstall, senior vice president and chief technical officer for PSINet, told Newsbytes. "As part of our Web service, we created a master page which highlights on a daily basis two of our customers (that participate in the site)," Schoffstall told Newsbytes. "To make that a little bit more exciting, and for people to be attracted to what might be viewed almost advertising space, we decided to make it a very changeable, active page by dropping the PR Newswire content in there." The second feature from PR Newswire is "URLs in the News." This will list hotlinks to home pages for companies that have appeared in PR Newswire's content. Approximately 50 new URLs (uniform resource locators) will appear in this section weekly. "URL's in the News is expected to appear by the end of this week, Schoffstall said. Also, PR Newswire has agreed to provide its full feed of up-to-the- minute news and information to subscribers of PSINet's Pipeline New York Internet and online service. The Web address for the PSINet page is http://www.inter.net . (Bob Woods/19950712/Press Contacts: Brian Muys, Performance Systems International, 703-904-4285; Mike Maney, Poppe Tyson, 201-539-0300; Ashley T. Suhler, PR Newswire, 212-596-1544; Public Contact: Internet World Wide Web http://www.inter.net ) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 07/13/95 BUSINESS SCO Opens North Asia HQ In Hong Kong (NEWS)(BUSINESS)(HKG)(00003) SCO Opens North Asia HQ In Hong Kong 07/13/95 CENTRAL, HONG KONG, 1995 JUL 13 (NB) -- Santa Cruz Operation (SCO), a leading provider of Unix host and server systems, has opened its Hong Kong headquarters for North Asia, and unveiled SCO OpenServer version 5, the latest version of its market leading application server for the Intel platform. The local office joins existing offices in Beijing, Singapore, and Sydney. Graham Brown, SCO's vice president and general manager for the Pacific Rim, said he hoped the increased presence in the territory would help to generate growth in excess of 50%. The company, which claims 34% of the business critical server market worldwide, also has business partners in 15 countries through which it has traditionally done most of its business. Until now this is how most of the company's business has been done in Hong Kong. Company Chairman and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Lars Turndal said the company had waited until it was able to open a fully fledged sales and support office before making its Hong Kong move. Openserver 5 has over 60 new features incorporated into it, according to David Ingle, SCO's market development manager. He said the new version's principle improvements came in several areas, including tighter Windows integration under SCO's "Windows friendly" strategy. Version 5 has also been made easier to install, with a flexible configuration which can meet the needs of large organizations and small businesses, claims the firm. Increased reliability has also been added with RAID (redundant array of inexpensive disks) support. (Nigel Armstrong and IT Daily/19950711) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 07/13/95 BUSINESS National Semiconductor To Expand India Operations (NEWS)(BUSINESS)(DEL)(00004) National Semiconductor To Expand India Operations 07/13/95 NEW DELHI, INDIA, 1995 JUL 13 (NB) -- National Semiconductor Corp. has identified India as one of its high growth markets and hopes to do business worth $200 million by the year 2000 in the country. The Indian operations will be anchored from Bangalore and the office will start functioning by August-end. According to Sanjeev Dua, country manager India, the company is exploring the possibility of teaming up with a local partner to manufacture "subscriber premises equipment" or telecom products. These will include cordless telephones, second generation DEC telephones and digital answering machines, among others. However, neither the proposed investment of the US company nor the names of the "six companies" it was holding talks with was disclosed -- as the multinational says it is still "evaluating the market." Dua did not discount the possibility of National Semiconductor setting up a manufacturing facility in India, which would, however, not start wafer production here, as the costs would be very high. The key focus at present will be that the Indian semiconductor market has been put between $150 to $300 million and is expected to touch $1 billion by the year 2000. The company hopes to cash in on this projected growth and post sales of $200 million in the next five years. The company has already bagged major orders from HCL-Hewlett Packard and ITI Ltd., among others, and is presently eyeing consumer goods manufacturers to fuel its business fortunes. (C.T. Mahabharat/19950713) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 07/13/95 TRENDS Comdex/Canada - Software Machine Planned For Malls (NEWS)(TRENDS)(TOR)(00005) Comdex/Canada - Software Machine Planned For Malls 07/13/95 TORONTO, ONTARIO, CANADA, 1995 JUL 13 (NB) -- Would you buy software from a vending machine? Gregory Yankelovich is betting you would, and his company, Robosoft Technology of Toronto, plans to install its newly revamped Robosoft Electronic Software Store in shopping malls across Canada in hopes the idea will catch on. At the Comdex/Canada trade show, Yankelovich told Newsbytes the company he founded now has six early Robosoft machines installed around the Toronto area. Robosoft has redesigned the original machines -- the originals looked a bit too much like video games, Yankelovich says -- and hopes to go national within a year. Robosoft has contracted with Media Vendor Services to place the machines across the country. Wayne Wilson, sales manager for Media Vendor Services, told Newsbytes an expansion into southwestern Ontario is planned this summer, with a national roll-out set for next year. Yankelovich demonstrated how the machine can display information -- including graphics and video -- on the software products for sale. When a customer orders, paying with a credit card or with dollar coins, the kiosk-like device copies the software onto an ordinary 3.5-inch diskette. Many of the products sold through the Robosoft units are games, Yankelovich said, but he believes it is also well suited to other home products and particularly to those with short shelf lives such as tax-preparation packages. The developers of those packages face tough choices about how many copies to produce, he said, since the products become dated quickly. "This thing can't run out of inventory," he explained, and at the same time developers don't have to invest in inventory that might not sell. The big software vendors have not jumped on Robosoft's bandwagon -- Yankelovich said it is hard for a small company to get their attention -- but Microsoft Corp. and Lotus Development Corp. do make "test drives" for some of their products available on the kiosks. However, though these are really demonstration disks, customers must pay for them. The Robosoft kiosks currently carry about 1,400 programs, according to Yankelovich. He said the only limit on the number of products the machines can handle is the capacity of the master disk from which programs are copied to diskettes. (Grant Buckler/19950712/Press Contact: Gregory Yankelovich, Robosoft, tel 416-368-0539, fax 416-368-8446) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 07/13/95 CHIPS ****Comdex/Canada - PowerPC Hinges On Windows NT (NEWS)(CHIPS)(TOR)(00006) ****Comdex/Canada - PowerPC Hinges On Windows NT 07/13/95 TORONTO, ONTARIO, CANADA, 1995 JUL 13 (NB) -- Microsoft's (NASDAQ:MSFT) Windows NT operating system is now commercially available on Motorola Corp.'s (NYSE:MOT) PowerPC microprocessors, and the company hopes that will be a key to the chip's growing acceptance on the desktop. "It's official now," said Paul Holt, Canadian general manager for Motorola. Holt told Newsbytes that Motorola took responsibility for porting NT to the PowerPC chip, which is backed by partners IBM (NYSE:IBM) and Apple Computer Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL). Even though most of the operating-system excitement in the computer industry currently is centered around Microsoft's forthcoming Windows 95, Holt said Windows 95 "isn't everything to everyone." NT provides security features that some customers demand and will be ahead of Windows 95 in supporting Microsoft's object-oriented technology, he said. Holt said the PowerPC chip is already the leading reduced instruction set computing (RISC) chip in the workstation and server market. He downplayed the recent announcement that Data General Corp. will begin using Intel Pentium processors in its Aviion line, which hitherto depended on Motorola's earlier 88000 RISC line. Balanced against DG's defection are seven new hardware vendors recently signed up to use the PowerPC chip, he noted. "There's a lot of people jumping on the bandwagon," he said, so one firm jumping off is not a grave concern. Ronald Rogers, director of systems products marketing for Motorola's Computer Group, said the company expects a PowerPC boom on the desktop next year. "Are we going to take a third of the Intel market share in 1995? No. In 1996 -- watch." Motorola said it has finished the first phase of a redesign of its Tempe, Arizona, manufacturing facility, which produces the company's PowerStack line of boards, personal computers, and servers. This is a key step in the company's PowerPC strategy, officials said. Motorola also added to its Ultra and Atlas series of PowerPC motherboards for sale to other computer manufacturers new models based on the PowerPC 603e chip. The VMEbus computer board line also got a new 603e-based model. The 603e is a version of the PowerPC processor designed for low power consumption. (Grant Buckler/19950712/Press Contact: Joh Robinson, Patrick O'Neill & Associates for Motorola Canada, tel 416-361-3331, fax 416-361-3284; Terri Thorson, Motorola Computer Group, tel 602-438-3287, fax 602-438-3518) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 07/13/95 GENERAL Comdex/Canada - Lexmark Color Multifunction Device (NEWS)(GENERAL)(TOR)(00007) Comdex/Canada - Lexmark Color Multifunction Device 07/13/95 TORONTO, ONTARIO, CANADA, 1995 JUL 13 (NB) -- Lexmark International Inc., has announced a combination printer, fax, copier, and scanner with color-printing capability. The company said the color printing makes its Medley multifunction device the first of its kind. Lexmark has also updated its MarkView network printer management software. Eric Edwards, a Lexmark Canada sales representative, told Newsbytes during the Comdex/Canada trade show that the Medley is sold with a black ink-jet printing cartridge but will accept a color cartridge that allows it to print in color. The unit can print 300 by 300 dots-per-inch (dpi) in color, or 600 by 300 in black and white, he said. Also built into the unit are a scanner that can scan four pages-per- minute (ppm) at 300 dpi resolution, a 14,400 bits-per-second (bps) fax modem, and convenience photocopying. Since the unit is sheet-fed, it cannot be used to photocopy intact books and magazines. The sheet feeder accepts about 20 pages at a time, Edwards said. It prints at up to three ppm in black and white, Lexmark said. Lexmark also supplies personal-computer fax software with the unit, to make it easier to deal with received faxes on the PC or to send faxes directly from the PC. Edwards said the unit is aimed at the small office/home office (SOHO) market and at small workgroups. It is not designed to be shared via a network, he said, though the hard-copy functions (faxing and photocopying) could be shared among several people. Edwards said the Medley is expected to have a street price of around $1,400 in Canada. This would imply a US street price of $1,000 or less. Lexmark's MarkVision software has been beefed up with new functions, including the ability to page a network manager when a problem arises, the ability to work with Novell Inc.'s ManageWise network management utility, support for Unix, the Apple Macintosh, OS/2 Warp, and LAN Server 4.0, job statistics, a remote operator console, and other new features. "A lot of this stuff is customer-inspired," noted Bob Power, product manager for MarkVision in Canada. (Grant Buckler/19950712/Press Contact: Colleen Browne, Lexmark Canada, tel 905-477-2311 ext 272, fax 905-477-3933; Sheryl Steinberg, The Cohen Group for Lexmark Canada, 905-886-8086) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 07/13/95 TELECOM Comdex/Canada - Wireless E-Mail, Fax, Paging Debuts (NEWS)(TELECOM)(TOR)(00008) Comdex/Canada - Wireless E-Mail, Fax, Paging Debuts 07/13/95 TORONTO, ONTARIO, CANADA, 1995 JUL 13 (NB) -- GDT Softworks Inc., Cantel Data, IBM, and Ericsson announced during the Comdex/Canada trade show a wireless communications service that provides Internet electronic-mail, facsimile, and paging services within the reach of Cantel's Mobitex wireless communications network. Brad Dolman, a wireless evangelist with GDT Softworks of Burnaby, British Columbia, said the service uses software that GDT has already made available through agreements with two wireless service providers in the United States, but this announcement marks its Canadian debut. IBM and Ericsson are providing wireless modems that let portable personal computers and personal digital assistants (PDAs) connect to the Mobitex network to use the service. The service provides each user with a personal Internet electronic- mail address that lets him or her send and receive e-mail via the wireless network, Dolman said. The charge for this is a flat C$49.95 per month. Users can also send and receive faxes and send alphanumeric messages to pagers. There are extra charges for these services, but no per-message charge for electronic-mail. An external wireless modem is available from Ericsson for C$795, and IBM offers a PC Card modem that can be plugged into a portable computer for C$895, Dolman said. The wireless services can be used anywhere the Mobitex network is accessible. Dolman admitted that the network's coverage is sparse in rural Canada, but said major cities are well covered. Anne Costello, merchandising manager for Cantel Data, told Newsbytes the populous corridor from Windsor, Ontario, through Montreal is fully covered, as are other major centers across the country. The partners are in the process of setting up a dial-up capability so that users who are out of range of the Mobitex network will be able to send and retrieve messages with a conventional modem and phone call, Dolman said. The system will store incoming messages while a user is out of range and forward them to the user's PC as soon as it comes within range of the network again, he added. (Grant Buckler/19950712/Press Contact: Craig Scott, GDT Softworks, 604-291-9121, Internet e-mail cscott@infowave.net ; Judy Baldwin, GDT Softworks, 604-669-9269, Internet e-mail jbaldwin@infowave.net ) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 07/13/95 TRENDS Latin American Software Sales Boom (NEWS)(TRENDS)(WAS)(00009) Latin American Software Sales Boom 07/13/95 WASHINGTON, D.C., U.S.A., 1995 JUL 13 (NB) -- First quarter sales of US software in Latin America soared 85 percent over the first quarter of 1994, according to the Software Publishers Association. Total sales for the first quarter hit $48.2 million, with $18.5 million sold in Brazil alone. Sales in Brazil grew by a phenomenal 327 percent. The picture was much different in Mexico, however. Mexican software sales totaled $6.3 million, a drop of 43 percent over sales in the 1994 first quarter. SPA says the poor performance in Mexico was due to the weakness of the peso. Sales in other Latin American markets totaled $23 million for the quarter, up 143 percent. Windows applications continued to dominate software sales in Latin America in the first quarter. Sales of Windows applications reached $44.1 million, up 110 percent, and accounted for more than 90 percent of all application sales. The domination by Windows was bad news for other platforms. Sales of DOS applications fell 18 percent and sales of Macintosh applications dropped 54 percent. Together, DOS and Mac applications garnered less than eight percent of the Latin American market. "With a rapidly growing and increasingly sophisticated economy," said Ken Wasch, SPA president, "the potential for US software companies in Brazil is enormous. Let's hope that this tremendous growth will spill over into other Latin American countries, particularly Mexico, where the weakness of the peso has limited sales growth this period." SPA sales data represent total revenues from 27 primarily US-based software firms who participate in the international data program. The companies submit their confidential sales data to the accounting firm of Arthur Andersen. SPA says that "while US companies have the dominant market share in most of these regions, the figures reported should not be taken as an estimate of the total market size. Rather, they represent total sales of the reporting companies." (Kennedy Maize/19950713/Press Contact: Sally Lawrence, 202-452-1600 ext 320, Internet e-mail slawrence@spa.org) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 07/13/95 LEGAL BSA Targets Egghead Software Customers (NEWS)(LEGAL)(WAS)(00010) BSA Targets Egghead Software Customers 07/13/95 WASHINGTON, D.C., U.S.A., 1995 JUL 13 (NB) -- The Business Software Alliance is launching a campaign against software piracy in Egghead stores nationwide, starting this month. BSA is delivering posters and educational flyers to more than 160 Egghead stores stressing the importance of using legal software. The posters feature a stylized basketball player going to the hoop. The posters say "copy moves," "copy attitudes," "don't copy software." Software piracy, says BSA, costs the software industry more than $15 billion annually, a figure which includes losses to the distribution chain, hurting retailers like Egghead. Resellers such as Egghead cite a substantial amount of the losses incurred through software theft, which topped $2.8 billion in the US alone. "Each time a software product is illegal duplicated," says Robert Holleyman, BSA president, "it represents a stolen good from the industry, as well as the distribution chain. "Software piracy is the biggest threat to the industry's continued viability and seriously undermines the potential to develop new products," says Holleyman. "By reaching end-users who we know are purchasing legal software through reputable chains such as Egghead, BSA deters the potential piracy of those products by offering information on the management of software assets and providing users with a means to report piracy through BSA's anti-piracy hotline, 1-800-688-2721." Customers at Egghead stores get a card to mail to BSA for free software management help and, for a limited time, get a free t-shirt. BSA information packets include its "Guide to Software Management," which outlines a compliance program that any organization can easily implement. The BSA posters note that software piracy is a criminal offense with penalties of up to $250,000 and five years in jail. Software piracy is also a leading cause of the spread of software viruses. (Kennedy Maize/19950713/Press Contact: Kim Willard, 202-872-5500) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 07/13/95 BUSINESS AT&T Takes Equity Position In BBN Planet (NEWS)(BUSINESS)(MSP)(00011) AT&T Takes Equity Position In BBN Planet 07/13/95 NEW YORK CITY, NEW YORK, U.S.A., 1995 JUL 13 (NB) -- AT&T (NYSE:T) said it is sinking $8 million dollars into BBN Planet, a subsidiary of Bolt Beranek and Newman (NYSE:BBN) that provides Internet access to businesses around the country. This equity investment is in addition to an agreement announced June 21 that the two companies would join together to provide Internet connectivity for businesses, an announcement which Newsbytes covered. The purchase was made by AT&T's venture capital group that invests in information technology companies. The group, known as AT&T Ventures, was formed in 1992, and has made 19 investments to date, officials said. Additional details about the equity purchase were not made public by either company. AT&T Ventures partner Alessandro Piol said the equity purchase decision was based on confidence that the companies' Internet access agreement will provide customers with "many Internet-based solutions." He said BBN Planet has internetworking skills that complement AT&T's marketing and communications strength, and, "We believe that this combination of capabilities will create uncommon value in BBN Planet and we want to participate in building the nation's premier provider of networking services." The original agreement, of which specific details were not released, said that AT&T will sell BBN Planet's Internet-access services to businesses. AT&T's sales force, which numbers 12,000 strong, will start offering the BBN Internet hookup and other services on a test basis to cities that have not been named in August of this year, with a full roll-out set for September 1. Officials told Newsbytes at the time those "other services" will include World Wide Web site development, Internet security, and training. BBN officials were obviously delighted that AT&T had signed on the dotted line for the cash. "It further enhances our partnership with AT&T in the Internet area," Jeff Mayersohn, senior vice president for BBN Planet, told Newsbytes. He also said things were rolling along to have the services ready for both the test phase and the full implementation, including "technical infrastructure issues, working on training the sales force, working on developing sales processes, and developing customer profiles. All of that work is going fast and furious." What's more, Paul Gudonis, BBN Planet chief executive officer, had told Newsbytes he expected to see $120 million of additional business in the first three years of the deal that made AT&T and BBN Planet business partners. The Boston Globe reported that AT&T is guaranteeing that $120 million in revenue for BBN Planet. The news jolted BBN's stock skyward again to $34.375 in yesterday's trading on Wall Street. When the initial announcement was made three weeks ago, BBN's stock jumped 50%, to close at $27.625. In a separate announcement made earlier this week, BBN said it has inked a deal with IBM to distribute speech recognition technology developed by BBN's Hark Systems subsidiary. (Bob Woods/19950713/Press Contacts: Joan L. Irons, BBN, 617-873-3514; Mike Miller, AT&T, 201-331-4141) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 07/13/95 BUSINESS Gateway 2000 Expands To Japan (NEWS)(BUSINESS)(TYO)(00012) Gateway 2000 Expands To Japan 07/13/95 TOKYO, JAPAN, 1995 JUL 13 (NB) -- Gateway 2000 is to set up a computer sales company in Japan. The announcement was made by Gateway president and chief executive Theodore Waitt, who said, "It's the right time for Gateway 2000 because we have the resources, and the right time for the market because it's growing rapidly,". Gateway 2000 is the fifth largest maker of personal computers in the United States with worldwide sales of $2.7 billion in 1994. The vast majority of the company's 940,000 computers sold were, however, sold in the United States with only $190 million worth of sales originating from overseas, principally from Europe. By setting up a subsidiary in Japan the company hopes to open a major new sales outlet that could eventually extend to other countries in the Asia Pacific region. One of the initial problems the company expects is a general Japanese resistance to home shopping via telephone. The US company says to counter this it is considering opening a showroom, but this may not be needed. Newsbytes notes that, with the current strength of the yen, there is a growing acceptance of catalog shopping, especially for cheap foreign goods. Initially the company will import computers produced at its factory in Dublin, Ireland, although an Asian manufacturing center may be established in the future. Such a center is unlikely to be in Japan though because of the country's high costs. (Martyn Williams/19950713) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 07/13/95 GENERAL Japan Newsbriefs (NEWS)(GENERAL)(TYO)(00013) Japan Newsbriefs 07/13/95 TOKYO, JAPAN, 1995 JUL 13 (NB) -- In this roundup of news from Japan: Digital video production planned for overseas; NEC decides on chip plant site; and Electronics Show Date Set. Digital Video Production Planned For Overseas The leading Japanese financial daily, Nihon Keizai Shimbun, has reported that both parties in the digital video disk format battle are planning production of players overseas in South East Asia. Foreign production will cut the retail prices of players in what is expected to be a fierce fight for control of the next generation data storage medium. Both camps, one led by Sony and one by Toshiba, are reported to be looking at Malaysia as a possible site for a new plant. NEC Decides On Chip Plant Site Tokyo-based NEC Corporation is to build a 50 billion yen ($571 million) semiconductor plant in Hiroshima, central Japan. The plant will produce 64 megabit DRAM (dynamic random access memory) chips for computers and multimedia applications. Initial production will begin in March of next year with full production being achieved two months later. Capacity will be 10,000 eight-inch wafers a month. The new plant is expected to ease a shortage of such memory chips which is forecast to only get worse as demand rises and plants hit capacity output. Electronics Show Date Set The Electronic Industries Association of Japan has announced the next Japan Electronics Show will be held from October 17 to 21 in Osaka. The association says that 417 exhibitors from across Japan and nations such as the United States will attend. On display will be a "full range" of electronics products. (Martyn Williams/19950713) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 07/13/95 ONLINE Internet Update (NEWS)(ONLINE)(TYO)(00014) Internet Update 07/13/95 TOKYO, JAPAN, 1995 JUL 13 (NB) -- In this roundup of new services and resources on the Internet: More golf scores from Unisys; Protest against French nuclear tests; Multiple file searches; Italian space project; Security lab moves; Lotus technical support; Genetics library debuts; New version of Slipknot; South African investment information; and Earthwatch radio scripts available. More Golf Scores From Unisys Following the overwhelming success of live scores from the US Open golf tournament, Unisys is to provide a similar service for the US Women's Open Golf Championship, being held July 13-16 at the Broadmoor Golf Club East Course in Colorado Springs, Colorado. The scores are offered direct from the Unisys scoring system that is already in place. A similar service offered during the US Open attracted 300,000 hits over the four days of the championship. World Wide Web: http://www.unisys.com/ Protest Against French Nuclear Tests Two Japanese university students are protesting France's decision to resume nuclear testing in the South Pacific by encouraging everyone who disagrees with the decision to sign a protest form. More details on the form can be obtained via World Wide Web or electronic-mail. World Wide Web: http://www.icepp.s.u-tokyo.ac.jp/ Internet e-mail: keshi@uticeaix1.icepp.s.u-tokyo.ac.jp Multiple File Searches The ability of a text editor to search for and "search and replace" a particular word is very useful, but when multiple documents need to be searched it can be time-consuming to open each file in turn, search it, then close it and open the next one. Two new software packages, Search Replace String and Find String, will perform these tasks across a group of files. They are written for the Windows 3.1 platform. World Wide Web: http://www.ksu.ksu.edu/~floersh/index.html Italian Space Project The Italian X-Ray Astronomy Satellite, or "SAX," is a project to investigate galactic and extragalactic X-ray sources. Web users can now look up details of the satellite and mission and see pictures of the mission. World Wide Web: http://www.tesre.bo.cnr.it/Research/SAX/Mission/ Security Lab Moves The Web server for the Computer Security Laboratory in the Computer Science Department at the University of California at Davis has moved. The new site includes details of the lab, a list of security lab papers and personal home pages of the researchers. World Wide Web: :http://seclab.cs.ucdavis.edu/ Lotus Technical Support The Lotus technical support team is on the Web. They say you will find "all our available technical information,including searchable databases, file downloads and frequently asked questions (FAQs) for all our products." World Wide Web: http://www.support.lotus.com/ Genetics Library Debuts The Genetics Library of the University of Cambridge in the United Kingdom has just opened a home page. Visitors will find information about the library, the genetics department and useful links for geneticists. World Wide Web: http://rhmap.gen.cam.ac.uk:8081/Library/Libraryhomepage.html New Version Of Slipknot A new version of Slipknot, an award-winning program that allows graphical access to the web through a Unix shell account, is now available in version 1.11. The new version includes support for fill-in forms (through Lynx), gopher, telnet, modemless direct serial connections, longer job queues, a large list of popular bookmarks, and site license customizations. In addition to the enhancements, the new version will now also run on OS/2 in addition to the Windows 3.1 platform. To find out where to get the latest version of Slipknot e-mail slipknot@micromind.com or visit the Web site. World Wide Web: http://www.interport.net/slipknot/slipknot.html South African Investment Information As part of a project to encourage investment in South Africa, the Africa Commercial Service has begun the South African Investors' Guide. The service offers free access to a comprehensive overview of the companies listed on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange. World Wide Web: http://africa.com/pages/jse/page1.htm Earthwatch Radio Scripts Available Scripts from the award-winning EarthWatch radio program are now available on the Internet courtesy of the programs makers, The University of Wisconsin. The service allows access to hundreds of one- page stories on environmental and science themes. The program is heard on more than 160 radio stations in the United States and Canada. Gopher: gopher://gopher.adp.wisc.edu:70/11/.browse/.METASGIEW (Martyn Williams/19950713) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 07/13/95 TRENDS Fujitsu Intros Smallest Magneto-Optical Drive (NEWS)(TRENDS)(TYO)(00015) Fujitsu Intros Smallest Magneto-Optical Drive 07/13/95 TOKYO, JAPAN, 1995 JUL 13 (NB) -- Fujitsu has unveiled the "world's smallest" Magneto-Optical (MO) drive designed for use in portable computers. The drive accepts 3.5-inch MO disks capable of storing up to 230 megabytes (MB) of data. Fujitsu's new DynaMO 230 Portable drive is just 17 millimeters (mm) high and weighs 250 grams. The removable/rewritable disk drive provides storage for up to 230MB of information and is designed for data intensive applications such as those involving video, audio and image files and for applications which require large amounts of data to be transferred between machines. The drive is available in internal version suitable for installation in laptop and desktop computers and in an external version that can be connected to virtually any computer via an enhanced IDE (Integrated Drive Electronics) interface, the industry's first implementation of such an interface the Tokyo-based company says. In addition to the IDE interface option, the external versions also support connection via PCMCIA (Personal Computer Memory Card International Association) slots, parallel ports or SCSI (small computer system interface) interfaces. Users will be able to use 230MB industry standard MO disks in the drive and, in keeping with Fujitsu's commitment to provide at least two complete generations of backward compatibility, 128MB MO disks. Magneto Optical disks are approximately the same size as 3.5-inch floppies, but hold up to 160 times as much data. The disks can be written and rewritten an unlimited number of times but, unlike floppies, cannot be erased by magnetic fields. "As the use of portable computers continues to increase and the size of applications and data files grows even faster, users need solutions that allow them to transport and access large data files when they are away from their desktop system," said Rich Jorgensen, director of optical disk products at Fujitsu. "Because it is standardized and highly stable, magneto-optical technology, especially in this form factor, is ideal for the professional portable user." The new drive will be available first as an integrated drive in laptop computers from the autumn. The drive will also be available direct from Fujitsu and carries a recommended retail price of $499. (Martyn Williams/19950713/Press contact: Mary Medeiros, Fujitsu Computer Products, 408-894-3565, Internet e-mail mmedeiros@fcpa.fujitsu.com ) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 07/13/95 ONLINE ISA Conference - PC Gaining On TV For Interactivity (NEWS)(ONLINE)(BOS)(00016) ISA Conference - PC Gaining On TV For Interactivity 07/13/95 BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS, U.S.A., 1995 JUL 13 (NB) -- Although the TV may long be with us for "passive" entertainment and information, the PC is likely to become the device of choice for interactive services, agreed a panel of officials from Tribune Company, Nynex, and Continental Cable, speaking at the opening plenary of the three-day Interactive Services Association (ISA) Conference in Boston. Continental Cable and PCInet are teaming up on a trial in Cambridge, Massachusetts, that will use "cable modems" for connecting PCs over a cable network, revealed Continental Cable President William Schleyer. Meanwhile, Nynex and its partners, Bell Atlantic and PacTel, are discussing strategies for consumer-oriented tariffed services involving ISDN (integrated services digital network) access from PCs to the World Wide Web, reported Walter J. Rickard, chairman of Nynex Entertainment and Information Services. Donning the hat of a "user" for a moment, a third speaker, Tribune Company Chairman Charles Brumback, admitted that he sometimes watches sports events at night on cable TV, and that he also views movies on his home VCR (videocassette recorder). But the chairman of the newspaper publishing empire added that he spends much more of his "time away from work" in front of a PC than looking at TV. The "age of interactivity" is no longer very far away, according to Brumback, Rickard, and Schleyer. The panel of representatives from the newspaper, telephone, and cable TV industries was moderated by Berge Ayvazian, senior VP of the Yankee Group. Stepping to the podium first, Brumback congratulated the ISA members and others in the plenary audience for being "believers" in a coming explosion in interactive services. "You're making a big assumption. And so am I," the Tribune chairman remarked. The same assumption is shared these days by many other media companies, he asserted. Only a few years ago, lots of newspaper industry executives only used PCs "to type a letter, or play a game, if at all," Brumback observed. But now, he noted, Knight-Ridder has purchased a 50 percent interest in the "Destination Florida" online travel service from America Online (AOL). Brumback also pointed to major commitments by media companies to investments as varied as Netscape, Cox Cable, and PRC Systems, a software vendor specializing in the real estate industry. Continental Cable is now only in the preliminary phase of its trial with PCInet in Cambridge, said Schleyer, when it was his turn to speak. But Continental has already looked at a cable modem that resells for $600, Schleyer told the audience. When it becomes possible to sell modems of this kind to consumers for $500, PC-to-cable network connectivity will become commercially viable, he predicted. In addition, other equipment needed for this type of PC-based interactivity will now hit the market, because issues related to "FDMA vs. TDMA" (time division multiple access), as well as to ATM (asynchronous transfer mode) access, have just been resolved, according to the company president. By the year 2005, 85 percent of the US market will have access to at least one cable-based wired service, "and a large majority of (that 85 percent) will have access to two (services)," he contended. TV sets and set top boxes will remain in our midst for "passive" services -- especially with the emergence of less expensive HDTV (high definition television) display devices -- but PCs will increasingly become the seat of "active" services, Schleyer maintained. Likewise, Nynex's Rickard did not discount the possibility of continuing co-existence between PC and TV. But, he pointed out, the kind of digital set-top box needed for interactivity with a TV is now priced at up to $1,000, a level too high to be commercially viable. Rickard also countered Schleyer's position on cable networks with the assertion that "ISDN is much more robust." ISDN, however, also requires TCP/IP (Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol) for home connectivity to the Web, noted the Nynex exec. Also, he indicated, cable TV companies are not nearly as well suited as Nynex and other RBOCs (regional Bell operating companies) to providing the kinds of local interactive programming -- such as local news, sports, and weather -- that consumers are expected to want. Nynex is now talking with its two RBOC partners about ways of pricing and obtaining regulatory approval for consumer access to the Web over ISDN, along with ideas for interactive programming, according to Rickard. Rickard held out high praise for the Nynex Interactive Yellow Pages, a service that currently runs on both Prodigy and the Internet. But in the future, he said, some interactive services will add the use of human entertainers, giving Robin Williams as a conceivable example. To pave the way for greater interactivity, Nynex, Bell Atlantic, and PacTel have already jointly created TeleTV Media and TeleMedia Systems. The trio of telephone companies is also teaming up with Creative Artists for content, the Nynex executive told the group. (Jacqueline Emigh/19950712/Reader and Press Contact: Interactive Services Association, 301-495-4955) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 07/13/95 GENERAL 7th Level Previews CD-ROM Titles, "Free Giveaway" (NEWS)(GENERAL)(BOS)(00017) 7th Level Previews CD-ROM Titles, "Free Giveaway" 07/13/95 BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS, U.S.A., 1995 JUL 13 (NB) -- Founded by software and entertainment "pioneers," 7th Level now has more than ten CD-ROM titles in its catalog, ranging from "Battle Beast" -- a game set for a free "giveaway" plus online promotion in August -- to "The Great Word Adventure" for kids, and "Q's Juke Joint," a musical documentary, said Mary Crisp, in a preview for Newsbytes on a Boston press tour. Exactly 10,000 copies of "Battle Beast," a battle game targeted at teens and adults, will be given away free of charge on August 19, at retail stores that include Computer City, CompUSA, Software Etc., and Babbage's, Crisp told Newsbytes. Another 100,000 demos of the same game will be distributed free of charge at the retail outlets. In addition, the "Battle Beast" demo will be downloadable from CompuServe. Dallas-based 7th Level exemplifies the much talked about trend to "convergence" in the CD-ROM industry, according to the 7th Level exec. 7th Level was founded by George Grayson, who previously established Micrografx, together with Bob Ezrin, a record industry producer, and Scott Page, another "rock music impresario," Crisp noted. "Q's Jook Joint," a title being co-produced with Quincy Jones, will be set in a "Jook Joint," described by Crisp as a place where people of various ethnic and social backgrounds met at the turn of the century to watch performances by Afro-American musicians. Targeted for release in the third quarter of next year, the title will explore musical genres like jazz, rock-and-roll, rhythm and blues, gospel, ragtime, folk, and indigenous African music through animation, interviews, and original photos, film footage, and performances, she reported. 7th Level's titles also stand out from the competition through the quality of animation, according to Crisp. In contrast to most CD- ROM games, which are first created for "machines like Nintendo," and then ported to the PC, "Battle Beast" and other games from 7th Level are produced "on the PC, for the PC," she added. As a result, "Battle Beast" contains more than 7,000 frames of animation, about five times the number typically found in a computer game, she maintained. 7th Level draws on the Los Angeles area for talent, as well as on production houses that have been springing up in and around Dallas, Crisp noted. For example, the company recently signed with Disney Interactive to co-develop an animated CD-ROM to be based on Disney's "Lion King" characters. In another recent move, 7th Level signed Charles Fleischer, the "voice of Roger Rabbit," to help create, write and narrate "The Universe According to Virgil Reality," an animated science education title being planned for early 1996. On 7th Level's "Battle Beast," the animation was inked and painted by a group of artists who previously teamed on episodes of "Beavis & Butthead," according to Crisp. In a series of demos, Crisp gave Newsbytes a peek at "Battle Beast," "The Universe According to Virgil," and "The Great Word Adventure." The idea for "Battle Beasts," she said, was prompted by a real life "fiasco" in which shipments of toads, imported into Australia, bred to the extent that the beasts threatened to "overrun the continent." The objective of the game is to "find and destroy the `evil toadman' and his minions," she explained. The 7th Level exec then showed Newsbytes how, at the start of the game, each player selects from among six animated "playing pieces." The game is "challenging" in that each playing piece has pre- determined characteristics such as fight moves and types of weaponry which influence strategy, she asserted. Newsbytes saw and heard how players can use keyboard combinations to taunt their rivals with words like "you're weak," "sissy," and "you're a wimp." Crisp also pointed to the "intricacy and depth" of background animation effects like rising steam and hovering helicopters in the battle settings. "The background plays a whole role itself," she maintained. In the demo of "The Universe According to Virgil," Crisp showed Newsbytes a screen that uses the metaphor of a scientist's library as a jumping off point for navigating between parts of the program. By clicking on books in the bookcase, users will be able to enter various alphabetical volumes of an "extensive" scientific encyclopedia database, she illustrated. Clicking on a telescope, also in the library, will bring you to a "Hollywood Squares"-type quiz show that teaches about astronomy, she added. By clicking on a microscope, you can zoom in on any scientific object, at a ratio of up to 3:1. "The Great Word Adventure," a sequel to the previously released preschool title "TuneLand," is aimed at six- to nine-year-olds, Newsbytes was told. Narrated by Howie Mandel, the new title uses games, puzzles, singalongs, scary stories, and a customizable "word database" to teach language skills such as letter recognition, capitalization, rhymes, compound words, and problem solving, she noted. In one game, for instance, kids match up parts of compound words horizontally, vertically, and diagonally. The correct solution of the compound word puzzle is linked to the solution to a jigsaw-type puzzle. Other upcoming titles from 7th Level include "Arcade America," "Return to Krondor: Tear of the Gods," and the futuristic journey "G-NOME." 7th Level also has "Take Your Best Shot" and "Monty Python's Complete Waste of Time" to its credit. (Jacqueline Emigh/19950713/Reader Contact: 7th Level, 214-498- 8100; Press Contacts: Jenny Roelle or Deanne Arritt, Bender, Goldman & Helper for 7th Level, 310-473-4147) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 07/13/95 ONLINE ****Michael Jackson Live & Online With Prodigy (NEWS)(ONLINE)(SFO)(00018) ****Michael Jackson Live & Online With Prodigy 07/13/95 WHITE PLAINS, NEW YORK, U.S.A., 1995 JUL 13 (NB) -- Rock star, Michael Jackson, is scheduled to appear in Prodigy's chat auditorium on August 3. For the event, Prodigy is creating a chat area for more than 5,000 of its members. Newsbytes learned this event is part of a promotional tour to showcase Jackson's latest audio CD, "HIStory - Past, Present, Future - Book I," on MJJ/Epic Records. Jackson's cyber-promotion of Prodigy is being developed through Sony. "Jackson will be interacting with thousands of fans in what may the largest cyber event staged with a celebrity," said Carol Wallace, spokesperson for Prodigy. "It has not been decided whether he will conduct the cyber-session from his Neverland Ranch or from a studio in the Los Angeles area," continued Wallace. Describing the procedure, Wallace said she did not think Jackson would actually be entering his comments on the keyboard. "We allow celebrities to choose whether we input their statement or they do it themselves. Most prefer to have our staff do the keyboard work. It is usually faster that way and there is less worry about typos," she said. Two Prodigy staff members will be with Jackson and his people when the event takes place. Questions from the audience are received, reviewed and cued on a separate private screen. Wallace said hundreds of questions and comments are expected and only a small portion of those will be answered by Jackson. "We try to make an online event different from the standard television or magazine interview. The focus is on audience questions and the event gives Jackson a chance to choose which questions he wants to answer. It is not often a celebrity has the opportunity to talk directly to fans about whatever topic the star wishes to address," she said. The screen Prodigy members view displays only the selected questions and responses dictated by Jackson. This assures the audience a freedom from online comments by other members while the cyber-event is being conducted. More information is available in Prodigy's Music bulletin board and people who are not Prodigy members may download the necessary software from Prodigy's World Wide Web site at http://www.prodigy.com . Jackson promotion on the Web does not stop there. He has his own Web site at http://www.sony.com . (Patrick McKenna/19950713/Press Contact: Carol Wallace, Prodigy, 914-448-2496) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 07/13/95 ONLINE UB Networks To Create 3-D CyberCity With ESCOT (NEWS)(ONLINE)(SFO)(00019) UB Networks To Create 3-D CyberCity With ESCOT 07/13/95 SANTA CLARA, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1995 JUL 13 (NB) -- After making big news across the Internet with Worlds Chat, UB Networks and Worlds Inc., have announced an agreement with Japan-based ESCOT Corporation. UB's popular three-dimensional (3-D) interactive environment technology is to create ESCOT's Cyber Oz City. As reported earlier in Newsbytes, Worlds Chat has been the big Internet secret. It is an example of the combined work of UB Networks and Worlds Inc. This 3-D, virtual environment allows users to choose a graphical character and join in a chat with other characters while moving around and exploring a space station-like environment. Worlds Chat is a test area for new ideas for the two companies and is offered free to all users. The deal with ESCOT, a multimedia-based entertainment/leisure company, calls for UB to develop a virtual, 3-D "animated world" which will "allow users to chat and relax" in a multi-user environment tailored for the travel and leisure industry. In the Cyber Oz City, users will cruise around a virtual building. Entering any of a number of doors in the building will take users to specific World Wide Web sites with travel, entertainment and leisure information. When finished, a user leaves the Web site and returns automatically to the animated, 3-D world. UB says the implementation of its InterWorld VR.v technology in Cyber Oz City is a first for the computer industry. "This is the first time a business has used virtual reality and the Internet to reach and interact with its customers. We applaud ESCOT for its innovative approach and willingness to lead the way for other businesses," said a spokesperson for UB Networks. Cyber Oz City is an interactive, 3-D version of an actual physical location of ESCOT's physical location which showcases the latest virtual reality technology, tools, new media and travel-related offerings. Various parts of Cyber Oz City will open on different dates with the first area, ESCOT Bar & Grill, expected on July 21. (Patrick McKenna/19950713/Press Contact: Heather Schoeny, UB Networks, 408-562-7931) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 07/13/95 BROADCAST SilentRadio's Data Encoder For TV Broadcasters (NEWS)(BROADCAST)(LAX)(00020) SilentRadio's Data Encoder For TV Broadcasters 07/13/95 CHATSWORTH, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1995 JUL 13 (NB) -- SilentRadio Inc. (NASDAQ: SRDO), operator of a network using the vertical blanking interval (VBI) for data distribution, has announced a new data encoder. The increased capacity of the new encoder, along with an improved video demodulator (VIDEM), can now more efficiently deliver data to computers and fax machines, claims the company. Ray Krastins, vice president of marketing, told Newsbytes, "A standard North American television signal consists of 525 horizontal lines divided into two fields. This first 21 lines of each field comprise the vertical blanking interval, the black stripe seen when a TV picture loses vertical hold. The VBI is black because it is empty; it's part of the signal but carries no information. "The television receiver needs lines one to nine of the VBI for timing set-up," Krastins continued, "but lines 10 to 21 are not allocated. Because these lines are not used, they are available for data transmission. For example, line 21 of the VBI has been used for many years to deliver closed captioning information. This information is available to the hearing impaired everywhere the television signal can be received." Added Krastins, "VBI data broadcasting, once known as 'teletext,' is a technique developed in the early 1980's. Because the data is actually encoded as video, it becomes an integral part of the television signal. The VBI data is transmitted everywhere the television signal reaches and will pass transparently through all carrier media." According to the company, each line of the VBI is capable of transmitting 288 bits per television field. Of this, 224 bits are available for raw data. At 60 fields per second -- 11 VBI lines per field -- this translates to an input capacity of about 185,000 bits-per-second (bps), or about 83 megabytes per hour. "The real advantage of data broadcasting using the VBI is that the data is available everywhere the television signal travels at the same time," said Krastins. "Telecommunications based transmission costs increase proportionally to the number of destination sites. With data broadcasting, the incremental cost to each additional reception point is zero." "The introduction of this new system further confirms our company's commitment of partnering with local broadcasters to develop new financial opportunities on the unused portion of the television spectrum," remarked Lewis Solomon, chairman and chief executive officer. "We are very enthusiastic about the many local advertising, home gaming, and other data distribution options this technology will provide for our clients." Said Krastins, "This new data encoder greatly enhances the operating features of SilentRadio's display network and significantly increases its delivery capacity. By coupling the encoder with a video demodulator, SilentRadio now has the ability to deliver content produced by our in-house publishing newsroom to computers, fax machines, and printers instantaneously nationwide." (Richard Bowers/19950713/Press Contact: Ray Krastins, SilentRadio Inc. 908-706-0074) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 07/13/95 ONLINE Online Network To Link Artists With Buyers, Suppliers (NEWS)(ONLINE)(DEN)(00021) Online Network To Link Artists With Buyers, Suppliers 07/13/95 HOUSTON, TEXAS, U.S.A., 1995 JUL 13 (NB) -- An international marketing service for artists, art buyers, and art product retailers has announced it will team with a developer of interactive services and technology to develop an online global network to link artists and their works with potential buyers and suppliers. Artists On-line said this week it will team with Telescan Inc. (NASDAQ: TSCN) to develop a network that can link artists with art buyers, dealers, suppliers, collectors, architects, decorators, and other interested parties. The service, which is scheduled to go online in the first quarter of 1996, will enable a subscriber to obtain complete information on a particular artist, view their works, and contact the artist. Artists On-line said subscribers will have immediate access to tens of thousands of original art works from around the world. Developers said the most significant feature of the new service will be the ability for potential buyers to locate the ideal piece of art for their application, based on a wide variety of search criteria. That might include size, mood, price, style, materials, or shade of colors. David Brown, Telescan chief executive officer, told Newsbytes that it is possible because of the company's ProSearch search engine which uses fuzzy logic to find the best matches to the stated search criteria, even if that match isn't exact. The Microsoft Press Computer Dictionary Second Edition defines fuzzy logic as "a form of logic used in some expert systems and other artificial-intelligence applications in which variables can have degrees of truthfulness or falsehood. With fuzzy logic, the outcome of an operation can be expressed as a probability rather than as a certainty." Brown said most of the financial burden of the online service will be borne by advertising revenue and the charge paid by the artist or gallery to list works of art. The potential buyer will pay a small charge for each search which Brown said would be "a dollar or two." The online art listing will also be available on the World Wide Web. Brown said the main difference between the subscription service and the Web site would be a less powerful search capability on the Web site. Timothy Warner, Artists On-line president, said the service will provide a forum for artists, art buyers and art product retailers to buy and sell art work and art-related products. Telescan also operates: an investor search and analysis service; the American Institute of Architects AIAOnline; Billboard Online and Hollywood Reporter Online, electronic versions of the entertainment industry publications; Home & Design Online; Knowledge Express Online; and Public Information Online. Brown said an electronic version of Editor & Publisher magazine, called Editor & Publisher Ampersand network, is in beta test and will soon go online. (Jim Mallory/19950713/Press contact: Richard Ames, Telescan, 713-952-1060 or Timothy Warner, Artists On-line, 214-255-6861) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 07/13/95 WINDOWS Windows 95 "Coming Soon" Program Is...Coming Soon (NEWS)(WINDOWS)(DEN)(00022) Windows 95 "Coming Soon" Program Is...Coming Soon 07/13/95 REDMOND, WASHINGTON, U.S.A., 1995 JUL 13 (NB) -- Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ: MSFT) has announced a promotional program called "Coming Soon" that will let users reserve their copy of Windows 95 before the software ships next month by contacting their local software retailer. "Coming Soon" is itself coming soon, scheduled to launch July 15, with point-of-sale promotional materials like posters and buttons, as well as automated demonstrations of Windows 95. Microsoft said numerous national resellers, including Best Buy, CompUSA, Computer city, Egghead Software, Office Depot, Sam's, Staples and Walmart are participating in the "Coming Soon" program. Windows 95 is Microsoft's next-generation operating system that's scheduled for retail availability on August 24. Microsoft said more than 100 computer software and hardware vendors are preparing to ship products designed to run with Windows 95. Some of those products are scheduled to ship simultaneously with Windows 95 and others will be available within 90 days or less. Pete Janssen, vice president of merchandising for the software chain Egghead Software, said Egghead will provide upgrade options for its customers who obtain Windows 3.1 between now and the scheduled release of Windows 95. The 32-bit Windows 95 will have a revised user interface that is similar to the interface used on Apple Computer's Macintosh platform. The software includes support for video, audio, connections to Microsoft's own online service The Microsoft Network and Internet access. A universal inbox will provide a receptacle for incoming electronic-mail, voice-mail, faxes, and will provide Caller ID information. Windows 95 will also include Autoplay, a Microsoft technology that automatically installs and runs CD-ROM-based software or audio, if the application or music disk is Autoplay-enabled. Microsoft didn't forget game players as it developed Windows 95. Currently game players usually switch to DOS to run games. Microsoft has incorporated technology to support games running under Windows, including "realistic" video and sound. Windows 95 is expected to sell for under $100. Microsoft has said Windows 95 will run on an IBM-compatible personal computer powered by a 386 microprocessor and equipped with four megabytes (MB) of memory. However, that may not be enough computing power if you want to run several applications simultaneously. (Jim Mallory/19950713/Press contact: Claudia Husemann, Waggener Edstrom for Microsoft, 503-245-0905) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 07/13/95 ONLINE Novell To Host NetWare 4.1 Online Conferences (NEWS)(ONLINE)(DEN)(00023) Novell To Host NetWare 4.1 Online Conferences 07/13/95 OREM, UTAH, U.S.A., 1995 JUL 13 (NB) -- Want to ask a Novell Inc. (NASDAQ: NOVL) executive or engineer why your NetWare 4.1-based computer network doesn't work correctly or when they will make available a particular NetWare loadable module (NLM)? You will have that opportunity beginning next month. Novell said it will host a series of online conferences on CompuServe in which senior executives and product engineers will answer questions ranging from network operating systems topics to Novell's pervasive computing strategy. The conference series will kick off July 20 when Mary Burnside, Novell executive vice president and chief operating officer, will take the hot seat. The conference schedule will continue August 3 with Toby Corey, Novell Operating Systems Division vice president of marketing fielding questions. On August 15, Bob Frankenberg, Novell president, chief executive officer and chairman of the board, will talk to CompuServe subscribers, and Joe Marengi, Novell executive vice president for worldwide sales will host the conference on August 31. Drew Major, chief scientist and architect of NetWare 4.1 will be present on September 14, and Dave Stevenson, Novell vice president of product development, will be at the controls September 28. The conference series will wind up on October 12 with Richard King, Novell Systems Group executive vice president. All conference times are 4pm to 6pm, except the Frankenberg session which will start and conclude one hour later. To participate in any of the conferences log onto CompuServe and type GO NETWARE4. (Jim Mallory/19950713/press contact; Carley Brennan, Novell, 801-429-7230; Public contact: CompuServe, 800-524-3388, operator 200 to join CompuServe) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 07/13/95 TELECOM Sprint To Offer Interactive Voice Products (NEWS)(TELECOM)(DEN)(00024) Sprint To Offer Interactive Voice Products 07/13/95 DALLAS, TEXAS, U.S.A., 1995 JUL 13 (NB) -- Intervoice Inc. (NASDAQ: INTV) has announced an agreement with Sprint that will let the telecommunications company provide its business customers with the call processing functions of Intervoice's OneVoice multi-application platform. Intervoice said OneVoice will allow Sprint to provide functions like interactive voice response, audiotext, automated attendant, fax-on-demand, agent/screen synchronization, inbound/outbound call processing, voice messaging, and conferencing. In 1993, Newsbytes reported a $300,000 sale of Onevoice to MCI Communications. the system uses Intervoice's RobotOperator to automate the processing of collect and third party calls and frees 800-number sales representatives. The technology is currently in use in finance, education and health care businesses to provide bill payments, payment tracking, coverage verification, reservations, help desk, benefits information, student registration, and other functions. One advantage of a product like OneVoice is the ability for businesses to provide customer service around the clock, said Marvin Yanof, Intervoice vice president of reseller sales. It can also reduce the number of employees required to handle routine transactions and information requests. Rob Graham, Intervoice chief financial officer, told Newsbytes about some of the more unusual uses clients have implemented using OneVoice. For example, in the state of Texas, the Title XIX (Food stamp) program issues a "credit card" to food stamp recipients. The card is presented at the checkout counter, "swiped" through a reader and OneVoice technology verifies the account, checks for an available balance, approves the transaction and debits the account balance. Graham said Texas officials credit the system with reducing the "grey market" for food stamps and aids in cost control also. Graham said OneVoice is also in use in the Netherlands, where shepherds register lamb births and check registration and breeding information and sheep sales. Onevoice runs on an IBM-compatible server running IBM's OS/2 operating system. Intervoice can provide customers with a complete turnkey system including all the necessary hardware and software, or will sell the hardware and underlying software layer, with the customer developing its own application in C++. Intervoice will also develop the application for the user, said Graham. The Intervoice executive said the term "voice response" may be a misnomer. "What the industry is about is processing telephone calls or calls for information that are routine and are resident in a data base and can be answered in a standard fashion," he stated. The industry Graham referred to is a big one. According to Bernie Armyot, assistant vice president for business markets at Sprint, the voice response market is expected to grow 24 percent over the next five years with revenues approaching $1.4 billion by 1997. (Jim Mallory/19950713/Press contact: Rob Graham, Intervoice, 214-454-8712; Public contact: Intervoice, 214-454-8862) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 07/13/95 ONLINE eShop In Partnerships To Launch Online Stores (NEWS)(ONLINE)(LAX)(00025) eShop In Partnerships To Launch Online Stores 07/13/95 SAN MATEO, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1995 JUL 13 (NB) -- eShop Inc. has unveiled eShop Technology, a dedicated Internet merchandising and shopping system. eShop Technology will provide electronic "store" design, browsing, purchasing, and transaction processing to merchants who want to be online. eShop Technology enables merchants to develop and operate branded online storefronts using standard Unix-based servers. Merchants can offer their customers the ability to use Windows applications to work with leading Web browsers, such as Netscape Navigator, to sell products through standard modem-equipped personal computers. Jonathan Weinstein, director of product marketing for eShop, told Newsbytes, "The industry needs to make online shopping a more personalized experience than it has been in the past. eShop Technology provides a more compelling graphic display, along with the back-office support to allow merchants to react personally to their clients." At the same time as they were announcing eShop Technology, the company announced a series of licensing agreements. Four major US merchants -- Spiegel, Tower Records, 1-800-FLOWERS, and The Good Guys -- will use eShop to launch online stores. eShop also announced an agreement with GE Capital Commercial Equipment Financing, where the firm will host a nationwide business- to-business network for GE Capital. The business-to-business network will be managed and marketed by GE Capital and operated on the eShop Mall Hosting Platform. A strategic relationship with Netscape Communications was also announced. eShop's on-line shopping software will work with Netscape Navigator, the leading Web browser. In addition, the two companies will work together to distribute eShop shopping software to Netscape customers. The eShop Technology suite has three primary software components: eShop Browser, eShop Builder, and eShop Warehouse. Browser is the shopping software. Consumers can download at no cost on a floppy disk from a merchant. Shoppers who don't have Web access can shop directly through a communications network, at no charge. Builder is a Windows-based graphical application that enables retailers to build intricate graphic displays. Builder-generated reports enable merchants to continually monitor store and product performance. Warehouse will help manage all aspects of the online shopping session, including session management, customer tracking, sales tax and shipping fee calculation, and order routing. Warehouse also provides credit processing functions that support consumer credit cards as well as private label cards. "We are raising the bar for online shopping," says Matt Kursh, eShop chief executive officer. "We've spent three years building technology that lets merchants apply their merchandising and promotional talents to the World Wide Web. Consumers experience a great new shopping environment where they can easily browse and make purchases at their convenience with complete confidence and security." (Richard Bowers/19950713/Press Contact: Franci Kursh, eShop Inc. 415-573-7770 ext 200) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 07/13/95 ONLINE Checkfree & CyberCash Plan Electronic Commerce System (NEWS)(ONLINE)(SFO)(00026) Checkfree & CyberCash Plan Electronic Commerce System 07/13/95 BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS, U.S.A., 1995 JUL 13 (NB) -- Two of the largest electronic commerce services and products companies, Checkfree Corporation and CyberCash Inc. have agreed to cooperatively develop and market programs and services to enhance financial electronic transactions over the Internet. This past April, Checkfree introduced Checkfree Wallet which allows users to make purchases from online merchants without prior registration procedures. Online shoppers do not pay a fee or transaction charge. The agreement with CyberCash allows the company's high level security and transaction procedures to be incorporated into Checkfree Wallet. It also means the Wallet will be independent of specific servers and browsers. Checkfree Wallet with these new additions is expected to be available this fall and the companies have decided to rename the product to reflect the joint effort. A spokesperson for the Checkfree told Newsbytes, "We think people will be very comfortable with the wallet concept. It has a familiarity associated with all their other shopping activities." Regarding the name, the spokesperson said, "Users will still see the name 'Checkfree Wallet,' but we expect the new version to be named 'Checkfree Wallet With CyberCash' and assume it will become the standard." The wallet concept reflects the idea of consumers using cash (a debit card), credit cards and checks, much like they do in everyday life. One of the advantages of the Wallet with CyberCash is the ability to do mini-transactions. A number of Internet sites charge a few cents to download an article. Given credit card and check writing charges, these types of "mini-transactions" are too costly. CyberCash allows users to make mini-transactions of any size. Checkfree says the first version of the Wallet with CyberCash will be available free of charge this fall from Internet provider Netcom through its NetCruiser Internet browser and other leading browsers (Patrick McKenna/19950713/Press Contact: Jennifer Sims, Access Public Relations, 415-904-7070) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 07/13/95 BROADCAST UK Firm Offers Low-Cost Handheld GPS Unit (NEWS)(BROADCAST)(LON)(00027) UK Firm Offers Low-Cost Handheld GPS Unit 07/13/95 SALISBURY, WILTSHIRE, ENGLAND, 1995 JUL 13 (NB) -- Next Destination, Magellan Systems' distributor in the UK and France, has unveiled the Magellan GPS (global positioning system) receiver. According to Mark White of the company, the handheld unit, which sells at UKP199 in Europe, has an accuracy of 100 meters anywhere on the earth's surface. #IMAGE 1 20 TWPCX \images\95071327.PCX Click here for photo "The unit is also being sold in the US at $199, but we have to pay a higher price over here because of duty and other taxes," he told Newsbytes, adding that the unit is one of the most advanced of its type. So what happened to the sub-one meter accuracy that GPS devotees claimed was used in the Gulf War? According to White, this super accuracy technology is known as P (for Private) GPS technology and is based on encoded and verified transmissions from the 21 GPS satellites that spin around the earth. "The P-GPS service is carefully licensed as it's for defense use. The system is set up so that the P-GPS mobile transmits codes back to the satellite net for verification. If no signal, or a wrong signal, is transmitted back, the P-GPS service to that mobile ceases," he explained. The service that the Magellan GPS 2000 unit works with is the CA (Course Acquisition) service which has an accuracy of around 15 meters. For security reasons, White told Newsbytes, the current signal from any one of the 21 GPS satellites (three or more are used for positioning purposes by the mobile) is "radially dispersed," which in simple terms means that that signal is deliberated defocused, to only give an accuracy of 100 meters. "The 15 meter accuracy is defined by the dispersion effective of the atmosphere of the 1.6 gigahertz signals, while the deliberate radial dispersion by the satellite reduces the accuracy down to 100 meters," he said. The GPS 2000 is designed as a "fun," as well as "practical," unit. By entering the latitude and longitude of a landmark you want to visit, the GPS 2000 will show the speed which you are traveling at, the distance to your destination, and how long it will take to get there. According to the company, the GPS 2000 even shows if you need to head towards the left or the right to get there. The GPS 2000 automatically fixes itself every 10 minutes in standard mode, and, when buttons are pressed, will take the latest available fix from the satellites. The GPS 2000 is about the size of a mobile phone and uses the 1.6 gigahertz transmissions from the 21 GPS satellites orbiting at 11,000 above the surface of the earth to locate itself. The unit is available world-wide immediately. (Steve Gold/19950713/Press Contact: Alice Driscoll, tel +44-1935-826451, fax +44-1935-826551; Reader Contact: Next Destination, tel +44-1935- 826451, fax +44-1935-826551/MAGELLAN950713/PHOTO) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 07/13/95 ONLINE PC Security Unveils Security Software For MS-Mail Users (NEWS)(ONLINE)(LON)(00028) PC Security Unveils Security Software For MS-Mail Users 07/13/95 MARLOW, BUCKINGHAMSHIRE, ENGLAND, 1995 JUL 13 (NB) -- PC Security has unveiled Stoplock Secure E-Mail, a package that the company claims provides full encryption for electronic-mail messages on Microsoft Mail networks. David Brown, a spokesman for the company, told Newsbytes that pricing on the package starts at UKP195 "and goes down the more copies you buy." This curious arrangement on pricing is because each copy is designed to be used on a single network, Brown went on to say. Options within Stoplock Secure E-Mail allow the user to encrypt messages or attachments, as required by the sender. The encryption side of the application is invoked from an Icon or MS-Mail option, and works in a similar way to the main MS-Mail package, the company claims. At the receiving end of town, messages are displayed through the usual MS-Mail application. Messages are automatically decrypted, without user intervention, base on information appended to the message by the Stoplock Secure E-mail application. According to PC Security, the message can only be decrypted by a valid Stoplock V user who is a member of the Stoplock V group under which the message was encrypted. Grouping users, the company claims, protects users against stray e-mail being read by the wrong person. Even if mail is sent wrongly by accident, the wrong recipient won't have the facility to decrypt it. According to the company, sensitive or confidential information is secure even across unprotected lines. Message security is maintained by ensuring that the messages are permanently encrypted in the message store. (Steve Gold/19950713/Press Contact: Macfarlane Associates, tel +44-1628-524611, fax +44-1628-850042; Reader Contact: PC Security tel +44-1628-890390, fax +44-1628-890116) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 07/13/95 NETWORK RAD Unveils New WAN Technology (NEWS)(NETWORK)(LON)(00029) RAD Unveils New WAN Technology 07/13/95 JERUSALEM, ISRAEL, 1995 JUL 13 (NB) -- RAD Network Devices (RND), an interworking products specialist, has introduced a new WAN (wide area network) "fanout" device, called WANgate, which has been designed for quickly expanding networks. According to the company, WANgate is an "ideal tool for network managers in need of increasing their central router's capacity in order to connect to many remote sites. In use, WANgate can be operational with the Ethernet port of a router from any vendor. It is billed as an "inexpensive, cost-saving" device, supporting link connections from 9.6 to 384 kilobits-per-second (Kbps). The WANgate itself converts a single Ethernet port into up to 16 WAN ports, with every one designed for bridging and routing. According to the company, such a spread-out of the output from the network dramatically reduces the need for any additional routers and other expensive router modules. Additionally, many WANgates can be built in stacks on top of each other to provide connectivity to many remote branches. Special features of the unit include integral compression. In addition, a connection-on-demand (CoD) facility is supported by the networking device. CoD, the company claims, speeds up connections overall, as only those channels which need to be used are actually in use at any given time. Compression on the system works at data ratio of four-to-one, at speeds of up to 64 Kbps, the company claims, According to RND, the WANgate unit is more price competitive than any similar device on the network, with retail pricing expected to be around $600. (Sylvia Dennis/19950713/Press & Reader Contact: RAD Network Devices, +972-3-645-8549) (SUMMARY)(GENERAL)(MSP)(00030) Newsbytes Daily Summary 07/13/95 MINNEAPOLIS, MINNESOTA, U.S.A., 1995 JUL 13 (NB) -- These are capsules of all today's news stories: ======================================================================== ------------| N E W S B Y T E S D A I L Y S U M M A R Y |---------- ------------| Thursday, July 13, 1995 |---------- ======================================================================== (c) Newsbytes News Network (Tm) Editor in Chief: Wendy Woods ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Newsbytes News Network is a computer and telecom industry news wire and digitized picture service. Our news stream includes more than 30 daily first-hand reported US and international news stories about computing and telecommunications. For more information, please e-mail to 'administrator@newsbytes.com' ------------------------------------------------------------------------ CATEGORY HEADLINES (*** indicates today's top stories) STORY # ======================================================================== BROADCAST SilentRadio's Data Encoder For TV Broadcasters............. 20 BROADCAST UK Firm Offers Low-Cost Handheld GPS Unit.................. 27 BUSINESS SCO Opens North Asia HQ In Hong Kong....................... 03 BUSINESS National Semiconductor To Expand India Operations.......... 04 BUSINESS AT&T Takes Equity Position In BBN Planet................... 11 BUSINESS Gateway 2000 Expands To Japan.............................. 12 CHIPS ****Comdex/Canada - PowerPC Hinges On Windows NT.......... 06 GENERAL Adobe Ships Persuasion On CD-ROM........................... 01 GENERAL Comdex/Canada - Lexmark Color Multifunction Device......... 07 GENERAL Japan Newsbriefs........................................... 13 GENERAL 7th Level Previews CD-ROM Titles, "Free Giveaway........... 17 LEGAL BSA Targets Egghead Software Customers..................... 10 NETWORK RAD Unveils New WAN Technology............................. 29 ONLINE PSINet Puts PR Newswire Content On Internet................ 02 ONLINE Internet Update............................................ 14 ONLINE ISA Conference - PC Gaining On TV For Interactivity........ 16 ONLINE ****Michael Jackson Live & Online With Prodigy............ 18 ONLINE UB Networks To Create 3-D CyberCity With ESCOT............. 19 ONLINE Online Network To Link Artists With Buyers, Suppliers...... 21 ONLINE Novell To Host NetWare 4.1 Online Conferences.............. 23 ONLINE eShop In Partnerships To Launch Online Stores.............. 25 ONLINE Checkfree & CyberCash Plan Electronic Commerce System...... 26 ONLINE PC Security Unveils Security Software For MS-Mail Users.... 28 TELECOM Comdex/Canada - Wireless E-Mail, Fax, Paging Debuts........ 08 TELECOM Sprint To Offer Interactive Voice Products................. 24 TRENDS Comdex/Canada - Software Machine Planned For Malls......... 05 TRENDS Latin American Software Sales Boom......................... 09 TRENDS Fujitsu Intros Smallest Magneto-Optical Drive.............. 15 WINDOWS Windows 95 "Coming Soon" Program Is...Coming Soon.......... 22 ======================================================================== These are the headlines and first paragraphs of each story, in order: 1 -> Adobe Ships Persuasion On CD-ROM -- Adobe Systems Inc. (NASDAQ: ADBE) has announced the availability of its graphics presentation program, Adobe Persuasion version 3.0.2, on CD-ROM for the Macintosh, Power Macintosh, and Windows platforms. Persuasion allows the user to create and manage slide shows, overheads, and desktop computer-based presentations. 2 -> PSINet Puts PR Newswire Content On Internet -- Performance Systems International Inc. (NASDAQ:PSIX) (PSINet) said it will utilize content from PR Newswire to provide a continuous news feed on PSIWeb's home page. PSINet said PSIWeb is the company's Internet World Wide Web "hosting service" for organizations seeking a presence on the global network of computers. 3 -> SCO Opens North Asia HQ In Hong Kong -- Santa Cruz Operation (SCO), a leading provider of Unix host and server systems, has opened its Hong Kong headquarters for North Asia, and unveiled SCO OpenServer version 5, the latest version of its market leading application server for the Intel platform. 4 -> National Semiconductor To Expand India Operations -- National Semiconductor Corp. has identified India as one of its high growth markets and hopes to do business worth $200 million by the year 2000 in the country. The Indian operations will be anchored from Bangalore and the office will start functioning by August-end. 5 -> Comdex/Canada - Software Machine Planned For Malls -- Would you buy software from a vending machine? Gregory Yankelovich is betting you would, and his company, Robosoft Technology of Toronto, plans to install its newly revamped Robosoft Electronic Software Store in shopping malls across Canada in hopes the idea will catch on. 6 -> ****Comdex/Canada - PowerPC Hinges On Windows NT -- Microsoft's (NASDAQ:MSFT) Windows NT operating system is now commercially available on Motorola Corp.'s (NYSE:MOT) PowerPC microprocessors, and the company hopes that will be a key to the chip's growing acceptance on the desktop. 7 -> Comdex/Canada - Lexmark Color Multifunction Device -- Lexmark International Inc., has announced a combination printer, fax, copier, and scanner with color-printing capability. The company said the color printing makes its Medley multifunction device the first of its kind. 8 -> Comdex/Canada - Wireless E-Mail, Fax, Paging Debuts -- GDT Softworks Inc., Cantel Data, IBM, and Ericsson announced during the Comdex/Canada trade show a wireless communications service that provides Internet electronic-mail, facsimile, and paging services within the reach of Cantel's Mobitex wireless communications network. 9 -> Latin American Software Sales Boom -- First quarter sales of US software in Latin America soared 85 percent over the first quarter of 1994, according to the Software Publishers Association. 10 -> BSA Targets Egghead Software Customers -- The Business Software Alliance is launching a campaign against software piracy in Egghead stores nationwide, starting this month. BSA is delivering posters and educational flyers to more than 160 Egghead stores stressing the importance of using legal software. 11 -> AT&T Takes Equity Position In BBN Planet -- AT&T (NYSE:T) said it is sinking $8 million dollars into BBN Planet, a subsidiary of Bolt Beranek and Newman (NYSE:BBN) that provides Internet access to businesses around the country. This equity investment is in addition to an agreement announced June 21 that the two companies would join together to provide Internet connectivity for businesses, an announcement which Newsbytes covered. 12 -> Gateway 2000 Expands To Japan -- Gateway 2000 is to set up a computer sales company in Japan. The announcement was made by Gateway president and chief executive Theodore Waitt, who said, "It's the right time for Gateway 2000 because we have the resources, and the right time for the market because it's growing rapidly,". 13 -> Japan Newsbriefs -- In this roundup of news from Japan: Digital video production planned for overseas; NEC decides on chip plant site; and Electronics Show Date Set. 14 -> Internet Update -- In this roundup of new services and resources on the Internet: More golf scores from Unisys; Protest against French nuclear tests; Multiple file searches; Italian space project; Security lab moves; Lotus technical support; Genetics library debuts; New version of Slipknot; South African investment information; and Earthwatch radio scripts available. 15 -> Fujitsu Intros Smallest Magneto-Optical Drive -- Fujitsu has unveiled the "world's smallest" Magneto-Optical (MO) drive designed for use in portable computers. The drive accepts 3.5-inch MO disks capable of storing up to 230 megabytes (MB) of data. 16 -> ISA Conference - PC Gaining On TV For Interactivity -- Although the TV may long be with us for "passive" entertainment and information, the PC is likely to become the device of choice for interactive services, agreed a panel of officials from Tribune Company, Nynex, and Continental Cable, speaking at the opening plenary of the three-day Interactive Services Association (ISA) Conference in Boston. 17 -> 7th Level Previews CD-ROM Titles, "Free Giveaway -- Founded by software and entertainment "pioneers," 7th Level now has more than ten CD-ROM titles in its catalog, ranging from "Battle Beast" 18 -> ****Michael Jackson Live & Online With Prodigy -- Rock star, Michael Jackson, is scheduled to appear in Prodigy's chat auditorium on August 3. For the event, Prodigy is creating a chat area for more than 5,000 of its members. 19 -> UB Networks To Create 3-D CyberCity With ESCOT -- After making big news across the Internet with Worlds Chat, UB Networks and Worlds Inc., have announced an agreement with Japan-based ESCOT Corporation. UB's popular three-dimensional (3-D) interactive environment technology is to create ESCOT's Cyber Oz City. 20 -> SilentRadio's Data Encoder For TV Broadcasters -- SilentRadio Inc. (NASDAQ: SRDO), operator of a network using the vertical blanking interval (VBI) for data distribution, has announced a new data encoder. The increased capacity of the new encoder, along with an improved video demodulator (VIDEM), can now more efficiently deliver data to computers and fax machines, claims the company. 21 -> Online Network To Link Artists With Buyers, Suppliers -- An international marketing service for artists, art buyers, and art product retailers has announced it will team with a developer of interactive services and technology to develop an online global network to link artists and their works with potential buyers and suppliers. 22 -> Windows 95 "Coming Soon" Program Is...Coming Soon -- Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ: MSFT) has announced a promotional program called "Coming Soon" that will let users reserve their copy of Windows 95 before the software ships next month by contacting their local software retailer. 23 -> Novell To Host NetWare 4.1 Online Conferences -- Want to ask a Novell Inc. (NASDAQ: NOVL) executive or engineer why your NetWare 4.1-based computer network doesn't work correctly or when they will make available a particular NetWare loadable module (NLM)? You will have that opportunity beginning next month. 24 -> Sprint To Offer Interactive Voice Products -- Intervoice Inc. (NASDAQ: INTV) has announced an agreement with Sprint that will let the telecommunications company provide its business customers with the call processing functions of Intervoice's OneVoice multi-application platform. 25 -> eShop In Partnerships To Launch Online Stores -- eShop Inc. has unveiled eShop Technology, a dedicated Internet merchandising and shopping system. eShop Technology will provide electronic "store" design, browsing, purchasing, and transaction processing to merchants who want to be online. 26 -> Checkfree & CyberCash Plan Electronic Commerce System -- Two of the largest electronic commerce services and products companies, Checkfree Corporation and CyberCash Inc. have agreed to cooperatively develop and market programs and services to enhance financial electronic transactions over the Internet. 27 -> UK Firm Offers Low-Cost Handheld GPS Unit -- Next Destination, Magellan Systems' distributor in the UK and France, has unveiled the Magellan GPS (global positioning system) receiver. According to Mark White of the company, the handheld unit, which sells at UKP199 in Europe, has an accuracy of 100 meters anywhere on the earth's surface. 28 -> PC Security Unveils Security Software For MS-Mail Users -- PC Security has unveiled Stoplock Secure E-Mail, a package that the company claims provides full encryption for electronic-mail messages on Microsoft Mail networks. 29 -> RAD Unveils New WAN Technology -- RAD Network Devices (RND), an interworking products specialist, has introduced a new WAN (wide area network) "fanout" device, called WANgate, which has been designed for quickly expanding networks. (Ian Stokell/19950713) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 07/10/95 GENERAL Wave Technologies' CD-ROM-based Courseware (NEWS)(GENERAL)(DEN)(00001) Wave Technologies' CD-ROM-based Courseware 07/10/95 ST LOUIS, MISSOURI, U.S.A., 1995 JUL 10 (NB) -- Wave Technologies International (NASDAQ: WAVT) has announced a site licensing program for CD-ROM-based courseware, called WaveWare, that lets the user customize and reproduce the course materials as often as they like. Each course master is sold on an individual CD-ROM disk that contains a student manual, instructor's notes, student exercises, and classroom overheads. You also get two course-related videotapes, a user's guide, training guidebook, help desk support, and a Wave course manual. The company said course content will be available in Microsoft Word for Windows, Novell WordPerfect, and Aldus Pagemaker formats on every master disk. The initial rollout of WaveWare courses this week includes: Administration for NetWare 3.x; Advanced Administration for NetWare 3.x; Mastering printing on NetWare; PC Support Specialist; A+ Certification; Technical Support for Windows; and Internetworking with TCP/IP (Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol). Later this month Wave will release: Windows NT 3.5 Workstation; Windows NT 3.5 Server; Administration for NetWare 4.x; Advanced Administration for NetWare 4.x; Data Communications Technologies; Technical Support for NetWare; Update to 4.x from NetWare 3.x; NetWare 4.x Installation and Configuration; Mastering Windows 3.1; and Supporting Networks using Microsoft Windows 3.1. The company said per site class licenses will be priced individually from $2,995. Pricing is determined by the number of course days, Doug Wilmsmeyer, vice president of publications, told Newsbytes. Other courses are also in development, and while the company declined to disclose specific titles, Wilmsmeyer said future course materials may include some programming languages and client-server topics. Wave is also considering courses from outside sources. (Jim Mallory/19950710/Press contact: Marjorie Pingel, Wave Technologies, 314-692-1910; Public contact: Wave Technologies, 800-928-3234 or 314-995-5767) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 07/10/95 PC Europe - Gateway 2000 Intros 133MHz Pentium PC (NEWS)(PC)(LON)(00002) Europe - Gateway 2000 Intros 133MHz Pentium PC 07/10/95 DUBLIN, IRELAND, 1995 JUL 10 (NB) -- Gateway 2000 has unveiled the P5- 133 Elite, a 133 megahertz (MHz) Pentium chipset-based system that it claims is 10 percent faster than the company's previous flagship 120MHz Pentium system, and, as a consequence, shatters all benchmark scores for the company's PCs. The P5-133 has been priced at UKP2,799 (equivalent local country pricing applies in Europe) and is claimed to be "fully configured to provide the extra horsepower necessary to support future applications such as native signal processing, and video teleconferencing." David Prais, European marketing manager for the company, claims that the P5-133 clocks in at 204 Winstones using the Ziff-Davis benchmarking system. This, he claims, is the fastest Winstone score yet. "The P5-133 Elite yields an incredible end-user experience. We've teamed Intel's most powerful processor with the highest performance components -- a complete combination that provides our customers with the power and the functionality they need today with the potential to support tomorrow's exciting and demanding applications," he said. The P5-133 comes with 16 megabytes (MB) of memory, and 256 kilobytes (KB) of pipelined burst cache memory, along with a 1.6 gigabyte (GB) enhanced hard drive. Also supplied is a 17-inch Vivitron (a Sony Trinitron variant) monitor and the ATI Mach 64 video card with 2MB of memory, which Gateway claims gives the machine a "bright and vivid" display. Bundled with the machine is a quad-speed three CD changer, capable of playing standard data, music and photo CDs. When loaded with three CD-ROM disks, the unit allows rapid access to 1.8GB of data, the company claims. (Sylvia Dennis/19950710/Press Contact: Gateway 2000 European Press Office, +44-181-242-4212, Internet e-mail kathyd@text100.co.uk; Reader Contact: Gateway 2000, tel +353-1-797-2000, fax +353-1-848-2000) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 07/10/95 BROADCAST UK - Racal Unveils Video Over Radio Channel Technology (NEWS)(BROADCAST)(LON)(00003) UK - Racal Unveils Video Over Radio Channel Technology 07/10/95 READING, BERKSHIRE, ENGLAND, 1995 JUL 10 (NB) -- Racal Radio has unveiled the Racal Image Compression and Transmission System (RAICATS), a technology that it claims allows video images to be transmitted over wireline (standard phone) and wireless phone networks, as well as cellular and narrow band radio systems. The technology differs from existing systems, the company claims, in that it can work across fixed frequency or frequency hopping modes, working over a single voice-channel if required. Racal claims that the system can be used with its existing radio bearers without any modification being needed. Racal officials said that the technology incorporates modified fast lapped transform (MFLT) to compress the image, along with error resilient entropy coding (EREC) to provide gradual degradation and rapid recovery of images from data loss. "There has long been a requirement with professional surveillance teams and on the battlefield for an effective method of sending good quality images and slow scan TV (SSTV) pictures over standard narrow band radio channels," said Frank Mulholland, Racal Radio's managing director. According to Mulholland, the limitations of bandwidth "require a large degree of data compression and, up until now, the various compression methods such as JPEG (Joint Photographic Experts group) and MPEG (Motion Picture Experts Group) have been wanting in offering resistance to the errors and the interference on such radio bearers. "This new capability is one of the most exciting developments by the Racal Radio Group since the introduction of frequency hopping radios in the early 1980s. It provides simple and highly effective method of transmitting video information back to a remote site over standard fixed frequency or frequency agile radios," he explained. According to Racal, the RAICAT technology has been designed to meet a wide range of possible applications. Within the armed forces, the ability to send video images over radio links will improve reconnaissance or surveillance teams, and provide battlefield video. Potential paramilitary, covert and civilian users include surveillance team and border/area security guards. General applications include permanent cable installations are unwarranted, dial-up surveillance in response to alarm verification and support of images for "offense logging." Three versions of RAICAT are initially available on a global basis, with each version being suitable for connection to different transmission media. The MA4808C is for use with standard phone lines or cellular links, while the MA4808A is suitable for radio links. The MA4707 is a military version and uses encryption to ensure the integrity of the data stream. The transmission system used in RAICAT is designed to cope with up to 20 percent error rates in the transmission medium, using MFLT (modified fast lapped transform) and EREC (error resistant entropy coding) to achieve this resilience. Where data is lost on a link, the quality of the picture degrades slightly, so as to ensure real time transmissions continue under data channel degradation. Pricing on the RAICAT technology depends on user requirements and the size of the order. (Steve Gold/19950710/Press Contact: Racal Corporate Communications, tel +44-1734-669969, fax +44-1734-262121; Reader Contact: Racal Radio, +44-1734-669969) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 07/10/95 GENERAL Groupe Bull Unveils Integrated Security Technology (NEWS)(GENERAL)(LON)(00004) Groupe Bull Unveils Integrated Security Technology 07/10/95 BRENTFORD, MIDDLESEX, ENGLAND, 1995 JUL 10 (NB) -- Bull has taken the wraps off a range of security services for its Integrated System Management (ISM) systems. According to the company, the technology -- known as AccessMaster 2.0 -- includes support for 20 new environments, improved end-user access to network resources, and increased security plus verification. Christine Rickard, business development manager for Bull Integrated System Management, claims that the enhancements make ISM the most comprehensive and flexible security management offering for client/server environments. "AccessMaster helps companies streamline user access to corporate data and systems, while enhancing security to protect against unauthorized use. With Bull's network administration tools, companies can gain the benefits of client/server computing and minimize the security pitfalls commonly encountered," she said. According to Rickard, AccessMaster 2.0 includes a number of enhancements to provide network administrators with beefed-up security to protect a company's assets against "malicious or accidental error," as well simplifying end-user access to distributed data. Features of the technology include a single sign-on, filtered Windows screens, integrated user management, audit trail functionality, generic security services application programming interface (API), support for Kerberos and Sesame (two security authentication systems), and secure network data exchange. AccessMaster 2.0 will be available later this year for most popular client/server environments, including AIX, HP-UX, OS/2, NetWare 3 and 4, SCO, Sun-OS and Solaris, Apple Mac, Windows 3.x, NT and '95, as well as Bull and IBM mainframe platforms. Pricing of AccessMaster 2.0 is expected to be around UKP150-200 per PC, depending on a customer's exact network configuration, and shipment is expected some time during the current (third) quarter. (Steve Gold/19950710/Press Contact: Alison Campbell, Bull UK, +44-181-479-2751; Reader Contact: Bull, tel +44-181-568-9191, fax +44-181-479-2599) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 07/10/95 PC UK - Elonex Offers "Internet Ready" PCs (NEWS)(PC)(LON)(00005) UK - Elonex Offers "Internet Ready" PCs 07/10/95 LONDON, ENGLAND, 1995 JUL 10 (NB) -- Elonex, a direct sales PC vendor, has struck deals with Dynanet, the modem manufacturer, and Easynet, one of the UK's 60-plus Internet service providers. Terms of the deal allows the company to offer a range of "Internet solutions" to customers who order PCs through the mail-order operation. The deal centers round a range of low-cost modem/Internet bundles that include 45 days of free access to Easynet. The modems include internal and external 14,400 and 28,800 bits-per-second (bps) modems. Registration to Easynet normally costs UKP25, plus an ongoing subscription of UKP10 a month. The new Dynanet modem line-up from Elonex comprises four models: the Dynamode M14I internal 14,400 bps fax modem card at UKP75; the Dynamode M14E external 14,400 bps modem at UKP85; the Dynamode M28I internal 28,800 bps at UKP135; and the Dynamode M28E external 28,800 fax modem at UKP145. According to Elonex, each Dynamode modem is supplied complete with all necessary cabling, plus a suite of communications programs comprising: Winfax Lite, DOSfax Lite, Comit for Windows, and Comit for DOS. The modems are backwards-compatible with all conventional fax and data standards, and also support MNP Class 4 plus V.42bis data compression and error-correction. The Easynet suite of software consists of the Easynet Internet Menu System, the Trumpet Winsock (until Windows 95 is released), Eudora for Windows, WS_FTP, WSArchie, Netscape (16-bit version), and News Xpress. Several documents about the Internet are also provided, and Easynet offers a telephone hotline for support. Easynet dial-up subscriptions are priced according to whether users pay annually or monthly. Announcing the modem/Internet bundled, Elonex's Systems Director Demetre Cheras, said that Easynet's close ties with BT are significant because they give it the potential to build a large number of points- of-presence PoPs) on a nationwide basis very rapidly. "We have also been impressed by the amount of bandwidth Easynet can make available. That means our customers are less likely to suffer the delays common to other Internet providers, particularly at peak access times," he said, Easynet Chairman David Rowe said that he sees the agreement with Elonex as being of great strategic importance to his company. "We regard Elonex as one of the most progressive, innovative PC manufacturers in the world," he said. "When Elonex does something, the rest of the market usually follows. Now that a leading PC manufacturer has started to bundle Internet access with its products, we're confident that take up of the Easynet service is going to step up another gear." (Steve Gold/19950710/Press Contact: David Bridson at Bridson & Bridson, tel +44-1869-338832, fax +44-1869-338843, Internet e-mail bandb@cix.compulink.co.uk ; Reader Contact: Elonex, tel +44-181-452- 4444, fax +44-181-452-6422; Easynet, tel +44-171-209-0990) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 07/10/95 BROADCAST Sun Microsystems' Broadcast Goes Worldwide (NEWS)(BROADCAST)(LAX)(00006) Sun Microsystems' Broadcast Goes Worldwide 07/10/95 MOUNTAIN VIEW, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1995 JUL 10 (NB) -- On Tuesday, July 11 between 8pm and 9pm (PST) Sun Microsystems will broadcast its fifteenth Sunergy television show. Sunergy brings leaders from science, industry and government to discuss technology, and its direction and impact on business and society. Vicki Pedretti, a consultant for Sun Microsystems told Newsbytes, "Viewers can tune in live via televised satellite broadcasts, or they can watch a live online transmission over the Internet Multicast Backbone. They can tap into Sunergy's World Wide Web server to read transcripts, other documents relative to the show, and then register their own comments or questions. This is intended to be a complete interactive broadcast." Sun Microsystems televised its first Sunergy program in 1991, and have broadcast fifteen since then. Their last broadcast, in May, was from Moscow, Russia discussing technological opportunities in that country. Tuesday's broadcast includes a panel of experts that will discuss recent advancements in access, security, and interactivity on the Internet. The discussion will concentrate on how the Internet can be used to create new business opportunities. The panel will be hosted by the regular host John Gage, director of the Science Office, Sun Microsystems. Featured panelists include: Arthur Van Hoff, staff engineer, Sun Microsystems; Geoffery Baehr, chief networking officer, Sun Microsystems Labs; Karl Jacob, chief executive officer, Dimension X Corp.; and Patrick Naughton, vice president of Technology, Starwave Corp. This show will be broadcast to North America, South America, and Europe. To watch the show, the satellite coordinates are available on the World Wide Web at http://www.sun.com/sunergy , or by electronic- mail at sunergy@sun.com . Satellite coordinates can vary from broadcast to broadcast, so you will need new coordinates specific to this broadcast. This broadcast will also be carried on the Multicast BackBONE around the world, which allows people with high-speed Internet connections to view the show in real time. Newsbytes was told by David Howard, Sunergy program director, "Our ultimate goal is to create a place for a world conversation on technological issues. We want to coordinate a meeting place using all the different communications technologies." Videotapes of the broadcast will be available one week after the broadcast. In addition, show transcripts, white papers, and reading lists are available at Sunergy's World Wide Web server site. (Richard Bowers/19950710/Press Contact: Laura Ingemanson, Sun Microsystems, 415-786-8677) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 07/10/95 GENERAL Silicon Graphics To Debut New Workstations (NEWS)(GENERAL)(SFO)(00007) Silicon Graphics To Debut New Workstations 07/10/95 PALO ALTO, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1995 JUL 10 (NB) -- Silicon Graphics Inc., (SGI) is holding a press conference this morning to unveil a next generation of workstations. A long time leader in high-end computers for graphics, mechanical design and video, SGI's newest models target three-dimensional (3-D) design. Called High Impact and Maximum Impact, the first two models of the new workstation line, Indigo 2 Impact, are claimed to increase 3-D performance by as much as five times. When the announcement is made today it is expected High Impact will be priced from $35,000 and Maximum Impact from $50,000. The first available model, High Impact, should ship in about 90 days. As the demand from design professionals, multimedia developers and game developers continues to grow, there is an ever greater need for computers capable of creating better and more realistic 3-D environments. SGI says its new line of workstations are designed to "assure" its "continued dominance in the marketplace." (Patrick McKenna/19950710/Press Contact: Amy Engerman, SGI, 415-390-3780) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 07/10/95 ONLINE Edinburgh Arts Festival On The Internet (NEWS)(ONLINE)(LON)(00008) Edinburgh Arts Festival On The Internet 07/10/95 EDINBURGH, SCOTLAND, 1995 JUL 10 (NB) -- The Edinburgh Arts Festival, which claims to be the world's largest arts festival of its type, has opened a World Wide Web site on http://www.presence.co.uk/fringe . Even though it is more than a month to the opening of "The Fringe," as the festival is known, the Web site is one of the busiest in the UK. "We opened the Web site on June 15, the same day our programs went out and found that many Internet users were using the Web site in preference to our 128-page program," explained Stuart Buchanan, marketing manager for the festival. Buchanan told Newsbytes that, according to Web13, the local Internet service provider that hosts the Web pages, during the first few weeks of operation, the Web site had almost 80,000 page accesses. "When you compare this to the Barclaysquare home shopping pages' accesses, which are also around the same level, and they claim they are one of the busiest in the UK, it makes us one of the busiest as well. Obviously there is no official Top 10 in Web site accesses, but we think our site is one of the busiest," he explained. The Web pages are so busy, in fact, that the festival organizers are considering an offer from Pipex, one of the UK's largest Internet service provider, to install a mirror site, so allowing more users on to the pages at any given time, Buchanan said. "The problem with this is that, as the festival gets going, we'd be editing the pages on a daily basis and having two sites would require two editing sessions. We're trying to stay with Web13, particularly since they are a local Internet service provider and doing some excellent work," he added. One of the reasons for offering the festival's brochure online was to cut out the delays, sometimes as long as 14 days, that it takes to mail out the festival brochure overseas. Features of the Web site include a unique search facility allowing the user to search on any keyword, whether it be show title, company name, or one word in the dense jungle of show information. Once the festival opens in mid-August, there will also be a public "reviews" section where Fringe audience members can post their own critiques of shows and a color map will allow users to select shows in any area of the city. Buchanan went on to explain that, since the festival's funding "only allows us to publish 290,000 printed programs, we are always looking for new ways for potential audience members to have access to our information. "The Web site is our first step into the future -- perhaps in 1996 we could have the program on CD-ROM or have music and video clips of artists online. Wherever we go, we're going beyond standard arts marketing and into what is called `supermarketing,'" he said. The Fringe Society and Web13 are currently working with local poets to stage a Fringe performance that will be filmed and broadcast live down the Internet across the Web pages, so creating the first ever worldwide Edinburgh Festival performance. The 1995 Fringe will run from August 13 until September 2 and will play host to 8,500 performers staging 1,250 shows. (Steve Gold/19950707/Press Contact: Stuart Buchanan, Fringe Press Office, tel +44-131-225-3872, fax: +44-131-220-4205, Internet e-mail stuart@edfringe.org.uk ; Reader Contact: Fringe Infoline, +44-131-226- 5257/FRINGE950710/PHOTO) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 07/10/95 APPLE Apple Europe Opens Belgium Office (NEWS)(APPLE)(LON)(00009) Apple Europe Opens Belgium Office 07/10/95 BRUSSELS, BELGIUM, 1995 JUL 10 (NB) -- Apple Computer Inc. (NASDAQ-NNM:AAPL) has opened a European Union (EU) office in Brussels, specifically to allow it to communicate better with the European Commission (EC). According to Apple officials, the office is also handy for the American Chamber of Commerce, as well as the American Electronics Association (AEA). Reporting through Apple's European headquarters in Paris, France, the office staff will aim to act as "a conduit of information between the EC, Apple and its solutions providers including independent software and hardware developers. Announcing the opening of the office recently, Michael Spindler, Apple's president, who was at the opening ceremony, said that the office has been set up to allow a better channel of information with the European Government. "Our objective in opening this office is to facilitate increased interaction between the Apple community and EU officials, and build on the fruitful dialogue initiated at the G7 Summit on Information Society last February," he said. "Apple's market and technology leadership in areas such as education, home computing, multimedia, and communications fit well with European initiatives and can contribute well to the definition of standards and pilot projects. As the Information Society evolves in Europe, we believe it is essential for all of us to better understand the issues involved and how they impact customers and industry participants," he went on to say. Initially, the EU office, which is located at 7, Rue Guimard, in Brussels, will have a small number of staff, headed by Martyn Lowry, Apple's manager of EU Corporate Affairs. (Sylvia Dennis/19950707/Press Contact: Apple Computer Inc., 408-974-4566; Reader Contact: Apple EU Corporate Office, tel +32-2-548-9080, fax: +44-32-548-9090) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 07/10/95 ONLINE Forte Offers Agent Internet Newsreader (NEWS)(ONLINE)(TYO)(00010) Forte Offers Agent Internet Newsreader 07/10/95 TOKYO, JAPAN, 1995 JUL 10 (NB) -- A long-standing complaint from users of Usenet, the Internet's global message and discussion section, with Windows computers had been the lack of a good, off-line newsreader. This problem was reportedly solved earlier in the year when Forte Advanced Management Software Inc. released early beta versions of the Free Agent Newsreader. Late last week Forte announced the release of Free Agent 1.0 and the impending release of the commercial version, called Agent. The release of Agent is the culmination of an extensive beta testing program that has involved thousands of users around the world, as Forte's Patricia Howe told Newsbytes. "There are currently over 100,000 people around the world using Free Agent. Many of these people were beta testers prior to the release of Free Agent 1.0, and they provided us with valuable feedback that helped to shape the final product," she said. Already tested by Newsbytes, Free Agent is a very flexible and powerful piece of software. Many functions of the software are configurable, most down to group level so settings can be optimized for each subscribed group. The software can be used as both an online and offline newsreader, the latter function is particularly useful to users on dial-up Internet connections who have to pay for their telephone calls as it automates all jobs and speeds up the process of gathering messages and news. For readers and posters to groups that carry software and picture binaries, Free Agent offers facilities to allow for automatic launching of these binary attachments meaning the days of having to paste together several files and convert them from ASCII to binary is gone. For the more common text-based newsgroups, intelligent threading allows the user to easily navigate through a group. Special tags instruct the software to follow or ignore threads that are of particular relevance, or not. The new version of Free Agent adds more flexible article purging, database compaction, speed improvements in operation, post cancellation, the ability to copy replies to electronic-mail, and full header editing facilities. The new version of Free Agent, version 1.0, is now available for downloading from Forte's ftp (File Transfer Protocol) site. The California-based company has also announced the impending release of Agent 1.0, the commercial version of the software, and the availability now of a pre-release version, Agent 0.99. Users of the commercial product will also have access to a multi-lingual spelling-checker and technical support. Anyone purchasing the commercial version now will also get a free upgrade to Agent 1.0 when it is released later this year. The commercial version is available now at a special offer price of $29. The new commercial version, Agent, doesn't mean an end to the Free Agent software though, as Howe explained, "Free Agent will always be available as freeware to individuals for personal use at home, and to students and staff at educational and non-profit institutions. Users who don't meet these criteria are required to purchase our commercial newsreader, but they may download Free Agent for evaluation purposes." Full details on the software can be obtained from Forte's World Wide Web site, http://www.forteinc.com/ where users can also download copies. Alteratively copies are available via ftp from ftp://ftp.forteinc.com/ . Be prepared for a busy ftp site though, "Now that both products are available to the public, our ftp hasn't had a quiet moment!" Howe added. (Martyn Williams/19950710/Press contact : Patricia Howe, Forte Advanced Management Software Inc., Internet e-mail agent-press-human@forteinc.com ; Reader contact: Forte, Internet World Wide Web http://www.forteinc.com/ ) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 07/10/95 TRENDS Internet Porn Study Causes Controversy Online (NEWS)(TRENDS)(TYO)(00011) Internet Porn Study Causes Controversy Online 07/10/95 TOKYO, JAPAN, 1995 JUL 10 (NB) -- An eighteen month-long study into pornography on the Internet, that Time magazine made a cover story of, has been widely criticized as "inaccurate" and "reckless" by Internet users and groups that fight against censorship in cyberspace. The Time story was written by Philip Elmer-DeWitt, Time's senior editor for technology, and was based on a survey conducted by Martin Rimm, a student at Carnegie Mellon University. When Elmer-DeWitt wrote in his introduction to the Time story, "The findings are sure to pour fuel on an already explosive debate," perhaps he didn't realize just how much debate the figures would cause. Rimm's study was offered for publication to the Georgetown Law Review, Time Magazine, and ABC News Nightline. Between them, the three kept the survey secret until after publication, meaning the whole story went unchallenged until published internationally in Time magazine's July 3 edition. One of the central findings of the survey, and the one under most attack, is that 83.5% of images on Usenet, the Internet's global messaging and conferencing system, were pornographic. This figure is incorrect in several, important areas, say critics. Firstly, the survey only covered 17 image-orientated groups on Usenet, so of course the figure was high. The Usenet system is made up of over ten thousand message groups that cover as many subjects. The figure was also derived after surveying the groups for just seven days. Another area criticized is the survey of 917,410 images surveyed as part of the report. Many of these pictures, however, were only available on adult bulletin board services that required subscriptions and age checks before admission, not on the public parts of the Internet. Still this figure is incorrect, people argue, because the pictures were not actually viewed, just one line descriptions of them. Nevertheless the figures have already been seized by decency campaigners who are now repeating the 83.5% figure without mentioning, or probably even knowing, that these groups make up less than one half of one percent of all Internet traffic. Certainly the report would not have been published if it had been subjected to review and criticism from other Internet users who would have raised the serious doubts now being made over the whole survey. One of the main critics of the report is Professors Donna Hoffman of Owen Graduate School of Management at Vanderbilt University, who was refused access to review the study ahead of it being published in Time. Hoffman and partner Novak published a 9,000 word report on the Rimm study a week later. Mike Goodwin of the Electronic Frontier Foundation and Danny Weitzner of the Center for Democracy and Technology, were also denied a copy of the report despite being asked to review the legal footnotes of the study, both refused. Over the weekend a further damaging declaration was made when Adam Epstein, a CMU student, placed a notice on his World Wide Web homepage (http://www.ini.cmu.edu/~ae26/home.shtml ) disassociating himself with the entire study by saying," I did unfortunately write a few primitive sed and awk scripts which Mr. Rimm presumably used to sift through the data he collected for his study. Beyond that, I have no knowledge of his study. I've never seen the paper. Further, if I had been fully aware of its nature, I certainly wouldn't have had anything to do with it." Users of the Internet can read the Time story via the magazine's Web site, http://www.pathfinder.com/ . Discussions are centered in the alt.internet.media-coverage newsgroup on Usenet. Hoffman and Novak's critique of the Rimm study can be found at http://ww2000.ogsm.vanderbilt.edu/ with Rimm's response available at http://tfrn.pgh.pa.us/guest/mrstudy.html and http://trfn.pgh.pa.us/guest/mrcc.html . (Martyn Williams/19950710) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 07/10/95 GENERAL Japan Newsbriefs (NEWS)(GENERAL)(TYO)(00012) Japan Newsbriefs 07/10/95 TOKYO, JAPAN, 1995 JUL 10 (NB) -- In this roundup of news from Japan: Matsushita profits below target; G-Search opens virtual gallery; Online shopping venture planned; and TSD head detained. Matsushita Profits Below Target The head of Osaka-based electronics giant Matsushita Electric Industries has said the company is unlikely to meet its fiscal 1996 profits target. When Yoichi Morishita took over as head of the company in 1993 he predicted a ratio of 5% profit to annual sales by the end of the 1996 financial year. However, Morishita recently said, "If we cannot reach it, we will have to keep pursuing the target until we do." The company managed a 2% ratio of pretax profits to sales in fiscal 1994. G-Search Opens Virtual Gallery Tokyo database company G-Search, an affiliate of Fujitsu, opened a virtual art gallery on the Internet on Friday. The gallery includes works of art by 35 Japanese computer graphic artists and will shortly feature more. Initially, access to the site will be free of charge with copies of the art available on a pay-per-view basis from September. Copies will likely cost between 500 and 7,000 yen ($5.88 to $82.35). Access to the gallery is available on the World Wide Web at http://www.gsh.co.jp/ . Online Shopping Venture Planned Japanese Internet users will have a new way to shop for goods later this year. People World, an IBM Japan and Hitachi online service, and Digital Medio Lab have announced they will begin an online shopping center available via the Internet. The Japanese center will have ties to Shopping 2000, an American Internet shopping service. The new venture aims to attract 500,000 customers and will target those customers through CD-ROMs containing descriptions of the products. Users wishing to purchase goods will be able to do so through a special link between the disk and the People Network. Already the group has signed up Sears Roebuck and Tower Records. TSD Head Detained The former head of a, now bankrupt, software company has been arrested by police investigating an alleged attempt to boost the share price of the company, TSD Corporation. As reported recently by Newsbytes, Tsutomu Matsuzaki told reporters at a press conference in 1992 that a University in Thailand had begun testing of an AIDS vaccine which TSD had developed. The stock price of TSD almost doubled over two weeks, but the claim was untrue. (Martyn Williams/19950710) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 07/10/95 ONLINE Internet Update (NEWS)(ONLINE)(TYO)(00013) Internet Update 07/10/95 TOKYO, JAPAN, 1995 JUL 10 (NB) -- In this roundup of new resources and services on the Internet: Le Tour '95 - Le site officiel; IBM disk storage information; BizFlorida; CODEC software available; US park photos; Laser printing tips; English usage questions answered; US Web conference; Tourism information and a free screensaver; Arabic Web browser. Le Tour '95 - Le Site Officiel The world's greatest cycle race is on the World Wide Web. The 1995 Tour de France, which began a week ago and continues for the next two weeks, has an official home page where users can find live news upgrades and daily results, en francais. A tour postcard is also available, via a mailing list, that sends out daily race news in both French and English. World Wide Web: http://franceweb.fr/letour/ IBM Disk Storage Information IBM is now providing details of disk, optical and tape products and systems for IBM systems plus details of storage management software for every platform from desktops to mainframes. World Wide Web: http://www.storage.ibm.com/storage BizFlorida The BizFlorida pages provide the latest business news from the state plus various articles of interest to people doing business in or with Florida. The pages also contain links to the latest weather, government information and leisure pages. World Wide Web: http://www.bizflorida.com/bizflorida/ CODEC Software Available Multiplatform Data Compression (COmpressor/DECompressor ver.3.21) is now available for a variety of operating systems including Windows, DOS, VMS, AS400, 25 varieties of Unix, and others. The software offers multi-platform compression and decompression, meaning you can archive files on one system and easily decompress them on another, to set the compression ratio and to be able to create self decompressing files for any of the other supported systems. World Wide Web: http://www.nettuno.it/fiera/telvox/telvox.htm US Park Photos Not only does this Web page serve as a great place to view pictures of the beauty of America's national parks, but it also provides users with CGI script programming examples that generate random numbers, search for names in a phone book and provide image map capabilities without using the usual imagemap.c file. World Wide Web: http://www.panix.com/~wizjd Laser Printing Tips A new home page for users of laser printers. The site, hosted by Laser Saver offers tips on laser printing, performance and recycling. You can also get your questions answered via electronic-mail and search a database of previously submitted questions with their answers. World Wide Web: http://rampages.onramp.net/~laser/ English Usage Questions Answered Words, Wit and Wisdom, a newspaper column syndicated in the US, Mexico, and Japan, has been answering readers' questions about words and language since 1953. From June 25,the column has been available free of charge on the Internet. World Wide Web: http://www.interport.net/~words1 US Web Conference From March 16 to 20 next year, the Hypertext 96 conference takes place in Washington DC. Under the title "Docuverse Takes Form...," the seventh such event will offer a forum for presentation and discussion of the latest results in Hypermedia research and development, including Web technology. Anyone wishing to take part can consult the conference details and call for participation. World Wide Web: http://acm.org/siglink/ht96-call.html Tourism Information And A Free Screensaver ! Tourism British Columbia is now online and offering an interactive map, a guide to the many cultural attractions in the capital Victoria, and downloadable film clips on skiing, sport fishing, adventure travel, and other activities the Canadian province has to offer. Visitors to the site can also download a free screensaver that features a series of 20 images from across the province. World Wide Web: http://www.tbc.gov.bc.ca/ Arabic Web Browser The first localized Web browser for Arabic-speaking nations is now available. According to the makers, "The Tiber Web Browser, available in 12 languages, uses an advanced, context-sensitive technique for parsing Arabic, which reads from right to left, as well as English. The browser can also handle embedded English text strings, as well as Arabic and Hindi numerical characters." Now all you have to do is find some Arabic Web pages! World Wide Web: http://www.vol.it/VOLB/browser.html (Martyn Williams/19950710) (ADVISORY)(GENERAL)(MSP)(00014) NewsPix Images For Newsbytes Publishers 07/10/95 MINNEAPOLIS, MINNESOTA, U.S.A., 1995 JUL 10 (NB) -- These photos correspond to recent Newsbytes stories. They are online in the Newsbytes menu on GEnie, America Online, eWorld, NiftyServe, and the Newsbytes private bulletin board system in Minneapolis. JPEG (Joint Photographic Experts group) files are larger in size, PICT files are designed as thumbnails for onscreen viewing. The photos are titled with name/year/month/day. PICT/thumbnail pictures are black and white (gray scale). File message will indicate color if the JPEG image is color. Some of the "for use" images, may be PICT files. To distinguish these files from the thumbnail preview PICT images, the tag for the color "for use" image will have PICT, all caps. The thumbnail will remain noted as "pct." To become a licensed Newsbytes publisher, call Newsbytes at 612-430-1100 (US) or write to administrator@newsbytes.com on the Internet. Licensing applies to any medium. --------------------------- Week of JULY 10 - JULY 14,1995 --------------------------- - NEW THIS WEEK - ZDS-PTL950619 - color / Zenith & PictureTel In Videoconferencing Deal: pix of the Z Station GT VC. NECPC950629 - color / NEC PC-9800 Shipments Reach 10 Million: pix of the CanBe multimedia configuration. PENTAX950621 - b&w / Pentax Intros Another PocketJet Printer: pix of the PocketJet with pen for scale. SCHEDULE950622 - color / More On Microsoft Schedule+ In Windows: screenshot of the customview window. SOUTHUNI950706 - color / UK College Gets Award For MBAs On Internet: screenshot of homepage. --------------------------------------------------------------- - PARTIAL LISTING OF PREVIOUS ITEMS - SWA950630 - color / Handheld Computers To Speed Airline Check-in: skycap with wireless computer and passenger checking in. POWERPRO950629 - color / AER Ships All-Day Zinc-Air Battery: the battery under a Toshiba PC (see NewsPix ZINCAIR950502). TATUNG950630 - color / Tatung Offers 133MHz Pentium PCs: shot of the UNIQ 5210 configuration. COMPUSERVE950629 - color / 12 Year-Old Flyer To Keep In Touch Via Compuserve: pix of Vanessa Pereira, the twelve year-old girl from Los Angeles. POTTER950626 - b&w / Cognos Chairman Michael Potter Resigns: head & shoulders of Potter. ATT1772950628 - b&w / AT&T Intros New Digital Answering System for SOHO: the 1772 unit. PLASMA950627 - color / Sony, Fujitsu, NEC Develop Plasma LCD Screens: wide screen unit in living room with couple viewing. TELEPORT950629 - color / IBM, Teleport To Offer Teleconferencing Rental Suites: business meeting in action. PHASR540950629 - color / Tektronix Intros New Color Printers: the Phaser 240. EXB218950628 - color / Exabyte, HP To Offer Storage For PC, Unix Networks: the EXB-218 4mm Tape Library using Hewlett-Packard's C1533A DDS-2 4mm digital audio tape (DAT) drives with Exabyte's tape library design, robotics and mechanisms. LIFFE950621 - color / London LIFFE Options Exchange On The Internet: screenshot of home page graphics. INTERWEB950616 - color / UK Company Offers Corporate Web Publishing Services: screenshot of home page graphics. CONTURA950620 - color / Compaq Intros New Contura Notebooks: young woman/student on park bench with new Contura. MULTI950619 - b&w / DEC Adds Prioris Servers, Multimedia Devices: the HiNote Ultra with the Mobile Media attachment. Scene from 2001: Space Odyssey on computer screen. REVELATION950622 - color / Revelation Offers Yamaha 4x CD-R Drive Bundle: the Yamaha 4x Recording System; internal & external units. GS8400950602 - b&w / Fujitsu's New Servers: the server with model next to it for scale. ROUGH950614 - color / UK - Rough Guide Travel Books On The Internet: screenshot of home page graphics. INFOBANK950608 - color / UK - Infobank's Secure Web Access & Ordering: screenshot of home page graphics. KNOWLEDGE950614 - color / UK - Knowledge Computing Offers Budget Web Publishing: screenshot of home page graphics. MILESTONE950615 - color / "Internet Superstore" Adds Online Wine Shopping: screenshot of home page graphics. UBNETWORKS950613 - color / UB Networks Plugs Into World Wide Web: screenshot of home page graphics. WCHAT950511 - color / Worlds Inc. In Starbright Pact, Plans Web "Worlds Fair": screenshot of Worlds Chat environment and virtual characters. (Newsbytes/199507010) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 07/10/95 ONLINE Genentech's Science Network Popular With Schools (NEWS)(ONLINE)(LAX)(00015) Genentech's Science Network Popular With Schools 07/10/95 SAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1995 JUL 10 (NB) -- Genentech's Access Excellence (AE) Network, which became fully operational in April, was created to help high school biology teachers in their work. During the recent Ebola outbreak in Zaire, it reportedly became the most active site on the Internet's World Wide Web. Developed by Genentech Inc. more than two years ago to improve science education in America, the network provides teachers with immediate access to scientific information without having to leave their classrooms. A staff of scientists scans leading scientific and educational publications for relevant items, then quickly summarizes and posts them on the network. According to Genentech, during the recent Ebola outbreak in Zaire, information was accessed from the AE Network to the tune of more than 40,000 hits in a single day. More than 200,000 total entries were made in an interview with a nationally renown expert on Ebola. "Our goal is to provide teachers with one-stop shopping for their informational needs. Our program was developed by their fellow teachers who act as our consultants," Geoffrey Teeter, the Access Excellence senior program manager told Newsbytes. "The programming on the network is free, so restricted budgets won't stop a teacher from getting information." According to Teeter, Genentech has spent $10 million on this project over the last three years. "Genentech wants to give something back, not only the educational community, but to science in general. Most of that money went to outfitting selected teachers with laptop computers, software, and online services. We also sponsor an annual summit where we bring teachers for a week of interaction." Continued Teeter, "We began three years ago by asking science teachers what they needed to be more relevant. We started interviewing local Bay Area science teachers, then went nationwide with interviews and focus groups. Today more than 5,000 teachers participate every day. We have over 2,500 teachers in our organization." Genentech's ultimate goal is "motivating high school students to become tomorrow's scientists." "We are thrilled that, what seemed a risky experiment just two years ago, has proven to be a very viable program," said G. Kirk Raab, president and chief executive officer (CEO) of Genentech Inc. "Nearly all of our top scientists tell us they chose to pursue a career in scientific research because a high school science teacher first inspired them, which gives an indication of just how important a student's high school science experience is." The Access Excellence Network is available on America Online in the educational section's Teacher Information Network, and on the Internet's World Wide Web at http://www.gene.com/ae . (Richard Bowers/19950710/Press Contact: Geoff Teeter, Access Excellence, 415-225-8171) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 07/10/95 ONLINE SoftQuad Shipping Panorama Pro, HoTMetaL Pro 2. (NEWS)(ONLINE)(TOR)(00016) SoftQuad Shipping Panorama Pro, HoTMetaL Pro 2.0 07/10/95 TORONTO, ONTARIO, CANADA, 1995 JUL 10 (NB) -- SoftQuad Inc. (TSE:SKI) announced it is now shipping its Panorama Pro software, which helps put Standard Generalized Markup Language (SGML) documents on the Internet's World Wide Web, and HoTMetaL Pro 2.0, a new version of its Hypertext Markup Language (HTML) editor. HTML, which is usually used to create documents on the Web, is a subset of SGML, an international document-formatting standard that is especially popular among government agencies and organizations dealing with complex, frequently revised documents. SGML is more flexible and better suited to long and complex documents than HTML, SoftQuad spokeswoman Lucy Ventresca told Newsbytes. For instance, she said, while HTML provides a fixed set of elements (such as title, text, and so forth) for constructing documents, SGML lets publishers create their own elements. Panorama Pro cannot create SGML documents, explained Linda Hazzan, director of marketing at SoftQuad. That requires an SGML tool such as SoftQuad's Author/Editor. What Panorama Pro can do is enhance those documents for the Web, adding hypertext links, bookmarks, and so forth. It can also be used to view SGML documents on the Web. Panorama Pro is available for US$139 from SoftQuad and its resellers. A free version called Panorama, which can be used to view documents but not to prepare them for posting on the Web, is available on the Internet. Internet users must have either Panorama or Panorama Pro to view SGML-based documents on the Web, but can use either in conjunction with a standard HTML browser such as Mosaic. When the browser encounters an SGML page, it will automatically launch Panorama or Panorama Pro, said Hazzan. Some of those using Panorama Pro to create SGML-based Web sites are making Panorama available for downloading from their sites so that users who need it can obtain it right away, Hazzan told Newsbytes. SoftQuad also said it is now shipping Version 2.0 of HoTMetaL Pro, its HTML editor, for Microsoft Windows. The new release will be available on other systems shortly. SoftQuad offers HoTMetaL for the Apple Macintosh and several Unix systems, and Ventresca told Newsbytes in March that a version for IBM's OS/2 operating system is planned, though no date has been set for its release. HoTMetaL Pro enforces strict adherence to HTML standards, company officials said, and comes with features such as spell-checking, a thesaurus, context-sensitive search and replace, flexible style sheets, templates, dialog-box support for linking to other documents, and what-you-see-is-what-you-get (WYSIWYG) tables. The new release uses less memory, can import documents from popular word processors, and makes document markup easier, according to SoftQuad. HoTMetaL Pro 2.0 has a list price of US$195, and upgrades from Version 1.0 cost US$59. (Grant Buckler/19950710/Press Contact: Lucy Ventresca, SoftQuad, 416-239-4801, fax 416-239-7105, Internet e-mail lucy@sq.com) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 07/10/95 GOVT ****US Industry Fights Japan On Standards (NEWS)(GOVT)(WAS)(00017) ****US Industry Fights Japan On Standards 07/10/95 WASHINGTON, D.C., U.S.A., 1995 JUL 10 (NB) -- The US computer industry is mounting an assault on a Japanese software voluntary "quality assurance" program, claiming it could serve as a non-tariff trade barrier. In a letter to US Trade Representative Mickey Kantor, six Washington computer trade groups say the Japanese proposal is "based on the ISO 9000, an international quality standard, but goes beyond the international norm." The letter, obtained by Newsbytes, says the proposal by the Japan Accreditation Board "imposes new and unique requirements that, by some estimates, will increase the costs of software and delay product entry." Under the proposal, says the letter, "companies seeking to sell products which contain 'software' of any kind in Japan might have to seek third party registration of their quality system to a new and unique requirement. All 'software' would be covered, including contract software, packaged software, embedded software, game software, even software embedded in semiconductors. Consequently, this proposal will affect manufacturers and system integrators of any product containing software, from 'shrink-wrap' to games, from semiconductors to aircraft." According to the letter to Kantor, "Japan appears intent on implementing this program in October, unless we are successful in our opposition." It calls on Kantor to express official US government opposition to the Japanese program. Signing the letters were the chief executives from the American Electronics Association, the Information Technology Industry Council, the Business Software Alliance, the Software Publishers Association, the Electronic Industries Association, and the Telecommunications Industry Association. Separately, some 30 chief executives of high tech firms, including IBM, Apple Computer, and Hewlett-Packard, sent Kantor similar letters. The move by the computer industry is unusual in that the Japan Accreditation Board for Quality System Registration is a non-government body and the registration program will be voluntary. Many US companies insist that their suppliers of software, in all forms, comply with ISO 9000 standards. US software companies argue that the supposedly voluntary program could become mandatory, if the government were to require that all its suppliers conform to the Japanese version of ISO 9000. (Kennedy Maize/19950710) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 07/10/95 GENERAL Electronic Frontier Foundation Leaves Washington DC (NEWS)(GENERAL)(WAS)(00018) Electronic Frontier Foundation Leaves Washington DC 07/10/95 WASHINGTON, D.C., U.S.A., 1997 JUL 10 (NB) -- The Electronic Frontier Foundation, the best known of the online civil liberties groups, is leaving Washington and will set up its headquarters in San Francisco. The move is expected to be completed by the end of August, according to EFF. EFF has been having troubles over the past year, with important staff losses and difficulties in raising money. The difficulties first surfaced when the EFF board forced its former director and chief lobbyist, Jerry Berman, to resign last December. According to several sources, Berman's departure was a result of compromise positions he took on a digital telephony legislation. Berman left EFF and took two key policy analysts with him, setting up a new organization, the Center for Democracy and Technology, which has rapidly established itself as a player in Washington technology issues. According to EFF, only three staff will be moving with the organization to the Bay area: staff counsel Mike Godwin, online manager Stanton McCandlish, and network administrator Dan Brown. In its official announcement that it would leave Washington, published fittingly on the Internet newsgroup comp.org.eff.news, EFF said, "Over the years, EFF has had an ambivalent relationship with Washington, D.C." The announcement said the group wants to get "away from Washington Beltway-centric thinking" and into the more Net-friendly environs of Silicon Valley. But the organization may also loose its clout in Washington. "I don't know how to change policy made in Washington without being here," Berman told the New York Times. EFF was founded in 1990 by Lotus Development founder Mitch Kapor and John Perry Barlow, Montana rancher and lyricist for the Grateful Dead. Kapor bankrolled the group for much of its history. After operating from the Boston area for two years, in 1992 the group opened a second office in Washington. In late 1993, EFF closed its Boston office and moved its headquarters to Washington, hiring Berman, then chief lobbyist for the American Civil Liberties Union, to be director. "Basically Jerry led the move to Washington from Boston, and his departure was the beginning of our departure from Washington," said computer publisher Esther Dyson, who was named to replace Kapor as chairman of the foundation at the same time the move out of Washington was announced. EFF's move leaves the Electronic Privacy Information Center, a project of Computer Professional for Social Responsibility, and Berman's Center for Democracy and Technology as the major computer civil liberties lobbies in Washington. (Kennedy Maize/19950710/Press Contacts: Shari Steele, EFF, 202-861-7700; Esther Dyson, 212-924-8800) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 07/10/95 TELECOM UK - MFS First With "Own Brand" Toll-Free Numbering (NEWS)(TELECOM)(LON)(00019) UK - MFS First With "Own Brand" Toll-Free Numbering 07/10/95 LONDON, ENGLAND, 1995 JUL 10 (NB) -- MFS Communications is the first company to break British Telecom's (BT's) monopoly over toll-free numbers. The company has started issuing its own 0800 toll-free numbers on a national basis within the UK. Previously, Newsbytes notes, only Mercury Communications has been able to issue its own toll-free numbers on the 0500 numbering group. According to Dianne George, a spokeswoman for MFS, MFS is the first of many telecom companies which will be issuing 0800 numbers themselves in the coming months. "We were fortunate enough to have the technology available and ready to roll," she told Newsbytes, adding that the equipment needed forms part of the company's existing cable phone networks in the City of London and Westminster. According to Kevin White, manager of voice products for MFS, the main interconnect on the company's 0800 number is BT, which means that any telco with an interconnect with BT (which, in practice, means all UK telecoms operators), can route calls to the Metr0800 numbering scheme. "The addition of 0800 enhances our voice portfolio and reinforces our commitment to respond quickly to customer demand. The service is fully flexible with the functionality to re-route calls to different destinations, depending on individual requirements," he said. According to White, MFS' ultimate goal is to develop a strong value- added international voice portfolio which meets the needs of the company's global customers. "We're working on international toll-free numbering at the moment and expect to be able to offer this on a both way basis very soon," he told Newsbytes. According to White, MFS is offering cheaper subscription packages for its Metr0800 service than BT or Mercury. The company says it expects to see a surge in demand for toll-free numbering as other players (than BT or Mercury) enter the market. (Steve Gold/19950710/Press & Reader Contact: MFS Communications, tel +44-171-570-5700, fax +44-171-571-5711) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 07/10/95 TELECOM UK - Tarifica's Middle East Telecoms Tariff Guide (NEWS)(TELECOM)(LON)(00020) UK - Tarifica's Middle East Telecoms Tariff Guide 07/10/95 STEVENAGE, HERTFORDSHIRE, ENGLAND, 1995 JUL 10 (NB) -- Tarifica, the telecoms tariff monitoring division of Omnicom, has announced the launch of its new Tarifica Middle East service. According to Fiona Greene, a consultant for Tarifica, the UKP495 per year service offers six times a year updates to its main publication and aims to cover telecom tariff issues in Bahrain, India, Israel, Kuwait, Oman, Pakistan, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Sri Lanka, South Africa, and the United Arab Emirates. "We already provide a Tarifica service for Europe and the Asia-Pacific regions, so launch for the Middle east is a logical move for us," she told Newsbytes. "The service allows any company with interests in telecoms issues, and that mostly means companies with offices in those countries, to monitor which telecoms companies offer the best deals." The Tarifica guide is compiled by using resources at Tarifica's offices in the UK, along with information from consultants around the world. "We also establish relationships with staff who work for the various telecoms companies in the countries concerned and, by regularly contacting them, are able to build up a comprehensive picture of what the tariffs are for a country, its carriers and how they are changing," she told Newsbytes. According to Trafica, the Middle East peace process means that the area is now ripe for investment. For any company doing business in the Middle East, the company claims that telecoms is a key factor, from Bahrain with one of the most sophisticated telecoms systems in the world, to Lebanon, which is rebuilding its network after years of civil war. Keeping track of the costs involved, the company claims, is an expensive and time-consuming business. Tarifica Middle East, the company says, is a time- and cost-saving answer to this problem. As well as a two-monthly update service, subscribers get access to the Tarifica Enquiry Service, which is operated by a specialist team of tariff consultants to answer queries and give immediate advice on changes in the region. (Steve Gold/19950710/Press Contact: Fiona Greene, Tarifica, tel +44-1438-742424, fax +44-1438-355475; Reader Contact: Omnicom, tel +44-1438-742424, fax +44-1438-740154) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 07/10/95 TRENDS Macromedia Gets Behind CD Plus Format (NEWS)(TRENDS)(LON)(00021) Macromedia Gets Behind CD Plus Format 07/10/95 BRACKNELL, BERKSHIRE, ENGLAND, 1995 JUL 10 (NB) -- Macromedia, a multimedia and digital arts software company, is throwing its weight behind the Philips/Sony CD Plus standard. The company has teamed up with Ion, the interactive music company, to develop a range of CD Plus authoring packages. Sue Thexton, head of Macromedia's UK operation, told Newsbytes that the Macromedia Director Enhanced CD Toolkit will be available on multiple platforms very shortly. So what are the benefits of CD Plus? As well as the much reported higher data density on the disks, Thexton told Newsbytes that the new format allows music and data to be much more closely integrated on the same disk. "Whereas the existing CDs and CD-ROMs are bought for near exclusive use by, respectively, hi-fi and computer users, CD Plus integrates the two on a single disk, meaning that data and music can be contained on a single disk," she explained. Thexton went on to say that several music industry gurus such as Peter Gabriel and Todd Rungren are working on using CD Plus as a publishing medium. "Obviously the music industry is looking at it from the financial aspect, but a number of artists are looking at the technology from an artistic point of view," she said. Ion's technology is integrated with Macromedia's authoring toolkit and, the company claims, the package is the only cross-platform (Apple Mac and PC Windows) enhanced CD authoring software of its type that complies with the "Blue Book" industry standard specification. According to Macromedia, the Blue Book standard is a new standard recently endorsed by the Record Industry Association of America. The authoring toolkit contains a number of custom utilities which, along with detailed examples, help the author/director develop all the necessary files required by the new standard. In addition, the toolkit has the following tools included: a remote control builder, event synchronizer, asset analyzer, and an install/de-install facility. The Director Enhanced CD Toolkit will be available from Macromedia's distributors and sales outlets on both sides of the Atlantic this coming fall. In the UK, the package is being handled by Computers Unlimited. (Steve Gold/19950710/Press Contact: Louise Stewart-Muir, +44-171-223-4590, Internet e-mail 100610.3045@compuserve.com; Reader Contact, Macromedia UK, +44-1344-761111, Internet e-mail sue_thexton@macromedia.com) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 07/10/95 BROADCAST UK Firm Unveils "Revolutionary" Indoor TV Aerial (NEWS)(BROADCAST)(LON)(00022) UK Firm Unveils "Revolutionary" Indoor TV Aerial 07/10/95 LONDON, ENGLAND, 1995 JUL 10 (NB) -- Bob Crabtree Communications has announced the availability of an indoor TV aerial, called the Interial. According to Managing Director Crabtree, the UKP29.95 device is intended for all types of TV viewers, but is particularly relevant to the growing number of PC users with a TV and/or teletext viewing card in their machine, since such users have either had to run lengthy aerial cabling from their existing aerial setups, or put up with inferior screen images from conventional TV aerials. "What the Interial does is to rely on the known phenomenon of radio signals to congregate near a wall, floor or ceiling. The Interial is actually two foil plates that receive UHF (ultra high frequency) TV signals at the point at which the `wall effect' is strongest, and feed them down the co-axial cable," he told Newsbytes. The so-called "wall effect" is well documented, Newsbytes notes, but the Interial, Crabtree claims, is the first commercial implementation of the technology which was invented by Oxford-trained physicist Michael Mannan and made in Britain by Rovic, the company he founded. According to Crabtree, the Interial can bring out the best in every type of TV receiver, from PC tuner cards to bedroom portables and even the most expensive of large-screen cinema-style models. Inventor Mannan explained that he designed the Interial to take advantage of the fact that the walls, floor and ceiling of a room concentrate the TV signal in particular places -- something ordinary aerials can't do. "Once a suitable place for reception is found - often, flat against a wall - the Interial outperforms all other indoor models which are, effectively, only cut-down outdoor models that are hindered, rather than helped, by being used indoors. Also unlike ordinary indoor aerials, which tend to be ugly, gather dust and take up too much space, the two-color, gray and white, Interial will complement any room," he said. According to Crabtree, meanwhile, the current Mk I Interial measures 49 by 46 centimeters, and is a half centimeter thick, but a Mk II version due later this year will reduce the size to 35 centimeters square. How about VHF radio and TV signals? Crabtree says that tests in the US on both UHF and VHF have produced "very exciting" results. "Although the unit was designed for UHF signals, it also performs respectably in those areas of the US that still rely on VHF signals," he told Newsbytes, adding that international distribution deals for the Interial are being worked out. Crabtree is realistic enough to note that the Interial will not work in every situation. "We encourage users to try the unit in both vertical and horizontal positions, and experiment around the room with it. If reception is really no good in the room it's needed in, we offer a money-back guarantee, and a two-year guarantee," he said. Crabtree told Newsbytes that advanced versions of the Interial are being worked on, including a VHF TV specific version, an Interial for FM radio, and models designed specifically to deal with severe TV reception problems. (Steve Gold/19950710/Press & Reader Contact: Bob Crabtree Communications, tel +44-181-558 2126, fax +44-181-556-6125, Internet e-mail bcrabtree@cix.compulink.co.uk) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 07/10/95 CHIPS SEMATECH Picks Nanometrics To Help Expand Wafer Size (NEWS)(CHIPS)(LAX)(00023) SEMATECH Picks Nanometrics To Help Expand Wafer Size 07/10/95 SAN JOSE, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1995 JUL 10 (NB) -- Nanometrics Incorporated (NASDAQ: NANO) has been selected by SEMATECH, the semiconductor consortium, to design and build new 300 millimeter (mm), or twelve-inch, wafer tools for film thickness measurement. Measurement tools are necessary to help retool the wafer fabrication industry to the larger wafers. Nanometrics will receive funds from SEMATECH to complete the development of a film thickness tool, the NanoSpec 8300, for 300mm wafer test and measurement. The Nanometrics tool can be used by SEMATECH member companies to evaluate the development and performance of their own new 300mm designs. The Nanometrics tool will also be used by the company's customers for the test and measurement of thin films during the manufacture of integrated circuits (IC). Bob Buchanan, director of marketing for Nanometrics, told Newsbytes, "The next major development in semiconductor industry will be the move from 200mm (eight-inch) wafers to 300mm wafers. Most manufacturers still use a six-inch wafer, but the billion dollar mega-fab systems now target the eight-inch wafer. The mega-fabs are looking to begin the move to the 300mm wafers by 1997 or 1998." According to Buchanan, 200mm (eight-inch) technology is at an early stage of adoption and the life-cycles of 200mm wafer fabricators will last beyond the year 2000. The 300mm wafer manufacture would more than double the surface area of today's eight-inch wafers. Doubling the size provides a lower cost per die, and would accommodate larger and more complex integrated circuit designs. The semiconductor industry is expected to be well along the path to 300mm wafers by the late 1990's. In order to meet these dates, 300mm-capable process equipment must be designed and tested using metrology tools like the Nanometrics system, said Buchanan. Nanometrics' vice president and general manager, John Heaton, said, "Nanometrics has been active in 300mm development since early 1995. We are very pleased with the SEMATECH selection. This joint development program will allow us to move more quickly to finalize a new, stand alone NanoSpec system. We will be able to meet the most rigorous early demands of both our customers and other equipment vendors, who are aggressively pursuing the 300mm technology road map. We plan to introduce the NanoSpec 8300 in 1995, and expect to ship the system before year-end." SEMATECH is a research and development consortium of the United States semiconductor industry and the Department of Defense. Member companies include AMD, AT&T, Digital Equipment Corporation, Hewlett-Packard, IBM, Intel, Motorola, National Semiconductor, Rockwell International, and Texas Instruments. SEMATECH's purpose is to support the United States semiconductor industry in a global economy. Nanometrics is a member of SEMI/SEMATECH, a national consortium of majority United States-owned and controlled equipment, materials, software, and service suppliers to the semiconductor manufacturing industry. (Richard Bowers/19950710/Press Contact: Bob Buchanan, Nanometrics Inc., Bob Buchanan, 408-746-1600 ext 103) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 07/10/95 ONLINE Schwab Trades Up To The Web (NEWS)(ONLINE)(MSP)(00024) Schwab Trades Up To The Web 07/10/95 SAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1995 JUL 10 (NB) -- The company described as one of the pioneer "discount brokerage firms" says it is bringing many of its services to the Internet's World Wide Web. Charles Schwab & Co. Inc. has announced its new home page, called Schwab Online, for both current and prospective customers. "We recognize the need to put up a site because we realize our current and potential customers communicate over the Internet," William Pearson, Internet project manager for Schwab, told Newsbytes. "Also, we'll efficiently deliver information using the site. Instead of generating more paper, we can disseminate more information in an electronic fashion, and do it quicker and efficiently." The new service allows Internet surfers to access news about Schwab, software demos, and investment information, Pearson said. Some of the software demos available include StreetSmart, which allows investors to place trades electronically. Both Windows and Macintosh demo versions of the software can be downloaded, Pearson said. Also, a demo of FundMap, described as retirement planning and fund selection software, is available via the Web site. In addition, users can access Schwab Online for information on the SchwabFunds family, Mutual Fund OneSource Service, TeleBroker, investor tools, and information that's normally available from all Schwab branch locations. Prospectuses from SchwabFunds can be viewed online, and users can also request that information be sent to them directly from the Web site. Pearson also said the company's new home page is the first of other Internet offerings. Announcements on the other features will come in the future, he said. Schwab Online can be found at http://www.schwab.com . The site was developed in cooperation with Galt Technologies, the same company that developed "NETworth: The Internet Resource for Individual Investors." (Bob Woods/19950710/Press Contacts: Alan Nathan, 415-403-5378, or William Pearson, 415-403-5692, both of Charles Schwab & Co.; Alexandrea Todd, McLean Public Relations, 415-513-8800; Public Contact: Internet World Wide Web http://www.schwab.com ) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 07/10/95 TELECOM MCI Subsidiary In Deal To Bypass Local Bells (NEWS)(TELECOM)(MSP)(00025) MCI Subsidiary In Deal To Bypass Local Bells 07/10/95 ANNAPOLIS JUNCTION, MARYLAND, U.S.A., 1995 JUL 10 (NB) -- A subsidiary of MCI (NASDAQ:MCIC), and American Communications Services Inc. (NASDAQ:ACNS) (ACSI), has inked an agreement that provides MCI's MCImetro Access Transmission Services Inc. with local network facilities in six metropolitan markets. The agreement will eventually let MCI bypass the regional Bell operating companies' (RBOCs) local telephone networks when it comes to providing long distance service to its customers. The agreement means MCI's cost to connect its customers in those six markets to the company's long distance network will be "significantly reduced," a news release stated. ACSI builds and operates local fiber optic networks in the South and Southwestern regions of the US. MCImetro manages and operates MCI's local network operations. The MCI subsidiary will build the initial downtown portions of ACSI's fiber optic network in the six markets. Those metropolitan areas will be named at a later date, officials said. ACSI will pay MCImetro $2.5 million to construct the networks, while MCImetro has committed to buy at least $5.1 million in local network access services from ACSI in the six markets during the next five years, officials said. MCImetro's downtown network phases will range from 6,000 feet to three miles in length. The total length of the ACSI network in the six markets will ranges from 10 to 30 route miles. ACSI and MCImetro will then each own half of the fiber optic ducts installed by MCImetro in new underground conduits during the intimal phase of each network. ACSI will own the cable in each of systems, and will manage the maintenance of the facilities. "Having MCImetro build the initial phase of these six networks will accelerate ACSI's already aggressive plans to serve all interexchange carriers and their customers in our target markets," said ACSI president and chief operating officer Rich Kozak. "Our ability to forge creative venture with our customers and strategic allies will have an major impact on our success in this competitive industry." Kozak also said the agreement will help the company's efforts to meet the target of having 20 networks operational or under construction by the end of March 1996. (Bob Woods/19950710/Press Contacts: Richard Kozak or George Tronsrue, ACSI, 301-617-4200; Lisa LaMagna, Abernathy MacGregor Scanlon, 212-371-5999) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 07/10/95 WINDOWS Modatech Ships Maximizer Enterprise Contact Mgr (NEWS)(WINDOWS)(TOR)(00026) Modatech Ships Maximizer Enterprise Contact Mgr 07/10/95 VANCOUVER, BRITISH COLUMBIA, CANADA, 1995 JUL 10 (NB) -- Modatech Systems Inc. (TSE:MOD; NASDAQ:MODAF) has begun shipping Maximizer Enterprise, contact-management software based on its Maximizer for Windows package. Modatech describes Maximizer Enterprise as a "business-to-business opportunity management system." The software includes the contact-management features of the single-user Windows package, Modatech officials said, plus other capabilities. For instance, Modatech said Maximizer Enterprise makes it possible to target and manage multiple sales opportunities within a prospect organization, and helps team leaders assign tasks to sales people. Maximizer Enterprise also has a forecasting system that Modatech claimed can predict the probability that a prospective sale will close. And it includes a library of strategies said to guide sales people through complex sales cycles. Corporate users can choose from embedded or customized sales methodologies, said Modatech. A set of sales and forecasting report options are also included in the software. Support for Open Database Connectivity (ODBC) standards allows the software to work with other packages, such as databases, order entry systems, and report writers, the company said. Modatech is selling the software through a network of resellers, at US$600 per user for a 100-user installation. It is available now. Modatech, formerly known as Richmond Software, was founded in 1984. The company produced customized sales-force automation software -- a business it sold off early this year -- and earlier developed a version of Maximizer for the DOS operating system. (Grant Buckler/19950707/Press Contact: Bruce Nunn, Modatech, tel 604-736-9666 ext 121, fax 604-736-4996; Internet e-mail brn@modatech.com; John Katsantonis, The Katsantonis Group for Modatech, tel 214-620-9345, fax 214-620-9346, Internet e-mail jkatt@mcimail.com; Public Contact: Modatech Systems, 800-795-3275) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 07/10/95 GENERAL Canadian Product Launch Update (NEWS)(GENERAL)(TOR)(00027) Canadian Product Launch Update 07/10/95 KINGSTON, ONTARIO, CANADA, 1995 JUL 10 (NB) -- This regular feature, appearing on the first day Newsbytes publishes each week, provides further details for the Canadian market on announcements by international companies that Newsbytes has already covered. This week: Digital's distributed routing strategy Digital Equipment of Canada Ltd., based in Toronto, announced a distributed routing strategy billed as the next step in its enVISN network architecture (Newsbytes, June 30). The announcement included eight new products. Canadian prices are C$11,243 for the DECswitch 900EE IP Router, C$13,493 for the DECswitch 900EE Multiprotocol Router, C$14,243 for the DECswitch 900EF IP Router, C$16,493 for the DECswitch 900EF Multiprotocol Router, C$2,925 for RouteAbout Access EW with IP routing, C$3,585 for RouteAbout Access EW with multiprotocol routing, C$2,738 for RouteAbout Access TW with IP routing, and C$3,398 for RouteAbout Access TW with multiprotocol routing. RouteAbout Access EW products are to be available in July, DEC said, while the DECswitch 900 units and RouteAbout Access TW products are due for shipment in August. Toronto-based Unisys Canada Inc. launched two new PW2 Advantage Series rack-mount servers (Newsbytes, June 26). Unisys' SFR server is to be available with 100 megahertz (MHz) processors in June and with 133-MHz processors in August. The SVD dual- processor server and the SPE single-processor server are available now. Prices were announced only in American dollars: from US$14,000 for the SFR, US$4,800 to US$6,000 for the SVD, and US$7,200 to US$9,200 for the SPE. (Grant Buckler/19950710/Press Contact: Stephen Dow, Digital Canada, 416-730-7119; Dianne Rychlewski, Unisys Canada, 416-495- 4722; Public Contact: Digital Canada, tel 416-730-7000, fax 416-730-7070) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 07/10/95 WINDOWS NEBS Intros Page Magic 2.0, $69.95 DTP Package (NEWS)(WINDOWS)(BOS)(00028) NEBS Intros Page Magic 2.0, $69.95 DTP Package 07/10/95 NASHUA, NEW HAMPSHIRE, U.S.A., 1995 JUL 10 (NB) -- Page Magic 2.0, an update to New England Business Service (NEBS)'s Windows-based desktop publishing package for small businesses, has added Page Pilots, a new feature for assisting users with document design, said Nick Gaehde, Page Magic product manager, in an interview with Newsbytes. The new Page Pilot "guides" bring functionality that allows the $69.95 software package to be used by people with all levels of design expertise, Gaehde contended. NEBS' Page Pilots are aimed at novices, the product manager told Newsbytes. If desired, the Page Pilots will prompt the user with options for layout, logo design, and fonts and other graphic elements. Users with more design experience can choose to use a series of templates -- expanded in version 2.0 to a total of 170 -- that are aimed at reflecting "a variety of different business `styles,'" he said. Small business users with strong backgrounds in design can decide to forego either the Page Pilots or the templates, creating their own custom document designs instead, added the NEBS exec. NEBS is unusual among producers of DTP software, in that the company started out 40 years ago -- and remains today -- a producer of paper-based forms, according to Gaehde. "That's where our understanding of the needs of small businesses comes from," he maintained. JetForm, he added, has incorporated some of NEBS' paper-based forms into its products for electronic forms and workflow management. For its own part, NEBS began to branch out into the PC software market with One-Write Plus in 1993, noted Gaehde. NEBS' One-Write Plus, he contended, has since become "the leading DOS-based accounting package for small businesses." An edition of One-Write Plus for Windows is now in the works, he revealed. NEBS added Page Magic to its product line-up in October of last year, he continued. The Nashua, New Hampshire-based company also provides a line of stationery, known as "Company Colors," which is "color coordinated" with the templates in Page Magic. Each of 18 different template "designs" offers "coordinated layouts" for business documents that include stationery, business cards, envelopes, flyers, newsletters, and brochures. The Page Magic templates and designs can also be used with plain paper, according to Gaehde. Aside from the Page Pilots, Page Magic 2.0 adds a Clipart Browser with import functionality, plus PowerText, a feature for rotating text to obtain special effects. Other capabilities include: object linking and embedding (OLE) 2.0; a clip-art library of 200 images; 35 TrueType fonts; text wraparound; text and graphic import from a variety of formats; a screen capture utility; and a type function intended to control the spacing between letters, words, and lines of text for "professional quality." Page Magic 2.0 is now available directly from NEBS, as well as at retail stores that include CompUSA, Computer City, Egghead, Staples, Electronics Boutique, Elek-Tek, MicroCenter, and Software Etc. Thirty days of free telephone support is included with the purchase price. (Jacqueline Emigh/19950710/Reader Contact: NEBS, 800-882-5254; Press Contact: Kristen Holmes or Janice Yoo, The Weber Group for NEBS, 617-661-7900) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 07/10/95 IBM ****IBM & AimTech Team On IconAuthor Multimedia Tool (NEWS)(IBM)(BOS)(00029) ****IBM & AimTech Team On IconAuthor Multimedia Tool 07/10/95 SOMERS, NEW YORK, U.S.A., 1995 JUL 10 (NB) -- A new edition of AimTech's IconAuthor multimedia development tool, to be jointly developed and marketed, will add World Wide Web authoring and multimedia players for OS/2 Warp and MicroWare's OS-9 interactive TV system, and will "complement" IBM's existing VisualAge and VisualScriptX products, officials said today in a conference call with Newsbytes. Andy Huffman, president and chief executive officer (CEO) of Aimtech, and Dean Marsh, manager of multimedia for IBM, told Newsbytes that the two companies are also considering the possibility of integrating of IconAuthor with IBM's ScriptX as an alternative front end to VisualScriptX. "But we are not making an announcement on that now," Marsh added. Under the deal announced today, the enhanced IconAuthor will join VisualAge alongside VisualAge, VisualScriptX, and the Kaleida Media Player (KMP) in IBM's "suite" of multimedia development tools, said Marsh. In addition, AimTech will continue to market IconAuthor independently, and is looking at the possibility of integrating the product with Sun's HotJava Web technology, as well, according to Huffman. Huffman said that IconAuthor currently supports interactive applications like computer-based training, performance support systems, and self-service kiosks. IconAuthor now allows multimedia development and deployment on OS/2, Windows, Windows NT, IBM AIX, and five other Unix environments, he added. The product also supports a run-time player for Macintosh. Among the enhancements in IconAuthor 6.0, a product released in December, is quick portability across operating environments, he contended. In the upcoming enhancements to IconAuthor, Nashua, New Hampshire-based AimTech will add a native 32-bit player for OS/2 Warp and an OS-9 players, along with the ability to include HTML (hypertext markup language) pages and links in IconAuthor-created content, Huffman noted. Also, platform support will be added for Windows 95 and Windows for Workgroups, the CEO revealed. In the IBM suite, the two companies envision IconAuthor as a development tool for end-users, according to the two officials. Prior to forging the deal with AimTech, IBM had used IconAuthor internally, in applications that included kiosk development for customers, Marsh told Newsbytes. (Jacqueline Emigh/19950710/Reader Contacts: IBM, 914-766-9155; AimTech, 800-289-2884; Press Contacts: Rick Bause, IBM Media Relations, 914-766-1750; Beth Kitchener, Brodeur & Partners for IBM, 617-622-2800; David Conti, AimTech, 603-883-0220; Mona Pohl or Time McGuinness, The Weber Group for AimTech, 617-661-7900) (SUMMARY)(GENERAL)(MSP)(00030) Newsbytes Daily Summary 07/10/95 MINNEAPOLIS, MINNESOTA, U.S.A., 1995 JUL 10 (NB) -- These are capsules of all today's news stories: ======================================================================== ------------| N E W S B Y T E S D A I L Y S U M M A R Y |---------- ------------| Monday, July 10, 1995 |---------- ======================================================================== (c) Newsbytes News Network (Tm) Editor in Chief: Wendy Woods ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Newsbytes News Network is a computer and telecom industry news wire and digitized picture service. Our news stream includes more than 30 daily first-hand reported US and international news stories about computing and telecommunications. For more information, please e-mail to 'administrator@newsbytes.com' ------------------------------------------------------------------------ CATEGORY HEADLINES (*** indicates today's top stories) STORY # ======================================================================== APPLE Apple Europe Opens Belgium Office.......................... 09 BROADCAST UK - Racal Unveils Video Over Radio Channel Technology..... 03 BROADCAST Sun Microsystems' Broadcast Goes Worldwide................. 06 BROADCAST UK Firm Unveils "Revolutionary" Indoor TV Aerial........... 22 CHIPS SEMATECH Picks Nanometrics To Help Expand Wafer Size....... 23 GENERAL Wave Technologies' CD-ROM-based Courseware................. 01 GENERAL Groupe Bull Unveils Integrated Security Technology......... 04 GENERAL Silicon Graphics To Debut New Workstations................. 07 GENERAL Japan Newsbriefs........................................... 12 GENERAL NewsPix Images For Newsbytes Publishers.................... 14 GENERAL Electronic Frontier Foundation Leaves Washington DC........ 18 GENERAL Canadian Product Launch Update............................. 27 GOVT ****US Industry Fights Japan On Standards................. 17 IBM ****IBM & AimTech Team On IconAuthor Multimedia Tool...... 29 ONLINE Edinburgh Arts Festival On The Internet.................... 08 ONLINE Forte Offers Agent Internet Newsreader..................... 10 ONLINE Internet Update............................................ 13 ONLINE Genentech's Science Network Popular With Schools........... 15 ONLINE SoftQuad Shipping Panorama Pro, HoTMetaL Pro 2.0........... 16 ONLINE Schwab Trades Up To The Web................................ 24 PC Europe - Gateway 2000 Intros 133MHz Pentium PC............. 02 PC UK - Elonex Offers "Internet Ready" PCs.................... 05 TELECOM UK - MFS First With "Own Brand" Toll-Free Numbering........ 19 TELECOM UK - Tarifica's Middle East Telecoms Tariff Guide.......... 20 TELECOM MCI Subsidiary In Deal To Bypass Local Bells............... 25 TRENDS Internet Porn Study Causes Controversy Online.............. 11 TRENDS Macromedia Gets Behind CD Plus Format...................... 21 WINDOWS Modatech Ships Maximizer Enterprise Contact Mgr............ 26 WINDOWS NEBS Intros Page Magic 2.0, $69.95 DTP Package............. 28 ======================================================================== These are the headlines and first paragraphs of each story, in order: 1 -> Wave Technologies' CD-ROM-based Courseware -- Wave Technologies International (NASDAQ: WAVT) has announced a site licensing program for CD-ROM-based courseware, called WaveWare, that lets the user customize and reproduce the course materials as often as they like. 2 -> Europe - Gateway 2000 Intros 133MHz Pentium PC -- Gateway 2000 has unveiled the P5- 133 Elite, a 133 megahertz (MHz) Pentium chipset-based system that it claims is 10 percent faster than the company's previous flagship 120MHz Pentium system, and, as a consequence, shatters all benchmark scores for the company's PCs. 3 -> UK - Racal Unveils Video Over Radio Channel Technology -- Racal Radio has unveiled the Racal Image Compression and Transmission System (RAICATS), a technology that it claims allows video images to be transmitted over wireline (standard phone) and wireless phone networks, as well as cellular and narrow band radio systems. 4 -> Groupe Bull Unveils Integrated Security Technology -- Bull has taken the wraps off a range of security services for its Integrated System Management (ISM) systems. According to the company, the technology 5 -> UK - Elonex Offers "Internet Ready" PCs -- Elonex, a direct sales PC vendor, has struck deals with Dynanet, the modem manufacturer, and Easynet, one of the UK's 60-plus Internet service providers. Terms of the deal allows the company to offer a range of "Internet solutions" to customers who order PCs through the mail-order operation. 6 -> Sun Microsystems' Broadcast Goes Worldwide -- On Tuesday, July 11 between 8pm and 9pm (PST) Sun Microsystems will broadcast its fifteenth Sunergy television show. Sunergy brings leaders from science, industry and government to discuss technology, and its direction and impact on business and society. 7 -> Silicon Graphics To Debut New Workstations -- Silicon Graphics Inc., (SGI) is holding a press conference this morning to unveil a next generation of workstations. A long time leader in high-end computers for graphics, mechanical design and video, SGI's newest models target three-dimensional (3-D) design. 8 -> Edinburgh Arts Festival On The Internet -- The Edinburgh Arts Festival, which claims to be the world's largest arts festival of its type, has opened a World Wide Web site on http://www.presence.co.uk/fringe . Even though it is more than a month to the opening of "The Fringe," as the festival is known, the Web site is one of the busiest in the UK. 9 -> Apple Europe Opens Belgium Office -- Apple Computer Inc. (NASDAQ-NNM:AAPL) has opened a European Union (EU) office in Brussels, specifically to allow it to communicate better with the European Commission (EC). According to Apple officials, the office is also handy for the American Chamber of Commerce, as well as the American Electronics Association (AEA). 10 -> Forte Offers Agent Internet Newsreader -- A long-standing complaint from users of Usenet, the Internet's global message and discussion section, with Windows computers had been the lack of a good, off-line newsreader. This problem was reportedly solved earlier in the year when Forte Advanced Management Software Inc. released early beta versions of the Free Agent Newsreader. 11 -> Internet Porn Study Causes Controversy Online -- An eighteen month-long study into pornography on the Internet, that Time magazine made a cover story of, has been widely criticized as "inaccurate" and "reckless" by Internet users and groups that fight against censorship in cyberspace. 12 -> Japan Newsbriefs -- In this roundup of news from Japan: Matsushita profits below target; G-Search opens virtual gallery; Online shopping venture planned; and TSD head detained. 13 -> Internet Update -- In this roundup of new resources and services on the Internet: Le Tour '95 - Le site officiel; IBM disk storage information; BizFlorida; CODEC software available; US park photos; Laser printing tips; English usage questions answered; US Web conference; Tourism information and a free screensaver; Arabic Web browser. 14 -> NewsPix Images For Newsbytes Publishers -- These photos correspond to recent Newsbytes stories. They are online in the Newsbytes menu on GEnie, America Online, eWorld, NiftyServe, and the Newsbytes private bulletin board system in Minneapolis. 15 -> Genentech's Science Network Popular With Schools -- Genentech's Access Excellence (AE) Network, which became fully operational in April, was created to help high school biology teachers in their work. During the recent Ebola outbreak in Zaire, it reportedly became the most active site on the Internet's World Wide Web. 16 -> SoftQuad Shipping Panorama Pro, HoTMetaL Pro 2.0 -- SoftQuad Inc. (TSE:SKI) announced it is now shipping its Panorama Pro software, which helps put Standard Generalized Markup Language (SGML) documents on the Internet's World Wide Web, and HoTMetaL Pro 2.0, a new version of its Hypertext Markup Language (HTML) editor. 17 -> ****US Industry Fights Japan On Standards -- The US computer industry is mounting an assault on a Japanese software voluntary "quality assurance" program, claiming it could serve as a non-tariff trade barrier. 18 -> Electronic Frontier Foundation Leaves Washington DC -- The Electronic Frontier Foundation, the best known of the online civil liberties groups, is leaving Washington and will set up its headquarters in San Francisco. The move is expected to be completed by the end of August, according to EFF. 19 -> UK - MFS First With "Own Brand" Toll-Free Numbering -- MFS Communications is the first company to break British Telecom's (BT's) monopoly over toll-free numbers. The company has started issuing its own 0800 toll-free numbers on a national basis within the UK. 20 -> UK - Tarifica's Middle East Telecoms Tariff Guide -- Tarifica, the telecoms tariff monitoring division of Omnicom, has announced the launch of its new Tarifica Middle East service. 21 -> Macromedia Gets Behind CD Plus Format -- Macromedia, a multimedia and digital arts software company, is throwing its weight behind the Philips/Sony CD Plus standard. The company has teamed up with Ion, the interactive music company, to develop a range of CD Plus authoring packages. 22 -> UK Firm Unveils "Revolutionary" Indoor TV Aerial -- Bob Crabtree Communications has announced the availability of an indoor TV aerial, called the Interial. 23 -> SEMATECH Picks Nanometrics To Help Expand Wafer Size -- Nanometrics Incorporated (NASDAQ: NANO) has been selected by SEMATECH, the semiconductor consortium, to design and build new 300 millimeter (mm), or twelve-inch, wafer tools for film thickness measurement. Measurement tools are necessary to help retool the wafer fabrication industry to the larger wafers. 24 -> Schwab Trades Up To The Web -- The company described as one of the pioneer "discount brokerage firms" says it is bringing many of its services to the Internet's World Wide Web. Charles Schwab & Co. Inc. has announced its new home page, called Schwab Online, for both current and prospective customers. 25 -> MCI Subsidiary In Deal To Bypass Local Bells -- A subsidiary of MCI (NASDAQ:MCIC), and American Communications Services Inc. (NASDAQ:ACNS) (ACSI), has inked an agreement that provides MCI's MCImetro Access Transmission Services Inc. with local network facilities in six metropolitan markets. The agreement will eventually let MCI bypass the regional Bell operating companies' (RBOCs) local telephone networks when it comes to providing long distance service to its customers. 26 -> Modatech Ships Maximizer Enterprise Contact Mgr -- Modatech Systems Inc. (TSE:MOD; NASDAQ:MODAF) has begun shipping Maximizer Enterprise, contact-management software based on its Maximizer for Windows package. Modatech describes Maximizer Enterprise as a "business-to-business opportunity management system." 27 -> Canadian Product Launch Update -- This regular feature, appearing on the first day Newsbytes publishes each week, provides further details for the Canadian market on announcements by international companies that Newsbytes has already covered. This week: Digital's distributed routing strategy 28 -> NEBS Intros Page Magic 2.0, $69.95 DTP Package -- Page Magic 2.0, an update to New England Business Service (NEBS)'s Windows-based desktop publishing package for small businesses, has added Page Pilots, a new feature for assisting users with document design, said Nick Gaehde, Page Magic product manager, in an interview with Newsbytes. 29 -> ****IBM & AimTech Team On IconAuthor Multimedia Tool -- A new edition of AimTech's IconAuthor multimedia development tool, to be jointly developed and marketed, will add World Wide Web authoring and multimedia players for OS/2 Warp and MicroWare's OS-9 interactive TV system, and will "complement" IBM's existing VisualAge and VisualScriptX products, officials said today in a conference call with Newsbytes. (Ian Stokell/19950710) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 07/07/95 TELECOM Australian Telecoms Delegation Visits China (NEWS)(TELECOM)(SYD)(00001) Australian Telecoms Delegation Visits China 07/07/95 SYDNEY, AUSTRALIA 1995 JUL 7 (NB) -- The Australian minister for telecommunications, Senator Chris Schact, arrived in China today, heading a delegation of senior executives from the Australian telecommunications industry. The senator is visiting China at the invitation of Chinese minister of electronics industry Hu Qili, and will then travel to Vietnam and the Philippines. The delegation is due to meet key Chinese government and industry players of the communications sector in Beijing and the Sichuan province. Senator Schact explained that Australian companies realize that countries such as China require an established telecommunications infrastructure if their efforts for economic development and modernization are to succeed. "The companies on this mission are interested in becoming active participants in the China telecommunications market and can offer a comprehensive range of services. Many are already working closely with China on telecommunications projects." Australian carrier Telstra has established a Beijing office and is already working on projects. Senator Schact said that Australia had special skills in delivering quality rural and remote telecommunications services, which is particularly applicable to China. Some current Australian telecommunications projects with China include: - A $70M fiber optic link from Yining to Lanzhou - A $56M contract to supply Alcatel System 12 technology to Ganso province, Tibet and Ningxia - $16 in orders for Stanilite, including its Global Maritime Distress and Safety (GMDSS) shore station in Shanghai - A digital data network in north central China - A digital data network worth up to $70M in inner Mongolia (Paul Zucker/19950707/Press contact: Senator Schact's office tel. +61-8-344 7288 fax +61-6-276 1162) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 07/07/95 CHIPS ****AMD Plans 150 MHz 486 To Kill Pentiums (NEWS)(CHIPS)(SYD)(00002) ****AMD Plans 150 MHz 486 To Kill Pentiums 07/07/95 SYDNEY, AUSTRALIA 1995 JUL 7 (NB) -- Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) has released a new 120MHz 486 chip, and is reported to be readying an even faster 150 MHz version for end of year release. AMD claims these outperform Pentium chips in price and performance. Speaking in Sydney yesterday, AMD director for the Asia Pacific region, Eric Taborek, explained that a PC using the new 120MHz 486 chip not only gave Pentium 75 MHz or better performance, it cost US$500 (or around 30 percent) less. "They could be spending this extra money on buying better extras for their PCs, like CD-drives, larger hard disks or more memory." He said the price difference is due to a number of factors, including cost of the processor, the motherboard, and the system design. Taborek said the market had become Pentium-mad and many buyers insisted on a Pentium processor, not knowing why they needed it. He called for more emphasis on the performance of a PC system, not just the name of the processor it contained. AMD predicts that the 1995 PC market will remain predominantly 486-based. "We expect to ship 12 million Am486 chips in 1995 alone," Taborek explained, adding that the company is already the world's second largest 32-bit microprocessor manufacturer, after Intel. Explaining that AMD was well-placed to pick up the market share foregone by Intel as it shifts production to Pentium chips, Taborek said that every extra Pentium chip manufactured by Intel meant ten fewer Intel 486 chips. When asked where Cyrix fits into this picture, Taborek said that while he respected the company and its products, unlike AMD, it was not in control of its wafer fabrication and had longer and more complicated development cycles. AMD also has a "Pentium compatible" processor, the K5. It is due for volume shipments at the beginning of 1996. Taborek explained that although it is pin-compatible with the Pentium, it is designed in quite a different way, offering 30 percent faster processing than a Pentium of the same clock speed. He said this was possible because the AMD processor was optimized for Microsoft Windows applications, not the x86 instruction set, although it is still 100 percent x86 compatible. (Paul Zucker/19950706) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 07/07/95 BROADCAST Belgium To Deregulate Cable TV/Phone Svcs (NEWS)(BROADCAST)(LON)(00003) Belgium To Deregulate Cable TV/Phone Svcs 07/07/95 BRUSSELS, BELGIUM, 1995 JUL 7 (NB) -- The Belgian Government has announced plans to deregulate the cable TV and telephone industry within the next 12 months. According to Elio Di Rupo, the Belgian telecoms minister, July 1, 1997 has been set as the target date for liberalization. The move has caught many industry watchers by surprise, especially given the Government's apparent dragging of its feet over opening the Belgian telecoms and connectivity services marketplace in line with the January 1, 1998 deadline set by the European Commission (EC). Interestingly, Di Rupo does not see the announcement of the plan as a "volte face" (u-turn) by the Government, as he differentiates cable TV, even with cable telephony, from standard telephony, which is the subject of the EC directive. Under the proposed legislation, cable TV companies will be free to introduce a variety of new services, such as video on demand, broadcast multimedia and competing telephony facilities. This contrasts with the limits currently imposed, which in the vast majority of cases, only allow TV broadcasts and cable TV transmissions to be carried on the network. The move follows hard on the heels of the Government's announcement of plans to spin off 25 percent of Belgacom, the state telecoms company, to a foreign investor. According to Di Rupo, a decision on which company will be adopted as a stakeholder will be taken this fall. (Sylvia Dennis/19950706) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 07/07/95 BUSINESS China - Microsoft Plans Expansion (NEWS)(BUSINESS)(PEK)(00004) China - Microsoft Plans Expansion 07/07/95 BEIJING, CHINA, 1995 JUL 7 (NB) -- Facing competition in China, Microsoft Corporation is aiming to maintain its dominant position by increasing the number of its dealers to more than 300 this year and opening more special shops in high-end shopping centers in large cities. The Chinese software market holds tremendous allure for many foreign software firms. Companies like Novell, Oracle, Sybase, IBM and NEC are making great efforts to gain a larger share in the market. Microsoft's sales in China have risen at an annual rate of 100 percent since it entered China in 1992. The sales volume in China for this year is expected to double the figure from last year. The sales strategy this year will focus on Microsoft Office for Windows, Newsbytes was told. The company has developed Chinese versions of its Word, Excel and Mail applications. The demand for the products will remain strong since China is paying more attention to office automation. So far, Microsoft has authorized several distributors including China Great Wall Computer Group, Legend Computer Group, China National Computer Software & Technology Service Corporation, and more than 200 others as resellers and dealers. The company plans to bring the number of dealers to more than 300 this year, the company's manager said. Besides expansion of the sales network, the company will improve its after-sales services including more telephone hotlines for customer and technical support. Microsoft has also invested in more than 50 training centers across the country. Improvement of after-sales service is expected to help the company's fight against piracy, the manager said. People will use the firm's authentic products in order to get good support. The company is also planning to establish offices in Shanghai and Guangzhou. Microsoft set up its Beijing office in 1992. (Chih-Ho Yu & Ning Huang/19950705/Reader Contact: Microsoft Beijing Office, tel +86-10 849-2148) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 07/07/95 BROADCAST Philippine Satellite Voice Network Expands (NEWS)(BROADCAST)(HKG)(00005) Philippine Satellite Voice Network Expands 07/07/95 MAINILA, PHILIPPINES, 1995 JUL 7 (NB) -- International Communications Corporation (ICC), a Philippine private telecommunications provider, has signed a US$3.1 million deal with Scientific-Atlanta (SA) to expand its satellite-based voice network with the addition of 50 channels. With the additional units, ICC's network will consist of a master earth station and 250 remote sites. Most of these remote sites will incorporate SA's single channel per carrier DAMA (demand assigned multiple access) terminals. "Demand for telecommunications services throughout the Philippines is growing rapidly," said Randolph Sugultan, ICC's vice president for engineering and operations. "Transponder capacity in Southeast Asia is becoming scarce and expensive and Scientific-Atlanta's technology provides very efficient use of transponder bandwidth." A DAMA satellite network uses a pool of satellite channels which are available for use by any site in that network. Upon demand, a pair of available channels is assigned and a call is established. Once the call is completed, the channels are returned to the pool for assignment to another call. Because channels in the network are not dedicated, the total number required to meet demand is much less. This significantly reduces the satellite bandwidth and equipment requirements as well as the associated costs. According to Bob Burkholder, Asia Pacific managing director of SA's Broadband Communications Group, SA's DAMA products can reduce satellite transponder expenses by up to 60%. (Nigel Armstrong and IT Daily/19950630) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 07/07/95 ONLINE Hong Kong Concerns Over Internet Domain Names (NEWS)(ONLINE)(HKG)(00006) Hong Kong Concerns Over Internet Domain Names 07/07/95 CENTRAL, HONG KONG, 1995 JUL 7 (NB) -- A meeting of the Hong Kong government's Telecommunications Numbering Advisory Committee (TNAC) has raised the issue of OFTA (Office of the Telecommunications Authority) taking over administration of Internet domain names. At present, domain names are administered by the Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK), which does not have any procedure for checking the validity of a request. CH Cheng, head of data communications and networking at the CUHK computer center, said that requests for domain names are often quite urgent and, as a result, the center does not have time to check the validity of the request. Instead it simply checks to make sure the name is not already in use and that the request comes from the person operating the domain name server. If the request passes these checks, the applicant is sent an invoice for the HK$200 (US$25.60) registration fee, which needs to be paid before the domain name is issued. However, the lack of proper controls in the process has given rise to concerns that the registration process may be open to abuse, with individuals registering trademark names and then attempting to collect a fee to pass on the domain name to the trademark's legal owner. These concerns were raised in letter to OFTA from a member of the public following a number of such cases in the US. The TNAC, which is made up of representatives from the telecommunications industry, asked Cheng to attend the meeting as a specialist advisor. Cheng told IT Daily in Hong Kong: "We don't want OFTA to get too involved in this matter. And before OFTA makes its decision, it should consult the Internet community, rather than the telecommunication community." (Nigel Armstrong and IT Daily/19950630) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 07/07/95 BUSINESS Informix To Invest $25 Million In India (NEWS)(BUSINESS)(DEL)(00007) Informix To Invest $25 Million In India 07/07/95 NEW DELHI, INDIA, 1995 JUL 7 (NB) -- Informix International has inaugurated its Indian marketing office and a Software Development Centre (SDC) in Bombay. This is expected to be the second largest Informix lab in the world. The company plans to invest $25 million over the next three years, both in the domestic operations and the SDC. For the latter, the investment will be around $12-15 million. According to Mike Saranga, senior vice president for product management and development Informix International, the reason for selecting India has been its talented and trained market with no language barrier. The lab will work on Informix products in tandem with other Informix labs worldwide. The SDC will initially be concentrating on the design and implementation of class libraries for its NewEra products -- Windows-based application development tools -- eventually augmenting the skill base further so that parts of the Informix RDBMS can be developed in the country. The Informix development centre has been jointly set up with Fujitsu ICIM (International Computers Indian Manufacture) Ltd which has coordinated the import and carried out the installation/commissioning of multiple hardware platforms including Sun, HP, IBM, DEC and Unisys. Presently Informix has been distributed by Silverline Industries Ltd. and Hinditron Ltd. (C. T. Mahabharat/19950707) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 07/07/95 ONLINE Philippines - Internet Service Upgrade (NEWS)(ONLINE)(TYO)(00008) Philippines - Internet Service Upgrade 07/07/95 MANILA, PHILIPPINES, 1995 JUL 7 (NB) -- The Philippines will soon have the most sophisticated Internet backbone in Asia. A group of United States-based Filipino IT professionals are forming Infocom Technologies, an access provider company which will offer fiber optic links that sport a bandwidth seven times bigger and a transmission rate 60 percent faster than Japan's. The company plans to be the first in Asia to use asynchronous transfer mode or ATM technology to carry information. Japan's, and other Internet backbones in Asia, use time division multiplex or TDM, an older technology. The latest in telecommunications technology, ATM enables the fastest and most efficient transmission of voice, video, and data through the Internet. The backbone, operated by Infocom Technologies, will be independent of PhNet, the quasi-government Internet node. This means that those who subscribe to this access and backbone provider need not hook up to PhNet to link up with Internet worldwide. Instead, they will be directly linked with the US Internet backbone through the UUNET hub in Fairfax, Virginia. Under testing since April, the backbone was configured and installed by Sequel Concepts, Inc., an IT consultancy firm in the US with a close to 100 percent Filipino complement of managers and employees. Sequel executive vice president Jose Pecache told Newsbytes that aside from operating Asia's most sophisticated Internet backbone, Infocom Technologies will be the Philippine access provider that will charge subscribers and one-time dial-up users the lowest rates. Pecache said that the Sequel-configured backbone has an E-1 link and a transmission rate of 2.4 million bytes per second as against Japan's T-1 link which has a speed of 1.5 million bytes per second. That of Singapore is 256 kilobytes per second. On the other hand, the PHnet, Indonesian, and Malaysian backbones each have transmission speeds of 64 kilobytes per second. The Sequel-configured backbone has a bandwidth equal to 64 kilobytes per second while that of Japan has a bandwidth of 256 kilobytes per second. Pecache explained that Sequel's entry into the Philippines was in response to the call made by President Ramos to Filipino-American and US-based Filipino entrepreneurs to invest in the Philippines and help make it the next Asian dragon by the year 2000. Ramos made the call in October 1993 during his state visit to the US before a business symposium of Filipino-Americans and Filipino immigrants at the Waldorf-Astoria hotel in New York. (Metropolitan Computer Times/19950620/Internet e-mail dilips@netcom.com) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 07/07/95 GOVT Justice Probe Delays CA-Legent Merger Again (NEWS)(GOVT)(WAS)(00009) Justice Probe Delays CA-Legent Merger Again 07/07/95 HERNDON, VIRGINIA, U.S.A., 1995 JUL 7 (NB) -- For the second time in less than two weeks, Computer Associates International (NYSE:CA) has announced a delay in its $1.8 billion offer for Legent Corp. (NASDAQ:LGNT) due to a Justice Department antitrust probe. CA of Islandia, NY, yesterday said it was postponing the deadline for the deal to midnight July 18. In a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission, CA said, "The extension of the offer is being made to allow the Antitrust Division of the United States Department of Justice to complete its investigation under the Hart-Scott-Rodino Antitrust Improvements Act in connection with the bidder's offer." Under Hart-Scott-Rodino, Justice conducts a preliminary review of mergers and, if the government finds no problem, the deal can go ahead on an expedited schedule. Justice recently gave a Hart-Scott-Rodino green light to IBM's $3.52 buyout of Lotus Development. CA and Legent reached agreement on the buyout of Legent for $47.95 per share in late May. On June 27, CA announced it was extending its offer to July 6 because of an inquiry from Justice. The Justice Department refused to comment beyond confirming that it was looking at the merger. Legent's Kathleen Janson told Newsbytes, "Our focus is on completing compliance" with the Justice Department request for additional information. As to what happens next, "Your crystal ball is as good as mine," she said. A CA official who requested anonymity told the Washington Post that Justice "said they needed more time to review the deal and we agreed to move the date. We are working with them." Earlier, CA's Douglas Robinson told Newsbytes that a delay of the July 6 deadline was "a possibility." Founded in 1989, Legent last year earned $54 million on $502 million in sales. CA, founded in 1978, earned $400 million last year on sales of $2.15 billion. Ironically, Legent did a high-profile corporate raid earlier this year, stealing Jere Stead away from AT&T, where he was chairman of AT&T Global Information Solutions (formerly NCR), to be chairman and chief executive officer. Stead's major impact on Legent appears to be brokering the buyout with CA, which has historically grown through acquisitions. (Kennedy Maize/19950707/Press Contacts: Douglas Robinson, CA, 516-342-2745; Kathleen Janson, Legent, 703-708-3890) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 07/07/95 EDUCATION AOL Promotes Literacy Program (NEWS)(EDUCATION)(WAS)(00010) AOL Promotes Literacy Program 07/07/95 VIENNA, VIRGINIA, U.S.A., 1995 JUL 7 (NB) -- America Online is hosting a special cybercamp this summer as part of a Northern Virginia summer literacy program called Books on Break, established in 1994 as a joint venture of Fair Oaks Shopping Center and Times Community Newspapers. The program encourages kids to read a minimum of 20 books over their summer break. "They asked us to be a corporate sponsor," AOL spokeswoman Judy Tashbook told Newsbytes. "We talked about a terminal at the mall, and it kind of grew from that." As part of its corporate sponsorship, AOL is creating the cybercamp with 16 computer terminals continually logged into its online service, and is producing a special online area in the Kids Only channel on AOL called Books on Break. The camp also has a books on hand and an area where kids can read while they wait for a terminal. The camp and the special online area encourage kids to write about their favorite books and authors, and they have the opportunity to meet famous authors and illustrators online. According to Tashbook, over a thousand local area kids have visited the cybercamp in its first week. "It's not a baby-sitting service," she said. "We have parents coming in with their kids and staying with them. In some cases, we have the computer-smart kids teaching their parents. And some adults come in without kids. We aren't discriminating against adults." The camp is staffed with five AOL employees and its services are free. Tashbook couldn't estimate how much money AOL was putting into the program, "but it is a high amount." She said the cost included not just the physical cost of terminals and staff time, but includes "hundreds of hours of free time." "Fair Oaks has long been committed to the community and education through programs like Books on Break," said Judi Lewis, marketing director at Fair Oaks. "Now, through our partnership with America Online, we're able to open up a whole new world of learning and thousands of area school children will benefit." (Kennedy Maize/19950707/Press Contacts: Judy Tashbook, AOL, 703-918-1452; Judi Lewis, Fair Oaks, 703-359-8302) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 07/07/95 TRENDS ****US Software Sales Up Solidly In US, Asia (NEWS)(TRENDS)(WAS)(00011) ****US Software Sales Up Solidly In US, Asia 07/07/95 WASHINGTON, D.C., U.S.A., 1995 JUL 7 (NB) -- First quarter 1995 North American software sales soared to $2.03 billion, up 25 percent over the first quarter of 1994, according to the Software Publishers Association. SPA also said that sales in the Asia-Pacific region hit $240 million for the quarter, up 37 percent over 1994. In North America, unit sales grew 73 percent over the first quarter last year, reflecting a continuing decline in unit prices. Windows applications continue to dominate the scene in North America. Sales of Windows-based products grew 43 percent in the first quarter of 1995, reaching $1.43 billion. Windows application revenues now account for 71 percent of total sales in the North American market. Macintosh applications hit $308 million for the quarter, up 10 percent over a year ago. And the DOS slide continued, falling 25 percent to $269 million. Word processors and spreadsheets were once again the biggest categories in the first quarter of 1995. Word processor revenues grew 18 percent on sales of $249 million. Spreadsheets posted a 15 percent decline on $189 million in sales. Database products were up a solid 55 percent for the quarter, to $65.2 million. The two fastest growing categories were entertainment software and financial software, according to the SPA survey. Entertainment product sales rocketed 84 percent to $174 million, while financial software grew 37 percent to $186 million. Home education software fell 19 percent to $89 million, after several consecutive quarters of growth. SPA says the decline in this category is the result of a sharp drop in sales of reference software. "It's a healthy sign for the software industry when 11 out of 16 categories report positive revenue growth in the first quarter," said Ken Wasch, SPA executive director. "It's even more telling when you see that each of these categories posted double-digit growth rates over 1994. With overall revenues up 25 percent from last year, there is obviously plenty of steam left in the desktop applications market -- both in the home and in the office." Japan continues to be the largest software market in Asia for US publishers, accounting for two thirds of all software sales in the region. In the first quarter of this year sales reached a record level of $160 million, a 38% increase on the year. Sales to Japan were led by Windows applications which accounted for $118 million worth of the total or, just under half of all software sales to the entire region. That figure represents a 66% increase on the year. Macintosh software recorded growth of 53% in Japan with sales totalling $26 million. Largest growth on the year was recorded in Singapore where total sales jumped 179% to $12.1 million. Strong gains for American software exporters were also recorded in Taiwan, up 70% to $7.7 million and South Korea, up 54% to $7.9 million. In China, the most populated nation in the world and often seen as a potentially huge market for all products, sales of software from US companies totalled $900,000 in the first quarter of the year. Sales in other nations were, Australia & New Zealand, $35.80 million, up 2%; Hong Kong, $6.2 million, up 18%; Malaysia, $2.2 million, change not available; India & Pakistan, $3.0 million, change not available; Thailand, $2.1 million, change not available; and other Asian countries, $1.7 million, change not available. Total sales were $239.7 million. Ken Watch, president of the Software Publishers Association remarked, "The strong sales growth in Asia over the past few months confirms our belief that desktop software remains one of the best export industries for the U.S. economy today." He continued, "Despite the tremendous opportunities in this region, we cannot ignore the fact that many of these same Asian markets still have serious problems with software piracy. In the months to come, we will work on several fronts to reduce the estimated $2 billion lost to software piracy in the region in 1994." The SPA sales data is independently compiled by accounting firm of Arthur Andersen. Amongst companies submitting sales data to the SPA are Adobe, Borland, Claris, Lotus, Microsoft, Software Publishing, Symantec, and the WordPerfect Division of Novell. Kennedy Maize & Martyn Williams/19950707/Press contact : Sally Lawrence, Communications Director, Software Publishers Association, +1-202-452-1600 ext 320, Internet email slawrence@spa.org; Reader contact, Software Publishers Association, +1-202-452-1600, World Wide Web : http://www.spa.org/ ) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 07/07/95 BUSINESS Oracle Teams With ITT (NEWS)(BUSINESS)(LAX)(00012) Oracle Teams With ITT 07/07/95 REDWOOD SHORES, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1995 JUL 7 (NB) -- Oracle Corp. (Nasdaq: ORCL), announced that the New ITT Corp., the hospitality, entertainment and information services business segment of ITT Corp. (NYSE: ITT), has selected Oracle to redesign its worldwide information network of nearly 500 locations using Oracle's database and packaged applications technology. The alliance puts New ITT in Oracle's hands over a five-year implementation period. "We strongly believe that the Oracle organization in conjunction with the ITT financial and information systems team will implement a technology-based environment that provides superior customer service," said Jon F. Danski, senior vice president and controller of ITT Corp. "An example of this is an analysis program that uses database and financial information to set threshold targets for each of our units and alert us immediately when a particular unit deviates from our expectations." The selection of Oracle followed an evaluation that included products from all major competitors. "We considered systems from all the leading vendors, but were won over by Oracle's proven stability and commitment," said Danski. Sue Stoney Hirano, a spokesperson for Oracle, told Newsbytes, "This is part of a strategic commitment between the two companies that will last for years. New ITT Corp will bring on Oracle products in a tiered approach. Preliminary plans call for consolidating the back office for the ITT Corp. operating companies including Sheraton Hotels, Caesars World, Madison Square Garden and World Directories. Today these units have their own headquarters and systems within the parent ITT Corp. Each of these units will consolidate their systems to use the Oracle7 database and the Oracle financial applications." "The entire consolidation should take five years, starting with the New ITT Corp. headquarters, and finishing Madison Square Garden and the Sheraton Hotels by the end of 1997. All five-hundred sites should be integrated within five years," said Hirono. The New ITT Corporation's Sheraton has 420 owned, leased, managed and franchised properties in 60 countries. Caesars World operates three resorts in Las Vegas, Lake Tahoe and Atlantic City. Through a partnership with Cablevision Systems Corporation, the New ITT Corporation operates Madison Square Garden Corporation, which includes the sports arena, the New York Knicks and New York Rangers franchises as well as the Madison Square Garden cable network. Yellow page directory publishing through ITT World Directories and post-secondary degree education, through ITT Educational Services, are also significant parts of the New ITT. The New ITT Corporation expects to generate revenues in excess of $6.5 billion and employ approximately 30,000 people. Oracle Corp., has $3 billion in sales, and claim to be the world's largest supplier of software for information management, and the world's second largest software company. (Richard Bowers/19950707/Press Contact: Sue Stoney Hirano, Oracle Corp., 415-506-3220) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 07/07/95 BUSINESS ****ConnectSoft Buys Financially Troubled Medio (NEWS)(BUSINESS)(DEN)(00013) ****ConnectSoft Buys Financially Troubled Medio 07/07/95 BELLEVUE, WASHINGTON, U.S.A., 1995 JUL 7 (NB) -- Telecommunications software company ConnectSoft Inc. said today it has purchased financially troubled Medio Multimedia Inc. for an undisclosed amount. In mid-June Newsbytes reported Medio faced bankruptcy. Steve Podradchik told Newsbytes the company was behind on its payroll and praised the company's employees for sticking with Medio through difficult times. Medio laid off about 35 employees in early June. The purchase still has to be approved by Connectsoft's shareholders and Medio's creditors and requires the usual due diligence process mandated by law. Connectsoft said the deal could close by early August. If that happens Medio will avoid filing for protection under Chapter 11 of the US bankruptcy law. Connectsoft said in a prepared statement it will retain all of Medio's 35 employees, and a Connectsoft spokesperson said the Medio home page on the Internet would continue to be available. Medio published a monthly magazine on CD-ROM disk, was developing an online network and an interactive television system, as well as multimedia entertainment on CD-ROM. Its first entertainment product, "JFK Assassination: A visual Investigation," was released about 18 months ago. The spokesperson told Newsbytes no decision was available yet regarding the continuation of existing Medio products or development projects. Podradchik had hoped a financial white knight would ride to Medio's rescue. Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen, already a multi-million dollar investor in Medio, was considered a candidate for that role, but Allen staffers told Newsbytes Allen would consider putting additional funds into Medio only if the company could find another investor. That didn't happen. (Jim Mallory/19950707/Press contact: Tamese Robinson, Kaufer Miller for Medio Multimedia and for Connectsoft, 206-450-9965; Public contact: Connectsoft, 206-827-6467; Medio, Multimedia, 206-867-5500) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 07/07/95 LEGAL No Infringement, Storagetek Tells Odetics (NEWS)(LEGAL)(DEN)(00014) No Infringement, Storagetek Tells Odetics 07/07/95 LOUISVILLE, COLORADO, U.S.A., 1995 JUL 7 (NB) -- Storage Technology Corp. (NYSE: STK) said this week it does not believe any of the company's products infringe on a US patent held by Anaheim, California-based Odetics Inc. Odetics filed a patent infringement lawsuit against Storagetek earlier this month. At issue is the way Storagetek's automated tape library systems pass tape cartridges from one library to another. Storagetek uses a patented method it calls Pass-thru Port, but the company says the Odetics patent cited in the suit does not appear to cover the Pass-thru Port. In a press release announcing the suit, Odetics said users of Storagetek systems should pay a licensing fee to Odetics. Ryal Poppa, Storagetek chairman, president and chief executive officer, called that notion "spurious and offensive." Poppa said the Odetics suit was filed without prior discussion with Storagetek. "It was a complete ambush and appears to be another effort to exploit the success of our library systems. It is inconceivable that Odetics would suddenly discover an alleged infringement after our product has been in the market since 1988," said Poppa. Odetics developed a robotic large library management system for the television broadcast industry, and received an Emmy Award from the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences in 1990 for that system. Storagetek spokesperson David Reid told Newsbytes the Odetics suit appears to apply to the company's Powderhorn, WolfCreek and ACS 4400 library systems. Reid said there is a large installed base of 4400 systems but that library is no longer manufactured, although Storagetek still supports it. The press release from Odetics also names the Timberwolf automated tape library system as using the allegedly infringing technology. The Odetics announcement also alleges that three customers of Storage Technology who use the ACS 4400 or Powderhorn automated tape library systems are infringing on the Odetics patent. Patent infringement is a familiar term on the Storagetek campus west of Denver. In mid-1993 the company filed a patent infringement suit against Hopkinton, Massachusetts-based EMC Corp., alleging that company had infringed on three of Storagetek's patents. In September 1994 Storagetek said it would "vigorously defend itself" against a patent infringement countersuit filed by EMC. Reid said those suits are still pending. (Jim Mallory/19950707/Press contact: David Reid, Storagetek, 303-673-4815 or Odetics, 714-774-5000) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 07/07/95 IBM IBM Exec Trumpets Dawn Of The New Mainframe (NEWS)(IBM)(TOR)(00015) IBM Exec Trumpets Dawn Of The New Mainframe 07/07/95 OTTAWA, ONTARIO, CANADA, 1995 JUL 7 (NB) -- Paraphrasing Mark Twain, IBM Canada General Manager Norbert Dawalibi says reports of the mainframe's death have been greatly exaggerated. That was the message he brought to federal goverment and major corporate clients in Canada's national capital region recently during a visit to promote IBM's new Parallel Sysplex enterprise server line, formally unveiled on June 12. "The mainframe has been reborn into the enterprise server," Dawalibi explains. "In the past few years, in the press, everybody has been saying the mainframe is dying and PCs are going to take over the world. What's happening, though, is that people are realizing that the client/server model is the right model [for business]." Furthermore, Dawalibi insists, there is a place for all three levels of computing technology -- mainframes, minicomputers and PCs -- in today's enterprise computing marketplace, and all three technologies are beginning to converge in a unified, scalable environment. "In the client/server world, we see all three technologies working together. None of those three technologies is going away." Today's enterprise servers offer the same security, reliability and capacity to handle heavy workloads as the "big iron" mainframes of days gone by, but in a much smaller box and at a significantly lower price, Dawalibi says. In fact, IBM's new enterprise servers use the same basic CMOS semiconductor technology and packaging as current PC microprocessors, but with much different circuitry and much denser packing factors. The result is a reduction in size by a factor of ten over the older "bipolar" technology and an even greater reduction in energy requirements. "We've just released the second release of our new CMOS processor technology. It's 2.5 times more powerful than what we had before, and it's starting to take over the older technology in speed," Dawalibi claims. And, Dawalibi adds, these "mainframe processors" are routinely run in multi-processor configurations. "Today, the typical 'mainframe' has one to ten [processors] in a box about the size of a small fridge. Most of the space, by the way, is for the connections! Now, with Parallel Sysplex, we can also take 32 of those fridge-sized machines and [gang] them together." The technological convergence which Dawalibi keeps harkening back to is already producing significant benefits in terms of bridging the gap between mainframes and minicomputer-based or PC-based servers. IBM says its new Parallel Sysplex servers now run Unix applications as well as traditional mainframe software, providing a bridge from Unix-based PC LANs (local area networks) to enterprise server systems. In addition, with the new PC "crossover" card, which was also announced June 12, "we're taking this new technology and putting it on a PC card so you can have a PC server with a dual personality -- Pentium and mainframe at the same time," Dawalibi explains. New RAID-5 (redundant array of independent disks) high-volume storage technology, also announced, goes hand-in-glove with the new Parallel Sysplex servers and rounds out IBM's picture of today's "state-of-the-art mainframe." In short, Dawalibi sums up, if you must think of mainframes as dinosaurs, think of them as having evolved into a new species. "Today's [enterprise servers] are much more like the raptors -- they're small, they're fast and they hunt in packs!" (Glenn Lisle/19950620/ Media Contact: Steve Hewitt 416 924-9100, Fax: 416 924-5709) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 07/07/95 TELECOM Hungary - Motorola Gets $100 Million For Wireless Network (NEWS)(TELECOM)(LON)(00016) Hungary - Motorola Gets $100 Million For Wireless Network 07/07/95 BUDAPEST, HUNGARY, 1995 JUL 7 (NB) -- Motorola's European Cellular Intrastructure Division (ECID) has won a contract worth $100 million to supply a wireless telephony network to Hungary. Motorola has been awarded an initial contract by the Hungarian Telecommunications Company Ltd., known as MATAV, to provide its wireless local loop (WiLL) fixed wireless telephone system to serve 200,000 rural and urban subscribers throughout Hungary. The contract represents the largest contract in the history of MATAV. The WiLL system is to allow first time telephone service for some 40,000 subscribers by the end of the year. The WiLL system incorporates a digital access interface (DAI) developed by the local company Hungarocom, which enables the Motorola system to interface with the existing Hungarian telecommunications infrastructure. The WiLL system will operate at 890 -- 897.5 MHz, using the total access communications (TACS) analog air interface standard. "The deployment involves delivery of fixed subscriber units which enable us to put thousands of subscribers onto a network very quickly," said Sandy Sanders, technical support manager during an interview with Newsbytes at COMNET/Warsaw recently. Unlike Poland and the Czech Republic which will have to wait for one year before deployment, Hungary has a network based on the GSM standard. Still, there is such a high demand for fixed telephone service that would take years and lots of money to provide it without wireless technologies. The major difference between the fixed subscriber network and the GSM is mobility, said Sanders. The fixed subscribers have a lot of the characteristics of cellular networks, however, there is no mobility from cell to cell. Sanders emphasized that the installation is quick and simple using the WiLL system and that it meets needs otherwise not practically met with GSM. Motorola won out of four competing local loop equipment providers. WiLL systems are deployed in Spain, China, Colombia, Ghana, India, and Sri Lanka. (Steven Slatem/19950629/Verner Baden, Marketing Manager, Sandy Sanders, Technical Support Manager, Motorola ECID, 16 Euroway, Blagrove, Swindon, Wiltshire SN5 8YQ, Tel.: +44 1793 541541, Fax: +44 1793 431089, e-mail: sanderss@ecid.cig.mot.com) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 07/07/95 CHIPS Sanyo Shifts Company Emphasis To Components (NEWS)(CHIPS)(TYO)(00017) Sanyo Shifts Company Emphasis To Components 07/07/95 TOKYO, JAPAN, 1995 JUL 7 (NB) -- Sanyo Electric will be concentrating more on the component manufacturing parts of its business than consumer electronics products, its president has said. The comment was made in an interview between Yasuaki Takano, president of Sanyo Electric and with Aya Takada, a correspondent of the Reuter news organization. Speaking today to Newsbytes, Sanyo's Hiroyuki Okamoto confirmed the news, "We will be expanding our component division in the future." Currently component sales make up 40% of the consolidated base sale of Sanyo Electric, a figure that is now set to rise, "We expect it to expand to more than 50% by end of 1997," Okamoto said. This doesn't mean the end of the consumer electronics side of the business which will continue to grow, the spokesman continued. "We will be increasing the consumer electronics business but the speed of growth in the component business will be much higher." Takano is said to have come up with the plan after studying the company and its performance for the past two and a half years that he has been president of the company. Okamoto explained there are two main reasons behind the decision. "The first is that components, key components, such as batteries, semiconductors and optical pickups, are very important technology. If we don't have that technology our consumer electronic goods competitiveness will be weak." The second reason, he went on, is that "the component business is very profitable." Last week Sanyo announced a new type of television that allowed viewing on conventional television broadcasts in three dimensions with the aid of a special pair of glasses. Okamoto confirmed that such products would still continue to be made and that this was not a stepping down of the consumer electronics business but a stepping up of the component side of the company. Sanyo Electric recently announced a 12% increase in net profits during fiscal 1994 to a total of 280 billion yen. Capital investment over the current financial year is put at 58 billion yen, a 61% increase over the previous year. The company also recently announced the setting up of a factory in China to produce batteries, the fifth overseas battery plant the Tokyo based company has. (Martyn Williams/19950707/Press contact : Hiroyuki Okamoto, Sanyo Electric, +81-3-3837-6206, fax +81-3-3837-6381) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 07/07/95 GENERAL NEC Company Backs Sony/Philips Video Disc (NEWS)(GENERAL)(TYO)(00018) NEC Company Backs Sony/Philips Video Disc 07/07/95 TOKYO, JAPAN, 1995 JUL 7 (NB) -- A company affiliated with NEC Corporation (TOKYO:6701) has announced it will support the next generation Multi-Media Compact Disc (MMCD) format developed jointly by Sony Corporation (TOKYO:6758) and Philips of The Netherlands. NEC Home Electronics, a unit of NEC which manufactures CD-ROM players, televisions, video recorders and other devices used in the home, announced backing for the format yesterday. NEC's Chris Shimizu explained to Newsbytes why the unit decided to adopt the Sony/Philips format. "The decision was reached after careful study. One of the main reasons is compatibility, since MMCD is compatible with existing CD-ROMs." Shimizu added that the second major reason was production costs which will be greatly reduced because the MMCD format uses single sided discs. "The Toshiba system uses double sided discs so two readers are needed." Despite the announcement by NEC Home Electronics, NEC Computer is yet to announce an alliance with either the Sony/Philips or rival Toshiba- led camps. When Newsbytes suggested that adoption of the MMCD system was now highly likely, Shimizu replied, "We have not decided what we will be using, we are still considering both formats. It will be what the market requires." He confirmed that it was possible NEC Computer would adopt the rival Digital Video Disc (DVD) format while NEC Home Electronics developed units for the MMCD system. Recently Finnish consumer electronics company Nokia and US computer maker Gateway 2000 announced backing for the Sony/Philips MMCD system. Other companies that are backing the system include Aiwa, Bang and Olufson, Grundig, Magnavox and Marantz. In Japan Mitsumi, TEAC and Ricoh have all announced support for MMCD. (Martyn Williams/19950707/Press contact : Chris Shimizu, NEC Corporation, +81-3-3798-6511, fax +81-3-3457-7249) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 07/07/95 BUSINESS Austria Mikro Systems Buys Into Germany's Thesys (NEWS)(BUSINESS)(LON)(00019) Austria Mikro Systems Buys Into Germany's Thesys 07/07/95 ERFURT, GERMANY, 1995 JUL 7 (NB) -- Austria Mikro Systeme International (AMSI) has announced plans to acquire Thesys Gessellchaft Mikroelelektronik, Newsbytes has learned. Financial details of the acquisition of the Germany electronics component company by the Austrian chip manufacturer have not been revealed, although German press reports suggest that AMSI is injecting a substantial amount of capital into Thesys. Horst Gerbert, AMSI's CEO, said that the Thesys is ideally positioned for the German electronics market. Thesys manufactures application specific integrated circuits (ASICs) and generated a loss of DM 45 million last year on a turnover of just DM million. The deal gives AMSI immediate access to Thesys' ASIC technology, an area which AMSI does not currently cover. Despite the fact that Thesys generated a large loss last year, this is not uncommon in the ASIC development and production industry -- startup costs are high, but longer term rewards are even higher in the business. Gebert, meanwhile, has high hopes for the new division, and is quoted as expecting a growth rate of around 25 percent a year for Thesys, raising the German electronics company to the same level as AMSI. Thesys was only formed two years ago but has consistently hit the headlines in Germany as one of the most innovative electronics companies in the country. At the Cebit Computer Faire in Hanover, Germany, last year, the company announced linkups with Mosaic Microsystems in the UK and Hitachi of Japan. The Hitachi deal allowed Thesys to act as a supplier of Hitachi components to the European market. Thesys currently employs around 500 staff and has a 1,000-square- meter, class 1 fab at Erfurt, producing about 200 wafers daily, working 24 hours, seven days a week. It has 1.5-micron CMOS (complimentary metal oxide semiconductor), 1.5-micron Bi-CMOS and 1.2-micron CMOS and Bi-CMOS lines. Thesys was formed in October, 1992 from the former state-owned VEB Karl Marx, which was founded in 1968 as the Eastern Bloc's center for microelectronics. LSI Logic has a 19.2 percent stake in the company. (Sylvia Dennis/19950707/Press & Reader Contact: Thesys +49-361-427- 6195; Fax +49-361-427-6196) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 07/07/95 BUSINESS Correction - Groupe Bull Unveils Estrella RISC PCs (CORRECTION)(BUSINESS)(LON)(00020) Correction - Groupe Bull Unveils Estrella RISC PCs 07/07/95 PARIS, FRANCE, 1995 JUL 7 (NB) -- In a Bull story dated June 27, reference was made to Bull opening a new division to handle the new Estrella RISC (reduced instruction set computing) PC systems. Groupe Bull's UK office has contacted Newsbytes to explain that, while the Estrella systems are new to the company, no new division is being created to handle the machines. The machines will, instead, be handled by the company's existing sales and marketing infrastructure. Newsbytes apologizes for the misunderstanding and any inconvenience caused to Groupe Bull and Newsbytes' readers. (Sylvia Dennis/19950707/Press Contact: Alison Campbell, Bull Press office +44-181-479-2751) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 07/07/95 PC Dell Dimension Line All Pentium-powered (NEWS)(PC)(DEN)(00021) Dell Dimension Line All Pentium-powered 07/07/95 AUSTIN, TEXAS, U.S.A., 1995 JUL 7 (NB) -- Dell Computer Corp. (NASDAQ: DELL) has converted its entire Dimension desktop PC product line to Intel's Pentium microprocessor. The company also increased the standard specification of Dimension models. The Dimension line is targeted at the small to medium-sized business. A Dimension P60 powered by a Pentium chip running at 60 megahertz and equipped with a 540-megabyte (MB) hard drive, a 14-inch monitor and 8MB of memory sells for about $1,299. A similar system using a Pentium chip running at 75MHz is priced at $1,399 while the 90MHz version carries a $1,759 price tag. Dell said the standard configuration of a basic Dimension PC will now include 8MB of system memory, or RAM (random access memory) and 64-bit PCI (peripheral component interface) local bus video. Dell builds its PCs to order, and according to Doug MacGregor, Dell vice president for the Dimension products, that has allowed the company to avoid the parts shortages and inventory excesses he said affects other manufacturers. The company said it will continue to offer its Optiplex desktop PCs and Latitude notebook computers powered by Intel's 486 chips. Those systems are targeted at the corporate market. The Dimension product line first came to market in June 1992 as a 386-based system with 2MB of memory and a 80MB hard drive. Since then Dimension prices have been reduced four times and appeared on the shelves of mass retailers like Sam's Club, Wal-Mart and Price Warehouse. Dell provides around-the-clock telephone support, a 30-day money-back guarantee and one year of onsite, next business day, service. That service can be extended to three years for $199. (Jim Mallory/19950707/Press contact: Jill Shanks, Dell, 512-728-4100; Public contact: Dell, 512-338-4400) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 07/07/95 BUSINESS ****Symantec Says Delrina Buy Aims At Integration Market (NEWS)(BUSINESS)(TOR)(00022) ****Symantec Says Delrina Buy Aims At Integration Market 07/07/95 CUPERTINO, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1995 JUL 7 (NB) -- Symantec Corp.'s (NASDAQ:SYMC) acquisition of Toronto-based Delrina Corp. (TSE:DC;NASDAQ:DENAF) is meant to prepare Symantec for "the integration of the telephone and the computer over the next 12 months," according to Gordon Eubanks, president and chief executive of Symantec. Delrina software such as its WinFax facsimile package will help Symantec get a share of this emerging market, Eubanks said in a press teleconference Thursday afternoon. The US$415-million merger agreement was announced early Thursday. Eubanks also said his company is interested in Delrina's forms management software, Delrina Forms. "This is a business that we see good growth [in] over the next few years and an area that's synergistic with Symantec's efforts," Eubanks said. Eubanks said Symantec's and Delrina's products are complementary. "There's absolutely no competing products .... there will be no products eliminated anywhere." Symantec's PC Anywhere group, which makes communications software, will remain in its present location on Long Island, New York, but will report to Dennis Bennie, Delrina's current chairman and chief executive, who will continue to head the Delrina operation as an executive vice- president, Eubanks said. Though it is clear that 100 to 200 jobs will be lost at Delrina, the exact effect of the acquisition on Delrina employees' jobs seems uncertain. During the teleconference, Eubanks said Delrina currently has about 750 employees and this will drop to around 550 immediately after the takeover and then rebound to about 600 fairly soon. Bennie, in the same teleconference, said between 100 and 125 Delrina jobs would be lost. In an earlier interview with Newsbytes, Mark Skapinker, Delrina's president, said probably about 150 jobs would be lost. Delrina is to keep its product development and support operations in Toronto. Eubanks said Delrina's support operation will be linked electronically to Symantec's existing support center in Eugene, Oregon, and managed from Eugene. The terms of the takeover deal say Delrina shareholders will exchange each of their common shares for 0.61 shares of a newly created class of Delrina stock. Each of these shares will be exchangeable at any time up to seven years after closing for one share of Symantec common stock. The reason for this arrangement has to do with the tax impact of the deal on Canadian shareholders, officials said. Eubanks said the deal must be approved by shareholders of both companies and by government regulators in the United States and Canada. The companies hope to close the sale in November. (Grant Buckler/19950707/Press Contact: Josef Zankowicz, Delrina, 416-441-4658; Michael Sweeny, Symantec, 408-446-7142) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 07/07/95 NETWORK Novell In Partnership To Develop Workflow Products (NEWS)(NETWORK)(DEN)(00023) Novell In Partnership To Develop Workflow Products 07/07/95 OREM, UTAH, U.S.A., 1995 JUL 7 (NB) -- Novell Inc. (NASDAQ: NOVL) has joined forces with Costa Mesa, California-based FileNet Corp. (NASDAQ: FILE) to develop and distribute a new family of workflow software the two companies said will let users actively coordinate the business activities in teams, departments and across an entire business. Novell said it will integrate the new products with its GroupWise electronic messaging systems, the PerfectOffice suite and its other groupware applications. Novell said users of the new products will be able to automate processes such as purchase orders, expense reporting, correspondence management and sales lead tracking. FileNet said it will make available a new version of its workflow software Visual Workflo for the Netware 4 network operating system. That will allow Netware users to automate repetitive, transaction-oriented, line-of-business processes like insurance claims and customer service tasks. FileNet's Workflo products manage and control the movement of images, data, text and other information throughout an enterprise. Six weeks ago Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ: MSFT) and Wang Laboratories Inc. announced they would deploy workflow automation software as a mainstream application for client-server computing. The deal was part of a multi-year technical service and marketing alliance in which Microsoft invested $85 million in Wang for a 10 percent stage in that company. Novell formed its groupware division in October 1994 in order to develop a standard it hopes will lead to a building block concept in which the user buys just the best features of each applications and they work together. "Groupware are a set of products or services that foster collaborative computing," said Novell spokesperson Brian Chapman. PerfectOffice is a suite of software applications that is offered in several versions. The core edition includes Wordperfect, the word processor Novell got when it acquired Wordperfect Corp.; the Quattro Pro 6.0 spreadsheet; Presentations 3.0, a presentation graphics program; the personal information manager Info Central; Envoy, a workgroup publishing tool; and a client license for GroupWise, Novell's integrated electronic mail, calendaring and scheduling program. (Jim Mallory/19950707/Press contact: Brian Chapman, Novell, 801-228-5126 or Robin Tanchum, FileNet, 714-966-3444) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 07/07/95 BUSINESS Canadian Long-Distance Reseller STN In Receivership (NEWS)(BUSINESS)(TOR)(00024) Canadian Long-Distance Reseller STN In Receivership 07/07/95 MARKHAM, ONTARIO, CANADA, 1995 JUL 7 (NB) -- STN Inc., a reseller of long-distance telephone services, is in receivership. The company did business as Smart Talk Network. The company is the second Canadian long-distance reseller to collapse this year. TelRoute Communications Inc. became insolvent earlier, and its customers were taken over by Fonorola Inc. KPMG Peat Marwick Thorne has been appointed receiver for STN, a spokesman for the accounting and consulting firm confirmed to Newsbytes. The KPMG partner appointed to handle the receivership, Joseph Tucker, did not return telephone calls seeking further comment. A Toronto newspaper, The Globe and Mail, reported that STN's three top executives and two of its remaining directors resigned Tuesday. The Globe also said the application for interim receivership was filed by LCI International Inc. of McLean, Virginia, the fourth-largest long-distance carrier and a major shareholder in STN. According to The Globe, STN lost C$74.5 million on revenues of C$116.4 million in 1994, as it tried to recover from the effects of controversial sales practices used by former managers who were removed about a year ago. STN's troubles are the latest in a series of growing pains in the nascent Canadian alternative long-distance market. Unitel Communications Inc., the company that filed the original application to compete with established telephone companies in the long-distance business, continues to search for new funding to help it pay off a repeatedly extended C$650-million loan and continue operating. The company has been losing C$300 million per year and its largest shareholder is looking to sell out. Call-Net Communications, the parent company of long-distance carrier Sprint Canada, lost C$55.36 million on net revenues of C$176.29 million in 1994. Company officials blamed the loss on the cost of rapid expansion and said they hope to return to profitability in 1997 with revenues approaching C$1 billion per year. (Grant Buckler/19950707/Press Contact: Joseph Tucker, KPMG Peat Marwick, 416-777-3633; Carl Friesen, KPMG Peat Marwick, 416-777- 3342, fax 416-777-3883) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 07/07/95 GENERAL Autodesk Plans Blockbuster Conference (NEWS)(GENERAL)(SFO)(00025) Autodesk Plans Blockbuster Conference 07/07/95 SAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1995 JUL 7 (NB) -- Autodesk says its Autodesk University Conference and Exposition, now in its third year, will present world famous innovators and experts from both the computer and entertainment industries. Consistent with past shows, this one continues to emphasize educational classes and technical sessions. The show will be in October at SF's Moscone Center. Autodesk says the growth of 2D and 3D applications based on AutoCAD programs is at an all-time high and the company expects attendance to reach a new record. Indicating some of the changes from its base of engineering, architectural, and design programs, Autodesk will devote almost one-third of its classes and sessions to multimedia-related implementations. The event opens with "Planet Studio" Multimedia Awards and Electronic Festival on Sunday, October 29. Dan Mapes of Cyberlab 7 is scheduled to present the application of 3D Studio for the design of the special effects of "Virtuosity," a new Hollywood film. Sunday's opening of the event will close with an evening keynote from Autodesk's chief executive officer (CEO) and president, Carol Bartz. Garth Chouteau, spokesperson for Autodesk, told Newsbytes, "This show indicates the growth and acceptance of our products in the multimedia community. In the past two years, that community has grown by more than 50%. Autodesk has more than 2.5 million users and this event is a great opportunity for everyone to learn what users are creating from the AutoCAD side to the multimedia side. Attendees will also have the opportunity to meet the third party developers whose products support AutoCAD." On Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday, attendees are welcomed to attend speeches from Richard Buday, president of Archimage; Frank Foster, one of the creators of animation for "Johnny Mnemonic;" and Graeme Devine, president of Trilobyte, respectively. Archimage is a award-winning design studio which create architectural imagery for commercials, interactive media titles and print production. Trilobyte, a multimedia developer, plans to unveil its new title, "The 11th Hour: The Sequel To The 7th Guest." The company plans more than 150 conference sessions to deal with emerging technologies included in Autodesk products. These sessions will cover new AutoCAD developments. Another section of the show, "The Conference-Within-A-Conference," offers 75 classes on multimedia subjects. Topics include, "Inverse Kinematics In 3D Studio," "How to Create a Best-Selling Computer Game" and "Virtual Sets: Combining 3D Animation and Video." This show runs from October 29 to November 2 at San Francisco's Moscone Convention Center. Autodesk is producing the show with well-known trade show producer, Miller Freeman. (Patrick McKenna/19950707/Press Contact: Garth Chouteau, Autodesk, tel 415-507-5885; Public Information: Miller Freeman, tel 415-905-4994) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 5 07/07/95 BUSINESS Trinzic Deals Aimed At Data Warehousing By End Of ' (NEWS)(BUSINESS)(BOS)(00026) Trinzic Deals Aimed At Data Warehousing By End Of '95 07/07/95 WALTHAM, MASSACHUSETTS, U.S.A., 1995 JUL 7 (NB) -- Trinzic's new deals with Unisys, Sapling, Universal Data Consultants, and Trellis are the first in a series that will soon add a database vendor, another hardware manufacturer, and a "big six" company, and will lead to "soups-to-nuts data warehousing" from Platinum, Trinzic's new owner, by the end of 1995, revealed Trinzic's Deborah Goslin, in a conference call with Newsbytes. Platinum's upcoming data warehousing offering will include everything from the user interface to connectivity and middleware software and built-in "intelligence," predicted Goslin, who is Trinzic's VP of business development. Users will be given the choice of ordering a "complete data warehousing solution," or of "picking and choosing" among various components, "like a Chinese restaurant," she illustrated. Trinzic's four latest deals and upcoming new partnerships will allow Platinum to meet a goal of becoming a dominant player in data warehousing, made known in March along with Platinum's intentions to acquire Trinzic, according to Goslin. The merger is scheduled for completion this summer. Prior to the most recent deals, Trinzic had established a series of "point solutions" in collaboration with "specialized VARs (value- added resellers)," Goslin reported. "Platinum has embraced what we've done. But we still need to grow," the Trinzic VP told Newsbytes. Under the newly announced pact with Sapling, Sapling will integrate Trinzic's Forest & Trees "business intelligence technology" with its NetProphet activity-management software, according to Goslin. The new joint marketing agreement with Unisys will "leverage" Trinzic's Forest & Trees, InfoHub and InfoPump products with Unisys's Open Parallel Unisys Server (OPUS) and symmetrical multiprocessor (SMP) technologies. Unisys will incorporate Trinzic's products in systems integration projects, Goslin noted. The deal calls for a port of InfoPump, which does not yet run on Unisys hardware, she added. "But Unisys will (also market) our product in the AIX and OS/2 environment. They're not uncomfortable at all showing up with something that will allow their box to talk to others in the marketplace. That's unusual. Usually, people like to walk in with Trinzic on their own hardware," she maintained. UDC and Trellis Network Services have each been signed as resellers. The two vendors were chosen for their experience with "large systems and data warehouses," according to Goslin. "The Trellis people had been a partner of ours long ago with Forest & Trees. They have flown through the process faster than anyone else, and we anticipate that they will have a hold on the market with the top 25 to 300 Fortune 500s within their region, which they are already doing business with, anyway," Goslin observed. "UDC has actually already trained employees specifically to support the Trinzic product line. That's also unusual in a partnership. Generally, people will `test the waters' first before they start gearing up," the VP told Newsbytes. (Jacqueline Emigh/19950707/Reader Contact: Trinzic Corporation, 617-891-6500; Press Contact: Brenda Stevenson or Geoff Spillane, Schwartz Communications for Trinzic, 617-431-0770) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 07/07/05 ONLINE "Internet Gizmos For Windows" Ships To Bookstores (NEWS)(ONLINE)(SFO)(00027) "Internet Gizmos For Windows" Ships To Bookstores 07/07/05 FOSTER CITY, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1995 JUL 7 (NB) -- IDG Books Worldwide is shipping Internet Gizmos for Windows. The nine- hundred plus page book contains tips, advice, freeware, shareware, and information about commercial applications. IDG says those looking for ways to optimize time on the Net will definitely find help in this new book. It is written for users who have some experience on the Internet and are now ready to consider various utilities which may enhance the Internet experience both online and off-line. Penned by Joel Diamond, Howard Sobel, and Valda Hilley, the Gizmos book also includes a CD-ROM which contains many of the freeware and shareware programs along with sample versions of some of the most popular commercial products. Included in the commercial applications are CompuServe/Spry's Air Mosaic Express, Delrina's WinFax LITE 3.1, and Distinct's TCP/IP Sampler. Among the utilities are publishing and authoring tools, e-mail tools, file viewers and manipulators and WinSock-related accessories. The book opens with information about getting started on the Internet, some of the national providers and correct settings and configurations. With that out of the way, the authors delve into the real process of surfing the Net and some tools and utilities which make the experience more enjoyable. Readers are taken through software installation and use of the enclosed programs. Two of the most current and hot topics on the Net, WinSock and HTML authoring for the Web, are given a thorough treatment. Gizmos also includes information for users accessing the Net through a network. A spokesperson for IDG told Newsbytes, "This book is the most informative and extensive source of material on Internet use through Windows and Windows NT. The authors bring together a wide range of experience as writers and Internet users which we think is necessary to present a full scope of this topic." The Internet Gizmos for Windows is available at bookstores across the U.S. and in Canada. Suggested retail price is $39.99 in the US and $54.99 in Canada. (Patrick McKenna/19950707/Press Contact: Audrey Pobre, Brodeur & Partners, tel 408-562-6108) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 07/07/95 GENERAL Personnel Roundup (NEWS)(GENERAL)(SFO)(00028) Personnel Roundup 07/07/95 PENN VALLEY, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1995 JUL 7 (NB) -- This is a regular feature, summarizing personnel changes not covered elsewhere by Newsbytes: Polaroid Corp., Performance Systems International Inc., Oracle Corp., Atari Corp., StarBase Corp., Apple Computer Inc., Harris Corp., Microsoft Corp., Inmac Corp. Polaroid Corporation (NYSE: PRD - 617-386-3112) announced the appointment of seven new officers: in photographic imaging, James R. Barron, 48, was named vice president, US sales and marketing; Marian J. Stanley, 51, was named vice president, emerging nations; Paul E. Lambert, 54, was named vice president and senior program fellow; also Roger C. Clapp, 59, and Samuel H. Liggero, 53, were named as vice presidents and program fellows. In the research and development area, F. Richard Cottrell, 51, and Fawwaz N. Habbal, 47, were named vice presidents and senior research and engineering fellows. David N. Kunkel has been named vice-president and general counsel, and Stephen A. Schoffstall has been promoted to vice-president of sales from director of sales and marketing for Performance Systems International (PSINet) Inc. (NASDAQ:PSIX - 703-904-4285). Edward J. (Sandy) Sanderson, Jr. has been named to the position of senior vice president of Oracle Services, a unit of Oracle Corp. (NASDAQ:ORCL - 415-506-4176). He will report to Robert Shaw, senior vice president of Oracle Services Worldwide, and oversee Oracle's commercial consulting organization across the US, Canada, and Latin America. Theodore M. Hoff has joined Atari Corp. (408-745-2069) as president of North American Operations. Hoff will oversee Atari's North American operations, which includes the United States, Canada, and Mexico. Prior to joining Atari, Hoff was senior vice president and general manager of Fox Interactive, a division of Twentieth Century Fox. John Laskey has reportedly resigned his position as chief financial officer with StarBase Corp. Guy Kawasaki has been appointed to Apple Computer Inc.'s (NASDAQ:AAPL - 408-862-6200) Apple Fellows program. Prior to becoming an Apple Fellow, Guy Kawasaki was the president of Fog City Software in San Francisco, which he founded in 1994. Kawasaki was also formerly a member of the board of directors of Macintosh software ventures Salient, Bit Jugglers and BookMaker, and was the founder and president of ACIUS, another Macintosh software company. While employed by Apple from 1983 to 1987, Kawasaki pioneered Apple's software evangelism program for the Macintosh computer as director of product management. Ray M. White has been named vice president of Washington operations and head of Harris Corporation's (NYSE:HRS - 407-727-9126) Washington corporate office. White previously was vice president, congressional relations. He will assume many of the responsibilities from Frank J. Lewis, senior vice president-assistant to the chairman and chief executive officer, who is retiring after a 35-year career with Harris. In his new position, White will be responsible for the company's relations with Congress, the executive branch, and industry leaders in Washington DC. Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ: MSFT - 305-489-4831) announced it is increasing its focus on developing markets with the promotion of Orlando Ayala to vice president of the Inter-Continental sales region. In this newly created position, Ayala expands his international management role to include the Latin America, Asia-Pacific, and Africa/India/Middle-East (AIME) regions. He was formerly regional director of Microsoft Latin America. Ray Nystrom has been appointed vice president, chief financial officer (CFO) of Inmac Corp. (NASDAQ:INMC - 408-727-1970). Nystrom will continue in his role as general manager of North America. Michael Waide, Inmac's current vice president, CFO, has resigned to accept a position with another publicly held company. (Ian Stokell/19950707) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 07/07/95 UNIX UniKix Claims To Be 1st With SMP PowerPC OLTP Monitor (NEWS)(UNIX)(BOS)(00029) UniKix Claims To Be 1st With SMP PowerPC OLTP Monitor 07/07/95 BILLERICA, MASSACHUSETTS, U.S.A., 1995 JUL 7 (NB) -- Although a competing product for downsizing customers is now in the works at IBM, Bull-owned UniKix is the first to market with an SMP PowerPC implementation of a CICS OLTP (online transaction processing) monitor, maintained David Matthews, VP of business development for UniKix, in an interview with Newsbytes. Matthews told Newsbytes that mainframe customers can experience cost savings of 50 percent, in addition to "gaining access to client-server tools," by migrating their applications to UniKix 4.1, a CICS (customer information control system) OLTP monitor that runs on AIX 4.1 over both IBM's SMP RS/6000 and Bull Escala SMP PowerPC servers. Users who were previously running OLTP applications over AIX on uniprocessor RS/6000 workstations constitute a "second market" for the machine, the VP said. About 200 customers, including KPMG Peat Marwick and the Italian banking establishment Banca Sella, are already using the SMP OLTP monitor from UniKix, which started shipping in the second quarter, according to Matthews. Approximately 100 million lines of code have been migrated to the SMP transaction monitor by now, Matthews noted. "And we're experiencing a backlog in demand," he contended. Migration of a customer's applications from the mainframe to the SMP monitor from UniKix typically takes about two or three months, he estimated. "And then, there would be another two or three months of parallel running after that. So, typically, the whole process is about five or six months for a typical 1000-program application," he added. The migration process is "largely automatic," as a result of tools that automatically translate application code and screen formats, Matthews reported. UniKix is performing migration for some customers, while supplying other customers with tools for "doing it themselves." Before the introduction of the SMP implementation of the transaction monitor, some users were porting mainframe applications to single-processor machines, according to the UniKix exec. "But those applications were `small to mid-size,'" Newsbytes was told. In contrast, the SMP implementation from UniKix will support "several hundred thousand users." A competing transaction monitor, called CICS for AIX, is now being readied by IBM, the UniKix exec acknowledged. But IBM's CICS for AIX is targeted for release in September, with some components not due out till December, he contended. The UniKix implementation of the SMP monitor uses a "high performance architecture for central servers," according to Matthews. In contrast, IBM's upcoming SMP monitor is based on a "distributed, highly layered, and more complex" architecture, and as a result, is taking a longer period of time to develop, he asserted. UniKix will eventually adopt a distributed architecture for its monitor, but at this point, it is the company's position that distributed architectures are not yet ready to handle OLTP applications, in terms of either bandwidth or communications protocols. "A network today of 10 megabits-per-second (Mbps) or even 100 Mbps is nowhere near as fast as this application would perform on a mainframe," Matthews remarked. "The communications protocols themselves impose another burden. It's not just the burden of driving it over the wire. It's also the burden of wandering through the software that makes up the communications software. Even SNA is not fast enough for a real, distributed data environment yet. So both things need to be improved. That definitely will happen, but it will take a few years," he predicted. Bull, the parent of UniKix, is jointly developing the SMP PowerPC technology with IBM and Motorola. But although UniKix is a wholly owned subsidiary of Bull, UniKix conducts about 90 percent of its business among users of non-Bull hardware, according to Matthews. Customers of UniKix include owners of machines from IBM, Hewlett- Packard, Sun, and Digital Equipment Corp., the UniKix VP told Newsbytes. (Jacqueline Emigh/19950607/Reader Contact: Bull HN Information Systems, 508-294-6000; Press Contact: Susan Luther, Duval Woglom Brueckner Partners for UniKix, 617-248-1881) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 07/07/95 GENERAL Newsbytes Week In Review (NEWS)(GENERAL)(SFO)(00030) Newsbytes Week In Review 07/07/95 PENN VALLEY, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1995 JUL 7 (NB) -- This is a look at the top stories this week, listing with their category code: Chip Shortage Halts Hitachi Telephone Production, Mitnick Hacker Plea-Bargains Prison Sentence, Apple Japan President Quits After Row With US Parent, Survey Reveals Changing Web User Base, NEC Takes Stake In Packard Bell, IBM Tender For Lotus Completed, Symantec To Take Over Delrina, AOL Interviews Haiti President Aristide, AMD Plans 150 MHz 486 To Kill Pentiums; US Software Sales Up Solidly In US, Asia; ConnectSoft Buys Financially Troubled Medio. Chip Shortage Halts Hitachi Telephone Production (CHIPS) TOKYO, JAPAN, 1995 JUL 3 -- Hitachi Ltd. has stopped production of handsets for the new Personal Handyphone System (PHS) mobile telephone network until August because of a shortage of memory chips. The Tokyo-based company expects supplies to resume in late summer but says that until then, no telephones can be made. Mitnick Hacker Plea-Bargains Prison Sentence (LEGAL) RALEIGH, NORTH CAROLINA, U.S.A., 1995 JUL 3 -- Prosecutors have accepted a plea bargain from computer hacker Kevin Mitnick that will see him serving eight months in state prison on a guilty plea to one of 23 charges. Apple Japan President Quits After Row With US Parent (GENERAL) TOKYO, JAPAN, 1995 JUL 3 -- Apple Japan Inc. has announced that its president, Seiji Sanda, resigned Friday over disagreements with its American parent company over management policy. Survey Reveals Changing Web User Base (TRENDS) TOKYO, JAPAN, 1995 JUL 5 -- Users of the Internet's World Wide Web are more likely to be accessing via a commercial Internet provider than an educational or corporate connection, using a Windows-based computer than one running a Unix operating system, and be connecting from California than from anywhere else. Those are some of the key results of the third semi-annual Web survey by Georgia Tech. NEC Takes Stake In Packard Bell (BUSINESS) TOKYO, JAPAN, 1995 JUL 5 -- NEC Corporation of Japan has taken a near 20% stake in Packard Bell Electronics Inc. and established a global alliance with the American computer company. IBM Tender For Lotus Completed (BUSINESS) ARMONK, NEW YORK, U.S.A., 1995 JUL 5 -- IBM (NYSE:IBM) said it completed its tender offer for common stock of Lotus Development Corp. (NASDAQ:LOTS) today. About 97 percent of the software company's 47.4 million outstanding shares were tendered in response to the $64-a-share takeover offer. Symantec To Take Over Delrina (BUSINESS) TORONTO, ONTARIO, CANADA, 1995 JUL 6 -- Another Canadian software success is to be gobbled up by an American company. Delrina Corp. (TSE:DC;NASDAQ:DENAF) has announced a US$415 million merger agreement with Symantec Corp. (NASDAQ:SYMC) of Cupertino, California, that will make the Toronto forms and fax software maker into a unit of Symantec. AOL Interviews Haiti President Aristide (ONLINE) VIENNA, VIRGINIA, U.S.A., 1995 JUL 6 -- America Online (NASDAQ:AMER) held an online press conference with President Aristide of Haiti. Saying it was the first time a head of state has addressed a cyber-audience, AOL presented an hour-long interview and question-and-answer segment. AMD Plans 150 MHz 486 To Kill Pentiums (CHIPS) SYDNEY, AUSTRALIA 1995 JUL 7 (NB) -- Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) has released a new 120MHz 486 chip, and is reported to be readying an even faster 150 MHz version for end of year release. AMD claims these outperform Pentium chips in price and performance. US Software Sales Up Solidly In US, Asia (TRENDS) WASHINGTON, D.C., U.S.A., 1995 JUL 7 (NB) -- First quarter 1995 North American software sales soared to $2.03 billion, up 25 percent over the first quarter of 1994, according to the Software Publishers Association. SPA also said that sales in the Asia-Pacific region hit $240 million for the quarter, up 37 percent over 1994. ConnectSoft Buys Financially Troubled Medio (BUSINESS) BELLEVUE, WASHINGTON, U.S.A., 1995 JUL 7 (NB) -- Telecommunications software company ConnectSoft Inc. said today it has purchased financially troubled Medio Multimedia Inc. for an undisclosed amount. (Ian Stokell/19950707) (SUMMARY)(GENERAL)(MSP)(00031) Newsbytes Daily Summary 07/07/95 MINNEAPOLIS, MINNESOTA, U.S.A., 1995 JUL 7 (NB) -- These are capsules of all today's news stories: ======================================================================== ------------| N E W S B Y T E S D A I L Y S U M M A R Y |---------- ------------| Friday, July 7, 1995 |---------- ======================================================================== (c) Newsbytes News Network (Tm) Editor in Chief: Wendy Woods ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Newsbytes News Network is a computer and telecom industry news wire and digitized picture service. Our news stream includes more than 30 daily first-hand reported US and international news stories about computing and telecommunications. For more information, please e-mail to 'administrator@newsbytes.com' ------------------------------------------------------------------------ CATEGORY HEADLINES (*** indicates today's top stories) STORY # ======================================================================== BROADCAST Belgium To Deregulate Cable TV/Phone Svcs.................. 03 BROADCAST Philippine Satellite Voice Network Expands................. 05 BUSINESS China - Microsoft Plans Expansion.......................... 04 BUSINESS Informix To Invest $25 Million In India.................... 07 BUSINESS Oracle Teams With ITT...................................... 12 BUSINESS ****ConnectSoft Buys Financially Troubled Medio........... 13 BUSINESS Austria Mikro Systems Buys Into Germany's Thesys........... 19 BUSINESS Correction - Groupe Bull Unveils Estrella RISC PCs......... 20 BUSINESS ****Symantec Says Delrina Buy Aims At Integration Market.. 22 BUSINESS Canadian Long-Distance Reseller STN In Receivership........ 24 BUSINESS Trinzic Deals Aimed At Data Warehousing By End Of '95...... 26 CHIPS ****AMD Plans 150 MHz 486 To Kill Pentiums................ 02 CHIPS Sanyo Shifts Company Emphasis To Components................ 17 EDUCATION AOL Promotes Literacy Program.............................. 10 GENERAL NEC Company Backs Sony/Philips Video Disc.................. 18 GENERAL Autodesk Plans Blockbuster Conference...................... 25 GENERAL Personnel Roundup.......................................... 28 GENERAL Newsbytes Week In Review................................... 30 GOVT Justice Probe Delays CA-Legent Merger Again................ 09 IBM IBM Exec Trumpets Dawn Of The New Mainframe................ 15 LEGAL No Infringement, Storagetek Tells Odetics.................. 14 NETWORK Novell In Partnership To Develop Workflow Products......... 23 ONLINE Hong Kong Concerns Over Internet Domain Names.............. 06 ONLINE Philippines - Internet Service Upgrade..................... 08 ONLINE "Internet Gizmos For Windows" Ships To Bookstores.......... 27 PC Dell Dimension Line All Pentium-powered.................... 21 TELECOM Australian Telecoms Delegation Visits China................ 01 TELECOM Hungary - Motorola Gets $100 Million For Wireless Network.. 16 TRENDS ****US Software Sales Up Solidly In US, Asia.............. 11 UNIX UniKix Claims To Be 1st With SMP PowerPC OLTP Monitor...... 29 ======================================================================== These are the headlines and first paragraphs of each story, in order: 1 -> Australian Telecoms Delegation Visits China -- The Australian minister for telecommunications, Senator Chris Schact, arrived in China today, heading a delegation of senior executives from the Australian telecommunications industry. 2 -> ****AMD Plans 150 MHz 486 To Kill Pentiums -- Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) has released a new 120MHz 486 chip, and is reported to be readying an even faster 150 MHz version for end of year release. AMD claims these outperform Pentium chips in price and performance. 3 -> Belgium To Deregulate Cable TV/Phone Svcs -- The Belgian Government has announced plans to deregulate the cable TV and telephone industry within the next 12 months. According to Elio Di Rupo, the Belgian telecoms minister, July 1, 1997 has been set as the target date for liberalization. 4 -> China - Microsoft Plans Expansion -- Facing competition in China, Microsoft Corporation is aiming to maintain its dominant position by increasing the number of its dealers to more than 300 this year and opening more special shops in high-end shopping centers in large cities. 5 -> Philippine Satellite Voice Network Expands -- International Communications Corporation (ICC), a Philippine private telecommunications provider, has signed a US$3.1 million deal with Scientific-Atlanta (SA) to expand its satellite-based voice network with the addition of 50 channels. 6 -> Hong Kong Concerns Over Internet Domain Names -- A meeting of the Hong Kong government's Telecommunications Numbering Advisory Committee (TNAC) has raised the issue of OFTA (Office of the Telecommunications Authority) taking over administration of Internet domain names. 7 -> Informix To Invest $25 Million In India -- Informix International has inaugurated its Indian marketing office and a Software Development Centre (SDC) in Bombay. This is expected to be the second largest Informix lab in the world. 8 -> Philippines - Internet Service Upgrade -- The Philippines will soon have the most sophisticated Internet backbone in Asia. A group of United States-based Filipino IT professionals are forming Infocom Technologies, an access provider company which will offer fiber optic links that sport a bandwidth seven times bigger and a transmission rate 60 percent faster than Japan's. 9 -> Justice Probe Delays CA-Legent Merger Again -- For the second time in less than two weeks, Computer Associates International (NYSE:CA) has announced a delay in its $1.8 billion offer for Legent Corp. (NASDAQ:LGNT) due to a Justice Department antitrust probe. 10 -> AOL Promotes Literacy Program -- America Online is hosting a special cybercamp this summer as part of a Northern Virginia summer literacy program called Books on Break, established in 1994 as a joint venture of Fair Oaks Shopping Center and Times Community Newspapers. The program encourages kids to read a minimum of 20 books over their summer break. 11 -> ****US Software Sales Up Solidly In US, Asia -- First quarter 1995 North American software sales soared to $2.03 billion, up 25 percent over the first quarter of 1994, according to the Software Publishers Association. SPA also said that sales in the Asia-Pacific region hit $240 million for the quarter, up 37 percent over 1994. 12 -> Oracle Teams With ITT -- Oracle Corp. (Nasdaq: ORCL), announced that the New ITT Corp., the hospitality, entertainment and information services business segment of ITT Corp. (NYSE: ITT), has selected Oracle to redesign its worldwide information network of nearly 500 locations using Oracle's database and packaged applications technology. The alliance puts New ITT in Oracle's hands over a five-year implementation period. 13 -> ****ConnectSoft Buys Financially Troubled Medio -- Telecommunications software company ConnectSoft Inc. said today it has purchased financially troubled Medio Multimedia Inc. for an undisclosed amount. 14 -> No Infringement, Storagetek Tells Odetics -- Storage Technology Corp. (NYSE: STK) said this week it does not believe any of the company's products infringe on a US patent held by Anaheim, California-based Odetics Inc. Odetics filed a patent infringement lawsuit against Storagetek earlier this month. 15 -> IBM Exec Trumpets Dawn Of The New Mainframe -- Paraphrasing Mark Twain, IBM Canada General Manager Norbert Dawalibi says reports of the mainframe's death have been greatly exaggerated. That was the message he brought to federal goverment and major corporate clients in Canada's national capital region recently during a visit to promote IBM's new Parallel Sysplex enterprise server line, formally unveiled on June 12. "The mainframe has been reborn into the enterprise server," Dawalibi explains. 16 -> Hungary - Motorola Gets $100 Million For Wireless Network -- Motorola's European Cellular Intrastructure Division (ECID) has won a contract worth $100 million to supply a wireless telephony network to Hungary. 17 -> Sanyo Shifts Company Emphasis To Components -- Sanyo Electric will be concentrating more on the component manufacturing parts of its business than consumer electronics products, its president has said. 18 -> NEC Company Backs Sony/Philips Video Disc -- A company affiliated with NEC Corporation (TOKYO:6701) has announced it will support the next generation Multi-Media Compact Disc (MMCD) format developed jointly by Sony Corporation (TOKYO:6758) and Philips of The Netherlands. NEC Home Electronics, a unit of NEC which manufactures CD-ROM players, televisions, video recorders and other devices used in the home, announced backing for the format yesterday. 19 -> Austria Mikro Systems Buys Into Germany's Thesys -- Austria Mikro Systeme International (AMSI) has announced plans to acquire Thesys Gessellchaft Mikroelelektronik, Newsbytes has learned. 20 -> Correction - Groupe Bull Unveils Estrella RISC PCs -- In a Bull story dated June 27, reference was made to Bull opening a new division to handle the new Estrella RISC (reduced instruction set computing) PC systems. Groupe Bull's UK office has contacted Newsbytes to explain that, while the Estrella systems are new to the company, no new division is being created to handle the machines. 21 -> Dell Dimension Line All Pentium-powered -- Dell Computer Corp. (NASDAQ: DELL) has converted its entire Dimension desktop PC product line to Intel's Pentium microprocessor. The company also increased the standard specification of Dimension models. 22 -> ****Symantec Says Delrina Buy Aims At Integration Market -- Symantec Corp.'s (NASDAQ:SYMC) acquisition of Toronto-based Delrina Corp. (TSE:DC;NASDAQ:DENAF) is meant to prepare Symantec for "the integration of the telephone and the computer over the next 12 months," according to Gordon Eubanks, president and chief executive of Symantec. 23 -> Novell In Partnership To Develop Workflow Products -- Novell Inc. (NASDAQ: NOVL) has joined forces with Costa Mesa, California-based FileNet Corp. (NASDAQ: FILE) to develop and distribute a new family of workflow software the two companies said will let users actively coordinate the business activities in teams, departments and across an entire business. 24 -> Canadian Long-Distance Reseller STN In Receivership -- STN Inc., a reseller of long-distance telephone services, is in receivership. The company did business as Smart Talk Network. 25 -> Autodesk Plans Blockbuster Conference -- Autodesk says its Autodesk University Conference and Exposition, now in its third year, will present world famous innovators and experts from both the computer and entertainment industries. Consistent with past shows, this one continues to emphasize educational classes and technical sessions. The show will be in October at SF's Moscone Center. 26 -> Trinzic Deals Aimed At Data Warehousing By End Of '95 -- Trinzic's new deals with Unisys, Sapling, Universal Data Consultants, and Trellis are the first in a series that will soon add a database vendor, another hardware manufacturer, and a "big six" company, and will lead to "soups-to-nuts data warehousing" from Platinum, Trinzic's new owner, by the end of 1995, revealed Trinzic's Deborah Goslin, in a conference call with Newsbytes. 27 -> "Internet Gizmos For Windows" Ships To Bookstores -- IDG Books Worldwide is shipping Internet Gizmos for Windows. The nine- hundred plus page book contains tips, advice, freeware, shareware, and information about commercial applications. 28 -> Personnel Roundup -- This is a regular feature, summarizing personnel changes not covered elsewhere by Newsbytes: Polaroid Corp., Performance Systems International Inc., Oracle Corp., Atari Corp., StarBase Corp., Apple Computer Inc., Harris Corp., Microsoft Corp., Inmac Corp. 29 -> UniKix Claims To Be 1st With SMP PowerPC OLTP Monitor -- Although a competing product for downsizing customers is now in the works at IBM, Bull-owned UniKix is the first to market with an SMP PowerPC implementation of a CICS OLTP (online transaction processing) monitor, maintained David Matthews, VP of business development for UniKix, in an interview with Newsbytes. 30 -> Newsbytes Week In Review -- This is a look at the top stories this week, listing with their category code: Chip Shortage Halts Hitachi Telephone Production, Mitnick Hacker Plea-Bargains Prison Sentence, Apple Japan President Quits After Row With US Parent, Survey Reveals Changing Web User Base, NEC Takes Stake In Packard Bell, IBM Tender For Lotus Completed, Symantec To Take Over Delrina, AOL Interviews Haiti President Aristide, AMD Plans 150 MHz 486 To Kill Pentiums; US Software Sales Up Solidly In US, Asia; ConnectSoft Buys Financially Troubled Medio. (Wendy Woods/19950707) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 07/06/95 EDUCATION UK College Gets Award For MBAs On Internet (NEWS)(EDUCATION)(LON)(00001) UK College Gets Award For MBAs On Internet 07/06/95 SOUTHAMPTON, HAMPSHIRE, ENGLAND, 1995 JUL 6 (NB) -- The Southampton Institute, an educational institution that hit the headlines earlier this year when it became the first institution in Europe to offer MBAs across the Internet, has received an award from the KPMG/Daily Echo Business Awards. According to Bridgett Vane, a spokeswoman for the Institute, the award was for "recognition of innovation in a new product which has been commercially successful," and was the first time the award has been made in the Business Awards' five year run. "There were two other awards -- young entrepreneur of the year, and business of the year -- but we scooped this new award category," Vane told Newsbytes, adding that, as well as the prestigious award for the Institute's pioneering work in the field of online MBAs, there is a check for UKP1,000, which the institute will use towards improving the service it offers its online students. Professor Charles Jennings of the Institute received the award late last week, which Vane explained was especially appropriate, since it was he who pioneered much of the technology that makes it possible to take an MBA with the Institute from anywhere in the world across the Internet. According to Vane, since the Remote MBA's launch earlier this year, there has been a considerable take-up in the scheme, with inquiries pouring in from all over the world, from individuals, large corporations, and universities. Professor Chris Hutchinson of the Institute, commenting on the award, said that the establishment overcame strong competition from the private sector in pursuing this first award from the Business Awards. "As part of our corporate strategy, we have emphasized the need to invest in product innovation and globalization. The MBA by computer conferencing is one such example of innovations taking place at the institute," he said. According to Hutchinson, all success stories of this type require a team effort, "which starts with support from the governors and the institute director, David Leyland, and permeates through all staff involved in the project." Since Newsbytes reported the MBA scheme's start earlier this year, the Institute has now opened a World Wide Web site which has a URL (Uniform Resource Locator) of http://www.cecomm.co.uk/sibs/sibs.html . (Steve Gold/19950705/Press Contact: Bridgett Vane, tel +44-1703- 769985, fax +44-1703-767405; Reader Contact: Southampton Institute, tel +44-1703-319822, fax +44-1703-222259; Internet e-mail mba@solent.ac.uk /SOUTHUNI950706/PHOTO) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 07/06/95 TELECOM UK - Mercury Comms Offers DataMotion Service (NEWS)(TELECOM)(LON)(00002) UK - Mercury Comms Offers DataMotion Service 07/06/95 LONDON, ENGLAND, 1995 JUL 6 (NB) -- Mercury Communications has taken the wraps off DataMotion, a portfolio of products and services that it is offering to business computer users to allow them to keep in touch while on the move. Like many other companies offering cellular phone services, Mercury Communications is offering data over GSM (global system for mobile communications) facilities. However, according to John Coulston, a company spokesman, because Mercury offers a wide range of standard phone services, paging and online services, including packet data network (PDN) access, the company is offering a "mix and match" service for its cellular subscribers on a very large scale. "Mercury already sells cellular phones and services, but this DataMotion umbrella service offers a GSM phone, a PCMCIA (Personal Computer Memory Card International Association) card, a laptop PC and network access, as well as applications for messaging and online service access as a single product," he explained. The idea behind DataMotion is to save end-users having to source their mobile data products and services from several outlets. As a major cellular service provider (SP), Mercury already offers extra services to its subscribers and DataMotion forms part of that strategy. Users of the service, Mercury argues, benefit from the telco's skills in bringing together and managing messaging, mobile telephony, and data networks, to provide a "seamless extension" of corporate desktop facilities. The DataMotion portfolio of products and services is available now and is expected to appeal to anyone who has an urgent need to get hold of, or transmit, information fast and who is frequently away from base, such as journalists, salespeople and engineers, company officials told Newsbytes. Simon Farr, DataMotion's product manager, explained that standard commands and protocols "mean that DataMotion is `plug and play.' Essentially it's an open platform which people can use for their own applications. "We can pre-configure the package if required, for example, adding Lotus cc:Mail and dial plans, so that users have exactly what they need to get working quickly. And our strong relationships with industry partners such as Oracle means we can also offer full integration with software systems," he said. Pricing on DataMotion depends on which elements and services the subscriber elects to take. The standard kit for DataMotion is a Nokia 2110 GSM phone plus a Nokia GSM data card, subscribing to either Cellnet or Vodafone's GSM service. (Steve Gold/19950705/Press Contact: Jill Pierce, DPA Public Relations, tel +44-1483-456666, fax +44-1483-456555, Internet e-mail dpapr@attmail.com ; Reader Contact: Mercury Communications, tel +44-171-528-2000, fax +44-171-528-2181) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 07/06/95 WINDOWS Phoenix Technologies Offers Telephony Suite Apps (NEWS)(WINDOWS)(LON)(00003) Phoenix Technologies Offers Telephony Suite Apps 07/06/95 GUILDFORD, SURREY, ENGLAND, 1995 JUL 6 (NB) -- Phoenix Technologies has unveiled the Telephony Suite, a range of Windows applications designed to drive a variety of fax/data modems, including those with voice and data mailbox/handling facilities. #IMAGE 1 20 TWPCX \images\95070603.PCX Click here for photo The package is not for sale at the moment, but OEM (original equipment manufacturer) deals are in progress with a number of modem manufacturers, both in the UK and the US, details of which will be "announced shortly." The OEM price to modem manufacturers is expected to be under the $5 mark, Newsbytes understands. The Phoenix Telephony Suite (PTS) is unusual in that it presents the user with a bit-mapped image of the "device" being controlled. For example, where the fax send/receive option is selected, the screen fills up with the image of a fax machine plus a variety of pop-up and drop-down menus. Controlling the fax machine is then a matter of mimicking the role of the fingers with a real fax machine using the PC's mouse. The effect, though strange to PC-savvy users, is useful for novice PC users, the company claims, since it creates a "virtual reality" scenario for the user. Jay Kelley, manager of marketing and business development for Phoenix's OEM consumer software division in the US, explained that, thanks to the growing availability of inexpensive voice-enabled modems and voice-mail-equipped PCs, "The integration of computers and phones is a reality for many end-users. Now, home offices can enjoy inexpensive voice-mail capabilities with the added convenience and control of having all their phone and fax calls accessible in one place," he said. Peter Hayward, a spokesman for Phoenix's UK operation, refused to be drawn on which modem manufacturers an OEM deal is in the offing with, but said that it is looking very likely that a standalone version of the package would be released for general sale. In use, PTS has four main screens that present the user with a business phone, answering machine, fax machine, and address book. Controlling the screen is "very similar to real life," using the mouse and interacting with a series of pop-up and drop-down menu choices. Phoenix claims that the package is so easy to use, that even a novice user can be up and running in under 30 minutes. "Also," Debra Ryherd, the company's PTS manager said, "many of the Phoenix Telephony Center features can be modified and remotely accessed, proving even greater versatility." PTS needs an 80486-based PC, equipped with a 256 color VGA color monitor, voice-enabled/speaker phone modem, and phone line. Full information on the software is available from the company's World Wide Web site on . (Steve Gold/19950705/Press Contact: Vector Business Communications, +44-1442-877167; Reader Contact: Phoenix Technologies UK, +44-1483-301444, fax +44-1483-301434; Phoenix Technologies US 408-654-9000, Internet World Wide Web http://www.ptltd.com /PHOENIX950706/PHOTO) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 07/06/95 GENERAL Unisys' Northern Asia OPUS Focus (NEWS)(GENERAL)(HKG)(00004) Unisys' Northern Asia OPUS Focus 07/06/95 CENTRAL, HONG KONG, 1995 JUL 6 (NB) -- Unisys is gearing up for strong sales of the Open Parallel Unisys Server (OPUS), after early customer responses revealed significant sales potential in Korea, Taiwan, and Hong Kong. The interest shown in the new product in North Asia has been particularly encouraging, according to John Gypton, Asia Pacific marketing director for the Unisys Scalable Parallel Processor Division. OPUS includes a new scalable parallel processing technology platform developed jointly by Unisys and Intel, and a range of software to address key decision support solution (DSS) areas such as data warehousing and data mining. The system was introduced to Asia at the end of May. Within Hong Kong, Gypton singled out banking and communications as areas in which the first sales were likely, saying: "The ideal customer is an organization that has a real marketing requirement and has already amassed large amounts of data on its customers." Unisys is also planning to introduce versions of its parallel processing technology for the online transaction market and for enterprise-wide computing resources. "In DSS we have an offering right now for what we feel is a very significant and growing market sector, as well as having a defined growth path of the parallel processing architecture as a whole to see us well into the next century," said Gypton. (Nigel Armstrong & IT Daily/19950706) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 07/06/95 TELECOM Ericsson In Chinese Paging Equipment Deal (NEWS)(TELECOM)(HKG)(00005) Ericsson In Chinese Paging Equipment Deal 07/06/95 CENTRAL, HONG KONG, 1995 JUL 6 (NB) -- Beijing Asia Pacific First Star Communications Technology Co. Ltd. (BAPFS) , the company behind China's first nationwide paging system, has ordered equipment for the first phase of its project from telecoms giant Ericsson. The equipment includes 45 automatic call distribution units, X.25 packet switching equipment, an integrated operator and automatic paging services system, and a subscriber administration system. Although the fiscal size of the order was not revealed, I.T. Daily has learned that the order, which only covers the first phase, was smaller than the US$24 million contract Ericsson signed with Guangdong Mobile Communication last year. However, Ericsson is also planning to bid for orders for the other phases. The first phase to be implemented this year will cover 45 cities and is expected to have 200,000 subscribers within the first six months. BAPFS is a joint venture between Beijing Asia Pacific Communication Technology Development Corp., Asia Pacific Electronics (China), Beijing Jingfang Economic Development Company, Singapore Telecom International, and ING Beijing Investment Co. Ltd. The system, reportedly the first in China to offer nationwide roaming services, will provide operator-assisted service for numeric and Chinese character paging, as well as advanced automatic services for numeric paging, voice-mail, and faxing. Phase two of the project will extend the network to cover 150 cities, as well as connecting it to Hong Kong, Macau, and the rest of the Asia Pacific region. During the third and fourth phases of construction, the network will be extended to cover 450 and 2,000 cities respectively. The network will ultimately cater to several million subscribers across the country. (Nigel Armstrong & IT Daily/19950706) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 07/06/95 WINDOWS Consultant Warns Of Windows 95 Viruses (NEWS)(WINDOWS)(HKG)(00006) Consultant Warns Of Windows 95 Viruses 07/06/95 CENTRAL, HONG KONG, 1995 JUL 6 (NB) -- The coming of Windows 95 could signal a new wave of computer viruses that are resistant to current anti-virus software, according to Hong Kong data security specialist Skynet Computer Consultants. Skynet's Johnson Cheng claims Windows 95's 32-bit architecture will provide a new playground for virus developers, whose 32-bit viruses will go undetected by current 16-bit anti-virus software. "The new 32-bit world must act like a magnet for the twisted minds of virus developers and we really expect to see new viruses to emerge that take full advantage of this powerful new environment," the security expert said. The information security expert believes that with the large number of Windows 95 beta test copies in circulation, it is inevitable that some will have fallen into the hands of virus developers and hackers. He said, "By their very nature, the virus developers are outlaws and would have no qualms about using bootleg versions of the beta release of Windows 95." McAfee, a world leader in anti-virus software, has already begun work on new 32-bit scanners and a 32-bit version of the company's VirusScan is expected within 60 days of the launch of Windows 95. But the developers are reportedly only going on guesswork, based on their experience with 16-bit viruses. According to Ken Tachibana, McAfee's Pacific Rim managing director, the company is working closely with Microsoft to develop protection for the Windows 95 environment. Microsoft has already provided the source code to Windows 95 to McAfee in the hope that developers can predict what viruses may be created and build contingencies to counter these threats. Said Cheng, whose company is the Hong Kong agent for McAfee: "We are taking this threat very seriously and aim to provide our users with the same level of protection they have known in the past before any new generation viruses can proliferate." (Nigel Armstrong & IT Daily/19950706) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 2 07/06/95 GENERAL Elektroson Offers CD-R Software For Mac & OS (NEWS)(GENERAL)(SFO)(00007) Elektroson Offers CD-R Software For Mac & OS/2 07/06/95 BALA CYNWYD, PENNSYLVANIA, U.S.A., 1995 JUL 6 (NB) -- Well-known software developer for the CD-R (CD-Recording) industry, Elektroson, has announced Gear 3.0 for Mac and Gear for IBM OS/2. CD-R market growth is reflected in the cost of software which has lowered from more than $2,000 to these new packages for $199 in less than 18 months. During the time the prices dropped, the field of competing software developers has equally thinned. Once filled with "at least 15 companies competing to produce the best CD-R software, the field of CD-R developers has narrowed to four or five major players," says Jiren Parikh, general manager at Elektroson. Parikh says the use and acceptance of CD-R technology continues to grow in both corporate and government markets. Elektroson's Gear for IBM OS/2 is targeted at corporate computing environments which have a strong base of OS/2 users. "The use of CD-Rs to create long-term secure storage is rapidly growing and includes businesses such as law firms, hospitals, public utilities, and especially government agencies," continued Parikh. The new OS/2 version of Gear has enhanced caching and extended memory management to support sustained data transfer rates for 4x and 6x writing, including virtual image writing. This increased caching is critical to handle the demands created by faster recording speeds. Elektroson says the new version also introduces new icons to deliver additional ease-of-use, and advanced functions such as interleaving, sector level layout, sector sizing and mastering capabilities are now grouped under the option menu. As in the past, the new version also supports almost all CD-R drives, including the new Pioneer DRM-5004X 500-disk CD-R jukeboxes. Gear 3.0 for Mac "meets the demands" of Mac users and is also customized for Power Mac and compatible computers. Parikh said there is a very strong representation of Mac users developing multimedia titles and Elektroson is "committed to supporting their needs." According to Elektroson, the new upgrade is the lowest priced, full featured professional Mac OS (operating system) CD-R software for pre-press data storage, title development, and low-cost CD-R backup. The new Mac version supports hybrid mastering which means developers are now able to create cross-platform Mac CD-ROM titles for Windows. The version also upgrades the HFS formatter from single-session to multi-session support. The interface is upgraded with a "workbench" approach and AppleGuide support has been added. This version runs native on Power Macs and compatibles and is fully small computer systems interface (SCSI) Manager 4.3-compliant. Both the OS/2 and the new Mac versions are available for $199, or in a multimedia version for $499. Elektroson also announced Gear 3.2 for Silicon Graphics' IRIX operating system. It includes Rock Ridge extension and mapping support. The company says Gear 3.2 for Silicon Graphics is the first CD-R software for IRIX which includes Rock Ridge support. This means customers may create a Rock Ridge-compliant disk and have cross-platform support with ISO 9660 mounting on Macintosh and Windows machines. The product will ship this month. To indicate the "dramatic productivity" of CD-R technology, Parikh said customers using the new Pioneer 500-disk jukebox could theoretically archive 75 million pages of data in one night. That data would be stored on a media which may last a century and can be read on any standard CD-ROM drive. (Patrick McKenna/19950705/Press Contact: Rolland Going, The Terpin Group, tel 310-821-6100/ELEKTROSON950706/PHOTO) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 07/06/95 IBM IBM Intros Parallel Processing For SAP Financial Apps (NEWS)(IBM)(BOS)(00008) IBM Intros Parallel Processing For SAP Financial Apps 07/06/95 ARMONK, NEW YORK, U.S.A., 1995 JUL 6 (NB) -- With the newly announced addition of parallel processing mode to SAP's R/3 financial software, IBM is letting customers migrate applications to a "highly scalable, redundant and robust" Unix-based environment similar to the mainframe world, IBM officials contended, in a conference call with Newsbytes. SAP's R/3 software has previously operated in conventional, single-processor mode in uniprocessor and symmetrical multiprocessor (SMP) implementations on IBM's RS/6000 servers, as well as on the high-end SP2, said Barbara Whited, IBM's RS/6000 alliance manager for SAP. IBM is now adding parallel processing by integrating Oracle's parallel database, Oracle7 Parallel Server, into release 2.2 of the R/3 software, reported Rod Cowan, manager of SAP parallel projects. This initial parallel support is slated for availability in September. IBM also plans a future implementation, to be based on AIX 4.1, in which Oracle7 Parallel Server will be integrated into release 3.0 of R/3, according to Cowan. Availability of the parallel processing support is expected to coincide with the general availability of release 3.0. The parallel processing implementations of R/3 will permit users to support thousands of simultaneous users on midrange RS/6000 SMP servers, and even greater numbers of concurrent users on the SP2, according to the IBM execs. Asserted Chris Walter, director of commercial systems marketing: "Many customers now want to grow larger than they could before with Unix SMPs. This gives them a growth path they do not have with any other vendor." The new parallel processing mode for R/3 will also provide "sub-second response times," maintained Cowan, referencing newly released results of benchmark tests from IBM and SAP. Conducted in IBM's labs in Austin, Texas and SAP's labs in Walldorf, Germany, the benchmarks showed response times of 0.6 seconds and 0.9 seconds, respectively, for two-way and four-way processing on a Model J30 SMP database server based on the PowerPC 601 microprocessor, running R/3 in parallel mode. Response time for eight-way processing on the same system was 1.0 seconds, according to Cowan. In addition, over the past few months, IBM has released add-on options for SAP's R/3 that include the IBM Distributed Storage Manager, NetView Systems Management, and a new print services capability, Whited pointed out. The Distributed Storage Manager supplies "tremendous storage for your backup R/3 databases," according to Whited. "We also have high availability cluster mode processing in the RS/6000, SMP and SP2 environments, to provide customers with a `very high availability' environment," the alliance manager remarked. "These things are very important to customers who are migrating from SAP's R/2 financial software for mainframes. They're looking for the same kind of robust systems management and network management they've been getting in the mainframe environment," she added. Whited pointed to future enhancements to IBM's PowerPC processing chips as another part of the SMP "growth path" for users. "Just as customers are getting the ability to grow from two-way, to four-way, to eight-way processing, we will also be coming out with more powerful processors beyond the (upcoming) 604 and 620," the IBM exec told Newsbytes. (Jacqueline Emigh/19950705/Reader Contact: IBM 914-765-1900; Press Contact: Marlena Villafane or Rob Cronin, Technology Solutions for IBM, 212-696-2000) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 07/06/95 ONLINE SafeSurf Writes "Declaration Of An Independent Internet" (NEWS)(ONLINE)(TYO)(00009) SafeSurf Writes "Declaration Of An Independent Internet" 07/06/95 VAN NUYS, CALIFORNIA, USA, 1995 JULY 6 (NB) -- SafeSurf, the parent's online organization that last week launched a plan to code Internet sites on their content, took the opportunity of US Independence Day to write its own declaration of Independence for the Internet. The document sets forth that "all information is created equal, that information is endowed by its creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these is the right to be distributed via the Internet without governmental censorship." It goes on to say that "whenever any legislation becomes destructive of these ends, it is the duty of the members of the Internet to oppose it, and to institute self-regulation with parental control." Self regulation and parental control is exactly what SafeSurf put forward with its Internet rating system that Newsbytes reported on last week. The system involves voluntarily placing tags inside World Wide Web pages that indicate the content of the pages and whether it is safe for children to view. SafeSurf envisages that special software packages will allow access to any sites that are tagged as child safe and deny access to any that are either coded as adult-orientated or uncoded and not part of the system. The declaration continues that when attempts are made at censorship it "is the right of the members of the Internet, it is their duty, to oppose such legislation, and to promote self-regulation with parental control." It had been signed by 18 "members of the Internet community" when it was published on July 4. They included John Hart, Founder of Americans for Honesty in Government and a direct descendent John Hart of New Jersey who signed the original Declaration of Independence in 1776. Commenting on the signing of the declaration, Wendy Simpson, president of SafeSurf said, "By signing this document today, we mark the beginning of a self regulatory Internet, we wish to proclaim to the world that we can solve this problem, without passing a single law." Since the SafeSurf proposal was published there has been a strong response said Raymond Soular, chairman of SafeSurf, in an interview with Newsbytes, "We are receiving electronic-mail from all across the world voicing support for the SafeSurf Rating System, Internet sites have begun to code themselves. Four important software companies -- Solid Oak Software, SurfWatch, CompuServe, and Spyglass -- are actively studying the implementation of filters using our rating system." The declaration, and more details on the SafeSurf rating system, can be viewed on the World Wide Web at SafeSurf's site: http://www.safesurf.com/wave/ . (Martyn Williams/19950706/Press, reader contact : Ray Soular, SafeSurf, 818-902-9390, Internet e-mail safesurf@aol.com ) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 07/06/95 GOVT Industry Group Complains Over Japanese Software Plans (NEWS)(GOVT)(TYO)(00010) Industry Group Complains Over Japanese Software Plans 07/06/95 TOKYO, JAPAN, 1995 JUL 6 (NB) -- A group of American software manufacturers has sent a letter of complaint to US Trade Representative Mickey Kantor over plans by a Japanese government agency to enforce strict quality standards on companies selling software. The letter urges trade action against a "nascent Japanese barrier to foreign software." The US group includes amongst its 21 signatories, Louis Gerstner Jr, chairman and chief executive officer (CEO) of IBM; Lewis Platt, chairman and CEO of Hewlett Packard; and Gary Tooker, vice-chairman and CEO of Motorola. It also includes several prominent industry organizations, including the American Electronics Association, the Business Software Alliance, the Electronic Industries Association, the Information Technology Industry Council, the Software Publishers Association, and the Telecommunications Industry Association. What is at stake, they say, is a growing trade in software from the US to Japan. In 1994, US companies sold $2.7 billion worth of software to Japan, an increase of 11% on the previous year. The Japanese Accreditation Board for Quality Standards (JAB), a quality standards board affiliated with the Ministry of International Trade and Industry, is proposing, under the Software Quality System Registration scheme, that any company seeking to sell products that contain software may has to obtain ISO-9000 accreditation of its internal quality system. The Geneva-based International Standards Organization (ISO) created the industry wide ISO-9000 standard in 1987 as a means of measuring and assessing quality at all stages of business and manufacturing within a company. The ISO standard is industry unspecific applying to any company or organization both public and private. A special subset of the standard was created for computer software companies whose development and production processes are very different to those of normal industries. The subset standard is ISO-9000-3. The JAB proposal includes a very wide definition of software taking in not only computer software sold in stores but software embedded in microprocessors. The JAB definition is, the US group said, "unique in the world." Speaking to Newsbytes, Ken Richardson, vice president of public affairs at IBM Asia Pacific in Tokyo, explained IBM's understanding of the definition. "It covers operating systems, manufacturing applications, banking systems, shrink-wrapped products, games software and even software in cars," he said. The US group says that when software in televisions, microwave ovens, aircraft and other such devices are taken into account, over $70 billion in trade is covered. To gain accreditation, companies must seek an independent audit of its quality control standards at all stages in a products life from development though assembly, manufacture, and distribution. "To date, only Japanese organizations have been accepted to approve conformity to JAB's software quality system," the US group says, a further source of complaint. In addition to the initial audit, companies are also required to undergo sixth monthly checks. Under the new proposals, the letter to Kantor says, companies will face greatly increased cost in developing software and a longer time-to-market for new products. "IBM has opposed sector-specific ISO-9000 regulations systems regardless of which country they are being introduced in," said Richardson. "In 1994 we opposed a similar thing in the US, so it's not just a Japanese thing." He repeated the main complaint of the US group complaining to Kantor by saying, "What is being proposed goes beyond internationally accepted processes to be used in applying ISO-9000 approval." (Martyn Williams/19950706/Press contact : John Stern, American Electronics Association Japan Office, tel +81-3-3237-7195, fax +81-3-3237-1237) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 07/06/95 TELECOM Indonesian Satellite Telephone Contracts Awarded (NEWS)(TELECOM)(TYO)(00011) Indonesian Satellite Telephone Contracts Awarded 07/06/95 JAKATA, INDONESIA, 1995 JUL 6 (NB) -- An American and Swedish company have come away as winners of two contracts associated with the establishment of a new mobile satellite telephone system for Northern Asia. Lockheed Martin Marietta and Ericsson were both awarded contracts by PT Asia Cellular Satellite System (ACeS) of Jakata, the company operating the new service. The new satellite system will make use of two geostationary satellites positioned above Asia to provide coverage across all of Indonesia and a large area of the continent from India and Bangladesh in the west to the Philippines in the east. The northern-most reach of the service will be to South Korea and the southern part of Japan with the service usable as far south as Indonesia and Papua New Guinea. The contract placed with the Lockheed Martin Marietta is for two satellites equipped with 12 meter L-band antennas. ACeS also holds an option on an additional two satellites that operate in the S-band. Stockholm-based Ericsson AB has been selected to provide the cellular handsets needed. The order, worth SKr1.6 billion ($225 million), is for the development and supply of satellite and terrestrial telephones. Subscribers will be able to make mobile-to-mobile and mobile-to-fixed- telephone calls when the service becomes operational some time in mid-1998. Connection onto the public telephone network will be via three ground stations that will receive signals from the satellites. They will be built in Indonesia, Thailand, and the Philippines. The ACeS system differs from other satellite telephone services being planned because it makes use of satellites in a geostationary orbit 52,000 kilometers (km) from earth. In contrast, the planned global satellite telephone systems use a network of up to 56 low earth orbiting satellites at distances between 1,000 km to 15,000 km. ACeS shareholders include PT Pasifik Satelit Nusantara, an Indonesia satellite communications company, Philippines Long Distance Telephone Co and Thailand's Jasmine International. In a separate announcement this week Pasifik Satelit Nusantara and state satellite firm Satelindo placed a contract with Lockheed Martin Marietta to launch the Palapa-C satellite aboard an Atlas rocket in January 1996. (Martyn Williams/19950706) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 07/06/95 TRENDS China - Computer Purchase Survey (NEWS)(TRENDS)(PEK)(00012) China - Computer Purchase Survey 07/06/95 BEIJING, CHINA, 1995 JUL 6 (NB) -- A government survey shows that about 95 percent of businesses and 53 percent of families plan to buy computers in the next three years. The survey was conducted jointly by the Information Center of the Ministry of Electronics Industry and PC World (China). The results were based on 15,731 answered questionnaires. The questionnaires were distributed to "work units" including government offices industrial and commercial enterprises, research institutes, primary and middle schools, universities and colleges, military units, and "sample households." Geographically, 30 provinces all over the country were covered. About 85 surveyed work units have PCs and 93 percent of them use PCs every day. Nearly 53 percent of the 8,210 families surveyed over the country said that they plan to buy computers over the next three years for the purpose of work, their children's education, or management of household records. Most respondents claimed that they would spend between RMB3,000 (US$361) and 7,000 (US$843) for a computer. (Chih-Ho Yu & Ning Huang/19950624/Reader Contact: Information Center of Ministry of Electronics Industry, tel +86-10 821-2233 ext 3456; PC World China, tel +86-10 825-9401) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 07/06/95 NETWORK Cheyenne Updates Arcserve For NT, Adds Agents (NEWS)(NETWORK)(BOS)(00013) Cheyenne Updates Arcserve For NT, Adds Agents 07/06/95 ROSLYN HEIGHTS, NEW YORK, U.S.A., 1995 JUL 6 (NB) -- Central administration, remote management, integration with Cheyenne's Inoculan, and new agents for NetWare, Windows 95, and other operating environments are some of the key enhancements in Cheyenne's Arcserve for Windows NT 2.0 network backup software, said Cheyenne's Wayne Lam, at a meeting with Newsbytes. The new central administration capability in Arcserve for Windows NT lets the network administrator manage and monitor multiple data management operations at two or more sites across the network from a single NT workstation, Lam maintained, during a demo for Newsbytes at the recent PC Expo '95 in New York City. The administrator can launch operations such as backup processing or report generation by tiling a few windows, noted Lam, who is general manager of Cheyenne's Fremont (California) Communications Facility. The user can also receive simultaneous monitoring information from multiple sites on the same screen, without launching a separate application, he added. The progress of a job during its operation is depicted through an on-screen display of "real-time statistics," he explained. Lam also showed Newsbytes how the network manager can dial in to the network to perform remote backup as though the remote PC were a local workstation. The remote management capability takes advantage of Windows NT's Remote Access Service (RAS), according to the Cheyenne exec. The new update to Cheyenne's network backup software for Windows NT provides local as well as global views, he pointed out. As previously reported in Newsbytes, Arcserve for Windows NT is designed to provide "Windows NT-specific" functionality that includes parallel streaming, plus a 32-bit architecture with "true multitasking and multithreading." Through parallel streaming, Arcserve for NT is able to backup to several tape drives concurrently with only one operating system (OS) and applications, asserted Mary Fenton Lee, in a meeting with Newsbytes at Networks Expo '95 in Boston. Arcserve for Windows NT 1.0 is currently available. At the meeting in New York City, Lam told Newsbytes that Arcserve for Windows NT 2.0, an update slated to ship in the third quarter, will also add integration with the virus scanning engine in Cheyenne's new Inoculan for Windows NT. Via this capability, Arcserve will scan all selected files before network backup, and will let the administrator skip, delete, or rename an infected file, contended Lam. Inoculan for NT has begun shipping. When the new Windows NT editions of Arcserve and Inoculan are used together, any infected file on the network can be repaired when detected, according to Lam. Another enhancement in Arcserve for Windows 2.0, known as "intelligent alert notification," is aimed at letting the administrator choose between electronic-mail, fax, alphanumeric paging, network broadcast, Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP) management console, or trouble ticket (print queue) as the preferred method of alert notification. The Arcserve update will also provide a native client agent for NetWare that is designed to backup any NetWare 3.x or 4.x server across the network, according to Lam. In addition, optional client agent support will be provided for these clients: Windows 95, Windows 3.x, Windows for Workgroups 3.11, OS/2, Macintosh, and Unix. Cheyenne plans to supply database agent support for Microsoft SQL (structured query language) Server 6.0, SAP R/3, Oracle, Sybase, Informix, Lotus Notes, Microsoft Exchange, and Gupta, according to the Cheyenne general manager. These agents will be officially announced at various times throughout 1995. Also this year, Cheyenne expects to start supporting PowerPC, MIPS, and Digital Equipment Corp.'s Alpha in Arcserve for Windows NT. In related news, Cheyenne has announced that Microsoft will bundle Arcserve's Windows 95 agent software with each copy of Windows 95, a move intended to allow Arcserve, running on either a Windows NT or NetWare server, to recognize the Arcserve agent already residing on the system, and perform automatic backup on the resident data. Cheyenne has also unveiled its intentions to release Arcsolo for OS/2, a standalone and workgroup backup product, for users of IBM's new OS/2 Warp Connect (PowerPC Edition). The company is already shipping Arcserve for IBM AIX for the PowerPC. In addition, Cheyenne plans to integrate Arcsolo for Windows with Compaq's DeskPro, for a new "fault tolerant" network backup and restore operation, according to Lam. This new capability is designed to trigger Arcsolo to perform a final backup if one of Compaq's DeskPro PCs experiences a predictive hard drive failure. In another new pact, Cheyenne intends to bundle Imagine LAN's Config Pro network diagnostic tool with its products, starting with Cheyenne's Faxserve. The Config Pro utility is meant to let network administrators "instantly verify" that network configurations are correct. Beginning this month, existing users of Faxserve 3.0 will be able to download Config Pro from Cheyenne's bulletin board (516-484- 3445), File Transfer Protocol (FTP) server (199.29.133.2), and CompuServe forum (go Cheyenne). Cheyenne expects to announce a release schedule later this year for additional products that will contain Imagine LAN's technology. (Jacqueline Emigh/19950705/Reader Contact: Cheyenne Software, 516-484-5110; Press Contact: Denise S. Behringer or Meira Primes, Cheyenne Software, 516-484-5110; Robin Lutchansky, Daniel McKean, or Jessica Johannes, The Benjamin Group for Cheyenne, 408-559-6090) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 07/06/95 ONLINE Europe - Quarterdeck To Ship Internet Products (NEWS)(ONLINE)(LON)(00014) Europe - Quarterdeck To Ship Internet Products 07/06/95 CHELMSFORD, ESSEX, ENGLAND, 1995 JUL 6 (NB) -- Quarterdeck has signed Internet service provision deals with no less than 73 Internet service providers (SPs) in 15 countries across Europe plus South Africa. According to Nick Spencer, a spokesman for the company, the deals will allow Quarterdeck to integrate the service details of each country's Internet SPs into the upcoming Internet Suite, Mosaic and WebServer software the company plans to ship later this month. Spencer told Newsbytes that the deals are not "instant sign-up" kits with the Internet SPs, but aim to point the purchaser of the Quarterdeck Internet software in the right direction for Internet services. "You can use the package to identify and call up the Internet SPs for your country and region," Spencer explained, adding that the idea was to turn Quarterdeck's Internet software into a pan-European product, rather than leaving it down to the user to search out local Internet service providers. Quarterdeck is calling this service its "freedom of choice Internet solution." Spencer said that the deal effectively gives buyers of Quarterdeck's Internet applications access to more than 200 points- of-presence (PoPs) across Europe and South Africa. Plans call for Quarterdeck InternetSuite, Quarterdeck Mosaic and Quarterdeck WebServer to be offered in English, German, and French versions later this month, with other languages to follow. Additionally, Quarterdeck is now providing technical and marketing support in English, French, German, Italian, and Spanish for all of its products. Technical support is provided from its European headquarters located in Dublin, Ireland. Marketing and sales support is provided by area sales and marketing offices in: Paris, France; London, England; and Dusseldorf, Germany. "By offering our customers this three-pronged approach to the Internet -- covering access, language and technical/marketing support -- we believe Quarterdeck presents its European clients with the most complete Internet solution," commented Gaston Bastiaens, Quarterdeck's president and chief executive officer. "Freedom of choice is the key to creating easy access, and Quarterdeck is committed to leadership in the growing European market for Internet software." Quarterdeck InternetSuite is billed as offering complete and easy access to all parts of the Internet, and will include Quarterdeck Mosaic, a Web browser, and components for selecting and connecting to the users PoP of choice. Quarterdeck InternetSuite, meanwhile, will be available from distributors and computer retailers. Last, but not least, Quarterdeck Mosaic will be available bundled with Internet access and PCs from Internet service providers and PC OEMs (original equipment manufacturers). The countries covered by the Internet deal are: Austria (Eunet, MNO), Belgium (Eunet, Interpac), England (Demon, Eunet, U-Net and several others), Finland (Clinet Oy, Eunet), France (Calvacom, Eunet, Francenet, Internet Way, Isicom, Worldnet), Germany (Allconn, Knipp, POP, Spacenet and others), Ireland (Eunet), Italy (Fastnet, Inet, Inrete, ITnet and Telnet), Netherlands (Bart, Cistron and others), Norway (Eunet), South Africa (Aztec and Internet), Slovenia (Eunet), Spain (Eunet), Switzerland (Prolink), and Sweden (Algonet) Full details of the new Internet services and package can be downloaded from the Quarterdeck Internet World Wide Web site on http://www.qdeck.com as they are added. (Steve Gold/19950706/Press Contact: UK - Nick Spencer, tel +44-1344- 873445, fax +44-1344-873446; France - Philippe Carrhre, Vitamine, tel +33-1-4574-7500, fax +33-1-4574-9131; Germany - Renate Knufer, tel +49-8930-888-64, fax +49-8930-3478; Reader Contact: Quarterdeck UK, +44-1245-496699; Quarterdeck France, +33-1-4320-3846; Quarterdeck Germany, +49-211-597900; Internet e-mail info@qdeck.co.uk ) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 07/06/95 TRENDS Hayes Modems Top In Danish Speed Tests (NEWS)(TRENDS)(LON)(00015) Hayes Modems Top In Danish Speed Tests 07/06/95 FLEET, HAMPSHIRE, ENGLAND, 1995 JUL 6 (NB) -- The Danish Technology Institute (DTI), an independent test facility, recently carried out extensive tests to compare three leading brands of modems. According to Bill Pechey, technical manager for Hayes' Northern European region, the Hayes Optima 288 V.34/V.FC+Fax modem came out best in the speed trials, rating twice as fast as the two competitors. Pechey told Newsbytes that the tests included using Hayes' ESP (Enhanced Serial Port) cards and Smartcomm, Hayes' Windows comms package, and showed the Optima whizzing data along at 228,950 bits-per- second (bps) as compared to 114,475 and 114,767 bps, respectively, for modems A and B. Hayes is coy on naming the modems from manufacturers A and B, although Pechey described them as major manufacturers, both of whom distribute in Scandinavia. Hayes' UK operations, however, refused to name names in the tests. Henrik Hoyer, head of Hayes' operations for Scandinavia, when pressed hard for names by Newsbytes, explained that, in certain European countries it is illegal to carry out name brand tests such as this where the names of the products being tested -- by a manufacturer -- are made public. "As well as the legal issues, there are moral ones here, so we prefer to name the companies as manufacturer A and manufacturer B," he told Newsbytes. So, why did the Hayes modem do so well in the tests? According to the company, the Hayes' modem can achieve the 228,950 bps speeds by using its 8:1 data compression facility, thanks to the use of an extended data dictionary set when communicating with V.34/V.42bis between two Optima 288 modems. The purpose of the tests was to compare comms speeds by transferring different files from PC to PC using Jammer, a test program that contains industry standard files. An internal private branch exchange was used in the tests and, to achieve what Hayes claims as comparable results, each brand was tested to another of the same brand. (Steve Gold/19950706/Press Contact: Jane Rimmer, Hayes Europe, +44-1252-775577, Internet e-mail hayes@cix.compulink.co.uk; Reader Contact: Hayes Europe, tel +44-1252-775555, fax +44-1252-775511) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 07/06/95 BUSINESS UK - Elonex In OEM Windows NT Server, BackOffice Deal (NEWS)(BUSINESS)(LON)(00016) UK - Elonex In OEM Windows NT Server, BackOffice Deal 07/06/95 LONDON, ENGLAND, 1995 JUL 6 (NB) -- Elonex has signed what it claims is the first OEM (original equipment manufacturer) deal with Microsoft for Windows NT Server and components from the BackOffice suite. According to the direct-sales PC manufacturer, the deal makes a significant addition to its range of ready-to-run network and multi- user system options by adding a complete range of Windows NT client/server products. Demetre Cheras, Elonex's systems director explained that the agreement allows the company to meet the needs of corporations "which have standardized on Microsoft's client/server solution. Having Windows NT and BackOffice in the Elonex line-up will make us much more competitive in this marketplace. And the enhanced credibility we achieve with this agreement certainly won't do us any harm either." According to Cheras, the deal coincides "very neatly with the arrival of our new generation dual Pentium systems. We anticipate that our new MT-500/DP mini-tower product, pre-loaded with NT Server, will be a particularly attractive option for many of our customers." Cheras went on to say that, being able to supply every single BackOffice component as well as the Windows NT Server foundation is going to be of strategic importance to Elonex. "With components offering a 'mix and match' of messaging, network management, SQL (structured query language) DBMS (database management systems) and SNA (Systems Network Architecture) connectivity capabilities, BackOffice gives us a massively powerful weapon in our fight for the corporate desktop," he explained. (Steve Gold/19950706/Press Contact: David Bridson, tel +44-1869-338832, fax +44-1869-338843, Internet e-mail bandb@cix.compulink.co.uk ; Reader Contact: Elonex, tel +44-181-452-4444, fax +44-181-452-6422) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 07/06/95 ONLINE Free-Net Name Not Exactly Free (NEWS)(ONLINE)(TOR)(00017) Free-Net Name Not Exactly Free 07/06/95 SOLON, OHIO, U.S.A., 1995 JUL 6 (NB) -- Free-nets -- non-profit community computer networks -- have been springing up across North America at an increasing rate over the past couple of years. They are essentially independent and locally run efforts, but now not just anyone can use the name free-net. The National Public Telecomputing Network (NPTN) has registered the free-net name as a service mark in the United States and Canada, and is limiting its use to networks that become affiliates of NPTN. This has led a few non-profit local networks to drop the name. One example is the former Chebucto Free-Net in Halifax, Nova Scotia, now renamed the Chebucto Community Net. Elizabeth Reid, director of new systems development for NPTN, said the purpose of restricting the name's use is to prevent anyone taking advantage of the name free-net by using it on systems that do not comply with the spirit of the non-profit community networks. NPTN registered for the service mark about five years ago and just recently began enforcing it, Reid said. Peter Harter, executive director of NPTN, said affiliates are asked to pay a fee to the organization, and acknowledged that this has been a sticking point for some would-be free-nets. However, Harter said NPTN accepts payment in kind, in the form of services such as content that can be distributed to other free- nets, in lieu of cash fees from many of its affiliates. Relatively few free-nets pay actual cash fees to NPTN, Harter maintained, noting that as non-profit organizations the networks rarely have much money to spare. Other than the affiliate fee, Harter said, the only real requirement of NPTN affiliates using the free-net name is that they do nothing that would violate non-profit status according to the rules that apply in the United States. NPTN provides various services to free-nets, including technical and organizational support. It describes itself as being somewhat like the Public Broadcasting System or National Public Radio. (Grant Buckler/19950706/Press Contact: Elizabeth Reid, National Public Telecomputing Network, 216-498-4050, Internet e-mail exr@nptn.org; Peter Harter, National Public Telecomputing Network, 216-498-4050; Public Contact: National Public Telecomputing Network, 216-498-4050) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 07/06/95 BUSINESS Pagenet Completes Another Acquisition (NEWS)(BUSINESS)(DEN)(00018) Pagenet Completes Another Acquisition 07/06/95 DALLAS, TEXAS, U.S.A., 1995 JUL 6 (NB) -- Paging Network Inc. (NASDAQ: PAGE) has completed the purchase of the assets of SNET Paging Inc., including the company's transmission network and the operating assets of its paging subsidiary. Financial terms of the agreement were not disclosed. SNET Paging and subsidiary TNI Associates Inc. provide local and regional paging services to about 115,000 subscribers and serves another 70,000 users in New Jersey and metropolitan New York. SNET serves an additional 45,000 subscribers in Connecticut and parts of Massachusetts and New York under the name SNET Page 2000. SNET Paging will continue to operate as a separate entity and will resell PageNet's paging services, and billing and customer services functions will continue unchanged, said the company. This isn't the first acquisition for Pagenet. In January it completed the acquisition of Comtech Inc., a deal that gave it additional regional frequencies and 90,000 paging subscribers. Pagenet has also signed agreements to purchase two subsidiaries of PageAmerica Group Inc. in Florida and California, and Pasadena, California-based International Paging Corp. It has also said it will purchase Page Florida. Pagenet claims more than five million pagers in service in the US and operates a digital transmission network it said covers more than 90 percent of the US population. Services including local regional and nationwide paging, news and stock updates, voice mail, fax forwarding and wireless data transmission to palmtop computers. With its newly acquired narrowband PCS frequencies, the company said it will begin offering a variety of two-way voice and data messaging products, including VoiceNow, a wireless pocket answering machine. VoiceNow is a tiny wireless answering machine that will look like a pager, but instead of storing simple numbers and letters, it will store digitized human voices. PageNet said one of its' subsidiaries will oversee development and marketing of the product, including a required digital transmission system. VoiceNow will be manufactured by Motorola. The system will not be proprietary, and Motorola will be free to make it available to other paging service providers. Voice paging is not new but emerging technology could revive its popularity. "What's unique is that voice pagers haven't been popular with service providers, because they can put more numeric pagers on the network. With compression and frequency re-use, on this product, that's no longer a problem," said Motorola spokesman Sandra Humphrey. "Service providers will really like this. It will also be interesting to the consumer market." PageNet plans to offer VoiceNow in San Francisco, New York, and Dallas in late 1995, with a national rollout in the first half of 1996. Pagenet spokesperson Scott Baradell told Newsbytes that VoiceNow will be able to store, rewind, and replay messages received. The messages are stored in a digital chip. Baradell explained that VoiceNow will conserve spectrum space by polling the national network for the location of the destination pager, then sending the message to the transmitter closest to the pager, instead of all transmitters. Pagenet was one of the big winners in last year's auction of paging frequencies by the Federal Communications Commission. The company acquired three of the 10 nationwide narrow-band PCS (personal communication services) frequencies up for grabs in the multi-million dollar auction. Pagenet also markets Image APB, a method of transmitting a photo to all police cars in a specified area. The images are received in a palmtop or laptop computer in the cruiser through a PCMCIA (Personal Computer Memory Card International Association) card. The company is also the preferred paging carrier for PalmView, a Hewlett Packard product that allows a physician to view images of a patient's medical status on a palmtop or laptop computer. (Jim Mallory/19950706/Press contact: Jenny Haynes, Pagenet, 2140-985-6749; Public contact: Pagenet, 214-985-6749) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 07/06/95 BUSINESS California Business Incubator Firms Raise Venture Capital (NEWS)(BUSINESS)(LAX)(00019) California Business Incubator Firms Raise Venture Capital 07/06/95 SAN JOSE, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1995 JUL 6 (NB) -- The Software Business Cluster (SBC), a California business incubator for software developers, has announced that two of its resident businesses have recently raised venture capital. Two tenant businesses have recently received a combined $5 million in venture funding: $4 million went to Calico Technology, and $1 million to a firm providing product configuration software for small manufacturers. Business incubators are usually a partnership of large mainstream corporations, local government agencies, and professional managers . Incubators are formed to provide a "safe environment" for start-up companies with the hope to create successful businesses. By locating in the Software Business Cluster in downtown San Jose, emerging software companies take advantage of low cost services. "Our presence in the cluster gives our company the flexibility to grow, provides access and exposure to valuable resources, helps us to reduce our time-to-market, and provides the instant availability of needed expertise -- ingredients any company needs to succeed," says Bill Paseman, president of Calico Technology and recent recipient of $4 million in funding. The San Jose Software Business Cluster was started with the help of the City of San Jose Redevelopment Agency. "We do so because we understand the tremendous potential this model has as an economic development tool that benefits entrepreneurs while building a strong economic base," says John Lusardi, the Redevelopment Agency's representative on the Cluster Advisory Board. Among other things, the City of San Jose Redevelopment Agency provides free rent for sixteen thousand square feet of prime downtown office space. Fifteen companies are currently part of the Software Business Cluster located in downtown San Jose. Barbara Harley, project manager for SBC told Newsbytes, "As a business incubator we focus on software developers. We provide space in downtown San Jose at below market rates for software start-ups. We provide mentoring, support services, introductions to financing possibilities, and general coaching." She added, "The companies in our cluster are involved in CD-ROM catalogs, Internet and World Wide Web site development, tools for multimedia product development, automated data entry, multimedia games, simulation technology, electronic commerce, and other software technologies." Harley continued: "The Redevelopment Agency is a participant as a part of the City of San Jose's strategic plan to develop software companies in the downtown area. Key corporate sponsors that make significant contributions include Arthur Anderson Company, Compton's NewMedia, local law firm Gray Cary Ware & Freidenrich, and PG&E." The entire project is managed by the non-profit California Business Incubation Network. Operating costs for the project come from the rent paid by the start-up companies, and fees paid by all the participants. The Software Business Cluster receives the space free, but charges rent from the start-ups to cover costs. The cluster is only 60 percent filled, with still room for more start-up companies. Ross Hunt, a SBC director says, "What we have to offer is unique and has vast appeal to companies with a bright future. By consistently attracting qualified candidates, we will continue to capture the interest of serious investors here at the Software Business Cluster." (Richard Bowers/19950706/Press Contact: Ross Hunt, Software Business Cluster, 408-297-2987) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 07/06/95 GENERAL Adobe Ships Color Central Upgrade (NEWS)(GENERAL)(DEN)(00020) Adobe Ships Color Central Upgrade 07/06/95 SEATTLE, WASHINGTON, U.S.A., 1995 JUL 6 (NB) -- Adobe Systems Inc. (NASDAQ: ADBE) said it is shipping Color Central version 2.5, an upgrade to the company's open prepress interface print and image server software for the graphic arts market. Registered users of Color Central version 2.2 will get the upgrade at no cost. The company said the release improves job tracking and management to help high-volume prepress professionals simplify server administration. Color Central is available for the Macintosh, Power Macintosh and Windows NT platforms. Adobe said Macintosh users will benefit from enhanced AppleScript support, improved font management and an updated user interface, while Windows NT users will gain higher server capacity with the ability to manage more printers through an increased number of queues. Adobe said the improved font management yields quicker print times. Once a job is sent to a print queue, Color Central 2.5 reviews the file's font requirements automatically and includes missing fonts from the server's hard disk as needed. Adobe said that lets PageMaker 5.0 users print files more quickly by turning off the "Include Downloadable Fonts" print option. The fonts are then included by the server instead of moving over the network. The improved AppleScript support lets Macintosh users customize Color Central to fit their production workflows. Included scripts handle common server tasks such as file management, the downloading of Adobe Postscript language files, and the generation of low resolution images. Adobe said the improved user interface provides job tracking and administration. The job log can be sorted by any category such as user name, job name, time, page count, queue or image processing time. Windows NT users now have the ability to manage up to 22 printers through 56 queues with hot folders that will automatically add Postscript language files to a queue. If a network error occurs, Color Central will automatically resend the job, and a Sampler option guarantees compatibility with the Adobe TrapWise software. On both Mac and Windows NT platforms error files can be automatically deleted. Color Central 2.5 is compliant with the Adobe Open Aware integration specification. It generates low-resolution "for placement only" files from the high resolution images in common prepress image formats. The low-resolution files are about five percent the size of the original, but appear exactly like the original when viewed on the monitor. When the document is sent to an output device the software automatically replaces the low-resolution file with its higher resolution counterpart. Power Mac users need a Power Macintosh or an Apple Workgroup Server with 16 megabytes (MB) of memory and one gigabyte (GB) of space on the hard drive. For 68000-series machines you need at least a 68030 microprocessor, 4MB of memory and a 120MB hard drive. Adobe recommends a Mac Quadra or Apple Workgroup Server with 16MB of memory and a 1GB hard drive. Windows NT users need a single or multi-processor Pentium or DEC Alpha-based system, 64MB of memory, an EISA (Extended Industry Standard Architecture) or PCI (Peripheral Component Interface) bus, one or more Ethernet or fast Ethernet adapters, and a 2GB hard drive or drive array. The company said the minimum configuration to use the Windows NT version of Color Central is a 486-based PC running at 25 megahertz, 32MB of memory, an Ethernet adapter and a 1GB hard disk. Color Central 2.5 for the Mac and Power Mac has a suggested retail price of $3,995. Users of version 2.2 will automatically get the free upgrade. Users of earlier versions can upgrade for $195. The Windows NT version sells for $4,995. Users of version 2.2 for Windows NT will also receive the free upgrade. (Jim Mallory/19950706/Press contact: Barbara Burke, Adobe, 206-938-8827; Public contact: Adobe, 800-685-6736) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 07/06/95 BUSINESS ****Symantec To Take Over Delrina (NEWS)(BUSINESS)(TOR)(00021) ****Symantec To Take Over Delrina 07/06/95 TORONTO, ONTARIO, CANADA, 1995 JUL 6 (NB) -- Another Canadian software success is to be gobbled up by an American company. Delrina Corp. (TSE:DC;NASDAQ:DENAF) has announced a US$415 million merger agreement with Symantec Corp. (NASDAQ:SYMC) of Cupertino, California, that will make the Toronto forms and fax software maker into a unit of Symantec. Mark Skapinker, president of Delrina, told Newsbytes the deal will give Delrina access to Symantec's infrastructure and recognizes a coming shakeout in the software industry that he expects will leave about 10 large companies dominating the business. "We wanted to make sure that we were in the core business and not in the parts business," he said. Delrina sells personal computer fax and communications software and forms processing packages. It also controls CRS Online, one of Canada's largest electronic bulletin board systems. The deal is the latest in a long-standing pattern that sees Canadian software companies reach a certain level of success and then be acquired by American firms. Recent examples have been Montreal-based Softimage Inc., taken over by Microsoft in 1994, and Alias Research Inc. of Toronto, acquired earlier this year by Silicon Graphics Inc. of Mountain View, California. Skapinker said Delrina's software development and support operations will remain in Toronto, but finance and administrative functions will be consolidated into Symantec's California headquarters, resulting in the loss of about 150 jobs at Delrina. Delrina currently employs some 770 people worldwide, he said. Skapinker, along with Chairman and Chief Executive Dennis Bennie and Chief Technology Officer Bert Amato, will remain in Toronto. All three will get senior management jobs with Symantec; Skapinker said their roles will remain essentially the same though their titles will change. Delrina said its fourth co- founder, Lou Ryan, will play an important role in integrating Delrina's worldwide sales organization with Symantec. Skapinker said Symantec's PC Anywhere group will become part of Delrina, bringing all the communications software operations together. He said he expects the Delrina name to survive in the same way as Symantec has continued using the Peter Norton name since acquiring Peter Norton Computing about four years ago. Skapinker also said that despite the immediate job losses, he expects the merger to result in long-term growth for Delrina. Again pointing to Peter Norton Computing, he noted that the company had about 70 employees when Symantec acquired it, and the Peter Norton group of Symantec now employs more than 300 people. (Grant Buckler/19950706/Press Contact: Josef Zankowicz, Delrina, 416-441-4658; Michael Sweeny, Symantec, 408-446-7142) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 07/06/95 ONLINE Elephants, Donkeys & Politics On The Web (NEWS)(ONLINE)(WAS)(00022) Elephants, Donkeys & Politics On The Web 07/06/95 WASHINGTON, D.C., U.S.A., 1995 JUL 6 (NB) -- Both Republicans and Democrats now have a presence on the World Wide Web. Within the past two weeks, GOP Online, the Internet headquarters for Republican party information, and the Democratic Nation Committee's Web site, have opened for business. Fittingly, the GOP Web site (http://www.gop.org ) is a private-sector venture, put together by Valley Tech Corp. of McAllen, Texas, while the DNC site (http://www.democrats.org ) is an official endeavor of the political party. GOP Online, featuring prominent use of the elephant, the animal symbol of the party, contains a good set of links to conservative organizations and publications, as well as links to the home pages of the GOP candidates who are running for the party's 1996 presidential nomination to take on President Bill Clinton. The section of GOP Online devoted to the 1996 race opens with a graphic of a bumper sticker that reads: "Hope Isn't In Arkansas. It's in 1996." GOP Online is a product of Houston heart surgeon and entrepreneur Bob Feldtman, who used his Valley Tech Corp. to become the only Internet provider on the Mexican border. Feldtman told Newsbytes that he saw the GOP Online "as a business opportunity and we struck while the iron is hot." Feldtman said there are discussions with the Republican National Committee about making GOP Online an official party site. It is already the official online home of the Texas GOP. Feldtman noted that while he is a Republican, his partner in the business is a Democrat. The Democrats' home page also has good links to party and liberal organizations, as well as a connection to the White House that carries the latest Clinton administration press releases. The Democrats have also been spoofing conservative talk show host Rush Limbaugh on their site. Limbaugh was one of the first to sign on to read the new page, and received a welcome letter that took a poke at him for not knowing how to eat pizza correctly, a reference to Pizza Hut television ads Limbaugh appears in. The letter also refers to a newt as a slimy reptile. Limbaugh took umbrage at the badinage, fulminating that a newt is a salamander. Salamanders are amphibians, not reptiles. He also tossed off the observation that the DNC site is "not a crossword puzzle." So the DNC quickly put together a small online crossword puzzle in Limbaugh's honor, in which most of the clues are pizza toppings. The puzzle, note the Dems, was "constructed with no dittos." The DNC site also uses "real audio" so that those accessing the site play audio files instantly, while connected, rather than downloading the files. While the Republicans seem proud of their elephants, no donkeys appear on the DNC Web site. (Kennedy Maize/19950706) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 07/06/95 TELECOM Wisconsin Opens InterLATA Service (NEWS)(TELECOM)(WAS)(00023) Wisconsin Opens InterLATA Service 07/06/95 MADISON, WISCONSIN, U.S.A., 1995 JUL 6 (NB) -- The Wisconsin Public Service Commission has opened the door to local long-distance telephone competition in the state. The commission last week said Ameritech must open intraLATA service, which is the service for long-distance calls within the local area code, to competition from the long-distance providers. IntraLATA is quite lucrative for most local phone companies. The commission's decision stemmed from a complaint against Ameritech filed earlier this year by AT&T, Sprint, MCI, Schneider Communications, and Norlight. The companies said Ameritech turned down their requests to offer competing intraLATA service. Under the PSC ruling, customers will be able to choose an intraLATA provider, just as they can now choose a long-distance carrier. Then, when the customer dials the 1 and then the 10-digit number, the call will be handled by the selected carrier. Ameritech argued before the commission that the antitrust restrictions it faces at the federal level put the local phone company at a competitive disadvantage in the intraLATA toll market. The commission rejected Ameritech's argument, noting that the duty of the regulators is to protect competition, not individual competitors. "I am pleased we have acted to sweep away one more obstacle preventing Wisconsin consumers from enjoying the benefits of the information superhighway," said PSC Chairman Cheryl Parrino. "Opening up the intraLATA market to equal access will give customers choices, promote competition, and promote economic development by opening up markets. In order to open the service, Ameritech must upgrade its switching. Under the order, Ameritech must complete switching upgrades to allow for equal access in to percent of its exchanges by January 1, 1996, 50 percent by April 1, 1996, and the remainder by July 1, 1996. For exchanges that require more than software upgrades, the company will have until September 1, 1996. The PSC said the upgrades will cost Ameritech about $3.7 million, which will be recovered in rates from all toll users. Once they select a carrier, customers will be allow to change carriers once within the first 12 months for free, with the cost included in the $3.7 million. (Kennedy Maize/19950706/Press Contact: Jeff Butson, 608-267-0912) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 07/06/95 PC AT&T Upgrades Globalyst 130 Notebook (NEWS)(PC)(TOR)(00024) AT&T Upgrades Globalyst 130 Notebook 07/06/95 DAYTON, OHIO, U.S.A., 1995 JUL 6 (NB) -- AT&T (NYSE:T) Global Information Solutions has beefed up its Globalyst 130 notebook computer. The changes include substituting a 75 megahertz (MHz) 486DX4 processor for the 50MHz processor used in the previous 130 model. The Globalyst 130 also comes with a 256-color, 10.4-inch passive- matrix liquid crystal display, local-bus video, and a PC Card slot that can handle Type I, II, or III cads. Flash BIOS support allows for quick upgrades, AT&T said. Software sold with the Globalyst 130 includes AT&T's Vistium Share, which lets mobile users share documents with distant colleagues, AT&T Mail AccessPlus, and the company's MessageFlash and MailFlash software, which let users send messages to and from alphanumeric pagers. The package also includes starter kits for the America Online, CompuServe, Prodigy, and GEnie online information services, AT&T said. The five-pound (with battery) unit has a built-in palm rest and central trackball. The basic configuration has four megabytes (MB) of memory and a 340MB hard disk drive. The average retail price for this version will be about $2,000, AT&T spokesman Jim Lowell said. Adding another 4MB of memory will cost about $225, he added. The Globalyst 130 has room for as much as 20MB of memory on user-installable cards, according to the company. The new Globalyst 130 is available now in the United States through AT&T phone centers and other retailers. It is also available right away in Japan, Lowell told Newsbytes, and it will be on the market in the rest of the Far East, Europe, and Latin America by mid-August. (Grant Buckler/19950706/Press Contact: Jim Lowell, AT&T GIS, 513-445-4984; Jennifer Zander, AT&T GIS, 212-213-7008; Public Contact: AT&T GIS, 800-447-1124) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 07/06/95 GENERAL Ingram Micro To Provide Network Training (NEWS)(GENERAL)(LAX)(00025) Ingram Micro To Provide Network Training 07/06/95 PHOENIX, ARIZONA, U.S.A., 1995 JUL 6 (NB) -- Ingram Micro Inc., a distributor of computer and software products, has formed an educational partnership to provide training and certification for Novell and Microsoft networks. Apollo Group Inc.(NASDAQ: APOL) and its wholly owned subsidiary, as well as The University of Phoenix, will provide space and support for the technical training in four of its California campuses. Ingram Micro instructors offer training programs that includes Certified Novell Administrator (CNA), Certified Novell Engineer (CNE), Microsoft Certified Product Specialist (MCPS), Microsoft Certified Systems Engineer (MSCE) and Microsoft Certified Software Developer (MSCD). Upon completion of certification training, academic credit may be given toward degree programs at the University of Phoenix. University of Phoenix computer labs, equipped and maintained by Ingram Micro, will serve as training sites. Each classroom provides computer hardware and software to train students for installing, repairing, and troubleshooting equipment. James Hoggatt, chief financial officer of Apollo Group, told Newsbytes, "Most of the University of Phoenix classes are held at night. This partnership allows us to utilize our classrooms during the day. Micro Age will supply the equipment that we could also use for our night classes. Micro Age, which is going to offer training anyway, benefits by not having to invest in classrooms. This type of partnership will grow as major companies outsource their training programs." Tony Digiovanni, regional vice president, University of Phoenix California campuses, sees alliances such as this as the wave of the future. "Industry leaders and educators are undertaking joint ventures to fill highly specific needs in the workplace," he noted. "Everyone benefits. Students gain marketable skills, employers gain custom-trained workers, and schools gain mature, goal-oriented students who return throughout their careers to further their education and training." The University of Phoenix hopes to offer this certificate program in all sixty-one campuses, but for now it will be offered in only four California sites: two in Los Angeles, one in San Jose, and one in Sacramento. The University of Phoenix and the Institute for Professional Development, provides higher education programs for adults, and claims total enrollment exceeding 36,000 students. (Richard Bowers/19950706/Press Contact: James Hoggatt, Apollo Group, Inc., 602-966-5394) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 07/06/95 ONLINE ****AOL Interviews Haiti President Aristide (NEWS)(ONLINE)(SFO)(00026) ****AOL Interviews Haiti President Aristide 07/06/95 VIENNA, VIRGINIA, U.S.A., 1995 JUL 6 (NB) -- America Online (NASDAQ:AMER) held an online press conference with President Aristide of Haiti. Saying it was the first time a head of state has addressed a cyber-audience, AOL presented an hour-long interview and question-and-answer segment. Attended by Newsbytes and approximately 220 other AOL members, the event was developed and hosted by NetNoir. A relatively new area on AOL, NetNoir focuses on various aspects of Afro-centric culture from a global point of view. It is open to anyone interested in Afro- American, Afro-Caribbean, Afro-European, Afro-Latin, and continental African subjects. President Aristide spent a large portion of the interview responding to questions from Online Host, Charlayne Hunter-Gault, a national correspondent for the MacNeil/Lehrer News Hour. Introductory questions from Hunter-Gault concentrated on Haiti's election process and the interview overall was much like a standard television interview. President Aristide emphasized the progress the country has made since he was restored to office. At the same time, he clearly stated some of the difficulties which confront his country. From the economy, literacy (85% of the country is illiterate), employment, elections, democracy, tourism, international assistance, and the political climate. Aristide promptly answered in optimistic and hopeful terms. "Since we (his restored political faction) are back we have a Presidential commission for the public and private sector. We can see both sectors dealing with economic strategies and I can say it is the first time in my country that we have private sector and public sector working together in order to create jobs; to create political stability which is indispensable for an economy. We don't have the same kind of polarization of the past 200 years; where on one side, a tiny group of rich and the other a large group of poor fighting," said Aristide. In responding to questions about a successor to his office, Aristide said he would prefer not to comment. He said he would wait and let the people decide and adhere to their wishes as indicated through "fair and open" elections. Absent from the interview were questions about technology, about computers and Aristide's thoughts about the Internet and online experience. After a short question and answer session, Aristide closed the interview with an invitation to young people wanting to know more about Haiti and what they can do to help. "I am here in Port-au-Prince, it is very close to Florida. While in Florida you are closer to Haiti than to Washington. I would like to welcome you all," said Aristide. (Patrick McKenna/19950706/Press Contact: E. David Ellington, Esq, NetNoir, 415-536-6700) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 07/06/95 GENERAL Clariion's Model 150 Disk Array, Updated Software (NEWS)(GENERAL)(BOS)(00027) Clariion's Model 150 Disk Array, Updated Software 07/06/95 WESTBORO, MASSACHUSETTS, U.S.A., 1995 JUL 6 (NB) -- Clariion's newly unveiled Model 150 Disk Array for PC and Unix servers is meant to provide most of the features of the higher end Model 1100 and Model 2000, but at lower pricing, maintained Peter Gibbs, marketing director for Data General's Clariion Business Unit, in an interview with Newsbytes. Clariion's newly announced updates to GuardWare and Applications Transparent Failover (ATF) extend the two software products for "high availability" disk array storage from Sun servers to IBM's AIX, Gibbs told Newsbytes. Beyond the first edition of the Model 150, which is a deskside disk array, Clariion plans to release both a PCMCIA (Personal Computer Memory Card International Association) version and a rackmount version later this year, the marketing director revealed. Clariion is also looking into the possibility of developing software for PC servers that would perform equivalent functions to GuardWare and ATF, he added. Priced starting at $10,995, the new Model 150 Disk Array is targeted at the high-end PC server market, plus the low-end Unix server market, according to Gibbs. The Model 150 offers the same "basic storage technology" as the higher-end products, aside from two capabilities, Newsbytes was told. Unlike the 10-slot Model 1100 and the 20-slot Model 2000 "and its variants," the Model 150 provides seven slots, Gibbs explained. Also in contrast to the models 1100 and 2000, which are configurable with dual storage processors, the Model 150 is a single-storage processor product, "which, in a standalone configuration, supports a single SCSI (small computer system interface) attached to the target server environment." The new disk array, though, provides redundant disk, power and cooling subsystems to eliminate "single points of failure," according to Gibbs. All subsystems are hot swappable. The new disk array is also pre-configured with three two-megabyte (MB) disks in a RAID (redundant array of inexpensive disks) 5 stripe. RAID 0, 1, 3, 5, and 1/0 (input/output) are optionally available. Multiple RAID configurations can be supported concurrently. The system is configurable to up to 28 gigabytes (GB) of storage. The Model 150 will ship initially with read-ahead cache, using up to 32MB for sequential read operations, according to Gibbs. The upcoming PCMCIA version of the product will include write caching and battery back-up, he added. "So in the event of a power failure where there is not redundant power in the particular installation, the product will have the capability of a graceful shutdown, flushing the cache buffer to a drive. When the product is brought back online again, the data will be maintained in an integrity state," he predicted. The forthcoming capability will be "similar to what is available today in the 1100 and 2000 products with mirrored write cache," Newsbytes was told. All configurations of the Model 150 "ship in a state that is essentially plug-and-play," Gibbs told Newsbytes. Added the marketing manager: "The product also supports our Array Guide, which is a graphical user interface capability that allows users to re-bind or modify the RAID settings as they choose." For additional cost containment, two servers can share the same Model 150 Disk Array, according to Gibbs. The two servers, however, must be based on the same architecture, the Clariion exec said. Clariion's new Model 150 Disk Array supports Sun, IBM, Digital Alpha servers, as well as Intel-based PC servers. Clariion's GuardWare and ATF software was first offered only for Sun servers, but is now being made available for AIX, as well, noted Gibbs. On the Sun side, the new release of the software supports the Sun operating system (OS), along with Solaris. As previously reported in Newsbytes, GuardWare operates in standard configuration with a pair of servers, dual Ethernet networks for continuous server monitoring, two Ethernet interfaces per server, and a dual-ported redundant Clariion disk array. In the event of failure, the standby Ethernet connection will "impersonate" the IP (Internet Protocol) address of the failed server, permitting "transparent client access" to the alternate server, said John Barlow, product manager, in a meeting with Newsbytes at Unix Expo '94, where GuardWare was originally introduced. The software also creates two redundant GuardWare daemons on each server. The daemons are able to detect hardware or software failure, and to initiate user-specified recovery scripts, Barlow reported. GuardWare is also available in "2-1" and "3-1" configurations, with a backup server providing failover support for two or three primary servers, according to Gibbs. Gibbs also told Newsbytes that ATF allows automatic failover of the SCSI host channels and host bus adapters in a "high availability" environment. In addition, Clariion is exploring the prospect of providing software products for PC servers that provide similar functionality to GuardWare and ATF, said Gibbs. "There are some idiosyncrasies of Windows NT and Novell that make it difficult to implement what we call the `trespass failover' type of environment, which is enabled by Sun and Novell. For example, when you bring up an NT server, it automatically looks out over the network and seizes all the devices. But we are looking at some alternative capabilities that would deliver the same type of functionality to PC server environments," Gibbs explained. GuardWare is available now for the two Sun platforms, and is slated for release on AIX in September. In October, Claris expects to deliver the rackmount configuration of the Model 150, according to Gibbs. "Also in October, we hope to ship the PCMCIA version," he added. (Jacqueline Emigh/19950706/Reader Contact: Data General, 508-898- 5000; Press Contacts: Kathy Ficaro, Data General, 508-898-5698; Jim Dunlap, DG, 508-898-6546; Kendra R. Collins, Edelman Public Relations for DG, 212-704-8286; George W. Goldman, Edelman PR for DG, 212-704-4440) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 07/06/95 GENERAL Excalibur Technologies To Acquire ConQuest (NEWS)(GENERAL)(SFO)(00028) Excalibur Technologies To Acquire ConQuest 07/06/95 SAN DIEGO, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1995 JUL 6 (NB) -- Excalibur Technologies, a developer of multimedia retrieval software, has announced an agreement to merge with ConQuest Software, a developer of text management software. Excalibur remains as the surviving corporation and final approval by ConQuest shareholders is pending. Describing the background to the acquisition, Mike Kennedy, chief executive officer (CEO) at Excalibur, told Newsbytes, "We have been looking at the market for one-and-a-half years. We considered six or seven different companies and then narrowed that down to three. Our final choice of ConQuest is based on the company's technology, the markets it opens to us, and the synergy between the two companies." ConQuest, a privately held Maryland-based company, will receive approximately 1.4 million restricted shares of Excalibur common stock and 570,000 restricted stock options for ConQuest shareholders in exchange for ConQuest stock and options. 1994 gross revenues for ConQuest totaled approximately $1.8 million with expenses of $4.4 million. Kennedy is to become CEO of the combined companies and ConQuest President and CEO Edwin Addison is to become executive vice president. Addison will also take a place among the Excalibur board of directors. Continuing, Kennedy said the combined strengths and technologies of the two companies will produce a next-generation of sophisticated search and retrieval technologies to serve the online and Internet publishing concerns, document management needs, business and government intelligence, and other document-driven applications. "I see a very strong set of client/server tools for developers to create custom business applications which offer advanced retrieval and management of textural, image and text, and other complex multimedia documents," said Kennedy. Excalibur's list of clients include Ford, Boeing, IBM, Amgen, NYNEX, and various federal, state and local governments. Prior to the merger of the two companies, Excalibur had 91 employees with offices in the US, UK, and France. Conquest's products have been used for the development of Infonautics' Homework Helper on Prodigy and the federal government's Global Change-Assisted Search for Knowledge on the World Wide Web. Analysts expect the merger to produce the necessary tools for the next-generation of products using true intelligent agent technology. (Patrick McKenna/1995/Press Contact: Beth Johnson, Phase Two Strategies, 415-772-8419) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 07/06/95 NETWORK Novell Offers One-Day Netware 4.1 Training (NEWS)(NETWORK)(DEN)(00029) Novell Offers One-Day Netware 4.1 Training 07/06/95 OREM, UTAH, U.S.A., 1995 JUL 6 (NB) -- Novell Inc. (NASDAQ:NOVL) has announced a one-day training program to introduce network administrators and networking service providers to the installation, administration, and management of a Netware 4.1 network. Novell said the classes will be held at Novell Authorized Education Centers around the world. The cost of the one-day hands-on course, dubbed First Class, is $49. Novell shipped Netware 4.1 in December, 1994. The upgrade includes network directory services that allow network administrators to combine directories for network users, telephone, electronic-mail, and voice-mail into a common directory that can be updated and managed from a single point. The network directory can manage user access network services, resources and applications from a central point. Novell said that allows users to communicate with each other and find the information they need anytime, anywhere. A multi-protocol routine feature lets networks of different computers be connected and still share messaging, file and print capabilities and data in a secure environment. Novell recently announced a 20 percent discount to Netware users upgrading to version 4.1 of the network operating system software. The course is designed to encourage upgrades by providing a high-level understanding of the latest version of Netware. The company said the First Class courses will kick off on September 11, 1995, and could run through the end of October. They will be taught by Certified Novell Instructors and will emphasize hands-on learning. Since First Class is a special introductory course it will not count towards CNE (Certified Novell Engineer) or Certified Novell Administrator (CNA) certification or curriculum testing. The company said attendees do not have to be certified but should have experience with Netware 3 or Netware 2. (Jim Mallory/19950706/Press contact: Virginia Baker, Novell, 801-222-7736; Public contact: Novell, 800-883-2271 or 612-831-2429 for course registration and information) (SUMMARY)(GENERAL)(MSP)(00030) Newsbytes Daily Summary 07/06/95 MINNEAPOLIS, MINNESOTA, U.S.A., 1995 JUL 6 (NB) -- These are capsules of all today's news stories: ======================================================================== ------------| N E W S B Y T E S D A I L Y S U M M A R Y |---------- ------------| Thursday, July 6, 1995 |---------- ======================================================================== (c) Newsbytes News Network (Tm) Editor in Chief: Wendy Woods ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Newsbytes News Network is a computer and telecom industry news wire and digitized picture service. Our news stream includes more than 30 daily first-hand reported US and international news stories about computing and telecommunications. For more information, please e-mail to 'administrator@newsbytes.com' ------------------------------------------------------------------------ CATEGORY HEADLINES (*** indicates today's top stories) STORY # ======================================================================== BUSINESS UK - Elonex In OEM Windows NT Server, BackOffice Deal...... 16 BUSINESS Pagenet Completes Another Acquisition...................... 18 BUSINESS California Business Incubator Firms Raise Venture Capital.. 19 BUSINESS ****Symantec To Take Over Delrina......................... 21 EDUCATION UK College Gets Award For MBAs On Internet................. 01 GENERAL Unisys' Northern Asia OPUS Focus........................... 04 GENERAL Elektroson Offers CD-R Software For Mac & OS/2............. 07 GENERAL Adobe Ships Color Central Upgrade.......................... 20 GENERAL Ingram Micro To Provide Network Training................... 25 GENERAL Clariion's Model 150 Disk Array, Updated Software.......... 27 GENERAL Excalibur Technologies To Acquire ConQuest................. 28 GOVT Industry Group Complains Over Japanese Software Plans...... 10 IBM IBM Intros Parallel Processing For SAP Financial Apps...... 08 NETWORK Cheyenne Updates Arcserve For NT, Adds Agents.............. 13 NETWORK Novell Offers One-Day Netware 4.1 Training................. 29 ONLINE SafeSurf Writes "Declaration Of An Independent Internet.... 09 ONLINE Europe - Quarterdeck To Ship Internet Products............. 14 ONLINE Free-Net Name Not Exactly Free............................. 17 ONLINE Elephants, Donkeys & Politics On The Web................... 22 ONLINE ****AOL Interviews Haiti President Aristide............... 26 PC AT&T Upgrades Globalyst 130 Notebook....................... 24 TELECOM UK - Mercury Comms Offers DataMotion Service............... 02 TELECOM Ericsson In Chinese Paging Equipment Deal.................. 05 TELECOM Indonesian Satellite Telephone Contracts Awarded........... 11 TELECOM Wisconsin Opens InterLATA Service.......................... 23 TRENDS China - Computer Purchase Survey........................... 12 TRENDS Hayes Modems Top In Danish Speed Tests..................... 15 WINDOWS Phoenix Technologies Offers Telephony Suite Apps........... 03 WINDOWS Consultant Warns Of Windows 95 Viruses..................... 06 ======================================================================== These are the headlines and first paragraphs of each story, in order: 1 -> UK College Gets Award For MBAs On Internet -- The Southampton Institute, an educational institution that hit the headlines earlier this year when it became the first institution in Europe to offer MBAs across the Internet, has received an award from the KPMG/Daily Echo Business Awards. 2 -> UK - Mercury Comms Offers DataMotion Service -- Mercury Communications has taken the wraps off DataMotion, a portfolio of products and services that it is offering to business computer users to allow them to keep in touch while on the move. 3 -> Phoenix Technologies Offers Telephony Suite Apps -- Phoenix Technologies has unveiled the Telephony Suite, a range of Windows applications designed to drive a variety of fax/data modems, including those with voice and data mailbox/handling facilities. 4 -> Unisys' Northern Asia OPUS Focus -- Unisys is gearing up for strong sales of the Open Parallel Unisys Server (OPUS), after early customer responses revealed significant sales potential in Korea, Taiwan, and Hong Kong. 5 -> Ericsson In Chinese Paging Equipment Deal -- Beijing Asia Pacific First Star Communications Technology Co. Ltd. (BAPFS) , the company behind China's first nationwide paging system, has ordered equipment for the first phase of its project from telecoms giant Ericsson. 6 -> Consultant Warns Of Windows 95 Viruses -- The coming of Windows 95 could signal a new wave of computer viruses that are resistant to current anti-virus software, according to Hong Kong data security specialist Skynet Computer Consultants. 7 -> Elektroson Offers CD-R Software For Mac & OS/2 -- Well-known software developer for the CD-R (CD-Recording) industry, Elektroson, has announced Gear 3.0 for Mac and Gear for IBM OS/2. 8 -> IBM Intros Parallel Processing For SAP Financial Apps -- With the newly announced addition of parallel processing mode to SAP's R/3 financial software, IBM is letting customers migrate applications to a "highly scalable, redundant and robust" Unix-based environment similar to the mainframe world, IBM officials contended, in a conference call with Newsbytes. 9 -> SafeSurf Writes "Declaration Of An Independent Internet -- SafeSurf, the parent's online organization that last week launched a plan to code Internet sites on their content, took the opportunity of US Independence Day to write its own declaration of Independence for the Internet. 10 -> Industry Group Complains Over Japanese Software Plans -- A group of American software manufacturers has sent a letter of complaint to US Trade Representative Mickey Kantor over plans by a Japanese government agency to enforce strict quality standards on companies selling software. The letter urges trade action against a "nascent Japanese barrier to foreign software." 11 -> Indonesian Satellite Telephone Contracts Awarded -- An American and Swedish company have come away as winners of two contracts associated with the establishment of a new mobile satellite telephone system for Northern Asia. Lockheed Martin Marietta and Ericsson were both awarded contracts by PT Asia Cellular Satellite System (ACeS) of Jakata, the company operating the new service. 12 -> China - Computer Purchase Survey -- A government survey shows that about 95 percent of businesses and 53 percent of families plan to buy computers in the next three years. 13 -> Cheyenne Updates Arcserve For NT, Adds Agents -- Central administration, remote management, integration with Cheyenne's Inoculan, and new agents for NetWare, Windows 95, and other operating environments are some of the key enhancements in Cheyenne's Arcserve for Windows NT 2.0 network backup software, said Cheyenne's Wayne Lam, at a meeting with Newsbytes. 14 -> Europe - Quarterdeck To Ship Internet Products -- Quarterdeck has signed Internet service provision deals with no less than 73 Internet service providers (SPs) in 15 countries across Europe plus South Africa. According to Nick Spencer, a spokesman for the company, the deals will allow Quarterdeck to integrate the service details of each country's Internet SPs into the upcoming Internet Suite, Mosaic and WebServer software the company plans to ship later this month. 15 -> Hayes Modems Top In Danish Speed Tests -- The Danish Technology Institute (DTI), an independent test facility, recently carried out extensive tests to compare three leading brands of modems. According to Bill Pechey, technical manager for Hayes' Northern European region, the Hayes Optima 288 V.34/V.FC+Fax modem came out best in the speed trials, rating twice as fast as the two competitors. 16 -> UK - Elonex In OEM Windows NT Server, BackOffice Deal -- Elonex has signed what it claims is the first OEM (original equipment manufacturer) deal with Microsoft for Windows NT Server and components from the BackOffice suite. 17 -> Free-Net Name Not Exactly Free -- Free-nets 18 -> Pagenet Completes Another Acquisition -- Paging Network Inc. (NASDAQ: PAGE) has completed the purchase of the assets of SNET Paging Inc., including the company's transmission network and the operating assets of its paging subsidiary. 19 -> California Business Incubator Firms Raise Venture Capital -- The Software Business Cluster (SBC), a California business incubator for software developers, has announced that two of its resident businesses have recently raised venture capital. Two tenant businesses have recently received a combined $5 million in venture funding: $4 million went to Calico Technology, and $1 million to a firm providing product configuration software for small manufacturers. 20 -> Adobe Ships Color Central Upgrade -- Adobe Systems Inc. (NASDAQ: ADBE) said it is shipping Color Central version 2.5, an upgrade to the company's open prepress interface print and image server software for the graphic arts market. 21 -> ****Symantec To Take Over Delrina -- Another Canadian software success is to be gobbled up by an American company. Delrina Corp. (TSE:DC;NASDAQ:DENAF) has announced a US$415 million merger agreement with Symantec Corp. (NASDAQ:SYMC) of Cupertino, California, that will make the Toronto forms and fax software maker into a unit of Symantec. 22 -> Elephants, Donkeys & Politics On The Web -- Both Republicans and Democrats now have a presence on the World Wide Web. Within the past two weeks, GOP Online, the Internet headquarters for Republican party information, and the Democratic Nation Committee's Web site, have opened for business. 23 -> Wisconsin Opens InterLATA Service -- The Wisconsin Public Service Commission has opened the door to local long-distance telephone competition in the state. 24 -> AT&T Upgrades Globalyst 130 Notebook -- AT&T (NYSE:T) Global Information Solutions has beefed up its Globalyst 130 notebook computer. The changes include substituting a 75 megahertz (MHz) 486DX4 processor for the 50MHz processor used in the previous 130 model. 25 -> Ingram Micro To Provide Network Training -- Ingram Micro Inc., a distributor of computer and software products, has formed an educational partnership to provide training and certification for Novell and Microsoft networks. Apollo Group Inc.(NASDAQ: APOL) and its wholly owned subsidiary, as well as The University of Phoenix, will provide space and support for the technical training in four of its California campuses. 26 -> ****AOL Interviews Haiti President Aristide -- America Online (NASDAQ:AMER) held an online press conference with President Aristide of Haiti. Saying it was the first time a head of state has addressed a cyber-audience, AOL presented an hour-long interview and question-and-answer segment. 27 -> Clariion's Model 150 Disk Array, Updated Software -- Clariion's newly unveiled Model 150 Disk Array for PC and Unix servers is meant to provide most of the features of the higher end Model 1100 and Model 2000, but at lower pricing, maintained Peter Gibbs, marketing director for Data General's Clariion Business Unit, in an interview with Newsbytes. 28 -> Excalibur Technologies To Acquire ConQuest -- Excalibur Technologies, a developer of multimedia retrieval software, has announced an agreement to merge with ConQuest Software, a developer of text management software. Excalibur remains as the surviving corporation and final approval by ConQuest shareholders is pending. 29 -> Novell Offers One-Day Netware 4.1 Training -- Novell Inc. (NASDAQ:NOVL) has announced a one-day training program to introduce network administrators and networking service providers to the installation, administration, and management of a Netware 4.1 network. (Ian Stokell/19950706) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 07/05/95 BUSINESS Siemens Plans $1 Billion Investment In India (NEWS)(BUSINESS)(LON)(00001) Siemens Plans $1 Billion Investment In India 07/05/95 MUNICH, GERMANY, 1995 JUL 5 (NB) -- Siemens has announced plans to invest as much as $1 billion in India over the next five years, subject to approval by the Indian Government. According to Konrad Pernstich, Siemens' managing director for India, the investment forms parts of a "shopping list" the company plans to invest in the Asia-Pacific region until the end of the decade, in a bid to become a major player in what the company sees as a region with massive sales potential. Speaking with journalists recently, Pernstich said that the Indian investment will be made as a mixture of equity investment, as well as modernizing the company's existing manufacturing facilities dotted around the Indian sub-continent. According to Pernstich, the Asia Pacific region "makes up for one- third of the global electric market and projections reveal that this market will have the highest rate of growth worldwide." The bulk of Siemens India's income derives from manufacturing equipment for the power and telecoms markets. With the extra investments planned for the next five years, the company hopes to diversify into new areas such as computer manufacturing and general information technology production. As previously reported by Newsbytes, Siemens has already invested 1.5 billion rupees over the last few years in upgrading its telecoms and switching manufacturing facility in Calcutta. According to Pernstich, the company's main thrust in the coming years will be in the power generation marketplace, where it expects to make significant sales in the upgrading of India's elderly power generation plants, many of which are now being upgraded with foreign investments. (Sylvia Dennis/19950703/Press Contact: Siemens, fax +49-722-9115) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 07/05/95 TRENDS Nokia Backs Sony/Philips High Density CD Format (NEWS)(TRENDS)(LON)(00002) Nokia Backs Sony/Philips High Density CD Format 07/05/95 ESPOO, FINLAND, 1995 JUL 5 (NB) -- In a move that will bolster support for the new high density multimedia compact disk (MMCD) format, Nokia has announced it is joining Philips and Sony on the project. According to officials with Nokia, the company plans to employ the technology in its new consumer electronics products, as well as pursue marketshare in the multimedia stakes. As reported previously by Newsbytes, the Philips/Sony MMCD format is locked in fierce head-to-head combat with the digital video disk (DVD) format, which has the backing of most of the rest of the information technology (IT) companies in Japan. Although DVD, which was pioneered by Matsushita, predates MMCD technology by a few months, DVD technology is not expected on to the market for at least another 18 months. The MMCD format, in contrast, is expected to arrive on the European market next summer, a task which Philips and Sony say is formidable, but "achievable," especially since it gives the format a several months lead on its main rival. The MMCD disk format seems to be gaining ground on DVD, Newsbytes notes. Just two weeks ago, Philips and Sony announced that Gateway 2000, the pan-European direct-sell PC vendor was the first PC manufacturer to actively support the new format. The MMCD format is being seen as technically simpler to develop than the Time Warner/Matsushita DVD format. MMCD disks are single-sided like their audio counterparts but, thanks to the use of dual layer technology, up to 7.4 gigabytes (GB) of data can be stored on a single disk. This compares favorably with the 640 megabytes (MB) that can be stored on existing CD-ROM disks. (Sylvia Dennis/19950703/Press & Reader Contact: Nokia Telecom, tel +358-0-5112-5515, fax +358-0-5112-5569) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 07/05/95 NETWORK Alcatel's "Any-to-Any" LAN Switch Technology (NEWS)(NETWORK)(LON)(00003) Alcatel's "Any-to-Any" LAN Switch Technology 07/05/95 BASINGSTOKE, HAMPSHIRE, ENGLAND, 1995 JUL 5 (NB) -- Alcatel Data Networks has launched the Alcatel 1100 LSS switch, an intelligent device which reportedly supports interworking between any combination of ATM (asynchronous transfer mode), Token-Ring and FDDI (fiber distributed data interface) networks. According to David Allen, vice president of products and marketing with Alcatel, the new switch is designed to deliver Avanza, the company's desktop-to-carrier switching architecture to the company environment. The Alcatel 1100 LSS is billed as providing "efficient and quick transmission" of high speed communications on ATM networks. The device is capable, the company claims, of emulating a Token Ring and/or FDDI network alongside ATM, allowing for multiple feeds across a single bridge. The result, the company claims, is a more simplified and cost-effective approach to LAN (local area network) interworking. Allen claims that the switch is ideal for hooking into existing network bottlenecks, since it can be plugged into existing cable and hardware infrastructures. "Traditionally, the networking requirements of the wide area and the desktop have been very different. The WAN (wide area network) has typically used low speed connections so congestion control has been more of an issue, while in the LAN, demand for bandwidth has been of primary concern," he explained. According to Allen, "these needs have been served by very different products from different types of solution providers." The switch found in the 1100 LSS is based around Xylan's switching technology. According to Alcatel, the switch is a "cost-effective system" for desktop-to-carrier switching. Initially, the 1100 LSS family of products consists of the series 590, which is a nine-slot switching hub that handles up to 64 switched ports, and the Series 550, a five-slot switch with up to 32 ports. Pricing on the switches depends on user requirements. (Sylvia Dennis/19950703/Press & Reader Contact: Alcatel UK, +1256-692000) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 07/05/95 ONLINE Internet Update (NEWS)(ONLINE)(TYO)(00004) Internet Update 07/05/95 TOKYO, JAPAN, 1995 JUL 5 (NB) -- In this roundup of new resources and services on the Internet: Webseek Search Software; Mozilla Museum; Shareware Authors Association; Mac Web Lurker; Newspaper Debuts; Netscape Additions; Global Trade Center; Wrapped Reichstag. Webseek Search Software The Webseek utility allows users to search all documents on a local server in real-time. The utility is a CGI script that, once set up, will allow a maintenance-free search engine for users. The script requires a server running Linux or Solaris operating systems. World Wide Web: http://www.cdc.net/~wfactor/ Mozilla Museum The Netscape Navigator is nicknamed Mozilla -- the Mosaic Killer -- but it is also the name of a green monster that serves as the software's mascot. You can now access a "museum" on the World Wide Web that displays images of the Netscape monster, both past and present. World Wide Web: http://www.snafu.de/~tilman/mozilla/ Shareware Authors Association The Association of Shareware Professionals has opened its Web server. Visitors will find general information about the ASP, news from the association, links to member pages and shareware resources. Anyone wishing to join will also be able to get a membership application kit. World Wide Web: http://www.msen.com/~rgharper/homeasp.html Mac Web Lurker Katipo is Macintosh software that runs through the Web pages in history files produced by Mosaic and Netscape Navigator and checks for documents that have changed since last visited. The output of Katipo is a HTML (hypertext markup language) file that can be used to visit the updated documents. World Wide Web: http://www.vuw.ac.nz/~newbery/Katipo.html Newspaper Debuts The Warsaw Voice Newspaper is an English language newspaper that focuses on Polish business and politics. Access to the newspaper is available through the Agencja Kontakt Web server. World Wide Web: http://www.contact.waw.pl/ Netscape Additions With every new edition of Netscape's Navigator comes a new range of HTML tags that, although not covered in the HTML standard, becomes widely used across the Web. This page is a guide to the so-called "Netscape Enhancements" and examples of how pages can be enhanced using them. World Wide Web: http://www.ibic.com/Program/NScape1.html Global Trade Center The Internet's Global Trade Center dedicates itself to promotion of world trade. The motto of the center is "Global Trade, Gateway to Understanding, Pathway to Peace." From the home page users can link to trade-related sites around the Internet which are associated with world trade, business opportunities and retail. World Wide Web: http://www.tradezone.com/tz/ Wrapped Reichstag In addition to pictures you can now view MPEG (Motion Picture Experts Group) video, new each day, of the German Reichstag building which has been wrapped in plastic. The official Web server of the "Wrapped Reichstag" also features details about the project and pictures. World Wide Web: http://www.kulturbox.de/ (Martyn Williams/19950703) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 07/05/95 ONLINE Internet Broadcasting From Radio 99 Int'l (NEWS)(ONLINE)(TYO)(00005) Internet Broadcasting From Radio 99 Int'l 07/05/95 PHOENIX, ARIZONA, USA, 1995 JUL 5 (NB) -- A US Internet backbone and service provider is planning to enter the broadcasting business in August when its very own radio station debuts on the Internet. The new station, Radio 99 International, won't just be another music station either, the firm plans "genuine international radio" for an international audience. Elan Wollitzer of Network 99 Inc. explained to Newsbytes who will be able to tune in, "Basically anyone who has a modem that is 14,400 bits-per-second (bps) or higher such as ISDN (integrated services digital network) or a full-time connection to the Internet. Through those methods users will be able to listen to this as long as they have some form of audio capabilities, like a Sound Blaster card." The size of this audience is unknown at present, although the lack of any local telephone charges in most US cities with Internet service providers means that the US audience is basically anyone with the connection and equipment. Overseas in general, people have to pay for telephone calls, so the potential audience falls to just users with a full-time Internet connection already where call charges are of no concern. Radio 99 International will not be producing any programs itself, rather content providers will. The station is currently negotiating for programming and declined to identity any possible partners. "We are under a non-disclosure agreement at present. We expect to make an announcement in three to four weeks regarding programming," added Wollitzer. However, he did hint at the type of service offered when he said, "We are providing the medium, not the message. Whether it be an International soccer match or a talk show from Great Britain, the programs will be aimed at an international audience." Eventually Radio 99 International hopes to offer several services appealing to various language and interest groups, although that all depends on how the advertising sales go. The station will be funded by commercials. Radio 99 International joins a variety of other radio stations broadcasting on the Internet although most are US college radio stations simply feeding their signal into the system. The World Radio Network, a London-based satellite and cable radio station rebroadcasts programming from international shortwave broadcasters such as the BBC World Service and National Public Radio and began putting its signal onto the Internet in February this year. WRN is using the MBONE, the Internet's multicast backbone. Broadcasting on the MBONE has not been a great success because of the high speed access needed. Radio Sweden is one of the broadcasters in the WRN package and George Wood, a presenter on the English service, told Newsbytes it has not been a tremendous success, "We have no idea how many people are listening to us on the Internet. I have yet to see a letter from anyone who has accessed us via the MBONE." Unlike MBONE broadcasting, the Radio 99 International program will be available to anyone with access over 14,400 bps who installs a small piece of software, available free from Network 99, on their system. (Martyn Williams/19950705/Press contact: Elan Wollitzer, Network 99 Inc., 800-638-9947; Reader contact : Network 99, Internet World Wide Web http://www.net99.net ) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 07/05/95 NETWORK Novell UK Begins Aggressive Upgrade Campaign (NEWS)(NETWORK)(LON)(00006) Novell UK Begins Aggressive Upgrade Campaign 07/05/95 BRACKNELL, BERKSHIRE, ENGLAND, 1995 JUL 5 (NB) -- Following on from the recent explanation at the Networks '95 show of the way in which Novell sees its future panning out, the company has announced a European upgrade offer of 20 percent discount on copies of NetWare 4.1 and GroupWise 4.1. The upgrade offer applies until the end of October and is available through all of Novell's dealer and retail channels. An upgrade is defined as a previous Novell product which the customer wishes to upgrade to the above products, or a competitor's previous product. "The objective of this campaign is to encourage companies to upgrade their networks and reap the benefits of version 4.1, especially NetWare Directory Services (NDS). NetWare 4.1 is on target to become the world's number one network operating system by the end of October, surpassing all previous versions of NetWare," explained Lalit Nathwani, senior brand marketing manager with Novell UK. Nathwani told Newsbytes at the Networks '95 show recently in Birmingham, England, that the success of NetWare 4.1 has been tremendous in the last year, and he expects the company to continue this momentum during this, the second year after the merger with WordPerfect. According to Allen Scott, Novell's regional product marketing manager, GroupWare division, "GroupWise should be the default choice for electronic-mail, calendaring and scheduling for NetWare 4.1 users as it takes full advantage of version 4.1, especially NDS. This offer gives GroupWise users the ability to reap the benefits of NetWare 4.1 and upgrade their system at an extremely competitive price." Novell has already started a major pan-European advertising and direct marketing campaign on the offer aimed at informing its channel partners and existing NetWare users as well as users of WordPerfect Office 4.0 and other e-mail systems. (Steve Gold/19950703/Press Contact: Vivienne Wilson, Novell UK. +44-1344-724460; Internet e-mail vivienne_wilson@novell.com; Reader Contact: Novell UK, tel +44-1344-724000, fax +44-1344-724001) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 07/05/95 BUSINESS Germany - Cable & Wireless Buys Stake In Vebacom (NEWS)(BUSINESS)(LON)(00007) Germany - Cable & Wireless Buys Stake In Vebacom 07/05/95 DUSSELDORF, GERMANY, 1995 JUL 5 (NB) -- Cable & Wireless has agreed to pay DM1.9 billion for a 45 percent stake in Vebacom, the German telecoms and technology group. In a prepared statement to the German DAX, Veba said that the price is based on an agreed market price of DM3.5 million for Veba's Vebacom telecoms subsidiary. The deal was first proposed as far back as January of this year, but has only now been signed, officials said. Ulrich Hartman, Veba's chairman, said that Cable & Wireless was chosen as the partner to take a significant equity investment in the company because of its independence and globally active nature. "Together with Vebacom's broad product line we have an excellent operative and strategic basis to position ourselves successfully in the telecommunications market," he told journalists. Under the equity investment agreement, both companies plan to set up a new joint venture company with the express aim of looking for business in Europe outside of their respective British and German markets. Plans call for the as-yet unnamed joint venture company to be financed initially with DM170 million on a 50/50 basis between Veba and Cable & Wireless. Veba said that both companies are closely examining their options on the PCN (personal communications network) front. While Vebacom has 28.385 percent stake in the E-Plus network in Germany, Cable & Wireless has a 50 percent stake in the Mercury One-2-One network in the UK. Roaming between both networks is imminent, and officials said that the possibility of other country PCN networks opening is possible. Newsbytes notes that Veba has a 15 percent stake in Bouyges Telecom, the French telecom operator, while Cable & Wireless has a 20 percent stake. Sources suggest that similar joint ventures on the PCN front are likely in the near future. (Sylvia Dennis/19950703/Press & Reader Contact: Veba, +49-228-989870) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 07/05/95 IBM UK - IBM's Community Connection Awards Scheme (NEWS)(IBM)(LON)(00008) UK - IBM's Community Connection Awards Scheme 07/05/95 PORTSMOUTH, HAMPSHIRE, ENGLAND, 1995 JUL 5 (NB) -- IBM has announced a UKP250,000 community and cultural award scheme, known as the "IBM Community Connection Awards." According to Barrie Morgans, IBM UK's chief executive officer, the awards will support projects from not-for-profit organizations which aim to address issues of "social disadvantage through innovative and exciting uses of information technology (IT)." Under the scheme, several large and small awards will be made, up to a total value of UKP250,000. The precise scope of the support will be shaped entirely by the project's needs, IBM officials told Newsbytes. Pamela Fieldhouse, a spokeswoman for Big Blue, told Newsbytes that the scheme is UK-specific and is viewed very much as a pilot for the rest of the world. Barrie Morgans, meanwhile, explained that, as a society, "we are only just beginning to grasp the enormous potential of the information revolution. "Our challenge is to harness the benefits of this revolution to combat the disadvantages experienced by certain sections of society. The IBM Community Connections Awards are designed to help this happen, by enabling eligible groups to capitalize on the tremendous power and potential of the information revolution," he said. Because of the "new nature" of the awards scheme, there are no fixed categories in the scheme, and organizations are being encouraged to think as creatively as possible when considering potential entries. What the judges are looking for, Big Blue claims, are exciting proposals to use IT strategically to "deliver a real difference to the community." Morgans went on to say that he hopes the new awards scheme "will inspire those working in the voluntary sector and arts organizations to come forward with exciting projects for consideration. They don't need to be complex -- simple ideas are often the best. But the winning projects will be ones which make a real and lasting impact on social disadvantage," he explained. The closing date for applications for the awards scheme is July 28. For further information on the scheme, and an entry form, Newsbytes readers are asked to contact Chris Connolley on +44-1705-492-049. (Steve Gold/19950703/Press Contact: Charles Barker, tel +44- 171-494-1331, fax +44-171-439-1071; Reader Contact: IBM UK, tel +44-1705-561780, fax +44-1705-385081) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 07/05/95 WINDOWS Reflex Plans Windows 95 Virus Scanner (NEWS)(WINDOWS)(LON)(00009) Reflex Plans Windows 95 Virus Scanner 07/05/95 LONDON, ENGLAND, 1995 JUL 5 (NB) -- Reflex Magnetics has revealed it is working on a new virus scanner for Windows '95. Known under the code name of Hunter, the package is expected to ship in parallel with Windows '95. According to officials with Reflex, the new virus scanner provides five levels of protection from computer viruses. These include signature and heuristic-based scanning, integrity checking, and active monitoring for virus activity. Hunter is also claimed to include a real code emulation module which enables generic decryption of advanced polymorphic viruses -- the viruses which alter themselves to defeat conventional scanner technology. According to Dr David Aubrey-Jones, Reflex's technical director, one out of every three new viruses has a polymorphic capability. "These viruses are getting more and more difficult to detect and destroy. Hunter's real code emulation is just one example of how we have addressed the requirements of this ever more demanding market," he explained. Hunter represents a considerable technological leap over the competition, explained Andy Campbell, sales director for Reflex. "Not only is it a scanner which has been built specifically for Windows 95, but it also contains some of our recent, ground-breaking achievements in virus detection technology. I remain confident that however smart the virus writers get, Reflex will always remain one step ahead of the game," he said. In use, the generic decrypter is claimed to enable Hunter to spot viruses that would have been missed by current scanner technology. The software uses an emulator to run the suspect code and then monitors for the tell-tale signs of a virus. With this feature, the company claims that Hunter is able to spot even encrypted polymorphic viruses, which were previously undetectable. The emulator is claimed to be completely safe, as no instruction of the file is ever actually executed. Company officials told Newsbytes that Hunter is able to distinguish between different viruses encrypted by the same engine. Hunter users are informed which engine was used and also the source virus that was hidden by the polymorphic device. This, the company claims, assists users in finding the source of any infection and ensures that multiple infections are logged. Pricing and product details, including the shipping name of the product and final feature list, are due to be finalized shortly, Newsbytes understands. (Steve Gold/19950703/Press Contact: Keene Communications, +44-171-439-7227; Reader Contact: Reflex Magnetics, +44-171- 372-6666) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 07/05/95 TRENDS ****Survey Reveals Changing Web User Base (NEWS)(TRENDS)(TYO)(00010) ****Survey Reveals Changing Web User Base 07/05/95 TOKYO, JAPAN, 1995 JUL 5 (NB) -- Users of the Internet's World Wide Web are more likely to be accessing via a commercial Internet provider than an educational or corporate connection, using a Windows-based computer than one running a Unix operating system, and be connecting from California than from anywhere else. Those are some of the key results of the third semi-annual Web survey by Georgia Tech. More than 13,000 users took the survey which was run by the Graphics, Visualization & Usability Center at Georgia Tech. from April 10 to May 10 this year. The third major survey was endorsed by both the World-Wide Web Consortium (W3C) and the National Center for Supercomputing Applications (NCSA). The survey was the first to begin to measure the impact on the World Wide Web that the millions of users of commercial services such as Prodigy, America Online, and CompuServe will have when subscribers begin to access the Internet services now on offer. "The respondents we are seeing now are less technically-oriented and more likely to be female than those we have seen in the past," said James E. Pitkow, a Georgia Institute of Technology researcher who has been studying demographic trends on the Web for more than a year. "Overall, there are more people coming from outside the educational domain. This shows that the people browsing the Web are becoming more like the general population." At survey time Prodigy was the only one of the major online services offering Web access, but the demographics of its users contrasts to the typically male, computer-orientated Web user that was common in the past. Females accounted for 15.5% of all respondents, up 6% over the last six months. Among those accessing via Prodigy, 20% were female. Web users are getting older too, the average age currently of US users is now 36 compared with 32 in the last survey. Europeans average 31 years old, while Prodigy is bringing older users onto the Web with an average age of 39. The top reasons for using the Web included: browsing (82.6 percent), entertainment (56.6 percent), work (50.9 percent), education (47 percent), and business research (38.2 percent). Nearly three-quarters of the respondents browsed the Web at least once a day. Forty-two percent said they browsed 1-4 times daily, while 15.9 percent visited the Web more than nine times a day. Women and Prodigy members, possibly because of higher access charges, reported less frequent use. The booming Internet access business and success of commercial online services has meant that more and more users are accessing from small desktop PCs than Unix servers. Fifty-two percent of the respondents used a Windows-based computer, 26.2 percent used a Macintosh, and 8.8 percent used Unix machines. Results from the previous survey showed Unix (44 percent), Windows (29 percent), and Macintosh (19 percent). James E. Pitkow is a Georgia Institute of Technology researcher who has been studying demographic trends on the Web for more than a year. Speaking to Newsbytes, he explained what he thought this all meant for the Web. Would the recently arrived online service users cause a change in the face of the World Wide Web? Pitkow said, "I just finished running a statistical test that looked for differences between Prodigy users and non-Prodigy users. The hypothesis being tested here is that Prodigy users represent a segment of the population that are "early acceptors" of technology. By this I mean that they are not the technically elite and have typically have to find access outside of work or school." In some areas of response Pitkow explained that his hypothesis was true, "We find string evidence to support this hypothesis in the occupation, age, hours per week working with computers, speed of network connection, and other response categories." Despite that though, there were no difference in other areas, "We see no difference between Prodigy and non-Prodigy user's response distributions with respect to how many hours a week they have fun with a computer, the number of computers owned, and race -- predominantly white." Prodigy is one of the major online services and if Prodigy users are broadly representative of all online service users Pitkow concludes that "The results from this study are indeed important in understanding how the Web will be effected by the continued acceptance from these wider populations." Full details of the survey, including graphs and detailed survey data are available on the Web at http://www.cc.gatech.edu/gvu/user_surveys/survey-04-1995/ . (Martyn Williams/19950705/Press contact: John Toon, Georgia Tech, 404-894-6986, Internet e-mail john.toon@gtri.gatech.edu ) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 07/05/95 GENERAL Japan Newsbriefs (NEWS)(GENERAL)(TYO)(00011) Japan Newsbriefs 07/05/95 TOKYO, JAPAN, 1995 JUL 5 (NB) -- In this roundup of news from Japan: Strong start for PHS; NTT heads for China; Kyushu Matsushita online; NTT and ITT extend contract; Matsushita in China capacitor deal. Strong Start For PHS Japan's new PHS (personal handy phone) mobile telephone system launched on Saturday and both service providers reported strong demand for the new telephones which offer cheaper calls than conventional cellular telephones. DDI's Tokyo Pocket estimated it had signed around 100,000 subscribers in just the first weekend. NTT estimated it signed around 50,000. Consumer interest is high despite the small range of telephones currently available. Manufacturing problems mean that most telephones will not become available until July 10. NTT Heads For China NTT is to invest around $2.2 billion yen ($26 million) in new products and ventures to gain a foothold in China's telecom business. NTT has set up joint ventures with two local companies in Jiangsu and Zhejiang provinces to develop and launch cellular telephone systems. The investment by NTT is its first in China. Kyushu Matsushita Online The Engineering Division of Kyushu Matsushita Electric Co., Ltd. has opened a World Wide Web server to provide further information about the establishment. Further enhancements will introduce the range of English to Japanese translation software they produce. The server is available at address http://www.kme-lab.co.jp . NTT & ITT Extend Contract ITT World Directories Inc. and Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corporation have signed a three-year extension to their joint venture contract. The contract, which was originally signed in 1986 and extended several times, covers ITT World Directories assistance and consultation in the directory publishing business to NTT and its affiliates in a technology transfer environment through a joint venture, Nippon Directories Development Co. Ltd. Matsushita In China Capacitor Deal Osaka-based Matsushita Electric Industrial Co. has agreed to set up a company in China to produce capacitors. It will hold 80% of the company with the remaining stake being held by the Xinhui Power Capacitor Factory in Xinhui, China. By the end of the century the company hopes to be making 5.5 million capacitors a year for heavy duty use in devices such as washing machines and aircon units. (Martyn Williams/19950705) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 07/05/95 BUSINESS ****NEC Takes Stake In Packard Bell (NEWS)(BUSINESS)(TYO)(00012) ****NEC Takes Stake In Packard Bell 07/05/95 TOKYO, JAPAN, 1995 JUL 5 (NB) -- NEC Corporation of Japan has taken a near 20% stake in Packard Bell Electronics Inc. and established a global alliance with the American computer company. NEC and Packard Bell have agreed on the establishment of a "strategic alliance in the multimedia field." The alliance covers, most importantly, component procurement and also product development, technical cooperation and sales support. At the same time NEC announced they would acquire a 19.99% of Packard Bell by the end of August, a stake valued at $170 million. NEC Corporation has over 50% of the domestic Japanese computer market with its PC-9800 system and this year expects to ship 3.3 million units as Newsbytes reported recently when NEC announced they had shipped 10 million PC-9800 systems since launch in 1982. In the United States, Packard Bell enjoys a similar position as the country's number one computer manufacturer. This year Packard Bell forecast sales of four million units making combined total projected sales of 7.3 million computers in the current fiscal year. The main advantage to both companies as a result of the deal was explained to Newsbytes by NEC's Ken Fukuchi. "The main advantage will be the volume purchase of components by both parties," he said. This will cut production costs of each computer and lead to "more competitive products." Cheaper production costs are important for NEC which is facing increased competition from overseas computer manufacturers as a result of the strong yen which makes foreign goods look much more attractive to Japanese consumers but that didn't trigger the talks said Fukuchi. "It's not linked with the appreciation of the yen," he said. In Japan, Fukuchi sees the major benefits of the alliance to NEC being more cooperation in the development fields. "We can share technical development in the multimedia area, jointly develop software and work on de facto standards for multimedia," he said. Development will center on multimedia terminals and games and entertainment personal computers for the Japanese market. Software for the PC-9800 series will also be worked on. The Tokyo- based company says it could include areas such as "navigation software interface technology." In the United States, Packard Bell will benefit from increased supply of four megabyte (MB) and 16MB DRAMs and CD-ROM drives, both key components of multimedia PCs. NEC is also considering the supply of three-dimensional technology and color liquid crystal display (LCD) driver chipsets. Worldwide, the two will work on creating de facto standards in key areas of new multimedia technology such as game players and set-top box technology and software. France's Cie. des Machines Bull will also play a part in the worldwide multimedia development and research. NEC Corp. owns a 17% stake of the French computer maker, which in turn owns a stake in Packard Bell. (Martyn Williams/19950705/Press contact: Ken Fukuchi, NEC Corporation, tel +81-3-3798-6511, fax +81-3-3457-7249) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 07/05/95 TRENDS Microsoft's Gates World's Richest Person (NEWS)(TRENDS)(DEN)(00013) Microsoft's Gates World's Richest Person 07/05/95 REDMOND, WASHINGTON, U.S.A., 1995 JUL 5 (NB) -- Bill Gates, Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ: MSFT) chairman and chief executive officer, is the richest person in the world, according to the annual list published by Forbes magazine. The software mogul was second in the world and first in the US last year. Gates jumped to the top spot this year with an estimated worth of $12.9 billion, followed by Warren Buffett, head of the investment firm Berkshire Hathaway Inc. with only $10.7 billion. This is the first year since the magazine began publishing the list nine years ago that two Americans have occupied the top two spots. Like most billionaires, Gates' net worth is pegged to the price of stock held. Microsoft stock hit an all-time high in mid-June when it reached $92.375 per share. Microsoft said it bought back about $698 million of its shares during fiscal 1995 and will continue to repurchase shares in the current fiscal year. Microsoft said it will distribute the 11.7 million shares repurchased in fiscal 95 to employees under stock option plans. The number of shares Microsoft will purchase in fiscal 1996 will depend on how many options employees exercise, and the share price, said the company. Trailing in the distance at number three this year is last year's leader, Yoshiaki Tsutsumi, a property investor with an estimated net worth of $9 billion. That's $500 million more than Tsutsumi was believed to be worth last year but less than half of the estimated $20 billion he was once worth. The magazine said there are 388 individuals or families around the world worth at least $1 billion, up from last year's 358. They have an aggregate net worth of approximately $893 billion, said Forbes, with Americans accounting for 33 percent. The US also has a majority of the world's billionaires at 129, compared to 53 in Germany and 37 in Japan. Following Gates, Buffett, and Tsutsumi are: Hans Rausing, of Sweden, with about $9 billion; Paul Sacher, in Switzerland, at $8.6 billion; Tsai Wan-Lin, in Taiwan, with $8.5 billion; and Hong Kong's Lee Shau Kee at $6.5 billion. Rausing is head of the packaging company Tetra Laval; Sacher is an in-law of the Hoffman family, heirs to the Roche pharmaceutical empire; and Wan-lin founded the Cathay Life Insurance company. Kee is a real estate investor. The list is rounded out by: media mogul Kenneth Thomson in Canada with $6.5 billion in the number eight slot; Hyundai founder Chung Ju-yung in South Korea with $6.2 billion; and Li Ka-shing in Hong Kong, at $5.9 billion. Ka-shing has interests in real estate, energy, and telecommunications. Forbes does not include members of royal families or heads of state on its billionaire list. That policy eliminates wealthy Middle East oil sheiks who might otherwise qualify. (Jim Mallory/19950705/Press and public contact: Microsoft, 206-882-8080 or 800-426-9400) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 07/05/95 GENERAL Creative Computers Offers Networking Catalog (NEWS)(GENERAL)(LAX)(00014) Creative Computers Offers Networking Catalog 07/05/95 SAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1995 JUL 5 (NB) -- Creative Computers Inc. (NASDAQ:MALL) is introducing DataCom Mall, a catalog featuring networking and data communications-related hardware and software products. This is the third catalog Creative Computers has introduced in the last year. "We are developing a catalog for networking and data communications products since we believe this segment is one of the fastest growing and most profitable in the personal computer market," stated Frank Khulusi, chairman and chief executive officer. Products offered in the DataCom Mall catalog will include networking hardware, such as hubs, routers, Ethernet cards, servers and cable, as well as networking software. DataCom Mall will include products from manufacturers such as Novell, Lotus, and Microsoft. Tom DeVries, vice president of sales and marketing for Creative Computers, told Newsbytes, "We began in 1987 as an Amiga mail-order house. We were the largest Amiga dealer in the world. We evolved from there to a mail-order house for Macintosh third-party vendors, and operating four computer retail stores in Southern California. Today, Creative Computers is the largest Macintosh dealer in Southern California. "While we have been in the mail-order business since 1987, MacMall was our first catalog. We issued it regularly starting in May, 1994. We have come out with five separate issues of MacMall since then. PCmall catalog came out last month for the first time, and DataCom Mall makes our third catalog," said DeVries. Creative Computers, which went public with its initial public offering (IPO) in April, 1995, reported sales of $163 million in 1994. Mail order/catalog sales accounted for $117 million of the 1994 sales. Without sales from either of its last two catalogs, Creative Computers reported sales of $88 million for the first quarter of 1995. "Introducing the DataCom Mall catalog is another step toward our goal of increasing our position as one of the leaders in the high-growth, cost-efficient personal computer catalog market," added Khulusi. "DataCom Mall should also increase our presence in the DOS/Windows direct-mail market that we entered in May with the PC Mall catalog. Our intention is to become a single source for all of our customers' personal computer product needs." (Richard Bowers/19950703/Press Contact: Frank Khulusi or Grant Trexler, Creative Computers Inc., 310-787-4500) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 07/05/95 NETWORK Artisoft Cuts LANtastic Price (NEWS)(NETWORK)(DEN)(00015) Artisoft Cuts LANtastic Price 07/05/95 TUCSON, ARIZONA, U.S.A., 1995 JUL 5 (NB) -- Artisoft Inc. (NASDAQ:ASFT) has announced a price cut for its LANtastic Dedicated Server software, and has also simplified the package offerings. The company said the server product line now consists of a LANtastic Dedicated Server version 1.1 package for two to 10 users, LANtastic Dedicated Server add-on licenses for 5, 10, 25, and 50 users, and an upgrade from CorStream server version 1.0 to LANtastic Dedicated Server version 1.1. LANtastic Dedicated Server first shipped in April, 1995. It was an upgrade from the company's CorStream software, and launched with a suggested retail price of $749 for a five-user pack. Under the reduced pricing schedule the 2- to 10-user package of Dedicated Server v1.1 now has a suggested retail price of $649, while the add-on licenses begin at $399 for the five-user version. The Corstream upgrade to LANtastic Dedicated Server is now priced at $299. When Dedicated Server 1.1 launched that price was scheduled to increase to $499 in mid-June but under the new pricing schedule will remain at the lower figure. The company said the LANtastic Dedicated Server software is built on Novell's 32-bit NetWare 4 technology. It can support up to 100 users on LANtastic networks version 5.0 and above and the LANtastic Power Suite. The company said version 1.1 includes a greatly simplified installation routine and comes on six floppy disks or a single CD-ROM. Setup includes an automatic printer installation routine, in order to eliminate the need to configure printers with commands from a separate PC on the network. The installation process saves existing user account information and restores it during the installation to the new dedicated server. Other features include Ethernet II and IPX (Internet Packet Exchange) packet routing to facilitate data and file transfers on networks that mix LANtastic and NetWare. You also get Artisoft's ADSFILE utility that lets users restrict space on directories, control attributes and recover deleted files. LANtastic Dedicated Server supports Artisoft's Central Station II connectivity processor, which can be used as a print server connecting up to five printers to the network. Features in earlier versions that were carried forward include disk mirroring and disk duplexing for fault tolerance, data compression/decompression, and data migration. (Jim Mallory/19950705/Press contact: Bill Peterson, Artisoft, 520-670-7304; Public contact: Artisoft, tel 520-670-7100 or 800-233-5564, fax 520-670-7101) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 07/05/95 TELECOM Boston Technology Intros Switches, Software For PCS (NEWS)(TELECOM)(BOS)(00016) Boston Technology Intros Switches, Software For PCS 07/05/95 NEW YORK, NEW YORK, U.S.A., 1995 JUL 5 (NB) -- Boston Technology's new Access NP switches and AccessMax development software will "extend the functionality" of the vendor's product lineup into applications ranging from to new multimedia personal communications services (PCS) from large phone companies to voice/fax messaging for smaller wireless carriers, maintained Bob Slezak, executive VP of research and development (R&D). Other uses of the products will include universal mailboxing, telephone "reminder services," pager notification, interactive voice response (IVR), virtual telephone service, advanced intelligent networks (AIN), and ultimately, video applications, according to Slezak, one of three speakers at a press conference recently attended by Newsbytes in New York City. After opening remarks by Dr. John C.W. Taylor, president and chief executive officer (CEO), Francis E. Girard, executive VP for world sales, told the journalists that, on the wireless side, Boston Technology's customers now include McCaw Cellular/AT&T; Nynex Mobile; NTT (Nippon Telephone & Telegraph), Japan; and Changsha Telecom, China. Carriers using the Wakefield, Massachusetts-based company's products for wired services include: Ameritech; Bell Atlantic; BellSouth; Rochester Telephone; Southwestern Bell; Shell Oil; Telecom DDI, Japan; Telecom Honk Kong CSL; Harbin Telecom, China; Telecom Malaysia; Etisalat, UAE (United Arab Emirate); and TELESP, CTBC, and Teleprar, of Brazil. Slezak explained that Boston Technology's upcoming Access NP switches are aimed at using digital signal processing (DSP) for a "universal port" technology in which fax, voice and other media are recognized by bit type at the individual port level, eliminating the need for dedicated trunk lines. In addition, the new family of switches provides a "fully non-blocking" architecture that permits call processing even when all available ports are in use, according to Slezak. "Any incoming call can be answered, regardless of port," the VP contended. Boston Technology's new switches will supply service providers with anywhere from 24 ports and 9600 mailboxes, in an entry-level Access NP 5 Series configuration, to 960 ports and 300,000 mailboxes, in the Access NP 60 Series, he told the press. In addition, members of the switching family can be clustered together, for up to 11,520 "universal ports," as well as up to 3.6 million mailboxes; more than 300,000 hours of "redundant voice storage;" and almost 1.5 million hours of "non-redundant voice storage." The "high scalability" of Access NP allows for a wide range of applications today, and will also let service providers "grow" their systems to accommodate wider demand for existing applications and the expected emergence of new applications in the future, Slezak reported. The new system is designed to provide availability of "over 99.998 percent" through "innovative procedures for balancing resources" such as a new "disk sharing" strategy, according to the Boston Technology exec. Under the new approach to disk sharing, each application processing unit (APU) in the Access NP system is equipped with two small computer systems interface (SCSI) buses. Each SCSI bus is connected, in turn, to a primary or secondary storage disk, and to another APU. In the event that an APU or a disk goes down, the system can failover to the other APU, according to Slezak. Service providers can add or switch out major components such as APUs or disk drives, or perform software upgrades or diagnostics online, "without system downtime," Slezak maintained. Slezak added that Boston Technology's new AccessMax object-oriented development software consists of three layers: an application layer; an object layer known as "Max Component Packages;" and a generic software layer. The three-layer architecture is designed to speed development by allowing applications to be added at the application layer, or components to be added at the object layer, without re-testing software below these layers. AccessMax is "fully implemented in C++," according to Slezak. Speaking with Newsbytes afterward, Paul Stockford, an analyst with Vanguard Communications, Morris Plains, New Jersey, predicted that, by providing "high availability," Boston Technology's new Access NP switches and AccessMax development environment will allow implementation of long-awaited "consumer-oriented" voice processing applications like voice "message broadcasting." Under message broadcasting, a "scout leader could broadcast the same voice message to all members of the troop, or a teacher could send out the same message to all parents," he illustrated. With "telephone reminder," another emerging service, consumers can "record" and store voice reminders of upcoming events or "things to do," to be sent to them by the phone company as the appointed time draws near. "Consumers don't expect that a telephone service will ever quit," Stockford told Newsbytes. The new products from Boston Technology provide the "reliability" needed for new services like these through "modular software and hardware components," together with an architecture that has "no single point of failure," according to the analyst. At the press conference, Slezak told the journalists that subscriber applications networking, and interfaces to operations support systems will be the same across Access NP and Boston Technology's existing CO (central office) Access platform. "We don't strand people who buy from us," observed the Boston Technology VP. The Access NP switches comply with the emerging standards for AIN, according to Slezak. The products support T1, E1 and "national variant" network interfaces. The switches also provide simultaneous support for multiple signaling types, including: Signaling System 7 (SS7); integrated services digital network (ISDN) private rate interface (PRI); DTMF; MF/R1; and MF/R2. Currently being tested by network service providers, the Access NP switches are slated to ship in the third quarter, at pricing of $100,000 and up. (Jacqueline Emigh/19950705/Reader Contact: Boston Technology, 617- 224-8612; Toni Silva, The Neva Group for Boston Technology; 617- 441-4000) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 07/05/95 WINDOWS Canadian Publisher Offers Securities CD-ROM (NEWS)(WINDOWS)(TOR)(00017) Canadian Publisher Offers Securities CD-ROM 07/05/95 TORONTO, ONTARIO, CANADA, 1995 JUL 5 (NB) -- Carswell, a unit of the international Thomson publishing and business empire, has announced a new CD-ROM, meant for personal computers running Microsoft Windows, that contains information on the Canadian securities market. Sold on a single CD-ROM disk for C$1,200, Securities Partner contains information such as Canadian statutes, regulations, policy statements, interpretation bulletins, stock exchange documents and forms, and summaries of all reported decisions of Canadian courts and administrative tribunals, officials of the company said. The information is specific to Canada, a spokeswoman for Carswell told Newsbytes, though she added that the disk itself might be of interest to people outside the country with an interest in Canadian securities. Among the likely customers, Carswell said, are securities and corporate lawyers, in-house corporate counsel, corporate finance executives, security commissions, stock exchanges, and financial analysts. Users can cross-reference indexes, jump between relevant documents, and browse text, Carswell said. The disk is based on the Folio 3.1 information access tool. Securities Partner requires a personal computer, ideally with at least a 486 processor, running DOS and Microsoft Windows. The PC must be equipped with eight megabytes of memory and either have a CD-ROM drive installed or have access to one by means of a network. Carswell is a division of Thomson Professional Publishing that produces books, newsletters and other material for lawyers, accountants, and business people. Thomson Professional Publishing is part of the Toronto-based Thomson organization, which has publishing and other business interests in Canada, the United States, the United Kingdom, and elsewhere. (Grant Buckler/19950705/Press Contact: John Elias, National Public Relations for Carswell, 416-586-0180, Internet e-mail jelias@eworld.com; Mary Inksater, National Public Relations for Carswell, 416-586-0180, Internet e-mail minksater@eworld.com; Public Contact: Carswell, 800-363-3783) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 07/05/95 GENERAL Softbank Comdex Announces Uniforum Growth Plans (NEWS)(GENERAL)(TOR)(00018) Softbank Comdex Announces Uniforum Growth Plans 07/05/95 NEEDHAM, MASSACHUSETTS, U.S.A., 1995 JUL 5 (NB) -- Trade-show operator Softbank Comdex Inc. has announced expansion plans for the UniForum show and conference. Softbank will run UniForum Showcases at its 1996 Enterprise Computing Solutions and Windows World shows in Atlanta and Comdex/Canada in Toronto, and will run an Enterprise Computing Solutions show in San Francisco in February of next year. Suzanne Lonergan, a spokeswoman for Softbank Comdex, told Newsbytes that Softbank Comdex has previously run showcases -- essentially shows within shows -- focused on other topics such as multimedia at its trade show. However, the company has never run UniForum Showcases before. In some cases, she added, these showcases have expanded to become independent shows. Lonergan said Softbank Comdex, which took over operating the UniForum show this year -- the show and conference continue to be sponsored by The UniForum Association, a Unix association -- hopes to expand UniForum to other countries in the future. UniForum '96 will be held at the Moscone Center in San Francisco Feb. 12 to 16, 1996. This year's show was in Dallas. There will be a new UniForum Showcase at Enterprise Computing Solutions and Windows World, which next year is scheduled for Atlanta April 10 to 12. Lonergan explained that the Comdex/Spring and Windows World show usually held in Atlanta each spring will be in Chicago in June, 1996, because preparations for the upcoming Olympics in Atlanta made it impossible to get space for a show of Comdex/Spring's size there next spring. The Enterprise Computing Solutions and Windows World combination took place in Chicago this year. Comdex/Canada '96, also featuring a UniForum Showcase, is scheduled for July 10 to 12, 1996, in Toronto. This year's Comdex/Canada takes place next week, from July 12 to 14. (Grant Buckler/19950705/Press Contact: Suzanne Lonergan, Softbank Comdex, tel 617-449-6600, fax 617-444-4806; Public Contact: Softbank Comdex, 617-449-6600) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 07/05/95 GOVT FCC Revises Auction Rules (NEWS)(GOVT)(WAS)(00019) FCC Revises Auction Rules 07/05/95 WASHINGTON, D.C., U.S.A., 1995 JUL 5 (NB) -- Faced with a new Supreme Court ruling casting doubt on minority set-aside programs, the Federal Communications Commission has delayed its next auction for advanced personal communications services licenses and proposed changes to the bidding rules. The FCC postponed the next round in bidding for PCS licenses to August 29, instead of the originally scheduled date of August 2. The August auction, the so-called "C-block" of licenses in the two gigahertz, is limited to small business bidders. Under its original rules for the auction, several preferences would have been available to small business firms owned by women or minorities. But on June 12, in the case of Adarand Constructors, Inc. v. Pena, the Supreme Court made it more difficult to justify race- or sex-based set-asides. The court's ruling prompted the FCC to review its bidding rules and conclude that they were possibly suspect. Agency lawyers were also convinced they would face litigation if they went ahead under the original rules. Based on "the timing of the Supreme Court's decision in Adarand," said the commission in a written statement, the regulators decided to drop special benefits based on race and gender, including a 25 percent bidding credit that would have been available to companies run by women or minorities. Instead, the 25 percent credit will be available to all small companies. The statement said the commission hoped to "avoid delay caused by legal challenges to the existing rules that would likely result from the Supreme Court's ruling in Adarand." Bidders have until July 28 to file information with the commission on their financial structures. The commission added that "its tentative conclusion to eliminate race and gender-based measures does not indicate that the agency has concluded that race or gender-based measures are inappropriate for future spectrum auctions. (Kennedy Maize/19950705/Press Contact: Stacey Reuben Mesa, 202-418-0654) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 07/05/95 LEGAL Novell Sets Up Washington DC Lobbying Office (NEWS)(LEGAL)(WAS)(00020) Novell Sets Up Washington DC Lobbying Office 07/05/95 WASHINGTON, D.C., U.S.A., 1995 JUL 5 (NB) -- Novell is setting up a Washington lobbying office and has hired a top lobbyist away from the Council on Competitiveness, a private public policy group that is working on the information superhighway. The new office, says the Orem, Utah, software company, "will enable Novell to work more directly with industry trade associations and federal officials on such critical issues as development of the national information infrastructure, protection of intellectual property, and advancement of fair and competitive markets within the world computer and telecommunications industries." Novell has hired Daniel Burton as vice president for government relations and head of the new office. He was president of the Council on Competitiveness. "As the leader in networking, Novell is playing an integral role in America's transition to a networked economy," said Burton. "That transition brings with it a great deal of change and new challenges for government in ensuring intellectual property rights, open markets and a level playing field. I see tremendous opportunity at Novell to help make the networked economy grow in a way that benefits both technology suppliers and users." Before joining the Council on Competitiveness, Burton was executive director of the Economic Policy Council in New York. He holds degrees from Columbia University, the University of Pennsylvania, and the Sorbonne. (Kennedy Maize/19950705/Press Contact: Rebecca Faulkner, 801-429-7997) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 07/05/95 ONLINE AOL Tops 3 Million Subscribers (NEWS)(ONLINE)(WAS)(00021) AOL Tops 3 Million Subscribers 07/05/95 VIENNA, VIRGINIA, U.S.A., 1995 JUL 5 (NB) -- America Online (NASDAQ: AMER) says it now has three million subscribers, and has announced a new corporate structure to support the rapid growth experienced by the online services company. "Our business has grown 10-fold in the past two years, from 300,000 to three million subscribers," said Steve Case, president and chief executive officer. "Our success has been driven by the combination of content, context, community, connectivity, and cost." AOL has also reorganized into three operating divisions: AOL Services, led by Ted Leonsis; AOL Technologies, led by Mike Connors; and AOL New Enterprises, led by David Cole. All three will report directly to Case, as will Len Leader, chief of finance and administration, and Jean Villanueva, head of corporate communications. AOL Services will oversee the company's consumer offerings, including the flagship America Online and the soon-to-be-launched GNN service. AOL Technologies will be responsible for research and development, technology licensing and joint ventures, and member support functions including billing and sales. AOL New Enterprises will oversee the company's expansion into international markets, strategic planning, and technology alliances. "Our new structure -- organized based on markets and customers, rather than products and technologies -- sharpens our areas of focus, to enable our company to continue to grow rapidly," said Case. "This also cuts my direct reports in half, enabling me to spend less time on managing day-to-day operations and more time on strategic matters." Founded in 1985, AOL has established strategic relationships with a wide range of companies, including Time Warner, ABC, Knight-Ridder, Tribune, Hachette, IBM and American Express. (Kennedy Maize/19950705/Press Contact: Pam McGraw, 703-556-3746) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 07/05/95 HEALTH Microsoft Exec To Keynote Healthcare Conference (NEWS)(HEALTH)(DEN)(00022) Microsoft Exec To Keynote Healthcare Conference 07/05/95 REDMOND, WASHINGTON, U.S.A., 1995 JUL 5 (NB) -- Steve Ballmer, executive vice president of worldwide sales and support at Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ: MSFT) will present the keynote speech at the Windows on Healthcare conference set for Seattle next month. The three-day run, which opens August 6 at the Westin Hotel in Seattle, is sponsored by the Microsoft Healthcare Users Group (MSHUG). Organizers said the first annual event will showcase current technology and future innovations in information management for the healthcare industry. Ballmer said he will discuss challenges information professional face in the rapidly changing healthcare industry and will highlight "real-life solutions" based on Microsoft technologies. His speech will be at 8am on August 7. A conference spokesperson told Newsbytes the registration fee is $395 for MSHUG members who register by July 6, and $495 for non-members registering by the deadline. After that date, the cost will be $450 and $550 for members and non-members respectively. According to Mark McDougall, executive director of MSHUG, the conference is a forum for exchanging information and uses of Microsoft technologies. It is also a way for healthcare professionals to let Microsoft and other companies know what users think of their products. "In addition to learning new ways of solving health-care business problems, participants can use the conference as an opportunity to supply Microsoft and exhibiting companies with feedback to further improve their products and services for the health-care industry," said McDougall. Examples of real-world uses of Microsoft products in the healthcare industry are scheduled by Boston Emergency Services Team, Deaconess Health System, Intermountain Health Care Inc., the Orlando Health Care Group, Rochester General Hospital, and the UCLA Medical Center. (Jim Mallory/19950705/Press contact: Rachel Weikum, Waggener Edstrom for Microsoft, 503-245-0905; Public contact: MSHUG, 313-973-1995, Microsoft, 206-882-8080 or 800-426-9400, 216-425-8333 for registration and conference information) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 07/05/95 BUSINESS ****IBM Tender For Lotus Completed (NEWS)(BUSINESS)(TOR)(00023) ****IBM Tender For Lotus Completed 07/05/95 ARMONK, NEW YORK, U.S.A., 1995 JUL 5 (NB) -- IBM (NYSE:IBM) said it completed its tender offer for common stock of Lotus Development Corp. (NASDAQ:LOTS) today. About 97 percent of the software company's 47.4 million outstanding shares were tendered in response to the $64-a-share takeover offer, IBM reported. IBM, which announced its takeover bid for Lotus at the beginning of June, said it expects the merger to be completed today. At that point, officials said, a subsidiary of IBM will acquire the remaining Lotus shares. As Newsbytes reported June 5, IBM revealed the $3.3-billion cash offer with a surprise telephone call to Jim Manzi, president and chief executive of Lotus. IBM said it had been pursuing friendly negotiations with Lotus toward a proposed purchase since early this year. The company said it launched the hostile takeover as the quickest way of bringing the two firms together. Earlier, the United States Justice Department decided not to stand in the way of the acquisition. The government's antitrust watchdogs have investigated other takeovers in the computer industry in recent months, notably blocking Microsoft's planned acquisition of Intuit Inc. Richard Morochove, a Toronto-based computer consultant, told Newsbytes that taking over Lotus is potentially a good move for IBM. However, he said, the value of the deal to IBM will depend largely on how well the computer giant deals with Lotus' greatest asset: its people. "The challenge is keeping people at Lotus happy while getting them to move in ways advantageous to IBM," Morochove commented. IBM officials told Newsbytes earlier that they were interested in Lotus because of various "compatibilities," including a shared interest in groupware and team computing. Notes, a workgroup application development platform, is currently Lotus' most talked-about product and probably a central reason for IBM's interest in the firm. (Grant Buckler/19950705/Press Contact: Rob Wilson, IBM, 914-765-6565) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 07/05/95 TELECOM Belgian Govt Considers 4 Investors In Belgacom (NEWS)(TELECOM)(LON)(00024) Belgian Govt Considers 4 Investors In Belgacom 07/05/95 BRUSSELS, BELGIUM, 1995 JUL 5 (NB) -- The Belgian Government has revealed that preliminary bid proposals for an equity investor in Belgacom are now closed. The aim of the move, Government officials said, is to prepare the way for the move to a free (open) telecoms market in Belgium on January 1, 1998, the date mandated by the European Commission. Like Germany, the Belgian Government has dragged its feet over the privatization of Belgacom, as well as opening its markets up. The result, although favorable in the profits stakes in the short run, is a now widely-recognized stagnation of the telecoms market, a situation that Belgacom and the Government are trying hard to dispel. Unfortunately, Newsbytes notes, the situation may be getting out of hand in Belgium, as several international companies are now "creaming off" the lucrative company international business, leaving less profitable sections of the market, such as residential traffic and "equal access" to individual ATCs (alternative telecom carriers), while the majors adopt the same short termism attitude that the Government has fostered. According to Belgian press reports, four companies -- Ameritech, Stet of Italy, the Dutch PTT/Swiss PTT, and British Telecom/Bell Atlantic -- are bidding for a 25 percent stake in Belgacom. The book is still open on bids, and, according to Elio Di Rupo, the Belgian Telecoms Minister, the highest bidder is likely to be the one that succeeds. Speaking with journalists at an economic forum in Switzerland over the weekend, Di Rupo said that, though the highest bidder approach will be profitable for the telco in the short run, "it will be more difficult to assure its future." As previously reported by Newsbytes, British Telecom (BT) is closely allied with Bell Atlantic on a joint bid for a stake in Belgacom. BT and Belgacom have been "bed partners" for some years on the international telecoms front, and BT has expressed an interest in taking an equity investment in the Belgian telco over the past few years. Belgacom is on target to privatize at least part of its operations later this year, in preparation for the January 1, 1998, open telecoms market date set by the European Commission (EC). Belgacom officials have discussed previously that the first stage of the privatization will involve a sell-off of 25 percent of the company. The second stage of privatization is expected to take place in 1997, when a further 24 percent of the company -- leaving the Government with a controlling 51 percent -- is expected to be sold off. (Sylvia Dennis/19950705/Press & Reader Contact: Belgacom, tel +32-2-202-9736, fax +32-2-202-2417) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 07/05/95 IBM IBM Signs Biggest European IT Outsourcing Deal (NEWS)(IBM)(LON)(00025) IBM Signs Biggest European IT Outsourcing Deal 07/05/95 STUTTGART, GERMANY, 1995 JUL 5 (NB) -- IBM has announced the signing of its biggest-ever information technology (IT) outsourcing deal. Terms of the contract call for Big Blue to create a joint venture company called ICA Informationsysteme Consulting and Applications, with Continental AG's information processing division, the company that is handling the outsourcing. The deal is interesting, since Big Blue took over Continental's computing and network activities last year. IBM will take a 74.9 percent equity stake in ICA's operation, while Continental will take on the remaining 25.1 percent. Although IBM has not revealed specific details of the deal, German press reports suggest that the deal could be worth as much $1.5 billion over the next five years, pushing IBM's European outsourcing contracts to $5 billion a year. (Sylvia Dennis/19950705/Press & Reader Contact: IBM Deutschland, tel +49-711-7850, fax +49-711-3511) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 07/05/95 BUSINESS Exabyte Opens Pan-European Call Center (NEWS)(BUSINESS)(LON)(00026) Exabyte Opens Pan-European Call Center 07/05/95 UTRECHT, THE NETHERLANDS, 1995 JUL 5 (NB) -- Exabyte, a tape storage products manufacturer, has opened a new pan-European call center in Utrecht, the Netherlands. Initially, the $1 million center will handle sales and technical support calls from the UK and Germany, with plans to offer toll-free access across all of Eastern and Western Europe. The UK toll-free number is 0800-966172, while the German number is 0031-800-5330. According to officials with Exabyte, the call center is the result of a major investment by the company to centralize its telephone sales and support operations. By enabling data at the center to be constantly updated, Exabyte claims that its service to dealers and customers is greatly improved. Joop van der Knapp, director of international sales at the center, said the computer database uses "efficient solutions" and call tracking facilities to offer an improved service. "Our worldwide database enabled customers to benefit from accumulated problem solutions experience and allows us to improve our products by gathering data systematically," he said. The center's sales operation is open between 9am to 5:30pm CET (Central European Time) during weekdays, with support facilities open on an extended hours basis. According to van der Knapp, a similar sales and support operation should be up and running for France by later this summer, and other country roll-outs are planned for next year. "By bridging sales and technical departments, Exabyte guarantees that customers will receive comprehensive support and a wide variety of information, always in their native language," he said, adding that, with the opening of the European support center, service to resellers will be greatly improved in the UK and German markets. It will also, he said, give end users direct access to the company, if they prefer this facility. "The service provided by Exabyte is unrivaled with the opening of the European Call Center, and will bring us closer to end-users. End-users will now have, for the first time, direct access to the manufacturer for immediate support and technical expertise," he said. (Sylvia Dennis/19950705/Press Contact: Keith Mason, Harvard PR, tel +44-181-759-0005, fax +44-181-897-3242, Internet e-mail keith@harvard.mhs.compuserve.com ; Reader Contact: Exabyte Corp., tel 303-417-7872, fax 303-417-7501) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 07/05/95 NETWORK RAD Extends Range Of Statistical Multiplexers (NEWS)(NETWORK)(LON)(00027) RAD Extends Range Of Statistical Multiplexers 07/05/95 TEL AVIV, ISRAEL, 1995 JUL 5 (NB) -- RAD Data Communications has added the STM-16, 8/HS, and 16/HS to its range of statistical multiplexers. According to the company, the STM-16 multiplexes up to 16 asynchronous channels on to a composite link of up to 38,400 bits-per-second (bps), while the heavier duty STM-8/HS and STM-16/HS multiplexes (muxes), respectively, eight and 16 channels onto a 64,000 bps data stream. Ron Vilozny, RAD's product marketing manager for packet switching, said that network managers and systems integrators now have a full range of STM muxes to choose from. The complete range of STM devices now consists of eight muxes -- spanning two, four, eight, 16 and 24 channel devices -- with the eight, 16 and 24 channel systems available in high speed versions. "The variety of models provides maximum flexibility in implementing and expanding any kind of shared access application. Banks and other service oriented organizations that rely heavily on terminal to host connectivity are major users of STM muxes," he explained. The idea behind the muxes is that companies that use X.25 or frame relay circuits for their wide area connectivity can take advantage of the fact that, when the STM device is connected to a RAD PAD (packet assembler/disassembler), its asynchronous channels take on all the properties of PAD channels. Vilozny claims that STM muxes provide X.25 or frame relay access for around $100 per asynchronous channel, which is significantly less than the cost per channel of any packet switching access device. (Steve Gold/19950705/Press Contact: Llan Siedner, +972-3-645-8181; Reader Contact: tel +972-3-645-8181, fax +972-3-498250; US Office, tel 201-529-1100, fax 201-529-5777/RAD950705/PHOTO) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 07/05/95 BUSINESS Quarterdeck Acquires Landmark Research Int'l (NEWS)(BUSINESS)(SFO)(00028) Quarterdeck Acquires Landmark Research Int'l 07/05/95 SANTA MONICA, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1995 JUL 5 (NB) -- Landmark Research International Corp., a utilities developer of PC products, has been acquired by Quarterdeck (NASDAQ:QDECK) for 3.5 million shares of Quarterdeck common stock. Known for WINProbe and MagnaRAM, a new memory expanding software, privately-held Landmark is expected to further strengthen Quarterdeck's utility products for the Windows 95 market. In a recent interview with Newsbytes, Gaston Bastiaens, Quarterdeck's president and chief executive officer, said, "Now that we have reorganized, we are ready to add and capable of adding, those companies which will advance and strengthen our position in the market." Analysts contend that more strategic moves may be on the cards for Quarterdeck. Bastiaens has turned the company around by organizing it into three new business groups: the utilities group, for which it is well known; a new group involving Internet and World Wide Web products; and a remote computing products group. The company has attracted a lot of media attention recently with the delivery of its Internet products. With these products developed and shipped, Quarterdeck says it is now strengthening is utilities group with Landmark's MagnaRAM and WINProbe. MagnaRAM, a relatively new software technology which expands existing memory, is expected to become popular as users need to increase existing memory to take full advantage of Microsoft's Windows 95 (still on target for Aug. 24). WINProbe is a diagnostic and correction tool for hardware and its configuration. It also allows users to monitor Windows functions and optimize Windows resources and available RAM. While MagnaRAM strengthens Quarterdeck's memory utilities, WINProbe brings new diagnostic and management technology to the company's utilities offerings. Both products will be available this fall in Windows 95 versions and are compatible with QEMM, Quarterdeck's main source of revenue. Currently, they are available as standard Windows products. A Florida-based company, Landmark is to become a wholly owned subsidiary of Quarterdeck and will continue to operate out of its existing headquarters. Quarterdeck also said Mike Siewruk, president and founder of Landmark, agreed to continue managing Landmark and its 130 employees. In a 12-month period ending March 31, 1995, Landmark posted net revenues totaling approximately $13 million, with a pre-tax margin approximating 20%. The posted figures indicate a growth rate exceeding 30% annually. Along with the utilities, Quarterdeck says Landmark's direct marketing methods and success compliments Quarterdeck's strong channel presence. For Landmark, the deal means its products will become part of Quarterdeck's international distribution. The global exposure of Landmark products is a big change from its base of US small office and home users. (Patrick McKenna/19950705/Press Contact: Rolph Rudestam, The Rudestam Group, 310-314-4215) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 07/05/95 LEGAL Parsons Ships Family Lawyer Legal Forms Software (NEWS)(LEGAL)(DEN)(00029) Parsons Ships Family Lawyer Legal Forms Software 07/05/95 HIAWATHA, IOWA, U.S.A., 1995 JUL 5 (NB) -- Parsons Technology is shipping Quicken Family Lawyer, a computer program that prepares 61 legal documents and customizes them for most states. Quicken Family Lawyer is an upgrade to the company's earlier product, It's Legal. The company said there are so many new features in the software it decided to change the name. The Quicken portion of the title refers to the ownership of Parsons Technology by Intuit, a California company that publishes the personal financial software program Quicken. Intuit was nearly acquired by Microsoft Corp. recently until the federal government raised so many objections to the merger that Microsoft decided to forego the deal. Parsons said forms in Family Lawyer can be prepared through an interview method that creates the documents based on answers to questions, or a "fill-in-the-blank" format. The company said the interview method is similar to the questions an attorney might ask in preparing a legal document for a client. Several new documents have been added to Family Lawyer, including an authorization for transfer of medical records, stop payment on a check, a small claims court worksheet, and an organ donation card. There is also a legal reference tool that helps the user find the correct document and explains how various documents might be used together. Family Lawyer also has Document Suggests, which asks a series of questions regarding the user's personal or business situation. The program uses those answers to print a list of suggested documents for the user to consider creating. A spelling checker has been added to Family Lawyer, and password protection is available to provide document security from prying eyes. Quicken Family Lawyer has a suggested retail price of $49, and is available for the Macintosh, Power Macintosh, DOS, and Windows platforms. (Jim Mallory/19950705/Press contact: Joan Dyal, Parsons Technology, 319-395-9626; Public contact: Parsons Technology, tel 319-395-9626 or fax 319-395-0217) Newsbytes Daily Summary 07/05/95 MINNEAPOLIS, MINNESOTA, U.S.A., 1995 JUL 5 (NB) -- These are capsules of all today's news stories: ======================================================================== ------------| N E W S B Y T E S D A I L Y S U M M A R Y |---------- ------------| Wednesday, July 5, 1995 |---------- ======================================================================== (c) Newsbytes News Network (Tm) Editor in Chief: Wendy Woods ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Newsbytes News Network is a computer and telecom industry news wire and digitized picture service. Our news stream includes more than 30 daily first-hand reported US and international news stories about computing and telecommunications. For more information, please e-mail to 'administrator@newsbytes.com' ------------------------------------------------------------------------ CATEGORY HEADLINES (*** indicates today's top stories) STORY # ======================================================================== BUSINESS Siemens Plans $1 Billion Investment In India............... 01 BUSINESS Germany - Cable & Wireless Buys Stake In Vebacom........... 07 BUSINESS ****NEC Takes Stake In Packard Bell....................... 12 BUSINESS ****IBM Tender For Lotus Completed........................ 23 BUSINESS Exabyte Opens Pan-European Call Center..................... 26 BUSINESS Quarterdeck Acquires Landmark Research Int'l............... 28 GENERAL Japan Newsbriefs........................................... 11 GENERAL Creative Computers Offers Networking Catalog............... 14 GENERAL Softbank Comdex Announces Uniforum Growth Plans............ 18 GENERAL Parsons Ships Family Lawyer Legal Forms Software........... 29 GOVT FCC Revises Auction Rules.................................. 19 HEALTH Microsoft Exec To Keynote Healthcare Conference............ 22 IBM UK - IBM's Community Connection Awards Scheme.............. 08 IBM IBM Signs Biggest European IT Outsourcing Deal............. 25 LEGAL Novell Sets Up Washington DC Lobbying Office............... 20 NETWORK Alcatel's "Any-to-Any" LAN Switch Technology............... 03 NETWORK Novell UK Begins Aggressive Upgrade Campaign............... 06 NETWORK Artisoft Cuts LANtastic Price.............................. 15 NETWORK RAD Extends Range Of Statistical Multiplexers.............. 27 ONLINE Internet Update............................................ 04 ONLINE Internet Broadcasting From Radio 99 Int'l.................. 05 ONLINE AOL Tops 3 Million Subscribers............................. 21 TELECOM Boston Technology Intros Switches, Software For PCS........ 16 TELECOM Belgian Govt Considers 4 Investors In Belgacom............. 24 TRENDS Nokia Backs Sony/Philips High Density CD Format............ 02 TRENDS ****Survey Reveals Changing Web User Base................. 10 TRENDS Microsoft's Gates World's Richest Person................... 13 WINDOWS Reflex Plans Windows 95 Virus Scanner...................... 09 WINDOWS Canadian Publisher Offers Securities CD-ROM................ 17 ======================================================================== These are the headlines and first paragraphs of each story, in order: 1 -> Siemens Plans $1 Billion Investment In India -- Siemens has announced plans to invest as much as $1 billion in India over the next five years, subject to approval by the Indian Government. 2 -> Nokia Backs Sony/Philips High Density CD Format -- In a move that will bolster support for the new high density multimedia compact disk (MMCD) format, Nokia has announced it is joining Philips and Sony on the project. 3 -> Alcatel's "Any-to-Any" LAN Switch Technology -- Alcatel Data Networks has launched the Alcatel 1100 LSS switch, an intelligent device which reportedly supports interworking between any combination of ATM (asynchronous transfer mode), Token-Ring and FDDI (fiber distributed data interface) networks. 4 -> Internet Update -- In this roundup of new resources and services on the Internet: Webseek Search Software; Mozilla Museum; Shareware Authors Association; Mac Web Lurker; Newspaper Debuts; Netscape Additions; Global Trade Center; Wrapped Reichstag. 5 -> Internet Broadcasting From Radio 99 Int'l -- A US Internet backbone and service provider is planning to enter the broadcasting business in August when its very own radio station debuts on the Internet. The new station, Radio 99 International, won't just be another music station either, the firm plans "genuine international radio" for an international audience. 6 -> Novell UK Begins Aggressive Upgrade Campaign -- Following on from the recent explanation at the Networks '95 show of the way in which Novell sees its future panning out, the company has announced a European upgrade offer of 20 percent discount on copies of NetWare 4.1 and GroupWise 4.1. 7 -> Germany - Cable & Wireless Buys Stake In Vebacom -- Cable & Wireless has agreed to pay DM1.9 billion for a 45 percent stake in Vebacom, the German telecoms and technology group. 8 -> UK - IBM's Community Connection Awards Scheme -- IBM has announced a UKP250,000 community and cultural award scheme, known as the "IBM Community Connection Awards." 9 -> Reflex Plans Windows 95 Virus Scanner -- Reflex Magnetics has revealed it is working on a new virus scanner for Windows '95. Known under the code name of Hunter, the package is expected to ship in parallel with Windows '95. 10 -> ****Survey Reveals Changing Web User Base -- Users of the Internet's World Wide Web are more likely to be accessing via a commercial Internet provider than an educational or corporate connection, using a Windows-based computer than one running a Unix operating system, and be connecting from California than from anywhere else. Those are some of the key results of the third semi-annual Web survey by Georgia Tech. 11 -> Japan Newsbriefs -- In this roundup of news from Japan: Strong start for PHS; NTT heads for China; Kyushu Matsushita online; NTT and ITT extend contract; Matsushita in China capacitor deal. 12 -> ****NEC Takes Stake In Packard Bell -- NEC Corporation of Japan has taken a near 20% stake in Packard Bell Electronics Inc. and established a global alliance with the American computer company. 13 -> Microsoft's Gates World's Richest Person -- Bill Gates, Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ: MSFT) chairman and chief executive officer, is the richest person in the world, according to the annual list published by Forbes magazine. The software mogul was second in the world and first in the US last year. 14 -> Creative Computers Offers Networking Catalog -- Creative Computers Inc. (NASDAQ:MALL) is introducing DataCom Mall, a catalog featuring networking and data communications-related hardware and software products. This is the third catalog Creative Computers has introduced in the last year. 15 -> Artisoft Cuts LANtastic Price -- Artisoft Inc. (NASDAQ:ASFT) has announced a price cut for its LANtastic Dedicated Server software, and has also simplified the package offerings. 16 -> Boston Technology Intros Switches, Software For PCS -- Boston Technology's new Access NP switches and AccessMax development software will "extend the functionality" of the vendor's product lineup into applications ranging from to new multimedia personal communications services (PCS) from large phone companies to voice/fax messaging for smaller wireless carriers, maintained Bob Slezak, executive VP of research and development (R&D). 17 -> Canadian Publisher Offers Securities CD-ROM -- Carswell, a unit of the international Thomson publishing and business empire, has announced a new CD-ROM, meant for personal computers running Microsoft Windows, that contains information on the Canadian securities market. 18 -> Softbank Comdex Announces Uniforum Growth Plans -- Trade-show operator Softbank Comdex Inc. has announced expansion plans for the UniForum show and conference. Softbank will run UniForum Showcases at its 1996 Enterprise Computing Solutions and Windows World shows in Atlanta and Comdex/Canada in Toronto, and will run an Enterprise Computing Solutions show in San Francisco in February of next year. 19 -> FCC Revises Auction Rules -- Faced with a new Supreme Court ruling casting doubt on minority set-aside programs, the Federal Communications Commission has delayed its next auction for advanced personal communications services licenses and proposed changes to the bidding rules. 20 -> Novell Sets Up Washington DC Lobbying Office -- Novell is setting up a Washington lobbying office and has hired a top lobbyist away from the Council on Competitiveness, a private public policy group that is working on the information superhighway. 21 -> AOL Tops 3 Million Subscribers -- America Online (NASDAQ: AMER) says it now has three million subscribers, and has announced a new corporate structure to support the rapid growth experienced by the online services company. 22 -> Microsoft Exec To Keynote Healthcare Conference -- Steve Ballmer, executive vice president of worldwide sales and support at Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ: MSFT) will present the keynote speech at the Windows on Healthcare conference set for Seattle next month. 23 -> ****IBM Tender For Lotus Completed -- IBM (NYSE:IBM) said it completed its tender offer for common stock of Lotus Development Corp. (NASDAQ:LOTS) today. About 97 percent of the software company's 47.4 million outstanding shares were tendered in response to the $64-a-share takeover offer, IBM reported. 24 -> Belgian Govt Considers 4 Investors In Belgacom -- The Belgian Government has revealed that preliminary bid proposals for an equity investor in Belgacom are now closed. The aim of the move, Government officials said, is to prepare the way for the move to a free (open) telecoms market in Belgium on January 1, 1998, the date mandated by the European Commission. 25 -> IBM Signs Biggest European IT Outsourcing Deal -- IBM has announced the signing of its biggest-ever information technology (IT) outsourcing deal. 26 -> Exabyte Opens Pan-European Call Center -- Exabyte, a tape storage products manufacturer, has opened a new pan-European call center in Utrecht, the Netherlands. Initially, the $1 million center will handle sales and technical support calls from the UK and Germany, with plans to offer toll-free access across all of Eastern and Western Europe. 27 -> RAD Extends Range Of Statistical Multiplexers -- RAD Data Communications has added the STM-16, 8/HS, and 16/HS to its range of statistical multiplexers. 28 -> Quarterdeck Acquires Landmark Research Int'l -- Landmark Research International Corp., a utilities developer of PC products, has been acquired by Quarterdeck (NASDAQ:QDECK) for 3.5 million shares of Quarterdeck common stock. Known for WINProbe and MagnaRAM, a new memory expanding software, privately-held Landmark is expected to further strengthen Quarterdeck's utility products for the Windows 95 market. 29 -> Parsons Ships Family Lawyer Legal Forms Software -- Parsons Technology is shipping Quicken Family Lawyer, a computer program that prepares 61 legal documents and customizes them for most states. (Ian Stokell/1990705) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 07/03/95 ONLINE Free E-Mail With Postage Stamp "Ads" (NEWS)(ONLINE)(BOS)(00001) Free E-Mail With Postage Stamp "Ads" 07/03/95 CAMBRIDGE, MASSACHUSETTS, U.S.A., 1995 JUL 3 (NB) -- A move by ProductView Interactive, newly renamed "Freemark Communications," to offer free electronic-mail starting this fall will widen the market for online services, while at the same time giving companies a new method of electronic advertising, maintained Robert Young, company president, in an interview with Newsbytes. In the upcoming "FreeMark Mail" system, users will compose their messages offline, employing free software in which each piece of e-mail appears on screen as an "envelope" postmarked with the logo of an advertiser, according to Young. Each user will get a free mailbox in the FreeMark domain on the Internet. Users will be able to send messages to, and receive e-mail from, any other FreeMark user, or any Internet address. Communications services will also be free of charge, said the company chief. When e-mail is sent from a FreeMark Mail user to a different online service, or to any other non-FreeMark address on the Internet, the recipient will not see the advertising. FreeMark users will double-click on the envelope to read mail messages. Then, if they want more information, they can click on an advertiser's banner at the bottom of the screen, which will bring them to a third screen providing a special promotion or other message. Young told Newsbytes that the new e-mail system, which is now under development with advertisers, will widen the market for online services due to its "ease of use," as well as its "free" pricetag. Market researchers project that, by the end of this year, 40 million US homes will be equipped with PCs, he asserted. But of today's 100 million PC users, only six million are employing online services, he pointed out. E-mail is the simplest kind of online communications for a PC novice to learn to use, and FreeMark's graphical user interface (GUI) will make it even easier, he contended. "Our software will initially be Windows-based, but very shortly, we'll come out with a Mac-based version," Newsbytes was told. After consumers' "appetites have been whetted" by the free e-mail, FreeMark plans to add other services, as well, Young added. "But we'll do this based on consumer demand, only. We're trying to adjust to the realities of the marketplace. We don't believe, for instance, that online `chatting' will ever become that ubiquitous. Everyone doesn't type 100 words a minute, and not everybody is able to follow threads," he continued. FreeMark has carried out some focus groups with consumers already, and intends to conduct some more, according to the company president. The response to the FreeMark concept has been "highly enthusiastic," among consumers and advertisers alike, Young maintained. Unlike competing forms of advertising, FreeMark calls for no "upfront media buy," he elaborated. Advertisers will be charged only after being shown "audit proof" that their ads have been seen. In addition, advertisers will be able to "target" their ads to specific demographic groups, by placing their stamps on certain users' envelopes only, Young added. For example, tobacco companies, which "are not supposed to advertise to people under 18," will be able to make sure that their stamps go out only to adults, he illustrated. When signing up for FreeMark, users will be asked to provide information as to gender, age, and address, "or, at least, zip code," said Young. From time to time, users will also be asked to provide other demographic information, answering questions like, "Do you own a cat?" But answering these questions will be optional. "We will never reveal the names of our users, or sell mailing lists containing their names, without their consent," vowed Young. The FreeMark concept holds particular appeal to packaged goods companies, according to Young. "If you're a car manufacturer, you might put up a Web page. But if you're a fast food company, you're unlikely to try to sell your hamburgers via a Web page," he noted. Young did not deny that online advertising can be intrusive. "I'd be the first to admit that it can," he told Newsbytes. But, he added, consumers are already accepting advertising as the price to pay for free radio and TV programming. Users can also "gain" from the ads -- especially when the ads are targeted by demographics -- by receiving free information and promotional offers on products and services of particular interest, according to Young. Generally, only one advertiser's stamp will be affixed per envelope, he said. But in adherence to a similar model to that of the US Post Office, the number of stamps used will vary according to the length of the message. A very long message, or a message with an attached file, might get extra stamps, he added. (Jacqueline Emigh/19950630/Reader Contact: FreeMark Communications, 617-492-6600; Press Contact: Michelle Goodall of Pamela Hamilton, Schwartz Communications for FreeMark, 617-431-0770) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 07/03/95 ONLINE Business Incubator Offers Free Stock Quotes By E-Mail (NEWS)(ONLINE)(DEN)(00002) Business Incubator Offers Free Stock Quotes By E-Mail 07/03/95 BOZEMAN, MONTANA, U.S.A., 1995 JUL 3 (NB) -- A technology incubator has announced it will provide free stock quotations to anyone interested who has an electronic-mail service with an Internet connection. That makes millions of PC users eligible to receive the service, since subscribers to America Online, CompuServe, MCI Mail, GEnie, and Prodigy, as well as other online subscription services, can receive e-mail via the Internet. The Bozeman Technology Incubator (BTI) said interested users can automatically receive closing prices of stocks and mutual funds. The user can specify the number of shares they own in each of the companies and/or funds and receive a personal portfolio valuation in their daily mail. There is no charge for the service. The standard report includes the same information commonly found in newspaper listing. Users can make changes, adds and deletions to report content and format. More than 19,000 stock, mutual funds and market indices on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE), AMEX, and NASDAQ are available. Greg Gianforte, managing director of the Bozeman Technology Incubator, said the service is hassle-free to the user. "We're saving subscribers the time and hassle of dialing out and logging onto an on-line service," said Gianforte. Gianforte said the decision to make the service free of charge was driven by the long-term goals of the business incubator. "We want to see what level of interest we can generate in this type of e-mail service. The feedback we get from subscribers will be very useful to use. To subscribe to the service send an electronic-mail message to "prices@bozeman.com " (without the quotation marks) and without any subject or text in the body of the message. You will receive return e-mail indicating what information the incubator operator needs to provide your customized market report. BTI spokesperson Lenny Liebmann told Newsbytes the electronic addresses used to provide the market reports will not be sold to other companies desiring to reach online businesses and individuals. Bozeman Technology Incubator was formed this year to help foster the creation of innovative computer and communications companies. (Jim Mallory/19950630/Press contact: Lenny Liebmann, IP&D, 908-872-8500; Public contact: Bozeman Technology Incubator, 406-585-0665, Internet e-mail to info@bozeman.com ) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 07/03/95 APPLE Now Calendar/Scheduler/Contact Mgr For Mac Update (NEWS)(APPLE)(DEN)(00003) Now Calendar/Scheduler/Contact Mgr For Mac Update 07/03/95 PORTLAND, OREGON, U.S.A., 1995 JUL 3 (NB) -- Now Software Inc. has announced upgrades to Now Up-To-Date and Now Contact version 3.5, calendar, contact manager, and workgroup scheduler software for the Macintosh and Power Macintosh. The new versions of both programs feature Now QuickPad, a tool the company said speeds call planning and task management by providing an intelligent notepad that automatically looks up and links information back to the underlying calendar and address book. QuickPad allows the user to jot down to-dos and calls on-the-fly without interrupting the task at hand. It appears as a note window at the press of a user-defined hot key, and analyzes the information as it is being entered. In an example cited by Now Software, when a user enters "call John Adams," the software looks up Adams' number and company name and displays it. When the note is closed it is immediately filed to the correct date and time in the calendar and added to the contact history for Adams. The company said the upgraded software also has a new To-Do list that is available in all calendar views, wrapping banners, free-form comments entry in contact details, support for drag-and-drop, and improved group scheduling. The added drag-and-drop support lets the user drag or paste information from another application, then drag the data to rearrange it into the appropriate fields. You can also drag to-dos to set their priority. A new in-basket button in each calendar view alerts the user to incoming meeting invitations. The wrapping banners block time for group scheduling, and each meeting in a repeating series can have its own unique agenda. Now Software also offers Now Synchronize, a tool to synchronize a Newton PDA (personal digital assistant) with Now Up-to-Date and Now Contact desktop files. Now Synchronize has a suggested retail price of $49.95 and is available now. The company said version 3.5 of Now Up-to-Date and Now Contact are fully data-compatible with the Windows version of the products, which is scheduled to ship later this year. Mac and PC workgroup users in a client/server environment will be able to share calendars, schedules, and address books more easily, said the company. You can buy Now Contact and Now Up-to-Date in a bundle for a suggested retail price of $149, or separately for $99 each. Now Software also offers five-, 10- and 50-pack configurations. Users of version 3.0 of either product can upgrade to the bundled version 3.5 for $19.95. Earlier version users can upgrade for $29.95 for one of the products or $49.95 for the bundle by contacting Now Software. (Jim Mallory/19950630/Press contact: Linda Chung, Insync Partners for Now Software, 503-226-8235; Public contact: Now Software, tel 800-722-5963 or 503-274-2800, fax 503-274-0670, Internet World Wide Web http://infonowsoft.com ) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 07/03/95 TELECOM British Telecom Offers PC Comms Packages (NEWS)(TELECOM)(LON)(00004) British Telecom Offers PC Comms Packages 07/03/95 LONDON, ENGLAND, 1995 JUL 3 (NB) -- British Telecom (BT) has taken the wraps off a number of PC communications packages that it claims "offer solutions, not individual products." Marianne Hoilmes, BT's small business solutions manager, explained that the four packages launched at the Networks '95 computer show in the UK recently bring together a number of products and services that BT has offered or is introducing, into four "one-stop" bundles that offer a "sensible solution" to business users. "These new packages provide small- and medium-sized companies with easy to use and low-cost solutions -- for the first time -- to support internetworking and online communications. While there are more than two million small- and medium-sized companies in the UK using PCs, few realize the many business benefits PC-based communications can bring," she explained. The idea behind the introduction of the package is that companies can purchase parts or the whole product, and opt for different levels of maintenance. This flexibility also applies to the addition of new sites, which BT officials claim makes these packages "future proof." Package one comprises a Meridian Norstar Compact, a full digital key PABX (private automatic branch exchange) and structured cabling, and is billed as suitable for a single site operation. BT claims it is the first supplier to offer a company looking to upgrade its PABX, Category 5 cabling as part of the same package. Example pricing on the package, including a Meridian Norstar Compact 6 + 16 is UKP2,100, plus UKP1,500 for a 12 outlet structured cabling scheme. Package two is a system for allowing remote access to file transfer, electronic-mail and other data communications facilities. Known as LAN Connect, the package is billed as suitable for linking up to four sites, and uses a Cry bridge/router that connects PCs or LANs (local area networks) via an ISDN (integrated services digital networks) or Kilostream connection. A price example is for an ISDN installation, with two ISDN internetworking devices at UKP2,800, installation at UKP240, and two ISDN lines at UKP800. Package three is LANStar 2 with ISDN, which BT claims allows users to access the office network in the same way as their colleagues on site. Up to eight remote PCs with the appropriate software and cards can be linked over ISDN into the LAN. Example prices quoted by BT are LANStar 2 at UKP2,500, workstation cards at UKP995 and ISDN connection charges of around UKP800. Package four is ISDN for Workgroups, which links PCs up over ISDN establishing "virtual teams" working between any number of remote sites to share files and documents. ISDN for Workgroups is a joint collaboration between BT and Microsoft, as well as Acotec in Germany, the company that developed and supplied the software interface. Pricing on this system is UKP 999 for an entry level package for a single user. According to BT's Hoilmes, the telco has designed the packages so they are very easy to set up and use, enabling a company, in some cases, to install them themselves. Each component is compatible and is billed as providing a company with an integrated package, including full service from purchase through to delivery, installation and maintenance. (Steve Gold/19950630/Press Contact: Penn Communications, tel +44-181-569-9768, fax +44-181-569-9667, Internet e-mail pennpr@cix.compulink.co.uk ) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 07/03/95 WINDOWS Traveling Software Working On Laplink Host Software (NEWS)(WINDOWS)(LON)(00005) Traveling Software Working On Laplink Host Software 07/03/95 WINDSOR, BERKSHIRE, ENGLAND, 1995 JUL 3 (NB) -- Traveling Software is working on a comms package called LapLink Host, a Windows application designed to provide technical support, help desk and MIS (management information systems) staff with a reliable tool for remote management of PC systems. According to Neil Foster, a spokesman for Traveling Software's UK operation, LapLink Host will ship worldwide in the third quarter of this year and, although pricing has not yet been decided, it will price in under the cost of LapLink 6.0 for Windows. "LL 6.0 sells for around the UKP150 mark, so we'd expect to see this new package coming at something between the UKP100 and UKP120 mark," Foster told Newsbytes, adding that the package allows remote users to control and diagnose what is happening on a PC linked by modem or network. The aim of the package is that support technicians can use LL 6.0 for Windows together with LapLink Host to diagnose and resolve user problems, distribute new applications, and set up PCs remotely over an IPX (Internetwork Packet Exchange), Novell-compliant network or by modem. According to Traveling, LapLink Host maintains corporate security by preventing end-users from making outbound connections on their own, and is a "more affordable" software investment for large organizations. The package will also be aimed at hardware and software manufacturers, who are expected to use the package to ensure that resolutions to customer's problems are "quickly resolved." Traveling claims that Compaq is currently bundling a customized version of LapLink Host with its desktop computer range that allows Compaq's technical support staff to remotely take control of a customer's computer for diagnosing and resolving problems. LapLink Host reportedly has auto-installation, using a master installation feature that will allow technicians to configure and distribute customized host versions without complicated training or installation procedure. Using this approach, Traveling claims that end-users can install the package themselves at their convenience. In use, LapLink Host is set to disable outbound customer host PC connections, offering password protection to prevent tampering. The package can remotely control Windows '95, Windows 3.1 and DOS, as well as almost any native application, the company claims. (Steve Gold/19950630/Press Contact: Lindsay Brown Associates, tel +44-171-240-4460, fax +44-171-240-4460; Reader Contact: Traveling Software, tel +44-1753-818282, fax +44-1753-818280) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 07/03/95 GOVT European Commission Pushes "Single Market" (NEWS)(GOVT)(LON)(00006) European Commission Pushes "Single Market" 07/03/95 BRUSSELS, BELGIUM, 1995 JUL 3 (NB) -- A special advisory group to the European Commission (EC) has told the EC that it must urgently finish creating a "true single market" across Europe, in order to get Europe out of its current economic slump. The group, which has compiled a report which will be submitted to the EC/EU (European Union) summit in Cannes, France, this week, has been compiled by 13 business, economic, and trade union experts. According to a statement issued by the EC's headquarters in Brussels, the EC needs to end state monopolies, harmonize tax policies, and strengthen the pan-European infrastructure. As a stepping stone towards this economic nirvana, the advisory group has suggested that the EC member states remove the current national restrictions on government and agency purchases, as well as phasing in legislation to allow companies to be formed on a pan-European basis. Heading up the Competitiveness Advisory Group (CAG) is Carlo Ciampi, who said that the summit leaders must devote more of their attention to education and training. "Competitiveness for Europe, as for other advanced economies, depends crucially on the ability to invest in intangibles -- knowledge, skills, and creativity," he told reporters. According to Ciampi, the CAG report calls for higher-quality primary education and multimedia training that is "richer, more flexible, and more individual-oriented than what we have today." In addition, the report goes against current thinking by recommending that a single European currency should be introduced "as a matter of haste" in the EC member countries. It also recommends that telecoms liberalization be dramatically speeded up, in order to meet the January 1, 1998, deadline laid down by the EC, but with the proviso that the liberalization applies to all types of telecoms operations. As if all this were not enough, the report recommends that a new pan- European stock market be created, but operating on a smaller company basis, to encourage new companies to float on a pan-European basis. The recommendations will obviously take some working out at this week's summit meeting, Newsbytes notes, but the CAG suggests that if only a few of the recommendations are carried through, then the group will have achieved its purpose. (Sylvia Dennis/19950630/Press & Reader Contact: European Commission, +32-2-299-1111) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 07/03/95 ONLINE "The Planet's Moving Picture Show" On The Web (NEWS)(ONLINE)(MSP)(00007) "The Planet's Moving Picture Show" On The Web 07/03/95 CHICAGO, ILLINOIS, U.S.A., 1995 JUL 3 (NB) -- Short films and live cameras abound on television, but not necessarily on the Internet. Now, Ohio Valley Digital is bringing those media, among other forms, to the Internet's World Wide Web with "WorldCam - The Planet's Moving Picture Show." The Web site is a showcase for moving pictures, primarily short films. A television program is slated to spring from content that is on the site, along with regular features from a yet-to-be-announced repertory company of actors and writers from the Chicago area. "I've seen films that cross over, and come out with paperbacks based on movies, McDonalds cups, and cut across other areas," Dan Renaud, co-creator of WorldCam, told Newsbytes. "We wanted an Internet site that we could then take back into other mediums." Renaud said the site is very unique. "Someone once described it as 'America's Home Videos gets beat up by MTV and Wired,'" he said, "which is a fair description." The Internet medium can cause problems, though, when it comes to downloading the video clips from the Web site. This is a concern Renaud is well aware of. "We didn't want for the bandwidth to catch up with us. We did know this would be an interesting way for people to distribute their work. We thought it might be fun to take it back and make a television show out of it." Renaud added that download times are getting quicker, and the site does list tongue-in-cheek suggestions on what users can do while the videos are downloading, like "brushing your teeth, hugging your wife, and reading to your kids." Another major component of the site is "CamCorner," which is best described as a "clearinghouse of live cameras" that display images from around the world on different Web servers. Renaud said people can look at the intersection of Hollywood and Vine in Los Angeles, the "Hollywood" sign, the San Diego bay, and many other sites around the world. Another area on the site is devoted to words. The "Writer's Cramp" section features screenplay samples, interviews, and editorial content. Also, users can add the next line of dialog to a growing story called the "Graffiti Screenplay." Although the WorldCam is dubbed "The Planet's Moving Picture Show," the site itself stays still at http://www.e-mark.com/worldcam . (Bob Woods/19950628/Press Contact: Dan Renaud, Ohio Valley Digital, Inc., 708-733-1412. Public Contact: Internet World Wide Web http://www.e-mark.com/worldcam ) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 07/03/95 EDUCATION "Jack's House" Software For Kids (NEWS)(EDUCATION)(MSP)(00008) "Jack's House" Software For Kids 07/03/95 NORTHBROOK, ILLINOIS, U.S.A., 1995 JUL 3 (NB) -- A suburban Chicago mother, disturbed by what she called "aggressiveness, non-purposeful silliness, and loud noises" in children's software, has designed a new type of software for kids aged two through eight. Called "Softiware," the first title released under the new moniker is entitled "Jack's House." Vicki Esralew, president of Kids Count Entertainment, is the mom behind Jack's House, described as a game that celebrates the values of a "warm and loving" family environment. The game uses an easy point-and-click interface that kids in the two-to-eight age group can "easily use" without parental supervision. Esralew and her husband decided to create a new game because of what she saw as the lack of other good kids games on the market. "I had no idea what it would be like. I wanted to create software that talks up to kids, is inspiring, and is filled with positive subtleties." Hence, Softiware was born, she said. Kids can explore Jack's front yard, his bedroom, and his sister Robin's room. Objects can be clicked on to give "entertaining" results for kids. For example, the mother bird feeds her babies when she is clicked. And if kids want to leave Jack's room, they must "click off" the light. With the program, kids can learn about such things as the alphabet and colors, can sing songs, and learn about the solar system. The names Jack and Robin come from Esralew's own children, she told Newsbytes. A CD-ROM version of the game with more features will be released in about six weeks, Esralew said. Other games are also on the way, she added. Jack's House is available on either the Windows or Macintosh platforms, with a manufacturer's suggested retail price of $39.95 from a number of retailers. The product can also be ordered directly from the company. (Bob Woods/19950628/Press Contacts: Erica Swerdlow or Barbara Adler, EBS Public Relations, 708-714-8600. Public Contact: Kids Count Entertainment, 800-KIDS-345) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 1996 07/03/95 GENERAL Comdex UK Scheduled For April (NEWS)(GENERAL)(LON)(00009) Comdex UK Scheduled For April 1996 07/03/95 LONDON, ENGLAND, 1995 JUL 3 (NB) -- Softbank Comdex, the US-based company that produces Comdex Fall, which is claimed to be the world's most successful information technology (IT) trade show every November in Las Vegas, as well as 17 other IT trade events worldwide, has confirmed plans to bring the show to the UK for the first time. According to the company, Comdex UK aims to be the "premier business event" for the UK IT community and will take place on April 23-26 at the London Earls Court Center. The show will center around the usual Comdex major IT exhibition, at which major players will unveil new products and services. In addition, plans call for a series of "in-depth" technology showcases that will spotlight current and future key areas, such as networking, multimedia, open systems, and online services. As with Comdex Fall, plans also call for the UK show to have a number of high-profile keynote addresses from leading industry and user representatives that examine key trends in the IT business. Running in parallel with the exhibition will be more than 50 sessions that examine key trends in the IT industry, and "are carefully tailored to the interests and requirements of a UK audience." According to Peter Shaw, Softbank Comdex's vice president of marketing, recent research (the Banner Computer Readership survey) has shown that almost 90 percent of UK IT decision makers do not attend any IT trade shows. "We plan to transform that with a superbly planned and executed trade show that, for the first time, brings the Comdex style, professionalism and panache to the UK market," he said. Shaw went on to say that the UK market has a large population of IT users, resellers, and suppliers. "Companies are emerging from recession and looking afresh at ways in which they can exploit technology to gain competitive edge and business advantage. We think the time is definitely ripe to bring the excitement of the Comdex approach," he explained. So why wait until this late in the computer game to launch Comdex UK? The company claims that the decision to launch the show in the UK has been prompted by feedback from the company's multinational US-based exhibitors, who specified the UK as a high-priority market. According to Shaw, the UK launch also forms the next logical step in the company's strategy of consolidating its status as the worldwide leading provider of IT events. (Steve Gold/19950630/Press & Reader Contact: Softbank Comdex, tel +44-181-741-8899, fax +44-181-741-8833) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 07/03/95 TELECOM Italy's Sirti Signs Fiber Deal With Polish Telecom (NEWS)(TELECOM)(LON)(00010) Italy's Sirti Signs Fiber Deal With Polish Telecom 07/03/95 WARSAW, POLAND, 1995 JUL 3 (NB) -- Sirti, the Italian technology giant, has signed a 22 billion lire deal with Varsavia da Telekomunikacja Polska S.A. (Polish Telecom) for the installation of a fiber optic telecoms network spanning Poland. According to Polish Telecom, the fiber optic network will run to 1,400 kilometers of cabling spanning central and southern Poland. Plans call for Sirti to install fiber optic cabling that will be manufactured specially for the project by Pirelli, another Italian company. Despite the scale of the project, Sirti is starting work almost immediately in Poland on preparing the way for the new network, and the whole project, which will bring digital telephony and ISDN (integrated services digital networks) services to many areas of central and southern Poland, will be completed within 18 months. The project is the first one of its type in Poland and stems from the introduction of a new communications law which will be introduced in Poland this summer. As previously reported by Newsbytes, the new legislation, covering the provision of local loop services, allows smaller telecoms companies to offer telephone services alongside Polish Telecom, as well as in those areas or services where Polish Telecom does not offer products and services. The aim of the new legislation, as appears to be the case with the Sirti network, was to introduce real competition for all phone users for the first time. Foreign and national companies are now being invited to seek government licenses for providing local telecoms services, but international and long-distance connections will be continually exclusive to Telekom Polska. According to Andrzej Zielinski, the Polish Minister for Telecoms, around 20 percent of local telephones should be run by small firms by the year 2000. "We want to improve local telephone services by de- monopolizing the market. The process should be very quick, thanks to the new communication law, now awaiting signature of President Lech Walesa," he explained to reporters at last month's announcement of the change in legislation. (Sylvia Dennis/19950630/Press & Reader Contact: Sirti, fax +39-2-6774326) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 07/03/95 TELECOM Hungary Ups Phone Rates To Raise More Cash (NEWS)(TELECOM)(LON)(00011) Hungary Ups Phone Rates To Raise More Cash 07/03/95 BUDAPEST, HUNGARY, 1995 JUL 3 (NB) -- In a move that mirrors developments in Russia over the past few years, the state telecom company of Hungary has announced swinging increases in business telephone call costs to take effect from July 1. According to a release from Hungarian Ministry of Telecoms, Transportation and Water services, the price increases will be between seven and 35 percent, with the bulk of the major increases falling on peak-time trunk calls. Local off-peak calls are the least effected. The price cuts still mean that a 100 mile trunk call -- assuming you can get through -- will cost a third within Hungary of the equivalent call made in, say, the US or the UK. Conversely, however, the average wage -- and business profit levels -- are about a tenth of those in the West, which perhaps illustrates the problems the price increases pose for business subscribers in Hungary. One price increase that has got businesses in Hungary in an uproar is the decision to increase the price of local peak-rate calls by around 25 percent. Until July 1, a unit (7.5 forints) bought 150 seconds of peak-time local calls. From July 1 onwards, this same unit only gets businesses 110 seconds of time on a local call. Ironically, the price hikes come just weeks after the June 7 annual general meeting of Matav, at which the telecoms company voted to increase its investment and levels of services to non-city subscribers. At the meeting, Emil Tomka, the company's newly appointed general manager, announced that this year will see Matav plough back almost all of its after-tax profits into the network infrastructure, pushing the number of lines up by at least a third of a million. "Our investment plan contains 68 billion forints and from that we wish to build 360,000 lines this year," he said at the time. What he omitted to say at that time, Newsbytes notes, was the fact that call costs would rise to finance the new investments. (Sylvia Dennis/19950630) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 07/03/95 TRENDS Cirrus Intros New Graphics Chip (NEWS)(TRENDS)(LAX)(00012) Cirrus Intros New Graphics Chip 07/03/95 FREMONT, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1995 JUL 3 (NB) -- Cirrus Logic Inc. (NASDAQ: CRUS) has introduced its VisualMedia acceleration technology which could bring higher-end visual applications to the consumer market. PC applications that include home video editing, photocomposition, electronic marketing, three-dimensional (3D) graphics, and video teleconferencing need ever improving accelerator technology. "Cirrus Logic's new visual acceleration technology is intended to meet the demands of next-generation multimedia, interactive and 3D applications," said Douglas J. Bartek, president of Cirrus Logic's Visual and Systems Interface Company. "We are supporting 500 megabyte- per-second (MBps) memory bandwidth capacity, which significantly surpasses standard 64-bit memory bandwidth capacities that range between 200 and 300 MBps." The new chip features an integrated 170 megahertz (MHz) True Color RAMDAC and dual 170MHz and 250MHz programmable clock synthesizers to support non-interlaced resolutions of up to 1,600 by 1,200. Color depths are supported up to 32-bits per pixel which includes 24-bit true color with 8-bit alpha channel. This high-speed circuitry is the fastest analog circuits incorporated on a graphics chip, claims the company. The result, according to Cirrus, is "complete elimination of any screen flicker." Joe Fowler, a spokesman for Cirrus, told Newsbytes that "Videoconferencing is the most obvious use for this new technology. It will give the ability to simultaneously display multiple video windows at 30 frames-per-second along with high-resolution graphics." Fowler pointed out that this speed and quality is available today in video RAM, but at a higher cost. With this technology, Cirrus dynamic RAM capabilities approach the current high-end VRAM chips. "DRAM is less expensive, and while VRAM is dedicated to graphics, our DRAM gives a customer economy of scale, because it can be used for other purposes," he said. The company plans to offer speeds up to one gigabyte-per-second memory bandwidth capacity by early next year. (Richard Bowers/19950703/Press Contact: Joe Fowler, Cirrus Logic Inc., 510-226-2239) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 07/03/95 GENERAL China - Beijing Computer Trade Fair (NEWS)(GENERAL)(PEK)(00013) China - Beijing Computer Trade Fair 07/03/95 BEIJING, CHINA, 1995 JUL 3 (NB) -- The 16th Beijing Computer Trade Fair was held at the Beijing International Exhibition Center in June. With 356 firms showing their products in an 18,000 square-meter area, the total traded volume was reportedly about RMB700 million (US$84.3 million). About 5,000 technologies and products were displayed at 800 booths in the seven-day trade fair. Among the 356 exhibitors, 30 percent were first-time participants. Although the total traded volume showed an increase of 20 percent over last year's fair, the actual traded product volume was almost the same as last year if today's high inflation is factored in. Multimedia was a hot subject at the show, with more than 50 companies showing their multimedia products. Loud multimedia demonstrations attracted the public, although some visitors told Newsbytes that it was too noisy in the exhibition hall. With the decrease in prices of CD-ROM titles and CD-I (compact disk interactive) disks, many visitors showed their interest in CD-ROM drives, sound cards, and JPEG/MPEG (Joint Photographics Experts Group/Motion Picture Experts Group) compression cards. TV cards allowing a computer to receive TV signals and show TV programs onscreen were also popular. However, few visitors are ready for buying since the lowest-cost TV card is priced at RMB1,500 (US$180), equivalent to the price of a 12-inch color TV receiver. Some home computers with multimedia capabilities appeared quite attractive to many Chinese families. For example, at a price of RMB8,800 (US$1,060) they can get a computer using a V486DX2/66 with four megabytes (MB) RAM, a 420MB hard drive, 1.44MB 3.5-inch floppy drive, "true color" card and monitor, 16-bit sound card, double-speed CD-ROM drive, and stereo speakers. Newsbytes was also told that many companies are reportedly using Cyrix's 486DX2/66 processors instead of those from Intel to reduce computer prices. (Chih-Ho Yu & Ning Huang/19950703) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 07/03/95 GENERAL Japan Newsbriefs (NEWS)(GENERAL)(TYO)(00014) Japan Newsbriefs 07/03/95 TOKYO, JAPAN, 1995 JUL 3 (NB) -- In this roundup of news from Japan: Parametric receives big Japanese orders; Education Ministry mulls computer network; Mitsubishi appoints new managing director; Hollywood Online expands to Japan; and CompCore licenses SoftPEG. Parametric Receives Big Japanese Orders Parametric Technologies Corp. (NASDAQ: PMTC), developer of the Pro/Engineer family of mechanical design automation software products, has announced two big orders from Japanese companies. The Waltham, Mass.-based company said it has received its biggest international order ever from Seiko-Epson Corporation which placed a follow on order worth $5.4 million. Also announced was a $1.2 million order from Tokyo based Toshiba Corporation. Education Ministry Mulls Computer Network The Japanese Education Ministry is studying plans to set up an international computer network that will link Japanese schools with overseas schools including 91 ministry controlled schools in foreign countries. It is envisaged that the network will be used for electronic-mail communication between students in Japanese and those overseas for the exchange of information about foreign countries and cultures. Mitsubishi Appoints New Managing Director Mitsubishi Electric Corporation has announced at its shareholder meeting in Tokyo, the appointment of Takashi Kiuchi to the post of managing director. The move makes the German born executive the first overseas executive in the company's 75-year history to hold such a position. He has lived in the United States for a total of 15 years and is currently chairman of Mitsubishi America Inc. The Tokyo based company hopes that Kiuchi's knowledge of the Japanese and American markets will help in its increasing international business. Hollywood Online Expands To Japan Hollywood Online, an entertainment service, is expanding to Japan. The service will soon be offered on Fujitsu's NiftyServe computer network. The service is currently available on the Internet's World Wide Web and CompuServe, eWorld, America Online, and Delphi. The new area, to be called Hollywood Online Station, will shortly become available to NiftyServe's million subscribers. CompCore Licenses SoftPEG CompCore Multimedia Inc. has announced the licensing of its SoftPEG software MPEG (Motion Picture Experts Group) decoder to two Japanese computer firms -- Macnica Inc. and Canopus Co. Ltd. SoftPEG is a MPEG video and audio decoder that functions entirely as software requiring no additional hardware. Yokohama-based Macnica will be bundling SoftPEG with its recently released Miracle SCSI II, a PCMCIA (Personal Computer memory Card International Association) SCSI-2 (small computer system interface type 2) interface card providing a Fast SCSI data transfer through a Type I PCMCIA slot, a product which Macnica is now shipping over 10,000 cards a month of. Canopus, one of Japan's leading graphics card manufacturers, will bundle SoftPEG with its Power Windows range of graphics accelerators. The Kobe-based company has also developed a graphical user interface called Power Cinema that uses SoftPEG. (Martyn Williams/19950630) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 07/03/95 TELECOM AT&T Launches Services To Aid Telecommuting (NEWS)(TELECOM)(TOR)(00015) AT&T Launches Services To Aid Telecommuting 07/03/95 BASKING RIDGE, NEW JERSEY, U.S.A., 1995 JUL 3 (NB) -- Fresh from endorsing an initiative to promote telecommuting (Newsbytes, June 28), AT&T (NYSE:T) has announced new services aimed at telecommuters and their employers. AT&T Alternative Workplace Solutions are becoming available in the United States starting right away, with all of the announced services due by this fall. The company unveiled three services. Alternative Workplace Solutions -- 800 Service can route incoming calls to a specific employee at home, or distribute calls among a group of people in different locations. The service will let one remote employee consult with a co-worker at another location before transferring an incoming call. It can also send a call to an alternate location if the employee to whom it is first routed is busy. Alternative Workplace Solutions -- Remote Agent also sends incoming calls to off-site workers. While the 800 Service option is meant mainly for professionals, Remote Agent is meant for production workers such as order processing, customer service, and reservations staff. It includes performance monitoring features such as the ability to monitor which employees are busy and distribute calls accordingly, AT&T said. Alternative Workplace Solutions -- SDN extends AT&T's Software Defined Network (SDN) services to telecommuters and mobile workers. It lets employees place calls through the company's network, and thus have them billed to the employer, by first dialing a toll-free number to connect to the SDN, and then dialing the outgoing call. Most features of the 800 and SDN services are available now, AT&T officials said. The Remote Agent service, and remaining elements of the other services, are to be available by fall. Alternative Workplace Solutions is being announced strictly for the United States at this point, company spokesman Michael Lordi said, and AT&T has no plans to extend it to Canada, Mexico, or elsewhere. Last week, AT&T was one of the organizations taking part in the Washington, D.C., launch of Telecommuting America, a group meant to promote telecommuting through a public-awareness campaign, seminars, and research. (Grant Buckler/19950703/Press Contact: Michael Lordi, AT&T, 908- 221-6382; Mona Williams, AT&T, 908-221-4355; Public Contact: AT&T, 800-222-0400) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 07/03/95 CHIPS ****Chip Shortage Halts Hitachi Telephone Production (NEWS)(CHIPS)(TYO)(00016) ****Chip Shortage Halts Hitachi Telephone Production 07/03/95 TOKYO, JAPAN, 1995 JUL 3 (NB) -- Hitachi Ltd. has stopped production of handsets for the new Personal Handyphone System (PHS) mobile telephone network until August because of a shortage of memory chips. The Tokyo-based company expects supplies to resume in late summer but says that until then, no telephones can be made. Just one month ago Japan's major electrical and electronic companies were announcing record profits thanks to the very increase in demand that had now caught them unprepared. In fact, semiconductor demand is keeping the strong yen from having too much of an impact in annual profits. Hitachi, whose announcement came just two days after the PHS service launched in Japan, said it was experiencing high demand currently. "It's very strong" spokeswoman Emi Takase told Newsbytes. "Semiconductor demand from PCs is very high. Four megabytes (MB) and other integrated circuits related to PCs will stay strong until at least the beginning of 1996." Hitachi has been producing 4MB computer memory chips at a capacity of 14 million a month, and now production of 16MB devices is being increased at both the Japanese and German plants to six million a month. With just 10% of total sales going to internal units the spokeswoman said that it was not so simple to just shift output towards the telephone division. Japan's biggest chip maker, NEC Corporation, said it expects chip sales to rise around 10% to total one trillion yen. Speaking to Newsbytes, Mark Pearce of NEC Corp. explained the current situation, saying: "We are operating at capacity, demand is really high." He said that it is not quite a shortage, but "we can sell as many as we make. One of our executives in the chip making division said we are sold out until the end of the year." Sony is predicting that external sales of chips will rise to around 132 billion yen this fiscal year, up from 105 billion yen a year ago. Osaka-based Matsushita said that most of the money it made from the sale of MCA Inc. would be ploughed into chip manufacturing plants. Last month the Japan Committee of the Semiconductor International Capacity Statistics announced that its members were operating at 94% of total capacity because of the strong demand, due mostly from the personal computer industry. The organization's members account for 80% of the world market. (Martyn Williams/19950703/Press contact : Hitachi Ltd., tel +81-3-3258-1111, fax +81-3-3258-5480) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 07/03/95 ONLINE More On SafeSurf Internet Kids Protection Scheme (NEWS)(ONLINE)(TYO)(00017) More On SafeSurf Internet Kids Protection Scheme 07/03/95 TOKYO, JAPAN, 1995 JUL 3 (NB) -- SafeSurf, a parent's online organization, has unveiled a rating system that it hopes will make the Internet safe for children without government intervention. The SafeSurf system involves World Wide Web page authors inserting small codes in the top of Web pages or in the names of directories they reside in. Such codes identify not only the existence of any adult content and its degree, but also the subject of the page -- whether it be a personal home page, index of company information, or information about a college. The addition of these tags would mean that anyone running suitable software would be locked out of access, depending on software settings, but it would also make it easier for adults to search for pages that contained sex and racism. Newsbytes asked SafeSurf Chairman Ray Soular if this had been considered. "Our goal is to protect children and the rights of their parents," he said. "We exist specifically to defend the innocence of each child. We agree that our system will speed up all searches good and bad. The SafeSurf plan achieves its goal of protecting online children by encouraging information flow rather than restricting it." The codes will be an advantage to all users of the web. A code will include numbers like "4301_5678_39_781." The first two numbers serve to categorize the information within the page under a broad heading. The third and fourth numbers specify whether it contains adult content, what type of content that is, and the degree to which it goes. "The additional numbers will be used to precisely describe content which will enable search engines to operate at mega-speeds," Soular said. As for companies or people who deliberately mislead people with the SafeSurf code, the organization said in a statement that, under the plan, "Severe legal penalties will be reserved for those sites containing adult material which entice children by coding themselves as child safe." Newsbytes asked Soular what he envisaged such penalties to be, "Severe legal penalties currently exist for anyone trying to lure school children walking home into their car. The same penalties can be applied to anyone who abuses the system to entice children to adult material." He continued: "The Internet community has long required proper 'netiquette' of its members. It has been very effective in enforcing this netiquette. We believe abusers will be shut down in a nanosecond by this structure. We believe in the power of the 'Net.' Our system will demonstrate that cooperative self-regulation is a million times more effective that governmental censorship. If the government wants to pass additional laws that are aimed directly at the 'scum' who would abuse this system to hurt innocent children, we will support it whole-heartily." If the service is to be successful it needs support from service providers, who would issue separate passwords for children, and software manufacturers who would build in support for SafeSurf coding into the software produced. "We have discussed the options with Internet providers and they have informed us that issuing a separate password for purposes of keeping track of use may require additional time and effort, but if their competition does it, then it becomes a necessary part of being competitive," said Soular. SurfWatch is already producing software that blocks access to Internet sites containing pornography and racism based on their system addresses. Jay Friedland, president of SurfWatch Software, told Newsbytes the firm supports the SafeSurf proposal. "Our technology is designed so that we can implement rating systems very quickly -- just as we can block 1,000s of sites and let all of the rest through, we can also block everything except for some number of sites. It seems as though their rating system is workable and we hope to work with them to support parental control, especially if it will head off Internet censorship. We are also working with Nathaniel Borenstein on KidCode which has been proposed to the Internet Engineering Task Force." In addition to support from SurfWatch, SafeSurf says it will be working with, and getting support from, Oak Ridge Software which are also preparing such Internet software systems. As for the next move, Soular explains, "We will be approaching the World Wide Web Consortium. At the same time we are lining up support from enough sites to create a safe cyber-playground by September." More information on SafeSurf can be found at http://www.safesurf.com/wave . Information on the SurfWatch system is at http://www.surfwatch.com/ . Information on the KidCode can be found via anonymous ftp (file transfer protocol) from ftp://ftp.fv.com/pub/nsb/draft-fv-kidcode-00.txt . (Martyn Williams/19950630/Press contacts : Ray Soular, SafeSurf, 818-902-9390, Internet e-mail safesurf@aol.com; Jay Friedland, SurfWatch Software, tel 415-948-9500, fax 415-948-9577, Internet e-mail jay@surfwatch.com) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 07/03/95 TRENDS Electric Utility Interactive Energy Services Test (NEWS)(TRENDS)(WAS)(00018) Electric Utility Interactive Energy Services Test 07/03/95 DALLAS, TEXAS, U.S.A., 1995 JUL 3 (NB) -- Central and South West Corp., a Dallas-based electric utility holding company, has connected 500 of the 2,500 homes in its Laredo, Texas, large-scale test of interactive energy services, and is adding some 20 new homes a day, Bill Morrow of CSW Communications told a Dallas meeting last week. CSW is using technology from First Pacific Networks for the high-tech system that will include remote meter reading, time-of-day pricing, appliance control, outage detection, and the ability for the electric utility to send message to the customer. The technology, using a hybrid of fiber optic cable and coaxial cable, also has the bandwidth to provide video in competition with local cable companies and telephony to compete with the local phone company. Morrow says CSW has proved the concept of telephony, sending telephone signals over the cable for some distance, but does not immediately plan to compete with the local phone company. Morrow said that to minimize disruption in the Laredo neighborhoods where the test is underway, utility installers are using directional boring technology to go under the backyard to the house connection. Morrow said the demonstration is also showing that economies of scale in equipment purchases are real. "We have pushed the cost of the equipment down from $2,500 to about $1,800," he said. "We believe we can get it down to $1,000 or below." Morrow also said the existence of the new technology has started the Dallas-based utility to start thinking about some new applications that utility might want to offer its customers. "My security system went off the other night," he said, "and I woke up in the dark. That's not exactly where I wanted to be. Maybe we can integrate the security system with the energy management system so that when the security system goes off, the lights go on. At least that way, I get to see who's trying to kill me!" The joint venture of Microsoft, TeleCommunications Inc., and Pacific Gas & Electric to demonstrate a cable TV-based energy management system is going a bit slower, TCI's Les Larsen told the Dallas group. The trial of that technology is in phase 2, where it is being rolled out to 100 homes in the PG&E service territory in San Francisco. The services offers real-time pricing, appliance control, bill summaries, remote metering and the like, along with the full cable TV capabilities. Larsen told the meeting that the cable industry is spending $10 billion over the next decade to create a two-way, full service network, and expects to justify that investment by the income simply from cable service. So it believes it offers an attractive vehicle for utilities that wish to piggy-back on the cable system for interactive services, and "perhaps even your equity investment," he told the utility executives. (Kennedy Maize/19950703) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 07/03/95 LEGAL ****Mitnick Hacker Plea-Bargains Prison Sentence (NEWS)(LEGAL)(WAS)(00019) ****Mitnick Hacker Plea-Bargains Prison Sentence 07/03/95 RALEIGH, NORTH CAROLINA, U.S.A., 1995 JUL 3 (NB) -- Prosecutors have accepted a plea bargain from computer hacker Kevin Mitnick that will see him serving eight months in state prison on a guilty plea to one of 23 charges, according to United Press International. But that's far from the end of the legal charges Mitnick may face. The 23 charges in North Carolina involve only cellular phone fraud Mitnick allegedly committed in the few weeks he was in the state while fleeing federal prosecution. Mitnick had been fleeing federal authorities for two years when he was captured in Raleigh in February. After serving a year in prison for computer-related crimes, Mitnick agreed to enter a counseling program. But he fled before finishing treatment and as the FBI tried to question him about other allegations. Over Christmas, Mitnick pulled off the computer hack that finally did him in. He broke into the home computer systems of Tsutomu Shimomutra, a leading computer security expert who works for the San Diego Supercomputer Center. Shimomutra was so enraged that he helped the FBI track Mitnick to an apartment complex in Raleigh, using a cell phone direction finder connected to a laptop computer. Authorities just missed nabbing Mitnick in Seattle last October when he apparently picked up messages on a police scanner that said the authorities were coming after him. He fled before agents arrived. Mitnick, 31, started breaking into computer networks in high school in Los Angeles. His first notoriety came in the 1991 book "Cyberpunk," which featured Mitnick and associates. Mitnick first prison term followed an intrusion into Digital Equipment Corp.'s computer systems. According to UPI, Mitnick could face additional charges, including probation violation in California, and computer fraud charges in California, Colorado and Seattle. (Kennedy Maize/19950703) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 07/03/95 GENERAL IBM Adds To Asean-Region Presence (NEWS)(GENERAL)(HKG)(00020) IBM Adds To Asean-Region Presence 07/03/95 SINGAPORE, 1995 JUL 3 (NB) -- IBM is making a major push into the lucrative Singapore PC market as part of a US$1 million Asean-wide sales campaign. It has already opened a direct sales center in Singapore and other fresh marketing plans are also under way. Traditionally, IBM relied on sales representatives to service corporate customers with small users likely to be left out. Telemarketing and telesales are to be substantially increased, while, later this month, the company will distribute a 100-page full-color product catalog designed to stimulate customer interest. According to Peter Buckle, general manager for IBM direct for Asean, the moves are designed to increase small-user access to IBM. "It's all about ease of use, making it easier to do business with IBM," he said. The push includes some un-IBM like promotions, with lucky draw prizes and a number of consumer-oriented television advertisements. (Nigel Armstrong and IT Daily/19950630) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 07/03/95 TRENDS Singapore Primary Schools Computer Project (NEWS)(TRENDS)(HKG)(00021) Singapore Primary Schools Computer Project 07/03/95 SINGAPORE, 1995 JUL 3 (NB) -- The Singapore Ministry of Education has launched a multi-million-dollar pilot project in six primary schools to assess the best way of integrating computers into the primary school curriculum. Each school will get 100 PCs plus customized software, with the initial part of the scheme, costing S$3 million, slated to finish at the end of next year. Over S$100 million will be spent on hardware alone over a three-year period. Although hardware vendors will be the first to cash in on the thousands of PCs that will eventually be bought, local and overseas software houses are also in for a boost. Around S$600,000 will be spent on developing software during the initial phase. The plan will run in conjunction with another scheme which has already begun which is giving all primary schools a computer laboratory with 40 PCs. The scheme is being overseen by the National Computer Board and, while a spokesman was reluctant to estimate how much would be spent on software for the project, analysts predict it could run into millions of dollars. (Nigel Armstrong and IT Daily/19950630) (ADVISORY)(GENERAL)(MSP)(00022) NewsPix Images For Newsbytes Publishers 07/03/95 MINNEAPOLIS, MINNESOTA, U.S.A., 1995 JUL 3 (NB) -- These photos correspond to recent Newsbytes stories. They are online in the Newsbytes menu on GEnie, America Online, eWorld, NiftyServe, and the Newsbytes private bulletin board system in Minneapolis. JPEG (Joint Photographics Experts Group) files are larger in size, PICT files are designed as thumbnails for onscreen viewing. The photos are titled with name/year/month/day. PICT/thumbnail pictures are black and white (gray scale). File messages will indicate color if the JPEG image is color. Some of the "for use" images, may be PICT files. To distinguish these files from the thumbnail preview PICT images, the tag for the color "for use" image will have PICT, all caps. The thumbnail will remain noted as 'pct.' To become a licensed Newsbytes publisher, call Newsbytes at 612-430-1100 (U.S.) or write to administrator@newsbytes.com on the Internet. Licensing applies to any medium. --------------------------- Week of JULY 3 - JULY 7,1995 --------------------------- - NEW THIS WEEK - SWA950630 - color / Handheld Computers To Speed Airline Check-in: skycap with wireless computer and passenger checking in. POWERPRO950629 - color / AER Ships All-Day Zinc-Air Battery: the battery under a Toshiba PC (see NewsPix ZINCAIR950502). TATUNG950630 - color / Tatung Offers 133MHz Pentium PCs: shot of the UNIQ 5210 configuration. COMPUSERVE950629 - color / 12 Year-Old Flyer To Keep In Touch Via Compuserve: pix of Vanessa Pereira, the twelve year-old girl from Los Angeles. POTTER950626 - b&w / Cognos Chairman Michael Potter Resigns: head & shoulders of Potter. ATT1772950628 - b&w / AT&T Intros New Digital Answering System for SOHO: the 1772 unit. PLASMA950627 - color / Sony, Fujitsu, NEC Develop Plasma LCD Screens: wide screen unit in living room with couple viewing. TELEPORT950629 - color / IBM, Teleport To Offer Teleconferencing Rental Suites: business meeting in action. PHASR540950629 - color / Tektronix Intros New Color Printers: the Phaser 240. EXB218950628 - color / Exabyte, HP To Offer Storage For PC, Unix Networks: the EXB-218 4mm Tape Library using Hewlett-Packard's C1533A DDS-2 4mm digital audio tape (DAT) drives with Exabyte's tape library design, robotics and mechanisms. --------------------------------------------------------------- - PARTIAL LISTING OF PREVIOUS ITEMS - LIFFE950621 - color / London LIFFE Options Exchange On The Internet: screenshot of home page graphics. INTERWEB950616 - color / UK Company Offers Corporate Web Publishing Services: screenshot of home page graphics. CONTURA950620 - color / Compaq Intros New Contura Notebooks: young woman/student on park bench with new Contura. MULTI950619 - b&w / DEC Adds Prioris Servers, Multimedia Devices: the HiNote Ultra with the Mobile Media attachment. Scene from 2001: Space Odyssey on computer screen. REVELATION950622 - color / Revelation Offers Yamaha 4x CD-R Drive Bundle: the Yamaha 4x Recording System; internal & external units. GS8400950602 - b&w / Fujitsu's New Servers: the server with model next to it for scale. ROUGH950614 - color / UK - Rough Guide Travel Books On The Internet: screenshot of home page graphics. INFOBANK950608 - color / UK - Infobank's Secure Web Access & Ordering: screenshot of home page graphics. KNOWLEDGE950614 - color / UK - Knowledge Computing Offers Budget Web Publishing: screenshot of home page graphics. MILESTONE950615 - color / "Internet Superstore" Adds Online Wine Shopping: screenshot of home page graphics. UBNETWORKS950613 - color / UB Networks Plugs Into World Wide Web: screenshot of home page graphics. WCHAT950511 - color / Worlds Inc. In Starbright Pact, Plans Web "Worlds Fair": screenshot of Worlds Chat environment and virtual characters. PRESENT950614 - b&w / Novell Intros Presentations 3.0 For Windows On CD: screenshot of graphics thumbnails. CREATIVITY950607 - color / Digital World - Children's Peace Festival Online: Peter Rosen, screen left with hat, at Creativity Cafe. CREATIVE950616 - color / CD-ROM Program Teaches More Creative Photography: screenshot from CD-ROM illustrating use of 300mm lens and compression. ORACLE950614 - color / Oracle & Intel Plan ISDN Online Service: screenshot of the KidsMail viewer. TEXAS950601 - color / UK - TI Intros Pentium TravelMate 5000 Notebooks : PC on rock slab and artful background. LOVENET950606 - color / UK - Computer Dating On World Wide Web: screenshot of main menu. TERASTAR950602 - b&w / "Briefcase" Terminal Offers Phone, Fax, Data Anywhere: the briefcase opened to show gear. (Newsbytes/19950703) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 07/03/95 GENERAL ****Apple Japan President Quits After Row With US Parent (NEWS)(GENERAL)(TYO)(00023) ****Apple Japan President Quits After Row With US Parent 07/03/95 TOKYO, JAPAN, 1995 JUL 3 (NB) -- Apple Japan Inc. has announced that its president, Seiji Sanda, resigned Friday over disagreements with its American parent company over management policy. At a Tokyo news conference Apple Japan's John Floisand, senior vice president of Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) and chairman of Apple Japan Inc., said that Sanda caused a row between the Japanese and American companies. When contacted by Newsbytes an Apple spokesperson declined to go into any further details. At the same time as quitting as president of Apple Japan Inc., Sanda also resigned his position as vice president of Apple Computer Inc. Sanda previously worked for Motorola Inc. before joining the Tokyo based computer maker last year. He has been asked to stay on as an advisor but has yet to decide. Until a successor is found Floisand, who has been chairman of the company since 1993, will become acting president. (Martyn Williams/19950703/Press contact: Apple Japan Inc., +81-3-5411-8500, Apple Inc., 408-974-2042) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 95 07/03/95 PC Dell To Pre-load Windows (NEWS)(PC)(MSP)(00024) Dell To Pre-load Windows 95 07/03/95 AUSTIN, TEXAS, U.S.A., 1995 JUL 3 (NB) -- Dell Computer Corporation (NASDAQ:DELL) said it is joining the growing list of companies that will pre-install Microsoft's (NASDAQ:MSFT) Windows 95 operating system. Officials said the announcement is the most recent step in a series of activities between the two companies to prepare for Windows 95. Bill Gates, Microsoft chairman and chief executive officer, is quoted as saying his company sees Dell as a key industry leader, "and today's announcement is further proof of the importance of our long-standing partnership with Dell." Dell officials also said the company will be one of the first in the industry to be able to ship Windows 95 factory-installed and ready-to-run directly to its customers. Cathie Hargett, Dell spokesperson, told Newsbytes this is because all of Dell's computers are pre-configured at the factory. "We can get these enhancements out there a lot quicker because we don't have retail inventory," she said. In fact, she said Dell can usually make most enhancements available to the public anywhere from 60 to 90 days ahead of the company's competitors. Hargett also said that IBM's OS/2 Warp will still be available for the company's customer base, which includes corporations, educational institutions, and consumers. Dell and Microsoft have worked during 1995 to prepare the industry for the transition to Windows 95. For example, Dell said it was the sole PC hardware provider to sponsor a series of events to give Windows-based software developers, users, and support professionals across the United States the chance to work with Windows 95 on Dell systems. "We have dedicated ourselves to ensuring a smooth and rapid transition for our customers," Michael Dell, chairman and chief executive officer of Dell, is quoted as saying, "and we believe we are well positioned to offer them superior products and superior support during and after the transition (to Windows 95)." (Bob Woods/950703/Press Contacts: Dean Kline or Cathie Hargett, Dell Computer Corp., 512-728-4100; Public Contact: Dell Computer Corp, 800-BUY-DELL; Internet World Wide Web http://www.dell.com ) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 07/03/95 GENERAL Canadian Product Launch Update (NEWS)(GENERAL)(TOR)(00025) Canadian Product Launch Update 07/03/95 KINGSTON, ONTARIO, CANADA, 1995 JUL 3 (NB) -- This regular feature, appearing on the first day Newsbytes publishes each week, provides further details for the Canadian market on announcements by international companies that Newsbytes has already covered. This week: Apple's eWorld updates. Apple Canada Inc., of Markham, Ontario, joined its parent company in announced additions to its eWorld online service (Newsbytes, June 23). The enhancements include increased Internet access, an electronic-mail "agent" that sorts, filters, and responds to electronic-mail messages, and more multimedia capabilities. Apple Canada also announced that a new online support service, Ask Apple Canada, will be available to Canadian eWorld subscribers starting June 30. Canadian Macintosh users can get the eWorld access software free by calling 800-877-8129. (Grant Buckler/19950703/Press Contact: Linda Grant or Susan Taylor, Apple Canada, 905-477-5800, Internet e-mail S.Taylor@eWorld.com; Public Contact: Apple Canada, 800-877-8129) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 07/03/95 TRENDS Telecom Firms High On Canadian Profit Ranking (NEWS)(TRENDS)(TOR)(00026) Telecom Firms High On Canadian Profit Ranking 07/03/95 TORONTO, ONTARIO, CANADA, 1995 JUL 3 (NB) -- BCE Inc. (TSE,ME:B) and its two telecommunications subsidiaries -- Northern Telecom Ltd. (TSE:NTL;NYSE:NT) and Bell Canada -- are near the top of this year's Report on Business 1000, a ranking of Canadian companies by profitability. In fact, BCE, a Montreal-based holding company, heads the list. BCE's performance and that of Northern Telecom are particularly notable given that last year, the holding company and the telecom equipment maker ranked 999th and 1,000th respectively on the Report on Business list. That was due to losses at Northern Telecom in fiscal 1993. On the other hand, Bell Canada, the telephone company serving Ontario and Quebec, has fallen from first to sixth place, its profits surpassed this year by its parent company as well as three large banks and distiller Seagram Co. Ltd. Two other telephone holding companies -- B.C. Telecom Inc. (TSE,ME:BCT) of Vancouver and Edmonton-based Telus Corp. (TSE:AGT) -- also appear in the ranking's top 50. Computer companies are relatively scarce in the upper reaches of the profitability ranking. Software vendor Corel Corp. (TSE:COS;NASDAQ:COSFF) is ranked 124th, slightly down from last year's 118th spot. Corel is also ranked 20th in the Report on Business' list of the 50 top performing stocks. Toronto graphics company Accugraph Corp. is 14th on this top-performance ranking, while Markham, Ontario-based Geac Computer Corp. and Ottawa's Cognos Inc. also appear. High-tech companies are somewhat more evident in a ranking of the top research and development companies in Canada. Northern Telecom heads this list, with IBM Canada Ltd. in second place. Bell Canada is ninth. IBM Canada also appears in fourth place on the list of top exporters, trailing the Canadian subsidiaries of the three major U.S.-based automakers. Digital Equipment of Canada Ltd. is 14th on the exporters list. The Report on Business 1000 is published annually by the business section of The Globe and Mail, a nationally distributed daily newspaper based in Toronto. (Grant Buckler/19950703) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 07/03/95 ONLINE MCI/Sprint/ANS In Internet Interconnect Deals (NEWS)(ONLINE)(MSP)(00027) MCI/Sprint/ANS In Internet Interconnect Deals 07/03/95 ATLANTA, GEORGIA, U.S.A., 1995 JUL 3 (NB) -- MCI (NASDAQ:MCIC), Sprint (NASDAQ:FON), and America Online's (NASADQ-NNM:AMER) ANS CO+RE Systems have jointly announced an agreement to interconnect their Internet networks for direct exchange of traffic. All three also agreed to establish a "high-quality of service" for their Internet access subscribers by setting "performance objectives and standard operational procedures." Already, Sprint and ANS interconnected their Internet networks earlier this year. Sprint officials said today's announcement will sustain the momentum started by the Sprint/ANS linking. The three companies claim to be three of the largest Internet service providers, carrying about 80 percent of the total Internet traffic on their backbone networks. The agreements were established to accommodate the growth of the Internet, and to support the new decentralized structure of the Internet since the elimination of the National Science Foundation Network (NSFnet) on May 1. The agreement's goal is to assure "universal connectivity for all parts of the Internet," according to a news release. "With traffic growing on the Internet at a phenomenal rate, Internet users are the true beneficiaries of these interconnection agreements," said Lance B. Boxer, senior vice president and general manager of Data Services Division, MCI Business Markets. "It is critical that the Internet service providers be able to exchange traffic quickly, efficiently, and with the highest quality of service." "The Internet is fundamentally changing the way business is conducted," said Jordan Becker, vice president of Network Services at ANS. "Internet access providers must respond with operational models that are flexible, meet global networking needs, and provide value. These agreements set the stage for moving toward these new models." The agreements among the companies takes effect immediately, officials said. (Bob Woods/950703/Press Contacts: John R. Houser, MCI, 800-644- NEWS, Internet e-mail 2267342@mcimail.com ; Evette Fulton, Sprint, 202-828-7411, Internet e-mail evette.j.fulton@sprint.sprint.com ; Rosalia Barcarella, ANS, 914-789-5363) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 07/03/95 BUSINESS SystemSoft Acquires VMI, Signs 3 Distributors (NEWS)(BUSINESS)(BOS)(00028) SystemSoft Acquires VMI, Signs 3 Distributors 07/03/95 NATICK, MASSACHUSETTS, U.S.A., 1995 JUL 3 (NB) -- About a week after unveiling CardWorks for Windows 95 and CardSoft 16, two 16-bit software products for managing PC Cards, SystemSoft has acquired Ventura Micro (VMI), a specialist in "advanced" PC Card technologies, said SystemSoft executives, in a conference call with Newsbytes. In related news, SystemSoft will soon be moving to larger quarters at Two Vision Way in its home town of Natick, Massachusetts, noted Paul Sereiko, VP of corporate marketing. In addition, the company has just signed PC Compleat, Mobile Planet, and Stream International (formerly Corporate Software) to distribute CardWizard Pro, its first "packaged product" for OEMs (original equipment manufacturers), pointed out Alan Swahn, also of corporate marketing, during the briefing for Newsbytes. Sereiko told Newsbytes that the deal with West Coast-based VMI, a supplier of PC Card software for Zenith Data Systems (ZDS) and Packard Bell, was accomplished for a "stock swap." Even before the deal, SystemSoft owned a 70 percent share of the software market for PC Cards, a technology also known as PCMCIA (Personal Computer Memory Card International Association), the VP asserted. At a recent shareholder's meeting, SystemSoft reported growth rates of 50 to 60 percent for the past two years, he maintained. SystemSoft's first quarter revenues for 1995 amounted to $5.1 million, according to Sereiko. "Analysts are projecting $23 to $24 million for the year," he contended. Since the end of 1994, SystemSoft's staff has grown from 90 to 130, and the PC Card software expects to be employing 150 people by the end of 1995, according to Sereiko. SystemSoft's planned move from a 21,000 square-foot space at 313 Speen Street in Natick, Massachusetts to a 36,000 square-foot space on Vision Way is aimed at accommodating this growth, Newsbytes was told. Also under the deal with VMI, Dave Lawrence, previously VMI's president, will become chief scientist at SystemSoft, Sereiko said. Lawrence will "architect the cross-platform porting" of SystemSoft's PC Card software, the 32-bit Card Bus standard for PCMCIA, the VP added. "We like to structure the code in a way that it can be easily ported from one platform to another, in case we do an OS/2 implementation, or an Apple implementation, for example," he elaborated. In addition, SystemSoft's product line-up will integrate technology now under development at SystemSoft for Card Bus, the 32-bit implementation of PCMCIA, according to Sereiko. Lawrence, who is widely credited with playing a major role in developing the emerging PCMCIA standard, will continue to work out of a facility in Oxnard, California previously owned by VMI. "Dave has been around the PCMCIA community since its inception," Sereiko observed. All other former VMI employees will be integrated into SystemSoft's Silicon Valley satellite office in Santa Clara, California, including Stephen Harper, who was formerly VMI's executive VP, Sereiko said. Harper, who is also chairman and president of the PCMCIA Committee, will become VP of business development for SystemSoft. Before joining VMI, Harper was employed by Phoenix Technologies. In addition to supplying PC Card software for OEMs, VMI has provided PC Card consulting services to companies such as Intel, National Semiconductor, and Northern Telecom. The acquisition of VMI "will also provide us another voice on the PCMCIA Committee, helping to strengthen our (role)," Sereiko predicted. Swahn told Newsbytes that SystemSoft's new CardWorks for Windows 95 and CardSoft are 16-bit implementations of SystemSoft's current 8-bit implementation of CardSoft. "Essentially, CardSoft 16 is an `evolutionary' product that provides more functionality and more voltage for Windows 3.1. CardWorks will provide the same for Windows 95," Swahn explained. SystemSoft recently rolled out the two new products at the PC Expo show in New York City. Both products are targeted at OEMs. By now, SystemSoft has licensed its PC Card or System-level software to more than 100 OEMs and over 80 PC Card manufacturers, according to the SystemSoft execs. (Jacqueline Emigh/19950703/Reader Contact: SystemSoft, 508-651- 0088; Press Contacts: Paul Pedevillano, SystemSoft, 508-651-0088; Tim Hurley or Jon Bornstein, Copithorne & Bellows for SystemSoft, 617-252-0606) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 07/03/95 GENERAL Australia - Troubled Osborne Wins PC World Awards (NEWS)(GENERAL)(SYD)(00029) Australia - Troubled Osborne Wins PC World Awards 07/03/95 SYDNEY, AUSTRALIA 1995 JUL 3 (NB) -- The 1995 Australian PC World awards have been announced, with some expected results and a few surprises. Microsoft topped the software categories, but the surprise for the Australian industry was Osborne's dual win -- the company was placed in receivership just last week. The PC World awards are reader-voted awards, with readers encouraged to vote for a product not just because they own it, but based on performance and value for money. The best desktop machine was the Osborne 100 megahertz (MHz) 486 machine. Compaq was second with its DeskPro XL 5/60. Compucon came third with its P5/90E. The best notebook was the Toshiba T4800CT, second was the IBM ThinkPad 755C, and third the Compaq Contura. Best printer was the Hewlett Packard LaserJet 4, closely followed by the Epson Stylus. The Canon BJC-600 came third. Best monitor award went to NEC for its 5FG multisync, followed by the Samsung 15GL (as used in the Newsbytes Sydney office) and the Philips 4CM8270. NetComm's SmartModem M11F (Newsbytes choice again) was the best modem. The Banksia MX-55 came second and the Avtek MegaPlusFax came third. All three modems are home-grown. The winners in word processing were Microsoft Word for Windows 6.0, WordPerfect 6.0, and Ami Pro 3.1. For spreadsheets it was Microsoft Excel 5.0 first, then Lotus 1-2-3 4.0, and Quattro Pro 5.0. Best PC comms software went to WinFax Pro, pcAnywhere, and Cooee Communications. In the database category the winner was Microsoft Access, dBase for Windows second, and Paradox for Windows third. Pagemaker was the top desktop publishing program, followed by Corel Ventura, and Microsoft Publisher 2.0. Microsoft PowerPoint was top graphics-presentation package, Lotus Freelance second, and Harvard Graphics third. Best graphics-paint went to CorelDraw, then PhotoShop 3.0, and MicroGrafx Designer. Best electronic-mail product was MS Mail, then cc:Mail, and Notes eMail. Norton Utilities won the utilities category, followed by Norton Desktop for Windows, and PC Tools for Windows. Windows 3.11 got best operating system, then OS/2 Warp, and MS DOS. Novell Netware was the best network operating system, followed by Windows for Workgroups, and LANtastic. Winners in the games category were Doom II, Myst, and Solitaire. Two new categories were added this year. The best service/technical support category was won by Osborne, followed by Microsoft, then IBM. The favorite product selling for less than AUS$250 was Quicken for Windows, second was Microsoft Encarta, then Xtree Gold. The best Australian product was the NetComm range of modems, second also went to a modem manufacturer, Banksia, and third to Webster Publishing for the Multimedia Experience CD-ROM. (Paul Zucker/19950630/Press Contact: Australian PC World, tel +61-2-439-5133, fax +61-2-439-5512) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 07/03/95 TELECOM Indian Telecom Privatization In Full Swing (NEWS)(TELECOM)(DEL)(00030) Indian Telecom Privatization In Full Swing 07/03/95 NEW DELHI, INDIA, 1995 JUL 3 (NB) -- The month of June was significant in marking the privatization of the Indian telecom sector. While June 7 marked the day for the cellular service tender which had attracted as many as 32 bids, June 23 heralded the date calling private sector participation in basic telecom services. A total of 16 Indian companies have submitted 81 bids for operating basic telecom service networks in the 21 telecom circles on offer across India. While industry circles have termed the response as "poor," the Minister for Communications Sukh Ram said 16 bidders making 81 bids covering all telecom circles barring Jammu & Kashmir was a good response. Following the trend witnessed in the bids for cellular service, once again all the major players in the Indian telecom market have bid for the basic services. These include Tatas, Reliance Industries, RPG, Essar, Bharti Group, Birlas, among others. The international players who have bid along with their Indian partners include AT&T, Telstra, US West, Nynex, NTT (Japan), and Bell Atlantic. The surprise entries were Moscow Telecom of Russia and PTT Guangdong of China and Harris of the USA, and Bezec of Israel. Some of the notable absentees from the current list of bidders included Bell South, Southwestern Bell and GTE of US, Singapore Telecom, Korea Telecom, Nortel, France Telecom, British Telecom, Holland PTT, and Qualcomm. Among Indian companies, just as in cellular bids, Reliance Industries has bid for the maximum number of 20 circles, leaving out only Jammu & Kashmir. The Aditya Birla-AT&T combine has bid for four circles. Himachal Futuristic has bid for nine circles, followed by Essar with eight circles. Basic Teleservices of the RPG Group, Hughes Ispat, Tata Teleservices, US West BPL, Satyam Telecom, and Telelink have bid for five circles each. Among the 21 telecom circles, just as in the case of cellular bids, Jammu & Kashmir has once again gone unrepresented with none of the 16 consortia putting any bids for it. Significantly, Delhi and the northern Indian state of Punjab have proved to be the most sought- after circles with both attracting nine bids each. The next favorite is Karnataka, which has attracted eight bids, followed by Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu, both with seven bids each. Maharashtra, which includes the plum Bombay areas as well, has surprisingly attracted only six bids. Gujarat and Haryana have attracted five bids each, while four bids have been received for the Kerala and West Bengal circles. Following the submission of the documents, they will be technically evaluated in the next few weeks. The financial bids will be opened after technical scrutiny by the Department of Telecommunications (DOT). September 15 of this year has been fixed as the date by which the licenses for basic services will be issued. As far as cellular service is concerned, the licenses to private companies will be issued by July 31. Meanwhile, the five-day old strike of over four lakh telecom employees was called off after the three telecom unions signed an agreement with the DOT. Though there was no meeting ground between the two parties on the issue of private sector entry into the telecom sector, demands raised by the unions relating to fixation of tariff and access charges and all related issues would be referred to the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI). It was also decided to appoint a committee to make proposals to upgrade the status of DOT to make it more efficient and customer friendly and prepare it for competition. (C.T. Mahabharat/19950703) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 07/03/95 IBM Europe - IBM Intros NetFinity 3. (NEWS)(IBM)(LON)(00031) Europe - IBM Intros NetFinity 3.0 07/03/95 BIRMINGHAM, ENGLAND, 1995 JUL 3 (NB) -- IBM has taken the wraps off a new release of NetFinity, its PC systems and asset management package for business PC users. According to IBM officials at the recent Networks '95 computer show, version 3.0 of the application gives system administrators the capability to predict system failures and potential errors before they occur from a remote site. Announcing the new release, which will be available globally over the coming weeks, Dirk Billiauws, Big Blue's Europe, Middle East and Africa region PC Server brand manager, said that the package eases the workload by enabling capacity planning for the system administrator. In use, it also reduces PC networking costs and saves time for systems managers "faced with the challenge of troubleshooting hardware and software in today's complex PC network environments." NetFinity 3.0 also supports remote dial-in support, automatic scheduling of events, remote notification of failures and errors including power-on startup warnings, as well as detection and monitoring of disk drive failures. According to IBM, one key feature, Predictive Failure Analysis, which Big Blue claims to have pioneered, offers significant fault management capabilities that enable the administrator to detect disk drive failures before they occur, from remote sites. "The beauty of NetFinity is that it brings 'major league' PC systems and asset management into the PC arena, at a PC price," Billiauws explained. According to Billiauws, NetFinity is easy to install and use. "The software dramatically lowers networked PC operating costs, reduces travel time to remote sites, reduces system downtime, and provides for better overall control through accurate monitoring and fault prevention," he said. According to IBM staffers on the stand at Networks '95, NetFinity 3.0 can run on any x86 PC, not just on systems from IBM. This feature, the company claims, is an essential benefit for customers with PCs from multiple suppliers. NetFinity 3.0 will be available globally in mid-July, and will ship as standard at no extra cost on most PC Server, desktop, and mobile systems from IBM. For users of non-IBM systems, the package costs UKP60 per system (local country equivalents are charged outside of the UK). NetFinity Manager, which costs UKP399, needs to be installed on PC systems which manage multiple servers and desktops. (Steve Gold/19950629/Press Contact: Val Russell, IBM Press Office, +44-1256-344390; Internet e-mail val_russell@uk.ibm.com ; Reader Contact: IBM Software Enquiry Desk, +44-1329-242728; Internet e-mail Ggbib6jl@ibmmail.com.uk ) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 07/03/95 BUSINESS Starfish Software Expands Into Europe (NEWS)(BUSINESS)(LON)(00032) Starfish Software Expands Into Europe 07/03/95 LONDON, ENGLAND, 1995 JUL 3 (NB) -- Starfish Software, the US-based "simple software company," has announced plans to set up a branch office in the UK. The new company -- Starfish Software UK -- is being set up in collaboration with the Roderick Manhattan Group Ltd, a company which Newsbytes notes specializes in this type of venture. Roger Barratt, managing director of the Roderick Manhattan Group (RMG), said that Starfish UK will operate as an independent subsidiary of Starfish US and use both companies resources. Plans call for Starfish UK to handle all sales, marketing, channel management, technical support and operations for a large range of PCs and Mac programs. Software packages available from the company range from 3D graphics programs to diagnostic utilities and multimedia packages. "RMG has established a reputation for launching the best quality software in the UK, as well as rapidly achieving a market leading position. Starfish Software has a winning combination of the right philosophy, strong products and the best people and we are delighted to be working with them," Barratt said. Starfish is perhaps best known for its recent acquisition of Sidekick from the Borland Group, Newsbytes notes. The company claims that Sidekick 2.0 for Windows is the best-selling product on the Internet Shopping Network and has been extremely successful on the CompuServe Information Network. Dashboard 3.0 for Windows, meanwhile, is also reported to be much in demand on the company's electronic shopping facilities. According to Barratt, the English market is the next target for Starfish's products. The company's policy is to continue with the speed of development of new products and introduction existing and new stock to their new markets. Phillipe Kahn, the founder of Borland and now owner of Starfish Software, said that the UK is a natural expansion market for the company, and plays a very important part in the company's strategy. "With RMG's expertise we are confident that we will very shortly mirror our success in the US,: Kahn said. (Sylvia Dennis/19950629/Press & Reader Contact: RMG Sales, +44-181-875-4444) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 07/03/95 ONLINE CompuServe Unveils "Robust Internet Services" (NEWS)(ONLINE)(LON)(00033) CompuServe Unveils "Robust Internet Services" 07/03/95 BIRMINGHAM, ENGLAND, 1995 JUL 3 (NB) -- CompuServe's Network Services (CNS) division, exhibiting alongside the CompuServe Information Service (CIS) at the recent Networks '95 computer show in the UK, unveiled five new Internet services for companies. Speaking with Newsbytes at the show, Dennis Brouwer, director of CNS' Network Product Marketing, explained that "five flavors" of Internet service are available for business users of the company's global data network. These are: Internet Dial, IP Link, Internet Link, Internet Link Plus, and IP Client Software. According to Brouwer, each of the services has been tailored for a specific business profile and leverages either CNS' secure global X.25 or Frame-Net frame relay offering. Internet Dial is a variant on the NetLauncher Internet portfolio of services many users of CompuServe have become familiar with. The package is aimed at remote users using CIS or customer-provided IP client software, to dial into a CompuServe PPP (Point to Point Protocol) server and connect with the Internet. IP Link provides businesses with a secure dial connection to their IP- based environment. IP Link includes a dedicated router and v10.3 of Cisco IOS software, which allows the customer's users to access their TCP/IP (Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol) attached hosts via the CNS. Customers user their own IP address, and traffic is fully isolated from the Internet. Internet Link offers a dedicated connection to the Internet using a customer's existing Frame-Net frame relay link. Router filtering at the customer's site is used to control secure access to the corporate network. Filtering at each site may be different, based upon the needs of a given site. Internet Link Plus is a "firewall" option for Interlink Link, Firewalls are offered in conjunctions with Trusted Information Systems' Gauntlet package, and Checkpoint's Firewall 1 package. Last, but not least, is the IP Client server that CompuServe is offering corporations for Internet usage. These include Internet In a Box, Mosaic in a Box, and Internet Office. According to Brouwer, these new services, some features of which are already available in Europe, will be gradually rolled out worldwide over the coming months. The aim, he told Newsbytes, is to create a "one stop shop" for Internet and online services for companies on a global basis. Max Locatelli, CompuServe's sales manager for Northern Europe, echoed Brouwer's words, noting that, with the recently-announced deal with Scitor, the CNS is now accessible from more than 150 countries. "We will be doubling the number of dial ports (worldwide) to more than 100,000 over the next 10 months, making 28,800 global local access a reality. Our Frame-Net server is available throughout Europe, the Pacific Rim and North America. And the software expertise rounds out our truly robust, comprehensive IP and Internet offerings," he said. (Steve Gold/19950629/Press & Reader Contact: +44-1734-567400; Internet e-mail networkinfo@cis.compuserve.com ; 800-433-0389; Internet World Wide Web http://www.compuserve.com ) (SUMMARY)(GENERAL)(MSP)(00034) Newsbytes Daily Summary 07/03/95 MINNEAPOLIS, MINNESOTA, U.S.A., 1995 JUL 3 (NB) -- These are capsules of all today's news stories: ======================================================================== ------------| N E W S B Y T E S D A I L Y S U M M A R Y |---------- ------------| Monday, July 3, 1995 |---------- ======================================================================== (c) Newsbytes News Network (Tm) Editor in Chief: Wendy Woods ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Newsbytes News Network is a computer and telecom industry news wire and digitized picture service. Our news stream includes more than 30 daily first-hand reported US and international news stories about computing and telecommunications. For more information, please e-mail to 'administrator@newsbytes.com' ------------------------------------------------------------------------ CATEGORY HEADLINES (*** indicates today's top stories) STORY # ======================================================================== APPLE Now Calendar/Scheduler/Contact Mgr For Mac Update.......... 03 BUSINESS SystemSoft Acquires VMI, Signs 3 Distributors.............. 28 BUSINESS Starfish Software Expands Into Europe...................... 32 CHIPS ****Chip Shortage Halts Hitachi Telephone Production...... 16 EDUCATION "Jack's House" Software For Kids........................... 08 GENERAL Comdex UK Scheduled For April 1996......................... 09 GENERAL China - Beijing Computer Trade Fair........................ 13 GENERAL Japan Newsbriefs........................................... 14 GENERAL IBM Adds To Asean-Region Presence.......................... 20 GENERAL NewsPix Images For Newsbytes Publishers.................... 22 GENERAL ****Apple Japan President Quits After Row With US Parent.. 23 GENERAL Canadian Product Launch Update............................. 25 GENERAL Australia - Troubled Osborne Wins PC World Awards.......... 29 GOVT European Commission Pushes "Single Market.................. 06 IBM Europe - IBM Intros NetFinity 3.0.......................... 31 LEGAL ****Mitnick Hacker Plea-Bargains Prison Sentence.......... 19 ONLINE Free E-Mail With Postage Stamp "Ads........................ 01 ONLINE Business Incubator Offers Free Stock Quotes By E-Mail...... 02 ONLINE "The Planet's Moving Picture Show" On The Web.............. 07 ONLINE More On SafeSurf Internet Kids Protection Scheme........... 17 ONLINE MCI/Sprint/ANS In Internet Interconnect Deals.............. 27 ONLINE CompuServe Unveils "Robust Internet Services............... 33 PC Dell To Pre-load Windows 95................................ 24 TELECOM British Telecom Offers PC Comms Packages................... 04 TELECOM Italy's Sirti Signs Fiber Deal With Polish Telecom......... 10 TELECOM Hungary Ups Phone Rates To Raise More Cash................. 11 TELECOM AT&T Launches Services To Aid Telecommuting................ 15 TELECOM Indian Telecom Privatization In Full Swing................. 30 TRENDS Cirrus Intros New Graphics Chip............................ 12 TRENDS Electric Utility Interactive Energy Services Test.......... 18 TRENDS Singapore Primary Schools Computer Project................. 21 TRENDS Telecom Firms High On Canadian Profit Ranking.............. 26 WINDOWS Traveling Software Working On Laplink Host Software........ 05 ======================================================================== These are the headlines and first paragraphs of each story, in order: 1 -> Free E-Mail With Postage Stamp "Ads -- A move by ProductView Interactive, newly renamed "Freemark Communications," to offer free electronic-mail starting this fall will widen the market for online services, while at the same time giving companies a new method of electronic advertising, maintained Robert Young, company president, in an interview with Newsbytes. 2 -> Business Incubator Offers Free Stock Quotes By E-Mail -- A technology incubator has announced it will provide free stock quotations to anyone interested who has an electronic-mail service with an Internet connection. 3 -> Now Calendar/Scheduler/Contact Mgr For Mac Update -- Now Software Inc. has announced upgrades to Now Up-To-Date and Now Contact version 3.5, calendar, contact manager, and workgroup scheduler software for the Macintosh and Power Macintosh. 4 -> British Telecom Offers PC Comms Packages -- British Telecom (BT) has taken the wraps off a number of PC communications packages that it claims "offer solutions, not individual products." 5 -> Traveling Software Working On Laplink Host Software -- Traveling Software is working on a comms package called LapLink Host, a Windows application designed to provide technical support, help desk and MIS (management information systems) staff with a reliable tool for remote management of PC systems. 6 -> European Commission Pushes "Single Market -- A special advisory group to the European Commission (EC) has told the EC that it must urgently finish creating a "true single market" across Europe, in order to get Europe out of its current economic slump. 7 -> "The Planet's Moving Picture Show" On The Web -- Short films and live cameras abound on television, but not necessarily on the Internet. Now, Ohio Valley Digital is bringing those media, among other forms, to the Internet's World Wide Web with "WorldCam - The Planet's Moving Picture Show." 8 -> "Jack's House" Software For Kids -- A suburban Chicago mother, disturbed by what she called "aggressiveness, non-purposeful silliness, and loud noises" in children's software, has designed a new type of software for kids aged two through eight. Called "Softiware," the first title released under the new moniker is entitled "Jack's House." 9 -> Comdex UK Scheduled For April 1996 -- Softbank Comdex, the US-based company that produces Comdex Fall, which is claimed to be the world's most successful information technology (IT) trade show every November in Las Vegas, as well as 17 other IT trade events worldwide, has confirmed plans to bring the show to the UK for the first time. 10 -> Italy's Sirti Signs Fiber Deal With Polish Telecom -- Sirti, the Italian technology giant, has signed a 22 billion lire deal with Varsavia da Telekomunikacja Polska S.A. (Polish Telecom) for the installation of a fiber optic telecoms network spanning Poland. 11 -> Hungary Ups Phone Rates To Raise More Cash -- In a move that mirrors developments in Russia over the past few years, the state telecom company of Hungary has announced swinging increases in business telephone call costs to take effect from July 1. 12 -> Cirrus Intros New Graphics Chip -- Cirrus Logic Inc. (NASDAQ: CRUS) has introduced its VisualMedia acceleration technology which could bring higher-end visual applications to the consumer market. PC applications that include home video editing, photocomposition, electronic marketing, three-dimensional (3D) graphics, and video teleconferencing need ever improving accelerator technology. 13 -> China - Beijing Computer Trade Fair -- The 16th Beijing Computer Trade Fair was held at the Beijing International Exhibition Center in June. With 356 firms showing their products in an 18,000 square-meter area, the total traded volume was reportedly about RMB700 million (US$84.3 million). 14 -> Japan Newsbriefs -- In this roundup of news from Japan: Parametric receives big Japanese orders; Education Ministry mulls computer network; Mitsubishi appoints new managing director; Hollywood Online expands to Japan; and CompCore licenses SoftPEG. 15 -> AT&T Launches Services To Aid Telecommuting -- Fresh from endorsing an initiative to promote telecommuting (Newsbytes, June 28), AT&T (NYSE:T) has announced new services aimed at telecommuters and their employers. AT&T Alternative Workplace Solutions are becoming available in the United States starting right away, with all of the announced services due by this fall. 16 -> ****Chip Shortage Halts Hitachi Telephone Production -- Hitachi Ltd. has stopped production of handsets for the new Personal Handyphone System (PHS) mobile telephone network until August because of a shortage of memory chips. The Tokyo-based company expects supplies to resume in late summer but says that until then, no telephones can be made. 17 -> More On SafeSurf Internet Kids Protection Scheme -- SafeSurf, a parent's online organization, has unveiled a rating system that it hopes will make the Internet safe for children without government intervention. 18 -> Electric Utility Interactive Energy Services Test -- Central and South West Corp., a Dallas-based electric utility holding company, has connected 500 of the 2,500 homes in its Laredo, Texas, large-scale test of interactive energy services, and is adding some 20 new homes a day, Bill Morrow of CSW Communications told a Dallas meeting last week. 19 -> ****Mitnick Hacker Plea-Bargains Prison Sentence -- Prosecutors have accepted a plea bargain from computer hacker Kevin Mitnick that will see him serving eight months in state prison on a guilty plea to one of 23 charges, according to United Press International. 20 -> IBM Adds To Asean-Region Presence -- IBM is making a major push into the lucrative Singapore PC market as part of a US$1 million Asean-wide sales campaign. 21 -> Singapore Primary Schools Computer Project -- The Singapore Ministry of Education has launched a multi-million-dollar pilot project in six primary schools to assess the best way of integrating computers into the primary school curriculum. 22 -> NewsPix Images For Newsbytes Publishers -- These photos correspond to recent Newsbytes stories. They are online in the Newsbytes menu on GEnie, America Online, eWorld, NiftyServe, and the Newsbytes private bulletin board system in Minneapolis. JPEG (Joint Photographics Experts Group) files are larger in size, PICT files are designed as thumbnails for onscreen viewing. 23 -> ****Apple Japan President Quits After Row With US Parent -- Apple Japan Inc. has announced that its president, Seiji Sanda, resigned Friday over disagreements with its American parent company over management policy. 24 -> Dell To Pre-load Windows 95 -- Dell Computer Corporation (NASDAQ:DELL) said it is joining the growing list of companies that will pre-install Microsoft's (NASDAQ:MSFT) Windows 95 operating system. Officials said the announcement is the most recent step in a series of activities between the two companies to prepare for Windows 95. 25 -> Canadian Product Launch Update -- This regular feature, appearing on the first day Newsbytes publishes each week, provides further details for the Canadian market on announcements by international companies that Newsbytes has already covered. This week: Apple's eWorld updates. 26 -> Telecom Firms High On Canadian Profit Ranking -- BCE Inc. (TSE,ME:B) and its two telecommunications subsidiaries 27 -> MCI/Sprint/ANS In Internet Interconnect Deals -- MCI (NASDAQ:MCIC), Sprint (NASDAQ:FON), and America Online's (NASADQ-NNM:AMER) ANS CO+RE Systems have jointly announced an agreement to interconnect their Internet networks for direct exchange of traffic. All three also agreed to establish a "high-quality of service" for their Internet access subscribers by setting "performance objectives and standard operational procedures." 28 -> SystemSoft Acquires VMI, Signs 3 Distributors -- About a week after unveiling CardWorks for Windows 95 and CardSoft 16, two 16-bit software products for managing PC Cards, SystemSoft has acquired Ventura Micro (VMI), a specialist in "advanced" PC Card technologies, said SystemSoft executives, in a conference call with Newsbytes. 29 -> Australia - Troubled Osborne Wins PC World Awards -- The 1995 Australian PC World awards have been announced, with some expected results and a few surprises. Microsoft topped the software categories, but the surprise for the Australian industry was Osborne's dual win 30 -> Indian Telecom Privatization In Full Swing -- The month of June was significant in marking the privatization of the Indian telecom sector. While June 7 marked the day for the cellular service tender which had attracted as many as 32 bids, June 23 heralded the date calling private sector participation in basic telecom services. 31 -> Europe - IBM Intros NetFinity 3.0 -- IBM has taken the wraps off a new release of NetFinity, its PC systems and asset management package for business PC users. 32 -> Starfish Software Expands Into Europe -- Starfish Software, the US-based "simple software company," has announced plans to set up a branch office in the UK. The new company 33 -> CompuServe Unveils "Robust Internet Services -- CompuServe's Network Services (CNS) division, exhibiting alongside the CompuServe Information Service (CIS) at the recent Networks '95 computer show in the UK, unveiled five new Internet services for companies. (Ian Stokell/19950703) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 06/30/95 WINDOWS Corel Prices CorelDraw 6, Launch Delay Hurts Profits (NEWS)(WINDOWS)(TOR)(00001) Corel Prices CorelDraw 6, Launch Delay Hurts Profits 06/30/95 OTTAWA, ONTARIO, CANADA, 1995 JUN 30 (NB) -- Delaying the release of its CorelDraw 6 software while it waits for Microsoft Corp.'s (NASDAQ:MSFT) Windows 95 almost wiped out Corel Corp.'s (NASDAQ:COSFF) second-quarter profit. However, the company hopes the wait is almost over and has announced pricing for the new release of its flagship graphics software. Corel's profit in the quarter ended May 31 plunged to US$24,000 from US$5.75 million in the same quarter of last year. The drop was due in part to a decline in revenues -- to US$35.21 million from US$38.97 million -- due to CorelDraw 6's delayed release. The software would have been released in the spring by Corel's normal schedule of annual releases, but was put off because it is designed to take advantage of Windows 95, which is currently set for launch in late August. Corel officials said in a teleconference with analysts and reporters that Microsoft has advised Corel it has put back the release of Windows 95 to manufacturing by a week, but that the change in that date -- in July -- will not affect the launch. Another factor in Corel's income drop was increased spending on research and development -- nearly doubled from the same quarter last year as Corel worked on a number of new products due for release this year and in 1996. Once the CorelDraw 6 delay is taken into account, Corel Chairman and Chief Executive Michael Cowpland said, "overall we felt that this was a very good quarter." The company had warned earlier that the delay would affect its results. Officials said they expect a rebound later this year when the new package ships. Corel also announced that CorelDraw 6 will carry a suggested retail price of US$695, the same price as CorelDraw 5. The price of CorelDraw 5 will remain unchanged at least for a time, Cowpland said. since "we see two different markets developing." He was referring to the 32-bit Windows 95 and the existing Windows 3.1 environment. Corel will also continue selling the older CorelDraw 3 and CorelDraw 4, which it aims at more price- conscious buyers. Upgrades to CorelDraw 6 from any earlier version will cost a hefty US$425. Cowpland said the price is justified by the amount of work that went into developing the 32-bit version of the software, and by the addition of CorelDream, a private-labeled version of the RayDream Designer three-dimensional graphics tool that will be bundled with CorelDraw 6. Ventura Publisher, Corel's desktop publishing software, will not be part of the CorelDraw 6 package but will be sold separately instead. Corel also changed its support policy for CorelDraw 6. Free support will be offered via a toll telephone line for 90 days from the release of the product, and after that customers will get 30 days of free support via a toll line from the date of their first support call. Third parties will provide extended support after the initial warranty period, the company said. Existing support plans remain in effect for other Corel products. Eid Eid, Corel's director of engineering, said Corel has just started work on porting the new 32-bit CorelDraw software to the Apple Computer Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) Macintosh. Corel plans to release its Macintosh product some time in the next nine months, Eid said. Cowpland added that a version for IBM's OS/2 operating system will not appear before next year, and said the company is reviewing its OS/2 plans in light of IBM's (NYSE:IBM) recent acquisition of Lotus Development Corp. (Grant Buckler/19950629/Press Contact: Julie Galla, Corel, 613- 728-0826, ext. 1672; Public Contact: Corel, 613-728-8200) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 06/30/95 ONLINE OneSource Launches Company Watch Service (NEWS)(ONLINE)(TOR)(00002) OneSource Launches Company Watch Service 06/30/95 CAMBRIDGE, MASSACHUSETTS, U.S.A., 1995 JUN 30 (NB) -- OneSource Information Services, Inc., has announced a business research service that monitors a number of sources for information about 12 to 100 companies and feeds the results to clients using Lotus Development Corp.'s (NASDAQ:LOTS) Notes workgroup software. OneSource -- originally a Lotus spin-off -- said its new Company Watch service constantly monitors major business news wires, articles in business publications, Securities and Exchange Commission documents, stock prices, company profiles, and financial statements. Once a day, it replicates a Notes database of this information to the customer. The customer can specify from as many as 100 companies to be monitored, and can substitute one company for another at any time, company spokesman Michael Bailey told Newsbytes. The basic charge, which covers monitoring 12 companies and access to the information for 10 users, is $12,000 per year. The rate goes up based on the number of companies monitored and the number of people with access to the information, Bailey said. Among the sources providing data are Disclosure Inc., Information Access Co., Individual Inc., and Carthage International. According to OneSource, customers can use all the facilities of the Notes software to share and analyze the information they receive from Company Watch. OneSource specializes in providing information in Notes format. It produces proprietary data access software for Notes as well as for Microsoft Windows and DOS. (Grant Buckler/19950629/Press Contact: Michael Bailey, OneSource Information Services, 617-441-7239; Leonard Phillips, Marketing Strategies for OneSource, 617-356-5090; Public Contact: OneSource, 800-554-5501 or +44 1483 241239) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 06/30/95 BUSINESS Disk Media Firms Invest In Singapore (NEWS)(BUSINESS)(HKG)(00003) Disk Media Firms Invest In Singapore 06/30/95 SINGAPORE, SEA, 1995 JUN 30 (NB) -- Japanese firm Hoya has committed to a US$24 million disk media plant in Singapore. Hoya's arrival comes hot on the heels of US firm Stormedia International who opened a similar US$40 million plant recently. The Hoya announcement means the Japanese company will have two plants in Singapore with a US$30 million plant due to open in January. Hoya produces glass media for the manufacture of hard disk drives. The expansion will double Hoya's glass media manufacturing capacity in Singapore to 24 million units a year. The bulk of Hoya's production goes to disk-drive manufacturer Toshiba Corp. Singapore Economic Development Board Chairman Philip Yeo said that more than 10 disk media companies from Japan and the US are scheduled to open factories in Singapore in the next year. One company that will not be coming to Singapore is Komag of the US, which has decided to build a plant in nearby Kuching in Sarawak. Komag plans to invest US$100 million over the next two years in Kuching, with production scheduled to commence there March next year. A Komag spokesman said Sarawak's proximity to Bangkok, Singapore, and Penang allowing it to service its existing customers easily, was the major reason to bypass Singapore. Sarawak has the potential to become another Penang, he said. He also cited Singapore's relatively high office space, land and labor costs as factors in the decision. (Nigel Armstrong and IT Daily/19950630) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 06/30/95 TELECOM Mobile Phone System For Eastern/Central Europe (NEWS)(TELECOM)(LON)(00004) Mobile Phone System For Eastern/Central Europe 06/30/95 WARSAW, POLAND, 1995 JUN 30 (NB) -- Selectone low-cost mobile radio telephone systems, SmartTrunk II, for rural areas of developing countries, are the object of a joint marketing agreement with Motorola. Under terms of the deal, Motorola will sell its radios along with the Selectone systems. In rural areas of developing countries, such as those in Central & Eastern Europe, PTT lines will not go into service for years and the building of analog mobile, digital fixed wireless and GSM (global system for mobile communications) networks is focused on major metropolitan areas. "Cellular represents too much of a cost of infrastructure to go outside of the metropolitan areas," said John Sullivan, vice president of sales at the Hayward, California-based Selectone. "Our infrastructure costs are very low and are very much affordable." Since its introduction in 1992, SmarTrunk has become the world standard for low-cost radiotelephone trunking, according to the company. There are now over 1,000 systems with over 5,000 trunking channels in daily use serving over 250,000 subscribers worldwide. The systems are currently in deployment and selling strongly throughout Central & Eastern Europe, Russia, South America, India, and South East Asia. Sullivan emphasized low-cost and rapid deployment as the major selling points for SmarTrunk in developing countries. The basic idea is that customers use a walkie-talkie radio as a telephone to talk to a base station located 40 or 50 kilometers away. That, in turn, connects them into the PSTN (public switched telephone network), explained Sullivan. A SmarTrunk II system, which terminates into a PSTN line, can serve a subscriber base of up to 1,100 and support up to sixteen simultaneous calls with the installation of sixteen controllers. A system with five controllers will also a serve a subscriber base of 1,100 but will support only five simultaneous calls, Sullivan explained. A radio site survey needs to be completed for each deployment to take into account the particular terrain, explained Sullivan. When asked about data and fax capabilities, Sullivan said that both can be accomplished at 1,200 baud but that these systems are targeted at users for which voice telephone is a major technological leap. "Eastern Europe as a group is very successful for us," said Sullivan. "We're doing very big things in Russia, Romania, Bulgaria, just getting started in Poland, and Czech Republic. We have a huge cross-country system in Macedonia, and are looking to move into Hungary." Selectone distributors look for system operators to put up a backbone system and then sell subscriptions, Sullivan explained. That is where the monthly revenues come from. Selectone manufactures the controllers and the logic boards that go inside the walkie-talkies from Kenwood, Motorola, and others. Sullivan pointed out that Selectone has just entered a joint marketing agreement with Motorola. The Selectone/Motorola agreement will be announced for Europe at a sales meeting in Munich during the first week of July, said Sullivan. (Steven Slatem/Press & Reader Contact: John Sullivan, Selectone, tel 510-887-1950, 800-227-0376, fax 510-887-4011) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 06/30/95 LEGAL BSA Wins Hong Kong Software Piracy Case (NEWS)(LEGAL)(HKG)(00005) BSA Wins Hong Kong Software Piracy Case 06/30/95 CENTRAL, HONG KONG, 1995 JUN 30 (NB) -- Hong Kong's Supreme Court has awarded costs and damages to "software police" the Business Software Alliance (BSA) following an admission that a Hong Kong construction firm was using illegal software. The case against First Top Building Materials Supply Co. Ltd., began in March last year. A search and inspection order was subsequently granted to the BSA by the court. Shortly afterwards, BSA investigators obtained evidence that employees of First Top had deleted software and concealed hardware during the search to frustrate the investigation. As a result, contempt of court proceedings were filed by the BSA against a director of First Top and the manager of Danta Developments Group. Liu admitted that the software found in First Top's computers was infringing the intellectual property rights of the original software publishers. "We are very pleased with the final resolution of this case as the substantial payment made shows that the courts are beginning to recognize the serious losses that software publishers suffer, not only from dealers in illegal software, but also from end-users," said Valerie Colbourn, vice president of the BSA. "The fact that we have obtained such a favorable settlement after pursuing this case for more than a year should send a clear message to illegal software users in Hong Kong that the BSA will use all the resources necessary to pursue them," Colbourn stated. Under the terms of the Supreme Court settlement, the name of the First Top director and the amount of the settlement were not made public. In addition to this latest action, the BSA has this year forced settlements with three other organizations in Hong Kong: architectural firm Ronald Lu & Partners, City College, and Yaohan Department Store. (Nigel Armstrong and I.T.Daily/19950630) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 06/30/95 TELECOM UK - Mercury One-2-One Targets New Users (NEWS)(TELECOM)(LON)(00006) UK - Mercury One-2-One Targets New Users 06/30/95 LONDON, ENGLAND, 1995 JUN 30 (NB) -- Mercury One-2-One, one of the UK's two PCN (personal communications network) digital phone operators, has revealed plans to target new types of subscriber over the remainder of the year. Speaking with Newsbytes, Alan Thompson, a senior spokesperson for One-2-One, explained that, to date, all the cellular operators in the UK have pitched their tariffs at four main types of user -- heavy and light business users, and medium plus light residential users. "Although we've carved out new markets with some of our newer tariffs, notably the UKP 79.95 business package, there's still a lot of market out there that no cellular operator had exploited," he explained. Thompson went on to say that, with the company's ability to allow the intelligent software of the mobile to interact with the Cell Broadcast facilities of base stations, a lot more specialized information can be displayed to selected users. This is particularly relevant, he said, to bespoke tariffs, an area that One-2-One intends to target over the last two quarters of this year. "We're looking at offering special tariff packages to specific groups of users, such as health workers or council employees. We're working with three groups of this type, including a major council, to beta test these packages. The results so far have been very encouraging," he said. Although One-2-One still has a few years to go before it starts generating real profits on its return (Thompson referred to the 1997 break-even point detailed when One-2-One launched almost two years ago), the company has flexibility of tariffing. "For example, we can offer a special tariff for when council employees are within their area during the day, which helps them reduce the cost of their mobile phone calls, provided certain levels of calling are maintained," he said, adding that having the subscriber contract to use a significant amount of airtime, and so qualifying for a discounted tariff structure, is good news for both One-2-One and the customer. "What we're starting to see is that new areas of subscribers are opening up. The industry has concentrated on general business and residential subscribers so far. Now it's time to turn our attention to other market segments," he told Newsbytes. Despite One-2-One's main appeal to residential users being the off- peak free local calls, Thompson said that under 10 percent of users fell into the category of "free call enthusiasts." The bulk of users tend to be urban professionals, talkaholics (families in lower income areas), business/commuters, and well-off families. One type of subscriber One-2-One wants to target is the low users band, which are defined as families and small businesses outside the M25 (the London orbital motorway), who make below average paid usage, low free usage, and are typical low users. "Just because a subscriber doesn't make a large number of calls doesn't mean they are not welcome on One-2-One," Thompson explained, adding that the monthly line rental is still a contribution to One-2- One's coffers. (Steve Gold/19950630/Press Contact: One-2-One Press Office, tel +44-956-700121, fax +44-956-700122; Reader Contact: One-2-One, 0500-121-500) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 06/30/95 TRENDS Internet Could Hurt Banks & Shopping - Report (NEWS)(TRENDS)(LON)(00007) Internet Could Hurt Banks & Shopping - Report 06/30/95 LONDON, ENGLAND, 1995 JUN 30 (NB) -- According to a report from Inteco, a market research organization, shopping is due to change "out of all recognition" as the world moves towards the end of the century. According to Graham Taylor, manager of the Inteco survey on banking and shopping services, "virtual" shopping is likely to become the norm with "couch potatoes" ordering goods and services through their multimedia-linked television. Stepping outside to visit the shopping mall will become a rarity -- except, perhaps, to shop for something special or to buy groceries when the "hypermarket" does not offer delivery services. "Some people will find virtual shopping more convenient and at least as enjoyable as going out to the shops. Multimedia technology will allow stimulating virtual shopping environments to be created in the home, with interactive TV and multimedia PCs offering attractive product displays, using interactive audio and video to add excitement and endorsement," he explained. According to Taylor, direct online links to suppliers will allow home shoppers to order off the screen at any time of the day or night. "And products such as video, news, books or music, as well as services such as baking, travel planning, or medical advice, will be piped into the home in digital form," he said. Taylor's report predicts that, such will be the speed of take-up of cybershopping, that the existing shopping malls will feel as though a bomb has been let off in their sales figures. "The basic online shopping services launched recently by Barclays Bank, Dixons, Tesco, Sainsburys and other UK retailers don't yet deliver the full benefits of virtual shopping to the consumer," he explained, adding that, at present, retail prices are the norm, with extra charges for delivery being the norm, and firms being vague on delivery times. "New home shopping service operators, unencumbered by the cost of retail premises and retail staff, will start a war on price and delivery, moving competition between retail and direct selling into a whole new phase," he said. Inteco's report is based on interviews with members of more than 3,500 households carried out earlier this year. The report investigated shopping attitudes, shopping problems, mail-order and telephone habits, as well as PC skills and many other relevant issues. The research found that the advantage of interactive home shopping is that brand owners can directly market to the end-user base, cutting out third-party channels, and reducing costs for advertising, sales, and distribution, while obtaining direct feedback about products of interest to different types of households. "These are profound changes, each of which will take time to accomplish. Some of the changes require large investments in the new broadband networks, others depend on the willingness of companies with substantial investments in the status quo to change their distribution methods," Taylor said. (Steve Gold/19950630/Press Contact: A Plus, +44-1753-790700; Reader Contact: Inteco, +44-1483-751777) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 06/30/95 TRENDS Computers & CDs Revolutionize Electric Utility Training (NEWS)(TRENDS)(WAS)(00008) Computers & CDs Revolutionize Electric Utility Training 06/30/95 WASHINGTON, D.C., U.S.A., 1995 JUN 30 (NB) -- Computers and compact disks are revolutionizing utility training, according to Susan Mitchell, manager of The Electrification Council. "The new technology replaces traditional classroom training with individual, self-paced training," she told Newsbytes. "It's particularly valuable these days when utilities are downsizing and restructuring and employees are asked to do new jobs or expand the breadth of their existing jobs." TEC has developed a new compact disk-interactive (CD-I) training system covering electrotechnologies, working with Apogee Interactive of Atlanta, a specialist in training software (and not the Apogee that markets computer games). TEC has membership that includes all the members of the Edison Electric Institute, other utilities, and major equipment vendors. TEC's members have given information, photos and other input to Apogee, which is producing the training products that provide information on cooling systems, lighting, residential energy systems, and power quality. "This type of learning system is the wave of the future," says Susan Gilbert, Apogee president. "Today's utility field representatives have to acquire a tremendous amount of knowledge about end-use technologies. With TEC's CD-I series, they can not only educate themselves, but they can take the entire system into the field to go over alternatives with their customers, permitting customers to make their own informed choices." According to Mitchell, 50 utilities in the US are using the systems, including large investor-owned utilities such as Duke Power, large municipal utilities such as the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power, and the giant regional power agency, the Tennessee Valley Authority. The software starts at $3,500 for a single copy, but unit price goes down with volume purchases, Mitchell said. Another TEC training product focuses on environmental issues. TEC commissioned the UNIMAR group of Alton, Ill., to develop a training package, called "industrial environmental action," which incorporates traditional on-site training, a research manual, and lap-top software. The manual covers regulations, environmental assessment procedures, and technology solutions. It also gives information on equipment suppliers and resources available from government and private sector organizations. The software includes selected information from the manual. The user can key in a given standard industrial code and immediately identify potential waste streams, major federal regs, and mitigation technologies, along with vendors lists and lists of state environmental offices and resources. This system, says Bernardine Purcell, chief executive officer (CEO) of UNIMAR, helps industrial manufacturers "compare the benefits of different technology and equipment alternatives, including economics, energy efficiency, process enhancement and competitive positioning -- as well as environmental benefits." TEC was founded in 1951 to bring together the nation's electric utilities and their manufacturing allies. Membership in EEI, the trade group for the investor-owned utilities, automatically brings membership in TEC, which is located in EEI's Washington offices. Mitchell is on EEI's payroll. TEC mission is "To increase market acceptance of electrotechnologies by serving as the electric industry trade ally partnership." (Kennedy Maize/19950627/Press Contact: Susan Mitchell, TEC, 202-508-5901) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 06/30/95 GENERAL Netron Fusion Blends Mainframe, Client/Server (NEWS)(GENERAL)(TOR)(00009) Netron Fusion Blends Mainframe, Client/Server 06/30/95 TORONTO, ONTARIO, CANADA, 1995 JUN 30 (NB) -- Aiming at organizations in the midst of, or contemplating, a transition from mainframe to client/server computing, Netron Inc. has rolled its existing Netron/CAP development system and other products into a new development package for mainframe and client/server systems. Netron Fusion is meant to let developers create applications for older host systems and for client/server setups with the same tools. It is fully compatible with the existing Netron/CAP, a development system built around the idea of reusable software components, Netron spokesman Rick Strosberg told Newsbytes. Strosberg said Fusion is "a packaging of existing Netron tools plus some new tools that represent some additional functionality." For all the talk about client/server computing, he said, many organizations are still doing at least some development on mainframes and a good number have yet to begin shifting toward more distributed systems. "We're trying to give people the option of, not only developing for the mainframe, but also when they decide to move to client/server to be able to use the same tools," he explained. Like Netron/CAP, Fusion is based on the COBOL programming language, with a re-use engine that Netron said relies on object- oriented software construction technology. It supports major database management systems and communications protocols. The software also includes QuickStarts, which are template programs for both mainframe and client/server systems that the company said will give developers a head start by providing a framework for new applications. QuickFuse is a set of utilities for importing COBOL record layouts, data description language (DDL), and Bachman analyst data models into Netron Fusion. The Reusable Object Manager catalogs software components for reuse. Netron Fusion is available now at C$9,500 per copy. Netron sells in the range of 80 to 85 percent of its products in North America, Strosberg said, but the company has distributors worldwide. (Grant Buckler/19950628/Press Contact: Rick Strosberg, Netron, tel 416-636-8334 ext 266, fax 416-636-4847; Public Contact: Netron, 800-313-5913) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 06/30/95 TRENDS China - Software Industry Growth Accelerating (NEWS)(TRENDS)(PEK)(00010) China - Software Industry Growth Accelerating 06/30/95 BEIJING, CHINA, 1995 JUN 30 (NB) -- China's fast-growing computer market will boost development of a Chinese software industry, an official of the Ministry of Electronics Industry (MEI) said recently. The computer market in China is expected to be worth more than RMB50 billion (US$6 billion) this year, and sales are expected to keep growing at an annual rate of 25 percent in the coming years and to exceed RMB150 billion (US$18 billion) by the year 2000, according to a source from MEI. The software industry has also witnessed a rapid growth in recent years. For example, sales of software in Shanghai amounted to RMB440 million (about US$52 million) in 1994, an 87 percent increase over the previous year. Shanghai now hosts 278 software firms with 26,000 engineers. A year ago, there were only 200 software firms. Last year, total sales of software in China was estimated to be around RMB4.9 billion (US$590 million), a 20 percent increase over the figure of the previous year. But compared with sales of hardware products, which showed a 54.16 percent rise in 1994, software growth is relatively slow. Software products only account for 12.3 percent of total computer industry sales. These figures mean more opportunities for domestic software developers, computer experts believe. Governmental efforts to fight piracy should also benefit the industry. Observers expect that the software industry will soon become an important sector of the national economy. China's domestic software developers are currently facing strong competition from foreign companies. For example, Microsoft's sales in China have risen at an annual rate of 100 percent since it entered China in 1992. To compete with foreign companies, the Chinese software industry should focus on the development of application software while paying attention to supporting systems software, experts suggest. China will continue to cooperate with overseas partners to develop its domestic software industry, the government official of MEI said. However, the government will not support overseas companies in setting up wholly-owned software ventures here, he added. (Chi-Ho You & Ning Huang/19950630) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 06/30/95 TRENDS Personalized Software Bug Reporting Service (NEWS)(TRENDS)(MSP)(00011) Personalized Software Bug Reporting Service 06/30/95 EVANSTON, ILLINOIS, U.S.A., 1995 JUN 30 (NB) -- Computer users who want to know about bugs in their software now have a clearinghouse of information that deals with problems in programs. A company called "Jerry's World" is publishing JNews, described as an "individualized information reporting service" dealing with software bugs. JNews delivers to customers detailed reports about bug fixes, maintenance releases, or upgrades issued for products they own, be they software or hardware. Complete information on where to obtain the new releases is also provided. In addition, flash bulletins are sent out whenever a major problem is found with a product. Jerry Saperstein, president of Jerry's World, told Newsbytes he is starting the service because of his personal experience trying to find "what's buggy and what's not" in software. "A lot of people don't really know where to go to find out about bugs," he said. "Also, my personal opinion is that software is getting buggier. People are shoving stuff out the door long before it's ready for market." The sources Saperstein will be consulting include the online forums many software companies maintain on services like America Online and CompuServe, and filter through the messages to find the real problems with the companies individual products. He also hopes to enlist the software developers to cooperate in this new venture, he said. Subscriptions to JNews cost $4 a month for up to 25 products, with electronic-mail delivery. Fax or regular mail delivery is available at an additional cost. Subscribers can also buy bug reports on products they are considering buying for $4 per program. Orders can be placed from the Jerry's World Internet World Wide Web site at http://www.jworld.com but the transaction would not be secure. A downloadable text file of the application is also available. (Bob Woods/19950629/Press Contact: Jerry Saperstein, Jerry's World Inc., 708-328-7370; Public Contact: Jerry's World, 708-328-7370, Internet World Wide Web http://www.jworld.com CompuServe at GO JWORLD, America Online Keyword JWORLD) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 06/30/95 ONLINE Internet As An Electric Utility Company Marketing Tool (NEWS)(ONLINE)(WAS)(00012) Internet As An Electric Utility Company Marketing Tool 06/30/95 DALLAS, TEXAS, U.S.A., 1995 JUN 30 (NB) -- The Internet is a marvelous tool for electric utility customer services and marketing, says consultant Phil Hummel. But most utility marketing and customer service people he talks to don't have a clue about the "Net" and what it offers, he told a meeting of some 600 electric utility officials yesterday. "I have talked to a lot of utility marketing and customer service people," Hummel said, "and I get a curious response. It's: 'we're waiting to see if this is just a flash in the pan.' I also get the response, "none of our customers have this capability." Then Hummel, who is working with the Electric Power Research Institute on helping utilities figure out the net telecommunications technology, asked the audience for a show of hands on how many people have an Internet electronic-mail address. Nearly every hand went up. Then he asked how many were a member of an Internet newsgroup. More than three quarters of the hands went up. Next, how many have access to the World Wide Web? More than half the hands went up. Hummel notes that EPRI did some survey research and found that 30 percent of electric utility customers have Internet e-mail addresses. "How many of you collect e-mail addresses of your customers?" he asked. No hands went up. "This is at a time when its really hard to get on the Internet," Hummel told Newsbytes later. "Nobody makes it easy, and yet millions and millions of people are coming online today. Imagine what the numbers are going to be when somebody like my cable company delivers one megabits-per-second service to me and an easy to use interface and I don't have to worry about whether I want a SLIP connection, or PPP, or dialup." Hummel has written a study for EPRI titled "Marketing and Customer Service on the Internet." It is expected to be published in a matter of weeks. Each of the major functions of the Internet offers ways for clever utilities to create effective customer service tools, says Hummel. E-mail's one-to-one capability can be used to deliver utility newsletters to customers far easier than bill-stuffers or direct mail. "I suspect you will see a noticeable reduction in calls to your call center if you tell your customers over e-mail when you are going to be doing tree trimming," Hummel said. The Internet's newsgroups, with their many-to-many characteristics, are a good way to do low-cost market research and customer support, Hummel said. He noted that Hollywood is using the discussion groups to test themes and story ideas. Utilities can use discussion groups as "quick and dirty" focus groups. "Sure, the demographics aren't carefully constructed. But it's really cheap," he said. With its one-to-many approach, Hummel said, the World Wide Web is good for publishing and advertising, remote shopping, and technical services. He added that it is also good as a tool for qualifying sales leads. Even those utilities who have discovered the Web, some two dozen by latest count, aren't doing much with it. "Most utility sites are not really sophisticated," Hummel said, with only a few hypertext links and not much rich content. "It isn't enough to put up a low-resolution scanned photograph of your president and a link to the annual financial tables. I haven't seen anything yet that is customer service and marketing driven." (Kennedy Maize/19950630) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 06/30/95 BUSINESS EMC & Tandem In OEM Deal On ModArray RAID (NEWS)(BUSINESS)(BOS)(00013) EMC & Tandem In OEM Deal On ModArray RAID 06/30/95 HOPKINTON, MASSACHUSETTS, U.S.A., 1995 JUN 30 (NB) -- A new OEM (original equipment manufacturer) deal that calls for Tandem to market EMC's ModArray is the second announcement in the past few weeks to show EMC's expansion from mainframe storage into "open systems," maintained Paul Noble, VP and general manager of EMC's OEM Operations, in an interview with Newsbytes. Under the agreement, Tandem will sell EMC's ModArray RAID (redundant array of inexpensive disks) subsystem for Tandem's Integrity NR series of Unix servers, according to Noble. Noble told Newsbytes that Tandem is the third customer for the ModArray. The OEM product, designed to support "a variety of Unix platforms," was introduced by EMC in November. At that time, Unisys was announced as the first customer for ModArray, the VP noted. EMC subsequently named Fujitsu as the second customer. Tandem will call its version of the ModArray the "Tandem/Integrity NR RAID Storage System," according to Noble. Unisys has dubbed its product the "OSS 8000 Series for the U 6000." The Fujitsu subsystem is known as "DynaRAID II - Series I." A few weeks ago, EMC rolled out the Symmetrix 3000, a RAID storage system for the Unix end-user market, Noble added. The Symmetrix 3000, he contended, is able to allow heterogeneous, or multivendor, Unix servers to "simultaneously be connected to a Symmetrix product and address their own storage." The EMC exec characterized the Symmetrix 3000 as "ideal for co- located storage applications." The newly inked OEM agreement with Tandem represents the first time that EMC has dealt "directly" with Tandem, according to Noble. "Open systems is going to be a major part of our business. To have a company like Tandem validate the ModArray is very important to us, particularly with Tandem's reputation for fault-tolerance," the EMC exec told Newsbytes. The storage capacity of EMC's ModArray ranges from four gigabytes (GB) to 260 (GB), in 3.5-inch disks, for a cost per megabyte of $1.50 to $2.50, according to Noble. The product provides user-selectable RAID levels of 0, 1, 3, and 5. Other capabilities of the ModArray include online RAID controller failure protection, "full component redundancy," and online upgrades of RAID software. (Jacqueline Emigh/19950628/Reader Contact: EMC, 508-435-1000; Press Contact: Rick Lacroix, EMC, 508-435-1000) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 06/30/95 GENERAL UK - US Robotics Cuts Modem Pricing (NEWS)(GENERAL)(LON)(00014) UK - US Robotics Cuts Modem Pricing 06/30/95 SLOUGH, BERKSHIRE, ENGLAND, 1995 JUN 30 (NB) -- US Robotics has slashed pricing on its portable, desktop and internal modems by up to a half. The most dramatic of the price cuts takes the WorldPort Dual Standard V.34 (28,800 bits-per-second) PCMCIA (Personal Computer Memory Card International Association) card modem down from UKP399 to UKP199. The Sportster 14,400 data/fax modem, meanwhile, drops from UKP199 to UKP139, while the V.34 version drops from UKP299 to UKP199. The price cuts, announced on the eve of the Networks '95 computer trade show in Birmingham, England, caused some degree of excitement amongst exhibitors, although none of the other mainstream modem vendors has reacted to the price cuts. In parallel with the dramatic price cuts, USR has increased its marketing spend on reseller and end-user advertising, as well as introducing what it describes as an "aggressive incentive promotion for resellers" throughout the summer. "Our volumes are at an all time high and we have rationalized our distribution by bringing the warehouse into our new head office site at Winnersh," explained Clive Hudson. the company's UK managing director. "We have achieved significant economies of scale which we are now able to pass on to the customer. I believe that these prices will make a number of competitors sit up and think very hard about whether they can afford to stay with us." The new prices take effect immediately and cover all product variants such as internal PC cards and Apple Mac compatible versions. As before, the modems come with five years warranty and free lifetime technical support. Chaz Brookes, marketing manager with Portable Add-Ons, a portable modem and products distributor, told Newsbytes that he was surprised at the price cuts. "I think they're certainly driving the market downwards in pricing terms, but the profit margins for dealers are reduced as well. This could cause the company problems on its dealer front," he said. (Sylvia Dennis & Steve Gold/19950628/Press Contact: The Edge Partnership, +44-1625-511966; Reader Contact: US Robotics, tel +44-1734-228200, fax +44-1734-695555) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 06/30/95 TRENDS World Wide Web Usage Up - Survey (NEWS)(TRENDS)(MSP)(00015) World Wide Web Usage Up - Survey 06/30/95 PORT WASHINGTON, NEW YORK, U.S.A., 1995 JUN 30 (NB) -- The number of homes accessing the Internet's World Wide Web rose by 50 percent in May over April, according to the latest National Survey of Hardware Ownership, released by the NPD Group. This means the number of homes using the Web has broken the two million mark, the survey said. The survey also showed that many of the households are accessing the Web via online services like America Online, Prodigy, and CompuServe. Steve Coffey, NPD vice president, told Newsbytes the number of people who have access to the Internet, which the survey said totaled about five million people, surprised him "because I expected that to be a smaller number. Meanwhile, we hear numbers of like 30 million (Internet users) in the press. I was pretty anxious to find out if the Internet will be a mainstream service for people at home, which it has penetrated pretty broadly." As far as the major online services go, subscriptions are up, too. The survey said that as of April, 5.1 of the nations' households were online. That's an increase of 11% over the previous quarter, when the survey showed 4.5 million online service subscribers. America Online showed the largest growth at 19%, Prodigy came in second at 5%, and CompuServe had no growth, the NPD study reported. Coffey said that even though new members are signing on, turnover among existing members (called "churn") will likely offset many of those subscription gains. In fact, the survey showed that more than seven million households have at one time or another belonged to a commercial online service. Yet only five million are current subscribers. "People go on, and poke around, but it isn't enough to stay there," Coffey said. "The online providers have got to find a way to find compelling content to keep people coming back regularly." Hardware usage is looking up, according to the survey, with 33.2 percent of the nation's homes reported owning a PC in April, which is up 1.3 percent from January. This makes the annualized growth rate of 5.2 percent, NPD officials said. But since PC ownership traditionally rises during the holiday-driven fourth quarter, Coffey said the annual growth rate will probably be higher by the end of 1995. (Bob Woods/19950628/Press Contacts: Leslie Singer, 516-625-2302, or Steve Coffer, 516-625-4297, both of NPD Group) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 06/30/95 NETWORK Artisoft Ships LANtastic Power Suite (NEWS)(NETWORK)(DEN)(00016) Artisoft Ships LANtastic Power Suite 06/30/95 TUCSON, ARIZONA, U.S.A., 1995 JUN 30 (NB) -- Artisoft Inc. (NASDAQ: ASFT) has announced shipment of its LANtastic Power Suite, an integrated software package that combines the LANtastic network operating system software with mail, scheduling, and communications programs. In addition to LANtastic, the software suite includes Lotus cc:Mail, the Lotus Organizer group scheduler for network and a personal information manager, Cheyenne Communications' BitWare fax and modem communications software, Cheyenne's BitShare modem-sharing and pooling software, and Netcom's NetCruiser Internet access software. The LANtastic NOS (network operating system) has several new features, including a workstation cache which accesses data across the network and temporarily stores it on the user's PC for immediate access. That can speed operations when the current task involves repetitive file reads. Also new to LANtastic is Hewlett-Packard JetDirect network printer support that allows print jobs to be sent to HP printers equipped with a JetDirect device, or to printers connected to an HP JetDirect EX external unit. LANtastic now supports printer pooling, a feature that sends a print job to the next available printer in the pool, and Powersync file synchronization for Microsoft Windows. PowerSync updates single files or entire directories between two computers based on the most recent changes. The LANtastic Power Suite has a suggested retail price of $199 for a single-user software-only kit. Current users of the LANtastic NOS can convert to the Power Suite for $99 for a single-user version. Artisoft also offers conversion kits for Power Suite in 5-, 10-, 25-, 50- and 100-user versions. Software-only kits for new buyers of Power Suite are also available in the same user packs, and Artisoft offers a Power Suite starter kit that includes a two-user software license, two network interface cards and cable for $499. A single-user add-on kit with software and a network interface card is $259. (Jim Mallory/19950628/Press contact: Bill Peterson, Artisoft, 520-670-7304; Public contact: Artisoft, tel 520-670-7100 or 800-233-5564, fax 520-670-7101) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 06/30/95 ONLINE Heinz Offers Govts Food Buying On The Web (NEWS)(ONLINE)(MSP)(00017) Heinz Offers Govts Food Buying On The Web 06/30/95 PITTSBURGH, PENNSYLVANIA, U.S.A., 1995 JUN 30 (NB) -- H.J. Heinz Company (NYSE:HNZ) said it has set up a cyberspace site to solicit food procurement opportunities in the real world, mainly to improve the nutrition of children around the globe. About 50 percent of the approximately 137 million babies born each year suffer from nutrition deficiencies, Daniel J. Friedrich, general manager of worldwide infant feeding for Heinz, told Newsbytes. "We're trying to establish businesses in these areas (where children suffer from malnutrition)," he said. "So we're trying to establish businesses in these areas via the Internet." He said the governments are helping the company to sell the food until economic conditions improve in the affected countries. Heinz is reaching out to governments and agencies involved in the emerging economies of China, Eastern Europe, India, Latin America, and other regions and countries. These organizations may submit "tender offers," or bid requests, for baby food directly via the Internet. Friedrich said that until Heinz went into these countries, babies and children suffered from malnutrition because they ate foods like rice, which don't contain iron, iodine, or vitamins. "So getting governments and organizations to buy these foods that are fortified does help nutrition worldwide." The Heinz Internet Web site will be directly available to more than 3,000 governmental agencies around the world that currently use the Internet. Friedrich said the Internet is a good way to reach many of those people, because they turn to the Internet first when they look for information. For those agencies that do not have Internet access, a toll-free number is provided to call Heinz. Besides placing orders, users who access the Web site can find information on the history of the company, and technical specifications on Heinz's key products. The Heinz site is located at http://www.hjheinz.com/tenders/ Electronic-mail inquiries can also be mailed to tenders@hjheinz.com. (Bob Woods/19950628/Press Contacts: D. Edward I. Smyth, 412-456-5780, Deborah S. Foster, 412-456-5778, both of H.J. Heinz Co.; John E. Kennedy, 412-456-3586, or L. Michael Kelly Jr., 412-456-3840, both of Ketchum Public Relations; Public Contact: Internet World Wide Web http://www.hjheinz.com/tenders/ Internet e-mail tenders@hjheinz.com) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 06/30/95 TRENDS Survey - 17% Of Canadians Have Internet Access (NEWS)(TRENDS)(TOR)(00018) Survey - 17% Of Canadians Have Internet Access 06/30/95 TORONTO, ONTARIO, CANADA, 1995 JUN 30 (NB) -- Seventeen percent of adult Canadians have some kind of access to the Internet and six percent currently connect to it from their homes, according to a new survey by the Angus Reid Group, a polling organization. The survey reported that while some 3.4 million Canadian adults have Internet access from home or work or through a school or public facility, about 1.3 million of these, or six percent of the adult population, connect from home. Based on telephone interviews with 5,256 randomly selected Canadian adults, the survey has a margin of error of plus or minus two percent, research assistant Caesar Pacheco of Angus Reid told Newsbytes. More than half of Internet users are less than 35 years old and 74 percent are male, the survey found. Internet users also tend to have higher incomes than non-users: 27 percent of users earn more than C$80,000 per year, while only 11 percent of non-users do. Not surprisingly, more Internet users than non-users own personal computers. Eighty percent of Internet users have a personal computer at home, while only 41 percent of all Canadians own a home PC. Internet users are also more likely to own other electronic gadgets such as compact disk players (74 percent of users versus 15 percent of non-users) and personal digital assistants (35 percent versus 13 percent). Internet use varied slightly across the country, with British Columbia reporting the highest usage level at eight percent and Quebec the lowest. Pacheco said language is a key factor in the lower usage in Quebec, where French is predominant. English is the dominant language of the Internet. Almost half of Internet users have a university degree and about 20 percent have a post-graduate degree, the survey reported. (Grant Buckler/19950628/Press Contact: Dan Coates, Angus Reid Group, 416-324-2900, fax 416-324-2865, Internet e-mail dcoates@ibm.net) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 06/30/95 HEALTH Connectware Intros PC Radiation Protection Device (NEWS)(HEALTH)(DEN)(00019) Connectware Intros PC Radiation Protection Device 06/30/95 RICHARDSON, TEXAS, U.S.A., 1995 JUN 30 (NB) -- Connectware Inc. has introduced a combination radiation protection and anti-glare screen the company said is designed to protect computer users from the potential long-term health effects of very low frequency (VLF) electrical and magnetic radiation as well as make looking at a PC monitor all day easier on the user's eyes. Connectware said the device, called Kemma RPS (Radiation Protection System), greatly reduces the magnetic field around a computer monitor. According to Tim Sullivan, president and chief executive officer of Connectware, while the exact level of radiation needed for a definite health risk is still undetermined, people who work around electrical and magnetic fields -- particularly women -- seem to have statistically greater chances of developing medical problems. Sullivan cites a recent IEEE Spectrum Magazine article that reports scientists have conducted studies examining the links between electromagnetic fields at low frequencies and health problems like breast cancer, lymphoma, lung cancer, brain cancer, Alzheimer's disease, leukemia, birth defects, and miscarriages. In 1992 The American Journal of Epidemiology published an article titled "Magnetic Fields of Video Display Terminals and Spontaneous Abortion," and The American Journal of Industrial Medicine published a study summary in 1990 called "Use of video display terminals during pregnancy and the risk of spontaneous abortion, low birthweight, or intrauterine growth retardation." Ivan Darius, a Ph.D and co-inventor of Kemma RPS, said tests conducted at Sweden's SEMKO laboratory show Kemma RPS can decrease the amount of VLF radiation by as much as 85 percent when the computer user is 24 inches away from the screen and up to 99 percent when the user is 40 inches away. Connectware said while other companies, including 3M Corp. and Polaroid, market devices that relieve glare and block electrical radiation by as much as 99 percent, none of those products reduces magnetic radiation. Kemma RPS is currently available for 14- and 15-inch monitors, and the company said larger screen versions will be available in the near future. The device is placed over the computer monitor's screen and held on by flexible cords which the company said look like phone cords are actually part of the magnetic canceling technology. An electronics unit sits on top of the monitor. Kemma RPS has a suggested retail price of $199. Connectware is a wholly-owned subsidiary of AMP, a supplier of connectors and interconnection systems. (Jim Mallory/19950628/Press contact: Public contact: Connectware, tel 214-907-1093, fax 214-907-1594) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 06/30/95 ONLINE CompuServe Plans Web Authoring & Lotus Notes Replication (NEWS)(ONLINE)(LON)(00020) CompuServe Plans Web Authoring & Lotus Notes Replication 06/30/95 BIRMINGHAM, ENGLAND, 1995 JUN 30 (NB) -- CompuServe is working on a number of new services for subscribers for launch later this year, according to Andy Boyer, the company's Network Relations Specialist. Speaking with Newsbytes at the Networks 95 computer show in Birmingham, England, Boyer said that World Wide Web authoring services may be nothing new, but the ability to offer near guaranteed "up time" on the host Web server, together with close to global access for editing and subscriber access across the CompuServe network, is something no other Web services vendor has been able to offer -- until now. "The sheer robustness of the CompuServe network, which is always accessible around the world, means we can offer a Web environment that businesses can count on," Boyer explained. "This means that, for the first time, companies can publish Web pages and edit those pages from anywhere in the world." Jim Freeze, manager for CompuServe's application-based network services, told Newsbytes that the service is also developing a Lotus Notes replication service that will allow Notes' users to dial into their nearest CompuServe access point world-wide and access their Notes Post Office, as well as those of other organization. This is distinct, he explained, from simple electronic-mail and binary file exchange as is currently available to cc:Mail and Microsoft-Mail users. "It's a new set of services that we are working on," he said. Both the Web authoring services and Notes support system will be rolled out to the public later this year. No pricing or precise availability details were available, but will be announced when the services are launched later this year. (Steve Gold/19950628/Press & Reader Contact: +44-1734-567400; Internet e-mail networkinfo@cis.compuserve.com; US 800-433-0389; Internet World Wide Web http://www.compuserve.com) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 06/30/95 TRENDS Computing Theme Park Takes To The Road (NEWS)(TRENDS)(DEN)(00021) Computing Theme Park Takes To The Road 06/30/95 HOUSTON, TEXAS, U.S.A., 1995 JUN 30 (NB) -- There won't be water slides or actors dressed as animals, but this fall a technology theme park could be in a town near you. The Home & Family Computing Supershow is bringing the Technology Theme Park to four cities across the nation in 1995. Organizers said the expo is a "fun, hands-on" event and a "whole new way to market technology products." The Technology Theme Park is made up of 12 pavilions designed with education and entertainment in mind, said organizers. Park visitors will be able to send electronic-mail to the "rich and famous," explore interactive television, surf the Internet, try the hottest new computer games, and test drive systems and software in a computer learning center. The face price of the ticket is expected to be less than $10, but a spokesperson told Newsbytes that, with discounts offered by local merchants, it will probably cost about $5 to see the exhibit. Organizers are currently conducting a nationwide search for interactive products for the traveling exhibit, and online subscription service CompuServe has already announced it will sponsor the Online Pavilion where 20 computers will be ready for players. The show opens its run with a three-day stay at Boston's Bayside Exposition Center October 6, 1995. It will then move to Atlanta's Cobb Galeria Center for an October 20th opening, followed by three days at the Dallas Convention Center beginning December 8. The final 1995 appearance will open at Moscone Center in San Francisco December 15-17, 1995. Organizers said dates and locations for the 1996 season will be announced later this summer. Show organizer Multimedia Publishing Corp. offers some statistics to show the popularity of computers in the home. It said over 33 million households in the US have a personal computer and 6.1 million of them are already online. Home PC sales are up 30 percent from last year and by the end of the year more than half the population in the US will feel comfortable using PCs. One vendor supporting the show is Compaq Computer Corp. It will make about 300 PCs available in the various pavilions and will donate those computers to various school districts in the areas of the country where the exhibit appears, once the 1995 run is over. There will also be a FAQ (frequently asked questions) pavilion where you can ask questions about computing, software, online services and the Internet of experts, and exhibitor booths operated by local companies. A KidsFest entertainment pavilion will feature clowns, magicians, jugglers and face painters, and tour guides will conduct hourly tours of the exhibits. "Medics" at the computer hospital will offer tips on diagnosing and fixing routine computer problems, there will be an on-site financing area and each attendee will get a free computer magazine at the Library and Magazine Stand. Multimedia Publishing spokesperson Joni Mitchell told Newsbytes other companies participating include Microsoft, Apple, the Software Publishers Association, and the Home Office Association of America. Regional companies will also participate as the show travels across the country. The show runs from 10am to 6pm. Hardware and software makers are vying for a lucrative market. An estimated $17 billion worth of computer-related equipment will be purchased this year. Home and family PC buyers have an estimated median income of $55,000 and are expected to spend $400 million just on software for their kids this year. (Jim Mallory/19950628/Press contact: Joni Mitchell, Multimedia Publishing Corporation, 713-974-5252) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 06/30/95 ONLINE Quarterdeck Readies Internet Products For Europe (NEWS)(ONLINE)(SFO)(00022) Quarterdeck Readies Internet Products For Europe 06/30/95 SANTA MONICA, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1995 JUN 30 (NB) -- Continuing to expand on its new strategy, Quarterdeck (NASDAQ:QDEK) says its InternetSuite and Quarterdeck Mosaic products will ship in July to the European markets. Internet access from 73 different providers in 16 different countries highlight the connectivity offerings through both programs. Quarterdeck recently completed a press tour in which it revealed it had restructured itself into three divisions: utilities, Internet products, and remote access products. Part of the new structure also included expanding Quarterdeck's international presence. This current announcement demonstrates one of its first steps to deliver Internet products which are customized to local use. The Internet family of products, Quarterdeck InternetSuite, Quarterdeck Mosaic and Quarterdeck WebServer are being offered in English, French and German, with other languages to follow. The InternetSuite is a full Internet graphical interface and Quarterdeck Mosaic is one of the newest browsers on the market. Both products offer the connectivity features to the different providers. As well as the European community, Quarterdeck is offering Internet access providers for South Africa. A spokesperson for Quarterdeck told Newsbytes, "When we first decided to do Internet products, we realized users want to be able to choose the provider that best fits their needs. A lot of Internet products allow a user to connect with an Internet provider or maybe two providers, but they may not be the best buy for the user or may not fit a user's specific needs. Our goal is to allow users to purchase Internet products which are not tied to a single provider. Using these products, a user can choose the best provider and sign-up for an account right away. This is the type of choice and convenience our products offer." Quarterdeck also says it is extending its "very successful" technical support system to a number of European offices. (Patrick McKenna/19950628/Press Contact:Linda White, Brodeur & Partners, 408-562-6108) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 06/30/95 GENERAL Bitstream Plans OpenDoc Fonts, CI Labs Gets 25 Members (NEWS)(GENERAL)(BOS)(00023) Bitstream Plans OpenDoc Fonts, CI Labs Gets 25 Members 06/30/95 CAMBRIDGE, MASSACHUSETTS, U.S.A., 1995 JUN 30 (NB) -- Bitstream, one of 25 new members of CI Labs, joined the industry association for OpenDoc out of interest by its OEM (original equipment manufacturing) customers in fonts to support the cross-platform component architecture, said Stefan Wennik, Bitstream's marketing manager, during a meeting with Newsbytes. Three of CI Labs' sponsors -- Apple, IBM, and Novell -- are now developing OpenDoc implementations for Macintosh, OS/2 Warp, and Windows, respectively, Newsbytes notes. Adobe Systems is also a sponsor of CI Labs. Bitstream and eight other vendors have signed up with CI Labs at a new "associate member" level, added in April, which is aimed at ISVs (independent software vendors), developers, and information systems professionals who "wish to help guide the evolution of the OpenDoc architecture." Another 14 vendors have recently come on board at a "subscriber level," also new since April, for developers and information systems pros who "wish to be more actively involved in the future of OpenDoc." In addition, the Interactive Multimedia Association (IMA) and Swift Consulting have joined Taligent, the Object Management Group (OMG), the X Consortium, Lotus Development Company, and Pi Systems as "full" members of CI Labs. CI Labs has announced plans to ship the final release of OpenDoc later this year, along with OpenDoc components. SDKs (software development kits) for the Mac, OS/2 Warp, and Windows are available now. Bitstream's Wennik told Newsbytes that an OpenDoc-compliant version of Bitstream's TrueDoc font technology is already in alpha testing. The initial development process took "only a couple of days," he added, during a recent meeting with Newsbytes at PC Expo in New York City. Cambridge, Massachusetts-based Bitstream plans to work with the OpenDoc source code as well as with application developers to find ways of building TrueDoc into both OpenDoc and OpenDoc applications, according to Wennik. TrueDoc is already built into World Wide Web browsers, document distribution applications, and printer controllers, he pointed out. Bitstream has found that OpenDoc does not "conflict" with object linking and embedding (OLE) or any of the other standards that TrueDoc adheres to, Newsbytes was told. This year's PC Expo also featured a special presentation on OpenDoc by: Bob Frankenberg, chief executive officer (CEO) and president of Novell; Michael Spindler, CEO and president of Apple; and John M. Thompson, senior VP and group executive for IBM. OpenDoc will "simplify" computing by allowing multivendor software to work together in an object-oriented way on the desktop and across the enterprise, the execs maintained. Also at the show in New York City, several ISVs demonstrated their OpenDoc technologies and applications at the OpenDoc Pavilion, including Bitstream. Aside from Bitstream, other new associate members of CI Labs include: Athena Design; Bear River Associates; Caldera; CrossSoft; Development Technologies; Metrowerks; Peer Systems; and Pharos Technologies. Associate members are entitled to take part in workgroups and task forces, as well as to receive discounts on CI Labs services and a listing in the CI Labs component catalog and developer directory. In addition, CI Labs intends to let associate members license the OpenDoc source code. The 14 new subscriber members of CI Labs are as follows: Chicago Bridge & Iron; Cirrus Technology; DeltaPoint; DST Systems; Footprint Software; Gamma Technologies; Isis International; Looking Glass Software; MetaWare; Network Technology Corp; Peripheral Vision; Route 66; TrueSpectra; and Visioneer. The subscriber members obtain "regular updates" on OpenDoc -- including news, marketing opportunities, and development tips and other technical information -- along with discounts on CI Labs services and a listing in the component catalog and developer directory. (Jacqueline Emigh/19950628/Reader And Press Contact: CI Labs OpenDoc Hotline, Niehaus Ryan Haller, 415-615-7900; Reader Contact: Bitstream, 617-497-6222; Press Contact: Melissa Walia, Niehaus Ryan Haller for Bitstream, 415-615-7911) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 06/30/95 PC Tatung Offers 133MHz Pentium PCs (NEWS)(PC)(SFO)(00024) Tatung Offers 133MHz Pentium PCs 06/30/95 LONG BEACH, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1995 JUN 30 (NB) -- Tatung, the manufacturer of build-to-order personal computers (PCs), says it is ready to ship 133 megahertz (MHz) Pentium-based systems. The fastest Pentium processor available is being offered in Tatung's UNIQ custom line of PCs. #IMAGE 1 20 TWPCX \images\95063024.PCX Click here for photo Tatung says it is also offering the 120MHz Pentium as a second choice. The UNIQ line has two models based on a desktop "slim" case or mini- tower, labeled UNIQ 5510 and UNIQ 5210, respectively. The new products are available to resellers, system integrators and corporations. Tatung is offering value-added resellers (VARs) a bare bones system which will allow the reseller to install Pentium processors from the 75MHz to the 133MHz. The bare bones system includes mother boards with on board video, one megabyte (MB) of video RAM, onboard I/O (input/output) and IDE (Integrated Drive Electronics) interface, cases with power supply, the latest versions of DOS and Windows, and a mouse. This is the basic system upon which Tatung builds its custom systems. Addressing the benefits of build-to-order, Mike Lee, vice president of the information systems division at Tatung, told Newsbytes, "In today's computer market, pricing and the availability of specific components change rapidly. Our commitment to build-to-order systems, allow us to take advantage of the current market conditions. We can allow a customer specify their particular needs and test and ship a system within 48 to 72 hours." Lee also said the demand for 133MHz Pentium processors is pressuring the available volume. The price of the high-speed chip will remain high as long as the demand outstrips the available volume. In the long run, Lee said the price would come down, but at this time, the price is fluctuating. He did confirm Tatung has access to a supply to meet its current expectations. The UNIQ 5210 has seven drive bays which include two 5.25-inch bays and five 3.5-inch slots. It ships with five expansion slots -- two Peripheral Component Interconnect (PCI) slots, two AT slots, and one PCI/AT slot. The desktop model -- UNIQ 5510 -- has four drive bays and four expansion slots (two PCI and two AT). Both systems support up to 768MB of RAM. (Patrick McKenna/19950629/Press Contact: Tsai-ling Shyu, Interactive Public Relations, 415-703-0400/TATUNG950630/PHOTO) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 06/30/95 BROADCAST DEC Media Studio Offers "Compression To Creative Content" (NEWS)(BROADCAST)(BOS)(00025) DEC Media Studio Offers "Compression To Creative Content" 06/30/95 MAYNARD, MASSACHUSETTS, U.S.A., 1995 JUN 30 (NB) -- "We meet the customers where they are," asserted Jim Turner, in an interview with Newsbytes about the "three-tiered strategy" Digital Equipment Corp. is pursuing at the new Digital Media Studio in Tarrytown, New York. Digital's new content center for ITV (interactive television) is offering everything from straight MPEG (Motion Picture Experts Group) encoding, to collaborative production with outside content providers, to full, "soup-to-nuts" content creation and production, elaborated Turner, who serves as the studio's general manager and executive producer. To help out on the creative side, Digital recently appointed Kathleen Held, who hails from MTV, as senior producer in charge of all programming efforts, and James Kimak, formerly of Prodigy, as senior graphic designer, Turner told Newsbytes. Turner himself has an eclectic creative and production background that began with eight years of employment at CBS as an associate director. Turner then moved on to co-establish Visage, an early pioneer in the CD-ROM industry, and after that joined Kurzweil Music as VP of product development. "I then consulted for a few years, before co-founding a small multimedia CD-ROM production company with Dave Cunningham. Last fall, when the opportunity at Digital came up, we spun off our company to some folks in New York, and we both came here," he recalled. The Digital Media Studio now employs about ten people on a full-time basis, and plans to ramp up to "15 or 20" eventually, estimated Turner. But, he noted, the content center's location in Tarrytown is in close physical proximity to a "wealth of talent" in New York City, allowing Digital to round out its production teams with hand- selected freelancers and contract employees. "We're purposely not building a huge staff. Our strategy is to address this market much as you would in the film or TV world," Newsbytes was told. On the technical side, services available at Digital's first video content center run the gamut from MPEG conversion to non-linear editing, computer programming, "graphics to support multiple platforms," integration, testing, production management, and more, according to the executive producer. "We really can do almost anything you want in MPEG," Turner told Newsbytes. The MPEG services can even be used for quick, "tape-to- bit" conversion of "very high volumes" of video footage, he maintained. The services are available for MPEG-1 as well as MPEG- 2, a standard aimed at higher resolution output and faster frame rates. For compression, Digital uses a real-time hardware encoder device, equipped for "special integration" with Alpha servers, according to Turner. "You still need some manual intervention, though," the general manager acknowledged. Providing the needed manual intervention are two full-time "compressionists," a profession that derives its name from "colorist," he explained. Aside from the MPEG facility, other components of the center in Tarrytown include: an Alpha server capable of distributing 20 or 30 streams of video; several set-top boxes for development and testing; non-linear editing equipment; an authoring/programming room; and a graphics/video room. Tools in the graphics/video room are "primarily Mac- or PC-based," at this point, according to Turner. "But we're hoping that some of the (graphics and video software vendors) will port their products to Alpha," he revealed. The center also contains several "project rooms," which are "dedicated to specific client projects," in addition to some "demonstration and test rooms." "I don't want to say that we're using the demonstration and test rooms for focus groups, because that's really too formal a term. But we do run what I call `grandmother surveys,' where we just sit down and talk to people about what they think," he reported. Workstations and file servers at the center are connected over several Fast Ethernet LANs (local area networks), which are in turn linked together over a fiber backbone, according to Turner. "So things go back and forth between the project team members, as they need to," the Digital executive producer told Newsbytes. (Jacqueline Emigh/19950629/Reader Contact: Digital Equipment Corp., 508-493-5111; Press Contacts: Roger Horine, DEC, 508-841-2609; Amy Raabe, The Weber Group for DEC, 617-661-7900) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 06/30/95 WINDOWS Novell's Windows Interactive Mystery CD-ROM (NEWS)(WINDOWS)(DEN)(00026) Novell's Windows Interactive Mystery CD-ROM 06/30/95 OREM, UTAH, U.S.A., 1995 JUN 30 (NB) -- She was a movie star, a special friend of a US president, had a postage stamp issued to commemorate her, and now a software company has issued a CD-ROM entertainment title so you can try to solve the mystery of her death. Novell Inc. (NASDAQ: NOVL) is shipping a CD-ROM that lets the user assume the role of cop, reporter, coroner or assistant district attorney in an attempt to solve the mysterious death of the "Blonde Bombshell," Marilyn Monroe. Monroe died almost 33 years ago under mysterious circumstances that some believe was a suicide while other people are convinced involved a cover up to a murder. Now "Hard Evidence: The Marilyn Monroe Files" lets you examine information from previously sealed official records, as well as read newspaper accounts and testaments from people who new her so you can form your own theory of Monroe's death. Novell said the program is intended for teens and older audiences. The interactive role the user assumes determines what information you gather. For instance, said Novell, the reporter might find information the coroner would not. Hard Evidence was created for Novell by T1 New Media, and is the first of a series of interactive mysteries Novell plans. Novell said the three-dimensional graphics in Hard Evidence are stylized to recreate the feeling and emotion of the 1960s. The company is stressing that Hard Evidence is suitable for all family members, and has asked retailers not to list the software as a adult product. Hard Evidence: The Marilyn Monroe Files has a suggested retail price of $49. To run the program you need an MPC Level 2-capable IBM-compatible with at least a 25 megahertz 486SX microprocessor, Windows 3.1 or higher, four megabytes of memory, a 16-bit sound card, and at least a double-speed CD-ROM drive. (Jim Mallory/19950629/Press contact: Wendy Rapier, Novell, 801-228-7245; Public contact: Novell, 800-451-5151) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 06/30/95 NETWORK DEC Intros Products For "Distributed Routing" (NEWS)(NETWORK)(BOS)(00027) DEC Intros Products For "Distributed Routing" 06/30/95 MAYNARD, MASSACHUSETTS, U.S.A., 1995 JUN 30 (NB) -- "Using the `one-armed router' is like needing `operator assistance' for every non-local call. Whereas, with what we're doing, you can always `dial direct,'" maintained Richard Benwell, using a telephone metaphor in a briefing for Newsbytes on new routing products that represent Stage 2 in Digital Equipment Corp.'s enVISN networking plan. Unlike competing products, which provide "centralized routing," the latest additions to Digital's router line-up are designed for "distributed routing," according to Benwell, who is product marketing manager for Digital Equipment's Network Product Business. The company's new products include the first members of Digital's RouteAbout family for branch office networking, along with new routing software options for the DECswitch 900 department-level switch. Under the distributed routing strategy that these products follow, Digital is distributing "the same routing algorithms" in multi- layer switches throughout the network, Benwell said. In contrast, products from other vendors fall into two alternative categories, according to the Digital exec. Products using the "one- armed router" approach "keep the forwarding function `local' for local traffic, but for any non-local traffic, you have to go through a central router," he asserted. "Essentially, you have to leave the switch, go out to the central router, and then come back in again," he added. Another method, used by Cisco and Newbridge Networks, for example, is to distribute the route forwarding capability, but to "centralize the route decision-making process in what they call a route server," Benwell continued. Drawing another analogy, Benwell likened Digital's movement to distributed routing to the industry migration from "centralized computing" on mainframes to distributed computing on minicomputers and, more recently, in the client-server environment. Use of either the "one-armed router" or a route server promotes the creation of a "central bottleneck" that produces high latency, or slowed performance, he contended. Digital's distributed routing approach is also more useful in allowing customers to either "grow" their networks or build redundancy, according to the product marketing manager. "The Cisco 7000, for instance, costs $20,000 for the chassis alone. It's just not a very scalable (product)," Newsbytes was told. As previously reported in Newsbytes, Digital launched Stage 1 of its enVISN networking strategy at Spring Interop with Portswitch 9000, a series of switches designed to let users build virtual local area networks (VLANs) by interconnecting any combination any combination of ports to "individual, secure LAN segments." That announcement was followed, later this spring, by the introduction of DECswitch 400, a switch aimed at expanding Digital's VLAN capabilities from Ethernet-only to Ethernet VLANs that can span across asynchronous transfer mode (ATM) backbones. Also at that time, Digital issued two other announcements: a free software upgrade to its GigaSwitch ATM; and the DECnis ATMcontroller 631, a new network interface card (NIC) for the DECnis 600 multiprotocol backbone router that is aimed at connecting an ATM backbone to services such as T1, frame relay, and switched multimegabit data service (SMDS). Benwell told Newsbytes that the newly unveiled software options for the DECswitch 900 are designed to provide routing between VLANs, as described in Stage 2 of Digital's enVISN rollout. The new options are aimed at providing Internet Protocol (IP) and multiprotocol routing to the DECswitch 900EE six Ethernet switch and the DECswitch 900EF six Ethernet to fiber distributed data interface (FDDI) switch. By the end of 1995, Digital will bring out a DECswitch 900 product that will route between Ethernet and Token Ring LANs, according to Benwell. Digital has also announced two new RouteAbout switches for connecting remote branch offices to central sites "across a variety of wide area network (WAN) services." The two new RouteAbout switches are the RouteAbout Access EW (Ethernet and two T1/E1), for remote sites with Ethernet LANs, and the RouteAbout Access TW (Token Ring and two T1/E1), for remote sites with Token Ring. Also by the end of the year, Digital will introduce a central site router "supporting many WAN (wide area network) ports," in addition to an access product for integrated services digital network (ISDN) environments, according to the exec. At the beginning of 1996, he revealed, Digital will unveil "one-hop switching," a capability meant to assure that "when you're switching from Ethernet to an ATM backbone, any point attached to the ATM backbone is only `one hop away' from any other point attached to the ATM backbone." Pricing starts at $1,950 for the new RouteAbout routers, and ranges from $7,495 to $10,995 for the DECswitch 900 switches with software upgrades. Software upgrades for the DECswitch 900 can also be purchased separately, for a price of $1,500. (Jacqueline Emigh/19950630/Reader Contact: DEC, 508-493-1111; Press Contact: Tara Finney, Rourke & Company for DEC, 617-267-0042) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 06/30/95 BUSINESS AT&T Signs 6 Firms For Print-On-Demand (NEWS)(BUSINESS)(TOR)(00028) AT&T Signs 6 Firms For Print-On-Demand 06/30/95 NEW YORK, NEW YORK, U.S.A., 1995 JUN 30 (NB) -- AT&T (NYSE:T) has signed up four printer manufacturers and two software companies to work with it on a networked print-on-demand service. AT&T Network Demand Printing (NDP) will let customers send documents over AT&T's network to be printed at remote locations. AT&T said it signed agreements with Agfa-Gevaert Group, Eastman Kodak Co., Indigo N.V., and Scitex Corp. to make their high-speed printers, presses, and digital imaging systems work with the NDP service. These manufacturers join Xerox Corp., whose printers AT&T has been using in initial trials, in supporting the service. AT&T also announced memoranda of understanding with two makers of desktop publishing software. Adobe Systems Inc. and Quark Inc. plan to incorporate their software in AT&T's network imaging platform. This could mean that AT&T will offer services based on Adobe's Acrobat software, which makes it possible to share documents among different systems without losing formatting. Quark plans to put its multimedia viewer, which lets users view documents created in the company's multimedia authoring system, on AT&T's service. Janet Stone, a spokeswoman for AT&T, told Newsbytes the NDP service is available to a limited extent now and six initial customers are using it. While the service is still in a trial stage, it is expected to be generally available in the first quarter of 1996, she said. Support for color printing is also planned and AT&T hopes that too will be available early in 1996, Stone added. The service is aimed at organizations that need to do high-volume printing in multiple locations, AT&T officials said. While the company has not released details of how it will charge for the service, charges will be based on usage, Stone said. AT&T hopes to add support for printers from other vendors beyond those already signed up, Stone commented. "The more people's equipment that we're compatible with, the more attractive the service will be to users." The service is meant to be available outside the United States in future, she added. (Grant Buckler/19950630/Press Contact: Janet Stone, AT&T, 908-234-7615; Rick Brown, Adobe Systems, 415-962-6060; Peter Broderick, Agfa-Gevaert, 508-658-5603; Amy Hadad, Indigo, +972-8- 381-952; Robert Salmon, Eastman Kodak, 716-726-3144; Chuck Moozakis, Quark, 303-894-3204; Oren Modai, Scitex, +972-597-683; Larry Vogel, Xerox, 716-383-7948) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 06/30/95 TRENDS Service Needs Grow Despite Better Hardware Reliability (NEWS)(TRENDS)(TOR)(00029) Service Needs Grow Despite Better Hardware Reliability 06/30/95 TORONTO, ONTARIO, CANADA, 1995 JUN 30 (NB) -- Computer hardware is getting more reliable, leading to declining growth in the "break-fix" computer maintenance business. While that is slowing the growth of the computer services market as a whole in Canada, services never-the-less grew 11.1 percent in 1994 and the sector is expected to grow 10.3 percent this year, research firm International Data Corp. (Canada) said. In a recent report, "The 1995 IT Services and Systems Integration Markets: Review and Forecast", IDC Canada said outsourcing and consulting are the fastest-growing segments of the Canadian service industry. The traditional repairs business is growing slowest -- IDC projects a compound annual growth rate of only 2.9 percent over the next five years -- but it remains the biggest of the five pieces into which IDC divides the market, accounting for 37.9 percent of total service revenues. Michelle Shannon, a research consultant and author of the report, told Newsbytes that hardware is becoming more reliable, warranties have grown longer, and more testing of interoperability among different pieces of equipment is reducing the number of maintenance problems related to making systems work together. Outsourcing was the fastest growing service category in 1994, with revenues rising 17.7 percent, Shannon observed. However, this segment has probably peaked, she said, and it will be overtaken by consulting as the fastest-growing area over the next five years. Consulting grew 15.8 percent in 1994, Shannon said. To 1999, outsourcing is expected to show a compound annual growth rate of 10.6 percent, while IDC forecasts consulting will turn in a rate of 12.7 percent. Implementation services will show a compound annual growth rate of 9.3 percent over the next five years. Training services grew 10 percent in 1994. IDC Canada information technology services are increasingly being delivered through systems integration contracts. In 1994, 23 percent of services were delivered through such contracts, the research firm reported. Interestingly, IDC's research showed that the hardware and software segments of the systems integration business are growing faster than the services segment. IDC said that while hardware costs are dropping in the computer sector, telecommunications equipment costs have not reached that stage. Meanwhile, a growing variety of application software and increasing flexibility and ability to customize this software are bolstering growth in that area. Over all, IDC said, the Canadian computer services industry had revenues of C$4.4 billion in 1994, and the projection for this year is C$4.9 billion. IDC forecast 7.6-percent compound annual growth through 1999. (Grant Buckler/19950630/Press Contact: Debbie Currey, IDC Canada, 416-369-0033; Public Contact: IDC Canada, tel 416-369-0033, fax 416-369-0419) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 06/30/95 TRENDS Track Remote Employees With Perspective Software (NEWS)(TRENDS)(LAX)(00030) Track Remote Employees With Perspective Software 06/30/95 PACIFIC GROVE, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1995 JUN 30 (NB) -- Perspective Systems Inc. has begun taking orders for Perspective 1.0, software that will track employees on remote computers. If you want more information call the company and talk to Emily, the wife of the company founder, chairman, president, head of marketing, chief of production, chief financial officer, researcher, and technical writer, Gary Skinner. Perspective Systems is a start-up with only one product, and as of today, just two orders. Unlike most people who have a good idea and just sit on it, Gary Skinner needed a job, and didn't want to leave the Monterey Peninsula, so he started a software company. As Skinner told Newsbytes, "I was sitting in my backyard when I came up with an idea to develop a product to track and report work done on a computer. That was February, 1994. We 'incorporated' in February, 1995. I was not a programmer, but I had an idea and I ran with it. Within two weeks I was working full-time on this project, and I haven't stopped since." Since February, 1994, Skinner has spent approximately $50,000 to develop his idea. "I knew I needed a lot of help," he told Newsbytes, "so from the very beginning I began outsourcing. I contracted with an accountant, lawyer, and programmer. Since February, 1994, I have spent approximately $40,000 on contracted services, the largest being about $20,000 for programming." However, Skinner does have a broad background in business and accounting. He last worked as operations manager for a large computer retailer, and he has a good working background in computers. But as Skinner points out, additional help was needed. "Software products that assisted me include guides for incorporation, software agreements, developing a business plan, contract management, and accounting. The Internet also had a profound impact on my ability to put this all together. If you don't have the resources, you can find them in software products, on the Internet, or through a consultant." The final result was, according to Skinner, the only product that automates the tracking and reporting of work done on a computer. Perspective 1.0 allows users to jump from file to file and automatically "time" and "group" their activities. Employees and consultants can now accurately show their manager or customer the work they have done. The product is just finishing its beta tests with Pacific Bell and Bell Atlantic. Shipping should begin in July. Perspective 1.0 carries a manufacturer's suggested list price of $189. Orders placed prior to September 1, 1995, will be offered for $120, including tax and shipping, and can be placed via phone or fax at 800-359-6334. Who knows where Gary Skinner will end up with this product, but Perspective Systems exists because of his persistence. Skinner had a final thought, "Lot's of people I talked with said there might not be a market for this product. This shouldn't stop anyone. The reason why there is still market opportunities is because no-one else sees them." (Richard Bowers/19950630/Press Contact: Gary or Emily Skinner, Perspective Systems, 408-372-8118) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 06/30/95 ONLINE ****Apple Acquires MailShare For Internet Products (NEWS)(ONLINE)(SFO)(00031) ****Apple Acquires MailShare For Internet Products 06/30/95 CUPERTINO, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1995 JUN 30 (NB) -- Apple Computer Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL) has acquired a Macintosh-based electronic-mail server product designed specifically for managing messages on the Internet. Known as MailShare, the popular freeware will be renamed Apple Internet Mail Server. MailShare was purchased from software developer Glenn Anderson who has agreed to join Apple as a software engineer. Moving from New Zealand, Anderson will work out of Apple's Cupertino, California, headquarters. Apple says it chose MailShare for its support of Simple Mail Transport Protocol (SMTP) and Post Office Protocol version 3 (POP3) which are two popular standards for e-mail. The software allows Internet users to send and receive e-mail over the Internet from any personal computer that supports the SMTP and POP3 standards, such as Eudora Pro and Eudora Lite for Macintosh and Windows, POPmail II, and the PowerTalk gateway available from StarnineTechnologies Inc. For the time being, Apple will continue to provide MailShare as freeware under the name Apple Internet Mail Server. Typical of freeware products, the e-mail utility will not have Apple technical support. Apple says it plans to develop a commercial version of the product, but specific plans are not available at this time. The commercial version will have additional features and provide users with Apple's technical support. Apple Internet Mail Server will be incorporated into Apple's existing e-mail products, PowerTalk and PowerShare. The new product will also be integrated into Apple's Internet Server Solution for the World Wide Web. Speaking to Newsbytes, Emilio Robles, Apple spokesperson, said, "Being a Mac product, MailShare, now known as Apple Internet Mail Server, makes it easier to send electronic-mail through a Mac OS (operating system) to other systems using a different OS." As freeware, Apple Internet Mail Server is available from the company's Web site at http://abs.apple.com/products/mailserver.html (Patrick McKenna/19950630/Press Contact John McCreadie, Regis McKenna, Inc., 408-974-4398) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 06/30/95 TRENDS Royal Bank Touts Image-Based Check Processing (NEWS)(TRENDS)(TOR)(00032) Royal Bank Touts Image-Based Check Processing 06/30/95 TORONTO, ONTARIO, CANADA, 1995 JUN 30 (NB) -- A new system using image capture and recognition technology will speed up check processing and may eventually make it easier to track down disputed credit-card charges, the Royal Bank of Canada said. The system, built in cooperation with IBM (NYSE:IBM), will capture digital images so that paper checks and other transaction records no longer have to move through the full clearing process. The Royal Bank clears an average of four million checks per day, sometimes as many as seven million. According to bank officials, Canada -- which has a small number of large, national banks rather than many smaller banks as in some countries such as the United States -- already has one of world's fastest check-clearing systems, with most financial institutions able to settle payments across the country on the day they are made. The Royal Bank said its new image-based system will further speed and simplify the process. Harold Elsie, senior vice-president of operations at the bank, told Newsbytes that about half the items processed have amounts that can be read electronically, further speeding up the process. Moving images rather than paper is also faster, he said. For the time being, original checks will continue to be sent back to customers with their statements, but in the future the bank may move to sending statements that simply contain images of the originals, Elsie said. The system uses high-speed digitizing equipment from IBM, and displays the images on personal computer screens so operators can check and correct information. Eventually, Elsie noted, the Royal Bank hopes it will be able to exchange digital images with other banks rather than having to forward the paper checks to them. Bank spokesman Dan Maceluch told Newsbytes that while the bank is not yet using the system to handle Visa credit-card payments, it could eventually speed up the process of checking out suspect charges to credit cards, which currently involves a paper chase that can be time-consuming. Bank staff will be able in future to call up digital images of checks and other transactions on computer screens when answering customer inquiries, and corporate clients will some day be able to view those documents on their own screens by connecting to Royal Bank computers. The bank plans to spend some C$60 million over the next four years to implement the system fully. The system is currently being tested in Toronto. The processing center there should be fully converted by 1997, officials said, and the bank's entire operations are expected to switch over by 1998. (Grant Buckler/19950630/Press Contact: Dan Maceluch, Royal Bank of Canada, 416-974-5506; Mike Quinn, IBM Canada, 905-316-2255) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 06/30/95 ONLINE Women's Wire Extends To CompuServe (NEWS)(ONLINE)(SFO)(00033) Women's Wire Extends To CompuServe 06/30/95 COLUMBUS, OHIO, U.S.A., 1995 JUN 30 (NB) -- Women's Wire, an international online service out of California, has struck a deal with CompuServe to create an additional home for "women's issues and interests." The announcement comes a month after Women's Wire announced its agreement to participate in Microsoft Network (MSN). Women's Wire officially opened the special online service about eighteen months ago. It focused on a variety of topics, including communication, professional roles in the business world, family, travel, health, women's resources and services, and other current topics relating to women. After a year of gradual development, growth and success, Marleen McDaniel joined the service. Now the chief executive officer, McDaniel, says, "Women's Wire kept its mission statement while changing its business and financial strategies. Rather than concentrating solely on membership, we decided to create strategic relationships which would allow us to carry out our mission statement. The result is our presence on CompuServe and Microsoft Network." McDaniel continued, "Through CompuServe we will reach millions of women around the world. CompuServe's worldwide presence gives us an unusual opportunity to extend our services and information while adding the input of many women from around the world." The CompuServe area which is expected to open later this summer, will mirror the mission statement of Women's Wire. Specific content is expected to differ with different systems operators and contributors developing the CompuServe area as opposed to those developing the Women's Wire service. CompuServe says its share of women members is growing significantly and the addition of Women's Wire should serve as an attractive addition to both current and potential female members. Currently, seventeen percent of CompuServe's membership is female. Newsbytes notes a recent SRI International study which surprisingly found female participation in the World Wide Web to be in the range of 30%. McDaniel also said Women's Wire has been able to move to a new location in the San Francisco Bay Area, add new servers, expand its technical and administrative staff, and bring in three T-1 lines. The expansion is possible because of additional funds from independent sources and venture capitalists. (Patrick McKenna/19950630/Press Contact: Debra Young, CompuServe, 614-538-4553; Public Information: Women's Wire, 415-378-6500 or 800-210-9999) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 06/30/95 TRENDS ****Handheld Computers To Speed Airline Check-in (NEWS)(TRENDS)(DEN)(00034) ****Handheld Computers To Speed Airline Check-in 06/30/95 DALLAS, TEXAS, U.S.A., 1995 JUN 30 (NB) -- Ticketless travel is a growing phenomena in the air travel business as a way to control costs in an increasingly competitive market. Now one airline will test computer technology as a way for the traveler to bypass the ticket counter completely. #IMAGE 1 20 TWPCX \images\95063034.PCX Click here for photo Southwest Airlines (NYSE: LUV) has announced it will begin testing the use of wireless hand-held computers at curbside by skycaps in July to speed baggage check-in and confirm reservations at the same time. According to Charles Zug, Southwest Airlines director or marketing automation and business development, the new technology will allow skycaps to access customers Ticketless Travel reservations by name, confirmation number, flight number or indicator. "It will allow customers without a written itinerary to check bags curbside instead of at the ticket counter," said Zug. Once the reservation is confirmed, the traveler goes to the departure gate, where they pick up a plastic boarding pass. Zug said benefits of the system include increased convenience for the traveler and shorter lines at the ticket counter. The handheld computers Southwest will use are made by Akron, Ohio-based Telxon Corp. (NASDAQ: TLXN) and have a range of about 2,000 feet. They communicate with the ticket counter via radio and are slightly smaller that a piece of bond paper and about one inch thick. The PC can print out a copy of the passenger's itinerary, which can be used as a receipt. Zug said ticketless travel helps make the ticketing process right up to boarding smoother and easier. It also eliminates any concern over keeping the ticket safe and eliminates the need to go somewhere to pick up that ticket, said the airline executive. From the airline's perspective, ticketless travel eliminates about fifteen steps of ticket handling. The process also speeds up passenger check-in. Zug told Newsbytes ticket costs are affected by several factors beyond the control of airlines, including jet fuel costs and government tariffs. Congress will soon vote on repealing the exemption to the jet fuel tax. Zug said that could cost Southwest as much as $30 million annually, a cost that travelers can expect to affect their ticket prices. Southwest has a presence on the Internet at the URL (uniform resource locator) http://iflyswa.com where you can get Southwest flight schedules and rates. Zug said the company will offer online reservations by the end of the year. Zug said reservations made from a personal computer over the Internet are much less costly to the airline than those made by phone. Southwest will test the computerized curbside check-in system in Dallas, Houston, and Oakland in July, and then expand the test to include Burbank, Las Vegas, Los Angeles, Chicago, Ontario, Phoenix, San Diego, San Jose, Sacramento, and St. Louis in August. (Jim Mallory/19950630/Press contact: Shari Hanrahan, Southwest Airlines, 214-904-4645 or Richard Gurda, Telxon, 216-867-3700; Public contact: Southwest Airlines, 800-435-9792 or Telxon, 216-867-3700/SWA950630/PHOTO) (SUMMARY)(GENERAL)(MSP)(00035) Newsbytes Daily Summary 06/30/95 MINNEAPOLIS, MINNESOTA, U.S.A., 1995 JUN 30 (NB) -- These are capsules of all today's news stories: ======================================================================== ------------| N E W S B Y T E S D A I L Y S U M M A R Y |---------- ------------| Friday, June 30, 1995 |---------- ======================================================================== (c) Newsbytes News Network (Tm) Editor in Chief: Wendy Woods ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Newsbytes News Network is a computer and telecom industry news wire and digitized picture service. Our news stream includes more than 30 daily first-hand reported US and international news stories about computing and telecommunications. For more information, please e-mail to 'administrator@newsbytes.com' ------------------------------------------------------------------------ CATEGORY HEADLINES (*** indicates today's top stories) STORY # ======================================================================== BROADCAST DEC Media Studio Offers "Compression To Creative Content... 25 BUSINESS Disk Media Firms Invest In Singapore....................... 03 BUSINESS EMC & Tandem In OEM Deal On ModArray RAID.................. 13 BUSINESS AT&T Signs 6 Firms For Print-On-Demand..................... 28 GENERAL Netron Fusion Blends Mainframe, Client/Server.............. 09 GENERAL UK - US Robotics Cuts Modem Pricing........................ 14 GENERAL Bitstream Plans OpenDoc Fonts, CI Labs Gets 25 Members..... 23 HEALTH Connectware Intros PC Radiation Protection Device.......... 19 LEGAL BSA Wins Hong Kong Software Piracy Case.................... 05 NETWORK Artisoft Ships LANtastic Power Suite....................... 16 NETWORK DEC Intros Products For "Distributed Routing............... 27 ONLINE OneSource Launches Company Watch Service................... 02 ONLINE Internet As An Electric Utility Company Marketing Tool..... 12 ONLINE Heinz Offers Govts Food Buying On The Web.................. 17 ONLINE CompuServe Plans Web Authoring & Lotus Notes Replication... 20 ONLINE Quarterdeck Readies Internet Products For Europe........... 22 ONLINE ****Apple Acquires MailShare For Internet Products........ 31 ONLINE Women's Wire Extends To CompuServe......................... 33 PC Tatung Offers 133MHz Pentium PCs........................... 24 TELECOM Mobile Phone System For Eastern/Central Europe............. 04 TELECOM UK - Mercury One-2-One Targets New Users................... 06 TRENDS Internet Could Hurt Banks & Shopping - Report.............. 07 TRENDS Computers & CDs Revolutionize Electric Utility Training.... 08 TRENDS China - Software Industry Growth Accelerating.............. 10 TRENDS Personalized Software Bug Reporting Service................ 11 TRENDS World Wide Web Usage Up - Survey........................... 15 TRENDS Survey - 17% Of Canadians Have Internet Access............. 18 TRENDS Computing Theme Park Takes To The Road..................... 21 TRENDS Service Needs Grow Despite Better Hardware Reliability..... 29 TRENDS Track Remote Employees With Perspective Software........... 30 TRENDS Royal Bank Touts Image-Based Check Processing.............. 32 TRENDS ****Handheld Computers To Speed Airline Check-in.......... 34 WINDOWS Corel Prices CorelDraw 6, Launch Delay Hurts Profits....... 01 WINDOWS Novell's Windows Interactive Mystery CD-ROM................ 26 ======================================================================== These are the headlines and first paragraphs of each story, in order: 1 -> Corel Prices CorelDraw 6, Launch Delay Hurts Profits -- Delaying the release of its CorelDraw 6 software while it waits for Microsoft Corp.'s (NASDAQ:MSFT) Windows 95 almost wiped out Corel Corp.'s (NASDAQ:COSFF) second-quarter profit. However, the company hopes the wait is almost over and has announced pricing for the new release of its flagship graphics software. 2 -> OneSource Launches Company Watch Service -- OneSource Information Services, Inc., has announced a business research service that monitors a number of sources for information about 12 to 100 companies and feeds the results to clients using Lotus Development Corp.'s (NASDAQ:LOTS) Notes workgroup software. 3 -> Disk Media Firms Invest In Singapore -- Japanese firm Hoya has committed to a US$24 million disk media plant in Singapore. Hoya's arrival comes hot on the heels of US firm Stormedia International who opened a similar US$40 million plant recently. 4 -> Mobile Phone System For Eastern/Central Europe -- Selectone low-cost mobile radio telephone systems, SmartTrunk II, for rural areas of developing countries, are the object of a joint marketing agreement with Motorola. Under terms of the deal, Motorola will sell its radios along with the Selectone systems. 5 -> BSA Wins Hong Kong Software Piracy Case -- Hong Kong's Supreme Court has awarded costs and damages to "software police" the Business Software Alliance (BSA) following an admission that a Hong Kong construction firm was using illegal software. 6 -> UK - Mercury One-2-One Targets New Users -- Mercury One-2-One, one of the UK's two PCN (personal communications network) digital phone operators, has revealed plans to target new types of subscriber over the remainder of the year. 7 -> Internet Could Hurt Banks & Shopping - Report -- According to a report from Inteco, a market research organization, shopping is due to change "out of all recognition" as the world moves towards the end of the century. 8 -> Computers & CDs Revolutionize Electric Utility Training -- Computers and compact disks are revolutionizing utility training, according to Susan Mitchell, manager of The Electrification Council. 9 -> Netron Fusion Blends Mainframe, Client/Server -- Aiming at organizations in the midst of, or contemplating, a transition from mainframe to client/server computing, Netron Inc. has rolled its existing Netron/CAP development system and other products into a new development package for mainframe and client/server systems. 10 -> China - Software Industry Growth Accelerating -- China's fast-growing computer market will boost development of a Chinese software industry, an official of the Ministry of Electronics Industry (MEI) said recently. 11 -> Personalized Software Bug Reporting Service -- Computer users who want to know about bugs in their software now have a clearinghouse of information that deals with problems in programs. A company called "Jerry's World" is publishing JNews, described as an "individualized information reporting service" dealing with software bugs. 12 -> Internet As An Electric Utility Company Marketing Tool -- The Internet is a marvelous tool for electric utility customer services and marketing, says consultant Phil Hummel. But most utility marketing and customer service people he talks to don't have a clue about the "Net" and what it offers, he told a meeting of some 600 electric utility officials yesterday. 13 -> EMC & Tandem In OEM Deal On ModArray RAID -- A new OEM (original equipment manufacturer) deal that calls for Tandem to market EMC's ModArray is the second announcement in the past few weeks to show EMC's expansion from mainframe storage into "open systems," maintained Paul Noble, VP and general manager of EMC's OEM Operations, in an interview with Newsbytes. 14 -> UK - US Robotics Cuts Modem Pricing -- US Robotics has slashed pricing on its portable, desktop and internal modems by up to a half. The most dramatic of the price cuts takes the WorldPort Dual Standard V.34 (28,800 bits-per-second) PCMCIA (Personal Computer Memory Card International Association) card modem down from UKP399 to UKP199. 15 -> World Wide Web Usage Up - Survey -- The number of homes accessing the Internet's World Wide Web rose by 50 percent in May over April, according to the latest National Survey of Hardware Ownership, released by the NPD Group. This means the number of homes using the Web has broken the two million mark, the survey said. 16 -> Artisoft Ships LANtastic Power Suite -- Artisoft Inc. (NASDAQ: ASFT) has announced shipment of its LANtastic Power Suite, an integrated software package that combines the LANtastic network operating system software with mail, scheduling, and communications programs. 17 -> Heinz Offers Govts Food Buying On The Web -- H.J. Heinz Company (NYSE:HNZ) said it has set up a cyberspace site to solicit food procurement opportunities in the real world, mainly to improve the nutrition of children around the globe. 18 -> Survey - 17% Of Canadians Have Internet Access -- Seventeen percent of adult Canadians have some kind of access to the Internet and six percent currently connect to it from their homes, according to a new survey by the Angus Reid Group, a polling organization. 19 -> Connectware Intros PC Radiation Protection Device -- Connectware Inc. has introduced a combination radiation protection and anti-glare screen the company said is designed to protect computer users from the potential long-term health effects of very low frequency (VLF) electrical and magnetic radiation as well as make looking at a PC monitor all day easier on the user's eyes. 20 -> CompuServe Plans Web Authoring & Lotus Notes Replication -- CompuServe is working on a number of new services for subscribers for launch later this year, according to Andy Boyer, the company's Network Relations Specialist. 21 -> Computing Theme Park Takes To The Road -- There won't be water slides or actors dressed as animals, but this fall a technology theme park could be in a town near you. 22 -> Quarterdeck Readies Internet Products For Europe -- Continuing to expand on its new strategy, Quarterdeck (NASDAQ:QDEK) says its InternetSuite and Quarterdeck Mosaic products will ship in July to the European markets. Internet access from 73 different providers in 16 different countries highlight the connectivity offerings through both programs. 23 -> Bitstream Plans OpenDoc Fonts, CI Labs Gets 25 Members -- Bitstream, one of 25 new members of CI Labs, joined the industry association for OpenDoc out of interest by its OEM (original equipment manufacturing) customers in fonts to support the cross-platform component architecture, said Stefan Wennik, Bitstream's marketing manager, during a meeting with Newsbytes. 24 -> Tatung Offers 133MHz Pentium PCs -- Tatung, the manufacturer of build-to-order personal computers (PCs), says it is ready to ship 133 megahertz (MHz) Pentium-based systems. The fastest Pentium processor available is being offered in Tatung's UNIQ custom line of PCs. 25 -> DEC Media Studio Offers "Compression To Creative Content -- "We meet the customers where they are," asserted Jim Turner, in an interview with Newsbytes about the "three-tiered strategy" Digital Equipment Corp. is pursuing at the new Digital Media Studio in Tarrytown, New York. 26 -> Novell's Windows Interactive Mystery CD-ROM -- She was a movie star, a special friend of a US president, had a postage stamp issued to commemorate her, and now a software company has issued a CD-ROM entertainment title so you can try to solve the mystery of her death. 27 -> DEC Intros Products For "Distributed Routing -- "Using the `one-armed router' is like needing `operator assistance' for every non-local call. Whereas, with what we're doing, you can always `dial direct,'" maintained Richard Benwell, using a telephone metaphor in a briefing for Newsbytes on new routing products that represent Stage 2 in Digital Equipment Corp.'s enVISN networking plan. 28 -> AT&T Signs 6 Firms For Print-On-Demand -- AT&T (NYSE:T) has signed up four printer manufacturers and two software companies to work with it on a networked print-on-demand service. AT&T Network Demand Printing (NDP) will let customers send documents over AT&T's network to be printed at remote locations. 29 -> Service Needs Grow Despite Better Hardware Reliability -- Computer hardware is getting more reliable, leading to declining growth in the "break-fix" computer maintenance business. While that is slowing the growth of the computer services market as a whole in Canada, services never-the-less grew 11.1 percent in 1994 and the sector is expected to grow 10.3 percent this year, research firm International Data Corp. (Canada) said. 30 -> Track Remote Employees With Perspective Software -- Perspective Systems Inc. has begun taking orders for Perspective 1.0, software that will track employees on remote computers. 31 -> ****Apple Acquires MailShare For Internet Products -- Apple Computer Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL) has acquired a Macintosh-based electronic-mail server product designed specifically for managing messages on the Internet. Known as MailShare, the popular freeware will be renamed Apple Internet Mail Server. 32 -> Royal Bank Touts Image-Based Check Processing -- A new system using image capture and recognition technology will speed up check processing and may eventually make it easier to track down disputed credit-card charges, the Royal Bank of Canada said. The system, built in cooperation with IBM (NYSE:IBM), will capture digital images so that paper checks and other transaction records no longer have to move through the full clearing process. 33 -> Women's Wire Extends To CompuServe -- Women's Wire, an international online service out of California, has struck a deal with CompuServe to create an additional home for "women's issues and interests." The announcement comes a month after Women's Wire announced its agreement to participate in Microsoft Network (MSN). 34 -> ****Handheld Computers To Speed Airline Check-in -- Ticketless travel is a growing phenomena in the air travel business as a way to control costs in an increasingly competitive market. Now one airline will test computer technology as a way for the traveler to bypass the ticket counter completely. (Ian Stokell/19950630) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 06/29/95 TRENDS Blue Lasers, LEDs Promises Doubling Of CD-ROM Capacity (NEWS)(TRENDS)(SFO)(00001) Blue Lasers, LEDs Promises Doubling Of CD-ROM Capacity 06/29/95 SAN JOSE, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1995 JUN 29 (NB) -- A new consortium of computer industry leaders have received $4 million dollars from the Advanced Research Projects Agency to develop blue semiconductor lasers and light emitting diodes. Blue light laser technology is said to be the next major leap forward in CD-ROM storage technology. The consortium members include Hewlett-Packard (NYSE:HWP), SDL, Inc. (NASDAQ:SDLI), Xerox (NYSE:XRX), American Crystal Technologies, Advanced Technology Materials, the University of Boston and The University of Texas at Austin. An additional $4 million in funding from the consortium has been added to the government award. CD-ROM drives currently use red laser technology. The width of the light reading a disk is a critical factor in determining the total amount of available storage. Being more narrow, blue light is capable of reading a smaller area on the disk. Speaking to Newsbytes, Gregory C. Lindholm, chief financial officer at SDL, said, "As we went from infrared to red, the industry was able to double the data density. As we go from red to blue, we will double the density again." Do not expect to see the CD-ROM drive market changed overnight. Lindholm says today's announcement is a technology acknowledgment and a specific blue light CD-ROM reader is still years away. Blue light emitting diodes (LEDs) based on gallium nitride (GaN) materials have already been demonstrated, but blue semiconductor lasers are just now in process. The consortium will develop advanced GaN semiconductor wafers necessary to fabricate blue semiconductor lasers. Along with CD-ROM drives, Printing, data storage, medical technology and displays are also areas which may be significantly advanced by blue light laser technology. Today, using Motion Picture Experts Group (MPEG) compression a standard personal computer CD may offer just over 70 minutes of video. A blue light-based CD-ROM reader will read such a small spot on the disk that movies with full audio and greater than 2 hours in length may be stored on a single disk, company officers say. (Patrick McKenna/19950629/Press Contact: Gregory C. Lindholm, SDL, tel 408-943-9411) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 06/29/95 BROADCAST ****Ameritech's First Cable TV Franchise (NEWS)(BROADCAST)(MSP)(00002) ****Ameritech's First Cable TV Franchise 06/29/95 WAYNE COUNTY, MICHIGAN 1995 JUN 29 (NB) -- Ameritech Corp. (NYSE:AIT) said it has secured its first cable TV franchise agreement with the Plymouth Township (MI) board of trustees in suburban Detroit. With the agreement, cable subscribers in the affluent suburb will be among the first in the country to have their local phone company also provide cable TV services. Construction of the new cable network will begin in the next few weeks, with service planned for early 1996, Dave Onak, Ameritech spokesperson, told Newsbytes. The new two-way video network will be completely separate from its phone network, officials said, and services will be provided by Ameritech New Media Enterprises, Inc. The new subsidiary was formed in April 1995 to deliver cable TV and interactive video programming to consumers in the Great Lakes region. Just because an RBOC (regional Bell operating company) will be providing the cable service doesn't mean the service itself will be different, Onak said. "The initial set of services will be similar to a traditional cable system, with broadcast channels, premium channels, and pay-per-view services. But over the next year or two we'll introduce interactive services like home shopping and games." Onak also said that further down the line, Ameritech plans to offer Internet and online services through wiring as well as other types of cable TV offerings. Besides giving consumers a choice in cable TV providers, Onak said Ameritech is the first RBOC to offer television service under cable rules. This does not include companies that are planning to offer "video dialtone" services. In fact, Onak said many municipalities prefer the RBOCs to work like a cable company "because they (the local governments) understand franchise agreements and they know how all of that works." He also said constructing a cable network is faster than waiting for final rules on how to operate video dialtone. Ameritech said it will hire about 300 local residents to build the network. Specifics on the types of services, along with pricing, will be provided when the company fires up the cable lines early next year. (Bob Woods/19950628/Press Contact: Dave Onak, Ameritech, 312-750-5205, Internet e-mail dave.onak@ameritech.com) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 06/29/95 TRENDS China - Video Gambling Machines Condemned (NEWS)(TRENDS)(PEK)(00003) China - Video Gambling Machines Condemned 06/29/95 BEIJING, CHINA, 1995 JUN 29 (NB) -- Chinese media recently condemned (computerized) gambling machines for devouring money, affecting the mental health of children, and destroying families. Video gambling machines are not only a staple of Las Vegas -- they are in many large and medium-sized cities in China. For example, the number of video game machines in Fujian Province has been increasing dramatically in the past two years and now exceeds 11,000; about 4,200 are gambling machines. Although government regulations do not allow primary and middle school students to play video game machines, an increasing number of them are still doing so, neglecting their studies and homework, according to a report in Beijing Evenings newspaper. Among adult players, most are self-employed workers. Some video game machine owners modify the hardware and/or software of the machines to fool players, Beijing Evenings says. They can actually control wins and losses. With a initial winning of a small amount, the player is lured to increase the wager to a larger amount, then they lose, the newspaper says. A taxi-driver in Fuzhou, Fujian province, lost all of his savings playing the machines and got divorce from his wife, the story reports. An accountant with a provincial government company embezzled more than RMB89,000 (US$10,700) of public funds to pay back money he lost on the machines, another newspaper, China Business News reports. Many residents are asking the government to ban the operation of gambling machines. Newspapers say that video gambling machines bring only harm to society and should be banned altogether. In response to citizen appeals, the provincial public security and industrial and commercial departments of Fujian province are looking into the elimination of gambling video game machines. (Chih-Ho Yu & Ning Huang/19950620) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 06/29/95 BUSINESS TFP Software Opens For Business In Europe (NEWS)(BUSINESS)(LON)(00004) TFP Software Opens For Business In Europe 06/29/95 PARIS, FRANCE, 1995 JUN 29 (NB) -- TFP Software, the US TCP/IP (Transmission Control Protocol/Interface Protocol) software specialist, has opened three offices in Europe, in France, Germany and the UK. According to David Zirkle, the company's president, the new offices will allow TFP to enhance its direct sales operation on this side of the Atlantic, as well as provide local technical support for customers. The move into Europe was deemed necessary after the company recorded excellent growth in the TCP/IP market on the European side of the Atlantic. Competition with Novell last year on the European front resulted in TFP boosting sales to become number one in TCP/IP terms in Europe, as witnessed by the March IDC report. In parallel with the sales boost in Europe, TFP has moved from IP4 to IP6 technology which it claims will provide much faster and more efficient Internet connectivity for businesses. The move into Europe, along with the shift to IP6 technology, will, the company claims, allow it to capitalize on the anticipated 4.5 million PC users world-wide expected to be communicating using native Internet protocol by the end of the year. "With the current explosive growth of the TCP/IP software market in Europe, we felt that now was the right time to open offices over here to provide stronger support for our 100 channel partners. We see the UK and the rest of the Europe as key to our future business success," said Zirkle. According to Zirkle, FTP presents itself as a company that can quickly adapt to the changes currently taking place is the TCP/IP market-place and quickly take advantage of new business opportunities. "Our marketing efforts are being tuned so that FTP can move quickly and aggressively to exploit new opportunities in the growing interworking market, while extending our existing customer relationship and building upon our core technical competencies," explained Bart Broussard, the company's new chief executive. (Sylvia Dennis/19950626/Press Contact: Lindsey Hale, A Plus Group +44- 1753-790700; Reader Contact: FTP Software UK +44-1344-382131) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 06/29/95 WINDOWS C-Dilla Unveils Secure Encryption For CD-ROMs (NEWS)(WINDOWS)(LON)(00005) C-Dilla Unveils Secure Encryption For CD-ROMs 06/29/95 READING, BERKSHIRE, ENGLAND, 1995 JUN 29 (NB) -- C-Dilla has unveiled a new type of data encryption for publishers of CD-ROM discs. Known as CD-Secure, the package overlays any Windows application that reads data from a CD-ROM disk. John Sharman, a spokesman for C-Dilla, told Newsbytes that CD-Secure is a low-level set of routines that allow a publisher of information to carefully control what information on a CD-ROM disk is displayed to a user, right down to the number of times that information is shown, the length of time it is shown, and what the user can do with the information. "This approach is very important, since it allows the publisher to control the `window' on the data that the user can view," he said, adding that this could be useful if the information on the disk is very valuable, and the publisher wishes to carefully control what access the user has to that data. In use, the CD-Secure application appears to work at operating system level as far as the user is concerned. "In fact, what happens is that any program calls from Windows are captured by our software and the instruction only allowed to proceed if the software wishes," Sharman told Newsbytes. Software publishers pay a one-off licence fee to C-Dilla for the use of the CD-Secure technology, followed by a volume licensing payment that depends on the number of disks sold. "By allowing the user only to see what data s/he is entitled to, and metering that data, CD- Secure can control all elements of the software licence," Sharman explained. Using this approach also allows the feeding back of information on the usage of the data to the information publisher. Sharman cites the example of a CD-ROM data publisher that allows 5,000 meter units to be loaded on to the disk using the passkey system. "As a publisher, I might be interested to know whether my metered units were used in small amounts, or in large amounts, and adapt my pricing system accordingly. That data can then be logged to hard disk and fed back to the publisher," Sharman said. Using CD-Secure, when the metered pre-payment or credit limit has been used up, users call up a software helpdesk and request a new PIN code. According to Sharman, the PIN code is 16 digits long and is generated by the CD-Secure software for that machine only and is valid for only a short space of time. "This prevents anyone unscrupulous backing the application they are using up and then re-installing, and so resetting the counter. It also means that software can be locked to one machine, if that is what is required," he told Newsbytes. (Steve Gold/19950626/Press & Reader Contact: C-Dilla +44-1734-266667; Fax +44-1734-266701) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 06/29/95 LEGAL ****BSA Wins Landmark China Copyright Case (NEWS)(LEGAL)(HKG)(00006) ****BSA Wins Landmark China Copyright Case 06/29/95 BEIJING, CHINA, 1995 JUN 29 (NB) -- In what is believed to be the largest settlement of its kind in China to date, the Business Software Alliance (BSA) has successfully concluded its action against a Chinese computer company for illegally reproducing and selling copyrighted software products. BSA reports that Beijing Gaoli Computer Company will pay compensation of US$63,500 to the plaintiffs Microsoft, Autodesk, Novell, and the WordPerfect Application Group, and Lotus, and pay court, investigation and related costs of almost US$16,000. Gaoli has also made a public apology and guaranteed not to further infringe the plaintiffs' copyrights. In return, the plaintiffs agreed to withdraw lawsuits from the Intellectual Property Chamber of the Beijing Intermediate Court, according to a BSA statement. The court raided Gaoli's premises in June last year following a BSA investigation and seized evidence including software, computers and financial books and records. The raids were among the first of this type conducted by the Beijing IP tribunal. The seizure of defendant's books and records during the raid and the examination of those books by a court-appointed auditor was instrumental in obtaining substantial damages. In its public apology, Beijing Gaoli Computer Company also committed itself to provide adequate quantities of legal software for all its computers as well as improve its software management so as to prevent any illegal reproduction, sale, and use of software. It also promised to take effective action to enforce its regulations on software management. "This is the largest settlement of its kind in China to date, as far as we know, and we are very pleased with the result," said Stephanie Mitchell, Hong Kong-based vice president of the BSA. "This is a concrete sign that the Chinese are serious about enforcing the protection of intellectual property as they agreed to with the signing of the Sino-US Agreement on IPR Protection earlier this year." Mitchell said BSA hopes this will prove to be a successful precedent for future cases "wherein defendants not only pay substantial compensation, but also commit themselves to a vigorous program of intellectual property protection." But "IPR protection nevertheless remains a long and arduous task for the Chinese authorities," Mitchell added. "During the last few years, software piracy rate in China has reached 98%, with US software owners annually suffering more than US$350 million in losses," she claimed. (Nigel Armstrong & I.T. Daily/19950629) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 06/29/95 TRENDS Austin Due For Massive Home-Utility Info Network (NEWS)(TRENDS)(WAS)(00007) Austin Due For Massive Home-Utility Info Network 06/29/95 DALLAS, TEXAS, U.S.A., 1995 JUN 29 (NB) -- Central and South West Corp.'s communications subsidiary CSW Communications has made a proposal to build an advanced information network for the city of Austin, Texas, serving the city's municipal utility with a customer base of 298,000. It would be the first venture of its kind in the US to link all the citizens of a major municipality into a two-way information corridor, according to CSW. The CSW proposal is based on a network it pioneered in the border community of Laredo, Texas, called Customer Choice & Control. Bill Morrow, CSW Communications team leader, says the technology is "saving customers on average seven percent to 10 percent on their electric bills. The Laredo program touches approximately 2,500 homes, making it the nation's largest customer test of advanced energy-management technology. CSW says the Laredo program has been very popular with customers. "We continually work with them, listening to their needs and asking them to decide how we can help them. As a result, customer acceptance in Laredo has been extremely high, with more than 96 percent of those we've approached joining the program," he says. Dallas-based CSW says the network offers automated meter reading, customer messaging, remote billing and in-home billing estimates, as well as demand-side management services such as control of appliances and time-of-day pricing. The excess bandwidth of the fiber optic system can be used for telephony, video, data and other information services. CSW is teaming up with a number of high-tech firms in the proposal to Austin, including IBM subsidiary ISSC, Ericsson, Scientific-Atlanta, Raytheon and others. CSW Corp. is a utility holding company that owns Central Power and Light Co., Public Service of Oklahoma, Southwestern Electric Power Co. and West Texas Utilities. CSW also owns Transok, and Oklahoma-based interstate natural gas pipeline company. (Kennedy Maize/19950629/Press Contact: Gerald Hunter, 214-777-1165) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 06/29/95 WINDOWS Microsoft Claims Victory Over OS/2 Warp In China Deal (NEWS)(WINDOWS)(HKG)(00008) Microsoft Claims Victory Over OS/2 Warp In China Deal 06/29/95 CENTRAL, HONG KONG, 1995 JUN 29 (NB) -- Microsoft has claimed a major victory over IBM in the battle of the operating systems, after the signing of an agreement with Legend Holdings, under which China's largest PC manufacturer and distributor will install the Windows 95 operating system on all its PCs. This conflicts with a recent announcement that Legend had signed an agreement with IBM to install OS/2 Warp on its machines. Microsoft Hong Kong managing director, Laurie Kan, said the agreement with Legend, which capped the two companies' seven-year relationship, was particularly pleasing as it overrode Legend's agreement to install OS/2 Warp. However, Legend's executive director, Michael Ng, reports that IBM's agreement was with Legend Beijing, the parent company of locally listed Legend Holdings, and that Legend Beijing was free to install whichever operating system it wanted. He said Legend Beijing, the mainland's largest systems integrator and distributor of computer products, would be installing either system based on the customers' requirements. Ng also said it was not the company's intention to be caught in the middle between IBM and Microsoft. "We are simply trying to address the appropriate products to the customers," he said. Kan responded that he was not that familiar with the relationship between Legend Beijing and Legend Holdings, but nonetheless, most of the parent company's components come from Legend Holdings and, as a result, it was his understanding that they would be supplied with components pre-loaded with Windows 95. An IBM spokesman has so far been unavailable for comment. Under the agreement with Microsoft, Legend will install Windows 95 on all its PCs sold in its main markets, China, Hong Kong, the ASEAN nations and the US. With the Complex Chinese version of Windows 95 due in the fourth quarter and the Simplified Chinese version expected early next year, Legend will be installing the English version until then. (Nigel Armstrong & I.T. Daily/19950629) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 06/29/95 ONLINE Singapore Internet Market Heats Up (NEWS)(ONLINE)(HKG)(00009) Singapore Internet Market Heats Up 06/29/95 SINGAPORE, SEA, 1995 JUN 29 (NB) -- A multi-tiered fight has developed for domination of Singapore's Internet access. Currently there are two officially licensed gateways, Singnet and Technet, while the Telecommunication Authority of Singapore has promised a third local provider will be allowed later this year. In August, the Microsoft Network is also expected to be granted a licence to come online, along with Apple's E-world and British Telecom's PSI. Although not yet officially licensed, both Apple Computer and MSN already have dedicated lines with Singapore Telecom. Last week, a consortium led by Sembawang Media, a subsidiary of Sembawang Corp, announced it had bought Technet, the Internet gateway used by around 50,000 members of Singapore's academic and R&D community. Technet, started in 1991, was bought from Singapore Telecom. The third local licence is expected to be awarded to one of these Singapore heavyweights: Singapore Press Holdings, local electronics firm WyWy or systems integrator CSA. Singapore Telecom-owned Singnet has 12,000 members, mostly from the business community and home users, and has been in business for a year. Although it has fewer members than Technet, it is more active in the lucrative home-user side of the business. However, following its privatization, Technet is likely to become much more aggressive in chasing these users. Both Singnet and Technet have ambitious plans to go regional, and both also plan roaming services to allow Singapore subscribers normal access when travelling overseas. Singnet project manager Barry Greene was quoted in Singapore's Business Times newspaper as saying his company had a head start but "When you want to go regional it's a whole new ballgame." In the end, consumers are likely to be the winners. But the real battle will be fought over the next few months as Singnet and Technet fight to gain an advantage in the corporate market before the third local player and the overseas heavyweights enter the ring. (Nigel Armstrong & I.T. Daily/19950629) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 05/29/95 TELECOM UK Goes Totally Electronic With Phone Exchanges (NEWS)(TELECOM)(LON)(00010) UK Goes Totally Electronic With Phone Exchanges 05/29/95 LONDON, ENGLAND, 1995 JUN 29 (NB) -- As of today, subscribers to British Telecom (BT) phone services in the UK now pay for their phone calls by the second, rather than the old unit charging system which dates from the days of electro-mechanical exchanges. Surprisingly, however, the introduction of per-second charging was delayed by the vast number of old electro-mechanical exchanges that BT had on its network. However, the last electro-mechanical exchange was switched over to electronic working on June 23, at Crawford in Scotland, Newsbytes has learned. According to Sir Iain Vallance, BT's chairman, the change from Strowger to electrical working at Crawford was the latest milestone in the telecom company's UKP 20 billion investment in the UK's phone network -- enough to build two Channel Tunnels, the company claims - over the past 11 years. Commenting on the switch, Vallance said that it marks an important event in the development of UK telecommunications. "One era has closed and a new one begins," he said. According to Vallance, BT's investment in the future of UK telecommunications has been massive. "And it has been accompanied by real reductions in the overall costs of telephone services. Modernization has also brought a much more reliable network and a range of new services and facilities for all of BT's customers, including per second pricing which starts this week," he said. According to BT, per second pricing replaces the current unit-based system of charging and will make it easier for customers to work out the cost of calls. In 1984 (when BT was privatized), the telco inherited a network of more than 6,700 telephone exchanges, many of which were based on electro-mechanical technology developed 100 years ago. Now they have all been replaced by digital or modern electronic exchanges. New exchanges have far fewer moving parts so they are much more reliable and provide almost instant connections and clearer conversations. According to BT, all UK exchanges can now offer touchtone dialling, fast call connection, fully itemized bills, and selective pricing discount schemes, as well as per-second pricing. In addition, more than 80 percent of all customers are connected to the very latest digital exchanges, such as the one now at Crawford, and can enjoy a range of other services which put them in control of their telephone. These include caller display, three-way calling, call diversion, call waiting, videoconferencing, and "Call Minder." According to BT's facts and figures, the automatic telephone exchange was invented by an American undertaker Almon B Strowger. He sought an automatic method of switching telephone calls because he feared that local telephone operators were putting his calls through to business rivals. The legend has it that one of the local phone operators was married to another undertaker. Strowger patented his design in 1891, and the first exchange entered service in Indiana in 1892. The UK's first automatic exchange, based on Strowger's design, opened at Epsom, Surrey, in 1912. The UK network became fully automatic in 1976 with the closure of the last remaining manual exchange at Portree on the Isle of Skye. The first of the UK's electronic exchanges began operation in Ambergate, Derbyshire, in 1966, and the first digital exchange, a System X, opened at Woodbridge, Suffolk, in 1981. In 1990, the UK became the first country in the world to have a fully digital trunk network. BT's last working Strowger electro-mechanical exchange at Crawford, Scotland, was closed on June 23, 1995. (Steve Gold/19950629/Press Contact: British Telecom Corporate Press Relations +44-171-356-5369) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 06/29/95 IBM IBM Digital Library Adds Musical Content From EMI (NEWS)(IBM)(BOS)(00011) IBM Digital Library Adds Musical Content From EMI 06/29/95 ARMONK, NEW YORK, U.S.A., 1995 JUN 29 (NB) -- A newly inked deal between IBM development partner MARS and EMI Music Publishing will streamline the process of obtaining pre-recorded "library music" for TV, films, and business-to-business presentations, predicted John Prial, manager of market development for the IBM Digital Library, in an interview with Newsbytes. "If you're going to produce something, you can now go online to find music created just for this purpose, with all rights secured," Prial told Newsbytes. Introduced earlier this year in a gala presentation at the New York Public Library, the IBM Digital Library is designed to let owners of music, film, text, art, manuscripts, and other content digitize the information and distribute it over worldwide networks. Specific functions of the Digital Library include "create and capture, storage and management, search and access, information distribution, and rights management," a category that encompasses authentication, encryption, watermarking, and royalties management, Prial said. Under the new agreement between MARS and EMI, producers of multimedia productions can search for the desired kind of music, submit an electronic "rights clearance form," and obtain clearance and licensing within a few minutes, Newsbytes was told. The new electronic procedure will spare users from a previous method that called for manually "pouring through hundreds of CDs" in an attempt to find appropriate music, and then having to chase down the usage rights, maintained the IBM exec. IBM selected UK-based MARS to be its partner in this new musical access business due to MARS' "many years of experience in the entertainment business," according to Prial. MARS is now negotiating with other owners of musical rights, as well as owners of sound effect and photo libraries, to make their material available through the IBM Digital Library, he explained. Earlier this month, he noted, IBM and DreamWorks unveiled plans to add an asset management component to the DreamWorks Digital Studio, a digital service, announced the previous week with Silicon Graphics and its Silicon Studio subsidiary, that will include a computer animation system called DAD (Digital Animation Dreammachine). The DreamWorks Asset Management System, which will run on IBM's SP2 parallel processing computer, will also be part of the IBM Digital Library, according to the IBM market development manager. Other customers that are distributing digitized information via the IBM Digital Library include the Vatican Library, the Los Angeles Public Library, Case Western Reserve, the Institute for Scientific Information (ISI), the Indiana University School of Music, and Archivo General de Indias, the Lutherhalle Wittenberg, reported Prial. In addition, he pointed out, nine customers are now extracting Digital Library information to Lotus Notes databases. (Jacqueline Emigh/19950629/Reader Contact: IBM, 914-765-1900; Press Contact: Margaret Bonilla, Brodeur & Partners for IBM, 617-622- 2800) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 06/29/95 WINDOWS Lotus Plan For Moving To Windows 95 And OS/2 Apps (NEWS)(WINDOWS)(BOS)(00012) Lotus Plan For Moving To Windows 95 And OS/2 Apps 06/29/95 CAMBRIDGE, MASSACHUSETTS, U.S.A., 1995 JUN 29 (NB) -- Lotus' newly announced Buyer's Assurance Plan is aimed at giving users of Lotus' Windows-based desktop applications an extra cushion of time in moving to Windows 95 and OS/2 editions of the products, explained Kathleen Hayner, marketing manager, in an interview with Newsbytes. The 32-bit versions of the products, slated for release this fall, will feature new capabilities for "team computing," Hayner told Newsbytes. "But we recognize that it may take customers some time to make purchasing decisions," she added. Under Lotus's new plan, users who purchase Windows 3.1 editions of SmartSuite or Lotus's individual desktop applications from now through December 31, 1995 are eligible for a free license for a software upgrade to either a Windows 95 or OS/2 counterpart, she reported. Users who decide to migrate to 32-bit editions of these products will pay only a "media charge," amounting to $19.95 for "standard" (floppy) disk versions of individual desktop applications; $29.95 for a standard disk version of SmartSuite; and $9.95 for a CD-ROM version of any of the products, according to Hayner. In addition, written documentation will be optionally available, at pricing of $24.95 for the individual applications and $34.95 for the entire SmartSuite. Lotus also provides documentation online, as well as "throughout the programs," the marketing manager pointed out. Lotus intends to ship a Windows 3.1 update to SmartSuite in the third quarter that will include the new Word Pro, Newsbytes was told. A Windows 95 edition of the Lotus suite will be released this fall, and an OS/2 update will follow "soon thereafter." The upcoming applications are targeted at Lotus' increasing direction toward "team computing." Until recently, except for permitting documents to be attached to e-mail messages, desktop applications have not taken much advantage of computing capabilities that allow for communications among users, according to Hayner. Lotus, though, is now starting to bridge this gulf with team computing tools aimed at letting users "collect, consolidate, distribute, and share" their ideas. The team computing features include TeamConsolidate, TeamReview, and TeamShow. As previously reported in Newsbytes, TeamReview will be included in Word Pro -- an update to Lotus's Ami Pro word processing package -- as well as in the next edition of Lotus's Freelance Graphics presentation graphics application. TeamReview is designed to let users maintain and update a list of other users with whom they would like to share a document, in addition to "verifying" the identities of other users, maintained Bill Jones, senior director of desktop product management, during a demo viewed by Newsbytes at Lotus's recent annual meeting in Brookline, Massachusetts. TeamConsolidate, on the other hand, is aimed at "reconciliation" of documents or portions of documents from multiple users. In Word Pro, for example, TeamConsolidate will be used to eliminate duplication in situations where the same paragraph appears in more than one document, reported Jones. In the next edition of the Lotus 1-2-3, TeamConsolidate will be used in conjunction with Notes 4.0 to build "consolidated models" from the "spreadsheet contributions" of multiple users, he said. TeamShow, a third "team computing" feature, will allow Freelance Graphics screenshow images to be displayed simultaneously on two PCs, regardless of location, according to Hayner. Lotus's new Buyer's Assurance Plan will also be extended to users of NotesSuite, a bundle in which Lotus Notes is being packaged with SmartSuite, and to international customers in Lotus's Passport program. Terms for customers outside the US will be similar, but not the same. To take part in the Buyer's Assurance Plan, user should send registration cards on newly purchased desktop applications directly to Lotus, Hayner told Newsbytes. Lotus will then send back coupons that are redeemable for 32-bit, Windows 95 and OS/2 versions of Lotus desktop products through June 30, 1996. (Jacqueline Emigh/19950628/Reader Contact: Lotus, in US, 800-343- 5414; in Canada, 800-GO-LOTUS; Press Contact: Laura Beck, Lois Paul & Partners for Lotus, 617-862-4514) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 06/29/95 GENERAL AER Ships All-Day Zinc-Air Battery (NEWS)(GENERAL)(DEN)(00013) AER Ships All-Day Zinc-Air Battery 06/29/95 SMYRNA, GEORGIA, U.S.A., 1995 JUN 29 (NB) -- AER Energy Resources Inc. (NASDAQ: AERN) is now shipping a rechargable zinc-air battery designed for several models of Toshiba portable computers and said the battery will operate the units for up to 15 continuous hours between charges. The AER Energy PowerPro furnishes 150 watt-hours of energy at 18 volts, which the company said is up to five times the standard equipment battery. The unit weighs 4.5 pounds and measures 211.77 by 10.85 by .88 inches. The PowerPro attaches to any of several current Toshiba models, including the Satellite T1900 series, the Satellite Pro T2400 series, the T4700C, T4800CT and the T4850CT, through the standard battery socket of the PC. In use the battery fits under the computer, and uses the Toshiba AC adapter to recharge. Its location under the PC keeps access to the drives and ports open. Air-zinc batteries use oxygen from the atmosphere to support reactions that generate electricity. The company said there are two major advantages in addition to the long use time between recharges. The battery has no memory effect, so it can be recharged any time it's convenient, and it has a very low self-discharge rate so it can be used right out of the box. Last year AER announced the Power 220, a 12-volt stand-alone battery designed to provide 20 to 40 hours of PC power, but the PowerPro is the first unit designed specifically for an OEM (original equipment manufacturer). Later this summer AER will ship the AER Energy PowerSlice, a panel about the width and length of a sheet of paper that will run most of the installed base of laptop computers for eight to 12 hours, according to AER spokesperson Judy Morris. That unit is expected to ship in the third quarter. AER is also developing a similar battery for Hewlett-Packard's OmniBook laptop PC that will provide 8-12 hours of power between charges. Look for that system to ship in the third quarter also. The combined weight of the OmniBook and the zinc-air battery will be about six pounds. The PowerPro is currently available through Toshiba and is listed in the Toshiba Accessories Catalog, The MicroSystems Warehouse catalog, and directly from AER Energy. (Jim Mallory/19950629/Press contact: Judy Morris, Crescent Communications for AER Energy Resources, 404-698-8650; Public contact: AER Energy Resources, tel 404-433-2127 or fax 404-433-2288/POWERPRO950629/PHOTO) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 06/29/95 ONLINE Internet Update (NEWS)(ONLINE)(TYO)(00014) Internet Update 06/29/95 TOKYO, JAPAN, 1995 JUN 29 (NB) -- In this update of new resources and services on the Internet: latest on the Shuttle mission; network construction hints; NetMind's email Web update service; Hong Kong stock report moves; Australian conference details; Web search tool updated; Web3 Web design magazine; Internet resources newsletter. Latest On The Shuttle Mission Catch the latest news on the current Space Shuttle mission with MIR from NASA's new permanent web site for the shuttle program. You can also see graphics and pictures as they become available. News on future missions is also online as is details of the program. World Wide Web: http://shuttle.nasa.gov/ Network Construction Hints Web 66 is a set of pages on the World Wide Web that seek to help educators who are setting up Ethernet networks. The pages include descriptions of network components, basic principles involved and how everything fits together as well as instructions for setting up local area networks (LANs) and wide area networks (WANs) with Internet capabilities. World Wide Web: http://web66.coled.umn.edu/ NetMind's Email Web Update Service NetMind, the people behind the URL-minder featured recently by Newsbytes, have announced a free service for Webmasters. The service will alert registered users to any changes in your Web page. Users simply press a button and register their email address. When NetMind's server detects an update to the page it contacts users by email. All the Webmaster has to do is copy a few lines of HTML code into the page. World Wide Web: http://www.netmind.com/URL-minder/example.html Hong Kong Stock Report Moves Five hours after the close of the business day in Hong Kong InTechTra's stock report is available on the World Wide Web. Over 500 stocks are analyzed in the report which now has a new address on the Internet. World Wide Web: http://www.ganet.net/~ITTI/index.html Australian Conference Details AusWeb96 is the Second Australian World Wide Web conference being hosted by Southern Cross University from 7 to 9 July 1996. Despite almost a year to go until the conference Web users can already get preliminary details of the event and visit for updates as they become available throughout the year. World Wide Web: http://www.scu.edu.au/ausweb96 SAGE-AU is now providing a Web site with all the details about its third annual Conference. World Wide Web: http://sage-au.dstc.edu.au:8080/sage-au-95/sageconf.html Web Search Tool Updated The Open Text Web Search Tool has been revised to include smaller GIF images and new search facilities. The index now boasts a database of 500 million words from 10 million web URLs. World Wide Web: http://www.opentext.com Web3 Web Design Magazine This is a new magazine about design of pages on the Internet's World Wide Web. The editor writes, "It contains the thinking and experiments of the net's leading hypertext designers and theorists." World Wide Web: http://www.rezn8.com/world3 Internet Resources Newsletter A new edition, June 1995, of the Internet Resources newsletter is now online. The newsletter is originally produced for the staff and students of Heriot-Watt University in the United Kingdom but the editors note that it will be of interest to all Internet users. World Wide Web: http://www.hw.ac.uk/libWWW/irn/irn.html (Martyn Williams/19950629) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 06/29/95 PC NEC PC-9800 Shipments Reach 10 Million (NEWS)(PC)(TYO)(00015) NEC PC-9800 Shipments Reach 10 Million 06/29/95 TOKYO, JAPAN, 1995 JUN 29 (NB) -- Ask someone outside Japan what the most popular personal computer in the Asian country is and they would more than likely answer an IBM compatible or Apple Macintosh but if they did, they would be wrong. With more than a 50% market share, the leader is NEC's (TOKYO:6701) PC-9800 system which has just passed the 10 million units shipped mark. #IMAGE 1 20 TWPCX \images\95062915.PCX Click here for photo First introduced in October 1982, it took nine years and four months to ship the first five million computers but just an extra three years and four months to achieve 10 million units sold. The growth of PC-9800 sales, which NEC says averages 153% over each year of the computer's life, is so good that NEC has revised upwards sales targets for the current financial year from 550,000 to 570,000 computers. Tokyo-based NEC anticipates the PC-9800 series will break the 20 million unit mark in the next three years. Chris Shimizu of NEC Corporation explained to Newsbytes exactly what the PC-9800 system is. "The system began in 1982 when Microsoft only supported a 1-bit character set. In order to support Kanji and the other Japanese characters we converted MS-DOS, with Microsoft's help, from a 1-bit to 2-bit operating system." Since the system was originally released, Windows has come along and now all PC-9800 machines run the popular platform. "Through the course of development new software has been developed and nowadays, since Windows came along, as long as software is Windows compatible, it will run on the system," he continued. NEC is not just leaving users to choose between various generic Windows software packages, as Shimizu explained, "We do support domestic software also." There are many PC-9800-specific software packages on the Japanese market today. It was first introduced into Japan in 1982 and gained worldwide attention in 1992 when NEC released the world's first color TFT laptop computer, a PC-9800 compatible machine. Currently more than 114 models make up the range with 22,200 PC-9800 software titles available from 4,600 companies. (Martyn Williams/19950629/Press contact: Chris Shimizu, NEC Corporation, +81-3-3798-6511, fax +81-3-3457-7249; Reader contact: NEC Corporation, +81-3-3454-1111/NECPC950629/PHOTO) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 06/29/95 GENERAL Toshiba's US Multimedia Research Center (NEWS)(GENERAL)(TYO)(00016) Toshiba's US Multimedia Research Center 06/29/95 NEW YORK, NEW YORK, USA, 1995 JUN 29 (NB) -- Toshiba America, Inc. has announced the establishment of the Advanced Information Technology Center (AITC) in San Jose, California. The center will carry out research and development work on a range of projects and applications related to multimedia and the new Super Density Disc. The establishment of the new center is another step in the development of Advanced-I, a company-wide project that seeks to enhance Toshiba's capabilities in multimedia-related technologies. The AITC will work closely with Toshiba's Tokyo Advanced-I group in four key areas. They include the investigation and analysis of technological and business trends in multimedia, the planning and implementation of research programs in leading edge technologies and the planning and proposition of new business to Toshiba's operating groups. The fourth function of the center will be to search for and identify potential partners for Toshiba and promising technology that Toshiba can help develop. The new unit will also promote R&D in the multimedia area with leading American universities. Toshiba America says that by establishing the center now, it is positioning itself to take full advantage of business opportunities created by multimedia. Research and development activities will focus on development of technologies related to the Super Density Disc project, a next generation high-density optical disc. Specifically, this will cover encoding technology, software editing technology, development of MPEG systems and applications packages. Toshiba, along with other members of the SD Alliance, is pouring millions of dollars into development of the system. Electronics giants Sony and Holland's Philips have developed their own system which will compete with the SD system for dominance of the computer, video and audio markets. SD Alliance members include Toshiba and Hitachi, Matsushita Electric Industrial, MCA, Pioneer, Thomson Multimedia, Time Warner, Mitsubishi Electric, Victor Company of Japan, Nippon Columbia, Toshiba-EMI, Pioneer LDC,, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, Turner Home Entertainment, Zenith Electronics, Samsung Electronics and SKC. (Martyn Williams/19950629/Press contact: Ken Ishihara, Toshiba America, +1-212-596-0600) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 06/29/95 ONLINE ****Prodigy's Personal Web Pages Available Today (NEWS)(ONLINE)(SFO)(00017) ****Prodigy's Personal Web Pages Available Today 06/29/95 WHITE PLAINS, NEW YORK, U.S.A., 1995 JUN 29 (NB) -- Starting today, Prodigy members are able to create personal World Wide Web (Web) pages. Built upon a system of templates, Prodigy's Windows Web publishing tools frees users from the need to know special programming or computer language skills. Prodigy says its tools will transparently convert documents to the necessary Hyper-text Markup Language (HTML) format. This means users will enter text as if they were writing e-mail and the necessary conversion to HTML will automatically take place. Mike Darcy, spokesperson for Prodigy, told Newsbytes, "This first step of Personal Web Pages is limited to text and hyperlinks. Sometime this summer we will add graphics and sound file support. We have made this as intuitive and easy as possible and we want our users to use it to become acquainted with the Web." The introductory offering is comprised of six templates which members may use to create their home page. "Basic" is an open text document for describing oneself and one's favorite activities, Web sites, and other personal thoughts and opinions. "Business Card" allows members to create a standard business card which lists contact numbers, company name and job description. Members may give a tour of their home city using "Out on the Town." Using the "Top 10 List" a person may describe their favorite Web sites and provide hyperlinks to those sites. Text and links imported from other Web authoring tools are introduced through "Free Form." The sixth template, "Index," allows users to link to a previously designed Web page if they have one. Prodigy says members may modify their pages with additions and deletions at any time. The company also plans to add more templates in the coming months. Members are allowed to store up to 200 kilobytes of data which is about 50 text pages. Personal Web Pages is part of Prodigy's standard monthly and hourly charges. Their are no additional charges for this service. Each Web page has its own Web address or Universal Resource Locator (URL) and also contains the ability to communicate through e-mail. Darcy added, "Perhaps one day our standard Internet e-mail address will be replaced with a URL and each person will have their own personal center on the Web." (Patrick McKenna/19950629/Press Contact: Mike Darcy, tel 914-448- 8846) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 06/29/95 PC ****Osborne - Australia's Largest PC Maker May Be Finished (NEWS)(PC)(SYD)(00018) ****Osborne - Australia's Largest PC Maker May Be Finished 06/29/95 SYDNEY, AUSTRALIA 1995 JUNE 29 (NB) -- Osborne is Australia's largest PC manufacturer, selling about as many machines as Compaq and Apple Computer. Yesterday a receiver was appointed to the company, and it remains to be seen if the company is finished or can trade out of its serious financial problems. Osborne has been held up as a success story in Australia, operating a chain of one-brand shops, and it only sells direct. The company only manufactures desktop PCs, though there was recent speculation about assembling Mac clones in Australia. The company has reportedly been selling PCs over the past few months at a rate in excess of 100,000 units per year. The company's problems first came to the surface a week ago when it was revealed that it had been removed from the Australian government's and Telstra's approved buying lists. In the case of the government contract, it was reported that Osborne had been required to post a $1.5M bond due to concerns about its financial state. In the past two or three months the company has been aggressively promoting computers at what were considered by the industry to be impossibly low figures. This included a full-spec 75 MHz Pentium system for AUS$2500 (around US$1770). The New South Wales state consumer affairs department has now revealed that it has had hundreds of complaints from people who ordered Osborne computers in this period, have paid the money but have not received their machine, as much as two months later. While many of these have received a refund, it is not known how many people are affected. Osborne directors and the company's largest creditor (a bank) appointed an administrator this week, hoping to trade out of the problems, but late yesterday the minister for consumer affairs said a receiver had been appointed. In a couple of hours this morning, the department reported that it had received over 2000 calls from worried Osborne customers. Osborne differentiated itself from the rest of the industry by introducing a five-year warranty a few years ago. Industry spokespeople said this was a surefire road to disaster, as the company's exposure was too long and too uncertain. Compaq Australia MD Ian Penman said as much at a press conference two years ago, and was promptly sued by Osborne. Today Penman said he wasn't surprised at the recent events. (Paul Zucker/19950629) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 06/29/95 BUSINESS Australia - Acquisition Creates Top Component Distrib (NEWS)(BUSINESS)(SYD)(00019) Australia - Acquisition Creates Top Component Distrib 06/29/95 SYDNEY, AUSTRALIA 1995 JUN 29 (NB) -- Effective tomorrow, June 30, VSI Electronics Australia will be bought 100 percent by US-based electronics component distributor Avnet Inc., creating Australia's largest distributor of electronic components. VSI is headquartered in Sydney, with warehousing around the country. It distributes products from AMD, Hewlett-Packard, AVX/Kyocera, Motorola, Harris and Seiko. Customers include international and local OEMs such as Alcatel, Hypertec, IBM, JTEC, Ericsson, NetComm, Siemens, Plessey and Telstra. The new company, AVNET-VSI, is to retain all local management structures, but is to adopt a number of Avnet internal procedures such as the Point Of Use Replenishment System (POURS), warehousing and logistics. It will also give the company access to Avnet's US$650M inventory of components. Avnet VP Pat Frizoni said his company expects to increase revenues in Australia by 150 percent over the next two years. (Paul Zucker/19950629) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 06/29/95 GENERAL Sticky Envelopes Let Disks Co-exist In Paper-based Systems (NEWS)(GENERAL)(DEN)(00020) Sticky Envelopes Let Disks Co-exist In Paper-based Systems 06/29/95 JACKSONVILLE, FLORIDA, U.S.A., 1995 JUN 29 (NB) -- Once upon a time futurists believed the paperless office would be commonplace by the year 2000. Today even people who produce the imaging systems that would make that dream a reality admit it may never happen, but a Florida company has introduced a way to let the paperless and paper-centric worlds co-exist. I & I Specialties Inc., has introduced Stock-A-Disk, a diskette-size envelope with an adhesive back and resealable flap that lets computer users store 3.5-inch floppy disks in the same file folder with the printout that the boss demands. The envelope can also live inside book covers, manuals and three-ring binders, said the company, providing a safe haven for the electronic version of that publication. It could also hold a demo disk. I & I Specialties said Stick-A-Disk can be overprinted to indicate the contents or carry birthday or holiday greetings. The 2-3/4 inch square self-adhesive area on the back side of the envelope provides a secure mounting, and a 2-1/2 inch wide title area can be used for notes. The 1-1/2 inch scored flap uses a resealable gum adhesive to assure the contents stay put. You can buy 10 Stick-A-Disks in a clear poly bag that has an area for the store to affix a bar-code label or a price sticker. Martin Dowda, I & I Specialities president, told Newsbytes Stick-A-Disk has a suggested retail price of $3.49 for 10 envelopes. Dowda said he invented Stick-A-Disk out of necessity. An industrial engineer, Dowda said he often needed a place to safely store diskettes. "I made them in the garage and people saw them and kept asking me about them," Dowda told Newsbytes. "A friend says this is one of those stupid little ideas that makes brilliant people jealous, according to Martin Dowda, I & I Specialities president. "Time and the marketplace will tell." Dowda said if the 3-1/2 inch size sells well the company may follow up with other sizes for audio tapes. A CD-ROM version is ready to go, awaiting the resolution of some patent and distribution issues before shipping in the next 90 days, said Dowda. Currently Stick-A-Disk is available only in white, but Dowda said colored envelopes may be offered later this year. (Jim Mallory/19950627/Press contact: Martin Dowda, I & I Specialities, 904-632-9267; Public contact: tel 904-632-9267 or fax 904-292-3008) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 06/29/95 TELECOM NorTel Launches Wireless Phones In US (NEWS)(TELECOM)(TOR)(00021) NorTel Launches Wireless Phones In US 06/29/95 RICHARDSON, TEXAS, U.S.A., 1995 JUN 29 (NB) -- Northern Telecom Ltd. (TSE:NTL;NYSE:NT) has brought to the United States a wireless telephone system that it has already been selling in a number of other countries. The Companion system uses the 1910-to- 1930-megahertz (MHz) portion of the radio spectrum, which the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) recently assigned to unlicensed personal communications services. Northern said no license will be needed to use the Companion system, whose wireless telephones can make and receive calls anywhere in an office, factory or other building. The system works much like cellular telephony, with multiple transceivers that can "hand off" calls in progress as the caller moves around the coverage area. With enough of the short-range transceivers, any size of area can be covered, Northern Telecom spokesman Brian Murphy told Newsbytes. Northern is pitching the system as a way for people who must move around the workplace throughout the day to remain accessible to callers. For instance, it could be useful to retail salespeople, factory operations managers, support staff, and medical personnel, the company said. The Companion system will come in two versions. One will work with any brand of private branch exchange (PBX), Centrex, or key telephone system, Northern said, while the other is specially designed to work with Northern's own Meridian 1 PBX, providing extra features such as a display showing who is calling and a visual message-waiting indicator. The cost of a system will vary depending on the area to be covered, the number of users, and features of the premises that determine how many transceivers are needed for satisfactory coverage, Murphy said. The list price of the cordless telephones is $550 each. Murphy said a complete setup with two base stations and four telephones would list at about $10,000. (Grant Buckler/19950627/Press Contact: Brian Murphy, Northern Telecom, 214-684-8589, Internet e-mail brian.murphy.0192046@nt.com) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 06/29/95 WINDOWS UK - Microcom Unveils Carbon Copy 3. (NEWS)(WINDOWS)(LON)(00022) UK - Microcom Unveils Carbon Copy 3.0 06/29/95 GUILDFORD, SURREY, ENGLAND, 1995 JUN 29 (NB) -- Microcom took the wraps off Carbon Copy for Windows 3.0 (CCW 3.0), the latest major update of its remote access and control software, at the Networks '95 computer trade show in Birmingham, England. According to the company, the UKP 100 package offers unparalleled performance and breadth of features compared to competitive products. Officials with Microcom claim that the package has been significantly enhanced with over 100 new features, giving users efficient, cost- effective and secure communications to support, access, control and communicate with remote PCs running Windows, MS-DOS or Windows '95. Microcom claims it has redesigned CCW 3.0 to reflect the change in remote access from a minor activity to an application that is becoming an integral part of enterprise networking. The company also claims that CCW 3.0 is up to five times faster than the previous release, and faster than competing products in benchmarks. This speed has been achieved partly with newly incorporated artificial intelligence techniques, and gives end-users near real-time access to the most graphically rich applications operating remotely. Martin Perry, Microcom's European general manager, explained that, unlike the competition, easy access to central computing resources is balanced by CCW 3.0 s multi-level security features to manage remote PC access. Network managers can set time limits for on-line activity, as well as automatically identify callers and restrict remote dial-up access to protect specific programs or directories. "We pioneered the remote PC access and control market many years ago with Carbon Copy. It is clear that as remote working becomes key to more industries, the remote PC access market will undergo dramatic growth and transformation with a new type of product needed," he explained. We've addressed this by producing a new generation of Carbon Copy that meets our customers demand for remote access software that can play a more central role in their corporate networks. Its remote control speed and file transfer is now unsurpassed and, overall, we believe CCW 3.0 sets the standard against which other remote PC access products will be judged," he said. According to Perry, higher communications performance including secure, reliable two-way links will also enable CCW 3.0 to support remote diagnostics and control of non-IT equipment such as premises and testing systems. Company officials said that CCW 3.0 satisfies the needs of individuals and organizations that have a mixture of communications environments, including point-to-point connections across a LAN (local area network), dial-out connections from a LAN through an asynchronous communications server (ACS), and PC-to-PC communications via dial-up modem or ISDN (integrated services digital network) line. (Steve Gold/19950626/Press Contact: Bogard Communications +44-1753- 654333; Reader Contact: Microcom UK +44-1483-740763) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 06/29/95 TRENDS IBM, Teleport To Offer Teleconferencing Rental Suites (NEWS)(TRENDS)(TOR)(00023) IBM, Teleport To Offer Teleconferencing Rental Suites 06/29/95 NEW ORLEANS, LOUISIANA, U.S.A., 1995 JUN 29 (NB) -- IBM (NYSE:IBM) and startup TelePort Corp. have announced plans for a network of TeleSuites across the United States. The suites will offer videoconferencing services in a more natural setting than usually found today. #IMAGE 1 20 TWPCX \images\95062923.PCX Click here for photo Each room will be furnished with a semicircular table placed against the wall on which is mounted a rear-projection screen 42 inches high by 92 inches wide, TelePort President Herold Williams told Newsbytes. This screen, which will display 353,000 pixels, will show the participants in a remote suite at 90 to 95 percent of their actual size, Williams added. Because the suites will share the same decor and all cameras, microphones, and projection equipment will be hidden, the companies claimed, participants will feel as if they are in the same room with those at the distant site, all sitting around a single round table. Besides business meetings, IBM and TelePort suggested, the suites might be used for such occasions as a family dinner where a university student could join the rest of the family without travelling. The companies, both of which will market the suites, plan to place them in locations such as hotels, restaurants, and shopping malls. Scott Allen, a spokesman for TelePort, told Newsbytes that executives from two major hotel chains, which he could not name, have met with TelePort officials. The companies plan to place the first TeleSuite in Chicago in August, and to add New York and Los Angeles locations in October, Allen said. After that, the plan is to extend the service to about 40 cities across the United States. Using the service will cost from $69 to $149 per hour for each location -- meaning a two-location conference would be $138 to $298 per hour -- depending on the location and the time of day. Englewood, Ohio-based TelePort is a new venture founded by Williams and David Allen. Allen, TelePort's chief executive, was a co-founder of Newleaf Entertainment. Allen and Williams also co-founded Allen-Williams Corp., a resort and hotel developer, in 1979. IBM Global Network is to provide T1 connections for the service. Global connections will be available in 1997, officials said. (Grant Buckler/19950629/Press Contact: Linda Wizner, IBM Global Network, 813-878-5472; Colleen Brathwaite, IBM, 914-642-5455; Scott Allen, TelePort, 513-836-1095; Public Contact: IBM, Internet World Wide Web http://www.ibm.com/TELEPORT950629/PHOTO) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 06/29/95 BROADCAST Time Warner Forms Interactive Shopping Unit (NEWS)(BROADCAST)(MSP)(00024) Time Warner Forms Interactive Shopping Unit 06/29/95 NEW YORK CITY, NEW YORK, U.S.A., 1995 JUN 29 (NB) -- Time Warner (NYSE:TWX) Cable Programming has created the Digital Marketing Group (DMG) to develop, produce, and distribute interactive and other services for a variety of electronic media, including cable TV. "We'll be focusing on the interactive opportunities for selling goods, and the new forms that are going to evolve in interactive advertising on TV," Linda Frankenbach, senior vice president, Time Warner Cable Programming, told Newsbytes. Frankenbach will head up the new unit. Besides cable TV, Frankenbach said content will be developed for several interactive platforms, including the Internet, other online computer networks, and high-speed cable online services for personal computers. An interactive shopping mall that will be dubbed "DreamShop" is the main venue for the various platforms, Frankenbach said. Initially DreamShop will encompass the services already running on the Full Service Network in Orlando, Florida, along with shopping services that are on the company's Pathfinder Internet World Wide Web site. Currently, Pathfinder's shopping service is run by a Time Warner joint venture with Spiegel Inc. (NASDAQ:SPGLA), known as Catalog 1. The new DreamShop on Pathfinder will encompass former Catalog 1 stores, along with merchants like Warner Bros. Studio Store, Chrysler, and Crate and Barrel. The Catalog 1 brand name will be discontinued at the end of the summer. Also, Frankenbach said the issue of secure transactions over the Internet is being addressed with the Pathfinder site. "This (DreamShop) is part of Time Warner's strategy to develop the content that we think is going to be very compelling, to allow people to shop, buy and gather information about goods and services on these interactive platforms," Frankenbach said. The new unit will also work with major marketers and advertising agencies to create ads specifically for interactive television, company officials said. Other interactive services to be added over the next year include a feature called ShopperVision, and a service that will be produced jointly between CUC International and Time Warner. (Bob Woods/19950629/Press Contact: Marilyn Harris, Time Warner Cable Programming, 212-522-7415) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 06/29/95 GENERAL Tektronix Intros New Color Printers (NEWS)(GENERAL)(DEN)(00025) Tektronix Intros New Color Printers 06/29/95 WILSONVILLE, OREGON, U.S.A., 1995 JUN 29 (NB) -- Tektronix Inc., (NYSE: TEK) has introduced two new color printers, one a laser system and the other a thermal transfer system. #IMAGE 1 20 TWPCX \images\95062925.PCX Click here for photo Both new printers are designed for workgroup use, can print on overhead transparencies and common laser paper, and come with Adobe Postscript Level 2 support. Postscript is supported on Windows, DOS, Macintosh and Unix platforms. The Phaser 540 Plus desktop color laser printer is rated at four pages per minute for full color pages. It can print at up to 14 pages per minute for black and white jobs and can handle standard letter size, A4, and legal size paper. It comes with a 250-sheet media tray and optionally can accept two additional 250-sheet trays. A special 100-sheet overhead transparency tray is also available. The Phaser 540 Plus has a suggested retail price of $8,995 and is shipping now. It uses a 32 megahertz (MHz) RISC (reduced instruction set computing) processor and ships with 20MB of memory, which can up expanded to 52MB. Tektronix markets its Phaser Copystation, a color copying device that connects directly to the Phaser 540 Plus' SCSI (Small Computer System Interface) port. The copystation sends an image of the document to be duplicated directly to the printer, which prints the requested number of copies. CopyStation has a suggested retail price of $1,695. Tektronix also introduced the Phaser 240 thermal transfer color printer, which can print two pages per minute in full color page mode. It has dual tray capability and is priced at $3,695. The company said the 240 can print 342 color prints from a single roll of thermal transfer paper. Tekcolor software lets the user select Vivid Colors when printing overhead transparencies, Simulate Display when you want your printout to match the colors on your monitor, or Simulate Press for simulating Web Offset press operations. The 240 in its basic configuration with 5MB of memory prints 300 dots per inch, but you can add an optional 8MB of memory to increase that to 600 by 300 print resolution. Memory can be increased to as much as 21MB. Print speed drops to one page per minute at the higher resolution. The 240 uses a 16MHZ RISC chip and comes with 17 resident fonts, which can be expanded to 39. Additional fonts can be downloaded to the printer's memory. (Jim Mallory/19950629/Press contact: Jennifer Jones, Tektronix, 503-685-3150; Public contact: Tektronix, tel 800-835-6100 or 503-682-7377, fax 503-682-7450 or at the URL http://www.tek.com/CPID on the Internet/PHASR540950629/PHOTO) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 06/29/95 ONLINE 12 Year-Old Flyer To Keep In Touch Via Compuserve (NEWS)(ONLINE)(SFO)(00026) 12 Year-Old Flyer To Keep In Touch Via Compuserve 06/29/95 SANTA MONICA, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1995 JUN 29 (NB) -- Vanessa Pereira, a twelve year-old girl from Los Angeles, flies from a Santa Monica, California airstrip today to deliver her educational message to kids and parents. Sponsored by CompuServe and the Rotary Club, Vanessa's two month, US tour will stop in 48 contiguous states and she will participate in an online conference on Compuserve. #IMAGE 1 20 TWPCX \images\95062926.PCX Click here for photo Although it is amazing enough that this young girl would undertake such a journey, the real story is her motivation. "We are not doing this to set a record or to show off as an exceptional child," said the girls father, Bosco Pereira. Vanessa, he said, envisioned and created a project she calls ACE (Across the Country for Education). Seeing a difference between students who are successful and students who are not, Vanessa thought there must be a way to connect the ones doing well with those who are not in a peer-to-peer model. In each city, Vanessa will deliver her "I Dream, I Do, I Deliver" speech to encourage students to aim high, work hard and not give up. Bosco Pereira will also address parents with his presentation, "Parenting With a Purpose and a Plan." Speaking to Newsbytes, Jane Torbica, CompuServe spokesperson, said, "The Pereira family had offers from a number of large corporations, but Bosco wanted to keep the mission from being too commercialized. Vanessa has been a CompuServe member and because of her fondness with our system, the family decided to accept us as a sponsor along with another family favorite, the Rotary Club." During her trip, Vanessa will be checking into CompuServe on a daily basis to participate in conferences, drop off her daily diary and respond to e-mail messages. Her trip comes at a time when the Internet is receiving critical attention by the government and the public at large. In response, Vanessa will stress the need for both child and parental education about online activity. Packed somewhere on the plane are copies of the online child safety brochure developed by CompuServe, other computer companies and individual industry leaders. The brochure will be distributed at the various stops. To keep track of her itinerary and learn of her daily activities, CompuServe members need to visit the Kids and Teens forum which is part of CompuServe Students Network, a 100,000-member student service for pre-schoolers to graduate students. Kids and Teens is designed specifically for grade school and high school students and has a posted code of conduct which outlines a safe and comfortable computing environment. The tour ends on September 6, 1995, when Vanessa will land her six- seater, Piper Cherokee Six at Santa Monica, California. The command to reach Kids and Teens is GO ACE. (Patrick McKenna/1995/Press Contact: Jane Torbica, CompuServe, tel 614-538-3347/COMPUSERVE950629/PHOTO) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 06/29/95 TELECOM Czech Republic - SPT Stake Sold To Telesource Consortium (NEWS)(TELECOM)(LON)(00027) Czech Republic - SPT Stake Sold To Telesource Consortium 06/29/95 PRAGUE, CZECH REPUBLIC, 1995 JUN 29 (NB) -- After months of posturing, tendering and management changes, the Czech Government has announced that Telesource, a consortium of PTT Netherlands and Swiss Telecom, will take a 27 percent stake in SPT Telecom, the Czech state telco. Announcing the deal with journalists earlier this week, Karel Dyba, the Czech Economics Minister, said that it had been passed unanimously by the Czech Parliament, and will generate almost $1.32 billion for the Government. Precise terms of the deal have yet to be published, but Dyba said that the $1.32 billion offer will also generate an extra $130 million for the Government in the form of a special payment for management skills and software facilities, pushing the final asking price to $1,45 million. As reported previously by Newsbytes, the battle for a stake in SPT Telecom was extremely hard, with interest in acquiring the 27 percent stake extremely high, as business in the Czech Republic is undergoing the same transformation as happened in Eastern Germany and Poland over the last decade. As with these two countries, telecoms services are an extremely lucrative activity, given the falling cost of telecoms hardware and soon-to-skyrocket demand for telecoms services in the Czech Republic. Although representatives of PTT Nederland and Swiss Telecom have refused to comment directly on the venture, a previously prepared statement from the Dutch telcos has suggested that Telesource will pour massive resources into the Czech telecoms network, upgrading the network's infrastructure from the 1960s technology it currently uses, to 1990's computer-controlled exchanges. The Czech Government was scheduled to announce from which companies and consortia it was prepared to accept serious bids for the stake in SPT Telecom in February of this year, but the announcement, along with the closure of bids, dragged on through the spring. Companies which were known to be competing for a stake in SPT Telecom have included AT&T, Ameritech International, Bell Atlantic, Southwestern Bell International Development, GTE Telephone, Deutsche Telekom, France Telecom, Telecom Denmark, PTT Nederland, Stet International, Swiss Telecom, and Korea Telecom. (Sylvia Dennis/19950629/Press & Reader Contact: SPT Telecom +42-2-691- 9272; Fax +42-2-691-9046) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 06/29/95 ONLINE ****More Banks Offer Microsoft Money Online Banking (NEWS)(ONLINE)(DEN)(00028) ****More Banks Offer Microsoft Money Online Banking 06/29/95 REDMOND, WASHINGTON, U.S.A., 1995 JUN 29 (NB) -- Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ: (MSFT) has teamed with a North Carolina bank to offer online banking and bill paying using the software company's Microsoft Money personal finance software. Centura Bank (NYSE: CBC) customers will be able to use Money for Windows 95 this fall, when that upgraded product ships, to automatically download their current bank account information into their personal computers, pay their bills, balance accounts and transfer money electronically without leaving their home or office. The service will be available around the clock, said Centura. A Microsoft spokesperson told Newsbytes Centura is the fifth bank to offer the service. Banks already online include Chase Manhattan in New York, US Bank in Portland Oregon, 1st National Bank of Chicago, and the Michigan National Bank. Transactions like deposits, check payments and electronic withdrawals will be automatically recorded in a computer-based check register each time customers go online with the system. Centura customers who already have the current version of Microsoft Money will be able to use the online banking capabilities this fall. Details about Money for Windows 95 aren't expected to be available until after this year. Microsoft has not announced what the upgrade cost from Microsoft Money to Microsoft Money for Windows 95, and the spokesperson said the estimated retail price also isn't known yet. Microsoft Money is the program the software giant had agreed to sell to Novell if its proposed merger with Intuit, the publisher of the very popular personal finance program Quicken, had gone ahead. However that merger didn't get the government seal of approval and was squelched. (Jim Mallory/19950629/Press contact: Douglas Haynes, Centura Bank, 919-977-8429; Public contact: Donna O'Neill, Waggener Edstrom for Microsoft, 206-637-9097) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 06/29/95 ONLINE VNU's UK Operation Plugs Into The Internet (NEWS)(ONLINE)(LON)(00029) VNU's UK Operation Plugs Into The Internet 06/29/95 LONDON, ENGLAND, 1995 JUN 29 (NB) -- VNU Business Publications, the UK subsidiary of VNU of the Netherlands, will unveil its new World Wide Web site at http: www.vnu.co.uk at the Networks '95 computer trade show in Birmingham, England. John Barnes, the publisher in charge of the Web site, said that the site had been in preparation since the beginning of the year. "We took over Matrix Communications (an Internet consultancy operation) late last year and now that that operation is housed inside our London headquarters," he told Newsbytes, adding that, since then, he and Julian Patterson (ex-editor, PC Week UK) have been working full-time on establishing the site. "We have a 128,000 bits per second (bps) link into the Internet and now have most of the magazines published by VNU's UK operation online," he told Newsbytes. "The area which has been operational the longest in beta test terms is the computing job vacancies area, which is accessible on http://vnu.co.uk/vnu/cc " he added. Barnes sees the bulk of VNU's income from the Web site project (he is not talking in terms of profits yet), as coming from sponsors. He sees the Web as a natural extension of the controlled circulation titles that VNU already publishes in print versions. "Several other UK (IT -- information technology) publishers have `had a go' at the Net, but no one has done it really well. We think our Web site is most excellent and one that will give people like Ziffnet a run for their money," he said. Although many of the Web pages occupied by specific magazines within VNU's stable of publications are sparsely populated at the moment, the company's plans are ambitious, with the idea of posting selected news and features from the print versions of the magazines to the Web pages, and, where the text includes a Web URL (Uniform Resource Locator), that URL is "hot linked" to the Web site in question. Barnes agreed that there is a risk involved with this approach, as the Web user might not return to the VNU site, but he told Newsbytes that the plethora of excellent Web sites make this approach essential. "The Internet is an exciting new media that publishers must be seen to be pursuing, as well as publishing on. If they don't, then they are missing an excellent opportunity," in terms of benefits to users and advertisers, he said. Barnes admitted that getting to know HTML, the HyperText Mark-up Language that allows Web pages to be created "has not been easy," but he said that, once the language has been mastered, page creation is relatively easy, and allows for some creative flair. Interestingly, although Barnes and Patterson initially created large GIF (Graphic Interchange Format) image files on their Web pages, they soon trimmed the resolution of some of the more exotic graphics down to 10, 15 and 10 kilobytes or less, so as to allow Web users with relatively slow dial-up access to the Internet to display the pages as quickly as possible. "We've been able to get some of the images down to 5k or so, and that makes overall page display much faster," he explained. (Steve Gold/19950627/Press & Reader Contact: VNU Business Publications +44-171-316-9000/VNU950629/PHOTO) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 06/28/95 WINDOWS Metasolv Multimedia App Builder (NEWS)(WINDOWS)(DEN)(00030) Metasolv Multimedia App Builder 06/28/95 DALLAS, TEXAS, U.S.A., 1995 JUN 28 (NB) -- MetaSolv Software Inc., is shipping Multimedia Objects for PowerBuilder, an addition to its PowerFrame product line. Multimedia Objects for PowerBuilder is a suite of reusable class libraries, custom objects and utilities for Powerbuilder. MetaSolv said the new release lets users develop multimedia applications that combine video and audio files along with controlling audio compact discs in CD-ROM drives. A typical application might be to develop interactive multimedia applications that demonstrate the use of products or services. Dana Brown, business unit manager at MetaSolv, explains how Multimedia Objects for Powerbuilder works. "A PowerBuilder developer would use the Multimedia control like other Powerbuilder controls, such as a picture object or command button. All of the device operating options such as fast forward, seek frame, rewind, pause, or play are encapsulated within the Multimedia object. Multimedia Objects for Powerbuilder includes three multimedia objects. One is a video object which controls Video for Windows (.AVI) and Quicktime for Windows (.MOV) files. You also get a sound object which controls Wave (.WAV) and MIDI (Musical Instrument Digital Interface) files, and an audio compact disk object which controls the play of audio compact discs in CD-ROM drives. Each of the objects has its own control panel object that can be used just like the control panel buttons on a piece of audio visual equipment. Multimedia Objects for Powerbuilder includes source code and bitmap files, a sample application demonstrating each Multimedia Object, and an installation and reference manual. To use the $149 Multimedia Objects for PowerBuilder you need PowerBuilder version 3.0a or later. You also need a multimedia-capable personal computer with a sound card and speakers, a CD-ROM drive and a Super VGA monitor capable of displaying at least 256 colors. MetaSolv also publishes ASAP, a set of business templates and Windows-based client/server applications that support the ordering and provisioning of switched and special access services and circuits for the telecommunications industry. (Jim Mallory/19950628/Press contact: Dana Brown, MetaSolv Software, 214-239-0623; Public contact: MetaSolv Software, 214-239-0623/METASOLV950629/PHOTO) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 1 06/29/95 ONLINE Discovery Channel Online Opens July (NEWS)(ONLINE)(SFO)(00031) Discovery Channel Online Opens July 1 06/29/95 BETHESDA, MARYLAND, U.S.A., 1995 JUN 29 (NB) -- Discovery Channel Online, a World Wide Web (Web) service from Discovery Communications, previews July 1, 1995. Fans of the cable television channels, The Discovery Channel and The Learning Channel, will find a new venue for the educational and informative material common to the shows. Saying the Web is filled with material described as "brochureware," Discovery's president and chief operating officer, Greg Moyer, said it was time for the Web to deliver quality material equal to level of the company's television programming. Discovery Channel Online (http://www.discovery.com ) will publish original non-fiction stories, written exclusively for the Internet. Each day of the week will have a different theme and stories will include updates, photographs, audio and downloadable video. Much like a television production staff, Discovery Online will have its own full-time staff including Thomas Hicks as publisher, Rebecca Farwell as editor, John Lyle Sanford as design director, Thom Kozik as business manager and an accompaniment of writers, editors, designers, artists and photographers. The first version of Discovery Channel Online which previews on July 1, is an elementary look at what will be a full service by September 1. Look for limited previews in the first version with a daily schedule beginning in August. Discovery Communications cites Netscape Communications and its Web products for assistance in developing the new site. Discovery Channel Online is using Netscape Navigator, Netscape Internet Applications for its full-scale Web presence. The daily schedule of events for the new service offers computers, gardening and home repairs on Saturday; edited member stories on Sunday; American Civil War stories on Monday; mysterious animals on Tuesday; science on Wednesday; human culture stories from around the world on Thursday; and outdoor adventure on Friday. Speaking with Vicki Stearn, spokesperson for Discovery Communications, Newsbytes was told, "We look at Discovery Channel Online as a third Discovery network. It is time to bring quality programming to the Web and we intend to deliver the same quality of programming that fans of our television channels are accustomed to viewing." During the months of July and August the entire Discovery Channel Online area will be free. Starting September, a subscriber fee will be instituted. Stearn says the fee will be nominal, in the range of $20 to $25. She also said the certain parts of the online channel will remain free. All users of the system will be able to see the first pages of stories and other entry level features. Subscribers will have access to the entire area including full stories and multimedia content. Stearn says the final decisions on the subscriber fee and benefits are still under consideration by company officials. (Patrick McKenna/19950629/Press Contact: Vicki Stearn, Discovery Communications, tel 301-986-0444;/DISCOVERY950629/PHOTO) (SUMMARY)(GENERAL)(MSP)(00032) Newsbytes Daily Summary 06/29/95 MINNEAPOLIS, MINNESOTA, U.S.A., 1995 JUN 29 (NB) -- These are capsules of all today's news stories: ======================================================================== ------------| N E W S B Y T E S D A I L Y S U M M A R Y |---------- ------------| Thursday, June 29, 1995 |---------- ======================================================================== (c) Newsbytes News Network (Tm) Editor in Chief: Wendy Woods ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Newsbytes News Network is a computer and telecom industry news wire and digitized picture service. Our news stream includes more than 30 daily first-hand reported US and international news stories about computing and telecommunications. For more information, please e-mail to 'administrator@newsbytes.com' ------------------------------------------------------------------------ CATEGORY HEADLINES (*** indicates today's top stories) STORY # ======================================================================== BROADCAST ****Ameritech's First Cable TV Franchise.................. 02 BROADCAST Time Warner Forms Interactive Shopping Unit................ 24 BUSINESS TFP Software Opens For Business In Europe.................. 04 BUSINESS Australia - Acquisition Creates Top Component Distrib...... 19 GENERAL AER Ships All-Day Zinc-Air Battery......................... 13 GENERAL Toshiba's US Multimedia Research Center.................... 16 GENERAL Sticky Envelopes Let Disks Co-exist In Paper-based Systems. 20 GENERAL Tektronix Intros New Color Printers........................ 25 IBM IBM Digital Library Adds Musical Content From EMI.......... 11 LEGAL ****BSA Wins Landmark China Copyright Case................ 06 ONLINE Singapore Internet Market Heats Up......................... 09 ONLINE Internet Update............................................ 14 ONLINE ****Prodigy's Personal Web Pages Available Today.......... 17 ONLINE 12 Year-Old Flyer To Keep In Touch Via Compuserve.......... 26 ONLINE ****More Banks Offer Microsoft Money Online Banking....... 28 ONLINE VNU's UK Operation Plugs Into The Internet................. 29 ONLINE Discovery Channel Online Opens July 1...................... 31 PC NEC PC-9800 Shipments Reach 10 Million..................... 15 PC ****Osborne - Australia's Largest PC Maker May Be Finished 18 TELECOM UK Goes Totally Electronic With Phone Exchanges............ 10 TELECOM NorTel Launches Wireless Phones In US...................... 21 TELECOM Czech Republic - SPT Stake Sold To Telesource Consortium... 27 TRENDS Blue Lasers, LEDs Promises Doubling Of CD-ROM Capacity..... 01 TRENDS China - Video Gambling Machines Condemned.................. 03 TRENDS Austin Due For Massive Home-Utility Info Network........... 07 TRENDS IBM, Teleport To Offer Teleconferencing Rental Suites...... 23 WINDOWS C-Dilla Unveils Secure Encryption For CD-ROMs.............. 05 WINDOWS Microsoft Claims Victory Over OS/2 Warp In China Deal...... 08 WINDOWS Lotus Plan For Moving To Windows 95 And OS/2 Apps.......... 12 WINDOWS UK - Microcom Unveils Carbon Copy 3.0...................... 22 WINDOWS Metasolv Multimedia App Builder............................ 30 ======================================================================== These are the headlines and first paragraphs of each story, in order: 1 -> Blue Lasers, LEDs Promises Doubling Of CD-ROM Capacity -- A new consortium of computer industry leaders have received $4 million dollars from the Advanced Research Projects Agency to develop blue semiconductor lasers and light emitting diodes. Blue light laser technology is said to be the next major leap forward in CD-ROM storage technology. 2 -> ****Ameritech's First Cable TV Franchise -- Ameritech Corp. (NYSE:AIT) said it has secured its first cable TV franchise agreement with the Plymouth Township (MI) board of trustees in suburban Detroit. With the agreement, cable subscribers in the affluent suburb will be among the first in the country to have their local phone company also provide cable TV services. 3 -> China - Video Gambling Machines Condemned -- Chinese media recently condemned (computerized) gambling machines for devouring money, affecting the mental health of children, and destroying families. 4 -> TFP Software Opens For Business In Europe -- TFP Software, the US TCP/IP (Transmission Control Protocol/Interface Protocol) software specialist, has opened three offices in Europe, in France, Germany and the UK. 5 -> C-Dilla Unveils Secure Encryption For CD-ROMs -- C-Dilla has unveiled a new type of data encryption for publishers of CD-ROM discs. Known as CD-Secure, the package overlays any Windows application that reads data from a CD-ROM disk. 6 -> ****BSA Wins Landmark China Copyright Case -- In what is believed to be the largest settlement of its kind in China to date, the Business Software Alliance (BSA) has successfully concluded its action against a Chinese computer company for illegally reproducing and selling copyrighted software products. 7 -> Austin Due For Massive Home-Utility Info Network -- Central and South West Corp.'s communications subsidiary CSW Communications has made a proposal to build an advanced information network for the city of Austin, Texas, serving the city's municipal utility with a customer base of 298,000. It would be the first venture of its kind in the US to link all the citizens of a major municipality into a two-way information corridor, according to CSW. 8 -> Microsoft Claims Victory Over OS/2 Warp In China Deal -- Microsoft has claimed a major victory over IBM in the battle of the operating systems, after the signing of an agreement with Legend Holdings, under which China's largest PC manufacturer and distributor will install the Windows 95 operating system on all its PCs. 9 -> Singapore Internet Market Heats Up -- A multi-tiered fight has developed for domination of Singapore's Internet access. Currently there are two officially licensed gateways, Singnet and Technet, while the Telecommunication Authority of Singapore has promised a third local provider will be allowed later this year. 10 -> UK Goes Totally Electronic With Phone Exchanges -- As of today, subscribers to British Telecom (BT) phone services in the UK now pay for their phone calls by the second, rather than the old unit charging system which dates from the days of electro-mechanical exchanges. 11 -> IBM Digital Library Adds Musical Content From EMI -- A newly inked deal between IBM development partner MARS and EMI Music Publishing will streamline the process of obtaining pre-recorded "library music" for TV, films, and business-to-business presentations, predicted John Prial, manager of market development for the IBM Digital Library, in an interview with Newsbytes. 12 -> Lotus Plan For Moving To Windows 95 And OS/2 Apps -- Lotus' newly announced Buyer's Assurance Plan is aimed at giving users of Lotus' Windows-based desktop applications an extra cushion of time in moving to Windows 95 and OS/2 editions of the products, explained Kathleen Hayner, marketing manager, in an interview with Newsbytes. 13 -> AER Ships All-Day Zinc-Air Battery -- AER Energy Resources Inc. (NASDAQ: AERN) is now shipping a rechargable zinc-air battery designed for several models of Toshiba portable computers and said the battery will operate the units for up to 15 continuous hours between charges. 14 -> Internet Update -- In this update of new resources and services on the Internet: latest on the Shuttle mission; network construction hints; NetMind's email Web update service; Hong Kong stock report moves; Australian conference details; Web search tool updated; Web3 Web design magazine; Internet resources newsletter. 15 -> NEC PC-9800 Shipments Reach 10 Million -- Ask someone outside Japan what the most popular personal computer in the Asian country is and they would more than likely answer an IBM compatible or Apple Macintosh but if they did, they would be wrong. With more than a 50% market share, the leader is NEC's (TOKYO:6701) PC-9800 system which has just passed the 10 million units shipped mark. 16 -> Toshiba's US Multimedia Research Center -- Toshiba America, Inc. has announced the establishment of the Advanced Information Technology Center (AITC) in San Jose, California. The center will carry out research and development work on a range of projects and applications related to multimedia and the new Super Density Disc. 17 -> ****Prodigy's Personal Web Pages Available Today -- Starting today, Prodigy members are able to create personal World Wide Web (Web) pages. Built upon a system of templates, Prodigy's Windows Web publishing tools frees users from the need to know special programming or computer language skills. 18 -> ****Osborne - Australia's Largest PC Maker May Be Finished -- Osborne is Australia's largest PC manufacturer, selling about as many machines as Compaq and Apple Computer. Yesterday a receiver was appointed to the company, and it remains to be seen if the company is finished or can trade out of its serious financial problems. 19 -> Australia - Acquisition Creates Top Component Distrib -- Effective tomorrow, June 30, VSI Electronics Australia will be bought 100 percent by US-based electronics component distributor Avnet Inc., creating Australia's largest distributor of electronic components. 20 -> Sticky Envelopes Let Disks Co-exist In Paper-based Systems -- Once upon a time futurists believed the paperless office would be commonplace by the year 2000. Today even people who produce the imaging systems that would make that dream a reality admit it may never happen, but a Florida company has introduced a way to let the paperless and paper-centric worlds co-exist. 21 -> NorTel Launches Wireless Phones In US -- Northern Telecom Ltd. (TSE:NTL;NYSE:NT) has brought to the United States a wireless telephone system that it has already been selling in a number of other countries. The Companion system uses the 1910-to- 1930-megahertz (MHz) portion of the radio spectrum, which the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) recently assigned to unlicensed personal communications services. 22 -> UK - Microcom Unveils Carbon Copy 3.0 -- Microcom took the wraps off Carbon Copy for Windows 3.0 (CCW 3.0), the latest major update of its remote access and control software, at the Networks '95 computer trade show in Birmingham, England. 23 -> IBM, Teleport To Offer Teleconferencing Rental Suites -- IBM (NYSE:IBM) and startup TelePort Corp. have announced plans for a network of TeleSuites across the United States. The suites will offer videoconferencing services in a more natural setting than usually found today. 24 -> Time Warner Forms Interactive Shopping Unit -- Time Warner (NYSE:TWX) Cable Programming has created the Digital Marketing Group (DMG) to develop, produce, and distribute interactive and other services for a variety of electronic media, including cable TV. 25 -> Tektronix Intros New Color Printers -- Tektronix Inc., (NYSE: TEK) has introduced two new color printers, one a laser system and the other a thermal transfer system. 26 -> 12 Year-Old Flyer To Keep In Touch Via Compuserve -- Vanessa Pereira, a twelve year-old girl from Los Angeles, flies from a Santa Monica, California airstrip today to deliver her educational message to kids and parents. Sponsored by CompuServe and the Rotary Club, Vanessa's two month, US tour will stop in 48 contiguous states and she will participate in an online conference on Compuserve. 27 -> Czech Republic - SPT Stake Sold To Telesource Consortium -- After months of posturing, tendering and management changes, the Czech Government has announced that Telesource, a consortium of PTT Netherlands and Swiss Telecom, will take a 27 percent stake in SPT Telecom, the Czech state telco. 28 -> ****More Banks Offer Microsoft Money Online Banking -- Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ: (MSFT) has teamed with a North Carolina bank to offer online banking and bill paying using the software company's Microsoft Money personal finance software. Centura Bank (NYSE: CBC) customers will be able to use Money for Windows 95 this fall, when that upgraded product ships, to automatically download their current bank account information into their personal computers, pay their bills, balance accounts and transfer money electronically without leaving their home or office. 29 -> VNU's UK Operation Plugs Into The Internet -- VNU Business Publications, the UK subsidiary of VNU of the Netherlands, will unveil its new World Wide Web site at http: www.vnu.co.uk at the Networks '95 computer trade show in Birmingham, England. 30 -> Metasolv Multimedia App Builder -- MetaSolv Software Inc., is shipping Multimedia Objects for PowerBuilder, an addition to its PowerFrame product line. Multimedia Objects for PowerBuilder is a suite of reusable class libraries, custom objects and utilities for Powerbuilder. 31 -> Discovery Channel Online Opens July 1 -- Discovery Channel Online, a World Wide Web (Web) service from Discovery Communications, previews July 1, 1995. Fans of the cable television channels, The Discovery Channel and The Learning Channel, will find a new venue for the educational and informative material common to the shows. (Wendy Woods/19950629) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 06/28/95 GENERAL Japan Newsbriefs (NEWS)(GENERAL)(TYO)(00001) Japan Newsbriefs 06/28/95 TOKYO, JAPAN, 1995 JUN 28 (NB) -- Sanyo shows 3D television; May cellular subscriptions fall; Matsushita to produce Mini Discs; Cable cooperation reported. Sanyo Shows 3D Television Sanyo Electric (TOKYO:6764) has shown prototypes of new television sets that allow viewers to see three-dimensional images. The new sets, available next month only in Japan, will enable viewing of 3D images with the aid of special sets of glasses. The glasses are powered from their own batteries and must be connected to a suitably equipped TV set to work. The units feature a switch to turn the 3D system off to enable normal viewing. May Cellular Subscriptions Fall Ahead of competition from cheaper PHS telephones which become available in Tokyo and Sapporo this weekend, subscriptions to cellular telephone services fell in May. Total new subscriptions numbered 275,400 of which 118,000 were with the nine companies of the NTT DoCoMo group. DDI Corp's cellular division counted 61,800 new subscribers, an unchanged figure from the previous month; DoCoMo saw a 21,000-subscriber decline. Matsushita To Produce Mini-Discs Matsushita Electrical Industry is to begin manufacturing players for Sony's Mini Disc system. The company already produces units compatible with the Philips-backed digital compact cassette (DCC). Sales of both systems have been sluggish with reports suggesting the Sony system has been outselling DCC two to one. Cable Cooperation Reported The Yomiuri Shimbun has reported that two of Japan's largest players in the cable TV market are to cooperate on establishing a common transmission system, thus enabling common set-top receiver/decoder boxes to be used. The newspaper added that Sumitomo Corporation and Itochu Corporation have also been considering interconnection of their networks when new cable telephone services start. The interconnection would also enable the two to pool resources and jointly produce local cable news channels. (Martyn Williams/19950628) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 06/28/95 ONLINE Conducting Public Relations In Cyberspace (NEWS)(ONLINE)(MSP)(00002) Conducting Public Relations In Cyberspace 06/28/95 NEW YORK CITY, NEW YORK, U.S.A., 1995 JUN 28 (NB) -- Public relations (PR) professionals will be able to use the Internet to its fullest potential, Gary A. Bolles, editorial director of "Interactive Week," told an online audience on CompuServe's PR & Marketing Forum. Bolles, who is a ten-year veteran of communications of networking, told the audience that even though the Internet has great potential for PR people, "I think that far too many marketers are simply mapping their behavior from traditional conduits directly into online." Bolles had some words for businesses interested in setting up World Wide Web sites for PR. "You basically have two choices," he typed. "You can just slap something up online, as many do. Or you can really work with the client to identify exactly why they're interested in using the Net." He said if clients don't have a good business reason for being in cyberspace, or if they don't know their online constituency, they shouldn't be there in the first place. Typical news releases can be reworked for online, and especially Web purposes, Bolles said. He said news releases should be "atomic," which means they should be broken down into different levels of information. "You can have a title, which leads to a precis, which leads to full text," he said. "Each major name can be linked to a bio on the person, as well as background product information." As far as good World Wide Web sites in general go, Gary said he looks for a variety of things -- "depth, matched design to the purpose of the site, and 'alternate presentations of information,' rethinking how information is presented for different constituencies." Bolles also revealed that Interactive Week will be redesigning its own Web site. "As far as topics, we're very interested in real-world examples of companies using interactive technologies. That's an area you'll see more editorial from us in the future." PR Newswire, an electronic distributor of news releases to the media and the financial community, sponsored the Tuesday night online discussion. (Bob Woods/19950627/Press Contacts: Michelle Kaufman, Internet e-mail mkaufman@prnews.attmail.com, or Susan McPherson, Internet e-mail smcphers@prnewsattmail.com, both at 800-321-8169, for PR Newswire. Public Contact: PR Newswire, Internet World Wide Web, http://www.prnewswire.com ) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 06/28/95 NETWORK UK - Spider Systems Unveils PPP/Novell-Compatible ISDN (NEWS)(NETWORK)(LON)(00003) UK - Spider Systems Unveils PPP/Novell-Compatible ISDN 06/28/95 EDINBURGH, SCOTLAND, 1995 JUN 28 (NB) -- Spider Systems, the networking subsidiary of Shiva in the US, has announced version 2.0 of SpiderIntegrator Connect, an ISDN (integrated services digital network) box that interfaces between a TCP/IP (Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol) link and an ISDN circuit. Version 2.0 of the unit adds support for PPP and Novell NetWare to the mix, meaning that the box can interface between ISDN and NetWare, as well as PPP transmission links. Until the arrival of this latest version of the SpiderIntegrator Connect, users have tended to use the device as a simple interface between their Unix hosts on the Internet, linking to their Internet service provider via the ISDN channels. According to Paul Gowans, SpiderIntegrator Connect's product manager, the release of the new unit means that individual users can now have easy ISDN access into the central corporate LAN (local area network) at a price that's affordable. So who will use the system box? According to Spider, the unit is designed for the remote office worker or teleworker who requires on demand or ad-hoc access to the office LAN with a near-instant connection and rapid data transfers. ISDN offers these facilities, where a conventional analog modem is slower and takes time to handshake. Gowans explained that the company's philosophy is to bring to the market, network access products that offer users "viable solutions at a price that can be easily justified. "With ISDN becoming widely accepted across Europe for WAN (wide area network) connections, it is important to offer connections from a remote PC, so users can use their standard LAN based applications. We believe that no other vendor can offer comparable remote network access solutions," he said. Pricing on the SpiderIntegrator Connect 2.0 will be announced at the Networks '95 computer/technology show, which opens in Birmingham, England, next week. According to Spider, pricing is expected to be extremely competitive. (Steve Gold/19950623/Press Contact: Fiona Dineen, MCC +44-1420-542598; Reader Contact: Spider Systems +44-1734-774747) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 06/28/95 GENERAL UK - Mannesmann Tally's Portable Bubblejet Printer (NEWS)(GENERAL)(LON)(00004) UK - Mannesmann Tally's Portable Bubblejet Printer 06/28/95 READING, BERKSHIRE, ENGLAND, 1995 JUN 28 (NB) -- Trying to compete with Canon in the bubblejet market, Mannesmann Tally (MT) has unveiled the T7010, a sub-1.5-kilo portable bubblejet printer that sells for UKP 245, and slips into a briefcase. According to Dave Josephs, a spokesman for MT, the unit has a footprint of just 30 centimeters (cm) by 13cm, and is six cm high. These dimensions, Newsbytes notes, make the printer far smaller than a typical portable PC. Despite its diminutive size, the T7010 comes with an integrated sheet feeder that the company claims is capable of handling up to 15 sheets of normal office paper. In use, the printer can print out text and graphics in both portrait and landscape mode. Like the rest of the MT bubblejet family, TrueType fonts can be added to the printer when it is operating with a PC running MS-Windows 3.x. Interestingly, MT is shipping the T7010 with a new type of print head, a disposable unit that the company claims can print out up to 200 pages before requiring replacement. Running costs can be reduced by up to 15 percent when the printer's native inksave mode is selected. The printer is powered by either 10 standard "AA" batteries, a Nicad battery pack, or a nickel metal hydride battery pack for extended power periods. Both the latter can be recharged while in use using the standard power adapter. When removed, however, the batteries can be slotted into an optional fast charge unit. The T7010 will be available across Europe starting next month. The release of the printer follows in the wake of the color T7040's launch earlier this year. (Steve Gold/19950623/Press Contact: Citigate Technology +44-1604- 232223; Reader Contact: Mannesmman Tally +44-1734-788711) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 06/28/95 WINDOWS Germany - Beame & Whiteside's Windows Web Server (NEWS)(WINDOWS)(LON)(00005) Germany - Beame & Whiteside's Windows Web Server 06/28/95 FRANKFURT, GERMANY, 1995 JUN 28 (NB) -- Beame & Whiteside has launched a new range of Windows applications software aimed at information providers on the Internet. Central to the applications is a Windows Web server package that includes a complete set of HTML (HyperText Markup Language) authoring tools. According to company officials, the Web package has been designed to integrate with Beame & Whiteside's NFS (Network File Server) software, which comes bundled with the application. The idea behind this is that users can now add World Wide Web support to any protocol stack. Patrick von Schlag, the company's product line manager, explained that the "Web Solution for NFS" package will be for useful for single users of Internet, as well as for major corporations. He cites the growing number of Internet users who are looking to publish their own information on the Web, quickly and easily, under a Windows environment. "The World Wide Web is seeing explosive growth, not only among Internet users but for corporate users as well. Network administrators have come to recognize the power of the Web for disseminating information to large group users," he said. According to von Schlag, although there is a lot of public domain Web software, Beame & Whiteside "wanted to be the first to offer Windows users an off-the-shelf, commercially supported Web server, complete with a user-friendly, icon-driven WYSIWYG (what you see is what you get) word processor." "Now anyone can create HTML-supported documents and post them as Web pages," he said. Beame & Whiteside's World Wide Web server package is claimed to run over any WINSOCK-compliant TCP/IP (Transmission Control Protocol) third-party protocol stack for Windows. The package will also support any Window-based WWW client application, such as NetScape or Mosaic. According to the company, integrated WWW services allow the user to make information available in a standardized format without any extra sessions or commands. The Web Server package comes with an HTML Edit word processor. According to the company, the HTML Edit software allows users to embed pointers in their documents that reference other Internet sites. All the HLR (Home Location Register) resources are automatically verified for integrity as they are entered and loaded. NFS Solutions for Windows is being marketed globally by Beame & Whiteside, with local country pricing applying. (Sylvia Dennis/19950623/Press & Reader Contact: Beame & Whiteside US 919/831-8989; Fax 919/831/8990) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 06/28/95 BUSINESS Germany's Pavone Opens UK Operations Office (NEWS)(BUSINESS)(LON)(00006) Germany's Pavone Opens UK Operations Office 06/28/95 RICHMOND, NORTH YORKSHIRE, ENGLAND, 1995 JUN 28 (NB) -- Pavone Informationssysteme has announced the formation of its British subsidiary. According to the German software integration company, Pavone Groupware will be headed up by Frank Iveson, former managing director of Lotus UK, and will provide groupware software for Lotus Notes users throughout the UK. Pavone was set up last year by Professor Dr Ludwig Nastansky, a respected authority on the use of information and communication technologies within corporations. Based in Paderborn, Germany, the company's core business lies in the development of tools for Notes- based applications and business process re-engineering (BPR). Currently, Pavone's product line is led by two groupware products -- GroupProject and GroupFlow. According to the company, Pavone GroupProject provides an enhanced project management facility to the Lotus Notes environment, providing links to CA-SuperProject and a visual development environment for project design. Pavone GroupFlow, meanwhile, is an graphical, object-oriented suite for the modelling, analyzing and simulation of workflow within an organization. According to Iveson, who assumes the role of managing director of the UK operation, the days of paper-based management techniques are over. "If companies wish to survive in the current economic climate they will have to learn to make the best of the resources available," he said. "GroupFlow and GroupProject are two products which will not only keep corporates profitable but also give them a competitive advantage to drive home," he added. At Pavone Informationssysteme, Professor Ludwig Nastansky said that he "is confident that Frank's experience will be invaluable to us." "Very few people in the UK are as Notes-literate as Iveson. This combined with Frank's experience of sales and the UK channel should springboard the group into our next phase of expansion," he said. (Sylvia Dennis/19950622/Press Contact: Keene Communications +44-171- 439-7227: Pavone Informationssysteme +49-5251-52430; Fax +49- 5251524311; Reader Contact: Pavone Groupware +1748-811527) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 06/28/95 TELECOM China To South Korea Underwater Optic Cable (NEWS)(TELECOM)(PEK)(00007) China To South Korea Underwater Optic Cable 06/28/95 BEIJING, CHINA, 1995 JUN 28 (NB) -- The undersea optical cable from South Korea to China was landed in Qingdao, Shangdong province this month and will be in operation by the end of this year. Following the connection of a China-Japan undersea optical cable in 1993, the China-Korea cable is the second of this kind for China. Development of the advanced cable system was jointly funded by Telecommunications Bureau under the Chinese Ministry of Posts and Korea Telecommunications. The total investment was US$47 million. At Korea's side, the cabling project began on April 25 of this year. The underwater length of the cable is 550 kilometers (742 miles). With two systems each in transmission capacity of 560 Mb/sec, the initial total capacity will be 2 x 7560 digital lines. According to a source from the Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications, the cable system will be put into operation before the end of 1995. Installation of the equipment for the cable system operation is almost complete and tests are being performed, the source said. The China-Korea undersea cable system will be important not only for China's telecommunications but also for telecommunications through the Pacific. Forty-six percent of the cable capacity has been reserved for 13 foreign telecom firms. (Chih-Ho Yu & Ning Huang/19950621/Reader contact: Telecommunications Bureau, Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications, tel +86-10 601-1235) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 06/28/95 GOVT China - Joint Effort To Attack Computer Smuggling (NEWS)(GOVT)(PEK)(00008) China - Joint Effort To Attack Computer Smuggling 06/28/95 BEIJING, CHINA, 1995 JUN 28 (NB) -- China Customs and the Ministry of Electronics Industry (MEI) have agreed to cooperate in a crackdown on computer smuggling. It is estimated that among 718,000 computers sold in China last year, about 60 percent were contraband, based on an MEI report. "The contraband has been severely pounding China's national computers industry, making the products' domestic market disorderly," an official with MEI said. To hold back the rising tide of smuggled computers and related products, the General Administration of Customs (GAC) and MEI will provide each other with timely reports on policy, supply/demand, and prices of computers and computer-related products for both the overseas and domestic markets. The MEI will also provide information about smuggling investigations to GAC and suggest anti-smuggling measures to be taken by the customs authorities. GAC will feed export and import records of computers and related products back to MEI. Analyses of the exchanged information will possibly reveal irregularities and then anti-smuggling action can be taken, the GAC official said. In addition, the two government agencies will join forces to look into some of the country's major smuggling cases and discuss tactics to be taken. (Chih-Ho Yu & Ning Huang/19950621/Reader contact: General Administration of Customs, tel +86-10 512-6040; Ministry of Electronics Industry, tel +86-10 821-2233) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 06/28/95 GOVT China - Japanese Funds For State Economic Information Network (NEWS)(GOVT)(PEK)(00009) China - Japanese Funds For State Economic Information Network 06/28/95 BEIJING, CHINA, 1995 JUN 28 (NB) -- More than 20 billion Japanese yen (US$235 million) will be used to finance the development of China's State Economic Information Network System, the State Planning Commission says. Under an agreement signed recently in Beijing, the Overseas Economic Cooperation Fund of Japan will provide a total of 20.295 billion yen in the form of long-term and low-interest loans, for the Chinese economic information network. The Chinese government plans to pump an additional RMB635 million (US$76.6 million) into the project, the State Planning Commission says. The system, to be completed in 1998, will be an information network covering 21 provinces, municipalities, and autonomous regions, and 20 ministries. It will enhance the collection, processing, dissemination, and exchange of economic information, and help monitor the progress of the national economy. The network system will help the government departments formulate economic policy and strengthen economic regulations, officials said. (Chih-Ho Yu & Ning Huang/19950620) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 06/28/95 NETWORK NSC Router With Firewall, Data Encryption (NEWS)(NETWORK)(DEN)(00010) NSC Router With Firewall, Data Encryption 06/28/95 MINNEAPOLIS, MINNESOTA, U.S.A., 1995 JUN 28 (NB) -- Network Systems Corp., a wholly owned subsidiary of Storage Technology Corp. (NYSE: STK), has introduced a branch office router equipped with both firewall and data encryption protection. Network Systems Corp. (NSC) said the new product, called BorderGuard, is the industry's first branch office router that provides both firewall routing and support for secure communications across the Internet and other private or public-access IP (Internet Protocol) networks. The company said if the user already has another vendor's router installed, BorderGuard will work with that system to provide firewalling and encryption between the installed router and the private or public network without degrading performance. BorderGuard is the last of NSC's "Secure Networks on Demand" product line, a set of products designed to offer security at the hardware and software levels across the enterprise and the Internet. The company also produces the Security Router for use at the departmental level and the Enterprise Routing Switch for backbone applications. The term "firewall" is a relatively new entry in the lexicon of computer terms. It refers to hardware and/or software-based protection of a user's network from unauthorized intrusion via an outside source, such as the Internet. NSC said Borderguard's firewall routing software provides traffic control to keep potentially harmful data from spreading throughout the network, restricts access to certain hosts and allows for the logical segmentation of users into closed workgroups not reachable by outsiders. The company said the software also optimizes network efficiency by preventing unnecessary data from entering the network, eliminating broadcast "storms" between networks and improving the ability to monitor and control network conditions. BorderGuard incorporates NSC's Data Privacy Facility (DPF) encryption software. DPF encrypts data packet-by-packet. The public/private key exchange utilizes both RSA and Diffie-Hellman algorithms. BorderGuard has one interface dedicated to a single auto-sensing Ethernet and one, two or three interfaces of wide area network (WAN) links. The company said a basic rate ISDN (integrated services digital network) interface will be available later this year, and a second LAN interface option, either Token Ring or Ethernet, will be offered in early 1996. The standard four megabytes (MB) of dynamic random access memory (DRAM) and 2MB of flash memory can both be doubled. Configuration of BorderGuard is done through a Windows-based interface, and it can be configured from a remote location via modem. BorderGuard with one Ethernet and one WAN interface is priced at $1,700 including the pre-loaded software. With two WAN interfaces the price is $2,000 and 3 WAN interfaces carries a $2,300 price tag. Support for data encryption, when it becomes available in the third quarter, will be priced at $500 per unit. (Jim Mallory/19950628/Press contact: Paul Payack, NSC, 612-424-1555; Public contact: NSC, tel 800-900-0672 or 612-424-4888 or on the Internet at URL http://www.network.com ) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 06/28/95 APPLE StarNine Technologies Intros Low-Cost Mac Listserver (NEWS)(APPLE)(LAX)(00011) StarNine Technologies Intros Low-Cost Mac Listserver 06/28/95 BERKELEY, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1995 JUN 28 (NB) -- StarNine Technologies has begun shipping Liststar, an automated e-mail processor for the Macintosh. With Liststar users can create listservers and e-mail on-demand systems directly on their Macintosh, eliminating the need for larger Unix systems. Naomi Pearce, a spokesperson for StarNine, told Newsbytes, "Up until now you needed a very complicated and expensive Unix system to really put together a good listserver. Now anybody can resurrect an old Mac Plus and with Liststar have quality listserver capabilities." "Liststar's listserver function," according to Pearce, "enables e-mail discussion groups and distribution of information via centrally managed lists. Listservers also enable external communications such as on-line focus groups and project discussions on the Internet." "Liststar's e-mail on demand can be used to distribute information. Similar to fax on demand systems, companies can use e-mail on demand systems to provide information to customers," Pearce said. "E-mail on demand is like fax on demand, instead of demanding information via fax, a customer would use e-mail. An e-mail on demand system uses rules to automatically reply to requesters with data formatted either as simple text messages or as binary attachments. Liststar is used to create menus of available information and help messages as well as provide the actual content," Pearce said. "Liststar is a powerful mass communications tool that lets you publish any kind of information via e-mail to highly targeted groups," said Tom Biddulph, founder of StarNine. "Listserver mailing lists and e-mail on demand are among the easiest ways to collaborate, discuss ideas, and reach new markets on the Internet." Through July 31, 1995, Liststar for either QuickMail, Microsoft Mail or POP3 is available directly from StarNine for $199. StarNine can be reached by calling 1-800-525-2580. The basic requirements for any Macintosh to become a listserver and e-mail on demand site is System 7, with a minimum of 4 megabytes of RAM. StarNine Technologies, Inc. is a privately held corporation located in Berkeley, California. (Richard Bowers/19950623/Press Contact: Naomi Pearce, StarNine Technologies, Inc. 510/528-0824) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 06/28/95 ONLINE Unisys to Repeat Near Real-Time Golf Scoring Updates (NEWS)(ONLINE)(MSP)(00012) Unisys to Repeat Near Real-Time Golf Scoring Updates 06/28/95 BLUE BELL, PENNSYLVANIA, U.S.A., 1995 JUN 28 (NB) -- The ping sound of metal to golf ball can't be heard in cyberspace. But Unisys, along with the US Golf Association (USGA), is making sure Internet users can keep up with USGA events by providing near real-time updates directly from the links. Unisys said it will provide Internet coverage and onsite scoring systems for the 16th US Senior Open Golf Championship, held June 29 through July 2 at the Congressional Country Club in Bethesda, Maryland. Already, Unisys brings experience in covering the Senior Open. Earlier this month, similar coverage was provided from the US Open Championship. The company said this was the first time for any major golf championship, and probably any major sporting event, that scores were recorded on the Internet almost as quickly as they changed. The onsite scoring system provides real-time information to officials, the media, players, spectators, tournament information services, and corporate clients. Now, Unisys is providing that information to the Internet's World Wide Web. "A lot of sites may make changes by hand every couple of hours," Mike Heck, manager of electronic promotions, told Newsbytes. "But we view technology as pulling all of the pieces together to get the end result for clients. We think this is the way to push for the Internet." That strategy seemed to work for the company's US Open coverage. Users accessed the service more than 250,000 times, with a peak rate of 14,000 inquiries an hour. Heck said sites that specialize in sports content probably get more users than the Unisys site, yet he said he was very pleased with the numbers his site attracted. "We're always looking to prove we're able to put the technology together," Heck said. "You think of us more as a hardware manufacturer, but we're trying to get away from that. Our new catch phrase is 'information management.'" The company is providing coverage of all three USGA events, Heck said. With the regular tour already done and the seniors coming up this week, the only group left is the ladies. And Unisys said it will provide coverage of the U.S. Women's Open Championship, held July 13-16. The Unisys homepage can be found at URL (uniform resource locator) http://www.unisys.com (Bob Woods/19950626/Press Contact: Pete Cavanaugh, Unisys, 215-986- 7884, Internet e-mail cavanaug@po7.bb.unisys.com. Public Contact: Internet World Wide Web, http://www.unisys.com ) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 06/28/95 BROADCAST DEC Teams With Sybase On Mediaplex Video Servers (NEWS)(BROADCAST)(BOS)(00013) DEC Teams With Sybase On Mediaplex Video Servers 06/28/95 MAYNARD, MASSACHUSETTS, U.S.A., 1995 JUN 28 (NB) -- Sybase has joined Oracle among the RDBMS (relational database management systems) being employed with Digital Equipment Corp.'s Mediaplex video servers, said Roger Horine, marketing manager for Digital's Video and Interactive Information Services, in an interview with Newsbytes. Under a non-exclusive deal, Sybase's RDBMS will be interfaced to Digital's Mediaplex video servers for ITV (interactive television) services by 1996, according to Horine. Digital and Sybase have also agreed to collaborate on a "new generation" of stand-alone, low-cost multimedia production systems for ITV, he said. Digital had previously arrived at a similar pact with Oracle, Newsbytes was told. "The primary contribution of Sybase and Oracle is to manage the user interface, and to attach users to the `content assets' they require. Their layers of software are married with our layers of middleware to move those assets in a distributed network environment," reported Horine. "Content assets" can include digitized movies, games, and home shopping applications, according to the marketing manager. Users enter their requests for "content assets" through the RDBMS front end. The RDBMS also works together with Digital's middleware "to ensure that the requests are handled quickly and accurately, and that everything proceeds smoothly with updating other systems that need to be updated, such as billing systems," he explained. Digital's server for ITV applications was originally referred to simply as a "video server," noted Horine. Digital then changed the name to "media server." Now, with the recent adoption of the trademark "Mediaplex" as an "umbrella" term for Digital's larger ITV line, Digital has returned to calling the Alpha-based system a "video server." Digital's Mediaplex video server also incorporates an object- oriented database from Digital for storing information such as video and audio. The selection of Oracle and Sybase as RDBMS partners for Mediaplex is "very much customer driven," added the Digital exec. (Jacqueline Emigh/19950627/Reader Contact: Digital Equipment Corporation, 508-493-5111; Press Contact: The Weber Group for DEC, 661-7900) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 06/28/95 IBM IBM Adds AS/400 Wireless LAN Bridge, PCMCIA Card (NEWS)(IBM)(BOS)(00014) IBM Adds AS/400 Wireless LAN Bridge, PCMCIA Card 06/28/95 WHITE PLAINS, NEW YORK, U.S.A., 1995 JUN 28 (NB) -- A newly unveiled "second wave" of wireless products for IBM's AS/400 adds PCMCIA access, Ethernet LAN (local area network) bridging, and greater point-to-point connectivity to a first round of offerings rolled out last spring, said Frank Tutone, program manager, in an interview with Newsbytes. IBM's latest wireless LAN products for the AS/400 midrange system include the LAN PCMCIA Adapter, the Ethernet LAN (local area network) Bridge Access Point, the Yagi Antenna, and the Lightning Arrester, Tutone told Newsbytes. Last May, he noted, IBM announced its first wireless LAN products for AS/400. The initial slate included a wireless adapter for the AS/400 host, "portable transaction computers" (PTCs), and repeaters, along with Micro Channel and ISA (Industry Standard Architecture) Ethernet LAN adapters for non-PCMCIA desktop and portable PCs. Tutone described IBM's portable transaction computers as a set of "handheld AS/400 computers" dedicated to data entry applications such as inventory and distribution. "Hertz, for example, uses the handheld PTCs to allow their personnel to key in (auto) return information and print out receipts from outside the building, in the parking lot," he illustrated. The portable transaction computers use a series of repeaters for point-to-point communications with the AS/400 host. IBM's Micro Channel, EISA, and new PCMCIA adapters, on the other hand, allow for the creation of a wireless Ethernet PC LAN, with or without AS/400 host connectivity, according to the program manager. The new Ethernet Bridge Access Point is designed to link the wireless LAN to either another wireless Ethernet LAN, or to a wired Ethernet, Tutone added. Operating in the 2.4 to 2.4835 gigahertz (GHz) frequency range, the wireless LAN products use spread spectrum technology to prevent interference from other RF sources. Cellular roaming is another capability. "You can walk from one cell to another without losing connectivity," he maintained. The wireless LAN products support raw bit data transfer rates of up to 2 megabits-per-second (Mbps), according to the IBM exec. IBM's new Yagi Antenna extends the range of point-to-point wireless connectivity to up to three miles in line-of-sight range, Tutone contended. The new Lightning Arrester is designed to be connected "in series" with the Yagi Antenna and antenna cable to protect against radio damage by suppressing electrical surges. In the future, IBM's AS/400 Division plans to add products for Token Ring wireless LAN connectivity, he said. (Jacqueline Emigh/19950627/Reader Contact: IBM, 914-765-1900; Press Contact: Gary Baker or Rachel Postlethwaite, Technology Solutions for IBM, 212-696-2000) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 06/28/95 APPLE Apple To Ship New QuickTime For Windows This Fall (NEWS)(APPLE)(SFO)(00015) Apple To Ship New QuickTime For Windows This Fall 06/28/95 CUPERTINO, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A, 1995 JUN 28 (NB) -- Apple Computer (NASDAQ:AAPL) says it will ship a new version of QuickTime for Windows this fall. Version 2.1 will take full advantage of 32-bit operating systems such as Windows 95 and Windows NT. Along with the 32-bit support QuickTime for Windows 2.1 includes direct-to-hardware graphics support, a new installer and a new control panel. It will continue to support 16-bit operating systems such as Windows 3.1. A spokesperson for the company told Newsbytes, "This new version of QuickTime software means consumers using Windows 95 will be able to enjoy all of the QuickTime titles on the market today. At the same time, it means QuickTime developers will continue to develop titles on a Mac and be assured their titles will be available to multiple platforms without having to rewrite for each platform. This announcement simply increases the audience available to QuickTime developers." The 2.1 version may be licensed by developers free of charge for redistribution with applications, titles and media clip libraries which support QuickTime. The run-time version is expected to be available through Ziffnet for $9.95 when 2.1 ships in the fall. Interested parties may also find 2.1 at http://quicktime.apple.com on QuickTime Online, part of Apple's World Wide Web server. Apple has quoted a Dataquest study which says 63% of developers use Macintosh computers to create multimedia content. QuickTime's ability to port to and play easily on multiple platforms has allows the QuickTime format to become widely used and accepted. The ability to play on Window 95 is extremely important for companies with cross- platform CD-ROM titles. Apple is still in litigation with The San Francisco Canyon Company, Intel, and Microsoft over an earlier version of QuickTime for Windows. Apple contends the Canyon Company, after working on earlier versions of QuickTime for Windows gave the code to Intel who gave it to Microsoft. The code was found posted in CompuServe by a Microsoft employee. Canyon claims it had Apple's approval to use the code in working with Intel. Checking with the parties involved in the suit, Newsbytes learned no court dates have been set for the case. Chances are it may be settled out of court, but none of the companies are able to comment about ongoing litigation. (Patrick McKenna/19950627/Press Contact: Katy Boos, Big Sky Communications, tel 408-974-4451) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 06/28/95 TRENDS Group Aims To Promote Telecommuting (NEWS)(TRENDS)(TOR)(00016) Group Aims To Promote Telecommuting 06/28/95 WASHINGTON, D.C., U.S.A., 1995 JUN 28 (NB) -- A group of business, government, and non-profit organizations has formed Telecommuting America, a group meant to promote the idea of working at home. The group plans a public education campaign, a 19-city seminar series, and research on telecommuting. Speakers at a Washington press conference announcing the initiative included representatives of the government's Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), Department of Commerce, and General Services Administration, as well as the Association for Commuter Transportation and AT&T (NYSE:T). Office furniture manufacturer Steelcase and Mobile Office Magazine are corporate sponsors of the project, and those endorsing it include the Environmental Defence Fund and the Telecommuting Advisory Council. During the press conference -- which, appropriately, was accessible to out-of-town reporters by teleconference -- the organizers said they will be setting up a World Wide Web site on the Internet in early July and establishing a toll-free telephone number for inquiries about telecommuting. Tom Miller, vice-president of FIND/SVP Research, will head Telecommuting America's research effort. He said the project provides a unique opportunity to do extensive research among current telecommuters and people interested in the idea. Dee Angell, president of the Association for Commuter Transportation, said telecommuting is "one of the most attractive and perhaps one of the most efficient commute options available to us today." And David Gardiner, assistant administrator in the EPA's Office of Policy, Planning, and Evaluation, said it will help address two key environmental problems -- air quality and global warming -- by reducing carbon dioxide emissions from cars. Marlene Johnson, associate administrator with the General Services Administration, said telecommuting could "increase confidence and trust by measuring results, not hours spent sitting at the desk in the central office." Larry Irving, assistant secretary of communications and information at the Department of Commerce, said an employee working at home one or two days a week can save his or her employer $6,000 to $12,000 per year through improved productivity, reduced real-estate costs, and other factors. Reinforcing the point about cost savings, Dick Lombardi, president of AT&T's Government Markets unit, said his company is saving $1 million a week in real-estate costs because of a telecommuting policy launched in 1992, under which some 35,000 managers now telecommute. The group has not set specific targets for increasing telecommuting, but wants to educate the public about telecommuting and encourage employers and individuals to explore it. (Grant Buckler/19950628/Press Contact: Beth Chute or Raina Grossman, M. Booth & Associates for Telecommuting America, 212- 481-7000; Jim McGann, AT&T, 202-457-3942) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 06/28/95 GOVT Calstart Consortium Launches 5 New Projects (NEWS)(GOVT)(LAX)(00017) Calstart Consortium Launches 5 New Projects 06/28/95 BURBANK, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1995 JUN 28 (NB) -- The Calstart transportation consortium is launching five new projects worth $6 million in natural gas and new intelligent transportation systems (ITS) technologies. Calstart, a non-profit private/public hybrid, has launched $21 million in projects in the last month. Calstart is a California non-profit consortium, combining government, business and "private member organizations" organized 2 years ago to facilitate new transportation technologies. Its 140 participants include defense and aerospace technology firms, vehicle manufacturers, transit agencies, the state's major utilities and labor and environmental groups. The Board of Directors is made up of individuals from major corporations, government agencies, and the Natural Resources Defense Council, and the California Council of Machinists. Bill Van Amburg, a spokesman for Calstart, told Newsbytes, "One- hundred and forty organizations participate in Calstart. We receive all of our money from the participants, or from management fees we receive from the projects we initiate. We receive no government funds directly, all of our operating funds come from private participants. We facilitate funding of projects and this includes obtaining government funds. We have raised over $70 million in the last two years. Of those funds 60 percent have been private, while 40 percent has come from government." In one of the new projects, a Calstart-led team has been selected by the Federal Highway Administration (Department of Transportation) to develop a "international electronic border clearance" to speed shipments to and from Mexico. With international electronic border clearance, cargo shipped across the United States-Mexico border will be pre-cleared. Customs, immigration, safety and other inspection data would be entered into an electronic transmitter system. Trucks approaching the border would transmit their electronic clearance to the inspection stations, and if the cargo has not been subject to tampering, would be waved directly through customs at the Mexican border. In addition, Calstart teams partnering with the Advanced Research Projects Agency (Department of Defense) will develop four natural gas technologies. Engine Corp. of America, based in Fullerton, California, will develop a natural gas compressor. NGV/USA of Los Angeles, California will head a team incorporating natural gas storage tanks into the chassis of a Chrysler van. Mosaic Industries, with headquarters in Hayward, California, will develop a sensor to detect natural gas leaks on heavy duty vehicles. Whittaker Controls of North Hollywood, California will use aerospace-based insulation to make a bare-hands refueling system for liquified natural gas. (Richard Bowers/19950626/Press Contact: Bill Van Amburg or Dave Sotero, Calstart, 818/565-5606) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 06/28/95 UNIX Exabyte, HP To Offer Storage For PC, Unix Networks (NEWS)(UNIX)(DEN)(00018) Exabyte, HP To Offer Storage For PC, Unix Networks 06/28/95 BOULDER, COLORADO, U.S.A., 1995 JUN 28 (NB) -- Exabyte Corp. (NASDAQ: EXBT) has teamed with Hewlett-Packard (H-P) to develop a 4mm storage automation system for use with large networks of personal computers and mid-sized Unix networks. #IMAGE 1 20 TWPCX \images\95062818.PCX Click here for photo Exabyte said the EXB-218 4mm Tape Library combines Hewlett-Packard's C1533A DDS-2 4mm digital audio tape (DAT) drives with Exabyte's tape library design, robotics and mechanisms. The drives, with compression, can provide eight gigabytes (GB) of storage capacity and a transfer rate of over one megabyte (MB) per second. The EXB-218 is immediately available. The system combines two of the H-P tape drives with robotics and up to 19 4mm data cartridges in a single enclosure. The system provides a capacity of 152 gigabytes (GB) of data storage and a throughput rate of 120 megabytes (MB) per minute, or 55 GB in an eight-hour period. The system works with software developed by vendors like Arcada, Cheyenne, Legato, Palindrome and other backup and restore software vendors. The software is not included with the EXB-218 system, but Exabyte spokesperson Rebecca Herlinger told Newsbytes distributors usually sell the system bundled with the necessary software. Exabyte said the EXB-218 is rated at 750,000 mean-cycles-between-failure, or 1.5 million tape mounts. The company said that equates to about eight years of use between problems. The system comes with a two-year warranty that covers Exabyte parts and return-to-factory labor. A modular design allows the tape drives, data cartridges, robotics, electronics and power supply be removed and replaced in case of failure. The company said the EXB-218, which comes with two DDS-2 DAT data cartridges, an Exatape cleaning cartridge, a SCSI (Small Computer System Interface) cable and an owner's manual, will sell for about $8,000. (Jim Mallory/19950626/Press contact: Rebecca Herlinger, Exabyte, 303-417-7872 or Mark Clifton, Hewlett-Packard, 970-679-2566/EXB218950628/PHOTO) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 06/28/95 PC Australia - Low Cost Production Tracking System (NEWS)(PC)(SYD)(00019) Australia - Low Cost Production Tracking System 06/28/95 MELBOURNE, AUSTRALIA 1995 JUN 28 (NB) -- Australian manufacturer ASP Microcomputers has released ASPNET, a hardware and software system which allows users to track production processes by using bar codes or magnetic stripes on components or assemblies. The wand readers are connected to a host PC which analyzes incoming data. It has a special, easy-to-use language for user-programming of data collecting systems. Paul Stuart, MD of ASP said, "After the initial development of the ASPNET hardware we realized that customized data collection could be simplified. Our programming language ASPNET Basic is efficient and quick to program in, creating a fully customizable data collection system." Each ASPNET terminal has a keypad, LCD data display and a battery which keeps it operating in case of a supply failure. Operators can be prompted on-screen when they are required to enter keyboard data. All information collected is time/date stamped. Collected data can also be transferred to other applications such as spreadsheet, database or customized analysis package. For larger or expanding operations, the ASPNET system can be expanded by the use of a "workblock" which allows the program to collect data from a larger number of sources. It can also allow data collection from battery-powered barcode readers and the ASPNET system can be programmed to activate relays and control electronic devices, making it suitable for interactive process and production control systems. (Paul Zucker/19950623/Press contact: ASP Microcomputers, Carli Barnes tel. +61-3-9578 7600 fax. +61-3-9578 7727) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 06/28/95 ONLINE ****First Virtual Creates Corporation Of Future (NEWS)(ONLINE)(LAX)(00020) ****First Virtual Creates Corporation Of Future 06/28/95 SAN DIEGO, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1995 JUN 28 (NB) -- First Virtual Holdings (FV) Inc. calls itself a virtual corporation, and the name fits. The company, which trades digital commodities on the Internet, was created, organized, and is managed in "cyberspace." As previously reported by Newsbytes, First Virtual provides an electronic shopping mall putting sellers and buyers together on the Internet. It is a fully operational Internet payment system with thousands of electronic financial transactions taking place daily. Lee Stein, president and chief executive officer of First Virtual, told Newsbytes, "First Virtual passed its eight-month anniversary on June 17, and was receiving more than 200,000 hits a day with sales volume growing at a rate of 16 percent a week. This translates into over a thousand separate financial transactions per day, seven days a week." Even with all this growth First Virtual has not had an office of any kind. Its employees, management staff and board of directors are all located on the Internet. "Our corporate structure was consciously designed to copy the way the Internet was put together. From the very beginning, our original concepts were developed over and for the Internet," said Stein. "We were incorporated in Wyoming, I live in San Diego, the chief scientist is in Ann Arbor, Michigan, the software architect is in Petaluma, California. The principle software designer is in Mountain View, California, the computers are in Westlake, Ohio, the communications center is in Atlanta, Georgia, and the marketing is handled in Washington DC." According to Stein, the four founders represent some of the brightest minds in the electronic messaging field. Nathaniel Borenstein, considered the chief scientist for First Virtual, was the author of MIME, the Internet standard for multimedia and multilingual mail messages. He holds PhD in Computer Science from Carnegie Mellon University. He resides in Ann Arbor, Michigan. Marshall Rose is, according to Stein, a leader in the development and implementation of key global standards for electronic messaging and network managing. He is one of a dozen people responsible for overseeing the global Inernet standardization process. Einar Stefferud, called chief visionary, was named by Communications Week as one of the top ten visionaries in the industry. He is an adjunct professor at University of California, Irvine. Lee Stein is an attorney and accountant who dreamed up the idea. He is chairman of Stein & Stein, a firm which provides management services in the entertainment and music industries. He is chairman of the Jack Murphy Stadium Authority in San Diego and a director of the Scripps, Foundation in La Jolla, California. Stein explains, "People of this caliber were not going to leave their current obligations and projects to join me in San Diego. If I were to bring together the minds I wanted in this organization, I had to go to them. We created the idea, formulated our organizational plans, created our software, made our deals, and are running this company over the Internet." Only now has First Virtual Holdings (FV) Inc. had the need for actual office space. This week they opened an administrative office in San Diego. Stein quickly points out that this is not to be confused with any kind of corporate headquarters. "That is still on the Internet." (Richard Bowers/19950627/Press Contact: Tom Gable, Laura Ciruzzi, or Kris Lichter, The Gable Group, 619-234-1300) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 06/28/95 TELECOM AT&T Intros New Digital Answering System for SOHO (NEWS)(TELECOM)(MSP)(00021) AT&T Intros New Digital Answering System for SOHO 06/28/95 PARSIPPANY, NEW JERSEY, U.S.A., 1995 JUN 28 (NB) -- AT&T (NYSE:T) said it is bringing to market a new digital answering system designed for small-office/home-office (SOHO) users. The AT&T Two-Line Digital Answering System 1772 is similar to the company's 1872, except the 1772 lacks the actual telephone handset. #IMAGE 1 20 TWPCX \images\95062821.PCX Click here for photo "The 1872 has been doing extremely well, and with the orders we have in the pipeline for the 1772, it looks like we're going to have two successful products," Mike Burkhard, product management director for AT&T Consumer Products, told Newsbytes. "What you're seeing with the two-line market is they're looking for products like this." Burkhard also said the 1872 and the 1772 are the only units of their kind on the market available for people who have two phone lines. The 1772 has all of the benefits of digital recording technology, AT&T officials said, including instant playback, selective message save and repeat, instant message forward and repeat, and repeat and review. "We know with digital machines, you don't have tape or mechanical parts moving all the time. We have a lot of data that shows that there is a greater chance for breakdown with those mechanical parts," Burkhard said. "A digital answering machine is a much better machine in that regard." Other features include the ability to pre-record four different announcements that can be switched, so users can record an after 5PM announcement, for example. The 1772 also has remote access, two-way call recording, announce-only features, and voice prompts. In addition to other answering machines, Burkhard also said he sees the 1772 competing with voice mail systems. "Voice mail system has higher penetration with SOHO. Also, this provides something that voice mail doesn't, which is call screening. People like to know who's calling, even in a small-office/home-office environment, before they decide to take a call or not." (Bob Woods/19950626/Press Contacts: Angela Cowan Ryan, 201-581-4451, or Al Chu, 201-581-3880, both of AT&T Consumer Products. Public Contact: AT&T, 800-222-3111/ATT1772950628/PHOTO) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 06/28/95 ONLINE UK Online Opens Virtual PoP In London (NEWS)(ONLINE)(LON)(00022) UK Online Opens Virtual PoP In London 06/28/95 SHEPTON MALLET, SOMERSET, ENGLAND, 1995 JUN 28 (NB) -- UK Online, the Olivetti-backed online service aimed at the mass market, has opened its first mainstream point of presence (PoP) in London on 0171-916- 6090. According to Jennifer Perry, director of sales and marketing with the new online service, the London PoP is the first in a series of PoPs the service plans to open this year. In addition, the company is examining other ways to offer local call access to subscribers. "The London PoP supplements our Shepton Mallet dial-up number, and has 120 lines, the same number as in Shepton Mallet," she told Newsbytes, adding that the London lines are ISDN (Integrated Services Digital Network) Primary Rate, which means that calls can either be ISDN (digital 64,000 bits per second -- bps) or analog modem to 28,800 bps. Calls are dynamically allocated to either ISDN or modem as calls come in, Perry explained, adding that the lines are on the Cable London phone network, rather than the British Telecom network. "Sadly, although this is with one of the cable TV operators, Cable London does not have a free off-peak local cable phone call arrangement, but the company does offer lower calling rates than those of BT," she said. According to Perry, UK Online is examining its options on the PoP front and, rather than install dedicated PoPs around the UK, may instead opt for a virtual PoP system, where a major telco such as ACC, Energis, or Mercury allows calls to virtual local numbers on its network to be remotely forwarded to UK Online's headquarters' modems in Shepton Mallett. "Launching a completely new service like this allows the maximum number of options when it comes to offering the best method of access for our subscribers," she explained, adding that virtual PoPs appear to be the better option over dedicated PoPs. UK Online has been issuing starter kits for its service for the past few months now, but not actively advertising its services to date. According to Perry, although no specific launch date for the mass market online service has been set, the major rollout now looks like it will be happening in August, when the marketing campaign will begin in earnest. (Steve Gold/19950508/Press Contact: Midnight Communications +44-1273- 709977, fax +44-1273-709966, Internet Email: caraline.midnight@ukonline.co.uk; Jennifer Perry, UK Online, tel +44- 1749-345006, fax +44-1749-344977, Internet e-mail jennifer@ukonline.co.uk; Reader Contact: UK Online +1749- 333333; Internet Email: sales@ukonline.co.uk/UKONLINE950628/PHOTO) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 06/28/95 ONLINE ****Group Announces Parents' Internet Rating System (NEWS)(ONLINE)(SFO)(00023) ****Group Announces Parents' Internet Rating System 06/28/95 VAN NUYS, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1995 JUN 28 (NB) -- A parents' online organization out of Southern California, SafeSurf, says its SafeSurf System, with cooperation from the Internet community, will make the Internet safe for children before school starts in September. SafeSurf says there is no need to wait for government regulation when the industry has a client/server specification which is capable of solving the problem of children accessing adult areas on the Internet. Rather than focus on the "bad" sites, the SafeSurf system concentrates on the "good" or "child safe" sites. On the server side, Newsgroups, World Wide Web pages, and other Internet areas which are identified with SafeSurf's child safe code automatically appear as accessible sites when a child enters the Internet through his or her own special password. Internet areas without the child safe code are rendered invisible to the child. On the client side, browsers incorporating the necessary code automatically setup the desktop environment for child-safe Internet access. At this time, SafeSurf is supplying the technical specifications to developers who may then install the short code on browsers and Internet sites. For users with existing browsers, SafeSurf is encouraging developers to create a utility or upgrade which users may install on their own computers. Speaking to Newsbytes, Ray Soular, chairman of SafeSurf, said, "If 10% of the Inernet community adopts this system, the other 90% will follow. Sites without the child-safe code will realize they are not getting any children and realize they need to adopt the standard. We need to reach individuals and companies on the Internet and have them step forward." Soular continued, "We want to have parents, concerned citizens, interested companies and all Internet users join us in taking care of this problem. It can be done now and we have the technology to do it. We need to extend the Internet community spirit to solve this problem today without government involvement. I am pleased to announce and I think credit should go to CompuServe for being one of the first companies to call us and begin researching our solution." SafeSurf is a five month old, grassroots organization whose membership is open to all. Its goal is to create a child-safe environment on the Internet through rating, filtering and parental education. General and technical information is available from its World Wide Web site at http://www.safesurf.com/wave/ (Patrick McKenna/19950628/Press Contact: Ray Soular, SafeSurf, tel 818-902-9390; Internet Address: SafeSurf@aol.com) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 06/28/95 TELECOM UK'S Mercury Developing Cellular Broadcasting (NEWS)(TELECOM)(LON)(00024) UK'S Mercury Developing Cellular Broadcasting 06/28/95 LONDON, ENGLAND, 1995 JUN 28 (NB) -- Mercury One-2-One is working on a new use of Cell Broadcast, the ability of digital cellular base stations to broadcast a text message and other information streams, to all mobiles "logged on" to that base station. According to Ian Volans, senior press relations officer for One-2-One, the Cell Broadcast information will be included as part of an unique new local call indicator for subscribers with free or reduced price local calls on their particular tariff. Whereas Cellnet and Vodafone digital subscribers merely see their local call area codes on their phone's display, all One-2-One phones issued since last December have enhanced software that logs the local call information stream and stores it in memory on the phone. As the subscriber enters the area code to be called on the mobile's keypad, the phone flashes up whether the call is local, to indicate that the call is either free or charged at a reduced rate. "Using this approach is unique, since it allows the user to see the interaction between the intelligence of the mobile and the data coming in from the base station," Volans told Newsbytes, adding that, by using this approach, the subscriber could be absolutely sure that the call they were making was being charged at lower or free call rates. One-2-One has been criticized by the media in the past for the problems of radio transmission propagation. This has resulted in a small number of calls made, for example, near the edge of one area code to the next area code, but logged on to a base station some distance in the other direction. Thus, although the call seems to be local, the call hops over more than one area code boundary and is charged, despite the fact that the subscriber thinks the call is local. In such instances, One-2-One has issued refunds to subscribers who live or make calls in marginal areas. Using the new phone software and base station Cell Broadcast data means that no problems should occur of this type. "It's a reassurance for the subscriber that the call is a local one, and there are no worries that the bill is incorrect," Volans explained, adding that by allowing this degree of interaction between the phone and the network opens up interesting possibilities as regards new tariffs. (Steve Gold/19950626/Press Contact: One-2-One Press Office +44-956- 700121; Fax +44-956-700122; Reader Contact: One-2-One 0500-121-500) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 06/28/95 NETWORK Novell Reveals Master Plan For "The Second Year" (NEWS)(NETWORK)(LON)(00025) Novell Reveals Master Plan For "The Second Year" 06/28/95 BIRMINGHAM, ENGLAND, 1995 JUN 28 (NB) -- It's now a year since Novell acquired WordPerfect and, at the Networks '95 computer show which opening in Birmingham yesterday, Novell's Brand Marketing Director Graeme Allan told journalists that the company is now preparing for "an exciting year ahead." Allan outlined plans for the company's product directions over the coming months, touching on NetWare Connect Services (NCS), Novell Embedded Systems Technology (NEST) and NetWare Telephony Services (NTS). Allan also expanded on the recently announced Systems Group, which combines the previously separate NetWare Systems Group and Unix Systems Group. Allan claims that, by strengthening the management of the company on both sides of the Atlantic in the last year, Novell has prepared the ground for a new generation of products. "We're well on course to meet our target of connecting a billion people to computer networks by the year 2000," he told the audience. According to Allan, the next generation of Novell's networking software products will build on this market strength, "defining a single network system built across multiple servers that is managed and operated as one integrated solution." Over the next year, Novell will roll out a number of new products and services, all designed to serve the needs of business customers who want to extend NetWare beyond the networking environment. Within the next year, Allan said, NetWare will embrace new areas of communications, such as pagers (for messaging), digital mobile telephony), drawing heavily on NCS and NEST technology. To encourage other vendors to support Novell in this endeavor, the company claims it has created an open systems networking and connectivity environment, centered on NetWare Director Services. The idea, Allan said, is to include NetWare connectivity in any electrical appliance, ranging from a TV to a mobile phone to that the device van plug into the NetWare and related connectivity environment. Allan touched on the broad future for NEST which, he said, was gaining widespread support in the market-place from a broad spectrum of electrical device vendors. "The day will come, he said, when the car you are driving will be NEST-compliant, and that opens up a lot of doors," he said. It's difficult to challenge Novell's path to fame over the last few years, Newsbytes notes. The company claims an 87 percent market share on networking in the UK, with an average 75 percent world-wide market share. The company now claims 40 million NetWare users, 70 million Unix users and two million NetWare networks around the world. The key question remains whether NEST, a small, modular and operating system independent architecture that allows electronic devices to communicate, takes off or not. Coupled with NCS, a project to create a global public data network built around NetWare Directory Services (NDS), Novell's strategy seems to be one of offering connectivity for just about anything electrical. The old gag about making your toaster NetWare-compliant may not be so far from the truth anymore, as Novell representatives at the show talked about the "smart house" of the future, with electrical appliances being connected to the house network. (Steve Gold/19950628/Press Contact: A Plus +44-1753-790700; Internet Email: asmith@aplus.co.uk; Reader Contact: Novell UK +44-1344-724000; Fax +44-1344-724001) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 06/28/95 ONLINE ****CompuServe Rolls Into New Countries (NEWS)(ONLINE)(LON)(00026) ****CompuServe Rolls Into New Countries 06/28/95 BIRMINGHAM, ENGLAND, 1995 JUN 28 (NB) -- Soon you'll be able to access CompuServe (NYSE:HRB) for a local or in-country trunk call from just about anywhere in the world, according to CompuServe, which announced a groundbreaking alliance with Scitor, part of the SITA Group, at the Networks '95 computer show which opened in Birmingham, England, yesterday. SITA offers data and voice telephony services in more than 220 countries around the world, mainly to the airline and associated industries. This means that "out of the way" places are service by high speed dial-up ports on the SITA network. The deal with Scitor, Andy Boyer, network relations specialist with CompuServe, explained, allows access to CompuServe in more than 150 countries, via the SITA dial-up network. As well as expanding the methods of access in most countries, the deal also extends local country access to 18 countries: Angola, Aruba, Bulgaria, Cameroon, Czech Republic, Iceland, India, Ivory Coast, Malta, Netherlands Antilles, Nigeria, Peru, Poland, Saipan, Sri Lanka, Turkey and Venezuela. Those countries which now have greatly enhanced access to CompuServe include: Bolivia, Chile, Egypt, Finland, Greece, Hungary, Italy, Luxembourg, Norway, Philippines, Portugal, Russia, South Africa and Taiwan. "SITA nodes will be rolled out for public use for access to CompuServe over the next few months," Boyer, in the UK for the show, told Newsbytes. "It means that we are truly a global online service." SITA's network dial-up service operates at 2,400 bits per second (bps) in most countries, with upgrades to 9600 and 14,400, as well as 28,800 in several countries. The aim of the deal with Scitor, Boyer explained, is to allow global access to the main online services, as well as the Internet. Boyer explained that, while most of Western Europe and North America has easy access to the Internet, other countries are often not so lucky, Using NetLauncher, CompuServe's recently introduced Internet portfolio of Internet modules, including the Spry Mosaic Web browser, even the most remote user of CompuServe can also gain access to the Internet and the World Wide Web. (Steve Gold/19950628/Press & Reader Contact: +44-1734-567400; Internet Email: networkinfo@cis.compuserve.com; US toll free 800/433-0389; Web URL = http://www.compuserve.com ) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 06/28/95 TELECOM Hayes Demos Digital Simultaneous Voice & Data Technology (NEWS)(TELECOM)(LON)(00027) Hayes Demos Digital Simultaneous Voice & Data Technology 06/28/95 BIRMINGHAM, ENGLAND, 1996 JUN 28 (NB) -- Hayes showed off, for the first time in public, a digital simultaneous voice and data (DSVD) unit at the Networks '95 computer show which opened in Birmingham, England, yesterday. According to Bill Pechey, European technical director with the company, DSVD is now under active discussion and piloting with the International Telecommunications Union (ITU), and is expected to become ratified (approved) some time next spring. At its simplest, DSVD allows multiple data channels to be "muxed" together and fed through a standard V.34, 28,800 bits per second (bps) modem link. The data channels can originate from almost anything, including videoconferencing devices, PCs, fax machines, or even games consoles. Analog telecom devices, such as phones, can have their output converted and fed into the data stream as well. The DSVD consortium now includes AT&T, Rockwell, US Robotics and a number of other companies, including Hayes, all of whom are keen to develop a global standard and start shipping devices with the technology on board. According to Pechey, last year's proposal to frame the data in 4,000 bps "slices" has been superseded by dynamic bandwidth allocation, which essentially means that the data streams are multiplexed into the most effective combination possible, and then fed onto the V.34 modem carrier side of the device. Using a dynamic approach means that, as the data from one device slows down or stops temporarily, the other data stream's bandwidth can be increased to take advantage of the spare bandwidth. "In a typical voice conversation, people only talk for the half of the time, and with compression, the resultant data occupies only a quarter of the bandwidth that you would theoretically need to convert the 7,000 hertz telephone call bandwidth into a data stream," Pechey told Newsbytes. Because of this, he continued, it's possible to mux a single voice call into between 4 and 8,000 bps of the available 28,800 bps data channel on a V.34 modem. "In practice, because of the V.42bis data compression system, the computer data side of the link can zoom along at 28,800 bps, squeezing into the available 20,000 bps channel available," he explained. In the technology demonstration shown at Networks 95, Hayes had two DSVD equipped Optima 288 modems linked over a standard phone link, feeding the data output from the PC into a 20K window, and the voices of two operators into the remaining 8K window. The demonstration went well, but Pechey was at pains to point out that it was a technology demonstration, rather than a product on show. "These modems are merely prototype engineering machines, and we won't see what the production units do until we have a standard from the ITU to work with," he said. Pechey said that he expects to see a variety of DSVD devices appearing on the market early next summer. These will include games consoles (where the operator can interact with other games players and their consoles over a phone link), TVs and multimedia video devices, as well as the expected PC systems. The curious side effect of DSVD is that, because of the way in which data is compressed and the human voice's use of the available bandwidth, an 8K window across the modem link into, say, a PABX at the office, can produce a much higher quality voice call than if the whole bandwidth of the voice channel on the PSTN (public switched telephone network) were utilized. "We then have the scenario that the user, with a DSVD link to the office for remote LAN (local area network) access open, and voice calls piggy-backed onto the data stream, picks up his/her phone and hears a dial tone -- not from the local exchange, but from the office PABX," he said. Pechey went on to say that, if the DSVD call is extended over a TCP/IP (Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol) link such as the Internet, there is the prospect of Internet access links between remote users and the office PABX, with all the functionality that entails, from anywhere in the world. This, Newsbytes notes, could pose a technological leap past the "voice over the Internet" technology seen from Vocaltec and others. (Steve Gold/19950628/Press & Reader Contact: Hayes Europe Region +44- 1252-775555; Fax: +44-1252-775511; Internet Email: hayes@cix.compulink.co.uk) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 06/28/95 GOVT British Govt Adopts Disknet In Anti-Virus Fight (NEWS)(GOVT)(LON)(00028) British Govt Adopts Disknet In Anti-Virus Fight 06/28/95 LONDON, ENGLAND, 1995 JUN 28 (NB) -- The Department of Trade and Industry has selected Disknet, an anti-virus package from Reflex Magnetics, as an element of its package of information technology security measures. According to the DTI, Disknet has now been installed in many of the Department's divisions, following the purchase of a license to protect some 1,000 PCs with the Reflex anti-virus security shield. According to Reflex, Disknet is a proven multi-layered security package for stand-alone PC and networked environments. The software is billed as providing total protection from all disk-borne virus infections and unauthorized computer access. The key to the package is a memory resident utility which acts as a security guard, ensuring that only virus-free disks can be used on PCs within the "Disknet shield." Commenting on the major deal with the DTI, Andy Campbell, sales director with Reflex, said that the company is "delighted that the DTI have selected Disknet over the competition." "This is further proof that key organizations are starting to realize the real damage that security breaches can inflict and the subsequent need for a comprehensive anti-virus solution," he said. According to Campbell, a joint DTI, National Computing Centre and ICL IT security survey last year estimated that the total cost of data security incidents in the UK exceeds UKP 1.2 billion a year, an increase of 12 percent over the previous survey published in 1992. The report concluded that virus attacks topped the list of logical breaches with 1,029 reported incidents during the previous two years. (Sylvia Dennis/19950628/Press Contact: Keene Communications +44-171- 439-7227; Reader Contact: Reflex Magnetics +44-171-372-6666) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 06/28/95 WINDOWS Microsoft's Multimedia Storytelling For Libraries (NEWS)(WINDOWS)(DEN)(00029) Microsoft's Multimedia Storytelling For Libraries 06/28/95 REDMOND, WASHINGTON, U.S.A., 1995 JUN 28 (NB) -- Children gathered around a storyteller has long been a familiar sight in the nation's libraries. But Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ: MSFT) has introduced a tool that will exchange the storyteller's granny glasses and shawl for a multimedia PC that can transport the young audience to just about anywhere in the universe. Children's librarians attending the recent American Library Association's (ALA) annual conference in Chicago were introduced to the software company's Multimedia StoryTime program, which was developed in cooperation with the Association for Library Service to Children, a division of the ALA. The program uses the text, sound, animation and images of a multimedia presentation to introduce children to experiences as varied as a visit to a rain forest, a transportation museum, or outer space. Microsoft's free Multimedia Storytime resource kit includes a guide with tips on how to plan a Multimedia Storytime; seven storytime outlines with suggested activities including Microsoft's "Scholastic's The Magic School Bus Explores the Solar System;" "Explorapedia: The World of Nature" and other multimedia titles. While all the titles used in the kit carry the Microsoft brand name, a public relations spokesperson told Newsbytes the guide is applicable to other publisher's educational products as well. Users also get hardware recommendations, promotional clip art and press materials to help publicize their storytelling programs, and a 13-minute video featuring storyteller Kathi Lightstone, who demonstrates how multimedia software can add excitement to storytime. "Story times are so important for young children," according to Susan Roman, executive director of the Association for Library Service to Children. "While a great story is still the heart of a great storytime, the computer can add a new dimension and spark additional creativity for the children and the storyteller." Microsoft said each public library with a children's librarian staff position as well as selected school library media specialists will receive the free kit. Librarians can also access the resource guide through Microsoft's recently announced "Focus on K-12" home page on the Microsoft World Wide Web server that will debut in August. A spokesperson at the public relations firm Marcy Monyek and Associates told Newsbytes Microsoft shipped about 6,000 of the storyteller kits to libraries and schools across the nation. She said Microsoft is still considering if it will make additional kits available for distribution. (Jim Mallory/19950627/Press contact: Suzy Jacoby, Marcy Monyek and Associates for Microsoft, 312-263-2135) (SUMMARY)(GENERAL)(MSP)(00030) Newsbytes Daily Summary 06/28/95 MINNEAPOLIS, MINNESOTA, U.S.A., 1995 JUN 28 (NB) -- These are capsules of all today's news stories: ======================================================================== ------------| N E W S B Y T E S D A I L Y S U M M A R Y |---------- ------------| Wednesday, June 28, 1995 |---------- ======================================================================== (c) Newsbytes News Network (Tm) Editor in Chief: Wendy Woods ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Newsbytes News Network is a computer and telecom industry news wire and digitized picture service. Our news stream includes more than 30 daily first-hand reported US and international news stories about computing and telecommunications. For more information, please e-mail to 'administrator@newsbytes.com' ------------------------------------------------------------------------ CATEGORY HEADLINES (*** indicates today's top stories) STORY # ======================================================================== APPLE StarNine Technologies Intros Low-Cost Mac Listserver....... 11 APPLE Apple To Ship New QuickTime For Windows This Fall.......... 15 BROADCAST DEC Teams With Sybase On Mediaplex Video Servers........... 13 BUSINESS Germany's Pavone Opens UK Operations Office................ 06 GENERAL Japan Newsbriefs........................................... 01 GENERAL UK - Mannesmann Tally's Portable Bubblejet Printer......... 04 GOVT China - Joint Effort To Attack Computer Smuggling.......... 08 GOVT China - Japanese Funds For State Economic Information Netwo 09 GOVT Calstart Consortium Launches 5 New Projects................ 17 GOVT British Govt Adopts Disknet In Anti-Virus Fight............ 28 IBM IBM Adds AS/400 Wireless LAN Bridge, PCMCIA Card........... 14 NETWORK UK - Spider Systems Unveils PPP/Novell-Compatible ISDN..... 03 NETWORK NSC Router With Firewall, Data Encryption.................. 10 NETWORK Novell Reveals Master Plan For "The Second Year............ 25 ONLINE Conducting Public Relations In Cyberspace.................. 02 ONLINE Unisys to Repeat Near Real-Time Golf Scoring Updates....... 12 ONLINE ****First Virtual Creates Corporation Of Future........... 20 ONLINE UK Online Opens Virtual PoP In London...................... 22 ONLINE ****Group Announces Parents' Internet Rating System....... 23 ONLINE ****CompuServe Rolls Into New Countries................... 26 PC Australia - Low Cost Production Tracking System............ 19 TELECOM China To South Korea Underwater Optic Cable................ 07 TELECOM AT&T Intros New Digital Answering System for SOHO.......... 21 TELECOM UK'S Mercury Developing Cellular Broadcasting.............. 24 TELECOM Hayes Demos Digital Simultaneous Voice & Data Technology... 27 TRENDS Group Aims To Promote Telecommuting........................ 16 UNIX Exabyte, HP To Offer Storage For PC, Unix Networks......... 18 WINDOWS Germany - Beame & Whiteside's Windows Web Server........... 05 WINDOWS Microsoft's Multimedia Storytelling For Libraries.......... 29 ======================================================================== These are the headlines and first paragraphs of each story, in order: 1 -> Japan Newsbriefs -- Sanyo shows 3D television; May cellular subscriptions fall; Matsushita to produce Mini Discs; Cable cooperation reported. 2 -> Conducting Public Relations In Cyberspace -- Public relations (PR) professionals will be able to use the Internet to its fullest potential, Gary A. Bolles, editorial director of "Interactive Week," told an online audience on CompuServe's PR & Marketing Forum. 3 -> UK - Spider Systems Unveils PPP/Novell-Compatible ISDN -- Spider Systems, the networking subsidiary of Shiva in the US, has announced version 2.0 of SpiderIntegrator Connect, an ISDN (integrated services digital network) box that interfaces between a TCP/IP (Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol) link and an ISDN circuit. 4 -> UK - Mannesmann Tally's Portable Bubblejet Printer -- Trying to compete with Canon in the bubblejet market, Mannesmann Tally (MT) has unveiled the T7010, a sub-1.5-kilo portable bubblejet printer that sells for UKP 245, and slips into a briefcase. 5 -> Germany - Beame & Whiteside's Windows Web Server -- Beame & Whiteside has launched a new range of Windows applications software aimed at information providers on the Internet. Central to the applications is a Windows Web server package that includes a complete set of HTML (HyperText Markup Language) authoring tools. 6 -> Germany's Pavone Opens UK Operations Office -- Pavone Informationssysteme has announced the formation of its British subsidiary. According to the German software integration company, Pavone Groupware will be headed up by Frank Iveson, former managing director of Lotus UK, and will provide groupware software for Lotus Notes users throughout the UK. 7 -> China To South Korea Underwater Optic Cable -- The undersea optical cable from South Korea to China was landed in Qingdao, Shangdong province this month and will be in operation by the end of this year. 8 -> China - Joint Effort To Attack Computer Smuggling -- China Customs and the Ministry of Electronics Industry (MEI) have agreed to cooperate in a crackdown on computer smuggling. 9 -> China - Japanese Funds For State Economic Information Network -- More than 20 billion Japanese yen (US$235 million) will be used to finance the development of China's State Economic Information Network System, the State Planning Commission says. 10 -> NSC Router With Firewall, Data Encryption -- Network Systems Corp., a wholly owned subsidiary of Storage Technology Corp. (NYSE: STK), has introduced a branch office router equipped with both firewall and data encryption protection. 11 -> StarNine Technologies Intros Low-Cost Mac Listserver -- StarNine Technologies has begun shipping Liststar, an automated e-mail processor for the Macintosh. With Liststar users can create listservers and e-mail on-demand systems directly on their Macintosh, eliminating the need for larger Unix systems. 12 -> Unisys to Repeat Near Real-Time Golf Scoring Updates -- The ping sound of metal to golf ball can't be heard in cyberspace. But Unisys, along with the US Golf Association (USGA), is making sure Internet users can keep up with USGA events by providing near real-time updates directly from the links. 13 -> DEC Teams With Sybase On Mediaplex Video Servers -- Sybase has joined Oracle among the RDBMS (relational database management systems) being employed with Digital Equipment Corp.'s Mediaplex video servers, said Roger Horine, marketing manager for Digital's Video and Interactive Information Services, in an interview with Newsbytes. 14 -> IBM Adds AS/400 Wireless LAN Bridge, PCMCIA Card -- A newly unveiled "second wave" of wireless products for IBM's AS/400 adds PCMCIA access, Ethernet LAN (local area network) bridging, and greater point-to-point connectivity to a first round of offerings rolled out last spring, said Frank Tutone, program manager, in an interview with Newsbytes. 15 -> Apple To Ship New QuickTime For Windows This Fall -- Apple Computer (NASDAQ:AAPL) says it will ship a new version of QuickTime for Windows this fall. Version 2.1 will take full advantage of 32-bit operating systems such as Windows 95 and Windows NT. 16 -> Group Aims To Promote Telecommuting -- A group of business, government, and non-profit organizations has formed Telecommuting America, a group meant to promote the idea of working at home. The group plans a public education campaign, a 19-city seminar series, and research on telecommuting. Speakers at a Washington press conference announcing the initiative included representatives of the government's Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), Department of Commerce, and General Services Administration, as well as the Association for Commuter Transportation and AT&T (NYSE:T). Office furniture manufacturer Steelcase and Mobile Office Magazine are corporate sponsors of the project, and those endorsing it include the Environmental Defence Fund and the Telecommuting Advisory Council. During the press conference 17 -> Calstart Consortium Launches 5 New Projects -- The Calstart transportation consortium is launching five new projects worth $6 million in natural gas and new intelligent transportation systems (ITS) technologies. Calstart, a non-profit private/public hybrid, has launched $21 million in projects in the last month. 18 -> Exabyte, HP To Offer Storage For PC, Unix Networks -- Exabyte Corp. (NASDAQ: EXBT) has teamed with Hewlett-Packard (H-P) to develop a 4mm storage automation system for use with large networks of personal computers and mid-sized Unix networks. 19 -> Australia - Low Cost Production Tracking System -- Australian manufacturer ASP Microcomputers has released ASPNET, a hardware and software system which allows users to track production processes by using bar codes or magnetic stripes on components or assemblies. 20 -> ****First Virtual Creates Corporation Of Future -- First Virtual Holdings (FV) Inc. calls itself a virtual corporation, and the name fits. The company, which trades digital commodities on the Internet, was created, organized, and is managed in "cyberspace." 21 -> AT&T Intros New Digital Answering System for SOHO -- AT&T (NYSE:T) said it is bringing to market a new digital answering system designed for small-office/home-office (SOHO) users. The AT&T Two-Line Digital Answering System 1772 is similar to the company's 1872, except the 1772 lacks the actual telephone handset. 22 -> UK Online Opens Virtual PoP In London -- UK Online, the Olivetti-backed online service aimed at the mass market, has opened its first mainstream point of presence (PoP) in London on 0171-916- 6090. 23 -> ****Group Announces Parents' Internet Rating System -- A parents' online organization out of Southern California, SafeSurf, says its SafeSurf System, with cooperation from the Internet community, will make the Internet safe for children before school starts in September. 24 -> UK'S Mercury Developing Cellular Broadcasting -- Mercury One-2-One is working on a new use of Cell Broadcast, the ability of digital cellular base stations to broadcast a text message and other information streams, to all mobiles "logged on" to that base station. 25 -> Novell Reveals Master Plan For "The Second Year -- It's now a year since Novell acquired WordPerfect and, at the Networks '95 computer show which opening in Birmingham yesterday, Novell's Brand Marketing Director Graeme Allan told journalists that the company is now preparing for "an exciting year ahead." Allan outlined plans for the company's product directions over the coming months, touching on NetWare Connect Services (NCS), Novell Embedded Systems Technology (NEST) and NetWare Telephony Services (NTS). 26 -> ****CompuServe Rolls Into New Countries -- Soon you'll be able to access CompuServe (NYSE:HRB) for a local or in-country trunk call from just about anywhere in the world, according to CompuServe, which announced a groundbreaking alliance with Scitor, part of the SITA Group, at the Networks '95 computer show which opened in Birmingham, England, yesterday. 27 -> Hayes Demos Digital Simultaneous Voice & Data Technology -- Hayes showed off, for the first time in public, a digital simultaneous voice and data (DSVD) unit at the Networks '95 computer show which opened in Birmingham, England, yesterday. 28 -> British Govt Adopts Disknet In Anti-Virus Fight -- The Department of Trade and Industry has selected Disknet, an anti-virus package from Reflex Magnetics, as an element of its package of information technology security measures. 29 -> Microsoft's Multimedia Storytelling For Libraries -- Children gathered around a storyteller has long been a familiar sight in the nation's libraries. But Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ: MSFT) has introduced a tool that will exchange the storyteller's granny glasses and shawl for a multimedia PC that can transport the young audience to just about anywhere in the universe. (Wendy Woods/19950628) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 1 06/26/95 TELECOM Japan - Personal Handy Phone System Debuts July (NEWS)(TELECOM)(TYO)(00001) Japan - Personal Handy Phone System Debuts July 1 06/26/95 TOKYO, JAPAN, 1995 JUN 26 (NB) -- A new mobile telephone system begins operation this Saturday, 1 July, in Tokyo and Sapporo. The Personal Handy Phone System (PHS) promises cheaper calls than those of conventional mobile telephones, but with minor drawbacks. The system works in the same way to a conventional cellular telephone system except that there is no ability to move between cells during a call. With normal cellular telephone networks, if the user is in a car or train, they will often have their call switched between neighboring cells during its duration. PHS does not have that ability, meaning that while you can receive and make calls anywhere in the coverage area, once the call begins, you must stay in the same area otherwise you could be cut off. The other major drawback of PHS over existing systems is that at present the coverage area is just Tokyo and the city of Sapporo in Hokkaido, Northern Japan. This will be a temporary problem though, as all service operators are planning expansion to other heavily populated areas of Japan in the near future. Two companies are beginning competing PHS services this Saturday with a third set to enter the market in October. Nippon Telegraph and Telephone (TOKYO:9432), the world's largest telecommunications company and Japan's largest local, long distance and cellular operator, is entering the market via two subsidiaries, NTT Central Personal Communications Network in Tokyo and NTT Personal Hokkaido. DDI Corporation (TOKYO:9433), the second largest operator of cellular and long distance service in Japan, is spending 300 billion yen ($3.56 billion) over the next five years on the new network. This has forced DDI to forecast a drop in group profits from 29.60 billion yen ($352 million) to just 3.50 billion yen ($41.57 million) this fiscal year. The service will be operated by subsidiary DDI Pocket Phone Tokyo and DDI Hokkaido Pocket. From October, Astel, a consortium of 21 firms including Mitsubishi Corp. (TOKYO:8058), Mitsui & Co Ltd (TOKYO:8031), Japan Telecom Co Ltd (TOKYO:9434) and a unit of Tokyo Electric Power Co (TOKYO:9501), will provide a similar service in Tokyo. Astel also hope to serve areas less urban by establishing a network of high power 100mW base stations, five times the power of conventional base stations. By the end of this financial year Astel anticipates to have spent 60 billion yen on establishing the network. Even before the new service begins, a price war has started. DDI is charging a first time sign-up fee of 4,500 yen ($53), some 300 yen ($3.56) more expensive than NTT's proposed fees, although DDI comes in cheaper on call charges. All three operators will charge 40 yen ($0.47) for a three-minute local call although that is where the similarity ends. Calls over 30km will cost between 60 and 100 yen ($0.71 to $1.19) via NTT but just 50 yen ($0.59) on DDI. Monthly standing charges on all three systems will be 2,700 yen ($32). The small carriers have careful calculations to do when deciding their calls charges. Each must pay NTT for access to their telephone network to route the calls to their final destination. NTT has demanded 29.73 yen ($0.35) per three-minute call, making local calls not much more than a break-even operation. Where they will make their money is on calls over 30km and so it is vital for them to undercut NTT's prices to attract users. All three operators say they expect to attract somewhere around 300,000 subscribers by the end of this fiscal year, in March 1996. Conventional mobile telephones cost around 40,000 to 100,000 yen ($475 to $1,188) meaning that PHS handsets cost the same as low-end mobile telephones. The monthly charge on cellular phones costs between 7,000 and 8,500 yen ($83 to $100) depending on service provider. While the PHS system allows data rates approximately three times that of analog cellular telephones, with a 32kbits per second speed, they cannot be used for making international telephone calls. The telephone operators are not the only ones benefitting from the new launch. The network infrastructure has required a massive amount of equipment, most of it supplied by Japan's major electronics companies. Among those in the PHS market are Victor Company of Japan (JVC) which has set up a new division, Personal Infocom Division, to handle PHS and CD-ROM products. JVC is making handsets under its own name for the DDI network. Sanyo Electric, also making handsets for the DDI group, is aiming for fiscal 1996 sales of 10 billion yen ($118 million) on handset prices of around 60,000 yen ($712). (Martyn Williams/19950626) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 06/26/95 ONLINE More on Visa/MasterCard Internet Security Deal (NEWS)(ONLINE)(MSP)(00002) More on Visa/MasterCard Internet Security Deal 06/26/95 NEW YORK CITY, NEW YORK, U.S.A., 1995 JUN 26 (NB) -- A leading industry analyst told Newsbytes that a joint pact by Visa International and MasterCard International to secure credit card purchases on the Internet will be good for consumers, because two companies with marketing clout will be getting together to support one standard. Newsbytes reported the deal last Friday. Both companies will work together to support specifications to secure bankcard transactions over open networks like the Internet. Those specs will be published in September. The whole system should be ready to go by early 1996, officials from both companies said. Adam Schoenfeld, analyst at New York City's Jupiter Communications, told Newsbytes the deal is good, because "it's really going to bring along consumer acceptance" of using credit cards to pay for goods and services via the Internet. Schoenfeld said it all adds up to perception. "People have some founded fears and unfounded fears about putting their credit card over the Internet, which is probably a less risky proposition than leaving your credit card receipt on a table in a restaurant," he said. Making consumers comfortable about using credit cards on the Internet will be the key for future electronic commerce, and to have Visa and MasterCard put their "Good Housekeeping Seal Of Approval" on a standard, as Schoenfeld put it, will help in improving those perceptions." One aspect of the deal that bothered Schoenfeld is the possibility that a user would be able to use only one computer to make secured purchases, a fact that was revealed during last Friday's news conference. "I'm worried about users being tied to one machine," he said, "because I think there are going to be computers everywhere in the coming years, and you may want to use your work machine, your home machine, your machine upstairs, your machine downstairs." In general, Schoenfeld said he was anxious to see what comes out of Friday's deal, especially with other security standards being developed or already implemented on the Internet. (Bob Woods/19950626/Press Contact: Adam Schoenfeld, Jupiter Communications, 212-941-7423) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 06/26/95 CHIPS NEC Plans Chip Technology Export To China (NEWS)(CHIPS)(TYO)(00003) NEC Plans Chip Technology Export To China 06/26/95 TOKYO, JAPAN, 1995 JUN 26 (NB) -- NEC Corporation (TOKYO:6701) is planning to export technology to manufacture advanced semiconductors to China. The exports are now possible thanks to the scrapping last year of COCOM, the Paris-based Coordinating Committee for Export Control, which restricted high-tech exports to communist countries. Under the plan, NEC will send chipmaking technology to Shougang NEC Electronics Co., a joint venture company established four years ago between the Tokyo electronics giant and a local Chinese steel manufacturer. Speaking to Newsbytes, Mark Pearce of NEC in Tokyo explained that the plan is still waiting approval. "We're waiting for licensing from MITI," he said, referring to Japan's Ministry for International Trade and Industry. "The Japanese government still applies COCOM rules to this technology so it's still subject to the regulations. We must get permission first." Once the equipment arrives and is installed, the Chinese company will begin manufacture of 8-bit microprocessors for household appliances, a product in strong demand in China. The company also intends to begin production of 4-megabit DRAM (dynamic random access memory) chips which are currently imported into the country. Tokyo-based NEC will invest a further 10 billion yen ($117 million), enabling a 70% increase in output capacity to 5,000 six-inch chip wafers a month. Currently the Chinese plant assembles microprocessors. Pearce explained, "We are making and assembling microprocessors and microcontrollers there. In order to get proper production we need to get more advanced equipment such as submicron equipment." A report released last week by private research organization Dataquest Japan KK showed China's chip market is likely to average a 21.5% growth over each of the next few years to become Asia's second largest chip market, excluding Japan. It said that China will take a 15% share of the entire $46.4 billion Asian chip market in 1998. Main factors for the growth are China's massive population and a strong demand for new consumer electronics. Shougang-NEC Electronics was established in 1991 by NEC Corporation and Shoudu Iron and Steel Company. Ownership falls 60% with the Chinese steel makers and the remaining 40% with NEC. The company most recently began full-scale production of computer chips when its new 26 billion yen ($306 million) LSI production line opened in November last year. The plant, one of the most advanced in Asia, has been producing 5-inch diameter silicon wafers using a 1.2-micron rule. (Martyn Williams/19950626/Press contact : Mark Pearce, NEC Corporation, +81-3-3798-6511, fax +81-3-3457-7249; Reader Contact: NEC Corporation, +81-3-3454-1111) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 06/26/95 BUSINESS HP Buys Part of I-Stat; Forms Marketing Alliance (NEWS)(BUSINESS)(MSP)(00004) HP Buys Part of I-Stat; Forms Marketing Alliance 06/26/95 PRINCETON, NEW JERSEY, U.S.A., 1995 JUN 26 (NB) -- Hewlett-Packard Company (NYSE:HWP) (HP) said it will plunk down $61 million dollars to buy 14% worth of equity in i-Stat Corporation (NASDAQ:STAT). The deal is part of a strategic alliance that calls for HP to market i-Stat's products worldwide. i-Stat sells point-of-care blood analysis products, with its portable hand-held blood analyzer. Officials say the product reduces a roomful of testing equipment to a single cartridge no bigger than a matchbook. HP will market the i-Stat system across Europe, Africa, and the Middle East in the first phase of the alliance. The i-Stat system uses a tiny biosensor cartridge, along with a hand-held battery-operated analyzer. Each cartridge contains a biosensor that require only two drops of blood to generate accurate readings for a wide range of commonly ordered blood tests. "We believe point-of-care testing is beginning to gain more acceptance in hospitals," James Cyrier, general manager of HP's Patient Monitoring Division, told Newsbytes. "We also believe there's a tremendous potential to integrate i-Stat's state-of-the-art technology into our patient monitoring and information management systems." That system is called "OmniCare," and is installed at more than 70,000 bedsides around the world, HP officials said. Access to blood- chemistry test results through those patient monitors is expected to enhance significantly the productivity of care givers. One of the future applications may include interfacing an i-Stat system with HP's new PalmVue system, which Newsbytes reported earlier this month. The PalmVue is a wireless communications system that sends bedside patient data directly to doctors and other care givers who carry an HP 200LX palmtop computer. The deal also calls for HP to acquire a seat on i-Stat's board of directors. (Bob Woods/19950626/Press Contacts: Peter Greer or Robert Minicucci, Mullen PR, 508-468-1155; Joanne Calve, Hewlett Packard, 508-659-2602; William Moffitt, i-Stat, 609-243-9300) (ADVISORY)(GENERAL)(MSP)(00005) NewsPix Images For Newsbytes Publishers 06/26/95 MINNEAPOLIS, MINNESOTA, U.S.A.,1995 JUN 26 (NB) -- These photos correspond to recent Newsbytes stories. They are online on several major online systems that offer the Newsbytes wire service and available through the Newsbytes publishers-only bulletin board system in Minneapolis. JPEG files are larger in size, PICT files are designed as thumbnails for onscreen viewing. The photos are titled with name/year/month/day. Pict/thumbnail pictures are black and white (gray scale). File message will indicate color if the JPEG image is color. Some of the 'for use' images, may be PICT files. To distinguish these files from the thumbnail preview PICT images, the tag for the color 'for use' image will have PICT, all caps. The thumbnail will remain noted as 'pct.' To become a licensed Newsbytes publisher, call Newsbytes at 612-430-1100 (U.S.) or write to administrator@newsbytes.com on the Internet. Licensing applies to any medium. --------------------------- Week of JUNE 26 - JUNE 30,1995 --------------------------- LIFFE950621 - color / London LIFFE Options Exchange On The Internet: screenshot of home page graphics. INTERWEB950616 - color / UK Company Offers Corporate Web Publishing Services: screenshot of home page graphics. CONTURA950620 - color / Compaq Intros New Contura Notebooks: young woman/student on park bench with new Contura. MULTI950619 - b&w / DEC Adds Prioris Servers, Multimedia Devices: the HiNote Ultra with the Mobile Media attachment. Scene from 2001: Space Odyssey on computer screen. REVELATION950622 - color / Revelation Offers Yamaha 4x CD-R Drive Bundle: the Yamaha 4x Recording System; internal & external units. GS8400950602 - b&w / Fujitsu's New Servers: the server with model next to it for scale. ROUGH950614 - color / UK - Rough Guide Travel Books On The Internet: screenshot of home page graphics. INFOBANK950608 - color / UK - Infobank's Secure Web Access & Ordering: screenshot of home page graphics. KNOWLEDGE950614 - color / UK - Knowledge Computing Offers Budget Web Publishing: screenshot of home page graphics. MILESTONE950615 - color / "Internet Superstore" Adds Online Wine Shopping: screenshot of home page graphics. UBNETWORKS950613 - color / UB Networks Plugs Into World Wide Web: screenshot of home page graphics. WCHAT950511 - color / Worlds Inc. In Starbright Pact, Plans Web "Worlds Fair": screenshot of Worlds Chat environment and virtual characters. PRESENT950614 - b&w / Novell Intros Presentations 3.0 For Windows On CD: screenshot of graphics thumbnails. CREATIVITY950607 - color / Digital World - Children's Peace Festival Online: Peter Rosen, screen left with hat, at Creativity Cafe. CREATIVE950616 - color / CD-ROM Program Teaches More Creative Photography: screenshot from CD-ROM illustrating use of 300mm lense and compression. ORACLE950614 - color / ****Oracle & Intel Plan ISDN Online Service: screenshot of the KidsMail viewer. TEXAS950601 - color / UK - TI Intros Pentium TravelMate 5000 Notebooks : PC on rock slab and artful background. LOVENET950606 - color / UK - Computer Dating On World Wide Web: screenshot of main menu. TERASTAR950602 - b&w / "Briefcase" Terminal Offers Phone, Fax, Data Anywhere: the briefcase opened to show gear. SFTBOARD950605 - color / Microfield's Personal Size Electronic Whiteboard: the new softboard in an office cubicle. STARSIGHT950602 - color / StarSight Telecast Offers Interactive TV Product: screenshot of viewing guide. EDMARK950607 - color / Edmark Plans 4 Educational Windows 95 CD-ROMs: screenshot of the main menu from Sammy's Science House. EMBARQUE950605 - color / EnCompass Gets Upgrade, New Name: screenshot of toolbar. THROTTLE950602 - color / Thrustmaster Ships F-16 Throttle For FLCS Joystick: the joystick/controller, very military. EASYBALL950512 - color / Microsoft Announces Kid's Pointing Device: cute kid in action with oversized simplified trackball. DIAMAR950515 - color / Diamar Gets Financing, Inks Golf Tips CD-ROM Deal: screenshot from the Better Photography CD-ROM. TI92950515 - b&w / TI Intros TI-92 Math, Text Calculator: shot of the unit, equations and graph on screen. DIGITAL950526 - b&w / Digital Cuts PC Prices: the DEC Starion. VG950531 - color / VideoGuide Signs The Sports Network: screenshot of the sports guide. ZDS950531 - color / Zenith Intros High-Speed Pentium PCs: the Z-Station GT. TELEGRAPH950601 - color / UK - Daily Telegraph Offers Internet Starter Kits: screen shot of home page. UNET950522 - color / UK Internet Provider Offers Low-Cost ISDN: screenshot of home page. (Newsbytes/19950626) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 06/26/95 NETWORK Unisys's SMP Rackmount Server For PC LANs (NEWS)(NETWORK)(BOS)(00006) Unisys's SMP Rackmount Server For PC LANs 06/26/95 NEW YORK, NEW YORK, U.S.A., 1995 JUN 26 (NB) -- Unisys's development of the newly announced PW2 Advantage Series Model SFR (SuperServer, Fault-Resilient, Rackmount) symmetrical multiprocessing (SMP) server was prompted by the growth of PC LANs, said Vaughn Hysinger, VP of marketing opportunities, during a press conference at PC Expo. The one-hour press event, attended by Newsbytes in New York City, also featured testimonials from network administrators in Delaware County, Pennsylvania, plus an assessment by an analyst with D.H. Brown. Unisys' new SMP rackmount server was prototyped in Germany in March, according to Bruce Halversen, director of marketing communications for Unisys. The prototype was so popular with users that Unisys was "lucky to get out of Germany with it," he quipped. Hysinger, the next speaker to take the podium, quoted statistics from IDC and Dataquest concerning the increasing size and numbers of PC LANs. PC systems vendors often lack the "experience" needed to produce the SMP servers required for large and complex LANs, Hysinger contended. But the new PW2 Advantage Series Model SFR is designed to help fill the gap, he added. The new PW2 is available in mid-size and full-size rack cabinets, he said, pointing to a full-size version in the press conference room. The mid-size cabinet can contain up to two processor modules, and the full-size cabinet up to three processor modules. Each processor rack contains up to four Pentium processors, five EISA slots; four PCI slots (one shared); up to 1 gigabyte (GB) of ECC random access memory (RAM); 512 kilobytes (KB) or 2 megabytes (MB) of level-two cache; nine 5-1/4-inch drive bays for up to 24 GB of hard disk; one 3-1/2-inch drive bay, and redundant 600-watt power supplies, according to Hysinger. The system also provides optional RAID (redundant array of independent disks), UPS (uninterruptible power supply), and DAT (digital audio tape) extension modules, he reported. RAID is supplied by an optional mass storage module that is "fully RAID 0, 1 or 5" compliant, with redundant SCSI (small computer systems interface) modules, he said. The RAID capability is designed to support hot swapping and hot standby. As PC LANs become more prevalent, networks are being managed by more and more individuals, of varying levels of expertise, Hysinger observed. In response, he added, Unisys is including Windows-based software with the SMP server that is aimed at ease of use. In a demonstration for the journalists, Jeff Hewitt, product manager for advanced servers, showed how the software can be used to perform tasks such as assigning server or user privileges, determining CPU (central processor unit) activity, and setting thresholds for alerts. The software uses color-coding to warn users that system performance has slipped below a specified threshold, according to the product manager. The product also provides network administrators with a bit-map image of the system configuration. As corporations continue to downsize from large systems, PC LANs are on the rise, agreed Tony Iams, an analyst with D.H. Brown. But PC networks do not tend to be as "dependable," he advised. PC LANs also need to be "able to talk with other heterogenous systems, and "not just for experts," according to Iams. "We don't see SMP PC servers coming out of PC companies," the analyst contended. Cache size on the servers is "critical," as a result of the need for "scalabiity" to accommodate the need for larger numbers of LAN clients in the future, he pointed out. In this regard, the Unisys product is also on the mark, according to the consultant. Stephen Korejivo, a systems analyst with Delaware County, Pennsylvania, told the reporters that the county had turned to Unisys' SMP server after downsizing to a 1000-user PC network from a mainframe. "We already have security, but the rackmount server adds even more. The server is also very fault-tolerant. If the system goes down, the users will only scream a little bit, instead of a lot," Korejivo remarked. "And we're thinking about adding one more drawer." Unisys' new SFR rackmount server is slated to become available with 100 MHz Pentium CPUs this month, and with 133 MHz Pentium CPUs in August. The system is also designed to be "P6 ready." Pricing starts at $14,000. (Jacqueline Emigh/19950623/Reader Contact: Unisys, 408-434-2848; Press Contact: Patricia S. Buchanan, Unisys, 408-434-2159) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 06/26/95 ONLINE Microsoft Network Authoring Tool Intro'd (NEWS)(ONLINE)(DEN)(00007) Microsoft Network Authoring Tool Intro'd 06/26/95 REDMOND, WASHINGTON, U.S.A., 1995 JUN 26 (NB) -- Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ: MSFT) unveiled an authoring tool to create interactive products on The Microsoft Network at last week's Digital Pencil Seminar, a Microsoft-sponsored event for authors, publishers and literary agents. Microsoft said the tool, being developed under the code name "Scribble," will allow authors and other non-programmers to build online, text-based virtual worlds "almost as easily as they now write a page of text on a word processor." The company said "Scribble" can be used to create "Scribbled Worlds," where end users can adopt new personas, meet other people in their personas, play games, travel from place to place, solve mysteries, and interact with objects they encounter. Text-based descriptions can be enhanced by adding images and sounds to the written descriptions of rooms and objects. Microsoft said it will make Scribble available at no cost to the publishing community in order to encourage authors to create Scribbled Worlds for the Microsoft Network, which is scheduled to launch in late August 1995. A beta version of Scribble is scheduled to ship this fall. (Jim Mallory/19950623/Press contact: Sue Barnes, Waggener Edstrom for Microsoft, 408-986-1140; Public contact: Microsoft, 206-882-8080 or 800-426-9400; for information on becoming a MSN provider call 800-467-6329 or 908-885-6439) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 06/26/95 IBM Windows 95 Apps On Warp: Will They Or Won't They? (NEWS)(IBM)(TOR)(00008) Windows 95 Apps On Warp: Will They Or Won't They? 06/26/95 AUSTIN, TEXAS, U.S.A., 1995 JUN 26 (NB) -- IBM (NYSE:IBM) appears to be hedging its bets on the matter of its OS/2 Warp operating system running applications written for rival Microsoft's (NASDAQ:MSFT) upcoming Windows 95. Recently, The Wall Street Journal reported that Lee Reiswig, general manager of IBM's personal computer software business unit, had said Windows 95 programs would not run on Warp -- though the paper also noted that Reiswig had said IBM could add support for Windows 95 applications if customers demanded it. After the story appeared, IBM spokeswoman Joanne Sager accused the Journal of misplacing the emphasis, but her account of IBM's position did not differ factually from that attributed to Reiswig. "We are not crossing off the option of supporting Windows 95 apps at all," Sager told Newsbytes. "We have everything we need to be able to do that." However, "if we stand up and shout from the mountaintops `we're going to run all the Windows 95 apps right now,' the ISVs (independent software vendors) won't develop" for OS/2. In short, IBM's refusal to commit itself to support Windows 95 software right away is part of a two-pronged strategy to lure software developers to OS/2. The other part is a set of application program interface (API) extensions that IBM announced in May. The API extensions are designed to make it easy for software houses that are writing 32-bit applications for Windows 95 or Windows NT to adapt them to work on OS/2 as well. "Our strategy is indeed to focus on encouraging the development of ... new OS/2 apps," Sager said. She said IBM would like to see applications developers create common code bases for their programs running on Windows and OS/2, making it easy for them to develop future versions for both operating systems. The arrival of Windows 95 could benefit OS/2 in one way, Sager said. In the past, IBM has been trying to sell software developers on creating 32-bit applications from scratch. Now "they're having to move to 32-bit anyway." (Grant Buckler/19950626/Press Contact: Joanne Sager, IBM, 512- 823-3203) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 06/26/95 TELECOM Sweden - Ericsson Scores Moldovian Telecoms Contract (NEWS)(TELECOM)(LON)(00009) Sweden - Ericsson Scores Moldovian Telecoms Contract 06/26/95 STOCKHOLM, SWEDEN, 1995 JUN 26 (NB) -- Ericsson has signed its first telecoms contract with the Republic of Moldova. Terms of the contract call for the Swedish telecoms giant to install an AXE telecoms switch system which will modernize the whole telephone and data network operating in the republic. According to officials with the company, Ericsson has signed the contract through its Italia subsidiary, Ericsson Telecomunicazioni, and its Greek licensee, Intracom. Both parties will be equally responsible for the implementation of the AXE system in Moldova. Plans call for the switch to be fully operational by the end of this year, at which point the switch will service 20,000 phone lines in Chisinau, Moldova's capital. The lines will be installed alongside the existing telecoms service lines, with most customers being businesses who want reliable voice and data comms services. The Republic of Moldova was proclaimed an independent country in 1991. At that point, responsibility for the existing phone network became the Republic's, and since, a number of special projects have updated the international links into and out of the Republic. The Ericsson project will complete the cycle of replacement and refurbishment, Newsbytes notes, but it could be some years before ordinary citizens receive the quality of phone service that their Western counterparts have come to expect. (Sylvia Dennis/19950623/Press Contact: Cecilia Schon-Bostrom, Ericsson +46 8 719 0475) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 06/26/95 ONLINE UK - Demon Internet Expands Virtual POP Facilities (NEWS)(ONLINE)(LON)(00010) UK - Demon Internet Expands Virtual POP Facilities 06/26/95 LONDON, ENGLAND, 1995 JUN 26 (NB) -- Demon Internet Services (DIS), which claims the be the largest dial-up Internet service provider in the UK, has announced phase two of its virtual points of presence (POPs) expansion scheme. At the same time, the company is expanding its number of dial-up ports to maintain its 30-subscribers-to-one modem service ratio. Steve Kennedy, business development manager for DIS, told Newsbytes that the virtual POPs, which use the Energis phone network to forward all calls to its London headquarters, will effectively give 78 percent of the UK's population access to a local Internet service. "The full vPOP list will be announced at Networks '95 (the computer/technology show) in Birmingham next Tuesday," he explained, adding that, in parallel with the progression of virtual POPs around the UK, Demon has brought a further 232 modem lines into use alongside its existing 1,000 strong numbers. "We're also bringing in around 1,000 primary rate ISDN (Integrated Services Digital Network) links, which will accept both analog modem and ISDN data calls, by the end of the year. This will push us to close to 2,500 lines by the end of the year," he said. According to Kennedy, Demon now has around 30,000 subscribers on its network, and aims for a maximum subscriber/modem ratio of 30/1. "We try to keep well below this level, but it's a line we cannot cross, as any higher than this our subscribers will get too many engaged tones," he explained. Kennedy went on to explain that, while on services such as CompuServe can work quite happily with a much higher ratio, Internet subscribers tend to access the Internet for several hours a week each, which extrapolates to a 30/1 subscriber/modem requirement. (Steve Gold/19950622/Press & Reader Contact: Demon Internet +44-181- 371-1000; Fax +44-181-371-1150; Internet Email: info@demon.co.uk) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 06/26/95 ONLINE New Web Site Allows Searches for Professionals (NEWS)(ONLINE)(MSP)(00011) New Web Site Allows Searches for Professionals 06/26/95 NOVI, MICHIGAN, U.S.A., 1995 JUN 26 (NB) -- Using the Internet's World Wide Web to search for information on professions like accounting, banking, and engineering has gotten easier with the introduction of the "Professionals Online" Web site. Professionals Online International, LLC announced the availability of the site today. "There is nothing like it (the site) on the Web right now," Ed Morris, founder of Professionals Online International, told Newsbytes. "It's a very basic kind of need that sprung from the fact that I was having trouble finding information related to my profession and what I was doing. Finding good information is hard to do, and it takes time." He said that professionals like bankers and engineers don't want to take the time to find information, even though it would be helpful to them. Hence, the new site, he said. The Professionals Online site will have a directory of Web sites that contain useful information to a variety of professionals. Many of the listings in the site will contain hotlinks to particular pages of other sites so users don't have to go through the layers of other Web sites to get to the information they need, Morris said. Other features of the site will include a professional exchange that lists job openings, classified ads, and inter-professional communications; "DealNet," a directory of select federal, state, and local governmental Web sites, and a collection of sites that have information on computers and technology. The service is free for users. It will be supported by a sponsor/ advertiser model, Morris said. The service will also include free NetCruiser Web browser software from Netcom On-line Communication Services for employees of each sponsor, Morris said, in addition to the advertising benefits. The site can be found at URL (uniform resource locator) http://www.prosonline.com (Bob Woods/19950622/Press Contact: Ed Morris, Professionals Online, 810-305-6484. Public Contact: Professionals Online International, 810-305-6484; Internet World Wide Web http://www.prosonline.com ) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 06/26/95 WINDOWS UK - "Ultimate Comms Package" (NEWS)(WINDOWS)(LON)(00012) UK - "Ultimate Comms Package" 06/26/95 LONDON, ENGLAND, 1995 JUN 26 (NB) -- Opus One has unveiled DiALL, a Windows comms package that it claims allows easy access to online and electronic mail services, using the Windows MAPI (Messaging Applications Programming Interface) facility to offer "point and click" e-mail sending from within other Windows applications. The idea behind the UKP 99 package is to make life as easy as possible for PC users to send and receive e-mail on multiple online and e-mail services, with DiALL acting as the front end. Through its address book facilities, the package appears as a universal e-mail application to the user, with goodies such as timed logons to multiple services in the background ensuring that e-mail is kept up to date. Integrated within the standard email functionality is a fax module that drives any suitable modem as if it were a fax machine. This, Simon Watkins, the company's marketing manager, told Newsbytes, means the package operates as a single front end for most user's e-mail and fax messaging needs. "The package is quite revolutionary in the way it operates, and is available immediately in the UK," he said, adding that discussions are under way to market the package into Europe and the US. Opus One is perhaps best known for its Remote Winmail package which was, until last year, handled by Finansa, until the company was subject to a management buyout, at which stage it changed its name to Opus One. According to Watkins, DiALL is the first software application to put PC communications where it should be -- not as a separate application, but as a built-in feature of any Windows application. The idea behind the package is that, while it can be used as a stand-alone comms application, most users will choose to integrate its send/receive feature within their existing applications. How does the package work? Essentially, the MAPI features of Windows 3.1 and '95, the address book, message store, and links to other front-end e-mail or online service packages, are all dovetailed into other Windows applications. According to Opus One, what MAPI fails to provide Windows 3.1 or '95 is a universal connectivity engine. DiALL, it is claimed, supplies the missing universal connectivity engine in MAPI, so automatically linking MAPI-aware front-end applications and mail clients to any e-mail or comms network. Shaqil Rashid, a technical staffer with Opus One, told Newsbytes that DiALL is extremely flexible in its approach to external factors, such as choice of modems and handling of various intermediary networks to access online services such as CompuServe. "The package has between 60 and 70 modems built into its scripting system, but the user can also select a generic Hayes modems and then tweak factors such as MNP and handshaking him or herself," he said. According to Rashid, on the networks side, the package is preprogrammed with various network options for online and e-mail services. As new routes and online, as well as e-mail, services arrive, the package can be updated by the user, or by an update from Opus One. In its first edition, DiALL supports an impressive variety of services, ranging from MHS (Message Handling System) networks, Internet, Deutsches Bundespost, right through to generic BBSs and digital mobile phone networks. A version of DiALL will be bundled with the Nokia PCN (Personal Communications Network) data service which Hutchison Orange will launch at the end of this month. The Orange data service will operate over the existing PCN (Personal Communications Network) digital mobile phone service that Orange has been operating for more than a year. (Steve Gold/19950622/Press & Reader Contact: Opus One +44-171-321- 0402; Fax +44-171-839-8488; MHS Hub +44-171-839-8466) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 06/26/95 ONLINE UPS Offer Parcel Tracking Online (NEWS)(ONLINE)(TYO)(00013) UPS Offer Parcel Tracking Online 06/26/95 ATLANTA, GEORGIA, U.S.A., 1995 JUN 26 (NB) -- United Parcel Service is now offering customers the chance to track their UPS parcels and documents via the Internet. UPS, the world's largest parcel distribution company, has opened a World Wide Web page that allows anyone access to the worldwide database of parcel locations. All users need to do is access the Web site, type in the parcel number and an automatic search will begin. Within a few seconds users will receive an update on the parcel or document's current status. The new service allows businesses access to the UPS information database anytime they need, something important in today's business world, explained Dudley Land, vice president of customer automation at UPS. "The speed of business today demands that customers large and small have immediate access to information, and a presence on the Internet is another way to provide our customers with that vital link. "Providing services through the public networks allows UPS to offer more options to the growing number of customers who prefer to do business electronically at any time they choose." The service is also available via e-mail. Users just need to send a message containing the parcel number in the message body. A computer searches for the number and once found, instigates a search of the UPS database, e-mailing the result back to the user. UPS is also providing a variety of other services via the Web page including a time-in-transit calculator that will estimate delivery time based on origin and destination ZIP codes, shipper number or tracking number. UPS also accepts customer service messages via e-mail. In addition to the Internet service UPS is also online on CompuServe (GO UPS) and Prodigy (Jump UPS) and is planning a section on Microsoft's new MSN. Mark Hadlock of UPS explained to Newsbytes some of the reasons for developing the new Web site and service, "A lot of our customers are on the Web and we know there is an interest in it. It's also a growing trend in worldwide business to have a Web page and something that we wanted to get in on fairly early." The UPS World Wide Web home page is at http://www.ups.com/ For parcel tracking by e-mail, send messages to totaltrack@ups.com For UPS customer service e-mail customer.service@ups.com MaxiTrac, software providing access to tracking information and time-in-transit estimates, can also be downloaded from the Web page. (Martyn Williams/19950622/Press contact : Pat Steffen, UPS Public Relations, +1-201-828-6103; Reader contact : UPS, 1-800-PICK-UPS) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 06/26/95 TELECOM Australia - Free One-Way Phones For The Poor (NEWS)(TELECOM)(SYD)(00014) Australia - Free One-Way Phones For The Poor 06/26/95 SYDNEY, AUSTRALIA 1995 JUN 26 (NB) -- Australia's main phone carrier Telstra has announced a plan to place rent-free phones in all Australian households which could not otherwise afford the phone. InContact will allow incoming and emergency calls only. Australia currently has a 96 percent telephone penetration, and the minister for communications, Mr. Lee, believes it would be hard to raise this figure much without offering the new system. In Australia it costs money to have the phone installed, an annual rental on the service and the handset, and a charge for the calls. InContact will allow users to avoid the annual rental charges, in return for a service which does not allow most outgoing calls. Mr Lee said this would be particularly useful for the elderly and invalid who would not otherwise have a phone, but who could use it for emergency calls and to receive calls from friends and family as well as from welfare agencies. He added that it would also allow unemployed people to receive calls in answer to job applications. A trial of the system found almost universal acceptance, with just two out of 214 trialers saying they didn't need the service. Because the system must be part of a digital exchange, it is not yet available in some rural areas, though this should be largely solved within a year. At present the only outgoing calls are to emergency and inquiry numbers, but Telstra is looking at adding 1-800 freecall numbers and reverse charge calls. Current subscribers are also allowed to swap to the new service, providing they fulfill the basic income criteria. Homes without any existing phone connection will be subject to an installation charge of AUS$173 (around US$125) though this may be paid by an aid agency, depending on the circumstances. (Paul Zucker/19950622/Press Contact: Telstra, Suzanne McKenzie tel +61-3-9634 7059, fax +61-3-9634 3958) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 06/26/95 GENERAL China - HP Celebrates 10th Anniversary (NEWS)(GENERAL)(PEK)(00015) China - HP Celebrates 10th Anniversary 06/26/95 BEIJING, CHINA, 1995 JUN 26 (NB) -- Celebrating the tenth anniversary of CHP (China Hewlett-Packard), HP recently disclosed a series of investment plans to expand its presence in the Chinese market. The plans include a new joint venture in Shanghai, increase in investment to an existing Shanghai venture, and a new fund to support a joint high-tech research program. Ten years ago, CHP was founded as an advanced technological joint venture by China Electronic Import and Export Corporation (CEIEC), China Great Wall Computer Group Co., Beijing Computer Industry Corporation, and Hewlett-Packard Co. with a total capitalization of US$25 million. HP's investment plans, designed to increase its presence in the Chinese market, inaugurate an era of ever-increasing HP investment in China, said the company's president, Lew Platt. Platt expects HP's investment in China in the coming five years will match or exceed that of the past 10 years. More investment projects are under discussion, he said. HP has put more than US$25 million into five joint ventures, computer training programs for Chinese professionals, and donations. HP will invest US$8.5 million in the new Shanghai venture, HP Shanghai Analytical Products Ltd., accounting for 70 percent of the total investment. The venture with the Shanghai Analytical Instrument Factory will target the domestic market initially and the export market later. HP also plans to invest an additional US$5 million to expand the production capacity of the Huapu Information Technology Co. Ltd. HP has already injected US$1.5 million into Huapu, which produces workstations and microcomputers. HP has signed an agreement with the State Science and Technology Commission for a cooperative high-technology research program. A fund will be established, and the program will focus on technology commercialization for both HP and Chinese partners in the areas of communications, computer technologies, biotechnology, and material sciences. HP will initially contribute US$1 million into the fund. (Chih-Ho Yu & Ning Huang/19950620/Reader Contact: China Hewlett-Packard, tel +86-10-505-3888, fax +86-10-505-0390) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 06/26/95 UNIX Stanford Technology Joins Oracle's Warehouse Initiative (NEWS)(UNIX)(LAX)(00016) Stanford Technology Joins Oracle's Warehouse Initiative 06/26/95 SAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1995 JUN 26 (NB) --Stanford Technology Group Inc. has announced its role in Oracle's Warehouse Technology Initiative. Stanford Technology's MetaCube software provides analytical processing for relational data warehouses like Oracle's. David Lichtblau, president of Stanford Technology Group, told Newsbytes, "Oracle has put together a set of partners, programs and products under the umbrella of its Warehouse Technology Initiative. Our role is of a third party partner providing analytical processing through our MetaCube software. "Current operating data transaction systems run on mainframes with raw data that is so vast and low level that it is difficult to analyze," said Lichtblau. "Most users of large data transaction systems operate many different systems. The data warehouse idea is to put data in a rational database so analysts can easily work with it." He continued: "Oracle's recent announcements validate its commitment to the data warehousing market and the need for specialized tools for analytical processing. Oracle customers now have a choice for data warehouse analysis. The MetaCube analysis engine stores all of its data and metadata directly, leveraging the features of leading relational systems." He concluded: "MetaCube allows analysis with a simple point-and-click screen. Most big users use the MetaCube menu and their own in-house programmers to develop the tools analysts need." According to the company, MetaCube provides high performance access to very large Oracle7-based data warehouses through its multi-tiered architecture. MetaCube tracks usage characteristics and automatically pre-summarizes and reuses frequently requested data on the server. MetaCube provides for scheduled and real-time queries that can run on either the client or the server. MetaCube enables development environments like Visual Basic, PowerBuilder, and SQLWindows and productivity applications such as Microsoft Excel to use Oracle 7 warehouses effectively "for the first time," claims the company. (Richard Bowers/19950623/Press Contact: David Lichtblau, Stanford Technology Group Inc., 415-288-7960) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 06/26/95 PC PC Expo - Panda Project Intros Archistrat PCs (NEWS)(PC)(BOS)(00017) PC Expo - Panda Project Intros Archistrat PCs 06/26/95 NEW YORK, NEW YORK, U.S.A., 1995 JUN 26 (NB) -- "We're here today because we think none of the PCs out there are ready to change the history of computing," said Stanford W. Crane, president and chief executive officer (CEO) of The Panda Project, in a press conference at PC Expo held to unveil the Archistrat series of modular, "processor-independent" PCs. "When you look around at PC Expo, what you're going to see is a lot of beige boxes," agreed Bruce Smith, VP of engineering for the Archistrat Systems Group. For the most part, other PCs are still based on the XT architecture, added Smith, who was previously senior technical staff member for IBM's Commercial Desktop Group. Another speaker at the press event, Joseph A. Sarubbi, "father" of the XT architecture at IBM, told the journalists that he had enjoyed "making (the PC industry) explode" with the XT. "Now, I have the privilege of doing it a second time," contended Sarubbi, who is now a member of The Panda Project's board of directors. The Panda Project's new Archistrat 4s Server and Archistrat 4b Workstation give users "the ability to structure the PC in their own ways," according to Sarubbi. At the same time, the new PCs fit "much more in a smaller package," raise PC bandwidth to a new level of 152 I/Os (input/output), and provide a 64-bit bus which is "internally expandable" to either 128- or 256-bits, he contended. The new Archistrat 4B Workstation, for example, is housed in an enclosure "slightly larger than a piece of paper" that can be "displayed as part of office and/or home decor." Measuring 14-inches deep by 13-inches high by nine-inches wide, the enclosure comes in a variety of colors, according to the officials. The Archistrat machines, which entered beta testing in August, will be produced for The Panda Project on a build-to-order basis by Group Technologies Corporation, Tampa, Florida, said Crane. The former executive of AMP Inc. and Molex Corp., founded Panda in 1992. Panda has licensed the core technology to 3M as a "second source," and has also been approached by other vendors interested in licensing deals, he reported. 3M, however, does not possess the rights to some of the technologies used in Panda's implementation of Archistrat, which have been added since 1994. Sales of The Panda Project's products will be performed by Compucorp and Dataflex, according to Crane. Technology Service Solutions (TSS), a joint venture between IBM and Kodak, will provide a "service and support infrastructure." Distribution will initially be "targeted and select," said William J. Sarubbi, VP of sales for Archistrat, and a 13-year veteran of IBM. "We will begin in the Northeast," he noted. The Panda Project, which went public last year, had the fastest growing stock in the State of Florida last year, according to Crane. Initially offered at $5 per share, the stock has since risen in value to $28 per share, he declared. The Archistrat architecture revolves around a passive backplane, a "Compass connector," the VSPA Semiconductor, and a series of pluggable cards that contain the bulk of system logic, according to Smith. The combination of the passive backplane and the Compass connnectors is meant to provide an architecture that will support 64-bit busses today, but can also be expanded to support 128- and 264-bit busses in the future. In the Compass connectors, groups of four pins are arranged around a plastic post. The groups are then nested to provide "a very dense connection pattern." The signal paths between the processor complex and I/O subsystems are designed to be "redefined as needed" to support contemporary standards such as PCI (Peripheral Component Interconnect), as well as new architectures that have yet to come to market. In addition, The Panda Project is housing most of the system logic on two cards in the server, so as allow interchangeable use of processors such as Pentium, PowerPC, or Alpha, for example. "When the P6 comes out, users will be able to just plug it in," William J. Sarubbi illustrated. VSPA, a semiconductor package now under development by The Panda Project, is aimed at reducing the size of today's Quad Flat Packages by more than 60 percent, but also offering higher density, "cost effectiveness," and compatibility with existing manufacturing equipment. Beta test results show that the initial Archistrat systems are "very reliable," Sarubbi maintained. They "never go down," insisted the VP of sales. During a Q&A that followed, Crane said that the first generation of Archistrat "Super PCs" will consist of single-processor machines. But for the future, Archistrat represents "the perfect architecture for multiprocessing," he asserted. The 4S Server, which is slated for release in the third quarter at prices starting at $10,490, will typically run Novell NetWare or Windows NT, he predicted. The 4b Workstation is scheduled to ship in the fourth quarter. In January, The Panda Project will start to look at bringing the workstation to the home consumer market, the CEO revealed. Several users who have beta tested the 4S Server have asked to try out the 4b Workstations in their homes, he pointed out. Archistrat is still in its "infancy," and carries the promise of additional enhancements, Crane told the press. One reporter wanted to know whether Archistrat will be able to run multiple operating systems simultaneously. "All I'd like to say to that is that it's only an issue of I/O," responded Crane. (Jacqueline Emigh/19950626/Reader Contact: The Panda Project, 407- 994-2300; Press Contact: Jeff Mehler, The Panda Project, 407-994- 2300) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 06/26/95 APPLE PC Expo - Apple Adding AIX And NetWare To PowerPCs (NEWS)(APPLE)(BOS)(00018) PC Expo - Apple Adding AIX And NetWare To PowerPCs 06/26/95 NEW YORK, NEW YORK, U.S.A., 1995 JUN 26 (NB) -- With the Common Hardware Reference Platform (CHRP) still on the way to finalization, Apple Computer is now working on adding IBM AIX and Novell NetWare support to its PowerPC servers, said Howard F. Lee, senior VP for desktop, PowerBook, and imaging, in a meeting with Newsbytes at PC Expo. Lee told Newsbytes that the full CHRP specification, which is slated for release later this year, is aimed at providing Apple, IBM, and other PowerPC makers with a common PowerPC architecture for running the Macintosh Operating System (OS), in addition to AIX, NetWare, IBM's OS/2, Microsoft's Windows NT, and Sunsoft's Solaris. Apple's new Power Macintosh 9500 PowerPCs, announced during the week of PC Expo, runs the Mac OS, along with a Microsoft Windows emulation that gets a performance boost from "hardware acceleration," he noted. The Power Mac 9500s also constitute the first PowerPC models from Apple to include the Peripheral Component Interconnect (PCI) bus, Lee pointed out, in a meeting conducted in New York City following a Q&A session for reporters and a product showcase. Both events were attended by Newsbytes at the Maclowe Theater. PCI is one of the stipulations outlined in a jointly developed white paper on the initial specifications for CHRP (pronounced "chirp") which was recently released by Apple, IBM, and Motorola. Apple is now taking the next steps toward multiplatform operability by working on adding AIX and NetWare support to its PowerPC servers, according to Lee. "Our (PowerPC) servers will run AIX and NetWare," Newsbytes was told. During the interview, Lee also characterized CHRP as "the key" to allowing Apple and other manufacturers to support all six platforms. As previously reported in Newsbytes, IBM's new Power Series of PowerPC-based desktop and ThinkPad Models, also introduced last week, are slated to ultimately run AIX, Windows NT Workstation, and new PowerPC editions of OS/2 Warp and Sun Solaris. IBM's Power Series 830, which uses 100 MHz PowerPC 604 chips, and Power Series 850, which uses 100/120 MHz chips, are available immediately with Windows NT Workstation 2.5.1, and are expected to add AIX 4.1.3 on July 7. The Power Series 850 (133 MHz) and ThinkPad Power Series are scheduled to ship July 24 with both Windows NT Workstation and AIX. PowerPC editions of OS/2 Warp and Sun Solaris are targeted at availability for the IBM PowerPCs in the fourth quarter of 1995 and the first quarter of 1996, respectively. Apple's PowerPCs will support OS/2 "after a common reference platform is adopted," predicted Lee Reiswig, general manager of IBM's Personal Products Division, speaking during an IBM press conference attended by Newsbytes at the Grand Hyatt Hotel in New York City. Also as previously reported in Newsbytes, Canon introduced its own, Windows NT-capable PowerPC desktop and ThinkPad models, along with plans to produce PowerPCs on an OEM (original equipment manufacturer) for about 10 other vendors, in a press briefing attended by Newsbytes during PC Expo at United Nations Plaza in New York City. Also in the meeting with Newsbytes at the Maclowe Theater, Lee maintained that the addition of Motorola as a "second foundry" is making it easier for Apple to meet demand for its PowerPC machines by permitting production of more PowerPC processors. IBM was the only company to produce the PowerPC 601 processor, but Motorola came on board with the rollout of the 603 and 604 chips, he noted. Lee also discounted media conjecture that Intel's processors pose a threat to PowerPC platforms. Intel's Pentium processor "operates at only 120 specs," while the P6, which is not even released yet, runs at 200 specs, said the Apple VP. Meanwhile, the PowerPC 604 processor, which is already included in shipping products, also operates at 200 specs, and the more powerful PowerPC 620 is waiting in the wings for the future, pointed out Lee. (Jacqueline Emigh/19950626/Reader and Press Contact: Apple Computer, 408-996-1010) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 06/26/95 WINDOWS PC Expo - DEC's Windows 95 Migration, PC Utility (NEWS)(WINDOWS)(BOS)(00019) PC Expo - DEC's Windows 95 Migration, PC Utility 06/26/95 NEW YORK, NEW YORK, U.S.A., 1995 JUN 26 (NB) -- Right up to five minutes before show closing, the Digital Equipment Corp. booth at PC Expo teemed with attendees taking part in a live video hook-up over ISDN (integrated services digital network) to Atlanta, where Digital support pros replied to their questions about Windows 95 migration. "'Is Windows 95 really going to ship on August 24?' and 'Will it be much of a burden to install?'" are the most frequently asked questions from users. Another is, `What's in it?'" said Vickye Bone, customer services representative in Digital's US Multivendor Customer Services Organization, during an interview with Newsbytes. Bone noted that other vendors' booths at this year's PC Expo had also enjoyed brisk business. "The vendors have been saying, `PC Expo is the place to be for corporate.' You really have to be at Comdex, too. But Comdex is so large that whatever you're trying to do can get lost," she told Newsbytes. Digital carried out its PC Expo hook-up to Atlanta to give users a sense of the company's Windows 95 Migration Services, according to Bone. Digital is one of five vendors chosen by Microsoft to be part of Microsoft's "Windows 95 launch support team," the Digital exec explained. Microsoft has also given Digital the nod to manage the Microsoft Network, she pointed out. "Digital's own network is the largest non-military (private) network in the world, in terms of numbers of nodes as well as users. It's also the most complex," she contended. Also in Booth 3534, staffers from Digital's Multivendor Customer Services Organization gave visitors a peek at Digital's prize- winning PolyCenter AssetWorks management tool and PC Utility asset management service. PolyCenter AssetWorks and PC Utility are both part of Digital's Software Utility program, and each signals a shift by Digital to multivendor support, Newsbytes was told. Other ingredients of Software Utility include volume purchase programs for software from companies like Microsoft and Lotus; software usage, consolidation, and reporting services; and consultation on how to manage software assets. AssetWorks is aimed at letting a company monitor and meter software usage across the entire organization, according to Bone. The product has been entirely revamped from an earlier edition, when it supported Digital platforms only, she maintained. The newly rolled out version 2.0 of AssetWorks runs on Microsoft SMS (System Management Server) on Windows NT over either Alpha or Intel-based hardware. In addition, client support now encompasses Windows 95, Macintosh, OS/2, DOS, Windows 3.1, Windows for Workgroups, and Windows NT, reported Bone. PC Utility extends Software Utility -- once an "enterprise-level service" only -- to the PC desktop, according to the customer services rep. For a "single monthly fee," Digital purchases, manages, and supports PC software, hardware, and networking products for the customer, based on a plan that provides "a defined platform for each end-user." Bone informed Newsbytes that Digital's Multivendor Customer Services Organization was created as part of a company reorganization in 1993. The business unit, she added, is offering Windows 95 migration services in two ways: as a "one-time" project, for companies that "don't want to do it by themselves;' and as part of a larger, long- term contract. Organizations purchasing long-term contracts are generally interested in gaining support from Digital for additional systems, such as Lotus Notes and Microsoft's upcoming Cairo, Bone reported. The two-year-old business unit also offers a number of other services, including a recycling program for companies that want to dispose of outmoded and leftover hardware and software in an "environmentally conscious" way, the Digital official told Newsbytes. (Jacqueline Emigh/19950626/Reader Contact: Digital Equipment Corporation, 508-493-5111; Press Contact: Jessie Hennion, Sterling Hager Inc. for DEC, 617-259-1512) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 06/26/95 TELECOM Hong Kong Gets Skytel Global Paging (NEWS)(TELECOM)(HKG)(00020) Hong Kong Gets Skytel Global Paging 06/26/95 CENTRAL, HONG KONG, 1995 JUN 26 (NB) -- Mtel International, part of Mobile Telecommunication Technologies Corp., will offer its SkyTel global messaging services to customers in Hong Kong through a license held by its local subsidiary Sky Telecom Services Limited. Subscribers will have access to the company's comprehensive bilingual paging service in the territory, as well as Mtel's global messaging network which presently covers Malaysia, Singapore and Indonesia as well as North America, Latin America, Europe and the Caribbean. The company plans to add other Asian countries to the network, including China and the Philippines. Sky Telecom also plans to launch the first integrated personal organizer pager in Hong Kong. The Casio IP 800 will allow messages to be transmitted directly to a palmtop. (Mike Dunn/19950623) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 06/26/95 BUSINESS Cathay Orders $25.6M In Computers From Unisys (NEWS)(BUSINESS)(HKG)(00021) Cathay Orders $25.6M In Computers From Unisys 06/26/95 CENTRAL, HONG KONG, 1995 JUN 26 (NB) -- In the first definitive statement yet that it will move its computer operations center from Hong Kong to Australia, Cathay Pacific has ordered HK$200 million (US$25.6 million) worth of mainframe computer equipment from Unisys Hong Kong for installation at its new Sydney site. The deal is part of a long-term agreement that includes Unisys helping establish Cathay's Sydney Data Centre by November this year. Under the terms of the contract Cathay will rent a top-end 2200/922 mainframe system over three years and purchase a smaller 2200/500 mainframe outright from Unisys. The computer vendor will also provide a full disaster recovery site in Sydney for five years as well as a range of peripherals and support services. Although Cathay's current operations center on Hong Kong island will be virtually shut down, the airline will retain its development center, also primarily Unisys-based, at Kai Tak Airport. When the cut-over is complete, Cathay's CUPID passenger reservation system, CUBIC cargo booking system, CUBAC departure control system, and a range of additional software applications available under the Unisys Standard Airline System, will be run out of Australia. While the main computer system will be based in Sydney, the Cathay Pacific account and the resulting revenue will remain under Steve Kucia's Unisys Hong Kong operation. According to one insider, so many of the airline's Hong Kong support personnel will be transferred to the Sydney center that it will be a predominantly Cantonese-speaking operation. (Mike Dunn/19950615) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 06/26/95 GENERAL Philippines - Dealers Vow To Import Green PCs (NEWS)(GENERAL)(TYO)(00022) Philippines - Dealers Vow To Import Green PCs 06/26/95 MANILA, PHILIPPINES, 1995 JUN 26 (NB) -- Wholesalers and retailers of branded personal computers in the Philippines will exert efforts to import only environmental friendly computers and peripherals into the country. The announcement was made by the Computer Distributors and Dealers Association of the Philippines (COMDDAP). COMDDAP president, Salvador Lastrilla, tells Newsbytes that COMDDAP's 38 members, wholesalers or retailers of mostly branded computers and terminals, account for about 40 percent of annual computer sales in the Philippines. Most of these sales are to corporate buyers. Lastrilla said that COMDDAP would finally initiate steps to reverse a trend that has seen growing numbers of PCs in the country becoming a threat to the Philippine environment. Lastrilla pointed out that 70,000 to 120,000 PCs would be imported by Philippine computer wholesalers within the next 12 months that will contribute around 360,000 cubic feet of non-biodegradable substances. These non-biodegradable packaging substances would be enough to equal the height of a 20-story building standing on a 1800 square feet lot, he reports. Lastrilla further said that the present installed base of over 240,000 PCs plus the 70,000 to 120,000 PCs to be imported within the next 12 months would require 72,000 kilowatts of electric power which is about one-tenth of generating capacity of Metro Manila's Malaya power plant. In view of this, COMDDAP will soon come out with an Energy Star Certification program. At the same time, it will encourage installation of e-mail systems to minimize the use of paper by its members. The Energy Star certification would be given to all computers judged by COMDDAP to be energy efficient. On the other hand, the e-mail system would be interactive to allow for uploading or downloading of brochures and technical specifications to members. (Metropolitan Computer Times/19950623/Internet e-mail dilips@netcom.com) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 06/26/95 TELECOM China - Siemens Sells Telecom Equipment (NEWS)(TELECOM)(PEK)(00023) China - Siemens Sells Telecom Equipment 06/26/95 BEIJING, CHINA, 1995 JUN 26 (NB) -- China's Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications (MPT) has signed a US$14 million contract with Siemens in Beijing to purchase digital transmission equipment called Synchronized Digital Hierarchy (SDH). The SDH equipment will be used to expand the switching capacity of the 2,300-kilometer coastal trunk line linking Shanghai and Guangzhou. Since the opening of the backbone trunk line, the longest in China, in July 1993, insufficient switching equipment has hampered its transmission capacity. The trunk can currently accommodate about 13,000 phone lines, MPT officials, attending the signing ceremony, said. The introduction of SDH could increase the line's capacity by ten times. Upon completion of the project, it will be possible to simultaneously connect some 100,000 long distance telephone calls through the trunk, they said. MPT opened the contract for bidding. Siemens won the contract by beating competitors AT&T from the United States, PKI from Germany, Northern Telecom from Canada, and Alcatel from France. Siemens and Guangzhou Nanfang Transmission Systems will jointly supply the equipment, said the general manager of the Public Communication Networks Group (PCNG) under Siemens. According to the purchase contract, delivery is expected to be made by December 15 of this year. China urged Siemens to organize production at the earliest possible date to ensure timely implementation of the equipment. "Though the project is extremely ambitious, we believe that by working together, we will be able to finish it on time," the chief representative of PCNG said. At the signing ceremony, the general manager of Guangzhou Nanfang, a subsidiary company of Siemens, announced that his company has already started assembling SDH in China. (Chih-Ho Yu & Ning Huang/19950622) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 06/26/95 TELECOM China - Foreigners Not Allowed To Operate Telecom Services (NEWS)(TELECOM)(PEK)(00024) China - Foreigners Not Allowed To Operate Telecom Services 06/26/95 BEIJING, CHINA, 1995 JUN 26 (NB) -- The Minister of Posts and Telecommunications (MPT) says that the country will not allow foreign companies to operate or manage telephone services. Minister Mr. Wu Jichuan said that the State will keep its monopoly in telephone services but he left open the door for investors to put capital into other segments of China's telecom market. Since 1993, more than 2,000 firms have entered China's telecom market, including in the area of radio paging. He said the Chinese government will continue to open its telecoms equipment manufacturing sectors, and attract foreign capital on the grounds that "foreign companies or individuals will not be allowed to be involved in operations and management of telecom services." About the new connection of ChinaNet to Internet, the minister said that link with the Internet means progress in science and technology for China. However, he said that linking with Internet does not mean absolute freedom of information. The government will limit access of Chinese users to Internet information, he said. However, he did not specify what information will be subject to such restriction. Newsbytes also learned that establishment of connections to the Internet will also be regulated by the government, but details of the regulation are not clear yet. (Chih-Ho Yu & Ning Huang/19950622/Reader Contact: Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications, tel +86-10 601-4049) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 06/26/95 GENERAL Fuji Xerox Establishes California Research Facility (NEWS)(GENERAL)(TYO)(00025) Fuji Xerox Establishes California Research Facility 06/26/95 TOKYO, JAPAN, 1995 JUN 26 (NB) -- Fuji Xerox has announced the establishment of a new research laboratory in California next to the existing Xerox Palo Alto Research Center (Xerox PARC). The center will be the first laboratory in the US for Fuji Xerox. Activities at the new facility, the Fuji Xerox Palo Alto Laboratory (FXPAL), will focus on development of new systems, products and technologies for the office of the future, according to the company. The work will fall mainly in the group-based document handling and management area and will be produced for multiple languages and operating platforms. Cordell Koland of Fuji-Xerox told Newsbytes more about the research that would be carried out. "It will be mainly in the field of digital software technology. Fuji Xerox is moving towards the creation of a totally digital document where everything is software driven." The representative also added that "In addition to emerging technologies, scientists expect to pursue research into electronic document delivery systems, personal digital assistants, color imaging and document image analysis." Its close geographical location with Xerox PARC will be matched by a close working relationship with the organization. The new center will also serve to provide a bridge to major North American university, government and private research laboratories. It's that link and its geographical location that made Palo Alto the perfect place for FXPAL, as Koland explained. "We looked at many locations but decided that in order to do cutting edge digital document research it needs to be in Silicon Valley." Over the next two years FXPAL expects to employ around 40 people, mostly research staff and professionals. Tatsuya Uyetani, a member of the Fuji Xerox board of directors, has been named chairman and CEO with Dr. James D. Baker to serve as chairman and COO. At the inauguration of the new center, Uyetani remarked: "There is no question that Silicon Valley, in general, and Xerox PARC, in particular, have been at the forefront of technology research. We intend to learn from these examples as well as make a significant contribution to new and established fields of research." Tony Kobayashi, chairman and CEO of Fuji Xerox, commented: "Our business and that of the other companies in the Xerox group increasingly has become global in scope. If we are to maintain our competitive edge, we must avail our company of the best minds in the world to enhance our research effort." Tokyo-based Fuji Xerox is a joint venture between Japan's Fuji Photo Film Co. and Rank Xerox of England. (Martyn Williams/19950626/Press contact : Cordell Koland, Fuji Xerox, +1-415-390-0209) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 06/26/95 HEALTH Group Examines Health Info Infrastructure (NEWS)(HEALTH)(WAS)(00026) Group Examines Health Info Infrastructure 06/26/95 WASHINGTON, D.C., U.S.A., 1995 JUN 26 (NB) -- The Council on competitiveness, a private-sector group that advises the government, will be taking at look at the health care information infrastructure. The project will take an in-depth look at the ways advances in the information infrastructure can impact such areas as medical applications, delivery systems and research. Spokeswoman Tara Falwell told Newsbytes that the project is on a one-year timetable and the four working groups have already begun digging into their subjects. The four groups will focus on: -- Information infrastructure barriers and opportunities for individuals who want to assume more responsibility for their own health, as well as those who are ill and homebound. -- Barriers and opportunities for geographically dispersed health care providers to work together through telecommunications technologies. -- Opportunities to improve health care information systems, including financial systems, databases, patient records, and the like. The emphasis will be on better resource allocation and improved integration of records. -- Opportunities to use information technologies to improve medical research. The project is chaired by Robert Hattery, chief executive officer of the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn., and John Rollwagen, chairman of Plasma & Materials Technologies, a Minneapolis firm. "Every day we hear about medical breakthroughs that depend on technological research," says Rollwagen. "This project brings together all the players -- physicians, researchers, industry and others -- in order to scope opportunities the national information infrastructure is creating in the health care market." The project is an outgrowth of the council's conference last fall on the information infrastructure for the 21st century. That conference was the finale to a project that examined a number of broad policy issues related to the development of an advanced information infrastructure as has been proposed by Vice President Al Gore. "Many segments of our society do not have access to health care and are under served by the system," says Mayo's Hattery. "The national information infrastructure has the potential to make health care and health care information more accessible to all segments of the population. This project will suggest ways to overcome the barriers preventing that from happening more quickly, efficiently and more cost effectively." (Kennedy Maize/19950626/Press Contact: Tara Falwell, 202-682-4292) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 06/26/95 TRENDS ****US Electronics Trade Gap Grows (NEWS)(TRENDS)(WAS)(00027) ****US Electronics Trade Gap Grows 06/26/95 WASHINGTON, D.C., U.S.A., 1995 JUN 26 (NB) -- While exports of electronics products from the US grew substantially in the first quarter, imports grew more rapidly and the US electronic trade gap widened, according to the Electronic Industries Association. Imports of foreign electronics products in the first quarter hit $32.7 billion, a 23 percent increase over the 1994 first quarter of $26.6 billion. US electronic exports grew to $28.2 billion, up 19 percent over the $23.8 billion in exports for the first quarter of last year. The overall trade deficit for US electronics hit $4.5 billion for the quarter, nearly 60 percent higher than the $2.8 billion in the 1994 first quarter. Imports of computers and peripherals reached $7.4 billion for the first quarter, up eight percent over the $6.9 billion in first quarter 1994 imports, leading to a $1.9 billion trade deficit, compared to a $1.5 billion deficit for the first quarter of 1994. Imports of consumer electronics were $4.4 billion for the quarter, an 18 percent increase compared to the $3.8 billion in last year's first quarter. Exports of consumer electronics grew to 978 million, 23 percent over last year's $797 million for the quarter. Telecommunications exports reached $3.7 billion, a 32 percent gain over the $2.8 billion for the first quarter last year. Telecommunications imports were $3 billion for the quarter, up 22 percent from the $2.5 billion last year. The US had a $735 million trade surplus in telecommunications gear, versus a surplus of $356 million for the first quarter of last year. The US has a positive balance of trade in five of the nine categories of goods that it tracks -- electron tubes, telecommunications, defense communications, industrial electronics, and electromedical equipment. The deficit occurred in four categories -- passive components, solid state products (semiconductors), consumer electronics, and computer and peripherals. In semiconductors, US exports grew 28 percent to $7.6 billion, up from $5.9 billion in the first quarter of 1994. But imports grew 39 percent to $7.9 billion, versus $5.8 billion last year, yielding a trade deficit of $343 million compared to a surplus of $223 for last year's first quarter. EIA put a positive spin on the figures. "Our industry is growing by leaps and bounds," spokesman Mark Rosenker told Newsbytes. "And a lot of the imports are components, because we are working at such capacity that some of our domestic suppliers are already maxed out. Three or four years ago, we had the trade deficit down to almost zero, but that's because we were in the middle of a recession." (Kennedy Maize/19950626/Press Contact: Mark Rosenker, 202-907-7790) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 06/26/95 LEGAL China - SunTendy Wins Software Piracy Suit (NEWS)(LEGAL)(PEK)(00028) China - SunTendy Wins Software Piracy Suit 06/26/95 BEIJING CHINA 1995 JUN 26 (NB) -- SunTendy, the owner of the famous software Chinese Star has won a lawsuit against Taiyuan Taisen Computer Co. over copyright violations. Now SunTendy is seeking RMB3.15 million (about US$380,000) as a damage award. SunTendy is a subsidiary of Beijing University's Founder Group. Its flagship software, Chinese Star, is one of the most popular Chinese environments under Windows. The software allows a user to use Chinese while operation English-language versions of applications running under Windows. As early as in 1993, SunTendy found that the software called "Jinxiang Huafen" by Taiyuan Taisen was very similar to its Chinese Star (version 1.1), Ms. Oh Cheng, the general manager of SunTendy's sales department, told Newsbytes. "After analyzing Taiyuan Taisen's software, we believe that their software is an infringement of our Chinese Star," Ms. Oh said. SunTendy presented 23 pieces of evidence in court to prove that Taiyuan Taisen's product was actually Chinese Star with some minor modifications, and therefore it was a violation to SunTendy's copyright over Chinese Star. The judge agreed with SunTendy's arguments, and ruled in favor of SunTendy. A further hearing for punitive damages has been scheduled, Ms. Oh told Newsbytes. This is not a simple case of selling pirated software copies because Taiyuan Taisen did make some effort to change the appearance of the software, Ms. Oh said. But fortunately, Taiyuan Taisen's changes were not enough. "Besides the similarity in many features, even some mistakes, we also found that some software modules were still attached with marks of Chinese Star," she said. SunTendy seeks RMB3.15 million (about US$380,000) in damages. "We suffered a lot from the software infringement, but they made a lot of money by selling the pirated software," Ms. Oh said. In an advertisement, Taiyuan Taisen claimed that 5,000 copies of the software had been sold abroad, she told Newsbytes. Ironically Taiyuan Taisen was named by the local provincial government as a model for excellence in business. On the other side, "I have no comments, we are preparing for the next step," Ms. Zhang, a sales manager of Taiyuan Taisen, told Newsbytes. (Chih-Ho Yu & Ning Huang/19950623/Reader Contact: SunTendy of Beida Founder Group, tel +86-10 845-0347; Taiyuan Taisen Computer Co., tel +86-351 404-0955) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 06/26/95 GENERAL Cognos Chairman Michael Potter Resigns (NEWS)(GENERAL)(TOR)(00029) Cognos Chairman Michael Potter Resigns 06/26/95 OTTAWA, ONTARIO, CANADA, 1995 JUN 26 (NB) -- Michael Potter, who has headed software firm Cognos Inc. (NASDAQ:COGNF) for 20 years, has announced his resignation as chairman and chief executive officer. Potter will stay at Cognos until the firm selects a replacement. #IMAGE 1 20 TWPCX \images\95062629.PCX Click here for photo Potter came to what was then Quasar Systems Ltd. 23 years ago as a consultant. He became the company's chairman and chief executive in 1975, and oversaw the company's transition from consulting to developing and selling software for a range of minicomputer and later personal computer hardware. Today Cognos is known for its PowerPlay and Impromptu data query tools. In an interview with Newsbytes, Potter said he wants to spend more time on personal interests such as sailing and reflect on what he has learned in his time at Cognos. He hopes to apply the results of that reflection to "companies at an early stage of growth," he said. However, Potter said he is not looking to become a full-time consultant. He indicated that he might invest in one or more startup companies and use his experience to help guide those firms' growth. Potter said a key lesson from his experience at Cognos is the importance of moving with the market, as Cognos did when it shifted from consulting to packaged software and then expanded from midrange systems to personal computers. His future will not be all work and no play, though: One reason for his departure is that "I'll be able to plan my schedule to fit in some lengthy time on my boat." The executive, who last year sailed from Canada to Ireland, said he hopes to spend from one third to half his time sailing in future. The timing of Potter's actual departure from Cognos remains open, as the company is looking for a replacement. Potter noted that he advised the board of directors of his plans more than a year ago. He said the time is right for his departure now because the company is doing well financially. "We produced a terrific year... and a terrific quarter," he said. "Why would you want to go out any other time?" (Grant Buckler/19950626/Press Contact: Malena Abel, Cognos, 613- 738-1440/POTTER950626/PHOTO) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 06/26/95 GENERAL Canadian Product Launch Update (NEWS)(GENERAL)(TOR)(00030) Canadian Product Launch Update 06/26/95 KINGSTON, ONTARIO, CANADA, 1995 JUN 26 (NB) -- This regular feature, appearing on the first day Newsbytes publishes each week, provides further details for the Canadian market on announcements by international companies that Newsbytes has already covered. This week: Apple's new Power Macintosh 9500, Color LaserWriter 12/600 PS, and StyleWriter 2400; Compaq's Deskpro XL and Contura 400 computers; IBM's Personal Computer Power Series, ThinkPad Power Series, and AS/400 enhancements; and Microsoft's Resource Kit for migrating to Windows 95 as well as its SQL Server 6.0 software. Apple Canada Inc. in Markham, Ontario, announced the Power Macintosh 9500 computer (Newsbytes, June 19). Based on the PowerPC 604 microprocessor, the 9500 is available in Canada now and is expected to sell for about C$8,750 for the version with a 120-megahertz (MHz) PowerPC chip and about C$10,800 for the version with a 132-MHz chip. Apple Canada also launched the Color LaserWriter 12/600 PS printer (Newsbytes, June 20), a color laser printer meant for workgroups. Available now, the new printer is expected to sell for about C$10,080. Also on the printer front, Apple Canada took the wraps off an updated version of its StyleWriter 2400 color ink-jet model, adding the ability to print by dragging a document icon to the printer icon on the Macintosh OS desktop, the ability to print reduced-size pages two or four to a sheet of paper, and the ability to print a "watermark" or background text on a document. The modified StyleWriter 2400 is to be available soon, Apple Canada said. Toronto-based Compaq Canada Inc. added new models to its Deskpro XL line of desktop PCs (Newsbytes, June 13). Using Intel's 120- MHz Pentium microprocessor, the new models start at a list price of C$6,949 and are available now, the company said. Compaq Canada also added four new models to its Contura 400 notebook line (Newsbytes, June 20), using 75- and 100-MHz versions of the 486DX4 processor. Suggested retail prices are C$3,999 for the Contura 420C, C$5,619 for the Contura 420CX, C$4,619 for the 430C, and C$6,249 for the 430CX. Eric Dubois, notebook product manager for Compaq Canada, told Newsbytes the new models are shipping now and Compaq expects to be meeting demand by July. IBM Canada Ltd., in Markham, Ontario, launched its first personal computers based on PowerPC microprocessors (Newsbytes, June 20). The IBM PC Power Series 830 desktop, with a 100-MHz processor, is expected to have a street price of around C$4,000. IBM Canada also announced the Power Series 850 desktop, to be available with 100/120-MHz and 133-MHz chips. The desktop models are due to ship in July. The ThinkPad Power Series 820 and 850 will retail in the range of C$9,000, the company said. They are to be available in August. IBM Canada also joined its parent company in announcing PowerPC AS microprocessors for its AS/400 midrange computers (Newsbytes, June 22). The new AS/400 Advanced Series models 400, 500, 510, 40S, and 50S, are to be available starting in October, with volume shipments starting late in the year, IBM said. Models 530 and 53S are to be available starting in December, with volume shipments starting in the first quarter of 1996. Prices will range from C$12,870 for the entry-level Model 400 up to C$279,000 for the Model 510. Prices for the top-of-the-line 530 and 53S are to be announced in December. Microsoft Canada Inc., of Mississauga, Ontario, released the final version of its Windows 95 Resource Kit (Newsbytes, June 23), which the company said is meant to help information systems people plan for the move to Microsoft's upcoming Windows 95 operating system. The kit is available now from software stores, bookstores, and publisher Macmillan Canada at 800-667-1115. Microsoft Canada also said it is shipping SQL Server 6.0 (Newsbytes, June 23), the latest release of its client/server database management system. Expected to be widely available from retailers in the next two weeks, the new version carries the same pricing as the old. A server license is about C$1,439, a single client-access license is approximately C$219, and client licenses are about C$170 each in quantities of 20 or more. Upgrades are approximately C$719 for the server, and the client upgrade is about C$109 singly or C$85 in quantities of 20 or more. (Grant Buckler/19950626/Press Contact: Linda Grant or Susan Taylor, Apple Canada, 905-477-5800, Internet e-mail S.Taylor@eWorld.com; John Challinor II, Compaq Canada, 416-229- 8936, fax 416-229-8898; Kevin McKee, IBM Canada, 905-316-3902; Maureen Rourke, IBM Canada, 905-316-4425, Internet e-mail mrourke@vnet.ibm.com; Dave Carter, Microsoft Canada, 905-712-0333 ext. 7037; Karen Secord, Microsoft Canada, 905-712-0333 ext. 7078; Public Contact: Apple Canada, 905-477-5800 or 800-665-2775 ext. 450; Compaq Canada, 416-733-7876; IBM Canada, 905-316-9000; Microsoft Canada, 905-568-0434, fax 905-568-1527) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 06/26/95 ONLINE ****CompuServe To Offer Internet In A Box For Kids (NEWS)(ONLINE)(SFO)(00031) ****CompuServe To Offer Internet In A Box For Kids 06/26/95 COLUMBUS, OHIO, U.S.A., 1995 JUN 26 (NB) -- CompuServe announced plans to offer the first Internet connectivity package designed for children. Planned for this fall, Internet In A Box For Kids is under development through Spry which was purchased earlier this year by CompuServe. Internet In A Box For Kids is based on Spry's well-known Internet in a Box retail product. Along with Mosaic, Mail, and Internet Wizard, this children's connectivity product includes parental guardian software called Crossing Guard. Using the software, parents are able to block out specific Internet and World Wide Web (Web) areas and a tracking component allows parents to check which sites their children are accessing. Crossing Guard also comes with pre-set locations already locked out. Another part of the CompuServe strategy to address the problems regarding child access includes KidNet. Internet In A Box For Kids also includes easy access to a new Web site called KidNet. The site is in development by CompuServe and a Seattle company called FreeRange Media. Expect the site to be ready when the boxed product is shipped this fall. Speaking to Newsbytes about concerns that children have access to undesirable Internet sites, Russ Robinson, director of communications at CompuServe said, "We are very concerned about building and delivering safeguards which allow adults to filter access and exposure to content. This is being done through both software and hardware. CompuServe is moving as quickly as possible to a 32-bit architecture which will allow us to implement more efficient 'locks and keys.' This is an ongoing, long term project. In the meantime, we are working constantly to keep our members aware of the potential problems online. We do that through an information pamphlet about the dangers of online communications, the inclusion of that pamphlet to new members, reminders in our monthly magazine, and aggressive policing responses to complaints." He continued, "All of our members sign an agreement when they enroll at CompuServe. They agree to behave in a legal manner and abide by the rules of online conduct. If we, at CompuServe, are made aware of a problem, we will always address it and pursue it. We have cooperated with the police on a number of occasions. "This is a difficult problem. We receive more than 8.5 million messages a month through the Internet. That does not include the messages within our own CompuServe mail system. With that kind of volume, individual attention to messages and files coming in and out of CompuServe cannot be censored. As well, CompuServe does not pre-censor or pre-monitor any electronic mail," said Robinson. Robinson reminded parents, "There is an element of parental supervision that is being overlooked. The Internet is like a large city. You would not let your children run loose in a city of three million people and you should not let your children run loose on the Internet. It is important that we educate parents through the media, online services and person-to-person communication." Internet In A Box For Kids is currently under development. CompuServe expects this software to retail for $49.95. (Patrick McKenna/1995625/Press Contact: Deanna Leong, CompuServe, 206-442-8231) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 06/26/95 TRENDS ****Polaroid To Create New Type LCD (NEWS)(TRENDS)(BOS)(00032) ****Polaroid To Create New Type LCD 06/26/95 CAMBRIDGE, MASSACHUSETTS, U.S.A., 1995 JUN 26 (NB) -- A $3.9 million government contract awarded to Polaroid Corporation for the development of LCD (liquid crystal display) panel technologies incorporates a new technology codenamed "K," in addition to existing polarization technologies, officials said today in a press conference at Polaroid headquarters. Awarded to Polaroid over 150 other contenders, the 2.5-year contract is the second largest granted so far by the US Display Consortium, an agency designed by ARPA to develop a US "infrastructure" for production of display technologies, explained USDC President Michael Ciesinski, speaking at the press conference, which was attended by Newsbytes. Under the deal, Polaroid is committing $7 million of its own funds to expand and improve its manufacturing facilities in Lowell, Massachusetts for three types of "optical film" technologies -- polarizers, retarders, and ultraviolet absorbers -- plus the new "K" technology, so as to help provide a "domestic supplier base" for LCD screens. "Without optical film, you would be unable to see anything on an LCD screen," said Stewart Bennett, general manager of Polaroid's Polarizing Division, talking with Newsbytes during the press event. The optical films to be produced under the contract are earmarked for LCD panel applications in both the private sector and the military, according to the Polaroid and USDC officials. P. MacAllister Booth, chairman, president and CEO of Polaroid, told the journalists that the establishment of Polaroid Corp. was spurred by Dr. Edwin H. Land's invention of the world's first polarizing sheet material in 1928. Bennett added that today, Polaroid produces polarizing technology for use in applications ranging from camera film, to sunglasses, to glare reduction on computer screens. Portable PCs, calculators, and virtual reality (VR) are some of the private sector uses of LCD panels, according to Bennett. The market for notebook and subnotebook PCs, alone, rose about 30 percent between 1993 and 1994, he pointed out. Bob Pennell, chief technical officer for USDC, reported that military applications for LCDs include battle simulation, VR, and LCD screens for miliary vehicles. A few years ago, Polaroid began to produce technology for a plastic LCD panel, but halted production after finding out that connectors needed for the product were unavailable at that time in the US, Booth recalled. Today, the vast majority of LCD screens are being produced in the Far East, in countries such as Japan, Korea, and Taiwan, emphasized the CEO. In LCD screens, light passes through a linear polarizer, a glass slide, a liquid crystal, another glass slide, and another linear polarizer before "bouncing off a piece of reflective aluminum," according to Bennett. Although the polarizing axes are perpendicular, you can see through them to the reflective aluminum, because the liquid crystal produces the visual effect of rotating polarized light by 90 degrees, to produce "parallel polarizers." Polaroid recently introduced into the Japanese market a new "adjustable-angle" technology that allows the correct angle for polarization to be built into the polarizing material, eliminating the previous need to cut the polarizing sheet at angles to the axis of polarization. In addition, Polaroid has applied for a patent on "K," another new technology, Bennett said. Unlike existing technologies, "K" does not require the insertion of additional modules into the polarizing material, he asserted. "But `K' is just an `extra' for us," Bennett maintained. The bulk of activities to be conducted under the new USDC contract concern polarizers, retarders, and ultraviolet absorbers. Polarizers and retarders are both essential to most polarization applications, Bennett told Newsbytes. Ultraviolet absorbers, on the other hand, typically appear in "high-end" applications. Peter Klien, Polaroid's senior VP of new product development, told the press that over the years, Polaroid has come to view itself as a major player in the "imaging" industry. The deal with USDC will allow the company to add a new "component" of the industry to its traditional role in the hard copy arena, according to Klien. Now that the deal with Polaroid is complete, the USDC has "enabled" $60 to $70 million in display-related projects so far, when funds contributed by both government and private industry are added up, Ciesinski said. (Jacqueline Emigh/19950626/Reader Contact: Polaroid Corporation, 617-386-3112; Press Contact: Greg Venne, Polaroid, 617-386-3116; Bob Guenther, Polaroid, 617-386-3112) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 06/26/95 ONLINE New Grolier Encyclopedia HyperLinks To CompuServe (NEWS)(ONLINE)(SFO)(00033) New Grolier Encyclopedia HyperLinks To CompuServe 06/26/95 DANUBE, CONNECTICUT, U.S.A., 1995 JUN 26 (NB) -- Grolier Electronic Publishing says its '96 electronic, multimedia encyclopedia features subject-specific hotlinks to CompuServe's online service. Instead of connecting a user to a general online area, the new encyclopedia will take a user directly to the latest, related online information concerning a specific subject. Grolier says its alliance with CompuServe allows users access to a virtually limitless encyclopedia. A user reading an article on baseball, for instance, and desiring more information, may click on an icon, connect to CompuServe and choose related subjects such as the latest standings, labor negotiations, new ballparks, individual player information and other current topics. The connectivity to CompuServe and interaction through the CD are, according to Grolier, simple and easy to use with point-and-click commands. A spokesperson for the company told Newsbytes, "This is a breakthrough hyperlinked technology and serves as an optimal starting point for pursuit of additional information. This CD unleashes the constraints of a single CD-ROM." Additionally, Grolier has an area in CompuServe which offers quarterly updates and a weekly feature, "Background on the News." This area offers related current events to appropriate encyclopedia articles. A recent story about the grounding of the steamboat, American Queen, had encyclopedia links through such words as STEAMBOAT, OHIO RIVER, and FULTON, ROBERT. Pricing for the '96 Grolier's Multimedia Encyclopedia will be released close to its mid-September shipping date. Grolier also says more detail concerning this new technology will be released in the near future. (Patrick McKenna/19950625/Press Contact: Paul Carlstrom, Pat Meier Associates Public Relations, tel 415-957- 5999/GROLIER950625/PHOTO) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 06/26/95 ONLINE Netscape Communications To Go Public (NEWS)(ONLINE)(SFO)(00034) Netscape Communications To Go Public 06/26/95 MOUNTAIN VIEW, CALIFORNIA. U.S.A., 1996 JUN 26 (NB) -- Netscape Communications, in business for slightly more than one year, announced it has filed papers with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to for a public offering of 3.5 million shares in the company. The company has aggressively delivered its versions of Mosaic, Netscape Navigator, freely across the Intenet for non-profits and educational use. Netscape has also aggressively pursued strategic relationships with companies such as Sun Microsystems, Silicon Graphics, Digital Electronic Corporation and others. The basis for its profits centers around private network and World Wide Web (Web) developer and authoring tools, Web server software systems and server and client encryption products necessary to conduct commerce on the Net. Netscape has offered commercial products since December of 1994 and reported revenues of $4.7 million and losses of $2.7 million for its first quarter. If all of the SEC regulations for a public offering are met, expect to see shares of the company available this August. The opening sale price will be based on financial results yet to be posted. Last year, former chairman of Silicon Graphics, James Clark, joined with Mosaic designer and developer, Mark Andreessen to form Netscape Communications. In January, McCaw Cellular executive, Jim Barksdale, joined the company which currently has 213 employees. This past April, Netscape sold 11% of the company to Times Mirror Company, Hearst Corporation, Knight Ridder, International Data Group, Adobe Corporation and TCI Technology. Details of the transaction were not available but the deal was estimated to be worth $17 million. Morgan Stanley & Co. of New York and Hambrecht & Quist LLC of San Francisco are acting as co-managers of the underwriting group. Speaking to Netscape Communications, Newsbytes was told, to comply with SEC regulations, specific individuals from the company could not comment on the announcement. (Patrick McKenna/1995625/Press Contact: Rosanne Siino, Netscape, tel 415-528-2619) (SUMMARY)(GENERAL)(MSP)(00035) Newsbytes Daily Summary 06/26/95 MINNEAPOLIS, MINNESOTA, U.S.A., 1995 JUN 26 (NB) -- These are capsules of all today's news stories: ======================================================================== ------------| N E W S B Y T E S D A I L Y S U M M A R Y |---------- ------------| Monday, June 26, 1995 |---------- ======================================================================== (c) Newsbytes News Network (Tm) Editor in Chief: Wendy Woods ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Newsbytes News Network is a computer and telecom industry news wire and digitized picture service. Our news stream includes more than 30 daily first-hand reported US and international news stories about computing and telecommunications. For more information, please e-mail to 'administrator@newsbytes.com' ------------------------------------------------------------------------ CATEGORY HEADLINES (*** indicates today's top stories) STORY # ======================================================================== APPLE PC Expo - Apple Adding AIX And NetWare To PowerPCs......... 18 BUSINESS HP Buys Part of I-Stat; Forms Marketing Alliance........... 04 BUSINESS Cathay Orders $25.6M In Computers From Unisys.............. 21 CHIPS NEC Plans Chip Technology Export To China.................. 03 GENERAL China - HP Celebrates 10th Anniversary..................... 15 GENERAL Philippines - Dealers Vow To Import Green PCs.............. 22 GENERAL Fuji Xerox Establishes California Research Facility........ 25 GENERAL Cognos Chairman Michael Potter Resigns..................... 29 GENERAL Canadian Product Launch Update............................. 30 HEALTH Group Examines Health Info Infrastructure.................. 26 IBM Windows 95 Apps On Warp: Will They Or Won't They........... 08 LEGAL China - SunTendy Wins Software Piracy Suit................. 28 NETWORK Unisys's SMP Rackmount Server For PC LANs.................. 06 ONLINE More on Visa/MasterCard Internet Security Deal............. 02 ONLINE Microsoft Network Authoring Tool Intro'd................... 07 ONLINE UK - Demon Internet Expands Virtual POP Facilities......... 10 ONLINE New Web Site Allows Searches for Professionals............. 11 ONLINE UPS Offer Parcel Tracking Online........................... 13 ONLINE ****CompuServe To Offer Internet In A Box For Kids........ 31 ONLINE New Grolier Encyclopedia HyperLinks To CompuServe.......... 33 ONLINE Netscape Communications To Go Public....................... 34 PC PC Expo - Panda Project Intros Archistrat PCs.............. 17 TELECOM Japan - Personal Handy Phone System Debuts July 1.......... 01 TELECOM Sweden - Ericsson Scores Moldovian Telecoms Contract....... 09 TELECOM Australia - Free One-Way Phones For The Poor............... 14 TELECOM Hong Kong Gets Skytel Global Paging........................ 20 TELECOM China - Siemens Sells Telecom Equipment.................... 23 TELECOM China - Foreigners Not Allowed To Operate Telecom Services. 24 TRENDS ****US Electronics Trade Gap Grows........................ 27 TRENDS ****Polaroid To Create New Type LCD....................... 32 UNIX Stanford Technology Joins Oracle's Warehouse Initiative.... 16 WINDOWS UK - "Ultimate Comms Package............................... 12 WINDOWS PC Expo - DEC's Windows 95 Migration, PC Utility........... 19 ======================================================================== These are the headlines and first paragraphs of each story, in order: 1 -> Japan - Personal Handy Phone System Debuts July 1 -- A new mobile telephone system begins operation this Saturday, 1 July, in Tokyo and Sapporo. The Personal Handy Phone System (PHS) promises cheaper calls than those of conventional mobile telephones, but with minor drawbacks. 2 -> More on Visa/MasterCard Internet Security Deal -- A leading industry analyst told Newsbytes that a joint pact by Visa International and MasterCard International to secure credit card purchases on the Internet will be good for consumers, because two companies with marketing clout will be getting together to support one standard. 3 -> NEC Plans Chip Technology Export To China -- NEC Corporation (TOKYO:6701) is planning to export technology to manufacture advanced semiconductors to China. The exports are now possible thanks to the scrapping last year of COCOM, the Paris-based Coordinating Committee for Export Control, which restricted high-tech exports to communist countries. 4 -> HP Buys Part of I-Stat; Forms Marketing Alliance -- Hewlett-Packard Company (NYSE:HWP) (HP) said it will plunk down $61 million dollars to buy 14% worth of equity in i-Stat Corporation (NASDAQ:STAT). The deal is part of a strategic alliance that calls for HP to market i-Stat's products worldwide. 6 -> Unisys's SMP Rackmount Server For PC LANs -- Unisys's development of the newly announced PW2 Advantage Series Model SFR (SuperServer, Fault-Resilient, Rackmount) symmetrical multiprocessing (SMP) server was prompted by the growth of PC LANs, said Vaughn Hysinger, VP of marketing opportunities, during a press conference at PC Expo. 7 -> Microsoft Network Authoring Tool Intro'd -- Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ: MSFT) unveiled an authoring tool to create interactive products on The Microsoft Network at last week's Digital Pencil Seminar, a Microsoft-sponsored event for authors, publishers and literary agents. 8 -> Windows 95 Apps On Warp: Will They Or Won't They -- IBM (NYSE:IBM) appears to be hedging its bets on the matter of its OS/2 Warp operating system running applications written for rival Microsoft's (NASDAQ:MSFT) upcoming Windows 95. 9 -> Sweden - Ericsson Scores Moldovian Telecoms Contract -- Ericsson has signed its first telecoms contract with the Republic of Moldova. Terms of the contract call for the Swedish telecoms giant to install an AXE telecoms switch system which will modernize the whole telephone and data network operating in the republic. 10 -> UK - Demon Internet Expands Virtual POP Facilities -- Demon Internet Services (DIS), which claims the be the largest dial-up Internet service provider in the UK, has announced phase two of its virtual points of presence (POPs) expansion scheme. At the same time, the company is expanding its number of dial-up ports to maintain its 30-subscribers-to-one modem service ratio. 11 -> New Web Site Allows Searches for Professionals -- Using the Internet's World Wide Web to search for information on professions like accounting, banking, and engineering has gotten easier with the introduction of the "Professionals Online" Web site. Professionals Online International, LLC announced the availability of the site today. 12 -> UK - "Ultimate Comms Package -- Opus One has unveiled DiALL, a Windows comms package that it claims allows easy access to online and electronic mail services, using the Windows MAPI (Messaging Applications Programming Interface) facility to offer "point and click" e-mail sending from within other Windows applications. 13 -> UPS Offer Parcel Tracking Online -- United Parcel Service is now offering customers the chance to track their UPS parcels and documents via the Internet. UPS, the world's largest parcel distribution company, has opened a World Wide Web page that allows anyone access to the worldwide database of parcel locations. 14 -> Australia - Free One-Way Phones For The Poor -- Australia's main phone carrier Telstra has announced a plan to place rent-free phones in all Australian households which could not otherwise afford the phone. InContact will allow incoming and emergency calls only. 15 -> China - HP Celebrates 10th Anniversary -- Celebrating the tenth anniversary of CHP (China Hewlett-Packard), HP recently disclosed a series of investment plans to expand its presence in the Chinese market. The plans include a new joint venture in Shanghai, increase in investment to an existing Shanghai venture, and a new fund to support a joint high-tech research program. 16 -> Stanford Technology Joins Oracle's Warehouse Initiative --Stanford Technology Group Inc. has announced its role in Oracle's Warehouse Technology Initiative. Stanford Technology's MetaCube software provides analytical processing for relational data warehouses like Oracle's. 17 -> PC Expo - Panda Project Intros Archistrat PCs -- "We're here today because we think none of the PCs out there are ready to change the history of computing," said Stanford W. Crane, president and chief executive officer (CEO) of The Panda Project, in a press conference at PC Expo held to unveil the Archistrat series of modular, "processor-independent" PCs. 18 -> PC Expo - Apple Adding AIX And NetWare To PowerPCs -- With the Common Hardware Reference Platform (CHRP) still on the way to finalization, Apple Computer is now working on adding IBM AIX and Novell NetWare support to its PowerPC servers, said Howard F. Lee, senior VP for desktop, PowerBook, and imaging, in a meeting with Newsbytes at PC Expo. 19 -> PC Expo - DEC's Windows 95 Migration, PC Utility -- Right up to five minutes before show closing, the Digital Equipment Corp. booth at PC Expo teemed with attendees taking part in a live video hook-up over ISDN (integrated services digital network) to Atlanta, where Digital support pros replied to their questions about Windows 95 migration. 20 -> Hong Kong Gets Skytel Global Paging -- Mtel International, part of Mobile Telecommunication Technologies Corp., will offer its SkyTel global messaging services to customers in Hong Kong through a license held by its local subsidiary Sky Telecom Services Limited. 21 -> Cathay Orders $25.6M In Computers From Unisys -- In the first definitive statement yet that it will move its computer operations center from Hong Kong to Australia, Cathay Pacific has ordered HK$200 million (US$25.6 million) worth of mainframe computer equipment from Unisys Hong Kong for installation at its new Sydney site. 22 -> Philippines - Dealers Vow To Import Green PCs -- Wholesalers and retailers of branded personal computers in the Philippines will exert efforts to import only environmental friendly computers and peripherals into the country. The announcement was made by the Computer Distributors and Dealers Association of the Philippines (COMDDAP). 23 -> China - Siemens Sells Telecom Equipment -- China's Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications (MPT) has signed a US$14 million contract with Siemens in Beijing to purchase digital transmission equipment called Synchronized Digital Hierarchy (SDH). The SDH equipment will be used to expand the switching capacity of the 2,300-kilometer coastal trunk line linking Shanghai and Guangzhou. 24 -> China - Foreigners Not Allowed To Operate Telecom Services -- The Minister of Posts and Telecommunications (MPT) says that the country will not allow foreign companies to operate or manage telephone services. Minister Mr. Wu Jichuan said that the State will keep its monopoly in telephone services but he left open the door for investors to put capital into other segments of China's telecom market. 25 -> Fuji Xerox Establishes California Research Facility -- Fuji Xerox has announced the establishment of a new research laboratory in California next to the existing Xerox Palo Alto Research Center (Xerox PARC). The center will be the first laboratory in the US for Fuji Xerox. 26 -> Group Examines Health Info Infrastructure -- The Council on competitiveness, a private-sector group that advises the government, will be taking at look at the health care information infrastructure. The project will take an in-depth look at the ways advances in the information infrastructure can impact such areas as medical applications, delivery systems and research. 27 -> ****US Electronics Trade Gap Grows -- While exports of electronics products from the US grew substantially in the first quarter, imports grew more rapidly and the US electronic trade gap widened, according to the Electronic Industries Association. Imports of foreign electronics products in the first quarter hit $32.7 billion, a 23 percent increase over the 1994 first quarter of $26.6 billion. US electronic exports grew to $28.2 billion, up 19 percent over the $23.8 billion in exports for the first quarter of last year. 28 -> China - SunTendy Wins Software Piracy Suit -- SunTendy, the owner of the famous software Chinese Star has won a lawsuit against Taiyuan Taisen Computer Co. over copyright violations. Now SunTendy is seeking RMB3.15 million (about US$380,000) as a damage award. 29 -> Cognos Chairman Michael Potter Resigns -- Michael Potter, who has headed software firm Cognos Inc. (NASDAQ:COGNF) for 20 years, has announced his resignation as chairman and chief executive officer. Potter will stay at Cognos until the firm selects a replacement. 30 -> Canadian Product Launch Update -- This regular feature, appearing on the first day Newsbytes publishes each week, provides further details for the Canadian market on announcements by international companies that Newsbytes has already covered. This week: Apple's new Power Macintosh 9500, Color LaserWriter 12/600 PS, and StyleWriter 2400; Compaq's Deskpro XL and Contura 400 computers; IBM's Personal Computer Power Series, ThinkPad Power Series, and AS/400 enhancements; and Microsoft's Resource Kit for migrating to Windows 95 as well as its SQL Server 6.0 software. 31 -> ****CompuServe To Offer Internet In A Box For Kids -- CompuServe announced plans to offer the first Internet connectivity package designed for children. Planned for this fall, Internet In A Box For Kids is under development through Spry which was purchased earlier this year by CompuServe. 32 -> ****Polaroid To Create New Type LCD -- A $3.9 million government contract awarded to Polaroid Corporation for the development of LCD (liquid crystal display) panel technologies incorporates a new technology codenamed "K," in addition to existing polarization technologies, officials said today in a press conference at Polaroid headquarters. 33 -> New Grolier Encyclopedia HyperLinks To CompuServe -- Grolier Electronic Publishing says its '96 electronic, multimedia encyclopedia features subject-specific hotlinks to CompuServe's online service. Instead of connecting a user to a general online area, the new encyclopedia will take a user directly to the latest, related online information concerning a specific subject. 34 -> Netscape Communications To Go Public -- Netscape Communications, in business for slightly more than one year, announced it has filed papers with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to for a public offering of 3.5 million shares in the company. The company has aggressively delivered its versions of Mosaic, Netscape Navigator, freely across the Intenet for non-profits and educational use. (Wendy Woods/19950626) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 06/23/95 LEGAL Job Complaints E-Mailed, College Professor Sues (NEWS)(LEGAL)(TOR)(00001) Job Complaints E-Mailed, College Professor Sues 06/23/95 KINGSTON, ONTARIO, CANADA, 1995 JUN 23 (NB) -- A community college professor has brought a lawsuit over an electronic mail message that allegedly defamed him. Professor David Egerton of St. Lawrence College brought the suit against his supervisor, Patrick Finucan, over a message, in which Finucan is said to have raised concerns about Egerton's job performance, that apparently was sent not only to Egerton but to a number of his co-workers. According to a written decision by Justice Blenus Wright of Ontario Provincial Court, the electronic mail message "setting out a number of concerns about Mr. Egerton's performance as a professor at the college .... was sent via electronic mail... and as a result was communicated to others and not only to Mr. Egerton." In the decision, Justice Wright rejected a move to have the court case dismissed on the grounds that it should be handled through an employee grievance procedure. The judge wrote that while Egerton has filed a grievance concerning the job review itself, its publication to others via electronic mail is a legitimate matter for the court to consider. "This action is a matter between Mr. Egerton and Mr. Finucan, claiming that the manner in which Mr. Finucan chose to deal with the employment issue by communicating the allegations to others has defamed Mr. Egerton." The case is the latest in a growing list of North American legal tangles related to electronic mail. The issue surfaced in the United States about four years ago when Alana Shoars, an employee of Epson America Inc., questioned her employer's monitoring of subordinates' e-mail. Epson fired Shoars for insubordination, and she sued for wrongful dismissal. Then Nissan Motor Corp. fired two workers over "unprofessional" messages. They also went to court, arguing Nissan had no right to read their mail. (Grant Buckler/19950623/Press Contact: Ontario Provincial Court, 416-327-5000) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 06/23/95 BUSINESS Justice Queries Could Slow CA's Buyout Of Legent (NEWS)(BUSINESS)(TOR)(00002) Justice Queries Could Slow CA's Buyout Of Legent 06/23/95 ISLANDIA, NEW YORK, U.S.A., 1995 JUN 23 (NB) -- Computer Associates International Inc. (NYSE:CA) might have to extend the deadline on its offer for Legent Corp. (NASDAQ:LGNT) because of antitrust questions, a company official has admitted. Earlier this week, CA revealed that the United States Justice Department had given the company a second request for information on the takeover, plans for which were announced in late May. Douglas Robinson, senior vice-president of investor relations at CA, told Newsbytes that an extension of the current July 6 deadline on its offer for Legent shares is "a possibility." CA is offering $47.95 per share for the Herndon, Virginia-based software firm. Robinson said CA now has details of the information the Justice Department wants, but he would not discuss them. The company is "in the process of putting the documents together" to address the antitrust watchdogs' questions, he said. Apparently the government's concerns have to do with overlaps in the companies' product lines that might allow the combined firm to monopolize certain areas of the software industry. In a press conference held to discuss the buyout at the end of May, Jerre Stead, Legent's chairman and chief executive, said flatly that the two companies have not been competitors. However, analyst Peter Kastner of The Aberdeen Group, a Boston-based consulting firm, told Newsbytes he expected CA to take a financial writeoff to cover overlaps between the two operations. He also said CA's leadership in client/server development tools and applications had "made life difficult for Legent." Microsoft Corp.'s (NASDAQ:MSFT) planned acquisition of personal financial software vendor Intuit Inc. (NASDAQ:INTU) was called off recently after the Justice Department raised a number of questions. However, the agency has given the all-clear for IBM's (NYSE:IBM) takeover of software vendor Lotus Development Corp. (NASDAQ:LOTS). (Grant Buckler/19950623/Press Contact: Douglas Robinson, Computer Associates, 516-342-2745; Bob Gordon, Computer Associates, 516-342-2391, fax 516-342-5329; Kathleen Janson, Legent, 703-708-3890) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 06/23/95 PC PC Expo - Samsung's Pentium Notebook, Hard Drives, CD-ROM (NEWS)(PC)(BOS)(00003) PC Expo - Samsung's Pentium Notebook, Hard Drives, CD-ROM 06/23/95 NEW YORK, NEW YORK, U.S.A., 1995 JUN 23 (NB) -- Samsung, now one of the top three monitor vendors in the US, is aiming to achieve the same status for its hard disk drives, officials told journalists in a presentation at PC Expo, where Samsung unveiled its first hard drives for the retail market, first CD-ROM drive, and first Pentium PC notebook. Seoul, Korea-based Samsung has been active in the US market for the past 18 years, explained D.K. Chung, marketing director for Samsung Electronics America, following welcoming remarks by K.R. Song, president of the company. Samsung's line-up of monitors "comes from a position of strength," asserted John R. Grundy, another speaker at the press gathering, which was attended by Newsbytes. Samsung's monitors consistently hold the "number two or number three spot" in the US branded market, according to Grundy, who is Samsung's national marketing manager for monitors. NEC and CTX are the company's major competitors in this market, he pointed out. Nevertheless, he revealed, Samsung is currently planning a major new advertising campaign for its monitors, scheduled for rollout during the third quarter. "We want to become one of the top vendors for hard drives," reported Jeff Edelstein, Samsung's national marketing manager for hard disk drives. As a consequence, Samsung now plans to place a stronger emphasis on being one of the first companies to come to market with high capacity drives and other innovations, he told the press. In addition, he said, Samsung will begin to sell its hard disk drives in major computer retail stores on July 1. Drives sold at the retail level will range in capacity from 850 megabytes (MB) to 1.27 GB, and will run at rotational speeds of 4,500 RPM (rotations per minute). The products will be available with both IDE and ATA system interfaces. Also for consumers, Samsung unveiled the Sens 800, a Pentium- powered notebook offering a DSTN or TFT LCD 10.4-inch color screen; an internal trackball; 16-bit stereo sound; a built-in microphone and speakers; and an optional multimedia docking station with built-in CD-ROM drive. Weighing in at under 6.5 pounds, the Sens 8 also provides a 75 megahertz (MHz) Pentium processor, upgradable to 90 MHz; 8 megabytes (MB) of random access memory (RAM), expandable to 40 MB through memory cards; one PCMCIA Type II slot; one PCMCIA Type III slot; and an integrated power management system. Shipment is slated for mid-July. Samsung's new products in the drive arena include three new 1 GB hard drives, along with a four-speed CD-ROM drive, Edelstein said. One of the new hard drives, the TBR-31081A, is among the first two- platter 1 GB drives to hit the market, he contended. Aimed at the OEM (original equipment manufacturer) market, the product represents the initial entry in Samsung's new "T" series, a line of "advanced hard disk drives" aimed at enhanced performance with regard to storage capacity, rotation speed, and seek times. The TBR-31081A uses "conventional head technology" to achieve high areal density, according to the marketing manager. The new drive is billed as able to record more than 270 megabytes (MB) of data on each of its four data surfaces. The 1.08 GB drive is designed to deliver a 16.6MB per second transfer rate through Programmed Input/Output (PIO) Mode 4 using an IDE/ATA system interface. The product is also available with a Fast SCSI-2 interface. Other specifications for the TBR-31081A include a rotational speed of 5,400 rotations per minute (RPM), 9 millisecond (ms) access time, and MBTF (mean time between failures) of 500,000 hours. The new drive has achieved a Platinum level rating for compatibility and performance from XXCal, Inc. Testing Laboratories. The product can also be used with "green PCs," Edelstein said. Also at the expo in New York City, Samsung launched two more models in its DiskMaster "P" series of hard disk drives: the 1.27GB model PLS-31274A/S, a 1.2GB, three-platter drive that comes in a low- profile 1-inch-high form factor; and the PLS-31084A/S, a 1.08GB model based on a two-platter architecture. The 1.08GB "P" series drive is the first from Samsung to incorporate partial response maximum likelihood (PRML), a technology aimed at bringing improved areal density, according to Edelstein. Both drives provide 4,500 RPM rotational speed; an 11 ms seek time; 300,000 MBTF; embedded servo technology for smoother audio/video performance; double-burst ECC error correction; Samsung's segmented cache management system; and an automatic power-down feature meant to be compatible with "green PCs." With its new quad-speed CD-ROM drive for OEMs, Samsung becomes one of the first hard drive manufacturers to enter the CD-ROM market, stated the national marketing manager. Capabilities of the tray-loading CD-ROM drive include an enhanced AT-API interface; 220 ms access time; 190ms seek time; 256Kb buffer memory capacity; 70,000 hour MTBF; a head jack; volume control; and compatibility with Photo-CD, CD Audio, XA, Video CD, and MPC-2. (Jacqueline Emigh/19950623/Reader Contact: Samsung Electronics Direct, 800-316-9914; Samsung Electronics America, 201-229-4000; Press Contact: Bob Rinklin or Russ Rowland, HWH Public Relations for Samsung, 212-355-5049) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 06/23/95 BUSINESS BMC Software Acquires Australian IMS Software (NEWS)(BUSINESS)(SYD)(00004) BMC Software Acquires Australian IMS Software 06/23/95 MELBOURNE, AUSTRALIA, 1995 JUN 23 (NB) -- Texas-based BMC Software has bought the DDLI Dynamic Reorg product from Australian software company Fundi Software Pty Ltd. This product allows almost 100 percent access to a database even when it is being reorganized. Fundi said that typical IMS (information management systems) database reorganization requires that the database be taken offline, making it unavailable to users during the entire reorganization process. With Dynamic Reorg, a copy of the database is taken and users continue to have access to the original database while the "shadow" is being reorganized. Any updates or changes to the database that occur during reorganization are captured to a file and applied to the shadow copy immediately after the reorganization. The majority of updates are applied while the database is online, and the only downtime occurs when the shadow database replaces the original and the last few updates are applied. Fundi claims the benefit is a near zero outage and almost total data availability. BMC Australia managing director, Bob Malseed, said his company would provide more products like Dynamic Reorg as IMS users become more demanding. "The acquisition of this product places us one step further along in our aggressive strategy to provide solutions for all segments of the IMS marketplace." BMC is able to provide 24-hour, seven-day support for the Fundi product, as well as its existing IMS products. (Paul Zucker/19950623/Press Contact: BMC Software Australia, Karen Ferguson Tel. +61-3-9819 6733 fax. +61-3-9819 6758) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 06/23/95 TRENDS PC Expo - AT&T, 40 Partners Intro "Virtual Workplace" (NEWS)(TRENDS)(BOS)(00005) PC Expo - AT&T, 40 Partners Intro "Virtual Workplace" 06/23/95 NEW YORK, NEW YORK, U.S.A., 1995 JUN 23 (NB) -- In a press conference at PC Expo, AT&T Global Information Systems (GIS) and about 40 third-party partners announced AT&T Virtual Workplace, a program designed to provide mobile professionals with "one-stop" computer technology shopping and support. By calling a single "800" number, Virtual Workplace users can purchase "best-of-breed" applications, communications, and network services, and can also obtain technical support, officials said at the press conference, which was attended by Newsbytes. AT&T GIS is implementing a rigorous testing process to approve third-party partners for participation in the program, according to Tom Villani, director of Virtual Office Solutions for AT&T GIS. Rob Howe, VP of worldwide PC marketing for AT&T GIS, maintained that the new program is ideally suited to corporations that want to deploy an automated mobile sales and field force. The Virtual Workplace is made up of five tiers. From Tier One, customers can choose from AT&T GIS's family of notebook PCs: Globalyst 130, Globalyst 200, and Globalyst 250. Application servers and mobile accessories like printers, PCMCIA hard drives, and portable CD-ROM players can also be integrated at this level. AT&T GIS is also incorporating other vendors' mobile PCs at this tier, Howe told reporters at the press conference. Tier Two, Communications Platforms, consists of products like LAN (local area network) cards, data/fax modems, pagers, cellular phones, and data cables. At Tier Three, AT&T GIS is providing wired and wireless access to outbound voice services, including teleconferencing and voice mail; inbound communications services, such as 500 numbers, for being called at multiple work locations; and 800 numbers; electronic messaging services like AT&T EasyLink, NetWare Connect and NetWork Notes; and cellular access to corporate data networks. Tier Four consists of "mobile client-server automation applications" such as Adaptive Strategies' MobileSync environment for communication with corporate headquarters and customers; Brock Control Systems' Take Control software for automating the sales cycle; and XcelleNet's RemoteWare development tools for client- server applications like order entry, inventory query, and updating price lists and product catalogs. At Tier Five is the Virtual Workplace Premium Help Desk, a 24-hour, seven-day-a-week toll-free hotline for handling service issues related to products in any of the other tiers. Users who buy products and services in tiers one through four from approved Virtual Workplace partners will receive one year of Premium Help Desk support at no charge, according to Villani. Second-year Premium Help Desk support can be purchased through any of the partners. Other support services available through the program include MobileCare Express, for exchanging non-operating mobile systems for operable ones, generally within 24 hours; Emergency Care, for repair of non-working systems and return by courier, generally within 24 hours; and Service Center Depot, for repair and return "using standard delivery procedures, the officials said. Registered users of Virtual Workplace will also receive the Remote Rescue diskette, for "facilitating online troubleshooting and problem isolation." Customized help desk services such as personalized call answering and support for customer-developed applications are available to corporations. Aside from Adaptive Strategies, Brock Control Systems, and XcelleNet, other approved "Virtual Partners" include Adaptec, AT&T Easylink, AT&T Paradyne, Canon, Citizen, Cyphertech, Datastorm, Delrina, Genie, Inacom, Inforite, Logitech, Nokia, Reed Travel Group, SPC, Stac Electronics, SunDisk, Vircom, and Xircom. Also on the list are Lotus, MicroAge, NEC, Novell, Samonsite, Sony, Symantec, Ameridata, Attronica, ATV, CommNet, Compuserve, DSP Solutions, Executive Cases, Mobile Computing Solutions, National Computing Resources, ViewPoint, and Visioneer. (Jacqueline Emigh/19950622/Reader Contact: Virtual Workplace, 800- 979-4242; Press Contact: Kate Bochonko for AT&T GIS, 212-213-7061) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 06/23/95 TELECOM MCI Offers Cellular, "500" Numbers To Consumer Channel (NEWS)(TELECOM)(MSP)(00006) MCI Offers Cellular, "500" Numbers To Consumer Channel 06/23/95 WASHINGTON, D.C., U.S.A., 1995 JUN 23 (NB) -- MCI Corp. (NASDAQ:MCIC) announced two new features to its consumer channel "Friends & Family Connections" line. The company is bringing MCI Cellular and "500" phone number services to the line, which already consists of paging, e-mail, calling card, and long distance features. MCI Cellular will offer the consumer channel what officials call competitive peak/off peak per-minute rates, and a monthly access charge of $29.99. Customers will get free airtime on a monthly basis as part of the MCI Cellular package. Other features include voice mail, call forwarding, and voice mail. Also available is a Nokia 100 hand-held cellular phone for as little as $1. MCI Cellular service is currently available in ten markets, which are Baltimore, Boston, Chicago, Los Angeles, Milwaukee, New York, Philadelphia, San Diego, San Francisco, and Washington. More cities are to be added in the coming months, officials said. The Friends & Family 500 service lets a person have just one phone number where they can be contacted, commonly known as "one number for life" and "follow me" features. Unlike 800 service, all long distance charges are paid by the caller, and not the person who receives the call. The call searches for the subscriber in up to three places. If the person is not found, the service delivers the caller to either a pager or voice mail. Michael Tierney, MCI spokesperson, told Newsbytes the whole idea behind the "Connections" line is to give freedom to the customer to communicate with people in manners the customer chooses. "These two new products are a logical enhancement to bring into the Connections umbrella," he said. Tierney also said that consumers are feeling the need to be more "wired" to communications products in today's world. "Folks who don't use this technology think they don't need to be that connected. But as people become familiarized with carrying a beeper or carrying a cellular phone, they become more comfortable with it. They realize that it's about flexibility and choice, so if you choose to communicate with someone, you can do it." (Bob Woods/19950623/Press Contact: Michael Tierney, MCI, 703-415- 6786. Public Contact: MCI, 800-230-4185) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 06/23/95 PC PC Expo - Dell Intros PowerEdge Network Servers (NEWS)(PC)(DEN)(00007) PC Expo - Dell Intros PowerEdge Network Servers 06/23/95 NEW YORK, NEW YORK, U.S.A., 1995 JUN 23 (NB) -- Dell Computer Corp. (NASDAQ: DELL) used this year's PC Expo in New York City to introduce another branch of its PowerEdge network server family tree, the PowerEdge EL. Dell said the PowerEdge EL is designed for small businesses and corporate departmental workgroups. All EL models come with Novell's Netware 4.1 network operating system already installed, as well as 3Com's Etherlink III Parallel Tasking PCI network interface card. When the EL ships in July you will be able to get the 75 megahertz (MHz) PowerEdge EL 575 Pentium-based system with a one gigabyte (GB) capacity hard drive, 16 megabytes (MB) of memory and Netware 4.1 for five users for $4,033. A 90 MHz Pentium chip powers the EL 590, which comes with a 2.1GB hard drive and 16MB of memory plus a Netware 4.1 10-user pack. That system is priced at $5,743. Dell will also ship a 100MHz EL 5100 with a 2.1GB hard drive, 32MB of memory and Netware 4.1 for 25 users for $7,388 and a system based on Intel's recently announced 133MHz microprocessor. The basic configuration of the 100MHz and 133MHz systems will be exactly the same as the 75MHz-based system except for the processor used, Dell spokesperson Tricia Garner told Newsbytes. The 120 MHz system will sell for $4,792 while the 133 MHz single processor system will carry a price tag of $5,332. Garner pointed out that all Dell systems can be custom configured with more memory or larger hard drives. The minimum setup of all the EL models includes a 256 kilobyte (KB) cache, two PCI (Peripheral Component Interconnect) and four ISA (Industry Standard Architecture) slots, a SCSI (Small Computer System Interface) PCI Adaptec controller card, one 3.5-inch floppy drive, a quad-speed NEC CD-ROM drive, MS-DOS 6.2 and Microsoft Windows. All the systems are covered by Dell's standard three year service agreement. In addition to introducing the EL server line, Dell also demonstrated Serial Storage Architecture (SSA), a high performance standard for connecting computers to peripheral products; and a PowerEdge application server running dual 133MHz Pentium chips, Microsoft Windows NT 3.51 and the Dell Server Management package that includes Dell SafeSite. Garner told Newsbytes the management package monitors critical information on the server, such as the temperature of some components, and can alert a responsible individual via pager if established parameters are exceeded. (Jim Mallory/19950623/Press contact: Libba Letton, Dell Computer, 512-728-4100; Public contact: Dell Computer, tel 800-289-3355 or 512-338-4400, on the Internet at the URL http://www.dell.com ) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 06/23/95 BUSINESS Iomega Finds Zip Drive Manufacturing Partner (NEWS)(BUSINESS)(DEN)(00008) Iomega Finds Zip Drive Manufacturing Partner 06/23/95 ROY, UTAH, U.S.A., 1995 JUN 23 (NB) -- Iomega Corp. (NASDAQ: IOMG) is working with Seiko Epson Corp. to manufacture and market Iomega's hard to get 100-megabyte Zip drive as well as the 100MB and 25MB removable Zip disks. Tony Radman, Iomega's senior vice president of strategic business development, told Newsbytes the drives will be in manufacture by the end of the year. Earlier this month Iomega spokesperson Cory Maloy told Newsbytes consumers were waiting three to four weeks to get their hands on the external Zip model. Radman said today he doesn't know what the current backlog is. Iomega said Epson will also market a compatible version of the Zip drive for the Japanese market. Earlier this month Iomega announced an internal Zip model which will go first to PC makers and will be packaged for retail sale later this year. Radman said Seiko Epson will manufacture both the external and internal versions of the Zip drive. Zip drives, when you can get them, come in SCSI (small computer system interface) and parallel port models. The parallel port version, which has a printer pass-through port, is for IBM-compatibles, while the SCSI edition can be used with Macintosh computers and SCSI-equipped PCs if you want the increased performance of SCSI. When you buy an Iomega Zip drive you also get ZipTools, a set of software tools designed to help organize, track and locate information on the disks. The software is icon-based, with each file represented by one of the little pictures. When you click on the file you want to work with, ZipTools will tell you which Zip disk to insert in the drive. Iomega said external models of the Zip drive are currently selling for $199.95 and the disks are available for as low as $14.95 in multipacks. The external model 3.5-inch Zip drive was announced in October 1994 for both Windows and Macintosh computers and began selling in the US in March of this year. Iomega said the internal Zip drive will be available in two configurations, including one that provides backwards compatibility with 1.44MB-capacity floppy disks. There will also be a combo model that incorporates a Zip drive and a conventional 3.5-inch high density drive and fits in one full-height drive bay. (Jim Mallory/19950623/Press contact: Cory Maloy, Iomega, 801-778-3712; Public contact: Iomega, 801-778-1000 or 800-778-1000) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 06/23/95 IBM TECO Energy Pulls Plug On IBM Deal (NEWS)(IBM)(WAS)(00009) TECO Energy Pulls Plug On IBM Deal 06/23/95 TAMPA, FLORIDA, U.S.A., 1995 JUN 23 (NB) -- TECO Energy has pulled the plug on its deal with IBM to develop an advanced home energy management and communications systems, but the Tampa-based company that owns Tampa Electric says it will go ahead without Big Blue and will look elsewhere for technology partners. "We were not able to reach agreement with them in developing a business plan," TECO spokesman Mitch Lubitz told Newsbytes. "We had fundamental disagreements." But TECO and its new energy management subsidiary, TECO Energy Management Services, or TEMS, are going forward with the test of the technology that uses existing house wiring to turn the house into a local area network. The demonstration will involve about 130 homes and businesses in Tampa Electric's service territory, with work beginning early in July. With the systems in place, customers will be able to control and track their energy consumption right down to the toaster. "This technology will enable a local utility to provide more choices to its customers and help them hold down their energy costs," said Timothy Guzzle, TECO chairman and CEO. The system can also provide an interface for providers of voice, video and data services and serve as an onramp to online services. The system also helps the utility, by providing automated outage detection and notification and automated metering. The TEMS system includes a processor, called a SHUbox, attached outside the house that is a controller for the LAN. The company uses the house wiring for its communications medium. TECO has already filed a patent application for key aspects of the technology. Lubitz said his company is open to proposals from other potential partners, and hopes to turn the TEMS system into a business it can take outside the Tampa Electric system to the rest of the world. "We have already had several calls from other companies," he said. (Kennedy Maize/19950623/Press Contact: Mitch Lubitz, 813-228-4281) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 06/23/95 GOVT ****House Spares Technology Agency (NEWS)(GOVT)(WAS)(00010) ****House Spares Technology Agency 06/23/95 WASHINGTON, D.C., U.S.A., 1995 JUN 23 (NB) -- The House yesterday narrowly voted to save the Office of Technology Assessment, 220-204, after a vote Wednesday to kill the congressional agency by a 213-214 margin. The apparently tainted 213-214 vote caused bedlam on the House floor Wednesday and led the Republican majority to adjourn for the day, as Democrats charged that the presiding officer, Rep. John Linder (R-Ga.), had closed the roll call before two Democrats, Tom Foglietta (D-Pa.) and Earl Hilliard (D-Ala.), could vote to save the agency that advises Congress on science and technology. Linder's quick gavel prompted a chorus of "Shame, Shame, Shame" from the Democratic side of the aisle. Under current rules, House members have 15 minutes to vote electronically and another two minutes to vote manually. The Washington Post reported that eyewitnesses say they saw Hilliard jamming his electronic voting card into a card reader that had been turned off after 15 minutes. A reporter in the press gallery said Linder ended the roll call after Majority Whip Tom Delay (R-Texas) shouted at the rostrum, "Tell him to call it," and stamped his cowboy-boot clad feet for emphasis. An independent timing of the tape recording of the vote showed that Linder stopped the vote at 16 minutes and 45 seconds, some 15 seconds short of the full 17 minutes. Linder's performance had the Democrats in high dudgeon. "The whole question of voting integrity is at stake here," said Rep. Vic Fazio (D-Calif.), chairman of the House Democratic Caucus. Minority Leader Dick Gephardt (D-Mo.) took reporters outside to the sight of GOPers boarding a bus for a fund-raising dinner at the aircraft carrier museum in New York. "They were obviously in a hurry to get to one more fund-raising event," Gephardt said. The Republicans defended the action, noting that when they controlled the House, Democrats frequently held the roll call open for 20 to 25 minutes to allow members to show up. The new majority announced last January that they would keep roll call votes to 17 minutes. Linder said he simply had not seen the two late-comers. But yesterday, Majority Leader Dick Armey (R-Texas) agreed to another vote, saying he wanted to "set straight a perception of wrongdoing." In that vote, OTA's supporters prevailed. The vote was on an amendment by Rep. Amo Houghton (R-N.Y.) to preserve OTA, the congressional science analysis agency. OTA has done many studies on computing and information technologies, including an important analysis last year of privacy issues that said current law is inadequate to protect personal privacy. The Houghton amendment to the legislative branch appropriation would cut OTA's budget from $22 million to $15 million and transfer the agency to the Congressional Research Service, part of the Library of Congress. OTA was created some 20 years ago to give members of Congress information about complex science and technology issues. Former Connecticut Democrat Emilio Dadario pushed the legislation through Congress and then became the first OTA director. Vice President Al Gore was a strong supporter of OTA when he was a member of the House and Senate. Gore was the key figure in selecting former OTA director Jack Gibbons as the Clinton administration's science advisory. OTA critics say they will continue to try to eliminate the agency in a House-Senate conference committee on the legislative appropriations bill. But some insiders believe the generally obscure agency has dodged the bullet. "We will be okay if we make it through this budget cycle," an OTA staffer who requested anonymity told Newsbytes. "By next year, some of these new members should realize that its useful to know what you are talking about when it comes to difficult issues such as computing and telecommunications and that the mantra 'deregulation' only takes you so far." (Kennedy Maize/19950623/Press Contact: Jean McDonald, OTA, 202-228-6204) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 06/23/95 IBM ICL To Pre-Load OS/2 Warp On Globally Sold PCs (NEWS)(IBM)(LON)(00011) ICL To Pre-Load OS/2 Warp On Globally Sold PCs 06/23/95 PORTSMOUTH, HAMPSHIRE, ENGLAND, 1995 JUN 23 (NB) -- Continuing its penetration of the PC vendor market, IBM has announced the signing of a pre-load contract for OS/2 with ICL. The deal means that ICL will pre-load OS/2 Warp on to Fujitsu ICL, ErgoPro and ErgoLite PCs sold world-wide. Jorma Ninivaara, director of software and networking with ICL Personal Systems Europe, explained that OS/2 Warp offers an advantage over MS-Windows 3.1 "with its robust 32-bit multitasking, the ease of use and the built-in application software, including easy Internet access and Office applications." "In addition to this, the OS/2 Warp family will grow to offer further interesting solutions for both professional and home users of our PCs," he explained. Over at IBM Europe, meanwhile, Hermann Lamberti, Big Blue's general manager for software sales, said the number of PC vendors pre-loading Warp is increasing, and "we are particularly delighted to welcome ICL, a leading European manufacturer." In the absence of Windows '95, which Microsoft is insisting will ship on schedule in late August, IBM is capitalizing with the 32-bit nature of OS/2 Warp. To date, the operating system (in the original OS/2 and later editions), has won 60 awards for technical excellence, Newsbytes notes. OS/2 Warp, meanwhile, has sold more than two million copies since its launch last November, pushing sales of the 32-bit OS/2 to nine million plus world-wide. (Steve Gold/19950623/Press Contact: Val Russell, IBM Press Office +44- 1256-344390; Internet Email val_russell@uk.ibm.com; Reader Contact: IBM Software Enquiry Desk +44-1329-242728; Internet Email: Ggbib6jl@ibmmail.com.uk) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 06/23/95 ONLINE More On PSI Acquisition Of UK Internet Provider (NEWS)(ONLINE)(LON)(00012) More On PSI Acquisition Of UK Internet Provider 06/23/95 LONDON, ENGLAND, 1995 JUN 23 (NB) -- Performance Systems International (PSINet) has signed a letter of intent to acquire a controlling interest in EUnet GB Limited. According to EUnet, which operates as a wholly owned company of the University of Kent in Canterbury, England, Virginia-based PSINet will take an 85 percent stake in EUnet GB for around $4 million. EUnet GB is one of the oldest Internet service providers in the UK, having been run for almost a decade. The company, which has an 11 percent stake in EUnet, the European Internet service provider (as do several other European country specific EUnet operations), has 12 PoPs (points of presence) in the UK and claims to service around 760 commercial customers. Commenting on the investment, William Schrader, PSINet's chairman, said that he is very excited by EUnet's success and momentum in the UK market. "During the remainder of 1995, we plan to fully integrate PSINet's technological strength at each of EUnet GB's PoPs, increase the number of PoPs, and broaden the services offered. Our goal is to improve the quality of the customer's experience, whether a large company or an individual working from home," he said. Dr Timothy Mead, registrar of the University of Kent said that the University "has been pleased to see EUnet GB develop from an idea in its computing laboratory into a company which offers an excellent strategic fit with PSINet." "We are very excited about the opportunities which will now be available to Internet users in Europe and the USA," he said. EUnet GB Managing Director Deri Jones told Newsbytes that, although it is extremely early, he expects to see some interesting possibilities open up with PSINet's investment in the company, notably in multi-country applications. He told Newsbytes that, although EUnet offers pan-European Internet roaming for subscribers, no company offers global roaming, specifically, between Europe and the US (and vice versa). "It's certainly a possibility that we will be looking at," he said. John Stewart, sales and marketing director of ElectricMail, an Internet systems integrator that works as a partner with EUnet, told Newsbytes that he is very excited by the possibilities of the linkup. Cambridge-based ElectricMail has been operating with EUnet for four years, and has been responsible for connecting over 25 percent of their client base. "We at ElectricMail are delighted that PSI and EUnet GB came to such a positive and exciting agreement. We consider PSI to be the most forward thinking and business-like of the major Internet service providers and we now look forward to working with PSI to establish a truly global Internet service for private, commercial and public sector organizations," he enthused. Stewart went on to say that, as a customer of EUnet for ten years, he sees a number of possibilities opening up with the extra investment capital. "EUnet provide a well-established UK network with excellent European-wide connections plus, a solid and loyal corporate client base with a high degree of goodwill," he said, adding that business expansion is now in the cards. (Steve Gold/19950623/Press & Reader Contact: EUnet GB +44-1227-266466; Fax +44-1227-266477; Internet Email: deri.jones@britain.eu.net; ElectricMail: +44-1223-501333:;Fax: +44-1223-501444; Internet Email: john.stewart@elmail.co.uk) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 06/23/95 ONLINE Internet Update (NEWS)(ONLINE)(TYO)(00013) Internet Update 06/23/95 TOKYO, JAPAN, 1995 JUN 23 (NB) -- In this roundup of news services and resources on the Internet: Business Times Singapore; Wimbledon online; Website development software available; UK Government department online; Multiword first issue; USIA debuts; Japan eductational material available; Hong Kong conference details. Business Times Singapore Each day almost the entire text of The Business Times, one of Asia's top business newspapers, is available free on the Internet. The newspaper is said to be the first of several major ventures on AsiaOne, the Web site of Singpore Press Holdings. World Wide Web: http://www.asia1.com.sg/biztimes Wimbledon Online The Wimbledon Tennis championships begin on Monday and Internet users can follow all the action on an official Web site. The site includes the draw, the day's order of play, matches in progress, the day's results, news flashes, Wimbledon and its future, and the technology behind the tournament. World Wide Web: http://www.wimbledon.org/ Website Development Software Available W3.COM has announced the availability of trial versions of several of its software packages for Web developers. The company says these can reduce development time by up to 80%. The packages include W3 WebSpin, a hypertext page generator for database files, W3 WebForm, an application that generates custom responses to standard HTML forms, and W3 WebScan, a keyword searcher for flatfile databases. World Wide Web: http://w3.com/ UK Government Department Online The Department of Trade and Industry, better known in the UK as the DTI, has joined the growing number of British government departments online. Hyperlinked from the main page are press releases, DTI contacts by area and location, speeches, DTI publications. World Wide Web: http://www.dti.gov.uk/ Multiword First Issue Nature, wildlife, culture, people, traveling, and art are all on the menu in the first edition of Multiworld, a new Web-published magazine. What makes Multiworld different is that the magazine is multi-lingual, published in English and Chinese. The publishers say it can be enjoyed by anyone with no need for special browsers. World Wide Web: http://freedom.ncsa.uiuc.edu/~hye/mw/index.html (USA) World Wide Web: http://www.jnw.com/mw/index.html (USA) World Wide Web: http://142.3.25.41/mw/index.html (Canada) World Wide Web: http://www.teltec.dcu.ie/~cheny/mw/index.html (Europe) USIA Debuts The United States Information Agency, a part of the US government, has the job of explaining and advocate US policies to a worldwide audience. The agency has now placed information onto the Internet. The agency's press releases, details about its international broadcasting, scholarship programs, student exchanges and foreign media reaction to the US is online. World Wide Web: http://www.usia.gov/ Gopher: gopher.usia.gov Japan Educational Material Available The International Society for Educational Information is a non-profit organization that promotes Japan and publishes educational material about the country. The society has placed some of this material on the Internet at its new Web server. World Wide Web: http://www.ei.nsc.co.jp/isei Hong Kong Conference Details Information about the 1995 IDN (International designers Network) Conference and Exhibition which is to be held at the Gold Coast Hotel in Hong Kong can be found online. World Wide Web: http://www.visio.com.hk/~cool/thewall/idn/index.html (Martyn Williams/19950623) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 06/23/95 GENERAL Japan Newsbriefs (NEWS)(GENERAL)(TYO)(00014) Japan Newsbriefs 06/23/95 TOKYO, JAPAN, 1995 JUN 1995 (NB) -- In this roundup of news from Japan, Iomega teams up with Seiko-Epson; Sony moving production overseas; Windows shipments hit four million; Cell phones vital in Japan aircraft hijack; Aladdin Japan established; Electronics retailers forecast good year ahead; Ex software company chief charged. Iomega Teams Up With Seiko-Epson Iomega Corp. (NASDAQ:IOMG) has announced a deal with Seiko-Epson Corp. that will see the Japanese electronics company producing and selling Iomega's Zip drives and disks in Japan. The Zip drive uses a 100 MB removable disk to provide users with high capacity portable data storage. Seiko-Epson is expected to begin manufacturing the drives later this year. Hiroyuki Akazawa, deputy corporate general manager for Epson's Peripheral Equipment Operation Division commented, "This is an excellent relationship between two companies that complement each other in many ways." Sony Moving Production Overseas Sony Corporation (TOKYO:6758) has announced a 1.5-million unit increase in televisions produced overseas. The rise will mean Sony produces 10.8 million sets outside of Japan during the current fiscal year. In Asia, Malaysia will benefit most with a half million unit increase. In Japan production will fall by 900,000 sets, or 31%, to make up 10% of Sony's total worldwide TV output. Windows Shipments Hit Four Million Two years after its introduction, Microsoft's Windows 3.1J, the localized version of Windows, has hit four million units sold. Microsoft says that the point was reached in late May when the total shipped stood at 4.02 million. Sales are still increasing, 2.4 million units in its second year compared with 1.6 million in the first, as Microsoft gears up for the launch of Windows 95. The Japanese version of the new operating system is expected to be released within two months of the English language version, shipping in August. Cell Phones Vital In Japan Aircraft Hijack Increased use of cellular telephones in Japan helped police gain knowledge about a lone hijacker holding 365 people on board an ANA jumbo jet in Hakodate, Hokkaido, on Wednesday afternoon and night. Police said that several passengers onboard the aircraft had cellular telephones and were able to call them to describe the state inside the plane and help answer police questions such as whether he was acting alone. The hijack ended at dawn on Thursday when police stormed the aircraft, arresting the hijacker. Aladdin Japan Established Tel Aviv-based Aladdin Knowledge Systems (NASDAQ:ALDNF) has established Aladdin Japan. The company produces HASP, a line of software protection products for Japanese NEC, IBM, and Macintosh computers. President of the new company is Mr. Masaru Kosaka who commented, "We've established Aladdin Japan to provide better, faster, and more effective service and support to the increasing number of HASP customers in Japan." Electronics Retailers Forecast Good Year Ahead The Nihon Keizai Shimbun has reported that Japan's seven major electronic retailers are predicting increased sales and profits this financial year. The country's largest retailer, Best Electric Corp., forecasts a 4% increase in pretax profits on an 8% increase in sales. Sogo Electric Corp. forecasts the largest sales increase at 12% while the largest jump in pretax profits is predicted by Dai Ichi Katei Denki Co. at 35%. The newspaper calculated a combined growth between all seven companies of 11%. Ex Software Company Chief Charged The Securities and Exchange Surveillance Commission has indicted a former software company chief on charges of spreading false information. The charges against Tsutomu Matsuzaki, former president of TSD Corporation, relate to statements made to reporters at a meeting that trials were underway in Thailand of an AIDS vaccine to which TSD held the rights. Matsuzaki also claimed Russian authorities had given the go-ahead for clinical tests in their country. TSD stock almost doubled in value over two weeks on the statements made in August 1992. (Martyn Williams/19950623) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 06/23/95 WINDOWS Netscape's New Navigator, Windows 95 Version (NEWS)(WINDOWS)(TYO)(00015) Netscape's New Navigator, Windows 95 Version 06/23/95 MOUNTAIN VIEW, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1995 JUN 23 (NB) -- Netscape Communications Corporation have released a beta version of the new Netscape Navigator, a browser for the Internet's World Wide Web. The new version also includes a Windows 95 variant for the first time. Netscape Navigator version 1.2 beta builds on the success of previous versions of Navigator, the most popular Web "browser" available. A Web browser allows Internet users to access pages on the World Wide Web, view their contents and click on hypertext links that lead to other documents. Current versions of Navigator now account for around 75% of all accesses to popular Web sites according to statistics quoted by Netscape. With the new software comes a Windows 95 version that joins those for the Windows 3.1, Apple Macintosh and X-Windows platforms. Mike Homer, vice president of marketing at Netscape Communications, explained that the new version was highly tuned for Windows 95, "We designed Netscape Navigator 1.2 specifically for Windows 95 to provide the best possible performance, ease of use, and integration for PC users, taking advantage of this new operating environment. By incorporating user interface and other enhancements, Netscape Navigator 1.2 makes it easy for Windows 95 users to experience the full breadth of Internet commerce and enterprise applications." When the final version is released in September, full support for Windows 95 will be built in, to include support for the Internet Shortcuts features and drag and drop URLs. Improvements that all users will see include an new look when using the software for downloading files using FTP (File Transfer Protocol). The bookmarks section, which allows users to store their favorite Web site addresses, will also be revised with a hierarchical folder-based interface. As before, the software is available free of charge to educational and charitable establishments and for evaluation by commercial users. License prices begin at $39 which includes 90 days of technical support. Beta versions of Navigator 1.2 as well as full release versions of Netscape 1.1 can be downloaded from the Internet using anonymous FTP from ftp.netscape.com. (Martyn Williams/19950622/Press contact : Roseanne Siino, Netscape Communications, +1-415-528-2619, Internet email : roseanne@netscape.com; Reader contact : Netscape Communications, Internet email : info@netscape.com) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 06/23/95 NETWORK Microsoft Ships SQL Server 6. (NEWS)(NETWORK)(DEN)(00016) Microsoft Ships SQL Server 6.0 06/23/95 REDMOND, WASHINGTON, U.S.A., 1995 JUN 23 (NB) -- Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ: MSFT) has announced shipment of the Microsoft SQL Server client-server database management system version 6.0 for the Windows NT Server network operating system. The company said the software should be generally available in retail outlets during the next two weeks. Microsoft SQL Server 6.0 is a key component of the Microsoft BackOffice suite of server software and is an open-architecture scalable database management system (DBMS) designed for distributed client-server computing. According to Gary Voth, group product manager in Microsoft's business systems division, Microsoft SQL Server 6.0 was developed specifically to address trends that are occurring in business computing. Paul Maritz, group vice president of the platforms group at Microsoft, included examples of Microsoft SQL Server applications in his keynote address at PC Expo this week. New features in version 6 include administrator control over hundreds of servers from a central location using an OLE (Object Linking and Embedding)-based management framework and a graphical user interface. Microsoft said it has also included a new parallel database architecture that delivers much improved transaction throughput, faster query execution and support for much larger databases. The software also includes built-in data replication and support for OLE, Open Database Connectivity (ODBC) and unattended remote operations such as backup and restore, data migration and tuning. The estimated retail price for an SQL Server 6.0 server license is about $999, said Microsoft, with single client-access licenses selling for approximately $149 each. In quantities of 20 or more the client license will cost about $119. Microsoft doesn't publish suggested retail prices. If you are using an earlier version of Microsoft SQL Server you can upgrade by purchasing a server upgrade license for approximately $499 and client-access licenses for about $59 in quantities of 20 or more and $79 each for less than 20. If you purchased Microsoft SQL Server for Windows NT or upgraded from Microsoft SQL Server for OS/2 after March 15, 1995 you can upgrade at no cost except a minimal shipping and handling charge. (Jim Mallory/19950622/Press contact: Claudia Toth, Waggener Edstrom for Microsoft, 503-245-0905; Public contact: Microsoft, 206-882-8080 or 800-426-9400) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 06/23/95 BROADCAST UK Govt Prepares For Digital TV (NEWS)(BROADCAST)(LON)(00017) UK Govt Prepares For Digital TV 06/23/95 LONDON, ENGLAND, 1995 JUN 23 (NB) -- The British Government has revealed it plans to release White Paper (a discussion document) on the future of digital TV next month. According to Stephen Dorrell, the British National Heritage Secretary, the White Paper follows hard on the heels of last month's White Paper on media ownership. The Government's plans were revealed during a House of Commons debate on the plans for coverage of Channel 4 in Wales, with specific reference to regional and local language broadcasts. Part of the Government's dilemma, he said, is that it is difficult to spend the required money on setting up extended coverage for a regionalized analog TV network, when digital TV is just around the corner. When pressed, however, he gave only the smallest of hints abut the Government's plans on the digital TV broadcasting legislative side of things. Responding to questions from MPs (Members of Parliament) on both sides of the House, he said that the White Paper will be finalized over the next few weeks, after which it will be published. Dorrell said that the plans the government is finalizing will require specific legislation over the coming months, but the matters involved were quite routine as far as the Government is concerned. Dorrell said that, because of the commitment the Government is planning for digital TV, it is difficult to see how funding for expansion of the analog Channel 4 service would be made available. MPs are pressing for increased coverage of Welsh language broadcasts in Wales on Channel 4, but other MPs say they are worried that non- Welsh-speaking viewers should have access to the English version of Channel 4, even in the heart of Wales. While refusing to be pressured on effective dual broadcasting for Channel 4 in Wales, Dorrell said that Channel 4 Welsh broadcasts were one of the Government's successes and that, in the future, digital TV would enable many more choices to be transmitted in viewer's living rooms. "The answer to the problem lies in the recruitment of new technology to deliver greater choice to the consumer and that is an objective which the Government very warmly embraces," he told MPs. (Steve Gold/19950622) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 06/23/95 GOVT Netherlands - Govt To Double Tech R&D Spending (NEWS)(GOVT)(LON)(00018) Netherlands - Govt To Double Tech R&D Spending 06/23/95 VOORBURG, THE NETHERLANDS, 1995 JUN 23 (NB) -- The Netherlands Government has announced plans to double its 1.5 billion Guilders per year planned investment in information technology (IT) research and development (R&D) over the next four years. In a report published this week by Jans Wijers, the Dutch Economic Affairs Minister, current levels of investment in IT R&D are pitifully low and, even if only maintained to the end of the century, could have a serious effect on the country's economy. "The choice is to get smart or to get poor," Wijers told analysts and press at a held earlier this week. So who picks up the tab? According to the report, around DG 1.1 billion will be used for tax breaks, while a further 375 million will be hauled in to service new technology projects. Plans call for high-level technological research institutes to set up and make improvements in environmental technology, while the use of online resources and data communication will be encouraged. Government officials said that international competition necessitates a higher level of knowledge, but warned that the Netherlands seemed to be moving in the opposite direction. Unless something is done, Wijer's office claims, then the falling level of knowledge among kids could easily translate into decreasing economic achievements which will have negative effects on the Dutch standard of living, which rates highly alongside those of other countries, Newsbytes notes. "In the fierce international competition contest, knowledge will be of increasing strategic importance," the government report said, adding that it is perceived as alarming that research and development efforts have been falling in the Netherlands since 1987 and are now at a level which is well below the average of other OECD (Overseas Economic Development) countries. (Sylvia Dennis/19950622) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 06/23/95 GENERAL Quarterdeck Ready To Ship Game Runner (NEWS)(GENERAL)(SFO)(00019) Quarterdeck Ready To Ship Game Runner 06/23/95 SANTA MONICA, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1995 JUN 23 (NB) -- Quarterdeck (NASDAQ:QDEK) is ready to ship Game Runner, a set of three utilities, designed to address memory problems, game speed, and hard to solve parts of a game. The first member of the suite of products contained in Game Runner is a special game edition of QEMM, Quarterdeck's banner product. This version includes all the functionality of QEMM 7.5, but does not have the Windows version of Manifest, Windows Setup and Quickboot. A spokesperson for Quarterdeck told Newsbytes, "As games have become more sophisticated, developers have continuously needed more memory. It has gotten so demanding that some games require a player to reboot with a clean boot disk to play a game. With Game Runner this problem will be solved for the majority of games on the market." Some games demand a proprietary control of a computer's memory. Such command is often not possible if the user has a memory manager and have to reboot their computers with the clean disk to clear enough memory to play the game. The second utility, Cache86 comes from The Aldridge Company and allows the large graphics files common to games to be delivered faster from either a CD-ROM drive or a computer's hard disk. The additional cache has a Windows-based setup and monitoring utility. The third and what may be the most popular utility is called The Gamecheater. While there are a number of shareware products designed to assist game players with tips and hints, Gamecheater, according to Quarterdeck, is the first runtime game enhancer. Need extra money in your Sim City account? An extra weapon in a battle game or a kill-button to get rid of the monster who is preventing you from getting to the next level? Gamecheater allows the user to access these functions while the game is loaded and in progress. Game Runner is supported by more than sixty of the most popular game titles on the market today. Among the titles are Doom I and II, Indiana Jones and The Last Crusade, Maddog II, Monopoly, PGA Tour Golf, Railroad Tycoon, Sim Ant, Sim City, Street Fighter, War Craft and others. In support of Game Runner, Quarterdeck also announced an agreement with Virgin Interactive Entertainment in which each company will include discount coupons for the other's product(s). Expect to see your local retailer displaying side-by-side promotions. The agreement allows both companies to share in-store promotional activities. The first Virgin titles to offer the coupon include Dune, DuneII, Command & Conquer and Flight Unlimited. Quarterdeck says it is shipping Game Runner by the end of this week. Expect to see it on retail shelves by the end of the month. The company expects the product to have a street price under $50. (Patrick McKenna/19950622/Press Contact: Rolf Rudestam, The Rudestam Group, tel 310-314-4215) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 06/23/95 NETWORK Several Companies To Implement Novell's NEST Technology (NEWS)(NETWORK)(DEN)(00020) Several Companies To Implement Novell's NEST Technology 06/23/95 OREM, UTAH, U.S.A., 1995 JUN 23 (NB) -- Novell Inc (NASDAQ: NOVL) said this week Canon, Cheyenne and Ricoh will all implement the Novell Embedded Systems Technology (NEST) in a new generation of office equipment. NEST is a technology that allows a variety of equipment, such as faxes, copiers, scanners, printers, PBX and storage devices to be accessed and controlled over networks. By embedding the Netware client software into these devices, NEST allows each of them to become a node on a Netware network. NEST is platform and processor-independent. Ricoh said it will implement the NEST Autoroute software in its fax machines, enabling users to access and distribute fax information over the network. Ricoh faxes with Autoroute will enable the user to encode the message to be faxed into digital copy for routing to multiple destinations. That coding process can send the fax to one or more specific printers, digital copiers, fax machines or electronic mail boxes on the network. One advantage is that the sender can dispatch one fax to a remote network and have it arrive at multiple devices and users. Canon said it will embed NEST into its GP-55F and other GP series products. The GP-55F is a high-end machine that combines printing, digital copying, scanning, filing and faxing. It supports both Token Ring and Ethernet network interfaces, and has been tested and approved by Novell Labs to ensure it will work on a Netware-based network. Cheyenne, a fax software publisher, said it is embedding NEST into the software it provides to a variety of hardware manufacturers so users can exercise the delivery option that is most efficient for them. The company will provide the ability for fax servers to receive encoded information and route material along the network. Intelligent devices such as copiers, printers and PCs using Netware Directory Services will have the addresses to which information can be routed. Users can identify destinations from their computers and route documents directly to a fax machine for distribution or to the copier for mass duplication. A Novell spokesperson told Newsbytes Canon is expected to bring its GP-55F to market by the end of 1995. "They already have a prototype," the spokesperson said. (Jim Mallory/19950622/Press contact: Shannon Smith, Novell, 801-429-5850; Public contact: 800-451-5151) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 06/23/95 CORRECTION APPLE Correction - Adobe Ships PressWise 2.5 For Mac (CORRECTION)(APPLE)(DEN)(00021) Correction - Adobe Ships PressWise 2.5 For Mac 06/23/95 SEATTLE, WASHINGTON, U.S.A., 1995 JUN 23 (NB) -- A spokesperson for Adobe Systems Inc. (NASDAQ: ADBE) says a recent story about the release of PressWise 2.5 for the Macintosh requires some clarification. Presswise version 2.5 is a pre-press tool the company said includes preflight and color separation features combined with electronic page imposition capabilities. The original story stated that the term "signature" refers to the 25-inch master medium, usually paper or film, on which multiple pages of a document to be printed are placed. Adobe spokesperson Barbara Burke tells Newsbytes "signature" is the actual press sheet that comes off the press. It is a result of imposition, which is the actual layout out of pages into a signature. "This is done so that the pages will be in the right order/place when the signature is folded, bound and cut," Burke told Newsbytes. "Signatures come in varying sizes since they are press sheets," said Burke. She told Newsbytes they can be 25-inch sheet fed or 40-inch sheet fed. The original story said "imposition" refers to the process of putting the multiple pages in the right place on the "signature" so when the printed product is cut, the pages "come out right." Burke told Newsbytes "signature" is the way that individual pages are arranged on a form to construct a signature so that the pages will be in the proper sequence after printing, folding and binding. "Or 'so that the pages come out right,' as I said originally," Burke told Newsbytes. Presswise 2.5 for the Macintosh includes new image linking, enhanced input capabilities, font and ink controls, and the ability to see an on-screen preview of imposed signatures before committing them to film input. To run Presswise 2.5 Adobe recommends an Apple Power Macintosh, 36 megabytes (MB) of memory, a one gigabyte (GB) hard drive, a 17-inch or larger 16-bit color monitor, and the Apple System 7.5 or later operating system. The company said the minimum system needed to run Presswise 2.5 is any Apple Macintosh II or Quadra series computer running System 7.0 or later, at least four megabytes (MB) of memory, a 120MB hard drive, and a 13-inch or larger monitor. To use the PostScript preview and color separation capabilities of PressWise 2.5 you need any Apple Quadra series computer with System 7.0, at least 16MB of memory, a 500MB hard drive, and a 13-inch or larger eight-bit monitor. Presswise 2.5 has a suggested retail price of $3,995. Registered users of Presswise 1.0 and 2.0 can upgrade for $595. If you purchased Presswise 2.0 after January 1, 1995, you can upgrade for $149 with proof purchase. (Jim Mallory/19950622/Press contact: Barbara Burke, Burke & Associates for Adobe systems, 206-938-8827; Public contact: Adobe Systems, 800-685-6736/PRESSWISE950623/PHOTO) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 06/23/95 TRENDS The Dark Side Of Computing - New Book (NEWS)(TRENDS)(SFO)(00022) The Dark Side Of Computing - New Book 06/23/95 SEBASTOPOL, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1995 JUN 23 (NB) -- O'Reilly & Associates has published "The Future Does Not Compute: Transcending The Machines In Our Midst" by Stephen L. Talbott, a title which reveals the dark side of the Internet and computer technology. Talbott challenges the commonly accepted thought that computers always enhance creativity and raise our consciousness -- instead of being the masters of these super machines, we the users, are subtly changed and limited by the experience. He says computers are an outward expression of "the hidden and increasingly powerful machine with us." As we continue to use them we are pulled into the habits of mind they support. Can we survive the Internet? Talbott sees the Internet as far more powerful than television in its capacity to induce passivity. As opposed to making us brighter and wiser, the Internet may scatter our minds, destroy our imaginations and make us forget our humanity. This, he says, happens easily if we are unaware of the influence passing into us through the experience. Sustaining his point of view, Talbott takes readers on a tour of the Internet which reveals its dark side. An O'Reilly spokesperson said, "With a reputation for publishing books about computer technology and especially the Internet, people may find it strange for us to print a book which explores the negative aspects of this industry. However, we feel the industry is very much a part of our daily lives and every part of that experience is worth exploring." Tim O'Reilly, publisher, says, "We think the questions Steve Talbott raises are important to the 'intelligent machines' that are so much a part of our lives. And we suspect that readers may more readily accept a book questioning the role of computers if it is published by a leading computer book company." Published this month, "The Future Does Not Computer: Transcending the Machines in Our Midst" will be available through the retail channel. The 502-page exploration is priced at $22.95. (Patrick McKenna/19950622/Press Contact: Sara Winge, O'Reilly & Associates, tel 707-829-0515) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 06/23/95 TELECOM Australia - Optus/Westinghouse Satellite Phone (NEWS)(TELECOM)(SYD)(00023) Australia - Optus/Westinghouse Satellite Phone 06/23/95 SYDNEY, AUSTRALIA 1995 JUN 23 (NB) -- Australia's second carrier Optus has introduced a new mobile phone for its Australia-wide satellite phone service. The new Westinghouse phone is being used first in Australia, with other world markets such as Canada and the US to follow. Optus originally launched the service last year with an NEC phone, but the new Westinghouse model has been purpose-built for the job, offering inbuilt data facilities and a number of new features. It costs around AUS$8000 (around US$5800) to purchase the unit which is primarily intended to be mounted in a vehicle. It can also be rented. The unit consists of a transmitter box and a handpiece. Unlike most other satellite phone systems, it does not use a dish antenna, but a one-meter long black, flexible whip antenna which mounts on the vehicle like a normal radio antenna. In use, the phone behaves just like any other mobile phone, and offers totally noise-free digital communications. The call cost is flat over the entire service area - AUS$1.80 per minute peak and $1.20 per minute off peak (around US$1.30 and US88c). A 20 percent discount applies for volume users. International calls are also charged the normal international rate. The coverage area is all of Australia (about the same as continental US) and at least 200km out to sea in all directions. Optus told Newsbytes that in practice the coverage is wider, covering all of Papua New Guinea and part of Indonesia, plus a number of Pacific Island nations. In fact, during the recent Rabaul earthquakes in new Guinea, Optus set up a satellite phone service for the emergency authorities. The Westinghouse Series 1000 phone unit incorporates a digital data port so it is able to send and receive faxes and computer data without any modifications or additions. It can also retransmit Global Positioning System (GPS) coordinates so that another station can track its location. One unique feature of Optus' service is that outback callers who dial the Australian national 000 emergency number (like the US 911) will be connected to the nearest Royal Flying Doctor outpost. For those who are interested, the uplink frequency is around 1650 MHz and the downlink frequency is around 1550 MHz. The power of the mobile phone is three watts which is the same as most in-car mobile phones. (Handheld phones are normally around 0.6 watt). The antenna is a right-hand polarised helical. The new phones are currently being trialed in a car rally being held in outback Australia. (Paul Zucker/19950622/Press contact: Optus, Kate van den Broek tel +61-2-342 7800 fax. +61-2-342 7895 or the Westinghouse Mobile Satellite Communications office in your country) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 06/23/95 TELECOM China - News Briefs (NEWS)(TELECOM)(PEK)(00024) China - News Briefs 06/23/95 BEIJING, CHINA, 1995 JUN 23 (NB) -- In this roundup of news from China: an international telecommunications technology and facility exhibition held in Shanghai; a two-day telecom workshop was held in Beijing; workstation shipments up by volume; SunSoft releases Internet product in Beijing. International Telecommunication Show in Shanghai An international telecommunications technology and facility exhibition was held in Shanghai, China's largest industrial city, from June 14 to 18. The four day exhibition attracted more than 100 world-renowned communications firms from 14 countries and regions including Canada, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Japan, the United States, and Hong Kong. Among those present at the exhibition were Motorola, Ericsson, Nokia, NEC, Fujitsu, IBM, Siemens, Philips, Sansung, and Bell. The exhibition is the first show of this kind in China. This high level exhibition featured the latest technology and products including program-controlled exchanges, mobile telephone systems, optical telecommunications networks, satellite transmission equipment and pagers. Telecom Workshop in Beijing A telecom workshop was held in Beijing from June 15 to 16. The two-day seminar focused on design of personal communications products. Sponsored by the Hong Kong-based ASM Group, participants included Motorola, Texas Instruments and Siemens AG. The telecom workshop was designed to promote cooperation between these companies and Chinese counterparts. SunSoft Releases Internet Product in Beijing SunSoft with its Chinese partner Huashen showed its Internet-related products at Beijing Friendship Hotel recently. The displayed products include the latest version of Solstice SunNet Manager, FireWall, and SolarNet. SunSoft also introduced its Solaris Core. SunSoft is one of the early comers to China. (Chih-Ho Yu & Ning Huang/19950620) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 06/23/95 REVIEW GENERAL Review - Trouble & Attitude Multimedia Magazine (REVIEW)(GENERAL)(MSP)(00025) Review - Trouble & Attitude Multimedia Magazine 06/23/95 CHICAGO, ILLINOIS, U.S.A., 1995 JUN 23 (NB) -- By Bob Woods. The "Trouble & Attitude, The Multimedia Magazine for Men" contains quite a bit of attitude, but it won't get men into a lot of trouble with their female significant others, if the premiere issue is any indication. The CD-ROM based magazine, which runs on both Windows and Macintosh platforms, hits the stands today at a suggested retail price of $9.95. It is published by New York-based Marinex Multimedia Corp. When Newsbytes first reported on the magazine last March, co-publisher Jonathan Braun described it as "MTV meets Playboy or Esquire." From what I saw of the first issue, there was a lot of video and great looking graphics, but not the level of "exposure" one would assume from the "Playboy or Esquire" comparison. From the first audio "booms" of the intro screen, you know you're going to be in for a ride. You're guided through all of the various articles and departments by three attractive female "cyberjockies." They can be clicked on to make them disappear, but as they say, they "won't take it personally." In March, Braun had promised a lot of video and a lot of text. He's held up his end of the bargain. The cover of the magazine, which is shrink-wrapped with the CD, proclaims "over one hour of video." From what I saw, that's a pretty honest estimate. From video profiles of Baywatch extras to Bikini Challenge coverage to clips from B-Movie studio Troma, video abounds in this magazine, via the QuickTime format. And each feature comes complete with an article that can be printed, or exported to a word processing program. Other articles included a piece on "media guru" Marshall McLuhan, an interview with comic book artist Erik Larsen (not the guy who does "The Far Side"), and videos on what women think about dating and other subjects. From my count, there are a total of 16 different features. That's enough to keep any serious male computer enthusiast clicking away for hours. Men won't have to worry about wives or girlfriends getting too upset with them if they click on this program. Although Braun had said that the magazine will contain nudity, this issue did not go naked from what I saw -- at least when my fiance was "helping" me. There were a lot of women in bikinis and skimpy outfits, though. In March, Braun said the nudity would be in line with what's in a typical R-rated movie. I'd liken this issue to more of a PG-13 flick. After learning that, most men will want to know the mechanics of the magazine. The interface is very attractive. The graphics are cutting- edge -- what you'd expect from a self-proclaimed "MTV"-type magazine. Clickable hot-spots abound in the main screen. Also, when the cursor is placed on a picture, explanations pop up on what each department and article features. Other buttons included volume control, help, and a quick return to the magazine index. Also, all videos could be paused, fast forwarded, and rewound. The only quibble I have with the program is the fact that it can't stick to one audio level. I found myself constantly having to turn my speaker volume up and down -- and mostly up. The "sound up" button did not seem to help. Otherwise, the videos loaded quickly, response time to clicking buttons wasn't too outrageous, and the help guide was informative. The magazine runs on 486 level multimedia PCs and 040 Macintoshes. Of course, a color monitor is needed, along with at least a double-speed CD-ROM drive. As I said before, the magazine performed pretty well on my machine, which is a Compaq Presario multimedia 486DX2/50 with a double-speed CD-ROM and 8MB of RAM. (Bob Woods/19950619/Press Contact: Merrill Freund, Marinex Communications, 212-334-6700. Public Contact: Trouble & Attitude Multimedia Magazine, 800-676-8533, 212-334-6700, Internet e-mail info@marinex.com) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 06/23/95 BROADCAST Netherlands - Sala Comms Voices Concern Over Cable TV Sale (NEWS)(BROADCAST)(LON)(00026) Netherlands - Sala Comms Voices Concern Over Cable TV Sale 06/23/95 AMSTERDAM, THE NETHERLANDS, 1995 JUN 23 (NB) -- Luc Sala, head of Dutch electronic and print publisher Sala Communications, has admonished the Amsterdam City Council for proposing to sell KTA, the city's cable TV and telephone network operation. As reported last month by Newsbytes, Philips Electronics has teamed up with US West to acquire KTA. While the deal is worth around 700 million guilders, Sala claims that the City Council is selling itself short on the deal, and allowing a multimedia gem to slip through its fingers. In support of his campaign, which has been blasting the proposed sale over the last few weeks, Sala collected enough signatures to persuade the Amsterdam City Elders, known as "burghers," to hold a council last night over the proposed sale. A decision on whether to veto the sale or not will be announced early next week, Newsbytes understands. According to Sala, the burghers are likely to come down against the City Council in the sale. Assuming this is the case, he proposes that the council sell off just a 20 percent stake in the KTA operation, which would allow the council to retain control of the company, while still having access to the required investment funds to expand the operation. "Currently the system broadcasts a number of cable TV channels to its 500,000-subscriber network, which penetrates around 95 percent of Amsterdam," he told Newsbytes. "KTA has permission to run a cable TV phone service to these subscribers, and I think there is a significant potential in Internet and multimedia services as well. If this is the case, how come the Council wants to sell off the whole operation for $425 million, when it could raise significantly more in the longer term by expanding into these explosive growth areas?" he questioned. Sala claims the June 28 vote could be a formality. "Although all City Council decisions are theoretically up for referendum (vote), it is expected that the City Elders will use an escape clause because of the urgency in completing the deal," Sala explained. According to Sala, a 20 percent partial sale could be completed in a few months and leave the Council with its options intact. The necessary three-months delay are not overly significant in a process of this magnitude," he said. "The sale of the digital birthright of Amsterdam can bear with a little more consideration and the citizens should be able to codecide on this important matter," he added. Luc Sala heads up Sala Communications, the operator of the first Amsterdam Internet-cafe and hosts a 3,000-page-plus site on the Internet. The URL for the Web site is http://www.euro.net/sala/ or http://www/net.info.nl (Steve Gold/19950622/Press & Reader Contact: Luc Sala +31-20-620-2970; Fax +31-20-625-3280; Internet Email: sala@euronet.nl; Philips Electronics +31-4078-1111; Toll-free - Netherlands Only - 68-680) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 06/23/95 GENERAL Personnel Roundup (NEWS)(GENERAL)(SFO)(00027) Personnel Roundup 06/23/95 PENN VALLEY, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1995 JUN 23 (NB) -- This is a regular feature, summarizing personnel changes not covered elsewhere by Newsbytes: The American Electronics Association, nVIEW Corporation, Global Telecommunication Solutions Inc., Digital Equipment Corp., US West, and Connect Inc. Beneva Schulte has been appointed director of public affairs for The American Electronics Association (202-682-9110). Schulte was most recently press secretary to Representative Norman Y. Mineta (CA), who represents much of Silicon Valley where AEA was founded. Prior to working for Representative Mineta, Schulte directed communication operations for Representative David Minge and Representative Gerry Sikorski, both from Minnesota. nVIEW Corporation (NASDAQ-NNM:NVUE - 804-873-1354) says that its board of directors accepted the resignation of Joel A. Carney, effective July 7, 1995, as executive vice president and chief operating officer and as a member of the board of directors. Mitchell Kisberg has joined Global Telecommunication Solutions Inc. (NASDAQ:GTST, GTSTW - 212-557-3240) as the director of marketing. He was formerly with Catco, Inc., a New York based toy company, where he served three years as vice president of Retail Operations from October, 1992, to May, 1995. Alan Park has been appointed vice president and regional manager of Digital Equipment Corp's (NYSE: DEC - 212-856-2873) Accounts Business Unit responsible for the Eastern Region headquartered in New York City. The unit sells to approximately 1,000 major customers worldwide. Park holds a bachelor of science degree in Finance from Oregon State University. He spent five years on active duty in the Navy in the Nuclear Power Program. US West (NYSE:USW - 303-793-6355) has announced that Sol Trujillo, 43, president and CEO of US West Marketing Resources Group, has been named president and CEO of US West Communications Group, effective July 1. Gary Ames, 50, president and CEO of US West Communications Group, has been named president and CEO of US West International, effective July 1. Dick Callahan, 53, president and CEO of US West International, has announced his intention to retire in May of 1996. Hank Morgan has been appointed to chief financial officer and executive vice president of Connect Inc. (415-254-4000), a provider of business interactive services and systems. Morgan will head up finance and administration with specific responsibilities for treasury, accounting and human resources. Morgan will report directly to Thomas P. Kehler, president and CEO of Connect Inc. Prior to Connect, Morgan was the executive vice president of finance and administration, CFO and the chief operating officer for European operations at Logitech Inc. (Ian Stokell/19950623) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 06/23/95 ONLINE First Virtual Offers Unique Internet Payment System (NEWS)(ONLINE)(SFO)(00028) First Virtual Offers Unique Internet Payment System 06/23/95 SAN DIEGO, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1995 JUN 23 (NB) -- First Virtual Holdings Inc.'s InfoHaus is an electronic shopping mall putting sellers and buyers together on the Internet. It is a fully operational Internet payment system with thousands of electronic financial transactions taking place daily. First Virtual handles transactions on the Internet with MasterCard and Visa credit cards. It uses a personal identification number (PIN) system to enable the buying or selling on the Internet without additional equipment, software or membership fees. Through First Virtual anyone can purchase or sell through e-mail. Lee Stein, president and chief executive officer of First Virtual, told Newsbytes, "First Virtual passed its eight-month anniversary on June 17, and the InfoHaus was receiving more than 200,000 hits a day with sales volume growing at a rate of 16 percent a week. This translates into over a thousand separate financial transactions per day, seven days a week." Stein said, "The system has grown from zero sellers to more than one-hundred fifty, with several major announcements pending. We project that we will have eight hundred sellers by the end of the year. The range includes Apple's QuickTime software, Reuters NewMedia, National Public Radio, books, Internet tips and a variety of other digital products, some selling for as little as 75 cents. Some merchants, such as Apple, use their own server and have First Virtual as their merchant banker. Others sell products directly through First Virtual's InfoHaus." For 75 cents you can get a issue of a Minnesota retired homemaker's household tips. For $20 you can buy a ten thousand-name mailing list from a White House advisor on telecommunications, or for $199 you can buy specific research papers, said Stein. Stein tells Newsbytes, "We are unique in that we will allow anyone in the world to sell on our system regardless of age or financial condition. If they have a product they can sell on the Internet using MasterCard and Visa. First Virtual PINcryption ensures sensitive information, like credit card numbers, never go over the Internet." "Accessibility and ease of use are the keys. We believe this is the world's largest and fastest growing cottage industry, the buying and selling of information on the Internet," Stein said. "Our system fills a need to provide the link between the world of credit cards, banks, processing agents and buyers and sellers on the Internet." Anyone on the Internet may initiate a transaction via e-mail using First Virtual's Internet Commerce protocol. The only requirement to be a buyer or seller through First Virtual is access to the Internet and a PIN. First Virtual InfoHaus is available through http://www.fv.com The initial charge for registering is $2 for consumers and $10 for sellers. In addition, sellers will pay a nominal fee of 29 cents, plus 2 percent of the charged amount, for each transaction. Sellers also pay a $1 processing fee each time a payment is made to their account. Incorporated in Wyoming, First Virtual is a privately held corporation. (Richard Bowers/19950623/Press Contact: Tom Gable, Laura Ciruzzi, or Kris Lichter, The GableGroup, 619-234-1300; internet at http://www.fv.com ) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 06/23/95 ONLINE ****Visa, MasterCard Offer Secure Electronic Commerce (NEWS)(ONLINE)(MSP)(00029) ****Visa, MasterCard Offer Secure Electronic Commerce 06/23/95 NEW YORK CITY, NEW YORK, U.S.A., 1995 JUN 23 (NB) -- Visa International and MasterCard International said they will work together to bring safe transactions via credit card to open networks like the Internet. The companies made the announcement at a joint news teleconference, which Newsbytes attended. Both companies said they'll support specifications to secure bankcard transactions, that will be published in September. The two companies say they anticipate customers will begin participating in secure card transactions on the Internet by early 1996. Those security specifications will be open and available to all. Officials said the first step in the relationship is to establish a common set of requirements and share technical information. The specifications to be supported will call upon the encryption capabilities based of RSA Data Security to protect card transactions not only on the Internet, but on other open networks, officials said. The two companies anticipate using credit cards on the Internet will function in a similar way to other bankcard purchases. MasterCard and Visa are two companies that are usually viewed as competitors. "There are, and their have been, areas where its in our best interest to work together," Richard Lonergan, Visa's executive vice president, point of transaction, said. He listed other areas where the companies have worked together, including agreeing on traditional point-of-purchase systems in stores. "Now, protected card transactions will be a reality for Internet surfers world-wide, who are anxious to shop on the Internet," through the development of one open standard, Edward Hogan, senior vice president of MasterCard International, said. Both companies have recently announced other alliances with companies to establish secure purchases. Visa recently announced an initiative with Microsoft, while MasterCard has been working with Netscape. Lonergan said he hopes a single standard will bring together all of the different consortiums under one umbrella. Other joint ventures to bring secure purchases to the Internet that have been recently announced include Europay's announcement that it will work with IBM to develop smart card Internet payments. A company that would seem to compete with the results of today's announcement came out in support of the Visa/MasterCard consortium. First Virtual Holdings, a company that uses e-mail to conduct safe MasterCard and Visa transactions on the Internet, applauded the joint encryption standards. Lee Stein, First Virtual president and chief executive officer, said "since Visa and MasterCard write the rules on use of their credit cards, the development of a joint cryptography standard by their association will eliminate a great deal of controversy." He also said that even though his First Virtual system does not depend on encryption, his company will "move to incorporate the new standards immediately." Details on the First Virtual Internet Payment System can be accessed via the Web at http://www.fv.com , or by e-mail at info@fv.com. (Bob Woods/19950623/Press Contacts: Dorea Smith, MasterCard International, 212-649-1421, Internet e-mail mascard@aol.com; David Melancon, Visa International, 415-432-3545, Internet e-mail melancon@visa.com; Tom Gable or Laura Ciruzzi, The Cable Group, 619-234-1300, Internet e=mail media@fv.com, for First Virtual. Public Contact: MasterCard, Internet World Wide Web, http://www.mastercard.com ; Visa, Internet World Wide Web, http://www.visa.com ; First Virtual, Internet World Wide Web http://www.fv.com , Internet e-mail info@fv.com) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 06/23/95 WINDOWS Microsoft Ships Windows 95 Migration Resource Kit (NEWS)(WINDOWS)(DEN)(00030) Microsoft Ships Windows 95 Migration Resource Kit 06/23/95 REDMOND, WASHINGTON, U.S.A., 1995 JUN 23 (NB) -- The launch date for Microsoft Windows 95, right along with the end of summer and the beginning of school, will be here before you know it. And Microsoft, wanting to make sure everyone is ready to switch to its new operating system/user interface, has released a migration kit that provides information about implementing, supporting and understanding Windows 95. According to a survey commissioned by Microsoft, 70 percent of the participants in the Windows 95 Preview Program, which distributed the beta version of Windows 95 to more than 320,000 sites around the world, plan to switch to Windows 95 within three months of the software's launch date. Microsoft said that date is still late August 1995, despite a report by a Japanese news service this week that the Windows 95 launch would be delayed. The Windows 95 Resource Kit is part of the Windows 95 Migration Planning Kit, which was shipped to all Windows 05 Preview Program participants. It contains a Resource Kit help file, a demonstration kit, a deployment guide, the Microsoft project deployment plan template and a business analysis tool that is a model to help calculate the benefits and costs of moving to Windows 95. The tools are also available online on Microsoft's World Wide Web page at the URL http://www.microsoft.com ), on the Microsoft Network, on the Winnews forum on Compuserve, and on GEnie, Prodigy, America Online and CRS Online. Another Microsoft tool to help launch Windows 95 is the Microsoft TrainCast, a series of four-hour programs on Microsoft TV that demonstrate how to plan, support and implement the migration to Windows 95. You can contact Microsoft to get a broadcast schedule or to find out how to order tapes of the broadcasts. The Resource Kit contains more than 1,400 pages of technical information Microsoft said can save organizations hours of time in determining how to implement Windows 95. There is a Windows 95 guided tour, a planning guide, technical information on installing, configuring and networking Windows 95, and some software utilities. Microsoft also offers support engineer training courses through the Microsoft Authorized Technical Education Centers. The courses, available in two- and five-day versions, teach installation, configuration, networking, system management and troubleshooting. (Jim Mallory/19950623/Press contact: Kathy Gill, Waggener Edstrom for Microsoft, 503-245-0905; Public contact: Microsoft, 206-882-8080, 800-426-9400 or 800-597-3200 for MSTV info or 800-765-7768 for training course info) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 06/23/95 ONLINE ****Apple's eWorld Offers Internet, New Look (NEWS)(ONLINE)(SFO)(00031) ****Apple's eWorld Offers Internet, New Look 06/23/95 CUPERTINO, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1995 JUN 23 (NB) -- Apple Computer's (NASDAQ:AAPL) eWorld is holding a press conference today to announce the availability of a new version of the service called Golden Gate. On Monday, June 26, eWorld members will be able to download the new version online. New features presented through Golden Gate includes Internet access, 14.4 kilobits-per-second access in 250 cities, an auto-open feature which takes a user directly to a pre-designated area, new artwork for the Town Square interface and a new level of next-day tech support from Apple. A multimedia feature enhances online movie clips and color photography and Golden Gate also includes a "Mail Agent." Additionally, eWorld has said it is developing telephony features with voice capability in two directions. In an earlier statement, eWorld said Golden Gate will contain the first element of these telephony capabilities with a "Speak" feature. Speculation around today's press conference suggests Speak will be available on Monday. The Internet access includes the standard Internet components such as file transfer protocol (FTP), USENET newsgroups and Telnet. World Wide Web (Web) access is expected to follow soon. Newsbytes spoke to a number of eWorld officials, but everyone replied with "no comment" when asked for a specific date. This fall, eWorld says it will provide 28.8 kilobit-per-second access. Apple also says it is ready to begin transferring AppleLink users to eWorld. This process will begin with some 12,000 Apple employees in phases over the next four months. The remaining 48,000 users, mostly developers, resellers and Apple partners, will transfer by the end of the year. (Patrick McKenna/19950623/Press Contact: Lynda Lucero, tel 408-974- 7899) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 06/23/95 GENERAL Newsbytes Week In Review (NEWS)(GENERAL)(SFO)(00032) Newsbytes Week In Review 06/23/95 PENN VALLEY, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1995 JUN 23 (NB) -- This is a look at the top stories this week, listing with their category code: Zenith & PictureTel In Videoconferencing Deal, AT&T's First Interchange Content Providers, Apple Intros Power Mac 9500 With PCI Bus, PSI Buys UK Internet Provider, House Leaders Push For Telecom Debate, PC Expo - Apps & Hardware Add-Ons For IBM's PowerPC, AT&T & BBN To Provide Internet Access, Prodigy Offers E-mail Spelling-Checker, World Wide Web To Be Superseded - Forrester, Microsoft Reaffirms August Windows 95 Date, Gingrich Slams Senate Online Smut Bill, Justice Dept Broadens Microsoft Inquiry, PC Expo - IBM Adds PowerPC, Web Browsing To AS/400; Apple's eWorld Offers Internet, New Look; Visa, MasterCard Offer Secure Electronic Commerce. Zenith & PictureTel In Videoconferencing Deal (BUSINESS) DANVERS, MASSACHUSETTS, U.S.A., 1995 JUN 19 -- Zenith Data Systems Inc. (ZDS) and PictureTel Corp. have announced they are teaming up in a worldwide, multi-year alliance to provide desktop videoconferencing bundled into ZDS computers. AT&T's First Interchange Content Providers (ONLINE) CAMBRIDGE, MASSACHUSETTS, U.S.A., 1995 JUN 19 -- AT&T's Interchange Online Network has announced a series of online information services will be entering the new network's cyberspace in the next few weeks. Star Tribune Online, from the Minneapolis/St. Paul- based Star Tribune, started its cyber-publishing today on Interchange. Apple Intros Power Mac 9500 With PCI Bus (APPLE) CUPERTINO, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1995 JUN 19 -- Meeting a promise it made earlier this year, Apple Computer Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) has announced the availability of Power Mac 9500 with a new RISC (reduced instruction set computer) processor and PCI (Peripheral Component Interconnect) bus. Additionally, Apple has announced a new color laser printer, a portable color printer, and other printer enhancements. PSI Buys UK Internet Provider (BUSINESS) HERNDON, VIRGINIA, U.S.A., 1995 JUN 21 -- In the latest move in a buying spree, Performance Systems International (NASDAQ: PSIX) is buying a controlling share of one of the UK's largest Internet service companies, EUnet GB, for $4 million. When the deal closes, it will make PSI one of the few US Internet access companies with a presence abroad. House Leaders Push For Telecom Debate (TELECOM) WASHINGTON, D.C., U.S.A., 1995 JUN 21 -- With Senate action on telecommunications legislation over, leaders in the House are pushing for quick action on its version, which goes further toward deregulation than the Senate bill. PC Expo - Apps & Hardware Add-Ons For IBM's PowerPC (IBM) NEW YORK, NEW YORK, U.S.A., 1995 JUN 21 -- At a New York press conference held to introduce IBM's new PowerSeries family of desktop and ThinkPad PowerPCs, IBM and its third-party partners also rolled out dozens of companion products, ranging from network interface cards (NICs) and monitors, to an array of software applications. AT&T & BBN To Provide Internet Access (ONLINE) NEW YORK CITY, NEW YORK, U.S.A., 1995 JUN 21 -- AT&T Corp. (NYSE:T) and Bolt Beranek & Newman Inc. (NYSE:BBN) (BBN) are joining together to offer Internet connectivity for businesses. The companies said they will offer the means to access, plan, set up, operate, and maintain dedicated, leased-line connectivity to the Internet. Prodigy Offers E-mail Spelling-Checker (ONLINE) WHITE PLAINS, NEW YORK, U.S.A., 1995 JUN 21 -- Responding to one of the top complaints about online services, Prodigy has announced an integrated, online spelling-checker for its electronic-mail service. The Windows e-mail feature is the first step in a complete new look for the Sears/IBM owned service. World Wide Web To Be Superseded - Forrester (TRENDS) CAMBRIDGE, MASSACHUSETTS, U.S.A., 1995 JUN 22 -- The Internet's World Wide Web may be the hot new technology of today, but it will give way to something more interactive in the future, according to Forrester Research Inc. Microsoft Reaffirms August Windows 95 Date (WINDOWS) TOKYO, JAPAN, 1995 JUN 22 -- If you hear news today that Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) has postponed the shipping date of Windows 95 from August to October it is not true, says a Microsoft spokeswoman. Gingrich Slams Senate Online Smut Bill (LEGAL) WASHINGTON, D.C., U.S.A., 1995 JUN 22 -- Surprising some on the right, House Speaker Newt Gingrich (R-Ga.) has strongly attacked Senate legislation aimed at blocking obscenity on the Internet. "It is clearly a violation of free speech and it's a violation of the right of adults to communicate with each other," Gingrich said Tuesday evening on a cable television show he hosts. Justice Dept Broadens Microsoft Inquiry (GOVT) WASHINGTON, D.C., U.S.A., 1995 JUN 22 -- The Justice Department has broadened its inquiry of Microsoft's plans for its new Microsoft Network, according to today's New York Times. PC Expo - IBM Adds PowerPC, Web Browsing To AS/400 (IBM) NEW YORK, NEW YORK, U.S.A., 1995 JUN 22 -- IBM's AS/400 midrange computer is celebrating its seventh birthday by adding PowerPC chips, Web connectivity, and a GUI (graphical user interface), plus support for Lotus Notes and NetWare Loadable Modules (NLMs), said Glenn T. Van Benschoten, director of systems product management for the AS/400 Division, in a meeting with Newsbytes at PC Expo. Apple's eWorld Offers Internet, New Look (ONLINE) CUPERTINO, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1995 JUN 23 (NB) -- Apple Computer's (NASDAQ:AAPL) eWorld is holding a press conference today to announce the availability of a new version of the service called Golden Gate. On Monday, June 26, eWorld members will be able to download the new version online. Visa, MasterCard Offer Secure Electronic Commerce (ONLINE) NEW YORK CITY, NEW YORK, U.S.A., 1995 JUN 23 (NB) -- Visa International and MasterCard International said they will work together to bring safe transactions via credit card to open networks like the Internet. (Ian Stokell/19950623) (SUMMARY)(GENERAL)(MSP)(00033) Newsbytes Daily Summary 06/23/95 MINNEAPOLIS, MINNESOTA, U.S.A., 1995 JUN 23 (NB) -- These are capsules of all today's news stories: ======================================================================== ------------| N E W S B Y T E S D A I L Y S U M M A R Y |---------- ------------| Friday, June 23, 1995 |---------- ======================================================================== (c) Newsbytes News Network (Tm) Editor in Chief: Wendy Woods ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Newsbytes News Network is a computer and telecom industry news wire and digitized picture service. Our news stream includes more than 30 daily first-hand reported US and international news stories about computing and telecommunications. For more information, please e-mail to 'administrator@newsbytes.com' ------------------------------------------------------------------------ CATEGORY HEADLINES (*** indicates today's top stories) STORY # ======================================================================== APPLE Correction - Adobe Ships PressWise 2.5 For Mac............. 21 BROADCAST UK Govt Prepares For Digital TV............................ 17 BROADCAST Netherlands - Sala Comms Voices Concern Over Cable TV Sale. 26 BUSINESS Justice Queries Could Slow CA's Buyout Of Legent........... 02 BUSINESS BMC Software Acquires Australian IMS Software.............. 04 BUSINESS Iomega Finds Zip Drive Manufacturing Partner............... 08 GENERAL Japan Newsbriefs........................................... 14 GENERAL Quarterdeck Ready To Ship Game Runner...................... 19 GENERAL Review - Trouble & Attitude Multimedia Magazine............ 25 GENERAL Personnel Roundup.......................................... 27 GENERAL Newsbytes Week In Review................................... 32 GOVT ****House Spares Technology Agency........................ 10 GOVT Netherlands - Govt To Double Tech R&D Spending............. 18 IBM TECO Energy Pulls Plug On IBM Deal......................... 09 IBM ICL To Pre-Load OS/2 Warp On Globally Sold PCs............. 11 LEGAL Job Complaints E-Mailed, College Professor Sues............ 01 NETWORK Microsoft Ships SQL Server 6.0............................. 16 NETWORK Several Companies To Implement Novell's NEST Technology.... 20 ONLINE More On PSI Acquisition Of UK Internet Provider............ 12 ONLINE Internet Update............................................ 13 ONLINE First Virtual Offers Unique Internet Payment System........ 28 ONLINE ****Visa, MasterCard Offer Secure Electronic Commerce..... 29 ONLINE ****Apple's eWorld Offers Internet, New Look.............. 31 PC PC Expo - Samsung's Pentium Notebook, Hard Drives, CD-ROM.. 03 PC PC Expo - Dell Intros PowerEdge Network Servers............ 07 TELECOM MCI Offers Cellular, "500" Numbers To Consumer Channel..... 06 TELECOM Australia - Optus/Westinghouse Satellite Phone............. 23 TELECOM China - News Briefs........................................ 24 TRENDS PC Expo - AT&T, 40 Partners Intro "Virtual Workplace....... 05 TRENDS The Dark Side Of Computing - New Book...................... 22 WINDOWS Netscape's New Navigator, Windows 95 Version............... 15 WINDOWS Microsoft Ships Windows 95 Migration Resource Kit.......... 30 ======================================================================== These are the headlines and first paragraphs of each story, in order: 1 -> Job Complaints E-Mailed, College Professor Sues -- A community college professor has brought a lawsuit over an electronic mail message that allegedly defamed him. Professor David Egerton of St. Lawrence College brought the suit against his supervisor, Patrick Finucan, over a message, in which Finucan is said to have raised concerns about Egerton's job performance, that apparently was sent not only to Egerton but to a number of his co-workers. 2 -> Justice Queries Could Slow CA's Buyout Of Legent -- Computer Associates International Inc. (NYSE:CA) might have to extend the deadline on its offer for Legent Corp. (NASDAQ:LGNT) because of antitrust questions, a company official has admitted. Earlier this week, CA revealed that the United States Justice Department had given the company a second request for information on the takeover, plans for which were announced in late May. 3 -> PC Expo - Samsung's Pentium Notebook, Hard Drives, CD-ROM -- Samsung, now one of the top three monitor vendors in the US, is aiming to achieve the same status for its hard disk drives, officials told journalists in a presentation at PC Expo, where Samsung unveiled its first hard drives for the retail market, first CD-ROM drive, and first Pentium PC notebook. 4 -> BMC Software Acquires Australian IMS Software -- Texas-based BMC Software has bought the DDLI Dynamic Reorg product from Australian software company Fundi Software Pty Ltd. This product allows almost 100 percent access to a database even when it is being reorganized. 5 -> PC Expo - AT&T, 40 Partners Intro "Virtual Workplace -- In a press conference at PC Expo, AT&T Global Information Systems (GIS) and about 40 third-party partners announced AT&T Virtual Workplace, a program designed to provide mobile professionals with "one-stop" computer technology shopping and support. 6 -> MCI Offers Cellular, "500" Numbers To Consumer Channel -- MCI Corp. (NASDAQ:MCIC) announced two new features to its consumer channel "Friends & Family Connections" line. The company is bringing MCI Cellular and "500" phone number services to the line, which already consists of paging, e-mail, calling card, and long distance features. 7 -> PC Expo - Dell Intros PowerEdge Network Servers -- Dell Computer Corp. (NASDAQ: DELL) used this year's PC Expo in New York City to introduce another branch of its PowerEdge network server family tree, the PowerEdge EL. 8 -> Iomega Finds Zip Drive Manufacturing Partner -- Iomega Corp. (NASDAQ: IOMG) is working with Seiko Epson Corp. to manufacture and market Iomega's hard to get 100-megabyte Zip drive as well as the 100MB and 25MB removable Zip disks. Tony Radman, Iomega's senior vice president of strategic business development, told Newsbytes the drives will be in manufacture by the end of the year. 9 -> TECO Energy Pulls Plug On IBM Deal -- TECO Energy has pulled the plug on its deal with IBM to develop an advanced home energy management and communications systems, but the Tampa-based company that owns Tampa Electric says it will go ahead without Big Blue and will look elsewhere for technology partners. "We were not able to reach agreement with them in developing a business plan," TECO spokesman Mitch Lubitz told Newsbytes. "We had fundamental disagreements." 10 -> ****House Spares Technology Agency -- The House yesterday narrowly voted to save the Office of Technology Assessment, 220-204, after a vote Wednesday to kill the congressional agency by a 213-214 margin. The apparently tainted 213-214 vote caused bedlam on the House floor Wednesday and led the Republican majority to adjourn for the day, as Democrats charged that the presiding officer, Rep. John Linder (R-Ga.), had closed the roll call before two Democrats, Tom Foglietta (D-Pa.) and Earl Hilliard (D-Ala.), could vote to save the agency that advises Congress on science and technology. 11 -> ICL To Pre-Load OS/2 Warp On Globally Sold PCs -- Continuing its penetration of the PC vendor market, IBM has announced the signing of a pre-load contract for OS/2 with ICL. The deal means that ICL will pre-load OS/2 Warp on to Fujitsu ICL, ErgoPro and ErgoLite PCs sold world-wide. 12 -> More On PSI Acquisition Of UK Internet Provider -- Performance Systems International (PSINet) has signed a letter of intent to acquire a controlling interest in EUnet GB Limited. According to EUnet, which operates as a wholly owned company of the University of Kent in Canterbury, England, Virginia-based PSINet will take an 85 percent stake in EUnet GB for around $4 million. 13 -> Internet Update -- In this roundup of news services and resources on the Internet: Business Times Singapore; Wimbledon online; Website development software available; UK Government department online; Multiword first issue; USIA debuts; Japan eductational material available; Hong Kong conference details. 14 -> Japan Newsbriefs -- In this roundup of news from Japan, Iomega teams up with Seiko-Epson; Sony moving production overseas; Windows shipments hit four million; Cell phones vital in Japan aircraft hijack; Aladdin Japan established; Electronics retailers forecast good year ahead; Ex software company chief charged. 15 -> Netscape's New Navigator, Windows 95 Version -- Netscape Communications Corporation have released a beta version of the new Netscape Navigator, a browser for the Internet's World Wide Web. The new version also includes a Windows 95 variant for the first time. 16 -> Microsoft Ships SQL Server 6.0 -- Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ: MSFT) has announced shipment of the Microsoft SQL Server client-server database management system version 6.0 for the Windows NT Server network operating system. The company said the software should be generally available in retail outlets during the next two weeks. 17 -> UK Govt Prepares For Digital TV -- The British Government has revealed it plans to release White Paper (a discussion document) on the future of digital TV next month. According to Stephen Dorrell, the British National Heritage Secretary, the White Paper follows hard on the heels of last month's White Paper on media ownership. 18 -> Netherlands - Govt To Double Tech R&D Spending -- The Netherlands Government has announced plans to double its 1.5 billion Guilders per year planned investment in information technology (IT) research and development (R&D) over the next four years. 19 -> Quarterdeck Ready To Ship Game Runner -- Quarterdeck (NASDAQ:QDEK) is ready to ship Game Runner, a set of three utilities, designed to address memory problems, game speed, and hard to solve parts of a game. 20 -> Several Companies To Implement Novell's NEST Technology -- Novell Inc (NASDAQ: NOVL) said this week Canon, Cheyenne and Ricoh will all implement the Novell Embedded Systems Technology (NEST) in a new generation of office equipment. NEST is a technology that allows a variety of equipment, such as faxes, copiers, scanners, printers, PBX and storage devices to be accessed and controlled over networks. 21 -> Correction - Adobe Ships PressWise 2.5 For Mac -- A spokesperson for Adobe Systems Inc. (NASDAQ: ADBE) says a recent story about the release of PressWise 2.5 for the Macintosh requires some clarification. Presswise version 2.5 is a pre-press tool the company said includes preflight and color separation features combined with electronic page imposition capabilities. 22 -> The Dark Side Of Computing - New Book -- O'Reilly & Associates has published "The Future Does Not Compute: Transcending The Machines In Our Midst" by Stephen L. Talbott, a title which reveals the dark side of the Internet and computer technology. 23 -> Australia - Optus/Westinghouse Satellite Phone -- Australia's second carrier Optus has introduced a new mobile phone for its Australia-wide satellite phone service. The new Westinghouse phone is being used first in Australia, with other world markets such as Canada and the US to follow. 24 -> China - News Briefs -- In this roundup of news from China: an international telecommunications technology and facility exhibition held in Shanghai; a two-day telecom workshop was held in Beijing; workstation shipments up by volume; SunSoft releases Internet product in Beijing. 25 -> Review - Trouble & Attitude Multimedia Magazine -- By Bob Woods. The "Trouble & Attitude, The Multimedia Magazine for Men" contains quite a bit of attitude, but it won't get men into a lot of trouble with their female significant others, if the premiere issue is any indication. 26 -> Netherlands - Sala Comms Voices Concern Over Cable TV Sale -- Luc Sala, head of Dutch electronic and print publisher Sala Communications, has admonished the Amsterdam City Council for proposing to sell KTA, the city's cable TV and telephone network operation. 27 -> Personnel Roundup -- This is a regular feature, summarizing personnel changes not covered elsewhere by Newsbytes: The American Electronics Association, nVIEW Corporation, Global Telecommunication Solutions Inc., Digital Equipment Corp., US West, and Connect Inc. 28 -> First Virtual Offers Unique Internet Payment System -- First Virtual Holdings Inc.'s InfoHaus is an electronic shopping mall putting sellers and buyers together on the Internet. It is a fully operational Internet payment system with thousands of electronic financial transactions taking place daily. 29 -> ****Visa, MasterCard Offer Secure Electronic Commerce -- Visa International and MasterCard International said they will work together to bring safe transactions via credit card to open networks like the Internet. 30 -> Microsoft Ships Windows 95 Migration Resource Kit -- The launch date for Microsoft Windows 95, right along with the end of summer and the beginning of school, will be here before you know it. And Microsoft, wanting to make sure everyone is ready to switch to its new operating system/user interface, has released a migration kit that provides information about implementing, supporting and understanding Windows 95. 31 -> ****Apple's eWorld Offers Internet, New Look -- Apple Computer's (NASDAQ:AAPL) eWorld is holding a press conference today to announce the availability of a new version of the service called Golden Gate. On Monday, June 26, eWorld members will be able to download the new version online. 32 -> Newsbytes Week In Review -- This is a look at the top stories this week, listing with their category code: Zenith & PictureTel In Videoconferencing Deal, AT&T's First Interchange Content Providers, Apple Intros Power Mac 9500 With PCI Bus, PSI Buys UK Internet Provider, House Leaders Push For Telecom Debate, PC Expo - Apps & Hardware Add-Ons For IBM's PowerPC, AT&T & BBN To Provide Internet Access, Prodigy Offers E-mail Spelling-Checker, World Wide Web To Be Superseded - Forrester, Microsoft Reaffirms August Windows 95 Date, Gingrich Slams Senate Online Smut Bill, Justice Dept Broadens Microsoft Inquiry, PC Expo - IBM Adds PowerPC, Web Browsing To AS/400; Apple's eWorld Offers Internet, New Look; Visa, MasterCard Offer Secure Electronic Commerce. (Wendy Woods/19950623) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 06/22/95 CORRECTION TRENDS Correction - Chinon Plans 8x CD-ROM Drives (CORRECTION)(TRENDS)(SFO)(00001) Correction - Chinon Plans 8x CD-ROM Drives 06/22/95 TORRANCE, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1995 JUN 22 (NB) -- Chinon has clarified some aspects of a story which ran June 5, 1995, under the headline, "Chinon Plans 8x CD-ROM Drives." Chinon reports that its agreement to manufacture quad-speed (4x) CD-ROM drives is with Wearnes Technology's parent company, Wearnes Peripherals International (PTE) Limited, based in Singapore. The company also states that while it is researching the development of higher speeds and standards for CD-ROM, there is no agreement with Wearnes Peripherals International Limited for the production of 8x CD-ROM drives at this time. (Patrick McKenna/19950620) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 06/22/95 IBM IBM Offers Global IT Security Services (NEWS)(IBM)(LON)(00002) IBM Offers Global IT Security Services 06/22/95 PORTSMOUTH, HAMPSHIRE, ENGLAND, 1995 JUN 22 (NB) -- IBM has unveiled its information technology (IT) Security Practice and Services program. According to Anna Russell, a spokeswoman for Big Blue's UK operation, the program is being rolled out globally and aims to offer all types of IBM customers a range of security products and services. Russell told Newsbytes that the program draws together the various security-relevant range of products and services from IBM under one umbrella group as far as the customer is concerned. Each country operation will offer a portfolio of products and services as one homogeneous product, with consulting available, should the customer require it. "The various products and services are provided by different sections of IBM, but, as far as the customer is concerned, IBM offers one point of contact for the customer," she explained. The announcement of the new program follows hard on the heels of the wide range of Internet products and services announced at the beginning of this week, Newsbytes notes. Walker said that the general security products and services available under this new program includes: the Internet security offerings, including the IBM Internet Connection secure World Wide Web browsers and servers, as well as an anti-virus service; the IBM IT Security home page; and a new edition of the IBM IT security architecture book. Kathy Kincaid. director of IT Security Programs with IBM, explained that, "as networks have become more critical to the lifeline of businesses, security has become a more important focus to our customers." One interesting feature of the security program from Big Blue is the setting up of a new range of Emergency Response Services (ERS) at single and multi-country levels to meet the needs of customers. This works on two levels -- preventative and emergency response -- with the specific aim of presenting and responding rapidly to network infiltration. The first phase of consultation with a customer starts with a Security Health Check which establishes the nature and severity of security risks, and the cost of exposure to compromised information assets. Types of hazards include accessible information, information falling into the wrong hands, and wrong information being used to make decisions. After identifying customer's critical information assets, and documenting the usage of critical information and its position on the enterprise network, IBM says its consultants will work with customers to establish which information needs protection, the types of security needed, how and where critical information is being used, and the ownership of sensitive materials. The second phase determines how these assets should be protected,. and recommendations are worked out as how best to address and protect information systems, networks, physical assets, intellectual assets, and staff. Later stages then seal the security loopholes, using a variety of hardware and software technologies, as well as staff education processes. On an ongoing basis, management of the project includes handing the network details over to IBM's "network busting labs" -- teams of people that IBM's Russell claims look at the security of a customer's network from all angles and work out new ways of attack, then seal up those loopholes by working with the customer. As part of this service, Big Blue is in the process of setting up a global security analysis laboratory (GSAL) to build what it claims will be a world class network and set of system security tools, and to provide assistance in the most severe cases. Initially, the GSAL is being run by IBM's research labs in New York and Zurich where, according to Big Blue, experts in research on advanced hacker techniques are available on a 24 hour-a-day, seven day-a-week basis. (Steve Gold/19950621/Press Contact: Anna Russell, IBM UK Ops Press Office, +44-171-202-3799; Reader Contact: IBM Corporate Communications, tel +44-1705-561780, fax +44-1705-385081) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 06/22/95 TELECOM Cap Gemini Plans Global Voice & Data Network (NEWS)(TELECOM)(LON)(00003) Cap Gemini Plans Global Voice & Data Network 06/22/95 PARIS, FRANCE, 1995 JUN 22 (NB) -- Cap Gemini Sogeti (CGS) has announced plans to set up a global voice and data communications network to offer leased line and dial-up access to companies with offices in different countries. Ken Sadler, director for CGS' Service Offerings, speaking with Newsbytes at his Paris office, explained that the aim is to offer a "one stop shop" for companies' international distributed data services. "The bulk of the distributed data traffic would be over leased lines from the customer's premises," he explained, adding that, where appropriate, dial-up access on toll-free numbers could also be provided. "Obviously dial-up remote access service is not an area we would necessarily set out to offer on its own to customers, but more as part of a portfolio of products and services. The aim is to offer all types of voice and data services to a customer from ourselves," he said. The toll-free remote access service for specific countries is routed through the local country CGS help desk. Human help desk service is also available to customers on a per country basis. Sadler went on to say that full scale country pilots for the global network have been running in France, Sweden, and the UK since late last year. These country services will be folded in with the global network as it becomes operational later this year. Announcing the planned launch of the global CGS network, Geoff Unwin, CGS' chief operating officer, explained that, "in the old days, getting the `big picture' of your information technology (IT) wasn't so difficult. You opened your machine room and there it was staring at you. Now, with the arrival of powerful PCs and snap-together networks, IT infrastructure is disappearing into the fabric of everyday department-level operations." According to Unwin, this has serious implications for senior managers, many of whom are finding it correspondingly difficult to control and optimize their investment in IT, while maximizing service, flexibility, and cost effectiveness. "Without consistent standards, companies will be slow to reap the benefits at a time when speed of deployment is of the essence," he said. Eric Lutaud, CGS' group vice president, said that the pilot program involving clients in France, Sweden, and the UK is proving to be very successful. "We believe that our continually evolving service, appropriate to a wide range of business sectors worldwide, will continue to be one of the fastest growing services," he said. (Sylvia Dennis & Steve Gold/19950621/Press & Reader Contact: GGS Paris, tel +33-1-4754-5474, fax +33-1-4405-3041) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 06/22/95 TELECOM Ireland - 2nd GSM Network Tendering Delayed By Govt (NEWS)(TELECOM)(LON)(00004) Ireland - 2nd GSM Network Tendering Delayed By Govt 06/22/95 DUBLIN, IRELAND, 1995 JUN 22 (NB) -- The Irish Government has announced it has temporarily shelved the tender closing date for the country's second GSM (global system for mobile communications) digital phone network. According to Mike Lowery, the Irish Minister for Transport, Energy and Communications, the original closing date of June 23 has been deferred to a future date "to be announced." The reasons for the delay are unknown, but Lowery's office let slip that a new closing date for tenders will be announced, once certain procedures were worked out with the European Commission (EC). Lowery, meanwhile, when quizzed by journalists, said that the main problem related to the license fees chargeable to the successful tendering company. Newsbytes notes the Spanish Government was forced into an embarrassing climbdown earlier this year when it became apparent that Telefonica, the state telecoms company did not have to pay for its license, while the second competing network would have to pay for such a deal. This is the mirror situation in Ireland, Newsbytes notes, where Telecom Eireann, the state controlled telco, operates the Eircell GSM network. As previously reported by Newsbytes, the Irish Government originally invited tenders for Ireland's second GSM network back in March of this year, when Lowry said that he expected several interested parties to bid for the license. Since then, three groups have expressed an interest in bidding. Newsbytes predicts that, unless a deal with the EC can be reached, then the Irish Government may be forced to let the second license go to a company with little or no funds passing to the Government. (Sylvia Dennis/19950621) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 06/22/95 ONLINE Rogaine Takes Root On World Wide Web (NEWS)(ONLINE)(MSP)(00005) Rogaine Takes Root On World Wide Web 06/22/95 KALAMAZOO, MICHIGAN, U.S.A., 1995 JUN 22 (NB) -- The company with the product that re-grows hair in both men and women is seeding the Internet's World Wide Web with company information. The Upjohn Company (NYSE:UPJ) has announced that details on Rogaine Topical Solution can now be found in cyberspace. "There's already a great deal of information on the Internet about Rogaine," John Ruane, Upjohn spokesperson, told Newsbytes. "Many users are interested in Rogaine and hair loss. It's really a natural extension of our over-the-counter marketing program that includes TV, print, and direct mail." When Newsbytes surfed to the site, we were able to look up information on Rogaine for both men and women. A list of frequently asked questions (FAQ) about Rogaine is included, along with a searchable database on doctors who can help determine if Rogaine is appropriate for an individual patient. Also, the user can get a $10 certificate toward the cost of a doctor's office visit to discuss hair loss. "The Internet is a very popular medium for people to tune into for information," Ruane said. "With all of the questions out there about Rogaine, now they have a Web site they can go to in order to answer most of their questions." Ruane also said the Internet's typical demographic of males between the ages of 20 to 45, and women 18-45 also aided in the decision to put Rogaine information on the Web. "What we're going to be watching for is the response we get, the calls we get from the 800 number, how many prescriptions we get, and how all of that is connected with this Internet program." Kobs & Draft Worldwide, along with K-2 Design, created the Web site for Upjohn. The site is at http://www.igroup.com/rogaine. The company said all Rogaine product information is taken from existing promotional material that has been reviewed by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA). (Bob Woods/19950621/Press Contact: John Ruane, Upjohn, 616-323-6546. Public Contact: Internet World Wide Web http[://www.igroup.com/rogaine) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 06/22/95 GENERAL Revelation Offers Yamaha 4x CD-R Drive Bundle (NEWS)(GENERAL)(SFO)(00006) Revelation Offers Yamaha 4x CD-R Drive Bundle 06/22/95 SAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1995 JUN 22 (NB) -- Revelation Products Corporation, a distributor of the Yamaha 4x Recording System, has announced ZIP-CD for the audio and video industry. ZIP-CD is a bundle which offers multimedia professionals a complete kit to "burn" "true" quad-speed (4x) CDs. #IMAGE 1 20 TWPCX \images\95062206.PCX Click here for photo ZIP-CD combines an internal Yamaha model CDR-100, or an external CDE-100 4x recordable CD (CD-R) drive with high-quality premastering software. The kit also includes ten pieces of four-speed certified media, caddy, SCSI (small computer system interface) adapter and an appropriate cable. Bundles which integrate a one or two gigabyte (GB) AV hard drive into the CDE-100 are also available. Addressing the need and importance of a complete CD-R package, Harvey Plowfield, president of Revelation, told Newsbytes, "Our objective is to bring the very best and most complete CD-R packages possible to the market. We have found audio and video studio owners want a complete solution -- one that relieves them of dealing with different salesmen and companies." He continued, "Now that the four-speed CD-ROM drive is becoming the standard for the industry, these studios are ready to commit to the investment into four-speed recordable equipment. "We have learned there is a lot of confusion among consumers about recordable CD drives and a standard desktop CD-ROM drive which is read-only. The recordable drives are essential for multimedia development. In addition, a large business market which uses CD-R for archiving is also developing," he said. In clarification of another topic, Plowfield said, " There is also confusion about CD drive speeds. The speed at which a disk is recorded applies strictly to the recording speed and not the speed at which it is played on a particular CD-ROM drive. A CD title playing on a desktop, double- speed CD-ROM drive could have been recorded on a 2x or a 4x recorder. Similarly, a four-speed CD-ROM drive is capable of playing CD titles recorded at 2x or 4x speeds. The demand for 4x CD-Rs is primarily to speed production time." Prices for ZIP-CD bundles start at $3,295. Pre-mastering software comes from well-known CD recording software companies such as Elektroson, Corel, Astarte, IncatSystems, Sony, Optimage, and IPC Technologies. Revelation has also signed a deal with Rimage Corporation to handle its CD-R thermal transfer printer. (Patrick McKenna/19950621/Press Contact: Rolland Going, The Terpin Group, 310-821-6100/REVELATION950622/PHOTO) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 06/22/95 ONLINE America Online Adds Stores, Discount Broker (NEWS)(ONLINE)(MSP)(00007) America Online Adds Stores, Discount Broker 06/22/95 VIENNA, VIRGINIA, U.S.A., 1995 JUN 22 (NB) -- America Online Inc. (NASDAQ:AMER) is expanding the ways in which people can spend money on the service. The company announced it is adding an online discount stock brokerage system, along with a variety of new electronic "stores." AOL said PC Financial Network will provide investors with the ability to place stock trades via the online network, and access to brokerage account information day and night at discounted commissions. "Launching PC Financial Network on America Online gives us a second, huge distribution network for our product," K. Blake Darcy, chief operating officer of PC Financial Network, told Newsbytes. "Now, America Online has grown explosively over the past three years." Darcy said his company's service has been on, and will continue to be on the Prodigy online service. PC Financial Network also has an electronic presence on Reuters Money Network and Apple's e-World. On AOL, the service can be found at keyword: PCFN. Also, AOL officials announced that six new retailers are getting their feet wet in the waters of cyberspace. Hallmark Connections (keyword: Hallmark) allows members to personalize Hallmark greeting cards, which Hallmark will address and mail, for $2.95. Members also have their choice of more than 15,000 CDS from Tower Records (keyword: Tower). Tower's database is searchable by artist, category, or album. Future offerings will include cassette tapes and videos. OfficeMax Online (keyword: OfficeMax) lets AOL users shop online for office supplies, furniture, computer systems, and peripherals. One Hanes Place (keyword: Hanes or Olympic Shop) offers athletic clothing, men's underwear, hosiery, and intimate apparel. This particular area also contains the Olympic Shop, which features officially licensed clothing for the 1996 Olympic Games to be held in Atlanta. AOL users who feel vitamins are the spice of life can access Health and Vitamin Express (keyword: Health EXP or Vitamin EXP), where they can find vitamins, energy food, and a catalog of more than 1,000 health-related items. And if freebies are your bag, the FreeShop Online (keyword: FreeShop) offers free samples, catalogues, and promotional and trial offers from companies such as the Wall Street Journal and the Audio Book Club. (Bob Woods/19950621/Press Contacts: Judy Tashbook, America Online, 703-918-1452; K. Blake Darcy, PC Financial Network, 201-413-2095; Public Contact: America Online, 800-827-6364) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 06/22/95 WINDOWS Landmark Ships Windows Memory Booster Prgm (NEWS)(WINDOWS)(DEN)(00008) Landmark Ships Windows Memory Booster Prgm 06/22/95 CLEARWATER, FLORIDA, U.S.A., 1995 JUN 22 (NB) -- If you are tired of getting "out of memory" messages on your Windows-based PC, a Florida company says it is now shipping a software-only answer that can increase the amount of available Windows memory by up to four times. Landmark Research International Corp. has released MagnaRAM, a $69 software package it says is "ideal" for users with PCs equipped with four to eight megabytes (MB) of RAM. The company sees a significant market for MagnaRAM, citing a study by LINK Resources Corp. that shows 73 percent of the PCs in use in small businesses in 1994 were equipped with 8MB of memory or less. When Windows runs out of available memory, it starts to use virtual memory by creating a "fake RAM" file on your hard drive. That's when MagnaRAM steps in, according to Landmark. The company explains that when Windows attempts to use virtual memory, MagnaRAM intervenes, compresses the data, and keeping it right in memory. Once there is no more room for compressed RAM, virtual memory kicks in again. The software includes Memory Monitors, graphs that the company says depict how your PC's memory and performance is improved. The graphs show the amount of memory used, the amount of memory available, the amount of memory compressed, the compression ratio, the number of times virtual memory was used or avoided, and the amount of time the program calculates was saved in the current Windows session. The company said users of 4MB systems can avoid the expensive, but necessary physical RAM upgrade needed to run Windows 95 by installing MagnaRAM. Each copy of MagnaRAM includes a coupon for a free upgrade to the Windows 95 version of MagnaRAM. Landmark says that upgrade should ship just after Windows 95 does. Microsoft says that will be in late August. MagnaRAM has a suggested retail price of $129. The company said the street price is about $69. (Jim Mallory/19950621/Press contact: Angela Miller, Landmark Research, 800-683-6696; Public contact: Landmark Research, tel 800-683-6696 or 813-443-1331, fax 813-443-6603) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 95 06/22/95 WINDOWS More On Microsoft Schedule+ In Windows (NEWS)(WINDOWS)(DEN)(00009) More On Microsoft Schedule+ In Windows 95 06/22/95 REDMOND, WASHINGTON, U.S.A., 1995 JUN 22 (NB) -- When Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ: MSFT) launches Windows 95, its new operating system and user interface, in about eight weeks, one of the functional features of the program will be a scheduling tool called Schedule+ for Windows 95. Microsoft calls it "the ultimate time manager." #IMAGE 1 20 TWPCX \images\95062209.PCX Click here for photo Schedule+ first saw the light of day in late 1992 as a component of Windows for Workgroups, to perform group scheduling and basic personal information management functions. In April of this year Microsoft announced it had joined forces with Covey Leadership Center (CLC) to incorporate Schedule+ into Windows 95. Dr. Stephen Covey, CLC founder and chairman, has published a book, "The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People," and Microsoft said it has incorporated Covey's principles as taught in that book into Schedule+ for Windows 95. Covey's technique is based on seven habits, and the Schedule+ Seven Habits Tools include a mission tab, a roles tab, a goals tab, and a wisdom tab. The mission tab is for entering a "personal mission" statement. It will also include questions designed to help users evaluate the effectiveness of their "mission." The roles tab will let the user create roles and enter "balanced, long-term goals" for each, said Microsoft. The goals tab will help identify weekly goals for each role. It will include a goals list and an animated visual representation of how effectively the user is focusing on "truly important goals." The wisdom tab will be for viewing what Microsoft calls "Wisdom Literature" files. The files contain text on a variety of "uplifting and inspiring" topics, said Microsoft. Additional Wisdom Literature files will be available from CLC. Schedule+ for Windows 95 will also include additional online instructional material using excerpts from Covey's books. Microsoft said many of the features of the new Schedule+ are a direct result of user input submitted to the Schedule+ wish line. One of those features is a Custom View, which will allow users to drag out the view they prefer. Choices include multiple days, weeks, or months at a time. The Meeting Wizard is an interactive aid designed to help the user set up a meeting. You can differentiate between "required" and "optional" attendees, specify a preferred meeting room, plan for travel time to the meeting, and designate alternative meeting times and days. Meeting Wizard uses that input to determine a meeting date and time that suits all participants. Documents created in one of the modules of Microsoft Office can be attached to meeting requests to let attendees prepare for meetings, and contact info in Schedule+ can be merged with documents created in Microsoft Word. You will also be able to import and export to and from the Excel spreadsheet application and the Microsoft Access database program. Entering data about appointments is a two-step process. The user first uses the mouse to drag out the time and enter the appropriate information. There is also a drag-and-drop feature to change appointments. The user just drags the appointment to the new time, day, week, or month. Schedule+ will allow the user to designate varying levels of access privileges for other users, including what sections of your schedule can be accessed and whether that access is "read-only" or "modify." CLC said it will develop add-on products for Schedule+, including: a journal tab for recording significant events and thoughts; a seven habits tab to help users evaluate how well they are implementing the seven habits; an evaluation tab for analyzing and charting the user's progress in applying Covey's leadership principles; and an advanced print utility that will allow users to match their output to the "look and feel" of Covey's Seven Habits Organizer and print to various sizes of standard organizer binders. The add-on disk will be available direct from CLC for $39. Microsoft said shortly after Windows 95 ships Schedule+ for Windows 95 will be available as a standalone product and will also be incorporated into the forthcoming release of Microsoft Office for Windows 95 and will be a component of Microsoft Exchange Server. The standalone price is expected to be about $99.95. Registered users of the current version of Schedule+ will be eligible for a $20 rebate when they purchase the new standalone. (Jim Mallory/19950621/Press contact: Kim Bouic, Waggener Edstrom for Microsoft, 206-637-9097 or Greg Link, CLC, 801-342-6280; Public contact: Microsoft, tel 206-882-8080 or 800-426-9400, CLC, tel 801-377-1888 or 800-842-2443/SCHEDULE950622/PHOTO) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 06/22/95 BROADCAST Intel Videoconferencing Connects Lenders To Borrowers (NEWS)(BROADCAST)(LAX)(00010) Intel Videoconferencing Connects Lenders To Borrowers 06/22/95 NEWPORT BEACH, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1995 JUN 22 (NB) -- Intel's (NASDAQ:INTC) ProShare videoconferencing product will be used to connect borrowers and mortgage lenders in real-time "face-to-face" meetings. Virtual Realty Network Inc. is testing the system in Orange County, California. Virtual Realty Network Inc.'s Loanmaker software allows real-time videoconferencing giving same-day mortgage qualification and approval directly from lenders to the real estate office. The system brings the potential homebuyer and realtor, meeting at the realtor's office, together with a lender at another location. Owen Daley a spokesman for Virtual Realty, told Newsbytes, "Our first test in Orange County will include about twenty lenders and up to fifty real estate offices. When a potential home buyer comes in, the realtor can offer a direct 'face to face' conference with one of twenty lenders. The lender can take the application, qualify, and approve. "It is a win-win-win situation," Daly claimed. "The realtor provides a service for his client, and can proceed to show homes with the loan already approved. The home buyer does not have another place he has to visit before he can put an offer on a house. The lender can be in hundreds of locations at once with captive prospects." Patrick Gelsinger, general manager of Intel's Personal Conferencing Division, said, "With a nationwide residential mortgage volume potential of $350 billion, we're especially excited about this application. We intend to work closely with Virtual Realty to ensure the success of this desktop application." Another spokesman from Intel told Newsbytes, "In 1994 desktop videoconferencing got started with a few 'early adopters.' This product for lenders is typical of the explosion in desktop videoconferencing in 1995. Intel's ProShare is used at college campuses connecting recruits with Fortune 500 employers. It is being used in telemedicine for long distance consulting, and loan and credit card kiosks are popping up all over the country, where a potential client stops at a standalone kiosk in a shopping mall and applies directly to a bank." ProShare Video System 200 is aimed at allowing real-time video conferencing over ISDN (integrated services digital network) or local area networks (LANs). Video System 200 includes video and communications add-in boards, a monitor-top video camera, and a hands-free headset with microphone. (Richard Bowers/19950621/Press Contact: Owen Daley, South Coast Communications, 714-252-8440) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 06/22/95 TELECOM NET Secures Major German Insurance Contract (NEWS)(TELECOM)(LON)(00011) NET Secures Major German Insurance Contract 06/22/95 FRANKFURT, GERMANY, 1995 JUN 22 (NB) -- Pandacom, the Frankfurt-based distributor for Network Equipment Technologies (NET), has secured a US$1 million contract for the supply of a backbone network to Allianz Versicherung AG, reportedly the fifth largest insurance company in the world. According to Pandacom, the installation will be centered on Allianz's German headquarters and German branch network, and will be the world's largest private frame relay network. Allianz's planned frame relay network is based on 14 NET IDNX multiservice backbone platforms equipped with integral frame relay exchange (FRX) modules. According to NET, Allianz made the decision to deploy the new IDNX network to support the considerable business growth it has experienced in recent years. This growth placed increased demands on the company's backbone network, which the company describes as the spinal cord of its communications infrastructure. The NET IDNX will allow Allianz to update its backbone network for voice and data transmission, while at the same time reducing overall communications costs. According to Allianz, frame relay was targeted as a key feature because of its ability to provide bandwidth on demand, its high throughput with low network delay, and its easy network expandability. "The IDNX frame relay network will allow us to carry large volumes of SNA (Synchronous Network Architecture) data traffic from one point to another in a cost-effective manner," explained Alexander Metz, Allianz's director of information technology. He went on to say that he sees the investment in frame relay "as a way to accommodate current needs while offering a transition path to future technologies such as ATM (asynchronous transfer mode)." "We became familiar with Allianz's needs because of our involvement in its extensive pilot program," commented Andrew Gilbert, NET's European marketing director. According to Gilbert, Allianz set up the pilot program to effectively narrow the field before finally selecting its preferred supplier. "It's particularly pleasing to achieve another major contract in Germany, where sales have made a significant contribution to our international growth over the past year," he said. In order to reduce costs, Allianz created a ring configuration based on two megabits-per-second (Mbps) dedicated transmission paths linked to the NET IDNX. The new ring topology connects Allianz offices in Munich, Stuttgart, Frankfurt, Cologne, Hanover, Hamburg, and Berlin. This network configuration replaces an earlier design. The new network offers higher data rates -- over 64,000 bits-per-second (bps) -- which were not available with previous direct connections. According to Pandacom, the IDNX network incorporates distributed intelligence that reroutes traffic on alternate transmission paths in the event of an unforeseen failure on a specific span. This, the company claims, results in increased network reliability. (Sylvia Dennis/19950621/Press Contact: David Bridson, tel +44-1869- 338832, fax +44-1869-338843, Internet e-mail bandb@cix.compulink.co.uk; Pandacom, tel +49-69-664-0060, fax +49-69-664-00640; Reader Contact: NET: tel +44-1293-600745, fax +44-1293-600701) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 06/22/95 NETWORK Europe - MultiTech Unveils Multicomtower Technology (NEWS)(NETWORK)(LON)(00012) Europe - MultiTech Unveils Multicomtower Technology 06/22/95 ASCOT, BERKSHIRE, ENGLAND, 1995 JUN 22 (NB) -- MultiTech, which claims it is the world's leading manufacturer of data communications equipment, has taken the wraps off the Multicomtower, a "fully integrated" LAN/WAN (local/wide area network) communications system. According to Dilip Mistry, managing director of the company's UK operation, the system is being rolled out across Europe, through the firm's offices in the UK, Austria, France, and Germany, as well as through distribution channels. "The machine is unique in that it is modular and can have various modules added or removed to meet the needs of the customer," he told Newsbytes. The system is housed in a standard 19-inch rack-mount enclosure with a smoked glass locking door and 32 inches depth. The unit will hold up to 60 inches of racked equipment, as well as a UPS (uninterruptible power supply) that provides 1,250 kilovolt-amperes (1,250 watts) of power. The aim of the system is to act as a hardware/software "solution" for dial-in, dial-out, fax-in, and fax-out facilities when plugged into a Novell (NetWare) or NetBIOS LAN (local area network). When installed with NetWare Connect, Multicomgateway or similar packages, the components in the system can include modems mounted in a manager rack, a keyboard/video switch, 80486-based single board computers (SBCs) in multiarray II, and an Ethernet concentrator. "The advantage of this system is that it's modular, can grow with the needs of a medium-sized business, and can cope with more than 30 remote access ports on the same frame. The modularity and flexibility are unmatched in the industry," Mistry said. According to Mistry, in the tower system "we have brought together all the features and elements that go into the making of a communications server. Customers and value-added resellers (VARs) can then specify the system to meet their exact requirements." Jackie Tumcalf, a spokeswoman for the company, told Newsbytes that exact pricing on the Multicomtower was not available, as different systems were customized to meet customers' needs. "We keep a close look on the components that go into the system, and they are always extremely price competitive," she said. (Steve Gold/19950621/Press Contact: Debra Raine, Strategic Alliance International, +44-1494-434434; Reader Contact: MultiTech Systems, tel +44-1344-891266, fax +44-1344-819215) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 06/22/95 TRENDS Europe - Video-On-Demand Soon A Reality - Report (NEWS)(TRENDS)(LON)(00013) Europe - Video-On-Demand Soon A Reality - Report 06/22/95 LONDON, ENGLAND, 1995 JUN 22 (NB) -- According to Paul Lee, the Ovum consultant responsible for a recent survey of trials for video-on- demand (VOD) across Europe, interest in the technology is flourishing, despite the fact that the market is still in its infancy. In its latest revision (the third) of its "Interactive Television: the Market Opportunity" report, Lee claims that more than 50 VOD trials are currently under way globally. "The level of participation in video-on-demand trials has leapt from a few hundred households in 1992 to several thousands in 1994 and will surge to involve almost 20,000 homes in 1996," he explained. According to Lee, until now, VOD trials have focused on technical feasibilities. "One of the most significant results of this survey is that the scope of trials is widening to consider commercial viability. Video-on-demand is soon going to become a reality," he said. Ovum's report notes that the increase in the number of VOD trials this year in Europe was stimulated by the European Commission's (EC's) directive on liberalization of network infrastructure, timetabled for 1998. The report claims that the advent of competition in this area has prompted European telcos -- the majority of which operate as monopolies -- to develop a variety of new services, such as VOD. "The number of new VOD trials in North America is lower than in Europe," the report notes, but claims that this is because North America is one step ahead. The US and Canada, it seems, have reached the stage where licenses are being issued for commercial rollout and many companies are forging ahead. In Europe, meanwhile, the UK is rated as closest to be launching VOD for telecom subscribers. The report notes that Online Media will be launching a small scale service (1,000 homes) next month, and British Telecom is considering a national rollout starting next year, although the BT rollout is dependent on the outcome of a major trial scheduled for later this year. According to the report, no single equipment manufacturer has yet established a clear lead in the VOD market, although Digital, Oracle, Hewlett-Packard, Silicon Graphics, IBM, and Philips are all involved in trials in at least one continent. "Interactive Television: the Market Opportunities," with four updates a year, costs UKP1,495 in Europe, AUS$3,595 in Australia, and US$2,775 for the rest of the world. (Steve Gold/19950621/Press & Reader Contact: Jennie Morales, tel +44-171-255-2670, fax +44-171-255-1995; Internet e-mail info@ovum.mhs.compuserve.com) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 06/22/95 IBM IBM Ramps Up Messaging Technology Sales Channels (NEWS)(IBM)(LON)(00014) IBM Ramps Up Messaging Technology Sales Channels 06/22/95 PORTSMOUTH, HAMPSHIRE, ENGLAND, 1995 JUN 22 (NB) -- IBM is wasting no time in preparing its sales channels for the diversification of the Lotus Notes and cc:Mail product lines. The company has announced a major push is under way around the world to boost sales of its commercial messaging system, MQSeries. In the UK, the firm has signed a strategic partnership agreement with Logica, one of the UK's most prestigious value-added resellers. According to IBM, the signing continues a growing trend by the company to work "more closely with key partners in delivering software solutions for mission-critical applications running a client/server environment." So what is MQSeries? According to IBM, the flow of information within organizations has mushroomed dramatically over the last few years, to the point where messaging itself has become a mission-critical application. The popularity of client/server technology, meanwhile, has meant that businesses now expect the information flow to be reliable, flexible, and secure. MQSeries, IBM claims, offers a "secure and robust" messaging system that bridges disparate hardware platforms, including IBM, HP, DEC, and PC environments. According to Colin Banfield, Logica's IT (information technology) industry sales manager, Logica has chosen to adopt MQSeries as a key component for client/server integration "solutions." "MQSeries addresses the key aspects of any messaging solution, namely security, reliability, and flexibility -- aspects which are critical for any business which operates in an open, distributed environment," he said. Steve Voller, IBM's UK sales manager for MQSeries technology, said that messaging in the client/server arena can now be delivered to mission-critical applications. He went on to say that Big Blue "recognizes the future success of MQSeries lies in the added value that specialist resellers can bring to the technology. "For this reason, IBM is firmly committed to developing long-term channel partnership. Companies such as Logica bring a depth and level of expertise which can truly exploit the full potential of this technology, and we're keen to work with other, like-minded organizations," he said. (Sylvia Dennis/19950621/Press Contact: Susan Scott-Ker, IBM Press Office, +44-1256-344202, Internet e-mail susan_scott-ker@uk.ibm.com; Will Cameron, Logica, +44-171-637-9111, Internet e-mail cameron@logica.com; Reader Contact: IBM UK, tel +44-1705-561000, fax +44-1705-219884) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 06/22/95 NETWORK After 10 Years...Hong Kong Gets First EDI Service (NEWS)(NETWORK)(HKG)(00015) After 10 Years...Hong Kong Gets First EDI Service 06/22/95 CENTRAL, HONG KONG, 1995 JUN 22 (NB) -- After more than a decade of talk and broken promises, Hong Kong now has its first working EDI (electronic data interchange) service. The new EDI service, called EZ-Trade, was launched jointly by the Hong Kong Article Numbering Association (HKANA) and IBM following a development effort of only three months. HKANA said EZ-Trade will enable companies in the manufacturing, distribution, and retail industries to send and receive electronic business documents using internationally recognized message standards. It said the service will be offered in three configurations: the HK$1,500 (US$192) for the entry-level system employing IBM-developed Trend software; the "economy solution" which uses a software package called EDI-TIE; and a "full function EDI solution" priced at about HK$20,000 (US$2,564). IBM was contracted by HKANA in January to develop the system based on Big Blue's Global Network and says it uses "internationally recognized" EDI technology, such as EDI-FACT and EANCOM. Nobody was saying so, but it probably did not hurt that IBM had also spent considerable time building an EDI system for quasi-government consortium Tradelink before the two organizations mysteriously fell out late last year. The project was even more inexplicably then handed to Hewlett-Packard, which had not even submitted a bid in the original tender. Tradelink, which was set up in the late 1980s to develop Hong Kong's EDI capabilities, is yet to deliver a single product or service. It now expects to have something ready "in mid-1996." In the meantime, another consortium, CargoNet, has announced it will have an EDI product ready for the shipping by July. Tradelink spokesman, Simon Clennell, told Newsbytes he sees EZ-TRADE as a "complementary" product to Tradelink's development efforts. "It is really a benefit to us because it will bring more people to EDI," he said. Clennell did admit, though, that the CargoNet product may not be as effective as it could be until a government standard is finalized, for which Tradelink is responsible. Defending Tradelink's inability to produce a product after almost a decade, while HKANA was able to pull one together in three months, Clennell said: "I don't know if it has really been done in three months. Besides we are doing a lot of other things and dealing with a lot of government departments like Customs & Excise, Trade & Census. It is a much different and more complex affair." HKANA says it has developed EZ-TRADE as a service to its members, currently numbering about 1,400, and that it does not expect a return on its investment for at least three years. (Mike Dunn/19950613) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 06/22/95 BUSINESS Intel Strengthens China Position (NEWS)(BUSINESS)(HKG)(00016) Intel Strengthens China Position 06/22/95 CENTRAL, HONG KONG, 1995 JUN 22 (NB) -- Chip maker Intel Corp. has strengthened its position in China with several deals based around the flourishing city of Shanghai. Firstly, the company has signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with the city of Shanghai, under which Shanghai officials will "preferentially recommend Intel Pentium processors" as the architecture for personal computers in a broad variety of projects and future developments. The MOU, signed by Intel's executive vice president and chief operating officer, Dr Craig Barrett, and Shanghai Mayor representative Madam Chen Zhi Li, also calls for the company to work with Shanghai to develop the city's computer and software industry and promote computer applications and technology use. Intel will also participate in the Gold Card Project Expert Group and provide consultation to the Gold Card Project and related computer industry developments. Meanwhile, Intel has also been granted land use rights in Shanghai to build a new assembly and test site. With construction expected to begin in the fourth quarter of this year, the site is expected to be complete by the end of 1997. Dr Barrett said these new developments would assure continued long-term cooperation between China's government, the high technology industry and Intel. The new plant, Intel's third in Asia, will assemble and test semiconductors, helping the company meet growing demand for products from China and around the region. When in full production, the plant will employ about 900 people. Tom Hartman, the newly appointed general manager of the Shanghai plant said: "The new plant will enable us to actively participate in China's high technology industry and will enhance Intel's competitive position in the region." Demonstrating its commitment to the city, Intel has also donated over 60 Pentium processor-based PCs and 20 academic scholarships to Shanghai's two leading universities, in order to "promote computer science and engineering excellence." (Mike Dunn/19950615) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 06/22/95 GENERAL Japan - Super Density Disk Format Assoc Formed (NEWS)(GENERAL)(TYO)(00017) Japan - Super Density Disk Format Assoc Formed 06/22/95 TOKYO, JAPAN, 1995 JUN 22 (NB) -- A group of electronics hardware manufacturers that have announced support for the Super Density (SD) disk format have formed an association in Tokyo to promote and support the SD system. The group, led by Toshiba (TOKYO:6502) will "act as a medium for discussions and exchanges of technical information" among all manufacturers of disks, players, components and related equipment, a Toshiba spokeswoman told Newsbytes. The group has announced a steering committee where representatives of Toshiba, Hitachi, JVC, Matsushita, Mitsubishi Electric, Pioneer, and Thomson will organize several format promotion conferences which will serve to encourage information exchange between members. Each conference will focus on the main areas of system establishment such as hardware, software, and the disks themselves. The first conference is scheduled to include discussion of SD players, disk and software manufacturing equipment, as well as software production. Once the SD system is on sale, the conferences will move to become regional platforms for information exchange in Japan, the US and Europe. In addition, the group is seeking to improve communications between its members and the software industry. A wide range of movies, music and computer-based software will be essential if the SD format is to win out over a rival system being prepared by Philips and Sony. Encouraging more to join, senior vice president of Toshiba, Taizo Nishimuro, said, "The forum is open to all parties with an interest in the SD format. Any organization involved or interested in development and manufacture of hardware, components, or software is invited. I believe the forum will increase understanding of the format and assure its widespread acceptance." SD disks are the same size as today's CD disks -- 12-centimeters in diameter and 1.2 millimeters thick. Each side will is capable of storing five gigabytes (GB) of data, equivalent to 142 minutes of digital video along with high quality digital audio tracks and sub-titles. The SD family of disks from the SD-5, a single-sided disk capable of storing up to 5GB of data, to the SD-18, a double-sided disk under development that bonds two dual layer disks together. The SD-R disk is a write-once, 3.2GB version, whilst the recently announced SD-RAM disk can store up to 5.2GB on a double-sided version under development. In addition to the seven major electronics manufacturers already mentioned, other members of the SD alliance include: MCA Inc., Time Warner Inc., Nippon Columbia Co. Ltd., Toshiba-EMI Ltd., Pioneer LDC Inc., MGM Inc., Turner Home Entertainment, Zenith Electronics Corp., Samsung Electronics Co., SKC Ltd., Asahi Chemical Industry Co. Ltd., Toray Industries Ltd., Plasmon Plc, Onkyo Corp., and Alpine Electronics. (Martyn Williams/19950622/Press Contact: Miss Matsuyama, Toshiba, +81-3-3457-2105; Reader Contact: SD Promotion Forum, +81-3-5444-9580) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 06/22/95 ONLINE Toronto Newspaper Launches New Media Services (NEWS)(ONLINE)(TOR)(00018) Toronto Newspaper Launches New Media Services 06/22/95 TORONTO, ONTARIO, CANADA, 1995 JUN 22 (NB) -- The Globe and Mail, a nationally distributed daily newspaper, has announced a range of multimedia products and services for advertisers. The Globe will provide services such as World Wide Web page design and maintenance through a contract with Knowledge Plus Multimedia Publishing Ltd. (Alberta:KPP), of Kelowna, British Columbia. Globe officials said the new services are meant to help advertisers in the newspaper develop a presence on the Internet and use other media such as CD-ROM and interactive voice response. The initial service is to become available in August. Michael Ryan, general manager of Globe Information Services, the newspaper's electronic publishing subsidiary, told Newsbytes the Globe has had a site on the World Wide Web for about six months but "it's not been anything that actually focused on marketing opportunities." Although the present announcement puts the emphasis on advertising, Ryan said Globe Information Services is also planning news and information services on the Internet. "We're looking at building a site that focuses mainly on things like news briefs," he said. The newspaper also hopes to make available on the Internet material such as the company profiles developed by its Report on Business section. Globe Information Services already offers this type of material, along with editorial content from the newspaper, through its Info Globe online service. Also in the works, Ryan added, is the idea of a "national issues forum" where the editorial staff of The Globe and Mail would assemble background information on issues of national concern -- such as gun-control legislation and the Quebec separation referendum -- and moderate public discussions on those matters. "We're trying to look at the medium as something that provides readers and advertisers with depth," said Ryan. The Globe hopes to have its first editorial offerings on the Internet by August, he said. The Globe and Mail is published by Thomson Newspapers Corp., which owns 38 daily newspapers in Canada and 105 daily newspapers in the United States and has other publishing and non-publishing interests. (Grant Buckler/19950622/Press Contact: Michael Ryan, Globe Information Services, tel 416-585-5260, fax 416-585-5249, Internet e-mail mryan@globeandmail.ca) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 06/22/95 TELECOM Cable-Telephone Must Overcome Technical Hurdles (NEWS)(TELECOM)(MSP)(00019) Cable-Telephone Must Overcome Technical Hurdles 06/22/95 LAS VEGAS, NEVADA, U.S.A., 1995 JUN 22 (NB) -- Several seemingly arcane plant management issues must be worked out before the technical path to cable-delivered telephony is clear. That's according to Chris Barnhouse, VP of technology for Time Warner Communications, the telephony arm of Time Warner Cable. In remarks during the "Telephony and the Cable Industry" forum recently at the Society of Cable Telecommunications Engineers Engineering Conference and Cable-Tec Expo, Barnhouse identified five "open issues:" the safety and reliability of plant powering; the availability of cable plant components; the accuracy and reliability of downtime projections; plant design characterization issues; and number portability should a new cable telephony subscriber wish to move their old telco-assigned phone number to the new provider. "We've made the decision to provide a competitive, first- line, telephone service. A big revenue opportunity comes with it, but so do some real stringent requirements," Barnhouse said. "So we're focusing on getting the field services up and running, and understanding the issues involved in engineering." However, he added: "We are not at closure. The first of these issues, plant powering, is at the bulk of the discussion." Barnhouse said that within the plant-powering issue, are such vital unanswered questions as assessing the ability of various supplementary generators to supply back-up power, how much back-up time capability should be insisted upon as a standard, and where within the cable plant right-of-ways should be placed. These are key issues because of cable's periodic failures during bad weather, and concerns among customers and local regulators that in such an event, cable telephony subscribers would temporarily lose access to "911" and other emergency numbers. Barnhouse said Time-Warner is assessing various plant- power products, but would give no definitive timetable for vendor selection. With regard to the number portability issue, however, he did note that the cable company was "looking at a number of portability "solutions," as well as "some other alternatives that will address the problem" in the short-term. One of these temporary solutions, he said, might be to use remote call-forwarding technology as a bridge between a customers "old" telco number and a "new" cable-telephony number. This year's conference and expo was the first for the SCTE under its new "Society of Cable Telecommunications Engineers" name. Previously known as the Society of Cable Television Engineers, the 11,000-member organization changed its name in part because of a desire to recruit more telephony engineers. (Russell Shaw/19950615) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 06/22/95 TRENDS ****World Wide Web To Be Superseded - Forrester (NEWS)(TRENDS)(TOR)(00020) ****World Wide Web To Be Superseded - Forrester 06/22/95 CAMBRIDGE, MASSACHUSETTS, U.S.A., 1995 JUN 22 (NB) -- The Internet's World Wide Web may be the hot new technology of today, but it will give way to something more interactive in the future, according to Forrester Research Inc. In a recent report titled "CIO Meets Internet," George Colony, director of Forrester's Computing Strategy Service, writes that today's Web pages are inherently boring because the Web as we know it only offers file sharing, not true interactivity. Colony expects the World Wide Web to be replaced by what he calls the Worldwide Transaction Web (WTW), which will link users' computers to Internet servers in a true client/server computing model. This setup will make possible animation, interactive graphics, and sound that do not have to be downloaded before the user can play them back on a local computer, as with the Web today. Company logos will move automatically on the screen and Web presentations will be more interactive, possibly resembling the video advertising of today. This will require new technology that goes beyond the hypertext markup language (HTML) on which the Web depends now, according to Forrester. "A corporate developer will have to design the front- end of a system to satisfy two types of customers -- internal and external," Colony says. "This will require programmers to focus on the user interface and ease-of-use. On the back-end, the needs of these new systems will continue to force the migration of production systems into relational databases." According to Colony, companies that want to sell products and services on the Internet need the kind of interactivity his hypothetical Worldwide Transaction Web will offer to keep customers interested so that they will return to Web sites again and again. (Grant Buckler/19950622/Press Contact: Katie Kelley, Forrester Research, 617-497-7090, Internet e-mail kkelley@forrester.com; Public Contact: Forrester Research, 617-497-7090) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 9500 06/22/95 CHIPS Advantage Memory DIMMs For PowerMac (NEWS)(CHIPS)(LAX)(00021) Advantage Memory DIMMs For PowerMac 9500 06/22/95 IRVINE, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1995 JUN 22 (NB) -- Advantage Memory Corporation has announced a new line of DIMMs (dual in-line memory modules). Apple Computer's (NASDAQ: AAPL) new PowerMac 9500 uses DIMM technology to make use of up to 768 megabytes (MB) of RAM. DIMMs are expected to replace SIMMs (single in-line memory modules) as the memory standard in high performance machines. DIMMs now come in configurations from 8MB to 64MB and are slightly larger is size than conventional SIMMs. The Apple PowerMac 9500 has 12 sockets, which can accommodate up to 768MB of RAM. John Harriman, president of Advantage Memory Corporation, told Newsbytes, "Many other OEM (original equipment manufacturer) and system manufacturers are moving to DIMM technology. For example, IBM's RS/6000 has gone to DIMM's. Basically I anticipate the migration to DIMM technology will be similar to the move from the 32-pin SIMM to the 72-pin SIMM. That took about one year. This might go even faster because of the real push by users and manufacturers for more power." Harriman also pointed out that DIMMs have a different socket technology than SIMMs. They are slightly larger and will not fit in a SIMM slot, nor will a SIMM fit in a DIMM slot. The Apple PowerMac 9500 can only use DIMMs. Advantage Memory suggested retail for an 8MB DIMM is $399, and goes up to $3,900 for the 64MB DIMM. The PowerMac 9500, with 12 sockets, can fill all the slots with 64MB DIMMs and reach 768MB RAM for a suggested retail price of $46,800. Advantage expects to ship 128MB DIMMs in the next few months. The 128MB DIMMs will allow Apple's PowerMac 9500 system to be expanded to 1.5 gigabytes of RAM. Advantage Memory says that, in addition to a full line of 168-pin DIMMs, the company will offer a 72-pin small outline DIMM, designed specifically for high-powered notebook PCs. According to the company, SO DIMMs are currently being used by Dell, IBM, and Toshiba in some of their high-performance notebook lines. Advantage Memory, founded in 1990, is part of privately held Reedman Industries, a $50 million high technology holding company headquartered in Irvine, Calif. (Richard Bowers/19950622/Press Contact: Len Fernandes, Advantage Memory Corporation, 510-538-8916) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 06/22/95 BUSINESS Kodak's Advanced Photo System Means 500 Jobs (NEWS)(BUSINESS)(DEN)(00022) Kodak's Advanced Photo System Means 500 Jobs 06/22/95 ROCHESTER, NEW YORK, U.S.A., 1995 JUN 22 (NB) -- Eastman Kodak Co. NYSE: EK) said this week it will invest $300 million in its Kodak Park manufacturing facility in Rochester, New York, and create as many as 500 new jobs to produce a new Advanced Photo System (APS) that is scheduled to ship in 1996. Kodak said the new system, which is being developed in partnership with Canon, Fuji, Minolta and Nikon, will provide picture-takers with improved quality, convenience, simplicity, and flexibility. One of the primary features of the new system will be "drop in" loading. Kodak said incorrect loading accounts for the majority of pictures that don't come out. APS will also offer three picture sizes. One will facilitate wide shots, such as groups of people. Another will be panoramic, which Kodak said will eliminate today's "proof" panoramic prints. The third will be similar to the current 35 millimeter (mm) print. Other features of APS will include: smaller cameras, which Kodak said will fit easily in a shirt pocket or purse; printing of more information on the back of the picture print, including date and time; and improved picture quality. Kodak said the latter will be possible because APS will provide information to the camera, and the camera will be able to provide information to the photofinisher. That information, such as overall lighting conditions and whether the picture-taker used a flash, will enable photofinishers to make adjustments in processing to enhance picture quality. Kodak called APS a "pathway to the future," saying the system's magnetics and the design of the film cartridge can make possible numerous innovations in the way consumers access and use photographs in the years ahead. APS will also include a new storage and retrieval system that Kodak said will eliminate the shoe boxes full of photos found in many amateur photographer's closets. The company said the feature will also make it easier and more convenient for consumers to order reprints, enlargements and other photofinishing services. Kodak isn't giving out much specific information about APS yet, but company spokesperson Charles Smith told Newsbytes that Canon, Minolta, and Nikon are working on the hardware end of APS, and Kodak and Fuji are developing the film and processing. Smith said the new film will be smaller than current 35mm film, but declined to reveal what size it would be. Pocket cameras in the past have used a narrower 110 size drop-in film cartridges. Regarding the new storage and retrieval system, Smith told Newsbytes it would be different from the current Photo CD system that stores snapshots on a CD-ROM disk. Those images can be manipulated by computer software and displayed on a PC or television equipped with a Photo CD drive. Smith said the APS technology would be different for the consumer to use but will interface with Photo CD. "The system will be Photo CD compatible," he stated. The APS magnetics will be able to write information on the film similar to the current data back systems, but is expected to include more information, some possibly entered by the photographer. APS is scheduled to come to market in early 1996, said Smith. (Jim Mallory/19950622/press contact: Paul Allen, Eastman Kodak, 716-724-4513) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 06/22/95 BUSINESS London Stock Exchange Opens Small Company Market (NEWS)(BUSINESS)(LON)(00023) London Stock Exchange Opens Small Company Market 06/22/95 LONDON, ENGLAND, 1995 JUN 22 (NB) -- After several months of preparation, the London Stock Exchange (LSE) has opened its Alternative Investment Market (AIM) for smaller companies. According to Theresa Wallis, AIM's chief operating officer, ten companies will initially join the market and, like any other exchange, be quoted for buying and selling. Wallis explained that the AIM exchange will serve as a primary route for smaller and growing companies to access new capital. "We're confident that AIM will be central to many companies' development plans in the future," she said. Plans call for the number of companies quoted on AIM to be quadrupled by the end of the year, and many more are expected to apply for quotable status after that. Unfortunately, because of a series of clerical problems, the application forms for quoting on AIM were not available until the beginning of this month, which meant that only a few companies -- the startup 10 -- were able to have their applications approved in time for this week's launch. Demand for applications is expected to be high, Newsbytes understands, as more than 15,000 info packs on the AIM exchange have been distributed since it was first planned at the beginning of this year. LSE officials said that they are marketing AIM as part of their main portfolio of services to companies, both in the UK and abroad. Although LSE officials are reluctant to talk about it, the last exchange launch, that of the so-called Third Market, did not go down too well in 1987 and after three years of failing to cover costs, was closed down unceremoniously in 1990. (Sylvia Dennis/19950622/Press & Reader Contact: London Stock Exchange, +44-171-588-2355) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 06/22/95 WINDOWS ****Microsoft Reaffirms August Windows 95 Date (NEWS)(WINDOWS)(TYO)(00024) ****Microsoft Reaffirms August Windows 95 Date 06/22/95 TOKYO, JAPAN, 1995 JUN 22 (NB) -- If you hear news today that Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) has postponed the shipping date of Windows 95 from August to October it is not true, says a Microsoft spokeswoman. Explaining how the news came about, Andrea Cook of Microsoft told Newsbytes, "It was a reporter's error. Bill Gates was in Tokyo today to announce a new deal with Softbank, and a Japanese reporter misinterpreted the translation." Reaffirming the launch date, Cook continued, "Bill said it in very plain English, we will definitely be shipping in August. Somehow that was misinterpreted and a story got out that it was delayed." A race was now on to stop the story spreading, she told Newsbytes, "The Tokyo office is now calling all the reporters in town to deny it" she told Newsbytes. The article originally ran on the Japanese language wire of the Kyodo News Service and was also carried on its English wire which is picked up by many other news organizations around the world. Microsoft has delayed the Windows 95 launch before, although now appears to be set on an August launch, so as to keep customer confidence in the package. (Martyn Williams/19950622/Press contact: Andrea Cook, Microsoft Corp., 206-936-4436) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 06/22/95 BUSINESS More On Microsoft/Softbank Windows 95 Game Alliance (NEWS)(BUSINESS)(TYO)(00025) More On Microsoft/Softbank Windows 95 Game Alliance 06/22/95 TOKYO, JAPAN, 1995 JUNE 22 (NB) -- Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) and Softbank, Japan's largest software distributor, have announced a deal to publish and promote games software for Microsoft's new Windows 95 operating system. The news was delivered by Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates and Softbank President Mayoshi Son at a Tokyo press conference. Last week Newsbytes reported news of the deal after it was published on the front page of the Nikkei Keizai Shimbun, Japan's leading financial daily. The two computer industry giants today formally announced they have formed a new company, Gamebank Corporation, headed by Softbank's Son. Gamebank will obtain publishing rights from games software manufactures in Japan as well as handling marketing, sales and distribution of the titles in Japan. Speaking the Newsbytes, Microsoft's Andrea Cook explained the worldwide distribution arrangements, saying: "I think the idea is that Softbank will handle most of it but it's not an exclusive deal. Right now we are concentrating on Japan." Microsoft hopes that a strong lineup of games software will help it sell copies of the new Windows 95 operating system software when it goes on sale in August in the US, and later worldwide. Illinois-based Kinesoft, and Softbank, will jointly handle the job of porting the software onto the Windows 95 platform. Softbank acquired 41% of Kinesoft Development Corp. in late May of this year for $12 million. According to Microsoft, "early support by Japanese game manufacturers for the new venture is strong." Microsoft released a list of software makers already supporting the venture, which includes some of Japan's largest such companies, Artdink, Bandai, Capcom, Chunsoft, Namco, SNK, Takara, Taito, and T&E Soft. Microsoft views PCs equipped with Windows 95 as the "perfect solution" for users who would previously have bought a PC for applications and a console for games. Said the company, "Until now, the PC has remained a small player in this market compared to TV consoles, because of the PC's inferior hardware and software performance for games. The advent of Windows 95 will change that by including functionality to make PCs a superior gaming platform. These improvements will likely expand the overall gaming demand, and benefits the industry, by adding a whole new medium on which to play games." Improved performance that Windows 95 reportedly features for games includes better graphics, easy connectivity, and hi-fi sound, according to Microsoft. In addition, the new system will "greatly improve PC game response speed and multimedia functionality, bringing PC game performance up to par with TV console games." Majority ownership of Gamebank Corporation lies with Softbank, which has a 60% stake, while Microsoft owns the remaining 40%. The company will be formed on July 10, capitalized at 450 million yen ($5.29 million). (Martyn Williams/19950622/Press contact: Kay Morita, Microsoft Corp. Japan, +81-3-5454-8013; Andrea Cook, Microsoft Corp., 206-936-4436) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 06/22/95 LEGAL ****Gingrich Slams Senate Online Smut Bill (NEWS)(LEGAL)(WAS)(00026) ****Gingrich Slams Senate Online Smut Bill 06/22/95 WASHINGTON, D.C., U.S.A., 1995 JUN 22 (NB) -- Surprising some on the right, House Speaker Newt Gingrich (R-Ga.) has strongly attacked Senate legislation aimed at blocking obscenity on the Internet. "It is clearly a violation of free speech and it's a violation of the right of adults to communicate with each other," Gingrich said Tuesday evening on a cable television show he hosts. "I don't agree with it and I don't think it is a serious way to discuss a serious issue, which is, 'How do you maintain the right of free speech for adults while also protecting children in a medium which is available to both?'" Gingrich said. The Senate provisions, sponsored by Sens. James Exon (D-Neb.) and Dan Coats (R-Ind.), would outlaw obscenity on computer networks, including commercial online services and the Internet. It would impose fines of up to $100,000 and two year jail terms on people who make sexually explicit material available to anyone under 18. Gingrich said the Senate amendment was "very badly thought out and not very productive." Gingrich is an enthusiast for new communications technologies, and is said to be an inveterate Internet user. Exon yesterday said Gingrich was out of touch. "It may very well be that the speaker has not seen or does not know what is readily available on the Internet," Exon said. Gingrich's opposition to the Senate approach puts him at odds with Senate Majority Leader Robert Dole (R-Kan.), not an unfamiliar position for the pugnacious speaker. He once called Dole the "tax collector for the welfare state." Gingrich's opposition won support from civil libertarians. Floyd Abrams, a well-known liberal constitutional scholar, praised Gingrich on a Washington radio show today and said the Senate would establish "a regime of censorship in new technology," and the prohibition of indecency "can contain all kinds of stuff that is constitutionally protected." The House appears ready to take a completely different approach to the issue of online pornography. Reps. Christopher Cox (R-Calif.) and Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) are writing provisions for the House telecommunications bill that would rely on technology, not the government, to screen out smut. Under their plan, the government would help parents and others find technologies that would give them control of what their kids can see. The Cox-Wyden plan would not dictate a solution, such as a special "choice chip" that is required in the Senate bill to screen out sex and violence on television. California-based SurfWatch Software in May began offering software that blocks users from access to selected information on the Internet. Netscape, Microsoft, and Progressive Networks are also collaborating on filtering technologies for the Internet and for other online services, including the new Microsoft Network. (Kennedy Maize/19950622/Press Contact: Tony Blankley, Gingrich press secretary, 202-225-4501, Internet e-mail georgia6@hr.house.gov) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 06/22/95 GOVT ****Justice Dept Broadens Microsoft Inquiry (NEWS)(GOVT)(WAS)(00027) ****Justice Dept Broadens Microsoft Inquiry 06/22/95 WASHINGTON, D.C., U.S.A., 1995 JUN 22 (NB) -- The Justice Department has broadened its inquiry of Microsoft's plans for its new Microsoft Network, according to today's New York Times. According to the newspaper, the Justice Department antitrust division has asked for documents from online content suppliers, writing that the civil investigative demand (CID) was made available to the paper by one recipient. The CID states, "because of the urgency of this investigation, the CID sets a return date for this information of Friday, June 23." Lawyers say that is an exceptionally short period to respond. Microsoft has signed some 150 American and 75 foreign companies to supply content for its new network, which will be rolled out in August at the same time as Windows 95. Some competitors, particularly America Online, have charged that Microsoft's bundling of access to the new online service as part of the new operating system is anti-competitive. Some observers believe Justice may be moving quickly so that, if it decides there is a possible violation of law, it can seek to halt the Windows 95 launch. Earlier, Justice asked AOL, CompuServe and Prodigy for information on the Microsoft plan. The latest Justice subpoenas ask for any "document, including any survey, report, analysis or estimate, whether authored by your company, Microsoft, or any other company," that deals with the possible impact of the Microsoft Network. (Kennedy Maize/19950622) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 400 06/22/95 IBM ****PC Expo - IBM Adds PowerPC, Web Browsing To AS (NEWS)(IBM)(BOS)(00028) ****PC Expo - IBM Adds PowerPC, Web Browsing To AS/400 06/22/95 NEW YORK, NEW YORK, U.S.A., 1995 JUN 22 (NB) -- IBM's AS/400 midrange computer is celebrating its seventh birthday by adding PowerPC chips, Web connectivity, and a GUI (graphical user interface), plus support for Lotus Notes and NetWare Loadable Modules (NLMs), said Glenn T. Van Benschoten, director of systems product management for the AS/400 Division, in a meeting with Newsbytes at PC Expo. The AS/400 has kept adding new capabilities ever since its inception, and the latest update to the business computer, being introduced at the show in New York City, completes the machine's transition to an "open, enterprise-level client-server" environment, according to Van Benschoten, who is also IBM's AS/400 system manager. Other newly announced capabilities for IBM's AS/400 include new object-oriented development tools and the addition of parallel processing support to the DB2 for OS (operating system)/400 database, the IBM exec told Newsbytes. New models of the AS/400 will incorporate two new 64-bit PowerPC microprocessors that will supply up to 300 percent greater transaction processing speed than current models, Van Benschoten contended. The new A10 PowerPC chip is a 77 megahertz (MHz) three-way superscalar microprocessor. The new A30 is a 154MHz four-way superscalar PowerPC semiconductor targeted at "high-end" AS/400 models. The new A10 and A30 are "fully compatible" with PowerPC specifications, but bring additional "proprietary" functionality specifically aimed at transaction processing applications, he said. IBM's Model 53S AS/400 system with 64-bit RISC (reduced instruction set computer) PowerPC processors will operate up to three times faster than the most power non-RISC AS/400 server, the Model 30S, according to Van Benschoten. The PowerPC-based Model 530 will run at least 50 percent faster than the non-RISC Model 320 four-way, he added. The models 53S and 530 each provide symmetric multiprocessing capabilities (SMP) for either two-way or four-way multiprocessing. The new models of the AS/400 hardware will also provide up to four times as much main memory and up to twice as much disk storage, as well as over twice as many communications lines as their predecessors, he maintained. Users will be able to run existing AS/400 applications on the new AS/400 PowerPC platforms right away, without re-writing or recompiling, Newsbytes was told. Van Benschoten added that a newly announced update to OS/400, Version 3 Release 6 (V3R6), will bring new Web connectivity through a new feature that converts 5250 code into HTML (hypertext markup language), the language employed by popular Web browsers such as Mosaic and Netscape. Unlike Unix- or Windows NT-based Web systems, he contended, the AS/400 can be connected directly to the Internet without the addition of "firewalls," due to built-in security features. Backup capabilities are also built-in, he noted. Also in contrast to Unix- or Windows NT-based systems, which typically call for a dedicated Web server, AS/400 systems interfaced to the Web will be able to run all of a company's internal "business applications," as well, he asserted. The new release for PowerPC machines will also bring support for any Novell NLM that allows for remote management through FSIOP, a 486-based board, according to Van Benschoten. "That includes most NLMs today," he pointed out. Van Benschoten also revealed that IBM started to work on adding Lotus Notes support to OS/400 "long before" the company's recent bid to acquire Lotus. AS/400 users will manage Notes through FSIOP, too. IBM has also added a new Graphical Access capability designed to let PC clients display OS/400 information in a "graphical, point- and-click way," Van Benschoten said. Almost all of the new capabilities provided by V3R6 will also be supplied in another new edition of OS/400, V3R1, which will run on earlier, pre-PowerPC systems, he reported. In addition, he said, DB2 for OS/400 is being enhanced to allow development of new drivers that will permit queries to other RDBMS (relational database management systems), such as Sybase and Oracle. IBM is also readying a new release of DB2 for OS/400 that will permit development of new "data mining" applications that AS/400 users are asking for, according to Van Benschoten. IBM plans to phase in the new capabilities on a gradual basis, said the director of systems product management. Most of the new features will be released for AS/400 CISC platform in the fourth quarter of this year, and for AS/400 RISC machines by the first half of 1996, Newsbytes was told. The addition of PowerPC functionality to AS/400 is part of a company plan to use PowerPC processors "widely" across its client-server systems, according to the IBM exec. As previously reported in Newsbytes, also at PC Expo this week, IBM has rolled out the Power Series family of desktop and ThinkPad PowerPC models. (Jacqueline Emigh/19950622/Reader Contact: IBM, 914-765-1900; Press Contacts: Barbara McNair, IBM, 212-696-2000; Rachel Postelthwaite or Ari Fishkind, Technology Solutions for IBM, 212-696-2000) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 06/22/95 BUSINESS Microsoft & Timeline Join Forces On New Product (NEWS)(BUSINESS)(DEN)(00029) Microsoft & Timeline Join Forces On New Product 06/22/95 REDMOND, WASHINGTON, U.S.A., 1995 JUN 22 (NB) -- Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ: MSFT) and Timeline Inc. (NASDAQ: TMLN) have announced a joint project to develop technology that will be included in a yet to be announced Microsoft product targeted at small office/home office (SOHO) business users. The companies declined to reveal the nature of the product, citing "confidentiality." This isn't the first project in which the two software companies have collaborated. In July, 1992, Newsbytes reported Timeline and Microsoft would develop Timeline's accounting and job cost applications for VAX and VMS on the Microsoft client-server platform using Windows and Microsoft's SQL Server. In speaking of the new agreement, Timeline officials said the company will bring to market complementary products to the Microsoft software, under its own label, at about the same time as the Microsoft product. That is scheduled to happen in late 1995. Owen Carton, Timeline vice president of marketing, said that while the one-time licensing revenue from the Microsoft agreement will not be material to the company's fiscal 1995 results, the agreement will be meaningful in terms of "market awareness and position." John Calahan, Timeline founder and chief executive officer said the product to be developed "will provide future Microsoft customers a very strong complement of existing Timeline technology within a Microsoft Windows framework." Len Cereghino, a public relations firm spokesperson for Timeline, told Newsbytes that existing technology is called "MetaView," a client-server package he described as a "financial data warehouse" for the mid- to high-end financial reporting markets in the $200 million annual revenue category. The spokesperson said MetaView is more than a report writer. "It can connect to mainframe-, mini- and PC-based personal accounting systems and pull in information from those accounting systems to produce clear meaningful reports." Cereghino said the Microsoft agreement calls for Timeline to move some of that technology into the SOHO market. "The Microsoft product takes components of what we already have today inside Metaview," Cereghino told Newsbytes. (Jim Mallory/19950622/Press contact: Becky Pendleton Reid for Timeline, 206-623-0431 or Jennifer Allen, Waggener Edstrom for Microsoft, 503-245-0905) (SUMMARY)(GENERAL)(MSP)(00030) Newsbytes Daily Summary 06/22/95 MINNEAPOLIS, MINNESOTA, U.S.A., 1995 JUN 22 (NB) -- These are capsules of all today's news stories: ======================================================================== ------------| N E W S B Y T E S D A I L Y S U M M A R Y |---------- ------------| Thursday, June 22, 1995 |---------- ======================================================================== (c) Newsbytes News Network (Tm) Editor in Chief: Wendy Woods ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Newsbytes News Network is a computer and telecom industry news wire and digitized picture service. Our news stream includes more than 30 daily first-hand reported US and international news stories about computing and telecommunications. For more information, please e-mail to 'administrator@newsbytes.com' ------------------------------------------------------------------------ CATEGORY HEADLINES (*** indicates today's top stories) STORY # ======================================================================== BROADCAST Intel Videoconferencing Connects Lenders To Borrowers...... 10 BUSINESS Intel Strengthens China Position........................... 16 BUSINESS Kodak's Advanced Photo System Means 500 Jobs............... 22 BUSINESS London Stock Exchange Opens Small Company Market........... 23 BUSINESS More On Microsoft/Softbank Windows 95 Game Alliance........ 25 BUSINESS Microsoft & Timeline Join Forces On New Product............ 29 CHIPS Advantage Memory DIMMs For PowerMac 9500................... 21 GENERAL Revelation Offers Yamaha 4x CD-R Drive Bundle.............. 06 GENERAL Japan - Super Density Disk Format Assoc Formed............. 17 GOVT ****Justice Dept Broadens Microsoft Inquiry............... 27 IBM IBM Offers Global IT Security Services..................... 02 IBM IBM Ramps Up Messaging Technology Sales Channels........... 14 IBM ****PC Expo - IBM Adds PowerPC, Web Browsing To AS/400.... 28 LEGAL ****Gingrich Slams Senate Online Smut Bill................ 26 NETWORK Europe - MultiTech Unveils Multicomtower Technology........ 12 NETWORK After 10 Years...Hong Kong Gets First EDI Service.......... 15 ONLINE Rogaine Takes Root On World Wide Web....................... 05 ONLINE America Online Adds Stores, Discount Broker................ 07 ONLINE Toronto Newspaper Launches New Media Services.............. 18 TELECOM Cap Gemini Plans Global Voice & Data Network............... 03 TELECOM Ireland - 2nd GSM Network Tendering Delayed By Govt........ 04 TELECOM NET Secures Major German Insurance Contract................ 11 TELECOM Cable-Telephone Must Overcome Technical Hurdles............ 19 TRENDS Correction - Chinon Plans 8x CD-ROM Drives................ 01 TRENDS Europe - Video-On-Demand Soon A Reality - Report........... 13 TRENDS ****World Wide Web To Be Superseded - Forrester........... 20 WINDOWS Landmark Ships Windows Memory Booster Prgm................. 08 WINDOWS More On Microsoft Schedule+ In Windows 95.................. 09 WINDOWS ****Microsoft Reaffirms August Windows 95 Date............ 24 ======================================================================== These are the headlines and first paragraphs of each story, in order: 1 -> Correction - Chinon Plans 8x CD-ROM Drives -- Chinon has clarified some aspects of a story which ran June 5, 1995, under the headline, "Chinon Plans 8x CD-ROM Drives." 2 -> IBM Offers Global IT Security Services -- IBM has unveiled its information technology (IT) Security Practice and Services program. According to Anna Russell, a spokeswoman for Big Blue's UK operation, the program is being rolled out globally and aims to offer all types of IBM customers a range of security products and services. 3 -> Cap Gemini Plans Global Voice & Data Network -- Cap Gemini Sogeti (CGS) has announced plans to set up a global voice and data communications network to offer leased line and dial-up access to companies with offices in different countries. 4 -> Ireland - 2nd GSM Network Tendering Delayed By Govt -- The Irish Government has announced it has temporarily shelved the tender closing date for the country's second GSM (global system for mobile communications) digital phone network. 5 -> Rogaine Takes Root On World Wide Web -- The company with the product that re-grows hair in both men and women is seeding the Internet's World Wide Web with company information. The Upjohn Company (NYSE:UPJ) has announced that details on Rogaine Topical Solution can now be found in cyberspace. 6 -> Revelation Offers Yamaha 4x CD-R Drive Bundle -- Revelation Products Corporation, a distributor of the Yamaha 4x Recording System, has announced ZIP-CD for the audio and video industry. ZIP-CD is a bundle which offers multimedia professionals a complete kit to "burn" "true" quad-speed (4x) CDs. 7 -> America Online Adds Stores, Discount Broker -- America Online Inc. (NASDAQ:AMER) is expanding the ways in which people can spend money on the service. The company announced it is adding an online discount stock brokerage system, along with a variety of new electronic "stores." 8 -> Landmark Ships Windows Memory Booster Prgm -- If you are tired of getting "out of memory" messages on your Windows-based PC, a Florida company says it is now shipping a software-only answer that can increase the amount of available Windows memory by up to four times. 9 -> More On Microsoft Schedule+ In Windows 95 -- When Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ: MSFT) launches Windows 95, its new operating system and user interface, in about eight weeks, one of the functional features of the program will be a scheduling tool called Schedule+ for Windows 95. Microsoft calls it "the ultimate time manager." 10 -> Intel Videoconferencing Connects Lenders To Borrowers -- Intel's (NASDAQ:INTC) ProShare videoconferencing product will be used to connect borrowers and mortgage lenders in real-time "face-to-face" meetings. Virtual Realty Network Inc. is testing the system in Orange County, California. 11 -> NET Secures Major German Insurance Contract -- Pandacom, the Frankfurt-based distributor for Network Equipment Technologies (NET), has secured a US$1 million contract for the supply of a backbone network to Allianz Versicherung AG, reportedly the fifth largest insurance company in the world. 12 -> Europe - MultiTech Unveils Multicomtower Technology -- MultiTech, which claims it is the world's leading manufacturer of data communications equipment, has taken the wraps off the Multicomtower, a "fully integrated" LAN/WAN (local/wide area network) communications system. 13 -> Europe - Video-On-Demand Soon A Reality - Report -- According to Paul Lee, the Ovum consultant responsible for a recent survey of trials for video-on- demand (VOD) across Europe, interest in the technology is flourishing, despite the fact that the market is still in its infancy. 14 -> IBM Ramps Up Messaging Technology Sales Channels -- IBM is wasting no time in preparing its sales channels for the diversification of the Lotus Notes and cc:Mail product lines. The company has announced a major push is under way around the world to boost sales of its commercial messaging system, MQSeries. 15 -> After 10 Years...Hong Kong Gets First EDI Service -- After more than a decade of talk and broken promises, Hong Kong now has its first working EDI (electronic data interchange) service. 16 -> Intel Strengthens China Position -- Chip maker Intel Corp. has strengthened its position in China with several deals based around the flourishing city of Shanghai. 17 -> Japan - Super Density Disk Format Assoc Formed -- A group of electronics hardware manufacturers that have announced support for the Super Density (SD) disk format have formed an association in Tokyo to promote and support the SD system. 18 -> Toronto Newspaper Launches New Media Services -- The Globe and Mail, a nationally distributed daily newspaper, has announced a range of multimedia products and services for advertisers. The Globe will provide services such as World Wide Web page design and maintenance through a contract with Knowledge Plus Multimedia Publishing Ltd. (Alberta:KPP), of Kelowna, British Columbia. 19 -> Cable-Telephone Must Overcome Technical Hurdles -- Several seemingly arcane plant management issues must be worked out before the technical path to cable-delivered telephony is clear. That's according to Chris Barnhouse, VP of technology for Time Warner Communications, the telephony arm of Time Warner Cable. 20 -> ****World Wide Web To Be Superseded - Forrester -- The Internet's World Wide Web may be the hot new technology of today, but it will give way to something more interactive in the future, according to Forrester Research Inc. 21 -> Advantage Memory DIMMs For PowerMac 9500 -- Advantage Memory Corporation has announced a new line of DIMMs (dual in-line memory modules). Apple Computer's (NASDAQ: AAPL) new PowerMac 9500 uses DIMM technology to make use of up to 768 megabytes (MB) of RAM. 22 -> Kodak's Advanced Photo System Means 500 Jobs -- Eastman Kodak Co. NYSE: EK) said this week it will invest $300 million in its Kodak Park manufacturing facility in Rochester, New York, and create as many as 500 new jobs to produce a new Advanced Photo System (APS) that is scheduled to ship in 1996. 23 -> London Stock Exchange Opens Small Company Market -- After several months of preparation, the London Stock Exchange (LSE) has opened its Alternative Investment Market (AIM) for smaller companies. 24 -> ****Microsoft Reaffirms August Windows 95 Date -- If you hear news today that Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) has postponed the shipping date of Windows 95 from August to October it is not true, says a Microsoft spokeswoman. 25 -> More On Microsoft/Softbank Windows 95 Game Alliance -- Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) and Softbank, Japan's largest software distributor, have announced a deal to publish and promote games software for Microsoft's new Windows 95 operating system. The news was delivered by Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates and Softbank President Mayoshi Son at a Tokyo press conference. 26 -> ****Gingrich Slams Senate Online Smut Bill -- Surprising some on the right, House Speaker Newt Gingrich (R-Ga.) has strongly attacked Senate legislation aimed at blocking obscenity on the Internet. "It is clearly a violation of free speech and it's a violation of the right of adults to communicate with each other," Gingrich said Tuesday evening on a cable television show he hosts. 27 -> ****Justice Dept Broadens Microsoft Inquiry -- The Justice Department has broadened its inquiry of Microsoft's plans for its new Microsoft Network, according to today's New York Times. 28 -> ****PC Expo - IBM Adds PowerPC, Web Browsing To AS/400 -- IBM's AS/400 midrange computer is celebrating its seventh birthday by adding PowerPC chips, Web connectivity, and a GUI (graphical user interface), plus support for Lotus Notes and NetWare Loadable Modules (NLMs), said Glenn T. Van Benschoten, director of systems product management for the AS/400 Division, in a meeting with Newsbytes at PC Expo. 29 -> Microsoft & Timeline Join Forces On New Product -- Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ: MSFT) and Timeline Inc. (NASDAQ: TMLN) have announced a joint project to develop technology that will be included in a yet to be announced Microsoft product targeted at small office/home office (SOHO) business users. The companies declined to reveal the nature of the product, citing "confidentiality." (Ian Stokell/19950622) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 06/21/95 PC UK - Elonex Intros 133MHz Pentium PCs (NEWS)(PC)(LON)(00001) UK - Elonex Intros 133MHz Pentium PCs 06/21/95 LONDON, ENGLAND, 1995 JUN 21 (NB) -- Elonex, a direct sell PC vendor, has taken the wraps off a new range of 133 megahertz (MHz) Pentium-based systems that it claims are streaks ahead of the competition. David Bridson, a company spokesman, told Newsbytes that the Triton systems are based around Intel's newly-shipping, albeit in small quantities, modular Pentium board. "This will allow the next generation of Intel Pentiums to slot in and run straight away. Bridson refused to be drawn further on the next generation of Pentiums, as the company is under a non-disclosure agreement with Intel on the technology. Industry sources suggest, however, that the next generation of Pentiums will be 150MHz, but will be 2.9-volts, rather than the current 3.3-volts currently seen on the 133MHz Pentiums and below. Bridson said that, assuming Intel did release a 150MHz version of the Pentium chipset with a voltage specification of 2.9 volts, then the modular nature of the Triton's system broad could easily accommodate a voltage regulator. "By using the new Intel modular board, rather than the standard board used by Dell, Gateway, Viglen and others, Elonex can offer truly upgradable Pentium systems," he explained. As well as using the new Intel Pentium board, the PC-533/I series from Elonex has a number of extra features. According to Bridson, the machines includes support for a full range of interchangeable cache modules with 256 kilobytes (KB) asynchronous cache as standard, and options for EDO (extended data out) DRAM and 256KB or 512KB pipelined burst synchronous cache. This flexibility, Elonex claims, offers major benefits to PC-5133/I users right now. The confusing range of Triton-based board options currently available in volume to the majority of the Elonex's competitors, on the other hand, offer fixed cache configurations that are "bound to restrict their appeal," said the company. Elonex claims that users buying PCs based on one type of board, for example, will not be able to use second level cache of any description, while those with another type will get asynchronous cache only. Elonex's more coherent design gives the company a significant lead in terms of time-to-market with volume shipments, it claims. As previously reported by Newsbytes, support for the latest "Plug and Play" specifications is guaranteed with the Elonex PC-5133/I range. The system uses flash technology to allow easy upgrading as new versions of the BIOS (basic input/output system) become available. Built to individual customer order by Elonex's manufacturing facility in Scotland, the new PC-5133/I models are supplied with eight megabytes (MB) of RAM as standard. Memory is expandable to 128MB and EDO DRAM can also be used. Other standard PC-5133/I features include: a 64-bit PCI (Peripheral Component Interconnect) graphics accelerator with 1MB DRAM (2MB option) or 4MB VRAM; a 14-inch MPR II color monitor non-interlaced at 1024 by 768 pixels resolution; a 102-key UK keyboard; a Microsoft mouse; an ECP parallel port; and two high-speed RS-232 16550A serial ports. Available hard disk options, meanwhile, range from 420MB to four gigabytes (GB). Pricing on the new machines ranges from UKP1,790 for a system with a 420MB hard drive, to UKP3,245 for a 4GB SCSI (small computer system interface) hard disk. (Steve Gold/19950620/Press Contact: David Bridson, tel +44-1869-338833, fax +44-1869-338843, Internet e-mail bandb@cix.compulink.co.uk; Reader Contact: Elonex, +44-181-452-4444) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 06/21/95 ONLINE London LIFFE Options Exchange On The Internet (NEWS)(ONLINE)(LON)(00002) London LIFFE Options Exchange On The Internet 06/21/95 LONDON, ENGLAND, 1995 JUN 21 (NB) -- The London International Financial Futures and Options Exchange (LIFFE), has opened a World Wide Site. According to a spokeswoman, the service started last Friday and is slowly being ramped up to offer information to general users of the Internet, as well as to global futures and option exchanges and other interested parties. #IMAGE 1 20 TWPCX \images\95062102.PCX Click here for photo The Web site, which is on http://www.liffe.com, is divided into six main areas, including a thumbnail sketch of LIFFE's function, education, news, publications, statistics, and technology. According to Daniel Hobson, LIFFE's chief executive, the Web site links these areas with a series of video clips and information files, all with the express intention of educating Internet users as to the function of the LIFFE. "The exchange is seeking to ensure that market users, and those with a general interest in the industry, can obtain current information across the facilities that LIFFE provides in a user-friendly and timely method," he explained. The Web site has its own domain name, but is hosted on a server linked to the Internet via Pipex, the UK's largest Internet service provider. According to LIFFE's spokeswoman, plans are in hand to move the current CD-ROM-based information stream fed to other Commodity & Trading Agencies (CTAs) around the world online on to the Web site. "The CTA feed will be on a rolling basis, detailing information over the last five days, while the CD-ROM service contain all relevant historical data. This feed will offered via the Web site at a later stage," she explained. (Steve Gold/19950620/Press & Reader Contact: LIFFE, +44-171-623-0444/LIFFE950621/PHOTO) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 06/21/95 TELECOM Can New US West Comms Boss Fix The Phones? (NEWS)(TELECOM)(DEN)(00003) Can New US West Comms Boss Fix The Phones? 06/21/95 DENVER, COLORADO, U.S.A., 1995 JUN 21 (NB) -- US West Inc. (NYSE:USW) has announced an unexpected executive shuffling that may be more significant because there is a new boss for the company's troubled 14-state telephone business. When the dust settles following the announcement that US West International chief Richard Callahan will retire in May, 1996, the the musical executive chairs game leaves Sol Trujillo, 43, who formerly ran Colorado operations for the company, in charge of US West Communications. he will also be the person who will be responsible for fixing the problems US West has had with its basic phone service that has left some residents in the Colorado hinterlands with no phone except an expensive cellular connection. As US West Communications Group president and chief executive officer, Trujillo replaces Gary Ames, 50, who will take over the company's international operation following Callahan's retirement. US West described Ames' move as a lateral one. the changes are effective July 1. Trujillo's replacement at US West Marketing Resources Group has not been named yet. Until that happens, Roger Christensen, vice president of group operations and strategy for the US West Media Group, will temporarily fill the job. US West Communications is the company's most profitable element, providing a majority of the firm's $1.4 billion profit and much of its cash flow by providing telephone service in the 14-state service area. Underlining the problems facing Trujillo are a recent $4 million fine levied by the Colorado Public Utilities Commission for service problems last year. Last month the CPUC tacked on another $288,000 for continuing service problems in the first three months of this year. The service problems were aggravated last summer when the company tried to bring new computerized technology and service processes online. Unfortunately that technology fell on its face. The company consolidated its more than 500 customer service centers in the 14 states into 10 supercenters, losing about 9,000 jobs in the process. US West is a partner with Tele-Communications Inc. (TCI) in TeleWest Communications, which is turn has agreed to merge with SBC CableComms in a $3.7 billion deal. The new company will be known as TeleWest plc and will provide cable service to an estimated 15 million homes in Britain. Trujillo was unavailable for interview. A US West spokesperson told Newsbytes he has departed on "a long planned much-deserved vacation" with his family in Denmark. Before his departure Trujillo said the first thing he will do to address the company's service problems is to "spend a good deal of time" listening to customers and customer contact employees. "There are a number of initiatives already in place that have already substantially improved service since last summer. He views his role as one of keeping the ball rolling, not really starting anything new," the spokesperson told Newsbytes. (Jim Mallory/19950620/Press contact: Lois Leach, US West, 303-793-6355) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 06/21/95 GENERAL Parallax Graphics Video Boards For PowerPCs (NEWS)(GENERAL)(LAX)(00004) Parallax Graphics Video Boards For PowerPCs 06/21/95 SANTA CLARA, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1995 JUN 21 (NB) -- Parallax Graphics has announced availability of its first video cards featuring hardware compression and decompression for PowerPC- based systems with the PCI (Peripheral Component Interconnect) bus. Parallax previously had concentrated on such Unix systems as Sun Microsystems and Hewlett Packard workstations. Parallax, by adding the IBM PowerPC-based system, expands its ability to port between different platforms. Now they have capability to use three of the major platforms that can support their high-end video products: IBM, Sun, and HP. Alice Munz, a spokesperson for Parallax told Newsbytes, "We develop high-end, high-quality, high-performance network digital video systems. We are used for videoconferencing, and for telemedicine. Our systems need powerful performers like the PowerPC-based IBM PersonalComputer Power Series systems and RISC System/6000 workstations. Currently our systems have been used with Unix-based Sun and HP workstations, adding the PowerPC-based systems expands our platform reach." "Expanding our platform reach" she also noted, "allows us to be more effective for our clients. For example, before, we could support Sun and HP workstations, and allow interconnection between these systems. Now we have added another Unix-based system to add to our capabilities. Large corporate and government users often use different systems throughout their organizations, and adding the PowerPC-based systems makes Parallax more effective." According to the company, the Parallax XVideo family for PCI includes high-fidelity video cards and software development tools for corporate applications like videoconferencing and video distribution. XVideo delivers "true" 24-bit color, up to 640 by 480 pixel resolution, and full-motion capture and playback with on-board motion compression and decompression. This allows full-motion video capture and playback. The XVideo family is priced from $2,995, including software drivers and the MovieTool and VideoTool applications. The Video Development Environment is included free with hardware orders placed by August 31. Parallax, which was founded in 1982, is now part of Dynatech Corp. (NASDAQ: DYTC). (Richard Bowers/19950620/Press Contact: Barbara Kay, Parallax Graphics, 408-727-2220) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 06/21/95 ONLINE Fujitsu To Launch Electronic Youth Magazine (NEWS)(ONLINE)(TYO)(00005) Fujitsu To Launch Electronic Youth Magazine 06/21/95 TOKYO, JAPAN, 1995 JUN 21 (NB) -- Tokyo-based electronics and computer manufacturer Fujitsu Ltd. has announced it is to begin publication of a new electronic magazine available initially on the World Wide Web and later via NiftyServe and interactive cable TV networks. The new magazine, Teleparc, has been developed by Fujitsu's Digital Media Group and will focus on pop culture and entertainment from Asia, especially the streets of Tokyo, targeting the magazine at 20 and 30 year olds. Teleparc will be published in both English and Japanese. Upon entry to the Teleparc Web site you are greeted with an image of Tokyo Tower in the center of the screen. Fujitsu's Michael Bierne explained to Newsbytes that the picture will change depending on the time of day and weather, "If you log on in the afternoon you see Tokyo Tower in the afternoon, if you log on at night you see the tower at night." The images aren't live though, they are stored on the server and the appropriate image offered after the time and weather has been taken into account. One side of Teleparc is Flyers Street, a digital city center where you can monitor Tokyo's latest trends by seeing copies of flyers currently being handed out in the city. The flyers cover subjects such as new movies, concerts and club information. Flyer street will also offer guided tours with "street culture gurus" as well as data on famous and popular shops. Another area of Teleparc, info-mobile, is described as a "cyber-salon" featuring graphics, audio and video clips, plus the attraction of interviews with famous guests. Those scheduled to appear in its first weeks are: Issei Ogata, a Japanese actor; Chris Peppler, a DJ; and Shin Mizukoshi, a professor at Tokyo University. Teleparc opens to the public on July 7 and will be available free for six months, after which the service will be available on subscription. Fujitsu is sure it will prove popular, predicting 100,000 subscribers within the first three years after launch. Teleparc's World Wide Web URL (Uniform Resource Locator) is http://teleparc.infoweb.or.jp/ In addition to income from subscriptions, Fujitsu is to offer advertising space on the service and online shopping. Total income from the project is expected to be two billion yen ($23.5 million) annually once it is established. Fujitsu says that around 60% of the income is hoped to come from subscribers, which would make an annual subscription around 12,000 yen ($141) or 1,000 yen ($11.76) a month. While that figure is not unreasonable for a printed monthly magazine in Japan, Newsbytes pointed out to Bierne, that it is a very high figure for overseas users to pay, "That's one of the reasons we are test marketing. Our primary audience is Japanese, but the reason we are bilingual is because we want to make it the youth or street culture center on the Web for Asia," he said. Once launched, Fujitsu's Digital Media Group will turn their attention on the integration of Teleparc into NiftyServe, one of Japan's major online services in which Fujitsu has a major stake. Also under development is an interface to enable Teleparc to be accessible via new digital cable television networks. The Digital Media Group is expected to launch other titles in the future although it is too early to discuss those projects Bierne explained. Newsbytes notes that the two most likely audiences for additional magazines are computer users and business users of computers, Fujitsu's two largest audiences. (Martyn Williams/19950621/Press contact: Michael Bierne, Fujitsu Ltd., +81-3-3215-5236, Internet e-mail mike@hq.fujitsu.co.jp; Reader contact: Fujitsu Digital Media Group, +81-3-3730-4004) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 06/21/95 ONLINE Balance The Federal Budget Without Leaving Home (NEWS)(ONLINE)(TYO)(00006) Balance The Federal Budget Without Leaving Home 06/21/95 BERKELEY, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1995 JUN 21 (NB) -- If you think you can do a better job than those on Capitol Hill of balancing the Federal budget you now have the chance to prove it. The University of California (UC) has developed an interactive budget simulator and made it available to everyone via the Internet. The Center for Community Economic Research (CCER) at UC-Berkeley simulator allows Internet users access to a virtual $1.5 trillion annual US budget and the freedom to cut, increase or hold spending on everything from weapons procurement to forestry spending and immediately see the results of the action taken in each area. Full use of the $455 billion in "tax expenditures" is also at each "Internet Senator's" disposal with the ability of adding this into the budget. To gauge the effectiveness of your proposals, automatically generated bar charts are available, as are line-by-line printouts of the results of specific categorical cuts or increases allowing fine study of the effects of changes in areas such as welfare and education. The Center for Community Economic Research was established to promote economic and civic literacy through the Internet and the budget simulation is part of that goal as the center's Nathan Newman told Newsbytes, "This kind of economic simulation is a way to give average folks a better sense of the numbers and options facing those working in public policy." Underlining the uniqueness of the new simulator Dr. Anders Schneiderman, CCER's co-director said, "The Internet has a lot of flash and glitz, but most of what is on the World Wide Web are cute toys. This National Budget Simulator is one of the first tools on the Internet that really takes advantage of the interactive nature of the technology to enhance civic education." Newsbytes, noting that Vice President Al Gore is a proponent of the Internet and information technology, inquired whether anyone at the White House has been logging in and trying out new budget cutting ideas. "We've been averaging somewhere between 500-1,000 users a day and we've have had contact with folks from the White House." said Newman. He played down the contact though, "Just some inquiries about it from their Web folks." As for the success of users, "Many are getting it balanced," continued Newman. An "Internet Budget" consisting of averages of previous tries is available from the Web site. The US Federal Budget Simulator is available at World Wide Web http://garnet.berkeley.edu:3333/budget/budget.html (Martyn Williams/19950621/Press and reader contact: CCER, Internet e-mail ccer@violet.berkeley.edu) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 06/21/95 GENERAL Japan Newsbriefs (NEWS)(GENERAL)(TYO)(00007) Japan Newsbriefs 06/21/95 TOKYO, JAPAN, 1995 JUN 21 (NB) -- In this roundup of news from Japan: NTT wins Indonesian phone contract; Dai Nippon buys into Bull; TV Asahi joins HDTV trials; Toshiba open Singapore Office; Sega brings forward Saturn euro launch; Nintendo looks to China. NTT Wins Indonesian Phone Contract Nippon Telegraph and Telephone has won a contract to lay telephone lines in Indonesia. Other winners of the contracts, which total two million telephone lines, include US West, Telstra of Australia, and Cable et Radio of France. The contracts include profit-sharing agreements according to PT Telekom, the state run telephone company. Dai Nippon Buys Into Bull Dai Nippon Printing has joined fellow Japanese company NEC Corporation in becoming an investor in French state owned Machines Bull. IBC Corporation of Singapore also became a new investor this week when the French government approved the deals. NEC Corporation holds a 17% stake in Bull, Motorola of the US is another major shareholder with 10%. The size of the Dai Nippon and IBC Corp. shares were not disclosed by the French government. TV Asahi Joins HDTV Trials Asahi National Broadcasting's TV Asahi network has announced it is joining Nippon Telegraph and Telephone and Osaka-based Matsushita Electric Industrial Co. in trials of high definition television. The tests will be carried out on a digital fiber between Tokyo and Osaka involving trials using Matsushita's 3DO digital games system. Each player will see the game being played and their opponent through a split screen. Toshiba Opens Singapore Office Tokyo-based Toshiba Corporation has set up a Singapore office to handle support for Toshiba and its companies in the South East Asia region. Toshiba Asia Pacific Ptd. Ltd. will provide information and intelligence to Toshiba group companies from July 1. The new subsidiary's job will also be to aid in procurement of parts and components for Toshiba products produced in Japan and across Asia. Sega Brings Forward Saturn Euro Launch Sega have announced it will begin selling the new Saturn games system in Europe next month, two months earlier than originally planned. Sony has announced plans to launch its PlayStation system in September, the same month as Sega had originally scheduled its launch. Nintendo Looks To China Japanese games giant Nintendo has said it will begin selling its Super Famicon 16-bit games system in China. The decision comes as sales of the unit slow in Japan due to recently launched next generation games systems by Sony and Sega and the coming launch of a new Nintendo machine. Nintendo's popular Game Boy has been on sale in China since last year. (Martyn Williams/19950621) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 06/21/95 CORRECTION ONLINE Correction - CompuServe Clarifies PNG Article (CORRECTION)(ONLINE)(SFO)(00008) Correction - CompuServe Clarifies PNG Article 06/21/95 COLUMBUS, OHIO, U.S.A., 1995 JUN 21 (NB) -- In a Newsbytes story written this past Friday, CompuServe was said to hold a copyright of the PNG specification. In clarifying its position, CompuServe says it does not have a copyright on the PNG specification, but does hold a specification on the CompuServe labeled toolkit which was written by their engineering groups. (Patrick McKenna/19950620) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 06/21/95 ONLINE Microsoft's K-12 Educational Web Home Page (NEWS)(ONLINE)(DEN)(00009) Microsoft's K-12 Educational Web Home Page 06/21/95 REDMOND, WASHINGTON, U.S.A., 1995 JUN 21 (NB) -- Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ: MSFT) has launched a World Wide Web home page on the Internet for educators and parents that focuses on educational resources available from the software company. Users can even jump to the home pages of other software publishers that develop educational products for the Windows platform. The resource is called "Microsoft Focus on K-12" and its URL (Uniform Resource Locator) is http://www.microsoft.com. You can browse a list of Microsoft products, see a schedule of upcoming events of interest to educators and parents, or check the academic pricing of Microsoft products -- which is significantly lower than the estimated retail price of those products in retail outlets. If you click on the products category on the home page, you can view a list of products by category, by subject area, or alphabetically by product name. Under the category listing are kids, multimedia references and exploration, productivity tools, and the Windows family of software. Following each listing is a description of the product. Microsoft's academic products estimated prices are only available for eligible organizations or individuals, and you can click on a hyperlink to get a detailed definition of eligibility. The list includes accredited schools at all grade levels, hospitals owned by accredited schools, public libraries and museums. Qualified institutions save quite a bit of money on Microsoft's academic pricing structure. A sampling of educational prices on the Microsoft Focus on K-12 home page lists Microsoft Bookshelf at $39.95, Encarta for $49.95, the Excel spreadsheet at 99.95, Microsoft Office Professional for $179, and Word for Windows at $99.95. If you click on Curriculum Activities Using Microsoft Products you see a list of products in alphabetical order. Click on the product you are interested in and you get a menu of product use ideas, teacher activity guides, and connecting to the curriculum. The product ideas choice displays an outline of objectives, discussions, and what to do that the teacher can use an a lesson outline. Microsoft said in the near future it will add a section for lesson plans and activities prepared by third-party developers. The calendar of events for educators, students and parents will list education opportunities related to technology. Microsoft said later this summer all the Focus on K-12 information will be available on the company's FTP (File Transfer Protocol) server located at ftp.microsoft.com so it can be easily downloaded. (Jim Mallory/19950621/Press contact: Suzy Jacoby, Waggoner Edstrom for Microsoft, 312-263-2135) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 06/21/95 APPLE ATI Moves Into Mac Graphics With PCI Card (NEWS)(APPLE)(TOR)(00010) ATI Moves Into Mac Graphics With PCI Card 06/21/95 THORNHILL, ONTARIO, CANADA, 1995 JUN 21 (NB) -- ATI Technologies Inc. (TSE:ATY) has extended its graphics card business to the Apple Computer Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) Macintosh thanks to Apple's adoption of the Peripheral Component Interconnect (PCI) expansion bus on a new Mac model. ATI also announced a contract to supply graphics accelerator cards that Apple will resell. Apple, which has used proprietary expansion-slot designs in the Macintosh since the first model appeared in 1984, recently unveiled the Power Macintosh 9500/120, which uses the increasingly popular PCI standard. PCI is already gaining widespread adoption in personal computers based on Intel Corp. processors, and is even used in some higher-powered workstations. Dan Coyle, a spokesman for ATI, told Newsbytes that with the arrival of PCI on the Mac, vendors such as ATI will be able to offer graphics cards at lower prices than were previously available to Mac users by using many of the same components in both Macintosh and Intel-based cards. ATI's new Xclaim GA accelerator for the Power Macintosh 9500 is largely the same as the company's Graphics Pro Turbo, an accelerator for Intel-based PCs, Coyle said. There are some differences "because of the fact that we're dealing with Macs here," he added. ATI said its drivers support all QuickDraw acceleration calls, while the mach64 graphics controller chip has added acceleration functions that will boost performance with future versions of QuickDraw. ATI's card has bi-endian hardware support so that it can handle the Mac's big-endian byte ordering, rather than creating software overhead through byte swapping, the company said. Apple will resell accelerator cards that are technically similar to the Xclaim GA and use the same mach64 chip set. ATI would not disclose the volume of products involved or the financial terms of this deal, but Coyle said ATI does expect the Macintosh to become a significant part of its business. (Grant Buckler/19950621/Press Contact: Barbara Wilcox, ATI Technologies, 905-882-2600 ext. 8306; Dan Coyle, ATI Technologies, 905-882-2611, fax 905-882-2620; Public Contact: ATI Technologies, 905-882-2600) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 06/21/95 GENERAL Sanctuary Woods Ships "Buried in Time" Adventure Game (NEWS)(GENERAL)(LAX)(00011) Sanctuary Woods Ships "Buried in Time" Adventure Game 06/21/95 SAN MATEO, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1995 JUN 21 (NB) -- Sanctuary Woods Multimedia (NASDAQ: SWMCF) says that the company expects to ship the Macintosh version of "Buried in Time (The Journeyman Project 2)" on schedule this month. However, the PC version may be delayed until July. "Buried in Time," is a CD-ROM time travel adventure with seven "fully rendered" environments, including three historical locations. It will ship on a three CD-ROM set for an estimated price of $64.95. The action takes place in the year 2328 and the player is falsely accused of altering history. In order to prove their innocence, the player must travel through time, unraveling clues and escaping from danger. The player collects clues from seven different worlds, infiltrates a medieval castle under siege, explores DaVinci's Milan studio, and escapes from the Mayan catacombs. Scott Walchek, president and chief executive officer (CEO), commented, "The reception for 'Buried in Time' has exceeded our expectations, and the release of both versions is eagerly anticipated; preorders for the PC version alone are over 100,000 units." Kristy Sager, director of corporate communications for Sanctuary Woods told Newsbytes, "Buried in Time is the sequel to 'Journeyman Project 1,' the first ever photo-realistic adventure game. Journeyman Project 1 predated 'Myst' by a year." Journeyman Project 1 sold 150,000 copies, and was self published by Presto Studios. For this project, Presto Studios developed the sequel, but it is being published by Sanctuary Woods. In that development scenario, the developer comes up with the idea and takes it all the way to producing the "golden master." Sanctuary Woods, the publisher, takes the project from there, replicating the master, packaging, promoting, and then marketing the product. Sanctuary Woods is a developer and publisher of interactive entertainment and education software for PC and Macintosh personal computers and consumer entertainment systems. "Buried in Time" requires Windows 3.1, 486/33 of faster, eight megabytes (MB) RAM, a double speed CD-ROM drive, and a 640 by 480 Super VGA display. Alternatively, on the Mac platform it requires a CD-ROM with 68040 processor or faster, System 7.01 or later, 8MB RAM, a double speed CD-ROM drive, and a 640 by 480 display. (Richard Bowers/19950620/Press Contact: Kristy Sager, Sanctuary Woods, 415-286-6056) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 06/21/95 ONLINE Internet Update (NEWS)(ONLINE)(TYO)(00012) Internet Update 06/21/95 TOKYO, JAPAN, 1995 JUN 21 (NB) -- In this roundup of new resources and services on the Internet: International PGP home page; ICIA online; European news index; New Mac Mosaic available; Virtual Finnish embassy; New and Improved NT information source; Today in history. International PGP Home Page At this corner of the Web users will find source code and binaries (DOS, OS/2, Atari, Amiga) for the latest version of PGP (pretty good privacy), probably the world's most popular encryption program. In addition there is also a selection of frequently asked questions and details on international support such as language modules. World Wide Web: http://www.ifi.uio.no/~staalesc/PGP/home.html ICIA Online The International Communications Industries Association, a non-profit trade association for the audio-visual, video and multimedia applications industry, has launched a home page on the Internet. The Web page contains details of the association and the events they hold which include the Infocomm International and Asia shows. World Wide Web: http://www.usa.net/icia European News Index Easy access to a selection of European news sources on the Internet is now available via the personal pages of a German computer user. The pages, described by the author as a "booklist for myself," contain pointers to teletext services from several European TV channels, a full text database of Le Monde Diplomatique, and satellite weather images. World Wide Web: http://www.unik.no/~markus New Mac Mosaic Available A new version of NCSA (National Center for Supercomputing Applications) Mosaic for the Apple Macintosh was released last week. The new software is the beta 12 release of Mosaic 2.0. The NCSA does warn that their server is being overloaded so you may need to log on more than once. Anonymous FTP: ftp://ftp.ncsa.uiuc.edu/Mac/Mosaic/ Virtual Finnish Embassy Finland has established a virtual embassy on the Internet. The site was "created to be the paramount source of information on Finland" according to the authors. It includes information on everything from culture and language to the people and politics. World Wide Web: http://www.mofile.fi/fennia/um/ New, Improved NT Information Source The University of Edinburgh has completed its redesign of the European Microsoft Windows NT Academic Center Infoserver. The center has been created to support the use of Windows NT in education and sponsored by Datalink Computers, Digital, Microsoft, Research Machines, Sequent and the University of Edinburgh. World Wide Web: http://www.emwac.ed.ac.uk/ Today In History Information on events, both historic and trivial, from this day in history is now served up on the World Wide Web. Other "day-related" information such as sunrise and sunset times, moon phases and people's birthdays are also included. World Wide Web: http://www.uta.fi/~blarku/today.html Gopher: gopher://vuokko.uta.fi/00/Ajankohtaista/tanaan/today (Martyn Williams/19950620) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 06/21/95 ONLINE "WebTrack" Controls Web Access For Companies (NEWS)(ONLINE)(MSP)(00013) "WebTrack" Controls Web Access For Companies 06/21/95 NAPLES, FLORIDA, U.S.A., 1995 JUN 21 (NB) -- For companies that are worried about losing productivity or bringing in objectionable materials into the workplace via the Internet, Webster Network Strategies (WNS) has announced the development of "WebTrack," a new monitoring and control application. Company officials said the program is designed to run as a proxy behind the corporate security firewall. It is designed to give businesses the capability to restrict access to certain Internet sites, especially World Wide Web sites. Those sites are broken down into 15 categories, including pornography, gambling, online merchandising, hate speech, sports, job searching, personal pages, entertainment, games, and humor. In addition to the filtering capability, WebTrack also creates a HTML (hypertext markup language) formatted "hyperlog" of all Web accesses from within the corporation. From the hyperlog, network administrators and managers can link the URL (uniform resource locator) the employee accessed. "A big concern that was throttling corporate use of the Internet was a fear that employees would waste time on the Internet, and another concern was putting in a connection into the World Wide Web that allowed potentially damaging information to come into the workplace, specifically sexually explicit material," Steve Dempsey, vice president of sales for Webster Network Services, told Newsbytes. He said he is not sure which reason is more compelling, but his company found a way to control both with WebTrack. He likened the WebTrack system to an automatic phone logger that tracks employee phone calls, along with a "lock-out" system that doesn't allow calls to be completed to 900 numbers, for example. In essence, WebTrack makes sure the Internet is not used for frivolous purposes in the workplace, he said. Dempsey said WebTrack is not the most perfect answer. He said some people with a lot of technical expertise from within a company may find a way around the program; but most users won't. He also said WebTrack only limits Internet access in the workplace, and if people want full access, they can get it via dial-up from their residences. WebTrack and the Control List filter is priced at $7,500, with Control List updates available by subscription for $1,500 per year. The software is available for evaluation via the Internet on a WNS installed copy of WebTrack. This allows interested users to test the product in real-time, without having to install the program on their own systems. More information can be obtained via the Web at URL http://www.webster.com. (Bob Woods/19950620/Press Contact: Steve Dempsey, Webster Network Strategies Inc., 941-261-5503; Internet e-mail dempsey@webster.com. Public Contact: Webster Network Strategies Inc., 941-261-5503; Internet e-mail info@webster.com; Internet World Wide Web http://www.webster.com) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 06/21/95 GENERAL Prometheus Intros Comms & Multimedia Products (NEWS)(GENERAL)(DEN)(00014) Prometheus Intros Comms & Multimedia Products 06/21/95 TUALATIN, OREGON, U.S.A., 1995 JUN 21 (NB) -- Prometheus Products Inc. has introduced its CyberSeries of products, 20 communications and multimedia products for PC and Macintosh users. The product line includes data and fax communications, telephony features like voice and full-duplex speakerphones, 16-bit audio, and the ability to transmit voice and data files over a single telephone line. Cyberphone combines a high-speed data/fax modem with telephone management features, including a voice-mail system and an optional full-duplex speakerphone. Cyberphone is available in both internal and external modems. The internal models are Radish VoiceView compatible. VoiceView, developed by Denver-based Radish Communications, makes it possible to transmit data and graphics within a single voice call. Plug and Play compatibility in the modems allows Plug and Play-compatible PCs to reconfigure themselves when peripherals like modems are installed or removed from the PC. Cyberphone modems come in V.32bis or V.34 models at speeds of 14,400 and 28,800 bits-per-second (bps) respectively. The company said estimated street prices for the Cyberphone units ranges from $109 to $299. Cyberstereo multimedia modems combine a CD-quality sound card with Cyberphone's telephone management features and high-speed data/fax capability. The card enables users to play games, enhance presentations and reports with sound files, or create original wave files that can be used as greeting messages by the integrated telephone answering system. The embedded 16-bit sound care meets MPC-2 standards, includes a MIDI (musical instrument digital interface) interface, and supports PC games in SoundBlaster and SoundBlaster Pro modes. It's also OLE (object linking and embedding)-compliant. Cyberstereo modems include sound card software from Midisoft that includes a graphic stereo rack and the ability to record and play standard wave files, MIDI files, and audio CD-ROMs. A MIDI sequencer enables users to record, edit and play back MIDI music while displaying standard music notation in real-time. The company said the estimated street price for the 14,400 bps Cyberstereo models ranges from $179 to $229. The price includes speakers and a microphone. Also being announced are Prometheus Products' Cyberport V.34 and V.32bis data/fax modems. The modems automatically adjust to the fastest speed possible by the modem at the other end of the connection. Cyberport modems come with hardware-based V.42/MNP-4 error control, V.42bis/MNP-5 data compression and Class 2 Group 3 fax capability at 14,400 bps. Street pricing starts at $69, said the company. The Cyberseries modems included Cyberworks software for fax send and receive, voice-mail, and speakerphone capabilities. Both Windows and Mac versions are available. The voice-mail system provides 999 private, password-protected voice mailboxes. Support is provider for Caller ID and pager notification. The modems also come with additional data communications software, Netcom"s NetCruiser Internet software, and communications packages for connection to the CompuServe, America Online, and eWorld online services. Prometheus Products is owned by Sierra Semiconductor Corp. (NASDAQ: SERA). (Jim Mallory/19950620/Press contact: Nancy Stokesberry, Prometheus Products, 310-457-4220, CompuServe e-mail 75300,3624; Public contact: Prometheus Products, tel 503-692-9600, fax 503-691-1101/CYBER950621/PHOTO) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 06/21/95 BUSINESS UK's ICL Takes Majority Stake In Germany's Aquarius (NEWS)(BUSINESS)(LON)(00015) UK's ICL Takes Majority Stake In Germany's Aquarius 06/21/95 SOMMERDA, GERMANY, 1995 JUN 21 (NB) -- ICL, a UK-based information technology (IT) company, and Aquarius Robotron Systems GmbH, a German computer vendor, have pooled their resources on the sales and marketing front to "ensure a pan-European marketing presence." Under the deal signed this week, ICL will take a majority (51 percent) shareholding in Aquarius Robotron Systems, the fifth largest supplier of PCs in Germany. ICL is part of the Fujitsu group, reportedly the world's second largest IT company. At the same time as the deal, Thringer Industrie- Beteiligungsgesellschaft (TIB), a venture capital company owned by the state of Thuringia, will relinquish its 49 percent shareholding in Aquarius which it acquired last year. Best known for its ASI brand, Aquarius will continue to trade as Aquarius Robotron Systems under Winfried Hoffmann as chief executive with his managing partner Tony Liu, who will both remain as shareholders. Based in Sommerda in Thuringia in the former East Germany, Aquarius began PC assembly in 1990 -- before Germany's reunification -- and since then its assembly techniques have revitalized the local microelectronics industry there. The company produces a complete range of PCs, including notebook and desktop systems, plus monitors. Newsbytes notes that Aquarius opened its own brand-new 19,300 square- meter assembly plant in October, 1993, with a capacity of 300,000 PCs per year in single shift operations. Aquarius claims that it will significantly boost ICL's PC capacity in Western Europe, where ICL already assembles PCs in Finland and in the UK. Commenting on the agreement, Winfried Hoffmann, Aquarius' chief executive, said: "I am very proud of this venture as it marks a breakthrough for PCs made in Germany. Through this partnership we will become one of the main players in the PC market in Europe. ICL is the ideal partner with Fujitsu to support our own further growth and in turn we shall be providing additional assembly capacity for ICL." "This move immediately puts ICL in the top league in Germany and provides us with a platform for expansion there," explained David Mills, managing director of ICL Volume Products. According to Mills, the deal is important to ICL for two main reasons. "Firstly it gives us access for our volume products to Aquarius' wide third-party distribution network in Germany and beyond, and secondly it will enable us together to grow our position in Europe's largest market," he said. (Sylvia Dennis/19950620/Press & Reader Contact: Aquarius Robotron Systems, tel +49-3634-3300, fax +49-6172-188-134) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 06/21/95 BUSINESS Madge Networks To Acquire Israel's LANnet (NEWS)(BUSINESS)(LON)(00016) Madge Networks To Acquire Israel's LANnet 06/21/95 AMSTERDAM, THE NETHERLANDS, 1995 JUN 21 (NB) -- Madge Networks has announced plans to acquire LANnet, an Israeli networking company. According to Madge, the deal should be completed in the next month with Madge acquiring all the outstanding shares in LANnet for $27.50. Terms of the deal also call for Benny Hanigal and Yehuda Zisapel, co- founders and directors of LANnet, to move to the board of Madge Networks. Newsbytes notes that this values LANnet at around $300 million. LANnet has been carving out a significant name for itself in the specialist networking market in Europe over the last few years and it appears that it is this pan-European presence, as well as LANnet's technology, that the company is after. Madge is best known for its Token Ring technology, while LANnet is an Ethernet specialist, Newsbytes notes. According to Bob Madge, the chairman of Madge Networks' international operation, the deal is still subject to approval from the shareholders and boards of directors of both companies. "To address the networking requirements of the world's largest users of information technology as they evolve toward end-to-end switched ATM (Asynchronous transfer mode) networks, Madge must continue to increase its product offerings," Robert Madge, chairman and chief executive officer (CEO) of Madge, said in a prepared statement. Madge went on to explain that, while his company is well on its way with Token Ring, the acquisition of LANnet will allow the company to "move forward." The acquisition will make Madge the fifth largest networking company in the world. Although founded and run from the UK, the company has its headquarters in the Netherlands so it can be quoted fully on the NASDAQ. The company is 65 percent owned by a trust controlled by Robert Madge. (Sylvia Dennis/19950620/Press Contact: LANnet, tel +44-1865-784666, fax +44-1865-784669; Madge Networks, +44-1628-858000) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 06/21/95 TRENDS UK - Konica's Copier/Fax/Printer With File Transfer (NEWS)(TRENDS)(LON)(00017) UK - Konica's Copier/Fax/Printer With File Transfer 06/21/95 BASILDON, ESSEX, ENGLAND, 1995 JUN 21 (NB) -- Konica, a copier and fax systems specialist, has unveiled the 9715FP multifunctional fax printer. According to Arthur McFee, the company's Digital Products Specialist, the six pages-per-minute unit, which retails for UKP2,200, is a laser printer with fax, photocopying, and scanner facilities built in. The device starts shipping globally over the next few months. Perhaps the most revolutionary aspect of the device is that it includes a proprietary file transfer system. "Much of the processing on the file transfer side of things is carried out by the PC on which a supplier Windows application runs," he told Newsbytes, adding that, although the device needs a second 9715FP at the other end of the link to achieve a rapid PC file transfer, the software can be updated to take account of future advances in file transfer technology. This makes the machine the first on the market to be V.34Bis-ready. V.34Bis is an extension to the existing 28,800 bits-per-second (bps) standard approved by the International Telecoms Union (ITU). The V.34Bis proposed standard is currently under consideration for approval by the ITU and looks like becoming a reality some time next year. While the V.34 standard includes provisions for fax transmission as well as the more usual data transfer facilities, V.34Bis is being eyed up as the next standard beyond the current 9,600/14,400 bps standard seen on fax machines today. With data transfers as high as 54,000 bps, using V.34Bis will dramatically speed up faxes, assuming the line quality is solid enough. McFee told Newsbytes that the 9715FP is a serious business machine, despite its small footprint, which he claims is around the same as a SOHO (small office/home office) fax machine. The 9715FP is being billed as a major breakthrough in office integration terms. The device operates as a standard fax with auto- dialing with 30 single-touch and 200 abbreviated keys. In addition, it is a LED (light emitting diode) laser printer, with a 250 sheet feeder, that can also work with fax images. The device comes with 512 kilobytes (KB) of memory as standard, although this can be expanded to 2,5 megabytes (MB) if required. In standard mode, print resolution is 300 by 300 dots-per-inch (DPI), and the laser engine prints at six ppm. (Steve Gold/19950620/Press Contact: Michael Joyce Consultants, tel +440171-836-6801, fax +44-171-240-2520; Reader Contact: Konica Business Machines, tel +44-1268-534444, fax +44-1268-282480) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 06/21/95 PC Pentax Intros Another PocketJet Printer (NEWS)(PC)(DEN)(00018) Pentax Intros Another PocketJet Printer 06/21/95 BROOMFIELD, COLORADO, U.S.A., 1995 JUN 21 (NB) -- Pentax Technologies Corp. has added a new model to its PocketJet portable printer line that will print letter and legal-size pages. The first PocketJet printer, which came to market in late 1994, supports letter and A4-size page printing. #IMAGE 1 20 TWPCX \images\95062118.PCX Click here for photo Both PocketJet printers are direct thermal printers designed for use with portable PCs. They can print up to three pages-per-minute (ppm), and are powered by a rechargeable nickel-cadmium (ni-cad) battery or the AC adapter. Both power sources ship with the printer. Pentax said the printers can print up to 35 pages per charge when you are running the printer from the ni-cad battery. A full recharge takes slightly over one hour, said the company. Robert Bender, Pentax president, said the company introduced the legal-size PocketJet printer for markets such as mortgage origination and accounting field auditors, who often need legal-size capabilities for spreadsheet applications. Thermal printers don't print on bond or copy paper, since the direct thermal printing process used by Pentax heats a thermal head and activates a special, heat-sensitive dye that has been applied to the paper. The direct heating of the page creates the individual dots that make up the image. Early thermal paper was slick and shiny and was difficult to write on, much like fax paper today. However, Pentax said today's thermal papers are 20-pound cut sheet paper stock that has been specially formulated to work with the thermal printer and can be written on. You can even have it printed with your letterhead as long as you don't use solvent-based inks, said the company. Documents printed on thermal paper should be stored out of direct sunlight and away from heat sources. Pentax said the average life of a document is five years. For permanently archived documents the company recommends a plain paper copy be made from your original thermal-printed document. The PocketJet printers measure 10-inches by 2.17-inches by 1.18- inches and weighs 17.5 ounces including the battery. They print at 300 by 300 dots-per-inch resolution, and have a 512 kilobyte (KB) memory. PocketJet printers are covered by a one year parts and labor warranty on a return-to-depot basis, but if you send in your warranty/registration card within 30 days of purchase Pentax will upgrade that to its "Hot Swap" program, usually a $19.95 option. "Hot Swap" gets a replacement printer shipped within 24 hours when you return your PocketJet to the depot for service. You can also extend the "Hot Swap" program to two years for $49.95. You get two free boxes of legal-size thermal paper from Pentax when you mail in your registration/warranty card. Additional batteries cost $37.99, a serial cable sells for $25.99, and additional 100-sheet boxes of legal paper are priced at $9.99, while the letter-size paper sells for $7.99 for a 100-sheet box. PocketJet printers include LaserJet IIP (PCL4) emulation, and the company said no special printer drivers have to be loaded. The units ship with one battery, a parallel cable, AC adapter/charger, carrying case, and a 100-sheet box of letter-size thermal paper. Pentax said the new printer has a suggested retail price (SRP) of $529. The letter-size model has an SRP of $499. If you own a letter size PocketJet printer you can upgrade it to a legal-size model for $35. The company said it plans to ship a Macintosh-compatible PocketJet by the end of the year. (Jim Mallory/19950621/Press contact: Robert Ownes, Pentax Technologies, 303-460-1646; Public contact: Pentax Technologies, tel 303-460-1600 or 800-543-6144, fax 303-460-1628/PENTAX950621/PHOTO) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 06/21/95 BUSINESS ****PSI Buys UK Internet Provider (NEWS)(BUSINESS)(WAS)(00019) ****PSI Buys UK Internet Provider 06/21/95 HERNDON, VIRGINIA, U.S.A., 1995 JUN 21 (NB) -- In the latest move in a buying spree, Performance Systems International (NASDAQ: PSIX) is buying a controlling share of one of the UK's largest Internet service companies, EUnet GB, for $4 million. When the deal closes, it will make PSI one of the few US Internet access companies with a presence abroad. "They will have a solid foot down on both sides of the Atlantic," PSI spokesman Mike Maney told Newsbytes. PSI will buy 85 percent of EUnet GB from the University of Kent in Canterbury. EUnet GB serves about 760 commercial customers through 12 points-of-presence (POPs). EUnet GB also owns 11 percent of Amsterdam-based EUnet Ltd., which provides Internet backbone services for the 28 different companies across Europe trading under the EUnet name. "During the remainder of 1995, we plan to fully integrate PSINet's technological strength at each of EUnet GB's POPs, increase the number of POPs, and broaden the services offered," said William Schrader, chairman, president and chief executive officer at PSI. PSI did not pick up EUnet GB for its sterling performance. The company lost $99,000 on revenues of $1.3 million last year. But PSI says it believes there is great potential for growth in Great Britain and in the rest of Europe. Since it pocketed $48 million in an initial public offering of stock earlier this year, PSI has been aggressively acquiring software companies, including two companies that specialize in Macintosh Internet access, InterCon Systems and Software Ventures, paying $31 million in stock for the two. PSI says it completed the acquisition of InterCon last Friday. PSI currently has POPs in more than 135 US cities and projects it will have coverage in 225 cities by the end of 1995. Access options range from dial-up services for telecommuters and small office local area networks to dedicated high-speed circuits for corporate connectivity. PSI says the full range of services will be offered in Europe. (Kennedy Maize/19950621/Press Contact: Mike Maney, 703-904-4285, PSI, Internet World Wide Web http://www.psi.net) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 06/21/95 TELECOM ****House Leaders Push For Telecom Debate (NEWS)(TELECOM)(WAS)(00020) ****House Leaders Push For Telecom Debate 06/21/95 WASHINGTON, D.C., U.S.A., 1995 JUN 21 (NB) -- With Senate action on telecommunications legislation over, leaders in the House are pushing for quick action on its version, which goes further toward deregulation than the Senate bill. House Speaker Newt Gingrich (R-Ga.) has told industry lobbyists he wants to take out what little regulation remains in the House Commerce Committee bill before it comes to a floor vote. And floor action could come as soon as next week, far faster than observers had been predicting as recently as last week, when the work was that the House bill would be ready for action in mid-July. "We're trying to accelerate the timetable," Rep. Jack Fields (R-Texas), chairman of the House telecommunications subcommittee, said on Friday. He told the Wall Street Journal he supports Gingrich's attempt to make the bill "more deregulatory." The regional Bell operating companies are pushing to eliminate a provision in the House bill that before they can get into the long-distance market, they have to demonstrate competition in their local phone markets. Bell South, based in Atlanta, has been lobbying Gingrich to drop the provision. But their cause was harmed a bit yesterday, when conservative icon and former federal judge Robert Bork wrote an op-ed article in the Wall Street Journal arguing that letting the Bells keep their regional monopolies would be harmful to competition and to consumers. If the legislation "contemplates long-distance entry while the Bell companies continue to possess their monopolies -- as some on the right appear to recommend -- then it would be worse than no bill at all," Bork wrote. The White House and the long-distance carriers are also opposing the House Commerce Committee bill, both preferring that the Justice Department be given a role in overseeing the arrival of competition. A bill approved by the House Judiciary Committee would accomplish that, but how the leadership will choose to time the consideration of the two bills is not yet known. The obscenity and violence issues are wildcards. The Commerce Committee kept the lid on both issues, but they could explode during floor debate and complicate an already complicated and difficult piece of legislation. Finally, where the Clinton administration will come down is also an unknown. Consumer groups are calling on the White House to pledge to veto a radically deregulatory bill, but the president and his advisors have stopped short of that, although they are calling for changes in both the House and Senate bills. (Kennedy Maize/19950621) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 06/21/95 IBM IBM Offers Conferencing For ThinkPad Power Series (NEWS)(IBM)(TOR)(00021) IBM Offers Conferencing For ThinkPad Power Series 06/21/95 SOMERS, NEW YORK, U.S.A., 1995 JUN 21 (NB) -- IBM (NYSE:IBM) has added another computer-based conferencing product in what the company said will be an ongoing rollout. Personal Conferencing for AIX is software that will allow for audio, data, and video conferencing using IBM's newly announced ThinkPad Power Series notebook computers. The ThinkPad Power Series machines, launched this week, use the PowerPC microprocessors developed under IBM's alliance with Motorola Inc. (NYSE:MOT) and Apple Computer Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL). Currently they run IBM's AIX variant of the Unix operating system. Later the notebooks are to run the company's OS/2 operating system, and comparable conferencing software will be offered for that system in future, officials said. Company spokesman Glenn Rossman told Newsbytes he could not give a date for the OS/2 release. The software makes it possible to talk and send data over one telephone line, using the ThinkPad's built-in microphone and 28,800 bits-per-second (bps) modem. Combined with the ThinkPad Power Series 850 Video Camera option -- a tiny camera built into the cover of the notebook -- it can also handle videoconferencing. The software can transmit video at six frames-per-second (fps), Rossman said. A television signal has 30 fps. Video will slow down during data transmission; the software gives first priority to the audio signal, second priority to data, and video comes last, Rossman said. IBM already offers Person to Person conferencing software for its OS/2 Warp operating system. Over time, Rossman said, the company plans to extend conferencing to all of its hardware and software platforms. "We're moving on all fronts," he said, but declined to offer more specifics. IBM also said that in the United Kingdom, it joined with British Telecom to announce Person to Person Screencall, which adds personal conferencing to a PC using British Telecom's VC8000 video card, camera, microphone, cables, and IBM's conferencing software. (Grant Buckler/19950621/Press Contact: Glenn Rossman, IBM, 914-766-1711, Internet e-mail glennrossman@vnet.ibm.com) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 06/21/95 IBM ****PC Expo - Apps & Hardware Add-Ons For IBM's PowerPC (NEWS)(IBM)(BOS)(00022) ****PC Expo - Apps & Hardware Add-Ons For IBM's PowerPC 06/21/95 NEW YORK, NEW YORK, U.S.A., 1995 JUN 21 (NB) -- At a New York press conference held to introduce IBM's new PowerSeries family of desktop and ThinkPad PowerPCs, IBM and its third-party partners also rolled out dozens of companion products, ranging from network interface cards (NICs) and monitors, to an array of software applications. As reported previously by Newsbytes, the new Series 850, 830, and 820 machines will run a newly announced PowerPC edition of OS/2 Warp Connect, in addition to AIX, Solaris, and Windows NT Workstation 3.51, officials said at the press conference, which was attended by Newsbytes. At a showcase for the new PCs, software, and hardware add-ons conducted after the press conference. Akash Agarwal, senior MIS (management information system) marketing manager, told Newsbytes that it took only a week for Oracle to recompile the Oracle Workgroup Server for the new PowerSeries version of OS/2 Warp. All together, about 50 vendors unveiled applications for OS/Warp Connect, PowerPC Edition. About 75 companies introduced PowerPC products for AIX, 40 vendors for Windows NT, and another 17 for Solaris. Dawn-Marie Nelson of Orion Systems said that her company first converted the Solaris 2.4 version of its scanner, document management, and electronic signature capture applications from 64 bits to 32 bits, and then did the same with the Solaris 2.5 edition. The Orion staff spent about three days on adding support for new scanners in the Solaris 2.5 edition, she reported. OrionScan, OrionDOC, and OrionSign for Solaris on IBM's PowerSeries are currently in beta, according to Nelson. With its Calamus desktop publishing program, DMC Publishing was one of the vendors debuting new software for the PowerPC edition of Windows NT. The application, which was originally developed for Atari, also operates under Windows NT on MIPS and DEC's Alpha platform, according to DMC President Nathan Potechin. DMC selected Windows NT as a result of the platform's portability, he explained. "We didn't want to take any chances this time on getting a platform that would just get up and walk away," Potechin told Newsbytes, with reference to DMC's earlier experiences with Atari. Another 13 third-party vendors brought out hardware accompaniments for PowerSeries. 3Com, for example, announced that its Parallel Tasking Ethernet and Fast Ethernet network interface cards (NICs) will be available as an option for PowerSeries. Adaptec unveiled plans to produce a line of SCSI (small computer systems interface) host adapters for PowerSeries. In addition, Parallax Graphics pledged to add support for Solaris on PowerPC to its series of XVideo video cards for PCI (Peripheral Component Interconnect). Other third-party hardware vendors issuing announcements included: ATI Technologies; Diamond Multimedia Systems; Digi International; Eicon Technology; Megahertz; Olicom; STB Systems; SysKonnect; US Robotics; and Wacom. For its part, IBM introduced hardware companion products that included Token Ring and Ethernet network interface cards (NICs) for PowerSeries, along with the new P series of color monitors for Power Series, RS 6000, Apple Macs, IBM-compatible PCs, and other environments. IBM's new Ethernet and Token Ring adapters are available now for AIX and Windows NT, with support for the PowerPC Edition of OS/2 Warp Connect planned for the future. (Jacqueline Emigh/19950621/Reader Contact: IBM, 914-765-1900; Press Contacts: J. Timothy Ohsann, IBM, 914-766-3764; Rich Guida, Brodeur & Partners for IBM; Pamela Preston, Technology Solutions for IBM, 212-696-2000) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 06/21/95 APPLE PC Expo - Apple To Focus More On "Large Businesses" (NEWS)(APPLE)(BOS)(00023) PC Expo - Apple To Focus More On "Large Businesses" 06/21/95 NEW YORK, NEW YORK, U.S.A., 1995 JUN 21 (NB) -- With the introduction of the Color LaserWriter and other new printers, Apple will begin running separate advertisements for a printer for the first time ever, revealed Apple USA President Jim Buckley, during a Q&A session for reporters in New York City. Publishing, professional graphics, and multimedia are among the markets that Apple is targeting with the new printer, Buckley added during the session. Conducted after Apple's West Coast rollout of its new PowerPC and printer products, the session was attended by Newsbytes at the Maclowe Theater on Broadway. Also in New York City, Apple showed the new PCs and printers to customers and press at a product showcase, which also featured the display of Apple's first separate ad for a printer. On an overall basis, Apple's products continue to sell well in the small business and education markets, and Apple has recently added "a point or two" to its share of the government market, Buckley noted, speaking to a smaller gathering of journalists during the product showcase. Sales of Apple's products have been particularly strong in Texas, he disclosed. Apple's recently introduced Internet product line is doing "extremely well," Apple USA president told Newsbytes. "But we need to grow our share among large businesses," Buckley acknowledged. VARs (value-added resellers) and systems integrators constitute an increasingly important distribution vehicle for Apple, he said. "It is important for us to give them the tools they need," Buckley told the press. (Jacqueline Emigh/19950620/Reader And Press Contact: Apple Computer, 408-996-1010) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 06/21/95 WINDOWS PC Expo - Compaq To Bundle Microsoft BackOffice (NEWS)(WINDOWS)(BOS)(00024) PC Expo - Compaq To Bundle Microsoft BackOffice 06/21/95 NEW YORK, NEW YORK, U.S.A., 1995 JUN 21 (NB) -- A newly inked bundling agreement for Microsoft BackOffice will pose "no conflict" for Compaq, said Mary T. McDowell, Compaq's director of systems product marketing, speaking with Newsbytes during a press conference carried out in New York City to announce the deal. Under the deal, Compaq will release new versions of its servers later this year that will ship with the BackOffice line-up of applications for the Windows NT Server operating system. The pact also calls for Compaq to add BackOffice support to its SmartStart tool for server installation and integration, as well as joint technical support procedures for customers using both Compaq and Microsoft products, and "expanded joint marketing activities" under a new Compaq/Microsoft Business Solutions Partnership program. The new agreement builds on a long-standing relationship between Compaq and Microsoft, McDowell observed. Compaq has been offering both Windows NT Server and Microsoft SQL (structured query language) Server over the past year, according to the Compaq exec. Companies like Hewlett-Packard and Digital Equipment Corporation are also supporting Microsoft server products on their workstations, she acknowledged. But unlike these other vendors, Compaq does not produce midrange systems, she pointed out. "This means that we can even put more of our energies behind the Microsoft products," she maintained. (Jacqueline Emigh/19950621/Reader and Press Contact: Compaq, 713-370-0670) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 06/21/95 ONLINE Ziff Renames Online Services, Touts Home Page Success (NEWS)(ONLINE)(TOR)(00025) Ziff Renames Online Services, Touts Home Page Success 06/21/95 NEW YORK, NEW YORK, U.S.A., 1995 JUN 21 (NB) -- Ziff-Davis Publishing will rename its Ziffnet online services, taking the name ZD Net, which it adopted for a new service on the Internet's World Wide Web recently. Ziff also said the Web site is getting more than 2.5 million "hits" per week and generating tens of thousands of inquiries for advertisers. The Ziffnet services currently offered in conjunction with the CompuServe, Prodigy, AppleLink, and eWorld online systems are to be renamed ZD Net/CompuServe Edition, ZD Net/Prodigy Edition, ZD Net/ AppleLink Edition, and ZD Net/eWorld Edition. All these name changes take effective immediately except that of the CompuServe offering, which will wait until later this year for "no specific reason," company spokeswoman Janice Brown told Newsbytes. Later this summer Ziff will launch ZD Net/AT&T Interchange Edition in conjunction with the Interchange Online Network that AT&T bought from Ziff-Davis. This service is now in beta testing with about 20,000 users, Brown said. The company also has plans for ZD Net/Microsoft Network Edition, to begin at an unspecified date that depends on when Microsoft's new online service begins operation. Ziff's online services provide access to content from Ziff publications, including PC Week and MacWeek, as well as Newsbytes, Ziff's Computer Library database of articles related to computers and information technology, and other services. Brown said the name change from Ziffnet to ZD Net was not related to the Ziff family's decision to sell its publishing interests, and is intended to give the online services a unified brand name across different platforms. Ziff said the 12 charter advertisers on its advertiser-supported Web site, ZD Net/World Wide Web edition, are getting a combined total of tens of thousands of inquiries a week from the service. (Grant Buckler/19950621/Press Contact: Janice Brown, Janice Brown & Associates for Ziff-Davis, 617-332-8066; Cara Washburn, Ziff- Davis Interactive, 617-252-5282; Public Contact: ZD Net/World Wide Web Edition, http://www.zdnet.com) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 06/21/95 ONLINE ****AT&T & BBN To Provide Internet Access (NEWS)(ONLINE)(MSP)(00026) ****AT&T & BBN To Provide Internet Access 06/21/95 NEW YORK CITY, NEW YORK, U.S.A., 1995 JUN 21 (NB) -- AT&T Corp. (NYSE:T) and Bolt Beranek & Newman Inc. (NYSE:BBN) (BBN) are joining together to offer Internet connectivity for businesses. The companies said they will offer the means to access, plan, set up, operate, and maintain dedicated, leased-line connectivity to the Internet. Under the agreement, the specific details of which have not been released, AT&T will sell BBN's Internet-access services to businesses. AT&T's force of 12,000 salespeople will start offering BBN's direct hook-up and other Internet-related services on a test basis in August, with the full roll-out set to happen September 1. Those additional services include World Wide Web site development, Internet security, and training. Tom Evslin, AT&T vice president of Gateway Services, told Newsbytes the key in this deal for customers is managed Internet access. "Our customers are telling us they want to get connections to the Internet, without having to become Internet experts themselves. Managed connectivity offer uses the expertise BBN has, combined with the strength of the AT&T network, offers customers connections to the Internet that's head-and-shoulders above anything else that's available today." BBN Planet, which is primarily owned by BBN, will offer the Internet services. Paul Gudonis, BBN Planet chief executive officer, told Newsbytes the deal gives his company a huge distribution channel. He expects to see $120 million dollars of additional business in the first three years of the deal. He also said the agreement gives BBN Planet access to AT&T's nationwide network. Evslin said AT&T has been involved with Internet-related services through the InterNIC Directory, and with connectivity via the company's InterSpan Frame Relay Service and dial-up InterSpan Information Access Service. He said the new BBN services will complement the company's existing connectivity, because "it offers highly-managed connectivity, and a higher level of services with much more troubleshooting and other forms of help." The company also plans access with the help of Novell through NetWare Connect Services, which interconnects and provides remote access to local networks. A side-effect to the announcement is that BBN's stock skyrocketed almost 50% yesterday, to close at $27.625 in heavy trading. Gudonis said he was pleased at the reaction from Wall Street, as well as from his own customers who have called and made positive comments regarding the deal. At 11:45 EDT, BBN's stock was unchanged from yesterday's close. (Bob Woods/19950621/Press Contacts: Mike Miller, AT&T, 201-331-4141; Peter Thonis, BBN, 617-873-3512) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 06/21/95 ONLINE ****Prodigy Offers E-mail Spelling-Checker (NEWS)(ONLINE)(SFO)(00027) ****Prodigy Offers E-mail Spelling-Checker 06/21/95 WHITE PLAINS, NEW YORK, U.S.A., 1995 JUN 21 (NB) -- Responding to one of the top complaints about online services, Prodigy has announced an integrated, online spelling-checker for its electronic-mail service. The Windows e-mail feature is the first step in a complete new look for the Sears/IBM owned service. The new spelling-checker, which is available online today, is based on a standard point-and-click interface with icons, sizable windows, dialog boxes, and scroll bars. A short time delay to download the software is necessary the first time a member uses the new feature. Prodigy says its new e-mail interface will give its members a hint of what the "New Prodigy" look will be. A recent Newsbytes story revealed the company's intention to create an entire new look for the service. Brian Ek, director of communications for Prodigy, told Newsbytes, "This is just the beginning of an introduction of new services and a new look for Prodigy. In the coming months, Prodigy will have an entire new look." Along with the spelling-checker, the new e-mail feature includes the ability to attach picture, audio, and text files. Previously, attached files more than six pages long required an off-line program. Now members may send, receive, and view as many pages as they wish. Prodigy says there is virtually no limit to the length of a message or letter sent through this new e-mail system. An "Urgent" feature which allows a message to be moved to the top of the recipient's incoming mail is also included and Prodigy has built-in a Joint Photographic Experts Group (JPEG) viewer. The viewer allows members to display photos and graphics (using the JPEG format) attached to an e-mail message. Ek continued, "One of the most frequently heard complaints about e-mail from any service is the lack of an integrated, online spelling-checker. There have been some shareware solutions and some cut-and-paste solutions, but I believe we are the first to have a robust, built-in and integrated spelling-checker feature." Continuing, Ek said, "At Prodigy, there is no limit to the number of messages members may send. For the basic monthly charge, members are allowed to send as many messages as they please." There is no additional cost associated with this new e-mail feature. (Patrick McKenna/19950621/Press Contact: Brian Ek, Prodigy, 914-448-8846) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 06/21/95 WINDOWS Lotus Offers Word Pro Visionary Preview CD (NEWS)(WINDOWS)(TOR)(00028) Lotus Offers Word Pro Visionary Preview CD 06/21/95 NEW YORK, NEW YORK, U.S.A., 1995 JUN 21 (NB) -- Lotus Development Corp. (NASDAQ:LOTS) has announced Word Pro Visionary, a CD-ROM disk containing beta-test versions of its new Word Pro word processor for Microsoft's Windows 3.1 and Windows 95. The CD-ROM also comes with 15 Lotus Word Pro ScreenCams, a 45-day trial version of the company's SmartSuite Release 3.1 applications suite, and other information. Lotus is selling the disk directly for $30, and will refund that amount to anyone who later buys the full version of Lotus Word Pro for Windows 3.1, Windows 95, or IBM's OS/2 operating system. The English-only CD is just being offered in the United States, a company spokeswoman told Newsbytes. Announced in April, Word Pro replaces Lotus' Ami Pro word processing software. The Windows 3.1 version is due to ship this summer, the Windows 95 version shortly after Windows 95 itself ships, and the OS/2 version after that, according to Lotus. The software emphasizes what Lotus calls "team computing." For instance, Word Pro can compare two versions of the same document stored in different files and show on the computer screen where they differ. Also, Word Pro can store multiple versions of a document in a single file. According to Lotus, this will make it easier to go back to a previous version of the document or compare a later revision to an earlier one. Features in the software are meant to simplify the process of agreeing on the final wording of a document based on several different people's suggestions, Lotus said. Word Pro also comes with an automatic correction feature that will spot common misspellings and typing errors (such as "teh" for "the") as the user types, and a "modeless" spelling checker that highlights all unrecognized words at once and lets the user click on words he or she wants to correct. The software is expected to sell for $105, with a $20 rebate coupon available to all current users of Lotus products. The Visionary CD-ROM requires at least an Intel 386 processor, 38 megabytes (MB) of hard disk space, and 8MB of memory. (Grant Buckler/19950621/Press Contact: Kim Commerato, Lotus Development, 404-828-5272; Melissa Federico, Lois Paul & Partners, for Lotus, 617-860-5644; Public Contact: Lotus Development, 800-872-3387 ext A870, Internet World Wide Web http://www.Lotus.com) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 1996 06/21/95 ONLINE Analysts Project 5 Million AOL Members By End Of (NEWS)(ONLINE)(SFO)(00029) Analysts Project 5 Million AOL Members By End Of 1996 06/21/95 VIENNA, VIRGINIA, U.S.A, 1995 JUN 21 (NB) -- Recent news stories claim America Online (NASDAQ:AMER) expects to have five million members by the end of 1996. The online service company, says those figures come from industry analysts who are independent of America Online (AOL). The story came from a Piper Jaffray investment conference held in Minneapolis, Minnesota. At that conference, AOL's vice president of investor relations, Richard Hanlon, told an audience of the expected increase in membership from its current 2.3 million subscribers to a projected five million by the end of 1996. Speaking to Newsbytes, Pam McGraw, spokesperson for AOL, clarified the various news stories, saying, "The five million projection comes from independent analysts and that is how it was presented. America Online does not make its own projections on membership numbers. We are pleased with the information, but it is completely independent of AOL." AOL says the projections come from the firms of Morgan Stanley, Goldman Sachs, and Alex Brown & Sons, and others. McGraw said Hanlon also commented on the Bertelsmann AG venture to develop a European online service. Projected dates for the European debut target late November or early December of this year. AOL also confirmed it plans to extend its service to Canada and Japan this year. In other developments at AOL, news centered around the ComputerWorld Smithsonian Award in the category of Media, Arts and Entertainment. AOL picked-up the award at a recent banquet in Washington, D.C. The company has also announced "Webfest," a ten-city US tour to demonstrate Web publishing for consumers and developers. The first two-day event is scheduled for Los Angeles, July 10-11. The tour will stop in Atlanta, New York, Chicago, Washington DC., Denver, Dallas, Boston, and Seattle. AOL has also signed an agreement with Hallmark Cards Inc. to offer personalized greeting cards. Through this available feature, members are able to create customized greeting cards. The order is received, created, addressed, and mailed (land mail) to the recipient by Hallmark for a cost of $2.95. (Patrick McKenna/19950621/Press Contact: Pam McGraw, AOL, 703-556-3746) (SUMMARY)(GENERAL)(SFO)(00030) Newsbytes Daily Summary 06/21/95 PENN VALLEY, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1995 JUN 21 (NB) -- These are capsules of all today's news stories: 1 -> UK - Elonex Intros 133MHz Pentium PCs 06/21/95 Elonex, a direct sell PC vendor, has taken the wraps off a new range of 133 megahertz (MHz) Pentium-based systems that it claims are streaks ahead of the competition. 2 -> London LIFFE Options Exchange On The Internet 06/21/95 The London International Financial Futures and Options Exchange (LIFFE), has opened a World Wide Site. According to a spokeswoman, the service started last Friday and is slowly being ramped up to offer information to general users of the Internet, as well as to global futures and option exchanges and other interested parties. 3 -> Can New US West Comms Boss Fix The Phones? 06/21/95 US West Inc. (NYSE:USW) has announced an unexpected executive shuffling that may be more significant because there is a new boss for the company's troubled 14-state telephone business. 4 -> Parallax Graphics Video Boards For PowerPCs 06/21/95 Parallax Graphics has announced availability of its first video cards featuring hardware compression and decompression for PowerPC- based systems with the PCI (Peripheral Component Interconnect) bus. Parallax previously had concentrated on such Unix systems as Sun Microsystems and Hewlett Packard workstations. 5 -> Fujitsu To Launch Electronic Youth Magazine 06/21/95 Tokyo-based electronics and computer manufacturer Fujitsu Ltd. has announced it is to begin publication of a new electronic magazine available initially on the World Wide Web and later via NiftyServe and interactive cable TV networks. 6 -> Balance The Federal Budget Without Leaving Home 06/21/95 If you think you can do a better job than those on Capitol Hill of balancing the Federal budget you now have the chance to prove it. The University of California (UC) has developed an interactive budget simulator and made it available to everyone via the Internet. 7 -> Japan Newsbriefs 06/21/95 In this roundup of news from Japan: NTT wins Indonesian phone contract; Dai Nippon buys into Bull; TV Asahi joins HDTV trials; Toshiba open Singapore Office; Sega brings forward Saturn euro launch; Nintendo looks to China. 8 -> Correction - CompuServe Clarifies PNG Article 06/21/95 In a Newsbytes story written this past Friday, CompuServe was said to hold a copyright of the PNG specification. In clarifying its position, CompuServe says it does not have a copyright on the PNG specification, but does hold a specification on the CompuServe labeled toolkit which was written by their engineering groups. 9 -> Microsoft's K-12 Educational Web Home Page 06/21/95 Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ: MSFT) has launched a World Wide Web home page on the Internet for educators and parents that focuses on educational resources available from the software company. Users can even jump to the home pages of other software publishers that develop educational products for the Windows platform. 10 -> ATI Moves Into Mac Graphics With PCI Card 06/21/95 ATI Technologies Inc. (TSE:ATY) has extended its graphics card business to the Apple Computer Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) Macintosh thanks to Apple's adoption of the Peripheral Component Interconnect (PCI) expansion bus on a new Mac model. ATI also announced a contract to supply graphics accelerator cards that Apple will resell. 11 -> Sanctuary Woods Ships "Buried in Time" Adventure Game 06/21/95 Sanctuary Woods Multimedia (NASDAQ: SWMCF) says that the company expects to ship the Macintosh version of "Buried in Time (The Journeyman Project 2)" on schedule this month. However, the PC version may be delayed until July. 12 -> Internet Update 06/21/95 In this roundup of new resources and services on the Internet: International PGP home page; ICIA online; European news index; New Mac Mosaic available; Virtual Finnish embassy; New and Improved NT information source; Today in history. 13 -> "WebTrack" Controls Web Access For Companies 06/21/95 For companies that are worried about losing productivity or bringing in objectionable materials into the workplace via the Internet, Webster Network Strategies (WNS) has announced the development of "WebTrack," a new monitoring and control application. 14 -> Prometheus Intros Comms & Multimedia Products 06/21/95 Prometheus Products Inc. has introduced its CyberSeries of products, 20 communications and multimedia products for PC and Macintosh users. The product line includes data and fax communications, telephony features like voice and full-duplex speakerphones, 16-bit audio, and the ability to transmit voice and data files over a single telephone line. 15 -> UK's ICL Takes Majority Stake In Germany's Aquarius 06/21/95 ICL, a UK-based information technology (IT) company, and Aquarius Robotron Systems GmbH, a German computer vendor, have pooled their resources on the sales and marketing front to "ensure a pan-European marketing presence." 16 -> Madge Networks To Acquire Israel's LANnet 06/21/95 Madge Networks has announced plans to acquire LANnet, an Israeli networking company. 17 -> UK - Konica's Copier/Fax/Printer With File Transfer 06/21/95 Konica, a copier and fax systems specialist, has unveiled the 9715FP multifunctional fax printer. 18 -> Pentax Intros Another PocketJet Printer 06/21/95 Pentax Technologies Corp. has added a new model to its PocketJet portable printer line that will print letter and legal-size pages. The first PocketJet printer, which came to market in late 1994, supports letter and A4-size page printing. 19 -> ****PSI Buys UK Internet Provider 06/21/95 In the latest move in a buying spree, Performance Systems International (NASDAQ: PSIX) is buying a controlling share of one of the UK's largest Internet service companies, EUnet GB, for $4 million. When the deal closes, it will make PSI one of the few US Internet access companies with a presence abroad. 20 -> ****House Leaders Push For Telecom Debate 06/21/95 With Senate action on telecommunications legislation over, leaders in the House are pushing for quick action on its version, which goes further toward deregulation than the Senate bill. 21 -> IBM Offers Conferencing For ThinkPad Power Series 06/21/95 IBM (NYSE:IBM) has added another computer-based conferencing product in what the company said will be an ongoing rollout. Personal Conferencing for AIX is software that will allow for audio, data, and video conferencing using IBM's newly announced ThinkPad Power Series notebook computers. 22 -> ****PC Expo - Apps & Hardware Add-Ons For IBM's PowerPC 06/21/95 At a New York press conference held to introduce IBM's new PowerSeries family of desktop and ThinkPad PowerPCs, IBM and its third-party partners also rolled out dozens of companion products, ranging from network interface cards (NICs) and monitors, to an array of software applications. 23 -> PC Expo - Apple To Focus More On "Large Businesses" 06/21/95 With the introduction of the Color LaserWriter and other new printers, Apple will begin running separate advertisements for a printer for the first time ever, revealed Apple USA President Jim Buckley, during a Q&A session for reporters in New York City. 24 -> PC Expo - Compaq To Bundle Microsoft BackOffice 06/21/95 A newly inked bundling agreement for Microsoft BackOffice will pose "no conflict" for Compaq, said Mary T. McDowell, Compaq's director of systems product marketing, speaking with Newsbytes during a press conference carried out in New York City to announce the deal. 25 -> Ziff Renames Online Services, Touts Home Page Success 06/21/95 Ziff-Davis Publishing will rename its Ziffnet online services, taking the name ZD Net, which it adopted for a new service on the Internet's World Wide Web recently. Ziff also said the Web site is getting more than 2.5 million "hits" per week and generating tens of thousands of inquiries for advertisers. 26 -> ****AT&T & BBN To Provide Internet Access 06/21/95 AT&T Corp. (NYSE:T) and Bolt Beranek & Newman Inc. (NYSE:BBN) (BBN) are joining together to offer Internet connectivity for businesses. The companies said they will offer the means to access, plan, set up, operate, and maintain dedicated, leased-line connectivity to the Internet. 27 -> ****Prodigy Offers E-mail Spelling-Checker 06/21/95 Responding to one of the top complaints about online services, Prodigy has announced an integrated, online spelling-checker for its electronic-mail service. The Windows e-mail feature is the first step in a complete new look for the Sears/IBM owned service. 28 -> Lotus Offers Word Pro Visionary Preview CD 06/21/95 Lotus Development Corp. (NASDAQ:LOTS) has announced Word Pro Visionary, a CD-ROM disk containing beta-test versions of its new Word Pro word processor for Microsoft's Windows 3.1 and Windows 95. 29 -> Analysts Project 5 Million AOL Members By End Of 1996 06/21/95 Recent news stories claim America Online (NASDAQ:AMER) expects to have five million members by the end of 1996. The online service company, says those figures come from industry analysts who are independent of America Online (AOL). (Ian Stokell/19950621) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 06/20/95 GENERAL Digital Destinations Intros Japanese Guide (NEWS)(GENERAL)(LAX)(00001) Digital Destinations Intros Japanese Guide 06/20/95 DAVIS, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1995 JUN 20 (NB) -- Start-up Digital Destinations has announced release of its first product, an electronic reference guide to Japan. The product contains information about Japan and the Japanese, including their origins, economy and culture. Developed for Microsoft Windows, Destination Japan's articles include: profiles of over six hundred Japanese companies and dozens of industries; discussions of the financial, political and educational systems; and overviews of the language, geography and history. David Govett, president of Digital Destinations, who began the project two years ago, said: "After two years in development, this is our first software release. I worked in Japan for twenty years and never had a reference tool I could use. (There was) never anything that centralized the information about Japan that a businessman needs. "We have included information on over 600 Japanese companies complete with their domestic and international addresses, phone and fax numbers, subsidiaries and affiliates, keiretsu membership, and products," he said. "With a click of your mouse, read about the country's intellectual property rights or find an attorney, business consultant, accounting or market research firm, or an advertising agency," he said. "Before visiting Japan, look up the date and venue of any event, show, exhibition, or conference for the next five years." Govett continued, "The Guide includes a detailed explanation of the industrial group practice known as 'keiretsu,' with charts and tables explaining the relationship of the various keiretsu and the companies that belong to each." According to the company, the guide has over 2,000 pages of information. Major topics covered are; Business & Industry, Money & Economy, Communications, Travel & Transportation, Food & Lodging, Tourism, Government & Politics, Language & Culture, Profile Of Japan, and Maps. Priced at $69, Destination Japan is available direct from Digital Destinations at 800-204-4404. Supplied on 3.5-inch disks, it runs on any desktop or portable PC with Microsoft Windows, a mouse, and 15 megabytes of available disk space. The company says a Macintosh version will be out soon. (Richard Bowers/19950619/Press Contact: David Govett, Digital Destinations, 916-757-2323) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 06/20/95 GENERAL Digital Computer Inventor John Vincent Dies (NEWS)(GENERAL)(WAS)(00002) Digital Computer Inventor John Vincent Dies 06/20/95 FREDERICK, MARYLAND, U.S.A., 1995 JUN 20 (NB) -- John Vincent Atanasoff, inventor of the first electronic digital computer, died at his home near New Market, Md., last Thursday of a stroke. He was 91. As a professor of mathematics and physics at Iowa State University, Atanasoff invented a digital computer for solving simultaneous linear equations. He designed and built a refined prototype of his machine from 1937 to 1942, working with a graduate student. In 1990, President George Bush awarded him the National Medal of Technology. Born in 1903 in Hamilton, N.Y., Atanasoff earned a degree in electrical engineering from the University of Florida in 1925. He earned a master in mathematics in 1926 while teaching at Iowa State and a Ph.D. in physics from the University of Wisconsin in 1930. After 15 years at Iowa State, Atanasoff left in 1941 to become chief of acoustics at the Naval Ordnance Laboratory in Washington DC. He received many patents for his work in acoustics at NOL. In 1946, Atanasoff participated in the Bikini atomic weapons tests. In 1949 and 1950, he was chief scientist for the Army Field Forces at Fort Monroe, Va., then returned to the NOL. In 1952, he left government and started his own company, Ordnance Engineering Corp., which was bought in 1956 by Aerojet Engineering Corp. He retired in 1961, and continued serving as a consultant and performing basic research. Atanasoff received many awards and honorary degrees, including the Institute of Electric and Electronic Engineers' Computer Pioneer award, and the Holley Medal from the American Society of Mechanical Engineers. Atanasoff's career was chronicled in two recent books: "The First Electronic Computer, The Atanasoff Story," by Alice and Arthur Burks in 1988, and "Atanasoff, Forgotten Father of the Computer," by Clark Mollenhoff, also in 1988. (Kennedy Maize/19950619) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 06/20/95 ONLINE NetNoir Online "Cybergateway To Afrocentric Culture" (NEWS)(ONLINE)(MSP)(00003) NetNoir Online "Cybergateway To Afrocentric Culture" 06/20/95 WASHINGTON, D.C., 1995 JUN 20 (NB) -- Yesterday was "Juneteenth," a day that commemorated the day in 1865 when slaves in West South Central states first learned about the Emancipation Proclamation, nearly two and a half years after it was first issued. Yesterday also marked the opening of "NetNoir Online" on America Online (AOL), a place where distributing information on Afrocentric culture happens much more quickly than in 1865. To commemorate both Juneteenth and the opening of the area, NetNoir officials, along with Larry Irving, who heads the US Department of Commerce's National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA), held an open chat session in the new NetNoir area, which Newsbytes attended. Secretary Irving didn't stick around for a long time to chat, but he did make his feelings known about minorities and the world of cyberspace. "Briefly stated, we need to do more to encourage minority participation online," he said. Irving also said there are no "solid numbers" for exactly how many minorities are online, but he did say "there are numbers for modem and computer purchases. Those numbers are below the national average for other groups." Malcom CasSelle, co-founder of NetNoir (NN), said his service will bring a lot of new traffic to the online arena, in terms of minority involvement. "I think NN will provide a new channel for new communication. NN is a place for people to talk about issues that aren't addressed. NN will attract new people online, especially minorities, because of its content and its dedication to providing a place for issues to be addressed." NetNoir Online can be found on AOL using the keyword "NetNoir." The area itself is colorful and full of graphics. It also contains bulletin boards and a chat room. Other features will include exclusive sports columns, celebrity chats, music news, educational departments, and business news. NetNoir also has a presence on the Internet's World Wide Web at http://www.netnoir.com. In April, NetNoir was chosen to be a part of AOL's Greenhouse Program. The program helps "infoprenuers" to create unique online content and interactive services for both AOL and the Internet. (Bob Woods/199500619/Press Contacts: Wendy Marx or Eloy Ontiveros, Redgate Communications, 415-777-3911; Public Contact: AOL keyword "NetNoir," Internet World Wide Web http://www.netnoir.com) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 06/20/95 BROADCAST European Commission Changes Stance On Digital TV (NEWS)(BROADCAST)(LON)(00004) European Commission Changes Stance On Digital TV 06/20/95 BRUSSELS, BELGIUM. 1995 JUN 20 (NB) -- The European Commission (EC), following an embarrassment a few years ago in its pursuance of digital TV standards for broadcasters, which eventually resulted in a climbdown over high definition TV (HDTV) technology, has issued a warning to satellite broadcasters that it will allow an open market for digital TV technology. However, the EC has instructed broadcasters than they must not "abuse their position." The warning, although lacking legal "teeth," is being seen as a "shot across the bows" of BskyB, which controls a significant portion of English language satellite TV transmissions in Europe, and Canal Plus, the French satellite TV broadcasting operation. According to Gerard Coudron, the EC's spokesman in the TV stakes, the broadcasters should not abuse their positions as regards digital encryption technology which Newsbytes notes will be a standard feature on most digital satellite TV decoders. According to Mel Read, the Member of European Parliament -- who was involved in the ongoing debate over whether the EC should legislate to force the market, or issue a warning as has happened -- the EC feels that broadcasters are well aware of the issues involved. Read told journalists that Caudron's proposals are representative of the EC's strategy on digital TV and encryption technology for pay-TV services. Interestingly, she said that the EC does not see the need for mandatory legislation, as has happened in the telecoms market, for digital encryption TV standards. Under the existing broadcasting legislation from the EC, broadcasters are forbidden from placing undue pressure on broadcast decoder manufacturers to manufacture proprietary broadcast technology. This is clearly an encouragement for the TV industry to work together on a common decoder technology, as has been the case with Videocrypt, the standard found on many analog European satellite TV decoders. EC officials are not letting the satellite broadcasters off the hook entirely, however, as the European Parliament wants to add a clause to its broadcasting legislation requiring the satellite broadcasters, which includes BskyB and Canal Plus, to maintain separate financial accounts for their pay-to-view broadcast activities. BskyB and Canal Plus, while accepting such a mandate, are less than happy about the EC's request for an open standard for digital pay-TV technology. Both satellite TV companies have argued that, if an open standard is enforced in the satellite broadcast industry, then late- comers to the market will have the advantage of not having to invest in the cost R&D (research and development) of a decoder mechanism. Furthermore, they argue, having a common interface standard would encourage satellite TV pirates to concentrate their activities on one standard which, if broken, as seems likely, would be detrimental to any company using the encryption system. This week sees the EC stage a series of debates on whether to pursue an open standard on digital broadcast encryption. (Sylvia Dennis/19950619/Press & Reader Contact: European Commission, +32-2-299-1111) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 06/20/95 WINDOWS AT&T Intros Multimedia Software For Windows NT (NEWS)(WINDOWS)(TOR)(00005) AT&T Intros Multimedia Software For Windows NT 06/20/95 FREEHOLD, NEW JERSEY, U.S.A., 1995 JUN 20 (NB) -- AT&T (NYSE:T) said it has added a version of its Multimedia Designer software that runs on Microsoft's (NASDAQ:MSFT) Windows NT operating system. AT&T already sells a version of Multimedia Designer for Windows 3.1, and is working on one for Windows 95. The key point about Multimedia Designer for Windows NT is that it will support multiple hardware platforms, company spokesman Mike Maney told Newsbytes. NT runs on reduced instruction set computing (RISC) processors from MIPS Computer Systems Inc. and Digital Equipment Corp. as well as on Intel processors. It will also support PowerPC processors starting in July, AT&T said. Multimedia Designer includes a number of image tools for creating photorealistic images. It allows for eight light sources along with ambient and reflective lighting shadows, and has an object- oriented interface, company officials said. The software supports scene, object, and image files of eight-, 16-, 32-, or 64-bit data, with complex blending capabilities. It can import and export a number of popular file formats, AT&T said. On Intel platforms Multimedia Designer for NT needs at least a 486DX processor. The software requires six megabytes (MB) of memory and 20MB of hard disk space -- these requirements are the same on all the hardware platforms the software supports, Maney said. The package is available now, with a regular retail price of $595 and a special introductory price of $395. Multimedia Designer for Windows NT joins an AT&T graphics software line that also includes the RIO graphics design tool and Panorama authoring software, both of which run on the DOS operating system, as well as Multimedia Designer for Windows 3.1.. (Grant Buckler/19950620/Press Contact: Mike Maney, Poppe Tyson for AT&T, 201-539-0300, Internet e-mail mmaney@nj.poppe.com) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 06/20/95 PC Compaq Intros New Contura Notebooks (NEWS)(PC)(DEN)(00006) Compaq Intros New Contura Notebooks 06/20/95 HOUSTON, TEXAS, U.S.A., 1995 JUN 20 (NB) -- Compaq Computer Corp. (NYSE: CPQ) has announced a new line of Contura 400 notebook computers with faster microprocessors, higher-capacity hard drives, an optical trackball and PCMCIA (Personal Computer Memory Card International Association) card slots. #IMAGE 1 20 TWPCX \images\95062006.PCX Click here for photo The Contura 420 and 430 models are equipped with 10.4-inch color thin film transistor (TFT) or color super twist nematic (STN) dual scan displays, and offer a docking station option that includes port replication, a monitor stand, a charger for a spare battery, and an optional integrated Ethernet interface. Compaq said the new models estimated selling prices range from $2,499 to $3,699. For example, a Contura 420C Model 420 using a DX4 75 megahertz microprocessor, equipped with a 420 megabyte (MB) hard drive and 8MB of memory would sell for about $2,599. The retail models come with a pre-installed software bundle that includes Microsoft Works, Lotus Organizer, Quicken SE, Reuters Money Network, software for using the America Online, CompuServe and AT&T Global Services online subscription services, the Symantec Game Pack, the PGA Golf Tour game and the Official Airline Guide (OAG) Flight disk. Compaq includes a set of Compaq utilities and on-line documentation, Microsoft Windows and TabWorks, Compaq's alternative to the Microsoft Windows Program Manager. Winfax fax send and receive software and WinComm communications software for communicating with other computers is included with models equipped with a modem. The new Contura models can have memory upgrades to 32MB. The company said the Conturas will run for up to five hours on the nickel metal hydride battery. They also are "Plug and Play" capable, meaning the unit will reconfigure itself to handle PCMCIA cards, printers, monitors, external keyboards and other peripherals that are connected or disconnected while the PC is running. Hard drives with capacities up to 720MB are available, and the 19 millimeter trackball uses light sensors to measure its movement. Compaq said that makes for more reliable pointing and reduces the need for cleaning. You also get the capability for one PCMCIA type III or two Type II devices. You can get one of the new Contura 400 systems powered by a 100MHz DX4, 75MHz DX4, or 50MHz DX2 chip. Compaq spokesperson Nora Hahn told Newsbytes the new Contura models will ship later this month. Compaq said the Contura 420C has been approved as a substitute system on the Army's Portable-I contract. The two year contract is a "firm fixed price, indefinite deliver, indefinite quantity," procurement contract to provide portable computers to the US Army. (Jim Mallory/19950620/Press contact: Compaq Public Relations, 713-374-0484; Public contact: Compaq, 713-374-1459 or 800-345-1518/CONTURA950620/PHOTO) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 06/20/95 EDITORIAL TELECOM Editorial - Censorship...And Stupidity (EDITORIAL)(TELECOM)(WAS)(00007) Editorial - Censorship...And Stupidity 06/20/95 WASHINGTON, D.C., U.S.A, 1995 JUN 20 (NB) -- By Kennedy Maize. Censorship. That's the right word to use to describe what the US Senate had in mind when it adopted the anti-smut amendment last week sponsored by Sen. James Exon and Dan Coats. The language adopted is so vague that it gives the government a blank check to go after any communications in the online world that it finds "obscene, lewd, lascivious, filthy or indecent." Ok, how about satire? For instance a scatological satire of House Speaker Newt Gingrich, posted to Internet news groups? Clearly this would be protected speech if it were published on paper and sold in a book store. But under the Senate bill, it might be illegal on the Net. So might Newt Gingrich's new novel, "1945," which reportedly contains some pretty racy, soft-core stuff, according to those who have read the galleys. Some might call it "indecent." The overwhelming vote on the Exon-Coats amendment had little to do with pornography and a lot to do with politics. No Senator wants to hand his or her potential opponents the ability to charge, "Sen. Snort voted to let your kids see porn on their computer screens." But that's all it was, as Sen. Orrin Hatch, the impeccably conservative Utah Republican, observed in voting against the amendment. "Anybody who voted for the Exon amendment doesn't know anything about the Net," Paul Saffo, a researcher at the Institute for the Future, told the New York Times. "It's well-intentioned but wrong-headed, applying an old broadcast mentality of regulation to an entirely different technology, like the guns of the French Maginot line on the eve of World War II, pointed in the wrong direction and irrelevant." "The legislation not only fails to solve the problems it is intended to address, but it also imposes content restrictions on computer communications that would chill First-Amendment-protected speech and, in effect, restrict adults in the public forums of computer networks to writing and reading only such content as is suitable for children," says the Electronic Frontier Foundation, in its position statement. Sen. Patrick Leahy of Vermont, who tried to derail Exon, put it well in talking to Newsweek's Paul Levy. "It's obvious there are only a half dozen senators who have used the Internet," he said. In this case, the Republican majority should have followed its instincts and trusted the market. Surfwatch Software in Los Altos, Calif., is marketing a software filter that parents can use to block access to Internet locations with sexual material. Other companies are working on competing programs. The same is true of the other regrettable action by the Senate, adoption of Sen. Kent Conrad's "choice chip" amendment, to give parents the ability to screen out sex, violence, or, presumably, other politically incorrect programming from TV broadcasters and cable providers. Why should I, with no kids, be forced to pay for a chip in my TV for which I have no earthly use? And why should I subsidize my next door neighbors, who have three small children, and may well want to screen what they can see on the boob tube? If there is a need out there for screening technology, the market will offer it. Conservatives are supposed to trust consumers to make the right choices, which is how markets work, not empower government to direct those free choices. But it appears that many of the conservatives in the Senate want to get the government out of your business, and into your living room and bedroom. (Kennedy Maize/19950619) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 06/20/95 BUSINESS UK's Pipex Takes Equity In Foreign Internet Firms (NEWS)(BUSINESS)(LON)(00008) UK's Pipex Takes Equity In Foreign Internet Firms 06/20/95 CAMBRIDGE, ENGLAND, 1995 JUN 20 (NB) -- Pipex, the UK's major Internet service provider, has taken an equity stake in three international service providers. According to Chris Batterham, Unipalm's (Pipex's parent company), group finance and commercial director, the deal ensures that Pipex has a commercial interest in those companies it is working with to offer international Internet TCP/IP (Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol) roaming service. Batterham, who will join the boards of the companies in which Pipex/Unipalm is investing, went on to say that the developments "will strengthen our international network and enables our partners to develop their business faster and more profitably. We will be looking to continue to grow our network, by forming other such partnerships in the future." The three companies that Pipex/Unipalm is investing in are: Public IP Exchange in South Africa, where the company has invested US$288,000 for a 24 percent stake; INnet International of Belgium, where the company has invested around $350,000 for a 14.9 percent stake; and iSYS of Hungary, where around $115,000 has been invested for a 32 percent stake. According to Batterham, SA's Public IP Exchange is poised for growth in a potentially "boom time" South Africa, where modem sales are taking enough. "I think this move is a reflection of the changes taking place in SA and the decision by the world to get back together with the country," he explained. Public IP Exchange is a new company in South Africa and the Pipex/Unipalm funding will finance the company's first six months of operations. The partner in the venture is Datatec Limited, a public company that specializes in the distribution of networking equipment in SA. Belgium's INnet, meanwhile, is a new holding company that provides Internet services through its wholly owned subsidiaries: INnet Belgium, INnet Luxemburg, and INnet/Pipex Nederland. These last two companies, Newsbytes notes, were set up by Unipalm in early 1994 and now have around 300 corporate customers in their respective countries. Unipalm's partners in these operations are Luc Dierucks and Luc Deudens, the original founders of INnet Belgium, along with Marc Van Aken. (Steve Gold/19950619/Press Contact: Katy Croft, GBC, +44-181-332- 7022, Internet e-mail katyc@gbc.co.uk; Reader Contact: Pipex/Unipalm, tel +44-1223-250121, fax +44-1223-250121, Internet e-mail pipex@pipex.net) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 06/20/95 ONLINE UK - Motorola's "Quick & Easy" Internet Starter Kit (NEWS)(ONLINE)(LON)(00009) UK - Motorola's "Quick & Easy" Internet Starter Kit 06/20/95 CRAWLEY, WEST SUSSEX, ENGLAND, 1995 JUN 20 (NB) -- Motorola has become the latest modem manufacturer to release an "all in" Internet starter kit onto the UK market. The difference is that Motorola is viewed as a high-end modem supplier, which makes the release of the package at UKP199, which includes a V.34 (28,800 bits-per-second) modem all the more surprising. "Not that surprising," argued Simon Boyle, Motorola's UK marketing director, who said that the company wants to shed its image as being a solely business modem supplier. "Take a look at our paging operations, where we've released a series of consumer pager offerings in various colors, and you'll realize that Motorola is diversifying into the consumer product field. That's a significant change from the Motorola of a few years ago," he told Newsbytes. The modem in the "Internet Solution," is the company's ISG 3400 Pro unit which supports V.34, but, surprisingly, not the older V.Fast Class (V.FC) standard. Boyle commented that, since almost all Internet service providers, as well as CompuServe, are moving to support V.34 modem technology, buyers need not worry their V.34 modems will not be compatible with the V.FC modems of the world. V.34 is the ITU (International Telecoms Union) ratified standard for 28,800 bps modems, while the V.FC system was a proprietary pseudo- standard agreed by modem manufacturers of the early 1990s who could not wait for the arrival of the full standard to market. Around 80 percent of modems support V.FC, but the Motorola modem has the company's own modem driver chipset, rather than the Rockwell chipset seen in most other modems. "Coming in at this price-point and where the modem is aimed, I don't think we can be criticized, as the modem works at high speeds with the IBM Internet Connection, as well as with CompuServe," Boyle said, adding that starter kits for both services were included with the kits as standard. Bundled with the modem and the online starter kits is a suite of comms data/fax packages for the PC-DOS, PC-Windows and Apple Mac machines, based around the VocalTec Internet phone software packages, along with various applications software. According to Boyle, Motorola has been working steadily to sign up more retailers to handle the new modem package in the last few months, with outlets ranging from Byte Computer Stores, to Toys 'R' Us. Will the release of the Internet Solution signal the end for the company's existing high-end range of V.34 modems? "I doubt it," Boyle said, adding that the high-end modems support a wealth of extra features including support for networks, integral data compression, and the ability to cope with different network standards. "Those modems sell to the consumer side of this business, while the high-end Codex series (and like) appeal to major corporations," he said. (Steve Gold/19960619/Press Contact: Simon Jones, Harvard PR, +44- 181-759-0005, Internet e-mail simonj@harvard.mhs.compuserve.com; Reader Contact: Motorola, tel +44-1293-404343, fax +44-1293-404362) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 06/20/95 GENERAL Microsoft Offers New Support Pricing (NEWS)(GENERAL)(DEN)(00010) Microsoft Offers New Support Pricing 06/20/95 REDMOND, WASHINGTON, U.S.A., 1995 JUN 20 (NB) -- Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ: MSFT) has announced changes in its support policies that raise the cost of getting answers about the company's operating system software. One of the two changes eliminates no-cost standard support for personal operating systems networking issues. In making the announcement, Microsoft said that technical support for networking environments has traditionally either been priced separately or reflected in the retail price of the software. The company said it is implementing the new pricing because of what it calls "a very competitive price" for the Microsoft Windows for Workgroups operating environment with integrated networking and the soon-to-be-released Windows 95 operating system. Microsoft Windows 95 is expected to have a street price slightly under $100 when it ships in late August. That means that if you have a question about setting up a network, dialing into a computer, connecting to the Internet through a service provider, or sending electronic-mail or faxes, you will have to pay for it. Microsoft said around-the-clock, fee-based support will be available via a toll-free phone number. The company said the new pricing policy applies to all personal operating system software, including MS-DOS, Windows, Windows for Workgroups, and Windows 95. The second change being announced is an increase for Microsoft's priority desktop support for personal operating system and Microsoft hardware. That charge will be increase from the current $25 per incident to $35 or $1.95 per minute on July 1. You can also elect to purchase an annual desktop support account, which Microsoft said is unchanged at $395 for up to 35 incidents per year, or you can buy a five-pack of priority desktop incidents for $125, also unchanged. Microsoft said it will continue to provide standard support for its personal operating system products, excluding networking issues, for 90 days at no charge. The user pays for those calls. (Jim Mallory/19950619/Press contact: Cara Lattig, Waggener Edstrom, 503-245-0905; Reader contact: Microsoft, 206-882-8080 or 800-426-9400) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 06/20/95 IBM UK - IBM Intros Internet Connectivity Products (NEWS)(IBM)(LON)(00011) UK - IBM Intros Internet Connectivity Products 06/20/95 PORTSMOUTH, HAMPSHIRE, ENGLAND, 1995 JUN 20 (NB) -- IBM has unveiled a wide portfolio of Internet products, software and services that it claims shows the company's intention to be a "significant global force" in the field of the Internet. Amongst the Internet announcements are: a variety of servers and World Wide Web browsers, with extra security features; a CICS Internet gateway; VisualAge for the World Wide Web, an authoring tool; QBIC and InfoMarket Search, two Web search engines; Installation services for security and Internet access; Internet Content Services, a high- performance Web server package; and high-speed connectivity enhancements to the IBM Global Network, pushing dial-up access speeds to 28,800 bits-per-second (bps) in many countries. Anna Russell, a spokeswoman for IBM UK, told Newsbytes that the portfolio of new products and services aim to get the message across that IBM is not just interested in major corporations for its Internet services, but also for smaller businesses and SOHO (small office/home office) subscribers. "IBM is fast becoming a one-stop shop for companies' entire Internet services, whether they want a simple dial-up SLIP access service, or whether they want to host services on the Internet," she claimed, adding that Big Blue is now in a position to offer "end-to-end solutions for customers." Announcing the global introduction of these new Internet products and services, John Patrick, vice president of Internet Applications with IBM, said that the company's aim is to deliver products "that make it easy for our customers to realize the competitive edge offered by the Internet." IBM plans to offer a range of software packages to allow companies to "Web author" their information on the Internet. Servers will be available for OS/2 and AIX, IBM's flavor or Unix, on a global basis from this August onwards, with both servers supporting S-HTTP and SSL, the encrypted Internet protocols. According to IBM, interoperability will be provided with IBM's WebExplorer and other Web browsers that support these protocols. Big Blue is also in the process or introducing the Internet Connection Server for OS/400, the operating system for the AS/400 series of machines. Beta test versions of the Internet host software should be available later this summer and, according to IBM will have the same levels of functionality as the OS/2 and AIX versions. Plans also call for IBM to introduce an Internet Connection Server for MVS, the S/390 mainframe operating system. This version will be released later this year, along with a special version of the IBM Internet Connection Server for AIX, which will include support the Scalable PowerParallel System (SPPS), IBM's high performance super computer. Last, but not least, is the IBM WebExplorer for OS/2, a Web browser that features "native" drag-and-drop, plus graphical streaming facilities. The standard version is available immediately on a global basis, while a secure version will be available on beta test very shortly, preparing the way for shipment towards the end of the year. On the horizon for OS/2 Warp Internet users is an add-in module called Person-2-Person. This is already bundled with OS/2 Warp, and is a package that allows Internet users to conduct interactive multi-party desktop conferences with other Internet users anywhere in the world. (Steve Gold/19950619/Press Contact: Anna Russell, IBM UK, +44-1256-341036) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 06/20/95 GENERAL UK - Kyocera Says Apple Printer Running Costs High (NEWS)(GENERAL)(LON)(00012) UK - Kyocera Says Apple Printer Running Costs High 06/20/95 READING, BERKSHIRE, ENGLAND, 1995 JUN 20 (NB) -- Kyocera, the producer of the "lowest-cost-to-run" Ecosys laser printer, has launched a blistering attack on Apple for its "environmentally friendly" remanufacturer toner cartridges, on the basis that they are still three times the cost of those from Kyocera. "We're not attacking Apple for the green-ness of the carts," explained Tracey Rawling-Church, a spokeswoman for Kyocera. "What we're pointing out is the fact that, even with remanufactured cartridges, the Apple laser printers still cost three times as much to run as our own Ecosys printers." Rawling-Church told Newsbytes that, whereas in the past the company has produced running cost analyses for Hewlett-Packard printers. "We felt it about time we looked at the costs of running printers from other than the brand leader (HP)," she explained. Phil Murphy, general manager for Kyocera's UK operation, said, tongue-in-cheek, that he thinks Apple are "a little green on this issue." According to Kyocera, Apple's new remanufactured laser toner cartridge has an approximate average toner yield of 4,000 pages at five percent coverage. The carts have an estimated street price (in the UK) of UKP42, resulting in a cost of a penny per page. The equivalent toner refill from Kyocera is the TK-12 with an average toner yield of 10,000 with five percent coverage. Since the TK-12 has an estimated street price of UKP36, Kyocera claims that this equates to 0.36 pence per page -- just over a third of the cost of an Apple laser printer. Rawling-Church conceded to Newsbytes that plugging in a Kyocera Ecosys printer into a Mac was no simple matter. "You need a parallel- to-serial converter, plus special drivers for the Ecosys on the Mac. It's a long way from plug-and-play as seen on the Mac printers, but with running costs of at least a third, we think it's well worth it," she said. (Steve Gold/19950619/Press Contact: Mike Elms, Profile PR, +44-181-995-1595; Reader Contact: Kyocera, +44-1734-311500) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 06/20/95 APPLE Apple Intros 2 Printers (NEWS)(APPLE)(SFO)(00013) Apple Intros 2 Printers 06/20/95 CUPERTINO, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A, 1995 JUN 20 (NB) -- Apple Computer Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) has announced the availability of its new Color LaserWriter 12/600 PS and a portable color inkjet which fits in a briefcase. The company also introduced an enhanced Color StyleWriter 2400 and a $929 price for it monochrome Personal Laser Writer. The Color LaserWriter is a cross-platform printer which offers 600 by 600 dots-per-inch (dpi) resolution, 39 PostScript, and 65 TrueType fonts. It comes with Apple's Color Sync 2.0 color matching technology, Color PhotoGrade, and Contone Compression Technology. Apple claims the printer's price tag of $6,989 allows "many companies, organizations and schools the opportunity to enter the color laser printer market." In a related promotion, Kinko's Copy Centers is making the Apple QuickTake 150 digital camera and the new Color LaserWriter available at 750 locations nationwide. Color StyleWriter 2200 is a new, slightly more than three-pound color inkjet designed to work with Apple's PowerBooks. Apple says it fits easily into a briefcase and works equally well on the desktop with most Macs and Power Macs. It is 12-inches across and 2.2-inches high and prints a color page in less than three minutes. The company is calling it the "first truly portable color printer." A 30-sheet paper feeder is built-in. Apple says Color StyleWriter 2200 is priced at $419. Color StyleWriter 2200 provides 360 by 360 dpi color and true black printing on the same page. Apple is also offering an optional nickel-metal hydride battery for complete portable performance. The battery adds about one pound to the weight of the printer and is capable of printing approximately 200 pages between charges. In addition, Apple says its Color StyleWriter 2400 now offers "Desktop Printing," "2-Up, 4-Up Printing" and "Watermarks." The "2-Up, 4-Up" feature means two or four pages can be printed on a single page. Eight commonly-used watermarks are used, but additional PICT files can be added. The 2400 has been reduced to $429. A spokesperson for the company said, "These announcements round out and unify our family of printers, especially the inkjet line. We have brought high-end features of the expensive printers to the more affordable printers. This means users can have high-quality, rich documents printed from their desktop with a very affordable printer. (Patrick McKenna/1995619/Press Contact: Jayme Curtis, Apple Computer, 408-974-6296, Internet World Wide Web http://www.apple.com/ APPLE950620/PHOTO) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 06/20/95 WINDOWS MSI Intros WinDelete 2.0 For Windows (NEWS)(WINDOWS)(LAX)(00014) MSI Intros WinDelete 2.0 For Windows 06/20/95 SAN RAFAEL, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1995 JUN 20 (NB) -- IMSI (NASDAQ:IMSI) has introduced WinDelete version 2.0 for Windows, an application deinstaller. The upgrade adds the feature of being able to deinstall all applications for Windows, not just those installed with WinDelete. Geoff Koblick, chairman of IMSI, told Newsbytes, "On Windows, when you load applications, it will save files is all sorts of strange directories. When you want to get rid of an application, it is difficult to know where the files are. WinDelete makes sure you delete all of the files relating to the particular application. "Applications not deinstalled properly can take up enormous chunks of memory. Computer performance suffers. Using WinDelete deinstaller improves Windows. It frees up hard disk space and improves speed and efficiency." Koblick said that the "main upgrade in WinDelete 2.0 is that it allows a user to deinstall all Window applications. Previous versions would only deinstall those applications installed with WinDelete," he said. In addition, Koblick mentioned two new features. "WinDelete helps prevent users from accidentally deleting files with its green-yellow- red 'traffic light' color coding of files. The upgrade now previews system changes before making them, and gives users a one-step undo/ restore feature to return deleted files if they change their minds." "Users told us they wanted an uninstall product that was safe and simple to use -- one that removed all unnecessary files without accidentally deleting files they should keep," said Martin Sacks, chief executive officer (CEO) and president of IMSI. "The new WinDelete for Windows really stands out in its ability to meet these needs." WinDelete 2.0 runs on IBM-compatible computers with a 386 or higher processor, two megabytes (MB) RAM, and Microsoft Windows 3.1. A VGA monitor is recommended. WinDelete 2.0 for Windows is available for a suggested retail price of $49.95. (Richard Bowers/19950616/Press Contact: Rob Halligan, IMSI 415-257-3000 ext 288) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 06/20/95 ONLINE Hong Kong - Local Online Financial Service Launched (NEWS)(ONLINE)(HKG)(00015) Hong Kong - Local Online Financial Service Launched 06/20/95 CENTRAL, HONG KONG, 1995 JUN 20 (NB) -- Leading local financial newspaper The Hong Kong Economic Times has launched an online financial information service aimed at the local market. The service, called ET Net (Economic Times Network), will carry comprehensive information on the local financial markets, including real- time stock quotes, futures information, and the financial histories of Hang Seng Index constituent companies. According to Salome See, ET Net's general manager, the service is not attempting to take on Reuters and the other major international information service providers. ET Net will not carry foreign exchange information or information on overseas markets, but would have a strong local focus and would be available at a fraction of the cost, she said. "We believe ET Net, as the first local interactive on-line service, will play a very important role in the financial information service industry," said See. The service, which will have its own news and research team independent of the newspaper, expects to have about 1,000 subscribers within two years. See said most subscribers would be local investors, stock brokers and executives from locally listed companies, who would be charged HK$2,000 (US$256) per month for unlimited access. (Mike Dunn/19950620) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 06/20/95 TELECOM Hutchison Launches Hong Kong GSM Network (NEWS)(TELECOM)(HKG)(00016) Hutchison Launches Hong Kong GSM Network 06/20/95 CENTRAL, HONG KONG, 1995 JUN 20 (NB) -- Hutchison Telephone, a subsidiary of Hutchison Telecommunications, has switched on its global system for mobile communications (GSM) digital network in Hong Kong. The network began operations after a two-month migration program in which existing subscribers to the company's analog total access communications system (TACS) network were able to trade in their phones for GSM models. The company claims to have already successfully migrated 7,500 analog customers to the new network. Canning Fok, Hutchison Whampoa group managing director said: "We will ensure our subscribers enjoy a smooth and simple transition from analog to the GSM digital network." The migration program will continue until the end of 1996, the government deadline for all cellular subscribers to be using GSM. However, Hutchison says it will negotiate with the government on behalf of any analog subscribers who wish to remain on the old network. Hutchison is also offering subscribers to the GSM network several new value-added services. These include Voice Link, a voice-activated dialing system, and Message Link, an automated answering service. Other services include Fax Link and Information Link. (Mike Dunn/19950620) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 06/20/95 BUSINESS Compaq Expands In South China (NEWS)(BUSINESS)(PEK)(00017) Compaq Expands In South China 06/20/95 BEIJING, CHINA, 1995 JUN 20 (NB) -- After putting its three service centers into operation in Guangzhou at the end of last month, Compaq now plans to open a Guangzhou representative office to expand its PC sales in South China. Compaq is currently the number one PC supplier in China. Officially entering the Chinese market in July, 1993, Compaq had taken 22.7 percent of the PC market share in China by the end of 1994, the largest among all PC suppliers in the country. The company recently announced that it will soon open a Compaq Guangzhou office in the capital of Guangdong Province. The office will concentrate on customer service and expanding its market share in South China, said Xi Zude, president of Compaq China Co. At the end of last month, Compaq's three service centers opened in Guangzhou. Staffed by Compaq-authorized engineers, the centers are expected to provide improved service for the thousands of Compaq users in the region. Attracted by the prosperous economy in South China, Compaq built its fourth factory in Shenzhen in cooperation with China's Stone Group. The factory is the largest computer manufacturer in Shenzhen and its products will be shipped worldwide. The other three Compaq factories are in Houston, Texas, in Scotland, and in Singapore. (Chih-Ho Yu & Ning Huang/19950620) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 06/20/95 GENERAL India News Roundup (NEWS)(GENERAL)(DEL)(00018) India News Roundup 06/20/95 NEW DELHI, INDIA, 1995 JUN 20 (NB) -- In this roundup of news from India: Indian business info on international network, Oracle plans Joint Product Development, Morgan Stanley's Offshore Project with Calcutta SW Firm. Indian Business Info On International Network The Government of India has decided to provide direct access to Indian missions abroad with the business network of the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry. The business network system has already been installed in some Indian missions abroad, including Mauritius. Plans are also on to link with Businet the international offices of the chambers and the office of the joint business council's counterparts abroad. The chamber is also holding talks with the Commerce ministry to get connected to the Unctad trade point -- a data bank which provides a dialoging facility with different international systems. According to the officials, the connectivity which Businet had with four data sets in the US, Australia, Singapore, and with Compas System, through which 60,000 companies worldwide would be accessed on telephone, would provide information to businessmen. Oracle Plans Joint Product Development The Indian subsidiary of Oracle Corp., has announced plans to collaborate with other international information technology vendors in the country for the joint development of platform-specific Oracle products for the worldwide market. Oracle has also set up an India development center (IDC) at Bangalore, to undertake software development to meet the company's growth plans. The IDC has been created as a multi-technology center, which will work with a number of development groups and business units within Oracle Corp. The company has spent over $3 million on the IDC in the fiscal year, 1994-95, and the investment planned for 1995-96 is $3.2 million. Morgan Stanley's Offshore Project With Calcutta SW Firm RS Software India Ltd., the Calcutta-based software development and consulting firm, has bagged a $1 million offshore pilot project from Morgan Stanley of the US. The company's international clients include IBM Inc., Visa International, and American Express. RS Software India Ltd., started in 1987, focuses mainly on IBM architecture and systems. The company addresses niche segments like legacy code, conversions, maintenance, migration, re-engineering, and the financial services industry. It has recorded a turnover of R11.43 crore in the year ended March 31. (C.T. Mahabharat/19950620) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 06/20/95 IBM ****PC Expo - IBM Intros PowerPC Desktop, ThinkPad Models (NEWS)(IBM)(BOS)(00019) ****PC Expo - IBM Intros PowerPC Desktop, ThinkPad Models 06/20/95 NEW YORK, NEW YORK, U.S.A., 1995 JUN 20 (NB) -- IBM's new Power Series of PowerPC-based desktop and ThinkPad PCs -- set to feature a new "Human Centered Experience" interface and "Sensory Suite" software-based signal processing -- will run Windows NT, AIX, Solaris, and a new PowerPC Edition of OS/2 Warp Connect, officials said at a press conference attended by Newsbytes in New York City. Tony Santelli, general manager of IBM's Power Personal Systems, told an international gathering of journalists that IBM's latest PowerPC desktop models include the Power Series 830, which uses a PowerPC 604 microprocessor running at 100 megahertz (MHz), and the Power Series 850, which provides a choice of three PowerPC 604 PowerPC chips: 100MHz, 120MHz, and the newest 133MHz microprocessor. The new ThinkPad models, the ThinkPad Power Series 820 and ThinkPad Power Series 850, which was co-developed with Canon, are based on the PowerPC 603e processor, Santelli said. In a series of side-by-side comparisons, Santelli showed DMC's new Calamus desktop publishing application, in addition to a set of financial computations, claiming that both applications clocked twice as fast on the new 133MHz Power Series 850 as on a Pentium-based Compaq. The new desktop models and ThinkPad Series 850 will exploit the floating-point unit built into both the 604 and 603e processors with Sensory Suite, a set of software-based technologies aimed at eliminating the need for add-on hardware for tasks like speech recognition, audio and full-motion video, according to the general manager. Sensory Suite will include: speech dictation and command navigation based on IBM VoiceType technology; the IBM SoftMIDI Synthesizer for creating and playing back music; the IBM SoftMPEG (Motion Picture Experts Group) Decoder for viewing MPEG video/audio files; and the IBM Video CD Decoder for viewing MPEG video/audio files, he reported. During a product showcase that followed, Guy F. Verrier, manager of software development for PowerPC, and Roy Riha, software engineer, showed Newsbytes a prototype of the forthcoming Human-Centered Experience. Users will be able to select from an array of agent/actors that range from a robot to a "baby" named "Curley," to other "human" characters that include Karen, Charles, Woodrow, and Kincaid, Newsbytes was told. The actors will be able to "sleep," and will respond to requests to "wake up," as well as other spoken commands, Verrier maintained. IBM is calling this capability "conversational control of agents." Other speech recognition capabilities to be provided include voice dictation, navigation, and "audio voice synchronized to drawing," said the IBM manager. Shared whiteboarding will be another function of the Human- Centered Experience, Riha told Newsbytes. IBM plans to ship the interface later this year on OS/2 Warp and Windows NT, as a "free CD" for Power Series users, he revealed. Newsbytes also saw a prototype of one of the new Power Series notebooks. The demo copy featured a detachable video camera, along with the ability to run videoconferencing sessions at full-motion speed (30 frames-per-second) over T1 lines and at slower speeds over POTS (plain old telephone system). "You don't even need ISDN (integrated services digital network," contended Robert F. Peters, an IBM staffer in Multimedia Marketing Support. Peters also showed Newsbytes how the keyboard on the PowerPC notebooks flips up to reveal a modular slot which can be used for either a CD-ROM or floppy drive. Lee Reiswig, general manager of IBM's Personal Products Division, told the press the Power Series 830 (100MHz) and Power Series 850 (100/120MHz) will be available immediately with Windows NT Workstation, and on July 7 with the newly announced AIX 4.1.3, an "enhanced" version of AIX aimed at running existing AIX applications on the new Power Series models. The PowerSeries 850 (133MHz) and ThinkPad Power Series are slated to ship on July 24 with both Windows NT 3.5.1 and AIX 4.1.3, Reiswig said. The upcoming OS/2 Warp Connect (PowerPC Edition) will offer the same "broad connectivity" to LANs (local area networks), WANs (wide area networks), and the World Wide Web as its recently announced counterpart for x86 machines, he added. Availability of the PowerPC Edition is slated for the fourth quarter. The "maturity and robustness" of IBM's PowerPC, along with its support for multitasking and multithreading, were among the reasons why SunSoft decided to port Solaris to the Power Series, maintained Steve MacKay, VP and general manager of SunSoft's Solaris Product Group, also at the IBM press conference. Solaris for PowerPC is scheduled for availability in the first quarter of next year, according to MacKay. SunSoft is also offering an application development toolkit for the new edition of the operating system (OS), he pointed out. Windows NT and Power PC represent "an ideal match," due to the complementary nature of the two systems' 32-bit architectures, asserted Paul Maritz, Group VP of Microsoft's Platforms Group, also during the press event. In a Q&A session that followed, Rick Thoman, senior VP and group executive for IBM, said that the Power Series will "focus on the enterprise" first, before moving into the consumer arena. Irving Wladawsky-Berger, general manager of IBM's RISC System/6000 Division, said that "part of the reason" why the Mac OS is not yet available for IBM's PowerPCs is that PowerPC needs to be backward compatible with applications for previous editions of IBM and Apple operating systems. Apple will run IBM's OS/2 on the Macintosh PowerPC "when there is a common reference platform" for PowerPC," predicted Reiswig. (Jacqueline Emigh/19950620/Reader Contact: IBM, 914-765-1900; Press Contacts: J. Timothy Ohsann, IBM, 914-766-3764; Rich Guida, Brodeur & Partners for IBM, 914-697-0711; Pamela Preston, Technology Solutions for IBM, 212-696-2000) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 06/20/95 WINDOWS Acct Software For Microsoft Office Ships (NEWS)(WINDOWS)(DEN)(00020) Acct Software For Microsoft Office Ships 06/20/95 ENGLEWOOD, COLORADO, U.S.A., 1995 JUN 20 (NB) -- MTX International Inc. (NASDAQ: MTX1) has released version 2.1 of MTX Accounting for Microsoft Office. New features include a setup "wizard," bank reconciliation, performance improvements in the period end procedures, and increased reporting capabilities. MTX International points out that users familiar with Microsoft Office will find MTX Accounting familiar, since the program uses similar toolbars, menus, and commands. The software was developed using Microsoft Access, the same relational database management system (DBMS) that ships with the Professional version of Microsoft Office. The compatibility with Microsoft Office gives the user access to the electronic-mail, word processing, and spreadsheet functions of Office and lets you move information from MTX Accounting into an Excel spreadsheet for further analysis. Alternatively, you could create past-due letters to customers in Microsoft Word, also part of Office, and send them based on selection criteria from the Accounts Receivable module in MTX Accounting. You could also route those dunning letters or invoices to the credit manager for approval via Microsoft Mail. The Access foundation allows a knowledgeable user or a qualified consultant to modify the MTX Accounting package to meet the user's particular needs or add functions, if the source code is purchased. Source code module prices range from $195 to $895 depending on the module purchased. The setup wizard helps set up the account structure and the company profile during initial installation. MTX said the wizard can be extended or modified to install a chart of accounts specific to your type of business. The new bank reconciliation module allows the user to maintain checkbooks, track deposits, and reconcile checking accounts with bank statements. Deposits and check information are accessed automatically from the Accounts Receivable, Accounts Payable, and Payroll modules. Checkbook items can be entered, edited and printed. Stop payments and voided checks are also accepted by the system. The company said the performance enhancements in the Period End Procedures substantially reduce the processing time required to close an accounting period. According to MTX International, users will experience an 80 percent reduction in period closing time as measured by the company's benchmark testing. The upgrade also includes additional reporting and query capability, including some enhanced payroll reports. MTX Accounting includes General Ledger, Accounts Payable, Accounts Receivable, and Payroll, Billing and Inventory Control modules. MTX International spokesperson Christine Capazzi told Newsbytes a single-user version of the software has a suggested retail price of $695, or you can buy the GL, AP, and AR modules for $295 each. The PR module sells for $395, Itemized Billing for $195, and Repetitive Billing for $95. You can buy Inventory Flow & Sales Order and Inventory Flow & Purchase Order modules separately for $595 or the Inventory Flow bundle for $795. A $395 network module permits an unlimited number of users on a local area network (LAN). A test drive demo is available for $45. To run MTX Accounting you need at least a 486DX2 66 megahertz PC, a hard disk with a minimum of 25 megabytes (MB) of free space, and a minimum of 12MB of memory. MTX International also markets a support program called MTX Connect that provides one year of unlimited telephone support with a 2-4 hour response time, federal and state payroll tax updates whenever necessary during the year, an annual payroll tax table and W-2 formatting diskette, discounts on training, a quarterly newsletter, discounts on new version upgrades, and discounts on updates by mail. MTX connect has a single user annual price of $795, while the network version adds $395. (Jim Mallory/19950620/Press contact: Michael Mullin, MTX International, 303-790-1400; Public contact: MTX International, 303-790-1400 or 800-888-6894) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 06/20/95 GENERAL Speech-Recognition Firms Exchange Harsh Words (NEWS)(GENERAL)(TOR)(00021) Speech-Recognition Firms Exchange Harsh Words 06/20/95 NEWTON, MASSACHUSETTS, U.S.A., 1995 JUN 20 (NB) -- Dragon Systems Inc., and Toronto-based Kolvox Communications Inc. (Alberta:KOL), are engaged in a war of words over a licensing agreement for speech-recognition technology. Dragon announced early in June that it had ended a licensing agreement that let Kolvox use DragonDictate speech-recognition systems in its own products. Dragon said it ended the contract because Kolvox had failed to make certain payments and to comply with other conditions of the agreement. However, Kolvox's vice-president of sales and marketing, Kurt Lynn, told Newsbytes it was his company that ended the license agreement, because Dragon had failed to provide Kolvox with versions of the DragonDictate software that the deal obligated it to make available. These included a United Kingdom English version and a French version of the software, Lynn said. The licensing agreement called for Kolvox to make regular prepayments to Dragon, and Kolvox withheld its scheduled payment at the end of the first quarter of 1995 because of Dragon's failure to provide the required software, Lynn claimed. Kolvox then gave Dragon Systems notice of a breach of contract on April 28, after which Dragon gave Kolvox notice of breach for not making the payment. The companies held a series of meetings, Lynn said, but Dragon has only offered to renew the agreement without providing the disputed language versions of its software. Spokesman Chris Gardner of Dragon Systems told Newsbytes his company did not wish to comment beyond its initial statement on the matter. Dragon Systems said Kolvox no longer has the right to distribute products containing Dragon's technology, and has told Kolvox resellers it will accept Kolvox products containing Dragon's software in exchange for products of its own until August 4. However, Lynn said Kolvox has several thousand prepaid licenses for the Dragon software. The company is putting more emphasis on versions of its LawTalk and OfficeTalk software that incorporate speech-recognition technology from Kurzweil Applied Intelligence Inc. No lawsuit has been filed, Lynn said. "They're not suing us. We're not suing them." (Grant Buckler/19950620/Press Contact: Chris Gardner, Dragon Systems, 617-965-5200 ext. 348, Internet e-mail chris@dragonsys.com; Kurt Lynn, Kolvox, tel 416-218-3108, fax 416-218-3110) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 06/20/95 GOVT Justice Dept. Takes Closer Look At CA-Legent Deal (NEWS)(GOVT)(TOR)(00022) Justice Dept. Takes Closer Look At CA-Legent Deal 06/20/95 ISLANDIA, NEW YORK, U.S.A., 1995 JUN 20 (NB) -- The United States Justice Department has asked Computer Associates International Inc. (NYSE:CA) and Legent Corp. (NASDAQ:LGNT) for more information on their proposed merger. Though a CA spokesman called the request a "procedural step," it raises the possibility that antitrust regulators may question the multi-million-dollar takeover. CA announced May 25 that it would pay $47.95 per share for all outstanding shares of Legent's common stock, a price that is expected to put the total cost of the takeover in the area of $1.75 billion. Both companies are software manufacturers. For Computer Associates, the buyout seems to be another step toward reducing the company's reliance on its traditional mainframe software business and turning it into a major supplier of client/server software and systems management tools. Bob Gordon, a spokesman for Computer Associates, told Newsbytes his company does not know the details of the Justice Department's request yet, but will work with the government agency to provide what the regulators want. He said CA does not currently expect the request to delay the merger. CA's tender offer for Legent stock is slated to expire July 6, Gordon noted. The US Justice Department recently blocked Microsoft's (NASDAQ:MSFT) move to acquire Intuit Inc. (NASDAQ:INTU), which would have been worth slightly more than the CA-Legent deal. In a teleconference with reporters and industry analysts to discuss the Legent purchase a few days after the initial announcement in May, Charles Wang, chairman and chief executive of Computer Associates, said Legent's technology is "all very complementary to CA's products." And Jerre Stead, chairman and chief executive of Legent, maintained that "CA and Legent don't compete." Computer Associates had revenues of more than $2.6 billion in fiscal 1995, and has 7,600 employees in 33 countries. Its wide range of software products includes Unicenter systems management software for client/server computing as well as mainframe systems management products and applications for mainframe, midrange, and personal computers. Legent, established in 1989, has annual sales in the neighborhood of $500 million and employs about 2,500 people. The company makes software for managing distributed computing. (Grant Buckler/19950620/Press Contact: Douglas Robinson, Computer Associates, 516-342-2745; Bob Gordon, Computer Associates, 516-342-2391, fax 516-342-5329; Kathleen Janson, Legent, 703-708-3890) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 06/20/95 BUSINESS General Instrument Establishes New Business Unit (NEWS)(BUSINESS)(MSP)(00023) General Instrument Establishes New Business Unit 06/20/95 CHICAGO, ILLINOIS, U.S.A., 1995 JUN 20 (NB) -- Sweeping changes are imminent in the telecommunications industry, if last week's passage of the telecommunications bill in the Senate is any indication. To capitalize on new business opportunities created by new legislation, General Instrument Corporation (NYSE:GIC) said it will establish a strategic business unit (SBU) that will focus on systems and products for companies that want to get into two-way communications. Michael Ozburn, vice president of the new telecommunications SBU, told Newsbytes his new unit is not a direct response to last week's legislative action. "We've been thinking of targeting this area for a period of time," he said. The new SBU will deliver to this new market applications for video, multimedia, and transactional services for telephone, cable TV, and other company's existing customer bases. The company said initial two-way services will include multimedia home shopping, yellow pages, restaurant guides, and video games. Internet connections will also be provided. Later applications will involve CD-ROM on demand, which will give customers access to a CD-ROM library via a mouse click. "The telecommunications SBU is focused on the dual challenge of delivering two-way communications services over existing networks and developing future network solutions for expanding service offerings," said Richard S. Friedland, GI president and chief executive officer. Two of the key areas GI will specialize in are: delivering telephony solutions over hybrid fiber/coax networks (HFC), which would interest cable TV operators who want to carry two-way voice, video, and data services over their existing HFC networks; and fiber-in-the-loop (FITL) networks, which several regional Bell operating companies (RBOCs) have said interest them in the development of planned "video dialtone" networks. The new SBU will also develop PCLinX, a cable modem that will bring to the customer's PC high-speed data services from the cable network, Ozburn said. Ozburn said his company will use both existing technology and new developments to bring the new services literally home for the consumer. (Bob Woods/19950620/Press Contact: Karen Kane, General Instrument, 312-541-5011) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 06/20/95 TELECOM UK Telecom Numbering Scheme Still Flawed (NEWS)(TELECOM)(LON)(00024) UK Telecom Numbering Scheme Still Flawed 06/20/95 LONDON, ENGLAND, 1995 JUN 20 (NB) -- Reports are circulating that the UK's national numbering scheme, which changed dramatically in April of this year, is still in need of "rejigging." Matters came to a head late last week when Don Cruickshank, the director general of Oftel, the UK phone regulator, launched a new public consultation on the national numbering system for the UK. Despite the fact that the majority of UK phone numbers were given an extra digit on April 16 this year, Cruickshank admitted that a number of cities are still very short of numbers. Cruikshank has highlighted London, Reading, Belfast, Southampton, Portsmouth, and Cardiff as being at the greatest risk. The London situation was summed up by a spokesman for Mercury Communications, who had calculated that if the present rate of allocation of number blocks is continued, the capital will exhaust its entire supply of numbers by sometime in 1997. Newsbytes understands that Cruikshank wants to introduce a form of number rationing in areas where there are shortages, and intends to require telephone companies to re-issue old numbers to new customers as little as three months after the number is taken out of use by the previous customer. Cruikshank's agenda also includes moving most UK paging numbers from 01 areas codes to 04 codes, despite the fact that these numbers only changed to 01 codes two months ago, and withdrawing the "local" numbers currently allocated to the Hutchison Orange PCN (personal communications network) service Orange local numbers in the UK are used just like cellular numbers in the US, where a call is charged to the caller at the same rate as a landline call to that area, and the called party pays for the airtime element of the call. This contrasts with the majority of cellular calling numbers in the UK, where the caller is surcharged and the call recipient pays nothing to receive the calls. Oftel's plans still include the controversial "02" number scheme, which caused uproar when it was first proposed earlier this year. Under that scheme, there would be two (or more) codes for each location, and users have already indicated that they would find this confusing because when it would not always be obvious whether a number was in the "01" scheme or the "02" scheme. An example of this would be Reading, which used to have an 0734 area code. Under the April PhoneDay changes, this code changed to 01734, but under the "02" area code addition, a second area code for the same area -- 02734 -- would be introduced. Critics have pointed out that this system will mean people having to dial the full 11 digits (e.g. 02734-123456) to call across town or even in the same building or office. It would also lead to "01" numbers favoring businesses, with "02" codes being the poor relation, a situation that nobody wants. As part of its proposals to extend the life of the existing "01" scheme, Oftel proposes that, where necessary, the last digit of the area code should be transferred to become the first digit of the local number. Oftel claims this would mean that, in many cases, it would no longer be possible to provide recorded announcements for misdialed calls, based on the initial digits dialed. Other proposals to meet the increasing demand for numbers, include area code splits, and overlay codes, and a possible new eight-digit scheme for the London area. Some sources have suggested splitting London from two into four zones as far as area codes are concerned, while switching to eight digit working at the same time. British Telecom has already expressed in public its concern about the the proposals and is expected to join other phone companies in opposing them during the consultation period, which ends on August 25. (Newsbytes UK & Europe/19950620/Press & Reader Contact: Oftel, +44-171-634-8700) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 06/20/95 GOVT FCC Ups User Fees, Ask Congress For More (NEWS)(GOVT)(WAS)(00025) FCC Ups User Fees, Ask Congress For More 06/20/95 WASHINGTON, D.C., U.S.A., 1995 JUN 20 (NB) -- Under orders from Congress, the Federal Communications Commission has adopted new fees for fiscal 1995, which would nearly double the agency's fee revenues to $116.4 million from $60 million in 1994. Despite the fee increases, FCC Chairman Reed Hundt told a congressional panel his agency will need more from the taxpayers next year than the $186 million Congress provided this year. That's because of the new workload that will occur when Congress passes telecommunications reform legislation, Hundt said. The fee increases will be widespread, hitting local telephone companies, cable TV firms, and long-distance phone carriers. But fees for private radio services for boats and aircraft are going down. The FCC also closed a loophole by changing fees for mobile services from a per subscriber basis to a per unit basis. That change came after the commission learned that IBM and other large users had thousands of mobile units in service, but was paying as only one subscriber. In Congress, Reps. Jack Fields (R-Texas) and Ed Markey (D-Mass.) have proposed to freeze FCC appropriations at $186 million. House Speaker Newt Gingrich is pushing to cut the FCC and eventually eliminate it. But Hundt says he needs at least $193 million from Congress just to keep the agency at current levels for the fiscal year beginning October 1. If Congress passes telecommunications reform, as appears likely, then the workload will increase at the FCC, Hundt said. Under the measure passed by the House Commerce Committee, Hundt said, the FCC would have to increase its 2,200 staff by another 270 people. Supporters of telecommunications reform argue that increased competition will reduce the need for regulation and, thus, the FCC. "I want to assure you that, as competition actually emerges, the commission will be able to begin downsizing," Hundt told a House telecommunications subcommittee. "But no one can say exactly when that will be." The Clinton administration asked Congress for $223 million for the FCC for the coming fiscal year. Under that proposal, no additional employees would be hired and much of the new money would go to improving the agency's computer operations. (Kennedy Maize/19950620/Press Contact: Patricia Chew, 202-418-0500) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 06/20/95 TELECOM AT&T & Bechtel Work On Large Telecom Networks (NEWS)(TELECOM)(MSP)(00026) AT&T & Bechtel Work On Large Telecom Networks 06/20/95 MORRISTOWN, NEW JERSEY, U.S.A., 1995 JUN 20 (NB) -- AT&T (NYSE:T) Network Systems and Bechtel National Inc. (BNI) have announced they have inked an agreement that will let them work together to develop large-scale telecommunications networks worldwide. Both companies said the deal brings together AT&T's end-to-end, telecom networking expertise with BNI's program management and construction experience. Bill Lung, a BNI vice president and chief operations manager for the new alliance, said "We (BNI) are not normally the first name that comes to mind when you're talking about large telecommunications projects, whereas AT&T is. We believe the overall large program management capabilities, combined with AT&T's name, provides us with that credibility in telecommunications." AT&T and BNI will combine their program management experts into teams, to manage and construct certain complex infrastructure projects. "Any large, or mega-tele projects, especially those that have infrastructure involved, would be a prime candidate" for this alliance, Lung said. Telephone companies, cable companies, and other interests building full-service broadband networks and wireless networks would benefit from the new alliance, Lung added. The joint AT&T/BNI teams will work together on aspects like program management, contract administration, and construction. The initial focus of the alliance will be on managing certain large contracts AT&T has won over the past three years, like Pacific Bell's broadband network. Lung wouldn't comment on specific projects coming in the near future, except to say negotiations are underway with other companies. Lung also said with an increase in the amount of telecommunications deregulation around the world, he expected some of the resulting work from the loosening of laws would come the alliance's way. The two companies first got together in 1992, in a consulting services relationship. (Bob Woods/19950620/Press Contacts: Bill Price, AT&T Network Systems, 201-606-2978; Mike Kidder, Bechtel Corp, 415-768-5902) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 06/20/95 PC PC Expo - Canon Intros PowerPC Notebook, Desktops (NEWS)(PC)(BOS)(00027) PC Expo - Canon Intros PowerPC Notebook, Desktops 06/20/95 NEW YORK, NEW YORK, U.S.A., 1995 JUN 20 (NB) -- At a New York City press briefing held in parallel with IBM's announcement of its new Power Series, Canon unveiled its own set of PowerPC-based models, including ThinkPads co-developed with IBM, and desktop workstations with dual-processing, videoconferencing, and PCI (Peripheral Component Interconnect) bus capabilities. Canon's new PowerPCs include the 603e microprocessor-based Canon PN-100 Power Notebook and the "highly expandable," PowerPC 604- based Canon Power Workstations, said Dale Fuller, director of marketing, speaking at the briefing, which was attended by Newsbytes. In addition to selling PowerPCs under its own brand name, Canon will also produce PowerPCs on an OEM (original equipment manufacturer) basis for IPC, and intends to manufacture PowerPCs for about 10 other vendors as well, Fuller revealed, during a meeting with Newsbytes at the Canon event. The arrangement with IPC is being handled through Firepower, noted the Canon exec. Canon will not manufacture the new notebook for other PC makers, though, Fuller reported. "We're keeping that to ourselves," he said. In addition, Canon will not include all of the features of its own PowerPC Workstation desktop models in the editions to be produced for other vendors, according to the marketing director. Capabilities that will remain with Canon -- for the present, at least -- include symmetrical multiprocessing (SMP), on-board video, and quad-speed CD-ROM, he added. Fuller also told Newsbytes that, in the jointly developed PowerPC notebooks, Canon contributed the "miniaturized" printed circuit board (PCB) design. For its part, IBM produced the screen, keyboard, and "plug-in components," he maintained. IBM's new IBM ThinkPad Power Series 820 is "exactly the same" as Canon's PN-100 Power Notebook, according to the Canon exec. Canon's new PowerPC notebooks and desktop each run Windows NT, he said. Like the new ThinkPad, the Canon notebook provides a keyboard that flips back to reveal a slot that can accommodate either a floppy drive or internal double-speed CD-ROM drive. Other capabilities of the Canon and IBM notebooks include: a Fast SCSI (small computer systems interface)-2 interface; a PCMCIA (Personal Computer Memory Card International Association) slot supporting either two Type II cards or one Type III card; an integrated trackball; an NiMH battery with battery management software; a 256 kilobyte (KB) L2 cache; one megabyte (NB) video random access memory (VRAM); and 16-bit digital stereo. The new notebooks also provide an active matrix color liquid crystal display (LCD), and a video-out port to support an external cathode ray tube (CRT) display. Like IBM's new Power Series of desktop workstations, the new Canon Power Workstations are available with 100, 120, and 133 megahertz (MHz) PowerPC 604 microprocessors, although the Canon machines constitute a different desktop family, according to Fuller. Canon's new single-processor PW-100 incorporates the 100MHz PowerPC microprocessor, and provides 16MB of memory, plus a 540MB Fast SCSI-2 drive. Canon's new PW-100d is the PW-100's dual-processor counterpart. Other members of the new Canon family include: the 100MHz-based PW- 100e, which comes with full-motion video and other "enhanced features;" the PW-120 single-processor and PW-120d dual-processor machines, which offer the 120MHz PowerPC chip; and the PW-130 single-processor and PW-130d dual-processor models, based on the 133MHz chip. Canon's workstations, which are slated to ship in the third quarter, also come with built-in videoconferencing and video compression software, for one-way and two-way videoconferencing without add-in boards, Fuller told Newsbytes. The workstations also provide: four expansion slots; four drive bays; memory expandable to up to 256MB; up to four gigabytes (GB) of storage; up to 512KB L2 cache; 4MB of VRAM; and a 64-bit-wide memory bus for video capture, with 2MB of VRAM for full-motion video. Other capabilities include "fully integrated sound;" a 17- or 21- inch color monitor; and PCI-based Fast SCSI-2 and 10BaseT Ethernet. Pricing will start at $3,499. (Jacqueline Emigh/19950620/Reader Contact: Canon, 714-438-3099; Press Contacts: Barbara Hagin, Technology Solutions for Canon; Jun- ichi Tamano, Canon, 03-3758-2111; Lisa Larkin, CCSI, 503-614-5131) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 06/20/95 ONLINE ****America Online Offers Member Web Pages & "Road Trips" (NEWS)(ONLINE)(SFO)(00028) ****America Online Offers Member Web Pages & "Road Trips" 06/20/95 VIENNA, VIRGINIA, U.S.A., 1995 JUN 20 (NB) -- America Online (NASDAQ:AMER) announced "My Home Page" and "My Place" as new features which allow members to design and publish World Wide Web pages. The online service provider also announced Road Trips, a member-driven, split-screen feature allowing members to take a group of 25 members on an AOL/Web "tour." America Online (AOL) says My Home Page offers members the tools they need to create a Web home page filled with text, photos, graphics, and hyperlinks to favorite Web sites. My Place is the actual two megabyte (MB) allotment of space for each members Web page. AOL says the 2MB space allows users to have 25 to 40 Web pages. An AOL spokesperson told Newsbytes, "We think the opportunity for members to create their own Web page is a great way to introduce people to the Web. They have the chance to learn exactly how it works and why it is so popular." Available this July, the two new features will be free to all AOL members. Additionally, each member has five My Places per account. Participating members will have their own Web address. To assist members in the development of their home page, AOL provides its members a means to digitize pictures through PicturePlace. Members can send pictures to PicturePlace and the company will return a digitized version of the picture through electronic-mail. Members will then download the digital file and be able to add it to their home page. Regarding the other new feature, Road Trips, the AOL spokesperson said, "This area will be a very useful tool for some and a very fun experience for others. A typical example, would be a teacher who wants to take a group of students on an educational tour of certain Web sites. The group will gather in a pre-determined private chat room and then begin viewing different areas in AOL or on the Internet. A split-screen of the chat dialogue and the specific tour area allow users to talk about what they are viewing." Road Trips is scheduled to be available later this month and will be free to all AOL members. The organizing member creates an online form describing the tour destinations and can invite as many as 23 people. All members will view the same destination at the same time and be able comment on the "experience" in a separate window. (Patrick McKenna/19950620/Press Contact: Pam McGraw, America Online, 703-556-3646) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 06/20/95 WINDOWS ****PC Expo - PC Magazine Offers Windows 95 Sneak Preview (NEWS)(WINDOWS)(BOS)(00029) ****PC Expo - PC Magazine Offers Windows 95 Sneak Preview 06/20/95 NEW YORK, NEW YORK, U.S.A., 1995 JUN 20 (NB) -- Lotus's Freelance, Micrografx's Picture Publisher, Blue Sky's WinHelp '95 Kit, and Mediatrends' Unified Messaging System (UMS), were just a few of the upcoming Windows 95 applications unveiled by dozens of vendors in a sneak preview held at the PC Magazine Lab in New York City, and attended by Newsbytes. Other products demo'd at the pre-PC Expo event ran the gamut from Borland C++ and Delphi, to Computer Associates' CA-Realizer and Corel's CorelDraw. Although the software shared Windows 95 in common, the vendors seemed to be coming to the new platform from just about every conceivable direction. UMS, a program designed to "extend" Microsoft's new TAPI (telephony application programming interface), is the first product for Concord, Massachusetts-based Mediatrends, said Andrew L. Cabot, director of business development. Many of the other products on display, such as the long-standing Freelance and Picture Publisher, are being ported to Windows 95 from other operating environments. Blue Sky's new product aims to assist developers to do just that, according to Marilyn Guarino, a company representative. The futuristic PC Magazine Labs, ordinarily the site of product testing, took on the atmosphere of a miniature trade show last night, as the magazine's customers and other associates gathered to gain an early look at software releases on the horizon for later this year. In one corner of the glass-enclosed room, Guarino showed the attendees how WinHelp can save time on the otherwise "time- consuming" chore of porting a help system from Windows 3.1. A few feet away, in the Micrografx booth, Grant Wickes, VP of product development, and Darryl D. Worsham, product manager, were telling attendees how they could preview Picture Publisher 6.0 on a CD-ROM disk. On the other side of the laboratory, Cabot explained how UMS "extends" Windows 95 by adding capabilities such as call transfer and call conferencing to the computer/telephone interface. Other vendors showing products at the Sneak Preview included Arcland Inc., Claris Corp., Stac, Delrina, AEC Software, 3-D Eye, ATI Tech, CompuServe, Elan Software, Microcom, Persoft, and Kidasa Software. Also on hand were Autodesk, Philippe Kahn's new Starfish Software, Questar Inc., Softkey International, Software Publishing, Matrox Graphics, Symantec, Visual Software, IBM/Lotus, Traveling Software, Artisoft, Citrix Systems, Visio Corp., and MobileWare. (Jacqueline Emigh/19950620/Reader and Press Contact: PC Magazine, 212-503-5255) (SUMMARY)(GENERAL)(SFO)(00030) Newsbytes Daily Summary 06/20/95 PENN VALLEY, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1995 JUN 20 (NB) -- These are capsules of all today's news stories: 1 -> Digital Destinations Intros Japanese Guide 06/20/95 Start-up Digital Destinations has announced release of its first product, an electronic reference guide to Japan. The product contains information about Japan and the Japanese, including their origins, economy and culture. 2 -> Digital Computer Inventor John Vincent Dies 06/20/95 John Vincent Atanasoff, inventor of the first electronic digital computer, died at his home near New Market, Md., last Thursday of a stroke. He was 91. 3 -> NetNoir Online "Cybergateway To Afrocentric Culture" 06/20/95 Yesterday was "Juneteenth," a day that commemorated the day in 1865 when slaves in West South Central states first learned about the Emancipation Proclamation, nearly two and a half years after it was first issued. Yesterday also marked the opening of "NetNoir Online" on America Online (AOL), a place where distributing information on Afrocentric culture happens much more quickly than in 1865. 4 -> European Commission Changes Stance On Digital TV 06/20/95 The European Commission (EC), following an embarrassment a few years ago in its pursuance of digital TV standards for broadcasters, which eventually resulted in a climbdown over high definition TV (HDTV) technology, has issued a warning to satellite broadcasters that it will allow an open market for digital TV technology. However, the EC has instructed broadcasters than they must not "abuse their position." 5 -> AT&T Intros Multimedia Software For Windows NT 06/20/95 AT&T (NYSE:T) said it has added a version of its Multimedia Designer software that runs on Microsoft's (NASDAQ:MSFT) Windows NT operating system. 6 -> Compaq Intros New Contura Notebooks 06/20/95 Compaq Computer Corp. (NYSE: CPQ) has announced a new line of Contura 400 notebook computers with faster microprocessors, higher-capacity hard drives, an optical trackball and PCMCIA (Personal Computer Memory Card International Association) card slots. 7 -> Editorial - Censorship...And Stupidity 06/20/95 By Kennedy Maize. Censorship. That's the right word to use to describe what the US Senate had in mind when it adopted the anti-smut amendment last week sponsored by Sen. James Exon and Dan Coats. 8 -> UK's Pipex Takes Equity In Foreign Internet Firms 06/20/96 Pipex, the UK's major Internet service provider, has taken an equity stake in three international service providers. 9 -> UK - Motorola's "Quick & Easy" Internet Starter Kit 06/20/95 Motorola has become the latest modem manufacturer to release an "all in" Internet starter kit onto the UK market. The difference is that Motorola is viewed as a high-end modem supplier, which makes the release of the package at UKP199, which includes a V.34 (28,800 bits-per-second) modem all the more surprising. 10 -> Microsoft Offers New Support Pricing 06/20/95 Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ: MSFT) has announced changes in its support policies that raise the cost of getting answers about the company's operating system software. 11 -> UK - IBM Intros Internet Connectivity Products 06/20/95 IBM has unveiled a wide portfolio of Internet products, software and services that it claims shows the company's intention to be a "significant global force" in the field of the Internet. 12 -> UK - Kyocera Says Apple Printer Running Costs High 06/20/95 Kyocera, the producer of the "lowest-cost-to-run" Ecosys laser printer, has launched a blistering attack on Apple for its "environmentally friendly" remanufacturer toner cartridges, on the basis that they are still three times the cost of those from Kyocera. 13 -> Apple Intros 2 Printers 06/20/95 Apple Computer Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) has announced the availability of its new Color LaserWriter 12/600 PS and a portable color inkjet which fits in a briefcase. The company also introduced an enhanced Color StyleWriter 2400 and a $929 price for it monochrome Personal Laser Writer. 14 -> MSI Intros WinDelete 2.0 For Windows 06/20/95 IMSI (NASDAQ:IMSI) has introduced WinDelete version 2.0 for Windows, an application deinstaller. The upgrade adds the feature of being able to deinstall all applications for Windows, not just those installed with WinDelete. 15 -> Hong Kong - Local Online Financial Service Launched 06/20/95 Leading local financial newspaper The Hong Kong Economic Times has launched an online financial information service aimed at the local market. 16 -> Hutchison Launches Hong Kong GSM Network 06/20/95 Hutchison Telephone, a subsidiary of Hutchison Telecommunications, has switched on its global system for mobile communications (GSM) digital network in Hong Kong. 17 -> Compaq Expands In South China 06/20/95 After putting its three service centers into operation in Guangzhou at the end of last month, Compaq now plans to open a Guangzhou representative office to expand its PC sales in South China. 18 -> India News Roundup 06/20/95 In this roundup of news from India: Indian business info on international network, Oracle plans Joint Product Development, Morgan Stanley's Offshore Project with Calcutta SW Firm. 19 -> ****PC Expo - IBM Intros PowerPC Desktop, ThinkPad Models 06/20/95 IBM's new Power Series of PowerPC-based desktop and ThinkPad PCs -- set to feature a new "Human Centered Experience" interface and "Sensory Suite" software-based signal processing -- will run Windows NT, AIX, Solaris, and a new PowerPC Edition of OS/2 Warp Connect, officials said at a press conference attended by Newsbytes in New York City. 20 -> Acct Software For Microsoft Office Ships 06/20/95 MTX International Inc. (NASDAQ: MTX1) has released version 2.1 of MTX Accounting for Microsoft Office. New features include a setup "wizard," bank reconciliation, performance improvements in the period end procedures, and increased reporting capabilities. 21 -> Speech-Recognition Firms Exchange Harsh Words 06/20/95 Dragon Systems Inc., and Toronto-based Kolvox Communications Inc. (Alberta:KOL), are engaged in a war of words over a licensing agreement for speech-recognition technology. 22 -> Justice Dept. Takes Closer Look At CA-Legent Deal 06/20/95 The United States Justice Department has asked Computer Associates International Inc. (NYSE:CA) and Legent Corp. (NASDAQ:LGNT) for more information on their proposed merger. Though a CA spokesman called the request a "procedural step," it raises the possibility that antitrust regulators may question the multi-million-dollar takeover. 23 -> General Instrument Establishes New Business Unit 06/20/95 Sweeping changes are imminent in the telecommunications industry, if last week's passage of the telecommunications bill in the Senate is any indication. To capitalize on new business opportunities created by new legislation, General Instrument Corporation (NYSE:GIC) said it will establish a strategic business unit (SBU) that will focus on systems and products for companies that want to get into two-way communications. 24 -> UK Telecom Numbering Scheme Still Flawed 06/20/95 Reports are circulating that the UK's national numbering scheme, which changed dramatically in April of this year, is still in need of "rejigging." Matters came to a head late last week when Don Cruickshank, the director general of Oftel, the UK phone regulator, launched a new public consultation on the national numbering system for the UK. 25 -> FCC Ups User Fees, Ask Congress For More 06/20/95 Under orders from Congress, the Federal Communications Commission has adopted new fees for fiscal 1995, which would nearly double the agency's fee revenues to $116.4 million from $60 million in 1994. 26 -> AT&T & Bechtel Work On Large Telecom Networks 06/20/95 AT&T (NYSE:T) Network Systems and Bechtel National Inc. (BNI) have announced they have inked an agreement that will let them work together to develop large-scale telecommunications networks worldwide. Both companies said the deal brings together AT&T's end-to-end, telecom networking expertise with BNI's program management and construction experience. 27 -> PC Expo - Canon Intros PowerPC Notebook, Desktops 06/20/95 At a New York City press briefing held in parallel with IBM's announcement of its new Power Series, Canon unveiled its own set of PowerPC-based models, including ThinkPads co-developed with IBM, and desktop workstations with dual-processing, videoconferencing, and PCI (Peripheral Component Interconnect) bus capabilities. 28 -> ****America Online Offers Member Web Pages & "Road Trips" 06/20/95 America Online (NASDAQ:AMER) announced "My Home Page" and "My Place" as new features which allow members to design and publish World Wide Web pages. The online service provider also announced Road Trips, a member-driven, split-screen feature allowing members to take a group of 25 members on an AOL/Web "tour." 29 -> ****PC Expo - PC Magazine Offers Windows 95 Sneak Preview 06/20/95 Lotus's Freelance, Micrografx's Picture Publisher, Blue Sky's WinHelp '95 Kit, and Mediatrends' Unified Messaging System (UMS), were just a few of the upcoming Windows 95 applications unveiled by dozens of vendors in a sneak preview held at the PC Magazine Lab in New York City, and attended by Newsbytes. (Ian Stokell/19950620) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 06/19/95 GOVT Multimedia Institute Planned For Canadian Museum (NEWS)(GOVT)(TOR)(00001) Multimedia Institute Planned For Canadian Museum 06/19/95 HULL, QUEBEC, CANADA, 1995 JUN 19 (NB) -- Backed by the federal government, the Province of Quebec, and private companies including Digital Equipment Corp. (NYSE:DEC), a National Multimedia Institute is to open at the Canadian Museum of Civilization this fall. Its backers described the institute as a forum where content providers, companies, and governments can find ways of using the so-called information highway and taking advantage of new media. It will take advantage of its location in a museum to gather input from the public through a "hands-on technology sandbox" where companies will be able to test their applications. Visitors will be observed and perhaps questioned about their reactions to the products. The government of Canada is to contribute C$1.5 million, and the government of Quebec C$1.75 million, to help set up the institute. Digital Equipment and its private sector partners, which currently include Digital Renaissance of Toronto and ToonBoom of Montreal, will put in C$11.75 million over the center's first three years of operation. The institute is expected to support itself as a commercial venture by the end of its third year, its general manager, Marc Caron, told Newsbytes. The benefit the federal and Quebec governments get for their support will be promotion of Canadian and Quebec content on the information highway, he said. While masses of raw content exist, Caron went on, companies need help in converting it to interactive, digital form. Within five years, its backers claim, the institute will create 25 specialized jobs, mainly in multimedia design and high technology, and invest some C$5 million in equipment. The institute is to be a resource center for multimedia developers and a "catalyst" to bring together isolated multimedia-related projects. Organizers said they plan alliances and partnerships with key organizations and companies, and will do joint research on human interfaces for multimedia with universities and colleges as well as the private sector. Digital Equipment said it plans to set up other such media centers elsewhere in North America and in Asia and Europe. Digital opened its first multimedia center in Tarrytown, New York, in November, 1994. (Grant Buckler/19950615/Press Contact: Marc Caron, National Multimedia Institute, 613-723-3684; Roger Horine, Digital Equipment, 508-841-2609) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 06/19/95 PC Europe - NEC Intros PowerMate V PCs (NEWS)(PC)(LON)(00002) Europe - NEC Intros PowerMate V PCs 06/19/95 LONDON, ENGLAND, 1995 JUN 19 (NB) -- NEC has announced the launch of its high performance PowerMate V series. The PowerMate V366 and the VP75 are initially available in Europe. According to NEC, the new range has been specifically developed to address the needs of professional users within the corporate and business marketplace. The VP75 is the flagship of the new range and is based on a 75 megahertz (MHz) Pentium chipset and costs UKP1,395. The machine comes with eight megabytes (MB) of memory (expandable to 128MB internally), 1MB of VRAM (expandable to 2MB internally), and a 540MB hard disk. The V66, meanwhile, is based on a 66MHz 80486DX2 processor and prices in at UKP1,095. Specifications are the same as the VP75, except that the 8MB of memory is expandable only to 64MB internally. Both machines feature a PCI (Peripheral Component Interconnect) bus which supports high performance graphics in addition to the enhanced IDE (Integrated Drive Electronics) drive interface to ensure high-speed data transfer from the disk drive. According to Steve Finnemore, head of NEC's PC Division, the new machines are ideally suited for users planning to move to Windows '95, and come equipped with "Plug & Play" support, as well as power-saving features such as "suspend/resume" and Energy Star-compliance. Additional features on the new machines include a number of device bays and four expansion slots. (Steve Gold/19950615/Press Contact: Sam Baxter, Words PR, +44-171-938-4746; Reader Contact: NEC PC, +44-181-993-8111) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 06/19/95 TRENDS Fixed & Mobile Telecoms Markets Converging - Report (NEWS)(TRENDS)(LON)(00003) Fixed & Mobile Telecoms Markets Converging - Report 06/19/95 LONDON, ENGLAND, 1995 JUN 19 (NB) -- "The prospect of increased liberalization in telecom markets throughout the world is kick- starting the market for fixed and mobile convergent services," claims Mari Vahanissi, co-author of a new report from Ovum, called "Fixed and Mobile Networks: the Business Opportunity for Convergent Services." According to Vahanissi, at present, convergent services are only available in the UK, Sweden, Finland, and US. However, the market for voice services will be liberalized across Europe in 1988 (the date when the European Commission has decreed), and this is causing fierce activity as a large number of companies start to jostle for a share of the telecoms pie. According to the report, convergent services will be offered by existing network operators -- existing mobile operators will be able to exploit convergent services more quickly than the fixed network operators. Many mobile networks, the report claims, already operate an intelligent network architecture to keep track of their customers. Fixed network operators, meanwhile, are threatened, the report notes, by the high growth rates on mobile networks, and developing their networks to support mobility services as a result. The report cites the example of Telecom Finland, which is already offering a "one number" service for call-forwarding. Similarly, US operators such as Bell Atlantic and Nynex are offering call-forwarding services. The report concludes that, as the regulatory environment becomes less restrictive, fixed network operators that already have a mobile subsidiary will be able to exploit the profitability of the marketplace. Convergent services will also be offered, the report notes, by new entrants, such as cable TV companies. Changes in telecoms regulation will offer significant opportunities to new entrants and service providers who are at present banned from offering services, the report notes. "Fixed and Mobile Networks: the Business Opportunity for Convergent Service: is available from Ovum for UKP1,195 in Europe, AUS$2,895 in Australia, and US$2,220 for the rest of the world. (Steve Gold/19950615/Press Contact: Jenny Morales, Ovum, tel +44-171-312-7258, fax +44-171-255-1995, Internet e-mail jhb@ovum.mhs,compuserve.com; Reader Contact: Ovum, tel +44-171-255-2670, fax +44-171-255-1995, Internet e-mail info@ovum.mhs.compuserve.com) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 06/19/95 TRENDS IBM Says Multimedia To Transform Business (NEWS)(TRENDS)(LON)(00004) IBM Says Multimedia To Transform Business 06/19/95 PORTSMOUTH, HAMPSHIRE, ENGLAND, 1995 JUN 19 (NB) -- IBM has published a paper covering the future of multimedia. Entitled "Enterprise Multimedia Servers -- The Movie Guide," the report claims that there is strong evidence to suggest that multimedia will "radically redefine the way business is done." According to Arthur Parker, IBM UK's enterprise systems director, the report explodes the myth that multimedia is only for games and PCs, once and for all. "It's clear that effective exploitation of multimedia technology is a major opportunity to deliver both improved customer service and business competitive advantage," he claims. According to Parker, the potential impact of multimedia on business can be compared with that of the computer terminal and online access, which "radically redefined the clerical and administrative tasks within business." he continued: "The benefits of enterprise multimedia will be on a similar scale and will transform both business efficiency and effectiveness." IBM claims that the paper demonstrates that tomorrow's successful organizations will rely on information-intensive computer applications even more than they do today. Using real business case studies, the report is billed as showing that new multimedia applications are already delivering information in a variety of radical new ways. The study highlights that, when text, graphics, images, audio, and video information are combined, they significantly increase the value and impact of the information. When it is then widely distributed to employees throughout the organizations, and to customers and consumers beyond, it results in faster, more effective communication. Co-author and information technology (IT) consultant Charles Adams, commenting about the report, explained that, in order to successfully integrate new media types, it is necessary to introduce a new client/server implementation and infrastructure. "Multimedia extends the open client/server platforms by adding a variety of new digital media types to the structured data of the past," he said. Adams cites examples of this by suggesting that multimedia will extend online business user access to all the new digital media types within the enterprise. He also predicts that current users of enterprise IR applications will be extended through interactive multimedia to customers and even the public at large. Applications addressing both these areas are described in the paper, together with current and visionary examples. According to Adams, today's initiatives in workflow and image are put in the context of steps extending online business user access to all the new digital media. "However, the true business potential of multimedia, as a new channel to new markets, is shown to come from exploitation of interactive user interfaces available with the new multimedia techniques," the report notes. Despite the wealth of information that the report contains, Newsbytes was surprised to learn that it is available free of charge to any interested party. Anyone wishing to receive a copy of the report should contact IBM's Enterprise Systems Response Center at +44-181-575-7700 (phone), or +44-181-575-1393 (fax). (Steve Gold/19950615/Press Contact: Lorna Campbell, IBM UK, +44-1844-338145) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 06/19/95 GENERAL Database World - InSync Previews Passport 8. (NEWS)(GENERAL)(BOS)(00005) Database World - InSync Previews Passport 8.0 06/19/95 BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS, U.S.A., 1995 JUN 19 (NB) -- InSync Software's upcoming Passport 8.0 will add "dynamic partitioning" and a SQL (structured query language) event handler system, two features aimed at allowing development of streamlined applications, said Alan Tonnesen, company president, in a sneak preview for Newsbytes at Database World. Many ISVs (independent software vendors), VARs (value-added resellers), and corporate developers are now moving to partitioning in an effort to reduce network congestion, Tonnesen told Newsbytes. But most application development environments that support partitioning provide "functional, physical partitioning," in which the code must reside on the target environment, he reported. Passport 8.0, in contrast, will support "true dynamic partitioning," permitting the developer to determine at runtime which parts of the application will run on the clients and which on the servers, Tonnesen said. "Functional, physical partitioning" can defeat the purpose of partitioning, he contended. In an effort to overcome the problem of "fat clients" clogging up local area networks (LANs), other makers of software toolkits may be inadvertently creating another situation: "fat servers," where too many objects reside on the server, he illustrated. The new version of Passport, which will be officially unveiled on June 19, gives the developer control over partitioning through "incremental compilation of objects, along with their contents, at runtime," according to the InSync president. In the event that an application has been created with too many objects on the server, the developer can either add more memory, or "re-partition" the application so as to add another server, Newsbytes was told. "And if a server does go down, it will automatically reconfigure itself as a client," Tonnesen noted. The new SQL events handler in Passport 8.0 will reduce the size of applications by another 35 percent, according to Tonnesen. "That's better than what you get from partitioning," he maintained. The partitioning capability supports asynchronous messaging and publish-and-subscribe middleware, as well as RPCs (remote procedural calls). Passport 8.0 is designed for developing both two-tier applications, in which processing logic resides on the client, and three-tier applications, in which processing logic resides "wherever it works best," according to the company chief. The application development environment combines a visual toolset with a "truly object-oriented 4GL (fourth generation language)," he added. Unlike C++ environments such as Forte, which are aimed at developers trained in C, Passport is geared to developers who have used COBOL for "business programming," Tonnesen said. C++ tools are based on an "inflexible, top-down hierarchical model," he elaborated. In contrast, Passport relies on a model that utilizes relational tables for "much greater ease of use," Newsbytes was told. End users can utilize Passport to customize their own interfaces, Tonnesen said. In addition, end users often work with developers on collaborative application development. In another improvement, Passport 8.0 eliminates the requirement, present in previous versions of the product, for two different toolsets: one for the end user/departmental level, and the other for the enterprise. The new release also adds: a repository browser, for easier re-use of objects; a visual SQL editor, for editing and managing SQL objects; and a RAD tool that is "completely iterative," allowing developers to save an "emerging application" and then return to the Passport environment later, with all their changes intact, he said. Until now, InSync has been 100 percent privately funded, according to Tonnesen. The company has spent $700,000 on Passport development, in contrast to $40 million for Forte, for example, he added. "And our product is still more capable," he asserted. But InSync is about to receive major venture capital funding, according to Jack Schwartz, VP of finance, who was also present at the meeting with Newsbytes. "We're going to use the money for promoting Passport," Tonnesen told Newsbytes. Two-tier Passport is priced at $3,995 per developer seat, and has no runtime fee. Three-tier Passport is $4,995, with an average per seat user fee of $400 per user. Passport runs on Windows 3.1, Unix/Motif, and DEC VAX/VMS. Support for Windows 95 and OS/2 PM is planned for later this year. (Jacqueline Emigh/19950616/Reader Contact: InSync Software, 516- 981-3000; Press Contacts: Christine Sheroff, Sheroff & Associates for InSync, 508-429-0801; Cynthia Roeth, InSync, 516-981-3000) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 06/19/95 GENERAL Personnel Roundup (NEWS)(GENERAL)(SFO)(00006) Personnel Roundup 06/19/95 PENN VALLEY, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1995 JUN 19 (NB) -- This is a regular feature, summarizing personnel changes not covered elsewhere by Newsbytes: Ingram Micro, Dell Computer Corp., Ziff-Davis Publishing Co., Minnesota Software Association, SyQuest Technology, Convex Computer Corp., Silicon Graphics Inc., VeriFone Inc., Digital Equipment Corp., Oracle Corp. E. Bronson Ingram, billionaire industrialist, and chairman, chief executive, and 80 percent owner of computer-products distributor Ingram Micro, has died of cancer at the age of 63. Ingram Micro co-chairman and chief executive Linwood A. "Chip" Lacy Jr., has been named president of Ingram Industries. Dell Computer Corporation (NASDAQ:DELL - 512-728-4100) announced that it has reorganized its information systems group as a result of the company's ongoing evolution to a regional management structure. Tom Thomas, chief information officer, has resigned from the company to pursue other interests. Ziff-Davis Publishing Company (617-393-3013) has appointed three executives to positions in marketing and development. Janet Ryan is being promoted to the newly created position of vice president, Alliance Marketing. Tom Thompson has been named vice president, Business Development. Mark Van Name is being promoted to the newly created position of vice president, Product Testing. The Minnesota Software Association (612-338-4631), a group of nearly 400 member companies, has named a new chairman of the board and added three new board members. The new chairman of the board for the MSA is Tom Kieffer, founder and chief executive officer (CEO) of Edina-based Connect. Kieffer officially takes over as chairman on July 1 when he succeeds Ken Holec, president of ShowCase Software. The new board members, who will also begin their duties on July 1, are: Ansula Liu, chairman of the board and CEO for Emphasys Inc; John Arlandson, director and president of QDC; and Dee Thibodeau, president of EDI Solutions. Randy Peterson, 45, has been named vice president of product marketing for SyQuest Technology (NASDAQ:SYQT - 510-226-5358). Peterson, who spent a decade with Compaq Computer in various senior level marketing positions, will be responsible for product strategy development at SyQuest. Peterson will report to David Everett, SyQuest's executive vice president of sales and marketing. Dirk Pfeiffer has been named the new director of alternate channels for Convex Computer Corporation (NYSE:CNX - 214-497-3061). In the position, Pfeiffer will be responsible for the business development of the Convex/Hewlett-Packard relationship worldwide. He will report to Chuck Harris, Convex vice president of marketing. Pfeiffer was previously worldwide sales and marketing director of the oil and gas industry, for SAP AG, a German based software manufacturer. Cindy Reese has been named to the position of vice president of worldwide materials, Integrated Manufacturing Solutions Division of Silicon Graphics Inc. (NYSE: SGI - 415-390-5255). In the newly created position, Reese will be responsible for managing worldwide materials planning and procurement, international supplier relationships, and worldwide subcontracting. Reese will continue to report to Steve Goggiano, executive vice president of the division. R. Elton White, 53, has been appointed to the board of directors of VeriFone Inc. (NASDAQ:VFIC - 415-696-8823). Currently an independent business consultant, White spent 27 years with NCR Corporation, serving as president from 1991 to 1994. Digital Equipment Corporation (NYSE: DEC - 301-918-5591) has appointed James Mobley the new vice president for the ABU's Southeastern Region. The ABU is the unit of Digital that services the corporation's approximately 1,000 largest customers worldwide. Mobley has been an accounts sales manager for Digital in south Texas and Louisiana for the last year. Prior to joining Digital, Mobley held a succession of sales and executive management positions at IBM. In other DEC news, Jan Smith has been appointed vice president of its Systems Business Unit (SBU) for the Southeastern Region. The SBU is the business unit of Digital that sells workstations, servers, and network software. Smith, a seventeen-year veteran of Digital, previously was the company's Southern Area Channels Sales manager responsible for SBU indirect sales channels in a thirteen-state region. Joel G. Summers has been appointed to the position of vice president of human resource management system development at Oracle Corp. (415-506-9364). He reports to Ron Wohl, senior vice president of Oracle's Applications Division. He was previously vice president of R&D for Integral Systems Inc. (Ian Stokell/19950616) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 06/19/95 TELECOM Sony & Mobile Products Create Real Estate Listing Sys (NEWS)(TELECOM)(LAX)(00007) Sony & Mobile Products Create Real Estate Listing Sys 06/19/95 MODESTO, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A. 1995 JUN 19 (NB) -- Sony Electronics and Mobile Products Inc., have delivered a portable system for accessing, storing and retrieving up-to-the-minute property information from the Orange County Multiple Listing Service (MLS). The system will allow real estate agents in the field to down-load directly from the MLS. Using Sony's Magic Link personal communicator with Mobile Products' Mobile MLS software, real estate agents can immediately access the information available by their local MLS service. Without this system, real estate agents have to rely on information from fixed-site desktop computers, preparing a printout of selected listings in advance of a client meeting. Manny Vara, a spokesman for Sony told Newsbytes, "Without 'Mobile MLS,' a real estate agent would have to print out a small number of property profiles in his office. He would take this printout with him in the field. With 'Mobile MLS' Sony's Magic Link can carry up to seven hundred properties internally, and through a modem have direct updated entry into the MLS." Orange County is the first market that has implemented the system. The Orange County MLS is now online to local agents. Vara said Sony's Magic Link communicator enables faxing, sending and receiving electronic-mail, access to online services, nationwide paging, appointment scheduling, organization of client contact information, filing of documents, as well as the ability to calculate mortgage payments. "Real estate agents gain a tremendous competitive edge by using the Magic Link communicator and Mobile MLS. This solution allows agents to take a database of property listings on the road, send a fax to the listing agent, and place a call to the owner or potential buyer -- all with one hand-held device," said Alex Gruzen, director of product marketing for Sony's Personal Information Company. The Sony Magic Link personal communicator with Mobile MLS software is available directly from Mobile Products for $1,235. (Richard Bowers/19950616/Press Contact: Manny Vara, Sony Electronics Inc., 408-955-5142) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 06/19/95 BROADCAST Sony Ships Digital Satellite Systems (NEWS)(BROADCAST)(MSP)(00008) Sony Ships Digital Satellite Systems 06/19/95 PARK RIDGE, NEW JERSEY, U.S.A., 1995 JUN 19 (NB) -- Sony Electronics has begun to ship its first digital satellite systems (DSS) products "on schedule," company officials said. Major national outlets, independent retailers, and satellite specialist dealers will be selling the new systems. Ed Villamana, product manager for Sony's DSS products, told Newsbytes the units should be in stores by mid-July, with a price point that starts around $750. The systems have been available in southern California as a part of a pre-launch test, he added. Sony's new DSS systems will provide customers more than 175 channels from DirecTV and United States Satellite Broadcasting (USSB). Three models are in the product line-up: the entry-level SAS-BS1, which has a suggested retail price of $749; the step-up SAS-BD1, which is priced at $849; and the SAS-AD1, at $949. The first product to ship will be the SAS-BS1, followed by the SAS-AD1, and finally the SAS-AD1. "The DSS format itself offers a lot of value to the consumer" other other satellite formats on the market, Villamana said. "Sony's approach to DSS is that it is a component of the home entertainment experience. Sony manufacturers and markets big-screen televisions, Dolby Pro-Logic surround sound systems, compact disk players, and hi-fi VCR's. DSS allows the consumer to enjoy their home entertainment on a complete digital system." Villamana said the transmission quality of DSS is the same as laser videodisk and audio compact disks. More than 60 pay-per-view channels, 28 CD-audio channels, and sports like the National Football League and National Hockey League, can be accessed via DSS. Customers can also take advantage of multiplexed, or multiple, channels from services that are normally considered "premium" channels on cable systems, like HBO and Showtime. To accompany the roll-out, Sony has created DSS selling centers that feature Sony TV's, "surround-sound," and other features. Sony has also created a special customer satisfaction program, which includes an 800 number for customer inquiries, dealer locations, and technical support. (Bob Woods/19950616/Press Contacts: Lisa Baldino, Sony Electronics, 201-930-7341; Phoebe Stein, Leo Burnett Company, 312-220-6234) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 06/19/95 ONLINE Microsoft Network US Providers Start To Appear (NEWS)(ONLINE)(DEN)(00009) Microsoft Network US Providers Start To Appear 06/19/95 REDMOND, WASHINGTON, U.S.A., 1995 JUN 19 (NB) -- Microsoft Corp.'s (NASDAQ: MSFT) Microsoft Network (MSN) will launch in late August, and a few more content providers are surfacing. Data Broadcasting Corp.(NASDAQ: DBCC), a New York firm, said it will be online to provide financial market data, news and sports through its online site where MSN subscribers can download information, some of it in real time. DBC spokesperson Cecilia Wilkinson told Newsbytes the company's MSN offerings will include the betting odds on collegiate and professional sports events. Wilkinson said the odds information, which could be provided on a 15-minute delay, come from the Las Vegas casino odds makers under an exclusive agreement with DBC. Riverwoods, Illinois-based CCH Inc.(NASDAQ: CCHIA) has revealed it will provide MSN browsers information and software for small businesses on the network. The company said it expects to have an initial online product when MSN opens its doors and will expand its offerings substantially through 1996. CCH spokesperson Pattie Schiele told Newsbytes the company will offer small office/home office (SOHO) assistance in the form of business and tax forms that can be downloaded, assistance in minimizing federal and state taxes, financial estate planning, management of personnel issues, and aid in assembling business plans. Earlier this month Newsbytes reported that 70 companies will provide MSN online content for European subscribers. Those services are consistent with the offerings of other online subscription services, offering weather, news, sports, travel information and arrangements, computer software, and a variety of electronic publications. Microsoft has not made any announcement about the cost of a MSN subscription, but has said it plans to keep the charge low by having service providers carry much of the financial burden of operating the network. (Jim Mallory/19950616/Press contact: Microsoft, 206-882-8080, or 800-426-9400) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 06/19/95 ONLINE Quarterdeck Unveils Strategy & Internet Products (NEWS)(ONLINE)(SFO)(00010) Quarterdeck Unveils Strategy & Internet Products 06/19/95 SANTA MONICA, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1995 JUN 19 (NB) -- With ex-Apple executive, Gaston Bastiaens, in the chief executive officer position, Quarterdeck has announced a new strategy. The company will continue to build on it utilities products while introducing a family of Internet products, Windows 95 products, and remote computing business products. In an interview with Newsbytes, Bastiaens said, "The main message is that Quarterdeck has reorganized and is now showing healthy growth and profits." He continued: "QEMM (the company's well known memory manager) remains the largest part of our revenues. Second to that is CleanSweep, which has become the number two uninstaller in the US. As part of our new strategy, we will be expanding on a global level. CleanSweep is already available in several languages and we will soon be shipping more language-specific versions in Europe." As part of this company-wide reorganization, the utility products will now be handled by the Utilities Products Business Unit. Said Bastiaens, "In addition to our core strength, we have added a wide selection of Internet products which will now be handled through our Internet Products Business Unit. Our Remote Computing Business Unit will feature DESQview/X with cross-platform remote capabilities and soon-to-be-announced products." In summary, Quarterdeck's new strategy includes: expansion of International markets; the development of partnerships with original equipment manufacturers (OEMs), third-party developers, value-added resellers and others; leveraging a "strong" retail presence; expanding its technical support system; and the "acquisition of additional technologies." The new Internet products announced are a compliment to the company's WebAuthor, and include Quarterdeck Mosaic, Quarterdeck Internet Suite, and Quarterdeck WebServer for Windows. Bastiaens said the company's Internet products were designed for the corporate market, small office/home office (SOHO) market, and individual consumers. Emerick Woods, vice president and general manager at Quarterdeck, said, "I am going to show you the most advanced Web browser and Web authoring tool available today." Both products feature complex multitasking, inter-connectivity, and ease-of-use. The new Internet products are expected to ship this month. Woods then created a simple Web page in less than 10 minutes. Keeping its utilities alive and strong, Quarterdeck says it will provide a Windows 95 QEMM product to address speed, disk space, and memory in the new Microsoft operating system. The company also said it has a 32-bit CleanSweep product under development for Windows 95. Another product in development under the Utilities Products Business Unit is Game Runner. Called a "utility suite," Game Runner solves some of the memory conflicts caused by certain games, improves performance with special game playing features, and enhances computer performance. Quarterdeck plans to debut the product this week at PC Expo in New York. In closing, Bastiaens said, "We are strong, we have the right people and we have available cash to expand." (Patrick McKenna/19950616/Press Contact: Linda White, Brodeur & Partners, 408-562-6108) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 06/19/95 WINDOWS CD-ROM Lists Millions Of US Businesses (NEWS)(WINDOWS)(DEN)(00011) CD-ROM Lists Millions Of US Businesses 06/19/95 OMAHA, NEBRASKA, U.S.A., 1995 JUN 19 (NB) -- American Business Information Inc. (NASDAQ: ABII) has announced plans to develop a database on CD-ROM for use with Microsoft Windows that will list almost four million small businesses in the US that employ less than 100 workers. According to Vin Gupta, chairman and chief executive officer of American business Information the listing, titled "3.7 Million Small Business Owners," can be of particular use to workers seeking new employers. "Face it...large corporations have been laying off employees. Small business owners have been hiring people. And in the last 10 years, most new job creations have come from these entrepreneurs," said the ABII executive. The database, which is scheduled for shipment in September, includes the owner's name, company name, street address, city, state, zip code, phone number, fax number when available, primary SIC (a designation of the type of business), the credit rating code, number of employees, and sales volume. Gupta said records can be sorted by company name, owner name and size of business for just about any geographic area in the US. In addition to workers looking for greener pastures, Gupta said the listing can be valuable to bankers, insurance agents, stockbrokers or people selling services, supplies and equipment. "3.7 Million Small Business Owners" will have a suggested retail price of $295. (Jim Mallory/19950616/Press contact: Bill Chasse, CD-ROM Technologies for ABII, 402-593-4568) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 06/19/95 GENERAL Database World - Trinzic's RuleServer For 3-Tier Apps (NEWS)(GENERAL)(BOS)(00012) Database World - Trinzic's RuleServer For 3-Tier Apps 06/19/95 BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS, U.S.A., 1995 JUN 19 (NB) -- "We're as serious as a heart attack about automating data," said Platinum Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Andrew "Flip" Filipowski, in a press conference at Database World. The event was held to unveil two new products from Trinzic: a "second-generation client-server tool" known as RuleServer for building three-tier applications, and an updated Forest & Trees. The newly announced Forest & Trees 4.0, which adds new ad hoc reporting and "interactive analysis" capabilities, has been "completely rearchitected" in C++, said Frederick W Rook, Ph.D., VP and general manager of Trinzic's Data Access and Connectivity Group, also at the press conference, which was attended by Newsbytes. Trinzic's new RuleServer will allow for client-server applications that are more "scaleable and complex," and systems that are more manageable, predicted Robert R. Payne, VP and general manager of Trinzic's Application Development Group. Trinzic is also working in the direction of data warehousing tools, a goal set forth by Platinum earlier this year when acquiring the maker of application development and data access software, said Filipowski. Payne told the journalists and analysts that today's "first- generation" client-server applications use a two-tier architecture consisting of a client on tier 1, and a database server from a vendor like Oracle or Sybase on tier 2. The first-generation client usually contains an "interpreted GUI (graphical user interface)," plus "simple application logic," according to Payne. Trying to add "complex application logic" on the client side has led to the phenomenon of the "fat client," he asserted. But RuleServer, he said, will circumvent these problems by providing a business rules server with "compiled, complex application logic" at tier 2 of a three-tier architecture. Tier 1 of the architecture will be comprised of clients, while tier 3 is where the database server will reside, according to Payne. DCE (Distributed Computing Environment) will be used for communicating between Trinzic RuleServer and the client and database server, he explained. RuleServer can also be used to "extend" applications written with third-party tools like VisualBasic, PowerBuilder, and ObjectPro, according to Payne. Although contemporary two-tier architectures are still "appropriate for many situations," a three-tier architecture is "worth considering if your company is struggling to deploy applications such as insurance rating, credit checking, shipping, and order entry inventory," he added, quoting Mitch Kramer of the Patricia Seybold Group. Payne also gave the following as an "example" RuleServer rule: "If the applicant is a smoker, and over age 50, then increase the premium by 50 percent." For Forest & Trees 4.0, Trinzic has completely rewritten the user layer, with a new "query environment" and report writer, in addition to a new interface for interactive analysis, said Rook. At the administrator level, Trinzic has added a "managed query environment," with a business term editor, query structure manager, query governor, dictionary, and dictionary administrator, according to the Trinzic VP. Forest & Trees is designed to let end-users access and analyze data from 25 different sources, ranging from Lotus Notes to mainframe databases. Forest & Trees 4.0 will include interfaces to PC databases, relational servers, midrange databases, host databases, groupware, and OLAP (online analytical processing), Rook reported. New capabilities will include ad hoc querying, alarms, graphics, crosstabs, and "automatic dictionary change propagation," or inheritance, he continued. Other features will include buttons, bitmaps, list boxes and check boxes; "single query, heterogenous database joins," and a Query Governor with "row and time limits for IS (information systems) control." During a demo at the press conference, Bradford F. Haigis, product marketing manager, showed a variety of capabilities, including how Forest & Trees can be used to make sales managers aware of territories with unacceptable sales results through color-coded alerts. "Forest & Trees 4.0 has raised the bar in end-user query, reporting and analysis tools," Rook told Newsbytes in a meeting after the press conference. "Business Objects and Cognos customers are now stuck with yesterday's technology," the VP maintained. (Jacqueline Emigh/19950616/Reader Contact: Trinzic, 617-891-6500; Press Contacts: Michael J. Greeley, Trinzic, 617-891-6500; Geoff Spillane or Brenda Stevenson, Schwartz Communications for Trinzic, 617-431-0770) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 06/19/95 GENERAL Database World - Multi-Dimensional Apps For Pilot OLAP (NEWS)(GENERAL)(BOS)(00013) Database World - Multi-Dimensional Apps For Pilot OLAP 06/19/95 BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS, U.S.A., 1995 JUN 19 (NB) -- In a press conference at Database World, officials of Dun & Bradstreet Software, A.C. Nielsen, IMS, and Sales Technologies explained how each company is using Pilot's LightShip Suite to provide multi-dimensional applications to different groups of users around a single OLAP (online analytical processing) architecture. "What Pilot Software offers is the most comprehensive OLAP platform," contended Pilot President and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Eric Kim, another speaker at the press conference, which was attended by Newsbytes. D&B's recent purchase of Pilot Software, and the recent announcement of Oracle's intention to acquire IRI's OLAP business, both indicate the increasing importance of OLAP, Kim maintained. LightShip includes a client called LightShip SMIS, plus an OLAP server, said the president/CEO, pointing to a chart depicting the LightShip architecture. Kim told the journalists and analysts that the LightShip Server is constructed around an MDDS (multi-dimensional database system), with connectivity to a data warehouse as well as RDBMS (relational database management systems), legacy data, and external D&B market data. Layered above the MDDS in the LightShip Server are: meta data, or "data about the data;" business rules; computation, security, report, and statistical services; and an OLAP API (application programming interface), which interfaces to the LightShip client. Multi-dimensional "business intelligence" (BI) applications run on top of the LightShip client. LightShip SMIS 1.1, the latest edition of the client, adds functionality that includes an exception reporting feature with drill-down, "80/20," ranking, ad hoc analysis, and standard reports" capabilities, according to the CEO. Kim said that the new "80/20" capability is designed to draw attention to markets and products that will bring "the highest return for the least amount of resources." Users can identify variables in addition to percentages around criteria such as margins, costs, and units, he asserted. Craig Richards, VP of marketing for D&B Software, announced at the press conference that D&B is developing a tool intended to integrate the LightShip server with D&B's SmartStream client-server data analysis software. The resulting BI applications will provide different kinds of multi-dimensional views for tasks such as financial analysis, sales and marketing, customer management, and human resources management, he added. Unlike competing OLAP products, which provide multi-dimensional support at the client level only, LightShip offers multi-dimensional support on both the client and server, for higher "analytical processing volume," according to the D&B VP. John Louwers, VP of technology marketing for AC Nielsen, said that Nielsen is using Lightstream to replace its earlier set of decision-support applications for companies in the packaged goods industry. Paul Johnson, group director of decision support services for IMS America, a major software producer for pharmaceuticals, said that IMS will use Lightstream to add functionality to its Xplorer product and services suite, which is built on an "RBMDS foundation." Pharmaceutical sales reps and users at medical offices, "outside services," and IMS corporate and regional offices will all be able to derive custom-tailored multi-dimensional views from an "integrated data warehouse," noted Johnson. Pilot's OLAP architecture will be advantageous in project management as well as in decision support, "lowering the cost of maintenance and reducing our time to market," he predicted. Sales Technologies plans to use the LightStream Suite to expand its SNAP/VirtualOffice application with an "enhanced sales reporting and analysis tool" named SNAP/VO Managers Workstation, said John Varga, director of marketing. Managers Workstation will provide vertical templates for viewing multi-dimensional data, according to Varga. Examples of applications include forecasting and market trend analysis. Users will be able to "look for trends in the mergers world," for instance, he illustrated. During a Q&A period that followed, D&B and Pilot officials commented further on Oracle's proposed purchase of IRI's OLAP business. Pilot's OLAP product is "better" than IRI's, according to John Fleming, VP of worldwide marketing for Pilot. "I believe that Oracle is faced with a formidable conflict," noted D&B's Richards, in reference to the fact that, with the acquisition, Oracle will be producing MDDS as well as RDBMS. In contrast, he maintained, D&B and Pilot are "very clear in focus." But Pilot is a member of the Oracle Business Alliance, and intends to "work very aggressively" on integrating the OLAP architecture with Oracle and other RDBMS, according to the executives. Pilot is integrating RDBMS by "establishing a meta warehouse" containing the "meta data" for its MDDS as well as RDBMS and other data sources, explained Kim. In LightShip Server 2.1, the latest version of Pilot's OLAP server, Pilot has added the ability to populate the server with data from Oracle and other ODBC-compliant RDBMS, according to the officials. Also new in LightShip Server 2.1 is a add-on interface for accessing LightShip from Microsoft Excel spreadsheets. In addition, through the use of LightShip Professional 4.1, the latest release of Pilot's application development environment, LightShip can be programmed to provide access to Lotus Notes databases, and to allow communications from BI applications though Notes Mail. LightShip Professional 4.1 also brings a new SQL (structured query language) Query Builder, aimed at letting developers access information residing in RDBMS. LightShip SMIS and LightShip Professional both run on Windows. LightShip Server operates on HP, RS/6000, Sequent, Sun Solaris, Windows NT, AT&T GIS, Digital Unix, and VAX/VMS. Pricing for the LightShip Suite ranges from $25,000 to $100,000. Products in the suite can also be individually purchased. (Jacqueline Emigh/19950616/Reader Contact: Pilot Software, 617-374- 9400; Press Contact: Toni Silva or Charles Guyer, Neva Group for Pilot, 617-441-4000) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 06/19/95 GENERAL Database World - SAS Institute Intros OLAP++ (NEWS)(GENERAL)(BOS)(00014) Database World - SAS Institute Intros OLAP++ 06/19/95 BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS, U.S.A., 1995 JUN 19 (NB) -- Unlike some other OLAP (online analytical processing) vendors, SAS Institute does not believe that MDDS (multi-dimensional database systems) are necessary to OLAP, said Jamie Robbins, in an interview with Newsbytes about "OLAP++ Solution," a set of object libraries, consulting services, and multi-dimensional capabilities unveiled at Database World. Accordingly, customers will not be required to employ MDDS in order to participate in SAS's OLAP++. Customers will, however, need to let SAS analyze the platforms, operating systems, and databases they are using, to determine the best ways of achieving OLAP and multi-dimensional views of data, added Robbins, who is manager of business intelligence (BI) for SAS. SAS's OLAP++ is designed to provide users of SAS EIS with pre-built class libraries and OLAP consulting from SAS, along with a multi-dimensional model, a multi-dimensional viewer, 3-D (three- dimensional) graphics, object linking, and "distributed, summary information" for the multi-dimensional viewer, according to Robbins. Robbins characterized the pre-built class libraries as "extensions" to SAS EIS which provide the class libraries most frequently needed by customers. As used in the SAS EIS product name, EIS originally meant "Executive Information System," but it now represents "a toolbox of pre-built objects," she noted. SAS created the extensions after discussions with customers illuminated a need for pre-built libraries as a time-saver, Newsbytes was told. The OLAP++ multi-dimensional model, which is unique to each customer, contains three types of definitions, according to the SAS exec. One set of definitions concerns "which platform and operating system data will be accessed from what type of data source," such as data warehouse, flat file, or RDBMS (relational database management system). Another defines how data should be analyzed to create "a completely new data entity." An example of this kind of definition is: "Stored dimensions A and B can be added to create a new dimension C at run time." The third set of definitions sets forth "the relationship between each of the data dimensions -- to define, for example, a drill-down hierarchy -- that the data refers to in business terms." Also from research with customers, Robbins said, SAS has reached a decision to focus its product line on these five "initiatives:" application development; data warehousing; business intelligence; analytical and technical; and "business solutions." "We see OLAP as the key to exploiting the data warehouse. But a MDDS definitely should not be a requirement for OLAP," Robbins maintained. SAS Institute also takes the position that OLAP now extends beyond Codd's Rules, the definition adhered to by some of the other vendors in the OLAP market, she added. "OLAP should offer more than what is in Codd's Rules. OLAP applications should also be graphical, scalable, and portable to other platforms," contended the SAS exec. OLAP++ currently supports Windows, Windows NT, OS/2 and Unix clients; Windows NT, OS/2, and Unix servers; and MVS, CMS, and OpenVMS. Pricing starts at $30,000. (Jacqueline Emigh/19950616/Reader Contact: SAS Institute, 919-677- 8000; Press Contact: Mirena Reilly or Patricia Williams, The Weber Group for SAS Institute, 617-661-7900) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 06/19/95 GENERAL Database World - Galaxy Adds Capabilities, Users (NEWS)(GENERAL)(BOS)(00015) Database World - Galaxy Adds Capabilities, Users 06/19/95 BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS, U.S.A., 1995 JUN 19 (NB) -- Visix is integrating its cross-platform Galaxy Application Environment with testing tools from Mercury Interactive and Segue, and with ORBs (object request brokers) from Iona, Expersoft, and PostModern Computing, said Barry Libenson, VP of business development, in a briefing for Newsbytes at Database World. "We want to be the `Switzerland' (of application development environments) in regard to ORBs," Libenson quipped. Beyond the integration efforts, Visix has been adding new customers, operating environments, and product features, he said, during the company update for Newsbytes. Galaxy, a product now available for 48 different platforms, is designed to allow development of "portable, scalable, distributed applications" through its DAS (Distributed Application Services) architecture. Applications built with Galaxy can communicate with other Galaxy applications across platforms, "without changing a single line of code," according to Libenson. Integration with other vendors' ORBs is meant to allow communication with CORBA (Common Object Request Architecture)-compliant applications, as well. Over the past year or so, Galaxy's customer base has more than doubled, the Visix exec added. At the SIA show in New York City at the end of June, Visix will officially announce the use of Galaxy by Barclays Bank to develop a workflow application aimed at supporting the tasks of 165 underwriters, he told Newsbytes. Barclays was able to build the application in a couple of months, using only six programmers, Libenson maintained. Other customers of Galaxy's include Merrill-Lynch, J.P. Morgan, Raxco, and a variety of ISVs (independent software developers), he pointed out. Galaxy is available for both C and C++, on platforms that encompass Windows, Windows NT, Macintosh, OS/2, and OpenVMS, in addition to Unix, he noted. In version 2.5, a product released two weeks ago, Visix has added support for Power Macintosh, along with both Digital Unix and OpenVMS for Alpha. As in Galaxy 2.0, the previous edition, Galaxy 2.5 also operates on Windows NT on Alpha, and OpenVMS on VAX. "We've been getting a lot of requests for the DEC platforms, especially from our customers in manufacturing. DEC certainly does seem to be selling a lot of Alphas," Libenson observed. The VP told Newsbytes that Galaxy 2.5 adds a new Distributed Help Services feature intended to let developers build a single help engine that resides on a network and is accessible by all applications, eliminating the need to build "help" into individual applications. The upgrade also brings a new Visual Datatag Editor, for "point and click" programming in building major parts of applications, he said. Also new are Datatag Iterator, a capability designed to simplify programming of the interchange of resource files, and expanded support for shared libraries, to reduce the size of Galaxy executables and cut down on system overhead. On the GUI (graphical user interface) side, version 2.5 introduces a new Combination Box visual object that combines list and text functionality, "each of which is completely subclassable and replaceable," plus a Notebook object for building a "notebook metaphor" into applications. Visix is now integrating Galaxy with Mercury Interactive's XRunner and WinRunner for "single source code testing on a single platform," according to Libenson. The VP added: "We're working with Segue on something like this, too." In the ORB arena, Visix has just integrated Galaxy with PostModern Computing's product, and integration with Iona and Expersoft is "just about complete," he told Newsbytes. Galaxy 2.5 is priced at $9,600 per C developer seat and $12,100 per C++ development seat. Visix Software charges no runtime fees. (Jacqueline Emigh/19950616/Reader Contact: Visix Software, 703-758- 758-2763; Press Contact: Kelley Lynn Kassa, Technology Solutions for Visix, 617-782-5221) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 06/19/95 BUSINESS Database World - Visible Systems' US Franchise Program (NEWS)(BUSINESS)(BOS)(00016) Database World - Visible Systems' US Franchise Program 06/19/95 BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS, U.S.A., 1995 JUN 19 (NB) -- "CASE (computer- aided software engineering) is our total purpose," declared Visible Systems Marketing Manager Stewart B. Nash, in an interview with Newsbytes at Database World, where Visible announced a new franchise program, plus deals with SHL Systemhouse and the Barents Group. In the new nationwide franchise program, billed as the first of its kind in the application development market, qualified franchisees will be given "exclusive rights" to Visible Systems' technology, training and services in specific geographic territories, according to Nash. Under the newly signed deal with SHL Systemhouse, a major systems integrator, SHL will license the Visible Analyst Workbench (VAW) for use in SHL Transform -- a "support software environment" for client-server development -- and will also resell VAW to corporate and government clients as part of its Transformational Outsourcing business, he reported. Meanwhile, the Barents Group, a KPMG company, has agreed to standardize on VAW, said Nash. "The Barents Group is now using VAW to deliver a major tax system," he revealed. VAW, a graphical analysis and modeling tool for building client- server applications, recently entered version 5.4, noted Nash. VAW features a file and recorder system designed to let multiple users on development teams access and use information simultaneously, according to the marketing manager. The tool can also be used on a standalone basis. The new release adds greater ability to customize a repository, for support of a wider range of methodologies, projects, and organizations, according to Nash. Also new is bi-directional PowerBuilder support, giving developers the ability to import, export, and define PowerBuilder distributed asset sets in the VAW repository, he said. In addition, RDMBS (relational database management system) catalog import/export has been enhanced to let developers move directly in and out of the database catalog, a measure aimed at reducing the possibility of errors. Other new capabilities include: a new repository object/display format that associates display fields with elements in the "display format" repository; "user-defined object enhancement;" the ability to select fields for a report; an undo feature for line drawing; and "auto position text," select all, and automatic line straightening features. VAW 5.4 also provides "tight integration of tools, a more `model- driven' application developer, and more `fully repository-resident specifications,'" according to the Visible Systems exec. Nash explained that Waltham, Massachusetts-based Visible Systems was founded by George Cagliuso. Cagliuso, who then headed up Optronics, now serves as chairman of the board and chief executive officer (CEO) of Visible Systems. VAW was originally developed at Optronics, when Cagliuso saw the need to create a CASE toolset for use in producing Optronics' projects, Newsbytes was told. Optronics was subsequently acquired by Intergraph. Under its new franchise program, Visible Systems plans to open 100 Visible System Software Centers in major metropolitan areas throughout the US, reported Nash. Visible Systems will provide franchisees with "extensive training"; access to the company's customer database for contact information and lead generation; and advertising and public relations support, he added. Also at Database World, Visible Systems announced the opening of a new sales and support office in Boulder, Colorado, to serve customers in the central and southwestern US. (Jacqueline Emigh/19950616/Reader Contact: Visible Systems Corp., 617-890-CASE; Press Contact: Alison Buckholtz or Susan Black, Schwartz Communications for Visible Systems, 617-431-0770) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 06/19/95 BROADCAST Singapore Opens New Cable TV Network (NEWS)(BROADCAST)(TYO)(00017) Singapore Opens New Cable TV Network 06/19/95 SINGAPORE, 1995 JUNE 19 (NB) -- Singapore will launch a new cable television network this week. The new system goes live on June 23 to around 15,000 homes in the city's Tampines area. The operator, Singapore Cable Vision, has been busily laying fiber optic cable since January that will eventually carry a 64 channel state-of-the-art cable network island-wide when it is completed in 1998. The fiber network, costing US$357 million, will be more than just a TV distribution system, says Singapore's Information Minister George Yeo. "We are laying the information highway to every household. By the end of the decade, every household in Singapore will be wired up via broadband co-axial cables linked into a fiber optic trunk network," he said. Yeo said the new network is so important to the government, that shortly, a new city law will require developers of new homes to lay a broad bandcable into each home just as they now must provide water, telephone, electricity, and gas lines. In time, the cable is expected to carry a variety of signals such as those for video phones, computer data links to the Internet, as well as a range of interactive games and two-way interactive services for distance learning. Initially a package of 30 channels will be available, received via a complex in western Singapore equipped with a US$610,000 satellite head- end capable of receiving 45 channels. The full package will include such world cable staple programmers as CNN International, MTV Asia, ESPN Asia, TNT & Cartoon Network, and local programs such as Rupert Murdoch's Star TV and Hong Kong's TVB International. Until the network is completed, Singapore Cable Vision will continue transmitting a three-channel package over the air on UHF frequencies. That package consists of a 24-hour news channel, HBO Asia, and a Mandarin language channel. Along with other strict censorship laws, private satellite dishes are banned, the cable TV that Singapore viewers will see will not escape the censor's eyes. All programming will be monitored although most of the stations already fit within Singapore's media laws which ban sex and violence. Some need of censorship is already expected for HBO's more racy late night fare, although the government has pledged not to censor or time delay any of the three international news channels that will be carried on the network, Asia Business News, BBC World, or CNN International. Singapore Cable Vision's majority shareholder is state owned Singapore International Media. Partners in the venture include Singapore Technologies Pte. Ltd., Singapore Press Holdings, and Continental CableVision Inc, America's third-largest cable operator. (Martyn Williams/19950619) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 06/19/95 ONLINE Information Today Online With Mecklermedia (NEWS)(ONLINE)(TYO)(00018) Information Today Online With Mecklermedia 06/19/95 WESTPORT, CONNECTICUT, USA, 1995 JUNE 19 (NB) -- Information Today, a monthly technology newspaper, has begun an online service in association with Mecklermedia Corporation (NASDAQ:MECK). Selected articles from Information Today will be available through Mecklerweb iWorld, a World Wide Web site dedicated to technology news. The Information Today articles are part of a new newsstand section on iWorld which, alongside the stories, will feature editorial and subscription information for the magazine. Tom Hogan, president of Information Today Inc., explained why they decided to join Mecklerweb, "When it comes to a presence on the Internet, there are a lot of options available, such as creating your own Web site, but, like any other kind of marketing, the question comes down to how to find the best way to attract the maximum amount of attention to your offering. We believe that a Web site needs a critical mass of solid editorial content in order to be truly viable; MecklerWeb's iWorld has that. We're looking forward to being an early participant in this venture." By choosing iWorld rather than establishing a new Web server, Information Today will immediately gain the benefits of the "critical mass" that Hogan mentioned. According to MecklerWeb's Matthew Shevach, who spoke to Newsbytes, the Web server has been registering around two million hits per month, a figure which "translates into 40,000+ individual users per month according to the tracking we've been doing with I/PRO. Both numbers have been growing steadily since our launch of the site in early December, 1994." The addition of Information Today is just the first of several new products that will appear on iWorld in the future. Shevach continued, "Major content additions in the future will primarily consist of third-party publications and news feeds as well as additional features, sections, and editorials from the iWorld and Internet World staffs. Both third party and homegrown content will be centered around the information technology industries and build on the infrastructure that was created by MecklerWeb and has evolved into iWorld's current editorial program." As well as the recently added magazine iWorld offers Internet related news from Cowles/Simba's Media Daily, NewsPage briefs from Individual Inc., and home produced reports and articles including Net Across the World and VR Bytes. Mecklerweb is accessible at http://www.mecklerweb.com/ (Martyn Williams/19950619/Press contact: Matthew A. Shevach, Mecklerweb iWorld, tel 203-226-6967, fax 203-454-5840, Internet e-mail matt@mecklermedia.com; Tom Hogan Jr., Information Today, 609-654-6266, Internet e-mail 72105.1753@compuserve.com) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 06/19/95 DOS BudgetPC For DOS Does Financial Forecasting (NEWS)(DOS)(DEN)(00019) BudgetPC For DOS Does Financial Forecasting 06/19/95 PHOENIX, ARIZONA, U.S.A., 1995 JUN 19 (NB) -- Many developers are scrambling to get applications for Windows 95 ready, but MoneySoft Inc. has introduced a new financial forecasting program for the tens of thousands of PCs still running DOS software. MoneySoft said its new BudgetPC software helps organize, analyze and forecast up to five years of a company's future financial position. BudgetPC is the sixth in the company's series of management software applications. Once the user has entered, or imported from another program, one to five years of financial statements, the program can produce monthly and annual financial forecasts. Projection options include regression trend line, historic average, fixed growth and historic percent of sales. The user can enter a manual percent of sales or enter manual dollar amounts and variable growth rates in any month or year for each account. BudgetPC allows you to depreciate existing fixed assets using straight-line or accelerated methods and purchase new fixed assets in any period. You can also amortize existing debt with flexible note terms and secure new debt in any projected period. A projection summary highlights areas such as total sales, net income, total assets, total liabilities and net cash flow. Key financial ratios available on a monthly and annual basis include current ratio, quick ratio, net income percentage, return on equity and debt to equity. BudgetPC can also automatically calculate the present value of projected earnings and cash flow to determine the real value of future income. BudgetPC has an introductory price of $99 through the end of August. After that the suggested retail price will be $149. To run BudgetPC you need an IBM-compatible PC running DOS and equipped with at least 640 kilobytes (KB) of memory and 1.5 megabytes (MB) of available hard disk space. Other programs in the MoneySoft six-pack are: Buy-Out Plan for business acquisition, valuation and proposal generation ($395); ESOPlan for employee stock ownership feasibility analysis ($395); Fixed Asset Pro for fixed asset tracking and depreciation ($195); The Financial Toolkit for financial statement forecasting, business valuation, financial ratio analysis and lease versus buy comparisons ($129); and LenderPro for commercial loan analysis and loan packaging ($295). (Jim Mallory/19950619/Press contact: Michael Bray, MoneySoft, 619-689-8341; Public contact; MoneySoft, tel 602-266-7710; 800-966-7797 to order) (ADVISORY)(GENERAL)(MSP)(00020) NewsPix Images For Newsbytes Publishers 06/19/95 MINNEAPOLIS, MINNESOTA, U.S.A., 1995 JUN 19 (NB) -- These photos correspond to recent Newsbytes stories. They are online in the Newsbytes menu on GEnie, America Online, eWorld, NiftyServe, and the Newsbytes private bulletin board system in Minneapolis. JPEG files are larger in size, PICT files are designed as thumbnails for onscreen viewing. The photos are titled with name/year/month/day. PICT/thumbnail pictures are black and white (gray scale). File message will indicate color if the JPEG (Joint Photographic Experts Group) image is color. Some of the larger "for use" images, may also be PICT files. To distinguish these files from the thumbnail preview PICT images, the tag for the color "for use" image will have PICT, all caps. The thumbnail will remain noted as 'pct.' To become a licensed Newsbytes publisher, call Newsbytes at 612-430-1100 (US) or write to administrator@newsbytes.com on the Internet. Licensing applies to any medium. --------------------------- Week of JUNE 19 - JUNE 24,1995 --------------------------- GS8400950602 - b&w / Fujitsu's New Servers: the server with model next to it for scale. ROUGH950614 - color / UK - Rough Guide Travel Books On The Internet: screenshot of home page graphics. INFOBANK950608 - color / UK - Infobank's Secure Web Access & Ordering: screenshot of home page graphics. KNOWLEDGE950614 - color / UK - Knowledge Computing Offers Budget Web Publishing: screenshot of home page graphics. MILESTONE950615 - color / "Internet Superstore" Adds Online Wine Shopping: screenshot of home page graphics. UBNETWORKS950613 - color / UB Networks Plugs Into World Wide Web: screenshot of home page graphics. WCHAT950511 - color / Worlds Inc. In Starbright Pact, Plans Web "Worlds Fair": screenshot of Worlds Chat environment and virtual characters. PRESENT950614 - b&w / Novell Intros Presentations 3.0 For Windows On CD: screenshot of graphics thumbnails. CREATIVITY950607 - color / Digital World - Children's Peace Festival Online: Peter Rosen, screen left with hat, at Creativity Cafe. CREATIVE950616 - color / CD-ROM Program Teaches More Creative Photography: screenshot from CD-ROM illustrating use of 300mm lens and compression. ORACLE950614 - color / Oracle & Intel Plan ISDN Online Service: screenshot of the KidsMail viewer. TEXAS950601 - color / UK - TI Intros Pentium TravelMate 5000 Notebooks : PC on rock slab and artful background. LOVENET950606 - color / UK - Computer Dating On World Wide Web: screenshot of main menu. TERASTAR950602 - b&w / "Briefcase" Terminal Offers Phone, Fax, Data Anywhere: the briefcase opened to show gear. SFTBOARD950605 - color / Microfield's Personal Size Electronic Whiteboard: the new softboard in an office cubicle. STARSIGHT950602 - color / StarSight Telecast Offers Interactive TV Product: screenshot of viewing guide. EDMARK950607 - color / Edmark Plans 4 Educational Windows 95 CD-ROMs: screenshot of the main menu from Sammy's Science House. EMBARQUE950605 - color / EnCompass Gets Upgrade, New Name: screenshot of toolbar. THROTTLE950602 - color / Thrustmaster Ships F-16 Throttle For FLCS Joystick: the joystick/controller, very military. EASYBALL950512 - color / Microsoft Announces Kid's Pointing Device: cute kid in action with oversized simplified track ball. DIAMAR950515 - color / Diamar Gets Financing, Inks Golf Tips CD-ROM Deal: screenshot from the Better Photography CD-ROM. TI92950515 - b&w / TI Intros TI-92 Math, Text Calculator: shot of the unit, equations and graph on screen. DIGITAL950526 - b&w / Digital Cuts PC Prices: the DEC Starion. VG950531 - color / VideoGuide Signs The Sports Network: screenshot of the sportsguide. ZDS950531 - color / Zenith Intros High-Speed Pentium PCs: the Z-Station GT. TELEGRAPH950601 - color / UK - Daily Telegraph Offers Internet Starter Kits: screen shot of homepage. UNET950522 - color / UK Internet Provider Offers Low-Cost ISDN: screenshot of homepage. GOLF950523 - color / Use Your Own Clubs With PC-Based Golf Analyzer/Game: shot of the unique controller-swing analyzer. KILLER950519 - color / Serial Killer CD-ROM Not For The Faint-Hearted: screenshot of main menu. FARGO950519 - color / Wells Fargo Offers Internet Customer Services: screenshot of checking page TABS950522 - color / Software Automates Office/Home Operations: screenshot of the irrigation screen. LOGICAL950523 - color / Software Supports "Logical" Decision-Making: screenshot of goals hierarchy screen. CHIPC950524 - color / IBM Japan To Intro Address Book On A Chip: a portable electronic address book that fits onto a PCMCIA (Personal Computer Memory Card International Association) card. (Newsbytes/19950619) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 06/19/95 WINDOWS Laplink Host For Windows Intro'd (NEWS)(WINDOWS)(DEN)(00021) Laplink Host For Windows Intro'd 06/19/95 BOTHELL, WASHINGTON, U.S.A., 1995 JUN 19 (NB) -- Traveling Software Inc. has announced LapLink Host, a streamlined version of LapLink for Windows, designed to provide technical support, help desk, and management information system (MIS) personnel with a way to provide remote support to PC users. LapLink Host is designed to reside on the user's computer and provide support technicians on the network or at a remote location a way to remotely run, view and manage a PC running Windows 95, Windows 3.x, and DOS. The support technician will use LapLink for Windows together with LapLink Host to diagnose and resolve user problems, distribute new software and set up a remote PC over an IPX (Internet Packet Exchange) network or by modem. Traveling Software said more than 300 modems, V.Fast and cellular modems and over 40 PCMCIA (Personal Computer memory Card International Association) modem cards are supported. Compaq Computer Corporation is currently bundling a version of LapLink Host with some of their desktop computers so its support technicians can remotely take control of a customer's PC to diagnose and solve problems. According to Gus Kolias, Compaq vice president of customer service and training, that capability can reduce technical support call-time by at least 50 percent. LapLink Host disables outbound connections and has password protection. For additional security the software includes a configurable legal disclaimer screen that appears when a connection is attempted. When that screen appears on the end user's machine the user can either accept or decline a LapLink connection from the remote site. In order to access LapLink Host, the help desk will have to have a copy of LapLink for Windows version 6.0a on its machine. Traveling Software said the product will ship early in the third quarter. The company said it will announce the pricing when the software ships. LapLink for Windows 6.0a has a suggested retail price of $199.95 and allows the user to perform file management tasks and move files between PCs connected via the included serial or parallel cable or by modem. (Jim Mallory/19950619/Press contact: Tricia Horner, Traveling Software, tel 206-487-5316; Public contact: Traveling Software, 206-483-8088, Internet World Wide Web http://www.travsoft.com) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 06/19/95 GENERAL Canadian Product Launch Update (NEWS)(GENERAL)(TOR)(00022) Canadian Product Launch Update 06/19/95 KINGSTON, ONTARIO, CANADA, 1995 JUN 19 (NB) -- This regular feature, appearing on the first day Newsbytes publishes each week, provides further details for the Canadian market on announcements by international companies that Newsbytes has already covered. This week: IBM's latest RISC System/6000 systems and Internet Connection family of products. IBM Canada Ltd., of Markham, Ontario, joined its US parent in launching new RS/6000 workstations and servers (Newsbytes, June 19). The new RS/6000 43P workstations will cost from C$5,570 to C$7355. The 42W workstation will list at C$12,510, and the 42T at $14,510. Upgrading the 40P to a PowerPC 604 processor will cost C$2,855. Upgrading the 41T or 41W to a 42T or 42W will cost C$4,285. The Model C20 server will cost C$16,450 in Canada, and the dual-processor card for upgrading to six- and eight-way servers will be C$21,460, IBM said. The Power GXT500 graphics adapter will list at C$8,290 and the GXT500D at C$11.150. All the new products are due to be available in Canada in July. IBM Canada also announced the Internet Connection line of products (Newsbytes, June 14), including World Wide Web server software for OS/2, AIX, OS/400, and MVS operating systems and Web browser software for OS/2 and AIX, as well as various Internet services. (Grant Buckler/19950619/Press Contact: Maureen Rourke, IBM, 905-316-4425) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 06/19/95 BUSINESS ****Zenith & PictureTel In Videoconferencing Deal (NEWS)(BUSINESS)(MSP)(00023) ****Zenith & PictureTel In Videoconferencing Deal 06/19/95 DANVERS, MASSACHUSETTS, U.S.A., 1995 JUN 19 (NB) -- Zenith Data Systems Inc. (ZDS) and PictureTel Corp. (NASDAQ:PCTL) have announced they are teaming up in a worldwide, multi-year alliance to provide desktop videoconferencing bundled into ZDS computers. #IMAGE 1 20 TWPCX \images\95061923.PCX Click here for photo The first product from this computer-video marriage is an OEM (original equipment manufacturer) agreement, where the PictureTel Live PCS 50 desktop conferencing system for Windows will be integrated into ZDS's new Z-Station GT 575 VC. Both companies said this is the first time a major US computer manufacturer has offered an all-in-one system of computer and videoconferencing in one unit. Pete Mahoney, business development manager for PictureTel's personal systems division, told Newsbytes this alliance means customers don't have to worry about installing extra boards or other peripherals into their computers to get videoconferencing capabilities. "It's a complete turnkey solution, which is the same type of thing that helped the multimedia business, like CD-ROM and SoundBlasters take off. They really started to take off once they were an integral part of the PC, versus a kit that you add on later." Mahoney also said both his company and ZDS have a shared focus on the markets in which these units will sell, which are the government market and the education market. "Both of use see those as real major opportunities. ZDS and PictureTel both have an emphasis on those areas, and their specific applications in those markets that we can jointly go after." Both companies will also jointly pursue other marketing opportunities, including trade shows, seminars, and other events. As far as the consumer market goes, Mahoney said it will trail behind government and education markets. "We think it's going to happen in the same way that a lot of PC's hit the home, as an extension of the office." He said businesses have to buy videoconferencing first, then it will trickle into the homes, mainly as a by-product of telecommuting. That's a process which is already happening, a PictureTel official said. (Bob Woods/19950619/Press Contacts: Kevin Flanagan, PictureTel, 508-762-5178; Tania K. Promer, Beaupre & Co. Public Relations, 603-436-6690; Steve Bosak, Zenith Data Systems, 708-808-4855; Public Contact: Zenith Data Systems, 800-533-0331/ZDS-PTL950619/ PHOTO) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 06/19/95 IBM IBM Adds RS/6000 Models Based On PowerPC (NEWS)(IBM)(TOR)(00024) IBM Adds RS/6000 Models Based On PowerPC 06/19/95 SOMERS, NEW YORK, U.S.A., 1995 JUN 19 (NB) -- As it announced its first personal computers based on PowerPC chips, IBM (NYSE:IBM) also added models to its RISC System/6000 line of workstations and servers that are also based on the chips. The company also unveiled an update to its AIX variant of the Unix operating system. Among the new RS/6000 systems are five workstations and three servers. Three new RS/6000 43P workstations are based on the PowerPC 604 chip. The new entry-level models follow in the footsteps of the 40P models introduced last fall, said Bob Roblin, general manager of marketing for IBM's Power Personal Systems unit. IBM claimed they will outrun rival Hewlett-Packard Co.'s Model 712/80 workstations in SPECint92 performance tests. Because these machines will use many of the same components as PowerPC-based personal computers that the IBM Personal Computer Co. will sell, IBM expects to offer "a price/performance point that will significantly change the landscape in the workstation business," Roblin said in a teleconference before the announcement. IBM also added two new midrange workstations, the RS/6000 Models 42W and 42T. The emphasis in these machines is on graphics, officials said. Roblin said IBM' new GXT500 graphics adapter will provide "the richest support for graphics APIs (application program interfaces) that you can find." On the server side, IBM announced new six- and eight-way versions of the SMP server family launched last fall. The existing two-way and four-way processors can be upgraded using a $15,000 daughtercard, noted Jeff Mason of the RS/6000 unit of IBM. IBM also announced the C20, a low-end server using a 120 megahertz PowerPC 604 chip and the Micro Channel Architecture (MCA) system bus. This is a follow-on to the existing C10 workstation, which can be upgraded to the C20 in the field, Mason said. The new release of AIX, Version 4.1, includes device support for the new processors and compatibility with IBM's Unix-based parallel processing system, now renamed the RS/6000 Scalable Powerparallel System or RS/6000 SP. Support for the Distributed Computing Environment (DCE) standard has also been put into the basic AIX offering, Mason added. Roblin said the line between personal computers and workstations is blurring, and IBM is seeking to expand its market share by bridging the two types of systems. (Grant Buckler/19950619/Press Contact: Ed Trapasso, IBM, 914-766-3621, Internet trapasso@vnet.ibm.com; Bill O'Leary, IBM, 914-766-3642, Internet wo'leary@vnet.ibm.com; Public Contact: IBM, Internet World Wide Web http://www.ibm.com or http://www.austin.ibm.com) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 06/19/95 PC DEC Adds Prioris Servers, Multimedia Devices (NEWS)(PC)(TOR)(00025) DEC Adds Prioris Servers, Multimedia Devices 06/19/95 MAYNARD, MASSACHUSETTS, U.S.A., 1995 JUN 19 (NB) -- Digital Equipment Corp. (NYSE:DEC) has added new models in its Prioris line of servers, as well as multimedia enhancements for its HiNote notebooks and its Venturis and Celebris desktop personal computers. #IMAGE 1 20 TWPCX \images\95061925.PCX Click here for photo The new Prioris LX servers replace Digital's existing MTE server models, Bill Greenlund, director of server product marketing for the company, told Newsbytes. They are entry-level servers intended mainly as file and print servers for Novell networks, he added, and have "significantly more features" than the MTE systems they replace, which were "a little bit long in the tooth." There are two LX models, the Prioris LX 575 and LX 590, priced at $3,000 and $3,300 respectively. Both include Peripheral Component Interconnect (PCI) expansion slots, and support for Integrated Drive Electronics (IDE), small computer systems interface (SCSI), and Ethernet interfaces. The new Prioris HX 5100 MP server is a high-performance application server with six PCI slots. It can accommodate from one to four 100 megahertz (MHz) Pentium processors in a single cabinet. Each processor has its own independent cache, Greenlund said, allowing DEC to offer true four-way multiprocessing. Prices range from $10,399 for a single-processor to $30,299 for a four-processor symmetric multiprocessing configuration. Greenlund said DEC's new systems are "PCI-heavy," because "with servers of course you need a balance between the processor and the I/O (input/output)." Rick Rohlf, Americas server marketing manager at DEC, told Newsbytes that DEC now considers PCI "the only appropriate architecture for a server product." However, the company is still providing Extended Industry Standard Architecture (EISA) slots for "legacy cards," Greenlund said. DEC also revamped its Prioris XL Server line with new processor options. The company announced 75MHz, 100MHz, and dual 100MHz Pentium options. Greenlund said these will immediately replace existing 486 and 60MHz and 66MHz Pentium versions, while the current 90MHz Pentium version of the XL will probably fade away within a few months to be replaced by the new 100MHz models. The new Prioris XL Server 575 lists at $4,479, the XL Server 5100 at $4,849, and the dual-processor XL Server 5100 DP at $6,749. All three are available now, DEC said. Digital also announced the Mobile Media Module, a device that attaches to the firm's HiNote Ultra notebook computer and provides multimedia functions while adding one inch of height and two pounds of weight to the four-pound computer. To ship in July, the module costs $899. Also on the multimedia front, DEC unveiled a multimedia upgrade package for its Venturis and Celebris desktop PCs, including a CD-ROM drive, a sound card, speakers, a microphone, and multimedia software. It is available now for $529, DEC said. (Grant Buckler/19950619/Press Contact: Sandy McLaughlin, Digital Equipment, 508-264-7981; Chris Nahil, Digital Equipment, 508-264-7915; Lisa Rohlf, Digital Equipment, 508-264-7977; Public Contact: Digital Equipment, 800-722-9332/MULTI950619/PHOTO) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 06/19/95 ONLINE ****AT&T's First Interchange Content Providers (NEWS)(ONLINE)(MSP)(00026) ****AT&T's First Interchange Content Providers 06/19/95 CAMBRIDGE, MASSACHUSETTS, U.S.A., 1995 JUN 19 (NB) -- AT&T's (NYSE:T) Interchange Online Network has announced a series of online information services will be entering the new network's cyberspace in the next few weeks. Star Tribune Online, from the Minneapolis/St. Paul- based Star Tribune, started its cyber-publishing today on Interchange. The Star Tribune Online will join three other services that are either online already or will be providing content within the next six weeks or so, Interchange officials told Newsbytes. Gartner Group, which provides high-value information technology analysis and advice for the business professional, has been with Interchange since May. Pilot services under development include Ziff-Davis Interactive's ZD Net. The Interchange Online Network was originally part of Ziff Communications, until the project's management team and staff were acquired by AT&T in December, 1994. The other content provider to go online soon will be The Washington Post's Digital Ink, described as a "one-stop" source for national, international, and metro-Washington DC news and information. Both ZD Net and Digital Ink are scheduled to be out of beta testing and fully operational by the end of this summer, officials said. The Star Tribune Online is being launched as a part of AT&T Interchange's "Publishers Preview Program," which gives early customers of AT&T's Interchange services special incentives during the final stages of the network's development and launch. "The most important part of their content is that it is an information product, not just an access service," Rob Lippincott, vice president of content & publishing services for AT&T Interchange, told Newsbytes. "The program is a way to give you that editorial value at a great price." Also, each content publisher will sell the software that's needed to sign onto AT&T Interchange. Pricing for the services will be similar to an "ala-carte" scheme where users will pay for specific content providers, rather than paying for all services for one price. Interchange is "not a season ticket to the flea market," Lippincott said. For example, Star Tribune Online's charges will amount to $5.95 for the first five hours, and $2.95 for each additional hour. Lippincott added he expects other services to handle charges in a similar way. In addition, Lippincott said customers who sign up through ZD Net or Star Tribune will receive special charter membership pricing. The yet-to-be-launched Microsoft Network (MSN) has said it will charge its users in a similar fashion. On a side note, Newsbytes story content is also available through the Star Tribune Online. (Bob Woods/19950619/Press Contacts: Lisa Landa, 617-252-5211, or Jennifer Christensen, 617-252-5477, both of AT&T Interchange Online Network; Janice Brown, Janice Brown and Associates, 617-332-8066. Public Contact: Star Tribune Online, 800-343-4711; AT&T Interchange, 800-556-9018, for content publishers only) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 06/19/95 APPLE ****Apple Intros Power Mac 9500 With PCI Bus (NEWS)(APPLE)(SFO)(00027) ****Apple Intros Power Mac 9500 With PCI Bus 06/19/95 CUPERTINO, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1995 JUN 19 (NB) -- Meeting a promise it made earlier this year, Apple Computer Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) has announced the availability of Power Mac 9500 with a new RISC (reduced instruction set computer) processor and PCI (Peripheral Component Interconnect) bus. Additionally, Apple has announced a new color laser printer, a portable color printer, and other printer enhancements. The Power Mac 9500 is the first system to be added to the original family of three Power Macs. The new model becomes the high-performance model of the series. It is powered by a new RISC chip, the PowerPC 604 from Motorola. Apple says the 9500 offers two times the performance and three times the memory expansion over the previous top model Power Mac 8100/110. A spokesperson for Apple told Newsbytes, "Motorola and IBM tests shows the Power Mac 9500 using the 604, 120 megahertz (MHz) processor capable of running two times faster than a system using a Pentium 100MHz. Our own benchmark tests demonstrates the 604 (120MHz) outperforms the Pentium 100MHz by as much as three times on some floating point benchmarks." Along with the new processor, the Power Mac 9500 is the first Apple model to offer the PCI industry standard bus. Apple says more than forty PCI board developers have announced their commitment to create products for the new Power Mac. PCI architecture has increased performance levels for every type of product available on add-in boards. These products include high-speed networking, digital video production, communications, client/server products, and enterprise computing products. Apple says the 9500 is designed for professional publishers, graphics designers, video editors and other users who demand very high performance. The addition of PCI bus provides that type of performance. Apple also announced enhancements for the 9500 to its Mac OS (operating system). System 7.5.2 implements changes to the operating system which optimize the new processor and PCI bus. The new version of Mac OS includes Open Transport, a new networking software. Power Mac 9500 is available now and pricing starts at $4,999. Two different configuration of the 9500 are being offered. The $4,999 system has a 604 processor operating at a 120MHz clock speed with 16 megabytes (MB) of memory, one gigabyte (GB) of hard disk storage, a quad-speed CD-ROM drive, and an ATI video card. A second system, based on a 604 processor with a 132MHz clock speed, 16MB of memory, 2GB hard disk, and a quad-speed CD-ROM drive is available for $5,799. Apple also said more than 750 native applications are now available for the Power PC platform. (Patrick McKenna/19950619/Press Contact: Emilio Robles, Apple, 408-862-5671, Internet World Wide Web http://www.apple.com) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 06/19/95 LEGAL Microsoft, AOL Respond To US Court Of Appeals Ruling (NEWS)(LEGAL)(DEN)(00028) Microsoft, AOL Respond To US Court Of Appeals Ruling 06/19/95 REDMOND, WASHINGTON, U.S.A., 1995 JUN 19 (NB) -- Now that interested parties have had an opportunity to review the US Court of Appeals reinstatement of an anti-trust settlement agreement between the US Department of Justice and Microsoft, the players are beginning to make the frequently predictable comments on the ruling. Microsoft said it was "gratified" by the ruling that overturned District Court Judge Stanley Sporkin's earlier refusal to accept the consent decree between the Department of Justice and Microsoft. America Online (AOL), a subscription online service that will soon be challenged for user dollars by Microsoft's online offering The Microsoft Network (MSN), said now attention can be focused on whether Microsoft should be required to unbundle MSN from Windows 95, Microsoft's soon to be released operating system that will include access to MSN. "All we are seeking is a level playing field," said Steve Case, AOL president and chief executive officer. "Microsoft should either agree to unbundle MSN from Windows 95, or they should provide equal access within the operating system to other providers of interactive services. "Just as consumers of local telephone services are ensured choice -- and equal access -- to multiple providers of long distance services, personal computer owners should be ensured choice -- and equal access -- to multiple providers of applications software and interactive services," the AOL executive said in a prepared statement. Case said AOL isn't concerned about Microsoft's plan to enter the online market. "They have every right to provide an online service and consumers have every right to choose to subscribe to it," according to Case. Currently AOL is the fastest growing online service, although it is still in the number two spot on the subscriber totals list with about two million users. The top position is held by CompuServe with an estimated 2.7 million subscribers. According to the Information & Interactive Services Report (IISR) issued in April, AOL gained 500,000 new users, a 33 percent increase in its subscriber base, during the first quarter of 1995. IISR said CompuServe gained about half that many new customers in the same period. Competition is stiff for the dollars being spent by the burgeoning number of new online service users. IISR reports more than 7.3 million subscribers to online services, although it said about 20 percent of the users are signed on with more than one service, making the actual number of online households closer to 5.9 million. According to IISR Editor Rod Kuckro, more than 10,000 people are signing up with an online service every day. "If the pattern holds -- and there is no reason to believe it won't -- we'll break the 10 million mark before the end of this year," said Kuckro. Microsoft told Newsbytes having Windows 95 on your computer doesn't automatically make you a MSN subscriber. AOL access software is frequently bundled with personal computers. (Jim Mallory/19950619/Press contact: Microsoft, 206-882-8080 of 800-426-9400 or Pam McGraw, America Online, 703-556-3746) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 06/19/95 GOVT European Commission Looks At BT/Viag Deal (NEWS)(GOVT)(LON)(00029) European Commission Looks At BT/Viag Deal 06/19/95 BRUSSELS, BELGIUM, 1995 JUN 19 (NB) -- The European Commission (EC) says it is investigating a proposed joint venture between British Telecom (BT) in the UK and Viag AG, the Germany electro- chemical giant. The announcement is something of a blow to both companies, as it had been thought that the proposed joint venture, which aims to service the telecoms needs of other German companies in the Viag fold. Previously, Viag had thought the deal would not trouble the EC, as it was not aiming to offer public telecoms services in the true sense of the word. EC officials, meanwhile, have pointed out that the proposed joint venture still falls within the scope of Regulation 17 of the Treaty of Tome, which disallows anti-competitive behavior. According to the EC, even though the linkup between BT and Viag intends to stay within the Viag group as far as telecoms services are concerned, it can still be viewed as possibly anti-competitive. Interestingly, since the deal was formally notified to the EC in early March of this year, the EC had sixty days to register its intention to investigate the arrangement, or give the thumbs up. Neither action was taken, so, on a theoretical basis, the EC could be viewed as being in breach of its own rules. Any legal complaint over Viag Interkom, however, is unlikely to materialize, as this would almost certainly cause problems for future company dealings with the EC. Newsbytes notes that Viag Interkom also has plans to offer a range of international services from the BT-MCI joint venture known as Concert to Viag companies. This point, for the time being at least, appears to have escaped the notice of the EC mandarins. As reported by Newsbytes in January, on a technical level, Germany will not have a totally free telecoms market until January 1, 1998, as laid down by EC law. Even now, the linkup with Viag has still be formally detailed, but BT officials say they intend to apply for a full telecoms license in Germany at the first available opportunity. According to Max Ardelt of Viag's management board, the linkup with BT will allow both companies to offer national and international telecoms services in Germany. The market, he noted, is worth around DM70,000 million a year. (Sylvia Dennis/19950619/Press Contact: BT Corporate Relations, 0171-356-5369; European Commission, +32-2-299-1111) (SUMMARY)(GENERAL)(SFO)(00030) Newsbytes Daily Summary 06/19/95 PENN VALLEY, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1995 JUN 19 (NB) -- These are capsules of all today's news stories: 1 -> Multimedia Institute Planned For Canadian Museum 06/19/95 Backed by the federal government, the Province of Quebec, and private companies including Digital Equipment Corp. (NYSE:DEC), a National Multimedia Institute is to open at the Canadian Museum of Civilization this fall. 2 -> Europe - NEC Intros PowerMate V PCs 06/19/95 NEC has announced the launch of its high performance PowerMate V series. The PowerMate V366 and the VP75 are initially available in Europe. 3 -> Fixed & Mobile Telecoms Markets Converging - Report 06/19/95 "The prospect of increased liberalization in telecom markets throughout the world is kick- starting the market for fixed and mobile convergent services," claims Mari Vahanissi, co-author of a new report from Ovum, called "Fixed and Mobile Networks: the Business Opportunity for Convergent Services." 4 -> IBM Says Multimedia To Transform Business 06/19/95 IBM has published a paper covering the future of multimedia. Entitled "Enterprise Multimedia Servers -- The Movie Guide," the report claims that there is strong evidence to suggest that multimedia will "radically redefine the way business is done." 5 -> Database World - InSync Previews Passport 8.0 06/19/95 InSync Software's upcoming Passport 8.0 will add "dynamic partitioning" and a SQL (structured query language) event handler system, two features aimed at allowing development of streamlined applications, said Alan Tonnesen, company president, in a sneak preview for Newsbytes at Database World. 6 -> Personnel Roundup 06/19/95 This is a regular feature, summarizing personnel changes not covered elsewhere by Newsbytes: Ingram Micro, Dell Computer Corp., Ziff-Davis Publishing Co., Minnesota Software Association, SyQuest Technology, Convex Computer Corp., Silicon Graphics Inc., VeriFone Inc., Digital Equipment Corp., Oracle Corp. 7 -> Sony & Mobile Products Create Real Estate Listing Sys 06/19/95 Sony Electronics and Mobile Products Inc., have delivered a portable system for accessing, storing and retrieving up-to-the-minute property information from the Orange County Multiple Listing Service (MLS). The system will allow real estate agents in the field to down-load directly from the MLS. 8 -> Sony Ships Digital Satellite Systems 06/19/95 Sony Electronics has begun to ship its first digital satellite systems (DSS) products "on schedule," company officials said. Major national outlets, independent retailers, and satellite specialist dealers will be selling the new systems. 9 -> Microsoft Network US Providers Start To Appear 06/19/95 Microsoft Corp.'s (NASDAQ: MSFT) Microsoft Network (MSN) will launch in late August, and a few more content providers are surfacing. 10 -> Quarterdeck Unveils Strategy & Internet Products 06/19/95 With ex-Apple executive, Gaston Bastiaens, in the chief executive officer position, Quarterdeck has announced a new strategy. The company will continue to build on it utilities products while introducing a family of Internet products, Windows 95 products, and remote computing business products. 11 -> CD-ROM Lists Millions Of US Businesses 06/19/95 American Business Information Inc. (NASDAQ: ABII) has announced plans to develop a database on CD-ROM for use with Microsoft Windows that will list almost four million small businesses in the US that employ less than 100 workers. 12 -> Database World - Trinzic's RuleServer For 3-Tier Apps 06/19/95 "We're as serious as a heart attack about automating data," said Platinum Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Andrew "Flip" Filipowski, in a press conference at Database World. The event was held to unveil two new products from Trinzic: a "second-generation client-server tool" known as RuleServer for building three-tier applications, and an updated Forest & Trees. 13 -> Database World - Multi-Dimensional Apps For Pilot OLAP 06/19/95 In a press conference at Database World, officials of Dun & Bradstreet Software, A.C. Nielsen, IMS, and Sales Technologies explained how each company is using Pilot's LightShip Suite to provide multi-dimensional applications to different groups of users around a single OLAP (online analytical processing) architecture. 14 -> Database World - SAS Institute Intros OLAP++ 06/19/95 Unlike some other OLAP (online analytical processing) vendors, SAS Institute does not believe that MDDS (multi-dimensional database systems) are necessary to OLAP, said Jamie Robbins, in an interview with Newsbytes about "OLAP++ Solution," a set of object libraries, consulting services, and multi-dimensional capabilities unveiled at Database World. 15 -> Database World - Galaxy Adds Capabilities, Users 06/19/95 Visix is integrating its cross-platform Galaxy Application Environment with testing tools from Mercury Interactive and Segue, and with ORBs (object request brokers) from Iona, Expersoft, and PostModern Computing, said Barry Libenson, VP of business development, in a briefing for Newsbytes at Database World. 16 -> Database World - Visible Systems' US Franchise Program 06/19/95 "CASE (computer- aided software engineering) is our total purpose," declared Visible Systems Marketing Manager Stewart B. Nash, in an interview with Newsbytes at Database World, where Visible announced a new franchise program, plus deals with SHL Systemhouse and the Barents Group. 17 -> Singapore Opens New Cable TV Network 06/19/95 Singapore will launch a new cable television network this week. The new system goes live on June 23 to around 15,000 homes in the city's Tampines area. 18 -> Information Today Online With Mecklermedia 06/19/95 Information Today, a monthly technology newspaper, has begun an online service in association with Mecklermedia Corporation (NASDAQ:MECK). Selected articles from Information Today will be available through Mecklerweb iWorld, a World Wide Web site dedicated to technology news. 19 -> BudgetPC For DOS Does Financial Forecasting 06/19/95 Many developers are scrambling to get applications for Windows 95 ready, but MoneySoft Inc. has introduced a new financial forecasting program for the tens of thousands of PCs still running DOS software. 20 -> NewsPix Images For Newsbytes Publishers 06/19/95 These photos correspond to recent Newsbytes stories. They are online in the Newsbytes menu on GEnie, America Online, eWorld, NiftyServe, and the Newsbytes private bulletin board system in Minneapolis. JPEG files are larger in size, PICT files are designed as thumbnails for onscreen viewing. 21 -> Laplink Host For Windows Intro'd 06/19/95 Traveling Software Inc. has announced LapLink Host, a streamlined version of LapLink for Windows, designed to provide technical support, help desk, and management information system (MIS) personnel with a way to provide remote support to PC users. 22 -> Canadian Product Launch Update 06/19/95 This regular feature, appearing on the first day Newsbytes publishes each week, provides further details for the Canadian market on announcements by international companies that Newsbytes has already covered. This week: IBM's latest RISC System/6000 systems and Internet Connection family of products. 23 -> ****Zenith & PictureTel In Videoconferencing Deal 06/19/95 Zenith Data Systems Inc. (ZDS) and PictureTel Corp. (NASDAQ:PCTL) have announced they are teaming up in a worldwide, multi-year alliance to provide desktop videoconferencing bundled into ZDS computers. 24 -> IBM Adds RS/6000 Models Based On PowerPC 06/19/95 As it announced its first personal computers based on PowerPC chips, IBM (NYSE:IBM) also added models to its RISC System/6000 line of workstations and servers that are also based on the chips. The company also unveiled an update to its AIX variant of the Unix operating system. 25 -> DEC Adds Prioris Servers, Multimedia Devices 06/19/95 Digital Equipment Corp. (NYSE:DEC) has added new models in its Prioris line of servers, as well as multimedia enhancements for its HiNote notebooks and its Venturis and Celebris desktop personal computers. 26 -> ****AT&T's First Interchange Content Providers 06/19/95 AT&T's (NYSE:T) Interchange Online Network has announced a series of online information services will be entering the new network's cyberspace in the next few weeks. Star Tribune Online, from the Minneapolis/St. Paul- based Star Tribune, started its cyber-publishing today on Interchange. 27 -> ****Apple Intros Power Mac 9500 With PCI Bus 06/19/95 Meeting a promise it made earlier this year, Apple Computer Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) has announced the availability of Power Mac 9500 with a new RISC (reduced instruction set computer) processor and PCI (Peripheral Component Interconnect) bus. Additionally, Apple has announced a new color laser printer, a portable color printer, and other printer enhancements. 28 -> Microsoft, AOL Respond To US Court Of Appeals Ruling 06/19/95 Now that interested parties have had an opportunity to review the US Court of Appeals reinstatement of an anti-trust settlement agreement between the US Department of Justice and Microsoft, the players are beginning to make the frequently predictable comments on the ruling. 29 -> European Commission Looks At BT/Viag Deal 06/19/95 The European Commission (EC) says it is investigating a proposed joint venture between British Telecom (BT) in the UK and Viag AG, the Germany electro- chemical giant. (Ian Stokell/19950619) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 06/16/95 WINDOWS DEC Launches Software For Mobile Computing (NEWS)(WINDOWS)(TOR)(00001) DEC Launches Software For Mobile Computing 06/16/95 MAYNARD, MASSACHUSETTS, U.S.A., 1995 JUN 16 (NB) -- Digital Equipment Corp. (NYSE:DEC) said its new Mobilizer for Windows software will help mobile workers work more effectively when and where they like. The software combines electronic mail with access to files and databases from an office network. DEC said Mobilizer for Windows "mobilizes" files and databases by caching directories and files on a portable computer's hard disk and ensuring that updates on the portable get transferred to the central network and vice versa when the computer returns to the office. Instead of manually copying files from network drives to a notebook computer's hard disk, company spokeswoman Kathleen Greenler told Newsbytes, users can see the files as if they were connected to the network. For instance, files that appear on drive H on the network would seem to be on drive H on the laptop, though in reality they would be stored on the notebook's existing hard drive. The user selects which network files are to be "mobilized" by being copied to his or her notebook. When the user returns to the office and connects to the network, files that have been changed on the notebook are updated on the network and vice versa. If both the notebook and the network files have changed, the software pops up a dialog box allowing the user to choose one version or the other, or store one version under a different name for later comparison. DEC's software "mobilizes" database records in a similar way. Updates to database records from a notebook are subject to a database administrator's control, Greenler said. DEC has built the E-mail Connection software from ConnectSoft into Mobilizer for Windows, adding new features to support mobile computing. Users can download, read, and respond to mail off- line. The e-mail feature works with most popular electronic mail systems, DEC said. The software also has a Mobile Communications Manager that automates connections over wired and wireless communications links. It stores passwords for various communications services in a software "lock box" activated by a single password. DEC's RoamAbout Mobile IP wireless networking protocol stack is also part of the package. DEC will sell a single-user package of Mobilizer for Windows for $299, through value-added and vertical-application resellers starting in October. The software requires a 486 or higher processor with at least eight megabytes (MB) of memory and Microsoft Windows 3.1 or 3.11 or Windows for Workgroups 3.11. (Grant Buckler/19950616/Press Contact: Kathleen Greenler, Digital Equipment, 508-486-2177) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 06/16/95 BROADCAST TCI, Cable Companies To Distribute Zing Interactive (NEWS)(BROADCAST)(MSP)(00002) TCI, Cable Companies To Distribute Zing Interactive 06/16/95 ENGLEWOOD, COLORADO, U.S.A., 1995 JUN 16 (NB) -- Zing Systems, LP announced it has inked agreements with new cable partners Tele- Communications, Inc. (NASDAQ-NNM:TCOMA) (TCI), Comcast Corporation (NASDAQ-NNM:CMSCK), and Continental Cablevision, Inc. to distribute Zing's interactive television signals over those company's lines. Zing said its partners serve about 35% of the nation's cable homes. The new agreements give all networks and advertisers licensed by Zing the ability to deliver interactive programming to their viewers. John Reardon, president and chief executive officer of Zing, told Newsbytes the cable partners are needed because it is they who ultimately distribute all TV signals, including Zing signals, to their customers' homes. Zing is an interactive television system which lets viewers interact with all forms of broadcast, cable, and direct broadcast satellite (DBS) television transmissions. Those broadcasts can be either live or taped. Also, Zing signals can be put into the signal that's sent from a video cassette recorder (VCR) to the TV, meaning viewers can interact with tapes, whether they are recorded off the air, or purchased with programming already on them. "They can play games, they can do electronic polling and petitioning, they can purchase merchandise and things like that," Reardon said. Zing signals are encoded into the vertical blanking interval (VBI) of any television program or commercial. The signal is then received by the ZingDecoder set-top device that sends an infrared signal to a Zing remote device. Any information that's polled from the viewer, along with any purchases they've made interactively, is piped back to the programmer in question with the ZingDialer, which is an infrared modem. The whole system will cost around $150, including subscription fees, and will be available in specific markets in September, Reardon said. Currently, Zing has twelve networks signed on to provide Zing programming, including USA Network, the Sci-Fi Channel, The Discovery Channel, and The Family Channel, among others. Reardon said it was his goal to not have a hand in the actual content of the programs that carry his Zing signals. "I believe the creative people want to control the voice of their programs. So what we've done is create some very simple-to-use tools that work with Windows. A person who is trained in a day can sit down and create interactive programming." This announcement is one of many to come before the system goes "live" in limited markets in the fall, Reardon said. (Bob Woods/19950616/Press Contact: Renee Martin, Zing Systems, 303-488- 2521) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 06/16/95 IBM Database World - IBM Updates IMS Database, Middleware (NEWS)(IBM)(BOS)(00003) Database World - IBM Updates IMS Database, Middleware 06/16/95 BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS, U.S.A., 1995 JUN 16 (NB) -- A new release of IBM's IMS/ESA (Enterprise System Architecture), introduced at Database World, brings Parallel Sysplex support, wide area remote recovery, and several other major enhancements to the transaction manager (TM)/database (DB) product for mainframes, said Dan Wardman, IMS product family manager, in an interview with Newsbytes. An update to IMS Client Server for Windows, also unveiled at the show in Boston, adds PowerBuilder support to IBM's Windows-based middleware product for integrating "enterprise transactions" into client-server applications, the IBM exec told Newsbytes. "Our customers are large organizations with `mission-critical' applications," he said. There are now about 15 million IMS users worldwide, employing the hierarchical database manager for mainframes to process an average of 7.7 billion transactions per day, according to Wardman. Also for mainframes, IBM produces the DB2 RDBMS (relational database management system). Wardman said that the two key enhancements in the new IMS/ESA Version 5.1 are the new IMS Remote Site Recovery (RSR) capability and support for IBM S/390 Parallel Sysplex, a parallel processing environment aimed at allowing up to 32 mainframes linked together to behave like a single system. Prior to the new release, IMS provided another remote recovery capability called XRF, but XRF could only be used over distances of up to about 8 kilometers, Wardman acknowledged. In contrast, the new IBM RSR operates over distances of 50 miles or more, he asserted. Mitsubishi Bank, for instance, has used RSR at sites in Tokyo and Toro, Japan, to achieve system availability of over 1,600 business days with no unscheduled outages. The system at the Japanese bank reaches processing speeds of over 150 transactions per second (tps), he added. IBM RSR provides remote logging as well as a database replication option. When a system goes down and a remote site takes over, RSR can recover all databases in parallel with a single pass through the log data, according to Wardman. In contrast, traditional recovery methods generally require hundreds of utility jobs. The new IMS RSR capability supports IMS TM/DB, CICS/IMS DB, IMS DB batch, and IMS TM configurations. Also new in IMS/ESA 5.1 are a Virtual Storage Option (VSO) and other enhancements to Fast Path; support for the new MVS/ESA Workload Manager; capabilities for enabling "open access" to IMS TM from IBM and non-IBM networks; and support for CMOS (complementary metal oxide semiconductor)-based parallel processors and ES/9000 Models 511 and 711. The new Fast Path VSO is designed to provide faster access to data, with less contention, by permitting portions of Fast Path Data Entry Databases (DEDBs) to be mapped into an MVS dataspace. Fast Path furnishes a utility for converting existing Main Storage Databases (MSDBs) to DEDBs, plus an option of designating them as VSO, according to Wardman. This option allows MSDBs to take advantage of several characteristics of DEDBs that include two-phase commit, "support for the full hierarchical model," online utilities, and "improved and easier recovery." The MVS/ESA Workload Manager is designed to determine whether an IMS transaction or batch job will achieve established response time objectives, and to adjust MVS resources to help meet these targets. IMS ESA 5.1 also uses MVS OpenEdition facilities to make existing data and application logic available to multivendor clients through standardized interfaces that include DCE (Distributed Computing Environment) and POSIX, he said. OpenEdition DCE and the OpenEdition DCE Application Server/IMS supply remote procedural call (RPC) capability from a local area network (LAN) or workstation configuration to an IMS TM application. IBM's IMS Client Server for Windows is designed to provide developers using graphical user interface (GUI)-based tools with PC application programming capabilities and host-based IMS resources, Wardman said. The product can also access DB2 databases through IBM TM. IMS Client Server for Windows consists of a development toolkit, plus a set of runtime Windows Dynamic Link Libraries (DLLs). The new version 4.1 adds PowerBuilder support to the product's previous support for Visual Basic (VB), and also adds new "usability" enhancements, Newsbytes was told. The new IMS/ESA 5.1 and IMS Client Server for Windows 4.1 are both slated to become generally available this month. (Jacqueline Emigh/19950616/Reader Contact: IBM, 914-765-1900; Press Contacts: Rick Bause, IBM, 914-766-1750; Bob Shoberg, IBM, 408-463- 4084; Parna Sarkar, Brodeur & Partners for IBM, 617-622-2833) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 06/16/95 UNIX Database World - Amdahl Plans Product For Unix Networks (NEWS)(UNIX)(BOS)(00004) Database World - Amdahl Plans Product For Unix Networks 06/16/95 BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS, U.S.A., 1995 JUN 16 (NB) -- Through a newly inked deal with Novadigm, Amdahl will produce "A+ EMS," a Unix- based, integrated backup-and-restore/asset distribution product with "more extensive capabilities" than any other offering in the category, maintained Aurora M. Coya, an Amdahl VP, in a briefing for Newsbytes at Database World. The upcoming integrated software product will combine Amdahl's EFM (Enterprise File Manager) software with Novadigm's EDM (Electronic Desktop Manager), a product licensed to Amdahl this week under a two-year, $8 million contract, Coya revealed. Amdahl's EFM consists of the A+User Access automated tape backup and management facility, in addition to A+UniTree software for file system administration. "Novadigm's EDM is rated as one of the best asset distribution tools on the market," Coya told Newsbytes. EDM is designed to distribute and "continuously configure" client-server applications across thousands of networked servers and workstations. Amdahl's deal with Novadigm also allows Amdahl to sublicense EDM for stand-alone use in selected markets. The agreement with Novadigm reflects a "new Amdahl" that is characterized by increasing involvement in the client-server market, contended Coya, who is VP of the Atlantic Unit for Amdahl's Business Solutions Group, one of three Amdahl business units. The other two business units of the 25-year-old company are the Open Systems Group and the Enterprise Applications Group. Sunnyvale, California-based Amdahl continues to manufacture mainframe hardware, and also to produce MVS and mainframe application software, activities that have hallmarks since the company's founding, Coya said. But Amdahl was also responsible for developing A+ Solaris for Sun workstations; UTS, or "Unix for mainframes;" and the Huron application development environment, she added. Amdahl sells UTS direct, primarily to telephone companies. The company's "Unix for mainframes" software is especially popular with telephone companies, particularly the RBOCs (regional Bell operating companies), she reported. Huron is an object-oriented, iterative prototyping client-server environment, according to the Amdahl executive. The application development system is designed to run concurrently under MVS, Solaris, AIX, and HP-UX, and to allow full peer-to-peer application level interoperability between platforms. Amdahl plans to add support for Windows, Windows NT, and OS/2 later this year. In addition, through an alliance forged with Sun two years ago, Amdahl has become "the largest Sun VAR (value-added reseller) in North America," Newsbytes was told. In this capacity, Amdahl resells Sun hardware and operating systems with Amdahl-produced value-added applications software, Coya said. Amdahl carries out a similar role for Cray, and plans on extending these activities to other Unix platforms, as well, she said. "Why client-server?" she asked rhetorically. "We want to leverage our traditional strengths in building `mission-critical' systems within this new arena," the Amdahl VP told Newsbytes. (Jacqueline Emigh/19950615/Reader Contact: Amdahl Corporation, 408- 746-6000; Press Contacts: Kevin Woo, Amdahl, 408-746-6285; Traci Calderon, The Benjamin Group for Amdahl, 415-559-6090) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 06/16/95 NETWORK New Novell Group Points Way To Global Networks (NEWS)(NETWORK)(DEN)(00005) New Novell Group Points Way To Global Networks 06/16/95 OREM, UTAH, U.S.A., 1995 JUN 16 (NB) -- Novell Inc. (NASDAQ: NOVL) has created a new systems group the company hopes will lead the way in covering the globe with an easy-to-use, easy-to-manage computer network. Novell yesterday announced its new Systems Group which combines the functions of the previously separate Netware Systems Group and the Unix Systems Group. Those two divisions currently account for more than half of the company's revenue. The reorganization will not result in and downsizing or headcount reduction and no facilities will be consolidated or closed, said Christine Hughes, Novell senior vice president of marketing. The restructuring is a step in Novell's long term plan to blur the boundary between local and wide-area networks, "connecting people any time, any place," as the company expresses the plan. That plan calls for development of a technology that uses the best of the Netware and UnixWare software to produce a seamless pathway for computer users to find and use information no matter where it may be, without being aware of how that information was delivered to them. Novell already publishes a technology called NEST (Novell Embedded Systems Technology) that connects printers, copiers, faxes, cellular telephones, pagers, set-top cable television boxes, utility meters and even automobile systems through Netware-based networks. Toby Corey, Novell vice president of marketing in the newly formed Operations System Division, compares the NEST technology to the all-pervasive telephone system that has been in nearly every home and office in the country for years. Sheldon Laube, Novell chief technology officer, told Newsbytes the hybrid network system is not intended to replace or even compete with Microsoft Windows. Microsoft is scheduled to release the latest version of its operating system, Windows 95, in late August. Laube said Novell regards Microsoft Windows as just another client that will run on the network. Laube said the Super NOS (Network Operating System) is not a response to Windows NT. "Our strategy is not driven by Microsoft or any other company," said Laube. Hughes also told reporters Novell will drop the term Super NOS. "The terminology had unfortunate negative connotations," said Hughes. She declined to state what the replacement term would be. One feature of the Novell strategy will be a global directory, Network Directory Services, which Corey explained as analogous as the phone system, allowing the user to reach any point or person from any phone. Novell said the Novell system would be similar in that the user asks for a specific piece of information while using a computer. The global directory would route that request to the proper information source and provide what the user asks for, similar to the Internet. NDS will be available on Unixware by the end of 1995, said Hughes. To cast its web across the globe Novell has created a partnership with AT&T to use AT&T connect services to provide internetworking between the millions of Netware networks at a very easy level, said Laube. The company said the processing power of that many inexpensive servers operating as a single system will be the equivalent of today's specialized minicomputers and mainframes. Novell's revised organizational chart now reflects four divisions. The Operating Systems Division will be headed by Mike DeFazio, formerly of Unix Systems Group and now the senior vice president of development for the division. DeFazio will be responsible for the development and marketing of core operating systems as network clients. The Distributed Services Division is responsible for developing and marketing network services products such as Novell's Tuxedo transaction processing system. This division will also have the responsibility of bringing to market the expanded Netware Directory Services. The division is led by vice president and general manager, Joe Menard. The Extended Networks Division is responsible for NEST and is led by vice president and general manager Daryl McBride. The fourth division is the former Appware Division, which has been renamed the Tools Division. It will be guided by vice president and general manager Joe Firmage and will continue to develop tools for Netware network services and Unixware network applications servers. (Jim Mallory/19950615/Press contact: Kelly Hindley, Novell, 801-429-5870) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 06/16/95 TELECOM ****Senate Passes Telecom Bill, Action Moves To House (NEWS)(TELECOM)(WAS)(00006) ****Senate Passes Telecom Bill, Action Moves To House 06/16/95 WASHINGTON, D.C., U.S.A., 1995 JUN 16 (NB) -- The Senate's overwhelming passage of telecommunications reform, by a vote of 81-18, now puts the spotlight on the House, where two competing measures will get attention later this summer. A bill passed by the House Commerce Committee goes even further in deregulating telecommunications than the Senate bill, while a House Judiciary Committee bill would take a far different approach, giving the Justice Department a role in regulating telecommunications firms. Look for floor action in the House in July, and a joint House-Senate conference to work out differences in the measures in the early fall. The Senate measure includes a provision that has been wildly controversial among computer and online communications interests: a ban of smut on computer online networks, including the Internet. The provision would make it a crime punishable by fines of up to $100,000 and two years in jail for people who knowingly transmit indecent material over a network accessible to people under 18. The Senate smut provision would also block "lewd, lascivious, filthy or indecent" comments over computer networks. The measure was adopted Wednesday by a 84-16 vote as Senator after Senator stepped to the well to get on record as being opposed to porn. But civil libertarians object that the Senate provision is intrusive on private communications and likely to be unconstitutional, as an infringement on free speech. Sen. Patrick Leahy tried, and failed miserably, to sidetrack the porn provision. "None of us is in favor of pornography," he said, "But we can accomplish the goal of keeping pornography away from children without imposing a big new layer of government censorship and without destroying the Internet." Even some conservative Republicans found the rush to stamp out smut distasteful. "It's kind of a game to see who can be the most against pornography and obscenity," said Hatch. "It's a political exercise, and I'm against it." The measure would not hold online services responsible for material that got on their services without their knowledge, just as phone companies are not accountable for people who use phones to commit crimes. But the question of who is responsible on moderated online forums is unclear. Neither House bill has a similar anti-smut provision. The key to clearing the final Senate bill for passage was a compromise brokered by Senate Majority Leader Bob Dole (R-Kan.), Commerce Committee Chairman Larry Pressler (R-S.D.), and Democratic leaders. It would allow long-distance companies to compete sooner in the intraLATA market, the short-haul long-distance market that is very lucrative to the regional Bell operating companies. Under the deal, 10 states that have begun opening the intraLATA market would be allowed to go forward. But the short-haul business in the other 40 states would remain a Baby Bell monopoly for three years. Dole called the telecommunications bill, designed to rewrite and bring up to date the 1934 Communications Act that currently governs US policy, "Probably the most important bill we have considered all year, no doubt about it." Pressler said the Senate bill will be the roadmap for the information superhighway, and will introduce competition into every technology including broadcast, telephone and cable. But the White House is not particularly happy with the Senate measure. "More needs to be done to improve the legislation so that it will truly promote competition, benefit consumers and protect universal (telephone) service," said the White House in a written statement. The Bells were licking their chops and the long-distance carriers licking their wounds following Senate passage. The bill "strikes the balance that was necessary to get consensus from the Senate and should be a major influence on the shape of final legislation," said the Alliance For Competitive Communications, a Bell group. But AT&T grumbled that the Senate bill "falls far short of requiring that real local phone competition exists before the Bell companies can use their monopoly muscle to disadvantage long-distance customers and competitors." AT&T very much prefers the bills passed in the House, and especially the Judiciary Committee bill with its role for the Justice Department, AT&T's Jim McGann told Newsbytes. He said it looks like House action will come in mid-July. (Kennedy Maize/19950616/Press Contacts: Bill McCloskey, Bell South, 202-463-4129; Jim McGann, AT&T, 202-457-3942)) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 06/16/95 LEGAL Software Cops Get $266,000 Settlement (NEWS)(LEGAL)(WAS)(00007) Software Cops Get $266,000 Settlement 06/16/95 WASHINGTON, D.C., U.S.A., 1995 JUN 16 (NB) -- Great American Insurance Co., a nationwide insurance company based in Cincinnati, Ohio, has agreed to pay the Business Software Alliance $266,000 to settle claims of software piracy. In response to a tip to BSA's anti-piracy hotline and an investigation by the Washington-based trade group for the largest personal computer software publishers, Great America conducted a comprehensive audit of its software. The company found illegal copies of programs published by Lotus, Microsoft, and Novell, installed in computers at its headquarters against the company's own internal policies. In addition to making the payment to BSA, the insurance company agreed to delete the unlicensed programs and replace them with legal software. The $266,000 penalty was based on the suggested retail price for each illegal copy. "Great American cooperated fully with our investigation after we brought the information we received to the attention of management," said Bob Kruger, BSA's enforcement director. "This company operates many computers at multiple locations and the amount of unlicensed software constituted a relatively small percent of all programs installed." "Obviously, though," Kruger added, "in absolute terms, the number of unlicensed copies was very substantial. It goes to show that even the best managed companies must remain vigilant against the problem of unauthorized copying." BSA plows the money it receives from piracy settlements back into its international anti-piracy program. The settlements bring big money to the software group. In 1994, BSA's Kim Willard told Newsbytes, the trade group took in $3.8 million in settlements and fines and another $2.2 million was spent in legal purchase to replace illegal software. Since its inception in 1988, BSA has filed more than 600 lawsuits wordlwide against suspected software pirates. BSA operates 35 anti-piracy hotlines around the world. The US hotline is 800-688-BSA1. Willard said the US hotline logged 7,300 calls last year. (Kennedy Maize/19950616/Press Contact: Kim Willard, 202-872-5500, Internet email software@bsa.org) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 06/16/95 LEGAL ****Court Overturns Sporkin On Microsoft (NEWS)(LEGAL)(WAS)(00008) ****Court Overturns Sporkin On Microsoft 06/16/95 WASHINGTON, D.C., U.S.A., 1995 JUN 16 (NB) -- A federal appeals court in Washington today overruled a lower court judge and reinstated an antitrust settlement agreement between the Justice Department's antitrust division and Microsoft Corp. It's the first good news Microsoft has had from Washington this year, as Justice scuttled the proposed $2 billion acquisition of Intuit on antitrust grounds and is investigating Microsoft's new online network, which will be integrated with the new Windows 95 operating system software. A unanimous panel of the US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit ruled that District Court Judge Stanley Sporkin overstepped his authority in turning down the settlement agreement. The court also took Sporkin off the case, a stern rebuke to the aggressive jurist. Sporkin, former enforcement chief for the Securities and Exchange Commission and former general counsel to the Central Intelligence Agency under Director William Casey in the Reagan administration, had rejected a deal between Microsoft and Justice to settle a five-year-old investigation. The deal would have changed the way Microsoft licenses its system software. In challenging antitrust chief Anne Bingaman, Sporkin said, "Will the government give me a pen to sign, or can I use my own? I've got to have some role here." Both Microsoft and Justice appealed the Sporkin decision and Microsoft asked that Sporkin be taken off the case. The appeals court ruled this morning that "the proposed consent decree is in the public interest and the district court exceeded its authority in concluding to the contrary." In an opinion written by Judge Laurence Silberman, the court chided Sporkin for questioning why Justice did not seek a stronger settlement with Microsoft. "Remedies which appear less than vigorous may well reflect an underlying weakness in the government's case," wrote Silberman. Silberman also snapped at Sporkin for faulting the settlement because Microsoft did not admit to any wrongdoing. "We think the district judge's criticism of Microsoft for declining to admit the practices charged in the complaint, actually violated the antitrust, was thus unjustified." (Kennedy Maize/19950616/Press Contact: Greg Shaw, Microsoft, 206-882-8080)) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 06/16/95 ONLINE PKWare Warns Of Bogus PKZIP Program (NEWS)(ONLINE)(TOR)(00009) PKWare Warns Of Bogus PKZIP Program 06/16/95 BROWN DEER, WISCONSIN, U.S.A., 1995 JUN 16 (NB) -- PKWare Inc., is warning online users that a program that masquerades as a new version of its shareware file-compression program PKZIP will actually erase the user's hard drive when run. The program has appeared on an unknown number of bulletin board systems and other online sources. The files have appeared under the names PKZ300B.EXE and PKZ300B.ZIP. These are not the names of legitimate versions of PKZIP, the company said. Patrick Weeks, who works in product support at PKWare, told Newsbytes the company became aware of the bogus program in late May. "Somebody uploaded it to our bulletin board system to kind of let us know," he said. PKWare has passed the code on to makers of virus-detection programs such as Symantec and McAfee Associates so that they can make their virus-detection software aware of it, he added. The company has posted online messages to warn about the program, and Weeks said he believes the message is getting around quickly and the program has done minimal damage. "I have not had any tech support calls saying `I tried to run this thing and my hard drive got erased,' and I know that none of the other tech support people have either," he said. However, he added that at least a few users probably have been burned by the program. "It basically just tries to trash your hard drive when you run it and says some uncomplimentary things when it does it," he explained. Weeks said he does not know just how widely the nasty piece of software has been distributed or where it originated. The virus- detection developers are investigating, he said. The latest legitimate version of PKZIP is Version 2.04G, the company said. (Grant Buckler/19950616/Press Contact: PKWare, 414-354-8699, fax 414-354-8559; Public Contact: PKWare, 414-354-8699) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 06/16/95 GENERAL Japan Newsbriefs (NEWS)(GENERAL)(TYO)(00010) Japan Newsbriefs 06/16/95 TOKYO, JAPAN, 1995 JUN 16 (NB) -- In this roundup of news from Japan, Softbank shares up strongly; foreign semiconductor share down; Yomiuri Shimbun debuts on the Internet; Sanyo to build China battery factory; new Digital TU-KA company formed. Softbank Shares Up Strongly Shares in Tokyo based Softbank soared this morning on the Tokyo stock exchange a day after they were suspended because of reports of a tie up with American software giant Microsoft to produce games for the Windows 95 system. In early trading on the TSE Softbank climbed to 12,700 yen a share from Wednesday's close of 11,900 yen. Nintendo and Sega stock which fell yesterday on the news regained some of their losses. Foreign Semiconductor Share Down The market share of foreign semiconductors in Japan fell for the first time in a year over the January-March quarter but was still up on the same period a year ago. Figures released yesterday by the Japanese Ministry of International Trade and Industry showed foreign semiconductors had a 23.6% share of the Japanese market, down 1.1% since the previous quarter but up 1.6% on the year. US figures were broadly similar with the total share put at 22.8%, down 0.9% over the last three months but up 2.1% on the year. Yomiuri Shimbun Debuts On The Internet Japan's largest newspaper, The Yomiuri Shimbun, opened a World Wide Web home page on the Internet today. The newspaper is providing the daily editorials from its Japanese and English language editions as well as the biggest stories from its English newspaper. Future enhancements for the site include news from the Japanese edition, information on events the paper sponsors and a catalog of its books. Also joining the site soon will be The Hochi Shimbun, an associated newspaper and Nippon Television, key station of the national NNN network. The web address is http://www.yomiuri.co.jp/ Sanyo To Build China Battery Factory Sanyo Electric today announced it has a 75% share of Shenzhen Sanyo Huaqiang Energy Co., a new company based in Shenzen, China, that will produce batteries for the domestic Chinese market. Osaka-based Sanyo said the new company would help it expand into the Chinese market. New Digital TU-KA Company Formed A group of 41 companies will form a new company to provide digital mobile telephone services in Hokkaido, Japan's northern island. The new company will be called Digital TU-KA Hokkaido. The group is led by Nissan Motor Company and Japan Telecom and also includes Hitachi Ltd. Foreign shareholders include Air Touch International, British Telecom International, Cable & Wireless and GTE Mobile Communications International. Many of the same companies are already partnered in the TU-KA Phone Tokyo, TU-KA Cellular Tokai and TU-KA Kansai telephone companies in other areas of Japan. (Martyn Williams/19950616) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 06/16/95 ONLINE Internet Update (NEWS)(ONLINE)(TYO)(00011) Internet Update 06/16/95 TOKYO, JAPAN, 1995 JUN 16 (NB) -- In this roundup of new products and services on the Internet, Nomura company information online; new HTML guide; Japanese museum of culture; Web graphics script; E-law resource available; new version of NetTerm; Banff TV festival online; image of the month. Nomura Company Information Online Nomura Securities has begun an Japanese Corporate Information service on the Internet's World Wide Web. The focus of the site is on publicly available information of interest to financial analysts, investors and potential partners. World Wide Web: http://www.infojapan.com/infobiz/IR-info/index.html New HTML Guide Introductory HTML is a guide aimed at people who don't know HTML (hypertext markup language) but want to learn it. HTML is the language used in design of pages on the World Wide Web. The manual has already been chosen as a text for a university course on learning the language which accomplishes all of its formatting routines through simple tags around text. The manual was written by the Library Information Technologies at Case Western Reserve University. World Wide Web: http://www.cwru.edu/help/introHTML/toc.html Japanese Museum Of Culture The Morikami Museum and Gardens has established a site on the Web. Morikami is a US museum dedicated to the living culture of Japan. The museum includes galleries, gardens, exhibit hall and an authentic tea house. World Wide Web : http://www.icsi.com/ics/morikami/ Web Graphics Script A new script, wwwimagesize, for Web page designers is now available. It aims to make using image sizing tags in HTML easier. The script was based on the GIFsize package and now covers not only GIFs but JPEG and XBMS format images. The Perl script goes through your HTML files adding the width and height tags for you. World Wide Web: http://www.dcs.ed.ac.uk/home/ark/wwwimagesize/ E-Law Resource Available An archive of the Technology Law column published in the Chicago Daily Law Bulletin is now online. Additionally it contains links to lawyers online who are interested in laws that govern or may govern the Internet. World Wide Web: http://www.leepfrog.com/E-Law/ New Version Of NetTerm NetTerm 2.0 for Windows is just out. The software includes features such as a telephone book that can contain telnet site names, a scripting language for automatic login, support for WinSock and Z-modem file transfers. A phone dialer is also included for use on local bulletin boards and online services. World Wide Web: http://starbase.neosoft.com/~zkrr01/ Anonymous FTP: ftp://ftp.neosoft.com/pub/users/z/zkrr01/neterm20.zip Banff TV Festival Online This weekend sees the Banff TV Festival, one of the world's premiere television festivals. A Web site is now offering conference updates and news and will become an archive of presentations delivered after the event, which begins Sunday. Lists of award winners will also be posted during the festival. You can also take part in a contest to finish the sentence, "The best thing about Banff is ...". World Wide Web: http://www.cochran.com/banfftv Image Of The Month The Center for Advanced Studies, Research and Development in Sardinia is now conducting a contest to find the best scientific computer generated image each month. At its Web site you can view entrants, vote and see the winners in the new CRS4 image gallery. World Wide Web: http://www.crs4.it/~gavino/M_IMG_MONTH/best.cgi/comp/00 (Martyn Williams/19950616) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 06/16/95 BUSINESS China - Packard Bell Ready to Enter China (NEWS)(BUSINESS)(PEK)(00012) China - Packard Bell Ready to Enter China 06/16/95 BEIJING, CHINA, 1995 JUN 16 (NB) -- Packard Bell Electronics Inc., one of the top personal computer makers in the world, is ready to enter China, joining the heated competition in the Chinese PC market. Producing PCs since 1986, Packard Bell's sales have grown quickly to make it the largest PC supplier in the United States in the final quarter of 1994. Although popular in the United States, Packard Bell PCs are unknown to most Chinese. However, lured by the country's huge market potential, Packard Bell is planning an entry there. As a late comer, Packard Bell will use a different market strategy in a bid to catch up with its rivals, according to Mr. Lim, the company's managing director for the Asia-Pacific region. Most foreign computer giants such IBM, Compaq, AST, and Acer authorize representative companies to sell their products in China. However, Packard Bell will set up chain stores to sell computers instead of authorizing distributors, Mr. Lim said. The company has selected two partners, Xi'an-based (a inland city of Shanxi province) Seastar Group and Hong Kong's Cheflink Co. to explore China's PC market cooperatively. Chain stores are expected to be set up in major cities by September to exploit the year's buying season, which usually comes during the last quarter. Packard Bell will focus on the commercial and home PC markets. PCs in these chain stores will be cheaper than other brandname products, Mr. Lim said. The company will soon open a representative office in Beijing. It is also planning to set up a warehouse for components and several technology/service centers. Packard Bell set up an Asia-Pacific headquarters in Singapore in February, 1995, and plans a manufacturing facility at a location to be selected in China, Singapore or Malaysia, Mr. Lim disclosed. (Chih-Ho Yu & Ning Huang/19950609) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 06/16/95 BUSINESS Wang Acquires Applied Data Systems (NEWS)(BUSINESS)(TOR)(00013) Wang Acquires Applied Data Systems 06/16/95 BILLERICA, MASSACHUSETTS, U.S.A., 1995 JUN 16 (NB) -- Wang Laboratories Inc. (NASDAQ:WANG) has bought Applied Data Systems, a Chelmsford, Massachusetts-based maker of imaging software. Wang announced that it will sell two specialized imaging products developed by Applied Data, plus another new offering of its own. Terms of the agreement were not disclosed. Applied Data Systems, which has about a dozen employees, will become a subsidiary of Wang and operate as part of the larger firm's Specialty Solutions Group, a spokeswoman for Wang told Newsbytes. All of Applied Data's management and employees will remain, she added, and the company will stay in its present offices in Chelmsford. Wang said it will now sell Powertrak and Chartrak, both imaging software products developed by Applied Data. Powertrak is a land- records management package with modules for land records, court records, vital statistics, and Uniform Commercial Code records. It is widely used by county governments in the United States, the company said. Chartrak is a client/server patient records and information management system for health-care facilities. It provides access to patients' charts, x-rays, lab results, billing information, and other data. Chartrak also has record deficiency analysis, which means it monitors for missing information, and remote access capabilities. Applied Data has worked with Wang for some time as an imaging solutions partner. Wang also announced Physicians' Workstation, a patient-records system designed for use in outpatient care. It can obtain information from existing records or scan it in at the "point of care," Wang said. The system handles both administrative and clinical information. All three applications work with major database management systems and are available now. All three work with Microsoft Windows. Prices depend on configuration, Wang said. (Grant Buckler/19950616/Press Contact: Ed Pignone, Wang, 508-967- 4912; Frank Ryan, Wang, 508-967-7038) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 06/16/95 TELECOM SITA Readies World's First Global Telephone Network (NEWS)(TELECOM)(LON)(00014) SITA Readies World's First Global Telephone Network 06/16/95 LONDON, ENGLAND, 1995 JUN 16 (NB) -- US and UK phone subscribers have the advantage that they can dial trunk and international calls via a variety of carriers, usually at discount rates. But what happens if one's firm has offices in less telecom-enlightened countries? SITA, the global telecoms company, has the answer with what is being billed as the world's first truly global telecoms system. SITA already claims it has the largest private datacomms network in the world, with access to its network in 220 countries. Now it is readying a global voice network for launch in 50 countries by the end of the year. Pilot trials on the Global Voice Service (GVS) start next month with three organizations. To date, SITA has concentrated its activities on the airlines and associated businesses around the world, as they have the maximum requirement for global data services. The GVS facility, however, will be available to any company with international offices around the globe. The GVS network is based on Nortel's DMS100 central office platform and will support voice telephony, Group III fax (to 14,400 bits per second -- bps) and modem communications to V.34/28,800 bps standards, on a global basis. Customer companies will be expected to link into the SITA network using leased lines, although calls beyond the SITA network will be out-dialled in the destination country. Calls on the GVS network are known as on-net, while calls off the network are known as off-net. Initially, GVS will support on-net to on-net calls, on-net to off-net and on-net to virtual on-net calls. According to SITA, users will benefit from a flexible global dial plan of up to 18 digits, with support for a variety of options, including: private numbering plans; call screening and barring; call line identifier (CLI), call forward, name display, ring back when free, off-net access and speed dialling. Off-net access is probably of most interest to Newsbytes readers, since it allows callers in less liberalized countries, such as Germany, when away from the office, to place a local city call to the SITA GVS access point, key in a code, and make low-cost global calls. According to SITA, testing of the GVS facility will start next month with three major airline and air transport companies already committed to use the new Voice Service. GVS will be commercially available to SITA Group customers in October, 1995. Plans call for GVS to expand its GVS portfolio to include value-added telephony services such as videoconferencing, Automatic Call Distribution (ACD), managed call centers, PABX provision and management, Computer Supported Telephony (CST), and multimedia services. It's important to differentiate the SITA service with that of other telcos, such as AT&T and British Telecom, Newsbytes notes. While these companies have outbound calling from several countries, few can offer inbound service from almost any country in the world, as the SITA GVS network will offer when it rolls out fully to the world next year. Norman Terret, SITA's vice-president of marketing, said that the company is pleased to be able to offer GVS just six months "after announcing our intention to develop a voice network capable of creating competitive advantage for our customers." "Unlike other offerings, the SITA Group will provide its GVS as one company, with SITA offices in every country where the service is available to manage all aspects end-to-end. Furthermore, the SITA Group's international voice service complements our world-wide data services to offer the only truly single source for global telecoms services. According to Teret, SITA is also offering same both-way rates, plus zonal rates to simplify its tariff structure. The net result, the company claims, is simpler decision making for migrating to and ongoing management of a global Virtual Private Network offering. Plans call for billing to be available in any major currency, with full call itemization available, together with billing on paper, disk, CD-ROM and EDI (Electronic Data Interchange). Allan MacDonald, a spokesman for SITA, told Newsbytes that GVS will also be available to smaller companies on dial-up. Because many countries do not have "equal access" to ATCs (Alternative Telecom Carriers), this will usually require a local city call to be made to access the SITA network. From that point on, call charges are billed by SITA rather then the local telco. (Steve Gold/19950616/Press Contact: Profile PR +44-181-995-1595; Internet Email: richard_hewitt@profile.compuserve.com; Reader Contact: SITA +44-181-572-6161) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 06/16/95 TELECOM UK - Mercury Payphones Bought By Italian Company (NEWS)(TELECOM)(LON)(00015) UK - Mercury Payphones Bought By Italian Company 06/16/95 LONDON, ENGLAND, 1995 JUN 16 (NB) -- IPM Communications, a small Italian company, has acquired the Mercury Communications payphone network, which currently numbers 1,584 in the UK. The acquisition cost IPM nothing, as the cost of removing and "making good" the pavements would have cost Mercury around a million pounds, a Mercury spokesman told Newsbytes. "We've effectively given the payphones away with our blessings," explained Stephen Powers, a spokesman for Mercury, who added that the deal will involve IPM removing the Mercury coin and card-operated units and replacing them with coin-operated payphones. IPM Communications, the UK subsidiary of Italy's privately held IPM Group, plans to install its payphones by the end of this year, under the brand name of "Interphone." Plans call for IPM to invest around UKP 20 million over the next five years in upgrading and expanding the payphone network. The payphones will continue to use the Mercury voice communications network, Newsbytes understands, but IPM will take on the role of a reseller of the Mercury network's phone time. Mark Ballett, Mercury's operator services and payphone manager, said that the company will act in an advisory capacity to IPM in the change-over period. This will include the assignment of 10 Mercury staff to assist IPM with site and network issues, ensuring a smooth transition for customers. As reported by Newsbytes, Mercury decided last November to scrap its loss-making payphone operation in a bid to boost profits for the group as a whole. Since then, the operation has been gradually winding down, with the company warning that the payphones will be removed in due course. Although the payphones will take cash, credit cards will be an option, although their are no plans to offer IPM branded debit or charge cards. The Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) has granted IPM a public payphone licence in connection with the Mercury payphone service. Announcing the take-over of the payphone net, Carlo De Feo, IPM's President, said that users will be charged at rates similar to those of BT's network, but will benefit from a five pence call charge unit system, as well as "best coin return" to ensure change is given. "We're delighted to have been awarded a licence to operate a competitive public payphone service in the UK. We have 37 years in the payphone market which will help us to provide a quality service in the UK," he said. (Steve Gold/19950616/Press Contact: Mercury Press Office +44-171-528- 2161; Read PR +44-1730-9123; Reader Contact: Mercury +44-171-528-2000; Fax +44-171-528-2181; Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 06/16/95 BUSINESS China - Philips In Joint Ventures (NEWS)(BUSINESS)(PEK)(00016) China - Philips In Joint Ventures 06/16/95 BEIJING, CHINA, 1995 JUN 16 (NB) -- The global electronics giant, Netherlands' Philips Co., will increase investment in China to boost its joint ventures including Haufei Color Display System Co. Ltd., and Shanghai Electronic Sensors Company. Attracted mainly by China's huge potential market, electronics and computer giants including Philips, Hewlett-Packard, IBM, DEC, Apple, Compaq, NEC, and AST, have invested or promised to invest in the country. Many of them have plans to increase their investments in China. Philips will invest US$200 million in the second phase project of a profitable joint venture in Nanjing, Haufei Color Display System Co. Ltd. The joint venture, which has absorbed $180 million over the past seven years, is the largest Philips-funded enterprise in China. In 1994, Haufei Color Display Co. generated sales of RMB1.16 billion yuan (US$136 million) and profits totaled 110 million (US$13 million). Philips is also increasing its presence in Shanghai. Recently, Philips Electronics Southeast Asia Holdings moved into the Jianqiao Export Processing Park in Shanghai's Pudong Development Zone. This brings the number of multinational corporations investing in the new development area to 58. Philips has launched a joint venture with Shanghai Electronic Sensors Company with an investment of $24 million. (Chih-Ho Yu & Ning Huang/19950615) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 06/16/95 TELECOM Nortel Gains FCC Certification For 1900MHz PCS Technology (NEWS)(TELECOM)(LON)(00017) Nortel Gains FCC Certification For 1900MHz PCS Technology 06/16/95 BRUSSELS, BELGIUM, 1995 JUN 16 (NB) -- Nortel (Northern Telecom) has announced it has become the first telecoms manufacturer to obtain full certification of its 1,900 megahertz (MHz) PCS (Personal Communications System) digital mobile phone technology from the FCC (Federal Communications Commission) and the Underwriters Laboratories (UL) in the US. According to Dave Twyver, Nortel Wireless Networks' president, the company's PCS 1900 radio base station is now certified as compliant with Part 15, Part 24, and Part 68 of the FCC rules governing operation of radio frequency equipment -- a requirement for commercial sales in the US. The Underwriters Laboratory, meanwhile, has listed Nortel's base station technology as compliant with UL 1950, which details the "safety of IT (Information Technology) equipment, including electrical business equipment." "With FCC and UL certification, Nortel is rapidly moving PCS in the US from experimental status to commercial reality," Twyver explained, adding that consumers are telling the company "in record numbers that they want convenience, security, and productivity" from their mobile communications products. According to Twyver, because of this, Nortel is ramping its new PCS radio manufacturing facility in Raleigh, N.C., "to meet the tremendous demand for networks to provide these services." (Sylvia Dennis/19950615/Press Contact: Beatrice Bichon, Nortel Matra Cellular +33-13452-6028; Reader Contact: Nortel World Trade: +44-1628- 812050) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 06/16/95 TELECOM Ericsson Receives Order From Tokyo Digital Phone (NEWS)(TELECOM)(LON)(00018) Ericsson Receives Order From Tokyo Digital Phone 06/16/95 STOCKHOLM, SWEDEN, 1995 JUN 16 (NB) -- Ericsson has received an expansion order from Tokyo Digital Phone (TDP) worth around 12 billion Yen, Newsbytes has learned. According to Ericsson, terms of the contract call for the Swedish telecoms giant to supply a significant quantity of TDP's telecoms switching equipment, radio base stations and networking technology to expand TDP's digital mobile telephone network. The deployment of the new equipment should start in September of this year, with the hardware being used to expand TDP's network in existing areas, as well as rolling the network out to cover the Nagano region, where the 1998 Winter Olympics will be held. Plans call for the TDP network to cover around 87 percent of the population in the Kanto-area (Tokyo, Kanagawa, Yohohama and surrounding prefectures) by the end of 1997, officials said. Digital and analog telephony is taking off in a big way in Japan, Newsbytes notes. To date, more than 4.3 million phone users have signed up for mobile telephones and this figure is expected to grow expotentially over the next few years as the "digital handyphone" services become available on a wide scale. (Sylvia Dennis/19950615/Press Contact: Per Bengtsson, Ericsson Business Area Radio Communications +46-8-757-2159; Reader Contact: Ericsson Toshiba Telecom Japan +81-45-475-0033) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 95 06/16/95 PC Gateway 2000 Intros 133MHz Desktop PCs, Free Win (NEWS)(PC)(DEN)(00019) Gateway 2000 Intros 133MHz Desktop PCs, Free Win 95 06/16/95 NORTH SIOUX CITY, SOUTH DAKOTA, U.S.A., 1995 JUN 16 (NB) -- Gateway 2000 (NASDAQ: GATE) plans to ship its new Intel Pentium-based 133 megahertz (MHz) desktop PC within 10 days, and is offering a Microsoft Windows 95 upgrade with lifetime technical support at no additional charge when you buy one of the company's PCs. The basic configuration of the Gateway 2000 P5-133XL desktop PC includes 16 megabytes (MB) of EDO (Extended Data Out) memory, a 256-kilobyte (KB) pipelined burst cache and a 1.6-gigabyte (GB) IDE (Integrated Device Electronics) hard drive. You also get a 17-inch color display and an ATI Mach 64 video card with 2MB of video memory. Also included with the $4,399 P5-133XL is a three-drive quad-speed CD changer that can play data, music and photo CDs. Three discs can be loaded simultaneously, with the user switching between them. A 16-bit wavetable sound card and speakers along with a 28,800 bits-per-second (bps) fax/data modem complete the base hardware configuration. With the high speed modem comes communications software that includes FaxWorks and trial memberships to the CompuServe, America Online and Prodigy online subscription services. Gateway said all its new PCs are Plug and Play capable, meaning they can use the feature of Windows 95 that detects and configures Plug-and-Play compatible components automatically. Plug-and-Play also senses changes in system configuration during use, such as adding a printer or an expansion card, and adjusts for those changes without user intervention. In addition to the free Windows 95 being offered to new purchasers, Gateway spokesperson Kris Wilen told Newsbytes the company is taking orders for a Windows 95 upgrade for current Gateway owners. The price is $99 on CD-ROM and $109 on diskette effective immediately. The Buyers will receive the Windows 95 manual immediately and the software will ship when Microsoft makes it available. Currently that is set for late August 1995. Wilen said the customer won't be billed until the software is sent. Gateway said it is ready to offer onsite installation of Windows 95 and system upgrades such as more memory to support Microsoft's new operating system. Wilen said Gateway's current service provider, Hewlett-Packard, will perform those upgrades. Gateway will also offer fee-based support for users who purchase their Windows 95 operating system software from other providers. Gateway also announced support for the Philips-Sony version of a new compact disc format that allows 7.4 gigabytes (GB) of data to be stored on one of the shiny rainbow-hued discs. Philips said Gateway is the first PC manufacturer to back its format. The single-sided Philips-Sony format will vie for market share with a double-sided version being developed by Time Warner Inc. and Japan's Toshiba Corp. That format is expected to be available in mid-1996, with the player selling for about $500 and the discs going for $30 each. No pricing has been mentioned in connection with the Philips-Sony drive yet. Gateway provides onsite service at no charge during the first year following purchase of one of its systems, if support staffers determine that is necessary. The company offers a lifetime toll-free technical support via telephone, and all desktop systems are covered by a three-year parts warranty and a 30-day money back guarantee. (Jim Mallory/19950615/Press contact: Kris Wilen, Gateway 2000, 605-232-2702; Public contact: Gateway 2000, 605-232-2000 or 800-523-2000) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 06/16/95 BUSINESS Hong Kong - Start-up Gets Datacraft/Microcom Rights (NEWS)(BUSINESS)(HKG)(00020) Hong Kong - Start-up Gets Datacraft/Microcom Rights 06/16/95 CENTRAL, HONG KONG, 1995 JUN 16 (NB) -- Datacraft Datacommunications has assigned sole distribution rights of its flagship modem products in Hong Kong to a start-up company. Infodata Ltd. will oversee sales channels for modem products from Microcom of the US which Datacraft Asia represents exclusively in China, Hong Kong, Taiwan and Singapore. "While it's a new company, Infodata is staffed by communication specialists well-known to us," said Michael Mak, country sales manager for Datacraft Hong Kong. "The personnel are particularly experienced in remote access solutions, for which the Microcom modems are ideally suited. Infodata, for its part, is hoping the Datacraft deal will help it build a reputation in Hong Kong. "Datacraft is known for maintaining high standards so our agreement with it is certainly to our advantage," said the company's marketing manager, Alex Chan. According to Datacraft, Microcom has overcome the speed bottlenecks of using a serial interface by building a parallel interface alternative, to deliver compressed data throughput of more than 300 Kbps. The modems also feature the industry-standard Microcom Networking Protocol or MNP, also created by Microcom, which optimizes throughput speeds under any line conditions. Meanwhile, in Thailand, Datacraft has scored again with two orders for satellite circuit termination equipment. Valued at over US$725,000 the deals were struck with SiamSat, one of Thailand's new satellite telecoms service providers, and Accumen (a subsidiary of the Jasmine International group), a large Thai telecommunications conglomerate. Undoubtedly based on its past success in installing similar systems in Thailand, Datacraft Thailand has been asked to supply a range of voice/data multiplexers which, combined with the VSAT transmission equipment, allows satellite telecom service providers to build a high quality transmission infrastructure for enterprises that need connectivity beyond the reach of the largely unreliable Thai telephone infrastructure. The Thai Government has issued licences to operate satellite services for corporations that need to interconnect computers and telephones located in different sites around the country. Datacraft Asia has already installed US$8.5 million worth of equipment for several Thai service providers. (Mike Dunn/19950615) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 06/16/95 TELECOM Max To Put Hong Kong At The Wireless Forefront (NEWS)(TELECOM)(HKG)(00021) Max To Put Hong Kong At The Wireless Forefront 06/16/95 CENTRAL, HONG KONG, 1995 JUN 16 (NB) -- Motorola AirCommunications believes Max, its new US$40 million wireless data service, will put Hong Kong at the forefront of the development of wireless data services. Max is a full function wireless data service, which combines wireless e-mail and fax messaging with an open platform for wireless application development. The company is already working with several third party developers to provide wireless applications for the network, which it hopes will make Hong Kong into a showcase for wireless data services. Speaking at the launch of Max, Robert Growney, Motorola's executive vice president and general manager of its messaging, information and media sector said: "Motorola invites the world to watch the Hong Kong niche seed the global wireless data industry." Max operates on AirComms' Hong Kong DataTac 5000 network. DataTac 5000 networks operate at 19.2 kbps, making them the fastest packet data networks to date. Similar networks have been installed by AsiaPAC Radio Data Net consortium, a Motorola AirComms-led group of Asian telecommunication carriers in Australia, Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand and other Asian countries. It is planned that the networks will eventually be linked up to provide Asia-wide roaming. In order to promote third party applications, AirComms has launched the Air family of applications, a series of applications developed jointly by AirComms and third parties. The first of these is AirBroker, which was developed in cooperation with Reuters and Sun Hung Kai. The application allows Max users to access up-to-the-minute financial and investment information from international stock exchanges, as well as make stock and foreign exchange trades on-line. Another new application, currently in beta testing, is AirBet from the Royal Hong Kong Jockey Club, which is aimed at horse racing fans. Future applications will cover on-line banking, shopping, cinema and theatre reservations, as well as interactive games. However, Max already includes several productivity tools such as appointment and phone books, which can be updated remotely. At the same time, Max also provides file transfer and can provide continual updates on such things as charges, network and power status and proximity to a base station. Max can be used with any notebook, palmtop or PDA (personal digital assistant) with a PCMCIA Type II slot. Connections are made through a wireless data modem such as Motorola's Personal Messenger 100D (PM100D). The company claims the modem, which was also unveiled yesterday, is the smallest and fastest wireless data modem available. However, users will not always be limited to the HK$5,000 Motorola modem. Motorola AirComms managing director, Pam Thompson, said the Aircomms network could be accessed by any wireless modem, and that the company had chosen the DataTac 5000 system because it is an open system. She also said the company would soon be making a new model from IBM available in Hong Kong. For an initial trial period of four months, subscriptions to Max are being charged at a flat rate of HK$688 per month. However, after this period two service plans will be offered to subscribers. The first plan will cost HK$688 (US$88) for 900 free packets, while for heavier users a second plan offers 1400 free packets at HK$980 (US$125) per month. Any excess will be charged at HK$1 (US$0.13) per packet. (Mike Dunn/19950615) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 06/16/95 TELECOM Alcatel Installs Indonesia Cable (NEWS)(TELECOM)(HKG)(00022) Alcatel Installs Indonesia Cable 06/16/95 CENTRAL, HONG KONG, 1995 JUN 16 (NB) -- Alcatel Submarine Networks has won a US$35 million contract to supply and install a submarine fiber optic telecommunications system in Indonesia, from Jakarta to Surabaya. The cable will cover 730 km in a maximal sea depth of 6,000m and will operate at a transmission capacity of 5GB over one fiber pair. The system's seven in-line repeaters will utilize synchronous digital hierarchy and optical amplification. The system is scheduled to be ready for service at the end of 1996 and will offer access to Europe, Northeast Asia, the US and Australia via existing networks, all either wholly or partly supplied by Alcatel. Meanwhile, Alcatel Espace, a subsidiary of Alcatel, in partnership with American company Space Systems/Loral, has won a tender from Mabuhay Philippines Satellite Corporation for the production of the Philippines' first domestic satellite. Valued at US$200 million, the contract covers the production of a satellite, launching services, space insurance, ground control segment and training of operators. The satellite will be the highest-performing domestic satellite in the region and will include 30 C-band channels, 8 Ku-band channels providing telephony and direct TV broadcast services. (Mike Dunn/19950615) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 06/16/95 TELECOM Ericsson Supplying GSM Technology To Vietnam (NEWS)(TELECOM)(LON)(00023) Ericsson Supplying GSM Technology To Vietnam 06/16/95 STOCKHOLM, SWEDEN, 1995 JUN 16 (NB) -- Ericsson has announced the signing of a "frame agreement" to supply GSM technology to the Vietnam Mobile Telecom Services Company (VMS). The agreement was signed at a special ceremony at Ericsson's Stockholm headquarters earlier this month, and included a delegation from Comvik International AB, who are also involved in the contract. Terms of the US$30 million contract call for Ericsson to work closely with Comvik in the supply of GSM (Global Systems for Mobile communications) equipment to VMS, with equipment shipments expected to start this August. Earlier this year, the Vietnamese Government awarded a licence to VMS and Comvik to build and operate the country's first national digital cellular network. At the moment, a pilot GSM network is in operation in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City, with around 6,000 subscribers online. According to VMS, this second commercial phase of the GSM project should boost the network to cover a significant area of Vietnam by the end of the year, by which time around 20,000 subscribers will be online to GSM. Expansion of the GSM net will initially take the GSM service to Danang, Haiphong and Hue, as well into the Mekong delta region by the end of the year. Plans call for the whole of Vietnam to have GSM digital coverage by the end of 1997. (Sylvia Dennis/19950616/Press Contact: Caroline Freudenthal, Ericsson Press Office +46-8-404-2225; Reader Contact: LM Ericsson International +84-4-237543) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 06/16/95 ONLINE UK Company Offers Corporate Web Publishing Services (NEWS)(ONLINE)(LON)(00024) UK Company Offers Corporate Web Publishing Services 06/16/95 STANMORE, MIDDLESEX, ENGLAND, 1995 JUN 16 (NB) -- InternetWeb has announced it is offering World Wide Web publishing services on the Internet. According to David Gold, chairman of the company, the service is aimed at corporates rather than individuals, and offers extra facilities not normally available on Web publishing services. #IMAGE 1 20 TWPCX \images\95061624.PCX Click here for photo Gold told Newsbytes that the service has its own server on the Internet, linked into the Internet over a 64,000 bits per second (bps) leased data line which costs the company UKP 13,000. "That illustrates the level we're pitched at," he said. InternetWeb's annual charges kick off at UKP 600 for a set of pages with the company name and contact details, together with 500 words about the company. UKP 900 gets the same package, but with graphics. A further UKP 500 gets subscribers their own annual Internet e-mail account with Pipex, including a "hot button" on the subscriber's Web pages to auto-send email to the subscriber's account. Extra Web pages cost UKP 120 a year, with consultancy services available on request. "We offer companies a complete service on the Web. We also forward the details of the client's pages on to the various Internet indexes around the world, to ensure that the pages have maximum exposure," Gold said, adding that he sees the Internet as having great potential in terms of end user access to information. In its promotional literature, InternetWeb argues that the Internet is one of the greatest strategic assets now available to an organization, and that, without an Internet presence, companies will rapidly fade from view. As well as company information display, Gold is keen to see Web clients offering goods and services on their pages. "I've watched the competition such as BarclaySquare (Barclays Bank Internet service), which I think is unsuitable as a shopping medium," he told Newsbytes. Why unsuitable? Gold argues that people do not go to a bank for shopping. They go to a bank for banking. "We have a variety of information on our pages, including a little adult information, erotica, call it what you like. That has generated a lot of interest. I asked Barclays if they would put adult info on their pages and they said not. That shows how open they are with their service," he said. Gold says that the Internet has massive potential in information publishing terms, since it allows almost anyone to publish their own info on the service on any subject they like. InternetWeb's WWW pages can be found at http://www.internetweb.co.uk. (Steve Gold/19950616/Press & Reader Contact: InternetWeb +44-181-954- 5454; Fax +44-181-954-2114; Internet Email: sales@internetweb.co.uk/ INTERWEB950616/PHOTO) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 06/16/95 APPLE CD-ROM Program Teaches More Creative Photography (NEWS)(APPLE)(DEN)(00025) CD-ROM Program Teaches More Creative Photography 06/16/95 SEATTLE, WASHINGTON, U.S.A., 1995 JUN 16 (NB) -- Diamar Interactive has released "Learning to See Creatively," the second in its CD-ROM-based Better Photography Series. The disc is being released in conjunction with a photographic book from Amphoto and you can get the disc by itself or bundled with the book. #IMAGE 1 20 TWPCX \images\95061625.PCX Click here for photo Earlier this year Diamar released "Understanding Exposure," which is also available bundled with a companion book. Photographer and instructor Bryan Peterson authored both books, which offer examples of the techniques discussed in the lessons on disc. "Learning to See Creatively" includes video and audio descriptions of practical composition techniques plus more than 700 of Peterson's best photographs. The lessons follow the structure of Peterson's actual teaching seminars. The program includes six Interactive Theaters offering such topics as The Magic of Available Light and Expand Your Vision with Lenses. A series of workshops cover 88 topics that can be personalized according to the user's preferred learning style. A Before and After area shows almost 300 pairs of photographs to demonstrate how different the same scene and subject can look like when you alter the composition of the photo. There are also five Galleries that contain hundreds of photographs, and the Photolab section lets the viewer experiment with different lens speeds, aperture and film speed choices and immediately see the effect on the photo. "Learning to See Creatively" with the bundled book has a suggested retail price of $79.95, or you can purchase the disk alone for $59.95. The single disc in the package contains both Macintosh and Windows versions, and a simple setup routine installs QuickTime for Windows if you are a PC user and QuickTime, the Apple Multimedia Tuner and Sound Manager for Macintosh users. To run "Learning to See Creatively" Windows users need a bare minimum of four megabytes (MB) of available memory, Windows 3.1 or later, a hard disk with 4MB of available space, a 13-inch VGA monitor set up to display 256 colors, and a double speed or faster CD-ROM drive installed in at least a 386SX-based system. Diamar strongly recommends 8MB of memory, although the program does include a 4MB version. Mac users need an Apple Macintosh II or higher, the System 7.0 or later operating system, a hard disk with at least 2MB of available disk space, a CD-ROM double speed or faster drive, a 256 color monitor and 4MB of memory. The company said the software is compatible with the Power Macintosh. Later this summer Diamar will release a set of how-to CD-ROM titles for the golf enthusiast. "Breaking 100" and "Breaking 90" are being published as a partnership with Golf Tips Magazine. (Jim Mallory/19950615/Press contact: Kathy Romig, Diamar Interactive, 206-340-5975; Public contact: Diamar Interactive, tel 206-340-5975 or fax 206-340-1432/CREATIVE950616/PHOTO) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 06/16/95 BUSINESS ****Medio Multimedia May Face Bankruptcy (NEWS)(BUSINESS)(DEN)(00026) ****Medio Multimedia May Face Bankruptcy 06/16/95 REDMOND, WASHINGTON, U.S.A., 1995 JUN 16 (NB) -- Medio Multimedia, a company that publishes software and a monthly magazine on CD-ROM and has its magazine online on the Internet, is in financial trouble and could be facing bankruptcy if it can't find an immediate infusion of cash. Medio President Steve Podradchik told Newsbytes the company is a month behind on its payroll, having been able to make only partial payments to its employees on the May 31 payroll and again this week. In an interview with Newsbytes, Podradchik repeatedly praised the loyalty of Medio's employees for sticking with the company through difficult times. "They are a great bunch of people," Podradchik said. After laying off about half of its staffers two weeks ago Medio now has 35 employees. Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen, who already has a multi-million stake in Medio, could be the company's financial white knight. Allen invested what Podradchik described as an amount "in the low millions" last year. A spokesperson for Allen's company told Newsbytes Allen will consider putting additional funds into Medio if the company can also find another investor. However, insiders say the chance of that happening is slim. When Allen initially invested in the company, Podradchik said, the infusion of capital was the jump-start to boost the company into its next growth phase. In October 1994 Medio announced IBM would include two of its products, Medio Magazine and World Beat, with each of its ThinkPad 755CD notebook computers. At that time Medio said about 20,000 copies of the CD-ROM magazine were being sold. The disk has nine sections of information, including entertainment, sports, business and finance, news, kidstuff, reference, lifestyles, science and technology and backtalk. Podradchik said he has talked to what he described as "a good number of people" interested in investing in Medio or buying the company, but acknowledged it is difficult to get a decision of that magnitude in the short time available. Podradchik was in California earlier this week meeting with prospective investors, and remains positive he will be able to locate an investor or a buyer for the company. Medio faces a tough sell in the rapidly growing multimedia market where experts say it can cost as much as $500,000 to produce a CD-ROM-based computer program, with the cost going as high as $5 million for a very sophisticated blockbuster program. Medio released its first CD-ROM software, "JFK Assassination: A Visual Investigation" about 18 months ago. (Jim Mallory/19950616/Press contact: Tamese Robinson, Kaufer Miller for Medio Multimedia, 206-450-9965; Public contact: Medio Multimedia, 206-867-5500) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 06/16/95 ONLINE CompuServe Replaces GIF With PNG Graphics Standard (NEWS)(ONLINE)(SFO)(00027) CompuServe Replaces GIF With PNG Graphics Standard 06/16/95 COLUMBUS, OHIO, U.S.A., 1995 JUN 16 (NB) -- After getting caught in the middle of a Unisys copyright/royalty controversy over the use of GIF files, CompuServe said it would develop a new graphics image specification which would avoid the royalty problems. Six month later, CompuServe says it has completed the PNG specification. The online world was in an uproar when CompuServe announced it would have to collect the royalties requested by Unisys for the use of graphic images using the GIF89a specification. This meant standard GIF files common to the Internet, professional graphics and online communities. In response, CompuServe said the only way to avoid the copyright issue was to develop a new graphics specification. Rather than replicate the 8- bit GIF specification, CompuServe developed the PNG (pronounced PING) specification as a true 24-bit, 16-million color format. Addressing the new specification, R. Pierce Reed, spokesperson for CompuServe, told Newsbytes, "We hold the copyright to PNG, but we will not enforce it. PNG is open to everyone and we will see that the specification and toolkit are distributed freely." He suggested CompuServe would consider releasing the copyright to a standards organization so that the company would be completely free of any questions concerning proprietary use. Newsbytes also learned a conversion utility which will give users and developers the ability to convert existing GIF files is being created. Reed warned, "Keep in mind, this is not an overnight thing. The complete change to this new specification could take two years. The first step is to get the toolkit into the hands of developers so applications can be built using PNG. Once PNG graphics files start appearing, viewers will become available." "One thing I want to emphasize is that after all commotion settled, we received a lot of creative input from the Internet and the professional graphics communities. We really do have to compliment these communities for their contributions." The PNG specification is free of the LZW software around which the copyright issue arose. PNG uses a compression technology called "deflation" used in freeware Info-Zip programs. Expect to see the toolkit and the conversion utility in the next few weeks. (Patrick McKenna/19950616/Press Contact: R. Pierce Reed, CompuServe, tel 614-538-4571) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 06/16/95 TELECOM European Commission To Push For Advanced ISDN (NEWS)(TELECOM)(LON)(00028) European Commission To Push For Advanced ISDN 06/16/95 BRUSSELS, BELGIUM, 1995 JUN 16 (NB) -- In what appears to be the beginning a second wave of telecoms mandate legislation, the European Commission (EC) has ruled that telecoms companies on a pan-European basis must offer Euro ISDN, an advanced form of ISDN (Integrated Services Digital Networks) to all customers, within a time scale to be decided. The move follows a similar mandate that all EC member countries must open up their telecoms markets to competition by January 1, 1988. The problem for many telcos is that their networks often do not support Euro ISDN, an advanced version of ISDN that supports videoconferencing and other multimedia communications, even in the cities, let alone in the more rural parts of their network. Under a ruling known as COM (93) 347, the European Commission wants all telcos to offer equal access to Euro ISDN to all subscribers on the network. Critics of the new legislation have pointed out that this mandate could force some telecoms companies to actually hold back the introduction of Euro ISDN on their networks until all of their network is up to mark on the technology. Fine tuning on the bill will take place over the coming months, to meet specific comments by Euro MPs (Member of Parliament). Newsbytes notes that, in a preliminary vote by the EC recently, the Commission voted to delete the words "shall not prejudice any financial commitment by a member state of the Community," which suggests that the bill may go through several revisions before passing into law. (Sylvia Dennis/19950616/Press & Reader Contact: European Commission +32-2-299-1111) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 06/16/95 CHIPS Germany - Siemens Announces 500 Job Losses In Munich (NEWS)(CHIPS)(LON)(00029) Germany - Siemens Announces 500 Job Losses In Munich 06/16/95 ERLANGEN, GERMANY, 1995 JUN 16 (NB) -- Siemens has announced plans to cut back its hybrid electronic ceramics division in Munich. Company officials have said that as many as 400 jobs may go, in bid to stem falling profits in the division. According to Siemens, while sales from the division are doing well, the company is under intense pressure from suppliers on the Indian sub-continent. Newsbytes notes that, while Germany has minimum wage legislation, India and Pakistan do not, allowing them to effective compete with Siemens' products with much lower production costs due to very low wage rates. As with previous reductions in operations in specific areas of manufacturing, Siemens says it will offer staff alternative employment elsewhere within the company, but the scale of the staff reductions may necessitate some layoffs. As reported previously by Newsbytes, Siemens announced last December plans to shave around 12,000 staff in the year to September, 1995, reducing the workforce to under the 370,000 mark. In April of this year, Siemens revealed a four-pronged business plan to beef up it communications division. According to company officials, communications is a growth area in Europe, and profit margins are far greater on comms products and services than in other market sectors. The business plan centers around improving the time taken to get products to market, reducing the cost of those products, both on an ex-factory and end-user basis, enhancing the way the company interacts with resellers, and marketing its consultancy services better. It is under the second element of this plan, the desire to reduce the cost of products, that the current batch of job reductions are taking place. (Sylvia Dennis/19950616/Press & Reader Contact: Siemens AG, +49-9131- 7-42072) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 06/16/95 ONLINE CompuServe CEO Maury Cox Resigns (NEWS)(ONLINE)(SFO)(00030) CompuServe CEO Maury Cox Resigns 06/16/95 COLUMBUS, OHIO, U.S.A., 1995 JUN 16 (NB) -- CompuServe made a surprise announcement today with the resignation of its chief executive officer (CEO) Maury Cox. Simultaneously, CompuServe executive Bob Massey stepped into the vacated leadership position. An official statement is not expected until later today or perhaps Monday. Cox has been at the helm since 1989 and has been largely responsible for the company's growth as the online service with the most members (more than 3.1 million) and the only major online service to consistently post profits. Company officials are saying he has chosen to leave the company and will remain in the Columbus area to begin a venture capital company with an unannounced partner. Robert Massey, the now ex-vice president of worldwide sales and network services division and new CEO, was largely responsible for CompuServe's recent acquisition of Spry. The acquisition was critical in the development of CompuServe's delivery of World Wide Web access to its members. (Patrick McKenna/19950616/Press Contact: R. Pierce Reed, CompuServe, tel 614-538-4571) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 06/16/95 GENERAL Newsbytes Week In Review (NEWS)(GENERAL)(SFO)(00031) Newsbytes Week In Review 06/16/95 PENN VALLEY, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1995 JUN 16 (NB) -- This is a look at the top stories this week, listing with their category code: IBM & Lotus Seal $3.5 Billion Acquisition, IBM & Motorola Offer Fast PowerPC 604 Chips, 133MHz Pentium PCs Come Thick & Fast, IBM Intros Tools For Internet Access & Integration, Shiva To Acquire Spider Systems In UK, Iomega's 1GB "Jaz" Removable Drive, Oracle & Intel Plan ISDN Online Service, Merriam-Webster Responds To Virus, Acer Identifies Home PC Market For Growth, Microsoft Network Under Investigation From EC, Microsoft/Netscape Plan Parental "Lock Out" Ability; Court Overturns Sporkin On Microsoft; Senate Passes Telecom Bill, Action Moves To House; Medio Multimedia May Face Bankruptcy. IBM & Lotus Seal $3.5 Billion Acquisition (BUSINESS) CAMBRIDGE, MASSACHUSETTS, U.S.A., 1995 JUN 12 -- After less than a week of talks, IBM and Lotus have reached a definitive agreement on a $3.5 billion deal calling for Lotus to be acquired at $64 per share. The deal was announced by IBM Chairman and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Louis V. Gerstner and Lotus President and CEO Jim Manzi in a surprise Sunday afternoon teleconference attended by Newsbytes. IBM & Motorola Offer Fast PowerPC 604 Chips (CHIPS) AUSTIN, TEXAS, U.S.A., 1995 JUN 13 -- The triumvirate that developed the PowerPC line of computer chips has announced two new high-speed versions of the PowerPC 604 it claims exceed anything competitive chip maker Intel Corp. has to offer. 133MHz Pentium PCs Come Thick & Fast (PC) NEW YORK, NEW YORK, U.S.A., 1995 JUN 13 -- Intel Corp.'s new 133 megahertz (MHz) Pentium microprocessor has led to a flurry of announcements by personal computer manufacturers planning to build systems around the faster chip. Among those on the bandwagon are IBM (NYSE:IBM), Digital Equipment Corp. (NYSE:DEC), AT&T (NYSE:T), and Advanced Logic Research Inc. (NASDAQ:AALR). IBM Intros Tools For Internet Access, Integration (ONLINE) SOMERS, NEW YORK, U.S.A., 1995 JUN 13 -- In a teleconference today, IBM moved further onto the Internet's World Wide Web in a major way, with the announcement of a sweeping set of products for Internet "access, presence, integration, and enablement" on platforms that include Windows, OS/2 Warp, AIX, AS/400, MVS, and the PowerParallel edition of AIX. Shiva To Acquire Spider Systems In UK (BUSINESS) EDINBURGH, SCOTLAND, 1995 JUN 14 -- At 11am this morning (UK time), staff at Spider Systems, the UK networking company, were called into a company-wide meeting at which they were told the company is to be acquired by Shiva, the US networking company. Iomega's 1GB "Jaz" Removable Drive (TRENDS) ROY, UTAH, U.S.A., 1995 JUN 14 -- Iomega Corp. (NASDAQ: IOMG) has announced another high-capacity removable media drive, this one capable of storing up to one gigabyte (GB) of information on a single disk. Oracle & Intel Plan ISDN Online Service (ONLINE) SAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1995 JUN 14 -- Oracle (NASDAQ:ORCL) and Intel (NASDAQ:INTC) have previewed a working version of an ISDN (integrated services digital network) online network based on Intel's ProShare videoconferencing technology and Oracle Media Server software. Features include video electronic- mail, news-on-demand, video corporate training, and real-time videoconferencing. Merriam-Webster Responds To Virus (WINDOWS) SPRINGFIELD, MASSACHUSETTS, U.S.A, 1995 JUN 15 -- Merriam- Webster -- which recently announced Merriam Webster's Collegiate Dictionary Electronic Edition and Merriam Webster's Collegiate Thesaurus Electronic Edition -- found the AntiEXE virus on the Windows 3.5-inch disk versions of both programs. However, the company maintains that, after investigation, the CD version and the Macintosh versions of the products were found to be virus-free. Acer Identifies Home PC Market For Growth (TRENDS) SINGAPORE, SEA, 1995 JUN 15 -- Acer Computer plans to be in the top five PC manufacturers worldwide by the end of this year, and according to Acer America President Ronald Chwang, that will almost certainly be because Acer has discovered the exploding consumer market for PCs. Microsoft Network Under Investigation From EC (GOVT) BRUSSELS, BELGIUM, 1995 JUN 15 -- The prospect of seeing Microsoft Network (MSN) formally launching in late August took another battering today with the announcement by the European Commission (EC) that it is examining whether MSN could contravene EC rules on competition, as defined in the Treaty of Rome. Microsoft/Netscape Plan Parental "Lock Out" Ability (ONLINE) SEATTLE, WASHINGTON, U.S.A., 1995 JUN 15 -- Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT), Netscape Communications, and Progressive Networks, have introduced a joint effort, called the Information Highway Parental Empowerment Group (IHPEG). It is designed to "create and implement" an industry-wide standards agreement which allows parents to lock out access to inappropriate material. Court Overturns Sporkin On Microsoft (LEGAL) WASHINGTON, D.C., U.S.A., 1995 JUN 16 (NB) -- A federal appeals court in Washington today overruled a lower court judge and reinstated an antitrust settlement agreement between the Justice Department's antitrust division and Microsoft Corp. Senate Passes Telecom Bill, Action Moves To House (TELECOM) WASHINGTON, D.C., U.S.A., 1995 JUN 16 (NB) -- The Senate's overwhelming passage of telecommunications reform, by a vote of 81-18, now puts the spotlight on the House, where two competing measures will get attention later this summer. A bill passed by the House Commerce Committee goes even further in deregulating telecommunications than the Senate bill, while a House Judiciary Committee bill would take a far different approach, giving the Justice Department a role in regulating telecommunications firms. Medio Multimedia May Face Bankruptcy (BUSINESS) REDMOND, WASHINGTON, U.S.A., 1995 JUN 16 (NB) -- Medio Multimedia, a company that publishes software and a monthly magazine on CD-ROM and has its magazine online on the Internet, is in financial trouble and could be facing bankruptcy if it can't find an immediate infusion of cash. (Ian Stokell/19950616) (SUMMARY)(GENERAL)(MSP)(00032) Newsbytes Daily Summary 06/16/95 MINNEAPOLIS, MINNESOTA, U.S.A., 1995 JUN 16 (NB) -- These are capsules of all today's news stories: ======================================================================== ------------| N E W S B Y T E S D A I L Y S U M M A R Y |---------- ------------| Friday, June 16, 1995 |---------- ======================================================================== (c) Newsbytes News Network (Tm) Editor in Chief: Wendy Woods ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Newsbytes News Network is a computer and telecom industry news wire and digitized picture service. Our news stream includes more than 30 daily first-hand reported US and international news stories about computing and telecommunications. For more information, please e-mail to 'administrator@newsbytes.com' ------------------------------------------------------------------------ CATEGORY HEADLINES (*** indicates today's top stories) STORY # ======================================================================== APPLE CD-ROM Program Teaches More Creative Photography........... 25 BROADCAST TCI, Cable Companies To Distribute Zing Interactive........ 02 BUSINESS China - Packard Bell Ready to Enter China.................. 12 BUSINESS Wang Acquires Applied Data Systems......................... 13 BUSINESS China - Philips In Joint Ventures.......................... 16 BUSINESS Hong Kong - Start-up Gets Datacraft/Microcom Rights........ 20 BUSINESS ****Medio Multimedia May Face Bankruptcy.................. 26 CHIPS Germany - Siemens Announces 500 Job Losses In Munich....... 29 GENERAL Japan Newsbriefs........................................... 10 GENERAL Newsbytes Week In Review................................... 31 IBM Database World - IBM Updates IMS Database, Middleware...... 03 LEGAL Software Cops Get $266,000 Settlement...................... 07 LEGAL ****Court Overturns Sporkin On Microsoft.................. 08 NETWORK New Novell Group Points Way To Global Networks............. 05 ONLINE PKWare Warns Of Bogus PKZIP Program........................ 09 ONLINE Internet Update............................................ 11 ONLINE UK Company Offers Corporate Web Publishing Services........ 24 ONLINE CompuServe Replaces GIF With PNG Graphics Standard......... 27 ONLINE CompuServe CEO Maury Cox Resigns........................... 30 PC Gateway 2000 Intros 133MHz Desktop PCs, Free Win 95........ 19 TELECOM ****Senate Passes Telecom Bill, Action Moves To House..... 06 TELECOM SITA Readies World's First Global Telephone Network........ 14 TELECOM UK - Mercury Payphones Bought By Italian Company........... 15 TELECOM Nortel Gains FCC Certification For 1900MHz PCS Technology.. 17 TELECOM Ericsson Receives Order From Tokyo Digital Phone........... 18 TELECOM Max To Put Hong Kong At The Wireless Forefront............. 21 TELECOM Alcatel Installs Indonesia Cable........................... 22 TELECOM Ericsson Supplying GSM Technology To Vietnam............... 23 TELECOM European Commission To Push For Advanced ISDN.............. 28 UNIX Database World - Amdahl Plans Product For Unix Networks.... 04 WINDOWS DEC Launches Software For Mobile Computing................. 01 ======================================================================== These are the headlines and first paragraphs of each story, in order: 1 -> DEC Launches Software For Mobile Computing -- Digital Equipment Corp. (NYSE:DEC) said its new Mobilizer for Windows software will help mobile workers work more effectively when and where they like. The software combines electronic mail with access to files and databases from an office network. 2 -> TCI, Cable Companies To Distribute Zing Interactive -- Zing Systems, LP announced it has inked agreements with new cable partners Tele- Communications, Inc. (NASDAQ-NNM:TCOMA) (TCI), Comcast Corporation (NASDAQ-NNM:CMSCK), and Continental Cablevision, Inc. to distribute Zing's interactive television signals over those company's lines. Zing said its partners serve about 35% of the nation's cable homes. The new agreements give all networks and advertisers licensed by Zing the ability to deliver interactive programming to their viewers. 3 -> Database World - IBM Updates IMS Database, Middleware -- A new release of IBM's IMS/ESA (Enterprise System Architecture), introduced at Database World, brings Parallel Sysplex support, wide area remote recovery, and several other major enhancements to the transaction manager (TM)/database (DB) product for mainframes, said Dan Wardman, IMS product family manager, in an interview with Newsbytes. 4 -> Database World - Amdahl Plans Product For Unix Networks -- Through a newly inked deal with Novadigm, Amdahl will produce "A+ EMS," a Unix- based, integrated backup-and-restore/asset distribution product with "more extensive capabilities" than any other offering in the category, maintained Aurora M. Coya, an Amdahl VP, in a briefing for Newsbytes at Database World. 5 -> New Novell Group Points Way To Global Networks -- Novell Inc. (NASDAQ: NOVL) has created a new systems group the company hopes will lead the way in covering the globe with an easy-to-use, easy-to-manage computer network. 6 -> ****Senate Passes Telecom Bill, Action Moves To House -- The Senate's overwhelming passage of telecommunications reform, by a vote of 81-18, now puts the spotlight on the House, where two competing measures will get attention later this summer. A bill passed by the House Commerce Committee goes even further in deregulating telecommunications than the Senate bill, while a House Judiciary Committee bill would take a far different approach, giving the Justice Department a role in regulating telecommunications firms. 7 -> Software Cops Get $266,000 Settlement -- Great American Insurance Co., a nationwide insurance company based in Cincinnati, Ohio, has agreed to pay the Business Software Alliance $266,000 to settle claims of software piracy. 8 -> ****Court Overturns Sporkin On Microsoft -- A federal appeals court in Washington today overruled a lower court judge and reinstated an antitrust settlement agreement between the Justice Department's antitrust division and Microsoft Corp. 9 -> PKWare Warns Of Bogus PKZIP Program -- PKWare Inc., is warning online users that a program that masquerades as a new version of its shareware file-compression program PKZIP will actually erase the user's hard drive when run. The program has appeared on an unknown number of bulletin board systems and other online sources. 10 -> Japan Newsbriefs -- In this roundup of news from Japan, Softbank shares up strongly; foreign semiconductor share down; Yomiuri Shimbun debuts on the Internet; Sanyo to build China battery factory; new Digital TU-KA company formed. 11 -> Internet Update -- In this roundup of new products and services on the Internet, Nomura company information online; new HTML guide; Japanese museum of culture; Web graphics script; E-law resource available; new version of NetTerm; Banff TV festival online; image of the month. 12 -> China - Packard Bell Ready to Enter China -- Packard Bell Electronics Inc., one of the top personal computer makers in the world, is ready to enter China, joining the heated competition in the Chinese PC market. 13 -> Wang Acquires Applied Data Systems -- Wang Laboratories Inc. (NASDAQ:WANG) has bought Applied Data Systems, a Chelmsford, Massachusetts-based maker of imaging software. Wang announced that it will sell two specialized imaging products developed by Applied Data, plus another new offering of its own. 14 -> SITA Readies World's First Global Telephone Network -- US and UK phone subscribers have the advantage that they can dial trunk and international calls via a variety of carriers, usually at discount rates. But what happens if one's firm has offices in less telecom-enlightened countries? SITA, the global telecoms company, has the answer with what is being billed as the world's first truly global telecoms system. 15 -> UK - Mercury Payphones Bought By Italian Company -- IPM Communications, a small Italian company, has acquired the Mercury Communications payphone network, which currently numbers 1,584 in the UK. The acquisition cost IPM nothing, as the cost of removing and "making good" the pavements would have cost Mercury around a million pounds, a Mercury spokesman told Newsbytes. 16 -> China - Philips In Joint Ventures -- The global electronics giant, Netherlands' Philips Co., will increase investment in China to boost its joint ventures including Haufei Color Display System Co. Ltd., and Shanghai Electronic Sensors Company. 17 -> Nortel Gains FCC Certification For 1900MHz PCS Technology -- Nortel (Northern Telecom) has announced it has become the first telecoms manufacturer to obtain full certification of its 1,900 megahertz (MHz) PCS (Personal Communications System) digital mobile phone technology from the FCC (Federal Communications Commission) and the Underwriters Laboratories (UL) in the US. 18 -> Ericsson Receives Order From Tokyo Digital Phone -- Ericsson has received an expansion order from Tokyo Digital Phone (TDP) worth around 12 billion Yen, Newsbytes has learned. 19 -> Gateway 2000 Intros 133MHz Desktop PCs, Free Win 95 -- Gateway 2000 (NASDAQ: GATE) plans to ship its new Intel Pentium-based 133 megahertz (MHz) desktop PC within 10 days, and is offering a Microsoft Windows 95 upgrade with lifetime technical support at no additional charge when you buy one of the company's PCs. 20 -> Hong Kong - Start-up Gets Datacraft/Microcom Rights -- Datacraft Datacommunications has assigned sole distribution rights of its flagship modem products in Hong Kong to a start-up company. Infodata Ltd. will oversee sales channels for modem products from Microcom of the US which Datacraft Asia represents exclusively in China, Hong Kong, Taiwan and Singapore. 21 -> Max To Put Hong Kong At The Wireless Forefront -- Motorola AirCommunications believes Max, its new US$40 million wireless data service, will put Hong Kong at the forefront of the development of wireless data services. Max is a full function wireless data service, which combines wireless e-mail and fax messaging with an open platform for wireless application development. 22 -> Alcatel Installs Indonesia Cable -- Alcatel Submarine Networks has won a US$35 million contract to supply and install a submarine fiber optic telecommunications system in Indonesia, from Jakarta to Surabaya. 23 -> Ericsson Supplying GSM Technology To Vietnam -- Ericsson has announced the signing of a "frame agreement" to supply GSM technology to the Vietnam Mobile Telecom Services Company (VMS). 24 -> UK Company Offers Corporate Web Publishing Services -- InternetWeb has announced it is offering World Wide Web publishing services on the Internet. According to David Gold, chairman of the company, the service is aimed at corporates rather than individuals, and offers extra facilities not normally available on Web publishing services. 25 -> CD-ROM Program Teaches More Creative Photography -- Diamar Interactive has released "Learning to See Creatively," the second in its CD-ROM-based Better Photography Series. The disc is being released in conjunction with a photographic book from Amphoto and you can get the disc by itself or bundled with the book. 26 -> ****Medio Multimedia May Face Bankruptcy -- Medio Multimedia, a company that publishes software and a monthly magazine on CD-ROM and has its magazine online on the Internet, is in financial trouble and could be facing bankruptcy if it can't find an immediate infusion of cash. 27 -> CompuServe Replaces GIF With PNG Graphics Standard -- After getting caught in the middle of a Unisys copyright/royalty controversy over the use of GIF files, CompuServe said it would develop a new graphics image specification which would avoid the royalty problems. Six month later, CompuServe says it has completed the PNG specification. 28 -> European Commission To Push For Advanced ISDN -- In what appears to be the beginning a second wave of telecoms mandate legislation, the European Commission (EC) has ruled that telecoms companies on a pan-European basis must offer Euro ISDN, an advanced form of ISDN (Integrated Services Digital Networks) to all customers, within a time scale to be decided. 29 -> Germany - Siemens Announces 500 Job Losses In Munich -- Siemens has announced plans to cut back its hybrid electronic ceramics division in Munich. Company officials have said that as many as 400 jobs may go, in bid to stem falling profits in the division. 30 -> CompuServe CEO Maury Cox Resigns -- CompuServe made a surprise announcement today with the resignation of its chief executive officer (CEO) Maury Cox. Simultaneously, CompuServe executive Bob Massey stepped into the vacated leadership position. 31 -> Newsbytes Week In Review -- This is a look at the top stories this week, listing with their category code: IBM & Lotus Seal $3.5 Billion Acquisition, IBM & Motorola Offer Fast PowerPC 604 Chips, 133MHz Pentium PCs Come Thick & Fast, IBM Intros Tools For Internet Access & Integration, Shiva To Acquire Spider Systems In UK, Iomega's 1GB "Jaz" Removable Drive, Oracle & Intel Plan ISDN Online Service, Merriam-Webster Responds To Virus, Acer Identifies Home PC Market For Growth, Microsoft Network Under Investigation From EC, Microsoft/Netscape Plan Parental "Lock Out" Ability; Court Overturns Sporkin On Microsoft; Senate Passes Telecom Bill, Action Moves To House; Medio Multimedia May Face Bankruptcy. (Wendy Woods/19950616) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 06/15/95 WINDOWS Popcorn Optional At the Movies With Microsoft (NEWS)(WINDOWS)(DEN)(00001) Popcorn Optional At the Movies With Microsoft 06/15/95 REDMOND, WASHINGTON, U.S.A., 1995 JUN 15 (NB) -- You will have to bring your own popcorn, but it might be worth it to spend a day at the movies learning how to develop applications for the Microsoft Windows 95 operating system. The program is called World Wide Live and it is being presented under a partnership between Microsoft, United Artists, General Cinemas, and Interactive Distance Training Network. Microsoft said the broadcast will feature Microsoft developers, independent software vendors, and technical authors who will discuss Windows 95 development issues that include OLE (object linking and embedding), "Plug and Play," Windows 95 logo requirements and the new user interface of the long-awaited and several-times delayed operating system. Microsoft said the telecast will be hosted by Robert Hess, a software design engineer in the Microsoft Developer Relations Group. Your movie date with Microsoft is for June 15 and the ticket costs $25. For the price of admission at one of the more than 80 locations you get eight hours of live satellite telecast beginning at 8am Pacific Time. You will also receive a CD-ROM containing an interim release of Windows 95, the Windows 95 software development kit, some sample code, and the reference literature. If you can't make your movie date, Microsoft said it will offer for sale a video of the broadcast. To find out where the telecast is being shown in your area call Microsoft's toll-free number at 800-206-3000. Microsoft said beginning June 15 it will do a monthly mailing of upcoming developer programs to interested parties via electronic- mail. Send e-mail to devnews@microsoft.nwnet.com with the words "subscribe devnews" in the message section of your e-mail. (Jim Mallory/19950614/Press contact: Kira Sorenson, Microsoft, 206-882-8080; Public contact: Microsoft, tel 206-882-8080 or 800-206-3000 for movie location; 800-295-0504 to order the videotape) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 06/15/95 WINDOWS Windows Prgm Supports Multilingual Web Pages (NEWS)(WINDOWS)(DEN)(00002) Windows Prgm Supports Multilingual Web Pages 06/15/95 EXTON, PENNSYLVANIA, U.S.A., 1995 JUN 15 (NB) -- An Israel-based company with offices in the US will demonstrate a suite of software applications next week that will allow users to access, author, publish, and distribute World Wide Web pages and electronic- mail on the Internet using any language version of Microsoft Windows. The new Accent software suite, which Accent spokesperson Alan Weinkrantz told Newsbytes will ship in the fall of 1995, will include four multilingual applications. You will get a browser add-on, an e-mail add-on, an e-mail reader, and HTML (hypertext markup language) authoring capability. HTML is the language used to create Web pages. The company said the multilingual browser add-on will allow users view the Web content in any of 35 languages. Web site creators can use the authoring capabilities of the same software to provide the additional links that will lets the user view Web pages in the language of their choosing. The browser will automatically activate when a user clicks on a link to a Web page in a different language. Accent said the browser will be fully compatible with Netscape, Spry, Spyglass, and Netcom browsers. The multilingual mail add-on will allow the user to create, send and receive electronic-mail in various languages, using any language version of Windows. For example, a Russian-speaking person could create a Russian-language document using the English version of Windows and send it electronically to a recipient in Germany who is using German Windows. Currently such users would have to communicate in English, according to Accent. The Accent Mail add-on will provide users the capability to send a single electronic message containing multiple languages, and even including multiple alphabets. That would allow a user to send a message with Greek, Arabic, and Spanish text in the same document, for example, and despite the fact that Arabic is written right-to-left while the other languages are left-to-right. The company said Accent multilingual Mail add-on will work with existing mail software packages cc:Mail, MS Mail, and Groupwise through the MAPI (Mail Application Programming Interface). The user will be able to create a document in a foreign language using Accent's word processor that can create text in more than 30 languages and send the document from a command in the drop-down File menu. The multilingual word processor, Accent Pro 2.0, which Newsbytes reported on in April of this year, has a suggested retail price of $399. In addition to being integrated into the software suite, Accent's e-mail reader will be available at no cost for downloading from various online service providers including the company's own home page on the Web. The reader will be able to read messages in other languages and character sets as text files even though they do not have the Accent Pro word processing program. The Accent multilingual HTML will enable the creation of Web pages in non-Latin and bi-directional alphabets, including the ability to mix multiple alphabets in the same document. It will also be integrated into Accent's line of multi-language word processors. Weinkrantz said pricing for the product hasn't been established yet. (Jim Mallory/19950614/Press contact: Alan Weinkrantz, Weinkrantz and Associates for Accent Software, 210-820-3070; Public contact: Accent Software, tel 800-535-5256, fax 800-535-5257) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 06/15/95 ONLINE "Internet Superstore" Adds Online Wine Shopping (NEWS)(ONLINE)(LON)(00003) "Internet Superstore" Adds Online Wine Shopping 06/15/95 WARLINGHAM, SURREY, 1995 JUN 15 (NB) -- The MileStone Superstore, an Internet Web shopping set of pages, has reported great interest in its services, especially now that it has added the Wine Gift Company to its range of retailers on the service. #IMAGE 1 20 TWPCX \images\95061503.PCX Click here for photo Lisa Seymour, a spokeswoman for RMS, the company behind the Internet Superstore, told Newsbytes that the Web pages are located at http://www.spend.com:81/ and pre-date the Barclaysquare Internet shopping service that was launched a few weeks ago. "Unlike Barclaysquare, we have a large number of retailers online, who charge discount prices for their products. Furthermore, users of any Web browser can send their credit or debit card details to us using an encryption module that can be downloaded from the Web pages," she said, adding that Barclaysquare requires the user to download a complete new version of Netscape (Netscape SSL) from its pages to use the encrypted data facility. The MileStone Web pages allow users to download a copy of PGP (Pretty Good Privacy), a shareware encryption package. The idea is the first time users of the service encrypt their credit or debit card details plus an appropriate message, and upload the resultant encrypted file to the service. "The advantage with this approach is that callers only have do this once, and once their details are registered with us, we hold them on file for subsequent orders," Seymour explained. Interestingly, Seymour said that not all users of the Web pages choose to encrypt their payment card details. "Many users simply send us their card details online," she revealed. Seymour claims that, while uploading an order to the Web pages poses a small risk to the cardholder, the risk is tolerable for many users. Newsbytes notes, however, that some payment card issuers, in the UK at least, have advised their cardholders specifically not to offer their card details in an open Internet message. At least one bank -- Barclays -- has noted that if a card number is misused, then this could be the responsibility of the cardholder, causing them -- in the UK at least -- to be liable for the first UKP50 of fraud. The legal issues, Newsbytes also notes, remain untried in a court of law. The Wine Gift Company, the latest addition to the Internet Superstore, is billed as a "dynamic UK wine merchant" that offers a worldwide service. The company claims it can source any vintage back to the 19th century -- presuming, of course, that all the bottles have not been drunk! The mail-order and corporate courier service has been in operation for the last 17 years and allows wines and other specialized liquor to be ordered online through the Superstore's Web pages. There is even a search facility allowing customers to search for rare and difficult- to-find wines, such as Dornfelder '89, a classic German red that is now in extremely short supply. Gary Seymour, the Wine Gift Company's director, claims that response to the wine service through the Web pages since the service started earlier this month has been excellent. "Our special requests facilities are particularly popular and constitute a genuine information services," he said. Other services on the Superstore pages include: Viners of Sheffield for cutlery; Interflora Flowers; and various travel, car, and house insurance services. (Steve Gold/19950614/Press & Reader Contact: RMS, tel +44-1372-271373, fax +44-1883-625873; Internet e-mail rms@iditech.demon.co.uk/MILESTONE950615/PHOTO) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 06/15/95 TELECOM Ericsson Gets $300Mil PacBell Contract For PCS (NEWS)(TELECOM)(LON)(00004) Ericsson Gets $300Mil PacBell Contract For PCS 06/15/95 STOCKHOLM, SWEDEN, 1995 JUN 15 (NB) -- Pacific Bell Mobile Services has signed a five year agreement with Ericsson for the provision of PCS (personal communication service) digital mobile equipment. According to Ericsson, the $300 million contract calls for the introduction of a PCS digital mobile service in Californian and Nevada, to be operational by early 1997. PCS is also known as PCN (personal communications network) in Europe, where companies such as Mercury One-2-One and Hutchison Orange operating in the UK, Bi-Bop in France, and E-Plus in Germany have attracted hundreds of thousands of subscribers. PCS/PCN operates in the 1,800 to 1,900 megahertz (MHz) waveband and, despite being twice the frequency (900MHz) of GSM (global system for mobile communications) uses the same basic principles, but has base stations much closer together to allow for mass market penetration of the phones. According to Lyn Daniels, PBMS president and chief executive officer (CEO), plans call for the company to use PCS as a method delivering mobile voice and data communications on the West Coast for a mass market. "PCS is the one wireless service that can deliver on the promise of 'anytime, anywhere communications' at a price the average consumer is willing to play," she explained. She added that the agreement with Ericsson "puts Pacific Bell at the forefront of this emerging marketplace, giving is a well established network equipment partner who can help us bring PCS to consumers quickly and reliably." Terms of the contract call for Ericsson to supply its PCS/PCN technology, in the form of base stations, network infrastructure, and suitable switches, to cover most of California and Nevada with a PCS service. Cities to be covered by PCS include San Francisco, Bakersfield, Oakland, San Jose, Fresno, Sacramento, Los Angeles, San Diego, Reno, and Las Vegas. Ericsson will also supply its PCS 1900 handsets to PBMS for onward supply to subscribers. This handset tips the scales at just seven ounces and is based on the EH237/337 series of analog/digital cellular handsets. (Sylvia Dennis/19950614/Press Contact: Per Bengtsson, Ericsson Business Area Radio Comms, +46-8-757-2159) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 06/15/95 TRENDS UK - IT Procurement Practices Reviewed - Report (NEWS)(TRENDS)(LON)(00005) UK - IT Procurement Practices Reviewed - Report 06/15/95 LONDON, ENGLAND, 1995 JUN 15 (NB) -- The Computing Services & Software Association (CSSA) has announced the release of a report, detailing the key influences on the information technology (IT) procurement practices of UK businesses and other organizations. According to Rob Wirszycz, a spokesman for the CSSA, the report was compiled in conjunction with the Information System Research Unit of Warwick Business School, as well as the CSSA Business Advisory Panel of IT Directors. The 12-page report, single copies of which are available on request from the CSSA, covers areas such as: trends in organizational maturity of IT usage; supplier performance versus buyer expectations; winning the order; the "feel good" factor; partnerships; the problem of defining value; the importance of the sales representative; and the importance of the IT director. Announcing the publication of the report, Doug Eyeions, the CSSA's director general, said that the report is offered to British "industry at large," as a means of "promoting debate and interest in the real organization issues which surround the successful implementation of complex IT systems. Through this debate, we aim, slowly but surely, to build confidence in the IT procurement process for all stakeholders." The CSSA is billed as the representative voice of the UK-based computing services and software industry. It currently consists of 450 corporate members with combined revenues of more than $7 billion. (Sylvia Dennis/19950614/Press & Reader Contact: CSSA, tel +44-171-405-2171, fax +44-171-404-4119) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 06/15/95 NETWORK Digital Europe Takes Motorola Routers On Board (NEWS)(NETWORK)(LON)(00006) Digital Europe Takes Motorola Routers On Board 06/15/95 CRAWLEY, WEST SUSSEX, ENGLAND, 1995 JUN 15 (NB) -- The network services organization of Digital Equipment Corporation International Europe has chosen Motorola's Information Systems Group (ISG) to supply multi-protocol routers for sale on a Pan-European basis. According to Dominique Faure, Motorola ISG's director of European partnerships, one of the key reasons for the agreement is Motorola's 6520 Multimedia Periphery Router (MPRouter), a device that is claimed to handle more than 20 protocols and, according to Motorola, optimizes bandwidth better than any other router on the market. "Digital Network Services Organization is a successful player in the network integration market and we're pleased to be working with them," said Faure, adding that 6520 is one of the "most efficient and cost- effective solutions" available, "specifically where serial or large numbers of protocols need to be handled, such as the SNA (Systems Network Architecture) environment." The 6250 supports Ethernet and Token Ring interfaces, as well as multi-protocol LAN (local area network) routing and bridging, as well as an extensive list of serial protocols. It also supports full frame relay switching, allowing users to integrate existing frame relay devices and serving as an access point for frame relay services. The deal between the two companies is significant, Newsbytes notes, as Digital has always supplied its own router technology to distributors, dealers, and value-added resellers. The move to supplying the 6250 MPRouter in the UK and Europe marks a change of strategy for the company and could, Newsbytes notes, herald a significant change for Digital as far as third-party products are concerned. (Sylvia Dennis/19950614/Press Contact; Herald Communications, +44-171-222-8515; Anika Hjelm, Digital Network Services, +41-22-709-4640) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 06/15/95 GENERAL American Laser Games Contest For Real Girl Role Models (NEWS)(GENERAL)(LAX)(00007) American Laser Games Contest For Real Girl Role Models 06/15/95 ALBUQUERQUE, NEW MEXICO, U.S.A., 1995 JUN 15 (NB) -- American Laser Games is seeking girls ages nine to twelve who "demonstrate achievement in any area," including school, the arts, science, athletics, business, family, or community involvement. Twelve winners will be selected to be featured on the first "Sure She Can!" CD-ROM. American Laser Games, Games For Her division is creating the Sure She Can! CD-ROM series to showcase positive role models. "Sure She Can! is designed to provide girls with positive images and stories of their peers, to inspire them to work toward their own remarkable accomplishments," said Patricia Flanigan, Games For Her marketing director. The first Sure She Can! CD-ROM will be hosted by Libby Edelman, co-founder of Sam & Libby Shoes, a brand popular with teens and young girls. Other female role models will host upcoming CD-ROMs. Girls can nominate themselves or be nominated by someone else. An essay of up to 500 words describing their accomplishments and why those accomplishments are important to them, their families or their communities is required, along with a contact address, telephone numbers, and a nominee snapshot. Winners will be selected based on the "degree of initiative, mastery of challenges and results achieved," as described in their essays. No purchase or entry fee is required. The contest is "void where prohibited" and all federal, state and local regulations apply. A complete set of the official rules for the competition can be acquired by writing to Sure She Can!, 4801 Lincoln Rd. NE, Albuquerque, NM 87109. Nominations must be postmarked by July 31, 1995. Gail Rubin, a spokesperson for American Laser Games, told Newsbytes that "Sure She Can! is designed to be a stand alone informative CD-ROM, to be included in game packages directed toward girls. It is not intended to be marketed separately. We plan to have a different Sure She Can! in each new game designed for girls." American Laser Games began as a creator of "shoot, no shoot" simulations for military and police. "They evolved from that to arcade shooting games," said Rubin "designed primarily for boys. Recently we surveyed over two thousand girls to develop a line of products that would appeal to girls. From this survey we began the Games For Her division, and our first product will be 'McKenzie & Co.,' a live-action social interactive adventure to be released worldwide in October." (Richard Bowers/19950613/Press Contact: Gail Rubin, American Laser Games, 505-837-5406) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 06/15/95 GOVT Bells Win, TV Loses In Senate Telecom Votes (NEWS)(GOVT)(WAS)(00008) Bells Win, TV Loses In Senate Telecom Votes 06/15/95 WASHINGTON, D.C., U.S.A., 1995 JUN 15 (NB) -- The regional Bell operating companies appear to be winners and television broadcasters the losers in the latest round of amendments to the Senate's telecommunications reform legislation. The Baby Bells prevailed when the Senate defeated by 57-43 an amendment to give the Justice Department a greater role in overseeing when the Bells can compete in long-distance markets. The Clinton administration and the long-distance carriers had supported the amendment offered by Sens. Strom Thurmond (R-S.C.) and Byron Dorgan (D-N.D.). But Senate Commerce Committee Chairman Larry Pressler (R-S.D.) and his Democratic predecessor, Ernest "Fritz" Hollings (D-S.C.) opposed the amendment. Under the terms of the Pressler bill, a local phone company must convince the Federal Communications Commission that it has met a checklist of requirements designed to open its local markets to competition. The Thurmond-Dorgan amendment would have added the Justice Department's antitrust division to the review cycle. Senate Majority Leader Bob Dole (R-Kan.) put on heavy pressure to defeat the amendment, saying he viewed it as a test of party solidarity. The Bells threatened to walk if the amendment passed. The broadcasters lost when the Senate adopted, by voice vote, an amendment to require that televisions be equipped with a "choice chip" that would automatically zap objectionable material. Sen. Kent Conrad (D-N.D.) offered the choice chip amendment. Under the Conrad plan, broadcasters and cable providers would set up a voluntary system to rate programs and embed the rating code in their signals. The viewer would be able to program the set to screen programs against whatever ratings the viewer wanted. Conrad said the plan would add about $5 to the price of a new television set. Under the Conrad plan, the industry would have one year to put the choice chip plan in place. If they failed, an independent commission would do it for them. The Conrad amendment pitted the deregulatory zeal of Senate Republicans against the political need to be opposed to sex and violence on TV. Sen. Alphonse D'Amato tried to derail the Conrad amendment on a procedural vote that would not have required a vote on the merits. But when it became obvious that Conrad would win that vote narrowly, 25 Senators, many of them Republicans, jumped ship. Among them were such staunch conservatives as Jesse Helms of North Carolina, Orrin Hatch of Utah and Thad Cochran of Mississippi. The amendment was then adopted by a voice vote. Coming up is a vote on whether to ban porn on the Internet. The bill on the floor contains the Internet ban, written in the Senate Commerce Committee by Sen. James Exon (D-Neb.). Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) will offer an amendment to delete the Exon language and instead set up a Justice Department study of the issue. (Kennedy Maize/19950615) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 06/15/95 TRENDS Voice-Mail Users Find Value In Messaging - Study (NEWS)(TRENDS)(MSP)(00009) Voice-Mail Users Find Value In Messaging - Study 06/15/95 MORRIS PLAINS, NEW JERSEY, U.S.A., 1995 JUN 15 (NB) -- Companies that use voice-mail systems are finding more than messages in their voice- mail boxes. A survey by the Voice Messaging Educational Committee (VMEC) shows companies are finding money -- mainly from improved productivity -- due to the voice systems. Ninety-seven percent of those companies surveyed thought that their voice-mail systems met or exceeded their expectations after implementation, VMEC said. Ninety-four percent said the productivity of their employees improved with voice-mail. Also, companies are using voice-mail to do much more than just answer phones: with 94 percent using it to send messages to other people, rather than calling them directly; 67% providing recorded information, such as hours of operation; and 36% using networking to link employees at separate locations. In addition, 42% of the respondents believed that voice-mail "actually saves or generates money for their organizations," a company release said. But, "Everyone's using it, but not everyone's using it right," said Elaine Cascio, spokesperson for Vanguard Communications Corp., which is the facilitator for VMEC. "There's a lot of complaints we hear about badly implemented voice attendants, being trapped in voice-mail jail." The focus of the VMEC is to help people work through the kinks in implementing and maintaining voice-mail systems. The one item from the study Cascio found most interesting is the fact that people's expectations were greatly exceeded when it came to new voice-mail systems. "Fifty percent said they had hoped to improve customer service. But after it (voice-mail) was implemented, 85% said that it improved or enhanced customer service for their companies." The VMEC queried 136 organizations in the US and Canada that use voice-mail for the survey. Organizations ranged in size from under 25 employees to more than 40,000. All companies either owned voice- mail systems or subscribed to voice-mail services. The survey was conducted in May by Vanguard Communications Corp. The VMEC has developed an etiquette guide, called "Making the Most of Voice-Mail," to help companies and organizations set up "caller- friendly" voice-mail systems. A similar publication on voice-mail security has also been developed by VMEC. (Bob Woods/19950615/Press Contact: Elaine Cascio, Vanguard Communications Corp., 518-885-7291. Public Contact: Vanguard Communications, Voice Mail Educational Committee, 201-605-8000) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 06/15/95 TELECOM Tellabs To Build New Namibia Digital Network (NEWS)(TELECOM)(MSP)(00010) Tellabs To Build New Namibia Digital Network 06/15/95 LISLE, ILLINOIS, U.S.A., 1995 JUN 15 (NB) -- Tellabs International Inc. has announced it is helping Telecom Namibia build a new national digital leased-line network. The deal is being carried out with the cooperation of Tellabs' South African distributor Grinaker Telecom. Tellabs will be installing its Martis DXX managed transport and access network "solution as an integral element of the transmission network," company officials said. It features cross-connect nodes, flexible multiplexers, and other devices that permit centralized or distributed control. This equipment can also be used in cellular and emerging personal communications applications, the company added. The new network is scheduled for completion in the summer of 1995, and will connect the Namibian capital of Windhoek, along with the country's main gold and diamond centers. The new network will provide data speeds from 600 bits-per-second (bps) to two megabits-per-second (Mbps). Peter Guglielmi, president of Tellabs International, told Newsbytes his company is essentially building a "new infrastructure" for Telecom Namibia, and that the only system they had for network transmissions before this were ordinary analog telephone lines, which were "very limited." He added: "This will provide professional, efficient, reliable, high-quality service for operating networks." Guglielmi told Newsbytes that besides increased revenues from the deal, it also gives Tellabs a strong foothold in the south Africa region. "This is a huge market opportunity in general in South Africa. What this allows us to do is establish ourselves in a new country, with our flagship product, and then position ourselves for much bigger opportunities over time." To date, company officials said equipment orders in excess of $1 have been received. Guglielmi said the total deal will be worth around $3 million total to Tellabs. (Bob Woods/19950615/Press Contact: Thomas P. Scottino, Tellabs, 708-512-7504, Internet e-mail tom_scottino@pcmail.tellabs.com) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 06/15/95 HEALTH Cardiac Telecom For Heart Monitoring Approved (NEWS)(HEALTH)(MSP)(00011) Cardiac Telecom For Heart Monitoring Approved 06/15/95 TURTLE CREEK, PENNSYLVANIA, U.S.A., 1995 JUN 15 (NB) -- Cardiac Telecom Corporation (CDC) said the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has given the company full approval to market its HearTrac Cardiac Monitoring System to the healthcare community. The HearTrac device uses radio frequency and trans-telephonic telemetry technology, along with a proprietary algorithm. The unit then provides continuous, portable, automatic, real-time cardiac monitoring capability. "This doesn't require the patient to do anything but wear it," Eugene J. Barone, vice chairman of CTC, told Newsbytes. He said other devices on the market like his company's usually require the patient to call someone when a problem arises. The CDC system "will automatically pick up arrhythmias and problematic situations, and through the telephone, will call into a centralized monitoring base." From the base, experts can interpret the data and advise the patient, he said. The unit lets patients transfer out of more expensive cardiac areas of a hospital into "step-down" units. With HearTrac, all that is needed to make the device operate properly is a telephone jack and an electrical outlet, Barone said. "With concerns about health care reform and the current trend toward telemedicine, HearTrac is ideally situated to exploit the market with a revolutionary concept -- bringing monitoring to the patient in less cost-intensive environments." Barone also said the unit will interrupt the telephone line if trouble occurs with the patient, when the line is being used for a voice call. In the future, Barone said he hopes to get FDA approval to use the same technology in a home setting. He also wants to license the technology to other companies that deal with the monitoring of other bodily functions, like blood pressure, respiratory, and fetal monitoring. CDC is also eyeing the international market, where some countries do a lot of heart monitoring, Barone said. (Bob Woods/19950615/Press Contact: Eugene J. Barone, Cardiac Telecom, 412-824-6600) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 06/15/95 TELECOM New Sprint Canada Services Part Of Growth Plans (NEWS)(TELECOM)(TOR)(00012) New Sprint Canada Services Part Of Growth Plans 06/15/95 TORONTO, ONTARIO, CANADA, 1995 JUN 15 (NB) -- Sprint Canada has announced new business telephone services, including virtual private network and private line offerings. These moves are part of ambitious expansion plans by Call-Net Enterprises Inc. (TSE:CN; ME:CNB; NASDAQ:CNEBF), Sprint Canada's parent company. The Private Line and VPN Premiere services are aimed at large businesses. Specifically, said Paul Bertin, president of Sprint's Business Services Group, the company has its eye on some 3,000 large companies that have multiple sites and spend more than C$10,000 per month on telecommunications. Virtual private networks simulate the behavior of dedicated communications lines using public circuits, so that customers only pay for the capacity they actually use. Bertin cited figures from The Yankee Group, a US-based market research firm, that predict the virtual private network market in Canada will double over the next four years, from C$200 million to C$400 million. The Private Line service is designed for large customers who need dedicated lines between two or more locations. Sprint said its new Private Line service is available now. VPN Premiere will be phased in over the coming year, with voice and fax service available this fall and more high-volume data and video services added in 1996. During a Toronto press conference announcing the services, Sprint officials repeatedly stressed the idea of a "single point of contact" for customer service. "The person who answers the phone solves the problem," Bertin said. The services will make use of optical fiber that Sprint has installed in the Toronto-Ottawa-Montreal corridor -- the area with the heaviest telecommunications traffic in Canada. In other areas, Sprint relies on capacity leased from the established regional telephone companies. David Parkes, president and chief executive of Sprint Canada, said at the press conference that the company is following a "hybrid" network strategy. It will install its own lines in some areas and rely on leased circuits in others. He claimed that in the Toronto-Ottawa-Montreal corridor the company now has more than twice the capacity of all its competitors put together. "Over the next three to four years we will complete many other fiber routes throughout Canada," he added. Between 1994 and 1997, Parkes said, Sprint Canada plans to invest C$100 million in fiber lines using synchronous optical network (SONET) technology, which is said to ensure uninterrupted service by rerouting traffic immediately should a link be broken. The company has already spent about C$33 million on the Toronto-Ottawa-Montreal fiber, he said. Parkes said Sprint's goal is to become the leading alternative long-distance carrier in Canada. That target, which he said is now in sight, would mean pushing past Toronto-based Unitel Communications Inc., which was established as a data communications company before spearheading long-distance phone competition in Canada. Unitel is in financial difficulties and one of its major shareholders is seeking to sell its stake. Meanwhile, Call-Net Communications, Sprint Canada's parent (and 25 percent owned by Sprint Communications Co. of Kansas City, Missouri), has been in the red due to the cost of rapid growth but hopes to return to profitability in 1997 with revenues approaching C$1 billion per year. In fiscal 1994, which coincided with the calendar year, Call-Net lost C$55.36 million, or C$1.62 per share, on net revenues of C$176.29 million. This compared with a C$3.09 million loss on C$133.95 million in revenues in 1993. The company was profitable in 1992. Besides Sprint, Call-Net owns Integrated Network Services Inc. (INSINC), a Vancouver-based provider of networking services to medium-sized and large companies that it acquired last fall. The company also has a 21 percent stake in MicroCell 1-2-1 Inc., a company that has applied to build a personal communications service (PCS) wireless telephone network across Canada over the next few years. Call-Net's chairman, Juri Koor, said at the company's annual meeting recently that wireless telephones could represent as much as 50 percent of the Canadian telephone market by the end of the century. MicroCell is still awaiting a license from federal regulators. (Grant Buckler/19950615/Press Contact: David Parkes, Sprint Canada, 416-496-4986; Eileen Tobey, ETC Communications for Sprint Canada, 416-465-4242; Juri Koor, Call-Net, tel 416-496-4922, fax 416-496-2175; Patrick Pichette, Call-Net, tel 416-496-4925, fax 416-496-2175) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 06/15/95 BUSINESS Softbank Discuss Games Alliance With Microsoft (NEWS)(BUSINESS)(TYO)(00013) Softbank Discuss Games Alliance With Microsoft 06/15/95 TOKYO, JAPAN, 1995 JUN 15 (NB) -- Softbank Corporation (TOKYO:9984) has formed an alliance with software giant Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) to develop games compatible with Microsoft's new Windows 95 operating system, according to a Japanese newspaper report. The venture was revealed in a front page story in this morning's Nihon Keizai Shimbun financial newspaper. That report led to a day long suspension of Softbank shares by the Japan Securities Dealers Association who said they needed to confirm the story. Later in the afternoon, Softbank released a statement saying it was in negotiations with Microsoft over projects related to Windows 95, including setting up a joint venture company. The Tokyo-based company added that now was not the right time to elaborate on the possible tie up. The alliance would create games software to run on the Windows 95 platform which in turn would hopefully lead to a boost in sales for the new operating system the report continued. Windows 95 is scheduled to debut in the United States in August and in Japan in September. The newspaper also said that the deal would open a new outlet for Japanese produced games software which has so far been limited to games consoles and arcade machines. Software compatible with Windows 95 will be able to run on any compatible personal computer around the world. Reaction on the Tokyo stock market to the report and suspension of Softbank shares was signaled by heavy selling of games software related shares. Sega Enterprises (TOKYO:7964) dropped 310 yen in morning trading but later closed down 230 yen on the day at 2,750 yen. Selling of Nintendo (OSAKA:7974) shares has been suspended all day due to exceptionally heavy sell orders. The stock closed out ask only at 4,660 yen, down 210 yen on the day. Analysts fear any tie up between Softbank, the biggest software distributor in Japan, and Microsoft, would lead to much greater competition in the games market. Nintendo, Sega, and Sony are currently entering battle with new, next-generation games machines. (Martyn Williams/19950615) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 06/15/95 NETWORK AT&T Offers LAN Support, Intros Globalyst Servers (NEWS)(NETWORK)(MSP)(00014) AT&T Offers LAN Support, Intros Globalyst Servers 06/15/95 DAYTON, OHIO, U.S.A., 1995 JUN 15 (NB) -- AT&T's (NYSE:T) computer unit made two announcements for users in network environments. It is introducing new Globalyst PC servers with Intel Pentium processors that run up to 133 megahertz (MHz), and announced a new LAN (local area network) Consolidation Program that helps companies simplify LAN operations and reduce costs. First, AT&T Global Information Solutions new servers now offer Pentium processors that run from 60MHz to 133MHz, and from one to four processor balanced symmetrical multiprocessing (SMP) processors. AT&T's new Globalyst S40 server, for example, set a new "world's record" TPC-B benchmark for best price/performance in a transaction processing environment that emphasized update-intensive database services, the company claims. The unit uses dual 133MHz Pentium processors, along with dual PCI (Peripheral Component Interconnect) bus architecture. All of the servers, along with all other AT&T Globalyst computers, use the company's PC&C (personal computing and communications) system. "PC&C is taking the power of the computer, and combining communications functionality, to extend the computer from a 'number- cruncher' to a desktop communications center," Jim Lowell, AT&T spokesperson, told Newsbytes. With PC&C, documents and applications can be shared, providing the right software is installed on the computers at both ends, Lowell added. With the Globalyst servers, the PC&C software applies more to the network side, Lowell said. The servers use the AT&T Server Availability Manager and AT&T Server Monitor for Novell NetWare. The second announcement involves the company's LAN Consolidation Program, which migrates resources to a Microsoft Windows NT Server LAN environment on AT&T's SMP servers. This allows the company's reseller partners to sell a complete package of consulting, implementation, and support services that lets customers move from first generation LAN's to a consolidated enterprise-wide LAN environment, officials said. AT&T said its customers have a choice from services including operating system evaluation, network design, project management, migration to Windows NT, education, software support, and hardware maintenance. (Bob Woods/19950614/Press Contacts: Jim Lowell, 513-445-4984, or Heidi Donato, 212-213-7081, both of AT&T; Public Contact: AT&T, 800-447-1124) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 06/15/95 BROADCAST DEC & Oracle In Hong Kong Video-On-Demand Alliance (NEWS)(BROADCAST)(HKG)(00015) DEC & Oracle In Hong Kong Video-On-Demand Alliance 06/15/95 CENTRAL, HONG KONG, 1995 JUN 15 (NB) -- The Hong Kong divisions of Digital Equipment and Oracle Systems have teamed up in a bid to supply the technology behind Hong Kong Telecom's video-on-demand (VOD) service. The two companies, which already dominate the market for video server hardware and software in the US and Europe, will submit a joint tender in response to a Hong Kong Telecom request for proposals. A decision on the contract -- for the full-scale service that will follow initial trials -- is expected in the late summer. "Digital and Oracle are partners of long standing and we have often worked together," said Tony Leung, general manager of Digital Equipment Hong Kong Ltd. "We have complementary strengths in the area of interactive media services, which both companies identified very early as a major new opportunity." The joint bid to Hong Kong Telecom will offer Oracle's New Media software running on Digital's Mediaplex architecture, which includes a video stream manager, content gateway, interactive gateway, and server management system. "Oracle and Digital have global expertise in the telecommunications and cable markets," said P.W. Pong, managing director of Oracle's Greater China Region. "The combination of Oracle New Media software and Digital's Mediaplex hardware platform will offer Hong Kong Telecom a compelling and cost-effective solution." Digital's video server technology has already been selected by more than 15 cable and telephone companies worldwide -- more than that of any other media server provider, the company claims. Companies that have already opted to deploy Digital's Mediaplex video server platform include: Ameritech, NYNEX, and US West in the United States; Sweden's Svenska Kabel-TV; Belgacom in Belgium; and Westminster Cable in the UK. (Mike Dunn/19950613) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 06/15/95 LEGAL Police Back Down On Hong Kong Internet Prosecutions (NEWS)(LEGAL)(HKG)(00016) Police Back Down On Hong Kong Internet Prosecutions 06/15/95 CENTRAL, HONG KONG, 1995 JUN 15 (NB) -- Hong Kong's Commercial Crimes Bureau (CCB) has said that it will not prosecute Internet providers whose businesses were shut down for more than a week after police raids on their premises in early March. A letter issued by the CCB to all the Internet providers affected by the police action said: "Upon completion of the investigation, the case was forwarded to the Legal Department for advice, and a decision for neither prosecution nor summons action has recently been reached." It added that, "No further action will be taken against any person or entity in respect of this investigation." The letter advised the service providers that arrangements would be made for the return of the items seized during the raids. CCB Chief Superintendent Neil McCabe told Newsbytes: "We won't be pressing charges and I know that a letter was to be issued to all the necessary Net providers, but I don't know the details of the letter and what the situation is right now." On March 3, the CCB raided the offices of seven commercial Internet access providers, shut down their operations, arrested seven men and a woman, and seized large quantities of equipment. The crime, according to warrants obtained by CCB, was maintaining means of telecommunications without a license. The license in question was a Public Non-exclusive Telecommunications Service (PNETS) license issued by the Office of the Telecommunications Authority (OFTA) that costs just HK$750 (US$96) a year. The raids resulted in an estimated 10,000 Internet users in Hong Kong being shut out of the global network and adversely affected local business and Hong Kong's image in the international business community, according to industry watchers. In the furor that followed the raids, however, the CCB said its actions were motivated by an investigation into computer hacking, rather than into the licenses not held by the providers. In a Legislative Council special panel discussion in April, the CCB came under fire for its actions. Legislator James To even suggested that the affected service providers could consider bringing legal action against the Government over the issue of warrants being obtained under false pretenses to gain entry to service providers' offices. Commenting on the latest developments Net provider Garland Lew, director of Internet On-line Hong Kong, said: "I think the whole issue of the raid and the confiscation was a total joke." Chin Man, director of Linkage On-line, said: "I think the CCB didn't know what they were doing in the first place and this not only affected the entire Internet community in Hong Kong, but it also affected other countries who had direct contact with Hong Kong through the Internet -- it was really a joke." Linkage On-line's office was among those raided by the CCB, but the company's service was only under test at the time. As a result, none of the firm's equipment was seized. Man called for a change in the law relating to Internet providers to ensure that similar police action would not occur in Hong Kong in the future and interrupt the development of the territory. When asked if the CCB made a mistake by raiding the Net providers, McCabe declined comment. (Mike Dunn/19950613) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 06/15/95 IBM IBM Joins Crowded Hong Kong Internet Market (NEWS)(IBM)(HKG)(00017) IBM Joins Crowded Hong Kong Internet Market 06/15/95 CENTRAL, HONG KONG, 1995 JUN 15 (NB) -- IBM has joined a crowded marketplace when it launched its new online service in Hong Kong in early June. Big Blue's arrival made it the ninth commercial Internet provider in the territory, but it is relying on its name, not price cutting, to attract customers. The IBM Internet service offers two types of membership: a start-up scheme with a monthly subscription of HK$120 (US$15.30), including 10 hours free usage, and a flat charge of HK$14 (US$1.80) an hour thereafter; or a comprehensive scheme with a monthly subscription of HK$250 (US$32), including 25 hours free usage, and HK$12 (US$1.54) an hour thereafter. This pricing structure is about midway between prices charges by the cheapest and most expensive online operators in Hong Kong. The joining fee to the new IBM service is HK$200 (US$25.64), but this will be waived for any member joining in the first three months of operation. (Mike Dunn/19950613) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 06/15/95 WINDOWS UK - AVG To Intro Network Contact Mgt Prgm (NEWS)(WINDOWS)(LON)(00018) UK - AVG To Intro Network Contact Mgt Prgm 06/15/95 LONDON, ENGLAND, 1995 JUN 15 (NB) -- AVG Sales & Marketing will take the wraps off GoldMine 2.5A for Windows at the Networks '95 show due to be held in Birmingham at the end of this month. Wendy Smith, marketing manager with the company, told Newsbytes that the package is the first contact management software to incorporate automated process technology (APT). "Pricing starts at UKP395 for the single-user version, rising through UKP995 for a five-user version," she said, adding that the APT technology is a powerful system that makes the package unique in the software industry. According to Andy Voss, AVG's managing director, APR "provides powerful dialogue-driven tracking method defined by actions and triggers, allowing users to automate routine business tasks such as customer and prospect follow-up -- a critical and often neglected component of contact management." According to Voss, the package is the only Windows contact management program uniquely developed for networks and remote notebooks. "It effectively integrates contact management, network scheduling, electronic-mail, sales automation, remote synchronization, task delegation, and group scheduling," he explained. "Unlike other contact management programs originally conceived for the standalone user, GoldMine 2.5A for Windows was designed specifically to address the issues of the networked office by providing a single, integrated system to manage all the facets of an organization's client management and internal communications needs," he said. GoldMine 2.5 for Windows also features DDE (dynamic data exchange) facilities, allowing it to launch and link any DDE-capable Windows application. Again, AVG claims this feature is unique in the contact management software marketplace. Using GoldMine, even existing Windows documents can be attached into a contact record's Links folder using "drag and drop" from the Windows File Manager. Linked documents can then be viewed and edited by double-clicking on the required document name. (Steve Gold/19950614/Press & Reader Contact: AVG Sales & Marketing, tel +44-171-454-1790, fax +44-171-345-9126) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 06/15/95 PC UK - NEC Cuts Versa Notebooks 22% (NEWS)(PC)(LON)(00019) UK - NEC Cuts Versa Notebooks 22% 06/15/95 LONDON, ENGLAND, 1995 JUN 15 (NB) -- NEC UK has cut pricing on its Versa range of notebooks by as much as 22 percent. According to Steve Finnemore, the company's product marketing manager, this makes the machines the most competitive machines on the market in price/performance terms. "Since its launch, the Versa range has achieved a reputation for outstanding quality and state of the art screen technology. Because NEC is one of the only manufacturers to produce its own screens, we have been able to respond to user demand and so closely control the price of the products," he explained. As a result, Finnemore added, "NEC can now provide users with these high performance notebooks at prices that will really mean the Versa is the only choice when buying a notebook PC." The price cuts mean that the entry-level Versa S/33D, which is based on a 33 megahertz (MHz) 80486SX processor and features a passive color display, prices in at UKP1,150. Further upscale is the V/50D, a 50MHz 80486DX machine, at UKP1,795. This machine comes with four megabytes (MB) of memory and a 250MB hard disk. The flagship Pentium Versas have dropped in price by more than UKP1,000, while the P/75S has been upgraded from a 9.5-inch to a 10.5-inch display. Pricing on the top machine has been cut from UKP5,449 to UKP4,295. (Steve Gold/19950614/Press Contact: Words PR, +44-171-938-4746; Reader Contact: NEC PC Division, +44-181-993-8111) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 06/15/95 WINDOWS ****Merriam-Webster Responds To Virus (NEWS)(WINDOWS)(SFO)(00020) ****Merriam-Webster Responds To Virus 06/15/95 SPRINGFIELD, MASSACHUSETTS, U.S.A, 1995 JUN 15 (NB) -- Merriam- Webster -- which recently announced Merriam Webster's Collegiate Dictionary Electronic Edition and Merriam Webster's Collegiate Thesaurus Electronic Edition -- found the AntiEXE virus on the Windows 3.5-inch disk versions of both programs. However, the company maintains that, after investigation, the CD version and the Macintosh versions of the products were found to be virus-free. Thought to have originated in Russia, AntiEXE, is also known as CMOS4, D3, and NewBug. Fortunately, Merriam-Webster's technical support group discovered the existence of the virus before the company had shipped more than 500 units of the 3.5-inch diskette versions of both programs. Out of that 500, only 200 units had reached consumers. Speaking to Newsbytes, Thomas Stanley, publisher at Merriam- Webster, said, "We immediately made every effort to personally call or mail each consumer. We will replace the product or provide a full refund." The company is also providing a copy of McAfee's VirusScan to consumers of the product who wish to check and clean the virus from suspected disks. All shipping costs related to this product recall are covered by Merriam-Webster. AntiEXE was fist discovered in January and belongs to a group known as "boot sector" viruses. Even if a user installs the product, the virus will not activate. To infect an individual computer system, the product disk must be in the floppy drive during a system reboot. During a system reboot, the virus will infect the hard drive or any disk in a floppy drive. The virus is not activated until the user presses the control (Ctrl) and break keys while using an application or system program on the infected drive. At that time, the virus will begin to destroy only executable files (files with the extension ".exe") which are 200,256 bytes in size. While this is an unlikely scenario, Merriam-Webster acknowledges the possibility and has examined its entire product line. Stanley continued, "Merriam-Webster databases are available in a lot of different places and I want to assure everyone that this virus applies to only the 3.5-inch disk versions of the new electronic version of the dictionary and the thesaurus. We have checked with great care and there is no contamination of any other Merriam-Webster product or database." (Patrick McKenna/19950614/Press Contact: Cheryl Morin, Pat Meier Associates P.R., 415-957-5999) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 06/15/95 TRENDS Boca Develops Programmable Optical Circuitry For Modems (NEWS)(TRENDS)(MSP)(00021) Boca Develops Programmable Optical Circuitry For Modems 06/15/95 BOCA RATON, FLORIDA, U.S.A., 1995 JUN 15 (NB) -- To quickly adapt its modems for different international markets, Boca Research Inc. (NASDAQ:BOCI), says it has developed an "easily reconfigurable" optical DAA (data access arrangement), which is the circuitry between the telephone and the computer equipment. Newsbytes first reported on optical DAA earlier this week, when the company announced it was offering localized versions of its V.34 28,800 bits-per-second (bps) modems for sale to the Danish and German markets. The company also offers local modems for the Finnish and Swedish markets. The optical DAA technology allows the company to adapt its modems to specific requirements of countries around the world. Boca officials wouldn't go into specifics on how that's done exactly, because Boca considers it to be a competitive advantage over other modem manufacturers. "In the past, we've gotten approval for international modems the hard way," Gail Blackburn, investor relations manager for Boca, told Newsbytes. "Whatever the specifications are for the country, you'd design the hardware to suit those specifications. Now, with optical DAA, the hardware doesn't have to be changed. It's just a change in the firmware, which is a lot easier, more cost-effective, and quicker." With today's optical DAA announcement, Boca also said its V.34 28,800 bps modem made for the Japanese market has been given thumbs-up by the Japan Approvals Institute for Telecommunications Equipment. As with the company's other international modems, all documentation and software are also in the local language. The V.34 modem also provides 14,400 bps fax modem with Group 3 send/receive fax support. With data compression and error correction, users can achieve maximum throughput of up to 115,200 bps. Boca said it will ship the Japanese modem in July. (Bob Woods/19950615/Press Contact: Gail Blackburn, Boca Research, 407-997-8621; Public Contact: Boca Research, 407-994-5848) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 06/15/95 ONLINE Prodigy & Jupiter Launch "Adult" Area (NEWS)(ONLINE)(MSP)(00022) Prodigy & Jupiter Launch "Adult" Area 06/15/95 NEW YORK CITY, NEW YORK, U.S.A., 1995 JUN 15 (NB) -- Jupiter Interactive Productions has opened an "adult" area on Prodigy, an official of the online service has confirmed to Newsbytes. The area is called "Pseudo," and is targeted to "young adults," the official said. The new area was first reported on by the Cowles/Simba Media Daily, which publishes content, among other areas, on America Online. "It is a service which is very specifically catering to young urban adults," Brian Ek, Prodigy spokesperson, told Newsbytes. "But I'm sure the editorial platform goes much deeper than that." Cowles/Simba reported the new area includes "frank talk about sex and body parts," and its message board topics include "cyberspace party," and "married and flirting." In the Cowles/Simba article, Ek maintained that Pseudo was not a part of the main Prodigy service -- a point he reinforced with Newsbytes. "We announced a year and a half ago that we were going to move from a proprietary business strategy to an open business strategy, where the Prodigy network would be made available as a transmission vehicle to third parties to offer their own branded services to their consumer marketplace." In essence, he said the third-party providers are "renting" the network. Ek likened Prodigy's relationship to third-party providers like Pseudo to businesses and others publishing on the Internet, in that the Internet itself has nothing to do with the publishers. "We will continue to be open to business relationships from third- parties who come in and want to do business with us," Ek said. "We will retain the platform and branding of the Prodigy service in the way we want, while allowing third-parties to develop content that they will then go out and market." Ek also said he disagrees with Cowles/Simba's assertion that the online service is "seeking to change its image as an online service mainly for families and children" by having the new area on Prodigy. He also took issue with Cowles/Simba saying "users see a screen that says 'Prodigy Service(R) - PSEUDO" at the top. Ek said that display is a mechanical part of the service that happens with most every screen, including the Web browser. "But if that perception is out there, we'll fix it," he added. Since the area is designed for adults, Ek said his service is making it very difficult for children to have access to the area. Various on-screen warnings tell users they are entering an adult area, and "other mechanisms specific to Prodigy" make access to Pseudo by anyone, but adults "nearly impossible." Pseudo is a "plus" service, meaning accessing it will cost Prodigy users $2.95 an hour. It can be reached by using the "jumpword" of "Pseudo." One positive aspect of the media coverage, Ek said, is that a lot of people are using the Pseudo area. Announcements of other third-party providers will be made in the next few weeks, Ek said. The only reason why Pseudo wasn't formally announced is because the final bugs are being worked out of the area. Once they are, Jupiter will be making an announcement, Ek said. (Bob Woods/19950615/Press Contact: Brian Ek, Prodigy, 914-448-8811, Internet e-mail ek@prodigy.com) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 06/15/95 BUSINESS CA & Fujitsu Ally On Object Technology (NEWS)(BUSINESS)(TOR)(00023) CA & Fujitsu Ally On Object Technology 06/15/95 BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS, U.S.A., 1995 JUN 15 (NB) -- Computer Associates International Inc. (NYSE:CA) and Fujitsu Ltd. have announced a strategic alliance including joint development, marketing, and support of object technology. The companies will begin by adding object-oriented technology to the CA-OpenIngres relational database software. In a press conference in Boston Wednesday, Russell Artzt, executive vice-president of research and development at Islandia, New York-based Computer Associates, said the new CA- OpenIngres/ODBMS that results will be the first integrated object-oriented and relational database management software. Marc Sokol, vice-president of product strategy at Computer Associates, told Newsbytes that the new database software will be fully compatible with existing OpenIngres applications. Customers will be able to move their current relational applications to CA- OpenIngres/ODBMS unchanged, he said, but will then be able to add object-based capabilities to them. Doubts about how to make the transition have been keeping customers from moving from relational to object-oriented database technology up to now, officials of the two companies said. A software development kit (SDK) for the new database software will be available to developers around the end of this year, Sokol added, and the DBMS will be generally available in mid- 1996. The company plans to reveal more details of the product during its CA-World user conference in New Orleans in mid-July. Fujitsu also plans to offer an enhanced version of its ODB-II object-oriented database software using embedded OpenIngres technology. Sokol said there is an existing market for object-oriented database technology, including areas such as computer-aided design and manufacturing (CAD/CAM) and document management. However, he said another and eventually larger market will emerge thanks to the combination of relational and object technology in a single system. The alliance goes beyond database technology, Sokol added. He said Fujitsu has a wide range of object-oriented technology which Computer Associates may use in other business applications as well as its database products. Dan Fishman, vice-president and general manager of Fujitsu's Object Software Division in San Jose, California, confirmed this during Wednesday's press conference, saying that "we're speaking with CA about other alliances on these technologies." Fujitsu officials said the company has been working on object technology since 1988. Fujitsu is setting up a major marketing and product development center in California as part of an effort to become a major player in the United States' software market, Fishman said. CA's Sokol said he believes the deal is "the largest venture by a Japanese company in the software area in the United States." While the underlying engine of Fujitsu's object technology is fairly new for commercial applications, Fishman said, the alliance with CA will let the company build on that firm's well established database technology. CA's Artzt said that while CA looked at "quite a few" other sources of object database technology, the modularity of Fujitsu's technology made it especially easy to integrate with OpenIngres. In a recent report on managing complex data, Cambridge, Massachusetts-based research firm Forrester Research Inc. said large companies need ways of handling the sort of complex data types -- such as video and images -- that object-oriented databases support well, but niche products are not the answer. These customers need the robust facilities of current relational DBMS software, Forrester said. Forrester also noted that IBM and Informix Software, Inc., have begun extending their relational database products to handle new data types. (Grant Buckler/19950615/Press Contact: Bob Gordon, Computer Associates, 516-342-2391, fax 516-342-5329; Korendo Shiotsuki, Fujitsu, 212-265-5360; David Gould, ChipShots for Fujitsu, 800- 593-CHIP; Public Contact: Computer Associates, tel 516-342-5224, fax 516-342-5329) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 06/15/95 TRENDS ****Acer Identifies Home PC Market For Growth (NEWS)(TRENDS)(SYD)(00024) ****Acer Identifies Home PC Market For Growth 06/15/95 SINGAPORE, SEA, 1995 JUN 15 (NB) -- Acer Computer plans to be in the top five PC manufacturers worldwide by the end of this year, and according to Acer America President Ronald Chwang, that will almost certainly be because Acer has discovered the exploding consumer market for PCs. Speaking at Acer's distributor conference, being held this week in Singapore, Chwang said that the home PC boom hadn't hit all world markets, but it would, and when it does, it will far outstrip the corporate/government market which in some ways is saturated. He said that in the US, and a few countries like Australia, the consumer market has already overtaken the business market. He quoted figures showing that Packard Bell had a huge 41 percent share of the US consumer PC market over the past year. Acer and Compaq tied for second place at 14 percent. Meanwhile, Apple was at 12 percent and IBM has less than 10 percent. Chwang said he had no doubt that the consumer PC would drive the business market in the foreseeable future, beating it to higher performance systems. He gave Windows '95 as an example, saying it would be a huge success simply because after the ship date of August 24, virtually all consumer PCs will automatically ship with the product, thereby causing a pull-through effect in the business world. He said the typical consumer machine in the US now or in the near future has "a Pentium processor, even 120 megahertz," at least an 850 megabyte hard disk, though 1.2 gigabytes (GB) is soon to be the "standard," a quad-speed CD drive, MPEG (Motion Picture Experts group) video, "surround-sound," and a 14.4 or 28.8 kilobits-per-second modem. These machines ship with around 40 software titles, and he sees even this number getting much larger between now and the Christmas buying season. When asked by Newsbytes if the bundling of application software made it hard for dealers to sell add-on products, he replied that US experience showed that consumers tended to buy more products from the manufacturers whose products they got with the PC. He added that it was conceivable that Acer would start bundling multiple brands of the same sort of software, thereby giving the end-user much more choice in the sort of software they used. For instance, they could have three Works-style packages, not just the one from Microsoft. Chwang said it was very hard for the smaller PC manufacturers to get market share, and that increasingly in the future it would be well-known global brands that not only got buyer attention, but got any share of the precious dealer shelf space. To this end Acer US is paying much more attention to consumer service, keeping good track of its users and also offering a full line of paid application support (a 900 number) so that users only have to ring one number regardless of the problem. One surprising fact that emerged in Chwang's presentation to the distributors and resellers at the conference is that Acer is using the machine itself to gather invaluable user data. Every Acer consumer PC sold in the US comes with a modem, and Acer has developed an unique way of using this. Each new customer follows a series of simple steps in setting up the machine and this may include the answering of a few questions, such as why they bought an Acer, which store they went to, and where they heard about Acer. The system also prepares a self- inventory and at the end of the installation the user is offered an online registration. When this happens, the machine also sends in the user information. Surprisingly, last Christmas around 80 percent of new Acer consumer PC buyers registered this way, and even now it is running at around 70 percent which is a very high registration rate. In addition, Chwang said, "We use Caller ID, so the first time they call us for support, we can answer the phone using their name and we already know how their PC is set up." (Paul Zucker/19950615) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 06/15/95 GOVT ****Microsoft Network Under Investigation From EC (NEWS)(GOVT)(LON)(00025) ****Microsoft Network Under Investigation From EC 06/15/95 BRUSSELS, BELGIUM, 1995 JUN 15 (NB) -- The prospect of seeing Microsoft Network (MSN) formally launching in late August took another battering today with the announcement by the European Commission (EC) that it is examining whether MSN could contravene EC rules on competition, as defined in the Treaty of Rome. According to a statement issued lunchtime (Central European Time) by Karel van Miert's office in Brussels (van Miert is the EC's Competition Minister), officials are concerned that MSN could be anti-competitive in its operations within the European Community. Interestingly, the EC's move has only taken place now (and not before), because Microsoft has only recently formally notified the EC of its intention to operate the service in the EC territories, Newsbytes understands. Despite this, the timing in terms of customer confidence in MSN could not have been worse, as it comes just six days after the US Department of Justice announced similar competition examination of MSN in the US marketplace. According to van Miert's office, the US Department of Justice has requested the assistance and cooperation of the EC Competition Minister's Office in its investigation into MSN. The EC says it intends to "fully cooperate" with the US Department of Justice in this matter. EC officials were at pains to tell journalists that no complaints -- presumably from other online services -- have been received in respect of MSN. Van Miert's office is, however, maintaining a close liaison with the US Department of Justice regarding the investigations. Alistair Kelman, a Barrister specializing in information technology and matters relating to the European Parliament, told Newsbytes that he was not surprised that the EC has started an anti-competitive investigation, but that the EC investigation poses significantly more of a problem for MSN than the Department of Justice investigation. "Microsoft now has two choices. Either do a compromise or unbundle MSN from Windows '95," Kelman said, adding that while the former was probably distasteful for Microsoft, the latter could be devastating in terms of market penetration for MSN. "Microsoft's problem is that people need Windows '95, but they don't need MSN. They can get online services from the competition, but Windows '95 offers a lot in operating system terms," he said. Assuming a deal with the EC is not feasible, and unbundling of MSN from Windows '95 goes ahead, what then? Kelman replied that the EC's usual procedure for investigations of this type could take a few years to complete -- something that he reckons will kill MSN stone dead. "I think Microsoft has some very hard thinking to do," he told Newsbytes, adding that the EC poses a significant problem for Microsoft, because the EC is extremely online-savvy. "The EC has stated on several occasions that it views multimedia as having the most potential to create jobs in the future. This is the mainstay of its IT2000 project. And the EC is very unlikely to allow Microsoft to have control of a major online service such as MSN in the European market. This is the hurdle that Microsoft will have to pass before it can launch MSN over here," he explained. Jennifer Perry, marketing director for UK Online, the Olivetti-backed online service which is currently being rolled out in the UK, told Newsbytes that she feels split over the EC announcement. "On the one hand, I feel that MSN's potential would be very difficult for the competition to fight against, while on the other, I can't help but notice that MSN, in Europe at least, is not a financially viable operation," she said. Perry went on to explain that the logistics of feeding customer calls back to the US on a major X.25 data link, as CompuServe does, is a lot less viable than for CompuServe, which offsets much of its international network running costs on its corporate packet data network business. "At UKP 2.50 an hour for MSN in Europe, the figures don't leave much room for payment of information providers," she told Newsbytes, adding that, coupled with the Department of Justice announcement of late last week, the EC announcement of today will give Microsoft "something to think about." (Sylvia Dennis & Steve Gold/19950615/Press Contact: European Commission, +32-2-299-1111; Alistair Kelman, +44-973-312513; UK Online, +44-1749-345006) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 06/15/95 APPLE Adobe Ships PressWise 2.5 For Mac (NEWS)(APPLE)(DEN)(00026) Adobe Ships PressWise 2.5 For Mac 06/15/95 SEATTLE, WASHINGTON, U.S.A., 1995 JUN 15 (NB) -- Adobe Systems Inc. (NASDAQ: ADBE) has announced shipment of Presswise version 2.5, a Macintosh-based pre-press tool the company said includes preflight and color separation features combined with electronic page imposition capabilities. The program includes new image linking, enhanced input capabilities, font and ink controls, and the ability to see an on-screen preview of imposed signatures before committing them to film input. Adobe spokesperson Barbara Burke explained for Newsbytes the terms "signature" and "imposition" as they relate to pre-press activities. Burke said "signature" refers to the 25-inch master medium, usually paper or film, on which multiple pages of a document to be printed are placed. "Imposition" refers to the process of putting the multiple pages in the right place on the "signature" so when the printed product is cut, the pages "come out right." In a related move, Adobe said it has acquired full ownership rights for the PressWise software from its development partner Emulation Technologies Inc. of Cleveland, Ohio. Before the acquisition, Adobe had exclusive worldwide marketing rights to PressWise. According to Richard McCormick, program manager for the Adobe Prepress Group, bringing the PressWise program's development in-house will allow the company to add imposition capabilities to other products. Imposition software lets the user prepare plate-ready signature forms of multiple-page documents for web-fed and sheet-fed printing presses. PressWise 2.5 includes Adobe PostScript Level 2 software Step and Repeat capabilities. Adobe said that enables faster imaging times for large step and repeat jobs when printing to a PostScript Level 2 Raster Image Processor. The new version also accepts input from over 60 applications, including Quark XPress for Windows and Adobe PostScript language files created from Portable Document Format (PDF) files. It also handles color separations of composite Document Structure Convention (DSC) PostScript language printing jobs, font downloading, and Open Prepress Interface (OPI) image linking. Users can preview Adobe PostScript language page elements of full signatures prior to output. The new release also conforms to the Adobe OPEN integration specification, giving it a high degree of cohesion for automating imposition within the Adobe OPEN prepress workflow automation environment, said the company. To run Presswise 2.5 Adobe recommends an Apple Power Macintosh, 36 megabytes (MB) of memory, a one gigabyte (GB) hard drive, a 17-inch or larger 16-bit color monitor, and the Apple System 7.5 or later operating system. The company said the minimum system needed to run Presswise 2.5 is any Apple Macintosh II or Quadra series computer running System 7.0 or later, at least four megabytes (MB) of memory, a 120MB hard drive, and a 13-inch or larger monitor. To use the PostScript preview and color separation capabilities of PressWise 2.5 you need any Apple Quadra series computer with System 7.0, at least 16MB of memory, a 500MB hard drive, and a 13-inch or larger eight-bit monitor. Adobe said Presswise 2.5 has a suggested retail price of $3,995. Registered users of Presswise 1.0 and 2.0 can upgrade for $595. If you purchased Presswise 2.0 after January 1, 1995, you can upgrade for $149 with proof purchase. (Jim Mallory/19950615/Press contact: Barbara Burke, Adobe systems, 206-938-8827; Public contact: Adobe Systems, 800-685-6736/PRESWISE950615/PHOTO) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 06/15/95 BUSINESS ****Database World - HP & Arbor Team On Data Warehouse (NEWS)(BUSINESS)(BOS)(00027) ****Database World - HP & Arbor Team On Data Warehouse 06/15/95 BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS, U.S.A., 1995 JUN 15 -- In a press conference at Database World/Client-Server World, Hewlett-Packard and Arbor Software unveiled HP Intelligent Warehouse OLAP (Online Analytical Processing) Builder, a product aimed at making data warehouses easier to use and more "enterprise scaleable" through integration with Arbor's Essbase multi-dimensional database (MDDS) OLAP server. The idea behind data warehousing is to let companies store and organize historical and "actual," or current, information from a variety of different sources and formats in a way that supports organizational decision-making, said George Ferguson, Open Warehouse program manager, speaking at the press conference, which was attended by Newsbytes. But in reality, he acknowledged, corporate data warehousing today tends to be plagued by "non-integrated data warehouse islands;" limited access due to "difficulty of use;" poor performance, "resulting in questions not being asked;" and high administrative costs for managing tuning, security, and metadata, or "data about the data." Essbase, Arbor's OLAP server, can solve these problems, in addition to "complementing" the query and reporting capabilities of relational database management systems (RDBMS) with "planning and analysis" functionality, asserted Arbor Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Jim Dorrian, another speaker at the press event. In contrast to the "unbounded" scope of the RDBMS, Essbase provides a "bounded" scope that allows the same database to be used for multiple applications, each individually tailored to a specific purposes, or need, he said, mentioning human resources, order entry, and general ledger as a few examples. In contrast to the RDBMS, which lets users enter "singular, list- oriented queries" and "read only" access only, Arbor's MDDS allows for "read/write access" and "iterative investigation," in which the user can keep drilling down for information by asking more questions, according to the Arbor CEO. The MDDS also processes information more quickly, to provide the user with "speed of thought response time," Dorrian maintained. Other distinguishing capabilities of the MDDS include "what if" scenarios, and the ability to work with "actual, projected and "derived" content -- or content which "has to be calculated" -- as opposed to the actual/historical content of the RBMDS, he contended. Lindsay Gillies, a user from Fidelity Investments, told the journalists and analysts that integrating OLAP with the data warehouse has traditionally posed several challenges, including "poor performance when drilling down to the data warehouse," and a lack of coordination between the two environments, caused by difficulties in obtaining "metadata synchronization." HP and Arbor's new HP Intelligent OLAP Builder provides a Windows- based tool for automating the building and maintenance of Essbase databases, with a "central, middleware-enabled set of metadata" that most ODBC (Open Database Connectivity)-compliant data access and reporting tools can access automatically, Gillies said. As a result, corporate developers will save time in selecting and moving warehouse data into an Essbase database, and in updating an Essbase outline (or schema), and they will also see a "substantial reduction" in errors, according to the officials. The new product, which is being jointly developed by HP and Arbor, is expected to be available in October as a module for HP's Intelligent Warehouse. Pricing is $20,000. (Jacqueline Emigh/19950615/Reader Contact: HP, 800-637-7740; Press Contacts: Holly Duncan, 408-447-1665; Marguerite Padovani, Arbor, 408-541-4053) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 06/15/95 GENERAL Database World - OLAP Council Applauds Oracle/IRI Deal (NEWS)(GENERAL)(BOS)(00028) Database World - OLAP Council Applauds Oracle/IRI Deal 06/15/95 BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS, U.S.A., 1995 JUN 15 (NB) -- Oracle's plans to acquire IRI Software's OLAP (online analytical processing) business represent a "positive step" for the OLAP, database and computer industries, maintained Rick Crandall, spokesperson for the OLAP Council and chairman of Comshare, in a briefing for Newsbytes at Database World. Like Dun & Bradstreet's recent acquisition of Pilot Software, another OLAP vendor, Oracle's purchase brings "powerful support" to the emerging category of MDDS (multi-dimensional databases), Crandall contended. "Oracle is indicating that they see OLAP as a key technology," the Comshare chairman added. The OLAP technology will "complement" Oracle's RDMS (relational database management) tools, adding value to data warehousing as well as to applications, he predicted. When the acquisition is complete, Oracle intends to establish a new division dedicated to OLAP, Crandall noted. Oracle is now taking membership in the OLAP Council into consideration, and will "take action as soon as possible," although no formal statement can be made until the acquisition is complete, according to Jeffrey Stamen, president of IRI Software. Stamen will head up the new OLAP Products Division at Oracle. Current members of the OLAP Council include Comshare, IRI, Arbor Software, Pilot, Holistic Systems, and Planning Sciences International Ltd. Kenan Technologies and Sinper Corporation are both associate members. (Jacqueline Emigh/19950615/Reader Contact: OLAP Council, 800-874- OLAP; Press Contact: Judith Vanderkay or Bruce Rogers, Rogers Communications for the OLAP Council, 617-224-1100) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 06/15/95 ONLINE ****Microsoft/Netscape Plan Parental "Lock Out" Ability (NEWS)(ONLINE)(SFO)(00029) ****Microsoft/Netscape Plan Parental "Lock Out" Ability 06/15/95 SEATTLE, WASHINGTON, U.S.A., 1995 JUN 15 (NB) -- Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT), Netscape Communications, and Progressive Networks, have introduced a joint effort, called the Information Highway Parental Empowerment Group (IHPEG). It is designed to "create and implement" an industry-wide standards agreement which allows parents to lock out access to inappropriate material. The new group lists the following goals: The development of a system which would enable parents to ensure that their children do not unwittingly gain access to materials that the parent would deem inappropriate; an easy way for both content providers and third party rating services to characterize content using whatever criteria they deemed appropriate; and a system which could be implemented efficiently and would be designed in such a way that maximizes the likelihood that it will become a standard part of Internet access systems. The three founding companies are openly inviting other industry companies to join the group and will issue an analysis of the issues associated with parental lock-out capabilities into Internet access software and will provide concrete recommendations. The group anticipates the results of this analysis to be incorporated into Internet software products during calendar year 1996. One of the issues this group will explore is how parents who are not computer literate will be able to "lock out" areas deemed inappropriate. Even parents who are computer literate are confronted with the problem of how to keep track of new World Wide Web sites (estimated to grow by 1,500 each week) and newsgroups which can be created overnight. Speaking to Newsbytes, John Ludwig, Microsoft's general manager, personal systems division, said, "Definitely, these are two issues which we will explore. I do not have the answers at this time but whatever the solution is, we want it to be very simple and easy to use. It should be something any novice user will be comfortable using. "Again, I do not have the answer to all the problems, but in regards to the profusion of Web sites and newsgroups, one might consider an access-based system instead of a denial-based system. Maybe a parent should decide 'my child may access only these particular areas,'" said Ludwig. He also emphasized that Microsoft Network is designed so parents will use it in a "family-friendly" way. "We have been concerned about the issue of access all along and this is an excellent way to bring this issue to the focus of the entire industry," said Ludwig. (Patrick McKenna/19950614/Press Contact: Katie Cotton, KillerApp Communications, 818-509-3700; Public Information: Internet e-mail IHPEG@prognet.com) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 06/15/95 BROADCAST HP & AM Comms To Co-develop Cable TV Monitoring Systems (NEWS)(BROADCAST)(LAX)(00030) HP & AM Comms To Co-develop Cable TV Monitoring Systems 06/15/95 SANTA ROSA, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1995 JUN 15 (NB) -- Hewlett-Packard (NYSE: HWP), and AM Communications Inc. have announced that they plan to co-develop, market and distribute monitoring systems for the broadband industry. HP CaLan and AM plan to integrate their already existing monitoring systems into HP's OpenView technology. Both companies have product lines in the performance monitoring arena. Hewlett-Packard Company's broadband test-equipment division, HP CaLan, has test products for system installation, maintenance, troubleshooting and performance monitoring. AM Communications provides network surveillance and performance-monitoring systems for fiber/coaxial telecommunications networks. Cheri Tamo, a spokesperson for HP CaLan told Newsbytes "The products developed by this joint venture will, in the beginning, be for the cable television market, but the planning is to have them ready for the telephone companies when they get into the interactive and video services." "Combining HP's expertise in test equipment and open architectures, such as OpenView, with AM's strength in status monitoring systems will accelerate our development of network-management systems," said Keith D. Schneck, president of AM. Cheri Tamo pointed out to Newsbytes that although "we hope to integrate with the OpenView management network, the exact nature of management network developed under this joint venture has not been finalized. If not exactly the same, it will be something very similar." "This technology is an essential part of the emerging interactive services market," said Duane Hartley, general manager of HP CaLan and HP's Microwave Instruments Division. "We will be among the first to deliver cost-effective network management to the growing broadband industry." Hewlett Packard says that continuous and automatic performance and status monitoring identifies trouble spots in the broadband delivery system. With effective monitoring systems maintenance-truck dispatches can be scheduled more efficiently, cutting maintenance costs and improving service. These systems can perform some preventive maintenance and troubleshooting themselves further reducing costs. AM Communications, founded in 1974, sells directly to cable-system operators and through original equipment manufacturers. (Richard Bowers/19950615/ Press Contact: Hewlett-Packard, Cheri Tamo, 707/577-3011) (SUMMARY)(GENERAL)(MSP)(00031) Newsbytes Daily Summary 06/15/95 MINNEAPOLIS, MINNESOTA, U.S.A., 1995 JUN 15 (NB) -- These are capsules of all today's news stories: ======================================================================== >>>>>>>>>>>>| N E W S B Y T E S D A I L Y S U M M A R Y |<<<<<<<<<< >>>>>>>>>>>>| Thursday, June 15, 1995 |<<<<<<<<<< ======================================================================== (c) Newsbytes News Network (Tm) Editor in Chief: Wendy Woods ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Newsbytes News Network is a computer and telecom industry news wire and digitized picture service. Our news stream includes more than 30 daily first-hand reported US and international news stories about computing and telecommunications. For more information, please e-mail to 'administrator@newsbytes.com' ------------------------------------------------------------------------ CATEGORY HEADLINES (*** indicates today's top stories) STORY # ======================================================================== APPLE Adobe Ships PressWise 2.5 For Mac.......................... 26 BROADCAST DEC & Oracle In Hong Kong Video-On-Demand Alliance......... 15 BROADCAST HP & AM Comms To Co-develop Cable TV Monitoring Systems.... 30 BUSINESS Softbank Discuss Games Alliance With Microsoft............. 13 BUSINESS CA & Fujitsu Ally On Object Technology..................... 23 BUSINESS ****Database World - HP & Arbor Team On Data Warehouse.... 27 GENERAL American Laser Games Contest For Real Girl Role Models..... 07 GENERAL Database World - OLAP Council Applauds Oracle/IRI Deal..... 28 GOVT Bells Win, TV Loses In Senate Telecom Votes................ 08 GOVT ****Microsoft Network Under Investigation From EC......... 25 HEALTH Cardiac Telecom For Heart Monitoring Approved.............. 11 IBM IBM Joins Crowded Hong Kong Internet Market................ 17 LEGAL Police Back Down On Hong Kong Internet Prosecutions........ 16 NETWORK Digital Europe Takes Motorola Routers On Board............. 06 NETWORK AT&T Offers LAN Support, Intros Globalyst Servers.......... 14 ONLINE "Internet Superstore" Adds Online Wine Shopping............ 03 ONLINE Prodigy & Jupiter Launch "Adult" Area...................... 22 ONLINE ****Microsoft/Netscape Plan Parental "Lock Out" Ability... 29 PC UK - NEC Cuts Versa Notebooks 22%.......................... 19 TELECOM Ericsson Gets $300Mil PacBell Contract For PCS............. 04 TELECOM Tellabs To Build New Namibia Digital Network............... 10 TELECOM New Sprint Canada Services Part Of Growth Plans............ 12 TRENDS UK - IT Procurement Practices Reviewed - Report............ 05 TRENDS Voice-Mail Users Find Value In Messaging - Study........... 09 TRENDS Boca Develops Programmable Optical Circuitry For Modems.... 21 TRENDS ****Acer Identifies Home PC Market For Growth............. 24 WINDOWS Popcorn Optional At the Movies With Microsoft.............. 01 WINDOWS Windows Prgm Supports Multilingual Web Pages............... 02 WINDOWS UK - AVG To Intro Network Contact Mgt Prgm................. 18 WINDOWS ****Merriam-Webster Responds To Virus..................... 20 ======================================================================== These are the headlines and first paragraphs of each story, in order: 1 -> Popcorn Optional At the Movies With Microsoft -- You will have to bring your own popcorn, but it might be worth it to spend a day at the movies learning how to develop applications for the Microsoft Windows 95 operating system. 2 -> Windows Prgm Supports Multilingual Web Pages -- An Israel-based company with offices in the US will demonstrate a suite of software applications next week that will allow users to access, author, publish, and distribute World Wide Web pages and electronic- mail on the Internet using any language version of Microsoft Windows. 3 -> "Internet Superstore" Adds Online Wine Shopping -- The MileStone Superstore, an Internet Web shopping set of pages, has reported great interest in its services, especially now that it has added the Wine Gift Company to its range of retailers on the service. 4 -> Ericsson Gets $300Mil PacBell Contract For PCS -- Pacific Bell Mobile Services has signed a five year agreement with Ericsson for the provision of PCS (personal communication service) digital mobile equipment. 5 -> UK - IT Procurement Practices Reviewed - Report -- The Computing Services & Software Association (CSSA) has announced the release of a report, detailing the key influences on the information technology (IT) procurement practices of UK businesses and other organizations. 6 -> Digital Europe Takes Motorola Routers On Board -- The network services organization of Digital Equipment Corporation International Europe has chosen Motorola's Information Systems Group (ISG) to supply multi-protocol routers for sale on a Pan-European basis. 7 -> American Laser Games Contest For Real Girl Role Models -- American Laser Games is seeking girls ages nine to twelve who "demonstrate achievement in any area," including school, the arts, science, athletics, business, family, or community involvement. Twelve winners will be selected to be featured on the first "Sure She Can!" CD-ROM. 8 -> Bells Win, TV Loses In Senate Telecom Votes -- The regional Bell operating companies appear to be winners and television broadcasters the losers in the latest round of amendments to the Senate's telecommunications reform legislation. 9 -> Voice-Mail Users Find Value In Messaging - Study -- Companies that use voice-mail systems are finding more than messages in their voice- mail boxes. A survey by the Voice Messaging Educational Committee (VMEC) shows companies are finding money 10 -> Tellabs To Build New Namibia Digital Network -- Tellabs International Inc. has announced it is helping Telecom Namibia build a new national digital leased-line network. The deal is being carried out with the cooperation of Tellabs' South African distributor Grinaker Telecom. 11 -> Cardiac Telecom For Heart Monitoring Approved -- Cardiac Telecom Corporation (CDC) said the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has given the company full approval to market its HearTrac Cardiac Monitoring System to the healthcare community. 12 -> New Sprint Canada Services Part Of Growth Plans -- Sprint Canada has announced new business telephone services, including virtual private network and private line offerings. These moves are part of ambitious expansion plans by Call-Net Enterprises Inc. (TSE:CN; ME:CNB; NASDAQ:CNEBF), Sprint Canada's parent company. 13 -> Softbank Discuss Games Alliance With Microsoft -- Softbank Corporation (TOKYO:9984) has formed an alliance with software giant Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) to develop games compatible with Microsoft's new Windows 95 operating system, according to a Japanese newspaper report. 14 -> AT&T Offers LAN Support, Intros Globalyst Servers -- AT&T's (NYSE:T) computer unit made two announcements for users in network environments. It is introducing new Globalyst PC servers with Intel Pentium processors that run up to 133 megahertz (MHz), and announced a new LAN (local area network) Consolidation Program that helps companies simplify LAN operations and reduce costs. 15 -> DEC & Oracle In Hong Kong Video-On-Demand Alliance -- The Hong Kong divisions of Digital Equipment and Oracle Systems have teamed up in a bid to supply the technology behind Hong Kong Telecom's video-on-demand (VOD) service. 16 -> Police Back Down On Hong Kong Internet Prosecutions -- Hong Kong's Commercial Crimes Bureau (CCB) has said that it will not prosecute Internet providers whose businesses were shut down for more than a week after police raids on their premises in early March. 17 -> IBM Joins Crowded Hong Kong Internet Market -- IBM has joined a crowded marketplace when it launched its new online service in Hong Kong in early June. Big Blue's arrival made it the ninth commercial Internet provider in the territory, but it is relying on its name, not price cutting, to attract customers. 18 -> UK - AVG To Intro Network Contact Mgt Prgm -- AVG Sales & Marketing will take the wraps off GoldMine 2.5A for Windows at the Networks '95 show due to be held in Birmingham at the end of this month. 19 -> UK - NEC Cuts Versa Notebooks 22% -- NEC UK has cut pricing on its Versa range of notebooks by as much as 22 percent. According to Steve Finnemore, the company's product marketing manager, this makes the machines the most competitive machines on the market in price/performance terms. 20 -> ****Merriam-Webster Responds To Virus -- Merriam- Webster 21 -> Boca Develops Programmable Optical Circuitry For Modems -- To quickly adapt its modems for different international markets, Boca Research Inc. (NASDAQ:BOCI), says it has developed an "easily reconfigurable" optical DAA (data access arrangement), which is the circuitry between the telephone and the computer equipment. 22 -> Prodigy & Jupiter Launch "Adult" Area -- Jupiter Interactive Productions has opened an "adult" area on Prodigy, an official of the online service has confirmed to Newsbytes. The area is called "Pseudo," and is targeted to "young adults," the official said. 23 -> CA & Fujitsu Ally On Object Technology -- Computer Associates International Inc. (NYSE:CA) and Fujitsu Ltd. have announced a strategic alliance including joint development, marketing, and support of object technology. The companies will begin by adding object-oriented technology to the CA-OpenIngres relational database software. 24 -> ****Acer Identifies Home PC Market For Growth -- Acer Computer plans to be in the top five PC manufacturers worldwide by the end of this year, and according to Acer America President Ronald Chwang, that will almost certainly be because Acer has discovered the exploding consumer market for PCs. 25 -> ****Microsoft Network Under Investigation From EC -- The prospect of seeing Microsoft Network (MSN) formally launching in late August took another battering today with the announcement by the European Commission (EC) that it is examining whether MSN could contravene EC rules on competition, as defined in the Treaty of Rome. 26 -> Adobe Ships PressWise 2.5 For Mac -- Adobe Systems Inc. (NASDAQ: ADBE) has announced shipment of Presswise version 2.5, a Macintosh-based pre-press tool the company said includes preflight and color separation features combined with electronic page imposition capabilities. 27 -> ****Database World - HP & Arbor Team On Data Warehouse -- In a press conference at Database World/Client-Server World, Hewlett-Packard and Arbor Software unveiled HP Intelligent Warehouse OLAP (Online Analytical Processing) Builder, a product aimed at making data warehouses easier to use and more "enterprise scaleable" through integration with Arbor's Essbase multi-dimensional database (MDDS) OLAP server. 28 -> Database World - OLAP Council Applauds Oracle/IRI Deal -- Oracle's plans to acquire IRI Software's OLAP (online analytical processing) business represent a "positive step" for the OLAP, database and computer industries, maintained Rick Crandall, spokesperson for the OLAP Council and chairman of Comshare, in a briefing for Newsbytes at Database World. 29 -> ****Microsoft/Netscape Plan Parental "Lock Out" Ability -- Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT), Netscape Communications, and Progressive Networks, have introduced a joint effort, called the Information Highway Parental Empowerment Group (IHPEG). It is designed to "create and implement" an industry-wide standards agreement which allows parents to lock out access to inappropriate material. 30 -> HP & AM Comms To Co-develop Cable TV Monitoring Systems -- Hewlett-Packard (NYSE: HWP), and AM Communications Inc. have announced that they plan to co-develop, market and distribute monitoring systems for the broadband industry. HP CaLan and AM plan to integrate their already existing monitoring systems into HP's OpenView technology. (Ian Stokell/19950615) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 06/14/95 TELECOM Czech Republic - SPT & Hughes Team On Wireless Data (NEWS)(TELECOM)(LON)(00001) Czech Republic - SPT & Hughes Team On Wireless Data 06/14/95 PRAGUE, CZECH REPUBLIC, 1995 JUN 14 (NB) -- SPT Telecom and Hughes Network Services have teamed up on wireless data technology. Announcing the linkup at the Comnet Prague '95 show, SPT Telecom officials said that the linkup with Maryland-based Hughes Network Systems will allow the deployment of an extended time division multiple access (E-TDMA) system in the Prague Area. According to SPT Telecom, the as-yet unnamed network will soon become operational for beta tests, with the first subscribers being "plugged in" in September of this year, and with around 6,000 subscribers expected to be online by next February. The announcement of SPT's plans to operate a Hughes GMH 2000 system in the Prague area marks the first time that TDMA technology is being deployed on any major scale in Eastern Europe. According to Hughes Network Systems, the network will ultimately be capable of handling up to 50,000 subscribers. The installation of the system, which will be operated by SPT Telecom, is being co-managed by the Czech engineering firm of Telecom Spo, which Newsbytes notes has considerable experience with the implementation of wireless technology. Another Czech company, Brixi, provided key products and services to the project, including the installation of the 61 antennae required to cover the Prague area, as well as test sets and computer equipment. Celltech, the US company, meanwhile, installed the cellular radio sites. Prague will be served by seven cell sites, to which subscribers link with using single subscriber units (SSUs). The SSUs are user-installable, plug into the local power grid, and feature a small dual diversity receive/antennae system which can be put on glass or strung out through the wall and hung outside. Company officials claim that the SSUs are "no more difficult to install than the regular phone." The SSU can work at data speeds of up to 9,600 bits-per-second (bps), as well as to Group 3 fax standards. The multiple subscriber units (MSUs), which are located at the cell site, support up to 96 connections, using standard line cards, with connections to voice, data, and fax services. "Once the cells are installed, and the switch is installed, adding more radios for more traffic is a very easy and quick upgrade," claimed Dr. Slekys, who added that the technology is faster than cable, more competitive -- even in the best case of cable areas -- and has lower costs than any suburban or rural telecoms setting. "It's the right way to go to help build your economy faster, and it is telecommunications that makes the world go around," he said. The heart of the GMH 2000 network is an Alcatel 1000 S12 switch, which Newsbytes notes is at the heart of several landline voice technology exchanges in the Czech Republic. "It is a great source of pride for us at Hughes Network Systems to partner with SPT in a project with the economic and social significance of this one," said Dr. Arunas Slekys, vice president of digital cellular networks with Hughes Network Systems. According to Dr Slekys, "SPT's capable management of our advanced wireless technology will combine to bring the people of Prague and, soon, to the republic as a whole, telecommunications capability that is second to none." (Steve Slatem/19950612/Press & Reader Contacts: Dr. Arunas Slekys, Hughes Network Systems, tel 301-428-5502, fax 301-428-2823; Michal Cupa, SPT Telecom, tel +42-2-691-9272, fax +42-2-691-9046) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 06/14/95 TELECOM Hungary - Datanet & SprintNet Team On PDN/Internet (NEWS)(TELECOM)(LON)(00002) Hungary - Datanet & SprintNet Team On PDN/Internet 06/14/95 BUDAPEST, HUNGARY, 1995 JUN 14 (NB) -- The gradual penetration of the SprintNet International packet data network (PDN) into Eastern Europe continues with the announcement by Datanet Telecom, the Hungarian telecoms company, of a linkup between the two companies to offer PDN and Internet services to Hungary. Datanet is providing the national network infrastructure for Hungary, hooking into the international SprintNet network for international X.25 calls. As well as providing the usual range of X.28/leased line PDN facilities, Datanet is working quickly to roll out a portfolio of electronic-mail and TCP/IP (Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol) Internet facilities to Hungarian businesses. "As the SprintNet provider in Hungary, we provide the services that SprintNet provides throughout the world," explained David Korrie, director of sales and marketing at Datanet. The Datanet/SprintNet network is now operational in Budapest on 269-7023, working at data speeds of up to 14,400 bits-per-second (bps). Other network nodes will become operational in due course, and the network will be progressively upgraded to 28,800 bps, Newsbytes was told. According to Korrie, Datanet provides dial-up and dedicated access to all Sprint sites around the world including Sprint's e-mail service, SprintMail. Motorola, for example, is a Sprint account holder with offices in Hungary, which connects through the Datanet/SprintNet service to other parts of the Sprint network. Instead of going down the route of installing an X.25 network and overlaying TCP/IP data calls over that PDN service, Datanet has installed a national network on a reverse basis. The links from Budapest to the cities around Hungary are TCP/IP, with subscribers accessing the dial-up ports using TCP/IP. Only at Budapest does the TCP/IP call get translated into X.25 format for onward transmission outside the country. Said Korrie, "So what we have done, instead of installing an X.25 network throughout Hungary, we have installed a Cisco router network. So we provide IP access throughout the country, so that those, mostly local area network (LAN) users (Novell LANs are very popular in Hungary) can access directly to an IP network and not have to go through conversions. "Our planned rollout is to have all nineteen counties (of Hungary) covered by the end of the year," said Korrie, who added that a mail server is now up and running in Budapest using the Cisco 2500 terminal servers. He went on to explain that 4500 series routers are used throughout the growing network. Korrie said that a move to 28,800 bps on dial-up will be contemplated, once subscribers make the move to 28,800 bps modem technology. At the moment, he said, most subscribers were using 9,600/14,400 bps modems. Datanet is also looking for World Wide Web-savvy Internet service providers wanting to install Web sites at Datanet's offices in Budapest, as well as having leased line access to the Internet. "If I can attach your Web server to our network, provide you with better service than anyone else can, cleaner, faster, whatever it is, I'm going to get more traffic on my network," he said. "That's what my business is all about." Data traffic on the network is billed by taking the square root of the number of kilobytes (KB) of traffic. "For 10 megabytes (MB) you pay $100, for 100MB you pay $320," Korrie explained. "You're paying three times as much for ten times as much traffic, he said, adding that this "diminishing curve pricing" continues, no matter what network capacities are involved. For smaller subscribers who want vanilla dial-up SLIP/PPP connectivity, a $20 set-up fee is payable, with a monthly fixed charge of $28, which includes the first four hours of access free. Extra hours are billed at $7 per hour. On the electronic-mail service, the same set-up fee is payable, with per transaction e-mail services extra. The first 2MB of data storage is free of charge, with extra MBs of storage available at $4.35 per month per megabyte. (Steve Slatem/19950612/Press & Reader Contact: David Korrie, Datanet Telecom, tel +36-1-269-7373, fax +36-1-269-7022) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 06/14/95 EDUCATION Eastern Europe - Sun Donates SPARCServers To Univs (NEWS)(EDUCATION)(LON)(00003) Eastern Europe - Sun Donates SPARCServers To Univs 06/14/95 WARSAW, POLAND, 1995 JUN 14 (NB) -- Sun Microsystems has donated a SPARCServer 1000E Internet Server system to the universities of Warsaw, Poland, and Budapest, Hungary. The donations are being made under Sun's ongoing SunSITE program, Newsbytes has learned. The Lajos Kossuth University in Budapest will receive equipment and software worth around $14,000, allowing university students and other interested parties, access to the global Internet community. In Warsaw, meanwhile, Scott McNealy attended a donation ceremony recently, celebrating the donation of a second SPARCserver 1000, to the University of Warsaw. "These donations are part of our continuing investment in Hungary," explained Darryl Parker, managing director, Middle European Operations, for Sun Microsystems. "Since Sun is the leading Internet server platform worldwide, we felt that this was the most appropriate gift we could offer -- it's our way of showing appreciation for the rapid growth we have experienced in the Hungarian marketplace," he said. SunSITE (Software, Information and Technology Exchange), is an ongoing donation program whose mission is described as fourfold: to serve as a repository for unique and leading-edge information (for example, research results and presidential materials); provide availability of public domain software, including the Internet compilers and access tools available online; provide a forum for local geographic events and issues; and provide an archive of Sun-related product and service information. Other SunSITE donation sites include: the Science University of Tokyo, Japan; Imperial College in London, England; Moscow State University in Russia; the University of Witwatersrand in South Africa; and the University of North Carolina in the US. "We are very pleased to work with Sun to become a focal point of the Internet in Hungary," said Dr. Gyorgy Bazsa, vice rector of Lajos Kossuth University in Budapest. "This SunSITE will be a tremendous resource not just for our university, but for the entire Hungarian academic community." "Kossuth Lajos University was a natural candidate to be a SunSITE because they have been pioneers in the area of client-server computing and are doing some important network-based research, especially in the field of multimedia library access," said Sun's Parker. Sun claims it has deep roots in the educational marketplace and in Central & Eastern Europe, where educational institutions are much better connected to the Internet than the business community. "Sun has some 56 percent of the market of Web servers," explained Scott Hickman, director of marketing, Middle European Operations, Sun Microsystems Hungary. "It's sort of a natural fit for us to try to enable the Web wherever we are. This is our investing back into the educational marketplace where our roots are," he added. (Steve Slatem/19950612/Press & Reader Contact: Scott Hickman, Sun Microsystems Hungary, tel +36-1-2024415, fax +36-1-2012731, Internet e-mail scott.hickman@hungary.sun.com) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 06/14/95 ONLINE UK - Knowledge Computing Offers Budget Web Publishing (NEWS)(ONLINE)(LON)(00004) UK - Knowledge Computing Offers Budget Web Publishing 06/14/95 LONDON, ENGLAND, 1995 JUN 14 (NB) -- Knowledge Computing has announced a "low-cost" publishing service for companies who want to publish on the World Wide Web, but who lack the in-house knowledge and/or resources to create their own HTML (hypertext markup language) pages. #IMAGE 1 20 TWPCX \images\95061404.PCX Click here for photo Ian Tresman, a spokesman for the company, told Newsbytes that his services are costed at low prices thanks to a special deal with The Direct Connection (TDC), a London-based Internet service provider. "We rent the page space from TDC and offer consultancy and publishing services on the Web to our customers," he said, adding that pricing starts at UKP25 per year for a couple of simple Web pages, ranging upwards. "It depends on what the customer wants," he explained, adding that, if needed, the company will provide staff on-site for consultancy, with prices starting from UKP125 upwards. "We're not in the business of offering Web pages for experienced HTML publishers, or someone who wants to create their own pages. For that we refer people to TDC direct. What we're offering is an Internet Web publishing service for those users who want to farm the whole business out to ourselves," he said. Knowledge Computing has its own Web pages on http://www.knowledge.co.uk/xxx/ and pages are normally published on a sub-address through that URL (uniform resource locator). Knowledge Computing's price list offers four main plans for clients. Plan A is for a personalized Web page of up to 250 words, with a personal Web address and 12 months display, for UKP25. Plans B costs UKP100 a year and offers a similar package to Plan A, but for up to 1,000 words and a single picture. Plan C costs UKP250 and boosts Plan B to 5,000 words and three pictures. Plan D costs UKP1,000 a year and offers up to 25,000 words on the Web, plus 10 pictures for a year's display. (Steve Gold/19950613/Press & Reader Contact: Knowledge Computing, tel +44-181-953-7722, fax +44-181-905-1879; Internet e-mail 72240.3447@compuserve.com/KNOWLEDGE950614/PHOTO) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 06/14/95 ONLINE UK - Rough Guide Travel Books On The Internet (NEWS)(ONLINE)(LON)(00005) UK - Rough Guide Travel Books On The Internet 06/14/95 LONDON, ENGLAND, JUN 14 (NB) -- Rough Guides, the UK publisher of the Rough Guide range of travel books, has teamed up with HotWired Ventures of San Francisco, to publish elements of the books on the World Wide Web. #IMAGE 1 20 TWPCX \images\95061405.PCX Click here for photo The Rough Guide books will be published as part of HotWired's travel service on the Web, World Beat, which will debut on the Internet on July 1. HotWired is the Web publishing division of Wired, the monthly leisure/consumer magazine. The Rough Guide service has been scheduled, Newsbytes understands, to debut fully on World Beat in the fall of this year. According to Andrew Anker, president of HotWired, World Beat will interweave Rough Guides' travel information with HotWired's multimedia content, and aims to become the one-stop source on the Web for travelers. Jeffrey Kayes, of Rough Guides, told Newsbytes that the Web version of the Rough Guide travel service should be online by September 1. Between now and then, HotWired will be taking the text information from the Rough Guide and editing it for publishing on the World Beat service. Interestingly, Kaye does not see the Rough Guide Web page as taking over from the paper book editions. "We're not charging for the service, but we have sponsors who pay for the service. Our first sponsor is American Airlines," he explained. Nor does Kaye see users downloading entire sections of the books from the Web pages. He views the Web as a shop window, where people can sample the various publications that Rough Guide produces. "We hope that they will be intrigued enough to go out and buy our books, rather than simply download the information. That's the nature of the Internet. Personally, I prefer to have the information, such as our books, in my hand, rather than on the computer screen," he said. The HotWired World Beat service is at http://www.hotwired.com/, and is claimed to offer its members original multimedia content and an "interactive community space." Since its launch in October last year, the HotWired service claims to have attracted approximately 1,000 new members each day, and reached the 200,000 member mark earlier this month. (Steve Gold/19950613/Press Contact: Beth Vanderslice, HotWired, 415-222-6366, Internet e-mail beth@hotwired.com; Jean Marie Kelly, Rough Guides: 212-366-2331, Internet e-mail rough@panix.com/ROUGH950614/PHOTO) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 06/14/95 NETWORK Israel - RAD's Palm-Sized, Low-Cost Router Technology (NEWS)(NETWORK)(LON)(00006) Israel - RAD's Palm-Sized, Low-Cost Router Technology 06/14/95 TEL AVIV, ISRAEL, 1995 JUN 14 (NB) -- RAD Network Devices has unveiled an office internetworking system called OG-VAN. According to company officials, the palm-sized device sells for under $1,000, yet acts as an unpowered network router. According to RAD, OG-VAN is very easy to install, and, under most configuration conditions, needs no power or software to drive the unit. Most network operating systems can drive the unit as a standard router devices. OG-VAN can be combined, and be monitored, with the use of MultiVu, RAD's SNMP (Simple Network Management Protocol) network management software, or using any SNMP-compliant application. On a technical level, OG-VAN has a single Ethernet LAN (local area network) port and two WAN (wide area network) interfaces -- one as the primary link, the other for dial backup -- working at data speeds of between 4.8 and 384 kilobits-per-second (Kbps). When combined with a central site OpenGate multiprotocol router, the devices can work to TCP/IP (Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol) transmission standards, as well as DECnet and IPX/SPX (Internetwork Packet Exchange/Sequenced Packet Exchange) protocol standards. RAD claims that the device is ideal for connectivity between office branches and provides integrated support for frame relay networks, as well as RFC 1490 standards. In use, the router works at compression ratios of up to 4:1 for link speeds of up to 64Kbps. (Sylvia Dennis/19950613/Press & Reader Contact: Janet Zipes, RAD, +972-3-648-7368) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 06/14/95 ONLINE O.J. Simpson Topics Popular On Prodigy (NEWS)(ONLINE)(MSP)(00007) O.J. Simpson Topics Popular On Prodigy 06/14/95 WHITE PLAINS, NEW YORK, U.S.A., 1995 JUN 14 (NB) -- O.J. Simpson fever hasn't yet subsided in cyberspace. Prodigy reports its members haven't overdosed yet on the football star-turned actor's double murder trial and news surrounding the proceedings. Prodigy spokesperson Carol Wallace told Newsbytes the service is providing more than 200 newspaper stories a week on the trial. Members are posting more than 150,000 bulletin board messages on the service, and 75,000 votes have been cast in Prodigy polls. "They're taking the situation (the trial), and they're making other things happen," Wallace told Newsbytes. "I'm especially pleased to see what's happening on the domestic violence boards, which began a week after the murders, and is still going strong. So some good things have come out of this awareness." Prodigy members have been offering support for victims of domestic violence through the service's bulletin boards, Wallace said. Nightly Prodigy chat discussions on the topic draw an average of 100 members, officials said. In the past, special guests have included attorney Alan Dershowitz. On Prodigy, OJ trial news can be found in the Court TV section, Chat areas, the LA Times Area, in Domestic Violence, and via searching the Associated Press Online area. On the Internet, sources include: Time Warner's Pathfinder World Wide Web site (http://www.pathfinder.com); Yahoo (http://www.yahoo.com, search for "OJ"); The Simpson Case Webstyle (http://tvnet.com/OJ/oj.html); and the Official Unofficial O.J. Simpson Web Page (http://www.carasso.com/roger/oj.html). In fact, when Newsbytes conducted an InfoSeek (http://www.infoseek.com) query on O.J. Simpson Web sites, the search engine located more than 140 sites on the subject. Another place for O.J. information is the "alt.fan.oj-simpson" Internet newsgroup. "The online world always mirrors the real world," Wallace said. "How many steps can you take out your door without hearing about O.J. or talking about O.J? I think its an accurate reflection on what's going on in real-life." (Bob Woods/19950609/Press Contact: Carol Wallace, Prodigy, 914-448-2496) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 06/14/95 BUSINESS ****Shiva To Acquire Spider Systems In UK (NEWS)(BUSINESS)(LON)(00008) ****Shiva To Acquire Spider Systems In UK 06/14/95 EDINBURGH, SCOTLAND, 1995 JUN 14 (NB) -- At 11am this morning (UK time), staff at Spider Systems, the UK networking company, were called into a company-wide meeting at which they were told the company is to be acquired by Shiva, the US networking company. According to Fiona Dineen, a spokeswoman for Spider Systems, the deal has been arranged quite quickly, and has come as something of a surprise for many staff at Spider. The company's business has grown almost exponentially over the past few years. According to Dineen, the deal is based around a share exchange. Shareholders in Spider Systems will receive approximately two million shares in Shiva, which values the Scottish networking company at around the $80 million mark. The transaction will be accounted for as a pooling of interests and is expected to be finalized in the third quarter of this year. Commenting on the deal, Frank Ingari, Shiva's president, called Spider, "a technology powerhouse in digital internetworking," adding that the company is a recognized industry leader in dial-up router, X.25, and frame relay technology. This description, Newsbytes notes, could be a direct reference to Shiva itself, which has carved out a similar sizable niche for itself in the North American markets from its Burlington, Massachusetts- based headquarters. Ingari calls the effective merger a "strategic and complementary fit that is designed to further strengthen our global leadership in remote access to public and private networks." Martin Ritchie, Spider's managing director, said that merging with Shiva will open up the North American markets for the company, an area that Spider has been trying to break into for some time. "And our well-developed European channel will broaden deployment of Shiva's products," he said. So what does this effective merger mean for Spider's organization and, perhaps more importantly, customers of the company in the UK and Europe? Although both companies are working through the fine details of the operational side of things, plans call for Spider's sales operations to report to Ingari in the US, with Woody Benson changing his role to become vice president of worldwide marketing, along with Asian and American sales. Rob Downey, meanwhile, becomes vice president of Europe, Middle East and Africa, while Peter Howells becomes vice president of the Network Integration Group, Spider Systems. Dennis Chateauneuf, Shiva's VP for operations and customer service, changes his role as well, to become general manager of Spider's Edinburgh HQ, which will become Shiva's Edinburgh operations. Spider's existing research and development, plus manufacturing facilities will continue to be located at Edinburgh. Spider's four main areas of operations -- ISDN (integrated services digital networks) integration, communications servers, network software, and network integration -- will continue as before, and the 70-plus staff in the UK will become employees of Shiva. (Steve Gold/19950614/Press Contact: MCC International, +44-1420- 542598; Ellen Silveira, Lois Paul & Partners, 617-860-5650; Reader Contact: Spider Systems, +44-131-554-9424; Shiva Corp., 617-270-8349) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 06/14/95 TRENDS Iomega's 1GB "Jaz" Removable Drive (NEWS)(TRENDS)(DEN)(00009) Iomega's 1GB "Jaz" Removable Drive 06/14/95 ROY, UTAH, U.S.A., 1995 JUN 14 (NB) -- Iomega Corp. (NASDAQ: IOMG) has announced another high-capacity removable media drive, this one capable of storing up to one gigabyte (GB) of information on a single disk. The new offering, which is called the "Jaz" drive, is still under development and isn't expected to ship until the end of the year. Iomega said it expects the street price to be under $500, and the 3.5-inch Jaz disks will have a street price under $99. Jaz will ship with a starter disk that will contain Jaz Tools, a utility program for storing, moving and managing information. Iomega said the new disks have the capacity to store and play: an entire movie, compressed in the MPEG (Motion Picture Experts Group) 1 format; up to eight hours of CD quality audio; or up to eight minutes of broadcast quality video. You could also store as much as two hours of MPEG1 compressed DSS satellite quality video or more than 20,000 scanned documents for document imaging. Earlier this year Iomega introduced its 100 megabyte (MB) external Zip drives that also use removable media, and said it will ship an internal version of the Zip drive later this year. Iomega said Jaz drives have a sustained transfer rate of up to 6.73 MB-per-second (MBps) and a 10MBps synchronous SCSI (small computer system interface) transfer rate. The company said the mean-time- between-failures (MTBF) rating of the Jaz drive is 250,000 hours. The Jaz drive weighs two pounds. The case color is what Iomega describes as "racing green" and there is a clear window so the user can see the disk label while the disk is mounted. The case is stackable with Zip, Ditto (Iomega's tape backup drive) and Bernoulli (the company's 5.25-inch removable media drive) drives . The company said Jaz has a 12 millisecond average seek time, 17.5 millisecond average access time, and a 256 kilobyte (KB) read/write cache. In addition to the $99 1GB disks, the Jaz drive can also write to and read Iomega's 540MB disks, which are expected to sell for about $69. Both disks will be available individually or in multi-packs. Internal and external SCSI versions of Jaz are expected to ship in late 1995 and an internal IDE (Integrated Device Electronics) version is scheduled for availability in the first quarter of 1996. Jaz, Ditto and Zip products will be on display at Iomega's booth at the PC Expo tradeshow that opens its three-day run in New York, on June 20. (Jim Mallory/19950614/Press contact: Cory Maloy, Iomega, 801-778-3712; Public contact: Iomega, 800-697-8833 or 801-778-1000) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 06/14/95 ONLINE Dow Jones To Use "Personal Library" Search Engine (NEWS)(ONLINE)(TYO)(00010) Dow Jones To Use "Personal Library" Search Engine 06/14/95 ROCKVILLE, USA, 1995 JUN 14 (NB) -- Personal Library have announced that Dow Jones Business Information Services has employed its PLS database search engine in a new information product released this week. The Dow Jones enhanced Text Library includes new features and better performance as a result of the use of PLS software, the company says. The Dow Jones service scans multiple newswires, and the PLS software provides a search engine for information retrieval. PLS software is already widely used in online database search engines with the company's customers, including America Online, Apple Computer, Dialog, Financial Times, NewsNet, Time Inc., and the US House of Representatives. The PLS-CD software is also employed in a growing number of CD-ROMs. One of the main features of the system is the ability to search through the use of plain English, rather than having to learn a special database search language. It is therefore possible to enter a phrase such as, "I need to know about computer software manufacturers in Europe." The software removes unnecessary words and performs a boolean "OR" operation on the others. The secret to the process is that the information retrieved is given a rating depending on how near it is to the search request, which reportedly results in smarter searching, says the company. On the new deal, president of PLS, Matthew Kroll, said that the new service "takes advantage of the custom interface to our CPL (Callable Personal Librarian) library to deliver many new searching and output options to its users. It is a fine example of how our engine is suited for industrial strength applications that require high volumes of data and usage, combined with concurrent updates." CPL is a C application programming interface (API) designed for development of applications that use the PLS search engine. The API enables clients to use their existing database as Paul Campbell, marketing director of PLS, told Newsbytes, "They do not have to be converted first. CPL/PLS currently indexes Word, WordPerfect, ASCII, Adobe Acrobat, and HTML (hypertext markup language) documents. In the near term, this support will be extended to most of the major desktop applications, such as Lotus Excel." (Martyn Williams/19950614/Press & reader contact : Paul Campbell, PLS Software, 301-208-1239, Internet e-mail paulc@pls.com, Internet World Wide Web http://www.pls.com/) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 06/14/95 BUSINESS Northern Telecom Consolidates, Cuts Jobs (NEWS)(BUSINESS)(TOR)(00011) Northern Telecom Consolidates, Cuts Jobs 06/14/95 BRAMALEA, ONTARIO, CANADA, 1995 JUN 14 (NB) -- One of Northern Telecom Ltd.'s (TSE:NTL; NYSE:NT) flagship manufacturing plants will lose most of its manufacturing jobs and become the company's world headquarters as the result of a consolidation plan. The company told employees that 580 manufacturing jobs will be lost at the plant in Bramalea, Ontario. Meanwhile, there will be about 400 new jobs at a subsidiary, BrockTel, in Brockville, Ontario. Both the lost jobs and the new ones are in the manufacture of switching equipment. Some employees from Bramalea are expected to move to Brockville, Northern spokesman Robert O'Brien told Newsbytes, "we would hope as many as possible," but he added that the distance and other factors make it unlikely all 400 new Brockville jobs will be filled by workers from Bramalea. O'Brien added that about 300 of those affected by the cuts in Bramalea are eligible for early retirement. Northern plans to consolidate 1,140 office jobs from three Toronto-area locations into a new headquarters in the space left vacant in Bramalea, O'Brien said. This will bring total employment at Bramalea to about 3,000 by the end of 1996, the company said. Between 500 and 600 existing repair and return operations jobs will remain at the facility. By moving the office jobs from leased space to the Bramalea building, which it owns, Northern will gain "significant cost savings," O'Brien said. According to Northern Telecom, the net job loss from the consolidation will be 180. However, the Canadian Auto Workers union, which represents workers at Bramalea, issued a statement claiming that the moves will lead to the loss of "a thousand more jobs" in Bramalea "before the end of the year." The statement cited Northern's move as evidence that "Canada is being abandoned by the corporations." Northern's O'Brien said no jobs are moving out of Canada in the reorganization. The company said its payroll in Canada remained relatively stable from 1988 to 1994 and the number of manufacturing employees rose from 9,200 in 1990 to 10,500 last year. (Grant Buckler/19950613/Press Contact: Robert O'Brien, Northern Telecom, 905-566-3214; Jane Armstrong, Canadian Auto Workers, 519-389-3200) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 06/14/95 TELECOM No Long-Distance Service Ballot For Canada (NEWS)(TELECOM)(TOR)(00012) No Long-Distance Service Ballot For Canada 06/14/95 OTTAWA, ONTARIO, CANADA, 1995 JUN 14 (NB) -- The Canadian Radio- television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) has denied Unitel Communications Inc.'s request to have Canadians select their long-distance telephone carriers by ballot. The regulatory body also turned down Unitel's request for a public information campaign on long-distance service. Toronto-based Unitel, a national long-distance service provider, had asked for the information campaign to combat what it called a "campaign of misinformation" by the established telephone companies. The company also said a balloting process, similar to one used in Australia, would help overcome customer inertia that is making it hard for new long-distance competitors to attract customers. However, the CRTC concluded that the benefits of a ballot would not justify the costs and a public education campaign is not needed at this time. Under Unitel's proposal, made last year, each individual customer would have been asked to choose a long-distance carrier. Those who did not return their ballots would have remained with the carrier already serving them -- in most cases, the established phone company in the region. In any area where fewer than 65 percent of customers responded to the first ballot, a second ballot would have been sent to those who had not responded. Long-distance company Sprint Canada, the Consumers' Association of Canada, the National Anti-Poverty Association, the Canadian Business Telecommunications Alliance (CBTA) user group, and the Director of Investigation and Research of the Bureau of Competition Policy were among those supporting Unitel's application for a balloting process. Several provincial governments, the Stentor consortium of telephone companies, at least one long-distance reseller, and others, opposed it. Unitel will not pursue the issue further, company spokeswoman Carleen Carroll told Newsbytes. "While we're disappointed with the decision, we've got a lot of other issues on our plate before the commission," she said. (Grant Buckler/19950613/Press Contact: Carleen Carroll, Unitel, tel 416-345-2114, fax 416-345-2090) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 06/14/95 TRENDS Home PC Market Wants High Quality Electric Power (NEWS)(TRENDS)(WAS)(00013) Home PC Market Wants High Quality Electric Power 06/14/95 NORTH SALEM, NEW YORK, U.S.A., 1995 JUN 14 (NB) -- Home personal computer owners want high quality electrical power to supply their machines -- and are willing to pay for it, according to a recent survey by RKS Research & Consulting, a firm that specializes in the electricity utility business. But most home computer users would turn to the phone company, not to their electricity utility, for services such as advance notification of power outages, priority restoration of service, and surge protection, David Reichman, RKS president told Newsbytes. Reichman said he hopes to work with electric utility clients to design a home computer users service that utilities can offer for a fee in the range of $15 per month. According to Reichman, data from a sample of 703 households with computers and discrete home offices found that 58 percent of PC owners would pick the telephone company to provide their needs for home power quality, while only 21 percent would pick the local electric utility. Only six percent would turn to their cable TV system. "Cable has a lousy image," said Reichman. "These people believe they use electricity differently, but the electric utility treats them alike," said Reichman. "There is a real need for a service here. "Although many of the services sought by consumers are currently the domain of electric utilities," said Reichman, "people are telling us that they see telecommunications providers as more sophisticated suppliers of advanced technology. And our survey respondents seem willing to pay a premium for the peace of mind and increased simplicity of a single set -- and source -- of information and solutions." According to Reichman, two-thirds of PC owners surveyed reported power fluctuations or interruptions. For six percent of the home office business users and three percent of computer users at home, power problems caused serious disruptions of their work. It's a potentially huge market, said Reichman. "We've been following the rise of the home computer for about five years," he noted. A survey earlier this year found home computers in 34 percent of US homes. (Kennedy Maize/19950614/Press Contact: David Reichman, 914-277-6900) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 06/14/95 ONLINE UK - Pipex & Harris Team On Internet Security (NEWS)(ONLINE)(LON)(00014) UK - Pipex & Harris Team On Internet Security 06/14/95 CAMBRIDGE, ENGLAND, 1995 JUN 14 (NB) -- Harris Computer Systems (HCS) has contracted with Pipex, the UK's largest Internet service provider, to act as a value-added reseller for the Harris Cyberguard Internet "firewall" system. Andrew Clarke, a spokesman for HCS, told Newsbytes that the Cyberguard system is a hardware/software self-contained system that operates to TCP/IP (Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol) transmission standards, which means it can sit between a company's Internet host system and the Internet link itself. "Many companies are becoming more and more aware of the need for Internet security, but the problem is one of integrating the firewall with the companies' existing host systems. By adhering to transparent TCP/IP internetworking, the Cyberguard system fits neatly into companies' existing systems," he explained. Pricing on Cyberguard starts at around the UKP20,000 mark, but Clarke was at pains to point out that this fee includes the "high level" of consulting and risk analysis that is required before a Cyberguard system is installed. "The consulting side is where Pipex comes in," he said, adding that HCS is currently in the process of training Pipex staff to consult and install a Cyberguard system where corporations need the high level of transparent security the system offers. In use, Cyberguard is billed as providing protection against computer break-ins, preventing hackers who may employ a wide variety of attack techniques, from gaining access to company sensitive data. According to HCS, fundamental to the operation of the Cyberguard firewall is Harris' secure Unix operating system and networking technology which the company claims enforces the customer's security policy. "The Cyberguard Unix is a secure version of Unix that is completely separate from the Internet host system's Unix. The technology is highly secure and has achieved the B1 level of trust from the National Computer Security Center (NCSA) in the US," Clarke told Newsbytes. (Steve Gold/19950613/Press Contact: GBC, +44-181-332-7022; Reader Contact: Andrew Clarke, HCS, +44-1276-686886, Internet e-mail andy.clarke@mail.hcsc.com; Tim Brooks, Pipex, +44-1223-25010, Internet e-mail tim@unipalm.co.uk) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 06/14/95 TRENDS Europe - Client-Server Technology Gaining In Popularity (NEWS)(TRENDS)(LON)(00015) Europe - Client-Server Technology Gaining In Popularity 06/14/95 PORTSMOUTH, HAMPSHIRE, ENGLAND, 1995 JUN 14 (NB) -- According to a survey, produced on behalf of IBM's UK and European operation, one in four European companies are introducing client-server technology in their firms. According to officials with Big Blue, the report claims to show that this move to client-server technology is introducing significant changes to companies' organizational structure with a very positive outcome in many cases. The report also shows that hundreds of other firms are implementing new information technology (IT) to make their companies operate on a "smoother and more efficient" basis, with far greater access to information and better integration of different departments and workgroups. The survey also claims to shows that the growing demand for client-server technology is linked with a company's strategy. Under an open client-server architecture, all computer equipment can be successfully linked, along with previously incompatible ones. The result is that organizations can easily access and search all the information required. According to IBM, the survey shows that more than 73 percent of major client/server business investment decisions are shared between IT and functional executives. In Europe, the motivation towards change is more internally oriented on issues such as the quality and productivity of an employee, although increased customer satisfaction is still the aim and key business objective of European companies. Nearly half of the companies surveyed in France, Germany, the UK, Benelux, Portugal, Italy, Spain, and Scandinavia, agreed that IT is increasingly becoming more important to their successful functionality. In addition, 45 percent admitted that the new technology gave a "significant advantage" to their firms. (Sylvia Dennis/19950613/Press Contact: Kevin Perlmutter, IBM United Kingdom, +44-1705-563802) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 06/14/95 TRENDS UK - Dell Says Most Business Travelers Use IT (NEWS)(TRENDS)(LON)(00016) UK - Dell Says Most Business Travelers Use IT 06/14/95 BRACKNELL, BERKSHIRE, ENGLAND, 1995 JUN 14 (NB) -- According to a survey carried out by Dell UK, the "techno-traveler" of today is already a reality, with most business travelers making significant use of information technology (IT) while on the move in the shape of mobile phones, notebook PCs, fax modems, and pagers. According to Dell, around 88 percent of frequent business travelers think technology makes them more efficient when traveling, and nearly half said they "couldn't function without technology." Thirty-eight percent of notebook users said they used them everywhere, including the office, home, and on the move. Nick Pike, managing director of Dell UK's corporation division, said "the classic techno-traveler is someone who carries everything they need to replicate their office in one bag. They can phone home, work on reports or spreadsheets, send and receive faxes and electronic-mail, wherever they are in the world." One of the major criticisms of the portable office, however, is that the notebook PC's battery life rarely fulfills the needs of mobile PC users, such as the techno traveler. The survey's findings coincide with the launch of Dell's new Latitude Pentium-based notebooks, which Pike notes have the latest Lithium Ion battery technology for extended battery life. According to Dell, the new machines have a 25 to 45 percent better battery life than their predecessors, and are expected to appeal to the techno-traveler. In general, users did not seem concerned about the applications issues, such as telecoms (three percent), program crashes (three percent), people looking over their shoulder (two percent) or storage capacity (under one percent). When traveling on business, most users prefer the company of their computer to a human, with 41 percent preferring to sit next to an empty seat so they work better with their portable PC. The research was carried out on 717 frequent business travelers from all over the UK between April and May of this year. (Steve Gold/19950613/Press Contact: Dell Press Office London, tel +44-171-306-9007, fax +44-171-497-0096) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 06/14/95 BROADCAST Hong Kong - Wharf Investigates Cable TV Outages (NEWS)(BROADCAST)(TYO)(00017) Hong Kong - Wharf Investigates Cable TV Outages 06/14/95 HONG KONG, 1995 JUN 14 (NB) -- Hong Kong Telecom say they are setting up a investigative panel to discover the cause of two system failures that blacked out screens of Wharf Cable viewers twice over the last week. The first failure occurred on Thursday when half of the twenty channel line up was blacked out for over four hours. Another four hour failure on Saturday evening caused a flood of complaints because it came during the French Open tennis women's final match. To pacify customers, Wharf Cable, the country's only cable operator, took out full-page newspaper advertisements in Monday's newspapers apologizing for the failures. The cable company says it has no idea what caused the faults or whether they could occur again, because it relies on Hong Kong Telecom for its major network links. Wharf is currently building its own network but that will not be completed for another three years, meaning the company will have to continue using Hong Kong Telecom until then. Currently Hong Kong Telecom, owned 57.5% by the UK's Cable and Wireless PLC, is Hong Kong's only telephone provider, but that will change from the beginning of next month when competition is introduced into the domestic telephone market. Amongst its new competitors is a service being launched by Wharf Cable. The new competition is not all one way though, Hong Kong Telecom will soon begin a video-on-demand service in the country. (Martyn Williams/19950613) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 06/14/95 GENERAL Japan Newsbriefs (NEWS)(GENERAL)(TYO)(00018) Japan Newsbriefs 06/14/95 TOKYO, JAPAN, 1995 JUN 14 (NB) -- In this roundup of news from Japan: Open Market Data Council established; IBM Japan to begin Internet access service; Workstation Shipments Up By Volume. Open Market Data Council Established Eight companies have formed a new venture that will develop a computer network that is easily accessible using software based on the Microsoft Windows platform. Currently, access to each of Japan's major information providers requires special software packages for each service, although the Open Market Data Council hopes to standardize the distribution and interface. Members include Kyodo News Service, Reuter Japan, and the four largest brokerage houses. IBM Japan To Begin Internet Access Service Following the lead of its US parent and other major Japanese electronics companies, IBM Japan has announced that it will begin an Internet connection service for both personal and corporate users. According to the company, it will provide the service for "the lowest price in the industry." The new service will begin in September. Workstation Shipments Up By Volume Figures just released by the Japan Electronic Industry Development Association show that total shipments of workstations in the previous financial year totaled 166,000 units, an increase of six percent on the year. However, falling prices meant that, by value, workstation revenue fell. Minicomputer shipments increased by fourteen percent, volume-wise, to 12,000 units, but, like workstations, fell in value. At 160 billion yen minicomputer sales were down four percent in value. The association said there is a growing trend towards client-server systems. Server shipments jumped 54 percent in volume, and 49 percent in value. (Martyn Williams/19950614) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 06/14/95 ONLINE Internet Update (NEWS)(ONLINE)(TYO)(00019) Internet Update 06/14/95 TOKYO, JAPAN, 1995 JUN 14 (NB) -- In this roundup of new resources and software available on the Internet: Auction engine software for the Web; Australian jobs online; New look for QMS; Alternative data transfer; Art museum open; Language samples; Newslink changes address; Croatia online. Auction Engine Software For The Web If you want to conduct an auction on the World Wide Web, there is a software package now available to help you. It is currently being used in an auction of trading cards, but the author says it can be adapted to suit any application. World Wide Web: http://www.best.com/~johny Australian Jobs Online The Australian arm of Austin Knight, one of the world's leading recruitment advertising agencies, has launched a fully operational World Wide Web site. It is the first time in Australia that an advertising agency has established a comprehensive Web site, featuring corporate information, an online folio of recent notable work and employment listings on behalf of clients. World Wide Web: http://www.aone.net.au/ak New Look For QMS The home page of QMS Printers has been redesigned and given a new look. Updated and new information has also been added. World Wide Web: http://www.qms.com/ Alternative Data Transfer Datacomm has opened a home on the Internet that covers a range of alternative data transfer options. Included are products such as wireless local area networks with a range of 40 kilometers at 2.048 megabits-per-second (Mbps) and Ethernet repeaters at 10Mbps with a 915 meter range. World Wide Web: http://www.halcyon.com/routers/ Art Museum Open The Lin Hsin Hsin Art Museum in Singapore is now on the World Wide Web. The center claims to be the first ASEAN contemporary fine art museum featuring the works of Lin Hsin Hsin. An information technologist by trade, she has created over 800 pieces of digital art which combine images, sculptures, poetry, and music. World Wide Web: http://www.ncb.gov.sg/lhh/lhh.html Language Samples The national language of Malaysia is Bahasa Malaysia. A sample of words in the language is available on the Web as a series of sound files, together with their English meanings. World Wide Web: http://wwwbusiness.uca.edu/Partners/Alan/bhsmsia.html Newslink Changes Address The Newslink service has changed its Web address. Newslink provides links to newspapers, magazines and broadcast stations that have Web services. Links to more than 800 such organizations are listed. World Wide Web: http://www.newslink.org/ Croatia Online Despite the relentless war continuing in the region, Croatia's largest Internet host has now launched a series of home pages with links to some of its 3,000 users as well as a gateway to Croatian Usenet groups. World Wide Web: http://labs1.etf.hr:1234/ (Martyn Williams/19950614) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 06/14/95 TRENDS Japan - Fujitsu To Mass Produce Flat Screen TVs (NEWS)(TRENDS)(TYO)(00020) Japan - Fujitsu To Mass Produce Flat Screen TVs 06/14/95 TOKYO, JAPAN, 1995 JUN 14 (NB) -- Fujitsu is to start mass production of a next-generation color television set from next year. The television uses a 42-inch flat screen PDP (plasma display panel) making the entire unit flat enough to be hung on a wall. The new screens have an aspect ratio of 16:9 making them suitable for widescreen broadcasts. Fujitsu is investing 60 billion yen in the new product, which will begin appearing in stores next year. A new production line will be built at the company's existing factory in Miyazaki prefecture that will produce 20,000 screens a month initially. Sometime in 1997, output will be increased to 100,000 units a month. Sales of the sets will coincide with the launch of digital high definition television by national broadcaster NHK and will be promoted alongside the new transmissions. Fujitsu has given no price for the sets, but the financial daily newspaper, Nihon Keizai Shimbun, suggests that the launch price will be around one to two million yen ($11,764 to $23,529) with volume production reducing prices to around 400,000 yen ($4,705) in a few years. Sales are expected to go well in Japan where widescreen television sets are already commonplace. Newsbytes previously reported that the 42-inch PDP screens are just 3.2 centimeters thick and weigh 20 kilograms. (Martyn Williams/19950614) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 06/14/95 ONLINE Ibex's Facts-On-Demand Integrates Web Documents (NEWS)(ONLINE)(LAX)(00021) Ibex's Facts-On-Demand Integrates Web Documents 06/14/95 EL DORADO HILLS, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1995 JUN 14 (NB) -- Ibex Technologies Inc. says that its fax-on-demand system, FactsLine 2.0, can upgrade to automatically include any World Wide Web documents. "FactsLine for the Web" will pull down any document a company has on the Web and make it available by fax. The "Web to Fax" product is used as an "add-on" to Web servers, thus eliminating the need to update Web documents on the fax-on-demand system. FactsLine for the Web does it automatically. As a result, the product allows anyone with a phone and fax machine to request Web documents. Users can either access via the Internet or call direct and obtain the same document by fax. Valdis Hellevik, a spokesperson for Ibex, told Newsbytes that, "Fax on demand represents 98 percent of Ibex's business. We are the world leader in corporate fax delivery systems. Ibex has 80 percent more sales than the next provider." She continued, " Major clients of Ibex currently using FactsLine 2.0, like Lotus, can purchase FactsLine for the Web and automatically incorporate all of their Web documents to their fax-on-demand service. Lotus has 15 thousand documents on the World Wide Web, and instead of dealing with each document separately, FactsLine for the Web will automatically add them." "Fax-on-demand can be thought of as the lowest common denominator for information access. No computer connections, Internet knowledge, or service providers are needed -- just simple access using devices everyone understands: the telephone and fax machine," says Ney Grant, president of Ibex. Ibex points out that, for users, there is no image maintenance necessary. The fax documents are retrieved from the Web, and are created and cached when callers request that exact document. FactsLine for the Web caches the documents so that access to the Internet is not required each time a caller requests a Web fax document. Ibex is a privately owned company in operation since 1989. FactsLine 2.0 is available for $4,790, and FactsLine for the Web is priced at $995. (Richard Bowers/19950613/Press Contact: Valdis Hellevik, Ibex, 415-703-0400) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 06/14/95 PC NEC Intros Low-Cost, Color 486 Notebooks (NEWS)(PC)(LAX)(00022) NEC Intros Low-Cost, Color 486 Notebooks 06/14/95 MOUNTAIN VIEW, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1995 JUN 14 (NB) -- NEC Technologies Inc. has introduced the NEC Versa 2000 Series of color notebook computers. The new line uses a 486 processor and starts at $1,999. The Versa 2000 line has few changes from already existing NEC color notebooks, but represents the lowest priced NEC color notebooks with a 486 DX4-75 megahertz processor. While it does have some new features, this is another in a long line of summer price reductions for 486 driven computers. Speaking to Newsbytes, Leslie Larson, director of marketing for the Versa Notebook Line, said, "Versa 2000 is a step beyond similar Versa products. The Versa M is a similar product that has been out for almost eleven months. The 2000 series could be considered a refreshed product of the Versa M." The Versa 2000 series has some new features. Larson points out three: "First, the 2000 line has a lithium ion battery that is the very latest in battery technology; second, it has -- in most models -- a snap-in modem module; and third, it has an entirely new chassis design." Larson said that none of these features are currently available in even the high-end Versa products. "The Versa M was a high-end box when launched almost eleven months ago, now we are in the summer time-frame and the Versa 2000 is our value line, targeting first-time buyers. It is a consumer driven model," continued Larson. According to NEC, the chassis is entirely new and will be seen in future offerings. Larson said, "We wanted to make the Versa 2000 as contemporary as possible, so we moved to a recessed keyboard. We broke out of the mold that is in all other Versa notebook products. Concluded Larson, "The new keyboard includes, for the first time, the VersaGlide touch-pad pointing device. This is new and is designed to allow tracking while your hand never leaves the keyboard." (Richard Bowers/19950613/Press Contact: Celeste Martino Sa, NEC Technologies, 415-528-5306) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 06/14/95 BUSINESS ****Shiva's Purchase Of Spider Follows "Exhaustive Search" (NEWS)(BUSINESS)(BOS)(00023) ****Shiva's Purchase Of Spider Follows "Exhaustive Search" 06/14/95 BURLINGTON, MASSACHUSETTS, U.S.A., 1995 JUN 14 (NB) -- Before embarking on the $80 million acquisition of UK-based Spider Systems Ltd., Shiva undertook an "exhaustive search of the world" for a company to provide ISDN (integrated services digital network) network access, said Paul Gustafson, Shiva's director of business development, in an interview with Newsbytes. "We recognized that we needed WAN (wide area networking) technologies to be able to move forward in the corporate remote LAN (local area network) market, as well as evolving public remote access markets. As the telephone companies look at adding services for remote LAN access, we want to be a major player in that space," Gustafson told Newsbytes. Shiva sought ISDN network access capabilities in particular, in that the use of ISDN has recently "increased a lot in the US, and even moreso in Europe," Gustafson explained. Spider Systems "has historically been very well known for its technology, specifically for ISDN remote access products," he added. But Spider Systems will also provide Shiva with needed frame relay and X.25 network access technologies, Gustafson maintained. Spider is now in the "third or fourth generation" with each of these technologies, he contended. Shiva Systems also found Spider Systems to be a good geographic fit, the Shiva executive noted. Less than 20 percent of Shiva's business has been "outside the US," although Shiva has recently been "investing pretty heavily in Europe," he pointed out. "We're also strong in the Asia Pacific," he asserted. Meanwhile, up to now, 100 percent of Spider's sales have been in the Europe, according to Gustafson. Spider has established channels and sales offices in the UK, France, Germany, the Netherlands, and Scandinavia. Once the acquisition of Spider Systems becomes final, Shiva plans to deploy Spider's ISDN, frame relay, and X.25 technologies on a worldwide basis, Newsbytes was told. "The strategy will be to take their products into our strong channels, and vice versa," Gustafson reported. Announced today, the deal calls for Burlington, Massachusetts-based Shiva to acquire Spider for approximately two million shares of Shiva common stock, currently valued at approximately $80 million. (Jacqueline Emigh/19950614/Reader Contact: Shiva Corporation, 617-270-8300; Press Contacts: Angelo Santinelli, Shiva, 617-270- 8349; Ellen Silveira, Lois Paul & Partners for Shiva, 617-860-5650) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 06/14/95 TELECOM US Robotics To Roll Out ISDN Products (NEWS)(TELECOM)(MSP)(00024) US Robotics To Roll Out ISDN Products 06/14/95 SKOKIE, ILLINOIS, U.S.A., 1995 JUN 14 (NB) -- U.S. Robotics Corp. (NASDAQ:USRX) said it is entering into the ISDN (integrated services digital network) market in the US and Europe in the coming months. ISDN enables users to send voice, video, and data signals on a single, digital phone line. The company's first ISDN product will be the Courier I-Modem with ISDN/V.34. The product eases the transition from V.34 (28,800 bits- per-second) to ISDN, and it also allows for the use of ISDN without sacrificing analog data and fax capabilities, company officials said. The Courier I-Modem also embodies the "V.Everything" capability from U.S. Robotics, which means it is backward-compatible with older standards for slower analog modems. All of this is done automatically, the company added. "The key is that people shouldn't have to choose between ISDN and analog applications," Mark McMillan, ISDN product manager for U.S. Robotics, said. The product will be available in July, and will list from $595 to $895, depending on configuration and form factor. It will be available in both internal ISA (Industry Standard Architecture) and external formats. "This is just the next logical step for us, in terms of extending the current modem standards of today," McMillan told Newsbytes. He said the logical progression of modems from the days of 300 bps to today's and tomorrow's standards necessitates this move for the company. In its overall ISDN strategy, U.S. Robotics also introduced its "I-Team," which is a new customer support group that will provide pre-sales information, installation services, and support for ISDN products. Among other services, the I-Team will offer details on ordering ISDN from local telephone providers. "What they'll do is work with the phone company to insure that access exists, and the central office is configured correctly with your I-Modem or other ISDN devices that U.S. Robotics may launch. It will insulate the user," McMillan said. The company said the complete portfolio of I-Team services will be introduced on August 1. (Bob Woods/19950614/Press Contact: Lauri Lentz, U.S. Robotics, 708-982-5230. Public Contact: U.S. Robotics, 800-USR-CORP) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 06/14/95 IBM More On IBM's Web Browsers, Servers & Tools (NEWS)(IBM)(BOS)(00025) More On IBM's Web Browsers, Servers & Tools 06/14/95 SOMERS, NEW YORK, U.S.A., 1995 JUN 14 (NB) -- At PC Expo next week, IBM will show a new search capability, development environment, and "information gateways" for the World Wide Web, along with its latest browser for OS/2 Warp, said John Patrick, VP, IBM Internet Applications, in a conference call with Newsbytes about IBM's new Web offerings for individuals, businesses, schools, and government. First announced in a teleconference, which was also attended by Newsbytes and reported on yesterday, IBM's new products and services are "only the beginning" of what IBM has in mind for the Web, Patrick told Newsbytes in a follow-up interview. The newly unveiled products include: WebExplorer browsers for OS/2, AIX, and Windows; the Interconnect Connection family of Web servers for OS/2, AIX, AS/400, MVS, and the PowerParallel edition of AIX; and "secure" Web servers for OS/2, AIX, and AIX for PowerParallel, featuring support for both the S-HTTP and SSL security protocols. Also on the list are: IBM Electronic Publishing Edition, for creating "electronic books;" IKP (Internet Keyed Protocol), a new protocol for Web transactions; two new Web search capabilities -- QBIC (Query By Image Content) and infoMarket Search; "information gateways" for integrating organizational environments with the Web; and VisualAge for the World Wide Web, a new version of IBM's visual development environment. Also for the Web, IBM unveiled a range of Internet consulting services and capabilities. These include: Internet Server Implementation Services, for quickly connecting an organization's employees to the Internet; Advanced Internet Graphics and Design Services; and K-12 NetVoyager Solution, a turnkey system for using the Web in a school environment, he said. Other new services and capabilities include: Business Transformation Consulting, for assessing how an organization's business practices might be enhanced through the Web; a bundled version of the IBM NetSP Secured Network Gateway for creating firewalls; new Web home pages for educators and government customers; and expanded network access through LIG (Local Interface Gateway); lease line access, and dial access speeds of up to 28.9 kilobits-per-second (Kbps). Patrick also told Newsbytes that the Windows edition of WebExplorer has been shipping since March, but the AIX version is brand new, and the OS/2 version has been updated to become "the first object- oriented browser for the Web." All three browsers are based on HTML (hypertext markup language), according to the IBM exec. The OS/2 update provides drag-and-drop capabilities that are made possible by the OS/2 shell, he said. Users of IBM's new OS/2 browser can drag an image from a Web page into a desktop application such as a word processor, or drag a URL (uniform resource locator) into the desktop or into a folder, he added. IBM expects to ship the OS/2 and AIX editions of its Interconnect Connection servers in July, he noted. "Secure" versions for these two platforms are slated to enter beta testing the same month. The new IBM Electronic Publishing Edition is designed to create electronic books that can be read either online -- with the use of any HTML-compliant browser -- or "offline," according to Patrick. For offline use, IBM is producing a series of readers for OS/2, AIX, VM, and MVS. Documents can be authored in either WordPerfect, MS Word, AmiPro, Framemaker, or SGML (standard generalized markup language). IBM Electronic Publishing Edition then compresses the documents by 40 to 60 percent, and permits the addition of hypertext links, search, and complex table support. The IBM VP added that one of IBM's new search tools, QBIC, is currently a "prototype" only, whereas the other, infoMarket Search, is "definitely a product." QBIC is aimed at letting users search the Web for images, based on characteristics like color, texture, and pattern. infoMarket Search, a new database search and retrieval service for the Web, will soon enter beta testing, according to Patrick. Users who would like to be considered for participation in the test can register at http://www.infomkt.ibm.com. starting in about a week, he noted. IBM's new "information gateways" include DB2/WWW, CICS/WWW, and MQSeriesWWW, a gateway for MQSeries commercial messaging software. The three gateways are designed to allow access to "core business systems" in an organization's environment directly from any HTML- compliant Web browser, Patrick explained. DB2/WWW, for example, let users conduct SQL (structured query languages) of DB2 databases running on host systems over the Web, he contended. Patrick added that the newly announced IKP protocol was created by IBM, but has also been submitted to the IETF (Internet Engineering Task Force), WWW (World Wide Web) Consortium, and FSTC for industry standardization. The new protocol, which "defines how information passes back and forth," is ideally suited to transactions between three users, such as a buyer, a seller, and a financial institution, he maintained. Europay International has just announced plans to use a chip-based implementation of IKP on its smart cards for "Internet commerce" applications, he pointed out. Products and capabilities being shown at PC Expo next week will include the new OS/2 browser, in addition to QBIC, VisualAge for the Web, and "information gateways" for DB2 and CICS, Patrick revealed. Many of the new capabilities for the Web are available for download, or can be viewed as demos, from IBM's Internet home page at http://www.ibm.com/Internet/. The IBM Kiosk for Education, a new Web home page for the higher education market, is located at http://ike.engr.washington.edu/. The home page for government users can be found at http://www. clearlake.ibm.com/GOV/, according to the VP. (Jacqueline Emigh/19950614/Reader Contact: IBM, 914-765-1900; Press Contacts: Mike King, IBM, 914-766-1119; Donna Sokolsky, Technology Solutions for IBM, 212-696-2000) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 06/14/95 WINDOWS Novell Intros Presentations 3.0 For Windows On CD (NEWS)(WINDOWS)(DEN)(00026) Novell Intros Presentations 3.0 For Windows On CD 06/14/95 OREM, UTAH, U.S.A., 1995 JUN 14 (NB) -- Novell Inc. (NASDAQ: NOVL) has announced the availability of the CD-ROM version of its graphics presentation program, Presentations 3.0 for Windows. The version includes a multi-English user interface that allows the user to create disk copies from the CD-ROM for use on a computer that doesn't have a CD-ROM drive. #IMAGE 1 20 TWPCX \images\95061426.PCX Click here for photo Another feature of the Deluxe edition of Presentations 3.0 for Windows is the conservation of disk space, since you can save more than 11 megabytes (MB) of hard disk space by leaving portions of the program on CD-ROM and accessing them from that disk. Presentations is available as a standalone product or as part of Novell's PerfectOffice software suite. Novell said Presentations interoperability with other applications in the PerfectOffice suite has been enhanced, with Presentations now integrated seamlessly with PerfectOffice 3.0 by sharing a common user interface and tools. OLE (object linking and embedding) 2.0, PerfectScript, and ODMA are all supported in the new version of Presentations. PerfectOffice 3.0 for Windows, which was released in mid-December 1994, includes: the word processor Wordperfect 6.1; Quattro 6.0, a spreadsheet application; Presentations; InfoCentral, a personal information manager; the workgroup publishing tool Envoy; and a client license for Groupwise, an integrated electronic-mail, calendaring, and scheduling program. Presentations 3.0 also includes Show Experts and Coaches, features that are becoming standard in all Novell products, that help guide the user through the desired task. Novell said it partnered with other companies to create many of the enhancements, such as simplifying the creation of 35 millimeter (mm) slides using the technology provided by Autographix. The multiple-English user interface lets users in other English-speaking countries such as Canada and Australia create presentations in the language of their region. The new interface also allows the user to select and install the English language version of choice as well as access online documentation. Novell said the CD-ROM version of Presentations includes 200 additional clip-art images, more than 30 additional masters, and triple the total number of MIDI (musical instrument digital interface) files that come with the diskette version. Novell spokesperson, Mira Genser, told Newsbytes the Deluxe CD-ROM version of Presentations 3.0 for Windows has a suggested retail price of $395 in the US. Registered users of earlier versions can upgrade for $99 by contacting Novell. The company also offers a diskette version of Presentations 3.0 for Windows for users who don't have a CD-ROM drive. (Jim Mallory/19950614/Press contact: Mira Genser, Brodeur & Partners for Novell, 617-622-2844; Public contact: Novell, 800-451-5151 or 801-222-7179/PRESENT950614/PHOTO) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 06/14/95 ONLINE ****Oracle & Intel Plan ISDN Online Service (NEWS)(ONLINE)(SFO)(00027) ****Oracle & Intel Plan ISDN Online Service 06/14/95 SAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1995 JUN 14 (NB) -- Oracle (NASDAQ:ORCL) and Intel (NASDAQ:INTC) have previewed a working version of an ISDN (integrated services digital network) online network based on Intel's ProShare videoconferencing technology and Oracle Media Server software. Features include video electronic- mail, news-on-demand, video corporate training, and real-time videoconferencing. #IMAGE 1 20 TWPCX \images\95061427.PCX Click here for photo Unlike many press conferences, the Intel/Oracle hands-on preview was handled almost exclusively by Oracle's chief executive officer (CEO), Larry J. Ellison and Intel CEO, Andrew S. Grove. They adeptly demonstrated all of the features including a fun and teasing live videoconference which was wrapped into a video e-mail message from Grove to Ellison. Introduced as Oracle Online, the ISDN phone line service delivered its content to Pentium-based computers from a massively parallel processing (MPP) computer using Oracle Media Server software. Ellison said, "A massively parallel processing machine is critical for the delivery of large video files and complex graphic images in a timely fashion. What you are seeing here today is a real working version of an ISDN network from our corporate headquarters through the telephone company to the Pentium-based computers here on stage." Grove told the audience, "We introduced ProShare videoconferencing in January, 1994. Until now it has been a point-to-point, two-person conferencing tool from PC-to-PC. In 1995, you will see ProShare built into system boards for high-end computers. The industry has moved from the development of personal productivity tools such as spreadsheets and word processors to a new category of communications products. Today you will see ProShare used as an integrated element of this network." When he was asked if Oracle Online was simply a technology demonstration of Intel's ProShare tool and Pentium-based computers combined with Oracle Media Server software, Ellison gave a long silent pause and smiled. He later said the network would expand testing with select users during the summer. Following the online services closely, Newsbytes notes CompuServe, AOL and Prodigy are all working on ISDN alternatives. Saying more than 60 percent of US households are capable of installing ISDN telephone service, Ellison and Grove emphasized the limitations of existing online services and Internet content across standard phone lines. An ISDN telephone line provides as much as ten times the bandwidth of a standard telephone line and is an important key to the delivery of video-on-demand. Should CompuServe, Prodigy, America Online, and the new Microsoft Network (MSN) be worried about the competition from Oracle Online's ISDN network service? Not yet. The cost of an ISDN online service is still a serious drawback. The monthly fee charged by different telephone companies around the US varies from $20 to $50 per month after an installation charge which may reach $200. Additionally, ISDN services require an ISDN modem which runs from $500 to $700. Intel's ProShare Video costs another $999. Surprisingly, when asked about a monthly service charge for Oracle Online (if there was to be such a service), Ellison replied, "It would be free. I think it can support itself through retail sales. No-one charges you to walk into a retail store. You are charged when you purchase something. You should not have to pay to walk into an electronic store." Ellison and Grove both stated the preview of Oracle Online was a "work in progress." (Patrick McKenna/19950614/Press Contact: Eve Kowtko Smith, Oracle, 415-506-4176/ORACLE950614/PHOTO) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 06/14/95 ONLINE Holiday Inn Starts Web Travel Game (NEWS)(ONLINE)(MSP)(00028) Holiday Inn Starts Web Travel Game 06/14/95 ATLANTA, GEORGIA, U.S.A., 1995 JUN 14 (NB) -- Traveling is said to be always an adventure. Holiday Inn Worldwide says it is bringing that experience to cyberspace, in its new Internet World Wide Web site. The company has licensed the electronic rights to "Travel Buff," a board game that has been rated the number one adult trivia board game by "Games Magazine," officials said. "It's a lot like 'Trivial Pursuit,'" Dick Smith, senior vice president of Information Technologies for Holiday Inn Worldwide, told Newsbytes. The game lets people have fun, and educates users about the company's properties at the same time, officials said. They can answer Travel Buff questions on food, culture, arts and sciences, literature, history, and politics, among other subjects. Future upgrades to the game will let people play against each other around the world, and a virtual reality (VR) segment that will let users "walk" through a property. Smith said the VR aspect is about three to four weeks away from being implemented, and it will use cutting-edge technology from Apple Computer. "Our idea was to be a little less boring than some of the other things that are out there in the commercial sense," Smith said. "We thought one of the ways to do that is to have a game, and to continue to refresh that game with new questions and new challenges. That would cause people to go back and look at our site more often. "This really tells the world we're an international company," Smith said. He also said the points that are scored might even be converted to prizes in the future. Also, users will be able to make reservations at any Holiday Inn through clickable maps, and lists of attractions, cities, and highways. Those transactions can also be secured, through using a browser that supports security, like Netscape. The site is located at http://www.holiday-inn.com. (Bob Woods/19950614/Press Contacts: Les Ottolenghi, 404-604-2565, or Craig Smith, 404-604-2903, both of Holiday Inn Worldwide; C. Earl Peek, Travel Buff Inc., 404-378-8581;Public Contact: Internet World Wide Web http://www.holiday-inn.com) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 06/14/95 TELECOM Hayes To Ship 28.8 Modem With Messaging (NEWS)(TELECOM)(DEN)(00029) Hayes To Ship 28.8 Modem With Messaging 06/14/95 ATLANTA, GEORGIA, U.S.A., 1995 JUN 14 (NB) -- Hayes Microcomputer Products Inc., the company that set the standard for modem commands with its AT command set, says it will ship a 28,800 bits-per-second (bps) modem next month that incorporates messaging and offers enhanced security, configuration, and performance. The new modem will be labeled the Hayes Optima 288 business Modem. It can transmit data at up to 230,400 bps. Hayes said that capability makes it suitable for remote node access to a LAN (local area network), shared modem access from a LAN, or transferring large files and multimedia. The modem includes remote configuration capability, fail-safe flash ROM (read-only memory) upgradability, caller ID, "distinctive ring," and call-back security. The voice message system includes fax-on-demand. The distinctive ring features provides automatic call routing for voice, data, and fax calls. Hayes said the Optima 288 business Modem is expected to sell for about $579 in the US and $729 in Canada. A 14,400 bps version will also be offered, with its estimated price $519 in the US and $659 in Canada. Both versions of the new modem will be bundled with Smartcom Message Center LE (Light Edition) software which provides voice record and playback, messaging, fax-on-demand, and paging features. A special set of applets in the Smartcom software control the remote configuration, security and voice/fax discrimination features. Hayes Microcomputer filed for Chapter 11 protection in mid-November, 1994, citing a short-term cash shortage brought on by dramatic increases in demand. Ironically, the company's fiscal 1994 revenues and sales were at an all-time high according to Dennis Hayes, chief executive officer of the firm. Hayes hired a team from Arthur Andersen and Co. to aid with the Chapter 11 reorganization. In April, Newsbytes reported the company had shown an operating profit the second successive quarter and appeared on its way to a solid recovery. Hayes merged with Practical Peripherals Inc., a company it had owned since 1989, at about the same time it filed for bankruptcy protection. Until then Practical Peripherals had operated independently. (Jim Mallory/19950614/Press contact: Angela Hooper, Hayes Microcomputer Products, 404-840-9200 ext 6030; Public contact: Hayes Microcomputer Products, 404-840-9200) (SUMMARY)(GENERAL)(MSP)(00030) Newsbytes Daily Summary 06/14/95 MINNEAPOLIS, MINNESOTA, U.S.A., 1995 JUN 14 (NB) -- These are capsules of all today's news stories: ======================================================================== >>>>>>>>>>>>| N E W S B Y T E S D A I L Y S U M M A R Y |<<<<<<<<<< >>>>>>>>>>>>| Wednesday, June 14, 1995 |<<<<<<<<<< ======================================================================== (c) Newsbytes News Network (Tm) Editor in Chief: Wendy Woods ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Newsbytes News Network is a computer and telecom industry news wire and digitized picture service. Our news stream includes more than 30 daily first-hand reported US and international news stories about computing and telecommunications. For more information, please e-mail to 'administrator@newsbytes.com' ------------------------------------------------------------------------ CATEGORY HEADLINES (*** indicates today's top stories) STORY # ======================================================================== BROADCAST Hong Kong - Wharf Investigates Cable TV Outages............ 17 BUSINESS ****Shiva To Acquire Spider Systems In UK................. 08 BUSINESS Northern Telecom Consolidates, Cuts Jobs................... 11 BUSINESS ****Shiva's Purchase Of Spider Follows "Exhaustive Search. 23 EDUCATION Eastern Europe - Sun Donates SPARCServers To Univs......... 03 GENERAL Japan Newsbriefs........................................... 18 IBM More On IBM's Web Browsers, Servers & Tools................ 25 NETWORK Israel - RAD's Palm-Sized, Low-Cost Router Technology...... 06 ONLINE UK - Knowledge Computing Offers Budget Web Publishing...... 04 ONLINE UK - Rough Guide Travel Books On The Internet.............. 05 ONLINE O.J. Simpson Topics Popular On Prodigy..................... 07 ONLINE Dow Jones To Use "Personal Library" Search Engine.......... 10 ONLINE UK - Pipex & Harris Team On Internet Security.............. 14 ONLINE Internet Update............................................ 19 ONLINE Ibex's Facts-On-Demand Integrates Web Documents............ 21 ONLINE ****Oracle & Intel Plan ISDN Online Service............... 27 ONLINE Holiday Inn Starts Web Travel Game......................... 28 TELECOM Czech Republic - SPT & Hughes Team On Wireless Data........ 01 TELECOM Hungary - Datanet & SprintNet Team On PDN/Internet......... 02 TELECOM No Long-Distance Service Ballot For Canada................. 12 TELECOM US Robotics To Roll Out ISDN Products...................... 24 TELECOM Hayes To Ship 28.8 Modem With Messaging.................... 29 TRENDS Iomega's 1GB "Jaz" Removable Drive......................... 09 TRENDS Home PC Market Wants High Quality Electric Power........... 13 TRENDS Europe - Client-Server Technology Gaining In Popularity.... 15 TRENDS UK - Dell Says Most Business Travelers Use IT.............. 16 TRENDS Japan - Fujitsu To Mass Produce Flat Screen TVs............ 20 WINDOWS Novell Intros Presentations 3.0 For Windows On CD.......... 26 ======================================================================== These are the headlines and first paragraphs of each story, in order: 1 -> Czech Republic - SPT & Hughes Team On Wireless Data -- SPT Telecom and Hughes Network Services have teamed up on wireless data technology. 2 -> Hungary - Datanet & SprintNet Team On PDN/Internet -- The gradual penetration of the SprintNet International packet data network (PDN) into Eastern Europe continues with the announcement by Datanet Telecom, the Hungarian telecoms company, of a linkup between the two companies to offer PDN and Internet services to Hungary. 3 -> Eastern Europe - Sun Donates SPARCServers To Univs -- Sun Microsystems has donated a SPARCServer 1000E Internet Server system to the universities of Warsaw, Poland, and Budapest, Hungary. 4 -> UK - Knowledge Computing Offers Budget Web Publishing -- Knowledge Computing has announced a "low-cost" publishing service for companies who want to publish on the World Wide Web, but who lack the in-house knowledge and/or resources to create their own HTML (hypertext markup language) pages. 5 -> UK - Rough Guide Travel Books On The Internet -- Rough Guides, the UK publisher of the Rough Guide range of travel books, has teamed up with HotWired Ventures of San Francisco, to publish elements of the books on the World Wide Web. 6 -> Israel - RAD's Palm-Sized, Low-Cost Router Technology -- RAD Network Devices has unveiled an office internetworking system called OG-VAN. According to company officials, the palm-sized device sells for under $1,000, yet acts as an unpowered network router. 7 -> O.J. Simpson Topics Popular On Prodigy -- O.J. Simpson fever hasn't yet subsided in cyberspace. Prodigy reports its members haven't overdosed yet on the football star-turned actor's double murder trial and news surrounding the proceedings. 8 -> ****Shiva To Acquire Spider Systems In UK -- At 11am this morning (UK time), staff at Spider Systems, the UK networking company, were called into a company-wide meeting at which they were told the company is to be acquired by Shiva, the US networking company. 9 -> Iomega's 1GB "Jaz" Removable Drive -- Iomega Corp. (NASDAQ: IOMG) has announced another high-capacity removable media drive, this one capable of storing up to one gigabyte (GB) of information on a single disk. 10 -> Dow Jones To Use "Personal Library" Search Engine -- Personal Library have announced that Dow Jones Business Information Services has employed its PLS database search engine in a new information product released this week. 11 -> Northern Telecom Consolidates, Cuts Jobs -- One of Northern Telecom Ltd.'s (TSE:NTL; NYSE:NT) flagship manufacturing plants will lose most of its manufacturing jobs and become the company's world headquarters as the result of a consolidation plan. 12 -> No Long-Distance Service Ballot For Canada -- The Canadian Radio- television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) has denied Unitel Communications Inc.'s request to have Canadians select their long-distance telephone carriers by ballot. The regulatory body also turned down Unitel's request for a public information campaign on long-distance service. 13 -> Home PC Market Wants High Quality Electric Power -- Home personal computer owners want high quality electrical power to supply their machines 14 -> UK - Pipex & Harris Team On Internet Security -- Harris Computer Systems (HCS) has contracted with Pipex, the UK's largest Internet service provider, to act as a value-added reseller for the Harris Cyberguard Internet "firewall" system. 15 -> Europe - Client-Server Technology Gaining In Popularity -- According to a survey, produced on behalf of IBM's UK and European operation, one in four European companies are introducing client-server technology in their firms. 16 -> UK - Dell Says Most Business Travelers Use IT -- According to a survey carried out by Dell UK, the "techno-traveler" of today is already a reality, with most business travelers making significant use of information technology (IT) while on the move in the shape of mobile phones, notebook PCs, fax modems, and pagers. 17 -> Hong Kong - Wharf Investigates Cable TV Outages -- Hong Kong Telecom say they are setting up a investigative panel to discover the cause of two system failures that blacked out screens of Wharf Cable viewers twice over the last week. 18 -> Japan Newsbriefs -- In this roundup of news from Japan: Open Market Data Council established; IBM Japan to begin Internet access service; Workstation Shipments Up By Volume. 19 -> Internet Update -- In this roundup of new resources and software available on the Internet: Auction engine software for the Web; Australian jobs online; New look for QMS; Alternative data transfer; Art museum open; Language samples; Newslink changes address; Croatia online. 20 -> Japan - Fujitsu To Mass Produce Flat Screen TVs -- Fujitsu is to start mass production of a next-generation color television set from next year. The television uses a 42-inch flat screen PDP (plasma display panel) making the entire unit flat enough to be hung on a wall. 21 -> Ibex's Facts-On-Demand Integrates Web Documents -- Ibex Technologies Inc. says that its fax-on-demand system, FactsLine 2.0, can upgrade to automatically include any World Wide Web documents. "FactsLine for the Web" will pull down any document a company has on the Web and make it available by fax. 23 -> ****Shiva's Purchase Of Spider Follows "Exhaustive Search -- Before embarking on the $80 million acquisition of UK-based Spider Systems Ltd., Shiva undertook an "exhaustive search of the world" for a company to provide ISDN (integrated services digital network) network access, said Paul Gustafson, Shiva's director of business development, in an interview with Newsbytes. 24 -> US Robotics To Roll Out ISDN Products -- U.S. Robotics Corp. (NASDAQ:USRX) said it is entering into the ISDN (integrated services digital network) market in the US and Europe in the coming months. ISDN enables users to send voice, video, and data signals on a single, digital phone line. 25 -> More On IBM's Web Browsers, Servers & Tools -- At PC Expo next week, IBM will show a new search capability, development environment, and "information gateways" for the World Wide Web, along with its latest browser for OS/2 Warp, said John Patrick, VP, IBM Internet Applications, in a conference call with Newsbytes about IBM's new Web offerings for individuals, businesses, schools, and government. 26 -> Novell Intros Presentations 3.0 For Windows On CD -- Novell Inc. (NASDAQ: NOVL) has announced the availability of the CD-ROM version of its graphics presentation program, Presentations 3.0 for Windows. The version includes a multi-English user interface that allows the user to create disk copies from the CD-ROM for use on a computer that doesn't have a CD-ROM drive. 27 -> ****Oracle & Intel Plan ISDN Online Service -- Oracle (NASDAQ:ORCL) and Intel (NASDAQ:INTC) have previewed a working version of an ISDN (integrated services digital network) online network based on Intel's ProShare videoconferencing technology and Oracle Media Server software. Features include video electronic- mail, news-on-demand, video corporate training, and real-time videoconferencing. 28 -> Holiday Inn Starts Web Travel Game -- Traveling is said to be always an adventure. Holiday Inn Worldwide says it is bringing that experience to cyberspace, in its new Internet World Wide Web site. 29 -> Hayes To Ship 28.8 Modem With Messaging -- Hayes Microcomputer Products Inc., the company that set the standard for modem commands with its AT command set, says it will ship a 28,800 bits-per-second (bps) modem next month that incorporates messaging and offers enhanced security, configuration, and performance. (Ian Stokell/19950614) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 06/13/95 TELECOM Boca To Ship International Modems (NEWS)(TELECOM)(MSP)(00001) Boca To Ship International Modems 06/13/95 BOCA RATON, FLORIDA, U.S.A., 1995 JUN 13 (NB) -- Boca Research Inc. (NASDAQ:BOCI) has announced it is expanding its global market by offering localized versions of its V.34 28,800 bits-per-second (bps) modems to the Danish and German markets. It has also announced a deal with the Chinese government to distribute some of its modems in that country. The modems to the Danish and German markets will be in both internal and external configurations, with reference guides in each country's native tongue. The modems will feature 28,800 bps send/receive data capability, and a 14,400 bps send/receive fax with Group 3 send/receive support. The German modems will ship in mid-June, while the Danish modems will ship sometime in July. Gale Blackburn, investor relations manager for Boca, told Newsbytes that even though international standards exist for modems, "each country has its own set of protocols and standards we must meet to sell modems there." She said Germany is an especially tough market to crack, because it has "green" laws companies must meet to sell there. Also, she said France is another difficult market to enter, because its laws are slanted to favor local companies. One technology that is making international distribution easier for Boca is called "optical DAA technology." Blackburn would not elaborate on what exactly optical DAA technology is, except to say all of the changes that need to be made to modems via hardware upgrades can be made via firmware with the new technology. She said a patent is pending on it, and an announcement will be made in the future. Boca also said it has been chosen to be a partner with the Chinese Ministry of Post and Telecommunications (PTT) for the People's Republic of China. The open-ended distribution agreement was signed by the Data Communication Technology Research Institute (DCTRI). Under the contract, the DCTRI will provide Boca with distribution services as well as regional warranty repair and technical support. The Boca products to be distributed in China are the company's V.34 28,800 bps internal and external BocaModems, V.32bis 14,400 bps External Rack Mounted BocaModems, SoundExpression 14.4VSp (which includes the fax-modem, voice-mail, speaker-phone, and Soundblaster 16-compatible sound), and VoiceView-certified modems which allow voice and data transmissions with normal phone calls. (Bob Woods/19950612/Press Contact: Gale Blackburn, Boca Research, 407-997-8621; Public Contact: Boca Research, 407-997-6227) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 06/13/95 GENERAL Int'l Electronic Commerce Conf Set For Fall (NEWS)(GENERAL)(DEN)(00002) Int'l Electronic Commerce Conf Set For Fall 06/13/95 AUSTIN, TEXAS, U.S.A., 1995 JUN 13 (NB) -- What organizers are billing as the first international conference on electronic commerce is scheduled for the end of October. Organizers said the conference, which opens its two-day run October 30, will address research issues facing academia and industry in the age of electronic commerce. Participants will identify and develop a set of critical issues for research on the topic, which is becoming increasingly important as the Internet moves from an academic-based electronic exchange of information to a new way of doing business. Paraphrasing a well-known line from a famous television series, promoters said the conference is aimed at pushing and provoking electronic commerce research and practice to "go where no firm has ever ventured before." They said electronic commerce via the Internet or the information superhighway will change business institutions, operations, products, and services as they are known today, just as the telephone, TV, fax, electronic-mail, and electronic data interchange (EDI) changed the way businesses and consumer communicate. The conference is sponsored by the National Science Foundation, RGK Foundation, The University of Texas at Austin's IC2 Institute, the William E. Simon Graduate School of business Administration at The University of Rochester, The University of Texas at Austin's Center for Information Systems Management, and the college and Graduate School of Business. Event sponsors said the conference will benefit software developers and managers in the electronic commerce area, executives concerned with developments in banking and finance, and those concerned with improving customer service. Academics in information systems, marketing, finance, organizational behavior, and service management are also encouraged to attend. Speakers and their topics include: Dr. Nathaniel Borenstein, on Electronic Commerce; Dr. Clifford Neumann, on electronic Payments; Dr. Donna Hoffman, on hyper-marketing; and Ravi Kalakota, on virtual shopping malls with VRML. Dave Croker, from Brandenburg Consulting, will speak on Internet EDI, while Dr. Dale Stahl will talk about pricing Internet services. In addition, Dr. Andrew Whinston will talk about information brokerages, and Dr. Jan Stallert will speak about operations research and electronic commerce. The registration fee is $300 and includes the Monday night banquet, breakfast and lunch on Monday and Tuesday, coffee breaks, conference materials and ground transportation to and from the hotel and conference site. Registration deadline is October 10. (Jim Mallory/19950612/Press contact: Andrew Whinston, University of Texas at Austin, 512-474-9298; Public contact: International Conference on Electronic Commerce, tel 512-474-9298, fax 512-499-0245) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 06/13/95 ONLINE UB Networks Plugs Into World Wide Web (NEWS)(ONLINE)(LON)(00003) UB Networks Plugs Into World Wide Web 06/13/95 MAIDENHEAD, BERKSHIRE, ENGLAND, 1995 JUN 13 (NB) -- UB (Ungermann Bass) Networks has gone live internationally with its World Wide Web site. At the same time the networking giant has announced it is offering secure Web publishing facilities at its Web site in California. #IMAGE 1 20 TWPCX \images\95061303.PCX Click here for photo Mark Powell, UK marketing manager for the company, told Newsbytes that the Web pages (http://www.ub.com) are a lot more than a set of published pages for Web users to browse. "They act as a focal point for our users and resellers," he explained, adding that the company's "Clarify" customer escalation system is now accessible through the Web pages. According to Powell, Clarify allows customers to report faults and problems, as well as lodge queries by electronic-mail with the company. When they dial into the service, which was only available on dial-up before the Web pages went live, they can check on the progress of their query/fault report. "Clarify allows users to escalate the progress of their report, and ensure their report gets to the right people and is dealt with as quickly as possible," he explained. "One of the problems with Clarify was that callers used to have dial their nearest UB Office. With the Web pages, all they have to do is to "Web in" via their local Internet service provider and access the database." UB calls its Web pages the "Internet Knowledge Exchange" (IKE) because of the diversity of information that is held on the service. In the case of resellers, a wide variety of data is available for downloading, including the ability to download presentations in Microsoft Powerpoint format. "If a reseller wants to make a presentation to a major customer, our presentations can be downloaded and customized to ensure they make a professional presentation," he told Newsbytes. Having IKE available 24 hours a day is a lot better than having end- users and dealers interact with people in the UB offices, Powell said. "Listening to hold music and being placed in a queue is no fun. With the Web service, callers get instant access 24 hours a day," he explained. One interesting development with the IKE service is that UB has discovered that some customers want to get their own services up and running on the World Wide Web, but lack the resources to do so in-house. "We can offer them those facilities, and maintain the service at our own Californian Web site," he said. According to Powell, IKE pioneers an industry shift from internal networks to a much broader exchange of information. "We solicited a great deal of input from our customers and partners in its development," he said. Powell went on to say that the IKE service is demonstrative of how companies can use Web technology, "Not only to improve communication about products plus services, and provide customer support, but to provide valuable interactive communities with their customers." (Steve Gold/19950612/Press Contact: Text 100, +44-181-242- 4164, Internet e-mail tariqk@text100.co.uk; Reader Contact: UB Networks, +44-1628-828300, Internet e-mail mark_powell@ub.com/UBNETWORKS061395/PHOTO) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 06/13/95 ONLINE Isocor Intros E-mail/Internet Directory Products (NEWS)(ONLINE)(LON)(00004) Isocor Intros E-mail/Internet Directory Products 06/13/95 LONDON, ENGLAND, 1995 JUN 13 (NB) -- Isocor, an open client-server messaging software specialist, has brought together a range of existing and new products under the Isocor Directory Services (IDS) name. According to Ingeborg Seel, a company spokeswoman, the IDS portfolio is a suite of software applications that includes client tools for Windows and MAPI (mail application programming interface), directory synchronization gateways for Lotus cc:Mail and Microsoft Mail, administrative tools for directory management and import/export utilities for linking directory servers with corporate databases. The entire suite of products is claimed to run over a variety of communications media, including TCP/IP (Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol) and X.25 packet data network (PDN) services. "The portfolio is available on a pan-European basis," Seel told Newsbytes, adding that the products differ in price, depending on which products are licensed, and the type of site license required by the end-user company. The major components of the IDS portfolio include: Isoplex DS, a high performance directory server; the Navigator, a Windows-based management tool that gives the administrator "complete control" over the directory environment; Isogate for cc:Mail, a combination electronic- mail gateway and directory synchronization package; Mapiware X.500 SPI, a service provider interface module for the Windows 95 desktop; and Isogate DS, a link between the directory system and Oracle databases. According to Isocor, applications for the IDS range include large corporate and government organizations, value-added network providers, and PTT (telephone companies) which can use the Isocor software as the basis for new directory services offerings across their existing messaging backbones and public services. According to Seel, the new range of packages will be formally unveiled at the Networks '95 show which takes place in Birmingham at the end of this month. (Steve Gold/19950612/Press Contact: Ingeborg Seel PR, tel +44181-758-2521, fax +44-181-847-1079, Internet e-mail ingeboorg.seel@parabox1.parasoft.co.uk; Reader Contact: Isocor, tel +44-181-754-8115, fax +44-181-754-8120, Internet e-mail sales.info@isocor.com) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 3 06/13/95 WINDOWS MicroHelp Ships Windows Uninstaller (NEWS)(WINDOWS)(DEN)(00005) MicroHelp Ships Windows Uninstaller 3 06/13/95 MARIETTA, GEORGIA, U.S.A., 1995 JUN 13 (NB) -- Microhelp Inc. has started shipping an upgrade to its Uninstaller program. Uninstaller is designed to make easier the complex task of removing all the bits and pieces of a Windows-based program when the user decides they no longer want to use that application. When the majority of IBM-compatible PCs used the DOS operating system, it was pretty easy to remove an unwanted application. The user deleted all the files in the appropriate directory and its sub-directories and removed one or two lines in the autoexec.bat and config.sys files. But along came Windows, a user interface that eliminated the need for the user to learn commands that had to be typed at the C: prompt to launch a program. Windows lets you click on a small picture, called an icon, to launch a program. But when Windows-based programs are installed they create directories and sub-directories and change files that you may not know exist. So along came Uninstaller. Microhelp said Uninstaller 3 not only deletes applications, it also lets users move, archive and transport them and their related files, and it is compatible with the latest beta release of Microsoft Windows 95. The company said the program can compress rarely-used applications and even move apps to other PCs while keeping all data and preferences intact. According to Microhelp, Uninstaller 3 uses a technology the company calls "Smartlinks" which locates all of the application's components and bundles them together so the user can manage them as a single object. Microhelp spokesperson Suzanne Stewart told Newsbytes that several changes have been made in the new version of Uninstaller based on usability studies. One of those changes is a choice between "Novice" and "Expert" user level. Stewart said the new version also reduces the number of choices required by the user, in order to make the program easier to use. The Windows cleanup feature helps the user rid the system of some of the most common file types you may no longer need, such as fonts, help files, DOS backup files, video drivers, and sound and screen-saver files. Most files can be viewed for content before making a final decision to delete them. There is also a batch file removal routine that allows the user to remove groups of files based on any criteria. For example, you could remove all the Microsoft Word files that were created before a certain date and that exceed a specified file size. Uninstaller 3 has a suggested retail price of $79.95. Stewart said the street price is about $40. The box contains a $10 rebate coupon for use by registered users of earlier versions. The coupon is good through the end of 1995. Stewart told Newsbytes registered users can contact Microhelp to obtain an upgrade package that includes shrink-wrapped disks and documentation for the upgrade to Uninstaller 3 for $29.75. That offer is available through June 30 only. The production version of Windows 95 is scheduled to be available August 24. Microhelp said if Microsoft makes any changes to the final shipping version of Windows 95 that affect Uninstaller 3, the company will make available a free patch. Presently Uninstaller 3 will remove only 16-bit files. A network version of Uninstaller is due by early August. Like version 2, it will include "SmartDecoy," a technology that lets a network administrator remove the network version of a program and replace it with SmartDecoy. When a network user attempts to launch the program, the decoy version will ask that user if they would like to have the application on that PC removed also. (Jim Mallory/19950612/Press contact: Suzanne Stewart, Alexander Communications for Microhelp, 404-897-2300; Public contact: Microhelp, 800-777-3322 to order) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 06/13/95 NETWORK Novell UK Offers Free "Network Guidebook" (NEWS)(NETWORK)(LON)(00006) Novell UK Offers Free "Network Guidebook" 06/13/95 BRACKNELL, BERKSHIRE, ENGLAND, 1995 JUN 13 (NB) -- Novell UK has taken the wraps off "The Business Manager's Guide to Networking," a 26-page booklet that aims to educate business users of PCs as to how networks operate and how they can be used. Vivienne Wilson, a spokesman for Novell UK, told Newsbytes that, initially at least, the booklet is a UK-led initiative, and is available free of charge to anyone who contacts the company on their new toll-free guideline book request phone line (0800-666767). "Obviously it's down to the country marketing managers across Europe and in the US as to whether they want to publish something similar," she said, adding that there may be differences between a US and a UK book because of differences in products and the way the packages are sold in their respective countries. According to Novell, the guide aims to be a general aid to networking technology and the benefits that it can bring to a business. Rather than being a Novell-specific publication, the book is presented in what the company describes as "a small easy to read booklet." The booklet claims to cover such areas as: what to look for in a network; the network issues in expanding a business; the use of networked applications; and how a network can be adapted to meet future needs. The guide also includes a question and answer section, as well as a glossary of terms. Wendy Berry, marketing communications manager with Novell UK, describes the guide as having been written for those who have a need to "understand the general features of networking, but who may have no practical experience or knowledge of the subject. "To use the guide effectively, the user or businesses do need a basic familiarity with PCs and other computer terminology. The idea behind the guide is to give business people a working knowledge of networking, one which will give a clearer understanding of the major technical points and better appreciation of the business benefits," she said. Backing up the launch of the guide is what Novell describes as a substantial marketing campaign. This will, Newsbytes understands, incorporate key elements, such as advertising, in the business and management media, a direct-mail campaign targeted at organizations of up to 200 people, and a half-day seminar hosted by the reseller community in 12 cities around the UK. (Steve Gold/19950512/Press Contact: A Plus Group, +44-1753-790700; Reader Contact: Novell UK, tel +44-1344-724000, fax +44-1734-724001) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 06/13/95 TRENDS UK Technology Firms Held Back - Report (NEWS)(TRENDS)(LON)(00007) UK Technology Firms Held Back - Report 06/13/95 LONDON, ENGLAND, 1995 JUN 13 (NB) -- A survey just published by the Federation of the Electronics Industry (FEI) claims to show that the UK information technology and electronic communications (ITEC) industry is held back by a lack of funding and tardiness in deregulating the national telecommunications monopolies. The report, called "Do or Die; the UK Technology Industry in the Year 2000," comes at a time when the UK ITEC industry faces what the FEI claims are "significant new opportunities in the forthcoming digital revolution." Holly Browne, a spokeswoman for the FEI, explained that, whereas the federation was originally an organization for brown and white goods companies to join for information promulgation amongst members, things are now changing and the UK industry needs to fight back against the international competition. "The competition from abroad is now very strong and the UK electronics industry is in a weak position," she told Newsbytes, adding that there was a definite need for the UK ITEC industry to get together with all interested parties to voice their concern. "The FEI is in the process of taking on new members, hence its decision to go public with this information," she said. The report was compiled after a survey of more than 200 senior managers and directors was carried out. The survey, by Benchmark Research, involves a series of questions being asked of more than 200 information technology (IT) managers. The report showed that nearly a third of all ITEC businesses are heavily reliant on external funding, but not necessarily from the cheapest sources. In addition, only one in 10 ITEC companies has a DTI loan guarantee, while only one in 12 has a regional enterprise grant. Only one in 25 have financial assistance from European investment schemes, and only one in three small- to medium-sized ITEC companies still considers the local bank as its main source of funding, apparently missing out on cheaper options. On the Government side, 73 percent of respondents said that a change in Government in the UK would not help their business, while the perceived largest single factor outside a company's control hindering growth is the exchange rate. Eighty-three percent of respondents believe that companies that benchmark their products and/or services are more likely to succeed, while barely half of the respondents actually benchmark in any way. Roger Charters, director of industry services at the FEI, explained that, in an age of rapid and constant developments in technology, "there is no doubt that the UK, with its reputation for technological innovation, is remarkably positioned to compete successfully in the global ITEC industry. "The UK Government has to redouble its efforts to see that European state-owned telecoms monopolies are privatized as quickly as possible, to endure that UK companies are competing on a level playing field," he commented. "If we rest on our laurels by not tackling the problems that UK ITEC companies face, Britain could be left behind by her global competitors." "Do or Die: The UK Technology Industry in the Year 2000," is published by the FEI, price UKP40. (Steve Gold/19950512/Press Contact: Firefly Communications, +44-171-381-4505; Reader Contact: FEI, tel +44-171-331-2000, fax +44-171-331-2040) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 06/13/95 TELECOM Ericsson Secures SW Bell Cellular Deal (NEWS)(TELECOM)(LON)(00008) Ericsson Secures SW Bell Cellular Deal 06/13/95 STOCKHOLM, SWEDEN, 1995 JUN 13 (NB) -- Ericsson has received a new contract from Southwestern Bell Mobile Systems to modernize the company's cellular phone system. Terms of the contract call for Ericsson to be engaged in rebuilding and upgrading the capacity and service quality in Syracuse, Utica, and Watertown in New York state. According to Ericsson, the deal calls for the Swedish telecoms company to set up AXE high capacity digital switching centers with a combined home location register (HLR) and intelligent network. The cellular base stations scheduled to be installed in New York are the company's 884 range of dual-mode base stations. The first stage of the contract should be completed by the end of the first quarter of 1996, building on the success the company has had elsewhere in the US with SouthWestern Bell. Jan-Anders Dalenstam, Ericsson's general manager, said, "These new contracts will greatly increase our presence in the Northeast." (Sylvia Dennis/19950612/Press & Reader Contact: Per Bengtsson, Ericsson Business Area Radio Communication, +46-8-757-2159) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 06/13/95 TELECOM Germany - Deutsche Telekom To Cut Int'l Rates 30% (NEWS)(TELECOM)(LON)(00009) Germany - Deutsche Telekom To Cut Int'l Rates 30% 06/13/95 FRANKFURT, GERMANY, 1995 JUN 13 (NB) -- Deutsche Telekom, apparently still smarting under the mandate of the European Commission (EC) to liberalize its telecoms markets by January 1, 1998, has announced plans to slash international call rates by 30 percent this summer. According to staff with the company at last week's annual general meeting (AGM), the price cuts have been made possible by a reduction in operating costs for the telecoms network, as well as the continuing downward trend in US-bound telecoms traffic. Ron Sommer, DT's chairman, speaking at last weeks AGM, admitted to the press that the reductions were subject to the approval of the Government, but that this would be effected in the next few weeks. In parallel with the price cuts, DT revealed plans to offer shares in the new company to staff, again once approval is reached with the Government. According to Sommer, the sale of shares should generate around DM15 million for the country. That, coupled with a planned 10,000 job losses scheduled for this year, he said, will be enough to keep up with the competition. (Sylvia Dennis/19950612/Press & Reader Contact: Deutsche Telekom, tel +49-228-1810, fax +49-229-181-8872) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 06/13/95 PC Compaq & Dell Intro High-Speed Pentium PCs (NEWS)(PC)(DEN)(00010) Compaq & Dell Intro High-Speed Pentium PCs 06/13/95 HOUSTON, TEXAS, U.S.A., 1995 JUN 13 (NB) -- Compaq Computer Corp. (NYSE: CPQ) and Dell Computer Corp. (NASDAQ: DELL) have both introduced new high-speed desktop systems that use Intel's latest Pentium chips with clock speeds well over 100 megahertz (MHz). Compaq has added desktop PCs based on Intel Corp.'s 120MHz Pentium microprocessor to its Deskpro line. The company also promised desktop systems later this year based on the 133MHz Pentium chip that Intel announced this week. Dell was quicker off the mark, announcing new Optiplex desktop systems that use the new 133MHz chip. The company said its new Optiplex X5133 systems are immediately available at pricing that starts at $3,595 for a system with 16 megabytes (MB) of memory, a 540MB hard drive, 15-inch color super VGA monitor, Microsoft Windows 3.11, and a mouse. Compaq said it is shipping the Deskpro XL 5120 with a starting price of $3,950. The company said more than half of the Compaq server PCs currently being shipped in the US are Pentium-based. The basic XL 5120 ships with a standard configuration that includes 16MB of memory, a 256 kilobyte (KB) secondary cache, a one gigabyte hard disk, an integrated network controller, and high performance graphics. You can get Triflex/PCI (Peripheral Component Interconnect), EISA (Extended Industry Standard Architecture) or PCI local bus. Compaq said all of the XL 5120 models can be upgraded to the next generation Intel chip. Other features include a cooling fan the company said "significantly reduces noise" while increasing cooling for all system components, and Compaq's Vocalyst Keyboard that includes an integrated speakerphone and microphone. You also get Safestart, a virus protection program. Compaq introduced 120MHz models to its ProLiant server line in March. (Jim Mallory/19950612/Press contact: Compaq Public Relations, 713-374-0484; Dean Kline, Dell, 512-728-4100; Public contact: Compaq, 800-888-5858; Dell, 512-338-4400) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 06/13/95 BUSINESS Analysts Differ Over Effects Of IBM/Lotus Deal (NEWS)(BUSINESS)(BOS)(00011) Analysts Differ Over Effects Of IBM/Lotus Deal 06/13/95 BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS, U.S.A., 1995 JUN 13 (NB) -- IBM's acquisition of Lotus is "the first step in a long journey" that could turn out either "well" or "poorly," said Tom Austin, in a teleconference about the deal. But during the same event, Esther Dyson called the acquisition a "complementary merger," and Jeff Tartar said that the alliance won't change things very much. There is now a ".9 probability" that IBM customers will "feel a tremendous opportunity to surge forward with IBM," Austin predicted during the teleconference, entitled "IBM & Lotus -- The Practicality and the Peril," and attended by Newsbytes. On the Lotus side, the probability is .7 that "a year from now, customers are going to look back and say this is the best thing that ever happened to them," reported Austin, who is research director, Electronic Workplace and Advanced Technologies, for the Gartner Group. But a "deft touch" and "some very strong decision-making" will be needed over the next few months for the benefits of the acquisition to outweigh the risks, he cautioned. The deal, he added, makes Novell the "odd man out" in a "two-person race" that pits Microsoft against the newly combined entity of IBM/Lotus. Austin also gave IBM a .6 chance of "sitting at around 25 to 30 percent of the messaging space" by the year 2000. "They're reasonably well positioned (for this) with the Lotus technology, if they mind their Ps and Qs," Austin said. "And all the stuff that works on top of it gets dragged along by the messaging technology." "IBM is now very much in a position to compete with, if not lead, Microsoft for perhaps the first time in an across-the-board competition with operating systems, middleware and application programs," asserted another speaker, Jonathan Yarmis, VP of the Gartner Group. "Equally interesting is, what does this means for IBM? (IBM Chairman and Chief Executive Officer) Lou Gerstner has done some things that are unprecedented (in) IBM's history and very uncommon in the computer industry," Yarmis continued. "With Lotus ostensibly having responsibility for IBM workgroup solutions, some interesting situations arise. What's going to happen the first time someone from Lotus says, `You know that IBM thing? We're not particularly interested in it. Let's just do away with it.' IBM has had practically a `sacred cow' of protecting customer investments. With Lotus on board now, is that sacred cow dead, or at least gored?" the VP asked. "I'm not sure that much has changed except perhaps the ownership of some stock certificates," disagreed Jeff Tartar, publisher of the Softletter industry newsletter. The acquisition will allow IBM to "in a gracious way scale back its investment in OS/2," Tartar acknowledged. Most of the advertising and promotional budget previously directed to OS/2 will now be funneled into Notes, the analyst added. "Now you'll see airport posters of Czechoslovakian nuns talking about how they're communicating with Notes instead of with the Internet," Tartar illustrated. "OS/2 is something that Microsoft is going to worry about, because they tend to run scared on everything," according to Tartar. But OS/2 "will not be much of a factor in the market that (Microsoft) is competing in," he contended. "I feel that Microsoft is worried," reported Esther Dyson, president of EDventure Holdings. "But as Jeff said, being worried is what has made (Microsoft) so successful. If they keep worrying, they'll probably continue to not need to worry." Dyson also characterized the deal as complementary. "Notes is a nifty product, (but) it lacked the budget and `feet on the ground' to market respectably into the corporate marketplace worldwide," Dyson said. "IBM, on the other hand, had a good product, but somehow they didn't know what to do with it. And now they have something with a certain amount of sex appeal that's perfect for a large company with perhaps an excess of consultants. So they can go in and evangelize this all over the place," she maintained. The acquisition also shows "vision" on the part of IBM's Gerstner, according to Dyson. "Instead of cutting costs, he's looking at how to generate more revenues. That's a sign to customers, but it's also a sign to employees," she explained. "There's some sense that, `We're now with a zippy company. They even did a hostile tender.' That's kind of exciting." For Lotus, the deal will dispel recent sentiment that you can "replace Notes with the Internet," both between and inside organizations. "And (what's) really happening here is not that IBM is now preparing to compete with Microsoft, but, in a sense, IBM is leapfrogging Microsoft into a new market that's far more interesting," Dyson told the teleconference participants. "Operating systems are `old hat.' Microsoft would make a lot of money off of them, but they don't give you `account control' the way a development tool such as Notes does. IBM is the master of `account control.' That's what they're really fighting for, and that's what I think they see as the real promise of Notes," she added. "The trick is for IBM to say, `You've got a group, so you need groupware. And, of course, Notes is the best groupware. Otherwise, you'll be using singleware,'" Dyson advised. "IBM & Lotus -- The Practicality and The Peril" was hosted by the Gartner Group and Esther Dyson, content providers for @vantage, a new online service specializing in IT (information technology) analysis and advice. (Jacqueline Emigh/19950612/Press Contacts: Kate Berg, Gartner Group, 203-967-6793; Dee Anna McPherson, Edelman Worldwide for the Gartner Group, 212-704-8133) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 06/13/95 GENERAL No Cash Card In the Works, Says Microsoft (NEWS)(GENERAL)(DEN)(00012) No Cash Card In the Works, Says Microsoft 06/13/95 REDMOND, WASHINGTON, U.S.A., 1995 JUN 13 (NB) -- Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ: MSFT) said a newspaper story earlier this week that it is developing a cash card was incorrect. "They put together 1.75 and 1.75 and got about four," Warren Dent, director of business development for Microsoft's consumer systems division, told Newsbytes. What Dent's division is working on, he told Newsbytes, is secure technology that would allow credit card information to be transmitted over networks like the soon-to-be-launched Microsoft Network (MSN) and the Internet without fear of interception and unauthorized use. In November, 1994, Newsbytes reported that Microsoft and Visa International had agreed to jointly develop a secure method for executing electronic bank card transactions across global public and private networks. That technology will support both the cardholder and the merchant sides of a transaction. Dent said the Microsoft software being developed would encrypt both the transaction message and the digital signature that would authenticate the purchase as valid. Dent said the specifications, which will be distributed as an open specification available to developers, will be released in September. Asked what effect the technology would have on the burgeoning field of electronic commerce, Dent said: "It will give people a lot more comfort with paying for things over a network." Currently, buyers who purchase over the Internet are willing to place the order online but usually will place a phone call to the merchant to provide their credit card number, said the Microsoft executive. "This will allow them to do it all at one time. When they send a message it's secure and no-one can break it...and the merchant can only use it properly." Dent said the technology will be virtually unbreakable when it comes to market, although he acknowledged there is "a very, very remote" chance of cracking the encryption. Microsoft didn't invest millions of dollars to develop encryption to make online credit card transactions secure without expecting a payoff. Dent told Newsbytes that that payoff will be two-fold. "We will get a small percent of all the (credit card) transactions and we will sell a lot of software to merchants, because a lot of merchants will want to put their products on the network. If they feel like they can receive orders securely and they can lower distribution costs by not having people answer the phone and do it in an automated fashion we will sell a lot of merchant service," stated Dent. While the average PC user won't go to their software retailer and buy Microsoft's encryption software right away, Dent said the technology will be incorporated in future releases of what he called "the extra packages that come out with Windows 95," although it won't be in the first release of the new operating system that is scheduled to ship in late August. Dent expects the technology, which Microsoft is developing under the product name Secure Transaction Technology (STT), to be incorporated into a Windows 95 add-on by April, 1996. Dent said banks will also benefit from STT, since a portion of the technology handles the instantaneous electronic transfer of funds to the merchant's bank. "The banks will be a big recipient. We aren't taking anything away, we are adding something for them." Microsoft has been careful not to alienate the nation's bankers as it prepares to launch MSN, which is expected to have some form of electronic banking capability. Until the federal government squelched the Microsoft-Intuit merger recently, Microsoft was expected to use Quicken, the Intuit software it would have acquired in the merger, as the anchor for those services. (Jim Mallory/19950612/Press contact: Shelley Julien, Waggener Edstrom for Microsoft, 503-245-0905; Public contact: Microsoft, 206-882-8080, or 800-426-9400) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 06/13/95 WINDOWS Microsoft Plans Excel, Word For Windows NT/PowerPC (NEWS)(WINDOWS)(DEN)(00013) Microsoft Plans Excel, Word For Windows NT/PowerPC 06/13/95 REDMOND, WASHINGTON, U.S.A., 1995 JUN 13 (NB) -- Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ: MSFT) says it will ship versions of Microsoft Excel 5.0 and Microsoft Word 6.0 for the Windows NT operating system supporting the PowerPC within six weeks. Earlier this week Newsbytes reported the release of workstation and server editions of Microsoft Windows NT version 3.51 for the PowerPC. Microsoft said the Excel spreadsheet and Word word processing software for Windows NT will take advantage of the features of that operating system software and are "true" 32-bit applications. Excel and Word for Windows NT Workstation for Power PC will be available individually, or as part of Microsoft Office. Microsoft Office 4.2 for Windows NT workstation for Power PC will sell for about $499, said Microsoft. Users of earlier versions of Microsoft Office, Word, Excel, or the PowerPoint presentation graphics program, and users of competitive products, can upgrade for about $299. Each of the applications will be available individually for approximately $399 and users of earlier versions can upgrade to their respective Windows NT workstation for Power PC versions for about $129. Microsoft does not announce suggested retail prices. One of the new features in release Windows NT for the Power PC version 3.51 is a tool to help users manage client access licenses for Microsoft BackOffice products, and a utility that enables over-the-network installation of the Microsoft Windows 95 operating system software scheduled for availability August 24. Version 3.51 also supports additional devices, including PCMCIA (Personal Computer Memory Card International Association), fax software, and Windows 95-compatible applications, and has a replaceable Winlogon screen. A built-in licensing tool in the new edition of Windows NT for Poser PC, called License Manager, enables administrators to manage and track client access licenses throughout the enterprise. License Manager allows customers to choose per server or per client licensing, and suggests when they should purchase additional licenses. Both workstation and server versions of Windows NT 3.51 include NTFS file compression. The Windows 95 deployment utility creates a boot disk to install Windows 95 over the entire network. The Windows 95 compatibility also supports 32-bit applications. Workstation 3.51 users get support for 16-bit fax applications like Delrina's Winfax Pro 4.0 and Winfax Lite, and a replaceable Winlogon screen allows alternate security devices such as ATM cards to be used to log on to machines running the new operating systems. (Jim Mallory/19950613/Press contact: Jennifer Allen, Waggener Edstrom for Microsoft, 503-245-0905; Public contact: Microsoft, 206-882-8080) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 06/13/95 BUSINESS Indian-Canadian Venture For Engineering Software (NEWS)(BUSINESS)(DEL)(00014) Indian-Canadian Venture For Engineering Software 06/13/95 NEW DELHI, INDIA, 1995 JUN 13 (NB) -- Imaging Software Ltd., an Indian-Canadian joint venture, has set up a 100 percent export oriented unit (EOU) at NOIDA near Delhi, for the development of engineering software for wide format plotters, scanners, and fax machines. The installed capacity of the venture will be 14,000 packages per annum developed in technical and financial collaboration with Widecom Group Inc., Canada. According to Rajiv Tuli, managing director of the company, the entire production will be exported to Canada, under an assured buy-back agreement for seven years. The total cost of the project has been estimated at R10 crore and commercial production will start in July. In the first year , the company has targeted an export of R18 crore. (C.T. Mahabharat/19950613) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 06/13/95 BROADCAST China - Beijing Educational TV Channel Planned (NEWS)(BROADCAST)(PEK)(00015) China - Beijing Educational TV Channel Planned 06/13/95 BEIJING, CHINA, 1995 JUN 13 (NB) -- Beijing TV Station is to launch "No.3 Program," which will be China's first television channel devoted entirely to general education. Educational programs will be aired in Beijing and be rebroadcast by satellite throughout the country. Beijing TV Station is the second largest TV operator in China, after China Central TV (CCTV). CCTV operates five channels of programs, with one channel set aside for "China's Television (Open) University." Beijing TV operates three over-the-air channels in the capital of China from its 20-studio complex. The No.3 Channel (BTV-3) will be devoted entirely to education, an official with BTV-3 said. The operation will formally start this fall. "Through TV broadcasts, we can provide educational opportunities for people throughout China, right in their homes," the BTV official said. "Our goal is to produce high quality (education) programs that will help our people share fully in China's strong economic growth. Typical programs will range from learning English to mastering computer software, and from improving transportation safety to taking care of personal health." Several corporations have already signed on as financial sponsors of the education channel/network, including Microsoft and Compaq. Discussions are underway with other companies and additional sponsors will be announced in the next few months. The task of recruiting these sponsors, as well as providing the technical and programming support needed to launch the network's learning programs, is being handled by RXL Pulitzer, an educational TV production firm based in Washington state in the US. Beijing TV offers many of the most popular programs in Beijing and recently began broadcasting its programs nationwide via satellite. (Chih-Ho Yu & Ning Huang/19950607/Reader Contact: Beijing TV Station/Program No.3 Division, +86-10 842-9582) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 06/13/95 GOVT China - New Govt Software Registration Center (NEWS)(GOVT)(PEK)(00016) China - New Govt Software Registration Center 06/13/95 BEIJING, CHINA, 1995 JUN 13 (NB) -- A new center for software copyright registration has been established by the State Copyright Administration (SCA). It is designed to replace a similar agency under the Ministry of Electronics Industry. The new center will be responsible for registration of software copyrights, Shen Rengan, the vice-director of SCA, said in Beijing. Set up on May 1, 1993, the former China software copyright center under the Ministry of Electronics Industry has already played an important role in the country's software copyright registration, the vice-director said. Beginning June 1, all computer software producers now need to register their copyright authorization contracts and obtain certificates issued by the new center under SCA. Certificates formerly issued by the center through the Ministry of Electronics Industry are still effective, said Shen. "The transfer of responsibility is a significant move which demonstrates that China's copyright registration system is running on the right track to meet international standards." China has achieved good progress in protecting intellectual property rights, the government official claimed. More than 50 overseas software producers from the United States, Japan, Hong Kong, and Taiwan have registered their copyright authorization in China. (Chih-Ho Yu & Ning Huang/19950613/Reader Contact: the State Copyright Administration, +86-10 512-7839) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 06/13/95 LEGAL Hong Kong Dep't Store Bust For Software Cops (NEWS)(LEGAL)(HKG)(00017) Hong Kong Dep't Store Bust For Software Cops 06/13/95 CENTRAL, HONG KONG, 1995 JUN 13 (NB) -- One of Hong Kong's largest department stores chains, Yaohan Department Stores (HK) Ltd., has opted to settle with the local branch of software cops, the Business Software Alliance (BSA), rather than face a court appearance for illegal software use. A statement released by the BSA said that this is the first such case involving a local department store and the fourth action taken against Hong Kong companies this year. The others are architect firm Ronald Lu and Partners (RLP), City College, and First Top Building Materials Supply. A settlement was reached last month with RLP. Interestingly, the May issue of Hong Kong Computerworld reported that RLP is anything but happy about the behavior of the BSA since its settlement. According to the paper, the architecture firm was under the impression that after it admitted to using illegal software and paid damages to the BSA, all would be forgotten. Not so, the BSA proceeded -- unfairly says RLP -- to splash its success all over the press despite RLP's efforts to clean all questionable software from its computers. The BSA defends its campaign by saying that it was not satisfied with the clean-up, according to Computerworld. (Mike Dunn/19950613) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 06/13/95 ONLINE New York Times Signs With Knight Ridder (NEWS)(ONLINE)(TYO)(00018) New York Times Signs With Knight Ridder 06/13/95 MONTREAL, CANADA, 1995 JUN 13 (NB) -- The New York Times has signed a deal with Knight Ridder Information Inc. (NYSE:KRI) that will make the full text of the newspaper available through Knight Ridder's Dialog and DataStar online services. The announcement was made in Montreal, Canada, at the annual Special Libraries Association conference by Patrick J. Tierney, president and CEO of Knight Ridder Information. The service will begin in early 1996. The Dialog online service has around 170,000 subscribers in North America whilst there are about 30,000 subscribers to the DataStar service mainly in Europe and Asia. An average system user is a large corporation, university, or research establishment. Each service hosts an extensive database of world newswires, newspapers, magazines, and databases. The full text of each day's newspaper will be available on the service in addition to a full text archive of articles. For North American customers on Dialog the archive will encompass the previous 90 days of the newspaper, while DataStar customers will have access to an archive of New York Times articles since 1980. Articles more than 90 days old will be available in abstract form to North American users. For the full text users will have to turn to the Lexis/Nexis database system. Patrick J. Tierney, president and chief executive officer (CEO) of Knight Ridder Information, expressed his obvious pleasure in the signing of the newspaper in a statement, "Including a newspaper of the caliber of The New York Times in our news collection adds tremendous value to the information we provide." James E. Patterson, vice president of New York Times Business Information Services noted that the new distribution arrangement will expose a new audience to New York Times articles and news coverage, saying, "The Dialog and DataStar online services are key resources for information specialists in major organizations around the world. This agreement extends our reach and enables us to expand to new geographic regions, as well as new audiences, most notably in the scientific and academic communities." The New York Times is currently available via the Lexis/Nexis online service, although a recently renegotiated deal allowed the Times to market their service to other database operators. As Bill Adler of the New York Times told Newsbytes, the newspaper is also available in several other places online, "Same-day material from The Times is on several Dow Jones news services." Domestic users who are unlikely to use the professional database services can still obtain Times articles, "For consumers, on America Online, in the "@times" area, and on the World Wide Web. Web services include TimesFax at http://nytimesfax.com and The New York Times Syndicate at http://nytinfoserv.com" added Alder. The Dialog online service has grown out of a system developed by Lockheed in 1963 to organize research information into one of the world's biggest online information services. The operating company was previously known as Dialog Information Service, but was renamed Knight Ridder Information in late 1994. The system was bought by Knight Ridder from Lockheed in 1988. (Martyn Williams/19950613/Press contact: Sharyn Fitzpatrick, Knight-Ridder Information, tel 415-254-8601, Internet e-mail sharyn_fitzpatrick@corp.dialog.com; Bill Adler, NYT Information Services, tel 212-499-3313, Internet e-mail adlerwk@nytimes.com; Reader contact: Internet World Wide Web http://www.dialog.com/) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 06/13/95 TELECOM Japan - Motorola Wins TU-KA Contracts (NEWS)(TELECOM)(TYO)(00019) Japan - Motorola Wins TU-KA Contracts 06/13/95 TOKYO, JAPAN, 1995 JUN 13 (NB) -- Motorola Cellular Infrastructure Group has won two contracts from companies in the Japanese TU-KA Cellular Group. The orders call for a major expansion of the two digital telephone networks. The contracts, won from TU-KA Cellular Tokyo and TU-KA Cellular Tokai, have a combined value of $80 million. In Tokyo, Motorola will increase the network capacity by one third, while in the Tokai region capacity will be doubled. Both projects are scheduled for completion in early 1996. TU-KA Cellular Tokyo, serving the greater Tokyo region, and TU-KA Cellular Tokai, serving the Tokai region in central Japan, both started providing their PDC digital cellular telephone networks in 1994 after deregulation of the market allowed it. The network was originally established using Motorola's SC-9600 cellular base stations alongside switches from NEC Corporation. PDC, a TDMA-based technology, is Japan's digital radio frequency standard for 800 megahertz (MHz) and 1.5 gigahertz (GHz) mobile telephone services. "The digital cellular market in Japan has experienced extremely robust growth with more than one million subscribers currently being served by PDC systems today," said Richard Sell, vice president and general manager of CIG's Japan cellular infrastructure market division. "The expansions of the two TU-KA networks will provide the operators with the ability to serve more customers, to provide enhanced coverage and new subscriber features." The TU-KA telephone network also includes TU-KA Phone Kansai serving the cities of Kyoto, Osaka and Kobe and TU-KA Tohoku which covers a region to the north of Tokyo. Major shareholders in the group include DDI, Hitachi, Nissan Motor and Sony. Motorola owns a small shareholding. (Martyn Williams/19950613/Press contact: Junko Shibata, Nippon Motorola, +81-3-3440-3311; Scott Wyman, Motorola CIG, 708-632-4691) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 06/13/95 ONLINE CyberPork Via World Wide Web (NEWS)(ONLINE)(MSP)(00020) CyberPork Via World Wide Web 06/13/95 DES MOINES, IOWA, U.S.A., 1995 JUN 13 (NB) -- Any Internet surfer will tell you it's not easy putting food on the Internet's World Wide Web, no matter how graphical it is. But that's what the National Pork Producers Council (NPPC) has done -- with a new presence on the Web. "It probably seems strange to a lot of people that pork producers would be on the Web," Charles Harness, vice president of communications for the NPPC, told Newsbytes. "But they are business people too, and this is a business, just like others around the country. They have interests in sharing information with each other." The NPPC represents 85,000 pork producers around the nation, Harness said, and he said his organization sees the site as "simply another vehicle to use" to get information to both producers, and eventually the public in general. "We've noticed how the commercial online services have been growing by leaps and bounds. We just felt we needed and were going to need an online presence" to serve both pork producers and consumers, Harness said. Harness said one interesting effect his organization's Web page has had is that it seems other agriculture concerns have followed the NPPC's lead to the Web. He said up until now, the agricultural industry has not been in cyberspace. "We see this as one way where we might be able to provide a presence online for pork publications," he said. The NPPC's Web page is at http://www.nppc.org/. Also, Harness said its electronic bulletin board, "The Pork Connection," is to be available via the Internet. Introductory subscription rates to the bulletin board will be $17 a month for pork producers, and $50 a month for non-producers. For a limited time, pork producers are being offered a free three-month trial period. The Pork Connection board will offer the latest news and information about the pork industry, weekly market analysis by agriculture economist Glenn Grimes, and key pork industry research project results, among other features. (Bob Woods/19950613/Press Contacts: Charles Harness or Cindy Cunningham, National Pork Producers Council, 515-223-2600. Public Contact: National Pork Producers Council, Internet World Wide Web http://www.nppc.org/) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 06/13/95 CHIPS S3 Multimedia Chipset Set For Compaq PCs (NEWS)(CHIPS)(SFO)(00021) S3 Multimedia Chipset Set For Compaq PCs 06/13/95 SANTA CLARA, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1995 JUN 13 (NB) -- S3 (NASDAQ:SIII) has previewed a multimedia chipset, called Cooperative Accelerator Architecture. Joining with support of this graphics, audio, and Motion Picture Experts Group (MPEG) technology were Compaq (NYSE:CPQ) and Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT). S3 says the new chipset is a motherboard (system board) or upgrade board product which provides full-motion, full-screen video with "true" audio synchronization. Claiming the chipset will revolutionize the desktop environment, S3 says consumers will see multimedia computer systems which incorporate the technology this fall from Compaq. While Compaq could not comment on final retail pricing, S3 said consumers should expect to pay an additional cost of $100 more than an a standard advertised system today. Mike Nell, director of marketing at S3, told Newsbytes, "When we looked at consumer responses to the display of multimedia titles, we found they were always disappointed when they saw a postage stamp- size or half-size window for video. Consumers expect to see and hear the same level of display on their computers as they see on their televisions. Our chipset solves that problem and as well addresses the problems of interactivity, standards, and affordability." Nell also said, "This chipset combines two-dimensional (2-D) graphics acceleration, television-like video, high-end CD-quality audio, and a level of interactivity between these functions at a price which will dramatically change the desktop experience." The chipset -- a four chip "solution," includes the following processors: the S3 Trio64V+, the Streams processor, the S3 Scenic/MX1; and the Scenic/MX2. The latter two provide the MPEG 1 processing. Cooperative Accelerator Architecture provides 24-bit color (16.7 million colors), bi-linear scaling up to full-screen, 30 frames-per- second (FPS) video acceleration, and CD-quality audio, says the company. In addition to MPEG compression/decompression, the set offers hardware assisted audio and video synchronization support. Viewing quality is handled by the S3 Trio64V+ chip which leverages its 135 megahertz (MHz) integrated RAMDAC technology and the Streams Processor to overlay 24-bit, high-resolution, full-screen video (which is color space converted to RGB) without changing the current graphics mode. The Streams processor also supports double buffering for "tear-free" video playback. Continuing, Nell said, "Today's MPEG solutions use proprietary encoding schemes that limit the amount of available content. Our solution supports an open MPEG standard which will allow independent hardware manufacturers and software developers to enable MPEG applications to run on MPEG hardware." Steve Patti, group software manager for Compaq's consumer business unit, told Newsbytes, "MPEG is one of the most important elements which show in our consumer reports. Desktop consumers want full- motion, full-screen video and they want it at an affordable price. S3's chipset is the first to allow this to happen." S3 says its Cooperative Acceleration Architecture is the industry's first multimedia acceleration product with hardware support of the Microsoft Windows 95 DirectDraw feature set. Microsoft spokesperson, Paul Osborne, said, "We are in support of the MPEG standard at Microsoft and we are pleased to be part of S3's announcement today." (Patrick McKenna/19950613/Press Contact: Anne Banta, S3, 408-980-5400) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 06/13/95 GOVT OSHA Cans Ergonomics Plan (NEWS)(GOVT)(WAS)(00022) OSHA Cans Ergonomics Plan 06/13/95 WASHINGTON, D.C., U.S.A., 1995 JUN 13 (NB) -- Faced with a hostile Congress and a deregulatory mood in the public, the Clinton administration has abandoned its plans for tough rules to protect workers from repetitive strain injuries, the so-called "ergonomic standard." Instead, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, part of the Labor Department, will study the issue. "In the face of congressional intervention in OSHA standard setting, it is not possible now to publish a standard which has the breadth necessary to attack this problem," said OSHA chief Joseph Dear in a written statement that was distributed yesterday at an office furniture conference in Chicago. Repetitive strain injuries strike hundreds of thousands of workers from computer programmers to writers to meat packers, according to OSHA. The Bush administration in 1990 told OSHA to start developing the ergonomic standard. The ergonomics regulation had strong support from organized labor, but the labor movement's lobbying clout has diminished greatly in the past 15 years. The proposed rulemaking engendered enormous hostility among businesses and conservatives in Congress. The National Association of Manufacturers, representing big business, and the National Federation of Independent Business, representing small business, joined forces in a lobbying group called the Coalition on Ergonomics to oppose the rule. In the House, Rep. Tom DeLay (R-Texas), majority whip, whipped up the majority in March to cut an extra $3.5 million out of the Labor Department's budget specifically to prevent OSHA from working on the ergonomics regulation. At the time, DeLay said, "This would force OSHA to cease its activities on the promulgation of an ergonomics standard that is paternalistic in concept and a menace in its implementation." While repetitive stress injuries are a growing problem in the workplace, there is little understanding about the full range of risk factors that extend beyond the job, such as stress at home, exercise, and diet. An early clue that OSHA was pushing the ergonomics effort overboard was the premature departure of Barbara Silverstein, a special assistant Dear brought in from the Washington State Department of Labor in 1993 to work on the ergonomics standard. "Because of the political pressure from Congress, OSHA cannot publish an ergonomic standard -- it's not going to happen," Silverstein told the New York Times. Silverstein left for vacation last week and said she would return to her work in the Washington labor department and a job teaching at the University of Washington. Ironically, at the same office furniture conference where the Clinton administration was backpedaling on ergonomics was revealed, 3M rolled out a line of office products designed to address repetitive stress injuries. The offerings include a foot rest, a gel-filled wrist rest, a document holder, computer screen filters and office air cleaners. 3M says it expects the new products to have the same impact on the office market as Post-it Notes. (Kennedy Maize/19950613/Press Contact: OSHA Public Information, 202-219-4667, Internet World Wide Web http://www.osha.gov) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 06/13/95 GOVT Government Shows Muscle In PC Purchases - Report (NEWS)(GOVT)(WAS)(00023) Government Shows Muscle In PC Purchases - Report 06/13/95 WASHINGTON, D.C., U.S.A., 1995 JUN 13 (NB) -- When it comes to the personal computer market, Uncle Sam is the Big Kehuna. That's the conclusion of a study by the government market services division of International Data Corporation, which found that the federal government bought over 560,000 PCs in fiscal year 1994. "This really confirms what we have known for years," says Jan Morgan, a researcher at IDC. "They are the largest single customer for PC manufacturers and leverage that fact to get the lowest price." Zenith Data Systems and IBM accounted for nearly 60 percent of the 490,000 desktop PCs the federal government bought during the last fiscal year, said Morgan. Del Computer was third, mostly through direct sales. Micronics Computer of Fremont, Calif., mostly known as a motherboard maker, took fourth place on the strength of a contract between EDS and the Department of Defense. Apple came in fifth in sales. The Air Force Desktop IV contract moved Zenith and IBM into the top spots on the IDC list. "These large contracts shape the rankings of top vendors and sometimes make or break manufacturers and resellers. Large contracts are the best way for the federal government to upgrade current technology and get the best value," says Morgan. Getting the best value means cutting into the vendors' bottom lines. "Zenith and IBM have very thin profits on PC sales to the government," says Morgan. In the portables market, foreign manufacturers lead the list, topped by SoTec, a now-defunct Taiwanese computer builder. That's because of a large IRS contract. Toshiba, with strong brand recognition, was second, followed by IBM, Apple and Zenith. Morgan says fiscal 1995 should be good for portables, while desktop systems will lag. "Three large portable PC contracts have already been awarded, but several major desktop PC contracts have either expired or not been extended to date," she says. Will reinventing government and congressionally-led downsizing cut into the federal computer market? "Everything is so political here, it's too early to tell," Morgan told Newsbytes. "So far, we aren't projecting any major slowdown. The desktop business is really a replacement market. And portables are booming." (Kennedy Maize/19950613/Press Contact: Jan Morgan, 703-876-5078) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 06/13/95 GENERAL Canadian Product Launch Update (NEWS)(GENERAL)(TOR)(00024) Canadian Product Launch Update 06/13/95 KINGSTON, ONTARIO, CANADA, 1995 JUN 13 (NB) -- This regular feature, normally appearing on the first day Newsbytes publishes each week (but delayed this week due to vacation), provides further details for the Canadian market on announcements by international companies that Newsbytes has already covered. This week: Digital's value-added partner program comes to Canada, IBM adds new parallel servers to its System/390 line, and Microsoft launches Windows NT Server 3.51 and Windows NT Workstation 3.51. Digital Equipment of Canada Ltd., of Toronto, said the value-added partner program announced recently by its parent company (Newsbytes, May 24) will take effect in Canada in July. The program will be in addition to Digital Canada's existing new business development program, officials said. IBM Canada Ltd., of Markham, Ontario, added a dozen new models to its System/390 Parallel Enterprise Server line (Newsbytes, June 12). Shipments will begin July 31, IBM Canada said. Microsoft Canada Inc., of Mississauga, Ontario, announced that Version 3.51 of its Windows NT Workstation and Windows NT Server operating systems is now available (Newsbytes, June 12). Prices remain unchanged from version 3.5. An upgrade from NT Server Version 3.5 to Version 3.51 costs C$99. Users of NT Workstation 3.5 can upgrade to 3.51 on CD-ROM for C$29 or on 3.5-inch diskettes for C$69, Microsoft Canada said. Customers who bought Version 3.5 of either product since April 15 get free upgrades. (Grant Buckler/19950612/Press Contact: Ron Catcheside, Digital Canada, 416-218-2115; Anne Hay, IBM Canada, 905-316-2251; Karen Secord, Microsoft Canada, 905-712-0333 ext. 7078; Public Contact: Digital Canada, 416-730-7000, fax 416-730-7070; IBM Canada, 905-316-9000, Internet World Wide Web http://www.ibm.com; Microsoft Canada, 905-568-0434, fax 905-568-1527) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 06/13/95 ONLINE Microsoft Network Euro Providers Named (NEWS)(ONLINE)(DEN)(00025) Microsoft Network Euro Providers Named 06/13/95 REDMOND, WASHINGTON, U.S.A., 1995 JUN 13 (NB) -- Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ: MSFT) used the venue of the 6th Annual Conference of the Software Publishers Association Europe to announce the first 70 European independent content providers on the Microsoft Network (MSN), the software company's online service set to launch later this year. In general, the services planned for MSN subscribers in Europe aren't much different than most online services offer. You can have animated greetings sent via electronic-mail, read classified ads, peruse a French newspaper or a weekly French magazine, play chess, or have your astrological chart read. Other offerings for European MSN users will include travel information and an interactive vacation planning service from Club Med, ticketing services and information on books, records, and multimedia products. Other European service providers will offer online reference information, stock quotations, games, business and credit checking information and newsletters about computer applications. There will also be weather, sports and medical forums, several computer magazines, online banking, a job search database, online telephone books and information for professionals like tax advisors and attorneys. Microsoft spokesperson Renne Dunn told Newsbytes the English-language versions of MSN in Europe and the US are scheduled to launch simultaneously on August 24. Dunn said other foreign language versions, such as Japanese, will probably go online about six to 12 months later. Microsoft said it is working with other European companies to sign on as content providers and the number could expand by as much as 10 to 20 percent over the 70 already signed. Dunn declined to quote the cost of subscribing to MSN, other than to say it would be competitive with other services. Microsoft hopes to have the service providers carry most of the financial cost of the network through their participation costs and advertising revenues so they can keep subscriber rates low. Dunn said Microsoft would not identify US MSN providers until close to the network's launch date. (Jim Mallory/19950613/Press contact: Renne Dunn, Microsoft, 206-882-8080; Public contact: Microsoft, 206-882+8080 or 800-426-9400) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 06/13/95 BUSINESS Service Center In Toronto Store A First For DEC (NEWS)(BUSINESS)(TOR)(00026) Service Center In Toronto Store A First For DEC 06/13/95 TORONTO, ONTARIO, CANADA, 1995 JUN 13 (NB) -- Digital Equipment of Canada Ltd. has announced what it said is a first for the company worldwide: a DEC-operated personal computer service center in a retail store. The center is in a new 12,000 square- foot software store operated by A Plus Software in Markham, Ontario, just north of Toronto. While parent company Digital Equipment Corp. (NYSE:DEC) has several free-standing service centers, the new Markham operation marks the first time the company has located a service center inside a retail outlet, company spokeswoman Nancy Altilia told Newsbytes. It happened first in Canada because of "a very entrepreneurial-spirited service center manager here in Toronto," she said. "He saw an opportunity and he jumped on it." With its MCS Servicenter, DEC is aiming at the small office/home office (SOHO) market. It will handle software and hardware installations as well as repairs to desktop and laptop PCs, printers, and monitors. Hardware cleaning and backups are also among the options. The service center will handle all major makes of personal computers, Altilia said. In an industry briefing held in Toronto in April, Michael O'Neil, vice-president of consulting services with International Data Corp. (Canada) in Toronto, said the home is the only personal computer market with major untapped potential, and that the retail channel is the best way for computer-makers to address it. Digital has no definite plans to open service centers in other locations of the 20-store A Plus chain, but is looking into possibilities, Altilia said. The MCS Servicenter will charge C$25 to install a software package, C$90 to install an operating system, C$25 for a "PC Well Check" that includes virus scanning and diagnostics, and C$35 for a hardware cleanup. Special Grand Opening prices apply on some services until June 30. The general labor charge is C$30 per 20- minute service unit. (Grant Buckler/19950613/Press Contact: Nancy Altilia, Digital Canada, 416-218-2158; Public Contact: Digital Canada, tel 416-730-7000, fax 416-730-7070) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 06/13/95 CHIPS ****IBM & Motorola Offer Fast PowerPC 604 Chips (NEWS)(CHIPS)(DEN)(00027) ****IBM & Motorola Offer Fast PowerPC 604 Chips 06/13/95 AUSTIN, TEXAS, U.S.A., 1995 JUN 13 (NB) -- The triumvirate that developed the PowerPC line of computer chips has announced two new high-speed versions of the PowerPC 604 it claims exceed anything competitive chip maker Intel Corp. has to offer. Intel announced a 133 megahertz (MHz) microprocessor this week and a 120MHz Pentium chip earlier this year. The Apple, IBM, and Motorola alliance said their new 120MHz and 133MHz PowerPC chips are comparable in performance to Intel's P6 microprocessor, which is expected to ship in the second half of this year. "Today, our slowest PowerPC 604 processor outperforms Intel's fastest PC microprocessor," according to Ron Black, director of PowerPC microprocessor marketing, IBM Microelectronics Division. Auto makers compare their products in terms of miles per gallon or acceleration. Chip designers and manufacturers use industry-established benchmarks to rate the efficiency and performance of their products. Intel claims the first versions of the P6, which will operate at 133MHz, will have an estimated performance rating of 200 on the SPECint92 benchmark, about twice that of the current Pentium chip. The PowerPC alliance said the new 133MHz PowerPC chip has an estimated SPECint92 rating of 200 also. The 120MHz version of the 604 has an estimated SPECint92 rating of 180 and an estimated SPECfp92 rating of the same. The current Pentium chips have an estimated SPECint92 rating of 155 and a SPECfp92 rating of 116. Both Motorola and IBM will manufacture the chips. IBM spokesperson Jim Smith told Newsbytes that PCs using the 120MHz and 133MHz 604 will appear in retail outlets within the next 90 days. SPECint92 and its companion standard the SPECfp92 are trademarks of the Standard Performance Evaluation Council, a non-profit organization that establishes standardized benchmarks to rate the performance of microprocessors. The 604 is the third in the PowerPC line, following the 601 and 603. It in turn was followed by the 620 and there is still a 630 in the future. The 630, according to analysts, will probably ship in 1997 and will approximately double the performance of the 620, which is a 133MHz 64-bit chip that is compatible with 32-bit applications. The 620 is a superscalar, multiprocessor-enabled chip that issues up to four instructions in parallel every clock cycle. It also includes a three-stage double-precision floating-point unit to speed graphics and multimedia applications. A number of PC makers have already jumped on the PowerPC bandwagon including Apple, Canon, FirePower Systems, Groupe Bull, IBM, Power Computing, Radius, Tatung, Toshiba, and Pioneer. (Jim Mallory/19950613/Press contact: Julie Meyer, Cunningham Communication, 617-494-8202) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 06/13/95 PC ****133MHz Pentium PCs Come Thick & Fast (NEWS)(PC)(TOR)(00028) ****133MHz Pentium PCs Come Thick & Fast 06/13/95 NEW YORK, NEW YORK, U.S.A., 1995 JUN 13 (NB) -- Intel Corp.'s new 133 megahertz (MHz) Pentium microprocessor has led to a flurry of announcements by personal computer manufacturers planning to build systems around the faster chip. Among those on the bandwagon are IBM (NYSE:IBM), Digital Equipment Corp. (NYSE:DEC), AT&T (NYSE:T), and Advanced Logic Research Inc. (NASDAQ:AALR). AT&T Global Information Solutions in Dayton, Ohio, has announced both desktop PCs and a multiprocessor server using the new 133 MHz chips. The systems, additions to the Globalyst 720 and 730 desktop families and the System 3555-XP enterprise server line, are all to be available in July, the company said. The new 133MHz Globalyst 720 and 730 will have essentially the same features as 75MHz and 100MHz versions announced in April, AT&T spokeswoman Kate Bochonko told Newsbytes, although details such as amount of memory may vary. These include support for voice annotation and commands and a screen saver called NoteIt! that lets visitors leave spoken or typed messages on a personal computer when its owner is absent. The dual-processor machines support symmetric multiprocessing and have both Peripheral Component Interconnect (PCI) and Industry Standard Architecture (ISA) expansion slots -- four altogether in the 720 and eight in the 730 mini-tower. The Globalyst 720 has three drive bays, while the 730 has six. AT&T's System 3500 servers, with four to 16 Pentium processors, are designed for symmetric multi-processing and massively parallel processing, AT&T said. They were previously available with 90MHz Pentium chips and those versions will continue to be sold, company spokeswoman CJ Jackson told Newsbytes. The systems come with 16 Enhanced Micro Channel Architecture (MCA) expansion slots and support for a variety of small computer systems interface (SCSI) storage devices. System 3500 prices start at $103,000. IBM added new models to its Personal Computer 700 family using the latest Pentium. The new PC 700 models have five expansion slots and five drive bays. A 133MHz PC 700 with a combination of PCI and ISA slots, 16 megabytes (MB) of memory, and a one gigabyte (GB) Integrated Drive Electronics (IDE) hard drive costs $3,745 (C$6,569 in Canada), while a similar machine with a 1GB SCSI drive is $3,870 (C$6,779). With PCI and MCA slots and the IDE drive, the price is $3,895 (C$6,799), and that system with a SCSI drive is $4,020 (C$6,999), IBM Canada spokesman Kevin McKee told Newsbytes. Advanced Logic Research Inc. of Irvine, California, joined the 133MHz rush by launching its Evolution V ST/133 workstation. The mini-tower system uses the PCI and ISA buses, with support for as many as four IDE storage devices. It has six drive bays and nine expansion slots altogether. Due to be available by the end of June, the ST/133 has a list price of $3,295. Digital Equipment Corp., of Maynard, Massachusetts, announced plans for new Celebris desktop computers and Prioris servers using the 133MHz Pentium. The new Celebris XL 133MHz system is due to ship in July and Digital said it will announce pricing then. The Prioris HX 5133 will be available with one or two of the new chips. DEC said it will announce this summer when that model will be available and what it will cost. Sandy McLaughlin, a spokeswoman for Digital, told Newsbytes the company has no plans to drop slower models in either line at present. While 133MHz models were being added to its server and premium desktop lines, DEC's Venturis PC line, meant for general business use, got a new 120MHz model. Pricing and availability for the new Venturis 5120 are to be announced later in June. McLaughlin said a 133MHz Venturis will probably appear once the new chip gains wider use and its price comes down. The Celebris line is aimed at early adopters, she said. Digital said it began shipping the previously announced 120MHz version of the Celebris XL. The Celebris XL 5120, with 16MB of memory, a 256 kilobyte burst cache, a 1GB SCSI hard drive, a triple-speed CD-ROM drive, and a PCI S3 964 graphics card, lists at $4,999, the company said. (Grant Buckler/19950613/Press Contact: Genevieve Ortegon, Advanced Logic Research, 714-581-6770, fax 714-581-9240; Kate Bochonko, AT&T, 212-213-7061; CJ Jackson, AT&T, 513-445-1615; Sandy McLaughlin, Digital, 508-264-7981, fax 508-264-6085; Chris Nahil, Digital, 508-264-7951; Kevin McKee, IBM Canada, 905-316- 3902; Public Contact: AT&T, 800-447-1124; Digital, 800-722-9332) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 06/13/95 ONLINE ****IBM Intros Tools For Internet Access, Integration (NEWS)(ONLINE)(BOS)(00029) ****IBM Intros Tools For Internet Access, Integration 06/13/95 SOMERS, NEW YORK, U.S.A., 1995 JUN 13 (NB) -- In a teleconference today, IBM moved further onto the Internet's World Wide Web in a major way, with the announcement of a sweeping set of products for Internet "access, presence, integration, and enablement" on platforms that include Windows, OS/2 Warp, AIX, AS/400, MVS, and the PowerParallel edition of AIX. "We're not far from the day when an organization without a home page will be like an organization without a fax machine," maintained John Patrick, VP, IBM Internet Applications, during the teleconference, which was attended by Newsbytes. IBM's Internet product announcements today encompass: multiplatform Web servers, browsers, and electronic publishing tools; "information gateways;" and network access, content, and consulting services, he said. Also during the teleconference, IBM announced new I/T (information/technology) Security consulting services that include: Management Systems Consulting; an Emergency Response Service (ERS); a Global Security Analysis Lab; anti-virus services; and technology design and integration. Aimed at use for personal as well as business Web home pages, on hardware ranging from "notebooks to supercomputers," IBM's new family of Interconnect Connection servers for the Web will be available for OS/2, AIX, AS/400, MVS, and PowerParallel for AIX, according to Patrick. IBM will also provide "secure" Web servers for OS/2, AIX, and AIX for PowerParallel, with support for both the S-HTTP and SSL security protocols. Organizations with mainframes will be able to allocate a logical partition of the mainframe to the Web server, thereby isolating the Web server "with all the integrity it would have if it were running on a separate machine," the VP asserted. IBM is now using an SP2 running AIX for PowerParallel and a Web server to show the Wimbledon games on the Web, Patrick noted. IBM's Web browser, called "WebExplorer," is the first "object- oriented Web browser," according to Patrick. WebExplorer will be offered for OS/2, Windows, Secure OS/2, AIX, and Secure AIX. At PC Expo next week, IBM plans to show the OS/2 edition of the browser, and the product is available now as a free download from IBM's own home page, he reported. The OS/2 edition features drag-and-drop capabilities that let the user drag an image from a Web page into a desktop application like a word processor, or drag a URL (uniform resource locator), or "reference to a home page," into the desktop or into a folder, he explained. IBM also announced several electronic publishing tools for the Web. IBM Electronic Publishing Edition is intended to let users convert documents authored in WordPerfect, MS Word, AmiPro, Framemaker, or SGML (standard generalized markup language) into "electronic books" for use on Web servers. The new electronic publishing tool compresses the documents by 40 to 60 percent, and also allows the addition of hypertext links, searching, and complex table support, he told the journalists. Also new is an Internet edition of Query By Image Content (QBIC), a tool for locating images based on color or other attributes. In addition, IBM announced a beta test program for infoMarket Search, a new database search and retrieval service for the Web. Users will initially be able to search "a select number of important Internet databases" include Usenet newsgroups, an Internet director, and an Internet Web guide, according to Patrick. Users interested in being considered for participating in the infoMarket Search beta test can register on the Web at http://www.infomkt.ibm.com. IBM plans to select "a broad cross- section of users" for the test. IBM also rolled out VisualAge for the World Wide Web, a new version of its VisualAge object-oriented development tool that features an "HTML (hypertext markup language) palette," The new edition is aimed at letting users create links to home pages or other objects, and create new applications, through drag- and-drop, the VP said. In addition, the company announced a series of information gateways called DB2/www, CICS/WWW, MQSeriesWWW, NetSP Secured Network and Gateway AIX. The information gateways are designed for integration between the Web and "core business systems," which contain "most of the data that now exists," according to Patrick. DB2/WWW, for example, is intended to let users run queries and retrieve information over the Web from DB2 databases. Another new offering is IKP, described by Patrick as a "protocol that defines how information passes back and forth" in transactions that involve three users, such as a buyer, a seller, and a bank, for instance. Specifically, IKP defines "who says what to whom, and in what sequence," the IBM executive elaborated. The company also announced that Europay International plans to use a chip-based implementation of IKP on its smart cards for "Internet commerce." Like the OS/2 version of WebExplorer, many of the other new products are available for download in beta version, or as demos, on IBM's own home page, which is located at http://www.ibm.com/Internet. IBM planned and designed its own home page, will now make these same services generally available to other organizations, along with: hosting; consultation on content, security, and network design; and expanded network access through LIG (Local Interface Gateway), lease line access, and dial access speeds of up to 28.8 kilobits-per-second (Kbps), he said. For the future, the IBM VP said the company will provide: the NetSP firewall bundle; the NetSP installation service; AS/400 Web server installation; and an "Internet implementation offering." (Jacqueline Emigh/19950613/Reader Contact: IBM, 914-765-1900; Press Contacts: Mike King, IBM, 914-766-1119; Donna Sokolsky, Technology Solutions for IBM, 212-696-2000) (SUMMARY)(GENERAL)(MSP)(00030) Newsbytes Daily Summary 06/13/95 MINNEAPOLIS, MINNESOTA, U.S.A., 1995 JUN 13 (NB) -- These are capsules of all today's news stories: ======================================================================== >>>>>>>>>>>>| N E W S B Y T E S D A I L Y S U M M A R Y |<<<<<<<<<< >>>>>>>>>>>>| Tuesday, June 13, 1995 |<<<<<<<<<< ======================================================================== (c) Newsbytes News Network (Tm) Editor in Chief: Wendy Woods ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Newsbytes News Network is computer and telecom industry news wire and digitized picture service. Our news stream includes more than 30 daily first-hand reported US and international news stories about computing and telecommunications. For more information, please e-mail to 'administrator@newsbytes.com' ------------------------------------------------------------------------ CATEGORY HEADLINES (*** indicates today's top stories) STORY # ======================================================================== BROADCAST China - Beijing Educational TV Channel Planned............. 15 BUSINESS Analysts Differ Over Effects Of IBM/Lotus Deal............. 11 BUSINESS Indian-Canadian Venture For Engineering Software........... 14 BUSINESS Service Center In Toronto Store A First For DEC............ 26 CHIPS S3 Multimedia Chipset Set For Compaq PCs................... 21 CHIPS ****IBM & Motorola Offer Fast PowerPC 604 Chips........... 27 GENERAL Int'l Electronic Commerce Conf Set For Fall................ 02 GENERAL No Cash Card In the Works, Says Microsoft.................. 12 GENERAL Canadian Product Launch Update............................. 24 GOVT China - New Govt Software Registration Center.............. 16 GOVT OSHA Cans Ergonomics Plan.................................. 22 GOVT Government Shows Muscle In PC Purchases - Report........... 23 LEGAL Hong Kong Dep't Store Bust For Software Cops............... 17 NETWORK Novell UK Offers Free "Network Guidebook................... 06 ONLINE UB Networks Plugs Into World Wide Web...................... 03 ONLINE Isocor Intros E-mail/Internet Directory Products........... 04 ONLINE New York Times Signs With Knight Ridder.................... 18 ONLINE CyberPork Via World Wide Web............................... 20 ONLINE Microsoft Network Euro Providers Named..................... 25 ONLINE ****IBM Intros Tools For Internet Access, Integration..... 29 PC Compaq & Dell Intro High-Speed Pentium PCs................. 10 PC ****133MHz Pentium PCs Come Thick & Fast.................. 28 TELECOM Boca To Ship International Modems.......................... 01 TELECOM Ericsson Secures SW Bell Cellular Deal..................... 08 TELECOM Germany - Deutsche Telekom To Cut Int'l Rates 30%.......... 09 TELECOM Japan - Motorola Wins TU-KA Contracts...................... 19 TRENDS UK Technology Firms Held Back - Report..................... 07 WINDOWS MicroHelp Ships Windows Uninstaller 3...................... 05 WINDOWS Microsoft Plans Excel, Word For Windows NT/PowerPC......... 13 ======================================================================== These are the headlines and first paragraphs of each story, in order: 1 -> Boca To Ship International Modems -- Boca Research Inc. (NASDAQ:BOCI) has announced it is expanding its global market by offering localized versions of its V.34 28,800 bits-per-second (bps) modems to the Danish and German markets. It has also announced a deal with the Chinese government to distribute some of its modems in that country. 2 -> Int'l Electronic Commerce Conf Set For Fall -- What organizers are billing as the first international conference on electronic commerce is scheduled for the end of October. 3 -> UB Networks Plugs Into World Wide Web -- UB (Ungermann Bass) Networks has gone live internationally with its World Wide Web site. At the same time the networking giant has announced it is offering secure Web publishing facilities at its Web site in California. 4 -> Isocor Intros E-mail/Internet Directory Products -- Isocor, an open client-server messaging software specialist, has brought together a range of existing and new products under the Isocor Directory Services (IDS) name. 5 -> MicroHelp Ships Windows Uninstaller 3 -- Microhelp Inc. has started shipping an upgrade to its Uninstaller program. Uninstaller is designed to make easier the complex task of removing all the bits and pieces of a Windows-based program when the user decides they no longer want to use that application. 6 -> Novell UK Offers Free "Network Guidebook -- Novell UK has taken the wraps off "The Business Manager's Guide to Networking," a 26-page booklet that aims to educate business users of PCs as to how networks operate and how they can be used. 7 -> UK Technology Firms Held Back - Report -- A survey just published by the Federation of the Electronics Industry (FEI) claims to show that the UK information technology and electronic communications (ITEC) industry is held back by a lack of funding and tardiness in deregulating the national telecommunications monopolies. 8 -> Ericsson Secures SW Bell Cellular Deal -- Ericsson has received a new contract from Southwestern Bell Mobile Systems to modernize the company's cellular phone system. Terms of the contract call for Ericsson to be engaged in rebuilding and upgrading the capacity and service quality in Syracuse, Utica, and Watertown in New York state. 9 -> Germany - Deutsche Telekom To Cut Int'l Rates 30% -- Deutsche Telekom, apparently still smarting under the mandate of the European Commission (EC) to liberalize its telecoms markets by January 1, 1998, has announced plans to slash international call rates by 30 percent this summer. 10 -> Compaq & Dell Intro High-Speed Pentium PCs -- Compaq Computer Corp. (NYSE: CPQ) and Dell Computer Corp. (NASDAQ: DELL) have both introduced new high-speed desktop systems that use Intel's latest Pentium chips with clock speeds well over 100 megahertz (MHz). 11 -> Analysts Differ Over Effects Of IBM/Lotus Deal -- IBM's acquisition of Lotus is "the first step in a long journey" that could turn out either "well" or "poorly," said Tom Austin, in a teleconference about the deal. But during the same event, Esther Dyson called the acquisition a "complementary merger," and Jeff Tartar said that the alliance won't change things very much. 12 -> No Cash Card In the Works, Says Microsoft -- Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ: MSFT) said a newspaper story earlier this week that it is developing a cash card was incorrect. "They put together 1.75 and 1.75 and got about four," Warren Dent, director of business development for Microsoft's consumer systems division, told Newsbytes. 13 -> Microsoft Plans Excel, Word For Windows NT/PowerPC -- Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ: MSFT) says it will ship versions of Microsoft Excel 5.0 and Microsoft Word 6.0 for the Windows NT operating system supporting the PowerPC within six weeks. 14 -> Indian-Canadian Venture For Engineering Software -- Imaging Software Ltd., an Indian-Canadian joint venture, has set up a 100 percent export oriented unit (EOU) at NOIDA near Delhi, for the development of engineering software for wide format plotters, scanners, and fax machines. 15 -> China - Beijing Educational TV Channel Planned -- Beijing TV Station is to launch "No.3 Program," which will be China's first television channel devoted entirely to general education. Educational programs will be aired in Beijing and be rebroadcast by satellite throughout the country. 16 -> China - New Govt Software Registration Center -- A new center for software copyright registration has been established by the State Copyright Administration (SCA). It is designed to replace a similar agency under the Ministry of Electronics Industry. 17 -> Hong Kong Dep't Store Bust For Software Cops -- One of Hong Kong's largest department stores chains, Yaohan Department Stores (HK) Ltd., has opted to settle with the local branch of software cops, the Business Software Alliance (BSA), rather than face a court appearance for illegal software use. 18 -> New York Times Signs With Knight Ridder -- The New York Times has signed a deal with Knight Ridder Information Inc. (NYSE:KRI) that will make the full text of the newspaper available through Knight Ridder's Dialog and DataStar online services. 19 -> Japan - Motorola Wins TU-KA Contracts -- Motorola Cellular Infrastructure Group has won two contracts from companies in the Japanese TU-KA Cellular Group. The orders call for a major expansion of the two digital telephone networks. 20 -> CyberPork Via World Wide Web -- Any Internet surfer will tell you it's not easy putting food on the Internet's World Wide Web, no matter how graphical it is. But that's what the National Pork Producers Council (NPPC) has done 21 -> S3 Multimedia Chipset Set For Compaq PCs -- S3 (NASDAQ:SIII) has previewed a multimedia chipset, called Cooperative Accelerator Architecture. Joining with support of this graphics, audio, and Motion Picture Experts Group (MPEG) technology were Compaq (NYSE:CPQ) and Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT). 22 -> OSHA Cans Ergonomics Plan -- Faced with a hostile Congress and a deregulatory mood in the public, the Clinton administration has abandoned its plans for tough rules to protect workers from repetitive strain injuries, the so-called "ergonomic standard." Instead, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, part of the Labor Department, will study the issue. 23 -> Government Shows Muscle In PC Purchases - Report -- When it comes to the personal computer market, Uncle Sam is the Big Kehuna. That's the conclusion of a study by the government market services division of International Data Corporation, which found that the federal government bought over 560,000 PCs in fiscal year 1994. 24 -> Canadian Product Launch Update -- This regular feature, normally appearing on the first day Newsbytes publishes each week (but delayed this week due to vacation), provides further details for the Canadian market on announcements by international companies that Newsbytes has already covered. This week: Digital's value-added partner program comes to Canada, IBM adds new parallel servers to its System/390 line, and Microsoft launches Windows NT Server 3.51 and Windows NT Workstation 3.51. 25 -> Microsoft Network Euro Providers Named -- Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ: MSFT) used the venue of the 6th Annual Conference of the Software Publishers Association Europe to announce the first 70 European independent content providers on the Microsoft Network (MSN), the software company's online service set to launch later this year. 26 -> Service Center In Toronto Store A First For DEC -- Digital Equipment of Canada Ltd. has announced what it said is a first for the company worldwide: a DEC-operated personal computer service center in a retail store. The center is in a new 12,000 square- foot software store operated by A Plus Software in Markham, Ontario, just north of Toronto. 27 -> ****IBM & Motorola Offer Fast PowerPC 604 Chips -- The triumvirate that developed the PowerPC line of computer chips has announced two new high-speed versions of the PowerPC 604 it claims exceed anything competitive chip maker Intel Corp. has to offer. 28 -> ****133MHz Pentium PCs Come Thick & Fast -- Intel Corp.'s new 133 megahertz (MHz) Pentium microprocessor has led to a flurry of announcements by personal computer manufacturers planning to build systems around the faster chip. Among those on the bandwagon are IBM (NYSE:IBM), Digital Equipment Corp. (NYSE:DEC), AT&T (NYSE:T), and Advanced Logic Research Inc. (NASDAQ:AALR). 29 -> ****IBM Intros Tools For Internet Access, Integration -- In a teleconference today, IBM moved further onto the Internet's World Wide Web in a major way, with the announcement of a sweeping set of products for Internet "access, presence, integration, and enablement" on platforms that include Windows, OS/2 Warp, AIX, AS/400, MVS, and the PowerParallel edition of AIX. (Ian Stokell/19950613) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 06/12/95 BUSINESS France's Integro In UK Distribution Deal (NEWS)(BUSINESS)(LON)(00001) France's Integro In UK Distribution Deal 06/12/95 PARIS, FRANCE, 1995 JUN 12 (NB) -- Integro, the French communications software house, has announced a distribution deal with Harrier Softnet in the UK. Terms of the deal for Harrier to distribute Integro's DOS and Windows applications into the UK dealer channel, according to Sarah Carter, a spokeswoman for the company. "This is the first time that Integro's software has been available in the UK. These are the English versions, while the original versions (for the French market) are in French," she told Newsbytes. One of Integro's most recent packages is Talk Remote, a remote control and tele-maintenance utility for networked remote workstations running DOS and Windows applications. According to Mike James, Integro's sales manager, remote access is gaining in popularity and is now required to do a lot more than remote point to point connectivity. "Help desks are desperately trying to give support to users in the far flung outposts of their wide area network. At the same time they're trying to give training, and distribute and configure software amongst their user base," he said. "By returning control of distributed workgroups to the applications and technical experts, Talk Remote helps the corporation save time and money, while optimizing their human resource investment," he added. Plans call for Harrier to unveil the UK language version of Talk Remote at the Networks '95 show in Birmingham, England, at the end of this month. According to Phil Ryan, Harrier's managing director, the package will sell well in the UK marketplace. "This partnership is going to enable us to extend a greater range of network utilities that tie in very closely with our customers both currently and in the future," he said. Talk remote is particularly easy to use -- I did the evaluation myself and had the full copy up and running in less than 10 minutes. And I'm not one for reading the manuals," he confessed. Pricing on Talk Remote has been set at UKP325 for a five-user pack. Details of larger user site license arrangements will be announced at the Networks '95 show. (Sylvia Dennis/19950609/Press & Reader Contact: Harrier Softnet, tel +44-1734-731181, fax +44-1734-734546) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 06/12/95 PC UK - AVM Telecom Intros PCMCIA ISDN Card (NEWS)(PC)(LON)(00002) UK - AVM Telecom Intros PCMCIA ISDN Card 06/12/95 LONDONDERRY, NORTHERN IRELAND, 1995 JUN 12 (NB) -- AVM Telecom has unveiled what it claims is the first PCMCIA (Personal Computer Memory Card International Association) ISDN (integrated services digital network) card that is compatible with most PC notebooks and laptops on the market. The PCMCIA A ISDN Controller is available immediately with a suggested retail price of UKP475. Patrick Sweeney, a spokesman for the company, told Newsbytes that the card works with most PC laptops and portables on the market, a claim that the company is prepared to back up with in-house tests for major clients. According to Sweeney, the company has just received a major order for the card from Bass Brewers, whose sales teams have been using the AVM PCMCIA ISDN cards with their Toshiba laptops to upload sales information from home overnight. Mark Brind, a senior analyst with Bass was wheeled out to support AVM's claims, and said that, "the cards present a reliable ISDN solution for our laptop users. Many of the other cards we tested simply did not provide consistent results." AVM claims that the card supports the common ISDN application programming interface (CAPI). The D channel of the card supports the ETSI (European Technical Standards Institute) D channel protocol, as well as ITR6, VN3, NI01, and A-line standards. The B channel, meanwhile, supports X,75, V110, and HDLC formats. As an optional extra, AVM is supplying the card with its Netways package, a remote LAN (local area network) access package for DOS and Windows. Bundled together, the products cost UKP775. Nick Spencer, a spokesman for AVM, told Newsbytes that, while there are several PCMCIA ISDN cards on the market, many of them don't work with all combinations of PC equipment. "The AVM card is the most flexible on the market, as witnessed by the Bass deal they have just concluded," he said. AVM Telecom is the UK subsidiary of AVM Computersysteme GmbH, Germany's largest manufacturer of ISDN controllers. The company last year launched itself on to the UK market. (Steve Gold/19950609/Press Contact: Nick Spencer, +44-1344-873445, Internet e-mail nspencer@cix.compulink.co.uk; Reader Contact: AVM Telecom, tel +44-1504-370370, fax +44-1504-370880) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 06/12/95 TRENDS IT Will Lead To 50% Of Bank Branches Closing - Report (NEWS)(TRENDS)(LON)(00003) IT Will Lead To 50% Of Bank Branches Closing - Report 06/12/95 LONDON, ENGLAND, 1995 JUN 12 (NB) -- According to a report issued by Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu International, an international market research consulting firm, modern retail banks on both sides of the Atlantic may be forced to close half of their branches if they are to stay competitive and offer the best service to customers. The reason for the closures is, the report claims, quite simple -- information technology (IT) is making many of the bank's paper-heavy activities obsolete, and will result in many jobs simply ceasing to exist as electronic transactions take over. In the UK, this could mean half of the banking industry jobs -- 50,000 -- disappearing over the coming years. In the report, which is entitled: "The Future of Retail Banking -- A Global Industry Perspective," Deloitte claims to have examined current banking industry practices in several countries around the world and concluded that the banks will have to adapt if they are to retain the custom of the general public. According to John Harrison, head of Deloitte's worldwide banking division, retail banking has become inefficient in recent years, partly due to protective legislation, and partly due to a failure to keep pace with advances in technology. "The complexity of running large banks means that size and range of activities combine to increase unit costs and overcome any economies of scale. Deregulation and a real improvement in the possibilities of implementing ultra-large scale automation have created a scenario for change like that experienced by the telecommunications and airline industries," he explained. According to Harrison, new banking products and services will be created from the new technology, while competition will force greater customer benefits and the existing banking infrastructure will be swept away as IT takes over banking activities worldwide. "In countries such as the UK and USA, where deregulation is in full flow, totally new entrants are favored over existing players. It would not be at all surprising to see the disappearance -- most likely through merger -- of one or several major banks in these countries," he said. According to the report, the change in banking practices is being accelerated by the arrival of smart payment cards, ATMs (automated teller machines) and even the humble magnetic stripe card into the marketplace. This, the report claims, means that instant transactions are taking place, something that does not require human intervention by the banks in all but the most exceptional of circumstances. The report concludes that three types of market will develop to fill the gap created by these changes: [] Large and deregulated markets: where change has been greatest, banks will focus on either products, customers or third party service provisions. Weaker traditional players will be forced out. New non- banks will take their place. [] Partially deregulated, larger markets: little change will arrive for consumers as large banking operations reorganize their affairs to meet the new markets. [] Smaller markets: many countries will perceive the changes as threats and move to prevent them occurring. These protectionist policies will result in domestic banking networks being hopelessly outclassed by the newer and more competitive players. "Regardless of the eventual structure of the bank, they will need to know their unit costs accurately and understand how these behave as size and transaction volumes change. More than ever, banks will need to gain a greater understanding of their customers," Harrison said. "Banks that combine good knowledge of their customers' needs and competition with a clean business unit structure, will be able to make rational business decisions on how each business will win or die," he added. (Steve Gold/19950609/Press & Reader Contact: Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu International, +44-171-936-3000, fax: +44-171-936-2346) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 06/12/95 GENERAL Ireland Offers Software Development Competition (NEWS)(GENERAL)(LON)(00004) Ireland Offers Software Development Competition 06/12/95 DUBLIN, IRELAND, 1995 JUN 12 (NB) -- Ireland is seeking to be number one in terms of software development in Europe. The information technology (IT) players of Ireland have announced plans to host the European Software Developers' Competition (ESDC), a two-day event, on November 2-3 this year, during which teams will pit their skills against each other, as well as the imposed deadline, to create a fully functional software system. The competition is the brainchild of the Irish Computer Society (ICS), the representative body for professionals in computing in Ireland, according to Peter Morrogh, the chairman of the organization. According to the ICS, the objective of the ESDC is to offer a focus to anyone involved in software development through their job, area of responsibility or organization from both Ireland as well as Europe. The competition, which is billed as the first pan-European IT professional event of its kind, gives both the software development and commercial user communities an opportunity to view and apply their skills in the creation of a computer application. According to ICS officials, leading software developers from both indigenous and international organizations have responded very positively and already committed to the concept, which is open to the general public and will incorporate a seminar program and exhibition. "This event is unique in both national and European terms, offering Ireland a great platform from which to promote the high caliber of people employed in software development here. Internationally, the EDSC will allow us to bring the quality of Irish software under the spotlight," Morrogh explained. "For the developers and organizations themselves, they can work collaboratively as teams on an exciting project, compete amongst their peers, win accolades and interact with others in the European industry," he said. "Moreover, the event is the first time that software development will have been brought into the public forum, making programming a spectator sport in Ireland. We strongly believe the EDSC is ideal as a vehicle for allowing the free exchange of ideas marketwide and the evaluation of new product, techniques, and methods," he added. According to the ICS, the competition is specifically for computing professionals who design and implement systems to meet defined business requirements. The organization claims that demand has exceeded expectations and participating teams have been confirmed from numerous Irish organizations, including Hoskyns, Siemens Nixdorf Ireland (CATT), PMI Software, Bank of Ireland, Implementors International, FeXco, and Telecom Eireann. (Sylvia Dennis/19950609/Press Contact: Carlo Crighton, Text 100 Ireland, +353-1-295-0800, Internet e-mail carloc@text100.co.uk; Reader Contact: Peter Morrogh, ICS, +353-1-703-9500) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 06/12/95 IBM IBM's SP2 Presents 3 Commercial "Personalities" (NEWS)(IBM)(BOS)(00005) IBM's SP2 Presents 3 Commercial "Personalities" 06/12/95 SOMERS, NEW YORK, U.S.A., 1995 JUN 12 (NB) -- At commercial customer sites and in internal applications at IBM, IBM's SP2s are showing the three "personalities" of server consolidation, "large server" for SAP's R/3 software, and "pure parallel processing" for decision support and data mining, said Ben Barnes, VP of worldwide marketing for the Power Parallel Division, in a conference call with Newsbytes. Customers that are currently using either one, two, or all three of the SP2's "personalities" include Revlon, American Airlines, ShopKo Stores, BellSouth Cellular, Gillette, Best Foods Baking Group, and National Semiconductor, according to Barnes. Also on the SP2 customer list are MCI, the John Alden Financial Group, Intermountain Health Care, PCS Health Systems, Bass Brewers (UK), P&O Containers Ltd. (UK), Fiat Avio (Italy), Thyssen Informatik GmbH (Germany), and the National Library of Australia. "The way to acceptance in the commercial marketplace is not to be thought of as a parallel processor, or even as a 'supercomputer,' but rather as the ultimate high-end `superserver,'" the IBM VP told Newsbytes. Instead of purchasing IBM's RISC 6000 "in twos, threes, or dozens," IBM customers are now beginning to "simply buy an SP2 and fill it up with nodes, adding more nodes as their requirements dictate," according to Barnes. In this case, the SP2 is being used for "server consolidation," as opposed to parallel processing, he explained. "The advantage of server consolidation is that you get a great deal of improvement in system management, with ease of loading common software, as well as simpler backup and recovery," Barnes added. IBM, he continued, has been using the SP2 for server consolidation in its own development labs. "We've also made a major commitment to SAP's software. As we begin implementing SAP at some of our larger sites, we will begin implementing SAP on SP2, as well." A third internal use of the SP2 is for "various situations where we want to store databases for decision support," Barnes reported. "We think all three of these applications represent valuable commercial markets for us, as well," the IBM exec told Newsbytes. The Oracle parallel database, the first to be generally available on the SP2, is now installed at about 100 customer sites, according to Barnes. Approximately 25 users in an "early customer program" are testing IBM's own DB2 Parallel Edition, a product slated for general availability in September, he added. Meanwhile, Sybase Navigation Server for the SP2 is now entering beta. "We're the second parallel platform for Sybase. The first was AT&T, since AT&T developed the original code," Barnes revealed. In addition, Informix and the Red Brick Data Warehouse have just become generally available for SP2. "We have a handful of Informix accounts, including MCI, our single largest commercial customer," Newsbytes was told. American Airlines will be using the SP2 along with both SAP and the Oracle database, according to Barnes. "They're going to be putting the entire American Airlines human resources and payroll systems, using SAP's human resources module," he asserted. ShopKo, another customer, is now using the SP2 strictly for server consolidation, Barnes said. But in the future, he noted, the nationwide retail chain intends to add a decision support application designed to let store managers place product orders that are individualized to the needs of specific geographic markets. "Revlon is interesting because they'll be using all three `personalities' of the SP2," the VP concluded. "They'll use the product in a batch cluster mode for manufacturing, with the Oracle database and SAP for distribution and order entry, and in a purely parallel manner for decision support." (Jacqueline Emigh/19950609/Reader Contact: IBM, 914-765-1900; Press Contact: Marlena Villafane, Technology Solutions for IBM, 212-696-2000) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 06/12/95 BUSINESS AT&T And Unions In Pay Deal (NEWS)(BUSINESS)(MSP)(00006) AT&T And Unions In Pay Deal 06/12/95 WASHINGTON, D.C., U.S.A., 1995 JUN 12 (NB) -- AT&T (NYSE:T) has reached a tentative agreement with the Communications Workers of America (CWA) and the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW) on a three-year contract that calls for a ten percent-plus hike in wages, along with improvements in health care coverage and other benefits. "These talks have been the most objective and focused labor negotiations in AT&T's recent history," William K. Ketchum, AT&T vice president of labor relations, told a tele-news conference which Newsbytes attended. "They fulfill the vision that AT&T and the unions conceived in 1992 with the 'Workplace of the Future' concept that we bargained that set aside the old adversarial model of union-management relationship. And instead, it invokes a new model characterized by common goals and a shared commitment to strengthen AT&T." More than 100,000 CWA and IBEW members will vote on the contract over the next several weeks, AT&T officials said. The tentative agreement calls for wage increases of 10.5 percent over the next three years, plus $3,400 in other compensation. Also, active employees would receive in 1996 new managed healthcare networks that offer "expanded and improved coverage." Also, healthcare deductibles would be replaced with $10 co-payments with each visit to a healthcare practitioner. Also, the company's 401(k) retirement plan for union members would be improved, the company said. AT&T employees could also designate up to 10 percent of their salaries to buy company stock at a 15 percent discount, with broker's commissions paid for by AT&T. Other benefits under the new agreement include an increase in adoption expense reimbursement, more money for college scholarships, and a reworking of excused work days to handle family emergencies. "Quality work by quality employees still provides a competitive advantage in this industry," Ketchum said. IBEW President John Barry is quoted as saying: "We hope this contract will translate into a true cooperative effort between AT&T and the unions to stop job losses and ensure more opportunities for its existing work force." (Bob Woods/19950609/Press Contacts: Jim McGann, 202-457-3942, AT&T; Herb Linnen, 202-457-3933, AT&T) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 06/12/95 BUSINESS ****IBM & Lotus Seal $3.5 Billion Acquisition (NEWS)(BUSINESS)(BOS)(00007) ****IBM & Lotus Seal $3.5 Billion Acquisition 06/12/95 CAMBRIDGE, MASSACHUSETTS, U.S.A., 1995 JUN 12 (NB) -- After less than a week of talks, IBM and Lotus have reached a definitive agreement on a $3.5 billion deal calling for Lotus to be acquired at $64 per share. The deal was announced by IBM Chairman and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Louis V. Gerstner and Lotus President and CEO Jim Manzi in a surprise Sunday afternoon teleconference attended by Newsbytes. IBM's multi-billion-dollar acquisition of Lotus was approved by Lotus' board of directors on Saturday night and IBM 's board on Sunday morning, Gerstner and Manzi told journalists, during yesterday's quickly convened 2 pm teleconference. Manzi will remain CEO of Lotus, and he will also become a senior VP of IBM, reporting directly to Gerstner, according to the two officials. The reporters were told that talks between IBM and Lotus began last Tuesday, June 6, when Manzi called Gerstner, and the two made plans to meet for dinner at Gerstner's apartment the same night. During several days of negotiations between Gerstner, Manzi, and Lotus advisors in New York City, the price IBM was willing to pay for outstanding shares of Lotus stock stepped to $64 per share, or $4 more than IBM first proposed in a hostile takeover bid launched on Monday, June 5. The companies also worked out a series of agreements on matters such as the "preservation of benefits" and the "preservation of culture" which represent "some of the hallmarks of what makes Lotus what it is today," Manzi said. Remarked Gerstner: "We're really delighted at IBM that we and Lotus have been able to reach this agreement so quickly. What this means is that we can move very quickly (toward) our shared vision of team computing." IBM has filed papers with the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), and expects the acquisition to be approved within the next few weeks, Gerstner added. After the deal becomes final, Lotus will retain the "Lotus" name, according to Gerstner. "It is our intention to make Lotus the center of our groupware technology," he continued. "There is no intention to move (any software products) from Lotus. The movement will go the other way." Ray Ozzie, the lead developer for Lotus Notes, came to New York during the negotiations, and plans to stay on with Lotus, Manzi told the reporters. "(Ozzie) is almost as excited as I am," Manzi asserted. Lotus' board of directors will "cease to exist," however, since "Lotus as an independent entity will cease to exist," he said. Last Monday, June 5, the value of Lotus stock doubled when IBM tendered its offer of $60 per share. At 8:25 am that day, five minutes before issuing a press announcement, Gerstner called Manzi to inform him of IBM's proposed unfriendly acquisition. That afternoon, at a New York City press conference, Gerstner said that he had told Manzi that morning of his own willingness "to sit down with (Manzi) and his advisors." Hours later, Manzi held a separate teleconference, also from New York City, in which he reported that the Lotus board of directors would meet within ten days to "formally examine (IBM's) offer as well as any other options we may have." During yesterday's joint teleconference, Gerstner called the phone call from Manzi last Tuesday "an extraordinary act." "As the days went by, it became clear to me that (Manzi) was exercising leadership (in) very quickly seizing this unique opportunity," Gerstner added. "What was most remarkable to me was that he never focused on himself." As senior VP of IBM, Manzi will be involved in "a whole lot of things," Gerstner reported. "The mindset that the Lotus management team brings is very different, and I really look forward to having that mindset in the mix of strategic thinking that we have at IBM," elaborated the IBM chairman. Manzi apologized to the journalists for "interrupting (their) weekend." "It's been one hell of a week," Manzi noted. "In the middle of the week, when I began thinking about this, I realized there would be some tremendous benefits that would unfold," he explained, predicting that IBM's "immense financial resources" will bring advantages to shareholders, employees, and customers. During a Q&A session at the close of the teleconference, Manzi said that in a presentation to Lotus employees today, he will tell staff members that "this serves up some very big opportunities that we didn't have before." Manzi was also asked whether Lotus will still go ahead with its recently unveiled restructuring program. "We're not going to change our plans, nor does anybody expect us to change our plans," said the Lotus CEO. Another reporter wanted to know whether Lotus had negotiated with any other companies aside from IBM following last Monday's takeover bid by IBM. "I don't think it appropriate to talk about private conversations I may or may not have had with other companies," Manzi replied. Gerstner was asked whether IBM and Lotus have talked to AT&T. "We have talked to all the key people in this industry who will be affected by the deal," the IBM chief revealed. Another question concerned what plans IBM might have for acquiring or allying with additional companies. Gerstner had declined comment on a similar question at last Monday's press conference. "This is a very significant event for IBM," Gerstner said yesterday. "Lotus will be a very critical and important part of IBM's growth strategy, so the idea that we'd be looking at anything else at this point is more fatiguing than I can handle." (Jacqueline Emigh/19950611/Reader Contacts: IBM, 914-765-1900; Lotus, 617-621-8600; Press Contacts: Jon Iwata, IBM, 914-765-6630; Rob Wilson, IBM, 914-765-6565; Richard Eckel, Lotus, 617-693-1697) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 06/12/95 ONLINE Internet Update (NEWS)(ONLINE)(TYO)(00008) Internet Update 06/12/95 TOKYO, JAPAN, 1995 JUN 12 (NB) -- In this roundup of new resources and software available on the Internet: NET on the net; GIFS on the fly; Camel Trophy updates; Historical speech archive; Worldwide storm guide; WebForms software; ASCII atlas; Texas Superconductivity Center. NET On The Net The Northcoast Electronic Town (NET) has opened its doors to incoming sessions from the Internet. The NET is a regional online system for the California Northcoast. The town includes Usenet news, the AP wire, local business publications, a software archive and real city features such as a city hall, library and community center. Free software to access the service is available. World Wide Web: http://www.northcoast.com/unlimited/services_listing/ electronic_town/etown_info.html GIFS On-The-Fly GDIT can be used to create GIF graphical files on-the-fly for your Web site, independent of a scripting language. The software is available for Unix and Windows 32-bit platforms and is free for non-commercial use. The new version includes several new features. World Wide Web: http://www.demon.co.uk/3Wiz/gdit/index.html Camel Trophy Updates The Camel Trophy has been described as the "Olympics of Four-wheeling." Twenty teams, each consisting of two people, take Land Rover Discovery 4 x 4 vehicles through a 20 country rally from Belize to Mexico, Guatemala, El Salvador, and Honduras. This year's 16th annual event is updated daily on the Internet with photos and reports. World Wide Web: http://www.4x44u.com/pub/k2/am4x44u/whats_new/camelt1.htm Historical Speech Archive All of Richard Nixon's resignation speech has been placed online as a 7.4 megabyte (MB) audio file (.au format). It is also available split up into 13 parts and 42 separate soundbites. The speech is part of WebCorp's home page which also includes audio files of speeches from Chamberlain and Hitler and a voices from the civil rights era plus other famous speeches. World Wide Web: http://www.webcorp.com/sounds/index.htm Worldwide Storm Guide A new Hawaii-based page is now online with worldwide hurricane, tropical cyclone and typhoon information, tracks, and forecast. World Wide Web: http://milo.ifa.hawaii.edu/Tropical/tropical.html WebForms Software WebForms v1.0 is a World Wide Web forms-generator which automatically creates HTML (HyperText Markup Language) forms and reads their responses which are then electronically mailed to a mailbox. The software, which is shareware, includes full online help and a tutorial. World Wide Web: http://www.intac.com/~dversch/ ASCII Atlas The ASCII Atlas is a collection of maps drawn using only the standard ASCII character set. Currently 35 maps are available including those of major continents and the whole world. World Wide Web: http://www.dynamo.net/dynamo/users/paulf/ascii/atlas.html Texas Superconductivity Center The Texas Center for Superconductivity at the University of Houston has a Web server with information about the centers current research activities in the field of high temperature super conductivity. There is also a reference guide to articles by the centers staff dating back to 1990. World Wide Web: http://www.tcs.uh.edu/ (Martyn Williams/19950612) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 06/12/95 BUSINESS Software Support Firms Merge, Japan's Softbank Buys In (NEWS)(BUSINESS)(TYO)(00009) Software Support Firms Merge, Japan's Softbank Buys In 06/12/95 TOKYO, JAPAN, 1995 JUN 12 (NB) -- America's two largest suppliers of third-party software support services announced they are to merge in late June. Upgrade Corporation and Alexander & Lord Inc. will combine to create UCA&L of which Japanese software distributors Softbank will take a large minority shareholding later to be followed by a majority stake. Before the two US companies join Softbank's American subsidiary, the companies will inject $8.5 million into Alexander & Lord which is already affiliated with Softbank. The money will be used to purchase stock from Upgrade Corp. Immediately after the merger, Softbank will own 48% of UCA&L but, with an option it holds to buy a further 22% stake, it will become a majority shareholder before the option expires on December 29, the company said. The purchasing of the additional $13.2 million share will give Softbank a total shareholding of 70% through direct ownership and via subsidiary companies. Phoenix Publishing Systems Inc., an 80% Softbank owned company, will make most of the acquisition with US Softbank Holdings, a wholly owned subsidiary, also purchasing stock. Buffalo, New York-based Upgrade Corporation and Alexander & Lord of Monterey, California, are the industries two top suppliers of third- party pre-sales, sales, maintenance, and after-sales technical telephone support services to 75% of the American software market, with clients such as Microsoft and Novell. "The formation of UCA&L will provide immediate and tangible benefits to our clients in the software and hardware industry. In 1995 we expect to generate over $300 million in sales for 90 companies, and employ more than 1,100 associates worldwide," said Ron Schreiber, UCA&L co-chairman and co-chief executive officer (CEO) in a statement. With the additional interest of Softbank, the combined company will be able to supply its full range of services to customers not only in North American and Europe through a Dublin, Ireland center, but into Japan and the Pacific Rim. Schreiber, added that UCA&L will be developing new software support options and services which include "a range of automated services to lower the cost of providing end-user product and technical support, such as interactive voice services, fax-based services, and on-line and Internet based services." The services of the new company complement those of Softbank, said the Tokyo-based company's president and CEO, Masayoshi Son, who added that, "We view the range of services that UCA&L provides as a critical component of the mix of sales and marketing services that software and hardware companies need, and one that is very complementary to the services we currently provide through product distribution, electronic and print publishing, and industry trade shows." Softbank is Japan's largest software distributor and, since 1994, has been a majority shareholder in Phoenix Publishing Systems Inc. Last year Softbank bought Interface Trade Show Group, which runs the Comdex and Windows World shows, and the Ziff-Davis Exposition & Conference Company, which runs the Networld+Interop and other computer trade shows. (Martyn Williams/19950612) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 06/12/95 BROADCAST DirecTV To Increase Interactive Channel Capacity (NEWS)(BROADCAST)(MSP)(00010) DirecTV To Increase Interactive Channel Capacity 06/12/95 LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1995 JUN 12 (NB) -- DirecTV, the national provider of satellite television service, said it will provide online and other interactive services with the launch of a new high-power DBS (direct broadcast service) satellite. The new satellite, dubbed DBS-3, will expand the channel capacity of the DirecTV service from 150 to about 180 channels, a spokesperson told Newsbytes. "We do hope to include some interactive services that we do not have available today," Linda Brill, director of public relations for DirecTV, told Newsbytes. "(Those will include) online services and different data software that you can possibly download into a computer system. We're looking at home shopping, concert ticket ordering capabilities, and others that would be a little more interactive and hands-on for the consumer." Brill said specifics on the content of the new channels would be released throughout this year. The satellite itself should be up and running by late summer or early fall, provided testing and activation of the orbiting unit goes well, Brill said. The satellite was launched on an Ariane booster from the Arianespace Guiana Space Center in French Guiana on Friday, June 9. About two hours after lift-off the first signals were acquired from the satellite, and confirmed that all systems were operating normally. Brill said the satellite will add about 25 to 30 channels, and will serve throughout the country. "The two satellites we already have up there cover the country already, if you have the little 18-inch satellite dish," Brill said. "The third satellite is to simply increase the channel capacity for DirecTV. It's also run as an in-orbit spare in the event something goes wrong with the first satellite or second satellite." DirecTV will celebrate its one-year anniversary of service launch on June 17. It already has 600,000 subscribers nationwide, company officials said. DirecTV is a unit of the Hughes Electronics Corp., which is a wholly owned subsidiary of General Motors Corp. (Bob Woods/19950612/Press Contact: Linda Brill, DirecTV, 310-535-5062) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 06/12/95 GENERAL Japan Newsbriefs (NEWS)(GENERAL)(TYO)(00011) Japan Newsbriefs 06/12/95 TOKYO, JAPAN, 1995 JUN 12 (NB) -- In this roundup of news from Japan: Toshiba wins Chinese cable contract; Aum software copyright infringement alleged; IIJ announce reduced rates; NEC revises sales targets. Toshiba Wins Chinese Cable Contract Toshiba Corporation has won part of a contract to upgrade the cable TV network in Shanghai, China. In the winning bid for the work, Toshiba was partnered by two Chinese companies and one from Hong Kong. Together the four formed Shanghai Jinzhi Electronics Co., Ltd. The new company will manufacture advanced set-top boxes for the upgrade which is ahead of a coming increase in the number of television stations available in the region when digital satellite broadcasting is introduced this summer. Toshiba own the largest stake of the new company at 40% with Chinese partners Shanghai Jinling Company Ltd. holding 30%. The remaining 30% is split equally between Shanghai Cable Television Industrial Company and Hong Kong's Sunny Ocean Communication (H.K.) Ltd. Aum Software Copyright Infringement Alleged The Kyodo newswire has reported that a computer company run by the religious sect Aum Shinrikyo is alleged to have infringed software patents of IBM Japan. The report says Aum is alleged to have copied IBM's PC-DOS/V onto computers at its Maha Posya computer company in Tokyo's Akihabara in Minato ward. An IBM Japan spokesman contacted by Newsbytes said, "We are aware of the Aum PCs, and are looking into the matter. But as of right now, we have no particular comment on them." Software infringement is the least of Aum's worries though, most of the group's heads are currently under arrest charged with the murder of 11 in a poison gas attack on the Tokyo subway in March. IIJ Announce Reduced Rates Japan's IIJ, Internet Initiative Japan, has announced new pricing for use of its service during off-peak hours. Currently users are charged 30 yen ($0.35) per-minute for connection to the Internet. From July 1, access between 2am and 8am will be charged at 15 yen ($0.18) per minute. NEC Revises Sales Targets Strong demand for low-end personal computers has led NEC Corporation revising its projected sales figures for the current financial year upwards, by half a million computers, to 2.8 million units. NEC said its PC-98 series of computers, priced below 100,000 yen ($1,176), have been selling exceptionally well. (Martyn Williams/19950612) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 06/12/95 GENERAL Farcast Offers Newsbytes (NEWS)(GENERAL)(MSP)(00012) Farcast Offers Newsbytes 06/12/95 MINNEAPOLIS, MINNESOTA, U.S.A., 1995 JUN 12 (NB) -- Newsbytes News Network's more than 30 daily high-tech reports will now be available to subscribers of the Farcast Inc. agent-based news and information service for desktop and mobile electronic-mail users. Newsbytes is an electronic news service devoted exclusively to the computer and telecommunications arenas, and has been in publication since 1983. For nearly a year, Farcast has been delivering a custom "clipping service" to subscribers. Newsbytes will now be among Farcasts's many news and information sources, including The Associated Press, United Press International, Businesswire, and PR Newswire. Farcast Inc., a privately held company based in Menlo Park, California, features "information robots," called "droids," which perform searches, and retrieve articles and broadcasting information. All interaction with the service occurs through e-mail messages sent to droids. To search Farcast's "Newsstand," for example, a subscriber sends an e-mail message to the Newsstand Droid. The Droid processes the message, performs the search, and returns the results to the subscriber's e-mail inbox. Farcast's agent-based information service comes at a flat-rate cost of less than $1 per day, which includes unlimited search and full-text article retrieval. More about the Farcast news and information service is available by e-mail message to info@farcast.com, with the subject "hello." Direct subscription inquiries to subscriptions@farcast.com (e-mail) or (415) 327-5603 (fax). The URL for Farcast's World Wide Web site address is http://www.farcast.com/ as well as info@farcast.com The firm also offers a 10-day free trial subscription. Newsbytes News Network is the world's leading independent daily newswire for the computer and telecommunications industries, offering more than 30 daily stories filed by a team of 19 journalists worldwide. Published since 1983, Newsbytes is also the oldest and most respected source of daily electronic news coverage, and Newsbytes reports are used by more than 150 publications worldwide. Newsbytes has five times won Best Online Publication honors from The Computer Press Association, and also won a John Dvorak 1994 Technical Excellence Award. "We are delighted to be a part of the Farcast news offerings, and believe we will fill the high-tech niche that many readers demand," said Editor in Chief Wendy Woods. Based in Minneapolis, Newsbytes has 14 worldwide bureaus, including Chicago, San Francisco, Boston, Toronto, Denver, Los Angeles, Washington DC, London, Sydney, Tokyo, Hongkong, Beijing, and New Delhi, and offers news reports by affiliated publications in other regions, as well. (Newsbytes Staff/19950612) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 06/12/95 GENERAL Corel To Add Edutainment CDs To "Home" Line (NEWS)(GENERAL)(TOR)(00013) Corel To Add Edutainment CDs To "Home" Line 06/12/95 OTTAWA, ONTARIO CANADA, 1995 JUN 12 (NB) -- Corel Corp. (TSE:COS, NASDAQ:COSFF) has announced an agreement with Ottawa-based Future Endeavors and KLA Visual Productions for development of two new "edutainment" titles for Corel's "CD HOME" product line. Future Endeavors (FE), KLA, and animator Scott Fiandar, will develop "AlphaBytez," a Windows/Macintosh interactive multimedia application which will combine animation, sound, and music to help children between the ages of three and five learn the alphabet. FE and KLA will also jointly develop "Castle Capers," an animated Windows/Macintosh interactive multimedia adventure for children aged four to 12, combining animations, puzzles and riddles with Dracula's Castle as a backdrop, in a game of mystery and intrigue. Both titles are scheduled for release late this fall, just in time for Christmas. Prices are still to be determined. Future Endeavors is a multimedia software development company specializing in the production of CD-ROM titles. The company's co-founder and president, Paul Bodnoff, is a former Corel executive and was a key member of the original CorelDraw development team. KLA Visual Productions Ltd. is a producer of animation for the corporate and television marketplaces. Its mandate under the Corel team-up is to provide "high-quality full-action animation" for the two CD-ROM packages. The Corel CD HOME line includes a variety of titles in the "edutainment," "reference," and "personal productivity" categories. Corel expects to release more than 30 new titles under this banner in 1995. (Maggie Troone/19950608/ Media Contacts: Cindy Scott, Corel, 613-728-8200; Paul Bodnoff, Future Endeavors, 613-820-7173 ext 103; Lee Atkinson, KLA, 613-737-2908) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 06/12/95 ONLINE Cyberspace Spells Death For Middlemen (NEWS)(ONLINE)(MSP)(00014) Cyberspace Spells Death For Middlemen 06/12/95 SEATTLE, WASHINGTON, U.S.A., 1995 JUN 12 (NB) -- Advances in communications and information technology are cutting out the traditional middleman in a growing number of transactions, according to Edith Weiner and Arnold Brown in "The New Marketplace" (The Futurist, May/June 1995, pp. 12-16). "Consumers are increasingly seeking out new sources for goods and services; that is no longer news," the authors write. "What is news is that they are bypassing traditional delivery channels -- corner drugstores, doctors' offices, the mass media -- in their search for quality, savings, convenience, and personal fit in all products and services." Related articles in the same issue include: "Squeezing the Middleman," in which Nicholas Imparato and Oren Harari argue that new technology is forcing insurance brokers and other middlemen to innovate or perish (p. 15); "Here Come the Cyberyuppies," in which Michael Spalter expands on the "disintermediation" trend and how it relates to ATMs, QVC, CompuServe and CommerceNet (pp. 20-22); and "The Emerging Meta-Mart," in which Samuel E. Bleecker reports that by the year 2000, half of today's retail companies will be supplanted by virtual storefronts on the information superhighway (pp. 17-19). This story is republished with permission from the June 1995 Cybernautics Digest, a monthly summary of reports about converging information technologies. (Contact: Terry Hansen, Cybernautics Digest, c/o KFH Publications Inc., 3530 Bagley Ave. N., Seattle, WA 98103; 206-547-4950; Fax: 206-547-5355; E-mail: cybernbj@cuix.pscu.com. U.S. subscription rate: $24; $2 sample issue) (ADVISORY)(GENERAL)(MSP)(00015) NewsPix Images For Newsbytes Publishers 06/12/95 MINNEAPOLIS, MINNESOTA, U.S.A., 1995 JUNE 12 (NB) -- These photos correspond to recent Newsbytes stories. They are online in the Newsbytes menu on GEnie, America Online, eWorld, NiftyServe, and the Newsbytes private bulletin board system in Minneapolis. JPEG files are larger in size, PICT files are designed as thumbnails for onscreen viewing. The photos are titled with name/year/month/day. PICT/thumbnail pictures are black and white (gray scale). File message will indicate color if the JPEG image is color. Some of the larger "for use" images, may also be PICT files. To distinguish these files from the thumbnail preview PICT images, the tag for the color "for use" image will have PICT, all caps. The thumbnail will remain noted as "pct." To become a licensed Newsbytes publisher, call Newsbytes at 612-430-1100 (US) or write to administrator@newsbytes.com on the Internet. Licensing applies to any medium. --------------------------- Week of JUNE 12 - JUNE 16,1995 --------------------------- TEXAS950601 - color / UK - TI Intros Pentium TravelMate 5000 Notebooks : PC on rock slab and artful background. LOVENET950606 - color / UK - Computer Dating On World Wide Web: screenshot of main menu. TERASTAR950602 - b&w / "Briefcase" Terminal Offers Phone, Fax, Data Anywhere: the briefcase opened to show gear. SFTBOARD950605 - color / Microfield's Personal Size Electronic Whiteboard: the new softboard in an office cubicle. STARSIGHT950602 - color / StarSight Telecast Offers Interactive TV Product: screenshot of viewing guide. EDMARK950607 - color / Edmark Plans 4 Educational Windows 95 CD-ROMs: screenshot of the main menu from Sammy's Science House. EMBARQUE950605 - color / EnCompass Gets Upgrade, New Name: screenshot of toolbar. THROTTLE950602 - color / Thrustmaster Ships F-16 Throttle For FLCS Joystick: the joystrick/controller, very military. EASYBALL950512 - color / Microsoft Announces Kid's Pointing Device: cute kid in action with oversized simplified track ball. DIAMAR950515 - color / Diamar Gets Financing, Inks Golf Tips CD-ROM Deal: screenshot from the Better Photography CD-ROM. TI92950515 - b&w / TI Intros TI-92 Math, Text Calculator: shot of the unit, equations and graph on screen. DIGITAL950526 - b&w / Digital Cuts PC Prices: the DEC Starion. VG950531 - color / VideoGuide Signs The Sports Network: screenshot of the sportsguide. ZDS950531 - color / Zenith Intros High-Speed Pentium PCs: the Z-Station GT. TELEGRAPH950601 - color / UK - Daily Telegraph Offers Internet Starter Kits: screen shot of homepage. UNET950522 - color / UK Internet Provider Offers Low-Cost ISDN: screenshot of homepage. GOLF950523 - color / Use Your Own Clubs With PC-Based Golf Analyzer/Game: shot of the unique controller-swing analyzer. KILLER950519 - color / Serial Killer CD-ROM Not For The Faint-Hearted: screenshot of main menu. FARGO950519 - color / Wells Fargo Offers Internet Customer Services: screenshot of checking page TABS950522 - color / Software Automates Office/Home Operations: screenshot of the irrigation screen. LOGICAL950523 - color / Software Supports "Logical" Decision-Making: screenshot of goals hierarchy screen. CHIPC950524 - color / IBM Japan To Intro Address Book On A Chip: a portable electronic address book that fits onto a PCMCIA (Personal Computer Memory Card International Association) card. MERRIAM950523 - color / Merriam-Webster Dictionary/Thesaurus CD Ships: the CD packages. BETTERBOX050895 - UK-BetterBox Intros Handheld Network Tester: the Psibernet unit. SCCCOM950512 - Colorado Firm Keeps 9-1-1 Databases Updated: the control room of National Data Services Center (NDSC). HERGAMES950515 - Venture To Offer Online Service, CD-ROMs For Girls: Patricia Flanigan, Marketing Director of Games for Her in front of poster for CD ROM, MacKenzie & Co. PRODCEO950512 - E3 - Prodigy - New CEO, New Interface: new chief executive officer (CEO), Ed Bennett in front of Prodigy logo. THENET950515 - UK-BBC Starts Internet/Interactive TV Program: screenshot of main menu. SC&T950518 - SC&T's Keyboards With Built-In Speakers: the MAK-200, the entry-level model. SATO19950517 - Eastern Mind, A Japanese Myst CD Game: the CD author Osamu Sato, with poster for his work Eastern Mind: The Lost Souls of Tong Nou. (Newsbytes/19950612) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 06/12/95 GENERAL Australian Computer Dealers Form A New Assn (NEWS)(GENERAL)(SYD)(00016) Australian Computer Dealers Form A New Assn 06/12/95 SYDNEY, AUSTRALIA, 1995 JUN 12 (NB) -- A new group has been formed in Australia to draw together many of the hundreds, or even thousands, of independent computer dealers around the country. National Independent Computer Resellers Association, or NICRA, is designed to be a non-profit association, as distinct from a number of buying groups that already exist. The driving force behind the project, Neville Wright, told Newsbytes that success of the group was not guaranteed, but would depend on sufficient publicity, and encouragement or "pressure" to join. "We'll have joint advertising and marketing, a common approach to suppliers for better deals for our members, staff training programs and so on. In addition we'll have to have good marketing of the reasons why a buyer should support a NICRA member. These are all valid reasons for resellers, software consultants, and technicians to join." While all the fine details are not firmed yet, NICRA has preliminary codes of ethics, membership certificates, and application forms. Included in the application form are the following assertions: that the applicant has been self-employed for two or more years; operates from legal premises; will deal "honestly, professionally and in a businesslike manner;" agrees to be bound by NICRA's technical and performance standards; will "clearly identify" service costs; will undergo NICRA training and seminars; will "obtain advice when required;" and will allow NICRA to act as the adjudicating body in disputes with clients. The first 100 charter members will pay AUS$185 per year, although AUS$200 will be added once the body is established. Suppliers are also being encouraged to join the body so they can be given special access to the dealer members. Inquiries should be directed to: Neville Wright, authorized Marketing Agent, Amsnet International Pty Ltd, 49 Riversdale Road, Oxenford 4210, Australia. The telephone number is +61-75-731734. (Paul Zucker/19950609/Press contact: NICRA, tel +61-75-731734) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 06/12/95 GENERAL India - Bose Intros Designer For Building Acoustics (NEWS)(GENERAL)(DEL)(00017) India - Bose Intros Designer For Building Acoustics 06/12/95 NEW DELHI, INDIA, 1995 JUN 12 (NB) -- Within a month of US-based Bose Corp. declaring its intention to set up a wholly-owned subsidiary in India, the company has come out with its latest technology for the Indian market. "The Auditioner system is an entirely new kind of tool that enables people to perceive what public places will sound like even before they are constructed," said Dr. Amal Gopal Bose, founder and technical director of Bose Corp. Bose, who is also a professor of Electrical Engineering and Computer Sciences at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (US), was addressing the gathering at the launch of the system in New Delhi recently. The result of a ten-year research project, the Auditioner system is the claimed to be the first to produce sound that is nearly identical to the sound people will hear after the building in consideration is completed. "The only requirement is a mathematical model of that building which is fed into the computer as a computer-aided design (CAD) object," Kenneth D. Jacob, co-conceiver of Auditioner and director of the project told Newsbytes. With the help of "Modeler" design software program developed by the company, the user can eradicate any flaw in the acoustics of a building or room, and evolve an "almost perfect acoustic environment," claims the company. Professional sound engineers can construct computerized room and sound system models, and then predict certain performance data on the designs they create. "We put a lot of effort into research and development and make it a point to sell, not just boxes, but the best of technology. For this we depend more on the customers' needs," said Dr. Bose. Bose Corp. has been in the forefront of audio system technology, especially acoustics, since 1964. It is best known for its high-fidelity loudspeakers and music systems for the home and the car, and for its professional sound systems used in public places. It also introduced the first electronic noise-canceling headphones that are now used by private pilots and military personnel throughout the world, and also in the US space shuttle Voyager. (C.T. Mahabharat/19950612) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 06/12/95 ONLINE Compton's CD-ROM Encyclopedia Connects To America Online (NEWS)(ONLINE)(LAX)(00018) Compton's CD-ROM Encyclopedia Connects To America Online 06/12/95 CARLSBAD, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1995 JUN 12 (NB) -- Compton's NewMedia has announced the availability of Compton's Interactive Encyclopedia, 1996 Edition. The new edition includes a direct, one mouse-click entrance onto America Online (NASDAQ; AMER). With direct connection to America Online , the latest edition of Compton's Interactive Encyclopedia hopes to provide user-friendly introduction to the on-line universe. Ernest Clark, spokesman for Compton's NewMedia, told Newsbytes that, "With a simple click of the mouse, users can enter onto America Online. Compton's 1996 Edition has a permanent America Online button on screen that would allow the user to simply click and enter the information superhighway". "Since 1922, Compton's has never lost sight of its original purpose: to be an innovative, forward-looking reference work that rewards curiosity," said Dale Good, editorial director of Compton's Encyclopedia. "Compton's was the first encyclopedia to use photographs with text and we were the first company to introduce an interactive multimedia encyclopedia," he claimed. Once connected to America Online, users have access to Compton's NewMedia Forum. The Forum will offer different features, including a software library, a "research assistant," technical support, and the latest updated articles. Clark told Newsbytes that Compton's 1996 Edition includes "more than 1,690 revised and 535 new main-text articles." The new articles include: coverage of the new government in South Africa and the civil war in Rwanda; 158 more colorful photographs and 43 new and revised detailed drawings; 59 new and 39 revised maps of Africa, Asia, Australia, China, Europe, United Kingdom, West Indies, and several other regions; three new full-motion videos featuring Jesse Owens, the World Cup, and the World Trade Center bombing. "All of the new articles amount to a one percent addition to the 1995 Edition," Clark said. Clark added that the real change and the focus of the marketing effort over the next season will be the addition of America Online to the encyclopedia. The launch of this product represents the most comprehensive marketing campaign from the company to date, according to James Longson, Compton's NewMedia's president and chief executive officer. It will be available for the estimated street price of $79.95. (Richard Bowers/19950612/Press Contact: Ernest Clark, Compton's NewMedia, 619-929-2532) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 06/12/95 LEGAL Avid Technology Files Suit To Protect Patent (NEWS)(LEGAL)(LAX)(00019) Avid Technology Files Suit To Protect Patent 06/12/95 TEWKSBURY, MASSACHUSETTS, U.S.A., 1995 JUN 12 (NB) -- Avid Technology (NASDAQ:AVID), a leader in random-access video editing, has filed a patent infringement suit against Data Translation Inc. Avid is seeking judgment based on their patent entitled: "Video/Audio Transmission System and Method." Avid stated that it could not go into much detail because of the suit, but Joan Lockhart, director of corporate marketing told Newsbytes, "The patent involves Avid's method of pipelining digitized audio and video so that it can be edited and processed in a certain way." Lockhart said the technology under this patent is in most of Avid's products, "This is core technology relating to the playing both video and audio and how it is buffered in the computer." Lockhart said that only a few Avid products do not contain this technology. According to the firm, from its first product offered -- the Media Composer and Film Composer -- it has been a leader in the digital video market. Avid's Media Composer and Film Composer was introduced for the making of 30-second commercials. Now it is used for 30-minute situation comedies, music videos, corporate productions, and full-length feature films. Avid's Media Composer won an Emmy in 1993. It has been used in such sitcoms as "Home Improvement," "Blossom," and "Married with Children," and in longer episodes such as "L.A. Law," and "Northern Exposure." It has also been used in the editing of such feature films as "Needful Things" and "The Fugitive." Avid's product line includes the entry-level VideoShop, and the midrange Media Shop Pro. VideoShop is designed for someone who wants to see how video works without devoting a lot of resources. Media Suite Pro allows creation of full-screen, full-motion video. According to Lockhart, all of these mainline Avid products have the core technology included in the patent infringement suit against Data Translation Inc. Curt A. Rawley, Avid's president and chief executive officer, stated, "Avid has invested and continues to invest significant sums in research and development. This has contributed substantially to our success in the industry. We believe that the enforcement of Avid's patents is a reasonable and prudent step to protect our technology." (Richard Bowers/19950612/Press Contact: Joan Lockhart, Avid, 508-640-6789) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 1 06/12/95 WINDOWS ****Microsoft Ships Windows NT 3. (NEWS)(WINDOWS)(DEN)(00020) ****Microsoft Ships Windows NT 3.51 06/12/95 REDMOND, WASHINGTON, U.S.A., 1995 JUN 12 (NB) -- Microsoft has announced shipment of its Windows NT Workstation and Windows NT Server operating system software version 3.51. The new releases support PowerPC-based systems. One of the new features in release 3.51 is a tool to help users manage client access licenses for Microsoft BackOffice products, and a utility that enables over-the-network installation of the Microsoft Windows 95 operating system software scheduled for availability August 24, 1995. Version 3.51 also supports additional devices, including PCMCIA (Personal Computer Memory Card International Association), fax software, and Windows 95-compatible applications, and has a replaceable Winlogon screen. The new built-in licensing tool, called License Manager, enables administrators to manage and track client access licenses throughout the enterprise. License Manager allows customers to choose per server or per client licensing, and suggests when they should purchase additional licenses. Both workstation and server versions of Windows NT 3.51 include NTFS file compression. The Windows 95 deployment utility creates a boot disk to install Windows 95 over the entire network. The Windows 95 compatibility also supports 32-bit applications. Workstation 3.51 users get support for 16-bit fax applications like Delrina's Winfax Pro 4.0 and Winfax Lite, and a replaceable Winlogon screen allows alternate security devices such as ATM (asynchronous transfer mode) cards to be used to log onto machines running the new operating systems. Microsoft said Windows NT Server and Workstation version 3.51 are the first operating systems to provide the same feature and API (application programming interface) set across four hardware platforms. Version 3.51 provides the same services for Intel, Alpha AXP, MIPS, and PowerPC platforms. Several hardware vendors said this week they will sell Windows NT on the PowerPC, including FirePower Systems, IBM, IPC Technologies, Motorola Computer Group, and Reply Corp. Microsoft said it will release desktop applications, development tools and business system products for the PowerPC over the next few months. Those will include the spreadsheet Microsoft Excel, word processing application Microsoft Word, the Visual C++ development system, Microsoft Test and SNA (Systems Network Architecture) Server. Third party vendors are also working on applications for Windows NT Server and Workstation for the PowerPC, said Microsoft. Windows NT workstation and Server 3.51 are already shipping in the US, and Microsoft said the product will ship in Europe next month. The Network Value Pak costs $999 for a server license and ten client access licenses. An upgrade (which Microsoft is calling a "step-up") to Windows NT Server 3.51 is available to users of Windows NT server 3.5 for about $69.95 per server license. There is also an upgrade for the workstation version of 3.51 for $19.95 on CD-ROM or $49.95 on 3.5-inch floppy disks. Customers on maintenance agreements with Microsoft will get the upgrade at no cost, as well users who purchased Windows NT Server or Workstation 3.5 after April 15, 1995. (Jim Mallory/19950612/press contact: Kari Day, Waggener Edstrom for Microsoft, 206-637-9097; Public contact: Microsoft, 206-882-8080 or 800-426-9400) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 06/12/95 BUSINESS Turner Board Gives OK To Start New Business Channel (NEWS)(BUSINESS)(MSP)(00021) Turner Board Gives OK To Start New Business Channel 06/12/95 ATLANTA, GEORGIA, U.S.A., 1995 JUN 12 (NB) -- After a day of speculation spurred on by published reports, Turner Broadcasting System Inc.'s board of directors has approved a plan to start a business cable network that would put it head-to-head with the CNBC channel. The Turner board made the decision Friday following a company shareholders' meeting. The new network, to be called the CNN Financial Network (CNNFN), will launch in January, 1996, company officials said. Newsbytes reported last Thursday on an Wall Street Journal article published that same day, which detailed plans for the channel. Those plans include running business content from 7am to 7pm on weekdays, and using the same satellite channel now taken up by Cable News Network (CNN) International. Turner's new channel will cable-cast under the CNN banner. This also means CNN International's (CNNI) programming will be cut-back to nights and weekends in the US. A statement released by Turner Broadcasting late Friday confirmed that report. "This new service will take advantage of CNN's position as the world's leading television news organization," R.E. Turner, TBS board chairperson and president, is quoted as saying. "We believe we will be very successful in leveraging the CNN brand and its tremendous business news resources to provide a world-class business news and information service with only modest additional cost." Turner Broadcasting also said CNN Managing Editor and Executive Vice President Lou Dobbs, who also hosts the "Moneyline" nightly on the main CNN network, will run the new operation. Implied by the board's vote is support from four of the biggest cable companies in the US, since they sit on Turner's board of directors and own stakes in the company. Time Warner, Tele- Communications, Comcast, and Cablevision have both board spots, and one-third of the homes that subscribe to cable combined. Newsbytes had also reported that CNBC won't be the new channel's only competition over cable and on the airwaves. PBS offers the "Nightly Business Report" and "Wall Street Week," along with the syndicated "Wall Street Journal Report." Local TV stations and the major television networks also cover business news. In addition, "Bloomberg Business News" runs a 24-hour radio station covering business news. (Bob Woods/19950612/Press Contact: Cable News Network, 404-827-1500, or 212-852-6846) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 06/12/95 LEGAL ****Senate Passes Dole Telecoms Amendments (NEWS)(LEGAL)(WAS)(00022) ****Senate Passes Dole Telecoms Amendments 06/12/95 WASHINGTON, D.C., U.S.A., 1995 JUN 12 (NB) -- The US Senate has adopted a package of amendments to the pending telecommunications legislation that would bring the measure closer to a bill ready for floor action in the House of Representatives. The amendments, brokered by Majority Leader Bob Dole (R-Kan.) and Senate Democratic leaders, passed by a 77-8 vote last Friday. The Dole amendments would immediately deregulate rates of small cable TV companies and eliminate restrictions on how many TV and radio stations one company can own. The plan also includes provisions designed to protect cable customers from large rate increases. Under the amendments, a company could own an unlimited number of TV stations, but would limit the stations from reaching more than 35 percent of the national audience. Today, one company may own no more than a dozen stations, reaching up to 25 percent of the audience nationwide. Provisions added by Sen. Ernest "Fritz" Hollings (D-S.C.), ranking minority member of the Senate Commerce Committee, and Democratic leader Tom Daschle (D-S.D.) added provisions designed to prevent price gouging by the cable companies by narrowing the way allowable rate hikes will be calculated. The Senate bill now more closely matches a bill passed by the House Commerce Committee. But the House Judiciary Committee has passed a bill that gives the Justice Department's antitrust division a role in assessing when local telephone companies can compete in the long-distance market. The Senate bill does not give Justice a role, but two senators plan to offer an amendment giving the agency a piece of the bureaucratic action. The White House continues to oppose the measure, despite the Dole amendments. "It's an improvement, but it does not do everything we believe must be done -- especially with cable rates and the role of the Department of Justice," said Larry Irving, head of the National Telecommunications and Information Administration and the Clinton administration's chief telecommunications policy lobbyist. (Kennedy Maize/19950612) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 06/12/95 TRENDS Western Europe Software Sales Up (NEWS)(TRENDS)(WAS)(00023) Western Europe Software Sales Up 06/12/95 WASHINGTON DC, U.S.A., 1995 JUN 12 (NB) -- While the number of software applications sold in Western Europe was up substantially, says the Software Publishers Association, the dollar value of the sales barely nudged upward. SPA says sales for the first quarter of 1995 in the region were $516.1 million, up four percent over the first quarter of 1994. Unit sales for the quarter were up 41 percent, indicating very competitive pricing. SPA also notes that two of the major personal computer operating system categories the trade group tracks showed revenue declines for the first quarter in Western Europe. Windows applications revenues grew 11 percent over last year, but DOS and Macintosh applications sales declined. Windows sales now account for nearly 90 percent of the total market in Western Europe, according to SPA. The same story was true in the applications categories. Only relational databases saw growth in the quarter, at nine percent. Word processor software sales fell two percent and spreadsheets fell six percent. Sales in the major country markets were also flat. France, with $71.4 million in sales, saw no growth. Germany and Austria, with sales of $134.4 million, saw sales grow by one percent. Sales in the United Kingdom and Ireland, at $139.2 million, grew four percent. "Software sales in the first quarter in Western Europe continue the trend set in 1994," said Gerard Gabella, SPA's European marketing director. "The corporate software market clearly shows signs of maturity in the largest countries. Software sales into the home market, however, are far less significant than in North America and could offer a new opportunity for US publishers in the coming months." SPA says that 27 primarily US-based software firms submit confidential sales data to the accounting firm of Arthur Andersen, which prepares the sales report for the Washington-based trade group. (Kennedy Maize/19950612/Press Contact: Mark Pendergrast, 202-452-1600 ext 320; Gerard Gabella, 33-1-45-63-02-02) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 06/12/95 BUSINESS Analysts/Editors Not Surprised By IBM/Lotus Deal (NEWS)(BUSINESS)(BOS)(00024) Analysts/Editors Not Surprised By IBM/Lotus Deal 06/12/95 CAMBRIDGE, MASSACHUSETTS, U.S.A., 1995 JUN 12 (NB) -- Even before the sudden announcement of an agreement between IBM and Lotus on the Lotus acquisition this weekend, industry analysts and editors widely expected the deal to go through, although Oracle, Hewlett-Packard, Sybase, Intel, Hitachi, Fujitsu, and Canon were still being mentioned as possible "white knights." AT&T and Novell, two companies regarded as among the most likely alternative suitors, each reportedly took themselves out of the running last week. AT&T might have been the "best bet" in terms of Lotus ownership, due to its partnership in AT&T Network Notes, pointed out John Dodge, news editor of PC Week. "But AT&T is probably pretty well diluted," Dodge told Newsbytes. Scott C. McReady, principal of IDC/Avante, Framingham, Massachusetts, named three Japanese companies -- Hitachi, Fujitsu, and Canon -- as possible "white knights" for Lotus. "For the Japanese, the dollar is cheap. By owning Lotus, a Japanese company could learn more about software. And the third thing is that Notes, which has just been introduced into Japan, looks like it will do very well there," McReady told Newsbytes. But, he predicted, "Two of these three Japanese companies aren't likely to pursue a Lotus acquisition." Mary Pat McCarthy, national director of software for KPMG's information, communication and entertainment practice, informed Newsbytes that a high-ranking official for one Japanese company had told her his company "would be interested" in purchasing Lotus. "Intel is also an intriguing thought. I've seen Intel investing in some software companies," she reported. Typically, though, the properties chosen by Intel produce software that "require a lot of processing" and can therefore make Intel chips like the Pentium seem more "necessary," according to McCarthy. Sybase might be a possibility, as well, except that Sybase recently purchased Powersoft, she noted. McCarthy also discounted Oracle on the basis that "Larry Ellison has been investing in things like interactive multimedia." Oracle, she elaborated, "is going to ask, `Where's the synergy with Lotus?'" KPMG, an international accounting and consulting firm, has offices in New York City. Another analyst offered a different perspective on Oracle. Oracle might be apt to invest in Lotus due to synergies between the Oracle and Notes databases, together with Oracle's interest in "diversifying into network computing," asserted Steve Young, program manager of electronic commerce for Input, a marketing research firm in Mountain View, California. By and large, the editors and analysts agreed that IBM's acquisition of Lotus could be good for both companies, if managed properly. Richard Friedman, executive editor of Byte magazine, advised that if IBM acts as a "benevolent parent" to Lotus, one that doesn't "muck them around too much," Lotus stands to gain much in the way of resources that can be used to deal with technical issues surrounding Lotus Notes. These issues include replication, bandwidth and resource consumption, and the "difficulty of programming" Notes, Friedman told Newsbytes. Reports of a "clash in cultures" between Lotus and IBM have been "overblown," the Byte editor added. PC Week's Dodge observed that an acquisition by IBM would give Lotus "tremendous entree into corporations." Meanwhile, IBM would benefit, not just from Lotus' communications packages, but from its desktop applications, as well, said Dodge. "There's still plenty of money to be made from the desktop," he pointed out. IDC's McReady maintained that Notes' "service business" would carry even more value under an IBM acquisition, because IBM has more money to spend on areas like customer training. In addition, he predicted, Lotus has nothing to fear from IBM Chairman and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Louis V. Gerstner, who came to IBM from Nabisco. Although Gerstner hails from the "rough and tumble world of fighting it out on a brand basis," the IBM CEO is "still clearly a class guy, who has never come across as a schoolhouse bully," McReady said. "Gerstner is also very savvy. Although he's made changes at IBM, they've been pretty gradual," the IDC/Avante analyst told Newsbytes. Input's Young conjectured that IBM's resources would help to place Lotus in a better position versus Microsoft. "Lotus' applications are every bit as good as Microsoft's, and in some cases, as with (Lotus') Freelance, better. It's just that, up to now, Microsoft has had a lot more money and marketing clout," contended Young. (Jacqueline Emigh/19950612) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 06/12/95 ONLINE Web Users Are High Earners - Study (NEWS)(ONLINE)(SFO)(00025) Web Users Are High Earners - Study 06/12/95 MENLO PARK, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1995 JUN 12 (NB) -- A World Wide Web study, conducted by SRI International, has found that 50% of Web users are highly educated, early adopters of technology, eclectic, and earn a median income of $74,000 per year. In the real world the same demographic makes up only 10% of the population. SRI International, a Silicon Valley contract research and consulting firm, conducted a survey of more than 5,500 online users. The study, based on a "psychographic consumer segmentation system," describes users in six lifestyle categories. They include: "Actualizers," a highly educated, innovative, eclectic group of early technology adopters (59% of Web users); "Experiencers," an impulsive, spontaneous, creative and rebellious group earning $36,000/yr (median US household income); "Strivers," who earn $36,000/yr and are eager, social, approval seeking, and image conscious; "Fulfilleds," who are organized, self-assured, information intensive and earn $54,000/yr; "Achievers," who are stable, upscale, family- oriented, and earn $59,000/yr; and "Believers, Makers, Strugglers," who are practical, conservative, cautious and earn $22,000/yr. The study claims that Experiencers make up 18% of the Web population and 12% of the real population. Strivers and Fulfilleds are even at 13% on both levels. Achievers, a group SRI thinks should flock to the Web, but do not, represent only 6% of Web users and 13% of the population. SRI says this group has a lack of time and patience for what it sees as the Web's triviality. Many in this group view computer- based media as overly artificial. The smallest representation on the Web -- Believers, Makers and Strugglers -- are only 2% of Web users, but represent 49% of the overall population, according to the company. Overall, the survey found the Web community earned a median income of $40,000 annually and 28% of the community earned less than $20,000. The survey also found the male-to-female ratio to be 70/30, compared to a 49/51 ratio in real life. Some general estimates have indicated the online ratio to be much greater in favor of males. While lower income households (under $20,000) are represented, these households are still highly educated. Almost 95% of those surveyed have some level of college education. Speaking to Newsbytes, Adam Gross, technology analyst at SRI, said; "Of all the groups, the Achievers are the most natural fit to the Internet, but they only represent a small fraction of the users. It is important that online services find ways to make the Net relevant and easy for the time-constrained group." He continued, "Along with showing who is on the Web, this study also revealed a number of repeated responses from almost every segment. Routinely, those surveyed complained about the reputability of information, about how hard the Internet is to use, and the abundance of frivolous information. Continuing studies will explore these issues. If large scale marketing on the Net is to be successful, companies have to find a way to reach these segments and the industry must meet the challenge of reaching those segments which are under-represented." Gross also said, "The Fulfilleds are stereotyped as the average Internet user, but they are only actually 13% of Web users. People assume this group in there in great numbers, but they are not. We will be looking into why they are not there in larger numbers." Surprisingly, Gross said the company's research indicates a strong place for online services such as CompuServe, Prodigy, and America Online. Many of the complaints center around a lack of control of information, making it difficult to determine its value. While the Internet may not be controlled by anyone, the commercial online services have some means to act as a gateway. In summary, Gross said there is plenty of room for everyone on the Internet. What is important is to find out who is there and who is not there, why that is and how to expand Internet service and activity. (Patrick McKenna/19950612/Press Contact: Ruth Ann Burns, Neale-May & Partners, 415-328-5555; Internet World Wide Web http://future.sri.com) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 06/12/95 GENERAL ****Acer Confab In Singapore Yields New Products (NEWS)(GENERAL)(SYD)(00026) ****Acer Confab In Singapore Yields New Products 06/12/95 SINGAPORE, 1995 JUN 12 (NB) -- Acer chief executive officer (CEO) Stan Shih opened the 1995 annual Acer dealer meeting in Singapore today with a pledge to set the pace for the "New IT Age." His motto "fresh technologies enjoyed by everyone, everywhere" is part of Acer's goal of becoming the number five worldwide supplier of PCs by the end of this year. One of the main thrusts of Acer's new focus is the consumer market with a wide range of new products to be introduced over the next two years. These include Pentium multimedia PCs, low cost (under US$200) fax/phone/message machines, GSM (global system for mobile communications) cellular phones, wireless phones, video CD computers, and a new category -- PC-TV. Press were today shown a prototype PC-TV unit which is due to be launched in Japan later this year. It is a Microsoft Windows-based PC which contains a complete TV tuner, MPEG (Motion Picture Experts Group) CD video drive and a full-function remote control unit. It is booted like any normal PC, but presents a simple menu system that allows the user to operate it as a stand-alone TV, TV CD player, audio CD player, or games machine. Any of these functions can also be operated as a windowed task while running normal Windows applications. The system auto-detects the CD type, and runs it accordingly. Shih also predicted that future industry products would include low-cost videophone, set-top boxes, video-on-demand, personal digital assistants, and the next-generation of TV sets -- although he admitted no-one was quite sure yet what this would be. He said Acer would grow by providing a commitment to the marketplace which differed from the other main industry players. He said lessons learned from the customer were of paramount importance in designing and marketing new products. For instance, far too many buyers of PCs regret their purchases because the system immediately goes out of date. He added that most computers were unsuited to developing countries which could not afford computers which used technology for technology's sake alone. "Our technology is not ahead of IBM or Compaq, but our speed of response is," he said. Key factors in meeting Shih's goals for his company include: low- cost, volume manufacturing; increasing the Acer brand name awareness; producing computers on a global scale but with a local touch; reacting quickly by using the "fast-food" model; and by using the most appropriate technology in an open market competition. Shih predicted that Acer would have revenue of over US $4.2 billion this year, shipping over four million PCs and over 4.5 million monitors. This is more than 30 percent growth over 1994 worldwide and more than 65 percent in the non-US/Europe markets. (Paul Zucker/19950612) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 06/12/95 APPLE Apple Cuts Prices On Select Power Macs/Powerbooks (NEWS)(APPLE)(LAX)(00027) Apple Cuts Prices On Select Power Macs/Powerbooks 06/12/95 CUPERTINO, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1995 JUN 12 (NB) -- Apple Computer Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL) has announced immediate price reductions on two of its Power Macintosh desktop computers, and four configurations of its color PowerBook notebook computers. The two Power Macintosh units are reduced from five to 10 percent, while the four PowerBooks are reduced from nine to 18 percent. Russ Ito, a spokesman for Apple, told Newsbytes: "In the case of the PowerBook, Apple has made no secret that we are coming out with new PowerPC-based PowerBooks this summer. These reductions are in preparation for this. The PowerBook 500 line was back-ordered for over a year and have come off only in the last two to three months." Added Ito, "A similar situation exists with the Power Macs. The 6100 and 8100 series are over a year old and it's near the end of their cycle." The price change for the Power Macintosh 16/500 (16 megabytes RAM/500MB hard drive), 6100/66 with CD-ROM and DOS Compatibility Card is from $2,759 to $2,629. This represents a 4.8 percent reduction. The price change for the Power Macintosh 16MB/2 gigabyte (GB), 8100/110 with CD-ROM, is from $6,379 to $5,799. This represents a 9.1 percent reduction. The price change for the PowerBook 520c, 4/160MB, is from $2,289 to $2,069. This represents a 9.7 percent reduction. The PowerBook 520c, 4/240MB, changes from $2,499 to $2,289 -- an 8.4 percent cut. Additionally, the PowerBook 540c, 4/320MB, is down from $4,079 to $3,339 -- an 18.2 percent cut. Finally, the price change for the PowerBook 540c, 12/500MB with modem, is down 11 percent, from $4,999 to $4,449. "Making personal computing more affordable is a crucial goal for Apple," said Jim Buckley, president, Apple USA. "We're lowering our prices on some of our most popular models -- including our DOS Compatible Power Macintosh -- to make it easier for our customers to enjoy the benefits of PowerPC technology." (Richard Bowers/19950612/Press Contact: Amy Kavanaugh, Apple, 408-974-5430; Russ Ito, Apple, 408-974-5693) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 06/12/95 IBM IBM Intros 12 System/390 Parallel Server Models (NEWS)(IBM)(BOS)(00028) IBM Intros 12 System/390 Parallel Server Models 06/12/95 FISHKILL, NEW YORK, U.S.A., 1995 JUN 12 (NB) -- In a teleconference today, IBM announced a dozen new models of its System/390 Parallel Enterprise Server, designed to provide up to 2.7 times the processing power of the largest CMOS (complementary metal oxide semiconductor)-based server now shipping. Aimed mainly at manufacturing environments, the System/390 is the "most scalable" of all IBM servers, IBM's Bill Reedy maintained during the press conference, which was attended by Newsbytes. Recent models of the System/390 are backward-compatible with machines produced by IBM over the past 30 years, according to Reedy. Over the past two years, though, IBM has been updating the System/390 for parallel processing as well as client-server environments, he added. "We've rewritten about one-third of MVS," Reedy pointed out. IBM continues to add support for object oriented development and more multivendor clients, he asserted. Also during the teleconference, IBM announced new client-server applications from companies that include SAP, Walker Interactive, IMC, and JD Edwards, along with a "strategic direction" from IBM to add support for ATM (asynchronous transfer mode). "SAP and JD Edwards are looking to get on because the System/390 supports the scalability they need," Reedy asserted. SAP is supporting the System/390's parallel processing capabilities, he noted. "What we're doing is to make the System/390 more competitive with the PCs that are starting to grow up into our space," Reedy told the reporters. The 12 newest System/390 models provide from one to 10 central processing units, he elaborated. The systems can be deployed on a standalone basis, or as part of a "parallel sysplex" in which the computing resources of all the servers are tied together to appear to the user as a single machine. IBM's latest models provide the same "improved hardware reliability," N+1 power supplies, and memory sharing as machines introduced last year, but with increased processing power and MBTF (mean time between failure) of 20 years, or double the previous level, according to Reedy. The CMOS-based systems can also be used in conjunction with bipolar servers, added the IBM exec. Although not as fast as bipolar servers, the CMOS servers are "much more cost effective," because IBM can use the same silicon to produce the System/390, AS/400, SP2, and other machines, he told the journalists. (Jacqueline Emigh/19950612/Press Contacts: Ken Rowe, IBM, 914-892-7359; Technology Solutions, 212-696-2000) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 06/12/95 ONLINE AOL's Case Wants Microsoft Network/Win 95 Unbundled (NEWS)(ONLINE)(SFO)(00029) AOL's Case Wants Microsoft Network/Win 95 Unbundled 06/12/95 VIENNA, VIRGINIA, U.S.A., 1995 JUN 12 (NB) -- The US Department Of Justice has reportedly requested America Online (NASDAQ:AMER), CompuServe, and Prodigy to submit information as to why Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) should not bundle its new online service with the upcoming Windows 95. In response America Online President and Chief Executive Officer Steve Case has released a statement calling on Microsoft to offer Microsoft Network separate from Windows 95. The Dept of Justice complaint was covered in a Newsbytes story this past Friday, but the online companies had not made a specific response. This week-end, America Online (AOL) issued a public statement in which Steve Case asked Microsoft to offer consumers an equal choice concerning online service by withdrawing the service as part of Windows 95. His letter states: "We have no quibble about Microsoft's plans to enter the online market. They have every right to provide an online service and consumers have every right to choose to subscribe to it. But consumers should be free to choose, By only bundling MSN (Microsoft Network) with Windows 95, Microsoft is depriving consumers of choice." Continuing, it says, "All we are seeking is a level playing field. Microsoft should either agree to unbundle MSN from Windows 95, or they should provide equal access within the operating system to other providers of interactive services. Just as consumers of local telephone services are ensured choice -- and equal access -- to multiple providers of long distance services, personal computer owners would be ensure choice -- and equal access -- to multiple providers of software applications and interactive services. "Microsoft has said they want to be pro-competitive, and maximize consumers choices. Now is the time for them to align their actions and their words. By leveling the playing field and maximizing consumer choices, Microsoft would demonstrate a clear commitment to a fair and open marketplace that would, in turn, enhance the way people learn, stay informed, communicate with others and transact business in the future," wrote Case. Pierce Reed, a spokesperson for CompuServe, told Newsbytes, "I can confirm that we did receive a CID (Civil Investigative Demand) from the Justice Department and that we made a response this past Friday. We have not issued a public statement and I cannot say anything more about our response to the CID." Reed did say CompuServe did not initially file any complaint to start the Justice Dept Investigation. Brian Ek, director of communications at Prodigy, informed Newsbytes that Prodigy also did not file a complaint to instigate the investigation. Ek also said, "When we were interviewed regarding the Intuit case, the Justice Department did ask us about MSN and the Department of Justice may have followed information they received at that time, but we have not filed a complaint." (Patrick McKenna/19950612/Press Contact: Pam McGraw, AOL, 703-556-3746) (SUMMARY)(GENERAL)(SFO)(00030) Newsbytes Daily Summary 06/12/95 PENN VALLEY, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1995 JUN 12 (NB) -- These are capsules of all today's news stories: 1 -> France's Integro In UK Distribution Deal 06/12/95 Integro, the French communications software house, has announced a distribution deal with Harrier Softnet in the UK. 2 -> UK - AVM Telecom Intros PCMCIA ISDN Card 06/12/95 AVM Telecom has unveiled what it claims is the first PCMCIA (Personal Computer Memory Card International Association) ISDN (integrated services digital network) card that is compatible with most PC notebooks and laptops on the market. 3 -> IT Will Lead To 50% Of Bank Branches Closing - Report 06/12/95 According to a report issued by Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu International, an international market research consulting firm, modern retail banks on both sides of the Atlantic may be forced to close half of their branches if they are to stay competitive and offer the best service to customers. 4 -> Ireland Offers Software Development Competition 06/12/95 Ireland is seeking to be number one in terms of software development in Europe. 5 -> IBM's SP2 Presents 3 Commercial "Personalities" 06/12/95 At commercial customer sites and in internal applications at IBM, IBM's SP2s are showing the three "personalities" of server consolidation, "large server" for SAP's R/3 software, and "pure parallel processing" for decision support and data mining, said Ben Barnes, VP of worldwide marketing for the Power Parallel Division, in a conference call with Newsbytes. 6 -> AT&T And Unions In Pay Deal 06/12/95 AT&T (NYSE:T) has reached a tentative agreement with the Communications Workers of America (CWA) and the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW) on a three-year contract that calls for a ten percent-plus hike in wages, along with improvements in health care coverage and other benefits. 7 -> ****IBM & Lotus Seal $3.5 Billion Acquisition 06/12/95 After less than a week of talks, IBM and Lotus have reached a definitive agreement on a $3.5 billion deal calling for Lotus to be acquired at $64 per share. The deal was announced by IBM Chairman and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Louis V. Gerstner and Lotus President and CEO Jim Manzi in a surprise Sunday afternoon teleconference attended by Newsbytes. 8 -> Internet Update 06/12/95 In this roundup of new resources and software available on the Internet: NET on the net; GIFS on the fly; Camel Trophy updates; Historical speech archive; Worldwide storm guide; WebForms software; ASCII atlas; Texas Superconductivity Center. 9 -> Software Support Firms Merge, Japan's Softbank Buys In 06/12/95 America's two largest suppliers of third-party software support services announced they are to merge in late June. Upgrade Corporation and Alexander & Lord Inc. will combine to create UCA&L of which Japanese software distributors Softbank will take a large minority shareholding later to be followed by a majority stake. 10 -> DirecTV To Increase Interactive Channel Capacity 06/12/95 DirecTV, the national provider of satellite television service, said it will provide online and other interactive services with the launch of a new high-power DBS (direct broadcast service) satellite. The new satellite, dubbed DBS-3, will expand the channel capacity of the DirecTV service from 150 to about 180 channels, a spokesperson told Newsbytes. 11 -> Japan Newsbriefs 06/12/95 In this roundup of news from Japan: Toshiba wins Chinese cable contract; Aum software copyright infringement alleged; IIJ announce reduced rates; NEC revises sales targets. 12 -> Farcast Offers Newsbytes 06/12/95 Newsbytes News Network's more than 30 daily high-tech reports will now be available to subscribers of the Farcast Inc. agent-based news and information service for desktop and mobile electronic-mail users. Newsbytes is an electronic news service devoted exclusively to the computer and telecommunications arenas, and has been in publication since 1983. 13 -> Corel To Add Edutainment CDs To "Home" Line 06/12/95 Corel Corp. (TSE:COS, NASDAQ:COSFF) has announced an agreement with Ottawa-based Future Endeavors and KLA Visual Productions for development of two new "edutainment" titles for Corel's "CD HOME" product line. 14 -> Cyberspace Spells Death For Middlemen 06/12/95 Advances in communications and information technology are cutting out the traditional middleman in a growing number of transactions, according to Edith Weiner and Arnold Brown in "The New Marketplace" (The Futurist, May/June 1995, pp. 12-16). 15 -> NewsPix Images For Newsbytes Publishers 06/12/95 These photos correspond to recent Newsbytes stories. They are online in the Newsbytes menu on GEnie, America Online, eWorld, NiftyServe, and the Newsbytes private bulletin board system in Minneapolis. 16 -> Australian Computer Dealers Form A New Assn 06/12/95 A new group has been formed in Australia to draw together many of the hundreds, or even thousands, of independent computer dealers around the country. National Independent Computer Resellers Association, or NICRA, is designed to be a non-profit association, as distinct from a number of buying groups that already exist. 17 -> India - Bose Intros Designer For Building Acoustics 06/12/95 Within a month of US-based Bose Corp. declaring its intention to set up a wholly-owned subsidiary in India, the company has come out with its latest technology for the Indian market. 18 -> Compton's CD-ROM Encyclopedia Connects To America Online 06/12/95 Compton's NewMedia has announced the availability of Compton's Interactive Encyclopedia, 1996 Edition. The new edition includes a direct, one mouse-click entrance onto America Online (NASDAQ; AMER). 19 -> Avid Technology Files Suit To Protect Patent 06/12/95 Avid Technology (NASDAQ:AVID), a leader in random-access video editing, has filed a patent infringement suit against Data Translation Inc. Avid is seeking judgment based on their patent entitled: "Video/Audio Transmission System and Method." 20 -> ****Microsoft Ships Windows NT 3.51 06/12/95 Microsoft has announced shipment of its Windows NT Workstation and Windows NT Server operating system software version 3.51. The new releases support PowerPC-based systems. 21 -> Turner Board Gives OK To Start New Business Channel 06/12/95 After a day of speculation spurred on by published reports, Turner Broadcasting System Inc.'s board of directors has approved a plan to start a business cable network that would put it head-to-head with the CNBC channel. 22 -> ****Senate Passes Dole Telecoms Amendments 06/12/95 The US Senate has adopted a package of amendments to the pending telecommunications legislation that would bring the measure closer to a bill ready for floor action in the House of Representatives. The amendments, brokered by Majority Leader Bob Dole (R-Kan.) and Senate Democratic leaders, passed by a 77-8 vote last Friday. 23 -> Western Europe Software Sales Up 06/12/95 While the number of software applications sold in Western Europe was up substantially, says the Software Publishers Association, the dollar value of the sales barely nudged upward. 24 -> Analysts/Editors Not Surprised By IBM/Lotus Deal 06/12/95 Even before the sudden announcement of an agreement between IBM and Lotus on the Lotus acquisition this weekend, industry analysts and editors widely expected the deal to go through, although Oracle, Hewlett-Packard, Sybase, Intel, Hitachi, Fujitsu, and Canon were still being mentioned as possible "white knights." 25 -> Web Users Are High Earners - Study 06/12/95 A World Wide Web study, conducted by SRI International, has found that 50% of Web users are highly educated, early adopters of technology, eclectic, and earn a median income of $74,000 per year. In the real world the same demographic makes up only 10% of the population. 26 -> ****Acer Confab In Singapore Yields New Products 06/12/95 Acer chief executive officer (CEO) Stan Shih opened the 1995 annual Acer dealer meeting in Singapore today with a pledge to set the pace for the "New IT Age." His motto "fresh technologies enjoyed by everyone, everywhere" is part of Acer's goal of becoming the number five worldwide supplier of PCs by the end of this year. 27 -> Apple Cuts Prices On Select Power Macs/Powerbooks 06/12/95 Apple Computer Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL) has announced immediate price reductions on two of its Power Macintosh desktop computers, and four configurations of its color PowerBook notebook computers. The two Power Macintosh units are reduced from five to 10 percent, while the four PowerBooks are reduced from nine to 18 percent. 28 -> IBM Intros 12 System/390 Parallel Server Models 06/12/95 In a teleconference today, IBM announced a dozen new models of its System/390 Parallel Enterprise Server, designed to provide up to 2.7 times the processing power of the largest CMOS (complementary metal oxide semiconductor)-based server now shipping. 29 -> AOL's Case Wants Microsoft Network/Win 95 Unbundled 06/12/95 The US Department Of Justice has reportedly requested America Online (NASDAQ:AMER), CompuServe, and Prodigy to submit information as to why Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) should not bundle its new online service with the upcoming Windows 95. In response America Online President and Chief Executive Officer Steve Case has released a statement calling on Microsoft to offer Microsoft Network separate from Windows 95. (Ian Stokell/19950612) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 06/09/95 ONLINE Monitoring Your Home Page With PageAlert (NEWS)(ONLINE)(TYO)(00001) Monitoring Your Home Page With PageAlert 06/09/95 TOKYO, JAPAN, 1995 JUN 9 (NB) -- For those who need to keep track of sites on the Internet's World Wide Web, a new monitoring service is offering to do the job on your behalf and contact you as soon as there is a problem or change. The idea for Page Alert grew out of an internal project at the New Frontiers Information Corporation (NFIC), the company now marketing the service Internet-wide, as Jay Coulson, the PageAlert System administrator, told Newsbytes, "Originally, PageAlert was developed as an internal tool for monitoring the growing number of sites that we maintain. By creating a World Wide Web user interface to our internal software and integrating it with our online database, we were able to make the service available to everybody on the Internet." The Page Alert service automatically monitors Web pages that subscribers specify and records any that are unavailable, damaged or changed. It is user-configured via the Page Alert Web server where the system needs to know the Web page URL (Uniform Resource Locator), how often to perform the checks, a user selectable period from once every 30 minutes to once a day, and the e-mail address to which it sends messages. Once an account is set up, the server begins checking all registered pages and immediately sends out messages to users if there are any errors, refused connections, or changes. In the case of an error or refused connection, the details of the problem are sent. In the event of a change in a Web page, the system e-mails the new page contents. It detects changes in pages by counting the total bytes and comparing the size to the last time the page was visited. These e-mail messages, if linked into an AirNote pager account, will provide a 24-hour alert of problems on your Web site, says NFIC. The Air Note service provides an e-mail account which sends alerts to pagers every time a message arrives. It is also possible to view the messages using the pager so wherever you are, as long as it's in range of the pager service, you can keep on top of trouble. "It's common for companies that frequently monitor their URLs, more than 20 times a day, to use PageAlert with AirNote," the spokesman added. The service was first offered six weeks ago and has received an enthusiastic response, according to Coulson. "Hundreds of people have 'test driven' the service. Our introductory offer, three months of basic service for free, has been taken advantage of by a large number of people. Many of the initial subscribers have signed on just to see how the system works. A good percentage of these people like the service and continue to use it to monitor their URLs." Charges for Page Alert start at a basic $15 a month and each URL check adds 2 cents onto the monthly total. For a limited time all new accounts are being credited with $45, making it a risk-free way to try the service, according to NFIC. As for the future, Coulson explained that the plans for an expansion are under way, "We are currently working to extend the existing history functionality and have future plans to distribute the monitoring process over multiple machines at strategic Internet access points." The expansion of monitoring points will enable the system to access subscriber pages across a selection of Internet backbones and networks. More details on the Page Alert service can be found on the World Wide Web at URL http://www.nfic.com/pagealert.html (Martyn Williams/19950609/Press contact : Jay Coulson, PageAlert System Administrator, NFIC, Internet email jcoulson@nfic.com; Reader contact : PageAlert, Internet email pagealert@nfic.com) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 06/09/95 ONLINE Australian Microsoft Network Attracting Unwanted Interest (NEWS)(ONLINE)(SYD)(00002) Australian Microsoft Network Attracting Unwanted Interest 06/09/95 SYDNEY, AUSTRALIA 1995 JUN 9 (NB) -- The Australian implementation of Microsoft network is already stirring up the local industry, although it is not being officially launched for another two months. Microsoft Network is the worldwide online information system that ships as part of Windows '95. Microsoft Network will be operated as On Australia in Australia, a 50/50 joint venture between carrier Telstra and software giant Microsoft. It has been operating under test for a few months and is scheduled to start accepting paying users on August 1, almost a month before the official launch date of Windows '95. While eagerly awaited by many Australian PC users, the service has attracted a great deal of adverse comment from some Australians such as journalists and Internet service providers. The latest unrest centers around the hiring of a PC Week journalist to work on online news for the service. Thomas Liddle will reportedly produce daily news, weather and sports sections for On Australia. This appears to conflict with Microsoft's claim to be providing the medium, not the message. Gerry Davis, CEO of On Australia is on record as saying "We can't really be hiring journalists. Otherwise we become a fully fledged news organization which isn't a cool business, and it gets very messy in terms of conflict of interests. We'd much rather encourage multiple news services to make best use of MSN and then we help our subscribers make sense of the massive content that becomes available." ComputerWorld Today reports PC Week editor Chris Bowes as saying, "I know the people at Microsoft very well and if they decide to produce a news service, I don't think they can bring themselves to report on the news honestly. If they do offer news on the MSN I think it will increase demand for individual publishers such as ourselves." On Australia now says that while it is not in the business of providing all the information on the service, it is obliged to ensure that there are certain basic services available when it goes live. Davis added that journalists like Liddle would provide a coverage of services like sport and weather, but there would certainly be other content providers on On Australia providing similar and competing services. On Australia has revealed the cost structure of the service. It will require a basic monthly subscription of AUS$9.90 (around US$7.10) which includes two hours of access. Subsequent access will be at $5 per hour (around US$3.60), charged by the minute. This is a flat rate, anywhere in the country. The initial access will be at 9600 bps, increasing to 28.8k, ISDN and eventually to cable connection. Windows '95 will have a suggested upgrade price of AUS$160 and a suggested full price of AUS$310 (around $114 and $220 in US dollars, almost the same as the price in the US). Computer manufacturers are reportedly able to buy the product for as little as AUS$30 to bundle with machines. (Paul Zucker/19950609) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 06/09/95 TELECOM Australia - Telstra Claims No Int'l Call Monopoly (NEWS)(TELECOM)(SYD)(00003) Australia - Telstra Claims No Int'l Call Monopoly 06/09/95 SYDNEY, AUSTRALIA 1995 JUN 9 (NB) -- Australia's main carrier Telstra has defended its position as the main overseas carrier from Australia, pointing out that it has lost a high proportion of its market share while significantly dropping rates. This statement is a reaction to an inquiry from the Australian regulatory body Austel. Austel found that Telstra is in a position to dominate the international services market, but not the transit or international hubbing market, and therefore remains constrained by the act. Telstra replied that contrary to this, not only has the second carrier Optus taken a large slice of the overseas traffic, but it has also lost market to the various overseas "callback" services which offer cut-price overseas dialling. The Austel report, all 100 pages of it, is available on the Internet at ftp://ftp.austel.gov.au/pub/reports/intdom Meanwhile, at a press conference in Sydney yesterday, the third mobile phone carrier, Vodaphone, gave its opinion of that market segment. MD John Rohan predicted that the market would explode after full deregulation in 1997. "Why should we be tethered to the wall to communicate? Sixty percent of calls will have at least one end as a mobile phone by the end of the century." In a switch from the industry norm of adding more and more automated services, Vodafone has instituted a 1-2-3 service where users can get a human operator to do all the sorts of functions that normally require complex dialling sequence, such as resetting your voice mailbox. The penalty for this is a charge loading of around 15-25 percent. (Paul Zucker/19950609) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 06/09/95 TELECOM Home Shopping Network To Offer Cell Phones (NEWS)(TELECOM)(DEN)(00004) Home Shopping Network To Offer Cell Phones 06/09/95 ATLANTA, GEORGIA, U.S.A., 1995 JUN 9 (NB) -- Southwestern Bell Mobile Systems and BellSouth Cellular Corp., have partnered with the Home Shopping Network (NYSE: HSN) and Wholesale Cellular USA Inc., (NASDAQ: CELL) to sell cellular phones and service to home shoppers. The alliance will operate under the national brand name Mobile America. The products and services will be sold through a variety of formats, beginning with infomercials, which will start in nine Bellsouth Cellular (BSCC) markets this month, and select Southwestern Bell Mobile Systems (SBMS) markets in the fall. Wholesale Cellular will fulfill the orders received while BSCC will provide service, activation and back office functions including service application functions. Customers will be activated on cellular service provided by their local BSCC or SBMS company. The alliance expects to ship cell phones to approved applicants within 72 hours. The competition for new cellular customers is heating up rapidly, with mass market retailers like Office Depot and Best Buy offering free phones as an enticement to sign up for the service since it's still a growth industry, according to a national trade group. According to the Washington, D.C.-based Cellular Telecommunications Industry Association, the total number of cellular customers in the US grew 50 percent in 1994, with more than 24 million users talking while they drove or walked by the end of the year. The CTIA said each call averages about 2.25 minutes. The service has also gotten less expensive in the past eight years. While the average length of each call has remained about the same since 1987, the average monthly bill has dropped from about $96 to just over $56 today. About 28,000 new customers sign up for cellular service each day. SBMS operates as Cellular One in Chicago, Boston, Washington DC, Baltimore, Central Illinois, and upstate New York. BSCC operates as BellSouth Mobility in eight southeastern states and under the umbrella of American Cellular Communications (ACC). In turn ACC operates under various names in Alabama, California, Hawaii, Mississippi, and Texas and as Cellular One in Illinois, Indiana, Virginia, and Wisconsin. (Jim Mallory/19950608/Press contact: Steve Honig, Bellsouth Cellular, 404-249-0476 Annette Teter, Southwestern Bell Mobile, 214-733-5520, Timothy Harrington, Home Shopping Network, 813-572-8585, J. Mark Howell, Wholesale Cellular, 317-297-6100 or Mike Houghton, CTIA, 202-785-0081) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 06/09/95 ONLINE Peachpit Press Opens Cyber-Cafe Bookstore (NEWS)(ONLINE)(SFO)(00005) Peachpit Press Opens Cyber-Cafe Bookstore 06/09/95 BERKELEY, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1995 JUN 9 (NB) -- Computer book publisher Peachpit Press announced its World Wide Web site as a Cyber-style cafe. To introduce the new area, Peachpit is posting the entire contents of a new book called: "Aether Madness: An Off-beat Guide to the Online World." A place where users may browse Peachpit books, read a chapter or two of the latest releases, and talk with authors, the cyber-cafe offers a broad range of informative and entertaining areas. Peachpit says it will also post the multimedia chapter from "The Macintosh Bible," a primer on design from Robin Williams' "The Non-Designer's Design Book," and a critical chapter from "The PC Bible." This new site also features the cartoon illustrations of John Grimes. His line drawings are used to gateway into many of the areas. The site will also offer author biographies, interviews and photos. For users seeking more serious information, Peachpit is offering forums on desktop publishing, digital photography, general computer use and computer safety. Readers are also welcome to open their own forums. A "frequently asked questions" (FAQs) area offers answers to many common questions and users may ask specific technical questions of the tech support group. Peachpit's online coordinator for the new site, Kris Atkins, told Newsbytes, "This is something we have been working on for the past year. With so many technology titles and especially Internet and Web titles, we thought it only right that we have a very strong presence on the Web. Having the page available to many readers also opens a new means of communication with our readers and we consider this a valuable asset." Peachpit also wants to make sure users are able to purchase books from its long list of titles. An "Order Info" area allows users to find out which bookstores carry Peachpit titles and the location of the nearest store. (Patrick McKenna/19950608/Press Contact: Kris Atkins, Peachpit Press, tel 510-548-4393; World Wide Web URL: http://www.peachpit.com) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 06/09/95 ONLINE Nynex Adds "Text-Only Option" To Web Yellow Pages (NEWS)(ONLINE)(BOS)(00006) Nynex Adds "Text-Only Option" To Web Yellow Pages 06/09/95 MIDDLETON, MASSACHUSETTS, U.S.A., 1995 JUN 9 (NB) -- A newly reached decision by Nynex to add text capabilities to the Nynex Interactive Yellow Pages on the World Wide Web will benefit people with sight impairments, as well as non-disabled users who are equipped with "low-end" PCs, said Deborah Kaplan, VP of the World Institute on Disability, during an interview with Newsbytes. Nynex's new "text-only" option replaces graphics and icons with ASCII text for accessing the names, address, and phone numbers of about 2.1 million business listings in 280 Yellow Pages directories for New England and New York, according to Kaplan, who initiated the Web page enhancement by contacting Nynex to request the service. Sight-impaired individuals can use Nynex's text-only option with a screen reader, a system that converts the ASCII text to audio, explained Kaplan, who is also a member of President Clinton's National Information Infrastructure Advisory Council. But, she added, the new option from Nynex is also an instance of an "electronic curb cut," representing "unanticipated benefits" that extend to the non-disabled population "when you make technology more accessible to people." The availability of the text-only option on the Nynex Web page will also be helpful to non-disabled users, including schoolkids and employees of nonprofit organizations, who are outfitted with low- end systems such as 286 PCs that "don't have the capacity or bandwidth" to handle graphics, Kaplan elaborated. Another example of an "electronic curb cut" can be seen in new electronic chips, first developed for the hearing impaired, that provide captioning on TV sets, she illustrated. These chips are also proving advantageous to non-English speakers, who can obtain captioning in their native languages. Kaplan added that the term "electronic curb cut" is derived from "curb cut," a phrase that refers to the unexpected benefits which have arisen from adding wheelchair ramps to sidewalks and other venues. These ramps are now being used by everyone from delivery personnel to parents wielding baby carriages. "It's really encouraging to see an organization such as Nynex being so responsive," Kaplan noted. WGBH-TV, an educational TV station in Boston, Massachusetts, is another example of an organization that has included services for the disabled in its Web page. But a lot of other organizations on the Web still "haven't got a clue" about the need to make their services more accessible, according to the advocate. "And this is a huge problem," she asserted. Phil Santoro, a Nynex spokesperson, told Newsbytes that, aside from the new "text-only option," Nynex also offers a wide variety of other services for people with disabilities. For the visually impaired, these include enlarged stick-on numbers, "special phone credit cards," free directory assistance and operator dialing services, and billing in large print or Braille. Nynex's special services for the hearing impaired include teletypewriter devices, and phones with "a light that will flash on and off." "As a phone company, Nynex needs to serve everyone, and so we have developed different ways to serve people with disabilities. Our belief is that is you can adapt the service you should do so, especially when you can do so fairly easily," Santoro explained. The recently opened Nynex Interactive Yellow Pages on the Web is organized under A-Z shopping headings, according to Santoro. Other features include a "Top 25 Headings Search" for quick access to the "most popular" headings, links to the Web sites of more than 400 businesses, and a "Hot Sites" list of new Web sites listed on the service. The Nynex Interactive Yellow Pages can be accessed on the Web at http://www.vtcom.fr/nynex. WGBH-TV can be accessed at http://www.wgbh.org. (Jacqueline Emigh/19950609/Reader Contact: Nynex Interactive Yellow Pages, 800-356-9639; Press Contacts: Phil Santoro, Nynex Interactive Yellow Pages, 508-762-1326; Eileen Pacheco, Creamer Dickson Basford for Nynex, 617-467-1576) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 06/09/95 ONLINE Highway 1 Opens On Capitol Hill (NEWS)(ONLINE)(WAS)(00007) Highway 1 Opens On Capitol Hill 06/09/95 WASHINGTON, D.C., U.S.A., 1995 JUN 9 (NB) -- Head north on Washington's Pennsylvania Ave. and take a right turn on Capitol Hill and you're at Highway 1. Five leading technology companies this week launched Highway 1, a technology center near the US Capitol designed to serve as an on-ramp to the information superhighway for a sometimes laggard Congress. The non-profit digital media center will help members of Congress increase their use of advanced technology and improve communications with their constituents. The center is a joint effort by Apple, AT&T, IBM, Novell and Quantum, each of which contributed both financial support and in-kind contributions of hardware and software. Spokesman Tom Monagan told Newsbytes that "the operating expenses are about $1 million per year." "Democracy depends on citizens who have the information and the tools they need to communicate their views to policy makers," said Sen. Bob Kerrey (D-Neb.) at the ribbon-cutting for Highway 1. "Highway 1 will use the vast resources of the information highway to make information more accessible and understandable and help citizens and policy makers communicate with one another." Kerrey demonstrated his home page on the World Wide Web at the center, and then left to join the Senate telecommunications debate, where he launched a mini-filibuster that threatens to hang the legislation up for weeks. "We want to show government how to use technology to better organize and distribute information and to communicate more effectively and efficiently with constituents," said Kimberly Jenkins, the executive director. Jenkins is an educator who was a major force in creating Highway 1. Highway 1 is divided into three primary areas: basic office system technologies; advanced information technologies; and emerging technologies. Even with all the high-tech support behind Highway 1, its on-ramp to the infopike has some potholes. The Highway 1 Web page (http://highway1.org) was out of service during much of yesterday and this morning. (Kennedy Maize/19950609/Press Contact: Tom Monagan, 202-828-8862; Public Contact: Kimberly Jenkins, 202-628-3900) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 06/09/95 ONLINE Ireland On-Line Expands (NEWS)(ONLINE)(LON)(00008) Ireland On-Line Expands 06/09/95 DUBLIN, IRELAND, 1995 JUN 9 (NB) -- Ireland On-Line, Ireland's largest online service, has announced a reciprocal deal with PostGEM, the packet data network (PDN) subsidiary of The Irish Post Office. Terms of the deal call for PostGEM to offer remote PDN dial in to Ireland On-Line through its 10 dial-up PostNET nodes scattered around the Republic. In addition, PostGEM will resell Ireland On-Line's range of Internet business services via its own sales staff. Deidre Gill, a spokeswoman for PostGEM, told Newsbytes that while Ireland On-Line will continue to offer its portfolio of online services and Internet access to small to medium-sized businesses, as well as home users, PostGEM will offer the Internet services to major businesses which need a leased line. "It's very much a two-way deal," she said, adding that PostNET is Eirpac's main competitor in the Irish PDN stakes. "We have more nodes and offer a better service than Eirpac," she explained. As well as the usual array of PDN services, PostNET also offers a range of EDI (electronic data interchange) services to businesses. According to Gill, adding Internet TCP/IP (Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol) over leased lines to the company's range of business services means that the company is now a one-stop shop for electronic transmission services. According to Ireland On-Line (IOL), the PostGEM deal will mean faster access speeds for IOL customers and the quicker delivery of messages and data to the US and Europe due to the country's most advanced routing system. Medium and large organizations using PostGEM's service will have ready access to Ireland On-Line's services including World Wide Web hosting and browsing along with a wide variety of online services including shopping and chat functions. "We needed to create a strategic relationship with a partner that could provide a range of services for Irish industry," explained Colm Grealy, managing director of Ireland OnLine. "Our alliance with PostGEM ensures that we can supply our end users and small organizations with faster and easier access than ever before whilst medium and large organizations can avail of PostGEM's undoubted expertise in the provision of high-volume Internet services for the business market," he said. (Steve Gold/19950609/Press Contact: Deirdre Gill, PostGEM +353-1-676- 8744; Internet Email: deirdre@postgem.infonet.com; Tom Murphy, Text 100 Ireland +353-1-295-0800; Internet Email: tomm@text100.co.uk; Colm Grealy, Ireland On-Line +353-1-855-1739; Internet Email: cgrealy@iol.ie) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 06/09/95 TELECOM Ericsson Signs Breakthrough Contract In Japan (NEWS)(TELECOM)(LON)(00009) Ericsson Signs Breakthrough Contract In Japan 06/09/95 STOCKHOLM, SWEDEN, 1995 JUN 9 (NB) -- Ericsson has announced the signing of a significant deal with International Telecom Japan (ITJ). Although financial terms of the deal have not been announced, Ericsson officials said that the deal calls for the supply of an international AXE switch, as well as a range of intelligent network services, including a service management system. Ericsson claims that this is an important step for the company, since it is the firm's first major contract for fixed public telephony in Japan. The contract includes the provision of an AXE international switch, which will be installed in Tokyo. Also included in the contract is an AXE Service Control Point (SCP) and a Service Data Point (SDP) for Intelligent Network services, as well as a Service Management Application System (SMAS) based on Ericsson's telecoms management and operations support (TMOS) technology. According to Cecilia Schon-Bostrom, information manager with Ericsson's Business Area Public Telecoms division, ITJ is one of three operators of international telecoms services in Japan. The company has been in operation since 1989 and provides a number of advanced technology services to business customers, and plans to offer a range of leading edge telecoms services through the Ericsson switch, such as International Virtual Private Network (IVPN) facilities. (Sylvia Dennis/19950609/Press Contact: Ericsson BAPT +46-8-719-0475; Fax +46-70-594-2253; Nippon Ericsson KK +81-3-3475-5701) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 06/09/95 WINDOWS Playboy Intros Free Personal Manager (NEWS)(WINDOWS)(SFO)(00010) Playboy Intros Free Personal Manager 06/09/95 LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1995 JUN 9 (NB) -- Playboy Enterprises and Anomaly, the developer of Daily PlanIt, have teamed together to present a personal information manager (PIM) called PlanIt Playboy. Featuring digital versions of Playboy's famous nude centerfold models, as well as the magazine's interviews and features, PlanIt Playboy's first version is available free as Windows shareware from Playboy's World Wide Web (Web) site. The shareware version will be followed by a commercial version of the PIM later this summer. Anomaly says the shareware version will be a fully usable PIM, but it will not have all of the features of the commercial version. There will only be seven days of Playboy content as opposed to 365 days in the commercial version. Guy Hammond, president of Anomaly, told Newsbytes, "A user could continue using the shareware version for as long as they please. The limitation is the amount of jokes, photos, interviews and editorial content from Playboy." Downloading PlanIt Playboy requires about 30 minutes using a 14.4 kilobits per second modem (Kbps). He continued, "The commercial version is a mouse-driven address book and planner which features a recording capability for messages and appointment annotation and video reminders. We have tried to design a PIM which requires as little keyboard use as possible. Most of the commands are controlled by a mouse and users may record appointments by voice and replay them later. When a user has a meeting scheduled, a video of a Playmate will remind a user of the appointment." Eileen Kent, vice president of New Media at Playboy Enterprises, spoke to Newsbytes about PlanIt Playboy saying, "I searched very carefully to find someone who would be able to meet the difficult standards which Playboy applies to any product or service with our name. When I saw an earlier product (PlanIt Earth) Anomaly produced, I saw a beautiful interface which I wanted to incorporate into our PIM. Here we are a year later with a product which meets all of our requirements and presents Playboy material in a style which is fun and very easy to use." PlanIt Playboy includes an address and phonebook, a scheduler, a to-do list, an analog clock and date feature and multimedia alarms which will interrupt other Windows applications. Anomaly has made extensive use of drag-and-drop operations to emphasize the mouse-driven program. PlanIt Playboy's planner displays in either days, weeks or months and prints schedules to most popular organizers. Kent also said, "We have a tremendous database of text and photographs to support PlanIt Playboy. While our print version showcases only one model per month, our PIM features a new model for each day. As well, the planner also features a Playboy Party Joke, Playboy Advisor Q&A, Playboy interview content, and Playboy Unabashed Dictionary entries." Users should note that the photos are similar in content as appear in the magazine's printed editions -- there are risque photographs that may be offensive to some readers. PlanIt Playboy requires a standard Windows-based computer with a sound card and microphone. The recorder is built into the program. The street price for PlanIt Playboy is expected to be about $30. In closing, Kent said, "We expect a tremendous response to the shareware offer. I ask that users be patient with us and I assure you it will be worth your time to download." (Patrick McKenna/19950607/Press Contact: Rolland Going, The Terpin Group, tel 310-821-6100; Public Information: Anomaly, tel 714-282-6170; World Wide Web URL: http://www.playboy.com/ PLANIT950609/PHOTO) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 06/09/95 ONLINE Olympic Cities Provide Detailed Internet Sites (NEWS)(ONLINE)(SYD)(00011) Olympic Cities Provide Detailed Internet Sites 06/09/95 SYDNEY, AUSTRALIA 1995 JUN 9 (NB) -- Sydney has joined Atlanta in providing an Internet site which lists thousands of facts about the upcoming 2000 games, ranging from telecommunications to environmentally friendly building techniques. Partly sponsored by IBM, the server is run for the Sydney Organizing Committee for the Olympic Games (SOCOG). It has photos, technical papers, bid specifications and maps. In the future it will also have video and audio presentations -- in all, more than 75 pages of information. Here is an example of the contents - a description of the telecommunications infrastructure for the games: "Australia has developed a highly organized, respected and sophisticated communications infrastructure, with terrestrial, submarine and satellite services. Australia is internationally known for its advanced services and research. It is the world leader in integrated services digital networks (ISDN), intelligent networks (IN) and cellular mobile telephones services (CMTS). Australia developed the data transport system which will be the basis of broadband ISDN (B-ISDN). B-ISDN will be used as a main basis for the Sydney 2000 Games network providing the ultimate in advanced services. "Significant further investment is already programmed between now and 1996 which will increase our satellite capacity, connect us with the international optic fiber network and also provide optic fiber linkages to all Sydney venues, accommodation and media facilities. "It is recognized that between now and 2000, dramatic advances will occur in all areas of technology, especially in those that are relevant to the Games. SOCOG will remain flexible in its planning up to the middle of 1998. At that time all systems and service selection decisions will be frozen so that adequate planning and development can take place to ensure system integrity." The Sydney server can be found at http://www.sydney.olympic.org Other Internet Olympic sites include the International Olympic Committee, Atlanta 1996 and Nagano Winter Olympics 1998. (Paul Zucker/19950607/OLYMP950609/PHOTO) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 06/09/95 BUSINESS Samsung Extends Offer To Buy AST Shares (NEWS)(BUSINESS)(LAX)(00012) Samsung Extends Offer To Buy AST Shares 06/09/95 SAN JOSE, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1995 JUN 9 (NB) -- Samsung extended its friendly offer to buy 40.25 percent of AST (NASDAQ:ASTA) stock in order to obtain AST shareholder approval. However, observers contend that this seems to be a mere formality and the deal for the Korean giant to buy AST should go forward. AST shareholders are expected to meet on June 30 to approve the sale to Samsung. While the Federal Trade Commission has already approved the Korean takeover, Stan Kay a spokesman for Samsung, told Newsbytes that the Korean government has not approved. Kay Pointed out that, "This is a lengthy process that is under way, but has not been finalized." Kay would not comment about the time it would take for the Korean government to approve. AST has also filed documents with the SEC to restate the company's financial statements for the fiscal year ended July 2, 1994. According to AST, the restatement occurred following discussions with the SEC arising from AST's acquisition in 1993 of the PC manufacturing operations of Tandy Corporation. According to AST, the principal effect of the restatement is to reduce AST's net income in the fourth quarter of fiscal 1994 from net income of $14.1 million to a net loss of $8.1 million. Samsung and AST have entered into an amendment to the stock purchase agreement that provides that the restatement does not constitute a breach of the stock purchase agreement and that Samsung does not have a right to terminate the agreement as a result of the restatement . Samsung has imposed some conditions on the deal to buy AST. AST is required to pay cost of any litigation which arises out of the restatement or accounting change. AST might be required to tender more shares to cover these costs. In addition, Samsung announced an additional condition to consummate its purchase of AST shares, that there "shall not exist any uncured default under any material contract or loan agreement of AST as a result of the restatement, nor shall there be pending or threatened before the SEC any formal order of investigation or formal enforcement proceeding relating to the restatement or related change in accounting." AST has ranked as the world's fifth-largest PC maker. Samsung, established in 1938, has interests in computers, aircraft, pharmaceuticals, industrial automation, and semiconductors. (Richard Bowers/19950608/Press Contact; Lee Lambert, Samsung, 408-434-5552) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 06/09/95 TRENDS China - Department Store Computer Sales Poor (NEWS)(TRENDS)(PEK)(00013) China - Department Store Computer Sales Poor 06/09/95 BEIJING, CHINA, 1995 JUN 9 (NB) -- Following the trends in the West, China is also experiencing a retail shift from the specialty computer store to the general department store when it comes to sales of computer gear. But the result is not encouraging, according to a market analysis by China Infoworld. A survey covered nine large department stores in Beijing, the newspaper said, and found that less than 8 percent of the people visiting the computer departments planned to purchase a computer within six months. Sixteen percent planned to buy a computer within a year, and 13 percent wanted to have a computer within two years. Computer purchases are also thwarted by the high price of computer equipment. About 66 percent of the customers with a purchase plan are interested in 486 computers, 21 percent in 386, 2 percent in 286, and 11 percent do not specify the CPU level. However, the budget of 24.4 percent of the 486-computer potential buyers is below RMB7,000 (US$833); 56.4 percent want to spend RMB7,000 to RBM10,000 (US$1,190), and 19.2 percent - more than RMB10,000. At department stores, the price of a 486 IBM (compatible) computer with 4MB RAM is usually more than RMB15,000 (US$1,785). The one advantage that department stores have over specialty electronics shops, the survey found, is that customers think the department stores are more trustworthy. (Chih-Ho Yu & Ning Huang/19950524) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 06/09/95 TELECOM China - Govt Bans Int'l Call-Back Operations (NEWS)(TELECOM)(PEK)(00014) China - Govt Bans Int'l Call-Back Operations 06/09/95 BEIJING, CHINA, 1995 JUN 9 (NB) -- The Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications (MPT) of China has warned foreign telecommunications firms that they cannot provide call-back services in China and that violators will be punished. Call-back service providers make profits by exploiting the telephone rate differences between the US (with low international call rates) and a foreign country (with high call rates). A subscriber (customer) of the service in the foreign country will be assigned a telephone number in the United States. When he wants to make a phone to the US or other country, he calls that assigned number first but the call will not be answered. The ringing will inform the service provider to "call back" the customer from the US at a lower rate. Once connected, the customer can dial out to other locations. The rates which US telephone companies charge for calls from the US to China or other countries are much lower than those charged by MPT, the only long distance provider in China. For example, MPT charges about US$3.13 per minute for calls from China to North America, as compared to rates ranging from $1 to $2.50 per minute charged by major US telephone companies for calls from the US to China. "No companies or individuals, including any resellers, are allowed to be engaged in international telecommunications operations in any form in China," indicated MPT's advertisement in China Daily. Some foreign companies which run advertisements in China to promote international call-back services are "in serious violation of China's regulation governing the operation of international telecommunications services. Users for the call-back service should stop their services immediately," said the advertisement. Otherwise, "necessary measures will be taken." Penalties will range from severe warnings to fines and telecommunications lines being cut off, said MPT. Newsbytes has found that the advertisements that used to appear in a newspaper every day by a US-based service provider, Kallback, had disappeared. (Chih-Ho Yu & Ning Huang/19950602) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 06/09/95 PC China - Computer Viruses Rampant (NEWS)(PC)(PEK)(00015) China - Computer Viruses Rampant 06/09/95 BEIJING, CHINA, 1995 JUN 9 (NB) -- Illegal copying of software has resulted in a serious spread of computer viruses. A survey by China Infoworld shows that 97.6 percent of IBM-compatible PCs have been affected by viruses even though 91 percent of computers are equipped with anti-virus tools. Computer viruses are quite rampant in China, the survey reported. Sampling 1014 users, the survey found only 2.4 percent of those questioned had not been affected by a virus. About 19.3 percent of the people were troubled by viruses frequently; 58.0 percent were affected sometimes, 21.4 percent were bothered occasionally. Where do the viruses come from? 51 percent of those questioned said they came from pirated game programs, 25.3 percent attributed the viruses to application software, and 23.8 percent got infections came from system software. The main symptoms of virus attacks were inability to reboot (80%), inability to run executable files (72%), reduction of memory space (54%), change of file and/or file data (47%), change of file system structure (42%), and change of hard disk partition (19%). 91.42 percent said they had anti-virus tools, the survey reported. 42.3 percent owned anti-virus cards (hardware) and 78.1 percent used anti-virus programs (software). 31.7 percent had both hardware and software means to fight against viruses. How effective were those anti-virus tools? The answers were not very optimistic -- none of the anti-virus card users said that they had always worked, 26.7 percent of them were affected often, 53.3 percent were affected sometimes, and 20 percent said "seldom." Among anti-virus software users, 16.7 percent said "often," 57.2 percent reported "sometimes," 23.5 percent said "seldom," 2.4 percent said that they were almost never affected by viruses. (Chih-Ho Yu & Ning Huang/19950606) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 06/09/95 CORRECTION ONLINE Correction - Digital World - Children's Peace Festival Online (CORRECTION)(ONLINE)(SFO)(00016) Correction - Digital World - Children's Peace Festival Online 06/09/95 SAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1995 JUN 9 (NB) -- In a June 7, 1995 Newsbytes story by this title, the anniversary for the United Nations was listed as its fifteenth (15th) year. It is, of course, the fiftieth (50th) anniversary of the United Nations. Newsbytes regrets the error. (Patrick McKenna/19950609) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 06/09/95 ONLINE Nightflight Cologne, Village Voice Enter Cyberspace (NEWS)(ONLINE)(MSP)(00017) Nightflight Cologne, Village Voice Enter Cyberspace 06/09/95 NEW YORK CITY, NEW YORK, U.S.A., 1995 JUN 9 (NB) -- The Village Voice's Custom Publishing Division, along with Nightlife, a new men's fragrance from Parfums Joop!, are taking flight into cyberspace. The two concerns have introduced an Internet World Wide Web page that focuses on nightlife in New York and Los Angeles, as well as the new cologne. "We've been investigating this (going onto the Web) for about two years," Linda L. Nelson, director of new media and technology for the Village Voice, told Newsbytes. "Primarily, we realized our demographic of the Village Voice is about the same as the typical Internet user. We think that our readership really crosses with people who are using new media sources for information." She said the Village Voice had been waiting until it became feasible to go on the Web in a graphical, unique way. She also said that going on one of the traditional online services was not an option, because the Village Voice wouldn't lend itself to a text-based system that's common on many commercial online services. The homepage of the site, which is located at URL (uniform resource locator) http://www.echonyc.com/~voice, has hotlinks to nightlife handbooks for both New York City and Los Angeles via the "Nightflight Essential Guide to New York/Los Angeles at Night" guide. The guides provide information and recommendations on the hippest nightclubs, restaurants, bars, movie theaters, and body modification shops (including hair salons and tattoo parlors). "These are opinionated listings, with our own attitude attached to them. We think that's what people want. There's a lot of raw information on the Internet, but there's not a lot of content with attitude," Nelson said. Also on the page is an advertisement for Nightflight, which is an image of a "sculpted nude man dramatically posed on a star," as officials said. The ad is hotlinked to information on the product line, pricing information, store locations, fragrance description, and additional product advertising. Lancaster Group USA distributes both "Nightflight" and "Joop!" colognes. (Bob Woods/19950609/Press Contacts: Kim Friedman, Loving & Weintraub, 212-935-1033; Eden Wexler, Lancaster Group USA, 212-593-7483. Public Contact: Internet World Wide Web, http://www.echonyc.com/~voice) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 06/09/95 APPLE Bentley Intros Technical Document Mgmt System (NEWS)(APPLE)(DEN)(00018) Bentley Intros Technical Document Mgmt System 06/09/95 ATLANTA, GEORGIA, U.S.A., 1995 JUN 9 (NB) -- Bentley Systems Inc. has announced a technical document management system for its MicroStation CAD (computer-aided design) range of products. The company said MicroStation TeamMate can manage all engineering documents associated with a CAD project and can be used by project engineers and managers as a development environment to create specialized systems for team members. TeamMate automatically manages MicroStation files, with users able to access all document and workflow management functions from within the MicroStation user environment. TeamMate, like the other MicroStation products, supports DOS, Windows and Windows NT, and OS/2 Intel-based systems and Digital Equipment (DEC) Alpha AXP, Power Macintosh, Sun SPARC, Hewlett- Packard RISC, SGI, Intergraph Clipper and the IBM RS series platforms. Bentley said TeamMate can handle engineering drawings, word processing documents and spreadsheet files and users can add custom document management functions. Specific features of TeamMate include control of document access rights; document creation, editing and review management; an audit trail; and check-in/check-out capability. The company said TeamMate is compatible with any ODBC (Open Database Connectivity)-compliant database, including Access, Sequel Server, SQL, Oracle and Informix. Users of Microstation version 5 and 5.5, Microstation PowerDraft and MicroStation Review version 5 will be able to integrate TeamMate for $475 per client or they can purchase a six-pack, which includes one copy of MicroStation Review, for $2,450. Review is a redlining product that allows document users to make alternations to a document without losing the original content. Bentley said the first beta release of TeamMate will ship in July 1995. Bentley spokesperson Michelle Allard told Newsbytes the production version of TeamMate is expected to ship in the fourth quarter. Demonstrations are available by contacting the company's via its toll-free number or its home page on the World Wide Web. (Jim Mallory/19950609/Press contact: Michelle Allard, Boston Communications for Bentley Systems, 617-247-1112; Public contact: Bentley Systems TEL 800-778-4274 or 610-458-5000; on the World Wide Web at URL http://www.bentley.com) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 06/09/95 BUSINESS InfoNow-Cimarron Merge, Will Make Electronic Commerce CDs (NEWS)(BUSINESS)(DEN)(00019) InfoNow-Cimarron Merge, Will Make Electronic Commerce CDs 06/09/95 DENVER, COLORADO, U.S.A., 1995 JUN 9 (NB) -- InfoNow (NASDAQ: INOW) has acquired Cimarron International and said it will use the combined resources of the two companies to produce a new product line. The merger makes Cimarron International a wholly owned subsidiary of InfoNow. Five-year old InfoNow currently produces CD-ROMs containing encrypted computer applications software that can be purchased and immediately used by calling in a credit card number. Once the card purchase is approved the operator provides the caller with an electronic key that unlocks the software. Some InfoNow disks are included in books published recently by Osborne/McGraw Hill and Random House. Cimarron was founded in 1979 and specializes in producing slide, video and multimedia business presentations. Following the merger, the company will concentrate on producing a line of CD-ROM disks that promote InfoNow client companies, as well as establishing sites of the Internet's World Wide Web where interested parties who view the content of the CD-ROM can get more information or order products. InfoNow completed a $1.30 per share private placement and refinancing of some of its payables. The company said the financing package provided additional working capital of about $2.1 million. InfoNow spokesperson Robin Bradbury told Newsbytes InfoNow acquired Cimarron for $150,000 in cash, a $300,000 note and 536,000 shares of InfoNow. In October 1994 Newsbytes reported that two top executives of InfoNow had resigned and the company was seeking a buyer. For the 1993 fiscal year the company reported a net loss of 45.1 million. In fiscal 1994 Infonow lost approximately $2.6 million, and lost about $250,000 in the first quarter of 1995. Bradbury declined to discuss the results of the first six months of 1995 since the period hasn't ended. Donald Cohen, founder and chief executive officer of Cimarron International, was named chief executive officer of InfoNow. (Jim Mallory/19950609/Press contact: Robin Bradbury, InfoNow, 303-442-6666, ext 105; Public contact: InfoNow, 303-442-6666) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 95 06/09/95 WINDOWS Microsoft Licenses Software-based MPEG Engine For Win (NEWS)(WINDOWS)(DEN)(00020) Microsoft Licenses Software-based MPEG Engine For Win 95 06/09/95 REDMOND, WASHINGTON, U.S.A., 1995 JUN 9 (NB) -- Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ: MSFT) has licensed software-based MPEG (Motion Picture Experts Group) playback technology from Santa Clara, California-based Mediamatics Inc. for inclusion in future releases of Windows 95. Microsoft said the technology will provide users with TV-like video capability and CD-quality sound for MPEG-compatible titles without the need for any special hardware in the computer. MPEG is a compression-decompression (codec) system for compressing full-screen VHS-quality digital video and CD-quality audio into very small files so a significant amount of video footage with sound can fit on a single CD disk and can be played back on a wide range of PC hardware. Microsoft said Windows 95-based MPEG video playback performance from CD-ROM disks on 90 megahertz (MHz) Pentium-class PCs is about 24 frames per second (fps) with 11 kilohertz (KHz) audio. To put that in perspective, a Microsoft spokesperson explained to Newsbytes that motion picture film runs through the projector at 30 frames per second, a rate which hardware-based MPEG playback can achieve. However, as the spokesperson pointed out the 24fps of the software-based playback "is pretty darned close." Brad Silverberg, senior vice president of Microsoft's personal systems division, said the company expects dramatic market growth for MPEG products, and one of those products will come from Microsoft itself. According to Craig Bartholomew, Microsoft business unit manager, the company will release a MPEG version of Encarta, its multimedia encyclopedia. Bartholomew didn't say what that release date would be. The first release of Microsoft Windows 95, scheduled for availability August 24, 1995, will support MPEG implementations in hardware and will ship with new 32-bit versions of Intel Indeo and SuperMac Cinepak codecs. Microsoft said until the software-based MPEG technology was included in production versions of Windows 95 it will be available to developers through the Microsoft developer relations program. Microsoft said this week it expects the price of Windows 95 to carry a retail price sticker of about $109, although the street price is expected to be below $100. Microsoft spokesperson Colleen Lacter said she expects heavy promotion for the Windows 95 launch. The roll-out is expected to be the biggest in Microsoft's 20-year history. Analysts are predicting that up to 20 million users will upgrade from Windows 3.1 to Windows 95 in the first year. (Jim Mallory/19950609/Press contact: Pam Kahl, Waggener Edstrom for Microsoft, 408-986-1140; Public contact: Microsoft, 206-882-8080) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 06/09/95 TRENDS Data Security Main Concern In Upgrading - Study (NEWS)(TRENDS)(MSP)(00021) Data Security Main Concern In Upgrading - Study 06/09/95 MELVILLE, NEW JERSEY, U.S.A., 1995 JUN 9 (NB) -- Olsten Corporation (NYSE:OLS) said the number one problem senior executives fear when it comes to upgrading and expanding computer systems is data security. That and other information regarding computers and technology on the job comes from an Olsten survey called "Managing Today's Automated Workplace" from the Olsten Forum of Information Management. The company said nearly three-quarters of those surveyed cited data security as their chief concern. That's up from about half in last year's survey, Olsten officials said. Last year's top priority, systems integration, dropped to third in the current poll, officials said. "We wanted to know directly from IS (information systems) directors and these sorts of people how the industry is changing and how it is affecting their jobs," Adrienne Plotch, assistant vice president of Olsten Staffing Services, told Newsbytes. "One of our goals is to stay on top of changes, and to get perspectives from different groups." The Olsten Forum also found that the proliferation of software "suites" and networked systems are changing the skills needed by workers to function in today's office environment. "In the old days, people were only using one or two products maximum. Now, people are expected to have a wide range of skills. This is something we have not seen before," Plotch said. The number of companies offering telecommuting arrangements is also up from last year, the survey revealed. "I think telecommuting is growing very rapidly. Part of it is technology that's allowed [people] to telecommute in ways they couldn't before." She said other factors like families at home and the Clean Air Act are also contributing to the growth in telecommuting. Other findings include the statistic that more than two-fifths of companies surveyed distribute their information systems across networks that employ PCs, mainframes, and midrange computers. Also, the outsourcing of information systems has jumped to 30 percent, compared to 24 percent a year ago. "It's amazing to me how all of this new technology has enabled people to work in a new way they haven't worked before," Plotch added. (Bob Woods/19950609/Press Contacts: Cassie Ladda or Dan Manco, Middleberg & Associates, 212-888-6610) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 06/09/95 BUSINESS Delhi Stock Exchange Installing Screen-Based Trading (NEWS)(BUSINESS)(DEL)(00022) Delhi Stock Exchange Installing Screen-Based Trading 06/09/95 NEW DELHI, INDIA, 1995 JUN 9 (NB) -- The Delhi Stock Exchange (DSE), with over 4,000 listed companies, has decided to computerize its working by introducing screen-based trading. The turnkey project will be developed by Wipro Infotech. Tandem Computers, Inc., will be supplying its recent introduction, the Tandem Himalaya K 20,000 series system, to DSE, while the Canada-based ISM Corp., will be providing the screen-based trading software. The software provides for equal access to all traders and gives a response time of less than two seconds. The fault tolerant fiber optic technology-based network in the exchange buildings and over the wide area network will be implemented by Wipro Infotech using network products from leading suppliers such as UB Networks and AT&T Corp. The average trades of DSE are presently around 50,000, which according to the Exchange, should increase four-fold by 1997-98. Wipro Infotech, India's second largest IT systems integration house in India, is a part of the Rs 1,100 crore (about $350 million) Wipro Corp. (C. T. Mahabharat/19950609) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 06/09/95 GENERAL Explosion At HP Injures Employee (NEWS)(GENERAL)(SFO)(00023) Explosion At HP Injures Employee 06/09/95 SAN JOSE, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1995 JUN 9 (NB) -- Yesterday, at approximately 8:30 am, Pacific Standard Time, a minor explosion occurred in a Hewlett-Packard (NYSE:HWP) laboratory. A female employee, whose name is being withheld, suffered first and second- degree burns and was transported to a nearby hospital. The explosion, described as a "flash fire," occurred in Building 91 of the HP campus while the employee was working with a "glove box." This device is a sealed space with a pair of built-in gloves into which an employee inserts their hands to complete part of the manufacturing process of silicon wafers. All employees were cleared from the building for more than three hours. At 12:30pm, the San Jose fire officials gave HP permission to re-enter the building. HP says the incident is still under an in-house investigation. Initial speculation from the fire officials suggests employee error. The glove box which is filled with nitrogen may have mixed with another gas (hydrogen is suspected) to cause the explosion. Failure to check gas flow switches could result in such an accident. Because of the use of toxic materials in other areas of the building, fire officials made an exhaustive investigation to determine the building's safety. More than 500 employees took leave of the building. The injured employee was treated and released on the same day. Other than a recorded message about the incident, HP was unavailable to supply any additional information at the time this story was written. (Patrick McKenna/19950609) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 06/09/95 CHIPS Growing US Chip Market Share In Japan (NEWS)(CHIPS)(SFO)(00024) Growing US Chip Market Share In Japan 06/09/95 TOKYO, JAPAN, 1995 JUN 9 (NB) -- In closing its ninth annual board of directors meeting, the Semiconductor Industry Association (SIA) said US semiconductor manufacturers have increased their market share in Japan from 8.6%, ten years ago, to 23.7% in the fourth quarter of 1994. The Association attributes the progress to increased awareness on both sides of the Pacific, successful trade agreements and Japanese cooperation. In an ongoing effort to keep its presence and goals well-known in Japan, the industry holds its annual board meeting in Tokyo. As part of the current meeting, SIA met with the Electronics Industries Association of Japan. Their joint efforts have created a new campaign called, "Chip-in II," which is aimed at forming more design-in agreements between foreign manufacturers and Japanese companies. Together, the two companies issues a statement saying members are very pleased with the recorded growth; significant progress has been made through foreign design-ins, trade missions and other cooperative activities; and a series of industry-level activities have been agreed upon for the near future. Design-in is the term used when a Japanese company manufactures an end product which uses US semiconductors. An example of design-in is Panasonic's digital camera which uses an LSI Logic chip to eliminate shaking when the camera is moving. Responding to the changes which have occurred over the past ten years, a spokesperson for SIA said, "Cooperation has replaced confrontation and all parties are working together to improve access to the Japanese market." The overall message from SIA emphasizes the hard-won battle to achieve these results and the importance of maintaining and advancing these strategic relationships between U.S. semiconductor manufacturers and Japanese electronic products manufacturers. (Patrick McKenna/1995/Press Contact: Kevin Brett, SIA, tel 408-246- 2711) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 06/09/95 WINDOWS Amstrad First With Windows '95 Plug & Play PCs (NEWS)(WINDOWS)(LON)(00025) Amstrad First With Windows '95 Plug & Play PCs 06/09/95 BRENTWOOD, MIDDLESEX, ENGLAND, 1995 JUN 9 (NB) -- Almost three months ahead of when the Windows '95 advanced GUI (graphical user interface) operating system is due to ship from Microsoft, Amstrad has taken the bold step of committing its high end PCs to the technology, claiming that the PC 9486i and 9555i, as well as the coming PC-TV/Integra system, will all be capable of running Windows '95. Anne Keogh, a spokeswoman for Amstrad, told Newsbytes that this means that the higher end versions of these machines, subject to them having at least eight megabytes of memory, will run Windows '95. The guarantee of compatibility is due to Amstrad's compliance with the Microsoft Plug & Play specification. Plug & Play, Newsbytes notes, is a relatively simple concept (though technically difficult to engineer) that allows a PC user to slot in a component, and for Windows '95 to automatically recognize that component and support it with minimal intervention from the user. Dave Hennell, general manager of Amstrad's PC division, said that the provision of ease of use with the ever-more-sophisticated and powerful PCs on the market has always been a goal for Amstrad. "Now, our customers will quite literally be able to fit new Plug & Play compatible elements, such as fax/modem or sound cards, into their Amstrad with no set-up routine or driver installation. Our Windows '95 based PCs will automatically recognize, configure and take advantage of the new card as soon as the PC is switched on," he said. Plans call for Amstrad to pre-installed Windows '95 on suitable machines as soon as the operating system becomes available. According to Hennell, Windows '95 will offer PC users two main benefits. "It delivers on ease of use, handling complex items like memory management and component set-up, seamlessly and invisible to the user. Moreover, Windows '95 has been specifically designed to exploit 32-bit X86 architecture," he explained. "This is especially important both in sophisticated business applications and, of course, in enhancing multimedia performance on Amstrad PCs to deliver high quality sound and video," he said. (Steve Gold/19950609/Press Contact: Michael Joyce Consultants +44-171- 836-6801; Fax +44-171-240-2520; Reader Contact: Amstrad Direct 0800- 338844) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 06/09/95 GENERAL Personnel Roundup (NEWS)(GENERAL)(SFO)(00026) Personnel Roundup 06/09/95 PENN VALLEY, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1995 JUN 9 (NB) -- This is a regular feature, summarizing personnel changes not covered elsewhere by Newsbytes: Santa Cruz Operation, CAMAX Manufacturing Technologies Inc., Dell Computer Corp., Sybase Inc., General Instrument Corp., Aurum Software, Spyglass Inc., Quintus Corp. Alok Mohan, current president and chief operating officer (COO) of the Santa Cruz Operation (NASDAQ:SCOC - 408-427-7252), has been named the company's new chief executive officer (CEO). Lars Turndal, currently CEO and chairman of the board, will retire as of July 1. Turndal will continue to serve as chairman and consultant to the company. Mohan will also retain his titles of president and member of the board. Alok Mohan joined SCO in May of 1994 as senior vice president and chief financial officer (CFO). John F. Carlson, recently retired chairman and CEO of Cray Research Inc., (NYSE:CYR) has been appointed to the board of directors of CAMAX Manufacturing Technologies Inc. (612-854-5300), a numerical control computer-aided manufacturing software company. Dell Computer Corp. (NASDAQ:DELL - 512-728-4073) announced the appointments of Terry Klein as vice president, Dell advanced systems group, and Scott Weinbrandt as director of product marketing for the Dell server group. In addition, Dell announced the departure of Mark E. Garver, vice president of Dell's server product development team, who has left the company to pursue other interests. Sybase Inc. (NASDAQ:SYBS - 510-922-3500), has announced the hiring of three regional vice presidents in the worldwide professional services (WWPS) organization. The newly created positions report to vice president and WWPS chief executive Stephen Sharp. The new vice presidents -- Herman Oggel, David Lavanty and John Shackleton -- are in charge of WWPS operations in the European, Southeastern US, and Central US regions, respectively. Clark E. Tucker has been elected vice president, human resources, at General Instrument Corporation (NYSE:GIC - 312-541-5011), effective immediately. Before joining General Instrument, Tucker was vice president, Human Resources with Witco Corporation since 1992. He was a consultant for Towers Perrin from 1990 to 1992 and held a variety of human resources positions during a 12-year tenure at American Cyanamid Company. Chuck Donchess has been appointed vice president of marketing and business development at Aurum Software (408-986-8100), a provider of sales, marketing and customer support information systems. Donchess is responsible for leading Aurum's marketing department as well as defining product direction. Donchess will also expand the partnership and channel programs, with his first area of focus on Aurum's strategic relationships. Marc Miller has been appointed to the position of executive vice president of marketing and business development for Spyglass Inc. (708-505-1010), developer of World Wide Web technologies. In that capacity, he will be responsible for the company's product and corporate marketing activities, business development, strategic alliances and acquisitions. Miller most recently was vice president and general manager of advanced media products at NEC Technologies Inc. His other previous positions include manager of Ernst & Young's strategic services consulting group and director of strategic planning for World Book Inc. Quintus Corporation (415-254-2803) announced it has completed a management-led buy-out of the company from its parent Intergraph Corporation (NASDAQ:INGR. Financing for the re-structuring of Quintus, a leader in client-server customer service and help desk applications, was provided by the Sprout Group, the venture capital affiliate of Donaldson, Lufkin & Jenrette (DLJ). In conjunction with the corporate re-structuring, Quintus announced the appointment of two new executive officers. Alan K. Anderson joins Quintus as president and CEO. Perry W. Thorndyke joins Quintus as vice president, marketing and customer services. (Ian Stokell/19950609) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 06/09/95 BUSINESS Xircom Acquires ISDN Supplier (NEWS)(BUSINESS)(LAX)(00027) Xircom Acquires ISDN Supplier 06/09/95 THOUSAND OAKS, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1995 JUN 9 (NB) -- Xircom (NASDAQ: XIRC) has finalized the purchase of ISDN (integrated services digital network) supplier Primary Rate Inc. (PRI). The move gives Xircom a position in the growing digital telecommunications market for the first time. Xircom, developer and manufacturer of mobile networking products for the personal computer market, says it had no products or technology in the ISDN marketplace. In one move, Xircom buys itself the technology. Xircom paid $48 million in stock and cash for PRI, which had revenues of just $4.6 million in 1994. Daphne Page, a spokesperson for Xircom, told Newsbytes, "We view ourselves as suppliers for remotely located mobile users. We need ISDN because remote users are requiring the kinds of bandwidths they are accustomed to in their local area networks. To date the only way Xircom has to allow access to the network is through an analog modem which is slower than ISDN." Page continued: "As the workplace has changed, and workers are expanding into remote locations, the need for easier and faster telecommunications is driving the ISDN market." Lower prices are also helping the move towards ISDN. Said Page: "ISDN has suddenly become reasonably priced and more available throughout the United States. For example, in the last few months Pac Bell has offered Home ISDN, a digital line in your home for an installation price of just $125." The impact on Xircom will be immediate. Page told Newsbytes that Xircom will market under its own name products for the end-user developed by PRI. The products are internal ISDN adapters that go in both the server and PC. Page said they will be available around July 1 for both the IBM PCs and Macintosh platforms. Founded in 1988, Xircom is headquartered in Thousand Oaks, California. It has sales of $131 in 1994. Privately held Primary Rate Inc. (PRI) is located in Salem, New Hampshire. (Richard Bowers/19950609/Press Contact: Daphne Page, Xircom, 805-376-6929) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 06/09/95 ONLINE ****Justice Targets Microsoft Again (NEWS)(ONLINE)(WAS)(00028) ****Justice Targets Microsoft Again 06/09/95 WASHINGTON, D.C., U.S.A., 1995 JUN 9 (NB) -- Microsoft Corp., has come out swinging in defense of its right to bundle access to its new online service, the Microsoft Network, in the forthcoming release of the new operating system, Windows 95. Following news that the Justice Department's antitrust division is looking into whether the practice is anti-competitive, Microsoft held a telephone press conference this afternoon to defend itself. "We have a perfectly legitimate right to distribute" the access software in Windows 95, William Neukom, Microsoft's chief lawyer, told reporters. He said their would be "no basis for a court" to grant a possible request from Justice for an injunction on shipments of Windows 95 with the online access built in. The Washington Post reported that America Online, Compuserve and Prodigy received requests for information from Justice, whose earlier antitrust inquiry sunk the Microsoft merger with Intuit. The trust busters asked the three services for incredibly quick turnaround on the information they seek -- today. "I can confirm that we have been sent a subpoena," AOL spokeswoman Pam McGraw told Newsbytes. She refused to elaborate beyond that statement. "We have a lot of this information assembled," Kent Stuckey, Compuserve general counsel, told Post reporter Elizabeth Corcoran. "The request is actually a continuation of a dialogue that had been going on for some time." The online companies say they are not afraid of competing head to head with Microsoft. But they object to building the interconnection to the new network into what is likely to be the operating system of choice for the vast majority of personal computer users. It is no secret that the existing online service providers have been upset about Microsoft's plans to build access to its service into Windows 95. AOL's Steve Case complained when Microsoft unveiled its coming online offering at last fall's Comdex show that Windows "is increasingly almost like what dialtone is to the phone industry. Our concern is that their operating system appears to have a monopoly position in the industry." In a written statement issued today, Microsoft responded that it believes the Microsoft Network will be pro-competition. "We believe Microsoft's entry into online services will benefit PC users," said Microsoft's Neukom. "The online services business is an emerging, growing field. We are a new entrant to the field with a terrific new product that we believe customers will want. The result of our entry will be increased consumer choice and lower prices." Neukom also took a shot at the existing online service companies. "We regret that some of our competitors, faced with new competition, have resorted to complaining to government regulators rather than competing vigorously in the marketplace," he said. Neukom said Justice had asked Microsoft about a provision in its original equipment manufacturer's license agreement for Windows 95, in which the OEMs agree not to assert patent infringement claims against Microsoft. Neukom said the OEM licenses since 1990 have included the language, but it has taken on new importance as patent litigation in the software industry has increased. Just what direction the Justice probe will take is unknown. A spokeswoman for the antitrust division told the Post, "We're looking at the possibility of anti-competitive practices in the computer software industry," but would not discuss details. The latest probe of Microsoft is the third time the antitrust division has looked into allegedly anti-competitive practices. The agency first got involved with the software giant after the Federal Trade Commission ended a five-year investigation with a hung jury. When the FTC deadlocked, new antitrust chief Anne Bingaman took up the issue and negotiated a consent agreement with Microsoft. The software company agreed to make some changes in the way it licenses its operating systems in the future. But Federal Judge Stanley Sporkin refused to sign off on the deal, and it is now enmeshed in litigation at the US Court of Appeals for the DC Circuit. Separately, Justice in April filed suit to block Microsoft's purchase of Intuit on antitrust ground. Microsoft killed the deal, saying the time and expense involved in fighting Justice were too much. (Kennedy Maize/19950609/Press Contact: Pam McGraw, AOL, 703-556-3746,; Greg Shaw, Microsoft, 206-882-8080) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 06/09/95 GENERAL Newsbytes Week In Review (NEWS)(GENERAL)(SFO)(00029) Newsbytes Week In Review 06/09/95 PENN VALLEY, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1995 JUN 9 (NB) -- This is a look at the top stories this week, listing with their category code: Court Indicts 2 IRS Employees For Snooping; Netscape Browser On Retail Shelves; PC Makers Demo Cyrix's Pentium-Class Chip; IBM Attempts Lotus Takeover; Sky TV's Interactive Teletext Service Criticized; IBM Sees Lotus Acquisition As Mutually Beneficial; Lotus Responds To IBM Takeover Attempt; Spielberg's Gift To Ill Children - Starbright; After Starbright -- Worldsnet; Seagram Closes Deal To Take Over MCA; Senate Debates Telecoms Legislation; Taligent/IBM To Offer First CommonPoint Products; IBM To Support DreamWorks With Digital Library; Justice Targets Microsoft Again. Court Indicts 2 IRS Employees For Snooping (LEGAL) BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS, U.S.A., 1995 JUN 5 -- A federal grand jury in Boston has indicted two Internal Revenue Service on charges of snooping into confidential, computerized taxpayer records. Netscape Browser On Retail Shelves (ONLINE) MOUNTAIN VIEW, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1995 JUN 5 -- In a sharp departure from previous practices, Netscape Communications Corp. said it will sell its new Netscape Navigator Personal Edition World Wide Web browser software via retail outlets. What's more, the new product promises to give customers "full Internet connectivity" out of the box. PC Makers Demo Cyrix's Pentium-Class Chip (CHIPS) RICHARDSON, TEXAS, U.S.A., 1995 JUN 5 -- More than a dozen PC makers are showing pre-production versions of desktop and mobile computers based on Cyrix Corp.'s (NASDAQ: CYRX) Pentium-class 5x86 microprocessor, which Cyrix developed under the working label M1sc, at this week's Taiwan computer trade show, Computex. IBM Attempts Lotus Takeover (BUSINESS) CAMBRIDGE, MASSACHUSETTS, U.S.A., 1995 JUN 5 -- An "unfriendly" attempt by IBM to buy out 100 percent of Lotus Development Corp.'s outstanding stock for $3.3 billion in cash, initiated in a phone call to Lotus President and chief executive officer (CEO) Jim Manzi, was preceded by "friendly" negotiations, and IBM officials still hope to achieve an amicable acquisition of Lotus, Newsbytes has learned. Sky TV's Interactive Teletext Service Criticized (BROADCAST) LIVINGSTONE, SCOTLAND, 1995 JUN 6 (NB) -- Sky Television, which broadcasts via the Astra series of satellites in the UK and to selected countries in Europe, has unveiled an interactive teletext service known as Intertext. Newsbytes has identified that the service, which was launched on Monday of this week, has a major security flaw. IBM Sees Lotus Acquisition As Mutually Beneficial (BUSINESS) NEW YORK, NEW YORK, U.S.A., 1995 JUN 6 -- At a New York press conference yesterday afternoon, IBM Chairman and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Louis V. Gerstner, Jr. characterized a $3.3 billion unfriendly acquisition attempt launched earlier in the day toward Lotus as a deal that will ultimately benefit both parties, if it goes through. Lotus Responds To IBM Takeover Attempt (BUSINESS) NEW YORK, NEW YORK, U.S.A., 1995 JUN 6 (NB) -- In a teleconference from New York City last night, Lotus President and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Jim Manzi told journalists and analysts that Lotus was "very surprised" over IBM's initiation of a hostile acquisition attempt, and also said that Lotus's board of directors will meet within 10 business days to decide how to act on the matter. Spielberg's Gift To Ill Children - Starbright (ONLINE) LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1995 JUN 6 -- The Digital World Conference started with a true Hollywood event. With lights on and cameras rolling, Steven Spielberg, Candice Bergen, and a pack of chief executive officers (CEOs) introduced Starbright World, a computer-linked network designed to provide entertainment and encounters among children who are seriously ill. After Starbright -- Worldsnet (ONLINE) LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1995 JUN 6 -- UB Networks and Worlds, Inc., two of the major participants in the development of Starbright, are forging a new direction for online services. They are delivering an animated, interactive online world on the Internet's World Wide Web (Web) as opposed to a proprietary and separate service common to popular online services. Seagram Closes Deal To Take Over MCA (BUSINESS) MONTREAL, CANADA, U.S.A., 1995 JUN 7 -- The Seagram Company Ltd. (NYSE:VO) has finalized purchase of 80 percent of MCA Inc. for $5.7 billion in cash. The purchase of MCA transforms Seagrams from just a beverage company, into both a beverage company and media giant in one deal. Senate Debates Telecoms Legislation (LEGAL) WASHINGTON, D.C., U.S.A., 1995 JUN 8 -- "For the average American family, legislation to reform our telephone, cable and broadcasting industries is surely one of the most important matters" to come before Congress, said Sen. Larry Pressler (R-S.D.) as the Senate opened debate on his bill to reform the 1934 Communications Act. Taligent/IBM To Offer First CommonPoint Products (BUSINESS) NEW YORK, NEW YORK, U.S.A., 1995 JUN 8 -- Taligent's CommonPoint object-oriented framework, under development for the past seven years, will enter general release for AIX in July, Taligent and IBM officials said, in a teleconference and a follow-up interview with Newsbytes. IBM To Support DreamWorks With Digital Library (BUSINESS) LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1995 JUN 8 -- IBM and DreamWorks SKG have agreed to create an asset storage, management and distribution network around IBM's Digital Library software. The agreement means IBM will play an important and ongoing role with the management of DreamWorks digital content. Justice Targets Microsoft Again (ONLINE) WASHINGTON, D.C., U.S.A., 1995 JUN 9 (NB) -- Microsoft Corp., has come out swinging in defense of its right to bundle access to its its new online service, the Microsoft Network, in the forthcoming release of the new operating system, Windows 95. Following news that the Justice Department's antitrust divison is looking into whether the practice is anti-competitive, Microsoft held a telephone press conference this afternoon to defend itself. (Ian Stokell/19950609) (SUMMARY)(GENERAL)(MSP)(00030) Newsbytes Daily Summary 06/09/95 MINNEAPOLIS, MINNESOTA, U.S.A., 1995 JUN 9 (NB) -- These are capsules of all today's news stories: 1 -> Monitoring Your Home Page With PageAlert 06/09/95 For those who need to keep track of sites on the Internet's World Wide Web, a new monitoring service is offering to do the job on your behalf and contact you as soon as there is a problem or change. 2 -> Australian Microsoft Network Attracting Unwanted Interest 06/09/95 The Australian implementation of Microsoft network is already stirring up the local industry, although it is not being officially launched for another two months. Microsoft Network is the worldwide online information system that ships as part of Windows '95. 3 -> Australia - Telstra Claims No Int'l Call Monopoly 06/09/95 Australia's main carrier Telstra has defended its position as the main overseas carrier from Australia, pointing out that it has lost a high proportion of its market share while significantly dropping rates. 4 -> Home Shopping Network To Offer Cell Phones 06/09/95 Southwestern Bell Mobile Systems and BellSouth Cellular Corp., have partnered with the Home Shopping Network (NYSE: HSN) and Wholesale Cellular USA Inc., (NASDAQ: CELL) to sell cellular phones and service to home shoppers. The alliance will operate under the national brand name Mobile America. 5 -> Peachpit Press Opens Cyber-Cafe Bookstore 06/09/95 Computer book publisher Peachpit Press announced its World Wide Web site as a Cyber-style cafe. To introduce the new area, Peachpit is posting the entire contents of a new book called: "Aether Madness: An Off-beat Guide to the Online World." 6 -> Nynex Adds "Text-Only Option" To Web Yellow Pages 06/09/95 A newly reached decision by Nynex to add text capabilities to the Nynex Interactive Yellow Pages on the World Wide Web will benefit people with sight impairments, as well as non-disabled users who are equipped with "low-end" PCs, said Deborah Kaplan, VP of the World Institute on Disability, during an interview with Newsbytes. 7 -> Highway 1 Opens On Capitol Hill 06/09/95 Head north on Washington's Pennsylvania Ave. and take a right turn on Capitol Hill and you're at Highway 1. Five leading technology companies this week launched Highway 1, a technology center near the US Capitol designed to serve as an on-ramp to the information superhighway for a sometimes laggard Congress. 8 -> Ireland On-Line Expands 06/09/95 Ireland On-Line, Ireland's largest online service, has announced a reciprocal deal with PostGEM, the packet data network (PDN) subsidiary of The Irish Post Office. Terms of the deal call for PostGEM to offer remote PDN dial in to Ireland On-Line through its 10 dial-up PostNET nodes scattered around the Republic. 9 -> Ericsson Signs Breakthrough Contract In Japan 06/09/95 Ericsson has announced the signing of a significant deal with International Telecom Japan (ITJ). Although financial terms of the deal have not been announced, Ericsson officials said that the deal calls for the supply of an international AXE switch, as well as a range of intelligent network services, including a service management system. 10 -> Playboy Intros Free Personal Manager 06/09/95 Playboy Enterprises and Anomaly, the developer of Daily PlanIt, have teamed together to present a personal information manager (PIM) called PlanIt Playboy. Featuring digital versions of Playboy's famous nude centerfold models, as well as the magazine's interviews and features, PlanIt Playboy's first version is available free as Windows shareware from Playboy's World Wide Web (Web) site. 11 -> Olympic Cities Provide Detailed Internet Sites 06/09/95 Sydney has joined Atlanta in providing an Internet site which lists thousands of facts about the upcoming 2000 games, ranging from telecommunications to environmentally friendly building techniques. 12 -> Samsung Extends Offer To Buy AST Shares 06/09/95 Samsung extended its friendly offer to buy 40.25 percent of AST (NASDAQ:ASTA) stock in order to obtain AST shareholder approval. However, observers contend that this seems to be a mere formality and the deal for the Korean giant to buy AST should go forward. 13 -> China - Department Store Computer Sales Poor 06/09/95 Following the trends in the West, China is also experiencing a retail shift from the specialty computer store to the general department store when it comes to sales of computer gear. But the result is not encouraging, according to a market analysis by China Infoworld. 14 -> China - Govt Bans Int'l Call-Back Operations 06/09/95 The Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications (MPT) of China has warned foreign telecommunications firms that they cannot provide call-back services in China and that violators will be punished. Call-back service providers make profits by exploiting the telephone rate differences between the US (with low international call rates) and a foreign country (with high call rates). 15 -> China - Computer Viruses Rampant 06/09/95 Illegal copying of software has resulted in a serious spread of computer viruses. A survey by China Infoworld shows that 97.6 percent of IBM-compatible PCs have been affected by viruses even though 91 percent of computers are equipped with anti-virus tools. 16 -> Correction - Digital World - Children's Peace Festival Online 06/09/95 In a June 7, 1995 Newsbytes story by this title, the anniversary for the United Nations was listed as its fifteenth (15th) year. It is, of course, the fiftieth (50th) anniversary of the United Nations. Newsbytes regrets the error. 17 -> Nightflight Cologne, Village Voice Enter Cyberspace 06/09/95 The Village Voice's Custom Publishing Division, along with Nightlife, a new men's fragrance from Parfums Joop!, are taking flight into cyberspace. The two concerns have introduced an Internet World Wide Web page that focuses on nightlife in New York and Los Angeles, as well as the new cologne. 18 -> Bentley Intros Technical Document Mgmt System 06/09/95 Bentley Systems Inc. has announced a technical document management system for its MicroStation CAD (computer-aided design) range of products. 19 -> InfoNow-Cimarron Merge, Will Make Electronic Commerce CDs 06/09/95 InfoNow (NASDAQ: INOW) has acquired Cimarron International and said it will use the combined resources of the two companies to produce a new product line. The merger makes Cimarron International a wholly owned subsidiary of InfoNow. 20 -> Microsoft Licenses Software-based MPEG Engine For Win 95 06/09/95 Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ: MSFT) has licensed software-based MPEG (Motion Picture Experts Group) playback technology from Santa Clara, California-based Mediamatics Inc. for inclusion in future releases of Windows 95. Microsoft said the technology will provide users with TV-like video capability and CD-quality sound for MPEG-compatible titles without the need for any special hardware in the computer. 21 -> Data Security Main Concern In Upgrading - Study 06/09/95 Olsten Corporation (NYSE:OLS) said the number one problem senior executives fear when it comes to upgrading and expanding computer systems is data security. That and other information regarding computers and technology on the job comes from an Olsten survey called "Managing Today's Automated Workplace" from the Olsten Forum of Information Management. 22 -> Delhi Stock Exchange Installing Screen-Based Trading 06/09/95 The Delhi Stock Exchange (DSE), with over 4,000 listed companies, has decided to computerize its working by introducing screen-based trading. 23 -> Explosion At HP Injures Employee 06/09/95 Yesterday, at approximately 8:30 am, Pacific Standard Time, a minor explosion occurred in a Hewlett-Packard (NYSE:HWP) laboratory. A female employee, whose name is being withheld, suffered first and second- degree burns and was transported to a nearby hospital. 24 -> Growing US Chip Market Share In Japan 06/09/95 In closing its ninth annual board of directors meeting, the Semiconductor Industry Association (SIA) said US semiconductor manufacturers have increased their market share in Japan from 8.6%, ten years ago, to 23.7% in the fourth quarter of 1994. The Association attributes the progress to increased awareness on both sides of the Pacific, successful trade agreements and Japanese cooperation. 25 -> Amstrad First With Windows '95 Plug & Play PCs 06/09/95 Almost three months ahead of when the Windows '95 advanced GUI (graphical user interface) operating system is due to ship from Microsoft, Amstrad has taken the bold step of committing its high end PCs to the technology, claiming that the PC 9486i and 9555i, as well as the coming PC-TV/Integra system, will all be capable of running Windows '95. 26 -> Personnel Roundup 06/09/95 This is a regular feature, summarizing personnel changes not covered elsewhere by Newsbytes: Santa Cruz Operation, CAMAX Manufacturing Technologies Inc., Dell Computer Corp., Sybase Inc., General Instrument Corp., Aurum Software, Spyglass Inc., Quintus Corp. 27 -> Xircom Acquires ISDN Supplier 06/09/95 Xircom (NASDAQ: XIRC) has finalized the purchase of ISDN (integrated services digital network) supplier Primary Rate Inc. (PRI). The move gives Xircom a position in the growing digital telecommunications market for the first time. 28 -> ****Justice Targets Microsoft Again 06/09/95 Microsoft Corp., has come out swinging in defense of its right to bundle access to its new online service, the Microsoft Network, in the forthcoming release of the new operating system, Windows 95. Following news that the Justice Department's antitrust division is looking into whether the practice is anti-competitive, Microsoft held a telephone press conference this afternoon to defend itself. 29 -> Newsbytes Week In Review 06/09/95 This is a look at the top stories this week, listing with their category code: Court Indicts 2 IRS Employees For Snooping; Netscape Browser On Retail Shelves; PC Makers Demo Cyrix's Pentium-Class Chip; IBM Attempts Lotus Takeover; Sky TV's Interactive Teletext Service Criticized; IBM Sees Lotus Acquisition As Mutually Beneficial; Lotus Responds To IBM Takeover Attempt; Spielberg's Gift To Ill Children - Starbright; After Starbright -- Worldsnet; Seagram Closes Deal To Take Over MCA; Senate Debates Telecoms Legislation; Taligent/IBM To Offer First CommonPoint Products; IBM To Support DreamWorks With Digital Library; Justice Targets Microsoft Again. (Wendy Woods/19950609) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 06/08/95 TELECOM France - MFS Wins License For Paris Phone Net (NEWS)(TELECOM)(LON)(00001) France - MFS Wins License For Paris Phone Net 06/08/95 PARIS, FRANCE, 1995 JUN 8 (NB) -- MFS Communications SA, the French division of the US company of the same name, has been licensed by the DGPT (Direction Generale des Postes et Telecommunications) to install the first alternative fiber optic telecoms network in Paris and La Defense. According to Dominique Lancrenon, general manager of the company, plans call for the first loop of 20 kilometers of cable to be up and running by the beginning of next year. The contract license follows in the wake of similar contracts in Frankfurt (Germany), London (England), and Stockholm (Sweden), as well as in 40 US cities in recent years. "We are delighted to reach this important milestone, within six months of starting operations in France," Lancrenon said, adding that the company's Paris customers will "now have access to a new class of multimedia and data services." The MFS fiber network will consist of a 100 percent fiber optic ring using SDH (Synchronous Digital Hierarchy) technology. Plans call for MFS' customers to use this fiber ring to access a full range of services, including international corporate voice and high speed data services using ATM (asynchronous transfer mode) network technology. According to MFS, this platform will be used for innovative services such as delivery of video directly to the desktop for financial information, or interconnection of corporate LANs (local area networks) at speeds of up to 100 megabits-per-second (Mbps). "The combination of a metropolitan fiber network connected to the international MFS ATM network will enhance Paris' position as a leading financial center of Europe," commented Marc Destree, senior vice president of Europe for the company. According to Destree, the company's customers in the key financial centers of Europe and the US "will benefit from having their services delivered over managed fiber directly to their buildings on both ends of the connection." (Sylvia Dennis/19950607/Press Contact: Karin Mlaker, +32-2-655-0211) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 06/08/95 BROADCAST Racal Secures Contract For Russian Radio Net (NEWS)(BROADCAST)(LON)(00002) Racal Secures Contract For Russian Radio Net 06/08/95 MOSCOW, RUSSIA, 1995 JUN 8 (NB) -- Racal has revealed that Central Telegraph, a Russian telecoms service provider, has implemented the company's Widanet radio band technology to allow wireless data transfers in the Moscow area. Central Telegraph's wireless data service is called Radiotel and, according to the telco's sales and marketing division, customers in the banking, security and communications industries are likely to sign up for service. Radiotel has a gateway into the Central telegraph X.25 PDN (packet data network), allowing mobile users access to packet switched services in Russia and beyond. The Radiotel network has been under active trial for the last four months and has now received its final certification from the Russian Ministry of Communications. According to Racal, it is the first regional wireless data transmission system to operate in Russia, although several other telcos are reported to be operating pilot networks. Once these other city networks in Russia go live, they too will be linked into the X.25 PDN, as well as interlinked using the Rospa PDN service. Now that the beta tests are complete, Racal has received a firm order for $5 million-worth of equipment to get the Radiotel network up and running on a commercial basis. Terms of the contract call for Racal to supply significant quantities of its Radio PADs (packet assemblers/ disassemblers), devices the size of a paperback book that have a serial port and function like a wireless modem. Racal is also supplying several radio base stations to the Radiotel network, as well as a complete Radio Network Management Center. According to Racal, the Widanet system is based on "secure and reliable" packet switching techniques and comprises a series of strategically located base stations -- each containing a pair of network access controllers, with their own transmitter/receiver. The base stations provide radio communications with thousands of subscriber modems and interface with the X.25 network. The base station is configured with 100 percent redundancy to achieve a high level of availability. The subscriber modem -- the Radio PAD -- is completely portable and designed to operate with the nearest base station. "We have been working closely with Central Telegraph and potential users of the network for almost two years. We are confident that the service will quickly become established with a wide range of applications. In the short term, online credit/debit card transactions authorizations, vehicle security and the Moscow lottery, which is due to be launched in the near future, are set to become the largest users," explained Geoff Mitchell of Racal Messenger in the UK. Because the Widanet system makes use of VHF (FM) frequencies, Racal claims that service can be offered across a major capital such as Moscow using very few base stations. (Sylvia Dennis/19950607/Press Contact Nigel Edwards, Racal UK Operations, +44-1734-669969) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 06/08/95 TELECOM China - Foreign Firms Attracted To Telecom Market (NEWS)(TELECOM)(PEK)(00003) China - Foreign Firms Attracted To Telecom Market 06/08/95 BEIJING, CHINA, 1995 JUN 8 (NB) -- Lured by the potentially huge telecom market, many of the world's leading telecom firms, such as Canada's Northern Telecom, US-based AT&T, Nokia of Finland, French Alcatel Bell, and Japan's NTT, are establishing footholds in China. According to a senior Chinese government official, foreign firms will continue to play an important role as the country's telecommunications industry keeps gaining momentum. A senior AT&T representative recently said the company is confident of the market potential in China, where rapid economic growth keeps giving rise to increased demand for advanced telecommunications networks. AT&T will invest at least US$150 million in China, as well as further expand its business, in the next two to three years. The company's investment program will include an electronics joint venture producing large scale integrated circuits. Japan has agreed to help China install a fiber optic communications network by 2010. The network will link the cities of Shanghai, Nanjing, and Hangzhou for telephone and computer-based data communications. Japanese participants, including Nippon Telegraph and Telephone (NTT), will set up a joint venture with Chinese partners to lease communications equipment to Chinese authorities. China is expected to lay more than 20,000 kilometers of fiber optic cable this year and put 14 million telephone switchboards and 12 million telephones into use. (Chih-Ho Yu & Ning Huang/19950608) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 06/08/95 TRENDS China - Network Interface Card Market Survey (NEWS)(TRENDS)(PEK)(00004) China - Network Interface Card Market Survey 06/08/95 BEIJING, CHINA, 1995 JUN 8 (NB) -- A survey of 1,055 network interface card (NIC) users in China was conducted by China Infoworld in March and April this year. The results were published in the Computer Market Guide of China Infoworld. According to the survey, 60 percent of users who answered the questionnaire said that their companies or business units will purchase NICs within a year. The survey found that NetWare and Unix are the most popular operating systems for Chinese NIC users. The results showed that 54.5 percent of users are currently using Novell's NetWare, 33 percent Unix, 11 percent Windows NT, 3.4 percent OS/2, and 7.2 percent other systems. However, regarding future purchases, 38.6 percent of those responding said they will use NetWare, 28 percent Unix, 36 percent Windows NT, six percent OS/2, and 3.4 percent others. This represents a big increase of network user interest in Windows NT. About 74 percent of users are using 16-bit ISA (Industry Standard Architecture) network interface cards, 47.9 percent are using 32-bit EISA (Extended ISA) cards, 12.4 percent 32-bit PCI (Peripheral Component Interconnect) cards, and only 7.9 percent 8-bit ISA cards. Also, regarding future purchases, 42.7 percent of users plan to buy 16-bit ISA, 44.4 percent 32-bit EISA, and 39.6 percent 32-bit PCI. No-one said they plan to purchase 8-bit ISA cards. For current installed systems, 3Com has the largest share at 21.2 percent, followed by D-Link at 11.2 percent, Microdyne at 10.6 percent, and Accton at 10.3 percent. Intel's share is 9.7 percent, Eagle 8.4 percent, and HP 6.6 percent. With 22 percent of those responding saying they will purchase 3Com products in the future, future market shares are predicted to be almost the same as current figures. (Chih-Ho Yu & Ning Huang/19950608) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 06/08/95 APPLE Now Software Ships Datebook Deluxe CD For Mac (NEWS)(APPLE)(DEN)(00005) Now Software Ships Datebook Deluxe CD For Mac 06/08/95 PORTLAND, OREGON, U.S.A., 1995 JUN 8 (NB) -- Now Software Inc. said it has started shipping Datebook Deluxe, a CD-ROM-based version of its calendar and to-do list manager software for the Macintosh. The company said the new version adds seven new areas of content to Datebook 4.0, including QuickTime-based full-motion video and sound. A section called CNN Moments includes more than 100 QuickTime movies representing what Now Software calls "the most memorable events in recent history" as recorded by CNN. Included are the Los Angeles earthquake, Chernobyl and Nelson Mandela's election. You also get: "The Quigmans" a nationally syndicated cartoon by Buddy Hickman; Guerrilla Marketing Tips, advice and messages from marketing expert Jay Conrad Levinson; and daily horoscopes, written by astrologer Sydney Omarr. Three different trivia questions are offered each day to test your knowledge in various categories, and the program has a list of famous people born each day of the year. Datebook also lets you determine when the next full moon arrives. When you purchase Datebook Deluxe on CD-ROM you get a trial version of the company's Touchbase 4.0, an address book and contact manager for the Macintosh. Last month Now Software and Adobe Systems jointly announced Now had obtained the exclusive worldwide rights to develop, market, sell and support Touchbase and Datebook. Datebook Deluxe has an estimated street price of $49.95 and users of earlier versions of Datebook or Touchbase can get Datebook Deluxe from Now Software for $19.95 plus shipping and handling by calling the company's toll-free number. To run Datebook Deluxe you need a PowerBook or any Macintosh desktop computer with at least a 13-inch color monitor, four megabytes (MB) of system memory, System 6.0.7 or later operating system (Now Software said System 7 is required to run Touchbase), and a CD-ROM drive. (Jim Mallory/19950608/Press contact: Cary Fulbright, Now Software, 503-274-2800; Public contact: Now Software, tel 503-274-2800, or 800-416-5977 (to order), fax 503-274-0670) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 06/08/95 ONLINE Smithsonian Documents On The Internet (NEWS)(ONLINE)(DEN)(00006) Smithsonian Documents On The Internet 06/08/95 OREM, UTAH, U.S.A., 1995 JUN 8 (NB) -- Thanks to sponsorship by Novell Inc. (NASDAQ: NOVL), Internet users will soon be able to study the thousands of documents and case studies collected by the ComputerWorld Smithsonian Awards Program over its six year lifespan. Novell said it will underwrite the Novell Computer World Smithsonian Innovation Network, an interactive site of the Internet's World Wide Web. The document archive has previously only been available at the National Museum of American History in the nation's capital. Now the millions of Internet users will have electronic access without leaving their offices or homes. Novell, the Smithsonian and ComputerWorld said the network will provide a platform for technology innovators, students, scholars and business people to study ways to innovate, collaborate and learn how information technology is changing society. Novell said the Innovation Network will be built over the next three years. Network features will be launched in a three-phase rollout program. Phase I, which went online this week, is to place all the award nominations and Leadership Awards from the 1995 program on line as well as carrying online current and background information on the awards program and related events. The URL for the network is http://innovate.si.edu, a Novell spokesperson told Newsbytes. Phase II, scheduled to launch September 1, will add new information about the ComputerWorld Smithsonian Awards program, enhance the information from Phase I by adding video, photographs, and more complete case study descriptions, and add information about all past Leadership award winners. Novell said beginning January 1, 1996, Phase III will focus on using the Web site as a data repository and as a method for informing and communicating with award nominees. Novell said it will provide hypertext links between the Innovation Network and the companies represented on the ComputerWorld Smithsonian Chairmen Committee, the group that submits candidates for each year's awards. Throughout the three-year project additional Smithsonian archives will be added to the network. (Jim Mallory/19950607/Press contact: Melanie King, Novell, 408-577-6842) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 06/08/95 TRENDS Iomega Announces Internal Zip Drive (NEWS)(TRENDS)(DEN)(00007) Iomega Announces Internal Zip Drive 06/08/95 ROY, UTAH, U.S.A., 1995 JUN 8 (NB) -- Iomega Corp. (NASDAQ: IOMG) has announced an internal version of its Zip Drive that uses interchangeable 100 megabytes (MB) and 25MB Zip disks for storage. In conjunction with the internal drive announcement, Iomega said it has signed an agreement with Power Computer, a manufacturer of Macintosh-compatibles, known as clones in the industry, to include the Zip drives in their machines. Iomega said the internal Zip drives will offer users of Macintosh-compatible and Windows-based PCs performance comparable to hard disk drives. Iomega said Power Computing will offer an internal Zip drive option in the company's Mac-compatible desktop and tower systems beginning in August. Power Computing said it will demonstrate a Zip drive equipped Macintosh-compatible PC at Iomega's booth at the PC Expo trade show in New York this month and at Macworld Expo in Boston in August. An Iomega spokesperson told Newsbytes that Power Computing has not set a price for the Zip drive option yet. Iomega said the Zip drive will be available in two configurations, including one that provides backwards compatibility with 1.44MB-capacity floppy disks. There will also be a combo model that incorporates a Zip drive and a conventional 3.5-inch high density drive and fits in one full-height drive bay. While initial shipments of the internal Zip drive will be to PC manufacturers, Iomega said it will package the drives for retail sale to end-users later this year. The drives come bundled with Zip tools, software utilities for moving, protecting and managing files. The spokesperson was unable to provide an suggested retail price for the drive but told Newsbytes it is expected to be about the same as the external model of the Zip drive. That unit shipped earlier this year and has a street price under $200. The 25MB disks for the Zip drives have a suggested retail price of $9.95, while the 100MB capacity Zip disk carries a $19.95 price tag. (Jim Mallory/19950607/Press contact: Cory Maloy, Iomega, 801-778-3712 or Michael Rosenfelt, Power Computing, 512-250-2015) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 06/08/95 BUSINESS Iomega Seeks Mfg Partner To Meet Zip Drive Demand (NEWS)(BUSINESS)(DEN)(00008) Iomega Seeks Mfg Partner To Meet Zip Drive Demand 06/08/95 ROY, UTAH, U.S.A., 1995 JUN 8 (NB) -- Unable to meet consumer demand for its low-cost high-capacity removable media Zip disk drive, Iomega Corp. (NASDAQ: IOMG) said it is actively seeking a manufacturing partner to help get more of the drives into the retail channel. An Iomega spokesperson told Newsbytes that potential buyers are presently waiting as long as three to four weeks to get their hands on one of the external drives that can store data on 25 or 100 megabyte (MB) removable disks. "They are manufacturing them but companies are getting them in and selling them the next day," said the spokesperson. The spokesperson said Iomega is looking at second-sourcing manufacture of the drive, but so far has not signed a manufacturer. Iomega started shipping the external drive in March. The company announced an internal version of the Zip drive earlier this week, although presently that drive will go only to PC manufacturers. Iomega did say it plans to release the internal model for sale to end-users later this year. The Zip drive comes in SCSI (small computer system interface) and parallel port models. The parallel port version, which has a printer pass-through port, is for IBM-compatibles, while the SCSI edition can be used with Macintosh computers and SCSI-equipped PCs if you want the increased performance of SCSI. When you buy an Iomega Zip drive you also get ZipTools, a set of software tools designed to help organize, track and locate information on the disks. The software is icon-based, with each file represented by a small picture. When the user clicks on a file, ZipTools advises which Zip disk to insert in the drive. The Zip drive is about the size of a paperback pocket book. It uses a removable disk that is only slightly larger and thicker than a 3.5-inch floppy disk. The spokesperson said no retail price has been set for the internal model of the Zip drive, but told Newsbytes the price would probably be about the same as the external model. It is selling for under $200 - when you can get it. Iomega's second quarter ends in July, and the company is cautious about the results, expecting to report a loss for the period. (Jim Mallory/19941025/Press contact: Cory Maloy, Iomega, 801-778-3712; Public contact: Iomega, 800-777-6179, or 801-778-1000/ZIPDRIVE950608/PHOTO) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 06/08/95 BUSINESS DEC StorageWorks' Marketing Strategy For Asia Pacific (NEWS)(BUSINESS)(BOS)(00009) DEC StorageWorks' Marketing Strategy For Asia Pacific 06/08/95 MAYNARD, MASSACHUSETTS, U.S.A., 1995 JUN 8 (NB) -- A decision by Digital Equipment Corp.'s StorageWorks to sign 14 resellers and distributors in the Asia Pacific is designed to meet mounting needs in the region for storage subsystems supporting Novell, Windows NT, Sun, HP, and IBM platforms, in addition to Digital environments, said Ronald Gervenack, StorageWorks' worldwide channels sales and marketing manager, in a conference call with Newsbytes. The move represents the first step in implementing a new, "channels-only" strategy for selling StorageWorks' disk, tape and optical storage subsystems in the Asia Pacific, according to Gervenack. StorageWorks recently launched a similar policy in Europe, he added. StorageWorks undertook a study of the Asia Pacific storage market in 1995, the same year that marked the introduction of StorageWorks' first storage products for non-Digital platforms, Gervenack said. "After assessing the territory and determining that there's a market there, we've made the commitment. Now we're beginning to put a program in place. We're extremely serious about this. We want to be highly visible in the Asia Pacific," the marketing manager told Newsbytes. The decision for a "channels-only" strategy was based mainly on two factors, according to Gervenack: the sheer size of the geographic territory; and the cultural differences that exist in a region that encompasses Korea and Japan, Australia and New Zealand, the South Pacific, and Ocean, an area that covers the Philippines, southern China, and the Indian subcontinent. StorageWorks' channels strategy also reflects a recently announced corporate-wide move toward increased use of third-party partners, Gervenack noted. "In fact, StorageWorks was one of the first business units at Digital to recognize this need," he maintained. Beyond lining up resellers and distributors, StorageWorks plans to create localized products and marketing programs for various geographic areas in the Asia Pacific, Gervenack said. "These will not be just `warmed over' versions of what we're using in the US market," he asserted. StorageWorks' new distribution partners in the Asia Pacific include: Australasian Memory Mty Limited, Australia; Australasian Memory Int Pte Limited, Singapore; Jungwoo Ace Co. Limited, Korea; LAN (local area network) Pty Limited, Australia; Chartered Systems and Networks, Singapore; Newtech Co. Limited, Japan; and PT Skill, Indonesia. Also on the StorageWorks list are: Dataprep Distribution, Malaysia; Ecoline Automation Systems Corp., Philippines; Sunkyong Distribution Limited, Korea; i.t. Connxions, Australia; Syntax Communication Limited, China; Itochu Techno-Science Corp., Japan; and System Technology, Hong Kong. (Jacqueline Emigh/19950608/Reader Contact: Digital Equipment Corp., 508-493-5111; Press Contacts: Laura S. Kirkley, DEC, 508-841-6781; Janice Cashman, The Weber Group for DEC, 617-661-7900) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 06/08/95 APPLE Apple Europe Cuts Prices, Boosts System Specs (NEWS)(APPLE)(LON)(00010) Apple Europe Cuts Prices, Boosts System Specs 06/08/95 UXBRIDGE, MIDDLESEX, ENGLAND, 1995 JUN 8 (NB) -- Apple Computer Europe has cut its prices by between four and 16 percent across its entire range. According to the company's UK and European operations, the price cuts provide more power per pound, as well as boosting the specifications of Macs on a promotional basis. Judy Wilks, a spokeswoman for Apple Computer's UK operations, said that, as well as moving prices down to meet US levels, so preventing so-called "gray market" imports, Apple is "looking around at the competition and taking steps to offer the same, if not better, value for money." David Heath, director of product management with Apple, echoed Wilks' comments, claiming that Apple's products "represent extremely good value for money when you look at what you actually get included in the box at a given price point." Heath conceded, however, that PC pricing at the moment is a volatile area. "Pricing is a dynamic business and we have to be quick on our feet to stay highly competitive," he said. According to Heath, the price cuts the company has announced this week will keep the PowerPC machines "aggressively priced in comparison to Pentium-based PC configurations, and ensure that PowerBook and imaging products hit some new aggressive price points." He added: "Since launching just over a year ago, Apple has sold over 1.5 million Power Mac systems and these price changes ensure that this momentum will continue." Like many computer vendors today, Apple is shying away from quoting retail prices on its products. Instead, it quotes "estimated street prices," which are an average of reseller pricing. Typical pricing on the Power Mac 6100/66 8/500, for example, falls from UK1,299 to UKP1,175, while a high-end Power Mac 8100/110 12/2GB/CD system falls from UKP4,375 to UKP3,655. On the PowerBook front, the Duo 280c systems have been reduced to UKP2,230 for the 280c 4/500 and UKP3,358 for the 540c 12/500/EM model. Reductions in the PowerBook range average around 10 percent. (Steve Gold/19950608/Press Contact: Bite PR, +44-181-332-2399, Internet e-mail bitecomm@applelink.apple.com; Reader Contact: Apple Computer, 0800-127753) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 06/08/95 TRENDS UK - Confidence Returning To Pentium PC Sales (NEWS)(TRENDS)(LON)(00011) UK - Confidence Returning To Pentium PC Sales 06/08/95 BURNLEY, LANCASHIRE, ENGLAND, 1995 JUN 8 (NB) -- Time Computers, along with its sister direct-sell operation, MJN Computers, is reporting that sales of Pentium-based systems are on the rise again, following a six month hiatus caused by the floating-point snag identified by the PC industry late last year. According to Time, which sells its own Colossus PC range, as well as systems from several other major PC vendors, sales of Pentium systems now make up 20 percent of all sales into the SOHO (small office/home office) marketplace. At sister company MJN, meanwhile, which sells own-brand machines into the SOHO and corporate markets, around 35 percent of all machines are now Pentium-based -- a major increase on the situation six months ago. According to John Butters, a company spokesman, the 75 megahertz (MHz) chipset is proving to be the most popular, while the P60 is being shunned because of difficulties in upgrading. Owners of the 75MHz chipset-based machines are finding it relatively easier to slot a faster chip into the motherboard, hence the bias towards this processor type. John Silcock, Times' national sales manager, explained that the PC market, both on the SOHO and corporate market sides, has been changing at an incredible rate in recent months. "Six months ago, Pentium sales dropped through the floor and most buyers were in the home market," he said. "Now the chip is becoming increasingly popular in all markets, and businesses are more likely to choose these machines than home buyers." (Steve Gold/19950608/Press Contact: Insight PR, +44-1625-500800; Reader Contact: Time Computer Systems, +44-1282-777111) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 06/08/95 LEGAL Moscow Hotel Robbed, Security System At Fault (NEWS)(LEGAL)(LON)(00012) Moscow Hotel Robbed, Security System At Fault 06/08/95 MOSCOW, RUSSIA, 1995 JUN 8 (NB) -- Just because a high tech security system is installed does not mean that the thieves can be caught, Newsbytes has learned from the aftermath of a serious gang raid on the InTourist Hotel in Moscow. A gang of thieves descended on the hotel on May 17. With the gang holding up guests at the hotel, they concentrated their efforts on cleaning out the jewelry shop located in the building. Previously, the hotel had made much of the hotel's high tech video surveillance system and its ability to record any unusual activity in and around the hotel. Although the thieves struck quickly, the hotel's management told the police that there were no video tapes inside the recorders. According to hotel staff, a two man gang hit the hotel suddenly and instructed more than 50 guests to lay on the floor at gunpoint. One of the men then broke into the window of the currency exchange store operated by the 21st Century Development Bank, while the other entered the jewelry store. Inside the bank, the clerk of the exchange was forced at gunpoint to open the safe, despite protestations that it was empty. The thief then discovered that the safe was, indeed, empty. In the jewelry exchange, meanwhile, the other criminal had more luck, taking Belgian gold jewelry with precious gems, as well as other expensive items. A police officer who visited the hotel by chance attempted to intervene in the robbery and was shot in both legs. According to police, the robbery was almost certainly Mafia-organized and a smoke bomb was let off to let the raiders make good their escape. The smoke bomb was highly sophisticated, police say, and was a combination of anti-frost and pesticide spray. According to Inspector Zubkov of the Moscow police, because the whole episode was not captured on video, scene of crime officers had to rely on composite sketches to get "pictures" of the robbers. Because of the speed of the robbery and its ferocity, composite sketches drawn from witnesses' comments proved to be confused and inconclusive. Four different pictures for each of the robbers were compiled. According to Gennady Krasnov, the hotel's deputy general director, the raid was a great shock to the staff at the hotel. He was not prepared to say, however, whether precautions to prevent a reoccurrence would now be taken. Krasnov told reporters that, in his opinion, any additional equipment does not guarantee better safety. In his opinion the loses were minimal. "Nobody is protected against people who want to rob a bank, not even in the West. We have never had an incident like this before. Not a single guest lost a single thing," he said. Newsbytes notes that Krasnov's attitude to the crime is atypical of current feelings towards Mafia activities in Russia today. Since businesses pay high insurance rates against crimes of this type, citizens take a laid-back approach to business crimes. Crimes against people, meanwhile, are still frowned upon, even though the Russian Mafia is reported to be moving into this lucrative area of crime. (Sylvia Dennis/19950608/Press & Reader Contact: Moscow InTourist Hotel, +70-95-956-8426) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 06/08/95 ONLINE Novell Offers Free Envoy Reader Online (NEWS)(ONLINE)(DEN)(00013) Novell Offers Free Envoy Reader Online 06/08/95 OREM, UTAH, U.S.A., 1995 JUN 8 (NB) -- Novell Inc. (NASDAQ: NOVL) is offering a free copy of its document reader software, Envoy Viewer, on the Internet and on some of the subscription online services. You can get the full version of Envoy Viewer on Novell's home page on the Internet or from CompuServe or Spaceworks. Envoy Viewer is a platform- and application-independent royalty-free viewer that allows users to distribute documents in an electronic form that can be read regardless of what computer or software the recipient has. The reader accompanies the sent document. Envoy, with its $189 suggested retail price, consists of two parts, a document publisher and a document viewer. Only Envoy owners can publish an Envoy document, but the viewer is available to anyone to view Envoy documents and send feedback using the annotation, highlighting, and bookmarking features. The document publisher can distribute the Viewer with the document, allowing the recipient to see the document with its original layout, fonts, graphics, and colors. When the Envoy run-time files are returned to the author, the author can choose to import some, all, or none of the other users' annotations into the original document, according to Smith. The software also provides document thumbnails, permits annotations to be color-coded by user, is able to present a list of annotations by user. Envoy's lineage lies in WordPerfect out of Tumbleweed, a third party developer that originated the product. The files are compact, generally much smaller than the original application file, according to Novell. The complete Envoy package of publisher and reader requires one megabyte of hard disk space and runs on virtually any computer with 600 kilobytes of memory. The Novell home page URL is http://www.novell.com. On CompuServe use the command GO WPFILES, then select Library 11. The file name is edvwin.exe. The file is also in the customer support library on Spaceworks. (Jim Mallory/19950608/Press contact: Gina Trausch, Brodeur & Partners for Novell, 617-622-2839) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 06/08/95 GOVT GTSI Faces Justice Department Probe (NEWS)(GOVT)(WAS)(00014) GTSI Faces Justice Department Probe 06/08/95 CHANTILLY, VIRGINIA, U.S.A., 1995 JUN 8 (NB) -- Government Technology Services Inc. (NASDAQ: GTSI) has received a civil investigative demand from the US Department of Justice. GTSI is the nation's largest reseller of microcomputer and Unix workstation hardware and software to the federal government. GTSI spokesman Carter Cromley told Newsbytes that Justice is seeking information on GTSI's General Services Administration schedule sales from the years 1988 to the present. According to Cromley, Justice wants information on GTSI's use of vendor rebates and marketing funds in connection with GSA schedule sales. Cromley said GTSI has no additional information on what the Justice Department has in mind. Other sources speculate that the inquiry may be related to an internal Inspector General investigation at GSA. GTSI's announcement of the inquiry from the Justice Department yesterday afternoon had a prompt impact on the company's stock. The stock fell 1 3/8 to 5 3/8, a 20 percent loss, on 57,500 shares traded, about five times the average volume for the company's shares. GTSI's stock has been getting hammered lately, after trading as high as $11 per share this year. The company recorded record revenues of $617 million in 1994, but higher costs saw earnings per share for the year slip to 37 cents, from $1.30 for 1993. This year has seen the company record a loss for the first quarter, as government purchases are slowing. (Kennedy Maize/19950608/Press Contact: Carter Cromley, GTSI, 703-502-2035) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 06/08/95 LEGAL ****Senate Debates Telecoms Legislation (NEWS)(LEGAL)(WAS)(00015) ****Senate Debates Telecoms Legislation 06/08/95 WASHINGTON, D.C., U.S.A., 1995 JUN 8 (NB) -- "For the average American family, legislation to reform our telephone, cable and broadcasting industries is surely one of the most important matters" to come before Congress, said Sen. Larry Pressler (R-S.D.) as the Senate opened debate yesterday evening on his bill to reform the 1934 Communications Act. Pressler said the bill approved by his Senate Commerce Committee will allow cable, local and long-distance companies to enter each other's business and free the nation's largest electric utility holding companies to offer telecommunications services. But opponents said the bill will create chaos, confusion and higher prices. "In the early days, don't expect to get a round of applause," said Sen. Bob Kerrey (D-Neb.), who said he will vote against the bill. "It may take nine or 10 years" before competition begins to take hold. Kerrey said the bill has been written to favor large telecommunications companies, but "consumers of this country have not been consulted." Senate Majority Leader Bob Dole (R-Kan.) unveiled a package of amendments that deregulate further and faster than Pressler's bill, and would bring the Senate measure more into line with a bill that has passed the House Commerce Committee. Dole was maneuvering last night to get his package approved without the need for a recorded vote. Sen. Joseph Lieberman (D-Conn.) will offer an amendment that would slow down deregulation of cable TV rates. The Pressler bill would deregulate rates on cable unless a cable company's rates "substantially" exceed a national average. Lieberman would calculate the deregulation threshold from an average based on cable systems facing "head-to-head" competition. Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) plans to offer an amendment that would strip out the provision put into the Pressler bill by Sen. James Exon (D-Neb.) to ban smut on the Internet. Leahy would replace that with a Justice Department study of the issue. During yesterday's debate, the Senate agreed by voice vote to expand the Federal Communications Commission's authority to auction the radio spectrum. The Senate was looking for a way to pay for a provision in the bill that is designed to make telecommunications services universally available. That provision will cost $7 billion. The Senate is expected to pass the legislation, perhaps as soon as today. In the House, two measures are competing for attention: a bill from the Commerce Committee that generally tracks the Senate plan, and a competing measure from the Judiciary Committee that gives the Justice Department a greater role. Once bills have passed both the House and Senate, differences must be worked out in a joint conference committee. House and Senate Republican leaders hope to have a bill on President Clinton's desk later this summer. While the White House has some problems with both the Senate and House Commerce Committee bills, the president is expected to sign the final product. (Kennedy Maize/19950608) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 06/08/95 HEALTH Electronic Medical Diagnostic Help Guide (NEWS)(HEALTH)(MSP)(00016) Electronic Medical Diagnostic Help Guide 06/08/95 MOUNT HOLLY, NEW JERSEY, U.S.A., 1995 JUN 8 (NB) -- Franklin Electronic Publishers Inc. (NYSE:FEP) and McGraw-Hill Inc. (NYSE:MHP) have agreed to produce an electronic version of "DeGowin & DeGowin's Diagnostic Examination," a text for medical students and doctors in the early stages of their practices. The Diagnostic Examination, which is the Sixth Edition of the work, "Allows (students and beginning physicians) to narrow down what the potential diagnosis is that they're looking for based on the conditions of the patient," Bruno Bieler, president of Franklin's medical division, told Newsbytes. "So if they know the patient has high blood pressure, a high blood sugar count, or a myriad of things, they can search the book and the book will lead them to additional information that will potentially help them diagnose the patient much faster." The text, along with simple graphics, from the book will be on a cartridge that will fit into Franklin's Digital Book System. The Book System is a 3.5-inch by five-inch pocket-sized unit with a liquid crystal display (LCD) screen and two cartridge slots. "Diagnostic Examination will give students and beginners an authoritative sourcebook that they can slip into their lab-coat pockets and take to the clinic, hospital, or medical school," Bieler said. Diagnostic Examination is expected to be available in the third quarter of 1996, Bieler said. Pricing has not yet been determined on the new product. It will be available through the same channels where other Franklin electronic medical titles are sold, including medical school bookstores, the American Medical Association, certain catalog houses, and directly from Franklin. Other titles that Franklin is putting in electronic book form for McGraw-Hill include "Harrison's Internal Medicine" and "Schwarz's Principles of Surgery Companion Guide." Beiler said the surgery guide will ship in about two weeks. Franklin's library of other electronic titles includes "Physicians' Desk Reference Pocket PDR," "The Merck Manual," and the "Washington University Manual of Medical Therapeutics." (Bob Woods/19950608/Press Contacts: Len Abbazia or Larry Titelbaum, Franklin Electronic Publishers, 609-261-4800) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 06/08/95 ONLINE Internet Update (NEWS)(ONLINE)(TYO)(00017) Internet Update 06/08/95 TOKYO, JAPAN, 1995 JUN 8 (NB) -- In this roundup of new resources and services on the Internet: Small Business Conference online; Network file server software for CD jukeboxes; Russian chess championship Web site; New release of Newpages; Free Web pages; Asia Pacific BBS Link; GIF information point; New HTML editor. Small Business Conference Online Information from the White House Conference on Small Business from June 11 to June 14 is being posted onto the Internet. Reports, updated several times a day and provided by NetMarquee Online Services, will be available on the World Wide Web. The reports will be provided several times each day by David E. Gumpert, an authority on small business and entrepreneurship. World Wide Web: http://nmq.com/ Network File Server Software For CD Jukeboxes iXOS-ARCHIVE/cd is a network file server for CD jukeboxes. The software controls jukeboxes, drives and CDs and presents them as a standard file system, either via the Network File System protocol or as a native file system for Windows NT. An evaluation copy is available for download from the Web page, plus more information. World Wide Web: http://www.ixos.de/ixos.de/archiveCD.html Russian Chess Championship Web Site Novgorod State University, as sponsor of the "Lord Novgorod The Great" chess championship, has been running a Web server for the games which finish on June 9. The international chess championships are one of three such events each year. World Wide Web: http://www.novsu.ac.ru/ New Release Of Newpages Software Operators of World Wide Web sites will appreciate the Newpages software, now in a new release. It scans the local server and notifies of any new pages. The software itself is a small script. World Wide Web: http://sw.cse.bris.ac.uk/public/findhtml.html Free Web Pages! For those without a home page on the World Wide Web there are several organizations offering them. The Web page listed includes details of the services that are offering them. World Wide Web: http://metro.turnpike.net/J/JonsPage/freepages.html. Also, non-profit organizations, community centers, and schools are being offered free Web pages by Vive Synergies Inc. World Wide Web: http://www.vive.com/connect/ Asia Pacific BBS Link The Asia Pacific BBS Link has launched a home page on the Internet. From its Singapore base the organization lists all Singapore's online services, a directory of bulletin board systems (BBSs) on the Asia-Pacific region, a newsletter, and a calendar of related events in the region for this year. World Wide Web: http://www.teleview.com.sg/~vinoh/ GIF Information Point All the information available on the Internet about Transparent and Interlaced GIF images and software to create them has been collected together by a NASA worker who has provided links to the pages from a single point. World Wide Web: http://dragon.jpl.nasa.gov/~adam/transparent.html Anonymous FTP: ftp://csi.jpl.nasa.gov/pub/graphics/transparent.faq New HTML Editor asWedit is a new HTML editor for the X Windows system and Motif. The editor supports HTML level 2 and 3. Features include a context- sensitive mode in which the user can only use tags valid in the insertion point, a preview mode that calls on Netscape 1.1, Mosaic 2.5, Arena or Lynx, and a comprehensive context-sensitive, hypertext help. Anonymous FTP: ftp://src.doc.ic.ac.uk/packages/www/asWedit/ Anonymous FTP: ftp://ftp.umbc.edu/pub/unix/www/asWedit/ (Martyn Williams/19950608) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 06/08/95 LEGAL Piracy Whistleblowers Come From Within (NEWS)(LEGAL)(SYD)(00018) Piracy Whistleblowers Come From Within 06/08/95 SYDNEY, AUSTRALIA, 1995 JUN 8 (NB) -- Ron Eckstrom is vice president of the Business Software Association (BSA) of the US. Ron knows who is most likely to report institutional piracy -- someone from within the organization, often the management information system (MIS) staff. Eckstrom is on a trip to Australia, and at a press conference he said more than half of the software piracy lawsuits filed against corporations in Australia and New Zealand were the result of a tip-off from a MIS manager or staff. Eckstrom said that MIS staff who lost their jobs or had a grudge against the organization were the most likely to make a report. Interestingly, he added that it was usually the financial officer who made the decision that it was worth the risk to use pirated copies of software rather than buy sufficient legal copies. Australian ComputerWorld Today reports BSA Chairman Robert Holleyman as saying that it isn't only past employees who are making reports. "MIS managers are one of our best sources. They know the laws and have spoken to senior management who have just responded by saying 'We don't care, go and copy software.' Well, they aren't prepared to leave themselves exposed in this situation so they will anonymously make a report to the BSA." Software piracy is slowly dropping around the world, and Australia is well ahead of this, with piracy rates down from 45 percent in 1993 to 37 percent last year. This puts Australia third best, behind the US (35 percent) and Switzerland. The UK is at 43 percent. (Paul Zucker/19950608) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 06/08/95 PC CD Focuses On Australian Wildlife (NEWS)(PC)(SYD)(00019) CD Focuses On Australian Wildlife 06/08/95 SYDNEY, AUSTRALIA, 1995 JUN 8 (NB) -- Fauna Australis is a new multimedia PC that features the unique wildlife of Australia, from the Koala to the extinct Tasmanian Tiger. The AUS$160 disk features full-screen photos sound clips, habitat sounds, and videos. It was prepared by the staff associated with Healesville Sanctuary. A feature of the disk is a section on conservation from the Victorian State department of Conservation and Natural Resources. There are also specialist articles on habitats and birds of prey, and research projects being carried out by Melbourne Zoo, Healesville Sanctuary, and others. The text on the disk covers such areas as the animal's appearance, their diet, how they reproduce, life cycle, conservation status, and where they can be found. All the text can be printed, in addition to the photographs and distribution maps. Fauna Australis is being targeted at school students, although the publicity release touts it as being suitable for "ages six to 106." One animal on the disk is now reportedly extinct. The Tasmanian Tiger, or Thylacine, was last seen in the 1930's, although there have been some recent, unsubstantiated reports of sightings. The animal looked a bit like a dog with black stripes across its back. The name Thylacine comes from the Greek for "pouch," as the animal is a marsupial. The disk can be ordered from Trigon Consultants by calling or faxing +61-3-9764 8329. (Paul Zucker/19950608) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 06/08/95 PC Australia - Xerox Intros Remote Whiteboard (NEWS)(PC)(SYD)(00020) Australia - Xerox Intros Remote Whiteboard 06/08/95 SYDNEY, AUSTRALIA, 1995 JUN 8 (NB) -- LiveBoard is a new product from Fuji Xerox, designed to give the functionality of a whiteboard, but replicated at multiple remote sites. The host system is based on a 66 megahertz (MHz) 486DX2 or Pentium PC and a 1.7-meter (about six feet) rear projection VGA screen. Remote locations can be connected via the built-in 14,400 bits-per-second (bps) modem (V.32bis) over dial-up phone lines, or on a network. Software allows the users to share the virtual whiteboard space, for common writing and drawing tasks. They can also work on documents or other PC applications. "Virtual pens" allow the users to create images, then edit, color, annotate, erase, save, retrieve, and print them. Information Solutions Group, a new division within the Australian Government has installed LiveBoard to assist with systems development "as a high quality presentation tool," according to Fuji Xerox Australia spokesperson Peter Hong. "LiveBoard is ideal as it uses Windows applications and incorporates handwriting recognition software that makes meeting time more efficient." A key component of the host system is a wireless pen that, not only allows the user to operate the system in slide-show mode, but acts as a graphical input device for all Windows applications. (Paul Zucker/19950608/Press contact: Fuji Xerox Australia tel +61-2-364-5200, fax +61-2-391-5303) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 06/08/95 GENERAL Japan Newsbriefs (NEWS)(GENERAL)(TYO)(00021) Japan Newsbriefs 06/08/95 TOKYO, JAPAN, 1995 JUN 8 (NB) -- In this roundup of news from Japan: Japan & US to cooperate on semiconductor development; Investigation of NTT's future begins; Seiko's ACTTIVE system chosen as FM pager standard; NTT says flat rate e-mail this year; Sony, Asahi, Corning invest in new project. Japan & US To Cooperate On Semiconductor Development Japanese and American semiconductor producers have agreed to closer ties and more cooperation on development of new chips for new products such as digital video devices. The "Emerging Applications Cooperative Project" was announced in Tokyo by the Electronic Industries Association of Japan. Investigation Of NTT's Future Begins A Japanese government investigation into the future of Nippon Telegraph and Telephone has begun in Tokyo. The government is trying to decide whether to split the massive domestic telephone company into two units, one to handle the local call market and one to provide long distance services. Not surprisingly, NTT officials have fiercely opposed any moves to split the company up. The Telecommunications Council previously recommended NTT be split, five years ago, but opposition from the Finance Ministry stopped those plans. The council is to investigate whether more competition would be injected into the telecommunications market if NTT, which currently have an 80% share of the domestic market, is split up. Seiko's ACTTIVE System Chosen As FM Pager Standard Seiko Communication's ACTTIVE system has been recommended by the Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications as the county's high-speed FM sub-carrier paging standard. The Seiko system multiplexes information services such as traffic news, weather, and earthquake alerts alongside data being sent to personal pagers, whilst still complying with all international FM broadcast standards, according to the company. NTT Says Flat Rate E-Mail This Year NTT President Masashi Kojima said recently that the company would introduce an open computer to computer network in the next financial year which enables users of computer services to have their calls charged at a fixed monthly fee. The new fixed monthly fee scheme may, however, be introduced as early as this August. Currently Japanese computer uses pay some of the world's highest telephone charges and the new scheme is designed to encourage use of telecommunications systems for computer applications. A three minute day-time call within Tokyo costs just 10 yen ($0.11) although a long distance call can cost up to 180 yen ($2.11). Newsbytes recently reported on an article from the Asahi Shimbun newspaper that said the new flat fee telephone system would be introduced this summer. Sony, Asahi, Corning Invest In New Project Sony Electronics, Asahi Glass America, and Corning Inc. have announced they are forming a new company to produce glass for television sets and computer monitors. The new company, American Video Glass Co, will establish a 40,000 square-feet factory at Sony's existing Mount Pleasant, Pa. facility. Between 500 and 700 people will be employed at the new $300 million facility. (Martyn Williams/19950608) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 06/08/95 BROADCAST CNN To Launch All-Business News Network? (NEWS)(BROADCAST)(MSP)(00022) CNN To Launch All-Business News Network? 06/08/95 ATLANTA, GEORGIA, U.S.A., 1995 JUN 8 (NB) -- Cable News Network (CNN) plans to put together an all-business news cable channel that will compete with CNBC (Cable News and Business Channel), the Wall Street Journal reported today. A CNN official told Newsbytes the company is not officially commenting on the report. The Journal said CNN would launch the new network in January, and compete with other business channels like NBC's CNBC. The new cable network would produce day-long business coverage from 7 am to 7 pm, Monday through Friday. It would be carried on the same satellite that now carries the CNN International USA channel, the Journal reported. CNN International USA would then be scaled back in the US to provide that coverage evenings and weekends. The board of Turner Broadcasting System, which is the parent company of CNN, is scheduled to vote on the plan tomorrow, the Journal said. Besides CNBC, the Journal said other competitors to the new venture would include PBS's "Nightly Business Report" and "Wall Street Week," and the syndicated "Wall Street Journal Report." In addition, local TV stations and broadcast networks run business news, and a 24-hour business-news radio station is run by Bloomberg Business News. Turner's board is reportedly made up of cable operating companies, including Time Warner, Tele-Communications, Comcast, and Cablevision. Support from the four cable companies could be enough to let the new channel onto many cable systems, which generally don't have a lot of room for new networks, the Journal added. (Bob Woods/19950608/Press Contact: Cable News Network, 212-852-6846) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 06/08/95 BUSINESS Mergent Int'l Sets Up In Europe (NEWS)(BUSINESS)(LON)(00023) Mergent Int'l Sets Up In Europe 06/08/95 HEMEL HEMPSTEAD, HERTFORDSHIRE, ENGLAND, 1995 JUN 8 (NB) -- Mergent International, the US-based security technology company, has opened a new European headquarters. Located in Hemel Hempstead, a town some 30 miles north of London, England, the offices will service and support the company's European distribution outlets. Nigel Parker, a company spokesman, told Newsbytes that the company's products have been available through specialist channels in Europe for some time, including as an OEM (original equipment manufacturer)- badged product known as "PC Guard," from Racal Airtech. The opening of the company HQ coincides with a worldwide licensing agreement to market Groupe Bull's ISM/AccessMaster product, which is described as a powerful enterprise information security administration and management system. "The company is well known in the US and business is expanding on this side of the Atlantic, which is why the new European office has been opened," Parker said, adding that the operation is being headed by Louis Oley, who is described as "an information security veteran." Oley becomes the company's director of European operations and claims that the company's products, in the US at least, are recognized as a market leader, and are widely used in the financial, commercial and government sectors in France, Italy, the Netherlands and the UK. "Naturally, our partnership with Bill and our sales/support office in Europe will enable us to leverage Mergent's leading market position and gain early, and rapid, entry into the total enterprise security arena," he explained. Bull's AccessMaster package, Newsbytes notes, is billed as helping companies streamline their user access to data and systems, while enhancing security to protect against unauthorized use. The package runs on several client/server software/operating system environments, including AIX, HP-UX, Oracle, OS/2, NetWare 3 & 4, SCO, SunOS and Solaris, as well as Apple Mac, MS-Windows, LAN Manager, and DOS. Support for Windows 95 and Apple Mac PowerPC environments is planned for early next year. (Steve Gold/19950608/Press Contact: Strategic Alliance, +44-1494- 434434; Reader Contact: Mergent International, +55-1442-230030) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 06/08/95 ONLINE UK - Infobank's Secure Web Access & Ordering (NEWS)(ONLINE)(LON)(00024) UK - Infobank's Secure Web Access & Ordering 06/08/95 SLOUGH, BERKSHIRE, ENGLAND, 1995 JUN 8 (NB) -- Infobank has unveiled a World Wide Web server that allows customers to order more than 1,000 software packages using encrypted payment card details sent over the Internet. #IMAGE 1 20 TWPCX \images\95060824.PCX Click here for photo Instead of adopting the encrypted data transmission version of Netscape, the Netscape SSL version, Infobank has developed its own secure payment card ordering/access package known as Titan. Once connected to the Web server at http://www.atlas.co.uk/infobank/, Netscape/Mosaic or other Web browser users are invited to download the Titan secure Internet access package and run the software in place of their existing Web browser. According to David Hargreaves, a spokesman for Infobank, the Titan package has been developed to offer secure interaction with the Infobank Web pages, and offers a secure method of exchange payment (credit/debit) card information. "A bit like re-inventing the wheel?" questioned Newsbytes. Not so, Hargreaves replied, claiming that Titan was developed specifically for the Infobank service. In use, Titan flashes up a standard order form with the usual details as name, address, payment card info, and delivery details. The Titan software then locks and encrypts the resultant file, transmitting it across the Internet. Each file, which is stamped with a unique integrity code, can only be processed by the supplier to whom it is sent. If any changes are made to the file during transmission, the code will alert the recipient to this fact. On receipt of a Titan originated order, Infobank generates an electronic-mail receipt giving details of the status of the order and passing it back to the sender in encrypted format. According to Infobank, the Web service is the first of its type to offer users the ability to order products from computer companies such as Lotus, Microsoft, IBM, Compaq, Digital, Borland, Pioneer, Orange, Royal Mail, Sprint, and British Rail across the Internet. The Web server facilities are hosted on the Atlas Internet service. The Titan secure software, meanwhile, was developed in conjunction with International Software Development (ISD). John Williams, Infobank's marketing director, said that, by extending the company's existing software and hardware mail-order operation onto the Internet, the company is offering a new information and ordering mechanism. "We expect some customers to purchase directly off the Internet, whereas others will subscribe to the Infobank CD-ROM offering (a locked software CD-ROM disk), so they can take advantage of instant software delivery via encryption, as well as getting immediate access to other information and products," he said. Interestingly, Williams added that he does not see a need for software to be made available for download across the Internet. "At present, it is not feasible to download software or extensive graphics from the Web because of the time and costs involved," he said. (Steve Gold/19950608/Press Contact: Firefly, +44-171-381- 4505, Internet e-mail dhargrea@firefly.co.uk; Reader Contact: Infobank, +44-1753-799500, Internet e-mail infobank@atlas.co.uk/INFOBANK060895/PHOTO) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 06/08/95 TRENDS ****Taligent/IBM To Offer First CommonPoint Products (NEWS)(TRENDS)(BOS)(00025) ****Taligent/IBM To Offer First CommonPoint Products 06/08/95 NEW YORK, NEW YORK, U.S.A., 1995 JUN 8 (NB) -- Taligent's CommonPoint object-oriented framework, under development for the past seven years, will enter general release for AIX in July, Taligent and IBM officials said, in a teleconference and a follow-up interview with Newsbytes. It will then be made available for HP-UX in the first quarter of 1996, followed by Windows NT, Windows 95, and Apple's upcoming Copland in mid-1996. It will also be offered for OS/2 and OS/400, Ultimately, developers will be able to "write an application once, attach it to existing databases and networks, and deploy it across multiple platforms," reported Joseph M Guglielmi, president and chief executive officer (CEO) of Taligent. IBM will be the first to bring Taligent to market with the CommonPoint Applications System for AIX and the CommonPoint Application Development Toolkit on July 28, Guglielmi added, at a New York City press conference, attended by Newsbytes via teleconference, where the immediate availability of the 1.0 reference release of the CommonPoint Application System was also announced. Taligent developed the reference release with the use of AIX tools, Guglielmi told Newsbytes in a follow-up interview. Taligent plans to ship the reference release to its investors -- IBM, Hewlett- Packard, and Apple -- later this month. Each of the three investors intends to "add value," while also complying with the 1.0 reference release, according to Guglielmi. "We've been able to leverage the underlying capabilities of AIX to make the AIX edition of CommonPoint a very simple install," asserted Jon E. Newman, director of systems software marketing and industry relations for IBM. IBM is also "adding value" with international localized editions, Newman told Newsbytes. "Frameworks are where the industry is going," remarked John F. Slitz, Jr., VP of objects technology marketing for IBM. Taligent's new object-oriented framework will bring greater ease of use to end users, productivity and quick portability to developers, and reduced development costs to organizations, he maintained. "You'll have the opportunity to `grab objects,' and knit them together in a way that makes sense for the organization," Slitz asserted. The CommonPoint Application System consists of a set of "application frameworks," such as graphics editing and text editing frameworks, layered above a series of "systems services frameworks," for services such as shared document collaboration, "component licensing," and "vendor-independent" database access and communications, according to the execs. Users will be able to "plug" components for specific application and "tasks" into the application frameworks as "live objects." The application frameworks will support application sharing among multiple users, a "rich" compound document structure, "business- oriented multimedia," integrated two-dimensional (2-D) and three-dimensional (3-D) graphics, and WYSIWYG (what-you-see-is-what-you-get) color matching. Taligent and IBM have been beta testing CommonPoint among independent software developers (ISVs) as well as corporations such as American Express and British Airways, and 15 colleges and universities, Guglielmi told Newsbytes. ISV beta testers told Newsbytes that they have been collaborating with Taligent and IBM on application frameworks, as well as creating plug-in components for applications and tasks. "CommonPoint is allowing us to do without massive blocks of code that we've needed for OS/2 applications," said Randell Flint, president of Sundial Systems Corporation, Seal Beach, California, an ISV specializing in time management and groupware applications. "The (CommonPoint) environment is really like a giant erector set, with pre-built pieces that you can combine the way you want. You can build applications much more quickly," Flint told Newsbytes. "The other great thing is the portability. Applications built for one platform are either completely transparent to other platforms, or very close to it," added Flint, who is working on CommonPoint applications for OS/2 and another platform. Stephan Adams, Ph.D., president of Adamation Inc., agreed. "CommonPoint keeps us `higher up' in the development environment, allowing us to focus on the `product domain,'" Adams informed Newsbytes. Adams pointed out that his San Francisco-based development firm previously developed applications for Next's object-oriented NextStep framework. "But when Next began shipping product, the marketplace wasn't ready for objects. And Taligent has OEM (original equipment manufacturer) partners that will help push the technology," he observed. Adamation has been working with Taligent and IBM on the joint development of a "collaboration" framework for document collaboration, according to Adams. "There are other (products) that will let you collaborate on documents, such as (Lotus) Notes, but unlike the others, the collaboration framework will allow multiple users to edit documents together, dynamically in real-time," he maintained. Adamation, he revealed, is now building "a lot of `little components' for CommonPoint, including an "invitation system" for inviting people to participate in collaborative sessions. The CommonPoint Application Development System that will ship on July 28 will include cpConstructor, a tool for GUI (graphical user interface) development, Newman said. IBM is also readying a C++ development environment called cpProfessional, formerly code-named TalIDE, for future release, he told Newsbytes. In addition, Newsbytes was told Taligent and IBM are referencing two third-party development tools: Sniff, a debugging tool from Take 5; and Look, a browser. Editions of CommonPoint for HP-UX, Windows NT, and Windows 95 are expected to enter beta testing in the second half of this year, Guglielmi said. The Windows NT and Windows 95 editions are under internal development at Taligent, and have been publicly demonstrated, the Taligent CEO noted. IBM's CommonPoint Application Development Toolkit for AIX, version 1.1, which includes the CommonPoint Applications System and cpConstructor, is priced at $5,900. The CommonPoint Application System for AIX, version 1.1, will also be available separately for $1,500. (Jacqueline Emigh/19950608/Reader Contact: IBM, 914-765-1900; Press Contact: Bill O'Leary, IBM, 914-766-3642; Rob Cronin, Technology Solutions for IBM, 212-696-2000) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 06/08/95 NETWORK MFS To Interconnect PDN With Telecom Finland (NEWS)(NETWORK)(LON)(00026) MFS To Interconnect PDN With Telecom Finland 06/08/95 STOCKHOLM, SWEDEN, 1995 JUN 8 (NB) -- MFS International, an operating division of MFS Communications Company, has contracted with Telecom Finland to interconnect their respective packet data networks (PDNs). According to Jukka Lassila, Telecom Finland's assistant director, the two companies will have the interconnect in Stockholm, where MFS is in the process of constructing its fiber optic network. The move will benefit customers of both companies in several countries, since most customers will have access to frame relay or high-speed LAN (local area network) interconnection services. The combined network covers the US, the Nordic Region (Finland), the Benelux region, France, Germany, the Baltics, Russia, and the UK. "Both companies share a common philosophy of providing high quality, simple-to-use LAN interconnection services for customers. This agreement will allow us to provide the same high quality of managed services to customers throughout Europe and the US," Lassila said. Both companies are using ATM (asynchronous transfer mode) as their network transport technology. MFS claims it was the first company in the US to deploy an ATM-based PDN back in 1992, while Telecom Finland was the first with the technology in Europe later that same year. (Sylvia Dennis/19950608/Press Contact: Karin Mlaker, MFS Communications, +32-2-6550-211; Jukka Lassila, Telecom Finland, +358-20401) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 06/08/95 NETWORK Zenith Data's CruisePad Wins Best Product Award (NEWS)(NETWORK)(MSP)(00027) Zenith Data's CruisePad Wins Best Product Award 06/08/95 BUFFALO GROVE, ILLINOIS, U.S.A., 1995 JUN 8 (NB) -- Zenith Data Systems (ZDS) said its CruisePad was named "Best Product" at the VarVision/Spring '95 show in Phoenix. The device won based on votes from about 70 of the nation's top value-added resellers (VARs) in the MicroVision event, which was co-sponsored by Computer Reseller News and VarBusiness Magazines. "The reason it is so exciting is the VAR channel is important to our product," Scott Merkle, senior product marketing manager of ZDS's Mobile Systems Group, told Newsbytes. "It's definitely a solution- sell for the customers we're going after." The CruisePad remotely controls desktop or notebook computers, with the help of radio devices. The unit weighs about three pounds, measures about nine-inches diagonally, and has an 8.5-inch diagonal monochrome screen, Merkle said. The unit actually controls the desktop PC, while a display of what is on the PC's monitor is beamed to the CruisePad. This allows the user to control the PC while away from their desk. Merkle said the types of customers who normally use the mobile handheld product are "corridor cruisers," in his words. Those people include project managers who work with different groups of people, physicians and nurses who have to walk through hospitals, warehouse workers, and retail store managers. When one of the radio units is hooked up to one PC, the effective range of the unit is 500 feet, Merkle said. But when several are connected to a LAN (local area network), the technology works similar to when cellular phones are "handed off" from one cell to another, Merkle said. This gives the CruisePad a much greater range. In addition to the VarVision best product award, the CruisePad recently was commended in Business Week Magazine for the "1995 Industrial Design Excellence Awards" by the Industrial Designers Society of America. (Bob Woods/19950608/Press Contact: Glynis Gibson, Zenith Data Systems, 312-868-9400, or 708-808-4276; Public Contact: Zenith Data Systems, 800-533-0331, Internet World Wide Web http://www.zds.com/ZDS950608/PHOTO) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 06/08/95 NETWORK Beame & Whiteside Plans Windows 95 NFS Technology (NEWS)(NETWORK)(LON)(00028) Beame & Whiteside Plans Windows 95 NFS Technology 06/08/95 FRANKFURT, GERMANY, 1995 JUN 8 (NB) -- Beame & Whiteside, a networking software company, says it is working on a Network File System (NFS) client system for Windows 95. The company claims that the package will be ready to ship as soon as Windows 95 starts shipping to dealers, which is expected to happen in late August. According to the company, the package builds on the existing range of NFS software available for the Windows 3.1/NT environments, and has a multithreaded installable file system, the aim of which is to make optimal use of the Windows 95 32-bit architecture. After installation of the client NFS software, any Windows 95 workstation can access the file and print resources on any NFS server which runs under Unix, OpenVMS, Windows 95, and another NFS- compliant computing platform. A key feature of the 32-bit package is the Virtual Device Driver (VxD), which the company claims delivers more efficient connectivity performance. The VxD technology also supports the uniform naming conventions (UNC) for users to refer to network servers by name. To make the system act faster with greater scalability, Beame & Whiteside's NFS for Windows 95 is programmed to support NFS 2 and NFS 3 technology. NFS 2 technology reads and writes in blocks to a maximum size of eight kilobytes (KB). NFS 3, meanwhile is claimed to cope with data blocks up to 64KB in size, with a resultant increase in processing speed. "Beame & Whiteside has always worked closely with Microsoft and our customers to design integration software that complements all of Microsoft's computing platforms," commented Graham Wright, the company's vice president of technology. According to Wright, with the new NFS client, the company has created a new, stand-alone 32 bit network redirector that adds "transparent" file and print sharing capabilities to the TCP/IP (Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol) stack included with Windows 95. "By developing an NFS solution today, we can help our customers prepare to bring Windows 95 workstations into their enterprise networks when Microsoft's new operating system ships later this year," he added. (Sylvia Dennis/19950608/Press Contact: Tricia Lucas, Beame & Whiteside, tel 919-831-8989, fax 919-831-8990) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 06/08/95 BUSINESS ****IBM To Support DreamWorks With Digital Library (NEWS)(BUSINESS)(SFO)(00029) ****IBM To Support DreamWorks With Digital Library 06/08/95 LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1995 JUN 8 (NB) -- IBM and DreamWorks SKG have agreed to create an asset storage, management and distribution network around IBM's Digital Library software. The agreement means IBM will play an important and ongoing role with the management of DreamWorks digital content. DreamWorks SKG is the revolutionary digital studio concept of Steven Spielberg, Jeffrey Katzenberg, ex-Disney executive, and David Geffen, record mogul. Their goal is to establish and build the first totally digital movie studio, and produce feature films, animations, CD-ROM titles, television shows and other forms of entertainment. The management, storage and delivery of resulting digital files is a critical part of the operational process. Jeffrey Katzenberg, co-founder of DreamWorks, said, "The high speed retrieval, storage transmission and protection of material for animation, film, interactive concepts and music is essential to realizing the potential for the digital studio." Spielberg added, "Our relationship with IBM in this and other areas will be an important link in our technology alliances as we aim to realize our vision of creating the most innovative, advanced studio for the 21st century." Speaking to Newsbytes, Larry Bowden, director for multimedia at IBM, said, "IBM's Digital Library is comprised of five distinct parts. The first is a capture system which receives and marks digital elements such as audio, sound and images. The second is storage and management which provides for security. "The third, sophisticated search capabilities, allows users to find a specific file quickly and easily. We call the fourth element, "control modifications," which is a form of security through rights management. It determines who can access files and who is allowed to modify files and to what extent modification is permitted," he said. "The final part is distribution. This means the system has the capability to deliver a final product to a specific location such as the final version of a film to a theater." Bowden continued, "With this network in place, DreamWorks will be able to work with supporting artists and labs from around the world. Rather than shipping film from the studio to a special effects group in London, DreamWorks will almost instantaneously deliver that same material as a digital file. This means impressive savings in time and in manpower. Using this network, contributions to the production of a digital film may come from all over the world immediately. Operations that would have taken weeks may now take place in just a few days or even the same day." The high-end network will run on IBM's parallel processing computer, the Scalable Powerparallel Systems (SP2). The SP2 may run on as few as two processors or as many as 512 processors or nodes. According to the companies: "The scalability of this system is extremely important to the DreamWorks team. As the company begins to develop titles, it will accumulate a vast amount of data which needs highly effective and fast storage, management and delivery." (Patrick McKenna/19950608/Press Contact: Beth Kitchener, Brodeur & Partners, 617-622-2800) (SUMMARY)(GENERAL)(SFO)(00030) Newsbytes Daily Summary 06/08/95 PENN VALLEY, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1995 JUN 8 (NB) -- These are capsules of all today's news stories: 1 -> France - MFS Wins License For Paris Phone Net 06/08/95 MFS Communications SA, the French division of the US company of the same name, has been licensed by the DGPT (Direction Generale des Postes et Telecommunications) to install the first alternative fiber optic telecoms network in Paris and La Defense. 2 -> Racal Secures Contract For Russian Radio Net 06/08/95 Racal has revealed that Central Telegraph, a Russian telecoms service provider, has implemented the company's Widanet radio band technology to allow wireless data transfers in the Moscow area. 3 -> China - Foreign Firms Attracted To Telecom Market 06/08/95 Lured by the potentially huge telecom market, many of the world's leading telecom firms, such as Canada's Northern Telecom, US-based AT&T, Nokia of Finland, French Alcatel Bell, and Japan's NTT, are establishing footholds in China. 4 -> China - Network Interface Card Market Survey 06/08/95 A survey of 1,055 network interface card (NIC) users in China was conducted by China Infoworld in March and April this year. The results were published in the Computer Market Guide of China Infoworld. 5 -> Now Software Ships Datebook Deluxe CD For Mac 06/08/95 Now Software Inc. said it has started shipping Datebook Deluxe, a CD-ROM-based version of its calendar and to-do list manager software for the Macintosh. 6 -> Smithsonian Documents On The Internet 06/08/95 Thanks to sponsorship by Novell Inc. (NASDAQ: NOVL), Internet users will soon be able to study the thousands of documents and case studies collected by the ComputerWorld Smithsonian Awards Program over its six year lifespan. 7 -> Iomega Announces Internal Zip Drive 06/08/95 Iomega Corp. (NASDAQ: IOMG) has announced an internal version of its Zip Drive that uses interchangeable 100 megabytes (MB) and 25MB Zip disks for storage. 8 -> Iomega Seeks Mfg Partner To Meet Zip Drive Demand 06/08/95 Unable to meet consumer demand for its low-cost high-capacity removable media Zip disk drive, Iomega Corp. (NASDAQ: IOMG) said it is actively seeking a manufacturing partner to help get more of the drives into the retail channel. 9 -> DEC StorageWorks' Marketing Strategy For Asia Pacific 06/08/95 A decision by Digital Equipment Corp.'s StorageWorks to sign 14 resellers and distributors in the Asia Pacific is designed to meet mounting needs in the region for storage subsystems supporting Novell, Windows NT, Sun, HP, and IBM platforms, in addition to Digital environments, said Ronald Gervenack, StorageWorks' worldwide channels sales and marketing manager, in a conference call with Newsbytes. 10 -> Apple Europe Cuts Prices, Boosts System Specs 06/08/95 Apple Computer Europe has cut its prices by between four and 16 percent across its entire range. According to the company's UK and European operations, the price cuts provide more power per pound, as well as boosting the specifications of Macs on a promotional basis. 11 -> UK - Confidence Returning To Pentium PC Sales 06/08/95 Time Computers, along with its sister direct-sell operation, MJN Computers, is reporting that sales of Pentium-based systems are on the rise again, following a six month hiatus caused by the floating-point snag identified by the PC industry late last year. 12 -> Moscow Hotel Robbed, Security System At Fault 06/08/95 Just because a high tech security system is installed does not mean that the thieves can be caught, Newsbytes has learned from the aftermath of a serious gang raid on the InTourist Hotel in Moscow. 13 -> Novell Offers Free Envoy Reader Online 06/08/95 Novell Inc. (NASDAQ: NOVL) is offering a free copy of its document reader software, Envoy Viewer, on the Internet and on some of the subscription online services. 14 -> GTSI Faces Justice Department Probe 06/08/95 Government Technology Services Inc. (NASDAQ: GTSI) has received a civil investigative demand from the US Department of Justice. GTSI is the nation's largest reseller of microcomputer and Unix workstation hardware and software to the federal government. 15 -> ****Senate Debates Telecoms Legislation 06/08/95 "For the average American family, legislation to reform our telephone, cable and broadcasting industries is surely one of the most important matters" to come before Congress, said Sen. Larry Pressler (R-S.D.) as the Senate opened debate yesterday evening on his bill to reform the 1934 Communications Act. 16 -> Electronic Medical Diagnostic Help Guide 06/08/95 Franklin Electronic Publishers Inc. (NYSE:FEP) and McGraw-Hill Inc. (NYSE:MHP) have agreed to produce an electronic version of "DeGowin & DeGowin's Diagnostic Examination," a text for medical students and doctors in the early stages of their practices. 17 -> Internet Update 06/08/95 In this roundup of new resources and services on the Internet: Small Business Conference online; Network file server software for CD jukeboxes; Russian chess championship Web site; New release of Newpages; Free Web pages; Asia Pacific BBS Link; GIF information point; New HTML editor. 18 -> Piracy Whistleblowers Come From Within 06/08/95 Ron Eckstrom is vice president of the Business Software Association (BSA) of the US. Ron knows who is most likely to report institutional piracy -- someone from within the organization, often the management information system (MIS) staff. 19 -> CD Focuses On Australian Wildlife 06/08/95 Fauna Australis is a new multimedia PC that features the unique wildlife of Australia, from the Koala to the extinct Tasmanian Tiger. 20 -> Australia - Xerox Intros Remote Whiteboard 06/08/95 LiveBoard is a new product from Fuji Xerox, designed to give the functionality of a whiteboard, but replicated at multiple remote sites. 21 -> Japan Newsbriefs 06/08/95 In this roundup of news from Japan: Japan & US to cooperate on semiconductor development; Investigation of NTT's future begins; Seiko's ACTTIVE system chosen as FM pager standard; NTT says flat rate e-mail this year; Sony, Asahi, Corning invest in new project. 22 -> CNN To Launch All-Business News Network? 06/08/95 Cable News Network (CNN) plans to put together an all-business news cable channel that will compete with CNBC (Cable News and Business Channel), the Wall Street Journal reported today. A CNN official told Newsbytes the company is not officially commenting on the report. 23 -> Mergent Int'l Sets Up In Europe 06/08/95 Mergent International, the US-based security technology company, has opened a new European headquarters. Located in Hemel Hempstead, a town some 30 miles north of London, England, the offices will service and support the company's European distribution outlets. 24 -> UK - Infobank's Secure Web Access & Ordering 06/08/95 Infobank has unveiled a World Wide Web server that allows customers to order more than 1,000 software packages using encrypted payment card details sent over the Internet. 25 -> ****Taligent/IBM To Offer First CommonPoint Products 06/08/95 Taligent's CommonPoint object-oriented framework, under development for the past seven years, will enter general release for AIX in July, Taligent and IBM officials said, in a teleconference and a follow-up interview with Newsbytes. 26 -> MFS To Interconnect PDN With Telecom Finland 06/08/95 MFS International, an operating division of MFS Communications Company, has contracted with Telecom Finland to interconnect their respective packet data networks (PDNs). 27 -> Zenith Data's CruisePad Wins Best Product Award 06/08/95 Zenith Data Systems (ZDS) said its CruisePad was named "Best Product" at the VarVision/Spring '95 show in Phoenix. The device won based on votes from about 70 of the nation's top value-added resellers (VARs) in the MicroVision event, which was co-sponsored by Computer Reseller News and VarBusiness Magazines. 28 -> Beame & Whiteside Plans Windows 95 NFS Technology 06/08/95 Beame & Whiteside, a networking software company, says it is working on a Network File System (NFS) client system for Windows 95. The company claims that the package will be ready to ship as soon as Windows 95 starts shipping to dealers, which is expected to happen in late August. 29 -> ****IBM To Support DreamWorks With Digital Library 06/08/95 IBM and DreamWorks SKG have agreed to create an asset storage, management and distribution network around IBM's Digital Library software. The agreement means IBM will play an important and ongoing role with the management of DreamWorks digital content. (Ian Stokell/19950608) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 06/07/95 HEALTH China - Golden Health Project Links Hospitals (NEWS)(HEALTH)(PEK)(00001) China - Golden Health Project Links Hospitals 06/07/95 BEIJING, CHINA, 1995 JUN 7 (NB) -- China plans to set up an electronic information network covering its medical sector. The so-called, "Golden Health" project, aims to link health administration departments and hospitals, as well as medical education and research institutes. The network is crucial to improving the country's medical management and services, and in promoting information exchanges, a Ministry of Public Health (MPH) official said recently. The national institute of Hospital Administration and Ji Tong Communications Co. are working together on the network's overall design and construction. The design and selection of equipment is scheduled for completion this year, a MPH official said. The MPH hopes that the network will help with remote diagnosis, videoconferencing, and television operating instructions for staff operating in village and remote areas. There will also be a comprehensive data base that will provide the latest information to the government for better health management. Another goal is to spread the use of unified healthcare cards and medical insurance cards throughout the network. Credit (bank) cards will also be used by hospitals with network connections to the "Golden Card" project. By the end of this year, about 20 hospitals in the country will be linked together and a healthcare card systems will be installed. Beginning in 1997, the network will be expanded to cover the whole country, the MPH said. To build such a massive network, China needs to cooperate with overseas companies. The MPH has already contracted with some software and engineering construction companies in a long-term partnership arrangement. (Chih-Ho Yu & Ning Huang/19950607) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 06/07/95 TELECOM China - Dial-Up Audio Info Services Extended To US (NEWS)(TELECOM)(PEK)(00002) China - Dial-Up Audio Info Services Extended To US 06/07/95 BEIJING, CHINA, 1995 JUN 7 (NB) -- More than 200 audio information services are currently available in China, providing Chinese information about traveling, shopping, stock exchanges, and health care. Now the audio/phone information services have been extended to the US. China's Directorate General of Telecommunications (DGT) has launched an international telephone information service, called audiotex, which provides Chinese callers with access to updated information about US business and trade opportunities. The director of the international communications department of DGT said that consumers can dial 001-456-289-3501 to get information in Chinese. Each item averages three to six minutes, and the caller pays the applicable international long-distance charge, he said. The service is jointly run by the DGT and AT&T. Information is provided by the WPI Group, a company specializing in audiotex services with its base in New Jersey. Callers can obtain information about Sino-US trade opportunities, US analysts' advice to Chinese businesses wishing to enter the US market, and updated press reports on US-China trade agreements and developments, as well as technological achievements in the US and their commercial prospects. Exchanges and cooperation between China's businesses and those in the US are being expanded quickly in unison with China's ongoing domestic economic success, so this service comes at the right time, the director said. (Chih-Ho Yu & Ning Huang/19950607) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 06/07/95 BUSINESS China - Intel Plans Assembly Plant In Shanghai (NEWS)(BUSINESS)(PEK)(00003) China - Intel Plans Assembly Plant In Shanghai 06/07/95 BEIJING, CHINA, 1995 JUN 7 (NB) -- Intel plans to invest US$30 million building a factory in Shanghai to assemble and test semiconductor products. Construction is scheduled to start in the fourth quarter of 1995 and is expected to be completed by the end of 1997. Intel already has assembly and test plants in Penang, Malaysia, and Manila, Philippines. The wholly-owned manufacturing facility in Shanghai will be Intel's third in the Asia-Pacific region. The Shanghai plant, with about 900 employees, will help meet the growing demand for Intel products in China and around the Asia-Pacific region. Tom Hartman, vice-president of Intel's technology and manufacturing group will be the general manager for the new venture. The new plant will enable Intel to actively participate in China's high technology industry and will enhance Intel's competitive position in the region, Hartman said. Meanwhile, Intel is to sign a memorandum of understanding with the Shanghai municipal government. Shanghai will recommend Intel's Pentium processor for PCs in the city's key information projects, while Intel will participate in the "Golden Card project" and provide consultation to the project, which aims to spread the use of credit cards. Intel will also work with local companies to develop Shanghai's computer and software industry. More than two million PCs have been installed in China, a majority of which are based on Intel processors, and the market for PCs has been expanding by more than 30 percent annually. Intel has been assembling and testing its 386 microprocessors with the Huajing Electronics Group in Wuxi, Jiangsu province, since early last year. It has also opened the Intel Architecture Development Lab in Shanghai to assist Chinese software companies develop applications for the Intel architecture. (Chih-Ho Yu & Ning Huang/19950607) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 06/07/95 WINDOWS Quid Pro Quo Game/Classroom CD-ROMs (NEWS)(WINDOWS)(TOR)(00004) Quid Pro Quo Game/Classroom CD-ROMs 06/07/95 TAMPA, FLORIDA, U.S.A., 1995 JUN 7 (NB) -- Neon Publishing Inc. is handling North America-wide distribution of "Edutainment Trivia" and "Amusement Trivia," two new learn-while-you-play CD-ROM collections by Quid Pro Quo Software (QPQ) of Petawawa, Ontario, Canada. The two CDs should be on the shelves of major computer and software retailers by the end of this month. The two similarly-structured CDs each contain four main programs and four "bonus" games. Amusement Trivia offers "General Trivia" and "Entertainment Trivia" programs, plus "About Oscar" (Academy Awards trivia) and "All About The Grammys" (Grammy and MTV Music Awards trivia). Edutainment Trivia features "Stating the Facts" and "Only in Canada," programs that test the user's knowledge of US states and Canadian provinces. The supporting programs on this CD are "Presidential Primer" (about US Presidents) and "It's Elementary" (basic chemistry, focusing on the Periodic Table of Elements). All eight of these trivia programs provide the usual questions and answers (more than 5,200 in total) and keep score in a "gameboard" mode. They also offer access to all of the information on which the trivia questions are based, in a simple quick-reference format called "classroom" mode. Classroom mode lets the CDs double as basic family references, and according to the company, are fully accessible to elementary school kids without adult assistance thanks to "self-evident point-and-click operation and clear, simple language." "We are particularly proud of 'Only in Canada,'" Quid Pro Quo President John Girard said. "This program is filling a void in the market -- a low-cost, quality program about Canada." The same set of "bonus" games is shipped on both of the Quid Pro Quo CDs. "Renju" is a "checkers" game, very similar to "Reversi," which was shipped with early versions of Windows. "Ultra" is a code-breaking game based on colors rather than words and letters, making it suitable for younger players. The two other games in the bonus suite -- "Solitaire" and "Fox and Goose" -- are variations on QPQ's "Pegasus" game concept, using a playing area arranged rather like a Chinese Checkers board. All of the featured trivia programs and bonus games offer setup options allowing the user to set the difficulty level of each game and, in the trivia modules, the scope of the questions and answers for the session. Each CD carries a suggested retail price of (US)$24.95, but street prices are expected to fall in the (US)$18 to (US)$20 range. You'll need a CD-ROM drive and a VGA monitor to run the Quid Pro Quo CDs. A Sound Blaster-compatible sound card is recommended, but not absolutely necessary. These collections can be run directly from the CD-ROM and require no hard disk space. (Maggie Troone/19950607/Press Contact: Quid Pro Quo Software: John Girard, tel 613-687-8603, fax 613 687-6802; Neon Publishing, tel 813-854-5515, fax 813 854-5516) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 06/07/95 PC Union Logic Intros Radix - 3-D "Doom" Competitor (NEWS)(PC)(TOR)(00005) Union Logic Intros Radix - 3-D "Doom" Competitor 06/07/95 OTTAWA, ONTARIO, CANADA, 1995 JUN 7 (NB) -- Union Logic Software (ULS) has launched "Radix: Into The Void," its new flagship game and the company's first three-dimensional (3-D) effort. According to ULS spokesman Mark Lewis, the game will "beat the pants off" of "Doom" and "Descent," two of the leading 3-D "shooters" on the market. Radix is a joint production by ULS and Neural Storm Entertainment of Ottawa. Neural Storm provided the advanced 3-D game technology and Union Logic supplied the music engine, coordinated the graphics, and put the whole package together. As publisher, ULS is orchestrating the worldwide marketing effort. "It's going to be one of those games that everyone plays. It's got network, modem, serial -- the works," Lewis said. "We're going to be releasing a game editor for it, just like Doom. That's going to generate a lot of interest on bulletin board systems (BBSs) and the Internet. People will be able to create their own levels for the game." "We wanted to create a game that's not a Doom clone," ULS developer Jason Struck explained. "Radix is different in that it's extremely fast. We've got a special sound engine in there that gives you multi-channel sound. With respect to the 3-D technology, we've got everything Doom has, plus slopes. A wall or a floor can be at any angle. And we can tilt (your point of view) up and down while you're flying." The Neural Storm 3-D engine also has some novel features that let the user selectively trade graphics detail for more speed, when playing on slower machines. Struck concedes that other top games also let you do this, but "not 'on-the-fly,' like Radix does," he said. "With Radix, you can adjust both the (playing) window size and detail level ([to get more speed). We have five detail levels, all the way down to one called 'GANC,' which means 'get another computer.'" Lewis is confident that Radix will catapult ULC into the forefront of the shareware games industry. He points out that Doom got its start, only a couple of years ago, as a grass-roots shareware hit, and has since enjoyed enormous success in the marketplace. ULS distributes its products direct via shareware as well as through retail dealer channels in North America, the UK, and Europe. Radix: Into The Void is available now, worldwide, on the "shareware circuit" (via BBSs and the Internet) with retail release expected next month. The registration fee for the shareware version is (US)$34.95. The price for the full-retail version, which includes a "comprehensive" printed manual, has not yet been set. To play, you'll need at least a 486SX 25 megahertz (MHz) computer (486DX2 66MHz recommended) with VGA 256-color graphics and at least four megabytes (MB) of RAM (8MB recommended). Radix supports Sound Blaster, Gravis, and ProAudio Spectrum sound cards and needs either a standard joystick or a Gravis PC Gamepad controller for full-function playability. (Glenn Lisle/19950607/Press Contact: Mark Lewis, tel 613 860- 4263, fax 613-599-7245, Internet e-mail unlogic@globalx.net) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 06/07/95 TELECOM US Robotics' 28.8 Modem With TrueSpeech (NEWS)(TELECOM)(MSP)(00006) US Robotics' 28.8 Modem With TrueSpeech 06/07/95 SKOKIE, ILLINOIS, U.S.A., 1995 JUN 7 (NB) -- US Robotics (NASDAQ:USRX) is shipping its Sportster Vi 28.8 fax-modem, which supports DSP Group's (NASDAQ:DSPG) Digital Simultaneous Voice and Data (DSVD) using "TrueSpeech." US Robotics claims it is the first manufacturer to ship modems that support the DSVD protocol specification with TrueSpeech. The DSP Group developed TrueSpeech -- a family of speech compression and decompression algorithms that allows multiple users to both talk and share data simultaneously over a single, ordinary telephone line. As Christopher Coffin, vice president of business development for US Robotics' Personal Communications Division put it to Newsbytes, the technology is a "poor man's ISDN (integrated services digital network)." Coffin said both business and residential customers alike can use TrueSpeech. Two business people can look over a spreadsheet and talk about the figures at the same time, while being miles apart. Also, two people sitting in different homes can play with -- or against -- each other in a game of "Doom," he said. Coffin called the new technology "work hard, play hard." US Robotics will use the 8.5 kilobits-per-second (Kbps) version of TrueSpeech for the Sportster Vi, as well as an advanced version of the technology which "will enable us to develop products that will be compatible with upcoming international standards," Coffin said. The Sportster Vi 28.8 fax-modem is expected to arrive on retail shelves sometime this month, at a list price of $399. Coffin said the modem will be bundled with Intel's ProShare, a software program that allows for simultaneous data and voice communication. In addition, DSP said it has picked up support for TrueSpeech from both AT&T and Multi-Tech. AT&T (NYSE:T) announced it has licensed DSP Group's 8.5 Kbps version of TrueSpeech for use in its high-speed modem chipset. AT&T officials said it is including the technology because "of its open availability in the marketplace, and its anticipated use with other DSVD modems." Multi-tech is endorsing TrueSpeech technology for use in its DSVD modem products. DSP Group said Multi-tech's products will work with other DSVD products that come from other modem makers. Right now, Multi-tech's modems currently support their own proprietary Vector Quantization algorithm, DSP Group said. (Bob Woods/19950606/Press Contacts: Tom Potts, US Robotics, 708-676-7113; Ron Richter or Beverly Rindfleisch, DSP Group, 408-986-4300) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 06/07/95 ONLINE Video/Software Package Teaches Internet Marketing (NEWS)(ONLINE)(DEN)(00007) Video/Software Package Teaches Internet Marketing 06/07/95 SYOSSET, NEW YORK, U.S.A., 1995 JUN 7 (NB) -- The Internet is poised to become the marketing venue of choice for many businesses, and a New York firm has developed a video and software multimedia package that teaches the basics of marketing on the global network. Future Communications Systems Inc. has released The Internet Marketing 101 Video/Software Suite, a $59 package that includes a 90-minute video containing the basics of Internet marketing, along with Windows-based multimedia software, called Internet Marketing 101. FCS President Marty Fox said the package teaches how to successfully market on the Internet today in a step-by-step hands-on manner. Fox said he used real-life examples, rather than abstract theories, in the presentation. Fox told Newsbytes his experience as an author, Web site inauguration, and frequent Internet user qualify him to teach others how to market their business on the Web. "I've put a number of people up on the Web, establishing Web sites for small to large businesses. I've also written books on personal computers and using personal computers for business. More importantly, I've been through the Internet process myself." Fox said he holds a degree in Psychology with a minor in Computer Science. To market your particular product or service, you'll need a home page on the World Wide Web, and Fox makes that easier by including ready-to-use Web page templates with the Marketing 101 software. Fox said training is important in presenting your business on the Web. "Companies going in blindly and using conventional marketing methods are in for an online marketing disaster," he stated. "The Internet can be a goldmine, but only if you respect the culture and do it right." Marketing 101 includes information on how to make the most of Internet tools such as File Transfer Protocol (a means of obtaining files stored on the Internet), the Web, Newsgroups, Gopher (an Internet search tool), Mailing Lists, Archie and Veronica (other search tools). The program takes you on a guided tour of successful Web sites, offers true-life examples of Internet marketing secrets, and tells who is making money online. "It's a real-time online tour showing people how sites were put together, how HTML (Hypertext Markup Language) documents are created and what successful people are using," Fox told Newsbytes. He said the program also teaches you how to economically set up your Web site and bring people to it. There is a list of 20 Web directories Fox said are a must for listing your home page, and descriptions and addresses of what he considers the 101 best Web sites. Marketing 101 has a section on how to videoconference on the Internet in color, with a working demo, so you can see how to demonstrate your own products on the Web. FCS markets VideoVu, a $59 software package for Windows that can transmit live video over the Internet or via two PCs equipped with video capture boards and connected by a modem. There is also information on how to audio chat on the Internet. Fox said FCS also offers what he described as "a streamlined version" for DOS-based machines. A Macintosh version is in development and is expected to ship in about 60 days. (Jim Mallory/19950706/Press contact: Marty Fox, FCS, 516-496-7121; Public contact: FCS, 516-496-7121, Internet e-mail future@i-2000.com) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 06/07/95 BROADCAST BSkyB Teletext Security Loophole Update (NEWS)(BROADCAST)(LON)(00008) BSkyB Teletext Security Loophole Update 06/07/95 LIVINGSTONE, SCOTLAND, 1995 JUN 7 (NB) -- Intertext Limited, the company which provides the interactive teletext service for BskyB that Newsbytes reported on yesterday, has replied to some of the criticisms over potential loopholes on its system. As reported yesterday by Newsbytes, the service allows phone callers using their touch-tone keypads to interact with the Intertext computer system and see the results reflected back on satellite TV teletext pages. A loophole, identified by Newsbytes, exists, where credit or debit card details, along with names, addresses and phone numbers, are reflected back on teletext pages, which anyone with a satellite receiver with teletext can see. Tanya Fields, a spokeswoman for Intertext, told Newsbytes that the company was aware of the potential disclosure of the data on the pages in question, but claimed that the loophole was not due to the company's actions, but those of the gateway service providers. "The problem is P&O Ferries' computer. When a customer makes a booking on their computer through the Intertext gateway, data is shown back through the gateway," she said, referring to Newsbytes' comments that personal information such as credit or debit card information is shown on the relevant teletext pages. Fields denied that there was a similar problem with the Kays mail- order gateway service, claiming that the service had been modified before the service was launched to reflect back a series of stars in place of the sensitive information. Fields went on to explain that P&O Ferries' computer gateway was being modified to reflect back stars in place of customer's credit card numbers. "P&O had full clearance (from the appropriate authorities) before releasing its system to the public. There is no security problem," she claimed. "The Intertext system is secure against hackers," she said, adding that there was no possibility of any viewer hooking up a PC teletext card and downloading all teletext pages broadcast in the 510 to 590 page range for off-line perusal for credit card information. "We are assured that this is not possible. We wish it were, as Investor's Chronicle (another information provider) wanted to provide this service to their subscribers. It isn't possible because of the way Sky teletext broadcasts its pages," she said. Fields added that another of the IPs on the Intertext service, the Co- operative Bank, was looking at providing home banking through the interactive teletext gateway. "That is being worked on and will start around January time," she said. Barrister (lawyer) Alistair Kelman, who Newsbytes discussed some of the legal issues with when the story broke, expressed some surprise at the Co-op Bank's decision to allow interactive services on the Intertext gateway. "The security surrounding that service, of course, depends on what transactions can be completed on the service," he said, adding that some sort of encryption on home banking on such a service was needed. (Steve Gold/19950606/Press Contact: Sky Television, +44-1506-484777) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 06/07/95 TELECOM KNX Plans Next-Generation ISDN Systems (NEWS)(TELECOM)(LON)(00009) KNX Plans Next-Generation ISDN Systems 06/07/95 OTLEY, WEST YORKSHIRE, ENGLAND, 1995 JUN 7 (NB) -- KNX has revealed it is working on a "next-generation" of ISDN (integrated services digital networks) connectivity technology and will be showing the ISDNPod 2000 range at the Networks '95 show in Birmingham at the end of this month. According to John Robson, KNX's marketing director, the ISDNPod 2000 range will offer users a flexible approach to the adoption of ISDN, while at the same time protecting their investment in current analog phone systems. The product range, which will ship during the third quarter of this year, will be aimed at a diverse market, such as the small office/home office (SOHO) marketplace, design studios, retail outlets, gas station forecourts, public houses and restaurants, as well as organizations with multiple remote locations. According to Robson, the ISDNPod series combines the ability to provide access to remote LANs (local area networks), the Internet, and X.25 networks, as well as the integration of existing analog telephony devices from a single contained unit via ISDN. "The ISDNPod and its multiple personalities is the first product to really capitalize on the flexibility of ISDN. It is the obvious next development area for KNX, building on our tremendous success in combining remote LAN access with POTS (plain old telephone system) on a PC card," explained Tom Kernan, KNX's chief executive officer (CEO). Kernan went on to say that he expects the ISDNPod to be widely deployed in many different areas, such as the home, small office/home office (SOHO) of the telecommuter, design, architects, retail, leisure, and education markets. According to KNX, there will be four options within the ISDNPod 2000 range. The top of the range, fully featured 2500 model supports remote LAN access at speeds of 64,000 or 128,000 bits-per-second (bps), and provides X.25 support for up to two devices. In addition, up to four analog appliances will be able to connect to the standard POTS ports. The ISDNPod 2500 will allow all of these facilities to be configured to use either of the two 64,000 bps ISDN channels, so one device can perform multiple functions. The ISDNPod 2100, meanwhile, has all the features of the 2500, including the LAN and X.25 asynchronous port option, but no telephone ports. At the other end of the scale, the ISDNPod 2000 will appeal to telecommuters or small offices. It supports four analog telephone interfaces, any two of which can be used concurrently. The company claims that a telecommuter's environment may benefit from the ISDN multiple subscriber numbering facility which will allow each port to be addressed by a unique phone number, allocating one each for business, fax, personal and answerphone, for example. The final option, the ISDNPod 2200, is a multi-analog/X.25 product combining the features of the ISDNPod 2000 with two RS232 ports for asynchronous communications. These additional ports can be used to pass credit card authorizations and bank transaction information into ISDN and Cardway services in a retail environment. Pricing on the ISDNPod series will start at UKP995. Full pricing will be announced at the Networks '95 show, Newsbytes was told. (Steve Gold/19950606/Press Contact: Maggie Davies, +44-1344- 301022, Internet e-mail maggied@cix.compulink.co.uk; Reader Contact: John Robson, KNX, +44-1943-467007, Internet e-mail johnr@knx.co.uk/KNXISDN060795/PHOTO) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 06/07/95 BUSINESS Network Peripherals Opens For Business In UK (NEWS)(BUSINESS)(LON)(00010) Network Peripherals Opens For Business In UK 06/07/95 STOCKLEY PARK, UXBRIDGE, ENGLAND, 1995 JUN 7 (NB) -- Network Peripherals Inc. (NPI), a US manufacturer of client/server systems, has opened an office in the UK. The office, which is located in the industrial park at Uxbridge, where other information technology (IT) companies such as Apple Computer are located, has been opened to support the company's business in the UK, which the company says is expanding. Plans call for the operation to function as a European headquarters. According to the company, the aim is to set up a strong network of distribution throughout Europe and continue with the leadership on the market. To further expand its distribution channels, NPI has signed multi-year, non-exclusive strategic distribution agreements with five additional international distributor firms. The contractors are: Saga Sistemas e Computadores in Brazil; Pro Tech in Hong Kong; Eugene Data in Korea; Sumitomo Electric Industries in Japan; and Sysconet in Israel. "Unlike other companies in the networking marketplace, NPI has differentiated itself with its focused approach to achieving leadership in the client/server market segment," said Jay Willis, NPI's European managing director. (Sylvia Dennis/19950607/Press & Reader Contact: Network Peripherals, +44-181-899-1744) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 06/07/95 GOVT Sun Micro Attacks US Supercomputer Export Policy (NEWS)(GOVT)(WAS)(00011) Sun Micro Attacks US Supercomputer Export Policy 06/07/95 WASHINGTON, D.C., U.S.A., 1995 JUN 7 (NB) -- The 50s pop song went: "You take a hank of hair, a piece of bone, and make a walkin' talkin' honeycomb." So it is with supercomputers, and that's why US export policy is silly, say Sun Microsystems and the American Electronics Association. As Congress begins consideration of reauthorizing the Export Administration Act, Sun and AEA tomorrow will hold a press briefing at the National Press Club, where they will demonstrate just how easy it is to build a supercomputer that falls afoul of US law. John Gage, director of Sun's office of science, and Greg Garcia, AEA's trade lobbyist, will take a pile of widely available computer components and upgrade three Sun workstations that are also legal to export into "supercomputers" for which export outside the US is forbidden. Gage will also demonstrate how users can network lower-powered, exportable desktop and deskside systems and turn them into powerful parallel processing systems that match the performance of top-of-the-line supercomputers. The purpose of the exercise is to demonstrate the futility of current export law, which is based on the notion that it is possible to keep these technologies out of the hands of adversaries. "While the threat to national security posed by such machinery is questionable," says Garcia, "the threat of foreign competition to American businesses hamstrung by unilateral US policies is real." Sun and AEA planned the press event as a kick-off to hearings on the export act scheduled for tomorrow afternoon before the House Subcommittee on Economic Policy and Trade. But the subcommittee has postponed the hearing for a few weeks because of the need to consider actions related to Bosnia, Sue Kennedy, a spokeswoman for AEA, told Newsbytes. (Kennedy Maize/19950607/Press Contact: Greg Garcia, AEA, 202-682-4433) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 06/07/95 GOVT MCI Wins Computerworld Smithsonian Award (NEWS)(GOVT)(WAS)(00012) MCI Wins Computerworld Smithsonian Award 06/07/95 WASHINGTON, D.C., U.S.A., 1995 JUN 7 (NB) -- MCI's development of an interactive and broadcast network for the Nasdaq stock market has won the 1995 Computerworld, Smithsonian Award for the "most creative and innovative uses of information technology that benefit society." MCI was named best in the "business and related services" category and will be featured in a permanent exhibit at the Smithsonian's National Museum of American History on the Mall in Washington DC. The award-winning network uses a technology called networkMCI SmartPop that was developed specifically to improve retrieval of market information and execution of trades via Nasdaq, the world's largest electronic stock market. The network reportedly provides secure, reliable, and simultaneous data transmission using public and private networks in conjunction with the Internet TCP/IP (Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol) protocol. It allows brokers to monitor stocks, place trades and query for real-time information reliably and simultaneously in a Windows-based, PC environment. Nasdaq awarded MCI a $150 million contract in 1993 to develop the system. MCI subcontracted with Digital Equipment Corp. for specialized network software and advanced router technology. The key to the network is the concept of SmartPops, which are data aggregation and concentration points deployed throughout MCI's network at strategic locations. "It moves the concept of 'points of presence' from the Internet out closer toward the user, but in an MCI network," MCI spokesman Rick Aspan told Newsbytes. Today, says MCI, nearly 40 percent of the Nasdaq trading system has been converted to the new network. The entire Nasdaq system is expected to be convert by the end of the year. While developed specifically for the Nasdaq, MCI says the technology will be practical for a variety of other business uses. "The networkMCI SmartPop technology delivers information in the secure, reliable and instantaneous fashion that is the key to success on the information superhighway," says Scott Ross, president of MCI Business Markets. "We believe this technology will change the way people receive and distribute information, the way they shop and spend recreational time." For example, the technology means that individuals will be able to subscribe to services geared to their particular needs and receive electronic transmission of books, photos, graphics, newspapers, and the like, delivered and customized by the MCI technology. It will allow individuals to receive information tailored for them specifically. (Kennedy Maize/19950607/Press Contact: Rick Aspan, 312-938-4732) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 06/07/95 CHIPS World's Smallest DRAM Chip Developed (NEWS)(CHIPS)(TYO)(00013) World's Smallest DRAM Chip Developed 06/07/95 TOKYO, JAPAN, 1995 JUN 7 (NB) -- A research alliance of three of the world's top electronics companies has announced the development of the "world's smallest and fastest" 256 megabit (Mb) dynamic random access memory (DRAM). The chip is just 286 square millimeters and has an access time of 26 nanoseconds (26 billionths of a second). Compared to other such memories available, the new device is at least 13% smaller with an access time of at least half that of the competition, claim the firms. It is expected to find uses in memory-hungry applications. These include many multimedia applications that involve video, telecommunications systems, and workstation and PC memory. At 256Mb the firms say that there is enough room to hold the works of William Shakespeare, plus those of Johann Wolfgang Goethe, as well as the Manyoshu, the Kokinshu, and the Tale of Genji with enough room left over for a typical edition of the International Herald Tribune. The three companies, Japan's Toshiba, America's IBM (NYSE:IBM), and Germany's Siemens, have contributed 200 researchers to a team working together at the IBM Advanced Semiconductor Research and Development Center in Fishkill, New York. The new chip is the result of work that began in 1993. The joint research team was established to support any proposed Joint Electron Device Engineering Council (JEDEC) standard for 256Mb DRAMs. All three companies already work together on 64Mb DRAM development and IBM and Siemens together work on 16Mb DRAMs. A spokesman for Toshiba in Tokyo told Newsbytes that samples should begin shipping soon, although no price has been set for the new chips yet. (Martyn Williams/19950607/Press contact: Jim Smith, IBM, 914-892-5389; Klaus H. Knapp, Siemens, +49-89-4144-8480; Miss Matsuyama, Toshiba, +81-3-3457-2105) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 06/07/95 GENERAL Japan Newsbriefs (NEWS)(GENERAL)(TYO)(00014) Japan Newsbriefs 06/07/95 TOKYO, JAPAN, 1995 JUN 7 (NB) -- In this round up of news from Japan: Telecoms white paper published; Sony plans price rise; Matsushita & MCA set up multimedia lab; NTT hires more for multimedia; Citizen earnings down; International semiconductor forum. Telecoms White Paper Published A 1995 white paper on telecommunications has been published by the Japanese government calling on increased coordination between companies operating in the growing sector of multimedia. The report said that there are many companies involved in multimedia research and development, but all are progressing separately. Authors for the Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications urged for a common research and development system to be set up to better coordinate companies' work in the field. It said that this would enable Japan's corporations to better react to user needs. The report also highlighted Japan's world leading multimedia hardware and support systems but its general lacking in the field of software and applications. Sony Plans Price Rises Sony Corporation is to raise prices of its audio and video equipment in overseas markets by 10%, according to a report in the Yomiuri Shimbun newspaper. A company report obtained by the newspaper says that the price rises, which will start taking effect this month, are to compensate for the rise in strength on the Japanese yen and the damage this has done to Tokyo-based Sony. Newsbytes recently reported a $2 billion loss at Sony due to the currency fluctuations with a prediction of 40% lower profits this year. The newspaper goes on to report that the price rise will affect its Walkman, CD player, MD player, eight millimeter (mm) video camera, video recorder, and hi-fi audio product lines. Matsushita & MCA Set Up Multimedia Lab Osaka-based electronics giant Matsushita Electric is teaming up with US entertainment company MCA to establish a research center in the United States to study development of multimedia product. The Entertainment Technology Center will combine Matsushita's electronics expertise with MCA's entertainment knowledge. Matsushita recently sold 80% of MCA to Canada's Seagram. Amongst products under development will be software for next- generation digital video disks (DVD) which Matsushita is developing with Sony. NTT Hires More For Multimedia Nippon Telegraph and Telephone says it will hire an extra 200 more employees as part of next year's spring company entry, bringing the total to 3,000 people. The decision is in response to increased development of multimedia applications by the company and a desire to get as many "talented" employees now before multimedia production and development expands in the future. Currently the job prospects for many Japanese university leavers are bleak because few companies are hiring, so NTT hopes to secure the services of the best graduates. Citizen Earnings Down Japanese watch and electronics company Citizen has announced reduced earnings due to the high yen and the post Hanshin earthquake slowdown in the Japanese economy. Group net profits for fiscal 1994 were 3.47 billion yen ($40.8 million) compared with 7.40 billion yen ($87.1 million) in the previous year. Total sales were down by a smaller percentage from 377.79 billion yen ($4.44 billion) to 362.71 billion yen ($4.27 billion) in the last financial year. International Semiconductor Forum An international forum focusing on the safe production of semiconductors and associated environmental concerns will be held in Okayama next week from June 12 to 14. The forum is organized by the Electronic Industries Association of Japan and is the second such forum organized after one last year in Belgium. Around 100 representatives from across Asia, Europe, and the US will attend. (Martyn Williams/19950607) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 06/07/95 ONLINE Minitel Opens Internet Gateway (NEWS)(ONLINE)(TYO)(00015) Minitel Opens Internet Gateway 06/07/95 PARIS, FRANCE, 1995 JUN 7 (NB) -- France Telecom's Intelmatique subsidiary has opened an Internet gateway making the Minitel videotex service available to millions of Internet users worldwide. Minitel was opened in 1980 by France Telecom and has grown to become the most successful videotex service worldwide. Over 20 million users access the service's 25,000 companies and services online, clocking up an average total of 300,000 hours a day. Access is via 6.5 million Minitel terminals and 600,000 personal computers running emulation software. Around a third of the 1.913 million calls logged in 1994 were to France Telecom's online white pages telephone directory, available on Minitel in French, English, Spanish, German, and Italian. In addition to the telephone directory, a massive amount of information, mainly in French, is available from the latest news to TV guides, product information, and home shopping. To access Minitel via the Internet you will need a VT100 or VT200 terminal or some emulation software for your computer. France Telecom is making available free software for IBM compatible PCs, Apple Macs, and Unix platforms. In addition to the software, you need a Minitel account that is available either through France Telecom or a distributor, with details available in the service guide. Minitel is a pay information service with access charges differing depending on the services accessed. US rates range from around $0.15 to $1.90 a minute. For more information on Minitel either telnet to minitel.fr, or go on the World Wide Web to http://www.minitel.fr/ (Martyn Williams/19950607/Press & public contact: France Telecom North America, 212-332-2115; France Telecom Infomatique, Networks Services, tel +33-1-47614761, fax +33-1-46212240, Internet e-mail info@minitel.fr) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 06/07/95 BUSINESS PR Newswire To Use MediaMap PR Database Software (NEWS)(BUSINESS)(MSP)(00016) PR Newswire To Use MediaMap PR Database Software 06/07/95 NEW YORK CITY, NEW YORK, U.S.A., 1995 JUN 7 (NB) -- To assist the high-tech public relations (PR) professional, PR Newswire (PRN) said it is teaming with MediaMap to create and market "OneLink." PR Newswire officials describe OneLink as an electronic connection that links MediaMap's MediaManager PR database software directly to the public relations distributions operations of PR Newswire. "It takes the very friendly and usable list and contact management software, and adds the extra dimension of making the distribution to PR Newswire easy," Ian Capps, PR Newswire president, told Newsbytes. Capps said the combination of database and distribution software will aid PR communications by linking distribution of materials with the interests and coverage areas of editors, reporters, and news organizations. The PR professional then can select the exact high- tech media audience required for a given news release and send the release to PRN with just a few keystrokes. In the past, the PR person has had to handle the distribution part of releasing news by themselves, Capps said. OneLink eases the distribution burden, and saves time. The MediaManager database includes information on the preferred method of receipt of news releases by editors and reporters. The PRN system will then transmit the data in that mode -- be it wire, electronic-mail, fax, or regular mail, Capps said. OneLink will be integrated into the upcoming version 2.0 of MediaManager, officials said, which will be available in July, 1995. Cost starts at $995 for the single-user version, which is available in either Macintosh or Windows formats. The program is also available in a workgroup version. PR Newswire services accessed with OneLink will be charged accordingly. (Bob Woods/19950607/Press Contacts: Ira Krawitz, PR Newswire, 800-832-5522 or 212-596-1540; Jeff Baron, MediaMap, 617-374-9300 ext 239) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 06/07/95 HEALTH Windows Software Helps Fight Computer Strain (NEWS)(HEALTH)(MSP)(00017) Windows Software Helps Fight Computer Strain 06/07/95 FRANKLIN, MASSACHUSETTS, U.S.A., 1995 JUN 7 (NB) -- Repetitive stress injuries are becoming more common in the workplace. To combat this, DMG Publishing said it is releasing "StrainRelief," a Windows-based software program designed to help those people who work long hours at a computer. "The most effective way to avoid eyestrain and other injuries is to take breaks from the system, and use your muscles in different ways," Stephen Davis, president of DMG publishing, told Newsbytes. He said before the age of computers, people used to look at and use different types of office equipment around the office, so they moved more and focused on more items than they do nowadays. The StrainRelief product schedules and encourages frequent rest breaks at user-specified times throughout the day, Davis said. The program features 23 exercises to reduce fatigue and stress. These can be performed at the user's desk without any additional props, and the software gives instructions on how to do the exercises. The company claims StrainRelief can cut healthcare and workman's compensation claims, reducing the costs associated with medical treatment, lost time on the job, and form processing. The product can raise productivity. It also provides a defense against employee lawsuits, because the company can say it has taken preventative measures to protect the health and well-being of employees. "Most users and corporations have tried to protect against computer- related health problems by spending large amounts of money on ergonomic furniture," Davis said, but that only solves part of the problem. He said a combination of hardware and software, like StrainRelief, is what is needed to combat repetitive stress injuries, eyestrain, and upper body fatigue. StrainRelief is currently available from the company and resellers at the suggested retail price of $59.95, although Davis said he estimates the street price will be around $50. Site licenses are also available. (Bob Woods/19950602/Press Contact: Stephen Davis, DMG Publishing, 508-528-7571. Public Contact: DMG Publishing, 508-528-7571) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 06/07/95 WINDOWS Edmark Plans 4 Educational Windows 95 CD-ROMs (NEWS)(WINDOWS)(DEN)(00018) Edmark Plans 4 Educational Windows 95 CD-ROMs 06/07/95 REDMOND, WASHINGTON, U.S.A., 1995 JUN 7 (NB) -- Edmark Corp. (NASDAQ; EDMK) has announced plans to release four educational titles on CD-ROM for Microsoft Windows 95. The company said it will ship Windows 95 versions of its "Sammy's Science House," "KidDesk Family Edition," "Thinkin' Things Collection 1," and "Thinkin' Things Collection 2" at the end of summer and in early fall. All four titles will be on CD-ROM and will have backwards-compatibility to run on PCs that are still using Windows 3.1. #IMAGE 1 20 TWPCX \images\95060718.PCX Click here for photo Edmark said the new titles will take advantage of several Windows 95 features, including Auto-Play, a utility that automatically launches a CD-ROM-based program when the disk is inserted in the drive. The company said there will be a significant improvement in the performance and stability of the products due to the 32-bit nature of the programs and because they will be running in their own protected memory space while using the new handling features of Windows 95. Edmark said "Sammy's Science House" will ship July 30. It's the third title in the company's Early Learning House series and is designed to introduce children ages three to six years to beginning science skills. Sammy is a striped snake that acts as the guide to five activities that tech kids to observe, classify, compare and sequence. The company said the program uses lots of sound, color and animation to help kids create machines and toys, explore weather conditions, create short films by arranging frames in order, sort pictures of plants, animals and minerals, and discover how nature and wildlife change as the seasons change. The Windows 95 version of "Thinkin' Things Collection 1" is scheduled to ship August 18. It was the first Edmark educational title and helps children ages four to eight expand their memory, creativity, problem solving skills and critical thinking abilities. The program offers six activities, with four featuring colorful animated characters. The other two bring children into a three-dimensional world where they can explore, discover and create. "Thinkin' Things Collection 2", scheduled to ship on July 30, is for children ages six to 12. Five activities are designed to strengthen auditory and visual memory skills, creativity, visual thinking and problem solving skills. "KidDesk Family Edition" for Windows 95 is set for shipment on August 18. It is a desktop utility that protects adult files on the hard drive while allowing children to access and explore the computer. Each family member can have a personalized desktop that can be decorated in a theme of their choice. The program has electronic-mail, a talking clock, voice messaging, and a children's calculator. Parents can select which programs will appear on each child's desk. When the Windows 95 version of "KidDesk" ships the program will be available on both disk and CD-ROM, said Edmark. The company said it is working on Windows 95 versions of other Early Learning House series titles. Four new titles are planned for fall release and a fifth, which was scheduled for late in the fourth quarter, has now been moved to the early 1995 timeframe. Edmark said Sammy's Science and Thinkin' Things Collections 1 and 2" will also be available for Apple Computer's Macintosh platform. "Sammy's House" will have a suggested retail price of about $40, while the "Thinkin' Things" collections will be priced at about $45 each. "KidDesk" will sell for about $25. Edmark said it will offer school editions of the products at a later date. (Jim Mallory/19950607/press contact: Amy Gutmann, Edmark, 206-556-8825; Public contact: Edmark, 206-556-8484/EDMARK950607/PHOTO) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 06/07/95 BUSINESS Seagram Closes Deal To Take Over MCA (NEWS)(BUSINESS)(LAX)(00019) Seagram Closes Deal To Take Over MCA 06/07/95 MONTREAL, CANADA, U.S.A., 1995 JUN 7 (NB) -- The Seagram Company Ltd. (NYSE:VO) has finalized purchase of 80 percent of MCA Inc. for $5.7 billion in cash. The purchase of MCA transforms Seagrams from just a beverage company, into both a beverage company and media giant in one deal. $5,7 billion in cash buys a lot of big names in the entertainment industry. Cheryl Burnett, a spokesman for Seagram's gave Newsbytes the following rundown of what $5.7 billion buys. MCA filmed entertainment generated revenue of $2.7 billion in 1994 through Universal Pictures, with titles such as "Schindler's List," "The Flintstones," "The Little Rascals," "In the Name of the Father," "Reality Bites," and "The River Wild," among others. MCA music entertainment generated revenue of $1.3 billion in 1994 through Geffin Records, MCA Records, and GRP Records. MCA recreation services generated revenue of $245 million in 1994 through two theme parks: Universal Studio Hollywood, and Universal Studio Florida. MCA book publishing generated revenue of $278 million in 1994 through Putnam Berkeley Group Publishing, MCA also owns 361 Cineplex-Odean movie theaters, USA Cable Television Channel, and Universal Pictures Television which produces current television shows "New York Undercover," and "Earth 2." MCA television has syndication rights to "Murder She Wrote," "Northern Exposure," "Law and Order," "Coach," and "Magnum P. I." Cheryl Burnett also pointed out that "sale of merchandise from such a major entertainment exposure creates as industry of its own". Seagram's distilled spirits, wines, fruit juices, coolers and mixers are sold in more than 150 countries and territories. Headquartered in Montreal, Seagram employs 30,000 people worldwide. Seagram, together with MCA, generated 1994 revenues of approximately $11 billion. "This transaction continues the transformation of Seagram," said Edgar Bronfman, Jr., president and chief executive officer of Seagram. "With MCA, Seagram now has two engines of growth -- beverages and entertainment/communications, which share a common focus on consumers, brands, and the talents of their employees." The Seagram Company Ltd. purchased the 80 percent interest in MCA from Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., Ltd. Matsushita will retain a 20 percent interest in MCA. While this is the only entertainment enterprise that Seagram controls, it does own slightly under 15 percent of Time Warner Inc., another media giant. According to Seagram, they have no current intentions regarding Time Warner. (Richard Bowers/19950607/Press Contact: Chris Tofalli, The Seagram Company Ltd., New York, 212-572-1118) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 06/07/95 TRENDS Sony Lowers Price On CD-Recordable Drives (NEWS)(TRENDS)(LAX)(00020) Sony Lowers Price On CD-Recordable Drives 06/07/95 SAN JOSE, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1995 JUN 7 (NB) -- Sony has added a few bells and whistles to its recordable CD line, but the real news is the price. The new Spressa 920 CD-R is priced at $1,999.95 -- down thousands of dollars from their last model. "The Previous Sony product was the Spressa 900 E," Chuck Bridges, marketing manager for Sony's data storage products told Newsbytes, "and it was priced out of the market at around $5,000." Bridges pointed out that Sony has never been a price leader, but has concentrated on "technology and innovation." He continued: "While consumers are expecting prices to drop in the $1,000 range within one year, manufacturers can't keep up with the demand being generated now." With a maximum sustained data transfer rate of 30O kilobytes-per- second (KBps), the Spressa 920 drive can record a full 650 megabyte (MB) disk in about 30 minutes. In addition, the Spressa 920 drive will record on CD-ROM, CD-ROM XA, CD-Audio, Audio-Combined CD-ROM, CD-I, Photo CD, and Video CD disks. The drive also offers three recording methods: "disk at once," "incremental," and "multi-session recording." The Spressa 920 system is also a double-speed CD-ROM reader. Bridges told Newsbytes that, "Three things are really pushing the recordable CD market today: first, consumer and corporate buyers are now seeing needs and benefits in recordable CD's; second, the price has dropped; and third, user friendly software has made use of recordable CD's relatively simple." The Spressa 920 is bundled with the Corel CD Creator. With its Disk Wizard feature, the Corel CD Creator software reduces the CD recording process to a few steps. CD Creator also provides the ability to drag- and-drop files and directories from other applications to create disk layouts. Along with software, interface and audio cables, the Spressa 920 drive includes three recordable Spressa media disks, and a special offer from Sony's Digital Audio Disk Corporation (DADC) for disk mastering and replication. For $1,000, Sony will create a master disk, print 100 disks, provide full color printing for the cover, and provide additional disks starting at $1.75. (Richard Bowers/19950607/Press Contact: Manny Vara of Sony Electronics Inc., 409-955-5142) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 06/07/95 GENERAL Digital World - Searching For A Definition (NEWS)(GENERAL)(SFO)(00021) Digital World - Searching For A Definition 06/07/95 LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1995 JUN 7 (NB) -- This show is packed with developers, chief executive officers, middle management, buyers and sellers at all levels, and people who are just curious what Digital World is all about. Unlike many shows, it is not filled with exhibitor floor hoopla, but concentrates on an eclectic gathering of speakers and topics complimented by an equally eclectic group of exhibitors. Jonathan Seybold, founder of Digital World and chairman of Seybold seminars, said, "Digitization of information is impacting every aspect of communications and business, changing the way all companies need to do business in order to stay competitive. This conference addresses the real issues surrounding the digitization of information on a massive scale." Digital World is about networks -- local and remote, hardware and storage advances, making money, music, entertainment, the Internet and the World Wide Web. It is about legal issues and government controls, multimedia and distribution, and most of all, it is about discussions and communication. And it is also about "fun." The biggest part of this show was a Hollywood-like production, announcing Starbright Worlds. Steven Spielberg and Candice Bergen, well-known television star (in the TV show Murphy Brown), joined with a number of chief executive officers to preview an animated online world dedicated to supporting seriously-ill children confined to hospitals. Radius hosted a floor area which highlighted the power of Cinepak, a video compression format. The area included The Cinepak Kitchen, Digital Storytelling, a game room, award-winning CD titles, a live production studio working on live video from the show floor and an ongoing live Internet version of the show. In conjunction with Digital World, Motorola sponsored the Interactive Media Festival. Almost every Digital World attendee who spoke to Newsbytes complimented the Interactive Media Festival. The festival took place in four floors of the Los Angeles Variety Art Center. Attendees were able to participate in some way with almost every piece of art. From remote control of robots to creating on-screen art by stepping on rubber pads on the floor, this presentation focused on displaying the cutting-edge of electronic interactive art. (Patrick McKenna/19950607/Press Contact: Erin Gaffney, Softbank, 415-578-6947) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 06/07/95 ONLINE Digital World - Children's Peace Festival Online (NEWS)(ONLINE)(SFO)(00022) Digital World - Children's Peace Festival Online 06/07/95 LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1995 JUN 7 (NB) -- As a compliment to the 15th anniversary of the United Nations (UN), Pathways to Peace, a non-profit organization, will hold the 1995 Children's World Peace Festival. Artist Peter H. Rosen, creator of the Creativity Cafe, will bring the event online and live to the World Wide Web (Web). #IMAGE 1 20 TWPCX \images\95060722.PCX Click here for photo Rosen told Newsbytes, "The Children's World Peace Festival is like a kid's UN. When I heard of this event, I knew immediately that it was something which should be communicated around the world. Along with the live online video production, the Web page will contain works of art from children all over the world. As an artist myself, I feel there is a tremendous value in developing a means of communication and sharing for children who may come from a number of different conflicting countries." Creativity Cafe, with the assistance of Pac Bell's Media Park, will use CU-SeeMe videoconferencing to interconnect sites from around the world. Users who would like to participate need access to an ISDN (integrated services digital network) or higher bandwidth line. For those who cannot access the faster lines, the standard Web page will contain comments, information, and artwork. As part of the UN celebration, children from around the world will be flown to San Francisco to participate in the celebration. The Peace Festival will take place on June 24 at East Fort Baker in Sausalito, California. Rosen also added, "We need to encourage children to visualize their dreams of a friendlier planet. We need to give them a place to express their own art and share it with others around the world. Technology is often portrayed as cold and heartless. I think, depending on how it is used, it can be very healing. Listening to music can be healing and seeing and sharing art can be equally healing. Online communication is capable of breaking down the boundaries of countries, of color, of race, and religion. The Creativity Cafe is designed for just that purpose." Continuing, Rosen said his Creativity Cafe is close to having a permanent home in San Francisco, California. His interactive, live Web site will be a gathering place and resource center for artists and creative people from around the world. (Patrick McKenna/19950607/Press Contact: Peter Rosen, The Creativity Cafe, 415-776-0821; Public Information: Internet e-mail ccafe@creativity.com, Online Event/Creativity950607/PHOTO) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 06/07/95 PC HP Intros Low-Cost 486-Based PCs (NEWS)(PC)(LAX)(00023) HP Intros Low-Cost 486-Based PCs 06/07/95 PALO ALTO, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1995 JUN 7 (NB) -- Hewlett-Packard has announced a new line of 486 PC's with new changes and a lower price. Starting at an estimated selling price of $791, the HP Vectra VE PC replaces a similar HP Vectra VL PC which started at $869. David Schnieder, a spokesman for Hewlett-Packard told Newsbytes, "The HP Vectra VE PC has slight changes in the video accelerator, but is basically the entry-level, low-cost system offered by HP." HP says that it is preparing a smooth transition to Pentium processor-based PCs, but there is still strong demand for low priced 486 systems. Schnieder pointed out that, "HP would not have brought out another new line if there wasn't still a strong market for the 486." Resellers are currently taking orders for the HP Vectra VE PCs, with shipments expected to start in mid-June. HP has two separate marketing divisions for PC's. According to Schnieder, "Hewlett-Packard sells to major resellers like Micro Age. Resellers sell to larger business customers. HP began in April of this year to sell retail, in places like Circuit City. Retailers sell to the home computer market, the so called SOHO (small office/home office) buyers." According to Schnieder, this new lower priced HP Vectra VE PC will not be sold in the retail market, only in the reseller market. As a result, it will be distributed through MicroAge, for example, not Circuit City. HP Vectra VE PC models come with DX2/50, DX2/66, and DX4/100 processors, with either four megabytes (MB) or 8MB RAM as standard. The models also include an advanced Peripheral Component Interconnect (PCI) capability and an optional 256 kilobytes (KB) of external cache. The line is offered with a choice of 420MB or 840MB disk drives. The HP Vectra VE PCs offer more advanced graphics capabilities than previous 486-based offerings, incorporating a 64-bit graphics engine on the PCI bus and 1MB DRAM as standard. According to the company, the HP Vectra VE PCs support all major LAN (local area network) cards and have been "fully tested" for NetWare, IBM, and Microsoft operating system compatibility. All HP Vectra VE PCs are preloaded with Desktop Management Interface (DMI) software. (Richard Bowers/19950607/Press Contact: Larry Sennett, Hewlett- Packard, 408-553-2916) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 06/07/95 ONLINE Major League Baseball All-Star Voting Online (NEWS)(ONLINE)(MSP)(00024) Major League Baseball All-Star Voting Online 06/07/95 VIENNA, VIRGINIA, U.S.A., 1995 JUN 7 (NB) -- Baseball is being brought into cyberspace from the friendly confines of the real world, via America Online (NASDAQ:AMER). The AOL Sports Channel will offer Major League Baseball's first-ever initiative into online voting for this year's All-Star game. Also, the new channel will offer full, up-to-the-minute news and information about games, complete team information, box scores, line-ups, standings, and injury reports. "What we have offered in the past is news and information about baseball, along with updated scores," Margaret Ryan, AOL spokesperson, told Newsbytes. But now, she said, the service's coverage of America's favorite pastime will increase greatly with the new features. ABC Online will offer video, audio, and photo galleries of past and present moments from baseball history. SportsTicker will provide coverage of 1995 Minor League Baseball's AAA and AA leagues. The channel is co-sponsored by AOL, ABC Online, NTN Communications, and SportsTicker. In addition, Internet surfers can vote for their favorite All-Star players with "@BAT," a baseball -site/venue sponsored by MCI (NASDAQ:MCIC). The site, which Newsbytes reported on in April, can be reached at http://www.internetMCI.com. Major League Baseball also has a direct line to the Internet at http://www.majorleaguebaseball.com/mlb. Fans can also register their favorites at Major League ballparks. Balloting ends Monday, June 26, at 3 AM EDT for all forms of voting. Ryan also pointed out that AOL customers can access those sites via AOL's Web browser, which is in a preview for both Macintosh and IBM users. In other AOL news, MusicSpace is now online. AOL officials call it an "innovative and comprehensive new music area" in the service's entertainment channel. The area offers information files on five genres of music, from Alternative to Pop. Web links are provided for music publishers on the Web. Also, links are provided to other music areas within AOL, including MTV, SPIN, and Rockline. (Bob Woods/19950607/Press Contacts: Margaret Ryan, 703-883-1625, or Judy Tashbook, 703-918-1452, both of America Online; Paul Sims, MCI, 800-644-NEWS, Internet e-mail MCI_News_Bureau@mci.com; Carole Coleman, Major League Baseball, 212-339-7865. Public Contact: America Online, 800-827-6364; MCI Internet World Wide Web http://internetMCI.com; Major League Baseball Internet World Wide Web http://www.majorleaguebaseball.com/mlb) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 06/07/95 ONLINE UK - Barclays Bank Offers Secure Internet Shopping Mall (NEWS)(ONLINE)(LON)(00025) UK - Barclays Bank Offers Secure Internet Shopping Mall 06/07/95 LONDON, ENGLAND, 1995 JUN 7 (NB) -- Barclays Merchant Services, the division of Barclays responsible for Visa/MasterCard payment card services and the largest UK processor of its type, has unveiled phase one of BarclaySquare, the UK's first virtual shopping mall. Although Internet Web shopping is nothing new in the global marketplace, what is significant about this move is that the BarclaySquare World Wide Web pages support the encrypted data transmission option on the latest versions of the Netscape Web browser. When users of the pages want to enter their credit or debit card details, the data stream is encrypted for the duration of the blocks that the card details are being relayed. This means, unfortunately, that users of Mosaic and some early versions of Netscape must download a newer version of the Web browsing package for the PC before they can place secure card orders on the service. "The secure aspects of the service use Netscape SSL, but users of older versions or Web browsers can download the package free of charge across the BarclaySquare service," explained Chris Tucker, a spokeswoman for Barclays, to Newsbytes. The BarclaySquare service runs on the Supernet World Wide Web server. According to Mike Sunier, a spokesman for Supernet, the company is a division of Interactive Telephony Limited and provides its service for Barclays to run the shopping mall. The company also provides Internet consultancy to Barclays. According to Sunier, Supernet is an online information system that was designed to make the Internet a more practical proposition for the customer and businesses worldwide, by offering high-speed, high quality entry to the Internet on a regional and national level. Tony Slater, director of sales and marketing with Barclays Merchant Services, claims that this is the first system of its type to be endorsed by a bank. "BarclaySquare will bring shopping using a plastic card in a secure manner to any consumer currently hooked up to the Internet. For our retailer customers, it provides the opportunity to come in on the ground floor of what potentially will be the biggest change to affect their business since the invention of the credit card," he said. Eight retailers have signed up to offer services on phase one of the BarclaySquare project. These include: Argos, Europe's leading department store catalog company; Sainsburys, the food and home good retailer; Toys 'R' Us; Eurostar, the channel tunnel rail company; Blackwells the bookshop; Campus Travel, the largest supplier to the student and youth travel market; Innovations, the consumer goods shop; and the Car Shop, which offers information on new and used cars. Barclays' Tucker told Newsbytes that phase one of the BarclaySquare service has been live since the beginning of the month. "Phase two will come onstream in September of this year, when we will bring more retailers on to the service," she said. BarclaySquare is at http://www.intl.net/barclaysquare/. One interesting feature of the service is that the computer system is claimed to be discrete from the Barclays computer network, which makes hacking to gain access to bank data impossible. ITL has also installed a special "firewall" security system to prevent any unauthorized access to private areas on the BarclaySquare service. Roger Alexander, managing director of Barclays' Emerging Markets Division, said that secure plastic card transactions, "have always been the $64,000 question with regard to the Internet and one we have been asked on numerous occasions since our first foray onto the information superhighway back in January. "The encryption method developed by Netscape with further security enhancements from ITL and Barclays Merchant Services has been rigorously tested by us and we look forward to seeing this new method of shopping catching on with the British public," he said. (Steve Gold/19950607/Press Contact: Chris Tucker, Barclays PR, +44-171-699-2669; Internet e-mail chris.tucker@gf.barclays.co.uk; Supernet, +44-1534-880044/BARCLAYS060795/PHOTO) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 06/07/95 TELECOM UK - Tricom Intros Parallel Port Portable Modem (NEWS)(TELECOM)(LON)(00026) UK - Tricom Intros Parallel Port Portable Modem 06/07/95 HIGH WYCOMBE, BUCKINGHAMSHIRE, ENGLAND, 1995 JUN 7 (NB) -- Tricom has unveiled a portable versions of its desktop parallel port 28,800 bits- per-second (bps) modem. Known as the Traveller 34-ip, the UKP599 modem is aimed at remote LAN (local area network) users who need fast data throughput. The 34-ip comes in a slim case the size of a credit card and plugs into a PC's PCMCIA (Personal Computer Memory Card International Association) slot. The modem can be addressed using conventional pseudo-serial port PCMCIA software, but really comes into its own using its parallel port software, via the PCMCIA bus. By using a parallel port driver, Tricom claims that the maximum data throughput on the modem can be multiplied by eight, since eight data lines are available on the parallel port bus, compared with one on the serial port. Martin Bond, access product business manager with the company, claims that the 34-ip is unique in the market. "Like our Tornado 34 modem, the 34-ip allows users to take advantage of the increased throughput attainable via the parallel port, a technology that no other supplier offers," he said. Other features of the PCMCIA modem include flash memory for software firmware updates when they become available, and full support for all ITU/CCITT (International Telecoms Union) speeds, down to 300 bps. The modem supports V.32bis data compression and error correction, as well as MNP (Microcom Network Protocol) Class 10. Chris Tanner, a technical support staffer with Tricom, explained to Newsbytes that the Traveller 34-ip modem is a hybrid PCMCIA unit in that it can be addressed in a variety of ways, using conventional pseudo serial and parallel port software driver technology. "Microcom has developed a new comms technology known as APT, which is included as a native feature of Windows '95," he explained, adding that it is this software driver technology that "makes an enormous difference to the speed at which data can be shunted to and from the PC to the PCMCIA modem card." The modem is available immediately and comes bundled with Delrina's Winfax/Dosfax Lite for Windows communications/fax software. (Steve Gold/19950607/Press & Reader Contact: Tricom, tel +44-1494-483951, fax +44-1494-485213) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 06/07/95 TELECOM Mass. Telecom Council's Investors Conference (NEWS)(TELECOM)(BOS)(00027) Mass. Telecom Council's Investors Conference 06/07/95 BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS, U.S.A., 1995 JUN 7 (NB) -- The Mass. Telecommunications Council's Second Annual Investors Council featured bottom-line business presentations by dozens of vendors in areas such as voice, data, Internet, multimedia, and wireless communications. The event drew hundreds of investors hungry for information about hot properties in telecoms and networking. "The vendors that are here represent a cross-section of the hottest technologies today," said Richard D. Frisbie, managing partner of Battery Ventures, an investment house specializing in telecoms, during an interview with Newsbytes at the recent full-day conference in Boston. Battery Ventures was also one of four sponsors of the show, along with Tucker Anthony/Hancock, Coopers & Lybrand LLP, and the Hale & Dorr law firm. Bolt Beranek Newman (BBN) discussed Internet access at the Investors Conference, while Checkpoint talked about Web security, Frisbie elaborated. Other emerging technologies the investors learned about included asynchronous transfer mode (ATM), virtual local area networks (VLANs), computer telephony integration (CTI), personal communication systems (PCS), and the "wireless local loop," he observed. There was wide diversity among the vendors in terms of size, current financing, and reasons for taking part in the Investors Conference. Companies on hand ran the gamut from public giants like Digital Equipment Corp., to small, private start-ups such as Wildfire, Reflection Technology, and GeoTel. Large and small alike, the vendors used a series of college classroom-style seminars to describe themselves and their goals, orientations, strategies, and financial pictures in words aimed at being understandable to investors with varying levels of technical expertise. Also during the conference, the investors heard from Paul Severino, chairman of Bay Networks, about the Mass. Telecom Council's CommonWealth Exchange networking project, and from US Rep. Edward Markey of Massachusetts, who delivered a keynote speech on the 1995 Telecommunications Act now pending in Congress. The Commonwealth Exchange project is designed to let businesses collaborate on ideas, recruit personnel, and eventually conduct business in a networked environment, according to Severino. Aside from Bay Networks, companies participating in the pilot phase of the Commonwealth Exchange include Digital, Banyan, BBN, Chipcom, Continental Cablevision, GTE Government Systems, Lotus, the Mass. Technology Collaborative, Nynex, Proteon, Raytheon, and the University of Massachusetts (UMass). "As Rep. Markey said in his keynote speech, the Commonwealth Exchange is providing a model for the rest of the nation to follow," maintained Dr. Laurence Walker, VP and general manager of Digital's Network Product Business, during an interview with Newsbytes. Walker is also chairman of the Working Committee on Employment within the Commonwealth Exchange. Also at the Investors Conference, Walker spoke at a seminar held to explain Digital's enVISN (Enterprise Virtual Intelligent Switched Networks) to the investors. In another seminar, Andy D. Ory, president, chair and chief executive officer (CEO) of Priority Call Management, outlined his company's telephony systems, which are designed to provide one-number communications and other "advanced mobility applications" to Fortune 1,000 organizations. In a meeting with Newsbytes at the conference, Ory said that through a recently formed deal with Menlo Ventures that is providing Priority's first venture capital, Priority has gained a "real partner," along with the opportunity to be "more selective" in "pursuing opportunities." Priority Call Management plans to introduce a suite of new products in eight to 12 weeks, Ory revealed. During the seminars at the conference, investors raised questions concerning the "bottom line," and the vendors seemed candid in their responses. At a presentation by Natural Microsystems, for example, Robert Schecter, newly named president and CEO, told the investors that one difficulty with the company's current policy of marketing its speech recognition engine for integration into other vendors' products is that profitability can be more difficult to gauge and predict. Schecter added that Natural Microsystems now wants to become "better known." Natural Microsystems' customers include Wildfire, BBN's Hark Systems, and Uniden, which is using Natural Microsystems' product for a wireless WAN (wide area network) with integrated voice-mail, paging, call forwarding, speed dialing, and least cost routing features. At a session on Dynatech, a firm that produces networking testing equipment among other products, President and CEO John Reno discussed the importance of timing the releases of testing products to coincide with expected sales trends for various types of networking technologies. Dynatech's recent product introductions, for example, have included test equipment for wireless networks, ATM, Sonet, SS7 (Signaling System 7) and AIN (artificial intelligence networks), SDH, digital services, and residential broadband, he said. Investors came away from the conference excited over the potential of new telecom and networking technologies, despite the awareness that, in some instances, financial paybacks might not be immediate. "Like a lot of other people, investors are interested in the `info highway.' There are certainly a lot of believers around here," Henry Donnelly, a private investor attending the conference, told Newsbytes. "We've been seeing all aspects: telecommunications, LANs, WANs, voice, wireless communications," he noted. Investments in wireless communications will start to show strong returns about five years from now, predicted Donnelly. Aside from Digital, Dynatech, Natural Microsystems, BBN, and Bay Networks, other public vendors present at the 1995 Investors Council included Alpha Industries, Arch Communications, Banyan, Boston Technology, Cabletron, Cascade Communications, Chipcom, CrossComm, PictureTel, Proteon, Shiva, Summa Four, and Xylogics. Other than Wildfire, Geotel, and Reflection, the private vendors that were in attendance were Agile Networks, Amber Wave, Amulet Software, Aurora Systems, Hammer Technologies, HomeNET Corp., Instream Corporation, LANCity, Multilink, Nashoba Networks, Net2net, Phoenix Data Communications, Steinbrecher Corp., and US Telecenters. (Jacqueline Emigh/19950606/Reader Contact: Mass. Telecommunications Council, 617-439-8600; Press Contact: Craig Librett, Miller Communications for the Mass. Telecommunications Council, 617-536-0470) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 06/07/95 TRENDS Philips & Visa Team On Screen Phone Banking (NEWS)(TRENDS)(BOS)(00028) Philips & Visa Team On Screen Phone Banking 06/07/95 BURLINGTON, MASSACHUSETTS, U.S.A., 1995 JUN 7 (NB) -- Although only 30 percent of all Internet users are female, 70 percent of bill payment is done by women, making screen phones a more than viable "niche" for remote banking applications, said Philips Homes Services' Susan Vladeck, in an interview with Newsbytes around a new partnership between Philips and Visa Interactive. The case for bill payment via PHS's new P100 screen phone becomes even more cogent when you consider that most female Internet users are students and other "academics," she added, pointing to survey results recently published in the New York Times. PHS is teaming with Visa around industry communications standards and expansion into international markets, as well as a series of projects that will include development of a new Visa Interactive remote banking application, to be piloted on the P100 later this year, reported Vladeck, who is the executive director of marketing for PHS. PHS and Visa are both "very active" in international markets already, but by joining forces, the two companies will gain greater global strength in the targeted niche, Vladek asserted. Philips works with phone companies worldwide, and these ties are particularly well established in Europe, according to the Philips exec. For its part, Visa brings strong relationships with the international banking industry, she maintained. Meanwhile, Citibank, the first commercial user of the P100 screen phone, has just expanded both the screen phone and PC components of its remote banking application, and eliminated all fees for home- and business-based electronic transactions beyond "the price of the phone call," Newsbytes was told. The first stage of the Citibank screen phone/PC banking rollout involved 10,000 screen phone users in the New York City, Chicago, and Washington DC metropolitan areas, Vladeck explained. Now on the horizon for screen phone applications is smart card technology, predicted Vladex. Trials of Mondex (Monetary Digital Exchange) have already begun in Europe, using another vendor's screen phone, she observed. In addition, Visa and MasterCard have both already announced their intentions to develop smart card applications, Vladeck noted. Moreover, the P100 comes with a built-in smart card reader, the PHS executive told Newsbytes. As previously reported in Newsbytes, the P100 is designed to provide an easy-to-use device for interactive voice and text applications. At a PHS conference/expo attended by Newsbytes in Bedford, Massachusetts last fall, PHS and third-party partners showed: a P100 "application development environment;" a national "text directory assistance" service for screen phones; stock and bond trading; "interactive voice-mail;" insurance forms processing; a dental office application; and the ability to transfer data between a P100 and a PC, in addition to home banking applications. Aside from PHS and Citibank, companies participating in October's screen phone expo included Ameritech, Bell Atlantic, Bellcore, Rochester Institute of Technology, Voicetek Corporation, C&P International, Bankness Betalings Sentral, CPS Europe BV, and SPS. (Jacqueline Emigh/19950602/Reader Contact: Philips Home Services, 617-238-3400; Press Contact: Paul Chapple, Kearns & West for PHS, 617-662-6651) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 06/07/95 BUSINESS Seagate Plans 155,000 Square-Foot Plant In Ireland (NEWS)(BUSINESS)(LAX)(00029) Seagate Plans 155,000 Square-Foot Plant In Ireland 06/07/95 SCOTTS VALLEY, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1995 JUN 7 (NB) -- Seagate Technology Inc. (NYSE: SEG) has announced yet another in a long line of worldwide plant expansions. Its new $35 million dollar disk manufacturing facility will bring eight hundred jobs to Clonmel in the Republic of Ireland. Seagate plans to have the Clonmel plant begin production in October. The facility used to house a Digital Equipment power supply manufacturing plant, but has been vacant for a number of years. Julie Still, a spokesperson for Seagate, told Newsbytes that, "Equipment has already been shipped and training has already begun to insure the October start-up." Still points out that, "Ireland offers an abundance of highly educated workers, a good supply of vendors, and most importantly, a great transport link to the European marketplace." According to Still, the Clonmel plant will contain some of the industry's most advanced automated process technologies, and will almost exclusively manufacture a 3.5-inch gigabyte (GB)-plus disk drive -- Seagate's Decathlon ST51080. Seagate plans to produce 25,000 disk drives daily at this plant. Seagate reports that the GB-plus market represented 9.8 million units over the last year, and Seagate holds a 24 percent share in the 1-2 GB range, while a 40 percent share in the 2GB-plus market. "Seagate sustains its dominance in this market by continuing to focus on the high-end, leveraging our considerable expertise in core technologies," said Ron Verdoorn, Seagate's executive vice president, and chief operating officer of the Storage Products Group. "Our depth of vertical integration, including the design and production of recording heads, media, substrates, motors and other key components, allows us to build on technologies from our nine research and development centers, and to be the first to market with leading-edge products. "The new Clonmel facility, in addition to further supporting the company's capability to supply global demand for its products, will more specifically support Seagate's European market demand, which represented 30 percent of Seagate's March quarter, 1995 revenues," said Verdoorn. "Mirrored by the recent expansion of our Springtown operation in Northern Ireland, Clonmel will raise the total number of sustainable jobs created by Seagate on the island of Ireland to over 1,600." The Irish plants are only a part of the worldwide Seagate expansion. Seagate had just announced the plans for a 1,000,000 square-foot facility in Singapore. It already has three plants in Malaysia, four in Thailand, one in People's Republic of China, plus domestic operations in California, Oklahoma, and Minnesota. (Richard Bowers/19950607/Press Contact: Julie A. Still, Seagate, 408-439-2276) (SUMMARY)(GENERAL)(SFO)(00030) Newsbytes Daily Summary 06/07/95 PENN VALLEY, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1995 JUN 7 (NB) -- These are capsules of all today's news stories: 1 -> China - Golden Health Project Links Hospitals 06/07/95 China plans to set up an electronic information network covering its medical sector. The so-called, "Golden Health" project, aims to link health administration departments and hospitals, as well as medical education and research institutes. 2 -> China - Dial-Up Audio Info Services Extended To US 06/07/95 More than 200 audio information services are currently available in China, providing Chinese information about traveling, shopping, stock exchanges, and health care. Now the audio/phone information services have been extended to the US. 3 -> China - Intel Plans Assembly Plant In Shanghai 06/07/95 Intel plans to invest US$30 million building a factory in Shanghai to assemble and test semiconductor products. Construction is scheduled to start in the fourth quarter of 1995 and is expected to be completed by the end of 1997. 4 -> Quid Pro Quo Game/Classroom CD-ROMs 06/07/95 Neon Publishing Inc. is handling North America-wide distribution of "Edutainment Trivia" and "Amusement Trivia," two new learn-while-you-play CD-ROM collections by Quid Pro Quo Software (QPQ) of Petawawa, Ontario, Canada. The two CDs should be on the shelves of major computer and software retailers by the end of this month. 5 -> Union Logic Intros Radix - 3-D "Doom" Competitor 06/07/95 Union Logic Software (ULS) has launched "Radix: Into The Void," its new flagship game and the company's first three-dimensional (3-D) effort. According to ULS spokesman Mark Lewis, the game will "beat the pants off" of "Doom" and "Descent," two of the leading 3-D "shooters" on the market. 6 -> US Robotics' 28.8 Modem With TrueSpeech 06/07/95 US Robotics (NASDAQ:USRX) is shipping its Sportster Vi 28.8 fax-modem, which supports DSP Group's (NASDAQ:DSPG) Digital Simultaneous Voice and Data (DSVD) using "TrueSpeech." 7 -> Video/Software Package Teaches Internet Marketing 06/07/95 The Internet is poised to become the marketing venue of choice for many businesses, and a New York firm has developed a video and software multimedia package that teaches the basics of marketing on the global network. 8 -> BSkyB Teletext Security Loophole Update 06/07/95 Intertext Limited, the company which provides the interactive teletext service for BskyB that Newsbytes reported on yesterday, has replied to some of the criticisms over potential loopholes on its system. 9 -> KNX Plans Next-Generation ISDN Systems 06/07/95 KNX has revealed it is working on a "next-generation" of ISDN (integrated services digital networks) connectivity technology and will be showing the ISDNPod 2000 range at the Networks '95 show in Birmingham at the end of this month. 10 -> Network Peripherals Opens For Business In UK 06/07/95 Network Peripherals Inc. (NPI), a US manufacturer of client/server systems, has opened an office in the UK. 11 -> Sun Micro Attacks US Supercomputer Export Policy 06/07/95 The 50s pop song went: "You take a hank of hair, a piece of bone, and make a walkin' talkin' honeycomb." So it is with supercomputers, and that's why US export policy is silly, say Sun Microsystems and the American Electronics Association. 12 -> MCI Wins Computerworld Smithsonian Award 06/07/95 MCI's development of an interactive and broadcast network for the Nasdaq stock market has won the 1995 Computerworld, Smithsonian Award for the "most creative and innovative uses of information technology that benefit society." 13 -> World's Smallest DRAM Chip Developed 06/07/95 A research alliance of three of the world's top electronics companies has announced the development of the "world's smallest and fastest" 256 megabit (Mb) dynamic random access memory (DRAM). 14 -> Japan Newsbriefs 06/07/95 In this round up of news from Japan: Telecoms white paper published; Sony plans price rise; Matsushita & MCA set up multimedia lab; NTT hires more for multimedia; Citizen earnings down; International semiconductor forum. 15 -> Minitel Opens Internet Gateway 06/07/95 France Telecom's Intelmatique subsidiary has opened an Internet gateway making the Minitel videotex service available to millions of Internet users worldwide. 16 -> PR Newswire To Use MediaMap PR Database Software 06/07/95 To assist the high-tech public relations (PR) professional, PR Newswire (PRN) said it is teaming with MediaMap to create and market "OneLink." 17 -> Windows Software Helps Fight Computer Strain 06/07/95 Repetitive stress injuries are becoming more common in the workplace. To combat this, DMG Publishing said it is releasing "StrainRelief," a Windows-based software program designed to help those people who work long hours at a computer. 18 -> Edmark Plans 4 Educational Windows 95 CD-ROMs 06/07/95 Edmark Corp. (NASDAQ; EDMK) has announced plans to release four educational titles on CD-ROM for Microsoft Windows 95. 19 -> Seagram Closes Deal To Take Over MCA 06/07/95 The Seagram Company Ltd. (NYSE:VO) has finalized purchase of 80 percent of MCA Inc. for $5.7 billion in cash. The purchase of MCA transforms Seagrams from just a beverage company, into both a beverage company and media giant in one deal. 20 -> Sony Lowers Price On CD-Recordable Drives 06/07/95 Sony has added a few bells and whistles to its recordable CD line, but the real news is the price. The new Spressa 920 CD-R is priced at $1,999.95 -- down thousands of dollars from their last model. 21 -> Digital World - Searching For A Definition 06/07/95 This show is packed with developers, chief executive officers, middle management, buyers and sellers at all levels, and people who are just curious what Digital World is all about. Unlike many shows, it is not filled with exhibitor floor hoopla, but concentrates on an eclectic gathering of speakers and topics complimented by an equally eclectic group of exhibitors. 22 -> Digital World - Children's Peace Festival Online 06/07/95 As a compliment to the 15th anniversary of the United Nations (UN), Pathways to Peace, a non-profit organization, will hold the 1995 Children's World Peace Festival. Artist Peter H. Rosen, creator of the Creativity Cafe, will bring the event online and live to the World Wide Web (Web). 23 -> HP Intros Low-Cost 486-Based PCs 06/07/95 Hewlett-Packard has announced a new line of 486 PC's with new changes and a lower price. Starting at an estimated selling price of $791, the HP Vectra VE PC replaces a similar HP Vectra VL PC which started at $869. 24 -> Major League Baseball All-Star Voting Online 06/07/95 Baseball is being brought into cyberspace from the friendly confines of the real world, via America Online (NASDAQ:AMER). 25 -> UK - Barclays Bank Offers Secure Internet Shopping Mall 06/07/95 Barclays Merchant Services, the division of Barclays responsible for Visa/MasterCard payment card services and the largest UK processor of its type, has unveiled phase one of BarclaySquare, the UK's first virtual shopping mall. 26 -> UK - Tricom Intros Parallel Port Portable Modem 06/07/95 Tricom has unveiled a portable versions of its desktop parallel port 28,800 bits- per-second (bps) modem. Known as the Traveller 34-ip, the UKP599 modem is aimed at remote LAN (local area network) users who need fast data throughput. 27 -> Mass. Telecom Council's Investors Conference 06/07/95 The Mass. Telecommunications Council's Second Annual Investors Council featured bottom-line business presentations by dozens of vendors in areas such as voice, data, Internet, multimedia, and wireless communications. The event drew hundreds of investors hungry for information about hot properties in telecoms and networking. 28 -> Philips & Visa Team On Screen Phone Banking 06/07/95 Although only 30 percent of all Internet users are female, 70 percent of bill payment is done by women, making screen phones a more than viable "niche" for remote banking applications, said Philips Homes Services' Susan Vladeck, in an interview with Newsbytes around a new partnership between Philips and Visa Interactive. 29 -> Seagate Plans 155,000 Square-Foot Plant In Ireland 06/07/95 Seagate Technology Inc. (NYSE: SEG) has announced yet another in a long line of worldwide plant expansions. Its new $35 million dollar disk manufacturing facility will bring eight hundred jobs to Clonmel in the Republic of Ireland. (Ian Stokell/19950607) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 06/06/95 ONLINE UK - Computer Dating On World Wide Web (NEWS)(ONLINE)(LON)(00001) UK - Computer Dating On World Wide Web 06/06/95 BOREHAMWOOD, HERTFORDSHIRE, ENGLAND, 1995 JUN 6 (NB) -- Knowledge Computing, an information technology publisher, has branched out onto the Internet with LoveNet. Ian Tresman, the company's managing director, claims that the set of World Wide Web pages represent the UK's first computer dating service on the Web. #IMAGE 1 20 TWPCX \images\95060601.PCX Click here for photo LoveNet, as the service is known, is located on a set of Web pages on the Direct Connection's Internet service. The uniform resource locator is http://www.knowledge.co.uk/xxx/lovenet and, according to Tresman, includes a good selection of graphics and humor, along with a series of dating adverts. "The system works with LoveNet acting as an enhanced index to the dating service. Users call a London phone number or send a message to leave their advert, and are then allocated an 0891 (premium rate) number for replies. This number is listed on the Web pages and callers can then contact the advertiser directly through that number," Tresman told Newsbytes. The LoveNet service is free of charge, and the running costs are paid for from revenue from the premium rate phone numbers. Tresman claims that the LoveNet service is a lot more than just a rerun of the full page index adverts for lonely hearts services found in leisure magazines. "The service is run in conjunctions with Teletalk, one of the companies that provides premium rate services of this type, but we've included a good selection of images, which we've kept small so they can be downloaded quickly, and a healthy selection of jokes and anecdotes relevant to the computer dating scene," he told Newsbytes. Interestingly, Tresman is using the Corel Draw Artshow library disks for much of the source material for the graphics on the LoveNet service. To create the HTML (hypertext mark-up language) pages, he used the Microsoft Word HTML add-in, claiming that Web page creation using the package is relatively easy. "There are a number of HTML page creation packages and add-ins around at the moment, but some are good, and others are bad. Although many have their pros and cons, we've found the Word HTML add-in to be the most appropriate to our needs," he told Newsbytes. The LoveNet service is regionally based. Caller select one of the six regions of the UK they are interested in either leaving their adverts for, or replying to advertisers for, and the adverts are then sorted on the basis of different interests and other criteria. "The system has been working for a few days now and already we have 80 adverts. The response has been impressive," Tresman said. (Steve Gold/19950605/Press & Reader Contact: Knowledge Computing, tel +44-181-953-7722, fax +44-181-905-1879, Internet e-mail 72240.3447@compuserve.com/LOVENET950606/PHOTO) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 06/06/95 ONLINE CompuServe Targets Europe For Subscriber Growth (NEWS)(ONLINE)(LON)(00002) CompuServe Targets Europe For Subscriber Growth 06/06/95 READING, BERKSHIRE, ENGLAND, 1995 JUN 6 (NB) -- After topping the 300,000 subscriber mark in Europe over the last year, CompuServe is planning to double the subscriber lists once again over the next year. Echoing comments made by Barry Berkov, CompuServe's president, at an online conference held in Brussels recently, Martin Turner, CompuServe UK's marketing manager, told Newsbytes that the company hopes to see 600,000 subscribers on its lists by May of next year. At the same time, Turner confirmed Berkov's comments that the company is looking at setting up a European headquarters to take on some of the load currently handled by CompuServe's US headquarters, as well as possible elements of the three existing country regional offices around Europe. "We've yet to decide where the European office will be, or its role in the way of things," Turner told Newsbytes, adding that the precise functions of the office have yet to be decided. "We already have offices in the US, Germany and France, but this new office will be have a centralized role," he explained. "The functions of the existing offices will be unchanged," he said. Turner is extremely upbeat about CompuServe's prospects for achieving the 600,000 subscriber mark in Europe by May of next year, despite the fact that Microsoft Network (MSN) will launch in late August. "I see the online market as expanding massively in the UK and Europe over the coming months. We've got MSN coming soon, along with UK Online, Europe Online, and the Bertelsmann deal with AOL, so the market is set to explode," he observed. "My own view is that the market will continue to flourish as far as CompuServe is concerned. Even though the market will get more crowded, CompuServe's take will be a larger part of a larger market," he said. Industry speculation in the UK has suggested that MSN will charge subscribers around UKP5 per month, including the first two hours of access, with subsequent hours charged at between UKP3 and UKP4 per hour. Turner said that these figures, though more in depth than he had heard, were in line with his estimations of how MSN will be run and charged. "I don't view MSN as a direct competitor of ours. CompuServe is headed in a different direction from MSN," he said, noting that such is the fast changing online world, that MSN and/or CompuServe could offer new services in the future that cause the two online services to compete. (Steve Gold/19950605/Press Contact: CompuServe UK, +44-1734- 391064; Reader Contact: CompuServe UK, 0800-289458) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 06/06/95 TELECOM Europe - Open Telecoms Network Plan (NEWS)(TELECOM)(LON)(00003) Europe - Open Telecoms Network Plan 06/06/95 BRUSSELS, BELGIUM, 1995 JUN 6 (NB) -- The European Commission (EC), seemingly less than satisfied with its role as overseer of the planned 1998 open European telecoms market, has issued a new and even more stringent set of directives on telecoms. The draft directive, which is now under active discussion by EC mandarins in Brussels, centers around a concept known as Open Network Provision (ONP), and is known as directive COM(94)689. ONP calls on telecom networks to offer the equivalent of equal access on the telephone network in the US, that is, all subscribers on the main telephone networks having access to all ATCs (alternative telecoms carriers). Although the UK supports ONP, and allows all ATCs to have a short code access number on the main British Telecom (BT) network, the UK is the only country with ONP support. The EC proposals want to extend the ONP concept to the whole of the European Community. A main supporter for the legislation, British Socialist Imelda Read, has urged her colleagues to support the new proposal, which she said takes full account of EC worries, notably with regard to consumer protection and network transparency. Critics of the ONP proposals point out that the majority of network providers will have to spend money on supporting equal access, effectively subsidizing the smaller ATCs, something that is specifically outlawed under the Treaty of Rome. According to Read, the draft ONP rules do not go as far as requiring main network providers to subsidize smaller ATCs, but merely require economic equal access. This is the second attempt at getting ONP through the legislative procedures at the Commission, Newsbytes notes. The EC vetoed the first draft paper, issued earlier this year, which mandated ONP and equal access across the board, citing the Treaty of Rome. This new set of proposals steer a more middle line, and only applies to mainstream telephony, rather than mobile telephony and other specialist areas. A part of the new proposals, telecoms companies would be required to develop a common phone charge card system so that a card holder in one country could use the charge card facilities of another telco without surcharge or penal rates, in another EC country. The EC will formally consider the proposals later this month in its first reading. If all goes well, then a second reading should be completed by the end of the year, ready for the legislation to become law some time early next year. (Steve Gold/19950605/Press & Reader Contact: European Commission, +32-2-299-1111) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 06/06/95 LEGAL China - Intellectual Property Rights Cases Drop (NEWS)(LEGAL)(PEK)(00004) China - Intellectual Property Rights Cases Drop 06/06/95 BEIJING, CHINA, 1995 JUN 6 (NB) -- China's capital, Beijing, claims to have made good progress in its efforts to crack down on intellectual property right violations. In the first four months of this year, only two cases have been reported to the Beijing Public Notary Office, the director of the Notary Office's First Economic Affairs Division said, compared to 200 cases in the same period of last year. He claims that the reduced number of cases points to Beijing's fight against intellectual property right (IPR) violations being a success; or at least there were fewer complaints, he added. Most of the applicants for such cases at the Notary Office last year were joint ventures or foreign-funded companies. The special IPR Court set up in July, 1993, under Beijing First Intermediate People's Court also reported a drop in IPR violation suits. In the first three months of this year, the number of the IPR cases decreased by over 30 percent as compared to the same period last year. Reportedly, among the suits filed, about one-fifth are litigations by foreign firms, including Microsoft and Walt Disney. Patent protection cases accounted for about 30 percent, and computer software related cases accounted for about eight percent. Other disputes involved copyright, technical contracts, trademarks, and unfair competition. Due to the enhanced efforts in attacking software piracy, pirated software, which used to be sold openly in stores on "Electronics Street" in Beijing, are rarely found there any more. However, some "mobile individuals" are still selling CD-ROMs of pirated software on the street. (Chih-Ho Yu & Ning Huang/19950606) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 06/06/95 GENERAL Compaq Cuts Some Notebook, Server Prices (NEWS)(GENERAL)(DEN)(00005) Compaq Cuts Some Notebook, Server Prices 06/06/95 HOUSTON, TEXAS, U.S.A., 1995 JUN 6 (NB) -- Compaq Computer Corp. (NYSE: CPQ) has announced price cuts on several of its notebook and server computers. The reductions run as high as 20 percent on some models. The 1994 national PC sales leader said it has cut the price of some of its Prosignia 300 servers by up to 16 percent. Under the new pricing structure a Prosignia 300 5/90 Model 1050 90 megahertz (MHz) system with a 1.05 gigabyte Fast-SCSI (small computer system interface)-2 hard drive, 16 megabytes (MB) of memory, a 32-bit Ethernet network interface card, 256 kilobytes (KB) of secondary cache, and a CD-ROM drive, will now be priced at $3,999. A similar unit equipped with a 75MHz microprocessor will now be priced at $3,549. In the notebook computer field Compaq cut the price on all of its LTE Elite notebook PCs, some by as much as 20 percent. The company also lowered the price of some models of its Contura notebook line, with those reductions going as high as 18 percent. Of the LTE Elite notebook systems, the 4/40C, Model 170, received the biggest reduction, dropping from $2,499 to its new price of $1,999. The Model 170 is equipped with a color VGA display, 4MB RAM, and a 170MB hard drive. Eight Contura units were reduced in price, with the largest reduction, 18 percent, being applied to the Contura 400C, Model 250. You can now buy that system, which comes with a color display, 4MB RAM, and a 250MB hard drive, for $1,799. Compaq also reduced the price of its Contura 410C, Model 250, the 410C, Model 350 and the 410CX, Model 350. Compaq opened an office and two service centers recently in Chengdu, China, and said it plans to open 36 after-sales authorized service centers in the country during the next six months. The company already operates a 40,000 square-foot manufacturing facility in Shenzhen, China. The joint venture operation with Beijing Stone Corporation started shipping products in August, 1994. (Jim Mallory/19950606/Press contact: Compaq Public Relations, 713-374-0484; Public contact: Compaq, 800-345-1518, Internet World Wide Web http://www.compaq.com) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 06/06/95 ONLINE Internet Update (NEWS)(ONLINE)(TYO)(00006) Internet Update 06/06/95 TOKYO, JAPAN, 1995 JUN 6 (NB) -- In this roundup of new services and resources on the Internet: Next G7 summit online; Evaluate Windows NT server; Jornal do Brasil online; European Patent Office Online; HTML editors reviewed; Castle for sale; European IT Networks Of Excellence; AFL-CIO opens Web home. Next G7 Summit Online The next G7 summit to be held in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada, this month will bring together leaders of the world's major nations. A local newspaper, The Halifax Herald, has established a section for the summit on its Web server. Included is an interactive map of downtown Halifax and an archive of previous summit data. World Wide Web: http://www.herald.ns.ca Evaluate Windows NT Server Software Online, in association with Microsoft, is giving Internet users the chance to evaluate Windows NT Server 3.5, a Windows NT- based World Wide Web server. The special offer expires June 30. World Wide Web: http://www.hookup.net/~jdearden Jornal Do Brasil Online The Jornal do Brasil, a daily newspaper from Rio de Janiero in Brazil, has just begun Internet publishing. The newspaper puts its contents online as soon as the newspaper is completed, making them available online before the printed edition is ready. World Wide Web: http://www.ibase.br/~jb/index.html European Patent Office Online The Vienna branch of the European Patent Office is now online. This local branch specializes in supplying technical and legal information contained in patent documents. You will find details of how to apply for and submit patents, how to purchase copies of patents, plus details of the office and the work they do. World Wide Web: http://www.epo.co.at/epo/ HTML Editors Reviewed Every week a new editor seems to come on the market for HTML (Hypertext Markup Language), the language used to write Web pages. One Internet user has created a page with reviews of all the editors he has tested and evaluated. Also included is reader feedback so the reviews are not just from one perspective. All editors reviewed are for the Microsoft Windows platform at present. World Wide Web: http://www.interaccess.com/users/cdavis/edit_rev.html Castle For Sale A real estate agent in Rostock in the German state of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern has just gone online with its first offering -- a castle. Christian Lahl of agents GECKO says: "This offered castle is only the beginning. More are under construction." World Wide Web: http://www.baltic.net/real-estate-mecklenburg European IT Networks Of Excellence The European Information Technology (IT) Networks of Excellence (NoEs) Service has announced three Web sites in Portugal, the UK, and the Netherlands. This information service aims to become the starting point for access to information on European IT research and development. Currently information online covers the ESPRIT project and links to other European IT resources. (Portugal) World Wide Web: http://www.inesc.research.ec.org/ (UK) World Wide Web: http://www.newcastle.research.ec.org/ (Netherlands) World Wide Web: http://www.twente.research.ec.org/ AFL-CIO Opens Internet Home The AFL-CIO has unveiled LaborWEB, its new home page on the Web. The site contains the organization's latest press releases, policy statements, boycott lists and other labor related information. There is also a section with links to other labor related web sites. LaborWEB complements its LaborNET service running on CompuServe. World Wide Web: http://www.aflcio.org/ (Martyn Williams/19950606) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 06/06/95 ONLINE WebWatch Tracks World Wide Web Sites (NEWS)(ONLINE)(TYO)(00007) WebWatch Tracks World Wide Web Sites 06/06/95 TOKYO, JAPAN, 1995 JUN 6 (NB) -- As any user of the Internet's World Wide Web will tell you, there is a massive amount of information available on thousands of subjects and all of it is disorganized and hard to keep track of. Because so many users spend time revisiting sites to find out if anything is new, only to discover there has been no update since their last visit, a new piece of software has been developed to address the problem. The software is called WebWatch and is available from the Internet as a shareware package to download. WebWatch automates the task of checking Web pages for changes. First of all, the user has to tell WebWatch which pages to check. This is accomplished by specifying an anchor file, another page that contains the URLs (Uniform Resource Locators) of the locations to be checked. The anchor page can either be local, on the users hard disk, or on a server somewhere on the Internet. It can also be the bookmarks file from a browser, such as Netscape Navigator. WebWatch will either check at user specified intervals or whenever called upon by the user, each time writing the results into a hypertext file that can be loaded by a Web browser. The results file contains links to any pages that have change since last visited by the user. Newsbytes has been using the software for around two weeks to keep track of company news release pages and can report it works well, alerting this bureau to new content several times. It is fast as well, using the date in the Web page header rather than downloading a whole page and comparing the text. A scan of 12 pages took around a minute on a 14,400 bits-per-second (bps) Internet connection although performance will vary depending on network load and response speed of the servers being called. WebWatch was created by Specter Inc., a Belmont, Maasachusetts-based software company headed by Joseph Janos. He told Newsbytes the company is concentrating on applications that Web users will use in addition to browsers, saying: "There is plenty of room for innovation on the Web. You don't have to develop a full-blown, multi-million dollar browser in order to be useful." Janos continued, "We believe in components. Monolithic browsers inevitably have to hit the wall at some point, partly because the requirements and technology develops too rapidly to keep up, partly because they just become too baroque. We develop component applications, augmenting your workspace and existing tools." More information on WebWatch is available via a Web site, where the file can also be downloaded. The site is at http://www.specter.com/users/janos/specter/. CompuServe users should be aware that a compatibility problem exists between CompuServe's Net Dialer and many Winsock-compliant software packages, including WebWatch. What this means is that they cannot use this product over a CompuServe connection. (Martyn Williams/19950606/Press & public contact: Joseph Janos, Specter Inc., 45 Selwyn Rd, Belmont, MA 02178; fax +1-617-484-6512, Internet e-mail webwatch@specter.com) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 06/06/95 PC Landmark Intros PC Diagnostics Program (NEWS)(PC)(DEN)(00008) Landmark Intros PC Diagnostics Program 06/06/95 CLEARWATER, FLORIDA, U.S.A., 1995 JUN 6 (NB) -- Landmark Research International Corp. has introduced a software program the company claims can check all the major system components of a personal computer. Landmark said PC Certify Pro has 10 different test group profiles, 18 command line switches and unlimited reporting. A command line switch is one or more characters added to the command used to launch a computer program. The switches tell the program to perform certain tasks at startup. The company said the PC Certify Pro's simulated multitasking system load test can perform a 24-hour system burn-in in 2.4 hours. PC manufacturers perform burn-in tests in the belief that if a component is going to fail, it will happen in the first 24 hours of operation. Landmark said the software can test: the CPU (central processor unit); the FPU (floating point unit -- the chip that speeds mathematical calculations); the system or mother board; the video adapter; serial and parallel ports; hard and floppy drives; the system load; the keyboard; the internal speaker; the mouse; the joystick; an attached printer; the system's SCSI (small computer system interface) port; the CD-ROM drive; the sound card, an installed fax card; and data compression. PC Certify Pro comes with eleven diagnostic utilities to help the user pinpoint system errors. The computer setup can be checked through a number of functions in the SysInfo menu. The company said you can use PC Certify Pro to check any IBM XT or AT, PS/2, or compatible PC using an 8088, 286, 386, 486, or Pentium chip. You need at least 640 kilobytes (KB) of memory and DOS 3.0 or later. You also need a Hercules monochrome, EGA, VGA, or SVGA monitor. PC Certify Pro has a suggested retail price of $249. Landmark is the same company that markets Uninstall-it!, the program that helps remove a Windows-based application. That task can be difficult without help, since Windows-based programs create numerous files in various directories on your hard drive, as well as making changes to other files. (Jim Mallory/19950606/Press contact: Angela Miller, Landmark Research, 800-683-6696 ext 433; Public contact: Landmark, tel 800-683-6696 or 813-443-1331, fax 813-443-6603) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 06/06/95 HEALTH American Diabetes Assn On America Online (NEWS)(HEALTH)(MSP)(00009) American Diabetes Assn On America Online 06/06/95 VIENNA, VIRGINIA, U.S.A., 1995 JUN 6 (NB) -- For suffers of diabetes and their loved ones, America Online (NASDAQ:AMER) and the American Diabetes Association have launched an online forum. The American Diabetes Association Forum is part of Health ResponseAbility Systems' Better Health and Medical Forum on AOL, Margaret Ryan, AOL spokesperson, told Newsbytes. "Health ResponseAbility Systems has built other forums on America Online," Ryan said. "These areas are designed to provide a broad array of updated and accurate information for those who are affected by diseases, like diabetes and cancer." The Diabetes forum on AOL focuses on research, treatment, and management of the disease. In the area, users can find a chat room, a message center with notes from people who are in some way affected by the disease, and a software library, Ryan said. "They can find information, as well as get support from other members of the community." Diabetes is a disease where the body doesn't produce or properly use insulin, which converts sugars and other foods to energy for daily living. The American Diabetes Association is the nation's largest non-profit health organization that is aiming to prevent and cure the disease. Chapters and affiliates are present in all 50 states, numbering more than 800 communities. The new area also contains information on the association -- its mission, how people can contact and join, and how people can volunteer their time, Ryan said. Health ResponseAbility Systems has been a pioneer Greenhouse partner with AOL. The Greenhouse supports the work of entrepreneurs who want to create content for both online services and the Internet. (Bob Woods/19950606/Press Contacts: Margaret Ryan, America Online, 703-883-1625; Rick Johnston, American Diabetes Association, 703-549-1500 ext 378) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 06/06/95 ONLINE PSI Buys 2 Mac Software Firms (NEWS)(ONLINE)(WAS)(00010) PSI Buys 2 Mac Software Firms 06/06/95 HERNDON, VIRGINIA, U.S.A., 1995 JUN 6 (NB) -- Internet service provider Performance Systems International (NASDAQ: PSIX) has moved to serve the Internet needs of Macintosh users, buying two software firms for a total of some $31 million in PSI stock. PSI is buying nearby InterCon Systems for 1.42 million shares of PSI stock, currently trading at $14 per share, and Software Ventures of Berkeley, Calif., for 830,000 shares. PSI spokesman Brian Muys told Newsbytes the details of the acquisitions will be made final by the end of the month. Both InterCon and Software Ventures will be operated as wholly-owned subsidiaries, retaining their current corporate structure and workforce, according to William Schrader, PSI chairman, president and chief executive officer. InterCon is a market leader in Internet connectivity software for local area network (LAN)-based Macintosh computers. Software Ventures is a leader in stand-alone Mac Internet connections. Both companies support Internet applications including World Wide Web products. "PSINet is acquiring the top performers in the Macintosh Internet environment, companies which have demonstrated substantive skills at delivering market share and revenue, in addition to being a perfect fit with our theoretical profile," said Schrader. During the year ended December 31, InterCon reported earnings of $200,000 on revenues of $8.3 million. Software Ventures reported earnings of $400,000 on sales of $3.8 million. InterCon has been developing products for seven years and developed the first commercial Internet products for Macintosh users. The products are sold through a network of resellers. Founded in 1985, Software Ventures is the producer of the Microphone family of products, which has the largest installed base of users in the Mac communications software market. Microphone is also available for Windows users. "Together, our three companies have the technical and marketing power to develop the tools needed to popularize the Internet for both businesses and consumers," said David Hindawi, founder and CEO of Software Ventures. (Kennedy Maize/19950606/Press Contact: Brian Muys, 703-904- 4100 ext 1431, Internet World Wide Web http://www.psi.net) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 76 06/06/95 GENERAL ENIAC Inventor Dies At (NEWS)(GENERAL)(WAS)(00011) ENIAC Inventor Dies At 76 06/06/95 BLUE BELL, PENNSYLVANIA, U.S.A., 1995 JUN 6 (NB) -- J. Presper Eckert, co-inventor of the world's first digital computer, the ENIAC (Electronic Numerical Integrator and Computer) died last Saturday in Bryn Mawr, Pa., at age 76. Eckert was a researcher at the Moore School of the University of Pennsylvania when he began working with John Mauchly on ENIAC in 1943. They completed building the first general purpose digital computer in 1946. Later that year, Eckert and Mauchly started a business partnership that become the Eckert-Mauchly Computer Corp. In 1950, Remington Rand acquired the tiny company and changed the name to the Univac Division of Remington Rand. Remington Rand in 1955 merged with Sperry Corp. to form Sperry Rand. Eckert was a Sperry executive when it merged with Burroughs Corp. to become Unisys. Eckert retired from Unisys in 1989, but continued to consult for the company. He was granted 87 US patents, mostly for work on computers. Eckert received numerous awards for his work, including the National Medal of Science in 1969 presented by President Lyndon Johnson. Eckert is survived by his wife of 33 years, Judith Eckert of Gladwyne, Pa., his daughter Laura Phinney of Petersham, Mass., and three sons: John of Wayne, Pa., Christopher of Alpharetta, Ga., and Gregory of Gladwyne, Pa., and three grandchildren. Funeral services are scheduled for tomorrow in Gladwyne, Pa. (Kennedy Maize/19950606/Press Contract: J. Peter Hynes, 215-986-6948) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 06/06/95 TELECOM UK - KNX Readies Unix/Windows NT ISDN Technology (NEWS)(TELECOM)(LON)(00012) UK - KNX Readies Unix/Windows NT ISDN Technology 06/06/95 OTLEY, WEST YORKSHIRE, ENGLAND, 1995 JUN 6 (NB) -- KNX will unveil two new ISDN (integrated services digital network) systems for Unix and Windows NT users at the Networks '95 show held in Birmingham at the end of this month. Both systems will sell for UKP995 and be sold through reseller channels starting July. John Robson, marketing director for the company, told Newsbytes that the systems -- the KNX ISDN Workstation for Unix and the KNX ISDN Workstation for NT -- will enable Unix and NT users to "enjoy the benefits" previously available on the KNX DOS, Windows, and OS/2 PC-based access systems. "We should have the first units on show at the Networks '95 show later this month and shipments to our resellers, who include British Telecom, Racal and Jaguar, will start at the end of the July," he told Newsbytes. According to Robson, the KNX Workstations offer similar benefits to users -- each has an ISDN interface designed to look like an Ethernet card to the respective Unix or NT system. Both products are flexible enough for remote access to be scaled from 64,000 to 128,000 bits- per-second (bps) per Basic rate card, and the Unix version can support multiple cards to provide greater bandwidth for expansion of the system as demand increases. Support for Point-to-Point Protocol (PPP) and Multilink PPP means that the KNX product enables the Unix or NT device to connect to any other ISDN product that also supports these standards. In addition, to improving the communications capabilities of Unix, the KNX product moves the access provision into the Unix platform allowing Unix based online services such as World Wide Web servers or online transaction services -- for example retail systems -- to be directly accessed from ISDN. "Unix is a key platform for retail systems, Internet and corporate users for online services and transactions. Meanwhile, NT is quickly gaining acceptance as the corporate client-server environment of the future," said Robson. One interesting feature of the ISDN Workstations for Unix and NT network environments is that they support toll-saving, a feature which only connects the ISDN data channels when data is flowing, so saving on call charges. The units also support protocol spoofing to optimize the traffic flow, and high levels of security, including Password Authentication Protocol (PAP) and Challenge Handshake Authentication Protocol (CHAP) with PPP. (Steve Gold/19950606/Press Contact: Maggie Davies, +44-1344-301022; Internet e-mail maggied@cix.compulink.co.uk; Reader Contact: John Robson, KNX, +44-1943-467007; Internet e-mail johnr@knx.co.uk) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 06/06/95 BROADCAST ****Sky TV's Interactive Teletext Service Criticized (NEWS)(BROADCAST)(LON)(00013) ****Sky TV's Interactive Teletext Service Criticized 06/06/95 LIVINGSTONE, SCOTLAND, 1995 JUN 6 (NB) -- Sky Television, which broadcasts via the Astra series of satellites in the UK and to selected countries in Europe, has unveiled an interactive teletext service known as Intertext. Newsbytes has identified that the service, which was launched on Monday of this week, has a major security flaw. The system, which allows viewers to key up selected pages and then access databases by dialing up and interacting with a computer system using the touch-tone keypad on their phone, with the resultant data reflected back on the teletext screen, has received criticism from security experts. The problem is that users' names, addresses, phone numbers and credit card numbers, which are entered when an order or booking is placed for goods or services, can be seen by any other viewer of the teletext service when the relevant page is viewed. Alistair Kelman, a barrister (lawyer) specializing in information technology (IT) was horrified by the new services which, he notes, possibly contravenes the Data Protection Act, if not the Consumer Credit Act, in the UK. "Security is a key issue when it comes to interactive services of this type. The problem here is that anyone who keys up a page which has been allocated for a caller on their teletext screen, can see the screens meant for the other person," he told Newsbytes. Kelman went on to say that, where that information is of a personal nature, such as names, addresses and phone numbers, and even payment card (credit/debit) details, that information should not be broadcast on a public service like Sky. "The problem with companies launching new services like this is that they just do not think the consequences through. It's unfortunate, and this is the result," he said. Chris Tucker, a spokeswoman for Barclaycard, the UK's largest issuer of Visa and Mastercard branded credit cards, told Newsbytes that she was concerned to hear that the Intertext service broadcast card details entered by callers to the service on the teletext pages. "I'm having a word with our security people about this now," she told Newsbytes, adding that, while the company would not comment directly about the Intertext service at the moment, it advised cardholders not to give out or enter their card details where the information was made public in this way. "Card security is an issue that Barclaycard feels particularly strongly about and that is why we have only recently launched our Barclaysquare Internet shopping service," she said, adding that the Internet shopping service requires the use of a secure version of Netscape before card details are broadcast across the Internet. Peter Sommer, an IT specialist in risk analysis and senior with the London School of Economics, told Newsbytes that, he too, was extremely surprised that Sky's Intertext service was allowing personal information to be broadcast on the teletext channels. "It's surprising, as anyone with the right equipment could log the pages in question and save names, addresses and card details to disk for later reference," he said. Steve Digby of Sky Television customer services told Newsbytes that the company was unaware of this potential loophole in the service and would be looking into the matter "without delay." (Steve Gold/19950606/Press Contact: Sky Television, +44-1506- 484777; Barclaycard Press Relations, +44-171-699-2669) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 06/06/95 ONLINE UK Firm Readies Budget Internet Security Software (NEWS)(ONLINE)(LON)(00014) UK Firm Readies Budget Internet Security Software 06/06/95 BRACKNELL, BERKSHIRE, ENGLAND, JUN 6 (NB) -- Alliance Sales has developed a specialized version of its Dialock Boot PC security system. This new version has been designed to offer a level of "firewall-like" security to users of the Internet. "The new version has not yet been named, but we will be offering several versions, starting with the standalone PC version at UKP49.95. Network versions, obviously, will cost more," Alan Rowledge, the company's technical marketing director, told Newsbytes. The existing version of Dialock Boot prevents a standalone or networked PC from being booted from the floppy drive, effectively preventing anyone tampering with DOS or Windows startup routines. In addition, the package protects critical elements of the DOS and Windows executables, as set up by the user. The Internet version of the package, according to Rowledge, will monitor the serial port or modem incoming data stream and its effect on these critical and/or bootup routines, for modification of any executable files. "Obviously we're not offering the same guarantees as a firewall package costing several hundred pounds, but the package will offer all types of users of the Internet a degree of assurance that hacking programs, viruses or trojan horse programs are causing problems with their hard disks," he said. According to Rowledge, with the increased use of the Internet, it is possible that an "outsider" could retrieve or access company-sensitive data, or make changes the true user does not even know about. The new version of Dialock Boot will ensure that a high degree of protection is offered for Internet and other online service users. The current Dialock Boot works by controlling the boot sequence of the computer, and ensures that user rights are enforced at an early stage after power-up, simultaneously disabling the keyboard and floppy drives to ensure security from a would-be intruder. All attempts to access protected files are recorded along with the type of violation to allow modifications to be made. The software also allows users to selectively encrypt sensitive data, provides a full auditing facility and permits users to create tagged diskettes only able to be used on one particular computer or group of computers. (Steve Gold/19950606/Press Contact: Julie Tomlinson, The Media Crystal, tel +44-1332-824781, fax +44-1332-824755; Reader Contact: Alliance Sales, tel +44-1794-518183, fax +44-1794- 518490) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 06/06/95 TELECOM AT&T Offers New Consumer Services (NEWS)(TELECOM)(MSP)(00015) AT&T Offers New Consumer Services 06/06/95 NEW YORK CITY, NEW YORK, U.S.A., 1995 JUN 6 (NB) -- AT&T (NYSE:T) has announced a number of new products and services for the consumer end of its long-distance telephone customer base, ranging from electronic bill paying to a two-line computer telephone. The announcement and specifics of the new services were released during a news teleconference today, which Newsbytes attended. "Technology makes many things possible," said Joseph P. Nacchio, president of AT&T's Consumer Communications Services unit. "But what's important to customers is making things useful." He said consumers want easy-to-use connections to new technologies. Electronic bill paying capability is one of the services announced this morning. AT&T said it will partner with Checkfree Corporation to market AT&T CheckFree, which will enable customers to pay bills by modem. Also, customers will be able to use CheckFree via a home TV as part of AT&T's HomeCenter System, which is set to debut in late summer. Already, AT&T had announced it was bringing telephone answering and a variety of information services to the TV screen as part of the new HomeCenter System. Another product that will be available in the late summer will be the new AT&T Computer Telephone 8130. It will connect directly to a computer via a serial port, and provide two-line and speakerphone connectivity. "This allows you to connect the processing capacity and power of your personal computer with the simplicity and familiarity of your telephone," said Carl Ledbetter, president of AT&T's Consumer Products unit. The unit will cost $199, but long distance customers will receive a 10% discount when the phone is bought through membership in AT&T's Home Business Resources, a free program that provides discounts, technology advice, and a helpline. Other services and products announced include: AT&T VoiceLine Service, which is voice-activated calling; automatic redial to 46 additional countries, bringing the total number of countries to 66; new paging services; and "Time Manager," which allows 500-number users to schedule in advance where they want their phone calls to ring. The 500-number service gives AT&T customers the ability to receive calls anywhere, because the 500 number follows them. "We offer a heritage that people can trust," Nacchio said. "(We offer) quality they can count on. Support that's always there. And a clear value to make their lives better." Officials also said all of the new services will be carried via the company's "Worldwide Intelligent Network." That network is being improved in terms of reliability and speed. With today's announcements, AT&T also said it is launching a new advertising campaign. The ads show AT&T's services and how they will "enrich consumers' lives," in the company's words. The ads will have the anthem "It's all within your reach," and have the tagline, "Your True Choice." (Bob Woods/19950606/Press Contacts: Jeanmarie Kantor, 1-500-ATT- KANTOR, 908-221-4003; or John Skalko, 1-500-ATT-SKALKO, 908-221- 8413; both of AT&T; Public Contact: AT&T, 800-336-TRUE) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 06/06/95 BUSINESS Adaptec Expands Marketing Efforts In Asia (NEWS)(BUSINESS)(LAX)(00016) Adaptec Expands Marketing Efforts In Asia 06/06/95 MILPITAS, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A. 1995 JUN 6 (NB) -- Adaptec (NASDAQ:ADPT) has increased its distributors in the Asia Pacific Region from five to twelve. The five current distributors in Asia sell only to the OEM (original equipment manufacturer) market, while the seven new distributors are full-line distributors. As Mike Ofstedahl, director of the Asia Pacific Region told Newsbytes, "These five current distributors are not authorized distributors for the retail, end-user market." Ofstedahl pointed out that "all seven of the new distributors are full-line distributors, and their addition will fuel the aftermarket in Asia." Ofstedahl continued, "Before, if a customer in Asia wanted to buy retail or in the aftermarket, they would have to buy from Adaptec distributors in Japan. Now we can sell to the end-user throughout Asia. We never really had distributors in Asia -- we had 'partners' in manufacturing." Ofstedahl told Newsbytes that he would like to model Asia Pacific on Adaptec's successful operation in Europe, which has forty-two full-line distributors. He thought it would take five years to get the same level as Europe. Asia Pacific will have a full management team located in Singapore, with fifty people in place by the year 2000. The new distributors in the Asia Pacific Region are: Best Union, Zhen Zhong Group, Laser Computing (both in Hong Kong with access to China), Acer Sertek (Taiwan), Powermatic Distribution (Singapore), Sam Kwang (Korea), and Ingram Micro (authorized to sell in Malaysia, Thailand, Indonesia, and the Philippines). Over the past 14 years, Adaptec has emerged as a leading company specializing in small computer systems interface (SCSI) controllers for storage devices, with a diversified input/output (I/O) product line. As previously reported by Newsbytes Adaptec's market share for SCSI host adapters ranges somewhere between 60 and 80 percent. It took the company 10 years to sell the first million SCSI host adapters. In their eleventh year, they sold their second million. (Richard Bowers/19950606/Press Contact: Eric Brown, Adaptec Inc., 408-957-4893) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 06/06/95 GOVT Motorola Wins Contract To Secure Defense Dept Net (NEWS)(GOVT)(LAX)(00017) Motorola Wins Contract To Secure Defense Dept Net 06/06/95 SCOTTSDALE, ARIZONA, U.S.A., 1995 JUN 6 (NB) -- Motorola has won the bid to design and develop the computer-based Network Security Manager for the Department of Defense. In order to complete the job, Motorola will have to develop the network security for the entire US government's "national information highway." The contract to develop the network security for the entire national information highway (NIH) , comes just days after the establishment of the joint federal Security Infrastructure Service Program Management Office. As Newsbytes reported previously, this new office will offer government-wide security services for electronic commerce and messaging. These two steps are among the first to make Vice President Al Gore's NIH a reality. The creation of a coast-to-coast electronic information highway by 2015 is the major technology goal of the Clinton administration. The "information highway" is a term for a high-capacity communications network that would carry data, voice, and video between homes, businesses, and government. Mike Schumacher, the contract manager for the NSM (Network Security Manager) told Newsbytes that Motorola's contract is for thirty months, but for security reasons he could not disclose if the project is to be completed in that time-frame. Under this contract Motorola will provide key/certificate management and security audit services. In addition to the initial design and development of software, Motorola will provide various systems engineering services to aid in the establishment of a network security manager program, and be the lead manager of the NSM team. NSM team members include Motorola's GSTG unit (Government and Space Technology Group), PRC Inc., HFSI, JG Van Dyke and Associates, and Pulse Engineering. As a team member, Motorola is also responsible for the development of the Certificate Manager and the Rekey Protocol Gateway. The Certificate Manager directs key, privilege, and certificate information used to establish and validate the authorization and privileges of a user on the network. The Rikey Protocol Gateway acts as an intermediary between a user or personality needing new or updated key material and the central key management system. (Richard Bowers/19950606/Press Contact: Chad Madden, Motorola, 602-441-2885) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 06/06/95 GOVT Do FBI & NSA Want Law Enforcement Or Espionage? (NEWS)(GOVT)(MSP)(00018) Do FBI & NSA Want Law Enforcement Or Espionage? 06/06/95 SEATTLE, WASHINGTON, U.S.A., 1995 JUN 6 (NB) -- The US National Security Administration (NSA) and Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) want to be able to read people's mail in cyberspace, ostensibly to enforce the law. That's what they're telling us, at least, but documents obtained through the Freedom of Information Act reportedly make it clear that law-enforcement is far less interesting to these government bureaucracies than good, old-fashioned espionage. Peter Cassidy explores the NSA's behind-the-scenes political maneuverings in considerable detail in "Silent Coup in Cyberspace" (Covert Action Quarterly, Spring 1995, pp. 54-60). The NSA played a key role in the Digital Telephony Bill passed by Congress last fall and is still pushing the contentious Clipper chip concept championed by the Clinton administration. "Cyberspace is of military origin and martial influence is built into the domain," he writes. "The defense and intelligence communities have co-opted so much of the research and development budget over the decades that the very nature of advanced communications and computer research has been militarized. The Cyberpunk image hides a reality shaped by the needs of an information-hungry national security apparatus." Sidebars to the main story explain "NSA's Cryptographic Crisis" and the Clinton administration's dubious-sounding Information Infrastructure Task Force Working Group on Privacy. Author Cassidy can be reached at: pcassidy@delphi.com The same issue of CAQ contains a round-up piece about political newsgroups and mailing lists available on the Internet ("Trawling the Internet," by Wendell Minnick, pp. 61-62). This story is republished with permission from the June, 1995, Cybernautics Digest, a monthly summary of reports about converging information technologies. (Contact: Terry Hansen, Cybernautics Digest, c/o KFH Publications Inc., 3530 Bagley Ave. N., Seattle, WA 98103; 206-547-4950; Fax: 206-547-5355; E-mail: cybernbm@cuix.pscu.com. U.S. subscription rate: $24; $2 sample issue) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 06/06/95 BUSINESS AmCoEx Index Of Used Computer Prices (NEWS)(BUSINESS)(SFO)(00019) AmCoEx Index Of Used Computer Prices 06/06/95 SAN DIEGO, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1995 JUN 6 (NB) -- By John Hastings. By any measure, Apple Computer's new Power Macintosh sales have been a tremendous success, with sales having exceeded Apple's own optimistic first year estimates by more than 25%. Now, the company is predicting up to 200% compound annual growth in sales for the next few years. One of the things that will fuel this growth is a new type of expansion bus for the computers due out this summer. The old proprietary NuBus slots will be replaced by industry standard PCI (Peripheral Component Interconnect) slots. This will allow Macintosh users to use many of the same expansion boards now available for IBM compatible computers. In preliminary tests, most of the boards have performed substantially faster on the Power Macs than on comparably equipped Pentium-based computers. Most video boards performed up to 250% faster on the Power Macs. This is an important piece of the puzzle in Apple's strategy for future growth. While Windows technology mimics the Macintosh in many ways, the Macintosh has an almost insurmountable lead in full-motion video. Apple is investing significant resources in expanding this lead. It is currently demonstrating new software for virtual reality and three-dimensional software development. These new development tools and faster hardware will allows programmers to develop more realistic games and educational software. But, that's only the beginning. Apple will utilize this technology to establish a lead position in interactive television and video teleconferencing. John Hastings is the president of the American Computer Exchange. Since 1988, the American Computer Exchange has matched buyers and sellers of used microcomputers. For more information contact the American Computer Exchange at (800) 786-0717. The AmCoEx Index of Used Computer Prices The following prices are for May 29, 1995. Average Average Buyer's Seller's Machine Bid Ask Close Change($) IBM PS/2 Model 70 60MB $350 $600 $375 -25 IBM PS/1 486DX2/50 253MB 800 1350 900 -25 IBM PS/2 Model 90 160MB 900 1300 1000 .. IBM ThinkPad 350C 1600 1950 1750 -50 IBM ThinkPad 700 900 1500 1000 -50 IBM ThinkPad 720 1100 1800 1350 .. AST 486SX/25 170MB 650 1050 700 -25 AST 486DX/66 340MB 850 1400 925 .. Dell 386/33, 100MB 450 850 475 -25 Dell 486DX/33 240MB 700 1150 825 .. Gateway 386/25, 80MB 350 700 400 -25 Gateway 486/33 120MB 700 1100 900 .. Clone Notebook 386SX, 40 MB 400 900 450 .. Clone 386/33 80MB, VGA 350 700 400 -25 Clone 486/25 120MB, VGA 700 1200 850 .. Clone 486DX/33 240MB 800 1425 900 -50 Compaq LTE 286 40MB 250 675 325 -25 Compaq Contura 320 60MB 500 1000 650 .. Compaq Contura 4/25 120MB 900 1400 925 -25 Compaq Deskpro 386/20e 100MB 400 800 425 -25 Compaq Deskpro 486/33 120MB 750 1300 850 -50 Mac Classic II 80MB 350 800 425 .. Mac IIsi 160MB 500 900 550 +25 Macintosh IIcx 80MB 250 600 300 .. Macintosh IIci 80MB 500 950 625 .. Macintosh IIfx 80MB 600 1000 725 -25 Mac Quadra 700 230MB 1000 1600 1125 .. Mac Quadra 800 500MB 1600 2300 1725 -25 PowerBook 140 40MB 700 1100 825 -50 PowerBook 170 40MB 800 1350 925 .. PowerBook 180 80MB 1200 1850 1500 +50 LaserWriterPro 630 1100 1650 1300 -50 Toshiba 1900 120M 675 1150 725 -50 Toshiba 3200 SXC, 120MB 1850 2950 2000 -75 Toshiba 3300SL 120MB 850 1300 925 +25 Toshiba 5200 100MB 750 1050 800 .. HP LaserJet II 350 850 450 .. HP LaserJet IIIP 250 650 350 .. HP LaserJet III 500 900 625 -25 HP LaserJet IV 800 1200 925 +25 (AMCOEX/19950606) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 06/06/95 TELECOM UK - Cellnet's New GSM Mobile Phone Tariff (NEWS)(TELECOM)(LON)(00020) UK - Cellnet's New GSM Mobile Phone Tariff 06/06/95 SLOUGH, BERKSHIRE, ENGLAND, 1995 JUN 6 (NB) -- Cellnet, one of the two GSM (global system for mobile communications) digital mobile networks in the UK, will start offering a domestic tariff in July of this year to attract domestic subscribers to its digital net. The new tariff will be called Regular Caller Plus and offer a monthly line rental of UKP17.50 compared to the standard UKP25 a month change imposed at present. Call charges will 15 pence a minute during off-peak times, and 35 pence a minute during office hours. In addition, for calls within local calling distance of the mobile -- defined as a maximum of four local trunk code areas within the vicinity of the mobile -- subscribers will be able to make calls at 15 pence a minute at all times. Kevin Taylor, a spokesman for Cellnet, told Newsbytes that a launch date was in the process of being finalized this week. "The service itself will be available from dealers from the beginning of July onwards," he said, adding that subscribers would have to wait until late August to enjoy the reduced rate calls. Taylor explained that the service makes use of a facility known as Cell Broadcast on GSM, under which the same text message can be sent to all mobiles logged on a particular base station. Under the Regular Caller Plus (RCP) service, a cellnet GSM mobile will receive a different base station ID, plus the local area calling codes, from any Cellnet base station on the network. Although the RCP service can be used by any Cellnet GSM mobile, Cellnet has been working with cellular phone manufacturers over the past few months to develop RCP-specific mobiles that have displays capable of showing the local call area information. Five mobiles from the likes of Motorola and Nokia will be available when the service is launched, and several more handsets will be available by the fourth quarter of the year. Cellnet plans to use the RCP service as a carrot to encourage its domestic analog cellular subscribers to migrate to digital. The call charges compare well with the UKP15 a month and 50/20 pence per minute charges on the Lifetime Cellnet tariffs, Newsbytes notes. (Steve Gold/19950606/Press Contact; CompanyCare PR, tel +44-1734-582031, fax +44-1734-599595; Cellnet, +44-1753-504000) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 06/06/95 GENERAL UK Firm Joins European Transport Data Network (NEWS)(GENERAL)(LON)(00021) UK Firm Joins European Transport Data Network 06/06/95 FAREHAM, HANTS, ENGLAND, 1995 JUN 6 (NB) -- Community Network Services (CNS), a specialist value-added network supplier for the freight community, has been invited to join EurotransPortnet, a European economic interest group comprising the port community systems of Antwerp, Bremen, Felixstowe, Hamburg, Le Havre, and Rotterdam. According to CNS, the objective of the group is to provide cooperative development to increase the flow of vital freight information between freight operators in these major port. The company claims that the scheme will not only increase the speed of freight transfer through and between ports, but will also enhance the safe transport of hazardous or polluting goods in European waters. EurotransPortnet carried out the successful European Community project known as PROTECT which developed standards for the format of information which must be submitted to ports by all ships carrying hazardous goods. EurotransPortnet also developed the associated common EDI (electronic data interchange) procedures that allow electronic exchange of this and other information between and within ports in the community system. CNS has now joined EurotransPortnet to participate in the implementation of these messages and develop other EDI links between port community users. The PROTECT development project was completed in December of last year, since when several hundred companies have been notifying dangerous cargoes using EDI technology. According to Derek Dubber, CNS' marketing manager, the creation of EurotransPortnet is the logical development for this group, which is anxious to exploit the benefits of EDI for port community members. "We've watched the progress of the PROTECT project with interest and feel that it is now appropriate for us to participate with EurotransPortnet to develop and promote the use of EDI," he said. "With our experience as the largest of the specialist European port community networks, we feel that participation will be beneficial to the concept of port community systems in Europe, and in particular will offer a number of benefits to our own customers," he said. According to CNS, existing customers of the company will benefit from the firm's decision to join EurotransPortnet, since this gives them the ability to trade electronically with partners in all the other port communities on the system via their existing CNS network access. This may be with branches of shipping lines based in each of the ports, local freight forwarders, or the local port authorities themselves. (Sylvia Dennis/19950606/Press Contact: Harvard PR, +44-181-759- 0005; Internet e-mail ben@harvard.mhs.compuserve.com; Reader Contact: CNS, +44-1489-589922) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 06/06/95 LEGAL Anti-Microsoft Group To File Consumer Fraud Charges (NEWS)(LEGAL)(DEN)(00022) Anti-Microsoft Group To File Consumer Fraud Charges 06/06/95 WASHINGTON, D.C., U.S.A., 1995 JUN 6 (NB) -- A fledgling consumer lobby group has announced it will file consumer fraud charges against Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ: MSFT) in all 50 states in an effort to have the sale of Windows 95 banned. The Committee To Fight Microsoft Corporation Executive Director Anthony Martin said Microsoft's soon-to-be-released Windows 95 operating system software could become "the greatest consumer fraud in history" if its sale isn't blocked by regulatory authorities. "Microsoft plans to intentionally sell a product that cannot work as advertised or represented under normal working conditions for most computers which are currently in service, and expects to inveigle tens of millions of consumers into paying billions of dollars for this functionally defective product," said Martin in a prepared statement. The group alleges that Windows 95 will not work on computers equipped with four megabytes (MB) of memory. Martin is backing up his allegation with a recent article in The Wall street Journal (WSJ). In the May 25th issue the WSJ writer said, "On a 4MB machine, Windows 95 will only be effective running a single major program at one time, and the new Windows 95 versions of many of the most popular major programs, including Microsoft's key titles like Word and Excel, won't run at all." Martin alleges that "very few" PCs in use today are equipped with more than four megabytes of memory. "That means Microsoft will be targeting helpless home users, and trying to sell them an 'upgrade' that simply won't work on their existing machines," said Martin. However, a Dell spokesperson told Newsbytes "It is clear that a majority of our PCs are sold with more than 4MB of RAM; indeed our Dimension line starts at 8MB." Gateway 2000 told Newsbytes all of the company's standard configurations are 8MB of memory and the average is 12MB. "We ship a lot with 16MB," said Gateway spokesperson Wendell Watson. Microsoft spokesperson Greg Shaw told Newsbytes, "We have said and continue to say if you are currently running Windows 3.1 or Windows for Workgroups on a 386 four megabyte system you will be as happy or happier with Windows 95 on the same configuration." Shaw said Windows 95 requires 4MB minimum and the company recommends 8MB. Martin said his organization is asking that every state attorney- general seek a ban on the sale of Windows 95 unless and until the product which is shipped is labeled accurately and truthfully as to its system requirements and actual operating potential. "Until a federal law is enacted to protect the American public, the burden of blocking Gates and his cyberhustlers must fall on America's state attorney generals," said the political action committee leader. Martin also wants the Windows 95 manuals to be rewritten. (Jim Mallory/19950606/Press contact: Anthony Martin, The Committee To Fight Microsoft, 203-347-2065 or Microsoft, 206-882-8080) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 06/06/95 BUSINESS ****IBM Sees Lotus Acquisition As Mutually Beneficial (NEWS)(BUSINESS)(BOS)(00023) ****IBM Sees Lotus Acquisition As Mutually Beneficial 06/06/95 NEW YORK, NEW YORK, U.S.A., 1995 JUN 6 (NB) -- At a New York press conference yesterday afternoon, IBM Chairman and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Louis V. Gerstner, Jr. characterized a $3.3 billion unfriendly acquisition attempt launched earlier in the day toward Lotus as a deal that will ultimately benefit both parties, if it goes through. "(Lotus) is a very special company, and we are excited about bringing to that group of people the IBM resources of marketing technology and (finance) to help them grow and become the leader," Gerstner asserted at the press event, attended by Newsbytes via teleconference. In the "combined company" that IBM envisions, IBM and Lotus would complement one another on both the product and distribution sides, Gerstner told the journalists and analysts. IBM would contribute in product areas such as computer hardware, networking, and systems software, while Lotus would bring communications software like Notes and cc:Mail, as well as its personal productivity packages and SmartSuite, according to the IBM CEO. IBM offers a powerful worldwide direct sales force, whereas Lotus has "very strong third-party distribution," he added. "We were hoping that the Lotus employees would be excited about this news," Gerstner maintained, with reference to IBM's attempt to acquire Lotus. When asked by a reporter who would "run" Lotus in the event of an IBM takeover, Gerstner replied: "We would expect Lotus to stay where it is. We don't have any interest in interfering with Lotus. We don't have a lot of people around IBM that don't have a lot to do today." Gerstner described the $60 per share offer being tendered to Lotus shareholders as "a very good and fair price." But, he noted, "As I said to (Lotus President and CEO) Jim Manzi this morning, we are very willing to sit down with him and his advisors." The IBM chief reported that IBM counsel has advised IBM that there are no antitrust issues associated with the Lotus acquisition move. Also during the press conference, Gerstner acknowledged that there is "no question the (software) industry is going through a certain amount of aggregation." Gerstner declined comment, however, on IBM's future plans with regard to any possible acquisitions -- friendly or otherwise -- of software companies other than Lotus. "Please don't generalize," Gerstner requested. "We think this acquisition is very unique -- that it will be very, very powerful in (combining) these two companies, and in (delivering) what customers are looking for around the world," he contended. When asked his opinion on the chances of the Lotus deal going through, the CEO responded that he did not want to speculate. "That depends on the decision of the Lotus shareholders," Gerstner said. (Jacqueline Emigh/19950606/Reader Contact: IBM, 914-765-1900; Press Contacts: Jon Iwata, IBM, 914-765-6630; Rob Wilson, IBM, 914-765-6565) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 06/06/95 BUSINESS ****Lotus Responds To IBM Takeover Attempt (NEWS)(BUSINESS)(BOS)(00024) ****Lotus Responds To IBM Takeover Attempt 06/06/95 NEW YORK, NEW YORK, U.S.A., 1995 JUN 6 (NB) -- In a teleconference from New York City last night, Lotus President and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Jim Manzi told journalists and analysts that Lotus was "very surprised" over IBM's initiation of a hostile acquisition attempt, and also said that Lotus's board of directors will meet within 10 business days to decide how to act on the matter. "First of all, I'd like to clear something up. We have not been negotiating an acquisition deal with IBM. We have been in negotiations with them for many, many months about something completely different, which has to do with our continued support for OS/2 and some product opportunities that we see between the two companies," Manzi said during the teleconference, which was attended by Newsbytes. "Number two, as a result of that, we were very surprised by the IBM offer this morning. We and our advisors are going to study the offer. We're also going to study our other options, and the board will decide what's consistent with its fiduciary duty and what's best for the company," added Manzi, who was in New York to meet with Lotus' advisors about the takeover attempt. Manzi maintained that "It is Lotus' board, and not IBM, that will make the decision about what's in the best interest of its shareholders." Announced yesterday morning in an IBM press release, the acquisition effort calls for a cash tender by IBM for all outstanding common shares of Lotus stock at $60 per share, to the tune of $3.3 billion. IBM officials expect to file documents related to the takeover attempt with the Security and Exchange Commission (SEC) today -- including conditions related to Lotus' "poison pill" and other anti-takeover provisions -- and say they have also begun legal proceedings to protect the acquisition bid from anti-takeover provisions. In a Q&A period during the Lotus teleconference, Manzi reported that he first learned of the takeover attempt in a phone call from IBM Chairman and CEO Louis V. Gerstner, Jr. at 8:25 am yesterday, about five minutes before IBM issued its press announcement. From speaking with Lotus' advisors, Manzi said, it is his understanding that Lotus must convene a meeting of its board of directors within 10 business days, "to formally examine (IBM's) offer as well as other options that we may or may not have." Lotus will issue an announcement after the board has reached its decision, but will continue to talk with the press in the interim, Manzi said. The Lotus CEO answered "No" to the question, "Did Lew Gerstner make any promises to you as to what your role would be with the new company if they were to form it? " In reply to another question, Manzi said that Lotus officials have not been "`shopping' Lotus to anyone." The Lotus chief also denied that Lotus and IBM have reached any "standstill agreements" in any of their "discussions with IBM about products" which could prevent IBM from completing its offer. Another teleconference participant wanted to know how the takeover attempt will affect Lotus' current cost-cutting plans. "The restructuring of (Lotus) into four business units is a good idea, no matter what, and the cost reduction program is a good idea, no matter what. We're going to proceed with that as vigorously as we can, understanding full well that (IBM's takeover attempt) is a little bit distracting," Manzi responded. (Jacqueline Emigh/19950606/Reader Contact: Lotus, 617-621- 8600; Press Contact: Richard Eckel, Lotus, 617-693-1697) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 06/06/95 WINDOWS Delrina "Sneak Peaks" New Windows 95 Products (NEWS)(WINDOWS)(TOR)(00025) Delrina "Sneak Peaks" New Windows 95 Products 06/06/95 BELLEVUE, WASHINGTON, U.S.A., 1995 JUN 6 (NB) -- Delrina Corp. (NASDAQ:DENAF, TSE:DC) previewed its new Delrina CommSuite 95 and outlined plans for WinFax PRO 7.0, Cyberjack 7.0 and WinComm Pro 7.0, at the recent Microsoft Reviewer's Workshop in Bellevue, Washington. Designed as 32-bit applications, the products are optimized for the Windows 95 operating system. The new version 7.0 applications are slated to ship within 60 to 90 days following the release of Windows 95, due out on August 24. Suggested retail prices have not yet been announced. All products will be Microsoft Office compatible and Windows 95 "logo compliant," with drag-and-drop functionality and right mouse click support. There will be a common user interface across all application and a single common installation procedure, Delrina says. CommSuite 95 includes WinFax Pro, Cyberjack (tools for Internet access), and WinComm Pro (for direct-modem and bulletin board system connections). WinFax Pro 7.0 features new voice and paging features and has been enhanced to take full advantage of the Windows 95 environment, according to Delrina marketing spokesman Albert Behr. Cyberjack, he says, "brings together for the first time many of the elements that users have been seeking in an Internet product and makes the AInternet as simple to use as WinFax." Delrina, noted for its communications and PC fax software, reports it has already shipped more than 10 million copies of its flagship WinFax package product to date. (Rick James/19950606/Press Contact: Shelly Sofer, 416-441-4702, Internet e-mail shellys@delrina.com) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 06/06/95 APPLE 6th Annual Mac Summit Conference Set For Aug (NEWS)(APPLE)(TOR)(00026) 6th Annual Mac Summit Conference Set For Aug 06/06/95 SANTA BARBARA, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1995 JUN 6 (NB) -- The University of California at Santa Barbara (UCSB) Extension will host the Sixth Annual Macintosh Summit Conference on August 16-19 at the UCSB campus in Santa Barbara, California. This year's conference will be co-sponsored by Apple Computer Inc. and Hewlett Packard. Guy Kawasaki, author and columnist, will lead the conference, which is designed to improve the creativity and productivity of professionals in multimedia, graphic arts, publishing, and digital imaging. Keynote speakers include Russell Brown of Adobe Systems and Kai Krause, leading designer of innovative interface systems and author of "Kai's Power Tools." Featured keynote speaker is Apple Computer's Frank Casanova, who will guide attendees into "the advanced technologies future." Participants will attend a combination of two-hour Master Technique lectures and hands-on training sessions. Conference topics include: Adobe Illustrator, with Ron Chan; Apple Color Sync 2.0, with Josh Weisberg of Apple Computer Inc.; Maximizing the Internet, with Sandra Kinsler; and VivaPress Professional, with Sabine Baeckmann. Hands-on training labs are held in state-of-the-art labs on the UCSB campus, with one Power Macintosh per person. The labs are fully networked and feature large overhead monitors and teaching platforms. Lab topics run the gamut of software programs Q Ray Dream Designer, Adobe Photoshop, Adobe Premiere, Adobe PageMaker, QuarkXPress, KaiUs Wild Card, After Effects, World Wide Web, Illustrator, InifiniD, Director, and Painter. The $545 fee (education fee $445) includes all conference sessions, instructional materials, lunches, beach barbecue, and a reception. For more information, surface mail to: UCSB Extension, Dept. M, 6550 Hollister Ave., Goleta, CA, 93117; or Internet e-mail to JeanF1@aol.com. Details are also available at the UCSB World Wide Web site at http://www.mcl.ucsb.edu/summit/ (Glenn Lisle/19950606/Press contact: Tod King, Santa Barbara MacSummit 800-839-2811, fax 800-893-4943, Internet e-mail JeanF1@aol.com, Internet World Wide Web http://www.mcl.ucsb.edu/summit/) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 06/06/95 WINDOWS Let's Learn! 2 CD-ROM Intro'd (NEWS)(WINDOWS)(TOR)(00027) Let's Learn! 2 CD-ROM Intro'd 06/06/95 TORONTO, ONTARIO, CANADA, 1995 JUN 6 (NB) -- Zimgraphics Ltd. of Toronto is now shipping version 2 of its "Let's Learn" CD-ROM, featuring five all-new programs and updates to several of the original program components. "Let's Learn" is a collection of Windows "edutainment" programs designed to "grow with your child," according to the company. This developmental approach is reportedly best illustrated by the four progressive keyboarding exercise modules included in the package, taking the young user from "beginner" to "genius" level. All told, the newly revised and enlarged version contains 35 separate programs designed to keep the child a step ahead of the pack from pre-school through the elementary grades. There are several simple programs aimed at the pre-school level -- designed to teach numbers, colors and the alphabet. More advanced programs for this age group teach how letters make up words and start to build pattern recognition skills which some educators say are key to the development of strong language and problem-solving skills. For six- to eight-year-olds, it is the basics: introductory and advanced spelling, addition and subtraction, and story time. Older children (ages nine to 12) get "language arts," phonics (levels 1 and 2), consonant blends, compound words, synonyms, antonyms, homonyms, introduction to sentences, and story making. The "Let's Learn" applications make extensive use of sound and animation to demonstrate the concepts that each program is trying to teach, says the firm. In many cases, children receive spoken feedback when they click on an object or complete a task. Older children (six and up) can use most of the "Let's Learn" modules targeted to their age groups without adult supervision, although the programs are designed to facilitate "family" interaction, if desired, according to the company. Kids can also print out certificates at the end of each module to show family and friends what they've accomplished. "Let's Learn" is reportedly carried by most of the larger computer and software retailers and is also available direct from Zimgraphics, at the suggested retail price of C$49.95. Recommended minimum system configuration to run the "Let's Learn" collection includes a 386 25 megahertz (MHz) PC with Windows 3.1 (multimedia utilities installed), 4 megabytes (MB) RAM, 13MB of available hard drive space, Sound Blaster-compatible sound card, CD-ROM drive, and mouse. (Maggie Troone/19950606/Press Contact: Jackie Van Mels, tel 416-929-8851, fax 613-929-8155) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 06/06/95 ONLINE ****Spielberg's Gift To Ill Children - Starbright (NEWS)(ONLINE)(SFO)(00028) ****Spielberg's Gift To Ill Children - Starbright 06/06/95 LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1995 JUN 6 (NB) -- The Digital World Conference started with a true Hollywood event. With lights on and cameras rolling, Steven Spielberg, Candice Bergen, and a pack of chief executive officers (CEOs) introduced Starbright World, a computer-linked network designed to provide entertainment and encounters among children who are seriously ill. Peter Samuelson, president of Starbright, told the audience, "What you will see today is the creation a true milestone on the information superhighway. It unites three cutting edges of human knowledge. Our three Starbright pillars are medicine, entertainment and high technology. At the highest possible level, the companies you will meet here today have joined hands through the Starbright Foundation Network to support the healing of seriously ill children." The Starbright Network is a philanthropic effort of UB Networks, Intel, Sprint, Worlds Inc., and a host of individuals such as Steven Spielberg. In brief, Starbright World allows seriously ill children who are confined to a hospital to do all the things they cannot do because of their illness. Starbright World is an animated virtual world where children may assume or design their own animated "avatar" (character, image) and travel through animated worlds. In Starbright World, they are able to run, play, fly, and share with friends. They are able to escape a world of pain and difficulties and have a good time. The network may allow as many as 40 users to play in these worlds and to meet one another and talk. If two or three users wish, they may leave the animated world for a real-time video conferencing chat. The live, working demo was almost flawless as Steven Spielberg interacted and spoke with three young patients from Lucile Salter Packard Children's Hospital at Stanford in Palo Alto, California. Samuelson said, "It is an all encompassing universe, a three dimensional reality designed to grow organically over time to give ill children the greatest gifts of all: their childhood, their friends, the magic and the thrill of normal, average kid stuff. Fate has dealt these children a bad hand. Through new technology, we will be giving them equal opportunity to be, well, just kids." The highlight of the press event was Steven Spielberg sitting in front of a computer and navigating his way around a tropical world, an underground world and a cloud world. In the latter, he met images floating around the world and introduced himself through live, real-time audio. The children in the Stanford Hospital who were at their own workstations were seeing the same world as Spielberg and viewed him under the identity image of ET (the lead character in his famous movie). In what may best express the concept of Starbright World, Spielberg asked one of the cloud world images where she was. He expected her to explain her stay in the hospital at Stanford, but her simple answer was: "I am here by the castle!" (in the cloud world). After acquainting himself with the patients in the animated world they agreed to participate in live video conferencing which went also without a flaw. The first hospitals to participate in the program are Children's Hospital of Boston, Children's Hospital of Pittsburg, Egleston Children's Hospital in Atlanta, Mount Sinai Medical Center in New York City and the above mentioned Stanford Hospital. The beta testing alone requires millions of dollars in networking, hardware, software and management. All of the participating partners are donating the time and equipment. A grant from Teresa Heinz of the Heinz Family Philantropies has been critical in the development of the hospitals' participation. On the technical side, Starbright Network is an ATM network running over broadband fiber, linking remote sites at 45 megabits per second. Users do not need a high-speed special graphics computer. A standard Pentium-based computer system is sufficient. The Starbright Foundation plans to introduce the network later this year. In its first stage, Starbright World will focus on seriously ill children confined to hospitals on the network. The foundation is looking for additional hospitals and plans to expand the network to a global level. A second stage of the program will allow seriously ill children who are confined to their homes an opportunity to participate on the network. The Foundation is currently developing a campaign to raise the necessary funds to expand and operate the network. (Patrick McKenna/19950606/Press Contact: Heather Schoeny, UB Networks, tel 408-562-7931; Public Information: The Starbright Foundation, tel 310-447-9090/STARBRIGHT950606/PHOTO) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 06/06/95 ONLINE ****After Starbright -- Worldsnet (NEWS)(ONLINE)(SFO)(00029) ****After Starbright -- Worldsnet 06/06/95 LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1995 JUN 6 (NB) -- UB Networks and Worlds, Inc., two of the major participants in the development of Starbright, are forging a new direction for online services. They are delivering an animated, interactive online world on the Internet's World Wide Web (Web) as opposed to a proprietary and separate service common to popular online services. This change will not occur overnight, but Rule Pieper, president and chief executive officer (CEO) of UB Networks, is convinced that the Web is the arena for the future of online services. In a private interview with Newsbytes, he said, "This same technology which we are using for Starbright World will be used in other consumer types of environments: the travel industry, the entertainment industry and others. We are building WorldsNet. It is basically a network infrastructure that can be used for many different purposes. It will be a period of two to three years before we really understand all the opportunities of it and where it won't work." He continued, "Our strategy is not to create another online service but to turn the Internet over as the alternative network and make everything available on the Internet. You will dial directly into a world such as Starbright's Tropical World. Our concept is to come from a grassroots level and follow the Internet model. We are doing it right now. Go to our Web page at http://www.kaworlds.com. and you will get all the worlds and you can interact and play today. You do not need to have an account. Right now you can interact with others, you can play, you can communicate with all sorts of people. It is a spaceship. It has multiple rooms and multiple segments to it. It is the same idea as Starbright." This particular part of UB Networks is called Worlds Chat and requires a bit of downloading time. Pieper was quick to point out that Worlds Away, an animated online chat world under development by Fujitsu for CompuServe, is completely different. In spite of the similar names, these are competitive products. When asked about potential reveunes for a Web project, Pieper said, "We are going to sell these things to other people who might charge for the service, but we are more in the enabling business as opposed to the delivering business." His vision is an online world which is much like Starbright, but it will be a service open to many people. It will allow people to participate in animated worlds and video conferences, search an almost infinite list of information sources through hyperlinks and sophisticated search engines, and many other work and play activities. "We are pushing the bleeding edge all the time. It is great fun to do this, but it is tough as well because it doesn't have a real business rationale to it. Some of this is a little bit of a personal drive, hoping that two years from now or four years from now it will have profound impact on the company. We are starting to demonstrate the value of the network in a very different way than we normally do. We used to talk about what a network can do in speeds and feeds. Now we are talking about, 'Let me show you what you can do with a network. That is a very different style of discussion." While these new definitions of online service are in development, UB Networks relies on its position as a $400 million US networking company. Pieper says the company looks at networks as an application, not pieces of wires between computers and that is "how we build our business." Whether it is the Web or some other form where the onlines define their services, Pieper says, "It (all the changes in the online/Internet world) really means that the largest companies will be fighting for the control of that point or for the real estate on the network. I think that fight will get determined through advertising, lobbying, governmental rulings, and the whole thing. In the end, people will decide, 'Am I going to buy a Coke or a Pepsi?' the same way they are going to decide, 'Am I going to go here or here or here?' in the network. So the real estate fight is going to be a fight for marketing, a fight for entertainment values, who will be able to attract the best audience, the best entertainers and all those parameters." (Patrick McKenna/19950606/Press Contact: Heather Schoeny, UB Networks, tel 408-562-7931/UB950606/PHOTO) (SUMMARY)(GENERAL)(SFO)(00030) Newsbytes Daily Summary 06/06/95 PENN VALLEY, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1995 JUN 6 (NB) -- These are capsules of all today's news stories: 1 -> UK - Computer Dating On World Wide Web 06/06/95 Knowledge Computing, an information technology publisher, has branched out onto the Internet with LoveNet. Ian Tresman, the company's managing director, claims that the set of World Wide Web pages represent the UK's first computer dating service on the Web. 2 -> CompuServe Targets Europe For Subscriber Growth 06/06/95 After topping the 300,000 subscriber mark in Europe over the last year, CompuServe is planning to double the subscriber lists once again over the next year. 3 -> Europe - Open Telecoms Network Plan 06/06/95 The European Commission (EC), seemingly less than satisfied with its role as overseer of the planned 1998 open European telecoms market, has issued a new and even more stringent set of directives on telecoms. 4 -> China - Intellectual Property Rights Cases Drop 06/06/95 China's capital, Beijing, claims to have made good progress in its efforts to crack down on intellectual property right violations. 5 -> Compaq Cuts Some Notebook, Server Prices 06/06/95 Compaq Computer Corp. (NYSE: CPQ) has announced price cuts on several of its notebook and server computers. The reductions run as high as 20 percent on some models. 6 -> Internet Update 06/06/95 In this roundup of new services and resources on the Internet: Next G7 summit online; Evaluate Windows NT server; Jornal do Brasil online; European Patent Office Online; HTML editors reviewed; Castle for sale; European IT Networks Of Excellence; AFL-CIO opens Web home. 7 -> WebWatch Tracks World Wide Web Sites 06/06/95 As any user of the Internet's World Wide Web will tell you, there is a massive amount of information available on thousands of subjects and all of it is disorganized and hard to keep track of. Because so many users spend time revisiting sites to find out if anything is new, only to discover there has been no update since their last visit, a new piece of software has been developed to address the problem. 8 -> Landmark Intros PC Diagnostics Program 06/06/95 Landmark Research International Corp. has introduced a software program the company claims can check all the major system components of a personal computer. 9 -> American Diabetes Assn On America Online 06/06/95 For suffers of diabetes and their loved ones, America Online (NASDAQ:AMER) and the American Diabetes Association have launched an online forum. 10 -> PSI Buys 2 Mac Software Firms 06/06/95 Internet service provider Performance Systems International (NASDAQ: PSIX) has moved to serve the Internet needs of Macintosh users, buying two software firms for a total of some $31 million in PSI stock. 11 -> ENIAC Inventor Dies At 76 06/06/95 J. Presper Eckert, co-inventor of the world's first digital computer, the ENIAC (Electronic Numerical Integrator and Computer) died last Saturday in Bryn Mawr, Pa., at age 76. 12 -> UK - KNX Readies Unix/Windows NT ISDN Technology 06/06/95 KNX will unveil two new ISDN (integrated services digital network) systems for Unix and Windows NT users at the Networks '95 show held in Birmingham at the end of this month. Both systems will sell for UKP995 and be sold through reseller channels starting July. 13 -> ****Sky TV's Interactive Teletext Service Criticized 06/06/95 Sky Television, which broadcasts via the Astra series of satellites in the UK and to selected countries in Europe, has unveiled an interactive teletext service known as Intertext. Newsbytes has identified that the service, which was launched on Monday of this week, has a major security flaw. 14 -> UK Firm Readies Budget Internet Security Software 06/06/95 Alliance Sales has developed a specialized version of its Dialock Boot PC security system. This new version has been designed to offer a level of "firewall-like" security to users of the Internet. 15 -> AT&T Offers New Consumer Services 06/06/95 AT&T (NYSE:T) has announced a number of new products and services for the consumer end of its long-distance telephone customer base, ranging from electronic bill paying to a two-line computer telephone. 16 -> Adaptec Expands Marketing Efforts In Asia 06/06/95 Adaptec (NASDAQ:ADPT) has increased its distributors in the Asia Pacific Region from five to twelve. The five current distributors in Asia sell only to the OEM (original equipment manufacturer) market, while the seven new distributors are full-line distributors. 17 -> Motorola Wins Contract To Secure Defense Dept Net 06/06/95 Motorola has won the bid to design and develop the computer-based Network Security Manager for the Department of Defense. In order to complete the job, Motorola will have to develop the network security for the entire US government's "national information highway." 18 -> Do FBI & NSA Want Law Enforcement Or Espionage? 06/06/95 The US National Security Administration (NSA) and Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) want to be able to read people's mail in cyberspace, ostensibly to enforce the law. That's what they're telling us, at least, but documents obtained through the Freedom of Information Act reportedly make it clear that law-enforcement is far less interesting to these government bureaucracies than good, old-fashioned espionage. 19 -> AmCoEx Index Of Used Computer Prices 06/06/95 By John Hastings. By any measure, Apple Computer's new Power Macintosh sales have been a tremendous success, with sales having exceeded Apple's own optimistic first year estimates by more than 25%. Now, the company is predicting up to 200% compound annual growth in sales for the next few years. 20 -> UK - Cellnet's New GSM Mobile Phone Tariff 06/06/95 Cellnet, one of the two GSM (global system for mobile communications) digital mobile networks in the UK, will start offering a domestic tariff in July of this year to attract domestic subscribers to its digital net. 21 -> UK Firm Joins European Transport Data Network 06/06/95 Community Network Services (CNS), a specialist value-added network supplier for the freight community, has been invited to join EurotransPortnet, a European economic interest group comprising the port community systems of Antwerp, Bremen, Felixstowe, Hamburg, Le Havre, and Rotterdam. 22 -> Anti-Microsoft Group To File Consumer Fraud Charges 06/06/95 A fledgling consumer lobby group has announced it will file consumer fraud charges against Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ: MSFT) in all 50 states in an effort to have the sale of Windows 95 banned. 23 -> ****IBM Sees Lotus Acquisition As Mutually Beneficial 06/06/95 At a New York press conference yesterday afternoon, IBM Chairman and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Louis V. Gerstner, Jr. characterized a $3.3 billion unfriendly acquisition attempt launched earlier in the day toward Lotus as a deal that will ultimately benefit both parties, if it goes through. 24 -> ****Lotus Responds To IBM Takeover Attempt 06/06/95 In a teleconference from New York City last night, Lotus President and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Jim Manzi told journalists and analysts that Lotus was "very surprised" over IBM's initiation of a hostile acquisition attempt, and also said that Lotus's board of directors will meet within 10 business days to decide how to act on the matter. 25 -> Delrina "Sneak Peaks" New Windows 95 Products 06/06/95 Delrina Corp. (NASDAQ:DENAF, TSE:DC) previewed its new Delrina CommSuite 95 and outlined plans for WinFax PRO 7.0, Cyberjack 7.0 and WinComm Pro 7.0, at the recent Microsoft Reviewer's Workshop in Bellevue, Washington. 26 -> 6th Annual Mac Summit Conference Set For Aug 06/06/95 The University of California at Santa Barbara (UCSB) Extension will host the Sixth Annual Macintosh Summit Conference on August 16-19 at the UCSB campus in Santa Barbara, California. 27 -> Let's Learn! 2 CD-ROM Intro'd 06/06/95 Zimgraphics Ltd. of Toronto is now shipping version 2 of its "Let's Learn" CD-ROM, featuring five all-new programs and updates to several of the original program components. 28 -> ****Spielberg's Gift To Ill Children - Starbright 06/06/95 The Digital World Conference started with a true Hollywood event. With lights on and cameras rolling, Steven Spielberg, Candice Bergen, and a pack of chief executive officers (CEOs) introduced Starbright World, a computer-linked network designed to provide entertainment and encounters among children who are seriously ill. 29 -> ****After Starbright -- Worldsnet 06/06/95 UB Networks and Worlds, Inc., two of the major participants in the development of Starbright, are forging a new direction for online services. They are delivering an animated, interactive online world on the Internet's World Wide Web (Web) as opposed to a proprietary and separate service common to popular online services. (Ian Stokell/19950606) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 06/05/95 TRENDS UK Multimedia Taking Off - Report (NEWS)(TRENDS)(LON)(00001) UK Multimedia Taking Off - Report 06/05/95 SLOUGH, BERKSHIRE, ENGLAND, 1995 JUN 5 (NB) -- Gold Disk has announced the results of independent research commissioned to discover the trends in multimedia uptake in UK businesses. According to the self-styled multimedia service and software company, information technology (IT) strategies of the Times Top 1000 companies were polled to see whether high level executives use multimedia within their organizations, and if they do, what they use it for, its benefits, and where they saw future growth for multimedia coming from. The research revealed that 44 percent of respondents said that their organization had already adopted multimedia. Fifty-five percent of those corporations that have already embraced multimedia use is for giving presentations, using products such as Gold Disk's Astound 2.0. Training, point-of-sale (POS), point-of-information (POI) and videoconferencing were the other major uses for multimedia within UK businesses. According to Gold Disk, the research highlights that companies are adopting multimedia in the belief that it gives greater impact and is therefore more memorable. For those using multimedia to make and give presentations, 60 percent said this was the greatest benefit. Other benefits include its self-running ability and its ease of use. The use of multimedia is clearly important in other applications such as education and training, and POI where technology is being used as a sales tool. David Aldrige, Gold Disk's European vice president and general manager, said that the results of the report confirm what the company has been saying for some time. "Increasingly business machines, both desktops and notebooks, are being shipped with the necessary hardware to fulfill end-users multimedia requirements," he said. "The research shows that corporations are moving away from static based presentations. This is bad news for Microsoft, SPC and Lotus, as their presentations software is basically static." According to Aldrige, the writing is on the wall for these companies, "because business managers now have all the ingredients they need for really good multimedia presentations -- powerful hardware, reasonably priced software applications like Astound, and no learning curve to get into really exciting multimedia capability." The research was conducted over a two week period in April by an independent researcher. The survey's results were based on 50 respondents from the top 150 of the Times Top 1000 UK companies. The researcher spoke primarily to IT directors and audio visual/graphics departments. (Steve Gold/19950602/Press Contact: Profile Public Relations, +44-181-995-1595; Reader Contact: Gold Disk, +44-1753-621225) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 06/05/95 TELECOM Belgium - Competition Hots Up For 2nd GSM Net (NEWS)(TELECOM)(LON)(00002) Belgium - Competition Hots Up For 2nd GSM Net 06/05/95 BRUSSELS, BELGIUM, 1995 JUN 5 (NB) -- Digital cellular is fast becoming a hot profit zone, as witnessed by the fight going on for the second GSM (global system for mobile communications) license in Belgium. According to the Belgian Government, no less than five international consortia have submitted their bids for a second GSM network to operate in Belgium. Officials with the Belgian Institute of Telecommunications Services said that the consortia bidding for a license include AT&T, BelCel, Coditel (Tractebel and Vodafone), France Telecom Mobiles International, and Mobilis (Bellsouth and Gevaert). The book bids on the license have now closed, and a decision on the winner will be announced before the end of this month. Although the Belgian Government is making a big show about considering several criteria associated with the consortia bidding for the license, sources suggest that most important criteria -- as with the FCC auction of PCS (personal communication system) frequencies in the US -- will be the auction price the companies concerned are prepared to make for the license itself. Of the five bidders, Coditel, a linkup between Tractebel, a Belgian holding company, and Vodafone, the UK cellular communications group, looks the favorite in the competition. (Sylvia Dennis/19950602) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 06/05/95 ONLINE CMP Adds To Pathfinder's Digital Pulse Web Site (NEWS)(ONLINE)(MSP)(00003) CMP Adds To Pathfinder's Digital Pulse Web Site 06/05/95 MANHASSET, NEW YORK, U.S.A., 1995 JUN 5 (NB) -- CMP Interactive Media and Time Warner's (NYSE:TWX) Pathfinder Internet site are linking up to bring what CMP calls "the latest technology information" to Pathfinder's new Digital Pulse area. The new agreement makes CMP's Interactive Media unit the leading third-party provider for Digital Pulse, which is described as Pathfinder's new "high-tech pop-culture venue." "The point of this is we're making CMP's technology information available to a different set of Web readers than are attracted to our (TechWeb) site," Pam O'Connell, director of content development for CMP Interactive Media, told Newsbytes. She said that every article published in Pathfinder has a hotlink to the corresponding CMP publication's Web page, be it HomePC, Windows Magazine, NetGuide, Interactive Age, or Information Week. CMP officials said Digital Pulse provides an "eclectic mix of high-tech features." "Our goal is to be 'the' provider of technology information. We are on other places on the Web besides Pathfinder and TechWeb," O'Connell said. "We're essentially seeding the Web with our content as well as the many text retrieval places where you can get CMP stories." Time Warner's Pathfinder is located on the Web at URL (uniform resource locator) http://pathfinder.com. CMP is also adding a search feature and usage tracking to its own TechWeb site, located on the Web at http://techweb.cmp.com. First, CMP announced an agreement with CyberSource that allows software.net (http://software.net) users with CMP's "TechSearch" capabilities. This will allow the users to search through CMP's database for product, manufacturers, and software articles. CMP also said Pathfinder users can also link to TechSearch. With the new usage tracking deal, TechWeb will beta-test Internet Profiles Corp.'s (I/Pro) usage tracking services, enabling CMP to track, monitor, and analyze site usage. (Bob Woods/19950602/Press Contacts: Catherine Jarrat Koatz, 516-562-7827; or Barbara Kerbel, 508-562-5218; Internet e-mail cmppr@cmp.com, both of CMP Publications; Public Contact: Internet World Wide Web http://techweb.cmp.com; or http://pathfinder.com) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 06/05/95 WINDOWS UK Firm Offers Budget Windows Security Package (NEWS)(WINDOWS)(LON)(00004) UK Firm Offers Budget Windows Security Package 06/05/95 DAWLISH, DEVON, ENGLAND, 1995 JUN 5 (NB) -- Rhea International has taken the wraps off Latches for Windows, which spokesman Kevin Townsend describes as "a sensibly priced Windows 3.1 security package." Three versions of Latches are available: Lite (for home users) at UKP25; Pro (for standalone business users) at UKP39; and Network at UKP150 for a five-user license. Other local area network (LAN) configurations are available on request. Latches for Windows is described as an access control package for Windows with "extensive" in-built security features. The company claims it puts control over Windows where it should be -- in the hands of the network administrator, the office supervisor, or "mom and pop at home." In use, Latches allocates each user of the Windows PC environment an ID and password that controls who gets on to the system. The ID also clearly identifies what each user can do with that account. This task is accomplished by the SYSMAN module, which gives each user account its own desktop. SYSMAN defines what appears on that desktop, specifies what each user can or cannot do with Program Manager and File Manager, and defines which, if any, Control Panel applications can be used. So what does all this mean? At the simplest level, the company says it means you can work from home, give the kids their own account and never worry about them trashing your desktop or destroying your data. In the office, meanwhile, a single PC can be used by any number of different users, each having their own personal desktop. That desktop cannot be changed by any other user -- only SYSMAN. According to the company, it is in the large scale Windows network that Latches shows its full potential. The company claims that there is a significant reduction in support costs alone where the user simply cannot trash his or her desktop -- or reconfigure the entire network. "Add the benefits of tying a private PC, logically speaking, to each user. It doesn't matter where that user logs on, or which physical machine is used, he or she will always access his or her own personal desktop, and be limited by the privileges and restrictions defined by SYSMAN," Townsend said. "The package controls exactly what each user can and cannot do on the PC running Windows. It's as simple as that," he told Newsbytes. (Steve Gold/19950602/Press & Reader Contact: Kevin Townsend, Rhea International, +44-1626-331510, Internet e-mail kevin_rhea@cix.compulink.co.uk) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 06/05/95 TRENDS Chinon Plans 8x CD-ROM Drives (NEWS)(TRENDS)(SFO)(00005) Chinon Plans 8x CD-ROM Drives 06/05/95 TORRANCE, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A, 1995 JUN 5 (NB) -- Chinon America, which recently announced a strategic partnership with Wearnes Technology Corp., says the new, non-exclusive alliance means Chinon is assured of meeting the heavy demand for quad-speed (4x) drives. The alliance also focuses on future drive developments, which are expected to concentrate on 8x drives. In an interview with Newsbytes, Michael Bilous, executive vice president of sales and marketing for Chinon, said, "The quad-speed CD-ROM drives have begun to replace the 2x drives. Right now, there is a shortage of 4x drives. I have heard of people going to Europe to buy from the supplies there in order to fill the demand from US original equipment manufacturers (OEMs). This alliance with Wearnes guarantees Chinon a timely delivery of drives regardless of the demand. They have the facilities to meet those demands now and in the coming years." He continued, "It is my opinion that the 4x market will be stronger and more stable than the 2x market. This will mean millions of units being shipped in the next year. The 2x market continues to live because the prices are under $100, but the real standard for the desktop is now the 4x." In forming the deal with Wearnes, Chinon also said the agreement extends to future products yet to be fully developed. When asked if future developments meant Chinon would introduce a 6x drive, Bilous, said, "The 6x is only a tweaked 4x. I predict it will have as much success as the 3x." Additionally, he said, "I think the next big step for CD-ROM drives is the development of an 8x drive and the 4x will maintain the standard until an affordable 8x is widely distributed." While it may be in limited production and its unannounced price quite high, an 8x drive from Chinon could appear late this year or early next year. Bilous also said the company will continue to expand on its small computer systems interface (SCSI) technology while meeting the demands for IDE (Integrated Drive Electronics) drives. "We remain impressed with the results of SCSI technology. Our dual-speed SCSI drive continues to match and in some cases out-perform 4x-drives," said Bilous. Chinon said the Wearnes agreement also strengthens Chinon's role from a simple manufacturer of peripherals to a "multi-faceted global marketer of computer products and technologies." As part of its new role, Chinon is expanding its digital camera technology to a Chinon brand. Chinon says it will also soon be ready to market its three-dimensional glasses and software games line. (Patrick McKenna/19950602/Press Contact: Rolland Going, The Terpin Group, 310-821-6100) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 06/05/95 GOVT European Commission Issues Warning Over Atlas Project (NEWS)(GOVT)(LON)(00006) European Commission Issues Warning Over Atlas Project 06/05/95 BRUSSELS, BELGIUM, 1995 JUN 5 (NB) -- Warning bells are starting to sound over the proposed Atlas telecoms linkup between France Telecom and Deutsche Telekom. In a prepared statement, Karel Van Miert, the European Commission's (EC's) Competition Minister has warned both telecoms companies that the proposed deal is not acceptable under EC anti-trust law, as it current stands. As reported previously by Newsbytes, France Telecom and Deutsche Telekom have announced preliminary plans to work together when offering voice and data services to major corporations in the international telecoms arena. As with other deals of this type, the Atlas project must first gain EC approval if it is to be allowed to proceed. Van Miert, however, said that the deal is unacceptable. "We have just sent Deutsche Telekom and France Telecom a warning letter saying that the agreement cannot in its current form meet with Commission approval," van Miert told reporters. Interestingly, van Miert added that this stance does not mean that the deal is being condemned, or prohibited, out of hand. The media have concluded that behind the scenes discussions are taking place and that a modified deal will be announced in due course, EC officials are refusing to comment on what they say is pure speculation. Officially, the EC's stance is that a cooperative venture between the two telecoms companies poses a threat to the nature of the companies' existing business in France and Germany, and it is this area that the EC is concerned about. Although no-one is talking specifics at the moment, Newsbytes' sources suggest that the Atlas project could be folded into the ongoing discussions taking place between France Telecom and Deutsche Telekom over a strategic alliance with Sprint in the US. Van Miert has been quoted as being amenable to such a deal, and the joint operations between the two European telcos could be piggy-backed on the transatlantic deal. As reported previously by Newsbytes, France Telecom and Deutsche Telekom have announced their interest in taking a 20 percent stake in Sprint for around $4.2 billion. The resultant joint venture company will be known as Phoenix and will also work on offering voice and data services to major corporations, especially in the international market- place. As the dust settled on the EC and van Miert's comments, France Telecom officials refuted French press speculation that the deal with Deutsche Telecom would fall by the wayside. France Telecom officials are quoted as saying that discussions with the European Commission are under way and an announcement is expected later this year. (Sylvia Dennis/19950605/Press & Reader Contact: European Commission, +32-299-1111) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 06/05/95 TELECOM European Commission Approves Lufthansa EDI Project (NEWS)(TELECOM)(LON)(00007) European Commission Approves Lufthansa EDI Project 06/05/95 BRUSSELS, BELGIUM, 1995 JUN 5 (NB) -- The European Commission (EC) has approved a proposed joint venture between Lufthansa, the German airline, and EDS Holding GmbH, the German electronic services subsidiary of General Motors. According to Lufthansa, the new company will offer a variety of information technology (IT) services, including data comms and electronic data interchange (EDI) facilities, to the airline and other travel industries, both in Germany and in other Northern European countries. In a prepared statement, the EC said that, although there are concerns over the anti-competitive nature of the proposed business, such concerns are not appropriate as both companies would only generate a relatively small market share for the business proposed. "The market for information technologies is characterized by the presence of a series of large competitors. Consequently, the present concentration will not result in strengthening or creating a dominant position," said the EC statement. In the wake of the EC thumbs-up for the joint project, EDS has announced it plans to take a 25 percent stake in Lufthansa Systems GmbH, a new company set by Lufthansa's German operation, Deutsche Lufthansa AG. (Sylvia Dennis/19950605/Press & Reader Contact: EDS, tel +49-221- 208020, fax +49-221-248928; European Commission, +32-2-299-1111) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 06/05/95 TELECOM French Govt Plans Phone Number Changes (NEWS)(TELECOM)(LON)(00008) French Govt Plans Phone Number Changes 06/05/95 PARIS, FRANCE, 1995 JUN 5 (NB) -- France Telecom has confirmed what many in the telecoms industry have known for some time -- the world is running out of telephone numbers. As in the UK and, on a regional basis in the US, France Telecom (FT) has announced that the French Government has approved a major shake-up in the French telephone numbering plan. FT officials claim that the changes, which will take effect from October, 1996, will allow for future expansion of the network well into the next century. Under the proposed plans, the current two zone system -- Paris and the rest of France -- with an eight digit number, will switch to a five zone numbering system, also with an eight digit number. The codes will be 01 for the Paris region, 02 for the North West, 03 for the North East, 04 for the South East, and 05 for the South West. The changes, though subtle, will leave the current eight numbers in use across France almost unscathed. Furthermore, intra-zone calls will remain the same, except that France Telecom wants everyone to use the full ten digit code, even for local calls, something that will undoubtedly irk the Gallic phone users. As part of the changes, France Telecom will phase out the 16 trunk code used when calling from Paris to other French numbers, as well as switching to the internationally recognized international breakout access code of 00 for non-French calls. The country code remains unchanged as 33. According to France Telecom, the numbering system will allow the French phone network to grow unimpeded for at least the next 50 years, by which time telecoms experts expect that the much-discussed UNS (universal numbering scheme) for the world will be in operation. (Steve Gold/19950605/Press & Reader Contact: France Telecom, tel +33-1-4444-6732, fax +33-1-4656-1474) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 06/05/95 BUSINESS India - Intercon To Market Fore's ATM Products (NEWS)(BUSINESS)(DEL)(00009) India - Intercon To Market Fore's ATM Products 06/05/95 NEW DELHI, INDIA, 1995 JUN 5 (NB) -- Delhi-based Intercon Systems Pvt. Ltd. has signed up with Fore Systems of the US, a leader in ATM (asynchronous transfer mode) technology for high-performance local area networking to be its exclusive distributor in India. Fore Systems' products include the ForeRunner series of ATM switches, LAN (local area network) access products, network adapter cards, video adapters, and ForeView network management software. Arvind Luthra, managing director of Intercon Systems, told Newsbytes, "Fore Systems' ATM LAN products deliver guaranteed performance to each user and applications benefiting from the use of ATM include data visualization, distributed computer-aided design, digital video production and conferencing, networked medical imaging, and distributed image analysis." Fore Systems ForeRunner switches are claimed to deliver high-speed desktop ATM connectivity, allow for the building of "cost-effective" backbone networks, and connect ATM LAN workgroups and backbones to wide area ATM networks. ForeRunner LAN access switches enable Ethernet, Token Ring, and FDDI (fiber distributed data interface) LANs to connect to ATM networks. The company says that the ForeRunner video adapter multicasts real-time, high-quality video and audio to ATM-equipped workstations and PCs. (C.T. Mahabharat/19950605) (ADVISORY)(GENERAL)(MSP)(00010) NewsPix Images For Newsbytes Publishers 06/05/95 MINNEAPOLIS, MINNESOTA, U.S.A., 1995 JUN 5 (NB) -- These photos correspond to recent Newsbytes stories. They are online in the Newsbytes menu on GEnie, America Online, eWorld, NiftyServe, and the Newsbytes private bulletin board system in Minneapolis. JPEG (Joint Photographic Experts Group) files are larger in size, while PICT files are designed as thumbnails for onscreen viewing. The photos are titled with name/year/month/day. PICT/thumbnail pictures are now black and white (gray scale). File message will indicate color if the JPEG image is color. This will reduce file size and streamline transfers. Some of the larger "for use" images, may also be PICT files. To distinguish these files from the thumbnail preview PICT images, the tag for the color "for use" image will have PICT, all caps. The thumbnail will remain noted as "pct." To become a licensed Newsbytes publisher, call Newsbytes at 612-430-1100 (US) or write to administrator@newsbytes.com on the Internet. Licensing applies to any medium. --------------------------- Week of JUNE 5 - JUNE 9,1995 --------------------------- DIGITAL950526 - b&w / Digital Cuts PC Prices: the DEC Starion. VG950531 - color / VideoGuide Signs The Sports Network: screenshot of the sportsguide. ZDS950531 - color / Zenith Intros High-Speed Pentium PCs: the Z-Station GT. TELEGRAPH950601 - color / UK - Daily Telegraph Offers Internet Starter Kits: screen shot of homepage. UNET950522 - color / UK Internet Provider Offers Low-Cost ISDN: screenshot of homepage. GOLF950523 - color / Use Your Own Clubs With PC-Based Golf Analyzer/Game: shot of the unique controller-swing analyzer. KILLER950519 - color / Serial Killer CD-ROM Not For The Faint-Hearted: screenshot of main menu. FARGO950519 - color / Wells Fargo Offers Internet Customer Services: screenshot of checking page. TABS950522 - color / Software Automates Office/Home Operations: screenshot of the irrigation screen. LOGICAL950523 - color / Software Supports "Logical" Decision-Making: screenshot of goals hierarchy screen. CHIPC950524 - color / IBM Japan To Intro Address Book On A Chip: a portable electronic address book that fits onto a PCMCIA (Personal Computer Memory Card International Association) card. MERRIAM950523 - color / Merriam-Webster Dictionary/Thesaurus CD Ships: the CD packages. BETTERBOX050895 - UK-BetterBox Intros Handheld Network Tester: the Psibernet unit. SCCCOM950512 - Colorado Firm Keeps 9-1-1 Databases Updated: the control room of National Data Services Center (NDSC). HERGAMES950515 - Venture To Offer Online Service, CD-ROMs For Girls: Patricia Flanigan, Marketing Director of Games for Her in front of poster for CD ROM, MacKenzie & Co. PRODCEO950512 - E3 - Prodigy - New CEO, New Interface: new chief executive officer (CEO), Ed Bennett in front of Prodigy logo. THENET950515 - UK-BBC Starts Internet/Interactive TV Program: screenshot of main menu. SC&T950518 - SC&T's Keyboards With Built-In Speakers: the MAK-200, the entry-level model. SATO19950517 - Eastern Mind, A Japanese Myst CD Game: the CD author Osamu Sato, with poster for his work Eastern Mind: The Lost Souls of Tong Nou. ZOO950504 - color / Humongous To Preview "Putt-Putt Saves The Zoo": screenshot of Putt-Putt in action. DIGIPHON950510 - color / Digiphone Launch On Schedule Despite Test Problems: screenshot with Shoemaker-Levy 9 asteroid collision with Jupiter on screen. HISTORY950508 - color / Parsons Ships US History Multimedia CD-ROM: screen shot of main menu. VBOY950508 - color / Nintendo Goes Online: the virtual headset and control gear. Photo Credit: courtesy Nintendo of America Inc. EXCHANGE950503 - color / Free Exchange Market On The Web: the various icons used to designate materials to be bartered. DACOM950406 - color / UK - Psion-Dacom's Budget PCMCIA "Slot Drive" For PCs: the card with PC in background, the PC is outfitted with the Dacom Gold Drive. (Newsbytes/19950605) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 06/05/95 PC Quantum Intros Europa PC Notebook Hard Drives (NEWS)(PC)(BOS)(00011) Quantum Intros Europa PC Notebook Hard Drives 06/05/95 BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS, U.S.A., 1995 JUN 5 (NB) -- "Over the past couple of quarters, users have started requiring their notebook PCs to provide the same functionality as their desktop PCs," said John Hites, product line manager, in a briefing for Newsbytes about Quantum's new Europa line of 540 megabyte (MB), 810MB, and 1,080MB 2.5-inch disk drives. The Internet, CD-ROM, and multimedia are prodding PC disk drives to increasingly larger capacities and more advanced feature sets, just as these factors have helped to produce Pentium processors and the local bus, according to Hites. "Until recently, notebooks have been playing catch-up in terms of hard disk space. But now, areal densities are allowing us to pretty much keep pace with the desktop," he added, during the conference call with Newsbytes. Quantum has been talking with the top ten notebook PC makers about Europa, and is now sending early evaluation units to all ten, including IBM and Toshiba, two vendors that also produce their own 2.5-inch drives, he said. These "top ten" manufacturers account for two-thirds of all notebook PCs sold today, according to Hites. Meanwhile, Quantum has been attaining statistical success of its own, moving from the "second tier" in the 2.5-inch disk drive market over the past few months to the "upper tier," he contended. Quantum's current market share of over 22 percent in the notebook disk drive market is in the same league as the company's long-standing share of the desktop market, he said. The new Europa drives will replace Quantum's current Daytona series of 2.5-inch drives, which will be phased out over the next six months as Europa ramps up, noted the product line manager. Quantum will initially position the new 12.5 millimeter (mm)-high Europa 540 as a disk drive for slimline notebooks, the 19 mm-high Europa 810 as a drive for corporate notebook users, and the gigabyte Europa 1080 drive, which is also 19 mm in height, as a notebook product for "full-featured, multimedia types of applications," said Hites. Quantum expects the Europa 1080 to ship in relatively low volumes at first, but "over time to become the capacity of choice for the high end," he added. Also over time, the Europa 540 will slide from midrange to entry-level status, he predicted. The three new Fast-ATA disk drives represent the first drives from Quantum on either the notebook or desktop side to combine magneto- resistive (MR) heads and a partial-response-maximum-read (PRML) channel, Newsbytes was told. "Quantum believes that these two new technologies hold the key to doubling capacity every 18 months or so," Hites remarked. When asked by Newsbytes whether we can expect to see notebook disk drives of two gigabytes (GB) in another 18 months, the Quantum exec replied that this is "very feasible." PRML provides increased track density, while the MR heads permit more data to be packed per disk, as well as more data bits to be packed on a track, according to Hites. Quantum is producing the MR head technology at Quantum Peripherals Colorado, which was known as Rocky Mountain Magnetics until Quantum's purchase of Digital Equipment Corp.'s 81 percent interest in the facility -- as well as the rest of Digital Equipment Corp.'s recording heads, solid state disk, magnetic disk drive, tape disk drive businesses -- in October. "We've been working as closely as possible with different merchant vendors, as well as with our Colorado group, to find out as much as we can about the different kinds of heads that are out there for our future programs," Hites revealed. "Obviously, IBM plays an integral role in MR head development. But we think that the Colorado group positions us well, and will allow us over time to take the market lead in MR head technology," he maintained. Europa's PRML read channel represents the third generation of "in-house PRML technology" from Quantum, Hites added. Quantum's recently unveiled Fireball 3.5-inch drive for desktop drives also uses PRML, he pointed out. Hites told Newsbytes that the single-chip PRML technology introduced in the Europa is specifically designed to produce a fast internal PRML channel rate that permits the drives to spin at 3,800 revolutions-per-minute (RPM) for reduced power consumption. Also to promote energy efficiency, the drives conform to the power management modes defined by the AT Attachment/Common Access Method (ATA-CAM), along with the latest standards from the Manufacturers' Compatibility Committee (MCC), according to the exec. In addition, he said, the Europa drives are outfitted with Quantum's AutoIdle, which allows automatic shutdown of the drives without host intervention after five minutes of inactivity, and AutoPark, which parks the heads over the "dedicated landing zone" when AutoIdle is shut off. The three new drives provide an average seek time of 14 milliseconds (ms), and a mean-time-between-failure (MTBF) of 350,000 hours, Hites reported. Other features include Quantum's ShockLock, a patented magnetic latch intended to protect the drive from short, non-operating shocks of up to 400 Gs, and Double-Burst Error Correction on-the- fly, a data integrity feature intended to correct up to 48 bits of data without interrupting sequential and random data transfers. Quantum plans to release full evaluation units of the Europa drives early in the third quarter, Hites told Newsbytes. The drives will be accompanied by a three-year warranty. Single-unit original equipment manufacturer (OEM) pricing is $350 for the Europa 540, $450 for the Europa 810, and $550 for the Europa 1080. (Jacqueline Emigh/19950602/Reader Contact: Quantum Corporation, 408-894-4000; Press Contacts: Julia Carey, Quantum, 408-894-4144; Melissa Bell or Eileen Smith, Hi-Tech Communications for Quantum, 415-904-7000) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 06/05/95 NETWORK Fore Acquires Applied Network & RainbowBridge (NEWS)(NETWORK)(BOS)(00012) Fore Acquires Applied Network & RainbowBridge 06/05/95 WESTFORD, MASSACHUSETTS, U.S.A., 1995 JUN 5 (NB) -- In two new acquisitions, Fore Systems, a maker of asynchronous transfer mode (ATM) equipment, has gained an entry into Ethernet switching through Applied Network Technologies (ANT), plus new Internet routing capabilities with RainbowBridge Communications, officials asserted during a teleconference for press and analysts. Fore Systems will "move quickly" to integrate both "the products and the personnel" of the newly purchased ANT and RainbowBridge into Fore's operations, said Bob Schiff, Fore's marketing director for ATM access products, during the teleconference, which was attended by Newsbytes. Fore Systems, which specializes in ATM technology for local area networks (LANs), will integrate its own ForeRunner ATM silicon and ForeThought ATM software with ANT's Ethernet and Fast Ethernet desktop and workgroup switches, as well as integrating ANT's "innovative" network management with the ForeView network management suite, according to Schiff. Fore Systems will also add two technologies from Rainbow Bridge - private network-to-network interface (P-NNI), and multi-protocol routing over ATM -- to ForeThought, he told the teleconference participants. ANT, which was acquired for $26 million in Fore Systems stock and $9 million in stock options, will become a division of Fore Systems, whereas RainbowBridge, a small development firm consisting of a principal and six to ten contract employees, will operate as a "satellite" to Fore's Pittsburgh-based ForeThought development team. The small staff from Rainbowbridge will move from its current offices in Reston, Virginia, to Fore's regional offices in Bethesda, Maryland, said Schiff. Meanwhile, ANT, which is largely comprised of former employees of Digital Equipment Corp.'s Lower Networks and Communications Group, will remain at its current headquarters in Westford, Massachusetts. Fore Systems wants to make use of the "talent centers" that are locally available in Massachusetts and Washington DC for recruiting additional employees in the future, according to Schiff. Schiff added that on the hardware side, Fore's current product line-up includes the 200 BX and AS-200 ATM backbone switches, in addition to ATM workstation adapters and ATM workgroup switches. "Now we'll complement all that with Ethernet workgroup switches. Why? We recognize that not all customers today need the horsepower or bandwidth that ATM offers. There's a very healthy installed base of Ethernets out there, and our customers are looking for a quick (way) to preserve their investments. (Ethernet switching) gives them the bandwidth relief they're looking for today, (while also) allowing a migration path to ATM," he told the audience. "One of the first joint developments we'll undertake (with ANT) is the addition of an ATM interface to the ANT switched product. We expect to have a product within the next several quarters," he revealed. ANT's first Ethernet switch was a finalist for "Best of Show" at Networld+Interop show in March, according to the Fore marketing director. Abbott Gilman, ANT's VP of marketing and sales, told the journalists and analysts that ANT "bootstrapped" the financing for its first product through contract engineering assignments that included: an Ethernet core, called Cascade, for LSI Logic; a four- port Ethernet chip "for Newbridge Networks through LSI Logic;" and licensing ANT's own "unique store-and-forward architecture" for use in Crosscom's XL80 router. The ANT switch, he said, combines this store-and-forward architecture with a high-speed memory buffer, a packet bus running at 640 megabits-per-second (Mbps), and both remote monitoring (RMON) and Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP) on every port for network management. Although the ANT switch is targeted at workgroup and desktop Ethernet switching, and priced accordingly, the product operates at 720,000 packets per second (pps) with 61 microsecond latency, providing the performance level of a more costly Ethernet backbone switch, according to Gilman. ANT, he asserted, has achieved "low cost per port" through "in-house ASICs (application specific integrated circuits)." Gilman also pointed out that the division of DEC from which most of ANT's employees arose "was chartered to go after the low-end, commodity, high-volume market through the indirect channels." ANT, he added, recently started to develop relationships with multi-tier vendors. "Clearly that's an area of focus that we plan taking (with us) to complement the end-user direct sales strategy of Fore," he asserted. Fore Systems' Schiff noted that, for its part, RainbowBridge has already licensed its Internet routing code to about 50 other companies, and has been "particularly active" in P-NNI. "Indeed, the current ATM P-NNI is based on what RainbowBridge submitted to the IETF (Internet Engineering Task Force) before the effort moved over to the (ATM) Forum," he maintained. In Fore's ForeThought software, he said, the P-NNI and multi- protocol over ATM capabilities from Rainbowbridge will join existing ATM signaling, Internet protocol (IP) over ATM, and LAN emulation functionality. During a Q&A at the close of the teleconference, Schiff refuted an analyst's inquiry as to whether the ANT acquisition means "the beginning of the end" for Fore's LAN-ATM Access (LAX-20) LAN-ATM switch. "Right now, we don't see very much, if any, overlap between the ANT product and the LAX-20. We still need a `multimedia backbone product' (that) supports bridging as well as routing," Schiff responded. Schiff said that an OC3 uplink, to be added on the Fore said, will be used in interfacing the two product lines. Much of the OC3 work needed by ANT has already been done through ANT's earlier collaboration with CrossCom, Gilman noted. (Jacqueline Emigh/19950605/Reader Contact: Fore Systems, 412-772-6600; Press Contact: Don Reckles, Fore, 412-933-6281) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 06/05/95 GENERAL DEC Adds 3 Storage Products For OpenVMS (NEWS)(GENERAL)(BOS)(00013) DEC Adds 3 Storage Products For OpenVMS 06/05/95 MAYNARD, MASSACHUSETTS, U.S.A., 1995 JUN 5 (NB) -- Digital's three new storage products for OpenVMS over Alpha or VAX save time by letting users work with "save sets" offline for backup, defragment disks more quickly, and share data between hierarchical storage management (HSM) and other media, maintained Gary Gottschalk, storage software marketing manager, in an interview with Newsbytes. Digital's new Polycenter Save Set Manager v1.1 for OpenVMS is a point upgrade, but it is also the first edition of the product to be "publicly announced," Gottschalk told Newsbytes. The new utility is designed to substantially reduce OpenVMS backup time, as well as to allow users to move and compress OpenVMS save sets archived on "old media," such as seven- or nine-track tape, on to newer, higher capacity tape or disk devices, he explained. "Most OpenVMS users have a lot of data, usually at least one or two terabytes (TB), and sometimes as much as 10TB. It's gotten to the point where there sometimes literally isn't enough time to perform the backups," Gottschalk contended. One way that Save Set Manager saves time in backup is by letting the user check, or "verify," the internal consistency of a save set offline, instead of inside the backup window, according to the Digital exec. Users can also copy and merge save sets offline, Gottschalk added. The copy function permits creation of multiple copies of backup save sets without the need to run multiple OpenVMS backups, he asserted. The merge function, on the other hand, cuts backup time by letting the user merge incremental backups with full backups, Newsbytes was told. "What you once did weekly, you can now do monthly, and what you used to do monthly, you can now do yearly," Gottschalk remarked. Gottschalk informed Newsbytes that in the newly announced version 2.1, Digital's new Polycenter File Optimizer (PFO) 2.1 disk defragmentation tool has dropped the requirement for a relational database management system (RDBMS) license, now that Digital has sold its Rdb RDBMS to Oracle. As in the past, he said, PFO "works with other tools to figure out which files are being used most often, and to place them where they'll have the fastest access time." But PFO 2.1 also brings a new capability for defragmenting the index.sys, for faster access times to all files on a disk. It also offers an enhanced monitor window for locating files based on user- specified criteria, an improved graphical user interface for choosing criteria, and a keyboard mapping tool, according to Gottschalk. Polycenter HSM version 1.1, Digital's third new storage product for OpenVSM, is aimed at extending the OpenVMS file system to permit automatic migration of data between magnetic disk, tape, and writeable optical storage media based on user specifications and file usage patterns, Gottschalk continued. The new edition of the HSM software adds a new "common media manager" that allows "HSM, our backup storage library system, and a third product called sequential media file system to share media in a secure, protected way," he declared. Previously, each of the three products had its own media manager, according to Gottschalk. By sharing a common media manager, the products are now able to share robotic loaders and automated tape libraries without requiring re-writes of software, the marketing manager told Newsbytes. (Jacqueline Emigh/19950602/Reader Contact: Digital Equipment Corporation, 508-493-5111; Press Contacts: Tom Madden, Digital, 508-841-5365; Kristen Holmes, Heather McLellan, or Janice Cashman, The Weber Group for Digital, 617-661-7900) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 06/05/95 GENERAL Digital World - Spielberg Intros Starbright World (NEWS)(GENERAL)(SFO)(00014) Digital World - Spielberg Intros Starbright World 06/05/95 LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1995 JUN 5 (NB) -- Steven Spielberg, well known film producer and director, and UB Networks previewed the first visual presentation of Starbright World, an interactve network linking seriously ill children at hospitals around the US. The 3D interactive network serves as a place where these children can "play in a fun environment without physical limitations." UB Networks is supplying the technology behind Starbright World and their team of experts have been a driving force in the development of the project. A supplier of networking equipment and system integration services, UB Networks, is the first technical partner to join the Starbright World project. The Starbright Foundation has been a favorite cause of Steven Spielberg who is chairman of the non-profit foundation. The Starbright Pediatric Network, a collaboration of pediatric healthcare providers, entertainment leaders and technology companies, is the framework for Starbright World. The Network allows these professionals a new means to address the issues and challenges facing seriously ill children. Today's announcement of Starbright World means the foundation will be able to link seriously ill children to a "virtual playground" where they can interact and share with one another. Joining UB Networks on the technical side are Sprint and Intel which are providing the communications link and additional technical support, respectively. A spokesperson for the foundation told Newsbytes, "The introduction today is part of fulfilling the goals we have for The Starbright Foundation. We are thrilled to be able to be able to offer these children a chance to interact on a private broadband network which is like no other in the world. We expect the number of participating hospitals to increase in the near future so this technology may be shared with as many children as possible. (Patrick McKenna/19950605/Press Contact: Heather Schoeny, UB Networks, 408-562-7931 Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 06/05/95 LEGAL ****Court Indicts 2 IRS Employees For Snooping (NEWS)(LEGAL)(WAS)(00015) ****Court Indicts 2 IRS Employees For Snooping 06/05/95 BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS, U.S.A., 1995 JUN 5 (NB) -- A federal grand jury in Boston has indicted two Internal Revenue Service on charges of snooping into confidential, computerized taxpayer records. The grand jury, in two separate indictments, charged Richard Czubinski, 32, of Dorchester, Mass., and Walter Higgins, 50, of Salem, N.H., with using their positions to unlawfully access IRS computer records for their personal use. The two are charged with fraud and multiple charges of unauthorized access. The first indictment alleges that Czubinski, a contract representative at the IRS, in 1992, made more than 200 unauthorized forays into files of more than 30 different taxpayers. The indictment charges that Czubinski, a member of the Knights of the Ku Klux Klan and other white supremacist groups, accessed information on other members of the groups in order to try to identify government informers. Other taxpayer records that Czubinski allegedly looked at included an assistant district attorney in Suffolk County who was criminally prosecuting Czubinski's father, and a campaign committee for a candidate for public office who defeated Czubinski in a primary election. The indictment charges Czubinski with 10 counts of wire fraud, and four counts of computer-related fraud. He faces a maximum punishment of five years in jail and a $250,000 fine on each of the 14 counts. In the second indictment, the grand jury charges that Higgins, a former tax examiner in Andover, Mass., acquired confidential information concerning Thomas Quinn, at the time a Democratic candidate for Congress. Higgins, who worked part-time for a private investigations company, is also charged with accessing tax returns of an owner and co-worker at the firm, and of accessing returns of a person who owed Higgins money. Higgins is charged with three counts of wire fraud and three counts of computer-related fraud. He also faces up to five years in jail and a $250,000 fine for each count. "These separate indictments involve IRS employees who gained unauthorized access to confidential taxpayer information for their own personal use," said US Attorney Donald Stern. "This was in violation of their trust as public employees and in violation of federal law. We will not tolerate those who attempt to undermine the integrity of the tax system." Assistant US Attorney Theodore Merritt will prosecute Czubinski, while Assistant US Attorney Brien O'Conner will prosecute Higgins. Both are members of the public corruption and special prosecutions unit. (Kennedy Maize/19950605/Press Contact: Joy Fallon, IRS, 617-223-9445) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 06/05/95 GOVT Patent Office Moves To Cover Software (NEWS)(GOVT)(WAS)(00016) Patent Office Moves To Cover Software 06/05/95 WASHINGTON, D.C., U.S.A., 1995 JUN 5 (NB) -- Pushed by the courts, The US Patent and Trademark Office has proposed guidelines to govern patents of software embedded into hardware. In the past, the office has contended that software was a mathematical process that could not be patented, but only protected by copyright law. But the US Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit in several cases has ruled that inventors deserve patents because the programming was integral to the machine. Rather than fight cases to the US Supreme Court, as some at the office had wanted, Commissioner Bruce Lehman decided not to fight the issue. Lehman has wanted to move the patent office to be more accommodating to new industries such as computers, telecommunications, and biotechnology. "We recognize the critical importance of effectively protecting software innovation," Lehman said in a written statement. "The guidelines are the first step in our efforts to make the patent system more receptive to software innovation. Our guidelines will enable use to satisfy our mission of issuing valid and enforceable patent rights." The office announced in March that it would propose new rules for embedded software patents and published them in the June 2 Federal Register, the official document for announcing government rules and regulations. The agency will release a legal analysis in support of its new examination guidelines on June 23. Spokesman Richard Maulsby told Newsbytes the agency hopes to have final guidelines in place by September. Under law, the office issues patents for "machines," "articles of manufacture" and "processes." The proposed rules tell patent examiners how to determine whether software proposed for patenting meets the criteria. Under the proposed rules: "A computer or other programmable apparatus whose actions are directed by a computer program or other form of software is a statutory 'machine.'" "A computer-readable memory that can be used to direct a computer to function in a particular manner when used by the computer is a statutory 'article of manufacture.'" "A series of specific operational steps to be performed on or with the aid of a computer is a statutory 'process.'" What isn't patentable? According to the rules: "A compilation or arrangement of data independent of any physical element," meaning no hardware. Also patentable is, "A work of music, art or literature" on a disk, which is subject to copyright protection, as well as, "A process that does nothing more than manipulate abstract ideas or concepts." The guidelines are available on the patent office's World Wide Web server at http://www.uspto.gov. The Patent and Trademark Office is accepting comments on the proposed guidelines through July 31. Comments can be mailed to Box 4, Patent and Trademark Office, Washington DC 20231, or faxed to 703-305-8885, or sent by Internet electronic-mail to comments-softwarepto.gov. (Kennedy Maize/19950605/Press Contact: Richard Maulsby, 703-305-8341; Reader Contact: Jeff Kushan, 703-305-9300) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 06/05/95 WINDOWS Is "Big Brother Bill" Looking Through Your Windows 95? (NEWS)(WINDOWS)(DEN)(00017) Is "Big Brother Bill" Looking Through Your Windows 95? 06/05/95 REDMOND, WASHINGTON, U.S.A., 1995 JUN 5 (NB) -- Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ: MSFT) claims it is a market research device, but some users say it's Big Bill watching them. The furor is over a feature in Windows 95 called the "Registration Wizard," a tool that checks the hardware configuration of the PC and can tell what software is on your Windows 95-equipped computer. It then passes that information to Microsoft -- but only if you tell it to, a Microsoft spokesperson told Newsbytes. Microsoft said the Registration Wizard is designed to encourage users to register their products, since it and most other companies use registration data to establish their customer base and also promote other products. Companies are moving to electronic registration in an attempt to get more product buyers to register their products. But a recent report in a trade magazine that the Microsoft registration process scans the whole network your PC is connected to and reports all software usage for every computer on the network, not just Microsoft products, and not just for your PC, has some people upset. That report set off a flurry of mail on the Internet and other online services. But a Microsoft spokesperson at public relations firm Waggener Edstrom told Newsbytes that while the Registration Wizard can check your hardware and software, you have to agree to let it send that information to Microsoft. Otherwise only the basic registration information such as name, address, phone number and company name, if appropriate, will be sent. Asked by Newsbytes why Microsoft would want to know the configuration and software information, the spokesperson said the PC configuration data aids Microsoft help desk personnel when you call in for assistance. Regarding the applications information, the spokesperson said it is used for market research. Software companies often offer "competitive upgrades," or the opportunity to switch to their product from a competitor's software, at a below-normal price. The applications information could provide a ready-made mailing list to target potential buyers of a competitive upgrade. Microsoft said it receives the information via the Microsoft Network (MSN) capabilities built into Windows 95. You don't have to be a Microsoft Network subscriber to register online, said the company, and once registered that does not automatically make you a MSN subscriber. Microsoft also denied that the online registration process lists serial numbers or product information to locate software pirates. Microsoft said a file named REGINFO.TXT found in the Windows subdirectory of your Windows 95-enabled computer lists the exact information gathered by the online registration. (Jim Mallory/19950605/Press contact: Microsoft, 206-882-8080; Public contact: Microsoft, 206-882-8080 or 800-426-9400) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 06/05/95 GENERAL Microfield's Personal Size Electronic Whiteboard (NEWS)(GENERAL)(DEN)(00018) Microfield's Personal Size Electronic Whiteboard 06/05/95 BEAVERTON, OREGON, U.S.A., 1995 JUN 5 (NB) -- Microfield Graphics Inc. has announced shipment of an electronic "whiteboard" sized for offices, cubicles, and small conference areas. #IMAGE 1 20 TWPCX \images\95060518.PCX Click here for photo The company said its new Softboard, which is 39-inches high and 40.5-inches wide, comes with a wall-mounting kit and can also be hung on a standard cubicle partition or placed on a tabletop by using one of its optional mounting kits. The board weighs just under 35 pounds. Softboard is an electronic version of the traditional whiteboard found in many offices, training areas, and classrooms. As the user writes on the Softboard using encoded dry-erase markers, the information is simultaneously drawn on the monitor of a Macintosh or IBM-compatible personal computer connected to the Softboard. The data can then be saved, printed and used in other applications or shared with other locations via communications software. To communicate with the connected PC Softboard uses an infrared laser system to continuously scan the entire area of the whiteboard about one-quarter of an inch above the surface. The dry-erase markers are equipped with reflective bar-coded sleeves that allow the laser system to locate, identify and track the color, position and movement of the markers in real time. That data stream is sent to the PC via a serial cable. A special eraser works in the same manner. The softboard comes with Softboard Recorder software that has a VCR-like interface to allow the user to record, save and playback Softboard sessions. The user can step through captured images stroke by stroke or screen by screen. You can also move to the first or last screen of any session, and page markers can be inserted at any point to allow pauses during playback. A viewer program called SBView allows the user to review captured Softboard sessions offline. The new model 205 Softboard has a suggested retail price of $2,795. Macintosh users need at least a 25 megahertz (MHz) 68030 processor and four megabytes (MB) of available system memory. Softboard runs in emulation on Power PC-based Macs. Windows users need at least a 80386 25MHz chip, a minimum of 4MB of available memory, a serial port, MS-DOS 5.0 or later and Windows version 3.1 or later. (Jim Mallory/19950605/press contact: Karl Damhave, Microfield Graphics, 503-626-9393; Public contact: Microfield Graphics, tel 800-334-4922, 503-626-9393, fax 503-641-9333/SFTBOARD950605/PHOTO) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 2 06/05/95 IBM Borland Adds SMART Tool To C++ 2.0 For OS (NEWS)(IBM)(LAX)(00019) Borland Adds SMART Tool To C++ 2.0 For OS/2 06/05/95 SCOTTS VALLEY, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1995 JUN 5 (NB) -- Borland International Inc. has begun to ship Borland C++ 2.0 for OS/2 bundled with SMART (Source Migration Analysis Reporting Toolset). Borland C++ 2.0 for OS/2 was originally shipped in January, but adds the SMART toolset for the first time. Borland has already sold over a million C compilers aimed at software developers of Microsoft Windows. The SMART toolset addition is an attempt to replicate the C++ success under Windows in the OS/2 developer market. The success of the venture is important for both Borland and IBM. "With One Up's SMART Tools bundle, we're making it easier for developers who use Borland C++ to move their Windows applications to OS/2," said Jim Gant, IBM'S vice president of Solution Developer operations. "Borland's OS/2 product will help developers focus on creating 32-bit applications that will allow them to achieve differentiation in the marketplace. SMART consists of a set of tools that allow application developers to convert Windows applications to OS/2." Brett Smith, a spokesman for Borland, told Newsbytes, "IBM distributes the SMART Tools for One Up Corporation on the 'Developer Connection for OS/2' CD-ROM -- a CD-ROM newsletter that is shipped regularly to developers." Developers can subscribe through IBM by calling 800-633-8266. "Borland is traditionally the flagship for Windows and DOS development. Borland C++ 4.5 is the leading product in this category," said Smith. "Having sold over a million of its compilers for the Windows market, it is natural that Borland and IBM try to tap into the OS/2 market." Smith continued: "I think the Borland C++ 2.0 for OS/2 bundled with SMART easily fits into the developer market. Developers can easily port Windows applications like OWL (ObjectWindows Library) to OS/2." Borland C++ 2.0 for OS/2 includes other features, including: The Resource Manager that provides developers with tools such as bitmaps, icons, dialogs, and menus to visually create OS/2 resources; and the Object Browser which offers a graphic display of application class hierarchies. Borland C++ 2.0 for OS/2 also includes Turbo Debugger, Turbo Assembler, Runtime library, source code, and OWL source code Borland C++ 2.0 for OS/2 bundled with SMART is available at the suggested retail price of $499. An upgrade is available to owners of any previous version of Borland C++ 2.0 for OS/2 for $149,95. (Richard Bowers/19950605/Press Contact: Brett Smith, Borland, 408-431-1341) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 06/05/95 APPLE Apple Improves Mac Japanese Language Use (NEWS)(APPLE)(LAX)(00020) Apple Improves Mac Japanese Language Use 06/05/95 CUPERTINO, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1995 JUN 5 (NB) -- Apple Computer Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) has announced that KanjiTalk 7.5, The Japanese version of the Mac operating system, is now available in the US and Canada. At the same time, Apple has introduced version 1.2 of the Japanese Language Kit. KanjiTalk 7.5 offers the ability to run Japanese language applications and create Japanese documents with a Japanese language user interface. Apple expects that the KanjiTalk 7.5 product to be used primarily by Japanese nationals in North America who prefer to work with a "completely Japanese system." Version 1.2 of the Japanese Language Kit upgrades to Mac System 7.5, and adds three Japanese TrueType fonts. The Japanese Language Kit can run both English-language and Japanese-language applications and create documents that contain both languages, but the user interface remains in English. The Japanese Language Kit is useful for people learning Japanese, businesses who have multilingual needs, and any bilingual users, according to the company. Ken Smith, a spokesman for Apple, told Newsbytes, "With sales outside the United States now accounting for 44 percent of Macintosh sales worldwide, it is clear that many of Apple's customers and potential customers are not native English speakers." With the launch of System 7.1, Apple released its WorldScript technology. WorldScript allows multiple languages to be used on a single Macintosh. According to Smith, "The WorldScript technology allows switching between languages and can support multiple languages in a single document, and Apple has incorporated in the system the double byte character system required to use Japanese and Chinese. English, among other primarily Roman languages, needs only a single byte character system." Apple makes clear that WorldScript is not a translator, but it provides the ability to support written languages in a single system software version. Claris Corporation has also announced that ClarisWorks 4.0 will support the language kits. Users with the Japanese Language Kit can now use ClarisWorks to display, process, and print text. Other applications that support the language kits include: HyperCard from Apple; In Control from Attain Corp.; Nisus Writer from Nisus Software Inc.; StatView from Abacus Concepts; WinText from WinSoft; WordPerfect for Macintosh from Novell Inc.; and WorldWrite from WorldSoftware. The Japanese Language Kit and the Chinese Language Kit are available with a suggested retail price of $249, with the upgrade for $39. Apple expects KanjiTalk 7.5 to be available for about $349. (Richard Bowers/19950602/Press Contact: Ken Smith, 408-974-5675, or Mary Devincenzi, 408-974-4562, Apple Computer) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 06/05/95 ONLINE Macromedia's New Web Site, Links With Netscape (NEWS)(ONLINE)(MSP)(00021) Macromedia's New Web Site, Links With Netscape 06/05/95 SAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1995 JUN 5 (NB) -- With two separate announcements, Macromedia Inc. (NASDAQ:MACR) is increasing its Internet clout. The company is not only offering a new World Wide Web site, but it will integrate multimedia playback software into future editions of Netscape Navigator. Macromedia's new Web site, which can be found at URL (uniform resource locator) http://www.macromedia.com, is described as a new "form" of Web site. The site, dubbed "macromedia.com," is not like most sites with product messages, company officials said. More than 60% of macromedia.com comes from non-Macromedia media content, aimed at graphic artists and multimedia developers. The sources of the content include NewMedia Magazine, Red Herring, Multimedia Producer, and Morph's Outpost. "We started poking around (the Web) to find a business model that would keep people coming back to our site," Miles Walsh, vice president of marketing for Macromedia, told Newsbytes. "We set about trying to do a site that had just about every cool reason to come back." The site will also include market research and analysis, with "30 or 40 pieces of information" about what's growing on the Web, according to Walsh. Also, a KnowledgeWeb industry event calendar, a jobs available/wanted area, and downloadable programs are a part of the site, Walsh said. Walsh said macromedia.com will expand from nearly 400 HTML (hypertext markup language) pages to more than 2,000 pages in the next 60 days. "I don't know of anything (on the Web) comparable to our site," Walsh said. "All of the sites tend to be a product- or service- oriented commercial." In the other announcement, Macromedia said it will include its "Director" multimedia playback software into future versions of Netscape Navigator software. The new feature will premiere tonight at the Comedy Store in Los Angeles as a part of the Digital World show. "We're literally going to go into our site that has a movie embedded in it," Walsh said. That movie can then be "clicked" and played, without having to launch a "helper" application, he said. "You're getting full interactivity within an HTML page," he added. "When you see it like that, it literally knocks people's socks off," Walsh said. "It's our release, so I should be excited about it. But it is something that is not done today. So you're going way beyond blinking text," which some say is the scourge of the Web. Company officials said more than 200,000 Macromedia developers can immediately create multimedia for the Web using their Windows or Macintosh computers and Director software. Walsh said the Director playback software will be included with Netscape's Navigator version 1.2 product, which analysts have said should be out within the next three to four months. (Bob Woods/19950605/Press Contacts: Mary Leong, Macromedia, 415-252-2118; Carol McGarry or Emily Fisher, Schwartz Communications, 617-431-0770; Rosanne Sinno, Netscape, 415-528-2619; Public Contact: Macromedia, 800-288-4797, 415-252-2000, Internet World Wide Web http://www.macromedia.com; Netscape, Internet World Wide Web http://www.netscape.com) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 06/05/95 WINDOWS PC-Install Software Available Online (NEWS)(WINDOWS)(DEN)(00022) PC-Install Software Available Online 06/05/95 PORTLAND, OREGON, U.S.A., 1995 JUN 5 (NB) -- 20/20 Software has announced that software developers can now download the latest version of the company's automated installation program, PC-Install, via the Internet or CompuServe. Alternatively, the company will electronically mail it via America Online or Prodigy. Users with online access and a valid credit card number can download PC-Install in about 15 minutes, according to privately held 20/20. Once the credit card purchase is made, the user gets an electronic password that unlocks PC-Install and the program is ready to use. PC-Install is an automated installation program for Windows-based applications that developers can customize to handle the details of installing files on standalone or networked PCs. PC-Install can display customized messages and instructions during the install process. The application and the accompanying PC-Install file can be distributed electronically or on a diskette. All the user has to do is type "install" to activate the process. PC-Install will verify that there is sufficient disk space to install the program, check for compatibility of the CPU (central processing unit) in the destination computer and update the autoexec.bat, config.sys, and windows.ini files as needed. PC-Install includes PC-Shrink, a file compression utility that reduces the number of diskettes necessary to distribute new programs or updates and can split large compressed files across multiple diskettes. 20/20 spokesperson Pat Brooks told Newsbytes that PC-Install is available in DOS, DOS with PC-Shrink, Windows with PC-Shrink, and a combo DOS/Windows version, with suggested retail pricing ranging from $99 to $249 depending on the version purchased. On the Internet you can download PC-Install from 20/20's World Wide Web home page at URL http://www.twenty.com/~twenty, or from the company's CompuServe forum. To reach the CIS forum type GO TWENTY. You can also obtain demo versions of 20/20 products on the Web page. (Jim Mallory/19950605/Press contact: Tom Gifford, 20/20 Software, 503-520-0504; Public contact: 20/20 Software, 503-520-0504 or 800-735-2020, Internet e-mail infotwenty.com, CompuServe e-mail 74774,222) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 06/05/95 TELECOM EnCompass Gets Upgrade, New Name (NEWS)(TELECOM)(DEN)(00023) EnCompass Gets Upgrade, New Name 06/05/95 SEATTLE, WASHINGTON, U.S.A., 1995 JUN 5 (NB) -- Just a month after its initial release, EnCompass has been upgraded and renamed. The upgraded program provides graphical access to the Internet and automates installation and configuration of Internet client applications on Windows-based PCs. #IMAGE 1 20 TWPCX \images\95060523.PCX Click here for photo The new product, Embarque, was developed by Seattle-based SandyBeach and is licensed to Intermind Corp. for distribution to The Internet Adapter (TIA) users. It configures the user's client applications to run with TIA, a $25 utility program marketed by InterMind that allows users with shell accounts to use graphical Internet applications such as the World Wide Web browser Netscape Navigator. Previously you needed a SLIP (Serial Inline Internet Protocol) or PPP (Point-to-Point Protocol) account to use the graphics-based applications. The company said all the TIA licensee has to do is enter their login name and choose their Internet service provider and a phone number from a drop-down list and phone book. Intermind spokesperson Gary Good told Newsbytes that Embarque then installs the Trumpet Winsock TCP/IP (Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol) and the SLIP/PPP dialer required to use the other applications. You also get: the Netscape Navigator World Wide Web browser; Pegasus E-Mail (electronic-mail); the News Xpress newsreader; EWAN terminal emulation software; WS-FTP file transfer software; WSArchie search software; the WSGopher gopher client; and WSIRC chat software. All are freeware or shareware programs. Embarque includes a floating toolbar that serves as an application launcher, switcher, and usage timer. Clicking on one of the eight Internet applications automatically launches the Trumpet Winsock stack program, dials the user's service provider and starts the selected application. The toolbar icons and the programs they represent are customizable by the user so applications can be swapped as the user becomes more comfortable exploring the Internet. Embarque has context-sensitive online documentation, and offers a toolbar button that lets the user compose and send electronic-mail to the developers of the program to report problems or make suggestions. Embarque is distributed at no cost under an arrangement between InterMind and SandyBeach. The current list of national and regional Internet service providers includes Netcom, CRL, Kaiwan, Digex, The World, Oronet, PrimeNet, CCNet, CyberGate, and NWNexus. The company said additional service providers will be listed in future releases of Embarque. Single user and service provider trial versions of Embarque are available. SandyBeach will customize Embarque for service providers at what the company said is "a modest price." If you have Internet, access you can download Embarque in about 35 minutes using a 14,400 bits-per-second modem, according to Intermind. (Jim Mallory/19950605/Press contact: Peter Heymann, InterMind, 206-545-7565; Public contact: InterMind, 206-545-7565; SandyBeach Internet e-mail sandybeachmed.com; Intermind Internet e-mail embarque-infomarketplace.com/EMBARQUE950605/PHOTO) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 06/05/95 GENERAL Digital World Show Opens Today (NEWS)(GENERAL)(SFO)(00024) Digital World Show Opens Today 06/05/95 LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1995 JUN 5 (NB) -- The sixth annual Digital World Conference opens today with a keynote moderated by Jonathan Seybold, founder of Seybold Seminars and the Digital World conferences. With the intention of keeping the conference on the "cutting edge," its producer, Softbank Expos, says the show will focus on communications and legal issues surrounding intellectual property along with its traditional eclectic program. Digital World is designed for digital media professionals who use computer technology as the means for creating, producing, and/or distributing information and entertainment. The first Digital World Conference by Seybold was based on his vision of the convergence of these industries through the power of digital technology. "I saw a change that would have social implications on a par with the effects of the Gutenberg press," said Seybold. "Digital media is different from anything that has come before. Because it's liberated from a single carrier, digital information can be sent across time and space." He says this show has always been a means of communication between what were once very separate industries. The keynote will be jointly delivered by: Ed Horowith, chairman and chief executive officer (CEO) of Viacom Interactive Media; Ray Smith, CEO of Bell Atlantic; and Peter Huber, Senior Fellow at the Manhattan Institute. Softbank (previously Ziff-Davis Expos) also promises only exhibitors with new products, services or announcements are allowed to participate in the show. Among the new product announcements are: MicroNet's Digital Video Stations; MountainGate Data Systems' Stampede; Storage Concepts' C812 and C910 product lines; Wright Line's Media Linx; and Maga Drive Systems MX/500 Disk Array and an Enterprise Storage System. Sessions include: "Virtual Worlds in the Real World," moderated by Disney exec, Steve Glenn; "Cyberspace -- Should the Government Stay the Hell Out?;" "Idea Bytes" with famous jazz musician Herbie Hancock leading a discussion; "Next Leaders of the Digital World," a discussion about how students are working on the Internet; and "Doing Business on The Net," a panel investigating the commercial potential of the Internet. The conference also features "Digital Demo Days," hosted by Mike Backes, well-known screen writer, co-founder of Rocket Science, and director of the American Film Institute's Advanced Technology Seminars. The session will preview interactive media and technologies which are in progress and have not been seen before. The previews will include three-dimensional virtual reality technologies from Apple Computer. The Writers Guild of America, West, will present the "Creative Cafe" which will consist of ongoing panel discussions with artists and professionals in the world of New Media. The floor show will also house "The Digital World CD-ROM Production Center" where a live production of the show will be created. (Patrick McKenna/19950605/Press Contact: Kathleen Burke, Softbank, 415-578-6900) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 06/05/95 APPLE TI Offers Mac Interface Board For Microlaser Printer (NEWS)(APPLE)(DEN)(00025) TI Offers Mac Interface Board For Microlaser Printer 06/05/95 TEMPLE, TEXAS, U.S.A., 1995 JUN 5 (NB) -- Texas Instruments (NYSE: TXN) has announced an EtherTalk option board for its Microlaser 600 printer, that allows the printer to be connected to Macintosh-based networks. TI said the user-installable Pro M Network Interface supports the EtherTalk standard as well as other network operating systems like Novell NetWare, Unix TCP/IP (Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol), Microsoft Windows NT, LANManager, and IBM LANServer. TI Said the Microlaser 600 can be connected to any network via 10BaseT or 10Base2 interfaces. The Microlaser 600 is a 600 dots-per-inch (dpi) printer designed for use by single users, in small workgroups, and on local area networks. The printer uses a RISC (reduced instruction set computing) microprocessor, has a 250-sheet paper capacity, and comes with built-in LocalTalk and parallel ports. The standard configuration includes: two megabytes (MB) of memory, which can be upgraded to as much as 10MB by plugging a 1MB, 2MB, 4MB, or 8MB upgrade into the RAM slot; Adobe PostScript Level 2 software; 23 built-in scalable Postscript outline fonts; and PCL-5 emulation with 14 fonts. The Microlaser 600 weighs 33 pounds and measures 13.8-inches wide by 14.8-inches deep, by 10.4-inches high. TI said the image cartridge is good for about 15,000 prints, while the toner cartridge will last for about 2,500 prints based on a four percent page-coverage rate. A TI spokesperson told Newsbytes the printer has a suggested retail price of $999. The interface comes with Printset, software that allows the Microlaser 600 to automatically interface with the network operating systems. A feature called Automatic Protocol Sensing allows the interface to monitor and automatically switch to the proper network protocol without any user involvement when a print job is executed. TI said the Pro M Network Interface will be available with a suggested retail price of $239. It ships with the software and documentation for a Mac EtherTalk network, and you can get software and documentation for other network operating systems by calling TI's toll-free customer service number. (Jim Mallory/19950605/Press contact: Joe Zeitler, Texas Instruments, 817-774-6138; Public contact: Texas Instruments, 800-848-3927/TIMICRO950605/PHOTO) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 06/05/95 ONLINE ****Netscape Browser On Retail Shelves (NEWS)(ONLINE)(MSP)(00026) ****Netscape Browser On Retail Shelves 06/05/95 MOUNTAIN VIEW, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1995 JUN 5 (NB) -- In a sharp departure from previous practices, Netscape Communications Corp. said it will sell its new Netscape Navigator Personal Edition World Wide Web browser software via retail outlets. What's more, the new product promises to give customers "full Internet connectivity" out of the box. "We're addressing a different audience (with this product)," Julie Herendeen, product manager for Netscape Navigator Personal Edition, told Newsbytes. "What we found is that there is a large segment of people out there who don't have a connection to the Internet, and want a simple way to get on the Internet and use Netscape Navigator." She said the Personal Edition provides the way of not only getting on the Internet, but giving people a choice of Internet service providers (ISPs). The software, designed to run on Windows-based PC's, has an estimated selling price of $39.95. That figure does not include any sign-up or monthly charges from ISPs. "We're opening up a channel that gives us access to a greater number of customers," Herendeen said. "This gives people access to the product, and also giving them the 'plumbing' and tools they need to get on the Internet." The Personal Edition software includes Netscape Navigator 1.1's features, full electronic-mail with Qualcomm's Eudora Light, full Internet access, and remote connectivity capabilities, the company said. The software is optimized to run over 14,400 bits-per-second modems, as well as higher bandwidth lines. Some of the ISPs that users can select from include Netcom, MCI, Portal, and Uunet. Herendeen also told Newsbytes the company is doing different things with the Personal Edition product it has never done before, "in terms of packaging it, and advertising it, which we've never done in the past. So we're pulling more of the traditional marketing levers in getting this product out into the customer eye." Netscape officials said the product will initially be available from major retailers like Computer City, Best Buy, and CompUSA. (Bob Woods/19950605/Press Contact: Rosanne Siino, Netscape, 415-528-2619. Public Contact: Internet World Wide Web http://www.netscape.com) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 06/05/95 BUSINESS Worldwide Memory Market Growing - Report (NEWS)(BUSINESS)(MSP)(00027) Worldwide Memory Market Growing - Report 06/05/95 SAN JOSE, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1995 JUN 5 (NB) -- The memory market worldwide is expected to grow by 40 percent in 1995, a recent report from Dataquest said. According to the study, called "Worldwide Memory Forecast: 1994-1999," the main driving force behind the increase is the strong demand for dynamic RAM (DRAM). Dataquest officials said the memory market will rake in $45 billion in revenues in 1995, which is up from $32 billion in 1994. Of that $45 billion, almost 34% will come from DRAM. Demand is large for DRAM because personal computer applications are expected to drive the demand, the study said. The increase has created a shortage of DRAM, but results have been positive for that segment of the market. "The past history of the DRAM market has said there would be a terrible downsizing of the market," Ron Bohn, industry analyst at Dataquest, told Newsbytes. "What we think will happen in 1997 is there will be an ample supply. But newly-emerging applications will absorb much of the capacity." If the study plays out, by 1997, DRAM will dominate the memory market, accounting for almost 60% of sales. Static RAM (SRAM) will be in a distant second place, with a little more than 8% of market share, followed by flash memory with almost 5%. Flash memory, which was expected to be the next hot memory category, has not taken off because "Apple's Newton did not boom. If that technology had, you would have seen more robust growth for flash memory," Bohn said. But he said flash memory would start eclipsing some of the older memory technologies. Dataquest also predicted the worldwide memory market will grow at a compound annual growth rate of nearly 20 percent from 1994 to 1999. This means memory revenue will be nipping at the $78 billion dollar mark in 1999, the study claims. More information can be found on the Internet's World Wide Web at URL (uniform resource locator) http://www.dataquest.com. The full report can be purchased from Dataquest. Dataquest officials were not available for further comment by the Newsbytes deadline. (Bob Woods/19950605/Press Contact: Tom McCall, Dataquest, 408-437-8312, Internet e-mail tmccall@dataquest.com; Public Contact: Dataquest, 800-419-DATA; Internet World Wide Web http://www.dataquest.com) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 06/05/95 CHIPS ****PC Makers Demo Cyrix's Pentium-Class Chip (NEWS)(CHIPS)(DEN)(00028) ****PC Makers Demo Cyrix's Pentium-Class Chip 06/05/95 RICHARDSON, TEXAS, U.S.A., 1995 JUN 5 (NB) -- More than a dozen PC makers are showing pre-production versions of desktop and mobile computers based on Cyrix Corp.'s (NASDAQ: CYRX) Pentium-class 5x86 microprocessor, which Cyrix developed under the working label M1sc, at this week's Taiwan computer trade show, Computex. Cyrix said the 5x86 processor has a 64-bit internal architecture, branch prediction, multiple operations per clock and data forwarding combined with an 80-bit floating point unit, or math coprocessor for faster math and graphics computing, and 16 kilobytes of write-back cache. System Management Mode (SMM) power conservation reduces power within the processor as well as the amount of power going to system peripherals. The company expects that feature to make the chip successful in the notebook market. None of the big names in PC manufacturing are showing 5x86-based PCs at Computex, but Cyrix said Epson plans to use the chip in upcoming products. AWE, Chicony, Dataexpert, FIC, and Veridata are among the companies showing 5x86-based PCs at Computex. A Cyrix spokesperson told Newsbytes other top-tier manufacturers can be expected to announce 5x86-based PCs, but declined to name those companies or indicate when the first of those announcements would be made. Cyrix spokesperson Evan Fitzmaurice told Newsbytes the 5x86 chips will be manufactured at the IBM Microelectronics foundry in Burlington, Vermont. Fitzmaurice said Cyrix and IBM Microelectronics signed a five-year foundry agreement in April, 1994, that has Cyrix putting in $88 million in capital investment money. IBM and Cyrix will evenly divide the production capacity of the foundry. Cyrix broke with Texas Instruments in 1993 after the company claimed TI was not keeping its end of a chip manufacturing deal. Cyrix had asked for $750 million in lost royalties, but settled for $15 million which was recognized in the first quarter of 1995. Cyrix said initial production of a 100 megahertz (MHz) version of the chip is expected in the third quarter of this year. Cyrix also expects to expand the product family in subsequent quarters with other versions, including a 64-bit chip. The 100MHz 5x86 will initially be priced at $147 in 1,000-unit lots. Cyrix said it still expects to ship production models of its M1 sixth-generation microprocessor in the third quarter. The company demonstrated a 100MHz version of the M1 recently. The M1 is both superscalar and superpipelined. Superpipelining divides the pipeline -- a method of fetching and decoding instructions -- into seven stages. Superscalar means the M1 architecture comprises two separate instruction pipelines, allowing the chip to execute two separate sets of instructions in parallel. (Jim Mallory/19950605/Press contact: Michelle Moody, Cyrix, 214-968-8302) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 06/05/95 BUSINESS ****IBM Attempts Lotus Takeover (NEWS)(BUSINESS)(BOS)(00029) ****IBM Attempts Lotus Takeover 06/05/95 CAMBRIDGE, MASSACHUSETTS, U.S.A., 1995 JUN 5 (NB)-- An "unfriendly" attempt by IBM to buy out 100 percent of Lotus Development Corp.'s outstanding stock for $3.3 billion in cash, initiated today in a phone call to Lotus President and chief executive officer (CEO) Jim Manzi, was preceded by "friendly" negotiations, and IBM officials still hope to achieve an amicable acquisition of Lotus, Newsbytes has learned. Jon Iwata, IBM's director of communications, told Newsbytes that IBM Chairman and CEO Louis V. Gerstner launched the takeover attempt that began today in a phone call this morning to Manzi. Manzi responded to Gerstner's phone call by "indicating that he would give our offer due consideration," and that he will take the offer to Lotus' board of directors, Iwata added, noting that he is not at liberty to disclose "a lot of specifics" about the phone call. Also today, Gerstner issued letters to Manzi and to IBM employees, and Lotus responded with a written statement for the press, which says, in part, that the "sudden IBM announcement" is "particularly surprising in light of discussions and negotiations on contracts and joint development that have been under discussion between the two companies for several months." In a press announcement of the takeover bid issued earlier today, IBM said that it plans to tender tomorrow a cash tender offer for all Lotus stock at a price of $60 per share, financing the offer from its approximately $10 billion in cash on hand. Also tomorrow, IBM expects to file documents with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) which will include conditions related to the elimination of Lotus's "poison pill" and "certain other anti-takeover provisions," according to the IBM press release. Iwata told Newsbytes that Lotus' poison pill is aimed at letting Lotus employees buy "additional shares of Lotus stock at a discount" in the event of an acquisition attempt. Iwata added that IBM's decision to initiate the takeover was arrived at, and approved by IBM's Board of Directors, "very recently," but he would not say exactly when. Friendly negotiations toward a proposed purchase of Lotus by IBM began early this year, according to Iwata. "I want to emphasize that we wanted to negotiate a transaction with Lotus management, and we were unable to do so, but we still believe that a transaction can be negotiated, and we want that to happen. Our actions today are designed to bring our two companies together as fast as possible. We have nothing but respect for Lotus management and all of (Lotus's) employees," he informed Newsbytes. IBM is interested in acquiring Lotus due to "compatibilities" between the two companies, and "similar visions" as to the importance of groupware and "collaborative" or team computing in the industry's future, according to the IBM spokesperson. IBM brings "lots of technologies" to the table, in addition to "decades of strength" and one of the world's largest marketing organizations, Iwata said. Lotus also has "many areas of strength, particularly a product called Lotus Notes," Newsbytes was told. From collaborating with Lotus on OS/2 products and other projects, IBM has developed a highly favorable opinion of Lotus, he added. In addition, an acquisition of Lotus would "enhance IBM's competitiveness" against other companies in the industry, including Microsoft, Iwata reported. This morning's letter from Gerstner to Manzi reads, in part, as follows: "Dear Jim: As you know from your conversations with IBM Senior Vice President John M. Thompson, IBM has been interested for some time in pursuing a business combination with Lotus. Because you have been unwilling to proceed with such a transaction, we are announcing this morning our intention to buy all of Lotus Development Corp.'s outstanding common shares for a price of $60 per share, or $3.3 billion. "This is an all-cash offer. We believe this is now the fastest, most efficient way to bring our companies together. We have the highest respect for you and all Lotus employees," the letter continues. Gerstner's letter goes on to characterize IBM's acquisition of Lotus as "truly a win/win opportunity for IBM and Lotus shareholders, employees, and customers." In their written response, Lotus officials said: "We will now study the matter with our legal and financial advisors, Lazard Freres and Watchtell, Lipton and others, and then take any and all appropriate action to preserve and promote the vital best interests of this company. In the final analysis, the great strength of Lotus is in its dedicated and innovative people whose long-term interests are best satisfied in the unique environment which characterizes our company." (Jacqueline Emigh/19950605/Press Contacts: Jon Iwata, IBM, 914-765-6630; Rob Wilson, IBM, 914-765-6565; Richard Eckel, Lotus, 617-693-1697) (SUMMARY)(GENERAL)(SFO)(00030) Newsbytes Daily Summary 06/05/95 PENN VALLEY, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1995 JUN 5 (NB) -- These are capsules of all today's news stories: 1 -> UK Multimedia Taking Off - Report 06/05/95 Gold Disk has announced the results of independent research commissioned to discover the trends in multimedia uptake in UK businesses. 2 -> Belgium - Competition Hots Up For 2nd GSM Net 06/05/95 Digital cellular is fast becoming a hot profit zone, as witnessed by the fight going on for the second GSM (global system for mobile communications) license in Belgium. 3 -> CMP Adds To Pathfinder's Digital Pulse Web Site 06/05/95 CMP Interactive Media and Time Warner's (NYSE:TWX) Pathfinder Internet site are linking up to bring what CMP calls "the latest technology information" to Pathfinder's new Digital Pulse area. 4 -> UK Firm Offers Budget Windows Security Package 06/05/95 Rhea International has taken the wraps off Latches for Windows, which spokesman Kevin Townsend describes as "a sensibly priced Windows 3.1 security package." 5 -> Chinon Plans 8x CD-ROM Drives 06/05/95 Chinon America, which recently announced a strategic partnership with Wearnes Technology Corp., says the new, non-exclusive alliance means Chinon is assured of meeting the heavy demand for quad-speed (4x) drives. The alliance also focuses on future drive developments, which are expected to concentrate on 8x drives. 6 -> European Commission Issues Warning Over Atlas Project 06/05/95 Warning bells are starting to sound over the proposed Atlas telecoms linkup between France Telecom and Deutsche Telekom. 7 -> European Commission Approves Lufthansa EDI Project 06/05/95 The European Commission (EC) has approved a proposed joint venture between Lufthansa, the German airline, and EDS Holding GmbH, the German electronic services subsidiary of General Motors. 8 -> French Govt Plans Phone Number Changes 06/05/95 France Telecom has confirmed what many in the telecoms industry have known for some time -- the world is running out of telephone numbers. 9 -> India - Intercon To Market Fore's ATM Products 06/05/95 Delhi-based Intercon Systems Pvt. Ltd. has signed up with Fore Systems of the US, a leader in ATM (asynchronous transfer mode) technology for high-performance local area networking to be its exclusive distributor in India. 10 -> NewsPix Images For Newsbytes Publishers 06/05/95 These photos correspond to recent Newsbytes stories. They are online in the Newsbytes menu on GEnie, America Online, eWorld, NiftyServe, and the Newsbytes private bulletin board system in Minneapolis. 11 -> Quantum Intros Europa PC Notebook Hard Drives 06/05/95 "Over the past couple of quarters, users have started requiring their notebook PCs to provide the same functionality as their desktop PCs," said John Hites, product line manager, in a briefing for Newsbytes about Quantum's new Europa line of 540 megabyte (MB), 810MB, and 1,080MB 2.5-inch disk drives. 12 -> Fore Acquires Applied Network & RainbowBridge 06/05/95 In two new acquisitions, Fore Systems, a maker of asynchronous transfer mode (ATM) equipment, has gained an entry into Ethernet switching through Applied Network Technologies (ANT), plus new Internet routing capabilities with RainbowBridge Communications, officials asserted during a teleconference for press and analysts. 13 -> DEC Adds 3 Storage Products For OpenVMS 06/05/95 Digital's three new storage products for OpenVMS over Alpha or VAX save time by letting users work with "save sets" offline for backup, defragment disks more quickly, and share data between hierarchical storage management (HSM) and other media, maintained Gary Gottschalk, storage software marketing manager, in an interview with Newsbytes. 14 -> Digital World - Spielberg Intros Starbright World 06/05/95 Steven Spielberg, well known film producer and director, and UB Networks previewed the first visual presentation of Starbright World, an interactve network linking seriously ill children at hospitals around the US. The 3D interactive network serves as a place where these children can "play in a fun environment without physical limitations." 15 -> ****Court Indicts 2 IRS Employees For Snooping 06/05/95 A federal grand jury in Boston has indicted two Internal Revenue Service on charges of snooping into confidential, computerized taxpayer records. 16 -> Patent Office Moves To Cover Software 06/05/95 Pushed by the courts, The US Patent and Trademark Office has proposed guidelines to govern patents of software embedded into hardware. 17 -> Is "Big Brother Bill" Looking Through Your Windows 95? 06/05/95 Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ: MSFT) claims it is a market research device, but some users say it's Big Bill watching them. 18 -> Microfield's Personal Size Electronic Whiteboard 06/05/95 Microfield Graphics Inc. has announced shipment of an electronic "whiteboard" sized for offices, cubicles, and small conference areas. 19 -> Borland Adds SMART Tool To C++ 2.0 For OS/2 06/05/95 Borland International Inc. has begun to ship Borland C++ 2.0 for OS/2 bundled with SMART (Source Migration Analysis Reporting Toolset). Borland C++ 2.0 for OS/2 was originally shipped in January, but adds the SMART toolset for the first time. 20 -> Apple Improves Mac Japanese Language Use 06/05/95 Apple Computer Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) has announced that KanjiTalk 7.5, The Japanese version of the Mac operating system, is now available in the US and Canada. At the same time, Apple has introduced version 1.2 of the Japanese Language Kit. 21 -> Macromedia's New Web Site, Links With Netscape 06/05/95 With two separate announcements, Macromedia Inc. (NASDAQ:MACR) is increasing its Internet clout. The company is not only offering a new World Wide Web site, but it will integrate multimedia playback software into future editions of Netscape Navigator. 22 -> PC-Install Software Available Online 06/05/95 20/20 Software has announced that software developers can now download the latest version of the company's automated installation program, PC-Install, via the Internet or CompuServe. Alternatively, the company will electronically mail it via America Online or Prodigy. 23 -> EnCompass Gets Upgrade, New Name 06/05/95 Just a month after its initial release, EnCompass has been upgraded and renamed. The upgraded program provides graphical access to the Internet and automates installation and configuration of Internet client applications on Windows-based PCs. 24 -> Digital World Show Opens Today 06/05/95 The sixth annual Digital World Conference opens today with a keynote moderated by Jonathan Seybold, founder of Seybold Seminars and the Digital World conferences. 25 -> TI Offers Mac Interface Board For Microlaser Printer 06/05/95 Texas Instruments (NYSE: TXN) has announced an EtherTalk option board for its Microlaser 600 printer, that allows the printer to be connected to Macintosh-based networks. 26 -> ****Netscape Browser On Retail Shelves 06/05/95 In a sharp departure from previous practices, Netscape Communications Corp. said it will sell its new Netscape Navigator Personal Edition World Wide Web browser software via retail outlets. What's more, the new product promises to give customers "full Internet connectivity" out of the box. 27 -> Worldwide Memory Market Growing - Report 06/05/95 The memory market worldwide is expected to grow by 40 percent in 1995, a recent report from Dataquest said. According to the study, called "Worldwide Memory Forecast: 1994-1999," the main driving force behind the increase is the strong demand for dynamic RAM (DRAM). 28 -> ****PC Makers Demo Cyrix's Pentium-Class Chip 06/05/95 More than a dozen PC makers are showing pre-production versions of desktop and mobile computers based on Cyrix Corp.'s (NASDAQ: CYRX) Pentium-class 5x86 microprocessor, which Cyrix developed under the working label M1sc, at this week's Taiwan computer trade show, Computex. 29 -> ****IBM Attempts Lotus Takeover 06/05/95 An "unfriendly" attempt by IBM to buy out 100 percent of Lotus Development Corp.'s outstanding stock for $3.3 billion in cash, initiated today in a phone call to Lotus President and chief executive officer (CEO) Jim Manzi, was preceded by "friendly" negotiations, and IBM officials still hope to achieve an amicable acquisition of Lotus, Newsbytes has learned. (Ian Stokell/19950605) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 06/02/95 EDUCATION New Brunswick, Microsoft In Online Education Deal (NEWS)(EDUCATION)(TOR)(00001) New Brunswick, Microsoft In Online Education Deal 06/02/95 MONCTON, NEW BRUNSWICK, CANADA, 1995 JUN 2 (NB) -- A number of private companies in this province will provide courses via Microsoft Corp.'s (NASDAQ:MSFT) Online Institute, and the provincial government will accredit online courses, as a result of a deal involving the province and Microsoft Canada Inc., of Mississauga, Ontario. New Brunswick's "online campus" will be aimed initially at students in kindergarten through grade 12, and at mature students taking courses from home. The province is to certify all courses, officials said, while private content providers will develop custom online courses. The government of New Brunswick, which has been one of the leaders among Canadian provincial governments in promoting information technology, is interested mainly in developing "knowledge-based products" for export, said Maurice Lavigne, a spokesman for the province's Department of Economic Development and Tourism. "Most of the jobs being created on the information highway are for content providers," Lavigne told Newsbytes. Through the Microsoft Online Institute, which the software company announced in March to provide training through its Microsoft Network online service, New Brunswick content providers can reach a worldwide audience estimated at more than 70 million users in 43 countries, Lavigne said. The courses will not be widely accessible until shipment of Microsoft's new Windows 95 operating system, a much-awaited event currently expected to take place in late August. Access to the Online Institute and Microsoft Network will be included in Windows 95. In the meantime, Microsoft staff begin work with educational content providers in New Brunswick this summer, training them to use the company's network services and development tools. While residents of New Brunswick may be among those who benefit from the service, Lavigne said the province already has a strong distance education network and this project is aimed not so much at improving that as at developing export markets. The province is not investing in the project financially, he said. "The government is not directly involved, except from the point of view of accreditation, basically." Courses accredited by the province are acceptable for credit at educational institutions throughout North America, Lavigne said. (Grant Buckler/19950601/Press Contact: Maurice Lavigne, New Brunswick Dept. of Economic Development and Tourism, 506-457- 7340; Lora Gernon, Microsoft Canada, 905-568-0434 ext. 4121; Mia Pearson, Hill & Knowlton for Microsoft Canada, 416-480-7325) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 06/02/95 TELECOM Bell Canada Expands Usage-Based Pricing (NEWS)(TELECOM)(TOR)(00002) Bell Canada Expands Usage-Based Pricing 06/02/95 OTTAWA, ONTARIO, CANADA, 1995 JUN 2 (NB) -- Bell Canada said about 30 percent of business customers will pay more for local telephone service under a usage-based pricing plan it has proposed to federal regulators, while some bills will go down and some will stay the same. The usage-based pricing plan, which would apply only to business and not to residential customers initially, is the second prong of a restructuring in business rates that Bell announced in April. The first phase involves reducing the number of different rate groups into which serving areas are divided and cutting the cross-subsidies Bell said are currently paid from private branch exchange and trunk subscribers to private-line subscribers and from urban to rural subscribers. The usage-based pricing plan calls for cutting the basic charge for a business line but levying an extra charge based on the amount the line is used. Bell calls the plan TelecomLink. The company, which provides local and long-distance telephone service in Ontario and Quebec, has just filed details with the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) and hopes to put the new scheme into effect at the beginning of 1997. Bell has asked the CRTC -- which gave approval in principle to the idea of usage-based pricing two years ago -- to approve the details by the beginning of 1996. Bell gave some examples of the effect of the plan on different types of business subscribers. The figures reflect the changes resulting from the reduction in rate groups as well as those resulting from introduction of usage-based pricing. For instance, an individual business line in downtown Toronto or Montreal now costs C$48.50 per month. Under the new plan, it would carry a basic access charge of C$27.40. If the subscriber used the line for 732 minutes of local calling during a month, assuming average rates of 1.8 cents per minute and a four-percent volume discount, an additional C$12.64 in usage charges would bring the month's total to C$40.04, Bell said. A PBX customer in either city would see a much larger reduction, assuming 1,272 minutes of usage at 1.8 cents per minute and an eight-percent volume discount, from C$85.50 to C$49.38 per month. Given the same usage patterns, a PBX or trunk subscriber in Cornwall, Ontario -- a smaller city -- would see a monthly bill drop from C$64.95 to C$58.68, but an individual-line subscriber in the same city would pay more -- C$49.34 versus C$35.90. The shift to higher rates for rural and single-line service and reductions for PBX and urban services reflect the reduction of cross-subsidies under Bell's plan to reduce rate bands, not the effects of usage-based pricing, company spokeswoman Valerie Ward told Newsbytes. Overall, Bell claimed the usage-based pricing plan would have no effect on its revenues. Usage rates would be the same everywhere, Bell said, but would vary according to the distance a call travelled as well as its duration. A minimum charge for the first 30 seconds would range from three quarters of a cent for calls that travel 15 kilometers or less up to 2.75 cents for calls that go more than 46 kilometers while remaining within a local calling area. For each six seconds beyond the first 30, Bell would charge from 15 one- hundredths of a cent to 55 one-hundredths of a cent, also depending on distance. Calls to the Bell operator, the 411 directory-assistance service, the 611 repair service, the 911 emergency service, and Bell business offices would be exempt from usage charges, as would calls within a corporate customer's own phone system. Local charges also would not apply to long-distance calls or to incoming calls, the company said. Volume discounts would apply to monthly usage exceeding C$10. Bell also plans a C$60-per-month upper limit on usage charges initially, but this would be phased out by the year 2001. The company said it plans to issue "shadow" bills to customers for a year before the plan goes into effect to show them how their phone charges will be affected when the billing system changes. Business customers can call 310-BELL anywhere in Ontario, or their local Bell business offices, for more information, Bell said. (Grant Buckler/19950601/Press Contact: Valerie Ward, Bell Canada, 613-281-2443; Linda Gervais, Bell Canada, 613-781-3724, fax 613- 781-4918) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 06/02/95 ONLINE Hyatt's CompuServe Mall Site (NEWS)(ONLINE)(MSP)(00003) Hyatt's CompuServe Mall Site 06/02/95 NEW YORK CITY, NEW YORK, U.S.A., 1995 JUN 2 (NB) -- Hyatt Hotels and Resorts is the first global hotel to open a storefront in CompuServe's Electronic Mall, Hyatt officials have announced. The company made the announcement during an online news conference on CompuServe, which Newsbytes attended. The store is called "The World of Hyatt," and is described as an online interactive travel, information, and reservation center, officials said. It will allow CompuServe users to electronically "visit" any one of Hyatt's 169 domestic and international hotels. "While we have been on the Internet since October 1994, we felt the CompuServe medium opened us up to a whole new audience of more than three million users, 30 percent of which are outside the US," Sharon Barlow, Hyatt spokesperson, said. "With 169 hotels in operation and 20 under development, reaching this ever-growing customer base in the ways they want and need to be reached is critical." Users who access the site can enroll in Hyatt's frequent stay program, and can enter "Hyatt's Race to the Next Millennium Sweepstakes," for a chance to win an all-expense paid trip for two to the Park Hyatt Carlton Tower London for New Year's Eve 1999. Other features include an electronic Worldwide Guide, a "cyber concierge," order brochures, match traveler's interests with Hyatt hotel locations, and even information on how to obtain and renew a passport. Brend Chorengel, Hyatt International president, said the electronic forum would be good for his company. "We want to get the word out (about the company) as quickly as possible, to as many people as possible. It is through electronic forums such as this that we can accomplish this," he said. Einstein and Sandom Interactive (EASI) created the site. J.G. Sandom, EASI president, said the goal was to create a one-stop travel forum. "We have worked with Hyatt to create a product which serves the traveling public in the ways they want and need to be reached." During a one-month test period, the hotel chain said more than 12,000 CompuServe users visited the site. To access the storefront, CompuServe users can type "GO HYATT," without the quotes. (Bob Woods/19950602/Press Contacts: Sharon Barlow, Hyatt, 312-750- 8004, Internet e-mail 76622,1224@compuserve.com; Len Stein, Einstein and Sandom Interactive, 212-777-4350, Internet e-mail prstein@aol.com. Public Contact: CompuServe, GO HYATT) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 06/02/95 SUPERCOMPUTER Fujitsu's New Servers (NEWS)(SUPERCOMPUTER)(TYO)(00004) Fujitsu's New Servers 06/02/95 TOKYO, JAPAN, 1995 JUN 2 (NB) -- Fujitsu this week announced a new range of servers, the GS8000 series, that will be shipped late this year. The computers achieve the highest performance in the industry, according to the Tokyo-based computer and electronics manufacturer. #IMAGE 1 20 TWPCX \images\95060204.PCX Click here for photo At the heart of each machine are the world's fastest CMOS (complimentary metal oxide semiconductor) central processing units (CPUs), Fujitsu's GS8400 and GS8200. Mike Bierne of Fujitsu gave Newsbytes more details about the performance, "The performance is about 27 mainframe MIPs per CPU, about 100 mainframe MIPs per 4 CPU cluster. At about the same price as the previous generation M-740 we just about triple performance." This type of technology is now employed in all of Fujitsu's computers including the VPP300, the world's first CMOS supercomputer introduced in February of this year, and enables high performance at a lower cost and power consumption. Fujitsu says the GS8400 was designed with modern offices in mind and it makes points of its small size, low power consumption and a low air cooling requirement. The computer offers a flexible, upgradable platform. By using multiple clusters of CPUs the machine can be scaled up to 56 times that of the entry level model. The GS8200 is targeted at smaller offices and boasts the need for no special air cooling or conditioning, meaning it can operate in a standard office environment. The GS8000 series maintain compatibility with Fujitsu's M-series of servers and are now being marketed in Japan, the USA, Europe, Oceania and Asia. First versions of the GS8200 are scheduled to begin shipping in October with GS8400 computers available from December. The new machines follow the M-series which is a tough act to follow, as Fujitsu's Bierne explained, "Fujitsu's M-Series is Japan's most successful mainframe in history, last year we shipped nearly 1500 systems, heavily on the high-end (M-1900) and have an installed base of more than 27,800 systems -- roughly 4 times what IBM has and clearly the largest market share of 29 to 31%." In Japan the GS8400 is available on rent for 4,075,000 yen per month ($47,941 per month) and the GS8200 for 600,000 yen per month ($7,058 per month). Fujitsu would not disclose the retail prices but Newsbytes understands they are around 190 million yen ($2.25m) for the GS8400 and 27 million yen ($317,000) for the GS8200. Fujitsu hopes to sell 2,000 of the more expensive GS8400 and 3,000 of the GS8200 worldwide over the next three years. To compliment the new computers, Fujitsu is also marketing new storage devices, the F6492 Array Disk Subsystem and F6632A Solid State Disk Subsystem. The F6492 uses 3.5-inch disk enclosures and provides up to 90GB of high performance fault tolerant online storage. Meanwhile the F6632A Solid State Disk Subsystem provides up to 10GB of online storage and boasts an average access time of only 0.1ms. Release dates for the new storage systems are November of this year for the F6632A and January 1996 for the F6492. (Martyn Williams/19950602/Press contact: Mike Bierne, Fujitsu Ltd, phone +81-3-3215-5236, Internet e-mail: mike@hq.fujitsu.co.jp GS8400950602/PHOTO) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 06/02/95 TELECOM "Briefcase" Terminal Offers Phone, Fax, Data Anywhere (NEWS)(TELECOM)(DEN)(00005) "Briefcase" Terminal Offers Phone, Fax, Data Anywhere 06/02/95 ATLANTA, GEORGIA, U.S.A., 1995 JUN 2 (NB) -- An Atlanta, Georgia company has announced a briefcase-sized portable satellite communications terminal that it says can provide two-way digital telephone, fax and data satellite communications just about anywhere in the world. #IMAGE 1 20 TWPCX \images\95060205.PCX Click here for photo Scientific-Atlanta Inc. (NYSE: SFA) has announced the TerraStar-M Model 9826A, an under-18-pound unit the company says is ideal for professionals working in disaster coordination, journalism, energy exploration and recovery, military operations and international business. The unit interconnects with the Inmarsat-M digital satellite communications service. Although you may not realize it, you have probably already seen a portable satellite system in operation if you watched much of the on-scene television coverage of the Persian Gulf war. It was that technology, at that time packed in suitcase-size units, which allowed reporters to continue broadcasting when power and telecommunications had been disrupted. Now Scientific-Atlanta has shrunk the system to the size of a briefcase. Scientific-Atlanta is offering two hard case options, one standard and built to military specifications (MIL-spec), a soft-case option and a stand-alone version. Scientific-Atlanta spokesperson Len Dieterle told Newsbytes the standard case measures 15.5 inches by 19 inches by 5 inches. The company said the stand-alone model can be mounted on a wall, placed on a desk or transported in the user's own carrying case. A handset with hands-free operation is provided with the TerraStar-M. Users can enter system commands from the handset or via an electronic console. Scientific-Atlanta said the TerraStar-M uses less than 80 watts of power while transmitting and under 30 watts in the receive and idle modes. You can get internal and external battery packs for primary power and short term, uninterrupted power supply. A secured terminal unit is supported and the system can process credit cards. Dieterle said that capability allows the user to pay for the call using a credit card. Multiple language voice prompts are provided, as is automatic call logging and DTMF tone processing. Multi-channel configurations are available. The TerraStar-M has a suggested retail price just under $13,000 which includes the transceiver, a remotable antenna, a cellular-style handset, cables, compass, users's guide and briefcase. Scientific-Atlanta also offers the TerraStar Multi-M which incorporates a one-meter antenna and can accommodate up to eight voice, fax and data communications channels. (Jim Mallory/19950602/Press contact: Jack Bright, Scientific-Atlanta, 404-903-6410; Public contact: Scientific-Atlanta, 404-903-6395 or fax 404-903-6388/TERASTAR950602/PHOTO) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 06/02/95 GENERAL Japan Newsbriefs (NEWS)(GENERAL)(TYO)(00006) Japan Newsbriefs 06/02/95 TOKYO, JAPAN, 1995 JUN 2 (NB) -- In this roundup of news from Japan, Apple introduce new JLK, KanjiTalk; Sony sets PlayStation launch date, fights price war; Just to release OS/2 Ichitaro; Apple Japan shows multimedia systems; Toshiba sets notebook sales targets; Mitsubishi expands in Mexico. Apple Introduces New JLK, KanjiTalk Apple has started shipping new versions of their Japanese Language Kit (JLK) and KanjiTalk software to customers in North America. The JLK software, now version 1.2, allows users of Apple's System 7.5 operating system to run Japanese language applications while the user interface remains in English. The new software also includes three kanji fonts and other supporting software and is priced at $249 with incentives for upgrade from previous versions. KanjiTalk 7.5 is Apple's Japanese operating system and offers the same features as a system running System 7.5 and the JLK. The key difference is a totally Japanese interface. Sony Set PlayStation Launch Date, Fights Price War Sony said today that it will launch its PlayStation game system in Europe and the United States in September. The system was launched in Japan last December and is currently locked in a fierce battle with Sega and Nintendo. Sony has established an alliance with Namco, the largest operator of video game arcades in the USA. Sony views the new PlayStation as its biggest, most exciting product since the Walkman. In Japan an announcement by Sony that it is to release a 10,000-yen cheaper version of the PlayStation has sparked a price war that sent Sega lopping the same amount off its Saturn console. Nintendo is planning to launch its next generation game machine towards the end of the year. Just To Release OS/2 Ichitaro Just Systems is to release an OS/2 version of the popular Ichitaro word processor in June. The new software, Ichitaro version 5/r1 for OS/2, will be priced at 58,000 yen ($682). The company has also announced an upgraded version for the PC-98, Ichitaro version 5 with Atok 9, a japanese language conversion system, for the PC-98 will sell for 68,000 yen ($800). Last month a new Macintosh version was also announced which will ship at the end of this month. Ichitaro version 5/r1 for the Macintosh comes with Atok 8 and will cost the same as the OS/2 version. Apple Japan Shows Multimedia Systems Apple Japan unveiled a new multimedia system that will allow several members of a design team, each stationed away from the others, to collaborate real time a project. The system is based on the company's QuickTime video conferencing system allowing pictures, sound, text and graphics to be exchanged among members of the team. The "Future Media - Live" project will, with the use of the Internet, enable an international team to work together regardless of distance. Toshiba Sets Notebook Sales Targets Toshiba is aiming to sell around 30,000 of its new 90MHz Intel Pentium-based notebook computers in Japan this year. The new subnotebook carries a 598,000 yen ($7,035) price tag in Japan and will make up around 7 percent of Toshiba's projected 400,000 computers sold in fiscal 1995. Toshiba is hoping for worldwide sales of 1.5 million computers and 100,000 of these are expected to be the new notebooks. Mitsubishi Expands In Mexico Mitsubishi Electric is to expand its Mexicali, Mexico plant with the creation of a thousand new jobs. The plant produces components for television sets. Mitsubishi says the plant will grow to around ten times the present size over the next few years. The increased investment is a result of the strong yen and the removal of trade barriers by the NAFTA agreement. (Martyn Williams/19950602) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 06/02/95 BUSINESS Intersolv Soars Into The Black (NEWS)(BUSINESS)(WAS)(00007) Intersolv Soars Into The Black 06/02/95 ROCKVILLE, MARYLAND, U.S.A., 1995 JUN 2 (NB) -- Sometimes things go as planned. Just ask Kevin Burns, chairman and chief executive officer of Intersolv, developer of client/server and object-oriented software tools. Intersolv has just completed its best financial year in history, moving solidly into the black after a bath in red ink in the year ended April 30, 1994. Revenues increased 35 percent to $115 million this year, compared to $85 million last year and net income hit $13 million (83 cents per share) versus a $29 million loss last year. Intersolv's stock has been soaring as a result. In two years, it has risen from about $5 per share to over $17. "It's all according to our business plan," Burns told Newsbytes in a telephone interview yesterday. Some three years ago, Intersolv began a strategic restructuring to change itself from a purveyor of development tools for IBM mainframe environments into a company providing cross-platform tools for client/server computing. This year, that strategic shift paid off. "Our new products came into their own this year," Burns said. Some 70 percent of sales in fiscal 1995 came from the client/server side of the business, and those revenues also grew by 70 percent. The mainframe side of the business accounted for 30 percent of revenues, and was down some 20 percent over the prior year. "We are not believers that mainframes are going away," said Burns. "There are firms that have very large databases and high transaction volumes, and they will continue." But the growth market is client/server and Intersolv intends to remain "the one-stop solution for open client/server development tools," said Burns. The key to the Intersolv software, Burns said, is that it is truly open, unlike products from the big client/server database companies such as Oracle and Sybase. "We are the Switzerland of development tools. With our products, the client might be running on Windows and the server on Oracle with Unix, and it doesn't matter." "These are still very early days in client/server," said Burns. "Our highest volume product has 220,000 users and our next closest competitor has 100,000, in an overall market of four million. So there is plenty of running room." Intersolv has also been growing through acquisitions. Last month, the company snapped up PC Strategies & Solutions for $9.3 million and bought the C++ Views product line from Liant Software for $1.2 million. Last year, Intersolv bought Southwind Design for an undisclosed sum and Q+E Software for $36 million. What does the future hold for Intersolv? "We will grow earnings per share to the range of 95 cents to $1.05," said Burns, a growth rate of 20-25 percent. And there may also be some other acquisitions in the near future, Burns acknowledged. "We will stick to our knitting strategically," he added. (Kennedy Maize/19950602/Press Contact: Kevin Burns, 301-230-3201) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 06/02/95 ONLINE ****AOL To Become Internet Provider (NEWS)(ONLINE)(WAS)(00008) ****AOL To Become Internet Provider 06/02/95 VIENNA, VIRGINIA, U.S.A., 1995 JUN 2 (NB) -- Look out, PSI, Netcom and other Internet providers. Those are the loud footsteps of America Online (NASDAQ:AMER) coming up from behind. AOL announced that it will begin offering Internet access, sans its popular online service, beginning August 24, the day that Microsoft is set to unveil Windows 95 and its online service, the Microsoft Network. To jump start its Internet business, AOL is spending $11 million ($9 million in stock and $2 million in cash) to buy Global Network Navigator from O'Reilly & Associates. GNN is the first commercial publishing site on the World Wide Web and has an estimated 400,000 regular readers. AOL has also acquired WebCrawler, one of the most popular Internet search tools. It was developed by Brian Pinkerton, a PhD candidate at the University of Washington. "As the market for online services continues to expand rapidly," says Steve Case, AOL president and chief executive officer, "some market segmentation is beginning to emerge. Most consumers want a broad range of services, presented in an engaging manner, with simple and affordable pricing, and a strong underlying sense of community -- and for that audience our AOL brand is the ideal choice." But, Case added, "A growing number of people are beginning to seek an Internet-only solution, and a growing number of publishers are interested in offering a la carte services, and by launching our new GNN brand we will be capitalizing on those trends as well." Case also took a swipe at his coming rivals, Microsoft and AT&T. "In addition to its current free services," he said, "GNN will also be working with publishers to offer subscribers a full range of a la carte services. Because GNN's strategy is to create these kinds of services using the open Internet model, where anyone can participate, we should see a much wider diversity of content than other proposed a la carte alternatives such as the Microsoft Network and AT&T Interchange." Also as part of its Internet strategy, AOL is taking a minority equity share in Songline Studios, a new O'Reilly subsidiary to be headed by GNN founder Dale Dougherty. The new company's charter is to create Web-centric content, applications and services. WebCrawler, the first full-text search tool for the Internet, is available for free at http://webcrawler.com. (Kennedy Maize/19950602/Press Contact: Pam McGraw, 703-556-3746) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 06/02/95 BUSINESS Context, Computer Intelligence InfoCorp Team On Mkt Data (NEWS)(BUSINESS)(LON)(00009) Context, Computer Intelligence InfoCorp Team On Mkt Data 06/02/95 LONDON, ENGLAND, 1995 JUN 2 (NB) -- Context, the UK computer industry market research organization, has signed a cooperative agreement with Computer Intelligence InfoCorp (CII), the California computer market research company. Jeremy Davies, a senior partner with Context, told Newsbytes that the deal between the two organizations was significant, since it allows both companies to cooperate on their data formats for subscribers. "Our (market research) data for resellers is now in the same format as CII, which allows both of us to market each other's data to our respective customers. They can then import that data into their own systems and carry out their analyses, based on data from around 23 countries," he explained. Under the agreement, both companies are working to expand their respective reseller channel products and services. According to Davies, both companies are extending their channel coverage to include data that will enable their clients to leverage global market opportunities. "Being able to offer our customers compatible, fact-based channel data across two of the major computer markets in the world is a significant step forward for us," Davies explained, adding that the agreement "will bring to our customers the benefits of a truly global research partnership." Both Context and CII provide their clients with monthly sales volumes for PCs, printers, and software through the reseller channels. This sell-through information, collected through in-depth interviews with resellers, yields detailed information that the companies' clients use in a variety of areas, including new product development, product introductions, market expansion and competitive analysis. Using Context's channel data, over the next few months, CII will begin offering its US customers the option of adding European reseller channel data to its already popular US StoreBoard channel data. Context, in turn, will market CII's US StoreBoard data to its European clients. (Steve Gold/19960602/Press & Reader Contact: Context +44-171-937-3595; Computer Intelligence InfoCorp: +1 619 535-6730) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 06/02/95 TELECOM European Telecom Pitches Into Scandinavia (NEWS)(TELECOM)(LON)(00010) European Telecom Pitches Into Scandinavia 06/02/95 LONDON, ENGLAND, 1995 JUN 2 (NB) -- European Telecom, a distributor of mobile phones, has announced its intention to move into the Danish, Finnish, Norwegian, and Swedish telecoms market-place. European Telecom is one of 15 UK firms in the telecom field that have been invited to present their products in a rolling roadshow in Scandinavia over the next few months, Newsbytes was told. Although one of 15, the company claims it is the only one operating in the field of mobile telephony. The visits to Scandinavia have been organized by the Governments of Denmark and Sweden, following their recent joining of the European Community. Jeff Lucas, marketing director for European Telecom, explained that the visits have allowed British companies in the networking and telecoms fields to show what they can offer the Scandinavian telecoms industry. "It is crucial that the UK takes every opportunity to establish deeper links with business in these countries. For instance, Sweden is already the UK's ninth biggest export market and is the second largest importer of Swedish goods," he said. According to Lucas, the British companies have been invited to various presentations to help both sides understand Scandinavia's future telecoms strategy. European Telecom claims that market projections show that mobile telephony in Sweden has a market penetration of 11 per 81 people. This figure shows that one on eight Swedes has a mobile phone, an impressive statistic, Newsbytes notes, given that Europe as a whole is expected to reach seven percent penetration for mobile telephones by the end of the decade. (Sylvia Dennis/19950602/Press & Reader Contact: European Telecom +44- 181-759-0005) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 06/02/95 TELECOM MCI, Darome Teleconferencing to Merge (NEWS)(TELECOM)(MSP)(00011) MCI, Darome Teleconferencing to Merge 06/02/95 ATLANTA, GEORGIA, U.S.A., 1995 JUN 2 (NB) -- MCI Communications Corporation (NASDAQ:MCIC) announced it has agreed to buy the privately held Darome Teleconferencing, Inc. for approximately $32 million dollars. Under the agreement, which MCI is calling a merger, the two companies will combine their conferencing products and marketing activity to target the global conferencing market, which MCI said is a $2 billion dollar market, and analysts project that market is growing 25 percent per year. "These guys (Darome) are experts," Paul Adams, MCI spokesperson, told Newsbytes. "They've been around for 25 years, they've been through all the things that have happened in the conferencing industry. It's like they're Kentucky Fried Chicken - they do one thing, and they do it right." Adams said Darome brings to MCI's table those extensive experiences in conferencing. "They really add a lot of dedicated resources to MCI in a fast-growing market." On the flip side, Philip D. Knell, president and chief executive officer of Chicago-based Darome, is quoted as saying "MCI brings to Darome a highly-advanced long distance network platform, greater access to hundreds of thousands of businesses, and widely regarded marketing savvy." Currently, Darome provides teleconferencing services to businesses of all sizes, mainly through conference call centers in cities like Chicago; Danbury, Connecticut; and Washington, DC. It also operates a digital reservation system that serves its customer base. Adams said Darome will operate as a separate unit within MCI's Business Markets division, as opposed to the company's consumer division. The MCI-Darome conferencing unit will be responsible for marketing the company's conferencing services, including "networkMCI Conferencing." Those services currently include document sharing, and audio and video conferencing. The merger is subject to approval by MCI's board of directors, Darome's stockholders and board of directors, and clearance from the usual band of regulators. (Bob Woods/199500602/Press Contacts: Frank J. Walter or Paul Adams, MCI Business Markets, 800-644-NEWS) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 06/02/95 GENERAL Thrustmaster Ships F-16 Throttle For FLCS Joystick (NEWS)(GENERAL)(DEN)(00012) Thrustmaster Ships F-16 Throttle For FLCS Joystick 06/02/95 PORTLAND, OREGON, U.S.A., 1995 JUN 2 (NB) -- Thrustmaster Inc., (NASDAQ: TMSR) has announced it is shipping its F-16 TQS Throttle Quadrant System, the accompanying throttle to the company's F-16 FLCS joystick. The company said the throttle is modeled after the throttle quadrant installed in the F-16 aircraft. #IMAGE 1 20 TWPCX \images\95060212.PCX Click here for photo It includes a targeting trackball; dogfight, rotary and antenna switches; and arced throttle movement to register position without requiring players to take their eyes off the computer screen. Moving the throttle forward and backward provides the throttle, which has idle and military thrust detents. The dogfight switch can be used to change the functions of all the other buttons and switches on the TQS and FLCS. When used with the S3 button on the FLCS, the TQS user has a total of six different modes, and there is a three-position speed brake. The company said you can program rudder pedals for digital input and the trackball can be used in place of your mouse. The TQS comes with a 15-pin standard IBM game card connector on a six-foot cable, so you will need an empty expansion slot in your PC to use the device. In order to use the new throttle you need the $199.95 FLCS joystick. Thrustmaster said the throttle is programmable to make it compatible with all flight simulation software. The throttle has a suggested retail price of $200. In early May Thrustmaster announced it would bundle the combat flight simulator program US Navy Fighters CD-ROM with its Mark II Flight Control System (FCS) joystick. US Navy Fighters is the first title in Electronic Arts' impending air combat series. The company said the Mark II joystick is based on the joystick installed in the F-4 Phantom aircraft and features four buttons on the top of the joystick that switch the view shown on the computer screen. The user can select front, rear, left or right cockpit views. Thrustmaster said the joystick-software bundle will have a suggested retail price of $99 and is immediately available for a limited period. A spokesperson said that period will probably be about two quarters. At that time the company will probably bundle a different game with one of its joysticks. (Jim Mallory/19950601/Press contact: Laura Rawlins, Thrustmaster, 503-369-3200, ext 3150; Public contact: Thrustmaster, 503-639-3200/THROTTLE950602/PHOTO) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 06/02/95 TELECOM Sweden - Ericsson Secures Philippines Contract (NEWS)(TELECOM)(LON)(00013) Sweden - Ericsson Secures Philippines Contract 06/02/95 STOCKHOLM, SWEDEN, 1995 JUN 2 (NB) -- Ericsson has received a major contract to supply Smart Telecommunications, a Filipino company, with a variety of cellular technology for the expansion of the Smart TACS (Total Access Mobile Communications) analog mobile network in the Philippines, Newsbytes has learned. Under the terms of the contract, which starts this month, Ericsson will supply mobile communication gear, radio base stations and mobile handheld cellular phones, to the tune of $50 million, building on the $100 million worth of equipment already supplied for the Smart network which opened in February of this year. According to Ericsson, the new network should be up and running within a short space of time, as the Philippines' population areas that the ST network will cover are quite compact when compared with other countries. Plans call for the ST network to support around 700,000 subscribers, once the network covers the whole of the Philippines in five years. At the moment, however, the Smart network has around 60,000 subscribers online, and Smart Telecommunications says it will invest more than $250 million in the coming years to boost coverage outside of major cities in the Philippines. "This countryside expansion program is the fastest ever undertaken by a local cellular operator and manifests our commitment to spur economic growth in areas outside Metro Manila," explained Orlando Vea, president of Smart Telecommunications. (Sylvia Dennis/19950601/Press & Reader Contact: Klaus Lundgren, Ericsson Telecom +63-2-890-8960) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 06/02/95 WINDOWS Philips' New Speech Recognition Technology (NEWS)(WINDOWS)(LON)(00014) Philips' New Speech Recognition Technology 06/02/95 COLCHESTER, ESSEX, ENGLAND, 1995 JUN 2 (NB) -- Philips has teamed up with Technology for Business (TFB) to offer the industry's first "continuous stream" voice dictation system. Philips claims its PC dictation system is several stages ahead of competing systems, such as the IBM OS/2 dictation technology, seen over the past year, in that words are translated to ASCII text by the Windows software module as they are spoken, and without the need for short pauses, as is the case with the Big Blue and other dictation systems. "The technology was developed by Philips as a dedicated box system for use by Radiology Departments (the same market as IBM targeted in its pilot scheme, Newsbytes notes), to some considerable success," explained Alan Tringham, a spokesman for the company. "Since then, Philips has stepped back from the dedicated box technology and started development of a series of Windows modules. Plans call for those modules to be integrated into various third party applications, with the first being TFB's legal applications software," he told Newsbytes. The TFB "continuous spoken word" dictation system will be shown at the Software Facilities for Solicitors' Exhibition' which is being held at the London Barbican later this month (June 6/8), and plans are in hand for the dictation system to be integrated with TFB's Time Recording application, Time Partner, within the next few months. Although Philips refuses to reveal what other companies are developing integrated versions of the Philips dictation system, Newsbytes has learned that at least one major word processing vendor is discussing a deal with Philips. That deal should be announced within the next few months. (Steve Gold/19950601/Press Contact: Systems Publicity +44-1206-866611) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 2 06/02/94 UNIX ICL, Olivetti & Siemens To Market Novell UnixWare (NEWS)(UNIX)(LON)(00015) ICL, Olivetti & Siemens To Market Novell UnixWare 2 06/02/94 BRACKNELL, BERKSHIRE, ENGLAND, 1995 JUN 2 (NB) -- Three of Europe's leading systems vendors -- ICL, Olivetti and Siemens Nixdorf -- have contracted to market Novell's UnixWare 2, the company's industry standard, next generation Unix System V Release 4 (SVR4). The deals represent something of a coup for Novell, since it signals major acceptance and endorsement of UnixWare 2 by three of the largest European system vendors. According to Novell, customers will reap dramatic price/performance improvements in their business computing systems as a result. They will also gain access to a broad base of commercial and line-of-business applications, as well as seamless integration with Novell's NetWare network operating system. "Today, Unix systems are the leading platform for enterprise and line- of-business applications," said Lalit Nathwani, senior brand marketing manager for Novell UK. "ICL, Olivetti and Siemens Nixdorf are proving that UnixWare 2, as the most advanced and standard Unix system, can rapidly bring today's applications onto the computer networks that are defining tomorrow's information systems. Novell is committed to the Unix system, and to the community of users and vendors whose IS (Information Systems) solutions are built on the choice of open systems," he explained. Under the agreement between ICL and Novell, UnixWare 2 is shipping on Intel-based system now and a ported version for the SPARC environment will be available by the end of this year. In addition, ICL is working with Novell to certify UnixWare 2 on its platforms as E2/C2 security- compliant for critical European contracts. Olivetti, meanwhile, is partnering with Novell to ensure UnixWare 2 is available across its entire Intel platform. Olivetti plans volume shipments of UnixWare 2 beginning in the third quarter of this year. Also, the company is extending its relationship with Novell to become a Novell Authorised Service Centre (NASC), which it claims will ensure comprehensive customer service across all Novell platforms. Last, but not least, Siemens plans to ship UnixWare 2 for PC and port middleware products. According to Siemens, the company is committing to UnixWare 2 as a shrink-wrapped operating system for its Intel PC Server product line. Plans call for Siemens to port selected middleware products from its own SVR4-based Sinix operating system to UnixWare 2. Sinix is the Unix operating system for Siemens' RISC server line. According to Siemens, alongside UnixWare 2, the company will continue to support other Unix operating systems in the PC field, namely Sinix for PCs. (Sylvia Dennis/19950601/Press Contact: Elaine Hunter, ICL +44-1344- 472626; Alesandro DeMaria, Olivetti +39-2-4836-2213; Novell UK: Vivienne Wilson +1344-724460; Paula Schmidt, Siemens Nixdorf +44-1344- 850881) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 06/02/95 ONLINE USA Today Opens Web Preview Site (NEWS)(ONLINE)(MSP)(00016) USA Today Opens Web Preview Site 06/02/95 WASHINGTON, D.C., U.S.A., 1995 JUN 2 (NB) -- USA Today announced it has opened a public site on the Internet's World Wide Web. The new site will complement its primary service, which is available by subscription only. The new site offers "a free taste" of USA Today Online, which is a pay service based on the USA Today newspaper. When Newsbytes first covered the site's opening in March, Steve Anderson, manager of media relations for USA Today, said, "USA Today has always looked for innovative ways to report the news. It'll (the new site) give us the opportunity to update the news 24 hours a day." He also said the online service will have the look and feel of the USA Today newspaper, with an emphasis on graphics and user- friendliness. Surfing to the preview site today, Newsbytes found much of that to be true. We were greeted with a couple of image maps to click on for more information on the site and the subscription service. The look of the site looks like the paper itself -- a lot of color and graphics. Access to the USA Today subscription service is made through a local dial-up telephone line provided by CompuServe, along with proprietary software from USA Today to read the content, Anderson said. The full subscription service will be accessible only from the local dial-up number. But Anderson did say customers will have full Internet access from the site. Another development is that subscription rates have gone down since Newsbytes first covered the site in March. At that time, the service was to cost $14.95 per month, which included three hours of online time, with each additional hour costing $3.95. Now, the company said it is charging $12.95 per month (including the three hours), with each additional hour now being billed at $2.50 per hour. Internet surfers can catch the site at URL (uniform resource locator) http://www.usatoday.com. (Bob Woods/19950601/Press Contact: Steve Anderson, USA Today, 703-276- 5872. Public Contact: USA Today, 800-872-4998; outside USA, +1 301-622- 7415; Internet World Wide Web, http://www.usatoday.com) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 06/02/95 TELECOM Asian Ministries Agree On Telecom Cooperation (NEWS)(TELECOM)(TYO)(00017) Asian Ministries Agree On Telecom Cooperation 06/02/95 SEOUL, SOUTH KOREA, 1995 JUN 2 (NB) -- A two-day summit meeting of seventeen telecommunications ministers of the APEC (Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation) nations drew to a close last week in the South Korean capital of Seoul. The ministers agreed that by cooperating they could build a regional information network, a so called "interconnected and interoperable information infrastructure," that would lead to economic growth in the region. The 18-country group, Malaysia was absent at the meeting, had previously set a 2020 deadline for free trade throughout the region and the establishment of an Asia Pacific Infrastructure Initiative, APII, is an important step to realizing their free trade goal. The statement said that the APII will "contribute to creating jobs and sustaining economic growth and the prosperity of the next generation in the region." To work towards the creation of the new networks the goals of the APII were defined and a working group set up to study how development will be achieved in each country and to set deadlines for completion of each of the stages. Agreements were also made to cooperate on the technology needed to achieve these goals in areas such as research and international standards. The telecommunications network in the area varies widely. Some countries such as Singapore and Japan have modern telecommunications systems that combine voice, video and data while in other countries the simple telephone network doesn't cover the entire country. On this problem agreement was reached to work toward moderization of the telecommunications network, promote interconnectivity and interoperability, establish collaborative pilot projects and develop domestic and global markets for networks, services and application. On the question of how the regional network would be used and what it would carry the ministers agreed to establish national initiatives to make government public information more widely available via electronic means, which is already underway in some Asian countries. The use of such systems as EDI (electronic data interchange) is also to be promoted in the hope that, once it becomes widespread, trade will become easier and cheaper between the APEC nations. (Martyn Williams/19950531) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 06/02/95 BUSINESS Philippines - Subic Bay Set For New Acer Factory (NEWS)(BUSINESS)(TYO)(00018) Philippines - Subic Bay Set For New Acer Factory 06/02/95 MANILA, PHILIPPINES, 1995 JUN 2 (NB) -- Acer Computers, the top-ranked PC vendor in the Southeast Asian region and the Philippines, has invested US$24 million to build a new PC production facility at Subic Bay - site of former US bases. Set to commence full-blown operations within the year, the Philippine facility will manufacture PC motherboards, modular housings, and CD-ROM drives. A formal agreement to locate the facility in Subic was signed recently by Acer, Inc., and Subic Bay Metropolitan Authority (SBMA) officials. President Fidel V. Ramos was on hand to witness the event. The decision to build overseas manufacturing facility stems from Acer's current projections that it will produce over 4 million motherboards annually. Stan Shih, Acer chairman and CEO, said that the facility will contribute directly to the development of the (Philippine) economy and give more of a local touch to the Acer global brand. Acer decided to locate it production facility in the Philippines after carefully consideration of various alternative sites in the region including Malaysia, Acer officers say. Lower manufacturing costs found in the Philippines will further boost Acer's capability to get a share of the clone market which accounts for about 60% in terms of number of units sold. (Metropolitan Computer Times/19950524/ Internet E-mail dilips@netcom.com) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 06/02/95 IBM Chinese OS/2 "WarpMATE" (NEWS)(IBM)(PEK)(00019) Chinese OS/2 "WarpMATE" 06/02/95 BEIJING, CHINA, 1995 JUN 2 (NB) -- Using "Going To the 32-bit Era With You" as the slogan, Stone Rich Sight Information Technology recently announced new software including WarpMATE, the Chinese environment under IBM's (English) Warp. "If you want to use Chinese under the 32-bit OS/2 Warp, you have two choices: IBM's Chinese version of OS/2 Warp and our WarpMATE," a sales manager at Stone Rich Sight told Newsbytes, and "WarpMATE has unique features," she added. WarpMATE is similar to RichWin, a Chinese environment under Windows, which was also developed by Stone Rich Sight. Therefore, users with knowledge of RichWin can master WarpMATE quickly. WarpMATE also provides a variety of Chinese coding systems including GB, BIG5, CJK, and IBM5550, and support information exchanges among different coding systems. WarpMATE is a completely open system supporting the development of Chinese application software. With its Chinese Knowledge Base, users can process Chinese words (not characters only) and sentences. The total number of Chinese characters in WarpMATE is 20,902 and nearly a hundred Chinese fonts are available and it supports both English and Chinese TTF (TrueType Fonts). WarpMATE 4.01 is priced at RMB680 (US$80), the manager said. (Chih-Ho Yu & Ning Huang/19950509/Reader Contact: Stone Rich Sight Information Technology, tel +86-10 256-7862) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 06/02/95 LEGAL China - Video Publishers Fined For Copyright Violations (NEWS)(LEGAL)(PEK)(00020) China - Video Publishers Fined For Copyright Violations 06/02/95 BEIJING, CHINA, 1995 JUN 2 (NB) -- The State Copyright Administration recently announced fines were levied against two Chinese audio/video publishing companies for violating US film copyrights. The two companies are the Nanjing Audio and Video Publishing House and Guangdong Audio and Video Publishing House. They violated the copyright of the US film "The Fugitive," according to the administration. "The Fugitive" was the first major American film to be introduced to China in accordance with a new policy which allows China to import the 10 best foreign films every year. "The Fugitive" was a box-office hit at the end of last year. The two publishing houses violated the copyright of Warner Bros. Pictures by selling videos of "The Fugitive." The Nanjing Audio and Video Publishing House was also found guilty of pirating other US films, among them "In the Line of Fire," and "Striking Distance." Another copyright violator, the Lianoning Radio and Television & Audio and Video Publishing House, was convicted of pirating the US movie "Home Alone." Although the publishing houses claimed to have obtained copyright authorizations from certain Hong Kong companies, the authorizations were invalid, the administration declared. According to China's copyright law and related regulations, these publishing houses must stop selling the pirated products and must hand them over to the authorities. In addition they have to pay fines. The China Film Import and Export Corporation and Warner Bros. Pictures have brought the case regarding "The Fugitive" to court, a source at the film corporation said. (Chih-Ho Yu & Ning Huang/19950527) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 06/02/95 TELECOM ****Rep Markey Attacks US Telecom Act Additions (NEWS)(TELECOM)(BOS)(00021) ****Rep Markey Attacks US Telecom Act Additions 06/02/95 BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS, U.S.A., 1995 JUN 2 (NB) -- US Rep. Edward Markey, co-author of the Telecommunications Act of 1994, called for support of "80 percent" of a 1995 revision of the bill, but criticized newly added proposals to deregulate all cable TV providers and reduce limits on ownership of multiple mass media properties, in a speech at the Mass. Telecommunications Council Investors Conference in Boston. Referred to as the "Markey-Fields Act" in 1994, when Markey was chair of the US House of Representatives Subcommittee on Telecommunications and Finance, the original bill passed the House by a resounding 423 to 4 vote, but was then "killed by (US Senator) Bob Dole in the last three weeks in the Senate last year," Markey said. Markey added that he supports provisions of the 1995 legislation that are in line with the bill's initial intent of spurring competition and opening up access to the national "information superhighway." "The `Grand Deal' in the bill is to allow the Bell telephone companies into the long distance market in return for making the local telephone networks open for competition. This would mean that competing telephone providers could compete with Nynex for local telephone customers, and that Nynex could compete with AT&T, MCI and Sprint for consumers' long distance business," he explained. But, he contended, two new proposals that have now been added run contrary to the spirit of the original legislation. The Telecommunications Act of 1995 is up for a vote in the Senate next week, and will hit the floor of the House of Representatives in another six to eight weeks, according to Markey. Now that the Republicans have achieved the House majority, the House telecommunications and finance subcommittee is being chaired by Rep. Jack Fields, the other co-author of the 1994 legislation. Markey is now the ranking Democrat on the committee, and the Telecommunications Act of 1995 is known as the "Fields-Markey Act." In his speech yesterday, Markey applauded, in particular, surviving stipulations of the bill that would provide a "Privacy Bill of Rights" and that would link K-12 classrooms to the "info superhighway." The "Privacy Bill of Rights" would "ensure that regardless of the telecommunications medium a consumer uses -- a cell phone, a television, a computer, a cable system -- that (consumer's) transactions on the information superhighway are protected," he reported. Added the congressman: "I believe that a consumer riding down the superhighway on a shopping spree should get three basic rights: (1) Knowledge that a company is collecting personal information about the consumer; (2) Notice that the recipient of that information intends to sell or reuse that personal information; and (3) The right of the consumer to say `No' and prohibit or curtail such reuse or sale of their personal data." Markey argued that classroom access to the "info superhighway" is needed to "link the next generation of schoolkids to their future." "Think of a typical sixth grade classroom today. We have long rows of desks with dozing students. A blackboard. And a teacher up front presenting `talk with chalk.' This teaching tableau hasn't changed in over 100 years," he told the audience. "How do we expect our kids to grow up and compete in today's fiercely competitive, global, knowledge-based economy if we don't give them the tools of the information age?" he asked. But Markey strongly criticized additions to the 1995 legislation that would extend deregulation to all cable TV providers -- regardless of whether or not they face competition -- and that would both "completely deregulate the radio industry" and allow two or more TV networks or local TV stations to be owned by the same individuals. "Under current law, every cable company that faces a real competitor is deregulated. The 1992 Cable Act says that when a competitor has gotten 15 percent of the subscribers in a franchise area to sign up with their system, the incumbent cable company is deregulated," he said. "Yet in the bill now before Congress, cable companies are deregulated whether they face competition or not. This is simply inconsistent with the competitive model followed in the rest of the bill," he charged. "Today, people can only own four radio stations -- 2 FM, 2 AM, in any given market. Today we only allow a person to own one TV station in a market. And if you own a TV station, you can't gobble up the town newspaper or buy its cable system," Markey continued. "(But) the bill in its current form would lift the existing limits on the ownership of various media properties to allow for a concentration of power that would make Citizen Kane look like an underachiever," the congressman maintained. (Jacqueline Emigh/19950602/Reader and Press Contacts: Mass. Telecommunications Council, 617-439-8600; Joe Dalton, Office of US Rep. Edward Markey, 617-396-2700) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 06/02/95 TELECOM Italy - Philips Teams With Visa On Online Financial Svcs (NEWS)(TELECOM)(LON)(00022) Italy - Philips Teams With Visa On Online Financial Svcs 06/02/95 MILAN, ITALY, 1995 JUN 2 (NB) -- Philips Home Services, a division of Philips Electronics, and Visa Interactive, a subsidiary of Visa International, have announced their intention to develop a range of online financial services for the global market-place. Both companies announced their decision to work together on this joint project at the annual combined meeting of Visa's worldwide board of directors in Milan, Italy, earlier this week. Although neither organization is talking about actual products and services at the moment, development work on the Philips P100 screen phone has already started, Newsbytes has learned, with a view to offering a Visa branded version of the screen phone in the future. Plans call for both companies to offer a pilot program of financial services using the P100 screen phone during the fourth quarter of this year. Newsbytes understands that the pilot scheme will be aimed at residential users on the home banking front. According to Gerrit Schipper, Philips Home Services' president, teaming up with Visa is an opportunity to work with another company that "shares a similar vision of the present and the future." "Both Philips and Visa are dedicated to finding new innovative ways to reach and serve consumers," said Schipper. "As such, this collaboration is an ideal fit for our own `Partners in Screen Telephony' strategy -- bringing together leading global companies, drawing on each other's strengths and assets, and furthering the development of a vibrant, vital industry." For Visa, Brent Robinson, Visa Interactive's senior vice president, said that he sees the agreement as a major step in the company's ongoing interest in broadening its online presence. "We are committed to providing Visa member financial institutions and their customers the greatest value and the most useful mix of personal financial services," he said. Interestingly, Visa seems to have taken the online aspect of its operations very seriously over the last year. While Mastercard has its own Web pages on http://www.mastercard.com, Visa has now established its own site at http://www.visa.com/visa and Barclaycard, the main Visa issuer in the UK, has its own site at http://www.barclaycard.com. (Steve Gold/19950602/Press Contact: Albert Coscia, Visa International 415-432-2039) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 06/02/95 BROADCAST StarSight Telecast Offers Interactive TV Product (NEWS)(BROADCAST)(SFO)(00023) StarSight Telecast Offers Interactive TV Product 06/02/95 FREMONT, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1995 JUN 2 (NB) -- StarSight Telecast, a developer of on-screen TV programming and VCR recording, announced the availability of its service to 98% of the US This new and available service addresses the Interactive Television (ITV) issue of information overload and management. #IMAGE 1 20 TWPCX \images\95060223.PCX Click here for photo Newsbytes attended a demonstration of the StarSight On-Screen Programming Guide and learned eleven major consumer electronics manufacturers are producing or about to produce televisions and VCRs which incorporate StarSight technology. Among the list are Zenith, Goldstar, Mitsubishi, Philips, Samsung, Thomson, Sony, Daewoo, Matsushita, Sharp and Toshiba. What's all the fuss about? StarSight's online television guide and one- button VCR command service allows users to scroll through an updated programming guide, highlight programs to receive specific information about content, search television programming schedules by topic and theme (sports, news, etc.), create a custom channel surfing guide, and send a one-button command to record a program. The latter relieves the user of having to program a VCR. The big news from StarSight is the price of this service. It is $3.54 per month. "One of the major problems confronting a 500-channel ITV service is how to handle the programming data. Industry analysts have said from the beginning, people will be overwhelmed by a TV Guide which is larger than a phone book," said Caroline Beck, vice president of marketing communications at StarSight. "Our studies show the problem is already here. With cable companies offering 40 to 60-plus channels of programming today and satellite systems offering hundreds of programs, users are confronted with more data than they can handle." She continued, "Many cable stations offer a programming guide, but it is constantly scrolling and users have to read every item to find what they want to watch. We are offering a solution which is working and available today" she said. Along with addressing the information overload problem, StarSight says 70% of VCR users do not know how to tape a program on their own VCR and its new service allows users to completely by-pass VCR commands with a one-button command. Any highlighted program listed in the on-screen programming may be recorded by simply clicking the record button. All VCR scheduling and programming is transparent to the user. Beck also said, "When people hear this service described, they are always impressed. They especially like the one-button VCR recording feature and no one believes the price. But, the real excitement is what we call the 'Wow! factor.' Once you put this in the hands of users, you see immediately what makes this so useful and so much fun. People have even told us they spent three for four nights just playing with all the options instead of watching TV. This really is one of those products you have to see to know what it is really all about." The StarSight service requires a special set-top box, a television with built-in StarSight technology, or a VCR with the built-in technology. Limited units are available today from several retail consumer electronic outlets. The set-top box is the most affordable means of accessing StarSight's On-Screen Programming. Philips Consumer Electronics is distributing the StarSight CB1500 set-top box under the Magnavox name for a street price of $150. This set-top box works with virtually all televisions and VCRs. Once installed, the system requires a "familiarity process" and registration procedure which takes about 9 minutes. StarSight says the programming service is available to television viewers using cable, satellite, exterior antennas, or rabbit-ears for signal input. The service is not applicable to DirectTV installations. (Patrick McKenna/19950602/Press Contact: Renee Dorrell, Regis McKenna, tel 415-354-4485; Public Information: Starsight, tel 510- 637-9900/STARSIGHT950602/PHOTO) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 06/02/95 LEGAL Judge Dismisses Most Claims Against Storagetek (NEWS)(LEGAL)(DEN)(00024) Judge Dismisses Most Claims Against Storagetek 06/02/95 LOUISVILLE, COLORADO, U.S.A., 1995 JUN 2 (NB) -- A Colorado judge has dismissed the majority of the 16 claims made by Stuff Technology Partners II against Storage Technology Corp. (NYSE: STK) (Storagetek). The 17-month-old Boulder (Colorado) County Court case revolves around claims by Stuff that Storagetek breached a 1990 agreement that resolved earlier litigation between the two parties. Stuff had sought $2.4 billion in damages. The judge dismissed all but two of the 16 charges during a pre-trial hearing this week, saying there was no ambiguity in the General Mutual Release signed in 1990. The release settled a dispute over rights to an optical technology developed jointly by Storagetek and Stuff. Storagetek said the two companies put about $68 million into the project but no product was ever brought to market. Storagetek said the 1990 agreement allows both parties to use the technology -- Stuff in optical products and Storagetek in any non-optical application. But according to Storagetek spokesperson David Reid that doesn't matter because none of Storagetek's products use Stuff's technology. The two remaining claims are based on Stuff's assertion that Storagetek breached the agreement by developing and/or manufacturing optical disk drives and optical disk media. According to affidavits signed by numerous Storagetek senior managers and engineers no such products have been developed or manufactured since the release was signed. At the time Stuff filed its suit Storagetek spokesperson Judith Hargrave, in an interview with Newsbytes, called the suit "frivolous." Hargrave said the partnership raised about $40 million, with the funds to be paid out to Storagetek as the technology was developed. Storagetek reported revenue of $1.87 billion at the close of its fiscal year on December 30, 1994. The company reported a loss of $77.8 million in 1993, most due to restructuring costs, said the company. (Jim Mallory/19950602/Press contact: David Reid, Storagetek, 303-673-4815; Public contact: Storagetek, 303-673-5020) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 06/02/95 GENERAL Personnel Roundup (NEWS)(GENERAL)(SFO)(00025) Personnel Roundup 06/02/95 PENN VALLEY, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1995 JUN 2 (NB) -- This is a regular feature, summarizing personnel changes not covered elsewhere by Newsbytes: General Instrument Corp., Information Access Company, Symantec Corp., CompUSA Inc., Zenith Electronics Corp., US West Media Group, Howtek Inc., General Magic Inc., Ziff-Davis Publishing Company, Tektronix Inc., and Alltel Corp. Christine G. Crafton has been named director, industry affairs, with General Instrument Corp. (NYSE:GIC - 312-541-5011). Crafton will be based in Washington, D.C. and will be working with Quincy Rodgers, associate general counsel and director of government affairs for GI in addressing the regulatory and legislative issues for the company. Before joining General Instrument, Crafton was a member of Bell Atlantic's External Affairs staff since 1987. Wyn Shearer has joined Information Access Company (415-378-5249) as the Library Division's new director of inside sales. In the position, Shearer will manage sales efforts for the company's two inside sales groups: InfoTrac and TOM. Shearer joins Information Access after nearly 18 years in sales and sales management positions with Dun & Bradstreet. Stephen W. DeWitt, 29, has been appointed vice president, marketing, with Symantec Corp. (NASDAQ:SYMC - 408-446-7142). DeWitt has headed the corporation's marketing organization since October, 1994. Before that, he was general manager of Symantec Canada Ltd. and responsible for sales, marketing and operations of Symantec's offices in Toronto, Ottawa, Montreal and Vancouver. DeWitt, oversees the development of the company's marketing strategy and execution of corporate and product specific marketing campaigns. Mel McCall has been appointed vice president of Human Resources at Computer retailer CompUSA Inc. (NYSE:CPU - 214-383-4000). McCall will be responsible for field human resources, team member training, compensation, benefits, and employee relations. Richard C. Lueck, formerly with IBM, has joined Zenith Electronics Corp. (NYSE:ZE - 708-391-8181) as vice president-controller. Lueck, 51, was with IBM for 28 years, where he held various positions in finance and operations, including controller for IBM's Rochester Minn. and Boca Raton, Fla. sites. US West Media Group (303-793-6509) announced the appointment of two Media Group officers. Doug Holmes has been named vice president and chief financial officer for the Group, effective immediately. Holmes is currently executive director-Investor Relations for US West Inc. (NYSE: USW). In the CFO role, Holmes will be responsible for all financial functions and Investor Relations for the Media Group. John O'Farrell has been appointed vice president-Strategy for the Media Group. In addition, O'Farrell will continue to serve in his current role as vice president-Corporate Strategy for US West Inc. for several months. Anthony Finizio has resigned as president and chief operating officer of Howtek Inc. (AMEX:HTK - 603-882-5200). He also resigned his position on the board of directors. Marco DeMiroz has resigned as vice president of finance and administration and chief financial officer for General Magic Inc. (NASDAQ:GMGC - 408-774-4235). Michael Stern, vice president of business affairs, will assume DeMiroz's duties while the company "considers its alternatives." Daryl Otte has been appointed to the new position of vice president planning with Ziff-Davis Publishing Company (617-393-3013). Otte is set to start at Ziff-Davis on June 19, and will report to Timothy O'Brien, CFO of Ziff-Davis. Otte's key responsibilities at Ziff-Davis will include: long-term strategic planning; merger and acquisition planning and analysis, as well as contact with investment banks; close coordination with Jeff Ballowe, president of Ziff-Davis Marketing and Development; business analysis and special projects; as well as budget and forecast analysis support for the company. Gerald Perkel, 39, former president of Tektronix Inc.'s (NYSE:TEK - 503-685-4111) Network Displays business, has been appointed president of the company's Color Printing and Imaging Division. He replaces Roy Barker, 54, who will focus on identifying and developing new business opportunities after returning from a four-month sabbatical. Perkel joined the company in 1980 as a sales engineer for information displays and was a district sales manager by 1983. Carroll D. McHenry has been appointed to the newly created position of president-communications services with Alltel Corporation (NYSE:AT - 501-661-8989). In his new position, McHenry -- formerly president of Alltel's cellular and paging unit -- will have responsibility for Alltel's communications sector business units including local telephone and related businesses, as well as cellular and other wireless interests. In a related move, Dennis L. Whipple will succeed McHenry as president of Alltel Mobile Communications Inc. (Ian Stokell/19950602) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 06/02/95 APPLE Apple To Hold China Market Forum In Bejing (NEWS)(APPLE)(LAX)(00026) Apple To Hold China Market Forum In Bejing 06/02/95 CUPERTINO, Ca., U.S.A., 1995 JUN 2 (NB) -- Apple Computer Inc. (NASDAQ-NNM:AAPL) expects to draw 300 participants to its China Market Forum '95 in Beijing from June 27-28, 1995. This forum follows a similar event held in San Francisco last January which gave 250 Macintosh software developers a picture of the opportunities in China. The two developer forums are intended to bring together developers, service providers, business leaders, and government officials from both countries. China Market Forum '95 will include sessions on Apple's new technologies, operating system directions, and business strategy in China. In addition, mainland officials will discuss such topics as the economic environment, the software industry, and intellectual property rights in China. Apple has divided the Far East market into two divisions: Apple Japan, and Apple Asia. Nancy Keith Kelley, spokesperson for Apple, told Newsbytes that: "Apple Asia has targeted China, India, and Korea for special efforts in 1995. These two forums for China are the first major developer forums for Apple Asia." Apple has had an office in Bejing since 1993. In 1990, Apple held a similar forum to launch Apple Japan. Today, according to Kelley, "Apple is number two in PC sales in Japan, second only to NEC, with 18 to 20 percent of market share." "Software developers in China, with their understanding of the Chinese market and its specific requirements, are essential to making the Macintosh platform a standard of choice," said Vincent Tai, general manager of Apple China. "Apple is very committed to helping a wide range of Chinese companies create Chinese applications built on the Macintosh platform, and to helping China achieve its goal of building up its software industry." Macintosh computers support languages other than English, including non-Roman languages such as Japanese, Korean, and Chinese. With the launch of System 7.1, Apple released its WorldScript technology, which allows multiple languages to be used on a single Macintosh. Kelley explained that Apple has incorporated in the system the double bit character system required to use Japan and Chinese. "English needs only a single bit character system" pointed out Kelley. "The WorldScript technology allows switching between languages and can support multiple languages in a single document." (Richard Bowers/19950601/ Press Contact: Nancy Keith Kelly of Apple Computer Inc., 408-974-2133) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 06/02/95 TELECOM Competition Heats Up In Internet Phone Call Wars (NEWS)(TELECOM)(DEN)(00027) Competition Heats Up In Internet Phone Call Wars 06/02/95 DALLAS, TEXAS, U.S.A., 1995 JUN 2 (NB) -- Competition is heating up in the battle to be the first company to bring a full duplex voice communication system to the Internet. The main contenders at present are Israeli firm Vocaltec and Dallas-based Camelot Corp.(NASDAQ: CAML). In February Newsbytes reported Camelot would release a full-duplex version of its communications software PICK (the name was later changed to Digiphone), which would include a World Wide Web browser and encryption algorithms, in the second quarter. About the same time a Newsbytes story reported that Vocaltec, which has US offices in Northvale, New Jersey, also planned to offer a duplex voice communication system for the Internet called Internet Phone. That product was expected to ship in June also. Duplex communication allows both parties to talk and hear each other simultaneously, as we are used to doing face to face or during a telephone call. Half duplex allows only one party to talk at a time, as when using a two-way radio. The technology is important for several reasons. First, it allows persons at separate locations anywhere in the world that have compatible software to carry on a normal two-way conversation without paying long distance rates. If voice conversations on the Internet become popular that could have an adverse impact on the revenues of long distance telecom carriers. Second, the next generation of the software might incorporate technology similar to that developed by Denver, Colorado-based Radish Communications called VoiceView that allows data, images and faxes to be exchanged during a telephone call. "Our programmers are working on (adding that capability) right now," Camelot spokesperson Danny Wettreich told Newsbytes. That could cause economic inroads on worldwide package shipping companies while speeding delivery of documents. Camelot this week said it has completed a $1.2 million private placement of restricted common and preferred shares. The preferred shares yield 12 percent and can be converted into common shares over a nine-month period in equal monthly installments commencing in three months. The transaction was completed at a price equivalent to 30 percent discount from the price of Camelot common shares. In late March 1995 Camelot announced it has signed computer retailer Ingram Micro to distribute Digiphone software through Ingram outlets. Digiphone is scheduled to ship at the end of June 1995 at a suggested retail price of $99. Vocaltec now says it plans to launch its duplex software by June 5, 1995 and has signed a deal with Netcom On-Line Communications Inc., an Internet service provider, to distribute Internet Phone at no charge to its 110,000 subscribers. Internet Phone will have a suggested retail price of $69. To carry on a conversation using one of the Internet telephone software packages both parties need a multimedia-compatible personal computer and the same software. Camelot's Wettreich told Newsbytes the two programs could not talk to each other. When the user logs on to the Internet with the voice software loaded, a listing appears of other parties to whom you can be connected. Clicking on the desired party makes the connection. (Jim Mallory/19950602/Press contact: Nancy Scott, L&S for VocalTec, 617-577-9777 or Danny Wettreich, Camelot, 214-733-3005; Public contact: VocalTec, 201-768-9400 or Camelot, 214-733-3005) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 06/02/95 ONLINE Quarterdeck Deal With Netcom, UUNet, Portal (NEWS)(ONLINE)(SFO)(00028) Quarterdeck Deal With Netcom, UUNet, Portal 06/02/95 SANTA MONICA, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1995 JUN 02 (NB) -- Quarterdeck is joining Internet service providers Netcom, UUNet and Portal to partake in the Connect and Play feature of Quarterdeck Mosaic. Due out later this month, Quarterdeck's Internet suite of products will be marketed along with the company's popular memory management products. The alliance will allow users of Quarterdeck Mosaic to immediately create an Internet account with a choice of different providers. Gaston Bastiaens, president and chief executive officer at Quarterdeck, told Newsbytes, "Most boxed Internet software programs limit users to signing on with one provider. We want to offer users a choice of providers depending on location and other preferences a customer might have. This is the first part of our program to be an international network of provider choices for Quarterdeck customers." He continued, "We are very happy to bring three of the largest US Internet providers offering dial-up SLIP/PPP connections. At the same time, we are able to offer these providers exposure to Quarterdeck customers who will have Quarterdeck's outstanding technical support. We have always been well known for our technical support and it is one of the features which make Quarterdeck Mosaic a value." While a company such as Netcom already has its own browser, it sees the possible addition of many customers to its Internet service. The newly released version of Netcom's software added Winsock support so users could choose their browser of choice. Netcom says the deal with Quarterdeck helps Netcom deliver Internet connectivity to more homes and businesses. The new Connect and Play feature of Quarterdeck requires a valid credit card to set up an account in just a few minutes. In developing its new role as an Internet software developer and marketer, Quarterdeck will concentrate on DOS and Windows products. The company says it will place the Mosaic product alongside its memory products in more than 15,000 retail locations. (Patrick McKenna/19950602/Press Contact: Linda White, Brodeur & Partners, tel 408-562-6108) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 06/02/95 GENERAL Newsbytes Week In Review (NEWS)(GENERAL)(SFO)(00029) Newsbytes Week In Review 06/02/95 PENN VALLEY, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1995 JUN 2 (NB) -- This week's top stories, listing with their category code, are: AT&T Bell Labs Technology "Sees" Through Objects; British Virus Author Pleads Guilty; Intel Offers New Pentium Chips For Mobile Users; Uunet & CEO Hit IPO Stock Jackpot; CA, Legent Claim Little Overlap Between Products; Wang & Microsoft Close $90 Million Deal; Apple Ships Low-Cost World Wide Web Servers; Netscape Server Software Offered For Free Evaluation; More On DreamWorks & Silicon Graphics Alliance; Apple Petitions FCC For New Wireless Band; AOL To Become Internet Provider. AT&T Bell Labs Technology "Sees" Through Objects (TRENDS) BALTIMORE, MARYLAND, U.S.A., 1995 MAY 30 -- Combining high- frequency laser pulses with digital signal processing, scientists at AT&T Bell Laboratories have come up with a system they say can "see" the composition of objects much as X-rays penetrate materials to reveal denser objects inside. British Virus Author Pleads Guilty (LEGAL) PLYMOUTH, DEVON, ENGLAND, 1995 MAY 30 -- Christopher Pile, a 26-year-old unemployed computer programmer, has pleaded guilty to 11 charges under the Computer Misuse Act at Plymouth Crown Court. Appearing before Plymouth Crown Court, Pile pleaded guilty to various charges, all of which related to virus program authoring. Intel Offers New Pentium Chips For Mobile Users (CHIPS) SANTA CLARA, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1995 MAY 30 -- Intel Corporation (NASDAQ-NNM:INTC) has announced a new 90 megahertz (MHz) Pentium processor for notebook computers. Its new performance levels, gained through lower power consumption technology, enhances advanced applications and multimedia CD titles running on notebooks and subnotebooks. Uunet & CEO Hit IPO Stock Jackpot (BUSINESS) FAIRFAX, VIRGINIA, U.S.A., 1995 MAY 30 -- Boosted by the Internet boom, Uunet Technologies' (NASDAQ:UUNT) initial public stock offering hit the market late last Thursday at $14 per share and soared to $27.50 per share by the close of the market for the Memorial Day holiday last Friday. CA, Legent Claim Little Overlap Between Products (BUSINESS) NEW YORK, NEW YORK, U.S.A., 1995 MAY 31 -- Officials of Computer Associates International Inc. (NYSE:CA) and Legent Corp. (NASDAQ:LGNT), which announced merger plans last week, said there is minimal overlap between the two companies' product lines. CA also said it expects to pay off the cost of the acquisition within five years. Wang & Microsoft Close $90 Million Deal (BUSINESS) REDMOND, WASHINGTON, U.S.A., 1995 MAY 31 -- Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ: MSFT) and Wang Laboratories Inc. have finalized their multi-year technical, service and marketing alliance that has Microsoft investing $85 million in Wang to get a 10 percent stake in the company that launched word processing in government and civilian offices around the world. Apple Ships Low-Cost World Wide Web Servers (APPLE) CUPERTINO, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1995 MAY 31 -- Apple Computer Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) has begun shipping the Apple Internet Server Solution for the World Wide Web. Announced at the recent Internet World Expo, the new server line focuses on an entry-level price of $2,909. Netscape Server Software Offered For Free Evaluation (ONLINE) MOUNTAIN VIEW, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1995 JUN 1 -- Netscape Communications has announced it will offer its Communications Server and Commerce Server software on a "Test Drive" basis to individuals, organizations, and business. The free download of the server software allows users to work with the programs for 60 days. More On DreamWorks & Silicon Graphics Alliance (BUSINESS) MOUNTAIN VIEW, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A, 1995 JUN 1 -- Silicon Graphics and DreamWorks SKG have announced a $50 million deal to develop the "Digital Studio of the 21st Century." With a signed agreement, both companies said they were already in search of a location to build the campus environment of the new studio. Apple Petitions FCC For New Wireless Band (APPLE) CUPERTINO, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1995 JUN 1 -- Apple Computer Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) has filed a petition with the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) requesting an allocation of the radio spectrum for high-speed data communications. Called the "NII Band," the frequency would be free of airtime charges. AOL To Become Internet Provider (ONLINE) VIENNA, VIRGINIA, U.S.A., 1995 JUN 2 (NB) -- Look out, PSI, Netcom and other Internet providers. Those are the loud footsteps of America Online (NASDAQ:AMER) coming up from behind. AOL announced that it will begin offering Internet access, sans its popular online service, beginning August 24, the day that Microsoft is set to unveil Windows 95 and its online service, the Microsoft Network. (Ian Stokell/19950602) (SUMMARY)(GENERAL)(MSP)(00030) Newsbytes Daily Summary 06/02/95 MINNEAPOLIS, MINNESOTA, U.S.A., 1995 JUN 2 (NB) -- These are capsules of all today's news stories: 1 -> New Brunswick, Microsoft In Online Education Deal 06/02/95 A number of private companies in this province will provide courses via Microsoft Corp.'s (NASDAQ:MSFT) Online Institute, and the provincial government will accredit online courses, as a result of a deal involving the province and Microsoft Canada Inc., of Mississauga, Ontario. 2 -> Bell Canada Expands Usage-Based Pricing 06/02/95 Bell Canada said about 30 percent of business customers will pay more for local telephone service under a usage-based pricing plan it has proposed to federal regulators, while some bills will go down and some will stay the same. 3 -> Hyatt's CompuServe Mall Site 06/02/95 Hyatt Hotels and Resorts is the first global hotel to open a storefront in CompuServe's Electronic Mall, Hyatt officials have announced. The company made the announcement during an online news conference on CompuServe, which Newsbytes attended. 4 -> Fujitsu's New Servers 06/02/95 Fujitsu this week announced a new range of servers, the GS8000 series, that will be shipped late this year. The computers achieve the highest performance in the industry, according to the Tokyo-based computer and electronics manufacturer. 5 -> "Briefcase" Terminal Offers Phone, Fax, Data Anywhere 06/02/95 An Atlanta, Georgia company has announced a briefcase-sized portable satellite communications terminal that it says can provide two-way digital telephone, fax and data satellite communications just about anywhere in the world. 6 -> Japan Newsbriefs 06/02/95 In this roundup of news from Japan, Apple introduce new JLK, KanjiTalk; Sony sets PlayStation launch date, fights price war; Just to release OS/2 Ichitaro; Apple Japan shows multimedia systems; Toshiba sets notebook sales targets; Mitsubishi expands in Mexico. 7 -> Intersolv Soars Into The Black 06/02/95 Sometimes things go as planned. Just ask Kevin Burns, chairman and chief executive officer of Intersolv, developer of client/server and object-oriented software tools. 8 -> ****AOL To Become Internet Provider 06/02/95 Look out, PSI, Netcom and other Internet providers. Those are the loud footsteps of America Online (NASDAQ:AMER) coming up from behind. 9 -> Context, Computer Intelligence InfoCorp Team On Mkt Data 06/02/95 Context, the UK computer industry market research organization, has signed a cooperative agreement with Computer Intelligence InfoCorp (CII), the California computer market research company. 10 -> European Telecom Pitches Into Scandinavia 06/02/95 European Telecom, a distributor of mobile phones, has announced its intention to move into the Danish, Finnish, Norwegian, and Swedish telecoms market-place. 11 -> MCI, Darome Teleconferencing to Merge 06/02/95 MCI Communications Corporation (NASDAQ:MCIC) announced it has agreed to buy the privately held Darome Teleconferencing, Inc. for approximately $32 million dollars. 12 -> Thrustmaster Ships F-16 Throttle For FLCS Joystick 06/02/95 Thrustmaster Inc., (NASDAQ: TMSR) has announced it is shipping its F-16 TQS Throttle Quadrant System, the accompanying throttle to the company's F-16 FLCS joystick. The company said the throttle is modeled after the throttle quadrant installed in the F-16 aircraft. 13 -> Sweden - Ericsson Secures Philippines Contract 06/02/95 Ericsson has received a major contract to supply Smart Telecommunications, a Filipino company, with a variety of cellular technology for the expansion of the Smart TACS (Total Access Mobile Communications) analog mobile network in the Philippines, Newsbytes has learned. 14 -> Philips' New Speech Recognition Technology 06/02/95 Philips has teamed up with Technology for Business (TFB) to offer the industry's first "continuous stream" voice dictation system. 15 -> ICL, Olivetti & Siemens To Market Novell UnixWare 2 06/02/94 Three of Europe's leading systems vendors -- ICL, Olivetti and Siemens Nixdorf -- have contracted to market Novell's UnixWare 2, the company's industry standard, next generation Unix System V Release 4 (SVR4). 16 -> USA Today Opens Web Preview Site 06/02/95 USA Today announced it has opened a public site on the Internet's World Wide Web. The new site will complement its primary service, which is available by subscription only. 17 -> Asian Ministries Agree On Telecom Cooperation 06/02/95 A two-day summit meeting of seventeen telecommunications ministers of the APEC (Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation) nations drew to a close last week in the South Korean capital of Seoul. The ministers agreed that by cooperating they could build a regional information network, a so called "interconnected and interoperable information infrastructure," that would lead to economic growth in the region. 18 -> Philippines - Subic Bay Set For New Acer Factory 06/02/95 Acer Computers, the top-ranked PC vendor in the Southeast Asian region and the Philippines, has invested US$24 million to build a new PC production facility at Subic Bay - site of former US bases. 19 -> Chinese OS/2 "WarpMATE" 06/02/95 Using "Going To the 32-bit Era With You" as the slogan, Stone Rich Sight Information Technology recently announced new software including WarpMATE, the Chinese environment under IBM's (English) Warp. 20 -> China - Video Publishers Fined For Copyright Violations 06/02/95 The State Copyright Administration recently announced fines were levied against two Chinese audio/video publishing companies for violating US film copyrights. The two companies are the Nanjing Audio and Video Publishing House and Guangdong Audio and Video Publishing House. They violated the copyright of the US film "The Fugitive," according to the administration. 21 -> ****Rep Markey Attacks US Telecom Act Additions 06/02/95 US Rep. Edward Markey, co-author of the Telecommunications Act of 1994, called for support of "80 percent" of a 1995 revision of the bill, but criticized newly added proposals to deregulate all cable TV providers and reduce limits on ownership of multiple mass media properties, in a speech at the Mass. Telecommunications Council Investors Conference in Boston. 22 -> Italy - Philips Teams With Visa On Online Financial Svcs 06/02/95 Philips Home Services, a division of Philips Electronics, and Visa Interactive, a subsidiary of Visa International, have announced their intention to develop a range of online financial services for the global market-place. 23 -> StarSight Telecast Offers Interactive TV Product 06/02/95 StarSight Telecast, a developer of on-screen TV programming and VCR recording, announced the availability of its service to 98% of the US This new and available service addresses the Interactive Television (ITV) issue of information overload and management. 24 -> Judge Dismisses Most Claims Against Storagetek 06/02/95 A Colorado judge has dismissed the majority of the 16 claims made by Stuff Technology Partners II against Storage Technology Corp. (NYSE: STK) (Storagetek). 25 -> Personnel Roundup 06/02/95 This is a regular feature, summarizing personnel changes not covered elsewhere by Newsbytes: General Instrument Corp., Information Access Company, Symantec Corp., CompUSA Inc., Zenith Electronics Corp., US West Media Group, Howtek Inc., General Magic Inc., Ziff-Davis Publishing Company, Tektronix Inc., and Alltel Corp. 26 -> Apple To Hold China Market Forum In Bejing 06/02/95 Apple Computer Inc. (NASDAQ-NNM:AAPL) expects to draw 300 participants to its China Market Forum '95 in Beijing from June 27-28, 1995. This forum follows a similar event held in San Francisco last January which gave 250 Macintosh software developers a picture of the opportunities in China. 27 -> Competition Heats Up In Internet Phone Call Wars 06/02/95 Competition is heating up in the battle to be the first company to bring a full duplex voice communication system to the Internet. 28 -> Quarterdeck Deal With Netcom, UUNet, Portal 06/02/95 Quarterdeck is joining Internet service providers Netcom, UUNet and Portal to partake in the Connect and Play feature of Quarterdeck Mosaic. Due out later this month, Quarterdeck's Internet suite of products will be marketed along with the company's popular memory management products. 29 -> Newsbytes Week In Review 06/02/95 This week's top stories, listing with their category code, are: AT&T Bell Labs Technology "Sees" Through Objects; British Virus Author Pleads Guilty; Intel Offers New Pentium Chips For Mobile Users; Uunet & CEO Hit IPO Stock Jackpot; CA, Legent Claim Little Overlap Between Products; Wang & Microsoft Close $90 Million Deal; Apple Ships Low-Cost World Wide Web Servers; Netscape Server Software Offered For Free Evaluation; More On DreamWorks & Silicon Graphics Alliance; Apple Petitions FCC For New Wireless Band; AOL To Become Internet Provider. (Wendy Woods/19950602) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 05/31/95 BUSINESS Netherlands - Tulip Computers Expands Into Far East (NEWS)(BUSINESS)(LON)(00001) Netherlands - Tulip Computers Expands Into Far East 05/31/95 ROSEMALEN, NETHERLANDS, 1995 MAY 31 (NB) -- Tulip Computers has announced it is expanding its PC production facilities into South East Asia. According to officials with the Dutch PC company, the expansion has been made possible by an investment program of around $10 million, headed by banks, as well as insurance and pension fund investors. To channel the new facilities, Tulip has set up a new Overseas Development Corporation (ODC) division, with the express aim of establishing production and sales facilities similar to the company's existing pan-European production, distribution, and sales network. Under the expansion plan, Tulip is setting up a new regional headquarters in Hong Kong. This, the Dutch PC giant claims, will allow the firm to expand its operations on the Pacific Rim, especially into China. Franz Hetzenauer, Tulip's president, explained that China's new economic potential will provide an ideal market for Tulip to sells its PCs into. "With the growth of so many new businesses in China, office automation is needed, creating great potential for Tulip's stock," he said, adding, "That is why we chose Hong-Kong over other locations -- it gives our project enormous added value." According to Hetzenauer, Tulip's new Beijing and Shanghai sales offices will provide control over a significant part of the Far Eastern market which is expected to grow by over 25 percent in 1995, according to Dataquest. Tulip officials claim that more sales offices will be announced in the near future. (Sylvia Dennis/19950530/Press & Public Contact: Tulip Computers, +44-1293-562323) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 05/31/95 TELECOM Hungary - Matav Unveils Telecom Plans (NEWS)(TELECOM)(LON)(00002) Hungary - Matav Unveils Telecom Plans 05/31/95 BUDAPEST, HUNGARY, 1995 MAY 31 (NB) -- Matav, the soon to be privatized state telecom company of Hungary, has announced plans to dramatically boost its levels of service in the more rural areas of the country, Newsbytes has learned. Next week (June 7) sees Matav stage its 1995 annual general meeting (AGM) at which many of the issues and plans unveiled over the last six months will be debated by potential investors and interested onlookers. According to Emil Tomka, the company's newly appointed general manager, this year will see Matav plough back almost all of its after- tax profits into the network infrastructure, pushing the number of lines up by at least a third of a million. Tomka, speaking with the press late last week, said that the company wants to invest for the future, and hopes to make a profit in later years, rather than the immediate future. "Our investment plan contains 68 billion forints and from that we wish to build 360,000 lines this year," he explained. Tomka also told journalists that the Government's new state asset department intends to sell off all of its shares in Matav by the end of the year. Next month's AGM, he noted, will be the last under state control. (Sylvia Dennis/19950530) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 05/31/95 ONLINE UK - Reed Sets Up World Wide Web Employment Site (NEWS)(ONLINE)(LON)(00003) UK - Reed Sets Up World Wide Web Employment Site 05/31/95 TOLWORTH, SURREY, ENGLAND, 1995 MAY 31 (NB) -- Reed Personnel Services, a well known high street employment agency in the UK, has set up a national employment agency on the Internet's World Wide Web. Known as Reed Jobnet, the service has been in pilot trials over the last six weeks. According to Katy Nicholson, a spokeswoman for Reed, it has been generating a lot of interest, with as many as a 1,000 users a week logging on to the Web pages, and more than 14,000 page accesses a week being logged, even during the pre-launch trials. Nicholson told Newsbytes that the company sees the Internet as another communications medium by which potential employers and job candidates can contact Reed, and will augment existing communication channels that include voice telephony, fax, and postal mail. "Obviously it's far too early in the communications revolution to say whether the Internet will replace any or all of our communications channels, but we expect great things from it," she said. According to Reed, in the pre-launch trials, the number of resumes received across the Internet has risen to more than 60 a week, and that figure is expected to increase this week as the service goes public. "We've already experienced the power of the Internet," Nicholson told Newsbytes. "We had a lady from Washington (D.C.) who wanted to relocate to Wimbledon in London and electronically mailed us with a query as to the hourly rates in her profession in that area of London. We were able to quickly reply, via e-mail, to her question, within a very short space of time," she explained. The Web site is located at http://www.reed.co.uk/reed/ and Internet users can already gain access to the 14 specialist divisions of Reed Personnel Services through the Web pages. This week sees the introduction of "parallel publishing" of the jobs adverts published in various magazines by Reed Computing, on the Web pages. (Steve Gold/19950530/Press & Reader Contact: Reed Personnel Services, tel +44-181-399-5221, fax +44-181-339-4930) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 05/31/95 WINDOWS UK - Equisys Intros Zetafax 4.5 For Windows NT (NEWS)(WINDOWS)(LON)(00004) UK - Equisys Intros Zetafax 4.5 For Windows NT 05/31/95 LONDON, ENGLAND, 1995 MAY 31 (NB) -- Equisys, which bills itself as a supplier of corporate network "fax solutions," has announced the release of Zetafax 4.5, its high-performance, 32-bit fax server software for the Windows NT network operating system. Chris Oswald, Equisys' managing director, told Newsbytes that he is adopting a "sensible pricing approach" with Zetafax 4.5. "Over the past three and a half years, we have built up considerable support from our customers with the 16-bit Windows network version of Zetafax, version 4.0, so we are offering a free upgrade to version 4.5 for those customers who are moving to Windows NT," he explained. New customer pricing on Zetafax 4.5 has been set at UKP95 for a single user license, ranging through to UKP1,995 for a multi-user (unlimited) site license. "We could have charged more for the package, as some other suppliers have done with their fax network software. Some suppliers do sting their customers for a high price. We've found that adopting a more realistic pricing strategy pays off in the long run," Oswald told Newsbytes. He added that, while launching Zetafax 4.5 at last week's Windows NT show in London, the company had got a favorable response to its pricing strategy. According to Oswald, network fax "solutions" are rapidly proving to be an integral requirement of corporate communications systems. He claims that the new Zetafax server software has been developed to ensure that it integrates tightly with Windows NT Server, Windows for Workgroups, and the upcoming Windows 95. Oswald went on to explain that the Zetafax server for Windows NT "plugs a real gap for users looking for a fast, robust and secure fax engine for their NT network. "Zetafax 4.5 fits with Windows NT at the server, and we are working on client software that will fit with Windows 95 at the client. This positions us very strongly to take advantage of the increasing use of Windows NT. When people think network fax and Windows NT, now they should think Zetafax," he said. Newsbytes notes that Zetafax 4.5 has a number of advanced features. The package uses six different techniques for routing incoming faxes to their intended recipients, including the direct dial inwards (DDI) system. With DDI, each user has their own virtual fax number, although only a few physical lines into the system may be necessary. Electronic-mail and fax user interfaces have been linked through the use of a unified address book system, and the software can also use MAPI (mail application programming interface) e-mail address books as an alternative to its own private and network address books. (Steve Gold/19950530/Press Contact: Profile PR, +44-181-995-1595, Internet e-mail tim_smith@profile.ccmail.compuserve.com; Reader Contact: Equisys, +44-171-403-2227) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 05/31/95 TELECOM AT&T Inks Smart Payphone Technology Deals (NEWS)(TELECOM)(MSP)(00005) AT&T Inks Smart Payphone Technology Deals 05/31/95 SARASOTA, FLORIDA, U.S.A., 1995 MAY 31 (NB) -- AT&T (NYSE:T) Network Systems has entered into agreements with Elcotel Inc. (NASDAQ:ECTL) to introduce new "smart payphone" technology. Under terms of the contracts, AT&T will incorporate Elcotel's newest microprocessor control module into the AT&T's SmartPhone 95. In return, Elcotel will use AT&T's payphone housing and major sub-assemblies into a similar payphone called the "S5501 Olympian." Each phone will target different markets, officials from both companies said. AT&T will aim the SmartPhone 95 at regulated independent telephone companies and institutional markets, like the hotel/motel industry, universities, and large government facilities. Elcotel, on the other hand, will market the S5501 Olympian to domestic payphone operators and overseas telephone networks. Both companies will try to sell their respective wares to the regional Bell operating companies (RBOCs), and are exploring other joint marketing opportunities as well. Kevin Clearie, manager of public terminal business for AT&T Network Systems told Newsbytes the smart payphone technology helps the owners of the phones. "What they should be able to do is schedule technicians better for downtime, because of the remote diagnostic functions," he said. Also, technicians wouldn't be sent out to phones where the coin boxes aren't full, saving the companies time and money. He also said both the AT&T and the Elcotel products will be able do many central office operations, including call management and billing. Clearie said the people who insert their quarters or use calling cards won't notice any differences in the new phones. What customers will note are fewer broken phones, because the units will be able to "call in" and let their owners know they're broken, and other advantages designed to keep down costs. "If we do this right, the consumer shouldn't feel anything other than picking up the phone and being charged the rates of the phone he or she is using." AT&T said its new phones are available immediately. In fact, it is showing the SmartPhone 95 to independent telephone customers at regional meetings and trade shows, company officials said. (Bob Woods/19950530/Press Contacts: Tracey L. Gray, Elcotel, 813-758- 0389; Thomas M. Ennis, Cameron Associates, 212-644-9560, for Elcotel, Bill Price, AT&T Network Systems, 201-606-2978) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 05/31/95 BROADCAST VideoGuide Signs The Sports Network (NEWS)(BROADCAST)(MSP)(00006) VideoGuide Signs The Sports Network 05/31/95 BEDFORD, MASSACHUSETTS, U.S.A., 1995 MAY 31 (NB) -- VideoGuide, a soon-to-be launched text-based information service delivered to television sets, has signed a contract with The Sports Network. The network will provide information for "SportsGuide," VideoGuide's TV sports service. #IMAGE 1 20 TWPCX \images\95053106.PCX Click here for photo SportsGuide will be one of the many services offered by VideoGuide, Frank Reitter, vice president of sales and marketing for the company, told Newsbytes. It will track all of the major professional and collegiate sporting events, and provide real-time score updates and event summaries. Pre-game information will also be offered, including odds and spreads, previews, and times when the game will be aired on television. "This will expand our service to other than providing information on TV programming and offering one-touch VCR programming," Reitter said. "We also have separate news coverage, that does the same thing for news and weather." Reitter said research done by his company showed a real need for a sports service like this one. "People want real-time sports information, rather than having to wait for their newspaper or wait for a sportscast," he said. He also said people can switch away from games on normal TV to the SportsGuide and find out the latest scores. In general, VideoGuide will deliver on-screen information about television programming, as well as sports and weather, via BellSouth MobileComm's paging network. The system is designed to work with any TV, and will retail at a price of under $100, Reitter said. The service is delivered through a set-top device, which is controlled by a simple universal remote. VideoGuide will roll out its service on the East Coast from Maine to Virginia in summer 1995. It will be available nationwide by the fall of 1995. The system will be sold "in stores where consumer electronics are sold," according to the company. Reitter said monthly charges for the core service work out to slightly less than a dollar a week, with the sports service costing about $0.50 a week. The Sports Network is described as a sports wire service used by all of the major television networks, along with CBS radio. An independent, international sports wire, it covers professional and collegiate sports, including football and basketball. It also covers men's and women's tennis, auto racing, boxing, Olympic games, track and field, and marathons. (Bob Woods/19950531/Press Contact: Anne-Marie Boucher, Arnold Press Relations, 617-737-6884, Internet e-mail amboucher@arn.com, for VideoGuide/VG950531/PHOTO) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 05/31/95 ONLINE Internet Update (NEWS)(ONLINE)(TYO)(00007) Internet Update 05/31/95 TOKYO, JAPAN, 1995 MAY 31 (NB) -- In this roundup of new services and resources on the Internet: Newspaper photographer online; New gopher software; Doing business in Iran; Multi server web charts; ISP database; Bike LA95; National Weather Service storm guide; and New companies online. Newspaper Photographer Online A Dallas-based newspaper photographer has gone online himself with a daily update of pictures he has taken. Allen Rose writes, "I noticed a lot of 'Best of' pages coming from photographers and thought I would make something that is a little more realistic. Some days I shoot crap, some days I do really nice stuff. Either way, I put everything on my web pages." World Wide Web: http://www.metronet.com/~arose/today/workhome.html New Gopher Software There's a new gopher client for the X-Windows platform. GopherVR 0.2 is an alpha version and available for a variety of Unix based operating systems. Anonymous FTP: ftp://boombox.micro.umn.edu/pub/gopher/Unix/GopherVR Doing Business In Iran The Iran Business Digest is a free electronic bulletin focusing on business and economic news from Iran. The digest includes daily updated news and exchange rates, share prices and reports from the Tehran stock market and items about the countries economy. The free newsletter can be found on the web. World Wide Web : http://www.gpg.com/ibd/ Multi Server Web Charts This software is designed for use by web server administrators. The program will automatically create a list of the most popular pages across a series of web servers then list it for you. An example of the output is found at http://www.dmu.ac.uk/hits/mw3s whilst full information is at http://engelberg.dmu.ac.uk. Anonymous FTP: ftp://ftp.dmu.ac.uk/pub/netcomm/src/web/mswc-1.2.tar.gz ISP Database Cyberspace Today, a free advertiser supported newspaper available in Northern California, has established a database of over 100 Internet access providers (ISP) in California and Nevada. World Wide Web: http://www.cybertoday.com/cybertoday/ Bike LA95 A team of 50 cyclists started out from Winnipeg, Canada on May 20th and are biking all the way to Los Angeles, to raise money for Habitat for Humanity. Each day, from the road, a web site is being updated. World Wide Web: http://www.cs.umanitoba.ca/~habitat National Weather Service Storm Guide Now everyone can become a storm spotter with a newly published storm spotters guide from the National Weather Service's forecast office in Norman, Oklahoma. Users will also find details about the office and safety information about storms. World Wide Web: http://www.nssl.uoknor.edu/nws More Companies Online Some new commercial Web sites that caught Newsbytes' eye recently: Dragon Technology, "The worlds first home page dedicated to voice entry technology," at http://www.iglou.com/vrsky; Douglas Aircraft Company, from the people who brought you the DC-3 at http://www.dac.mdc.com; Amtrak, with special discounts for Internet users at http://www.amtrak.com/; Avis Car Rental Singapore at http://www.singapore.com/companies/avis (Martyn Williams/19950531) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 05/31/95 BROADCAST Electric Utilities Should Consider Cable TV Alliance (NEWS)(BROADCAST)(WAS)(00008) Electric Utilities Should Consider Cable TV Alliance 05/31/95 CHICAGO, ILLINOIS, U.S.A., 1995 MAY 31 (NB) -- Telecommunications will be crucial to electric utilities in the future, and utilities should think about teaming up with cable TV providers, according to a recent study by Andersen Consulting in Chicago. "Communications-enabled services," such as energy management, time-of-day pricing, and automatic meter reading and billing "will play an important role in providing value-added customer services in the future," says the report. According to the consulting firm, "Applications that are enabled by two-way communications capabilities can contribute to the three strategic objectives that are most often mentioned by utilities: reduce costs and improve operational efficiency; gain and retain customers; and increase revenues. Using communications, utilities can tailor products and services to the specific needs of industrial, commercial and residential customers." Given the need for telecommunications capability, says Andersen, then broadband is the way to go. "Only broadband gives flexibility for implementing all proposed services," says the report. "It is also more than sufficient for today's services. Broadband communications capabilities will become widely available and will be used by many of the utility's customers for other services in the foreseeable future." The question then becomes, should the utility roll out its own broadband network or use a network that already exists? "In most cases," says the report, "the benefits and risks of using a third-party provider's network outweigh the benefits and risks of a utility owning and operating its own network. Although most utilities already have extensive communications capabilities, utilities would need to build connections to a large number of end-user customers; this would require substantial capital investments." Also, notes the study, "trends in communications-related industries indicate that a competitive market for broadband capacity is developing, ensuring that ample capacity will be available. Because a modern broadband network's capacity will far exceed a utility's needs, a utility-built network must be competitive with alternate providers in terms of technology and cost, if the utility expects to market its excess capacity." "The market for access to the house, the 'last mile' of the system, is going to have plenty of competition," Tony Fakonas, the analyst who did the report for Andersen, told Newsbytes. "We are saying that the utilities should sit back and take advantage of that." He said he has seen a changing trend in utility thinking about telecommunications. From initially wanting to build the infrastructure, utilities he talks to are thinking more about partnerships with existing telecommunications providers, Fakonas said. If utilities build their own telecommunications infrastructure, Fakonas said, "Selling or leasing the dark fiber" to other users "makes sense for a lot of utilities." But if the utility wants to compete with content providers, then "the cost of the electronics gets astronomical." Of the broadband providers now around, says the report, cable television companies "have the most extensive broadband networks that are already connected to a large number of utility end customers." The study was funded by Cable Utility Communications Services, a consortium representing four of the five largest cable companies: Comcast Corp., Continental Cablevision, Cox Communications, and Tele-Communications Inc. Virginia Power is working on a project with Cox, while Pacific Gas and Electric has a venture going with TCI. (Kennedy Maize/19950531/Press Contact: Tony Fakonas, 415-546-8777) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 05/31/95 TELECOM Radio Shack To Repair Nokia Cell Phones (NEWS)(TELECOM)(DEN)(00009) Radio Shack To Repair Nokia Cell Phones 05/31/95 FORT WORTH, TEXAS, U.S.A., 1995 MAY 31 (NB) -- Radio Shack, a division of Tandy Corp. (NYSE: TAN), has announced it will offer both on-warranty and out-of warranty repair service for Nokia brand cellular telephones. While Radio Shack is best known for its selection of electronic consumer goods and repair components, the company added "service" to its repertoire just one year ago when it announced its 6,600 stores would take in electronic items for out-of-warranty repairs. Radio Shack spokesperson Tony Margoulas told Newsbytes that Nokia is the first branded manufacturer to use Radio Shack for in-warranty repairs. The repair work will be done at the Radio Shack service center nearest the drop-off point. Tandy operates 130 such centers. Tandy said stores will also provide an exchange program to replace broken or defective Nokia accessories, such as charging stands and cigarette lighter adapters. The exchange program would apply to accessories which are still under warranty. "The Repair Shop at Radio Shack" out-of-warranty program offers a 90-day guarantee on its repairs and the company promises a turnaround time of 15 days or less. You can get a detailed estimate before the repairs are done for $20, which applies to the total repair cost. Radio Shack provides a toll-free number consumers can call to determine if an item should be repaired or replaced. The technician will also give you the flat rate for repair of your item. "We don't do any repairs until you give us the OK," said Margoulas. The company said that while many repair shops repair items by replacing major components such as boards in personal computers, its service center technicians are capable of performing board-level repairs and will choose the repair method that is least costly to the consumer. (Jim Mallory/19950530/Press contact: Tony Margoulas, Radio Shack, 817-878-4852) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 05/31/95 ONLINE Visa & IBM Plan Online Information Delivery (NEWS)(ONLINE)(TOR)(00010) Visa & IBM Plan Online Information Delivery 05/31/95 MILAN, ITALY, 1995 MAY 31 (NB) -- IBM (NYSE:IBM) and credit-card issuer Visa International have announced plans to offer information and services to Visa's member banks using the IBM Global Network. Some existing Visa services will move to online delivery and be joined by new services in the newly announced VisaVue online package. Visa plans to begin offering the first online services in the third quarter of this year, company spokeswoman Gail Murayama told Newsbytes. Targeted marketing services will be offered first in the United States and later in other parts of the world, Murayama said, while risk-management information will be rolled out elsewhere first and in the US in 1996. IBM's role is as a network service provider, supplying the global backbone for Visa's offerings, company spokeswoman Linda Wizner told Newsbytes. Among the existing Visa services to be moved to the network are: VisaVue for Partners software for managing co-branded credit card portfolios, which includes the targeted marketing services; VisaVue Solution Series, a line of decision-support software that lets banks compare the performance of their card businesses and operations to the market at large; and risk-management information delivered to desktop computers. Visa has distributed information on diskettes and "experimented a little bit with CD-ROM" in the past, Murayama said. Now, she added, "it's all moving toward on-line information." The credit-card operation plans a variety of new services to take advantage of the network. "They're just beginning to unfold," Murayama said. "There's going to be a whole array of services." For instance, Visa plans to expand its payment service offering to member banks to include information exchange. The company also plans to deliver more customer information to banks to help them reduce risk and build relationships with their customers. Officials denied that customer privacy will be threatened by these moves. A bulletin board and an electronic-mail capability are also planned by the end of 1995. (Grant Buckler/19950530/Press Contact: Gail Murayama, Visa International, 415-432-3645, Internet e-mail 74740.1336@compuserve.com; Linda Wizner, IBM, 813-878-5472, Internet e-mail lwizner@vent.ibm.com) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 05/31/95 GENERAL Microsoft & Softbank Join For Conference (NEWS)(GENERAL)(SFO)(00011) Microsoft & Softbank Join For Conference 05/31/95 FOSTER CITY, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1995 MAY 31 (NB) -- Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) has announced plans to present the Windows 95 Developers Conference in conjunction with Softbanks. According to the companies, the Solutions program focuses on the needs of developers of "enterprise solutions." Microsoft decided to join the Softbank-produced conference after its March 27-31 Tech-Ed conference in New Orleans. To its surprise more than 7,200 attendees enrolled in what was the third annual conference. Microsoft says its Tech-Ed sessions are an important means for the delivery of advanced technical information about the company's products used for custom line-of-business applications. According to Microsoft, this educational series is the "definitive conference" for technical information on BackOffice, MS Office, and Windows-based "solutions." A spokesperson for the company said the best of the New Orleans sessions on Windows 95 and BackOffice make-up the main offerings for the Solutions Conference. The Windows 95 Developers Conference commences just five days after the planned August 24 release of Windows 95. Application development for the new operating system will be featured along with educational sessions on how to develop client-server business solutions using BackOffice and MS Office. Other topics include WIN32API, OLE (object linking and embedding), SQL (structured query language) 6.0, Microsoft Exchange, Windows NT, Systems Management Server, SNA (Systems Network Architecture), Visual Basic, Access, Visual FoxPro, Microsoft VC++, Networking, and Technical Development processes. Softbank also announced Microsoft Certified Professional exams will be administered during the conference. Interested parties need to contact Softbank to arrange for scheduling the exams. A spokesperson for Softbank told Newsbytes, "This conference is one of the few which concentrates on the specific needs of business application developers working with Windows and Windows products. The program has been very successful and we expect this year's show to attract more attendees than ever. We are really pleased to be working close with Microsoft and value their participation." This is the third year for the Windows Solutions Conference which attracts developers, IS (information system) professionals, corporate decision makers, business managers, consultants, and value-added resellers. Softbank will also take the show to Paris and Tokyo this year. The U.S. event will take place August 29 - September 1 in San Francisco, California, at Moscone Center. (Patrick McKenna/19950530/Press Contact: Erin Gaffaney, Softbank, 415-578-6947) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 05/31/95 BUSINESS ****CA, Legent Claim Little Overlap Between Products (NEWS)(BUSINESS)(TOR)(00012) ****CA, Legent Claim Little Overlap Between Products 05/31/95 NEW YORK, NEW YORK, U.S.A., 1995 MAY 31 (NB) -- Officials of Computer Associates International Inc. (NYSE:CA) and Legent Corp. (NASDAQ:LGNT), which announced merger plans last week, said there is minimal overlap between the two companies' product lines. CA also said it expects to pay off the cost of the acquisition within five years. CA announced May 25 that it would pay $47.95 per share for all outstanding shares of Legent's common stock, a price that is expected to put the total cost of the takeover in the area of $1.75 billion. After refusing to discuss the deal with reporters for five days, the companies broke their silence with a press conference at New York's Waldorf Astoria Hotel Tuesday afternoon. Charles Wang, chairman and chief executive of Computer Associates, said Legent's technology is "all very complementary to CA's products." And Jerre Stead, chairman and chief executive of Legent, stated flatly that "CA and Legent don't compete." Still, analyst Peter Kastner of The Aberdeen Group, a Boston-based consulting firm, told Newsbytes he expects CA to take a financial write-off to cover overlaps between the two operations. He also said CA's leadership in client/server development tools and applications has "made life difficult for Legent." Responding to what he described as a perception that Legent was troubled before the acquisition, Stead pointed out that the company's earnings per share rose 83 percent in the last quarter, and "we had the highest cash collection in the history of the company." Stead, formerly of AT&T, was brought in to turn Legent around early this year. "We were in the process of becoming very focused as a company," he said. "We could have announced a strong annual increase going forward of earnings per share." He said the acquisition resulted from an unsolicited offer from CA. For Computer Associates, the buyout seems to reinforce an effort to reduce the company's reliance on its traditional mainframe software business and emerge as a major supplier of client/server software and systems management tools. The deal "accelerates CA's move into the client/server marketplace," Wang said. "I think it will work out very well for CA, which is rapidly emerging as a premier systems management company," Kastner said. Sanjay Kumar, president and chief operating officer, said CA expects to take around five years to pay off the $2 billion line of credit used to pay for Legent. The credit facility is underwritten by Credit Suisse, which expects to act for a syndicate of financial institutions. Wang said the deal is expected to close early in July. While Wang would make no specific projections about staff cuts in the wake of the purchase, he did say Computer Associates "needs people in all the operations worldwide." The company has close to 500 openings in the field today, he said, and plans to expand its sales force to handle Legent products. Computer Associates is also in the early stages of building a highly specialized services group, Wang said. Wang also said CA's Unicenter Star systems-management software will be able to work with Legent products within "a matter of months." (Grant Buckler/19950531/Press Contact: Bob Gordon, Computer Associates, 516-342-2391; Kathleen Janson, Legent, 703-708-3890) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 05/31/95 ONLINE PR Newswire On World Wide Web (NEWS)(ONLINE)(MSP)(00013) PR Newswire On World Wide Web 05/31/95 NEW YORK CITY, NEW YORK, U.S.A., 1995 MAY 31 (NB) -- The company that has made information dissemination its business is moving some of its offerings to the Internet's World Wide Web. "We wanted to make available to Internet users information on the kind of things that PR Newswire does," Ian Capps, PR Newswire president, told Newsbytes. That business is to provide exposure to as many audiences as possible for its clients. "A corporation sends out a news release. It's our job to make that release as widely available as possible." He said the new Internet offering will add to the company's other information dissemination vehicles, which include online, broadcast fax, fax-on-demand, and conventional mail. Capps said one of the first offerings that should be available to the Internet population "Company News On-Call," which posts news releases and other often-requested company information, such as earnings reports, online for easy access. The service is currently available via fax-on-demand to the general public. "What we should be offering to all of our clients to gain maximum exposure of their information is the availability of their information on the Internet," Capps said, "so that the audience that is 'surfing around' and looking around can get that information." Capps added that not every single piece of information PR Newswire has will be on the Web site. There is no cost for Internet users to access the site, which is located at http://www.prnewswire.com. But "other products" that will be introduced in the future might have a cost tied to them, PR Newswire's manager of electronic markets Ashley Suhler told Newsbytes. (Bob Woods/19950531/Press Contacts: Ian Capps, 212-596-1510, or Ashley Suhler, 212-596-1544, both of PR Newswire, Internet e-mail asuhler@prnews.attmail.com; Public Contact: Internet World Wide Web, http://www.prnewswire.com/PRN950531/PHOTO) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 05/31/95 TRENDS Productivity No Longer Tied To A Desk - Survey (NEWS)(TRENDS)(DEN)(00014) Productivity No Longer Tied To A Desk - Survey 05/31/95 AUSTIN, TEXAS, U.S.A., 1995 MAY 31 (NB) -- If you want to be more creative, get out from behind your desk. That seems to be the result of a recent survey done by Dell Computer Corp. (NASDAQ:DELL). Dell said its survey of American white-collar workers indicates that, while the desk is still the place to be the most productive, the best work-related ideas come while executives are somewhere else. Dell released the survey results as it rolled out its latest Latitude notebook computers that use Intel Corp.'s new low- voltage Pentium microprocessor designed specifically for mobile computing. Dell said its new Latitude XP models will run for as long as eight hours on a single battery charge, depending on the configuration and usage. The 350 surveyed executives working in some of America's largest companies said they already spend 45 percent of the work week away from the polished expanse of oak or mahogany, and 58 percent of the respondents said their best work-related ideas came to them while they were somewhere else. A second survey conducted by independent research firm BIS Strategic Decisions and released by Dell indicates that, while many of us think of "mobile computing" as using a laptop computer while flying from one city to another, it's more likely to mean sitting in a meeting in an office building away from your office. BIS said a survey of 300 mobile computer users shows that nearly half use notebook computers for traveling meeting-to-meeting. Forty-three percent of those surveyed travel mostly within a single city, while only eight percent use a notebook computer when traveling between cities. (Jim Mallory/19950531/Press contact: Beth Ward, Dell Computer, 314-982-9111) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 05/31/95 BUSINESS ****Wang & Microsoft Close $90 Million Deal (NEWS)(BUSINESS)(DEN)(00015) ****Wang & Microsoft Close $90 Million Deal 05/31/95 REDMOND, WASHINGTON, U.S.A., 1995 MAY 31 (NB) -- Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ: MSFT) and Wang Laboratories Inc. have finalized their multi-year technical, service and marketing alliance that has Microsoft investing $85 million in Wang to get a 10 percent stake in the company that launched word processing in government and civilian offices around the world. Wang said the cash, which came from the Microsoft purchase of 4.5 percent convertible preferred Wang stock that matures in 2003 and has a face value of $90 million, will be used for general corporate purposes. The preferred stock is convertible into the common stock of Wang at $23 per share and represents about 10 percent of Wang's common stock. Wang said the necessary Hart Scott Rodino Act review has already been completed. A similar review eventually led to the downfall of a proposed merger between Microsoft and Intuit Inc., the California company that publishes the popular personal finance program Quicken. Microsoft had planned to use Quicken as the anchor for financial services on the soon-to-be-launched Microsoft Network (MSN). The agreement lets Microsoft integrate Wang's desktop imaging and object controls as standard features in future versions of Windows 95 and Windows NT. Wang's technology enables images of scanned documents, including text and graphics, to be embedded in applications such as electronic-mail, word processing, and databases. Windows 95 is scheduled to ship in late August. The deal also calls for the two companies to accelerate deployment of workflow automation software as a mainstream application for client-server computing. That technology manages the routing and delivery of files. Other elements of the alliance call for Microsoft to designate Wang as the preferred vendor of imaging and workflow software and for joint marketing activities to promote the sale of Wang imaging and workflow products on Microsoft platforms. Wang is a Microsoft Authorized Support Center and will provide end-user support for Microsoft products. That can include on-site network design and installation consulting, network integration, migration support, workflow and imaging services and end-user help desk services. The agreement resolves the 21-month patent fight between the two companies over control of the technology for manipulating portions of software code, known as objects, across various programs. Microsoft publishes software called OLE (object linking and embedding) that allows a user to embed an object such as a picture or motion video, in another file. When linked, the embedded object is updated as the original version is changed. Wang and Microsoft hope to make OLE the industry standard, but face stiff opposition from Apple, IBM, and Novell -- companies that offer a competing technology called OpenDoc. When the proposed agreement was first announced in mid-April Wang common stock rose 87.5 cents to $14.31. Today the stock hovers at $13.50. (Jim Mallory/19950531/Press contact: Microsoft Public Relations, 206-882-8080 or Frank Ryan, Wang Labs, 508-967-7038) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 05/31/95 WINDOWS FaxBase System III For Windows Ships (NEWS)(WINDOWS)(DEN)(00016) FaxBase System III For Windows Ships 05/31/95 DALLAS, TEXAS, U.S.A., 1995 MAY 31 (NB) -- Fax On Demand Inc. has announced a Windows version of its automated system that faxes information at the touch of a button. A Fax On Demand spokesperson told Newsbytes FaxBase System III for Windows allows a caller to spell out what information they want rather than being limited to selecting from a menu of available items. The company said FaxBase System III for Windows lets the user access a database of information through a fax machine in real time. The system reads and writes information to the database in response to input from a touch-tone telephone, putting the query into the proper format for the database to recognize. It then sends the requested information to a fax machine at a number designated by the caller. The spokesperson said FaxBase System III for Windows is compatible with current and future versions of Microsoft Windows. To run FaxBase III for Windows you need a 486-based PC with at least eight megabytes (MB) of memory and about 600MB of hard drive storage. Fax on Demand recommends a Dialogic D voice processing board and a GammaLink XPi or equivalent fax board. The spokesperson told Newsbytes the program software requires about 30MB of space on the hard drive. Each fax page takes about 75 kilobytes (KB) and you need about 11MB of storage for each hour of voice instruction the caller hears. The company said FaxBase supports a number of data bases including Foxpro, Clipper, dBase, Axcess, Paradox, Btrieve and SQL (structured query language) and supports the operating systems DOS, OS/2, and NetWare. You can purchase FaxBase System III as a turnkey system that includes the computer system hardware and the Faxbase software. A complete system starts at $6,500. If you provide your own PC you can save about $1,500, said the spokesperson. He said if you ship your PC to Fax On Demand, the company will install the necessary software and hardware without charge for the labor involved. (Jim Mallory/19950531/Press contact: Craig Grabiner, EBS Public Relations for Fax On Demand, 708-714-8600; Public contact: Fax On Demand, tel 800-329-1777, fax 214-386-4170) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 05/31/95 GOVT UK Govt Formally Opens National ID Card Debate (NEWS)(GOVT)(LON)(00017) UK Govt Formally Opens National ID Card Debate 05/31/95 LONDON, ENGLAND, 1995 MAY 31 (NB) -- After months of rumors and press reports, the British Government has at last come clean and announced plans for the introduction of a national ID card system. According to Prime Minister John Major, however, the plans are far from rigid, and the idea is still very much at a discussion stage. As reported previously by Newsbytes, the Conservative Government in power in the UK has been amazingly coy in coming forward on whether or a not a national ID card system was in the pipeline. Prime Minister John Major's comments, made in the House of Commons late last week, confirm that the Government is considering such a plan. The UK has not had a national ID card system since 1952, when the wartime ID card system was scrapped. In a consultative paper issued late last week, the British Government has steered clear of coming down in favor of any one ID card proposal and, if anything, only serves to cloud the issue in the UK still further. Political watchers in the UK have suggested that the Government's seeming indecision on whether to introduce a national ID card system is because of the proximity (May, 1997) when the next general election is due. This observation stands up when the Government's consultative paper is examined in detail. Under the paper, various industry opinions are being canvassed over the next four months, at which stage "the discussion" moves on to its next phase. Introducing the paper, British Home Secretary Michael Howard said that there are distinct advantages to identity cards. "We need to test the arguments for those advantages against the arguments for their disadvantages and I have no intention of pre-empting this genuine consultation exercise," he told reporters. In the news conference, Howard answered some press criticism that the issue of national ID cards would dovetail in with the rest of Europe and allow the Government to relax its border controls. Critics of this idea point to the problem of illegal immigration already affecting certain countries in the EC. Critics have suggested that as many as a million illegal immigrants are already in the UK and that relaxing UK border controls will only serve to increase these figures. Howard told reporters that the issue of cards will not affect the Government's policy on strong border controls. "We have made our determination to maintain frontier controls absolutely clear. This has nothing to do with those questions," he said. Howard went on to say that no decision has been made as to whether the cards would be voluntary or compulsory. "We need to test the arguments for those advantages against the arguments for their disadvantages and I have no intention of pre-empting this genuine consultation exercise," he told the press. British opinion polls show that most people - up to 75 percent in one survey - now back the idea of national ID cards. Howard, meanwhile, said that the cards will cut crime, a major vote puller in the UK. (Steve Gold/19950530) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 05/31/95 PC Zenith Intros High-Speed Pentium PCs (NEWS)(PC)(MSP)(00018) Zenith Intros High-Speed Pentium PCs 05/31/95 BUFFALO GROVE, ILLINOIS, U.S.A., 1995 MAY 31 (NB) -- Zenith Data Systems (ZDS) is introducing a new line of desktop computers that will be powered by Intel's Pentium processors that run as fast as 120 megahertz (MHz). The line will be dubbed the "Z-Station GT." #IMAGE 1 20 TWPCX \images\95053118.PCX Click here for photo Company officials said that, in general, the new systems will be geared to the high-performance user. The line will feature PCI (Peripheral Component Interconnect) local-bus technology and Flash-Bios, will offer S3 Trio 32-bit or 64-bit graphics controllers that capitalize on emerging standards, and will provide Plug and Play- compliance. The Z-Station GT also features Intel's Triton core-logic chip set, which ZDS said enhances Pentium performance by maximizing throughput levels. The Triton chip set also supports EDO (extended data out) DRAM (dynamic random access memory), faster cache SRAM (static RAM), and an enhanced PCI burst-mode performance. Specifically, processor options for the Z-Station GT include the Intel 75, 90, and 120 megahertz (MHz) processors. The 75MHz and 90MHz models come with an on-board 32-bit Trio video chip set, while the 120MHz unit has a 64-bit Trio chip set. Users can select either 1MB or 2MB of video DRAM for all configurations, company officials said. Hard drive sizes range from 425MB to two gigabytes (GB) SCSI (small computer system interface) drives, along with a no hard drive option. Models with hard drives come with pre-loaded software, including Windows for Workgroups, Co-Session, and an Internet browser dial-up access program, officials said. Available RAM options go from as low as 8MB to as high as 128MB. Multimedia and networking options are also available. Joan Moritz, product line manager for the Z-Station GT at ZDS, told Newsbytes the new series of desktops is designed for "most any consumer." But she said the people who would be interested in the Pentium 120MHz models would probably be along the lines of software developers and "people who want to stretch and test the processor's speed." Moritz also said she feels the Desktop Management Interface (DMI) is also a "very exciting" feature. The emerging DMI standard, when coupled with a network management application, will allow for easier asset management and tracking, the company said. Models start as low as $1,490, the company said, although shelf prices might be lower. Z-Station GT 75MHz and 90MHz configurations will be available this week through authorized resellers, while 120MHz processor versions will hit stores in June, the company said. (Bob Woods/19950530/Press Contact: Glynis Gibson, Zenith Data Systems, 312-868-9400, or 708-808-4276; Public Contact: Zenith Data Systems, 800-533-0331/ZDS950531/PHOTO) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 05/31/95 GENERAL MSC - Sybase CEO Says To Keep Up With Change (NEWS)(GENERAL)(BOS)(00019) MSC - Sybase CEO Says To Keep Up With Change 05/31/95 BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS, U.S.A., 1995 MAY 31 (NB) -- "If we don't market (technological) change, then we will become the employers that we left to get away from," advised Mark Hoffman, president, chairman and chief executive officer (CEO) of Sybase, during his presentation of the Software Keynote at the Spring Membership Meeting of the Mass. Software Council (MSC). "We're very pleased to be a part of your state," Hoffman reported. Since its recent purchase of Powersoft, Emeryville, California- based Sybase has become the second largest employer in Massachusetts, with 1,400 employees in the state, he explained. Mitchell Kertzman, CEO of Powersoft, introduced Hoffman, his "friend and new boss," to the council. "During the 1960s, when I dropped out of college to be a disk jockey at WBCN, Mark was getting a B.S. in engineering at West Point. But what a great country this is. Today, we both have the same length hair," Kertzman noted. Hoffman told the MSC members that many software companies are formed when someone has an idea and goes to an employer with a suggestion for change, but remains unheard. Sybase is an example of this trend, he said. In 1987, Hoffman and an associate, who were working together on mainframe databases at Amdahl, founded Sybase after being unable to stir up interest in a client-server RDBMS (relational database management system) among their superiors at Amdahl. The pace of change is so rapid in the software industry that you must "master change, or it will master you," he recommended. At one time, for example, Amdahl officials and others in the mainframe software industry believed that the mainframe could never be used for online transaction processing (OLTP), because it was too "slow," he remembered. "Now, (Amdahl) is out of business," he remarked. Meanwhile, Sybase "got successful really quickly," Hoffman maintained. The company was founded around the three precepts of "cheap PC MIPs, increasing processing power, and the proliferation of networks," he added. Although other vendors had entered the RDBMS market earlier, the Sybase product was "technically superior," and based on the "new concept" of "true client-server computing," he asserted. In the recent purchase of Powersoft, Sybase obtained the opportunity for close integration with Powersoft's tools, according to Hoffman. At the same time, Powersoft still produces tools for other vendors' databases, he added. What areas of technical change is Powersoft now targeting? Mobile computing and electronic commerce are two of them, he told the group. The Wacom database will be used as a client database for both mobile and desktop computing, according to the company chief. Hoffman revealed that in looking at the area of electronic commerce, he has "struggled" over the question of how to make money, finally determining that the profitability will lie in the area of transporting and delivering intellectual property. Today, about $268 billion is spent on transportation and delivery through methods like overnight mail, he said. In contrast, the "equipment" market is only worth $31 billion. In the future, the "transportation and delivery" market will be taken over by purveyors of interactive television and the Internet and other online services, he predicted. Sybase is already working with Kodak on Picture Exchange, an online photo database, and has also teamed with many other partners in the electronic commerce arena, including Time-Warner, Bell South, TCI, and Southern New England Telephone Company (SNET), according to the Sybase CEO. (Jacqueline Emigh/19950530/Reader Contacts: Mass. Software Council, 617-437-0600; Sybase, 510-922-3500; Powersoft, 508-287-1500; Press Contact: Lizzie Allen, Miller Communications for MSC, 617-536-0470) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 05/31/95 TRENDS MSC - Vendors Use 32 Financing Methods (NEWS)(TRENDS)(BOS)(00020) MSC - Vendors Use 32 Financing Methods 05/31/95 BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS, U.S.A., 1995 MAY 31 (NB) -- Software entrepreneurs use 32 different methods for product and business "bootstrapping," or achieving financing without bank loans, according to a new survey by the University of New Hampshire (UNH)'s Center for Venture Research, released at the Mass. Software Council (MSC)'s Spring Membership Meeting. Also presented at the meeting were highlights of Coopers & Lybrand's 1995 Annual Survey of Compensation in the Software Industry, a study that discovered a 17 percent industry turnover rate for the previous year. The most popular means of bootstrapping include customer-funded research and development (R&D) and the conversion of free or subsidized consulting projects to commercial use, according to Professors William Wetzel, Jeffrey Sohl, and John Freear, the authors of the UNH study. The least frequently used methods are conversion of public domain software or shareware to commercial products, the researchers found. The study also named personal resources and personal credit, as well as relationships with customers and suppliers, as among the key factors in bootstrapping. In addition, the survey participants said that business alliances are very important to them, mainly for "market and competitive reasons." One reason frequently given, for example, was "insufficient resources to go it alone." Most of the business alliances reported had been formed within the past five years, and survey respondents regarded about half of these deals as "successful." Almost 60 percent of the respondents said they regarded networking as playing an important role in establishing partnerships. Ironically, though, in reality, they were more likely to meet business partners through "chance encounters" than through structured networking activities, the survey determined. Coopers & Lybrand's study, on the other hand, found new methods of compensation -- such as "performance-based" compensation -- to be of interest to respondents, along with factors like "employment law change" and "how to train engineers to become `people managers.'" About 700 companies nationwide responded to Coopers & Lybrand's study this year, up from 600 for the previous study, according to the company's Larry S. Schumer. Results of the nationwide compensation study are "very optimistic," said Schumer. Coopers & Lybrand added an international sales positions and a couple of new networking positions to this year's study, along with "expanded questions in human resources on how to attract and retain people," he reported. (Jacqueline Emigh/19950530/Reader Contact: Mass. Software Council, 617-437-0600; Press Contact: Lizzie Allen, Miller Communications for MSC, 617-536-0470) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 05/31/95 PC Seagate Announces 2GB Hard Drive (NEWS)(PC)(LAX)(00021) Seagate Announces 2GB Hard Drive 05/31/95 SCOTTS VALLEY, CA., U.S.A., 1995 MAY 31 (NB) -- Seagate Technology (NYSE:SEG) claims to have beaten out the competition with its first two gigabyte (GB) AT interface disk drive for desktop PCs. The new 1.6GB and 2.1GB drives are scheduled for production in the third quarter of 1995. The company says that the 2.1GB Medalist 2140 and the 1.6GB Medalist 1640 are the second-generation of its Medalist product line. Seagate expects to have evaluation units of the drives ready early in the third calendar quarter of 1995. Volume production is also scheduled to begin in the third quarter. Dave Webb, a spokesman for Seagate, told Newsbytes: "It is corporate policy not to announce new products unless production can be assured within two quarters." Webb claims that leading competitors often announce products 18 months before actual production. Webb predicted that one year from now, the high-end for these types of drives will be " between 3GB and 4GB." The company says the new Medalist 2140 and 1640 combine the "industry's largest-capacity" ATA/IDE (Integrated Drive Electronics)- compatible products with a 5,400 revolutions-per-minute (rpm) design. The new Medalist drives are designed for data-intensive usage, multimedia, and entertainment applications on desktop PCs, as well as audio/video, said the company. The Medalist 2140 and 1640 drives are Seagate's third-generation of designated "multimedia-ready" drives. The company gives new drives the designation when they have 850 megabytes (MB) of formatted capacity, and at least a 3.0 MB-per-second sustained external data transfer rate. (Richard Bowers/19950531/Press Contact: David Webb, Seagate, 408-439-2838) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 05/31/95 BUSINESS Frame Technology To Acquire Mastersoft (NEWS)(BUSINESS)(LAX)(00022) Frame Technology To Acquire Mastersoft 05/31/95 SAN JOSE, CA., U.S.A., 1995 MAY 31 (NB) -- Frame Technology (NASDAQ:FRAM) will officially take over Mastersoft Inc. by the end of June. The acquisition of Mastersoft's document conversion technology marks the second time this year that Frame Technology will have added, by acquisition, proprietary technology. Frame Technology already uses Mastersoft's document conversion technology in its document publishing software. Founded in 1986, Mastersoft specializes in software tools that provide conversion, viewing, and document comparison capability across platforms. The Mastersoft document utility software products include Word for Word, Viewer 3.1, and DocuComp. This might not be Frame's last foray into obtaining technology through acquisitions. Thomas F Kelley, executive vice-president and chief financial officer (CFO) for Frame, told Newsbytes that the company would consider "other acquisitions if Frame can obtain critical technologies, and at the same time obtain a company with sound business fundamentals." Kelley said that both he and George Klaus, Frame's chairman, president, and chief executive officer, have experience in acquisitions. Frame recently purchased Curo in order to obtain the document management product of the same name. According to Kelley, the purchase price of Curo was "less than $3 million." Kelley said that the equivalent cash price for Mastersoft was in the $25 million range for a company with revenues of $6 million per year. Frame was expected, before the acquisition, to reach $100 million in sales this year. Frame Technology provides document creation, management, and distribution software for use on the PC, Macintosh, and Unix platforms. Mastersoft's technology provides conversion software that is sold in the retail market, as well as licensed to OEMs (original equipment manufacturers) of hardware and software applications, such as Frame. Kent Mueller, CEO of Mastersoft, said, "Frame and Mastersoft have a common vision. The fact that Frame and Mastersoft products run on virtually any desktop computing platform makes the two companies logical partners in providing integrated document management solutions." (Richard Bowers/19950531/Press Contact: Thomas F. Kelly, Frame Technology Corp., 408-975-6501) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 05/31/95 GOVT MSC - Clinton Administration Policy On Piracy (NEWS)(GOVT)(BOS)(00023) MSC - Clinton Administration Policy On Piracy 05/31/95 BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS, U.S.A., 1995 MAY 31 (NB) -- International piracy of intellectual property has cost the US many millions of dollars, but the Clinton Administration is fighting back through measures that include a bilateral agreement with China in addition to the multilateral TRIPS alliance, said Ira S. Shapiro, senior counsel and negotiator for the Office of the US Trade Representative (USTR), in a speech to the Mass. Software Council (MSC). Countries protected under the TRIPS alliance would be required to "control rental of copyrights," as well as to establish regulations under which TRIPS will be enforced, said Shapiro, speaking at the software council's Spring Membership Meeting. "But unfortunately, there is a transition period of five years" for TRIPS, he added. As a result, he said, USTR has moved ahead with a bilateral pact with China, one of several countries whose citizens are suspected by the US government of impinging on intellectual property rights. Chinese infringements have included "packing CD-ROMs with piratized software," as well as ripping labels off of Kellogg's cereal boxes "and applying them to fake goods," Shapiro charged. Meanwhile, Brazilian citizens are suspected of patent infringements, and Greeks of pirating US-made movies, according to the USTR official. India and Korea are also on USTR's list of alleged piracy perpetrators. In the deal between the US and China, China agreed to forbid the use of "illegitimate copies" at Chinese government agencies, to provide adequate alternative "resources" to these agencies, and to make it clear to the Chinese public that piracy will not be tolerated, he said. "China has taken significant steps to coordinate the protection of intellectual property," Shapiro told the Mass. Software Council members. At a recent working conference, he reported, Chinese officials told the US government that all Chinese government agencies have been ordered not to use piratized software, that agencies have been supplied with the appropriate resources, and that the Chinese government has been carrying out "raids on pirates." The pirate raids have succeeded in "rousting out" the pirates in China, but many have fled from there to Taiwan or Thailand, according to Shapiro. "That's why we think we need a multilateral agreement," he explained. Some other countries think the US is being "too aggressive" in fighting piracy, and argue that piracy is needed to help them launch new industries in their own countries, according to Shapiro. But where the US might have been able to withstand the theft of intellectual property during the Cold War era, these losses can no longer be afforded today, he told the Massachusetts software vendors. (Jacqueline Emigh/19950530/Reader Contact: Mass. Software Council, 617-431-0600; Press Contact: Lizzie Allen, Miller Communications for the MSC, 617-536-0470) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 05/31/95 BUSINESS MSC - Massachusetts/Irish Software Pact (NEWS)(BUSINESS)(BOS)(00024) MSC - Massachusetts/Irish Software Pact 05/31/95 BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS, U.S.A., 1995 MAY 31 (NB) -- In a ceremony at the Mass. Software Association (MSC)'s Spring Membership Meeting, officials of the MSC, the Information and Computing Services Association of the Republic of Ireland (ICSA) and the Software Industry Federation of Northern Ireland (SIF) signed a trilateral agreement "to develop close relations grounded in technology-based investment and commercial development." The new Massachusetts-Ireland-Northern Ireland Cooperation Agreement for Software is aimed at facilitating opportunities for exports, joint ventures, and marketing of information technology produced in Massachusetts, Ireland, and Northern Ireland, according to John Cullinane, president of the Cullinane Group, and an MSC trustee, who moderated the document signing. Other goals of the trilateral pact include: sharing information on matters such as market characteristics, quality standards, and resources; promoting visits by business groups and delegations on all sides; and supporting the organization of meetings, symposia or seminars to stimulate exchanges between the public and private sectors about software industry development. "Just as Massachusetts sees the software industry as a means to economic growth, the same is true in both Ireland and Northern Ireland," remarked Denis F. O'Sullivan, chief executive of SIF, speaking with Newsbytes during an international software expo that was also part of the day-long MSC membership meeting. The signing of the trilateral agreement will serve as a "catalyst" for a "concrete relationship" that will benefit all three parties, O'Sullivan told Newsbytes. The international software expo at the MSC meeting drew participation from about 70 different software companies from Ireland, Northern Ireland, Canada, Israel, Germany, and France. Representatives of the exhibiting companies told Newsbytes that they are looking for opportunities to partner with US firms around manufacturing outsourcing, product development, localization, and international distribution. (Jacqueline Emigh/19950530/Reader Contact: Mass. Software Council, 617-431-0600; Press Contact: Lizzie Allen, Miller Communications for the MSC, 617-536-0470) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 05/31/95 BUSINESS IBM Canada Buys Footprint Software (NEWS)(BUSINESS)(TOR)(00025) IBM Canada Buys Footprint Software 05/31/95 MARKHAM, ONTARIO, CANADA, 1995 MAY 31 (NB) -- IBM Canada Ltd. has announced its acquisition of Footprint Software Inc., a Toronto- based software company whose product line includes banking software and an integrated software package that ships in IBM's OS/2 Bonus Pack. Terms were not disclosed. Footprint will become a wholly owned subsidiary of IBM Canada, and will keep all of its current management and its staff of 230, IBM Canada spokesman Mike Quinn told Newsbytes. "They'll retain their own identity, their own management structure," Quinn said. Footprint's Visual Banker software, written for OS/2, is believed to be of primary interest to IBM, as is the Footprint Works package bundled with OS/2. "I think those are certainly what initially attracted them to us," said John Anhang, vice-president and chief financial officer of Footprint, though he said the 10- year-old company also offers other software for the DOS operating system. For instance, he claimed Footprint's communications package for insurance agents and financial planners handling mutual funds commands some 60 percent of the Canadian market for such specialized software. For Footprint, the deal brings access to IBM's worldwide marketing and distribution network, its technical staff, its technology, and its capital, Anhang said. "We've just gained several hundred new sales people around the world," Anhang told Newsbytes. The company is also counting on IBM's financial resources to fund continued research and development work, he added. To date, Footprint's sales have been concentrated in North America and Australia. Canada was the company's largest market last year, Anhang said, followed by Australia, and then the United States. Footprint has also done some business in the Far East, he said. The company had 1994 revenues approaching C$25 million. Visual Banker uses object-oriented technology, closely related to IBM's own object technology. "The combination of their products and IBM's will create a synergistic value here," Quinn said. (Grant Buckler/19950531/Press Contact: Mike Quinn, IBM Canada, 905-316-2255; Edward Barbini, IBM, 212-745-4456; John Anhang, Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 05/31/95 LEGAL Compaq Claims $585Mil In Packard Bell Patent Suit (NEWS)(LEGAL)(DEN)(00026) Compaq Claims $585Mil In Packard Bell Patent Suit 05/31/95 HOUSTON, TEXAS, U.S.A., 1995 MAY 31 (NB) -- Compaq Computer Corp. (NYSE: CPQ) has decided it wants $585 million for damages it alleges it suffered due to patent infringement by Packard Bell Electronics. The case involves alleged infringement on six Compaq patents for power conservation, video display and processor speed, two high speed switching technologies, and a programmable interrupt controller for desktops and portables. The case is set for trial in June 1996. The original suit listed alleged violation of three Compaq patents. The company added the high-speed switching and programmable interrupt controller items in a subsequent filing. This isn't the only lawsuit in which the two PC marketers are involved. In a separate action, Compaq alleges Packard Bell is unfairly competing by putting used components in new computers without telling customers. That trial is set for September 11, 1995 in Delaware. Packard Bell is trying to get the patent trial transferred from Houston, Texas, to Delaware on the basis of "consolidating resources." Packard Bell is reportedly meeting resistance in getting other computer manufacturers to testify in the "used versus new" component case. "There has been some resistance...a lack of cooperation and delay" among computer companies subpoenaed for deposition testimony, Packard Bell attorney Thomas McDermott told the British news service Reuters. The attorney said the company will probably go into various federal courts around the country seeking orders requiring cooperation. A Compaq spokesperson said the subpoena list includes Apple, Gateway 2000, Acer, Zeos, AST, Dell, Texas Instruments, Leading Edge, and Tandy. The companies contacted by Newsbytes said they could not comment on pending legal matters. However, Newsbytes has learned that Gateway 2000 classifies all returned systems as used and once any necessary repairs are made the units are sold through the company's three factory outlets as "used." "We would never resell returned merchandise as new," Tandy spokesperson Fran McGeHee told Newsbytes. Tandy sells its returned products, once any necessary repairs have been made, through Tandy outlet stores, said the spokesperson. A Dell spokesperson confirmed the receipt of the subpoena and said the company is evaluating how to respond. She said Dell equipment which is out of warranty is repaired and resold as refurbished and is labeled as such. (Jim Mallory/19950531/Press contact: Compaq Computer, 713-374-0484; Bohle Co for Packard Bell, 310-785-0515) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 05/31/95 NETWORK Fiber Channel Apps To Range From Desktop To Networks (NEWS)(NETWORK)(BOS)(00027) Fiber Channel Apps To Range From Desktop To Networks 05/31/95 BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS, U.S.A., 1995 MAY 31 (NB) -- At a series of press briefings in Boston, Seagate, IBM, Hewlett-Packard, and other members of the Fiber Channel Association (FCA) presented an overview of the emerging fiber channel architecture, plus planned and existing applications ranging from data warehouses to compute clusters, and from peripheral input/output (I/O) to videoconferencing networks. FC provides "today's fastest network," maintained Craig A. Frane, director of marketing and planning for Seagate, during a briefing session for Newsbytes. At the same time, though, the architecture can be used way down at the disk drive level, as a "replacement for SCSI (small computer system interface)," he told Newsbytes. FC represents a hybrid between a network orientation and the low latency (delay), low overhead "channel" architecture that originated on mainframes, according to Frane. The current ANSI (American National Standards Institute) allows for three classes of fiber channel topologies, together with the ability to intermix any of these three classes, he reported. The Class 3 implementation of fiber channel is designed for simple point-to-point communications between two hosts, according to the Seagate executive. Class 2, also known as "fiber channel arbitrated loop" (FC-AL), uses "buffer-to-buffer flow control" for connectionless service, attaching multiple communicating ports in a loop without the need for switches or hubs. Class 1 employs a "switching fabric" for switched communications among multiple hosts over a radius of up to 10 kilometers. The switching fabric is designed to relieve FC ports of the responsibility of routing, error correction, and other aspects of station management, requiring the port only to manage a simple point-to-point connection between itself and the fabric. The ANSI standard also sets specifications for the physical layer (FC-0), 8B/10B encoding (FC-1), framing and signaling (FC-2), common services (FC-3), and protocol mapping (FC-4), Newsbytes was told. At FC-0, the physical layer, the ANSI standard allows for connectivity over either fiber or copper, at speeds of 133 megabits-per-second (Mbps), 266 Mbps, 533 Mbps, and 1.06 gigabits- per-second (Gbps). FC-4, protocol mapping, provides for interoperability between FC and SCSI, Internet Protocol (IP), SBCCS, intelligent peripheral interface (IPI), and asynchronous transfer mode (ATM). Seagate, added Frane, is supporting and promoting FC-AL, and has already implemented the new interface in its new Barracuda 4 FC disk drive. FC-AL supplies much higher bandwidth than the 20 Mbps of SCSI Wide, and permits connectivity to 126 devices, in contrast to the 15 devices allowed by SCSI, he contended. Frane said FC-AL also provides: simplified attachment, without switches, jumpers or terminators; increased device-to-device distances of 30 meters over copper and 10 kilometers over fiber; and "improved resilience." IBM, on the other hand, sees an FC interconnect fabric -- together with I/O (input/output) devices, IBM processors, and software -- as the basis for a series of upcoming clustered computing applications, according to IBM's Jeff Silva. In one scenario envisioned by IBM, the FC interconnect fabric would by used with RISC System 6000 processors, IBM HACMP/6000 software, and fabric attached I/O devices for a "commercial continuously available transaction processing cluster," Silva told Newsbytes. Other possibilities include using the FC interconnect fabric with RISC/6000 processors, DB2/6000 Parallel Edition software, and CPU (central processor unit) attached I/O devices for a "decision support/parallel database cluster," as well as with SP2 processors, DB2 Parallel Edition software, and fabric attached I/O devices for "clusters of clusters," according to the IBM exec. Hewlett-Packard's Ronald W. Eldred told Newsbytes that HP has already announced FC products in the following areas: communications equipment (HP OpenSwitch 1); adapter boards; (EISA FC for HP-UX workstations); protocols layer chips (HP Tachyon); FC-O chip sets (Transmitter IC, Receiver IC, Transceiver IC); FC-O modules (HGLM- 1063); and optical (HFBR-5301/HFBR-5302). HP is also "actively investigating" FC products and activities in the categories of PCs, workstations, servers, disk arrays, disks, and the mechanical product layer, according to Eldred, who is marketing manager for fiber channel technology in HP's Computer Systems Organization. One "key application" that HP foresees calls for high-speed FC retrieval of stored video from FC-AL mass storage in video-on- demand applications, he added. Others include medical imaging, CAD/CAM (computer-aided design/computer-aided manufacturing), "virtual data centers," clustering of highly available computers, "specialized networking," and networked attached disk arrays and archival storage for "mission critical" applications. Ancor Communications Inc. was the "first to deliver fiber channel products" in the category of switches, adapters, routers, and application specific integrated circuits (ASICs), asserted W. Clinton Jurgens, VP of the company's HPN Business Unit. Ancor's FC line-up includes: the FCS 266/1062 Fiber Switch 16; the FCS 266 Fiber Switch 64; the FCS 266 FiberLink for IP/IPX (Internet protocol/Internet Packet Xxchange) and Ethernet/Token Ring/FDDI (fiber distributed data interface/ATM; and FC adapter cards for EISA (Extended Industry Standard Architecture), MCA (Microchannel Architecture), VME, and SBus. Ancor plans to pursue the use of FC in the areas of medical information, visualization, document imaging, and high performance networks. Adaptec, another of the more than 70 members of the FCA, sees FC as "solving a lot of the critical issues" in data warehousing and other aspects of mass storage, said Adaptec's Mitch Kane. FC will bring improved performance and lower cost of ownership, according to Kane. "But software will be the key (in) mass storage, as Adaptec understands it," the Adaptec exec told Newsbytes. (Jacqueline Emigh/19950530/Press Contact: Pam Preston, Technology Solutions for the Fiber Channel Association, 212-696-2000) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 05/31/95 BUSINESS ****Spielberg In Silicon Graphics/DreamWorks Announcement (NEWS)(BUSINESS)(SFO)(00028) ****Spielberg In Silicon Graphics/DreamWorks Announcement 05/31/95 MOUNTAIN VIEW, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1995 MAY 31 (NB) -- Bringing out all the big brass, DreamWorks and Silicon Graphics are holding a press conference at noon today to announce an alliance between the two companies. Scheduled to participate in a live telephone press conference along with Steven Spielberg are Jeffrey Katzenberg, DreamWorks co-founder and ex-Disney executive, and Ed McCracken, Silicon Graphics' chairman and chief executive officer (CEO). It is widely expected that the announced alliance will center around DreamWorks' "commitment" to the "Digital Studio of the 21st Century" and Silicon Graphic's powerful computer systems. The Digital Studio of the 21st Century has been developed by Silicon Studio, a Silicon Graphics' subsidiary, as a complete digital production facility for the development of major film projects. Sophisticated use of computer technology has dominated special effects for many years. With more recent digital technology advances, it is claimed to be possible to produce a large part of a feature film on a computer. Silicon Graphics' computers and technology have been the dominant force in high-end graphics design for commercials seen daily on television, for special effects in feature films, for the development of many popular video games and numerous other applications. DreamWorks was founded last October by Steven Spielberg, well- known film director and producer; Jeffrey Katzenberg, ex-Disney executive, and, audio recording mogul, David Geffen. The company is positioning itself to be a leader in digitally produced entertainment with the creation of motion pictures, animated films, television programs, network/syndicated and cable TV programs, audio recordings and interactive entertainment products such as enhanced CD-ROM titles. On March 20, Newsbytes reported DreamWorks added strength to its team from the computer industry as Microsoft co-founder, Paul Allen, invested $500 million in DreamWorks and became a member of the board of directors. Previously, DreamWorks announced deals with Capitol Cities/ABC and HBO. The HBO licensing agreement goes into effect sometime next year. The expected agreement with Silicon Graphics should establish the base for developing products for those licensing agreements and other major projects by the DreamWorks team. Newsbytes will have complete story on the details of the conference tomorrow. (Patrick McKenna/19950531) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 05/31/95 APPLE ****Apple Ships Low-Cost World Wide Web Servers (NEWS)(APPLE)(SFO)(00029) ****Apple Ships Low-Cost World Wide Web Servers 05/31/95 CUPERTINO, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1995 MAY 31 (NB) -- Apple Computer Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) begun shipping the Apple Internet Server Solution for the World Wide Web. Announced at the recent Internet World Expo, the new server line focuses on an entry-level price of $2,909. The Internet/Web server market is dominated by Sun Microsystems' Unix-based servers. Scott McNealy recently said 65% of the servers on the Internet were from Sun. Starting prices for the Sun server line is about $7,000 and larger Web sites with many hits per day require more expensive servers. Apple says its goal is to offer an affordable means to establish a presence on the Internet and a means which avoids the complexity of Unix-based systems. Its Web servers are designed for the small office/home office (SOHO) environment, educational institutions and medium to large companies which want to develop a presence on the Web. Following its "Out-of-the-box experience" motto, Apple says the new Web servers are a complete server/software "solution" with a price that is as much as one-third that of Unix systems. The entry-level model, Workgroup Server 6150/66, has 16 megabytes (MB) of memory, 700MB of hard disk storage, and a quad speed CD-ROM drive. Apple's Workgroup servers, 8150/110 and 9150/120, round out the Web server family. All models are shipped with a CD-ROM containing "all the necessary components" to establish a Web site. Software included on the CD includes WebStar from StarNine Technologies, BBEdit from Bare Bones Software, Netscape Navigator, Adobe Acrobat Pro, and AppleSearch. The package also includes several Common Gateway Interfaces and full versions of HyperCard and AppleScript. To help a user get started there are sample databases, Web page tutorials, and World Wide Web page templates (home pages, catalog pages, and forms). In addition to the full software package, Apple also says anyone who purchases one of the Apple Internet Server Solution for the World Wide Web systems is eligible to receive MacDNS, domain name server software for the Mac operating system. It is expected to be available this summer. A "nominal shipping charge" will apply. A spokesperson for Apple told Newsbytes, "The entry-level 6150 is a great way for a company to test the waters and determine the value of a Web site. If they find that it is very successful and they receive many more 'hits' than they expected, they may 'rack' or add other servers to their original purchase. This scalability feature applies to all three of the Internet servers and offers excellent protection of a customer's initial investment." (Patrick McKenna/19950531/Press Contact: John McCreadie, Regis McKenna, 408-974-4398) (SUMMARY)(GENERAL)(SFO)(00030) Newsbytes Daily Summary 05/31/95 PENN VALLEY, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1995 MAY 31 (NB) -- These are capsules of all today's news stories: 1 -> Netherlands - Tulip Computers Expands Into Far East 05/31/95 Tulip Computers has announced it is expanding its PC production facilities into South East Asia. 2 -> Hungary - Matav Unveils Telecom Plans 05/31/95 Matav, the soon to be privatized state telecom company of Hungary, has announced plans to dramatically boost its levels of service in the more rural areas of the country, Newsbytes has learned. 3 -> UK - Reed Sets Up World Wide Web Employment Site 05/31/95 Reed Personnel Services, a well known high street employment agency in the UK, has set up a national employment agency on the Internet's World Wide Web. 4 -> UK - Equisys Intros Zetafax 4.5 For Windows NT 05/31/95 Equisys, which bills itself as a supplier of corporate network "fax solutions," has announced the release of Zetafax 4.5, its high-performance, 32-bit fax server software for the Windows NT network operating system. 5 -> AT&T Inks Smart Payphone Technology Deals 05/31/95 AT&T (NYSE:T) Network Systems has entered into agreements with Elcotel Inc. (NASDAQ:ECTL) to introduce new "smart payphone" technology. 6 -> VideoGuide Signs The Sports Network 05/31/95 VideoGuide, a soon-to-be launched text-based information service delivered to television sets, has signed a contract with The Sports Network. The network will provide information for "SportsGuide," VideoGuide's TV sports service. 7 -> Internet Update 05/31/95 In this roundup of new services and resources on the Internet: Newspaper photographer online; New gopher software; Doing business in Iran; Multi server web charts; ISP database; Bike LA95; National Weather Service storm guide; and New companies online. 8 -> Electric Utilities Should Consider Cable TV Alliance 05/31/95 Telecommunications will be crucial to electric utilities in the future, and utilities should think about teaming up with cable TV providers, according to a recent study by Andersen Consulting in Chicago. 9 -> Radio Shack To Repair Nokia Cell Phones 05/31/95 Radio Shack, a division of Tandy Corp. (NYSE: TAN), has announced it will offer both on-warranty and out-of warranty repair service for Nokia brand cellular telephones. 10 -> Visa & IBM Plan Online Information Delivery 05/31/95 IBM (NYSE:IBM) and credit-card issuer Visa International have announced plans to offer information and services to Visa's member banks using the IBM Global Network. Some existing Visa services will move to online delivery and be joined by new services in the newly announced VisaVue online package. 11 -> Microsoft & Softbank Join For Conference 05/31/95 Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) has announced plans to present the Windows 95 Developers Conference in conjunction with Softbanks. 12 -> ****CA, Legent Claim Little Overlap Between Products 05/31/95 Officials of Computer Associates International Inc. (NYSE:CA) and Legent Corp. (NASDAQ:LGNT), which announced merger plans last week, said there is minimal overlap between the two companies' product lines. CA also said it expects to pay off the cost of the acquisition within five years. 13 -> PR Newswire On World Wide Web 05/31/95 The company that has made information dissemination its business is moving some of its offerings to the Internet's World Wide Web. 14 -> Productivity No Longer Tied To A Desk - Survey 05/31/95 If you want to be more creative, get out from behind your desk. That seems to be the result of a recent survey done by Dell Computer Corp. (NASDAQ:DELL). 15 -> ****Wang & Microsoft Close $90 Million Deal 05/31/95 Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ: MSFT) and Wang Laboratories Inc. have finalized their multi-year technical, service and marketing alliance that has Microsoft investing $85 million in Wang to get a 10 percent stake in the company that launched word processing in government and civilian offices around the world. 16 -> FaxBase System III For Windows Ships 05/31/95 Fax On Demand Inc. has announced a Windows version of its automated system that faxes information at the touch of a button. 17 -> UK Govt Formally Opens National ID Card Debate 05/31/95 After months of rumors and press reports, the British Government has at last come clean and announced plans for the introduction of a national ID card system. According to Prime Minister John Major, however, the plans are far from rigid, and the idea is still very much at a discussion stage. 18 -> Zenith Intros High-Speed Pentium PCs 05/31/95 Zenith Data Systems (ZDS) is introducing a new line of desktop computers that will be powered by Intel's Pentium processors that run as fast as 120 megahertz (MHz). The line will be dubbed the "Z-Station GT." 19 -> MSC - Sybase CEO Says To Keep Up With Change 05/31/95 "If we don't market (technological) change, then we will become the employers that we left to get away from," advised Mark Hoffman, president, chairman and chief executive officer (CEO) of Sybase, during his presentation of the Software Keynote at the Spring Membership Meeting of the Mass. Software Council (MSC). 20 -> MSC - Vendors Use 32 Financing Methods 05/31/95 Software entrepreneurs use 32 different methods for product and business "bootstrapping," or achieving financing without bank loans, according to a new survey by the University of New Hampshire (UNH)'s Center for Venture Research, released at the Mass. Software Council (MSC)'s Spring Membership Meeting. 21 -> Seagate Announces 2GB Hard Drive 05/31/95 Seagate Technology (NYSE:SEG) claims to have beaten out the competition with its first two gigabyte (GB) AT interface disk drive for desktop PCs. The new 1.6GB and 2.1GB drives are scheduled for production in the third quarter of 1995. 22 -> Frame Technology To Acquire Mastersoft 05/31/95 Frame Technology (NASDAQ:FRAM) will officially take over Mastersoft Inc. by the end of June. The acquisition of Mastersoft's document conversion technology marks the second time this year that Frame Technology will have added, by acquisition, proprietary technology. 23 -> MSC - Clinton Administration Policy On Piracy 05/31/95 International piracy of intellectual property has cost the US many millions of dollars, but the Clinton Administration is fighting back through measures that include a bilateral agreement with China in addition to the multilateral TRIPS alliance, said Ira S. Shapiro, senior counsel and negotiator for the Office of the US Trade Representative (USTR), in a speech to the Mass. Software Council (MSC). 24 -> MSC - Massachusetts/Irish Software Pact 05/31/95 In a ceremony at the Mass. Software Association (MSC)'s Spring Membership Meeting, officials of the MSC, the Information and Computing Services Association of the Republic of Ireland (ICSA) and the Software Industry Federation of Northern Ireland (SIF) signed a trilateral agreement "to develop close relations grounded in technology-based investment and commercial development." 25 -> IBM Canada Buys Footprint Software 05/31/95 IBM Canada Ltd. has announced its acquisition of Footprint Software Inc., a Toronto- based software company whose product line includes banking software and an integrated software package that ships in IBM's OS/2 Bonus Pack. Terms were not disclosed. 26 -> Compaq Claims $585Mil In Packard Bell Patent Suit 05/31/95 Compaq Computer Corp. (NYSE: CPQ) has decided it wants $585 million for damages it alleges it suffered due to patent infringement by Packard Bell Electronics. 27 -> Fiber Channel Apps To Range From Desktop To Networks 05/31/95 At a series of press briefings in Boston, Seagate, IBM, Hewlett-Packard, and other members of the Fiber Channel Association (FCA) presented an overview of the emerging fiber channel architecture, plus planned and existing applications ranging from data warehouses to compute clusters, and from peripheral input/output (I/O) to videoconferencing networks. 28 -> ****Spielberg In Silicon Graphics/DreamWorks Announcement 05/31/95 Bringing out all the big brass, DreamWorks and Silicon Graphics are holding a press conference at noon today to announce an alliance between the two companies. Scheduled to participate in a live telephone press conference along with Steven Spielberg are Jeffrey Katzenberg, DreamWorks co-founder and ex-Disney executive, and Ed McCracken, Silicon Graphics' chairman and chief executive officer (CEO). 29 -> ****Apple Ships Low-Cost World Wide Web Servers 05/31/95 Apple Computer Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) begun shipping the Apple Internet Server Solution for the World Wide Web. Announced at the recent Internet World Expo, the new server line focuses on an entry-level price of $2,909. (Ian Stokell/19950531) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 05/30/95 PC UK - Olivetti's "Pick'n'Mix" Software Bundle With PCs (NEWS)(PC)(LON)(00001) UK - Olivetti's "Pick'n'Mix" Software Bundle With PCs 05/30/95 LONDON, ENGLAND, 1995 MAY 30 (NB) -- Olivetti has announced it is offering buyers of its consumer range of PCs the chance to select several titles from a range of software available through dealers. The official title for the test scheme, which runs until July 1, is "pick'n'mix," a name given to the practice of UK newsagents in the 1960s to offer customers to select their own sweets and candies from several tubs on the counter. Mike Chandler, Olivetti's retail marketing manager, said that the promotion will boost consumer interest in the PC range by providing users with fun and practical applications, but at no extra cost. The promotion offers consumers a choice of three packages (from 16) in a range of games, education, leisure, or business applications. Chandler claims that the promotion offers something for everyone. "There are games and education packages for the children and hobby plus business titles to appeal to parents," he said, adding that the additional choice will ensure a high level of interest in PCs, resulting in extra PC sales for retailers. (Steve Gold/19950526/Press Contact: Text 100, +44-181-242-4168; Reader Contact: Olivetti, tel +44-181-765-6666, fax +44-181-874-3014) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 05/30/95 TELECOM Nortel Opens 1st Russian Office (NEWS)(TELECOM)(LON)(00002) Nortel Opens 1st Russian Office 05/30/95 MOSCOW, RUSSIA, 1995 MAY 30 (NB) -- Nortel, operating under its old name of Northern Telecom, has announced the opening of a new office in Moscow. According to company officials, the office is the first one to open in the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS). According to Nortel, the company's managers from the US, UK, and Europe have been offering Nortel services into the CIS over the past three years, working with local telecoms resellers and distributors to offer the company's complete product range. Sales have gone so well that the company has decided to open a permanent office in the region, with senior staff from Nortel's global operations using the office as their base. Over the next few months, local staff will be appointed at the office. Nortel claims that the surge in privatized business in the CIS, notably in the St. Petersburg and Moscow areas, have meant that the opening of a dedicated office in Moscow was a logical step for the company. The firm claims that, through its new office, Nortel's customers in Moscow and the CIS will receive the same level of service and support that the company's customers get elsewhere in the world. (Sylvia Dennis/19950525/Press & Reader Contact: Nortel GmbH, tel +49-69-66970, fax +49-69-6697-1111) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 05/30/95 NETWORK UK Firm Offers E-mail Encryption Package (NEWS)(NETWORK)(LON)(00003) UK Firm Offers E-mail Encryption Package 05/30/95 CAMBRIDGE, ENGLAND, 1995 MAY 30 (NB) -- NetConnect, a systems integrator, has unveiled Securexchange, a Windows-based add-in for the most popular electronic-mail systems -- including Microsoft Mail and Lotus' cc:Mail -- that transparently encrypts and decrypts the messages flowing across network links. According to Caroline Bowden, a spokeswoman for the company, the packages allows users to exchange encrypted e-mail, but without the users of the system being aware of the encryption. Using this approach, she said, ensures that the e-mail is secure from hackers and other eavesdroppers. Securexchange uses a proprietary encryption system that is based around both public and secret key cryptosystem technology. The package itself is billed as having a simple and intuitive user interface that sits on top of the user's own e-mail system. NetConnect's managing director, Steve Bacon, claims he has taken a "hands-on role in finding a solution" to e-mail security problems. "The security of e-mail systems is becoming an essential consideration for network managers," he said, adding that, by their very name, networks are distributed, and, as a result, "senior management are rightly aware about confidential information getting into the wrong hands." Bacon noted that currently, companies live in a litigious world. "Company directors are responsible and liable for preserving the integrity and confidentiality of corporate information. Products like Securexchange, by keeping information secure, help them to achieve this goal," he said. According to Bowden, pricing on Securexchange varies depending on site licensing conditions. On a typical network of between eight and 10 users, she told Newsbytes, pricing would be under UKP1,000. (Steve Gold/19950525/Press Contact: Caroline Bowden, tel +44-1223- 416448, fax +44-1223-414258, Internet e-mail cbowden@netconnect.co.uk; Reader Contact: NetConnect, tel +44-1223-423523, fax +44-1223-420655, Internet e-mail sales @netconnect.co.uk) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 05/30/95 GENERAL Electronic Commerce '96 Set For San Francisco (NEWS)(GENERAL)(LAX)(00004) Electronic Commerce '96 Set For San Francisco 05/30/95 NORWELL, MASSACHUSSETTS, U.S.A., 1995 MAY 30 (NB) -- Addressing the increasing interest in the consumer-oriented electronic commerce market, BIS Strategic Decisions and Arthur D. Little Inc. have announced Electronic Commerce '96. The conference is scheduled to take place May 13-15, 1996, at the Hyatt Regency San Francisco in the Embarcadero Center. The conference director is Marlene Nusbaum, business development director for BIS. The Electronic Commerce '96 again brings together BIS and Arthur D. Little in what Nusbaum told Newsbytes "will be their most ambitious project yet." The conference is still in the embryonic stages with the first planning decisions still months away, but Nusbaum indicated that the conference will focus on both technology issues, applications, and case studies in areas such as financial services, health care, and retail. She told Newsbytes the conference should, "include such technology issues as standards, integration, and implementation, as well as applications targeting financial services, health care, retail, and government." It will also feature case studies in each of those areas emphasizing successful users. Electronic Commerce '96 will be co-chaired by Torrey Byles, director of BIS' Electronic Commerce Market Advisory Services, and Michael Taylor, director, National Telecommunications Practice at Arthur D. Little. BIS has 17 offices throughout the world and sales of over $30 million. Arthur D. Little has over 3,000 employees worldwide. "We are now reaching that critical mass where enough consumers, companies, and government agencies are on-line. Consumer-to-business and business-to-business transactions in the electronic commerce market are becoming mainstream activities," said Byles. "This conference brings an integrated perspective to companies wanting to learn how to take advantage of the expanding array of technologies and strategies for electronic commerce." Prices for the three-day conference should be in the $995 to $1,195 range for all sessions, with different packages available for fewer sessions. (Richard Bowers/19950525/Press Contact: Martha Popoloski, BIS, 617-982-9500; Randi Alterman, Arthur D. Little, 617-498-5119) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 05/30/95 BUSINESS India - Infosys Exits Joint Venture With KSA (NEWS)(BUSINESS)(DEL)(00005) India - Infosys Exits Joint Venture With KSA 05/30/95 NEW DELHI, INDIA, 1995 MAY 30 (NB) -- Bangalore-based software company Infosys Technologies Ltd. has pulled out of Software Sourcing Co. (SSC), its 50/50 joint venture with Kurt Salmon & Associates (KSA) -- a major management consulting firm in the US. Infosys is one of the top ten Indian software export companies. The decision follows the unanimous recommendation of the senior management at Infosys, who felt that the company should sacrifice the short-term benefits from the partnership in favor of long-term growth objectives for its wholly-owned subsidiary it plans to set up in the US. Infosys announced an increase in its equity stake from 40 to 50 percent in May, 1993, when the company was known as KSA/Infosys. The joint venture was later renamed Software Sourcing Co. and its equity expanded. At the time, Infosys Chairman and Managing Director N.R. Narayana Murthy said, "Our joint venture represents one more channel for Infosys to market its services and achieve its goal of a R50 crore turnover by 1995." The seven-year old venture will now be legally terminated sometime in 1995-96 and the Infosys stake in SSC will be relinquished in favor of KSA. According to the latest announcement, Infosys will soon be setting up a 100 percent subsidiary in the US, probably in Boston, to sell its software products. The move comes in the wake of the company winding up its joint venture with SSC. According to Nandan S. Nilekani, the firm's deputy managing director, the company hopes to set up the subsidiary in four-months time. Unisys is also strengthening its marketing efforts in the US by opening full-fledged marketing offices in Cincinnati, San Francisco, New York, and Dallas. Besides these new branches, the company is also opening a marketing office in Maastricht and proposes to open another office in France. (C.T. Mahabharat/19950529) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 05/30/95 BUSINESS Circue's GlidePoint Now Available In India (NEWS)(BUSINESS)(DEL)(00006) Circue's GlidePoint Now Available In India 05/30/95 NEW DELHI, INDIA, 1995 MAY 30 (NB) -- Utah-based Circue Corp., a major developer of trackpad technology, and manufacturer of some innovative pointing devices, has now made available in India one of its better- known products -- the GlidePoint Trackpad. The product is essentially a low-friction, environmentally resistant pad which lets users control the cursor though their finger. This is possible through the electrical capacitance technology. A grid of electrodes are hidden beneath the touch surface, and the mutual capacitance between the electrodes is altered when a finger is moved across the surface. This is measured by precision electronics, as a result of which the cursor moves according to the movement of the finger on the trackpad. The user is not required to apply any pressure on the surface of the pad. The product does not have to be disassembled for cleaning and is compatible with all standard mouse drivers and connections. The Glidepoint Trackpad can be used with any IBM compatible computer with a PS/2 Round Mouseport or serial port, running DOS and Windows 3.1 or later. Circuitron Information Systems, the Bangalore-based company which supplies computer peripherals, has been appointed exclusive distributor for the GlidePoint Trackpad. (C.T. Mahabharat/19950529) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 05/30/95 PC Interactive Adds Features To Plum Video System (NEWS)(PC)(DEN)(00007) Interactive Adds Features To Plum Video System 05/30/95 COLORADO SPRINGS, COLORADO, U.S.A., 1995 MAY 30 (NB) -- It hasn't even shipped yet, but Interactive Images has already made changes to its soon-to-be released Plum non-linear digital video editing system. The company said the changes are based on recommendations of customers who have seen the card previewed. Interactive said the Plum 132 megabyte (MB)-per-second bandwidth PCI (Peripheral Component Interconnect) bus lets Plum deliver video quality comparable to Betacam SP. Audio input/output connectors are RCA phone jacks, and the audio/video synchronization (lip sync) is accomplished by locking the audio clock to the video clock. Composite video input/output is through BNC connectors. Plum is Plug-And-Play-compatible, meaning a Plug-and-Play-enabled PC will recognize the card automatically and configure the system accordingly. Plum's audio editing software package will include four simultaneous stereo playback tracks, real-time non-destructive mixing, and SMPTE synchronization. Machine tape control is via VLAN capability for RS-232, RS-422, VISCA, and LANC tape decks. Interactive said Plum can play video directly from the timeline and reduce disk space requirements by as much as 50 percent. It can also directly create AVI files on video capture, eliminating the time needed to convert from proprietary file format. Video sampling is available at 720 by 480 NTSC (North American Television Standards Committee) or 720 by 576 PAL. Plum uses Motion JPEG (Joint Photographics Experts Group) compression and includes specialized circuitry to accelerate dissolves, wipes, pushes, titling and other video effects. Supported file formats include Video for Windows, QuickTime for Windows, Filmstrip, AutoDesk Animator, AutoDesk 3D Studio, Targa, Windows bitmap, TIFF, Adobe Photoshop, Macintosh PICT, Windows Metafile, PCX, Audio Interchange, and Windows Waveform. Support for CMX3400, CMX3600, Grass Valley, Sony, and BVE EDLs for VTR machine control are included. Interactive said it is currently testing various PC mother boards for Plum-compatibility. The configuration currently being recommended is at least a 100 megahertz-based PC, although faster is better, according to the company. It also recommends a Triton PCI chip set on the motherboard, at least 32 megabytes of EDO (extended data out) memory, 256 kilobytes (KB) of Synch Burst cache (512KB is better, said Interactive), and an Adaptec 2940 PCI to SCSI FAST controller. Plum is bundled with Adobe Premiere 4.0 editing software and will run on Microsoft Windows 3.11 or the soon-to-be-released Windows 95. The company said a Power Macintosh version of Plum is scheduled to ship in November. Interactive offers a free video demo tape about Plum if you call the company's toll-free phone number. The company will be demonstrating Plum at the InfoComm in Dallas June 15-17. Plum is scheduled to ship in July with a suggested retail price of $5,995. (Jim Mallory/19950530/Press contact: Jan Hruz, Interactive Images, 719-598-3894; Public contact: Interactive Images, 719-598-3894 or 800-336-1912) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 05/30/95 BUSINESS Australia's Stallion In Pizza Hut Serial Adapters Deal (NEWS)(BUSINESS)(SYD)(00008) Australia's Stallion In Pizza Hut Serial Adapters Deal 05/30/95 SYDNEY, AUSTRALIA, 1995 MAY 30 (NB) -- Australian data communications developer Stallion Technologies has signed a contract to provide US-based Pizza Hut restaurants and home delivery outlets with Stallion's 16-port serial adapters. Pizza Hut is a subsidiary of PerpsiCo and has more than 8,200 outlets in the US. It has progressively moved its store-level delivery systems from DOS to multi-user Unix over the past few years. The DOS systems were unable to operate with more than one terminal at a time, and management also wanted to combine store management applications and remote dial-up. The new Pizza Hut store systems are based on a 486DX 33 megahertz (MHz) PC with eight megabytes (MB) of RAM, 200 MB hard disk, SCO Unix and the new home delivery and store management software. Phone operators can take orders on the point-of-sale (POS) terminals and these are printed in the kitchen. The system does the tedious work, such as verifying coupons and orders, and prompting the operator to offer new products, special offers and extra items. The system also prints ingredient instructions for cooks and route instructions for drivers. A Stallion spokesperson told Newsbytes the company's equipment was chosen because it has already been successfully installed in large US companies such as Holiday Inn and True Value Hardware. (Paul Zucker/19950526/Press Contact: Stallion Technologies, tel +61-7-870-4999, fax +61-7-371-8881, Internet e-mail richard@stallion.oz.au) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 05/30/95 ONLINE Australian Firm Offers Govt Tender Info On Internet (NEWS)(ONLINE)(SYD)(00009) Australian Firm Offers Govt Tender Info On Internet 05/30/95 SYDNEY, AUSTRALIA 1995 MAY 30 (NB) -- An Australian company has launched a service to list tenders and similar information on the Internet. It will cover information from Australian and New Zealand government and business. Information Network Fully Online Pty Ltd (INFO) has been providing the information in print since 1989. Tender INFO's Managing Director Jon Barnard said: "Searching for relevant tender information is a nightmare for most organizations. It's a laborious and expensive task and a valuable opportunity can be easily missed. We relieve businesses of this burden by delivering comprehensive and timely information which can be tailored specifically to a client's needs." Continued Barnard: "By conducting online searches an organization can locate any current tender which is relevant to their business, by using simple keyword and category searches. Alternatively, the Tender INFO system can do these searches and automatically fax out the results to subscribers on a daily basis." He said the tendering bodies also benefit under this system as the information can be made available almost instantly, to thousands of businesses. "They simply complete a form on the World Wide Web. And documentation for each tender can also be made available for electronic distribution, saving government and corporations millions of dollars each year in distribution costs." He predicted that the Internet service would rapidly add clients to his company's database. "They get billions of dollars worth of opportunities for less than $2 a day." The Web home page is http://www.tenders.com.au/~tenders (Paul Zucker/19950526/Press & Public Contact: INFO, tel +61-2-746- 1499, fax +61-2-746-1491, Internet e-mail info@tenders.com.au) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 05/30/95 TELECOM Hong Kong Telcom To Build Optical Cable To Beijing (NEWS)(TELECOM)(PEK)(00010) Hong Kong Telcom To Build Optical Cable To Beijing 05/30/95 BEIJING, CHINA, 1995 MAY 30 (NB) -- Hong Kong's premier telecom group, Hong Kong Telcom, has signed an agreement with the Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications (MPT) of China to jointly build an optical cable link between Beijing and Hong Kong, the China Daily newspaper has reported. Hong Kong Telcom recently announced its most ambitious project on mainland China -- to build a high speed link to improve telephone connections between Hong Kong and the Chinese capital. Hong Kong Telcom's investment in the venture, or what its status would be in the operation, were not revealed by the company, the newspaper said. Cable and Wireless PLC of the UK controls a 57.5 percent stake in Hong Kong Telcom. The Chinese government owns 14.5 percent of Hong Kong Telcom through its China International Trust and Investment Corp. -- a national investment company, headquartered in Beijing. Hong Kong Telcom also announced it made HKG$8.699 billion (US$1.12 billion) in the year ended March 31 -- a gain of 15 percent. Total turnover was up by 11 percent at HKG$26.9 billion (US$3.45 billion) while management fees to Cable and Wireless were reduced by 29 percent to HKG$217.2 million (US$27.85 million). International revenues, which accounted for 61 percent of turnover, rose eight percent, reflecting slower traffic growth and a 12 percent cut in tariffs on calls to Australia, Britain, Canada, and the United States. Calls to mainland China, which were about half of Hong Kong's overseas traffic, grew by 18 percent. After years of slower growth, there were signs in February and March of a turnaround in mainland telecom traffic. The company's relationship with the Chinese mainland is improving. In the past year, the company has reportedly joined Guangdong Posts and Telecommunications Administration to bid for a Hong Kong operating license. (Chih-Ho Yu & Ning Huang/19950530) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 05/30/95 LEGAL China - Disney Wins Copyright Lawsuit (NEWS)(LEGAL)(PEK)(00011) China - Disney Wins Copyright Lawsuit 05/30/95 BEIJING, CHINA, 1995 MAY 30 (NB) -- The Walt Disney Company has won a copyright lawsuit against three Chinese publishing houses and bookstores, which had breached Disney's copyright of such well-known characters as Mickey Mouse, Show White, and Cinderella. Filed about 17 months ago in Beijing, Disney's lawsuit was the first case of its kind in which a US company sued the state publishing houses and bookstores for copyright violation after China and the US signed the "memorandum of understanding" on intellectual property rights protection in 1992. The First Intermediate People's Court of Beijing ordered the defendant, Beijing Publishing House, to pay Disney RMB227,094 (US$26,100) in damages. The verdict was reportedly made in line with China's Civil Prosecution Law and Copyright Law. Those accused also included Beijing Children's Publishing House, Third World Publishing Co. Ltd., and Beijing Branch of Xinhua Bookstore. The court found that the four defendants published a series of books for children four years ago, which featured nine stories using the cartoons of Mickey Mouse, Show White, and Cinderella. The court ordered the defendants to cease publishing and selling the books in question and to issue an open apology to the Disney Company through the news media. (Chih-Ho Yu & Ning Huang/19950530) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 05/30/95 BUSINESS Profits Up At Japan's Electronics Firms (NEWS)(BUSINESS)(TYO)(00012) Profits Up At Japan's Electronics Firms 05/30/95 TOKYO, JAPAN, 1995 MAY 30 (NB) -- Japan's six biggest electronics companies reported their fiscal 1994 results with all reporting increases in profits despite the strong yen, which has hurt export sales. The companies are attributing the rise in profits to an increase in domestic demand, especially in the computer chip and liquid crystal display (LCD) sectors. Increased demand for chips is forecast for the current fiscal year, making for even greater profits compared to last year, they said. Helping to offset the rise of the Japanese yen was the increased production at plants overseas, a trend that will continue throughout the current financial year as production of devices destined for overseas markets is increasingly moved abroad. NEC Corp. benefited most from the surge in chip demand. Japan's biggest chip maker reported an increase in profits of 435 percent, to 35.32 billion yen ($425 million). Sales at the electronics giant increased 5.3 percent. At Toshiba, the second biggest producer of computer chips, profits rose 268 percent to 44.69 billion yen ($538 million). This represents the first rise in group profits for five years and was helped greatly by the demand for chips. Operating profits in the semiconductor division nearly tripled. Hitachi saw profits for fiscal 1994 total 113.91 billion yen ($1.37 billion), a rise of 75 percent on the year. Sales rose 2.6 percent to 7.59 trillion yen ($91.44 billion). Fujitsu reported profits of 45.02 billion yen ($542 million), which compares with a group loss of 37.67 billion yen ($453 million) the previous fiscal year. Despite the large rise in profits, group sales rose just 3.8% to 3.26 trillion yen ($39.27 billion) over the year. Sharp Electronics said sales increased 6.6 percent over the year to 1.62 trillion yen ($19.52 billion) resulting in profits of 44.51 billion yen ($536 million). Meanwhile, Mitsubishi Electric said its group net profits more than doubled, at 103 percent, to 42.10 billion yen ($507 million). Mitsubishi also reported a 4.7 percent jump in sales to 3.25 trillion yen ($39.16 billion). (Martyn Williams/19950530) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 05/30/95 GENERAL Japan Newsbriefs (NEWS)(GENERAL)(TYO)(00013) Japan Newsbriefs 05/30/95 TOKYO, JAPAN, 1995 MAY 30 (NB) -- In this roundup of news from Japan: Bloomberg complains over NTT price hikes; NEC to produce all US PCs locally; Oki releases new printers; Fujitsu to mark LCDs in US; First profit rise for NTT in five years; and DDI reports record profits. Bloomberg Complains Over NTT Price Hike Bloomberg has gone to the Fair Trade Commission with a complaint over a planned rate hike for Nippon Telephone and Telegraph's digital leased line services. Bloomberg, the biggest single customer of NTT, says that the rises are unfair since prices are falling in much of the world. The US-based information organization says it will approach the US trade representative if it does not receive satisfaction from the FTC. The proposed price rises have also been challenged by Japan's private telecommunications companies -- DDI, Japan Telecom, and Teleway Japan -- which also make use of the services. NEC To Produce All US PCs Locally NEC Corporation has said that it is moving production of all personal computers aimed at the US market to the US. The move also includes design and production of components for the PCs. The current strength of the Japanese yen has forced the computer manufacturer to take the step. The plant at Yonezawa where the computers are currently produced will switch to producing models destined for the Japanese market. Oki Releases New Printers Oki Electric has released three new printers. The printers employ a RISC (reduced instruction-set computer) processor and understand the level 2 PostScript language. All printers can print at up to 600 dots- per-inch (dpi). The Microline 802PSI+F costs 598,000 yen ($7,076) and comes with five fonts installed. The Microline 802PSII is cheaper at 448,000 yen ($5,301) and comes with two fonts. Both models are capable of printing 10 A4 sheets per minute, while the cheaper Microline 802 PSIILT, at 348,000 yen ($4,118), can print 12 sheets per minute. Fujitsu To Market LCDs In US Fujitsu say it is to begin marketing TFT (thin film transistor) liquid crystal display (LCD) displays in the US by the end of May. Its California-based Fujitsu Microelectronics will initially market 10.4-inch models, expanding their range to include 11.3-inch versions later this summer. The company is also planning to shift about half of its production of such devices to the US. First Profit Rise For NTT In Five Years Nippon Telegraph and Telephone, Japan's largest telecommunications company, has reported its first profits rise for five years. The Tokyo- based company said its parent company profits rose 30.3 percent to 142.63 billion yen ($1.72 billion). Not only is this NTT's first profits rise in five years, it is also the biggest profit reported by any of the country's traded companies. NTT said it is striving for profits of 400 billion yen ($4.81 billion). DDI Reports Record Profits Japan's DDI, a long distance and cellular telephone service provider, second only to NTT, has reported record profits for the fiscal year just ended. Strong demand for cellular phones helped group profits rise 32.3 percent to 68.76 billion yen ($828 million). Sales rose to 510.39 billion yen ($6.15 billion), a 35 percent increase. DDI now counts just under a million cellular phone subscribers to its service. (Martyn Williams/19950530) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 05/30/95 ONLINE Censored Internet "A Necessity" In Singapore (NEWS)(ONLINE)(TYO)(00014) Censored Internet "A Necessity" In Singapore 05/30/95 TOKYO, JAPAN, 1995 MAY 30 (NB) -- Speaking at a Tokyo forum on Asia's role in the multimedia society of the future, Singapore's Minister of Information and the Arts George Yeo said that his country would continue to monitor traffic on the "information highway" and prosecute those that break the rules, just as it does in the "real world." Singapore has been a long-time censor of the media on the grounds that a free flow of information creates a solid base for the spread of crime. Reaffirming his nation's stance, Yeo said, "We refuse to accept that the free flow of information means allowing an environment for crime and sleaze to flourish. We continue to censor our films, books, magazines and television programs, not because censorship can ever be one hundred percent effective, but because the act of censorship is itself symbolic and an affirmation to young and old of the values we hold as a community." Despite a widespread effort to wire up Singapore's citizens that will take a broadband cable into every household by the end of the decade, Yeo views the coming information explosion as one filled with danger, saying: "The problems of a city are those of housing, crime, traffic, drugs, prostitution, pollution, terrorism, and so on. All these problems are likely to become worse in the coming decades in many parts of Asia." He continued: "Modern technology makes possible a concentration of population never seen before. But it also results in urban problems of terrifying magnitude." Explaining how the Internet and future communications networks have a part in this, he went on, "Take urban terrorism for example. It is bound to become more prevalent because of the flow of knowledge and the movement of people. The knowledge to make bombs and other weapons of mass destruction is easily available. The knowledge is on the Internet." Policing the Internet in Singapore is the job of the Singapore Broadcasting Authority (SBA) as Yeo announced in March of this year, saying, "The SBA will be a neighborhood police post, those who notice criminal or anti-social behavior should alert each other and the SBA." The island nation has no specific laws against crime and anti-social activity in "cyberspace" though, but simply applies existing laws, "Those who break our laws can be brought to court," Yeo said. "After all, laws against theft and libel still apply in cyberspace." (Martyn Williams/19950530) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 05/30/95 GENERAL Asia's Multimedia Development Outlined At Forum (NEWS)(GENERAL)(TYO)(00015) Asia's Multimedia Development Outlined At Forum 05/30/95 TOKYO, JAPAN, 1995 MAY 30 (NB) - Asia's future is a multimedia society and its place in the development of one was outlined and discussed at a special forum held in Tokyo recently. The conference was organized by the Japanese Advanced Information Society Promotion Headquarters, state broadcasters NHK, and The Yomiuri Shimbun newspaper. Forum speakers included members of the governments of Japan, Singapore, Thailand, and South Korea, who all presented what their nations were doing and planning for the coming "multimedia age." In Japan, the government, under guidance from the Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications, has already laid plans for a comprehensive national infrastructure to support future multimedia services, as Shun Oide, minister of posts and telecommunications, explained. "The headquarters has set a goal of having a fiber network installed throughout the nation by the year 2010," he said. The plan calls for the network to be laid into major urban areas ten years earlier then the 2010 deadline. Oide continued: "Using these networks, efforts will be made to develop and expand applications for the public sector and to promote basic, general-purpose technology in support of this goal." In Singapore the infrastructure is already being laid, far ahead of most Asian countries, as Singapore's Minister for Information and the Arts George Yeo said. "Singapore's telecommunications system will be totally digital within a few years. We are laying the 'information highway' to every household. By the end of the decade, every household in Singapore will be wired up via broadband coaxial cables linked to an optical fiber trunk network," he said. The reason for Singapore's head-start on most of the rest of world is two-fold, as Yeo explained, "We are laying this as a city infrastructure. Every developer will soon be required to provide every new house or apartment with a broadband cable in the same way as he is required by law to provide lines for water, gas, electricity, and telephone." Yeo also noted that his nation is a small island of 640 square kilometers, making development easier. This year is "IT (information technology) Year" in Thailand, and the government took the opportunity to announce its National Telecommunications Development Master Plan (NTDMP). While planning for the future, it is also still laying the basic building blocks for a future in the multimedia world as Mahidol Chantrangkurn, permanent secretary to the Ministry of Transport and Communications explained. "The NTDMP's objectives are to provide sufficient telephones to meet growing demand," he said. As a first step to launching future services, all of the governments are involving government departments in pilot projects. In South Korea, Kyong Sang-Hyon, minister of Information and Telecommunications, explained the government is developing G-net, a high-speed government communications network. The nation is then to encourage private enterprise to establish P-net, the public high-speed network. George Yeo noted that Singapore already has a home page on the Internet, called Singapore Info Map, and that "all government departments are now more or less computerized. For example, Singapore Port has become entirely paperless." The general theme expressed by most conference speakers was summed up well by Japan's Oide, who said of his country's plan, "The basic stance of the guidelines is that the private sector will, within the context of fair and valid competition, ultimately lead developments, while the government takes the role of providing infrastructure, supporting research and development, and establishing and improving administrative systems." (Martyn Williams/19950530/Press contact: Forum secretariat, tel +81-3-3586-5051, fax +81-3-3586-5255) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 05/30/95 GENERAL Canadian Product Launch Update (NEWS)(GENERAL)(TOR)(00016) Canadian Product Launch Update 05/30/95 KINGSTON, ONTARIO, CANADA, 1995 MAY 30 (NB) -- This regular feature, appearing on the first day Newsbytes publishes each week, provides further details for the Canadian market on announcements by international companies that Newsbytes has already covered. This week: Compaq's ProLiant 4500 server, Standby Recovery Server, and NetFlex-3 network interface controller, as well as IBM's PC Server 500 S/390. Compaq Canada Inc. of Markham, Ontario, announced the ProLiant 4500 server, the Standby Recovery Server, and the NetFlex-3 network interface controller (Newsbytes, May 23). The ProLiant 4500 starts at C$17,199. The Standby Recovery Server is a hardware option available on ProLiant servers running Microsoft Windows NT and Novell Inc. NetWare. The NetFlex-3 10BaseT network interface controller starts at C$354, Compaq said. Compaq Canada also announced enhancements to its SmartStart integration tool and its Insight Manager 2.40 server management application. IBM Canada Ltd., of Markham, Ontario, joined its parent company in announcing the PC Server 500 S/390 (Newsbytes, May 23), a system with a 90 megahertz (MHz) Pentium processor on the motherboard plus an IBM System/390 processor on an add-in circuit card. Intended largely for commercial and in-house software developers wanting to remove development work from their mainframes, the PC Server 500 S/390 will sell for C$70,000 to C$125,000, depending on the operating system and software chosen, IBM Canada said. It is due to be available in Canada in July, through IBM Direct and through IBM Canada personal computer dealers and remarketers. (Grant Buckler/19950529/Press Contact: John Challinor II, Compaq Canada, 416-229-8936; Kevin McKee, IBM Canada, 905-316-3902; Public Contact: Compaq Canada, tel 416-733-7876, fax 416-229-8898; IBM, Internet World Wide Web http://www.ibm.com) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 05/30/95 TRENDS ****AT&T Bell Labs Technology "Sees" Through Objects (NEWS)(TRENDS)(TOR)(00017) ****AT&T Bell Labs Technology "Sees" Through Objects 05/30/95 BALTIMORE, MARYLAND, U.S.A., 1995 MAY 30 (NB) -- Combining high- frequency laser pulses with digital signal processing, scientists at AT&T Bell Laboratories have come up with a system they say can "see" the composition of objects much as X-rays penetrate materials to reveal denser objects inside. Announced at the international Conference on Lasers and Electro-Optics (CLEO), the technology might be used to locate defects in semiconductors. It could also be used for materials inspection, biomedical imaging, chemical-reaction analysis, and other purposes, Bell Labs said. The rays are benign and can safely be used on living tissue, AT&T spokeswoman Donna Cunningham told Newsbytes. However, they penetrate only a short distance and so could not be used to create images of a human body or limb as x-rays can, she said. Researchers Binbin Hu and Martin Nuss transmitted electromagnetic pulses at a frequency of one terahertz (a trillion cycles per second), which they call T-rays, through objects. They employed laser pulses, each lasting 100 femtoseconds (one tenth of one trillionth of a second) to generate, detect, and measure the T-rays. A system of lenses and mirrors was used to focus the signals and analyze changes in the T-rays as they passed through objects. The technology also relies on a digital signal processing (DSP) unit to process data taken from the T-rays' waveforms and create images on a computer screen. For instance, the image of a slice of bacon shows fat in white, and meat, which absorbs about 25 times as many T-rays, in a darker shade. Molecules and chemical compounds show characteristic "absorption lines" under T-rays that can serve to identify the molecules, the researchers said. According to AT&T Bell Labs, T-ray imaging can distinguish between different chemical compositions inside a material even when the object looks uniform in visible light. The technology can also "see" through plastic packaging. While terahertz time-domain spectroscopy has been done experimentally in the past, it has never been used in imaging, AT&T said. Bell Labs said it has applied for a patent and is talking to various business units of AT&T about possible applications. It is too early to say when the technology might be commercial or what it will cost, Cunningham said. She noted that the femtosecond lasers used have been very expensive in the past but their cost is coming down. (Grant Buckler/19950526/Press Contact: Donna Cunningham, AT&T, 802-482-3748) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 05/30/95 ONLINE Reuters NewMedia Adds Photos, Expects Newspaper Deal (NEWS)(ONLINE)(BOS)(00018) Reuters NewMedia Adds Photos, Expects Newspaper Deal 05/30/95 BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS, U.S.A., 1995 MAY 30 (NB) -- Reuters NewMedia has added 15 magazines from CMP to the list of content offerings for Reuters Business Briefing, plus a photo library and other new features, and expects to announce a deal with a major US newspaper chain within a week, said Robert Crooke, VP of communications, in a meeting with Newsbytes on a Boston press tour. About 50 color pictures are now being added to the new searchable online photo library each day, and plans call for raising that number to 200 daily, noted David Mathison, VP of marketing for the Business Information Group. Photos in the library are produced by staff and freelance photojournalists working for Reuters worldwide. In a demo, Crooke, Mathison, and Simon Ringrose, account executive, showed Newsbytes the photo library and other new features now available in the Business Briefing online information service, including an overnight news headline service and a set of 20,000 company backgrounders. The headline service, which is being posted between midnight and 2 am each day, sums up "front page" and business news stories from publications that include the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, and the Washington Post. Reuters NewMedia now intends to increase the number of publications accessible through Business Briefing in full-page and abstract form to more than 2,000 in coming months, according to the Reuters officials. The newly added content from CMP Publications encompasses Communications Week, Communications Week International, InformationWeek, Windows Magazine, Network Computing, Home PC, Interactive Age, NetGuide, VARBusiness, Computer Reseller News, Computer Retail Week, OEM Magazine, Electronic Engineering Times, and Electronic Buyers' News, Crooke told Newsbytes. Earlier this year, Reuters NewMedia signed contracts with Newsbytes News Network, Information Access Company (IAC), and Cahners Publishing that provide reader access to more than 1,200 business and computer industry publications. The contract with Newsbytes, which went into effect a few months ago, calls for same-day delivery and availability of full-text editions of Newsbytes' stories on computer industry news, written and filed daily by Newsbytes' worldwide team of computer journalists. Additional content already available through Reuters Business Briefing includes PR Newswire, Business Wire, and 15 Reuters news services. Reuters provides the Business Briefing service through Windows- based software for standalone PCs, as well as through a server gateway for corporate subscribers. During the demo, Mathison showed Newsbytes how the user interface to Business Briefing has now been updated with new icons, including icons for "close all windows" and for the new company backgrounder section. Business Briefing allows you to carry out free text searches, or to look for information by pointing and clicking on lists like "geographic areas" and "industries," Mathison explained. Items on each list are now further divided into subcategories. Newsbytes saw how a search through the "printing and publishing" industry category can be refined to "publishing," "periodicals," and "trade," for example. In the next version of the Business Briefing software, Reuters plans to add a button that will let the user examine different categories -- such as "printing and publishing" and "metals," for example -- in two or more separate windows on the screen, Crooke revealed. Ringrose added that, like the news stories, Business Briefing's new photo library is fully indexed, permitting searches to be conducted and refined. To illustrate, Mathison performed a search for photos of "Bill Clinton," and then refined the search for "sports." There, on screen, appeared a picture of President Clinton in jogging shorts. The photo library can come in handy for virtually anyone, according to Crooke. A fashion designer, for instance, might use the service the day after the Academy Awards to see what Nicole Kiddman or Tom Cruise wore to the awards ceremony. A claims adjuster might search for photos of the Midwest floods, or the recent bombing in Oklahoma, Newsbytes was told. Like the online news service, the photo library is also available to users of Reuters' other online business information services, including Reuters Insurance Briefing. Many users might search for photos "just for fun," added Mathison, as he called up photos of Elton John in concert, and Boston Celtics fans on the night of the NBA (National Basketball Association) basketball team's final performance at Boston Garden. Newsbytes also viewed the new overnight headline service and company backgrounders, along with a section called Reuters' Press Digest. Reuters' Press Digest presents summaries of top stories from Reuters' international news service, while the overnight headline service gives one-sentence summaries of stories culled from leading US newspapers. The new company backgrounders provide company-supplied materials such as balance sheets, profit/loss statements, and contact information, Newsbytes was told, while taking a look at a backgrounder on Microsoft. The Reuters execs also gave a demo of Reuters Business Alert (RBA) for Lotus Notes, a Notes- based front-end to RBA Server, an "agent" for gathering and distributing information from Reuters' online sources based on user-supplied profiles. The new RBA for Notes brings the ability to archive electronic articles for an unlimited length of time, Mathison maintained. In addition, you can use RBA to save a "history" of your searches for quick access to the same articles in the future, the VP pointed out, showing Newsbytes a record of a search he had previously performed for criteria that included Microsoft, competition, restrictive practice, and computers. (Jacqueline Emigh/19950526/Reader Contact: Reuters NewMedia, 212- 603-3730; Press Contacts: Robert Crooke, Reuters NewMedia, 212-603- 3453; Alex Terrana, Technology Solutions for Reuters NewMedia, 212-696-2000) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 05/30/95 NETWORK Network Integrity Intros LANtegrity For NetWare (NEWS)(NETWORK)(BOS)(00019) Network Integrity Intros LANtegrity For NetWare 05/30/95 BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS, U.S.A., 1995 MAY 30 (NB) -- Network Integrity's new LANtegrity for NetWare lets a single server provide "instant protection" against server failures on a network of up to 1,200 users, while permitting server maintenance during regular network operation and eliminating the need for back-up, maintained John Butler, VP of marketing, at a meeting with Newsbytes in Boston. The new software, the first product from Network Integrity, allows a NetWare server to start acting as a "stand-in" to any protected server on the network within 15 seconds after the protected server goes down, said Butler, who is also co-founder of the Marlborough, Massachusetts-based start-up. This "stand-in" technology is used in conjunction with an intelligent "data vault" that acts somewhat like a tape-and- magnetic-storage HSM (hierarchical storage manager) in creating and maintaining "secure, managed" copies of current and historical data, according to Butler. Network Integrity has applied for patents on both of these new technologies, the co-founder told Newsbytes. The company has also received financing from four high tech venture capital firms: Atlas Venture, Matrix Partners, Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Buyers, and New Enterprise Associates. Butler added that, prior to his association with Network Integrity, he co-founded three other companies: Applix, Bytex, and Epoch Systems, a producer of Unix-based data management and network backup products that was subsequently sold to EMC. The VP asserted that Network Integrity's LANtegrity saves time over conventional disaster recovery methods by not requiring a server reboot to begin use of the stand-in server, and by making it unnecessary to modify client workstations. Instead, he contended, when the LANtegrity server stands in for a down server, it uses the same name on the network as the failed server, so users can log in after system failure and access user accounts, files and client software just as they would from the usual server. In addition, unlike conventional "mirroring" approaches such as Novell's SFT III, in which an image of the protected server is copied to another system, LANtegrity stores historical as well as current data, in the event that "bad" current data is what caused the system failure, according to Butler. LANtegrity's Intelligent Data Vault retains the most recently active data in magnetic storage on disk, while keeping currently protected data accessible in a tape autoloader, such as those provided by Hewlett-Packard or Digital Equipment Corp., which is used in conjunction with LANtegrity, he reported. Historical information, such as deleted files and earlier versions of files, is migrated to managed off-line shelf storage on tape. LANtegrity also provides a more "efficient" approach to backup than conventional methods, continuously replicating or "copying" only changed files from the protected servers, instead of copying all files, he maintained. Additionally, he said, LANtegrity's stand-in capability doubles as a way of providing routine maintenance and repairs to servers during ordinary hours of usage, rather than after users have left for the day. "If you're a network administrator, your whole life changes when you can go home at night," Butler told Newsbytes. LANtegrity runs NetWare 4, and protects any combination of NetWare 3 or NetWare 4 servers. The software is designed for networks of up to 1,200 users, Butler added. "It doesn't matter whether there are 75 servers, or 250 servers," he noted. LANtegrity with a license for 100 users is list priced at $4,950. Protection for up to 1,000 users is about $11,500. (Jacqueline Emigh/19950529/Reader Contact: Network Integrity, 508- 460-6670; Press Contacts: Lesley Johnson, Heather Robb, or Caryn Converse, FitzGerald Communications for Network Integrity, 617-494-9500) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 05/30/95 ONLINE Writers Union Proposes Internet Self-Publishing Guidelines (NEWS)(ONLINE)(MSP)(00020) Writers Union Proposes Internet Self-Publishing Guidelines 05/30/95 NEW YORK CITY, NEW YORK, U.S.A., 1995 MAY 30 (NB) -- Calling "cyberspace" and the Internet an important vehicle for writers, The National Writers Union (NWU) has proposed guidelines that it said encourages self-publishing on the Internet and on online services. The Union, which represents 4,000 writers, released a position paper called "Freelance Writers and Online Commerce." The paper describes the new forms of online commerce and proposes a set of standards for their operations, the Union said. "Freelance writers have traditionally had a hard time making a living," Philip Mattera, co-chair of the NWU's New Technologies Campaign, told Newsbytes. "Online distribution opens the possibility of improving those possibilities and make it easier to be a writer." Mattera is also the head of the group that wrote the position paper. He said, with "cyberspace publishing," more people would write, and a wider diversity of articles and books would be available with more writers self-publishing in cyberspace. The paper details several recommendations for online publishing, including low fees for writers, having the ability to handle tiny transactions as low as a few cents, minimal "paperwork" so writers can concentrate on writing, non-exclusivity so that writers can not be forced to give an online transaction system an exclusive right to distribute their works, and anonymous transactions. "We're recognizing the Internet and the World Wide Web as becoming increasing commercialized. There's a gold rush of publishers trying to get on the Web," Mattera said. "What we see is that although traditional publishers will not disappear online, it does open up opportunities for self-publishing by writers. We want to be sure the online transaction systems being developed are 'writer-friendly.'" Although the paper describes some of the current transaction systems, it does not endorse any specific system. The paper also describes an online transaction system at work. The full-text of the NWU position paper is available from the Internet in several forms. It can be found on the World Wide Web at http://www.nlightning.com/e-money.html, via FTP (File Transfer Protocol) at ftp.netcom.com/pub/nw/nwu/press/emoney.txt, and via automatic response electronic-mail at nwu-info@netcom.com, with the text "get emoney" (without quotes), and leaving the subject blank. (Bob Woods/19950530/Press Contact: Philip Mattera, for The National Writers Union, 718-768-7752. Public Contact: Internet World Wide Web http://www.nlightning.com/e-money.html) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 05/30/95 LEGAL ****British Virus Author Pleads Guilty (NEWS)(LEGAL)(LON)(00021) ****British Virus Author Pleads Guilty 05/30/95 PLYMOUTH, DEVON, ENGLAND, 1995 MAY 30 (NB) -- Christopher Pile, a 26-year-old unemployed computer programmer, has pleaded guilty to 11 charges under the Computer Misuse Act at Plymouth Crown Court. Appearing before Plymouth Crown Court on Friday last week, Pile pleaded guilty to various charges, all of which related to virus program authoring. The Judge in Pile's case, Jeremy Griggs, granted Pile conditional bail, but warned the defendant that he faces a custodial sentence. As reported previously by Newsbytes, Pile was thought to be the author of Pathogen and Queeg, two particularly nasty PC virus programs that have been "doing the rounds" of the computer industry over the last few years. Police in the case were reported to have narrowed down the author to the Plymouth area when, late last year, a breakthrough occurred and the trail led them to Pile's house. The case has attracted considerable computer media attention over the last six months, mainly because it is the first case to be brought under the Computer Misuse Act, 1990, with direct reference to computer virus authoring. Pile, who is known in virus circles as the Black Baron, the self- styled author of the two virus programs, gained anonymous notoriety last year as Pathogen and Queeg caused problems for PC users across the UK and into Europe. Reports of virus outbreaks came from around the world and the "Black Baron," as the virus author was known (his real identity was unknown until his arrest last year), gained international notoriety. According to Scotland Yard, between October 1993, and April 1994, Pile was alleged to have gained unauthorized access to various computer programs and planted copies of Pathogen and Queeg in those programs. Pile was subsequently arrested in the fall of last year and has had several court appearances since then. Interestingly, one of the 11 charges which Pile pleaded guilty to on Friday relates to the act of inciting other people to plant virus programs. In court, the Prosecution alleged that Pile's activities had cost companies several hundred thousand pounds, and, over the weekend, reports in the UK press have suggested that the viruses have caused more than a million pounds of damage with UK companies. Peter Sommer, a leading security expert and senior with the London School of Economics (LSE) told Newsbytes over the weekend that he was amazed at some of the figures reported in the press. "How anyone can put that kind of estimate on damage caused by viruses, must less justify the figure, is beyond belief," he said. Paul Robinson, editor of Secure Computing, the UK security industry's leading monthly magazine covering all aspect of IT (information technology) security, told Newsbytes he was extremely surprised that Pile had pleaded guilty to the charges laid against him. "I'm surprised at this," he said, adding that he expected the case to go to a full trial in the Crown Court, and that jury would then have to debate the technical issues involved in virus creation and propagation. "With Pile pleading guilty, it begs the question as to what the Prosecution in the case had in terms of evidence against him. And are we ever going to know the full facts of the case?" he said, adding that there are clearly many issues surrounding the case that will probably never see the light of public discussion. "The case was the first main one of its type under the Computer Misuse Act and in many ways, could have highlighted the claim by the Police in other cases that the Misuse Act was inadequate. If the case had gone to full trial, these issues would have been brought out in the open. Because Pile has pleaded guilty, they will probably not now be discussed in court," he told Newsbytes. Court officials have granted Pile conditional bail and he is expected to appear in court in about two months, at which stage he will be sentenced, Newsbytes understands. (Steve Gold/19950530/Press Contact: Secure Computing, tel +44-1792-324000, fax +44-1792-324001, Internet e-mail secure@cix.compulink.co.uk) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 05/30/95 CHIPS ****Intel Offers New Pentium Chips For Mobile Users (NEWS)(CHIPS)(SFO)(00022) ****Intel Offers New Pentium Chips For Mobile Users 05/30/95 SANTA CLARA, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1995 MAY 30 (NB) -- Intel Corporation (NASDAQ-NNM:INTC) has announced a new 90 megahertz (MHz) Pentium processor for notebook computers. Its new performance levels, gained through lower power consumption technology, enhances advanced applications and multimedia CD titles running on notebooks and subnotebooks. Intel says the availability and price of the new faster Pentium processors means most notebook lines will be based on the Pentium processor by the end of the year and entry-level pricing should be around $2,000 to $3,000. The company says this new processor will fuel a mobile computing market which is expected to grow by more than 30% from the number of units sold in 1994. Dataquest, the well- known market research firm, estimates 11 million mobile units will be sold this year. Speaking to Newsbytes about the new 90MHz Pentium, John Antone, marketing manager of mobile and handheld products group at Intel, said, "Until now, notebook manufacturers have had to incorporate a desktop model of the Pentium into their notebook design. With this 90MHz Pentium using voltage reduction technology, we believe a lot of manufacturers will now become part of this growing trend of Pentium-based notebooks and subnotebooks. This, of course, will effect the pricing and I expect we will see an immediate change at the entry-level for Pentium 75MHz-based notebooks and subs." He continued: "By the end of the year, we estimate 50% of all notebooks being shipped will be powered by a Pentium processor." Intel has timed its announcement of the processor with the availability of production volumes of the new chip. In 1,000 unit quantities the new chip is priced at $427. It delivers 110 SPECint92 and 84 SPECfp of performance. Its typical power dissipation is 2.5- to 3.5-watts and it has an idle power consumption of less than one watt. Operating at a 20% slower rate than the 90MHz, a 75MHz model is also available in volume production with a price of $275 in 1,000-unit quantities. The key technology responsible for the new Pentium processor is called "voltage reduction technology," which becomes the latest enhancement added to a series of technologies for the mobile computing market that Intel has developed through its Pentium Processor Mobile Advantage program. Earlier developments in the program include: tape carrier packaging (TCP) which is used in creating the postage stamp-size, thinner-than-a-dime form; an on-chip module power-down mechanism, so that the cache and floating-point unit power-down when not needed; and "SL" technology for power management. If you have been waiting to catch the right price for a entry-level Pentium-based notebook, you should see 75MHz models soon. Antone said notebook computer manufacturers will take advantage of the affordability of the new processors and use smaller hard drives to promote entry-level models. Newsbytes also learned Intel plans to have a faster model Pentium ready for the notebook market by the end of the year. However, the company is not saying which processor. (Patrick McKenna/19950530/Press Contact: Joanne Hasegawa, Intel, 408-765-7525) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 05/30/95 TELECOM McCaw Cellular Tests Boston Technology's Services (NEWS)(TELECOM)(MSP)(00023) McCaw Cellular Tests Boston Technology's Services 05/30/95 WAKEFIELD, MASSACHUSETTS, U.S.A., 1995 MAY 30 (NB) -- McCaw Cellular Communications, a subsidiary of AT&T (NYSE:T), said it will begin testing Boston Technology Inc.'s (NASDAQ:BSTN) Network Services Platforms, AccessMax Applications Software Environment, and other enhanced services applications in McCaw's wireless network. Testing should be complete by the end of the year, Nancy D. Barnes, Boston Technology spokesperson, told Newsbytes. Based on the testing results, Boston Technology will be a supplier of "enhanced services platforms" for McCaw's wireless operations which include cellular and paging services. Under the agreement, Boston Technology will also provide McCaw with AccessMax, which is an object-oriented application development environment. It is designed to facilitate the "rapid modification or development of messaging and information services to be deployed by network service providers," according to Boston Technology. The company added that AccessMax lets service providers jump on new market services or to respond to a competitive service offering. Both companies will also jointly develop enhanced services for McCaw's wireless customers, officials said. Boston Technology claims to have experience in these kinds of deals. It said, among the companies using its systems, are four of the Regional Bell Operating Companies (RBOCs), and the largest cellular operators in Japan and Hong Kong. Barnes said specific details of the agreement, especially dollar amounts, could not be revealed. Nicholas Kauser, executive vice president and chief technology officer for McCaw, said, "We are continually searching for new technological advantages such as those provided by Boston Technology, which will distinguish our service from our competitors in the marketplace." (Bob Woods/19950530/Press Contacts: Nancy D. Barnes, Boston Technology, 617-224-8550; Todd Wolfenbarger, McCaw Cellular Communications, 206-828-1851) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 05/30/95 BUSINESS ****Uunet & CEO Hit IPO Stock Jackpot (NEWS)(BUSINESS)(WAS)(00024) ****Uunet & CEO Hit IPO Stock Jackpot 05/30/95 FAIRFAX, VIRGINIA, U.S.A., 1995 MAY 30 (NB) -- Boosted by the Internet boom, Uunet Technologies' (NASDAQ:UUNT) initial public stock offering hit the market late last Thursday at $14 per share and soared to $27.50 per share by the close of the market for the Memorial Day holiday last Friday. The quick liftoff for the Virginia company that specializes in Internet connections was a result of both the fact that anything with an Internet flavor is hot these days, and the fact that Uunet is providing Microsoft with the Internet access that will be built into Windows 95, scheduled to come to market this summer. Uunet is also developing a high-speed dialup integrated services digital network (ISDN) network that will be the primary network for The Microsoft Network, Microsoft's initial entry into online services. Microsoft owns 18 percent of Uunet. Uunet's Internet products include its AlterNet and AlterDial, providing dedicated and dial-up access. Other lines of business include hosting servers on the World Wide Web, security products, training, and consulting. With 5.4 million shares sold in the IPO, Uunet's market capitalization is now over $1 billion, rather remarkable for a company that has total revenues in its five years of life of only $40 million. The proceeds of the sale yielded Uunet some $68 million in cash. Among the big winners is Uunet's John Sidgmore, 43, who signed on as the company's president and chief executive officer less than a year ago. Thanks to stock options the board awarded to Sidgmore, he now holds $34 million in Uunet stock. But Richard Adams, Uunet founder, chairman and chief technical officer, probably should have held onto the 125,000 shares he sold as part of the IPO at $14 a share. Today, they would be worth nearly twice what he got last week. But don't shed tears for Adams -- he still holds nearly five million shares. Uunet's timing of its initial offering was impeccable. Uunet had originally planned to offer its stock for $10 per share, but decided to up the ante in the face of a hot market. Technology stocks, spurned by many savvy investors just a few years ago, have been the most torrid part of the current scorching stock market. According to Lipper Analytical Services, investors have put $1.2 billion into science and technology investments in the first four months of this year. (Kennedy Maize/19950530/Press Contact: John Sidgmore, 703-206-5960) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 05/30/95 ONLINE GEnie Drops Access Speed Surcharges (NEWS)(ONLINE)(WAS)(00025) GEnie Drops Access Speed Surcharges 05/30/95 ROCKVILLE, MARYLAND, U.S.A., 1995 MAY 30 (NB) -- The GEnie online service is dropping its $2 per hour surcharge for 9,600 bits-per-second (bps) access, starting in August. The charges currently apply to the GEIS and Sprint access networks. GEnie tipped New York Times reporter Peter Lewis to the move in an interview last week, in a resulting article that barely mentioned the change in pricing policy. The policy of charging for higher-speed access was a relic from the days when surcharges were common, and from the time when General Electric, GEnie's parent, was mounting the online service to use up excess capacity on the GE Information Service, its corporate-oriented service. But the rest of the world has dropped charges for high-speed access, and routinely offer access at 14.4 kbps and higher. America Online now has 28.8 access, and Prodigy is following suit. Lewis's article in the Times was not complementary to GEnie, calling it a throwback to the world of online information services circa 1985, a "black-and-white flashback: a 40-character menu offering to let me connect at speeds of 300 bits to 2,400 bits-per-second." As for GEnie's new graphical front-end, Lewis blew it off as irrelevant, noting that "once past the opening screens, GEnie users are usually tossed back into the text-only service." He did praise GEnie's multi-player games, which has become its specialty. Overall, Lewis concluded, "It now appears that GEnie wants to make itself attractive as a consumer service. But it may have waited too long. Too many other networks are better, cheaper and faster. Doug Wolford, GEnie spokesman, told Newsbytes that the service will be coming out "with a fully functional" graphical interface in the fourth quarter. He said the one that's available now is clearly a beta version and the new software will be impressive. "We have been going about this in a step-by-step process over the last six months, developing new products, dropping prices. It's what our customers have been asking for a long time. We may have been slow to act, but we are acting now." (Kennedy Maize/19950530/Press Contact: Doug Wolford, 301-340-4712) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 05/30/95 BUSINESS Chipcom Warns Of Earnings Drop (NEWS)(BUSINESS)(TOR)(00026) Chipcom Warns Of Earnings Drop 05/30/95 SOUTHBOROUGH, MASSACHUSETTS, U.S.A., 1995 MAY 30 (NB) -- Chipcom Corp. (NASDAQ:CHPM) expects its second-quarter revenues and earnings to fall below those of the first quarter because of lower orders from IBM (NYSE:IBM) for networking hardware. The company also said its financial results for the year will not be as good as had been expected. Chipcom's revenues in the second quarter are now expected to be about $70 million. The company had revenues of $86.2 million in the first quarter, which ended April 1. Of first-quarter revenues, about $31 million or 36 percent came from sales to IBM, company spokesman John Ricciardone told Newsbytes. According to officials of both companies, the reason for the decline in Chipcom's sales to strategic partner IBM is that IBM has too much inventory of the networking products it buys from Chipcom for resale. Officials maintained that the over-all, long-term relationship between the companies is not in doubt. Ricciardone said Chipcom expects the lower level of orders to persist through the remainder of this fiscal year, however. Chipcom expects its revenues and earnings for 1995 will be lower than industry analysts had predicted, but the company is still expected to be profitable. Ricciardone said the company expects analysts' revised revenue estimates to be in the range of $330 to $350 million, with earnings per share in the $1.00 to $1.30 range. That compares with revenues of $268 million in 1994. Chipcom said its sales through value-added resellers rose about 53 percent in the first quarter of 1995 compared to the same quarter in 1994. The company also said it has signed new agreements with a number of systems integrators over the past six months. Chipcom makes network hubs and internetworking and network-management products. (Grant Buckler/19950530/Press Contact: John Ricciardone, Chipcom, 508-624-6840, Internet e-mail jricciar@chipcom.com; Carol Grabowski, Chipcom, 508-490-5693) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 05/30/95 PC Dell Intros Mobile Pentium-Based Notebooks (NEWS)(PC)(DEN)(00027) Dell Intros Mobile Pentium-Based Notebooks 05/30/95 AUSTIN, TEXAS, U.S.A., 1995 MAY 30 (NB) -- Dell Computer Corp. (NASDAQ: DELL) has announced a new line of notebook computers that use Intel's new low-power mobile version of its Pentium microprocessor. Dell said it will introduce a total of nine new models in its Latitude product line. One of those models will be the Latitude XPi, which is available with the new 75 megahertz (MHz) and 90MHz chips. Dell said the 75MHz XPi will have a starting price of $2,999 while the 90MHz version will begin at $3,399. Dell said the XPi models have a lithium-ion battery that will run the system for an average of almost five hours. That's possible, said the company, because of the lower power demand of the new Pentium chips designed specifically for mobile computers. Dell said the XPi models will have 10.4-inch (measured diagonally) dual scan STN (supertwist nematic) or TFT (thin film transistor) active matrix color screen, a standard eight megabytes (MB) of memory and a 340MB hard drive. The drive capacity and memory can be increased. Dell said the 6.2-pound unit will be available in mid- to late-June. The company also introduced 486DX4-based Latitude XP models using 75 or 100MHz chips. Dell said those units will be able to operate for up to eight hours on a single battery charge. Dell also rolled out the Latitude LX, an Intel 486DX4-based 75MHz or 100MHz PC with a standard configuration of 4MB of memory, a 340MB hard drive, 128KB of cache, and a nickel-metal-hydride battery for power. Its modular floppy drive can be swapped for a second battery for twice as much run time between charges, according to Dell. The LX 100MHz system will ship with a price tag of $1,999 and is immediately available. To use one of Dell's new Latitude XP series computers on your desktop you can get the optional $99 DeskDock, a slide-in base and monitor stand and an Advanced Port Replicator (APR), a $299 option that provides external ports. You can also get a Token Ring APR for $399 that lets the user connect to or disconnect from a network without having to turn the system off, if you are using Microsoft Windows 95. A 28.8 kilobits-per-second (Kbps) modem for $299 is also available, as is a wave table synthesis audio card for $199. The LX line ships with MS-DOS, Microsoft Windows for Workgroups, Dell's CommCentral communications software that includes America Online software, Commworks for Windows with Laplink for Windows, Radio Express, AutoMap, the Official Airline Guide, Reuter's Money Network, and various utilities. Dell offers an extended three-year warranty that gives you next business day onsite service for the first year and next business day parts service for the second and third year. For an additional $99 you can also get next business day onsite service for the second and third year. A Dell spokesperson told Newsbytes rollout pricing is based on a one-year warranty. He said you can upgrade to the three-year warranty for $199. (Jim Mallory/19950530/Press contact: Adrianne MacPherson, Dell, 512-728-4100; Public contact: Dell, 512-338-4400) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 05/30/95 EDUCATION Apple Sells 3000 Power Macs To Milwaukee School District (NEWS)(EDUCATION)(LAX)(00028) Apple Sells 3000 Power Macs To Milwaukee School District 05/30/95 CUPERTINO, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1995 MAY 30 (NB) -- Apple Computer Inc. (NASDAQ-NNM:AAPL), continuing its decade old emphasis on the education market, has sold 3,000 Power Macintosh 5200/75 LCs to the Milwaukee (Wisconsin) School District. The Power Macintosh 5200/75 LC, designed specifically for schools, was introduced just six weeks ago. The Power Macintosh 5200/75 LC is the first Power Macintosh system designed specifically for the education market, and for Apple represents a change in its marketing to education. Dr. Howard Fuller, superintendent of the Milwaukee Public Schools, said, "We are crafting a technology plan that will carry us into the 21st century and give our students the finest education possible." The Milwaukee (Wisconsin) School District replaced ancient Apple II technology. This is the perception Apple hopes will carry the Power Macintosh 5200/75 LC to be the leading education platform for the next few years. Apple has long used the educational market as a springboard into the general marketplace. Mike Metz, solutions manager for the K-12 Apple USA Division, told Newsbytes that the Power Macintosh 5200/75 LC will give them the strongest push in the educational market since Apple's program to give away Apple II computers years ago. According to Metz, "Apple's commitment to the education market has been a major marketing strategy since the monumentally successful 'Kids Can't Wait' program that seeded every school in California with free Apple II computers." Today, according to Metz, Apple maintains 59% of the installed base for education worldwide, and that represents between 22-24 percent of all revenue for Apple. The Power Macintosh 5200/75 LC is a slightly stripped down version of recent Power Mac offerings. To reduce the cost of the Power Macintosh 5200/75 LC, Apple took out features available in the other Power Mac systems. For example, the Power Macintosh 5200/75 LC uses a slower PowerPC 603 processor. Even a stripped down Power Mac offers a lot to school districts, said Apple. The Power Mac provides compatibility with MS-DOS and Windows, long a problem with the other Mac systems. The Power Mac offers the power -- its recommended configuration is with eight megabytes (MB) of RAM, a 500MB hard drive, and operating at 75 MHz. The Power Mac offers easy expansion into multimedia and other advanced applications, according to Apple. The Power Mac lists at $1,699, including CD-ROM drive, stereo speakers, microphone, keyboard, and mouse. (Richard Bowers/19950530/Press Contact: Stacey Byrnes, Apple Computer, 408-974-6076; Elaine Knechtel of Eastwick Communications, 415-306-4191) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 05/30/95 GENERAL MSC - DEC's CEO Palmer Unveils Software Strategy (NEWS)(GENERAL)(BOS)(00029) MSC - DEC's CEO Palmer Unveils Software Strategy 05/30/95 BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS, U.S.A., 1995 MAY 30 (NB) -- Digital Equipment Corp.'s software strategy calls for strong adherence to Digital's "core competencies," together with an "emphasis on partnerships," said Robert E. Palmer, Digital's president, chairman, and chief executive officer (CEO), in a talk to the members of the Massachusetts Software Council (MSC). "We're staying close to the areas we know," Palmer remarked, during his delivery of the Hardware Keynote at the MSC's Spring Membership Meeting. "We stress cooperating, and not competing, with partners," the CEO asserted. Palmer cited Digital's relationship with Oracle as one example of this "cooperative" approach. Digital, he noted, recently sold Rdb -- a relational database management system (RDBMS) that previously competed against Oracle's product -- to Oracle Corp. Now, Oracle is producing a very large database for Digital's new Turbolaser, the company president illustrated. Also during the talk, Palmer outlined how Digital achieved a financial turnaround over the past year by reducing an "excessive cost structure" and reorganizing its previous "unwieldy matrix structure" into a set of smaller, independent business units. On the software side, Digital's core competencies include distributed computing, interactivity, architecture and services, systems integration, and "the support services that make this work," according to Palmer. Digital's software runs in three different operating environments -- Digital Unix, Windows NT, and Open VMS -- and on Intel, Alpha, and VAX hardware platforms, he pointed out. There are now 62,000 applications available for Alpha, he said. To bring more third-party applications to OpenVMS, Digital recently signed a deal with Microsoft that will allow any application developed for Windows NT to operate "seamlessly" on OpenVMS, as well, he pointed out. "We at Digital add value through middleware," Palmer added. Other areas of current activity include interactive video, object- oriented development, and client-server computing, he said. For the future, DEC is looking to a three-tiered architecture, with either Windows or Unix Motif to be used for desktop presentation, he revealed. "We are trying to anticipate demand, and we're relying on our partners to (help) provide what people want," Palmer said. Digital, he noted, recently established a Software Partners Group. The smaller, independent business units created as part of Digital's financial turnaround are given autonomy in decision- making, logistics, and manufacturing, according to the company chief. Digital now has only 10 manufacturing plants, down from a total of 31 in the past, he said. Company employees currently number 127,000. Financial results for the third quarter of the 1995 fiscal year showed $120 million in cash on hand, in addition to an overall increase of 12 percent in product revenues over the comparable period for 1994, he said. Increases were 66 percent for Alpha, 42 percent for Digital Unix, and 60 percent for DEC PCs. By now, Digital has shipped over $3 billion in Alpha products, according to Palmer. Digital's PC revenues now rank number 11 among companies worldwide, in contrast to number 31 back in 1992, he added. "I'm not saying this is a complete turnaround. But I am saying it is good progress," he told the members of the software association. During a Q&A session that followed, Palmer was asked questions ranging from the status of the company's Digital Consulting business to the results of a recent effort to sell DEC products in retail stores. Digital Consulting, he said, has been disbanded, and absorbed into the Accounts Business Unit (ABU), an arm of the company that provides large customers with systems integration and sales of products from Digital and its partners. With Digital Consulting, he explained, Digital found it had been "competing with its own consultants." Digital is entering the retail channel "rather modestly," since retail represents "a very different business model" than the corporate market, he responded. But Digital's products are selling well at retail, due to "recognition" among consumers for the Digital name, as well as for the company's "quality support," he contended. (Jacqueline Emigh/19950530/Reader Contacts: Mass. Software Council, 617-437-0600; Digital Equipment Corp., 508-493-5111; Press Contact: Lizzie Allen, Miller Communications for the MSC, 617-536-0470) (SUMMARY)(GENERAL)(SFO)(00030) Newsbytes Daily Summary 05/30/95 PENN VALLEY, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1995 MAY 30 (NB) -- These are capsules of all today's news stories: 1 -> UK - Olivetti's "Pick'n'Mix" Software Bundle With PCs 05/30/95 Olivetti has announced it is offering buyers of its consumer range of PCs the chance to select several titles from a range of software available through dealers. 2 -> Nortel Opens 1st Russian Office 05/30/95 Nortel, operating under its old name of Northern Telecom, has announced the opening of a new office in Moscow. According to company officials, the office is the first one to open in the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS). 3 -> UK Firm Offers E-mail Encryption Package 05/30/95 NetConnect, a systems integrator, has unveiled Securexchange, a Windows-based add-in for the most popular electronic-mail systems -- including Microsoft Mail and Lotus' cc:Mail -- that transparently encrypts and decrypts the messages flowing across network links. 4 -> Electronic Commerce '96 Set For San Francisco 05/30/95 Addressing the increasing interest in the consumer-oriented electronic commerce market, BIS Strategic Decisions and Arthur D. Little Inc. have announced Electronic Commerce '96. The conference is scheduled to take place May 13-15, 1996, at the Hyatt Regency San Francisco in the Embarcadero Center. 5 -> India - Infosys Exits Joint Venture With KSA 05/30/95 Bangalore-based software company Infosys Technologies Ltd. has pulled out of Software Sourcing Co. (SSC), its 50/50 joint venture with Kurt Salmon & Associates (KSA) -- a major management consulting firm in the US. Infosys is one of the top ten Indian software export companies. 6 -> Circue's GlidePoint Now Available In India 05/30/95 Utah-based Circue Corp., a major developer of trackpad technology, and manufacturer of some innovative pointing devices, has now made available in India one of its better- known products -- the GlidePoint Trackpad. 7 -> Interactive Adds Features To Plum Video System 05/30/95 It hasn't even shipped yet, but Interactive Images has already made changes to its soon-to-be released Plum non-linear digital video editing system. The company said the changes are based on recommendations of customers who have seen the card previewed. 8 -> Australia's Stallion In Pizza Hut Serial Adapters Deal 05/30/95 Australian data communications developer Stallion Technologies has signed a contract to provide US-based Pizza Hut restaurants and home delivery outlets with Stallion's 16-port serial adapters. 9 -> Australian Firm Offers Govt Tender Info On Internet 05/30/95 An Australian company has launched a service to list tenders and similar information on the Internet. It will cover information from Australian and New Zealand government and business. 10 -> Hong Kong Telcom To Build Optical Cable To Beijing 05/30/95 Hong Kong's premier telecom group, Hong Kong Telcom, has signed an agreement with the Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications (MPT) of China to jointly build an optical cable link between Beijing and Hong Kong, the China Daily newspaper has reported. 11 -> China - Disney Wins Copyright Lawsuit 05/30/95 The Walt Disney Company has won a copyright lawsuit against three Chinese publishing houses and bookstores, which had breached Disney's copyright of such well-known characters as Mickey Mouse, Show White, and Cinderella. 12 -> Profits Up At Japan's Electronics Firms 05/30/95 Japan's six biggest electronics companies reported their fiscal 1994 results with all reporting increases in profits despite the strong yen, which has hurt export sales. 13 -> Japan Newsbriefs 05/30/95 In this roundup of news from Japan: Bloomberg complains over NTT price hikes; NEC to produce all US PCs locally; Oki releases new printers; Fujitsu to mark LCDs in US; First profit rise for NTT in five years; and DDI reports record profits. 14 -> Censored Internet "A Necessity" In Singapore 05/30/95 Speaking at a Tokyo forum on Asia's role in the multimedia society of the future, Singapore's Minister of Information and the Arts George Yeo said that his country would continue to monitor traffic on the "information highway" and prosecute those that break the rules, just as it does in the "real world." 15 -> Asia's Multimedia Development Outlined At Forum 05/30/95 sia's future is a multimedia society and its place in the development of one was outlined and discussed at a special forum held in Tokyo recently. The conference was organized by the Japanese Advanced Information Society Promotion Headquarters, state broadcasters NHK, and The Yomiuri Shimbun newspaper. 16 -> Canadian Product Launch Update 05/30/95 This regular feature, appearing on the first day Newsbytes publishes each week, provides further details for the Canadian market on announcements by international companies that Newsbytes has already covered. This week: Compaq's ProLiant 4500 server, Standby Recovery Server, and NetFlex-3 network interface controller, as well as IBM's PC Server 500 S/390. 17 -> ****AT&T Bell Labs Technology "Sees" Through Objects 05/30/95 Combining high- frequency laser pulses with digital signal processing, scientists at AT&T Bell Laboratories have come up with a system they say can "see" the composition of objects much as X-rays penetrate materials to reveal denser objects inside. 18 -> Reuters NewMedia Adds Photos, Expects Newspaper Deal 05/30/95 Reuters NewMedia has added 15 magazines from CMP to the list of content offerings for Reuters Business Briefing, plus a photo library and other new features, and expects to announce a deal with a major US newspaper chain within a week, said Robert Crooke, VP of communications, in a meeting with Newsbytes on a Boston press tour. 19 -> Network Integrity Intros LANtegrity For NetWare 05/30/95 Network Integrity's new LANtegrity for NetWare lets a single server provide "instant protection" against server failures on a network of up to 1,200 users, while permitting server maintenance during regular network operation and eliminating the need for back-up, maintained John Butler, VP of marketing, at a meeting with Newsbytes in Boston. 20 -> Writers Union Proposes Internet Self-Publishing Guidelines 05/30/95 Calling "cyberspace" and the Internet an important vehicle for writers, The National Writers Union (NWU) has proposed guidelines that it said encourages self-publishing on the Internet and on online services. 21 -> ****British Virus Author Pleads Guilty 05/30/95 Christopher Pile, a 26-year-old unemployed computer programmer, has pleaded guilty to 11 charges under the Computer Misuse Act at Plymouth Crown Court. 22 -> ****Intel Offers New Pentium Chips For Mobile Users 05/30/95 Intel Corporation (NASDAQ-NNM:INTC) has announced a new 90 megahertz (MHz) Pentium processor for notebook computers. Its new performance levels, gained through lower power consumption technology, enhances advanced applications and multimedia CD titles running on notebooks and subnotebooks. 23 -> McCaw Cellular Tests Boston Technology's Services 05/30/95 McCaw Cellular Communications, a subsidiary of AT&T (NYSE:T), said it will begin testing Boston Technology Inc.'s (NASDAQ:BSTN) Network Services Platforms, AccessMax Applications Software Environment, and other enhanced services applications in McCaw's wireless network. 24 -> ****Uunet & CEO Hit IPO Stock Jackpot 05/30/95 Boosted by the Internet boom, Uunet Technologies' (NASDAQ:UUNT) initial public stock offering hit the market late last Thursday at $14 per share and soared to $27.50 per share by the close of the market for the Memorial Day holiday last Friday. 25 -> GEnie Drops Access Speed Surcharges 05/30/95 The GEnie online service is dropping its $2 per hour surcharge for 9,600 bits-per-second (bps) access, starting in August. The charges currently apply to the GEIS and Sprint access networks. 26 -> Chipcom Warns Of Earnings Drop 05/30/95 Chipcom Corp. (NASDAQ:CHPM) expects its second-quarter revenues and earnings to fall below those of the first quarter because of lower orders from IBM (NYSE:IBM) for networking hardware. The company also said its financial results for the year will not be as good as had been expected. 27 -> Dell Intros Mobile Pentium-Based Notebooks 05/30/95 Dell Computer Corp. (NASDAQ: DELL) has announced a new line of notebook computers that use Intel's new low-power mobile version of its Pentium microprocessor. 28 -> Apple Sells 3000 Power Macs To Milwaukee School District 05/30/95 Apple Computer Inc. (NASDAQ-NNM:AAPL), continuing its decade old emphasis on the education market, has sold 3,000 Power Macintosh 5200/75 LCs to the Milwaukee (Wisconsin) School District. The Power Macintosh 5200/75 LC, designed specifically for schools, was introduced just six weeks ago. 29 -> MSC - DEC's CEO Palmer Unveils Software Strategy 05/30/95 Digital Equipment Corp.'s software strategy calls for strong adherence to Digital's "core competencies," together with an "emphasis on partnerships," said Robert E. Palmer, Digital's president, chairman, and chief executive officer (CEO), in a talk to the members of the Massachusetts Software Council (MSC). (Ian Stokell/19950530) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 05/26/95 PC IBM Australia Recalls Faulty Power Leads (NEWS)(PC)(SYD)(00001) IBM Australia Recalls Faulty Power Leads 05/26/95 SYDNEY, AUSTRALIA, 1995 MAY 26 (NB) -- IBM has announced that some of its PC and monitor power leads sold in Australia are incorrectly wired and should be returned immediately for replacement. The leads are black, and rated at 250 volts, the mains voltage in Australia. The IEC end of the lead (the connector that plugs into the device) on the faulty leads is marked "BC." The power point end is marked with a circular date indicator molding. IBM said that a number of these leads were incorrectly wired, and could cause equipment to remain "live" when turned off, or in some cases, to a dangerous voltage on the outside of equipment. The faulty leads were manufactured between November 1994 and April 1995. IBM is examining current power lead stocks and is taking steps to ensure that this does not happen again. Anyone with a faulty lead or any concern has been asked to call IBM Australia on a free call 1-800-634-764 (Paul Zucker/19950526) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 05/26/95 APPLE Apple In Aid of Indian Village Health Workers (NEWS)(APPLE)(DEL)(00002) Apple In Aid of Indian Village Health Workers 05/26/95 NEW DELHI, INDIA, 1995 MAY 26 (NB) -- The pioneer of the user-friendly graphical user interface, Apple Computer Inc., has recently ventured into what it claims is one of the most ambitious projects in India. Computer designers from the US-based company will help design a software/hardware package to replace the bulky ledgers and files that village health workers in India are presently using to collect and store information from their daily rounds. The device is a digital scanning screen, which has recently been launched in the US and includes a compact electronic diary with a screen and has a special pencil instead of the usual keyboard. It can be connected to a terminal at the health center where data can be uploaded. The gadget costs about $600, and Apple is believed to have started negotiations with the Union Ministry of Health, Govt. of India, to provide health workers with this user-friendly device. The Ministry, however, is presently more concerned about the device's ability to survive the heat and dust of Indian villages, rather than about the cost or of its compatibility with computers, according to V.K. Shunglu, secretary, Department of Welfare. The enterprising multinational, however, has already started preparing a software package that will incorporate almost all the details that a village worker is expected to note. The electronic diaries have been tested out among a few village workers in the Ajmer district of Rajasthan, where it has elicited an enthusiastic response. (C. T. Mahabharat/19950526) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 05/26/95 TELECOM Motorola To Invest Over $160 Million In India (NEWS)(TELECOM)(MSP)(00003) Motorola To Invest Over $160 Million In India 05/26/95 NEW DELHI, INDIA, 1995 MAY 26 (NB) -- Chicago-based Motorola Inc., the $18-billion telecommunications giant, plans to invest over Rs 500 crore (over $160 million) in India in major areas such as new manufacturing units, new technologies, and technical support, with emphasis on research and development, which will be carried out over a period of four years. Apart from its liaison office in New Delhi which looked into the total Motorola operations, the company started operating in India through its subsidiary Motorola India Electronics Pvt. Ltd. and the Motorola Blue Star joint venture, making modems and networking components. While Blue Star later withdrew from the joint venture, the two units were brought under Motorola Pvt. Ltd. The software development center, MIEL, last year bagged the coveted SEI Level 5 certification. Presently, Motorola India's major equipment businesses include cellular phones, two-way radio paging and data communications, semiconductors and advanced electronic systems. With the private operators now being allowed to offer the value-added services, and cellular phone and paging services being launched, Motorola's present thrust, of course, is on the manufacturing of pagers in its two units at Bangalore. Most of the production, however, is still being exported due to lack of local demand. According to Amit Sharma, executive director, Motorola India, this is because the Indian telecom segment is still in its infancy. Motorola India is currently providing technical support to Usha Martin Telekom, which has bagged the cellular phone license for the Calcutta circle. Motorola, however, will not be restricting itself to being an equipment provider and plans to operate a paging service in Bangalore and Bombay. It also intends to set up a Rs 100-crore software technology park in Salt Lake, Calcutta, along with Usha Beltron Electronic Services and Technology, the software arm of Usha Martin. This outfit will be producing telecommunications management software used for the administration of cellular and other communication networks. The company is currently scouting for local partners in various areas such as sales, distribution, and backup services. (C. T. Mahabharat/19950526) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 05/26/95 GENERAL China - Campaign Against Pornographic Software (NEWS)(GENERAL)(PEK)(00004) China - Campaign Against Pornographic Software 05/26/95 BEIJING, CHINA, 1995 MAY 26 (NB) -- To prevent pornographic computer software from contaminating the minds of youth, especially school children and college students, Tianjin, a north China port city, took the lead in launching a campaign against pornographic software, Beijing Youth Daily reported. Illegal duplication, trafficking and spreading of pornography through computer technology in China are rampant, the newspaper said. Pornographic software copies have drawn close attention of public security departments throughout the country and have become a new target of anti-pornography campaigners. In Tianjin, a campaign against pornographic software has been launched. One target of the crackdown was a worker in a state-owned company. The suspect advertised his pornographic software in a local newspaper, "Software News." Police seized more than 50 pieces of illegal software in a raid at the suspect's home. In Tianjin, police also searched the computer centers and student dormitories of 21 institutions of high education and found that students in 15 colleges and universities had used pornographic software. Beijing Youth Daily also said that pornographic software mainly comes from abroad, and is duplicated and sold to personal computer owners, families, and school computer centers. With more and more networks in China, an article in China Infoworld warned, pornographic pictures and software can come into the country easily and spread quickly. (Chih-Ho Yu & Ning Huang/19950505) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 05/26/95 FEATURE GENERAL Interview - Chris Wening Of Exabyte On Tape Backup (FEATURE)(GENERAL)(SYD)(00005) Interview - Chris Wening Of Exabyte On Tape Backup 05/26/95 SYDNEY, AUSTRALIA 1995 MAY 26 (NB) -- Travelling the world is a standard part of Chris Wening's job. As senior account manager for Colorado-based Exabyte, Wening regularly travels to far-flung points of the globe to promote the growth of his company's products. Exabyte claims to be the world's largest independent manufacturer focused solely on tape storage products, which it ships to original equipment manufacturers, value-added resellers, and distributors. At PC 95 show, held recently in Sydney, Newsbytes took the opportunity to speak to Wening on the subject of tape backup systems. Newsbytes: What are the major factors in the growth of tape drive sales? Wening: Pioneered by Exabyte, unattended tape backup, with easy to use software, has become a low cost alternative for data storage, with a dollar per megabyte storage cost of two percent of the price of disk drives. There has also been an overall recognition in the business environment of the value of data and the risk of financial or business loss from lost data. Another factor is that the growth in disk drives is driving the requirements for greater storage. Product visibility has also generated a fair bit of growth. As the number of suppliers and tape products increase, so then does the profile of the technology. There's also been a high visibility of data backup benefits as a by-product of the DAT vs. 8mm press battles in 1993 and 1994. The last main factor is the growth of data. This is generally seen in increased data applications such as multimedia, the World Wide Web, and people's basic unwillingness to delete records that may some day be crucial. Newsbytes: What is the market potential for tape drives at the lower (small and home office) level? Wening: Exabyte is very confident that the SOHO market segment is set to grow dramatically. The key to success with the SOHO market is to educate the users on the value of their data, and how backup is an affordable and essential data "insurance" activity. The QIC products, and in some cases DAT, are the ideal products for these price-sensitive customers. Tape competes not only against the users' lack of education of tape backup's benefit, but also competes against other products that the user also desires, such as a printer upgrade or multimedia capability. So the SOHO marketplace offers two challenges: win the customer's interest in tape backup and convince the SOHO user that this is her/his best allocation of "computer-targeted" funds. Newsbytes: What sales opportunities for users who already have a tape drive? Wening: If the existing tape drive is a low-end QIC product the user can upgrade to a high performance QIC drive, a 4mm DAT drive, or an 8mm drive. If there is already a high-performance tape drive, the user can upgrade the software to a higher performance aftermarket version - this is especially true in LAN applications. They can also add a 4mm DAT or 8mm library and library software to get a more sophisticated data management capability. The larger the user's installation, the greater the benefits that can be accrued from automating data management. Newsbytes: What level of knowledge does the marketplace have about tape backup? Wening: The SOHO market for example, is generally unsophisticated but often surprises us with their point-knowledge on a specific product or technology. They need to be convinced of the value of data, and why backup is crucial to the SOHO's business success. They should also be exposed to issues of preventative maintenance to assure the highest reliability, and given instruction on the simple-to-use software supplied with the tape drive. Moving up the scale, we next encounter the small to medium size LAN user. Generally cost-conscious, the user may have a technology preference but they look for a hardware recommendation with the greatest concern being a software match. Next we encounter the high performance PC or workstation user with a small to medium sized network. This user, with a heavy reliance on sophisticated technical tools, generally understands his backup needs in terms of capacity (today and in the future) and the negative effect of his ever shrinking backup window. Not knowledgeable about network transfer rate limitations, this user is often overly impressed with product specifications, but at the same time fails to purchase sufficient capacity for future requirements (LAN disk capacity grows 60 per cent per year). This user often under-purchases capacity and has an undue reliance on data compression, which we all know varies substantially with the type of data being compressed. Exabyte always recommends that customers purchase tape drives based on native capacity. They can then plan for data compression benefits as the system increases in size in the future. There's a caveat to this though. Rapidly expanding networks frequently require maximum performance, and network administrators generally plan to upgrade hardware with succeeding generations every 18 to 24 months. For these customers, data compression is necessity is an integral part of their decision. Newsbytes: What are some of the key advantages of having a tape drive unit? Wening: Most definitely, the value of data. Studies have shown that about half of the companies that lose their data go out of business within six months! It's also important to realize that 87 percent of lost data is caused by human error. Your worst enemy is your index finger. The cost of recreating lost data shouldn't be considered as a "recovery" cost. More to the point, it's an opportunity cost loss of doing the job twice instead of producing additional revenue. The cost of downtime when networks are being restored can often prove fatal to a business. The cost of managing data is also a significant factor. It generally costs $10-20,000 to manage one gigabyte of data each year; bearing in mind that one gigabyte typically represents 100,000 files. (Keir Wells/19950525) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 05/26/95 GENERAL Shareware Award Nominees - List (NEWS)(GENERAL)(MSP)(00006) Shareware Award Nominees - List 05/26/95 SCOTTSDALE, ARIZONA, U.S.A., 1995 MAY 26 (NB) -- Here is a list of the nominees for the Shareware Industry Award Foundation's (SIAF) 1995 Shareware Industry Awards. The winners will be announced during the Shareware Industry Conference in Scottsdale, Arizona June 22-25. BEST NEW PRODUCT: Rise of the Triad -- Apogee Software; Tek Illustrator -- TommySoftware; WordExpress -- MicroVision. BEST UTILITIES: Integrity Master -- Stiller Research; Plug-In for Program Manager -- Plannet Crafters; Screen Thief -- Mildram Software; Take Command -- J.P. Software; WinZip - Nico Mak. BEST APPLICATIONS: Ad Hoc -- ExLogica; COMMO -- Fred Brucker; OZICS for Windows -- Steve Sneed; Telemate -- Winfred Hu; Telix for Windows -- DeltaComm Development. BEST WORD PROCESSING APPLICATIONS: DocuPower -- Total System Solutions; Gator Edit -- Derek Backus; InfoRecall -- Curtram Consulting; WordExpress for Windows -- MicroVision. BEST GRAPHICS AND MULTIMEDIA UTILITIES: Graphics Workshop for Windows -- Alchemy Mindworks; Image Gallery -- Alchemy Mindworks; JASC Media Center -- JASC, Inc.; SmartDraw -- SmartDraw Software. BEST PAINTING AND DRAWING PROGRAM: CAD/DRAW -- TommySoftware; PaintShop Pro 3.0 -- JASC, Inc.; Tek Illustrator -- TommySoftware. BEST BUSINESS AND FINANCE: Capital Gainz -- David Lee Cohen; Contact Plus -- Ed Trujillo; HiFinance! -- Brightridge Solutions; Money Smith -- Brad Smith. TECHNICAL PROGRAMS: FastGraph -- Ted Gruber Software; HelpEdit for Visual Basic -- Aciran Software Systems; Mathomatic -- George Gesslein II; SymbMath -- Weiguang Huang; UCalc -- Daniel Corbier. BEST EDUCATION PROGRAM: Animated Money -- Tom Guthery IV; Billy Bear Let's Party -- Loraine Wauer; XYSee -- Insight Advantage. BEST ENTERTAINMENT PROGRAM: 1994 Pool -- Shin & Chung; Color Wizard -- ImagiSoft; MVP Word Search -- MVP Software; Soleau Games Collection -- William Soleau. BEST ACTION/ARCADE GAMES: Descent -- Parallax Software/Interplay; Heretic -- Raven/id Software; One Must Fall 2097 -- Epic MegaGames; Rise of the Triad -- Apogee Software Ltd. BEST HOME AND HOBBY PROGRAM: Captain Bible -- Bridgestone Multimedia; Kith & Kins (Windows) -- SpanSoft; Online Bible -- Larry Pierce; SoundZ -- Unicorn Software. (Bob Woods/19950523/Press Contact: Phil Hall, Open City Communications, 221-714-3575. Public Contact: Jim Perkins, Shareware Industry Awards Foundation, 602-443-4109) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 05/26/95 TELECOM Ericsson/Ascom In Site Paging Joint Venture (NEWS)(TELECOM)(LON)(00007) Ericsson/Ascom In Site Paging Joint Venture 05/26/95 STOCKHOLM, SWEDEN, 1995 MAY 26 (NB) -- The humble radiopager -- beeper as it is known in the US -- has been reborn. At least, that's what Ericsson is claiming, as the Swedish telecoms giant has announced the signing of a memorandum of understanding with Ascom to form a joint venture company to promote radiopaging systems on a global basis. The as-yet-unnamed company will promote, sell and support on-site paging systems across Europe and into overseas markets, Newsbytes understands. Initially, the company will pitch itself into markets where the user is away from his/her desk, but still within the grounds of the organization. These markets include medical care, manufacturing and distribution. According to officials with Ascom, the new venture will aim to develop new software for pagers for use in Europe, where VHF radio system predominate, as well as develop paging technology into new markets, such as the cellular, digital cellular and PCN (personal communications network) arenas. Under the memorandum, plans call for Ascom to take a 70 percent stake in the new company, with the remaining 30 percent owned by Ericsson. Plans also call for the Ascom Tateco AB company in Gotheburg, Sweden to become the headquarters of the new alliance, retaining its subsidiary companies and integrating its UK distributor, Ascom Tele- Nova, into the operation. On the Ericsson side of the business, plans call for several of the Swedish telco's operations to be integrated into the new venture. These include the NIRA companies in Netherlands, Belgium, France and Australia, Ericsson's Private Systems in Germany, the OSP divisions within Ericsson AG in Switzerland, LM Ericsson A/S in Denmark and the OSP activities of Ericsson Radio Systems in the Netherlands. (Sylvia Dennis/19950525/Press Contact: Mats Fridlund, Ascom Tateco AB +46-31-55-9330; Gerrit Koning, Ericsson + 31-5910-37-777) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 05/26/95 CHIPS German Electronic Component Market Taking Off (NEWS)(CHIPS)(LON)(00008) German Electronic Component Market Taking Off 05/26/95 BREMEN, GERMANY, 1995 MAY 26 (NB) -- Zentralverbrand Elektrotechnik und Elektronikindustrie e.V. (ZVEI), the German electronics industry federation, has announced that the recession in the Germany computer and electronics industry is now over. Officers expect sales in the industry to increase 15 percent during the current year, and sales will continue to increase at least until the end of the century. In a statement released to the business press this week, ZVEI notes that the projected market for electronic components for the current calendar year will top the DM 20 billion mark for the first time -- an increase of 15 percent on the 1994 recorded figures. This projection, ZVEI officials claim, is a conservative one, and the recorded 1995 figures could be even higher. The main impetus behind the sales surge is a massive increase in PC component requirements over the last 18 months. ZVEI claims that, over the last 12 months, the requirement of the Germany PC manufacturing community has increased by 255 percent, as businesses gain more confidence and buy PCs to replace their older 80286 and 386-based machines. The Pentium chipset, officials note, has been responsible for this replacement trend. Preliminary figures for the first four months of 1995 put even these estimates out of date. ZVEI officials say that they have noted a 32 percent growth pattern in PC component sales during the four months to the end of April of this year. ZVEI officials also note that the surge in PC semiconductor sales may also be due to the continuing success of German PC vendors such as Schneider and Escom as they sell machines outside of the domestic market and into the European retail market. As reported recently by Newsbytes, Escom has just opened some 100 new outlets in the UK and is on target to open a further 100 by the end of this year. ZVEI warns that the euphoria surrounding the sales increase may be a little premature, as its members are noting a falling price trend for the semiconductors themselves. This trend, it warns, could dampen the enthusiasm of the electronics industry, at least in Germany. (Sylvia Dennis & Steve Gold/19950525/Press & Reader Contact: ZVEI +49- 511-893-4311) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 05/26/95 ONLINE Apricot Planning "Infotrade" -- Business Online Service (NEWS)(ONLINE)(LON)(00009) Apricot Planning "Infotrade" -- Business Online Service 05/26/95 BIRMINGHAM, ENGLAND, 1995 MAY 26 (NB) -- Apricot has announced plans to launch a set of online services for online users later this year. Known as Infotrade, the system will have different branded services for different groups of customers. The first online service off the launch pad will be the ShareTrader service. This will provide UK domestic investors with the facility of accessing up to the minute market data and trading services online, using their PC, for the first time. Future online services will include domestic financial services that offer the ease of use of the PC-based system, together with what Apricot calls "high quality information and support from key third parties." Apricot has signed deals with six financial service businesses: Financial Times, London Stock Exchange, ShareLink, FT-Extel, City Deal Services and Edinburgh Financial Publishing. These firms will offer information on the Infotrade range of online services. The idea behind Infotrade is that domestic customers can have access to brokerage and financial information services that were previously only available to professional brokers. According to Peter O'Connell, the director of Infotrade, which is a newly created division of the Apricot Computers Group, the first partners for the service have set high standards in the financial services industry. "We are delighted that they are participating in Infotrade to provide an unrivalled quality of information and service to the domestic customer," he said. O'Connell said that Infotrade will offer an unique service "making the process of managing personal finances easier, more efficient and more effective through the power of the PC." "Services like ShareTrader will, for the first time, even the playing field for the person at home with the broker in the city," he said. (Steve Gold/19950526/Press Contact: Mark Hampton, Text 100 +44-181- 242-4180; Internet Email markh@text100.co.uk; Reader Contact: Judith Lonsdale, Infotrade/Apricot Computers +44-121-717-7171; Internet Email judithl@apricot.co.uk) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 05/26/95 PC Olivetti Unveils New Pentium Systems (NEWS)(PC)(LON)(00010) Olivetti Unveils New Pentium Systems 05/26/95 LONDON, ENGLAND, 1995 MAY 26 (NB) -- Olivetti has launched a high- speed 486 and Pentium range of additions to its M4 Modulo range of PCs. According to Alan Hendry, the company's PC product manager, the new machines are priced extremely aggressively to undercut the competition, including Compaq, and so boost market share. According to Olivetti, pricing strategy has been fundamental to the product launch, and Olivetti's desire to win business from the competition. The new M4-75, a 75 megahertz (MHz) Pentium system, prices in at UKP 1,579, which Olivetti claims is UKP 171 cheaper than the equivalent Compaq system. The new M4-90, meanwhile, a 90MHz Pentium-based system, costs UKP 1,930, while the equivalent Compaq system costs UKP 1,930. The more powerful the machine, Olivetti claims, the better the savings. The idea behind the aggressively priced machines is to boost Olivetti's market share from four to 10 percent. The machines offer fast processors, fast I/O bus, fast disk technology and advanced graphics. Announcing the new machines, Hendry said that they have been designed specifically for value-conscious professional users looking for exceptional performance in a cost effective system. "We firmly believe the Modulo is a volume product which will take Olivetti into the top five PC vendors. Our aim is to increase our market share to 10 percent and we have set an aggressive pricing strategy," he explained. The M4-75 and M4-90 systems are available in the UK immediately, while M4-564 and M4-584, which incorporate, respectively, DX2 (66MHz) and DX4 (100MHz) technology, will be available during June. The two new Pentium systems come with 8MB of memory, expandable to 128MB internally), as standard, as well as 512K of video memory on the M4-75 and 1MB on the M4-90 machines. All the new systems come with 3 ISA (Industry Standard Architecture), 1 PCI (Peripheral Component Interconnect) and a single ISA/PCA slot. Hard disk options range from 420MB, through 840MB and up to 1,280MB. (Steve Gold/19950526/Press Contact: Text 100 +44-181-242-4168; Reader Contact: Olivetti +44-181-765-6666; Fax +44-181-874-3014) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 05/26/95 ONLINE Delphi Web Service To Use Kenan Billing Package (NEWS)(ONLINE)(BOS)(00011) Delphi Web Service To Use Kenan Billing Package 05/26/95 CAMBRIDGE, MASSACHUSETTS, U.S.A., 1995 MAY 26 (NB) -- Delphi's upcoming new Internet service has joined AT&T's PersonaLink among online services using Kenan's Arbor/BP "flexible billing" package, said Kurt Silverman, Kenan's director of product development, in a conference call with Newsbytes. Delphi will run Arbor/BP on HP 9000, to supply "flexible billing options and efficient customer care" for a new Internet service, to be launched this fall, that will offer content from the News Corporation and other providers, Web browsing, Internet mail, Internet chat, and "multimedia features," according to Silverman. Unlike many other billing packages on the market today, Arbor/BP is "software for the nineties," Silverman contended. Kenan's product is able to achieve "flexibility" through an embedded Sybase RDBMS (relational database management system), a Unix-based client-server architecture, use of the C programming language, and support for "open systems standards," he told Newsbytes. First introduced in 1990 on the Sequent platform, and ported since then to AT&T/GIS (formerly NCR), HP-UX, and Sun's Sparc/Solaris, Arbor/BP has been used primarily for telephony until now, according to the Kenan exec. "Like telephony, though, the Internet will require sophisticated billing and rating. There's going to be an explosion of new products and services on the Internet, some of which haven't even been invented yet," he pointed out. "The selection of Arbor/BP by Delphi Internet is evidence of Arbor's generic capabilities in the online market," maintained Eric Schnadig, marketing specialist for Kenan. Silverman told Newsbytes that Arbor/BP has been designed from the start to provide "unified billing," as well as to track usage. "In the older systems, you're billing only for your own services, whereas in newer systems, such as Arbor/BP, you can provide unified billing across access and content providers," he reported. Arbor/BP gives providers a clearer picture of how many people are using their services, and makes it easier for them to offer changing menus of goods and services, with "full credit card, debit card, and electronic funds transfer," Silverman asserted. Also in contrast to other billing packages, he said, Arbor/HP is able to perform the "difficult" job of managing multiple international currencies, a feature that is particularly useful on the Internet. "The beauty of the Internet is that it has no regional boundaries. But at the same time, this places a new kind of stress on underlying systems that support it," Silverman noted. Arbor/BP supports TCP/IP (transmission control protocol/Internet protocol), a capability that allows access to "simultaneous events" within a single session over the Internet, according to Silverman. The Kenan software can also track usage over simultaneous events. "A user might have multiple windows open, with one window doing browsing, another window for a game that carries its own charge, another window for downloading software, also with its own charge, and additional windows where they're buying a T-shirt, and making reservations to attend a play," he illustrated. Arbor/BP's client-server architecture brings "scalability," and its support for open systems, in general, allows users to leverage their investments by "expanding their systems," Newsbytes was told. Use of the C programming language provides easier maintenance by internal MIS (management information systems) staff, who are typically schooled in C, according to Silverman. In addition, the C language permits Kenan to quickly port Arbor/BP to new flavors of Unix when customer needs call for new platforms, he asserted. Arbor/BP is designed to handle functions that include message processing, rating, discounting, bill production, remittance processing, accounts receivable processing, collections, and journaling, plus these "customer care" services: customized bill formatting and distribution, online account inquiry, customer provisioning, and invoice adjustments, according to the two Kenan officials. (Jacqueline Emigh/19950525/Reader Contacts: Kenan Technologies, 617-225-2224; Delphi Internet Services Corp., 617-491-3393; Press Contacts: Eric Schnadig, Kenan Technologies, 202-488-3610; Craig Librett, Miller Communications for Kenan, 617-536-0470; Nancy Morrisroe, Delphi Internet, 617-441-4532 or 212-556-8116; Schwartz Communications for Delphi, 431-0770) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 05/26/95 TRENDS Visions Of The Networked Society (NEWS)(TRENDS)(MSP)(00012) Visions Of The Networked Society 05/26/95 SEATTLE, WASHINGTON, U.S.A., 1995 MAY 26 (NB) -- The industrial model of society that has shaped our perceptions and social habits for generations is now coming under attack by the network model, social scientists suggest. What this portends is the subject of Andrew Kupfer's "Along Together" (Fortune, Mar. 20, 1995, pp. 94-104). Industrialization moved people from a sun-based routine to one controlled by the time clock and characterized by a separate workplace, Kupfer explains. "Wired technology already is assaulting the industrial concept of the workday; as technology brings greater realism to electronic communications, the workplace for many will become untethered to geography, letting people live anywhere. The fear is that in liberating us from geography and the clock, networks will destroy intimacy, both by making solitude impossible and by making physical presence immaterial to communication." Kupfer goes on to cite examples of how this is already happening and why such trends may accelerate: "Imagine a company with a task that needs urgent attention -- say, designing a lawnmower or writing a computer program. The company might not maintain a cadre within its ranks to do the job. Instead, it trolls the net for talent, sending out a bulletin that describes the tasks to be done and the skill required of team members." Winning bidders would work together via video hookup and then disband, vanishing once again into the global talent pool. This story is republished with permission from the May 1995 Cybernautics Digest, a monthly summary of reports about converging information technologies. (Contact: Terry Hansen, Cybernautics Digest, c/o KFH Publications Inc., 3530 Bagley Ave. N., Seattle, WA 98103; 206-547-4950; Fax: 206-547-5355; E-mail: cybernbm@cuix.pscu.com. U.S. subscription rate: $24; $2 sample issue) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 05/26/95 TRENDS Toward the Digital Electronic Automobile (NEWS)(TRENDS)(MSP)(00013) Toward the Digital Electronic Automobile 05/26/95 SEATTLE, WASHINGTON, U.S.A., 1995 MAY 26 (NB) -- Increasingly, automobiles are beginning to think for themselves, providing such functions as mapping, navigation, security, communications, and even night vision for drivers. Electronics companies stand to cash in big time on this emerging trend, as Ronald K. Jurgen explains in "The Electronic Motorist" (IEEE Spectrum, Mar. 1995, pp. 37-48). "...in the buoyant field of automotive electronics, emerging technologies should more than offset market saturation by maturing products," Jurgen reports. "Revenues worldwide could reach US $15 billion in 1994, $20 billion by 2000, and $28 billion by 2005, concluded a study released in October 1994 by Siemens Automotive Corp. and .MDRV/Ward's Auto World,.MDNM/ of Auburn and Southfield, Mich., respectively. The same study predicted that, on average, the cost of electronics per car would hit $1500-$1749 this year and as much as $2249 by 2000." Jurgen goes on to describe the concepts likely to promote strong growth in automotive electronics. This story is republished with permission from the May 1995 Cybernautics Digest, a monthly summary of reports about converging information technologies. (Contact: Terry Hansen, Cybernautics Digest, c/o KFH Publications Inc., 3530 Bagley Ave. N., Seattle, WA 98103; 206-547-4950; Fax: 206-547-5355; E-mail: cybernbm@cuix.pscu.com. U.S. subscription rate: $24; $2 sample issue) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 05/26/95 EDUCATION Philippines - Teachers Lobby For Internet Link-up (NEWS)(EDUCATION)(TYO)(00014) Philippines - Teachers Lobby For Internet Link-up 05/26/95 MANILA, PHILIPPINES, 1995 MAY 26 (NB) -- Technology educators will press for the linking up of the country's state universities and colleges into the Philippine Internet node when the Teachers' Assembly on Computers and Telecommunications (TACT) '95 takes place this June 1 to 3 at the Shangri-la Hotel. Sponsored by the Philippine State Universities and Colleges Computer Educations Systems Society (PSUCCESS), TACT '95 will be among the information technology trade exhibition and technical conference events at UNITE 95. UNITE 95 or the Unified Information Technology Events is the simultaneous holding of IT events by the country's telecommunications and computer associations with a view to provide a world-class convention for the country's information technology sector. PSUCCESS President Carmela Perez told Newsbytes that the association will formally start lobbying for the interconnection of the country's state universities and colleges into the global information superhighway when it issues a resolution calling for such at TACT '95. She said the resolution will be the basis for the campaign to have at least 25 percent of the 91 Philippine state universities and colleges that are PSUCCESS members to be wired into the Internet by the year 2000. Dr. Perez, holder of a professorial chair in computer science at the Polytechnic University of the Philippines, said the 25 percent are state universities and colleges whose faculty and administration fully appreciate the benefits of IT to education. This is because they grant academic degrees in computer-related courses or at least offer short-term programs while making extensive use of computers in school administration. The 25 percent are expected to later convince other state colleges and universities to hook up to Internet by showing the advantages for an educational institution. Dr. Perez said that Internet provides a worldwide communications and networking base that allows academic institutions to continuously share information, knowledge, and experiences with regard to teaching in an efficient, effective, and economical manner. Further, Internet will enable every state university and college to truly fulfill its traditional mandate of teaching, research, and providing extension services. Aside from its institutional members, PSUCCESS also has 253 individuals as members composed of IT instructors, computer science and computer engineering department heads, and school administrators in state colleges and universities all over the country. According to Perez, 75 percent of the country's state universities and colleges are institutional members of PSUCCESS. Among these are PUP, Eulogio "Amang" Rodriguez Institute of Technology, and Central Luzon State University. (Metropolitan Computer Times/19950524/ Internet E-mail dilips@netcom.com, Contact person: Dr. Carmela Perez/PSUCCESS president/Tel.818-4227/817-2238) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 05/26/95 EDUCATION Canadian Schools Want Telecom Price Breaks (NEWS)(EDUCATION)(TOR)(00015) Canadian Schools Want Telecom Price Breaks 05/26/95 OTTAWA, ONTARIO, CANADA, 1995 MAY 26 (NB) -- Canadian telephone companies should be allowed to offer a new category of services for educational institutions, says a report prepared by a group of educators and telephone company representatives. According to the report, lumping schools, colleges, and universities in with businesses threatens their ability to take advantage of new telecom technology. The report, Education and the Information Highway, was backed by the telecommunications committee of the Canadian Educational Network Coalition -- which includes representatives of universities, teachers' unions, school boards, telephone companies, and related groups -- the National Advisory Board for the SchoolNet national educational network, and the Stentor consortium of regional telephone companies. Canadian educational institutions have been treated as businesses in the past for purposes of telecommunications rates, so they pay the same higher rates as businesses do for everything from single phone lines to more advanced services. "Until recently, this arrangement was quite innocuous," says the report, "since most educational institutions generally made unexceptional use of telecommunications in their activities." Now, however, the Internet and services such as audio and video conferencing are playing a growing role in education. The report lists access to public networks, private educational networks, distance learning, and multimedia-based "telelearning," among the benefits of new telecom technology to education. An example is SchoolNet, a national network linking more than 3,000 elementary and secondary schools. The report notes that most of the participating schools today are in urban and higher- income areas, and raises the concern that without changes in telecom rates it may not be accessible to others. The group calls on the government to let Canada's telephone companies create a new rate category for education, so that they can set up rate structures more suited to these institutions. This would mean lower rates but also different rate structures, for instance addressing schools' and universities' need to predict costs precisely so they can stay within their budgets. Only non-profit, public educational institutions accredited by government would be eligible for these rates, the report proposes. "In almost every case," reads the report, "the educators and the Stentor companies are struggling to make the 'square peg' of business telecommunications services fit the 'round hole' of educational needs. The mismatch includes features, flexibility and reach as well as pricing rates and structures." The report also asks that telephone companies be given more freedom to work with educators, as it says cable television operators already are. And it suggests that government subsidies may be needed to help schools in remote communities afford the same telecom services that those in larger centers can. "Many Canadian educators ... look with envy at announcements from Bell Atlantic, Pacific Bell, and other American carriers who have announced major levels of support for schools and colleges, with the backing of state regulators," says the report. "The regulatory environment in the US offers opportunities for American carriers to work with their state regulatory bodies to offer unique services and special pricing to educational institutions." The Education and the Information Highway report concludes that "a well-implemented telecommunications program in the educational sector will help create a better educated and more cohesive population, increased employment opportunities and improved global competitiveness. Equitable school access to the information highway must be established as an immediate national priority so these important social benefits can be widely enjoyed across regions and social groups." (Grant Buckler/19950526/Public Contact: Stentor, Internet World Wide Web http://www.stentor.ca) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 05/26/95 WINDOWS MindLink Corporate For Windows, Other Versions Planned (NEWS)(WINDOWS)(BOS)(00016) MindLink Corporate For Windows, Other Versions Planned 05/26/95 NORTH POMFRET, VERMONT, U.S.A., 1995 MAY 26 (NB) -- MindLink, which just unveiled a Windows 3.1-based corporate edition of its problem solving software, is now planning network and Windows 95 versions, and is also considering "low-end" and Mac-based corporate editions, revealed Michael Shattow, chief executive officer (CEO), during an interview with Newsbytes. Initially introduced in 1990, MindLink Problem Solver is designed to produce computer-aided "creative problem solving and innovative thinking," according to Shattow. Now in version 2.2, the original software was first introduced as a Hypercard-based product for the Mac, and was later ported to Windows, he added. The new MindLink Problem Solver Corporate Edition for Windows brings new features like the "Thought Warehouse" database and "Evaluate and Refine," along with enhancements to original MindLink capabilities such as "Problem Solving," "Idea Generation," "Customized Reports," and -- for a quick creative workout -- "The Gym." The Problem Solving and Idea Generation components are both aimed at spurring "divergent thinking," helping users to "break out of the self-imposed conscious and unconscious constraints that typically limit creative thinking," according to the CEO. Problem Solving starts out with a problem definition and background statements, and moves on to "wishing" -- in which the user sets goals, ideal outcomes, and desires -- and, from there, to determining possible solutions to the problem. The new Evaluate and Refine feature can then be used to evaluate the possible solutions for "pluses" and "concerns." Users complete the process by defining "next steps," and can then present their findings in a report. The new corporate edition of MindLink provides hundreds of "idea triggers," such as word association exercises, imaging and improvisational techniques, "humorous writing games," literature, and "objects that change each time they are used to continuously stimulate new thinking," he added. Through another new feature in the corporate edition, triggers can now be either pre-selected by user preference or randomly generated by the software. The corporate edition also provides preformatted as well as customizable reports. Report frameworks are offered for business plans, project plans, marketing strategies, and book outlines. Windows drag-and-drop can be used to quickly fill out a report by moving ideas from either a problem outline or the Thought Warehouse database, according to the company chief. The new Thought Warehouse database is accompanied by an "easy-to- use" keyword search, Newsbytes was told. Users can also sort and filter to produce a "subset of thoughts." Data can be exported to other Windows applications in Rich Text Format (RTF). Shattow told Newsbytes that MindLink comes with a runtime version of Microsoft Access, as well as an Open Database Connectivity (ODBC) driver that allows use of other RDBMS. The CEO reported that the upcoming network edition of MindLink, which is scheduled for release this fall, will operate on NetWare, and probably on LANManager, as well. The company also plans to release a native Windows 95 edition of MindLink, when Assymetrix Toolbox, the development tool used to create MindLink, becomes available on that platform, he noted. In addition, MindLink is "seriously considering" a "low-end edition" of the problem-solving software, according to Shattow. Consideration is being given, too, to a Hypercard 3.1-based edition of the high-end corporate product for the Mac, the CEO told Newsbytes. MindLink Problem Solver Corporate Edition is slated to ship in mid- June through retail channels and value-added resellers (VARs), as well as direct from the company. Pricing is $299 with Thought Warehouse. Upgrades from MindLink Problem Solver 2.x for Windows are $79. (Jacqueline Emigh/19950525/Reader Contact: MindLink, 802-457-2025; Press Contact: Joan Casey, Kelleher/Casey Communications for MindLink, 617-325-7209) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 05/26/95 GOVT China - Do Your R&D In China, Urges Official (NEWS)(GOVT)(PEK)(00017) China - Do Your R&D In China, Urges Official 05/26/95 BEIJING, CHINA, 1995 MAY 26 (NB) -- A senior Chinese official is trying to persuade foreign companies to cooperate with China to develop software suitable for the Chinese environment. Cooperation in software R&D will not only bring big profits to both foreign and Chinese partners, but also help foreign firms to reduce their investment risks, said Mr. Fusheng Ji, the deputy director of the Basic research and High Technology Department of the State Science and Technology Commission. In developed countries, leading enterprises, like IBM and AT&T, usually spend 7 to 10 percent of their sales income on research and development and the figure in some high-tech firms is even high as 25 to 30 percent, a level which raises their investment risk, Mr. Ji said. Because of their lower salaries, cooperation with Chinese research and development personnel can help foreign firms to reduce their investment risks, Ji said. There are now more than one million scientists and engineers specializing in R&D sector in China, he added. Mr. Ji made the statements at an information management seminar held in Beijing which was jointly organized by the commission, Ministry of Electronics Industry, and Oracle Corp., of the United States. (Chih-Ho Yu & Ning Huang/19950507) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 05/26/95 EDITORIAL WINDOWS Editorial - The Sick PC User Syndrome (EDITORIAL)(WINDOWS)(SYD)(00018) Editorial - The Sick PC User Syndrome 05/26/95 SYDNEY, AUSTRALIA 1995 MAY 26 (NB) -- Any family doctor will tell you that a certain percentage of people who visit them don't have any physical sickness, although they might think they do. They come because they need reassurance or perhaps just someone who'll listen to them -- there's a parallel in the silicon world. PC users need to feel comfortable with their machine, and if it doesn't do what they think it should, they get PC-sickness. That's when they bad-mouth the system to their colleagues, or blame it for everything that goes wrong around the office, or worst of all, complain to anyone who'll listen. It wouldn't be so bad if there was really something wrong, but all too often the real problem is the way the person and machine interact. Tests have shown that users have an expectation of how long a PC should take to respond to a command, or how long it takes for a screen to appear or what buttons do what when you click them, and if the system goes outside these bounds the user gets uncomfortable. Take the example of a user who selects the print button in a company report program. Nothing happens for ten seconds so they click on the button again. Ten seconds later the screen still looks the same so they click a third time. Then, and only then, the cursor turns into an hourglass and a box pops up, announcing the job is being sent to the printer. "15 percent, 36 percent, 74 percent, print job finished." Out of the printer pops the report. Then another copy. Then a third. By hitting the print button three times they got what they asked for. And to make it worse, they'll probably do exactly the same thing next time. Who's to blame? The user for being impatient or even dumb? Or the computer for failing to give the feedback that the user needs? You can't blame the user for two reasons. The first is that they're the customers, and the customer is always right. The second is that they should be able to use the PC without being trapped into doing do silly things. The standard buzzword for the Windows interface is "intuitive" meaning the user should guess how it will work ... no, more than that ... they should instinctively "know" what to do. What a lot of rot that is. The thing we call intuitive is really a learned response. Take an uneducated farmer from remote Mongolia and sit him in front of an icon-driven Windows screen with a mouse. How long do you think it will take before he works out the difference between double-clicking and single clicking? For anyone to be able to "intuitively" use the Windows interface they need to be given basic instruction in how it works. And then, they continue to learn by using applications. Meanwhile we try our hardest by giving them applications that break, rather than reinforce the rules. For instance, the right button in some applications brings up a menu. In others it zooms the view and in others it's programmed as the undo key. No wonder they get confused. Still, in the bad old days of character-based DOS applications, programmers were complete masters of the way the package looked and worked, albeit at the expense of a huge programming job. Today's Windows-based applications tend to inherit too much of the personality of the software used to develop them. Another thing we forget is the overhead of Windows. Character-based applications gave us control over the speed of what was happening on the system, and specifically what was happening on the screen. If a database sort was probably going to take ten minutes, the programmer would have the software say that up front, then reinforce it with a progress bar that showed the user how the job was going. For a little more user comfort, he/she added a flashing message that gave the impression something was happening. This sort of feedback is extremely important whenever a user action isn't immediately followed by a system response. How long "immediately" is depends on the action and the system, but users hate to see a delay of more than a fraction of a second before getting some feedback showing the system has responded. That's the next problem with today's GUI (graphical user interface) environments. It's almost impossible to predict how the software will perform on a given system because it depends on all sorts of variables like processor speed, system resources, what other applications are running, network traffic, and so on. The best written program comes unstuck when the computer responds to a mouse click by swapping large chunks of data out to hard disk, and seemingly freezing for three seconds before giving the user any sign that it got the command. In fact, one of the best types of feedback used to be the sound of the hard disk clunking away as soon as we asked the machine to do something. Now we use quiet drives and or we put the computer out of the way under the desk. You can't win. And computers fail. They freeze in the middle of applications, they spontaneously reboot, losing any data not saved. This leads to the user losing confidence and if they don't feel confident about their work on the computer they become less productive. The next phase in this ongoing problem will be when users move to Windows '95. As good as the system may be, it's different and they will have to learn new ways to control the machine and new ways to detect how it is responding. And despite what Microsoft may say, there is no such thing as a crash-proof operating system. Next patient please! (Paul Zucker/19950510) (ADVISORY)(GENERAL)(MSP)(00019) No Newsbytes Monday, May 29 05/26/95 MINNEAPOLIS, MINNESOTA, U.S.A., 1995 MAY 26 (NB) -- Due to the US Memorial Day holiday, Newsbytes will not publish on Monday, May 29. Our next issue will be Tuesday, May 30. We wish you all a pleasant holiday weekend! (Newsbytes Staff/19950526) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 05/26/95 TELECOM Unitel Charges MT&T With Anti-Competitive Action (NEWS)(TELECOM)(TOR)(00020) Unitel Charges MT&T With Anti-Competitive Action 05/26/95 HALIFAX, NOVA SCOTIA, CANADA, 1995 MAY 26 (NB) -- Toronto-based Unitel Communications Inc. has filed criminal charges against Maritime Telegraph and Telephone Ltd. and one of its officers, accusing the telephone company of anti-competitive behavior violating the federal Telecommunications Act. The charges stem from MT&T's efforts to win long-distance telephone business with the provincial government of Nova Scotia away from Unitel. Unitel, a national long-distance telephone company, alleges that MT&T, which provides local and long-distance phone service in Nova Scotia, offered rebates and service bundles to the provincial government that are not allowed by law. Unitel was initially told it would lose the government business to MT&T, but after the Toronto company filed a complaint with federal regulators the province called off the change, Unitel spokeswoman Carleen Carroll told Newsbytes. The business in question brings Unitel between C$60,000 and C$75,000 per month, Carroll said. If convicted, MT&T could face a fine of C$100,000 on each of two counts of violating the Telecommunications Act, and company officer Ronald Smith could be fined C$10,000 on each count, Carroll said. Spokesman Peter Halpin of MT&T told Newsbytes that "the company never intended at any time to contravene the regulations and clearly will be responding to the court summons." The charges follow a ruling by the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) earlier this month that Unitel could bring criminal charges over MT&T's actions. In that ruling, the federal regulatory body was critical of MT&T's handling of its bid for the provincial government business. Unitel also announced that it is now asking the CRTC for permission to bring similar criminal charges against Newfoundland Telephone for anti-competitive behavior. The company also said it is asking the regulator to require the federally regulated regional phone companies to answer a series of questions about cases where there may be violations of the Telecommunications Act. (Grant Buckler/19950526/Press Contact: Carleen Carroll, Unitel, 416-345-2114; Lynne Coles, Unitel, 416-345-2486; Valerie Gonzalo, Unitel, 514-395-5259; Peter Halpin, MT&T, 902-487-4576) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 05/26/95 PC Digital Cuts PC Prices (NEWS)(PC)(SFO)(00021) Digital Cuts PC Prices 05/26/95 MAYNARD, MASSACHUSETTS, U.S.A. , 1995 MAY 26 (NB) -- Digital Equipment says reductions as much as 20% on selected Starion Pentium-equipped models are available immediately. The new prices also include a Microsoft Bonus Pack of CD titles valued at $300. #IMAGE 1 20 TWPCX \images\95052621.PCX Click here for photo The following Starion models are affected by this cost-cutting move: Starion 300i, powered by a 75 megahertz (MHz) Pentium; 500i also with a 75 MHz Pentium; 700i powered by a 90 MHz Pentium; and 900i with a 100 MHz Pentium processor. All of these models include 8 megabytes (MB) of memory, 1MB of video DRAM, a 14.4 kilobit per second voice/fax/data modem, built-in answering machine, 16-bit stereo sound, a dual speed CD-ROM drive (300i) or a 4X CD-ROM drive (500i, 700i, 900I), DOS, Windows 3.11 and pre-loaded business software. All models include a keyboard and mouse and are Plug and Play ready. Monitors are not included. Hard drive storage on the 300i is 840 MB. The other three models are equipped with a 1 gigabyte hard disk. The entry level 300i is reduced to $1,599 from $1,999. The most popular Starion model, the 500i, is now $1,799, reduced from $2,199. The faster 90 and 100 MHz models are priced at $1,999 and $2,499, respectively. Digital guarantees all models are covered by a three-year warranty. Commenting on the price reductions, Sandy McLaughlin, spokesperson for Digital, told Newsbytes, "The two primary reasons for this reduction are lower component prices which we are able to pass on to our customers and a promotion to attract customers over the holiday weekend. Customers often hear price reduction announcements from a company and when they go to a computer retail outlet the store has not implemented the reductions. At Digital, we are very conscientious about making these price announcements in relation to the retail situation." The Starion models are available through many standard computer retail outlets including Fry's Electronics, CompUSA, Computer Discount Warehouse and others. Digital is also offering a one- year telephone support service for more than 400 business applications for $144. McLaughlin continued, "The Starion models are targeted at the small office/home office market, as well as the personal user market." Individual retailers will supply a card redeemable for the Microsoft Bonus Pack. This CD bundle includes Microsoft Encarta '95, Microsoft Bookshelf '95, Microsoft Golf 1.0, Microsoft Explorapedia, Microsoft Home CD Sampler, and Microsoft Entertainment Pack. Users must send the card and sales receipt to Digital within thirty days of purchase to receive the bundled software. (Patrick McKenna/19950526/Press Contact: Sandy McLaughlin, Digital Equipment, tel 508-264-7981;/DIGITAL950526/PHOTO) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 05/26/95 TELECOM ****House Committee Clears Telecom Bill (NEWS)(TELECOM)(WAS)(00022) ****House Committee Clears Telecom Bill 05/26/95 WASHINGTON, D.C., U.S.A., 1995 MAY 26 (NB) -- After two days of work, the House Commerce Committee yesterday by a 39-5 vote passed the most far-reaching communications reform measure in 61 years. The bill would end most cable television price regulation, broadly deregulate the telephone industry and relax ownership rules for broadcasting. The major fight during the committee markup was an amendment by Rep. Ed Markey (D-Mass.) to keep federal price controls on cable operators who do not yet face full competition. The Markey amendment, which had the support of the Clinton administration, lost by a 32-14 vote. Congress deregulated cable prices during the Reagan administration. But in 1992, amid consumer complaints of price gouging, congressional Democrats reregulated cable prices, over President George Bush's veto. Another key amendment came from committee Chairman Thomas Bliley (R-Va.), who attempted to reach a compromise between the warring long-distance carriers and the regional Bell operating companies over access to each other's markets. Bliley's provision would let a local phone company that has competition for its local market get into long-distance within about six months, rather than the 18 months in the draft legislation. On the other hand, the test to determine whether the local market is competitive would be tougher. The Bliley amendment, which the committee readily accepted, won praise from long-distance companies but was panned by the baby Bells. The Bells claim that Bliley's language would let the long-distance carriers determine the timing of the entry of the Bells into long-distance service. The committee voted 34-13 for an amendment by Rep. Cliff Stearns (R-Fla.) to eliminate the current National limit that says a single company may own no more than 12 television stations and 40 radio stations. The amendment would also let a company own two television stations in the same market, unless the Federal Communications Commission rules that such ownership would give the company market power. The Stearns amendment also strikes restrictions prohibiting a company from owning both a newspaper and a television station in the same market. "This would make Citizen Kane look like an underachiever," said Markey in a futile attempt to defeat the amendment. Republicans said the ownership limits were archaic, given competition from cable, satellite and, eventually, phone companies. "This bill is about the future," said Rep. Jack Fields (R-Texas), chairman of the telecommunications subcommittee. "I hear the gentleman from Massachusetts talking about 1930s-vintage statutes." The telecommunications legislation is a rewrite of the 1934 Communications Act. Markey says that when the bill comes to the floor, probably in July, he will offer an amendment to forbid one company from holding what he calls a "royal flush" -- a newspaper, TV, radio, and cable system in the same market. The Senate, which has a similar bill ready for floor action, could begin floor consideration in early June. But in the Senate, the key will be working out compromises before voting begins on the floor in order to prevent a filibuster by opponents. (Kennedy Maize/19950526/Press Contact: Mike Collins, House Commerce Committee, 202-225-2927) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 05/26/95 LEGAL Senate Panel Passes Shareholder Lawsuit Bill (NEWS)(LEGAL)(WAS)(00023) Senate Panel Passes Shareholder Lawsuit Bill 05/26/95 WASHINGTON, D.C., U.S.A., 1995 MAY 26 (NB) -- With bipartisan backing, the Senate Banking Committee yesterday cleared legislation designed to make it harder to bring shareholder lawsuits alleging securities fraud. High-tech industries, represented by the American Electronics Association, had hoped for tougher provisions in the Senate bill, bringing it closer to legislation that has passed the House. But the language the AEA supported ran into a firestorm of controversy and bill backers agreed to remove it in order to get the bill to the Senate floor. AEA supporters, including Sen. Phil Gramm (R-Texas), hope to restore the stricken language, or something similar, during floor debate. The Banking Committee voted 11-4 to send the measure to the Senate floor. Three committee Democrats, Chris Dodd of Connecticut, Carol Moseley-Braun of Illinois, and Patty Murray of Washington, supported the legislation. Dodd was a major co-sponsor. Dodd said the bill maintains "a sense of balance" between the rights of investors and the needs of business to be protected from frivolous lawsuits. Sen. Alfonse D'Amato (R-N.Y.), chairman of the committee, said the bill was necessary to discourage shareholder lawsuits. "Will this have a deterrent effect?" he asked. "Yes, I believe it will -- on frivolous suits." But consumer interests and the plaintiffs' bar opposed the legislation, arguing that it gives companies too much leeway. "I am deeply concerned there will be grievous cases of abuse arising from this legislation," said Sen. Paul Sarbanes (D-Md.), who attempted and failed to add pro-consumer provisions, along with Sens. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) and Richard Bryan (D-Nev.). The Clinton administration is also troubled by the legislation. Securities and Exchange Commission Chairman Arthur Levitt says he continues "to have serious concerns" about provisions designed to protect executives who make erroneous forecasts about their companies. Levitt says Congress should hold off and let the SEC develop new regulations to take care of the problems that led to the legislation. Dodd responded that he has been waiting for more than a year for SEC action, which has not been forthcoming, and it is now time for Congress to act. (Kennedy Maize/19950526/Press Contact: Kenneth Glueck, AEA, 202-682-9110) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 05/26/95 GENERAL Personnel Roundup (NEWS)(GENERAL)(SFO)(00024) Personnel Roundup 05/26/95 PENN VALLEY, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1995 MAY 26 (NB) -- This is a regular feature, summarizing personnel changes not covered elsewhere by Newsbytes: Digital Equipment Corp., nVIEW Corp., Gateway 2000 Inc., Sherpa Corp., Apple Computer Inc., Microsoft Corp., Borland International, and WorldTel. Savino R. "Sid" Ferrales has been appointed vice president of Human Resources for Digital Equipment Corp. (NYSE:DEC - 508-264-7717). The appointment is effective June 1, 1995. Ferrales, 44, replaces Richard M. Farrahar, who earlier this year announced his intention to leave the company. Ferrales will be responsible for managing Digital's personnel policies and procedures, benefits, employee relations, employee programs, development and learning, compensation and rewards programs, workforce diversity, staffing, human resource information systems and other worldwide workforce-related issues. Angelo (Gus) Guastaferro has been elected to the office of chairman of the board of directors at nVIEW Corp. (NASDAQ-NNM:NVUE - 804-873-1354). Guastaferro is vice president of NASA and Federal Systems for Lockheed Martin Missiles & Space Company of the Lockheed Martin Corp. In other DEC news, the company has announced two appointments to the management of its Japanese operations. Youji Hamawaki president of Digital Equipment Corporation Japan, has been appointed to chairman and representative director and Kuniaki Watanabe will join the company as Digital Japan's new president. Both appointments will become effective July 1, 1995. Watanabe, 47, goes to Digital from EDS Japan K.K. where he served as executive vice president and was a member of the boards of EDS and its affiliate company Japan Systems K.K. Gateway 2000 Inc. (NASDAQ:GATE - 605-232-2709), announced the promotions of four executives: Rick Snyder, executive vice president, now holds the additional title of chief operating officer; Rob Cheng, formerly director of desktop products, was promoted to vice president of desktop products; Bill Shea, formerly director of major accounts, was promoted to vice president of major accounts; and Michael Shrader, formerly Kansas City general manager, was promoted to vice president of general sales and add-ons. John C. Moore has been appointed president and chief executive officer at Sherpa Corp (408-321-4821). Moore was named Sherpa's chief operating officer and president in early December, 1994. Moore was promoted from COO to CEO effective May 16. Stephen C. Schopbach, previously Sherpa's CEO and chairman of the board, will retain the position of chairman of the board for the company. Apple Computer Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL - 408-974-0688) has appointed Brodie Keast to the newly-created position of vice president, Worldwide Product Marketing, and Lamar Potts to the position of vice president, Licensing. The Worldwide Product Marketing organization under Brodie Keast will report directly to Dan Eilers, senior vice president, Worldwide Marketing and Customer Solutions. The licensing organization under Lamar Potts will report to David Nagel, senior vice president of Apple's Worldwide Research and Development organization, and will be responsible for managing Apple's OEM (original equipment manufacturer) licensing business for Mac OS, technology components, Newton and interactive media technologies. Jim Gray, an expert in the area of large-scale databases and transaction processing, has joined Microsoft Corp.'s (NASDAQ-NNM:MSFT - 206-637- 9097) research group. Microsoft says Gray's experience in the field spans over 20 years at companies such as IBM Corp., Tandem Computers, and Digital Equipment Corp. Gary Watsel has been promoted from vice president to president and appointed to the board of directors of Borland International. Sam Pitroda, advisor to the Prime Minister on technology missions, has been appointed chairman of WorldTel, the newly-launched banking and venture capital fund to finance telecommunications in the Third World. WorldTel was formed a few months ago with the specific purpose of funding and promoting telecom in countries where the telephone density is less than one telephone per 100 people. (Ian Stokell/19950526) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 05/26/95 BUSINESS AmCoEx Index Of Used Computer Prices (NEWS)(BUSINESS)(SFO)(00025) AmCoEx Index Of Used Computer Prices 05/26/95 SAN DIEGO, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1995 MAY 26 (NB) -- By John Hastings. Telephone companies are adding new telephone lines at an astounding rate. Witness the changes in many area codes. Most of these new lines are ordered to handle modems and fax machines. Virtually every business and many homes have added one or more lines for these devices. The phone companies must be pleased with the advent of this technology. However, newer technology may reverse this trend. Most modem makers are preparing to introduce new products that incorporate SVD, simultaneous voice and data transmissions. This will allow a person to talk and receive a fax or data on the same telephone line at the same time. This capability, coupled with inexpensive cameras, will accelerate the adoption of videoconferencing. In addition, many modem makers are incorporating a feature that works with distinctive ringing. This is a service many telephone companies offer that assigns three different numbers to one phone line. Each number has a different ring pattern. The new modems will differentiate the pattern and route the call to a fax, data or voice connection. Many computer retailers offer a money-back guarantee on the computers they sell. These policies allow some users to return computers that have no problems. The Federal Trade Commission is investigating several computer makers to learn how the handle this returned merchandise. It is suspected that some vendors resell these computers as new. The larger makers like Apple and Compaq normally sell these as refurbished units through used computer dealers. John Hastings is the president of the American Computer Exchange. Since 1988, the American Computer Exchange has matched buyers and sellers of used microcomputers. For more information contact the American Computer Exchange at (800) 786-0717. The AmCoEx Index of Used Computer Prices The following prices are for May 22, 1995. Average Average Buyer's Seller's Machine Bid Ask Close Change($) IBM PS/2 Model 70 60MB $350 $600 $400 .. IBM PS/1 486DX2/50 253MB 800 1350 925 -25 IBM PS/2 Model 90 160MB 900 1300 1000 -50 IBM ThinkPad 350C 1700 2100 1800 .. IBM ThinkPad 700 900 1500 1050 .. IBM ThinkPad 720 1100 1800 1350 +50 AST 486SX/25 170MB 650 1050 725 .. AST 486DX/66 340MB 850 1400 925 -50 Dell 386/33, 100MB 450 850 500 .. Dell 486DX/33 240MB 700 1150 825 -50 Gateway 386/25, 80MB 400 800 450 -25 Gateway 486/33 120MB 700 1100 900 .. Clone Notebook 386SX, 40 MB 400 900 450 -25 Clone 386/33 80MB, VGA 400 800 425 .. Clone 486/25 120MB, VGA 700 1200 850 -50 Clone 486DX/33 240MB 800 1425 950 -25 Compaq LTE 286 40MB 250 675 350 +50 Compaq Contura 320 60MB 500 1000 650 -25 Compaq Contura 4/25 120MB 900 1400 950 -25 Compaq Deskpro 386/20e 100MB 400 800 450 .. Compaq Deskpro 486/33 120MB 800 1450 900 .. Mac Classic II 80MB 350 800 425 +25 Mac IIsi 160MB 500 900 525 -50 Macintosh IIcx 80MB 250 600 300 -25 Macintosh IIci 80MB 500 950 625 -25 Macintosh IIfx 80MB 600 1000 750 .. Mac Quadra 700 230MB 1000 1600 1125 -25 Mac Quadra 800 500MB 1600 2300 1750 -25 PowerBook 140 40MB 700 1100 875 +75 PowerBook 170 40MB 800 1350 925 +50 PowerBook 180 80MB 1200 1850 1450 .. LaserWriterPro 630 1300 1775 1350 .. Toshiba 1900 120M 675 1150 775 .. Toshiba 3200 SXC, 120MB 1850 2950 2075 -25 Toshiba 3300SL 120MB 850 1300 900 .. Toshiba 5200 100MB 750 1050 800 -50 HP LaserJet II 350 850 450 +50 HP LaserJet IIIP 250 650 350 .. HP LaserJet III 500 900 650 +50 HP LaserJet IV 800 1200 900 .. (AMCOEX/19950526) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 05/26/95 NETWORK Sequent Intros Windows NT SMP Servers (NEWS)(NETWORK)(LAX)(00026) Sequent Intros Windows NT SMP Servers 05/26/95 BEAVERTON, OREGON, U.S.A., 1995 MAY 26 (NB) -- Sequent Computer Systems Inc. (NASDAQ-NNM: SQNT) has introduced two new high-performance symmetric multiprocesser (SMP) servers: the WinServer 5000 WS30 and the WinServer 5000 WS70. According to Sequent, the WinServer 5000 series "compliments the powerful" Sequent Symmetry 5000 introduced one year ago and upgraded last month. Mike Green, acting communications director for Sequent, told Newsbytes that upgrades to both SMP systems have "increased performance 1.5 times in the last year." In addition Green said that, "The WinServer 5000 series is designed for Windows-NT applications, but is easily retrofitted for Unix." This multi-use platform is the major distinguishing factor between the two 5000 Systems. Said Green, "This is the first time such a multi-use platform has been offered by Sequent." The WinServer 5000 WS30, capable of supporting hundreds of users, is intended as a large application server. It incorporates from two to eight Pentium processors, up to two gigabytes (GB) of memory and up to 504GB of disk storage. The list price of an entry-level WS30 is about $154,000, topping out around $1,000,000. The WinServer 5000 WS70, capable of supporting hundreds, or even thousands of users, incorporates from two to 28 Pentium processors, up to 2GB of memory and up to 1.6 terabytes (TB) of disk storage. The list price of an entry-level WS70 is approximately $339,000, topping out around $2,000,000. The company claims that the WinServer line provides growth potential not available in local area network (LAN) servers. WinServers can take multiple 100 megahertz (MHz) Pentium processors and mix them with 66MHZ processors, said the company, providing whatever capacity is required to support large applications. The new systems allow users to implement a Windows NT-based environment across the enterprise or to create a "hybrid" environment that integrates Windows NT-based applications into an existing Unix-based corporate network. The company says that customers who start with this mixed environment can migrate in stages to a completely Windows NT-based environment by adding new Windows NT-based applications. As a result, an organization has "complete control" over the rate at which Windows NT is adopted, according to Sequent. The new WinServer 5000 WS30 and the WinServer 5000 WS70 are scheduled to begin shipping in June. The company adds that early versions have already been installed in a number of location worldwide. (Richard Bowers/199505025/Press Contact: Mike Green, Sequent Computer Systems, 503-626-5700) (SUMMARY)(GENERAL)(SFO)(00027) Newsbytes Week In Review 05/26/95 PENN VALLEY, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1995 MAY 26 (NB) -- This is a look at the top stories this week, listing with their category code: Microsoft & Intuit Kill Merger, MCI To Acquire Nationwide Cellular, Clinton Signs Paperwork Reduction Act, Zenith Plans 10% Workforce Reduction, Apple & AT&T In Videoconferencing Deal, SurfWatch Software Protects Kids On Internet, CompuServe Offers 10 Cities 28.8 Kbps Access, Computer Associates To Buy Legent, Sun Microsystems Intros 64-Bit Multimedia Chip; House Committee Clears Telecom Bill, NY Prodigy Judgment Sends Shockwaves Online. Microsoft & Intuit Kill Merger (BUSINESS) REDMOND, WASHINGTON, U.S.A., 1995 MAY 22 (NB) -- Rather than pursue months and perhaps even years of litigation and possibly appeals with no certainly of winning a fight against the US Department of Justice, Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ: MSFT) and Intuit, Inc.(NASDAQ: INTU) have called off their proposed merger. The deal would have been the biggest in the computer industry ever with its $2 billion price tag. MCI To Acquire Nationwide Cellular (TELECOM) WASHINGTON, D.C., U.S.A., 1995 MAY 22 (NB) -- Another major telecommunications company is moving into the cellular telephone business. MCI Communications Corporation (NASDAQ-NNM:MCIC) has announced it plans to acquire Nationwide Cellular Service Inc. (NASDAQ-NNM) for about $190 million in cash, or $18.50 per share. Clinton Signs Paperwork Reduction Act (GOVT) WASHINGTON, D.C., U.S.A., 1995 MAY 23 (NB) -- President Clinton has signed an updated version of the Paperwork Reduction Act, designed to continue moving the government away from paper and toward electronics. Zenith Plans 10% Workforce Reduction (BUSINESS) GLENVIEW, ILLINOIS, U.S.A., 1995 MAY 23 (NB) -- Zenith Electronics Corporation (NYSE:ZE) has announced its second quarter earnings will include a $9 million charge against earnings from severance costs due to employment reductions. The company said it is reducing its US salaried workforce by up to 10%, in part from a special voluntary retirement program. Apple & AT&T In Videoconferencing Deal (BROADCAST) CUPERTINO, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1995 MAY 23 (NB) -- AT&T (NYSE:T) and Apple Computer (NASDAQ:AAPL) have announced a video teleconferencing agreement, which allows Macintosh users of Apple's new QuickTime Conferencing technology to teleconference with other H.320 standards-based videoconferencing products on AT&T's newly developed video teleconferencing network. SurfWatch Software Protects Kids On Internet (ONLINE) LOS ALTOS, CALIFORNIA, USA, 1995 MAY 24 (NB) -- Under the slogan "Protect your kids on the Net," a California-based software company is selling the first ever software system that watches for and filters obscene material from the Internet. CompuServe Offers 10 Cities 28.8 Kbps Access (ONLINE) COLUMBUS, OHIO, U.S.A., 1995 MAY 24 (NB) -- Among the major online services, it was a race to be first to offer access to the Internet, then to offer access to the graphical World Wide Web, and most recently a race to offer 28.8 kilobits-per-second (Kbps) access. Now, however, CompuServe has announced the availability of 28.8 Kbps access in ten US cities at its existing rates. Computer Associates To Buy Legent (BUSINESS) ISLANDIA, NEW YORK, U.S.A., 1995 MAY 25 (NB) -- Computer Associates International, Inc. (NYSE:CA) and Legent Corp. (NASDAQ:LGNT) have announced a definitive agreement that would see CA buy out the Herndon, Virginia-based software firm. Sun Microsystems Intros 64-Bit Multimedia Chip (CHIPS) SAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1995 MAY 25 (NB) -- From its annual Sun World Expo, Sun Microsystems has announced sample volume of UltraSPARC, claimed to be the first 64-bit microprocessor with built-in multimedia support. House Committee Clears Telecom Bill (TELECOM) WASHINGTON, D.C., U.S.A., 1995 MAY 26 (NB) -- After two days of work, the House Commerce Committee yesterday by a 39-5 vote passed the most far-reaching communications reform measure in 61 years. The bill would end most cable television price regulation, broadly deregulate the telephone industry and relax ownership rules for broadcasting. NY Prodigy Judgment Sends Shockwaves Online (ONLINE) NEW YORK, NEW YORK, U.S.A., 1995 MAY 26 (NB) -- Concerned about damages resulting from comments posted in a Prodigy bulletin board, the investment banking firm, Stratton Oakmont, filed suit against the online service. Hearing the case, New York Court Judge Stuart Ain granted a partial summary judgment against Prodigy in the $200 million lawsuit. (Ian Stokell/19950526) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 00 05/26/95 GENERAL Dell Pentium Systems Start Under $1, (NEWS)(GENERAL)(SFO)(00028) Dell Pentium Systems Start Under $1,600 05/26/95 AUSTIN, TEXAS, U.S.A., 1995 MAY 26 (NB) -- Dell Computer Corporation (NASDAQ:DELL) announced two new Pentium-based systems to its Dimension series of desktop products. The company says the models reflect a trend of small business and home users preferring the Pentium-based systems an entry-level computer. The two new models, Dimension P75 and Dimension P90, include integrated 64-bit PCI local bus video subsystem, #9's "Hawkeye" feature viewing set, enhanced IDE interface, two PCI local bus expansion slots, flash bios, Plug and Play support, Advanced Power Management, and 32-bit disk and file support. Basic configuration includes a minitower chassis, 8 megabytes (MB) of memory, 256 Kilobytes of writeback cache, a 15-inch Super VGA monitor, 3.5-inch disk drive, DOS 6.2, Windows 3.1 and a mouse. Dimension P75, priced at $1,599, also includes a 540MB hard drive and 1MB of video DRAM, while the P90, priced at $2,249, includes a 1-gigabyte hard drive, 2MB of video DRAM, a quad-speed CD-ROM drive, Microsoft Office 4.3 and Microsoft Bookshelf. Sales of Pentium-powered systems accounted for 55% of system revenues as reported in Dell's most recent quarter. A spokesperson for Dell told Newsbytes, "We are seeing a very strong trend of first-time buyers choosing the Pentium-based systems. This may have something to do with the advent of Windows '95, but what is really driving this trend is the fact that the Pentium is becoming more affordable and that it offers a significant increase in performance." Continuing, the spokesperson said, "We will continue to support the 486-based systems. As the Pentium prices continue to become more affordable, an entire new market of users are able to enter at the 486 level. I cannot say how much longer that market will be supported by Dell, but at this time we still see a healthy 486 market." (Patrick McKenna/19950526/Press Contact: Jill Shanks, Dell, tel 512- 728-4100) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 05/26/95 ONLINE ****NY Prodigy Judgment Sends Shockwaves Online (NEWS)(ONLINE)(SFO)(00029) ****NY Prodigy Judgment Sends Shockwaves Online 05/26/95 NEW YORK, NEW YORK, U.S.A., 1995 MAY 26 (NB) -- Concerned about damages resulting from comments posted in a Prodigy bulletin board, the investment banking firm, Stratton Oakmont, filed suit against the online service. Hearing the case, New York Court Judge Stuart Ain granted a partial summary judgment against Prodigy in the $200 million lawsuit. In response to the judgment, Prodigy said it will quickly appeal the judge's decision. The original post to the bulletin board was placed on Prodigy's "Money Talk" bulletin board. Online services and small bulletin board services (BBSs) around the world customarily allow users to post their own comments regarding a very wide range of events, issues, trends, businesses, government actions, personal topics and other areas. This freedom to air one's personal thoughts in public has been one of the defining parameters for online activity through the Internet, online service providers, and BBSs. In his decision, Judge Ain found Prodigy to be a "publisher" of the statements in question and he said the system operator of Money Talk, Charles Epstein, acted as Prodigy's agent for the purposes of acts and omissions in this case. The case for Stratton Oakmont was further strengthened when Epstein testified that the comments in question violated Prodigy's "Content Guidelines" and should have been removed. Speaking to Newsbytes, Brian Ek, director of communication at Prodigy, said, "Because we have a sysop (system operator) and guidelines and the fact that we do not allow obscenity, the judge said we are a publisher and as such we fit into a certain category which allows us to be sued for libel. We disagree with this entirely and of course we will file an appeal. On a larger scale, this affects the entire online industry and places us all between a rock and a hard place. As an industry, we are often criticized for not controlling what members place online. The climate in Washington is wanting to see more control and, at Prodigy, we have attempted to walk that line of freedom of speech while applying guidelines to apply." He continued, "With this decision, we are now presented with either letting everything and anything be posted without any guidelines or we become a 'publisher' and all of our bulletin boards are merely editorial content." "It is important to realize that the online industry is a new form of communication and needs legal definition. As it stands now, we have older laws which apply to print standards being applied to the electronic world community," said Ek. (Patrick McKenna/19950526/Press Contact: Mike Darcy, Prodigy, tel 914-448-8846) (SUMMARY)(GENERAL)(MSP)(00030) Newsbytes Daily Summary 05/26/95 MINNEAPOLIS, MINNESOTA, U.S.A., 1995 MAY 26 (NB) -- These are capsules of all today's news stories: 1 -> IBM Australia Recalls Faulty Power Leads 05/26/95 IBM has announced that some of its PC and monitor power leads sold in Australia are incorrectly wired and should be returned immediately for replacement. 2 -> Apple In Aid of Indian Village Health Workers 05/26/95 The pioneer of the user-friendly graphical user interface, Apple Computer Inc., has recently ventured into what it claims is one of the most ambitious projects in India. Computer designers from the US-based company will help design a software/hardware package to replace the bulky ledgers and files that village health workers in India are presently using to collect and store information from their daily rounds. 3 -> Motorola To Invest Over $160 Million In India 05/26/95 Chicago-based Motorola Inc., the $18-billion telecommunications giant, plans to invest over Rs 500 crore (over $160 million) in India in major areas such as new manufacturing units, new technologies, and technical support, with emphasis on research and development, which will be carried out over a period of four years. 4 -> China - Campaign Against Pornographic Software 05/26/95 To prevent pornographic computer software from contaminating the minds of youth, especially school children and college students, Tianjin, a north China port city, took the lead in launching a campaign against pornographic software, Beijing Youth Daily reported. 5 -> Interview - Chris Wening Of Exabyte On Tape Backup 05/26/95 Travelling the world is a standard part of Chris Wening's job. As senior account manager for Colorado-based Exabyte, Wening regularly travels to far-flung points of the globe to promote the growth of his company's products. 6 -> Shareware Award Nominees - List 05/26/95 Here is a list of the nominees for the Shareware Industry Award Foundation's (SIAF) 1995 Shareware Industry Awards. The winners will be announced during the Shareware Industry Conference in Scottsdale, Arizona June 22-25. 7 -> Ericsson/Ascom In Site Paging Joint Venture 05/26/95 The humble radiopager -- beeper as it is known in the US -- has been reborn. At least, that's what Ericsson is claiming, as the Swedish telecoms giant has announced the signing of a memorandum of understanding with Ascom to form a joint venture company to promote radiopaging systems on a global basis. 8 -> German Electronic Component Market Taking Off 05/26/95 Zentralverbrand Elektrotechnik und Elektronikindustrie e.V. (ZVEI), the German electronics industry federation, has announced that the recession in the Germany computer and electronics industry is now over. Officers expect sales in the industry to increase 15 percent during the current year, and sales will continue to increase at least until the end of the century. 9 -> Apricot Planning "Infotrade" -- Business Online Service 05/26/95 Apricot has announced plans to launch a set of online services for online users later this year. Known as Infotrade, the system will have different branded services for different groups of customers. 10 -> Olivetti Unveils New Pentium Systems 05/26/95 Olivetti has launched a high- speed 486 and Pentium range of additions to its M4 Modulo range of PCs. According to Alan Hendry, the company's PC product manager, the new machines are priced extremely aggressively to undercut the competition, including Compaq, and so boost market share. 11 -> Delphi Web Service To Use Kenan Billing Package 05/26/95 Delphi's upcoming new Internet service has joined AT&T's PersonaLink among online services using Kenan's Arbor/BP "flexible billing" package, said Kurt Silverman, Kenan's director of product development, in a conference call with Newsbytes. 12 -> Visions Of The Networked Society 05/26/95 The industrial model of society that has shaped our perceptions and social habits for generations is now coming under attack by the network model, social scientists suggest. 13 -> Toward the Digital Electronic Automobile 05/26/95 Increasingly, automobiles are beginning to think for themselves, providing such functions as mapping, navigation, security, communications, and even night vision for drivers. 14 -> Philippines - Teachers Lobby For Internet Link-up 05/26/95 Technology educators will press for the linking up of the country's state universities and colleges into the Philippine Internet node when the Teachers' Assembly on Computers and Telecommunications (TACT) '95 takes place this June 1 to 3 at the Shangri-la Hotel. 15 -> Canadian Schools Want Telecom Price Breaks 05/26/95 Canadian telephone companies should be allowed to offer a new category of services for educational institutions, says a report prepared by a group of educators and telephone company representatives. According to the report, lumping schools, colleges, and universities in with businesses threatens their ability to take advantage of new telecom technology. 16 -> MindLink Corporate For Windows, Other Versions Planned 05/26/95 MindLink, which just unveiled a Windows 3.1-based corporate edition of its problem solving software, is now planning network and Windows 95 versions, and is also considering "low-end" and Mac-based corporate editions, revealed Michael Shattow, chief executive officer (CEO), during an interview with Newsbytes. 17 -> China - Do Your R&D In China, Urges Official 05/26/95 A senior Chinese official is trying to persuade foreign companies to cooperate with China to develop software suitable for the Chinese environment. Cooperation in software R&D will not only bring big profits to both foreign and Chinese partners, but also help foreign firms to reduce their investment risks, said Mr. Fusheng Ji, the deputy director of the Basic research and High Technology Department of the State Science and Technology Commission. 18 -> Editorial - The Sick PC User Syndrome 05/26/95 Any family doctor will tell you that a certain percentage of people who visit them don't have any physical sickness, although they might think they do. They come because they need reassurance or perhaps just someone who'll listen to them -- there's a parallel in the silicon world. 19 -> No Newsbytes Monday, May 29 05/26/95 Due to the US Memorial Day holiday, Newsbytes will not publish on Monday, May 29. 20 -> Unitel Charges MT&T With Anti-Competitive Action 05/26/95 Toronto-based Unitel Communications Inc. has filed criminal charges against Maritime Telegraph and Telephone Ltd. and one of its officers, accusing the telephone company of anti-competitive behavior violating the federal Telecommunications Act. The charges stem from MT&T's efforts to win long-distance telephone business with the provincial government of Nova Scotia away from Unitel. 21 -> Digital Cuts PC Prices 05/26/95 Digital Equipment says reductions as much as 20% on selected Starion Pentium-equipped models are available immediately. The new prices also include a Microsoft Bonus Pack of CD titles valued at $300. 22 -> ****House Committee Clears Telecom Bill 05/26/95 After two days of work, the House Commerce Committee yesterday by a 39-5 vote passed the most far-reaching communications reform measure in 61 years. The bill would end most cable television price regulation, broadly deregulate the telephone industry and relax ownership rules for broadcasting. 23 -> Senate Panel Passes Shareholder Lawsuit Bill 05/26/95 With bipartisan backing, the Senate Banking Committee yesterday cleared legislation designed to make it harder to bring shareholder lawsuits alleging securities fraud. High-tech industries, represented by the American Electronics Association, had hoped for tougher provisions in the Senate bill, bringing it closer to legislation that has passed the House. 24 -> Personnel Roundup 05/26/95 This is a regular feature, summarizing personnel changes not covered elsewhere by Newsbytes: Digital Equipment Corp., nVIEW Corp., Gateway 2000 Inc., Sherpa Corp., Apple Computer Inc., Microsoft Corp., Borland International, and WorldTel. 25 -> AmCoEx Index Of Used Computer Prices 05/26/95 By John Hastings. Telephone companies are adding new telephone lines at an astounding rate. Witness the changes in many area codes. Most of these new lines are ordered to handle modems and fax machines. Virtually every business and many homes have added one or more lines for these devices. 26 -> Sequent Intros Windows NT SMP Servers 05/26/95 Sequent Computer Systems Inc. (NASDAQ-NNM: SQNT) has introduced two new high-performance symmetric multiprocesser (SMP) servers: the WinServer 5000 WS30 and the WinServer 5000 WS70. 27 -> Newsbytes Week In Review 05/26/95 This is a look at the top stories this week, listing with their category code: Microsoft & Intuit Kill Merger, MCI To Acquire Nationwide Cellular, Clinton Signs Paperwork Reduction Act, Zenith Plans 10% Workforce Reduction, Apple & AT&T In Videoconferencing Deal, SurfWatch Software Protects Kids On Internet, CompuServe Offers 10 Cities 28.8 Kbps Access, Computer Associates To Buy Legent, Sun Microsystems Intros 64-Bit Multimedia Chip; House Committee Clears Telecom Bill, NY Prodigy Judgment Sends Shockwaves Online. 28 -> Dell Pentium Systems Start Under $1,600 05/26/95 Dell Computer Corporation (NASDAQ:DELL) announced two new Pentium-based systems to its Dimension series of desktop products. The company says the models reflect a trend of small business and home users preferring the Pentium-based systems an entry-level computer. 29 -> ****NY Prodigy Judgment Sends Shockwaves Online 05/26/95 Concerned about damages resulting from comments posted in a Prodigy bulletin board, the investment banking firm, Stratton Oakmont, filed suit against the online service. Hearing the case, New York Court Judge Stuart Ain granted a partial summary judgment against Prodigy in the $200 million lawsuit. (Wendy Woods/19950526) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 05/25/95 GENERAL Microsoft Announces Scholarship Winners (NEWS)(GENERAL)(DEN)(00001) Microsoft Announces Scholarship Winners 05/25/95 REDMOND, WASHINGTON, U.S.A., 1995 MAY 25 (NB) -- For the seventh consecutive year, Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ: MSFT) has provided financial assistance to help gifted students pursue careers in technical fields, particularly computer science. This year, 67 high school and college students got a total of over $400,000 with an increased amount going to fund minority and women's technical scholarship programs over last year's grants. Microsoft spokesperson Erin Carney told Newsbytes the scholarships are awarded based on applications by interested students. Carney said the applicants are screened for merit by their school, with the best candidates forwarded to Microsoft where a committee made up of the company's human resources staff makes the final selections. The actual amount each student receives varies depending on the program for which they apply. Awards can include a $10,000 scholarship for one year, a full scholarship covering one year of tuition towards a Bachelor's degree, or several thousand dollars towards a graduate or undergraduate degree. Microsoft said the winners don't get just money. The company also takes an active interest in their development by providing them the opportunity to participate in its summer intern program. In fact, some of the programs ask the applicant to interview for an internship. Microsoft works in partnership with various organizations to support scholarship programs, including: the Society of Women Engineers; the Computing Research Association; National Conference Scholarship Programs like the American Indian Science and Engineering Society, National Black MBA Association, Society of Hispanic Professional Engineers and the National Society of Black Engineers; and the Upsilon Pi Epsilon Scholarship Program. Scholarships are just one of Microsoft's ways to help develop future computer scientists. In addition to the summer internships, the company also sponsors the ACM International Collegiate Programming Contest and the Computing Research Association Outstanding Undergraduate Award competition, and other similar programs. It also donates Microsoft software and makes small monetary awards throughout the school year to help support student-run campus organizations and events. According to Dr. H.N. Narang, chairman of the Department of Computer Science at Tuskegee University, corporate scholarship support in general is dwindling, but Microsoft's support is on the increase. "The company seems to be diversifying its workforce and recruiting more minorities to give them a fair share of employment, said Dr. Narang. (Jim Mallory/19950524/Press contact: Erin Carney, Microsoft, 206-936-9308; Public contact: Microsoft, 206-882-8080) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 05/25/95 TELECOM UK - Vodafone Hits Back At Orange Congestion Claims (NEWS)(TELECOM)(LON)(00002) UK - Vodafone Hits Back At Orange Congestion Claims 05/25/95 NEWBURY, BERKSHIRE, ENGLAND, 1995 MAY 25 (NB) -- Vodafone has laughed-off Orange's claim from earlier this week that its network can handle ten million calls with no congestion, pointing out that Vodafone's quality of service figures just out are impeccable, and that with the two millionth subscriber coming on net very shortly, Orange's 150,000 subscriber base pales in comparison. Vodafone officials told Newsbytes that the company is the only cellular net in the UK publishing its "quality of service" figures. In the year ended December 31, 1994, Vodafone claims that congestion on the analog network was 1.6 percent, and less than 0.6 percent on the digital GSM (global system for mobile communications) network. According to Vodafone, this is the first report to include Voda's GSM network and is the result of more than 80,000 mobile phone calls made across the UK during road journeys totaling more than a quarter of a million miles. Vodafone claims that its networks now handle around 50 million calls a week, with more than 90 percent of all calls made on analog connecting first time and maintainable for the length of the call. On the GSM network, this statistic falls to 86 percent. Interestingly, delving deeper into the report shows that the network planning at Vodafone allows for a two percent maximum level of congestion. During the current year, Vodafone will complete its analog network, but continue to increase its GSM coverage at the rate of 50 base stations a month. Chris Gent, Vodafone's managing director, said that quality of service remains a top priority for the company. "We know from our trials that the two Vodafone networks offer the best coverage and quality available to mobile phone users in the UK," he said. According to Gent, "This commitment to quality is one of the reasons why, during a period of unprecedented growth, we have maintained our position as the mobile phone network of choice for most subscribers. Since the report was produced, the quality of service on Vodafone's digital network has overtaken analog for the first time in many areas of the country, including London and the South East," he added. (Steve Gold/19950524/Press Contact: Vodafone Press Office, +44-1635-33251; Reader Contact: Vodafone, tel +44-1635-33251, fax +44-1635-45713) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 05/25/95 BUSINESS American Microsystems Opens German HQ (NEWS)(BUSINESS)(LON)(00003) American Microsystems Opens German HQ 05/25/95 DRESDEN, GERMANY, 1995 MAY 25 (NB) -- American Microsystems Inc. (AMI) has opened a new office in Dresden, Germany. According to spokesman Mike Boss, the office consolidates AMI's existing facilities in Germany, which includes the Zentrum Microelectronics facility -- a joint venture set up in 1993 between AMI and the German Government. "The new facility effectively centralizes the existing facilities and will house 17 of the company's engineers," he told Newsbytes, adding that this will include an engineering design team that will concentrate on the design and manufacture of a new generation of semiconductors. "The company's facilities in Munich are also being moved to Dresden, which will function as our European headquarters," Boss said. He went on to explain that, in parallel with the relocation of staff and facilities, "the company has installed the most advanced telecoms systems available." In parallel with the opening of the new Dresden operation, AMI has started installing CAD (computer-aided design) workstations at a UK facility co-owned by the company and Sabre, its UK distributor. According to AMI, the new UK design center will allow the company's UK customers to finalize their designs locally before sending them across to the Dresden headquarters for layout. AMI officials said that Sabre will now be able to offer UK customers a "full range" of digital design capabilities, including FPGA (field programmable gate arrays) conversions, while assisting the Dresden design center in performing analog and mixed-signal designs. "You'd imagine that a design center is just a lot of people sitting at workstations -- designing," Boss said. "In fact, the design center involves the designers interacting remotely with the customer using a shared screen, with each side handing over control alternately to the other for their comments. This is all due to the advanced telecoms that are now becoming available. "With all of this technology, you'd also imagine that there is no requirement for AMI to have an office in Europe. In fact, the age-old way of doing business, face-to-face, applies at the initial stages. Once the contract is signed, then the engineers interact with each other over telephone lines," he said, adding that this is one of the reasons that AMI chose to open its new centers in the UK and Germany. (Sylvia Dennis & Steve Gold/19950524/Press Contact: KVO (US), 503-221-2356; Reader Contact: AMI (Germany), +49-351-490-9670) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 05/25/95 ONLINE Wine Auction On The Web (NEWS)(ONLINE)(SFO)(00004) Wine Auction On The Web 05/25/95 CALISTOGA, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1995 MAY 25 (NB) -- Virtual Vineyards, a new World Wide Web (Web) wine and food shop, has announced it will participate in one of the largest US wine auctions. The Napa Valley Wine Association's annual charity wine auction will allow online visitors to bid on selected lots of wine. The annual four-day event has been sold out for weeks, but with access to the Web through Virtual Vineyards, auction officials say the event is now be open to thousands of visitors and bidders from around the world. For this first online auction, Internet users will be limited to participation in the program's silent auction. Indicating Virtual Vineyards might be interested in expanding its role in future auctions, Robert Olsen, president of Virtual Vineyards, told Newsbytes, "This first experience with the auction is more of a technology demonstration. We will have two computers set-up at the auction to communicate the bids as they are accepted through our Web page. The online screen will show updated bidder numbers and their corresponding dollar bids from on-site participants and cyber- participants." Beginning June 6, visitors to the Virtual Vineyards Web site will be able to pre-register for the June 10 event. Each registrant will be assigned a unique bid "paddle number." The silent auction will include eight lots of wine from Saintsbury, Spottswoode, Vichon, Rutherford Hill, Cakebread Cellars, Cain Vineyard & Winery, and Round Hill Vineyards. A Cordorniu Napa item on the bidding block includes a private tour and luncheon prepared by the auction chairperson, Janet Pagano. The winning bidder will be inviting five friends to join in the festivities and each will bring home a bottle of Codorniu Brut methode champenoise sparkling wine. The Napa Valley Wine Auction is in its fourteenth year of operation and has raised more than $7 million for local health care charities. The theme for this year's auction is "Napa Valley: Elements of Magic." Janet Pagano said, "Our theme of magic certainly fits with the opportunity to invite the world to part of our auction." (Patrick McKenna/19950525/Press Contact: Skye Ketonen, Niehaus Ryan Haller Public Relations, tel 415-615-7905; World Wide Web Address: URL: http://www.virtualvin.com) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 05/25/95 ONLINE Ziff-Davis Launches "ZD Internet Life" (NEWS)(ONLINE)(MSP)(00005) Ziff-Davis Launches "ZD Internet Life" 05/25/95 NEW YORK CITY, NEW YORK, U.S.A., 1995 MAY 25 (NB) -- Ziff-Davis Publishing Company has announced a new magazine that will eliminate the copying of hot Internet World Wide Web sites from magazine to Web browser. Called "ZD Internet Life," the quarterly publication will include a CD-ROM that links users directly to Web sites. Each issue of ZD Internet Life will include the CD-ROM, Greg Jarboe, director of public relations for Ziff-Davis, told Newsbytes. The CD-ROM will contain an Internet browser so that users can connect to the Internet's World Wide Web. The hotlinks on the CD will then take users not only to ZD Internet Life's own Web site, but others that have been reviewed in the magazine. "People will not only be able to read the printed page, but they can pop the CD-ROM into the computer, and go from the review of the site directly to the site," Jarboe said. He said the CD-ROM will take users to the Web sites with few difficulties. Jarboe also said with a browser being included on the CD-ROM, they won't need any special Internet access -- the CD will take care of everything. This will help the magazine reach its target market, which is people who are new to the Internet, he said. "What we see are people who want to get there, but they don't know the 'secret handshake.' What the CD does is take all the pain and suffering out of the process." The people who use the magazine aren't viewed as "readers," Jarboe said. They're more "users" because of the interactivity among the magazine format, the CD-ROM, and the Internet. "We really see ZD Internet Life as the magazine of the future," he said. "By combining these three things, we've extended the reader's experience far beyond what the reader can do today." ZD Internet Life's rate base will be 100,000, officials said. Also, the one-time advertising rate for a four-color page will be $6,100. (Bob Woods/19950525/Press Contact: Greg Jarboe, Ziff-Davis, 617-393-3013) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 05/25/95 APPLE More Microsoft Multimedia Programs For Mac (NEWS)(APPLE)(DEN)(00006) More Microsoft Multimedia Programs For Mac 05/25/95 REDMOND, WASHINGTON, U.S.A., 1995 MAY 25 (NB) -- Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ: MSFT) has announced several multimedia programs for the Macintosh computer this week, including two programs in the "Magic School Bus" series, one that looks at the work of famous architect Frank Lloyd Wright, and an examination of the lives, cultures, politics, battles, and legends of the "ancient" world. Scholastic's The Magic School Bus Explores series is inspired by the best-selling book series "The Magic School Bus," published by Scholastic Inc. In the series a teacher named Ms. Frizzle takes her class on science field trips in the magic school bus. Both "The Magic School Bus Explores the Human Body" and "The Magic School Bus Explores the Solar System" are scheduled to ship this summer. Microsoft said each will sell for about $49.95. The Ultimate Frank Lloyd Wright looks at the architect's life and his designs, both built and non-built. The program uses illustrations, photos, narration, video and three-dimensional (3-D) tours of various Wright-designed structures, with recordings of the architect commenting on his own work. Users can create their own 3-D architectural "masterpieces" using Wright's techniques. The Ultimate Frank Lloyd Wright is scheduled to ship in June with a selling price of approximately $59.95. Microsoft is also introducing Microsoft Ancient Lands for the Mac. Users learn about ancient empires and civilizations in Egypt, Greece, Rome, and other countries. You can learn the legends of the Sphinx, find out about mummies, learn how the pyramids were built, and even find out with what toys the children of the period played. Explorers and other experts talk about famous battles in the $59.95 program scheduled to ship in June. (Jim Mallory/19950525/Press contact: Suzanne Dennehy, Waggener Edstrom for Microsoft, 408-986-1140) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 05/25/95 NETWORK Zenith To Go After Server, Networking Business (NEWS)(NETWORK)(TOR)(00007) Zenith To Go After Server, Networking Business 05/25/95 BUFFALO GROVE, ILLINOIS, U.S.A., 1995 MAY 25 (NB) -- A company that offers only desktop personal computers and not servers and the networking products to link them all together is not giving its customers all they need and is putting too many eggs in one basket, according to John O'Keefe, incoming executive vice-president of the Servers And Networking Products business unit at Zenith Data Systems. Zenith described O'Keefe's appointment as part of its effort to build a presence in the server and networking markets. "In today's environment," O'Keefe told Newsbytes, "you really need to offer both desktops and servers to provide a complete portfolio of products to your customers, and each of those products leverages the other." The growing emphasis on client/server computing has created a demand for servers and for networking equipment to link those servers with desktop clients, he said. Philippe de Marcillac, director of worldwide personal computers at research firm Dataquest Inc., agreed. "You need to be able to offer everything from servers to portables," he told Newsbytes. Pushing into the server and networking fields is a good move for Zenith, de Marcillac said. At the same time, O'Keefe said, offering both desktop PCs and servers can give a manufacturer the advantage of diversification. Profit margins in the desktop PC business are under great pressure, he said, and by offering other products "you get an averaging of the margins." O'Keefe maintained that Zenith has all the technology expertise it needs to enter the server market, since the basic workings of low-end servers are not radically different from those of desktop computers. In midrange to high-end servers, he added, Zenith is relying on PowerPC technology and its alliance with IBM and Motorola Corp. He also claimed the company's experience working with Novell Inc. in the networking field will work to its advantage. "I really don't believe the technology is an issue at all," he said. However, O'Keefe also admitted Zenith is currently perceived as a desktop PC vendor, and said changing that perception -- building a profile for the company as a server supplier -- will be one of his top priorities. Another priority will be developing distribution channels for the new server and networking products, he said. O'Keefe, who left the post of vice-president of Unix systems marketing at Digital Equipment Corp. to take the job at Zenith, said he is well qualified to deal with both these issues. In his two years at the head of DEC's Unix operations, he said, Digital's standing in the Unix market "changed dramatically" from having "probably ...the worst reputation in the Unix industry." Before taking that job, he ran DEC's distribution channels organization in the United States. De Marcillac at Dataquest said Zenith probably will have little trouble selling servers to its existing customers. However, he said, it will be harder for the company to get the attention of server buyers who do not already buy Zenith's desktop or notebook computers. According to Dataquest's estimates for the fourth quarter of 1994, de Marcillac said, Zenith rates 16th worldwide in personal computer shipments and 14th by value of shipments. (Grant Buckler/19950524/Press Contact: Marguerite Copel, Zenith Data Systems, 708-808-4856; Gregory Soucy, Soucy Communications Group for Zenith, 617-270-0332; Public Contact: Zenith Data Systems, tel 708-808-6000, fax 708-808-4434) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 05/25/95 ONLINE SoftQuad, NCSA Offer SGML For Web (NEWS)(ONLINE)(TOR)(00008) SoftQuad, NCSA Offer SGML For Web 05/25/95 TORONTO, ONTARIO, CANADA, 1995 MAY 25 (NB) -- The Hypertext Markup Language (HTML) used to create documents for the Internet's World Wide Web is a subset of Standard Generalized Markup Language (SGML). SoftQuad Inc. (TSE:SKI), a vendor of SGML tools, has announced software to make full-fledged SGML available for publishing on the Web. SGML is more flexible and better suited to long and complex documents than HTML, SoftQuad spokeswoman Lucy Ventresca told Newsbytes. For instance, she said, while HTML provides a fixed set of elements (such as title, text, and so forth) for constructing documents, SGML lets publishers create their own elements. SGML is an international document-formatting standard, officially recognized since 1986, and is especially popular among government agencies and organizations that deal with large, complex, and frequently revised documents. SoftQuad's new Panorama software is an SGML viewer for the World Wide Web. It will be distributed free along with Mosaic, the Web browser developed by the National Center for Supercomputing Applications (NCSA) at the University of Illinois in Urbana-Champaign. Panorama will also be packaged with Enhanced Mosaic, a commercial version of the browser that Spyglass Inc., of Napierville, Illinois, sells. Meanwhile SoftQuad will also offer Panorama Pro, a commercial version of the software that includes the ability to create SGML documents for the Web. It will cost US$139 from SoftQuad or its resellers. According to SoftQuad, Panorama will let Web surfers control typefaces and sizes, color and position, and associate multiple style sheets with any set of documents. Panorama Pro will let users customize their displays and navigate through long, complex documents on the Web. It will also let publishers add detailed annotations, links, navigation tools, and control over display formats to their documents. Panorama Pro is due to be available by the end of May for Microsoft Windows. Instructions for downloading the freeware Panorama are available on the World Wide Web at http://www.oclc.org:5046/oclc/research/panorama/panorama.html. Technology for Panorama and Panorama Pro came from Synex Information AB of Stockholm, SoftQuad said. (Grant Buckler/19950525/Press Contact: Lucy Ventresca, SoftQuad, tel 416-239-4801, fax 416-239-7105, Internal e-mail lucy@sq.com; Public Contact: SoftQuad, 416-239-4801, Internet World Wide Web http://www.sq.com) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 05/25/95 HEALTH HP Offers Wireless Doctors Aide (NEWS)(HEALTH)(MSP)(00009) HP Offers Wireless Doctors Aide 05/25/95 PAO ALTO, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1995 MAY 25 (NB) -- Hewlett Packard (HP) said it will provide the healthcare industry the "first" secure mobile "solution" for capturing and transmitting critical information to health professionals who are not on-site at a hospital or other medical facility. HP officials said the system uses a dispatch station with a modem, five HP 200LX palmtop computers preloaded with PalmVue Omnicare application software, an HP LaserJet 4L printer, training, and installation. The system is available immediately for under $25,000, with additional devices available for under $1,000. Mike Bunnell, marketing manager for HP's Patient Monitoring Division, said the advantages of the system are twofold. "The two major contributions is an improvement in care and lowering of (patient care) costs, as well as improving physician's productivity." He said beyond the paging and information transmission capabilities of PalmVue, doctors are also expected to use the palmtops for applications they already include from the retail side, including scheduling, spreadsheets, and even retrieving electronic-mail. The system is "secure" in that the PalmVue software will not display an incomplete or corrupt message, officials said. When this happens, the doctor only receives a message to call the originator of the page. In addition, no-one else can tap into the transmissions, since only the software in the HP 200LX palmtop can decode and reconstruct messages. This ensures doctor-patient confidentiality, HP said. The New York Times reports the PalmVue system may have already saved one life. The paper said Dr. Patricia McIlvaine was driving home when she was paged by a nurse at Palmer, Massachusetts' Wing Memorial Hospital. The doctor was able to receive critical information on the patient, like a recent electrocardiogram, blood pressure statistics, and other vital signs, with the PalmVue system, the Times said. From that data, Dr. McIlvaine was able to determine her patient needed an electric shock to a defibrillator which was implanted in his chest. Paging service for the PalmVue system is being contracted and managed through Data Critical Corp., HP officials said. In a related announcement, PageNet (NASDAQ:PAGE) said it has entered an agreement with Data Critical to be the "preferred wireless messaging provider" for the HP PalmVue System. PageNet officials pointed out that this agreement marks the second image-transmission service to be introduced on PageNet's wireless network. In April, PageNet and Data Critical unveiled an image-transmission service targeted at law enforcement agencies and security companies that lets users receive images remotely, like mug shots and pictures of missing children. (Bob Woods/19950524/Press Contacts: Susan Schettino, 508-659- 2937, or Merle Adelman, 508-659-3499, both of Hewlett-Packard; Scott Baradell, PageNet, 214-985-6791) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 05/25/95 LEGAL Microsoft, BSA Win In Telecom Bill Markup (NEWS)(LEGAL)(WAS)(00010) Microsoft, BSA Win In Telecom Bill Markup 05/25/95 WASHINGTON, D.C., U.S.A., 1995 MAY 25 (NB) -- Microsoft and other software companies represented by the Business Software Alliance won a victory yesterday as the House Commerce Committee adopted an amendment by Rep. Rick White (R-Wash.) to the telecommunications bill that would let the market determine the operating systems for television set-top boxes. The original bill language would have given the Federal Communications Commission authority to order an open operating system and interoperability, a measure pushed by Sun Microsystems and other supporters of the Unix operating system. White's amendment won unanimous approval from the committee as it began marking up the landmark legislation, the freshman legislator from the Seattle area told Newsbytes. "Even Ed Markey (the key backer of the Unix provision) spoke in favor of the amendment," White said. "We cannot afford to start the federal government down the information superhighway by regulating and setting standards for the American computer industry," White said. In a "Dear Colleague" letter to committee members this week, White argued, "Government intervention in setting standards for the way information is created, processed and used by computers would likely second-guess private industry and the marketplace, undermine intellectual property rights, inhibit innovation, and reduce competition." Microsoft and BSA were both lobbying in favor of the White amendment. Microsoft is working with the giant cable provider TeleCommunications Inc. on system software for set-top boxes, while BSA represents the largest personal computer software publishers. Rebecca Gould, BSA lobbyist, said after the White amendment was accepted that it was "a key amendment to the telecommunications deregulation legislation to ensure that the bill did not inadvertently regulate the software and computer industry." As the powerful Commerce Committee yesterday began working through the rewrite of the 1934 Communications Act, it became clear that the long-distance carriers have more clout than the regional Bell operating companies, which stopped the legislation in its tracks in the Senate last year. Chairman Thomas Bliley (R-Va.) circulated an amendment to the bill that would let the Baby Bells offer long-distance service, but only slowly. The Bell companies could compete for long-distance markets under the Bliley approach only when they can demonstrate that the local phone market is completely open to competition. "They're going backwards," a disgruntled BellSouth lobbyist said. The House panel continues marking up the bill today and is expected to clear the measure for full floor action next month. But the House Judiciary Committee has also passed a rewrite of the nation's basic telecommunications law, a measure much different than the bill the Commerce Committee is considering. That sets up a possible confrontation in House Rules Committee over which bill to take to the floor. "Everybody knows that the real bill Congress will consider is the one moved through our committee," the freshman White told Newsbytes. But Judiciary Committee Chairman Henry Hyde (R-Ill.), a veteran lawmaker, is likely to have something to say about that. (Kennedy Maize/19950525/Press Contacts: Connie Correll, White press secretary, 202-225-6311; Diane Smiroldo, BSA, 202-872-5500) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 05/25/95 LEGAL Senate Panel Scales Back Lawsuit Bill (NEWS)(LEGAL)(WAS)(00011) Senate Panel Scales Back Lawsuit Bill 05/25/95 WASHINGTON, D.C., U.S.A., 1995 MAY 25 (NB) -- Key members of the Senate Banking Committee have agreed to remove language from legislation reforming securities litigation that had been sought by high-tech industry interests. Committee Chairman Alphonse D'Amato (R-N.Y.) and Chris Dodd (D-Conn.), the second ranking Democrat, agreed to drop language that would make it difficult for a shareholder to sue a company executive for making a misleading business prediction. The deleted provision had the support of the American Electronics Association. The controversial language would have required an investor to prove that the business prediction was made with "actual intent of misleading investors" and that the investor "relied" on the prediction when buying the company's stock or bonds. D'Amato and Dodd agreed to drop the language, which was generating a major flap, including an ad in yesterday's Washington Post, placed by consumer groups and calling the securities litigation bill "The Crooks and Swindlers Protection Act." The bill, S. 240, sponsored by Dodd and Sen. Pete Domenici (R-N.M.), is designed to curb frivolous shareholder lawsuits, which plague high-tech firms that frequently suffer from stock volatility. With the controversial language deleted, the measure is expected to clear the Banking Committee today. Consumer groups were pleased with the decision to remove some of the language, although they say they still have problems with the bill. A spokeswoman for state securities regulators called the compromise "a step in the right direction." The AEA says it will not oppose the bill, following the surgery by D'Amato and Dodd, because the lobbying group wants to get the bill onto the Senate floor, where it may be able to repair the damage through amendments, or in a House-Senate conference. The House has passed legislation much more to AEA's liking. "The problem was that this became a political debate about a license to lie," said Kenneth Glueck of AEA. (Kennedy Maize/19950525/Press Contact: Kenneth Glueck, AEA, 202-682-9110) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 05/25/95 WINDOWS Software For Mobile Data Collection (NEWS)(WINDOWS)(TOR)(00012) Software For Mobile Data Collection 05/25/95 TROY, NEW YORK, U.S.A., 1995 MAY 25 (NB) -- MapInfo Corp. (NASDAQ:MAPS) and All Points Software Inc., have announced FieldPack Mobile Professional (FPS), software for collecting data in the field for geographic analysis. The new software works with MapInfo's desktop mapping software, also called MapInfo. Rochester, New York-based All Points developed the software, which uses customizable electronic forms for gathering data. It also incorporates global positioning system (GPS) support, company officials said. Data gathered with FPS can be taken directly into MapInfo and used in desktop mapping applications. After data is entered in MapInfo, tapping any point on a map will display the complete record describing that site, MapInfo said. For instance, the companies said, a tax assessor might use FMP to fill in a form with a description of a property, its location, photos of the home, a floor plan, and the inspector's signature. The assessor would also be able to search the database for properties with similar features. The end-user version of FieldPack Mobile Professional is a stand- alone package that works with predesigned forms, a spokeswoman for the company explained. All Points also offers a FieldPack Designer module that can be used to create custom forms. The Designer package requires the MapInfo software, she added. Due to be available in mid-June, FieldPack Mobile Professional will run on any laptop or pen-based computer with at least a 486 processor, eight megabytes of memory, and Microsoft Windows. It will list for $995. The FieldPack Designer software lists for $495, and MapInfo has a suggested retail price of $1,295, the spokeswoman told Newsbytes. A small, four-year-old company, All Points software is concentrating its sales efforts on the United States to date but hopes to expand into other parts of the world, and the alliance with MapInfo should help it do so, the spokeswoman said. (Grant Buckler/19950525/Press Contact: Lisa Jacobson, MapInfo, 518-285-7205) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 05/25/95 TRENDS Australia - Encryption System Uses "Touchkey" Access (NEWS)(TRENDS)(SYD)(00013) Australia - Encryption System Uses "Touchkey" Access 05/25/95 SYDNEY, AUSTRALIA, 1995 MAY 25 (NB) -- A new range of data security products has been launched that use a digital signature encryption system that has been approved by the Australian Department of Defense. The products were developed in Australia by Mozaic Industries, and are distributed in that country by The Right Byte. A standard component of the system is a small "touchkey" which resembles a small watch battery, and can be kept on a key-ring. This key is touched to a Touchlock, which is connected to the PC via its parallel port (allowing printer pass-through). A password is also required to operate the system. "Entire hard disks, diskettes or individual files can be encrypted using this technology, and the product allows for an administrator plus three users, all with different levels of access to the computer," explained John Lynch of Mozaic Industries. "Users can be only allowed 'read,' or 'read/write' access to files or drives, and may be denied access completely from selected areas." The system can also be used to provide a full audit trail, logging attempted uses of the computer, including failed attempts. Also provided is a screen-blanker that can be programmed to require the TouchKey and password for deactivation. Suggested retail price for a single-machine version is AUS$450 (around US$280). The network version will ship in the third quarter. There is also a developer's version so that software houses can include the product as part of their own products. A home version of the product is also available. Suggested uses include transmission of files over insecure media such as the Internet. A planned future development of the system is for building access control, using the TouchKey for authentication. (Paul Zucker/19950522/Press & Public contact: The Right Byte, tel +61-2-566-2222, fax +61-2-660-2047, Internet e-mail dannyb@tmx.com.au) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 05/25/95 BUSINESS India - ConnectSoft In Multimedia Software Deal (NEWS)(BUSINESS)(DEL)(00014) India - ConnectSoft In Multimedia Software Deal 05/25/95 NEW DELHI, INDIA, 1995 MAY 25 (NB) -- US-based ConnectSoft Corp. has signed a deal with Ruksun Publishing Pvt. Ltd., to develop software applications for the US retail market. The new joint venture, called ConnectSoft Ruksun India Pvt. Ltd., involves an investment of $65,000 by the US firm, giving ConnectSoft a 67 percent holding in the company. ConnectSoft already operates two divisions in the US for retail products and Windows consulting. ConnectSoft Ruksun will be developing software for multimedia and telecommunication applications on the Windows platform. ConnectSoft's "E-mail Connection," an application that provides users a single interface for composing, sending and receiving messages automatically, has been one of the major breakthroughs of the company in the retail market. ConnectSoft Ruksun has already designed and developed KidMail Connection, an electronic-mail package for children, which has become the highest selling product for the company since its launch at Comdex last year. According to Mitchell London, president of ConnectSoft, the company also plans to sell its products in the Indian market. However, that will not be possible through the existing company as its units have been set up under the Indian government's STP (software technology park) scheme, that does not permit marketing of products in India. ConnectSoft Ruskun plans to complete some shrink-wrapped applications by the end of this year. (C.T. Mahabharat/19950525) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 05/25/95 BUSINESS India - Iomega & TVS Electronics In Distribution Deal (NEWS)(BUSINESS)(DEL)(00015) India - Iomega & TVS Electronics In Distribution Deal 05/25/95 NEW DELHI, INDIA, 1995 MAY 25 (NB) -- Iomega Corp., reportedly the third largest supplier of removable mass storage media in the world, has appointed Bangalore-based TVS Electronics Pvt. Ltd. as exclusive distributor for its mini-cartridge tape drives in India. The $145 million company is currently the fastest growing tape drive manufacturer in the world and has a 40 percent market share in Europe, the company claims. Initially, Iomega will make available four models of its tape drives, three of which had been recently launched by the company at CeBit, Hannover. Speaking to Newsbytes, Srini Nageswar, senior vice president of Iomega, said, "Tape drives greatly help in expanding computer capacity and protecting computer information, besides providing cross-platform compatibility. They become a critical component in countries like India, where the power supply is unstable. Loss of data can prove extremely expensive." According to Nageswar, Iomega has identified India, China, and Russia, along with the G-7 countries, as "strategic markets." Iomega will be providing technical training to TVSE personnel for its range of products. Iomega plans to introduce the rest of its products in the Indian market by the year-end. TVS Electronics' earlier contract with Colorado Memory Systems has ended, following the company's takeover by Hewlett Packard. HCL Hewlett-Packard Ltd. will now be distributing CMS products in India. (C.T. Mahabharat/19950525) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 05/25/95 TELECOM China - Haikou City Gives Priority To Telecoms (NEWS)(TELECOM)(PEK)(00016) China - Haikou City Gives Priority To Telecoms 05/25/95 BEIJING, CHINA, 1995 MAY 25 (NB) -- Haikou, the capital of China's youngest province -- Hainan -- has installed 202,400 telephone lines. Now, 30.7 percent of its residents have telephones, the highest rate in any of China's provincial capitals. In 1988, Hainan was officially declared a province of China and became the largest "special economic zone" in the country. Enjoying "favorable" policies from the central government because of its "special economic zone" designation, the city offers some special incentives to foreign investors. Foreign investors reportedly have more freedom to develop land on a large scale and can take advantage of tax exemptions and a "constant flow" of foreign currency. Haikou is also the first city in China to release entrance visa requirements for overseas investors. By the end of 1994, Haikou had established more than 2,000 enterprises. Eleven of them registered annual production values over RMB100 million (US$11.9 million). The largest factory's production value was over RMB1 billion (US$119 million) in 1994. Haikou has given priority to the construction of energy and telecommunication facilities. The city's telecommunications network has been expanded. Recently, the Haikou 6888 Computer Information Network was put into operation, opening its services to public. The network was developed by the Hainan Industrial Investment Research Institute and the Hainan Bureau of Posts & Communications. (Chih-Ho Yu & Ning Huang/19950525) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 05/25/95 TRENDS China - Electronics Sector Has Good 1st Qtr (NEWS)(TRENDS)(PEK)(00017) China - Electronics Sector Has Good 1st Qtr 05/25/95 BEIJING, CHINA, 1995 MAY 25 (NB) -- The Chinese electronics industry generated an output value of RMB45.32 billion (US$5.32 billion) in the first quarter of this year. That is a 28.3 percent increase over the same period last year, the China Daily reported. Statistics also show that the production value of overseas-invested firms was RMB13.2 billion (US$1.59) billion during the period. The increased production rate of these firms was 15 percent higher than the industry's average, the newspaper said. Product sales reached 95.6 percent during the first three months, about two percent more than for the same period the previous year. Sales profit reached a new high of RMB16.7 billion (US$2 billion) in the first two months, a leap of 29.6 percent over the same period last year. The state-owned sector in the electronics industry also reported a rise in production, with an output value of RMB17.02 billion (US$2.05 billion), up 18.9 percent from the previous year. During the first three months, production of color TVs reached 3.92 million, while color tubes reached 3.78 million, up 13.7 percent and 35 percent, respectively. About 270,00 VCRs were sold in the country in the first quarter, an increase of 21.4 percent. The export value of the electronics sector was US$1.68 billion during the period, an increase of 32.1 percent. Meanwhile, the import volume was US$1.71 billion, up 34.6 percent over the same period last year. About 505,000 color TV sets and 408,000 color tubes were exported, increases of 42.7 percent and 61.2 percent, respectively. (Chih-Ho Yu & Ning Huang/19950525) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 05/25/95 BUSINESS Lotus' Expansion Into China (NEWS)(BUSINESS)(BOS)(00018) Lotus' Expansion Into China 05/25/95 CAMBRIDGE, MASSACHUSETTS, U.S.A., 1995 MAY 25 (NB) -- Lotus is expanding into China in ways that include a product development center at the Chinese Academy of Science's Institute of Software, a six-person localization team in China, and a series of seminars aimed at reducing software piracy, explained Charles Pau, Lotus' director of international product management, in an update for Newsbytes. Lotus' six-person localization team is working on software for the Chinese-speaking market, but the newly launched product development center -- being jointly established with the Academy of Science -- will collaborate on software for the English-speaking market, Pau told Newsbytes. Both the localization team and the product development center are located in Beijing. Also in Beijing, he added, Lotus is planning the joint creation of a software quality engineering center with the Beijing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics (BUAA). Lotus first started selling software into China in March, 1994, with the Lotus 1-2-3 spreadsheet for DOS and Windows, and the Ami Pro word processor for Windows, according to the Lotus exec. Localized versions of the Lotus Notes and cc:Mail communications packages for DOS and Windows were released in China in November of that year. Lotus' localization team in Beijing performs the Chinese translations and local field testing for software to be sold in China, he reported. However, any changes to source code which are needed to accommodate Oriental languages are carried out in Singapore, he said. "This technology is well known to us, as a result of our production of software for countries like Japan, Korea, and Thailand. We centralize the changes so we don't have to `reinvent the wheel' every time," Newsbytes was told. The Chinese language uses a double-byte character set, meaning that each character "picks up two bytes," Pau added. "Our software has to recognize that it is dealing with two bytes -- so, for example, when you delete something, you will delete both bytes at the same time." Features like word wrapping have different requirements, as do postal codes, he added. China uses a six-digit postal code, in contrast to the US, for instance, which employs five- or nine- digital zip codes, he illustrated. Lotus' facility is Singapore is also dealing with issues like the application programming interface (API) for the Chinese edition of Windows, which "behaves a little bit differently from the API for English-speaking Windows," according to Pau. Pau added that Lotus' participation in establishing the product development center at the Chinese Academy of Science in Beijing results from an initiative launched about a year ago to create new facilities that would take advantage of product development talent in various parts of the globe. The formation of a product development facility in China, half-way across the world from the US, will also make it possible for Lotus engineers to be working on software development around the clock, and therefore, to bring products to market more quickly, he contended. Lotus, he revealed, is now looking at several other sites elsewhere in the world as possible locations for similar product development centers in the future, to augment its existing facilities in Singapore; Japan; Dublin, Ireland; Cambridge, Massachusetts; Atlanta, Georgia; and Mountain View, California. Meanwhile, he said, the "computerization of China" has finally begun. Until recently, he pointed out, China was affected by restrictions placed by the US and other Western nations through the COCOM (Coordinating Committee) regulations on the shipment of computers and other "dual use" technologies into Communist nations. But in 1994, computer unit shipments to China amounted to 500,000, a number midway between the 350,000 units shipped to Taiwan and the 700,000 sent to Korea, according to Pau. PCs are still scarcely to be found in Chinese homes, due to their high pricing relative to Chinese paychecks, according to Pau. But computers are becoming more commonplace in business and government. "And these are fairly high-end -- Pentiums and 486s." The fact that Lotus' products are targeted mainly at the business market is helping to mitigate the piracy dangers faced by the company, he maintained. But Lotus is tackling these issues anyway, through a series of seminars for organizations and independent software vendors (ISVs) in China, according to the Lotus exec. "There is a thirst for knowledge in China around issues related to software marketing, product design, and quality control," he told Newsbytes. By bolstering the creation of a "local software industry" in China, the seminars will help to prevent any need for piracy within the Chinese market, predicted Pau. (Jacqueline Emigh/19950524/Reader Contact: Lotus, 617-253-9150; Press Contact: Adam Banker, Lotus, 617-603-0424) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 05/25/95 TELECOM Ericsson Secures Analog Cellular Deals From Russia (NEWS)(TELECOM)(LON)(00019) Ericsson Secures Analog Cellular Deals From Russia 05/25/95 STOCKHOLM, SWEDEN, 1995 MAY 25 (NB) -- Ericsson, the Swedish telecoms specialist, has signed several contracts for the implementation of analog cellular systems in Russia. According to officials with the company, the contracts are worth around SEK160 million, and show that, despite the move to digital in the West, there is still a significant market to be had in older analog technology, particularly where the population's telecoms needs are relatively simple. Over the next six months, Ericsson will deliver the NMT 450I cellular equipment to five major cities in Russia -- Moscow, Kalingrad, Vladivostok, Smolensk, and Jekaterinburg -- linking the analog-based network together by the end of this year. In parallel with the push into Russia with extra analog systems, Ericsson has designed a new phone, the FH212. Based on the popular 212 analog cellular series seen in the West, the handheld cellular phone supersedes the company NMT 505I handheld and adds a number of new security features to the mix. As reported by Newsbytes earlier this year, a number of cellular service providers are introducing PIN (personal identification number) encryption of the ESN (electronic serial number) in Russia, where cellular fraud is on the increase. Industry estimates suggest that as many as 30 percent of calls made in Moscow are made illegally. The past few months has seen that figure drop substantially, as new safeguards have been introduced by the network. PIN encryption works by having the legitimate cellular mobile user enter a 16-digit PIN into their handset the first time the mobile "logs on" to the network. Each time the phone powers up and relogs on to the network, the PIN is used to scramble the ESN according to a pre- arranged algorithm, details of which are known only to the mobile and, of course, the cellular network. Since the transmitted ESN is effectively changed each time the mobile logs on to the network, anyone cloning the ESN and mobile number of a legitimate mobile into a second phone would soon find that their cloned mobile would stop working as "yesterday's" ESN was blocked by the network. Theoretically, the PIN could be hacked by a would-be cloner, but the PIN data is held in a protected area of memory on the phone, while the ESN and mobile number are usually listed on the front menu of the phone's software and/or inside the phone's casing -- relatively easy targets for thieves to note. The PIN system is a lot more secure, cellular experts note. The surge in the number of analog cellular operators is the result of a push over the last 12 months by the Russian Communications Ministry to issue a number of small area analog cellular licenses. The Ministry has already issued around 40 licenses so far this year, and a further 40 are expected to be granted over the next two years. (Sylvia Dennis & Steve Gold/19950525/Press & Reader Contact: Ericsson Radio Systems 46-8-757-3929) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 05/25/95 NETWORK UK Firm Intros Windows Network Monitoring Technology (NEWS)(NETWORK)(LON)(00020) UK Firm Intros Windows Network Monitoring Technology 05/25/95 OTLEY, WEST YORKSHIRE, ENGLAND, 1995 MAY 25 (NB) -- Chevin Software Engineering has migrated its range of DOS-based local area network (LAN) traffic monitoring and protocol analysis packages to the Windows 3.1 environment. Gabi Scurfield, a spokeswoman for the company, told Newsbytes that the Windows applications, which will ship within the next month, are a range of traffic monitors, which view LAN activity in "real-time," while simultaneously collecting statistical data for off-line interpretation. There is also a protocol analyzer, which captures packets off the LAN for subsequent decoding and analysis. According to Scurfield, Chevin's Windows-based applications are modular in concept, allowing customers to begin with a set of basic components and to add to these as the LAN grows, or as operational requirements make it necessary. Phil Snell, the company's managing director, explained that the traffic monitors do a lot more than "just monitor traffic. They combine ease of use with complex traffic viewing, statistics collection and interpretation, output to spreadsheet capabilities, address management and traffic generation -- features not normally found in a product of this price," he said. The CNA Traffic Monitors for Windows range from the entry-level CNA Lite Traffic Monitor, designed for small networks which can monitor up to 20 nodes at once, through to the fully functioned CNA Distributed Protocol Analyzer for Windows, which will monitor and analyze up to 10,000 nodes from each capable Pod. Pods are available for control monitoring of local and remote segments. The main features of the CNA Protocol Analyzer for Windows are described as packet capture, packet filtering, protocol decoding and packet generation. All the packages are claimed to share a consistent Graphical User Interface (GUI) that fully utilizes the features and control of Windows. Prices start at UKP200 for the entry-level CNA Lite Traffic Monitor; UKP700 for the CNA Distributed traffic Monitor for Windows; and UKP2,000 for the fully featured CNA Distributed Traffic Monitor and Protocol Analyzer for Windows. (Steve Gold/19950525/Press Contact: Maggie Davies, +1344-301022; Internet e-mail maggied@cix.compulink.co.uk; Reader Contact: Chevin Software Engineering, +44-1943-465378) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 05/25/95 TELECOM UK - Wordcraft's Advanced Fax Technology (NEWS)(TELECOM)(LON)(00021) UK - Wordcraft's Advanced Fax Technology 05/25/95 DERBY, ENGLAND, 1995 MAY 25 (NB) -- Wordcraft International, the company behind the Laserfax range of integrated laser printer/fax applications, has submitted the Computer Fax Peripheral (CFP) protocol for approval by the International Telecoms Union (ITU). The CFP is a set of commands, enshrined in a protocol, that allows fax machines and modems to be controlled by peripherals, as well as communicate interactively with other electronic devices, such a computers and printers. Lilian Glypti of Wordcraft's marketing department, told Newsbytes that the CFP protocol is a lot more than a theoretical standard, but has been developed by the company, and is already implemented in hardware from Panasonic, Minolta, and ITO. It is also supported by Wordcraft's Laserfax package. So why the need for CFP? According to Wordcraft, while standards have emerged in the fax market (for example, T31/Class 1, T32/Class 2, and Class 3, as well as the soon-to-come V8 fax protocol), there has been no equivalent standards in the field of multi-function peripherals (MFPs). Wordcraft points to the fact that many of the latest fax modems, working to new Class 1 and 2, have special commands for printing and scanning, while others have developed proprietary special command systems that have very little support in software. In most cases, company officials claim, these commands have been add-ons to existing equipment and almost all of them have been RS232C (serial) links, resulting in excellent fax performance, but relatively low print speeds. "The development of the IEEE 1284 bi-directional parallel interface standard, and future high speed serial standards, has enabled us to look towards machines that will offer top quality high speed printing as well as fax," explained Mike Lake, Wordcraft UK's managing director. According to Lake, the company is hoping that manufacturers will take the opportunities presented in a fully developed protocol like CFP to add voice and data functions in their equipment "so that a single unit can offer answering, voice response and data modem functions, as well as manual, PC fax, printing and scanning. "Such a device would form a true 'personal communications center' at a very affordable price and with a very low footprint," he said. Lake argues that CFP makes full use of the intelligent controller within an MFP to coordinate the different functions available to it. "For example, PC controlled copying makes use of the scanner, memory and printer. MFPI (CFP's US competitor) is designed to control individual functions rather than to combine them into user-related operations," he said. According to Lake, MFPI has only been specified as far as Level 1 -- the physical and packet interface -- and no command set, nor an applications guide. "Our practical development experience means that CFP has been honed in practice -- not just in theory -- and is available off the shelf for manufacturers to implement now," he said. Version 1.3 of the CFP is currently in the process of being submitted to the British Fax Industry Consultative Committee (BFICC) for consideration and onward submission to the ITU. Wordcraft has agreed to retain intellectual copyright in the technology, in exchange for the waiving of royalty charges on the protocol if implemented by third party companies. (Steve Gold/19950525/Press & Reader Contact: Wordcraft International, tel +44-1332-371428, fax +44-1332-295525) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 05/25/95 GENERAL Anti-Microsoft Group Charges NBC (NEWS)(GENERAL)(DEN)(00022) Anti-Microsoft Group Charges NBC 05/25/95 WASHINGTON, D.C., 1995 MAY 25 (NB) -- Now that Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ: MSFT) and Intuit Inc. have called off their merger, a political action group that opposed the deal says it wants the National Broadcasting Company (NBC) to reveal its business dealings with Microsoft during a television show about the software company's chairman. The Committee to Fight Microsoft Corporation (CFMC) said it will file a complaint with the Federal Communications Commission asking that NBC be compelled to disclose its business contacts with Microsoft during NBC's one hour broadcast about Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates scheduled to air May 26. NBC has scheduled a prime time news special Friday evening titled "Tycoon" in which NBC news anchor Tom Brokaw interviews Gates. A Microsoft spokesperson told Newsbytes the NBC special has been almost a year in the making. "Tom Brokaw has made several trips here and has done at least four interviews with Bill Gates," the spokesperson said. Anthony Martin, CFMC executive director, wants NBC to air a disclaimer, repeated every quarter hour, in which the television network advises viewers that NBC and Microsoft are business partners. "It is an abuse of the public trust for NBC to present an ostensibly objective news report about a company with which it has just signed major commercial agreements," charged Martin. Martin told Newsbytes his objection is that NBC News is presenting the profile of Bill Gates as a news show while NBC has entered into an agreement with Microsoft to be a content provider for the soon-to-launch Microsoft Network (MSN). Earlier this month Newsbytes reported that NBC President Robert Wright and Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates announced a strategic alliance between the two companies that covered a broad range of areas, including on-line, CD-ROM, interactive TV and other digital products as well as integration of those efforts into traditional broadcast and cable television. Microsoft said the agreement calls for NBC to build new on-line services for MSN. Those services will encompass all NBC content areas, including NBC Entertainment, NBC Sports, NBC News, NBC Productions, CNBC and America's Talking. NBC advertisers and affiliates will be invited and encouraged to participate in NBC's MSN services, according to NBC. Martin said he has sent a communication to NBC News stating his organization's position but did not ask for, nor does he expect a reply from the network. He said he will watch the show. "We certainly monitor anything that involves Microsoft, in a professional way of course," stated Martin. CFMC also announced it has obtained offices in Washington, D.C., and has formed what it called "an independent, non-regulated affiliate" to lead its lobbying efforts against Microsoft. "June 1st we will have a Connecticut Avenue office. We have subleased office space. We have ordered phone service and expect to have a phone number shortly. I think our new office should dispel any thought we are either a fly-by-night or a group that is going to disappear," said Martin, who compares his organization and Microsoft as "a David and Goliath match." CFMC claims to operate under "strict limits" imposed by federal law and the Federal Election Commission. Martin said the new group, dubbed Computer Consumers of America, will be a "private, independent organization to which anyone can belong or support." (Jim Mallory/19950525/Press contact: Cheryl Wells, CFMC, 407-833-6917; Public contact: CFMC, tel 407-833-6917, Internet e-mail FightMS@aol.com) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 05/25/95 TRENDS Sharp, Mitsubishi, Polaroid In LCD Announcements (NEWS)(TRENDS)(DEN)(00023) Sharp, Mitsubishi, Polaroid In LCD Announcements 05/25/95 CAMAS, WASHINGTON, U.S.A., 1995 MAY 25 (NB) -- Sharp Electronics Corp. has announced an active matrix display it says is nearly twice as bright as conventional active matrix LCDs (liquid crystal displays) and has a wide viewing angle that makes it suitable for use in point-of-sale (POS) terminals, medical imaging, instrumentation, and factory automation. The 10.4-inch active matrix color display with 640 by 480 VGA-quality resolution has an anti-glare coating and uses two cartridge-type backlights to make the image easier to read even in brightly lit areas. Sharp said the display unit, designated the LQ10D344, is available now, with about 12 weeks of lead time on delivery in production quantities. In other news on the LCD front, Mitsubishi Electronics of America Inc. announced 10.4-inch color Super VGA and VGA thin film transistor LCD displays with a wide viewing angle. Mitsubishi said its displays are designed for notebook and sub-notebook PCs as well as POS terminals, industrial control, and game applications. Mitsubishi's Angleview displays are available now. The SVGA system is priced at $1,550, while the VGA price is $1,450 for sample quantities. Polaroid Corp. (NYSE: PRD) has announced development in conjunction with Motorola of a holographic reflective material that the company claims "greatly improves" the image quality of LCD screens designed for use in hand-held computers and portable communications devices. Polaroid said its Imagix holographic reflector material improves image brightness and contrast by a factor of two or three and eliminates image degradation due to glare. Polaroid said Imagix also gives LCDs the appearance of having an internal source of illumination. Polaroid said several LCD makers, including Optrex, Seiko Epson and Seiko Instruments have licensed the Imagix technology. (Jim Mallory/19950525/Press contact: David White, Young & Roehr for Sharp Electronics, 503-222-0626, Sherry Hill, Mitsubishi Electronics, 408-774-31188, Robert Guenther, Polaroid, 617-386-3112) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 05/25/95 BUSINESS ****Computer Associates To Buy Legent (NEWS)(BUSINESS)(TOR)(00024) ****Computer Associates To Buy Legent 05/25/95 ISLANDIA, NEW YORK, U.S.A., 1995 MAY 25 (NB) -- Computer Associates International, Inc. (NYSE:CA) and Legent Corp. (NASDAQ:LGNT) have announced a definitive agreement that would see CA buy out the Herndon, Virginia-based software firm. According to the companies, if completed, the deal will be the largest acquisition in the software industry's history. A wholly-owned subsidiary of CA will offer to purchase all outstanding shares of Legent's common stock at $47.95 per share. The offer will be subject to the expiration or termination of any applicable anti-trust waiting period and the receipt of all regulatory approvals. Under the tender offer, which will commence shortly, CA plans to buy enough shares to give it a majority stake in Legent. If the tender offer succeeds, CA said it plans to merge the subsidiary into Legent and convert all Legent shares not owned by CA into the right to receive $47.95 per share in cash. Legent reportedly has between 36 million and 37 million shares outstanding, and the purchase is expected to cost CA in the vicinity of $1.75 billion. Both companies' boards of directors have approved the deal, as has General Atlantic, the largest shareholder of Legent Corporation with about 10 percent of the outstanding shares. Part of the money for the buyout will come from a $2 billion credit facility underwritten by Credit Suisse, which expects to act as agent for an expanded syndicate of financial institutions supporting the transaction. In a statement, Charles Wang, chairman and chief executive of CA, said the purchase would accelerate the momentum Computer Associates has built up in client/server computing over the past few years. Legent makes software for managing distributed computing. Computer Associates' wide range of software products includes Unicenter systems management software for client/server computing, as well as mainframe systems management products and applications for mainframe, midrange, and personal computers. Computer Associates had revenues of more than $2.6 billion in fiscal 1995, and has 7,600 employees in 33 countries. Legent, established in 1989, has annual sales in the neighborhood of $500 million and employs about 2,500 people. (Grant Buckler/19950525/Press Contact: Douglas Robinson, Computer Associates, 516-342-2745; Bob Gordon, Computer Associates, tel 516-342-2391, fax 516-342-5329; Kathleen Janson, Legent, 703-708-3890) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 05/25/95 GENERAL Cheyenne Unveils NT & Unix Products (NEWS)(GENERAL)(BOS)(00025) Cheyenne Unveils NT & Unix Products 05/25/95 BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS, U.S.A., 1995 MAY 25 (NB) -- "We're more than 'NetWare' or 'backup,' and we're 'integrated,'" said Jeff Finkle, in a meeting with Newsbytes in Boston on a press tour held to unveil Cheyenne HSM (hierarchical storage manager) for Unix, enhancements to ARCserve/Open 2.0, a pact with SAP, and Cheyenne's future "roadmap" for Unix and Windows NT. Cheyenne is best known for its backup and restore products for NetWare networks, but the Roslyn Heights, New York-based vendor already offers a number of products for Unix and Windows NT, and intends to provide expanded offerings across both environments by the end of this year, said Finkle, who is Cheyenne's director of business development and product management. Cheyenne is now the leading backup and recovery software provider worldwide, and the 13th largest PC software vendor, according to Finkle. "We're a multi-platform `essential services provider,'" he told Newsbytes. Cheyenne, he added, is planning greater expansion into Unix for these reasons: the growing use of Unix in mainframe downsizing, and as a platform for database servers; and the increasing convergence of Unix-based networks with Novell LANs (local area networks). Most Unix applications are "platform-centric or Unix-centric, with limited support for non-Unix clients," Newsbytes was told. Moreover, backup applications represent an "unpenetrated market" when it comes to Unix, he contended. At this point, about 76 percent of all backup is being performed through command line/batch applications and three percent through in-house scripts, with only 21 percent being done through third-party applications, Finkle said. As the Unix and NetWare worlds come together, backup and restore products are needed that will operate across platforms, and that will also provide greater ease of use in corporate MIS (management information systems) environments, according to the Cheyenne exec. On the Unix side, Cheyenne's plans for 1995 call for expanded operating system support, archiving, disaster recovery, cross- platform management, and a "heterogeneous data migrator housed in Unix," the product manager revealed. "We're also investigating communications and security for Unix," Finkle added. Cheyenne already offers data protection in the form of its InocuLAN (local area network) antiviral software, he pointed out. "But in the context of Unix, you'd probably need something that provides things like secure authentication and single sign- in." In the Windows NT arena, he revealed, Cheyenne plans to introduce new products and capabilities that will support and integrate with four components of Microsoft's BackOffice: the SQL (structured query language) 95 relational database management system; the Exchange Server mail server; SNA (Systems Network Architecture) Server; and SMS (Systems Management Server). Finkle told Newsbytes that the newly available Cheyenne HSM for Unix, which runs on single- and multiple-processor systems from Sun, combines magnetic and optical storage with an automatic file migration system designed to let the network administrator "set it and forget it." After installing the self-loading software, the administrator can set parameters determining which files or types of files will be migrated from magnetic to optical storage and under what conditions, as well as the access rate from optical storage. Cheyenne, he reported, is also producing versions of Cheyenne HSM on an OEM (original equipment manufacturer) basis for both Hewlett- Packard and Digital Equipment Corp. Later in 1995, he said, Cheyenne will integrate Cheyenne HSM with ARCserve/Open for "network data backup without demigrating files from the optical drive." Also on the current press tour, Cheyenne officials are announcing enhancements to ARCserve 2.0 that include client agents for NetWare and Windows, database agents for Oracle 6.x and 7.x, and an extension of platform support to include Silicon Graphics' Irix, SunOS 4.1.3, Solaris 2.x, Solaris for Intel, AIX 4.1, and HP-UX -- including the 9000 Series 700 and 800. In addition, Cheyenne recently signed a letter of intent with Santa Cruz Operation (SCO) to port ARCserve/Open to SCO OpenServer, noted Finkle. In the future, more platforms will be added, with UnixWare one possibility, he predicted. Cheyenne, he explained, is expanding into Windows NT due to NT's "adaptability" to Intel and RISC environments, scaleability to SMP (symmetrical multi-processing environments), and "interoperability" with Unix, NetWare and Windows 3.1, as well as the "hundreds" of development tools available for the platform. On the current press tour, Cheyenne is announcing a development partnership with SAP designed to results in "a vehicle for SAP's R/3 customers to protect their mission-critical data" through ARCserve for Windows NT. On the Windows NT platform, Cheyenne already offers ARCserve 1.0 in English and Japanese, changer options, and InocuLAN 1.0, according to Finkle. Later this year, Cheyenne expects to deliver ARCserve 2.0, which will run on Windows 3.51, European language support, FAXserve 1.0, CD-ROM distribution, and database agents for R/3, Oracle, and Microsoft's SQL 95, he told Newsbytes. Other upcoming plans, he said, include: providing virus trapping; "real time replication" and backup, and alerts through MAPI (Mail Application Programming Interface) to Exchange Server; mainframe connectivity to SNA Server; and SNMP (Simple Network Management Protocol) alerts, "snap-in" launching, and software distribution/update/inventory capabilities to SMS. Also on the press tour, Cheyenne is announcing deals that call for including ARCserve for Windows NT on Compaq's SmartStart software distribution CD-ROM, bundling InocuLAN Lite with AST Manhattan server for NetWare servers, and bundling the Japanese edition of ARCserve for Windows NT with Fujitsu's line of servers for the Japanese market. (Jacqueline Emigh/19950525/Reader Contact: Cheyenne Software, 516-484-5100; Press Contacts: Robin Lutchansky, The Benjamin Group for Cheyenne. 408-559-6090; Denise S. Behringer, Cheyenne, 516-484-5110) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 05/25/95 CORRECTION WINDOWS Correction - Microsoft Sets Windows 95 Launch Date (CORRECTION)(WINDOWS)(DEN)(00026) Correction - Microsoft Sets Windows 95 Launch Date 05/25/95 REDMOND, WASHINGTON, U.S.A., 1995 MAY 25 (NB) -- A Newsbytes story on May 19 with the headline "Microsoft Sets Windows 95 launch date at Aug 24" about the announcement of the date Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ: MSFT) will ship its new 32-bit operating system and user interface Windows 95, contained an error. In reporting on some of the features of Windows 95, Newsbytes reported that Windows 95 will have "a single port that will comply with the industry's new Plug and Play specification. Plug and Play lets the computer automatically recognize a connected device and load the correct driver." As was correctly pointed out by an alert Newsbytes reader, Microsoft Windows 95 is software, and software does not have ports. A port, as defined in the Microsoft Press Computer Dictionary, Second Edition, is a location for passing data in and out of a computing device. Computer systems have ports for connecting peripheral devices such as printers and modems. The story should have stated that the new serial communications architecture in Windows 95 will permit the multiple ports of today's PCs to be replaced by a single port that complies with the industry's new Plug-and-Play specification. Newsbytes regrets the error. (Jim Mallory/19950519/Press and public contact: Microsoft, 206-882-8080) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 05/25/95 TELECOM British Telecom Claims ISDN Market Taking Off (NEWS)(TELECOM)(LON)(00027) British Telecom Claims ISDN Market Taking Off 05/25/95 LONDON, ENGLAND, 1995 MAY 25 (NB) -- After years of seeing a stagnation in the UK ISDN (integrated services digital network) market, which some claim is due to British Telecom's high charges for the service, BT has revealed it is observing a "take-off" for the digital network technology. Figures just in from BT show that ISDN usage has increased in a big way in the UK during the year to March, 1995. According to BT officials, ISDN now accounts for 20 percent of BT's new business exchange lines with growth for ISDN 2 at 147 percent, and 58 percent for the more mature ISDN 30 service. ISDN 2 traffic to Europe, meanwhile, has increased by 236 percent. Ray Pritchard, BT's global market manager for ISDN, said that the technology's growth "can be attributed to the cost and productivity benefit it offers, and the realization of market-driven applications developed with the customer in mind. "BT in particular has focused on its customers' needs who are increasingly becoming aware of the advantages of switched digital technology. ISDN applications are attractive to all industries and BT does not just sell lines, but addresses markets with tailored solutions," he explained. According to Pritchard, ISDN 30 has been considered the preferred method for large businesses voice communications requirements since 1990. The trend has continued this year and has been helped by opening up ISDN 30 to small and medium businesses with a six channel entry point, he added. One of main reasons behind the shift to ISDN, BT officials note, is the decision by the European telcos to develop a common ISDN standard (Euro ISDN), which facilitates the integration of pan-European solutions and simplifies the product approvals process. BT claims that growth in ISDN call usage has increased to all regions and not just to Europe on its own. BT notes that it has ISDN links to 30 countries, including connections to South Africa and Moscow, both of which have recently launched their own ISDN service networks. (Steve Gold/19950525/Press Contact: Penn Communications, +44-181-569-9768, Internet e-mail pennpr@cix.compulink.co.uk) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 05/25/95 TRENDS Software Converts E-Mail Text To Voice (NEWS)(TRENDS)(DEN)(00028) Software Converts E-Mail Text To Voice 05/25/95 SEATTLE, WASHINGTON, U.S.A., 1995 MAY 25 (NB) -- Active Voice Corp. (NASDAQ: ACVC) has announced a software package that converts electronic-mail text to voice messages that can be retrieved remotely from a touch-tone telephone. AVC said its E-Mail Reader, which works with the company's Repartee Voice Processing System, lets users retrieve their e-mail at the same time they call in to get their voice-mail messages. Robert Richmond, AVC chairman and chief executive officer (CEO), said business people today need, and want, that ability. "True universal messaging has to include the flexibility to retrieve messages from anywhere - your office PC, a laptop in the field, or any touch-tone phone," he said. AVC said E-Mail Reader is the first product to incorporate Bestspeech, Berkeley Speech Technology's new text-to-speech product. Richmond said using a software-only approach to text-to-voice conversion keeps the product price down. AVC also announced Repartee version 7.2 R2, a multi-application platform for AVC's Telanophy desktop interface. It integrates messaging and incoming call handling on the user's PC screen. The company said the addition of new networking protocols permits Repartee to be integrated with Microsoft Windows for Workgroups, Microsoft Windows NT, Microsoft LAN Manage, and Novell NetWare. Each Repartee Voice Processing System shipped will now include full Telanophy capability for the first user, with multi-user packages available as add-ons. Repartee 7.2 uses IBM's OS/2 Warp operating system and is available in optional Italian and Spanish language packages. The new version uses AVC's Voicecall which displays incoming calls and Caller ID on the PC screen. A new monitor feature lets users hear voice messages being recorded and interrupt the message to speak with the caller. If that option is exercised, the caller still has the choice of leaving the voice message or connecting with the person called. (Jim Mallory/19950525/Press contact: Diane Williams, AVC, 206-441-4700 ext 132; Public contact: AVC, 206-441-4700) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 05/25/95 CHIPS ****Sun Microsystems Intros 64-Bit Multimedia Chip (NEWS)(CHIPS)(SFO)(00029) ****Sun Microsystems Intros 64-Bit Multimedia Chip 05/25/95 SAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1995 MAY 25 (NB) -- From its annual Sun World Expo, Sun Microsystems has announced sample volume of UltraSPARC, claimed to be the first 64-bit microprocessor with built-in multimedia support. Its on-chip support includes multimedia support for desktop videoconferencing, Motion Picture Experts Group 2 (MPEG-2), video effects, and texture-mapped triangle rendering. Sun says this new reduced instruction-set computing (RISC) microprocessor is out-performing its highest expectations and next- generations of the chip are already underway. Production volumes of the processor are expected to be ready by the fall. UltraSPARC was first announced this past December and its 5.2-million transistor design is fabricated by Texas Instruments in Dallas, Texas. In an interview with Newsbytes, Art Swift, vice president of marketing for Sun's SPARC Technology Business, said, "The new UltraSPARC microprocessor allows data to be moved at a peak rate of 1.3 gigabytes (GB)-per-second and at a sustained rate of 600 megabytes-per-second." he continued: "Depending on applications being used, these rates mean a four to ten times average performance increase over existing systems. When you take that kind of performance increase to someone who is working with large multimedia projects, you are making a significant contribution to the development and delivery of multimedia files and programs." Sun also announced the UltraSPARC chipset which includes the control and interface circuitry to build an UltraSPARC system. The set consists of a uniprocessor system controller, the reset/interrupt/clock controller, the UPA to SBus interface, and the crossbar switch -- uniprocessor. Joining Sun Microsystems in the unveiling of the first samples of the UltraSPARC was Data General. The company announced its support of the 64-bit microprocessor and said it would port its DG/UX operating system to the new microprocessor and to the SPARC-V9 architecture. Data General says its first DG/UX operating system for SPARC should be available in the first half of 1996. Cray Computer, which has created upward extensions of existing Sun products, also said it would support and implement the UltraSPARC microprocessor in a next-generation of Cray systems. Swift said the industry is just beginning to see the different situations where systems using this new microprocessor will have a profound effect. He suggested its use in World Wide Web servers, currently burdened with the delivery of large multimedia files, could reduce some of the lengthy delays users encounter while navigating the Web. (Patrick McKenna/19950524/Press Contact: Marge Breya, KVO Public Relations, 415-961-1551) (SUMMARY)(GENERAL)(SFO)(00030) Newsbytes Daily Summary 05/25/95 PENN VALLEY, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1995 MAY 25 (NB) -- These are capsules of all today's news stories: 1 -> Microsoft Announces Scholarship Winners 05/25/95 For the seventh consecutive year, Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ: MSFT) has provided financial assistance to help gifted students pursue careers in technical fields, particularly computer science. 2 -> UK - Vodafone Hits Back At Orange Congestion Claims 05/25/95 Vodafone has laughed-off Orange's claim from earlier this week that its network can handle ten million calls with no congestion, pointing out that Vodafone's quality of service figures just out are impeccable, and that with the two millionth subscriber coming on net very shortly, Orange's 150,000 subscriber base pales in comparison. 3 -> American Microsystems Opens German HQ 05/25/95 American Microsystems Inc. (AMI) has opened a new office in Dresden, Germany. According to spokesman Mike Boss, the office consolidates AMI's existing facilities in Germany, which includes the Zentrum Microelectronics facility -- a joint venture set up in 1993 between AMI and the German Government. 4 -> Wine Auction On The Web 05/25/95 Virtual Vineyards, a new World Wide Web (Web) wine and food shop, has announced it will participate in one of the largest US wine auctions. The Napa Valley Wine Association's annual charity wine auction will allow online visitors to bid on selected lots of wine. 5 -> Ziff-Davis Launches "ZD Internet Life" 05/25/95 Ziff-Davis Publishing Company has announced a new magazine that will eliminate the copying of hot Internet World Wide Web sites from magazine to Web browser. Called "ZD Internet Life," the quarterly publication will include a CD-ROM that links users directly to Web sites. 6 -> More Microsoft Multimedia Programs For Mac 05/25/95 Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ: MSFT) has announced several multimedia programs for the Macintosh computer this week, including two programs in the "Magic School Bus" series, one that looks at the work of famous architect Frank Lloyd Wright, and an examination of the lives, cultures, politics, battles, and legends of the "ancient" world. 7 -> Zenith To Go After Server, Networking Business 05/25/95 A company that offers only desktop personal computers and not servers and the networking products to link them all together is not giving its customers all they need and is putting too many eggs in one basket, according to John O'Keefe, incoming executive vice-president of the Servers And Networking Products business unit at Zenith Data Systems. 8 -> SoftQuad, NCSA Offer SGML For Web 05/25/95 The Hypertext Markup Language (HTML) used to create documents for the Internet's World Wide Web is a subset of Standard Generalized Markup Language (SGML). SoftQuad Inc. (TSE:SKI), a vendor of SGML tools, has announced software to make full-fledged SGML available for publishing on the Web. 9 -> HP Offers Wireless Doctors Aide 05/25/95 Hewlett Packard (HP) said it will provide the healthcare industry the "first" secure mobile "solution" for capturing and transmitting critical information to health professionals who are not on-site at a hospital or other medical facility. 10 -> Microsoft, BSA Win In Telecom Bill Markup 05/25/95 Microsoft and other software companies represented by the Business Software Alliance won a victory yesterday as the House Commerce Committee adopted an amendment by Rep. Rick White (R-Wash.) to the telecommunications bill that would let the market determine the operating systems for television set-top boxes. 11 -> Senate Panel Scales Back Lawsuit Bill 05/25/95 Key members of the Senate Banking Committee have agreed to remove language from legislation reforming securities litigation that had been sought by high-tech industry interests. 12 -> Software For Mobile Data Collection 05/25/95 MapInfo Corp. (NASDAQ:MAPS) and All Points Software Inc., have announced FieldPack Mobile Professional (FPS), software for collecting data in the field for geographic analysis. The new software works with MapInfo's desktop mapping software, also called MapInfo. 13 -> Australia - Encryption System Uses "Touchkey" Access 05/25/95 A new range of data security products has been launched that use a digital signature encryption system that has been approved by the Australian Department of Defense. 14 -> India - ConnectSoft In Multimedia Software Deal 05/25/95 US-based ConnectSoft Corp. has signed a deal with Ruksun Publishing Pvt. Ltd., to develop software applications for the US retail market. The new joint venture, called ConnectSoft Ruksun India Pvt. Ltd., involves an investment of $65,000 by the US firm, giving ConnectSoft a 67 percent holding in the company. 15 -> India - Iomega & TVS Electronics In Distribution Deal 05/25/95 Iomega Corp., reportedly the third largest supplier of removable mass storage media in the world, has appointed Bangalore-based TVS Electronics Pvt. Ltd. as exclusive distributor for its mini-cartridge tape drives in India. 16 -> China - Haikou City Gives Priority To Telecoms 05/25/95 Haikou, the capital of China's youngest province -- Hainan -- has installed 202,400 telephone lines. Now, 30.7 percent of its residents have telephones, the highest rate in any of China's provincial capitals. 17 -> China - Electronics Sector Has Good 1st Qtr 05/25/95 The Chinese electronics industry generated an output value of RMB45.32 billion (US$5.32 billion) in the first quarter of this year. That is a 28.3 percent increase over the same period last year, the China Daily reported. 18 -> Lotus' Expansion Into China 05/25/95 Lotus is expanding into China in ways that include a product development center at the Chinese Academy of Science's Institute of Software, a six-person localization team in China, and a series of seminars aimed at reducing software piracy, explained Charles Pau, Lotus' director of international product management, in an update for Newsbytes. 19 -> Ericsson Secures Analog Cellular Deals From Russia 05/25/95 Ericsson, the Swedish telecoms specialist, has signed several contracts for the implementation of analog cellular systems in Russia. 20 -> UK Firm Intros Windows Network Monitoring Technology 05/25/95 Chevin Software Engineering has migrated its range of DOS-based local area network (LAN) traffic monitoring and protocol analysis packages to the Windows 3.1 environment. 21 -> UK - Wordcraft's Advanced Fax Technology 05/25/95 Wordcraft International, the company behind the Laserfax range of integrated laser printer/fax applications, has submitted the Computer Fax Peripheral (CFP) protocol for approval by the International Telecoms Union (ITU). 22 -> Anti-Microsoft Group Charges NBC 05/25/95 Now that Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ: MSFT) and Intuit Inc. have called off their merger, a political action group that opposed the deal says it wants the National Broadcasting Company (NBC) to reveal its business dealings with Microsoft during a television show about the software company's chairman. 23 -> Sharp, Mitsubishi, Polaroid In LCD Announcements 05/25/95 Sharp Electronics Corp. has announced an active matrix display it says is nearly twice as bright as conventional active matrix LCDs (liquid crystal displays) and has a wide viewing angle that makes it suitable for use in point-of-sale (POS) terminals, medical imaging, instrumentation, and factory automation. 24 -> ****Computer Associates To Buy Legent 05/25/95 Computer Associates International, Inc. (NYSE:CA) and Legent Corp. (NASDAQ:LGNT) have announced a definitive agreement that would see CA buy out the Herndon, Virginia-based software firm. 25 -> Cheyenne Unveils NT & Unix Products 05/25/95 "We're more than 'NetWare' or 'backup,' and we're 'integrated,'" said Jeff Finkle, in a meeting with Newsbytes in Boston on a press tour held to unveil Cheyenne HSM (hierarchical storage manager) for Unix, enhancements to ARCserve/Open 2.0, a pact with SAP, and Cheyenne's future "roadmap" for Unix and Windows NT. 26 -> Correction - Microsoft Sets Windows 95 Launch Date 05/25/95 A Newsbytes story on May 19 with the headline "Microsoft Sets Windows 95 launch date at Aug 24" about the announcement of the date Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ: MSFT) will ship its new 32-bit operating system and user interface Windows 95, contained an error. 27 -> British Telecom Claims ISDN Market Taking Off 05/25/95 After years of seeing a stagnation in the UK ISDN (integrated services digital network) market, which some claim is due to British Telecom's high charges for the service, BT has revealed it is observing a "take-off" for the digital network technology. 28 -> Software Converts E-Mail Text To Voice 05/25/95 Active Voice Corp. (NASDAQ: ACVC) has announced a software package that converts electronic-mail text to voice messages that can be retrieved remotely from a touch-tone telephone. 29 -> ****Sun Microsystems Intros 64-Bit Multimedia Chip 05/25/95 From its annual Sun World Expo, Sun Microsystems has announced sample volume of UltraSPARC, claimed to be the first 64-bit microprocessor with built-in multimedia support. (Ian Stokell/19950525) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 05/24/95 WINDOWS Microsoft Demos Windows 95 Arcade Games (NEWS)(WINDOWS)(DEN)(00001) Microsoft Demos Windows 95 Arcade Games 05/24/95 REDMOND, WASHINGTON, U.S.A., 1995 MAY 24 (NB) -- Earlier this month Microsoft went "back to the future" when it demonstrated one of the games that will be part of its Return of Arcade games collection for Windows 95. Microsoft showed off the classic arcade game Pac Man at the Electronics Entertainment Expo held earlier this month in Los Angeles. Pac Man will be one of the four all-time favorite arcade games that will be replicated from the original coin-operated machines to run on PCs running Microsoft Windows 95. Newsbytes reported recently that Windows 95 will be available in retail outlets on August 24, 1995. Also included in Return of Arcade in addition to Pac Man are Dig Dug, Pole Position, and Galaxian. The original Microsoft Arcade included Asteroids, Centipede, Tempest, Battlezone, and Missile Command. Microsoft said players can customize Return of Arcade games by changing the number of lives, increasing the rate of fire or customizing the keyboard controls. The company said the new games use Microsoft's Wavemix technology to render multiple sound effects simultaneously in Windows to recreate a realistic arcade-style game. Microsoft also announced another add-on scenery title for Microsoft Flight Simulator. Microsoft Hawaii is designed for use with the soon-to-be-released Flight Simulator version 5.1. Flight Simulator 5.1 will be available on CD-ROM or floppy disk and is currently scheduled to ship June 9, 1995. Microsoft said Microsoft Hawaii covers the entire Hawaiian archipelago and features realistic-looking coastline, water and cliffs plus hotels, golf courses, and famous landmarks like Diamond Head and the Hana coast. Microsoft Return of Arcade is scheduled to ship in the fall with an estimated selling price of $34.95. To run the games you need the Microsoft Windows 95 operating system, a multimedia PC using a 486DX or higher chip running at 33 megahertz or faster, four megabytes (MB) of memory and 3MB of available hard disk space, Super VGA or better for 256-color support, a sound board, a mouse or compatible pointing device, and headphones or speakers. Microsoft Hawaii will also ship in the fall, and will sell for about $24.95. You need a multimedia PC running a 386 or faster chip, 4MB of memory, 5MB of available disk space, a CD-ROM drive, mouse, audio board, joystick or flight yoke, Flight Simulator 5.1, and MS-DOS 5.0 or later. A Microsoft spokesperson told Newsbytes Flight Simulator on CD-ROM will sell for about $59.95. On floppy disk it will sell for approximately $49.95. There will be a $10 rebate coupon in box that is redeemable by users of any earlier version of Flight Simulator. (Jim Mallory/19950523/Press contact: Sue Barnes, Waggener Edstrom for Microsoft, 408-986-1140; Public contact: Microsoft, 206-882-8080 or 800-426-9400/ARCADE959523/PHOTO) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 05/24/95 GENERAL PC Expo Set For June 20-22, New Pavilions Added (NEWS)(GENERAL)(BOS)(00002) PC Expo Set For June 20-22, New Pavilions Added 05/24/95 BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS, U.S.A., 1995 MAY 24 (NB) -- PC Expo '95, set for June 20 to 22 in New York City, will feature new Internet, fax/messaging, and ISDN (integrated services digital network) pavilions. It will also include the presentation of the new Apple Enterprise Awards, and the first-time availability of show information on CD-ROM and the World Wide Web, said representatives of Bruno Blenheim, in a meeting with Newsbytes on a Boston press tour. "It seems like we're adding something new every day," pointed out Annie Scully, a company spokesperson, during the visit with Newsbytes on the tour. Leading up to the show itself, Business Wire will run a PC Expo "Exhibitors' Preview" the week of June 12, consisting of news releases on products to debut at the show, Scully told Newsbytes. In addition, show information is already available on Blenheim's recently opened Web page, and more will be added as time moves along, she reported. By now, Blenheim has signed some 800 exhibitors, said Mark Haviland, another Blenheim spokesperson, also at the meeting. About 120,000 people are expected to attend the corporate computing extravaganza, to be held again at the Jacob Javits Convention Center. PC Expo '95 will also offer: keynote speeches by Echkard Pfeiffer, president and chief executive officer (CEO) of Compaq; and Ray Noorda, entrepreneur, and former president and CEO of Novell; in addition to a keynote panel, headed by Computerworld Editor-in- Chief Bill Laberis. Pfeiffer will talk about "The PC: A Universal Tool for Home and Business," and Noorda will speak on the subject "The Industry Needs Alternatives." The topic of Laberis' panel is "View from the Top: Electronic Commerce in the Year 2000...If We Build It, Will They Come?" So far, companies expected to introduce new products include: Apple; Cheyenne; Claris; Compaq; Gateway 2000; Logitech; Nanao USA; PKWare; Rexon; Samsung; Sony; Toshiba; Unisys; Wright Line; AT&T GIS; Zenographics; American Power Conversion; Ask LCD; Commax; Cube Computer Corp.; Elan; Everex; GT Communications; Group 1 Software; Memory Traders Inc.; Rexham Graphics; Symbol Technologies; Twinhead Corp.; ViaGrafix; and Wright Line. PC Expo '95 is attracting an unusually large number of networking vendors, noted the Blenheim reps, attributing this trend to the three new pavilions, along with New York City's growing role as a center for industry "convergence." PC Expo's multimedia and mobile pavilions are returning this year for repeat engagements. Blenheim has previously offered the Internet Pavilion at two of its other shows, Unix Expo and Networks Expo, Haviland explained. The ISDN Pavilion, a "first" for Blenheim, will revolve around an ISDN backbone from Nynex, with participation from about 28 other companies, as well, he said. Novell, which had been absent from PC Expo for several years, is back this year again. Other networking companies that will be on hand include Brooktrout, Sun, Unisys, and Attachmate, according to Haviland. In addition, Lotus and Apple will each have stronger presences at the show than ever before, Scully said. The Lotus exhibit will encompass the entire top floor of the Javits. Apple's Michael Spindler and Computerworld Publisher Gary Beach will jointly present the new Apple Enterprise Awards, which are being co-sponsored by their respective companies. Also, Philippe Kahn's new venture, Starfish, will be a first-time exhibitor at this year's show, she told Newsbytes. Blenheim, she said, expects to provide an edition of the PC Expo '95 show directory on searchable CD-ROM. "Possibly, the press kit for the show will be available on CD-ROM, as well," she revealed. Scully added that to assess the needs expo exhibitors, Blenheim has conducted a first-time survey of the computer vendors. The questions asked included whether the exhibitors need a private press room and a "larger" press conference rooms, and whether they would like assistance with press relations. A number of exhibitors answered "yes" to the last of these questions, and the Blenheim staff is providing them with help, according to Scully. PC Expo '95 will also include about 50 different conference sessions, organized around tracks in Mobile Computing, Windows, the Internet, Networking, Management, Client/Server, Groupware, and Emerging Technologies, said the Blenheim reps. (Jacqueline Emigh/19950523/Reader Contact: Bruno Blenheim, 800-829-3976; Press Contacts: Annie Scully, Blenheim, 800-829-3976 ext 145; Mark Haviland, Blenheim, 800-829-3976 ext 152) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 05/24/95 TELECOM Orange Heats Up UK Mobile Comms War (NEWS)(TELECOM)(LON)(00003) Orange Heats Up UK Mobile Comms War 05/24/95 LONDON, ENGLAND, 1995 MAY 24 (NB) -- Orange Personal Communications, a PCN (personal communications network) digital cellular network operator, has launched its first broadside at the pre-existing analog and digital GSM (global system for mobile computing) networks with a technical argument aimed at proving to potential subscribers that their "Orange" phone will not suffer from network congestion, preventing the making or receiving of telephone calls. In a major press and media campaign that kicks off this week, the company has produced figures showing that their network will have the capacity to handle ten million users -- four times the digital capacity currently allocated to competitors Cellnet and Vodafone. Dr Colin Tucker, group technical and operations director of Hutchison Telecom commented to Newsbytes: "Capacity. It is the one thing that mobile phone networks across the world are going to live or die by over the next few years. "You may think that GSM has come to the rescue of beleaguered analog networks whose service is bursting at the seams; however, unless Cellnet and Vodafone are prepared to allocate more spectrum to the more efficient GSM digital technology, problems will occur," he said. Each UK mobile network operator has been allocated 25 megahertz (MHz) of radio spectrum, but Orange is claiming greater capacity due to the fact that none of its space is "wasted" on analog, where Cellnet and Vodafone are using 15 MHz, with their digital networks having just 5 MHz of this allocation. These networks will either have to phase out analog, or proceed with plans to migrate 7.5 MHz of existing analog spectrum, giving a total of 12.5MHz. Vodafone estimates this will be capable of supporting five million customers -- and double that if "half-rate coding" is ever adopted. Tucker continued: "The important issue for our customers is that they'll be able to get a line even in normally congested areas, the center of London and on the M25 (orbital freeway) when there's a crash on a rainy night and everyone wants to make a call. On the Orange network, you will be able to make a call....first time." (Ray Okonski/19950523/Press Contact: Orange Press Office, +44-973-201911, or +44 171-734-2725) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 05/24/95 TELECOM Polish Govt OKs Telecom Privatization (NEWS)(TELECOM)(LON)(00004) Polish Govt OKs Telecom Privatization 05/24/95 WARSAW, POLAND, 1995 MAY 24 (NB) -- A new communication law is now awaiting the signature of the Polish President Lech Walesa. Under the new legislation, which will take effect from this summer, local telephone operations -- known as local loop provision -- will be handled by small operator firms, as well as the existing state telecoms company, Telekom Polska. The aim of the new legislation is to introduce real competition for all phone users for the first time. According to Government officials, a quick implementation of new rules will be executed once the new law is effective. Foreign and national companies are now being invited to seek government licenses for providing local telecoms services, but international and long-distance connections will be continually exclusive to Telekom Polska. This retention of trunk and international telecoms services by Telekom Polska has angered some industry watchers, but others think that the typical Polish phone user will get the best deal of all, with falling line rental and cheaper local calls expected as the smaller operators get under way. According to Andrzej Zielinski, the Polish Minister for Telecoms, around 20 percent of local telephones should be run by small firms by the year 2000. "We want to improve local telephone services by de-monopolizing the market. The process should be very quick, thanks to the new communication law, now awaiting signature of President Lech Walesa," he explained. According to Zielinski, the new telecoms legislation will enforce "good cooperation between Telekom Polska SA and new private, local operators." Zielinski went on to say that Polska Telekom has invested more than a billion dollars in upgrading the Polish trunk network, and over the next five years a further five million dollars will be spent on the network. This upgrade of the trunk network is no comfort to people in Poland with a phone, Newsbytes can report. Despite millions of new lines being installed over the last year, waiting lists are reported to be even longer, as people and small businesses, suddenly realizing they can get a phone within their working lives, are now starting to apply for a place on the waiting list. Despite this, Zielinski claims that anyone who wants a phone should be connected within the next few years and, at the very latest, even in the most remote parts of Poland, local connection waiting lists will be zeroed by the end of the decade. This will be made possible by the total privatization of Telekom Polska within that time frame. Plans are now in hand, he said, to announce a formal privatization plan over the next 18 months, after which time the privatization plan will proceed, and shares in the company will be sold off to investors. "This process will be linked with Poland joining the EC," Zielinski added. Telekom Polska may have a struggle on its hands to retain business subscribers, however, as Optimus SA, a private Polish telecoms company, has this week announced plans to invest around $2 billion over the next six years to install private local networks across one third of Poland. This will, Newsbytes notes, allow local subscribers to have a choice of national and international carriers for the first time. (Sylvia Dennis/19950523) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 05/24/95 BUSINESS UK - GST Sets Up Independent Republishing Firm (NEWS)(BUSINESS)(LON)(00005) UK - GST Sets Up Independent Republishing Firm 05/24/95 LONDON, ENGLAND, 1995 MAY 24 (NB) -- GST Technology has announced the formation of a new software republishing company to focus primarily on European sales and marketing. The new company is to be called Global Software Publishing (GSP). According to Dave Brass, GSP's newly appointed managing director, GSP will have exclusive European rights to GST Technology's programs as well as pursuing existing and new deals to republish "quality software products" from technology companies around the world. Brass went on to say that GSP is actively seeking new programs to add to its Star Collection of life-style and small business titles, which it claims is one of Europe's leading budget software ranges. Plans call, meanwhile, for the product packaging and branding to remain the same except for the change from GST to GSP, covering the Pressworks, Designworks, and Star products. "Last year we formed a strong partnership with NEBS, a major player in the US, which has resulted in substantial sales of our products in North America. Forming GSP will ensure that we have a similarly focused approach in the UK and the rest of Europe, ensuring maximum penetration of our products throughout the world," commented GST's founder, Jeff Fenton. Plans now call for GSP to launch 12 new Star Collection titles at the end of this month, which will include the first in a series of multimedia programs, bringing the total number to 22. "Becoming an independent company will make us very attractive to software developers in both Europe and North America," explained Brass, who added that, by forming strategic alliances we can continue to build a range quickly with the freedom to obtain products from various sources." (Steve Gold/19950523/Press Contact: Marbles, +44-1628-478200; GSP, +44-1480-496666, Internet e-mail melanie@gst-soft.demon.co.uk) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 05/24/95 PC UK - Logitech's New PC Pilot Mice (NEWS)(PC)(LON)(00006) UK - Logitech's New PC Pilot Mice 05/24/95 BRACKNELL, BERKSHIRE, ENGLAND, 1995 MAY 24 (NB) -- Logitech has unveiled the newly designed Pilot Mouse, a plug-and-play pointing device. According to the company, the new Pilot mouse's "superior style" offers a "more rounded shape" which provides increased comfort to suit the user's hand. The new Pilot Mouse range consists of three-button versions for serial or mouse port connection to IBM compatible computers, and a two-button model for Atari ST and Amiga computers. The IBM compatible models include MouseWare software that provides features such as double-click shortcuts for Windows applications. In addition, the Pilot Mouse is designed with a heavier trackball, which provides heightened sensitivity and therefore greater accuracy, according to the company. A self-cleaning mechanism is also built into the trackball area, preventing clogging and malfunction of the pointing device. Announcing the availability of the new mice, Martin Pickering, Logitech UK's general manager, said: "Since the mouse is the most frequently used device on the computer, it really is worth making a minor investment and selecting the new ergonomically-shaped Pilot Mouse which not only offers comfort and easier, faster computing, but unbeatable value for money." All versions of the Pilot mouse will be available in the UK and Europe early next month with a UK price tag of UKP20. (Steve Gold/19950523/Press Contact: Bogard Communications, +44-1753-654333; Reader Contact: Logitech, +44-1344-894300) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 05/24/95 TRENDS Survey Claims Business Benefits From Microsoft BackOffice (NEWS)(TRENDS)(BOS)(00007) Survey Claims Business Benefits From Microsoft BackOffice 05/24/95 CAMBRIDGE, MASSACHUSETTS, U.S.A., 1995 MAY 24 (NB) -- A new survey by KPMG Peat Marwick shows that Microsoft BackOffice, Windows NT, and Microsoft SQL (structured query language) are providing "tangible business benefits" to users, said officials of Microsoft, KPMG, and Duke University Medical Center, during an IIN videoconference attended by Newsbytes in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Conducted among 26 organizations, the survey demonstrated that "ROI" (return on investment) is only one of four kinds of benefits users are experiencing from Microsoft BackOffice, maintained Allan R. Frank, national partner in charge of KPMG's Enabling Technologies Unit, at the start of the videoconference. The survey respondents reported ROIs ranging from 16 to 600 percent, according to Frank. About 75 percent of the participants cited "cost avoidance" as a reason for implementing BackOffice. Others pointed to "revenue enhancement," he told the journalists and analysts watching the videoconference. But the results also strongly indicate that the benefits of client- server technologies fit a "balanced scorecard mode," Frank cautioned. Aside from financial advantages, the respondents pointed to "internal (operational) benefits, better customer service, and continuous improvements," he observed. About 85 percent of the survey subjects said that Windows NT implementations "strongly enhance" business processes such are business cycle time, "quality of processes," communications, and information delivery, he added. In addition, 85 percent cited improved customer service, 75 percent said they are able to "anticipate customers' needs" more effectively, and 65 percent reported that it is "easier and faster to communicate those needs within the organization." Most of the participants also predicted that buying Windows NT- based systems "will enable their companies to grow and evolve in a rapidly changing business environment," according to the KPMG executive. Robert L. McDowell, VP of Microsoft's Enterprise Customer Unit, told the audience that Microsoft commissioned the study nine months ago to determine how customers are actually using BackOffice, as well as what benefits they are receiving, especially in "mission- critical" applications. Out of the 26 original participants, Microsoft selected six organizations for more detailed questioning, including Duke University Medical Center. Duke University's Dr. Donald Fortin, another speaker in the videoconference, explained that the medical center decided to move from a legacy computing system to a new platform in 1991, selecting Microsoft products after a lengthy search. The medical center's client-server system initially served only 35 users, but it now extends over seven buildings, and has moved into "data entry at the point of customer care," Fortin said. The organization has used the system to collect medical information on 92,000 patients so far, he added. The Microsoft Backoffice-based system at Duke uses SQL Server and Windows NT, according to the doctor. Medical staff using the system enjoy the "ease of use" and "ease of access" of the system's graphical user interface (GUI), he asserted. The medical center used C++ to build its current applications, but is now working on a Visual Basic toolbox that will employ applications like Excel and Word for report writing, he revealed. The KPMG survey also produced detailed case studies from Mercedes- Benz AG, Scottsdale Insurance Company, Siemens AG Power Generation Group, National Fuel Fas Supply Corporation, and Veiling WFO, a large fruit and vegetable cooperative in the Netherlands, according to Frank. (Jacqueline Emigh/19950523/Reader And Press Contact: Interactive Information Networks, 800-766-7898) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 05/24/95 GOVT China - Guangzhou Plans Financial Network Centralization (NEWS)(GOVT)(PEK)(00008) China - Guangzhou Plans Financial Network Centralization 05/24/95 BEIJING, CHINA, 1995 MAY 24 (NB) -- With so many bank and credit cards issued by different banks, the south-China city of Guangzhou plans to centralize its complicated financial network. The new system will reportedly bring card holders more convenience by allowing them to accomplish a variety of transactions, including the paying of local utility bills. Guangzhou was the first city in China to issue bank cards in 1987, and it currently has 20 percent of the country's total bank cards. There are many different cards with various functions: the Bank of China issues "Great Wall" cards; the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China issues "Peony" cards; the Agricultural Bank of China issues "Golden Spike" cards; and the Construction Bank of China issues "Dragon" cards. There are also "Pacific" cards from the Bank of Communications, and the "GDB" (Guangdong Development Bank) Visa card from GDB. In fact, GDB is the only commercial bank in town. "Great Wall" card holders can withdraw both Hong Kong dollars and RMB (local Chinese currency) from 133 ATMs (automated teller machines) in the province. "Great Wall" cards are also issued to Hong Kong customers at the Bank's 13 local branches. Different from other bank cards, the recently issued GDB Visa cards are the country's first international credit cards and can be used overseas. Although foreign credit card companies have not yet issued cards in China, almost all domestic banks have joined the network. Foreign credit cards like Visa, Mastercard, and American Express are usually only accepted in major Chinese hotels and restaurants. With so many different cards from various banks, the city realized the necessity to centralize its financial network. A company called International Financial Network Co. has been set up to centralize the city's complicated financial network and the new system is expected to further reduce the use of cash. (Chih-Ho Yu & Ning Huang/19950522) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 05/24/95 BUSINESS South Korea's Goldstar Targets Inland China (NEWS)(BUSINESS)(PEK)(00009) South Korea's Goldstar Targets Inland China 05/24/95 BEIJING, CHINA, 1995 MAY 24 (NB) -- South Korea's Goldstar plans to invest US$300 million this year in a bid to further expand its business to China's inland market, a Chinese newspaper reported. Goldstar's products, such as its television sets, VCRs, and fax machines, are familiar to Chinese in the coastal cities, but their penetration of the inland market has been limited. In order to increase its presence in inland China, the firm plans to set up a dozen factories and open agencies in China's inland cities. This is in addition to its existing joint ventures already in Beijing, Tianjin, Shanghai, Changsha, and Shenyang. A company executive was quoted as saying that, this year, the business turnover of the company's operations on the Chinese mainland, Hong Kong, and Taiwan will triple from last year. In 1994, the firm's business turnover on the mainland alone reached US$100 million. The executive said that Goldstar will play an active role in developing China's inland market, and the company will make additional efforts in promoting the reputation of its products, in order to compete with Japanese products. The newspaper also said that Goldstar will introduce a new product -- a multimedia computer -- to establish its foothold in the computer market. (Chih-Ho Yu & Ning Huang/19950516) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 05/24/95 ONLINE Netvideo Offers Internet Video Storage & Delivery (NEWS)(ONLINE)(SFO)(00010) Netvideo Offers Internet Video Storage & Delivery 05/24/95 SUNNYVALE, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A, 1995 MAY 24 (NB) -- Designed to offer businesses a video compression, storage and delivery system for World Wide Web (Web) sites, Netvideo is calling itself the "first video service provider (VSP) for the Web." The company claims that its dedicated video server offers corporations and organizations a means to free their Web servers of time-consuming video downloads. Netvideo also says it wants to educate businesses and individuals about the role, value and use of video on the Web. Valerie Taylor, director of marketing for Netvideo, told Newsbytes, "There are still a lot of people who think video on the Internet is not possible. We want people to understand that it is not only possible, but it is happening everyday. We have a 160 megabyte (MB) video on our server and we have been surprised by the number of times it has been downloaded. This 15 minute video from Television Associates shows what is really possible today with T-1 and T-3 connections." She continued, "One of the problems with video is the time it takes to download and the amount of storage it requires. When a corporation or a university has an eight-minute video residing on its Web server, that movie has the potential to slow down access to all of the online features offered on the Web site. By allowing us to place the video on our designated server, the site is free to allow faster access to other areas of information. When a user clicks on their video icon, our server delivers it directly across the Internet to the user's site. Not only does this help the business, but it also helps the speed at which the Internet operates for all of us." Netvideo also offers its clients video compression capabilities. A company can simply send its promotional video tape to Netvideo and have it compressed and stored on the video server. If a company wants to separate the video from its site completely for security reasons, Netvideo will also allow the company to have a separate Universal Resource Locator Web address to access the video through the Netvideo server. The company also supports Motion Picture Experts Group (MPEG) compression format for full-motion, full-screen video. At the same time, it says it offers QuickTime versions in order to meet the needs of the entire Internet community. Taylor continued, "To really take advantage of video on the Internet, both the server and the user need to access the service through large lines such as T-1 and T-3. Many corporations are already installing these bigger 'pipes' and slowly the question of bandwidth is not as important as it once was." Said Taylor, "What we need to concentrate on now is keeping business flowing on the Net. Large video files slow the distribution of information when they are resident with other information stored on a Web server. With our dedicated video server, the flow of business is increased and users will most likely experience less delay getting and viewing the requested video." Novell is one of Netvideo's clients already using the dedicated video server. President and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Bob Frankenberg recently delivered the Novell keynote message at Spring Comdex in Atlanta. The well-received speech was video taped and Novell wanted to distribute the portion dealing with Novell Embedded Technology Systems. Rather than burden its own Web server with the storage and the volume of requests, Novell placed it on Netvideo's server. The Novell video is available for viewing at http://corp.novell.com/whatnew/whatnew.htm. Netvideo focuses on business-to-business clients and large organizations and institutions. The standard desktop user with 14.4 kilobits-per-second (Kbps) access is still a long way from watching a 15-minute video. Newsbytes learned the 160MB video file stored on Netvideo's dedicated video server takes less than 20 minutes to download to a client with a T-1 or T-3 access line. The same video transferred at 14.4 Kbps access would take about 28 hours. Pricing for Netvideo services varies depending on the services a company requires and the number of times each video file is downloaded. (Patrick McKenna/19950524/Press Contact: Chip Hall, Niehaus Ryan Haller Public Relations, 415-615-7914; Public Contact, Netvideo, 408-541-9230, Internet World Wide Web http://www.netvideo.com) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 05/24/95 ONLINE ****SurfWatch Software Protects Kids On Internet (NEWS)(ONLINE)(TYO)(00011) ****SurfWatch Software Protects Kids On Internet 05/24/95 LOS ALTOS, CALIFORNIA, USA, 1995 MAY 24 (NB) -- Under the slogan "Protect your kids on the Net," a California-based software company is selling the first ever software system that watches for and filters obscene material from the Internet. SurfWatch runs alongside existing Internet applications such as World Wide Web browsers, news readers, and FTP (File Transfer Protocol) clients and monitors all the computers on the Internet that they attempt to connect to, each time checking the site against a built in list of over 1,000 black listed sites which contain everything from pornography to racist material. Finding those sites is a job in itself as this type of information is not often widely advertised. To find the sites and keep the database up-to-date SurfWatch employ two methods as Vice President of Marketing Jay Friedland told Newsbytes. "We have a team of net 'surfers' -- college students -- who we hire to search for material along with feedback we receive from parents and teachers. We also use some technology as appropriate to finding sites. The technology actually employs both a database of sites and some proprietary pattern matching algorithms which search for keywords and sequences of keywords." Explaining how the software works, Friedland said, "We actually are much more sophisticated than a simple IP (Internet Protocol) filter. We look at all of the different protocols and data streams (WWW-http, NetNews-nntp, FTP, gopher, chat-irc) and look at the incoming data. This allows us to block sub-directories under URLs (uniform resource locators) rather than whole sites as has been proposed in most firewall or router solutions." The ability to block particular information rather than whole sections of a service means companies can happily run the system off their computers and be sure that staff will not see the material, as well as not be blocked out from anything potentially useful. Interest in the software is not just coming from parents, but educational establishments as well. He added, "The response from educational institutions has been outstanding, with entire school districts and organizations looking at adoption of our software. We are also receiving inquiries from corporations who want to improve productivity and reduce their liability on sexual harassment issues." Company chief executive officer (CEO) is Bill Duvall who was responsible for sending the first packet across the original Arpanet in 1969, between SRI and UCLA. "Twenty-five years ago when I wrote the original software which allowed access to the Internet -- we could only imagine what kinds of information would be available," he said. "SurfWatch is the first product created to make access to inappropriate material a matter of personal choice, creating a true alternative to Internet censorship." And just in case you're wondering, it's not possible to get a listing of the blacklisted sites or take a look at the list, "The site database and all other information is encrypted for use only by our software," said Friedland. A version of SurfWatch for the Apple Macintosh is already available at $49.95 with a Microsoft Windows version promised in two months. Payment of a monthly subscription fee of $5.95 will also entitle the user to a monthly update of the directory of black listed sites. Full details of the software and sales information are available via the World Wide Web at http://www.surfwatch.com/. The software is for computers running on a SLIP or PPP connection to the Internet and cannot be used for other types of connection. (Martyn Williams/19950524/Press contact: Jay Friedland, SurfWatch Software, tel +1-415-948-9500, fax +1-415-948-9577, Internet e-mail jay@surfwatch.com; Public contact: SurfWatch Software, Internet e-mail info@surfwatch.com, Internet World Wide Web http://www.surfwatch.com/) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 05/24/95 TRENDS Japan - Kao Begins Testing "Virtual Factory" (NEWS)(TRENDS)(TYO)(00012) Japan - Kao Begins Testing "Virtual Factory" 05/24/95 TOKYO, JAPAN, 1995 MAY 24 (NB) -- Kao Corporation have begun testing a "virtual factory," a new system that allows the company's nine Japanese plants to operate as a single system. The Tokyo-based company, which produces a diverse range of products from cosmetics and kitchen cleaners to floppy disks and diapers, has begun testing the system which began life in 1988 when Kao began computerized control of a single plant. The automatic plant operation process was introduced between 1988 and 1989 and relied on data fed from the production line into computers. The next stage in automation was to begin feeding the sales and distribution information into the computers, which would then plan the production schedule for each plant. This advanced production management system was introduced between 1993 and 1994. This year has seen the realization of Kao's "virtual factory" when testing began early this month. The system was built over the last two months and has now entered a six-month evaluation and test program in which Kao's plant in Kyushu, western Japan, is operated from the Wakayama plant in central Japan. Preliminary test results are positive, as Kao's Yuki Hayakawa told Newsbytes, "The results are pretty good but we've only just started so it's hard to tell." A computer link enables the systems in Wakayama to control those in Kyushu. Wakayama's five 10 megabits-per-second (Mbps) Ethernet local area networks (LANs) are connected to a 156Mbps fiber optic cable, which links into NTT's (Nippon Telephone and Telegraph) Wakayama exchange. From there it travels to NTT Osaka and onto the NTT 2.4 gigabits-per-second (Gbps) Japanese backbone to NTT Fukuoka where it breaks off to the Kyushu plant's local telephone exchange. From the NTT Kita-Kyushu exchange it links to Kao's internal Ethernet LAN along a similar 156Mbps fiber optic cable. The communications network presently allows the two plants to operate as one factory, but will eventually link all nine plants, enabling a single system to control production across the country and more effectively meet demand and production deadlines. Despite Kao's existing information technology division, which markets floppy disks and digital audio tape cassettes, this system won't be marketed, "It's for internal use only." said Hayakawa. (Martyn Williams/19950524/Press contact: Yuki Hayakawa, Kao Corp., tel +81-3-3660-7131, fax +81-3-3660-7044; Public contact: Kao Corp., +81-3-3660-7111) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 05/24/95 CHIPS IBM Japan To Intro Address Book On A Chip (NEWS)(CHIPS)(TYO)(00013) IBM Japan To Intro Address Book On A Chip 05/24/95 TOKYO, JAPAN, 1995 MAY 24 (NB) -- At the end of May, IBM Japan will begin selling a new type of portable electronic address book that fits onto a PCMCIA (Personal Computer Memory Card International Association) card. The new IBM ChipCard TC-100 crams a microprocessor, memory and battery into the card and also manages room for a small keyboard and screen. #IMAGE 1 20 TWPCX \images\95052413.PCX Click here for photo The card comes with built-in software that will allow the user to enter telephone numbers, names, fax numbers, and short memos. At anytime, the card can be slotted into a laptop computer with a PCMCIA type II slot, allowing the data stored in the card to be saved onto the laptop's floppy or hard disk. If any serious data input has to be done, the device comes with software that allows it to be accomplished on the large PC and downloaded onto the TC-100 once it is completed. The company claims this makes the TC-100 more useful than other similar mini- notebooks. Said IBM Japan's Mac Jeffery to Newsbytes, "It is like a small electronic notebook, but one that is supported by the power of DOS/V, Windows, and OS/2 applications." The card, the same size as any PCMCIA card, features a small liquid crystal display (LCD) display of three lines of 12 characters, which can display both English and Japanese Katakana characters. Memory of 128 kilobytes (KB) is enough to hold around 500 names and telephone numbers, according to IBM Japan. The whole unit is powered by a small battery and controlled with an 8-bit SMC88112 microprocessor. A small keyboard makes data input directly into the unit possible, but it is not really designed for stand-alone use. Said Jeffery, "Naturally on such a small card, a full keyboard is not practical. Instead it uses 24 keys, and you simply "shift" the keys from numbers to letters, sort of like the "NUM LOCK" key. The keys are quite tiny, but presumably you would mostly want to retrieve information, not type a novel, so it is not too challenging to tap the appropriate buttons to get what you need. If you want to do any serious inputting, you would just do it on the ThinkPad and then download." The user is not limited to the telephone and memo functions. Because the unit can connect to a PC, it is possible to compile small programs and download them into the card. Software comes with the package that allows compilation of some applications such as personal notes and recording of golf scores. The ChipCard TC-100 was developed by IBM Japan, and is currently only available in Japan. It will retail for 19,800 yen ($228). Jeffery added the unit is being offered to other IBM divisions for sale around the world. (Martyn Williams/19950524/Press contact: Mac Jeffery, IBM Japan, tel +81-3-5572-2643, fax +81-3-5572-2443/CHIPC950524/PHOTO) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 05/24/95 BUSINESS DEC Unveils "Value-Added Partner Program" (NEWS)(BUSINESS)(BOS)(00014) DEC Unveils "Value-Added Partner Program" 05/24/95 MARLBORO, MASSACHUSETTS, U.S.A., 1995 MAY 24 (NB) -- Digital Equipment Corp.'s new "value-added partner program" represents the second step in a strategy that has already brought Digital to profitability for two consecutive quarters, said Harry Copperman, president, Americas, and VP of worldwide sales and marketing for Digital's Systems Business Unit, in a conference call with Newsbytes. After achieving a financial rebound in the second quarter of fiscal 1995, and furthering the turnaround in the third quarter, Digital will now use the newly unveiled partner program to "generate demand, increase the market share, drive up unit volumes, and broaden the customer base" for its workstations, servers and software worldwide, Copperman told Newsbytes. The program, he explained, calls for new advertising and marketing campaigns, plus a new "coverage model" that introduces a "competitive" discount structure, outlines a new partner accreditation process, and specifies roles and responsibilities of partners in five different sales channels: value-added resellers (VARs), systems integrators, resellers, distributors, and independent software vendors (ISVs). Digital's new ad and marketing campaigns will be "targeted at market segments and opportunities, and tied to the value that specific VARs, systems integrators, resellers, and ISVs can provide," Copperman elaborated. In working with ISVs, for instance, Digital will try to "make sure we get them to port their software to Alpha, and that their software runs faster and does more things on our platform" than on competing workstations, he maintained. There are now 6,500 applications running on Alpha, Copperman said. Alpha's 64-bit address space brings particularly strong opportunities to developers of video, database, and graphics applications, he contended. A 32-bit workstation can address a file on every person now living in the US, but with a 64-bit system you can build a file on "every person who has ever been alive in the history of the planet," he asserted. And where a 32-bit system can address 45 seconds of uncompressed full-motion video, that figure is 5,700 years for the Alpha, he illustrated. Parametric Technology, which recently ported its M-CAD (mechanical computer-aided design) application to Alpha, and Oracle, with its newly announced very large database, are two examples of ISVs that are now taking advantage of the "opportunities" presented by the speed and addressability of Alpha's 64-bit architecture, according to Copperman. Over the past year, he noted, Digital has revamped its entire advertising strategy, switching from 77 different ad agencies to a single agency. Under the upcoming value-added partner program, cooperative advertising programs will still be offered to channel partners, but Digital will ensure that its partners have access to Digital's ad agency, so that they can "execute the look and feel" of Digital's own ads, according to the DEC exec. Also under the partner program, recruitment strategies for channel partners will become "much more focused," and the role of the distributor will change to that of a "tiering agent," he told Newsbytes. Digital will initially work with a small number of large distributors, according to Copperman. Names of these distributors will be announced on July 1, when the partner program is formally launched, he said. Digital's new discount structure will simplify the company's business practices, in an effort to make Digital "the partner of choice," he continued. Copperman added that the forthcoming discount structure calls for terms and conditions that are a major departure from Digital's traditional policy of "very low list prices, with low discounts." The previous approach is consistent with the model typically followed in direct sales, Newsbytes was told. But at this point, about 60 percent of Digital's revenues are being generated through channel partners. "And we think that number will get even higher by the end of this year." As a result, the new discount structure will bring a switch to "high list prices, with high discounts," he reported. Digital first began to shift toward channel sales about a year and a half ago, with a program to downsize its sales organization that permits direct sales only for Digital's largest 1,000 accounts. These top customers work with "account managers" at Digital who create sales plans for customers, and help them to source products from Digital as well as from channel partners, according to Copperman. Smaller customers buy Digital products only through the channel partners. Copperman credited Digital's "channel strategy" with being responsible for a large part of the reduced cost structure that helped the $13 billion company move back "into the black" earlier this year. To help oversee Digital's new partner program, the Systems Business Unit has added two new executives. Debby Miller has been named VP for the Americas. Miller has worked for the past few years at Silicon Graphics, first as VP of marketing, and then as VP of channels. She was previously at IBM for 17 years. In turn, Miller has hired Al Stoddard as VP of channels for Digital's Systems Business Unit. Stoddard was most recently director of Lotus' Notes channel, and has also been with Bain & Company consulting. "We've made similar hires in Europe and the Asia Pacific," Copperman told Newsbytes. Digital started to map out the new value-added partner program seven months ago, and has been obtaining industry input around the plan over the interim, the Digital executive revealed. (Jacqueline Emigh/19950523/Reader Contact: Digital Equipment Corp., 508-493-5111; Press Contact: David Farmer, Digital, 508-264-6737) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 05/24/95 GENERAL Novell Plans Interactive Adventure Game (NEWS)(GENERAL)(DEN)(00015) Novell Plans Interactive Adventure Game 05/24/95 OREM, UTAH, U.S.A., 1995 MAY 24 (NB) -- Novell Inc. (NASDAQ:NOVL) has announced another addition to its PerfectHome consumer software line -- an adventure game in which the user becomes an investigate reporter looking for secret government programs. The setting for the game, currently in development under the project name "Entry Denied," is a top-secret government installation in the Nevada desert known as Area 51. The reporter receives a late-night phone call from a source called "The Leak," alleging suspicious activity in the Nevada desert. The player gets some names, a phone number and a post office box key and heads for a small town in Nevada. Novell describes Niles, Nevada as a fictional, sleepy desert town and the closest inhabited area to Area 51. "The locals have seen a lot but will only talk if the time and the approach is right," reads the game announcement. The player follows leads, searches for information, attempts to determine what's truth and what is mis-information, and tries to avoid surveillance by security officers, suspicious locals and the mysterious "Men in Black." Novell said the events of the game are determined by the player's actions. There is an event scheduler built into the software that schedules events to occur at some point in the future, depending on the interaction of the player with game characters or situations. The player can try to infiltrate the government area by using information gathered during game play. You must substantiate your evidence, break the story before rival reporters and live to publish the story, said Novell. Consequences of failure range from humiliation and a ruined professional career to loss of life. But if you are successful you can win a Pulitzer prize or even get mentioned in the National Enquirer. The game has four main plots for players to follow. You must gather evidence of government secrecy and violation of the constitution, prove the government is constructing a secret aircraft, establish contact with extraterrestrials, and determine the identity of The Leak. The game also randomly introduces sub-plots during play. Novell said the game was developed by the Judson Rosebush Company, a New York City-based firm that develops interactive media and provides consulting services. A Novell spokesperson told Newsbytes "Entry Denied" is scheduled to be available on CD-ROM in September or October with a suggested retail price of $29.95. To run the program you need a at least a 68030-based Macintosh with the System 7.0 or higher operating system, 2.5 megabytes (MB) of available hard disk space, and a QuickTime compatible doublespeed CD-ROM drive. Novell said "Entry Denied" will also be available for Windows-based PCs that are equipped with at least a 486SX microprocessor, 4MB of memory, a double-speed CD-ROM drive, a 256-color video display, and an MPC-compatible sound card and speakers. (Jim Mallory/19950524/Press contact: Wendy Rapier, Novell, 801-228-7245; Public contact: Novell, 800-451-5151) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 05/24/95 TELECOM Canada's BC Telephone Asks To Raise Local Rates (NEWS)(TELECOM)(TOR)(00016) Canada's BC Telephone Asks To Raise Local Rates 05/24/95 VANCOUVER, BRITISH COLUMBIA, CANADA, 1995 MAY 24 (NB) -- British Columbia Telephone Co. has asked Canadian federal regulators to let it raise local telephone rates and restructure them to more closely reflect costs. While raising average local phone charges, the changes would lower costs for businesses in larger cities. Joanna Wyatt, a spokeswoman for B.C. Tel, told Newsbytes the company has submitted two separate applications to the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC). The rate consolidation request calls for reducing the number of local rate groups from 21 to seven. Each community falls into one of the rate groups depending on factors such as size and the number of other subscribers a caller can reach without paying long- distance charges, and the rate group determines the basic monthly bills for local service. B.C. Tel said its consolidation plan would raise residential rates by an average of 75 cents a month. Some subscribers would see no increase, and the maximum boost would be $1.95 per month. Business rates would rise an average of $1.35 per month and a maximum of $12.45 a month, but would drop by as much as $20 per month in Vancouver and other larger centers. B.C. Tel has asked the CRTC to approve this application by the end of May, and wants to put it into effect in July, Wyatt said. The CRTC has not yet ruled on the application. The rate consolidation application is quite similar to one filed by Bell Canada recently. The company also filed an application to raise local rates across the board over the next three years. The proposal calls for a C$4 increase on January 1, 1996, with additional increases in each of the next two years. The amounts of those increases would be decided later, B.C. Tel says, depending on the success of its efforts to cut costs and improve productivity. Wyatt said this application follows an earlier joint application by all of Canada's regional telephone companies that was approved by the CRTC but overruled by the federal government. In the wake of that upset, the CRTC told the companies to submit new applications separately, each taking into account the situation of the individual company, Wyatt said. According to B.C. Tel and the other telephone companies, rate rebalancing is needed because long-distance rates have historically subsidized local phone service. With competition now a reality in long-distance service and expected to appear in local service, the companies say this subsidy is no longer necessary or desirable. B.C. Tel did not announce any plans to cut long-distance rates along with its application for local rate increases. However, Wyatt said the local rate hike, by reducing the contribution needed from long-distance revenues to support local service, could clear the way for long-distance rate cuts. (Grant Buckler/19950524/Press Contact: Joanna Wyatt, B.C. Telephone, 604-432-3853; Public Contact: B.C. Telephone, 800-661-7202) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 05/24/95 GOVT Unisys Lands Big IRS Contract (NEWS)(GOVT)(WAS)(00017) Unisys Lands Big IRS Contract 05/24/95 WASHINGTON, D.C., U.S.A., 1995 MAY 24 (NB) -- Unisys has won a 12-year, $520 million contract for upgrading computer centers at the Internal Revenue Service. The contract, one of the largest ever won by the Unisys federal systems group, is part of the federal government's program to modernize tax collection. The contract is designed to lead to better customer service at IRS offices and improved security. The contract was awarded after a three-year competition. "This strategic effort on behalf of the Internal Revenue Service and the Department of Treasury is a compelling example of the federal government's commitment to better serve US citizens through the use of information technology," said James McGuirk, president of the federal systems division. The Unisys division provided the parent company with about $700 million in revenue last year. The award is an example of the Unisys move away from military work and toward civilian business, a direction Unisys has been following since it acquired Loral's defense division earlier this year for $862 million. The IRS job is also a continuation of the movement by Unisys away from closed mainframe computers and toward client-server computing using open standards. Under terms of the contract, Unisys will provide hardware, software, training and support services, as well as help the IRS consolidate 10 tax-processing locations around the country into three computer centers in Detroit, Memphis and Martinsburg, W.Va. (Kennedy Maize/19950524/Press Contact: Karen Ceremsak, Unisys, 703-847-3200) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 05/24/95 GOVT GSA & Dept Of Defense Open Info Security Office (NEWS)(GOVT)(WAS)(00018) GSA & Dept Of Defense Open Info Security Office 05/24/95 WASHINGTON, D.C., U.S.A., 1995 MAY 24 (NB) -- The US General Services Administration and the Department of Defense have established a joint federal Security Infrastructure Service Program Management Office to offer government-wide security services for electronic commerce and messaging. Joe Thompson, commissioner of GSA's information technology service, and Emmett Paige, assistant defense secretary for command, control, communications and intelligence, signed a formal charter for the new office last month. "The timely implementation of a government-wide information security infrastructure is absolutely essential to our ability to function effectively and efficiently in an increasingly electronic and highly networked environment," said Paige. Paige said that close coordination with GSA "will provide significant benefits and new opportunities" across the entire federal government. The new office is the third established to carry out recommendations from Vice President Al Gore's National Performance Review on the information infrastructure of government. An electronic commerce office was established in January, 1994, and an electronic messaging office began last August. "This third office, focusing on security, is the necessary link that will tie the other two National Performance Review initiatives together," said GSA's Thompson. "This office will work across government top provide the highest standards of security within the government's electronic system." The new office will put into place public key encryption infrastructure and the capability to handle secure digital signatures. In addition to GSA and DOD, the office is staffed with workers for the National Institute of Standards and Technology, the US Postal Service, Justice Department, and the National Security Agency. According to GSA, staffers from the Department of Treasury and the Defense Information Systems Agency are expected soon. (Kennedy Maize/19950524) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 05/24/95 IBM IBM Plans Chip Lab In Texas (NEWS)(IBM)(TOR)(00019) IBM Plans Chip Lab In Texas 05/24/95 AUSTIN, TEXAS, U.S.A., 1995 MAY 24 (NB) -- IBM (NYSE:IBM) has announced plans to open a new research laboratory, its third in the United States, in Austin, Texas, this summer. The new lab will work on advanced circuit design as well as new design techniques and tools for high-performance microprocessors. Work done at the new Austin laboratory will affect IBM's PowerPC microprocessors, its PowerParallel systems, and other chip development work, IBM Research spokeswoman Ellen Beth van Buskirk told Newsbytes. The lab will be accessible to other parts of IBM, she said. It will be located in IBM's existing Austin complex, near laboratories operated by several other IBM divisions. The laboratory is due to begin operation early this summer, with a staff of about 30 initially, van Buskirk said. "Our hope is to be at around 50 by some time next year," she said. Dr. Randall D. Isaac, a senior manager in IBM's Semiconductor Research and Development Center, part of IBM Microelectronics, has been appointed director of the new laboratory. Previously director of silicon technology in IBM Research, Isaac was project manager for IBM's 64-megabit dynamic random access memory (DRAM) development project with Siemens and Toshiba. IBM officials noted that it was a concentration of researchers like that being created in Austin that developed the reduced instruction-set computing (RISC) architecture. The new laboratory joins five other labs operated by IBM Research: the Thomas J. Watson Research Center in Yorktown Heights, New York; the Almaden Research Center in San Jose, California; the Zurich Research Laboratory in Zurich, Switzerland; the Haifa Research Group in Haifa, Israel; and the Tokyo Research Laboratory in Yamato, Japan. The company recently announced plans to open the China Research Laboratory in mid-1995 in Beijing. (Grant Buckler/19950524/Press Contact: Ellen Beth van Buskirk, IBM Research, 914-945-3981; Pam Olson, IBM, 512-838-0759) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 05/24/95 GENERAL Shareware Award Nominees (NEWS)(GENERAL)(MSP)(00020) Shareware Award Nominees 05/24/95 SCOTTSDALE, ARIZONA, U.S.A., 1995 MAY 24 (NB) -- The best and the brightest of the software that users "try before they buy" will be honored at the Shareware Industry Conference, which will be held in Scottsdale, Arizona June 22-25. Eric Robichaud, SAIF director and chief executive officer of Rhode Island Soft Systems, told Newsbytes the awards highlight the fastest growing segment of the computer industry. "They try to demonstrate that there are many high-quality products out there in the shareware marketplace. The products that have been typically nominated are very high profile product names, like Doom. These products are every much as good or even better than their retail counterparts." He said the awards also increase consumer awareness of the shareware concept. The awards are broken down into categories, including: "Best New Product," "Best Utility," "Best Painting and Drawing Program," "Best Education Program," and "Best Action/Arcade Games." In the general category of "Best New Product," the three nominees are "Rise of the Triad" from Apogee Software Ltd., "Tek Illustrator" from TommySoftware, and MicroVision's "WordExpress." Robichaud highlighted some of the other award nominees that the public will probably recognize. Probably the most widely-known program is the game "Descent" from Parallax Software/Interplay, which has built up quite a following on the Internet. "Descent is pretty much one of the industry's leading games in terms of popularity. It's basically Doom, but one better." He said "Rise of the Triad" is another popular game. The new release of Paint Shop Pro from JASC is quite popular, along with the compression program WinZip from Niko Mak. Last April, Newsbytes reported on the conference itself, which will be held at the Scottsdale Plaza Resort. At the time, Robichaud said the concept of shareware is gaining popular because it is becoming accepted not only by game publishers, but from business leaders like Microsoft. (Bob Woods/19950524/Press Contact: Phil Hall, Open City Communications, 212-714-3575. Public Contact: Jim Perkins, Shareware Industry Awards Foundation, 602-443-4109) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 05/24/95 APPLE Microsoft's New Multimedia Titles For Mac (NEWS)(APPLE)(DEN)(00021) Microsoft's New Multimedia Titles For Mac 05/24/95 REDMOND, WASHINGTON, U.S.A., 1995 MAY 24 (NB) -- Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ: MSFT) has announced several new multimedia titles for the Apple Macintosh. The new titles, which are scheduled to ship at varying dates between now and the fall of 1995, encompass reference, wine, history, and ancient civilizations. One of the new titles for the Mac is the Microsoft Encarta '95 multimedia encyclopedia. Microsoft said the new Mac version is so current it includes a photo of the fires that followed the Kobe earthquake in Japan. There's also a photo of a meteor storm on the planet Jupiter, video of the Hubble space telescope repair, and of South Africa's first bi-racial election, and new biographies of notable political figures and activists. Microsoft said a new search tool it calls the "Pinpointer" makes it easier to find facts, do research, or just browse. The tool lets you create lists by searching on words, media elements, geographic location, subject, or time. There are also new "no click" preview menus Microsoft said make information searches faster and easier. Microsoft Encarta is scheduled to ship in June with an estimated retail price of $99.95. There is a $45 rebate coupon in the box for users of earlier versions of Encarta. Microsoft will also release a new version of Microsoft Bookshelf '95 for the Mac. The bookshelf contains a new National Five-Digit ZIP Code and Post Office Directory and a Year in Review section. Address Builder, a new feature this year, gives instant access to any five-digit ZIP in the US You also get: The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, Third Edition; The Original Roget's Thesaurus of English Words and Phrases; The World Almanac and Book of Facts, 1995 Edition; The Concise Columbia Encyclopedia, Third Edition; the Columbia Dictionary of Quotations; The People's Chronology; and the Hammond Intermediate World Atlas. Bookshelf 95 for the Macintosh is scheduled to ship in July and will sell for about $69.95. A $30 rebate is available for users of previous Bookshelf versions. A program called 500 Nations is an interactive companion to the Jack Leustig film series 500 Nations, hosted by Kevin Costner and currently appearing on PBS stations across the country. The CD-ROM disk contains animated sequences that recreate Indian villages and cities, interviews with North American Indian descendants, and dramatic readings of manuscripts from actual witnesses and participants in the vent. There is also a collection of artwork, including original photographs, engravings and detail matte paintings and drawings. 500 Nations is scheduled to ship in the fall for about $39.95. Microsoft is also offering its Microsoft Wine Guide in a Macintosh version. The program includes a wine selector, a detail Atlas of wine-growing regions of the world, and information from international wine experts. Microsoft Wine Guide is currently available and is selling for about $39.95. (Jim Mallory/19950524/Press contact: Suzanne Dennehy, Waggener Edstrom for Microsoft, 408-986-1140; Public contact: Microsoft, 206-882-8080 or 800-426-9400) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 05/24/95 ONLINE "Virtual City" Magazine For Cyberspace (NEWS)(ONLINE)(MSP)(00022) "Virtual City" Magazine For Cyberspace 05/24/95 NEW YORK CITY, NEW YORK, U.S.A., 1995 MAY 24 (NB) -- The people who inhabit "cyberspace" have been called "a community" by many in the past. Now, Newsweek and Virtual Communications have announced a new magazine called "Virtual City," which will serve that community. The magazine is described as the first mass-market, service-oriented "lifestyle" magazine aimed at making cyberspace accessible to everyone. It will serve the online community the way "New York Magazine," "Chicago Magazine," and other big-city magazines cover their communities, the companies said, with news, features, and listings and reviews. Jonathan Sacks, publisher and editorial director of Virtual City, said he feels the market for online and Internet magazines is crowded, "but we're getting into a virtually empty market if you consider how our magazine will cover those areas compared to the other magazines." He said most of the other publishers cover cyberspace from the computing side, meaning they write about computers, modems, and the like. Virtual City will reportedly take a different approach, in that it will cover the "community" of cyberspace. "Nowadays, your 'community' is anyone who shares interests with you whom you run into online," he said, adding "We don't care about the computer. It is an enabling technology. We're concerned with what you get at through the window of the computer screen." Sacks said the stories in Virtual City will deal with "where in cyberspace can you get information that's cool and current." He differentiates his magazine from "Wired." He said Wired is "exclusive" for people who are basically "technogeeks." He said that magazine is very well done, with a good circulation. But Virtual City is "inclusive," and designed for everyone, he added. Virtual City will start out as a quarterly magazine, with distribution through newsstands and computer stores starting in September. A second issue is scheduled for December. Sacks said it is common for launches of national magazines to start out with quarterly editions, and then increase frequency down the line. About 300,000 copies will be distributed at a price of $2.95, and readers will have the chance to subscribe to the magazine. Some Virtual City content will also be published as an editorial "Focus" section in Newsweek's "Business Plus" demographic edition, Sacks said. He also said some content is expected to be available online through commercial services like Newsweek InterActive on Prodigy, and the Internet. (Bob Woods/19950524/Press Contact: Diana Pearson, Newsweek, 212-445-4342) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 05/24/95 TELECOM UK - Cellnet Hits Million Non-Business Customers Mark (NEWS)(TELECOM)(LON)(00023) UK - Cellnet Hits Million Non-Business Customers Mark 05/24/95 SLOUGH, BERKSHIRE, ENGLAND, 1995 MAY 24 (NB) -- Cellnet says it is the first UK cellular network to reach the million consumer tariff customer mark. The consumer tariff is branded by Cellnet as the Lifetime service, offering a lower monthly line rental plus a higher per minute charge, when compared to the business tariff plan. According to Howard Ford, Cellnet's managing director, since the Lifetime tariff was launched two and half years ago (as compared to Cellnet's business tariff, which has been available since the network was launched 10 years ago), the subscriber list growth rate had been increasing steadily, and now more than 2,000 customers are signing up every day. Lifetime was the first consumer tariff to launch in the UK, Newsbytes notes, and Ford is predicting that there will around 12 million cellular phones in use in the UK within the next five years -- two million more than was previously forecast, and triple the number of users today. "Today's announcement has firmly established Cellnet as number one in a consumer market estimated at two million consumer users. Cellnet is the nation's first choice," Ford enthused. How is Cellnet doing against Vodafone? According to Newsbytes' latest information, Vodafone has around 770,000 subscribers on its consumer subscription lists, although Vodafone is reported to be fighting back with intensive advertising and a higher dealer commission to persuade dealers to "guide" subscribers over to the Vodafone service. (Steve Gold/19950524/Press Contact: Cellnet, +44-1754-565438) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 05/24/95 IBM UK - IBM Offers Lotus cc:Mail Bundle For Thinkpad (NEWS)(IBM)(LON)(00024) UK - IBM Offers Lotus cc:Mail Bundle For Thinkpad 05/24/95 PORTSMOUTH, HAMPSHIRE, ENGLAND, 1995 MAY 24 (NB) -- IBM says it is pre-loading Lotus' cc:Mail Mobile, the Lotus electronic-mail package, on its ThinkPad mobile computers sold around the world. At the same time, IBM is in the process of setting a global network dial-up facility that works to cc:Mail standards, allowing cc:Mail users access to the IBM e-mail network. Anna Russell, a spokeswoman for IBM UK, told Newsbytes that the cc:Mail Mobile option had been test-marketed in select US channels over the last six months, and is now going to be available on a global basis. The version of cc:Mail installed on the ThinkPads is customized specifically for the IBM Global Network. Coupled with a one month free trial period for the IBM Global Network, ThinkPad users will be able to test the IBM e-mail service, which supports X.400 and Internet mail exchange with other e-mail and online services. According to Big Blue, using the cc:Mail for the IBM Global Network, ThinkPad users will be able to exchange messages and files with users of other e-mail services in 90 countries around the world. Once the one month free trial period is up on the user's introductory account, charges for the service are auto-billed to a major credit card. Plans call for cc:Mail Mobile 2.1 to be sold separately as a starter kit for the IBM Global Network, Newsbytes understands, although pricing on the standalone package has yet to be confirmed. "ThinkPads have always been the choice of mobile users who want advanced technology and features," explained Frank Mellish, brand manager for Mobile Computing with IBM's Europe, Middle East and African divisions. "We've not lost sight of our customers' basic business requirements." He added that IBM and Lotus "have put together the right package, fulfilling the need for an e-mail system that's powerful, yet easy to start and simple to use." IBM's Global Network is billed as a seamless, worldwide network that serves more than 700 cities in more than 100 countries. The network manages 7,000 LANs (local area networks) and 5,500 host-based networks, supporting more than 25,000 customer enterprises. (Steve Gold/19950524/Press Contact: Anna Russell, IBM UK, +44-1256-314036; Reader Contact: IBM UK, tel +44-1705-561780, fax +44-1705-219884) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 05/24/95 TELECOM UK - 1st Integrated Packet Radio Alarm System (NEWS)(TELECOM)(LON)(00025) UK - 1st Integrated Packet Radio Alarm System 05/24/95 NEWBURY, BERKSHIRE, ENGLAND, 1995 MAY 24 (NB) -- Paknet, the VHF packet radio network, has teamed up with alarm company Scantronic, to develop a Vodassure option for the Scantronic Mosaic 840i security alarm system. The Vodassure option is an integrated unit that fits inside the Mosaic alarm panel box and which acts as a backup to the telephone line signaling system used by the Scantronic. Dave Danielli, a spokesman for the company, told Newsbytes that this is the first time that a Paknet packet radio modem option has been available as an integral feature of an alarm system. "In return for UKP240, users get a Paknet module for their alarm, and a one-year subscription for the Paknet services," he explained. This initial price includes a free aerial, hourly polling and 75 free calls each month, which Danielli claims is sufficient for opening and closing signals. Annual subscriptions in the second and subsequent years cost UKP156 for the same facilities. Danielli went on to explain that the service is aimed as a backup for the traditional phone line link between alarms and control centers. "If the thieves break in and cut the line, then an alarm condition is signaled across the Paknet network, which allows the control center to take action without the phone line being operational," he said. According to Paknet, false alarms are reduced since an exchange fault or outage of a phone line will not be misinterpreted as a real alarm condition. The progress of the break-in can also be monitored as the panel is capable of sending point ID sequential confirmation data over Paknet to the central station. Because Paknet is a packet radio network, inbound or outgoing channels can be set up on demand, just like a vanilla hard-wired X.25 data network. This allows uploading and downloading of data to take place across the radio network. John Smith, Paknet's commercial director, said that the unique combination of the Vodassure package with the Scantronic Mosaic panel represents a significant advance as more intelligent use is made of the Radio Pad and the Paknet network. Paknet now claims more than 92 percent population coverage in the UK, using 180 base stations. The system uses standard VHF frequencies. (Steve Gold/19950524/Press Contact: Vodafone (for Paknet), +44-1635-33251; Reader Contact: Paknet, tel +44-1635-872311, fax +44-1635-872340) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 05/24/95 ONLINE ****CompuServe Offers 10 Cities 28.8 Kbps Access (NEWS)(ONLINE)(SFO)(00026) ****CompuServe Offers 10 Cities 28.8 Kbps Access 05/24/95 COLUMBUS, OHIO, U.S.A., 1995 MAY 24 (NB) -- Among the major online services, it was a race to be first to offer access to the Internet, then to offer access to the graphical World Wide Web, and most recently a race to offer 28.8 kilobits-per-second (Kbps) access. Today, however, CompuServe announced the availability of 28.8 Kbps access in ten US cities at its existing rates. By the end of May, local dial-in access at the faster baud rate will be available in: Atlanta, Georgia; Dallas, Texas; Dublin, Ohio; Houston, Texas; Newport Beach, California; San Francisco, California; Fairfax, Virginia; Minneapolis, Minnesota; New York City, New York; and Seattle, Washington. CompuServe says it plans to offer 28.8 Kbps access across its entire network by April, 1996, and during that time, more cities capable of providing the faster access will be added as they become available. CompuServe has one rate for its service, regardless of a user's access speed. The monthly charge for Basic Services and the hourly rates for extended services is the same for 2,400 bits-per-second (bps), 9,600 bps, 14,400 bps, and now 28,800 bps access. In an interview with Newsbytes, Russ Robinson, director of communications at CompuServe, said, "The World Wide Web is really driving the need for 28.8 service. One of the main comments we receive from our Internet users is that the Web is time-consuming and they spend too much time downloading graphics and larger files. We realize most of our users do not have 28.8 Kbps modems, but we want to be ahead of this demand that is already beginning to show itself." He continued, "By demonstrating our commitment to improve the service for our users and by making the faster access rates available, we become part of the force which will reduce the cost of 28.8 modems as more users upgrade their existing access path. 28.8 modems will soon become as common as 14.4 modems are today." Along with its goal of offering universal 28.8 Kbps access, CompuServe says it also plans to more than double its existing 42,000 dial access ports to 85,000 plus. A dial access port is the individual line which opens to a user to connect to the online service. The total number of dial access ports represents the maximum number of users capable of using the service at any specific moment. Newsbytes notes current street prices for an internal 14.4 Kbps modem range from $50 to $75, while 28.8 Kbps modems cost between $100 and $250, depending on features. (Patrick McKenna/19950524/Press Contact: Andy Boyer, CompuServe, tel 614-798-3351) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 05/24/95 WINDOWS Alchemy 3.0 CD Recorder Software Intro'd (NEWS)(WINDOWS)(DEN)(00027) Alchemy 3.0 CD Recorder Software Intro'd 05/24/95 ENGLEWOOD, COLORADO, U.S.A., 1995 MAY 24 (NB) -- Information Management Research Inc. is almost ready to roll out version 3.0 of its Alchemy PC software application for compact disk (CD) recorders. The Alchemy 3.0 software family provides information management, backup, indexing and retrieval capabilities and has built-in CD recording. IMR believes it will play an important part in the acceptance of CD recorders as a reliable mass storage device. The built-in CD recording can copy indexed data on the fly to the CD disk without the need for pre-mastering software. There is also a data underrun prevention feature that the company said lets the program copy files from any drive, including file servers, without disaster. Alchemy can also read data from unfinished sessions so you don't have to waste precious disk space closing each recording session. Dave Ferretti, IMR director of worldwide sales, told Newsbytes there is no doubt recordable CD's will replace other data storage media, particularly tape, within three to five years. "The tape backup will be encroached on very quickly and eventually you will see us replace tape altogether," said the IMR executive. Asked why that will happen, Ferretti told Newsbytes there are several reasons including falling prices, ease of use, and shelf life. "Previously CD recording technology has been very expensive and very hard to use, from an end-user's standpoint," Ferretti explained. "It will hit the mass market at an under $1,000 price- point in the August-September (1995) time frame," he stated. He also pointed out that the Windows interface used in Alchemy makes using the software as easy as dragging and dropping to create a CD recording. "This year the CD recording technology, from both a technical and pricing standpoint, has hit mainstream corporate America. Towards the end of this year you will see it offered to the small office/home office (SOHO) market and the consumer market because of the price-point and the shrink-wrapped software, i.e., Alchemy will allow you to utilize the CD recorder out of the box without having to be a programmer." IMR said text and image indexing are fully automated, with defaults set for novice CD-R (CD-Recordable) users. The program comes with a "wizard" that automates the indexing, recording and searching of a CD-ROM. Ferretti pointed out various differences that he said make CD recordings more advantageous than tape. Those include the faster random access to data on a CD compared to serial access to a backup tape, and the lengthy shelf life of a disk over a tape. "Kodak has done life cycle testing that claims a one hundred year shelf life of CD recordable media. Since CD disks are recorded using a laser versus the contact heads used to record on tape, there is no degradation each time the CD is accessed, points out Ferretti. He predicts laser read/writes will be the method of choice for the foreseeable future, but read and write speeds will increase significantly. He expects 6X and 8X speed CD-ROM drives versus the current standard of 4X within three to five years. Kodak already markets a 6X recorder, but it sells for $25,000, said Ferretti. He also expects much higher-capacity disks with capacities reaching as much as 10 gigabytes. Ferretti said the first release of the 3.0 family will be Alchemy Personal, a desktop product that will be bundled with CD recorders from Philips LMS, Sony & EMJ Data Systems of Canada, Advanced Imaging, Revelation Products, and SCSI Corp. of Australia that is scheduled to ship in mid-June. The company said it is also negotiating bundling arrangements with other CD-R companies and expects more announcements later this year. Ferretti told Newsbytes IMR will release Alchemy Gold 3.0 for workgroups and management information systems in early August 1995 and Alchemy Professional 3.0 for service bureaus a month later. It already has marketing and distribution agreements with 10 or more companies. One of those is a deal with MTC America to develop and distribute a Japanese version of Alchemy, while Saztec will provide corporations with document conversion to CD-ROM services using the Alchemy Professional system. (Jim Mallory/19950524/Press contact: Dan Lucarini, IMR, 303-689-0022; Public contact: IMR tel 303-689-0022, fax 303-689-0055) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 05/24/95 BUSINESS MGM Forms Interactive Division (NEWS)(BUSINESS)(LAX)(00028) MGM Forms Interactive Division 05/24/95 LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA., U.S.A., 1995 MAY 24 (NB) -- Metro-Golden- Mayer Inc., showing its intention to press hard in the exploding CD-ROM market, has announced the creation of MGM Interactive. MGM Interactive becomes a separate operating division of Metro-Golden-Mayer Inc. after operating for two years with no formal structure. MGM Interactive will direct MGM Inc.'s activities in the interactive arena, and will concentrate on CD-ROM-based interactive products. Anne Corley, vice president of communications for MGM, told Newsbytes that, "The move into interactive multimedia is a part of ongoing restructuring coincidental with the current head of MGM Frank Mancuso taking charge in April, 1993." MGM, the parent, will provide MGM Interactive with a pipeline of MGM-owned movie rights. Titles based on movies may be further developed in other media, including animation and television. MGM Interactive, as a separate division, will ship its first title in 1995, with six to 10 to follow in 1996. Already shipped, before it was a separate division, was the hit interactive game "Blown Away" based on the movie of the same name. The game is interactive with the hero Jimmy Dove, a political renegade-turned-cop for the elite Boston bomb squad pitted against the villain Justus, a disciple of the bomb-master Gaerity. The movie "Blown Away" grossed around $30 million, not considered a hit by any means. "Blown Away" the CD-ROM, priced at $49.99, was a hit, which was a pleasant surprise to MGM. MGM Interactive recently released "Rob Roy Legend of the Mist," priced at $29.99, an interactive companion piece to the hit film "Rob Roy." As with most of their titles, "Rob Roy Legend of the Mist," will be available for both the IBM-compatible multimedia personal computer (MPC) and Macintosh platforms. MGM Interactive has existing relationships with Sega of America Inc., Grolier Electronic Publishing, and Matra Hachette Multimedia. MGM Interactive's next release, "Wirehead," would be the first to be produced by MGM-Sega, and the first not to be based on a movie. The first title from the Matra Hachette Multimedia should ship in early 1996. Ronald N. Frankel has been named executive vice president and general manager of MGM Interactive. He has been a consultant at MGM for the past two years. Before MGM, Frankel was senior vice president of marketing and sales for Kenfil Distribution, one of the largest distributors of entertainment software. (Richard Bowers/19950524/Press Contact: Anne Corley, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Inc., 310-449-3660) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 05/24/95 BROADCAST 13 Asian-Pacific Firms Support Oracle's Set-Top Alliance (NEWS)(BROADCAST)(SFO)(00029) 13 Asian-Pacific Firms Support Oracle's Set-Top Alliance 05/24/95 REDWOOD SHORES, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1995 MAY 24 (NB) -- Oracle Corporation (NASDAQ:ORCL) says thirteen leading Asian- Pacific technology companies have joined more than fifty companies already in support of the Oracle Set-Top Alliance. The Alliance is dedicated to the "open exchange of interactive television (ITV) information and the development of standards and business concerning ITV." The new members joining Alliance include: Fujitsu, Goldstar, Hitachi, Hyundai, JVC, Kyocera, Matsushita, Mitsubishi, NEC, Pioneer, Sampo, Samsung, and Sharp. The Set-Top Alliance is open to device vendors, set-top component manufacturers and providers of other set-top related technologies. In an earlier Newsbytes story, Jeff Cirese, director of set-top development at Oracle, said, "Our Alliance Program is designed to promote ITV standards. We are not here to set those standards, but more to make companies aware of ITV activities that are taking place within the industry." On a parallel track, Oracle continues to develop its Set-Top Certification Plan which allows set-top box manufacturers to incorporate Oracle's New Media software as an end-to-end software series expressly designed for the large scale ITV developments. The New Media software includes Oracle Media Server, Oracle Media Net, and Oracle Media Objects. A spokesperson for the company told Newsbytes, "Oracle and the Alliance are committed to an open strategy for investigating and developing a standardized ITV technology which will be capable of meeting the demands of an evolving environment. The first set-top boxes must have an expansion capacity to include technology which has not yet been developed." Oracle's leading role on the development of ITV technology reflects the comments of Kenneth Van Meter, president of Bell Atlantic's Interactive Multimedia Platforms. In an address to the ITV industry, he said the main problem confronting the industry was the development of agreed standards. Once these standards of set-top architecture, digital compression, and other areas are agreed upon, developers will have the confidence necessary to feel their investments in this early stage of ITV technology will be rewarded. (Patrick McKenna/19950524/Press Contact: Stephen Berger, Oracle, 415-506-2700) (SUMMARY)(GENERAL)(SFO)(00030) Newsbytes Daily Summary 05/24/95 PENN VALLEY, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1995 MAY 24 (NB) -- These are capsules of all today's news stories: 1 -> Microsoft Demos Windows 95 Arcade Games 05/24/95 Earlier this month Microsoft went "back to the future" when it demonstrated one of the games that will be part of its Return of Arcade games collection for Windows 95. 2 -> PC Expo Set For June 20-22, New Pavilions Added 05/24/95 PC Expo '95, set for June 20 to 22 in New York City, will feature new Internet, fax/messaging, and ISDN (integrated services digital network) pavilions. It will also include the presentation of the new Apple Enterprise Awards, and the first-time availability of show information on CD-ROM and the World Wide Web, said representatives of Bruno Blenheim, in a meeting with Newsbytes on a Boston press tour. 3 -> Orange Heats Up UK Mobile Comms War 05/24/95 Orange Personal Communications, a PCN (personal communications network) digital cellular network operator, has launched its first broadside at the pre-existing analog and digital GSM (global system for mobile computing) networks with a technical argument aimed at proving to potential subscribers that their "Orange" phone will not suffer from network congestion, preventing the making or receiving of telephone calls. 4 -> Polish Govt OKs Telecom Privatization 05/24/95 A new communication law is now awaiting the signature of the Polish President Lech Walesa. 5 -> UK - GST Sets Up Independent Republishing Firm 05/24/95 GST Technology has announced the formation of a new software republishing company to focus primarily on European sales and marketing. The new company is to be called Global Software Publishing (GSP). 6 -> UK - Logitech's New PC Pilot Mice 05/24/95 Logitech has unveiled the newly designed Pilot Mouse, a plug-and-play pointing device. 7 -> Survey Claims Business Benefits From Microsoft BackOffice 05/24/95 A new survey by KPMG Peat Marwick shows that Microsoft BackOffice, Windows NT, and Microsoft SQL (structured query language) are providing "tangible business benefits" to users, said officials of Microsoft, KPMG, and Duke University Medical Center, during an IIN videoconference attended by Newsbytes in Cambridge, Massachusetts. 8 -> China - Guangzhou Plans Financial Network Centralization 05/24/95 With so many bank and credit cards issued by different banks, the south-China city of Guangzhou plans to centralize its complicated financial network. The new system will reportedly bring card holders more convenience by allowing them to accomplish a variety of transactions, including the paying of local utility bills. 9 -> South Korea's Goldstar Targets Inland China 05/24/95 South Korea's Goldstar plans to invest US$300 million this year in a bid to further expand its business to China's inland market, a Chinese newspaper reported. 10 -> Netvideo Offers Internet Video Storage & Delivery 05/24/95 Designed to offer businesses a video compression, storage and delivery system for World Wide Web (Web) sites, Netvideo is calling itself the "first video service provider (VSP) for the Web." 11 -> ****SurfWatch Software Protects Kids On Internet 05/24/95 Under the slogan "Protect your kids on the Net," a California-based software company is selling the first ever software system that watches for and filters obscene material from the Internet. 12 -> Japan - Kao Begins Testing "Virtual Factory" 05/24/95 Kao Corporation have begun testing a "virtual factory," a new system that allows the company's nine Japanese plants to operate as a single system. 13 -> IBM Japan To Intro Address Book On A Chip 05/24/95 At the end of May, IBM Japan will begin selling a new type of portable electronic address book that fits onto a PCMCIA (Personal Computer Memory Card International Association) card. The new IBM ChipCard TC-100 crams a microprocessor, memory and battery into the card and also manages room for a small keyboard and screen. 14 -> DEC Unveils "Value-Added Partner Program" 05/24/95 Digital Equipment Corp.'s new "value-added partner program" represents the second step in a strategy that has already brought Digital to profitability for two consecutive quarters, said Harry Copperman, president, Americas, and VP of worldwide sales and marketing for Digital's Systems Business Unit, in a conference call with Newsbytes. 15 -> Novell Plans Interactive Adventure Game 05/24/95 Novell Inc. (NASDAQ:NOVL) has announced another addition to its PerfectHome consumer software line -- an adventure game in which the user becomes an investigate reporter looking for secret government programs. 16 -> Canada's BC Telephone Asks To Raise Local Rates 05/24/95 British Columbia Telephone Co. has asked Canadian federal regulators to let it raise local telephone rates and restructure them to more closely reflect costs. While raising average local phone charges, the changes would lower costs for businesses in larger cities. 17 -> Unisys Lands Big IRS Contract 05/24/95 Unisys has won a 12-year, $520 million contract for upgrading computer centers at the Internal Revenue Service. 18 -> GSA & Dept Of Defense Open Info Security Office 05/24/95 The US General Services Administration and the Department of Defense have established a joint federal Security Infrastructure Service Program Management Office to offer government-wide security services for electronic commerce and messaging. 19 -> IBM Plans Chip Lab In Texas 05/24/95 IBM (NYSE:IBM) has announced plans to open a new research laboratory, its third in the United States, in Austin, Texas, this summer. The new lab will work on advanced circuit design as well as new design techniques and tools for high-performance microprocessors. 20 -> Shareware Award Nominees 05/24/95 The best and the brightest of the software that users "try before they buy" will be honored at the Shareware Industry Conference, which will be held in Scottsdale, Arizona June 22-25. 21 -> Microsoft's New Multimedia Titles For Mac 05/24/95 Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ: MSFT) has announced several new multimedia titles for the Apple Macintosh. The new titles, which are scheduled to ship at varying dates between now and the fall of 1995, encompass reference, wine, history, and ancient civilizations. 22 -> "Virtual City" Magazine For Cyberspace 05/24/95 The people who inhabit "cyberspace" have been called "a community" by many in the past. Now, Newsweek and Virtual Communications have announced a new magazine called "Virtual City," which will serve that community. 23 -> UK - Cellnet Hits Million Non-Business Customers Mark 05/24/95 Cellnet says it is the first UK cellular network to reach the million consumer tariff customer mark. The consumer tariff is branded by Cellnet as the Lifetime service, offering a lower monthly line rental plus a higher per minute charge, when compared to the business tariff plan. 24 -> UK - IBM Offers Lotus cc:Mail Bundle For Thinkpad 05/24/95 IBM says it is pre-loading Lotus' cc:Mail Mobile, the Lotus electronic-mail package, on its ThinkPad mobile computers sold around the world. At the same time, IBM is in the process of setting a global network dial-up facility that works to cc:Mail standards, allowing cc:Mail users access to the IBM e-mail network. 25 -> UK - 1st Integrated Packet Radio Alarm System 05/24/95 Paknet, the VHF packet radio network, has teamed up with alarm company Scantronic, to develop a Vodassure option for the Scantronic Mosaic 840i security alarm system. 26 -> ****CompuServe Offers 10 Cities 28.8 Kbps Access 05/24/95 Among the major online services, it was a race to be first to offer access to the Internet, then to offer access to the graphical World Wide Web, and most recently a race to offer 28.8 kilobits-per-second (Kbps) access. Today, however, CompuServe announced the availability of 28.8 Kbps access in ten US cities at its existing rates. 27 -> Alchemy 3.0 CD Recorder Software Intro'd 05/24/95 Information Management Research Inc. is almost ready to roll out version 3.0 of its Alchemy PC software application for compact disk (CD) recorders. 28 -> MGM Forms Interactive Division 05/24/95 Metro-Golden- Mayer Inc., showing its intention to press hard in the exploding CD-ROM market, has announced the creation of MGM Interactive. MGM Interactive becomes a separate operating division of Metro-Golden-Mayer Inc. after operating for two years with no formal structure. 29 -> 13 Asian-Pacific Firms Support Oracle's Set-Top Alliance 05/24/95 Oracle Corporation (NASDAQ:ORCL) says thirteen leading Asian- Pacific technology companies have joined more than fifty companies already in support of the Oracle Set-Top Alliance. The Alliance is dedicated to the "open exchange of interactive television (ITV) information and the development of standards and business concerning ITV." (Ian Stokell/19950524) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 05/23/95 TRENDS E-mail Animated Greeting Cards (NEWS)(TRENDS)(SFO)(00001) E-mail Animated Greeting Cards 05/23/95 ENCHAIN, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1995 MAY 23 (NB) -- Some observers at the Electronic Entertainment Expo claimed that Software Affiliates' Animated Greetings Workshop could start an "electronic-mail revolution." The program allows users to send an animated digital file with voice and music audio as a birthday greeting through e-mail or on disk. The 900 kilobyte (KB) file carries its own execution command so recipients can open the card without any special corresponding software. Software Affiliates says the first version of the Mac and Windows CD- ROM program contains more than 10 different templates for happy birthday greetings. Each card displays a short animated scene and the audio portion plays a short happy birthday tune, including the name of the recipient. Later versions of the animated, audio greeting card concept will include other special occasions and general greeting cards. According to the company, these customized cards can be created by users of all ages. Rob Edenzon, president of Software Affiliates, told Newsbytes, "Animated Greetings has an interface which allows users to have fun creating a card. A few simple clicks of the mouse and the card is in production and constructed into a file. A person can describe these electronic greetings, but until you actually see them it is hard to understand what all of the excitement is about." Besides being a consumer product, a version of Animated Greetings will be created for the corporate market. Edenzen said the electronic card is an excellent advertising and customer promotion item. Corporations could include the disks in magazine and mailing promotions or distribute the electronic card through e-mail. Interested parties should expect the Animated Greeting Workshop to appear on software retail shelves sometime this summer with a street price of $39.95. Macintosh users need a multimedia-capable computer using a 68040 or faster processor with 10 to 15 megabytes (MB) of storage to run the program. Windows users need a multimedia- capable computer with MPC Level 2 and 10 to 15MB of storage. The electronic greeting card can be received and viewed by users with MPC Level 1 capabilities on the Windows side or a 68030 or faster Mac with a color monitor. (Patrick McKenna/19950523/Press Contact: Christine Kohlstedt, Pat Meier Associates PR, 415-957-5999; Public Contact: Software Affiliates, 818-385-3710/GREETINGS950523/PHOTO) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 05/23/95 GENERAL Merriam-Webster Dictionary/Thesaurus CD Ships (NEWS)(GENERAL)(SFO)(00002) Merriam-Webster Dictionary/Thesaurus CD Ships 05/23/95 SPRINGFIELD, MASSACHUSETTS, U.S.A., 1995 MAY 23 (NB) -- Merriam- Webster is shipping the first CD-ROM version of its Collegiate Dictionary, Tenth Edition and Thesaurus as a hybrid Macintosh/Windows product. The company also recently introduced an online dictionary reference and information service for America Online. #IMAGE 1 20 TWPCX \images\95052302.PCX Click here for photo The new CD-ROM dictionary offers users more than 160,000 entries and the thesaurus contains more than 130,000 related and contrasted words, synonyms, antonyms, and idioms. Merriam-Webster also includes 1,000 illustrations and tables to compliment the text. Speaking to Newsbytes, Kara Noble, an assistant editor for Merriam- Webster, said, "Our dictionary is designed to address the broadest possible audience of users. It will fill the needs of educators, business professionals, home users, students and word puzzlers (people who enjoy crosswords, word jumbles and other word games). By leveraging computer technology, we are able to offer users many features which are not available through a printed dictionary." She continued, "If you do not know how to spell a word, trying to find it in a printed dictionary can be frustrating. With our electronic edition, users find it a lot easier to find a word and its definition. The dictionary will find words which the user does not know how to spell correctly simply by typing a close version of the word. We developed fields in which a user may search. For example, they may search the dictionary for all the words derived from the French language or list all the prepositions or search a root word from a prefix." The new dictionary also allows wildcard searches and the use of Boolean operators to provide users with a means of performing more sophisticated searches. An M-W Link program allows users to hot-key to the dictionary from other Windows applications. By highlighting any word in an application and pressing the designated hot-keys, users have immediate display of the definition. Noble also said, "As well as a great working dictionary and thesaurus, this CD offers word puzzlers plenty of helpful tools. There is a rhyme search and other features to help with cryptograms, crosswords, word jumbles, and other games." The new dictionary includes two CD-ROM games -- Crosswire I and a demo of Merriam-Webster's Word Crazy. The CD contains an encrypted version of Word Crazy and Crosswire II which are available to users for an additional fee. Merriam-Webster also announced its presence on America Online's Reference area. Along with the dictionary and thesaurus, AOL members can also view and purchase Merriam-Webster reference products, consult a punctuation and capitalization reference, and chat with company lexicographers and other AOL members interested in the usage of the English language. The new CD-ROM dictionary and thesaurus is currently shipping and should sell for $49.95 to $69.95. The same version will run on either a Mac or Windows-based computer with a CD-ROM drive. A 15-disk (3.5-inch) version of the dictionary (21 megabytes) and a four-disk version of the thesaurus (five megabytes) are available through Merriam-Webster. (Patrick McKenna/19950523/Press Contact: Cheryl Morin, Pat Meier Associates PR, 415-957-5999/MERRIAM950523/PHOTO) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 05/23/95 ONLINE Updated & Free World Wide Web Directory (NEWS)(ONLINE)(SFO)(00003) Updated & Free World Wide Web Directory 05/23/95 IRVINE, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1995 MAY 23 (NB) -- Let your modem do the walking through HLC.Internet's first comprehensive World Wide Web (Web) Directory. Claiming the Web is too large for one company to maintain an accurate directory, HLC.Internet developed the Internet Service Provider's (ISP) Yellow Pages Initiative. HLC.Internet, an Internet service provider, says it "welcomes" members from the Commercial Internet Exchange (CIX), an international trade association which establishes Internet standards. Fourteen CIX members, including UUNet and CompuServe, have already joined in support of the ISP Yellow Pages Initiative. Hardware and technical support for this free Web service, which is scheduled to go online late this week, is provided by Digital Equipment Corporation. Also, DEC has purchased "name sponsorship" of the directory. The Yellow Pages will reside on a Digital AlphaServer 4/275 at HLC's corporate headquarters. In an interview with Newsbytes, Scott Purcell, president of HLC.Internet, said, "A number of small companies have tried to develop Internet and Web directories, but when we looked at the size of the task of updating and maintaining a Web directory which must include a growth rate of more than 1,000 sites a week, we realized the task required joint participation of leading Internet providers. The key to success is that a team of Internet service providers pool their best ideas and their resources and agree to a single, uniform standard." Access to the directory is free to all users of Web browsers and simple, standard listings in the directory are free. Bold listings and larger advertising displays are available for purchase to all interested parties. HLC projects a June time-frame for the display of the commercial section of the Web directory. Advertising revenues will be used to maintain and expand the directory. Public access to the directory will be available through a standard Web address from the end of May http://www.index.org. To encourage the participation of CIX members, HLC says member organizations which participate in the initiative will receive a portion of the revenues after maintenance and overhead costs are covered. The percentage of revenue sharing will be determined by the number of members accessing the site through the individual provider. For example, if 10% of the users access the ISP Yellow Pages through CompuServe's Internet connection then CompuServe would receive a 10% portion of the profits. The ISP Yellow Pages work very much like the printed edition. Users can search an alphabetized categories list or enter a specific company name to find a Universal Resource Locator (URL) Web address. Unlike the printed edition, which does not dial the phone number, ISP Yellow Page listings are hyperlinked so users can directly access the desired site with a click of a pointing device. Purcell continued, "By the end of this week, the first part of our service will be available with four to five-thousand listings. Sometime in June, that number will increase to 40,000 and we will continue to add sites. We have also developed an auto-robot to survey the listed sites to make sure they are working and maintained. A second part of the service will debut later in June when we offer additional Web searching tools." He said some of the advertised spots will be included in the first offering this week and more advertisers and expanded advertisements will appear in June. Newsbytes learned the free listings include five category listings. A modem manufacturer, for example, might choose to be listed under categories such as Communication Devices, Telephony, Computer Hardware, Modems, and Add-on Boards. Advertising rates begin with bold listings and simple product or service descriptions, according to the company. "We want to create and offer the best and most useful Web directory possible. To do that, we need the efforts of our participating members and feedback from users. This service product is evolving now and will continue to do so to become a product defined by the users needs," said Purcell. ISP Yellow Pages plans to feature a "What's New List" and a "What's Popular List." The home page will provide users with a submission form to allow anyone to list a Web site. (Patrick McKenna/19950522/Press Contact: Scott Purcell, HLC.Internet, 714-474-4950) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 05/23/95 ONLINE Internet Update (NEWS)(ONLINE)(TYO)(00004) Internet Update 05/23/95 TOKYO, JAPAN, 1995 MAY 23 (NB) -- In this roundup of new services and resources on the Internet: Online guide to online pubs; HP28 archive; X-Windows HTML editor; Daily Cannes updates; Governments coming on the Web; HTML editing made easy; French resources information; Indy 500 weekend is coming. Online Guide To Online Pubs Ecola Design Web Services has launched a World Wide Web page that provides pointers to Internet services available from newspapers, magazines, and journals. The list is divided into various sections and provides many links. World Wide Web: http://www.webcom.com/~ecola/tradepub.html HP28 Archive A new archive to information concerning Hewlett Packard's HP28 calculator series went online last week from a site in Belgium. An FTP (File Transfer Protocol) site containing files accompanies the Web pages. World Wide Web: http://www.ccl.kuleuven.ac.be/~luc/HP28/ Anonymous FTP: ftp://ftp.ccl.kuleuven.ac.be/pub/hp28/ X-Windows HTML Editor Phoenix is an X-Windows-based HTML (hypertext markup language) editor for preparing documents for publication on the Web. A new version -- 0.1.8 -- has just become available. World Wide Web: http://http.bsd.uchicago.edu/~l-newberg/phoenix-0.1.8.html Daily Cannes Updates Zenith Data Systems, an "official partner" to the 1995 Cannes Film Festival, is working with Softway to provide a daily update on news from the festival. The service is completed with video clips of some of the films. World Wide Web: http://www.cannes.zds.softway.worldnet.net. Meanwhile, reports from the festival are being sent by film critic Denis Seguin to "eye" magazine, a weekly entertainment and "what's on" guide in Toronto, and each night they are publishing extracts onto the Web. The reports are filed around midnight EST each day, which is 6am in Europe. World Wide Web: http://www.interlog.com/eye/Arts/Movies/cannes.htm Governments Coming On The Web The British Council, a unit of the UK government, promotes educational, cultural, and technical cooperation between Britain and other countries. To further achieve their aims, the Council has recently established a Web server as part of the UK's "open government" initiative. World Wide Web: http://www.open.gov.uk/bc/bcchom01.html. On the other side of the world, the Parliament of the Commonwealth of Australia has opened a home on the Web. Amongst the information available is a copy of the weekly official journal Hansard. World Wide Web: http://www.aph.gov.au/. Gopher: gopher://lib18.aph.gov.au HTML Editing Made Easy Live Markup, a new Windows HTML (hypertext markup language) editor, promises to let users create World Wide Web pages "in a matter of minutes, without ever seeing or knowing actual HTML source code." The software is available for a 30-day evaluation from the Internet. World Wide Web: http://www.mediatec.com/mediatech/ French Resources Information Two new sources of information for and about France have sprung up recently. The first, the "Virtual Baguette," is an online magazine about French culture. The authors explain that humor is one of the great attributes of the French, so all subjects in the "baguette" are treated with a "touch of derision." World Wide Web: http://www.mmania.com/. The second source is the "Chronicles de cyberie," a weekly French language newsletter on interesting sites to visit in French and French Canadian cyberspace. World Wide Web: http://iconode.ca/cyberie/index.html Indy 500 Weekend Coming Valvoline, one of Indy Car racing's biggest sponsors, is making daily race updates available to Internet users. The service, which is World Wide Web-based, also includes QuickTime movies and photos. World Wide Web: http://www.valvoline.com/ (Martyn Williams/19950522) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 05/23/95 GENERAL Japan Newsbriefs (NEWS)(GENERAL)(TYO)(00005) Japan Newsbriefs 05/23/95 TOKYO, JAPAN, 1995 MAY 23 (NB) -- In this roundup of news from Japan: Flat rate phone charge for computer users; Fujitsu's NiftyServe raided; Ricoh profits up; Cellular rates down again; Worlds longest fiber to connect UK with Japan. Flat Rate Phone Charge For Computer Users A report in the Asahi Shimbun newspaper says that the Ministry of Post and Telecommunication is to order telephone companies to switch to a flat rate charging method for computer users wishing to use the telephone network overnight. According to the newspaper, a 1,000 yen ($11.52) monthly fee would be paid, after which, use of the telephone network for calls to computer services overnight would be free. Currently NTT local call charges are 10 yen ($0.11) for four minutes during its off-peak period from 11pm to 8am. Users would need to make more than around 13 minutes of local calls a night before joining the scheme is cost-effective. The ministry hopes the new scheme, which is backed by NTT, will encourage use of communications services and electronic-mail. Fujitsu's NiftyServe Raided Fujitsu announced over the weekend that it suspects certain internal messages to employees were stolen from its NiftyServe computer network after the discovery of Nifty ID numbers and passwords being exchanged on another computer network. The electronics giant also found copies of some internal messages on a small computer system, which was not identified. NiftyServe suffered break-ins last year and increased security to counter them, but now security is to be increased further. The Mainichi Shimbun newspaper quoted a NiftyServe official as saying that 12 of the 116 suspected stolen system IDs had already been canceled. Ricoh Profits Up Japan's Ricoh Corp. has reported a strong increase in profits from 9.52 billion yen ($109 million) in 1993 to 18.6 billion yen ($214m) in fiscal 1994. Overall sales rose by 5.4%, but sales in the company's photocopier division were up 7.4% to total 462 billion yen ($5.33bn). Ricoh suffered less from the strength of the yen as it sells 74% of its machines domestically. Cellular Rates Down Again In response to NTT DoCoMo's recent rates cut, which was itself in response to the coming competition from PHS (personal handy phone system) telephones, Japan's cellular telephone providers announced they have applied to the Ministry of Post and Telecommunication to cut subscription charges. The biggest operator after NTT DoCoMo -- DDI Corp. -- said it would lower its charge from 19,000 yen ($219) to 9,000 yen ($103). Two other groups -- Digital Phone and Tu-Ka Cellular -- said rates would fall from 16,500 yen ($190) to 7,000 yen ($81). IDO announced a six percent rate reduction. Worlds Longest Fiber To Connect UK With Japan The worlds longest fiber-optic telephone cable will connect the United Kingdom with Japan when completed. The cable will run from London across Europe to Italy, where it will cross the Mediterranean into Egypt continuing through India, Malaysia, Vietnam, and China before connecting in Japan. The fiber will be accessible to all countries along the route. (Martyn Williams/19950522) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 05/23/95 GENERAL Japan Business Show '95 - Product Roundup (NEWS)(GENERAL)(TYO)(00006) Japan Business Show '95 - Product Roundup 05/23/95 TOKYO, JAPAN, 1995 MAY 23 - Here are details of other products, not covered elsewhere by Newsbytes, that were generating interest at the recent Business Show '95 in Tokyo: Multimedia Word Processor; New Panasonic Notebook With CD-ROM Drive; Seiko Brain Pad; Casio Fights For Pen Market; Panasonic PHS LAN; Three-In-One Copier/Fax/Printer; Hitachi's Internet Home Shopping. Multimedia Word Processor Toshiba was showing its new Rupo JW-V900, a multimedia word processor. The computer features a supertwist nematic (STN) color liquid crystal display (LCD) display which can display a TV or video image in a window whilst the user works on a document. The word processor also includes an interface for a scanner. Both scanned images and stills taken from the TV tuner of the video input can be inserted into documents being produced. A PCMCIA (Personal Computer Memory Card International Association) type II card socket is included plus the ability to display the output on a television, through an optional interface. The Rupo JW-V900 costs 285,000 yen ($3,285), the TV tuner is 20,000 yen ($230). The scanner retails for 40,000 yen ($460). New Panasonic Notebook With CD-ROM Drive The Pronote Jet AV notebook computer is Panasonic's newest notebook. The most striking feature of the computer is the keyboard which lifts up on hinges at its back to reveal a CD-ROM drive along the left hand half of the computer. On the opposite side is a mat to store another CD-ROM disk. The machine has a choice of TFT (thin film transistor) or DSTN (double STN) 10.4-inch color screen, comes with Sound Blaster Pro and features an Intel DX4 running at 100 megahertz (MHz). The back of the machine reveals microphone and line level input jack sockets, an external speaker socket, the mouse and power connectors, a VGA output socket, parallel and serial ports and an AT bus connector. Versions of the machine range from 398,000 yen to 938,000 yen ($4,587 to $10,812). The top of the range machine includes a 100MHz DX4 processor, 680 megabyte (MB) hard drive and 8MB of memory. Seiko Brain Pad Chiba-based Seiko Instruments introduced their Brain Pad pen computer. Weighing just 385 grams the computer is B6 size and has a 640 by 200 pixel screen. An 8086 runs the system which supports DR DOS version 6/V. The computer is being marketed at the business executive under the slogan "business activity system" and is capable of interfacing, via a PCMCIA modem, with a digital mobile telephone to allowing fax and data functions. Seiko say they have already sold over 10,000 of the 140,000 yen ($1,613) computer to the insurance sales market. Casio Fights For Pen Market Battling with Seiko and Sharp's Zaurus, which Newsbytes reported on recently, is Casio and their Best - business execution support tool. The pen-based PA-100 also features many of the functions of its competitors. The PA-100 comes with MS-DOS version 3.22 and MS-C version 7. Panasonic PHS LAN Matsushita Electric's Panasonic was displaying its new LAN (local area network)-based on the new personal handy phone system (PHS). It consists of a PCMCIA II/JEIDA 4.1 card which has a small PHS transmitter built into the end of it. This is slotted into a notebook computer, which is then able to communicate with a PHS base station. Up to 16 base stations can be connected into a PHS Communications Server connected to a LAN. The computers can then make full use of the LAN, at speeds up to 32 kilobits-per-second (Kbps), through this system. Three-In-One Copier/Fax/Printer New from Fuji Xerox were the Able 3321 and 3221. The machines look a lot like a photocopier with a fax machine sitting above them, but the two are linked, allowing the upper unit to take care of the scanning and transmission of the document, whether that be by fax or by cable to the printer mechanism sitting below. The unit takes up to A3-size paper and provides group 3 and 4 fax capabilities. The Able 3321 is capable of copying 32 A4 pages-per-minute. Hitachi's Internet Home Shopping Hitachi was showing more than just its Internet connection service with a demonstration of Hitachi's prototype home shopping service. Upon accessing the system, the user is faced with a picture of a town that includes, amongst other services, a department store. Upon clicking on the department store, the user is taken on a three- dimensional (3-D) trip from their current position looking over the town down to street level and through the front doors of the store. Once inside you are faced with a corridor in the store along which all the departments can be seen. Entering a department is as easy as clicking on its sign, after which you are free to explore the goods on sale, take a closer look at anything that interests you, and see a video of it in use. In the case of clothes, you are shown a video of a model wearing them. Hitachi specifies that the minimum requirements for a server are a 66 megahertz (MHz) 486DX with 16MB of memory, the Windows NT 3.5 operating system, and an Internet connection. (Martyn Williams/19950522/Press contact: Toshiba, tel Freedial 0120-104899, fax +81-3-5295-3188; Panasonic, Freedial 0120- 158756; Seiko, tel +81-43-211-1323, fax +81-43-211-8061, Casio, +81-3-3347-4638; Fuji Xerox, Freedial 0120-274100; Hitachi, +81-3-5471-8923) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 05/23/95 IBM Europe - IBM & Escom In OS/2 Warp Bundling Deal (NEWS)(IBM)(LON)(00007) Europe - IBM & Escom In OS/2 Warp Bundling Deal 05/23/95 LONDON, ENGLAND, 1995 MAY 23 (NB) -- IBM is claiming a significant sales success with OS/2 Warp, having signed what it calls a "major contract" with Escom for the pre-loading of the graphical operating system onto Escom's own-brand PCs, which are sold across Europe. The deal will be interesting for OS/2 Warp sales in the UK, as Escom is currently in the process of relaunching its PC retail outlets in the country, having acquired the old Rumbelows chain earlier this year. Escom is now in the process of opening or reopening around 100 stores in the UK and plans to open a further 100 by the end of the year. According to Val Russell, a spokeswoman for IBM, the Escom deal covers OS/2 Warp and PC-DOS 7.0 to be pre-installed on Escom's own brand PCs, which are being sold on a pan-European basis, The deal comes in the wake of several other country-specific deals for OS/2 Warp, such as Vobis in German, Osborne Computers in Australia, and Legend in China. Other deals in progress include a global contract with NEC along with UK-specific deals with Peacock Computers, CompuAdd, and Dell. IBM officials claim that, with the Escom deal, OS/2 Warp is now the major operating system in Europe, having captured 49 percent of consumer PC pre-loan and bundling sales as at the end of 1994. Simon Dyson, IBM UK's director of software, said that OS/2 is now the world's best-selling 32-bit operating system. "Every week, more and more names are added to the list of manufacturers worldwide who are pre-loading Warp," he said. To date, IBM claims it has shipped more than nine million copies worldwide of its 32-bit operating system, and Warp, the latest version, has sold over two million copies since global availability last November. (Steve Gold/19950522/Press Contact: IBM Press Office, +44-1256-344390, Internet e-mail val_russell@uk.ibm.com) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 05/23/95 TELECOM Philips Secures Lithuanian Radio Contract (NEWS)(TELECOM)(LON)(00008) Philips Secures Lithuanian Radio Contract 05/23/95 EINDHOVEN, NETHERLANDS, 1995 MAY 23 (NB) -- Philips Telecom's Private Mobile Radio (PMR) division has been contracted to supply an air-to-ground radio communications system to the Lithuanian Government. The system will be installed at Siauliai airport, which Newsbytes notes is the largest ex-Soviet military air-base in Eastern Europe. The runway is 3.6 kilometers (2.2 miles) long. According to Philips, the deal is worth around $30 million and calls for the installation of a PMR system to service the needs of Lithuania's domestic air cargo service. Because of the logistics of moving freight around Lithuania, many companies elect to using air cargo over road/rail links, Newsbytes notes. As with many projects in the region, the contract is being financed by Samuel Montague on behalf of Midland Bank in the UK. Contractors involved with Philips on the deal include Cambridge, Philips BCS, and Philips Lighting. The main focus of support is Philips' Project Center in Eindhoven, while the system itself will center around a Mincomms TN100X trunked radio comms system. Lithuania is now in the middle of a radio and telecoms revolution, Newsbytes notes, having become an independent country in its own right. The recent liberation of the country has meant that new revenue streams from Western lenders and investors have become available and, as the Philips deal clearly illustrates, the Government is now taking advantage of these investments. According to Mike King. senior area manager for major international projects at Philips Telecom, the air-to-ground project will improve Lithuania's air cargo system so that cargo air traffic from the West can be routed safely through the country on to the East. "This project will help strengthen the passage of air cargo traffic through Lithuania", he explained, adding that he sees communication as an important step forward in the growth of Lithuania. (Sylvia Dennis/19950522/Press Contact: Lesley Clarke, Philips Telecom PMR, +44-1223-586143) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 05/23/95 WINDOWS UK - ADDE Intros English Language Maps&Data (NEWS)(WINDOWS)(LON)(00009) UK - ADDE Intros English Language Maps&Data 05/23/95 BIRMINGHAM, ENGLAND, 1995 MAY 23 (NB) -- ADDE, the French software house, has unveiled Maps&Data 3.0 for Windows, an English language version of its mapping software application. The package is being sold and supported through Marketwide, a UK-based software distributor. According to spokeswoman Jan Stannard, the package sells for UKP395 and sets new price/performance levels for the mapping software market. The software can take any information about the question "where" it is asked and display it in map form on the screen. Desktop mapping software is used in two major areas, the presentation of information and analysis/decision support. According to Marketwide, companies can use the package to solve questions in areas such as business site relocation, sales area planning and customer site analysis, and present their results in an easily understandable form. In use, the package is billed as easy to use, with "intuitive" icons and "familiar" Windows conventions with contextual help. It does not, company officials claim, require any technical knowledge to operate, unlike some of the more scientific geographic information systems (GIS) applications on the market. Marketwide claims, in fact, that it only takes five minutes to create a professional map for presentation purposes, without the need for any external data. According to the company, Maps&Data 3.0 for Windows is data-compatible with most major database and spreadsheet packages, allowing direct data imports from Excel, Lotus 1-2-3, dBase, and ASCII files, or via the dynamic data exchange (DDE) facility of Windows. Access and Paradox data can be accessed using Maps&Data's ODBC (Open Database Connectivity) driver facility, which allows users to import information from most other databases and spreadsheets. (Steve Gold/19950522/Press Contact: Marbles PR, +44-1628-478200; Reader Contact: Marketwide, +44-121-608-5218) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 05/23/95 PDA Data General Rolls Out DataGenie II Handheld PC (NEWS)(PDA)(BOS)(00010) Data General Rolls Out DataGenie II Handheld PC 05/23/95 WESTBORO, MASSACHUSETTS, U.S.A., 1995 MAY 23 (NB) -- Data General's new DataGenie II, a "third-generation" handheld PC for mobile data collection, provides a battery life of 150 hours, plus a 32-bit architecture and a more "open" development and communications environment, for pricing starting at $795, maintained Joe Flannery, national account manager, in an interview with Newsbytes. DataGenie I, DataGenie's immediate predecessor, is still in volume shipping, Flannery told Newsbytes. "DataGenie I has done extremely well in the medical field," he contended. But, he added, DG wanted to create a device that would be better suited to field-use in vertical applications such as manufacturing, utilities, construction, insurance, banking, automotive, and shipping and distribution. The 150-hour battery life of the new 15-ounce, ruggedized handheld unit is "unparalleled for its product class," Flannery asserted. The DataGenie II uses four standard AA batteries, and issues a warning when the batteries are running low. The new handheld PC is based on a 32-bit SH-700 processor from Hitachi, instead of the 16-bit NEC V25 chip used in the DataGenie I, according to Flannery. Beyond the longer battery life and new 32-bit architecture, he said, the DataGenie II bring up to four megabytes (MB) of flash memory, and uses the C Executive operating system and "industry standard" ANSI C instead of the "proprietary" operating and development environment of the DataGenie I. C Executive combines elements of Unix and DOS, pointed out Flannery. Mobile users can produce DOS files for upload by RS-232 connection to PC servers and desktop machines, either directly or by modem, according to the national account manager. "Most programmers today are trained in the C language," Flannery added. By providing a C language development environment, the Data Genie II will prevent the need for systems integrators and value- added resellers (VARs) to learn a new language in order to create custom applications for vertical markets, he predicted. DG decided to move to a 32-bit architecture in the DataGenie II in order to provide for future "expandability," according to Flannery. Data Genie I, he added, is really DG's "second-generation" mobile collection device. DG previously produced a 256 kilobyte (KB) and then a 512KB version of another handheld unit, the Model 5221, Newsbytes was told. DataGenie II measures 7.5- by three- by one-inches. Options for the new handheld unit include printers, barcode scanners, and other RS-232 devices, in addition to an application development kit that provides a C compiler, linker, loader, C libraries, utilities, and documentation. Data Genie II is slated to ship by mid-June. The product is priced at $795 with 2MB of flash memory and a one-year warranty, and $995 with 4MB of flash memory and a one-year warranty. When purchased with the application development kit, pricing is $1,500 for a unit with 2MB of flash memory, and $1,700 for a unit with 4MB of flash memory. (Jacqueline Emigh/19950521/Reader Contact: Data General, 508-366- 8911; Press Contacts: Jim Dunlap, Data General; George Goldman, Edelman Public Relations for Data General, 212-704-4440) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 05/23/95 NETWORK Funk's Tech Support/Remote Control For LANs (NEWS)(NETWORK)(BOS)(00011) Funk's Tech Support/Remote Control For LANs 05/23/95 CAMBRIDGE, MASSACHUSETTS, U.S.A., 1995 MAY 23 (NB) -- Funk Software has teamed with the Software Marketing Group (SMG) on ExpressLink for Proxy. The new PC-based all-in-one help-desk and remote control software package for NetWare networks can optionally be used with Funks's WanderLink "secure" dial-in network access product for tech support by modem, said Peter Livingstone, Funk's strategic accounts manager, in an interview with Newsbytes. The new ExpressLink for Proxy, an add-to to SMG's Support Express help desk software, is designed to let tech support pros use Funk's Proxy remote control package directly from the Support Express interface, for remote viewing and keyboard or mouse control of any workstation on the network, Livingstone added. Creating a link between the two programs requires only a path statement in Support Express. The Windows-based Support Express provides a knowledge base for establishing procedures and identifying and solving problems, according to Livingstone. The Support Express knowledge base is designed to become more "efficient" at solving new problems as use of the product increases. Livingstone added that Funk's Proxy remote control package consists of two parts: a NetWare Loadable Module (NLM) that runs on a PC server, and an ODI (Open Data-link Interface) driver on the DOS or Windows client. Wanderlink, which operates peer-to-peer, does not require a server component, he noted. By using Proxy or the new ExpressLink for Proxy with Wanderlink, he said, Proxy's remote control support capabilities can be extended to tech support pros and end-users who are dialing into the network from remote mobile or desktop PCs, with additional advantages that include a range of security capabilities and "extra" data compression. Proxy can also be used with dial-in remote network access products from other vendors, such as Novell's NetWare Connect, Shiva's LANrover, and 3Com's AccessBuilder, he acknowledged. Wanderlink, however, provides password protection, as well as RSA public-private encryption, domain filtering for access control, and a capability called Node ID (identification) for security, according to Livingstone. Node ID, he reported, allows the network administrator to "create a unique key for PC that is limited by the server to that key, so that the user has to dial in from that workstation to obtain access." In addition, beyond the compression schemes used for transmitting data over phone lines, Wanderlink compresses data before it reaches the communications port, to prevent the comm port from becoming a bottleneck. "And since encrypted files cannot be compressed, we compress before we encrypt," Newsbytes was told. Within the next few weeks, Funk expects to release a new version of Wanderlink that uses IP (Internet Protocol) instead of the IPX (Internetwork Packet Exchange) protocol used by the flagship version for NetWare, Livingstone told Newsbytes. "We're also planning Windows NT, Windows 95, and OS/2 clients," he said. Cambridge, Massachusetts-based Funk Software also produces AppMeter, a tool for monitoring usage of LAN (local area network)- based applications on NetWare networks, and Sideways and Allways, two add-in packages for Lotus 1-2-3. (Jacqueline Emigh/19950519/Reader Contact: Funk Software, 617-497-6339; Press Contact: Diane Rezendes, Rezendes & Radley for Funk Software, 617-522-7653) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 05/23/95 WINDOWS Windows '95 Info Video Set For Aug 1 Intro (NEWS)(WINDOWS)(SFO)(00012) Windows '95 Info Video Set For Aug 1 Intro 05/23/95 DALLAS, TEXAS, U.S.A., 1995 MAY 23 (NB) -- GT Interactive Software has announced its latest video product, The Microsoft Windows '95 Informational Video. Projecting initial sales to hit 10 million copies, GT chose television stars Jennifer Aniston and Matthew Perry as hosts to the instructional video. The release date of the video is August 1, almost three weeks in advance of the planned August 24 debut of Windows '95. The company claims that Aniston and Perry, both stars in NBC-TV's sitcom, "Friends," will deliver an "entertaining and instructional" video based on a script from one of the contributors of NBC's "Seinfeld" comedy, Jonathan Gross. A spokesperson for the company told Newsbytes, "There are millions of users, some novice and some advanced, who are anxious to learn about the advances offered by this new operating system. To match the importance of the release of Windows '95, we thought it important to produce a video which brings a fresh and new look to instructional videos using Hollywood-style entertainment." Using the look of commercials and feature films, the production employs "blue screen" techniques, image compositing and comic dialogue to complement the instructional information, claims the company. To underline the size of its marketing effort of this product, GT says the program will be distributed worldwide in five different languages: English, French, Japanese, Spanish, and German. The Microsoft Windows '95 Informational Video will appear in retail software and video outlets around the world. GT has not announced a suggested retail price for the video. (Patrick McKenna/19950523/Press Contact: Audrey Mann, Technology Solutions, 212-696-2000) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 05/23/95 NETWORK Compaq Intros 4-Chip Server, Recovery Tools (NEWS)(NETWORK)(DEN)(00013) Compaq Intros 4-Chip Server, Recovery Tools 05/23/95 HOUSTON, TEXAS, U.S.A., 1995 MAY 23 (NB) -- Compaq Computer Corp. (NYSE:CPQ) has announced a four-processor server, a network standby recovery device, and a 100 megabits-per-second (Mbps) Ethernet network interface controller. Compaq said its new Proliant 4500 server is the "ideal" application server platform for Microsoft Windows NT environments. The system can support up to 1,440 users and up to four 100 megahertz (MHz) Pentium microprocessors. Other features include up to one gigabyte (GB) of error-checking and correcting memory, and as many as four hard drives for as much as 300GB of total storage. The unit comes in tower and rack-mountable models and will have a estimated price that starts as $10,600. The 4500 is upgradable to future higher-speed Pentium processors by changing the processor board. It can also accept higher-capacity Fast-Wide SCSI (small computer system interface)-2 hard drives as those become available. Compaq said a feature called Transaction Blaster improves processor scalability and minimizes bus utilization. Compaq also introduced its Standby Recovery Server, a hardware option to cut down on server down time. The Recovery Server permits the unattended switchover of the network to a backup server when the primary server goes down. Users can reconnect to the network as soon as the network operating system re-starts. Compaq spokesperson Jerrell Neeld said typically that will take six to eight minutes. Neeld told Newsbytes the Standby Recovery Server hardware option resides on the SCSI bus of an external Proliant Storage System that contains the operating system and all network data and is attached directly to two identically configured servers. If the recovery server senses that the primary server has stopped functioning, the standby option switches to the recovery server. The $1,760 option comes with a serial cable that connects the two servers, which in turn are connected to the external storage system that contains the hard drive holding the network data. Neeld said this system is intended as a recovery system in case of server failure, unlike disk mirroring systems which hold a duplicate of the data on the network in case of storage media failure. Compaq has also introduced NetFlex-3, a 10Mbps Ethernet network interface controller that comes in EISA (Extended Industry Standard Architecture) and PCI (Peripheral Component Interconnect) versions. The $209 controller comes standard on all Proliant 4500 configurations and is supported as an option on other Compaq servers. The NetFlex-3 includes the ThunderLAN technology, a chip with an embedded Media Independent Interface for direct connection to 10Base-T, 10Base-2, 100Base-TX, or 100VG-AnyLAN. Compaq said later this year the NetFlex-3 controller can be upgraded to the customer's choice of 100Base-TX or 100VG-AnyLAN via software drivers and snap-in hardware modules. The Proliant 4500 will be on display at PC Expo '95 at the Jacob Javits Convention Center in New York City. The show runs June 20 through June 22, 1995. (Jim Mallory/19950523/Press contact: Jerrell Neeld, Compaq, 713-374-0484; Public contact: Compaq, 713-374-1459, or 800-345-1518/RECOVERY950523/PHOTO) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 05/23/95 WINDOWS Software Supports "Logical" Decision-Making (NEWS)(WINDOWS)(DEN)(00014) Software Supports "Logical" Decision-Making 05/23/95 GOLDEN, COLORADO, U.S.A., 1995 MAY 23 (NB) -- A Colorado company has announced a decision analysis software package it claims is designed to help groups of people make informed decisions. #IMAGE 1 20 TWPCX \images\95052314.PCX Click here for photo Logical Decisions Inc. said it is now shipping Logical Decisions 4.0 for Windows. The upgrade includes new presentation screens, a more graphical interface, the ability to change the decision structure and weighted assessments with the click of a mouse, a point-by-point comparison between any two selected alternatives, and Monte-Carlo Simulation. The company said the presentation screens are useful in letting others see and understand the structure of any problem, and the Monte-Carlo Simulation lets the user integrate uncertainties, such as the value of an item 10 years from now, into the structure of any decision. Intelligent Data Import is another new feature in release 4.0. It lets the user scan through a database and select records that meet specific limits. For example, you could select the top 20 houses in an area that are within certain price limits, meet specific construction criteria, and are within a specified distance of a school. The new version has 10 new review/results displays, including stacked bar ranking, an uncertainty summary, pull bars to change weights, a ranking results summary, a cut-offs summary, an alternative uncertainty graph, and a compare alternatives graph. Logical Decisions 4.0 for Windows has a suggested retail price of $395, with an expected street price of about $300. The company offers students and faculty an academic price of $295, and students can get Logical Decisions 4.0 for $65 if the software will be used in a company-approved course. The software will run on any IBM-compatible PC using a 286, 386, 486, or Pentium chip and equipped with Windows 3.1, at least four megabytes (MB) of system memory, a hard disk with at least 4MB of disk space available, and an EGA, VGA or better graphics card and monitor. (Jim Mallory/19950523/Press contact: Erich Stein, Erich Stein Communications for Logical Decision, 303-623-5723; Public contact: Logical Decisions, tel 303-526-7536 or 800-355-6442, fax 303-526-7537/LOGICAL950523/PHOTO) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 05/23/95 TELECOM Senators Push Airwaves Auction (NEWS)(TELECOM)(WAS)(00015) Senators Push Airwaves Auction 05/23/95 WASHINGTON, D.C., U.S.A., 1995 MAY 23 (NB) -- In a move designed to score at least political points, four Democratic senators have suggested that the federal government should auction broadcast licenses in the same way as it has recently auctioned licenses for personal communications services and advanced paging. Historically, broadcast licenses have been given away for free. Under a plan the Bush administration Federal Communications Commission adopted in 1992, TV station owners would be given a second channel over the next several years in order to stimulate high-definition digital television. Provisions in the telecommunications bills in both the House and Senate would let the broadcasters use the new channels for other purposes, including wireless services. The senators, led by Sen. Joseph Lieberman (D-Conn.) and including Sens. Kent Conrad (D-N.D.), Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.), and Bob Kerrey (D-Neb.), asked the FCC to estimate the revenues to the Treasury from a sale of the extra broadcast licenses. The FCC said the sale could raise between $11 billion and $70 billion, powerful figures in a cash-strapped Congress trying to balance the federal budget by 2002. Giving the spectrum away, says Lieberman, is "a little like the Indians selling Manhattan Island for $24. The FCC has raised some $10 billion in new revenues through its recent spectrum auctions. In the past, broadcast licenses have been politically sacrosanct, since radio and television are the primary means that politicians get their messages out to voters. But today, the lure of the money may overcome the potency of the broadcasters. With Republicans in control of Congress, the Lieberman proposal gives Democrats the opportunity to confront the GOP with a free-market proposal that also rubs against the grain of a powerful business interest, the broadcast industry. "The whole point is to move from regulation to competition and the auction is much in the spirit of that system," said Lieberman. Republicans in the prior, Democratic controlled, Congresses were the moving force behind the FCC spectrum auctions. Walt Wurfel, a spokesman for the National Association of Broadcasters, told Newsbytes that while the four Democrats "are sincere" in their effort to sell the broadcast licenses, "we have a philosophical difference with them." Wurfel says the broadcast industry pays for the use of the airwaves by making public service programming such as news and children's TV, available for free. (Kennedy Maize/19950523/Press Contact: Walt Wurfel, NAB, 202-429-5300) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 05/23/95 GOVT ****Clinton Signs Paperwork Reduction Act (NEWS)(GOVT)(WAS)(00016) ****Clinton Signs Paperwork Reduction Act 05/23/95 WASHINGTON, D.C., U.S.A., 1995 MAY 23 (NB) -- President Clinton yesterday signed an updated version of the Paperwork Reduction Act, designed to continue moving the government away from paper and toward electronics. The bill was the third version of the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1980, which was preceded by the 1942 Federal Reports Act. The latest version was passed without controversy in Congress. "From this point forward," said Clinton in signing the bill that was approved unanimously in both the House and Senate, "I want all of our agencies to provide for the electronic submission of every new government form or demonstration to (the Office of Management and Budget) why it cannot be done that way." OMB approves all government agency forms. Holding a computer disk in his hand, Clinton said, "the old way will still be available, but I think once people see how fast and efficient electronic filing can be, we'll see less paperwork and more of these." The provisions of the new bill establish guidelines for agencies to produce "low-burden forms," reduce the paperwork burden on small business, require agencies to put more attention on new information technologies, and promote "dissemination of public information on a timely and equitable basis." The new law won the endorsement of the Information Industry Association, trade group for 550 information services companies. "We are delighted to see that the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995 places into law a set of policies consistent with IIA's principles regarding the dissemination of federal government information," said Kenneth Allen, IAA president. "The unrestricted flow of information, especially information held by the federal government, is essential to the proper operation of our democratic society," said Allen. (Kennedy Maize/19950523/Press Contact: Emily Pilk, IIA, 202-639-8262) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 05/23/95 GENERAL Revelation Plans SQL Support For OpenInsight Notes Tool (NEWS)(GENERAL)(BOS)(00017) Revelation Plans SQL Support For OpenInsight Notes Tool 05/23/95 STAMFORD, CONNECTICUT, U.S.A., 1995 MAY 23 (NB) -- This summer, Revelation Technologies plans to add native SQL (structured query language) support to OpenInsight: Lotus Notes Edition, its recently introduced Notes development tool, revealed James Acquaviva, president and chief executive officer (CEO), in a conference call with Newsbytes. The current edition of OpenInsight: Notes Edition can be differentiated from other Notes development tools by its native support for Notes, along with a central repository for "team computing," a graphical report writer, and other features, according to Acquaviva. "We took a look at alternative APIs (application programming interfaces) for Notes, and we found they are covering about 65 percent of the functions of Notes. So we decided to go right down to the `bare metal' and cover 100 percent of the functions of Notes, and then to `add value' to the Notes environment where we could, with our graphical report writer, and capabilities like referential integrity and locking," Acquaviva added, during the conference call with Newsbytes. OpenInsight's focus on "team computing" is targeted at the movement of Notes applications beyond the workgroup, he pointed out. "As organizations get further and further away from that center of gravity which is the workgroup, they are looking to distribute their applications more broadly throughout the enterprise," he maintained. Through a point upgrade this summer, Revelation will add native access to Sybase, Microsoft SQL Server, Oracle, and ODBC (Open Database Connectivity), along with VBX (Visual Basic Extensions) support, according to the company chief. OpenInsight's current support for Notes extends all the way to hierarchical views, "at" functions, macros, and rich text, said Kurt Baker, VP of sales and services, also during the conference call. "We also support (Notes) formulas for variable length, multi-value fields," the VP told Newsbytes. Some other products represent data in the form of rows and columns, Acquaviva interjected. "But in a Notes database, you have a very rich textual environment with variable records, which clearly doesn't lend itself to the fixed-length world," he contended. Notes' formulas for variable length, multi-value fields are supported by OpenInsight's Report Designer, a tool aimed at allowing developers as well as end users to create and modify reports that directly access Notes data, according to the two execs. Report Designer comes with built-in templates for automatically generating three kinds of reports: columnar, row, and labels. Other features of the MDI (Multiple Document Interface)-compliant report writer include: drag-and-drop layout tools; OLE (object linking and embedding); full banding; two-pass reporting; and the ability to create reports with color, shading, borders, and bitmap images. Baker added that Report Designer also uses "wizards," as do some of OpenInsight's other tools. "When you generate a form, for example, handles will pop up that ask you want to see, and will then go out and do the work for you," he illustrated. Baker also enumerated the "team computing" capabilities of OpenInsight's central repository, a "common area" designed to let development teams store, share and reuse application components such as reports, forms, menus, and source code modules. Features of the central repository include check-in/check-out, version control, automatic documentation of components, and impact and net change analysis, according to the VP. Third-party development tools and libraries can also be integrated into the central repository. Owen Dall, president of Chesapeake Computing, told Newsbytes that other Notes development tools do not offer the kind of central repository that OpenInsight provides. Chesapeake, which develops managed health care applications, has also used Revelation's DOS- based Advanced Revelation, and is employing OpenInsight to "work its way into Notes," according to Dall. OpenInsight's central repository offers "a really easy way to catalog," as well as an impact analysis feature that is unavailable elsewhere, Dall told Newsbytes. Dall also pointed to the "ease of use" of the OpenInsight report writer. The tool, he asserted, can be "learned in five minutes." (Jacqueline Emigh/19950519/Reader Contact: Revelation Technologies, 203-973-1000; Press Contact: Sarah Sherman, Neva Group for Revelation, 617-441-4000) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 05/23/95 TRENDS German Stock Exchange Plans Electronic Trading Switch (NEWS)(TRENDS)(LON)(00018) German Stock Exchange Plans Electronic Trading Switch 05/23/95 FRANKFURT, GERMANY, 1995 MAY 23 (NB) -- Deutsche Bourse AG, the company that operates the stock exchanges in Germany, will take the wraps off a plan to make its entire system electronic later this week, Newsbytes can reveal. The move to full electronic trading is the most ambitious of its type, Newsbytes understands, and will allow non-German stock dealers to gain direct access to the German bourses, as well as possibly extend the hours of operation (in both directions) to allow foreign country investors to trade in real time on the German bourses. Known as Project Zeus, the plan will take around five years to fully complete, during which time the dealing floors, so often seen as typical of a stock exchange anywhere in the world, will gradually be phased out, in favor of dealers accessing the bourse computers direct from their offices throughout Germany and beyond. Although Deutsche Bourse remains coy on the mechanics of the plan, which will be formally presented to the press on Wednesday this week, Newsbytes understands that the main impetus is to cut the cost of dealing so that the "man in the street" can invest in stocks and shares in Germany without handing over a small fortune in commission. Despite a veil of secrecy surrounding Project Zeus, industry watchers have been extremely critical of the plan, despite not knowing the full details. Experts claim that, by opening the bourse up to anyone with an electronic access system, and the required license to operate, share prices can be manipulated, and it will be possible to order shares at a given price, in the hope of pushing the price up, and then selling the shares before the first trade needs to be paid for. This potential problem was quickly identified on the London Stock Exchange several years ago, and plans were drawn up -- and are currently being executed -- to move to same day finance trading, a system that requires anyone investing and trading in the stock market to maintain a deposit account with the Stock Exchange for instant share settlements. Deutsche Bourse, meanwhile, has issued a terse statement, confirming its plans to reveal all later this week, but affirming that Project Zeus seeks to improve blue chip share liquidity, and ensure greater market depth for secondary shares. The aim with Zeus, officials said, is to improve the security of the market, rather than erode it. (Sylvia Dennis/19950523) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 05/23/95 TELECOM UK - Gammalink's Multi-Channel Fax Card Technology (NEWS)(TELECOM)(LON)(00019) UK - Gammalink's Multi-Channel Fax Card Technology 05/23/95 LONDON, ENGLAND, 1995 MAY 23 (NB) -- Gammalink has unveiled two new six- and 12-line computer-based fax boards designed to support intensive voice and fax applications. According to Gammalink, the two cards -- the GammaFax CP-6/SC and CP- 12/SC -- were designed to cope with heavy applications, but also offer the advantage of cutting fax transmission times and therefore direct costs by between 15 and 20 percent. This is achieved by fast fax transmission speeds of 14,400 bits-per-second, as well as fast page change-over, a procedure that many fax machines "take their time" over, adding to the time required for multi-page faxes. GammaLink also claims that the GammaFax CP-6/SC and CP-12/SC fax boards combine features such as computer-based fax broadcast, fax-on- demand, T1 connections for fax, and integrated voice response (IVR) systems. Both products were designed in conjunction with the popular GammaFax Cpi fax board platform and now they operate within six to twelve channels on a single high-density board. The system can also run Signal Computing System Architecture (SCSA) SC bus and PCM Expansion Bus (PEB) interfaces from Dialogic Corp. Voice, data and images can be developed with these technologies. Mike Gray, a spokesman for the company, told Newsbytes that the card systems are expected to ship later during the current quarter year. In the UK, the systems are distributed through Northamber to its dealer network. The boards can be configured for use in voice/fax analog, fax/analog, fax-only T1 or ISDN (integrated services digital network), fax only E1 and voice/fax/T1 applications. The CP-6/SC system card costs $3,995, while the CP-12/SC costs $7,495. (Sylvia Dennis & Steve Gold/19950523/Press Contact: Michael Gray, Gray Associates, +44-181-744-9168) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 05/23/95 PC UK - Stac Intros ReachOut 5.0 Remote Comms (NEWS)(PC)(LON)(00020) UK - Stac Intros ReachOut 5.0 Remote Comms 05/23/95 BRACKNELL, BERKSHIRE, ENGLAND, 1995 MAY 23 (NB) -- Stac Electronics, best known for its popular Stacker disk compression software, has launched version 5.0 of ReachOut, its remote access comms software. According to Nick Spencer, a spokesman for the company, this is the first full release of the remote comms package under the Stac banner, since the company acquired the originators of the package, Ocean Isle Software, last year. "Although version 4.0 has appeared under the Stac banner, this version was developed by Stac, and includes many improvements that Stac has added," he told Newsbytes, According to Stac, this new version of its remote control software combines remote file transfer and remote node. The package will ship to stores on both sides of the Atlantic in the final weeks of June, with a UK price point of just under UKP100. Stac claims that the demand for remote connection to the office PC and network is being fueled by the dramatic increase in home and mobile PC sales. The company cites European Commission (EC) figures estimate that there are already one-in five telecommuters in the working population of member states (based on a total workforce of 160 million). According to Stac, recent UK studies suggest that there are already over 650,000 people using a portable computer in a mobile office environment and more than 1.5 million people telecommuting on any given working day. "Today's remote access users are looking for a fast and efficient way to retrieve electronic-mail, grab files and run applications on their remote office PCs," said Chris Mossing, Stac's Director of International Sales. "These users demand a high level of reliability, ease of use, performance and security and we believe that ReachOut 5.0 delivers just that." Under Stac 5.0, users no longer need to remember to run a DOS batch file before running ReachOut under Windows, and once installed with the help of the Setup Pilot, full context sensitive help is available for all operations. According to Stac, ReachOut has been optimized for performance through incorporation of Stac's own Stac LZS compression. The company claims that benchmarks show the package to be as much as 42 percent faster than Symantec's PC Anywhere 2.0 for Windows when running applications such as Microsoft Powerpoint, Excel, Word and Mail, Lotus Notes and 1- 2-3. Stac claims that file transfer times have been significantly reduced and ReachOut 5.0 is now able to transfer files in less than half the time of Traveling Software's Laplink 1.0 for Windows. Stac's new SmartSend technology figures out when only parts of files have changed, dramatically reducing the time to transfer files. Users can also now automatically synchronize two machines using ReachOut's new RapidSync option. Stac claims it has also paid close attention to security by incorporating individual security profiles with automatic aging of passwords. Would-be hackers will have a hard job cracking the new security as Stac's IntruderGuard constantly monitors for attempted unauthorized access and will at first shut out a particular users account and if necessary, shut down the whole machine, claims the company. "When we looked at the market, we saw that users were forced to use multiple applications to effectively access, control or transfer data," said Mossing. "ReachOut combines these important features and adds remote node technology, making it the first product that addresses all remote needs. We think of ReachOut as the first all purpose off-LAN (local area network) vehicle." ReachOut 5.0 combines support in one package for modems and a wide variety of networks, including remote node software such as ShivaPPP, Microsoft RAS and Novell NetWare Connect, ISDN (integrated services digital networks) links and LANs such as Novell NetWare, Banyan Vines, Microsoft Windows for Workgroups, Microsoft LAN Manager, Microsoft NT Server, IBM LAN Server, Artisoft LANtastic and any 100 percent- compatible NetBIOS, NETBEUI, IPX/SPX (Internetwork Packet Exchange/Sequenced Packet Exchange) or Winsock TCP/IP (Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol) network. (Steve Gold/19950523/Press Contact: Nick Spencer, tel +44-1344-873445, fax +44-1344-873446, Internet e-mail nspencer@cix.compulink.co.uk; Reader Contact: tel +44-1344-302900, fax +44-1344-302922) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 05/23/95 ONLINE Concentric Network Bundles "Internet In A Box" (NEWS)(ONLINE)(MSP)(00021) Concentric Network Bundles "Internet In A Box" 05/23/95 BAY CITY, MICHIGAN, U.S.A., 1995 MAY 23 (NB) -- Hoping to take advantage of the flood of new users to the Internet, Concentric Research Corp. says it will provide Spry's "Internet In A Box" to new subscribers for $29.95, considerably less than the suggested retail price of $149. "We find that customers, especially 'newbies,' who want to get online, don't know how to go about doing it," Kristine Loosley of Concentric Research, told Newsbytes. "If they have to download five or six pieces of shareware and configure them, that's too daunting for the user." She said a pre-packaged, shrink-wrapped product like Internet In A Box lets those people get on the Internet in under 10 minutes. To get the $29.95 Internet In A Box program, customers must sign up for 12 months of service at $29.95 per month. But with that $29.95, they get unlimited access, Loosley said. "The model we're working from is the cellular phone model, where you can get a discount on the phone itself if you sign up for the service," she said. "You buy our service, we give you a deep discount for Internet In A Box. This is a different marketing strategy from most other online services, and we're interested to see how it works." The network has dial-up service in about 125 major metropolitan areas in the US, Loosely said, which covers about 2000 communities, and about 26,000 telephone exchanges. This covers about 60 to 70% of the US population, she added. The Internet In A Box package includes the Air Mosaic World Wide Web graphical browser, along with tools to get news and mail, and a file transfer program. (Bob Woods/19950523/Press Contact: Kristine Loosley, Concentric Research, 800-745-2747, Internet e-mail kloosely@concentric.net; Public Contact: Concentric Network, 800-7456-2747) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 05/23/95 WINDOWS Use Your Own Clubs With PC-Based Golf Analyzer/Game (NEWS)(WINDOWS)(DEN)(00022) Use Your Own Clubs With PC-Based Golf Analyzer/Game 05/23/95 PORTLAND, OREGON, U.S.A., 1995 MAY 23 (NB) -- Thrustmaster Inc. (NASDAQ: TMSR) will ship a PC-based golf swing analyzer and practice simulator this summer that lets users practice with their own clubs. #IMAGE 1 20 TWPCX \images\95052322.PCX Click here for photo According to Thrustmaster, the key to its "Pro Play Golf - The Home Course" program is the unique controller the company said is unlike anything currently on the market. The controller unit uses a series of sensor lights to detect club speed, face angle, club height, and direction of follow through. The Swing Analyzer software included with "The Home Course" processes that data and displays the information in graph form. "You can visually see where your club path is, where your ball path is going, and whether your club face is open or closed. You can see whether you are open or closed or hitting the ball off your heel or toe," Thrustmaster spokesperson Laura Rawlins told Newsbytes. Golfers can practice their game with the 18-hole DOS-based simulated golf course Practice Mode software that comes with The Home Course. Rawlins said the practice mode software displays how far you have hit the ball and how fast. The suggested retail price of $799.95 for "Pro Play Golf - The Home Course" includes the base platform, electronic controller unit, golf mats, foam balls, and rubber tees. You also get a hanging indoor golf pitching net, a PC cable and connectors, the Practice Mode software and the Swing Analyzer software. Thrustmaster said it plans to start shipping The Home Course on July 4. (Jim Mallory/19950523/Press contact: Laura Rawlins, Thrustmaster, 503-639-3200 ext 3150; Public contact: Thrustmaster, 503-639-3200/GOLF950523/PHOTO) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 05/23/95 IBM New IBM Server Aimed At Mainframe Developers (NEWS)(IBM)(TOR)(00023) New IBM Server Aimed At Mainframe Developers 05/23/95 NEW ORLEANS, LOUISIANA, U.S.A., 1995 MAY 23 (NB) -- IBM (NYSE:IBM) said a new version of its PC Server 500 that incorporates a System/390 processor will let software developers write and test mainframe applications on a desktop computer. The System/390 processor -- the core of IBM's large mainframes -- is on a circuit card installed in the server. The new PC Server 500 S/390 is the same on the outside as other PC Server 500 models, IBM spokeswoman Jennifer Janson told Newsbytes. IBM touted its usefulness to developers of mainframe software -- both commercial software houses and developers within companies that use the large computers -- as a development platform. However, Janson noted, "that's not the sole audience." The system can be used to run applications written for System/390 and System/370 mainframes, she said. The server can run IBM's VM/ESA, MVS/ESA, and VSE/ESA mainframe operating systems, as well as its OS/2 Warp operating system for personal computers, company officials said. It has a 90 megahertz (MHz) Intel Pentium microprocessor as well as the System/390 complementary metal-oxide semiconductor (CMOS) processor complex on a separate circuit card. The server comes with 32 megabytes (MB) of memory as standard equipment, and this can be expanded to 256MB that the Pentium chip can use. The System/390 processor card has 32MB of its own memory, expandable to 128MB. The system can handle as much as 38 gigabytes of internal disk storage, IBM said. A 2.88MB diskette drive, a CD-ROM drive, and a four-millimeter digital audio tape (DAT) drive are also standard. The system allows for peer-to-peer connections with IBM System/390 and System/370 mainframes using a variety of methods, Due to be available in July, the PC Server 500 S/390 will cost from $50,000 to $90,000, depending on the operating systems and software supplied with it, IBM said. The company plans to sell it through its IBM Direct order line and through personal computer dealers. (Grant Buckler/19950523/Press Contact: Jennifer Janson, IBM, 914-697-9711 ext 239; Ken Rowe, IBM, 914-892-7359; Public Contact: IBM Direct, 800-IBM-CALL; IBM, Internet World Wide Web http://www.ibm.com) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 05/23/95 PC AT&T Aims 120MHz Pentium PC At Home Office (NEWS)(PC)(TOR)(00024) AT&T Aims 120MHz Pentium PC At Home Office 05/23/95 DAYTON, OHIO, U.S.A., 1995 MAY 23 (NB) -- AT&T Global Information Solutions, the computer arm of AT&T (NYSE:T), has added to its Globalyst personal computer line a machine based on the 120 megahertz (MHz) version of Intel's Pentium microprocessor. The Globalyst 380TPC will be sold through various retail outlets and is aimed mainly at home offices and small offices, the company said. The 380TPC emphasizes computer-telephony integration, an area where AT&T is trying to capitalize on its telephony background, with voice and facsimile mail, links to Caller ID services, and other features. "The whole focus is on communications," said Fred Brown, vice-president of worldwide retail stores personal computer marketing for AT&T. "The PC in the home has become a communications device," Brown told Newsbytes. He said the Globalyst 380TPC is designed as a "communications command center," with a single graphical interface for managing voice, fax, and data communications. The PC lets a user assign as many as 999 voice and fax mailboxes, create special voice-mail greetings for specific callers, and forward text messages to a pager. The PC can also work as a full-duplex speakerphone, and has wave-table audio capabilities. The 380TPC ships with a 1.08 gigabyte (GB) hard disk drive, a quad-speed CD-ROM drive, 16 megabytes (MB) of memory, and a modem that supports 14,400 bits-per-second (bps) fax and 19,200 bps data transmission, plus Microsoft Windows 3.11, Vistium Share data conferencing software, and AT&T Wireless' MessageFlash software. The 380TPC has been launched only in the United States so far, Brown said, although AT&T has developed retail channels in Europe and will eventually sell the machine there and probably in Latin America and the Pacific Rim. AT&T GIS also added 120MHz versions of its Globalyst 620 and 630 PCs, which are aimed at large and medium-sized business customers. The Globalyst 620 is a desktop system while the 630 is a mini-tower machine. Brown said AT&T is selling only Pentium-based PCs through retail channels, with the 75MHz Pentium at the bottom of the line. AT&T said typical end-user prices for the three models are $2,999 for the 380TPC, $3,279 for the 620, and $3,399 for the 630. All three are due to be available by the end of May. (Grant Buckler/19950523/Press Contact: Kate Bochonko, AT&T, 212-213-7061; Jennifer Zander, AT&T, tel 212-213-7008, fax 212-213-7199; Public Contact: AT&T Global Information Solutions, 800-447-1124/GLOBALYST950523/PHOTO) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 05/23/95 BUSINESS CyberCash Teams With Internet Software Vendors (NEWS)(BUSINESS)(MSP)(00025) CyberCash Teams With Internet Software Vendors 05/23/95 RESTON, VIRGINIA, U.S.A., 1995 MAY 23 (NB) -- CyberCash Inc. said it will partner with seven networking software vendors that will allow CyberCash's "Internet Payment Services" to combine with those companies' Internet software products. The companies involved with CyberCash are FTP Software Inc., Frontier Technologies Corp., InterCon Systems Corp., Netcom On-Line Communication Services Inc., Network Computing Devices Inc., Open- Market Inc., and Quarterdeck Corporation. CyberCash officials said this deal will enable the company's online payment systems to be browser and user-interface independent. "This is the first time that companies that have been offering browser and server software are now integrating electronic payments into what they offer," Magdalena Yesil, CyberCash vice president of marketing, told Newsbytes. "I think that electronic commerce is not only becoming feasible, but it's actually becoming convenient for the user." CyberCash officials said each of the seven partners have agreed to integrate their technology with CyberCash so the company's electronic payment services can be easily accessed through each partner's products. When a customer uses a browser supplied by any of the vendors, they will be able to make online payments with that browser via CyberCash. The user doesn't have to use a separate CyberCash program, company officials said. The new partners will begin bundling CyberCash software with their browsers as early as next month. Yesil said with the new partners, CyberCash mimics the real world in the electronic environment. "This is not general security. This is real-time, online, confirmation, getting the merchant an authorization code. The same thing that happens in the three-dimensional world happens online." Officials added that cybershoppers will still be able to download the program from CyberCash's World Wide Web page, which is located at http://www.cybercash.com. (Bob Woods/19950523/Press Contacts: Susan Ice, Thomas Associates Inc., 415-325-6236; Public Contact: CyberCash, 800-9CYBER1, Internet World Wide Web http://www.cybercash.com) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 05/23/95 BUSINESS ****Zenith Plans 10% Workforce Reduction (NEWS)(BUSINESS)(MSP)(00026) ****Zenith Plans 10% Workforce Reduction 05/23/95 GLENVIEW, ILLINOIS, U.S.A., 1995 MAY 23 (NB) -- Zenith Electronics Corporation (NYSE:ZE) has announced its second quarter earnings will include a $9 million charge against earnings from severance costs due to employment reductions. The company said it is reducing its US salaried workforce by up to 10%, in part from a special voluntary retirement program. The personnel cutback will affect about 200 positions in the company's 2,000 person work force, John Taylor of Zenith told Newsbytes. The company should see cost-reduction of about $20 million from this and other moves. Some of those "other moves" include reducing employment in Mexico, and cutting back on travel expenses, In a letter to its employees, Zenith President and Chief Executive Officer Al Moschner said, "We are taking steps to assure that, throughout the company, we have an organization that is totally focused on our goals and a workforce that is equipped to achieve them." "This has been an ongoing process to streamline our operations," Taylor said. "This is the latest in many steps of doing this. We're not trimming fat, but we are refocusing our skills. This involves increased training." He also said that, while some positions will be eliminated, others will be created in the move. That sentiment was echoed in Moschner's letter to Zenith workers. "We will continue to step-up our training efforts. We will be redeploying our talents. We will be bringing in skills where we're lacking. And, where skills no longer fit our new approaches to running the business, we will be eliminating some positions and letting some people go." Taylor said Zenith will release its second quarter earnings in mid- July. Dow Jones reports the company posted a net loss in the second quarter of 1994 ended July 2. The red ink ran at $8.4 million, or 20 cents a share. Back in the present, Zenith stock was up $0.125 at $8.25 at 12:00 EDT today. (Bob Woods/19950523/Press Contact: John Taylor, Zenith Electronics Corp., 708-391-8181; Investor Contact: Bill McNitt, 708-391-7713) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 05/23/95 IBM IBM Hopes To Lure OS/2 Developers With API Extensions (NEWS)(IBM)(TOR)(00027) IBM Hopes To Lure OS/2 Developers With API Extensions 05/23/95 NEW ORLEANS, LOUISIANA, U.S.A., 1995 MAY 23 (NB) -- Still trying to boost its OS/2 operating system, IBM (NYSE:IBM) has announced application program interface (API) extensions said to make it easy for developers who create 32-bit applications for rival Microsoft's Windows 95 and Windows NT to make those applications run on OS/2 Warp as well. The API extensions for developers join other development tools such as Visual Age C++, IBM's Open Class Library, the Source Migration Analysis Reporting Toolset (SMART) from OneUp Corp., and IBM's Hyperwise help-development tool. IBM plans to include them in every package of a future release of OS/2, company spokesman John Crowe told Newsbytes. Crowe could not say when that release will appear, but added that the API extensions will be made available to interested software developers in the meantime. The extensions are due to go into alpha testing with a few selected developers this month, and to enter beta testing this summer. They will be generally available by year-end, IBM said. While OS/2 Warp can run 16-bit application programs written for Windows 3.x, 32-bit programs written for Windows NT and the upcoming Windows 95 will not run, Crowe explained. He said the new developer API extensions will let software developers use a single code base for both operating systems. Those interested in porting 16-bit applications from Windows to OS/2 will probably continue to use OneUp's SMART tools, he said. David Strom, an industry consultant and president of David Strom, Inc., on Long Island, New York, recently told Newsbytes that while OS/2 Warp comes out about even with the not-yet-released Windows 95 on technical features, IBM has little time left to make OS/2 successful in the market. "The other side has much more resources and mind share and momentum and everything going in their favor," he said -- "with one exception: no product." (Grant Buckler/19950523/Press Contact: Jo Sager or John Crowe, IBM, 800-354-0978; Public Contact: IBM, Internet World Wide Web http://www.ibm.com) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 05/23/95 TRENDS Philips Media Debuts Rainbow CD Format (NEWS)(TRENDS)(SFO)(00028) Philips Media Debuts Rainbow CD Format 05/23/95 LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1995 MAY 23 (NB) -- Philips Media has announced a new form of CD music entertainment with its Rainbow format. Featuring the popular group, the Cranberries, the same CD may be played as an audio disk on an audio CD player or as an interactive multimedia CD on Mac and Windows-based PCs and CD-I (compact disk interactive) players. Besides its new formatting technology, Philips says it is "equally pleased" to bring the Cranberries title, "Doors and Windows," to the audio and software markets for under $20. The new format also incorporates Motion Picture Experts Group (MPEG) compression technology which allows users with an MPEG-1 board to view full-motion, full-screen video. The disk also incorporates full-motion, full-screen CD-I with digital video cartridge. This first Rainbow CD contains videos, text display of lyrics, photos, interviews and five new tracks by the Cranberries which are not found on either of the group's two albums. The five tracks include new recordings of three of the band's known hits and two songs which have not been released in the US. Speaking to Newsbytes, Michael Kushner, Philips' senior vice president and general manager, Multimedia Music, said, "We began working with the Cranberries over a year ago on this project when they were just beginning to take-off on their road to stardom. We are really fortunate this happened while we were working with them to develop this new format." The interactive component allows a user to explore a pub, a living room, and a rehearsal studio. Each location contains "hot spots" which open an interview, a song, a performance, a group of photos, or other feature. For example, the pub has a stage which opens to a video screen playing a five-and-a-half minute cut of the band's Woodstock performance of "Zombie." With this new format and title, Philips says it is extending a list of more than 200 multimedia titles it has released through four different groups: Games, Home and Family Entertainment, Multimedia Music, and Video CD. Explaining the difference between Philips' Rainbow format and Sony's new CD+ titles, Kushner said, "Our new format is really different because the created product is a standalone CD. By that I mean, all of the material on the CD is not available anywhere else. Also, the Rainbow format includes the CD-I platform, and the MPEG and CD-I video cartridge capabilities." Philips Media says this first Rainbow format CD will be available in September and "widely distributed" through software and music retail outlets. (Patrick McKenna/19950523/Press Contact: Paul Carlstrom, Pat Meier Associates PR, 415-957-5999) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 05/23/95 BROADCAST ****Apple & AT&T In Videoconferencing Deal (NEWS)(BROADCAST)(SFO)(00029) ****Apple & AT&T In Videoconferencing Deal 05/23/95 CUPERTINO, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1995 MAY 23 (NB) -- AT&T (NYSE:T) and Apple Computer (NASDAQ:AAPL) have announced a video teleconferencing agreement, which allows Macintosh users of Apple's new QuickTime Conferencing technology to teleconference with other H.320 standards-based videoconferencing products on AT&T's newly developed video teleconferencing network. Apple introduced its QuickTime Conferencing product, based on H.320 standards, this past February. The software and video camera package allows users to communicate, share documents and edit those documents in real-time video and audio. One of the strong features of the Apple technology is an architecture open to third-party developers. In other words, developers of communication, general application, and other software and hardware products can include the technology in their products. The entire field of interactive videoconferencing is still trying to settle on a specific standard. The weight of AT&T committing to H.320 standards is a step toward a common ground of agreement. Seeing a strong business opportunity in the interactive video teleconferencing field, AT&T developed WorldWorx Network Services. The "mission" of the service is to provide an end-to-end videoconferencing service which will allow customers to have one provider for all of their videoconferencing needs. The first stage of this service is currently in progress and involves corporate customers. Speaking to Newsbytes, Kevin Compton, spokesperson for AT&T, said, "WorldWorx Network Services is designed to offer customers a one- stop shopping experience for all their video teleconferencing needs. People could go out and buy the necessary hardware and set-up their own connections, but we think there is a need for a complete teleconferencing service. We will provide a secured network, supply the necessary telephone lines, sell the necessary equipment, maintain support, and offer a directory of participating companies and individuals through WorldWorx." Currently, AT&T is able to offer single point-to-point interactive connection. The single point-to-point connection means only one teleconferencing location may be connected to another teleconferencing location for interactive sharing and editing of documents. The more simple form of audio and videoconferencing without interactive sharing can accommodate up to 24 users from different locations. Compton continued, "We will be announcing the availability of multi- point, interactive connections in the coming months. This technology is rapidly changing through the efforts of many different companies. Now that this technology is more affordable, its use can come out of the designated teleconferencing room to the individual desktop environment." Some analysts contend that the announcement furthers the value of Apple's QuickTime Conferencing products and architecture. The deal extends the conferencing ability to other products complying with the H.320 standards and continues Apple's "commitment to true cross-platform connectivity and operation," said the company. (Patrick McKenna/19950523/Press Contact: Kevin Compton, AT&T, 408-452-3966) (SUMMARY)(GENERAL)(SFO)(00030) Newsbytes Daily Summary 05/23/95 PENN VALLEY, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1995 MAY 23 (NB) -- These are capsules of all today's news stories: 1 -> E-mail Animated Greeting Cards 05/23/95 Some observers at the Electronic Entertainment Expo claimed that Software Affiliates' Animated Greetings Workshop could start an "electronic-mail revolution." The program allows users to send an animated digital file with voice and music audio as a birthday greeting through e-mail or on disk. 2 -> Merriam-Webster Dictionary/Thesaurus CD Ships 05/23/95 Merriam- Webster is shipping the first CD-ROM version of its Collegiate Dictionary, Tenth Edition and Thesaurus as a hybrid Macintosh/Windows product. The company also recently introduced an online dictionary reference and information service for America Online. 3 -> Updated & Free World Wide Web Directory 05/23/95 Let your modem do the walking through HLC.Internet's first comprehensive World Wide Web (Web) Directory. Claiming the Web is too large for one company to maintain an accurate directory, HLC.Internet developed the Internet Service Provider's (ISP) Yellow Pages Initiative. 4 -> Internet Update 05/23/95 In this roundup of new services and resources on the Internet: Online guide to online pubs; HP28 archive; X-Windows HTML editor; Daily Cannes updates; Governments coming on the Web; HTML editing made easy; French resources information; Indy 500 weekend is coming. 5 -> Japan Newsbriefs 05/23/95 In this roundup of news from Japan: Flat rate phone charge for computer users; Fujitsu's NiftyServe raided; Ricoh profits up; Cellular rates down again; Worlds longest fiber to connect UK with Japan. 6 -> Japan Business Show '95 - Product Roundup 05/23/95 ere are details of other products, not covered elsewhere by Newsbytes, that were generating interest at the recent Business Show '95 in Tokyo: Multimedia Word Processor; New Panasonic Notebook With CD-ROM Drive; Seiko Brain Pad; Casio Fights For Pen Market; Panasonic PHS LAN; Three-In-One Copier/Fax/Printer; Hitachi's Internet Home Shopping. 7 -> Europe - IBM & Escom In OS/2 Warp Bundling Deal 05/23/95 IBM is claiming a significant sales success with OS/2 Warp, having signed what it calls a "major contract" with Escom for the pre-loading of the graphical operating system onto Escom's own-brand PCs, which are sold across Europe. 8 -> Philips Secures Lithuanian Radio Contract 05/23/95 Philips Telecom's Private Mobile Radio (PMR) division has been contracted to supply an air-to-ground radio communications system to the Lithuanian Government. 9 -> UK - ADDE Intros English Language Maps&Data 05/23/95 ADDE, the French software house, has unveiled Maps&Data 3.0 for Windows, an English language version of its mapping software application. The package is being sold and supported through Marketwide, a UK-based software distributor. 10 -> Data General Rolls Out DataGenie II Handheld PC 05/23/95 Data General's new DataGenie II, a "third-generation" handheld PC for mobile data collection, provides a battery life of 150 hours, plus a 32-bit architecture and a more "open" development and communications environment, for pricing starting at $795, maintained Joe Flannery, national account manager, in an interview with Newsbytes. 11 -> Funk's Tech Support/Remote Control For LANs 05/23/95 Funk Software has teamed with the Software Marketing Group (SMG) on ExpressLink for Proxy. The new PC-based all-in-one help-desk and remote control software package for NetWare networks can optionally be used with Funks's WanderLink "secure" dial-in network access product for tech support by modem, said Peter Livingstone, Funk's strategic accounts manager, in an interview with Newsbytes. 12 -> Windows '95 Info Video Set For Aug 1 Intro 05/23/95 GT Interactive Software has announced its latest video product, The Microsoft Windows '95 Informational Video. Projecting initial sales to hit 10 million copies, GT chose television stars Jennifer Aniston and Matthew Perry as hosts to the instructional video. 13 -> Compaq Intros 4-Chip Server, Recovery Tools 05/23/95 Compaq Computer Corp. (NYSE:CPQ) has announced a four-processor server, a network standby recovery device, and a 100 megabits-per-second (Mbps) Ethernet network interface controller. 14 -> Software Supports "Logical" Decision-Making 05/23/95 A Colorado company has announced a decision analysis software package it claims is designed to help groups of people make informed decisions. 15 -> Senators Push Airwaves Auction 05/23/95 In a move designed to score at least political points, four Democratic senators have suggested that the federal government should auction broadcast licenses in the same way as it has recently auctioned licenses for personal communications services and advanced paging. Historically, broadcast licenses have been given away for free. 16 -> ****Clinton Signs Paperwork Reduction Act 05/23/95 President Clinton yesterday signed an updated version of the Paperwork Reduction Act, designed to continue moving the government away from paper and toward electronics. 17 -> Revelation Plans SQL Support For OpenInsight Notes Tool 05/23/95 This summer, Revelation Technologies plans to add native SQL (structured query language) support to OpenInsight: Lotus Notes Edition, its recently introduced Notes development tool, revealed James Acquaviva, president and chief executive officer (CEO), in a conference call with Newsbytes. 18 -> German Stock Exchange Plans Electronic Trading Switch 05/23/95 Deutsche Bourse AG, the company that operates the stock exchanges in Germany, will take the wraps off a plan to make its entire system electronic later this week, Newsbytes can reveal. 19 -> UK - Gammalink's Multi-Channel Fax Card Technology 05/23/95 Gammalink has unveiled two new six- and 12-line computer-based fax boards designed to support intensive voice and fax applications. 20 -> UK - Stac Intros ReachOut 5.0 Remote Comms 05/23/95 Stac Electronics, best known for its popular Stacker disk compression software, has launched version 5.0 of ReachOut, its remote access comms software. 21 -> Concentric Network Bundles "Internet In A Box" 05/23/95 Hoping to take advantage of the flood of new users to the Internet, Concentric Research Corp. says it will provide Spry's "Internet In A Box" to new subscribers for $29.95, considerably less than the suggested retail price of $149. 22 -> Use Your Own Clubs With PC-Based Golf Analyzer/Game 05/23/95 Thrustmaster Inc. (NASDAQ: TMSR) will ship a PC-based golf swing analyzer and practice simulator this summer that lets users practice with their own clubs. 23 -> New IBM Server Aimed At Mainframe Developers 05/23/95 IBM (NYSE:IBM) said a new version of its PC Server 500 that incorporates a System/390 processor will let software developers write and test mainframe applications on a desktop computer. The System/390 processor -- the core of IBM's large mainframes -- is on a circuit card installed in the server. 24 -> AT&T Aims 120MHz Pentium PC At Home Office 05/23/95 AT&T Global Information Solutions, the computer arm of AT&T (NYSE:T), has added to its Globalyst personal computer line a machine based on the 120 megahertz (MHz) version of Intel's Pentium microprocessor. The Globalyst 380TPC will be sold through various retail outlets and is aimed mainly at home offices and small offices, the company said. 25 -> CyberCash Teams With Internet Software Vendors 05/23/95 CyberCash Inc. said it will partner with seven networking software vendors that will allow CyberCash's "Internet Payment Services" to combine with those companies' Internet software products. 26 -> ****Zenith Plans 10% Workforce Reduction 05/23/95 Zenith Electronics Corporation (NYSE:ZE) has announced its second quarter earnings will include a $9 million charge against earnings from severance costs due to employment reductions. The company said it is reducing its US salaried workforce by up to 10%, in part from a special voluntary retirement program. 27 -> IBM Hopes To Lure OS/2 Developers With API Extensions 05/23/95 Still trying to boost its OS/2 operating system, IBM (NYSE:IBM) has announced application program interface (API) extensions said to make it easy for developers who create 32-bit applications for rival Microsoft's Windows 95 and Windows NT to make those applications run on OS/2 Warp as well. 28 -> Philips Media Debuts Rainbow CD Format 05/23/95 Philips Media has announced a new form of CD music entertainment with its Rainbow format. Featuring the popular group, the Cranberries, the same CD may be played as an audio disk on an audio CD player or as an interactive multimedia CD on Mac and Windows-based PCs and CD-I (compact disk interactive) players. 29 -> ****Apple & AT&T In Videoconferencing Deal 05/23/95 AT&T (NYSE:T) and Apple Computer (NASDAQ:AAPL) have announced a video teleconferencing agreement, which allows Macintosh users of Apple's new QuickTime Conferencing technology to teleconference with other H.320 standards-based videoconferencing products on AT&T's newly developed video teleconferencing network. (Ian Stokell/19950523) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 05/22/95 GENERAL UK - Attachmate's New Internet Access Products (NEWS)(GENERAL)(LON)(00001) UK - Attachmate's New Internet Access Products 05/22/95 SLOUGH, BERKSHIRE, ENGLAND, 1995 MAY 22 (NB) -- Attachmate Corp. has announced three upgraded software packages that it claims offer easy access for business people interested in plugging into the so-called "information superhighway." The upgraded products are Crosstalk for Windows 2.3, OpenMind 2.0, and Killer TCP Suite. According to Graham Jones, the company's managing director, the applications enable better cooperation between users and information sources such as the Internet. Jones claims that the packages have been designed to operate specifically in the business and management information department and supply extended information of related subjects. Using the packages, users can be linked to vital information at any time and can do any tasks from different locations. "With these enhanced Internet access applications, Attachmate is providing business users with tools to make the most of the Internet as an effective corporate resource. Our customers don't want to work with Internet suppliers who are used to dealing with hobbyist or academics; they want to go to a business communications supplier, like Attachmate, who treats the Internet as another information repository like a mainframe or host computer," Jones explained. Version 2.0 of OpenMind is billed as a client/server groupware product and includes features such as electronic conferencing, document management, publishing and workgroup-enhanced Internet access, and an electronic-mail gateway. Crosstalk 2.3 for Windows, meanwhile, is billed as presenting the "widest range of connection options," including access to the Internet, bulletin boards, hosts, and other computers. Last, but not least, the new Killer TCP/IP (Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol) application is a client package for private and public Internet TCP/IP business users. Future releases of that package will include MIS (management information systems) distribution and control of Internet access capabilities. Pricing on the packages depends on site licensing conditions. (Sylvia Dennis/19950419/Press & Reader Contact: Attachmate, +44-1734-890390) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 05/22/95 BUSINESS UK - Equisys & Microsoft Team On Business Development (NEWS)(BUSINESS)(LON)(00002) UK - Equisys & Microsoft Team On Business Development 05/22/95 LONDON, ENGLAND, 1995 MAY 22 (NB) -- Equisys, supplier of the Zetafax network fax software package, has formed an alliance with Microsoft which has resulted in the London-based software development company being appointed as a Microsoft Solution Provider. Under the terms of the agreement, Equisys will be provided with a package of benefits which include priority support, access to beta product releases, technical information, and joint marketing initiatives. In return, Equisys has undertaken to release new versions of its products for Microsoft's Back Office and Windows 95 operating platforms. According to Chris Oswald, the company's managing director, the agreement also means that Equisys is "ideally positioned" to provide server-based fax solutions to Microsoft's corporate customers. "Our new partnership with Microsoft will provide us with considerable advantages during the development stage of product life cycles; for example, as we develop our fax solutions to integrate with Microsoft technologies such as Exchange and Windows NT," he said. Oswald went on to say that, from a marketing perspective, "the agreement also provides opportunities for us to build on Microsoft's success in the applications server arena." Mike Pearson, Microsoft's solution provider program manager, said that fax "solutions" are increasingly seen as a "must" for organizations who need a higher level of office productivity. "This type of solution can dramatically lower the costs of ownership that are often associated with standalone fax machines. Products like Zetafax allow users of Microsoft's Back Office platform to take advantage of these benefits," he said. Under the deal, Equisys will benefit from marketing support, which is provided through customer referrals and leads, a directory of accredited Solution Providers, and the ability to leverage on Microsoft's brand-awareness. During product development, plans call for Equisys' software engineers to work closely with Microsoft support engineers, which both firms claim will reduce the time-to-market of new releases. Equisys' staff will also participate in technical and sales training events, such as the Microsoft Certified Professionals program, which Microsoft claims will improve Equisys' service to its customers. (Steve Gold/19950519/Press Contact: Profile PR, +44-181-995- 1595; Reader Contact: Equisys, +44-171-403-2227; Microsoft, +44-1734-270001) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 05/22/95 GENERAL Music & Multimedia '95 Conf Set For San Francisco (NEWS)(GENERAL)(SFO)(00003) Music & Multimedia '95 Conf Set For San Francisco 05/22/95 SAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1995 MAY 22 (NB) -- The National Academy of Recording Arts & Sciences (NARAS), producers of the annual Grammy Awards, is presenting the Music & Multimedia '95 Conference. Designed to bring musicians, technology and the world of multimedia together for a one-day event, the conference promises surprise debuts of multimedia works from a number of superstar rock artists. Apple Computer (NASDAQ:AAPL), primary sponsor for the May 30 exhibition and conference is joining with co-sponsors Microsoft, America Online, Computer Currents, Midisoft, Mix Bookshelf, Macromedia, and Philips Media to support the event. The conference offers a Marketplace of exhibits, Theater Forums, professional sessions. and an evening of Premieres. The conference sessions will present industry leaders and experts discussing current issues and trends. "The New Enhanced CD," "Business and Legal Issues," "Formats and Cross-Platform Development," scoring for interactive games, "Tools for Sound Design," and the new interactive music magazines are just part of an extensive program. In an interview with Newsbytes, David Schwartz, executive producer and chairman of the event, said, "The combination of music and multimedia is the most important development in the music industry since the '60s when the electric guitar came into prominence. Today, musicians have a brand new platform in which to create an artistic expression, an extension of their music." He continued: "No-one has established what the rules are and what makes a hit. This is a medium in which you can just let your imagination run wild. We are just beginning to see the great potential of the music industry's use of multimedia technology." The May 30 event in San Francisco grew from a small conference last year, to a much larger gathering with extensive corporate support this year. While the title may suggest a focus on the new combined audio and audio/video CD (CD+), Schwartz said, "The enhanced CD is an important multimedia and music development, but it is only part of what this conference is about. This conference is about bringing together two industries which are already combining into a new art form. We want as many musicians and artists as possible to have the opportunity to learn and share in what is taking place. And we want the multimedia community to meet these artists." An example of one of the new elements combining music and technology is online information, instruction, production, and displays. An Online Forum, sponsored by America Online, will cover remote production using digital phone lines, transmission of music on the Internet, World Wide Web pages with music clips, and other Internet topics. The evening session, "Premieres," will include a preview of two interactive music magazines, "Control" and "Launch." Philips Media/Island Records will introduce "the Cranberries - doors and windows" a new interactive CD-ROM title, and attendees will also see a preview of "Space Dust" by the Beastie Boys. The conference producers are keeping tight lipped about the debut of multimedia works of several rock "superstars." Music & Multimedia '95 Conference will take place in San Francisco's Masonic Center. Ticket prices include: a complete "Package" ticket which covers Marketplace, the professional sessions, Theater Forums, and the Premieres for $40 in advance ($50 at the door); a "Premieres" ticket, which includes the Marketplace, Theater Forums and the Premieres for $25 in advance ($30 at the door); and an "Exhibits" ticket for $10 in advance ($15 at the door) for the Marketplace and Theater Forums. (Patrick McKenna/19950522/Press Contact: Pat Meier, Pat Meier Associates PR, 415-957-5999) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 05/22/95 ONLINE Southern Co. Joins Electric Utilities On The Web (NEWS)(ONLINE)(WAS)(00004) Southern Co. Joins Electric Utilities On The Web 05/22/95 ATLANTA, GEORGIA, U.S.A., 1995 MAY 22 (NB) -- Add the Southern Co. to the growing list of electric utilities with home pages on the Internet's World Wide Web. The giant Atlanta-based utility has launched a Web site that provides financial and other corporate data on the company and its five electric utility subsidiaries: Alabama Power, Georgia Power, Gulf Power, Mississippi Power, and Savannah Electric, as well as several important non-utility subsidiaries. Southern Company Services, one of the subsidiaries, already had a Web home page. "We want to make the best use of technology at the Southern Company and establishing a presence on the World Wide Web clearly fits into that strategy," said A.W. Dahlberg, Southern president, chairman and chief executive officer (CEO). "The Web gives us an entirely new way to communicate with shareholders, the media, and other interested in the company." The utility holding company's home page (http://www.southernco.com) is quite colorful, including a stylized US map with the service territories of the company jumping out. It is organized into hypertext areas called About Us, Corporate News, Financial News, and Environmental News. A link on the Financial News page leads to a service providing stock information. The company says it will expand its offerings over time to include downloadable software, audio and video. The home page also offers a way for customers, shareholders and others to communicate with the company through electronic-mail. The use of the Web by electric utilities is growing exponentially, based on hot links to utility sites on the home page run by the Electric Power Research Institute (http://www.epri.org), the electric utility industry's research arm. With fewer than 10 utilities on the list less than a month ago, the list has now jumped to 15. The latest additions include: Southern and UilitiCorp United, both investor-owned utilities; Carroll Electric Membership Corp. and Oglethorpe Power Corp., both rural electric cooperatives; and Tokyo Electric, the largest utility in Japan. Kansas City-based UtiliCorp has two Web addresses -- one for the company itself (http://www.utilicorp.com) and the other for EnergyOne (http://www.energy1.com), a nationally-branded energy service business. According to Brian Spencer, the utility's project manager, the Internet addresses "are giving the company exposure, name recognition and customer leads across the nation, in a non-intrusive way." UtiliCorp says the first week it was up on the Internet, in conjunction with a national advertising campaign for EnergyOne, the home page had more than 3,000 visitors. UtiliCorp provides gas and electric service to 1.2 million customers in eight states, British Columbia, and New England. Southern California Edison Co., the nation's second largest utility, has also made a major investment in the Web, including an interactive link for customers to sign up for energy efficiency programs and provide feedback to the utility through questionnaires. The home page, says Tom Higgins, vice president of Edison corporate communications, "is a highly cost-effective way to serve our customers and communicate with them at the same time." But the EPRI list of utilities with Web sites is clearly not complete. It lists no municipal electric utilities with Web pages, but the City of Austin has a site, according to the American Public Power Association. APPA is working on a book on the Internet for public power managers. (Kennedy Maize/Press Contacts: David Mould, Southern Co., 404-668-3561; Sally McElwreath, UtiliCorp, 816-467-3596; Millie Paul, Southern California Edison, 818-302-7986) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 05/22/95 BUSINESS ****Microsoft & Intuit Kill Merger (NEWS)(BUSINESS)(DEN)(00005) ****Microsoft & Intuit Kill Merger 05/22/95 REDMOND, WASHINGTON, U.S.A., 1995 MAY 22 (NB) -- Rather than pursue months and perhaps even years of litigation and possibly appeals with no certainly of winning a fight against the US Department of Justice, Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ: MSFT) and Intuit, Inc.(NASDAQ: INTU) have called off their proposed merger. The deal would have been the biggest in the computer industry ever with its $2 billion price tag. The announcement was made in unusual Saturday press conferences held separately by both companies. Microsoft apparently was the partner that elected not to continue the fight. "While we would have preferred to defend the action brought by the government, the companies have been unable to mutually agree to pursue the litigation," said Scott Cook, Intuit chairman. Bill Neukom, Microsoft senior vice president of law and corporate affairs, told reporters the trial portion of the case could run through August and the entire case, assuming appeals, could easily run into 1996. Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates said that long a delay could leave Microsoft in the dust as other companies bring to market their own personal finance software. "This is a fast-paced industry experiencing lots of change. Progress toward realizing our goals could not wait until the government's lawsuit was resolved," said Gates. NationsBank and Bank of America announced recently they will acquire MECA and its Managing Your Money software. Microsoft will take a one time charge of $0.05 per share for the $46.25 million termination fee it has to pay Intuit because the deal fell through. Microsoft said no money is due Novell Inc., the company that would have gotten Microsoft Money for its home software product line. That deal was contingent on the completion of the Microsoft-Intuit merger. Gates said Microsoft is already working on version 4.0 of Microsoft Money. That upgrade is scheduled to ship in the fall, said the Microsoft chairman. (Jim Mallory/19950522/Press contact: Microsoft, 206-882-8080) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 05/22/95 BUSINESS Australia - Single Distributor For CA's PC Products (NEWS)(BUSINESS)(SYD)(00006) Australia - Single Distributor For CA's PC Products 05/22/95 SYDNEY, AUSTRALIA, 1995 MAY 22 (NB) -- Computer Associates has dramatically changed its distribution of PC products in Australia. They have all been placed exclusively with a new company, MicroChannel Pty Ltd. The company is also handling CA's Accpac Plus accounting software and related products, providing an estimated 50 percent of the new distributor's sales. The other products include CA's visual development tools and the 4Home range of retail products. MicroChannel has initially established offices in Sydney and Melbourne, and Auckland in New Zealand. The head office in Sydney is in the same building as CA. A number of the staff have come to the company from Sourceware which until recently distributed Accpac for CA. MicroChannel will also handle all of CA's training. All value-added resellers (VARs) and dealers wanting to sell Accpac must undergo an intensive, short training course in installation before they are allowed to sell the product. CA Marketing Manager Gary Mitchell said, "Good accounting software installers are very hard to find, so you have to train them. This raises the barrier to entry and costs us a little in short term sales, but it ensures long-term success for our end-users and our VARs." (Paul Zucker/19950519/General contact: MicroChannel Pty Ltd., +61-2-922 7000) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 05/22/95 ONLINE UK Internet Provider Offers Low-Cost ISDN (NEWS)(ONLINE)(LON)(00007) UK Internet Provider Offers Low-Cost ISDN 05/22/95 WARRINGTON, CHESHIRE, ENGLAND, 1995 MAY 22 (NB) -- U-Net, a North-Western UK Internet service provider, has unveiled what it claims is the lowest cost ISDN (integrated services digital network) service for LAN (local area network) users who want to have several PCs on a LAN connected to the Internet. #IMAGE 1 20 TWPCX \images\95052207.PCX Click here for photo The ISDN service is called EasyThreeIP and costs UKP80 to sign up plus UKP40 for a single IP (Internet Protocol) account. Extra PCs on the LAN are then charged at UKP10 each up to 10 PCs total, and then UKP5 per PC thereafter. Bill Unsworth, U-Net's managing director, told Newsbytes that the service is ideal for companies with LANs who want all or some of the PCs on that network to have their own IP or sub-IP addresses on the Internet, and who want a gateway PC on the LAN to funnel data into, and out of, the network. "If you compare this service to the ISDN services offered by other Internet service providers, such as Pipex, our service is much more economically priced," he told Newsbytes, adding that the inquiries about the service made so far have been split 50/50 between companies with LANs and single PC/ISDN users. "The service is equally cost-effective for single PC users who want to access the Internet across ISDN, as it is for LAN users. Most users tend to start off with dial-up modem access, but after a while they begin to realize the benefits of coming in at 64 kilobits-per-second using ISDN. The EasyThreeIP service is appealing to those users," he said. Unsworth went on to say that the UKP40 basic monthly charge compares favorably with the company's existing UKP12 a month charge for dial- up access to the Internet. "We see it as a natural progression from modem dial-up. We're already working on installing points-of-presence (PoPs) in Birmingham and Leeds, but the ISDN service is pitched at all UK users of the Internet, as the high speeds make for short data calls," he said. Unsworth claims that the EasyThreeIP service is very competitively priced. "Up to now, ISDN has just been seen as an alternative to leased lines and priced accordingly at up to 50 times the cost of modem access," he said. "We see ISDN eventually becoming the preferred method of Internet access as the costs of ISDN fall -- particularly when the cable companies start undercutting British Telecom for ISDN2. We felt it very important to offer a low-cost ISDN service as a growth path for our EasyOneIP modem service users," he added. (Steve Gold/19950519/Press & Reader Contact: U-Net, tel +44-1925- 633144, fax +44-1925-850420, Internet e-mail bill@u-net.com, Internet World Wide Web http://www.u-net.com/UNET051995/PHOTO) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 05/22/95 ONLINE Atlanta Olympic Web Site Adds New Features (NEWS)(ONLINE)(MSP)(00008) Atlanta Olympic Web Site Adds New Features 05/22/95 ATLANTA, GEORGIA, U.S.A., 1995 MAY 22 (NB) -- The Atlanta Committee for the Olympic Games (ACOG) has announced it is adding new features to its World Wide Web site to help both potential visitors and others interested in next summer's Olympic Games in Atlanta . "We've based the information on our server on questions we hear every day," Donna Jonsson, communications spokesperson for the ACOG, told Newsbytes. "Our number one purpose in going on the Internet was to address the information wants of the worldwide public who are interested in the 1996 Games." The Web site can help fans with ticket selection, Olympic merchandise, as well as sending comments and questions directly to the ACOG. Officials said new features are regularly added to the server. Jonsson said the number one topic regarding the Olympics revolve around tickets. The expanded "ticket" section allows users to "build" a schedule for each day of the game, with sorting available by "sport," "time," and "location." The section also provides the codes and prices needed to fill out the ticket order form. Also available are: a full listing of the track and field section, which was not available when the ticket brochure was printed; a "best buy" list; and a section of the sales agents outside the US to contact for ticket purchases. If those visiting the site want to volunteer their time at other Atlanta sporting events, officials said a volunteer application form is available for "Atlanta Sports '95," described as a series of 19 national and international competitions that begin this summer and continue through this fall. Prospective volunteers can download the form and fax it to the ACOG. Future plans for the site include an electronic version of the Olympics merchandising catalog. Also, "Izzy," the computer-generated futuristic Olympic mascot, will be on hand to show the video version of public service announcements on behalf of the President's Council on Physical Fitness. Last month, Newsbytes reported on the opening of the site, which is located at http://www.atlanta.olympics.org. (Bob Woods/19950519/Press Contact: Donna Jonsson, ACOG, 404-224-1563; Public Contact: Internet World Wide Web http://www.atlanta.olympics.org) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 05/22/95 GENERAL Quantum Teams With Symantec On SMART Technology (NEWS)(GENERAL)(BOS)(00009) Quantum Teams With Symantec On SMART Technology 05/22/95 BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS, U.S.A., 1995 MAY 22 (NB) -- In a deal between Quantum and Symantec involving new technology for monitoring the performance and reliability of hard disk drives, Quantum will provide the diagnostic firmware, and Symantec the system software, said Dave Tang, Quantum's manager of strategic marketing, during a briefing for Newsbytes. The jointly developed software will be based on SMART (Self- Monitoring, Analysis and Reporting Technology), a technology initially built into Quantum products and now in the process of becoming an "industry standard," he claimed. Quantum and the four other "major players" in the disk drive industry -- Seagate, IBM, Conner, and Western Digital -- have just announced their mutual support for SMART as part of the ATA interface, Tang pointed out. Also on the ATA side, he added, the specification was recently submitted to the industry's Small Form Factor Committee, following a year-long development initiative led by Compaq. On the SCSI (small computer systems interface) side, SMART is "already documented in the SCSI III specifications," Newsbytes was told. SMART, he explained, represents a desktop adaptation of hard drive monitoring technology such as CHKDISK and SCANDISK that was initially developed for mainframes and minicomputers. In the deal with Symantec, Quantum will provide further development of SMART firmware in its hard disk drives for conducting "advanced internal diagnostics," Tang reported. For its part, Symantec will contribute systems software for communicating between the disk drive and the host and user interface, he added. Quantum has already incorporated ATA implementations of the SMART firmware in its Fireball and Trailblazer hard disk drives, and SCSI implementations in its Atlas, Atlas II, and Empire II disk drive families, according to Tang. Up to now, some OEMs (original equipment manufacturers) have produced their own systems software to work with Quantum's SMART firmware, Tang revealed. Compaq, for example, previously created one product of this kind, Newsbytes was told. The mean-time-between-failure (MBTF) for hard disk drives is currently ten to 30 times higher than the MBTF for floppy and CD-ROM drives, according to Tang. As a result, a question often raised is how the industry can reconcile the need for SMART against progress made in "component reliability," he added. One answer is that hard disk drives continue to be affected by environmental conditions, such as temperature, humidity, shock, and vibration, Tang said. In addition, hard drives are sometimes subject to assembly or material defects, and the devices can also be damaged during handling, he acknowledged. Implementations of SMART can be either server- or workstation- based, Tang noted. The technology is designed to: monitor hard disk drives for impending failure conditions; to use built-in diagnostics to detect up to 70 percent of all predictable device failures; and to alert SMART-compliant hosts so that the systems can act quickly to protect the data through measures such as automated backup or load reduction, according to the Quantum exec. (Jacqueline Emigh/19950519/Reader Contact: Quantum Corporation, 408-894-4000; Press Contact: Eileen Smith, Hi-Tech Communications for Quantum, 408-894-4000) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 05/22/95 ONLINE Australia - Online Education Net Launched (NEWS)(ONLINE)(SYD)(00010) Australia - Online Education Net Launched 05/22/95 SYDNEY, AUSTRALIA, 1995 MAY 22 (NB) -- Open Net is a new Internet service for Australian students. It is designed to offer the same rates to any user, anywhere in the country. Subscribers get a free PC or Mac software and installation kit upon paying an up-front fee for a "time-slice" of usage. The normal hourly rate for students is AUS$6 (around US$4.30 per hour). Basic help services are included in the price and extended-hours help is available for a fee. The service's information page is at http://2www.opennet.net.au. The service is not only designed to give access to the Internet in general, but as a source of educational facilities. Those established so far include online Internet training, information search facilities, job opportunities, and access to educational institutions. The service is touted as a medium for students to obtain educational courses, submit assignments, buy books, and communicate with other students. Australian minister for employment, education and training, Simon Crean, told the audience at Open Net's launch that it was part of a wider plan -- the establishment of an Australian national education network called EDNA. "There is no greater task for government in the remaining years of this century than to plan for the transition to the global information society." he explained. Reaction to the new service has been varied. The minister's office was flooded with phone calls today, yet many city schools said they can get cheaper connect rates by using other Internet service providers. One service provider, Ausnet, is offering free connect to the Internet to all schools, but they have to pay the toll charges if they are outside the main capital cities. (Paul Zucker/19950522/Press Contact: Open Net, tel +61-2-373-2701, fax +61-2-373-2703, Internet e-mail interface@opennet.net.au) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 05/22/95 GENERAL China - Computer/Network Technologies Expo In Shanghai (NEWS)(GENERAL)(PEK)(00011) China - Computer/Network Technologies Expo In Shanghai 05/22/95 BEIJING, CHINA, 1995 MAY 22 (NB) -- About 100 domestic and foreign computer and network companies displayed their technologies and products in Shanghai International Computer/Network Expo 95 at Shanghai Exhibition Center recently. Sixteen foreign companies, including Microsoft, IBM, Cabletron, Cisco, Novell, 3Com, Lannet, AST, and Apple, occupied about one third of the 120,000 square-feet exhibition area. They also gave technical seminars. There were about twelve companies from Beijing, but most participants were from Shanghai. It was the second exhibition of its kind in Shanghai, with more participating companies than last year. It is the biggest computer event in East China. However, not many new technologies or products were shown there except IBM's and Chipcom's ATM (asynchronous transfer mode) demonstrations. Even so, more than 60,000 people visited the show. The Shanghai government attached a lot of importance to the exhibition, hoping it would be a strong stimulus to the city's computer industry. Computers have been designated as one of Shanghai's pillar industries. Sales of computer-related products are expected to reach RMB4 billion (US$471 million) this year and to increase to RMB20 billion (US2.35 billion) by the end of 2000. (Chih-Ho Yu & Ning Huang/19950522) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 05/22/95 TRENDS Where's The Money In Interactive Media? (NEWS)(TRENDS)(MSP)(00012) Where's The Money In Interactive Media? 05/22/95 SEATTLE, WASHINGTON, U.S.A., 1995 MAY 22 (NB) -- How much money did the nascent interactive-media industry generate last year? Approximately $11.1 billion, according to Advertising Age ("Building a new industry," by Debra Aho Williamson, Mar. 13, 1995, pp. S-3, S-4, S-8). Although that figure should be taken with an enormous grain of virtual salt, the article makes it clear that the magazine's definition of the interactive industry is not without its flaws and the analysts it consulted are far from infallible. With that in mind, here are their 1994 revenue estimates by category: videogames, $3.8 billion; home shopping/infomercials, $2.8 billion; CD-ROMs, $2.5 billion; commercial online services, $795 million; interactive 800 numbers, $425 million; Internet, $366 million; kiosks, $292 million; virtual reality, $116 million; and interactive TV, $37 million. In addition to the figures, Williamson gathers prognostications from assorted industry analysts for each major category. Listed are some of the highlights. Online services/Internet: new competition in the commercial online service sector and increased activity on the World Wide Web will lead to a shakeout. The Web will gradually supplant proprietary online services, whose subscribership will peak at 10 million in 1997 and begin to fall in 1998. CD-ROMs and multimedia: wholesale revenues will rise 250 percent between 1994 and 1998, but consolidation will force many publishers out of business. "Hybrid" CD-ROMs such as Microsoft Baseball, which include links to online services for information updates, will flourish. Interactive TV: technical difficulties will prevent the medium from earning substantial revenues -- perhaps $2 billion -- until 1997. Home shopping and infomercials: look for the Home Shopping Network and QVC to step up online efforts via commercial online services and the Internet. This story is republished with permission from the May 1995 Cybernautics Digest, a monthly summary of reports about converging information technologies. (Contact: Terry Hansen, Cybernautics Digest, c/o KFH Publications Inc., 3530 Bagley Ave. N., Seattle, WA 98103; 206-547-4950; Fax: 206-547-5355; E-mail: cybernbm@cuix.pscu.com. U.S. subscription rate: $24; $2 sample issue) (ADVISORY)(GENERAL)(MSP)(00013) NewsPix Images For Newsbytes Publishers 05/22/95 MINNEAPOLIS, MINNESOTA, U.S.A., 1995 MAY 22 (NB) -- These photos correspond to recent Newsbytes stories. They are online in the Newsbytes menu on GEnie, America Online, eWorld, NiftyServe, and the Newsbytes private bulletin board system in Minneapolis. JPEG files are larger in size, PICT files are designed as thumbnails for onscreen viewing. The photos are titled with name/year/month/day. PICT/thumbnail pictures are now black and white (that is gray scale). File message will indicate color if the JPEG image is color. This will reduce file size and streamline transfers. Some of the larger 'for use' images, may also be PICT files. To distinguish these files from the thumbnail preview PICT images, the tag for the color 'for use' image will have PICT, all caps. The thumbnail will remain noted as 'pct.' To become a licensed Newsbytes publisher, call Newsbytes at 612-430-1100 (U.S.) or write to administrator@newsbytes.com on the Internet. Licensing applies to any medium. --------------------------- Week of MAY 22 - MAY 26,1995 --------------------------- BETTERBOX050895 - UK-BetterBox Intros Handheld Network Tester: the Psibernet unit. SCCCOM950512 - Colorado Firm Keeps 9-1-1 Databases Updated: the control room of National Data Services Center (NDSC). HERGAMES950515 - Venture To Offer Online Service, CD-ROMs For Girls: Patricia Flanigan, Marketing Director of Games for Her in front of poster for CD ROM, MacKenzie & Co. PRODCEO950512 - E3 - Prodigy - New CEO, New Interface: new chief executive officer (CEO), Ed Bennett in front of Prodigy logo. THENET950515 - UK-BBC Starts Internet/Interactive TV Program: screenshot of main menu. SC&T950518 - SC&T's Keyboards With Built-In Speakers: the MAK-200, the entry-level model. SATO19950517 - Eastern Mind, A Japanese Myst CD Game: the CD author Osamu Sato, with poster for his work Eastern Mind: The Lost Souls of Tong Nou. ZOO950504 - color / Humongous To Preview "Putt-Putt Saves The Zoo": screenshot of Putt-Putt in action. DIGIPHON950510 - color / Digiphone Launch On Schedule Despite Test Problems: screenshot with Shoemaker-Levy 9 asteroid collision with Jupiter on screen. HISTORY950508 - color / Parsons Ships US History Multimedia CD-ROM: screen shot of main menu. VBOY950508 - color / Nintendo Goes Online: the virtual headset and control gear. Photo Credit: courtesy Nintendo of America Inc. EXCHANGE950503 - color / Free Exchange Market On The Web: the various icons used to designate materials to be bartered. DACOM950406 - color / UK - Psion-Dacom's Budget PCMCIA "Slot Drive" For PCs: the card with PC in background, the PC is outfitted with the Dacom Gold Drive. ARTSCAN950502 - color / Jetsoft Software Maximizes Scanned Image Quality: screen shot of dialogue screen. PS6X950502 - b&w / TI Intros Personal Organizers That Dock With PC: the two organizers with docking unit. DC40950407 - color / Kodak Selects Software For Digital Camera Images: shot of the DC 40 digital camera. KIOSK950502 - color / New Unisys Kiosk Aimed At Govt Market: shot of the kiosk with person in wheelchair (the kiosk meets standards set out by the Americans With Disabilities Act. COMCOLOR950501 - color / New Compaq Monitors Can Identify Themselves: shot of the Compaq 150 Color monitor. ACCENT950417 - color / Accent Adds Arabic/Hebrew To Word Processor: screenshot. ZINCAIR950502 - color / Toshiba Notebooks Get Attachable Long-Life Battery: shot of Toshiba Notebook and battery unit. VIEWER9504010 - color / Mastersoft's Upgrade To Windows File Viewer: screenshot. COMMENCE950503 - color / Jensen-Jones Updates Commence Info Mgr: screenshot. DATACC950425 - b&w / Technology Brings Mug Shots To Police Cars: shot of the mini laptop with mug shot on screen. LYCOS950424 - color / Microsoft Licenses Lycos Internet Catalog: picture of research scientist Michael Mauldin at Carnegie Mellon's Center for Machine Translation in the School of Computer Science, Lycos developer. Also useful for NB042095, story #17 / Lycos Promotes Search Standards. photo credit: Ken Andreyo (Newsbytes/19950522) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 05/22/95 GENERAL Paperback Lists Over 1,000 Free Computer Programs (NEWS)(GENERAL)(DEN)(00014) Paperback Lists Over 1,000 Free Computer Programs 05/22/95 CHARLOTTESVILLE, VIRGINIA, U.S.A., 1995 MAY 22 (NB) -- Commercial software applications can cost hundreds of dollars, but good software that doesn't cost a dime is available to do most any job, according to the publisher of a paperback book that lists over 1,000 free programs and tells how to find them on the Internet and on various bulletin board systems (BBSs). "The Freeware Hall of Fame Guide to Free Software", a 96-page soft cover book published by retired real estate broker Rey Barry, includes listings of free file backup, ZipCode mail management, word processor, loan analyzer, spelling checker, schedule planning and communication programs. You can also find multimedia viewers and creators, aviation and maritime programs, network utilities, hard drive file managers, commonly used legal forms, utilities to convert just about any format to a different format, and over 100 programs to manage the Internet and other online services. The book lists databases containing the telephone area codes for the entire world, thousands of songs and composers, and a year-by-year review of United States culture. You can even get a listing of the radio frequencies used by a national hamburger chain to take drive-through orders. Barry said he started the Freeware Hall of Fame (FreeHOF) while looking for software to run his real estate office. "I was amazed that the Freeware found on bulletin boards was sometimes better than retail software costing hundreds of dollars, and I began collecting it." In 1989 he started distributing choice freeware to bulletin boards across North America and Western Europe that were members of the ILink International Netmail Network. Barry is an administrator of the network. He said more than 300 board operators now regularly download from his bulletin board. The book is organized in two sections. The first lists applications and databases in more than 100 categories. The second is an alphabetized list of more than 1,000 freeware writers and their programs. The book's introduction gives tips on the best way to find the newest releases of the listed programs on the Internet and local BBSs. The introduction also includes information on how to keep your PC safe from destructive viruses. "The Freeware Hall of Fame Guide to Free Software" is available directly from the Freeware Hall of Fame for $20. (Jim Mallory/19950522/press and public contact: Freeware Hall of Fame, 804-293-2693, Internet e-mail rey.barry@execnet.com) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 05/22/95 BROADCAST Japan Business Show '95 - Casio TV Phone (NEWS)(BROADCAST)(TYO)(00015) Japan Business Show '95 - Casio TV Phone 05/22/95 TOKYO, JAPAN, 1995 MAY 22 (NB) -- Casio's "Casio Tele" LT-70 TV Phone removes the need to buy an expensive new video telephone and get an ISDN (integrated services digital network) telephone line if you want video phone capabilities. The LT-70 uses your existing television set for the display and your existing telephone for the connection to the telephone network. In the center of the unit, which at 274 millimeters (mm) by 180mm by 65mm is about half the size of a video recorder, is the CCD camera built into a small round housing connected to motors which, remotely controlled, can move to point wherever the user is sitting in the room. Once a call is established, the called party is displayed on the TV screen, either as a full image or in a window. The user can also bring up an image of themselves, as transmitted to the other party. If the call is being made during a TV program the video phone's picture is simply overlaid in a window in the corner. Not surprisingly the LT-70 interfaces with many of Casio's other AV products including the new QV-10 digital still camera and the VG-100 video printer. There are also connections for video recorders and cameras enabling images from those to be sent along the line. A 14,400 bits-per-second (bps) V34 modem sits between the image processing equipment and the telephone line. The Casio Tele LT-70 TV Phone, a product for the "new multimedia generation," according to Casio, costs 98,500 yen ($1,135). Currently the unit is available in Japan but, as Newsbytes recently reported, Casio will begin marketing of the LT-70 in the US from August. (Martyn Williams/19950522/Press & public contact: Casio Computer Corp., tel +81-3-3347-4964, fax +81-3-3347-4675) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 05/22/95 TRENDS Japan Business Show '95 - Next-Generation Displays (NEWS)(TRENDS)(TYO)(00016) Japan Business Show '95 - Next-Generation Displays 05/22/95 TOKYO, JAPAN, 1995 MAY 22 (NB) -- Both Sharp and Canon were proudly displaying models of their next generation LCDs (liquid crystal displays) at Japan's Business Show '95 last week. Sharp had several prototypes of new color LCD displays on show. The most impressive was a 53-centimeter (21-inch) color TFT (thin film transistor) screen. The screen boasted a wide viewing angle and low reflective coating and will find applications in new computer monitors and television sets. Strong, vibrant colors were displayed by the unit which also offered an excellent picture. Computer-generated images were being used to demonstrate the screen. Also in prototype and on display were: the LQ11DS01, a 29cm super VGA color TFT; the LQ10DS21, a 26cm super VGA color TFT; the LQ10D361, a 26cm VGA color TFT; the LQ9D161, a 21cm VGA color TFT; and the LQ64D141, a small 16cm VGA color TFT display unit. On the Canon stand its FLCD (ferroelectric liquid crystal display) screens were causing a lot of interest. Canon are offering two versions, one PC compatible and the other HP workstation compatible. Both units feature a 38cm screen (14.8-inch), which Canon says is an equivalent display area to a 17-inch CRT (cathode ray tube) monitor, with 1,280 by 1,024 pixels. Wide viewing angles of +/- 50 degrees horizontally and +/- 30 degrees vertically are also a key feature of the display units. Priced at 498,000 yen ($5,740) the FLCD15C01 doesn't come cheap but offers a picture considerably superior to that of a conventional monitor. Canon are also making its size a key selling point. The unit also consumes less power than a conventional monitor too, just 60-watts at an input of 100/120V and 65-watts on a 220/240V system. In sleep mode power consumption is reduced to 10-watts. (Martyn Williams/19950522/Press & public contact: Sharp, tel +81-7435-35521, fax +81-7435-35262) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 05/22/95 GENERAL Japan Business Show '95 - Electronic Translators (NEWS)(GENERAL)(TYO)(00017) Japan Business Show '95 - Electronic Translators 05/22/95 TOKYO, JAPAN, 1995 MAY 22 (NB) -- As business gets more international, people are finding more and more needs for translation devices that convert between Japanese and other languages. Two devices generating interest at the Business Show in Tokyo last week are at either ends of the scale. Whilst many of the new pen computers have dictionaries built in, there is still a market for pocket translation machines that have a series of phrases built in. The latest of these is a new range from Fuji Xerox which was showing its new series of Lyucho computers with built-in speech synthesizers. The Lyucho Club W and Club M translate between English and Japanese with a dictionary of 1,651 words. In addition to the words there is a phrase dictionary of 3,277 phrases in the Club M, and 3,351 in the Club W. The Club M speaks with a male voice whilst the Club W speaks with a female voice. For travelers to Korea, the Lyucho Ujon provides translation between Korean, Japanese, and English with a database of 1,604 phrases. The Lyuchu Nihao is aimed at people needing a phrasebook between English, Japanese, and Chinese. Finally the Lyuchu Euro Travel is aimed at Japanese tourists on European package tours, contains 635 key phrases and translates between Japanese, English, Italian, German, French, and Spanish. Prices range from 31,800 to 36,800 yen ($366 to $424). Toshiba were displaying Astransac C/S, a full specification Japanese/English translation package which includes a technical dictionary. The Astransac system includes a Toshiba laptop workstation SPARC LT with the special software. A basic dictionary of 50,000 words can be supplemented by a user dictionary of up to 200,000 words. As well as providing straight translation, the system also has grammar and language usage data which allow the system to produce a "natural sounding translation," according to Toshiba. Optical character recognition software is also available to allow the user to simply scan in texts for translation. (Martyn Williams/19950522/Press contact: Toshiba, tel +81-3-3457-2345, fax +81-3-5444-9348) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 05/22/95 GOVT Telecom Prospects Cloudy In House (NEWS)(GOVT)(WAS)(00018) Telecom Prospects Cloudy In House 05/22/95 WASHINGTON, D.C., U.S.A., 1995 MAY 22 (NB) -- Two powerful committees of the House of Representatives are moving toward a collision over telecommunications legislation. The clash is likely to cloud the prospects for a rewrite this year of the 1934 Communications Act, the basic legislation government telecommunications regulation. A telecommunications train wreck became possible last week when the House Judiciary Committee, led by Chairman Henry Hyde (R-Ill.), passed a rewrite of the telecommunications law that gives the Justice Department a major role in determining whether local phone companies can compete in long-distance service. Meanwhile, a House Commerce Committee telecommunications subcommittee was giving thumbs up to a bill drafted by full committee Chairman Thomas Bliley (R-Va.) that would shut the Justice Department out of the action. Bliley's committee is expected to pass the legislation this week, setting up a possible floor confrontation over the two different approaches. Bliley, not a lawyer, is firm about keeping Justice out of the act. He claims the presence of the antitrust types from Justice would delay and complicate competition and new choices in telecommunications services, decisions which should be made by the Federal Communications Commission. "It doesn't advance the cause by having two federal agencies" with decision-making authority, Bliley says. Hyde, a lawyer, contends that an honest third-party with antitrust expertise is necessary. "We're not here to yield" Justice Department authority, Hyde said last week. But he said he hopes to work out a compromise with Bliley before floor action sometime next month. Hyde's bill passed in committee by a 29-1 vote, with Rep. Rick Boucher (D-Va.) the only naysayer. Boucher, who is also a member of Bliley's Commerce Committee, said the Republican-dominated Congress would not buy Hyde's belt-and-suspenders regulatory approach. "It's dead," he said. The heavyweight lobbying groups are at the usual loggerheads. The regional Bell operating companies are adamant in their opposition to the Hyde legislation. But, of course, the long-distance companies like it. The inconclusive sumo match between the Bells and the long-distance carriers was what brought telecommunications reform legislation to a grinding halt in the last Congress. In the Senate, a bill being pushed by Senate Commerce Committee Chairman Larry Pressler (R-S.D.) is scheduled to come to the floor soon. Pressler's bill also cuts the Justice Department out of the action. The Clinton administration would like to see even more Justice Department scrutiny than the Hyde bill provides. Anne Bingaman, assistant attorney general for antitrust, told Hyde's committee last week that the bill doesn't give Justice enough group to turn down requests from Baby Bells to get into long-distance. (Kennedy Maize/19950522) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 05/22/95 ONLINE AOL Happy Over Microsoft/Intuit Merger Collapse (NEWS)(ONLINE)(WAS)(00019) AOL Happy Over Microsoft/Intuit Merger Collapse 05/22/95 VIENNA, VIRGINIA, U.S.A., 1995 MAY 22 (NB) -- America Online is grinning over the collapse of the Microsoft-Intuit merger in the face of opposition from the US Department of Justice. Steve Case, AOL president and chief executive officer (CEO), hailed the decision as a victory for consumers. "We believe that the withdrawal of the Microsoft-Intuit merger is an important victory for consumers," Case said in a written statement, "but it is just the first step on the path to preserving consumer choice and ensuring an appropriately competitive marketplace." By opposing the merger, said Case, Justice "recognized that Microsoft's dominance in operating systems could be used to seize control of markets of the future, leading to higher prices and less innovation for consumers. By taking action in the Intuit case, the government ensured that a level playing field will exist in electronic commerce." Now its time to apply the same reasoning to online services, argued Case, "to maintain a level playing field and maximize consumer choice by blocking Microsoft from using Windows as a marketing platform for Microsoft's own produces and services, such as the Microsoft Network. Just as consumers of local telephone service are ensured choice -- and equal access -- to multiple providers of long-distance services, personal computer owners should be ensured choice -- and equal access -- to multiple providers of interactive services." Case called on the government to block Microsoft from incorporating one-button links to its new online service in its new Windows 95 software. "Immediate action is required to ensure that people will have multiple choices on the information superhighway," he said, "as these interactive services will have an increasingly profound impact on the way people learn, stay informed, communicate with others, and transact business." In a related matter, AOL has acquired two more firms with Internet expertise -- Medior Inc. and WAIS Inc. Medior of San Mateo, Calif., is a leading publisher of interactive media including entertainment, publishing, education and electronic commerce. WAIS of San Francisco, founded in 1992 by Internet pioneer Brewster Kahle, produces software that allows content providers to index and publish large databases on the Internet and automatically creates HTML (hypertext markup language) documents on the fly as it indexes content. AOL is acquiring Medior for 825,000 shares of stock, a tax-free deal worth about $28 million. The online service is acquiring WAIS for about 400,000 share, also a tax-free exchange worth about $14 million to WAIS. "With the acquisition of Medior and WAIS," said Case, "America Online will be able to offer its media partners a turnkey solution to provide an integrated presence in online, multimedia and the World Wide Web." (Kennedy Maize/19950522/Press Contact: Margaret Ryan, 703-883-1625) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 05/22/95 TELECOM Poland To Get 2 More Mobile Phone Nets (NEWS)(TELECOM)(LON)(00020) Poland To Get 2 More Mobile Phone Nets 05/22/95 WARSAW, POLAND, 1995 MAY 22 (NB) -- The Polish Government has told journalists it intends to formally announce a tender for two new cellular telephone operators this coming July. The move, which effectively ends a three-year monopoly in the cellular business controlled by Telekomunikacja Polska, will see the arrival of digital GSM (global system for mobile communications) cellular services in Poland, according to Government officials. Currently, Centertel SA, the 51 percent state-owned cellular telecoms company, only offers analog cellular service across most of Poland. The remaining Telekomunikacja Polska stake is divided between Ameritech and France Telecom. According to Government officials, the two new cellular operators will be invited to bid for the provision of both analog and GSM services on a national basis. Newsbytes notes that the Government had hoped to announce the new tenders earlier, but they must wait for the new telecoms legislation to pass through the "due process of law" in Poland. Although the law has now received official assent, it will not officially come into force until July 1 of this year. After that date, the Government can legally invite tenders to compete with Centertel. Unusually for the Polish Government, things are moving quickly on the telecoms front. The tender must be completed by the end of the year, shortly after which the Government will issue formal licenses. Industry experts suggest that a GSM network, covering the Warsaw area, could be in place by the spring of next year. According to the Polish press, several western telecoms companies are interested to tender for the contracts. Among the interested players are AT&T, Alcatel and Siemens, according to Newsbytes sources. Currently, Centertel has around 40,000 subscribers around Poland, despite the fact the network has been in operation for four years. Part of the reason for the relatively low number of subscribers is due to congestion in the Warsaw area, where Centertel is not taking on many new subscribers, as well as the relatively high costs of buying a phone and renting a line. All call costs must be paid for in advance, meaning that startup costs for a mobile phone are usually around the $2,000 mark. (Sylvia Dennis/19950522) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 1995 05/22/95 TRENDS Europe - PCMCIA To Grow 67% In (NEWS)(TRENDS)(LON)(00021) Europe - PCMCIA To Grow 67% In 1995 05/22/95 GUILDFORD, SURREY, ENGLAND, 1995 MAY 22 (NB) -- According to a study commissioned by IBM and DIP Systems -- the originator of PCMCIA (Personal Computer Memory Card International Association) in the UK -- PCMCIA sales across Europe are going through the roof. Oliver Tucker, a spokesman for DIP, and someone who helped design the Atari Portfolio palmtop -- one of the first PCMCIA-equipped units of its type -- told Newsbytes that PCMCIA sales are taking off in a big way in Europe, particularly in the German and UK markets. Sales of PCMCIA products in Europe reached the 540,000 units mark last year, and are expected to double during the current year, producing a compound growth rate of around 67 percent until 1997, in volume terms, or 45 percent in value terms for the same period. Tucker told Newsbytes that the survey's results surprised even him, since they showed memory PCMCIA cards as being the major sellers -- ahead even of modem devices. The report showed that 45 percent of PCMCIA sales in volume terms (30 percent in value) in Europe were memory cards, followed by modems with 26 percent in both volume and value terms. "Flash memory cards are an interesting growth area and one we expect to see growing even faster than the market in general," he told Newsbytes, adding this is despite the fact that the memory card sector as a whole is expected to tail off in growth terms after this year. So why are sales of PCMCIA products starting to take off in a big way? According to DIP, with the growing sales of portable PCs, plus the increasing implementation of PCMCIA slots into desktop machines, something that is expected to fuel the market this year, the key to sales success has been identified as the ability to supply reliable products, from recognized brand names, at competitive prices. The study was developed around sales statistics and data gathered through interviews with PCMCIA card resellers and PC vendors. According to DIP, it has confirmed that the indirect sales channel is a fundamental requirement, although vendors appreciate the importance of direct sales. The main distribution channels for PCMCIA in Europe are currently specialist distributors and value-added resellers (VARs) who provide the finished product as well as a range of other services. According to the study, portable PC manufacturers are also growing in importance as a channel for sales. (Steve Gold/19950522/Press Contact: Vector Business Communications, +44-1442-877167; Reader Contact: DIP Systems, +44-1483-301555) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 05/22/95 ONLINE London Firm Offers Shrink-Wrapped Internet Host Service (NEWS)(ONLINE)(LON)(00022) London Firm Offers Shrink-Wrapped Internet Host Service 05/22/95 LONDON, ENGLAND, 1995 MAY 22 (NB) -- A startup company, Virtual Computer, has announced what it claims is a global first -- a "shrink- wrapped" Internet host service costing from UKP1,000 ($1,600) a year. According to Henry McGeough, a spokesman for the company, in return for their UKP1,000, subscribers get their own 486-based PC with eight megabytes (MB) of memory, 512MB hard disk, and the ability to support up to eight concurrent inbound Internet links on the Virtual Computer Internet link. "Prices start from the UKP1,000 point, with extra services and consultancy on top. That base annual charge allows us to install and maintain a PC on our premises, linked via a 64,000 bits-per-second (bps) link into the Internet," McGeough told Newsbytes. At present, Virtual Computer is in the discussion stages with a number of potential corporate subscribers interested in switching/starting their World Wide Web and FTP (File Transfer Protocol) servers over to the Virtual Computer offices. "As we get more clients on board, obviously we'll ramp up our link into the Internet, and expect to up this to a 2 megabits-per-second leased line before long," he explained, adding that each subscriber will be allocated an Internet domain of their own choice. "This could be http://www.company.com or www.company.org, or even www.company.co.uk, the choice is down to the subscriber," McGeough said, adding that he sees no reason for the domain names to be limited to this choice. "Because we are operating in a totally new area, where we maintain the Internet host server for the customer, we could maintain a Web server for a client in, say, the US, and have a US type name, but maintain the server here in London," he explained. McGeough admitted that this could cause a few problems for the Internet mandarins, since having a server located in another country to which the server is "named" has never been done before. "It's technically possible and we expect to meet this `problem' as we offer our services globally," he said. The PCs are being set up running Linux, the Internet host software, which runs under Unix and supports a TCP/IP (Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol) link to the Internet. "Provided the other software a customer has runs under Unix and works across TCP/IP, then other types of mail servers can be supported in parallel to the usual Web/FTP Internet services," McGeough said. According to Virtual Computer, while Internet Host Provider (IHP) services can be set up directly by any company wanting its own Web/FTP services on the Internet, the startup costs -- typically UKP10,000 and up -- has been a dissuasive factor for many potential companies. "What we offer, for an entry-point of a tenth that level, is a PC maintained at our London HQ, and with round-the-clock support. It's unique, and it's never been offered before," McGeough said. (Steve Gold/19950522/Press & Reader Contact: Virtual Computer, +44-171-490-1601, Internet e-mail henry@ledge.co.uk) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 1996 05/22/95 TELECOM British Columbia To Get New Area Code In (NEWS)(TELECOM)(TOR)(00023) British Columbia To Get New Area Code In 1996 05/22/95 VANCOUVER, BRITISH COLUMBIA, CANADA, 1995 MAY 22 (NB) -- The 604 area code, which currently serves all of the province of British Columbia, will be split in two next year. It will be the second Canadian area code divided in recent years as available numbers have begun running out. British Columbia Telephone Co. has announced that in October, 1996, it will begin the move to a new 250 area code for most of the province, leaving the existing 604 code for Vancouver and the surrounding lower mainland, Whistler, Hope, and the Sunshine Coast. Victoria, the province's capital city, will be in the new 250 area code, B.C. Tel spokeswoman Michelle Gagne told Newsbytes. Callers will be able to reach telephones in the new code by dialing 205 and the number starting in October of next year. Until May, 1997, dialing 604 and the number will also work. After that, anyone who dials 604 to reach a number in the new 250 code will hear a recorded message explaining the change of area code and will have to redial the call. Starting in October, 1997, anyone who dials the wrong area code will get a standard message saying the call cannot be completed. Soon after, Gagne said, B.C. Tel will start using numbers in one area code that are already assigned in the other. The company has begun a campaign to encourage businesses to think about updating such things as letterheads and advertising materials, and to advise their customers of the change. B.C. Tel is also reminding phone users that automatic dialers and other devices that store numbers, such as fax machines, will have to be reprogrammed by May, 1997. B.C. Tel said its long-distance rates won't be affected by the change. The 604 code is the second Canadian area code split in recent years. The 905 area code was put into service in the region surrounding Toronto in late 1993, leaving the old 416 code for Metropolitan Toronto. The new 250 area will be among the first to make use of new area-code numbers made available by dropping the old rule that area codes must have a 0 or 1 as a second digit. (Grant Buckler/19950522/Press Contact: Michelle Gagne, B.C. Telephone, 604-432-2949; Public Contact: B.C. Telephone, 800-661-7202) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 05/22/95 GENERAL Canadian Product Launch Update (NEWS)(GENERAL)(TOR)(00024) Canadian Product Launch Update 05/22/95 KINGSTON, ONTARIO, CANADA, 1995 MAY 22 (NB) -- This regular feature, appearing on the first day Newsbytes publishes each week, provides further details for the Canadian market on announcements by international companies that Newsbytes has already covered. This week: IBM's new PC 300 and PC 700 models, as well as its OS/2 Warp Connect operating system, Microsoft's Multimedia Wine Guide, and OpenServer Release 5 from Santa Cruz Operation. IBM Canada Ltd., of Markham, Ontario, announced new models in its PC 300 and PC 700 personal computer lineups (Newsbytes, May 17). The new 75 megahertz (MHz) PC 330 is available with a 540 megabyte (MB) or 850MB hard drive and with 8MB or 16MB of memory, at IBM Direct prices from C$2,799 to C$3,559. The 90MHz model has the same options and costs from C$3,459 to C$4,259. The 75MHz PC 350, also with 540MB or 850MB hard drive and 8MB or 16MB of memory, costs C$2,879 to C$3,629 from IBM Direct. The 90MHz 350 is C$3,499 to C$4,299. The new 300-series models are available now, IBM Canada said. The new 120MHz PC 750 comes with a one gigabyte hard drive using a choice of Integrated Drive Electronics (IDE) or small computer systems interface (SCSI) technology, plus 16MB of memory, for C$6,299 to C$6,859. It will be generally available in mid-July. IBM Canada also announced OS/2 Warp Connect (Newsbytes, May 18), a new version of its OS/2 operating system with peer-to-peer networking built in. To be available by the end of May, Warp Connect will have a list price of C$299. For a limited time, registered users of OS/2 2.1 can get a C$25 rebate when they buy Warp Connect. Registered users of OS/2 Warp with Win-OS/2 (the optional code that lets OS/2 run programs written for Microsoft Windows) are eligible for a C$50 rebate when they purchase Warp Connect. Microsoft Canada Inc., in Mississauga, Ontario, introduced its Multimedia Wine Guide (Newsbytes, May 2). The CD-ROM title for Microsoft Windows and the Apple Macintosh has a suggested retail price of C$59.95 and is available now, Microsoft Canada said. SCO Canada, the Canadian subsidiary of Santa Cruz Operation Inc., announced SCO OpenServer Release 5 (Newsbytes, May 15). SCO's new server software is due to begin shipping by the end of May, company officials said. The company offers a variety of licensing options, starting with a C$795 desktop system license for one user. For multiple users, SCO offers a choice of a five-user host system license for C$695 or a five-user enterprise system license for C$1,295, either of which must be combined with user licenses which range from C$495 for 10 users to C$24,995 for 5,000. The SCO OpenServer Development System is C$795, the Virtual Disk Manager is C$995, Symmetrical Multiprocessing (SMP) licenses are C$995 per processing unit, and SCO Merge and SCO Wabi are C$395 for a desktop or C$995 for a server. (Grant Buckler/19950522/Press Contact: Kevin McKee, IBM Canada, 905-924-9100; Anne Hay, IBM Canada, 905-316-2251; Ann McKeon, Microsoft Canada, 905-568-0434, fax 905-568-1527; Norm Gordner, Mainstay Communications for SCO Canada, 416-595-5550; Public Contact: IBM Direct, 800-IBM-CALL; Microsoft Canada, 905-568- 0434; SCO Canada, 416-922-1937, fax 416-922-8397) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 05/22/95 GENERAL Meridian Data Intros Software For "Unlimited" CD Access (NEWS)(GENERAL)(BOS)(00025) Meridian Data Intros Software For "Unlimited" CD Access 05/22/95 BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS, 1995 MAY 22 (NB) -- Meridian Data's new CD Net Plus 6.0 is the first CD-ROM software to let users access unlimited numbers of CD-ROM disks from servers and the desktop through a single drive letter, maintained Richard W. Krueger, VP of marketing, in a meeting with Newsbytes on a Boston press tour. Since Meridian Data's merger with Parallan Software in December, Drueger added, the nine-year-old company has focused more keenly than ever on CD-ROM storage and networking for business applications. Parallan, which previously produced IBM server products, purchased Meridian in the deal, but the merged company is known as Meridian Data, and is completely dedicated to Meridian's long-time specialty of CD-ROM, the Meridian VP told Newsbytes. From 1992 to 1994, Meridian's revenues grew from under $10 million to nearly $20 million, according to Krueger. Now publicly traded (NASDAQ/NMS:MDCD), the company is the largest in its market segment, he contended. "CD is fast becoming a standard peripheral," Krueger noted. By 1998, he predicted, over 70 percent of all PCs will be outfitted with CD-ROM drives. And by the year 2000, CD-ROM will displace tape and floppy drives, thanks to the new medium of Eraseable CD, he added. Also over the next few years, CD-ROM will make strong inroads against tape and other optical media in hierarchical storage management, according to the Meridian VP. CD-ROM's lower cost -- less than one-third of a cent per megabyte -- will help to drive these storage and networking trends, and so will the accessibility of multiple CD drives through the network, he asserted. Also during the meeting, Robert Wise, product manager, told Newsbytes that CD Net Plus, a product on the market since 1988, and now in version 5.0, is designed to let multiple users share multiple CDs over a network. The software also includes applications for administrative and end user productivity, Wise said. Advantages of CD-ROM sharing include central administration and control, reduced licensing fees, and savings on hard disk space, according to the product manager. Until the creation of CD Net Plus version 6.0, however, CD-ROM has required one drive letter per CD-ROM disk, Newsbytes was told. In practice, this has meant "not enough disks for reasonable business use," he asserted. Beyond providing access to unlimited CD-ROMs through a single drive letter, he said, CD Net version 6.0 adds native Windows CD functions that overcome two main problems of the past, when CD-ROM functions were enabled in DOS: a 40 kilobyte DOS memory footprint, and the need for a fileserver login for CD-ROM access. The large DOS memory footprint has posed installation difficulties that have stood as an obstacle to large-scale development and the development of index engines, while the requirement for a fileserver login has made CD-ROM difficult to administer in CD-ROM networks, according to Wise. Also since the merger with Parallan, he noted, Meridian has introduced Netscribe 3000, another new product for CD-ROM sharing. Netscribe, a specialized "network server" with its own processor, is designed to let end-users copy any application to CD-ROM, appearing on the desktop like "any normal PC peripheral," Wise maintained. The external box attaches to Ethernet networks, and is used in conjunction with a CD recorder, also on the network, according to the Meridian exec. The ISO9660 disks that are created by end-users can be read by any standard CD-ROM drive in environments that include Windows, Macintosh, DOS, OS/2, and Unix, he added. Also during the pre-briefing for Newsbytes, Krueger explained that Meridian markets its products through international distributors such as Ingram, Merisel, Tech Data, MicroAge, GBC/Vitek, and Intelligent Electronics, as well as through smaller, specialized VARs (value-added resellers). Meridian is currently experimenting with Palindrome, one of its VAR partners, around an HSM that would use CD-ROM, Krueger revealed. Palindrome already provides applications for Meridian's products that include archival storage, backup, and data migration. Other major VAR partners include: Paperclip, which produces search tools for Meridian products; ZyLab, which contributes search, image capture, and text indexing tools; and Follett Software and SilverPlatter, two companies that bundle CD Net with their turnkey database libraries. Follett's products are targeted at elementary and high school students, and SilverPlatter's at healthcare, biomedical research, and educational professionals, the Meridian VP told Newsbytes. Meridian's new CD Net Plus version 6.0 is slated for delivery in mid-June, at suggested list pricing of $895 for a ten concurrent- user license. Additional licenses are configurable at the time of license purchase, or through later license expansion. (Jacqueline Emigh/19950522/Reader Contact: Meridian Data, 408-438- 3100; Press Contact: Dan Tporak, The Hoffman Agency, 415-247-0122) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 05/22/95 TELECOM ****MCI To Acquire Nationwide Cellular (NEWS)(TELECOM)(MSP)(00026) ****MCI To Acquire Nationwide Cellular 05/22/95 WASHINGTON, D.C., U.S.A., 1995 MAY 22 (NB) -- Another major telecommunications company is moving into the cellular telephone business. MCI Communications Corporation (NASDAQ-NNM:MCIC) has announced it plans to acquire Nationwide Cellular Service Inc. (NASDAQ-NNM) for about $190 million in cash, or $18.50 per share. Nationwide brought in $213 million in revenue in 1994. The company provides wireless services to more than 275,000 customers in 10 major US cities, including New York City, Baltimore, Chicago, Los Angeles, and Washington DC. MCI said it is working to expand coverage on a national basis, by working with a number of large cellular facility providers. The Associated Press reports MCI will eventually sell Nationwide's services under its own name, but will not play the name-game for now. With today's action, MCI said it will shy away from owning local transmission facilities. Instead, it will resell other companies cellular services under the MCI name, which is cheaper than building and maintaining those transmission centers. In a news release, MCI said its acquisition of Nationwide is the "first step of its strategy to provide national wireless services integrated with other MCI services for both consumer and business customers." The merger is subject to approval by the MCI board of directors, Nationwide stockholders, the usual state regulatory bodies, and other "customary conditions." MCI said Nationwide's board of directors has voted in favor of the merger. Nationwide officials could not be reached for comment by Newsbytes' deadline. (Bob Woods/19950522/Press Contacts: Kevin Inda, MCI, 202-887-2196; Joe Pititto, Nationwide Cellular Service, 516-887-0399) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 05/22/95 TRENDS Software Automates Office/Home Operations (NEWS)(TRENDS)(DEN)(00027) Software Automates Office/Home Operations 05/22/95 TUCSON, ARIZONA, U.S.A., 1995 MAY 22 (NB) -- An Arizona company has introduced a home and office automation system that controls security, lighting, appliances and can even water the lawn using a standard personal computer. #IMAGE 1 20 TWPCX \images\95052227.PCX Click here for photo NetMedia Inc. recently announced its Totally Automated Building System (TABS) that can also handle voice messaging, intercommunications, paging, scheduling, audio and video control, energy management, and climate control. According to C. John Schoof II, NetMedia president and chief executive officer (CEO), TABS is designed not just for the home owner, but also with the needs of the home builder, architect, decorator, and installer in mind. TABS interacts with its environment and the home owner through wall-mounted control panels that are connected to and controlled by the centrally located IBM-compatible personal computer equipped with specially designed home control and communications hardware and software. The home owner can operate TABS using infrared remote controls, the TABS closed circuit television interface, the wall-mounted communicators and by touch-tone phone when the resident is away from home. The program uses voice notification and voice menus to tell the user what is happening in the building and to prompt with choices of what to do next. The system can operate television sets, VCRs, and stereos via the infrared devices. Schoof said wiring a home for TABS uses telephone style wire. "A typical modest home can be pre-wired for TABS during construction for $250 or less, including labor," said the NetMedia CEO. NetMedia spokesperson JoAnn Rockwell told Newsbytes a typical three-bedroom home can be retrofitted with TABS for $5,000 to $7,000. TABS is scheduled to ship in the late summer, said Rockwell. The system requires a 486 25 megahertz-based PC running DOS. The company recommends the PC be dedicated to TABS since it controls your home security system. The PC has two interface cards installed. One is to communicate with the telephone and power lines in the home, while the other communications with the various control devices used by TABS. Rockwell said future generations of TABS are expected to include other interactive services. While no definite decisions about the nature of those services has been made, the company has considered services such as interactive pizza ordering. Schoof, the sole owner of NetMedia, is the former CEO of network software company Artisoft. (Jim Mallory/19950522/Press contact: JoAnn Rockwell, NetMedia Inc., 520-544-4567 ext 114; Public contact: NetMedia, tel 520-544-4567, fax 520-544-0800, Internet e-mail netmdia@rtd.com/TABS950522/PHOTO) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 05/22/95 ONLINE Novell Apps To Include America Online Software (NEWS)(ONLINE)(DEN)(00028) Novell Apps To Include America Online Software 05/22/95 OREM, UTAH, U.S.A., 1995 MAY 22 (NB) -- Novell Inc. (NASDAQ: NOVL) has announced that it will partner with America Online (AOL) to provide online links between some of Novell's PerfectHome consumer products and AOL. Novell said it plans to begin shipping CD-ROM-based products with customized interfaces for AOL access by the fall. A company spokesperson told Newsbytes it would announce specific titles that would include the AOL interface in about two months. Novell launched its PerfectHome products in April, 1995. While Novell declined to give more details about the interface or what programs it will appear in, the most likely PerfectHome product may be the currently available PerfectWorks. PerfectWorks contains a word processor, spreadsheet, database, paint and draw, and communications modules. The AOL user interface would allow the user to obtain information from AOL and use it in the Novell application. Other PerfectHome products announced to date include: "Hard Evidence: The Marilyn Monroe Files," a role playing game; Make A Story and Read-A-Rama for children as young as three years old; and a clip art collection. In May, Novell announced three new multimedia education titles for Windows. The company said those PerfectHome titles would focus on language arts, mathematics and children's word processing and creativity. The programs were scheduled to ship in August, 1995. However, a Novell spokesperson today told Newsbytes those programs might change significantly or may not even ship at all, although he declined to provide more details. (Jim Mallory/19950522/Press contact: Blake Stowell, Novell, 801-228-7242; Public contact: Novell, 800-451-5151) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 05/22/95 BUSINESS Sharp Establishes US Multimedia Research Lab (NEWS)(BUSINESS)(TOR)(00029) Sharp Establishes US Multimedia Research Lab 05/22/95 MAHWAH, NEW JERSEY, U.S.A., 1995 MAY 22 (NB) -- Sharp Electronics Corp. has set up a research and development subsidiary, Sharp Laboratories of America Inc., to conduct multimedia research in Camas, Washington. The new laboratory joins existing Sharp research operations in the United States, Japan and the United Kingdom, and the company claims it shows Sharp's commitment to the US marketplace. The lab is to employ 30 research and development staff to start, a number the company expects will rise to about 100 over the next five years. It will focus on digital processing technology, bringing together images, telecommunications and information. The work will include multimedia hardware and software research. The subsidiary is also to cooperate with universities and colleges in the United States on a broad range of research, officials said. The company said the laboratory will share new developments immediately with Sharp's production and sales and marketing operations in the United States. Dr. Jon K. Clemens, for the past five years senior vice-president of the science and technology group at the Stanford Research Institute, has been named president and chief executive of Sharp Laboratories of America. Before joining the Stanford Research Institute in 1990, Clemens was chairman and chief executive of New Vision Technologies, chairman and chief operating officer of Chronar Corp., and vice-president of Consumer Electronics Research at the RCA David Sarnoff Research Center. He holds 19 patents for consumer products and multimedia technology. Dr. Hiroshi Mizatuni, formerly of Sharp's corporate research and development group, has been named senior vice-president. Launched with $8 million in capital, the new research arm will be wholly owned by Sharp Electronics. The company plans to build one new 54,250 square-foot building to house the subsidiary, next to the existing Sharp Microelectronics Technology Inc. facilities in Camas. Operations are due to begin July 1, 1995, a spokeswoman for Sharp told Newsbytes. (Grant Buckler/19950522/Press Contact: Sharon Fenster or Takako Yamakura, Dorf & Stanton Communications for Sharp Electronics, tel 212-420-8100, fax 212-505-1397) (SUMMARY)(GENERAL)(SFO)(00030) Newsbytes Daily Summary 05/22/95 PENN VALLEY, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1995 MAY 22 (NB) -- These are capsules of all today's news stories: 1 -> UK - Attachmate's New Internet Access Products 05/22/95 Attachmate Corp. has announced three upgraded software packages that it claims offer easy access for business people interested in plugging into the so-called "information superhighway." 2 -> UK - Equisys & Microsoft Team On Business Development 05/22/95 Equisys, supplier of the Zetafax network fax software package, has formed an alliance with Microsoft which has resulted in the London-based software development company being appointed as a Microsoft Solution Provider. 3 -> Music & Multimedia '95 Conf Set For San Francisco 05/22/95 The National Academy of Recording Arts & Sciences (NARAS), producers of the annual Grammy Awards, is presenting the Music & Multimedia '95 Conference. Designed to bring musicians, technology and the world of multimedia together for a one-day event, the conference promises surprise debuts of multimedia works from a number of superstar rock artists. 4 -> Southern Co. Joins Electric Utilities On The Web 05/22/95 Add the Southern Co. to the growing list of electric utilities with home pages on the Internet's World Wide Web. 5 -> ****Microsoft & Intuit Kill Merger 05/22/95 Rather than pursue months and perhaps even years of litigation and possibly appeals with no certainly of winning a fight against the US Department of Justice, Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ: MSFT) and Intuit, Inc.(NASDAQ: INTU) have called off their proposed merger. The deal would have been the biggest in the computer industry ever with its $2 billion price tag. 6 -> Australia - Single Distributor For CA's PC Products 05/22/95 Computer Associates has dramatically changed its distribution of PC products in Australia. They have all been placed exclusively with a new company, MicroChannel Pty Ltd. 7 -> UK Internet Provider Offers Low-Cost ISDN 05/22/95 U-Net, a North-Western UK Internet service provider, has unveiled what it claims is the lowest cost ISDN (integrated services digital network) service for LAN (local area network) users who want to have several PCs on a LAN connected to the Internet. 8 -> Atlanta Olympic Web Site Adds New Features 05/22/95 The Atlanta Committee for the Olympic Games (ACOG) has announced it is adding new features to its World Wide Web site to help both potential visitors and others interested in next summer's Olympic Games in Atlanta . 9 -> Quantum Teams With Symantec On SMART Technology 05/22/95 In a deal between Quantum and Symantec involving new technology for monitoring the performance and reliability of hard disk drives, Quantum will provide the diagnostic firmware, and Symantec the system software, said Dave Tang, Quantum's manager of strategic marketing, during a briefing for Newsbytes. 10 -> Australia - Online Education Net Launched 05/22/95 Open Net is a new Internet service for Australian students. It is designed to offer the same rates to any user, anywhere in the country. 11 -> China - Computer/Network Technologies Expo In Shanghai 05/22/95 About 100 domestic and foreign computer and network companies displayed their technologies and products in Shanghai International Computer/Network Expo 95 at Shanghai Exhibition Center recently. 12 -> Where's The Money In Interactive Media? 05/22/95 How much money did the nascent interactive-media industry generate last year? Approximately $11.1 billion, according to Advertising Age ("Building a new industry," by Debra Aho Williamson, Mar. 13, 1995, pp. S-3, S-4, S-8). Although that figure should be taken with an enormous grain of virtual salt, the article makes it clear that the magazine's definition of the interactive industry is not without its flaws and the analysts it consulted are far from infallible. 13 -> NewsPix Images For Newsbytes Publishers 05/22/95 These photos correspond to recent Newsbytes stories. They are online in the Newsbytes menu on GEnie, America Online, eWorld, NiftyServe, and the Newsbytes private bulletin board system in Minneapolis. 14 -> Paperback Lists Over 1,000 Free Computer Programs 05/22/95 Commercial software applications can cost hundreds of dollars, but good software that doesn't cost a dime is available to do most any job, according to the publisher of a paperback book that lists over 1,000 free programs and tells how to find them on the Internet and on various bulletin board systems (BBSs). 15 -> Japan Business Show '95 - Casio TV Phone 05/22/95 Casio's "Casio Tele" LT-70 TV Phone removes the need to buy an expensive new video telephone and get an ISDN (integrated services digital network) telephone line if you want video phone capabilities. The LT-70 uses your existing television set for the display and your existing telephone for the connection to the telephone network. 16 -> Japan Business Show '95 - Next-Generation Displays 05/22/95 Both Sharp and Canon were proudly displaying models of their next generation LCDs (liquid crystal displays) at Japan's Business Show '95 last week. 17 -> Japan Business Show '95 - Electronic Translators 05/22/95 As business gets more international, people are finding more and more needs for translation devices that convert between Japanese and other languages. Two devices generating interest at the Business Show in Tokyo last week are at either ends of the scale. 18 -> Telecom Prospects Cloudy In House 05/22/95 Two powerful committees of the House of Representatives are moving toward a collision over telecommunications legislation. The clash is likely to cloud the prospects for a rewrite this year of the 1934 Communications Act, the basic legislation government telecommunications regulation. 19 -> AOL Happy Over Microsoft/Intuit Merger Collapse 05/22/95 America Online is grinning over the collapse of the Microsoft-Intuit merger in the face of opposition from the US Department of Justice. Steve Case, AOL president and chief executive officer (CEO), hailed the decision as a victory for consumers. 20 -> Poland To Get 2 More Mobile Phone Nets 05/22/95 The Polish Government has told journalists it intends to formally announce a tender for two new cellular telephone operators this coming July. 21 -> Europe - PCMCIA To Grow 67% In 1995 05/22/95 According to a study commissioned by IBM and DIP Systems -- the originator of PCMCIA (Personal Computer Memory Card International Association) in the UK -- PCMCIA sales across Europe are going through the roof. 22 -> London Firm Offers Shrink-Wrapped Internet Host Service 05/22/95 A startup company, Virtual Computer, has announced what it claims is a global first -- a "shrink- wrapped" Internet host service costing from UKP1,000 ($1,600) a year. 23 -> British Columbia To Get New Area Code In 1996 05/22/95 The 604 area code, which currently serves all of the province of British Columbia, will be split in two next year. It will be the second Canadian area code divided in recent years as available numbers have begun running out. 24 -> Canadian Product Launch Update 05/22/95 This regular feature, appearing on the first day Newsbytes publishes each week, provides further details for the Canadian market on announcements by international companies that Newsbytes has already covered. This week: IBM's new PC 300 and PC 700 models, as well as its OS/2 Warp Connect operating system, Microsoft's Multimedia Wine Guide, and OpenServer Release 5 from Santa Cruz Operation. 25 -> Meridian Data Intros Software For "Unlimited" CD Access 05/22/95 Meridian Data's new CD Net Plus 6.0 is the first CD-ROM software to let users access unlimited numbers of CD-ROM disks from servers and the desktop through a single drive letter, maintained Richard W. Krueger, VP of marketing, in a meeting with Newsbytes on a Boston press tour. 26 -> ****MCI To Acquire Nationwide Cellular 05/22/95 Another major telecommunications company is moving into the cellular telephone business. MCI Communications Corporation (NASDAQ-NNM:MCIC) has announced it plans to acquire Nationwide Cellular Service Inc. (NASDAQ-NNM) for about $190 million in cash, or $18.50 per share. 27 -> Software Automates Office/Home Operations 05/22/95 An Arizona company has introduced a home and office automation system that controls security, lighting, appliances and can even water the lawn using a standard personal computer. 28 -> Novell Apps To Include America Online Software 05/22/95 Novell Inc. (NASDAQ: NOVL) has announced that it will partner with America Online (AOL) to provide online links between some of Novell's PerfectHome consumer products and AOL. 29 -> Sharp Establishes US Multimedia Research Lab 05/22/95 Sharp Electronics Corp. has set up a research and development subsidiary, Sharp Laboratories of America Inc., to conduct multimedia research in Camas, Washington. (Ian Stokell/19950522) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 05/18/95 GOVT ****CIA Official Warns Of "Information Warfare" (NEWS)(GOVT)(WAS)(00001) ****CIA Official Warns Of "Information Warfare" 05/18/95 WASHINGTON, D.C., U.S.A., 1995 MAY 18 (NB) -- The nation's interconnected computer networks are the most vulnerable in the world to attack from other countries, drug traffickers, organized crime, terrorist groups or even everyday computer hackers, according to the outgoing number two person in the Central Intelligence Agency. "Massive networking makes the US the world's most vulnerable target for information warfare," Adm. William Studeman, deputy director of intelligence, told the National Defense University this week. "We need to accelerate the improvement of information system security in public and unclassified government sectors." Information warfare, Studeman said, is a phrase that includes disabling the electronic infrastructure of the society and represents "a very broadly based threat." Studeman said several unnamed countries "have computer exploitation efforts ongoing." But the threat goes beyond the military. "An adversary doesn't necessarily have to be a military player. He can do a great deal of damage with computer knowledge and computer access alone. The new globalized battlefield is one that must learn to defend in a different kind of way." "Near-term" targets, Studeman said, include the national telephone system, utility power distribution networks, banking networks, the stock exchange, air traffic control and the Internal Revenue Service. All of these, he said, "are vulnerable today." Studeman said balancing the tension between individual rights and the needs of government makes preparing for information warfare sensitive. "We have to get past these current concerns and harness up industry and government to work together," he said. Studeman, who is stepping down at the CIA with the advent of new Director John Deutch, is a former head of the National Security Agency, which is in charge of global electronic spying and is the most secretive of US intelligence agencies. Ironically, the Internet, which links so many computer networks today, was originally created by the Defense Department to deal with information warfare. The Defense Advanced Research Project Agency created DARPANet and message packet technology to link military sites together so that if an enemy knocked out one interconnection, the traffic could flow around the disruption through other networks. New CIA Director Deutch has moved quickly to put a new team in place following the resignation of James Woolsey in the wake of the Aldrich Ames scandal. The White House is nominating George Tenet, former staff director at the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence before joining the White House National Security Council in 1993, as Studeman's replacement. (Kennedy Maize/19950518/Press Contact: CIA Media Office, 703-482-7677) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 05/18/95 ONLINE China - Online Job Search Available In Beijing (NEWS)(ONLINE)(PEK)(00002) China - Online Job Search Available In Beijing 05/18/95 BEIJING, CHINA, 1995 MAY 18 (NB) -- Registration cards are being sold at Beijing post offices for job hunters who wish to be listed on Beijing's Talent Network. Applying for a job is a relatively new experience to many Chinese. Previously, everyone was assigned a job by the government and was able to keep the job for their lifetime. Recently, economic reform has resulted in a job market. From May 1, 1995, the unemployed, college graduates, job-jumpers, or second job-hunters can buy so-called "Employment Service Cards" at any post office in Beijing. The cards are sold for RMB35 (about US$4) each containing an envelop self-addressed to China's Occupation Card Center (COCC) in Beijing. There are 42 items on the card for a job hunter to fill in their personal information, such as education background, gender, current employment status, and their requirements for future jobs such as work position desired and expected monthly salary. A photo of the job hunter is also required to be pasted on the card. COCC is gathering job information from various companies. COCC will process the information on the cards and then find suitable candidates for jobs in companies around the city. Being recommended by COCC, job candidates will be contacted directly by employers for interviews or direct-offers. Mr. Wang, an office manager with COCC, told Newsbytes that during the current testing period, COCC will provide free services for potential employers in the Beijing area. Legally registered companies can directly access the network to find suitable candidates, Wang said. Of course, COCC is also willing to do the research for potential employers if they provide COCC with the required qualifications, Wang added. Currently, the cards can only be used in Beijing. But an official with the Beijing Postal Administration said that if they are successful, the same service will spread to Shanghai and Shenzhen this year. (Chih-Ho Yu & Ning Huang/19950518/Reader Contact: China's Occupation Card Center in Beijing, +86-10 264-5252) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 05/18/95 TRENDS China - Consumer Complaints Increase In 1st Qtr (NEWS)(TRENDS)(PEK)(00003) China - Consumer Complaints Increase In 1st Qtr 05/18/95 BEIJING, CHINA, 1995 MAY 18 (NB) -- The China Consumers' Association (CCA) disclosed that its branches received a total of 85,438 complaints from January to March, an increase of 16 percent over the same period last year. One of the main complaints was about the warranty registration cards for home electronics. Consumer associations and committees around the country handled 96 percent of the complaints and recovered about 39.38 million yuan (US$4.7 million) from retailers and manufacturers as economic compensation. The statistics came from its local branches in 29 provinces, autonomous regions, and municipalities, CCA said. Among the 85,438 complaints, nearly 2,000 were related to imported products. In Fujiang province, more than 200 buyers complained that some TV retail stores took out the warranty registration cards issued by the manufacturers from the packing boxes and did not give them to customers. Instead, salesmen at those stores sold the cards to the TV owners privately at RMB10 to RMB15 (US$1.2 to $2.0). Some even sold the warranty registration cards back to the manufacturers and asked for one percent of the TV's price. CCA also disclosed that 22 consumers were injured by sub-standard products during the first quarter of the year, two of them were disabled as a result. It is the first time that local consumer groups reported serious physical injuries from sub-standard products, according to the national consumer advocate. Local consumer associations did not give details about what kind of products caused the injuries, but consumer complaints heard by the national association in the first three months indicated that quality problems are still the major consumer grievance, said an official with CCA. (Chih-Ho Yu & Ning Huang/19950518) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 05/18/95 BROADCAST Asia's Highest TV Tower Operational In Shanghai (NEWS)(BROADCAST)(PEK)(00004) Asia's Highest TV Tower Operational In Shanghai 05/18/95 BEIJING, CHINA, 1995 MAY 18 (NB) -- Named "Oriental Pearl," the 468 meter (1,535 foot) TV tower, reportedly the highest in Asia, recently became operational in Shanghai. The tower transmits five TV channels and five FM radio stations covering Shanghai and local areas. The new tower is twice as high as the old TV tower in the downtown area, and has been equipped with state-to-the-art transmission facilities. As a result, the reception area has been widened 2.4-fold compared to that of the older tower. TV receivers within a 43.5 mile-radius can now get high quality radio and TV programs. Construction of the tower started in September, 1991, and was completed in May, 1994. Since November, 1994, the tower has been open to the public for sightseeing. Newsbytes was told that visitors' ticket prices are RMB58 (about US$7) each. More than 560,000 tourists from home and abroad have visited the tower, which has panoramic city views. On May 1, the grand ceremony presided over by Xueping Gong, the vice-mayor of Shanghai, was held at the base of the tower. Instead of high-ranking officials, five workers who helped in the construction of the tower cut the ribbon, China Daily reports. "After eight years of planning and three years of construction, the tower is finally becoming operational," a government official said as he addressed the ceremony. (Chih-Ho Yu & Ning Huang/19950518) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 05/18/95 NETWORK New Product Eases PC To Mainframe Transfers (NEWS)(NETWORK)(MSP)(00005) New Product Eases PC To Mainframe Transfers 05/18/95 DES PLAINES, ILLINOIS, U.S.A., 1995 MAY 18 (NB) -- CFSoftware says it is releasing new versions of its "PCmainframe" version 4.31 for the TSO and CICS platforms. Company officials describe PCmainframe as a "complete data transfer solution for PCs and mainframes." Rogers Faden, president of CFSoftware, told Newsbytes that PCmainframe was designed to bring all of the elements together of selecting files, records, fields, and formatting data for PCs or mainframes. "This was a direct result of our customers asking us for this type of program," he said. "There was no way of getting information between IBM PCs and IBM mainframes. There were some terminal emulation products available to let PCs emulate terminals, but no ways to exchange information." PCmainframe was designed to make getting information from the mainframe to the PC easy, while providing the security and control needed with sensitive business data flow, according to the company. The program automatically prepares the data for a variety of PC and mainframe applications so that, after a transfer is performed, the user can open "any number" of formatted files and begin working. A feature called "Dialog" comes with PCmainframe. Faden said that, although Dialog was created for PCmainframe, it can be used to script any terminal that runs 3270 emulation, meaning sign-on procedures can be performed automatically. PCmainframe provides scripting and automation of terminal activities through asynchronous dial-up to protocol converters, LU6.2, TCP/IP (Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol), bisynchronous and SDLC (Synchronous Data Link Control) emulators, coax boards, and LAN (local area network) gateways. The starting price for PCmainframe is $12,500 for groups of ten to 29. Faden said PCmainframe can be integrated with existing networks, with no additional machine resources required to make it run. "It can be installed and up and running in one morning," he added. (Bob Woods/19950518/Press Contacts: Erica Swerdlow or Kara Yi, EBS Public Relations, 708-714-8600; Public Contact: CFSoftware, 800-366-8756) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 05/18/95 TRENDS When Words Fail You - Improving Image Databases (NEWS)(TRENDS)(MSP)(00006) When Words Fail You - Improving Image Databases 05/18/95 SEATTLE, WASHINGTON, U.S.A., 1995 MAY 18 (NB) -- Normally, image databases describe their images using keyword tags. Someone looking for a particular image must use the appropriate keyword or no images will be produced by a computer search. Scientists at the University of California at Berkeley have taken a different approach by having their software search the actual image data itself, rather than its verbal description, as Kenneth Chang explains in "Plucking Images From the Digital Floods" (Science, Mar. 10, 1995, p. 1425). "By computing and storing the distribution of colors in an image, the prototype system allows a user to combine a keyword search for 'flower' with a further condition that the picture 'contains some yellow,'" Chang writes. "The computer delves through the archives for pictures of flowers, then examines each for splotches of yellow. Small versions of images matching these criteria pop onto the screen, and the user can click on them to retrieve full-sized pictures." As difficult as still images may be to catalog, cataloging video footage can be even more daunting because you also have to note time -- length of a particular shot, scene, or sequence -- and the intricate relationships between shots within scenes or sequences. The efforts of three researchers to deal with these problems are featured in the spring 1995 issue of IEEE Multimedia ("Composition and Search with Video Algebra," pp. 12-25). The academic article by former and current MIT computer scientists Ron Weiss, Andrzej Duda, and David Gifford describes their elaborate "algebraic video" data model that provides unprecedented flexibility in the composition, search, navigation, and playback of digital video presentations. While too complex to summarize here, the prototype system the trio has developed for use on the World Wide Web may usher in a new wave of multimedia tools that will enable users to retrieve video footage from a myriad of sources on the Internet and combine them in unique hyperlinked digital video presentations. This story is republished with permission from the May, 1995, Cybernautics Digest, a monthly summary of reports about converging information technologies. (Contact: Terry Hansen, Cybernautics Digest, c/o KFH Publications Inc., 3530 Bagley Ave. N., Seattle, WA 98103; 206-547-4950; Fax: 206-547-5355; E-mail: cybernbm@cuix.pscu.com. U.S. subscription rate: $24; $2 sample issue) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 05/18/95 GENERAL AmCoEx Index Of Used Computer Prices (NEWS)(GENERAL)(SFO)(00007) AmCoEx Index Of Used Computer Prices 05/18/95 SAN DIEGO, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1995 MAY 18 (NB) -- By John Hastings. The home computer market is exploding. In 1994, Americans spent more money on home computer equipment than televisions. Computer software and hardware companies are sensing this trend and adjusting their products and marketing accordingly. Some companies, like Apple Computer, have always had a strong presence in the home market. These companies will benefit the most from this trend. Most other computer manufacturers have always coveted the corporate market. For them, the transition to catering to the home market will be more difficult. Although Apple, Intel and Microsoft have used television advertising for years, dozens of companies are expected to join their ranks in the near future. This influx of advertisers will create a need for more computer oriented television programming. During the next year, dozens of new television computer shows are expected to debut on the major networks. New technology is being developed to accommodate the home market. Apple Computer has developed a new high-speed serial bus called FireWire. This technology will allow computer users to connect VCR's, camcorders, digital cameras and a host of other devices directly to the serial port of their computers, eliminating the need for expensive cards currently needed. Apple is licensing this technology to other computer companies in hopes of making it a new standard. Many companies are also incorporating television, telephones, answering machines, and voice-mail into new computer models. John Hastings is the president of the American Computer Exchange. Since 1988, the American Computer Exchange has matched buyers and sellers of used microcomputers. For more information contact the American Computer Exchange at (800) 786-0717. The AmCoEx Index of Used Computer Prices The following prices are for May 15, 1995. Average Average Buyer's Seller's Machine Bid Ask Close Change($) IBM PS/2 Model 70 60MB $350 $600 $400 -25 IBM PS/1 486DX2/50 253MB 800 1350 950 +50 IBM PS/2 Model 90 160MB 1000 1500 1050 .. IBM ThinkPad 350C 1700 2100 1800 -25 IBM ThinkPad 700 900 1500 1050 +25 IBM ThinkPad 720 1100 1800 1300 .. AST 486SX/25 170MB 650 1050 725 -50 AST 486DX/66 340MB 850 1400 975 .. Dell 386/33, 100MB 450 850 500 -25 Dell 486DX/33 240MB 700 1150 875 -25 Gateway 386/25, 80MB 400 800 475 .. Gateway 486/33 120MB 700 1100 900 -50 Clone Notebook 386SX, 40 MB 400 900 475 .. Clone 386/33 80MB, VGA 400 800 425 -25 Clone 486/25 120MB, VGA 700 1200 900 -25 Clone 486DX/33 240MB 800 1425 975 .. Compaq LTE 286 40MB 250 675 300 .. Compaq Contura 320 60MB 500 1000 675 +25 Compaq Contura 4/25 120MB 900 1400 975 .. Compaq Deskpro 386/20e 100MB 400 800 450 -25 Compaq Deskpro 486/33 120MB 800 1450 900 -50 Mac Classic II 80MB 350 800 400 .. Mac IIsi 160MB 500 900 575 +50 Macintosh IIcx 80MB 250 600 325 .. Macintosh IIci 80MB 500 950 650 .. Macintosh IIfx 80MB 600 1000 750 +25 Mac Quadra 700 230MB 1000 1600 1150 -25 Mac Quadra 800 500MB 1600 2300 1775 .. PowerBook 140 40MB 700 1100 800 +25 PowerBook 170 40MB 800 1350 875 .. PowerBook 180 80MB 1200 1850 1450 -50 LaserWriterPro 630 1300 1775 1350 -50 Toshiba 1900 120M 675 1150 775 +50 Toshiba 3200 SXC, 120MB 1850 2950 2100 -25 Toshiba 3300SL 120MB 850 1300 900 -25 Toshiba 5200 100MB 750 1050 850 .. HP LaserJet II 350 850 400 -25 HP LaserJet IIIP 250 650 350 .. HP LaserJet III 500 900 600 -25 HP LaserJet IV 800 1200 900 .. Since 1988, the American Computer Exchange has matched buyers and sellers of used microcomputer equipment. For more information contact the American Computer Exchange at (800) 786-0717. (AMCOEX/19950518) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 05/18/95 BROADCAST Samsung To Join "Orlando TV Project" (NEWS)(BROADCAST)(SFO)(00008) Samsung To Join "Orlando TV Project" 05/18/95 SEOUL, KOREA, 1995 MAY 18 (NB) -- Samsung Electronics Co. plans to participated in the "Orlando Project" for wide screen TV, in which multimedia companies including Silicon Graphics, AT&T, and Time Warner Cable are investing. Silicon Graphics, which is leading the project, recently decided to introduce "Magic Carpet," a multimedia chip-set for wide screen home appliances developed by Mips Technology, its subsidiary company. Samsung will manufacture the set-top boxes together with electronics companies like Philips Electronics. AT&T and Time Warner Cable also decided to use set-top boxes produced by Samsung. (Terry Silveria/19950518) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 05/18/95 HEALTH Light Therapy Product For Computer Users (NEWS)(HEALTH)(MSP)(00009) Light Therapy Product For Computer Users 05/18/95 SANTA BARBARA, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1995 MAY 18 (NB) -- To combat what the company calls "health hazards associated with prolonged computer usage," Ott Biolightsystems Inc. is introducing the "Computer Safety Biolightsystem." The new product uses light to fight ailments that affect computer users, Ken Ceder, president of Ott Biolightsystems, told Newsbytes. The Computer Safety Biolightsystem has two cathode-shielded 20-watt full-spectrum "biolightubes," along with one cathode-shielded six-watt ultra-violet tube in a radiation-shielded and grounded-steel casing. The company claims that by putting the unit by the computer, it offers a way to neutralize the electromagnetic radiation that is emitted from computer monitors. Ceder said extensive studies show the radiation that comes from monitors can be the cause of serious health risks. The radiation can magnetize the iron in the red blood cells, causing them to clump together, he said, inhibiting the flow of blood and oxygen to the rest of the body. The results of the inhibited blood flow includes headaches, eyestrain, nausea and fatigue, he said. These conditions are also mirrored by a number of computer users, he claimed. "Our lights are very specific wavelengths of color energy," Ceder told Newsbytes. "We're basically tuning you up electronically. We're not sure exactly how it works. We only know we're giving you voltage that's like the natural light the body gets." About the only factors that can inhibit the product's effectiveness are eyeglasses and contact lenses, Ceder said, because they can shield out some of the neutralizing light that comes from the Biolightsystem. The Computer Safety Biolightsystem is now available for $299.95. (Bob Woods/19950518/Press Contact: Phil Hall, Open City Communications, 212-714-3575. Public Contact: Ott Biolightsystems Inc., 800-234-3724, 805-564-3467, Internet e-mail otts@rain.org) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 05/18/95 LEGAL Compaq, Packard Bell Settlement Talks Scheduled (NEWS)(LEGAL)(DEN)(00010) Compaq, Packard Bell Settlement Talks Scheduled 05/18/95 HOUSTON, TEXAS, U.S.A., 1995 MAY 18 (NB) -- Personal computer makers Compaq Computer Corp. (NYSE: CPQ) and Packard Bell Electronics Inc. said they will meet next month to see if they can settle their differences instead of continuing the lawsuit they are currently engaged in that could drag on for months. A Compaq spokesperson told Newsbytes that Compaq considers the meeting a "mediation" rather than a "settlement." At issue is Compaq's allegation that Packard Bell sells PCs as new when, according to Compaq, the units contain used parts "cannibalized" from returned units. Attorneys for the two companies will meet with a federal judge in Delaware on June 28 to see if the dispute can be settled. The lawsuit filed by Compaq last month asks the court to enjoin Packard Bell from "falsely representing the qualities of its products" and to award Compaq triple, but unspecified, damages for what Compaq calls "unfair and deceptive trade practices." Compaq acknowledges that it also re-uses components of PCs that are returned, which a spokesperson said include unsold dealer inventory, allegedly defective products, and what Compaq calls "convenience returns" from consumers. The company said it considers a computer new if it is returned in an unopened, original carton. If the box has been opened, Compaq said it tests the unit to determine if it has been used. Compaq said its PCs considered used are sold as "refurbished" while returned units classified as new might be sold as new, possibly with upgraded features, according to the Compaq spokesperson. Asked how technicians can determine if a PC has been used, the spokesperson told Newsbytes they look for indicators such as user-installed software, commands issued to the operating system, or opened shrink-wrapped software. This is not the first time Compaq and Packard Bell have faced each other in a court room. In December, 1994, Newsbytes reported Compaq had filed a patent infringement suit against Packard Bell that alleged "willful infringement" of three Compaq patents on desktop and laptop computer power functions and video displays. That suit is still pending. In 1994, Compaq captured the worldwide PC sales crown, with Packard Bell in the fourth position on the global sales list. Packard Bell has called representatives from IBM, Apple, Acer, Texas Instruments, Gateway 2000, Zeos, AST, Dell, Leading Edge, and Tandy to appear at the mediation conference. (Jim Mallory/19950518/Press contact: Yvonne Donaldson, Compaq, 713-374-4463 or Liz O'Donnell, The Bohle Co. for Packard Bell, 310-785-0515) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 05/18/95 PC Compaq Cuts Aero Notebook Prices (NEWS)(PC)(DEN)(00011) Compaq Cuts Aero Notebook Prices 05/18/95 HOUSTON, TEXAS, U.S.A., 1995 MAY 18 (NB) -- Compaq Computer Corp. (NYSE: CPQ) has announced price cuts on its Contura Aero portable notebook systems by as much as 19 percent, depending on the model. The company claims Aero has captured slightly more than 23 percent of the ultra-portable notebook market, citing figures from data research firm DataQuest. Under the new pricing structure a Contura Aero 4/25, Model 170, a 25 megahertz (MHz) 486-based system with a 170 megabyte (MB) hard drive has been cut to $899, a $100 reduction. A Compaq spokesperson told Newsbytes the Aero prices are being cut in order to retain the market share in the sub-notebook category. "There are some new products coming on the market that are a lot more expensive than our products. We want to be able to maintain our lead in that market," said the spokesperson. A Contura Aero 4/33C, Model 250, using a 486 chip running at 33MHz and equipped with a 250MB hard drive and a color display, now has an estimated retail price of $1,499, down from the previous $1,799 price. Monochrome Aero units weigh 3.5-pounds, while the color version weighs 4.2 pounds. They use a backlit VGA display that measures eight-inches diagonally on monochrome models and 7.8-inches on color versions. The base configuration includes 4MB of memory, which can be expanded to 20MB, and hard drives ranging from 170MB to 250MB. Compaq said the Aero can run for four to six hours on a battery charge. A trackball is built in and the units have a Type II PCMCIA (Personal Computer Memory Card International Association) slot for peripheral devices. The Contura Aero was first introduced in February, 1994. Since its rollout it has had its price lowered twice. After an initial introduction at $1,399 for the monochrome version and $2,499 for the color model, Compaq cut the mono system to $999 in June and the 4/33 Model 250 color version to $2,399. In August. 1994. the 4/33 Model 170 was reduced to $1,799. Compaq no longer publishes suggested retail prices, and as a result, the prices quoted are "estimated retail costs." Contura Aero PCs come bundled with an external floppy disk drive. (Jim Mallory/19950518/Press contact: Yvonne Donaldson, Compaq, 713-374-0484; Public contact: Compaq, 713-374-1459) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 05/18/95 TRENDS SC&T's Keyboards With Built-In Speakers (NEWS)(TRENDS)(SFO)(00012) SC&T's Keyboards With Built-In Speakers 05/18/95 PHOENIX, ARIZONA, U.S.A., 1995 MAY 18 (NB) -- SC&T, a developer and marketer of sound-enhanced products for PCs recently displayed its multimedia keyboards at the Electronic Entertainment Expo. The Platinum Sound MAK-100 and the MSK-200 offer high quality sound from speakers built into a standard keyboard. #IMAGE 1 20 TWPCX \images\95051812.PCX Click here for photo Paul Yewdall, director of product development for SC&T, told Newsbytes, "As computer systems begin to include additional drives and items such as tape-backups, external hard drives, scanners, external CD drives, and other peripherals, users are finding desktop space is a premium. Our two multimedia keyboards are designed for the person who is interested in buying quality audio for a multimedia system and want the same quality sound of their stereo." Yewdall continued, "When people first look at the keyboard they do not realize that we are offering high quality sound. They are so accustomed to the inexpensive speakers which are common to multimedia systems that they assume a keyboard with sound would be in the same category. Once they listen, they find that our keyboards offer better high fidelity sound than most amplified external speakers." Designed for IBM/compatible multimedia computers, both models combine a full-function QWERTY keyboard with built-in four-inch , full audio range 16-watt stereo speakers. The packages also include a built- in onmi-directional microphone, external headphone and microphone jacks, and a soft-sliding volume control. The MSK-200 also has a 13-watt stereo amplifier, a LED (light emitting diode) volume read-out and soft-sliding bass, treble, and speaker balance controls. Yewdall said the entire installation requires about 20 seconds and is as easy as plugging a keyboard into the back of a tower or computer console. MAK-100, the entry-level model should have a street price below $100 and the amplified MSK-200 with headphones and wrist-rest is estimated to have a street price less than $175. SC&T is an international company with offices also in Belgium, Canada, and Korea. Both of the keyboards are available with French, German, UK and US keyboard characters. They are available direct and through many computer software and hardware retail outlets. Along with the multimedia keyboard, SC&T offers a number of sound- enhancing products for desktop multimedia systems. Included in its product lines are an internal and an external equalizer/amplifier, speaker/amplifier kits, a multimedia volume control, a full multimedia stereo kit and a multimedia satellite/sub-woofer external speaker system. (Patrick McKenna/19955018/Press Contact: Jennifer Lyng, Neale-May & Partners, 415-328-5555; Public Information: SC&T, 602-470-1334/SC&T950518/PHOTO) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 05/18/95 DOS Novell Ships Quattro Pro 5.5 For DOS (NEWS)(DOS)(DEN)(00013) Novell Ships Quattro Pro 5.5 For DOS 05/18/95 OREM, UTAH, U.S.A., 1995 MAY 18 (NB) -- Novell Inc. (NASDAQ:NOVL) has announced it is now shipping version 5.5 of Quattro Pro for DOS. The company said it updated the DOS version of the spreadsheet program to meet continued demand on the part of corporate and government agency users who still operate under DOS. The new version of the spreadsheet works with Novell NetWare network operating system software and integrated with WordPerfect for DOS. Novell said the program allows users to make an "easy transition" from Lotus 1-2-3 for DOS, since it has Lotus-compatible menus, can run Lotus 1-2-3 macros, and reads and writes Lotus 1-2-3 files and styles. Release 5.5 users will get 50 new QuickTemplates that Novell said speed up the preparation of invoices, purchase orders, expense reports and other commonly used documents. The templates can be customized and saved. A feature called Speedfill inserts a series of numbers, a combination of letters and numbers, labels such as days or months, and supports user-defined series. Speedformat provides 25 custom formats and does much of the work by adding fonts, line drawing, numeric formats and other tasks. You can mix fonts and colors within a cell, center text across a block of cells and apply color shading to cells. The new release also supports more printers, including the latest Hewlett Packard Laserjet units. Quattro Pro 5.5 for DOS has a suggested retail price of $59.95. (Jim Mallory/19950518/Press contact: Frank Sessions, Novell, 801-228-6153; Public contact: Novell, 800-451-5151) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 05/18/95 APPLE Managing Your Money Plus For Mac Intro'd (NEWS)(APPLE)(TOR)(00014) Managing Your Money Plus For Mac Intro'd 05/18/95 FAIRFIELD, CONNECTICUT, U.S.A., 1995 MAY 18 (NB) -- Block Financial Software is now offering a version of its Managing Your Money package for the Apple Macintosh on a CD-ROM with added financial advice and a connection to the CompuServe information service. The new release is called Managing Your Money Plus for Macintosh. Block Financial, a subsidiary of H&R Block Inc. (NYSE:HRB) said the CD-ROM includes multimedia clips of financial author and columnist Andrew Tobias giving advice on more than 45 topics, such as buying mutual funds and lending money to friends. It also comes with a library of more than 145 personal finance articles compiled by Information Access Co., a media indexer. Finally, in addition to the standard Managing Your Money 7.0 personal financial management software, the CD-ROM includes a connection to CompuServe and the MacCim interface software for the online service. One month of free basic service on CompuServe comes with Managing Your Money Plus, and the connection gives access to all CompuServe services at standard rates, a spokesman for the company told Newsbytes. Managing Your Money Plus includes CheckFree, a check-paying service that lets a user use the computer to pay any bill from an account with any bank. If the user's bank does not support CheckFree, the service will print a check and send it directly to the payee, the spokesman said, adding that this typically takes about three days. Another feature is MYM-ChargeLink, which makes it possible to link a CompuServe Visa Gold Card to the software and receive account updates and download credit-card statements directly into Managing Your Money. QuoteLink allows users to download investment data from CompuServe automatically. SmartFind can search across all accounts at once to find a specific transaction. Managing Your Money Plus for Macintosh requires a Mac using at least a 68030 processor, System 7.0 or higher, eight megabytes (MB) of memory, a 256-color monitor, a double-speed CD-ROM drive, and 7MB of available hard disk space for complete installation, Block said. A modem that handles at least 2,400 bits-per-second is recommended. The software is now available and the company said it will typically sell for about $50. (Grant Buckler/19950518/Press Contact: Dan Reidy or Anne Magor, Access Public Relations for Block Financial Software, tel 415-904-7070, fax 415-904-7055, Internet e-mail dreidy@accesspr.com or amagor@accesspr.com; Public Contact: Block Financial Software, 203-255-1441 or 800-537-9993) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 05/18/95 GENERAL Govt-Backed Quebec Group To Focus On Comms (NEWS)(GENERAL)(TOR)(00015) Govt-Backed Quebec Group To Focus On Comms 05/18/95 MONTREAL, QUEBEC, CANADA, 1995 MAY 18 (NB) -- Assisted by the Quebec provincial government, three Montreal-area technology companies and a non-profit research center have formed the Infoway consortium to develop internetworking products for "the new commerce." Networking products manufacturer Eicon Technology Corp., telecommunications equipment maker Positron Inc., retail equipment and communications vendor Technologies Innovations AIKS, and the Centre de recherche informatique de Montreal (CRIM) are the partners in Infoway. The consortium will get C$5 million in funding from the provincial government through its Fonds de developpement technologique (FDT) agency. The rest of more than $40 million in funding is to come from the companies, Infoway spokeswoman Susan Verrecchia told Newsbytes. Eicon Technology will contribute about half the total budget and manage the consortium. The partners expect to work together on a wide range of products, including tools for electronic commerce, video-on-demand, electronic marketing, electronic cash, and virtual shopping malls, Verrecchia said. The consortium's product plans also include asynchronous transfer mode (ATM) networking products and network management tools. By working together, Verrecchia explained, the companies hope to share technology. Within 18 months to two years, the partners expect to do joint development and marketing. CRIM will manage a pilot project using Infoway technology to link research organizations together. Both Eicon and Positron are members of CRIM. The Infoway partners claimed their project will lead to the creation of more than 800 permanent, subcontracting, and consulting jobs. Of these, about 250 will be actual new jobs at the participating companies, while the rest of the 800 figure represents Infoway's estimate of indirect job creation, Verrecchia said. The companies also projected C$250 million in additional export sales from the project over three years, and said the expertise developed will strengthen Quebec's telecommunications sector. (Grant Buckler/19950518/Press Contact: Susan Verrecchia, Verrecchia Group for Infoway, tel 514-631-6544, fax 514-631-4512, Internet e-mail susanv@iisys.com; Claude LaCerte, Eicon, 514-631-2592; Kirk Petersen or Claude Champagne, Positron, 514-345-2200; Paul Beaulieu, AIKS, 514-333-6540; Suzanne Dube, CRIM, 514-398-1530; Roger Gauthier, CRIM, 514-398-1234) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 05/18/95 GENERAL Japan Newsbriefs (NEWS)(GENERAL)(TYO)(00016) Japan Newsbriefs 05/18/95 TOKYO, JAPAN, 1995 MAY 18 (NB) -- In this roundup of news from Japan: Nintendo falls foul of yen's rise; Apex Data enters Japanese market; Good results from phone translation test. Nintendo Falls Foul Of Yen's Rise Computer game hardware and software manufacturer Nintendo announced massive losses blamed on the strong yen. Profits at Nintendo's parent company for the fiscal year just ended were 97.79 billion yen ($1.13 billion), down from 115.05 billion yen ($1.33 billion) in the preceding year. The profits drop also marks the first sub 100 billion yen profit posted by the company in five years. The Kyoto-based company blamed the strong yen for losses of 35.3 billion yen ($410 million) although that was not the only reason that profits fell. Spending across Japan has dropped sharply recently in the wake of the Hanshin earthquake and a spate of poison gas attacks that has kept consumers away from department stores. In this financial, year the group plans to launch its new Ultra-64 games console. Apex Data Enters Japanese Market US modem maker Apex Data has entered the Japanese market with its sights set on sales of 30,000 units, or a 5% share of the market, in a years time. The California based company has this week launched two modems: the Mobile Plus V34 cellular modem and the MultiCard. The Mobile Plus V34 is a 28,800 bits-per-second (bps) cellular data and fax modem priced at 54,000 yen ($627). The second product, the MultiCard is similar to the Mobile Plus modem, but also functions as a LAN (local area network) adapter and sells for between 54,000 yen ($617) and 65,000 yen ($755). Good Results From Phone Translation Test Last week Newsbytes reported on the beginning of tests for a new, real-time, telephone translation system developed by Japan's KDD and Korea Telecom. The 20 million yen ($232,558) system translates between Japanese and Korean. Initial test results showed a 90% success rate. The trial application involved registration at a hotel and the system was programmed with 1,000 words. According to KDD, the system will not be commercially available until 1999. (Martyn Williams/19950518) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 05/18/95 BUSINESS Sony Posts Huge Losses (NEWS)(BUSINESS)(TYO)(00017) Sony Posts Huge Losses 05/18/95 TOKYO, JAPAN, 1995 MAY 18 (NB) -- Tokyo-based electronics giant Sony has reported a group loss of 293.36 billion yen ($3.41 billion) for the financial year just ended. This compares with a profit of 15.30 billion yen ($177 million) in the 1993 fiscal year. Accompanying the figures was a warning that pre-tax profits will decline by 40% in the current financial year. Pre-tax profits in the financial year just ended rose 68% on the year. Sony estimates that they have lost over $2 billion due to the fluctuations and strength of the Japanese yen which has cut sales in North America, traditionally responsible for one quarter of Sony's worldwide sales. Greater losses resulted from a 256 billion yen ($2.97 billion) right-off of the acquisition of Columbia Pictures, now renamed Sony Pictures Entertainment. (Martyn Williams/19950518) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 05/18/95 ONLINE Nynex Interactive Yellow Pages On The Web (NEWS)(ONLINE)(BOS)(00018) Nynex Interactive Yellow Pages On The Web 05/18/95 MIDDLETON, MASSACHUSETTS, U.S.A., 1995 MAY 18 (NB) -- After launching an initial graphical online service on Prodigy in January, Nynex has branched out on to the World Wide Web, with a new version of the Nynex Interactive Yellow Pages that offers free-of-charge access to 2.1 million business listings, said Kathy Ives, Nynex's director of interactive services, in an interview with Newsbytes. Ives told Newsbytes that Nynex will still maintain its interactive business directory on Prodigy. "Prodigy was our first step, largely because of its focus on advertising services," she explained. Prodigy also provides "a great demographic mix," said the Nynex exec. About 40 percent of Prodigy users are female, a greater proportion than for any other online service, she maintained. The Web, however, now attracts between 3 and 4 million users, a higher number than that of any individual commercial service, Ives reported. Nynex plans to use its new home page to "explore the multimedia and advanced search capabilities of the Web," at the same time giving Web users free-of-charge access to a business directory equivalent in size to 300 printed pages, she said. The new Web service lets users from virtually anywhere look up the names, addresses and phone numbers of "nearly every business in the northeast US," according to Ives. The online business directory is also equipped with hotlinks to about 400 other Web sites, where product lists and descriptions, photos, and downloadable audio and video files are often available, she added. Essentially, the Nynex Interactive Yellow Pages on the Web is organized along the same lines as traditional Yellow Pages, under A-Z headings. But the Web service also provides "Hot Sites," a list of the latest hyperlinked Web sites, and "Top Headings Search," for quick access to the most popular shopping headings, Newsbytes was told. Ives pointed out that the Web permits users to conduct searches employing up to five criteria at a time, a capability that allows for Boolean searches, for example. Nynex, she noted, has used results from an earlier Internet trial in determining how to organize both the Web and Prodigy versions of the Nynex Interactive Yellow Pages. The six-month trial, which started in September, was conducted by Nynex among public and university libraries, an audience that tends to be "very familiar with the Internet, and with sophisticated searching," according to Ives. The Nynex Interactive Yellow Pages is located on the Web at http://www.vt.com.fr/nynex. Businesses that have not already connected their Web sites to the service can do so by dialing into Nynex's Web site, or by calling 1-800-35-NYNEX. (Jacqueline Emigh/19950518/Reader Contacts: 800-35-NYNEX; Nynex Information Resources, 508-762-1000; Press Contacts: Phil Santoro, Nynex Interactive Yellow Pages, 508-762-1326; Eileen Pacheco, Creamer Dickson Basford for Nynex Interactive Yellow Pages, 617-467-1576) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 05/18/95 IBM ****IBM Intros OS/2 Warp Connect (NEWS)(IBM)(TOR)(00019) ****IBM Intros OS/2 Warp Connect 05/18/95 NEW YORK, NEW YORK, U.S.A., 1995 MAY 18 (NB) -- IBM (NYSE:IBM) has unveiled OS/2 Warp Connect, a version of its personal-computer operating system that comes with peer-to-peer networking built in. The new release is technologically about an even match for the upcoming Windows 95 from Microsoft, one industry consultant said, but IBM faces a tough battle for market acceptance. OS/2 Warp Connect combines the existing OS/2 Warp operating system, launched in November, 1994, and its BonusPak of applications with a set of integrated networking capabilities and software. It can be used to set up peer-to-peer networks that may include remote connections over dial-up telephone lines, thanks to LAN Distance, a remote local area network (LAN) access package included with Warp Connect. The software also comes with built-in support for Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol (TCP/IP) for connecting to the Internet, and with the CompuServe Information Manager (CIM) interface to the CompuServe online service, company spokesman Bill Robbins told Newsbytes. It can also connect to Ethernet, Fiber Distributed Data Interface (FDDI), and Token Ring networks using NetBIOS, TCP/IP, or IPX (Internetwork Packet Exchange). Novell Inc.'s NetWare Client for OS/2 is included in Warp Connect, IBM and Novell announced. The peer networking software works with IBM's OS/2 LAN Server Version 3.0 or later, Microsoft Windows for Workgroups, Microsoft Windows NT, Microsoft LAN Manager 2.x, PC LAN Program 1.3, and Artisoft LANtastic 6.0, IBM said. Warp Connect also includes Lotus Development Corp.'s Notes Express, a basic client package for the Cambridge, Massachusetts, company's Notes workgroup software. Notes Express will come with seven productivity templates, for discussion databases, client/server mail, phone books, reference databases, news databases, customer tracking, and service requests. Warp Connect is "definitely the best version of OS/2 to come along," said David Strom, a consultant and president of David Strom Inc., on Long Island, New York. He told Newsbytes that the new release includes "an impressive array of things that come in the box." However, Strom added, "people have overestimated what IBM is capable of doing in the past with OS/2." Microsoft Windows has proved a formidable competitor. "The other side has much more resources and mind share and momentum and everything going in their favor, with one exception: no product." He was referring to the fact that Windows 95, the Microsoft operating system that will be directly comparable to Warp Connect, is not expected to come to market until late summer. "It's the 11th hour for IBM," Strom said. "This is it -- they've got to make it succeed in the next few months." Strom said he has studied the connectivity features in OS/2 Warp Connect and Windows 95 and considers them about evenly matched. A "blue spine" version, or "fullpack," of OS/2 Warp Connect, which includes IBM's Win-OS/2 code for running programs written for Microsoft Windows, has begun shipping, Robbins said. It has a list price of $299 and will be available from IBM Direct for $215. A "red spine" version, which does not include the Win-OS/2 code and requires that Windows be present to run Windows applications, is to be released this summer. For a limited time, registered users of OS/2 2.1 will get a $25 rebate when they purchase OS/2 Warp Connect. Registered users of the OS/2 Warp "fullpack" with Win-OS/2 will get a $50 rebate. (Grant Buckler/19950518/Press Contact: Bill Robbins, IBM, 800-354-0978 or 512-823-1995, Internet e-mail william_robbins@vnet.ibm.com; Public Contact: IBM Direct, 800-3- IBM-OS2; IBM, Internet World Wide Web http://www.ibm.com) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 05/18/95 ONLINE Apple Canada, WorldLinx Team On Web Server (NEWS)(ONLINE)(TOR)(00020) Apple Canada, WorldLinx Team On Web Server 05/18/95 MARKHAM, ONTARIO, CANADA, 1995 MAY 18 (NB) -- Apple Canada Inc. and WorldLinx Telecommunications Inc. have joined forces to offer the Apple Internet Server Solution for the World Wide Web in Canada. The package combines an Apple Workgroup Server, using PowerPC technology, with Toronto-based WorldLinx's national Internet Access Service. At the moment the package is being offered only in Canada, a spokesman for Apple told Newsbytes. Authorized Apple Canada dealers -- those that choose to participate -- will sell it, he added. The WorldLinx Internet Access Service is also available separately as well as with the Apple server package. The package will come with an Apple Workgroup Server and all the software needed to set the server up as a World Wide Web site. For a flat monthly fee, customers will be able to use WorldLinx's Canada-wide Internet Access Service to make the Web site available to Internet users. The fee covers unlimited network usage, and access is available from nodes in 23 Canadian cities, officials said. Apple Canada said it expects the new offering to appeal most to small and mid-sized businesses that want to create an Internet presence but have been deterred by the cost of establishing Web sites. WorldLinx is a spin-off from Bell Canada, the largest of Canada's regional telephone companies. Besides the year-old Internet Access Service, the company provides various networking, multimedia, and information services. Apple Canada is a subsidiary of Apple Computer Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) of Cupertino, California. (Grant Buckler/19950518/Press Contact: Linda Grant or Susan Taylor, Apple Canada, 905-477-5800, Internet e-mail s.taylor@eworld.com; John Elias or Mary Inksater, National Public Relations for Apple Canada, tel 416-586-0180, fax 416-586-9916, Internet e-mail jelias@eworld.com or minksater@eworld.com; Sarah Hastie, WorldLinx Telecommunications, 416-350-1350, Internet e- mail info@worldlinx.com; Public Contact: WorldLinx, 416-350-1000 or 800-263-9673, fax 416-350-1001, Internet World Wide Web http://www.worldlinx.com) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 05/18/95 ONLINE ****Time Warner To Develop Cable Online Services (NEWS)(ONLINE)(MSP)(00021) ****Time Warner To Develop Cable Online Services 05/18/95 NEW YORK CITY, NEW YORK, U.S.A., 1995 MAY 18 (NB) -- Time Warner Inc. (NYSE:TWX) said two of its divisions, Time Warner Cable and Time Inc., are developing a new online service to be delivered to personal computers via cable TV wires instead of telephone connections. Company officials said the new online service will combine Time Warner Cable's ability to deliver a wide range of data at extremely high speeds over its networks with Time Inc.'s news and informational content. With the new system, Time Warner's customers would have access to existing services such as the company's Pathfinder, other online services, and the Internet. The service will be delivered through a high-speed cable modem that will deliver data at extremely high speeds, officials said. The company is considering charging its customers one monthly fee that will include the necessary hardware and software to access the network, as well as Time Warner-owned services. Mike Rinzel, an analyst at Jupiter Communications, said accessing the Internet at 14.4 kilobits-per-second (Kbps) can be very slow at times, and that "this announcement indicates that Time Warner is now thinking large-scale when it comes to broadband delivery." Both Time Warner divisions have experience in developing information- based services. Time Warner Cable and Time Inc. worked together on The News Exchange, which is a news-on-demand service that will be launched later this year in Orlando, Florida. In other Timer Warner news, the company's chairman and chief executive officer announced that Time Warner Cable will sell 15 cable systems in seven states for more than $260 million. Gerald M. Levin said the announcement "marks another important step toward our stated goal of $2-$3 billion in debt reduction through the sale of a series of non-core assets." The systems being sold are described by Time Warner as being some of the company's "smaller systems," serving more than 144,000 customers. They are being bought by a variety of companies. Closing of the individual transactions is subject to government approval, the company said. Time Warner and Time Warner Cable executives were not available for comment by Newsbytes' deadline. (Bob Woods/19950518/Press Contacts: Mike Luftman, Time Warner Cable, 203-328-0613; Peter Costiglio, Time Inc., 212-522-3927; Edward Adler, Timer Warner Inc., 212-484-6630) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 05/18/95 ONLINE Senior PGA Golf Tourney On The Web (NEWS)(ONLINE)(MSP)(00022) Senior PGA Golf Tourney On The Web 05/18/95 ARLINGTON, VIRGINIA, U.S.A., 1995 MAY 18 (NB) -- For those golf fans who want to keep up with this weekend's Bell Atlantic Classic Senior PGA (Professional Golfers Association) tournament near Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, they only need to put away their drivers and "hook" into the Internet's World Wide Web. Bell Atlantic Corporation (NYSE:BEL) is offering a site on the Web for details surrounding the yearly Senior PGA stop. It is located at URL (uniform resource locator) http://www.bell-atl.com/classic. The tournament itself will be held Friday through Sunday. During that time the site's leaderboard will be updated regularly, and photos of leaders and key shots made throughout the event will be posted. For the remainder of today, details of the pro-am (professional-amateur) tournament will be posted at the site. Also at the site, details of the course can also be found, including how each hole should be played. Details on players to watch, including defending champion Lee Trevino, Arnold Palmer, and Dave Stockton, will be provided. "We've been adding to our Internet sites since they were created about two years ago," Dave Pacholczyk, Bell Atlantic spokesperson, told Newsbytes. "We have continually looked for ways to put more stuff on there, and as new stuff becomes available, like the Bell Atlantic Classic, we wanted to get that on there as well." Pacholczyk said his company has been providing information to the Internet community for a couple of years, mainly with details on the company. "We've got a lot of stuff on our sites that's heavily policy-related or product-related. This is something different, out of the ordinary, and fun to do on the Internet." Bell Atlantic has sponsored the Classic for seven years running. Last year's tourney drew a crowd of nearly 100,000, and raised more than $486,000 for St. Christopher's Hospital for Children in Philadelphia, which benefits from tournament proceeds. (Bob Woods/19950518/Press Contact: Dave Pacholczyk, Bell Atlantic Network Services, 410-393-7109. Public Contact: Internet World Wide Web http://www.ba.com, Internet Gopher gopher://ba.com, Internet File Transfer Protocol ftp://ba.com/pub, Bell Atlantic Classic World Wide Web site http://www.bell-atl.com/classic) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 05/18/95 ONLINE Computer Museum To Auction PCs, Memorabilia On Web (NEWS)(ONLINE)(BOS)(00023) Computer Museum To Auction PCs, Memorabilia On Web 05/18/95 BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS, U.S.A, 1995 MAY 18 (NB) -- The Computer Museum's first Charity Auction on the Web, to be open around-the- clock Monday through Friday of next week, will feature contemporary PCs at potentially "bargain" prices -- plus computer memorabilia and one-of-a-kind items like "Shout and Shoot" -- at starting bids ranging from $5 to $5,000, said Suzanne Schantz, Web auction manager, in an interview with Newsbytes. New computers up for auction will include the PowerBook 540C, Compaq, and Digital Hi-Note models, according to Schantz. "If the bidding is light, you could get some real deals," she told Newsbytes. The starting bid on the PowerBook, for instance, is $1,800; the unit retails for $3,700. Next week's auction is the museum's second Internet auction, but the first to be held on the Web, and the Web's graphical interface is spurring "salability," according to Schantz. "If you're going to buy something, you like to see it first," she maintained. Each item will be accompanied by a picture, along with "a snappy write- up." Users with text-based interfaces to the Web can also participate in the auction "live" -- although, of course, they won't be able to see the pictures. During the hours of 9 am to 9 pm, auction staffers will be on hand to answer questions sent by electronic-mail (e-mail), and to send out listings of auction items, either by e-mail or "snail mail," the auction manager added. "But you can enter a bid at 4 am, if you want," Schantz explained. With a computer server acting as "auctioneer," all bidding will be done in real time, 24 hours a day, she asserted. All funds raised by the auction are earmarked for the Computer Museum's educational programs. In total, 250 items will be auctioned off, according to Schantz, who described "Shout and Shoot," one of the novelty items, as "the ultimate way to make your point." Signed by Steve Blank, inventor of the device and founder of Rocket Science, "Shout and Shoot" consists of a cap, a water receptacle worn at the waste, and a piece of headgear with a microphone and a "hose attachment near your eye." The invention "squirts out water when you talk." Computer collectors will be able to choose from items such as a Commodore Pet --- Commodore's attempt, in 1977, at "a personal electronic transactor" -- and Apple II, Luggable Osborne I, and 30- pound Kaypro 2X computers, all from the early eighties. Starting bid on the Osborne is $1,000. For users with non-technically inclined individuals on their shopping lists, there will be items like computer-generated artwork and travel packages and services. The Web auction page will be "totally point-and-click," said Schantz. "And you're welcome to browse through the site. Just because you enter `the store,' you're not obligated to buy." The auction will be conducted "by proxy," meaning that each item will be assigned a bidding increment that is based on its value, she added. "Let's say the bidding increment is $5, and the last posted bid is $25. If you bid $50, the `auctioneer' will post the bid as $30," she illustrated. The museum also plans to post "bid closing times" for each item, "so you can get your bid in before the item you want is gone," Newsbytes was told. To bid, you will first fill out an online registration form. Confidential information, such as credit card numbers, will be protected by encryption, according to Schantz. The initials, city and state of the highest bid so far will be shown next to each item. Winning bidders will be notified by e- mail. The museum's auction page is open for preview now. The bidding starts Monday, May 22 at 10 am, and continues through Friday, May 26 at 8 pm. Users can log on to the auction either at http.//www.onsale, or through a hotlink from the Computer Museum's recently opened Web site at http.///www.net.org. You can contact the auction by e-mail at auction@pcm.org. (Jacqueline Emigh/19950518/Reader Contact: Computer Museum, 617- 426-2800; Press Contact: Gail Jennes, Computer Museum, 617-426- 2800) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 05/18/95 BROADCAST Europe - BT Plugs Into Hot Bird 1 Satellite (NEWS)(BROADCAST)(LON)(00024) Europe - BT Plugs Into Hot Bird 1 Satellite 05/18/95 LONDON, ENGLAND, 1995 MAY 18 (NB) -- British Telecom's Broadcast Services (BT-BS) division has launched a new facility for European broadcasting stations using the new Hot Bird 1 satellite. As reported previously by Newsbytes, Eutelsat's Hot Bird 1 satellite has now gone live at 13 degrees East after a series of tests carried out earlier this year. The satellite is now being used by a number of broadcasters for feeding transmissions around and across Europe. According to BT, the broadcasting stations leasing the transponders will now be able to offer digital television directly to home viewers. Live transmissions are already being broadcast across the satellite. European Business News (EBN) has transferred to Hot Bird 1 from Intelsat 601 and daily coverage of business news from Europe is now being provided. Canal Horizon, meanwhile, is transmitting its programs in French, offering subscribers films, sports and news in the target Mediterranean and North African regions. According to BT, which is offering uplink facilities to the satellite, positioning the satellite station at 13 degrees East will extend the range of coverage between Western Europe and Ukraine. Such a set up will attract potential customers from eastern Europe, including Poland and the Czech Republics, two areas which BT describes as "ready" for satellite transmissions. "With the co-positioning of Hot Bird 1 with Eutelsat II-F1, Eutelsat is reinforcing 13 degrees East as the first position for the television reception by direct-to-home, cable and community antennae. Hot Bird 1 is also the very first satellite in Europe to offer real DTH reception to the entire continent," commented Jean Grenier, the general director of Eutelsat. Canal Horizon and European Business News (EBN) were the first customers of Hit Bird 1, leasing two transponders earlier this year. In addition to the contracts with EBN and Canal Horizon, BT has secured leases on seven transponders on Hot Bird 2. Future customers will be announced later this year. (Sylvia Dennis/19950518/Press Contact: Infopress, tel +44-171- 353-2320, fax +44-171-583-9437; Reader Contact: BT Broadcast Services, tel +44-171-728-5573, fax +44-171-7285165) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 05/18/95 ONLINE UK Modem Maker Bundles Internet Starter Kit (NEWS)(ONLINE)(LON)(00025) UK Modem Maker Bundles Internet Starter Kit 05/18/95 SHIPLEY, WEST YORKSHIRE, ENGLAND, 1995 MAY 18 (NB) -- Pace Micro has announced a retail package known as Netlink. In return for UKP139 (including sales tax), PC users get a 14,400 bits-per-second (bps) portable modem, an Internet software suite, a UKP25 discount voucher for the CityScape Internet service, and an Internet guide book, all in a single box. Matt Malloy, Pace's marketing manager, told Newsbytes that the package is an ideal starter kit for first modem users who want to get on to the Internet. "Unlike some of the other Internet solutions on the market, this one is not locked to an Internet service provider. The deal allows you 21 free trial days for CityScape, and if you decide you don't want the service, you're not committed to that service," he explained. The CityScape deal offers Netlink users a half-price (UKP25) sign-up to the Internet and then a flat rate UKP15 a month subscription to the CityScape Internet service, which is routed through the Pipex Internet dial-up points-of-presence (POPs) network which now covers most areas of the UK with a local phone call. "We looked at several Internet service providers, but it all came down to the service provider that could offer the best deal. Pipex's recent deal with Mercury for a virtual set of local call POPs around the UK was the clinching one for us," he explained. Newsbytes asked Malloy why the company was "only" offering a 14,400 bps modem in the Netlink package. He replied that the company is looking at other options, including a 28,800 bps package, "but we are seeing how the initial Netlink package sells." Malloy went on to say that several retail outlets will be stocking the Netlink Internet starter kit very shortly. "We've signed to Gem (Distribution) for the Netlink product on an exclusive basis, and Gem is selling Netlink into several high street outlets," he told Newsbytes. The guide bundled with the Netlink package is "Using the Net," one of a series of Internet Guides from Future Publishing. Using the Net is written by Davey Winder, a highly regarded UK journalist. According to Steve Lister, Pace's managing director, the launch of the Netlink package will mark the first time that Pace's products have been stocked by some outlets, as these new retail outlets want to get "in" on the Internet. "Electrical and leisure retailers, in particular, have begun to see a gap in their ranges which can only be filled by the Internet. Now they can address the market through a single, complete product, from companies capable of handling all the technical and support issues on their behalf. By the end of the summer, Netlink will be in every high street in the UK," he explained. (Steve Gold/19950518/Press & Reader Contact: Pace Micro Communications, tel +44-1274-532000, fax +44-1274-537029, Internet e-mail pace@cix.compulink.co.uk) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 05/18/95 EDUCATION Acorn Opens Irish Education Computing Center (NEWS)(EDUCATION)(LON)(00026) Acorn Opens Irish Education Computing Center 05/18/95 CAMBRIDGE, ENGLAND, 1995 MAY 18 (NB) -- Acorn Computers, a leading supplier of computers into the educational marketplace, has announced its first Acorn in Education Centre (AEC) in Ireland. The school appointed under the scheme is the Good Shepherd National School in Churchton, Dublin, which has been equipped with 22 Acorn computers, both desktops and portables, including the top of the range RISC (reduced instruction set computing) PC. Printers, CD ROMs and software are shared by all the computers across the network. According to Acorn, AECs serve as showrooms for resellers in the educational marketplace and, since the school is a user of the technology in its own right, it can offer the best advice to other schools contemplating enhancing or upgrading their existing computer facilities. Sam Wauchope, managing director of Acorn Computer Group, explained that the AEC offers three key services to schools in Dublin region: training courses; a telephone help line, open during schools hours; and access to try out software packages after closing time for teachers. According to Acorn, the opening of the AEC is a very important moment for the Irish national school, especially for the primary education department. Teachers will be able to have access to a well-equipped information source and support center, structured training courses and a network of contacts to help achieve work tasks with children and computers. Children, meanwhile, will receive a good introduction to the use of technology as a learning resource and become more literate in computer related operations than their predecessors. According to Acorn, the introduction to technology will start at the primary school. "Access to the latest information technology systems is vital for every child's education today. But the provision of technology alone is not enough. Sound advice and guidance for teachers is essential if they are to help children gain the maximum advantage from computers in the classroom," he said. (Sylvia Dennis/19950518/Press & Reader Contact: Acorn Computers +44-1223-254287) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 05/18/95 TELECOM US Robotics Comes Clean On V.34 Sportster Bug (NEWS)(TELECOM)(LON)(00027) US Robotics Comes Clean On V.34 Sportster Bug 05/18/95 SLOUGH, BERKSHIRE, ENGLAND, 1995 MAY 18 (NB) -- US Robotics' UK division has revealed that a small number of users of its Sportster 28,800 bits-per-second (bps) may, under certain circumstances, be unable to make full use of the modem. According to Frank Smith, a spokesman for the company, when the modem is warming up from cold, the Sportster modem may be unable to "lock on" to another 28,800 bps modem at the 28.8 speed, and will instead fall back to a slower speed. Smith told Newsbytes that the problem was identified by a small number of Sportster users late last month, who posted their findings to the Internet. As a result these postings, US Robotics has now upgraded the driver software for the Sportster series and has been shipping the revised software -- in the form of an EPROM (erasable programmable read only memory) chipset -- as standard on the Sportster 28.8 since the beginning of the month. US Robotics has also advised the press that anyone with an older Sportster who is worried about the bug, can obtain a replacement EPROM from US Robotics direct, free of charge. Newsbytes notes that, in order to retain approval on the modem, the EPROM must be replaced by a US Robotics dealer or US Robotics itself. "The story first appeared on the Internet about three weeks ago, but the interest from the press over the past few days has been so intense on this that the company has issued a press statement," Smith told Newsbytes. In the statement, US Robotics notes that the problem is isolated to the Sportster 28.8 and results in the modem "temporarily switching down to a lower speed under certain line conditions and certain circumstances such as when the temperature of the modem changes while it is warming up." John McCartney, US Robotics' executive vice president of international operations is quoted in the press statement as saying that "the Sportster 28.8 remains a fundamentally sound V.34 modem. We have responded quickly and effectively with a free upgrade -- our response has been well received in the marketplace." Smith added the footnote that the modem problem only affects Sportster 28.8 modems when they are turned on in a cold environment. "As the modem warms up, so it runs at a slower speed for a short while. If anyone has a problem with this bug, they can get an upgrade, while new users have no problem at all. It's as simple as that," he said. (Steve Gold/19950518/Press Contact: Edge Partnership, +44-1625-511966; Reader Contact: US Robotics, tel +44-1734-228200, fax +44-1734-6955555) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 05/18/95 TRENDS European Commission Plans Computerized Driving Licenses (NEWS)(TRENDS)(LON)(00028) European Commission Plans Computerized Driving Licenses 05/18/95 BRUSSELS, BELGIUM, 1995 MAY 18 (NB) -- Credit card-sized driving licenses with a picture are pretty standard in most countries of the world, except in much of Europe, where an amazing variety of licenses are still used. Now this situation is changing, Newsbytes can report, as the European Commission (EC) has announced plans to change all member countries over to a US-style license, with bar plus magnetic stripe codes on the license to permit rapid reading by the authorities and in particular, police on the road. According to EC officials, the idea of changing to the US/global system was first mooted earlier this year by Finland and Sweden, two countries that want to computerize their licensing system. The EC has responded by agreeing to their request and submitting a mandate for approval by the European Parliament. Finland and Sweden's problem is that they have already switched to a credit card-sized license, but are set to join the EC in the near future. Government officials have expressed worries that, in joining the EC, they may have to switch back to paper licenses, as the current EC standard requires. To prevent any backlash over what is, after all, a minor issue, the EC has taken the unusual step of only requesting member Governments to upgrade their licenses, rather than issuing a full mandate. The new "request" takes effect from July 1 next year. The original "Community model" for the EC driving license dates from 1986, pre-dating much of the computer technology that now exists. That model was designed to fit in with existing paper licenses in use around the EC territories and is a fold-down paper design that has little room for computer information. EC officials say they expect most countries to move to a credit card- style license, as the cards can be used as photo ID, something that citizens of the EC will find useful now that internal borders between countries are being dismantled. (Steve Gold/19950518/Press & Reader Contact: European Commission, +32-2-299-1111) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 05/18/95 TRENDS ****Diamond Ships Voice Modem With Internet Phone (NEWS)(TRENDS)(SFO)(00029) ****Diamond Ships Voice Modem With Internet Phone 05/18/95 SAN JOSE, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A, 1995 MAY 18 (NB) -- Diamond Multimedia is shipping its TeleCommander 2500XL, an integrated voice/fax/data modem which is highlighted by VocalTec's Internet Phone audio-compression software. The new software allows a user to make phone calls via the Internet without long distance charges. Diamond is positioning this product for the small office/home office (SOHO) market, but with all of the features the complete package offers, the company thinks many home desktop users will also want to have the board and software installed on their computers. Along with the standard modem and telephony features, Diamond includes a Day-Timer Organizer, Thought Communication's Fax Talk Messenger, a fax/voice mail manager, the FaxTalk Speakerphone, a dialer and call control software program, and online software kits from CompuServe, AOL, Imagination Network, and Netcom for Internet access. The Internet telephone is a relatively new technology which takes advantage of the Internet's Internet Relay Chat (IRC) to form voice connections with parties using the same software. Responding to difficulties some users have has with the system, Diamond's senior product manager, Jeff Orr, told Newsbytes, "I think a lot of people who have experimented with the Internet phone have used a free version which is offered in the Net. This was a trial version which limited users to sixty seconds of conversation. We are the first to bundle the full retail version which allows the users to have conversations as long as they choose to talk." Speaking about his own experience with the Internet phone, Orr said, "This has really been enjoyable to work with. I have spoken to people from Kuwait, France and many other places around the world. At this time the technology allows a user to have half-duplex conversations. A full-duplex product should be coming soon." Half-duplex means only one user may speak at a time, much like a ham operator situation where two people may not transmit at the same time. Full-duplex means simultaneous conversation common to everyday phone-use. Orr also said TeleCommander 2500XL offers users the advantage of opening additional real estate on the motherboard's expansion slots. With the modem and true 16-bit stereo sound incorporated on one card, two internal cards are replaced. The audio portion of the board is Sound Blaster Pro-compatible and the card also accepts standard 26-pin wavetable daughter boards. The full-duplex speaker phone feature allows users to create up to 10,000 voice-mail boxes and supports Caller ID, remote control, paging, and fax-on-demand. Addressing the issue of 14.4 kilobits-per-second (Kbps) modem speed versus 28.8 Kbps, Orr said, "We will have a 28.8 modem model coming out soon. The truth is that most online services are still developing 28.8 access or if they offer it, there is an additional cost. Given the additional cost of 28.8 modems and the lack of access at this time, we think 14.4 Kbps is the standard which makes an affordable and practical consumer product." Orr also said Diamond designed this new card and software so that users with little experience may "comfortably" install them. He said, "Users may choose a simple default installation or define their own custom installation. The default installation automatically configures the necessary COM ports, IRQs (interrupt requests) and other technical components." TeleCommander 2500XL is shipping now with a suggested retail price of $249 and should be available in many software and hardware retail outlets. The card requires a 486 or higher processor, an open ISA (Industry Standard Architecture) Bus slot, Windows 3.1 or higher, DOS 3.3 or higher, and four megabytes of memory. (Patrick McKenna/19950518/Press Contact: Sara Faiola, Faiola Davis Public Relations, 213-933-4959; Public Information: Diamond Multimedia, 408-325-7000, Internet World Wide Web http://www.diamondmm.com) (SUMMARY)(GENERAL)(SFO)(00030) Newsbytes Daily Summary 05/18/95 PENN VALLEY, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1995 MAY 18(NB) -- These are capsules of all today's news stories: 1 -> ****CIA Official Warns Of "Information Warfare" 05/18/95 The nation's interconnected computer networks are the most vulnerable in the world to attack from other countries, drug traffickers, organized crime, terrorist groups or even everyday computer hackers, according to the outgoing number two person in the Central Intelligence Agency. 2 -> China - Online Job Search Available In Beijing 05/18/95 Registration cards are being sold at Beijing post offices for job hunters who wish to be listed on Beijing's Talent Network. 3 -> China - Consumer Complaints Increase In 1st Qtr 05/18/95 The China Consumers' Association (CCA) disclosed that its branches received a total of 85,438 complaints from January to March, an increase of 16 percent over the same period last year. One of the main complaints was about the warranty registration cards for home electronics. 4 -> Asia's Highest TV Tower Operational In Shanghai 05/18/95 Named "Oriental Pearl," the 468 meter (1,535 foot) TV tower, reportedly the highest in Asia, recently became operational in Shanghai. The tower transmits five TV channels and five FM radio stations covering Shanghai and local areas. 5 -> New Product Eases PC To Mainframe Transfers 05/18/95 CFSoftware says it is releasing new versions of its "PCmainframe" version 4.31 for the TSO and CICS platforms. Company officials describe PCmainframe as a "complete data transfer solution for PCs and mainframes." 6 -> When Words Fail You - Improving Image Databases 05/18/95 Normally, image databases describe their images using keyword tags. Someone looking for a particular image must use the appropriate keyword or no images will be produced by a computer search. 7 -> AmCoEx Index Of Used Computer Prices 05/18/95 By John Hastings. The home computer market is exploding. In 1994, Americans spent more money on home computer equipment than televisions. 8 -> Samsung To Join "Orlando TV Project" 05/18/95 Samsung Electronics Co. plans to participated in the "Orlando Project" for wide screen TV, in which multimedia companies including Silicon Graphics, AT&T, and Time Warner Cable are investing. 9 -> Light Therapy Product For Computer Users 05/18/95 To combat what the company calls "health hazards associated with prolonged computer usage," Ott Biolightsystems Inc. is introducing the "Computer Safety Biolightsystem." 10 -> Compaq, Packard Bell Settlement Talks Scheduled 05/18/95 Personal computer makers Compaq Computer Corp. (NYSE: CPQ) and Packard Bell Electronics Inc. said they will meet next month to see if they can settle their differences instead of continuing the lawsuit they are currently engaged in that could drag on for months. A Compaq spokesperson told Newsbytes that Compaq considers the meeting a "mediation" rather than a "settlement." 11 -> Compaq Cuts Aero Notebook Prices 05/18/95 Compaq Computer Corp. (NYSE: CPQ) has announced price cuts on its Contura Aero portable notebook systems by as much as 19 percent, depending on the model. The company claims Aero has captured slightly more than 23 percent of the ultra-portable notebook market, citing figures from data research firm DataQuest. 12 -> SC&T's Keyboards With Built-In Speakers 05/18/95 SC&T, a developer and marketer of sound-enhanced products for PCs recently displayed its multimedia keyboards at the Electronic Entertainment Expo. The Platinum Sound MAK-100 and the MSK-200 offer high quality sound from speakers built into a standard keyboard. 13 -> Novell Ships Quattro Pro 5.5 For DOS 05/18/95 Novell Inc. (NASDAQ:NOVL) has announced it is now shipping version 5.5 of Quattro Pro for DOS. The company said it updated the DOS version of the spreadsheet program to meet continued demand on the part of corporate and government agency users who still operate under DOS. 14 -> Managing Your Money Plus For Mac Intro'd 05/18/95 Block Financial Software is now offering a version of its Managing Your Money package for the Apple Macintosh on a CD-ROM with added financial advice and a connection to the CompuServe information service. The new release is called Managing Your Money Plus for Macintosh. 15 -> Govt-Backed Quebec Group To Focus On Comms 05/18/95 Assisted by the Quebec provincial government, three Montreal-area technology companies and a non-profit research center have formed the Infoway consortium to develop internetworking products for "the new commerce." 16 -> Japan Newsbriefs 05/18/95 In this roundup of news from Japan: Nintendo falls foul of yen's rise; Apex Data enters Japanese market; Good results from phone translation test. 17 -> Sony Posts Huge Losses 05/18/95 Tokyo-based electronics giant Sony has reported a group loss of 293.36 billion yen ($3.41 billion) for the financial year just ended. 18 -> Nynex Interactive Yellow Pages On The Web 05/18/95 After launching an initial graphical online service on Prodigy in January, Nynex has branched out on to the World Wide Web, with a new version of the Nynex Interactive Yellow Pages that offers free-of-charge access to 2.1 million business listings, said Kathy Ives, Nynex's director of interactive services, in an interview with Newsbytes. 19 -> ****IBM Intros OS/2 Warp Connect 05/18/95 IBM (NYSE:IBM) has unveiled OS/2 Warp Connect, a version of its personal-computer operating system that comes with peer-to-peer networking built in. The new release is technologically about an even match for the upcoming Windows 95 from Microsoft, one industry consultant said, but IBM faces a tough battle for market acceptance. 20 -> Apple Canada, WorldLinx Team On Web Server 05/18/95 Apple Canada Inc. and WorldLinx Telecommunications Inc. have joined forces to offer the Apple Internet Server Solution for the World Wide Web in Canada. The package combines an Apple Workgroup Server, using PowerPC technology, with Toronto-based WorldLinx's national Internet Access Service. 21 -> ****Time Warner To Develop Cable Online Services 05/18/95 Time Warner Inc. (NYSE:TWX) said two of its divisions, Time Warner Cable and Time Inc., are developing a new online service to be delivered to personal computers via cable TV wires instead of telephone connections. 22 -> Senior PGA Golf Tourney On The Web 05/18/95 For those golf fans who want to keep up with this weekend's Bell Atlantic Classic Senior PGA (Professional Golfers Association) tournament near Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, they only need to put away their drivers and "hook" into the Internet's World Wide Web. 23 -> Computer Museum To Auction PCs, Memorabilia On Web 05/18/95 The Computer Museum's first Charity Auction on the Web, to be open around-the- clock Monday through Friday of next week, will feature contemporary PCs at potentially "bargain" prices -- plus computer memorabilia and one-of-a-kind items like "Shout and Shoot" -- at starting bids ranging from $5 to $5,000, said Suzanne Schantz, Web auction manager, in an interview with Newsbytes. 24 -> Europe - BT Plugs Into Hot Bird 1 Satellite 05/18/95 British Telecom's Broadcast Services (BT-BS) division has launched a new facility for European broadcasting stations using the new Hot Bird 1 satellite. 25 -> UK Modem Maker Bundles Internet Starter Kit 05/18/95 Pace Micro has announced a retail package known as Netlink. In return for UKP139 (including sales tax), PC users get a 14,400 bits-per-second (bps) portable modem, an Internet software suite, a UKP25 discount voucher for the CityScape Internet service, and an Internet guide book, all in a single box. 26 -> Acorn Opens Irish Education Computing Center 05/18/95 Acorn Computers, a leading supplier of computers into the educational marketplace, has announced its first Acorn in Education Centre (AEC) in Ireland. 27 -> US Robotics Comes Clean On V.34 Sportster Bug 05/18/95 US Robotics' UK division has revealed that a small number of users of its Sportster 28,800 bits-per-second (bps) may, under certain circumstances, be unable to make full use of the modem. 28 -> European Commission Plans Computerized Driving Licenses 05/18/95 Credit card-sized driving licenses with a picture are pretty standard in most countries of the world, except in much of Europe, where an amazing variety of licenses are still used. 29 -> ****Diamond Ships Voice Modem With Internet Phone 05/18/95 Diamond Multimedia is shipping its TeleCommander 2500XL, an integrated voice/fax/data modem which is highlighted by VocalTec's Internet Phone audio-compression software. The new software allows a user to make phone calls via the Internet without long distance charges. (Ian Stokell/19950518) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 05/17/95 GENERAL UK - SAIC Intros Ruggedized HP RISC Portable (NEWS)(GENERAL)(LON)(00001) UK - SAIC Intros Ruggedized HP RISC Portable 05/17/95 CAMBERLEY, SURREY, ENGLAND, 1995 MAY 17 (NB) -- Science Applications International Corporation (SAIC) has announced what it claims is the first portable workstation based on HP's PA-RISC (Precision Architecture reduced instruction-set computing) technology. Dominic Ford, a spokesman for the company, explained that the machine, the Galaxy RISC, costs from UKP12,000 upwards and is fully software compatible with all applications running on HP's 9000/700 series of desktop workstations. The machine, which according to SAIC, is very suitable for field use, tips the scales at 15 pounds and was designed by SAIC in conjunction with Hewlett-Packard. Interestingly, the machine was jointly funded by the US Navy as part of its TAC-4 program. According to SAIC, the low weight of the machine, together with its binary compatibility with all HP PA-RISC processors, makes it commercially attractive for many applications-intensive or graphics- based applications. Typical users will include government departments, financial institutions and large organizations such as those found in the petrochemical industry. The machine comes with 16 megabytes (MB) of memory, a 525MB hard disk, and a single floppy disk system. The screen on the system is a 9.4-inch 640 by 480 pixel color active matrix LCD (liquid crystal display) which can be upgraded to 1,024 by 768 pixels. (Steve Gold/19950516/Press Contact: EML, tel +44-181-547-3955, fax +44-181-547-3950; Reader Contact: SAIC, tel +44-1276-675511, fax +44-1276-676262/SAIC051695/PHOTO) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 05/17/95 WINDOWS Israeli Firm's Multilingual Windows Word Processing (NEWS)(WINDOWS)(LON)(00002) Israeli Firm's Multilingual Windows Word Processing 05/17/95 TEL AVIV, ISRAEL, 1995 MAY 17 (NB) -- Access Software International, after some time selling its multilingual Windows word processing software at home in Israel and into selected US markets, has launched its range of packages in Europe. Speaking with Newsbytes on a whistle-stop tour of Europe, Bob Rosenschein, the company's president, explained a little bit about "what the company is about" and its recent history. The company was formerly known as Kivun Computers, having been founded in 1988. Since then, it has partnered with several companies, including Microsoft and WordPerfect, to assist the company in developing multilingual versions of its software. "Back in 1991, we partnered with Microsoft to develop bi-directional versions of Windows, now being sold worldwide," he told Newsbytes, adding that, as well as the problem of coping with new fonts and character sets, Windows' programmers had the interesting problem of coping with right to left data entry in some Middle Eastern character sets, and even vertical data entry in some Far Eastern character sets. "The task of developing a multilingual application is a lot more than simply changing the fonts and character sets. You've got menus to consider and little quirks and peculiarities native to a particular country," he explained. Today, Access sells three main Windows packages: Access Express, Access Special Edition, and Access Professional. Access Express is a "vanilla" multilingual word processor that can cope with 35 languages, allowing data entry and file editing. The package sells for around the UKP50 mark, Rosenschein told Newsbytes. "Then you have the Access Special Edition package that sells for UKP120 or thereabouts. This package copes with multiple European languages including French, Italian, Portuguese, Spanish, and English. It also has multilingual spelling-checkers," he said. The flagship of the Accent series is Access Professional, which embraces several dozen languages, including Russian (Cyrillic), Japanese (Kanji), and several other non-European character sets and fonts. The package sells for around the UKP200 mark. Rosenschein went on to say that Accent is working on enhancing its word processor line for Windows with auto-translation systems. Plans call for the introduction of a German-English facility, to be followed by Spanish-English, French-English, and Italian-English in due course. "It's important to realize that our products are compatible with other mainstream PC/Windows applications. We're also working on Apple Mac and Unix editions of our software, as we're finding this is an untapped area of the market," he told Newsbytes. (Steve Gold/19950517/Press Contact: The Rowland Company, tel +44-171-436-4060, fax +44-171-255-2131, Internet e-mail susanr@rowland.mhs.compuserve.com; Reader Contact: Access Software International, +972-2-793-723, Internet e-mail bobr@accent.co.il) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 05/17/95 WINDOWS ISIS Intros Windows Fault Tolerant Environment (NEWS)(WINDOWS)(LON)(00003) ISIS Intros Windows Fault Tolerant Environment 05/17/95 LONDON, ENGLAND, 1995 MAY 17 (NB) -- ISIS Distributed Systems of Marlboro, Ma., in the US, has unveiled what it claims is the first Reliable software development kit (SDK) for Windows 3.1 and Windows NT applications. According to Ashley Stephenson, ISIS' vice president of marketing, stopping over in London late last week for a meeting with distributors, the package is the first development environment for fault tolerant (FT) applications running under Windows. "We've seen fault tolerance available for the Unix environment for some time, but this is the first time FT has been available for Windows," he told Newsbytes. According to Stephenson, using the Reliable SDK, software developers can build reliability and fault tolerance in their Windows 3.1 and Windows NT applications. A separate Unix specific version of the Reliable SDK is also being released. The Unix version is available in a number of Unix flavors, including SunOS, Solaris, HP-UX, OSF/1, and AIX (IBM's Unix flavor). Pilot tests on the Unix versions have been under way for two years. So how does the Windows SDK work? According to Stephenson, the SDK is a messaging/middleware application programming interface (API) that is layered on top of standard operating systems and comms protocol stacks. The SDK is billed as being platform-independent and is compatible with TCP/IP (Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol), NFS (Network File System), and Corba applications, Applications that are built to conform to the ISIS API are claimed to be fault tolerant thanks to their active replication of processes and data. To achieve fault tolerance, ISIS-enabled applications are constructed from similar "building blocks" of program code that are replicated in multiple physical locations across a distributed system. The concept is similar to being able to drive the car or catch a bus to the office. Usually, one main route is used, but if that route is unavailable for any reason, different routes can be used -- in the case of the ISIS SDK-enabled programs, that "alternative route" is used automatically. "If a server fails on the net, then the other process group members can complete the required tasks," explained Stephenson, adding that this is possible because other process group members are available to continue the work of the application. According to Stephenson, active replication technology, as seen on ISIS SDK-enabled applications, is a very reliable fault tolerant technology and is a significant improvement over "fallover technologies," since it eliminates the inherent downtime and restart associated with fallover systems. So who is ISIS? The company is a wholly owned subsidiary of Stratus Computer and was founded in 1989, before being acquired by Stratus in 1993. The company employs around 85 staff and operates independently from Stratus' business division. (Steve Gold/19950517/Press Contact: Arrow Public Relations, tel +44-1344-779000, fax +44-1344-779555, Internet e-mail 100432.2433@compuserve.com; Reader Contact: Isis, tel (US) 800-258-0990, fax 508-481-9274) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 05/17/95 WINDOWS UK - Omniplex's Windows 3.1 Client For Uniplex Mail (NEWS)(WINDOWS)(LON)(00004) UK - Omniplex's Windows 3.1 Client For Uniplex Mail 05/17/95 HEMEL HEMPSTEAD, HERTFORDSHIRE, ENGLAND, 1995 MAY 17 (NB) -- Omniplex has taken the wraps off Deliver, a Windows 3.1 client package for Uniplex Mail. According to Graeme Youngs, Omniplex's marketing director, Deliver provides an intuitive Windows 3-based user interface for Uniplex mail, and office automation package also from Omniplex. Using the package, PC users can prepare, read and manage their Uniplex electronic-mail through a Windows graphical user interface (GUI), with full drag-and-drop capabilities. The package also has an optional document conversion and viewing utility available. Deliver is billed as working with both version 7 and 8 Uniplex mail systems, working over any network which supports the Windows' Sockets interface, including the Microsoft TCP/IP (Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol) stack shipped with Windows for Workgroups and Windows 95. "Organizations such as DHL, which use Uniplex mail across thousands of users worldwide, show how feature rich and reliable the package is. Deliver provides a contemporary client for the mail system, giving a full Windows look-and-feel to a popular and robust mail package," Youngs explained. Pricing on Deliver depends on site licensing for Omniplex and Uniplex customers. The package runs on almost any PC running Windows 3.1. Omniplex is a vertical market company that was formed in 1990 by former Uniplex staff to provide a range of add-on tools and services to Uniplex users. The company has, over the past five years, expanded its remote to provide ancillary software tools and applications for all Unix users, and its products are sold throughout Europe and in the US and Canada. (Sylvia Dennis/19950517/Press & Reader Contact: Omniplex, tel +44-1442-234460, fax +44-1442-234461) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 05/17/95 NETWORK Intel Rolls Out 1st "Virus Firewall" System (NEWS)(NETWORK)(LON)(00005) Intel Rolls Out 1st "Virus Firewall" System 05/17/95 SWINDON, ENGLAND, 1995 MAY 17 (NB) -- Intel Europe has unveiled Landesk Virus Protect 3.0, the latest version of its virus protection package, that has been enhanced to provide a claimed "Virus Firewall." According to Jim Smith, director of Intel's networking products division, the virus protection element of the package consists of three distinct components that together create the software industry's first Virus Firewall -- a barrier that both detects and prevents the entire enterprise and network-based system from virus infections. "Virus Protect 3.0 extends Intel's end-to-end management strategy, providing centrally managed, advanced technologies that prevent virus infections across the enterprise from servers and desktops to remote and home systems," Smith explained. Smith claims that the package is a milestone in the industry, since "It provides powerful firewall virus protection, while integrating and including the proven reporting and alerting features of Landesk Management Suite." The first element of the firewall is an enhanced real-time scanning software module that scans all files being copies across the network to servers and workstations for possible infection. The second element is the use of an "Integrity Shield" to prevent the modification of individual executable files, directories or volumes, and reduce the risk of viruses infecting the network's workstations and servers. The third firewall component, according to Intel, is the industry's first "Clean Room" verification -- a background application that combines pattern scanning and integrity checking systems to create a "clean room environment." The three elements are controlled using a central software console, which the administrator has overall access to. According to Intel, using this centralized approach saves the network administrator time when maintaining and updating the network. The console ID generates detailed reports on network activities, allowing the administrator to take any appropriate action the package suggests. In use, the package is set up to alert the LAN (local area network) administrator using electronic-mail, fax, or radiopager messages to the existence of a possible infection. The package is billed as being "integration compatible" with Landesk Management Suite and "snaps into Novell's NetWare Management System (NMS) and Novell's ManageWise. Landesk Virus Protect 3.0 is available immediately in Europe with a UKP699 price tag per managed server. The package is also available in the US with a similar price point. (Steve Gold/19950517/Press Contact: Text 100, +44-181-242-4100; Reader Contact: Intel UK, tel +44-1793-696000, fax +44-1793-430763) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 05/17/95 TELECOM Ericsson's Mobitex Used By Singapore Taxi Firm (NEWS)(TELECOM)(LON)(00006) Ericsson's Mobitex Used By Singapore Taxi Firm 05/17/95 STOCKHOLM, SWEDEN, 1995 MAY 17 (NB) -- Ericsson's Mobitex wireless data communications technology has been chosen as the base system for a computerized taxi cab system run by Singapore's Comfort Pte Ltd., reportedly the largest taxi company in the world. According to Sam Chong Keen, Comfort's managing director, the Mobitex system will be operational early next year and will be used to transfer information such as pickup points and responses between the central booking system and the taxis. The first phase of the system's installation includes testing key functions in 500 taxis on the Comfort taxi network. In the second phase, a further 5,000 taxis will be brought on to the system and will be equipped with a mobile data facility as well as the key functions. If the second stage of the project goes well, then all 9,500 taxis run by the Comfort company will be plugged into the mobile data network. The contractor for the project is CEI Technologies, a Singapore based computer and telecoms reseller. Comfort's Chong Keen said that the system will allow the company to offer the most efficient taxi service to customers. "Taxi services in Singapore will see a revolutionary change as we move into the high tech area," he said. "Given that mobile data technology and its usage are relatively new here, we welcome this challenge to leverage the use of the technology in an application that will give tremendous benefit to the public," commented Yong Lum Sung, general manager of ST Mobile Data, the Mobitex service operator in Singapore. Once the full system is up and running, regular customers of Comfort will be able to call for a taxi by pressing their phone's touch tone keypad. The numbers entered into the system will specify the customer's account number, and where the pickup point is -- home, office, or any other pre-registered location. Details of the pickup will then be transmitted to the appropriate taxi, with the computer system monitoring each taxi's workload, status and position on the Mobitex network. "This is a breakthrough for Mobitex in Asia," said Jonas Lindgren, regional manager Asia-Pacific with Ericsson Telecom. "Mobitex was selected in strong competition with other technologies. Our efforts to establish Mobitex in Asia has started in Singapore, and we will now have another substantial reference installation in the area," he added. (Sylvia Dennis/19950517/Press Contact: Jonas Lindgren, +65-350-1604; Hans Severin, Ericsson +46-8-757-3632; Caroline Freudenthal, Ericsson, +46-8-404-2225) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 05/17/95 PC Olivetti Servers Offer P6 Upgrade Capability (NEWS)(PC)(LON)(00007) Olivetti Servers Offer P6 Upgrade Capability 05/17/95 LONDON, ENGLAND, 1995 MAY 17 (NB) -- Olivetti has announced a new generation of machines in its Systema range of advanced network servers. Three models kick off the new machine range and are distinctive in that they are based in the latest 100 megahertz (MHz) Pentium processors, but have upgrade options to faster Pentiums and even the P6 processor, as and when they become available. According to Olivetti officials, the machines have a high degree of resilience and availability built in to the basic chassis of the PC, allowing them to meet the needs of enterprise-level customers. The new models are: the SNX 160RS, which is available with single or dual 100MHz Pentiums; the 200RS, which is a single or bi-processor model; and the 400RS, which can support up to four processors. Nic Ford, Olivetti's server product manager, explained that the machines are ready for faster Pentium processors (such as the soon-to-ship 120MHz chip) and the P6, thanks to the new Corollary system bus. "A key feature of the Systema line is that it has been designed to protect users' investments in hardware and software," he said, adding that the open architecture of the range "means it can easily evolve to take full advantage of current and future generations of Intel processors, as these new models clearly demonstrate." What about the resilience of the new Systema range? Olivetti officials claim that the high resilience of the machines is due to technology such as: a PCI (Peripheral Component Interconnect) disk subsystem with RAID (redundant array of inexpensive disks) technology; hot swap and hot spare disks to minimize the risk of computer down time; a set of sensors to monitor the temperature of system components; and the use of an uninterruptible power supply (UPS). Olivetti expects shipments of the new Systema range to start within the next few months, at which time UK pricing will be announced. The new machines will be shipped with a new server management software system known as Server View. According to Olivetti, Server View simplifies the work of network administrators by allowing all servers on a network to be controlled from a single Windows workstation. The software system was jointly developed by Olivetti with Network managers, a UK company that specializes in network management software. Server View uses the Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP) system which Olivetti claims is becoming a de facto standard for network management software. The application -- which monitors server status, the I/O (input/output) sub-system and environmental changes -- also provides graphic mapping of the client architecture, and statistical information independently from the operating system running on the server. (Steve Gold/19950517/Press Contact: Text 100, +44-181- 242-4117; Reader Contact: Olivetti, tel +44-181-785-6666, fax +44-181-874-3014) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 05/17/95 WINDOWS O'Reilly Intros WebSite For Windows NT (NEWS)(WINDOWS)(TYO)(00008) O'Reilly Intros WebSite For Windows NT 05/17/95 SEBASTOPOL, CALIFORNIA, USA, 1995 MAY 17 (NB) -- O'Reilly & Associates has begun shipping WebSite for Windows, a new Windows NT 3.5 version of their World Wide Web server software. The software is aimed at operators of computers that host home pages on the Internet's World Wide Web, a part of the global network that consists of thousands of hypertext linked pages. The software has been written by Enterprise Integration Technologies' Bob Denny whose Windows HTTPD server software, a 16-bit web server for Windows 3.1, is currently being used on an estimated 20,000 servers on the World Wide Web. The new 32-bit software is not just an upgraded version of his other product though as Ellen Elias of O'Reilly & Associates told Newsbytes. "There are so many new and improved features, we'd have to say that it's new. On the other hand, it is definitely based on Windows HTTPD," said Elias. WebSite includes many features to make running a World Wide Web server easier. These include: WebView, which provides a tree-like graphical display of all of the documents on the server; display icons indicating broken links between documents; a graphics editor for improving and modifying images within pages; and a window for accessing statistics, such as number of accesses of a particular page. With a mind to keeping your data secure, WebSite can screen users based on several parameters, including name, group, or IP (Internet Protocol) address, and can bar them from accessing certain areas. For instance, a server can include sections for both public and internal users. An upgrade, already planned for this autumn, will add full encryption services -- S-HTTP and SSL -- to the software, making it compatible with other encryption systems already implemented in popular World Wide Web browsers such as Netscape's Navigator and the NCSA's Mosaic. O'Reilly adds that the software is also compatible with the current beta release of Windows 95 as well as Windows NT 3.5. The 400,000 recipients of the Windows Preview Guide will receive a time limited version of WebSite on the WUGNET CD Sampler for Windows 95 which is being distributed with the preview guide. Later this month an online demo version will also be available from WebSite Central at O'Reilly, http://website.ora.com/, which will also be taking orders for the $499 software. Whilst you are browsing the Web site you will also be testing how the software works as Elias explained: "Currently, WebSite Central and other internal sites are on WebSite." (Martyn Williams/19950517/Press contact: Ellen Elias, O'Reilly & Associates, tel 707-829-0515, Internet e-mail elias@ora.com; Public contact: O'Reilly & Associates, tel 800-998-9938 or 707-829-0104, Internet e-mail: website@ora.com or order@ora.com) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 05/17/95 ONLINE Internet Update (NEWS)(ONLINE)(TYO)(00009) Internet Update 05/17/95 TOKYO, JAPAN, 1995 MAY 17 (NB) -- In this roundup of new services and resources on the Internet: Tell the world where you are; Ask Dr Internet; Predict the champion; Follow the AIDS Ride II; Create your own comic; Public broadcasting online; The history of type. Tell The World Where You Are "1002 Situations" is an Austrian project to show the locations of World Wide Web users to the world. The idea is simple, you contribute text, pictures or sound of your homeland to the project organizers at Castle Tollet in Northern Austria. For two weeks, from September 15, the 1,002 best will be exhibited at the Castle. As an incentive to enter, there are competitions for the three most interesting text, picture or sound files placed into the peoples museum. First prize is a trip to the castle to see your work on opening day, no matter where in the world you live. World Wide Web: http://fgidec1.tuwien.ac.at/1002situations/ Ask Dr Internet Dr Internet is now online to answer questions about the computer network from users, both new and old, worldwide. The service is supported by a group of volunteers from Project Gutenburg who are answering five new questions a month plus five answers that have been sent in as FAQs (frequently asked questions). All the answers are then added to a master FAQ list. You can send in questions, and answers via electronic-mail to internet@jg.cso.uiuc.edu Predict The Champion This May 24, the final of the Champions League soccer tournament takes place between two of Europe's top soccer teams, Ajax and AC Milan. This Web page gives you the chance to pick the winner, see who others are predicting and find out the current favorite. World Wide Web: http://www.astro.uva.nl/michielb/final/final.html Follow The AIDS Ride II All this week the AIDS Ride II is taking place throughout California and each day an update is being posted onto the World Wide Web. Two riders, Amy Rasmussen and Benjamin James, are using a portable computer and cell phone to send updates and pictures of the ride, camp-ground and the people taking part. World Wide Web: http://www.organic.com/AIDSRIDE/ Create Your Own Comic Last month Newsbytes reported on the Crayon server which allows World Wide Web users to create their own newspaper by drawing on information already available on the Internet. Now, via a server in Finland, you can create your own comic page by creating links to daily and weekly strips and cartoons already published on the network. World Wide Web: http://www.uta.fi/yhteydet/personalhl.html Public Broadcasting Online Joining the growing ranks of broadcasters going online is Idaho Public Television. The TV station says it hopes to meet the educational and informational needs of the people of Idaho and the world. World Wide Web: http://isuux.isu.edu/~kisu. West Coast Live is a public radio program broadcast via satellite to stations across the US. Now the show has a home on the World Wide Web at http://www.wcl.org/wcl/ The History Of Type An online museum charting the history of typography has just opened. The site includes biographies of important figures in the history of type, portraits and samples of their work, as well as a glossary of typographical terms and guidelines on typographic procedures. World Wide Web: http://www.slip.net/~graphion/ (Martyn Williams/19950517) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 05/17/95 GENERAL Japan Newsbriefs (NEWS)(GENERAL)(TYO)(00010) Japan Newsbriefs 05/17/95 TOKYO, JAPAN, 1995 MAY 17 (NB) -- In this roundup of news from Japan : PC shipments up; Apple predicts a healthy year; Government to develop data network infrastructure; IBM Japan continues in Warp drive; Japanese technical support CD-ROM from Lotus; Sharp licenses D-ASK; JC-Sat announces satellite prices; KDD to offer trans-Pacific video fiber. PC Shipments Up The Japan Electronics Industry Development Association has announced that shipments of Japanese PCs rose to 3.5 million units in the last fiscal year. The figure represents a record amount and a rise on the previous year of 30%. The association says there is a growing use of PCs in the home as well as the office, a trend that is likely to continue. Shipments in the current financial year are predicted to rise by 20%. Apple Predicts A Healthy Year Apple Computer has predicted its sales of personal computers to Japan will top 700,000 units in the current financial year. The figure, which may approach 800,000 machines according to an Apple spokesman, is thanks to the introduction of Power PC based machines in the growing consumer sector. Two new models, part of the Performa series of PowerPC machines, will come complete with fax modems and CD-ROM drives. Government To Develop Data Network Infrastructure The Ministry of Post and Telecommunications says it is to devote itself to the development of a next-generation ultra high-speed national data communications network infrastructure. The government ministry will spend almost 13.5 billion yen ($156 million) on development of a 156 megabits-per-second digital network. IBM Japan Continues In Warp Drive The sales drive that aims to sell half a million copies of IBM's OS/2 Warp J this financial year is continuing with the announcement of the establishment of new sales centers. In addition to the information centers in Tokyo and Osaka, new sites will be built in Fukuoka, on Kyushu island, and in Nagoya, central Japan. A new dealer network, BESTeam will also be established to encourage development of Warp applications. Japanese Technical Support CD-ROM From Lotus Lotus Japan is to release its technical support database on CD-ROM. The Japanese language version of Knowledge Base will be available in around one month from now and becomes the first non-English language CD-ROM from Lotus. The disk will be targeted at system administrators. Sharp Licenses D-ASK Sharp Electronics has licensed its D-ASK (digital amplitude shift keying) technology, used in infrared data transmission links, to 26 companies, four of them foreign. Big names that have licensed the format include Sun Microsystems, National Semiconductor, and Ricoh. JC-Sat Announces Satellite Prices Tokyo-based JC-Sat has announced channel prices for its new digital television service to be launched next summer. A single channel, one eighth of a full transponder, on the service will cost programmers 25 million yen ($287,356) in the first year. The price will rise to 30 million yen ($344,827) in year two, and 45 million yen ($517,241) in the third year, when companies are expected to making more money from the TV services on offer. The low prices are one of the main benefits to digital television which can compress up to eight channels into the space that one analog service uses. JC-Sat hopes to be offering around 50 television channels using digital compression. KDD To Offer Trans-Pacific Video Fiber International telecommunications company KDD will become the first Japanese company to offer a video service between the US and Japan that does not make use of satellites when a new trans Pacific fiber optic cable is completed in December, 1996. The new cable, named TPC-5, consists of 120,000 individual fiber optic cables of which 15,000 will be owned by KDD. The fibers are capable of transmitting anything up to high definition TV and digital television. (Martyn Williams/19950517) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 05/17/95 PC Dell Ships Dual-Processor Desktop PC (NEWS)(PC)(DEN)(00011) Dell Ships Dual-Processor Desktop PC 05/17/95 AUSTIN, TEXAS, U.S.A., 1995 MAY 17 (NB) -- Dell Computer Corp. (NASDAQ:DELL) is now shipping its first dual-processor desktop computer, the Pentium-based Dell Optiplex DGX system. The DGX can utilize up to two Intel Pentium processors. Dell said the Optiplex DGX is targeted at corporate and federal customers like Wall Street financial analysts, aerospace design engineers, software developers and customers using computer-aided design (CAD) and computer-aided manufacturing (CAM) applications. The DGX units start at $4,040 for a 90 megahertz (MHz) Pentium model and $4,290 for a 100MHz system. Dell said it is also shipping single-processor Pentium-based 120MHz systems now that start at $4,890, with dual processor configured versions available this summer. The prices quoted apply to single-processor units with 16 megabytes (MB) of memory, a one gigabyte SCSI (small computer system interface) hard drive, 256 kilobytes (KB) of cache, a 15-inch Trinitron color monitor, a Microsoft mouse and the Microsoft Windows NT 3.5 operating system software installed. Dell said it is offering Windows NT as a no-cost option on all DGX systems. Dell said users who purchase single-chip models can later upgrade to dual processors. Video for the DGX is integrated on the motherboard and uses ATI's Mach 64 graphics accelerator. The system can be upgraded to a 128-bit Imagine video board with up to 4MB of video memory. Dell announced this week sales for the first quarter, which ended April 30, 1995, reached a record $1.14 billion. Earnings per share were $1.11 for the period. The company said first quarter sales were up 48 percent over the same period last year and 10 percent over the last quarter of the 1994 fiscal year. Dell said it is the fifth consecutive quarter of sequential revenue growth. Much of that growth was due to increased sales of notebook computers, up 35 percent over the previous quarter. (Jim Mallory/19950517/Press contact: Michele Moore, Dell, 512-728-4100; Public contact: Dell, 800-289-3355, Internet World Wide Web http://www.us.dell.com/) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 05/17/95 IBM IBM Adds New Pentiums To PC Lines (NEWS)(IBM)(TOR)(00012) IBM Adds New Pentiums To PC Lines 05/17/95 SOMERS, NEW YORK, U.S.A., 1995 MAY 17 (NB) -- IBM (NYSE:IBM) has added new computers based on the Intel Corp. Pentium processor to its Personal Computer 300 and 700 lines. IBM added new versions of its PC 330 and PC 350 systems based on the 75 megahertz (MHz) and 90MHz versions of the Pentium chip. At the same time, the company dropped the 60MHz versions of both the 330 and the 350, company spokesman Michael Reiter told Newsbytes. A new PC 750 system using the 120MHz Pentium has been added to the PC 700 line. This does not supplant any existing model, Reiter said. In the current IBM PC numbering system, the 300 series are lower- priced units while the 700 series are premium models. The second digit in the model number indicates how many expansion slots and drive bays the computer has; the 330 models have three slots and three bays, while the 350 and 750 have five slots and five bays. The PC 300 systems, including the newest models, use the Industry Standard Architecture (ISA) or AT bus. With the PC 700 machines, IBM offers its Selectabus technology, which allows customers to plug in a riser card supporting ISA, Peripheral Component Interconnect (PCI), or IBM's Micro Channel Architecture (MCA) bus. This provides a transition path for customers who have been using IBM's MCA-based Personal System/2 computers, said Reiter, who acknowledged that the industry is moving toward the PCI bus. The PCs also come with IBM's NetFinity systems management software, designed to identify adapter cards in each system to a network administrator and warn of hard-drive or memory problems, and with Vital Product Data (VPD), a tool for tracking system types, models, and serial numbers. The new models come preloaded with Online Housecall, software that allows IBM or a corporate user's own technical support staff to diagnose and sometimes correct system problems by modem. They also come with AnyView Graphics Manager, which lets a user set graphics resolution and color settings for different applications without exiting and restarting programs, and Scheduler, which makes it possible to program the system to start up at a specific time and perform predetermined functions such as sending facsimile documents. The new 75MHz PC 330 is available with a 540 megabyte (MB) or 850MB hard drive and with 8MB or 16MB of memory, at IBM Direct prices from $1,823 to $2,283. The 90MHz model has the same options and costs from $2,225 to $2,685. The 75MHz PC 350, also with 540MB or 850MB hard drive and 8MB or 16MB of memory, costs $1,880 to $2,340 from IBM Direct. The 90MHz 350 is $2,283 to $2,743. The new 300-series models are available immediately, IBM said. IBM is supplying the new 120MHz PC 750 in limited quantities to some customers now, Reiter said, but it will not be generally available until mid-July. It comes with a one gigabyte hard drive using a choice of Integrated Drive Electronics (IDE) or small computer systems interface (SCSI) technology, plus 16MB of memory, for $4,135 to $4,450. (Grant Buckler/19950517/Press Contact: Michael Reiter, IBM, 914-766-3429) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 05/17/95 ONLINE Service To Offer Internet Copyright Protection (NEWS)(ONLINE)(MSP)(00013) Service To Offer Internet Copyright Protection 05/17/95 NORTH LITTLE ROCK, ARKANSAS, U.S.A., 1995 MAY 17 (NB) -- The Intellectual Property Licensing Agency (IPLA) is opening its doors to protect copyrights in "cyberspace." Jimmy Eaton, president of IPLA, said the misappropriation of copyrighted works on the Internet is becoming "a major problem. As unmanaged and as unregulated it is, you're going to have users take advantage of anything they can." Enter the IPLA, "the Internet's first copyright protection agency," as the company puts it. Eaton said out of the two ways of compensation on the Internet, pay-per-view and blanket license, he said IPLA will go the blanket license route. He likens his system similar to the two agencies that license music, in that "blanket licenses will be collected from the (Internet) providers. The providers provide bandwidth to the user, and they also provide content. The content has been free. But now, intellectual property owners will want some compensation before they let their works on the Internet." In the future, IPLA will set blanket license fees from Internet providers. These fees will become a source of royalty income for authors. Eaton said IPLA will supply the author with a program that will operate as a front-end to the viewing of the work. The program then contacts IPLA and logs the request. Eaton said this model works better than the pay-per-view model, because he believes people should be able to surf the Internet and view, copy, and use the copyrighted works for personal use, without having to pay each time. There is no charge to the author to join or register a work with IPLA, Eaton said. The system is currently being beta-tested. The company has a World Wide Web page at http://www.ipla.com/jweb/index.html, with further information. The company is also forming a electronic- mail discussion list to discuss author's rights on the Internet. To join, send an e-mail request to ipla-talk-request@ipla.com, with the words "subscribe ipla-talk YOUR_EMAIL- ADDRESS" (without the quotation marks) in the body of the letter. (Bob Woods/19950517/Press Contacts: Jimmy Eaton, Intellectual Property Licensing Agency Inc., 501-758-3010. Public Contacts: Intellectual Property Licensing Agency, 501-758-3010, Internet World Wide Web http://www.ipla.com/jweb/index.html) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 05/17/95 GENERAL Autodesk Launches Developer Program In India (NEWS)(GENERAL)(DEL)(00014) Autodesk Launches Developer Program In India 05/17/95 NEW DELHI, INDIA, 1995 MAY 17 (NB) -- US-based Autodesk Inc., has launched the "Autodesk developer program," which has been designed to bolster development of local applications, besides assisting developers in expanding and strengthening business opportunities in the global CAD (computer-aided design) market. According to Dominic J. Gallello, the company's vice president for the Asia Pacific region, software development in India has been restricted to providing "solutions to specific products," and not packaged products for the international market. Autodesk hopes to change this through its long-term strategy to "continually support and build stronger relationships" with its value-added partners and by "providing developers with the opportunity to develop solutions for the global markets." (C.T. Mahabharat/19950517) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 05/17/95 BUSINESS India - QAI In Training Deal With UK's A-Pex (NEWS)(BUSINESS)(DEL)(00015) India - QAI In Training Deal With UK's A-Pex 05/17/95 NEW DELHI, INDIA, 1995 MAY 17 (NB) -- Quality Assurance Institute (QAI) India Ltd., a joint venture between US-based QAI and INTECOS, has recently tied-up with A-Pex Quality International, UK, a leading quality and ISO 9000 training and consulting organization. The tie-up was launched by Michael Song, managing director of A-Pex Quality International (UK). The deal plans to address the ISO 9000 consulting and training needs of the region. QAI (India) personnel have been licensed by A-Pex (UK) to conduct Internal Auditor courses in India and will be provided with A-Pex course material. A-Pex faculty will, however, continue to conduct the Tick-IT Lead Auditor courses in conjunction with QAI (India). A-Pex has been offering services on a global network with offices in Japan, UK, China, Korea, US, Canada, Finland, and China. (C.T. Mahabharat/19950517) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 05/17/95 TELECOM Bell Canada Can Relinquish Wiring - CRTC (NEWS)(TELECOM)(TOR)(00016) Bell Canada Can Relinquish Wiring - CRTC 05/17/95 OTTAWA, ONTARIO, CANADA, 1995 MAY 17 (NB) -- The Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) has given the country's largest phone company the green light to transfer ownership of all inside wiring to its single-line business and residential customers. Bell Canada subscribers will become responsible for their own wiring February 1, 1996. Following the change, customers will have to pay Bell Canada for installation and any repairs the company performs on wiring within a home or business. They will also have the option of doing their own installation or repairs or hiring another contractor to do them. Bell already charges for installing new wiring, but not for repairs and maintenance. The installation charges will increase as a result of the CRTC ruling. In giving permission for the change, which Bell first requested in 1992, the CRTC ordered the company to produce a simply-written wiring guide explaining to customers how they can install and maintain their own wiring or hire an outside service to do it. Early in 1994, the CRTC rejected the original applications from Bell Canada and British Columbia Telephone Co. to transfer inside wiring to customers, saying the terms the two phone companies suggested were not in the public interest. However, at that time the regulatory body also suggested alternate terms that it said would be acceptable. In its latest decision the CRTC said Bell's new application conformed to those terms. Effective February 1, 1996, other companies will be allowed to compete with Bell in providing home telephone wiring installation and maintenance. Until the changeover, the current terms will still apply for inside wiring installation and maintenance. The change affects single-line customers in Ontario and Quebec, the two provinces Bell Canada serves. Bell was also told to provide full information on the change to all of its single-line customers by August 1. (Grant Buckler/19950517/Press Contact: CRTC Public Affairs, tel 819-997-0313, fax 819-994-0218, Internet World Wide Web http://www.crtc.gc.ca; Public Contact: CRTC, Internet World Wide Web http://www.crtc.gc.ca) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 05/17/95 GOVT ****Think Tank Wants To Kill FCC (NEWS)(GOVT)(WAS)(00017) ****Think Tank Wants To Kill FCC 05/17/95 WASHINGTON, D.C., U.S.A., 1995 MAY 17 (NB) -- It's time to get the government out of the telecommunications marketplace, says a Washington think tank allied with House Speaker Newt Gingrich (R-Ga.). The Progress & Freedom Foundation calls for elimination of the Federal Communications Commission in a report released yesterday. The think tank says the FCC should be replaced with a small executive branch office of no more than 250 employees. The FCC currently employs over 2,000 federal workers. Under the plan, current holders of FCC licenses would get permanent claim to those licenses at no cost. All future licenses would be sold at auction. The foundation is a tax-exempt organization that airs a weekly television show by Gingrich. It produced the college course that Gingrich taught until recently. George Keyworth, chairman of the foundation, says, "The US regulatory system, conceived and designed for analog technologies available during the New Deal, is the greatest roadblock to our continued leadership in the information age." Regulators, says Keyworth, "are enmeshed within a system whose underlying premises and overt structure prevents deployment of new technologies, products and services." Keyworth, White House science adviser in the Reagan administration, says the best model for telecommunications is the computer industry, based on freedom from government interference. "Just 10 years ago," Keyworth said, "America appeared destined to lose the race for dominance in the computer revolution in the face of state-sponsored efforts in Japan and elsewhere. Today, few doubt that we won the race, fair and square. We won because there were no impediments blocking the blossoming of new technology and businesses." According to the foundation report, what is needed is a transformation from an analog, telephone-based communications infrastructure to a broad-band digital infrastructure. And the FCC is ill-equipped to get us there. Under the foundation plan, the FCC would cease to exist on September 30, 1996. Its functions would be transferred to a new "Office of Communications Policy," in an executive branch agency such as the Treasury. But not everyone agrees with the analysis of the foundation. "The notion that government had nothing to do with the success of the computer industry is mythology," said an official of a Washington trade group who requested anonymity. "Surely the government support for SEMATECH had a lot to do with the rebound of the semiconductor industry." "This is the wrong time to be eliminating the FCC," said Richard Wiley, former FCC commissioner and a Washington telecommunications lawyer. "You need the FCC to set the ground rules to make sure you end up with a competitive marketplace." Whether the report will be influential could be determined as soon as today, foundation spokesman Andrew Hoffman told Newsbytes. That's because the House telecommunications subcommittee is marking up a new telecommunications bill and Chairman Jack Fields (R-Texas) has said he is open to considering alternatives to the FCC. The House Budget Committee this week passed a budget plan for the next seven years that would eliminate the departments of Commerce, Energy and Education, but makes no mention of the FCC. (Kennedy Maize/19950517/Press Contact: Andrew Hoffman, 202-484-2312) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 05/17/95 TRENDS Trade Group, Law Firm Plan Digital Commerce Conf (NEWS)(TRENDS)(WAS)(00018) Trade Group, Law Firm Plan Digital Commerce Conf 05/17/95 WASHINGTON, D.C., U.S.A., 1995 MAY 17 (NB) -- The Software Publishers Association and the Washington law firm of Steptoe & Johnson are sponsoring a conference next month on digital commerce. "If online commerce is the killer application of the 21st century," Douglas Miller, government affairs manager at SPA, told Newsbytes, "then a number of government institutions and policies must be in place. This conference will address those sorts of issues." "This will be more than a conference. It's the beginning of a long-term dialogue between the entrepreneurs who are creating digital commerce and the government officials who will help shape the terms of competition in this new industry," said Steptoe & Johnson partner Stewart Baker. The June 19 conference at Washington's ANA Hotel will feature speakers including William Reinsch, under secretary at the Commerce Department and Larry Irving, administrator of the National Telecommunications and Information Administration. NTIA is also part of the Commerce Department. Topics addressed will include fraud on the World Wide Web, secure digital payments, intellectual property, encryption, and privacy. Registration is $245 for SPA members and $295 for non-members. The key includes conference registration, continental breakfast, lunch, and course materials. Details about the conference are available on SPA's home page on the World Wide Web. The address is http://www.spa.org. Founded in 1985, SPA now represents over 1,000 publishers of personal computer software. Steptoe & Johnson is a full-service Washington law firm with more than 220 attorneys. (Kennedy Maize/19950517/Press Contact: Douglas Miller, 202-452-1600 ext 342; Public Contact: Nadia Kader, 202-452-1600 ext 339) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 05/17/95 TRENDS New Study To Target Internet Users (NEWS)(TRENDS)(MSP)(00019) New Study To Target Internet Users 05/17/95 NEW YORK CITY, NEW YORK, U.S.A., 1995 MAY 17 (NB) -- The Emerging Technologies Group of FIND/SVP (NASDAQ:FSVP) said it has begun surveying the current size and characteristics of the Internet user universe, called the "American Internet User Survey." "We feel this is a timely moment for this survey," Mary Porter, marketing communications manager for the Emerging Technologies Group at FIND/SVP, told Newsbytes. "No one's really done this kind of primary research of Internet users so far, to our knowledge. We feel people are really asking for it." The company said the "American Internet User Survey" will estimate the size of various user segments and explore the usage habits of each. Residential and business users will be targeted, focusing on the good the bad of the Internet, as well as what people would like to do in the future on the Net. Some of the questions the survey hopes to answer include who is using the Internet in demographic terms, what types of products are most likely to succeed using the Internet, and in what ways might "creative" or "substantive" information context or content increase or decrease Internet sales. The aim of the study to "to help planners and marketers anticipate and understand the growth of the Internet as part of their overall strategy for communicating and providing services in the future," Thomas E. Miller, vice president of the Emerging Technologies Research Group of FIND/SVP, said. The study will combine an online survey, a telephone survey, and in- depth focus groups, the company said. Some results should be available for release by the end of summer, according to Porter. FIND/SVP is the same firm that last year conducted the "American Information User Survey," which first documented the dramatic inroads the Internet has made into US homes, the company said. Earlier this week, Newsbytes reported on a different survey of Internet users. It found, among other things, that more women are online than was originally thought. The ratio of men to women is about 2:1, the survey said, which was way down from the conventional thinking of nine men to one woman. More details are available via either the company's World Wide Web page at http://ertg.findsvp.com, or via auto-response electronic- mail at info@etrg.findsvp.com, with the words "send details" (without the quotation marks) in the subject line. (Bob Woods/19950517/Press Contacts: Mary Porter, FIND/SVP, 212-807-2696; Public Contact: Dana Simmons, FIND/SVP, 800-965- 4636, Internet e-mail dsimmons@findsvp.com; Internet World Wide Web http://etrg.findsvp.com) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 05/17/95 ONLINE America Online Intros Home Shopping Network Area (NEWS)(ONLINE)(SFO)(00020) America Online Intros Home Shopping Network Area 05/17/95 VIENNA, VIRGINIA, U.S.A., 1995 MAY 17 (NB) -- America Online (NASDAQ:AMER) and Home Shopping Network (NYSE:HSN), operator of the popular television shopping channel, have announced an online version of its video shopping format. HSN Interactive, a newly formed subsidiary of Home Shopping Network operates and manages the new area, called Global Plaza. Sometime in the fall, an additional area, HSN Interactive Masterworks, will open as a specialty store. For the time being, Global Plaza is offering home, auto and personal use brand-name items. Within these categories AOL members will find phones, watches, kitchenware, personal electronic devices, books, videos and other items. Each item is displayed with a complete description, photo and price. Users may order items through a simple process and credit card verification. When Masterworks becomes available, AOL members will be able to access a specialty store which features best-selling books, works of art and music, fine books, jewelry, and special gifts. Commenting on the new area, Judy Tashbook, public relations director for AOL, said, "Online shopping has proven to be very popular among our members and we are pleased to pass-on the values from HSN, a trusted name in the merchandising industry." Tashbook also said, "AOL recently announced its agreement to participate in the Terisa Systems security solution. This will bring additional security to online financial transactions not only to AOL, but to the online community." Along with AOL, the new security agreement includes CompuServe, Prodigy, IBM, Netscape, and others. The first development tools should be available by June. The Home Shopping Network joins a list of popular retailers already conducting business on AOL. The list of retailers includes 1-800- Flowers, Health and Vitamin Store Express, Shopper's Express, AutoVantage, and 2Market which offers catalog items from Hammacher Shlemmer, Lands End, Starbucks Coffee, and the Sharper Image. HSN says it will leverage its television marketing experience and its purchasing power to create a "very successful" online store. Stressing the store will be open 24 hours-a-day, seven days-a-week, and users will be able to view all of the retail inventory, HSN officials say they are "confident AOL members will be pleased" with this new area. AOL's standard fees apply to online time spent in the area. HSN has left its name out of the area where users will find only the Global Plaza name. (Patrick McKenna/19950517/Press Contact: Judy Tashbook, 703-918-3452) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 05/17/95 BUSINESS Microsoft & Novell In Support Deal (NEWS)(BUSINESS)(DEN)(00021) Microsoft & Novell In Support Deal 05/17/95 REDMOND, WASHINGTON, U.S.A., 1995 MAY 17 (NB) -- Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ: MSFT) and Novell Inc. (NASDAQ: NOVL) have announced a cooperative agreement to support mutual customers whose installation includes products sold by both companies. The two companies said key elements of the agreement to provide joint support include jointly authored technical support and enterprise-support notes on integration issues, a management- escalation program to more-efficiently resolve complex support issues, co-sponsored support forums, a product-exchange program, a technical information exchange, and a mentor exchange and cross-training program so support staffers at both companies are educated on integration issues. The co-authored technical support notes will be used by support engineers and will also be available on both companies' online technical support services. Novell will provide the tech notes on its Netwire on CompuServe and on the Internet, as well as the Network Support Encyclopedia Professional Volume. Microsoft will publish the notes on its World Wide Web site, on CompuServe, on its TechNet CD-ROM, and on The Microsoft Network scheduled for launch later this year. Novell said it will also place its NetWire service on the Microsoft Network. Jan Newman, Novell vice president of premium services, said the tech notes will result both from user problems that arise, so the problem solution will be documented for other users, and situations Novell or Microsoft personnel identify as a possible future problem or a way to improve the user's system performance. Newman said the tech notes will include enterprise support notes specific to certain types of technologies as well as customer sets in order to integrate the two company's products. Users running mission-critical applications on systems using Microsoft and Novell products will get the benefit of around-the-clock help. Microsoft and Novell said mission-critical issues can now be escalated from one company to the other at any time of the day or night, a process which will be "transparent to the user." Newman said the co-sponsored support forums will bring Microsoft and Novell technicians together with customers and support partners to deal with integration issues, how they can use the Microsoft and Novell technologies together, and resolve problems. Newman said no decision had been made on forum cost. A similar program is already available for major accounts. Sam Jadallah, Microsoft general manager of corporate development support, told Newsbytes that the joint support agreement is not a one-stop support "solution" for users of the company's products. "We are still supporting our own products. We are going to do cross-training and exchange information because of the interaction between the two products. The customer will still seek support through their normal support channels as you have issues that involve both of our products. The things we have put in place are to manage the back-end process to make sure they are resolved quickly," according to Newman. Microsoft and Novell said their chief executives, Bill Gates at Microsoft and Bob Frankenberg at Novell, will remain actively involved in evaluating the success of the program. Newman told Newsbytes over 120 support technicians have already been cross-trained and the two companies have agreed to exchange products as needed to support their customers in order to reproduce problems, perform training and do familiarization training for support technicians. Partnerships such as this one are going to be a way of life, as long as they are meaningful and benefit the customer, according to Novell's Newman. "As the industry continues to grow there are just too many things for one company to do. Partnerships, relationships and alliances are going to be critical," Newman told Newsbytes. (Jim Mallory/19950517/Press contact: Lyle Ball, Novell, 801-228-4855; Steve Blair, Microsoft, 206-704-4615) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 05/17/95 GENERAL Eastern Mind, A Japanese Myst CD Game (NEWS)(GENERAL)(SFO)(00022) Eastern Mind, A Japanese Myst CD Game 05/17/95 SANTA MONICA, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1995 MAY 17 (NB) -- At the Electronic Entertainment Expo, Sony Imagesoft joined the list of multimedia game developers who are convinced non-violent CD-ROM titles have great potential. Called a Japanese version of Myst, Eastern Mind: The Lost Souls of Tong Nou, is an interactive game which explores eastern metaphysical culture and the premise of reincarnation. #IMAGE 1 20 TWPCX \images\95051722.PCX Click here for photo According to the company, the story and game were created by a well-known Japanese artist, Osamu Sato, whose work is portrayed in "stunning" designs throughout the CD. His story is based on the idea that one must live many lives before achieving a higher goal. The primary character, Rin, awakens to find his soul missing and realizes it has been taken by a living island called Tong Nou. Rin begins a journey through special worlds with unique characters. Unlike many CD-ROM games which center around not dying, Eastern Mind involves nine deaths to emerge victorious with one's soul. The Japanese version, known as Tong Nou, has been a large success in Japan as a Macintosh title. A second story, part of which will be a trilogy, is already under development for the Japanese market. The US version of the game will be available for Mac and Windows-based multimedia-capable computers. Osamu Sato became known to Sony through the Digital Entertainment Program designed to encourage young Japanese artists. As part of the program, Sato participated in a multimedia design contest and his entry resulted in Tong Nou, the interactive game. Newsbytes had the opportunity to speak with Sato through a translator provided by Sony. Sato said he was given complete creative control for this project and, as well as the story and graphics, he created the original music for the title. "I have a very diverse artistic background. I have been trained in many artistic disciplines and my first contact with the electronic world started with creating music on a synthesizer," said Sato. He also created the music track for Eastern Mind. Responding to questions about particular Japanese religious disciplines, Sato said, "Eastern Mind is not, formally speaking, from any specific religion. I have taken what you would call 'folk concepts' about religion and applied them to the game. Asians have many different ideas about reincarnation and I have combined many of these ideas into the story." He continued, "I am interested in religion not as a belief, but as a window on the soul of a culture. Eastern Mind shows a reverent curiosity for these ideas, but it is not part of a spiritual discipline. It has its own identity and it is a fantasy game." Sony says this dual-platform, interactive game will ship mid-summer. The Mac version requires a 68030 processor or higher with five megabytes (MB) of RAM, System 7.1 or higher, QuickTime 2.0, at least a 13-inch color monitor and a multimedia-capable system. The Windows version requires a 486 25 megahertz (MHz) or faster processor, 8MB RAM, 256-color Windows accelerator VGA adapter, VGA color monitor, DOS 6.0 or higher, Windows 3.1 or better, and a multimedia-capable system. The street price for this title is expected to be about $30 to $40. (Patrick McKenna/1995/Press Contact: Dana Oertell, Sony Imagesoft, 310-449-2468/SATO19950517/PHOTO) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 05/17/95 BUSINESS Kaiser & SAIC To Develop Health Computer System (NEWS)(BUSINESS)(MSP)(00023) Kaiser & SAIC To Develop Health Computer System 05/17/95 FALLS CHURCH, VIRGINIA, U.S.A., 1995 MAY 17 (NB) -- Contract negotiations are underway between Science Applications International Corp. (SAIC) and Kaiser Permanente's Northern California Region for the development of Kaiser Permanente's distributed computing infrastructure (DCI), officials said. The new infrastructure "has never been done on this scale in the healthcare industry," one official said. When negotiations are complete, SAIC said it will help Kaiser Permanente build its next-generation computing and network infrastructure to support business and clinical operations of its health maintenance organization (HMO). When done, the DCI will consist of both centralized and de-centralized computers and desktop workstations connected via network. Andy Wasson, project manager of Kaiser Permanente's DCI effort, said the healthcare market is becoming more competitive, and "we know we need to improve access and service, while we continue to reduce our costs. In order to do that, we need to be able to provide information to our care givers and our business people who focus on servicing our members." He said a lot of those capabilities are pointing his company towards client-server solutions like the one SAIC is developing. "What the DIC is all about is providing the capability of taking care of patients in a very high-performance, highly reliable environment. "This will support a complex set of business and clinical operations that will be highly integrated," Wasson said. "We're integrating this with a lot of our business functions, including some statewide membership activities." The DCI project will provide systems and services for 30,000 employees at 57 sites in Northern California. DCI will be the foundation for Kaiser Permanente's major new clinical and business applications that will take the company beyond the year 2000, the company said. A key application will be a fully-integrated clinical information system, being co-developed by Kaiser Permanente and Oacis Healthcare Systems. (Bob Woods/19950517/Press Contacts: Sue Volek, SAIC, 619-535-7286; Kirsten Cherry, Kaiser Permanente Northern California, 510-926-5129) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 05/17/95 GENERAL Banyan Unveils Redwood Strategy (NEWS)(GENERAL)(BOS)(00024) Banyan Unveils Redwood Strategy 05/17/95 WESTBORO, MASSACHUSETTS, U.S.A., 1995 MAY 17 -- At an all-day briefing session for the press, Banyan unveiled Redwood, a three-year "strategic vision" made up of three initiatives: Click to Information, which calls for X.500 "global directory" services that will be extended to the Internet; Business on Mail, a messaging backbone for connecting multivendor mail systems to "any database;" and Self-Managing Networks, a program for using agents to automate network management. Banyan's new Click to Information initiative revolves around Universal StreetTalk, an upcoming X.500 directory that Banyan plans to offer on all major platforms, officials said at Banyan Strategy Briefing Day, held at Banyan headquarters in Westboro, Massachusetts, and attended by Newsbytes. Universal StreetTalk will provide synchronization between Universal StreetTalk and other X.500 directory services, such as those under development by Novell, said John M. Paul, Banyan's senior VP of product and business development. Barbara Shelhoss, general manager for Banyan's Directory Business Unit, explained that Banyan's new "global directory" will include an integrated search engine, attribute storage, and "scalable replication," along with built-in security that will include public-private key-based data encryption, single log-on passwords, user authentication through X.509 certificate management, and X.501 access controls. Universal StreetTalk will also eliminate the need for network administrators to "push information out" by allowing users to "pull it down from the network," Shelhoss told the journalists. Banyan intends to provide an "open API (application programming interface)," and to license Universal StreetTalk to third-party applications developers free of charge, she added. Banyan will also produce a version of StreetTalk for the Internet, with integrated search capabilities and pointers for locating businesses, electronic-mail addresses, and software applications on the Web, according to the Banyan executives. The new Banyan on Mail will use messaging as a database front-end to "any messaging system," noted Eugene Lee, director and general manager of Banyan's Messaging Business Unit. The store-and-forward messaging system will include application mailboxes, a rule server, and a "real-time ODBC (Open Database Connectivity) connection" for access to multivendor databases, he reported. Banyan will provide a Business on Mail Runtime client, along with a set of application development tools, said Lee. The Business on Mail Runtime, an add-on to existing e-mail and Internet access packages, will run on Windows, Windows 95, Windows NT, OS/2, Macintosh, and Unix. Jeffrey D. Liotta, general manager, Management, explained that the new Self-Managing Networks initiative is based on Banyan's previously announced Distributed Management Architecture (Demarc). Layered above the Demarc foundation will be an agent framework, and above that, a series of applications such as Outlook, System Management, and ENS MT, according to Liotta. Banyan has already shipped its first network agent, a "discovery agent" called Outlook 1.0, and will soon release a back-up-restore agent known as EBR 1.0, he revealed. Liotta also demonstrated integration between Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP) and Microsoft's object linking and embedding (OLE) 2.0, disclosing that this capability will be added in Outlook 1.1. Shelhoss told the assembled journalists that Universal StreetTalk represents an "unbundling" as well as an extension of the existing StreetTalk directory for Banyan's ENS and Vines. In addition to complying with the X.500 cross-platform directory standard, Universal StreetTalk will support Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol (TCP/IP), LDAP, and Microsoft's Mail Application Programming Interface (MAPI) and OLE, she said. To illustrate how Universal StreetTalk's "pull" capability will benefit organizations, Shelhoss used the example of a magazine. Subscribers will be able to "pull" subscription and change-of-address forms from the network, she said. Advertisers will pull ads, rate cards and editorial calendars, and writers from "sister" publications will pull editorial copy. Readers will be able to ask questions of editors and writers, and pull down the answers. Lee told the journalists that the forthcoming Banyan on Mail will let the user search multiple multivendor databases simultaneously through automatic performance of database joins. Application development tools for Banyan on Mail will add "flexible" Web and e-mail forms and new workflow products for "linking in agents" to the tools already available for Banyan's BeyondMail 2.0, according to Lee. The new tools will "leverage Visual Basic," he noted. Liotta provided a roadmap on the rollout of Banyan's new network agents. By the end of 1996, he said, Banyan will release agents for SNMP, data distribution, trending, event management, and Management Information Base (MIB)/Event Enabled Services, he said. Other examples of upcoming network agents include: agents for server and desktop configuration; inventory; event filtering and correlation; history processing and analysis; directory change; data distribution; and security enforcement, he added. The ultimate goal of Banyan's three-year Self-Managing Networks initiative is to produce an architecture capable of "capacity planning," or "predicting the future and being pro-active in the managing of network resources," according to Liotta. If, for example, a mail service is crashing frequently and losing inbound and outbound mail because a folder crammed with 4,000 messages is consuming too much disk space, the self-managing network will correct the situation through measures such as notifying the user of the problem, setting disk usage thresholds, and automatically archiving data, he asserted. Also during Banyan Strategy Briefing Day, Banyan executives responded to a number of questions from reporters. Liotta was asked whether Banyan's Self-Managing Networks Initiative is similar to Microsoft's concept of the "self-healing network." His answer to the question was "yes." (Jacqueline Emigh/19950517/Reader Contact: Banyan Systems Inc., 508-898-1000; Press Contact: Edward P. Thomas, Jr., Banyan, 508-898-1000) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 05/17/95 WINDOWS Individual Software's Windows 95 Tutorial CD (NEWS)(WINDOWS)(SFO)(00025) Individual Software's Windows 95 Tutorial CD 05/17/95 PLEASANTON, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1995 MAY 17 (NB) -- Individual Software, a publisher of learning, training and "lifestyle" software, has announced Professor Windows '95 Multimedia. The interactive CD is a multimedia tutorial for Microsoft's new operating environment and will be timed to the August 24 shipping date of Windows 95. Individual's president, Jo-L Hendrickson, told Newsbytes, "Win 95 is one of the largest developments in the history of Microsoft. It will include its own tutorial, but it will not be one which is multimedia- based. We are leveraging our strengths as a specialist in learning and training software to create an interactive title which is divided into two tracks. One track will be for the average user and the other for the power user." Hendrickson also said the new operating environment of Win 95 has replaced the familiar File Manager and Program Manager with a system of folders, icons and the Windows Explorer. The Professor title covers introductory steps for starting with the new system, troubles one might encounter and advanced techniques. The CD is a full multimedia title with video, sound, graphics and interactivity. Commenting on his working relationship with Microsoft, Hendrickson said working with the software giant has been very smooth and the company was very helpful in working through the numerous details involved in creating the title. Professor Windows '95 Multimedia covers such topics as printing, faxing, long file names, navigating through the new interface, hot tips, and working with the new Plug & Play feature. The second track for power users includes Wizards, mobile computing, Briefcase, and integrated 32-bit networking. Individual quotes the JD Fletcher Institute for Defense Analysis saying: "People remember 20% of what they see, 40% of what they see and hear, and 70% of that they see, hear and do." "Professor Windows '95 Multimedia is a learning tool which engages all of those senses and allows a user to increase his or her retention of new information," said Hendrickson. Users should expect to see this new Individual Software title at most major software and computer hardware retail outlets for under $30 (street price). System requirements for Professor Windows '95 Multimedia include Windows 95, a 386 25 megahertz or faster microprocessor, eight megabytes of RAM, and a multimedia-capable personal computer. (Patrick McKenna/19950517/Press Contact: Kathleen Turnbull, Individual Software, 510-734-6767) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 05/17/95 ONLINE More On Microsoft, NBC Online Deal (NEWS)(ONLINE)(DEN)(00026) More On Microsoft, NBC Online Deal 05/17/95 REDMOND, WASHINGTON, U.S.A., 1995 MAY 17 (NB) -- NBC (NYSE:GE) President and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Bob Wright said yesterday the television network would abandon its presence on America On Line and Prodigy to move exclusively to The Microsoft Network (MSN) when that online service opens its electronic doors, probably late this summer. "Microsoft Network will be larger than other existing online services," predicted the television executive. Microsoft Chairman and CEO Bill Gates said the work of NBC in the Olympics, elections and personal finance areas are among the things that could have a presence online. Gates said the NBC content would go a long ways towards providing critical mass for MSN. The future of the GEnie online service seems to be secure, at least for the present. Wright said MSN has a different scale and uses a completely different approach than GEnie has been or plans to be. "NBC will retain a promotional presence on GEnie in order to help assist in the marketing of our own shows," said Wright. General Electric also owns NBC. GEnie trails a distant fourth in subscriber numbers behind America Online, CompuServe, which is owned by H&R Block; and Prodigy, owned by IBM and Sears. Microsoft still isn't releasing lots of information about the specific content of MSN, although the company has offered tidbits of information from time to time. Microsoft has said the online service will offer subscription rates lower than the current online leaders, although no specific costs have been released. "The goal is to make what is provided extremely low cost (to the consumer)" said Microsoft's Gates. Gates said Microsoft Windows 95 is still expected to ship in August 95. "Everything is on track to make that come about," Gates told reporters yesterday. He confirmed that in order to use MSN when it launches, the users will have to have Windows 95 running on their PCs. Gates also said Microsoft is committed to introducing client software for Apple Computer's Macintosh platform for MSN. That software is expected to ship about 60 days after the introduction of Windows 95, according to Gates. Specific information regarding the financial participation of the two companies was not disclosed, but Wright said Microsoft is making "a modest investment in NBC "in the form of providing backup of development costs particularly in the CD-ROM area." Gates said no discussions have been held in regard to Microsoft purchasing any part of NBC. Gates said advertising will be a key factor in keeping consumer costs "extremely low" and will also be a key revenue source for Microsoft. He said advertising, transaction fees and premium charges for some online services will all be needed to pay publishers and other content providers on the service. Gates said MSN will have the capacity to be larger than any existing online service. Gates predicts interactive television is still at least two or three years away. "The next two or three years you will see quite a few trials. We will be involved in a number of those. Its really only if those trials are successful in being very easy to use and very accepted, so they will generate some revenue, that all this talk about cable and phone companies enhancing the infrastructure by putting in a lot of fiber and some new electronics will all come about." He added: "We believe in all that, but it is very hard to assign a date because there are regulatory things, technical things, and cost things, all of which need to come together. As an optimist, I would say within the next three or four years we expect that to be clearly in focus and moving forward." The two executives said slightly more than 100 employees and outside contractors will be involved in bringing NBC to MSN. The majority of those will be working at the television network. NBC Digital recently announced a series of CD-ROMs, and Wright said some of those titles might be involved in the MS-NBC joint venture. (Jim Mallory/19950517/Press contact: Shelly Julien, Waggener Edstrom for Microsoft, 206-637-9097 or Paul Leif Rosengren, NBC, 212-664-2756; Public contact: Microsoft, 206-882-8080) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 05/17/95 GENERAL Redwood To Complement Microsoft, Compete With Novell (NEWS)(GENERAL)(BOS)(00027) Redwood To Complement Microsoft, Compete With Novell 05/17/95 WESTBORO, MASSACHUSETTS, U.S.A., 1995 MAY 17 (NB) -- "We'll be more complementary than competitive to Microsoft, but we'll definitely be competitive to Novell," said John M. Paul, Banyan's senior VP of product and business development, during an all-day briefing for the press on Banyan's new Redwood "strategic vision," attended by Newsbytes at Banyan headquarters in Westboro, Massachusetts. Novell's NetWare network operating system has more user installations than Banyan's ENS and Vines, Paul told the journalists. "But we've continued to lead in the large enterprise," he asserted. On networks with 250 users or more, Banyan has a 90 percent market share, in contrast to only 10 percent for Novell, according to Paul. Banyan's upcoming Universal StreetTalk X.500 directory services will compete against Novell's NetWare Directory Services (NDS), Paul explained. "But we're two years ahead of Novell in terms of integrating things into the directory," the senior VP told the press. Microsoft has also been talking about establishing an X.500 directory, Paul admitted. But Microsoft will probably be "concentrating on Windows NT" over the next few years, he predicted. "And as things slow down, there will be things to fix," he added. In any case, Banyan's Universal StreetTalk will provide synchronization with all X.500 services from other vendors, according to Paul. Banyan will also support the upcoming Microsoft Exchange messaging backbone, he said. Banyan's Universal StreetTalk is based on Click for Information, one of three new Banyan initiatives unveiled at the briefing. Banyan's other new initiatives are Business On Mail, a messaging backbone for connecting multivendor mail systems to "any database," and Self-Managing Networks, a program aimed at using agents to automate network management. Under questioning from reporters, Paul said that Banyan first announced Universal StreetTalk on April 24 at the Association of Banyan Users International (ABUI) Spring Conference in Orlando, Florida. Banyan decided to wait until yesterday's all-day press briefing to unveil Redwood itself, and the other components of the company's new three-year strategic plan, he added. But Banyan's major customers had been previously briefed on Redwood, and many of the ideas in Banyan's new "strategic vision" are based on customers' suggestions, he revealed. Also at the press briefing session, Banyan announced four third- party partners for StreetTalk: Oracle Corporation, SAP, Collabra Software, and Cisco Systems. Each of these four companies is a "leader" in its particular market segment, Paul told the journalists. (Jacqueline Emigh/19950217/Reader Contact: Banyan, 508-898-1000; Press Contact: Edward P. Thomas, Jr., Banyan, 508-898-1000) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 05/17/95 WINDOWS CFAX's New Fax Image Improvement Utilities (NEWS)(WINDOWS)(DEN)(00028) CFAX's New Fax Image Improvement Utilities 05/17/95 SAN ANTONIO, TEXAS, U.S.A., 1995 MAY 17 (NB) -- CFAX Computer Fax Technologies has announced a set of utilities for original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) designed to resolve most of the problems encountered in sending and receiving faxes. It has incorporated those tools into a program available to end users. The company said the utilities will address quality, privacy and security, authentication, data integration, and management control issues, and can be incorporated into their retail products. It will also offer a program in the third quarter that processes fax images as a binary file instead of a scanned image. CFAX publishes Cfax Pro 4.0 for the retail market, fax software that incorporates the image enhancement, encryption and optical character recognition (OCR) features. CFAX spokesperson Alan Weinkrantz told Newsbytes Cfax Pro 4.0 has a suggested retail price of $129. "Fax printouts commonly contain flaws," said Dov Kellerman, CFAX vice president. For that reason, CFAX is shipping FaxFix, Fax DeSkew, FaxFlip, and CFAX Cleaning to fax software OEMs. FaxFix removes common distortions caused by line noise, including squeezed text, smeared text, and random horizontal line fragments. FaxDeSkew straightens fax images, while FaxFlip restored inverted fax images. CFAX Cleaning enhances image clarity by removing random spots and vertical lines, whether caused by scanner errors or present in the original document. Privacy and security of faxed information is often a concern, particularly for sensitive data like payroll information, financial projections and marketing plans, according to Kellerman. To get around that problem, CFAX publishes an encryption program called Ciphax. Kellerman said the Group 3 protocol's imaging is unchanged when a fax is sent, but the image itself is turned into a hash of black and white lines, which can be restored to its original state only by someone at the document's destination that possesses the correct keyword. The company is also working on a system that will provide authentication for fax transmissions. Kellerman said such a technology would make it possible to use faxed pages as legal documents. While text and fax files are transmitted as binary images, the fax files end up being stored in the receiving computer as graphic images until processed by OCR software. That translation often results in font recognition problems Kellerman said are inherent in conventional OCR programs. To solve that problem, CFAX is developing an OCR program called CFAX-Ultimate-OCR the company said will process fax images as binary files that contain fonts generated by Windows applications. According to Kellerman, that will make character recognition 100 percent without the need for a dictionary, and allow the system to handle any language recognized by Windows. (Jim Mallory/19950517/Press contact: Alan Weinkrantz for CFAX, 210-820-3070; Public contact: CFAX, tel 210-366-8877, fax 210-820-3080, Internet e-mail 100274.2414@compuserve.com) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 05/17/95 ONLINE CompuServe CD To Offer Hyperlinks To The Web (NEWS)(ONLINE)(SFO)(00029) CompuServe CD To Offer Hyperlinks To The Web 05/17/95 COLUMBUS, OHIO, U.S.A., 1995 MAY 17 (NB) -- Last year, CompuServe introduced a multimedia component to its subscribers with the addition of CompuServeCD. Its May Windows CD issue will contain direct hypertext links to related World Wide Web (Web) sites. The new CD will also include CompuServe's NetLauncher, an Internet access and browser application. The browser will automatically install from the CD when it is started. For example, a user of the CD may preview Bruce Willis' new movie, "Die Hard With a Vengeance" and click on a hyperlink which will open a corresponding Web site. Speaking to Newsbytes, Daphne Kent, spokesperson for CompuServe, said, "We are the only company in this industry to offer the full multimedia features with a CD component. It gives us the ability to deliver longer video and more audio features than what is capable of being transmitted over a standard telephone line." Continued Kent, "For example, a user may listen to a new song by a popular artist and hear full CD quality audio. Someone previewing a movie will have that same sound quality plus the video in more than just a short clip. We are really happy now that we can further enhance this feature with almost instant access to related Web sites." The CompuServeCD program has a paid circulation of 70,000 users. A member may subscribe to the bi-monthly CD or order one CD through online access. The cost of each CD is $5.95. For most CompuServe users this new Web feature is accessed through a local access number. Currently, the CD program is for members accessing the service through Windows. Newsbytes learned a Macintosh version is expected to be available by late June. With the success of the program, CompuServe is now planning to produce a monthly issue of the CD for the Windows platform beginning this summer. (Patrick McKenna/19950517/Press Contact: Debra Young, CompuServe, 614-538-4553) (SUMMARY)(GENERAL)(SFO)(00030) Newsbytes Daily Summary 05/17/95 PENN VALLEY, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1995 MAY 17 (NB) -- These are capsules of all today's news stories: 1 -> UK - SAIC Intros Ruggedized HP RISC Portable 05/17/95 Science Applications International Corporation (SAIC) has announced what it claims is the first portable workstation based on HP's PA-RISC (Precision Architecture reduced instruction-set computing) technology. 2 -> Israeli Firm's Multilingual Windows Word Processing 05/17/95 Access Software International, after some time selling its multilingual Windows word processing software at home in Israel and into selected US markets, has launched its range of packages in Europe. 3 -> ISIS Intros Windows Fault Tolerant Environment 05/17/95 ISIS Distributed Systems of Marlboro, Ma., in the US, has unveiled what it claims is the first Reliable software development kit (SDK) for Windows 3.1 and Windows NT applications. 4 -> UK - Omniplex's Windows 3.1 Client For Uniplex Mail 05/17/95 Omniplex has taken the wraps off Deliver, a Windows 3.1 client package for Uniplex Mail. According to Graeme Youngs, Omniplex's marketing director, Deliver provides an intuitive Windows 3-based user interface for Uniplex mail, and office automation package also from Omniplex. 5 -> Intel Rolls Out 1st "Virus Firewall" System 05/17/95 Intel Europe has unveiled Landesk Virus Protect 3.0, the latest version of its virus protection package, that has been enhanced to provide a claimed "Virus Firewall." 6 -> Ericsson's Mobitex Used By Singapore Taxi Firm 05/17/95 Ericsson's Mobitex wireless data communications technology has been chosen as the base system for a computerized taxi cab system run by Singapore's Comfort Pte Ltd., reportedly the largest taxi company in the world. 7 -> Olivetti Servers Offer P6 Upgrade Capability 05/17/95 Olivetti has announced a new generation of machines in its Systema range of advanced network servers. Three models kick off the new machine range and are distinctive in that they are based in the latest 100 megahertz (MHz) Pentium processors, but have upgrade options to faster Pentiums and even the P6 processor, as and when they become available. 8 -> O'Reilly Intros WebSite For Windows NT 05/17/95 O'Reilly & Associates has begun shipping WebSite for Windows, a new Windows NT 3.5 version of their World Wide Web server software. The software is aimed at operators of computers that host home pages on the Internet's World Wide Web, a part of the global network that consists of thousands of hypertext linked pages. 9 -> Internet Update 05/17/95 In this roundup of new services and resources on the Internet: Tell the world where you are; Ask Dr Internet; Predict the champion; Follow the AIDS Ride II; Create your own comic; Public broadcasting online; The history of type. 10 -> Japan Newsbriefs 05/17/95 In this roundup of news from Japan : PC shipments up; Apple predicts a healthy year; Government to develop data network infrastructure; IBM Japan continues in Warp drive; Japanese technical support CD-ROM from Lotus; Sharp licenses D-ASK; JC-Sat announces satellite prices; KDD to offer trans-Pacific video fiber. 11 -> Dell Ships Dual-Processor Desktop PC 05/17/95 Dell Computer Corp. (NASDAQ:DELL) is now shipping its first dual-processor desktop computer, the Pentium-based Dell Optiplex DGX system. The DGX can utilize up to two Intel Pentium processors. 12 -> IBM Adds New Pentiums To PC Lines 05/17/95 IBM (NYSE:IBM) has added new computers based on the Intel Corp. Pentium processor to its Personal Computer 300 and 700 lines. 13 -> Service To Offer Internet Copyright Protection 05/17/95 The Intellectual Property Licensing Agency (IPLA) is opening its doors to protect copyrights in "cyberspace." 14 -> Autodesk Launches Developer Program In India 05/17/95 US-based Autodesk Inc., has launched the "Autodesk developer program," which has been designed to bolster development of local applications, besides assisting developers in expanding and strengthening business opportunities in the global CAD (computer-aided design) market. 15 -> India - QAI In Training Deal With UK's A-Pex 05/17/95 Quality Assurance Institute (QAI) India Ltd., a joint venture between US-based QAI and INTECOS, has recently tied-up with A-Pex Quality International, UK, a leading quality and ISO 9000 training and consulting organization. 16 -> Bell Canada Can Relinquish Wiring - CRTC 05/17/95 The Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) has given the country's largest phone company the green light to transfer ownership of all inside wiring to its single-line business and residential customers. Bell Canada subscribers will become responsible for their own wiring February 1, 1996. 17 -> ****Think Tank Wants To Kill FCC 05/17/95 It's time to get the government out of the telecommunications marketplace, says a Washington think tank allied with House Speaker Newt Gingrich (R-Ga.). The Progress & Freedom Foundation calls for elimination of the Federal Communications Commission in a report released yesterday. 18 -> Trade Group, Law Firm Plan Digital Commerce Conf 05/17/95 The Software Publishers Association and the Washington law firm of Steptoe & Johnson are sponsoring a conference next month on digital commerce. 19 -> New Study To Target Internet Users 05/17/95 The Emerging Technologies Group of FIND/SVP (NASDAQ:FSVP) said it has begun surveying the current size and characteristics of the Internet user universe, called the "American Internet User Survey." 20 -> America Online Intros Home Shopping Network Area 05/17/95 America Online (NASDAQ:AMER) and Home Shopping Network (NYSE:HSN), operator of the popular television shopping channel, have announced an online version of its video shopping format. HSN Interactive, a newly formed subsidiary of Home Shopping Network operates and manages the new area, called Global Plaza. 21 -> Microsoft & Novell In Support Deal 05/17/95 Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ: MSFT) and Novell Inc. (NASDAQ: NOVL) have announced a cooperative agreement to support mutual customers whose installation includes products sold by both companies. 22 -> Eastern Mind, A Japanese Myst CD Game 05/17/95 At the Electronic Entertainment Expo, Sony Imagesoft joined the list of multimedia game developers who are convinced non-violent CD-ROM titles have great potential. Called a Japanese version of Myst, Eastern Mind: The Lost Souls of Tong Nou, is an interactive game which explores eastern metaphysical culture and the premise of reincarnation. 23 -> Kaiser & SAIC To Develop Health Computer System 05/17/95 Contract negotiations are underway between Science Applications International Corp. (SAIC) and Kaiser Permanente's Northern California Region for the development of Kaiser Permanente's distributed computing infrastructure (DCI), officials said. The new infrastructure "has never been done on this scale in the healthcare industry," one official said. 24 -> Banyan Unveils Redwood Strategy 05/17/95 At an all-day briefing session for the press, Banyan unveiled Redwood, a three-year "strategic vision" made up of three initiatives: Click to Information, which calls for X.500 "global directory" services that will be extended to the Internet; Business on Mail, a messaging backbone for connecting multivendor mail systems to "any database;" and Self-Managing Networks, a program for using agents to automate network management. 25 -> Individual Software's Windows 95 Tutorial CD 05/17/95 Individual Software, a publisher of learning, training and "lifestyle" software, has announced Professor Windows '95 Multimedia. The interactive CD is a multimedia tutorial for Microsoft's new operating environment and will be timed to the August 24 shipping date of Windows 95. 26 -> More On Microsoft, NBC Online Deal 05/17/95 NBC (NYSE:GE) President and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Bob Wright said yesterday the television network would abandon its presence on America On Line and Prodigy to move exclusively to The Microsoft Network (MSN) when that online service opens its electronic doors, probably late this summer. "Microsoft Network will be larger than other existing online services," predicted the television executive. 27 -> Redwood To Complement Microsoft, Compete With Novell 05/17/95 "We'll be more complementary than competitive to Microsoft, but we'll definitely be competitive to Novell," said John M. Paul, Banyan's senior VP of product and business development, during an all-day briefing for the press on Banyan's new Redwood "strategic vision," attended by Newsbytes at Banyan headquarters in Westboro, Massachusetts. 28 -> CFAX's New Fax Image Improvement Utilities 05/17/95 CFAX Computer Fax Technologies has announced a set of utilities for original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) designed to resolve most of the problems encountered in sending and receiving faxes. It has incorporated those tools into a program available to end users. 29 -> CompuServe CD To Offer Hyperlinks To The Web 05/17/95 Last year, CompuServe introduced a multimedia component to its subscribers with the addition of CompuServeCD. Its May Windows CD issue will contain direct hypertext links to related World Wide Web (Web) sites. (Ian Stokell/19950517) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 05/16/95 TELECOM UK - Vodafone First With Data/SMS Tariffs (NEWS)(TELECOM)(LON)(00001) UK - Vodafone First With Data/SMS Tariffs 05/16/95 NEWBURY, BERKSHIRE, ENGLAND, 1995 MAY 16 (NB) -- After several months of testing, Vodafone has become the first UK mobile operator to formally announce data and SMS (Short Message System) text tariffs. The new tariffs mean that those individuals or companies who only require data (pseudo modem) or SMS text messaging facilities may now take advantage of the reduced monthly subscription for those services, rather than having to take up a full GSM (global system for mobile communications) subscription, Vodafone is calling its data + SMS-only service Dataworld, and the SMS-only service Messageworld. Sign-up to either service costs UKP50, while monthly subscriptions cost, respectively, UKP10 and UKP 7.50. Usage charges on the data service have been brought down from the previous 60 seconds minimum and 30 second units to six second increments, which cost 2.5 pence at peak times and 1.0 pence at off-peak times. SMS messages now cost 10 pence each. Two interesting features stand out in the new Vodafone services. Firstly, it is now possible to send an SMS message from a mobile to fixed terminal, where the terminal is linked to an X.25 packet data network (PDN), as well as in the opposite direction. Secondly, where the subscriber elects to use data on their existing voice GSM service, Vodafone is issuing a free secondary number for incoming fax or data calls on a mobile. This means that a mobile phone user has their voice number operating alongside a GSM data-only number on the same mobile. According to Dave Danielli of the Vodafone press office, only two phones currently support the data and SMS originating facility, the Nokia 2110 and the Philips PR 747 mobile, although other phone manufacturers are working to develop data/SMS interfaces for other mobiles. (Steve Gold/19950515/Press & Reader Contact: Vodafone, tel +44-1635-33251, fax +44-1635-503936) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 05/16/95 TELECOM Modem Approvals Group Claims Victory Against UK Govt (NEWS)(TELECOM)(LON)(00002) Modem Approvals Group Claims Victory Against UK Govt 05/16/95 LONDON, ENGLAND, 1995 MAY 16 (NB) -- The Modem Approvals Group (MAG) is claiming victory in its long battle to secure simpler UK regulations for telecoms equipment. According to Jeremy Hunt, the chairman of MAG, the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) has issued an announcement that the first in a set of National Technical regulations (NTRs) on non-voice telecoms equipment have now been issued. "These NTRs pave the way forward for a new set of pan-European approval standards for the modem marketplace," he told Newsbytes, adding that it is now very likely that, within the next year, a pan- European modem approvals mechanism will be initiated. "This will make life easier for European modem manufacturers to battle the likes of the US Robotics of this world when it comes to mass production and the economies of production available. We're going to see companies such as Dowty, Pace and Cray able to compete in the mass market with the international players," he said. Back in the present, meanwhile, the new NTR3, which covers modems, is billed as answering many of the concerns of modem manufacturers about the previous regulations that were expensive, poorly-enforced and put legitimate UK manufacturers and suppliers at a significant disadvantage of so-called "gray market" modems, according to the MAG. Hunt told Newsbytes that the arrival of the NTR3 regulation is the latest stepping stone to secure a single approvals process for the whole of Europe. According to the DTI definition, NTR3 applies to non-voice terminal equipment intended for connection via two or three wires to the public switched telephone network (PSTN). Hunt claims that it is considerably simpler than existing regulations, and will apply in parallel with them, allowing manufacturers a choice of either existing regulations or the new NTR3 as a route to secure approval. Hunt went on to explain that the NTR3 parallel working arrangement for modem manufacturers wanting to gain approval for the UK market will continue until the pan-European approvals mechanism -- CTR21 -- is finally agreed upon and implemented next year. According to Hunt, the CTR21 approvals mechanism, which will allow a modem manufacturer to gain one approval for the whole of Europe, has been agreed upon by the European Technical Standards Institute (ETSI) and is now in the hands for the European Commission (EC). The EC will now solicit approval for the standards mechanism from the various member governments in the EC, and then establish a public inquiry. If all goes well, the CTR21 standard is expected to become law early next year. The MAG was launched in June, 1993, to campaign for a simpler set of UK approvals regulations and ultimately, a single set of regulations to apply across the whole of the European Union. The group consists of several UK modem manufacturers and suppliers, including BT datacoms, Cray Communications, Faxback, Microcom, Modular Technology, Motorola- Codex, Pace Micro, Penril Datability, Psion-Dacom, Racal Datacom, Rockwell International, and Tricom. (Steve Gold/19950515/Press & Reader Contact: Profile, tel +44-181-995-1595, fax +44-181-995-9188) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 05/16/95 GOVT European Commission Mulls IBM/Philips Chip Venture (NEWS)(GOVT)(LON)(00003) European Commission Mulls IBM/Philips Chip Venture 05/16/95 BRUSSELS, BELGIUM, 1995 MAY 16 (NB) -- The European Commission (EC) has announced it is considering an application from Philips of the Netherlands, which has proposed a linkup with IBM to set up a new company to manufacture semiconductors. The announcement will come as a welcome relief for Big Blue, whose executives had been wondering whether such a joint venture would fall under the auspices of regulation 17.62 which permits the EC to bar any companies from pooling their resources where such an activity goes against the consumer in the longer run. Philips will be less than pleased, however, as when the proposal was first revealed earlier this year, Philips' executives said that the joint venture deal would not require EC permission, since it involved the setting up of a new company. EC officials see the arrangement differently. however. They appear to be arguing that, if the joint venture goes ahead, then both IBM and Philips are almost certain to scale down their existing separate operations, in favor of starting up a single operation. This would, Newsbytes notes, effectively reduce the level of choice available to other companies and, ultimately, the customer. IBM officials, meanwhile, have rejected this argument, claiming that the plan will call for the transfer of IBM's existing chip fabrication and PCB (printed circuit board) production lines in Europe to a joint venture company, and merely involve two production lines. Philips is worried about the EC's intervention, as regulation 17.62 has no time scale required before the Commission must give a "yeah" or "nay" to the companies involved. Moving to calm matters, EC officials have said that an announcement one way or the other will be made by the end of July of this year. (Sylvia Dennis/19950515/Press & Reader Contact: European Commission, +32-2-299-1111) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 05/16/95 TRENDS IDC Australia Reports On PC Market Growth (NEWS)(TRENDS)(SYD)(00004) IDC Australia Reports On PC Market Growth 05/16/95 SYDNEY, AUSTRALIA, 1995 MAY 16 (NB) -- IDC has briefed the Australian information technology (IT) industry on the previous 12 months. According to the company, there was a 25 percent-plus growth in sales for Toshiba, Osborne, and Compaq. IDC analyst Graham Penn said that the total Australian PC market was around 1.1 million units in 1994, up from 874,000 in 1993. He predicted around two million units in 1999. He noted the Australian growth of 25.3 percent, compared to 70 percent in Korea, Singapore, Malaysia, and Thailand. Compaq sold 105,900 PCs, compared to 69,700 for the prior year. Local manufacturer Osborne sold 86,000 last year and 70,000 the year before. Toshiba, which only sells mobile computers in Australia, had a 36 percent share of that market with 45,000 machines, up from 27,000 in 1993. Penn observed that Australian manufacturers will have to increasingly find niche markets and other ways to differentiate themselves from the large international computer manufacturers which have economies of scale. He said that companies like Compaq typify this, with an unrelenting program of two releases per year in each product area. Osborne is planning a new range of notebook computers, and is reportedly considering gearing up to produce Macintosh clones in Australia. IDC predicted that the IT services industry would split into two camps: one providing technology and one providing network services. It also sees a heavy shift towards PC-based products, away from mid-range machines. The key areas of growth are outsourcing and the so-called information superhighway. (Paul Zucker/19950512/Press Contact: IDC Australia, +61-2-922 5300) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 05/16/95 BROADCAST China - Cable TV Systems Increasing (NEWS)(BROADCAST)(PEK)(00005) China - Cable TV Systems Increasing 05/16/95 BEIJING, CHINA, 1995 MAY 16 -- Nationwide cable TV systems and networks are being developed in China. To date, more than 1,100 cable TV stations have been established. Based on surveys from the Guangdong, Jiangsu, Zhejiang, and Sichuan provinces, 40 percent of countryside towns are developing cable TV systems, and 30 percent of them are planning such development, the Ministry of Radio and Television said. Because they are approved by the government, about half of the 1,100 established cable TV stations are operated by local administrative departments with 17 provincial and 18 municipal stations, and the other half are run by enterprises. The number of cable TV subscribers has reached 30 million, and it is estimated that about 100 million families will have cable TV before 2005. Being organized by the government, cable TV networks are based on the so-called "one net in a place and multiple stations on a net" regulation. Technical standards are also followed in the network development to assure multi-applications can be shared by different networks and stations, the ministry said. It is also reported that an increasing amount of cable TV networks are using optical cables. In many small towns and rural areas, there are existing wire broadcast systems to bring radio signals to families. Residents reportedly welcome the so-called "double function" networks, in which a single cable brings both TV and radio signals to homes. (Chih-Ho Yu & Ning Huang/19950516) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 05/16/95 ONLINE HTML Improvement Planned For Web Publishing (NEWS)(ONLINE)(BOS)(00006) HTML Improvement Planned For Web Publishing 05/16/95 PROVIDENCE, RHODE ISLAND, U.S.A., 1995 MAY 16 (NB) -- For commercial publishing to become more pervasive on the Web, HTML (hypertext markup language) must be made "more robust," maintained Kent Summers, director of marketing for Electronic Book Technologies (EBT), during an interview with Newsbytes. Right now, HTML is "everyman's markup language," according to Summers. But, he added, although HTML is relatively easy to use, it is unable, for example, to handle tables and equations, unlike SGML (standard generalized markup language). "(HTML) formatting is `fixed,' hard-coded to Web browsers. Commercial publishers don't like this, because to them, presentation is in many cases as important as content in differentiating their products," he asserted. HTML permits only relatively small files, Summers said. To expand an electronic document, extra hyperlinks must be created, he added. "The effort required for maintenance can be rather daunting," Newsbytes was told. Recognizing that improvements are called for, a variety of forces are "pushing the HTML standard forward," including SGML Open, the World Wide Web Consortium, the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF), and many individual vendors, he pointed out. Now heading from versions 2.1 and 2.2 into version 3.0, HTML has complied with the SGML standard ever since HTML 2.0, according to the EBT marketing director. Meanwhile, he noted, customers of EBT's DynaText SGML authoring product are using EBT's new DynaWeb product to convert their structured SGML documents into HTML for use on the Web. Novell, for instance, has employed DynaWeb to convert more than 1,000 pages of NetWare, UnixWare and NetWare SDK (software developers kit) documentation manuals from DocBook, an SGML DTD (document type definition), into HTML, according to Summers. Novell's conversion process took four days, he said. Users can employ any Web browser to access content converted from SGML into HTML via DynaWeb. Novell and other computer companies have established the DocBook DTD for computer documentation, just as the Defense Department produced the CALS (Computer-Aided Logistics Support DTD) for military use, he said. Other fields, such as automotive and aeronautics, have also created their own industry-specific DTDs. DTDs give companies within an industry "a very clean way of interchanging their data," Summers asserted. HTML, he added, "is really just another SGML DTD." EBT's DynaWeb, he continued, is a basic Web server, with the addition of two components: on-the-fly SGML-to-HTML conversion, and the DynaText search engine. A lot of executives are finding that "surfing the Web" can often be a waste of time, because it is difficult to locate what they are looking for, according to Summers. The DynaText search engine, though, makes it possible for Web users to "get feedback as to what is relevant from a huge repository of electronic books," he maintained. The DynaText search engine provides full-text, Boolean, proximity, wildcard, and "SGML structure-aware" search, he added. Publishers interested in migrating to the Web are better-off using "robust" environments to create the original electronic documents -- and then producing "dumbified" versions for the Web -- than to do original production in HTML, he suggested. The same advice holds true whether the higher-end environment is DynaText or an RDBMS (relational database management system), according to Summers. "(Publishers) will have a real maintenance task on their hands if they have a document marked up in `brick,' and they later want to go to `Italian tile.' It's much easier to `dumbify' a document, moving the other way, from Italian tile to brick. SGML is already in `tile,'" he told Newsbytes. Meanwhile, he said, SunSoft has licensed EBT's DynaText SGML tools for a" universal, multi-platform, online publishing and viewing system" for browsing and annotating structured electronic documents. SunSoft's upcoming online system, AnswerBook 2, is an update to SunSoft's existing AnswerBook, he noted. Using SGML tools from EBT, Solaris users and vendors can create and publish online documentation now. Users will be able to access these documents within the "universal online system," which is scheduled to be part of a future version of Solaris, according to Summers. (Jacqueline Emigh/19950515/Reader Contact: EBT, 401-421-9550; Press Contacts: Paul Lamoureux, EBT, 401-421-9550; Craig Librett, Miller Communications for EBT, 617-536-0470) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 05/16/95 NETWORK Axent Intros SecureExchange For E-Mail Protection (NEWS)(NETWORK)(BOS)(00007) Axent Intros SecureExchange For E-Mail Protection 05/16/95 ROCKVILLE, MARYLAND, U.S.A., 1995 MAY 16 (NB) -- Axent's newly released SecureExchange, one of five modules in the company's OmniGuard suite, is designed to provide two-way protection to messages and attached PC files sent over transports like the Internet, LANs (local area networks), and public phone lines, said Rob Clyde, VP of security, in an interview with Newsbytes. Clyde told Newsbytes that the Windows-based SecureExchange employs RSA public/private key encryption to "scramble" data in a way that keeps the information from being seen by unintended eyes. At the same time, "certificate management" is used to allow the recipient to make sure of the identify of the individual sending the message, the VP maintained. In addition, he said, unlike most security mechanisms, SecureExchange is "fully compliant" with both Microsoft's MAPI (Mail Application Programming Interface) and Lotus' VIM (Vendor Independent Mapping), extending the same protection to DOS and Windows applications files attached to messages sent over electronic mail (e-mail) systems like Microsoft Mail, Lotus Notes, and cc:Mail. "I can do more than just send you a little message securely. I can send you an Excel spreadsheet with everyone's salaries in it, or a PowerPoint or Word document," he illustrated. In contrast to other forms of public/private key encryption, such as DES (US Data Encryption Standard), documents encrypted through RSA encryption are exportable outside of the US, according to Clyde. Public/private key encryption is a "hybrid" of public key encryption and private key encryption, the Axent exec explained. SecureExchange adds yet another kind of encryption, "secret key" encryption. "The advantage of public/private key encryption is that it permits `one to many' communications. The disadvantage is that it is slow. The way we get around that is to use a short initial sequence with the public/private key. Then, encrypted inside that is the `secret key,' which is used for the bulk of the message," Clyde elaborated. Clyde added that the "certificate management" aspect of SecureGuard uses digital signature technology to verify identification and to assure that the contents of the message have not been accidentally or intentionally modified en route by an unauthorized party. SecureGuard employs three levels of certificate management, he reported. RSA Data Management issues certification to Axent, and Axent, in turn, issues certification to the mail administrator. The resulting digital signatures are as reliable as fingerprints or DNA tests, and a much safer way to go than verification of MAC or IP (Internet Protocol) addresses, he contended. "The problem is that addresses are too easy to fake." E-mail administrators using SecureGuard can also be certified directly through RSA, according to Clyde. "But it will probably cost them more," he advised. Users and analysts told Newsbytes that SecureGuard and the other four modules in Axent's OmniGuard series fill a needed space in PC security. Ken Weiss, VP at Mid-Atlantic Business Consultants, said that his company, which provides consultation to companies that want to do business with the federal government, is finding both the RSA encryption and the certificate management to be highly useful. The company and its clients use cc:Mail. "When we're sending sensitive marketing information, we want to make sure we don't send the attachment to the wrong client. And when we're receiving an authorization to spend money, for instance, we need to make sure we know where it's coming from," he explained. "Axent is taking up an important baton," remarked Paul Mason, research manager for enterprise systems management at International Data Corporation (IDC). "There is nothing quite as comprehensive in the market. Fourth Dimension will probably try to do something similar, but Axent clearly has the lead," he told Newsbytes. In interviews with executives, Sentry Market Research (SMR) has found security to be a pressing concern, according to Bill Gannon, VP of research. "At the very high end, there are products like Top Secret, but there's strong demand at the low end for the same type of security environment," Gannon observed. IBM and Computer Associates have also been porting their products downward from the mainframe world, Gannon pointed out. "Axent is one of the few companies to have recognized so far that Internet firewalls are only a very small piece of security," asserted Waverly Deutsch, an analyst at Forrester Research. But Axent needs to move quickly to nail down a space in this emerging market, she added. Motorola's new Information Security Solutions (ISS) will be introducing enterprise sign-on, and in the future, operating systems will come to incorporate more and more security features, according to Deutsch. NetWare 4.1 will also include enterprise sign-on, and access control management is becoming "part and parcel" of Windows NT, she reported. Clyde told Newsbytes that Axent has previously released two other modules in the OmniGuard series: EnterprisewideSecurityManager, and AccessControl. The Raxco subsidiary plans to ship IntruderAlert -- "for monitoring and intrusion control, even against Satan" -- within a few weeks, the VP said. The fifth module in the series, EnterpriseSign-On, is scheduled for release near the end of this year. Down the road, Axent is looking at developing a security product for Unix, Clyde revealed. "There are probably more holes in SMTP (Simple Mail Transport Protocol) than anywhere," the VP told Newsbytes. (Jacqueline Emigh/19950516/Reader Contact: Axent Technologies, 301-258-2620; Press Contact: Clay Helm, FitzGerald Communications for Axent, 617-494-9500) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 05/16/95 TELECOM Texas Utility Buys Into PCS Venture (NEWS)(TELECOM)(WAS)(00008) Texas Utility Buys Into PCS Venture 05/16/95 DALLAS, TEXAS, U.S.A., 1995 MAY 16 (NB) -- Texas Utilities, the Dallas-based utility holding company, has bought a 20 percent limited partnership in a new personal communications services venture, PCS PrimeCo. PrimeCo is a four-way partnership of four regional Bell operating companies-- AirTouch Communications, Bell Atlantic, NYNEX, and US West. The company bought three Federal Communications Commission licenses for advanced wireless systems last March. The licenses cover the Dallas, Houston and San Antonio markets. The four phone companies formed PrimeCo in late 1994 to buy the FCC licenses and build a network for advanced wireless services. They hope to create a nationwide wireless network by combining the territory covered by the new licenses and existing cellular properties. Together, says PrimeCo, the company can reach 160 million people. The PrimeCo PCS licenses cover 57 million people. The company plans to begin providing service to customers in 11 markets including Dallas, Houston, San Antonio, New Orleans, Tampa, Jacksonville, Miami, Richmond, Chicago, Milwaukee and Honolulu within 18 months. Getting TU into the deal gives PrimeCo plenty of cell sites on TU property. "Partnering with Texas Utilities is an important step for us," said Daniel Sutherland of the PrimeCo Southwest region. "This agreement will help us to quickly build out our PCS network throughout Texas." The company hopes to begin delivering services in the middle of next year. TU sees the partnership as a way to bring extra value to its shareholders, and to use the new technology for energy services. "This advanced communications network, backed by the proven expertise and capability of the four PrimeCo partners, will be a significant part of Texas Utilities' expanding energy services business in Texas," said Jarrell Gibbs, president of Texas Utilities Services. "Also, its nationwide network could provide us with exciting additional future business options. This represents an excellent long-term investment opportunity consistent with our goal of enhancing shareholder value." But TU spokeswoman Kathi Miller acknowledged that the energy management aspects of the technology are fairly far away. While the company is testing "smart house" technologies, and remote metering, these currently do not employ wireless technology, she told Newsbytes. (Kennedy Maize/1995016/Press Contact: Kathi Miller, 214-812-4072) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 05/16/95 TRENDS Rapid Growth In Consumer Cellular Use Forecast (NEWS)(TRENDS)(TOR)(00009) Rapid Growth In Consumer Cellular Use Forecast 05/16/95 NORWELL, MASSACHUSETTS, U.S.A., 1995 MAY 16 (NB) -- The number of cellular-telephone subscribers in the United States grew by 51 percent in 1994, to 24.2 million, and will come close to 60 million by the end of the decade. These are among the conclusions of The 1995 US Cellular Market Forecast, a recent study by BIS Strategic Decisions. According to BIS, growing use of cellular phones among ordinary consumers is the major factor in cellular growth now and for the rest of the 1990s. Consumers are getting cellular phones because of the peace of mind and security -- being able to call for help from a stalled car on a remote road at night, for instance -- and because they see the service as a good value, said Jon Hulak, senior industry analyst at the research firm. Cellular carriers are now launching service plans meant to offer consumers only what they need at prices they are willing to pay. For example, BIS said, almost all major cellular carriers are offering or at least testing tiered pricing plans and other zone- billing options. Cellular phones and service packages that consumers want are now available in the places where consumers shop, BIS said. The shift from analog to digital cellular technology will also help keep the cellular market moving. Hulak told Newsbytes that the top 20 cellular markets in the United States will probably all have digital service by the middle of 1996. Digital service should be available more or less nationwide in three to five years, he said, although some rural areas may never get digital service because they simply do not need it. Portable phones, rather than those permanently installed in vehicles, appear to be the wave of the future. BIS said more than 62 percent of the cellular phones sold in 1994 were portables, and the firm expects that by 2000 portables will account for almost 85 percent of all the cellular phones sold. The cellular business in the US earned more than $17 billion in revenue in 1994, BIS said, and that figure will reach $26 billion by 2000. (Grant Buckler/19950516/Press Contact: Martha Popoloski, BIS Strategic Decisions, 617-982-9500; Jon Hulak, BIS Strategic Decisions, 617-982-9500 ext 263) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 05/16/95 ONLINE Canadian Prime Minister Live On CompuServe (NEWS)(ONLINE)(TOR)(00010) Canadian Prime Minister Live On CompuServe 05/16/95 OTTAWA, ONTARIO, CANADA, 1995 MAY 16 (NB) -- Jean Chretien, the prime minister of Canada, will answer questions live on CompuServe this afternoon from 3:30 to 4:30 Eastern time. Chretien's appearance is sponsored by Maclean's magazine, CompuServe spokeswoman Toni Morris told Newsbytes. Maclean's, a national weekly news magazine published in Toronto, has just launched its own online presence on CompuServe. Chretien's one-hour online appearance will take place in the CompuServe Auditorium, which subscribers can reach by typing "go auditorium" at a CompuServe prompt, Morris said. He will be taking questions from CompuServe subscribers, she added. It is the first such online appearance for Chretien, leader of the Canadian Liberal Party and prime minister since 1993. A veteran politician, he is not known for embracing technology to the same extent as some other politicians who have made online appearances, such as Vice-President Al Gore of the United States. Unlike a growing number of politicians, Chretien cannot yet receive electronic-mail, though his office is reported to be working on this. The new Maclean's magazine area on CompuServe began operation this week. Among the options on the main menu are the magazine's current issue, back issues, a photo gallery, subscriber services, promotions and products, and a "talk to us" option. However, what appeared to be lingering technical glitches Tuesday morning prevented Newsbytes from exploring beyond the initial menu. Maclean's magazine, founded as a monthly, is celebrating its 90th anniversary this year. (Grant Buckler/19950516/Press Contact: Toni Morris, CompuServe, 614-538-4110) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 00 05/16/95 TRENDS ****Desktop MPEG For Under $ (NEWS)(TRENDS)(SFO)(00011) ****Desktop MPEG For Under $200 05/16/95 ENCINO, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1995 MAY 16 (NB) -- Many CD-ROM title developers say they will produce a Motion Picture Experts Group (MPEG) version of their games, but where do you get an affordable MPEG board? The technology, which allows a standard PC to run full-screen, full-motion video is now available for under $200 from Software Affiliates. Formed this past December, Software Affiliates is marketing Real Motion and Real Motion Lite MPEG boards and software for the Windows environment. The two cards differ by the ability to resize the video window. The Lite version allows a user to view digital video files as a full monitor screen only. The more expensive version, Real Motion, allows a user to resize the video window for multitasking with other applications. Distribution deals are in negotiation and users should expect to find two MPEG CD-ROM titles included in the package. Software Affiliates is also offering nine separate MPEG CD-ROM titles through a number of North American retail channels. According to the company, each title is "packed" with full-screen, full-motion video and plans are under way to deliver 30 MPEG titles each month over the next 18 months. Some of the first titles include: Superman, Volumes 1, 2, and 3; Jack Benny; The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes; and Shakespeare's As You Like It. These titles are claimed to be more than just movies. Users may manipulate and save newly created sequences and most of the titles are interactive, allowing users to search, navigate and explore many features. The company claims that the titles become "valuable reference tools or exciting games combining full-screen, full-motion video with standard CD-ROM interface features." Rob Edenzon, president of Software Affiliates, told Newsbytes, "We intend to become the driving force behind the MPEG market. More and more people are coming to the realization that MPEG is the video compression format which meets the full needs of desktop users." Conrad Sprout of Hollywood Select Video, one of Software Affiliate's third-party developers of MPEG titles, told Newsbytes, "Full-screen, full-motion video is the way we are meant to watch video. These thumb-print, postage stamp or even two-third screen views are a thing of the past. MPEG is here and available now at a reasonable price." Edenzon continued, "We wondered why MPEG technology was so slow to take-off. When we went to retailers and distributors, they told us that MPEG titles were not moving well and affordable MPEG boards were not available. Learning that, we decided to develop a marketing plan which pairs an affordable board with titles in one complete retail display. If you listen to the retailers and the Merisels of this world you will learn exactly what sells and what does not. The computer marketplace is often filled with products which offer great technology, but a customer needs more than just a stand-alone product to feel confident when making a purchase. When they see the MPEG titles and the board in one display, it assures them of working technologies with available applications." Responding to questions about installation of the board, Edenzon said, "The MPEG board is a half-size card which simply plants in an expansion slot on the motherboard. There are no wires to connect internally. Once the card is installed, you close the case, put a jumper cable from your video board to the MPEG board and install the software. It should take less than 15 minutes. After that, anytime you play an MPEG CD-ROM title, the card will automatically detect the code and your monitor will display full-motion, full-screen video. It is as simple as that." Real Motion Lite should have a street price of $199 and users should expect the Real Motion card to have a street price of $239. This MPEG system requires at least four megabytes of RAM and a 486 or better processor is recommended. A full multimedia-based PC is necessary. The Real Motion boards are meant to be used with CD-ROM titles using MPEG-1 format. Software Affiliates is in the process of establishing consignment and distribution relationships. The company is also introducing Animated Greetings and Ask.Me software programs. (Patrick McKenna/19950516/Press Contact: Christine Kohlstedt, Pat Meier Associates PR, 415-957-5999; Public Information: Software Affiliates, 818-385-3710) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 05/16/95 BUSINESS Nortel, Shiva Form Internet Alliance (NEWS)(BUSINESS)(TOR)(00012) Nortel, Shiva Form Internet Alliance 05/16/95 BURLINGTON, MASSACHUSETTS, U.S.A., 1995 MAY 16 (NB) -- Northern Telecom Ltd. (TSE:NTL; NYSE:NT) and Shiva Corp. (NASDAQ:SHVA) have announced plans to work together on products to provide remote access to corporate networks via the Internet. The companies will sell software developed under the deal to Internet access providers, communications carriers, and large corporations. Specific products resulting from the alliance will be announced in the last quarter of this year, said Frank Ingari, president and chief executive of Shiva, in a teleconference Monday afternoon. According to the two companies, the alliance brings together Shiva's know-how in remote-access technology with Northern's experience in wide area data networks (WANs), enterprise networks, and central office switching. Ingari also noted that Northern's "unmatched" worldwide distribution capabilities are important to Shiva. Shiva said the deal will help it expand from its current base in customer-premises remote access to the carrier and Internet service provider segment, which the company said is growing fast. Klaus Buechner, vice-president and general manager of multimedia networks at Northern Telecom, said the deal will include both joint product development and joint sales and marketing. "What we're really announcing today is a strategic alliance," he said. Northern Telecom plans to integrate products resulting from the alliance into its Magellan portfolio of data and broadband multimedia switches. The new products will work with current technology but will be designed to evolve to integrated services digital network (ISDN) as it becomes more popular in the future, Buechner said. Capabilities that come out of the alliance will interest home- based telecommuters and workers who travel constantly but need high-speed access to computer networks at their offices, the officials said. Ingari said that for Shiva the deal is the latest in a series of partnerships including relationships with IBM and Hewlett-Packard Co. (Grant Buckler/19950516/Press Contact: Barbara Ewen, Lois Paul & Partners for Shiva, 617-860-5619; Brian Murphy, Northern Telecom, 214-684-8589, Internet e-mail brian.murphy@nt.com; Public Contact: Shiva, Internet e-mail sales@shiva.com, Internet World Wide Web http://www.shiva.com; Northern Telecom, Internet World Wide Web http://www.nt.com) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 05/16/95 GENERAL Father of Pentium Quits Intel, Joins NexGen (NEWS)(GENERAL)(DEL)(00013) Father of Pentium Quits Intel, Joins NexGen 05/16/95 NEW DELHI, INDIA, 1995 MAY 16 (NB) -- One of the key designers of Intel Corp.'s Pentium chip, Indian-born Vinod Dham, vice president, microprocessor products group and general manager, Pentium Processor Division at Intel, has moved over to its rival NexGen Inc., the maker of Pentium clones. Dham, who took the Pentium chip from the drawing board to become the highest money spinner for Intel, said that he joined NexGen because of the opportunity for him to play a bigger role in the growing smaller company. In fact, in a recent interview with Newsbytes, Dham conceded that with the Pentium now having crossed the 120 megahertz (MHz) milestone, and he not being in the P6 or P7 development group, his function at Intel had dwindled. Said Dham, "One should remain in an organization only if one has something to contribute." Meanwhile NexGen, after a nine-year struggle, recently launched its Nx586 family of x86 products, designed to compete with Intel's fastest Pentium chip. Although the company lost about $95 million last year, it managed to sign up Compaq, the PC industry leader, as a customer. Dham thus ended his 16-year stint in Intel, where he began as an engineer in the Technology Development Group. There he co-invented Intel's flash memory cell, which finally went on to become a $500 million business in sales. Before joining Intel, Dham worked with Continental Devices (I) Ltd., in New Delhi, developing discreet semiconductor devices. (C.T. Mahabharat/19950516) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 05/16/95 BUSINESS Nokia To Invest $50 In Indian Subsidiary (NEWS)(BUSINESS)(DEL)(00014) Nokia To Invest $50 In Indian Subsidiary 05/16/95 NEW DELHI, INDIA, 1995 MAY 16 (NB) -- The leading Finnish telecoms and electronics giant, Nokia Telecommunications, will spend $50 million in the next two years on the 100 percent subsidiary it is setting up in India. The subsidiary, for which the government has already given its approval, "will be engaged in research and software development, as well as manufacturing operations," Matti Alahuhta, president of Nokia Telecommunications told Computers Today. Alahuhta expects to achieve an annual turnover of $500 million during the next few years from the Indian operation. Slated to start by October, the subsidiary will be the "main arm of operation," and if required, will also form joint ventures in separate fields, explained Alahuhta. Nokia is also setting up a customer service center to provide network planning, installation, training, and other support services. The service center in Delhi will also serve customers in South East Asia and the Middle East. Nokia has already selected two partners, Wipro Infotech Ltd and W.S. Telesystems Ltd., to provide customer support. The $7.2 billion Nokia is a leading supplier of analog NMT networks and digital GSM (global system for mobile communications)-based cellular networks in the world. It is also claimed to be the second largest manufacturer of cellular phones. Nokia Telecommunications has already tied up with Skycell Communications Pvt. Ltd. and Modi Telstra Pvt. Ltd. to supply GSM digital cellular networks for Madras and Calcutta. Under this deal it would supply mobile switching centers, base stations, base station controllers, and assorted transmission equipment. In India, Nokia had been active in the supply of transmission systems for about a decade, pointed out Hannu Karavirta, area general manager (India and South Asia) for Nokia Telecommunications. Through its distributor, Supreme Electronics, Nokia was supplying PDH telecommunications networks for railways, gas, and oil companies in India. Nokia now plans to manufacture SDH (synchronous digital hierarchy) networks systems in the country. (C.T. Mahabharat/19950516) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 05/16/95 BUSINESS India - Wipro-Acer Joint Venture Begins Operation (NEWS)(BUSINESS)(DEL)(00015) India - Wipro-Acer Joint Venture Begins Operation 05/16/95 NEW DELHI, INDIA, 1995 MAY 16 (NB) -- Wipro Acer Ltd. (WAL), the joint venture to manufacture, market and service the entire Acer range of PCs, notebooks, servers, monitors, and fax machines in India, began operation recently. Headed by V. Anantaraman, the R6 crore venture saw a 55 percent equity stake picked up by Wipro Ltd., while the remaining 45 percent went to Acer Group of Taiwan. Products will be marketed under the Wipro-Acer brand name, which is "the first time in the history of joint manufacturing and marketing for Acer," Stan Shih, chairman and chief executive officer (CEO) of Acer Group told Computers Today. It is also the fifth joint venture where Acer is joining with local partners for setting up a production base, he added. The new company will also jointly develop computer systems and export software and hardware designs. WAL is presently working on two projects: the development of server management software, and a multiprocessor system using Intel's upcoming P6 chip. It will also be a member of Acer's Product Development Board and will introduce networking and home market products in India. "The systems produced here will cater only to the Indian market, and at a later stage, we may consider contracting out global orders from this venture," Shih explained. The venture is even planning to expand its product range to pagers, cellular phones, and feature phones by the end of 1995. Acer earlier had a marketing tie-up with Zenith Computers Ltd. and CMS Computers Ltd. In the wake of the Wipro-Acer tie-up making it the exclusive arm of Acer branded products in India, Zenith decided to snap its tie with Acer, and instead has become a reseller of Tata Information Systems Ltd. to sell the IBM systems. Even though Zenith had been assembling some Acer systems, the Taiwanese giant wasn't sourcing any components from India, revealed York Chen, managing director of Acer Computer (South Asia) Pte Ltd. "Even the first system to come out of the Wipro-Acer facility will have all Taiwanese components." But now, WAL will also be one of Acer's international purchasing organizations to help source components for the world market in India. The Acer systems will presently be manufactured at Wipro's existing factory in Mysore. But the company will soon set up a new facility for the Acer range, said Sridhar Mitta, chief technology officer of Wipro Ltd. While Wipro plans to continue its Super Genius and Fusion range of desktop computers in parallel with the Acer brand for some time, it will not add any new upgrades, Mitta said. He accorded six months to these homegrown ranges "to die a natural death." Wipro, which doubled its computer production from 12,000 to 24,000 during 1994-95, is confident of manufacturing 45,000 systems in the current year. WAL expects a revenue of R250 crore in 1995-96, with R200 crore coming from PCs and servers, and the rest from fax machines and monitors. The sales and support channel for Wipro Acer will be provided by Wipro Infotech Ltd. (C.T. Mahabharat/19950516) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 05/16/95 ONLINE Gender & The Internet - Survey (NEWS)(ONLINE)(MSP)(00016) Gender & The Internet - Survey 05/16/95 AUSTIN, TEXAS, U.S.A., 1995 MAY 16 (NB) -- The Internet, long considered to be a wasteland when it came to women users, is increasing in female population, according to Matrix Information and Directory Services (MIDS). The company, which describes itself as "one of the world's foremost market research firms specializing in Internet demographics," said the gender gap in cyberspace is shrinking. MIDS said the gender balance on the Internet at the end of 1994 was slightly below 2:1. This dispels the myth that men outnumber women by 9:1, the company said. MIDS surveyed the Internet community as a whole during the latter part of 1994, reflecting responses from almost 1,500 organizations that represent more than 10% of the Internet's 13.5 million users, the company said. The level of response gives MIDS' numbers the highest precision when it comes to the Internet's makeup, company officials said. Ken Lindsay of MIDS told Newsbytes the gender finding was probably the most surprising from the survey results. "This runs counter to the thinking that the Internet is a playground for young males." Also, he said there is a significantly higher number of people who have fast access to the Internet. "A good deal of the Internet consumer users have 9,600 baud or better, like 99 percent of it." He said this means most Internet users have the capability to access the World Wide Web. But that doesn't necessarily translate to online services like America Online and CompuServe, which still have dedicated 2,400 baud lines, he said. Detailed information on the survey can be found on the Internet's World Wide Web at http://www.MIDS.org. Users can also send electronic-mail to the company's automatic information service at mids@mids.org. (Bob Woods/19950515/Press Contact: Ken Lindsay, MIDS, 512-462-0625, Internet e-mail lindsay@mids.org. Public Contact: Internet World Wide Web http://www.MIDS.org) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 05/16/95 BUSINESS Banks Give Unitel An Extension (NEWS)(BUSINESS)(TOR)(00017) Banks Give Unitel An Extension 05/16/95 TORONTO, ONTARIO, CANADA, 1995 MAY 16 (NB) -- Unitel Communications Inc., the struggling Canadian long-distance telephone company, has been given a few more weeks to pay off its loans. A group of six banks has extended the deadline for Unitel to pay off C$650 million in loans to June 30, the company announced today. The deadline for the loans, originally December 31, 1994, had previously been extended to the end of April. The banks' extension follows the announcement late last month that two of Unitel's three big shareholders would provide about C$45 million in additional funding to keep the company going for two more months while negotiations over a possible ownership change continued. Unitel's biggest shareholder, Montreal-based Canadian Pacific Ltd. (TSE,ME,VSE:CP), wants out. Early this year, Rogers Communications Inc. (TSE,ME:RCI) of Toronto announced a tentative deal under which it would buy out Canadian Pacific and then sell a part of its stake to the third major shareholder, AT&T (NYSE:T). However, Rogers announced late in April that it had decided not to exercise that option. According to company officials, Unitel is losing about C$300 million per year. The company blames the losses on the regulations governing competition in the Canadian long-distance market, which it claims force it to pay too much to the established regional telephone companies to support local telephone service. Unitel spokeswoman Carleen Carroll told Newsbytes there have been no further developments in the ownership and funding negotiations. Eamon Hoey, a Toronto telecommunications consultant, said Unitel's problems are more to do with the way the company has been run than with the viability of Canadian long-distance competition in general. Currently, Canadian Pacific owns 48 percent of Unitel, Rogers owns 22.5 percent, and AT&T owns the balance. The company provides long-distance telephone service across most of Canada, as well as other business telecommunications services. (Grant Buckler/19950516/Press Contact: Carleen Carroll, Unitel, 416-345-2114) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 05/16/95 EDUCATION AST Europe's School Internet Competition (NEWS)(EDUCATION)(LON)(00018) AST Europe's School Internet Competition 05/16/95 LONDON, ENGLAND, 1995 MAY 16 (NB) -- AST Europe has teamed up with WorldWrite, the "peace project," to offer two schools in the UK the chance to win their own Internet-ready multimedia personal computer. According to AST, a winning student will also be taken on a VIP trip to AST's manufacturing facility in Limerick, Ireland, to see their PC being assembled. Secondary schools and colleges UK-wide are invited to participate in AST Computer and WorldWrite's Schools Internet Competition. The competition aims to "educate and encourage" schoolchildren in computer communications and the "information superhighway." In addition, in commemoration of the 50th anniversary of Hiroshima, the competition aims to promote communication and understanding between young people around the world. Graham Hopper, AST's UK and Ireland general manager, explained that, as a global company, AST is committed to "encouraging communications across the world. We also feel very strongly that children should be taught about PCs and how they can benefit them, both in their education and their personal development," he said, adding that this "level of understanding of computer technology will be invaluable to any student's academic and later professional careers." According to Hopper, "The Internet brings a world of endless opportunities to the school and the home and, by sponsoring this competition, we hope to encourage students to tap into this information pool." The competition invites school students to design an Internet page of images and text which expresses their feelings about war, and the prospect of a peaceful future. The competition is open to all secondary schools and sixth-form colleges in the UK. Two first prizes will be awarded, one for each age category: 11-14 years old, and 15-18 years old. Both prizes will include an AST Advantage Adventure multimedia computer system for the school of the winning student as well as a VIP trip to AST's high tech production plant in Limerick, Ireland, for the student. Students interested in taking part in the competition on behalf of their school should write to Tony Graham at WorldWrite, BM NMH, London WC1N 3XX or Internet electronic-mail WorldWrite at tonyg1.@easynet.co.uk. (Steve Gold/19950515/Press Contact: Profile Public Relations, +44-181-995-1595; Internet e-mail allan_macdonald@profile.ccmail.compuserve.com; Reader Contact: AST Europe, +44-181-232-5000) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 05/16/95 TELECOM Sweden - Orbitel Secures Swedish GSM Contract (NEWS)(TELECOM)(LON)(00019) Sweden - Orbitel Secures Swedish GSM Contract 05/16/95 NEWBURY, BERKSHIRE, ENGLAND, 1995 MAY 16 (NB) -- Orbitel, the UK-based mobile phone manufacturer, has announced a major distribution deal with a Swedish cellular distributor - GEAB Teleshop, now owned by Unisource Mobile. Terms of the contract call for Orbitel to deliver 8,695 Orbitel 902 GSM (global system for mobile communications) digital cellular phones along with battery chargers to Unisource for sale at GEAB's sales outlets across Sweden. According to Orbitel, the deal is the largest sales order for the 902 in the world. All the phones, which will be sold are GEAB's 31 shops in Sweden, will be connected to the Comviq GSM network. Orbitel is not revealing terms of the deal, but the standard distributor price for the 902 in the UK is around the $400 mark without links to an airtime agreement. This values the contract at around the $350,000 mark. (Sylvia Dennis/19950516/Press Contact: Vodafone/Orbitel Press Office, tel +44-1635-33251, fax +44-1635-503936) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 05/16/95 PC UK -- Elonex Ships Budget 120MHz Pentium PCs (NEWS)(PC)(LON)(00020) UK -- Elonex Ships Budget 120MHz Pentium PCs 05/16/95 LONDON, ENGLAND, 1995 MAY 16 (NB) -- Elonex, a direct-sell PC vendor, is now shipping the PC 5201/I series, a high-end range of machines based on Intel's 120 megahertz (MHz) Pentium processor. According to Michelle Horner, a spokeswoman for the company, the machine's pricing is "highly aggressive" thanks to the use of direct-to-customer shipping sales routes, and the build-to-order manufacturing strategy of Elonex. "Typical shipment times for customers are given at the time of ordering, but are usually around the seven days mark," she told Newsbytes, adding that the machines were designed by Elonex Technologies in California and built at Elonex's manufacturing facility in Scotland. Each of the new machines has three caching options: a combination of internal CPU (central processing unit) cache and EDO memory; 256 kilobytes (KB) standard (asynchronous) cache; or a 256KB high performance, burst mode pipeline synchronous cache. Plans call for 512KB asynchronous cache and synchronous cache options to be made available later this year. Pricing on the PC-5120/I series starts at UKP1,690 for a 420 megabyte (MB) hard disk equipped system, rising to UKP3,105 for a four gigabyte (GB) SCSI (small computer system interface) hard disk. All machines in the series are supplied with 8MB of memory as standard, expandable to 128MB internally. Other standard features of the machines include a 14-inch non- interlaced color monitor working to 1,024 by 768 pixels, a 102-key UK keyboard, Microsoft mouse, ECP Parallel Port, and two 16550 chip serial ports. Various options on the main chassis are available on the new machines. These include 2 PCI (Peripheral Component Interconnect) local bus slots and one ISA (Industry Standard Architecture) slot or three PCI and two ISA slots. All models feature a 64-bit PCI graphics accelerator with 1MB of dynamic RAM and an onboard PCI dual channel enhanced IDE (Integrated Drive Electronic) controller. (Steve Gold/19950516/Press Contact: David Bridson, tel +1869-338832, fax +44-1869-338843; Internet e-mail bandb@cix.compulink.co.uk; Reader Contact: Elonex, tel +44-181-452-4444, fax +44-181-452-6422) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 05/16/95 BUSINESS PSINet, Creative Labs Bundle Internet Services (NEWS)(BUSINESS)(MSP)(00021) PSINet, Creative Labs Bundle Internet Services 05/16/95 HERNDON, VIRGINIA, U.S.A., 1995 MAY 16 (NB) -- Performance Systems International Inc. (NASDAQ:PSIX) (PSINet) and the US subsidiary of Creative Technology Ltd. (NASDAQ:CREAF), Creative Labs Inc., are going to bundle PSINet's InterRamp service with Creative's Modem Blaster family of products. The partnership will allow users who purchase Creative Labs' Modem Blaster 28.8 and Modem Blaster 14.4 products to access the Internet via PSINet's "Instant InterRamp" service. The bundle includes a seven- day free trial period for the InterRamp service. InterRamp provides users with a "personal" connection to the Internet to run any TCP/IP (Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol) applications, be they commercial or public domain, PSINet officials said. InterRamp's highest speed connect is currently 28.8 kilobits- per-second (Kbps), and is projected to be available in 120 US cities by the end of 1995. Christopher Callender, product manager for InterRamp, told Newsbytes the deal is good for people who want quick access to the Internet. "You've got the modem, now you've got the software, and now you have the Internet service from a service provider. It's the first complete package I know of. We put everything in the box, so the customer doesn't have to make the call. They click on one button, everything's automatically configured within five minutes, and they're up and running on the Internet with a demo." Suggested retail prices for the modem bundles are $219.99 for the Modem Blaster 28.8 and $99.99 for the Modem Blaster 14.4. Following the seven-day trial period, InterRamp will offer users a rate of $1 an hour for Internet access. (Bob Woods/199500516/Press Contacts: Theresa Pulido, Creative Labs, 408-428-6600 ext 6416; Christopher Callender, PSINet, 703-904-4100; Greg Peverill-Conti, GCI Jennings, 415-974-6200; Karen Gordon, Copithorne & Bellows, 415-975-2215) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 05/16/95 GENERAL Microsoft's Mike Maples Confirms Retirement Rumors (NEWS)(GENERAL)(DEN)(00022) Microsoft's Mike Maples Confirms Retirement Rumors 05/16/95 REDMOND, WASHINGTON, U.S.A., 1995 MAY 16 (NB) -- Mike Maples, Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT) executive president and one-fourth of the company's Office of the President, has confirmed rumors that he will retire effective July 15, 1995. The confirmation comes after several days of rumors regarding Maples' possible retirement. Maples, 52, a seven-year Microsoft veteran, is in overall charge of the Worldwide Products Group as well as being a member of the top-level group that shapes Microsoft policy and direction. Microsoft Chairman and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Bill Gates, Executive Vice President Steve Ballmer, and Chief Operating Officer Robert Herbold round out the Office of President. Microsoft said Maples will continue to do work for the company, serving as an advisor and ambassador on certain strategic relationships and internal management initiatives. Gates praised Maples accomplishments, saying in a prepared statement the retiring executive helped the company grow from 2,700 employees to more than 17,000 staffers worldwide today. During Maples' tenure at Microsoft, revenues grew from $590 million in 1988 to $5 billion this year. Maples said he is looking forward to spending more time with his family "and other areas of interest." A Microsoft spokesperson told Newsbytes those will include exploring the states of Washington and Oregon and increased participation in running his ranch in Texas, where he raises deer and other animals. He will soon be a grandfather for the first time, when his daughter-in-law has her baby this summer. Maples crowned his career at Microsoft with the development of Windows 95, the company's soon-to-be-released new operating system. Prior to joining Microsoft he was the director of software strategy for IBM Corp. Maples holds a BSEE degree from Oklahoma University and an MBA from Oklahoma City University. He sits on the board of directors of the Information Technology Association of America and is a past president of the Board of the American Software Association and a former member of the board of the Washington Technical Center. He is on the board of advisors for Engineering Coalition of Schools for Excellence in Education and Leadership and the board of visitors for the Engineering School at the University of Oklahoma. Concurrent with Maples retirement, Microsoft will realign various product development activities by reorganizing the Worldwide Products Group and the Advanced Technology Group into the Platforms Group and the Applications and Content Group. Microsoft has named three new group vice presidents to head the new organizations. Paul Maritz, currently senior vice president, products and technology, will be promoted to group vice president, Platforms Group. His new organization will be responsible for current and emerging platforms for home and business use. He will provide leadership for the Business Systems Division, Personal Systems Division, Developer Division, and Consumer Systems Division. Craig Mundle, formerly vice president, advanced consumer technology, will become senior vice president of the Consumer Systems Division. He will report to Maritz. Both Nathan Myhrvold and Pete Higgins are being promoted to group- vice president Applications and Content Group. Myhrvold's current job is senior vice president, Advanced Technology Group. Higgins is presently senior vice president of the Desktop Applications Division. The two will jointly manage the Applications and Content Group, which includes desktop applications, consumer, research and online systems divisions. With the personnel changes that follow Maples' retirement The Office of the President will consist of Gates, Maritz, Higgins, and Myhrvold. (Jim Mallory/19950516/Press contact: Marianne Allison, Waggener Edstrom for Microsoft, 503-245-0905; Public contact: Microsoft, 206-882-8080) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 05/16/95 BUSINESS Microsoft Eases Multiple License Policy (NEWS)(BUSINESS)(DEN)(00023) Microsoft Eases Multiple License Policy 05/16/95 REDMOND, WASHINGTON, U.S.A., 1995 MAY 16 (NB) -- Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ: MSFT) has announced a streamlining of its worldwide licensing program the company said will make software licensing less expensive, streamline the ordering process, and provide an upgrade program more favorable to the user. Microsoft's software licensing program, called Microsoft Select, was first introduced in January, 1993. Under the revised program Microsoft has lowered the minimum purchase qualification for a purchasing site, or "enrollment," by 50 percent. Instead of the former requirement to have 1,000 employees or PCs using a Microsoft software package the minimum number has been lowered to 500 for companies in the Variable or Enterprise licensing programs. The revised Microsoft Select program also removes the requirement for customers to monitor their inventory of software purchases and submit quarterly reports. The change places the responsibility for ordering and invoicing on large-account resellers, and has Microsoft sending a monthly licensing confirmation to the customer to verify the user's Select purchases. Customers will also receive a quarterly purchase summary. The other change to the Select program lets purchasers of the Select 3.0 Maintenance option count those purchases towards their overall product forecast and commitment. Previously Maintenance units were not counted in volume contracts. Microsoft said that change will allow some customers to achieve higher volume-pricing levels. Maintenance participants can upgrade immediately to new versions of Microsoft products, including Microsoft Windows and Microsoft Office. Microsoft has also added a Maintenance Plus option that can benefit organizations that share licenses among infrequent users. Maintenance Plus lets concurrent users execute software directly from their local hard drive rather than being restricted to server-based access. Microsoft said that can increase productivity and decrease network and administrative overhead. Maintenance Plus also eliminates the need for users to choose between concurrent-use rights and home- or portable-use rights. The Select program offers three purchasing levels, each with a Maintenance option. Microsoft said an Enterprise License offers the best suggested retail pricing for application, system or server products. It can include the entire organization or can limit the definition to any part of the organization, such as divisions, business units or locations. A new Division Option allows individual business units with as few as 250 qualifying computers or employees to get the pricing benefits of the Select Enterprise License. A Variable License lets organizations acquire a variety of Microsoft products and pool the products they purchase within each of three categories: application, system and server. Organizations can "mix and match" within a product pool to reach higher volume levels and better pricing for products within that pool. The new Division Option is now available to Variable License customers. Microsoft said the Open License is the best deal for small- to medium-sized organizations. A Microsoft spokesperson told Newsbytes companies can participate with as few as 13 PCs using a particular software package. Open License can also be used for any affiliates that are too small to make use of the Enterprise or Variable License effectively. Unlike the Enterprise and Variable Licenses, Open License does not require a special contract with Microsoft. Its pricing levels are based on an initial, up-front purchase and the ability to reorder in smaller quantities at the same pricing level over a two year period. The Select Enterprise and Variable licenses do not require an up-front purchase to get the maximum discount benefit. Instead, companies are offered the tiered volume pricing based on a two year forecast or commitment. Products are distributed via CD-ROM, cutting down on the number of disk packs and documentation that have to be stored. Microsoft said Select 3.0 will be available with special pricing until January 1, 1996. During that period Maintenance Plus will be available for the same price as Select Maintenance. (Jim Mallory/19950516/Press contact: Kristin Kaden, Waggener Edstrom for Microsoft, 503-245-0905; Public contact: Microsoft, 206-882-8080 of 800-726-9400) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 05/16/95 BUSINESS ****Microsoft, NBC To Develop Multimedia Products (NEWS)(BUSINESS)(DEN)(00024) ****Microsoft, NBC To Develop Multimedia Products 05/16/95 REDMOND, WASHINGTON, U.S.A., 1995 MAY 16 (NB) -- Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ: MSFT) and the National Broadcasting Company (NYSE: GE) Television unit have formed an alliance to develop and market multimedia products. Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates and NBC President and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Bob Wright said in a teleconference today the alliance will cover the production of online, CD-ROM, interactive television, and other digital products as well as the integration of those products into traditional broadcast and cable television. As part of the alliance, NBC said it will build new services for the Microsoft Network (MSN). MSN is scheduled to launch later this year as an online platform for various content and service providers. It will also include Quicken as the financial base for electronic banking and bill paying services, if Microsoft can get approval to acquire Intuit, the company that publishes Quicken. That acquisition is currently opposed by the US Department of Justice. NBC said it will contribute its name, audience reach, editorial and production expertise, marketing and promotional resources. Microsoft's contribution will include global software brand recognition, a computer-user customer base, software development skills, distribution channels, and interactive media design and production skills. "We feel that we can really contribute to developing new ways for consumers to get more from their TV experience through interactivity," said Gates. He said some of those ways will be through discussions on the Microsoft Network of what happens on television. The two organizations said the new services will include all NBC content areas including NBC Entertainment, NBC Sports, NBC News, NBC Productions, CNBC, America's Talking, NBC's international ventures, and NBC-owned stations. The two media giants said there will even be space for viewers to converse with their local NBC affiliates. NBC said its advertisers and the network's 214 nationwide affiliates will be invited and encouraged to participate in NBC's service on MSN. NBC already operates three standalone businesses in the new media area. Those are NBC Desktop Video, NBC Digital Publishing and NBC Data Network. The company also has a forum on CompuServe. (Jim Mallory/19950516/Press contact: Shelly Julien, Waggener Edstrom for Microsoft, 206-637-9097 or Paul Leif Rosengren, NBC, 212-664-2756; Public contact: Microsoft, 206-882-8080) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 1998 05/16/95 TRENDS ****Chip Industry To Double By (NEWS)(TRENDS)(SFO)(00025) ****Chip Industry To Double By 1998 05/16/95 SAN JOSE, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1995 MAY 16 (NB) -- The Semiconductor Industry Association has released a forecast stating the semiconductor industry will grow from its current $101.8 billion worldwide sales to more than $200 billion by 1998. This means double-digit growth for the next three years. This forecast, developed at the Association's recent meeting in Kyoto, Japan, predicts global sales will increase by 39.7% this year. Should the industry achieve that mark its gross revenues will reach $142.3 billion. North America will continue to lead the worldwide market with a predicted share of about 30% of that $142.3 million or $41.2 billion in 1995. A 30% share of the global market indicates a 35.1% increase over the same North American figures for 1994. By 1998, the North American market will reach semiconductor sales totaling $69.6 billion. Japan will continue to hold second place with a predicted increase of 44.9% this year and a predicted total of $54 billion by the end of 1998. According to the study, the fastest growing market is Asia-Pacific which includes Korea, Taiwan, Singapore, and China. From a predicted sales total of $24.6 billion in 1995, the area should generate sales of $44.5 billion in 1998. The study also says the European semiconductor market should grow by 37.3% this year and experience double-digit growth over the next three years. By 1998, it should total $39.4 billion. The memory market is setting the pace with dynamic RAM and static RAM, with a predicted 57.4% increase in 1995 over 1994 sales. The microprocessor and controller market should reach a 36.9% increase this year accounting for a total of $32.6 billion in sales. What are the forces at work here? Kevin Brett, director of communications at the Semiconductor Industry Association, told Newsbytes, "We expect the rapid advancement of the personal computer market to continue at a breath-taking pace. As well, many people think the chip market applies only to PCs, but semiconductors are in almost every household appliance and many manufactured products around the world. This expanded use of semiconductors will also continue to grow dramatically." Brett cited a recent story in USA Today which reported the Fox television network looking into the possibility of building a microprocessor into a hockey puck. It seems television viewers cannot track the puck at the speed it travels when scoring a goal. The microprocessor puck would be capable of sending a signal which would allow viewers to see a comet-like tail on the puck. Viewers could then track the puck traveling at 90 miles per hour towards the goal. In summary, the study predicts the worldwide semiconductor industry will total sales of $233 billion by the end of 1998. (Patrick McKenna/19950516/Press Contact: Kevin Brett, Semiconductor Industry Association, 408-246-2711) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 05/16/95 GOVT Russia To Woo Foreigners In State Firm Sell-Off (NEWS)(GOVT)(LON)(00026) Russia To Woo Foreigners In State Firm Sell-Off 05/16/95 MOSCOW, RUSSIA, 1995 MAY 16 (NB) -- The Russian Government has taken the unusual step of rejecting a previous Government-approved plan to bar foreigners from making investments in state-owned businesses, in favor of a new plan to allow almost anyone to invest, regardless of their nationality. The previous plan, engineered by Russian bankers and other influential investors, dates from two years ago, when the Ruble was relatively stable against Western currencies. Since then, of course, the ruble has plummeted, cause problems for anyone in Russian contemplating future investments in rubles. This has forced many previously cash-rich possible investor companies in the state businesses to look to their own resources and has reduced the potential audience for a state company sell-off within Russia to a very great extent. As a result, the Government has provisionally contracted with nine major banks in Russia for large loans at low interest rates, in return for those banks to gain shares in the state companies. Under the previously thrashed out rules, the banks would effectively have gained a controlling stake in these companies. Under the new agreement the Government may sell off further controlling shares to any other third party, whether Russian or not, and allow that third party to take a majority stake in the new privatized companies. In a prepared statement, the Russian State Property Committee said that the consortium of banks will be open to interests from anyone with money to invest in the privatized companies. Putting it bluntly, as the banks cannot have the shares all to themselves, they are working hard to be seen to be looking for partners in the major investment project. It may well be that third parties will approach the Government direct to take stakes in the various privatized companies, but the signals from the normally "conservative" Russian Government show that it is happy to sell to any comer, provided they meet the approval of the group of nine banks. (Sylvia Dennis/19950516) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 05/16/95 ONLINE UK Shareware Dealer Plugs Into Internet (NEWS)(ONLINE)(LON)(00027) UK Shareware Dealer Plugs Into Internet 05/16/95 UTTOXETER, ENGLAND, 1995 MAY 16 (NB) -- The Thompson Partnership, a major shareware marketer, has announced the opening of its World Wide Web and FTP (File Transfer Protocol) facilities on the Internet. Steve Townsley, a spokesman for the company, told Newsbytes that the Web and FTP facilities are interwoven so that Web page users are unaware they are using FTP services when downloading from the Web pages. "It's quite interesting to develop these links. What we've done is to create a series of HTML (hypertext markup language) pages and, where a file or group of files need to be routed to, we simply put a route to our FTP sites," he explained. According to Townsley, the Web is evolving very quickly and there is a great number of things you can do using HTML. "The problem is that most people are unaware of what you really can do with the Internet and aren't making use of the resources available," he explained. All of the shareware available for download on the company's bulletin board system (BBS) is now available for download from ftp://ftp.ttp.co.uk and using a logon ID of "anonymous" and a password of a user's own electronic-mail address. The Web pages, meanwhile, are at http://www.ttp.co.uk/ttp. Townsley, a veteran of the UK computer industry, told Newsbytes that he has some ambitious plans for the Web site. "We plan to have links in place to link back to the Web pages, where available, of our major software suppliers," he explained, adding that, since most of the shareware suppliers are based in the US, that is where many of the Web pointers go to. "We're starting to see a lot more of these connected links between Web pages," he told Newsbytes, adding that, in time, he expects to see most Web pages having links to other Web sites with relevant information. "Rather than including loads of information on a company and/or its products, if that company has its own Web pages, then a simple pointer to that Web site is easier to install than recreating the information all over again. Many of the company's shareware packages are available for download on the FTP and Web sites. Townsley claims that, by shifting to an electronic distribution system, the shareware producers can get their products to end-users a lot more quickly than through conventional shareware distribution channels. "It's a natural progression," he explained, adding that the Thompson Partnership's role in the shareware marketing gameplan is to collect the shareware registrations and, where appropriate, offer pre- and post-registration support for end-users. (Steve Gold/19950516/Press & Reader Contact: The Thompson Partnership, tel +44-1889-564601, fax +44-1889-563219; Internet e-mail steve@ttp.co.uk) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 05/16/95 LEGAL AudioFax Levels Patent Charges Against Delrina (NEWS)(LEGAL)(DEN)(00028) AudioFax Levels Patent Charges Against Delrina 05/16/95 ATLANTA, GEORGIA, U.S.A., 1995 MAY 16 (NB) -- AudioFax Inc. says it has filed suit against Toronto-based Delrina Corporation and its United States subsidiary alleging infringement of AudioFax patents, copyright infringement, breach of a non-disclosure agreement, and misappropriation of trade secrets. The complaint seeks unspecified damages and an immediate injunction to stop distribution of Delrina's Winfax products that include fax mailbox capabilities. "We just want (Delrina) to stop shipping the product and provide updated versions that do not include our technology. We don't want to stop the users from using the products at all, but if they are using mailboxing and broadcasting capabilities then absolutely we do not want Delrina providing those products and services to subscribers." Wharton said if the injunction is issued, the end-user would have no liability. Wharton said AudioFax went public with the complaint after Delrina declined to license the AudioFax technology. "We had numerous conversations with Delrina regarding licensing the patent and using them. They elected not to license those and to subject themselves to the US courts instead," said Wharton. The company said its patents on faxing technology cover 110 separate technologies relating to the storing and forwarding of faxes, as well as using personal identification numbers (PIN) to retrieve documents with conventional fax machines and paperless readers such as personal computers and television sets. Mark Bloomfield, president and chief executive officer (CEO) of AudioFax called the dispute "the classic David versus Goliath situation. As a small company, we have a significant investment in our technology. Just because you're a large company like Delrina, doesn't give you a free ticket to other's proprietary technology." Wharton said no hearing date has been reset after the court granted a Delrina request for extension. The injunction request was originally scheduled to be heard May 15, 1995. AudioFax is currently in the process of rolling out its nationwide fax transmission network known as FaxLink Plus. (Jim Mallory/19950516/Press contact: Sterling Wharton, FaxLink Plus, 404-933-7600; Public contact: AudioFax, tel 404-933-7600, fax 404-933-7606) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 05/16/95 GENERAL Grolier's San Francisco CD Mystery Title (NEWS)(GENERAL)(SFO)(00029) Grolier's San Francisco CD Mystery Title 05/16/95 SAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A, 1995 MAY 16 (NB) -- Grolier Electronic Publishing is expanding its reference and information CD-ROM titles to include "rich, entertainment games" and children's titles. The company is currently filming video sequences for a "SFPD (San Francisco Police Department) Homicide" thriller. The new title is hosted by the former San Francisco Deputy Police Chief Kevin Mullin, and includes the detective work of Frank Falzon, the police inspector who headed and solved the infamous Zebra killer investigation. Users will be required to solve a murder which actually comes from the homicide files of San Francisco. This two CD program stresses "wit and intelligence" as opposed to games which are based on violence, and Grolier will produce the title for both the Mac and Windows platforms, said the company. Marine Piazza, director of marketing communications at Grolier, told Newsbytes, "We have an image and a reputation based on making very rich multimedia reference titles such as our number one selling multimedia encyclopedia. Our expansion into games and children's titles will continue to uphold that reputation." She continued, "With the dramatic increase in multimedia-based PCs and recent video and graphic technology advancements, we see a great new market into which we are ready to expand. By leveraging our multimedia strengths, we are naturally ready to develop sophisticated games which the entire family can play." "SFPD Homicide requires the user to interact with many colorful individuals while attempting to solve the crime. Time ticks away while users attempt to follow clues, check evidence with the lab, interview subjects, get advice from superiors, meet the district attorney's (DA) requirements for an arrest, use a computer to aide in the investigation, and hopefully collar the correct suspect. If you run out of time, you are told the case had been handed over to another investigator and you must begin again," said Piazza. The interface for SFPD Homicide looks like an inspectors desk and detailed video provides live action of a real murder case from Falzon's file cabinet. The game does not end by arresting a suspect. A user may take the case to the DA at anytime, but a poorly prepared case may be dismissed or result in a hung jury. To close the CD, Grolier provides an account of the real trial and outcome. Piazza continued, "Good writing, good acting and good production values are combined with Grolier's technology expertise to create a new experience in computer game play which takes users way beyond the shoot'em-up, beat'em-up style common to computer games." This PC/Mac title should be available in time for the holiday buying season at most major multimedia software retail outlets. The suggested retail price for "SFPD Homicide, Case File: Body in the Bay" is $49.95. This first SFPD title is the beginning of a series of real case murder mysteries, said the company. (Patrick McKenna/19950516/Press Contact: Pat Meier, Pat Meier, 415-957-5999; GROLIER/19950516/PHOTO) (SUMMARY)(GENERAL)(SFO)(00030) Newsbytes Daily Summary 05/16/95 PENN VALLEY, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1995 MAY 16 (NB) -- These are capsules of all today's news stories: 1 -> UK - Vodafone First With Data/SMS Tariffs 05/16/95 After several months of testing, Vodafone has become the first UK mobile operator to formally announce data and SMS (Short Message System) text tariffs. 2 -> Modem Approvals Group Claims Victory Against UK Govt 05/16/95 The Modem Approvals Group (MAG) is claiming victory in its long battle to secure simpler UK regulations for telecoms equipment. 3 -> European Commission Mulls IBM/Philips Chip Venture 05/16/95 The European Commission (EC) has announced it is considering an application from Philips of the Netherlands, which has proposed a linkup with IBM to set up a new company to manufacture semiconductors. 4 -> IDC Australia Reports On PC Market Growth 05/16/95 IDC has briefed the Australian information technology (IT) industry on the previous 12 months. According to the company, there was a 25 percent-plus growth in sales for Toshiba, Osborne, and Compaq. 5 -> China - Cable TV Systems Increasing 05/16/95 Nationwide cable TV systems and networks are being developed in China. To date, more than 1,100 cable TV stations have been established. 6 -> HTML Improvement Planned For Web Publishing 05/16/95 For commercial publishing to become more pervasive on the Web, HTML (hypertext markup language) must be made "more robust," maintained Kent Summers, director of marketing for Electronic Book Technologies (EBT), during an interview with Newsbytes. 7 -> Axent Intros SecureExchange For E-Mail Protection 05/16/95 Axent's newly released SecureExchange, one of five modules in the company's OmniGuard suite, is designed to provide two-way protection to messages and attached PC files sent over transports like the Internet, LANs (local area networks), and public phone lines, said Rob Clyde, VP of security, in an interview with Newsbytes. 8 -> Texas Utility Buys Into PCS Venture 05/16/95 Texas Utilities, the Dallas-based utility holding company, has bought a 20 percent limited partnership in a new personal communications services venture, PCS PrimeCo. 9 -> Rapid Growth In Consumer Cellular Use Forecast 05/16/95 The number of cellular-telephone subscribers in the United States grew by 51 percent in 1994, to 24.2 million, and will come close to 60 million by the end of the decade. These are among the conclusions of The 1995 US Cellular Market Forecast, a recent study by BIS Strategic Decisions. 10 -> Canadian Prime Minister Live On CompuServe 05/16/95 Jean Chretien, the prime minister of Canada, will answer questions live on CompuServe this afternoon from 3:30 to 4:30 Eastern time. 11 -> ****Desktop MPEG For Under $200 05/16/95 Many CD-ROM title developers say they will produce a Motion Picture Experts Group (MPEG) version of their games, but where do you get an affordable MPEG board? The technology, which allows a standard PC to run full-screen, full-motion video is now available for under $200 from Software Affiliates. 12 -> Nortel, Shiva Form Internet Alliance 05/16/95 Northern Telecom Ltd. (TSE:NTL; NYSE:NT) and Shiva Corp. (NASDAQ:SHVA) have announced plans to work together on products to provide remote access to corporate networks via the Internet. The companies will sell software developed under the deal to Internet access providers, communications carriers, and large corporations. 13 -> Father of Pentium Quits Intel, Joins NexGen 05/16/95 One of the key designers of Intel Corp.'s Pentium chip, Indian-born Vinod Dham, vice president, microprocessor products group and general manager, Pentium Processor Division at Intel, has moved over to its rival NexGen Inc., the maker of Pentium clones. 14 -> Nokia To Invest $50 In Indian Subsidiary 05/16/95 The leading Finnish telecoms and electronics giant, Nokia Telecommunications, will spend $50 million in the next two years on the 100 percent subsidiary it is setting up in India. 15 -> India - Wipro-Acer Joint Venture Begins Operation 05/16/95 Wipro Acer Ltd. (WAL), the joint venture to manufacture, market and service the entire Acer range of PCs, notebooks, servers, monitors, and fax machines in India, began operation recently. 16 -> Gender & The Internet - Survey 05/16/95 The Internet, long considered to be a wasteland when it came to women users, is increasing in female population, according to Matrix Information and Directory Services (MIDS). 17 -> Banks Give Unitel An Extension 05/16/95 Unitel Communications Inc., the struggling Canadian long-distance telephone company, has been given a few more weeks to pay off its loans. 18 -> AST Europe's School Internet Competition 05/16/95 AST Europe has teamed up with WorldWrite, the "peace project," to offer two schools in the UK the chance to win their own Internet-ready multimedia personal computer. 19 -> Sweden - Orbitel Secures Swedish GSM Contract 05/16/95 Orbitel, the UK-based mobile phone manufacturer, has announced a major distribution deal with a Swedish cellular distributor - GEAB Teleshop, now owned by Unisource Mobile. 20 -> UK -- Elonex Ships Budget 120MHz Pentium PCs 05/16/95 Elonex, a direct-sell PC vendor, is now shipping the PC 5201/I series, a high-end range of machines based on Intel's 120 megahertz (MHz) Pentium processor. 21 -> PSINet, Creative Labs Bundle Internet Services 05/16/95 Performance Systems International Inc. (NASDAQ:PSIX) (PSINet) and the US subsidiary of Creative Technology Ltd. (NASDAQ:CREAF), Creative Labs Inc., are going to bundle PSINet's InterRamp service with Creative's Modem Blaster family of products. 22 -> Microsoft's Mike Maples Confirms Retirement Rumors 05/16/95 Mike Maples, Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT) executive president and one-fourth of the company's Office of the President, has confirmed rumors that he will retire effective July 15, 1995. The confirmation comes after several days of rumors regarding Maples' possible retirement. 23 -> Microsoft Eases Multiple License Policy 05/16/95 Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ: MSFT) has announced a streamlining of its worldwide licensing program the company said will make software licensing less expensive, streamline the ordering process, and provide an upgrade program more favorable to the user. 24 -> ****Microsoft, NBC To Develop Multimedia Products 05/16/95 Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ: MSFT) and the National Broadcasting Company (NYSE: GE) Television unit have formed an alliance to develop and market multimedia products. 25 -> ****Chip Industry To Double By 1998 05/16/95 The Semiconductor Industry Association has released a forecast stating the semiconductor industry will grow from its current $101.8 billion worldwide sales to more than $200 billion by 1998. This means double-digit growth for the next three years. 26 -> Russia To Woo Foreigners In State Firm Sell-Off 05/16/95 The Russian Government has taken the unusual step of rejecting a previous Government-approved plan to bar foreigners from making investments in state-owned businesses, in favor of a new plan to allow almost anyone to invest, regardless of their nationality. 27 -> UK Shareware Dealer Plugs Into Internet 05/16/95 The Thompson Partnership, a major shareware marketer, has announced the opening of its World Wide Web and FTP (File Transfer Protocol) facilities on the Internet. 28 -> AudioFax Levels Patent Charges Against Delrina 05/16/95 AudioFax Inc. says it has filed suit against Toronto-based Delrina Corporation and its United States subsidiary alleging infringement of AudioFax patents, copyright infringement, breach of a non-disclosure agreement, and misappropriation of trade secrets. 29 -> Grolier's San Francisco CD Mystery Title 05/16/95 Grolier Electronic Publishing is expanding its reference and information CD-ROM titles to include "rich, entertainment games" and children's titles. The company is currently filming video sequences for a "SFPD (San Francisco Police Department) Homicide" thriller. (Ian Stokell/19950516) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD (ADVISORY)(GENERAL)(MSP)(00001) NewsPix Images For Newsbytes Publishers 05/15/95 MINNEAPOLIS, MINNESOTA, U.S.A.,1995 MAY 15 (NB) -- These photos correspond to recent Newsbytes stories. They are online in the Newsbytes menu on GEnie, America Online, eWorld, NiftyServe, and the Newsbytes private bulletin board system in Minneapolis. JPEG files are larger in size, PICT files are designed as thumbnails for onscreen viewing. The photos are titled with name/year/month/day. Pict/thumbnail pictures are now black and white (that is gray scale). File message will indicate color if the JPEG image is color. This will reduce file size and streamline transfers. Some of the larger 'for use' images, may also be PICT files. To distinguish these files from the thumbnail preview PICT images, the tag for the color 'for use' image will have PICT, all caps. The thumbnail will remain noted as 'pct.' To become a licensed Newsbytes publisher, call Newsbytes at 612-430-1100 (U.S.) or write to administrator@newsbytes.com on the Internet. Licensing applies to any medium. --------------------------- Week of MAY 15 - MAY 19,1995 --------------------------- ZOO950504 - color / Humongous To Preview "Putt-Putt Saves The Zoo": screenshot of Putt-Putt in action. DIGIPHON950510 - color / Digiphone Launch On Schedule Despite Test Problems: screenshot with Shoemaker-Levy 9 asteroid collision with Jupiter on screen. HISTORY950508 - color / Parsons Ships US History Multimedia CD-ROM: screen shot of main menu. VBOY950508 - color / Nintendo Goes Online: the virtual headset and control gear. Photo Credit: courtesy Nintendo of America Inc. EXCHANGE950503 - color / Free Exchange Market On The Web: the various icons used to designate materials to be bartered. DACOM950406 - color / UK - Psion-Dacom's Budget PCMCIA "Slot Drive" For PCs: the card with PC in background, the PC is outfitted with the Dacom Gold Drive. ARTSCAN950502 - color / Jetsoft Software Maximizes Scanned Image Quality: screen shot of dialogue screen. PS6X950502 - b&w / TI Intros Personal Organizers That Dock With PC: the two organizers with docking unit. DC40950407 - color / Kodak Selects Software For Digital Camera Images: shot of the DC 40 digital camera. KIOSK950502 - color / New Unisys Kiosk Aimed At Govt Market: shot of the kiosk with person in wheelchair (the kiosk meets standards set out by the Americans With Disabilities Act. COMCOLOR950501 - color / New Compaq Monitors Can Identify Themselves: shot of the Compaq 150 Color monitor. ACCENT950417 - color / Accent Adds Arabic/Hebrew To Word Processor: screenshot. ZINCAIR950502 - color / Toshiba Notebooks Get Attachable Long-Life Battery: shot of Toshiba Notebook and battery unit. VIEWER9504010 - color / Mastersoft's Upgrade To Windows File Viewer: screenshot. COMMENCE950503 - color / Jensen-Jones Updates Commence Info Mgr: screenshot. DATACC950425 - b&w / Technology Brings Mug Shots To Police Cars: shot of the mini laptop with mug shot on screen. LYCOS950424 - color / Microsoft Licenses Lycos Internet Catalog: picture of research scientist Michael Mauldin at Carnegie Mellon's Center for Machine Translation in the School of Computer Science, Lycos developer. Also useful for NB042095, story #17 / Lycos Promotes Search Standards. photo credit: Ken Andreyo METRO950420 - color / Software Simplifies Corporate Travel Arrangements: screen shot. DEC950420 - b&w / DEC Cuts Server & Notebook Prices: pix of the HiNote laptop. P5-120950418 - color / Gateway's 120MHz PC With 3-Disk CD Changer: the PC. CHANGER950418 - b&w / Gateway's 120MHz PC With 3-Disk CD Changer: the changer. IQ950421 - color / CD ROM Offers At-Home IQ Testing: screenshot of cube problems. (Newsbytes/19950515) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 05/15/95 ONLINE CompuServe Mall Opens Internet Location (NEWS)(ONLINE)(MSP)(00002) CompuServe Mall Opens Internet Location 05/15/95 COLUMBUS, OHIO, U.S.A., 1995 MAY 15 (NB) -- A site that has long been popular for CompuServe members will soon open its doors on the Internet, the online service operator says. The company's Electronic Mall will greet customers for the first time on the Internet's World Wide Web this fall. "We feel the market has made a very decisive move to the Internet," Keith Arnold, CompuServe's Electronic Mall manager, told Newsbytes. "Consumers are being rapidly educated -- right, wrong, or otherwise -- that the Internet is going to be the place to gather information in the future. We think it is the right move for us." Currently on CompuServe, the Mall's more than 170 "stores" include "anchor" merchants like JC Penney, Service Merchandise, and FTD Direct. CompuServe officials said these and other stores have expressed interest in establishing a Web presence. On the Internet, Arnold said the Mall's final "look" are still being defined. "I would like to see it look more like a shopping mall," he said. "Not to the extent of making it patronizing, but at least to the point where you get the sense of 'a mall' and 'the shopping experience.'" He also said he wants to capitalize on the latest enhancements in the HTML (hypertext markup language), the "language of the Web," to try to make the site as rich as possible. Transaction security problems will be solved soon, Arnold said. He said CompuServe's relationships with Spry (which CompuServe now owns) and Terisa Systems have enabled it to implement a protocol based on Secure Hypertext Transport Protocol (S-HTTP) and Secure Socket Layer (SSL). "It looks like we're pretty much ready to start delivering full, secure transactions, so you can start putting your credit card in the Internet without any worries." CompuServe's Mall opened in cyberspace eleven years ago, and has experienced "particularly" strong growth in the past five years, officials said. Average annual increases of 50 percent in orders and 78 percent in number of accesses have been the rule in that time period, the company added. Arnold added he would like to see some of the stores up in a "test" environment by the first of the summer, with full implementation by the fall. (Bob Woods/19950512/Press Contact: Russ Robinson, CompuServe, 614- 538-4274; Barbara Klein, Barbara Klein Marketing & PR, 415-694-7991; Public Contacts: CompuServe, 800-524-3388, ask for representative 664, Internet World Wide Web http://www.compuserve.com/) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 05/15/95 ONLINE Zenith Web Site Offers Cannes Film Festival Info (NEWS)(ONLINE)(MSP)(00003) Zenith Web Site Offers Cannes Film Festival Info 05/15/95 BUFFALO GROVE, ILLINOIS, U.S.A., 1995 MAY 15 (NB) -- Zenith Data Systems' (ZDS) World Wide Web site, which premiered last week, does not have just the typical links and information you would expect from a computer company. Soon, it will have a direct link to the Cannes Film Festival. The Web site, which is located at URL (uniform resource locator) http://www.zds.com, contains downloads of both ZDS bios updates, along with multimedia film clips of some of the movies at the world-renowned festival. ZDS spokesperson Steve Bosak said it is all a matter of sponsorship. "Our parent company is Groupe Bull, which is French- owned. They were already doing some cooperative computing ventures with the film festival, providing notebooks, desktops, and servers, to help with the organizing of the event." He said the company decided to bring information from Cannes to people who aren't "lucky" enough to go to the French Riviera. The Cannes link will provide a daily journal of festival news and views, background information, and compressed video clips for Internet users who have high-speed access to the Web. Company officials said the server can be accessed off of ZDS' Web site from May 15 through the end of July. The daily updates will be provided during the festival, which runs from May 17 to May 28. Bosak said ZDS will work with Paris-based Staccato, a communications software company, and the international film trade paper "Moving Pictures" to provide the daily journal in both English and French. The main focus of ZDS's new Web site is corporate information. "Obviously more of our customers are on the Net. They want timely information, patch upgrades, bios upgrades, and technical information. Having this on the Web is great for both us and them." When Newsbytes accessed the page, a "cyber journal" called "Z-Connect" came up that looked like a magazine cover. The image was clickable in terms of finding out information on the "articles" advertised on the cover. Other features include customer service, product information, a search engine, and various monthly features. (Bob Woods/19950511/Press Contact: Steve Bosak, Zenith Data Systems, 708-808-4855; Public Contact: Zenith Data Systems, 800-533-0331; Internet World Wide Web http://www.zds.com) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 05/15/95 GENERAL Colorado Firm Keeps 9-1-1 Databases Updated (NEWS)(GENERAL)(DEN)(00004) Colorado Firm Keeps 9-1-1 Databases Updated 05/15/95 BOULDER, COLORADO, U.S.A., 1995 MAY 15 (NB) -- From its high-tech National Data Services Center (NDSC) which looks like something out of Star Wars with its wall-size maps and information displays, SCC Communications Corp. provides database and enhanced 9-1-1 (E9-1-1) services to telephone service providers, public safety agencies, and wireless communications providers throughout North America. #IMAGE 1 20 TWPCX \images\95051504.PCX Click here for photo The first service available from the NDSC involves the high-speed updating of telephone companies' 9-1-1 databases as new phone service orders are placed by users. Herb Glasgow, SCC vice president of business development, told Newsbytes the company's goal is to have the appropriate E9-1-1 database updated in not less than three hours after the service order is received by the phone service provider. "It's usually done much more quickly than that," said Glasgow. In order to maintain that update speed, SCC downloads information to the appropriate database on a continual basis, handling about 10,000 change orders daily for its current customer, Ameritech. Ameritech provides telephone service in the states of Michigan, Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, and Wisconsin. SCC keeps track of nearly four million telephone customers in Ohio presently, and will add the other states in the Ameritech service area through the remainder of the year. Glasgow told Newsbytes the company is negotiating with other telecommunications companies, but declined to name them, citing the "sensitivity" of the discussions. Automated processes validate the address and proper routing of the 9-1-1 calls originating from the new or changed numbers. Key features of E9-1-1 service that assist public safety agencies in providing fast response to emergencies are the automatic display of the number from which the party is calling and the address where that phone is located. The system can also route the call to the correct agency, such as city, county or state law enforcement or fire services. Other services SCC will bring online later include the ability to track cell phone calls. That service, called Cell ALI (Automated Location Identification) will generate a computerized map that displays the approximate location of the cell phone user calling 9-1-1. SCC says it uses fail-safe systems that include dedicated high speed links using different long-haul carriers, switched high-speed backup lines, and satellite technology to avoid service interruption. (Jim Mallory/19950512/Press contact: Mark Kulaga, SCC Communications, 303-581-5600; Public contact: SCC Communications, tel 303-581-5600, fax 303-581-0900/SCCCOM950515/PHOTO) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 05/15/95 TELECOM UK - PhoneLink Plans Tel-Me Enhancements 2. (NEWS)(TELECOM)(LON)(00005) UK - PhoneLink Plans Tel-Me Enhancements 2.0 05/15/95 LIVERPOOL, MERSEYSIDE, ENGLAND, 1995 MAY 15 (NB) -- PhoneLink, the electronic information services company, has revealed that it planning a massive increase in its subscriber levels over the next year, and has increased its network provision to support a target 100,000 subscribers to Tel-Me by August of next year. In parallel with the enhancing of its Tel-Me network, PhoneLink is offering a 14,400 bits-per-second (bps) GVC brand modem for use with its service for UKP99.95. The modem, which comes bundled with Winfax Lite, a Windows fax comms package, is designed to work with the Tel-Me 2.0 software, which the company sells for UKP49.95 separately, but supplies free of charge with the GVC modem. Although the modem is non-proprietary, Chris Knowles, PhoneLink's group development strategy manager, explained that it is capable of interfacing with the Tel-Me service using a special fast connect protocol that minimizes handshaking times between the modem and the electronic information service. "The Fast Connect protocol reduces delays inherent in the connection process to the absolute minimum, delivering maximum value within the minimum time possible, reflecting our `hardly online' philosophy," he said. Coupled with the use of V.42bis error-correction and data compression, Knowles claimed that the modem is capable of speed connections up to 57,600 bps. According to Phil Madden, PhoneLink's marketing director, the modem, together with the enhancements to the service with Tel-Me, will enabled the company to sign up a large number of new subscribers to the service. "The evaluation period is over -- it's now time to roll the product out. We have adapted Tel-Me according to customer feedback and market demand and believe that, under PhoneLink's newly revised infrastructure, we are in a prime position to take advantage of anticipated market growth," he said. (Steve Gold/19950512/Press Contact: Buffalo Communications, +44-171-385-0777; Reader Contact: Tel-Me, +44-151-600-6000) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 05/15/95 TRENDS TI Intros TI-92 Math, Text Calculator (NEWS)(TRENDS)(DEN)(00006) TI Intros TI-92 Math, Text Calculator 05/15/95 DALLAS, TEXAS, U.S.A., 1995 MAY 15 (NB) -- "The power of a computer lab with the independence of a calculator" is the way Texas Instruments (NYSE: TXN) describes its TI-92, a device that isn't really a computer, but is certainly more than a calculator. #IMAGE 1 20 TWPCX \images\95051506.PCX Click here for photo The latest addition to TI's calculator line can perform symbolic manipulation, interactive geometry, three-dimensional (3-D) graphing, programming, and has a text editor that can cut, copy, paste, and find. "The TI-92 is a powerful, application-specific tool designed for mathematics education," according to Chuck Vonder Embse, associate professor of mathematics at Central Michigan University. The professor said most schools lack adequate computer resources because of the high cost of equipping traditional computer math labs, but believes the TI-92 could be the answer to that problem. There was a time when graduated and prospective engineers and mathematicians would not be seen in public without a slide rule hanging from their belts. The slide rule was eventually replaced by a scientific calculator. Now that in turn may be replaced by the TI-92. The 20 ounce (567 gram) device has a horizontal 240- by 128-pixel display that shows windows, icons, menus, and pointers with a resolution of 72 dots-per-inch (dpi). The user can split the display side-to-side or top-to-bottom to view two applications simultaneously. The resulting windows can be sized 1:1, 2:1 or 1:2. The device measures 4.7- by 8.2- by 1.2-inches and has a snap-on cover that also serves as a three-position stand for desktop use. The keyboard has QWERTY keys, function keys, and scientific calculator keys. The function keys provide access to pull-down menus and sub-menus. There is an eight-direction cursor key and a lock key that when used with the cursor key emulates the operation of a mouse. The TI-92 runs on an application-specific version of the Motorola 68000 microprocessor and comes with 128 kilobytes (KB) of RAM storage that includes 70KB of user memory. It has a built-in input/output port that lets the user link two systems and transfer information. The necessary cable is included. You can get an optional TI-Graph Link software package that lets you transfer data and programs between the TI-92 and a personal computer, store the information on disk, and print it. Other options include the Calculator-Based Laboratory (CBL) system, which connects to a variety of probes and adapters to measure motion, temperature, light, voltage and other data. Once gathered, the data can be analyzed on a TI-92. You can also get a TI-92 ViewScreen that enlarges and projects the display so it can be viewed by a group of people using an overhead projector. TI said the device uses a special technology that makes even complicated mathematical equations easy to read on the screen, and the built-in text editor has scripting capability so users can embed mathematical information in text. Power is provided by four AA batteries. TI said the TI-92 will have an estimated street price of $200 when it ships in the fourth quarter. (Jim Mallory/19950515/Press contact: Kathy Truesdell, Texas Instruments, 214-917-6432; Public contact: tel 800-842-2737, fax 817-774-6074, Internet e-mail ti-cares@ti.com/TI92950515/PHOTO) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 05/15/95 BUSINESS Diamar Gets Financing, Inks Golf Tips CD-ROM Deal (NEWS)(BUSINESS)(DEN)(00007) Diamar Gets Financing, Inks Golf Tips CD-ROM Deal 05/15/95 SEATTLE, WASHINGTON, U.S.A., 1995 MAY 15 (NB) -- Diamar Interactive Corp. has announced it has received a new round of private financing and has signed a deal with Golf Tips magazine to develop a series of interactive instructional CD-ROMs based in part on the magazine's content. #IMAGE 1 20 TWPCX \images\95051507.PCX Click here for photo The amount of additional funding was not revealed, but Diamar said two of the three investors will join the company's board of directors. David Roberts, president of Diamar, said the funding will allow the company to continue development of its "How To" series of CD-ROM titles for the leisure and lifestyle market. New investors include Archibald Cox, Jr., founder and chairman of the Sextant Group Inc., a financial advisory firm; Lawrence A. Bowman, president and portfolio manager of SoundView Asset Management and a former fund manager at Fidelity Investments; and Scott Oki, president of Oki Developments and a former executive at Microsoft Corp. Diamar said Bowman and Cox will get seats on the board while Oki will have a non-board advisory role. The deal with Golf Tips magazine will launch Diamar's first two CD-ROMs in its Better Golf series, "Golf Tips: Breaking 100" and "Golf Tips: Breaking 90." The self-help programs use interactive video, animation and golf instruction by people described by the company as "some of the world's greatest golf teachers." The company said the programs show how to improve your game, how the pros would play a hole based on the user's handicap, mastering the mental aspects of the game, and diagnosis of the swing through interactive animation. The Better Golf series is scheduled to be on retail shelves late this summer. Diamar said it also expects to ship its next CD-ROM in the How-To Series, "Better Photography: Learning to See Creatively," next month. The disk has a suggested retail price of $59.95 alone or you can get the disk and the book it is based on by professional photographer Bryan Peterson for $79.95. The company started shipping "Better Photography: Understanding Exposure" last fall, with the same pricing structure as the newest photography disk. In addition to teaching the principles of good exposure the program lets you apply different exposure settings to a photograph and see the results on-screen. Diamar also publishes a series of six stock photography CD-ROMs that include backgrounds and textures, landscapes and scenery, people and lifestyles. Each includes 54 high-resolution images in multiple formats including Photo CD. (Jim Mallory/19950515/Press contact: Kathy Romig, Diamar, 206-340-5975; Public contact: Diamar Interactive, tel 206-340- 5975, fax 206-340-1432/DIAMAR950515/PHOTO) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 05/15/95 ONLINE Venture To Offer Online Service, CD-ROMs For Girls (NEWS)(ONLINE)(DEN)(00008) Venture To Offer Online Service, CD-ROMs For Girls 05/15/95 ALBUQUERQUE, NEW MEXICO, U.S.A., 1995 MAY 15 (NB) -- Two companies have joined forces to launch an online service and produce books and CD-ROM-based software that is designed specifically for girls. Games for Her, a division of American Laser Games Inc. has joined forces with Daniel Weiss Associates Inc. to develop the product lines for girls ages eight to 15 years of age. American Laser Games (ALG) already creates CD-ROM games for girls, while Daniel Weiss Associates produces books for children and young adults. ALG said it will use the same full-screen full-motion video it uses in arcade games in the Games For Her titles. The two companies said they plan to launch Her On-Line late this summer. Planned offerings include electronic forums where users can talk with other girls, chat live with their favorite authors and celebrities, create their own interactive "chat" rooms and play games. The Her On-Line access provider is still being negotiated and no pricing information was available. Games for Her said the first CD-ROM offering from the alliance will be "McKenzie & Company," described as "a live-action interactive social adventure for girls." McKenzie and Company is scheduled to ship in September for IBM-compatibles, with versions for Apple Computer's Macintosh and 3DO platforms in October. Daniel Weiss Associates said it will make McKenzie & Company into a book series, with the first title appearing in the Spring of 1996. Games For Her said it will market McKenzie & Company through retailers and manufacturers of products that appeal to the under-sixteen group. "We're not so naive to think that girls are hanging out in computer stores. We know we have to reach them through channels they are already familiar with," according to Patricia Flanigan, Games For Her marketing director. The two companies plan commercial tie-ins with the products, saying they will sponsor a national mall tour to promote McKenzie & Company Special events and displays in Sam & Libby shoe stores, McKenzie & Company tags on N.E. Waz brand clothing and point of purchase tie-ins with the "Jane" brand of Sassaby Cosmetics are also planned. McKenzie & Company is expected to comprise a four-CD set. It will be accompanied by an audio CD of original music of the game "Sure She Can!" a CD featuring girls who are doing extraordinary things, and special items from Games for Her marketing partners. The companies said a portion of the proceeds from the sale of Games For Her software will be donated to the Pediatric AIDS Foundation, a non-profit group that supports research and assistance for children with AIDS. Market research firm Matrix Information & Directory Services (MIDS) said this month the gap between male and female online users exploring cyberspace is not as great as previously believed. According to MIDS there are about twice as many males as females of all ages using the Internet, instead of the online gender imbalance of nine to one previously believed to exist. MIDS spokesperson Ken Lindsay told Newsbytes that ratio is accurate for the younger users as well as for the overall population. However, in the schools surveyed the ratio was closer to even, with about 60 percent of the boys reporting Internet usage versus 40 percent of the girls. MIDS said its survey reflected responses from organizations representing over ten percent of the estimated 13.5 million Internet users at the end of 1994. The organization claims a error rate of plus or minus four percent. (Jim Mallory/19950512/Press contact: Gail Rubin, American Laser Games, 503-837-5406 or Ken Lindsay, MIDS, 512-462-0625) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 5 05/15/95 UNIX Broad Support For SCO OpenServer Release (NEWS)(UNIX)(SYD)(00009) Broad Support For SCO OpenServer Release 5 05/15/95 SYDNEY, AUSTRALIA, 1995 MAY 15 (NB) -- Following closely on the heels of the recent launch of the SCO OpenServer Release 5, a number of high-profile software vendors have announced product support for the new operating system. Among the companies is Computer Associates, which has revealed that its system management product for the client/server market -- CA-Unicenter -- will soon be supported by Release 5. Chris Holmes, SCO vice president of computing strategy, said, "We are pleased to be able to offer our customers one of the world's premier system management tools. Our vision of distributed computing is well served by the integration of CA-Unicenter with SCO OpenServer Release 5." Lotus has also been quick off the mark to assure users that Notes 3.30 has been certified to support Release 5. "As SCO is one of the leaders in the Unix market, SCO OpenServer Release 5 is an obvious component in our Unix strategy," said Jeff Papows, vice president of Lotus' Communications Business Group. Other software companies include Informix (Informix-OnLine Dynamic Server 7.1), Oracle (Oracle7 Workgroup Server), and Progress (Progress Application Development Environment and Relational Database Management System). Software vendors were not alone in their support of Release 5. Intel, IBM, Compaq, AT&T, and Olivetti have all assured their user base of Release 5 support. Giovanni Guerrieri, Olivetti's vice president, product marketing and business planning, said, "Olivetti has been a SCO partner since 1987 and we have had great success in combining our SNX Systema Server line with SCO's software. Our new SNX Systema models running SCO OpenServer Release 5 will continue that success in the next generation of business critical computing." (Keir Wells /19950512/Press Contact: Barbara LoFranco, Santa Cruz Operation, tel 408-453-9194, fax 408-453 6301, Internet e-mail barbara1@sco.com) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 05/15/95 ONLINE IDG Australia Offers Internet Magazine (NEWS)(ONLINE)(SYD)(00010) IDG Australia Offers Internet Magazine 05/15/95 SYDNEY, AUSTRALIA, 1995 MAY 15 (NB) -- IDG Australia has launched an Internet magazine which will be bound into its existing computer publications, giving it a start-up circulation of around 100,000 copies. au.WORLD will be edited by Australian Internet expert Geoff Ebbs. Ebbs is co-author of the hit book "The Australian Internet Book," and is past editor of Australian PC Week and Australian PC User. He will produce a core, common section to au.WORLD, and also a specialized section for the particular publication it is included with. These are: ComputerWorld; PC World; MacWorld; Network World; Reseller; and Computer Living. This covers the gamut from top information technology professionals to first-time home PC buyers. "This is the first time we've had a topic that cut across our reader bases." said IDG Australia Managing Director Don Kennedy. "But because we recognize the very special and different information needs, we are in effect creating six different editions. For instance, the Reseller edition will carry Internet contact information of special interest to computer resellers." The publication will not only act as a sort of monthly Yellow Pages to the Internet, but will carry practical advice, technical tips and guides to the most interesting and entertaining sites on the Net. The Australian and New Zealand Internet user community is already well served with specialist Internet publications such as Internet Australasia, plus numerous Internet columns and sections in other publications. (Paul Zucker/19950512/Press contact: Don Kennedy, IDG Australia, tel +61-2-439 5133, fax +61-2-439 5512) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 05/15/95 LEGAL Consumer Group Proposes "Microsoft Breakup Bill" (NEWS)(LEGAL)(DEN)(00011) Consumer Group Proposes "Microsoft Breakup Bill" 05/15/95 WASHINGTON, D.C., U.S.A., 1995 MAY 15 (NB) -- The Committee to Fight Microsoft, a self-described consumer lobby, has proposed what it calls a "Microsoft Break-up Bill" which the organization said would provide the Federal Trade commission with expanded powers to prevent the sale of computer hardware and software which fail to meet operating expectations. The bill would also prevent what the group calls "monopolistic practices by Microsoft and other producers in the computer industry." Anthony Martin, executive director and founder of the Committee to Fight Microsoft, said the provision to outlaw the sale of hardware or software that does not function as advertised or represented by the manufacturer was added on the advice of congressional staffers in order to gain greater legislative support in Congress. Martin admits he has not met yet with any elected members of Congress. "We're in negotiating sessions, and they will be getting copies of this (proposed bill) this week," he told Newsbytes. He said he has also had discussions with staff members at the Federal Trade Commission. Martin denies he is trying to "bring down" Microsoft. "The principal goal is to fight Microsoft. We're not trying to 'bring down' anybody. (The bill) would certainly create an environment where anti-competitive tactics would not flourish. What we are trying to do is create a level playing field." If Martin can find a sponsor for the bill and it eventually becomes law without significant changes, manufacturers and sellers would have to offer either free upgrades or else provide a full refund to the dissatisfied purchaser if a product did not perform as advertised. "For example, under our proposed statute, Intel would have had to legally either replace the defective Pentium chips which it shipped last year, or offer to install a free upgrade chip for its customers," said Martin. Intel did eventually offer to replace at no cost the Pentium chip of any customer who requested a replacement. "Similarly, Disney would have had to take steps to ensure that the 'Lion King' CDs which it sold last Christmas would actually function on the hardware and software for which it was allegedly operable." Martin acknowledged that manufacturers and sellers often take these steps voluntarily, but said there has been a history in the computer industry of selling a defective product then making users buy upgrade or correction disks. Martin's proposed bill would expand the Federal Trade Commission to add a new Bureau of Computer Competition and Consumer Protection to protect the public. "We are proposing to replace the 'Maytag Repair Man' with the "Microsoft Repair Man' said Martin. The committee is a registered federal Political Action Committee (PAC), which limits members to US citizens, but Martin said the organization will also organize an unregulated companion committee to solicit international membership. Asked by Newsbytes how the membership drive is progressing, he described it as "adequate, nothing exciting," and said the committee has been contacted by several hundred people. Martin was unable to provide specific membership numbers but told Newsbytes there are "probably over 200" paid members. (Jim Mallory/19950515/Press and public contact: Committee to fight Microsoft, 407-833-6917) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 05/15/95 GENERAL Canadian Product Launch Update (NEWS)(GENERAL)(TOR)(00012) Canadian Product Launch Update 05/15/95 KINGSTON, ONTARIO, CANADA, 1995 MAY 15 (NB) -- This regular feature, appearing on the first day Newsbytes publishes each week, provides further details for the Canadian market on announcements by international companies that Newsbytes has already covered. This week: Digital Equipment's enVISN architecture, IBM's new ThinkPad notebooks, and Lotus Development's InterNotes Web Publisher and InterNotes News. Digital Equipment of Canada Ltd., based in Toronto, announced its Enterprise Virtual Intelligent Switched Network (enVISN) architecture (Newsbytes, April 28). The announcement included three new products. The DECswitch 400 departmental switch, to be available in Canada in June, is priced at C$2,063 per port, fully configured. The GIGAswitch/ATM Version 1.3 software is a free upgrade to comply with ATM (asynchronous transfer mode) Forum standards, to be available in July. The DECNIS ATMcontroller 631 network interface card is to be available in August with prices starting at C$17,500. Markham, Ontario-based IBM Canada Ltd. announced three new ThinkPad notebook computers. The ThinkPad 755CV and ThinkPad 755CX (Newsbytes, May 10) are to be available in Canada June 19. A 755CV with 810 megabyte (MB) hard drive, 8MB of memory, and a 100 megahertz (MHz) 486DX4 processor will cost C$10,999 from IBM Direct. The 755CX with 810MB hard drive, 8MB of memory, and a 75MHz Pentium chip will be C$10,149. IBM Canada also announced the ThinkPad 370C, a low-priced model with a 75MHz 486DX4 processor. Prices start at C$5,199 for a model with a 340MB hard drive and 4MB of memory. Lotus Development Canada Ltd., of Toronto, introduced InterNotes Web Publisher and InterNotes News (Newsbytes, May 5). Lotus Canada said it expects InterNotes Web Publisher to retail for C$8,915 and InterNotes News for C$2,975. Both have begun shipping. (Grant Buckler/19950515/Press Contact: Peter Sereda, Digital Canada, 416-730-7288; Kevin McKee, IBM Canada, 905-316-3902; Marsha Connor, Lotus Canada, 416-364-8000; Public Contact: Digital Canada, tel 416-730-7000, fax 416-730-7070; IBM Canada, 905-316-9000; Lotus Canada, 800-465-6887) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 05/15/95 ONLINE CRS Online BBS Finds Virus-Making Trojan Program (NEWS)(ONLINE)(TOR)(00013) CRS Online BBS Finds Virus-Making Trojan Program 05/15/95 TORONTO, ONTARIO, CANADA, 1995 MAY 15 (NB) -- Saying it was the first virus ever to slip past its virus scanners, the Toronto-based CRS Online bulletin board has warned subscribers of a virus-creating program that was briefly available on the board for downloading last week. The file BESTSSVR.ZIP uncompresses to create the program COOLSAVR.COM, which claims to be a screen-saver program, CRS said. However, running COOLSAVR creates a virus called Big Caibua, which infects files with the extension .COM. Since it creates the virus rather than containing it initially, BESTSSVR is technically what is known as a "Trojan horse" program. David Chaloner, general manager of CRS Online, told Newsbytes that one of the BBS's subscribers discovered the nasty program and notified CRS. CRS rechecked the program with its virus-scanning utilities but none of them could detect the virus, he said. So the board contacted virus software agent Norman Hirsch in New York, who is passing on information to makers of virus-protection utilities so they can modify their programs to be aware of it. CRS has posted a notice to its subscribers on the board, and is offering a free utility called XCAIBUA.ZIP that can locate infected .COM files and rename them so they can be deleted. The infected files can't be recovered, CRS officials said. Chaloner said CRS Online has no way of knowing exactly how many people downloaded BESTSSVR.ZIP, since the board only maintains records of downloads for the most popular programs. "As far as I know," he said, "only a handful of people downloaded it." CRS said it has notified other major North American BBSs and other sources of software to delete the BESTSSVR.ZIP file if they find it. (Grant Buckler/19950515/Press Contact: David Chaloner, CRS Online, 416-213-6000; Public Contact: CRS Online, 416-213-6000) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 05/15/95 GENERAL Japan Newsbriefs (NEWS)(GENERAL)(TYO)(00014) Japan Newsbriefs 05/15/95 TOKYO, JAPAN, 1995 MAY 15 (NB) -- In this roundup of news from Japan: September US launch for PlayStation; Sharp plans more pen computers; Fenics VAN node on mobile network; Record numbers take new mobile telephones; MPT eliminates paper work for telephone price cuts; Titus plans cable phone service. September US Launch For PlayStation Sony will bring the fierce video game war it is currently fighting in Japan to US shores in September when it releases its PlayStation. From September 9, US consumers will be able to buy the 32-bit game console for between $300 and $350. In Japan, Sony is battling against the two biggest names in the industry, Sega and Nintendo, with their Saturn and Ultra 64 systems. Sharp Plans More Pen Computers Sharp has said it will increase development of pen-based electronic notepads and introduce models for languages other than English. The new models will all be based on Sharp's PA-B1 memopad and GK-E510 English Study system. The first product will be for the Chinese market and is expected to be released shortly. Fenics VAN Node On Mobile Network Fujitsu's packet switching network, Fenics, has opened a point-of- presence on NTT's DoCoMo mobile telephone network. The new node removes the need to call outside the network. It caters for all speeds up to 9,600 bits-per-second (bps) to people with a Digital Mova Hyper telephone that includes a data communications port. In the Tokyo area calls are charged at 10 yen for nine seconds. Record Numbers Take New Mobile Telephones New subscribers to Japan's mobile telephone networks broke the 300,000 mark last month with 315,000 people signing up for service. NTT's DoCoMo group continued to increase their lead with 139,000 new subscribers. DDI Corp. counted 61,800 new customers with IDO attracting 40,500 people. Digital Phone said they had 39,800 new contracts signed and Tu-Ka reported 34,400 new accounts. Meanwhile, the Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications say that they will bring in new mobile telephone numbers three months earlier than already planned. The new 080 and 090 codes will substitute the existing 030 and 040 codes for calls under 160 kilometers from January of next year. MPT Eliminates Paper Work For Telephone Price Cuts The Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications has decided to drop the requirement of telephone companies to apply in advance to drop their prices. At present, all telephone companies must submit an application to the ministry, whereas in future they will simply have to inform the MPT. The new arrangements are certain to increase competition in the telephone marketplace. Titus Plans Cable Phone Service Titus Communications, the Tokyo-based company owned by Time-Warner, US West, Itochu, and Toshiba, has announced a 1996 start to their cable telephony service. The company will shortly begin negotiations with the MPT and NTT (Nippon Telephone and Telegraph) over favorable connection terms between Titus and NTT. Another company, Jupiter Telecom owned by TCI and Sumitomo Corp, is also planning a similar service. (Martyn Williams/19950515) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 05/15/95 ONLINE Internet Update (NEWS)(ONLINE)(TYO)(00015) Internet Update 05/15/95 TOKYO, JAPAN, 1995 MAY 15 (NB) -- In this roundup of new services and resources on the Internet: New version of HTML editor released; National Space Society debuts; Australian advertising databook online; Time Out provides world entertainment listings; Places to visit daily; A new home for Mac Central; Performance data for web operators; Singapore Hospital Service; Your views on Internet commerce sought. New Version Of HTML Editor Released A new version, 1.6, of HTMLedit is now available. The freeware hypertext editor for Macintosh computers supports documents that conform to HTML (hypertext markup language) 2.0 except for forms and tables which are promised for the next release. As well as being an HTML editor, the author says, "It is designed to become a master archive of a server's documents, with the ability to simplify global changes and updates." Anonymous FTP (File Transfer Protocol): ftp://ogopogo.nttc.edu/pub/tools/HTMLedit16.sea.hqx. World Wide Web: http://ogopogo.nttc.edu/tools/HTMLedit/HTMLedit.html National Space Society Debuts The National Space Society (NSS) is described as a "grass-roots, educational organization promoting space development." The NSS is now on the World Wide Web promoting their projects to develop a space-faring civilization. World Wide Web: http://www.global.org/bfreed/nss/nss-home.html Australian Advertising Databook Online The annual edition of Advertising Expenditure in Main Media published by Australia's Commercial Economic Advisory Service has been released and is available in PDF (Portable Document Format) on the Internet. The book surveys advertising spending across all main media in Australia and even covers areas such as sponsorship. World Wide Web: http://www.ozemail.com.au/~sulphur/CEASA Time Out Provides World Entertainment Listings Time Out, publishers of London's most widely read entertainment listings magazine as well as popular city guides, has entered cyberspace with a World Wide service. The site provides free access to its resource of worldwide city information and entertainment listings. Cities currently covered are Amsterdam, Berlin, London, Madrid, New York, Paris and Prague with more planned for the future. World Wide Web: http://www.timeout.co.uk/ Places To Visit Daily The Song of the Day site provides, not surprisingly, a different song each day to listen to. The music is in MPEG (Motion Picture Experts Group) II mono or stereo format and will draw on songs stored on the alt.music Web site and similar style recordings across the Internet. World Wide Web: http://www.xmission.com/~adm/html/sotd.html. If poetry is more to your style then a Poem of the Day site has also been established. As well as a new poem everyday, the operator promises links to Poetry sites across the Internet. World Wide Web: http://bigdog.engr.arizona.edu/~fischerm/poetry.html A New Home For Mac Central The Mac Central web site has moved. Mac Central provides World Wide Web access to software for the Apple Macintosh available from the Internet. The software is organized into several sections. World Wide Web: http://haven.ios.com/~abtm Performance Data For Web Operators A beta test of "The Web Reception Monitoring Service" has just been announced. The new service will periodically access a series of web sites and record the time taken to access information. This data is then electronically mailed to the site operator once a week to indicate performance of the server. A free beta test is about to begin and server operators can participate by e-mailing to td1@wimsey.com. World Wide Web: http://www.wimsey.com/~td1/wrms.html Singapore Hospital Service The Tan Tock Seng Hospital, established in Singapore over 150 years ago, has just come onto the World Wide Web. The hospital is the second biggest in Singapore and now offers information about itself via the Internet. World Wide Web: http://www.ttsh.gov.sg/ Your Views On Internet Commerce Sought Liberal Research is conducting a survey, for "a major financial services corporation," on Internet users attitudes towards consumer privacy for financial operations across the Internet. You can take part in the survey via the World Wide Web at http://www.literal.net/research. (Martyn Williams/19950515) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 05/15/95 BROADCAST DEC Adds Westminster To List Of 20 Video Trials (NEWS)(BROADCAST)(BOS)(00016) DEC Adds Westminster To List Of 20 Video Trials 05/15/95 MAYNARD, MASSACHUSETTS, U.S.A., 1995 MAY 15 (NB) -- Digital Equipment Corp., which just signed on for a video trial with British Telecom (TV) subsidiary Westminster Cable, is taking part in over half of the 38 video tests and deployments now being performed by phone and cable companies worldwide, said Peter Ryus, director of worldwide marketing for Digital's Video and Interactive Information Services (VIIS), in an interview with Newsbytes. The Westminster trial, slated to begin in November in London, will be one of the largest beta tests of "true video-on-demand" (VoD) to be carried out by a cable TV operator to date, Ryus told Newsbytes. The deal with Westminster calls for use of Digital's Alpha-based Mediaplex video server, as well as systems integration from DEC. "This trial is of sufficient scale that there are very important learnings that can be made. We'll also be able to `stress test' our equipment," Ryus maintained. Digital is now participating in about 20 video pilots and commercial implementations, he said. Among the other tests that have been officially announced are a cable TV trial by Svenska in Sweden, and digital broadband video tests by US West, Belgacom in Belgium, and Telstra in Australia. DEC is also taking part in commercial implementations such as Adlink's digital video ad insertion in California, TMN's commercial pay-for-view in Canada, and broadband video networks being built by Ameritech in the Midwest and Nynex in Massachusetts, New York, and Rhode Island. "Video is a rapidly growing market, and we happened to get out there ahead of the rest of the pack," Digital's director of worldwide marketing told Newsbytes. The Westminster trial will begin with 100 subscribers, and will later expand to 1,000, Ryus said. Eventually, subscribers will be able to select from a video library of 200 titles, supplied by BT. For the first three to four months, VoD services will be free of charge to Westminster Cable subscribers, according to Ryus. In contrast to another video trial now being carried out by BT in London, which is being operated over a traditional "tree and branch" architecture with "long trunk runs," the Westminster trial is based on a "switched-star" network, with a shorter return path that provides for interactivity in real time, he contended. Like all of Digital's current activities in the interactive video market, he said, the Westminster trial will use Digital's "second generation" MediaPlex server, which is equipped with MPEG (Motion Picture Experts Group)-2 video compression for higher quality video. Competitors to Digital are still using MPEG-1, according to Ryus. The Westminster test is similar to the smaller Svenska cable trial test in that analog set-top boxes are being used in both cases, Newsbytes was told. At Westminster, the cable subscribers will continue to use the same analog set-top boxes employed for cable TV, which are equipped with an existing back channel. "The content on the server will be in digital form, but we'll spool it off into an analog form, which will give (Westminster) an opportunity to `plug and play' in that environment. All that Westminster will have to do is to issue customers a modified remote," he reported. On the other hand, end-to-end digital communications are being used in the video broadband trials by US West and Svenska, Ryus said. The digital set-top boxes are more costly, but they also carry the potential for higher resolution as well as greater "functionality," he added. "Once you're in the digital environment, you have the opportunity to offer a wide range of other capabilities that go beyond simple VoD. Digital delivery of signals is going to be in all of our futures. It's just a matter of time, as the networks get upgraded to accommodate that signal," the Digital executive concluded. (Jacqueline Emigh/19950515/Reader Contact: Digital Equipment Corporation, 800-493-1111; Roger Horine, DEC, 508-841-2609; Amy Raabe, The Weber Group for DEC, 617-661-7900) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 05/15/95 UNIX Dodge Group Adds Salomon Brothers, More Deals Expected (NEWS)(UNIX)(BOS)(00017) Dodge Group Adds Salomon Brothers, More Deals Expected 05/15/95 WALTHAM, MASSACHUSETTS, U.S.A., 1995 MAY 15 (NB) -- The Dodge Group has added Salomon Brothers to the customer base for its process- oriented financial software, and is now close to concluding deals with some major New York banks, said Frank Dodge, chairman and chief executive officer (CEO), in an interview with Newsbytes. Dodge told Newsbytes that the Salomon Brothers financial services firm has licensed OpenSeries Procurement, The Dodge Group's second product, to support a "total reengineering" of its purchasing and accounts payable system. OpenSeries Procurement, which is slated for release by the end of this year, is now about 60 percent complete, Dodge reported. "Salomon Brothers is `going live' in January, and enough of the product is available for them to start working on the front end now," he added. Dodge predicted that the product will save Salomon Brothers "a tremendous amount of clerical paper-pushing" by making it possible to do away with the need for the traditional "three-way match" between the invoice, the purchase order, and the receiving document. "Instead, they can decide to pay off a purchase order according to pre-agreed upon terms. By not having to chase paper around, they can get much better use out of their people. They can consolidate their purchases, and get better terms from the vendor," he asserted. Many other companies would also like to do away with the need for the three-way match, but other software packages now on the market still call for the match, he contended. "So the (other) software doesn't support what the (users) want to do from a business standpoint." Salomon Brothers is operating OpenSeries Procurement on Sun servers with a Sybase relational database management system (RDBMS), the CEO said. The product also runs on RS-6000 and HP workstations, and on Alpha workstations running Digital Unix. The Dodge Group's first complete product, OpenSeries General Ledger, became available at the end of last year, as did Travel and Entertainment, the first module in OpenSeries Procurement. Each module in OpenSeries Procurement can be implemented independently, according to Dodge. Aside from Travel and Entertainment, additional modules in OpenSeries Procurement include Evaluated Receipt Settlement; Goods & Services Acquisitions; Procurement Card Processing; and Cash Disbursement. "Our focus is the banking and financial services industry, and we're really getting there now. We're making a major penetration into financial services, primarily with General Ledger, which is attaining tremendous processing volumes that apparently other (products) can't achieve," Newsbytes was told. Other announced customers include: Credit Lyonnais, characterized by Dodge as the largest bank in Europe; the First National Bank of Chicago, which has licensed Travel and Entertainment; and Sun Life of Canada, which has licensed General Ledger. (Jacqueline Emigh/19950512/Reader Contact: The Dodge Group, 617- 672-8604; Press Contact: Renee L. Blodgett, Brodeur & Partners for The Dodge Group, 617-622-2830) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 05/15/95 ONLINE Accordance's Intermail For Online Services, Unix Nets (NEWS)(ONLINE)(BOS)(00018) Accordance's Intermail For Online Services, Unix Nets 05/15/95 LEXINGTON, MASSACHUSETTS, U.S.A., 1995 MAY 15 (NB) -- Accordance Corp., a Lexington, Massachusetts-based Siemens-Nixdorf spin-off, plans to market its new Intermail 1.1 multimedia "high-end" messaging system to online service and voice messaging service providers as well as to Unix systems vendors, said Valdur Koha, president and chief executive officer (CEO), in a conference call with Newsbytes. Intermail was first developed within the Open Systems Department at Siemens-Nixdorf Information Systems, he explained, during the conference call with Newsbytes in Boston. "We had responsibility for keeping abreast of client-server with very advanced technology, and Intermail was one of the products we developed," he said. Shortly after Accordance was spun off as a privately held separate company last August, the start-up announced Intermail 1.0, a product that has been used in "some very significant beta installations," according to Koha. Deutsche Telecom and Siemens Rolm Communications (Rolm), for example, have used Intermail 1.0 in a pilot ATM (asynchronous transfer mode) broadband network between Bonn and Berlin, he illustrated. "Accordance has concentrated on supporting high volumes of voice and image, as well as multimedia clips, by making it possible to successfully transport large chunks of data, independent of the underlying network architecture," Koha told Newsbytes. "Interoperability" and "scalability" are two other focuses for the company's store-and-forward messaging system, he added. The product provides native X.400 '88, SMTP (Simple Mail Transport Protocol), and MIME (Multimedia Internet Mail Extensions) support, according to the CEO. Koha added that the newly unveiled Intermail 1.1, the first version of the product to come to market commercially, brings first-time support for POP (Post Office Protocol) 3, a "batch-oriented Internet protocol," as well as for Microsoft's Extended MAPI (Mail Application Programming Interface). Through support for Extended MAPI, Microsoft Mail users can send messages with attached files that can include text, graphics, and audio and video clips, he reported. Other enhancements in Intermail 1.1 include relational database support, multi-threading, and a new directory broker designed to let multiple store servers "deploy in a distributed environment," according to Koha. Most other messaging systems, he contended, employ either a proprietary message store or the Unix file system, which can be difficult to use. Relational databases, in contrast, "store the messages in a very secure and robust manner," according to Koha. Intermail 1.1 provides direct interfaces to Oracle and Informix, the company chief elaborated. Future versions of the product will add direct interfaces to other relational databases, such as Sybase, along with an ODBC (open database connectivity) driver, he revealed. Intermail's new multithreading capability works with Solaris and UnixWare, the only two platforms in the initially supported group to provide multithreading, Koha reported. Intermail 1.1 also runs on SunOS, SCO (Santa Cruz Operation) Unix, Silicon Graphics, and HP-UX servers. "If you are an online services provider -- with a help desk, a terminal switching system, and many hundreds of thousands, or even millions of users, for example -- you can easily add multiprocessing, while preserving the image of a single message store for the end user," Newsbytes was told. Providers of Internet or X.400 access services constitute one of Intermail's major target markets, according to Koha. Accordance will soon be announcing a "major" deal with one online service provider, he disclosed. "And for voice messaging, we are also uniquely positioned, not so much from the standpoint of the number of users, but because of the sheer amount of data that needs to be moved through the system. Rolm is an example," he said. The company also plans to approach OEMs (original equipment manufacturers) of Unix systems, positioning Intermail as a means of selling bundled Unix servers for PC networks, according to the company chief. "We will leave the Windows clients alone. They have great interfaces. But we will replace the PC store servers," he elaborated. In the future, Accordance will add support for CMC (Common Mail Call), he said. Intermail support for VIM (Vendor Independent Mapping) is not in the works, however. "Lotus has announced it will support MAPI by the end of this year," he pointed out. Farther down the road, Intermail will probably be ported to Windows NT and OS/2, two other operating environments equipped with multithreading, according to Koha. But the company intends to wait until these systems become more "mature," he explained. Intermail 1.1 is available now. Pricing to online and voice system providers and large-scale Unix system suppliers is $80 per mailbox. (Jacqueline Emigh/19950515/Reader Contact: Accordance, 617-674- 0100; Press Contact: Carolyn Wilkins or Tim Hurley, Copithorne & Bellows for Accordance, 617-252-0606) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 05/15/95 GENERAL Iona's Mac, OS/2, Multithreaded Orbix, CORBA 2. (NEWS)(GENERAL)(BOS)(00019) Iona's Mac, OS/2, Multithreaded Orbix, CORBA 2.0 05/15/95 BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS, U.S.A., 1995 MAY 15 (NB) -- At a press conference in Boston, Iona Technologies Ltd. unveiled Macintosh, OS/2, and multithreaded editions of its Orbix object request broker (ORB), along with plans to integrate Orbix with Microsoft's object linking and embedding (OLE) and to start implementing the Object Management Group (OMG)'s Common Object Request Broker Architecture (CORBA) 2.0. Dublin, Ireland-based Iona, which is now setting up a US sales and marketing headquarters in the Boston area, in 1993 became the first vendor to release a C++ ORB "fully compliant" with the CORBA 1.0 standard, officials maintained at the press conference, which was attended by Newsbytes. Annrai O'Toole, VP of development, told the journalists that Iona focuses exclusively on providing "shrink-wrapped, easy-to-use, and low-cost" implementations of the ORB, a component of CORBA aimed at allowing interoperability between objects from different operating environments. To support its mission of "Orbix everywhere," the company pursues a strategy of multiplatform availability, volume distribution, and extensive partnering with hardware vendors and independent software developers (ISVs), the VP said. Iona, which is partially owned by SunSoft, recently introduced a Windows 3.1 edition of Orbix, he pointed out. The ORB now runs on a total of 14 different operating systems. Iona is currently partnering with eight hardware and software vendors, including SunSoft, Novell, Isis, Black and White, Visual Edge, Object Design, Transparent Application Servers (TAS), and Objective Interface Systems (OIS). More than 2,500 outside developers are using Orbix, according to O'Toole. "A useful ORB will run on any platform," remarked Barry Morris, product manager, another speaker. A final beta release of the new Orbix for OS/2.0 is shipping, according to Morris. The new Orbix for Apple's System 7.2 is slated for availability in the third quarter. The newly introduced Orbix MT (multi-threaded), an add-on to vanilla Orbix on Solaris, is meant to let developers invoke Solaris threads in three ways, depending on the requirements of the application: a thread per request; a thread per object; or a pool of threads. Iona is now developing versions of Orbix MT for other operating systems, including Windows NT, HP/UX, AIX, Irix, and Digital Unix, according to the officials. Also at the press conference, Llewellyn Chang, VP of technology at Salomon Brothers, told journalists that Orbix is helping his company to maintain its investment in legacy programs by "wrapping them in CORBA" for integration with client-server applications on Windows, Windows NT, NextStep, and Unix. Without the ORB, Salomon would need to move the legacy applications to each platform individually, noted Chang. In addition, Morris demonstrated the upcoming integration between Orbix and OLE, explaining that the new capability is needed because, until now, the two environments "haven't been able to talk to each other." Interoperability between ORBs is just as important as interoperability between an ORB and objects, according to Morris. Orbix has already integrated with SunSoft's CORBA-based Distributed Objects Environment (DOE), he said. In the Orbix/OLE integration, the Orbix Interactive Data Language (IDL) compiler is being enhanced to generate "OLE automation servers" directly from IDL source code, according to Morris. The OLE automation servers are "hybrid objects" that also function as "full and complete" Orbix clients. Now in beta, the Orbix/OLE integration capability is expected to ship in four to five weeks. Delivering a "roadmap" of Iona's plans for CORBA 2.0 implementation, Morris said that Iona will add C++ Mapping and the Interoperability Protocol (IIOP) in the third quarter of 1995, Ada Mapping in the fourth quarter of 1995, and the Interface Repository (IR) and SmallTalk mapping in the first quarter of 1996. Also this year, he revealed, Orbix will add compliance with three parts of the OMG's Common Objects Services Specification (COSS): the Coss Name Service, for "looking up objects by name," in the third quarter, and the COSS Event Service, for event notification, and COSS Transaction Service (CTS), both in the fourth quarter. Iona has been "influential in defining the OMG C++ specification" for C++ mapping, meaning that few changes will need to be made to the IDL compiler or Orbix interfaces, he contended. Morris added that Iona plans to implement IIOP by developing a new "pluggable transport layer" intended to allow interoperability between Orbix and other ORBs that conform to IIOP. IIOP is "structurally similar" to Orbix, he asserted. Both IIOP and Orbix are based on the transport layer, rather than remote procedural calls (RPC), and both provide "low protocol overhead" with only a few bytes per message. In a meeting with Newsbytes at the close of the press conference, Morris pointed out that Iona already offers a pluggable transport layer for Isis, aimed at "replicated, distributed Orbix," along with plug-ins for Tuxedo, Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol (TCP/IP), Systems Network Architecture (SNA); and Internet Packet Exchange/Sequenced Packet Exchange (IPX/SPX). During his presentation, Morris explained that Orbix already has an IR, but will add compliance with the OMG specification. The IR is used in the publishing of object interfaces to allow browsing and regeneration of the IDL interface from the IR, he said. Orbix with SmallTalk and Ada support will provide "identical functionality" to Iona's existing C++ products, according to Morris. "Why Ada?" he asked rhetorically. Ada is "still very strong in the defense sector," and is also "surprising popular for mission- critical, non-defense projects," he responded. SmallTalk, on the other hand, is becoming "increasingly significant" for rapid development of graphical user interfaces (GUIs), as a COBOL replacement, and for implementing the middle tier in three-tier client-server applications, according to the Iona product manager. (Jacqueline Emigh/19950515/Reader Contact: Iona Technologies Ltd., tel +353-2-6686522, fax +353-1-66-86573; Press Contact: Tom Golden, Iona, tel +353-2-6686522, fax +353-1-66-86573) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 05/15/95 LEGAL Better Business Bureau Sues For Internet Address (NEWS)(LEGAL)(WAS)(00020) Better Business Bureau Sues For Internet Address 05/15/95 ARLINGTON, VIRGINIA, U.S.A., 1995 MAY 15 (NB) -- The Council of Better Business Bureaus, the umbrella group for the nation's 138 Better Business Bureaus around the US and owner of the BBB trademark, has filed suit in a federal court in Kansas City, Mo., against an individual for unauthorized use of the trademark on the Internet. The defendant named in the suit, Mark Sloo, doing business in Kansas City as Clark Publishing and Design, obtained a registration for the domain names "bbb.com" and "bbb.org." The registration of the "bbb" name prevents the Better Business Bureau from using its well-known acronym on the Internet, says the council. The suit alleges trademark infringement and unfair competition, among other charges. The suit also names Sloo's Internet provider, Tyrell Corp., as a defendant. "Our communications with Mr. Sloo indicate that his only real interest is to barter the BBB domain names," says Steven Cole, general counsel of the organization. "Ours is not the first well-known corporate identity snatched up by an entrepreneur hoping to make a quick profit from selling the name back to the company." Council spokeswoman Holly Cherico told Newsbytes that Sloo had offered to give the name back to the organization in return for a receipt that he could use for a tax deduction. "That's when we realized what he was really up to," she said. The council also says it is concerned that Sloo may try to provide services under the "bbb" logo. "We are quite concerned that consumers and businesses would be misled into thinking that by contacting 'bbb.org' and 'bbb.com' they would obtain information from one of our Better Business Bureaus," Cole says. "The Better Business Bureau organization has used the BBB marks to identify our consumer protection services for decades and we've developed substantial good will and public recognition of what the BBB stands for. Cherico said the organization has sued in the past to protect the BBB trademark, but never before because of an online use. "We have had cases where people set up phony BBB operations, and we have sued in those cases," she said. The organization has recently established a home page on the World Wide Web under the domain name of "cbbb.org," but plans to change that to "bbb.org" as soon as it may do so legally. Located at http://www.cbbb.org/cbbb/, the Web server offers information about the organization's services locally and nationally, including information on the latest marketplace scams, a directory of BBB offices around the country, and recent news releases and publications. (Kennedy Maize/19950515/Press Contact: Holly Cherico, 703-247-9311, Internet e-mail cbbb@cbbb.org) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 05/15/95 GOVT Computer Industry Groups Back Telecom Deregulation (NEWS)(GOVT)(WAS)(00021) Computer Industry Groups Back Telecom Deregulation 05/15/95 WASHINGTON, D.C., U.S.A., 1995 MAY 15 (NB) -- Less regulation means more competition, which is good for consumers, so congressional efforts to deregulate telecommunications is a wise move, according to trade groups from the computer industry. Speaking at a House telecommunications subcommittee on Friday, Don Deutsh of Sybase said that "reforms in communication law and regulation can lead to more efficient use of information and accelerate the establishment of in 'information economy.'" Representing the Business Software Alliance and the Alliance to Promote Software Innovation, Deutsh warned against creating new regulatory structures. "As Congress proceeds with deregulation of the telecommunications industries to foster greater competition and innovation," he said, "it would be inconsistent and ironic to establish a new regulatory regime for software and computers -- one of the most competitive, fastest growing, and internationally successful industries in America." Today in the US, according to BSA, there are more than 14,000 companies developing software, producing more than 10,000 products each year. While software prices have declined steadily, the industry is growing at more than 20 percent annually. The growth and responsiveness to consumers is the result of voluntary action, not regulation, said Deutsh. "We believe that this model is viable and efficient," he said, "and should continue to be the norm. There is nothing to indicate that regulators could or would do a better job of setting needed standards than the private sector." The two trade groups are wary of language in the House telecommunications subcommittee bill to mandate standards to ensure software "interoperability." A group led by Sun Microsystems, and other Unix users, has been pushing for a standard operating system for set-top boxes that will serve as an interface between the communications provider and the home. "If this were to happen," Deutsh said, "development will be slowed, innovation inhibited, and technology will be rigidly fixed at current levels." The two trade associations have asked the House Commerce Committee to clarify the bill language to prevent government-mandated interoperability standards. (Kennedy Maize/19950515/Press Contact: Diane Smiroldo, 202-872-5500) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 05/15/95 ONLINE ****Ebola Virus Outbreak Tracked Via Internet (NEWS)(ONLINE)(MSP)(00022) ****Ebola Virus Outbreak Tracked Via Internet 05/15/95 CAMBRIDGE, MASSACHUSETTS, U.S.A., 1995 MAY 15 (NB) -- When it comes to keeping tabs on the outbreak of the deadly Ebola virus in Zaire, doctors and scientists from around the world are keeping up with developments in the African country via the Internet. One such electronic aid is called "ProMED," which is an electronic-mail based discussion group that links researchers, physicians, and other health workers when it comes to studying, monitoring, and sharing information about emerging diseases in the developing world. Officials said ProMED was initially established in 1993 to monitor all such outbreaks, but the recent Ebola incident has made up the bulk of recent mailings. ProMED is a part of SatelLife, a non-profit group in Cambridge, Massachusetts. SatelLife operates HealthNet, a computer network that operates in some African and Asian countries. "The subscription rate has been going through the roof," Phil Temples of HealthNet told Newsbytes. He said the regular e-mail list had 950 subscribers, while the digest version of the list is somewhere between 100 and 200. Newsbytes has been subscribing to the list since last Friday. So far, topics being discussed include information on any health workers who are sick, updates on the numbers of people who either have the disease or who have died from it, and the official Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) memo on the outbreak. An interesting post focused on whether or not Ebola was a "doomsday" virus. This is an open list, meaning anyone can join. To subscribe, users can send an e-mail message to majordomo@usa.healthnet.org, and provide the text "subscribe promed" without the quotes. For those who have World Wide Web access, David Ornstein has set up "The Ebola Page" in an "attempt to provide a central resource on the Net about the Zaire outbreak, and Ebola in general," in his words. The site is located at http://www.apocalypse.org/pub/u/davido/ebola.html. He promises to update the site "many times each day." When Newsbytes accessed the Web site, Ornstein had claimed the site has received more than 15,000 "visits" since May 10. Some of the features of the page include a chronology of events from the Zaire outbreak, Ebola information that's not specific to the recent incident, and hotlinks to other resources. He also has collected information on an incident in Angola that might be related to the Zaire outbreak. As of Monday morning, Reuters had reported at least 60 people have died in the Ebola epidemic in southwestern Zaire. Ebola liquefies the body's internal organs and causes massive bleeding, Reuters said, and there is no cure or vaccine. (Bob Woods/19950515/Press Contact: Kerry Gallivan, SatelLife, 617-868- 8522, Internet e-mail hnet@usa.healthnet.org; Public Contacts: Internet e-mail majordomo@usa.healthnet.org, Internet World Wide Web http://www.apocalypse.org/pub/u/davido/ebola.html) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 05/15/95 ONLINE Pipeline Browser Does Not Need TCP/IP On User's Mac (NEWS)(ONLINE)(TOR)(00023) Pipeline Browser Does Not Need TCP/IP On User's Mac 05/15/95 NEW YORK, NEW YORK, U.S.A., 1995 MAY 15 (NB) -- Internet access provider Pipeline New York said its new World Wide Web browser software for Apple Macintosh computers is easier for customers to install because it doesn't require Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol (TCP/IP) software on the customer's computer. Instead of using a direct Internet connection based on the Serial Line Interface Protocol (SLIP) or Point-to-Point Protocol (PPP), Pipeline New York's browser runs largely on the access provider's server, with a component on the user's Mac to provide access using a modem and telephone line. Yet unlike some other indirect Internet connections the browser allows direct downloads from the Web to the user's computer, company spokesman Howard Sherman told Newsbytes. The Web browser is part of an integrated package including electronic-mail and other Internet functions, Sherman said. Among its capabilities is the ability to highlight a Web Uniform Resource Locator (URL, or the name of a Web page) in an e-mail message and connect to it automatically. The software also has a built in viewer for graphics using the Joint Photographic Experts Group (JPEG) standard. Pipeline New York has offered similar software for Microsoft Windows since last December, Sherman said. The new Macintosh version is available to Pipeline New York users right away, he said, and a beta-test version will be offered for Pipeline USA, the national access provider being set up by Pipeline New York's parent company, in August. Pipeline New York is a subsidiary of Herndon, Virginia-based Performance Systems International Inc. (NASDAQ:PSIX), which launched Pipeline USA last month. Customers of both Pipeline New York and Pipeline USA pay $19.95 per month for unlimited access to the Internet, except that access to Pipeline USA is free until the end of May. Since Pipeline New York's Internet connection does not use SLIP or PPP, users cannot use other Web browsers or software that requires a direct connection, Sherman said. However, he added, Pipeline New York's software will work over other Internet connections. (Grant Buckler/19950515/Press Contact: Howard Sherman, Pipeline New York, 212-267-3636 ext 3226, Internet e-mail hsherman@pipeline.com; Jeff Luther, Pipeline USA, 703-810-1517, Internet e-mail jluther@usa.pipeline.com; Public Contact: Pipeline New York, Internet e-mail info@pipeline.com) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 05/15/95 GENERAL Mondex Smart Cards Coming To Canada (NEWS)(GENERAL)(TOR)(00024) Mondex Smart Cards Coming To Canada 05/15/95 TORONTO, ONTARIO, CANADA, 1995 MAY 15 (NB) -- Two of Canada's large banks have announced joint plans to bring the Mondex smart- card system to Canada. The Royal Bank of Canada and the Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce said they plan to launch the Mondex service nationally in 1997. A smart card is a plastic card the same size as a credit card, with a microprocessor chip embedded in it. The cards can be used for various purposes, but the Mondex card works as a kind of electronic cash. Money can be transferred to the card using an automated teller machine or a specially equipped telephone, and the card can then be used to pay for purchases from any retailer equipped to accept it. The difference between a smart card and a credit card is that money is transferred immediately from buyer to seller. For merchants this is also an advantage over the Royal Bank's client cards, which can be used as debit cards to pay for purchases from participating retailers, bank spokesman Dan Maceluch told Newsbytes. With the debit cards, retailers get their money at the end of the day for all sales made that day. With the Mondex cards, retailers will have their money right away, Maceluch said. For consumers, the Mondex card's advantages over debit cards will be speed and widespread acceptance, Maceluch said. Using one won't require entering a personal identification number and password, and the banks expect that in time a wider range of merchants will accept the cards. Since the Mondex program is an international one -- the first tests are scheduled for the United Kingdom this July -- the cards will also be usable internationally. On the other hand, customers will have to pay a monthly fee, not yet set but likely to be between C$1.25 and C$3 per month, to use the Mondex cards. Retailers will also pay a monthly or annual fee, Maceluch said. For security, cardholders will be able to lock their cards using a security code, bank officials explained. The banks plan a Canadian pilot of the Mondex system early next year in a Canadian city or town yet to be selected. The pilot will last about a year and be followed by a national rollout, they said. Bell Canada, the largest of Canada's regional telephone companies, is also participating in the project. Besides offering specially equipped telephones with screens, which customers will be able to use to transfer money to their Mondex cards, the banks and Bell Canada are considering equipping some pay telephones to handle Mondex transactions. Customers traveling abroad will be able to load their cards with as many as five currencies at once, Maceluch noted. He also said any two Mondex cardholders will be able to transfer money between their cards. Both the Royal Bank and the Bank of Commerce are among the country's largest national banks, with more than 3,100 branches and other units between them. (Grant Buckler/19950515/Press Contact: Dan Maceluch, Royal Bank of Canada, 416-974-5506; Rob McLeod, Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce, 416-980-3714; Sandra Cruickshanks, Bell Canada, 416- 581-4205) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 05/15/95 ONLINE Motorola Info Systems Group Opens Web Site (NEWS)(ONLINE)(MSP)(00025) Motorola Info Systems Group Opens Web Site 05/15/95 MANSFIELD, MASSACHUSETTS, U.S.A., 1995 MAY 15 (NB) -- Motorola's (NYSE:MOT) Information Systems Group (ISG) has opened a site on the Internet's World Wide Web, to give Net surfers information about the company's products. "We sell the devices that allow people to connect to the Internet," Bob Clinton, director of Motorola ISG's Internet Business Group said. "Mostly modems and ISDN (integrated services digital network) terminal adapters. So it makes sense for us as a corporation to have a presence there, where people can find out about modems and terminal adapters." Clinton also said with more people gaining access through the Web through online services Prodigy, CompuServe, and America Online, "we're seeing a large growth with the types of requests and all of those consumers coming on to the Internet. In the past, it was mostly the technical community. Now the Internet and the Web are being taken over by consumers, and they're all looking for faster speed devices." At the Web site, users can gather product and service information from Motorola ISG's Transmission Products Division and Network Systems Division. Also, hotlinks are also available to Motorola ISG-related articles in the computer press and other sources. An addition, Clinton said hotlinks are available to Motorola's other divisions, including the company's pager and wireless data divisions. "But for the Internet, our server is the most relevant one," Clinton added. So far, the site has been receiving an average of 1,200 "hits" a day, and that number is moving up, Clinton said. But he said ISG's site is receiving the most traffic out of all of Motorola's divisions that offer Web access to the Internet community. The ISG Web page is at http://www.mot.com/MIMS/ISG. (Bob Woods/19950515/Press Contacts: Mary Ellen Egemoyne, 508-261-4789, or Trish Perry, 205-430-7080, both of Motorola; Wendy Lavallee or Jan Jahosky, LNS Communications, 617-577-9777. Public Contact: Internet World Wide Web http://www.mot.com/MIMS/ISG) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 05/15/95 ONLINE BTNet Teams With Easynet On UK Internet Services (NEWS)(ONLINE)(LON)(00026) BTNet Teams With Easynet On UK Internet Services 05/15/95 LONDON, ENGLAND, 1995 MAY 15 (NB) -- Easynet has announced it is teaming up with British Telecom's Internet service, BTnet, to offer what it claims will become the UK's largest national dial-up Internet service. David Rowe, Easynet's managing director, told Newsbytes that the deal involves both companies pooling their resources as far as networks are concerned. "It's not a case of Easynet becoming a pipe for BTnet's service. BT gets the benefit of having an expanding national dial-up network, something it has been after for some time, while we get the benefit of BTnet's international links," he explained. Rowe went on to say that the BTnet/Easynet dial-up point-of-presence (POP) network will have 43 ports across the UK by the end of the year, and around 90 ports -- giving near national coverage -- by the end of 1996. This will be the largest dial-up Internet network in the UK, he told Newsbytes. "Easynet has been growing for some time and, like all Internet service providers, we were thinking of throwing our own two megabits-per- second (Mbps) link to the US, but that can be expensive business. By linking with BTnet, we can use their international resources, while they can use our dial-up network to service their clients," he continued. According to Rowe, BTnet has a total network capacity of around 345 Mbps across the Atlantic to the US, with around 45 Mbps of that capacity dedicated to Internet traffic. "That's a lot of bandwidth and, at the moment, with the growth in Internet traffic, bandwidth is what it's all about," he said. According to Rowe, since launching its "all you can eat" Internet monthly flat rate service last September, Easynet has been targeted new computer and home Internet users, as well offering enhanced services for business Internet users. (Steve Gold/19950515/Press Contact: Penn Communications, +44-181-569- 9768, Internet e-mail pennpr@cix.compulink.co.uk; Reader Contact: Easynet, +44-171-209-0990, Internet e-mail marian@easynet.co.uk) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 05/15/95 GENERAL E3 - Nintendo CEO Keynote Covers Piracy (NEWS)(GENERAL)(SFO)(00027) E3 - Nintendo CEO Keynote Covers Piracy 05/15/95 LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1995 MAY 15 (NB) -- Howard Lincoln, president and chief executive officer of Nintendo, opened his keynote speech quoting a Wall Street Journal editorial saying he was either a visionary or an idiot. He told the assembled press he would wear the visionary hat for this keynote address. While Sega is now first out the gate with its 32-bit Saturn player and Sony promises to deliver its new 32-bit PlayStation in September, Nintendo seems content to watch the two battle it out before delivering its Ultra 64 game console in the spring of '96. Contributing to the battle, Nintendo said its Ultra 64 will hit the street for less than $250. Sega's new Saturn is priced at $399 to $449 and the Sony PlayStation should sell for $299. Lincoln held firm to the company's timing of the new technology saying, "Nintendo has done extremely well in the 16-bit market and intends to continue supporting those users with games which will continue to entertain and protect the investment users have in the existing platform. In spite of the new platforms, it is important to realize that we have established the greatest game record in the world with more than seven and half million copies of Donkey Kong Country." After a quick introduction of Nintendo's new Virtual Boy 3D headset game, Lincoln introduced his main topic -- software piracy. He began by displaying a game copying machine which attaches to a game console. Called the Super Wild Card, "this simple looking machine actually goes in and takes the code right out the silicon. It takes a $49.95 game and makes millions of copies that are sold for just a few dollars each," said Lincoln. "This $500 console is capable of turning millions of dollars of illegal profits." "There are really three players in the game industry -- Nintendo, Sega, and software pirates. We estimate the lost revenue due to piracy to be $4.7 billion annually. That is approximately 38%. Although, I do not have the figures for Sega, I would estimate their loss at $3.4 billion. It is essential that we address this problem. The market would be two to three times larger if we could stop this illegal activity. Right now, it is only getting worse and it effects the people in this room. It effects US jobs and money which should rightfully be in this country," he continued. Pointing out the four countries with the highest distribution of pirated software, Lincoln added, "Eighty-seven percent of all the software in India is pirated, in Thailand it is 90%, in Russia, it is 95%, and in China it is 99.9%. These four countries make-up 44% of the world's population." Emphasizing just how far piracy has spread, Lincoln displayed an advertisement in an American gaming magazine which claimed parents and teachers should rejoice over a device that is capable of making expensive games available for $0.60 each. He then focused on the Internet and the free distribution of protected gaming software. "Every user on the Internet is a possible illegal contributor. By downloading illegal copies of a game, you become part of the theft. Cyberspace pirates are growing daily and the only ones who will really profit are the pirates and the lawyers. "The Internet is built on the idea of freedom of speech and the right to privacy. Some people say the freedom of speech gives them the right to put on the Net whatever they please and that no-one has the right to invade their privacy. However, when it comes to a intellectual property of a corporation those same privileges do not apply. It is often said that when you enter the Net you check your copyright at the door. The Net has become the biggest copy machine in the world. You cannot protect the individual and not protect the corporations," continued Lincoln. He concluded: "All of us need to speak out. We need support laws which protect intellectual property. We need to back those laws with enforcement across the globe and we need to create a simple understanding that acts of piracy are illegal and harmful to all of us." (Patrick McKenna/19950515) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 05/15/95 ONLINE UK - BBC Starts Internet/Interactive TV Program (NEWS)(ONLINE)(LON)(00028) UK - BBC Starts Internet/Interactive TV Program 05/15/95 LONDON, ENGLAND, 1995 MAY 15 (NB) -- This evening marks the start of a second series of BBC TV's "The Net" TV program. This time around, the program, which aims to cover computers and the online world, will have a greatly expanded feedback system using, not surprisingly, the Internet. #IMAGE 1 20 TWPCX \images\95051528.PCX Click here for photo "The experiences gained from the last series made us realize what possibilities there were with the Internet and, for this series, we've started using services such as Internet Relay Chat (IRC) and online conferences alongside the more traditional electronic-mail feedback," John Wyver, the program's series editor, told Newsbytes. According to Wyver, using IRC and online conferences on services such as CompuServe and CIX, will allow a much higher degree of feedback than was possible for viewers previously. "We plan to keep the IRCs open for about 90 minutes after each program goes out on a Monday evening, and we, the program makers, will be noting what viewers have to say about our program," he said. During the last series, The Net received more than 8,000 e-mail messages and they expect to get more this time. The e-mail address for feedback and inquiries about the program is the_net@bbcnc.org.uk. Viewers outside of the UK are also being encouraged to "listen in" to the program using the program's twice weekly update on the program, which will include reaction and news of forthcoming items. To subscriber, anyone on the Internet should send an e-mail request message to sub_the_net@bbxnc.org.uk The Net also has its own home page on the Internet. The site contains transcripts and pictures from the program, numerous links to related resources on the Internet, and The Net's own "hotlist" of suggested Web sites. The Web page is hhtp:www.bbcnc.rg.uk/bbctv/the_net/ "All of these applications of the Internet are designed to make the program more interesting and useful to viewers," Wyver explained, adding that they will also "help us learn about what the audience wants from a series like `The Net.' There's no doubt that this series has been greatly influenced by all of the online discussions that we had with the viewers last year." So what about viewers of the program who don't have access to the Internet. The program producers claim that they have gotten round this problem by offering a continually updated service on teletext, the text information service that runs in parallel with the UK's TV transmission system. During the program, Ceefax page 777 will show information on the items displayed on-screen at several points in the TV show. This second series will investigated subjects as diverse as: post- wearables (wearing your computer in your sleeve); the "alternative reality" of sci-fi author Jeff Noon; virtual cinema, online electronic money; and the computer world in Bulgaria. Will non-UK TV viewers see The Net on their local stations? Wyver replied to this question saying that the complete program is unlikely to be seen in its entirety on other networks. "We make the program for the UK at a specific point in time. Showing the program outside the UK at a later stage would mean some items were out-of-date," he told Newsbytes. Nevertheless, Illuminations, the TV company that makes The Net for BBC TV, is already selling specific items from the shows to TV stations abroad, so computerists around the world can get a flavor of what computing life in the UK is really like. (Steve Gold/19950515/Press Contact: Julie Pickford, +44-171-274- 8281; Illuminations, +44-171-226-0226/THENET051595/PHOTO) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 05/15/95 TRENDS ****E3 - Ex-CIA/KGB Chiefs To Star In CD-ROM (NEWS)(TRENDS)(SFO)(00029) ****E3 - Ex-CIA/KGB Chiefs To Star In CD-ROM 05/15/95 LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1995 MAY 15 (NB) --At Electronic Entertainment Expo, Activision planned a small press conference to introduce its new CD-ROM game, The Great Game. Sitting at the press conference table as consultants and co-stars were former Director of the CIA William Colby and former KGB Major General Oleg Kalugin. A small press gathering of fifty journalists found their way to an industrial location which conveyed the air of "intrigue and espionage." Bobby Kotick, chairman and chief executive officer for Activision, told the press, "We wanted to develop a game which would radically change and expand the types of games to which users are accustomed. We decided an espionage thriller would be a great venue for creating an entertaining and challenging title." Colby was the first to sign-on to the project and Kalugin followed with his consent to partake in the project. Kotick continued, "If we were going to create an espionage title, we wanted to have the very best consultants possible. We wanted to have the people who really knew what actually takes place in the world of espionage. Therefore, we asked Mr. Colby and Mr. Kalugin to participate as consultants and actors in the development of this title." Describing his role as consultant, Colby told the audience, "My role in this project is to see that it is not carried out as a James Bond fantasy. In this game you will be confronted with the real moral and ethical problems you would face as an agent. Once confronted with those problems, you will then have to live with the outcome of your decision. It is not so much a matter of right or wrong, but a matter of what it takes to confront a moral decision and what results from each decision." Kalugin added, "This is a chance to look into real events. Mr. Colby and I have been asked, using our experience, to project events a year from now and create an international situation which involves the joint action of both countries fighting a third force such as terrorism." When asked by Newsbytes to clarify their previous relationship and how it felt to work together, both men acknowledged their adversarial roles and the very serious time in history which was characterized by the very real possibility of nuclear holocaust. In response, Colby said, "I have been acquainted with Mr. Kalugin personally by only a few meetings. Of course I have been aware of his work as an adversary for many years and I respect his position and experience. Those times are over now and I look forward to developing a relationship based on more recent meetings and the new era which has come about since the end of the cold war." Kalugin said, "Likewise, I have known Mr. Colby as an adversary for many years. I have great respect for him and I think we are now able to put aside those years and build a new relationship based on that respect." Colby emphasized the importance of a US relationship with Russia, saying, "One of the most important problems facing the world today is the development of a new Russia and its future. I am committed to assisting in whatever way I am able to its democratic process. We are faced with many problems in this world, but we turned a great corner with the end of the cold war and we must encourage that process in every way possible." Responding, Kalugin said, "There are many people in Russia who are committed to a new democracy. Yes, there are still some who would want to return to the old ways, but we must work to enhance the changes which have taken place since the end of the cold war. This is a different time now and we are able to have very new and different relationships." Both men confirmed their eagerness to work together on the project. Neither have had a lot of experience with CD-ROM technology, but after hearing and seeing proposals from Activision and its commitment to a very real espionage experience, both agreed to participate. The plot and details of the game were not revealed, but the company did say the title would bring CD-ROM games to a new level of mystery and entertainment. While none of the events in the CD reflect actual events Colby or Kalugin had dealt with in the past, each event in the script does reflect "real espionage scenarios" and what "real agents would have done." Activision stressed the fact that the game is genderless and non-violent compared to many popular action games. According to Activision, The Great Game should be on retail shelves for the Christmas season. The suggested retail price has yet to be determined. An online component to the game will be developed through a World Wide Web site. (Patrick McKenna/19950515/Press Contact: Sarah Faiola, Faiola Davis Public Relations, 213-933-4959) (SUMMARY)(GENERAL)(SFO)(00030) Newsbytes Daily Summary 05/15/95 PENN VALLEY, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1995 MAY 15 (NB) -- These are capsules of all today's news stories: 1 -> NewsPix Images For Newsbytes Publishers 05/15/95 These photos correspond to recent Newsbytes stories. They are online in the Newsbytes menu on GEnie, America Online, eWorld, NiftyServe, and the Newsbytes private bulletin board system in Minneapolis. JPEG files are larger in size, PICT files are designed as thumbnails for onscreen viewing. 2 -> CompuServe Mall Opens Internet Location 05/15/95 A site that has long been popular for CompuServe members will soon open its doors on the Internet, the online service operator says. The company's Electronic Mall will greet customers for the first time on the Internet's World Wide Web this fall. 3 -> Zenith Web Site Offers Cannes Film Festival Info 05/15/95 Zenith Data Systems' (ZDS) World Wide Web site, which premiered last week, does not have just the typical links and information you would expect from a computer company. Soon, it will have a direct link to the Cannes Film Festival. 4 -> Colorado Firm Keeps 9-1-1 Databases Updated 05/15/95 From its high-tech National Data Services Center (NDSC) which looks like something out of Star Wars with its wall-size maps and information displays, SCC Communications Corp. provides database and enhanced 9-1-1 (E9-1-1) services to telephone service providers, public safety agencies, and wireless communications providers throughout North America. 5 -> UK - PhoneLink Plans Tel-Me Enhancements 2.0 05/15/95 PhoneLink, the electronic information services company, has revealed that it planning a massive increase in its subscriber levels over the next year, and has increased its network provision to support a target 100,000 subscribers to Tel-Me by August of next year. 6 -> TI Intros TI-92 Math, Text Calculator 05/15/95 "The power of a computer lab with the independence of a calculator" is the way Texas Instruments (NYSE: TXN) describes its TI-92, a device that isn't really a computer, but is certainly more than a calculator. 7 -> Diamar Gets Financing, Inks Golf Tips CD-ROM Deal 05/15/95 Diamar Interactive Corp. has announced it has received a new round of private financing and has signed a deal with Golf Tips magazine to develop a series of interactive instructional CD-ROMs based in part on the magazine's content. 8 -> Venture To Offer Online Service, CD-ROMs For Girls 05/15/95 Two companies have joined forces to launch an online service and produce books and CD-ROM-based software that is designed specifically for girls. 9 -> Broad Support For SCO OpenServer Release 5 05/15/95 Following closely on the heels of the recent launch of the SCO OpenServer Release 5, a number of high-profile software vendors have announced product support for the new operating system. 10 -> IDG Australia Offers Internet Magazine 05/15/95 IDG Australia has launched an Internet magazine which will be bound into its existing computer publications, giving it a start-up circulation of around 100,000 copies. au.WORLD will be edited by Australian Internet expert Geoff Ebbs. 11 -> Consumer Group Proposes "Microsoft Breakup Bill" 05/15/95 The Committee to Fight Microsoft, a self-described consumer lobby, has proposed what it calls a "Microsoft Break-up Bill" which the organization said would provide the Federal Trade commission with expanded powers to prevent the sale of computer hardware and software which fail to meet operating expectations. The bill would also prevent what the group calls "monopolistic practices by Microsoft and other producers in the computer industry." 12 -> Canadian Product Launch Update 05/15/95 This regular feature, appearing on the first day Newsbytes publishes each week, provides further details for the Canadian market on announcements by international companies that Newsbytes has already covered. This week: Digital Equipment's enVISN architecture, IBM's new ThinkPad notebooks, and Lotus Development's InterNotes Web Publisher and InterNotes News. 13 -> CRS Online BBS Finds Virus-Making Trojan Program 05/15/95 Saying it was the first virus ever to slip past its virus scanners, the Toronto-based CRS Online bulletin board has warned subscribers of a virus-creating program that was briefly available on the board for downloading last week. 14 -> Japan Newsbriefs 05/15/95 In this roundup of news from Japan: September US launch for PlayStation; Sharp plans more pen computers; Fenics VAN node on mobile network; Record numbers take new mobile telephones; MPT eliminates paper work for telephone price cuts; Titus plans cable phone service. 15 -> Internet Update 05/15/95 In this roundup of new services and resources on the Internet: New version of HTML editor released; National Space Society debuts; Australian advertising databook online; Time Out provides world entertainment listings; Places to visit daily; A new home for Mac Central; Performance data for web operators; Singapore Hospital Service; Your views on Internet commerce sought. 16 -> DEC Adds Westminster To List Of 20 Video Trials 05/15/95 Digital Equipment Corp., which just signed on for a video trial with British Telecom (TV) subsidiary Westminster Cable, is taking part in over half of the 38 video tests and deployments now being performed by phone and cable companies worldwide, said Peter Ryus, director of worldwide marketing for Digital's Video and Interactive Information Services (VIIS), in an interview with Newsbytes. 17 -> Dodge Group Adds Salomon Brothers, More Deals Expected 05/15/95 The Dodge Group has added Salomon Brothers to the customer base for its process- oriented financial software, and is now close to concluding deals with some major New York banks, said Frank Dodge, chairman and chief executive officer (CEO), in an interview with Newsbytes. 18 -> Accordance's Intermail For Online Services, Unix Nets 05/15/95 Accordance Corp., a Lexington, Massachusetts-based Siemens-Nixdorf spin-off, plans to market its new Intermail 1.1 multimedia "high-end" messaging system to online service and voice messaging service providers as well as to Unix systems vendors, said Valdur Koha, president and chief executive officer (CEO), in a conference call with Newsbytes. 19 -> Iona's Mac, OS/2, Multithreaded Orbix, CORBA 2.0 05/15/95 At a press conference in Boston, Iona Technologies Ltd. unveiled Macintosh, OS/2, and multithreaded editions of its Orbix object request broker (ORB), along with plans to integrate Orbix with Microsoft's object linking and embedding (OLE) and to start implementing the Object Management Group (OMG)'s Common Object Request Broker Architecture (CORBA) 2.0. 20 -> Better Business Bureau Sues For Internet Address 05/15/95 The Council of Better Business Bureaus, the umbrella group for the nation's 138 Better Business Bureaus around the US and owner of the BBB trademark, has filed suit in a federal court in Kansas City, Mo., against an individual for unauthorized use of the trademark on the Internet. 21 -> Computer Industry Groups Back Telecom Deregulation 05/15/95 Less regulation means more competition, which is good for consumers, so congressional efforts to deregulate telecommunications is a wise move, according to trade groups from the computer industry. 22 -> ****Ebola Virus Outbreak Tracked Via Internet 05/15/95 When it comes to keeping tabs on the outbreak of the deadly Ebola virus in Zaire, doctors and scientists from around the world are keeping up with developments in the African country via the Internet. 23 -> Pipeline Browser Does Not Need TCP/IP On User's Mac 05/15/95 Internet access provider Pipeline New York said its new World Wide Web browser software for Apple Macintosh computers is easier for customers to install because it doesn't require Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol (TCP/IP) software on the customer's computer. 24 -> Mondex Smart Cards Coming To Canada 05/15/95 Two of Canada's large banks have announced joint plans to bring the Mondex smart- card system to Canada. The Royal Bank of Canada and the Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce said they plan to launch the Mondex service nationally in 1997. 25 -> Motorola Info Systems Group Opens Web Site 05/15/95 Motorola's (NYSE:MOT) Information Systems Group (ISG) has opened a site on the Internet's World Wide Web, to give Net surfers information about the company's products. 26 -> BTNet Teams With Easynet On UK Internet Services 05/15/95 Easynet has announced it is teaming up with British Telecom's Internet service, BTnet, to offer what it claims will become the UK's largest national dial-up Internet service. 27 -> E3 - Nintendo CEO Keynote Covers Piracy 05/15/95 Howard Lincoln, president and chief executive officer of Nintendo, opened his keynote speech quoting a Wall Street Journal editorial saying he was either a visionary or an idiot. He told the assembled press he would wear the visionary hat for this keynote address. 28 -> UK - BBC Starts Internet/Interactive TV Program 05/15/95 This evening marks the start of a second series of BBC TV's "The Net" TV program. This time around, the program, which aims to cover computers and the online world, will have a greatly expanded feedback system using, not surprisingly, the Internet. 29 -> ****E3 - Ex-CIA/KGB Chiefs To Star In CD-ROM 05/15/95 t Electronic Entertainment Expo, Activision planned a small press conference to introduce its new CD-ROM game, The Great Game. Sitting at the press conference table as consultants and co-stars were former Director of the CIA William Colby and former KGB Major General Oleg Kalugin. (Ian Stokell/19950515) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 9 05/12/95 TRENDS ****Office Color Printers To Triple By ' (NEWS)(TRENDS)(BOS)(00001) ****Office Color Printers To Triple By '99 05/12/95 BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS, U.S.A., 1995 MAY 12 (NB) -- By the year 1999, US business offices will be using 9.5 million inhouse color printers, over three times as many as the 2.9 million units used in 1994, said Bill Flynn, associate director, Color Imaging Products and Systems, for BIS Strategic Decisions, delivering the company's annual "Color Market Overview and Outlook" at Color '95 in Boston. Also by that time, ink jet color printers will have emerged as the "low-cost champ," and laser color printers as the production volume leader, he told the audience at the 13th edition of BIS' yearly Color Hard Copy Conference. Home users are already enthusiastic about the concept of color printing, and in the professional graphics market segment, color printing is now "a given," according to Flynn. The business office market, on the other hand, has so taken a "ho- hum" attitude so far, using inhouse color printers for transparencies, if at all, he reported. Typically, higher end jobs perceived as requiring color printing are still being sent to outside service bureaus. But over the next four years, the market of professional users will come to be "dwarfed by non-professionals," the BIS analyst contended. For that to happen, though, printer vendors must start to convince companies of the need for color printing, linking color to businesses' "bottom lines," he told the audience. After some businesses accept the argument that livelier looking documents will give them a competitive edge, many others will follow suit, since they won't want their documents to "look bad" in comparison, reasoned Flynn. The first of a new breed of office applications for color printers will revolve around economical "spot color," in which certain graphics or passages of text are printed in color and the remainder of the page in black-and-white (b&w), according to the analyst. The use of spot color has been shown to increase reading retention, he asserted. Yet at this point, color is still making stronger inroads in the home market, he told the group. Helping to drive the home market, he noted, are color-capable software packages like Softkey Calendar Creator and Broderbund Print Shop, which ranked number three and four, respectively, among personal software packages in 1994. But the home and business markets are both price sensitive, Flynn suggested. What home users "really want," he said, is a printer priced at under $500, offering speeds of 2 to 6 pages per minute (ppm) for color and 1 to 2 ppm for b&w, 300 dot-per-inch (dpi) resolution, a printing cost of less than 10 cents per page, and a plain paper automatic feed. Small business users seek much the same, said Flynn, except that they're willing to spend up to $750, and they demand 4 to 8 ppm printing for b&w and 1 to 2 ppm for color, plus a transparency feed. For corporate users, in contrast, the "ideal" printer is under $1,000, with speeds of 6 to 12 ppm for b&w and 2 to 4 ppm for color, a cost of less than 5 cents a page, and a 500-sheet minimum automatic feed. Also among these users, 600 dpi resolution is "preferred." The market for color printers among graphics professionals will also continue to grow, though not at the same rates, according to Flynn. In this market, willingness to pay is higher -- to the tune of up to $10,000 -- but so are the expectations, he said. The pros seek speeds of 8 to 16 ppm for b&w and 8 ppm for color, resolution of 600 dpi, printing cost of under 2 cents a page, a 1,000-sheet minimum automatic feed, and the ability to work with "any medium," including plain paper, transparencies, rag bond, letterhead, and more. Across all market segments, ink jet will take a resounding lead among color printer technologies, Flynn asserted. Ink jet will account for 9.6 million units out of a total of 9.9 million color printers shipped in 1999 for the office, graphics arts, and engineering/scientific markets, he predicted. Electrophotographic (laser) printers will place a distant second, with 225,000 units, while thermal printers will come in third, with 70,200. "Other" technologies, combined, will amount to only 14,500 units, Flynn said. In the liquid and solid ink jet categories, speed and output quality will both increase, the BIS exec explained. The technologies will stay relatively inexpensive to produce, he added. Vendors must make sure, though, to keep printer prices high enough to ensure profitability. Color laser printers cost more to manufacture, and low-end models of today "are not very robust," according to Flynn. For 1999, though, we can anticipate color laser printers priced at under $20,000, with color print speeds of 20 to 30 ppm and resolution of 600-by-600 dpi and higher, he informed the audience. For that reason, color lasers will become the "production volume champ." (Jacqueline Emigh/19950511/Reader And Press Contact: BIS Strategic Decisions, 617-982-9500) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 05/12/95 TRENDS ****Color Printing On The Way For Interactive TV (NEWS)(TRENDS)(BOS)(00002) ****Color Printing On The Way For Interactive TV 05/12/95 BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS, U.S.A., 1995 MAY 12 (NB) -- With 35 million homes projected to have access to interactive TV (ITV) by the year 2003, the use of color printing for ITV applications like ticketing, travel schedules, and bank transactions is "inevitable," said Tim Bevins, a consultant at BIS Strategic Decisions, speaking to the audience at BIS' Color '95 conference in Boston. In fact, "ITV printing" is already under way in at least two ITV trials -- the Cox Cable/Acu-Trac test in San Diego, California, and the Time-Warner full-service network trial in Orlando, Florida. In the Cox Cable/Acu-Trac trial, 300,000 users are able to request remote printout of coupons in stores, according to the BIS consultant. In the Time-Warner test, users are employing color printers from Hewlett-Packard right in their own homes. Applications we can expect to see over the near term include home printouts of concert tickets, product and game instructions, and bank transaction receipts, according to Bevins. Farther into the ITV future, potential uses include posters and personalized newspapers, he reported. Posters, however, will require large format printers, he cautioned. Time-Warner, for one, is interested in personalized newspapers, Bevins pointed out. Despite the ever increasing movement of information to electronic media, paper will continue to play a major role in people's lives for many years to come, Bevins told the group. Human beings remain "very tactile," he explained. Paper documents are still much easier to read than computer screens, and they will let you "turn the page more quickly." Furthermore, unlike electronic data, paper documents are "truly portable," he contended. But the need for color printing may not be readily apparent to all sponsors of ITV trials, Bevins conceded. "They're not focused in on it yet," he remarked. Printer vendors who are interested in this emerging market should contact the content providers, rather than the phone or cable companies, he suggested. In ITV jargon, content providers are known as "customers," whereas actual users are "subscribers." In the Bell Atlantic trial in Dover, New Jersey, for example, Future Vision is the "customer," or content provider, he said. In talking to these "customers," printer vendors should be prepared to "sell" the concept of ITV printing, with concrete suggestions as to how color printing will help to boost market research and revenue potential for the ITV partners, Bevins recommended. Vendors should also "show how they can meet color and cost criteria." The first applications for ITV color printing are likely to involve spot color, which calls for a combination of color and black-and- white (b&w) printing that is less expensive than full-color printing, according to the analyst. Direct thermal printers could possibly play a part in ITV printing over the near term, since these machines are "cheap, quiet, and simple," he said. Over the long term, though, the field will be dominated by ink jet printers, which are "color capable, and known to consumers," Bevins predicted. Digital set-top boxes of the future will come with their own processors, roughly equivalent in power to a '386, Bevins told the audience. Printer vendors should be prepared to supply their own drivers for these ITV set-top boxes, the consultant advised. (Jacqueline Emigh/19950511/Reader And Press Contact: BIS Strategic Decisions, 617-982-9500) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 05/12/95 WINDOWS AshWin 2.0 Batch Scheduler For Client-Server Platforms (NEWS)(WINDOWS)(BOS)(00003) AshWin 2.0 Batch Scheduler For Client-Server Platforms 05/12/95 BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS, U.S.A., 1995 MAY 12 (NB) -- CI Technologies' upcoming AshWin 2.0 will be the first batch scheduler for multivendor client-server environments, asserted Deb Lovig, marketing manager, during a meeting with Newsbytes on a Boston press tour this week. Editions of AshWin 2.0 for Windows, Windows NT, Windows for Workgroups, and Unix will ship within the next two weeks, with versions for OS/2 and AS/400 slated to follow by the end of this quarter, and a Windows 95 product also in the works, according to Lovig. AshWin 2.0 is designed to handle batch jobs, consisting of processes or applications operated either overnight or in background mode during day-time hours, she told Newsbytes. Examples include monthly reports, nightly back-ups, spreadsheet recalculations, and jobs requiring repetitive "handshakes" with other systems, such as databases or mainframe systems. Chapel Hill, North Carolina-based CI Technologies was originally a systems integrator, Lovig explained. During the course of this work, company employees noticed that some applications common on mainframes, such as batch scheduling, were still not available in shrink-wrapped form for the client-server world. In the absence of batch jobs, much of the available processing power of PCs and workstations is not being harnessed, according to the marketing manager. CI Technologies unveiled its first client-server batch scheduler at Fall Comdex 1994, Lovig noted. The initial product, AshWin 1.75, permitted scheduling and processing of batch jobs on Windows, Windows NT, and Windows for Workgroups. Aside from adding Unix, OS/2 and AS/400 as platforms, she reported, the new AshWin 2.0 brings more than 25 new features, including simultaneous communication over four different network protocols -- NetWare, NetBEUI, Banyan Vines, and TCP/IP (transmission control protocol/Internet protocol) -- and integration with IBM/DEC Polycenter Manager Netview for network administration. Loving told Newsbytes that AshWin 2.0 consists of two main components, which could be roughly classified as "client" and "server. The "server" software is called AshWin Process Scheduler (APS). The "client" software includes the Administrator, used for tasks like batch set-up and defining users, and the Monitor, which is the overall graphical user interface (GUI) to the system. Another piece of software, known as the Sentinel, sits on both the APS and the "client," managing communications between the two. The APS and client software are each able to run on any AshWin platform, Lovig pointed out. Conceivably, for example, a Windows- based PC could be used as the "server," and Unix-based workstations as "clients," a direct reversal of the typical client-server scenario. During a demo for Newsbytes, Lovig showed some of the other new capabilities in AshWin 2.0. Enterprise Tree View, for example, is a new feature aimed at providing a quick, graphical look at all machines used for processing and the applications they are processing. AshWin 2.0, she said, also adds the ability to set "dependencies" between jobs and/or schedules. Through this feature, you might tell AshWin 2.0 to run the monthly report before the nightly back-up, but only if it is the third Thursday of the month. Also new are a graphical calendar, with user-definable templates for quick scheduling, and a graphical process view, which gives a graphical presentation of all processes. Through a new notification feature, she said, users can request notification of the completion of a report or other process -- or an error -- through a choice of electronic mail, fax, page, Netview Alert, or the Windows NT Event Log. The use of color codes to indicate status changes and alerts is another enhancement in AshWin 2.0. CI Technologies decided to let the color codes be user-selectable, because many companies are accustomed to using certain colors to represent particular types of changes and alerts, Newsbytes was told. Remote Access Service (RAS), another new feature, provides automatic connection by modem to remote networks, according to Lovig. The product update also provides a new direct interface to SQL (structured query language) Server for NT, in addition to the same ODBC (Open Database Connectivity) driver supplied in version 1.0. Furthermore, in the event of APS failure, a new store and forward function will temporarily retain process/job in the Sentinel, forwarding this information to the APS after recovery, she said. A basic five-machine license for AshWin 2.0 is priced at $4,950. Users can add more machines in increments of five. The product becomes increasingly "cost effective" as more machines are added, Lovig told Newsbytes. (Jacqueline Emigh/19950511/Reader and Press Contact: CI Technologies Inc., 800-545-2442) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 05/12/95 ONLINE ****E3 - Microsoft Previews Online Service, Browser (NEWS)(ONLINE)(SFO)(00004) ****E3 - Microsoft Previews Online Service, Browser 05/12/95 LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1995 MAY 12 (NB) -- Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) introduced content providers for its online service, Microsoft Network (MSN) and unveiled a version of its World Wide Web browser. More than thirty-five third party developers are providing content for areas such as Politics, women's issues, music, games, new age, fire safety, public policy, rock music, sports and others. MSN, as company representatives are calling it, debuts as part of Windows 95 in the third week of August, It will be a multi-tasking, drag-and-drop featured service with a simple interface which relies on icons for navigation. Demonstrations at E3, a major Los Angeles trade show for the entertainment industry, emphasized dragging-and-dropping the icons into favorite places and even into e-mail. Rather than try to explain to someone how to get to an area, a user may simply e-mail an icon to another MSN user. When received the user may click on the icon and open the specific area. The MSN browser looks simple but features full multi-tasking capabilities. While waiting for a file to download, for instance, a user can open other parts of MSN or work in an application outside the network. This feature will not be ready when Windows 95 ships, Microsoft officers say, but the browser will be ready by the end of the year. The August version of MSN will offer Internet features of e-mail and newsgroups. Bill Miller, MSN marketing manager, told the assembled press, "This is a different kind of event for us. There will be no speeches or long introductions. We want you to visit each of our content providers who are set up around the room. People have been asking when we will reveal what kind of content we will provide and who will do it. I am pleased to say we can now introduce many of those providers." The third party content providers include Best Friends Animal Sanctuary, American Greeting, Albion Books, Cooking Light, Court TV, Womens Wire, C-SAN Forum, Hollywood Online, Martial Arts Network, International Fire Service Network, Matrix Software, Newsbytes News Network, New York Times Sports/Leisure Magazines, N2K/Jazz Central Station, Times Information Services, and Ziff-Davis Interactive. (Patrick McKenna/19950511/Press Contact: Telle Zeiler, Waggener Edstrom, tel 206-637-9097) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 05/12/95 GENERAL E3 - Overview (NEWS)(GENERAL)(SFO)(00005) E3 - Overview 05/12/95 LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1995 MAY 12 (NB) -- Underway in Los Angeles at E3, a new trade show which focuses on electronic entertainment, Sony and Sega have introduced their newest game playing consoles and are flanked by hundreds of game developers either ready to announce or developing new games for these "playstations." The units run CD-ROMs, not cartridges, and are packed with computer processing power and random access memory to bring gamers a new level of features and action. Along with the games and new players, this show is filled with traditional PC CD-ROM developers and the largest computer and software firms, including Microsoft and Apple Computer. Displaying their latest titles are Grolier Electronic Publishing, The Discovery Channel, L3 Entertainment, Philips Media, Graphix Zone Simon and Schuster, among others. Microsoft gave the press a debut of its MIcrosoft Network, an online service to accompany Windows 95. The preview offered samples of third party content providers and a look at its World Wide Web browser. Apple is here to present a wide range of its multimedia technology and a preview of the next generation of its online service, code-named Golden Gate. Patrick Ferrel, E3 co-producer and president of Infotainment World, told the assembled press, "We are expecting tens of thousands of attendees. This show has more than 350 exhibitors and more than 1300 products are being introduced here. Over the next three days millions of dollars of buying decisions and deals will be made." He continued, "The electronic entertainment industry is expected to grow from $8 billion in 1994 to $10.3 billion in 1995. By the year 2000, this will be a $20 billion industry. Last year, electronic entertainment sales generated $1 billion more than was spent on going to the movies. This is a force and an industry which is building on a convergence of technologies and is just beginning to define itself and grow." (Patrick McKenna/19950511/Press Contact: Dana Trujillo, Neale-May &Partners, tel 415-328-5555) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 05/11/95 WINDOWS E3 - Win 95 Tutorial For "Technically Challenged" (NEWS)(WINDOWS)(SFO)(00006) E3 - Win 95 Tutorial For "Technically Challenged" 05/11/95 LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1995 MAY 11 (NB) -- Graphix Zone (NASDAQ:GZON), multimedia producer of the recent Bob Dylan CD, gave a sneak preview of "The Improv Presents Windows 95 for the Technically Challenged." Teaming with the well-known comedy club, The Improv, Graphix Zone plans to have this humorous tutorial on the shelf the same day Windows 95 is released. This new title combines some of the best comedy talent from the Improv with serious Win 95 tutorials, its makers say. Built around a front row seat in the famous Improv showroom, the CD allows users to select comedy-filled lessons. While the title suggests only the technically challenged will find this CD of value, the Graphix Zone says users may select a novice, intermediate or advanced tutorial which will offer tips and develop solid skills. If a user successfully completes a test of a certain section of the CD, he or she will be rewarded with a Comedy routine by one of the Improv comedians. Chuck Cortright, president and chief executive of Graphix Zone, told Newsbytes, "The Improv started a drivers education program for people who received traffic tickets. This state-approved and very successful program led us to believe we could do something very similar with Windows 95. We approached the Improv and found they were very interested in the idea. Together, we assembled a team of computer technicians, comedians and comedy writers to develop a very exciting introduction to Windows 95." This CD requires Windows 3.1 or higher and a multimedia-based computer system. Graphix Zone plans to have the title in a wide range of retail software outlets for $39.95. (Patrick McKenna/19950511/Press Contact: Tila Pacheco, GraphiC Zone, tel 714-833-3838) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 05/12/95 GENERAL ****E3 - Out With CES, In With E3, Says Sega Chief (NEWS)(GENERAL)(SFO)(00007) ****E3 - Out With CES, In With E3, Says Sega Chief 05/12/95 LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1995 MAY 12 (NB) -- Tom Kalinske, president and chief executive officer at Sega, believes his industry can no longer be confined to a show which shares space with TV and appliance manufacturers (Consumer Electronics Show). That's why E3 is the new venue for the electronic entertainment industry, he claimed, at his keynote speech at Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3). "We are a whole new industry and we do not fit into a show with TV, car stereo and furniture buying. We resist definition and guidelines and this show is designed to bring people involved with this revolution together," he said. Kalinske then addressed two "myths" about the industry. The first, he said, is the idea that the personal computer (PC) will replace designated game players. The second is the thought that the success or failure of designated game players such as those made by Sega, Nintendo and now Sony, are dependent on sixteen and seventeen-year-old boys. Regarding the first myth he confirmed that PCs have increased dramatically in the past year and now 10% of US households have a multimedia-capable PC. That compares to 30% of US households which have a dedicated game player attached to a television. That percentage will grow to 35% or 40% by 1996 and Sega and Nintendo and maybe a few others will continue to lead in that growth, he predicted. He pointed out the configuration problems users encounter when they install a CD-ROM on a PC, as opposed to playing a game on a dedicated machine where the game works perfectly every time and the user has a full screen television for game play. Kalinske said multimedia PCs will continue to increase and when the timing is right, Sega will be in that market too. Part of that timing is based on the success of the Plug-and-Play feature of Windows 95. "What we are going to see soon is a home with a dedicated entertainment room which has home theater and surround-sound. This industry is ready to explode and it will include PCs and dedicated players," he said. Addressing the issue of 16 and 17 year-old boys, he said the industry is built on that market and will continue to support their playing habits. However, he cited a growing population of users who are adult players 18 and over and who have more income to spend on games. "They want a great immersible experience. There has to be a story inside the game. That is what software is all about. This revolution is about the suspension of belief which allows users to become expert golfers, hockey players or adventurers," added Kalinske. He also previewed a new marketing campaign for the Sega Saturn player which will cost the company approximately $100 million in the next year. The latest, fastest Sega machine, the Saturn, is officially on the retail shelf today for a price between $399 and $449. (Patrick McKenna/19950512/Press Contact: Kelly Smith, Manning, Salvage & Lee, tel 818-509-1840) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 05/12/95 ONLINE ****E3 - Prodigy - New CEO, New Interface (NEWS)(ONLINE)(SFO)(00008) ****E3 - Prodigy - New CEO, New Interface 05/12/95 LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1995 MAY 12 (NB) -- Tucked away in a corner of Electronic Entertainment Expo, Prodigy was showing what will become the graphical interface for all users in the next sixty days. Featuring multi-tasking, an entirely new look, and tight integration with its Internet and World Wide Web features, Prodigy is also under the direction of a new chief executive officer (CEO), Ed Bennett. #IMAGE 1 20 TWPCX \images\95051208.PCX Click here for photo Prodigy had originally planned a special interface, named P2, for Windows 95 and its 8 megabyte (MB) environment. The 8MB market did not materialize as delays from Microsoft's Windows 95 continued and record levels of 4MB personal computers (PCs) sold this past Christmas season. When the new CEO came on board, this P2 technology was available, but no one was sure where it was going. Brian Ek, director of communication for Prodigy, demonstrated the new graphical interface and told Newsbytes, "These changes to our service represent what we are doing with P2. We are taking elements from P2 and building a new graphical interface. There will be a Windows version, a Windows 95 version and a Macintosh version. This new interface will become the look and feel of the service for the future." Ek demonstrated a working version of the interface. A few major changes are in place. Gone are the advertisements at the bottom of the screen. Users can now select to read particular ads by clicking on an icon or description. Ek said, "We are still very committed to our advertisers and the value of advertising to our service. But once this new graphical interface is out, our traditional bottom-of-the-screen ads will no longer exist." Also absent from the interface is the Jump To command. It is being replaced with a fast window which offers an integrated path for users to choose and enter their navigational command. This new interface will also offer tighter integration with the Internet and Web features. Ek cautioned that the preview product is not how the final version will look. The new CEO is a strong Macintosh fan and has asked for a more graphical look the interface. When this change comes in the next sixty days, it will be the end of the highly colored, graphical design for which Prodigy is known. Ek said, "When the new interface is ready for implementation we will notify our members and then on a specific date everyone will convert to the new look." (Patrick McKenna/19950512/Press Contact: Brian Ek, Prodigy, tel 914-448-8000/PRODCEO950512/PHOTO) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 05/12/95 BUSINESS E3 - Philips Media Alliance With Bits Corp (NEWS)(BUSINESS)(SFO)(00009) E3 - Philips Media Alliance With Bits Corp 05/12/95 LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1995 MAY 12 (NB) -- Philips Media, a software and new media group of the Dutch electronics giant Philips, announced a strategic relationship with London-based games developer Bits Corporation. The two companies will jointly develop titles, three of which are already in progress. Dave McElhatten, president and chief executive officer at Philips Media, told Newsbytes, "There is a tremendous amount of creative multimedia talent in England and we feel very fortunate to be able to work with the best of them in Bits Corporation. With the combination of their creative talents and our technology and distribution expertise, we will be creating very successful titles which will be the hottest software on the market." The first production resulting from this alliance is New Day, a futuristic game about a young man in search of his identity which he lost in an explosion. A cast of more than 60 characters was captured through 16 digital cameras on a 360-degree stage. Expect to see this title in the retail channel near the first of the year. McElhatten told Newsbytes, "This title (New Day) is like nothing that has ever been produced on CD. It incorporates mystery and adventure to give the user the unique experience we are capable of delivering." Philips Media and Bits are also in production with Cartoon Academy and Riqa. As part of the alliance agreement, Philips has full and exclusive distribution rights to the software developed under this joint pact. (Patrick McKenna/19950511/Press Contact: Pat Meier, Pat Meier Associates, tel 415-957-5999) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 05/12/95 TELECOM Sweden - Ericsson Reports Excellent Growth In Cellular (NEWS)(TELECOM)(LON)(00010) Sweden - Ericsson Reports Excellent Growth In Cellular 05/12/95 STOCKHOLM, SWEDEN, 1995 MAY 12 (NB) -- Ericsson has announced that its explosive growth over the last few years will continue for a few years yet. Speaking at the company's general meeting earlier this week, Kurt Hellstroem, manager of Ericsson's radio comms division, said that the sales impetus was coming from Asia, as growth in demand in Europe and the US started has eased. According to Hellstroem, sales in Europe and the US are still going extremely well, with expected output around the four million mobiles mark during the current year, as compared to two million last year. The figures come as Ericsson is predicting that the number of mobile phone users around the world will almost quadruple to 200 million from the present level of around 54 million. Ericsson claims a 20 percent market share of global mobile phone sales. Lars Ramquist, Ericsson's CEO, said that he sees no sign that the company's growth patterns of the last few years are dwindling. He did warn, however, that the unpredictable, such as the overtime ban that is affecting the Swedish engineering sector, could hit profits this year. He told shareholders that the industry-wide overtime ban is costing the company around K80 million a day, since the three unions started their ban last week. "If we see a positive solution to the conflict, which I naturally hope will take place very soon, and we can avoid strikes and other costly operational restrictions, I can stick to my previous forecast," he said. (Sylvia Dennis/19950512/Press & Reader Contact: Jami Nordenstam, Press Ops, Ericsson Business Area Communications +46-8-522-0183) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 05/12/95 ONLINE Neurocomputing Internet Web Page (NEWS)(ONLINE)(LON)(00011) Neurocomputing Internet Web Page 05/12/95 LONDON, ENGLAND, 1995 MAY 12 (NB) -- The British Government, in the shape of the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI), will officially launch its Neurocomputing World Wide Web site at the Control & Instrumentation Exhibition which opens in Birmingham next Tuesday, Newsbytes has learned. According to Ray Browne, the DTI's Neural Computing Transfer (NCTT) program co-ordinator, the Web site is still in the final stages of construction, but can be accessed on its URL of http://www/globalweb.co.uk/nctt/ Browne told Newsbytes that the aim of the Web site is to offer as many people as possible, whether within the UK or abroad, access to the DTI's NCCT project. "There's a lot of information on the pages," he explained, adding that he views the Web pages as something of a shop window for people to view, download information, and contact for further information. The NCTT program is a three-year rolling program that aims to raise the awareness of neural computing technology and encourage UK industry to investigate how the technology can be applied to business. Browne is enthusiastic about the Internet. "The Web service offers many benefits to UK industry. The service provides an ideal vehicle for promoting awareness of the technology, publicizing active suppliers and encouraging the exploitation of neural technology by UK commerce and industry," he said. Browne went on to say that the service will also provide an international showcase for the commercial and academic expertise available in the UK. "We expect it to encourage UK companies to explore the potential of online information systems," he explained. The Web pages will provide a managed online service offering software and document archives; online discussion groups; regional information; applications demonstrator clubs and technology transfer information. The system will support two categories of user -- individual and institutional. The NCCT program will also implement archive and support services including online conferencing and discussion groups. (Steve Gold/19950512/Press Contact: Noiseworks +44-171-215-1287; Internet email: noiseworks@attmail.com; Reader Contact: DTI/Ray Browne +44-171-215-1287) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 05/12/95 TELECOM UK - Vodafone Launches PersonalWorld GSM Tariff (NEWS)(TELECOM)(LON)(00012) UK - Vodafone Launches PersonalWorld GSM Tariff 05/12/95 NEWBURY, BERKSHIRE, ENGLAND, 1995 MAY 12 (NB) -- Vodafone has formally launched a new tariff on its GSM (Global System for Mobile communications) network. Known as PersonalWorld, the service is aimed at small business and residential users of mobile phones who make less intense use of their phones than business users, but who want to use GSM on international basis occasionally. Sign-up to PersonalWorld varies, but is free from many outlets. Monthly line rental is UKP 15 for UK GSM access, with call charges of 35 pence/minute between 7am and 7pm Monday through Friday, and 15 pence/minute at other times. When the user roams outside of the UK and uses a GSM network other than Vodafone's, either to make or receive calls, then a surcharge of UKP 5 per 28-day period is applied. Backing up the PersonalWorld service, Vodafone is offering its subscribers -- through dealers -- a special deal for the Orbitel 902 GSM mobile. The package includes free connection to PersonalWorld on a 12-month airtime contract and a UKP 59-99 purchase price on the 902 handset. Both the 902 and PersonalWorld are being advertised in a national campaign to increase GSM awareness. The TV ad campaign, which features the 902 phone being given by the Fairy Godmother (Dawn French) to Cinderella, is being backed up by a press campaign. Chris Ibbott, consultant business unit director for terminals at Orbitel, said that he is delighted that the company's flagship product has been chosen by Vodafone Centers for promotion alongside the UK's first consumer GSM tariff. "The 902 pocket phone is simple to use and understand, and with the introduction of PersonalWorld, the benefits of digital GSM, including international roaming, will be open to a much wider market," he said. The Orbitel 902 tips the scales at 290 grams and has a talk time of 1.25 hours and a standby time of up to 12 hours. With the extended battery fitted, the phone's talk time is boosted to 2.25 hours and a standby to 22 hours. Mike Cauldwell, press officer with Vodafone, is enthusiastic about the Orbitel 902. "I've used the phone for some time now. It's a cracking (good) mobile," he told Newsbytes. (Steve Gold/19950512/Press Contact: Corinne Norris, Vodafone Press Office +44-1635-33251; Reader Contact: Vodafone +44-1635-33251; Orbitel +44-1256-843468) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 05/12/95 BUSINESS Germany - Escom Rounds Out Commodore Acquisition (NEWS)(BUSINESS)(LON)(00013) Germany - Escom Rounds Out Commodore Acquisition 05/12/95 HEPPENHEIM, GERMANY, 1995 MAY 12 (NB) -- Escom, the Germany computer manufacturer and retail company, has announced that its acquisition of Commodore is now complete. Escom has acquired to title to the Commodore ranges of machines, spanning the Vic/Max/C64 family right through to the Amiga range of machines. Escom officials have confirmed they have "dotted the i's and crossed the t's" on the contract for the transfer of the assets and intellectual property of Commodore Electronics, as well as several subsidiaries, which include worldwide rights to the Commodore and Amiga trademarks and patents. The acquisition was originally approved on April 21 by the US Bankruptcy Courts in New York, and has been confirmed as being effective from May 1 this year. Escom officials have also revealed a little more about their plans for the Amiga, which include reviving the ongoing development of the Amiga set-top box, an Amiga-based module that Commodore originally planned would form the heart of a multimedia black box that plugs into a user's TV, offering a range of multimedia services over the phone line. Escom had said previously it wanted to revive manufacture of the C64 home computer for sale into Eastern Europe. Now the company has confirmed these plans, and has also affirmed its intention to revive manufacture of the complete range of Amiga computers for sale on a global basis. Escom has also entered into a joint venture with Tianjin Family-Issued Multimedia (TFM) of China, details of which call for TFM to begin the production and distribution of Amiga computers in mainland China. TFM is billed as the leader in Mainland China in the production of games and education machines based on 16-bit technology and has developed one of the largest distribution organizations in Mainland China. As reported previously by Newsbytes, although production of the C64 range of home computers ceased last spring, Commodore was known to have stocks of the eight-bit computer, whose design dates back to the mid-1980s, which were being sold into Eastern Europe, where a boom market for C64 peripherals has been created. (Sylvia Dennis & Steve Gold/19950425/Press & Reader Contact: Escom, tel +49-6252-7090, fax +49-6252-709-442) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 05/12/95 BUSINESS More On Microsoft And Portugal - No Sats, Maybe Software (NEWS)(BUSINESS)(LON)(00014) More On Microsoft And Portugal - No Sats, Maybe Software 05/12/95 LISBON, PORTUGAL, 1995 MAY 12 (NB) -- Following hard on the heels of Microsoft officials refuting some reports that the company was planning a major investment in satellite technology in Portugal, reports are now surfacing that the company is now mulling the idea of investing in software production in the country. Microsoft officials remain quiet on this latest round of media reports, but Diario de Noticas, a Portuguese newspaper, quotes Atayde Marques, the president of Portugal's Board of Trade and Tourism, as saying that Microsoft is studying the possibility of expanding its presence in the country. Marques is quoted as saying that he has had a meeting with Bernard Vergnes, president of Microsoft Europe, and Vergnes has advised him of the possibility of further investment in Portugal. As reported last week by Newsbytes, Microsoft has distanced itself from reports in the European media that it is considering a proposal to invest around 200 billion escudos in a communications satellite venture. Last week saw reports in Diario Economico, another Portuguese newspaper, as quoting Luis Mira Amaral, the Portuguese Industry Minister, saying that Microsoft is studying a proposal to invest in Portugal for a satellite launch facility. The paper added that officials with the National Institute of Engineering and Industrial Technology are studying the proposal, and that a probable site was to be Beja in Southern Portugal. "The story is a misunderstanding between Microsoft and a journalist," commented Stuart Handley, a spokesman for Microsoft at the time. According to Handley, an interview to discuss Bill Gates' recent personal investment in the US with Teledesic, the LEO (Low Earth Orbit) satellite communications consortium, was held and a misunderstanding as to what is happening occurred. "It's basically a case of someone putting two and two together and making 16," Handley told Newsbytes. "An investment of this size would obviously be big news, but I'm afraid it's really old news," he said. (Sylvia Dennis/19950512/Press Contact: Stuart Handley, Text 100 for Microsoft +44-181-242-4200) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 05/12/95 ONLINE Gartner, AT&T Launch Online Service For IT Pros (NEWS)(ONLINE)(TOR)(00015) Gartner, AT&T Launch Online Service For IT Pros 05/12/95 STAMFORD, CONNECTICUT, U.S.A., 1995 MAY 12 (NB) -- Information technology research and consulting firm Gartner Group, Inc. (NASDAQ:GART) has announced an online service aimed at information technology professionals. Gartner's @vantage service will be on AT&T's (NYSE:T) Interchange Online Network. "Nowhere is there a single point of reference for information technology executive to get all the information they need from several different providers," said Manny Fernandez, president and chief executive of Gartner Group, in a teleconference announcing the new service. The @vantage service will incorporate research and other information from Gartner along with related material from other sources including Dataquest Inc., Digital Information Group, Pathfinder Research, and Esther Dyson's Release 1.0 newsletter. "The whole, we hope, will be very much more than the sum of the parts," said Jonathan Yarmis, vice-president of Gartner Group. Michael Kolovich, president of AT&T Interchange, said @vantage will be the first service to begin operation on Interchange, which is an electronic publishing platform AT&T acquired late last year from Ziff Communications Co. The Washington Post and the Minneapolis Star Tribune, both daily newspapers, and Ziff- Davis Publishing are to launch services using Interchange in June, he added. Fernandez said @vantage will be ready for use when access software is shipped out next week. Fernandez added that Gartner hopes @vantage will help broaden its customer base, going beyond the research firm's current focus on Fortune 500 companies to smaller organizations and possibly even into the small-office-home-office (SOHO) market. "For the first time in history the Gartner Group model is going to undergo a profound change," Fernandez said. Gartner plans to offer two basic tiers of service with a number of extra-cost options. The base product will cost $40 per month. That fee will include some material, such as the weekly publication Inside Gartner Group, at no extra cost. Other material, such as selected Gartner research notes, will be available for an extra fee. A premium service, for which Gartner will charge existing clients $2,000 per year and other $4,800 per year, will offer much of the information that costs extra on the base service, at no additional charge, plus material not available at all on the base service, such as Gartner's complete research library of all the firm's publications four months old or older. (Grant Buckler/19950512/Press Contact: Kate Berg, Gartner Group, 203-967-6793; Jennifer Christensen, AT&T Interchange, 617-252- 5477; Public Contact: Gartner Group, 800-697-5652) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 05/12/95 ONLINE Personal Library, Open Market In Web Alliance (NEWS)(ONLINE)(TOR)(00016) Personal Library, Open Market In Web Alliance 05/12/95 WASHINGTON, D.C., U.S.A., 1995 MAY 12 (NB) -- Personal Library Software Inc., and Open Market Inc., have teamed up to make their products for the Internet's World Wide Web work more closely together. The two firms also expect to cooperate in marketing the products. PLWeb, the Web search engine from Personal Library of Rockville, Maryland, already works with Open Market's WebServer software. The companies plan to extend the integration of these two products further and also add to PLWeb support for Open Market's Secure WebServer, Paul Campbell of Personal Library told Newsbytes. Secure WebServer is a version of WebServer that can handle encrypted and authenticated data transmission. WebServer and PLWeb are already used together on the Pathfinder service operated by Time Inc., which Campbell claimed is among the most popular sites on the Web. Tribune Co., which runs six daily newspapers, eight television stations and six radio stations, recently chose Open Market's software for its Web publishing efforts, as did Advance Publications Inc., owner of Conde Nast and Random House. Cambridge, Massachusetts-based Open Market is aiming its software at large-scale commercial applications and sees the Personal Library search engine as a good complement to its own products, officials said. According to Open Market, both WebServer and Secure WebServer can support more than 1,000 connections at one time. Applications developed by commercial publishers, or by other organizations with large collections of documents, often require storing gigabytes of free-form text and graphics, the companies said. To find what they want in such large collections of data, users need intelligent search tools. Campbell said Personal Library and Open Market also plan to cooperate in marketing their products, although details have not yet been worked out. The companies probably will each list the other's products in their own catalogs, and may each resell the other's products, he said. (Grant Buckler/19950512/Press Contact: Paul Campbell, Personal Library Software, 301-990-1155, Internet e-mail info@pls.com; Pierre Bouchard or Bob Weinberger, Open Market, 617-621-9500, Internet e-mail info@openmarket.com; Public Contact: Personal Library Software, 301-990-1155, Internet World Wide Web http://www.pls.com; Open Market, 617-621-9500, Internet World Wide Web http://www.openmarket.com) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 05/12/95 ONLINE Individual, Content Publishers Plan Standard (NEWS)(ONLINE)(TOR)(00017) Individual, Content Publishers Plan Standard 05/12/95 BURLINGTON, MASSACHUSETTS, U.S.A., 1995 MAY 12 (NB) -- A group of electronic publishers led by Individual, Inc., a provider of custom electronic news feeds, plan to develop a standard for delivering electronic information they call the Open Content Publisher Standard (OCPS). The OCPS will build on but go beyond existing standards for electronic documents such as the Standard Generalized Markup Language (SGML) and Hypertext Markup Language (HTML), explained Ted Eveleth, manager of information partners at Individual. Eveleth told Newsbytes that while SGML and the closely related HTML deal with formatting of documents, they don't address some specifics that concern commercial electronic publishing. For instance, Eveleth said, there is no standard way for electronic publishers to divide their output into fixed units for billing purposes. One thing OCPS will do, he said, will be to provide a standard way of separating, say, one news story from another in an electronic news feed. The standard will cover not only text but graphics, sound, video, hypermedia links and other areas. Eveleth described the effort as a sort of "user group" for commercial online publishers. Since the standard to be developed has fairly limited scope and will build on existing technology as much as possible, he said, its backers expect it can be completed this year. The backers said they will release OCPS into the public domain, allowing anyone to use it without paying royalties. The committee has 14 founding members: Business Wire, CMP Publications, Comtex, Cowles Business Media/Simba Information, Folio Corp., Gartner Group, Individual, International Data Group's Reality Factory, Jupiter Communications Co., the Los Angeles Times, Netscape Communications Corp., Phillips Business Information, PR Newswire, and Ziff-Davis Interactive. There is limited room for further members to join, Eveleth said; four vacancies remain on the OCPS committee and the committee is talking with some other major information providers that are interested. (Grant Buckler/19950512/Press Contact: Ted Eveleth, Individual, Inc., 617-273-6000 ext. 325; Beth Winkowski, WTM, Inc., Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 05/12/95 PC Gateway To Ship 51 Apps, Including "Bob" With PCs (NEWS)(PC)(DEN)(00018) Gateway To Ship 51 Apps, Including "Bob" With PCs 05/12/95 NORTH SIOUX CITY, SOUTH DAKOTA, U.S.A., 1995 MAY 12 (NB) -- Gateway 2000 (NASDAQ: GATE) has announced a standard software collection consisting of 51 programs including Microsoft's "friendly" user interface "Microsoft Bob" that will ship with every Family PC Multimedia system. Ted Waitt, Gateway 2000 president, said the family-oriented software has a retail value of over $800. The software, which is packaged on nine CD-ROM disks, will be loaded at the Gateway factory prior to shipment of the PC. Microsoft Bob, in addition to being a user interface Microsoft believes makes computing easier for users, comes with a letter writer, checkbook, calendar and household manager. Software packages shipping with Gateway multimedia systems include Microsoft Multimedia Works 3.0; Microsoft Encarta 95, a multimedia encyclopedia; Microsoft Cinemania 95, a guide to movies that includes reviews, biographies, and video and audio clips; and Microsoft Money, a personal finance program. The Gateway collection also includes Microsoft Publisher, a program to design and print brochures, newsletters and other printed materials; Microsoft Publisher Design Pack, a collection of clip art, templates and fonts to enhance the documents produced using Microsoft Publisher; and Microsoft Bookshelf, eight reference volumes. You also get Microsoft Composer Collection, information on the lives and works of Beethoven, Mozart and Schubert; the Microsoft Wine Guide; the Mayo Clinic Family Health Book, and the Mayo Clinic Family Pharmacist. Rounding out the collection is a host of games and other entertainment software for adults and children. Gateway's Family PC systems include PCs based on 66 megahertz (MHz) 486DX2 and 60, 75 and 90 and 100MHz Pentium chips. They come with a 14,400 bit-per-second (bps) data/fax modem, a CompuServe startup kit, a telephone answering device, a quad-speed CD-ROM drive that can read data, music and photo CDs and has front panel volume, fast forward and backward and skip track controls as well as play indicators and a headphone jack. Gateway spokesperson Michelle Gjerde told Newsbytes a CD-ROM drive that can accept three disks simultaneously is standard on Gateway's P5-120 PC and available as a $100 upgrade on the other models in the line. All the systems come with a 16-bit sound card and Altec-Lansing speakers. (Jim Mallory/19950512/Press contact: Kris Wilen, Gateway 2000, 605-232-2702; Public contact: Gateway 2000, te; 605-232-2000 or 800-846-2000, fax 605-232-2023) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 05/12/95 BUSINESS Oracle Hits China (NEWS)(BUSINESS)(PEK)(00019) Oracle Hits China 05/12/95 BEIJING, CHINA, 1995 MAY 12 (NB) -- Oracle has very aggressive plan to develop the Chinese application software market, executive vice president of Oracle, Raymond Lane, said in Beijing. In an information management seminar which was jointly organized by the State Science and Technology Commission, Ministry of Electronics Industry, and Oracle of the United States, Raymond Lane said that his company has made a commitment to developing software tailor made for the Chinese market. In order to reach the goal, Oracle is currently seeking Chinese partners for cooperation and the US firm will hire more people in China and establish joint ventures to tap the huge potential market. Oracle has also invited some Chinese engineers to work at its headquarters in the United States to participate in software development and is cooperating with Chinese partners such as Qinghua University to localize its application software, Lane said. Being a world leader in databases, Oracle also wants a growing share in the world application software market, Lane added. Motorola China, Johnson Medical Equipment, ARCO China, and other large enterprises have been using Oracle's application software, according to a report in Computer & Communication, and management efficiency has been greatly increased, as a result. (Chih-Ho Yu & Ning Huang/19950510) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 05/12/95 ONLINE Prodigy Lets Users Set Up Web Home Pages (NEWS)(ONLINE)(MSP)(00020) Prodigy Lets Users Set Up Web Home Pages 05/12/95 LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1995 MAY 12 (NB) -- The first of the "Big 3" online services to introduce a World Wide Web browser is leading the pack again with a strong Internet feature. Prodigy announced that later this month it will let members put their own home pages on the World Wide Web at no extra charge, a feature Prodigy claims to be a first for online services. "The Web is the hottest place on the Internet, and perhaps on Earth," Mike Darcy, Prodigy spokesperson, told Newsbytes. "We've had more than 600,000 people download our Web browser software since we launched it in January. In our view, the next step is to allow our own members to create their own home pages." Darcy said putting a page on the Web will be made easy with the "Home Page Creator." The software was developed jointly by Prodigy and IBM, which owns half of the online service. The program is being demonstrated this week at the Electronic Entertainment Expo in Los Angeles. No formal date has been set for the official release of the Home Page Creator, Darcy said, but it should be available for downloading by the end of this month. The Home Page Creator has in it four different fill-in-the-blank templates for its customers. The four templates include a basic page, a "business card," a "out on the town" page where members can give a guided tour of their hometown, and a "Top 10 List," where a member's top 10 Web sites can be listed. The ability to hotlink from a customer's page to a different site is included in the template. Within a few weeks of the launch, Prodigy customers will be able to integrate into their Web pages photos, graphics, and personal sound clips. Additional templates will be added in the future, Prodigy officials said. For the more adept user, HTML (hyper text markup language) documents can be loaded into the text boxes in the templates to customize Web pages. HTML is the main language for Web pages. In other Prodigy news, the service announced its members have now logged more than one million hours in the service's 1500 chat rooms, auditoriums, and stadiums. Prodigy executives said the rapid growth of chat is linked to "an aggressive lineup of stars, experts, and special events" that keep members coming back. Darcy said the dramatic increase of chat usage is especially impressive, considering the feature was only introduced in the fourth quarter of last year. (Bob Woods/19950511/Press Contact: Brian Ek, Prodigy, 914-448-8811, Internet e-mail ek@prodigy.com) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 05/12/95 GENERAL Japan Newsbriefs (NEWS)(GENERAL)(TYO)(00021) Japan Newsbriefs 05/12/95 TOKYO, JAPAN, 1995 MAY 12 (NB) -- In this roundup of news from Japan: NEC plans expansion into China; Ericsson wins Japanese cellular contract; NEC selling new CD-ROM drive, Toshiba targets Euro cellular market, US Robotics heads for Japan, DDI counts a million cellular subscribers NEC Plans Expansion Into China NEC Corporation has announced it will begin producing PCs in Shanghai, China later this year. The company, already Japan's biggest PC manufacturer, is aiming for a 10% share of the Chinese market. NEC will set up in June a new joint venture company called NEC Computer Shanghai with the local Chiangiang Computer Union Corp (30%) and NEC Technologies Hong Kong (10%). Around 20,000 IBM compatible PCs will be produced in the first year building up to a targeted 150,000 by the turn of the century. Ericsson Wins Japanese Cellular Contract Stockholm-based Ericsson said late Wednesday that it has won a contract to enlarge one of the biggest digital mobile phone networks in Japan. The 12.3 billion yen ($146 million) contract is for extra exchanges and base stations to add capacity to the Kansai Digital Phone network. NEC Selling New CD-ROM Drive NEC Corporation has begun selling a new six speed CD-ROM drive. The PC-CD600 has a average data transfer speed of 900 kilobytes per second and an access time of 145 milliseconds. NEC hopes to sell 20,000 units of the 55,000 yen ($655) drive each year to owners of Macintosh, PC, and PC-98 machines. Toshiba Targets Euro Cellular Market Toshiba has announced an intention to enter the European GSM digital mobile phone market later this year. The company has agreed on production of telephones with Denmark's Cetelco, a subsidiary of German partners Hagenoek. The telephones will be sold under the Toshiba brand name. US Robotics Heads For Japan Illinois-based modem manufacturer US Robotics has signed a deal which will introduce selected modems into the Japanese market. The deal, with Integran, calls for the Japanese company to market US Robotics' network hub and Megahertz 28800 PCMCIA card modem and LAN adapter. The PCMCIA modem, to be priced around 59,800 yen ($714), will be the first V34 card modem to be introduced into the local market. DDI Counts A Million Cellular Subscribers DDI Corp says that between the eight telephone companies that make up its cellular phone service there are now over one million subscribers. At the end of April the number of subscriptions stood at 1,017,700. NTT DoCoMo, the cellular division of Japan's Nippon Telegraph and Telephone, has 2,260,000 as of March 31st however DDI says it is number one in the Kansai and Okinawa areas. Kansai takes in the cities of Kyoto, Kobe, Nara and Japan's second city Osaka. (Martyn Williams/19950511) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 05/12/95 TELECOM China - Cellular Phone Price Drop In Beijing (NEWS)(TELECOM)(PEK)(00022) China - Cellular Phone Price Drop In Beijing 05/12/95 BEIJING, CHINA, 1995 MAY 12 (NB) -- Dropping twice in 1994, the price of cellular phones in Beijing has once again gone down. All analog cellular phones are now sold for less than 10,000 RMB (US$1,176). Telecommunications are quickly developing in China, but the number of mobile phone users is limited due to the high price of cellular phones. Government statistics show that China currently has more than 28.8 million telephone subscribers, 1.57 million of which are cellular phone users. With the city's population of more than 10 million, cellular phone subscribers in Beijing number about 90,000. The price of cellular phones in Beijing dropped twice in 1994, and have just dropped another 10%. A model 9900X cellular phone was adjusted from 21,500 RMB (US$2,529) to 15,000 RMB (US$1,765) in May of 1994, and the price dropped again in December, from 15,000 RMB to 11,000 RMB. Model 9900X is sold for 8,500 RMB (US$1,000) now. Within a year, the price was reduced by more than 60 percent. Prices of cellular phones include the installation fee (phone number assignment). One may buy a cellular phone set, for example, in the United States for US$100, but one needs to pay a fee of 4,000 (US$470) to 5,000 RMB (US$588) for a phone number in Beijing. (Chih-Ho Yu & Ning Huang/19950508) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 05/12/95 GENERAL Personnel Roundup (NEWS)(GENERAL)(SFO)(00023) Personnel Roundup 05/12/95 PENN VALLEY, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1995 MAY 12 (NB) -- This is a regular feature, summarizing personnel changes not covered elsewhere by Newsbytes: Accolade Inc., Inso Corp., Ingenius, Lotus Development Corp., Dell Computer Corp., Convex Computer Corp., Time Warner Interactive Inc., Xircom Inc., Software Affiliates, and Novell Inc. Entertainment software publisher Accolade Inc. (408-985-1700), announced the appointment of Tim Brengle to director of tools, Chris Downend to executive producer, and Neil Johnston to director of product marketing. Brengle will report to Rob Harris, vice president of technology, Downend will report to Jim Barnett, and Johnston will report to Stan Roach, executive vice president. Steven R. Vana-Paxhia, president and chief executive officer (CEO) of Inso Corp., has been appointed to the Spyglass Inc. (708-505-1010) board of directors. Inso is a provider of multilingual software products. Neal Tomblyn, former director for Bell Atlantic Video Services, has joined Ingenius (303-705-8811) as executive vice president and chief operating officer (COO). Ingenius is a joint venture between Tele-Communications Inc. and Reuters NewMedia Inc. At Bell Atlantic Video Services, Tomblyn held the position of director and general manager for the design, development and deployment of a BVS interactive PC-based multimedia online service, as well as founder of the BVS IMTV (Interactive Multimedia Television) technology organization. Richard Braddock will join Lotus Development Corp. (NASDAQ:LOTS - 617-693-1284), on a part-time basis to work with the management team to "effect the company's transition to a business unit structure and reduce its 1995 planned spending by a minimum of $50 million," according to the company. Catherine P. Thompson has been named vice president and corporate controller at Dell Computer Corp. (NASDAQ:DELL - 512-728-7344). In the position, Thompson is responsible for the worldwide controller function, and will report to Thomas Meredith, chief financial officer (CFO). Thompson began her career with Dell in 1993 when she became vice president, internal audit. In that position, she was responsible for all of Dell's domestic and international audit functions. Most recently she served as vice president, internal audit. Charles Harris has been appointed vice president of marketing with Convex Computer Corp. (NYSE:CNX - 214-497-3061). In the position, Harris will be responsible for Convex marketing worldwide. He will report to Jay Atlas, Convex vice president and general manager, worldwide sales and marketing. Harris was previously vice president and general manager, industry business group, for Computervision Inc. From 1980 to 1993, Harris held various sales and marketing management positions with HP. Dan Van Elderen has been appointed president and COO over worldwide operations for both the coin-operated arcade division (formerly Atari Games) and the consumer games group (formerly Tengen) of Time Warner Interactive Inc. (408-232-3213). Van Elderen (44) began with Atari in 1973, working with Nolan Bushnell to build the original coin-operated Pong game. He spent 16 years on the arcade side of the business, most notably serving as Atari Games head of product development throughout the 1980's. For the last 6 years, Van Elderen has headed up the company's consumer games division as its president and COO. Mobile networking company Xircom Inc. (NASDAQ:XIRC - 805-376-6929), has announced the appointment of Carl Russo as vice president and general manager of the company's wired products business unit. Also, Rick Simonson has joined Xircom management team as ISDN (integrated services digital networks) marketing director. Russo joins Xircom from Network Systems Corp., where he served as senior vice president and general manager of the Channel Networking Group. Prior to that, Russo spent eight years at AT&T Paradyne where he held various sales, marketing and general management positions. Prior to joining Xircom, Simonson served as director of broadband services in the Business Marketing Group of Sprint's Long Distance Division. David A. Finley, IBM's former treasurer, has joined Software Affiliates' (818-385-3710) board of directors. Finley has spent over 35 years at IBM and in various management and executive positions, retiring in 1989. Jeffrey H. Waxman has been appointed executive vice president and general manager of the Applications Group of Novell Inc. (NASDAQ:NOVL - 408-577-6842). Previously he was with ServiceSoft Corp., as president and CEO. Before joining ServiceSoft, Waxman was president and CEO of Uniplex Inc. (Ian Stokell/19950512) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 05/12/95 PC Microsoft Announces Kid's Pointing Device (NEWS)(PC)(DEN)(00024) Microsoft Announces Kid's Pointing Device 05/12/95 REDMOND, WASHINGTON, U.S.A., 1995 MAY 12 (NB) -- Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ: MSFT) has rolled out a new pointing device designed specifically for kids as young as two years of age. A Microsoft public relations representative told Newsbytes the device, dubbed the Microsoft EasyBall, consists of a bright yellow ball about four inches in diameter that sits in a white saucer-shaped base. #IMAGE 1 20 TWPCX \images\95051224.PCX Click here for photo EasyBall has one large click button. Microsoft said the design makes it easier for children ages two to six to manipulate the on-screen cursor than if they have to use a standard mouse. EasyBall is another in Microsoft's growing hardware line. It joins the Microsoft mouse and the Microsoft Natural Keyboard. EasyBall ships with Microsoft Explorapedia The World of Nature, a CD-ROM-based children's interactive encyclopedia. To get young users familiar with the concept of pointing and clicking, EasyBall comes with a Pointerland program that lets kids point and click on a farm scene. Each clock produces sound and animation, which varies depending on what image is clicked. The kids can also select their own cursor shape from a selection of icons that incudes an airplane, rocket, star, baby chick or ant. Two software settings for sensitivity and double-click speed adjust the EasyBall for beginning users and more experienced children. Microsoft said EasyBall works with all software that supports a Microsoft Mouse or compatible pointing device. A dual-input driver supports connection of a standard mouse and Easyball simultaneously. If your PC has only one mouse port, Microsoft offers a $14.95 dual-port option. On PCs equipped with a serial port and a mouse port you can replace the existing mouse software with the EasyBall software and the program will automatically assign control and appropriate settings to whichever device is moved. Microsoft said EasyBall is optimized to work with Windows 95 as well as earlier versions of Windows and on MS-DOS-based systems. To run the Explorapedia The World of Nature you need Windows 3.1 or later, a 486SX or higher microprocessor, four megabytes (MB) of memory, 8MB of available hard disk space, a double-speed or faster CD-ROM drive, 256-color VGA or SuperVGA monitor, a sound board and headphones or speakers. The company said EasyBall is scheduled to ship in September. The spokesperson told Newsbytes EasyBall will have an estimated retail price of $54.95 and will probably have a street price of about $49.95. (Jim Mallory/19950512/Press contact: Sue Barnes, Waggener Edstrom for Microsoft, 408-986-1140; Public contact: Microsoft, tel 206-882-8080 or 800-426-9400/EASYBALL950512/PHOTO) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 05/12/95 PC Teco Monitors Recalled In Australia After Fatal Fire (NEWS)(PC)(SYD)(00025) Teco Monitors Recalled In Australia After Fatal Fire 05/12/95 SYDNEY, AUSTRALIA 1995 MAY 12 (NB) -- Taiwanese computer monitor manufacturer Teco has issued a recall order on two models of its monitor range. They have been implicated in a number of fires in Australia. The models T5155 and TE5155E are old 14-inch models, used mainly with EGA graphics PCs. While the monitors have not been positively linked to fires, it is known that the transformers in these models overheat to unacceptable levels, and they have been found in rooms that have been destroyed by fires which could not be explained. A woman and her child died in a house fire in Melbourne and at least one school was burned. The Teco monitors were found in these fires. The monitors in question are all believed to carry the Teco brand and model numbers, and were not sold as rebadged models under other brands. Teco has recalled the monitors and has advised users to turn them off immediately, and in no case to leave them turned on, unattended. (Paul Zucker/19950510/Press and general contact: Teco Australia tel. +61-2-725 1233 fax. +61-2-604 9330) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 10/05/95 GENERAL AT&T To Place Pacific Rim Support Center In Sydney (NEWS)(GENERAL)(SYD)(00026) AT&T To Place Pacific Rim Support Center In Sydney 10/05/95 SYDNEY, AUSTRALIA 1995 MAY 10 (NB) -- Computer and communications giant AT&T has announced that its Pacific Rim care center will be established in Sydney. The other centers are in Atlanta and Amsterdam, serving the other two major time zones of the world. The Sydney center will support Australia, New Zealand, Hong Kong, Malaysia, Indonesia, Taiwan, Singapore, China, Thailand, India and the Philippines. Staff will be required to be bilingual, with languages including Cantonese, Mandarin, Hokkien (Taiwanese), Thai, Korean, and English. When it is fully operational the center will have a staff of 200 people, focussing on AT&T products such as the Globalyst range of PCs and file servers. Support will be for internal sales staff, resellers, AT&T business partners and end-users. The company estimates it will spend around AUS$50M on the center in the first three years (around US$37M). AT&T already has around 40 sites in Australia, and the new center was placed here and not Singapore or Hong Kong because of the communications infrastructure, the availability of suitable technical/multilingual staff and the lower cost of living. New South Wales State Minister of State Development Michael Egan said his department had worked closely with AT&T to demonstrate that Sydney had the relevant qualities. "This is the first of several major projects of this type which are likely to locate here, and contribute to the development of Sydney as a regional telecommunications and business support hub for the Asia Pacific region." (Paul Zucker/19950510/Press contact; Jeff Bird at AT&T tel. +61-2-964 8173 fax. +61-2-923 2328) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 05/12/95 REVIEW ONLINE Review - America Online's World Wide Web Browser (REVIEW)(ONLINE)(WAS)(00027) Review - America Online's World Wide Web Browser 05/12/95 VIENNA, VIRGINIA, U.S.A., 1995 MAY 12 (NB) -- By Ken Maize. America Online is going to have another winner with its new World Wide Web browser, now available in a beta test version. For a beta version of what is pretty complex software, AOL has done a bang-up job on its TurboWeb browser, developed by BookLink, the company AOL acquired recently to work on the browser. AOL claims that it has the fastest Web browser around, and my experience doesn't refute that. I have run several quick-and-dirty tests comparing the speed of the AOL browser with that of the Netcruiser browser I use with my Netcom Internet account. I access AOL through Sprintnet and Netcom through one of its local points-of-presence. The AOL product is significantly faster, particularly after the caching feature of TurboWeb kicks in. While AOL is initially offering only a few ports to the Web, once you are in, you can get virtually anywhere you want to go through the usual URL (universal resource locator) addressing. In the meantime, your AOL sites are seamlessly integrated. You can access the home brew page on the Web while taking a swing at the latest pitch on The Motley Fool. A couple of wrinkles in the AOL product are nice, including the ability to turn off graphics (something I've not been able to do with Netcruiser 1.6) and really fly on the Web. For those who want graphics (and I do most of the time), AOL's compressed graphics features are a nice combination of speed and pictures. There have been some problems with the compressed graphics that other beta users have reported on the AOL message board, but I haven't run across them yet. AOL also gives you the opportunity to have Web pages with white or gray backgrounds. Another nice feature is the ability to drag and drop bookmarks (also known as hot lists or, AOL's term, "favorite places"), making returning to particular Web sites that you like fast and easy. But I must confess I don't care for the cutsey heart icon used for this process. How about a little thumbs up graphic or something like that? There are a few areas for improvement. The screen space given to the Web browser should be larger, there should be better information on the progress of loading a home page and making a hypertext connection (in this regard, Netcruiser is exemplary), and there should be a progress bar for downloads. I downloaded a 2 megabyte Lotus for Windows file and had no idea other than the SD and RD lights on my external modem whether the file was downloading. My next series of tests will be on a 28.8 modem, using AOL's own POP. I suspect that the browser will be much faster. AOL's TurboWeb is a work in progress. There are some bugs. The most annoying is that the browser eats memory and the longer you browse, the more it eats. That requires a signoff to release the memory. AOL says this is a known bug and they are working on it. Also, this is Windows only, so far. AOL says it is working on a Mac version, but Macaholics will have to wait a while. Based on the message traffic, the biggest problem users have with the new browser is an inability to install it. That's because they have either failed to download the "25extras" file along with AOL 2.5 or have failed to execute the extras files. When that's taken care of, much of the reaction is positive. Mine is. This is a good product now. It's got the potential to be dynamite. (Kennedy Maize/19950503) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 05/12/95 GOVT Software Group Praises US Move On Japan Autos (NEWS)(GOVT)(WAS)(00028) Software Group Praises US Move On Japan Autos 05/12/95 WASHINGTON, D.C., U.S.A., 1995 MAY 12 (NB) -- The Software Publishers Association says it is pleased the US is moving to impose trade sanctions on Japan for not opening its market to autos and after-market auto parts. In a letter to US Trade Representative Mickey Kantor, Ken Wasch, executive director of the Software Publishers Association, said his group supports the administration's action. "We consider it essential to the health of the software industry and the entire US economy for international trade to be free and open," Wasch wrote. "All segments of US industry must stand together against global protectionist trade practices." Japan has removed tariff and trade barriers to US cars, although Detroit has been slow to reach out toward that market (only two US car models offer right-hand drive, according to Automotive News). But Japan has kept the market for replacement parts carefully protected. In his letter to Kantor, Wasch noted that US software publishers have had great success in Japan. "Personal computer software, including business and communications applications, authoring tools, and entertainment titles, have been warmly received by the Japanese and business consumers," he said. Last year, Japan became the largest single market outside the US for personal computer software, and the US has a market share in excess of 50 percent in Japan. While the publishers are happy with their access to Japanese markets, Wasch said that "there is no place for structural impediments that restrict any US industry's access to the Japanese market." "The software industry looks forward to an era of equal access to the Japanese market for all US industries," Wasch wrote, "including automobiles and auto parts. Japanese trade restrictions on autos and auto parts cannot be tolerated, even by industries that today enjoy relatively free access to the Japanese market." Wasch also send a letter of support to Andrew Card, head of the American Automobile Manufacturers Association and former Transportation Secretary in the Bush administration. Detroit's Big Three carmakers supported the software publishers in their recent battle to combat piracy and open China to legitimate US software sales. "SPA very much appreciates the support you expressed during our recent trade negotiations with the People's Republic of China," Wasch said, "and we wish you good luck in the current negotiations with Japan." Wasch's letters are available on SPA's World Wide Web site at http://www.spa.org. (Kennedy Maize/19950512/Press Contact: Sally Lawrence, SPA, 202-452-1600, ext. 320) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 05/12/95 IBM E3 - IBM Brings Hollywood To A New IBM (NEWS)(IBM)(SFO)(00029) E3 - IBM Brings Hollywood To A New IBM 05/12/95 LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1995 MAY 12 (NB) -- Joining the parade at E3, IBM (NYSE:IBM) announced plans to enter into the multimedia consumer game market. Along with the games, it says it will focus on education and information titles developed in collaboration with CBS, Disney and the Kushner-Locke Company. Steve Mills, IBM general manager of the Software Solutions Division, hosted a special event at the historic Union Station in Los Angeles and previewed several of titles. Late this year, multimedia fans will be able to buy a dramatic version of Disney's Jungle Book and in 1996, IBM will bring to life The Legend of Pinocchio. The latter in preview incorporated special effects, high-quality sound and editing akin to that found in feature films. To assist in the creative production of the Jungle Book, IBM has brought in a Hollywood partner. The Kushner-Locke Company, a producer and distributor of feature and television films, provides the creative, high-end Hollywood look which IBM says will define its products. Don Kushner is the creator of the 1980s hit, Tron. With CBS, IBM has worked with Children's Programming and Daytime Specials to develop Hyperman, a hip way to approach science. While IBM is making the CD version, CBS plans to debut The Hyperman cartoon on its Saturday morning television schedule. The CD is scheduled for late May and will retail for $49.95. Mills said, "There is a revolution taking place around information technology and we realize we want to be an integral part of it. The entertainment, education and information convergence is the fastest growing segment of the software market. We also realize we cannot get there by ourselves. We need partners, partners who are the best at what they do. I think you will see we are choosing the right partners to enter into this market." He continued, "We will leverage our strengths to bring to these partnerships the technology, quality, reliability and support which defines IBM. As well, our worldwide marketing strengths will contribute to the success of these new products." In closing, he said, "There is a magic formula at work here. It is strong brand identification, technological strength, the right partners combined to make compelling titles. This will take IBM where it has never been before." (Patrick McKenna/19950512/Press Contact: Amy Berk, Alexander Communications, tel 404-897-2300) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 12 05/12/95 GENERAL Newsbytes Week In Review For May 8 - May (NEWS)(GENERAL)(SFO)(00030) Newsbytes Week In Review For May 8 - May 12 05/12/95 PENN VALLEY, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1995 MAY 12 -- This is a regular feature, reviewing major stories of the past week covered by Newsbytes, listing with their category code: Epson Stylus Mac Color Printer Not 720 Dpi; Microsoft Shows Interactive TV Technology; Apple Intros TV Set-Top Box, Shares Interactive TV Directions; Compaq To Co-Develop 120MB Floppy Disk; Zenith Offers Cable TV Modems; Apple's eWorld To Include Online Sound; MCI & News Corp. Combine In $2 Billion Venture; Microsoft Previews Online Service/ Browser; H&R Block To Sell MECA Software Unit; E3 - Out With CES, In With E3, Says Sega Chief; Color Printing On The Way For Interactive TV. Epson Stylus Mac Color Printer Not 720 Dpi (APPLE) MINNEAPOLIS, MINNESOTA, U.S.A., 1995 MAY 8 -- If you're a Macintosh user, you've undoubtedly seen the ads for the hot new Epson Stylus Color inkjet printer that have been running in many of the glossy computer magazines recently. However, Epson has acknowledged that, contrary to what the ads say, the printer does not deliver true 720 dots-per-inch (dpi) quality when printing from an Apple Computer Macintosh. Microsoft Shows Interactive TV Technology (BROADCAST) DALLAS, TEXAS, U.S.A., 1995 MAY 8 -- Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ:MSFT) used this week's Cable '95 trade show to demonstrate its Microsoft Interactive Television (MITV) distributed operating system and applications platform for interactive television. Cable '95 is the National Cable Television Association's annual conference. Apple Intros TV Set-Top Box (BROADCAST) DALLAS, TEXAS, U.S.A., 1995 MAY 8 -- Apple Computer Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) says it is supplying a set-top box for interactive television trials (ITV) of Lightspan Partnership's educational home and school programming. Apple says it will look for a third party to manufacture the Apple set-top box. Apple Computer also announced its participation in The Lightspan Partnership interactive television (ITV) trials, also announced an ITV development system with nCube, and participation in a Swedish ITV program with Telia, a cable/telephone provider. Compaq To Co-Develop 120MB Floppy Disk (TRENDS) HOUSTON, TEXAS, U.S.A., 1995 MAY 9 -- Compaq Computer Corp. (NYSE: CPQ) has joined with 3M Corp. (NYSE: MMM) and Matsushita-Kotobuki Electronics Industries Ltd. to develop a 120 megabyte (MB) 3.5-inch diskette that will work in existing high density drives. Compaq will market a personal computer that is equipped with a 120MB drive that uses 3M diskettes. Zenith Offers Cable TV Modems (BROADCAST) GLENVIEW, ILLINOIS, U.S.A., 1995 MAY 9 -- Zenith Electronics Corporation (NYSE:ZE) is introducing what it calls "cardless" cable modems to bring signals from a cable TV line directly into a user's computer. Zenith said, for the first time, the "HomeWorks Universal" cable modem will allow both one-way and two-way cable systems to offer high-speed broadband connectivity to users. Apple's eWorld To Include Online Sound (ONLINE) CUPERTINO, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1995 MAY 9 -- Code-named Golden Gate, the next operating version of Apple Computer Inc.'s (NASDAQ:AAPL) eWorld online service will allow users to listen to conference room dialogue rather than scroll and read text. The online service is also introducing a new marketing campaign targeting the home market. MCI & News Corp. Combine In $2 Billion Venture (BUSINESS) WASHINGTON, D.C., U.S.A., 1995 MAY 11 -- In what some are calling the biggest announcement since the TCI/Atlantic Bell merger fell through, MCI Communications Corporation (NASDAQ-NMM:MCIC) and The News Corporation Limited (NYSE:NWS) have announced they are joining forces to form a new interactive partnership one official called a "powerful, global alliance." MCI will also sink $2 billion into News Corp., officials said. Microsoft Previews Online Service/Browser (ONLINE) LAS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1995 MAY 11 -- Microsoft has (NASDAQ:MSFT) announced content providers for its upcoming Microsoft Network (MSN) online service, and unveiled a version of its World Wide Web browser at the Electronics Entertainment Expo (E3). H&R Block To Sell MECA Software Unit (BUSINESS) KANSAS CITY, MISSOURI, U.S.A., 1995 MAY 11 -- H&R Block Inc. (NASDAQ:HRB) said it is selling its MECA Software Inc. unit for $35 million. The buyer is a limited liability company formed by Bank of America (NASDAQ:BAC) and NationsBank NA (Carolinas) (NASDAQ:NB). E3 - Out With CES, In With E3, Says Sega Chief (GENERAL) LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1995 MAY 12 (NB) -- Tom Kalinske, president and chief executive officer at Sega, believes his industry can no longer be confined to a show which shares space with TV and appliance manufacturers (Consumer Electronics Show). That's why E3 is the new venue for the electronic entertainment industry, he claimed, at his keynote speech at Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3). Color Printing On The Way For Interactive TV (TRENDS) BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS, U.S.A., 1995 MAY 12 (NB) -- With 35 million homes projected to have access to interactive TV (ITV) by the year 2003, the use of color printing for ITV applications like ticketing, travel schedules, and bank transactions is "inevitable," said Tim Bevins, a consultant at BIS Strategic Decisions, speaking to the audience at BIS' Color '95 conference in Boston. (Ian Stokell/19950512) (SUMMARY)(GENERAL)(MSP)(00031) Newsbytes Daily Summary 05/12/95 MINNEAPOLIS, MINNESOTA, U.S.A., 1995 MAY 12 (NB) -- These are capsules of all today's news stories: 1 -> ****Office Color Printers To Triple By '99 05/12/95 By the year 1999, US business offices will be using 9.5 million inhouse color printers, over three times as many as the 2.9 million units used in 1994, said Bill Flynn, associate director, Color Imaging Products and Systems, for BIS Strategic Decisions, delivering the company's annual "Color Market Overview and Outlook" at Color '95 in Boston. 2 -> ****Color Printing On The Way For Interactive TV 05/12/95 With 35 million homes projected to have access to interactive TV (ITV) by the year 2003, the use of color printing for ITV applications like ticketing, travel schedules, and bank transactions is "inevitable," said Tim Bevins, a consultant at BIS Strategic Decisions, speaking to the audience at BIS' Color '95 conference in Boston. 3 -> AshWin 2.0 Batch Scheduler For Client-Server Platforms 05/12/95 CI Technologies' upcoming AshWin 2.0 will be the first batch scheduler for multivendor client-server environments, asserted Deb Lovig, marketing manager, during a meeting with Newsbytes on a Boston press tour this week. 4 -> ****E3 - Microsoft Previews Online Service, Browser 05/12/95 Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) introduced content providers for its online service, Microsoft Network (MSN) and unveiled a version of its World Wide Web browser. More than thirty-five third party developers are providing content for areas such as Politics, women's issues, music, games, new age, fire safety, public policy, rock music, sports and others. 5 -> E3 - Overview 05/12/95 Underway in Los Angeles at E3, a new trade show which focuses on electronic entertainment, Sony and Sega have introduced their newest game playing consoles and are flanked by hundreds of game developers either ready to announce or developing new games for these "playstations." The units run CD-ROMs, not cartridges, and are packed with computer processing power and random access memory to bring gamers a new level of features and action. 6 -> E3 - Win 95 Tutorial For "Technically Challenged" 05/11/95 Graphix Zone (NASDAQ:GZON), multimedia producer of the recent Bob Dylan CD, gave a sneak preview of "The Improv Presents Windows 95 for the Technically Challenged." Teaming with the well-known comedy club, The Improv, Graphix Zone plans to have this humorous tutorial on the shelf the same day Windows 95 is released. 7 -> ****E3 - Out With CES, In With E3, Says Sega Chief 05/12/95 Tom Kalinske, president and chief executive officer at Sega, believes his industry can no longer be confined to a show which shares space with TV and appliance manufacturers (Consumer Electronics Show). That's why E3 is the new venue for the electronic entertainment industry, he claimed, at his keynote speech at Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3). 8 -> ****E3 - Prodigy - New CEO, New Interface 05/12/95 Tucked away in a corner of Electronic Entertainment Expo, Prodigy was showing what will become the graphical interface for all users in the next sixty days. Featuring multi-tasking, an entirely new look, and tight integration with its Internet and World Wide Web features, Prodigy is also under the direction of a new chief executive officer (CEO), Ed Bennett. 9 -> E3 - Philips Media Alliance With Bits Corp 05/12/95 Philips Media, a software and new media group of the Dutch electronics giant Philips, announced a strategic relationship with London-based games developer Bits Corporation. The two companies will jointly develop titles, three of which are already in progress. 10 -> Sweden - Ericsson Reports Excellent Growth In Cellular 05/12/95 Ericsson has announced that its explosive growth over the last few years will continue for a few years yet. Speaking at the company's general meeting earlier this week, Kurt Hellstroem, manager of Ericsson's radio comms division, said that the sales impetus was coming from Asia, as growth in demand in Europe and the US started has eased. 11 -> Neurocomputing Internet Web Page 05/12/95 The British Government, in the shape of the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI), will officially launch its Neurocomputing World Wide Web site at the Control & Instrumentation Exhibition which opens in Birmingham next Tuesday, Newsbytes has learned. 12 -> UK - Vodafone Launches PersonalWorld GSM Tariff 05/12/95 Vodafone has formally launched a new tariff on its GSM (Global System for Mobile communications) network. Known as PersonalWorld, the service is aimed at small business and residential users of mobile phones who make less intense use of their phones than business users, but who want to use GSM on international basis occasionally. 13 -> Germany - Escom Rounds Out Commodore Acquisition 05/12/95 Escom, the Germany computer manufacturer and retail company, has announced that its acquisition of Commodore is now complete. Escom has acquired to title to the Commodore ranges of machines, spanning the Vic/Max/C64 family right through to the Amiga range of machines. 14 -> More On Microsoft And Portugal - No Sats, Maybe Software 05/12/95 Following hard on the heels of Microsoft officials refuting some reports that the company was planning a major investment in satellite technology in Portugal, reports are now surfacing that the company is now mulling the idea of investing in software production in the country. 15 -> Gartner, AT&T Launch Online Service For IT Pros 05/12/95 Information technology research and consulting firm Gartner Group, Inc. (NASDAQ:GART) has announced an online service aimed at information technology professionals. Gartner's @vantage service will be on AT&T's (NYSE:T) Interchange Online Network. 16 -> Personal Library, Open Market In Web Alliance 05/12/95 Personal Library Software Inc., and Open Market Inc., have teamed up to make their products for the Internet's World Wide Web work more closely together. The two firms also expect to cooperate in marketing the products. 17 -> Individual, Content Publishers Plan Standard 05/12/95 A group of electronic publishers led by Individual, Inc., a provider of custom electronic news feeds, plan to develop a standard for delivering electronic information they call the Open Content Publisher Standard (OCPS). 18 -> Gateway To Ship 51 Apps, Including "Bob" With PCs 05/12/95 Gateway 2000 (NASDAQ: GATE) has announced a standard software collection consisting of 51 programs including Microsoft's "friendly" user interface "Microsoft Bob" that will ship with every Family PC Multimedia system. 19 -> Oracle Hits China 05/12/95 Oracle has very aggressive plan to develop the Chinese application software market, executive vice president of Oracle, Raymond Lane, said in Beijing. 20 -> Prodigy Lets Users Set Up Web Home Pages 05/12/95 The first of the "Big 3" online services to introduce a World Wide Web browser is leading the pack again with a strong Internet feature. Prodigy announced that later this month it will let members put their own home pages on the World Wide Web at no extra charge, a feature Prodigy claims to be a first for online services. 21 -> Japan Newsbriefs 05/12/95 In this roundup of news from Japan: NEC plans expansion into China; Ericsson wins Japanese cellular contract; NEC selling new CD-ROM drive, Toshiba targets Euro cellular market, US Robotics heads for Japan, DDI counts a million cellular subscribers 22 -> China - Cellular Phone Price Drop In Beijing 05/12/95 Dropping twice in 1994, the price of cellular phones in Beijing has once again gone down. All analog cellular phones are now sold for less than 10,000 RMB (US$1,176). 23 -> Personnel Roundup 05/12/95 This is a regular feature, summarizing personnel changes not covered elsewhere by Newsbytes: Accolade Inc., Inso Corp., Ingenius, Lotus Development Corp., Dell Computer Corp., Convex Computer Corp., Time Warner Interactive Inc., Xircom Inc., Software Affiliates, and Novell Inc. 24 -> Microsoft Announces Kid's Pointing Device 05/12/95 Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ: MSFT) has rolled out a new pointing device designed specifically for kids as young as two years of age. A Microsoft public relations representative told Newsbytes the device, dubbed the Microsoft EasyBall, consists of a bright yellow ball about four inches in diameter that sits in a white saucer-shaped base. 25 -> Teco Monitors Recalled In Australia After Fatal Fire 05/12/95 Taiwanese computer monitor manufacturer Teco has issued a recall order on two models of its monitor range. They have been implicated in a number of fires in Australia. 26 -> AT&T To Place Pacific Rim Support Center In Sydney 10/05/95 Computer and communications giant AT&T has announced that its Pacific Rim care center will be established in Sydney. The other centers are in Atlanta and Amsterdam, serving the other two major time zones of the world. 27 -> Review - America Online's World Wide Web Browser 05/12/95 By Ken Maize. America Online is going to have another winner with its new World Wide Web browser, now available in a beta test version. 28 -> Software Group Praises US Move On Japan Autos 05/12/95 The Software Publishers Association says it is pleased the US is moving to impose trade sanctions on Japan for not opening its market to autos and after-market auto parts. 29 -> E3 - IBM Brings Hollywood To A New IBM 05/12/95 Joining the parade at E3, IBM (NYSE:IBM) announced plans to enter into the multimedia consumer game market. Along with the games, it says it will focus on education and information titles developed in collaboration with CBS, Disney and the Kushner-Locke Company. 30 -> Newsbytes Week In Review For May 8 - May 12 05/12/95 This is a regular feature, reviewing major stories of the past week covered by Newsbytes, listing with their category code: Epson Stylus Mac Color Printer Not 720 Dpi; Microsoft Shows Interactive TV Technology; Apple Intros TV Set-Top Box, Shares Interactive TV Directions; Compaq To Co-Develop 120MB Floppy Disk; Zenith Offers Cable TV Modems; Apple's eWorld To Include Online Sound; MCI & News Corp. Combine In $2 Billion Venture; Microsoft Previews Online Service/Browser; H&R Block To Sell MECA Software Unit; E3 - Out With CES, In With E3, Says Sega Chief; Color Printing On The Way For Interactive TV. (Wendy Woods/19950512) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 05/11/95 TELECOM Sweden's Ericsson In Philippines Telecom Deal (NEWS)(TELECOM)(LON)(00001) Sweden's Ericsson In Philippines Telecom Deal 05/11/95 STOCKHOLM, SWEDEN, 1995 MAY 11 (NB) -- Ericsson has signed a contract for wireline (hard wired) communications with the Philippines Long Distance Telephone Company (PLDT). Terms of the contract, which is worth around $100 million to the Swedish telco, call for the supply and installation of fixed phone lines in metro Manila and Cebu, two cities in the Philippines. According to a spokeswoman for Ericsson, the deal involves supplying and installing both copper pair and fiber optic links in the cities, ready for final handover at the end of next year. The links will allow PLDT to add around 175,000 new subscriber lines to its network. Per Pedersen, president of Philnet Ericsson in Manila, the division of Ericsson that is handling the installation side of the deal, said that the major portion of the supply of cables and network materials will come from Ericsson Cables AB. According to Ericsson, the financing of supplies from outside of the Philippines is supported by credit guarantees issued by the Swedish Export Credit Guarantee Board. (Steve Gold/19950510/Press Contact: Jami Nordenstam, Press Ops, Ericsson Business Area Communications, +46-8-522-0183; Reader Contact: Philnet Ericsson, +63-2-895-2944) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 05/11/95 WINDOWS FastCAD Europe Intros EasyCAD 4.0 For Windows (NEWS)(WINDOWS)(LON)(00002) FastCAD Europe Intros EasyCAD 4.0 For Windows 05/11/95 WATFORD, HERTFORDSHIRE, ENGLAND, 1995 MAY 11 (NB) -- FastCAD Europe has announced the availability of EasyCAD 4.0 for Windows, a UKP125 package aimed as what Julie Turner, FastCAD's marketing manager, describes as "occasional users of computer-aided design (CAD)." According to Turner, this latest version of EasyCAD offers the best value on the market, and is being released in the US by FastCAD with a $199 price tag. "The package offers professional CAD facilities, at a price that everyone can afford," she told Newsbytes, adding that the company's EasyCAD for DOS has been successful in the past, and the company wants to achieve a similar success with the Windows edition. EasyCAD 4.0/Win is billed as offering both expert and first-time CAD users speed of use that is unmatched by any package outside the company's range of software. The package has all the features of FastCAD 2D along with improved editing and drawing commands. From a users' perspective, the company claims the package has a "simple, easy to learn" interface that gives users an ease of use which, when combined with its functionality, speed and price, "makes EasyCAD one of the most competitive products on the market." Although the package is billed as version 4.0, the numbering scheme maintains the system seen on the DOS version. In Europe, this is the first Windows edition of FastCAD released and company officials claim that it makes full use of the Windows environment, with TrueType fonts, vector fonts, user programmable icons, context-sensitive help, Windows clipboard support, dialog boxes, portrait and landscape print options, a print preview command and "many other useful functions." According to Turner, special versions of EasyCAD 4.0/Win are also available: EasyCAD Electrical, EasyCAD Electronic; and EasyCAD Mechanical. These packages retail for UKP295. Existing users of EasyCAD DOS can upgrade to the standard Windows edition for UKP295. EasyCAD 4.0/Win requires a 386-based PC running Window 3.1 in enhanced mode, DOS 6.1 or later, four megabytes (MB) of memory and a Windows-compatible mouse. Although FastCAD recommends a math coprocessor, the package will run without a coprocessor fitted, but the math chipset boosts speed by around four times. (Steve Gold/19950510/Press Contact: Nick Spencer, tel +44-1344-873445, fax +44-1344-873446; Internet e-mail nspencer@cix.compulink.co.uk; Reader Contact: FastCAD Europe, tel +44-1293-246427, fax +44-1923-228796) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 05/11/95 TELECOM UK - PhoneLink Ties In With WorldSpan Services (NEWS)(TELECOM)(LON)(00003) UK - PhoneLink Ties In With WorldSpan Services 05/11/95 LIVERPOOL, MERSEYSIDE, ENGLAND, 1995 MAY 11 (NB) -- PhoneLink, the provider of the Tel-Me online information service, has announced a deal with WorldSpan Services, the online travel service. Under the deal, later this year, Tel-Me subscribers will have direct access to the WorldSpan online system which allows international computerized travel reservations to be made. Along with the usual air and hotel reservations, the WorldSpan link also gives subscribers access to car rentals, as well as rail and ferry bookings. John Lyon, PhoneLink's chief operating officer said "Users will have the fullest possible information in airline schedules together with real-time seat availability," adding that, as the service is developed, it will make the two services an ideal combination for all land, sea and air reservations. WorldSpan Services is a computer reservations service operate by Delta, NorthWest, TWA, and Abacus Distribution System. In Europe, the service is not normally available directly to the public. In the UK, the system's subscribers currently include Going Places, the UK's second largest travel agent, and the 350 branches of Co-op Travel, the UK's fourth largest travel agency. WorldSpan is based in Atlanta, Ga., and has a $250 million computer center which was opened in 1993. According to the company, at peak times, its mainframe processes 1,200 messages a second and 829 million messages a month, allowing access to 250-plus airlines, 40 car rental companies, 165 hotel companies, and 26,000 hotels. (Steve Gold/19950510/Press Contact: Buffalo Communications, +44-171-385-0777; Reader Contact: Tel-Me, +44-151-600-6000) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 05/11/95 NETWORK Novell's Collabra Share 2.0 For Groupwise (NEWS)(NETWORK)(DEN)(00004) Novell's Collabra Share 2.0 For Groupwise 05/11/95 OREM, UTAH, U.S.A., 1995 MAY 11 (NB) -- Novell Inc. (NASDAQ:NOVL) has announced version 2.0 of Collabra Share for Groupwise, saying the software lets users create replicated electronic discussion forums in which they can integrate, manage and act on information better and cheaper than by using Lotus Notes. In addition to upgrading Collabra Share for GroupWise, Novell and Collabra said they will jointly develop the Collabra Share 2.0 Replication agent as a NetWare Loadable Module (NLM) to allow forum replication on existing NetWare 4 servers rather than requiring a separate machine running Microsoft Windows. Novell said the Replication Agent NLM will tie multiple networks together using existing Groupwise infrastructure, and will allow replication to take place between GroupWise servers or over the Internet. With Collabra Share 2.0 for GroupWise and GroupWise installed, users can use the existing messaging infrastructure of Groupwise 4.1 to move between individual messages in the GroupWise Universal In Box and group discussions in Collabra Share 2.0. You can also use the user environment of Groupwise for conferencing, e-mail, calendaring/scheduling, forms creation and distribution, database access and task management, according to Novell. Collabra Share 2.0 for Groupwise includes "message threading," which is continually maintained, providing members of a forum with a visual overview of any discussion. full text retrieval lets forum members find information without having to know exactly where it is stored, and "relevance ranking" prioritizes responses to full text queries so the user gets the most important information first. A feature called InfoNavigator lets users work more easily with large volumes of information, and Hotlists, QuickLinks, and Quickviews let you organize information more easily as well as create hypertext documents on the desktop. The Later and Ignore features let the user work with information at a time of their choosing, which can be "now," "later," or "never." A feature called Thread Summary lets team members make and share key decisions more easily. Novell said once Collabra Share 2.0 for Groupwise is released it will ship the Collabra Share 2.0 bi-directional replication agent for Lotus Notes. Novell said that tool lets Lotus Notes users participate in Collabra Share forums. Novel will also ship Collabra's bi-directional replication agent for Internet newsgroups. Novell said Collabra Share 2.0 for Groupwise will be available in July. No pricing information has been made available. (Jim Mallory/19950510/Press contact: Brian Chapman, Novell, 801-228-5126 or Danny Shader, Collabra Software Inc., 415-254-4416; Public contact: Novell, 800-861-2507) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 05/11/95 NETWORK Remote Symplex Router Offers High-Speed Connection (NEWS)(NETWORK)(MSP)(00005) Remote Symplex Router Offers High-Speed Connection 05/11/95 ANN ARBOR, MICHIGAN, U.S.A., 1995 MAY 11 (NB) -- Symplex Communications is introducing a remote access internetworking product that the company claims delivers twice the performance of a leased-line router at nearly half the cost. Called "DirectRoute RO-1," the device is specifically designed for smaller offices and remote sites. "Our other products in the product line handle very large volumes of data that most companies need and would get a benefit from," George Brostoff, Symplex's chief executive officer (CEO), told Newsbytes. "What the RO-1 does is it brings it down to a price point where the breakdown of the purchase price is roughly half the cost of other methods of internetworking, or linking LANs (local area networks) together," he said. "Yet at the same time, it offers twice the performance that those solutions would do as far as the speed for wide area networking (WAN) communications." He also claimed the RO-1 is "ideal" for small companies looking to get their "feet wet" in networking. The DirectRoute RO-1 serves the internetworking of remote client sites to central servers, and remote client/server LANs linking to corporate LANs and home offices. The RO-1 is optimized for small Ethernet environments of one to 12 users, company officials said, and is a stand-alone modem-sized unit supporting one Ethernet LAN and one Basic Rate ISDN (integrated services digital network) line. The RO-1 is designed for sites whose bandwidth requirements can be met with a single 128 kilobits-per-second (Kbps) ISDN line. Using two 64Kbps channels of that line, the RO-1 enables multi-site connectivity to two locations simultaneously, the company said. Brostoff said a situation where a user would want to use the RO-1 is at a remote location, where they have some large files to transfer like Lotus Notes files, along with basic e-mail capability, yet they don't need WAN performance. The RO-1 lists at $1,399, and is currently available through authorized distributors, resellers, and network integrators. (Bob Woods/19950510/Press Contacts: Deborah Crosby, 313-995-1555, or Marcia Goff, 508-435-3068, both of Symplex Communications; Nancy Donegan or Sharon Zovod, The Weber Group, 415-325-8300; Public Contact: Symplex Communications, 313-995-1555; Internet World Wide Web http://www.iea.com/~symplex) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 05/11/95 TRENDS Govt Uses E-Mail More Than Industry - Study (NEWS)(TRENDS)(MSP)(00006) Govt Uses E-Mail More Than Industry - Study 05/11/95 NEW ORLEANS, LOUISIANA, U.S.A., 1995 MAY 11 (NB) -- When it comes to the Internet, the conventional thinking is that the worldwide network of computers is moving away from governmental use and toward the commercial sector. But a new poll by Control Data Systems says just the contrary - at least when it comes to electronic-mail usage. The poll, titled "Connecting the Workplace -- Electronic Commerce in Business and Government," sampled opinions from more than 500 chief information officers (CIOs) and other senior executives who are responsible for e-mail and electronic commerce in both Fortune 2000 companies and federal government, Control Data officials said. Of that number, eighty percent of those who responded were from business, and the rest from government. "We've been involved with both business and government in installing and running e-mail infrastructures," Jim Ousley, president and chief executive officer of Control Data, told Newsbytes. "We wanted to see how both groups were using e-mail." Overall, the study showed an average of 83 percent of employees from governmental departments and agencies are actually using e-mail. Private sector companies reported an average of 62 percent of their headquarters employees are using e-mail. The poll also indicated that e-mail users in government are bigger users of the Internet than business e-mailers. Fifty seven percent of government respondents said their e-mail system links to the Internet, as opposed to 44 percent of business e-mail servers. What's more, governmental organizations were more likely to have a World Wide Web page on the Internet than their private sector counterparts, the study showed. "Typically, we think of industry as being the guiding edge of technology," Ousley said. "But government is using their electronic systems in a better fashion." But many in the business world aren't far behind in venturing online. The poll said only 29 percent of business executives currently working with government said they would not be conducting business electronically with government agencies or departments. From the survey's results, "we clearly think that almost everyone in both government and business sees messaging, electronic commerce infrastructure, and applications as something they have to be involved with to be competitive or to serve constituents," Ousley said. (Bob Woods/19950510/Press Contacts: Pat Kelly, Control Data Systems, 612-482-4444, Internet e-mail patrick.j.kelly@cdc.com; Bob Rumpza, Mona Meyer McGrath & Gavin, 612-832-5000, Internet e-mail cdspr@aol.com) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 05/11/95 BUSINESS ****MCI & News Corp. Combine In $2 Billion Venture (NEWS)(BUSINESS)(MSP)(00007) ****MCI & News Corp. Combine In $2 Billion Venture 05/11/95 WASHINGTON, D.C., U.S.A., 1995 MAY 11 (NB) -- In what some are calling the biggest announcement since the TCI/Atlantic Bell merger fell through, MCI Communications Corporation (NASDAQ-NMM:MCIC) and The News Corporation Limited (NYSE:NWS) have announced they are joining forces to form a new interactive partnership one official called a "powerful, global alliance." MCI will also sink $2 billion into News Corp., officials said. The deal calls for News Corp. and MCI to each invest $200 million in the new venture initially, officials said. MCI will eventually hold the title of second largest shareholder of News Corp. stock, behind the Murdoch family. MCI will own 13.5 percent of the Australian-based company. The details were released at a hastily-arranged news teleconference attended by Newsbytes on Wednesday. At the news conference, MCI Chairman Bert C. Roberts and Rupert Murdoch of News Corp. said the new venture will combine MCI's computer intelligence with News Corp. to create, deliver, and bill different products that will combine information, entertainment, and telephone services. These will be sold and serviced as consumer and business packages to MCI customers, officials said, and will be delivered to homes and companies through cable, satellite, and ISDN (integrated services digital network) phone lines. "At this time, there is not one competitor with a global scale that has the reach and content of this alliance," Roberts said. "Look at the players. Look at the reach and the capabilities. Look at the content we can provide. You can understand what we mean when we say no one has combined all the necessary parts and pieces together to make new media a reality around the world. That is, until now." Murdoch said two companies that have "maverick" reputations can work well together. "We have a synergy in style and vision. Both companies understand how the market is changing, and how to create opportunities from those changes." The first venture will be in the online information arena, Roberts said, although no final decisions have been made as of yet. Such a venture would start towards the end of this year, he added. Some other projects execs are evaluating include an electronic mall, an interactive TV guide. The companies said the new venture will leverage the vast broadcast, satellite, programming, and publishing resources of News Corp. MCI brings to the table its marketing, customer base, and intelligent networks, along with its global partner, British Telecom (BT). The new venture will report to a management that will consist of Roberts and Murdoch, officials said. Roberts will also sit on News Corp.'s board of directors. When asked if this deal would have any impact on Murdoch's long- running difficulties with the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), he said, "We don't see any FCC implications at all." Last week, the FCC said it would exempt his Fox network's limits on foreign ownership of US broadcasting licenses, if Murdoch could show his mid 1980's purchase of TV stations served the public interest. The NAACP has announced it will fight the exemption, because it said the FCC's decision threatens the interest of all Americans. (Bob Woods/19950510) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 05/11/95 GENERAL Nintendo Sets Virtual Boy Launch Date (NEWS)(GENERAL)(DEN)(00008) Nintendo Sets Virtual Boy Launch Date 05/11/95 LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1995 MAY 11 (NB) -- Nintendo of America Inc. announced at this week's Electronics Entertainment Expo in Los Angeles it will ship its first three-dimensional (3-D) 32-bit video game system developed and produced for the mass market on August 14. Nintendo said it has spent more than $25 million to market Virtual Boy, which will carry a suggested retail price of $179.95. Nintendo said it will bundle one of the titles from the launch library and the new double-grip controller with Virtual boy games sold in the US. Software available at launch time will include: Teleroboxer, a futuristic boxing game; Galactic Pinball, a space-age pinball game featuring five 3-D, arcade-style tables; Mario Clash, an action/adventure game Nintendo said was inspired by the original Mario Bros. series; Mario's Dream Tennis, a 3-D tennis game; and Red Alarm, a polygon-based space shooter. A Nintendo spokesperson told Newsbytes the company will ship one of those games with each Virtual Boy, but was unaware of which title will be included. Nintendo said Virtual boy software will have a suggested retail price of $39.95 to $49.95. Nintendo said more than 100 developers and third-party publishers are currently working on games for virtual Boy. Some of the titles in development are: Vertical Force, a space shooter game; Golf, a polygon-rendered version of the sport; and Waterworld, based on the upcoming movie starring Kevin Costner. Nintendo is apparently betting Waterworld will be a bigger hit in the game market than critics are predicting for the movie, which some critics say will be a box-office flop, despite its record-setting budget reportedly in excess of $200 million. Virtual Boy is a RISC (reduced instruction-set computing)-based 32-bit system which uses two high-resolution, mirror-scanning light emitting diode (LED) displays to produce a 3-D image the company said cannot be experienced on conventional television screens. The game offers stereophonic sound and a double-grip controller which lets the user "move spatially" in any direction. The first versions of Virtual Boy will run on batteries, but Nintendo said it will introduce an optional AC adapter later this year. The company's representative told Newsbytes the selling price of the AC adapter has not been set yet. Earlier this month Newsbytes reported that Nintendo will delay the launch of its Ultra 64 video game system, even though the final chipset that produces the game's graphics and audio has been completed. The company said it was delaying launch of Ultra 64 in order to give developers additional time to develop games for the system. Ultra 64 is now scheduled to ship in April 1996, instead of in time for the 1995 Christmas selling season as originally planned. Ultra 64 is expected to have a suggested retail price below $250, according to Nintendo of America Chairman Howard Lincoln. (Jim Mallory/19950511/Press contact: Beth Llewelyn, Golin/Harris for Nintendo, 213-623-4200) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 05/11/95 GENERAL Paradigm Previews Nintendo 3-D Development Tool (NEWS)(GENERAL)(DEN)(00009) Paradigm Previews Nintendo 3-D Development Tool 05/11/95 LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1995 MAY 11 (NB) -- Paradigm Simulation Inc. previewed its Vega UltraVision three-dimensional (3-D) game development software at the Electronics Entertainment Expo being held in Los Angeles this week. Paradigm said Vega UltraVision will provide developers a software environment in which they can focus on the elements of game play and application development without having to concern themselves with most of the details of accessing and managing system resources. Paradigm said Vega UltraVision will provide 3-D processing concepts such as visual channel control, eyepoint definition, lighting control, collision detection and other special effects. It will also have techniques to manage Nintendo Ultra 64 (NU64) system hardware resources such as ROM and RAM management. Paradigm said it is presently working with Nintendo to co-develop a game for the 64-bit, game cartridge-based NU64 platform using Vega UltraVision. Sigeru Miyamoto, creator of Mario Bros and Donkey Kong, is the chief creative force behind the yet-to-be-announced game. Silicon Graphics Inc. is providing the chip set for the NU64 platform. Paradigm said Vega UltraVision is expected to ship during the third quarter of 1995. Earlier this month Newsbytes reported that Nintendo will delay the launch of its Ultra 64 video game system, even though the final chipset that produces the game's graphics and audio has been completed. The company said it was delaying launch of Ultra 64 in order to give developers additional time to develop games for the system. Ultra 64 is now scheduled to ship in April 1996 instead of in time for the 1995 Christmas selling season as originally planned. Ultra 64 is expected to have a suggested retail price below $250, according to Nintendo of America Chairman Howard Lincoln. (Jim Mallory/19950511/Press contact: Amy Bayers, Paradigm Simulation, 214-960-2301; Public contact: Paradigm Simulation, tel 214-960-23012 or fax 214-960-2303) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 05/11/95 ONLINE America's Cup Web Site Reaches 10 Million Hits (NEWS)(ONLINE)(TYO)(00010) America's Cup Web Site Reaches 10 Million Hits 05/11/95 SAN DIEGO, CALIFORNIA, USA, 1995 MAY 11 (NB) -- The America's Cup Online service on the Internet's World Wide Web surpassed the 10 million hit mark the last week of April. The service is an online information source, produced by Events On Line and Science Applications International Corp. with Internet services provided by CERFnet, about the 1995 America's Cup regatta and has been visited regularly be racing fans from around the world since it began on 26 October last year. It has earned enough admiration to also become a nominee for a "Best of the Net" award. The information on the service is updated daily by Larry Edwards of Events On Line who writes from the America's Cup Louis Vuitton Media Center. He explained how the service is produced to Newsbytes. "The site is updated daily with race reports, race results, related America's Cup news, photographs and graphics depicting the racing. The information is posted by me, as I have a background in yachting journalism. I post the information remotely either by forms or FTP (File Transfer Protocol)." The success of the site took everyone by surprise as Pushpendra Mohta, a director of CERFnet, the Internet service provider to the web site, explained to Newsbytes, "The demand has exceeded expectation, this is by far the most popular of all the Web sites we have, although we do host some other large ones like the one from Walt Disney." Initially the web site was expected to attract around 100,000 hits a day during busy periods, a figure that has now been raised four times. Statistics from the web servers showed that the busiest day was April 26 when Dennis Conner made a comeback to beat America3's team and win the Citizen Cup defender trials. On that day the site logged 368,000 hits, an average of 4.25 hits per second throughout the day. The extra heavy load has also meant that another server is needed to cover busy times as Mohta continued to explain: "We did not have to alter the network component because the web service that CERFnet offers is co-located right next to our T3 backbone. We did have to replicate the web server so that now we have two web servers serving the America's Cup data in a round robin fashion in expectation of the even larger demand during the finals." For users without access to the World Wide Web, a listserver is available which sends out information and updates by electronic-mail. Edwards reports that several thousand people are subscribed to that. Internet users can find America's Cup On Line at http://www.ac95.org (Martyn Williams/19950511/Press contact: Larry Edwards, Events On Line, 619-292-9232, Internet e-mail larry@thegroup.net; Pushpendra Mohta, CERFnet, 619-455-3908, Internet e-mail pushp@cerf.net) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 05/11/95 BUSINESS "CNN Learning" CD-ROM Brand Established (NEWS)(BUSINESS)(TYO)(00011) "CNN Learning" CD-ROM Brand Established 05/11/95 ATLANTA, GEORGIA, USA, 1995 MAY 11 (NB) -- CNN Interactive, the multimedia production and online news distribution division of CNN, and Olivetti StarPress Europe, a joint venture between Olivetti Telemedia and StarPress Multimedia, have signed an exclusive worldwide CD-ROM publishing deal to establish the "CNN Learning" brand. The first CNN Learning title will be a disk entitled "Faces of Conflict" described as a comprehensive educational CD-ROM that helps people of all ages gain a better understanding about the issues that divide people and how to resolve them. The CD-ROM takes a look at conflicts around the world from the CNN correspondent's eyes and from the view-point of local people who are living through the crisis. In addition to the video, audio and data stored on the disk, there is also a conflict resolution game, in which the user is presented with a crisis and asked how to solve it, a quiz based on facts about conflicts, a bibliography, and personal accounts from mediators and conflict negotiators. The CD-ROM is brought up to date whenever the user requires through a tie-in with CNN's online services on CompuServe and a new service that will debut on the Internet this summer as Scott Woefel, editor-in- chief of CNN Interactive explained to Newsbytes. "Users of the 'Faces of Conflicts' CD-ROM will be able to go on-line to get the latest information involving the conflicts explored on the disk," he said. "CD-ROM users will also be able to contact other users to discuss the themes presented by the disk as well as occasionally being able to interact with newsmakers involved in the various conflicts when they appear as guests in our CNN Online forum (on CompuServe)." Faces of Conflicts is expected to be available from October this year in English, French, German, and Italian at a suggested retail price of $49.95. The establishment of CNN Learning is part of an on-going effort at Turner Broadcasting, CNN's parent company, to provide material that will "educate as well as entertain." The cable and satellite news channel currently participates in the "Cable in the Classroom" project by way of a 15 minute newscast each day specifically for school students where the major news of the day is reported on and explained. "CNN and Turner Broadcasting are committed to finding new ways to educate our students to what's happening around the world. We see both our effort in CD-ROMs and the ongoing on-air efforts of CNN Newsroom as helping to achieve this goal." CNN's Woefel explained. CNN Learning will take over production of the "Time Capsule" series of CD-ROMs as well as continue to produce other special disks such as the OJ Simpson trial special that became available recently. CNN Learning titles will be marketed and distributed across Europe by Olivetti StarPress Europe and in the United States by StarPress Multimedia. Olivetti StarPress Europe was established in January of this year as a joint venture between Italy's Olivetti Telemedia and StarPress Multimedia of San Francisco. In addition to the CNN deal, the company is publishing other CD-ROMs Europe-wide. Vice President of Olivetti Telemedia Grant Perry, a former CNN business anchor, commented on the deal, saying: "This agreement is an important step for Olivetti StarPress Europe, a deal based on exclusive rights with a world-renowned company like CNN fuels Olivetti StarPress Europe's strong effort to build a European distribution powerhouse." (Martyn Williams/19950511/Press contact: Andy Mitchell, CNN, 404-827-5021, Internet e-mail andy.mitchell@turner.com; Pautrice Paul, StarPress Multimedia, 415-395-2890, Internet e-mail patricep@aol.com; Grant Perry, Olivetti Telemedia, +39-2-48366708) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 05/11/95 TELECOM NTT Partners PictureTel In Japanese Video Phone Deal (NEWS)(TELECOM)(TYO)(00012) NTT Partners PictureTel In Japanese Video Phone Deal 05/11/95 TOKYO, JAPAN, 1995 MAY 11 (NB) -- Japan's Nippon Telegraph and Telephone (NTT) and America's PictureTel Corporation (NASDAQ:PCTL) have announced a deal that will result in the launch of a new videoconferencing system in Japan. The two companies have agreed to collaborate on the development of a Windows 95-based desktop videoconferencing system for the Japanese business and consumer markets. The agreement marks the biggest such deal that PictureTel has ever signed and adds to those the company already has with other major computer and telecommunications companies such as Compaq, Microsoft, and MCI. The new system will be based on personal computers with video cameras attached. Each user will be able to see the other via a display window on the PC desktop with the two systems communicating with each other over NTT's integrated services digital network (ISDN) telephone network. At the same time each party can send data such as charts and letters to the other over the ISDN connection whilst carrying on the conversation. The partnership calls on NTT to develop the PC interface and applications software whilst PictureTel is in charge of development of video signal compression and data exchange techniques. Priced at around 500,000 yen ($5,952), the full system includes a Windows 95 PC, CCD video camera, NTT ins64 ISDN board and the relevant applications software. Launch of the system will be accompanied by a drive to attract more customers to NTT's ISDN services by developing applications for the system in areas such as welfare services, health care, education and finance. The system is being marketed in Japan and worldwide by the two companies. Speaking to Newsbytes, Tsutomu Akimoto of NTT outlined the current services, saying: "We have two services, isn64 and isn1500. Phone calls on the isn64 service are the same as regular phone calls (a local call is 10 yen for three minutes). A three minute call on isn1500 costs 20 yen." Akimoto added that, while the monthly standing charge for a conventional telephone line is 1,550 yen, the isn64 service charge is 2,830 yen a month, and the isn1500 charge is 31,000 yen. The most recent figure for installed ISDN lines that NTT had available was from March, 1993, when 240,000 lines were installed. (Martyn Williams/19950511/Press contact: Tsutomu Akimoto, NTT Tokyo, phone +81-3-3509-3101; Kevin Flanagan, PictureTel Corp., 508-762-5178) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 05/11/95 ONLINE Electronic Embassy Project To Bring Diplomacy Online (NEWS)(ONLINE)(TYO)(00013) Electronic Embassy Project To Bring Diplomacy Online 05/11/95 WASHINGTON, DC, USA, 1995 MAY 11 (NB) -- A unique project in Washington DC is aiming to bring the city's foreign embassies onto the Internet as the basis for a "comprehensive resource of foreign government information." The Electronic Embassy project grew out of Director Ross Stapleton-Gray's desire to get his previous employer online. He was a member of the White House Information Infrastructure Task Force (IITF) until October, 1994. Speaking to Newsbytes, Stapleton-Gray described how the project was born. "The idea was something that I developed over the last several years," he said. "I was trying hard to encourage the government to take up the idea of a 'virtual embassy,' putting some foreign service officers on the Internet with a 'license' to try and augment, complement or supplement traditional foreign affairs work, and not getting far. And one day, I even wrote it down. October 16, 1993, I was standing in line at the espresso bar at Borders when it hit me! I realized that there were some 170 other governments to try here in DC." Currently the World Wide Web page points to foreign embassies already online, although none have begun operation. Said Stapleton-Gray, "I'm still in the process of signing the first embassy participants. I'm pointing to embassies on the Net, even if I haven't put them on the Internet firsthand." Whilst he wants to provide the service of choice, Stapleton-Gray does not hold anything against embassies that use other service providers, "Given that I'm trying to build a comprehensive resources, I can't not point to an embassy, regardless of how it gets on the Web. My goal is to be more of a full-service resource for my clients, for instance, including support and HTML (hypertext markup language) work, and, what might be most important, adapting their materials to the Internet audience, and providing strategic guidance on use of the Internet." According to Stapleton-Gray, the ideas that each embassy has for an Internet service are different. "I'm in the final stages of negotiating with one embassy's cultural division, which would like to use the Internet to better provide support to its students in the US, while another embassy had a succinct shopping list of the ways it wants to promote travel, trade, and tourism," he said. The users of his system have also been providing feedback on what they would like to see from their the embassies online. One of the most popular areas is information about visas, while foreign students studying in the United States have been asking for information on how they can renew their passports whilst overseas. The project is designed to pay for itself and even turn a profit, although the director sees that coming mainly from corporate sponsorship rather than from the embassies themselves, "My guess is that commercial tie-ins will end up subsidizing the embassy participation, some of them have said they have little or no money to spend on the Internet. I'd really like to find one or more large corporate sponsors, such as one of the major telecom providers, which could underwrite embassy participation in return for the very positive visibility they'd get for the gesture." Users can find the electronic embassy project on the Internet's World Wide Web at http://www.embassy.org/ (Martyn Williams/19950511/Press & public contact: Dr. Ross Stapleton-Gray, TeleDiplomacy Inc., tel 703-685-5197, fax 703-685-5197, Internet e-mail director@embassy.org) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 05/11/95 ONLINE ****Microsoft Previews Online Service/Browser (NEWS)(ONLINE)(SFO)(00014) ****Microsoft Previews Online Service/Browser 05/11/95 LAS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1995 MAY 11 (NB) -- Microsoft has (NASDAQ:MSFT) announced content providers for its upcoming Microsoft Network (MSN) online service, and unveiled a version of its World Wide Web browser at the Electronics Entertainment Expo (E3). More than thirty-five third-party developers are providing content for areas such as Politics, Women's Issues, Music, Games, New Age, Fire Safety, Public Policy, Rock Music, and Sports. When MSN debuts as part of Windows 95 in the third week of August, users can expect to see a multitasking, drag-and-drop featured service with a simple interface which relies on icons for navigation. Demonstrations at E3 emphasized dragging-and-dropping the icons into favorite places and even into e-mail. Rather than try to explain to someone how to get to an area, a user may simply e-mail an icon to another MSN user. When received, the user may click on the icon and open the specific area. The MSN browser features full multitasking capabilities. If you are tired of waiting for a Web site to download or a hyperlinked file to reach your desktop, you will find MSN lets you open other parts of MSN or work in an application outside the network. This feature will not be ready when Windows 95 ships. Microsoft plans to have the browser ready by the end of the year. The August version of MSN will offer Internet features of e-mail and newsgroups. The press event focused on the content providers. Bill Miller, MSN marketing manager, told the assembled press, "This is a different kind of event for us. There will be no speeches or long introductions. We want you to visit each of our content providers who are set up around the room. People have been asking when we will reveal what kind of content we will provide and who will do it. I am pleased to say we can not introduce many of those providers." The third-party content providers include: Best Friends Animal Sanctuary, American Greeting, Albion Books, Cooking Light, Court TV, Womens Wire, C-SAN Forum, Hollywood Online, Martial Arts Network, International Fire Service Network, Matrix Software, New York Times Sports/Leisure Magazines, N2K/Jazz Central Station, Times Information Services, and Ziff-Davis Interactive. (Patrick McKenna/19950511/Press Contact: Telle Zeiler, Waggener Edstrom, 206-637-9097) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 05/11/95 BUSINESS China - Electronics Faces Profit Squeeze In Beijing (NEWS)(BUSINESS)(PEK)(00015) China - Electronics Faces Profit Squeeze In Beijing 05/11/95 BEIJING, CHINA, 1995 MAY 11 (NB) -- With the declining profit margins of electronics and computer businesses, non-electronics stores are edging back into Beijing's Zhongguancun area. The busiest area, called "Electronics Street," is no longer home to just electronics stores. Following Kentucky Fried Chicken and Pizza Hut, a store selling beer and other drinks has shown up on Electronics Street. This is not seen as an isolated event, but another indication that computer and electronics business in the area is not as brisk as before. Zhongguancun is located in the NorthWest of Beijing City. The development of the area as a science and technology zone reportedly started in the 1950s. Now there are 28 research institutes under Academia Sinica, dozens of universities and colleges, several national laboratories, and hundreds of high-tech companies. In previously busy times for electronics businesses on the street, electronics and computer companies drove out almost all non-electronic stores, including restaurants, grocery stores, and barbershops, by paying high rentals. In 1992, rentals in the "golden" area skyrocketed. For example, the monthly rental for a store consisting of 150 square- feet, increased from RMB450 (US$53) to RMB2,000 (US$238). However, the market is changing. In recent months, profit margins for electronics and computer businesses in the area has dropped badly, from a reported 20 percent a few years ago, to the current five percent. Sales from businesses on the street was estimated to be several billion RMB in 1994. Profits are slim. For example, in selling a computer costing about RMB10,000, many small firms can now only make about RMB100 to RMB200, which barely covers expenses and high rental prices. (Chih-Ho Yu & Ning Huang/19950430) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 05/11/95 ONLINE Worlds Inc. In Starbright Pact, Plans Web "Worlds Fair" (NEWS)(ONLINE)(BOS)(00016) Worlds Inc. In Starbright Pact, Plans Web "Worlds Fair" 05/11/95 BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS, U.S.A., 1995 MAY 11 (NB) -- Worlds Inc. is providing a free download of its interactive chat environment, planning new "Internet Worlds Fair" and anatomy CD-ROMs, and participating in a Starbright-sponsored broadband network for seriously ill children, said Rob Schmults, sales and marketing manager, in a conference call with Newsbytes. #IMAGE 1 20 TWPCX \images\95051116.PCX Click here for photo In the Starbright Foundation effort, spearheaded by Chairman Steven Spielberg, Worlds Inc. (formerly Knowledge Adventure Worlds) is working with Sprint, UB Networks, and Intel to produce a "shared virtual playspace" over an ATM (asynchronous transfer mode) network that will link selected hospitals, Schmults explained, during the conference call with Newsbytes in Boston. The new broadband network will let hospitalized children communicate and play with other children throughout the US, and eventually, throughout the world, he maintained. UB Networks has announced its intentions to build the broadband network infrastructure and to provide systems integration for the Starbright project. The infrastructure will be built around GeoRim/E, an "ATM-ready" Ethernet workgroup switch, and GeoSwitch, an ATM workgroup switch. UB also plans to supply "Worlds," an upcoming interactive three-dimensional (3-D) networked environment from Worlds Inc. Sprint will manage national network connections for the children's network, and Intel will provide Pentium PCs as well as Proshare personal conferencing technology, according to Schmults. "Worlds Chat," a product that can now be downloaded off the World Wide Web, is a narrowband example of Worlds Inc.'s interactive 3-D technology, he said. In the Windows-based "Worlds Chat," users are represented as "3-D body icons" known as "Digital Actors," he reported. You can choose to be represented by a "human" character, a cartoon character, a chess piece, or a fish, for example. You then "look through the eyes" of the digital actor, using either the mouse or arrow keys to move your character through a "3-D space station" environment and to chat with other characters, according to the sales and marketing manager. In the space station, you can see 3-D views of a "starscape," windows, working escalators, and windows. You can also leave the space station to "walk in space," alone or with other characters. "Worlds Chats" can be downloaded from World's Web page, at http://www.kaworlds.com. For an introductory period, the download is free of charge, he noted. Schmults informed Newsbytes that World's forthcoming "Worlds Fair," another "narrowband" product for use on the Web, will combine rides such as a "virtual tour of the universe" with "educational activities," in the manner of Epcot, and "places to hang out." Software for "Worlds Fair" will not be downloadable, but will be provided on CD-ROM instead, he revealed. Worlds Inc. expects to ship "Worlds Fair" during the Christmas season of 1995, according to the Worlds Inc. exec. The anatomy teaching tool, another future CD-ROM from Worlds Inc., will be designed for use on a standalone basis as well as over a network, added Schmults. Targeted at students, the tool will let users see, for example, "how the liver filters blood," he told Newsbytes. (Jacqueline Emigh/19950510/Reader Contact: Worlds Inc., 800-446- 3636; Press Contact: Lydia Trettis, Connors Communications for Worlds, 212-995-2200/WCHAT950511/PHOTO) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 05/11/95 NETWORK DEC Discloses Rate Flow Patent To ATM Forum (NEWS)(NETWORK)(BOS)(00017) DEC Discloses Rate Flow Patent To ATM Forum 05/11/95 MAYNARD, MASSACHUSETTS, U.S.A., 1995 MAY 11 (NB) -- Digital Equipment Corp. has told the ATM (asynchronous transfer mode) Forum that it has been granted a patent related to congestion avoidance which applies to the forum's proposed Rate Flow Control Specification, said Diana Larea, high performance networks marketing manager, in an interview with Newsbytes. Digital informed the ATM Forum of the patent at an ATM Traffic Management interim meeting this week, according to Larea. Under its bylaws, the forum requires its members to disclose any patents that may be related to forthcoming ATM specifications, she explained. Digital is also offering to license the patent within the ATM Forum, she added. The ATM Forum voted last fall to work on a rate-based flow control specification, Larea pointed out. Then, the ATM Forum Traffic Management Working Group decided at its latest meeting to include a mechanism called the Explicit Forward Congestion Identifier (EFCI) in the ATM traffic management specification. "When the working group voted to use the EFCI method of rate-based (flow control), we realized that we needed to disclose that we have a patent (related to) that specific implementation," she told Newsbytes. ECFI requires US Patent 5,377,327, patent held by Digital which is entitled "Congestion Avoidance Scheme for Computer Networks," according to the Digital exec. Congestion management, also referred to as traffic management, is one of the most important specifications in the ATM standard, Larea contended. "By disclosing this patent, and by offering to license it within the forum, we're trying to move the (ATM) standard along. The faster the standard can get done, the faster products will be interoperable, and the faster customers can deploy ATM," she asserted. ATM products from Digital, also announced last fall, use FlowMaster, a congestion management technology based on the competing credit-based model of flow control, noted Larea. Future ATM products from DEC will continue to include credit-based flow control, but will also add rate-based flow control, Larea revealed. "FlowMaster, our value-add credit-based feature, will only turn on if (the system) is talking to another system with FlowMaster. The rate-based standard will be the default," she elaborated. Digital officials understood at the time of last fall's product announcement that the ATM Forum had agreed to work on a rate-based mechanism, Larea added. "In going ahead and doing our credit-based (mechanism), we (also) made the commitment to implement the rate- based mechanism as soon as it is ready," she told Newsbytes. (Jacqueline Emigh/19950511/Reader Contact: Digital Equipment Corp., 508-493-5111; Press Contacts: Susan Ursch, DEC, 508-486-5198; Veronica Zanellato, Rourke & Company for DEC, 617-267-0042) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 05/11/95 GENERAL Nintendo Intros "Killer Instinct" For Super NES (NEWS)(GENERAL)(DEN)(00018) Nintendo Intros "Killer Instinct" For Super NES 05/11/95 LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1995 MAY 11 (NB) -- Nintendo of America Inc. has announced it will release a Super Nintendo Entertainment System (Super NES) version of the arcade game "Killer Instinct" this fall. The company said the Super NES version of Killer Instinct was developed in conjunction with Rare Ltd. That is the same design team that produced Nintendo's latest hit, Donkey Kong Country, as well as the arcade version of Killer Instinct. Rare Ltd. developed the graphics for Killer Instinct on Silicon Graphics workstations using Alias software. Nintendo said the Super NES version of Killer Instinct is a "faithful" translation of the arcade game, complete with computer rendered graphics and the original game's characters Fulgore, Chief Thunder, B. Orchid, Riptor, Sabrewulf and the two-headed Eyedol. Players can execute multi-hit combinations using the correct button and controller moves. From three to 46 combination hits are possible. Nintendo said each character is equipped with special moves, and the game also features air attacks, release moves, shadow moves, and danger moves. Rare Ltd. is currently working on a version of Killer Instinct for the yet-to-be-released 64-bit Nintendo Ultra 64 game system. Originally scheduled for release in the Fall of 1995 in time for the Christmas shopping season, Nintendo announced recently it would delay the Ultra 64 launch in order to give developers more time to develop games for the system. Killer Instinct is a 32-megabit tournament fighting game for one or two players. Nintendo said it will include an audio CD of the arcade version of Killer Instinct with the first two million units sold. Called "Killer Cuts" the soundtrack will include 15 tracks of the originally produced music from the coin-operated version and one hidden track. Killer Instinct is scheduled for release August 30, with a suggested retail price of $74.95. It will also be available for Nintendo's portable hand-held video game system Game Boy in November with a $34.95 price tag. Nintendo said it will release Donkey Kong Country 2: Diddy's Kong Quest in November. The 32-megabit one or two player game is the sequel to the company's all-time best selling game Donkey Kong Country. The plot has Diddy Kong venturing into the evil Kremling's island to save the kidnapped Donkey Kong. In the new game Diddy gets a female sidekick, Dixie Kong, and some new animal friends including a tennis shoe-wearing spider. The Kremling island features a haunted forest, swamps, a giant bee hive oozing with honey, and lava-filled caves. The company said the new game has dozens of hidden levels and a soundtrack with new music. (Jim Mallory/19950511/Press contact: Eileen Tanner, Golin/Harris for Nintendo of America, 206-462-4220) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 05/11/95 LEGAL Patent Case Could Net Texas Instruments $150 Mil (NEWS)(LEGAL)(DEN)(00019) Patent Case Could Net Texas Instruments $150 Mil 05/11/95 DALLAS, TEXAS, U.S.A., 1995 MAY 11 (NB) -- A federal district court jury has ruled that three California-based companies willfully infringed two Texas Instruments Inc. (NYSE: TXN) patents and has awarded more than $50 million in damages. Because the jury decided the infringement was willful, the judge could triple that amount and order the defendants to pay TI's attorney's fees. At the heart of the case was the validity of patents on TI's plastic encapsulation process and whether Cypress Semiconductor, VLSI Technology, and LSI Logic had willfully infringed on those patents. The jury ordered Cypress Semi to pay $17.8 million, LSI to pay $14.6 million and VLSI $19.4 million in damages. With the treble damages the total could reach over $155 million. Initially five companies were charged by TI with violating its patents. A Texas Instruments spokesperson told Newsbytes two other companies, Analog Devices and Integrated Device Technology, settled for what the spokesperson called "considerably less" than the judgments levied by the court against the remaining three defendants. The settlements included a confidentiality agreement that prohibits any of the participating parties from revealing the settlement amounts. The spokesperson told Newsbytes TI also offered to settle with the remaining three defendants "for basically what we settled for with Analog Devices and Integrated Device Technology" but that offer was declined. This is the third victory for TI in its efforts to stop the three companies from using its patented technology without a license. In 1992 the United States International Trade Commission found the same three companies guilty of importing devices covered by a TI patent, a violation of US patent law. That decision was upheld on appeal by the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit. No monetary award was made in that case, causing TI to file a civil suit against the three companies in order to collect back royalties, said the TI spokesperson. TI said not only did the three companies benefit from their unauthorized use of the patented technology, but the entire semiconductor industry benefited, since the integrated circuit packaging provided manufacturers with a reliable alternative to expensive ceramic packaging. The technology covered by the two patents involved the process of encapsulating integrated circuits by injecting fluid plastic through an aperture, or gate, located in the bottom half of a mold cavity containing the device. The process is known in the industry as "bottom-gating." (Jim Mallory/19950511/Press contact: Robert Price, 214-995- 2355; Public contact: Texas Instruments, 214-995-2011) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 05/11/95 ONLINE Publishers To Launch Politics Web Site (NEWS)(ONLINE)(WAS)(00020) Publishers To Launch Politics Web Site 05/11/95 WASHINGTON, D.C., U.S.A., 1995 MAY 11 (NB) -- Two Washington political publishers are joining forces to create a service covering politics and government on the World Wide Web. National Journal and the American Political Network are launching PoliticsUSA this summer to provide coverage of the 1996 election cycle. The service will be free until January, at which point a subscription fee of $5-$10 per month will kick in. "PoliticsUSA will provide the one-stop shop on the Internet for all interested voters and political activists," said John Fox Sullivan, president and chief executive officer (CEO) of National Journal, owned by Times-Mirror. "The service will create the online community of interest for the 25 million Americans who participate in the political and policy process or are interested in it." National Journal is a weekly magazine covering government and politics, formed by veterans of Congressional Quarterly some 25 years ago. The company also publishes daily newsletters about the functioning of Congress, Government Executive magazine, and the Almanac of American Politics. American Political Network publishes four daily, computer-delivered newsletters for Washington insiders, including Hotline, a briefing of political coverage from more than 100 newspapers and broadcast sources. Both companies currently reach the "inside the beltway" market of Washington political junkies and policy wonks. But National Journal spokesman Steve Hull told Newsbytes that the companies see PoliticsUSA as a way to reach a new audience of activists and break out of the Washington insider niche. Content on PoliticsUSA will include news from National Journal and American Political Network, primary and general election results, daily forums, moderated discussion groups, databases on candidates and issues, a directory of other Internet political sites, and a daily "voters booth" so users can register opinions on issues of the day. Other features on the service will include daily interviews with office holders, candidates and other politicos, a virtual classroom for high school civics and college political science classes, and an online marketplace for books and magazines and political memorabilia. "Our primary focus will not be making our publications available," said Hull, "It will be interactivity, bringing our subscribers into the act." The launch is a serious effort. According to Hull, the two companies are spending "several million dollars" to start and run the service. They are hiring a staff of 20, including 14 editorial types, Hull said. One person will do nothing but surf the Internet looking for other political sites. According to National Journal, there are already some 1,400 political and government sites on the Internet and the number will double next year. "Today, it's time consuming and frustrating to find the information you're looking for -- if you can find it at all," says Sullivan. "PoliticsUSA will make order out of chaos." The developers of the service are talking with Digital Equipment Corp. to provide the Internet technology. They say the Web home page should be ready for access in August. (Kennedy Maize/19950511/Press Contacts: Steve Hull, National Journal, 202-739-8475; Karl Eisenhower, American Political Network, 703-518-4600) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 05/11/95 BUSINESS ****H&R Block To Sell MECA Software Unit (NEWS)(BUSINESS)(MSP)(00021) ****H&R Block To Sell MECA Software Unit 05/11/95 KANSAS CITY, MISSOURI, U.S.A., 1995 MAY 11 (NB) -- H&R Block Inc. (NASDAQ:HRB) said it is selling its MECA Software Inc. unit for $35 million. The buyer is a limited liability company formed by Bank of America (NASDAQ:BAC) and NationsBank NA (Carolinas) (NASDAQ:NB). MECA publishes financial help packages like Managing Your Money, and Andrew Tobias' TaxCut tax preparation software. William Anderson, Block senior vice president and chief financial officer, told Newsbytes. Anderson said that, when Block purchased MECA two years ago, the company was interested in the TaxCut software because, in his words, "H&R Block is synonymous with tax preparation." Also, he said Block was eyeing the personal financial software market, to enhance the company's position in the home banking market. "But when we looked at the Managing Your Money program, it was intriguing because it offered synergies with CompuServe in the online financial area." Later, Anderson concluded H&R Block didn't have a lot of interest in being a "custom software provider." So he decided to sell it to the Bank of America/NationsBank group. Anderson said he sees this as being a "win-win" situation, because it lets Block focus on the tax preparation software, while the bank group gets a company making financial software. Officials from Bank of America and NationsBank said MECA will continue its strategy of marketing through banks and retailers. Also, the group wants to bring in other banks to the new fold. Both banks said several other institutions have already made preliminary inquiries about potential ownership in MECA. The MECA management will continue to run the company from its headquarters in Fairfield, Connecticut. The company employs a little more than one hundred people. The purchase is expected to be completed in 60 to 90 days, and is subject to regulatory approval. Newsbytes reported in 1993 that Block paid a total of $32.2 million for MECA. Chipsoft Inc. had made a run to buy MECA, but withdrew its offer because of anti-trust concerns. (Bob Woods/19950511/Press Contact: H&R Block, 816-753-6900) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 05/11/95 TELECOM Cost Allocation Central To CRTC Telecom Hearings (NEWS)(TELECOM)(TOR)(00022) Cost Allocation Central To CRTC Telecom Hearings 05/11/95 HULL, QUEBEC, CANADA, 1995 MAY 11 (NB) -- As the Canadian Radio- television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) began public hearings this week on several aspects of last September's telephone regulatory framework decision, the most contentious issue appeared to be the way the established regional telephone companies allocate costs between monopoly local services and competitive long-distance service. A key point in last September's ruling was the decision to split the rate bases of the regional telephone companies into two parts. Earnings from the competitive long-distance business would no longer be regulated, while local service would continue to be regulated on a rate-of-return basis in the short term, moving later to price caps set by the CRTC. Toronto-based Unitel Communications Inc., the largest of the companies offering long-distance service in competition with members of the Stentor phone-company consortium, will argue during the hearings that Stentor is allocating too large a portion of its costs to monopoly local services so that it can set its prices for long distance unrealistically low. "They have a huge incentive to put as much cost as possible on the local side," said Janet Yale, Unitel's senior vice-president regulatory, government, and law. Yale told Newsbytes that long-distance carriers in the United States report costs 40 to 50 percent higher than those claimed by the Stentor companies in Canada. However, Stentor has submitted to the CRTC evidence, including a report by consulting firm Arthur Andersen, claiming to show that once differences between the United States and Canada are accounted for, there is only a small gap between US and Canadian costs. That remaining gap is accounted for mainly by higher costs in areas such as marketing and customer service, Andersen's report said. Spokeswoman Marg Eades of Bell Canada, the largest of the Stentor companies, said Bell and the other Stentor members have corrected the figures cited by Unitel for various factors. Among these, according to documents prepared by Stentor, are Canada's larger local-calling areas, the complications created by handoffs from regional Bell operating companies to inter-exchange carriers in the U.S., and differences in tax and accounting rules. Yale, however, said the adjustments Stentor made "are totally inappropriate," and noted that they are "kind of convenient in terms of the results they generate." A related issue is the contributions long-distance carriers must make to help subsidize the cost of local service. Unitel maintains the contribution rates set by the CRTC are too high and are a major factor in the company's continuing financial losses. Stentor contends the contributions are too low, and in fact are "a significant competitive advantage for Stentor's competitors." In contrast to the acrimony over cost allocation, Stentor and Unitel agree on another issue. Both their submissions to the CRTC support an early move from the present rate-of-return regulation of local service to a price-cap system. This would mean that instead of being entitled to make a certain level of profit -- meaning they could raise prices if their costs went up -- providers of local phone service would have to stay within maximum rates set by the CRTC. Unitel wants price caps to discourage the Stentor companies from loading costs onto local service. "We think it's really important to set up a regulatory environment where cost increases don't mean rate increases," Yale said. Unitel is urging that price caps be brought in as soon as possible. Stentor would not object to that, Eades told Newsbytes, as long as the regulators recognize that local rates will need to rise over the next couple of years to bring them into line with actual costs. The hearings began May 8 and are expected to continue for several weeks. (Grant Buckler/19950511/Press Contact: Marg Eades, Bell Canada, tel 613-781-2456, fax 613-781-4918; Carleen Carroll, Unitel, 416-345-2114) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 05/11/95 GENERAL Multi-Platform Watcom SQL On The Way (NEWS)(GENERAL)(TOR)(00023) Multi-Platform Watcom SQL On The Way 05/11/95 WATERLOO, ONTARIO, CANADA, 1995 MAY 11 (NB) -- Watcom International Corp. has announced that it will shortly ship a multi-platform version of Watcom SQL (structured query language), its database server software. Due to be available within 30 days, the new release will combine support for Microsoft's Windows 3.1 and Windows NT, IBM's OS/2, and Novell Inc.'s NetWare in one package. The company plans to add support for Microsoft Windows 95 when the new operating system ships later this year, officials said. Watcom has previously supported all four platforms to be included in the new multi-platform edition, but only in separate editions of Watcom SQL, explained Karen Ali, a spokeswoman for the company. By putting support for all four of them -- and later for Windows 95 -- in one package, the company is hoping to address an emerging market among companies that want to deploy the software across many offices running different operating environments, she told Newsbytes. Watcom will be shipping multi-platform editions of the Watcom SQL 4.0 stand-alone software and of Watcom SQL Server 4.0 for workgroup use. The current suggested retail price for the single-user package is US$295, and customers can also buy 20 copies at a time for US$3,000. Watcom SQL Server is US$795 for a six-user package, US$1,595 for a 16-user version, US$2,995 for a 32-user package, and US$4,995 for a version that allows unlimited users. According to the vendor, Watcom SQL is suitable for desktop, workgroup, and mobile use. The SQL engine occupies less than one megabyte of memory, plus 2K per connection, and the software's query optimizer is self-tuning so that expert measurement and tuning is not needed, officials said. Watcom is a subsidiary of Powersoft Corp. and Sybase, Inc. (Grant Buckler/19950511/Press Contact: Karen Ali or Terry Stepien, Watcom International, 519-886-3700) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 05/11/95 NETWORK UK - Wireless PCMCIA LAN Adapter Intro'd (NEWS)(NETWORK)(LON)(00024) UK - Wireless PCMCIA LAN Adapter Intro'd 05/11/95 GUILDFORD, SURREY, ENGLAND, 1995 MAY 11 (NB) -- Distributed Information Processing (DIP) has unveiled a wireless PCMCIA (Personal Computer Memory Card International Association) local area network (LAN) adapter. According to Oliver Tucker, a spokesman for DIP, the card allows mobile PC users to share the resources of a suitably enabled network without the need for a pre-wired access point. The card is manufactured for DIP by IBM Microelectronics, and uses diffuse infra-red light -- similar to the system used in TV and VCR remote controls -- to connect at one megabits-per-second (Mbps) at distances of up to 30 feet away from networks with devices that support the Open Data Link Interface (ODI) protocol. The card itself, which sells for UKP299, is PCMCIA Type II-compatible and can be used on a non-line-of-sight basis, as the diffuse nature of the infra red beam used means the signal can bounce off walls, floors and ceilings. "The card will be sold through our dealer channels as well as supplied on an OEM (original equipment manufacturer) basis to other companies," Tucker told Newsbytes, adding that the actual price of the card may vary depending on the number of cards being supplied In use, the card runs at 200 milliwatts (mw) in standby mode, 650 mw receive, and 1,200 mw transmit. The card is billed as compatible with Card and Socket Services v2.0 or 2.1, and several cards can share a single transceiver link the host network. Access to wired networks is carried out using the IPX (Internetwork Packet Exchange) routing function which comes with Novell NetWare 3.11. The Novell server requires an Ethernet or Token Ring adapter and an appropriate infra-red wireless adapter. (Steve Gold/19950511/Press Contact: Vector Communications, +44-1442-877167; Reader Contact: DIP Systems, +44-1483-301555) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 05/11/95 PC UK - Change Management Software Debuts (NEWS)(PC)(LON)(00025) UK - Change Management Software Debuts 05/11/95 MAIDENHEAD, BERKSHIRE, ENGLAND, 1995 MAY 11 (NB) -- Utopia Technology Partners has announced Change Manager, a software package designed to manage changes in organizations. According to Sarah Donnelly, a spokeswoman for the company, the package is intended for use by managers who want to track and control resources within an organization during periods of great change. "Pricing is based on the number of users who want to use the package at the same time. Each concurrent user license costs UKP995," she told Newsbytes, adding that the software is unique in the marketplace. According to Utopia, the package is the first client/server-based software that is capable of handling multiple concurrent change management processes within any corporate environment. In use, the package provides a decision-management tracking process within any corporate environment, the company claims. According to Donnelly, Change Manager is the "ideal package" to use in an organization that is undergoing a high degree of change, such as a reorganization, a relocation, or consolidation of offices or resources. "The package interfaces with other software and allows decision management tracking and scheduling to take place, so that the person using the package can manage the resources they have at their disposal," she explained. In use, the software offers an interface linked to a set of tables in a relational database such as SQL (structured query language) Server, Sybase or Oracle. The package is billed as allowing users to manage long term change requests that are often initiated by help desk management. The software generates its own fully graphical reporting. Donnelly told Newsbytes that Change Manager is several steps beyond an executive information system (EIS) package in that it has configurable templates of change requests -- templates of pre-defined change request standard tasks and timeframes can be created and saved for future requests. The package also links to existing help-desk request systems, as well automatically generating central Gantt Charts for scheduling tasks, approvals, reviews milestones, deadlines and the like. The software also has online links to electronic mail and security access procedures. (Steve Gold/19950511/Press Contact: ITPR, +44-181-944-6688; Reader Contact: Utopia, tel +44-1628-20001, fax +44-1628-20002) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 05/11/95 ONLINE UK - Pipex's National Internet Local Calling Net (NEWS)(ONLINE)(LON)(00026) UK - Pipex's National Internet Local Calling Net 05/11/95 CAMBRIDGE, ENGLAND, 1995 MAY 11 (NB) -- Pipex has signed a major deal with Mercury Communication, terms of which allow Pipex to offer virtual local call dial-up facilities for its Internet service across much of the UK. Virtual calls are where the dial-up ports are physically located in one place, while customers dialing a local number in another area automatically have their calls forwarded on the virtual network -- in this case Mercury's voice telecoms network -- to the physical nodes. By contracting with Mercury, Pipex has taken advantage of a bulk rate contract for switched calls through the Mercury network, despite the fact that the majority of calls will be made by subscribers on the British Telecom network. From a user's perspective, the virtual dial-up nodes to Pipex's Internet network behave as of there were physically located in the caller's local phone exchange, answering calls as normal. Tom Kermeen, Pipex's sales and marketing manager, told Newsbytes that the virtual point-of-presence (POP) network will go live early next month and cover more than 80 percent of the UK with 28,800 bits-per- second (bps) modem access. "This is the first stage in a major rollout across the UK," he explained, adding that other cities will be served in the second and subsequent phases, as more network nodes become available. The virtual network, he explained, will operate on a dynamic basis, with all network calls routed to a small number of sites in the UK, each of which will have a large number of dial-up ports into the Pipex network. If a center's ports are engaged, the virtual network will pass such calls on to free ports at the next relevant center. All of this, he said, will be transparent as far as the user is concerned, who will dial a local phone number. The move to virtual POPs mean that Pipex Dial subscribers will be able to connect from any one of 170 trunk code centers around the UK. Kermeen told Newsbytes that this will mean that users of the Internet accessing via Pipex should not normally hear a busy tone, as is the norm with many UK Internet services. "It's clear where providers of dial-up Internet have gone wrong," he said, adding that too much attention has been given to getting as many users online at once, without much thought being given to how to support those users. "Users are sick and tired of busy tones -- what people want is their electronic-mail, not excuses or delays," he said, adding that no extra charges will be made for the virtual POP network. Full details of the virtual POP network will be available shortly on Pipex's World Wide Web ages on http://worldserver.pipex.com. (Steve Gold/19950511/Press Contact: GBC +44-181-332-7022; Internet e-mail mandy@gbc.co.uk; Reader Contact: Pipex, tel +44-1223- 250120, fax +44-1223-250121, Internet e-mail pipex@pipex.net) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 05/11/95 ONLINE Multilingual PC Directory Online (NEWS)(ONLINE)(TYO)(00027) Multilingual PC Directory Online 05/11/95 LONDON, ENGLAND, 1995 MAY 11 (NB) -- Anyone wanting details of computing in languages other than English on PCs or compatibles now has an electronic reference available online in the shape of the Multilingual PC Directory. The new edition is in hypertext form on the World Wide Web as well as in Windows Help file format for download. Both new versions are identical in content to the original book or "dead tree" format as author and publisher Ian Tresman calls the paper product. Tresman is a strong believer in electronic publishing as he explained to Newsbytes, "Electronic publishing will never replace books, but the time will come when you can carry around a small electronic tablet that's connected into the Web which in turn has access to the books and magazines from the libraries of the world." The directory aims to be a comprehensive catalogue of computer software available for people using languages other than English and the guide accomplishes that well with listings ranging from Windows support software for Tadzhik to word processors for Japanese. As Tresman explained, a lot of work goes into the reference to make it as complete as it is, "The book initially took about a year to put together," and it didn't finish there as he went on. "It now gets updated every couple of months which takes a couple of weekends to put together. Then there's a big edition update every year which takes about two weeks," he said. Not all the software listed is commercial; some freeware or shareware products are also included. Additional sections mirror those in the printed version, with subjects such as support for foreign languages on the Internet and CompuServe plus reference to international dialing codes and telex information. The electronic version of the Multilingual PC Directory is available: direct from the publisher. It is also available online from: CompuServe's Foreign Language Forum, FLEFO, library 0, mpcdir.zip; Delphi's Languages and Cultures Group; and on the Internet via anonymous FTP (File Transfer Protocol) at URL (uniform resource locator) ftp://vespucci.iquest.com/tatro-enterprises/insoft-l.arc/classifieds/ Users with access to the World Wide Web can access the online version at URL http://www.knowledge.co.uk/xxx/mpcdir/book.htm (Martyn Williams/19950511/Press and public contact: Ian Tresman, Knowledge Computing, tel +44-181-953-7722, fax +44-181-905-1879, Internet e-mail 72240.3447@compuserve.com) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 05/11/95 BUSINESS Netherlands - Tulip Opens Second PC Production Line (NEWS)(BUSINESS)(LON)(00028) Netherlands - Tulip Opens Second PC Production Line 05/11/95 ROSEMALEN, NETHERLANDS, 1995 MAY 11 (NB) -- Tulip Computers, the Dutch PC vendor, has announced it has contracted for the installation of a second production line in the Netherlands. The expansion project will cost the company around DG6 million (US$4 million), but should be operational within the next three months. Officials with the Dutch computing company claim that the production line will have an eventual capacity of around 250,000 circuit boards a year. The expansion was necessary, officials, said because of rising demand for Tulip's PCs, which are sold through dealers in several European markets, as well as via a series of OEM (original equipment manufacturer) deals. Full production on the second production line will not reach its peak until next year, Newsbytes understands, and Tulip is planning to invest an additional $16 million over the next few years to build a new office headquarters, as well as ramp up overall capacity to 300,000 circuit boards a year. When completed, the 180,000 square-foot complex will house a system board stuffing operation, assembly and test, Tulip's head office, research and development department, and European logistical center. The formal announcement of the second site will come as a welcome relief for PC industry watchers in the Netherlands, Newsbytes notes. The last few months have seen the Dutch information technology (IT) press reporting that Tulip was considering a favorable offer to create a second production facility in Ireland, a country which has excellent tax breaks and an IT-savvy workforce. The investment in the second production line comes in the wake of Tulip's figures for the year to 31 December, 1994, which showed net profits of $4.5 million -- up 44 percent on 1993 -- on a turnover of $287.7 million -- up 21.9 percent on 1993. As reported previously by Newsbytes, Tulip has opened a sales and distribution office in Hong Kong, covering the Asian region. The company is now reported to be considering a site in the Far East, and is also mulling a move into the US market. Also on the horizon for the end of this year are offices in Bombay, Peking and Shanghai. (Sylvia Dennis/19950112/Press & Public Contact: Tulip Computers, 44-1293-562323) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 05/11/95 TELECOM UK - Mercury Closes 1 Of 2 National Support Centers (NEWS)(TELECOM)(LON)(00029) UK - Mercury Closes 1 Of 2 National Support Centers 05/11/95 BIRMINGHAM, ENGLAND, 1995 MAY 11 (NB) -- Mercury Communications has quietly announced to its staff at its Birmingham support headquarters that the operation is to close with the loss of around 230 jobs, Newsbytes has learned. Staff at the Charters office in Birmingham will be offered positions at the company's Manchester support office, which Newsbytes notes was opened just a few years ago. The Birmingham office was opened in the mid-1980s as the main support operation when Mercury first offered its telecoms services to the public. The Manchester customer support center is a purpose-built operation that was designed in the late 1980s when Mercury's growth was meteoric. Today, the staffing levels are at the 600 mark, but Mercury officials claim that the site has accommodation for around 1,000, and that the Birmingham staff can easily be sited there. According to Mercury, the closure of the Charters center forms part of the company's plan to shave around 2,000 staff from the company payroll, a plan that was announced earlier this year as Mercury announced it was cutting costs in a bid to stay competitive in a cut-throat marketplace. However, Grace Mitchell, Mercury's National Communications Union (NCU) officer, has criticized the closure, claiming that Mercury did not ask for volunteers, something that is normal in such situations. According to the NCU, the Charters center closure would mean that around 800 staff in total have lost their Mercury jobs since the beginning of the year. Earlier this year a significant number of Mercury operators lost their jobs as part of the first stage of the rationalization. Mercury officials are playing down suggestions that the closure of the Birmingham customer support center is a major event. The company has pointed out to journalists that the staffing reductions will be phased over several months, with those staff wanting to move being offered positions at the Manchester center, and those wanting to leave the company being given assistance in looking for jobs. The official reason for the closure/relocation is that costs are less in Manchester, where one site can service the company's UK support needs. (Sylvia Dennis & Steve Gold/19950511/Press Contact: Mercury Communications, +44-181-528-2447) (SUMMARY)(GENERAL)(SFO)(00030) Newsbytes Daily Summary 05/11/95 PENN VALLEY, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1995 MAY 11 (NB) -- These are capsules of all today's news stories: 1 -> Sweden's Ericsson In Philippines Telecom Deal 05/11/95 Ericsson has signed a contract for wireline (hard wired) communications with the Philippines Long Distance Telephone Company (PLDT). 2 -> FastCAD Europe Intros EasyCAD 4.0 For Windows 05/11/95 FastCAD Europe has announced the availability of EasyCAD 4.0 for Windows, a UKP125 package aimed as what Julie Turner, FastCAD's marketing manager, describes as "occasional users of computer-aided design (CAD)." 3 -> UK - PhoneLink Ties In With WorldSpan Services 05/11/95 PhoneLink, the provider of the Tel-Me online information service, has announced a deal with WorldSpan Services, the online travel service. 4 -> Novell's Collabra Share 2.0 For Groupwise 05/11/95 Novell Inc. (NASDAQ:NOVL) has announced version 2.0 of Collabra Share for Groupwise, saying the software lets users create replicated electronic discussion forums in which they can integrate, manage and act on information better and cheaper than by using Lotus Notes. 5 -> Remote Symplex Router Offers High-Speed Connection 05/11/95 Symplex Communications is introducing a remote access internetworking product that the company claims delivers twice the performance of a leased-line router at nearly half the cost. Called "DirectRoute RO-1," the device is specifically designed for smaller offices and remote sites. 6 -> Govt Uses E-Mail More Than Industry - Study 05/11/95 When it comes to the Internet, the conventional thinking is that the worldwide network of computers is moving away from governmental use and toward the commercial sector. But a new poll by Control Data Systems says just the contrary - at least when it comes to electronic-mail usage. 7 -> ****MCI & News Corp. Combine In $2 Billion Venture 05/11/95 In what some are calling the biggest announcement since the TCI/Atlantic Bell merger fell through, MCI Communications Corporation (NASDAQ-NMM:MCIC) and The News Corporation Limited (NYSE:NWS) have announced they are joining forces to form a new interactive partnership one official called a "powerful, global alliance." MCI will also sink $2 billion into News Corp., officials said. 8 -> Nintendo Sets Virtual Boy Launch Date 05/11/95 Nintendo of America Inc. announced at this week's Electronics Entertainment Expo in Los Angeles it will ship its first three-dimensional (3-D) 32-bit video game system developed and produced for the mass market on August 14. 9 -> Paradigm Previews Nintendo 3-D Development Tool 05/11/95 Paradigm Simulation Inc. previewed its Vega UltraVision three-dimensional (3-D) game development software at the Electronics Entertainment Expo being held in Los Angeles this week. 10 -> America's Cup Web Site Reaches 10 Million Hits 05/11/95 The America's Cup Online service on the Internet's World Wide Web surpassed the 10 million hit mark the last week of April. 11 -> "CNN Learning" CD-ROM Brand Established 05/11/95 CNN Interactive, the multimedia production and online news distribution division of CNN, and Olivetti StarPress Europe, a joint venture between Olivetti Telemedia and StarPress Multimedia, have signed an exclusive worldwide CD-ROM publishing deal to establish the "CNN Learning" brand. 12 -> NTT Partners PictureTel In Japanese Video Phone Deal 05/11/95 Japan's Nippon Telegraph and Telephone (NTT) and America's PictureTel Corporation (NASDAQ:PCTL) have announced a deal that will result in the launch of a new videoconferencing system in Japan. 13 -> Electronic Embassy Project To Bring Diplomacy Online 05/11/95 A unique project in Washington DC is aiming to bring the city's foreign embassies onto the Internet as the basis for a "comprehensive resource of foreign government information." 14 -> ****Microsoft Previews Online Service/Browser 05/11/95 Microsoft has (NASDAQ:MSFT) announced content providers for its upcoming Microsoft Network (MSN) online service, and unveiled a version of its World Wide Web browser at the Electronics Entertainment Expo (E3). 15 -> China - Electronics Faces Profit Squeeze In Beijing 05/11/95 With the declining profit margins of electronics and computer businesses, non-electronics stores are edging back into Beijing's Zhongguancun area. The busiest area, called "Electronics Street," is no longer home to just electronics stores. 16 -> Worlds Inc. In Starbright Pact, Plans Web "Worlds Fair" 05/11/95 Worlds Inc. is providing a free download of its interactive chat environment, planning new "Internet Worlds Fair" and anatomy CD-ROMs, and participating in a Starbright-sponsored broadband network for seriously ill children, said Rob Schmults, sales and marketing manager, in a conference call with Newsbytes. 17 -> DEC Discloses Rate Flow Patent To ATM Forum 05/11/95 Digital Equipment Corp. has told the ATM (asynchronous transfer mode) Forum that it has been granted a patent related to congestion avoidance which applies to the forum's proposed Rate Flow Control Specification, said Diana Larea, high performance networks marketing manager, in an interview with Newsbytes. 18 -> Nintendo Intros "Killer Instinct" For Super NES 05/11/95 Nintendo of America Inc. has announced it will release a Super Nintendo Entertainment System (Super NES) version of the arcade game "Killer Instinct" this fall. 19 -> Patent Case Could Net Texas Instruments $150 Mil 05/11/95 A federal district court jury has ruled that three California-based companies willfully infringed two Texas Instruments Inc. (NYSE: TXN) patents and has awarded more than $50 million in damages. Because the jury decided the infringement was willful, the judge could triple that amount and order the defendants to pay TI's attorney's fees. 20 -> Publishers To Launch Politics Web Site 05/11/95 Two Washington political publishers are joining forces to create a service covering politics and government on the World Wide Web. 21 -> ****H&R Block To Sell MECA Software Unit 05/11/95 H&R Block Inc. (NASDAQ:HRB) said it is selling its MECA Software Inc. unit for $35 million. The buyer is a limited liability company formed by Bank of America (NASDAQ:BAC) and NationsBank NA (Carolinas) (NASDAQ:NB). 22 -> Cost Allocation Central To CRTC Telecom Hearings 05/11/95 As the Canadian Radio- television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) began public hearings this week on several aspects of last September's telephone regulatory framework decision, the most contentious issue appeared to be the way the established regional telephone companies allocate costs between monopoly local services and competitive long-distance service. 23 -> Multi-Platform Watcom SQL On The Way 05/11/95 Watcom International Corp. has announced that it will shortly ship a multi-platform version of Watcom SQL (structured query language), its database server software. Due to be available within 30 days, the new release will combine support for Microsoft's Windows 3.1 and Windows NT, IBM's OS/2, and Novell Inc.'s NetWare in one package. 24 -> UK - Wireless PCMCIA LAN Adapter Intro'd 05/11/95 Distributed Information Processing (DIP) has unveiled a wireless PCMCIA (Personal Computer Memory Card International Association) local area network (LAN) adapter. 25 -> UK - Change Management Software Debuts 05/11/95 Utopia Technology Partners has announced Change Manager, a software package designed to manage changes in organizations. 26 -> UK - Pipex's National Internet Local Calling Net 05/11/95 Pipex has signed a major deal with Mercury Communication, terms of which allow Pipex to offer virtual local call dial-up facilities for its Internet service across much of the UK. 27 -> Multilingual PC Directory Online 05/11/95 Anyone wanting details of computing in languages other than English on PCs or compatibles now has an electronic reference available online in the shape of the Multilingual PC Directory. 28 -> Netherlands - Tulip Opens Second PC Production Line 05/11/95 Tulip Computers, the Dutch PC vendor, has announced it has contracted for the installation of a second production line in the Netherlands. The expansion project will cost the company around DG6 million (US$4 million), but should be operational within the next three months. 29 -> UK - Mercury Closes 1 Of 2 National Support Centers 05/11/95 Mercury Communications has quietly announced to its staff at its Birmingham support headquarters that the operation is to close with the loss of around 230 jobs, Newsbytes has learned. (Ian Stokell/19950511) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 05/10/95 BUSINESS Nokia To Build Cellular Basestation Plant In US (NEWS)(BUSINESS)(LON)(00001) Nokia To Build Cellular Basestation Plant In US 05/10/95 LONDON, ENGLAND, 1995 MAY 10 (NB) -- Nokia Telecommunications has put on ice plans for a new European manufacturing plant following a decision to build a GSM (global system for mobile communications) digital cellular basestation factory in the US. The proposed US plant, to be announced within weeks, will develop and manufacture GSM-based PCS1900 systems for the emerging North American market. The company will also reportedly supply GSM basestations to Europe and Asia from the US plant. As a result, the company has put off any decision to build a third Europe factory. The Finnish telecommunications supplier is already expanding its two existing Europe GSM basestation plants in Finland and the UK. It has been considering a number of sites including Scotland, Ireland, and Italy for a third basestation factory, but no decision has as yet been made. The US decision was part of the company's global expansion. (Terry Silveria/19950508) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 05/10/95 ONLINE Corel Gets New Web Site (NEWS)(ONLINE)(MSP)(00002) Corel Gets New Web Site 05/10/95 OTTAWA, ONTARIO, CANADA, 1995 MAY 10 (NB) -- Corel Corp., which has long had an online presence on CompuServe, now has a dedicated World Wide Web site, owned and operated by Kazak Communications of Toronto (Canada), publishers of the CorelDraw Journal. Still under development, Corel's own area on the new CorelNet server will include general information and background on the company, financial data, career opportunities, and a special area for third-party developers, strategic partners, and members of the Corel Club. Specific product information, an Artist in Residence area, and general discussion areas are also being set up. An update to Corel's CD-ROM Creator CD authoring package, announced this week, is among several items already available in the company's own area at the CorelNet site. While Corel's own area is expected to be the largest on CorelNet, the open nature of the site is expected to attract a large number of third-party participants such as Corel-related publications, training firms, service bureaus and user groups. Kazak Communications will provide a full support for such participants, including the design, creation, hosting and maintenance of Web pages, mailing lists, and interactive forms. Although still under construction, CorelNet can be accessed now at http://www.corelnet.com. (Glenn Lisle/19950510/Press contact: Fiona Rochester, Internet e-mail 0005008861@mcimail.com; CorelNet Internet World Wide Web http://www.corelnet.com; Kazak Communications, Chris Dickman, 416-924-0759, Internet e-mail kazak@hookup.net) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 05/10/95 GOVT Commerce Dept OKs Export Of Software With Encryption (NEWS)(GOVT)(WAS)(00003) Commerce Dept OKs Export Of Software With Encryption 05/10/95 WASHINGTON, D.C., U.S.A., 1995 MAY 10 (NB) -- The Commerce Department has approved export of a software product that contains strong encryption, the first time the government has permitted export of a technology that it considers equivalent to military goods to be kept out of the hands of enemies and terrorists. The software is Cybercash, which is designed for secure commerce over the Internet. The product allows shoppers to buy goods and services with credit cards or cash, with "complete assurance" that the transaction will not compromise their credit card or bank accounts. Cybercash Inc. of Reston, Va., has developed the product. Magdalena Yesil, vice president of the company, told Newsbytes that the product uses standard industry encryption algorithms, such as those available from RSA, for the product. Yesil said the approval by the Commerce Department, "is not a change of policy," because the encryption technology is used in only a small portion of the software, the piece of the message that includes credit card numbers. The rest of the message is uncoded. Cybercash expects its technology to be used by vendors on the Internet, where security is a problem. Cybercash needed an export license so that its product could be used worldwide. According to Yesil, Internet users from around the world will be able to download the Cybercash software beginning Friday from the company's World Wide Web site at http://www.cybercash.com. In a related development, Cybercash has announced it is working with First of Omaha Merchant Processing, a division of First National Bank of Omaha, for secure payment services for merchants using the Internet. First of Omaha is the nation's second largest in-house bank processor. Cybercash's simple, complete and secure product provides not only encryption, but necessary processing functionality as well," says Eric Turille, president of First of Omaha Merchant Processing. "Together, we can ensure safe payment transaction on the Internet and empower merchants to grow their businesses online more than ever before." So far, Cybercash's software supports only credit card transactions. But Yesil told Newsbytes that an electronic cash technology is coming that will "enable virtually any business person on the Internet to sell information, goods or services on-line." (Kennedy Maize/19950510/Press Contacts: Magdalena Yesil, Cybercash, 415-413-0110; Eric Turille, First of Omaha, 402-633-1801) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 05/10/95 ONLINE Blue Cross Rolls Out "Health" Web Page, Kiosks (NEWS)(ONLINE)(BOS)(00004) Blue Cross Rolls Out "Health" Web Page, Kiosks 05/10/95 BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS, U.S.A., 1995 MAY 10 (NB) -- At a press conference in Boston, Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Massachusetts (BCBSMA) unveiled the Health Navigator health and fitness kiosk system, along with a Web home page that "repurposes" some of the kiosk content while adding content of its own. BCBSMA's Web page went up this week, and the new Health Navigator kiosks, now in beta, are slated for initial deployment in June at both BCBSMA and customer account sites, BCBSMA officials said at the press event, which was attended by Newsbytes. After welcoming remarks by William Van Faasen, president and chief executive officer (CEO) of BCBSMA, Russell J. Ricci, M.D., president of BCBSMA's New Health Ventures Division, told the press that the new home page and kiosks add a "third infrastructure" to two computer systems that already link together BCBSMA's 350 accounts and 6,000 physicians, respectively. Multimedia Resources, Inc. designed the new home page and kiosk system, with the use of multimedia development tools from Aimtech, said Mary Reis-Mikelk, manager of BCBSMA's Consumer Technology Group. Some portions of the Web home page employ Adobe Acrobat as well. E. Loren Buhle, Jr., Ph.D., an information consultant, created a special area on the home page that organizes and offers hyperlinks to related health and fitness information stored on servers elsewhere on the Net. Buhle's section is aimed at preventing the need to "surf" the Net "hither and thither" to find desired facts, Reis-Mikelk explained. The Web server is being provided and maintained by BBN Planet. In a group demo, Reis-Mikelk showed the three main sections of the home page: For Your Health, featuring preventative care timelines and information on seasonal health issues; What's New, offering updates on health-related news and events; and The Health Services Company, with facts on BCBSMA services. Reis-Mikelk also demonstrated the nine sections of the Health Navigator kiosk. Unlike the Web page, Health Navigator contains video clips, she noted. Users can adjust audio volume and communicate the need to ask questions through a set of touch controls on the bottom of the screen. The Health Library, another section, contains articles on exercise and nutrition, disease and illnesses, and lifestyle and family issues culled from BCBSMA's Living Healthy magazine, plus articles from US Pharmacopeial on prescription and over-the-counter medicines. Primary Care Physician (PCP) Directories allows users to search and browse BCBSMA's database of physicians, using regional and statewide maps, reported the BCBSMA exec. The About Managed Care section answers questions like, "How do you choose a PCP?" BCBSMA, she elaborated, decided to combine animation and sound in this section after concluding that the use of these two media together would reinforce one another for greater retention. Also offered are a pair of risk assessment surveys that can be automatically scored, and the results printed out. The surveys deal with stress and cardiovascular risk. Health Care Navigator also includes: Health Plan Options, for information on BCBSMA health plans; Special Programs, which outlines special programs like BCBSMA's Caring Program for Children; and More About Blue Cross and Blue Shield, using full-motion video to highlight features that set BCBSMA apart from other health care providers. Speak with a Customer Service Representative, another section, lets the user connect to a customer service rep for additional information or assistance through a telephone handset. During a period of one-on-one demos and interviews at the close of the press conference, Charles Levenson, creative director at Multimedia Resources, gave Newsbytes a first-hand look at the area of the home page produced by Buhle. The area is organized into main topics like "children and teens" and "exercise," and is then further broken down into smaller categories. "Exercise," for example, contains material on "walking" and "running," among many other areas, brought together from multiple servers on the Web. Levenson told Newsbytes that BCBSMA's new Web home page is written in hypertext markup language (HTML). The home page is "optimized" for Mosaic, but text and graphics can be accessed with any Web browser, and text only with a text browser. "There's nice symmetry between the Web page and the (Health Navigator) kiosk," maintained Jeff Dowell, Multimedia Resources' VP of sales and general manager. Buhle told Newsbytes that he now receives about 600 electronic-mail messages a day, mostly asking for assistance in compiling Web content about various health-related topics. Buhle's original service of this kind, aimed at cancer patients and entitled "OncoLink," is also part of the BCBSMA's home page. David L. Conti, director of marketing communications for Aimtech, said that Aimtech's development tools have been adding kiosk support for the past two years. The new capabilities include the ability to preload graphics, along with "extensive" links to computer systems and databases, he observed. Andy Huffman, president of Aimtech, revealed that Aimtech is now working to develop upcoming features that would let BCBSMA and other customers display Web pages on kiosks. George Mey, director of consumer affairs for BCBSMA's New Health Ventures, informed Newsbytes that, also for the future, BCBSMA is considering deploying kiosks at some sites, such as shopping malls, during quarterly enrollment periods only. Ricci added that BCBSMA's plans call for initial deployment of four kiosks in June, and another 25 in June or July. BCBSMA will encourage customization of the kiosks, allowing individual customers to "turn off any features they don't want," as well as to add their own material to the kiosks, said the president of BCBSMA's New Health Ventures Division. (Jacqueline Emigh/19950510/Reader Contacts: Blue Cross/Blue Shield of Massachusetts, 617-832-5000; Multimedia Resources Inc., 503-241-9315; Aimtech, 603-883-0220; BBN Planet, 617-873-2000; E. Loren Buhle, 610-622-4293; Press Contacts: Ethel Shepard, BCBSMA, 617-832-4826; Elli Holman, Clarke & Company for BCBSMA, 617-536-3003) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 05/10/95 ONLINE ****AOL Web Browser Previews Online (NEWS)(ONLINE)(SFO)(00005) ****AOL Web Browser Previews Online 05/10/95 VIENNA, VIRGINIA, U.S.A., 1995 MAY 10 (NB) -- Described by America Online (NASDAQ:AMER) as a preview, its long awaited World Wide Web (Web) browser is now available to members accessing the service using Microsoft Windows. The browser features "triple-speed technology" and "tight integration" to existing AOL features, according to the company. Both CompuServe and Prodigy have Web browsers as part of their online offerings. Responding to the additional time required for AOL to present its members with a browser, Steve Case, president and chief executive officer at AOL, said, "Rather than simply providing a connection to the Web, we've taken the extra effort to make the Web more useful and suitable for our members." That extra effort involved listening to the complaints of users browsing the Web through a number of different providers. He also said an integrated, faster Web browser is important to attract and keep the attention of a wide audience of users. AOL says its new browser addresses two important Web issues. The first is the amount of time users spend downloading Web sites and hyperlinked information. According to the company, many new users to the Web are disappointed with the delays caused by loading graphics and photos. The new browser incorporates high-speed compression technology with TurboWebSM, an exclusive technology which AOL says may reduce the time to download a site by as much as three times. The second issue is the integration of other online features. Rather than simply being in the Web, users of the new browser will be able to receive electronic-mail and instant messages, as well as open other areas of the service while using the browser. Case said the integration of the browser makes it feel more like part of the rest of AOL's online features. Margaret Ryan, spokesperson for AOL, told Newsbytes, "There are three distinct differences which distinguish our browser: it is easier to use; it is faster; and it offers automatic saving of any Web site. The integration is more than being able to chat or access other channels. Our browser is hyperlinked into the service and channels of the service hyperlink to the Web." For the time being, the browser is being displayed as a preview. To use the browser, members must download a beta version (2.5) of the AOL software. The company says the new version is very well tested and it expects very few difficulties. A small modem diagnostic file is also necessary and both are available online and free to all Windows-based subscribers. The new interface also includes a Favorite Places section in which users may create a customized menu of AOL and Internet areas. Favorite Places will take the user directly to a selected area. Specific dates for the final version of 2.5 and hourly rates were not provided. The company did say a Macintosh version of the browser is under development and is expected by the end of the month. (Patrick McKenna/19950510/Press Contact: Margaret Ryan, 703-556-3746) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 05/10/95 BROADCAST Power Alliance Formed For Interactive TV (NEWS)(BROADCAST)(SFO)(00006) Power Alliance Formed For Interactive TV 05/10/95 DALLAS, TEXAS, U.S.A., 1995 MAY 10 (NB) -- The Partners in Open Wideband Entertainment Resources (Power) Alliance was announced at the National Cable Television Association show. Designed to provide interactive television (ITV) information and assist international standards groups, the Power Alliance has eight founding members from ITV related areas, including hardware, software, and operating systems. Charter members of the Alliance are: Argonaut Technologies, a developer of three-dimensional (3-D) cross-platform software technology; C-Cube Systems, a developer of Motion Picture Experts Group (MPEG) encoding and decoding silicon; PowerTV, specializing in operating systems and ITV specific silicon; Scala, a developer of multimedia authoring and networking tools; Scientific-Atlanta, developer of set-top terminals and broadband networks; Software Development Systems, specializing in programming and debugging tools; Sybase, offering video server, authoring and deployment software and 3DLabs, developer of 3D-accelerator silicon. The Alliance will work with worldwide standards organizations such as ANSI/ISO and DAVIC (Digital Audio-Visual Council). The stated purpose of the Alliance is to "support open architecture initiatives related to interactive television." The consortium will also work to establish compatibility guidelines for members of the Alliance. These standards will be used to assist customers in the evaluation of "complete" ITV service, hardware and software based on Alliance member products. As reported previously by Newsbytes, analysts and experts generally agree this area of technology is in need of agreed standards on a worldwide basis. Digital video compression, digital audio compression and set-top box architecture are just three of the pressing areas in need of standardization. Jeana Toney, the acting chairwoman for Power Alliance and market development manager for PowerTV, said, "It's critical that the key players work together to provide information and perspective on the needs of the interactive TV market and our customers." Along with the establishment of standards, she also said the Alliance must make ITV information comprehensible and available to current and future customers. One of the first goals achieved by the Alliance is the development of a World Wide Web site. Planned for a July 15 debut, the new Web site will offer technical information, resources, and pointers to interesting ITV sites. Membership in the Power Alliance is open to interested companies in the industry. (Patrick McKenna/19950510/Press Contact: Jonathan Hirshon, Horizon Public Relations, 408-982-2555) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 05/10/95 TRENDS Electronic Entertainment Expo - Neo*Geo CD Game System (NEWS)(TRENDS)(SFO)(00007) Electronic Entertainment Expo - Neo*Geo CD Game System 05/10/95 LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1995 MAY 10 (NB) -- The Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3) opened to the press with a preview of some of the 1,300 products to be announced by hardware and software developers. Among the early announcements is the US introduction of the Neo*Geo CD system, a player designed to provide "full arcade-like" effects. SNK Corporation of America, a division of the Japanese SNK Corporation, says its new system will begin shipping in the US this fall and sell for under $500. It will face tough competition in the show as Sony unveils its new game player and Nintendo and Sega each put on their largest exhibition of the year. SNK is one of the world's largest software developers of arcade systems with revenues of more than $500 million. The competition matters little to Bruce Tomiyama, vice president of SNK America. Speaking to Newsbytes, he said, "We are not in the position to compete head-to-head with Sony and the other big players. But we are offering the finest game play that money can buy and we differ from those companies by offering a system which is optimized for game play as opposed to playing movies or other non-gaming applications." He continued, "The Neo*Geo CD games are exact duplications of the arcade games which SNK is famous for. No other system can replicate the arcade environment. What you play on a Neo*Geo CD is exactly what you would play in the arcade. While other companies stress technology, we stress the 'fun factor.' Regardless of how many effects you have, the real success to a game depends on how much fun it is and how addictive it is." In Japan, the new system sold more than 300,000 units in less than six months. Tomiyama said SNK uses "sprite" technology as opposed to "pixel" technology. Sprite technology treats characters and other moveable items as discrete objects that do not require the redrawing of the entire screen in order to change the character or object. Because it simplifies redrawing, the sprite technology frees system resources that would otherwise be used to redraw. The top-loading Neo*Geo player has eight megabytes (MB) of RAM, including 7MB DRAM, 512 kilobytes (KB) of VRAM and 64KB of SRAM. It features a dual-speed CD-ROM drive and will play with any NTSC (North American Television Standards Committee)- compatible television set. The player displays a full-screen picture with a maximum palette of 65,536 colors and stereophonic digital sound. More than 50 titles have been ported from the arcade platform. Individual CDs will sell from $39 to $79. In summary, Tomiyama said, "This is basically a system for the best of the hard-core gamers. They know the difference between true arcade adventure and attempts to dazzle with technology." (Patrick McKenna/19950510/Press Contact: Rolland Going, The Terpin Group, 310-821-6100) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 05/10/95 ONLINE Point Communications Opens Web Directory (NEWS)(ONLINE)(SFO)(00008) Point Communications Opens Web Directory 05/10/95 BROOKLINE, MASSACHUSETTS, U.S.A., 1995 MAY 10 (NB) -- Point Communications has opened Point Survey, its World Wide Web directory and site reviews resource. One of its regular features is a top-10 sites of the week section, along with reviews which will reportedly be added to at the rate of a thousand each month. Point's first Top 10 Web sites beginning with number one are: Virtual Shareware Library, PHOTONet, Popular Mechanics, Security APL Stock Quote Server, ArchNet, Letters From an Iowa Soldier in the Civil War, Apple Computer, Street Cents Online, Entertainment Weekly, and Classic Rock Photo Gallery. Their Web addresses (URL or Universal Resource Locator) may be found in the Point Survey Web site. Along with the rankings, Point also provides hyperlinks to each site. Recently chosen as Glen Davis' "Cool Site of the Day," Point Survey racked-up more than 140,000 hits in a day. Each hit represents one user entering the site. The Survey also offers categories to classify different sites. Users may search under Business/Finance, Arts/Entertainment, News/Info, Leisure Activities, Government, Science/Technology. Computers/Internet, Shopping, and Education. Chris Kitze, co-founder of Point Communications, told Newsbytes, "Access to the Web has finally become easy and simple. Now the problem is what to do once you get there and how do you avoid wasting your time with Web sites which are not worth the time to download. We created Point Survey as a starting point, a place you will come to when you log-in. Here you will be able to review sites, link to sites, and learn about the Net and the Web. We have developed a site which is fun for both the novice and the sophisticated user. We offer reliable information in a very entertaining environment." (Patrick McKenna/19950510/Press Contact: Rolland Going, The Terpin Group, 310-821-6100, Internet World Wide Web http://www.pointcom.com) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 05/10/95 CHIPS SGS Bids For Set-Top Box Chip Market (NEWS)(CHIPS)(LON)(00009) SGS Bids For Set-Top Box Chip Market 05/10/95 LONDON, ENGLAND, 1995 MAY 10 (NB) -- SGS-Thomson is making a bid for the potentially huge market for microprocessors to control set-top boxes, with the Chameleon microprocessor being designed by Inmos engineers in Bristol. The high-performance, low-power device is due to be completed within 18 months. Inmos declined to discuss the program's timetable or technical features of the microprocessor. However, sources maintain that the architecture and instruction set of the 64-bit CPU (central processing unit) are almost completely defined. The processor uses variable length instructions and is a dual-instruction-issue superscalar machine with separate data and instruction caches. There are 16 general purpose registers. Although the processor is said to have a passing resemblance to the Sun UltraSparc chip, the Chameleon is reportedly intended to out-perform that processor by two or three times. (Terry Silveria/19950510) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 05/10/95 CHIPS Fujitsu Plans Chip Plant In UK Or Oregon (NEWS)(CHIPS)(SFO)(00010) Fujitsu Plans Chip Plant In UK Or Oregon 05/10/95 TOKYO, JAPAN, 1995 MAY 10 (NB) -- Fujitsu has announced plans to invest between 80 billion yen and 100 billion yen in a new semiconductor manufacturing plant to be built in the US or the UK. The facility will either be located in Oregon or at Newton Aycliffe in England. The move by Fujitsu reflects a trend among Japanese manufacturers to shift production overseas in response to the high yen and the need to globalize operations to remain competitive. Fujitsu said no decision had yet been made on where to locate the new plant, to be built later this year, but Oregon is said to be the front-runner. However, Fujitsu has indicated that there is also money in the pipeline for expanding capacity in the UK. (Terry Silveria/19950510) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 05/10/95 GENERAL Mexico Newsbriefs (NEWS)(GENERAL)(SFO)(00011) Mexico Newsbriefs 05/10/95 MEXICO CITY, MEXICO, 1995 MAY 10 (NB) -- In top technology news from Mexico: Dell and Novell Work Together in Mexico, Software Piracy in Latin America, and Cisco network success. Dell and Novell Work Together in Mexico Dell Computer de Mexico and Novell de Mexico have announced a strategic alliance. The alliance is meant to provide users with greater added value when buying personal computers. Dell computers will be preinstalled with Novell software, such as PerfectOffice. The computers will be sold through Dell distribution channels. Software Piracy in Latin America Software piracy in Latin America accounts for nine percent of piracy worldwide. The estimated value of illegal software in Latin America is $1.3 billion. Nicaragua is believed to have the highest piracy rate in the region, 99%, and Venezuela the lowest with 69%. Cisco Network Success In 1994, Cisco had 62% market share for routers in Mexico, up from 48.2% in 1993. In spite of an estimated 30% fall in that market, the company expects to do well because of large contracts with companies like Telmex. Cisco is planning to aggressively enter Latin American markets with its principal distributor, Red Uno. Cisco says it will be the first provider of integrated networks to offer VLAN support through its router lines, LAN (local area network) switches and ATM (asynchronous transfer mode) switches. (Terry Silveria/19950510) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 05/10/95 BUSINESS Groupe Bull Privatization Takes Shape (NEWS)(BUSINESS)(LON)(00012) Groupe Bull Privatization Takes Shape 05/10/95 PARIS, FRANCE, 1995 MAY 10 (NB) -- Groupe Bull is taking shape in its newly privatized form with NEC and Motorola taking significant stakes. Motorola is taking an initial 10 percent share with the option of boosting it to 17 percent, while NEC is to increase its 10 percent share to 17 percent. France Telecom will maintain its 17 percent share. However, amidst this, Bull has suffered a marked drop in sales in the first quarter, 1995. Bull has said the figures are not representative of the trend in the group's sales and are largely due to the impact of the weak dollar and problems at Bull's plant in Angers. The fall is said to reflect the fragility of Bull's recovery. Meanwhile, lesser share options/stakes with other companies are currently being negotiated. The delicate balance of shareholders has been arrived at in an attempt to maintain French control yet bring in more Japanese and US expertise in a bid to help Bull grow internationally. (Terry Silveria/19950510) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 05/10/95 ONLINE Negroponte Attacks Censorship, Technology Critics (NEWS)(ONLINE)(TOR)(00013) Negroponte Attacks Censorship, Technology Critics 05/10/95 TORONTO, ONTARIO, CANADA, 1995 MAY 10 (NB) -- Trying to control the Internet is not only undesirable but futile, Nicholas Negroponte, founder and director of the Media Lab at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) argued in a speech that also contained a jarringly harsh attack on critics of technology. "People are getting concerned about what's out there and how do we control it," Negroponte said, "and the answer is we don't, not because we shouldn't -- I won't even get into that argument -- but because we can't." Negroponte referred to two recent prosecutions involving alleged obscenity on the Internet. One involved a California man who was convicted for posting material on a computer in California that was considered obscene in Tennessee. The material in question did not violate California law, Negroponte said, yet the man was found guilty under Tennessee law because a Tennessee resident downloaded the material via the Internet and complained to authorities. Negroponte compared the incident to one in which an Islamic cleric recently asked the United States government to extradite recording artists Madonna and Michael Jackson to Iran so they could be tried for violating Islamic law. The singers were not extradited. Negroponte also referred to the case of a University of Michigan student arrested recently for posting a sadistic fantasy about a fellow student in an Internet news group. Cases like this show how significant an impact the Internet will have on issues such as censorship and freedom of speech, Negroponte said. He maintained that governments simply cannot regulate the worldwide network. "Cyberspace doesn't have borders. It doesn't have a place, and therefore it is not subject to the laws of any country," he said. "They (governments) can make all the laws they want, but those bits don't care." After focusing on the power and potential of technology -- with the emphasis on the Internet -- Negroponte took a surprisingly nasty swipe at those who raise doubts about its effects. Claiming that he sees part of his role at the Media Lab as making sure that optimistic views about technology get a hearing, Negroponte said most critics of technology are unhappy people whose negative comments about new technology reflect dissatisfaction with their own personal lives. Negroponte spoke at a lunch sponsored by the Diners Club enRoute Speakers Forum. (Grant Buckler/19950510) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 05/10/95 TELECOM AT&T's Digital Services Volume Discount Plan (NEWS)(TELECOM)(MSP)(00014) AT&T's Digital Services Volume Discount Plan 05/10/95 BASKING RIDGE, NEW JERSEY, U.S.A., 1995 MAY 10 (NB) -- AT&T (NYSE:T) has announced it will begin offering volume discounts to subscribers of its Global Switched Digital Services (GSDS) advanced digital communication technology. As GSDS usage increases among its customers, AT&T said it will provide discounts of up to 15 percent based on gross monthly usage. The plan offers four levels of savings. At the bronze level, customers spending $50 to $500 a month will receive a discount of five percent. Customers spending $501 to $1,000 will save eight percent at the silver level. The gold level will offer a 12 percent discount for spending from $1,001 to $3,000, while the platinum level will provide savings of up to 15 percent on usage from $3,001 to $8,000. "We're seeing a lot more of our customers using the service," Patricia Allen, AT&T spokesperson, told Newsbytes. "As we see an increase, we wanted to make our prices more competitive so that customers will feel it is a good value for them. Of course, we want to keep our prices competitive and keep up the quality of our service." Allen said GSDS is essentially ISDN (integrated switched digital network), but with a difference. "Global Switched Digital is an on-demand service. Larger companies usually use a dedicated, private line, whereas customers that are smaller, and our middle-market customers, can use GSDS because it is on-demand and they only pay for it when they need it. A dedicated line is more expensive, because they pay for it whether they use it or not." GSDS supports services like video and personal computer conferencing, document and image distribution, telecommuting, and other multimedia services, company officials added. GSDS is available in 29 countries, including the recent additions of Korea, Israel, Luxembourg, and Austria. (Bob Woods/19950510/Press Contacts: Patricia Allen, 908-658-6676, or Karen Way, 908-221-6632, both of AT&T) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 05/10/95 TELECOM Digiphone Launch On Schedule Despite Test Problems (NEWS)(TELECOM)(DEN)(00015) Digiphone Launch On Schedule Despite Test Problems 05/10/95 DALLAS, TEXAS, U.S.A., 1995 MAY 10 (NB) -- Despite problems with two of its demonstrations, Camelot Corp. (NASDAQ: CAML) says that the launch of Digiphone, software that lets you conduct telephone conversations over the Internet without incurring any long distance charges, is on schedule for the end of June. #IMAGE 1 20 TWPCX \images\95051015.PCX Click here for photo Digiphone permits Internet users to carry on full duplex conversations. The software is currently in beta testing. Full duplex means both parties can talk simultaneously, just as people converse face-to-face or on the telephone. Beta testing is the test phase products go through just before the production version ships. Jeanette Fitzgerald, Camelot vice president, said "techies" are currently conducting the beta tests, with more testing with less skilled computer users being the next test phase. Danny Wettreich, chairman and chief executive officer of Camelot said he expects beta testing to be completed within the next four weeks, and the company will appoint an advertising agency in the near future to handle the marketing and advertising of Digiphone. Technical problems have plagued Camelot as it has tried to show potential investors Digiphone's capabilities. The initial demonstration in Dallas bombed when, according to Camelot, an Internet service provider in Oregon unexpectedly terminated the call during the test. Camelot took Digiphone on a four-city road tour to Boston, Los Angeles, Chicago, and New York recently to prove the product does what it is supposed to do, but the technological gremlins intervened again when the show got to Los Angeles. Fitzgerald told Newsbytes the company's computers to be used in the test were damaged during shipment, so Camelot had to rely on a video to tout Digiphone's capabilities. Fitzgerald said the Chicago show was canceled because of the small number of people who expressed an interest in attending the demonstration. She said the New York and Boston tests were flawless. Both parties to a Digiphone call have to have the Digiphone software and Internet access. A user entering the Internet with Digiphone loaded on their PC will see a list of other Digiphone users already on line and can click on any of them to establish a connection. Each user must have a personal computer equipped with a multimedia sound card, a microphone, and speakers. Camelot said the sound quality of a Digiphone calls varies dependIng on the level of data compression selected, but said the audio quality can be superior to that of regular phone calls, depending on the computer system in use. The company said Third Planet Publishing, the Camelot subsidiary that is publishing Digiphone, has received calls from more than a dozen computer retail chains expressing interest in placing orders for Digiphone. Fitzgerald declined to indicate what chains are interested but said they are "Radio Shack-type outlets." Digiphone will have a suggested retail price of $149.95 when it ships, said Camelot. Fitzgerald said the street price is expected to be $89 to $99. (Jim Mallory/19950510/Press contact: Danny Wettreich, Camelot, 214-733-3005; Public contact: Camelot, tel 214-733-3005, fax 214-733-4308/DIGIPHON950510/PHOTO) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 05/10/95 NETWORK Novell Intros SoftSolutions 4. (NEWS)(NETWORK)(DEN)(00016) Novell Intros SoftSolutions 4.1 05/10/95 OREM, UTAH, U.S.A., 1995 MAY 10 (NB) -- Novell Inc. (NASDAQ:NOVL) has announced an upgrade to SoftSolutions, the company's enterprise-wide document management system. SoftSolutions 4.1 will include the Remote Document Server (RDS), which lets remote users search and retrieve documents stored in their organization's network document management systems via private and public electronic-mail systems. Users can upload and download documents, forward them and fax them to a designated location from anywhere they can send and receive e-mail. Novell said Remote Document Server is tightly integrated with the GroupWise messaging system and is also accessible from other MAPI (Messaging Application Program Interface)- or VIM-compliant messaging systems. MAPI is a Microsoft-developed set of messaging function calls and service calls that allows developers to create message-enabled applications. According to Novell, previously available document management systems have only allowed remote users to search and retrieve documents stored locally on the hard drives of laptops and desktop PCs. SoftSolutions 4.1 overcomes that limitation, said Novell, by letting remote users search and retrieve local documents and those held in the company's network document repositories. To use Remote Document Server the user sends an e-mail message containing the search criteria, document retrieval requests and general document management commands to a specified e-mail address. The Remote Document Server acts as an agent between the messaging system and SoftSolutions by capturing the information and passing it to SoftSolutions for processing. RDS then replies to the user with a list of documents that meet the search criteria, a copy of the requested document, or a report of the processed command. Novell said SoftSolutions 4.1 will ship with a custom RDS interface for use with GroupWise clients. The interface is similar to the regular SoftSolutions interface to let users work in a familiar document management environment. GroupWise users work from a series of custom screens containing menus, drop-down lists and buttons that automate the process of creating and sending the necessary e-mail messages. Users can search by document attributes like author, title, document type, project, department or other defined attributes. You can also search on words and download a document as an e-mail attachment. Documents downloaded are marked on the server as "in use," preventing them from being accessed or overwritten by another user. Documents can be faxed to a specified number. Novell said SoftSolutions 4.1 will ship in June, 1995, with a suggested retail price of $495 per server and $295 per workstation. Users of SoftSolutions 4.0 can upgrade at no cost through July 31, 1995. The server version will be available for NetWare and Unix-based networks, while the client software will be available for DOS and Windows-based workstations. (Jim Mallory/19950510/Press contact: Jason Werner, Novell, 801-228-5144; Public contact: Novell, 800-861-2507) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 05/10/95 ONLINE First Union's Secured Online Credit Applications (NEWS)(ONLINE)(MSP)(00017) First Union's Secured Online Credit Applications 05/10/95 CHARLOTTE, NORTH CAROLINA, U.S.A., 1995 MAY 10 (NB) -- First Union (NYSE: FTU) is making a big push into cyberspace, with the introduction of secured online credit card applications over the Internet's World Wide Web. Institution officials say they believe they are only the second bank to offer credit applications that are secure over the worldwide network of computers. Marianna Sheridan, First Union spokesperson, told Newsbytes her company was responding to market demands in putting the service online. "Our customers told us that is exactly what they need and what we can provide them," she said. The new offering is a first step in the development of "First Union Community Commerce," which will be the bank's interactive virtual marketplace on the Internet. Internet browsers who visit First Union's homepage at URL (uniform resource locator) http://firstunion.com can apply for the bank's Gold Mastercard that carries an introductory rate for six months, prime plus 5.9 percentage points for life, and no annual fee. The bank promises that online applicants will receive thumbs up/down "quickly," and qualified customers will have their card in their hands in "a few days." One big feature of the new system is security, Sheridan said. She said the transactions are secure on the bank's end, but customers will need a Web browser that can handle secure transactions on the users' end. "If a customer is using a browser that's not secure, a warning will flash on the screen saying the customer is operating in an unsecured environment, and will allow them to end the transaction at that point." Browsers like Netscape are secure on the customer's end, Sheridan added. The bank will then use the security technology for online transactions made between customers and "store owners." First Union officials say they hope to have merchant storefronts in its Community Commerce marketplace within a month. In addition, the bank will offer services like home mortgage applications over the Internet by the end of the year. (Bob Woods/19950510/Press Contact: Marianna Sheridan, First Union, 704-383-3715. Public Contact: First Union, Internet World Wide Web http://firstunion.com) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 05/10/95 GENERAL Japan Newsbriefs (NEWS)(GENERAL)(TYO)(00018) Japan Newsbriefs 05/10/95 TOKYO, JAPAN, 1995 MAY 10 (NB) -- In this roundup of news from Japan: Toshiba increases PC production, enters new market; Telephone translation system tests; Sanyo's New Machine Translator; Fujitsu plans plasma screen plant; Nokia signs phone deal in China Toshiba Increases PC Production, Enters New Market Toshiba will increase production of notebook personal computers at its US factory in Irvine, California, soon when monthly output is raised to 60,000 units. Currently five production lines running 24 hours a day produce 50,000 computers a month between them. Toshiba estimates that over 1.1 million notebooks were sold last year, 90% overseas. Toshiba has also announced a new tie-up with Mitsubishi Corp. to sell its notebook computers in Russia. Toshiba is supplying computers to Mitsubishi which is selling them to individuals in Russia. Mitsubishi is working on building a distribution network in the country and even considering using a barter system for selected customers. Telephone Translation System Tests Japan's largest international telephone company, KDD, and Korea Telecom will this month start tests of a new automatic translation service. The new system recognizes words spoken and translates them in real- time. The two telephone companies have been developing the service for several years and now feel the standard is good enough to present it for testing. The trials will use real international telephone calls. Sanyo's New Machine Translator Sanyo Electric will release Trans Supporter JE, a Japanese to English machine translator on June 1. The new software complements Sanyo's Trans Supporter EJ software which translates from English to Japanese and was released on February 1. The software is priced at 25,000 yen ($301) and is requires a PC running Windows 3.1J, a PC-98 series computer with Word 5.0J or 6.0J, or a system running on DOS/V. Fujitsu Plans Plasma Screen Plant Fujitsu says that it will be producing 20,000 plasma television screens a month in late 1996 when a new 80 billion yen ($952 million) plant comes on line. The plant, yet to be built, will eventually produce around 100,000 screens a month and is likely to be situated in either Akashi or Miyazaki. The 42-inch screens will be built with a 16:9 aspect ratio and be used in high definition, widescreen television sets. Plasma screens trap gases such as Xenon and Helium between two sheets of glass and produce light when electrons are fired through the glass. An attraction of the screens is their size, just a few centimeters (cm) thick, meaning that future television screens will be able to be hung on a wall. A 16:9 42-inch plasma display will be just 3.2 cm thick and weigh 20 kilograms. Nokia Signs Phone Deal In China Finland's Nokia Telecommunications has signed a $20 million deal with China to provide a digital cellular telephone network for the province of Fujian in south east China. Coverage from the new network, which will become operational this year, includes the cities of Fuzhou, Quanzhou, and Xiamen. (Martyn Williams/19950510) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 05/10/95 BUSINESS Chase Research & Boca Research Pool R&D Resources (NEWS)(BUSINESS)(LON)(00019) Chase Research & Boca Research Pool R&D Resources 05/10/95 BASINGSTOKE, HAMPSHIRE, ENGLAND, 1995 MAY 10 (NB) -- Chase Research and Boca Research have announced a joint technology exchange agreement, under which both companies will pool their research and development (R&D) resources to develop new products. According to Steve Fisher, a spokesman for Chase Research in the UK, the linkup between the two companies is still at a very early stage, so precise details of how Chase will interact with Boca in the US have still to be worked out. "It's interesting to compare our respective backgrounds," he told Newsbytes, adding that Chase started out as an I/O (input/output) board manufacturer, moving into networking and latterly, into ISDN (integrated services digital network) technology. "We sell all three categories of equipment," he said. Boca, meanwhile, designs, manufactures, markets and supports products for the communications segment of the computer industry. According to Fisher, Boca has five product categories, representing over 50 separate major products: data communications (voice, data and fax modems); multimedia communications; networking products; video graphics adapters; and input/output, IDE (Integrated Drive Electronics) interface and multiport add-on boards. The basic idea behind the technology linkup between the two companies is to develop ISDN and multiport connectivity products. The agreement will combine Boca's manufacturing expertise with Chase's ISDN technology. The companies' goals are to produce "cost-effective" ISDN connectivity products and jointly develop low-cost multiport serial boards for Windows, NT, and Unix markets. "The partnership will allow us to take advantage of each company's strengths in design and manufacturing, as well as our combined global distribution channel," explained Jim Mockler, managing director of Chase Research. "It allows both companies to compete in the international ISDN and multiport markets." According to Tony Zalenski, president and chief executive officer (CEO) of Boca Research, the ISDN joint product offerings will offer a strong range of features at a low price. The first product will be an ISDN terminal adapter featuring a built-in NT1 interface for easy installation and allowing asynchronous line speeds up to 230.4 kilobits-per-second (Kbps) through channel aggregation. The Boca Research terminal adapter will ship in the US early in the third quarter of this year, with a targeted suggested retail price of less than $500. An international version without the NT1 interface will also be available within the same time frame, Newsbytes told. So who will these joint products be aimed at? According to Chase, they will be targeted at the small office/home office (SOHO) and branch office marketplace. Both companies say they are focusing their marketing efforts on teaming with the regional Bell operating companies (RBOCs) and telephone operation companies worldwide to promote the products. "This relationship will allow us to enter the ISDN marketplace," said Zalenski. "We plan to work hard to develop a worldwide leadership position in the ISDN, modem and connectivity marketplace. The alliance with Chase brings in new software strength to solidify Boca's long-term strategic objectives." Boca Research, meanwhile, plans to develop 2-, 4-, 8-, and 16-port serial boards to be combined with Chase Research's software drivers for Windows, NT, and Unix variants including SCO, Solaris, and Novell Unixware. According to Fisher, this new generation of serial I/O (input/output) boards will maximize performance by using the latest serial I/O technology. The first joint product to ship will be a high-speed 460Kbps two-port board, which will be released with Windows drivers within a few weeks. (Steve Gold/19950510/Press Contact: Barry Dimond Communications, +44-11268-784746, Internet e-mail barryd@techpr.demon.co.uk; Reader Contact: Chase Research, +44-1256-52260, Internet e-mail scf@chaser.co.uk; Boca Research 407-997-8621) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 05/10/95 GENERAL Philips CD-I Euro Sales Head For 1Million? (NEWS)(GENERAL)(LON)(00020) Philips CD-I Euro Sales Head For 1Million? 05/10/95 EINDHOVEN, NETHERLANDS, 1995 MAY 10 (NB) -- Despite an apparent apathy in sales terms towards CD-I (Compact Disk Interactive), Philips is still upbeat on the technology's prospects. As a new range of UKP$500 CD-I players has hit Europe in the last few months, Philips' bosses in Eindhoven have revealed they expect to achieve an installed base of around a million machines by the end of the year across Europe. The projections are based on first quarter sales figures, which Philips claims shows sales representing twice that achieved this time last year. The bulk of the sales surge appears to have taken place in Germany and the UK, where Philips is offering interest-free credit on the new CD-I systems, as well as a bundling deal on CD-I and a MPEG (Motion Picture Experts Group) video disk cartridge. Typical pricing for the CD-I/MPEG CDV cartridge, which allows the new five-inch video disks to be played, is around the $750 mark, Newsbytes notes. Philips is pushing very hard to make CD-I succeed. The company has persuaded a large number of film software producers to duplicate their laserdisk output on CD-I/CDV, with pricing of between $20 and $30 for a film. This compares favorably with laserdisk titles, which typically cost 50 percent more in Europe. Unfortunately, the MPEG system on which the CD-I video disks are based uses a relatively "lossy" compression system. This means that, on a fast moving film scene, screen resolution has to be sacrificed in favor of screen movement. Philips claims that the overall image resolution on the CD-I video system is equivalent to the VHS video system. When pressed, however, Philips' executives remain coy on whether they are talking about the 525 line NTSC (North American Television Standards Committee) system in the US or the 625 line PAL system seen in Europe. In addition, there appears to be some confusion over whether they refer to the old VHS standard system, or the near universal VHS HQ (High Quality) system seen in VCRs today. Brushing aside such "subjective" comments (as Newsbytes was told at Cebit in March when we queried the screen quality) Philips has claimed that around a million CD-I machines have been sold worldwide as at the beginning of the year, with 500,000 units sold in Europe. Spearheading Philips' sales push in Europe is a three pronged attack, building on the original entertainment (games) thrust seen since CD-I was launched, adding reference titles and digital video movies to the mix. Philips executives point to the sales success with games such as "Chaos Control," a CD-I game released earlier this year, which the company claims has sold well across Europe. (Sylvia Dennis & Steve Gold/19950510/Press & Public Contact: Philips, +31-40-734087) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 05/10/95 BUSINESS Germany - Mannesmann Profits High Due To Telecoms (NEWS)(BUSINESS)(LON)(00021) Germany - Mannesmann Profits High Due To Telecoms 05/10/95 DUSSELDORF, GERMANY, 1995 MAY 10 (NB) -- Mannesmann has reported black ink on its profit and loss accounts for 1994, after years of losses. The linchpin for the return to profitability for the group as a whole was the success of its telecoms operations, pushing the group to report a DM340 million profit in 1994, compared to the huge DM513 million -- the worst ever -- loss for the group in 1993. Close examination of the accounts reveals a healthy operating profit of almost DM600 million, compared with an operating loss of DM127 million in 1993. Sales, perhaps surprisingly, were only up by 8.9 percent in 1994, reaching the DM30.4 billion mark. According to Mannesmann, the return to profitability is the result of two years of hard efforts by the company's staff, moving to cut costs and boost sales, while seeking to make sales in new areas, as the telecoms division has done. The telecoms division generated pre-tax profits of DM195 million in 1994, compared to a loss of DM224 million in 1993. The turnaround in Mannesmann's telecoms division, which has done well with its digital mobile cellular operations, has prompted some analysts to speculate that Mannesmann could look at spinning off its telecoms division in the medium term. This approach could be an interesting one for Mannesmann, Newsbytes notes, as companies operating GSM (global system for mobile communications) have seen their profits soar as analog users migrate to the benefits of digital in their thousands. This fact, coupled with the unexpected surge in revenue resulting from foreign GSM users generating extra mobile traffic when roaming on GSM networks, has served to boost GSM profits significantly. Mannesmann has a 58 percent stake in Mannesmann Mobilfunk, the D2 GSM/analog cellular company. Tied in with the Mobilfunk connection is a 50 percent stake in Mannesmann Eurokom, a company that offers leased line services to major companies, as well as Internet services to major clients. (Sylvia Dennis/19950510) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 05/10/95 ONLINE NlightN Universal Index Launched On Web (NEWS)(ONLINE)(TOR)(00022) NlightN Universal Index Launched On Web 05/10/95 RESTON, VIRGINIA, U.S.A., 1995 MAY 10 (NB) -- The Library Corp., a 20-year-old library-automation vendor, has launched a service on the Internet's World Wide Web that it said features the world's largest index to online data. With one search, users can hunt for data in more than 500 databases. Sources included in the NlightN service include the Library of Congress, the British Library, the Readers Guide to Periodical Literature, the National Library of Medicine, the Film Literature Index, the output of assorted news wire services including Knight-Ridder, Sports Wire, PR Newswire, and Investment Wire, and Carnegie-Mellon University's Lycos catalog of documents on the Web itself. Though it includes the Lycos Web index, NlightN is not limited to indexing material found on the Internet, a spokeswoman for the company told Newsbytes. The only charges for using the NlightN service will be for documents actually retrieved, the spokeswoman said. Charges will range from as little as 10 cents for citations up to several hundred dollars for some proprietary financial and medical research reports. A typical item will cost a couple of dollars, the spokeswoman said. Each user will be asked to supply a credit-card number on signing up to use the service. This can be supplied online or by telephone, fax, or mail, the spokeswoman said. NlightN will charge an initial deposit of $10 to the credit card to avoid billing individually for small charges, she said. Many documents can be downloaded directly, but those too large to be downloaded conveniently will be delivered by facsimile, mail, or overnight courier, the company said. According to Library Corp., NlightN now has an index of more than 100 gigabytes, which is constantly growing. The organization plans to add more databases to the service over time. NlightN began operation on the Web this week at http://www.nlightn.com) (Grant Buckler/19950510/Press Contact: Mary Ann Zimmerman, NlightN, 304-876-1740; Catherine Marenghi, Marenghi & Howlett for NlightN, 617-239-0057; Public Contact: NlightN, 800-NLIGHTN or tel 703-904-1010, fax 703-904-8238, Internet e-mail admin@nlightn.com, Internet World Wide Web http://www.nlightn.com) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 05/10/95 ONLINE EasyNet Publication Searches On Web, Gopher (NEWS)(ONLINE)(MSP)(00023) EasyNet Publication Searches On Web, Gopher 05/10/95 WAYNE, PENNSYLVANIA, U.S.A., 1995 MAY 10 (NB) -- Telebase Systems Inc. said its EasyNet 2.0 service will be available on the Internet's World Wide Web and via gopher. What's more, the company said it will not charge a subscription fee to its customers for using the service. The service used to be known as Corporate EasyNet, and charged $49.95 for subscriptions. Now, per-use fees start from as low as $1 per search and $2 per article. Telebase is offering a $5 usage credit for the first 1,000 people who register for EasyNet, officials said. EasyNet's Web and Gopher sites provide customers with information on the service, and the chance to register online. Customers can also register via phone, fax, and e-mail. Access to the service itself is made available by Telneting to easynet.telebase.com. Connections can also be made via CompuServe, the MCI Data Network, and SprintNet. "EasyNet is a service that works well when it is accessible to large numbers of people," Jeffrey Magill, vice president of marketing for Telebase Systems, told Newsbytes. "The Web provides us access to a large customer base. Whether you believe the Internet has 30 million or three million users, we can help them, whatever the number is, solve business problems. It's access to a large group of people who have needs that can be solved by our service." Company officials said EasyNet gives online users access to thousands of publications that provide a wealth of information, including research, company credit data, newsletters, magazines, and newspapers. Some of the publishers in EasyNet include Dun & Bradstreet, Moody's, Reuters, Standard & Poors, TRW, and Newsbytes. Magazines found online include Forbes, PC Week, and Popular Science. Newspaper offerings range from the Akron Beacon Journal to the Washington Post. "Eleven years ago, if you wanted to get to Dun & Bradstreet or a newspaper file, you had to master some magic to figure out how to access Dialog, Nexis, or some of the other larger hosts," Magill said. With EasyNet, users deal with a menu-based system and simple document retrieval fees, he said. "The Internet access is the next step to democratize access to this data," Magill added. (Bob Woods/19950510/Press Contacts: Leslie Afakian, Telebase Systems, 610-293-4700; Cassandra Harris or Jill Holt, Technology Solutions, 212-696-2000; Public Contact: Internet World Wide Web http://www.telebase.com, Internet gopher gopher.telebase.com) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 05/10/95 IBM New ThinkPads - Detachable Screen, Lithium-Ion Battery (NEWS)(IBM)(TOR)(00024) New ThinkPads - Detachable Screen, Lithium-Ion Battery 05/10/95 SOMERS, NEW YORK, U.S.A., 1995 MAY 10 (NB) -- IBM (NYSE:IBM) has added two new models to its ThinkPad line of notebook computers. One comes with a longer-life lithium-ion battery, while the other has a detachable screen that can be laid on top of an overhead projector and used to give presentations. The ThinkPad 755CX has a 75 megahertz (MHz) Pentium processor and is the first model in the ThinkPad line to come with a lithium- ion battery. Company spokesman Michael Corrado told Newsbytes that the 755CX can run from three to nine hours on a single charge. Lithium-ion batteries, currently offered with only a few notebook computers, are notable mainly for having greater capacity than the older nickel-metal-hydride and nickel-cadmium types. The 755CX also has a 10.4-inch, 65,536-color display with 800 by 600 resolution, IBM said. The ThinkPad 755CV has only a 100MHz 486DX4 processor, and the older nickel-metal-hydride battery technology is standard. However, it can be ordered with a lithium-ion battery and it can be upgraded to a Pentium processor, Corrado said. The 755CV also comes with an unusual feature. The notebook's display screen can be detached from the unit, and after an opaque rear panel is removed it can be placed on the projection surface of an overhead projector and used like the projector attachments available for notebook computers. IBM will also supply an infrared remote control for the computer that offers functions such as zoom and spotlight, for use in giving presentations with the special screen. Both new notebooks also support infrared connections to other computers and printers. Both come with eight megabytes (MB) of memory, expandable to 40MB, with a choice of 540MB, 810MB, or 1.2 gigabyte hard drives, and with a bundle of more than 15 pre- loaded software applications, IBM said. An internal 14,400 bits-per-second data and facsimile modem is also standard equipment. IBM's ThinkPad line is widely seen as the greatest strength of the company's personal computer operations. Richard Zwetchkenbaum, director of personal systems research at International Data Corp., recently called the ThinkPads the "best of breed" in portable computers today. The ThinkPad 755CV is to be available May 31 with prices starting at $6,799. The ThinkPad 755CX is available now starting at $6,549. (Grant Buckler/19950510/Press Contact: Michael Corrado, IBM, 914-766-3419/THINKPAD950510/PHOTO) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 05/10/95 ONLINE Parental Advice, Crisis Info On Internet (NEWS)(ONLINE)(MSP)(00025) Parental Advice, Crisis Info On Internet 05/10/95 WASHINGTON, D.C., U.S.A., 1995 MAY 10 (NB) -- Parents who need advice on child-rearing topics can now "surf" the Internet's World Wide Web for information. KidsPeace, an organization that describes itself as being dedicated to "halting, healing, and helping" the pain of kids in crisis, is behind the Web site, called "SafteyNet on the Net." Dr. James Feldman, director of public education for KidsPeace, said the potential to reach a mass audience of people is the main reason why the non-profit organization migrated this kind of information to the Internet. "The ability for us to get on the Internet affords us one major step in reaching one of our goals, which is to take all of this information for parents and get it into the homes of America," he said. Feldman also said he saw that reach increasing, with the major online services adding Web browsing capabilities. KidsPeace said its cyberspace presence is the first time a national organization has entered the Internet with essential parenting advice and child-raising information needed to "grow healthy families." The organization claims that users can obtain "breakthrough research" conducted at KidsPeace's Lee Salk Center, which develops and distributes parenting education materials. The organization said its "1993 National Survey of Kids in Crisis and Parenting" showed most Americans want to become better parents, but they often don't know where to get information on parenting. KidsPeace officials say they hope their Internet site will "lower the ratio" by offering a parenting resource 24 hours a day, seven days a week. In addition, parents can take an interactive quiz to find out what they really know about their kids, based on KidsPeace's 1995 survey of preteens. Also, the organization's mascot, "Trusty the Goldfish," is at the site, encouraging personal action and "raising awareness of child abuse and prevention issues." Some of KidsPeace's pamphlets are also available electronically, including "24 Ways You Can Prevent Child Abuse," and "7 Standards for Effective Parenting." SafetyNet on the Net can be reached on the KidsPeace homepage at http://webmart.freedom.net/kidspeace. (Bob Woods/19950510/Press Contacts: Mark Stubis or Bonnie Selterman, KidsPeace, 212-605-0153; Mike Drabenstott or Louise Moyer, Lieberman- Appalucci, 610-395-7111. Public Contact: Internet World Wide Web http://webmart.freedom.net/kidspeace) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 05/10/95 UNIX Digital's RAID Controllers For PCI & DSSI Alpha (NEWS)(UNIX)(BOS)(00026) Digital's RAID Controllers For PCI & DSSI Alpha 05/10/95 MAYNARD, MASSACHUSETTS, U.S.A., 1995 MAY 10 (NB) -- Digital Equipment Corp. has rolled out new RAID (redundant array of inexpensive disks) products for AlphaServer 1000/2000 and 8400 users that include two array controllers for PCI (Peripheral Component Interconnect) to SCSI (small computer systems interface), plus the first SCSI controller for Digital's DSSI proprietary bus to work with RAID. The new six-port HSZ-40-Bx array controller and enhanced edition of the three-port RAID Array 230 subsystem each add a RAID 1 option for mirroring, said Donna Schofield, marketing consultant for StorageWorks, in an interview with Newsbytes. Like the earlier HSZ-40-Ax array controller, and the original version of the RAID Array 230 that was announced in March, the new controllers also offer the following RAID options: RAID 0 for striping; RAID 0+1 for striping plus mirroring; RAID 3 for striped data, one parity disk; and RAID 5 for striped data/striped parity. The new HSZ-40-Bx array controller provides dynamic changing between levels 3 and 5, depending on workload characteristics, Newsbytes was told. The HSZ-40-Bx also provides about 50 percent greater throughput than the HSZ-40-Ax, operating at 2,100 I/O (input/output) requests per second, in contrast to 1,300 I/O requests per second for the Ax model, Schofield said. The HSZ-40-Bx works with Digital's recently introduced KZPSA PCI to SCSI storage adapter, she added. The new controller can connect up to 42 SCSI-2 devices for up to 180 gigabytes (GB) of storage with 4.3GB disks, according to Schofield. Additional capabilities include: write-back cache with battery backup; device and controller warm swap; support for dual-redundant configurations; and an optional 32 megabyte (MB) read/write optimized cache. The new upgrade to Digital's RAID Array 230 subsystem adds support for both wide SCSI and 4.3GB disks, according to Schofield. The 4.3GB disk support has also been added to the RAID Array 230's "brother" product, the RAID Array 210 subsystem for the EISA (Extended Industry Standard Architecture) bus, she noted. The two RAID array subsystems are both three-port, backplane devices aimed at use on the departmental level, in applications where a small footprint is advantageous, Schofield explained. With the new HSZ-40-Bx controller and RAID Array 230 upgrade, Digital is "reaffirming" commitments made over the past few months to both PCI and wide SCSI, she asserted. Schofield added that the new HSD 10 DSSI to SCSI array controller, successor to Digital's previous HSD 05 DSSI to SCSI model, provides higher bandwidth of up to 3.0 MB-per-second, and performs at 1,000 I/O requests per second. Also, unlike the HSD 05, which offered no RAID capabilities, the HSD 10 comes standard with RAID 0, according to the Digital exec. The HSD 10 is aimed strictly at VMS applications, Schofield reported. The product connects up to seven non-redundant SCSI devices, and also supports controller warm swapping. Digital has also introduced new firmware that works with the trio of new controllers. The HSOF V2.5 firmware provides a new "cloning" feature, for backup without interruption of operations, Schofield said. Other capabilities of the new firmware include controller-based RAID 1; multi-logical unit support for DLT (digital linear tape) loaders and tape libraries; and increased performance in disk copy data for greater data safety, she told Newsbytes. (Jacqueline Emigh/19950510/Reader Contact: Digital Equipment Corp., 508-493-5111; Press Contacts: Tom Madden, Digital, 508-841-5365; Heather McLellan, The Weber Group for Digital, 617-661-7900) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 05/10/95 DOS Thrustmaster Bundles Air Combat Game With Joystick (NEWS)(DOS)(DEN)(00027) Thrustmaster Bundles Air Combat Game With Joystick 05/10/95 PORTLAND, OREGON, U.S.A., 1995 MAY 10 (NB) -- Thrustmaster Inc. (NASDAQ: TMSR) said it will bundle the combat flight simulator program US Navy Fighters CD-ROM with its Mark II Flight Control System (FCS) joystick. US Navy Fighters is the first title in Electronic Arts' impending air combat series. Ed Brightman, Thrustmaster vice president of operations. called the game, "Far and away the best flight simulation game out there as far as air combat is concerned. It has really great graphics." Brightman told Newsbytes the Mark II joystick is based on the joystick installed in the F-4 Phantom aircraft. Brightman said the joystick features four buttons on the top of the joystick that switch the view shown on the computer screen. The user can select front, rear, left, or right cockpit views. "You can look all around to see who is after you," said Brightman. In addition to the FCS joystick, Thrustmaster also markets other flight simulation products, including a programmable throttle control, rudder pedals and its F-16 FLCS joystick modeled after the joystick McDonnell Douglas installs in its F-16 aircraft. All of the control devices are compatible with the US Navy Fighters program as well as other flight simulator programs. Thrustmaster said the joystick-software bundle will have a suggested retail price of $99 and is immediately available for a limited period. Brightman said that period will probably be about two quarters. At that time the company will probably bundle a different game with one of its joysticks. To run US Navy Fighters CD-ROM you need at least a 25 megahertz 486DX-based IBM-compatible computer running MS-DOS 5.0 or higher, an SVGA graphics card, four megabytes (MB) of memory, a single-speed or better CD-ROM drive, a Microsoft or compatible mouse, and 5MB of available hard disk space. (Jim Mallory/19950510/Press contact: Laura Rawlins, Thrustmaster, 503-639-3200; Public contact: Thrustmaster, 503-639-3200; Electronic Arts, tel 415-571-7171 or fax 415-571-5137) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 05/10/95 BUSINESS Computer Associates & CSC Sign 10-Year Licensing Deal (NEWS)(BUSINESS)(BOS)(00028) Computer Associates & CSC Sign 10-Year Licensing Deal 05/10/95 ISLANDIA, NEW YORK, U.S.A., 1995 MAY 10 (NB) -- Computer Associate's newly signed ten-year licensing deal with Computer Sciences Corp. is intended as a turning point in the software vendor's relationships with outsourcers, said Bob Toth, senior VP at CA, in an interview with Newsbytes. At the conclusion of a court battle versus EDS last year, CA officials decided to put an end to a history of "difficult, contentious and sometimes litigious" relationships, Toth told Newsbytes. Computer Associates' difficulties with outsourcers had hinged on the company's strict policy of single-user licensing, without exception, the senior VP explained. To overcome these problems, he added, CA is now instituting a new policy of establishing licensing partnerships with selected outsourcers, such as Computer Sciences Corp., that have demonstrated "superior services and high growth potential." The ten-year deal with Computer Sciences Corp. -- characterized by Toth as "unique in the industry" -- gives CSC unlimited use of any of CA's software products. In addition, he said, CSC will become an authorized reseller of two of CA's client-server products: CA-Unicenter for systems management, and CA-OpenIngres, a database server. Under the agreement, CSC is given free rein to purchase software from other vendors, as well, Toth added. But, he maintained, CA's large product line-up for platforms ranging from mainframes to PCs, combined with "the economics of the situation," will tend to make it unnecessary for CSC to want to purchase from other vendors, except for "special" applications. CA and CSC are not disclosing the financial terms of the deal. Outside of the licensing partnerships with selected outsourcers, CA will continue to use a single-user licensing model, Toth told Newsbytes. (Jacqueline Emigh/19950510/Reader Contact: Computer Associates, 516-DIAL CAI; Press Contact: Bob Gordon, CA, 516-342-2391) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 05/10/95 WINDOWS Dell Corporate Customers Get Windows 95 Beta (NEWS)(WINDOWS)(DEN)(00029) Dell Corporate Customers Get Windows 95 Beta 05/10/95 AUSTIN, TEXAS, U.S.A., 1995 MAY 10 (NB) -- Dell Computer Corp. (NASDAQ: DELL) has announced it will provide a limited number of Dell systems pre-loaded with an evaluation copy of Microsoft Windows 95. A Dell spokesperson told Newsbytes the offer is targeted primarily at Dell corporate customers who buy large numbers of PCs. Dell said once the production version of Windows 95 becomes available, Windows 95 will be offered across Dell's Plug and Play-compatible desktop and notebook products as the default operating system. All Dell desktop systems announced after September 1, 1994, comply with the Plug and Play guidelines for Windows 95. Plug and Play is the terminology that describes peripherals that are automatically recognized by the operating system of the computer when a peripheral, such as a printer or modem is attached. Plug and Play makes the necessary adjustments to use the peripheral properly without the need for the user to install the correct driver. Dell spokesperson Dean Kline said the Windows 95-enabled PCs will be available to corporate customers "because they require time to make the transition (to a new product). They need to do evaluations as they do for any major installation, such as a new server or operating system." Kline said platforms that will be available with the Windows 95 evaluation copy will include Optiplex XM 590, Optiplex 466 MXE, a Latitude XT notebook, and the Dimension XPS desktop system. Among the features of Windows 95, the Microsoft operating system scheduled to ship in August, 1995, are a built-in telephone application programming interface, support for services like data conferencing that lets you talk and send files or faxes during the same phone call, speech processing, remote network access and Internet access, voice-mail and faxing, and access to Microsoft's still-to-be-available online service Microsoft Network. Other features include: Autoplay, a technology that automatically installs and runs CD-ROM-based software or audio; support for MPEG (Motion Picture Experts Group) digital video compression; support for tools that make it easier for users with disabilities to use Windows 95; and a new user interface look that will more closely resemble the Macintosh desktop. (Jim Mallory/19950510/Press contact: Dean Kline, Dell Computer, 512-728-4100; Public contact: Dell, 800-289-3355) (SUMMARY)(GENERAL)(SFO)(00030) Newsbytes Daily Summary 05/10/95 PENN VALLEY, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1995 MAY 10 (NB) -- These are capsules of all today's news stories: 1 -> Nokia To Build Cellular Basestation Plant In US 05/10/95 Nokia Telecommunications has put on ice plans for a new European manufacturing plant following a decision to build a GSM (global system for mobile communications) digital cellular basestation factory in the US. 2 -> Corel Gets New Web Site 05/10/95 Corel Corp., which has long had an online presence on CompuServe, now has a dedicated World Wide Web site, owned and operated by Kazak Communications of Toronto (Canada), publishers of the CorelDraw Journal. 3 -> Commerce Dept OKs Export Of Software With Encryption 05/10/95 The Commerce Department has approved export of a software product that contains strong encryption, the first time the government has permitted export of a technology that it considers equivalent to military goods to be kept out of the hands of enemies and terrorists. 4 -> Blue Cross Rolls Out "Health" Web Page, Kiosks 05/10/95 At a press conference in Boston, Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Massachusetts (BCBSMA) unveiled the Health Navigator health and fitness kiosk system, along with a Web home page that "repurposes" some of the kiosk content while adding content of its own. 5 -> ****AOL Web Browser Previews Online 05/10/95 Described by America Online (NASDAQ:AMER) as a preview, its long awaited World Wide Web (Web) browser is now available to members accessing the service using Microsoft Windows. The browser features "triple-speed technology" and "tight integration" to existing AOL features, according to the company. 6 -> Power Alliance Formed For Interactive TV 05/10/95 The Partners in Open Wideband Entertainment Resources (Power) Alliance was announced at the National Cable Television Association show. 7 -> Electronic Entertainment Expo - Neo*Geo CD Game System 05/10/95 The Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3) opened to the press with a preview of some of the 1,300 products to be announced by hardware and software developers. Among the early announcements is the US introduction of the Neo*Geo CD system, a player designed to provide "full arcade-like" effects. 8 -> Point Communications Opens Web Directory 05/10/95 Point Communications has opened Point Survey, its World Wide Web directory and site reviews resource. One of its regular features is a top-10 sites of the week section, along with reviews which will reportedly be added to at the rate of a thousand each month. 9 -> SGS Bids For Set-Top Box Chip Market 05/10/95 SGS-Thomson is making a bid for the potentially huge market for microprocessors to control set-top boxes, with the Chameleon microprocessor being designed by Inmos engineers in Bristol. The high-performance, low-power device is due to be completed within 18 months. 10 -> Fujitsu Plans Chip Plant In UK Or Oregon 05/10/95 Fujitsu has announced plans to invest between 80 billion yen and 100 billion yen in a new semiconductor manufacturing plant to be built in the US or the UK. 11 -> Mexico Newsbriefs 05/10/95 In top technology news from Mexico: Dell and Novell Work Together in Mexico, Software Piracy in Latin America, and Cisco network success. 12 -> Groupe Bull Privatization Takes Shape 05/10/95 Groupe Bull is taking shape in its newly privatized form with NEC and Motorola taking significant stakes. Motorola is taking an initial 10 percent share with the option of boosting it to 17 percent, while NEC is to increase its 10 percent share to 17 percent. 13 -> Negroponte Attacks Censorship, Technology Critics 05/10/95 Trying to control the Internet is not only undesirable but futile, Nicholas Negroponte, founder and director of the Media Lab at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) argued in a speech that also contained a jarringly harsh attack on critics of technology. 14 -> AT&T's Digital Services Volume Discount Plan 05/10/95 AT&T (NYSE:T) has announced it will begin offering volume discounts to subscribers of its Global Switched Digital Services (GSDS) advanced digital communication technology. 15 -> Digiphone Launch On Schedule Despite Test Problems 05/10/95 Despite problems with two of its demonstrations, Camelot Corp. (NASDAQ: CAML) says that the launch of Digiphone, software that lets you conduct telephone conversations over the Internet without incurring any long distance charges, is on schedule for the end of June. 16 -> Novell Intros SoftSolutions 4.1 05/10/95 Novell Inc. (NASDAQ:NOVL) has announced an upgrade to SoftSolutions, the company's enterprise-wide document management system. 17 -> First Union's Secured Online Credit Applications 05/10/95 First Union (NYSE: FTU) is making a big push into cyberspace, with the introduction of secured online credit card applications over the Internet's World Wide Web. Institution officials say they believe they are only the second bank to offer credit applications that are secure over the worldwide network of computers. 18 -> Japan Newsbriefs 05/10/95 In this roundup of news from Japan: Toshiba increases PC production, enters new market; Telephone translation system tests; Sanyo's New Machine Translator; Fujitsu plans plasma screen plant; Nokia signs phone deal in China 19 -> Chase Research & Boca Research Pool R&D Resources 05/10/95 Chase Research and Boca Research have announced a joint technology exchange agreement, under which both companies will pool their research and development (R&D) resources to develop new products. 20 -> Philips CD-I Euro Sales Head For 1Million? 05/10/95 Despite an apparent apathy in sales terms towards CD-I (Compact Disk Interactive), Philips is still upbeat on the technology's prospects. 21 -> Germany - Mannesmann Profits High Due To Telecoms 05/10/95 Mannesmann has reported black ink on its profit and loss accounts for 1994, after years of losses. 22 -> NlightN Universal Index Launched On Web 05/10/95 The Library Corp., a 20-year-old library-automation vendor, has launched a service on the Internet's World Wide Web that it said features the world's largest index to online data. With one search, users can hunt for data in more than 500 databases. 23 -> EasyNet Publication Searches On Web, Gopher 05/10/95 Telebase Systems Inc. said its EasyNet 2.0 service will be available on the Internet's World Wide Web and via gopher. What's more, the company said it will not charge a subscription fee to its customers for using the service. 24 -> New ThinkPads - Detachable Screen, Lithium-Ion Battery 05/10/95 IBM (NYSE:IBM) has added two new models to its ThinkPad line of notebook computers. One comes with a longer-life lithium-ion battery, while the other has a detachable screen that can be laid on top of an overhead projector and used to give presentations. 25 -> Parental Advice, Crisis Info On Internet 05/10/95 Parents who need advice on child-rearing topics can now "surf" the Internet's World Wide Web for information. KidsPeace, an organization that describes itself as being dedicated to "halting, healing, and helping" the pain of kids in crisis, is behind the Web site, called "SafteyNet on the Net." 26 -> Digital's RAID Controllers For PCI & DSSI Alpha 05/10/95 Digital Equipment Corp. has rolled out new RAID (redundant array of inexpensive disks) products for AlphaServer 1000/2000 and 8400 users that include two array controllers for PCI (Peripheral Component Interconnect) to SCSI (small computer systems interface), plus the first SCSI controller for Digital's DSSI proprietary bus to work with RAID. 27 -> Thrustmaster Bundles Air Combat Game With Joystick 05/10/95 Thrustmaster Inc. (NASDAQ: TMSR) said it will bundle the combat flight simulator program US Navy Fighters CD-ROM with its Mark II Flight Control System (FCS) joystick. 28 -> Computer Associates & CSC Sign 10-Year Licensing Deal 05/10/95 Computer Associate's newly signed ten-year licensing deal with Computer Sciences Corp. is intended as a turning point in the software vendor's relationships with outsourcers, said Bob Toth, senior VP at CA, in an interview with Newsbytes. 29 -> Dell Corporate Customers Get Windows 95 Beta 05/10/95 Dell Computer Corp. (NASDAQ: DELL) has announced it will provide a limited number of Dell systems pre-loaded with an evaluation copy of Microsoft Windows 95. A Dell spokesperson told Newsbytes the offer is targeted primarily at Dell corporate customers who buy large numbers of PCs. (Ian Stokell/19950510) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 05/09/95 LEGAL Thorn Sues Intel, AMD Over Patent (NEWS)(LEGAL)(LON)(00001) Thorn Sues Intel, AMD Over Patent 05/09/95 LONDON, ENGLAND, 1995 MAY 9 (NB) -- Thorn EMI has sued Intel and Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) alleging infringement of a patent relating to DRAM technology. The suit accuses the vendors of infringing US Patent No. 4,486,943, titled "Zero-drain self-aligned contact method for MOS devices." The patent was issued in 1985 to the now defunct semiconductor vendor Inmos. Later, Thorn EMI bought Inmos and retained the rights to its patent portfolio when it subsequently sold the company to SGS-Thomson Microelectronics in April, 1989. Thorn is seeking triple damages and an injunction. The company said it expects the trial to begin in 1996 but would like to settle out of court. The move is similar to efforts by Thorn to pursue litigation relating to its patent portfolio. The firm recently started proceedings against Hyundai. (Terry Silveria/19950508) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 05/09/95 TRENDS Digital Video Disk Battle Heats Up (NEWS)(TRENDS)(LON)(00002) Digital Video Disk Battle Heats Up 05/09/95 LONDON, ENGLAND, 1995 MAY 9 (NB) -- In the digital video disk (DVD) HDCD (high density compact disk) market, Sony and Philips are battling it out against Toshiba, Samsung, and Matsushita. Samsung has announced it is backing the Toshiba DVD, joining Toshiba, Matsushita Electric, Pioneer, Hitachi, Thomson, Time Warner, and MCA in endorsing the Super Density (SD) format. Meanwhile, Sony and Philips remain in partnership will allies Mitsumi Electric, Rioch, and Teac supporting the Sony/Philips design. Toshiba is proposing a double-sided, single-layer disk technology, while the Sony-Philips design calls for a double-layer, single-sided disk. The Toshiba disk is said to be able to store nine gigabits compared with 7.4 gigabits on the opposition's disk, converting to 270 minutes and 135 minutes of video respectively. There is speculation that a compromise combining elements of both formats could still be on the cards. There have also been calls for Sony to cave in to what some analysts have called the "considerable momentum" of the Toshiba group, while Sony has bluntly stated that it will never make disks of the type proposed by the rival camp. In the midst of this heated battle, disk drive technologists have sounded a cautionary note that it might be too early for the computer industry to take sides as both formats will require considerable development with the bonding of two disks in the case of Toshiba causing possible reliability problems and the double-layer disk raising other potential development problems. (Terry Silveria/19950508) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 05/09/95 BUSINESS Atari In Jaguar European Distribution Deals (NEWS)(BUSINESS)(LON)(00003) Atari In Jaguar European Distribution Deals 05/09/95 SLOUGH, BERKSHIRE, ENGLAND, 1995 MAY 9 (NB) -- After taking the UK leisure machine marketplace by storm, Atari has signed a series of European country agreements to take its new generation Jaguar game console into new markets. Dealers have been signed distribution deals in Germany, Poland, Spain, and Sweden, Newsbytes has learned. In Germany, Cosmo Entertainment is handling the Jaguar. Previously it was thought that Atari's operation in Germany would handle the machines on a direct- to-dealer basis. In Poland, Atari is relying on Mirage to handle the Jaguar, while in Spain, Product Finale is distributing the games system. In Sweden, meanwhile, Adastra has been signed up to handle a major push on the Jaguar, along with an interesting games cartridge rental scheme, full details of which have yet to be announced. Germany is where Atari is pinning its hopes on a rerun of the success of the Jaguar that has been seen in the UK. Cosmo is reported to be backing the Jaguar with more than 30 staff, a third of whom are on telesales operations, to service both retail and independent outlets across the country. Cosmo Entertainment has pulled off something of a coup in signing the Jaguar deal. The company, which is based in Munchengladbach, is barely 18 months old, having begun trading in January of last year. Reports suggest that the company turned over more than DM95 million in its first year of operation. The distributor is billed as Germany's "fastest growing" leisure distribution operation. The current edition of Computer Trade Weekly, a weekly trade games paper, reports that Atari is about to sign further distribution deals in Denmark, Israel, Italy, and Turkey. (Sylvia Dennis & Steve Gold/19950508/Press & Reader Contact: Atari International, +44-1753-533344) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 05/09/95 TELECOM UK - Vodapage Unveils New Radiopaging Technology (NEWS)(TELECOM)(LON)(00004) UK - Vodapage Unveils New Radiopaging Technology 05/09/95 NEWBURY, BERKSHIRE, ENGLAND, 1995 MAY 9 (NB) -- Vodapage, the radiopaging subsidiary of the Vodafone Group, has unveiled two new direct input systems for alphanumeric radiopagers. The first system, the Despatch Box, is a dedicated paging terminal designed for companies without an available computer, or which want to operate a standalone terminal. The Despatch Box is designed for use in relatively hostile conditions, Newsbytes notes, and operates alongside an existing telephone and line, plugging into the power supply and a phone socket. The unit consists of a standard QWERTY keyboard, its own Direct Input software, a two line LCD (liquid crystal display) screen, and built-in modem. The unit has integral memories for storage of frequently sent messages, plus a log of the last 20 messages sent. The unit is capable of autodialing calls to the pager center and inputting the pager number and messages automatically. The second system is for PC users and called Message Manager. The system is actually a software package that allows a Windows-driven PC to dial the paging center using a modem (Vodapage is also offering a packet radio modem, on its sister Paknet service). An Apple Mac version of Message Manager is also about to be released. In use, Message Manager can store the last 100 paging messages sent, along with time and date stamps, call status (for example, sent and canceled), and can print out or save messages to disk. According to Ian Maxwell, Vodapage's managing director, a special version of the Message Manager software is available for network users. This edition installs on the network server and can be configured for a specific number of workstations on a network. Pricing on both the new paging systems, which interface with Vodapage's existing radiopaging systems, depends on the site licensing arrangements, as well as the contracts which the company already has with Vodapage. (Steve Gold/19950508/Press Contact: Vodafone Press Office, +44-1635-33251; Reader Contact: Vodapage, tel +44-1-635-521800, fax +44-635-523016) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 05/09/95 ONLINE UK Online Announces Pricing Structure (NEWS)(ONLINE)(LON)(00005) UK Online Announces Pricing Structure 05/09/95 SHEPTON MALLET, DEVON, ENGLAND, 1995 MAY 9 (NB) -- UK Online, the Olivetti-backed UK online mass market service scheduled for launch this summer, has released details of its pricing structure, prior to a press launch later this week. According to Jennifer Perry, director of sales and marketing for the online service, UK Online will be offering monthly subscription packages which will be the most competitively priced online services in the UK. According to the company, two packages -- Individual and Family -- have been designed to meet the needs of the online user. The individual service, known as the Personal Service, will allow up to ten hours of access to the full UK Online service at a cost of UKP9.99 per month. The Family Service, meanwhile, offers unlimited access to UK Online for up to four family members at an all-inclusive cost of UKP14.99 per month. Each person can have their own unique electronic-mail address. All UK Online subscribers have access to the full service including clubs, newswire, magazines, e-mail and the Internet included in the cost of their monthly subscription. Perry describes the pricing structure as "the most competitively priced and cost-effective online service available" in the UK today -- even when compared to the Internet-only services. "We believe the time is right to launch a mass market online service. However, in order for such a service to be successful, aggressive pricing must be a primary objective," she said, adding that subscribers will be able to dial in using modems. World Wide Web (Web) access for existing Internet users will also be available, she told Newsbytes. "UK Online believes it has realized this ambition with costs which can be compared to other family entertainment products such as a satellite TV package or monthly mobile phone subscription," she said. "Our pricing strategy is to achieve a price point that appeals to the mass market rather than undercutting the existing market. We offer better value than Internet providers and better quality than US services. Furthermore, we believe UK Online will be the most competitively priced online service launching this year," she said. According to Perry, as a family service provider, UK Online offers parents the option of barring children's access to the Internet and allocating the amount of time they can spend using the system. Perry went on to say that, unlike some other online services, every subscriber online will be from the UK. All products, shopping, information and editorial will be aimed specifically at the UK audience, creating a community of online users. (Steve Gold/19950508/Press Contact: Midnight Communications, tel +44-1273-709977, fax +44-1273-709966, Internet e-mail caraline.midnight@ukonline.co.uk; Jennifer Perry, UK Online, tel +44-1749-345006, fax +44-1749-344977, Internet e-mail jennifer@ukonline.co.uk) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 05/09/95 WINDOWS CorelDraw Launch Delayed, Conference Canceled (NEWS)(WINDOWS)(MSP)(00006) CorelDraw Launch Delayed, Conference Canceled 05/09/95 OTTAWA, ONTARIO, CANADA, 1995 MAY 9 (NB) -- Corel Corp. has confirmed that the launch date for CorelDraw 6 and the annual Corel World Design Gala awards show has officially been set for August 10. The events were postponed from June 1 to coincide with the official release of Windows 95. "On the morning of August 10, we will hold a press conference to launch CorelDraw 6, host an Open House to showcase all of Corel's new technologies, and end the day with the Design Contest Awards Gala," Corel public relations representative Fiona Rochester explained. "Friday, August 11, includes additional activities for press and distributors including a CATA (Canadian Advanced Technology Association) luncheon, Distributor Awards and evening boat cruise." Foremost among the "new technologies" to be showcased at the August 10 event is the new CorelVideo system, designed to bring videoconferencing to the desktop at a per-workstation price of around C$1,000.00, using existing office wiring. The CorelWorld Conference, also scheduled for early June in conjunction with the CorelDraw 6 launch and Design Awards Gala, has been canceled. In addition, it appears that Corel has abandoned the idea of organizing its own conferences and will, in future, leave such events to the private sector, maintaining an arms-length involvement. "We are pleased with the success of independent conference and workshop organizers now supporting Corel's products. We intend to encourage and support these ventures in the coming months," Rochester's release says. All conference delegates who sent in pre-registrations and made payments to Corel for the conference will receive refunds. All those invited to the Corel Gala should soon receive new invitations, confirming the new date and time. (Glenn Lisle/19950509/Press contact: Fiona Rochester, Internet e-mail 0005008861@mcimail.com; CorelNET Internet World Wide Web http://www.corelnet.com) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 05/09/95 TRENDS ****Compaq To Co-Develop 120MB Floppy Disk (NEWS)(TRENDS)(DEN)(00007) ****Compaq To Co-Develop 120MB Floppy Disk 05/09/95 HOUSTON, TEXAS, U.S.A., 1995 MAY 9 (NB) -- Compaq Computer Corp. (NYSE: CPQ) has joined with 3M Corp. (NYSE: MMM) and Matsushita-Kotobuki Electronics Industries Ltd. to develop a 120 megabyte (MB) 3.5-inch diskette that will work in existing high density drives. Compaq will market a personal computer that is equipped with a 120MB drive that uses 3M diskettes. Compaq said the new floppy disk will be backwards read and write- compatible with the estimated five billion 1.44MB floppy disks and millions of 720 kilobyte (KB) disks already sold. However, you will need to have one of the new super-high density drives in your PC in order to use the full capacity of the new diskette. "Backward compatibility is critical because it will protect the massive investment that users have made in the 3.5-inch 1.44MB standard," said Kevin Bohren, vice president of desktop marketing at Compaq. No word was available on whether Matsushita will sell the super-high density drives as an aftermarket product. Compaq said the new diskettes not only provide up to 80 times as much storage capacity, but increase performance in terms of data transfer by as much as five times over the current 1.44MB standard. 3M spokesperson Larry Teien told Newsbytes that performance improvement will be achieved through the engineering of the Matsushita drive, but declined to provide specific details. Teien said the new diskette announcement is the forerunner of a data storage system that includes a Compaq computer equipped with a Matsushita super-high density drive using 3M-brand diskettes. Iomega Corp. beat Compaq, Matsushita and 3M to the market with its recently announced Zip drive, which can store up to 100MB of data. Zip drives have a street price of under $200, with storage media selling for about $19.95 for the 100MB capacity and $9.95 for the 25MB size. Teien said the price of the disks, as well as the form factor, have yet to be decided, although he acknowledged that the super-high density disks will cost somewhat more than current 1.44MB disks. He told Newsbytes the new disks will have their own distinctive appearance so they can be easily distinguished from high density disks. 3M disks, including the super-high density disks, carry a lifetime warranty for the disk. 3M says it assumes no responsibility for data lost if one of their disks fails. A Compaq spokesperson told Newsbytes the new diskettes are expected to come to market by the end of 1995. (Jim Mallory/19950508/Press contact: Hedy Baker, Compaq, 713-374-0484; Larry Teien, 3M, 612-736-5961; Public contact: Compaq, 713-374-1459, 3M, 800-888-1889 ext 33) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 05/09/95 NETWORK 7 Million Use Microsoft Mail For PC LANs (NEWS)(NETWORK)(DEN)(00008) 7 Million Use Microsoft Mail For PC LANs 05/09/95 REDMOND, WASHINGTON, U.S.A., 1995 MAY 9 (NB) -- Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ: MSFT) says more than seven million electronic mailboxes are installed worldwide that use Microsoft Mail for PC Networks, a LAN (local area network)-based electronic-mail system. The company said the figures were published in Electronic Mail and Messaging Systems, a bi-weekly report on messaging technology and market trends published by BRP Publications. Microsoft Mail has recently been recognized by both Byte Magazine and Computer Reseller News. Byte gave the program the 1995 Readers' Choice Award as the leading e-mail and workgroup software product. It was the third year Microsoft Mail had received the award. Computer Reseller News gave Microsoft Mail its Vision Award as the best e-mail product of 1994. The award was based on a survey of more than 200 software resellers. Microsoft Mail users can access e-mail on the Internet, X.400-based messaging systems, third party LAN-based e-mail packages, and send and receive faxes using the services of various public service providers. Microsoft says it will upgrade its Microsoft Mail Server this summer. The upgrade will allow administrators to remotely manage message transfer agent and directory synchronization processes through a new multitasking message transfer agent for the Windows NT Server network operating system. Users will also get several administrative utilities Microsoft said will ease the management of directory synchronization and personal address books. Other Microsoft messaging products include Mail Remote and Schedule+. (Jim Mallory/19950509/Press contact: Peggy Stabler, Waggener Edstrom for Microsoft, 206-637-9097; Public contact: Microsoft, 206-882-8080 or 800-426-9400) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 05/09/95 ONLINE Netmanage Internet Address Book For Ecco (NEWS)(ONLINE)(TYO)(00009) Netmanage Internet Address Book For Ecco 05/09/95 CUPERTINO, CALIFORNIA, USA, 1995 MAY 9 (NB) -- Netmanage has released the Ecco Internet Address Book (EIA), an add-on for their Ecco Information Management System software. The address book brings together over 2,000 of the Internet's most popular World Wide Web, Gopher, FTP (File Transfer Protocol) and Telnet destinations into a single, user configurable, index. The addresses are organized into 38 pre-programmed areas ranging from art galleries and government sites to music, news, and shopping. Within each of these sections are alphabetical listings of popular and useful Internet sites, some of which expand further to reveal another level of information. The software contains over 20 vacant main headings which the user can program to their own interests whilst the existing sections can also be changed, making it a very flexible tool when "surfing" the Internet and trying to keep track of all the places you discover. Clicking on an Internet address immediately brings up a small window with the address highlighted inside it, allowing the user to copy the address straight from Ecco into the clipboard and on to an Internet browser for use. Added to this is the ability to mark any site as "hot" for the preparation of a list of personal favorite sites or a hotlist. Commenting of the new database, Pete Polash, vice president of the Netmanage Ecco Division said, "The Internet is fast becoming an important source of information for the home and business user, and Ecco's flexibility provides users with a powerful tool to help manage both their Internet information, and their everyday meetings, calls, hot issues, and activities." The Internet Address Book comes with a copy of the latest version of Ecco Lite, the demonstration version of Netmanage's information management software, which also includes the telephone and address book functions of the full version of Ecco and a copy of Ecco Shooter, a utility that allows for easier transfer of information between applications. All the time Ecco is running, a small shooter icon appears in the title bar of the active window. When pressed, it sends any selected information in the active application into an Ecco application such as the Internet Address Book. According to NetManage, "Users just select a piece of information on the Net, and a single click can send it into Ecco or any other Windows application. Users can therefore stay on the Internet, and "shoot" information to any Windows program, without leaving the Net." The software is available from NetManage for $19.95 or for free via anonymous FTP from Netmanage's FTP server on the Internet at ftp://ftp.netmanage.com/Pub/Demos/ECCO. It is also available in the Eccolite area on CompuServe. Existing Ecco users can download the address book file only. (Martyn Williams/19950509/Press contact: Norma McKinney, NetManage, 206-867-3757, Internet e-mail normam@netmanage.com; Public contact: NetManage, tel 206-885-4272, fax 206-885-0127) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 05/09/95 WINDOWS Jixxa Windows CD-ROM Jigsaw Puzzle (NEWS)(WINDOWS)(MSP)(00010) Jixxa Windows CD-ROM Jigsaw Puzzle 05/09/95 WOONSOCKET, RHODE ISLAND, U.S.A., 1995 MAY 9 (NB) -- Ocean State Publishing said it has taken the jigsaw puzzle off of the table top and put it on the desktop. Called "Jixxa - The Premier Edition," Ocean State said this is the first CD-ROM-based jigsaw puzzle to be distributed nationwide. Ocean State Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Eric Robichaud told Newsbytes that with Jixxa, Windows users can say "goodbye" to Solitaire. "It's a nice game that the whole family can play," Robichaud said. "In today's atmosphere of everyone and their brother trying to put out product, we found a void that we're trying to fill in putting out a realistic jigsaw puzzle product." The puzzles themselves can be easy or difficult, depending on certain options the user selects. For example, a player can select very large pieces that are already facing the right "direction" when the puzzle is dumped out of the virtual "box." Options to make the game more difficult include the ability to lock non-matching pieces, and having tiny puzzle pieces. If players get stuck, Jixxa contains hint and auto-solve functions, Robichaud said. The game also has nine different "boxes" players can create so they can store different types of puzzle pieces away from the desktop. For example, users can store sky-colored pieces in one box, white pieces in another box, and red pieces in a third. "We wanted this to get all of the benefits a high-tech product can bring to the table, and also keep it as a low-tech product," Robichaud said. He said the goal of the game is to have anyone sit down and start playing immediately, and "get" how the game is played. Robichaud pointed out that the term "Jixxa" actually refers to the jigsaw puzzle engine that develops the graphic "riddles." Twelve different puzzles, ranging from castles to flowers to city skylines, are on the "Premier Edition." Robichaud said other Jixxa products, like sports-oriented puzzles, will come out in the future. Jixxa - The Premier Edition runs on a Windows 3.1- or Windows 95-based computer that has a CD-ROM drive, four megabytes (MB) of memory, and 1MB of hard drive space. It has a suggested retail price of $39.95. (Bob Woods/19950509/Press Contact: Phil Hall, Open City Communications, 212-714-3575. Public Contact: Ocean State Publishing, 401-767-3376) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 05/09/95 TRENDS Small Business Owners Optimistic, Most Use PCs (NEWS)(TRENDS)(DEN)(00011) Small Business Owners Optimistic, Most Use PCs 05/09/95 REDMOND, WASHINGTON, U.S.A., 1995 MAY 9 (NB) -- A study commissioned by Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ: MSFT) indicates owners of small businesses are optimistic about their chances for success and most use PCs, despite reports that they are afraid of computers. The study, called the Microsoft Small-Business Success Index, was released this month in conjunction with National Small Business month and on the eve of the third White House Conference on Small Business. A series of state and regional conferences, with Microsoft as one of the sponsors, have been held throughout the year leading up to the national conference next month in Washington DC. The conference is held every 10 years. America is a nation of small businesses. More than 21 million businesses filed tax returns in 1993, and only 14,000 of those had 500 or more employees. According to Dun & Bradstreet, there were more than 188,000 new business startups in 1994, a 13 percent increase over 1993. The Microsoft survey was done by Burke Marketing Research. Researchers at the firm conducted 15-minute computer-assisted telephone interviews with 300 small business owners. To qualify, a the respondent had to be the sole owner or partner in a business with 10 or fewer employees and not part of a franchise. The survey company said 93 percent of the respondents perceive their companies as successful, but the yardstick for success used by men and women business owners differs. Men (63 percent) judge their business success by financial achievement, while women (31 percent versus 23 percent) are more likely to use customer satisfaction as the standard for success. Age seems to determine what business owners think contributes to whatever success they have achieved. Forty percent of the respondents over 55 mentioned customer satisfaction, while below 55 only 20 percent picked customer satisfaction. Eighty-seven percent of the respondents said a personal computer is an important tool for success, and 27 percent who don't use a PC still recognize its value in business. Non-users cited their business being too small to benefit as the leading reason for not having a PC. More than half of the owners surveyed do use a PC in their business, with 90 percent of the hardware being IBM-compatible. Three-quarters of those use Microsoft Windows. For some time PC makers and software publishers have striven to make their products easier to use, and the results of the study seem to indicate they have been successful. Most of the business owners interviewed do not feel that computers take too long to learn, are confusing and stressful, or believe that technology changes too quickly for them to keep up. In the choice of applications, men reportedly are more likely to use a spreadsheet while significantly more women use presentation-graphics programs. What can hamper your success in business? According to the study, it is things you cannot control, such as too many government demands, lack of customers, too much competition, the economy, and the high cost of insurance and health care. What do small businesses use computers for? In order of importance, they are word processing, spreadsheets, databases, accounting, presentation graphics, and desktop publishing. (Jim Mallory/19950509/Press contact: Deborah Caldwell, Waggener Edstrom for Microsoft, 408-986-1140; Public contact: Microsoft, 206-882-8080) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 05/09/95 GOVT US Commerce Secretary Calls For Govt/Business Cooperation (NEWS)(GOVT)(BOS)(00012) US Commerce Secretary Calls For Govt/Business Cooperation 05/09/95 BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS, U.S.A., 1995 MAY 9 (NB) -- To keep pace with global competition and change, the US government and business must cooperate on initiatives like the Advanced Technology Program and the Manufacturing Extension Program, said US Secretary of Commerce Ronald H. Brown, at an event sponsored by the Massachusetts Software Council, Massachusetts Telecommunications Council, Massachusetts Biotech Council, and Environmental Business Council of New England. Throughout the world, change is taking place at unprecedented speed, noted Secretary Brown, speaking at the luncheon meeting, held in Boston and attended by Newsbytes. "If we intend to compete effectively, we need to be working together," Brown told the business and technology leaders, following welcoming remarks by Pamela D.A. Reeve, president of Lightbridge Inc., and also a trustee of the Mass. Software Council, and an introduction of Brown by Mitchell D. Kapor, president of Kapor Enterprises. Twenty-five years ago, a typical high school graduate in the US could look forward to lifelong employment with a single company, whereas today, a person with a high school diploma can expect to experience five or six different career changes, Brown illustrated. Twenty, ten or even five years ago, nobody could have foreseen the demise of the Soviet Union, said the US Commerce Secretary. The fact that Nelson Mandela, formerly imprisoned in South Africa, would today be "leading South Africa (into) a market economy" also runs "totally contrary to predictions," Brown added. The rate of change is just as dramatic in Latin America and Asia, according to Brown. "This is not just a transition, or transformation," he maintained. Public/private partnership initiatives like the Advanced Technology Program and the Manufacturing Extension Partnership, which are both operated by the National Institute for Standards and Technology (NIST), provide "a chance to create new metaphors" for coping with global change, Brown told the group. Some members of the new Republican leadership in the US Congress would tell technology businesses to "go to see your nearest venture capitalist" for funding, Brown charged. But, he contended, "anyone who knows venture capitalists" recognizes that venture capitalists want to see real investment potential before committing their own dollars. The Advanced Technology Program is one way of "leveraging public sector dollars" in an effective direction, reported Brown. The program is aimed at creating public/private partnerships around "medium-term research and development" projects that "fill the gap" between academic research and product commercialization, according to the cabinet official. US President Bill Clinton has made a commitment to increase spending on the Advanced Technology Program to substantially through 1997, but private sector backing for the initiative remains "very imperative," he said. Opponents of the program reduced the program's budget by $90 million dollars for 1995, to about $341 million. At this point, the Advanced Technology Program amounts to less than one-half of one percent of the federal government's R&D budget, according to Brown. Clinton is seeking $490 million for the initiative for 1996. The Manufacturing Extension Program, on the other hand, is an effort to "put (manufacturing) technology in the hands of small- and medium-sized businesses," he explained. Over the past three years, the initiative has assisted state and local non-profit organizations to build the first 44 centers in a planned national network of manufacturing extension and technology centers, according to Brown. The House recently voted to cut $26.5 million from the program's 1996 budget, but a newly raised Senate amendment would restore $24 million on the proposed cut. Clinton seeks $146.6 million for the Manufacturing Extension Program in 1996. The US federal government has given subsidies to agriculture for decades, and now technology deserves the same opportunity, he told the audience. The agricultural subsidies have helped the US to become "the breadbasket of the world," he argued. Brown also responded to questions from the audience on issues that included internal "reengineering" efforts by the US federal government, the balance of trade between the US and Japan, and the Clinton Administration's stand on the R&D tax credit. In a reengineering campaign led by US Vice President Al Gore, the federal government has cut about 250,000 jobs from the federal government, according to the Commerce Secretary. President Clinton is "absolutely determined" to reduce the trade deficit between the US and Japan, something "nobody else has been willing to do," he reported. The US/Japan trade deficit now amounts to $60 billion, he pointed out. "The problem is that the Japanese think we will do nothing," Brown added. But Clinton plans to be "relentless and tough" in dealing with the deficit, and the President might resort to trade sanctions against Japan, according to the government official. With regard to the R&D tax credit, the Clinton Administration favors "targeting it to small- and medium-sized companies, but not across the board," he said. The federal government created the tax credit in 1981 as a "temporary" incentive to research, but the measure has been renewed ever since. The United States' gross domestic product-to-federal deficit ratio is no longer the worst among the G7 nations, and it is stronger now than it has been in many years, said Brown. But the US needs to be "pragmatic" and "analytical" in reducing the deficit, he added. "I think that to take it down too quickly would be a mistake. Most economists would (also) say this is important," asserted the Secretary of Commerce. (Jacqueline Emigh/19950509/Reader Contact: Mass. Software Council, 617-437-0600; Mass. Telecommunications Council, 617-439-8600; US Department of Commerce 202-482-2000; Press Contacts: Craig Librett or Lizzie Allen, Miller Communications, 617-536-0470; Carol Hamilton, US Department of Commerce, 202-482-6001; Jim Desler, US Department of Commerce, 202-482-6014; Michael Baum, US Department of Commerce, 301-975-2762) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 05/09/95 GENERAL BizForms Finds 50/50 Split In SOHO Market (NEWS)(GENERAL)(BOS)(00013) BizForms Finds 50/50 Split In SOHO Market 05/09/95 WALTHAM, MASSACHUSETTS, U.S.A., 1995 MAY 9 (NB) -- BizForms, JetForm's first entry into the SOHO (small office/home office) market, is just entering mass distribution, and sales results so far show an even split between the home office and small business markets, said John B. Hitchins, general manager of JetForm's Small Office/Home Office Division, in a conference call with Newsbytes. Known until now as a maker of forms and workflow software for the corporate and government markets, JetForm decided to branch out into SOHO because members of the emerging market "have a lot of expendable income, and in many instances, a strong need to compete with larger companies," Hitchins told Newsbytes. BizForm's 50/50 sales split is precisely what JetForm was hoping for, he added. Before developing the Windows-based product, he explained, JetForm conducted extensive market research on the SOHO market, looking at attributes such as income levels and familiarity with PCs. But even then, he noted, "We weren't exactly sure about the front- end." To meet the needs of the wide ranging SOHO spectrum, JetForm tried to strike a "happy medium," offering an interface that would be easy enough for the novice to grasp, but at the same time "wouldn't be obtrusive for someone with computer smarts." It is now starting to be sold in retail chains like Egghead and Electronic Boutique, as well as by two or three major resellers. Initial customer feedback has been highly positive, Hitchins contended. "Not only are people buying the product. They're really using it." Users, he maintained, are telling JetForm that BizForms is providing them with forms that either weren't available to them before, or could only be obtained through "cludgy," difficult-to- use software. Small businesses of five to 25 employees are reporting that, by putting them on more equal footing in terms of presenting a "polished" appearance, the JetForm software is helping them to compete successfully against larger companies, he asserted. Fax and invoice forms are two of the forms that are particularly popular, according to Hitchins. Consultants and other contractors are finding that the convenience of an electronic invoice form is helping them to submit invoices sooner, and to get paid faster. BizForms in publications that include Home Office Computing, PC Computing, and Home PC, according to the general manager. The new SOHO division is also analyzing the possibility of porting BizForms to Macintosh and OS/2, Hitchins told Newsbytes. Many of the "underpinnings" for these two ports have already been built by JetForm, through high-end products that are already available for Mac and OS/2, as well as for Windows, Unix, and other platforms, he explained. (Jacqueline Emigh/19950508/Reader Contact: JetForm, 617-647- 7700; Press Contact: Terri Slater, Slater PR & Marketing for JetForm, 508-359-5677) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 05/09/95 ONLINE Congressional Quarterly Forum On America Online (NEWS)(ONLINE)(WAS)(00014) Congressional Quarterly Forum On America Online 05/09/95 WASHINGTON, D.C., U.S.A., 1995 MAY 9 (NB) -- Congressional Quarterly (CQ) has launched a forum on America Online, bringing a new level of political information to subscribers of the fast growing online service. The new offering coincides with CQ's 50th anniversary. "CQ was founded on a commitment to put accurate, impartial information about government into the hands of the electorate, and now America Online members can access CQ information from their home computers," said Ed Hauck, CQ marketing director. When America Online subscribers type the keyword "CQ," they will reach Congressional Quarterly's main menu, offering access to that week's cover story from the CQ Weekly Report, reference files with election results, detailed biographies of members of Congress, other stories about politics and government, and a message board and chat sessions. "CQ Online is a valuable addition to AOL's existing Capital Connection, offering important political news an information to the people directly affected by public policy," said Ted Leonsis, president of America Online services company. Congressional Quarterly is a private, non-partisan publisher based in Washington. CQ was founded by the late Nelson Poynter, owner and publisher of the St. Petersburg Times newspaper. The Weekly Report has been the definitive source of information on Congress since 1945. Founded in 1985, AOL claims it is the fastest growing of the online services, with more than 2.5 million subscribers. It is based in Vienna, Va., in the Washington suburbs. The service recently began offering a beta version of a World Wide Web browser, giving the service a full range of interconnections to the Internet. (Kennedy Maize/19950509/Press Contacts: Mine Baghorzadeh, CQ, 202-822-1446; Margaret Ryan, AOL, 703-883-1625) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 05/09/95 GENERAL Sybase Joins BSA Committee (NEWS)(GENERAL)(WAS)(00015) Sybase Joins BSA Committee 05/09/95 WASHINGTON, D.C., U.S.A., 1995 MAY 9 (NB) -- With the House getting started on comprehensive telecommunications legislation, Sybase has become a member of the Business Software Alliance's public policy committee. BSA spokeswoman Diane Smiroldo told Newsbytes that there are various membership options at BSA, and membership on the public policy committee means Sybase will be following and working on issues before the 104th Congress, but will not be a full-fledged BSA member. "They are interested in telecommunication, the global information infrastructure, and that sort of thing," she said of Sybase. The House Commerce Committee's telecommunications subcommittee is set to begin three days of hearings tomorrow on a bill drafted by subcommittee Chairman Jack Fields (R-Texas) and full committee Chairman Thomas Bliley (R-Va.). A similar measure has passed the Senate Commerce Committee but has stalled short of the Senate floor. Majority Leader Bob Dole (R-Kan.) has not made his intentions for the legislation clear. BSA is monitoring telecommunications legislation closely, says Smiroldo. "As an increasing number of subscribers board the information superhighway," she says, "copyright issues relating to the protection of intellectual property rights are critically important to the continued economic success of the industry." Sybase, one of the fastest growing suppliers of client-server software, has a fundamental interest in online issues, including enterprise-wide applications. Based in Emeryville, Calif., Sybase employs 5,000 people at facilities in 21 states and 20 countries. BSA, created in 1988 to work largely on international piracy issues, has moved into public policy, lobbying and other more traditional trade group activities in recent years. BSA was created because of dissatisfaction on the part of some of the larger software publishers with the Software Publishers Association, a larger trade group with a more diverse membership. A recent article in Wired magazine described BSA as "an exclusive big-boys club for software giants like Microsoft and Lotus." BSA's members include Autodesk, Bentley Systems, Intergraph, Lotus, Microsoft, Novell and its WordPerfect group, and the Santa Cruz Operation. (Kennedy Maize/19950509/Press Contact: Diane Smiroldo, BSA, 202-872-5500) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 05/09/95 BUSINESS ****Apple & IBM To Create OpenDoc Tools (NEWS)(BUSINESS)(SFO)(00016) ****Apple & IBM To Create OpenDoc Tools 05/09/95 SAN JOSE, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1995 MAY 9 (NB) -- Apple Computer Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) and IBM (NYSE:IBM) have jointly announced plans to build multi-platform development tools for OpenDoc. Apple's next-generation of operating systems are to be built around the technology, which will eventually offer a "complete" cross-platform software environment. These new development tools will be offered to application developers, consultants, value-added resellers, independent software vendors, systems integrators, and other "solution" providers, said the firms. OpenDoc development tools will allow users to incorporate OpenDoc components into existing and new software applications. Both companies say the tools will be designed to run on Macintosh, OS/2, Windows, and AIX operating systems. The OpenDoc development environment Apple and IBM are creating will incorporate BASIC language technology and object-oriented extensions. IBM's System Object Model (SOM) will also be used in the creation of this environment. Speaking to Newsbytes, Skip McGaughey, IBM's marketing manager for object-oriented technology, said, "This is a strategic announcement for both companies. It reaffirms our commitments to OpenDoc technology and agreements on code. We continue to have high-level talks on specific details and components to assure our development tools are very tight and compatible." McGaughey continued, "We have begun a 'new IBM' and its motto is 'We are going to ship products that the customer wants.' We have become more aggressive in the process of developing OpenDoc technology. The technology is stable now and ready for both tools and operating system implementation. The suite of application development tools we are working on complement work that is going on with the operating systems." (Patrick McKenna/19950509/Press Contact: Kieth Rantas, IBM, 914-766-1211) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 05/09/95 NETWORK Cylink Unveils Security Architecture (NEWS)(NETWORK)(LON)(00017) Cylink Unveils Security Architecture 05/09/95 BASINGSTOKE, ENGLAND, 1995 MAY 9 (NB) -- Cylink has taken the wraps off Enterprise Security Architecture (ESA), which UK Managing Director David Moseley describes as an "integrated set of self-contained intelligent software security modules" which provide greater enterprise security and reduce costs, as well as increasing interoperability. "ESA is very much an umbrella, tying together the various elements of security under one name, so that customers can be offered a single service rather than a portfolio of products," Moseley told Newsbytes, adding that the architecture is being launched by Cylink's offices around the world. Moseley went on to explain that ESA enables the provision of total information security across enterprise-wide networks for the first time. He described it as the "foundation stone" for all the company's new hardware and software security products. "Security and encryption have traditionally been `add-ons' to the network. They should be integral, and with ESA they can be," he said. According to Moseley, ESA offers four layers of Information Security (IS) to users: verification, access control, integrity, and privacy. The architecture allows security to be applied at any number of points within the network, whether on the WAN (wide area network) or LAN (local area network), or at individual PCs, workstations, or terminals. These contain details of individuals' access and communication paths, ensuring that users cannot enter any part of the network for which they are not authorized. ESA has three individual layers. Layer one consists of two management modules, a directory service module which provides X.500- compliant directory services and a management module that provides secure SNMP (Simple Network Management Protocol) facilities on a variety of platforms. Layer two ensures source verification, access control, and information integrity through a Digital Signature Module that incorporates the DSS (Digital Signature Standards), a Certificate Module (embracing X.509- compliant certificates), and a certificate Authority Module (including both inter and intra-enterprise capabilities). Topping out the ESA is a private capabilities layer, which consists of an Encryption Algorithm Module (DES, Tripe DES, 40-bit DES and other algorithms) and a Key Management Module (including Diffie Hellman and Public Key Escrow Systems, as well as other public key techniques). According to Moseley, Cylink's ESA is the first architecture to provide enterprise-wise network security solutions. "One of the industry's past weaknesses is that network security has been a 'piece meal' effort," he said. "Our new architecture provides an integrated blueprint for an open and flexible approach, allowing a choice of scaleable security technologies that best fit the security challenges of any particular enterprise network." The first product to incorporate ESA is Cylink's Remote Access Management System (RAMS), which protects corporate information from unauthorized network access by protecting remote dial-in systems, according to the company. RAMS itself is actually three products in one: the NetGate access management server; Safecomm Link for Windows; and the Low Speed Encryptor. According to Cylink, between them, the three products provide security on both client and server sides. (Steve Gold/19950509/Press Contact: Harvard PR, 44-181-759-0005; Internet e-mail simonj@harvard.mhs.compuserve.com; Reader Contact: Cylink, +44-1256-841919) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 05/09/95 BROADCAST BT In Satellite Deal With Spain's Hispasat (NEWS)(BROADCAST)(LON)(00018) BT In Satellite Deal With Spain's Hispasat 05/09/95 LONDON, ENGLAND, 1995 MAY 9 (NB) -- British Telecom Broadcast Services (BTBS) has announced the signing of a two-year contract with Hispasat, the Spanish satellite consortium, for access to five transponders onboard the Hispasat family of satellites. According to BTBS, the Hispasat deal is for "occasional use" capacity and allows transportable earth stations (or outside broadcast trucks) to "bounce" signals to and from the European and North African regions. John Swingewood, general manager of BTBS, explained that BTBS acts as a middleman in serving the broadcast and switching needs of broadcast media organizations such as BSkyB and Transworld International (TWI), who will be bounding their signals off the Hispasat satellite and on to the BT network in the UK and beyond, to reach their newsrooms and broadcasting headquarters. "This agreement extends our satellite capacity in Europe and provides a cost-efficient option for broadcasters to reach audiences throughout Western Europe with satellite news gathering and other `occasional use' transmissions," he said. (Steve Gold/19950509/Press Contact: Infopress, tel +44-171-353-2320, fax +44-171-583-9437) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 05/09/95 PC UK - PPCP's Toshiba Notebook Memory Add-In (NEWS)(PC)(LON)(00019) UK - PPCP's Toshiba Notebook Memory Add-In 05/09/95 LONDON, ENGLAND, 1995 MAY 9 (NB) -- PPCP, a specialist distributor for "peripheralia for portable computers," has unveiled an add-in memory card for Toshiba's new T2100 and T2150 family of notebook PCs. According to John Nolan, the company's managing director, the card adapts very well to Toshiba's design and operation specifications, and gives an improved performance when compared to other third-party add-in memory systems for the Toshiba notebooks. According to Nolan, the card slots easily inside the notebooks and is available in capacities of four megabytes (MB), 8MB, 16MB, and 24MB. The card has been designed to operate in Toshiba's T2100 and T2150 machines on five Volt specification, while other third-part memory cards are often for 3.3-volt systems, something that Nolan claims can cause problems. Noland explained that, although Toshiba suggests that using a 3.3-volt memory card on a short usage basis for the T2100 and T2150 series will not cause problems, the company cannot confirm its reliability with a long-term use. Components may be damaged and running extended applications can be difficult and prone to complications. The five-volt memory card, meanwhile, is advised to be installed to maintain the manufacturer's warranty. "Using 3.3-volt memory in a five-volt machine gives an obvious possibility for overheating and subsequent component damage, which would invalidate the machine's warranty," Noland said. "What's more, it puts a question mark over data integrity when running memory- intensive applications. With the correct five-volt memory, users do not have to trade RAM capacity against reliability. We have also priced the memory very competitively," he added. The new cards are manufactured in the US By Apricorn and marketed by Toshiba America. The prices range from UKP250 for a 4MB card to UKP1,795 for a 24MB card. (Sylvia Dennis/19950509/Press & Reader Contact: PPCP, tel +44-181-893-2277, fax +44-181-893-1182) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 05/09/95 BROADCAST Finland - Nokia Signs GSM Deal With Indian Firm (NEWS)(BROADCAST)(LON)(00020) Finland - Nokia Signs GSM Deal With Indian Firm 05/09/95 ESPOO, FINLAND, 1995 MAY 9 (NB) -- Nokia Telecom has signed a deal with Modi Telstra of India. Terms of the deal, financial details of which have not been released, call for the Finnish telecoms company to install a GSM (global system for mobile communications) digital cellular network in the Calcutta area. Modi Telstra is a joint-venture operation between Modi Rubber, part of the Modi Group of companies in India, and Telstra, the Australian telecoms company. According to Luci Luchiani, chief executive officer (CEO) of Modi Telstra, the agreement calls on Nokia to install a complete GSM network, including a DX 200 mobile switching center, cellular base stations, base station controllers, and the necessary transmission equipment. "The signing of this contract places us in a stronger position to launch our (GSM) service early in the second half of this year," Luchiani said. This is the second GSM contract for Nokia in India, Kari Ahola, Nokia Telecom's vice president, noted, adding that the contract strengthens the company's presence on the Indian sub-continent. (Sylvia Dennis/19950509/Press Contact: Sandeep Arora, Telstra India, tel +91-11-335-5985, fax +91-110335-5987; Reader Contact: Nokia Telecom, tel +358-0-5112-5515, fax +358-0-5112-5569) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 05/09/95 TELECOM UK - Mercury One-2-One Offers Business PCN Deal (NEWS)(TELECOM)(LON)(00021) UK - Mercury One-2-One Offers Business PCN Deal 05/09/95 LONDON, ENGLAND, 1995 MAY 9 (NB) -- In the ongoing price war between the UK's two PCN (personal communications network) digital cellular network operators, Mercury One-2-One has undercut Hutchison Orange's recent UKP99.95 entry-level phone package with its own Business Call Plus package. The Business Call Plus package sells for an impressively low UKP79.99 for the phone and sign-up charges. Line rental is then UKP25 a month, plus peak rate calls at 14 pence a month, free voice-mail retrieval, and free local calls at weekends. The offer is officially open for the next two months, but Newsbytes' sources suggest that other special deals will fill the gap when the offer closes at the end of June. According to Richard Goswell, One-2-One's managing director, the package is targeted at heavy business users of PCN, who make most of their calls during the day. "With the greater security and capacity of the new digital PCNs, businesses are beginning to migrate away from the old analog services," he said. He added that Business Call Plus' low daytime rates and free voice-mail services make it a very competitive business tariff that "also allows customers to make more of their leisure time, with free local calls at weekends." Two phones are available on the Business Call Plus package: the Mercury M301 and the M400. The cost savings with the bundle amount to almost UKP100 when compared to previous pricing, Newsbytes notes. Mercury is also offering a dedicated business operator service for assistance to Business Call Plus subscribers. When subscribers dial 121 from their phones, their call will be handled by a dedicated customer support team, rather than having to join the long wait for phone-based helpline support that Orange and One-2-One are well known for. One-2-One is also offering subscribers on the new package access to the International Option and Inside Option deals. These offer, respectively, discounts of 10 percent on international calls and, when the subscriber is in their "home area," calls at rates less than those of BT's peak rate tariffs. (Steve Gold/19950509/Press Contact: Ian Volans, tel +44-956-700121, fax +44-956-700122) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 05/09/95 NETWORK UK - Madge Networks Opens Dedicated R&D Center (NEWS)(NETWORK)(LON)(00022) UK - Madge Networks Opens Dedicated R&D Center 05/09/95 HIGH WYCOMBE, BUCKINGHAMSHIRE, ENGLAND, 1995 MAY 9 (NB) - Madge Networks has opened a dedicated new research and development (R&D) center. The new center, to be known as the Sefton Park R&D operation, will employ around 250 staff when the site is fully up and running sometime in the next three years. Michael Heseltine MP, president of the Board of Trade, opened the center recently at the invitation of the company. According to Madge, the establishment of the center is a major factor in its ambitions to maintain its leadership of the Token Ring market and to lead the development of emerging networking technologies such as ATM (asynchronous transfer mode). The new 43,000 square-foot site consolidates 152 development staff from three locations and will expand to accommodate a further 250 staff over the next three years. In parallel with the opening of the new center, Madge has also launched a European-wide recruitment campaign to attract the "brightest" science graduates and R&D professionals with networking skills, particularly those with ATM expertise. Plans call for around 100 research staff to be recruited this year and a further 150 in the years 1996 and 1997. According to Bob Madge, the company's managing director, these positions will be a mix of hardware, software, and network support engineers. A significant proportion will be new graduates. According to a spokesman for Madge Networks, the research departments at Sefton Park are structured into "Desktop" (including ATM and Token Ring adapters) and "Infrastructure Products" (including intelligent hubs and switching technology). Madge has also relocated its Services Business Unit to Sefton Park. (Steve Gold/19950509/Press Contact: Buffalo Communications, +44-171-385-0777; Reader Contact: Phil Crocker, Madge Networks, +44-1628-858000 Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 05/09/95 HEALTH Physicians' Online Allows For Query By Example (NEWS)(HEALTH)(MSP)(00023) Physicians' Online Allows For Query By Example 05/09/95 TARRYTOWN, NEW YORK, U.S.A., 1995 MAY 9 (NB) -- Using simple English phrases to do online searches of medical articles is now a reality on the Physicians' Online network. The service is described as the first interactive service to provide members with free, unlimited use of medical information. The new process, called "Query By Example" (QBE), lets users search articles from four databases in two steps, using simple phrases. William Greenberg, MD, senior vice president of medical information at Physicians' Online, told Newsbytes QBE is similar to fuzzy logic. The more traditional Boolean logic, which is more complex and uses words like "and," "or," and "not" to make up a search phrase is the logic usually used in searches, Greenberg said. "What QBE does is hone in more exact articles in what you're interested in," he said. Then users can bring in more articles that are like the first one, he added. The four databases that can be searched by natural language, or QBE, are Medline, AIDSline, Health and Administration, and CancerLit, Greenberg said. The National Library of Medicine compiles Medline and AIDSline. Medline takes its references from more than 3,700 international medical journals dating back to 1966, Physicians' Online officials said, while AIDSline provides access to more than 80,000 references about AIDS and related topics from 4,000 journals dating back to 1980. Both databases are updated weekly. The third QBE database, Health and Administration, is also from the National Library of Medicine, while CancerLit is published by the National Cancer Institute. Other databases that can be accessed from Physicians' Online include Physicians GenRx, Quick Medical Reference, and drug interaction programs. Future plans for the service include online forums, bulletin boards, Internet electronic-mail, a customized clipping service, and online continuing medical education programs. Physicians' Online makes its money from sponsors and not subscribers, Greenberg said. A sponsor's message is displayed at the bottom in an interactive windows called a "sponsorship region." Access to Physicians' Online is gained through proprietary software for either the Windows or Macintosh platforms. (Bob Woods/19950509/Press Contacts: Sheree Wichard, Wichard Communications, 212-725-5421; Jeffrey Sacks, Physicians' Online, 914-332-6100 ext 285. Public Contact: Physicians' Online Member Services, 800-332-0009) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 05/09/95 TELECOM US-German Offer Tops Czech Telecoms Bidding (NEWS)(TELECOM)(LON)(00024) US-German Offer Tops Czech Telecoms Bidding 05/09/95 LONDON, ENGLAND, 1995 MAY 9 (NB) -- A bid of $1.05 billion from Ameritech and Deutsche Telekom has topped the first round of competition for 27 percent of the Czech Republic's SPT Telecom telephone operator, according to investment bankers. A privatization at this price, or higher, will be the largest single sale in eastern Europe, surpassing the disposal in 1993 for $875 million of 30 percent of Matav, the Hungarian telephone company. Bidders' proposals are confidential, but it is understood that the US-German partnership emerged at the head of five contenders. It is thought to have been followed by Stet International and then by Teledenmark, which put in an initial "indication" bid of about $900 million. The field is crowded because Western telecoms companies have few opportunities for foreign acquisitions. Most telecoms privatizations have taken the form of equity offerings and of European countries, only Hungary, the Czech Republic, and Belgium have opted for a sale to investors from the industry. (Terry Silveria/19950508) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 05/09/95 BROADCAST ****Zenith Offers Cable TV Modems (NEWS)(BROADCAST)(MSP)(00025) ****Zenith Offers Cable TV Modems 05/09/95 GLENVIEW, ILLINOIS, U.S.A., 1995 MAY 9 (NB) -- Zenith Electronics Corporation (NYSE:ZE) is introducing what it calls "cardless" cable modems to bring signals from a cable TV line directly into a user's computer. Zenith said, for the first time, the "HomeWorks Universal" cable modem will allow both one-way and two-way cable systems to offer high-speed broadband connectivity to users. Officials say a version of HomeWorks Universal that includes cable downstream and telephone line upstream connection access for one- way cable systems will be available in the fourth quarter of 1995. Zenith introduced this and other products during the National Cable Television Association show in New Orleans, Louisiana this week. Speeds of four megabits-per-second (Mbps) or 500 kilobits-per-second (Kbps) can be obtained with HomeWorks Universal, which is a third- generation product, the company said. HomeWorks Universal can be connected to Apple Macintosh computers and notebooks through the Ethernet ports in those units. IBM-compatibles can also be hooked up to the Zenith units through a 10BaseT Ethernet card interface Zenith claims is now being built into many computers. John Taylor, Zenith spokesperson, told Newsbytes that the HomeWorks Universal product line is an improvement over older products in that it uses a standard Ethernet connection, as opposed to a proprietary card that was used with older models. Zenith says with HomeWorks Universal, cable providers will be able to service their customers with applications like work-at-home, distance learning, videoconferencing, advanced graphics, and access to online services and the Internet. Taylor also said HomeWorks Universal will work with plans by other companies to bring streams of data into homes and businesses via cable. "Some of the newer announcements just in the last week dovetail quite nicely with our product plans," he said. Two such ventures were announced last week, as reported by Newsbytes. One involves Intel, AT&T, and Hybrid Networks developing high-speed data services to homes over broadband cable networks. The other comes from TCI, which announced it will form a new company to provide nationwide Internet and online service access through cable TV wires. Zenith also announced that Rogers Cablesystems Limited will be the first cable operator to deploy HomeWorks Universal cable modems, with IBM Canada's "Flexiplace" work-at-home program in Newmarket, Ontario. The service will be delivered via Rogers' CableLink-Work program which currently transmits graphics and data via the company's two-way broadband network that uses fiber and coaxial cable. The program links IBM employees who work at home to the main offices of IBM Canada with other Zenith cable modems. Taylor said more than 300 cable systems are already using first- and second-generation cable modems from his company. (Bob Woods/19950509/Press Contact: John Taylor, Zenith Electronics Corp., 708-391-8181; Joan Simkins, Rogers Cablesystems, 416-391-7273) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 05/09/95 SUPERCOMPUTERS America's Cup US Entry Designed On A Cray (NEWS)(SUPERCOMPUTERS)(DEN)(00026) America's Cup US Entry Designed On A Cray 05/09/95 EAGAN, MINNESOTA, U.S.A., 1995 MAY 9 (NB) -- If well-known yacht skipper Dennis Conner wins the America's Cup again this year he will capture the cup in a boat that was designed using more than $2 million of dedicated time on a Cray Research supercomputer. Conner won the Citizen Cup in the boat Stars & Stripes, but PACT 95's boat Young America, which was designed using a Cray supercomputer, is considered the fastest and best designed boat with the best overall race record among the three US syndicates in the America's Cup defender selection series. So Conner asked for and got use of Young America to defend the America's Cup this year. The boat was turned over to Conner on April 29 to prepare for the race finals, which started May 6. "Stars & Stripes brought us where we are today," said Conner. "However, four months of defender trails have proven Young America's hull has speed advantages. This boat and the proven strengths of the Stars & Stripes team will be a winning combination in the upcoming America's Cup." Cray Research spokesperson Mardi Larson explained for Newsbytes that the cup winner is determined by who wins the best of 12 races. So far Conner has been beaten in the first two contests by the New Zealand entry. He trailed by about three minutes in one race, an eternity in yacht racing. John Marshall, president of the PACT 95 syndicate, said the Cray computer time was used to look at hundreds of design options over the course of the design cycle. Marshall said the computer allowed PACT 95 designers to simulate how those designs would react under various racing conditions. "This simulation technology allowed PACT 95 to achieve a first in IACC (International America's Class Cup) design - we were able to move directly from simulation to manufacturing the final yacht with no full-scale prototypes." Marshall said typically anywhere from two to five full-scale prototype boats are created during a design cycle to achieve the final design. In 1993, Cray Research upgraded The Boeing Company's Cray Y-MP supercomputer by adding four additional processors that were dedicated to the simulation work involved in designing Young America. Designers also used time on a Cray supercomputer at the company's center in Eagan, Minnesota, during the 14 month design cycle. Marshall said it requires a lot of computing power to accurately simulate various keel, hull, bulb design options and the flow of water around those designs. Young America's hull is 78 feet long, 16 feet wide at the widest point and weighs 8,000 pounds including equipment. That makes it one of the narrowest and lightest hulls participating in the 95 America's Cup race. However, there are drawbacks to such a narrow, light hull. Marshall said narrow boats are more likely to tip over, but have less surface area in the water and travel better through rough water. The light, narrow crafts also have more of a tendency to break, as happened with an Australian boat early in this year's race. Young America has a keel with a vertical steel fin with a shorter leading-edge-to-trailing-edge length. That reduces the surface area, and ultimately, the drag. The fin has a steel trailing-edge flap that serves the same purpose as the flap on an airplane wing. During sailing, the flap can be adjusted to vary the lift and drag characteristics of the boat. A ballast bulb made of lead that weighs 40,000 pounds accounts for more than 80 percent of the total weight of Young America's 50,000 pound total weight. The bulb is designed to keep the boat from tipping over. The PACT 95 designers worked with Boeing aerospace engineers to design a squashed shape bulb that is somewhat flat on the bottom and more rounded on top. They believe that will allow the bulb to perform its uprighting job but still allow it to move quickly through the water with less drag. Cray Research said Science Applications International Corp. and Ford Motor Company also worked on the design of Young America. When Conner won the America's Cup in 1987, much of the simulation work was also done on a Cray supercomputer. Cray said it will donate supercomputing resources in 1998 as well. Larson told Newsbytes Cray Research got involved in the boat design process in 1987 to show that supercomputers can be used for purposes other than defense and weather forecasting. (Jim Mallory/19950509/Press contact: Mardi Larson, Cray Research, 612-683-3538) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 05/09/95 EDUCATION Jones Education Offers College Degrees Online (NEWS)(EDUCATION)(DEN)(00027) Jones Education Offers College Degrees Online 05/09/95 ENGLEWOOD, COLORADO, U.S.A., 1995 MAY 9 (NB) -- If you really want a college degree but can't find the time to attend on-campus classes, you should check out the offerings on the Jones Education Networks (JEN), a subsidiary of Jones International. JEN operates the Mind Extension University (MEU) and the Jones Computer Network. The company said thousands of adult students are advancing their educational goals without giving up their jobs or losing time from their families, traveling the information highway to obtain a bachelor's or advanced degree from one of several accredited colleges and universities. Instead of attending classes on campus, Mind Extension University students participate via a process called "distance education." That technique allows adult learners to reach their educational goals by attending class on television via cable, satellite, and videocassette. Jones International said the MEU courses are taught by professors from 35 leading colleges and universities. You can obtain a degree in management from the University of Maryland, a master of fine arts in education and human development from George Washington University, or a master of business administration degree from Colorado State University. A bachelor of arts degree requires a total of 120 semester hours of credit, while a MA requires 36 semester hours on top of your bachelor's degree. A masters in business administration requires 33 credit hours beyond a BA. The required coursework for the distance learner is the same as that of the classroom student and MEU students must meet the school's usual admission requirements. Papers and assignments are mailed, faxed or electrically mailed via the Internet and MEU's bulletin board system (BBS). Exams are administered by an approved local proctor and then sent to the professor for grading. An MEU spokesperson told Newsbytes the MEU students can get all the courses they need for their degree. She said the length of time required to obtain a degree depends on various factors, including the time the student can devote to attending electronic "school" and what college work may have already been completed. It worked for Pablo Lucas. The Ecuadoran native obtained his bachelor's degree through cyberspace after getting an associate degree by attending Miami Dade Community College. Last weekend Lucas drove across country to pick up a degree in business administration from Regis University after more than a year pursuing the degree. Rick Shimer, a major in Florida's Broward County Sheriff's Department, will realize his 20-year dream when he sets foot on the Washington State University campus for the very first time later this week where he will don a cap and gown to receive his degree. "The quality of the education through MEU is tremendous. I have learned more and done more in this distance learning format than in a regular on-campus setting," said the 16-year law enforcement veteran. Shimer will be the first distance learner at Washington State University to be honored with the school's All Commencement Spotlight honor. (Jim Mallory/19950509/Press contact: Michelle McAdam, Smith Public Relations for MEU, 310-788-0456; Public contact: MEU, 800-777-6463) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 05/09/95 ONLINE ****Apple's eWorld To Include Online Sound (NEWS)(ONLINE)(SFO)(00028) ****Apple's eWorld To Include Online Sound 05/09/95 CUPERTINO, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1995 MAY 9 (NB) -- Code-named Golden Gate, the next operating version of Apple Computer Inc.'s (NASDAQ:AAPL) eWorld online service will allow users to listen to conference room dialogue rather than scroll and read text. The online service is also introducing a new marketing campaign targeting the home market. Golden Gate will preview this week on eWorld. According to Apple, the new listening feature, "Speak," frees users to do other tasks on their computers while a conference is going on. Typically, this might be typing notes from a conference or working on an unrelated project with a separate application. Apple also cited the use of "Speak" for enhancing the service for the visually impaired or users with learning disabilities. This is just the first part of what will become a full telephony feature with voice capabilities in both directions. The new eWorld version also features 14.4 kilobits-per-second (Kbps) access in 250 US cities, an auto-open feature which opens the service to a particular area designated by the user, new downloadable art work for the Town Square, and next-day direct support from Apple in answer to tech support questions. World Wide Web (Web) access will follow shortly after Golden Gate becomes available, according to Apple. Newsbytes has learned Apple will use the same browser America Online is using for its Macintosh-based subscribers. According to Apple, most of its recent subscribers are home users as opposed to business users. In response, eWorld's new advertising and direct marketing campaign is targeted to home and family use. The new campaign will appear in direct mailings and magazines. Richard Gingrass, manager of worldwide services and marketing for Apple, told Newsbytes, "We differ from other online services because we have from the beginning fostered the ideas or friendliness, responsible online behavior and ease-of-use. We have created a respectful community and you will not find the irresponsible behavior common to other services. This is the perfect environment to encourage family online use." Gingrass also said, the new version of eWorld will be available by the end of this quarter. Subscribers will be able to download the new version for free and installation is a matter of clicking on one or two buttons, according to the company. Users should have Web access by late June. Newsbytes also learned eWorld plans to offer 28.8 Kbps access this fall. (Patrick McKenna/19955009/Press Contact: Lynda Lucero, Apple, 408-974-7899) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 05/09/95 APPLE Apple Developer Conference Previews Copland OS (NEWS)(APPLE)(SFO)(00029) Apple Developer Conference Previews Copland OS 05/09/95 SAN JOSE, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1995 MAY 9 (NB) -- Apple Computer Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) opened its Worldwide Developers Conference with a preview of Copland, the next-generation operating system for the Macintosh platform. The company also provided information about, and supporting tools for, OpenDoc technology. Predicted to be available in the middle of 1996, Copland is designed to leverage the performance potential of the Power Mac family of computers. David Nagel, Apple's senior vice president of worldwide research and development was quoted saying: "Copland will do for the Mac OS (operating system) what the PowerPC processor has done for Mac hardware." According to Apple, the new operating system offers "revolutionary" system performance and stability, portability for easy adaptation to Mac compatibles, automatic intelligent assistance, a customizable interface, and integration of operating system technology to enhance multimedia, graphics, communications, international support, and component software. Apple also said it is releasing the first "feature-complete" version of its OpenDoc component software toolkit to more than 50,000 registered developers. The 3,500 developers attending the conference received the OpenDoc Developer Release 2 CD for Macintosh. Other developers will receive the CD through mailings and magazines. It is also available on the Internet. Among its other developer announcements, Apple has licensed MacApp and OpenDoc Development Framework to both Mac and Windows tools vendors. The company also introduced new versions of Release 17 of the Macintosh Programmers Workshop Pro, Release 17 of the Essential*Tools*Objects, and Release 3 of the Mac OS Software Developers Kit. From New Orleans, Apple announced a contract with Transend Corporation to develop software that provides interoperability between Macs running Apple PowerShare Collaboration Servers software and PCs running Windows. (Patrick McKenna/19950509/Press Contact: Ken Smith, Apple, 408-974-5675) (SUMMARY)(GENERAL)(SFO)(00030) Newsbytes Daily Summary 05/09/95 PENN VALLEY, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1995 MAY 9 (NB) -- These are capsules of all today's news stories: 1 -> Thorn Sues Intel, AMD Over Patent 05/09/95 Thorn EMI has sued Intel and Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) alleging infringement of a patent relating to DRAM technology. 2 -> Digital Video Disk Battle Heats Up 05/09/95 In the digital video disk (DVD) HDCD (high density compact disk) market, Sony and Philips are battling it out against Toshiba, Samsung, and Matsushita. 3 -> Atari In Jaguar European Distribution Deals 05/09/95 After taking the UK leisure machine marketplace by storm, Atari has signed a series of European country agreements to take its new generation Jaguar game console into new markets. 4 -> UK - Vodapage Unveils New Radiopaging Technology 05/09/95 Vodapage, the radiopaging subsidiary of the Vodafone Group, has unveiled two new direct input systems for alphanumeric radiopagers. 5 -> UK Online Announces Pricing Structure 05/09/95 UK Online, the Olivetti-backed UK online mass market service scheduled for launch this summer, has released details of its pricing structure, prior to a press launch later this week. 6 -> CorelDraw Launch Delayed, Conference Canceled 05/09/95 Corel Corp. has confirmed that the launch date for CorelDraw 6 and the annual Corel World Design Gala awards show has officially been set for August 10. The events were postponed from June 1 to coincide with the official release of Windows 95. 7 -> ****Compaq To Co-Develop 120MB Floppy Disk 05/09/95 Compaq Computer Corp. (NYSE: CPQ) has joined with 3M Corp. (NYSE: MMM) and Matsushita-Kotobuki Electronics Industries Ltd. to develop a 120 megabyte (MB) 3.5-inch diskette that will work in existing high density drives. Compaq will market a personal computer that is equipped with a 120MB drive that uses 3M diskettes. 8 -> 7 Million Use Microsoft Mail For PC LANs 05/09/95 Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ: MSFT) says more than seven million electronic mailboxes are installed worldwide that use Microsoft Mail for PC Networks, a LAN (local area network)-based electronic-mail system. The company said the figures were published in Electronic Mail and Messaging Systems, a bi-weekly report on messaging technology and market trends published by BRP Publications. 9 -> Netmanage Internet Address Book For Ecco 05/09/95 Netmanage has released the Ecco Internet Address Book (EIA), an add-on for their Ecco Information Management System software. 10 -> Jixxa Windows CD-ROM Jigsaw Puzzle 05/09/95 Ocean State Publishing said it has taken the jigsaw puzzle off of the table top and put it on the desktop. Called "Jixxa - The Premier Edition," Ocean State said this is the first CD-ROM-based jigsaw puzzle to be distributed nationwide. 11 -> Small Business Owners Optimistic, Most Use PCs 05/09/95 A study commissioned by Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ: MSFT) indicates owners of small businesses are optimistic about their chances for success and most use PCs, despite reports that they are afraid of computers. 12 -> US Commerce Secretary Calls For Govt/Business Cooperation 05/09/95 To keep pace with global competition and change, the US government and business must cooperate on initiatives like the Advanced Technology Program and the Manufacturing Extension Program, said US Secretary of Commerce Ronald H. Brown, at an event sponsored by the Massachusetts Software Council, Massachusetts Telecommunications Council, Massachusetts Biotech Council, and Environmental Business Council of New England. 13 -> BizForms Finds 50/50 Split In SOHO Market 05/09/95 BizForms, JetForm's first entry into the SOHO (small office/home office) market, is just entering mass distribution, and sales results so far show an even split between the home office and small business markets, said John B. Hitchins, general manager of JetForm's Small Office/Home Office Division, in a conference call with Newsbytes. 14 -> Congressional Quarterly Forum On America Online 05/09/95 Congressional Quarterly (CQ) has launched a forum on America Online, bringing a new level of political information to subscribers of the fast growing online service. The new offering coincides with CQ's 50th anniversary. 15 -> Sybase Joins BSA Committee 05/09/95 With the House getting started on comprehensive telecommunications legislation, Sybase has become a member of the Business Software Alliance's public policy committee. 16 -> ****Apple & IBM To Create OpenDoc Tools 05/09/95 Apple Computer Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) and IBM (NYSE:IBM) have jointly announced plans to build multi-platform development tools for OpenDoc. Apple's next-generation of operating systems are to be built around the technology, which will eventually offer a "complete" cross-platform software environment. 17 -> Cylink Unveils Security Architecture 05/09/95 Cylink has taken the wraps off Enterprise Security Architecture (ESA), which UK Managing Director David Moseley describes as an "integrated set of self-contained intelligent software security modules" which provide greater enterprise security and reduce costs, as well as increasing interoperability. 18 -> BT In Satellite Deal With Spain's Hispasat 05/09/95 British Telecom Broadcast Services (BTBS) has announced the signing of a two-year contract with Hispasat, the Spanish satellite consortium, for access to five transponders onboard the Hispasat family of satellites. 19 -> UK - PPCP's Toshiba Notebook Memory Add-In 05/09/95 PPCP, a specialist distributor for "peripheralia for portable computers," has unveiled an add-in memory card for Toshiba's new T2100 and T2150 family of notebook PCs. 20 -> Finland - Nokia Signs GSM Deal With Indian Firm 05/09/95 Nokia Telecom has signed a deal with Modi Telstra of India. Terms of the deal, financial details of which have not been released, call for the Finnish telecoms company to install a GSM (global system for mobile communications) digital cellular network in the Calcutta area. 21 -> UK - Mercury One-2-One Offers Business PCN Deal 05/09/95 In the ongoing price war between the UK's two PCN (personal communications network) digital cellular network operators, Mercury One-2-One has undercut Hutchison Orange's recent UKP99.95 entry-level phone package with its own Business Call Plus package. 22 -> UK - Madge Networks Opens Dedicated R&D Center 05/09/95 adge Networks has opened a dedicated new research and development (R&D) center. The new center, to be known as the Sefton Park R&D operation, will employ around 250 staff when the site is fully up and running sometime in the next three years. 23 -> Physicians' Online Allows For Query By Example 05/09/95 Using simple English phrases to do online searches of medical articles is now a reality on the Physicians' Online network. The service is described as the first interactive service to provide members with free, unlimited use of medical information. 24 -> US-German Offer Tops Czech Telecoms Bidding 05/09/95 A bid of $1.05 billion from Ameritech and Deutsche Telekom has topped the first round of competition for 27 percent of the Czech Republic's SPT Telecom telephone operator, according to investment bankers. 25 -> ****Zenith Offers Cable TV Modems 05/09/95 Zenith Electronics Corporation (NYSE:ZE) is introducing what it calls "cardless" cable modems to bring signals from a cable TV line directly into a user's computer. Zenith said, for the first time, the "HomeWorks Universal" cable modem will allow both one-way and two-way cable systems to offer high-speed broadband connectivity to users. 26 -> America's Cup US Entry Designed On A Cray 05/09/95 If well-known yacht skipper Dennis Conner wins the America's Cup again this year he will capture the cup in a boat that was designed using more than $2 million of dedicated time on a Cray Research supercomputer. 27 -> Jones Education Offers College Degrees Online 05/09/95 If you really want a college degree but can't find the time to attend on-campus classes, you should check out the offerings on the Jones Education Networks (JEN), a subsidiary of Jones International. 28 -> ****Apple's eWorld To Include Online Sound 05/09/95 Code-named Golden Gate, the next operating version of Apple Computer Inc.'s (NASDAQ:AAPL) eWorld online service will allow users to listen to conference room dialogue rather than scroll and read text. The online service is also introducing a new marketing campaign targeting the home market. 29 -> Apple Developer Conference Previews Copland OS 05/09/95 Apple Computer Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) opened its Worldwide Developers Conference with a preview of Copland, the next-generation operating system for the Macintosh platform. The company also provided information about, and supporting tools for, OpenDoc technology. (Ian Stokell/19950509) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 05/08/95 ONLINE Nintendo Goes Online (NEWS)(ONLINE)(DEN)(00001) Nintendo Goes Online 05/08/95 REDMOND, WASHINGTON, U.S.A., 1995 MAY 8 (NB) -- Nintendo of America Inc. has launched an online version of the popular video game magazine Nintendo Power Source on the subscription online service America Online (AOL), and opened a home page of the World Wide Web.. #IMAGE 1 20 TWPCX \images\95050801.PCX Click here for photo The company said AOL subscribers can swap information and interact directly with Nintendo's professional game play counselors. To kick off the new service, Nintendo will host four live conferences direct from the Electronic Entertainment Expo being held this week in Los Angeles. The company said special industry guests will provide inside information on its latest products and technologies. On Wednesday, May 10, Gumpei Yokoi, the developer of Game Boy and Virtual Boy will be the special guest. One conference attendee will win a Virtual Boy system. On Thursday, May 11, representatives of id Software will be online to talk about the popular game Doom, and on Friday May 12 you can post your questions about Killer Instinct. Questions will be fielded by game developers from Rate Ltd. and Nintendo. Media guests will join a wrap-up session on Saturday May 13. The Nintendo AOL forum will be the home of "NOA Paul," otherwise known as Nintendo Game Counselor Paul Hawkins. Hawkins will host live conversations each afternoon Monday through Friday that will put AOL subscribers in direct contact with the pros at Nintendo. Paul will periodically host special guests. For game players who aren't AOL subscribers, Nintendo has also opened a World Wide Web site on the Internet at http://www.nintendo.com. The Web site will have a chat room where you can drop in and talk gaming on a real-time basis. Also on the Web page will be product information and reviews and downloadable video clips. Nintendo said the AOL forum will also have a hidden area similar to the hidden level in the game "Donkey Kong Country." To reach the new AOL area use the keyword "Nintendo." AOL spokesperson Pam McGraw told Newsbytes AOL, which claims 2.5 million subscribers, charges $9.95 per month for a subscription, which includes the first five hours of online use. After that each online hour costs $2.95. (Jim Mallory/19950505/Press contact: Beth Llewelyn, Golin/Harris for Nintendo, 213-623-4200 or Pam McGraw, AOL, 703-556-3746; Public contact: Nintendo of America, 206-882-2040 or America Online, 800-827-6364/VBOY950508/PHOTO) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 05/08/95 BUSINESS SCO Canada Gets New Worldwide Mandate (NEWS)(BUSINESS)(TOR)(00002) SCO Canada Gets New Worldwide Mandate 05/08/95 TORONTO, ONTARIO, CANADA, 1995 MAY 8 (NB) -- SCO Canada, the Canadian arm of Santa Cruz Operation Inc. (NASDAQ:SCOC) is hiring new staff to handle an extension of its worldwide mandate. The Canadian product engineering group will now provide specialized engineering services to independent software vendors around the world. SCO Canada's product engineering group was already responsible for creating development systems and NetWare connectivity technologies, and had 35 software engineers. Eight more people will be added to the Toronto-based group to handle its new role, the company said. SCO Canada is one of four product engineering sites that SCO operates around the world. The others are in Watford and Cambridge in the United Kingdom and at the company's headquarters in Santa Cruz, California. SCO Canada has had an engineering mandate since SCO acquired the operation -- formerly HCR Inc. of Toronto -- in 1990, noted Norm Gordner, a spokesman for SCO Canada. Michael Tilson, former president of HCR, became head of worldwide engineering for SCO. The new duties of the Canadian product engineering group will include providing porting assistance and software consulting to software firms such as Lotus Development Corp., Oracle Corp., Sybase Inc., and Informix Software Inc., company officials said. SCO Canada also claimed that the move represents a significant investment in Canada from a strategic and staffing point of view. The company also promoted Jim Sullivan, formerly systems engineering manager for Canada, to central area systems engineering manager for Canada and the Midwest United States. (Grant Buckler/19950505/Press Contact: Norm Gordner, Mainstay Communications for SCO Canada, 416-595-5550; Public Contact: SCO Canada, tel 416-922-1937, fax 416-922-8397) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 05/08/95 ONLINE More On TCI/Internet Cable "@Home" Service (NEWS)(ONLINE)(MSP)(00003) More On TCI/Internet Cable "@Home" Service 05/08/95 NEW YORK CITY, NEW YORK, U.S.A., 1995 MAY 8 (NB) -- Tele- Communications Inc.'s new "@Home" high-speed Internet service will operate a national, high-speed, Internet protocol-based network connecting to both information providers and cable operators on a turnkey basis, the company said. Newsbytes first reported on the new service last week, which will bring the Internet into homes and businesses via cable wiring. @Home will be a new company, formed by TCI Technology Ventures and the venture capital firm Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers. The new firm will be operated as an entrepreneurial start-up, with headquarters in the Silicon Valley area of northern California. The high-speed service of up to 10 million bits-per-second (bps) will be delivered to users via both upgraded fiber/coaxial cable designs, as well as older, non-upgraded systems using telephone return paths, TCI said. @Home affiliates will typically provide customers with the required broadband cable modem, which will connect the user's computer to the network using existing standard data communications interfaces. The "cable modem" is currently under development, a TCI spokesperson told Newsbytes. One of the unique aspects of the new service, TCI said, is that @Home will bring a "local focus" to each market. Community information will be published on the new network, with the cooperation of the local cable company and local newspapers. TCI also said the service will go beyond the home market, with links for home-to-school and businesses as well. "I definitely see that they (TCI) intend to be a much bigger player than they appeared to be six months ago," Mike Rinzel, an analyst at Jupiter Communications, told Newsbytes. "It seems like they've made a few different initiatives to indicate they're very serious about being the lead provider of cable-to-PC delivery of data. I think this is probably that last formal step to show they're serious." One of the more interesting aspects of the announcement is that one of the online services to be offered will be the Microsoft Network (MSN), in which TCI owns a 20 percent partnership. Rinzel said, when TCI announced the investment, it was just sinking money into MSN, and not developing content. He said TCI would benefit from MSN's business model of "subscription fees" to each MSN provider (like cable TV premium channels), and not the current time-based paradigm used by most services, including America Online and CompuServe. "It would be less beneficial to charge on a 'time' paradigm, and more on a subscription fee - more like television," Rinzel said. TCI has said it will offer broadband connections to other online services as well as MSN. The services are slated to go online in select markets in early 1996, with a broader roll-out shortly after that. (Bob Woods/19950505/Press Contacts: Tele-Communications Inc., 303-267-5220, Mike Rinzel, Jupiter Communications, 212-941-9252. Public Contact: @Home, Internet World Wide Web http://www.home.net) (ADVISORY)(GENERAL)(MSP)(00004) NewsPix Images For Newsbytes Publishers 05/08/95 MINNEAPOLIS, MINNESOTA, U.S.A., 1995 MAY 8 (NB) -- These photos correspond to recent Newsbytes stories. They are online in the Newsbytes menu on GEnie, America Online, eWorld, NiftyServe, and the Newsbytes private bulletin board system in Minneapolis. JPEG files are larger in size, PICT files are designed as thumbnails for onscreen viewing. The photos are titled with name/year/month/day. PICT/thumbnail pictures are now black and white (that is gray scale). File message will indicate color if the JPEG image is color. This will reduce file size and streamline transfers. Some of the larger "for use" images, may also be PICT files. To distinguish these files from the thumbnail preview PICT images, the tag for the color "for use" image will have PICT, all caps. The thumbnail will remain noted as "pct." To become a licensed Newsbytes publisher, call Newsbytes at 612-430-1100 (U.S.) or write to administrator@newsbytes.com on the Internet. Licensing applies to any medium. --------------------------- Week of MAY 8 - MAY 12,1995 --------------------------- DACOM950406 - color / UK - Psion-Dacom's Budget PCMCIA "Slot Drive" For PCs: the card with PC in background, the PC is outfitted with the Dacom Gold Drive. ARTSCAN950502 - color / Jetsoft Software Maximizes Scanned Image Quality: screen shot of dialogue screen. PS6X950502 - b&w / TI Intros Personal Organizers That Dock With PC: the two organizers with docking unit. DC40950407 - color / Kodak Selects Software For Digital Camera Images: shot of the DC 40 digital camera. KIOSK950502 - color / New Unisys Kiosk Aimed At Govt Market: shot of the kiosk with person in wheelchair (the kiosk meets standards set out by the Americans With Disabilities Act. COMCOLOR950501 - color / New Compaq Monitors Can Identify Themselves: shot of the Compaq 150 Color monitor. ACCENT950417 - color / Accent Adds Arabic/Hebrew To Word Processor: screenshot. ZINCAIR950502 - color / Toshiba Notebooks Get Attachable Long-Life Battery: shot of Toshiba Notebook and battery unit. VIEWER9504010 - color / Mastersoft's Upgrade To Windows File Viewer: screenshot. COMMENCE950503 - color / Jensen-Jones Updates Commence Info Mgr: screenshot. DATACC950425 - b&w / Technology Brings Mug Shots To Police Cars: shot of the mini laptop with mug shot on screen. LYCOS950424 - color / Microsoft Licenses Lycos Internet Catalog: picture of research scientist Michael Mauldin at Carnegie Mellon's Center for Machine Translation in the School of Computer Science, Lycos developer. Also useful for NB042095, story #17 / Lycos Promotes Search Standards. Photo credit: Ken Andreyo METRO950420 - color / Software Simplifies Corporate Travel Arrangements: screen shot. DEC950420 - b&w / DEC Cuts Server & Notebook Prices: pix of the HiNote laptop. P5-120950418 - color / Gateway's 120MHz PC With 3-Disk CD Changer: the PC. CHANGER950418 - b&w / Gateway's 120MHz PC With 3-Disk CD Changer: the changer. IQ950421 - color / CD-ROM Offers At-Home IQ Testing: screenshot of cube problems. THRUST041795 - color / World's 1st "Supersonic Car" Gets Web Site: screen shot of the home page. FIREFOX042095 - color / Firefox Offers Free Novell/Internet Security Paper: screenshot of the home page. YAMAHA950414 - color / Review - Yamaha YST-SS1010 Speaker System for Multimedia: the speakers. (Newsbytes/19950508) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 05/08/95 ONLINE Internet Update (NEWS)(ONLINE)(TYO)(00005) Internet Update 05/08/95 TOKYO, JAPAN, 1995 MAY 8 (NB) -- In this roundup of what's new on the Internet: Free Dun & Bradstreet reports; New Macintosh Mosaic; French cultural database online; Never miss a birthday again; Russian nuclear institute online; Browser comparison check; Free Dun & Bradstreet Reports Dun & Bradstreet Information Services is making available free business background reports from their World Wide Web server as part of a beta test of the new service. D&B notes that, after a short time, they will only be available for purchase via a secure server. World Wide Web: http://www.dbisna.com/dbis/product/secure.htm New Macintosh Mosaic A beta release of the NCSA (National Center for Supercomputing Applications) Mosaic for the Macintosh, version 2.0 beta &, has just hit the Net. There are several different versions available including one for the Power PC. The file names are all prefixed with "NCSAMosaic200B7." Anonymous FTP: ftp://ftp.ncsa.uiuc.edu/Mosaic/Mac French Cultural Database Online The French government has made available its JOCONDE database of over 120,000 paintings and sculptures via the World Wide Web. The items can be viewed in 60 museums throughout France and are indexed on the Internet allowing searches by topic, artist, location, century and several more subjects. World Wide Web: http://gauguin.culture.fr:8099/cgi-bin/requete New Usenet Groups Online Four new groups in the Usenet newsgroups system have recently completed the voting process and two have passed. The new groups are rec.toys.cars and the reorganization of the comp.sys.mac.games groups were successful. Failing the vote were soc.culture.islam.bihar and talk.religion.islam. Never Miss A Birthday Again The Internet is full of useless resources but there are some that are genuinely useful. The e-minder service is one of those. After filling out an online form the server will automatically electronically mail you a reminder of any important event that you tell it about. The service now boasts a new front-end which is more user friendly according to the operators. World Wide Web: http://www.netmind.com/e-minder/e-minder.html Russian Nuclear Institute Online The Nuclear Physics Institute in St Petersburg, Russia, has just debuted a home page on the World Wide Web proving that almost everyone is getting online! The site has been put onto the web by the computer systems department and uses the new Russian country code "ru" in favor of the still widely use "su" code for the USSR. World Wide Web: http://www.pnpi.spb.ru/ Browser Comparison Check Before spending three hours on the telephone downloading a new World Wide Web browser only to discover it doesn't do what you thought, you can instantly compare the software available on a special comparison chart, available on the Web. The new version (2.1) of the WWW Servers Comparison Chart is now available and has been updated to include two new browsers, WebStar and Website. World Wide Web: http://www.proper.com/www/servers-chart.html Web Server Upgrade The National Center for Supercomputing Applications has just released version 1.4 of their httpd World Wide Web server. They say the new version offers a significant performance increase over the previous one. Anonymous FTP: ftp://ftp.ncsa.uiuc.edu/Web/httpd/Unix/ncsa_httpd/httpd_1.4. World Wide Web: http://hoohoo.ncsa.uiuc.edu/docs/Overview.html. (Martyn Williams/19950505) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 05/08/95 NETWORK Miramar's Apple-To-PC Peer-To-Peer LAN Upgrade (NEWS)(NETWORK)(SFO)(00006) Miramar's Apple-To-PC Peer-To-Peer LAN Upgrade 05/08/95 SANTA BARBARA, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1995 MAY 8 (NB) -- Miramar Systems has announced the release of Personal Maclan Connect 5.0, which incorporates a Windows AppleShare client. With the new client software, Maclan provides full peer-to-peer file and print sharing between stations on a Mac/PC mixed-platformed networks. With Maclan, any Mac on a network may access a Windows drive, or the Windows user may designate a Mac drive as a "next available drive" letter. AppleShare features such as password aging, minimum password length, lockout, and server-to-client messaging capabilities are incorporated. Windows users may log-in to any AppleShare, MacOS (operating system) or AFP servers on the network. Greg Goodman, vice president of product marketing at Miramar Systems, told Newsbytes, "We debuted this product as Comdex Atlanta and had a tremendous response. The big advantage with Maclan 5.0 is that the PC user may now reach the Mac-based workstations. Maclan has been very popular with both small networks under 10 stations and very large networks within a corporation or a separate division of a company." Version 5.0 also offers a single management interface for its print client software which allows a user to make quick and easy connections to servers and printers. Windows users may access AppleTalk-based printers and all print selections may be saved at startup. Goodman continued, "Maclan 5.0 allows simple and easy file and print sharing between Macs and Windows-based machines. This is the first time a mixed-platform network has been able to have that shared experience. For a network which is predominantly one platform with one or two stations on the other platform, Maclan is the product which allows full file sharing between these workstations. This additional peer-to-peer connectivity increases office productivity and network performance at affordable rates without administrative intervention." Miramar says Personal Maclan Connect 5.0 will ship in three weeks. The expected street price for a single version is about $125. Site licensing for 10, 30 and 100 station networks is available. (Patrick McKenna/19950508/Press Contact: Melissa Rabin, S&S Public Relations, 708-291-1616) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 05/08/95 BUSINESS MicroTouch To Acquire Touch Technology Inc. (NEWS)(BUSINESS)(BOS)(00007) MicroTouch To Acquire Touch Technology Inc. 05/08/95 METHUEN, MASSACHUSETTS, U.S.A., 1995 MAY 8 (NB) -- MicroTouch Systems Inc. plans to acquire Touch Technology Inc. The deal will add Touch's resistive membrane product line to its own capacitive touch products In an interview with Newsbytes, Jay Waldron, VP of new business development for MicroTouch, said that Touch's resistive membrane technology is particularly important in certain portions of the point-of-sale (POS), industrial, and medical markets. MicroTouch has signed a letter of intent to buy Touch Technology's assets, reported Waldron. When the deal between the two touch vendors becomes final, Touch Technology's products will be absorbed into the MicroTouch product line, and sold through MicroTouch sales channels. But the resistive membrane products will still be manufactured at Touch Technology's 45,000 square foot manufacturing facility in Austin, Texas. Methuen, Massachusetts-based MicroTouch currently has just over 400 employees, while Touch Technology's staff numbers 60. The two vendors do not anticipate any staffing changes as a result of the acquisition, according to Waldron. "Resistive membrane technology is the most durable of all touch technologies, impervious to being damaged or breaking down in the field," the MicroTouch VP told Newsbytes. Unlike other touch technologies, resistive membrane technology is also responsive to touch even when users are wearing gloves, he maintained. MicroTouch expects the Touch Technology acquisition to be advantageous in expanding the company's reach into "slices of the POS, industrial, and medical markets where these issues are important," Newsbytes was told. Resistive membrane technology currently accounts for about 25 percent of the overall touch market, according to Waldron. Touch Technology's products are used in the bottling systems of most soft drink manufacturers, in addition to Boeing airplanes, astronauts' space suits from Lockheed, and cash registers used at McDonald's restaurants, according to the MicroTouch exec. Other Touch Technology users include IBM, AT&T, Motorola, Litton, and Westinghouse. The POS and industrial markets are also major outlets for MicroTouch's ThruGlass and TouchPen product lines, Waldron said. MicroTouch touch monitors are employed for kiosk, gaming, and multimedia applications, as well. In another recent deal, MicroTouch purchased Factura Composites Inc., the leading manufacturer of kiosk housings, noted Waldron, who was appointed to the specially created position of VP of acquisitions by MicroTouch in early 1994. Under the Factura deal, which is now complete, Factura has remained at its facility in Rochester, New York, and is continuing to operate independently, adopting the new name Factura, a Division of MicroTouch Systems Inc. Touch Technology's "flagship" product is a proprietary, five-wire analog resistive touch screen that uses a voltage gradient on a plastic-on-glass membrane overlay for sensing touch, Waldron said. Both layers are coated with thin, conductive metal oxides. The layers are held apart by spacers. Voltage is measured by the controller at the place where the user's touch pushes the two layers together. The controller then translates the voltage into digital touch coordinates and transmits this information to the host computer, according to the MicroTouch VP. (Jacqueline Emigh/19950508/Reader Contact: MicroTouch, 508-659- 9000; Press Contact: Rebecca Behenna or Mirena Reilly, The Weber Group for MicroTouch, 617-661-7900) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 05/08/95 GENERAL Sharp Intros Computer/Video Projector (NEWS)(GENERAL)(BOS)(00008) Sharp Intros Computer/Video Projector 05/08/95 BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS, U.S.A., 1995 MAY 8 (NB) -- More and more mobile professionals and salespeople are starting to tote LCD (liquid crystal display) "computer/video projectors" along with their PC notebooks and PowerBooks, said Joseph Gillio, product marketing manager at Sharp, in a meeting with Newsbytes on a Boston press tour held to unveil Sharp's new product in the category, the briefcase-sized XG-E650U. Over the past year, he added, the number of vendors in this new projector market has exploded from one or two to about a dozen, as technological advances make it possible to provide lightweight, portable devices at "affordable" prices. Companies in the product category view the new multimedia devices as more capable alternatives to conventional overhead slide projectors for getting a message across to an audience, according to the product marketing manager. Several players in the computer/video projector market also produce color projection panels, including Sony, In Focus, nView, and Proxima, Gillio noted. Others are "mega computer makers," such as Epson, Hitachi and Panasonic. Also stepping into the emerging market are smaller companies like Apollo, Telex, Davis, and Sayett. Like many of the newer color projection panels, he said, members of the new breed of computer/video projectors display computer graphics, animation, and video from presentation packages and other PC- or Mac-based programs on their LCD screens, in addition to digitizing and displaying video from analog sources. The ability to display computer graphics sets the new projectors apart from ordinary video projectors. Color projection panels carry smaller prices than the new computer/video projectors, he acknowledged, pointing to the $7,295 pricetag of the new XG-E650U, in comparison to pricing of under $2,000 to $6,695 for Sharp's projection panel line-up. Sharp also produces the XG-E850U, a higher-end computer/video projector sold for $8,995. When an organization's budget permits, he added, full-scale projectors can be better suited than panels for delivering presentations, since virtually everything needed is included within a single unit. Sharp's new XG-E650U is geared, in particular, to on-the-road use, Gillio told Newsbytes. The unit weighs only 19.5 pounds and measures 12- by 16-inches, small enough to be tucked into an airplane overhead bin or underneath a seat, according to the Sharp exec. The new unit comes with a carrying handle, a built-in compartment for storing the cables and wireless remote used with the projector, and built-in covers for the lens and AV (audiovisual)/terminals. The lens is designed to retract behind a protective cover to prevent damage during transportation. An optional soft-sided carrying bag and hardshell carrying case are both available. The XG-E650U, he reported, is the first "ultra-portable" (under 20 pound) multimedia LCD projector to be outfitted with a zoom lens capable of projecting images from 30-inches to 150-inches, measured diagonally. The cables included with the XG-E650U connect the device to the video port of either a PC, a PowerBook, or a Mac II or higher desktop model. The units supports VGA, EGA, and CGA graphics. In a demo for Newsbytes produced with PowerPoint and MicroSoft Video for Windows, Gillio displayed the zoom feature, along with other capabilities. In addition to full-color charts and graphs, the demo featured full-motion video running in a window. The new projector's zoom-in and zoom-out is particularly useful when projecting from a long distance, or for showing detail from any distance, according to Gillio. Minimum and maximum throw distance ranges from 4.3- to 5.2-inches for a 40-foot diagonal screen to 16.4- to 21.4-feet for a 150-foot diagonal screen. The projector's active matrix color LCD is one of the few available in a computer/video projector capable of displaying 16 million colors, he asserted. The screen is specifically designed for "crisp" display of data images up to 640 by 480 resolution, in addition to double-lined video images with a resolution of 500 TV lines. The inclusion of a user-replaceable metal halide lamp is another distinguishing feature, according to Gillio. The metal halide lamp offers a 2,000-hour life span, in contrast to the 50-hour life span of the more commonplace halogen lamp, he contended. "If you're giving a lot of presentations, 50 hours isn't a very long time," Gillio observed. The metal halide lamp also avoids the "yellowish tinge" of halogen, for "truer color display," Newsbytes was told. The 250-watt metal halide lamp delivers a luminance of 350 lux. The wireless remote that accompanies the unit is aimed at letting the user control audio volume as well as volume, lens, zoom and focus, and switch between input sources while moving about anywhere in the room. Additional operational controls are located on the projector unit. On-screen menu displays assist with set-up and confirm remote control operation. For multimedia presentations that call for sound, a built-in five- watt amplifier and speakers are provided, along with stereo and computer audio input, and output to stereo audio. The XG-E65OU also provides ports for RGB (red-green-blue) input, composite video, and S-video input, and for analog RGB output. The unit works with NTSC (North American Television Standards Committee), PAL, and Secam video. Sharp's new portable computer/video projector is shipping now. (Jacqueline Emigh/19950508/Reader Contact: Sharp Electronics, 201-529-8731; Press Contacts: Cliff Bernstein or Dulcie Neiman, Dorf & Stanton for Sharp, 212-420-8100) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 05/08/95 ONLINE ****NewsNet Readies Windows GUI (NEWS)(ONLINE)(BOS)(00009) ****NewsNet Readies Windows GUI 05/08/95 NEW YORK, NEW YORK, U.S.A., 1995 MAY 8 (NB) -- NewsNet, an online database offering more than 800 sources of business news, is developing a new Windows-based graphical user interface (GUI) and Unix-based search engine and file server technology, Newsbytes has learned. On completion of a current beta test in July, the new "Baton" user interface will become available to all NewsNet subscribers free of charge, a company spokesperson told Newsbytes. The main screen of Baton, she said, will provide a series of icons for point-and-click access to selections such as Text Search; the NewsFlash clipping service; scanning of headlines from more than 700 newsletters and 20 real-time worldwide newswires; and direct reports from sources like Standard & Poor's, Investext, TRW, American Business Information, and Dun & Bradstreet. Clicking on any of these icons will bring you to subsequent screens with dialog boxes designed to help you conduct a retrieval session, she said. The Text Search dialog boxes, for instance, are aimed at guiding you through the process of building a search concept by title, subject, or date ranges. You are given a choice of free-form natural-language search or an "enhanced Boolean" search. Also from the main screen, she said, users will be able to select items for free or "low-cost" maintenance and housekeeping functions, in addition to an icon for native mode access, allowing you to move between the new GUI and the traditional, text-based command mode at will. Users will also be able to keep using their existing communications packages for text-based command mode searches, if desired, Newsbytes was told. NewsNet's new Unix back-end, which represents a migration from NewsNet's previous mainframe system, is intended to provide faster searches, as well as to let NewsNet add new services more quickly, according to the spokesperson. To process both the concept and Boolean searches, NewsNet has licensed Personal Librarian Software (PLS) search engine from Personal Library Software Inc. Users will be able to move back and forth between concept and Boolean searches, she reported. Users can preview the search results by headlines, lead paragraphs, and keyword-in-context. Results can be displayed by publication date or relevance score. In the relevance score option, results are returned with a bar chart that plots the score of each item found. Users will also be able to set passwords to default to a specified method of choice. Other options will include: the ability to widen or narrow the search; unlimited sets of nested parentheses; automatic stemming of user-specified terms; exact string matching; new field searching capabilities; and increased wildcarding flexibility, according to the NewsNet spokesperson. (Jacqueline Emigh/19950508/Reader Contact: NewsNet, 800-345- 1301; Press Contact: Ellen S. Keech, NewsNet, 800-345-1301) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 05/08/95 TRENDS Xerox Intros No-Chemical Film (NEWS)(TRENDS)(DEN)(00010) Xerox Intros No-Chemical Film 05/08/95 PURCHASE, NEW YORK, U.S.A., 1995 MAY 8 (NB) -- Xerox Corp. (NYSE:XRX) has introduced a chemical-free digital film in the US designed for use in graphic arts applications. Verde Digital Film is a product of Xerox Graphic Systems and was invented at the Xerox Research Centre of Canada. The company said Verde images are equal to, or better than, the best silver halide film and eliminates the environmental hazards associated with silver halide film. Verde Digital requires no special handling or storage and is not affected by accidental exposure to light. Printers can capture images that are then transferred directly to plates used on printing presses to print newspapers, magazines, catalogs and other commercial products. Instead of a silver halide film developed with chemicals, color separations and monochrome Verde Graphic Film images are created using a thin layer of minute particles of selenium that are charged, exposed to light, and developed using heat. Xerox said the developing process is no more complicated than feeding paper into a fax machine. Xerox Graphic Systems spokesperson Sue McGrath said Verde Digital Film is designed for imagesetters, scanner recorders, contacting, and duplicating. She said there are currently no plans to bring the technology to cameras used by news, fashion, and advertising photographers. McGrath told Newsbytes a number of equipment manufacturers will produce equipment capable of processing Verde Digital film. Some manufacturers are also working on retrofit kits for existing equipment. McGrath said the cost of retrofit could run from $500 to $2,000 depending on the particular equipment being modified. McGrath said Verde costs approximately 15 percent more than silver halide film, but pointed out that is partially offset by eliminating silver halide chemical developer costs. In the US Verde Digital Film is being distributed by a dedicated dealer network. In Europe the product will be distributed by Du Pont Printing & Publishing. (Jim Mallory/19950508/Press contact: Jeffrey Simek, Xerox, 716-423-5230) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 05/08/95 GENERAL Canadian Product Launch Update (NEWS)(GENERAL)(TOR)(00011) Canadian Product Launch Update 05/08/95 KINGSTON, ONTARIO, CANADA, 1995 MAY 8 (NB) -- This regular feature, appearing on the first day Newsbytes publishes each week, provides further details for the Canadian market on announcements by international companies that Newsbytes has already covered. This week: AutoCAD LT Release 2 for Windows, Digital's new Pentium-based Venturis PCs, IBM's SystemView for AIX, and Lotus Word Pro. Autodesk Canada Inc., of Markham, Ontario, announced AutoCAD LT Release 2 for Windows (Newsbytes, April 10), a new release of its low-cost two-dimensional CAD (computer-aided design) software. Now shipping, AutoCAD LT Release 2 has a suggested retail price of C$684 and is available on diskette or CD-ROM, Autodesk said. Toronto-based Digital Equipment of Canada Ltd. added several PCs based on the Pentium microprocessor to its Venturis line (Newsbytes, May 2). The new models include three full-sized and three small-enclosure models. The full-sized FP575, FP590, and FP5100 have list prices of C$2,599, C$3,199, and C$3,599 respectively for basic configurations. The small-enclosure Venturis 575, 590, and 5100 start at C$2,499, C$3,099, and $3,499. All the new models are available now in Canada. IBM Canada Ltd., of Markham, Ontario, launched SystemView for AIX, the first product in its updated SystemView Series of systems-management software (Newsbytes, May 4). SystemView for AIX is available now. Cost depends on the functions customers choose to use. Lotus Development Canada Ltd., based in Toronto, announced Word Pro, its new word processing software (Newsbytes, April 24). A replacement for the company's Ami Pro, Word Pro is to be offered for Windows 3.1, Windows 95, and OS/2. The Windows 3.1 version is in beta testing now and Lotus hopes to ship it in July. The Canadian retail price is expected to be C$135, Lotus said. (Grant Buckler/19950508/Press Contact: Lisa Witty, Autodesk Canada, 905-946-0928; Mary Bermel, Digital Canada, 613-591-4064; Anne Hay, IBM Canada, 905-316-2251; Marsha Connor, Lotus Canada, 416-364-8000; Public Contact: Autodesk Canada, tel 905-946-0928, fax 905-946-0926; Digital Canada, 800-344-4825; Lotus Canada, 416-364-8000, Internet World Wide Web http://www.lotus.com) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 05/08/95 NETWORK Wireless Link Handles Wired-LAN Speeds (NEWS)(NETWORK)(TOR)(00012) Wireless Link Handles Wired-LAN Speeds 05/08/95 MISSISSAUGA, ONTARIO, CANADA, 1995 MAY 8 (NB) -- SilCom Manufacturing Technology Inc., a maker of local area networking (LAN) hardware, has announced a wireless device that it said can carry LAN traffic between buildings at speeds as high as 20 megabits-per-second (Mbps). SilCom's Freespace link uses infrared laser technology, company spokesman Brad Casemore told Newsbytes. It does not require a license to operate, and can match the speeds of Ethernet (10Mbps) or Token Ring (4Mbps or 16Mbps) LANs. Casemore said SilCom has improved on existing infrared laser LAN products by adopting a "cross-hairs" approach to transmitting and receiving data that makes the link more reliable. Instead of using a round transmission beam and receiver, Freespace transmits an oval beam with the longer axis running vertically, and uses an oval receiving area with its longer axis running horizontally. This means that slight movements, such as those caused by tall buildings swaying in high winds, are less likely to disrupt transmission, he said. Designed for distances up to 300 meters, the Freespace design provides between than 99.9 percent availability, according to SilCom. According to the company, the width of the beam and the size of the receiving lens make it very tolerant of poor weather conditions. Many wireless connections between buildings can be disrupted by heavy rain, fog and the like. SilCom expects Freespace to appeal to customers who find the cost of installing a leased line or optical fiber connection too high, or want higher speeds than a 1.544Mbps T-1 line can provide. Another advantage, the company said, is that Freespace can be set up in a matter of hours, whereas getting a T-1 line installed can take weeks or months. A complete Freespace link costs US$14,995, SilCom said. Casemore said SilCom is planning a follow-on product that will be able to handle speeds up to the 155Mbps of asynchronous transfer mode (ATM) networks. That product will be available by late this year, he said. SilCom has offices in Canada, the United States, the United Kingdom, and Germany. (Grant Buckler/19950508/Press Contact: Brad Casemore, SilCom, tel 905-238-8822, fax 905-238-4976; Public Contact: SilCom, 905-238-8822) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 05/08/95 ONLINE Fannie Mae On The Web (NEWS)(ONLINE)(WAS)(00013) Fannie Mae On The Web 05/08/95 WASHINGTON, D.C., U.S.A., 1995 MAY 8 (NB) -- "Neither a borrower nor a lender be," Shakespeare's elderly Polonius says to young Laertes. But if you must, you might try the World Wide Web. Fannie Mae (NYSE:FNM), the nation's largest source of home mortgage funds, has opened a home page on the Internet's World Wide Web, providing information both to home buyers and to lenders. "If you're a mortgage lender," says James Johnson, Fannie Mae chairman and chief executive officer, "you'll learn how to do business with Fannie Mae. If you're a prospective home buyer, you'll find a whole range of mortgage 'how-to' information, and ways to get even more information that can help you buy a home." The home page features a picture of Fannie Mae's colonial-looking headquarters building in the District of Columbia, and a series of hypertext links to further information about the company, the housing market, and how to do business with Fannie Mae. Fannie Mae expects to expand the material it offers through the Internet, eventually with the ability to do business with lenders. The company also hopes that its consumer information will encourage more Americans to contact lenders about buying homes. Congress created Fannie Mae, as the Federal National Mortgage Association, in 1938 to provide liquidity to the housing market at a time when the Great Depression had reduced home mortgage lending to a trickle. The company is now the largest diversified financial company in the world and the nation's largest source of home mortgage funds. Fannie Mae doesn't lend money directly to home buyers, but to mortgage lenders who in turn lend to consumers. Fannie Mae says it has committed to providing $1 trillion in targeted lending for 10 million homes by the end of the decade. The Web address is http://www.fanniemae.com. (Kennedy Maize/19950508/Press Contact: Tom Marder, 202-752-7608) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 05/08/95 GOVT Loral Lands $1.5 Billion Govt Contracts (NEWS)(GOVT)(WAS)(00014) Loral Lands $1.5 Billion Govt Contracts 05/08/95 MANASSAS, VIRGINIA, U.S.A., 1995 MAY 8 (NB) -- Loral's Federal Systems division has picked up two US government contracts worth a total of nearly $1.5 billion. The awards are the largest since Loral acquired the former IBM federal systems business a year ago. The key contract is a $955 million deal for upgrading the Federal Aviation Administrations air traffic control system, a badly troubled contract originally held by IBM. The major portion of the contract is for $898 million to buy 3,000 new air traffic control work stations in the so-called Advanced Automation System (AAS). FAA Deputy Administrator Linda Daschle (wife of Sen. Minority Leader Tom Daschle of South Dakota) said Loral got the contract after it agreed to fire the AAS management team. She said Loral is being given a chance to salvage the AAS project, which has already seen $1.4 billion in spending. Total costs are now expected to run to about $5.4 billion. As a second part of the contract, Loral will get $57 million for hardware and software for an automated system for airport control towers. The contract includes delivery of a prototype for the El Paso airport. If the prototype works, FAS will negotiate with Loral for 69 more systems. Separately, Loral has picked up a Defense Department contract worth $500 million over its eight-year term to replace the DOD's messaging system, AUTODIN, and its electronic-mail systems, with an integrated mail and messaging system called the Defense Message System-Government Open Systems Interconnection Profile (DMS-GOSSIP). Loral will install off-the-shelf products that meet X.400 and X.500 standards, supporting the TCP/IP (Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol) Internet and OSI (Open Systems Interconnect) protocols. The system will also provide for use of PCMCIA (personal Computer memory Card International Association) cards to offer the ability to encrypt messages. In addition to DOD, says Loral, other federal agencies can buy the system components under the contract. Loral says it is also marketing the system to the North American Treaty Organization and its member, the State Department, the National Security Agency, and the CIA. In a written statement, Loral notes, "This effort will be expanded to include commercial customers since the messaging system technologies and architecture are applicable to commercial business quality messaging as well." (Kennedy Maize/19950508/Press Contact: Joseph Tedino, 703-416-5540) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 05/08/95 WINDOWS PC Docs Plans Add-On For Microsoft Exchange (NEWS)(WINDOWS)(TOR)(00015) PC Docs Plans Add-On For Microsoft Exchange 05/08/95 NEW ORLEANS, LOUISIANA, U.S.A., 1995 MAY 8 (NB) -- PC Docs Inc. (TSE:DXX; NASDAQ:DOCSF) has announced plans for software that will work with Microsoft Corp.'s (NASDAQ:MSFT) Exchange Server messaging software, allowing anyone using an Exchange client PC to retrieve documents stored with PC Docs' Docs Open software. Docs Open is document management software meant for storing and retrieving large collections of documents electronically. According to the Tallahassee, Florida-based company, it is used in various industries such as manufacturing, finance, and insurance, as well as in legal and other professional offices and in government. Mike Safar, senior product manager at PC Docs, told Newsbytes that the new product for Exchange is much like one that PC Docs already offers for Lotus Development Corp.'s (NASDAQ:LOTS) Notes workgroup software. An added feature in the upcoming Docs Interchange for Microsoft Exchange, however, is the ability to create user-programmable "newsletters" that will periodically notify users of new or changed documents of interest to them. By selecting a document from the newsletter, the user can then choose to have the full text transferred to him or her via electronic-mail. The software will also make it possible to retrieve documents from a Docs Open library connected to a Microsoft Exchange server via the Internet. Client PCs that already have access to Exchange will need no additional software to use the new PC Docs product, Safar said. The add-on software for the Exchange server will probably carry the same price tag as the existing Lotus Notes add-on, which sells for $7,995 per server, he said. One server can handle several hundred clients, Safar added. PC Docs, a subsidiary of PC Docs Group International Inc. of Toronto, expects to release Docs Interchange for Microsoft Exchange at about the same time as Microsoft releases Exchange, company officials said. That is expected to be later this year. (Grant Buckler/19950508/Press Contact: Beth Parker, PC Docs, 904-942-3627 ext 115, Internet e-mail bethp@pcdocs.com; Public Contact: Marcia Allen-Artale, PC Docs, 904-942-3627 ext 231) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 05/08/95 ONLINE Web Digest For Marketers (NEWS)(ONLINE)(MSP)(00016) Web Digest For Marketers 05/08/95 NEW YORK CITY, NEW YORK, U.S.A., 1995 MAY 8 (NB) -- To keep up with the seemingly endless line of companies making their launches into cyberspace, The Online Ad Agency said it is introducing "Web Digest for Marketers" (WDFM). The new Digest is delivered in both electronic- mail (e-mail) and Internet World Wide Web formats. Larry Chase, president of the agency and former DDB Needham Worldwide and Y&R exec, told Newsbytes that WDFM is a review and summary of the latest marketing sites on the Web. The publication is designed to help marketing execs stay on top on Web marketing activity, he said. "We see a lot of people out there 'surfing' for what's new in the way of marketing sites," Chase said. "This will probably end up being a time-saver if people can turn to this and get it quickly in a summary every two weeks." When Newsbytes surfed into the site, we found hotlinks to sites from companies like Andersen Consulting, FedEx, Rent-A-Wreck, ESPNET, and JC Penney. With each listing is an "executive summary" on the site. Chase stresses that no editorial judgments are made about each site, and that WDFM is more of a listing of what's "going on" on the Web. "In this case, it's the notables that make it into WDFM, because we want people to see what categories are coming on the Net, and in what categories they are coming." Chase said when it comes to information on the Internet, there's "content, with no context." He said "What this is proposing to do is give it to you succinctly for marketers. We feel that's where the Web is going." The Web site is intended to be more of an "archive" of past digests with hotlinks to the sites profiled, while the e-mail version of WDFM is designed to be current when it is sent out bi-weekly, Chase said. There's no extra charge to enter the Web site, but receiving WDFM by e-mail costs $125 a year. A sample copy of WDFM can be obtained by e-mailing to sampleWDFM@advert.com. The Web site is located at http://nyweb.com/webdigest. (Bob Woods/19950508/Press Contact: Larry Chase, The Online Ad Agency, 212-876-1096; Internet e-mail chase@advert.com; Public Contact: Web Digest for Marketers, Internet World Wide Web http://nyweb.com/webdigest) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 05/08/95 TRENDS Nintendo Delays Ultra-64 Game System (NEWS)(TRENDS)(DEN)(00017) Nintendo Delays Ultra-64 Game System 05/08/95 REDMOND, WASHINGTON, U.S.A., 1995 MAY 8 (NB) -- Nintendo of America Inc. says it will delay the launch of its Ultra 64 video game system, even though the final chipset that produces the game's graphics and audio has been completed. A prepared statement released by Nintendo said the delay is "to give our software developers additional time to maximize the power of this system in their game creation." A company spokesperson told Newsbytes the delay is because developers have not produced enough games for Ultra 64 as quickly as the company had anticipated. Nintendo said Ultra 64 will now ship in April, 1996, instead of in time for the 1995 Christmas gift-buying season. The company said it will launch the 64-bit game platform with a number of games that are exclusive to Nintendo Ultra 64. International gamers will get a chance to see Ultra when the company officially unveils it at its annual Video Game Exhibition that opens its three-day run November 24 in Makuhari, Japan. The US debut of Ultra 64 will take place at the Consumer Electronics Show January 5, 1996, in Las Vegas, Nevada. Ultra 64 will offer three-dimensional (3-D) video produced by the 64-bit Silicon Graphics chip that communicates with the game's memory at 500 megahertz. Last Christmas Nintendo rolled out Donkey Kong Country, the follow-up to its popular Donkey Kong. This week the company is introducing two new Super NES (Nintendo Entertainment System) games and two new Game Boy titles. The company said it will launch a new product called Virtual Boy this summer that will offer 3-D games for the home video system. Howard Lincoln, Nintendo of America chairperson, said Ultra will come to market with a suggested retail price below $250. Parent company Nintendo Co., Ltd. estimates the worldwide retail video game industry at $15 billion annually. According to Nintendo more than 40 percent of all American homes own a Nintendo system. (Jim Mallory/19950508/Press contact: Allison Holt Brummelkamp, Golin/Harris for Nintendo of America, 213-623-4200) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 05/08/95 GENERAL Australian Business Index CD Has Million Entries (NEWS)(GENERAL)(SYD)(00018) Australian Business Index CD Has Million Entries 05/08/95 SYDNEY, AUSTRALIA, 1995 MAY 8 (NB) -- The Australian Business Index is a CD-based database of Australian businesses. The latest version has just been released, adding what is claimed to be a complete database of all Australian government departments -- federal, state, and local. Graeme Thompson from the disk's publisher, Alpharian, told Newsbytes that the data had been extensively tested to ensure accuracy. It has been assembled from a number of new data sources, as well as feedback from existing users. "We used exhaustive cross-matching to ensure a detailed, in-depth picture of businesses with a minimum of duplication and out-of-date records." The records can be searched on more than 20 fields, including: business category, number of employees, proprietor's name, or advertising code. In addition, the disk can be used as a reverse phone book, identifying companies from phone, fax, and mobile phone numbers. The top 28,000 Australian companies can also be identified by bank name and branch, import code, size of business, gross sales, key personnel, and relationships with other companies. All information can be exported in various ways, including telemarketing reports, mailing labels, or to database management packages. Users can also add their own data and store it, linked to the CD-based data. The product is updated and re-issued every six months. Suggested retail price is AUS$595 (US$440) and each update is AUS$299 (US$220). (Paul Zucker/19950505/Press & Public Contact: Graeme Thompson, Alpharian Systems, tel +61-2-829-3120, fax +61-2-829 4911) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 05/08/95 TRENDS Vehicle Tracking System Deters Cab Driver Attacks (NEWS)(TRENDS)(SYD)(00019) Vehicle Tracking System Deters Cab Driver Attacks 05/08/95 SYDNEY, AUSTRALIA, 1995 MAY 8 (NB) -- An Australian system which can accurately report the position of any vehicle fitted with its equipment has been suggested as a way to overcome many of the serious cab driver attacks which happen every day around the world. Mobiletrack operates a system which is based on GPS (global positioning system) receivers, feeding back to the Mobiletrack headquarters. GPS is normally a receive-only system which takes the signals from a number of orbiting satellites, and, by measuring the time the signal takes to get to the receiver from each satellite, it can calculate the latitude and longitude to within about 100 meters. The GPS system is capable of much greater accuracy, but is deliberately "detuned," presumably to keep "enemies of the US" from using it in incidents such as the Gulf war. Mobiletrack has developed a system to correct these inaccuracies, giving a claimed accuracy of "just a few meters, and soon around half a meter." The company offers a number of types of systems. One of these consists of the GPS receiver, a data-only cellular phone system, and various electronics modules. It is hidden in the vehicle, complete with its own back-up battery system. This allows it to transmit its location to the Mobiletrack headquarters, either continuously, or on demand. Typical applications include tracking diplomatic vehicles, trucks carrying expensive cargoes, or police or security vehicles which only have one occupant. A typical system costs AUS$2,680 with an annual monitoring fee of AUS$295 and AUS$60 per "incident" after the first in a year. The system can also be triggered by a break-in, when the driver is threatened or disabled, or when the vehicle breaks down. The system used in cabs uses the vehicle's own radio and costs around AUS$1,200 to install. In addition to accurately tracking the vehicle (not the primary task of the installation) it can be fitted with a panic switch and various disabling devices. For instance, the cab driver could activate the system via a hidden switch, then the cab company would know that there was a problem, and could immediately inform the police. They, in turn, could request that the vehicle be disabled, presumably after monitoring the conversation in the cab. (Paul Zucker/19950505/Press & Public Contact: Emery Williams or Clive Wallace, Mobiletrack, tel +61-2-689-1722, fax +61-2-689-1566) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 05/08/95 BROADCAST China - Satellite TV To Reach Yuannan Remote Areas (NEWS)(BROADCAST)(PEK)(00020) China - Satellite TV To Reach Yuannan Remote Areas 05/08/95 BEIJING, CHINA, 1995 MAY 8 (NB) -- Satellite transmitted TV programs will be available to 85 percent of families in Yuannan province by the end of this century according to an expansion program issued by the local government. Yuannan is a mountainous province in southwestern China. To date, the province already has 13,053 ground satellite dish-receiving stations, which is about a quarter of China's total. The current audience penetration of satellite TV programs is claimed to be about 78.2 percent. Seventeen regional TV stations and 17 cable stations have been established across the province, and almost all the cities are covered by the regional cable TV networks. The province plans to build 9,000 more ground satellite receiving stations to transmit both national and provincial TV programs to residents in remote areas. The reception quality of TV programs will also be improved, China Radio International said. The provincial government says it is also establishing TV dubbing studios in order to provide local minorities with more TV programs in their own languages. (Chih-Ho Yu & Ning Huang/19950508) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 05/08/95 NETWORK UK - BetterBox Intros Handheld Network Tester (NEWS)(NETWORK)(LON)(00021) UK - BetterBox Intros Handheld Network Tester 05/08/95 MILTON KEYNES, ENGLAND, 1995 MAY 8 (NB) -- BetterBox Communications has unveiled the Psibernet, a handheld network monitoring and testing device, that allows the user to monitor Ethernet or Token Ring network traffic without a physical connection being required. #IMAGE 1 20 TWPCX \images\95050821.PCX Click here for photo According to Horacio Baioes, a spokesman for BetterBox, the UKP695 unit uses inductive coupling techniques to monitor the electrical flow on the network cable to be scanned. The unit is clipped to the cable to be monitored and the start button is pressed. BetterBox claims that the unit is unique in the marketplace and allows the network to be monitored without any of the risks normally associated with disturbing physical connections which can, in certain circumstances, crash the network. The unit, which can be used on UTP (unshielded twisted pair), STP (shielded twisted pair) and co-axial cabling systems, resembles a mobile phone, with the various control buttons in the center of the unit, an LCD (liquid crystal display) screen where the mobile phone's display would be, and a network clamp at the top, where a mobile phone would have an earpiece. Arrayed along the bottom of the unit, where a mobile phone would have a mouthpiece, are a horizontal set of 10 LEDs (light emitting diodes) which indicate the status of the network cable. According to BetterBox, the Psibernet unit can monitor and display instantaneous, average, and peak traffic simultaneously, or the lightweight handheld unit can log network activity for up to 24 hours. The company claims that the unit's ability to set threshold levels and generate audible and visual alarms lets users concentrate on other things until a problem occurs. The Psibernet unit is the first of a new series of monitoring units, higher versions of which company officials claim will be capable of working with 100 megabits-per-second (Mbps) networks. Other models will have a serial port for exporting accumulated data. The basic Psibernet unit is available immediately. The extra versions will be released in July and August of this year, respectively. (Sylvia Dennis/19950508/Press & Reader Contact: BetterBox Communications, tel +44-1908-225291, fax +44-1908- 225286/BETTERBOX050895/PHOTO) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 05/08/95 PC UK - Lasat's Low-Cost V.34 PCMCIA Card Modem (NEWS)(PC)(LON)(00022) UK - Lasat's Low-Cost V.34 PCMCIA Card Modem 05/08/95 LONDON, ENGLAND, 1995 MAY 8 (NB) -- Lasat, the UK offshoot of the Danish modem manufacturer, has unveiled a budget V.34 28,800 bits-per-second (bps) PCMCIA (Personal Computer Memory Card International Association) modem costing UKP299. The price point is a milestone for Lasat, which has carved out a successful name for itself in the UK over the last year, as a supplier of miniature portable and desktop modems at a modest price premium over the competition. The Credit 288, Newsbytes notes, offers PCMCIA functionality with a very cut-throat price. According to Zane Ryan, general manager of Lasat UK, the modem complements the company's existing UKP199 Credit 144 14,400 bps modem. "All functions are now built in the modem, so the telephone cord is the only necessary link when connecting to a phone line," he explained, adding that demand for PCMCIA card modems is increasing "as companies discover the benefits of a more mobile workforce and as portable PCs improve to match the power of desktops." Despite its budget price, the modem is fully V42bis error-correction and data compression-compliant, supports MNP Class 5 and 10 facilities for cellular links, and support fax modem tones to speeds of up to 14,400 bps. Interestingly, the modem has a 16550 FIFO (First In, First Out) UART emulation modem that allows it to move data to and from the PCMCIA- connected host PC at speeds of 115,200 bps with no speed problems. (Steve Gold/19950508/Press & Reader Contact: Lasat UK, +44-181-741-8011; Toll-Free (UK Only), 0800-136331) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 05/08/95 GENERAL Novell Offers New Product Licensing Program (NEWS)(GENERAL)(LON)(00023) Novell Offers New Product Licensing Program 05/08/95 BRACKNELL, BERKSHIRE, ENGLAND, 1995 MAY 8 (NB) -- Novell has announced a new product licensing system for its customers in the Europe, Middle East and African (EMEA) regions that it claims offers them more flexibility and easier purchasing on software products. According to Ian Fraser, Novell's EMEA vice president, the scheme is called Novell Customer Connections and offers volume discounts, and input on upgrade options. Specifically, the Customer Connections program consists of a progressive new volume licensing agreement (VLA) that Novell claims is designed for small- to medium-sized customers and departments of large organizations. In addition, the CC program will also offer an alternative scheme for large, multi-national or highly decentralized national customers. This aspect of the program will be announced next month. According to Novell, the VLA is designed for those customers in smaller companies that want to take advantage of volume discounts, but without committing themselves to large volumes of products in specific time scales, or to a contract. The program is billed as offering customers the choice of buying new licenses only, upgrades only, or both, and offers two purchase options: NetWare and applications software. The basic requirement of the program is that a sliding window of two years applies to purchases, with a discount on further purchases made within a two year period of the first (or applicable) purchase. "We've explored and identified new methods of providing Novell products to our customers in ways that benefit them as well as our valued channel partners," explained Fraser, who added that the CC program offers customers the chance of buying Novell products at volume prices. (Steve Gold/19950508/Press Contact: A Plus, +44-1753-790700; Reader Contact: Novell, +44-1344-724000) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 05/08/95 WINDOWS Parsons Ships US History Multimedia CD-ROM (NEWS)(WINDOWS)(DEN)(00024) Parsons Ships US History Multimedia CD-ROM 05/08/95 HIAWATHA, IOWA, U.S.A., 1995 MAY 8 (NB) -- Parsons Technology Inc. has introduced a multimedia program that "attempts to bring history alive" through a combination of video, animation, and sound. American History Explorer, which is available only on CD-ROM, covers early American history from the year 1000 AD through the Reconstruction period following the Civil War. #IMAGE 1 20 TWPCX \images\95050824.PCX Click here for photo The company said American History Explorer is a resource written for students, teachers, parents, and historians that uses: 93 maps; 1,300 articles; 85 primary documents like the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence; 1,000 pictures; six videos; 110 slide shows; and a "hall of presidents." A feature called Time Line serves as the user's "port of entry" to any point in the period covered. One hundred three-dimensional (3-D) images provide a look at battle reenactments, portraits of history makers, and other significant events. Parsons said the six videos in the program present overviews and reenactments of various eras in American history, including "Exploration," "Westward Expansion," and the "Civil War." The Hall of Presidents includes, what the company says, are "the 22 men who brought this country from infancy through the most trying years." A multiple-choice "five Ws" game challenges the user to remember the who, what, where, when, and why of America's history. Parsons said the program is suitable for kids ages eight and up. The program also contains a songbook from which the user can select various songs popular during the continental and Civil War period. A Parsons spokesperson told Newsbytes the company plans to release a follow-up disk that picks up on the history timeline where this program leaves off after the Civil War. American History Explorer Multimedia CD-ROM has a suggested retail price of $69. Parsons said the expected street price is $49, and the company sells it for that price. To run the software you need at least an IBM-compatible 386SX-powered PC equipped with four megabytes (MB) of memory, 2MB of available hard disk space, a multimedia CD-ROM drive, 256-color VGA or higher monitor, a mouse or equivalent pointing device, an 8-bit sound card, and Microsoft Windows 3.1 or later running in the enhanced mode. (Jim Mallory/19950508/Press contact: Joan Dyal, Parsons Technology, 319-395-9626; Public contact: Parsons Technology, tel 319-395-9626 or 800-223-6925, fax 319-395-7449/HISTORY950508/PHOTO) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 05/08/95 APPLE ****Epson Stylus Mac Color Printer Not 720 Dpi (NEWS)(APPLE)(MSP)(00025) ****Epson Stylus Mac Color Printer Not 720 Dpi 05/08/95 MINNEAPOLIS, MINNESOTA, U.S.A., 1995 MAY 8 (NB) -- If you're a Macintosh user, you've undoubtedly seen the ads for the hot new Epson Stylus Color inkjet printer that have been running in many of the glossy computer magazines recently. However, Epson has acknowledged that, contrary to what the ads say, the printer does not deliver true 720 dots-per-inch (dpi) quality when printing from an Apple Computer Macintosh. This month's MacHome Journal, for instance, contains a full-color, two-page, inside-front-cover ad for the Stylus Color in which Epson proclaims: "The Epson Stylus Color is the world's only inkjet to deliver output of 720 by 720 dots per inch...the only inkjet worthy of your Macintosh." And if you missed the ads, perhaps you read articles like the recent MacWeek piece which acclaimed the Stylus Color's print quality. "At 720 dpi," MacWeek declared, "it provides by far the best output of any printer in its class." The Stylus Color may well be the best printer in its class, but Epson has acknowledged that it does not deliver true 720 dpi quality when printing from an Apple Macintosh. And here's an especially raw rub for Mac users: the problem is restricted to the Mac. Windows users do, in fact, get full 720 dpi output from their PCs. Epson made the announcement in response to queries from BugNet magazine, which carried the story on the cover of its May issue. According to Epson, the problem is not a bug, but rather the result of conscious design choices made during the course of developing the Stylus Color driver for the Mac. There were two main issues that guided development of Epson's Macintosh driver for the Stylus Color printer, according to Epson software designers in Japan. "First, the Macintosh OS (operating system) requires that system RAM be used in imaging print jobs. The amount of RAM required to draw and half-tone a 720 by 720 dpi full color image can be huge, depending on the application. "Also, the Epson Stylus Color ink jet printer connects to the Macintosh via a standard Mac serial port. The throughput on this port is a small fraction of the throughput on a bi-directional parallel port, as in use for the PC interface. These factors result in very slow printing times on the Macintosh when compared with the PC on 720 dpi print jobs." Epson's solution was to combine 360 dpi and 720 dpi processing in the same image, producing something between the two in image quality. When printing from a Mac, the Epson Stylus Color does the rough initial processing at 360 dpi, and then finishes it at 720 dpi. Steve Sugarman of Epson America in Torrance, CA, explained, "This is why 720 dpi rectangular photos or other hi-resolution color images look equally good on both Macs and PCs, while edges of line drawings and text, especially at curves or diagonals, appear smoother on the PC at 720." Some Stylus color users, however, say they can see a difference between Mac and Windows color image prints too. Guy Kuo at the University of Washington in Seattle said of Stylus Color output from the Mac: "Results are bolder and more saturated in color but the true resolution is not 720 dpi as advertised." One possible solution, which Epson is presently considering, would be to offer full 720 dpi as an option on the Mac, with the caveat that it might be very slow. "Based on feedback now coming in from some users," Sugarman said, "Epson is now evaluating methods for offering more options in future versions of the driver." (Bruce Brown/19950508) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 05/08/95 GENERAL Corel To Launch Multiple Products (NEWS)(GENERAL)(MSP)(00026) Corel To Launch Multiple Products 05/08/95 OTTAWA, ONTARIO, CANADA, 1995 MAY 8 (NB) -- In the month of May, Corel Corp. will ship a number of new and updated products including Corel Gallery 2 (Mac), Stock Library 2, Corel CD Office Companion (16-bit version), and two new titles in the Corel CD Home series. Corel Gallery 2 for the Mac includes capabilities for visual multimedia file management, file viewing, batch file conversion, batch printing, slide shows and font management, along with 15,000 clip-art images, 500 fonts, 75 sounds, and 10 video clips. The package lists at US$99. Corel CD Office Companion (16-bit version) comprises a number of software and utility programs including: CorelFlow 2.0; Corel Gallery 2 (plus the Corel Capture screen capture utility); an advanced TrueType font manager; a personal information manager; a library of CD-ROM desk references (including an encyclopedia, dictionary , almanacs and quotations); CorelFax communications software; and Corel Web Mosaic (a World Wide Web browser licensed from Spyglass Inc., featuring both GIF and JPEG support). Corel CD Office Companion will carry a suggested list price of US$149. A 32-bit Windows 95 version of this suite, also slated to include word-processing, database, and presentation software, is expected to ship later this year. Corel has updated its CD Creator software platform, adding support for a number of additional CD-ROM writers. Registered users can download the update for free. Instructions can be obtained from the new Corel Web site. Adventures with Edison features three "challenging" games for children between the ages of seven and 14. Mystery at the Museums, Wild Science Arcade, and Rock & Bach Studio are three different areas in this package that teach logic, science, and music skills. The Windows 3.1 CD-ROM lists at US$39.95. Bernard of Hollywood's Marilyn is a multimedia retrospective on the life and career of Marilyn Monroe, including video clips, photographs, biographical information and an audio track documenting her life. The CD contains both Windows and Mac-compatible versions at a suggested list price of US$69.95. Corel Corp. and Hewlett-Packard Company have teamed up to bundle Corel Photo-Paint 5 with Hewlett-Packards newly-released HP ScanJet 3c color/grayscale scanner for the PC. It is available now, priced at US$1,179. Corel will publish a second Stock Photo Library this month with 20,000 new photographs covering a broad range of topics. The new Stock Photo Library includes indexing software and support in English, German, French, and Japanese. Suggested list of the product is US$995. (Glenn Lisle/19950508/Press Contact: Fiona Rochester, Corel, Internet e-mail 0005008861@mcimail.com; CorelNET Internet World Wide Web http://www.corelnet.com) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 05/08/95 BROADCAST ****Microsoft Shows Interactive TV Technology (NEWS)(BROADCAST)(DEN)(00027) ****Microsoft Shows Interactive TV Technology 05/08/95 DALLAS, TEXAS, U.S.A., 1995 MAY 8 (NB) -- Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ:MSFT) used this week's Cable '95 trade show to demonstrate its Microsoft Interactive Television (MITV) distributed operating system and applications platform for interactive television. Cable '95 is the National Cable Television Association's annual conference. The show is the first public demonstration of MITV. Microsoft has constructed a representation of the operations center currently being used by Microsoft and Tele-Communications Inc. (TCI) in Redmond, Washington to test the MITV technology. Microsoft said set-top box emulators will be connected to the on-site operations center, and terminals will demonstrate administrative tools available for MITV. Forty video streams projected on the booth's video walls will be controlled by a single computer running MITV. Cable system operators attending the show will also get to see demonstrations of prototype content, applications and services developed by Microsoft and various third-party developers. Microsoft is also demonstrating Microsoft dial-up network applications, including the Microsoft Network (MSN) and Complete NBA Basketball to show the potential for migration of those and similar products from the PC to cable television. A live theater presentation and continuous screenings of the Microsoft video "Building an Industry Together" are also being presented. Other Microsoft announcements at Cable '95 include the launch of MITV Media Partners, a program to provide select third party developers direct hands-on experience in the development and creation of interactive content and services based on MITV technology. Developers already involved in MITV projects include Starwave Corp., ESPN Enterprises, Time Warner Interactive, Tribune Interactive Network Services and the United States Postal Service. (Jim Mallory/19950508/Press contact: Therese Well, Waggener Edstrom for Microsoft, 206-637-9097; Public contact: Microsoft, 206-882-8080 of 800-426-9400) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 05/08/95 BROADCAST ****Apple Intros TV Set-Top Box (NEWS)(BROADCAST)(SFO)(00028) ****Apple Intros TV Set-Top Box 05/08/95 DALLAS, TEXAS, U.S.A., 1995 MAY 8 (NB) -- Apple Computer Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) says it is supplying a set-top box for interactive television trials (ITV) of Lightspan Partnership's educational home and school programming. Apple says it will look for a third party to manufacture the Apple set-top box. The Lightspan program consists of an interactive reading and mathematics curriculum for children between the ages of four and 12, inclusive. Lightspan says its goal is to deliver a common education program which ties schools and students' homes into a uniform source for educational opportunities. Early trials of the programming and Apple's set-top box will be conducted in six US states. Content from Lightspan for the trials consists of "Mars Moose," an interactive reading series and "The Secret of Googol," an introductory mathematics series. Also included in the programming is "Str.at.es" and "KidVid: Timeless Math." Beyond the interactive component, Lightspan claims it has combined animation, live video, state-of-the-art audio, "compelling" characters, and "entertaining" story lines to enhance student participation and progress. Apple's set-top box features a Motion Pictures Experts Group-1 (MPEG-1) decoder, four megabytes (MB) of RAM, and 2MB of ROM running on a Motorola 68040 microprocessor. The initial box for the trials is a stand-alone unit which has a CD-ROM drive for displaying content. Apple says this temporary measure will allow the Lightspan program to develop until the necessary broadband requirements for true ITV are fully installed in the participating communities. This is not Apple's first venture into ITV. Early in 1994, the company participated in ITV trial in the United Kingdom and then provided set-top boxes for ITV trials in Belgium. Bill Goings, Apple's Interactive Television business development manager, told Newsbytes, "The Lightspan program is designed as one-on-one student to computer/television environment. The initial trials will allow students to interact with the learning programs using a mouse. However, Apple's set-top box will also accommodate a keyboard." Goings also said, "Our set-box design is built around expansion. Any set-top will have to be ready to expand to meet a growing and developing industry." Apple's early design for these US trials is expandable to 32MB of RAM. As large video files for applications such as video-on-demand become available, set-top boxes will be ready to meet the necessary hardware and firmware requirements. Apple and Microsoft working together? Not exactly, but The Lightspan Partnership, a San Diego, California company is backed by Microsoft, Comcast, and TCI Ventures. The partnership's goal is to develop a nationwide interactive television education curriculum to be shared between the student's school and home. (Patrick McKenna/1995/Press Contact: Carolyn Donohoe, Donohoe Communications, 415-664-4780) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 05/08/95 BROADCAST ****Apple's Interactive TV Directions (NEWS)(BROADCAST)(SFO)(00029) ****Apple's Interactive TV Directions 05/08/95 DALLAS, TEXAS, U.S.A., 1995 MAY 8 (NB) -- Apple Computer Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL), after announcing its participation in The Lightspan Partnership interactive television (ITV) trials, also announced an ITV development system with nCube, and participation in a Swedish ITV program with Telia, a cable/telephone provider. The collaboration with nCube involves a low-cost ITV development system for content and service providers to develop ITV applications for areas such as home shopping, education and video-on-demand (VoD). Named "nVision," the system will incorporate Apple's ITV technology into nCube's video server and media server software. Designed as turn-key development package, nVision will be marketed by nCube to a wide range of developers and content providers looking for an inclusive program. Regarding its Telia announcement, Apple says the set-top box for these trials incorporates Macintosh operating system technology, QuickDraw, and QuickTime. The box also supports PAL and NTSC (North American Television Standards Committee) video formats along with E1 and T1 telephone protocols. Trials are expected to begin this month in Farsta, a suburb of Stockholm, Sweden. Unlike the Lightspan trials in the US, the Telia trials will be fully networked and interactive. Bill Goings, ITV business development manager for Apple, told Newsbytes, "We have learned a number of important facts from the trials we have been involved in. While the providers are very careful about revealing specific information about the trial, we have learned that it is extremely important to offer developers and content providers great creative authoring tools and that those tools be used to create great content." He continued, "Apple is an experienced player in the development of ITV technology. We realize the need for authoring tools which allow developers to create an ITV application once for all platforms. This is our strategy. Getting superior development tools which address multiple platforms into the hands of creative developers is critical in meeting the economic factors facing content providers. To be able to go through the authoring process once and be able to a produce a product for multiple platforms will reduce costs significantly." (Patrick McKenna/19950508/Press Contact: Carolyn Donohoe, Donohoe Communications, 415-664-4780) (SUMMARY)(GENERAL)(SFO)(00030) Newsbytes Daily Summary 05/08/95 PENN VALLEY, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1995 MAY 8 (NB) -- These are capsules of all today's news stories: 1 -> Nintendo Goes Online 05/08/95 Nintendo of America Inc. has launched an online version of the popular video game magazine Nintendo Power Source on the subscription online service America Online (AOL), and opened a home page of the World Wide Web.. 2 -> SCO Canada Gets New Worldwide Mandate 05/08/95 SCO Canada, the Canadian arm of Santa Cruz Operation Inc. (NASDAQ:SCOC) is hiring new staff to handle an extension of its worldwide mandate. The Canadian product engineering group will now provide specialized engineering services to independent software vendors around the world. 3 -> More On TCI/Internet Cable "@Home" Service 05/08/95 Tele- Communications Inc.'s new "@Home" high-speed Internet service will operate a national, high-speed, Internet protocol-based network connecting to both information providers and cable operators on a turnkey basis, the company said. Newsbytes first reported on the new service last week, which will bring the Internet into homes and businesses via cable wiring. 4 -> NewsPix Images For Newsbytes Publishers 05/08/95 These photos correspond to recent Newsbytes stories. They are online in the Newsbytes menu on GEnie, America Online, eWorld, NiftyServe, and the Newsbytes private bulletin board system in Minneapolis. 5 -> Internet Update 05/08/95 In this roundup of what's new on the Internet: Free Dun & Bradstreet reports; New Macintosh Mosaic; French cultural database online; Never miss a birthday again; Russian nuclear institute online; Browser comparison check; 6 -> Miramar's Apple-To-PC Peer-To-Peer LAN Upgrade 05/08/95 Miramar Systems has announced the release of Personal Maclan Connect 5.0, which incorporates a Windows AppleShare client. With the new client software, Maclan provides full peer-to-peer file and print sharing between stations on a Mac/PC mixed-platformed networks. 7 -> MicroTouch To Acquire Touch Technology Inc. 05/08/95 MicroTouch Systems Inc. plans to acquire Touch Technology Inc. The deal will add Touch's resistive membrane product line to its own capacitive touch products 8 -> Sharp Intros Computer/Video Projector 05/08/95 More and more mobile professionals and salespeople are starting to tote LCD (liquid crystal display) "computer/video projectors" along with their PC notebooks and PowerBooks, said Joseph Gillio, product marketing manager at Sharp, in a meeting with Newsbytes on a Boston press tour held to unveil Sharp's new product in the category, the briefcase-sized XG-E650U. 9 -> ****NewsNet Readies Windows GUI 05/08/95 NewsNet, an online database offering more than 800 sources of business news, is developing a new Windows-based graphical user interface (GUI) and Unix-based search engine and file server technology, Newsbytes has learned. 10 -> Xerox Intros No-Chemical Film 05/08/95 Xerox Corp. (NYSE:XRX) has introduced a chemical-free digital film in the US designed for use in graphic arts applications. 11 -> Canadian Product Launch Update 05/08/95 This regular feature, appearing on the first day Newsbytes publishes each week, provides further details for the Canadian market on announcements by international companies that Newsbytes has already covered. This week: AutoCAD LT Release 2 for Windows, Digital's new Pentium-based Venturis PCs, IBM's SystemView for AIX, and Lotus Word Pro. 12 -> Wireless Link Handles Wired-LAN Speeds 05/08/95 SilCom Manufacturing Technology Inc., a maker of local area networking (LAN) hardware, has announced a wireless device that it said can carry LAN traffic between buildings at speeds as high as 20 megabits-per-second (Mbps). 13 -> Fannie Mae On The Web 05/08/95 "Neither a borrower nor a lender be," Shakespeare's elderly Polonius says to young Laertes. But if you must, you might try the World Wide Web. 14 -> Loral Lands $1.5 Billion Govt Contracts 05/08/95 Loral's Federal Systems division has picked up two US government contracts worth a total of nearly $1.5 billion. The awards are the largest since Loral acquired the former IBM federal systems business a year ago. 15 -> PC Docs Plans Add-On For Microsoft Exchange 05/08/95 PC Docs Inc. (TSE:DXX; NASDAQ:DOCSF) has announced plans for software that will work with Microsoft Corp.'s (NASDAQ:MSFT) Exchange Server messaging software, allowing anyone using an Exchange client PC to retrieve documents stored with PC Docs' Docs Open software. 16 -> Web Digest For Marketers 05/08/95 To keep up with the seemingly endless line of companies making their launches into cyberspace, The Online Ad Agency said it is introducing "Web Digest for Marketers" (WDFM). The new Digest is delivered in both electronic- mail (e-mail) and Internet World Wide Web formats. 17 -> Nintendo Delays Ultra-64 Game System 05/08/95 Nintendo of America Inc. says it will delay the launch of its Ultra 64 video game system, even though the final chipset that produces the game's graphics and audio has been completed. 18 -> Australian Business Index CD Has Million Entries 05/08/95 The Australian Business Index is a CD-based database of Australian businesses. The latest version has just been released, adding what is claimed to be a complete database of all Australian government departments -- federal, state, and local. 19 -> Vehicle Tracking System Deters Cab Driver Attacks 05/08/95 An Australian system which can accurately report the position of any vehicle fitted with its equipment has been suggested as a way to overcome many of the serious cab driver attacks which happen every day around the world. 20 -> China - Satellite TV To Reach Yuannan Remote Areas 05/08/95 Satellite transmitted TV programs will be available to 85 percent of families in Yuannan province by the end of this century according to an expansion program issued by the local government. 21 -> UK - BetterBox Intros Handheld Network Tester 05/08/95 BetterBox Communications has unveiled the Psibernet, a handheld network monitoring and testing device, that allows the user to monitor Ethernet or Token Ring network traffic without a physical connection being required. 22 -> UK - Lasat's Low-Cost V.34 PCMCIA Card Modem 05/08/95 Lasat, the UK offshoot of the Danish modem manufacturer, has unveiled a budget V.34 28,800 bits-per-second (bps) PCMCIA (Personal Computer Memory Card International Association) modem costing UKP299. 23 -> Novell Offers New Product Licensing Program 05/08/95 Novell has announced a new product licensing system for its customers in the Europe, Middle East and African (EMEA) regions that it claims offers them more flexibility and easier purchasing on software products. 24 -> Parsons Ships US History Multimedia CD-ROM 05/08/95 Parsons Technology Inc. has introduced a multimedia program that "attempts to bring history alive" through a combination of video, animation, and sound. American History Explorer, which is available only on CD-ROM, covers early American history from the year 1000 AD through the Reconstruction period following the Civil War. 25 -> ****Epson Stylus Mac Color Printer Not 720 Dpi 05/08/95 If you're a Macintosh user, you've undoubtedly seen the ads for the hot new Epson Stylus Color inkjet printer that have been running in many of the glossy computer magazines recently. However, Epson has acknowledged that, contrary to what the ads say, the printer does not deliver true 720 dots-per-inch (dpi) quality when printing from an Apple Computer Macintosh. 26 -> Corel To Launch Multiple Products 05/08/95 In the month of May, Corel Corp. will ship a number of new and updated products including Corel Gallery 2 (Mac), Stock Library 2, Corel CD Office Companion (16-bit version), and two new titles in the Corel CD Home series. 27 -> ****Microsoft Shows Interactive TV Technology 05/08/95 Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ:MSFT) used this week's Cable '95 trade show to demonstrate its Microsoft Interactive Television (MITV) distributed operating system and applications platform for interactive television. Cable '95 is the National Cable Television Association's annual conference. 28 -> ****Apple Intros TV Set-Top Box 05/08/95 Apple Computer Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) says it is supplying a set-top box for interactive television trials (ITV) of Lightspan Partnership's educational home and school programming. Apple says it will look for a third party to manufacture the Apple set-top box. 29 -> ****Apple's Interactive TV Directions 05/08/95 Apple Computer Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL), after announcing its participation in The Lightspan Partnership interactive television (ITV) trials, also announced an ITV development system with nCube, and participation in a Swedish ITV program with Telia, a cable/telephone provider. (Ian Stokell/19950508) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 05/04/95 BUSINESS Swedish Buy Takes Amstrad Into Printers (NEWS)(BUSINESS)(LON)(00001) Swedish Buy Takes Amstrad Into Printers 05/04/95 STOCKHOLM, SWEDEN, 1995 MAY 4 (NB) -- Amstrad has agreed to acquire Jarfalla ICC, once owned by IBM, from the receiver. It is expected to take a 67 percent stake in Swedot Inkjet Industrie, a new company formed to acquire the assets and technology of JICC. The deal will take Amstrad into a new and lucrative area currently dominated by Canon and Hewlett-Packard. Until now Amstrad has not been able to enter the fast growing plain paper fax market, and intends to use the ink jet technology in a new range of plain paper facsimile machines as well as printers. Atle will retain a 28 percent stake in Swedot while Xaar, the Cambridge-based technology company, will hold a five percent stake. (Terry Silveria/19950503) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 05/04/95 TELECOM GSM Phone Suppliers To Improve Voice Coding (NEWS)(TELECOM)(LON)(00002) GSM Phone Suppliers To Improve Voice Coding 05/04/95 LONDON, ENGLAND, 1995 MAY 4 (NB) -- A group of leading GSM (global system for mobile communications) digital cellular telephone suppliers have acted to improve the speech quality of the digital mobile phones they will sell in the US later this year. Ericsson, Nokia Mobile Phones, Motorola and Northern Telecom have jointly proposed a new enhanced full rate (EFR) GSM voice coding algorithm in response to US operators which have criticized the speech quality of existing GSM mobile phones. US operators have suggested the systems should offer wire-line voice quality. The enhanced coder is fully compatible with the 13 kilobits-per-second GSM speech coding scheme. It does not have the formal approval of the ETSI (the European standards body) which is drawing up is own improved version of the GSM full rate coder. It has been suggested that the EFR is an attempt to short-circuit the ETSI work. Ericsson has played down the implications by saying that there are no plans to market the EFR outside the US. (Terry Silveria/19950503) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 05/04/95 GOVT Philippines - Gov't To Use Only Licensed Software (NEWS)(GOVT)(TYO)(00003) Philippines - Gov't To Use Only Licensed Software 05/04/95 MANILA, PHILIPPINES, 1995 MAY 4 (NB) - All government agencies have been ordered by President Fidel V. Ramos to only acquire licensed and legitimate software for all their information system requirements. The President issued Memorandum Circular No. 115 last month to "effectively enforce the intellectual property rights (IPR) law." The move was also made to promote "creative and innovative activity as well as improve conditions for investment, trade and technological development." The President noted that all government departments, government owned and controlled corporations, and agencies are covered by the directive. President Ramos also stressed that all licensed software purchased should be "standardized and rationalized to achieve cost-effectiveness." The memorandum comes amongst the current wave of government drives against intellectual property rights (IPR) violations. Several raids have been carried out by elements of the National Police, National Bureau of Investigation (NBI), and the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI), in coordination with local representatives of the Business Software Alliance (BSA), against retailers found guilty of unauthorized reproduction and sale of copyrighted US software. The President instructed government agencies directly involved with the execution of the directive to coordinate with the National Information Technology Council (NITC) for the compliance of all entities concerned. "The Department of Trade and Industry, the National Computer Center, the Department of Budget and Management, and other relevant government agencies are directed to work out in coordination with the NITC the appropriate programs, guidelines, and arrangements to enable all agencies to comply with the Circular," the President said. He also said his Office shall be closely monitoring developments regarding the execution of the circular. "The Office of the President should be advised on a quarterly basis of the results of the implementation of this circular," the President added. The Office of the US Trade Representative spared the Philippines from its recently published "Special 301" IPR violators list as it saw improved IPR protection in the country. The DTI is in the forefront of the anti-piracy drive with an extensive IPR protection program, including a special court being formed to try IPR violations. BSA members Microsoft Corp. and Lotus Development Corp. appear satisfied with government efforts and have declared plans to establish Philippine sales and distribution offices. Microsoft is set to start its Philippine operations later this year. (Metropolitan Computer Times/19950419/Reader contact: Rupert Roque, Research Dept., Office of the Press Secretary, Office of the President of the Republic of the Philippines, 632-400-992; MCT, Internet e-mail dilips@netcom.com) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 05/04/95 IBM IBM Begins SystemView Integration Thrust (NEWS)(IBM)(TOR)(00004) IBM Begins SystemView Integration Thrust 05/04/95 WHITE PLAINS, NEW YORK, U.S.A., 1995 MAY 4 (NB) -- Beginning a program to integrate its systems management tools into a small number of processes and across multiple hardware platforms, IBM (NYSE:IBM) has announced SystemView for AIX. The first publicly announced piece of a project known until now by the code name Karat, SystemView for AIX takes multiple systems-management products and organizes them into a few process areas within a single software product. IBM will deliver the software on a CD-ROM using its CD Showcase technology, which allows customers to pay for and unlock just the software components they want. John Neuman, director of systems software marketing for IBM's RISC System/6000 division, said SystemView for AIX integrates some 22 system management products so that all are accessible from a single launch screen under the headings of major process areas such as change management, storage management, and network management. By bringing its NetView network-management software under the SystemView for AIX umbrella, IBM is in line with a general industry trend toward bringing systems management and network management together. IBM also plans to help third-party software developers tie their offerings into the new SystemView framework. A new SystemView Association has been created as an umbrella for existing third- party partnership programs such as IBM's NetView Association, Neuman told Newsbytes. SystemView for AIX will be just the first in a series of introductions over the next few months as IBM fleshes out what it calls its SystemView Series. SystemView for OS/2 is due by the end of the year, focusing on small business and workgroups. SystemView for MVS, for the company's large mainframe computers, is also due by year-end, while SystemView for OS/400, for the midrange AS/400 computers, is on the schedule for early in 1996. Object orientation is a significant part of IBM's SystemView plans. Neuman said SystemView for AIX already takes advantage of object-oriented technology in its user interface, and in the next release of the software object class libraries will help make it easier for IBM and third parties to develop and modify applications faster. Open Systems Research Group, a New York research firm, said in a report distributed to the media by IBM that the functions IBM is promising through its object-oriented infrastructure will put the company "out in front" in systems management, provided it can deliver them on time. Individual features of SystemView for AIX are priced separately, ranging from $100 to $34,000. IBM said it has adopted standard licensing terms and conditions for all features. Deliveries of SystemView for AIX start immediately, IBM said. (Grant Buckler/19950503/Press Contact: Melinda Painter, IBM, 919-543-9627/SYSTEM950504/PHOTO) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 05/04/95 TRENDS New Mexico Utility Goes For Paperless Financials (NEWS)(TRENDS)(WAS)(00005) New Mexico Utility Goes For Paperless Financials 05/04/95 ALBUQUERQUE, NEW MEXICO, U.S.A., 1995 MAY 4 (NB) -- Public Service of New Mexico has decided to scrap its paper quarterly financial reports in favor of electronics. The Albuquerque utility has announced a new electronic information service for investors and shareholders, including a toll-free phone line (800-8400PNM) and an address on the CompuServe online service, 76325,151). Callers to the phone line will get a current stock quote, the current quarterly earnings report, and a 1994 earnings summary, along with a sound bite from chief executive officer (CEO) Benjamin Montoya's speech to shareholders at the April 25 shareholders' meeting. But the utility will no longer be mailing quarterly reports to shareholders. The 800 service also has a fax-back service for a printed copy of the financial report, as well as access to company news releases. The quarterly reports, says Barbara Barsky, director of planning and investor relations, "were costly to us and not very timely or valuable to our shareholders. We felt this new technology offered a way for people to get better information more quickly and easily -- and, from the company's perspective, more cheaply." Barsky says the 800 number and electronic-mail service will cost the utility half what it cost to prepare, print and mail the old quarterly reports. Of course, the utility still has to prepare quarterly reports, which are submitted to the Securities and Exchange Commission. "In an industry changing as rapidly as ours, investors need better information, and they need it faster," says Barsky. "this new service will give our shareholders access to up-to-the-minute information about their company." But PNM is hardly on the leading edge of utilities on the information superhighway. Some 10 electric utilities now have home pages on the Internet's World Wide Web, including San Diego Gas & Electric, Delmarva Power & Light, BC Hydro, Hawaiian Electric Industries, Ohio Edison, Southern Company Services, PacifiCorp, Southern California Edison, Trans Alta Utilities, and UtiliCorp United. Many of those have financial statements online. At least one, UtiliCorp United, also has a button for up-to-date stock quotes, as well as a hypertext link to the Securities and Exchange Commission's EDGAR electronic reporting system. (Kennedy Maize/19950504/Press Contact: Rick Brinneman, 505-848-2622) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 05/04/95 SUPERCOMPUTER Indian Supercomputer From DRDO (NEWS)(SUPERCOMPUTER)(DEL)(00006) Indian Supercomputer From DRDO 05/04/95 NEW DELHI, INDIA, 1995 MAY 4 (NB) -- While a World Bank report applauds the Indian software industry, research laboratories are not lagging behind in developing high quality hardware. The Defense Research Development Organization's (DRDO) Advance Numerical Research and Analysis Group (Anurag) has developed a parallel processing computer, called the Pace-Plus. The system delivers a sustained performance of more than 960 Mflops (million floating operations per second) for computational fluid dynamics programs, which are used in aircraft projects. DRDO is the research and development wing of India's Ministry of Defense. Pace-Plus includes 32 advanced computing nodes, each with 64 megabytes (MB) of memory that can be expanded up to 256MB, and a very powerful front-end processor which is a hyperSPARC with a speed of 66/90/100 megahertz (MHz). According to K. Neelkantan, director of Anurag, "A production line for Pace systems has already been established, with an installed base of 12 in the country. Besides fluid dynamics, these high-speed computer systems are also being used in areas such as vision, medical imaging, signal processing, molecular modeling, neural networks, and finite element analysis. Pace-Plus is currently available in three versions: eight nodes with 240 Mflops sustained speed; 16 nodes with 480 Mflops sustained speed; and 32 nodes with 960 Mflops sustained speed. The product also comes with a number of tools for software development. There are already two other parallel processing-based supercomputers on the Indian market: Param from the Pune-based Center for Development of Advanced Computing (C-DAC), and Flowsolver from the National Aerospace Laboratory, Bangalore. (C.T. Mahabharat/19950503) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 05/04/95 IBM Chinese OS/2 Warp Available In China (NEWS)(IBM)(PEK)(00007) Chinese OS/2 Warp Available In China 05/04/95 BEIJING, CHINA, 1995 MAY 4 (NB) -- A Chinese version of IBM's 32-bit operating system, OS/2 Warp, is now available for sale in China. IBM China plans to promote the OS/2 Warp system aggressively through partnerships with both the Chinese government and other companies. The product was developed by IBM China in cooperation with the China Great Wall Computer Group and Tsinghua University. It is said that IBM invested about US$2 million in developing the Chinese version. The product will be manufactured in Shenzhen, Guangdong Province. A representative of IBM China told Newsbytes that Grownhand Development Ltd. and Beijing Hope Computer Company have been authorized by the company as distributors of the software. The regular price of the software is RMB1,350 (US$159). However, in a promotion until the end of May, the price is RMB980 (US$115). Tianxing Yang, director of the computer department under the Ministry of Electronics, said that IBM's commitment and investment in China will boost the development of the domestic software industry. To promote the operating system in China, IBM will set up close partnerships with Chinese companies and invest more money in China to develop application software and systems. IBM has about 20 domestic partners. That number will be increased to about 100 by the end of this year, according to IBM China. (Chih-Ho Yu & Ning Huang/19950425/Reader Contact: IBM China, +86-10-437-6677; Grownhand Development, +86-10 841-6854; Beijing Hope, +86-10-257-9826) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 05/04/95 TRENDS Philippines - Acer Tops 1994 PC Shipments (NEWS)(TRENDS)(TYO)(00008) Philippines - Acer Tops 1994 PC Shipments 05/04/95 MANILA, PHILIPPINES 1995 MAY 4 (NB) - Acer shipped the highest number of PCs in 1994 to the Philippine market, according to data released to Newsbytes by IDC Philippines. International Data Corporation (IDC), a Boston-based computer market research firm had earlier announced Acer as the seventh largest brand name PC vendor worldwide. According to IDC research, 99,750 PCs with a market value of US$106 million were shipped in the Philippine market in 1994. Acer accounted for about 11% of total unit shipments and 14% of total value. The Philippine market grew by 27.9% in terms of unit shipments and 51.9% by value over the previous year. Major PC vendors including IBM, Compaq and Apple recorded significant growth, ranging from 60% to over 120% from previous year's sales. Overall, the bullish performance of the Philippines' PC market in 1994 was anchored to the strong recovery posted by the domestic economy. The GDP of the Philippines grew by 4.28% in real terms in 1994, a substantial increase from 2.14% posted in 1993. In particular, the major factors affecting the domestic PC market in 1994 were: decrease in PC prices due to competitive pressure; the appreciation of the Philippines' peso against the US dollar; a rise in the country's personal disposable income; and the Government of Philippines' actions affecting the IT (information technology) industry in pursuit of the goals of the NITP 2000 (National Information Technology Plan). On an average, PC prices in the Philippines fell by 5% to 10% in 1994, which boosted demand, especially for the higher- end branded PCs. Price cuts on various locally available branded PCs have been largely an offshoot of the PC price reduction globally implemented in 1994 by major vendors such as IBM, Compaq, Dell, and Hewlett-Packard, among others. The year saw the 386-based processor drop out of the market. Although 386-based PCs had robust sales in the first half, the market was dominated by 486-based PCs from the third quarter onwards. Both the Pentium and the Power PC rose in popularity in 1994, but their combined shares still constituted a very small piece of the domestic PC market. The demand for newer and more advanced technology will continue to rise given a persisting downtrend in PC prices, downsizing of large systems of an increasing number of firms into PC-server systems, as well as an expanding domestic economy. Multimedia, Pentiums, Power PCs, and client-server-systems are expected to play a larger role in the Philippines' PC market starting 1995. (Metropolitan Computer Times/19950426/Internet e-mail dilips@netcom.com) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 05/04/95 IBM China - IBM Supports Universities (NEWS)(IBM)(PEK)(00009) China - IBM Supports Universities 05/04/95 BEIJING, CHINA, 1995 MAY 4 (NB) -- The South Branch of IBM China has recently donated and installed computer equipment worth $1.2 million at Shenzhen University and South China University of Technology, as part of a planned $25 million package nationwide. China has reportedly made significant progress in higher education in recent years. However, with the rapid development of computer science and technologies, and the faster growth of computer applications, universities in China have been facing challenges in recent years in educating and training more computer hardware/software professionals and students in the latest state-of-the-art technologies. Huanbin Liu, vice president of the South China University of Technology, said that the donation will ease the shortage of school funds and encourage the training of more high-level computer professionals. Liu's school was one of the first universities in China to offer computer classes, beginning in 1960. In addition, IBM China recently announced a partnership program with China's five leading universities to develop a CASE (computer- aided software engineering) curriculum and set up a CASE teaching and learning center at each university, China Daily reported recently. (Chih-Ho Yu & Ning Huang/19950425) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 05/04/95 BUSINESS Selling IT Products In Australia (NEWS)(BUSINESS)(SYD)(00010) Selling IT Products In Australia 05/04/95 SYDNEY, AUSTRALIA, 1995 MAY 4 (NB) -- An understanding of the Australian information technology (IT) market is, for many overseas vendors, an elusive quality. For these organizations, a small and technology-hungry population, spread across an enormous continent, is a strange market indeed. David Miller, a 25 year veteran of the Australian IT industry and managing director of Jarrah Technologies, has a lot of experience in dealing with the Australian reseller channel. A $6 million company specializing in client/server technology, Jarrah is the distributor and authorized support center for Gupta Corporation in NSW and the ACT. The company also distributes a range of other leading client/server software products throughout the Australasian region. When it comes to the distribution of products within Australia, Miller believes many overseas vendors have yet to understand some fundamental differences in markets. "It seems to be part of the culture of distributing products in Australia, that people simply consider Australia to be a nice English-speaking market with a manageable population which is reasonably technically literate," said Miller. "On the other side of the coin though, it's a relatively small market. With a population of 17 million spread across five centers, it doesn't represent a model most overseas manufacturers intuitively understand. Nor do they spend the time to actually investigate what it really means in distributing product." There are a large number of resellers functioning also as distributors. These resellers, who have elected to expand their business and establish their own reseller channels, often face difficulties from -- of all places -- the product vendors. Miller has often noted a lack of consideration given to reseller/distributors who spend a great deal of time and effort into establishing a market for a vendor's products. "The vendors tend to totally underestimate the investment individuals have to make in developing a market," he said. "People who are developing new markets need to carve out something a little bit original -- a little bit different -- and that costs something. And almost without exception, the vendors expect the individual entrepreneur to put up the money to develop the market. However, vendors should realize that these resellers deserve at least a few years of loyalty while they reap some benefits or rewards from developing the market." Miller further believes that, in many cases, once a reseller/distributor has made a success of developing a market for a particular manufacturer, the assumption on the manufacturer's part is that there must therefore be room for other channel developers in that same space. If, on the other hand, a success -- or what the manufacturer believes a success ought to be based on whatever numbers they put up -- is not immediately forthcoming, the manufacturer is likely to assume there are not enough distributors in place, and look for another two or three further avenues for distribution. "The model that seems to work best is one which leaves some value in the chain," said Miller. "Vendors should recognize the upstream channel for what it is and leave something on the table for efforts in developing downstream markets. Unfortunately, this doesn't seem to generally happen." Jarrah Technologies has, in Miller's words, a small place in the channel in that the company has the distribution rights for a handful of products in the client/server area. In developing its channel though, Jarrah's philosophy is one of providing something to its resellers in way of value which can be used in the development of the reseller's business. "We don't just look at them as a funnel down which to pour product, say, 'Give me a business forecast of a hundred thousand units, and if you only make fifty thousand you're a failure,'" said Miller. "What we try to do is leave the biggest amount on the table for those resellers who demonstrate they're developing a market of their own. I mean it's motherhood, but it doesn't often happen." Recent events would seem to bear out Miller's concerns with distribution of IT products to the Australian and even worldwide market. Some vendors, for example, take the opportunity to sell product to end-users at trade shows at prices significantly less than a reseller's buy price. (Keir Wells/19950428/Press Contact: Jarrah Technologies, tel +61-2-248-0900, fax +61-2-262-4242) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 05/04/95 TRENDS World Bank Predicts Growth For Indian Software Firms (NEWS)(TRENDS)(SFO)(00011) World Bank Predicts Growth For Indian Software Firms 05/04/95 NEW DELHI, INDIA, 1995 MAY 4 (NB) -- According to a World Bank report, entitled "Global Economic Prospects and the Developing Countries 1995," India's software program is an example of the ability of some of the developing countries to find comparable advantages in the modern service sector in a global economy. The report says, "Many leading international computer and software companies, including IBM Corp., Apple Computer, Intel Corp., Oracle, and Texas Instruments, have set up research and development (R&D) and production joint-ventures in Bangalore, the capital of the southern state of Karnataka, which is also considered the 'Silicon Valley' of India." The Indian subsidiary of Texas Instruments, for example, develops software for computer-aided design of integrated circuits and transmits the programs back to the US electronically, using its own satellite dish. Strategic alliances have emerged between Indian software companies and companies from industrial countries. In the usual division of labor, the foreign company handles the client-end work, including project management, systems design and specifications, and the Indian partner handles programming, systems testing, quality control and related activities, the report says. "With the Indian software industry enjoying a dizzying annual growth rate of 70 percent, the 60-odd companies, mainly based in Bangalore, generated revenues totaling more than US$500 million (R15,500 million) in the financial year 1993-94, two-thirds of which came from exports," the report says. The progress of the Indian software industry and several other Asian countries, "illustrate how countries with an appropriate mix of policies, infrastructure and skills can benefit from technological process to increase their services exports." (C.T. Mahabharat/19950504) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 05/04/95 BROADCAST TV Guide On Screen Users Can Buy Programs/Movie Tapes (NEWS)(BROADCAST)(DEN)(00012) TV Guide On Screen Users Can Buy Programs/Movie Tapes 05/04/95 ENGLEWOOD, COLORADO, U.S.A., 1995 MAY 4 (NB) -- TV Guide On Screen said it has added a new feature to its interactive television guide that will create a new revenue scream for cable operators. The new service, called Gold Key, lets users purchase videotapes of pay-per-view movies and other events and programs. Gold Key lets the user highlight programs they want to purchase, select the method of payment and shipping, and confirm the order. TV Guide On Screen said the feature will be available in all interactive set-top boxes configured for its Deluxe Interactive Guide service. Bruce Davis, TV Guide On Screen president, said Gold Key will let cable operators get hit movies sooner and also provide them with a new income stream. "Publishers of videotapes traditionally allow retailers first access to hit movies because they fear viewers will videotape pay-per-view airings and cut into sales profits. With the advent of Macrovision copy protection in digital set-top boxes and Gold Key, cable operators will be in a position to argue strongly for earlier access to these premier titles," said Davis. The company said Gold Key can also be used for ordering transcripts of programs, as well as musical selections while tuned to an audio channel. Future applications being studied include advertising and merchandising options, such as ordering a product brochure during a commercial. Viewers using TV Guide On Screen will see a gold star icon next to the listings of programs that can be ordered on videotape. The viewer uses the remote control to highlight the desired selection, presses the matching button on the remote to access the Gold Key feature. The selection screen lets the user scroll through the various videotape formats available as well as a price list to select what they want. The next screen offers various methods of payment such as Visa, MasterCard, Discover, American Express and Add to Cable Bill. The final steps allow order review and cancel, confirm, or start over. Purchase codes are available to restrict purchase authorization. A final screen confirms order acceptance by the system and provides an estimate of when the shipment will arrive. Some choices, such as preferred format and shipping and payment methods can be pre-set to simplify ordering, but can be overridden if desired. (Jim Mallory/19950504/Press contact: Vibeka Gupta, Neale-May & Partners for TV Guide On Screen, 415-328-5555; :Public contact: TV Guide On Screen, tel 303-267-6800, fax 303-267-6889) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 05/04/95 ONLINE Asian Development Bank Establishes Web Page (NEWS)(ONLINE)(TYO)(00013) Asian Development Bank Establishes Web Page 05/04/95 TOKYO, JAPAN, 1995 MAY 4 (NB) -- The Asian Development Bank (ADB) has begun offering information about itself and its projects via the Internet. The new service comes a year after a decision to improve information availability to the public. The bank, a development finance institution consisting of 55 members that was established in 1966, is engaged in promoting the economic and social progress of its developing member countries in the Asian and Pacific region and it is with this in mind that the bank's Manila headquarters decided to enter the world of "cyberspace." The launch of the new service coincides with the bank's annual general meeting being held in Auckland, New Zealand, throughout this week. Speaking to Newsbytes from Manila, John Sipper of the ADB explained who the new service is aimed at, "We aim to reach our various publics, donor and borrowing member governments, a wider number of individuals in the private and public sectors, educators, students, potential consultants and equipment suppliers, non-governmental organizations, other aid donors, and constituencies in our developing and developed member countries." The pages offer an introduction to the bank and details of its offices and services throughout the region and around the world, plus access to the bank's procurement information database which provides details of projects the bank is supporting. These currently include those in China, India, Indonesia, Laos, the Philippines, and Thailand. Qualifications needed are also supplied, as are details of how and where to submit tendering applications. The procurement information is updated monthly. Like the bank itself, the Internet service is a worldwide effort with the majority of the information being stored on the banks server in Manila. However, the procurement information is contributed by the Central Operations Services Office via a server in Portland, Oregon. Internet users can find the Asian Development Bank on the World Wide Web at http://www.asiandevbank.org/ (Martyn Williams/19950504/Press contact: John S. Sipper, Internet e-mail jsipper@mail.asiandevbank.org; Public contact: Asian Development Bank, fax +63-2-741-7961; Internet e-mail www@mail.asiandevbank.org) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 05/04/95 GENERAL Japan Newsbriefs (NEWS)(GENERAL)(TYO)(00014) Japan Newsbriefs 05/04/95 TOKYO, JAPAN, 1995 MAY 4 (NB) -- In this roundup of news from Japan: NEC invests more in Bull; Lotus to intro new Groupware J; Companies choosing Windows NT; Casio enters US video phone market; NEC targets Internet users. NEC Invests More In Bull NEC Corporation has announced it will increase its investment in France's Bull Computer by 3.74%. The Japanese electronics firm will own a total of 17% of Bull, the same as France Telecom and Motorola, and promotes NEC to one of Bull's major investors. The increase in investment was in response to a request for extra funding from Bull. Lotus To Intro New Notes J Lotus (Japan) is introducing a new version of its groupware and Internet access software, Notes version 3.3J. The software supports both Apple's Kanjitalk 7.5 and IBM's OS/2 Warp 3 operating systems. The price for both client and server versions is 52,000 yen ($619). Other associated software includes InterNotes Web Publisher 1.0J at 750,000 yen ($8,929), the Notes SMTP (Simple Mail Transport Protocol) electronic-mail gateway which brings together networks running Notes with the Internet. That software is priced at 398,000 yen ($4,738) Companies Choosing Windows NT A survey conducted among Japan's major companies has revealed that around 70% of them are planning to install Microsoft's Windows NT operating system. Of the 503 companies surveyed by Nikkei Data Pro during February and March of this year, around 15% had already adopted the software. Among companies who said they would not install it, the major complaint was a lack of Windows NT application software. Casio Enters US Video Phone Market Casio Computer has entered the US video phone market by way of a $10 million investment in a California based subsidiary, Phonemate Inc. The investment means Casio has a 50% share in the American company alongside Asahi Corp., another Casio subsidiary. Phonemate changed its name to Casio Phonemate on May 1 and is planning to market a video phone, the LT-70P, from August. NEC Targets Internet Users In an attempt to attract more customers to its Internet connection service, NEC Corp. has lowered prices currently charged. From May 1 the monthly charge for its 64 kilobits-per-second (Kbps) leased line IP service has been cut by 50% to 196,000 yen ($2,333). The dial up service charges have been reduced even more with the initial subscription fee now at 10,000 yen ($119), down by two thirds, and the monthly subscription at 5,000 yen ($59). In an attempt to further entice customers, NEC is to introduce a personal Internet connection service from September with which they hope to attract 10,000 individual subscribers and 6,000 companies in the first year. (Martyn Williams/19950504) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 05/04/95 BROADCAST DEC Media Servers For Commercial Pay-Per-View (NEWS)(BROADCAST)(BOS)(00015) DEC Media Servers For Commercial Pay-Per-View 05/04/95 MAYNARD, MASSACHUSETTS, U.S.A., 1995 MAY 4 (NB) -- Under a newly signed deal with TMN Networks, DEC's media server technology has been selected for an application billed as the first use of media servers in TV pay-per-view, as well as the first commercial deployment of MPEG (Motion Picture Experts Group)-2 video compression. By replacing traditional analog videotape with digital technology, Digital's media servers allow broadcasters to add new TV channels more "cost-effectively," maintained Frank Foley, Digital's business development manager for cable TV, during a conference call with Newsbytes in Boston. Foley told Newsbytes that the rollout by TMN Networks will take place in two phases. In the first stage, to begin in June, TMN will expand its Viewer's Choice network for local cable TV stations in eastern Canada from four channels to 20 channels of pay-per-view movie programming. In the second phase, slated for September, TMN will add five more pay-per-view channels, to be broadcast nationwide throughout Canada direct from TMN over TMN's ExpressView premium service, Foley said. "This will bring the total number of pay-per-view channels to 25," he pointed out. Foley added that TMN's upcoming digital pay-per-view services will provide "near video-on-demand" programming, meaning that customers will be able to begin viewing a requested movie anywhere from a few minutes to a couple of hours after making a request. Movies will be broadcast on a staggered schedule, ranging from once every 15 or 30 minutes for the most popular films, to once every one or two hours for less popular offerings, he explained. DEC used MPEG-1 compression in some of the early trials of its media server technology, and has since upgraded all its media servers to MPEG-2, Newsbytes was told. The TMN application, however, will represent the first commercial implementation of MPEG-2 in media servers, according to Foley. Most of DEC's competitors are still using MPEG-1, he contended. Digital is now involved in over 20 implementations of digital video worldwide. These encompass several deployments of interactive video that have already been announced, including commercial implementations by Ameritech in the Midwest and Nynex in Massachusetts, New York, and Rhode Island, along with trials by US West, Telstra in Australia, and Belgacom and Svenska in Europe. DEC media servers are also being used for digital video ad insertion by Adlink in California. Walter Miao, VP of Link Resources, a New York City-based market research and consulting firm, noted that MPEG 1-based media servers from other vendors are currently being deployed for pay-per-view in the lodging and hospitality industry. "But Digital's is probably the first end-to-end digital pay-per- view system," Miao told Newsbytes. The Hyatt chain, for example, is converting films run off of digital servers to analog technology when the video reaches the hotels, he illustrated. A method combining digital and analog technology is less costly to implement, but does not achieve the same resolution quality as end-to-end digital video, according to the analyst. (Jacqueline Emigh/19950504/Reader Contact: DEC, 800-493-5111; Press Contacts: Roger Horine, DEC, 508-841-2609; The Weber Group for DEC, 617-661-7900) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 05/04/95 GOVT Euro Commission Confirms 1998 Telecoms Open Market (NEWS)(GOVT)(LON)(00016) Euro Commission Confirms 1998 Telecoms Open Market 05/04/95 BRUSSELS, BELGIUM, 1995 MAY 4 (NB) -- The European Commission (EC) has been quietly polling consumer associations, analysts and experts from the telecoms industry over the past few months over its decision to rigidly enforce the January 1, 1998, deadline for the liberalization of the European telecoms marketplace. But instead of a high degree of resistance to the idea, EC officials say that the bulk of those polled agreed "wholeheartedly" with the plan. In a communication to the press, EC officials said that, as well as needing to liberalize telecoms within the next three years, there is a definite need for a shakeup on licensing, interconnects and the so-called "universal service" rules, under which anyone, anywhere within the EC territories can request basic telecoms service provision. Because of this, the EC now plans to concentrate its efforts on extending the 1998 telecoms directive to embrace all aspects of telecoms services, even to the extent of covering satellite comms services, which have yet to be formally launched on a global basis. According to the EC, "several hundred organizations, companies and associations, including trade unions and user and consumer organizations have taken part in hearings in Brussels. In addition, over 100 written submissions have been received. The consultations have produced widespread support for the liberalization proposals and program of the Commission in the telecommunications sector." EC officials claim that modernization, reform, and a transition to effective competition are the key to continuing growth and prosperity of the European Union's telecommunications sector. The telecommunications sector in the European Union has a yearly turnover of more than 140 billions ECU (European Currency Units) -- more than three per cent of gross domestic product -- and growing strongly. According to the EC, cross-border and international telecommunications usage on the public networks has been increasing at over 10 percent annually on average in recent years, with an even faster growth on private networks. The EC memorandum notes that there are over 170 million main telephone lines in the Union and nearly 15 million mobile telephone subscribers, with the latter growing rapidly in some of the more competitive markets. The EC says it believes that the Consultation has established a clear consensus around the main proposals put forward in the Green Paper, and in addition, has provided a major input to the measures that the Commission will now "table." On the liberalization aspects, the EC now plans to draft amendments to the 1990 Services Directive in order to assure full liberalization of telecommunications infrastructure and services at the beginning of 1998. (Sylvia Dennis/19950504/Press & Reader Contact: European Commission, +32-2-299-1111) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 05/04/95 BUSINESS France - Groupe Bull Sees 10.4% Drop In Turnover (NEWS)(BUSINESS)(LON)(00017) France - Groupe Bull Sees 10.4% Drop In Turnover 05/04/95 PARIS, FRANCE, 1995 MAY 4 (NB) -- Groupe Bull has revealed that its turnover in the first quarter of the year -- to March 31 -- fell by 10.4 percent to FF4.965 billion. The turnover compares with a FF5.54 billion revenue stream during the same period last year. Bull officials, fresh from allowing Motorola and NEC to take an increased stake in the company, were unfazed by the figures, claiming that the fall in the dollar (10 percent in recent months) has had a significant effect on revenues. When adjusted for the fall in the dollar, officials claim that revenues were down by just over six percent on the same period last year. French analysts pointed out that reduction in revenues compares with a 20 percent increase in the first quarter 1994 when compared with the 1993 figures. Officials say that impact of the privatization process at Bull has caused some major customers to delay purchases, both at Bull and with Zenith, its PC operations company. As reported previously by Newsbytes, Jean-Marie Descarpentries, Bull's president, said that 1995 would be a year of turning for the company, with an operating profit being expected, after six years of red ink. Although Bull remains coy on this latest round of figures, officials claim that the company is still on target to turn in a modest profit this year. In a prepared statement, Bull said that business is showing an encouraging six percent growth in Europe outside of France, an area which now represents 40 percent of the company's global business. (Sylvia Dennis & Steve Gold/19950504/Press & Reader Contact: Alison Campbell, Bull Press Office, +44-181-479-2751) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 05/04/95 BUSINESS UK - Microsoft Enhances Reseller Channel (NEWS)(BUSINESS)(LON)(00018) UK - Microsoft Enhances Reseller Channel 05/04/95 WOKINGHAM, BERKSHIRE, ENGLAND, 1995 MAY 4 (NB) -- Microsoft says that a year-long drive to boost its presence in the value-added reseller (VAR) channel has been successful, with the company significantly boosting its high-end VARs and resellers generally, but not at the expense of its mainstream sales. Mike Pearson, Microsoft's Solution Provider marketing manager, told Newsbytes that the company has been trying to boost its presence in the high-end VAR side of the channel for some time, as it sees a significant sales opportunity amongst major corporations. Pearson told Newsbytes that the company now has 650 Solution Providers (SPs) and more than 1,500 Certified Professional (CPs) in the UK and Ireland, compared to 250 SPs and 1,100 CPs last October. The majority of SPs joining the program are Novell and Unix VARs, Microsoft claims. "What we're starting to see is a lot more resellers offering consultancy and training rather than just selling boxes of software," Pearson said, adding there is still a significant need in corporations for box purchases. "Many corporations go for the discounted outlets when they need to. What we're saying is that you can also come to our high-end resellers for consultancy and extra service as well," he said, adding that, with Windows '95, Exchange, and other environments on the horizon, there will be a significant need for such services. Out of the 650 SPs, Microsoft has appointed 35 SP Partners, the highest level of its resellers, in the UK and Ireland. Pearson said that what is interesting about this level of VARs is that they do not exclusively offer Microsoft solutions. "They are all Unix, Novell, and other VARs that offer our products alongside as well," he explained. (Steve Gold/19950504/Press Contact: Text 100, tel +44-181- 242-4100, fax +44-181-242-4200; Reader Contact: Microsoft, +44-1734-270001) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 05/04/95 WINDOWS Humongous To Preview "Putt-Putt Saves The Zoo" (NEWS)(WINDOWS)(DEN)(00019) Humongous To Preview "Putt-Putt Saves The Zoo" 05/04/95 SEATTLE, WASHINGTON, U.S.A., 1995 MAY 4 (NB) -- Humongous Entertainment has announced it will preview the latest adventures of Putt-Putt the little purple car at next week's Electronic Entertainment Expo in Los Angeles, California. #IMAGE 1 20 TWPCX \images\95050419.PCX Click here for photo "Putt-Putt Saves The Zoo" comes on CD-ROM and takes advantage of several of the features promised in Microsoft Windows 95 when that new operating system ships later this summer, probably in August. "Zoo" is the latest in Humongous' titles that offer hand-crafted animation, games, activities and puzzles for children. Humongous spokesperson Tamese Robinson told Newsbytes the company plans to release a Macintosh version of "Zoo" be year-end. Robinson said the company's products are designed for kids three to 12 years old. In "Zoo" it is opening day at the zoo, and Putt-Putt and his loyal dog Pep are delivering "zoo chow" to zookeeper Outback Al. They soon discover the baby animals of the zoo are missing and must be found so the zoo can be opened. The user helps Putt-Putt and Pep solve puzzles to find the animals. Robinson said the company will ship Putt-Putt Saves the Zoo on CD-ROM in July with an estimated street price of $39.95. Two titles, The Airport and The Farm will ship in June 1995. Both of those will sell for about $32.95, she said. Putt-Putt Saves The Zoo is the fifth in Humongous Entertainment's Junior Adventures" series on CD-ROM. One feature of Windows 95 the company's games will take advantage of is "Auto Play," a feature that reportedly will install CD-ROM-based software automatically. Auto Play will also automatically start the game each time the CD-ROM disk is inserted in the drive. It also takes advantage of WinG to achieve smoother video and faster animation, according to Microsoft. Like other Humongous products, the newest Putt-Putt adventure will include a catalog of Humongous titles that offers game users an interactive demonstration of products from the Junior Adventures and Junior Field Trips product lines. Online help for technical troubleshooting has also been added. Putt-Putt Saves The Zoo requires an IBM-compatible computer running at least a 33 megahertz (MHz) 386 microprocessor, Microsoft Windows 3.1 or later, a sound card, four megabytes (MB) of memory, a super VGA display, and a double-speed CD-ROM drive. (Jim Mallory/19950504/Press contact: Tamese Robinson, Kaufer Miller Communications for Humongous Entertainment, 206-450-9965; Public contact: Humongous Entertainment, 206-487-0505/ZOO950504/PHOTO) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 05/04/95 ONLINE PR Newswire, eWorks! Offer Internet Clipping Service (NEWS)(ONLINE)(MSP)(00020) PR Newswire, eWorks! Offer Internet Clipping Service 05/04/95 NEW YORK CITY, NEW YORK, U.S.A., 1995 MAY 4 (NB) -- PR Newswire and eWorks! Inc. have announced they are partnering to offer what is dubbed the "first search and clip service" that scans the online world. The service, called eWatch, clips from all 13,000 Usenet newsgroups, 3,000 Internet mailing lists, and the major commercial online services. eWorks! launched eWatch in February, 1995. The service reports to organizations what is being said about the company online. Reports from eWatch can alert organizations about negative or inaccurate information distributed online, and can generate sales leads. The traditional clipping services only gather news from traditional sources, such as newspapers and wire services, Ian Capps, PR Newswire president told Newsbytes. "The Internet is a much broader information exchange. There's a lot of things going on in the Internet that wouldn't be picked up by the normal clipping services. This gives corporations in particular another opportunity to see what's going on and what's being said about them or their industry in a very important medium." All services are delivered by electronic-mail (e-mail), fax, and in some cases, by overnight delivery or regular mail, eWorks! Managing Partner James Alexander told Newsbytes. The standard eWatch service provides users with a graph showing total numbers of "hits," or mentions of specific search criteria provided by the customer, along with a few lines surrounding the word that registered the "hit." The e-mail version would lack the graph, Alexander said. The full text of the post can then be retrieved. Advanced services are also available, Alexander said. One involves analysis services, which combine the clips with an analysis of the postings, and recommendations of options to the customer. The other deals with "response generation and placement," where eWorks! would help its users with answering a post by issuing a proper reply in the appropriate forum. The service is now available from representatives of either eWorks! or PR Newswire. The standard service costs $295 per month, along with an additional $2 per hit. Online networks can be added for $95 per service. (Bob Woods/19950504/Press Contacts: James Alexander, eWorks! Inc., 212-288-0000; Ian Capps, PR Newswire, 212-596-1510) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 05/04/95 GENERAL Trinzic Ports InfoPump To NT/AIX, OS/2 Planned (NEWS)(GENERAL)(BOS)(00021) Trinzic Ports InfoPump To NT/AIX, OS/2 Planned 05/04/95 WALTHAM, MASSACHUSETTS, U.S.A., 1995 MAY 4 (NB) -- Trinzic has ported its InfoPump database replication and routing software for professional developers from OS/2 to a pair of additional 32-bit environments: Windows NT and AIX. During an interview with Newsbytes, Nancy Wood, product marketing manager, said that in releasing InfoPump 1.2, Trinzic has simultaneously joined the Microsoft Solution Provider Program, an affiliation that will let Trinzic act as a reseller for Microsoft SQL (structured query language) Server, one of several data sources used by InfoPump. The shipment of InfoPump 1.2 for NT comes about a month after shipment of InfoPump 1.2 for AIX, Wood told Newsbytes. Trinzic expects to release InfoPump 1.2 for OS/2, an update to its existing product for OS/2, at the end of this month, she revealed. First introduced in 1993, InfoPump has been designed with 32-bit environments in mind "from the ground up," the product marketing manager maintained. The product is designed to let developers integrate data from a variety of sources, according to Wood. Developers can replicate host data on servers for end-users. The tool is also aimed at easing data sharing between sources like Lotus Notes and AS/40 and relational database management systems (RDBMS) that include Microsoft SQL Server, Sybase SQL Server, and Oracle. InfoPump can be programmed to deliver information in any of these database formats, noted Wood. Developers can also pre-schedule the automatic movement of data to a target database. Trinzic's newly received ability to resell Microsoft SQL Server along with InfoPump will make it faster and easier for developers to start replicating data, Newsbytes was told. InfoPump 1.2 for Windows NT is available now, at an average licensing fee of $25,000 per unit for a standard configuration. (Jacqueline Emigh/19950504/Reader Contact: Trinzic, 617-891-6500; Reader Contact: Kerry Bard, Geoff Spillane or Brenda Stevenson, Schwartz Communications for Trinzic, 617-431-0770) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 05/04/95 WINDOWS Microsoft Gets Disabled-User Technology For Windows (NEWS)(WINDOWS)(DEN)(00022) Microsoft Gets Disabled-User Technology For Windows 05/04/95 REDMOND, WASHINGTON, U.S.A., 1995 MAY 4 (NB) -- Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ: MSFT) has licensed technology it said will provide individuals with disabilities access to information displayed on Windows-based PCs. Microsoft has licensed Off-Screen Model (OSM) technology from St. Petersburg, Florida-based Henter-Joyce, the same company that developed JAWS (Job Access With Speech) for Windows, a screen-access program that makes Windows accessible to people who are blind or visually impaired. Microsoft said it will make OSM available to developers working on technologies that make computers more accessible to users with disabilities, such as blind-access, screen-magnification, and voice-input technologies. The software company said the technology should help reduce time to market and make such technologies less system-dependent. Brad Silverburg, senior vice president of the Microsoft personal systems division, said Microsoft will work with accessibility vendors to develop a common, shared interface around the OSM code. Ted Henter, president of Henter-Joyce, called the licensing agreement "One of the most important events in the history of computing for blind individuals." Henter, in addition to being a long-time computer user, is also blind. "Steps like this ultimately will result in making computing access better for all people," he said. Off-Screen Model is the term applied to a database that holds a computer screen's contents, including text, graphics, controls and other elements. It allows visually impaired and blind computer users to browse the contents of their computer screen using synthesized speech or a Braille display. Some OSM capabilities can also be used for speech-recognition utilities that need to determine what commands are appropriate at a given time and screen-magnification utilities that must track a user's focus as he or she works. Microsoft said it is working on numerous features for the Windows 95 operating system to make computers easier to use by people with disabilities, including the OSM technology. The company said it plans to release the first set of accessibility enhancements as soon as possible after Windows 95 ships to help software developers port their existing products to Windows 95 and Windows NT. Those tools will be integrated into later versions of Windows and Windows NT. Microsoft said it also plans to incorporate the accessibility technology into object linking and embedding (OLE) to allow mainstream applications to communicate with accessibility aids. Microsoft said it will provide documentation for Windows 95 and other Microsoft products in an accessible ASCII text format at no additional charge for people who have difficulties reading or handling printed materials. It also plans an audio tutorial designed for users who are blind, and a set of utilities including Dvorak single-handed keyboard layouts and other low-end accessibility aids. A Microsoft public relations representative told Newsbytes the OSM technology will be available for developers at no cost about six to eight months after Windows 95 ships. (Jim Mallory/19950504/Press contact: Catherine Merten, Waggener Edstrom for Microsoft, 503-245-0905 or Eric Damery, Henter-Joyce, 813-528-8900; Public contact: Microsoft, 206-882-8080 or 800-426-9400) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 05/04/95 NETWORK Ornetix Intros CD-Vision & CD-Commander (NEWS)(NETWORK)(SFO)(00023) Ornetix Intros CD-Vision & CD-Commander 05/04/95 SAN JOSE, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1995 MAY 4 (NB) -- Ornetix, a developer of network products, has introduced its network CD-ROM drive and title management software, CD-Vision. The company also announced CD-Commander, an add-on product which directs and controls access to multiple CD servers and titles through a single login. CD-Vision is capable of turning any Novell NetWare workstation into a CD-ROM sharing server and at the same time reducing the load on a network's file server. A CD-Vision operated server can handle as many as 250 simultaneous users. The workstation which runs CD-Vision appears to other workstations as another NetWare server which accepts standard NetWare commands and accepts the use of common utilities. According to Ornetix, CD-Vision is the only enterprise-wide CD-ROM sharing program which integrates with Novell's NetWare without the need for proprietary network LAN (local area network) managers. The Vision product supports 196 CD drivers including single drives, multi- disk changers and CD-ROM towers. Jukebox support will be added in the second quarter of this year. CD-Commander, the add-on product for CD-Vision, allows the network administrator to set-up a point-and-click tool for users to easily reach CD-ROM servers and titles. The program creates an icon for a particular title which the workstation user clicks of for immediate launch from a Windows desktop. A spokesperson for the company told Newsbytes, "With proprietary network manager products, installation of the software requires a trained expert. CD-Vision may be installed by a novice network user without ever shutting down the server. Once it is installed on a workstation it will operate even if the NetWare server is down." CD-Vision is compatible with NetWare 2.x and higher. It works with small computer system interface (SCSI) drives that are ASPI-compliant. This software requires a 386 or higher processor, DOS 3.3 or higher, and NetWare IPX (Internetwork Packet Exchange) and NETX drivers. Pricing begins at $695 for a 10-user license. CD-Commander comes bundled with CD-Vision priced at $845 for an entry-level license for 10 users. CD-Commander has an additional requirement of Windows 3.1 or higher. (Patrick McKenna/19950504/Press Contact: Lorraine Walston, Ornetix, 408-383-7050) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 05/04/95 BUSINESS Deutsche Telekom & PictureTel Form Alliance (NEWS)(BUSINESS)(LON)(00024) Deutsche Telekom & PictureTel Form Alliance 05/04/95 BERLIN, GERMANY, 1995 MAY 4 (NB) -- PictureTel has extended its distribution agreement with Deutsche Telekom, signed twelve months ago, to include the development, design, marketing, servicing and global sales of videoconferencing products. Under the terms of the revised agreement, Deutsche Telekom, which claims to be Europe's largest network operator, will supply PictureTel's entire product range to its customers worldwide, in partnership with PictureTel. According to Deutsche Telekom, the new agreement strengthens PictureTel's position in Germany, which the company claims is the second fastest growing market for videoconferencing systems in Europe. PictureTel already has distribution agreements with several major European network operators including Cable & Wireless, France Telecom, Italtel, Mercury Communications, and PTT Telecom Netherlands. Announcing the extended deal between the two companies, Tim Duffy, vice president of PictureTel's European, Middle Eastern and African operations, said that it is a significant alliance between "Europe's largest telecommunications company and the world's leading videoconferencing manufacturer. "The market is booming as businesses realize the competitive edge videoconferencing brings. The agreement will allow Deutsche Telekom to provide its customers with the highest-quality standards-based videoconferencing solutions on the market," he enthused. The German linkup comes in the wake of a flurry of announcements and new services from PictureTel's US operation, as reported by Newsbytes in the last week. The videoconferencing company claims that it is just as significant a player in Europe as in the US, citing a 46 percent market share from a report by Dataquest. (Sylvia Dennis/19950504/Press Contact: RSA, tel +44-1628-487222 fax +44-1628-487223; Internet e-mail rstaton@cix.compulink.co.uk; Reader Contact: Picturetel, tel +44-1753-673000, fax +44-1753- 733014; DT, tel +49-228-1820, fax +49-228-182-9822) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 05/04/95 BUSINESS Netherlands - Baan Plans Stock Market Offering (NEWS)(BUSINESS)(LON)(00025) Netherlands - Baan Plans Stock Market Offering 05/04/95 BARNEVELD, NETHERLANDS, 1995 MAY 4 (NB) -- Baan, the Dutch computer company,. has announced plans to secure a listing on the Amsterdam Stock Exchange as well as the Nasdaq automated quote system in New York from the end of this month. According to the company, the Amsterdam listing will come a few days after the Nasdaq listing at the end of this month. The decision to go for a Dutch listing was taken at a relatively late stage in the company's plans to go for a US listing. "Despite the unfavorable Amsterdam climate for computer companies, it made sense strategically speaking not to focus exclusively on the American market, but to consider our European home market as well," company officials said. Under the flotation/listing plans, Baan intends to issue four million new shares, as well as re-issue the existing two million, with around 1.5 million being placed on the Dutch Bourse. Share pricing is expected to fall in the range of $11 to $13, effectively valuing the PC company at around $70 million. (Steve Gold/19950504/Press & Reader Contact: Baan Info Systems, +31-3420-10200) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 05/04/95 NETWORK Boca's Fast Ethernet Card, German Modem (NEWS)(NETWORK)(DEN)(00026) Boca's Fast Ethernet Card, German Modem 05/04/95 BOCA RATON, FLORIDA, U.S.A., 1995 MAY 4 (NB) -- Boca Research Inc. (NASDAQ: BOCI) has introduced an increased bandwidth Ethernet adapter and a 28,800 bits-per-second (bps) modem designed specifically for German users. The company showed the BOCALANcard 100/10 Fast Ethernet Adapter at the recent Comdex Spring Trade Show in Atlanta, Georgia. Boca said the card provides 10 times the bandwidth of existing 10Base-T adapters. On computer networks greater bandwidth indicates faster data transfer capability. 10Base-T can handle 10 megabits-per- second (Mbps) over unshielded twisted pair cable. Boca said its bus mastering technology enables the card to transfer incoming data into, and outgoing data out of, system memory without intervention by the host CPU (central processing unit). The company said the BOCALANcard 100/10 gives the user the flexibility to run at 10Mbps on an existing 10Base-T network and later migrate to 100Mbps Fast Ethernet mode. The card ships with two RJ-45 connectors labeled 100Mbps and 10Mbps. Upgrading to Fast Ethernet mode only requires plugging the network cable into the 100Mbps connector. Research company International Data Corp. projects that 100Base-T network interface cards (NICs) will be the most widely used network interface card by 1998. BOCALANcard installation requires no setting of jumpers or switches. At system power up the card is automatically configured. LEDs (light emitting diodes) display transmit, link/receive and port select network activity. The company said the card provides driver support for Novell NetWare, Windows 95, Windows for Workgroups 3.11, Windows NT, DOS, Pathworks for DOS and OS/2. The card has an estimated street price of $215. Boca's new V.34 modem for German users has V.42/MNP-2 error control and V.42bis/MNP5 data compression and can transfer data at up to 28,800 bps and Group 3 faxes at up to 14,400 bps. It comes in internal and external versions. Packaging, software and user instructions are in German. The modem comes with Trio's fax/data software, telephone cables and connectors, and an AT Command Reference Guide. The modem is scheduled to ship in June. Pricing was not available. (Jim Mallory/19950504/Press contact: Gale Blackburn, Boca Research, 407-997-8621; Public contact: Boca Research, tel 407-997-6227, fax 407-994-5848) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 05/04/95 BUSINESS Delphi Moves HQ To New York, Adds 750 Jobs (NEWS)(BUSINESS)(BOS)(00027) Delphi Moves HQ To New York, Adds 750 Jobs 05/04/95 CAMBRIDGE, MASSACHUSETTS, U.S.A., 1995 MAY 4 (NB) -- Delphi Internet Services Corp. plans to move its headquarters from Cambridge to Manhattan, hire about 750 new employees in Massachusetts and New York by the end of 1995, and take part in a simultaneous cable TV/World Wide Web (Web) charity auction on May 19. Delphi now has about 200 employees, about evenly split between Cambridge and Manhattan, explained Nancy Morrisroe, a company spokesperson. In conjunction with the move of Delphi's headquarters to New York City, the company will open a larger facility in Massachusetts, located in Lowell at Cross Point, formerly the site of the Wang Towers, the spokesperson added. Approximately one-third of the total of 1,000 people targeted to be employed by Delphi by year's end will work out of the Manhattan headquarters, and about two-thirds of them in Lowell, estimated Morrisroe. Delphi's employees in Manhattan will be largely engaged in advertising, editorial, business development, and other aspects of "content," Morrisroe told Newsbytes. The staff in Lowell will be concerned with software development and other technical areas, along with operations and members services, she added. The move of Delphi's headquarters to Cambridge is meant to bring Delphi closer to New York's burgeoning "new media" community, as the company prepares to launch a new online service later this year, according to the spokesperson. Delphi is creating its own content for this online offering, instead of "repurposing" material from other content providers, she noted. By establishing the larger facility in suburban Lowell, she added, Delphi intends to maintain its strong ties to the "technical infrastructure" in Massachusetts. The leased, 115,000-square-foot space in Lowell will contain a new, "state-of-the-art" data center, Newsbytes was told. In the "on-air/on-line" auction on May 19, she said, Delphi will participate along with Fox Cable, the Fx on-line service, and an auctioneer from Sotheby's auction house in a fundraiser for Cable Positive, cable TV's support organization for victims of HIV and AIDS. In the event, which will coincide with the May 19 season finale of Fox's drama "The X Files," memorabilia from the show will be auctioned off live on Fox cable TV and Fx and Delphi Web sites. On May 12, Web users can begin participating in "The Personal Fx Special: The X-Files Auction" through a "silent bidding forum," according to Morrisroe. The items up for auction will be different from those auctioned on TV, and will be displayed through downloadable color photos and clips. (Jacqueline Emigh/19950504/Reader Contact: Delphi, 617-491- 3342; Press Contacts: Gwenn Gauthier or Hallie Loring, Schwartz Communications for Delphi, 617-431-0770) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 05/04/95 ONLINE ****TCI to Offer Internet Access Via Cable TV Wiring (NEWS)(ONLINE)(MSP)(00028) ****TCI to Offer Internet Access Via Cable TV Wiring 05/04/95 NEW YORK CITY, NEW YORK, U.S.A., 1995 MAY 4 (NB) -- Tele- Communications Inc. (TCI) says it will form a company to provide nationwide Internet access through cable TV wires at faster speeds than are obtained with normal telephone connections. The new company will be called @Home (using the computer keyboard symbol for "at"). TCI will be joined in the venture by Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, a San Francisco venture capital firm. William Hearst III, who is on the board of Kleiner et al., will head the new company. "The new company will provide a nationwide Internet backbone and other areas of interest for consumers and businesses who want to tap into the global Internet," LaRae Schlichting, TCI spokesperson, told Newsbytes. Initially, the service will be available through a user's computer via a graphical interface. What makes this new venture unique, Schlichting said, is the access speeds that consumers will be able to tap into. "Typical home access to the Internet with a modem is 9,600 bits-per-second (bps). @Home is offering access speeds at 10 million bps." She also said cable modem technology is being developed to take advantage of the high speeds. The new @Home service will also provide broadband connections to the Microsoft Network and other online services, officials said. TCI has a 20 percent partnership interest in the Microsoft Network. The service is scheduled to go online in select markets in early 1996, with a broader roll-out to happen shortly afterwards. Information about @Home can be obtained via the Internet's World Wide Web site at http://www.home.net. (Bob Woods/19950504/Press Contact: Tele-Communications Inc., 303-267-5220. Public Contact: Internet World Wide Web http://www.home.net) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 05/04/95 ONLINE Netcenter Organizes The Web (NEWS)(ONLINE)(SFO)(00029) Netcenter Organizes The Web 05/04/95 SANTA CRUZ, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A, 1995 MAY 4 (NB) -- Netcenter has announced a "hub and spokes model" for the Internet. Using the reciprocal hyper-linking protocol (RHLP), the Netcenter allows users to reach many Web sites and then return to Netcenter's home page of directory services. According to Mike Mathiesen, director of Netcenter's sales and marketing, Netcenter is designed to offer Internet users an interactive directory of Web sites. Mathiesen told Newsbytes, "Now that access to the Web has been simplified, it is time to concentrate on a system which will allow users to find what they are looking for on the Web. Netcenter has categories such as our Road Map, Yellow Pages and Shopping Mall, which will let the user have places to look for specific sites or topics." Mathiesen continued, "Using RHLP, we can lead Netcenter users directly into a Web site and then, by clicking on an icon, the user may automatically return to Netcenter. This creates a 'hub and spokes model' which facilitates navigating Web sites which are growing at almost 1,500 per day." Netcenter is free to all users. Its source of revenue is derived through advertisements which are similar to the telephone Yellow Pages. A company may choose to place various sizes of an ad or be listed free in a simple one-line statement and address. Mathiesen also said, "By using RHLP, a individual Web site adds value to its own site by assisting customers with a means to search and locate exactly what they need. On the Netcenter end, the individual site becomes part of an interactive directory system which we are structuring to become a first-stop Internet location." (Patrick McKenna/1995/Press Contact: Mike Mathiesen, Netcenter, 408-423-8580; Internet World Wide Web http://netcenter.com) (SUMMARY)(GENERAL)(SFO)(00030) Newsbytes Daily Summary 05/04/95 PENN VALLEY, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1995 MAY 4 (NB) -- These are capsules of all today's news stories: 1 -> Swedish Buy Takes Amstrad Into Printers 05/04/95 Amstrad has agreed to acquire Jarfalla ICC, once owned by IBM, from the receiver. 2 -> GSM Phone Suppliers To Improve Voice Coding 05/04/95 A group of leading GSM (global system for mobile communications) digital cellular telephone suppliers have acted to improve the speech quality of the digital mobile phones they will sell in the US later this year. 3 -> Philippines - Gov't To Use Only Licensed Software 05/04/95 All government agencies have been ordered by President Fidel V. Ramos to only acquire licensed and legitimate software for all their information system requirements. 4 -> IBM Begins SystemView Integration Thrust 05/04/95 Beginning a program to integrate its systems management tools into a small number of processes and across multiple hardware platforms, IBM (NYSE:IBM) has announced SystemView for AIX. 5 -> New Mexico Utility Goes For Paperless Financials 05/04/95 Public Service of New Mexico has decided to scrap its paper quarterly financial reports in favor of electronics. The Albuquerque utility has announced a new electronic information service for investors and shareholders, including a toll-free phone line (800-8400PNM) and an address on the CompuServe online service, 76325,151). 6 -> Indian Supercomputer From DRDO 05/04/95 While a World Bank report applauds the Indian software industry, research laboratories are not lagging behind in developing high quality hardware. 7 -> Chinese OS/2 Warp Available In China 05/04/95 A Chinese version of IBM's 32-bit operating system, OS/2 Warp, is now available for sale in China. IBM China plans to promote the OS/2 Warp system aggressively through partnerships with both the Chinese government and other companies. 8 -> Philippines - Acer Tops 1994 PC Shipments 05/04/95 Acer shipped the highest number of PCs in 1994 to the Philippine market, according to data released to Newsbytes by IDC Philippines. 9 -> China - IBM Supports Universities 05/04/95 The South Branch of IBM China has recently donated and installed computer equipment worth $1.2 million at Shenzhen University and South China University of Technology, as part of a planned $25 million package nationwide. 10 -> Selling IT Products In Australia 05/04/95 An understanding of the Australian information technology (IT) market is, for many overseas vendors, an elusive quality. For these organizations, a small and technology-hungry population, spread across an enormous continent, is a strange market indeed. 11 -> World Bank Predicts Growth For Indian Software Firms 05/04/95 According to a World Bank report, entitled "Global Economic Prospects and the Developing Countries 1995," India's software program is an example of the ability of some of the developing countries to find comparable advantages in the modern service sector in a global economy. 12 -> TV Guide On Screen Users Can Buy Programs/Movie Tapes 05/04/95 TV Guide On Screen said it has added a new feature to its interactive television guide that will create a new revenue scream for cable operators. The new service, called Gold Key, lets users purchase videotapes of pay-per-view movies and other events and programs. 13 -> Asian Development Bank Establishes Web Page 05/04/95 The Asian Development Bank (ADB) has begun offering information about itself and its projects via the Internet. The new service comes a year after a decision to improve information availability to the public. 14 -> Japan Newsbriefs 05/04/95 In this roundup of news from Japan: NEC invests more in Bull; Lotus to intro new Groupware J; Companies choosing Windows NT; Casio enters US video phone market; NEC targets Internet users. 15 -> DEC Media Servers For Commercial Pay-Per-View 05/04/95 Under a newly signed deal with TMN Networks, DEC's media server technology has been selected for an application billed as the first use of media servers in TV pay-per-view, as well as the first commercial deployment of MPEG (Motion Picture Experts Group)-2 video compression. 16 -> Euro Commission Confirms 1998 Telecoms Open Market 05/04/95 The European Commission (EC) has been quietly polling consumer associations, analysts and experts from the telecoms industry over the past few months over its decision to rigidly enforce the January 1, 1998, deadline for the liberalization of the European telecoms marketplace. But instead of a high degree of resistance to the idea, EC officials say that the bulk of those polled agreed "wholeheartedly" with the plan. 17 -> France - Groupe Bull Sees 10.4% Drop In Turnover 05/04/95 Groupe Bull has revealed that its turnover in the first quarter of the year -- to March 31 -- fell by 10.4 percent to FF4.965 billion. The turnover compares with a FF5.54 billion revenue stream during the same period last year. 18 -> UK - Microsoft Enhances Reseller Channel 05/04/95 Microsoft says that a year-long drive to boost its presence in the value-added reseller (VAR) channel has been successful, with the company significantly boosting its high-end VARs and resellers generally, but not at the expense of its mainstream sales. 19 -> Humongous To Preview "Putt-Putt Saves The Zoo" 05/04/95 Humongous Entertainment has announced it will preview the latest adventures of Putt-Putt the little purple car at next week's Electronic Entertainment Expo in Los Angeles, California. 20 -> PR Newswire, eWorks! Offer Internet Clipping Service 05/04/95 PR Newswire and eWorks! Inc. have announced they are partnering to offer what is dubbed the "first search and clip service" that scans the online world. The service, called eWatch, clips from all 13,000 Usenet newsgroups, 3,000 Internet mailing lists, and the major commercial online services. 21 -> Trinzic Ports InfoPump To NT/AIX, OS/2 Planned 05/04/95 Trinzic has ported its InfoPump database replication and routing software for professional developers from OS/2 to a pair of additional 32-bit environments: Windows NT and AIX. 22 -> Microsoft Gets Disabled-User Technology For Windows 05/04/95 Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ: MSFT) has licensed technology it said will provide individuals with disabilities access to information displayed on Windows-based PCs. 23 -> Ornetix Intros CD-Vision & CD-Commander 05/04/95 Ornetix, a developer of network products, has introduced its network CD-ROM drive and title management software, CD-Vision. The company also announced CD-Commander, an add-on product which directs and controls access to multiple CD servers and titles through a single login. 24 -> Deutsche Telekom & PictureTel Form Alliance 05/04/95 PictureTel has extended its distribution agreement with Deutsche Telekom, signed twelve months ago, to include the development, design, marketing, servicing and global sales of videoconferencing products. 25 -> Netherlands - Baan Plans Stock Market Offering 05/04/95 Baan, the Dutch computer company,. has announced plans to secure a listing on the Amsterdam Stock Exchange as well as the Nasdaq automated quote system in New York from the end of this month. 26 -> Boca's Fast Ethernet Card, German Modem 05/04/95 Boca Research Inc. (NASDAQ: BOCI) has introduced an increased bandwidth Ethernet adapter and a 28,800 bits-per-second (bps) modem designed specifically for German users. 27 -> Delphi Moves HQ To New York, Adds 750 Jobs 05/04/95 Delphi Internet Services Corp. plans to move its headquarters from Cambridge to Manhattan, hire about 750 new employees in Massachusetts and New York by the end of 1995, and take part in a simultaneous cable TV/World Wide Web (Web) charity auction on May 19. 28 -> ****TCI to Offer Internet Access Via Cable TV Wiring 05/04/95 Tele- Communications Inc. (TCI) says it will form a company to provide nationwide Internet access through cable TV wires at faster speeds than are obtained with normal telephone connections. 29 -> Netcenter Organizes The Web 05/04/95 Netcenter has announced a "hub and spokes model" for the Internet. Using the reciprocal hyper-linking protocol (RHLP), the Netcenter allows users to reach many Web sites and then return to Netcenter's home page of directory services. (Ian Stokell/19950504) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 05/03/95 TELECOM Global Modem Firms Jump On MNP 10EC Bandwagon (NEWS)(TELECOM)(LON)(00001) Global Modem Firms Jump On MNP 10EC Bandwagon 05/03/95 LONDON, ENGLAND, 1995 MAY 3 (NB) -- Plugging a 28,800 bits-per-second (bps) portable modem into the phone socket on the wall is a lifetime away from struggling to get that same modem working over an analog cellular phone link, which is why Rockwell has been quietly seeding the modem vendor community with MNP Class 10 EC. MNP stands for Microcom Network Protocol, a data compression and error-correction system designed by Microcom, the modem manufacturer. Classes 1 to 4 were placed in the public domain before the V.42Bis data compression and error-correction standard was accredited by the CCITT, the forerunner to the current ITU (International Telecoms Union) standards committee. As a result, MNP Class 4 was included within the V.42Bis standard to retain backwards compatibility with earlier modems. MNP, meanwhile, was evolved further into Class 10 for "hostile comms links" such as analog cellular. The MNP 10 system has now been further evolved specifically for cellular links and a new version -- MNP 10 EC (Error Correction) -- has been gaining support in the modem user community. As a result, Rockwell, the modem driver chipset supplier -- which claims to supply modem chipsets to more than two thirds of the modem vendor community -- is now supporting MNP 10 EC within its driver chipsets. Rockwell has announced that several leading modem vendors are also actively supporting the new standard, in a bid to enhance cellular data connections. Announcing the new technology, Armando Geday, business director of Rockwell Modem Systems, said that the Rockwell Group "shares a common goal for the industry. We wanted to provide cellular data users with the ability to stay connected over varied cellular connections, at the lowest billable air-time. We joined forces to conduct extensive testing and deliver MNP 10 EC as a total system solution, assuring maximum reliability in cellular modem applications," he said. So what's so great about MNP Class 10 EC and in what way is it superior to the existing MNP 10? According to Rockwell, the 10 EC system incorporates signal conditioning technology that is implemented in the digital signal processor (DSP) chipset seen in modern modems. In addition, the technology also enhances MNP 10's adverse channel protocol. In use, the DSP implements cellular specific algorithms to deal with impairments such as cellular-base station hand-offs, dropouts, interference, fading, echoes, and audio distortion for improved connectivity. The enhancements to MNP 10, meanwhile, optimize the data throughput, for what Rockwell calls "varied channel conditions." Greg Pearson, senior VP with Microcom's technology management division, said that MNP 10 EC is the next-generation of MNP technology and "enhances cellular connectivity and performance through a systems approach where modem protocol and data pump enhancements work together to overcome the problems inherent in the cellular environment." (Steve Gold/19950502/Press Contact: Maggi Fox, tel +44-171-258-0225, fax +44-171-262-2148, Internet e-mail 100117.1373@compuserve.com) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 05/03/95 ONLINE ****Telecom Finland Plans Voice Over Internet (NEWS)(ONLINE)(LON)(00002) ****Telecom Finland Plans Voice Over Internet 05/03/95 HELSINKI, FINLAND, 1995 MAY 3 (NB) -- Telecom Finland has revealed plans to transmit voice calls across the Internet, Newsbytes has learned. As reported previously by Newsbytes, the technique involves digitizing an analog voice call and compressing the resultant data packets down to a low enough size so that a low grade voice call can be carried across the Internet in a 14,400 bits-per-second data stream in real- time. The problem with most Internet connections, particularly with links from Europe to the US, is that the data stream is far from constant, resulting in transmission delays. The effect, Newsbytes notes, is like the Apollo astronauts talking with Houston from the Moon, with perceptible delays between the two ends of the link. Telecom Finland claims that it has the problem solved by using very high speed data links, linking its own packet data network (PDN) in Finland, with a high speed Internet data pipe to Belgium and the Netherlands, routing the PDN calls over to its existing PDN backbone net in those countries. Using this approach, officials claim, avoids the data bottlenecks that plague existing voice over Internet service users. Effectively, the Internet pipe operates as a high speed data link on a country-to- county basis, routing via the Internet main links in Europe where appropriate. Telecom Finland has begun offering private and business Internet services and, according to officials, wants to sign up around 100,000 subscribers to the new Tele-Net service over the next few years. Harru Johannsesdal, the deputy director of Telecom Finland, said that the company aims to become the main Internet service provider in the country within the next few years, despite the fact that the Kolumbus and EUnet Finland already have their services up and running. Telecom Finland has been pilot selling its Tele-Net Internet service since the end of last year. Low-key advertising campaigns have signed up around 20,000 subscribers up until the end of March, a figure that Johannsesdal said exceeded the original target of 4,000 subscribers for the first few months of the year. In parallel with its plans to become the number one Internet service provider in Finland, Telecom Finland has announced a deal with Netscape in the US, the producer of the popular Netscape World Wide Web browsers. The deal allows Telecom Finland to market Netscape into the Finnish market. (Sylvia Dennis/19950502/Press & Reader Contact: Telecom Finland, +358-20401) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 05/03/95 BUSINESS Finland - Nokia Sponsors Formula 1 Race Team (NEWS)(BUSINESS)(LON)(00003) Finland - Nokia Sponsors Formula 1 Race Team 05/03/95 ESPOO, FINLAND, 1995 MAY 3 (NB) -- Nokia Oy has announced it is sponsoring the Tyrrell Yamaha Formula 1 motor racing team. This makes the Finnish telecoms giant the first telecoms company to use its name in the Formula 1 races around the world, company officials claimed. Announcing the sponsorship deal, Seppo Harkonen, vice president of Nokia's Corporate Communications division, said that the team will now be known as Nokia Tyrrell Yamaha team. "The telecoms industry is geared towards building strong consumer brands," he explained, adding that TV is an essential medium used in building global awareness, "and with F1 being the most televised sport, we decided to take this step in conjunction with the Tyrrell F1 team." The Nokia Tyrrell Yamaha team rolled out its new colors on to the track over weekend, with a bright blue and white livery -- in keeping with Nokia's brand colors. The cars started competing in the opening of the European Grand Prix which are being held in Europe over the coming few weeks. The San Marino Grand Prix will be held on the revised 4.895 kilometers Autodromi "Enzo e Dino Ferrari" in Imola and is expected to attract millions of spectators in Europe alone. (Steve Gold/19950502/Press Contact: Leena Itkonen, Nokia Mobile Phones, +358-10-505-5861; Reader Contact: Nokia, fax +358-0-510-40782) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 05/03/95 BUSINESS Philippines - Hughes Establishes Regional HQ (NEWS)(BUSINESS)(TYO)(00004) Philippines - Hughes Establishes Regional HQ 05/03/95 MANILA, PHILIPPINES, 1995 MAY 3 (NB) - Gearing up to expand its sales in cellular, internetworking and satellite systems in the Asean region, US-based Hughes Network Systems (HNS) has decided to establish its Southeast Asian regional headquarters at the Rufino Pacific Tower along Ayala Avenue in Makati City. HNS Regional Director Michael Santos said the Manila office will be primarily devoted to sales, marketing, and technical support of Hughes' Philippine market. Santos said the Manila regional headquarters will oversee the operations in Malaysia, Vietnam, Australia, New Zealand, Singapore, Brunei, Thailand, Cambodia, Laos, and Indonesia. A division of Hughes Electronics, HNS has been a leader in satellite products and networks for over 20 years. HNS developed the world's first two-way KU-band very small aperture terminal (VSAT) system in 1982. Hughes' VSAT products support a variety of applications in a market that continues to see rapid growth particularly in Latin America and the Asia/Pacific. HNS has marketed its VSAT products in the Philippines since 1989 with the Philippine Long Distance Telephone Co. (PLDT) and Globe Telecom and Capwire/GTE among its better known clients. It is projected that by the end of 1995, HNS will have delivered 600 VSAT systems in the Philippines. VSAT technology is used for nationwide data, voice, and fax transmissions used widely by oil companies and other multinational firms. According to Santos, the firm is not merely looking at the satellite communications industry, but is also interested in becoming a major player in digital wireless communications, LAN/WAN (local area networking/wide area networking) internetworking products and telephony-over-cable-TV networks. HNS GMH2000 digital wireless products include mobile and fixed wireless cellular communications, wireless data networks using cellular digital packet data (CDPD) and personal communications services (PCS). The HNS strategy networking products used primarily by the banking and financial sectors include x.25, frame relay, and asynchronous transfer mode (ATM) technologies. (Metropolitan Computer Times/19950419/Internet e-mail dilips@netcom.com) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 05/03/95 ONLINE China Information Union Network Now Online (NEWS)(ONLINE)(PEK)(00005) China Information Union Network Now Online 05/03/95 BEIJING, CHINA, 1995 MAY 3 (NB) -- A new information source, called the China Information Union Network, recently opened to the public. The network was jointly established by the News/Information Center of People's Daily, the Urban Economical Information Department of the State Statistics Bureau, and the Hong Kong China Economical Information Center. There are currently 20 databases available on the network, including information on government policy and regulations, economic news, science and technology news, financial data, business data, and market information. A large amount of statistical data based on surveys is also available. In addition, the network also includes economic information on foreign countries/regions such as Hong Kong, Taiwan, Singapore, Australia, Malaysia, and Thailand. Mr. Young, a network manager from the State Statistics Bureau, told Newsbytes that the information and data is screened by specialists, making the information well-organized and maintained. Young also told Newsbytes that about one gigabyte of data is currently available on the network. Every day, about one million Chinese characters are added into the system, including the People's Daily, and abstracts of business news from more than 100 newspapers. However, "the statistical data is usually updated monthly," Young said. "Because the amount of information is so huge, you may have difficulty in finding what you want," Young said. "We also provide services to search the databases and send you requested information. Of course, you can still browse all the information on the network if you like," he added. The annual service fee for an individual user (not for information resale) is RMB30,000 (US$3,530). The network has not been connected to Internet, although plans call for this to happen in the near future. (Chih-Ho Yu & Ning Huang/19950423/Reader Contact: Urban Economical Information Department of the State Statistics Bureau, tel +86-1 381-0036) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 05/03/95 UNIX Bull Plans "Three-In-One" Data Warehouse (NEWS)(UNIX)(BOS)(00006) Bull Plans "Three-In-One" Data Warehouse 05/03/95 BILLERICA, MASSACHUSETTS, U.S.A., 1995 MAY 3 (NB) -- Bull Worldwide Information Systems plans to enter the expanding data warehousing market with a database-independent, "three-in-one" Distributed Data Warehouse (DDW) architecture later this year, Newsbytes has learned. In a briefing for Newsbytes, Kirk Mosher, marketing manager, said that Bull's upcoming DDW will provide end users with "transparent access" to relational and legacy databases running on multiple platforms through any or all of three different "views:" direct access, virtual warehouse, and physical warehouse. "Most people associate data warehousing with the kinds of complex, multi-dimensional applications that we will be handling through the `physical warehouse.' But data warehousing needs are often more simple than that," Mosher told Newsbytes. DDW's "direct access" view, for example, will be tailored to users whose data warehousing requirements are limited to occasional access to "the most current data" for analysis and reporting, according to Mosher. The view provides direct access to all supported relational and legacy databases from Microsoft Windows applications, he added. The "virtual warehouse" view, on the other hand, is designed to provide Windows users with more extensive access to database information, but without requiring systems administrators to replicate, or copy, data from operational systems. Through this view, "subject-oriented" information will be presented on the Windows desktop through relational-style tables, regardless of its origin, Mosher said. Relational joining will also be supported. The virtual warehouse view will be provided through Distributed Data Access (DDA), an AIX-based tool from Bull, he told Newsbytes. The physical warehouse view, which is aimed at multi-dimensional applications like data mining, will use Bull's AIX-based Data Replication Manager (DRMgr) to replicate "selected data elements" from the operational system and convert them into an "optimized database design," according to the marketing manager. In its first incarnation, to be officially unveiled later this year, Bull's DDW will provide a direct interface to the Oracle database, along with an Open Database Connectivity (ODBC) driver and gateways to legacy databases, he added. Also in 1995, he reported, Bull intends to enhance the first edition with features to include: expanded database access; pre-processing on the host system; a file transfer option; greater functionality for the DRMgr, such as data matching and data cleaning; and an "even more graphical user interface" for both the DDA and the DRMgr. Bull is also planning a version of DDW that will support the SMP editions of both AIX and the Oracle and Informix databases, Mosher told Newsbytes. In related news, Bull and Oracle have announced that Bull's Escala family of scalable Unix servers is the first PowerPC SMP platform certified to support the Oracle 7 Release 7.1 parallel database server and Oracle's Developer 200 family. The Oracle software is available now on Escala servers under AIX 4.1.2, a product "optimized" for use with SMP system. Bull is also selling Escala with Oracle7 worldwide as a pre-configured database server. (Jacqueline Emigh/19950502/Reader Contact: Bull HN Information Systems Inc., 508-670-2117; Press Contacts: Bill Bradley, Bull HN Information Systems, 508-294-5812; Dave Manley, Brueckner & Partners for Bull, 617-248-1881) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 05/03/95 UNIX Bull Developing Security Software For Oracle's SQLNet (NEWS)(UNIX)(BOS)(00007) Bull Developing Security Software For Oracle's SQLNet 05/03/95 BILLERICA, MASSACHUSETTS, U.S.A., 1995 MAY 3 (NB) -- Under a newly inked deal with Oracle, Groupe Bull is developing software designed to provide automatic and transparent authentication and other new security capabilities to Oracle database users in client- server environments. In an interview with Newsbytes, Groupe Bull officials said that Bull will provide the security features to users of Oracle's Secure Network Services (SQLNet) software through AccessMaster 2.0, an update to the security application within Bull's Integrated System Management (ISM) suite. AccessMaster 2.0 represents a revised edition of ISM Security Services, one of 45 to 50 different modules in Bull's ISM, said Claude Derue, product marketing director for ISM. Derue told Newsbytes that Bull categorizes the ISM modules into the following six "domains:" security management; network management; server management; workgroup management; database management; and telecommunications management. Up until now, Oracle's SQLNet has provided simple password protection, but this security scheme has led to the need to manage myriad passwords for multiple servers, said Terry Raynesford, marketing manager for ISM, also during the interview. Derue explained that, through an software interface to Oracle integrated into AccessMaster 2.0, users of Oracle's upcoming Secure Network Services (SQLNet) 2.0 will be able to utilize centralized security servers to take advantage of new features that include single sign-on; "integrated user management;" the "personalized desktop;" and an audit facility. Through "single sign-on," the user will require only a single user name and a single password for "transparent" access to authorized data on multiple servers, even if the data resides on multiple systems running different operating environments, according to Derue. Support for smartcards containing user profiles will be optionally available, Derue added. Unlike the current ISM Security Services, which works with Bull smartcards only, AccessMaster 2.0 will accept multivendor smartcards, the Bull executive noted. The AIX-based AccessMaster 2.0 will support integration with operating environments that include Novell NetWare, Windows NT, Windows 95, OS/2, Bull and IBM mainframes, and multiple flavors of Unix, according to Derue. Integrated user management is designed to eliminate the need for local database user management by specifying user identity and authorized roles from a central point under AccessMaster control. "Integrated user management provides the administrator with a centralized view of all the users that is very flexible and easy to organize. You define the users and their access rights, and then you create links between users and services in the user registry," Derue told Newsbytes. Administrators can assign "any of the standard access rights," including read-only, read-and-write, and "execute," Raynesford added. Through the "personalized desktop," end users will be provided with "windowed screens equipped with icons that reflect your own access rights," Derue maintained. The system will keep an audit trail of end user activity that can then be "interrogated" by the system administrator, Newsbytes was told. SQLNet 2.0 users will also be able to access implementations of two security protocols built into AccessMaster 2.0: the Generic Security Services Application Programming Interface (GSS-API) for PCs, and the Secure European System for Applications in Multi- Vendor Environments (SESAME). Bull's GSS-API implementation will provide access to the Distributed Computing Environment (DCE) from PCs without the need to buy and integrate a separate interface, Raynesford said. SESAME is a security protocol co-developed by Bull, Siemens-Nixdorf and ICL based on European Computer Manufacturer Association (ECMA) 219 and ISO/ITU-T standards. Administrators will be able to use AccessMaster to access any of these protocols, or all of them simultaneously, according to the marketing manager. Bull and Oracle are currently conducting a joint beta test in France, and the two companies hope to launch a second beta test in the US in June, Derue said. AccessMaster 2.0 and the other modules in ISM currently run on AIX, and were recently ported to Tandem platforms, as well. "Our strategy with ISM is to develop a partners program. We also have other hardware vendors who are looking at ISM," Derue revealed. AccessMaster 2.0 and SQLNet 2.0 are both expected to be available in September, he added. Pricing for AccessMaster will range from $100 to $350 per user depending on number of users, types of servers and workstations; and security mechanisms chosen. (Jacqueline Emigh/19950502/Reader Contact: Bull HN Information Systems Inc., 508-670-2117; Press Contacts: Bill Bradley, Bull HN Information Systems, 508-294-5812; Dave Manley, Brueckner & Partners for Bull, 617-248-1881) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 05/03/95 BUSINESS India - C-DOT Links With Telstra (NEWS)(BUSINESS)(DEL)(00008) India - C-DOT Links With Telstra 05/03/95 NEW DELHI, INDIA, 1995 MAY 3 (NB) -- The Center for Development of Telematics (C-DOT), a digital telecom switching development organization created by the Indian government, has linked up with the AUS$14 billion Australian telecommunications company, Telstra Corp. Ltd., for the joint development and application of C-DOT technologies and rural products in a bid to provide integrated products both in India and overseas. This will also involve the evaluation of products, technologies, software and support services for Telstra in the Indian marketplace, as well as Telstra's business activities in other countries. Telstra is already a user of C-DOT equipment in satellite earthstation facilities in the Russian eastern province of Sakhalin. C-DOT had successfully developed its own digital switches for main automatic exchanges as well as PABXs (private automated branch exchanges). Its RAX (Rural Automatic Exchange), designed for stringent weather conditions, has been installed on the Indian network over the last few years. RAX also attracted the attention of international telecom giants like AT&T for use in tropical countries. The Australian telecom firm, which entered the potentially lucrative Indian market a year ago, is all set to provide cellular phone services in Calcutta by the middle of the year. The project will be the result of a joint venture with BK Modi group. (C.T. Mahabharat/19950503) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 05/03/95 APPLE Motorola Ships C/C++, Fortran SDKs For Power Mac (NEWS)(APPLE)(DEN)(00009) Motorola Ships C/C++, Fortran SDKs For Power Mac 05/03/95 AUSTIN, TEXAS, U.S.A., 1995 MAY 3 (NB) -- Motorola says it is shipping its C/C++ and Fortran software development kits (SDKs) for Apple Computer's Power Macintosh platform. Motorola said the SDKs are designed for developers creating applications for the Power Mac and for licensees of the Mac OS (operating system). The compilers are compatible with Apple's Macintosh Programmers Workshop (MPW) and make it possible for developers to develop code that is simultaneously compatible with the PowerPC family of microprocessors, including the PowerPC 601, PowerPC 603, PowerPC 604, and PowerPC 620. The 133 megahertz 64-bit PowerPC 620 is currently the most powerful PowerPC chip shipping, with the PowerPC 630 expected to be available in 1997. The 630 is expected to approximately double the performance of the 620. Peter Christy, senior director of Apple's Developer Products Group, says the company will develop new models of the Power Macintosh based on the PowerPC 603 and PowerPC 604 microprocessors during the coming year. Motorola said the compilers will improve performance for a wide range of applications including interactive entertainment and computer games like Doom II. The compilers run in a native Power Macintosh development environment. The SDKs have a list price of $349 and includes the C/C++ or Fortran SDK and Apple's MPW. Registered owners receive the next two updates to the SDK at no charge. Motorola also offers compilers for IBM's AIX and Microsoft's Windows NT operating systems for the PowerPC. The PowerPC microprocessors were designed jointly by Apple, IBM, and Motorola and are based on a reduced instruction set computing (RISC) architecture. (Jim Mallory/19950503/Press contact: Dean Mosley, Motorola, 512-891-2999; Public contact: Motorola RISC Software, 800-347-8354 or 512-891-2999, Internet World Wide Web http://www.mot.com/PowerPC/) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 05/03/95 BUSINESS More On Lotus Restructuring, Regaining Profitability (NEWS)(BUSINESS)(BOS)(00010) More On Lotus Restructuring, Regaining Profitability 05/03/95 BROOKLINE, MASSACHUSETTS, U.S.A., 1995 MAY 3 (NB) -- Lotus continues to produce "innovative technologies" that meet customers' needs, but the company "has tended to rely on old business models," said Lotus President and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Jim Manzi, in a presentation at the Lotus annual meeting on Lotus' plans to reorganize and reduce expenses in response to a $17.5 million net loss for first quarter 1995. "What we need to do is very simple, at least in concept. We need to begin to make money," Manzi told shareholders, journalists and analysts at the event, held at the Museum of Transportation in Brookline, Massachusetts, and attended by Newsbytes. Lotus' $17.5 million first quarter loss represents the first operating loss in company history, Manzi maintained. To regain profitability, he said, Lotus will trim expenses by 15 percent, or $50 million, and will also restructure company operations into four separate business units, dedicated to desktop products, communications products, services, and "public networks and enterprise computing." Also over the eight remaining months of 1995, Lotus expects to outsource its manufacturing operations, and to introduce a slate of new desktop products, in addition to Lotus Notes 4.0 and a "refreshed" Lotus cc:Mail, according to Manzi. In a series of product demos that were also part of the event, Lotus staffers showed new features for "team computing" that will be included in the recently announced Word Pro word processing package, as well as in Notes 4.0, an update to the Lotus 1-2-3 spreadsheet, and other new products Lotus intends to announce in 1995. During a Q&A with journalists and analysts, also at the event, Manzi explained that, from now through June, a team of eight to ten Lotus staffers will examine how to best implement the restructuring plan. Lotus is not "entertaining" the possibility of selling any of the newly created business units, he said. Lotus will reduce staffing at the "top" director level by about 15 percent, but does not plan any "sweeping" staff cuts at other levels of the company. No decisions have yet been reached as to who will head up the four new divisions, he added. Manzi began his talk at the annual meeting by reading a description of a corporation's need for "global deployment" of groupware over a local and wide area network infrastructure, with "desktop tools" as a foundation. Manzi then explained that the description was written by Citicorp, one of Lotus' customers, to outline its own business requirements, and also suggested that the same description could apply to the requirements of many other organizations, as well. Lotus has the technology to meet these requirements, and a constantly expanding customer base, the CEO contended. In Japan, a country Manzi just visited, cc:Mail accounts for about 80 percent of the electronic-mail market, he illustrated. "And as in most countries, groupware is now synonymous with Notes," he asserted. "Our desktop business is still very profitable," Manzi added. But Lotus' communications products, desktop products, services, and "public networks and enterprise computing" offerings each present "very distinct opportunities," and Lotus has established different goals for making each of these four businesses profitable. Lotus has now spent more than one half billion dollars on research and development (R&D) for its communications products, according to the company chief. "But all (of this investment) has been derived from our desktop business," he noted. By now, Lotus' communications product line-up has evolved into an enterprise "any of our competitors would kill for," according to Manzi. But, he added, "There's been a price to innovation." Lotus will continue to aggressively "grow" its communications business, but not at the expense of its desktop products. Lotus' desktop products will not "act as a bank" to its communications business, the CEO asserted. Lotus introduced Word Pro, an update to Ami Pro, at Spring Comdex last week, and will unveil additional new desktop products "very soon," he reported. The anticipated release of Microsoft's Windows 95 will present opportunities to Lotus on both the desktop and communications sides, he pointed out. Lotus' new Services Business Group will consist of consulting, customer support, and education components, in addition to the Lotus Institute. For Lotus' new Public Networks and Enterprise Computing Group, the "info highway," or Internet, will serve as "more than vague rhetoric, but a real opportunity," according to the CEO. AT&T Network Notes, a joint venture with AT&T to let customers engage in online commerce "without having to build networks themselves," will show "bottom line impact" in 1996, the CEO predicted. "I'm not saying that the next eight months will be easy," concluded Manzi. Lotus' return to profitability will "demand immense dedication from everyone involved," he added. But the company has "the resolve, the people, and the other resources to do it." (Jacqueline Emigh/19950503/Reader Contact: Lotus, 617-862-4514; Press Contact: Lois Paul & Partners for Lotus, 617-862-4514) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 05/03/95 GENERAL Novell Plans OpenDoc Visual Development Environment (NEWS)(GENERAL)(DEN)(00011) Novell Plans OpenDoc Visual Development Environment 05/03/95 OREM, UTAH, U.S.A., 1995 MAY 3 (NB) -- Novell Inc. (NASDAQ: NOVL) has announced it will provide component software development for the yet-to-ship OpenDoc using the AppWare visual programming environment. The announcement is part of Novell's plan to make available network computing on everything from personal digital assistants (PDAs) to television sets, and even automobiles. OpenDoc, with versions for the Macintosh, IBM/s OS/2 and Microsoft's Windows scheduled to ship later this year, will allow developers to combine standard, reusable, cross-platform software components like text editors and database engines with specialized components designed for vertical applications and unique platforms. OpenDoc's System Object Model lets components run over networks and on various operating systems and hardware platforms. AppWare is a visual environment that lets users create and deploy network-ready Macintosh and Windows business applications. Novell said combining the two tools can significantly reduce the time, cost and expertise required to develop and implement network- aware business applications for heterogeneous environments. AppWare's native components, called AppWare Loadable Modules (ALMs), are programmed by linking them together visually on the screen as in a flow-chart. The result is compiled as a "double clickable" application (an executable file). Currently available ALMs include graphical user interface (GUI) building, database access for Oracle, ODBC, SequeLink and other databases, 3270 and 5250 host emulation, document imaging, communications, and NetWare management. Novell said it will build OpenDoc support into AppWare over the next two years. In the first phase AppWare will be modified to create OpenDoc parts and standalone applications by doing a recompile. That capability is expected to be available for the Mac platform late this year and for Windows platforms in 1996. (Jim Mallory/19950503/Press contact: Andrew McCarthy, Niehaus Ryan Haller Public Relations for Novell, 415-615-7913; Public contact: Novell, 800-451-5151) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 05/03/95 BUSINESS CA Preliminary Results Show Good Year (NEWS)(BUSINESS)(TOR)(00012) CA Preliminary Results Show Good Year 05/03/95 ISLANDIA, NEW YORK, U.S.A., 1995 MAY 3 (NB) -- Seeking to quell stock-market nervousness brought on by bad financial news from other software companies, Computer Associates International Inc. (NYSE:CA) has released preliminary financial results that show the company made record revenues and net income in the fiscal year ended March 31. Unaudited results show net income of $586.47 million, or $3.49 per share, on revenues of $2.622 billion, before a one-time pre- tax write-off for purchased research and development, connected with the acquisition of The Ask Group Inc., last June. After that charge, net income was $431.9 million or $2.57 per share. These figures compare with net income of $401.26 million, or $2.34 per share, on revenue of $2.148 billion in fiscal 1994. More detailed results will be released May 18, said Deborah Coughlin, vice-president of investor relations. At that time CA will discuss the performance of specific sectors of its business both by product line and by geographic region. However, Coughlin told Newsbytes that all parts of the business did well in fiscal 1995. CA released the preliminary results because of a string of poor financial results from other software companies, which had made the stock market nervous about software stocks in general, Coughlin said. While all the details of CA's financials are not yet ready for release, she explained, "we still wanted to let people know that things are going great here." CA officials said its CA-Unicenter and CA-Unicenter/Star systems management products have played an important role in making the record financial results possible. In the fourth quarter, CA earned net income of $212.9 million, or $1.27 per share, on revenues of $801.99 million. This compared with net income of $158.79 million or 93 cents per share and revenues of $633.74 million in the fourth quarter of fiscal 1994. (Grant Buckler/19950503/Press Contact: Deborah Coughlin, Computer Associates, 516-342-2173; Bob Gordon, Computer Associates, tel 516-342-2391, fax 516-342-5329) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 05/03/95 WINDOWS Jensen-Jones Updates Commence Info Mgr (NEWS)(WINDOWS)(TOR)(00013) Jensen-Jones Updates Commence Info Mgr 05/03/95 RED BANK, NEW JERSEY, U.S.A., 1995 MAY 3 (NB) -- Release 3.0 of Commence, the information manager software from Jensen-Jones Inc., comes in separate personal and workgroup versions. It also has some new data-handling features and improved access to other applications, the software vendor said. #IMAGE 1 20 TWPCX \images\95050313.PCX Click here for photo Jensen-Jones is now selling Commence Personal Information Manager, for individual users who do not need network access, and Commence Workgroup Information Manager, which has the features of the personal version but also supports local area networks. Both versions support Commence's automatic synchronization feature, called Sync Link, which lets users of the PIM share information and also synchronize the Commence databases on their PCs with a remote server over a network or dial-up connection. Jensen-Jones said it has modified the user interface to make it easier to learn and use. The changes include a new Desktop facility to let users set up reports, calendars, and other views as they want and save them for later use. The new release can also process incoming electronic-mail automatically, and has improved integration with other applications and services, including telephones that support the Telephony Application Program Interface (TAPI), applications that support dynamic data exchange (DDE), and WinFax 4.0 facsimile software. Under the heading of data handling, improvements include the expansion of capacity from 16,000 to 32,000 items, a longer name field at 50 rather than 35 characters, and the ability to handle as many as 1,000 databases rather than only 50. Company spokeswoman Monica Felsmann told Newsbytes she could not comment on possible plans for a Windows 95 version of Commence. The company is "looking at all possibilities," she said. Commence Personal Information Manager has a list price of US$295 in the United States and Canada, while the Workgroup version is US$395 each for the client and server components. The personal version can be upgraded to the workgroup version for the difference in cost. Commence Workgroup is also available in discounted network bundles. Upgrades from Commence 2.1 cost $59.95 for Commence Personal 3.0 and $79.95 for Commence Workgroup 3.0 clients. Server upgrades are free when users upgrade all their client copies. (Grant Buckler/19950503/Press Contact: Monica Felsmann, Jensen- Jones, tel 908-530-4666 ext 203, fax 908-530-9827; Public Contact: Jensen-Jones, 908-530-4666/COMMENCE950503/PHOTO) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 05/03/95 PC UK - ThinkPad-Proven PCMCIA Modem Cards (NEWS)(PC)(LON)(00014) UK - ThinkPad-Proven PCMCIA Modem Cards 05/03/95 FELTHAM, MIDDLESEX, ENGLAND, 1995 MAY 3 (NB) -- PPCP, a PCMCIA (Personal Computer Memory Card International Association) specialist, has announced it is shipping PCMCIA products from COM1, the French modem manufacturer. Unlike the majority of PCMCIA modems, the COM1 products use flash memory instead of standard ROM, so they can be easily upgraded to work with future PCMCIA modem developments. John Nolan, PPCP's managing director, told Newsbytes that the modem cards currently being supplied by COM1 are CT-2 (Cordless Telephony type 2)-compliant, and will also be upgradable to GSM (global system for mobile communications) later this year. "The CT-2 compliance is there because CT-2 is available in France on the Bi-Bop CT-2 network, but the support for the digital phone technology shows how upgradable and flexible the modems are," he said. According to Nolan, GSM versions of the COM1 modems will probably start shipping in September of this year, and existing modems will be flash memory upgradable, although they will require a connector/converter hard unit for different types of GSM phones. The COM1 modems are currently available in two versions. A V32Bis (14,400 bits-per-second) version at UKP299, and a V.34 (28,800 bps) version at UKP399. Both PCMCIA modems have been tested for compatibility with major notebook brands, including Apple, Canon, DEC, IBM, Sharp, and Toshiba. "The modems are unusual in that they are ThinkPad proven, something which only a very few modems have approval for from IBM. That guarantees compatibility with the ThinkPad series of notebook PCs, which is something users will be after, given the variety of standards that there are in the PCMCIA world," Nolan told Newsbytes. (Steve Gold/19950503/Press & Reader Contact: PPCP, tel +44-181-893-2277, fax +44-181-893-1182) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 05/03/95 LEGAL ****Microsoft UK's LegalWare Anti-Piracy Operation (NEWS)(LEGAL)(LON)(00015) ****Microsoft UK's LegalWare Anti-Piracy Operation 05/03/95 LONDON, ENGLAND, 1995 MAY 3 (NB) -- Microsoft UK has announced a new initiative to tackle software piracy in companies -- LegalWare. According to Mark Roberts, software theft program manager with Microsoft UK, the aim of the service is not to frighten or prosecute companies who break the rules on software licensing, but to "educate them" and help them "get a clean bill of health." "LegalWare is a free service that is designed to help our customers, not to get them into court. Obviously, LegalWare is only a matter between ourselves and the customer. If a company wants to continue breaking the rules regarding software licensing, then the risk that FAST (the Federation Against Software Theft) or the BSA (Business Software Alliance) might hit them with a routine audit is still there, but we will not pass on details we learn about our customers to these organizations," he told Newsbytes. According to Roberts, LegalWare is about helping the customer know exactly what software they have installed on which machines, and the total numbers of licenses which are being used. "Our role is to educate customers that that knowledge is worth having and has a net worth in its own right, quite distinct from the cost of software licenses," he said. Roberts went on to explain that LegalWare is very much a UK initiative at the moment, but if the project is a success, then it will be rolled out to other European countries and well as the US, subject to local management approval. The LegalWare program is a combination of business templates, services and software tools, the latter two provided through authorized Microsoft Audit Service Partners and Audit Tools Providers. Roberts explained that the program covers three main areas of operation: "knowledge transfer;" "audit and reconciliation;" and "certification and control." The first area, knowledge transfer, is a "pooling of knowledge" on piracy, with Microsoft and resellers seeking to educate the software user community over the legal issues surrounding software usage. The audit and reconciliation aspects operates like the BSA's software audit package, which allows companies to audit software in their company. Unlike the BSA package, the audit program aims to give companies knowledge about their own systems and the software, rather than acting as agent provocateur. The certification and control aspect involves Microsoft shipping license usage monitoring modules with its server-based packages. This allows the network administrator to monitor usage and make extra license purchases where appropriate. Robin Burton, director of European operations with the BSA was equally enthusiastic about the program. "Education of end-users into the benefits of software management is one of the key elements in this fight and I am convinced that tools such as the LegalWare program will prove an asset in the achievement of our goal -- to eradicate software theft," he said. Roberts, meanwhile, told Newsbytes that he sees LegalWare as being "very necessary" for the vast majority of software-using companies. "I've yet to meet any major company that can truly say it knows exactly where each copy of software is located and how it is being used. Many customers find they even have more PCs than they thought they have, so LegalWare offers a great opportunity for them," he said. So what's in it for Microsoft? "We come out of it with a better profile with the customer. We also might sell a few more software licenses, but the aim is to improve our relationship with the customer, which in the longer term can only be a good thing," he said. Microsoft UK has set up a dedicated LegalWare response line for customers who need assistance on all issues relating to the illegal use of commercial software. The response line is on +44-117-944-7790. (Steve Gold/19950503/Press Contact: +44-181-242-4150; Reader Contact: Microsoft, +44-1734-270001) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 05/03/95 BUSINESS Germany - IBIS Adds Bank To Electronic Trading System (NEWS)(BUSINESS)(LON)(00016) Germany - IBIS Adds Bank To Electronic Trading System 05/03/95 FRANKFURT, GERMANY, 1995 MAY 3 (NB) -- The Integrated Exchange Trading and Information System (IBIS) in Germany has signed its 250th member organization, BHF Bank of Hamburg. According to Stefan Lutz, a spokesman for the electronic trading arm of the German Stock Exchange, the signing is a milestone in the development of the operation. "Membership of IBIS costs relatively little (around $7,200), yet offers organizations the chance to trade the major companies on the DAX (German Bourse) very easily and quickly," he told Newsbytes, adding that IBIS is not designed to replace the membership of the Bourse, a dealership, which entitles an institution to trade all stocks on the DAX, rather than the top few hundred as is the case with IBIS. "What IBIS does is allow those organizations who want to trade in the leading stocks on the DAX the opportunity to do so on an electronic basis, for their clients. Smaller stocks can, of course, be traded through a dealer in the more conventional way," he explained. Existing members of the DAX no longer have to pay a membership fee to IBIS, since the service is now part of the standard dealer agreements. Only those financial institutions that want IBIS membership and the ability to trade in the top 30 DAX listed shares have to pay an annual membership fee. According to Lutz, in the first three months of this year, IBIS accounted for more than a third of all share trades in Germany, a significant figure as the Frankfurt exchange, in which IBIS operates, accounts for just over half of all DAX trades in Germany. Later this year, membership of the IBIS will be extended to other European countries, at which point non-German financial institutions will be able to trade electronically -- for the first time -- in the top 30 DAX shares. (Steve Gold/19950503/Press & Reader Contact: Stefan Lutz, IBIS, +49-69-2101 ext 4943) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 05/03/95 IBM IBM Canada Intros New Ambra PCs (NEWS)(IBM)(TOR)(00017) IBM Canada Intros New Ambra PCs 05/03/95 TORONTO, ONTARIO, CANADA, 1995 MAY 3 (NB) -- The Ambra may be just a memory elsewhere, but IBM's (NYSE:IBM) low-priced PC brand is alive and well in Canada, where subsidiary IBM Canada Ltd. has just announced 24 new personal computers with the Ambra Achiever nameplate. With prices starting at C$2,499, the new line is divided into four groups. The Achiever 300 series are small-enclosure desktop machines aimed at first-time home buyers. Some use IBM's version of the 100 megahertz (MHz) 486 processor -- formerly known as Blue Lightning -- while others use an Intel Corp. 75MHz Pentium. Prices range from C$2,499 to C$3,899, including monitor. The Achiever 500 series are all-in-one units built around 75 and 90MHz Pentiums. Prices range from C$2,999 to C$3,799. The Achiever 700 series are "traditional-styled" desktops ranging from 100MHz 486 to 90MHz Pentium units and priced at C$2,999 to C$4,999, while the Achiever 900 models are mini-tower systems using the 90MHz Pentium microprocessor, priced from C$3,999 to C$5,999. Many of the models have support for multimedia, including CD-ROM drives, sound cards, and speakers. SelectaSystem, IBM's software that lets users choose which operating system to run on starting up the PC, is standard on the 500, 700, and 900 models. These are being shipped with IBM's OS/2 Warp and PC-DOS 7.0 plus Microsoft's Windows 3.1. The Achiever 300 Series machines are available with a choice of 525 megabyte (MB) or 850MB hard disks. The 500 and 700 series come with a choice of 850MB or one gigabyte (GB) hard disks, while the Achiever 900 mini-towers come with the 1GB disks. Some models come with telephone-answering capability, and a TV adapter card is available that lets users combine television signals with other multimedia data, IBM Canada said. All of the new Ambra Achiever PCs are assembled in Canada, IBM Canada spokesman Kevin McKee told Newsbytes. The Ambra Achiever 300 series are available right away, while the 700 and 900 series are to be available within two weeks, company officials said. The 500 series are expected to be available in mid-June. (Grant Buckler/19950503/Press Contact: Kevin McKee, IBM Canada, 905-316-3902) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 05/03/95 GENERAL AmCoEx Index Of Used Computer Prices (NEWS)(GENERAL)(SFO)(00018) AmCoEx Index Of Used Computer Prices 05/03/95 SAN DIEGO, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1995 MAY 3 (NB) -- By John Hastings. This year may be the first year that computers with Pentium CPU's (central processing units) outsell computers with 486 CPU's. Each preceding generational change has been due to demand, but this one may be strictly based on supply. It seems Intel is determined to move the market forward and intends to restrict production of the lower priced 486 chips. It will convert that production capacity to more Pentium production. While other makers, like Advanced Micro Devices, attempt to increase production of their 486 lines, they cannot meet the shortfall left by Intel. NexGen is now shipping the first clone of the Pentium chip. Called the Nx586, early adopters have said the chip runs about twice as fast as a 486/66 chip. While several small manufacturers are currently selling computers with the chip, Compaq has announced that it will soon offer the chip in some models of computers. With prices approximately $300 less than comparable Pentium computers, this 586 could be a big hit. As the price of color notebooks drops, their market share increases. In 1993, less than half of all notebook computer sold had color screens. In 1994, more than three fourths were color. The more expensive active matrix color is gaining ground, as well. A year ago the active matrix commanded a $1,000 premium over the passive matrix color. Today the difference is less than $500. John Hastings is the president of the American Computer Exchange. Since 1988, the American Computer Exchange has matched buyers and sellers of used microcomputers. For more information contact the American Computer Exchange at (800) 786-0717. The AmCoEx Index of Used Computer Prices The following prices are for May 1, 1995. Average Average Buyer's Seller's Machine Bid Ask Close Change($) IBM PS/2 Model 70 60MB $350 $600 $425 .. IBM PS/1 486DX2/50 253MB 900 1350 925 -50 IBM PS/2 Model 90 160MB 1000 1500 1050 -25 IBM ThinkPad 700 900 1500 1075 .. Clone 386/33 80MB, VGA 400 800 450 -25 Clone 486/25120MB, VGA 700 1200 950 .. Compaq LTE 40MB 250 675 300 .. Compaq Contura 320 60MB 500 1000 675 -25 Compaq Contura 4/25 120MB 900 1400 1000 -50 Compaq Deskpro 386/20e 100MB 400 800 475 -25 Compaq Deskpro 486/33 120MB 800 1450 950 -50 Mac Classic II 80MB 350 875 425 .. Mac IIsi 160MB 500 900 575 +25 Mac IIci 80MB 500 950 600 .. Mac IIfx 80MB 600 1000 725 .. Mac Quadra 700 230MB 1100 1600 1200 -50 PowerBook 140 40MB 700 1100 750 .. PowerBook 170 80MB 800 1350 875 -25 Toshiba 1900 120MB 675 1150 725 -25 Toshiba 3200 SXC, 120MB 1850 2950 2150 -75 Toshiba 3300SL 120MB 850 1300 925 +25 Toshiba 5200 100MB 750 1050 800 .. HP Laserjet III 500 900 625 -50 Apple LaserWriterPro 630 1300 1775 1375 -25 (AMCOEX/19950503) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 05/03/95 ONLINE Computer Currents Gets World Wide Web Site (NEWS)(ONLINE)(MSP)(00019) Computer Currents Gets World Wide Web Site 05/03/95 EMERYVILLE, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1995 MAY 3 (NB) -- If you've got a modem and a Web browser, now you can get each current issue of Computer Currents delivered right to your desktop -- sans mailing charges. Computer Currents has a new World Wide Web site, Computer Currents Online, which will officially debut in June, but you can preview the test site today. Just point your Web browser to http://www.ccurrents.com/cc to get the full text of the current Bay Area issue, including classified ads, the events calendar, and BBS (bulletin board system) and user group listings. Eventually, Computer Currents Online will offer an archive of back issues, interactive vendor catalogs, and online computer shopping services. The Bay Area Computer Currents archive will stock a year's worth of editorial, from cover stories to Gigglebytes. Readers will be able to search by "topic" and "keyword." Coming attractions also include the current issues of five other Computer Currents regional editions: Southern California, Dallas, Chicago, Boston, and New York. Computer Currents' Product/Service Locator matches sellers to a list of desired products and services, and lets users place orders online. Links to vendors' home pages will let users browse through their interactive catalogs. Subscribers to Computer Currents Online will get discounts on a variety of hardware and software, and the chance to enter contests. Access to the Bay Area Computer Currents archive is also a members-only feature. Until the membership fee is determined, it is free. Send e-mail comments and suggestions to ccgenmail@ccurrents.com. (Doug Dineley, Computer Currents/19950503) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 05/03/95 CHIPS Philips Chip Venture In China (NEWS)(CHIPS)(SFO)(00020) Philips Chip Venture In China 05/03/95 SHANGHAI, CHINA, 1995 MAY 3 (NB) -- Philips is aiming to hit the jackpot again with a chip venture in China that it hopes will repeat the $2 billion windfall made from its stake in the Taiwanese foundry, TSMC. Philips plans to turn ASMC (Advanced Semiconductor Manufacturing Corporation) of Shanghai, in which it has a 38 percent stake, from a minor consumer chip maker into a Chinese copy of TSMC. Philips started TSMC as a joint venture with the Taiwanese government seven years ago. Now Philips' stake in TSMC is worth over $2 billion. ASMC is owned 38 percent by Philips, 34 percent by Northern Telecom and 28 percent by Chinese companies. The fab is currently using one micron plus processing to run 10,000 five-inch wafers per month. However, it is installing a six-inch, one micron line and is to upgrade the technology. (Terry Silveria/19950503) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 05/03/95 BROADCAST UK - Video-On-Demand Trial (NEWS)(BROADCAST)(LON)(00021) UK - Video-On-Demand Trial 05/03/95 CAMBRIDGE, ENGLAND, 1995 MAY 3 (NB) -- The UK's largest computer maker, ICL plc, is set to enter the interactive broadband network market with a multimedia video-server version of its Gold Rush massively parallel high-performance computer. However, there is as yet insufficient data to allow more than a guess at the potential market. This depends on whether the consumers will buy the services offered, what services they will buy, and how much they will be prepared to spend. As a result, a formal budget has not been set for the development of the new machine. Trials of video-on-demand in Cambridge, England, will initially serve only a few hundred users, but it is claimed that the architecture is highly modular and inherently scalable, and can be configured to serve as many as 50,000 simultaneous users. Video elements are adapted from the standard Gold Rush computing elements already in full production, with the addition of 155 megabits-per-second (Mbps) ATM (asynchronous transfer mode) segmentation and reassembler (SAR) interface. The trial, now entering its second phase, is intended to prove a host of new technologies and test consumer reaction. The Cambridge network will deliver interactive broadband services to 250 of its customers using ATM technology. This prototype system is initially equipped with five video elements. (Terry Silveria/19950503) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 05/03/95 ONLINE Entertainment Online Magazine On Internet (NEWS)(ONLINE)(DEN)(00022) Entertainment Online Magazine On Internet 05/03/95 SEATTLE, WASHINGTON, U.S.A., 1995 MAY 3 (NB) -- Starwave Corp. has launched an online entertainment magazine on the Internet the company said combines the elements of "a daily newspaper, a humor magazine, a television variety show and a 1973 Dodge Dart." Called Mr. Showbiz, the e-zine (electronic magazine) includes a daily serial novel from five fiction writers, a daily column of news and gossip about the world of entertainment and its celebrities, various unedited columns Starwave describes as "inflammatory," and a question and answer feature about show business and the entertainment world. The company said it will soon add a feature called The Numbers, which will report entertainment industry data. Starwave said Mr. Showbiz was created by Susan Mulcahy, former editor of The New York Post's "Page Six" and former editor-in- chief of Avenue magazine. Tom Phillips, co-founder of Spy magazine, is the publisher of Mr. Showbiz and is also vice president of Starwave's online group. Starwave is the latest venture of Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen, who spent an estimated $275 million to buy a majority stake in Ticketmaster. Last month he paid $5 million for approximately 10 percent of Precision Systems, a communications company, and the same month acquired a minority interest in 3D/Eye, a three-dimension technology developer, for an undisclosed amount. He also owns a piece of the Portland Trail Blazers. Allen is no longer involved with Microsoft. Allen recently made a $500 million investment in a joint venture called Dreamworks SKG with Steven Spielberg, Jeffrey Katzenberg, and David Geffen. Dreamworks SKG plans to develop motion pictures, animated films, TV programs, syndicated and television programming, audio recordings, and interactive entertainment ventures. Starwave said Mr. Showbiz will add features regularly in order to keep the service "lively, fresh and free of any uncomfortable dampness." Currently there is no charge to access Mr. Showbiz, which can be reached on the World Wide Web at the URL http://www.starwave.com. Phillips told Newsbytes that Starwave's online service will soon become a subscription service for some or all of its online services and will also sell online ads. He said the exact subscription cost has not been decided yet, but the charges will be implemented this summer. Thomas said the company will launch a family service soon, probably within the next 60 days, but declined to discuss specifics of that offering. Mr. Showbiz is the latest Starwave online addition. The company also offers ESPNet Sportszone and Outside Online, services that provide sports and outdoor activities information and news. In March of this year Newsbytes reported on the debut of Outside Online, an electronic version of Outside Magazine. You can also access Starwave to read listings of the company's current job offerings. (Jim Mallory/19950503/Press contact: John Uppendahl, Waggener Edstrom for Starwave, 206-637-9097; Public contact: Starwave, Internet World Wide Web http://www.starwave.com) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 05/03/95 BUSINESS SPSS Announces Record Sales (NEWS)(BUSINESS)(MSP)(00023) SPSS Announces Record Sales 05/03/95 CHICAGO, ILLINOIS, U.S.A., 1995 MAY 3 (NB) -- SPSS Inc. (NASDAQ:SPSS) has announced that its net revenues were up 29% in the first quarter of 1995. The company said not only was that a record, but it set similar records when it came to operating income and earnings per share. Total net revenues for the quarter were more than $14.7 million, up from first quarter 1994 revenues of more than $11.4 million. Operating income for the first three months ended March 31, 1995, was around $2.1 million, up 30% from the same period last year. And net income shot up 54 percent to $1.4 million-plus in the first quarter of this year, compared to first quarter last year, company officials said. Earnings per share (EPS) increased 33 percent to $0.20, compared to last year's first quarter earnings of $0.15. The company said analysts had expected the first quarter 1995 EPS to be at $0.17. SPSS officials said the EPS improved by one penny compared to first quarter 1994 due to the reduction of the company's expected effective tax rate to 34.3 percent. Mark Battaglia, vice president of corporate marketing for SPSS, told Newsbytes his company has had strong numbers for seven straight quarters, ever since the company went public in August, 1993. As far as the first quarter of this year goes, Battaglia said the growth in sales and the other categories can be attributed to "desktop products which are growing at a very rapid rate for us," he said. "Our number one seller of product is the SPSS for Windows product, and that accounts for half of the company's revenue." Today, the company makes more of its revenue from desktop software than it did for all products just two-and-a-half years ago, company officials said. The desktop products are used in either business-to-business or academic environments. Battaglia said this type of growth should continue for SPSS. "We think the marketplace trends are in our favor, and we feel very confident in continuing to meet or exceed analysts' projections for our results." Already, the company has announced it will release two new products for the Unix platform, along with a product for Apple's PowerMac system, in the second quarter of 1995. The company also had five new releases in the first quarter of this year. All of this comes as an effort to "offer products that drive the widespread use of statistics, particularly for the desktop," company President and Chief Executive Officer Jack Noonan said. On Wall Street at 12:30 EDT, SPSS's stock was up $0.50, at $15.00. (Bob Woods/19950503/Press Contacts: Larry Mathias, SPSS, 800-525-4980.) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 05/03/95 ONLINE ****America Online Tops 2.5 Million Members (NEWS)(ONLINE)(MSP)(00024) ****America Online Tops 2.5 Million Members 05/03/95 VIENNA, VIRGINIA, U.S.A., 1995 MAY 3 (NB) -- America Online Inc. (NASDAQ-NNM:AMER) said it had passed the 2.5 million subscriber mark. The service has more than tripled its member base in the past 12 months, company officials said. Pam McGraw, AOL spokesperson, said company officials are "very excited" by the numbers. "We continue to be the fastest-growing online service in the United States," she said. The company attributes its growth to the availability of its inexpensive software, along with the re-working of its interface last fall. As far as AOL's future goes when it comes to subscriber numbers, McGraw said AOL "doesn't gaze into the crystal ball" for that kind of information. "But we have continued to triple our subscriber base, and we continue to add content on a daily basis. With adding new Internet offerings, like the preview of our (World Wide) Web browser, we hope to continue to attract new members." McGraw wouldn't comment on when the company's Web browser would be ready for full use. Analyst Adam Schoenfeld of Jupiter Communications said full implementation of the Web browser would significantly contribute to AOL's "breakneck" pace of adding subscribers, with the numbers spiking when the browser is fully available. After that, "they'll continue along, adding 125,000 to 150,000 users a month," he said. Schoenfeld said that AOL's success in the past has been two-pronged: With their "superior interface and marketing genius. They were pioneers in cross-promotions in print magazines. You can't go past a newsstand without seeing the America Online staring out in many cases in front of the magazine," he said. When it comes to Bill Gates' new Microsoft Network online service, Schoenfeld believes AOL is best positioned to compete with what's being billed as "the" next online network, "solely because of their (AOL's) subscriber base," he said. AOL also announced it has passed what it calls an "important revenue milestone." AOL members spend an average of $17 per month in connect charges, the company said. With three times as many people logging in now compared to 12 months ago, company officials say a 2.5 million member subscription base translates to a revenue run rate of more than $500 million in a twelve month period. A year ago, that run rate was at $150 million for the same time frame. AOL President Steve Case is quoted as saying the rapid revenue growth enables the company to increase research and development investments, content and marketing funding, and to "raise the innovation bar in this increasingly complex and competitive marketplace." Wall Street does not seem to be impressed by today's announcements. At 12:30 EDT, AOL's stock was unchanged, at $43.375. (Bob Woods/19950503/Press Contacts: Pam McGraw, America Online, 703-556-3746; Adam Schoenfeld, Jupiter Communications, 212-941- 7423; Public Contact: America Online, 800-827-6364) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 05/03/95 GENERAL Sneak Preview Of Lotus Notes 4. (NEWS)(GENERAL)(BOS)(00025) Sneak Preview Of Lotus Notes 4.0 05/03/95 BROOKLINE, MASSACHUSETTS, U.S.A., 1995 MAY 3 (NB) -- Lotus Notes 4.0 will include user-definable "agents," and upcoming updates to 1-2-3 and other Lotus desktop products will contain some of the same "team computing" features as Lotus' new Word Pro, Lotus staffers revealed, during a series of "sneak previews" at the Lotus annual meeting. Lotus is now beginning "aggressive internal deployment" of Notes 4.0, reported Scott Eliot, Notes product manager for version 4.0, speaking at the meeting, which was held at the Museum of Transportation in Brookline, Massachusetts, and attended by Newsbytes. Notes 4.0 will add a new user interface that is the same as Lotus' cc:Mail product, in addition to "disconnected computing" functionality for mobile users, new application development tools, and improvements to network management and other aspects of "enterprise service support," he told the shareholders, analysts, and journalists. Notes' new mail interface will provide a similar look-and-feel to most other mail packages, he added. "It will answer (new) users' questions like, `Where's the inbox, and the trash can?'" The new capabilities for "disconnected computing" are designed primarily for notebook users who spend much of their time "on airplanes and in hotel rooms," the product manager said. Eliot showed how the new agents, for instance, are able to search for and retrieve articles on user-specified subjects from online services such as First. In one example for the audience, Eliot asked for and received articles pertaining to all three of the following subjects: Lotus, groupware, and Notes. The agents and some of the other features in Notes 4.0 will be able to operate unattended, when the user is "disconnected," Eliot maintained. "If I hire a gardener, I'm not going to stand around watching him do the gardening. I'm going to go out and play golf," he told the group. In another upcoming feature for mobile users, Notes 4.0 will offer the option of "truncating" long messages, to save on hard disk space and to help users sift out unwanted mail, according to Eliot. Users will initially receive the header only, but will also be able to access the entire message if desired, he said. Other new capabilities in Notes 4.0 will include: a Navigator, equipped with folders and views, for "surfing through various documents;" new discussion threads; and the ability to view documents directly from Notes in Excel and 158 other native file formats, he reported. Bill Jones, senior director of desktop product management, told the annual meeting audience that all of Lotus' upcoming desktop products will use a new "protocol" called NotesFlow, "for integration with Notes 4.0." In a demo of Word Pro, Lotus' new update to the Ami Pro word processing, Jones showed new "team computing" features such as "versioning," team review, greetings, and "scan consolidate," along with the ability to drag-and-drop text between pages. In "versioning," he said, multiple versions of a document can be contained within a single file. One version of a document might include a quote, for instance, while in another version, the quote is left out, he illustrated. In team review, a feature that will also be included in the next version of the Freelance presentation graphics package, users can maintain and update a list of users with whom they want to share a document, as well as "verifying" the identities of the other users, according to the Lotus exec. The new "greeting" feature provides the ability to add a personalized message to a document, he continued. "Scan consolidate," on the other hand, allows "reconciliation" of multiple documents or portions of documents from multiple users or "editors." The user can choose to either accept or reject individual suggestions from other editors, said Jones. "Scan consolidate" also provides the ability to eliminate duplication in situations where the same paragraph appears in more than one document, for example. "Scan consolidate" will also be included in the next release of Lotus 1-2-3, he elaborated. In another demo, Jones showed how "scan consolidate" will be employed by 1-2-3 users in conjunction with Notes 4.0 to build "consolidated models" by assigning and receiving spreadsheet "contributions" from other team members. Through object linking and embedding (OLE) 2.0, a "contribution" such as "sales figures for the Northeast region" can be plugged into the 1-2-3 spreadsheet as an embedded object, Jones explained. (Jacqueline Emigh/19950503/Reader Contact: Lotus, 617-577-8500; Press Contact: Lois Paul & Partners for Lotus, 617-862-4514) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 05/03/95 NETWORK Belgium - DEC Unveils enVISN Networking (NEWS)(NETWORK)(LON)(00026) Belgium - DEC Unveils enVISN Networking 05/03/95 BRUSSELS, BELGIUM, 1995 MAY 3 (NB) -- Digital Equipment Corporation has taken the wraps off enVISN, its new enterprise Virtual Intelligent Switched Networks technology. According to the company, the architecture is designed to be the industry's most comprehensive open network architecture and product strategy and combines virtual LAN (local area network) technology, distributed routing, and high speed switching with centralized policy- based administration to create, what the company describes as, "flexible virtual networks that can be customized to application and business needs." Chris Evenden, a spokesman for Digital, told Newsbytes that the launch of enVISN is very much a joint strategy and product announcement. "There are no plans to license the enVISN technology to third party companies, as other networking companies have their own open network architectures, but the technology is designed to be compatible with third party networking technology," he said. According to Digital, enVISN allows businesses to configure flexible, scalable, logical workgroups, dynamically, whenever and wherever they are needed, independent of the physical network infrastructure. As businesses become leaner and flatter, and workers become more mobile, companies must constantly regroup cross-functional teams that can respond quickly, company officials noted. They added that the teams need a collaborative workgroup environment that allows them to share information, computing resources and applications easily, regardless of the location of individual members, or the layout of the underlying networking infrastructure. So is enVISN just another open networks system? Digital claims not, pointing out that the technology's main features include: policy-based management -- allowing network managers to manage the logical network topology rather than multiple networking components; flexibility -- for virtual LANs; and one-hop switching. One-hop switching uses the routing and virtual LAN intelligence embedded in enVISN multi-layer switches to make switching decisions locally rather than relying on external devices, such as central routers or route servers. The result, the company claims, is reduced network latency, especially during network set-up. The second part of the enVISN announcement is the unveiling of the DECswitch 400, an Ethernet/ATM (asynchronous transfer mode) switch that expands Digital's current virtual LAN capabilities from Ethernet only virtual LANs (VLANs) to Ethernet VLANs that can span across Ethernet backbones. The DECswitch 400 will be available worldwide from next month onwards. Also unveiled is the DECNS ATM controller 631, an ATM network interface card for the DECNS 600 multiprotocol backbone router that supports T3, E3, and OC-3 connections. This unit will ship worldwide from August onwards. (Sylvia Dennis/19950503/Press & Reader Contact: Digital Equipment Corp., tel +32-2-729-7301, fax +32-2-729-7305) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 05/03/95 GENERAL UK - Gold Disk Offers Upgrade To Asymedia Users (NEWS)(GENERAL)(LON)(00027) UK - Gold Disk Offers Upgrade To Asymedia Users 05/03/95 READING, BERKSHIRE, ENGLAND, 1995 MAY 3 (NB) -- Gold Disk has announced it is offering a special upgrade price deal on Astound 2.0, its multimedia presentation software, to users of Asymedia, a competing multimedia package. According to Mike Elms, a spokesman for the company, the deal is a lot more than a simple competitive upgrade offer, as Asymetrix, the US company behind Asymedia, has announced it is discontinuing development and customer support for the package. Any Asymedia user wishing to upgrade to Astound 2.0 will be charged only the standard upgrade price of UKP59, as if they were upgrading from the previous version of Astound, rather than the retail price of UKP189. According to Gold Disk, version 2.0 adds a level of functionality to multimedia presentation products previously found only in difficult- to-use authoring packages. To provide users with a convenient method to store, search for, and retrieve all types of multimedia files, Astound 2.0 comes with the Astound Media Manager, a fully-featured multimedia database. Also included with the package is Astound Studio, a complete set of six multimedia editing tools. Announcing the deal, David Aldridge, European vice president and general manager of Gold Disk, claimed that Asymedia users are getting the best of both worlds. "Not only are they now assured an upgrade path for their multimedia presentation software needs, but they can also enjoy the enhanced feature set provided by Astound," he said. "We were only to happy to offer a lifeline to Asymedia users left with an unsupported product. Gold Disk has been around for over ten years, has a seasoned management team and has recently received significant financial investment. In short we feel able to offer total stability to anyone who buys our software," he continued, (Steve Gold/19950503/Press Contact: Profile Public Relations, +44-181-995-1595; Reader Contact: Gold Disk, +44-1753-832383) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 05/03/95 ONLINE Free Exchange Market On The Web (NEWS)(ONLINE)(SFO)(00028) Free Exchange Market On The Web 05/03/95 WOODLAND HILLS, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1995 MAY 3 (NB) -- The National Materials Exchange Network (NMEN) allows anyone with access to the World Wide Web (Web) to list just about anything on a sell-and-swap Web site called the Exchange. A simple form on the NMEN Web site has been used to list more than 10,000 items. #IMAGE 1 20 TWPCX \images\95050328.PCX Click here for photo The general idea is to buy, sell, trade, or give it away. However, NMEN is not your ordinary flea market, as the Web site is also designed for industrial recycling. NMEN chief executive officer, Mike Silver, told Newsbytes, "The Exchange is designed to meet the needs of industrial recycling of metals, paper, chemicals, machinery or any other products which might be sold, given away or traded. At the same time, the Exchange is open for general consumers who might want to list something as simple as a home appliance." The Exchange is free to all users. It is a non-profit, tax-exempt project developed by Earthcycle, a national company involved in recycling facilities in several states across the US and brokering recyclable industrial materials around the world. Silver said, "The Exchange is as small as a cross-town transaction or a transaction across the world. We have designed a system which allows a user to quickly locate a tablesaw in the user's local area code or five tons of plastic bottles from a large recycler in India." "We do not make any money off the transactions," he said. "We are a clearing house for almost anything in the world. The Exchange is set-up to allow buyers and sellers and barterers to learn of one another and make their own investigations and deals. When someone wants to list something on the Exchange, we review the listing to make sure the person is serious and not just playing a joke. Once it is posted, it is up to the participants to determine the condition and value of the item or items in question." The Exchange allows users to search by countries and US states and area codes. The Exchange's categories are used to initiate searches, and keywords may be used to refine individual searches. In other words, a metal-broker who is looking for copper does not have to review hundreds of metal listings. Silver continued, "We created the Exchange to contribute to recycling efforts around the world. It is free and open to anyone." The Exchange also has a separate recycling and environmental services database which allows users to locate transporters, recyclers and other related services. Shortly after the Exchange opened on the Web, one of its listings allowed a user to make a deal for beds and clothing which went to shelters for the homeless. Silver added, "We started out as a bulletin board and at that time learned the kinds of contributions this type of service could make. During Hurricane Andrew, one of our listing allowed a user to supply the relief effort with blankets and clothing for many of the people who lost all of their homes and personal belongings." Currently, Earthcycle is carrying the expense of developing and managing the Exchange. The company is currently looking for corporate sponsors. Any contribution would reportedly be "fully deductible." (Patrick McKenna/19950503/Press Contact: Mike Silver, NMEN, 818-888-0055, Internet World Wide Web http://www.earthcycle.com/nmen/, Internet e-mail nmen@earthcycle.com/EXCHANGE950503/PHOTO) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 05/03/95 LEGAL ****Gag Order Issued In Microsoft-Justice Case (NEWS)(LEGAL)(DEN)(00029) ****Gag Order Issued In Microsoft-Justice Case 05/03/95 WASHINGTON, D.C., U.S.A., 1995 MAY 3 (NB) -- Saying he doesn't want the case tried in the press, a federal judge has issued a gag order to government lawyers and Microsoft not to talk to reporters about the US Department of Justice's attempt to block Microsoft's (NASDAQ: MSFT) $2 billion acquisition of Intuit (NASDAQ: INTU). The judge also set a trial date for the case. Intuit is the California company that markets the widely popular Quicken, the personal finance software management program that lets you balance your checkbook, pay bills and otherwise keep track of, and distribute, your money. Microsoft wants to acquire Intuit in order to get the rights to Quicken so that program can be the anchor for the financial services such as electronic bill paying and online banking services that are expected to be offered when Microsoft Network comes online in the late summer of 1995. The government opposes the merger as not being in the "best interests" of the public, alleging that Quicken and Microsoft's similar program already have 90 percent of the personal finance software market. Microsoft said when the merger was announced it would sell Money to Novell. US District Judge William Orrick issues an eight-page order that set the trail date for June 26 in San Francisco. The judge decreed that each side could have no more than 45 trial hours to present their case including examination of witnesses and presentation of legal arguments. Each side is limited to a maximum of 20 witnesses. Witness lists have to be exchanged today, and by June 12 the two parties must exchange lists of exhibits to be used at trial. Final motions are scheduled for June 16 and a pre-trial hearing is scheduled for June 22. The trail will be held Monday through Thursday from 8:30am to 1:30pm. While judge Orrick did not order Microsoft and government attorneys not to talk to reporters, he did "suggest that officers of the court exercise sound discretion" in talking about the case. Microsoft spokesperson Greg Shaw told Newsbytes Microsoft views the suggestion as a good one and as applying to all parties, not just the attorneys, who are considered officers of the court. If the merger eventually goes through it will be accomplished through a stock swap that will get Intuit shareholders 1.336 shares of Microsoft for each share of Intuit. At the time the merger was announced that made the deal worth about $1.6 billion. However, with the changes that have taken place in each company's stock price since October, 1994, the deal is now estimated to be worth closers to $2 billion. The merger would also include Intuit's tax preparation software products, which could eventually lead to electronic filing of personal income taxes via Microsoft Network. Assistant Attorney General Anne Bingaman, the government's top anti-trust attorney, has told the court that allowing Microsoft to acquire Intuit "would likely result in higher prices for consumers who want to buy personal finance software and would cause those buyers to miss out on the huge benefits from innovation." (Jim Mallory/19950503/Press contact: Microsoft, 206-882-8080; DOJ, 202-514-2000) (SUMMARY)(GENERAL)(SFO)(00030) Newsbytes Daily Summary 05/03/95 PENN VALLEY, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1995 MAY 5 (NB) -- These are capsules of all today's news stories: 1 -> Global Modem Firms Jump On MNP 10EC Bandwagon 05/03/95 Plugging a 28,800 bits-per-second (bps) portable modem into the phone socket on the wall is a lifetime away from struggling to get that same modem working over an analog cellular phone link, which is why Rockwell has been quietly seeding the modem vendor community with MNP Class 10 EC. 2 -> ****Telecom Finland Plans Voice Over Internet 05/03/95 Telecom Finland has revealed plans to transmit voice calls across the Internet, Newsbytes has learned. 3 -> Finland - Nokia Sponsors Formula 1 Race Team 05/03/95 Nokia Oy has announced it is sponsoring the Tyrrell Yamaha Formula 1 motor racing team. This makes the Finnish telecoms giant the first telecoms company to use its name in the Formula 1 races around the world, company officials claimed. 4 -> Philippines - Hughes Establishes Regional HQ 05/03/95 Gearing up to expand its sales in cellular, internetworking and satellite systems in the Asean region, US-based Hughes Network Systems (HNS) has decided to establish its Southeast Asian regional headquarters. 5 -> China Information Union Network Now Online 05/03/95 A new information source, called the China Information Union Network, recently opened to the public. The network was jointly established by the News/Information Center of People's Daily, the Urban Economical Information Department of the State Statistics Bureau, and the Hong Kong China Economical Information Center. 6 -> Bull Plans "Three-In-One" Data Warehouse 05/03/95 Bull Worldwide Information Systems plans to enter the expanding data warehousing market with a database-independent, "three-in-one" Distributed Data Warehouse (DDW) architecture later this year, Newsbytes has learned. 7 -> Bull Developing Security Software For Oracle's SQLNet 05/03/95 Under a newly inked deal with Oracle, Groupe Bull is developing software designed to provide automatic and transparent authentication and other new security capabilities to Oracle database users in client- server environments. 8 -> India - C-DOT Links With Telstra 05/03/95 The Center for Development of Telematics (C-DOT), a digital telecom switching development organization created by the Indian government, has linked up with the AUS$14 billion Australian telecommunications company, Telstra Corp. Ltd., for the joint development and application of C-DOT technologies and rural products in a bid to provide integrated products both in India and overseas. 9 -> Motorola Ships C/C++, Fortran SDKs For Power Mac 05/03/95 Motorola says it is shipping its C/C++ and Fortran software development kits (SDKs) for Apple Computer's Power Macintosh platform. 10 -> More On Lotus Restructuring, Regaining Profitability 05/03/95 Lotus continues to produce "innovative technologies" that meet customers' needs, but the company "has tended to rely on old business models," said Lotus President and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Jim Manzi, in a presentation at the Lotus annual meeting on Lotus' plans to reorganize and reduce expenses in response to a $17.5 million net loss for first quarter 1995. 11 -> Novell Plans OpenDoc Visual Development Environment 05/03/95 Novell Inc. (NASDAQ: NOVL) has announced it will provide component software development for the yet-to-ship OpenDoc using the AppWare visual programming environment. The announcement is part of Novell's plan to make available network computing on everything from personal digital assistants (PDAs) to television sets, and even automobiles. 12 -> CA Preliminary Results Show Good Year 05/03/95 Seeking to quell stock-market nervousness brought on by bad financial news from other software companies, Computer Associates International Inc. (NYSE:CA) has released preliminary financial results that show the company made record revenues and net income in the fiscal year ended March 31. 13 -> Jensen-Jones Updates Commence Info Mgr 05/03/95 Release 3.0 of Commence, the information manager software from Jensen-Jones Inc., comes in separate personal and workgroup versions. It also has some new data-handling features and improved access to other applications, the software vendor said. 14 -> UK - ThinkPad-Proven PCMCIA Modem Cards 05/03/95 PPCP, a PCMCIA (Personal Computer Memory Card International Association) specialist, has announced it is shipping PCMCIA products from COM1, the French modem manufacturer. 15 -> ****Microsoft UK's LegalWare Anti-Piracy Operation 05/03/95 Microsoft UK has announced a new initiative to tackle software piracy in companies -- LegalWare. According to Mark Roberts, software theft program manager with Microsoft UK, the aim of the service is not to frighten or prosecute companies who break the rules on software licensing, but to "educate them" and help them "get a clean bill of health." 16 -> Germany - IBIS Adds Bank To Electronic Trading System 05/03/95 The Integrated Exchange Trading and Information System (IBIS) in Germany has signed its 250th member organization, BHF Bank of Hamburg. According to Stefan Lutz, a spokesman for the electronic trading arm of the German Stock Exchange, the signing is a milestone in the development of the operation. 17 -> IBM Canada Intros New Ambra PCs 05/03/95 The Ambra may be just a memory elsewhere, but IBM's (NYSE:IBM) low-priced PC brand is alive and well in Canada, where subsidiary IBM Canada Ltd. has just announced 24 new personal computers with the Ambra Achiever nameplate. 18 -> AmCoEx Index Of Used Computer Prices 05/03/95 19 -> Computer Currents Gets World Wide Web Site 05/03/95 If you've got a modem and a Web browser, now you can get each current issue of Computer Currents delivered right to your desktop -- sans mailing charges. Computer Currents has a new World Wide Web site, Computer Currents Online, which will officially debut in June, but you can preview the test site today. 20 -> Philips Chip Venture In China 05/03/95 Philips is aiming to hit the jackpot again with a chip venture in China that it hopes will repeat the $2 billion windfall made from its stake in the Taiwanese foundry, TSMC. 21 -> UK - Video-On-Demand Trial 05/03/95 The UK's largest computer maker, ICL plc, is set to enter the interactive broadband network market with a multimedia video-server version of its Gold Rush massively parallel high-performance computer. 22 -> Entertainment Online Magazine On Internet 05/03/95 Starwave Corp. has launched an online entertainment magazine on the Internet the company said combines the elements of "a daily newspaper, a humor magazine, a television variety show and a 1973 Dodge Dart." 23 -> SPSS Announces Record Sales 05/03/95 SPSS Inc. (NASDAQ:SPSS) has announced that its net revenues were up 29% in the first quarter of 1995. The company said not only was that a record, but it set similar records when it came to operating income and earnings per share. 24 -> ****America Online Tops 2.5 Million Members 05/03/95 America Online Inc. (NASDAQ-NNM:AMER) said it had passed the 2.5 million subscriber mark. The service has more than tripled its member base in the past 12 months, company officials said. 25 -> Sneak Preview Of Lotus Notes 4.0 05/03/95 Lotus Notes 4.0 will include user-definable "agents," and upcoming updates to 1-2-3 and other Lotus desktop products will contain some of the same "team computing" features as Lotus' new Word Pro, Lotus staffers revealed, during a series of "sneak previews" at the Lotus annual meeting. 26 -> Belgium - DEC Unveils enVISN Networking 05/03/95 Digital Equipment Corporation has taken the wraps off enVISN, its new enterprise Virtual Intelligent Switched Networks technology. 27 -> UK - Gold Disk Offers Upgrade To Asymedia Users 05/03/95 Gold Disk has announced it is offering a special upgrade price deal on Astound 2.0, its multimedia presentation software, to users of Asymedia, a competing multimedia package. 28 -> Free Exchange Market On The Web 05/03/95 The National Materials Exchange Network (NMEN) allows anyone with access to the World Wide Web (Web) to list just about anything on a sell-and-swap Web site called the Exchange. A simple form on the NMEN Web site has been used to list more than 10,000 items. 29 -> ****Gag Order Issued In Microsoft-Justice Case 05/03/95 Saying he doesn't want the case tried in the press, a federal judge has issued a gag order to government lawyers and Microsoft not to talk to reporters about the US Department of Justice's attempt to block Microsoft's (NASDAQ: MSFT) $2 billion acquisition of Intuit (NASDAQ: INTU). The judge also set a trial date for the case. (Ian Stokell/19950503) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 05/01/95 ONLINE InfoNation Online Service Uses Geographical Interface (NEWS)(ONLINE)(TOR)(00001) InfoNation Online Service Uses Geographical Interface 05/01/95 TORONTO, ONTARIO, CANADA, 1995 MAY 1 (NB) -- InfoNation, a new online service launched by Premier Online Systems Inc., combines Internet access with its own information services represented by buildings in what the designers describe as a "geographical interface." The new service, which is due to open officially May 1 but is up and running now, will allow information providers to create their own "buildings" on its online map. The existing service includes such buildings as an InfoNation Hall with assorted services, a science center that provides access to some science-related Internet news groups and other services, and Reality Ranch, a building where callers will be able to view live scenes from video cameras mounted in downtown Toronto. InfoNation will be accessible by dialing a Toronto modem number, and callers will be able to take advantage of the standard Internet access services, said Scott Fletcher, a partner in design firm Online Construction and Exploration Inc. Computer users outside Toronto will also be able to reach the service through the Internet, using the Telnet address nation.org. This Telnet address was not yet operational when Newsbytes tried it, but we were able to reach InfoNation by using its numeric Internet address and by calling the modem access number in Toronto. The user interface, despite its graphic design, relies mainly on keystroke commands, such as typing the number shown on any building displayed on the screen to enter that building. Fletcher told Newsbytes he expects about 60 percent of InfoNation users will be from outside the Toronto area and will reach the service through Telnet. Online Construction and Exploration chose Telnet rather than the World Wide Web to provide access because Telnet allows easier accounting for online activity. "You can't actually conduct business with a Web page," he said. "You can show people information about your company, but you really can't do much else." However, information providers on InfoNation will be able to set up Web pages within their buildings, and Internet users will be able to reach the service using Web browsers, Fletcher said. The basic charge to use InfoNation will be 50 cents per hour, with a monthly minimum of C$9.50 per month. Information providers may levy extra charges for time spent in their buildings, Fletcher said. (Grant Buckler/19950427/Press Contact: Scott Fletcher, Online Construction and Exploration, 416-361-0810; Jim Carr, for Premier Online Systems, 416-364-0046; Public Contact: InfoNation, 416-364-3072, modem 416-364-INFO, fax 416-362-0539, Internet e-mail nation.org) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 05/01/95 TRENDS ****Content Holding Back CD-ROM - Report (NEWS)(TRENDS)(TOR)(00002) ****Content Holding Back CD-ROM - Report 05/01/95 CAMBRIDGE, MASSACHUSETTS, U.S.A., 1995 MAY 1 (NB) -- While multimedia personal computers are selling rapidly into the home market, the content available on CD-ROMs is not keeping pace, according to market research firm Forrester Research Inc. In a recent report, "The Future of CD-ROM," Forrester said the lack of simple production tools for CD-ROM content, and of involvement by the artistic community and big-name celebrities, means the content of today's CD-ROMs is not good enough to keep customers coming back. The installed base of multimedia home personal computers will grow from 8.6 million in 1994 to 33.2 million in 1999, Forrester predicted. This growth will keep the CD-ROM market going, with CD-ROM content sales growing from $584 million in 1994 to almost $1.5 billion in 1996. However, Forrester said, shallow content and low-value titles, as well as technical problems, will continue to hurt CD-ROM's image. The good news will come late in the decade, the report predicts. Audio and video quality will improve, and developments such as Microsoft's Windows 95 operating system will help make all PC peripherals -- including CD-ROM drives -- easier to use. Meanwhile the CD-ROM industry will have learned, by trial and error, how to create better content, and will benefit from the arrival of simpler, more intuitive content-creation tools. Also late in the 1990s, Forrester said, cheaper technology will make it easier for new content developers to enter the market, bringing with them new ideas. As content providers cut prices and diversify their content in a quest for consumer acceptance, more people will be drawn to CD-ROM products, Forrester said. By 1999, the research firm expects the CD-ROM content market to approach $3.9 billion. (Grant Buckler/19950428/Press Contact: Katie Kelley, Forrester Research, 617-497-7090, Internet e-mail kkelley@forrester.com; Public Contact: Forrester Research, 617-497-7090) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 05/01/95 PEN Using Notes & Telepad In Utility Field Service (NEWS)(PEN)(WAS)(00003) Using Notes & Telepad In Utility Field Service 05/01/95 PITTSBURGH, PENNSYLVANIA, U.S.A., 1995 MAY 1 (NB) -- Using an innovative combination of computer hardware and software, Duquesne Light Co. is making customer field service calls faster and easier. The technology may also offer a new business opportunity for the Pittsburgh-based utility. Combining the Telepad mobile, hand-held computer with a customized version of Lotus Notes software, Duquesne Light personnel can visit a customer seeking new or upgraded service and come up with a cost estimate and work order on the spot. According to Peg Page, the project manager at the utility, the utility employee can use the pen-based interface of the Telepad device to produce a simple design drawing in the field. "Utilizing these tools will enable us to provide customers with solid information on their request for new electric service and simple design drawings, right on the field, on the first visit to the customer site," Page told Newsbytes. Before the new technology, the utility technician would have to return to the office to work up a list of equipment and a cost estimate for the work. Now, it can be done on site with a point-and-click, Windows-based interface. In an emergency case, said Page, the utility customer service worker can even transmit the data and work order to the utility over a cellular modem in the Telepad computer. "This is just one small application, but it is one of the most customer sensitive," said Page. "There may be others." Duquesne Light worked with The Future Now Inc., a computer sales and consulting company, to customize the Lotus Notes application, which won Lotus Development Corp.'s Beacon Award for having "the greatest impact on a customer's business with Notes technology." Telepad is a mobile computer designed by Telepad Corp. of Reston, Va., and built by IBM, integrating voice recognition, pen computing, and a detachable keyboard. Duquesne Light chose the Telepad for its customer service application "because it provides a rugged, portable, and affordable pen-based computing solution," said Page. The Future Now, with offices in 19 states and $700 million in 1993 revenues, expects to try to turn the Duquesne Light application into a broader market. "We see mass customization of business processes, through automation of workers in the field, as a necessary step in providing our clients with the best possible services," said Douglas Kanouff, a senior consultant at the company. (Kennedy Maize/19950428/Press Contact: Diana Lefcowitz, Telepad, 703-834-9000) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 05/01/95 TELECOM German & UK PCN Services Demo Int'l Roaming (NEWS)(TELECOM)(LON)(00004) German & UK PCN Services Demo Int'l Roaming 05/01/95 LONDON, ENGLAND, 1995 MAY 1 (NB) -- Mercury One-2-One, one of the two UK PCN (personal communications network) digital mobile nets in the UK, and E-Plus, the German PCN service, have demonstrated inter-network roaming. This is the first time, Newsbytes notes, that commercial PCN operators have demonstrated true network roaming on a wide-scale public basis. Delegates to the ISS '95 World Telecoms Congress, which took place last week in Berlin, were been issued with PCN handsets registered on the One-2-One service in the UK, although roaming has been switched on for One-2-One subscribers in the Berlin area. According to One-2-One, the demonstration confirmed the capability of the PCN services, which operate in the 1,800 megahertz waveband, to support international roaming services and the wish of the two network operators to develop a full commercial roaming services. One-2-One has not confirmed, but sources suggest, that a similar pilot with other European PCN services is also under active discussion. (Steve Gold/19950428/Press Contact: tel +44-956-700121, fax 44-956-701122) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 05/01/95 ONLINE UK - Portable Comms Distributor's Online Support (NEWS)(ONLINE)(LON)(00005) UK - Portable Comms Distributor's Online Support 05/01/95 GUILDFORD, SURREY, ENGLAND, 1995 MAY 1 (NB) -- Portable Add-Ons, a specialist portable communications distributor, has announced the opening of its support bulletin board system (BBS) for customers. At the same time the company has opened a series of mailboxes on CompuServe and the Internet for messaging the support and sales operation. According to Chaz Brooks, marketing manager with the company, plans are also in hand for the company to open up its own World Wide Web (Web) access pages, and a FTP (File Transfer Protocol) site will open soon as well. The ParanoId BBS is operating on Wildcat software on +44-1483-295720 and allows customers to download software and PCMCIA (Personal Computer memory Card International Association) drivers relevant to the system they are running. The Internet mail facility, meanwhile, is designed around a UUCP link and uses Lotus cc:Mail to forward messages across the company LAN (local area network) to reach the staff within the company. The BBS operates at all modem speeds to 28,800 bits-per-second (bps) on 8:N:1 parity. Nigel Parry, Portable Add-Ons' managing director, said that the "soon coming" Internet connection will mean the company can offer a better service for its customers. (Steve Gold/19950428/Press & Reader Contact: Portable Add-Ons, tel +44-1483-440777, fax +44-1483-452302, Internet e-mail cbrooks@portable.co.uk) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 05/01/95 TELECOM UK - PCN Operator Cuts Phone Prices (NEWS)(TELECOM)(LON)(00006) UK - PCN Operator Cuts Phone Prices 05/01/95 BRISTOL, AVON, ENGLAND, 1995 MAY 1 (NB) -- Hutchison Orange has both pleased and upset its customers. On the good side the company has slashed the cost of its Motorola Flip phone, the MR1, from UKP 149.99 to just UKP 99.99, making the MR1 the cheapest PCN (digital cellular) unit on the market. The slightly bad news is that Orange has announced plans to double the five pence per SMS (Short Message Service) text message sent via its network's integral text paging service. According to Lisa Gernon, Orange's group director of marketing, the new price point for the MR1 makes the phone the best value digital mobile around at the moment. "The new price for the MR1 precedes our Spring advertising campaign," she said. "It means that more people can now benefit from the advantages of a secure digital network, with much lower and fairer running costs as well." However, Orange's existing subscribers may not be as pleased as new subscribers buying into the network with the newly price reduced MR1 phone. Subscribers using the SMS two-way paging text service have been contacted by the company via mail and advised that Orange is introducing a per message charge from later this month. Ever since launching its network last year, Orange has charged UKP10 sign-up and UKP2 per month rental for the SMS facility. A per message charge of five pence (8 cents) was never invoked, however, because of early unreliability of the text messaging service. Now that SMS is reliable, Orange is invoking the charge, but has advised its subscribers that the per message charge is going to be 10 pence (16 cents a message). The announcement has caused something of a stir in the Orange user community, with many users on the Internet who subscribe to Orange vowing to cease subscribing to SMS. Users contend that, at 10 pence per SMS, it is quicker and cheaper simply to make a brief voice call to the person on the Orange network to whom they would have sent an SMS text message. Several users are incensed that they have signed up to SMS in the past few weeks, only to see the free trial service start charging -- at double the priced rates in the price list. One group of users are planning to lodge a mass complaint to Orange over the price increase. Other users have said publicly that an appeal to Orange is pointless, and that they will vote with their wallets and purses, resigning the SMS text facility. Orange, meanwhile, is making no comment on the SMS price increase. (Steve Gold/19950428/Press Contact: Paragon Communications, tel +44-171-734-6030, fax +44-171-437-6085) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 05/01/95 IBM IBM Opens European Marketing/Technical Center (NEWS)(IBM)(LON)(00007) IBM Opens European Marketing/Technical Center 05/01/95 WINCHESTER, ENGLAND, 1995 MAY 1 (NB) -- IBM has opened a new Pan- European distributed computing environment (DCE) marketing and technical support center for its customers and independent software vendors (ISVs). According to Steve Solazzo, Big Blue's general manager for client/server computing, the center is located at Hursley Park near Winchester, an existing IBM site and aims to help users and ISVs effectively implement DCE technology. Plans call for the new center to work closely with IBM's several Open Systems Centers around Europe and will be focal referral point for IBM for anyone requiring education, technical assistance, testing and support at any stage of Client/Server DCE implementation, across all IBM and several non-IBM platforms. Amongst the servers offered by the center will be a continuously updated list of ISVs who are enabling, or who have already enabled, their products for DCE. Solazzo said that IBM is committed to helping customers solve the problems of distributing computing. "DCE is a key part of IBM's Open Blueprint which provides a standards-based architecture for the incorporation of technologies into a distributed network environment," he said. DCE is a technology licensed from the Open Software Foundation (OSF) and is a set of open programming interfaces which enables development and runtime environments for distributed systems, Newsbytes notes. In essence, DCE makes it easier for users anywhere to locate, access and use information held on computer. (Steve Gold/19950428/Press Contact: Kevin Perlmutter, +44-1705- 563802; Reader Contact: IBM Portsmouth UK Ops, tel +44-1705-561780, fax +44-1705-2385081) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 05/01/95 PC Gateway To Bundle Faxworks With PCs (NEWS)(PC)(DEN)(00008) Gateway To Bundle Faxworks With PCs 05/01/95 NORTH SIOUX CITY, SOUTH DAKOTA, U.S.A., 1995 MAY 1 (NB) -- Gateway 2000 has announced it will bundle Global Village's (NASDAQ: GVIL) Faxworks Voice 3.0 software for Windows with each Gateway 2000 Desktop equipped with a voice modem. In addition to sending and receiving data and faxes, Faxworks Voice 3.0 also offers voice-mail, fax-on-demand, and remote message retrieval capabilities. Each Faxworks Voice mailbox can be assigned specific personalized greetings recorded by the user. Pre-recorded voice prompts can also be activated. Voice calls and faxes can be saved to, then later deleted from a recipient's mailbox. The user assigns a label to each message for easier retrieval. Faxworks voice also allows faxes to be attached to voice-mail messages. The caller follows voice prompts to link a fax to the message, and the recipient is alerted that there is a fax associated with the message when he or she checks their mailbox. Messages and faxes can also be retrieved while you are away from your PC using the software's remote message retrieval feature that lets you get messages through a touch-tone phone. Users away from the office can change the fax forwarding number as they change location, and fax forwarding can be enabled or disabled remotely. The voice greetings can also be changed while you are away from your PC, and the system can be set up to notify the user via pager that messages are waiting. Faxworks Voice allows the user to add signatures and graphic images to outgoing faxes. You can view thumbnail images of received faxes and a personal phone book that lists voice and fax numbers is provided. A gray scale image enhancement feature can sharpen the image of received faxes so they can be more easily read on-screen if a printer is not available. FaxWorks Voice 3.0 has terminal emulation capabilities for communicating with other systems, host mode for remote dial-in, and a number of data transfer protocols. Gateway 2000 said it has finished the first quarter of 1995, which ended March 31, 1995, with a net income increase of 52 percent over the same quarter last year. Quarterly revenues grew 26 percent over 1994 to $776 million and earnings per share for the quarter were $0.49. Unit shipments also increased markedly. Gateway said it shipped nearly 300,000 units in the first quarter. That is a jump of 26 percent over the first quarter of 1994. The company said it is still experiencing component shortages and expects that problem to continue into the second quarter. Company shareholders will gather for their annual meeting at 9:00am on May 19 at the Sioux city Convention Center in Sioux city, Iowa. (Jim Mallory/19950428/Press contact: Laura Barnoski, The Bohle Company for Global Village, 310-785-0515 or Michelle Gjerde, Gateway 2000, 605-232-2253) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 05/01/95 HEALTH American Cancer Society Forum On America Online (NEWS)(HEALTH)(MSP)(00009) American Cancer Society Forum On America Online 05/01/95 VIENNA, VIRGINIA, U.S.A., 1995 MAY 1 (NB) -- The American Cancer Society said it has launched an online forum on America Online (NASDAQ-NNM:AMER) to provide information on the "incidence, prevention, diagnosis, and treatment of cancer." The online forum is a part of the "Health ResponseAbility Systems' Better Health & Medical Forum" on AOL, and can be found at keyword: ACS. When Newsbytes entered the area, we found features like a Health and Medical chat, a software library, and files on subjects such as cancer risk factors and prevention, early detection tips, and research highlights. "The area will help communicate news and up-to-the minute findings to those who need the information," Margaret Ryan, AOL spokesperson, told Newsbytes. "It's for people living with cancer, and their loved ones. It's not only a place for information, but its a place where members can find support." This year alone, it is estimated about 1.25 million new cancer cases will be diagnosed. Some researchers claim that if everything known about the prevention of cancer was applied, up to two-thirds of cancer could prevented. Derrick Wheeler, vice president of the American Cancer Society's Information Center, told Newsbytes "For the American Cancer Society, (the area) is a chance to reach a large audience of very knowledgeable people, so they can access information at the time when they need it." Wheeler also said the Society is starting to expand its information offerings to the public. As he put it, there's "more to come." (Bob Woods/19950428/Press Contacts: Margaret Ryan, America Online, 703-883-1625; Derrick Wheeler, American Cancer Society, 404-329- 7931; Public Contact: America Online, 800-827-6364 indicate promotion code 6751; America Cancer Society Forum on AOL: keyword ACS) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 05/01/95 PC Tatung's New All-In-One Desktop PC Design (NEWS)(PC)(SFO)(00010) Tatung's New All-In-One Desktop PC Design 05/01/95 LONG BEACH, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1995 MAY 1 (NB) -- Tatung Company of America has announced a new computer design for 486 and Pentium-based computers called the "All-In-One" Personal Computer (PC). The All-In-One has a single cabinet with processing components, monitor, and speakers built-in. Tatung's All-In-One concept also includes a built-in TV (television) card and a dual-speed or quad-speed CD-ROM drive. Known as the TMP9000 line, All-in-one is being offered in five different configurations based on processors starting with a 486DX2 at the entry-level and a Pentium 100 megahertz (MHz) on the high end. Both the CD and the TV may be used separately without booting the computer. This means that users who wish to play an audio CD or watch regular television programming may go directly to these features without entering DOS or Windows. The television feature is controlled by a remote control which also allows the user to move from audio CD functions to the television feature. With the use of Windows drivers, a user has additional television features such as capture, pause, scaleable Windows sizing, full screen viewing and channel scanning. The video support includes NTSC (North American Television Standards Committee), American, NTSC Japan, PAL B/G, and I specifications. Standard input/output connections are provided and the system is upgradable to Motion Picture Experts Group (MPEG) standards. The TMP9000 models come with 16-bit sound built onto the Riser card, freeing up an additional expansion slot. The 486 models have a 14-inch monitor and the Pentium models are shipped with a 15-inch monitor. Communication and connectivity is handled by a built-in 14.4 kilobits-per-second (Kbps), fax/data/voice modem. The voice function allows the TMP9000 to answer a telephone and take messages. A spokesperson for the company told Newsbytes, "The All-In-One series is a compliment to Tatung's entry built-to-order PC program. Together they represent the company's first entry into the PC business. We have been well know for our monitors and a broad range of consumer electronic products. We think the All-In-One concept is perfect for home use, students, especially those in a dorm and small offices and home offices. Actually, anywhere a user is concerned with a limited amount of workspace." Pricing for the TMP9000 family of computer/TVs starts at $1,800. All models are shipped with eight megabytes (MB) of RAM (expandable) and a 540MB hard drive. They have a Cirrus Logic Local Bus Video Controller, three expansion slots -- one ISA (Industry Standard Architecture), one PC and one ISA/PCI (Peripheral Component Interconnect) -- a 3.5-inch floppy drive and three half-height available cabinet cavities. Tatung says the first models of the All-In-One will begin shipping in September. (Patrick McKenna/19950428/Press Contact: Tsai-ling Shyu, Interactive Public Relations, 415-703-0400; Public Information: Tatung, 310-637-2105 or 800-829-2850) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 05/01/95 ONLINE Spry Ships 1 Million Commercial "Mosaic Direct" Disks (NEWS)(ONLINE)(SFO)(00011) Spry Ships 1 Million Commercial "Mosaic Direct" Disks 05/01/95 SEATTLE, WASHINGTON, U.S.A, 1995 MAY 1 (NB) -- Earlier this year, Spry began its Mosaic Direct program which provides companies with a customized Mosaic disks for directing customers to specific World Wide Web (Web) sites. The company now says it has shipped more than one million of the Mosaic Direct disks and announced affiliation with 24 corporations and professional publishers. The list of participating companies includes Hilton Hotels, Time Warner Electronic Publishing, USA Today, DELLware, McGraw Hill, and Starwave/ESPN. The Mosaic Direct program is designed for companies who are already on the Web and need marketing tools to increase the number of customers accessing the Web site. The custom disks may be shipped direct to customers and potential customers on a mailing list, enclosed in a magazine advertisement, bundled with a company's product and offered direct through telephone or in-person contacts. A Mosaic Direct disk has special "hotlists" and installation/text screens, so the customer is defaulted directly to a specific company's homepage. Said a spokesperson for the company: "From more than 66 million Windows users, the Web is attracting less than 10%. We estimate there are six million people using the Web at this time. It is crucial for corporations to attract more customers to the Web and our Mosaic Direct program is establishing itself as a very successful means to do that." Paul Bonington, the publisher of MecklerMedia's Internet World and WebWeek magazines, is quoted as saying more than 4,000 new users came to the Web in one month through the MecklerMedia's use of the Direct Mosaic program. (Patrick McKenna/1995/Press Contact: Deanna Long, Spry, 206-442-8231; Public Information: Spry, 206-447-9008 or 800-777-9638) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 05/01/95 TELECOM China - Motorola & Panda In Pager Deal (NEWS)(TELECOM)(PEK)(00012) China - Motorola & Panda In Pager Deal 05/01/95 04/27/95 BEIJING, CHINA, 1995 MAY 1 (NB) -- Motorola will link up with Panda, a major Chinese electronics company, to produce mobile telecommunication equipment. As a result, 500,000 pagers labeled "Panda by Motorola" will be on the Chinese market this year. Panda Group in Nanjing, Jiangsu Province, is one of China's top electronics companies producing a variety of home electronics and telecommunication equipment. Under terms of the deal, new "Panda by Motorola" pagers will appear on the market this year, while next year, the two companies will set up a joint venture in Nanjing to produce pagers using "Panda" as their trademark. Because of the rapid development of the economy and the shortage of regular telephone lines, China's mobile telecommunications market is expanding greatly. According to a report by China Information, the number of pager users in China has reached 15 million. However, the Chinese telecommunications market is dominated by foreign companies such as Motorola and NEC. Besides cooperating with Panda, Motorola also produces pagers, cellular phones and semiconductor products in Tianjin. Motorola's revenue in China reached $1.6 billion last year, reportedly about seven percent of its total revenue worldwide. (Chih-Ho Yu & Ning Huang/19950501) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 05/01/95 GENERAL Hong Kong - Sequent Expands Services (NEWS)(GENERAL)(HKG)(00013) Hong Kong - Sequent Expands Services 05/01/95 CENTRAL, HONG KONG, 1995 MAY 1 (NB) -- Sequent Computer Systems Inc. has introduced a range of new and enhanced professional services designed to significantly extend its high-availability products for users of very large databases. The new professional services include "Availability Assessment," "High Availability Competency Center," and "Data Center Management." These integrated services help customers assess, design, install, monitor, and support highly available open systems environments for mission-critical applications requiring near-continuous operation, according to the company. "High availability demands more than shrink-wrapped solutions," said Mark James, director of Sequent's Asia Pacific Field Marketing. "It requires a complex combination of products integrated to work together and people trained to follow specific procedures developed with availability in mind." The new Availability Assessment service reportedly helps customers understand what they must do to achieve high availability. Sequent consultants work with organizations to analyze their business needs, goals, and systems availability requirements. All business aspects that can affect availability are evaluated, including personnel training and procedures, and the technology deployed. The entire customer system, including databases, applications, and end-user environments are evaluated and a recommendation report is provided. The Availability Assessment service is "priced according to project requirements," and will be available in the third quarter of 1995. Sequent has also established a High-Availability Competency Center, based on its experience in implementing highly-available production environments for very large database customers. "In the Center, leading technology and major products are integrated and optimized in a highly available production environment," said James. "This advance work provides Sequent customers with fast, smooth and successful installations and effective high-availability solutions." In addition, Sequent is introducing a Data Center Rapid Start program designed to help large commercial customers implement open systems quickly. The program includes a framework for the policies, procedures, and tools necessary in a Unix data center, as well as consulting services to help customers put them in place. Included are guidelines for staffing, security, disaster recovery, capacity planning, help desk operations, service level agreements, and change management. A consulting team consisting of a project manager, data center manager, system administrator, and database administrator is formed to be responsible for implementing the data center policies, procedures, and tools, and customizing them to meet individual customer needs. The Data Center Rapid Start program takes four to six months to implement. It will be available from the second quarter of 1995, with pricing starting at around US$162,800. (Keith Cameron/10050501) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 05/01/95 NETWORK India - Cisco Intros Switched Internetworking (NEWS)(NETWORK)(DEL)(00014) India - Cisco Intros Switched Internetworking 05/01/95 NEW DELHI, INDIA, 1995 MAY 1 (NB) -- Recognizing India's networking market as "the fastest growing in the world," Cisco Systems Inc. has launched its switch and asynchronous transfer mode (ATM)-based local area network products in India, first among the Asian countries. This new family of switching platforms -- covering both Ethernet and Token Ring -- was premiered at the recent Interop show in the US, two weeks before the Indian launch. According to the US-based market analyst Gartner Group, Cisco currently dominates the router market with a 52 percent market share and the LAN (local area network) switching market with 31.5 percent. 3Com and Bay Networks (Synopsis and Wellfleet merged) come second and third, respectively. Growing from an estimated worldwide market of $90 million in 1993, the LAN switching segment is expected to reach $600 million this year, and $1 billion by 1996. William Messer, Cisco's managing director of Asian operations told Computers Today: "If a LAN works at 10 megabits-per-second (Mbps), and if there are 10 users, the bandwidth comes down to 1Mbps. But for applications like multimedia, videoconferencing and larger file transfers, one needs more bandwidth. As a result, hubbing technology is giving way to a switching one." He continued: "With dedicated switching and, soon, ATM on the desktop, the switchover from shared-media networking to switching-based end-to-end LANs is imminent, and 150Mbps will soon be available." The multi-layer modular switch Catalyst 5000 of Cisco embraces switching technologies like switched Ethernet, 100Base-T Fast Ethernet, Token Ring, ATM, or FDDI (fiber distributed data interface), and costs between $15,000 for Ethernet to $50,000 for the ATM platform. The new Kalpana ProStack system, based around the EtherSwitch Pro16 that supports 10Mbps, 100Mbps, and 155Mbps connections, will cost $7,000 to $20,000 depending on the model. The Catalyst 1600 stand-alone Token Ring switch that can support up to 12 switched Token Ring ports, has a tag of $18,000. The Cisco 7000 router series Fast Ethernet Interface Processor (FEIP) that allows communications at speeds of 100Mbps with network devices like switches, servers and other routers, will cost $11,000 with a single 100Base-T switch, and $15,000 with two switches. The delivery of transport and protocol management and media switching products will begin in July, said Anil Batra, Cisco's country manager for India and South Asia. Only the Catalyst 5000 Token Ring module that will extend the capabilities of the Catalyst 5000 to the wiring closet Token Ring environments is expected to be shipped in the first quarter of 1996. To strengthen its presence in India, Cisco has recently opened a liaison office in the country. The office coordinates the sales and support through its four distributors: ICIM Datacraft Ltd., Microland Ltd., Tata Unisys Ltd., and UB Networks Ltd. While the company does not want to set up any more manufacturing facility outside the US, it is scouting for partners in India to develop software for internetworking products. Batra is also busy setting up new branch offices, and adding to its reseller list. (C.T. Mahabharat/19950501) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 05/01/95 WINDOWS Delrina Previews Echo Lake For Windows (NEWS)(WINDOWS)(BOS)(00015) Delrina Previews Echo Lake For Windows 05/01/95 NEW YORK, NEW YORK, U.S.A., 1995 MAY 1 (NB) -- Delrina expects to introduce a Macintosh version of Echo Lake this fall, revealed Meredith Mansfield, a company spokesperson, during a sneak preview of the Windows version of the new multimedia software for "family communications," conducted for Newsbytes in New York City. Like a multimedia "photo album," the new software is designed to let users of all ages contribute and share "memories" in the form of text, Photo-CD photographs, scanned-in drawings, and audio and video clips, according to Mansfield. Elementary school children will use the product to create multimedia journals of a day's activities or a trip to summer camp, and grandparents to record "histories of their lives" as legacies for future generations, said Mansfield. Moms and Dads will employ the product to send children's writings and artwork, along with family photos, to far away relatives, she added. The package comes with free run-time software that allows a story to be played back even without Echo Lake installed on the PC. But although families are the primary target, Echo Lake is also aimed at schools, hobby clubs, and other organizations interested in creating stories and capturing history, according to the Delrina spokesperson. In a demo, Mansfield showed Newsbytes how Echo Lake is organized around metaphors like "The Den," "The Desktop," and "The Tree Ring." From The Den, she said, members of the family or other group can create and arrange their own books, opening a book by dragging and dropping it from the bookshelf to The Desktop, or just by clicking on the book. To see the name of a book, you place the cursor right above the book, she told Newsbytes. If you want to "hide" a book, you can move it to a safe behind a picture on the rear wall of The Den, setting your own password for added security. The style of picture frame is user selectable. The Tree Ring, on the other hand, represents all the years of your life, with the year you were born in the center, and the present time at the outer edge of the ring. The Tree Ring is further divided -- like slices of a pie -- into sections for Family, Home, Friends, Education, Livelihood, Leisure, Travel, Special, and Personal. Mansfield demonstrated how you can click on buttons above the ring to get an "overview by date" or an "overview by category," and how you can grab a digital calendar in the upper right-hand corner of The Desktop to quickly move to another date, with "fuzzy dates" like "the early sixties" or "Spring 1988" permissible. Many elements of The Desktop interface are carried from screen to screen throughout the program, according to Mansfield. Regardless of where you are, you can always use the calendar to move to a different date, and you can always click on a "New Story" button to start telling a new multimedia tale, for example. A "Media Drawer" is always on hand for adding and accessing digitally captured photos, sounds, and images, and so is a "ViewMatic" device for storing media until needed later on. You can always throw unwanted materials away by stuffing them down the Trash Chute. Also perpetually present from the Desktop is the Snoglobe, which represents the city where you were living at any given point in time. By changing the date on the calendar, you can change the name displayed on the Snoglobe, as well. A set of utility buttons on the upper left-hand corner of the Desktop lets you perform such tasks as "spell check," "search," "save," "quit," "copy," "paste," "undo," and print out books in full color, according to Mansfield. Mansfield also showed Newsbytes several other story telling aids in Echo Lake: SnapForms is a set of pre-formatted forms, accessible through the Pages Drawer; The Inspirator helps you move backward through time via historical prompts; Blast from the Past features trivia questions; and Real Life Interviews ask you questions such as, "Who was your first best friend?" and "Are they still your best friend today? Why or why not?" In the CD-ROM edition of the upcoming product, the Inspirator also contains more than 250 photos and 30 minutes of historic video clips, according to Mansfield. Other media such as 250 clip-art files and a selection of audio files are available elsewhere in the CD-ROM program. Echo Lake for Windows is slated to ship at the end of May, Mansfield said. The product will be priced at $49.95 for a floppy diskette edition and $59.95 on CD-ROM. (Jacqueline Emigh/19950428/Reader Contact: Delrina, 408-363-2345; Heather Sherman, Delrina, 416-441-2778; Meredith Mansfield, Connors Communications for Delrina, 212-995-2200) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 05/01/95 TELECOM Mass. Telecom Council To Host Investor Conference (NEWS)(TELECOM)(BOS)(00016) Mass. Telecom Council To Host Investor Conference 05/01/95 BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS, U.S.A., 1995 MAY 1 (NB) -- The Massachusetts Telecommunications Council will host its second annual Investor Conference on June 1 in Boston, with Paul Severino, the chair of both Bay Networks and the council's Commonwealth Exchange Committee, and two US congressmen, Rep. Edward Markey and Rep. Jack Fields, as scheduled speakers. "The conference is a `one-stop forum' where investment firms can learn about telecommunications companies in Massachusetts. Since so many of the major companies are located here, it's like introducing the leaders of the telecom world," maintained Katherine Raphaelson, executive director for the council, in an interview with Newsbytes. A total of 19 private telecom companies and 20 public companies will be on hand at the event, up from last year's tally of 16 companies each for the private and public sides, Raphaelson said. This year's 500-or-so expected attendees will also gain access to "all the key telecommunications industry analysts," added the executive director. Severino will deliver a breakfast presentation on the Commonwealth Exchange Committee's efforts to assist regional organizations to collaborate, share information, recruit personnel, and eventually, to conduct business over the Internet. The committee was established by the council's board of governors to investigate the role that the council and its members could play in a Massachusetts national information infrastructure (NII), according to Raphaelson. Rep. Markey of Massachusetts, a member of the House Subcommittee on Telecommunications and Finance, has invited Rep. Fields of Texas, chair of the subcommittee, to join him in a keynote luncheon address. The two US congressmen have worked closely together on major bills and federal policy affecting the telecommunications industry, Raphaelson reported. Also at the all-day Investor Conference, telecommunications company presentations will be delivered in morning and afternoon sessions. Public telecom companies slated to be present at this year's conference include: Alpha Industries; Arch Communications; Banyan Systems; Bay Networks; Bolt, Beranek and Newman (BBN); Boston Technology; Brooktrout Technology; Cabletron Systems; Cascade Communications; Chipcom Corporation; CrossComm; Dynatech; Microcom; Natural MicroSystems; PictureTel; Proteon; Shiva; Summa Four; Telco Systems; and Xylogics. Private telecom companies expected to appear include: Agile Networks; Amber Wave; Amulet Software; Aurora Systems; Check Point Software Technologies; Geotel Communications; Hammer Technologies; HomeNet Corporation; InStream Corporation; LANCity Corporation; Maker Communications; Multilink; Nashoba Networks; Net2Net Corporation; Priority Call Management; Steinbrecher Corporation; US Telecenters; VideoGuide; and Wildfire Communications. Sponsors of the 1995 Investors Council include: Battery Ventures, a Boston-based venture capital partnership; the Hale and Dorr law firm; the Tucker Anthony/Hancock investment banking firm; and Coopers and Lybrand L.L.P. The Technology Capital Network at MIT, the Venture-Preneurs Network, and the MIT Enterprise Forum are also providing support to the event. The conference fee is $225. Members of the Massachusetts Telecommunications Council may each send one representative free of charge. May 18 is the registration deadline. (Jacqueline Emigh/19950501/Reader Contact: Massachusetts Telecommunications Council, 617-439-8600; Press Contact: Craig Librett, Miller Communications for the Massachusetts Telecommunications Council, 617-536-0470) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 05/01/95 GENERAL Canadian Product Launch Update (NEWS)(GENERAL)(TOR)(00017) Canadian Product Launch Update 05/01/95 KINGSTON, ONTARIO, CANADA, 1995 MAY 1 (NB) -- This regular feature, appearing on the first day Newsbytes publishes each week, provides further details for the Canadian market on announcements by international companies that Newsbytes has already covered. This week: Microsoft Flight Simulator 5.1 and Oracle7 Workgroup Server for Unix. Microsoft Canada Inc., of Mississauga, Ontario, unveiled Flight Simulator 5.1 (Newsbytes, Jan. 9), at the Aviation Show at Toronto's Pearson International Airport. Expected to be available in Canada in June, Flight Simulator 5.1 will be offered for the first time on CD-ROM as well as on diskette. Microsoft Canada did not announce pricing. Oracle Corp. Canada, of Mississauga, Ontario, announced Oracle7 Workgroup Server for Unix (Newsbytes, April 4), extending its database technology to low-end Unix servers based on Intel Corp. processors. Available now on Sun Microsystems Inc. Solaris x86 Application Server, Santa Cruz Operation Inc., and Novell Inc. UnixWare systems, the software costs C$279 per server access and C$139 per client, with a five-client minimum. (Grant Buckler/19950501/Press Contact: George Kyriakis, Microsoft Canada, 905-568-0434 ext 4094; Jeff Pape, Oracle Canada, 905-890-8100; Public Contact: Microsoft Canada, tel 905-568-0434, fax 905-568-1527) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 05/01/95 EDUCATION Global Tutoring Via Internet Planned (NEWS)(EDUCATION)(TOR)(00018) Global Tutoring Via Internet Planned 05/01/95 TORONTO, ONTARIO, CANADA, 1995 MAY 1 (NB) -- An Internet project now being organized would provide tutoring in many subjects to students around the world via the Internet. International Tutors is to be a non-profit effort relying partly on volunteers and seeking to make tutoring services available to anyone who needs them. Michael Berns, a graduate student in history and philosophy of education at the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education, is executive director of the project. He told Newsbytes that International Tutors is in the formative stage now, and is meant to begin operations in September of this year. Both volunteer and paid tutors will offer their services over the Internet. They will charge fees -- probably in the US$10 to US$40 range -- of which 20 percent will go to International Tutors to pay operating and project costs. The group plans to offer bursaries to cover evaluation and tutoring costs for students whose families pass a "needs" test. Berns believes the service can be made accessible to anyone who wants to use it, including people who do not own and cannot afford computers, through mechanisms such as local Free-Nets and Internet access terminals in public libraries. International Tutors plans to offer students information to help them obtain such free access if they need it. International Tutors' working language will be English initially, Berns said, but the group will eventually offer global tutoring in several languages. The curriculum is still being developed. Berns said he would prefer to start with a small number of core subjects, but build eventually to offer a wide range. A committee is being created to work out evaluation and performance guidelines for tutors. To date, Berns said, International Tutors has not received any funding or been granted status as a charitable organization, but once charitable status is obtained and suitable funding sources found, the organization will hire a small administrative staff. Once that is done, International Tutors will start signing contracts with tutors and students, he said. Two discussion lists, called "tutor-1" and "tutor-announce-1," have been set up to publicize and discuss the project. (Grant Buckler/19950501/Press Contact: Michael Berns, Ontario Institute for Studies in Education, Internet e-mail mberns@oise.on.ca; Public Contact: International Tutors, Internet World Wide Web http://edie.cprost.sfu.ca/it) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 05/01/95 GENERAL Software Aids Speech, Letter Writing (NEWS)(GENERAL)(DEN)(00019) Software Aids Speech, Letter Writing 05/01/95 AUSTIN, TEXAS, U.S.A., 1995 MAY 1 (NB) -- ModelOffice, an Austin, Texas-based company has released three software products that offer more than 850 ready-to-use memos, business and sales letters, and speeches that the user can customize to fit their own needs. ModelOffice's Model BusinessLetters, Model SalesLetters and ModelSpeeches, are collections of documents developed over 20 years by Dianna Booher, a business communicating specialist and author of books on communicating in business. A company spokesperson told Newsbytes the software can "make anyone sound like a skilled writer." Each of the ModelOffice programs includes its own database of documents, a word processor and spelling checker. The user can cut and paste between documents. Model BusinessLetters includes more than 400 ready-to-use letters and memos, many of them based on the original internal and external correspondence of Fortune 500 executives, claims the company. Topics of the templates range from employee termination to credit rejection, vendor relations and communications with customers. Model SalesLetters comes with over 300 letters covering subjects that include approaching new prospects, closing a sale, increasing sales to current clients, and motivating your sales staff. ModelOffice says ModelSpeeches is the only product of its kind devoted to the spoken word. Included are speeches, introductions and toasts ranging from tributes to eulogies and formal stockholder presentations. The contents of the package are categorized by audience, message, tone, and duration to make it easier to pick the right speech for your purposes. ModelSpeeches includes alternate phrases to address personal preferences, and also offers alternative openings and closing so you can use the same basic speech more than once without it sounding the same. Each database can be searched by category and subcategory, keyword or key phrase, and you can store customized templates for reuse. ModelOffice software is sold as dual-platform products for either the Macintosh or Windows-based PCs. Mac users need System 7 or higher while Windows users need Windows 3.1 or higher. A VGA or higher monitor is required for a PC. Most printers are supported. Model BusinessLetters and SalesLetters each have a suggested retail price of $69. ModelSpeeches carries an $89 price tag. The company also markets Model PersonalLetters, 400 ready-to-use letters, greetings and notes covering topics like apologies, complaints, condolences, congratulations, credit issues, and inquiries. PersonalLetters has a suggested retail price of $59. (Jim Mallory/19950501/Press contact: Lauren Finkelman, S&S Public Relations for ModelOffice, 708-291-1616; Public contact: Modeloffice, 512-302-3888 or 800-801-3880) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 05/01/95 ONLINE Internet Update (NEWS)(ONLINE)(TYO)(00020) Internet Update 05/01/95 TOKYO, JAPAN, 1995 MAY 1 (NB) -- In this roundup of what's new on the Internet: More Windows 95 news; Top ten Hubble images available; Index to Australian Internet information; Secure POTP/FTP software demo online; New Windows newsreader software; Microsoft library debuts; Free stock quotes; New version of HMTLCon; Canadian government information search engine. More Windows 95 News A new World Wide Web page devoted to news and information about the new Windows 95 operating system is now available. The page brings together news and collects Windows 95 shareware and freeware software resources from across the Internet. World Wide Web: http://biology.queensu.ca/~jonesp/ Top Ten Hubble Images Available On the fifth anniversary of the Hubble space telescope launch, NASA has made available the best of the satellite's images via a special fifth anniversary World Wide Web page. The images are stored in GIF, JPEG and TIFF formats. World Wide Web: http://www.stsci.edu/pubinfo/BestOfHST95.html Anonymous FTP : ftp://ftp.stsci.edu/pubinfo/ Index To Australian Internet Information A Web page that attempts to index Australian related services and information on the Internet is available. As well as a comprehensive list of Australian Web pages, users will also find an index to government information resources, mailing lists, newsgroups, and Internet service providers. World Wide Web http://www.telstra.com.au/meta/australia.html Secure POTP/FTP Software Demo Online A demo version of POTP Secure FTP is now available from the Internet. The software, which retains 100% compatibility with conventional FTP (File Transfer Protocol) protocols, implements One-Time-Pad encryption. When a POTP secure client and server connect, they create a fully secure connection between each other across the Internet. The demo version will remain operational for one month. World Wide Web: http://www.elementrix.co.il/. Anonymous FTP: ftp://ftp.elementrix.co.il/pub/secftp/secftp1.zip New Windows Newsreader Software Just uploaded to the SimTel archive is QNews, a Windows newsreader for systems running on Winsock. The software comes with an impressive list of features and, according to the developers, is especially optimized for use on slow PPP and SLIP connections. The software requires an NNTP newsserver and an optional SMTP mailserver. Anonymous FTP: ftp://oak.oakland.edu/SimTel/win3/winsock/qn09b3.zip Microsoft Library Debuts The Microsoft library is a World Wide Web page primarily designed for Microsoft employees to provide them with more information relevant to their business concerns. The site is basically an index to information available on the Internet, although it does restrict itself to mostly good sources. Microsoft also notes that the service contains information about Microsoft that is not available through their main home page. World Wide Web: http://library.microsoft.com/ Free Stock Quotes PC Quote, a provider of stock price information to newspapers and online services, is now providing free stock quotes via the World Wide Web. World Wide Web: http://www.spacecom.com/Participants/pcquote New Version Of HTMLCon HTMLCon is an MS-DOS utility that converts HTML (hypertext markup language) files to plain ASCII text for viewing in a word processor. It accomplishes this by basically stripping all the hypertext tags out of the file. Version 1.7 is now available. Anonymous FTP: ftp://ftp.crl.com/ftp/users/ro/mikekell/ftp/htmlco17.zip Canadian Government Information Search Engine Information from the Canadian government on the Internet has become easier to find with the debut of Champlain, an online index to the subject. Champlain allows users to search over 50 sites using keywords before it returns a hypertext document of the search results. World Wide Web: http://info.ic.gc.ca/champlain/champlain.html (Martyn Williams/19950501) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 05/01/95 NETWORK New Compaq Monitors Can Identify Themselves (NEWS)(NETWORK)(DEN)(00021) New Compaq Monitors Can Identify Themselves 05/01/95 HOUSTON, TEXAS, U.S.A., 1995 MAY 1 (NB) -- Compaq Computer Corp. (NYSE:CPQ) has introduced two new monitors that, not only display your work, but also talk to network administrators. #IMAGE 1 20 TWPCX \images\95050121.PCX Click here for photo The Compaq 140 Color and Compaq 150 Color monitors are equipped with Assetcontrol, part of Compaq's Intelligent Manageability. Assetcontrol automatically tracks serial numbers, hardware, firmware and software driver version updates and makes that information available at the PC or remotely over the network to help administrators track network assets. Compaq said remote support will be possible when Microsoft ships its Windows 95 operating system. That is currently scheduled for August. The 140 model has a viewing area measuring 12.9-inches diagonally, while the 150 viewing area measures 13.8-inches. Both units meet the requirements for Energy Star designation of power savings and offer 1,024 by 768 non-interlaced resolution at a .28 millimeters (mm) dot pitch. Non-interlaced monitors scan every line each time the screen is re-drawn. Interlaced monitors scan every other line first then scan the remaining half of the lines to redraw the screen. Non-interlaced monitors are considered to have less flicker but usually have a slightly higher price. Compaq spokesperson Rebecca Nahas told Newsbytes the Model 140 has a street price of about $318, while the larger 150 is expected to sell for about $411 (Jim Mallory/19950501/Press contact: Compaq Public Relations, 713-374-0484; Public contact: Compaq, tel 713-374-1459 or 800-345-1518, fax 713-374-4583/COMCOLOR950501/PHOTO) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 05/01/95 GOVT US Warns Countries On Intellectual Property (NEWS)(GOVT)(WAS)(00022) US Warns Countries On Intellectual Property 05/01/95 WASHINGTON, D.C., U.S.A., 1995 MAY 1 (NB) -- US Trade Representative Mickey Kantor, in his annual report on international intellectual property protection, on Saturday put eight countries on the "priority watch list" but refused to start trade sanctions against any nation. Kantor put Brazil, Greece, Japan, Saudi Arabia, Turkey, Indian, South Korea, and the 15-nation European Union on the watch list and said they will all face special reviews, known as "out-of-cycle" reviews, in the coming year "to ensure that pressure is maintained" to improve performance, the administration said. In a statement announcing the action, Kantor said that if countries do not show progress, "I will not hesitate" to bring a trade sanctions case. US trade law requires the White House to make an annual review by April 30 of each year of foreign practices involving protection of US copyrights, patents, and trademarks. Kantor put Japan on this year's priority list in order to put pressure on Tokyo to improve its patent laws. Brazil, which was dropped from last year's priority list, was returned because of failure to enact copyright reforms. The US put the European Union on the list because of a broadcast directive that limits the number of US television programs seen in Europe. Greece has permitted widespread copying of US films and music, according to Kantor. South Korea was kept on the list because of its high rate of computer piracy. "Software piracy rates in Korea are high," said Robert Holleyman, president of the Business Software Alliance, a Washington software trade group, "reaching 78 percent, with losses to US publishers pegged at more than $313 million annually." Holleyman also praised the decision to push out-of-cycle reviews. He said this is "a move which will go a long way towards effecting positive, specific changes in nations that lack adequate protection for intellectual property." The action also won praise from videogame maker Nintendo. "The actions taken today by the USTR will help prevent the sale of counterfeit videogame products, which last year cost Nintendo, its third-party publishers and game developers an estimated $1.8 to $2.5 billion in lost sales worldwide," said Lynn Hvalsoe, Nintendo general counsel. (Kennedy Maize/19950501/Press Contacts: Kim Willard, BSA, 202-872-5500; Lynn Hvalsoe, Nintendo, 206-882-2040) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 05/01/95 GOVT White House Starts 2-Week Online Public Meeting (NEWS)(GOVT)(WAS)(00023) White House Starts 2-Week Online Public Meeting 05/01/95 WASHINGTON, D.C., U.S.A., 1995 MAY 1 (NB) -- Welcome to the virtual town hall. The White House is running a two-week long public interactive meeting to discover what government information and services people want to receive through computer networks. The National Electronic Open Meeting, an idea that emerged from Vice President Al Gore's "Reinventing Government" office, began this morning and will run continuously to midnight May 14. The electronic gathering, run by the Office of Management and Budget, will focus on five areas, each moderated by an expert. The hosts have prepared topic papers on their areas, which are available for downloading. Gore and Commerce Secretary Ron Brown are both expected to go online as well. The five topics are: benefits that can be offered electronically, such as social security or small business grants (benefits); types of information individuals and business would like to have access to (infoaccs); how to include the largest possible number of participants in electronic democracy (partdemo); the kinds of services, such as emergency assistance, that could be offered through electronic delivery (services); and the technology required to make online services available (techgoal). "We can have all sorts of great ideas in terms of making government accessible by computer," Sally Katzen, head of OMB's information office, told the Washington Post. "But do people want to do it? In what context? And for what purposes? That's what we are trying to understand." OMB hopes to have a big turnout for the meeting, because participants can attend through the Internet, though America Online and Prodigy, from 400 public access sites around the country, many at public libraries, and at 100 Kinko's photocopy stores. The meeting is being run from three government supercomputer sites -- the Commerce Department's National Technical Information Service in Virginia and two National Science Foundation supercomputer centers in Champaign, Ill, and San Diego. Here's how to access the conference: World Wide Web at http://meeting.fedword.gov (the Web home page has a gorgeous piece of art donated by Peter Max); Five Usenet groups: alt.gov.meeting.services, alt.gov.meeting.benefits, alt.gov.meeting.infoaccs, alt.gov.meeting.partdemo, and alt.gov.meeting.techgoal; An electronic-mail list: To subscribe, send an e-mail message to joinmeeting.fedworld.gov, with a text of: subscribe [topic] [your name]. Topics are: services, benefits, infoaccs (information access), partdemo (participatory democracy) and techgoal (technical issues); The FedWorld BBS (bulletin board system), in the Washington area, call 703-321-3339, outside the area, call 800-779-3272. (Kennedy Maize/19950501/Public Contact: 800-881-6842) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 05/01/95 GOVT Hungary - Privatization's Huge Govt Cash Windfall (NEWS)(GOVT)(LON)(00024) Hungary - Privatization's Huge Govt Cash Windfall 05/01/95 BUDAPEST, HUNGARY, 1995 MAY 1 (NB) -- Privatization officials in the Hungarian Government have speculated that the government will reap as much as 150 billion forints as a result of the sell-off of five major state-owned companies. The sale of the companies, including a group of regional gas suppliers, the National Electrical Utility MVM Rt, the National Oil Company MOL Rt, the national broadcaster Antenna Hungary, and Matav, the telecoms company, will start this summer, officials have said. If everything goes well, all the money gathered from the privatization this year, which should amount to at least 100 billion forints, will help the country to survive without any further austerity. "We have the chance to achieve the 150 billion forint privatization target, if all large privatization start by mid-year," commented Attila Lascsic, general director of AV Rt., the state holding company for the five firms concerned. Lascsic added that the national broadcaster Antenna Hungary has been preparing for privatization for the last few years, but lack of an appropriate media law has held up the sale proceedings to date. The legislative problems involved with privatization have also delayed the sale of the National Electric Utility. According to Lascsic, it remains unclear as to whether the Government can sell the electricity operator within its present legal framework. As a result of the legal problems, the Government is keeping the oil company MOL in reserve, should revenues not prove enough from the first stage of the sell-off. (Sylvia Dennis/19950501) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 05/01/95 TELECOM Telus To Set Up Advanced Comms Unit (NEWS)(TELECOM)(TOR)(00025) Telus To Set Up Advanced Comms Unit 05/01/95 EDMONTON, ALBERTA, CANADA, 1995 MAY 1 (NB) -- Telus Corp. (TSE:AGT) plans to set up a new business unit to offer Internet access, desktop videoconferencing, and other advanced communications services. Telus hopes AGT Advanced Communications will be operating by the end of the year, spokesman Rick Preston told Newsbytes. A number of details, including whether AGT Advanced Communications will operate as a separate subsidiary, still have to be worked out, Preston said. Telus is the holding company that controls AGT Ltd., the provider of local and long-distance telephone service in Alberta. Making use of AGT's existing network, which includes asynchronous transfer mode (ATM) high-speed switching and fiber-optic technology, the new operation is to provide high-speed local area network interconnection over long distances, access to the Internet, and desktop videoconferencing, among other services. The target market will be business customers, and AGT Advanced Communications will start by serving the major cities, expanding "according to market forces," a prepared statement from the company said. AGT Advanced Communications will also interconnect with national and international carriers to provide global services, according to Telus. Company officials said there is a need for the new business unit because of growing market demand for higher-speed data services with comprehensive network management. By announcing plans to get into the Internet-access business, Telus has joined a growing trend among Canadian telephone companies. Saskatchewan Telecommunications and New Brunswick Telephone Co. were the first to offer widespread Internet access in their respective provinces, while other provincial and regional telcos are talking about providing such services. In mid-March, Telus completed its buyout of Edmonton Telephones, a formerly city-owned phone company that serves the city of Edmonton. With that purchase, Telus subsidiaries now provide phone service throughout Alberta. (Grant Buckler/19950501/Press Contact: Rick Preston, Telus, 403-498-7320) (ADVISORY)(GENERAL)(MSP)(00026) NewsPix Images For Newsbytes Publishers 05/01/95 MINNEAPOLIS, MINNESOTA, U.S.A.,1995 MAY 1 (NB) -- These photos correspond to recent Newsbytes stories. They are online in the Newsbytes menu on GEnie, America Online, eWorld, and the Newsbytes private bulletin board system in Minneapolis. JPEG files are larger in size, PICT files are designed as thumbnails for onscreen viewing. The photos are titled with name/year/month/day. Pict/thumbnail pictures are now black and white (that is gray scale). File message will indicate color if the JPEG image is color. This will reduce file size and streamline transfers. Some of the larger 'for use' images, may also be pict files. To distinguish these files from the thumbnail preview pict images, the tag for the color 'for use' image will have PICT, all caps. The thumbnail will remain noted as "pct." To become a licensed Newsbytes publisher, call Newsbytes at 612-430-1100 (U.S.) or write to administrator@newsbytes.com on the Internet. Licensing applies to any medium. --------------------------- Week of MAY 1 - MAY 5,1995 --------------------------- DATACC950425 - b&w / Technology Brings Mug Shots To Police Cars: shot of the mini laptop with mug shot on screen. LYCOS950424 - color / Microsoft Licenses Lycos Internet Catalog: picture of research scientist Michael Mauldin at Carnegie Mellon's Center for Machine Translation in the School of Computer Science, Lycos developer. Also useful for NB042095, story #17 / Lycos Promotes Search Standards. photo credit: Ken Andreyo METRO950420 - color / Software Simplifies Corporate Travel Arrangements: screen shot. DEC950420 - b&w / DEC Cuts Server & Notebook Prices: pix of the HiNote laptop. P5-120950418 - color / Gateway's 120MHz PC With 3-Disk CD Changer: the PC. CHANGER950418 - b&w / Gateway's 120MHz PC With 3-Disk CD Changer: the changer. IQ950421 - color / CD ROM Offers At-Home IQ Testing: screenshot of cube problems. THRUST041795 - color / World's 1st "Supersonic Car" Gets Web Site: screen shot of the home page. FIREFOX042095 - color / Firefox Offers Free Novell/Internet Security Paper: screenshot of the home page. YAMAHA950414 - color / Review - Yamaha YST-SS1010 Speaker System for Multimedia: the speakers. FLAMES950324 - color / Flame Away On The Flames Web Site: logo for the web site. ALPS950330 - color / ALPS' New PC Pointing Device: the unit. MCGILL950406 - b&w / Canadian Multimedia Firms Merge: Steven Koskie, director of marketing for McGill Multimedia ATLAS950329 - color / Microsoft Trip Planning Software Hits The Road: screen shot of Lake Tahoe CA area. (Newsbytes/19950501) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 05/01/95 ONLINE ****CompuServe Tops 3 Million Members (NEWS)(ONLINE)(SFO)(00027) ****CompuServe Tops 3 Million Members 05/01/95 COLUMBUS, OHIO, U.S.A., 1995 MAY 1 (NB) -- CompuServe has become the first online service to reach the three million mark of active online accounts. Some industry observers have said traditional online service companies would dwindle as Internet and World Wide Web (Web) access grew, but record numbers of users continue to choose one of the big three online services. In the competitive world of CompuServe, Prodigy and America Online, the race to be first with the most never stops and membership numbers are at the top of the list. The oldest of the three, CompuServe, says its global presence, Internet/Web access, extensive business and computer support service, and popular entertainment and multimedia content allowed the company to surpass more than three million members. "We have been seen and characterized by a lot of people as a business and computer-oriented service. And there is no denying that CompuServe offers the largest and most extensive databases of any online service company. The real story it that the majority of our members are signed-on as individual accounts and look for news, entertainment and Internet access," said Michelle Moran, spokesperson for CompuServe. Moran also told Newsbytes, "We are really pleased with our growth and we think membership in the coming year will grow even faster. As new additions to the service, we will soon be introducing Worlds Away and CompuServe Viewer." Worlds Away is a graphically enhanced chat world in which members assume the role of an active character as they chat to one another. CompuServe Viewer, also in early beta, will allow members to view frequently refreshed stills of live video in one screen, closed-captioned text in another, while chatting live in a third screen. This Windows feature is being tested with CNN news reports of events such as the Oklahoma City bombing. Members may get their first experience with CompuServe Viewer in the later stages of the O.J. Simpson trial. Moran also said CompuServe is very conservative in counting its membership numbers. "We only count one person per membership and our numbers only include active and paying accounts. More than 40% of our accounts have more than one user accessing the service, but we count that as one paying account," said Moran. The company's free Web browser and dial-up software, CompuServe NetLauncher continues to be downloaded in record numbers and the company is reporting more than 14,000 different members accessing the Web each day. (Patrick McKenna/19950501/Press Contact: Michelle Moran, CompuServe, 614-538-4274) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 05/01/95 LEGAL ****Court Orders Rockwell To Deliver Hayes Chips (NEWS)(LEGAL)(MSP)(00028) ****Court Orders Rockwell To Deliver Hayes Chips 05/01/95 ATLANTA, GEORGIA, U.S.A., 1995 MAY 1 (NB) -- A Federal bankruptcy judge is compelling Rockwell International Corporation to deliver to Hayes Microcomputer Products all chips and chip sets required for modem production from April to July, 1995, Hayes officials said. The complaint, filed by Hayes in mid-April, asked the Federal Bankruptcy court for the Northern District of Georgia require Rockwell to deliver the parts, officials said. Federal Judge Hugh Robinson granted the motion last Friday. Hayes said Judge Robinson stated in the order that Rockwell was the creator of its own product shortage, and that Hayes' testimony that Rockwell reneged on an agreement negated Rockwell's "purported" concern for its other customers. Hayes also said the order states that "Hayes' complaint raises serious issues for litigation which require further inquiry." Those inquiries include whether Rockwell used "economic coercion to deprive Hayes of its most valuable asset at a discount" in the words of the court, breach of contract questions, and violations of antitrust law, among others, the court said. Susan Merkel, Hayes spokesperson, told Newsbytes her company had attempted to negotiate with Rockwell out of court "for quite some time." She said she felt Rockwell's previous actions were "related to the voluntary Chapter 11 Reorganization Proceeding" filed by Hayes in November, 1994. Regarding the company's Chapter 11 situation, Hayes officials said the company plans to file a reorganization plan with the court before May 15, 1995, to emerge from Chapter 11 "in the coming months." Hayes also filed a second motion under the same complaint. It seeks a preliminary injunction to stop Rockwell from shipping product that Hayes says infringes on a patent by unlicensed modem manufacturers. Hayes said Rockwell has licensed this patent since 1992, but stopped making royalty payments more than nine months ago. Hayes said Rockwell owes it more than $5 million. Rockwell officials were not available by Newsbytes deadline. (Bob Woods/19950501/Press Contacts: Susan Merkel of Hayes Microcomputer Products Inc., 404-840-6824, Internet e-mail smerkel@hayes.com; Rockwell International Corp., 714-833-4600) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD #CARD 05/01/95 TRENDS ****One PC For Every 3 People In US (NEWS)(TRENDS)(SFO)(00029) ****One PC For Every 3 People In US 05/01/95 INCLINE VILLAGE, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1995 MAY 1 (NB) -- An industry fixture, "The Computer Industry Almanac," has released statistics showing the number of computers in the US now numbers one for every three citizens. The 1994 statistic shows 315 computers per thousand US population and projections for 1995 indicate that number will grow to 400 per thousand. These statistics include computers from mainframes to personal computers and notebooks. Personal digital assistants (PDAs) and palmtops are not included. In 1985, there was only one computer for every 10 people in the US. World Wide that number was only one computer to 100 people or ten per 1,000 population. In 1994, the world wide number grew to 35 per thousand population. Although the worldwide figures are about one tenth the US numbers, the growth rate for both appear roughly the same at threefold from 1984 to 1994. The largest portion of these computers come from the phenomenal growth in the PC market. PCs now number 298 per 1,000 population in the US. Regarding that growth, Egil Juliussen, co-publisher of The Computer Industry Almanac, told Newsbytes, "The growth of PCs is due to the acceptance of multimedia technology on the home market and the developments and success of client/server technology in the business market." He continued, "At this time, the industry is selling 1.5 million computers per month. Some of those are replacements, but it still indicates that we are on the way to setting another record year of growth." Juliussen said the advent of Windows 95 should contribute to record PC sales as the new interface/operating system will require eight megabytes of RAM and a 486 or better processor to maximize the benefits of the system. "This means the 286 and 386-based systems will need to be replaced. Even some of the slower 486s will be considered too weak to fully run the system," said Juliussen. He expects to see the changes effected by the introduction of Windows 95 late in the fourth quarter of this year or in the first quarter of 1995. The Computer Almanac is published annually and the seventh edition of the 800-page industry reference is a available in softcover ($50), hardcover ($60) and CD-ROM ($60) versions. (Patrick McKenna/19950501/Press Contact: Egil Juliussen, The Computer Almanac, tel 800-377-6810 or 702-831-2288, fax 702-831-8610) (SUMMARY)(GENERAL)(SFO)(00030) Newsbytes Daily Summary 05/01/95 PENN VALLEY, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1995 MAY 1 (NB) -- These are capsules of all today's news stories: 1 -> InfoNation Online Service Uses Geographical Interface 05/01/95 InfoNation, a new online service launched by Premier Online Systems Inc., combines Internet access with its own information services represented by buildings in what the designers describe as a "geographical interface." 2 -> ****Content Holding Back CD-ROM - Report 05/01/95 While multimedia personal computers are selling rapidly into the home market, the content available on CD-ROMs is not keeping pace, according to market research firm Forrester Research Inc. 3 -> Using Notes & Telepad In Utility Field Service 05/01/95 Using an innovative combination of computer hardware and software, Duquesne Light Co. is making customer field service calls faster and easier. The technology may also offer a new business opportunity for the Pittsburgh-based utility. 4 -> German & UK PCN Services Demo Int'l Roaming 05/01/95 Mercury One-2-One, one of the two UK PCN (personal communications network) digital mobile nets in the UK, and E-Plus, the German PCN service, have demonstrated inter-network roaming. 5 -> UK - Portable Comms Distributor's Online Support 05/01/95 Portable Add-Ons, a specialist portable communications distributor, has announced the opening of its support bulletin board system (BBS) for customers. At the same time the company has opened a series of mailboxes on CompuServe and the Internet for messaging the support and sales operation. 6 -> UK - PCN Operator Cuts Phone Prices 05/01/95 Hutchison Orange has both pleased and upset its customers. On the good side the company has slashed the cost of its Motorola Flip phone, the MR1, from UKP 149.99 to just UKP 99.99, making the MR1 the cheapest PCN (digital cellular) unit on the market. 7 -> IBM Opens European Marketing/Technical Center 05/01/95 IBM has opened a new Pan- European distributed computing environment (DCE) marketing and technical support center for its customers and independent software vendors (ISVs). 8 -> Gateway To Bundle Faxworks With PCs 05/01/95 Gateway 2000 has announced it will bundle Global Village's (NASDAQ: GVIL) Faxworks Voice 3.0 software for Windows with each Gateway 2000 Desktop equipped with a voice modem. 9 -> American Cancer Society Forum On America Online 05/01/95 The American Cancer Society said it has launched an online forum on America Online (NASDAQ-NNM:AMER) to provide information on the "incidence, prevention, diagnosis, and treatment of cancer." 10 -> Tatung's New All-In-One Desktop PC Design 05/01/95 Tatung Company of America has announced a new computer design for 486 and Pentium-based computers called the "All-In-One" Personal Computer (PC). The All-In-One has a single cabinet with processing components, monitor, and speakers built-in. 11 -> Spry Ships 1 Million Commercial "Mosaic Direct" Disks 05/01/95 Earlier this year, Spry began its Mosaic Direct program which provides companies with a customized Mosaic disks for directing customers to specific World Wide Web (Web) sites. The company now says it has shipped more than one million of the Mosaic Direct disks and announced affiliation with 24 corporations and professional publishers. 12 -> China - Motorola & Panda In Pager Deal 05/01/95 Motorola will link up with Panda, a major Chinese electronics company, to produce mobile telecommunication equipment. As a result, 500,000 pagers labeled "Panda by Motorola" will be on the Chinese market this year. 13 -> Hong Kong - Sequent Expands Services 05/01/95 Sequent Computer Systems Inc. has introduced a range of new and enhanced professional services designed to significantly extend its high-availability products for users of very large databases. The new professional services include "Availability Assessment," "High Availability Competency Center," and "Data Center Management." 14 -> India - Cisco Intros Switched Internetworking 05/01/95 Recognizing India's networking market as "the fastest growing in the world," Cisco Systems Inc. has launched its switch and asynchronous transfer mode (ATM)-based local area network products in India, first among the Asian countries. 15 -> Delrina Previews Echo Lake For Windows 05/01/95 Delrina expects to introduce a Macintosh version of Echo Lake this fall, revealed Meredith Mansfield, a company spokesperson, during a sneak preview of the Windows version of the new multimedia software for "family communications," conducted for Newsbytes in New York City. 16 -> Mass. Telecom Council To Host Investor Conference 05/01/95 The Massachusetts Telecommunications Council will host its second annual Investor Conference on June 1 in Boston, with Paul Severino, the chair of both Bay Networks and the council's Commonwealth Exchange Committee, and two US congressmen, Rep. Edward Markey and Rep. Jack Fields, as scheduled speakers. 17 -> Canadian Product Launch Update 05/01/95 This regular feature, appearing on the first day Newsbytes publishes each week, provides further details for the Canadian market on announcements by international companies that Newsbytes has already covered. This week: Microsoft Flight Simulator 5.1 and Oracle7 Workgroup Server for Unix. 18 -> Global Tutoring Via Internet Planned 05/01/95 An Internet project now being organized would provide tutoring in many subjects to students around the world via the Internet. International Tutors is to be a non-profit effort relying partly on volunteers and seeking to make tutoring services available to anyone who needs them. 19 -> Software Aids Speech, Letter Writing 05/01/95 ModelOffice, an Austin, Texas-based company has released three software products that offer more than 850 ready-to-use memos, business and sales letters, and speeches that the user can customize to fit their own needs. 20 -> Internet Update 05/01/95 In this roundup of what's new on the Internet: More Windows 95 news; Top ten Hubble images available; Index to Australian Internet information; Secure POTP/FTP software demo online; New Windows newsreader software; Microsoft library debuts; Free stock quotes; New version of HMTLCon; Canadian government information search engine. 21 -> New Compaq Monitors Can Identify Themselves 05/01/95 Compaq Computer Corp. (NYSE:CPQ) has introduced two new monitors that, not only display your work, but also talk to network administrators. 22 -> US Warns Countries On Intellectual Property 05/01/95 US Trade Representative Mickey Kantor, in his annual report on international intellectual property protection, on Saturday put eight countries on the "priority watch list" but refused to start trade sanctions against any nation. 23 -> White House Starts 2-Week Online Public Meeting 05/01/95 Welcome to the virtual town hall. The White House is running a two-week long public interactive meeting to discover what government information and services people want to receive through computer networks. 24 -> Hungary - Privatization's Huge Govt Cash Windfall 05/01/95 Privatization officials in the Hungarian Government have speculated that the government will reap as much as 150 billion forints as a result of the sell-off of five major state-owned companies. 25 -> Telus To Set Up Advanced Comms Unit 05/01/95 Telus Corp. (TSE:AGT) plans to set up a new business unit to offer Internet access, desktop videoconferencing, and other advanced communications services. Telus hopes AGT Advanced Communications will be operating by the end of the year, spokesman Rick Preston told Newsbytes. 26 -> NewsPix Images For Newsbytes Publishers 05/01/95 These photos correspond to recent Newsbytes stories. They are online in the Newsbytes menu on GEnie, America Online, eWorld, and the Newsbytes private bulletin board system in Minneapolis. 27 -> ****CompuServe Tops 3 Million Members 05/01/95 CompuServe has become the first online service to reach the three million mark of active online accounts. Some industry observers have said traditional online service companies would dwindle as Internet and World Wide Web (Web) access grew, but record numbers of users continue to choose one of the big three online services. 28 -> ****Court Orders Rockwell To Deliver Hayes Chips 05/01/95 A Federal bankruptcy judge is compelling Rockwell International Corporation to deliver to Hayes Microcomputer Products all chips and chip sets required for modem production from April to July, 1995, Hayes officials said. 29 -> ****One PC For Every 3 People In US 05/01/95 An industry fixture, "The Computer Industry Almanac," has released statistics showing the number of computers in the US now numbers one for every three citizens. The 1994 statistic shows 315 computers per thousand US population and projections for 1995 indicate that number will grow to 400 per thousand. (Ian Stokell/19950501) Copyright 1995 Newsbytes News Network #ENDCARD